Summer, Where have you Gone?

Okay I swear this was the fastest summer on record! I go back to work tomorrow!

I started off the summer by focusing on my social studies textbook and that is DONE.  Turned in and sent to the printers 2 weeks ago.  I sent the lady at the print center a few emails with VERY specific instructions for printing and a cover change color. (from goldenrod to a light yellow)  I'm glad its done and I can't wait to see the finished results.  It should be at the school tomorrow!

In July, I headed out to Utah to visit family.  I spent the first week at my grandparents scanning in over a THOUSAND family portraits. My grandma is big into a family history.  She has four full-size filing cabinets full to the brim of family history.  I'm helping her go digital, but it will take many MANY more man hours.

Here's a picture of Grandma and I about 25 years ago!

  I also had some fun restoring some pictures of some of my ancestors.

These are the before and after pictures of my ancestors the Arnold's.

I scanned in about a kazillion more.  Here are some of my favorites from my family.  Notice how we start to look a little more ragged as the years progress and more kids join the family.

1984 or 1985 (Me as Baby!)

1987 or 1988 (Kate as baby)

1990-ish (Eliza as baby.  I don't even know where my parents are for this picture.)

1991-ish (Chris as baby.  Check out the huge pink ring on my thumb that ruined the whole picture!)

I think my parents stopped sending pictures of the family at this point or they didn't make it into the album that I was scanning, but my parents had two more kids, Shelly and Johnny after this last picture! 

I am going to need to spend more time up there next summer scanning some more pictures because this project is FAR from over.

After a week at my grandparents, we headed over to my in-laws for some rest and relaxation.  We spent a lot of days at their pool, went camping in the mountains, went to a concert, hosted a family reunion, and lots more.

Here are some random pictures from my time there that I took with my new phone.

I admit I was a little obsessed with the chickens!

Fresh eggs every morning! Yum!

New Hair

Lots of pool time with a great view of the mountains at the in-laws

Science Center in SLC

So its seems that summer is officially over. :( I start in my classroom tomorrow and MAYBE this year I'll take before and after shots so you can see how much work it is to set up the room!  Wish me luck!

Summer Update of Randomness

Summer is going well.  I'm staying pretty busy, so that's good.  It's amazing how much better my days go when I have a tutoring appointment to get to.  It keeps me from the all-day pajama days which make me feel loser-ish. I'm making good progress on my textbook as well.

I also started a teacher blog which I'll probably never blog on again, but here's the address if you're interested in checking it out.  My favorite part was actually just putting together the header and designing the page. If anyone wants to redo theirs and they have an idea of what they want, let me know and I would love to create a header graphic for you.  Just putting that out there.

What else... well, Friday night we had this crazy storm.  Doug and I stood in the garage and watched it wreak havoc outside.  At first it was just this crazy lightning storm in the distance and then it came over us and the lightning was turning green.  It was freaky, but really cool to watch.  We heard some transformers blow and a bunch of trees just snapping like toothpicks and blowing by us.  We don't have any big trees near our house, but our two closest neighbors had trees down in their yards. One of my local friends posted this picture on Facebook.  No wonder we lost our power!

Luckily my parents got their power back pretty quickly, so we brought all of our refrigerator and freezer contents over there.  All in all, we only lost our power for 14 hours.  I'm feeling pretty lucky considering that there are many that STILL do not have power and it's like 100 degrees outside.

We then headed over to Doug's Aunt Paula's house for a family reunion/picnic get together.  They didn't have power either, but they had two generators for the refrigerators and they usually grill all of the food anyway.  With all of the storm craziness, I forgot my camera.  I was kicking myself the whole time!  Aunt Paula has 25 acres directly on the Shenandoah river with breathtaking views of the Blue Ridge.  We shot guns, went canoeing, set off fireworks, and just had a great time talking and catching up with one another.  Here are some pictures from last year, so you can get an idea of the awesomeness.

This is Paula's house.  It is absolutely gorgeous inside and out.  I think it was modeled after one of HGTV's dream homes.

Doug and his cousin, Mike, driving around on the property.

  

There is not another single structure in site.  Just the green, rolling mountains of the Blue Ridge.

 Doug is a crack shot.  Here is a picture of him shooting his Glock 9mm.

I've started to prepare for my trip out to Utah, well not really unless THINKING about packing counts.  I leave this Wednesday and I won't be back until the 24th!

