Dec 31, 2011
My favorite pregnancy snack
Since I am hungry ALL THE TIME.... Little snacks like this have become very important. I feel as if I have a little parasite eating all the food I put inside me.... And it's name is baby glade. This is my most frustrating pregnancy symptom right now. I am so sick of being hungry and waking up starving in the middle of the night, so this fun little snack will continue to stay on my night table.
We have arrived
In Kansas my friends. Who would have thought we would end up here? I sure didn't. Once upon a time, about 2 months ago, we printed out a map of the United States and proceeded to mark the places we wouldn't mind living. 2 colors were used in this process, green for the places we would like to live, and red for the areas we definitely wanted to avoid. Kansas was definitely red. But, life tends to be quite the jokester, and here I sit......writing this blog in Kansas.
This place has its own pretty though. It was quite mesmerizing driving through the endless flat farmlands. And, it's so fun to see and hear all the trains!
We drove through a tiny little beat up town called Glade, KS! Meant to be? I think yes.
We have amazing ward members here. They showed up with dinner and strong helping hands on Thursday when we got here. We had everything in the house in 45 min! We are feeling very blessed to already know such wonderful people here.
Our house is great! It's a 3 level condo with two bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and a nice big hot pink basement. It definitely was not clean when we walked in but now that we have cleaned the carpets and wiped everything down, I think we are really really going to like it. Our landlord also told us we could paint, so that hot pink downstairs......ya...that will be gone. Who paints a huge basement completely hot pink? Some teenage girl with complete reign of the basement, thats who.
It's almost short sleeve weather here. its a warm winter they say, I'm ok with that.
Well, we are here, we are exhausted, but we are happy and excited for this adventure.
This place has its own pretty though. It was quite mesmerizing driving through the endless flat farmlands. And, it's so fun to see and hear all the trains!
We drove through a tiny little beat up town called Glade, KS! Meant to be? I think yes.
We have amazing ward members here. They showed up with dinner and strong helping hands on Thursday when we got here. We had everything in the house in 45 min! We are feeling very blessed to already know such wonderful people here.
Our house is great! It's a 3 level condo with two bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and a nice big hot pink basement. It definitely was not clean when we walked in but now that we have cleaned the carpets and wiped everything down, I think we are really really going to like it. Our landlord also told us we could paint, so that hot pink downstairs......ya...that will be gone. Who paints a huge basement completely hot pink? Some teenage girl with complete reign of the basement, thats who.
It's almost short sleeve weather here. its a warm winter they say, I'm ok with that.
Well, we are here, we are exhausted, but we are happy and excited for this adventure.
Dec 12, 2011
Kansas or bust
Ok....I am going to try blogging again. I figure if we are going to be more than 16 hours away from family and friends, I should do a better job in keeping them updated online.
Also, you notice we changed our blog address again.....I am so indecisive.
I am totally graduated and man does it feel good! When my peers and I were asked how we were to celebrate it was a unanimous answer.... Sleep. Well I slept for 2 days and now I am ready to party it up... But Mark has one more final to study for. But.... Tomorrow at 1:30, we shall party. Hooray for getting bachelors degrees!
IPads are AMAZING... Words just can't express the joy at my finger tips.
Packing is fun when you have a week and a half to do nothing but it. I like getting rid of stuff. It will be nice to be settled for a little while though.... We found a nice 3 level apartment in Kansas for only $25 more than what we are paying for our moldy basement now! And it has....drumroll....a dishwasher!! Aww......dishwashers are nice.
Feb 26, 2011
Congratulations to Mark
Mark was awarded the outstanding undergraduate teaching assistant award yesterday from the Mechanical Engineering Department! He is such an incredible T.A and there is always someone asking him for help. It's nice to see his hard work acknowledged.
Nov 4, 2010
USU Love
Fact # 5 This campus is so pretty. We love it. I especially love the fall. There are so many trees all over Logan and it makes it so pretty.
