Dave and Dahlia Wright

Things I am Thankful for...

2011-11-16T07:22:00.003-06:00

Well with Thanksgiving just a week away I thought I would make a list of some things I am thankful for. Here goes...

*I am so very thankful for my husband, Dave. I love him so much, and I feel so lucky to have him in my live.

*I am grateful for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that Jesus is literally the son of God. He lived, an He lives still. He suffered all things for us so. He atoned for each one of us making it possible for us to live with Him and God, and all the people that we love after this life. He is our advocate. I know He lives.

*I am thankful for my family and Dave's family. They have done and do so much for us. We love their friendship and support.

*I am grateful that Jen, Dave's little sister, is on a mission. I love reading her letters. They are always so motivating to me.

*I am thankful for my 2nd grade class. I love teaching them. They make me laugh everyday. They are such great kids.

*I am grateful that we live in Village Green. It is such a fun home away from home. :) We love our neighbors and friends here.

*I am grateful that Dave is in medical school at Crieghton. I am also thankful that he is about halfway done with his 3rd year. Only 1 1/2 more years of this part of our adventures. I am excited to find out where we will be after that.

*I am thankful that my sister Cece got married a couple months ago. I am also grateful that my sister Lexie is getting married this weekend. I am so glad that they are happy!

*I am thankful for all the nice things that we have here in America. We are so blessed. Even in a recession there is so much excess compared to other places in the world. I feel so fortunate to live here.

*I am thankful for the men and women who serve in the armed forces. They help keep our country save everyday. I am grateful to those who have died fighting for our freedom. I am also thankful to the founders of our country.

*I am thankful that they Native Americans feed the Pilgrims. If not for them lots of us probably wouldn't be here.

*I am grateful to have my new car. It is a Subaru Legacy. I love it!

*I'm thankful for good food.

*I am thankful for warm clothes.

*I am grateful for ariplanes. Getting to Utah takes way to long otherwise.

*I am thankful for technology. I love that I can look up anything I need to know in about 2 seconds on the internet.

There are so many other things I am thankful for. I may add to this list. But I have to get ready for work now. So this is it for this morning. Today I am going to remember everything I am thankful for!! :)

Pictures

2011-11-08T18:00:00.002-06:00

Random pictures down by the Botanical Gardens

Out to dinner at Jack's Stacks in Kansas City

(Not as good as Oklahoma Joe's)

Dressed up at the World War I museum in Kansas.

Irish festival

Golfing in Omaha

Tani, Sister Dalton, Me

Heather and Mason, Katy, Lisa, Me with Lisa's little Ellie,

Megan, Tani and Brielle

I love this time of year!! Do you?

2011-10-27T20:39:00.002-05:00

I have always really enjoyed the beautiful autumn weather. I love the leaves and I especially love "tromping", as my sister Lexie would say, through the fallen leaves. I just love that crunching sound. :) Silly I know.

I also love Halloween. My mom always made Halloween amazing at our house. I have so many great memories of steaming witches brew (dry ice and root beer plus plastic bugs/spiders)! There was always a creepy crawly creature in your cup. I loved the costumes and trick-or-treating with cousins. I loved going to the haunted forest and eating donuts and cider after.

Know I am planning Halloween parties for my class and hanging out with my friends here in Omaha. Which is great. But it will be fun to continue some of those traditions when we have a few kids.

Dave and I have been able to do some really fun things lately. We have been to Kansas City a couple weekends in the last month or two. The first time we went was with friends who live by us. The last time we were able to meet up with Dave's brother Jon and his girlfriend. Jon lives in St. Louis. The girl he is dating, Jana, is just finishing up pharmacy school in Kansas City this year. So it was the perfect place for us to all meet and hang out. We went to Oklahoma Joe's for dinner, went to a fire/water show by the river and went to a wonderful art museum that Dave and I had never been to. It was so fun! We had so much fun with Jon and Jana.

