My POOR Shoes!

Sadly, I've found out the hard way that Darwin, my CAT likes to chew shoes.

I was at Walmart a couple weeks ago going grocery shopping and quickly browsed the shoe aisle for any deals. I had been looking for some quick slip-on shoes for getting mail and watering the garden. I found some cheap $1 Walmart "crocs." They were pretty ugly, but they worked for their purpose.

That very night, mere hours later, I was woken up a couple times by some weird chewing sound. It finally woke me up enough to check on what Darwin was getting into. He had chewed up my BRAND new shoes. They were ugly and only a dollar, so I wasn't too upset.


A couple weeks later, my sister Bekah came into town visiting from Hawaii and we went shopping together. She bought me these great flip flops (or slippers as they call them in Hawaii). I had been looking for a while, but I couldn't find any that were comfortable. Most of the bottoms are too hard, but this brand called "Rocket Dog" are super comfortable. I was so excited about my new flip flops, but later that night...


You think I would have learned the first time...

We keep all of the shoes in the laundry room/garage entry anyways, but now I have to keep the door closed for the safety of my shoes. I still wear both pairs of shoes. They now just have a little more character than new shoes usually have.

Our Garden!

...is actually growing!

We worked in the garden for quite some time this Monday. The lettuce, corn, and tomatoes are doing great. We had two summer squash survive and all of our cantaloupe and pumpkins didn't fare too well. We're pretty sure that the seeds rotted after the dumping of rain we had ALL week a few weeks ago. We replanted some things and are going to try green beans this time around.

Here is a picture of Doug watering the garden!

Busch Gardens on Saturday

This weekend, we went to Busch Gardens with John and Cassie. We were a little late because of a google maps fiasco... make sure you find the exact address and just don't type in Busch Gardens. We got there right after the park was opening so the traffic was horrendous!

I haven't actually paid for tickets to an amusement park in quite some time. With the discount Doug got at work, it was still $100 for both of our tickets. When we got to the park, it cost another $12 to park.

Anyways, once we actually got into the park, we had a GREAT time with Cassie and John. We rode some rollercoasters while Doug held our stuff (he is a non rollercoaster rider because of motion sickness). He came on a 3D ride with us and about collasped afterwards from dizziness. He did say that he loved the ride though! :) My favorite ride was the 3D castle one, Curse of Darkastle and Doug liked Escape from Pompeii, a water coaster.


After hanging out in the park for a while, we were all starved so we headed to the closest all-you-can-eat buffet. We had lots of food and were able to reminisce about old times.

We had a great day with John and Cassie and only wish that they could live closer!

These are the best pictures I got of the day unfortunately. Hopefully Cassie has better ones! I always take great shots up my nose...

It's the WEEKEND!

...finally!

This weekend I get to see Doug, YAY! We are also meeting Cassie and John at Busch Gardens on Saturday. I haven't seen them in FOREVER! I am way excited!

Everyone, have a great, long Memorial Day weekend!

e.l.f.

I usually don't use my blog as an advertisement for stuff, but I found something that I thought was a great deal and wanted to share it. This is probably not for you if you're really picky about make-up.

I was reading a friend's blog earlier this month which showed a make-up deal. I don't know much about make-up, but I do know that I like things that are cheap. I went ahead and checked out their website, ELF, and browsed what they had on there. Just about everything is a dollar and lots of people have given specific comments about the products. I used the coupon code CAROLINA which gives you 50% off orders up to $15. (I'm not sure if it's still available.) I picked out exactly $15 worth of stuff which with the coupon code was only $7.50 and then it cost like $6.95 for shipping.

I got 2 coffee eyeliners, nail polish, a travel mirror, an eye lash curler, blush brush, blush, 3 cover sticks, 2 concealers, 2 things of foundation, and a dual pencil sharpener for $14. I was skeptical about quality, but I went ahead and risked it because make-up is way too expensive. If this was worth it I would save money in the long run. I received the package last night, tried out everything, and I really don't have any complaints. I haven't really figured out the eyelash curler... who invents such things! It seriously looks like some sort of torture device.