Beautiful eh?
I have not been able to be on campus a lot this semester. Its been a little depressing. Especially since I have missed all the "Zombie vs. Humans" action. About 700 people on campus are immersed in this game. It all started with one zombie (who wears a band on their head) who has to "feed" on any of the other 699 players within 48 hrs or they die. They feed by touching a human, who has a band around their arm. The humans have nerf guns and have to shoot the zombies before they get "eaten." Once a zombie is hit, they place their band around their neck and they can't "feed" for 15 min. Once a human gets touched, they become a zombie, register on facebook as a zombie!!, and place their band around their head. It's pretty awesome and insane. The game is only played on campus. Mark has seen some pretty good battles, I'm a little jealous. Sometimes its not so fun to be so busy.
Still... happy pretty Logan. Can't wait for the snow.
Beautiful eh?I have not been able to be on campus a lot this semester. Its been a little depressing. Especially since I have missed all the "Zombie vs. Humans" action. About 700 people on campus are immersed in this game. It all started with one zombie (who wears a band on their head) who has to "feed" on any of the other 699 players within 48 hrs or they die. They feed by touching a human, who has a band around their arm. The humans have nerf guns and have to shoot the zombies before they get "eaten." Once a zombie is hit, they place their band around their neck and they can't "feed" for 15 min. Once a human gets touched, they become a zombie, register on facebook as a zombie!!, and place their band around their head. It's pretty awesome and insane. The game is only played on campus. Mark has seen some pretty good battles, I'm a little jealous. Sometimes its not so fun to be so busy.
Still... happy pretty Logan. Can't wait for the snow.
Oct 31, 2010
Happy Halloween
One of the traditions in Logan is this pumpkin walk. Basically people spend hours designing sets using lots of pumpkins. It's getting insane, the sets are getting more incredible each year. Here are a couple of our favs.
There were a couple that were so big that I could not get a picture of them that would suffice. Pretty awesome.
Also, my cute little PAL went with us. We love Aubrey
Fact #4 - I love love love Cinderella. Always have, always will
Halloween has been a blast this year. We drove down to Salt Lake for yet another Manor Massacre film which was incredible! Go Thorups and friends!
We celebrated a lot of our Halloween at the elementary school at which I do my practicum. We helped with the first grade party and were in the Halloween parade with the rest of the school. It was great fun! The whole school then proceeded to dance to Thriller. It was epic. I will try to get it up here. Its too cute.
We dressed up as a cowboy and an Indian. I know....real original. Someday we will have time to make cool costumes....
Successful Halloween
Pictures are taken with my Ipod, sorry
There were a couple that were so big that I could not get a picture of them that would suffice. Pretty awesome. Also, my cute little PAL went with us. We love Aubrey
Fact #4 - I love love love Cinderella. Always have, always will
Halloween has been a blast this year. We drove down to Salt Lake for yet another Manor Massacre film which was incredible! Go Thorups and friends!
We celebrated a lot of our Halloween at the elementary school at which I do my practicum. We helped with the first grade party and were in the Halloween parade with the rest of the school. It was great fun! The whole school then proceeded to dance to Thriller. It was epic. I will try to get it up here. Its too cute.
We dressed up as a cowboy and an Indian. I know....real original. Someday we will have time to make cool costumes....
Successful Halloween
Oct 21, 2010
My Knight in Shining Armor
Mark Age 6 ishI read a saying recently "Sometimes your knight in shining armor is just a nerd in tin foil."
It made me think of this picture. I love it.
Mark is my prince, my knight and shining armor. He is perfect, perfect for me!
Oct 17, 2010
The profession I chose
I love teaching...
This semester has been a great one so far. I just finishing my first block of practicum in a 5th grade class. Who knew I would love 5th grade so much! I was dead set on 1st or 2nd grade, or maybe work as some sort of specialist in a school, but those little adorables are making me double think.
I'm awesome...