I also had a really neat experience a couple weeks ago. I am in the Young Woman's in my ward. There was a special training that all the presidencies were invited to attend on a Friday night. Sister Dalton, the general Young Woman's president spoke and taught us so much!! She is such a beautiful, wonderful person. You can just tell by her countenance that she cares so much for others and is just a very sincere loving person. It was such a neat experience to talk to her and hear her council for the Young Woman's presidencies. One thing I thought was really cool was that she told us that she always meets with the youth wherever she goes before meeting and teaching the leaders. What a great way to really know what the community is like in the area. Anyway she was absolutely wonderful!

Kids say the cutest things...

2011-09-10T10:09:00.003-05:00

I always forget the things that my second graders say that make me laugh. So I am going to write one that I remember from this week. I wish I could remember all the funny things they do and say.

Ok, so one of the darling little girls in my class this year, who is a great reader, was reading aloud to the class. We were looking through a powerpoint about Mexican American culture. She was reading the slide that talked about the type of foods that are specific to the Mexican Culture.

When she got to the words spices and herbs, she read "spiceys and Herberts". So she read, "Mexican food is well known for its many different flavors, beautiful colors, decorations, and a variety of spiceys and herberts."

It was so cute and funny to me I couldn't even correct her. I was giggling behind my hand. :) Lol!! Non of the kids even realized, or at least no one corrected her. So I guess if my class ever meets a Herbert they are going to be be very confused!

On a different note two of my neighbors had beautiful baby boys this week. My next door neighbor Mandi and Chad, and Marissa and Brad. They are both darling babies! Another of our good friends, Lisa and Matt are due next week. There are so many cute babies around Village Green right now. It is really fun. :)

some pictures from the last couple months

2011-08-30T07:05:00.003-05:00

Wreath Obsession

2011-08-02T11:14:00.003-05:00

OK so I have to confess I have been totally obsessed with making wreaths for the last little while. I don't no what the deal is. I found three really cute wreaths that I wanted to make though and so I did. :) Here is a picture of them.

These first two were super fast to make... the last one took for ever. I love it though, so it was worth it!

I used coffee filters for both of these wreaths. I actually glued the white ones to a circular form that I made from a cardboard box. So this wreath cost about 2 bucks! I used about 150 coffee filters. You just glue the center of the filter with hot glue down to the wreath form. It is super easy!

For this next wreath I just got a pre-made grapevine wreath from hobby lobby- 2 bucks when it was 50% off. I used natural coffee filters for the flowers. I folded the filter in half so I had a half circle. The I twisted it loosely around my finger to form a flower shape. I then scrunched the bottom up and hot glued it on. I glued little pale pink plastic pearls into the center to make it a little more fancy. This wreath cost about 3 bucks to make.

To make this wreath go to: http://asoftplace.net/2011/03/diy-spring-wreath/ and to http://yarner.blogspot.com/2011/01/rose-wreath-tutorial.html

Swirled Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake Bars

2011-07-20T09:15:00.002-05:00

I made this recipe for a school pot luck, and it was a big hit, so I thought I'd post it for anyone who wants to give it a try. I'd never made it before but I thought it was delicious. If you like peanut butter and cheesecake you'll love it.

Swirled Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake Bars

Graham cracker crust
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup butter -1 stick
1/3 cup sugar
Mix and press into the bottom of a 9x13 pan

Filling
2 Packages 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 can 12 oz evaporated milk
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 cup 6 oz peanut butter and milk chocolate chips

Beat cream cheese, sugar and flour in a large bowl until smooth. Add evaporated milk, eggs and vanilla.
Microwave chips on 70% power for 1 minutes. stir, if they need more time do 15 second intervals. Add 1 cup of cream cheese mixture to the chocolate.
Pour remaining cream cheese mix onto the crust. Pour chocolate mix over the cream cheese. Swirl with a spoon.

Bake at 325 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until set. Cool completely on rack and then refrigerate until firm. Cut into bars.
Enjoy!!