As far as trying to get pregnant I feel like time is moving either in slow motion or backward.  I skipped the ovulation predictor kit (OPK) this cycle because I was getting frustrated.  I had done it previous cycles and the doctor had not used the information at all. Well this last Monday, I went in to get some blood work to check my progesterone levels on the Clomid. 

My doctor emailed me with the test results and said that my progesterone levels looked a little low and wanted to know what the results were of the OPK's I did this month.  What??  I had been using them the last few months and no one was using the results.  So this month I skip out and apparently not doing them made my test results inconclusive.  Another wasted month.

Doc says that she wants me to take a break this month while I'm in Utah.  She said that I "sounded a little stressed." Really??

I guess its just that I feel like I'm running out of time.

See this amazing woman below.  It's Doug's grandmother.  His last living grandparent.  I've become pretty close to "JoMa" the seven years that Doug and I have been married.  She's my number one cheerer for getting pregnant.  Doug is the only son of an only son.  This means that he is the ONE to pass down the family name of Doug that has been passed down for generations.

Grandma was diagnosed with colon cancer the year before last.  She's had a rough time going through chemo the last year and they just found out at her last appointment that the cancer has gotten to her lungs. I always hoped that our children would get to know her.  Now, I'm just hoping that I can take a picture of her holding them.

I hate ending on a negative, dramatic note so I'll share something random and positive...

Our cell phone plan is re-upping which means that I get to buy a new phone!  I'm been struggling with my Palm Pre for basically the full two years that I've owned it.  On my tentative schedule tomorrow is me going to pick up a new phone... and I'm thinking about getting the new iPhone 4S.  Most attractive feature at this point is the dual antennas because it will work internationally if we end up moving to Thailand in the next year or two.  Oh yeah and the 8 MP camera doesn't hurt either.

Now I only need to decide if I want in it white or black. :)

Hello Summer!

I won't post much because I'm up way past my bedtime, but I will give a little update.

School is out! I am trying to keep busy this summer. I've taken on a couple students to tutor over the summer, I'm revising the VA Studies textbook I did last summer, I'm going to make my first draft of a science one, and I'm going to Utah for a little while to see my grandparents, my in-laws, and my sister.

What I look at all day.

I started jogging in the mornings last Monday (my first day without kiddos). I've set a schedule where I take breaks on Thursdays and Sundays to give my body time to recooperate. My route is two miles and it usually takes me about nine minutes to get to the one mile point. I go when Doug leaves for work a little after 5 am so it's just me and the deer.

Oh yeah, and I'm still not pregnant. I'm on my second Clomid cycle and continuing to think positively. Maybe THIS will be the month. This August we will have been doing this trying to conceive stuff for the last three years... SO ready to move onto pregnancy/parenthood stuff. I keep on telling my body that it needs to get with the program, so maybe it will start listening soon.

Trying Something New

A couple Sundays ago, half of the Sunbeams didn't show up for one reason or another, so I got to go to Relief Society.  The lesson was on Developing Our Talents.  This lesson is probably one that I have had maybe a billion times at church, so I wasn't really expecting much.  The teacher followed the manual pretty closely and allowed others to share personal experiences.  She shared a simple list about how to develop our talents:

1. Discover our talents
2. Spend time and effort to develop our talents
3. Have faith that Heavenly Father will help us and have faith in ourselves
4. Learn skills necessary to develop our talents
5. Practice our talents
6. Share our talents

I'm really bad with details, but the teacher told us a story about discovering our talents (not out of the manual) that really got me thinking.  The gist of the story was that there was a person that had trained all of their life to be one thing, but then they suffered an injury that kept them from doing that, so they started something completely new and now they are REALLY famous for it.  Dang, I am a bad story teller, but I swear I knew who the person was (because they are really famous) and I was like, "Wow, if they hadn't gotten that injury, then we never would have seen this talent that they're famous for."

Then, the sister next to me, told a story about how when she was pregnant with one of her children, her husband was away at sea, she was getting restless, and needed something to do.  One day, she decided that she would like to paint.  She had never taken a class in her life and knew nothing about painting.  She brought a painting kit, took a couple classes, and she found out that she is an amazing artist.

So I started thinking... 

Is there a talent that I have that I haven't discovered yet? What if my undiscovered talent is like REALLY cool?  I think I should try some new things!

So, out of all of the things I've decided that I could do, I decided that I wanted to be...

a RUNNER.  