I have a picture of the whole class as well, all 30 of them, but cannot post it on the internet.
Next week I will start my second 5 week block in a 1st grade classroom. Maybe I'll love it more, maybe I'll love it less, maybe I just like being around kids in general. Their hilarious, witty, creative, active, kind, forgiving, adorable, etc. Everything we all hope to be, they are.
Some say teaching is the hardest job in the world, but yet the most rewarding and most important - I believe them, it's an important hat to wear, but it's worth it.
This semester I am doing my level II in Elementary Education. This means that I enter the classroom for a full days work 3 days a week. I do anything the teacher needs. I have gotten some good one-on-one and group teaching experiences, as well as a better feel for how the classroom runs.
Being in the classroom has also revived my love of reading (Who has time to read what they want anymore!) I got a glimpse of a couple good 5th grade books and decided to start my own classroom/home collection of children books. We went to a book sale and got all of these for $20!! Mark got some he wanted as well. I got almost 50 picture books, 15 chapter books, a children's dictionary, a "almost perfect" Disney storybook, etc. Needless to say, it was a blast for both of us.
Come Christmas time, it will mean that we are one year away from graduating, Mark with his Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering and me with my Bachelors in Elementary Education with an emphasis in ASL. Sounds pretty cool, and those titles will sure look good on beautiful embossed USU card stock paper. What a Christmas present that will be!
After that? maybe a 4 month trip to China and surrounding areas to teach English...
After that? Well....that's as far as we have gotten
This semester has been a great one so far. I just finishing my first block of practicum in a 5th grade class. Who knew I would love 5th grade so much! I was dead set on 1st or 2nd grade, or maybe work as some sort of specialist in a school, but those little adorables are making me double think.
I'm awesome...I have a picture of the whole class as well, all 30 of them, but cannot post it on the internet.
Next week I will start my second 5 week block in a 1st grade classroom. Maybe I'll love it more, maybe I'll love it less, maybe I just like being around kids in general. Their hilarious, witty, creative, active, kind, forgiving, adorable, etc. Everything we all hope to be, they are.
Some say teaching is the hardest job in the world, but yet the most rewarding and most important - I believe them, it's an important hat to wear, but it's worth it.
This semester I am doing my level II in Elementary Education. This means that I enter the classroom for a full days work 3 days a week. I do anything the teacher needs. I have gotten some good one-on-one and group teaching experiences, as well as a better feel for how the classroom runs.
Being in the classroom has also revived my love of reading (Who has time to read what they want anymore!) I got a glimpse of a couple good 5th grade books and decided to start my own classroom/home collection of children books. We went to a book sale and got all of these for $20!! Mark got some he wanted as well. I got almost 50 picture books, 15 chapter books, a children's dictionary, a "almost perfect" Disney storybook, etc. Needless to say, it was a blast for both of us.
Come Christmas time, it will mean that we are one year away from graduating, Mark with his Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering and me with my Bachelors in Elementary Education with an emphasis in ASL. Sounds pretty cool, and those titles will sure look good on beautiful embossed USU card stock paper. What a Christmas present that will be!
After that? maybe a 4 month trip to China and surrounding areas to teach English...
After that? Well....that's as far as we have gotten
Sep 27, 2010
Oh life
Life...
I feel like it's running us over, leaving us behind in it's tracks...
There's class (enough credits to keep us busy themselves), homework (lots is an understatement), work (paid and unpaid), laundry to be done, ASME meetings and socials (not to mention all the work he does behind the scenes as a secretary), a house to clean (yikes!), PALS activities and trainings (and LOTS of busy work), DESA money handling and fridge stocking, lab grading (not his favorite thing), groceries to be bought (note: we have starved due to lack of time), appointments to meet, blogs to be written..... does it ever end?
Lucky for us we have gospel scriptures, talks, hymns, magazines, etc right at the tip of our fingers! (Our scripture app on our iTouch have made this even more remarkable.)