Boards and Summer

2011-07-17T13:54:00.005-05:00

Dave and Dahlia in California

June was a whirlwind. Dave spent many hours (in April and May as well) studying for medical boards, and then took the step 1 boards on the 9th. I finished the school year and then taught a couple weeks of summer school. I was able to take my class on tons of fun field trips. I had 11 students in my class. After summer school and boards Dave and I went to southern California for a week and a half. We hung out at the beach and boogie boarded, went to Six Flags, and to Disneyland. Next I went to girl’s camp with our stake Young Woman. While I was at girls camp Dave found a great deal on a Subaru Legacy. It was in Indiana, a couple hours south of Chicago. So as soon as I got back from girls camp we packed up and took off for Chicago. We spent a couple days there and then headed down to Indiana to check out the car. We loved it, so we bought it and drove home!

June was so busy, but so fun! Here are some some pictures of our June adventures.

Mmmm, the Taste of Chicago

Our reflection in the Cloud, this was awesome!

Some SUPER SWEET cars. :) lol

Yikes!! We are so high! Pretty scary.

Enjoying Chicago


Mississippi River

Memorial Day BBQ

2011-06-01T18:09:00.005-05:00

Our next door neighbors, Chad, Mandi and their son Brady found this huge snake! They brought it over to show us because they know Dave loves to catch snakes and bugs. Sadly, Dave was studying at school. But some of the girls around Village Green and I enjoying seeing it.

Dahlia, Chealse, Mandi, Megan and Lisa

Here are the BBQ pictures
Chealse and Dan

Matt and Melanie, Lisa

Emily, Sam and Shauna (Some of our new neighbors!!)

Marissa, her friend from hygiene school, Megan and Tani

Me, Mandi, Catherine

Lisa, Katie, Megan, Me, Chealse, Heather,
and Shauna, she is behind Chealse and me

Village Green is so much fun! We have really enjoyed living here.
The summer is a time for a lot of change. The majority of the residence here are students at Creighton. Mostly Dental, and Law, some Medical and a few Physical Therapy. It makes it very sad and also exciting when the summer comes. Many students are graduating and moving out and many are moving in to begin their education.
Last year wasn't as sad for us because Dave and I had only been in here for about 9 months. This year was a bit more sad saying goodbye to the people we had become friends with. Next year will be even more sad because some of our closest friends will be moving on.
After the graduating class moves out it is fun to meet all new students! We have a lot of new couples in our ward, and area, that are seem so nice. We are excited to get to know them better. It is going to be a fun year!

Summer!!

2011-05-28T10:08:00.010-05:00

It is super rainy today here in Omaha, but it is summer vacation. Yay!! I am so happy! I LOVE summer so much. Last week was my last student day. This week I had work time in my room, and planning time for summer school. I am teaching a few weeks of summer school and my friend, and co-worker is teaching the other two weeks for me. Dave and I will be out of town (California) and then I will be at girl's camp. I cannot wait!

Cali will be especially fun and relaxing because Dave will be done with the step one medical boards. Whew! He is studying so hard. Seriously I have never seen him study so much for so long. It is a 7-hour test, so definitely not something you can cram for. I will be so relieved for him when it is over. I know he will be happy to have it over. Cross your fingers for him! I am sure he is going to do really well. :) But he could use all the prayers he can get to help him through these last couple weeks of studying.

I haven't posted in a while and I have lots of pictures so here are some picture updates...

The Donut Stop, this place is only open at 9pm until morning. Weird! This is one of the wall decorations. haha

Dave Studying

Easter Dinner at the Schenks

My class doing the Pledge of Allegiance

Happy Birthday to me!! Thanks Dave. :)

Justin and Becca, from Utah, were at the Phantom of the Opera the same night we were!
What are the odds? We had fun catching up with them.

Dinner party with the Young Woman's Presidency. We have such a fun group!

Putting up the pinata rope wasn't easy!