Honestly, I really don't know ANYTHING about make up. I don't even know what the difference is between concealer, foundation, and cover sticks. They all basically look the same to me... I just know that I need it most days and I don't want to spend too much money on it. This stuff worked for me.

There are two things that I don't like so much about e.l.f. Basically everything was smaller than what I thought it would be (you can see the size in the pictures) and I think I've gotten like 2 emails a day from this company. I'm just waiting for the spam to hit my mailbox at home...

School Field Trip & Swine Flu

First off, NO ONE has swine flu in my class. They're all perfectly healthy at recess and sick during tests.

We had our fourth grade field trip to Sully Plantation Wednesday last week. Sully is a old plantation where Confederate Civil War General Robert E. Lee's uncle lived. We basically went there to learn about early plantation life. It was a pretty neat field trip.

Before we went on the tour the guide was asking the classes different questions about what kind of plants they grow on plantations and what kind of animals they raise. One of her questions was "What do we get from pigs?" Many students raised their hands responding with things like bacon, ham, etc... One of the students in the group raised their hand and said, "SWINE FLU!" Ummm, okay. NEXT!

I guess kids watch the news too.

Our Poor Tour Guide!

Traditional Crazy Picture

GREEN

I was driving home the other day and realized how nice and green everything was. We had quite a bit of rain the week before last and it really made everything look like a beautiful green jungle.

Here are a picture that I took during my drive home. I do NOT recommend taking pictures while driving and neither does the poor squirrel that I hit. :(

Four Years Ago Today...

... Doug and I got married!


First off, I can't believe that it's been four years already! Unfortunately we're doing absolutely nothing together except talking on the phone tonight because Doug is currently in the middle of a six month training for work that is requiring him to live long distance. I got the yard work done today that I would have done this weekend today because I'm driving out to see him.

So this is the first anniversary of ours that I've had a blog, so I guess I'll bore you all with our "How We Met" Story...

Doug and I grew up in the same stake and met for the first time at a stake dance when we were 14. We unofficially met when we were like 7, but only our parents remember that. Doug tells me that he had a crush on me instantly (at 14). I, well.. I was hopelessly "in like" with someone else and didn't pay much attention. Somehow we were pushed together to dance and became friends. We hung out at all the dances after that. We didn't really hang out too much outside of dances because we lived several hours away from one another.

(I know that we have an old picture of us dancing when we were like 14, I just need to find it and put it here!)
When I was 15, my dad came home from a meeting at the stake center where Doug happened to be with his dad. My dad doesn't like meetings so much, so he ended up talking with Doug the whole time out in the hall. When he got back from the meeting, he came downstairs and exclaimed to me, "I've found your FUTURE husband!" He told me that it was Doug and I basically said something like, "No WAY am I going to marry him!" ...boy was I wrong!

Doug's family moved when he was sixteen, so we kept in contact periodically through email and he came back to WV to visit occasionally. I think Doug continued to have a crush on me during this time. We met back up again in Utah when we were going out to college. We hung out more and more, IMed each other a lot, and started going to weekly movies together. Doug had no car at the time, so we rode the bus to the movies every week. One time, we missed a movie and didn't have anything else to do so we rode the bus and held hands the whole time. What a date! He probably won't like that I shared that...


We "officially" started dating during a beach trip Memorial Day Weekend May 2003 at Assateague Island. We dated for 2 years and then got married May 14th 2005. We've had many adventures along the way and even though its been crazy at times, I like to look back and laugh about the crazy things that we've been though in these 4 years of marriage.


I love him even more every day and now that he's gone, I can't see how I ever lived without him! He is my eternal companion. I can't wait to see him this weekend!

Christmas in May!

Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week. I posted a picture of my door... which I still haven't had the heart to take down! I love it! Like, mentioned in some previous posts, in Ashburn where I teach, they don't do anything halfway... I have some VERY thankful and supportive parents out there! Boy did I need it because I was/am missing Doug quite a bit!