Lucky for us we get to slow down this weekend and listen to Him speak through our beloved prophets, seers, and revelators.
Lucky for us there is someone who won't leave us behind, someone who will pick us up when this craziness we call life knocks us down and tramples us under it's feet. That person is our Savior Jesus Christ.
Blessed are we to be a part of this wonderful good news gospel!
I have felt very close to my Savior lately. Thanks to some wonderful experiences, institute classes, and questions so tenderly answered. This is a gospel of happiness and joy, we know that for a fact.
That fact keeps us going in such a crazy awesome world! That fact keeps us loving every little bit of it.
I feel like it's running us over, leaving us behind in it's tracks...
There's class (enough credits to keep us busy themselves), homework (lots is an understatement), work (paid and unpaid), laundry to be done, ASME meetings and socials (not to mention all the work he does behind the scenes as a secretary), a house to clean (yikes!), PALS activities and trainings (and LOTS of busy work), DESA money handling and fridge stocking, lab grading (not his favorite thing), groceries to be bought (note: we have starved due to lack of time), appointments to meet, blogs to be written..... does it ever end?
Lucky for us we have gospel scriptures, talks, hymns, magazines, etc right at the tip of our fingers! (Our scripture app on our iTouch have made this even more remarkable.)
Lucky for us we get to slow down this weekend and listen to Him speak through our beloved prophets, seers, and revelators.
Lucky for us there is someone who won't leave us behind, someone who will pick us up when this craziness we call life knocks us down and tramples us under it's feet. That person is our Savior Jesus Christ.
Blessed are we to be a part of this wonderful good news gospel!
I have felt very close to my Savior lately. Thanks to some wonderful experiences, institute classes, and questions so tenderly answered. This is a gospel of happiness and joy, we know that for a fact.
That fact keeps us going in such a crazy awesome world! That fact keeps us loving every little bit of it.
Sep 9, 2010
Glade Reunion
The things we do for great pictures :)
The weekend was full of laughter, beautiful nieces and nephews, games by candlelight, smiling faces, gorgeous views, yummy food, "You don't have to come and confess, we gonna find you"s, golfing, pirate ships, enjoyable walks, and mustaches.
Thanks Glade family for a wonderful weekend!
Aug 19, 2010
Sorta life changing
I have been going to the chiropractor the last couple weeks because of some back problems that I have basically had my whole life. The past couple years my neck and shoulders have been getting progressively worse. After an X-ray, I saw my scoliosis and my uneven hips (which I knew I had) and I found out I have no curve in my neck like I guess I am supposed to and I have some twist in my spine.
So.... after several adjustments and using ice instead of heat (a great discovery) I am feeling pretty great. Some of my problems cannot be fully taken care of, like the scoliosis, but I already have SO much more movement in my spine.
Though my spine felt so much better, I was still getting crazy bad headaches and they were getting worse, especially the weekend before my Monday visit. So Monday I brought it up to the Chiropractor and he did some energy tests. He explained that I had some inflammation in my skull and that it was usually due to a food allergy. So he asked what I craved, because when looking for an allergy it is usually something you crave. Easy for me......hearty foods....breads. After grabbing some wheat and testing the wheat while I held it he confirmed that I do in fact have a gluten sensitivity.
Can he be totally sure? After studying it more when I got home I realized that that fact explained a lot, like why I feel sick after I eat. The reason my headaches were getting worse was because we had been eating a lot more whole wheat because its healthier. We have been making our own whole wheat tortillas and bread.
After studying a lot more, and some help from my mother in law, we are changing our diet..... Mark is so amazing to be doing this with me. Since it is a sensitivity, I am going totally off gluten for a while while we try to rebuild my healthy bacteria and intestine walls. Then we will introduce it back in small amounts and see what happens. Small amounts is probably what I will stick with the rest of my life though. :) If my body is ok with it. We are off to a healthier us and I am excited about it! I will let you...my blog...know how it goes!
