InstaTuesday #6

/Submitted my application for the 11 elementary ed. teaching positions for ICSD. I hope I get an interview! I can't believe the time is here! I'm almost a college graduate and I'm applying for "adult jobs"! Eee!/

/Caleb turned 12 on April 10th! We had dinner and played games at my in-laws for it and I brought him a balloon stuffed with a rice crispy treat for his present!/

/Apparently it was National Sibling Day this last week so I did my own post! I love these people! I'm so lucky to have them all./

/Fader by The Temper Trap has been on repeat these days. I love it./

/Love that I've had some time to scrapbook! Isn't Dan a cutie?!/

/I don't want to brag or anything but I've been able to sleep in almost everyday this week since I'm out of school. Ah, this is the life./

/Dan and I got to play with Jack on Friday! We loved it! He's our favorite nephew hehe/

/One day I'm going to clean up our backyard patio and put a table and some chairs so we can do dinner outside for summer. Also, I need to pump up my bike tires so I can hit the road!/

/Saturday we played night games at Park Discovery with Ryan, Bryan, Mickel, Steve, and Lauren. I couldn't see very well in the dark so I admired the view of Providence Center. Aren't the lights looking over Wal-mart beautiful at night?/

/After night games, we went to Denny's. I like these people./

/The relief society lesson on Sunday was from the teachings of President Lorenzo Snow on perfection. I loved this quote. I need to remember this./

/After church we went to Canyon Park for a picnic with Dan's family. It was sunny and beautiful. I love this boy./

/Just another Polyvore creation. Lovely./

/Found this recipe on Kraft for chicken pot pie so I made dinner... it was divine!!/

/Don't these look so yummy? I posted the recipe for Rolo Cheesecake Squares on my facebook page and my old assistant manager from Megaplex, Alicia, made them for me! I love her! haha/

/It has snowed pretty much all day today. Gah! April, what are you doing??/

Addiction

Uhm... so... uh... last week, I had a girls night with some ladies that I used to work with and Sara Sanders introduced me to Polyvore. You can create outfits and stuff and yeah, it's basically awesome. Seriously! Well... I may be obsessed with it now. Just maybe... FINE, I AM! OK? I'm obsessed!! I have now spent countless hours laying in bed, watching 30 Rock (hilarious), and creating outfits on Polyvore. Countless. Hours. But look! They're just so cute! I need them all!

I guess that's what happens when I take a sick day from school. Well, that and I get to go to work with Dan in the morning and then spend the afternoon with him taking a nap and watching Tanked. So... I'd say it's been a good sick day.

I'm feeling so much better after almost a whole day of lounging. It's been a long time coming.

Skatin'

Yesterday, Dan was off work so we slept in and watched our show on Netflix. Then we went shopping for new pants and shoes cause we both needed them badly! When we got home, we made strawberry milkshakes and Dan made me breakfast for dinner. It was yummy! He's such a sweetheart to me.

At 9pm, we went to the roller rink here in Cedar for a tribute concert for Dan's cousin, Kelly, who passed away in November. Everyone rode skates or blades around the rink all night and listened to music played/sang by friends and family of Kelly. It was fun to get together with Dan's family and remember Kelly. AND it was fun to see Dan out skating around the rink. He was pretty good at it! He even skated around with our nephew, Jack, for awhile. It was a good day!

Fake Bums

Soooo, last night at work, I sold some tickets to a man who may have looked quite similar to a bum. He was fully equipped with a pack full of stuff, a ratty old beanie hat, full scraggly beard... the works. He bought an $8 ticket to The Dark Knight Rises and when I told him the price, he pulls out his tattered looking wallet and the contents were unbelievable! He paid me with only one of the numerous $100 bills he had in his wallet. No kidding! And guess where he's from? Pluto. Well, probably not, but that's what he told Jamie in concessions. haha Silly, silly, fake bum. (The picture above is a bum but not the bum I'm referring to...)  

Oh, apparently, on Wednesday, Koda proceeded to chow down all the mouse poison pellets we have in our laundry room. Yeah. Scary. And you're looking at the worst dog owner on the face of the earth who noticed the poison was all gone but thought that the mice had eaten it all because Koda couldn't have possibly been in my laundry room long enough to eat it all so she didn't say anything to anyone about it being gone. So good thing this dog owner has a wonderful husband who knows it had to have been Koda and made him throw up so he wouldn't die and calls the vet to ask what to do. Yeah, he's a good dog owner; nursing our dog back to health. When I got home from work, I felt awful thinking I could've possibly killed the dog just by pure accident and naivety so I sat by Koda on the floor for a full hour rubbing his belly. He loved it! I think I'm forgiven.