Fontenelle Forest field trip

Literacy Fair Dress Rehearsal

Family Visit

2011-04-19T19:33:00.005-05:00

My Mom and Lexie came out to visit me over the weekend of the 9th of April.
I was so much fun to see them. We had a great time. I love them so much! It is so much fun to see family when you live so far away. :)
Lexie and the fish :)

Dave and Dahl at the Lauritzen Garden

Valerie (Mom)

Lexie

The Magnolia tree's were all blooming. It was gorgeous!

Wild Turkey's!!

Dave and the snake he caught while we were out walking.

Kennifick Park

2011-04-13T18:10:00.003-05:00

Young Women Easter Egg Night, We made about 180 peanut butter chocolate eggs.

Dahlia, Lisa McCoy, Misty Call, and Tani Stevenson

Medical Group Girl's Night. We had a shower for Naomi at my place. She is in Dave's class and is having a baby boy. :) So fun!

Married to Medicine group date night. WE played games and had dinner at Teissa and Casey's.

Out to Dinner with some friends!
Chelsea, Me, Marissa, Melanie, and Lisa

March 13th 2011, Happy Birthday Honey!

2011-03-13T22:26:00.000-05:00

My friend Catherine shared this quote with me and I absolutely love it.

"As a being of power, intelligence, and the master of his own thoughts, a man holds the key to every situation, to make his life what he chooses it to be. When he discovers the divine power within his soul, he can lead his life to a God-like nature.

If one dreams lofty dreams, so shall he become! There is a magic in the way way one thinks.

If we expect the worst, we get the worst.

If we expect the best, we will receive the best.

If we train our mind to have faith in God and ourselves, we are using one of the great laws of life. If we think and live righteously, happiness, will find its place in our lives. It is amazing when we expect the best how forces are set in motion which cause the best to materialize.

Our thoughts more than circumstances determine the course of our lives.

Outward circumstances do not determine the course of our lives as much as the thoughts that habitually occupy our minds. These thoughts carve their impression on our faces, in our hearts, and on the tablet of our eternal souls."

-President Howard W. Hunter

Funny story...

2011-03-04T16:33:00.004-06:00

I can't help but share this story! :) One of my 2nd grade student's came to class on Wednesday with a small action figurine that was in pieces. He came right up to me with his homework and the sad looking toy and said, "Mrs. Wright I know that Dave is a doctor, could you ask him if he put this guy back together?"
"Dave the doctor" felt pretty good that he had the faith of my 2nd grade students. :)
Well, I took one look and know that the toy couldn't be fixed, well not without extreme amounts of super glue, and even then the small figure would still be missing one hip/gluteus maximus. But I told him that I would have Dave try. At the end of the day he got the toy back out and informed me that he would leave it on his desk for Dave to fix.
Of course Dave the doctor was not going to be able to fix this toy, but I let the boy know that he would try his hardest to do the repairs.
So what do I do? Ha ha, well I forgot to bring the toy home, I really had intended to do so. :)

The next morning we found the toy still in pieces, and actually all that was there was two legs and a body... I don't know what happened to the head and the arms.
Dave wished he could have defended his title by at least getting to have a try at the repairs. Sorry honey! I dropped the ball on this.
I had to tell my student that his action figure would have to retire because he was beyond repair. So sad, lol! He is really a funny kid and I think that he was trying to challenge Dave to test his "doctor" skills more than anything. I might have to tell him that Dave wants another try. I will keep you posted if there is a change of fate for the incapacitated action figure.

2011-02-26T15:00:00.013-06:00

Mike and Nivea's wedding

Kaden my sister Cece's baby

Austin, his brother, with my sister Lexie's pride a joy... her horse. :)

Ryan my brother

Me, Cece, Val (mom), and Lexie

Mariah, and her pink gloves!!

Thanksgiving dinner with the Green's :) They are so sweet to

let us join their family for the holiday!

Getting ready to hunt.

My classroom tree. The students made snowmen to

decorate the tree. They are so funny!