So.... after several adjustments and using ice instead of heat (a great discovery) I am feeling pretty great. Some of my problems cannot be fully taken care of, like the scoliosis, but I already have SO much more movement in my spine.
Though my spine felt so much better, I was still getting crazy bad headaches and they were getting worse, especially the weekend before my Monday visit. So Monday I brought it up to the Chiropractor and he did some energy tests. He explained that I had some inflammation in my skull and that it was usually due to a food allergy. So he asked what I craved, because when looking for an allergy it is usually something you crave. Easy for me......hearty foods....breads. After grabbing some wheat and testing the wheat while I held it he confirmed that I do in fact have a gluten sensitivity.
Can he be totally sure? After studying it more when I got home I realized that that fact explained a lot, like why I feel sick after I eat. The reason my headaches were getting worse was because we had been eating a lot more whole wheat because its healthier. We have been making our own whole wheat tortillas and bread.
After studying a lot more, and some help from my mother in law, we are changing our diet..... Mark is so amazing to be doing this with me. Since it is a sensitivity, I am going totally off gluten for a while while we try to rebuild my healthy bacteria and intestine walls. Then we will introduce it back in small amounts and see what happens. Small amounts is probably what I will stick with the rest of my life though. :) If my body is ok with it. We are off to a healthier us and I am excited about it! I will let you...my blog...know how it goes!
Aug 14, 2010
One year ago today....
I received this pretty little thing
From this wonderfully handsome man
At this gorgeously perfect lake
Hooray for marriage and love and engagements and pretty rings at pretty places from wonderful people. I love you Mark!
Under construction
All this home remodeling this summer has put us in the mood to "remodel" our little apartment....well me... it has put me in that mood. These couch pillows were our first step, because they were the easiest. Our futon no longer looks a little drab....hooray.
We have a lot of next steps. We cannot technically remodel our apartment, because it is not ours, but we can build more things to make it look awesome. Here are couple models of things we will build. Not only is Mark skilled at building, but he is skilled at modeling and building that same modeling.
This bench will sit at the end of our bed
This will be our new headboard.
We will also be building a new coffee table and some frames and a couple other things. It might take a while, with school starting and all but we will put the finished products up later.
We have a lot of next steps. We cannot technically remodel our apartment, because it is not ours, but we can build more things to make it look awesome. Here are couple models of things we will build. Not only is Mark skilled at building, but he is skilled at modeling and building that same modeling.This bench will sit at the end of our bed
This will be our new headboard.
We will also be building a new coffee table and some frames and a couple other things. It might take a while, with school starting and all but we will put the finished products up later.
Bear Lake is a really fun place
and we have been there A LOT this summer.
With friends, dogs, and a canoe
These 2 pictures are not at bear lake, we were testing out the canoe before we took it to the lake. Just as expected, it was fun.
Ben and Angella with their little Curie
Random man asleep on the beach?.... He literally slept the whole time his group was there. Is it creepy that I took a picture of him? He just looked so.....dead.
Dana, Jesse, and their pup Fritz
Fritz Fisher
With family
Mud wars!
Sandcastles!
And you always need someone to bury.
We will probably go again next week, and do a sandcastle day. Literally just go and build a sandcastle all day. Sounds great doesn't it? We will let you know how it turns out.
With friends, dogs, and a canoe
These 2 pictures are not at bear lake, we were testing out the canoe before we took it to the lake. Just as expected, it was fun.
Ben and Angella with their little Curie
Random man asleep on the beach?.... He literally slept the whole time his group was there. Is it creepy that I took a picture of him? He just looked so.....dead.
Dana, Jesse, and their pup Fritz
Fritz Fisher
With family
Mud wars!
Sandcastles!
And you always need someone to bury.
We will probably go again next week, and do a sandcastle day. Literally just go and build a sandcastle all day. Sounds great doesn't it? We will let you know how it turns out.
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