This is a card that was made by one of my students. I love cards in general, but handmade ones are extra meaningful!

I think my students must've picked up on the fact that I LOVE books from the giftcards I received!

This parent is amazing AND stylish. She bought be this amazingly beautiful Lucky bag that I'm thrilled about because now I can feel a little stylish while lugging home all of the papers that I need to grade.

New Phone ...and it's PINK!

I got a new phone! It is replacing the expensive phone my dad got for me a while back that supposedly broke. I went to two different Sprint Stores and had two different guys look at it and they both told me that my phone was a lost cause. I finally was able to head up to my parents' house (after I bought a new phone in desperation) and my dad was able to fix it...

Anyways, looking at the situation positively... I got a new/USED phone and I will be able to transfer everything off of my phone onto this one easily. It's a Palm Centro and it's PINK! I'm not completely in love with the color pink, but for some reason I like having a pink phone. The price was right and it was only a tiny bit scratched up from the previous owner. I now have a back up as well if this situation ever occurs again. I love eBay!

My Phone!

Activity Days

My calling in church right now is in the Primary with the Activity Days girls. I work with the 8-11 year old girls on the first and third Tuesday each month. On Tuesday this week, we had a "T-Party" because we've been focusing on testimonies, talents, and temples as of lately. The girls' moms were invited and we had played a little mother/daughter newlywed-ish game. I unexpectedly needed to run the activity because the other leader's 3 little ones all got sick the day before. It worked out okay, even though it kind of stressed me out taking over such a big activity on short notice (the day before)... but I understand that kids get sick and it's never convenient.

Anyways, the reason I'm blogging about this is because I actually did something somewhat crafty for like the FIRST time in my life and I wanted to show it off a little. We had each one of the girls write a compliment about the other girls in Activity days. I combined all of the individual compliments onto a little bookmark for each one of the girls. Most of them probably will be crumpled up into a corner of their room shortly, but hopefully it will ne meaningful to just one of them.

Here are some pictures of them:

Teacher Appreciation Week!

I came in Monday morning to this on my door. (I edited out my last name!) I love teacher appreciation week. Each student wrote a nice little compliment about me as a teacher. I feel like everyone needs to be told every once in a while that they do a good job... positive reinforcement! It really did make my day!

My door!



Maybe this is a compliment?

Odontophobia

Now I understand why people are afraid to go to the dentist!

Today, I finally went to the dentist for the first time in like 4 years. I know, that's TERRIBLE! I've actually had great dental insurance for just about 2 years, so I really have no excuse for not going except that I was just busy and didn't really want to or know how to do all of the research involved in choosing a dentist.

I hurried out of school today to make my appointment at the dentist. I got lost and ended up being pretty late. Once I got there, I needed to fill in all of this new patient paperwork where they had me fill in the same information in about 4 different places on the same form.

Sitting there in the dentist chair, I realized how uncomfortable a feeling it is to have someone look in and put their fingers into your mouth. It sounds sick, just typing it. This appointment was just the one where they just examine your teeth. He started by poking around and speaking to his assistant in a language that I could not understand. They ended up taking like 18 X-Rays of my mouth! After that he poked at my gums to test something, but I'm sure he was just trying to torture me. It felt like he was continually poking my gum with needles.

In the end, he told me that I'm going to need two crowns because some cavities I got filled as a kid are deteriorating and some preventative stuff for two teeth that are getting close to cavities. They gave me a "Treatment Plan Estimate." The total price tag could be anywhere from $1,000 t0 $3,000 according to this little paper, but I'll get a better estimate by tomorrow from the dental insurance company.

So how am I cursed with these terrible teeth? Neither of my parents have ever needed caps or really any serious work done on their teeth... Well, when I was an infant, I was given tetracycline that basically messed up the enamel on my teeth. Now, I'm paying the big bucks for it 25 years later.

*On a more positive note, my dad somehow got my phone to work, so I am able to communicate with the outside world once again! I already bought a new phone for cheap online, so hopefully that one will be more reliable.