And in other news, today while blog-stalking, I've come to the conclusion that fashion bloggers are slowly killing me. Whenever I get done looking at their blogs complete with multiple cute outfits, I feel like my clothing is more similar to the bum at the movie theater's than theirs. haha It's killing me, Smalls!

Dreams

I had a dream last night that I was shopping with my mom and sister, Stephanie, in the most gorgeous clothing and shoes store.
All I really remember about it is that there was the cutest red heels there that I really wanted but couldn't quite get to fit and that Steph kept trying to try on the same pair and I kept saying "Well, if you are getting those, then I just can't so take them off!"
The dream was also mixed with scenes from Charmed where I had magical powers and the ability to kick some a--. I attribute this to the fact that I've recently watched quite a bit of this show on Netflix. Shows from the late 90's and early 2000's were awesome haha
Needless to say, the dream was interesting...

In other news, today, I'm listening to shuffle on my pandora station that ranges from Imogen Heap (yes!) to Four Year Strong (Yes!). It's an extensive list involving about 44 different artists. Glorious!

I'm busy selling tickets for the Summer Games Opening Ceremonies today and then it's house cleaning time, cookie baking time, lawn watering time, Liz and Dan time, and mom's birthday cake celebration time! Happy birthday, Mom!

Speaking of birthdays... I can't believe my birthday is in a week! I seriously almost forgot about it this year.
So far, I have zero plans. Dan just got moved from 3rd counselor in Elder's Quorum to 2nd counselor so he'll be helping plan and carry out the 'Chip and Put' our ward men are holding on that day but that's in the morning so... who knows? Maybe the afternoon and evening we'll some grand birthday plans.
I've got to have some sort of plan seeings how this is my "golden year" - 23 years old on the 23rd. You know.

Anyone have any ideas?

Too Old?

Saturday is a special day, it's the day we get ready for Sunday do so many things that we sleep all the way through church on Sunday.

Haha but seriously, Saturday was a good day. LONG but good.

6am We helped Becca clean the Fiddlers 6 movie theater. To blow all the popcorn out from under all the seats they use electric leaf blowers and it's a pain in the booty cause the cords get all tangled in the seats and such SO Dan brought his backpack gas-powered leaf blower and we got done in almost half the time! Plus, Dan loved being able to use that thing... men and their power-tools, you know.

8am-11am We dropped Bec off and then went home to shower, get pretty, and eat some lunch while watching a little Vampire Diaries before going to pick up Christina to go to St. George. I got to wear my new dress from Rue 21 and sport my new purse and perfume for the day so I was happy.

12pm We jumped on the freeway in my mother-in-law's truck...

1-ish pm We arrived in St. George/Santa Clara at the baseball fields where all-star baseball tournaments for Dan's cousin, Stockton, were going on. We watched some of the game, talked with Dan's Grandpa Rigby, and ate Otter Pops (yum!). It was gloriously hot outside (97°) so I was glad that my dress was light and breezy.

3:30pm We visited Dan's Grandma Rigby at their house and Dan changed into his suit. Also, I found out that I love Jordan Almonds. So good.

5pm We headed to the Temple for the 5:20 endowment session with our ward for ward temple night that we are in charge of. We got dressed and were into the chapel to go into the session by 5:22 and found out that we had just barely missed it and had to wait until the 6pm session. We were a little disappointed cause we had no idea who was there from our ward but by the end of the session we were just happy that we had come. We love the Temple and are so blessed to have one so close.

8pm We went to dinner at Golden Corral and stuffed our faces! It was packed there and I'm pretty sure everyone from the temple were there for dinner too haha But it was good. Dan even fed me chocolate covered strawberries! Yuuuum!

10pm We jumped on the freeway headed for home

11-ish pm We arrived in Cedar and went straight to Dan's parents to take the truck back and kill time til my work party at midnight

11:45pm We drove over to Paul's house so we could follow Becca and Paul to Stadium 8 for the party.

12am We arrived at the party. About a million people were there. Our staff is HUGE... I mean, I got hired with 19 other people! So for the first of the party we all stood around talking and eating. They had sandwiches, wraps, and Winger's Sticky Fingers (mmm!) plus all the soda you could ever want from the soda machines behind concessions. After we finished eating we all headed into Theater 5 to watch the movies some of the managers and other employees had made for The St. George Film Festival. Some were creepy and others were funny. I was glad we got to see them! The people I work with are so talented. By far, the best one had to be Westates the Musical 2. It had songs from other musicals revamped with lyrics about working at the theater and it was hilarious! I was glad we went. It was so fun! We left before karaoke on the big screen but we were exhausted! I don't know how Becca did it... she stayed for the whole party and then stayed to clean the theaters!