Christmas present exchange. :)

Dave definitely got what he wanted!!!

So did I! :) I love my heated seat warmer.

The winter is so much more bearable!

HAWAII!!!!!

Jon climbing a palm tree

The backyard...

Mike, Nivea, Allli, Jon, Jen, Dahl, Dave

Dahl, Kathy, Jen, Alli, Nivea

We ALMOST caught it!! Haha

How cute and tiny is this? I found this guy hanging out

on my door one night.

Oh yes, Dave had to get up and dance in front of a huge

crowd at the PCC, so did Jen. It was awesome!!

Motsumoto's Shaved Ice

Another tiny cute lizard. Dave found this one.

The temple

Checking in

2011-01-30T20:49:00.000-06:00

I have gotten so bad at blogging! I hate when it starts to feel like a chore!! Oh well, I can’t believe it is already 2011, and almost February. This last year went by so fast. Dave and I have both stayed busy. We have made great friends. We work and play hard. We will be sad to move away in a couple years.

Last semester we were back and forth between here and Utah quite a bit. Dave’s brother Mike got married to a darling girl named Nivea. So we were able to come home the week before Thanksgiving for the wedding. It was so fun! The wedding was beautiful! They are such a gorgeous couple.

Then a few weeks later my grandfather passed away. Not a happy reason to go home, but I was very glad I was able to make it home for the funeral. I love my grandpa Furrow so much. I will miss him! It was a very nice service. I saw a lot of cousins and other relatives that I hadn’t seen in years. So that part of it was fun.

A couple weeks later we were back in Utah for our Christmas break. We spent a week there and then a week in Hawaii. We had so much fun. We went to family parties, which is always some of my favorite memories from Christmas. We read about the Savior, and thought a lot about his birth and his life. I always leave the Christmas season feeling renewed and also inspired to be a better version of me. I am so thankful for Jesus Christ and for Heavenly Father. I love that during the holidays I am so much more mindful of blessings that come from them.

For the New Year I like to make goals as most everyone probably does. Here are some of them. I want to work out more. I want to be a happy and fun wife. I want to be a great teacher. I want to be more patient. I want to be more thoughtful of others and less selfish. I want to work hard, and not be lazy.

I also want June17th to come as fast as possible. I can’t wait! That is the day Dave will definitely have taken the 1^st board test for medical school. We will absolutely be celebrating! The hardest test of his life will be in the past! Yay! That will be a great day.

After the Christmas break I got called to serve in the Young Woman’s presidency of my ward. That has been so fun. We have a really great group of leaders and young woman. I am excited to get to know them all better!

Dave’s sister Jen is leaving for her mission this week, she goes to Guatemala! I am so proud of her for going. I am sure she will have so many wonderful experiences, while she is serving the people there by teaching them about Christ. Dave and I got to go to the temple with her during the Christmas break. It was so fun to be there with almost all of Dave’s family.

I am going to add some pictures soon! :)

Halloween and Kansas

2010-11-07T10:35:00.002-06:00

Halloween this year was so fun, and so busy. I am on the activities committee at church so I helped plan the Halloween party for the ward. I also had my party in my classroom, which was so fun! Those parties were both on Friday. Then Melanie and I planned a party at her house on Saturday. Dave and I dressed up like mummies. We had so much fun getting ready. We got lots of trick-or-treaters while we were getting ready. We scared a lot of little kids with our costumes! We were pretty frightening.