I know for many of you that doesn't really seem like a talent, but exercise.  But, I think that runners are awesome.  What a cool talent!  Not everyone can run... I sure can't.  I wish I could be a runner, but I've never actually tried.

Until yesterday, I had never gone out and walk/jogged/ran by myself a day in my life.  The day before, I was talking to my teacher friend on the phone and she was telling me how productive her day had been AFTER she had gone for a run.  When she had called, I had just woken up from a three hour nap in the middle of the afternoon and I had done NOTHING but eat waffles and cereal, check email/Facebook, and play with my iPad. Hearing about her productive day and mentally comparing it to my own was enough.  I decided that the NEXT morning I would start running. 

So, yesterday morning, I got up, put some exercise-like clothes on and went running.  It was THAT simple.  For some reason, the weird part was leaving the garage and STARTING.  I've always seen people running through the neighborhood, but I've never seen someone start their run.  So I did, and guess what?  It wasn't bad.  In fact, I woke up this morning and did it AGAIN.

During my summers off, I usually get sleepy around 11am and want to take a nap.  Most days during the summer unless I have other plans, I usually do take a nap.  The last two days that I've been running in the mornings, I get this unexpected energy boost and I feel great afterward.

The logical side of me also tells me that this is a way to become healthier.  My body is a temple.  I should be taking care of it better by exercising and eating less bacon cheeseburgers and spicy chicken sandwiches.  I'll start with the exercising part and work on the food part later. :)

I'm hoping that I can keep it up at least for the summer while I'm off school.  Who knows?  Maybe I'll like it and become good at it.  I kind of stink at it right now and can only run for like 2 minutes at a time, but I guess its a start.

I've always been the type of person that let experiences find me.  I think I'm going to start seeking out new experiences.  I'll want to try new things and not worry about failing.  Maybe along the way I'll pick up a new talent or two.

Staying Busy Before School Starts

I came by the old house to pick up an extra old computer for parts and an extra mini fridge for my classroom this year.  Mom and dad got Liza one while she was in the dorms, but now that she has an apartment (with a full-size fridge and such) I get to use it!  It's weird going to the "old house" now.  My parents bought basically all new (well, craigslist slightly used) furniture for the new house, so the old house is still furnished.  It just looks kind of abandoned.  The construction is progressing though.  Here is a picture of how it looked today.

I decided on my way driving over that I wanted to surprise my mom with lunch because she seemed kind of down and a little overwhelmed after her first day of school. (I've had experience with this.) I had originally planned to work on my classroom a little more, but I realized once school starts I won't be able to do things like this.

Chris, my younger brother (I can't say "little" anymore) was at the old house packing up his room into storage containers because he'll be away for the next 2 years on his mission.  He helped me out by putting the mini fridge in my car (hopefully I can get it out).  We had some downtime before lunch time, so we hung out and talked.  He packed boxes while I cleaned out the refrigerator. (The big one in the kitchen that was empty of food, but full of crumbs and spills.) We still had a while before we were going to pick up lunch, so I took out some old boxes with pictures.

I found all of these treasures!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE pictures!

This picture of my parents was taken on my birthday... just 9 years before I was born.

 This is a picture of my parents at what looks like an engagement party, although it was referred to as a candle lighting party or something like that.  They look so skinny!

 These are two of my parents' engagement photos.  Nice pants dad!

I remember looking at this picture when I was a kid.  My dad painted the ceiling in an attic of a house like this for my mom when they were dating.

Kate in a Halloween costume and Heather in a pageant gown.

Finally this is a picture of the "old" house (same as pictured above) about 2 additions ago.

This is a picture of my sister, Bekah, and I that was put on the front of a Girl Scout Pamphlet.  I didn't know that it existed, but now that I think about it I do remember some sort of photo session at this weird Girl Scout store. 

While we were talking, I decided that I wanted to bring lunch to both Shelly and Johnny as well as to my mom.  We both jumped in the car and headed over to Subway to get lunch.  Somewhere in my mind I pictured walking up to the offices of the schools saying, "I'm bringing lunch to my brother/sister." and that they would just send me to their room or to the cafeteria to hand it over to them. 

Johnny's school buzzed him down to the office and he thought he was in trouble.  Shelly's school is run like a prison and they would not even let me get within 10 feet of the cafeteria with "outside food."  This teacher hallway monitor reamed me out for even trying to go to the cafeteria.  I was expecting something like, "Oh, that's sweet that you're bringing your sister lunch!  Walk right in!"  

What I got was:

Mean Teacher - "MISS, Where are you headed?!"  