3am We got home and were getting ready for bed when we noticed there were about 4 wasps chillin' around our bedroom window (on the inside)! Apparently, our window has become home to these wasps and I'm not very happy about it. We need to get some wasp spray but until then we'll just use the foam cleaner Dan found in the garage to sedate them and then kill them haha 

3:45am We were finally asleep in our beds.

Dan had an Elder's Quorum meeting he needed to be to at 8am on Sunday but did that happen? No. Apparently, I turned over and said, "Honey, are you going to get up for your meetings? You don't have to..." so he said no and then I took the dogs outside but I don't ever remember coming back to bed. Next thing I know, we're waking up and it's 12:45pm. We had slept all the way through sacrament AND Sunday school and Dan was supposed to say the closing prayer in sacrament meeting! Oops! 

Guess we're getting too old for all night parties... haha

P.S. I found a new free photo editor online. PicMonkey. Check it.

Awk & Awe

Awkward:
-Finding men's underwear in the theater the other night. Don't know what it is you are up to in Cabin in the Woods but it needs to stop.
-Hearing what may or may not have been growling coming from the old man reading magazines behind me in the SUU library. Sketchy.
-The fact that today is Thursday and I've thought it was Tuesday all day so I was 20 minutes late to work. Sorry, customers of Little Women.
-My left eye is constantly watering.
-The things Dan says to my sisters sometimes... yeah.
Awesome:
-I didn't have class today AND we finished IQ testing! IQ tests are tedious and boring and long so try to avoid them at all costs. Let's just hope that I get some score above 70, yeah?
-I went to dinner with Becca at Costa and it was yummy! Sweet Pork Salad basically makes my life. And sister talk time was much needed.
-Cedar finally has a new clothing store! 'Bout time. Welcome, Rue 21!
-The weather has been absolutely GORG' today. It's beginning to feel like summer. Looooove it!
-I beat Dan's high score on Jeweled. That's right.
-Dan took me to get fro-yo at Krave. Mmmm!
-We're playing Frisbee Golf at the university tomorrow with Bec and Paul. So excited!
-Making a trip to St. George on Saturday to go to a session at the Temple and visiting Dan's grandparents. Yay!
-First work partay at the theater on Saturday night...

Girls Trip!

When your friend is a stay-at-home mamma who has 2 little ones to take care of all day and a full-time student for a hubby, what do you do to give her a little break??

Well, you take her away to the "big city" of St. George for 2 days, of course!

Krystel and I had a blast! We left yesterday at 6pm, ate dinner at Olive Garden (the hour wait to get a seat was SO worth it), and then we headed to our hotel. We stayed at the Ramada Inn and it was really nice. We hung out in the hot tub and we even tried jumping in the ice cold swimming pool (it was outdoors and seriously freezing). Then we headed back in for the night and after jumping on the beds (oh yeah) we watched a little tv and fell asleep. This morning we had breakfast and then went to do a little shopping.

I got back an hour before I had to work so I got to see my hubby for a little bit. It really makes you feel good to know you were missed and, boy, did I miss him too!! Even a night away feels like forever!

Isn't he cute??

Irrational Fear.

For anyone who knows my sister, Stephanie, you know she is a PRO at DI shopping.
Srrrsly.
And a while back I happened to call my sister, Collette, on my way home from Quizy's (aka Quizno's) and she was shopping with Steph at the DI.
I stopped in to say hey and see if I could possibly find some cute colored jeans (no luck)...
INSTEAD, Collette and I found old fur coats!

BAM!!
Yes, isn't it sexy??
We thought so, but Steph did not agree.
Turns out she has an irrational fear of, what she refers to as, "used fur".
Weird. I know.
BUT, lucky for Letta and I, we had an extremely fun time chasing her around DI wearing the coats trying to hug her.

Hil. Ar. I. Ous.
Srrrsly.
hahaha

I love my sisters ♥

St. Geezy

Welcome to today's post, where you get to feel like you are visiting a really crappy fashion blog.

BUT for my own personal documentation purposes, you get to deal with it.

Thank you and read on.

Please.

Pretty please. With cherries...

Can I just say how freaking much I love this school?
Can I, also, just say how freaking much I love the teachers here?
And can I say how freaking much I love the kids here?
AND I'm just going to say how much I'm loving the opportunity I got to come to St. George for practicum.