Kansas City Marathon Weekend

Dave and I went to Kansas City with Marissa and Brad Schenk, Melanie and Matt Jacobsen, and Heather and Dave Yates. Melanie and Heather ran the ½ marathon and the rest of us just hung out. :) We got there on Friday night. We went to dinner and hung out at the pool and hot tub that night.
The next day we went to the Farmer’s market, which was so fun! I love farmer’s markets. Then we all went to the big outdoor mall and shopped for a bit there. Afterwards we went to lunch at Oklahoma Joe’s. My favorite BBQ restaurant ever, it is delicious! That night we hung out at the hotel watching football and sitting in the hot tub.
Sunday we went to visit Independence with Marissa and Brad. There is an LDS visitor’s center there that we went through. It was pretty cool. They taught us about the early church members who lived there. They went through so many struggles, and worked so hard. We also went through the Community of Christ’s Temple. It is very unique. It is shaped like a seashell. It was interesting to see it. They have a museum in the temple that had tons of old paintings of Joseph Smith and his family. They also had old journals and manuscripts from the early church. They even had the original door off of the Liberty Jail.

Nauvoo and Kansas City

2010-10-16T09:55:00.004-05:00

Last weekend, the 8-9^th of October, I got to go to Nauvoo. It was so cool! I went with some girls who live by me, Melanie Jacobsen, Tosha Williams, Marissa Schenk, and Cathrine Grandy. We drove down Friday evening and then spent the day Saturday and drove home that night. It was such a quick trip but it was really fun. We had such a fun group of girls! I had never been to Nauvoo so I loved seeing all the sites. I felt like I learned so much and just got such a good feel for how living there would have been for the early Latter Day Saint people. There was such a spirit of joy there. It was a beautiful city right next to the Mississippi River. I can’t imagine how sad it would have been when they had to leave their beautiful homes and temple, but the years they had there where happy.

We did so much in our day there, but I would love to go back. There is so much to see! We walked through several restored houses. We learned about gun making in the Browning house, Jonathan Browning invented the repeating rifle and the 6 shot. Pretty cool stuff. Dave would love to see that house. I can’t wait to go with him.

At the brick shop they told us how bricks where made there in Nauvoo. It was a long process it would take weeks for the bricks to be ready to use. We also got to learn about bread making, rope making (we actually made a rope), rug making, and candle making. I am glad I live today! Ha ha!

We learned more about the founding of the Relief Society too. What a wonderful organization. I am so happy to be a part of it. It is amazing how much good it has done and still does for people all over the world.

Well Dave and I are in Kansas City this weekend. We are down here for the marathon and for the amazing BBQ! I will have to post some pictures later about our trip here.

I can't believe it is almost October!

2010-09-27T16:01:00.005-05:00

This year is going by way too fast. I do love October though. I am loving the Autumn weather and I can't wait for Halloween. I guess it is more of a kid holiday, but I still get that excited feeling when I think about Halloween! My mom always made Halloween so much fun. I always think about our witches cauldrons of dry ice and root beer. You never knew what creepy crawly creature would come out in your glass! LOL. I loved it. I loved trick-or-treating and did it until I absolutely couldn't pass as a kid anymore, and then I would take my younger siblings and cousins. We always went with the McMillan family to the Haunted Forest or a haunted house. We would have donuts and apple cider after. I can't wait to have my own kids so Dave and I can do fun Halloween activities at our house.

Some of my friends and I here at Village Green are planning a Halloween party. Everyone is invited, so if you are reading this and you live in Omaha you should come! :) If you don't live here, you are more than welcome to come out and attend as well. I was called to help with activities in my ward lately so I will be helping to plan our ward party. And of course I will be having a party in my 2nd grade class. So I am sure I will get my fill of Halloween fun!

Well I have been really bad at keeping my blog going lately. I have been so busy, I feel like I haven't had a spare moment. This week I had a Young Women's activity that took about 3 and a half hours on wednesday night. Thursday night I hosted a Married to Medicine girl's night at my house. Friday was my ward Chili and Pie cook-off, which I helped plan. Saturday was the Relief Society Broadcast. Which was wonderful. I am so glad I was able to go and here the talks. I always want to try harder to be a good person after listening to the leaders of the church give advise and council.