Me - "Um, to drop off lunch for my little sister in the cafeteria.  I already checked in with the office." 

MT - "WHY?"

Me -  "I thought it would be a nice surprise for her first week back to school."

MT - "NO OUTSIDE FOOD!  You need to stand in the office and WAIT for her to come out." 

Me - "Well, they buzzed her 10 minutes ago and I don't think she can hear in there."

MT - "Well, YOU CAN'T go in the cafeteria!  So WAIT in the OFFICE!"

Another teacher that happened to be in the office and saw my obvious frustration was nice enough to try to locate her in the cafeteria just in enough time for the ending lunch bell to ring.  I understand trying to be safe and secure, but that teacher was just rude.  We stood there and watched her yell at students the whole lunch block while we, "waited in the office." 

We were actually able to get visitor passes at the elementary school where my mom works and ate with her in her classroom.  Her room is really coming together.  We also got to meet her class as they were leaving the cafeteria.  It kind of got me excited about starting school again this year.

Visiting Grandma

Doug's little sisters, Katie and Allie, are out here visiting us from Utah for a little over a week this summer.  I decided to go with them out to West Virginia to stay at Grandma's house this week.  It's quiet out at grandma's house and there's not too much to do in the small town that she lives in, but we've found ways to stay busy.

Leslie, Doug's aunt, was visiting grandma as well so we got to hang out with her a little bit.  I think Allie and her became BFF's the two overlap days that we got to spend with her before she headed back home.  Here are some pictures of Leslie doing Allie's nails.

We went to the local library and checked out some books.  I sat down in the children's section reading Sharon Creech's book, Finding Redbird. Allie started up a conversation with a little boy the same age as her in the library and before you knew it they were best friends playing a game of Monopoly.  I got Katie started on Walk Two Moons, one of Sharon Creech's books as well which happens to be one of my my favorites. Doesn't she look so studious in this picture of her reading!

Then later in the day while Grandma and Katie went to the grocery store, Allie and I decided to go to the playground at a nearby elementary school.  I was able to snap some pictures of her hamming it up there.

I love this picture to the right.  It reminds of me of Doug's face when he sings to the Rick Roll song in the car.  If you don't know about the internet phenomenon of "being Rick Roll'd" click here.  Allie decided that she wanted a shot of me as well, so here is a picture of the all natural, unplucked, unbrushed, no make-up, air dried hair... Jenny as photographed by an 8 year old.  (She didn't do a bad job!)

We then came home for our nightly ritual of sitting of the porch while eating some yummy icecream cones and counting bats as it gets dark.  Grandma needed to water her front plants, so her and Allie had a little  unexpected fun with the water hose.  It started with, "Grandma, can I wet my hair down a little bit?"

You may ask, "Where was Katie during all of this?"  She decided to take Leslie's advice on "the best nap ever" which occurs on the front porch swing at Grandma's house.

Grandma also is teaching me how to knit.  I'm starting out with a scarf.  I think we'll be going to the knitting group tomorrow so I can show everyone my newly obtained mad knitting skills.

Below is the start of my FIRST EVER knitting project.  It started out a little rough at first, but I've started to get the hang of it now.  I don't think I'll be knitting any sweaters anytime soon though.

Stuck at Home

Last week, Doug was in Vegas for a conference for work and I was stuck at home.

They DO have slot machines at the airport!

He was staying in the Bellagio and I was stuck at home.

 The famous Bellagio Hotel in Vegas.

The view from Doug's hotel room.

Some pictures from the inside of his room... *sniffle*

 He got his picture taken with one of the top 5 famous hackers, Kevin Mitnik and I was stuck at home.

The guy NEVER takes pictures with people, but the way Doug was able to get a picture with him is a funny story.  Kevin Mitnik had just finished a presentation in which he gave tips on social engineering.  One being, "If you want something from someone, start with something really BIG and then ask for something smaller."  Doug approached him afterward and asked, "Will you be the father of my first-born son?!" in which he responded, "Uh, No." Then Doug asked, "Well, can I get a picture with you?"  He laughed and said, "Sure!"  No one else got pictures with him. :)

He was watching awesome presenters on social engineering, hacking ATM machines, and cyber warfare and I was... well you get the picture.  (Those are linked to some awesome articles that were written about the convention.)

I was a little bitter that I didn't get to go to Vegas with Doug, (Can you tell?) but I'm happy that he's home now and I'm not stuck at home alone anymore