I am learning SO much and I'm getting opportunities to practice some of the things I've learned.
I've got to go to an IEP meeting (or an Individual Education Plan meeting for those of you who aren't in Special Education), I've got to observe awesome teachers (Mary Thompson and Gloria Pope), and I've now been able to teach groups for almost a whole day.
I LOVE IT!

I will admit that it can be challenging (especially when you get those few behavior problem kids in your groups) but it is definitely more rewarding.
I feel like the things I'm having to deal with here will be such a help to me in my future teaching.
And coming here has definitely put my mind at ease about teaching.
Instead of being afraid, I'm excited to learn more and to get closer to finishing my degree!
Phew!

Funny for the day:

During 2nd grade group reading, some of the boys started laughing really hard and couldn't stop after I told them a few times.
So after having to "put my foot down" (and try not to laugh with them), one of the boys said to me, "Mrs. Liz? I'm so sorry but we've just got the giggles!"
It was the cutest thing and when they are laughing it's hard not to yourself!

 Gerald Lund speaking at the tabernacle

In other non-practicum related business, Dan's grandma invited me to go with her and her visiting teaching partner to the tabernacle tonight to listen to the author, Gerald Lund, speak about his book called The Undaunted.
It. Was. So. Amazing.
Seriously.
He spoke about the pioneers who went to Hole In The Rock and what an amazing, faith building story that was.
If you haven't had the chance to read his book, then do!
I know I'm going to!
I'm so glad I got to go to that.

Also, I made goat cheese, raisin, thyme, and slivered almond stuffed chicken breast with Dan's grandma tonight.
Oh boy, was it good!

Teacher! Teacher!

Today I had the opportunity to teach at 3 schools.
Boy are kids funny!

FIRST I went to South Elementary in Cedar to tutor my 2nd grader in the STAR reading program.
We read a book called Farmer Brown Goes Round and Round and when it came to the part about goats, my boy said, "My grandma has a goat! It goes 'BLEHHHH! BLEHHHH!' (while sticking out his tongue). It's way annoying!" 
hahaha Oh how I wish you could've seen his face while he did this...

THEN I went to East Elementary in Cedar to teach the 1st graders for my arts integration class.
We taught them all about the appearance of the sun and moon during the day and about the rotations of the sun, moon, and earth through dance.
So for the dance, the students had to use loco-motor steps (running, jumping, walking, etc.) and axial movements (bending, stretching, twisting, etc.) to show the rotations of the moon around the earth and the earth around the sun.
Two girls in my group decided they'd be the sun.
So they bent their arms together in the middle and decided they would jump in place while the others rotated around them.
When they were done jumping I said, "Ok, good job, you can stop jumping now" and the little girls fell on the ground and one of them said, "OH good! I think my ankles are nearly broken from all my jumping!"
haha

AND then I went to St. George to do my practicum for special education at East Elementary.
But before I left, I went to Quizno's (where Dan was having lunch) to say goodbye to Dan since I would be staying tonight and Wednesday night at his Grandma and Grandpa Rigby's house.
Well, when I got there I parked my car and walked across the parking lot and into Quizno's.
When I walked in the door, Dan was laughing with his Dad and I said, "Why are you two laughing so hard?"
You know what he said??
He said, "From across the parking lot, you looked like you weren't wearing a shirt! I was shocked!"
And that's what I get for wearing a nude colored shirt...

 Also, I have blurred my face on the count of I was looking totally cross-eyed... how embarrassing

In other news, I'm absolutely LOVING practicum.
I got to help with all the groups today and even help teach a little!
I'm thinking I was lucky to get paired with such an awesome teacher!

What not to wear.

Welp, summer is officially over (even though the sun says "yes", school says "no").
AND with summer being officially over, I've now completed 2 full days of school.
I have to purchase 4 books (so far... I still have 2 new classes to attend this week).
PLUS a new wardrobe.
Or at least part of a new wardrobe.
You see, being in the elementary/special education program and being in the schools requires different clothing styles than your regular old jeans and a t-shirt.

Today we got handed the Staff Conduct/Dress Code for Iron County School District.
I expected the no jeans except on certain days thing.
I expected the no flip-flops thing.
I expected the no tank tops thing.
I expected the no exposed tattoos thing.

What I didn't expect was that you can wear skirts that are no more than 4 inches above the knee.

4 inches is creeping up the thigh a little high for teachers (if I do say so myself)...

Contrary to what others might think, children don't want to see their teacher's underwear.

Oh! Speaking of wardrobe choices...
I saw a BOY on campus today wearing butt-shorts and high-heeled booties.
Yes, I said BOY.
It was disturbing.
I don't care that you're gay.

I do care that you try to dress like a skanky girl.

Saturday is a special day

Saturday was so great!

We woke up at 11am.

We got ready to go.

We drove (in the snow) to St. George.

We met Jeremy, Kaela, Jack, and Tasha at the mall.

Jeremy and Dan went to do some landscaping thing for the landscaping business they are starting up and that left the ladies (plus little Jack) to some serious mall time.

Amos showed up half way through our mall time...in a suit (that he stayed in for the whole day) haha yes, he was dressed like that for something more important than mall shopping.

BUT the best part of the mall time was when Dan got back from landscaping and we went in Buckle to look around.

I meant to try on just one shirt, but one of the workers there started acting like my own personal stylist!

She was picking things out for me and having me try them on AND she picked my sizes perfectly.

AND Dan let me try them all on and model them for him for as long as I wanted. AND at the end of all that, he bought me 2 shirts :) He's a sweetheart.

It was like heaven, I tell you!

I mean, isn't the worst part of shopping wandering around the store trying to find the perfect outfit? By the time you find one, you are just ready to go home.

Hence, why this kind of shopping was like heaven :) Now is where I act like a spokesperson for Buckle and give a shoutout-"SHOP BUCKLE!!"

Anyway...

After shopping, Dan and I went to eat at Chili's (yummy) and then got froyo for desert at Krave (ohhhh yeaaaahhh).

We had fun taking pictures in that place...and writing stuff on their dry erase wall.

Once done with our DELICIOUS froyo, we met up with Jeremy, Kaela, Tasha, and Amos at Fiesta Fun where we spent the night playing a few rounds of mini golf, playing on the arcades, and racing around in the go-karts. SO freakin' fun!To end the night we drove back to Cedar to hang with our friends, Carly, Joe, Amelia, and Marianne. We laughed and talked and had a way good time! Marianne is going on a mission on the 13th of April! She will do so amazing! Good luck, Marianne! I love ya! :)

Awkward and Awesome. Today.

Awkard:
-The ground is wet because it rained...but the sky is blue so uhm...what's up with that?
-Having a hard time with 5th grade math when you are in college. Raise your hand if that is you. (Yep, I'm raising mine)
-People in public bathrooms who walk in an out of every stall until they find the one they want to "go" in
-You know when you have to "pass gas" but you are in a public location so you just hold it in? Yeah well, it's awkward cause you feel like at any moment you might just let it go
-It's also awkward that I just posted that to all the bloggin world
-Having a Kindle and having EVERYONE ask you how you like it and what book you are reading
-Begging Marissa to take off her shoe in math class so I can see her stitches while the teacher and everyone else listens in and stares at me like I'm a loony
-The plig singing opera outside of the box office. Well, maybe she's not a plig. BUT she has a french-braid like one and a dress like one and shoes like one. I hope no one is offended by my use of the word 'plig'

Awesome:
-Dan left his breakfast home today so I dropped it off to him at work before I went to work. When I left, a guy he works with said, "Woah, your wife is hot!" It made me smile

-I'm wearing the primary colors today!

Blue sweater (Forever 21); Yellow striped shirt (Thrifted); Red leather bag (Roxy); Jeans (Silver Brand); Black Flats (Blowfish)

-I made ham and cheese crescents for lunch and they were yummy
-Dan came home for lunch and as he walked in the door he started humming a song loudly and then came over and hugged/danced with me while I made lunch and told me he loved me ♥
-I bought The Hunger Games series for my Kindle and started reading it last night FOR THE FIRST TIME (I know, I'm behind the times) and I'm already 15% into it. I honestly don't want to put it down for a second!
-Dan and I get to go watch Erin's very FIRST orchestra concert tonight. I'm so excited to see her play!
-Temple on Saturday!! (I just thought about it and I'm excited so it makes it on the awesome list)

shower, pjs, and my love

Bridal shower = a good time with minimal embarrassment and lots of friends and family :)

PART of the group that came

Also, this is night #2 of wearing soft pj's! They make my nights so awesome!

1. Silky pj's from Lisa. (Oh yeah, I slid around! It was awesome! Lisa made a lovely choice)

The bottoms match this top. Cute huh?

2. Fuzzy soft pj's from Dan. (I'm currently wearing and LOVING! Dan was so sweet to get me them)

Not the best picture of my face but the pants are the fuzziest, coziest things. Cute huh?

AND just so the whole world knows, only 41 more days till I marry the most wonderful, sweet, good looking guy in the universe! I love him with all my heart! :)