The Prophet, gave some really good council and was very blunt. He said that we should not judge others. We should not worry so much about what a person looks like or how they dress. What a person should be measured by is how they act. I know we all know this, but it is always a good reminder. We live in a world that is completely focused on the outward appearance. If you aren't skinny, to the extreme, dressed to the max and beautiful you are overlooked and counted as naught. It is sad. Those are not the things that make us special. I hope that I can always remember not to judge others on appearance. I really try not too. I know that if I do judge that I will miss out on having uplifting, meaningful friendships.

Well that was last week... I can't remember everything we have done since we've been back in Omaha, but I will write about a few fun things.

Labor Day weekend Dave and I drove down to Kansas City with our friends Matt and Melanie Jacobsen. We just went for the day on Saturday. We got there around noon and grabbed some lunch then we headed to Ocean's of Fun. It is a water park. It was so fun! They had some great rides. So we spent the day hanging out in the wave pool and splashing down the water slides. I actually ran into a girl from my homeward there. Natalie Anderson. I can't remember her married name... Her husband is in medical school as well. She is a few hours from Kansas City just like we are. How random that we would both be in Ocean's of Fun when neither of us live there! So after the water park we headed to dinner. Kansas City has the most amazing BBQ ever. Last year when we were there for the marathon we ate at a place called Oklahoma Joe's. This time we tried Jack Stacks. It was so good. When we were waiting for a table Natalie came walking up to us, they ended up at the same restaurant too!

We had so much fun with Matt and Melanie. We love hanging out with them. Matt is in his 3rd year of Dental school at Creighton and Melanie is an Accountant. They are always planning fun activities, we love it. Dave and I have talked a lot about doing service missions after he is done with school. When we where in Dominican Republic last summer we talked about it a lot. And we ran into a group doing a service mission at the end of our trip. Matt and Mel want to do the same thing. He went on his mission to Brazil so we already have a couple places on our list. :) Hopefully we can make it work out.

A girl in my ward here, Nikki Anderson and I started a work out group a month or so ago. That has been really fun. We all take turns teaching or bringing workout videos. Tomorrow I am teaching yoga. Yay! I love yoga. I was super sick yesterday so hopefully I won't be a lame teacher tomorrow. It should be ok. I am feeling much better today. I actually went to the zoo this afternoon and walked all over. I had a no student work day and we had a team building/ wellness activity. It was a scavenger hunt. It was fun to get out with the other teachers and staff and enjoy the nice weather.

Dave and I walked around the Botanical Gardens Saturday afternoon. That was so beautiful. The rose garden smelled like heaven. It was amazing. We saw tons of frogs in the ponds and even spotted a turtle in one of the ponds. It was so cute! ~Oh, I can't wait for Hawaii this winter break. Hopefully we see a lot of big turtles!

What else have I done? hmm... Well there are lots of new medical student's who are married. So that is fun. One couple, Marissa and Brad Schenk moved in right across the street from us. They are so much fun. We have become really great friends with them. Marissa is such a sweet, fun girl and Brad and Dave are a lot alike. So it's perfect. Marissa and I actually entered a craft fair a couple weeks ago and we have another one in a month. That has been fun. I love doing crafts so this gives us some extra drive to do something we both really enjoy.

Well other than that we have had some really fun BBQ's and date nights with friends. We have hung out with Teissa and Casey. They had a BBQ at there house and we have done dinner nights. They have been out to her parent's in Iowa a lot so we haven't seen them as much as usual though. There kids are so cute and fun!

There is a new couple in our ward, Lisa and Matt McCoy. I went to high school with him. He was in my class. And they bought Lisa and Adam Stanely's townhouse. I went to High school with both of them too! I thought that was an interesting coincidence. They are a really nice couple. We feel so blessed to have so many great friends and neighbors here in Omaha. We miss our families but we feel at home here. We are so glad to have this great community of people who are all in similar positions as us. It really makes this busy crazy time more enjoyable. Especially for me, when Dave is studying a lot.

Brad and Marissa Schenk Matt and Melanie Jacobsen
BBQ at Teissa and Casey's house for the Married to Medicine Group

Zach, Casey Ryan, Dan, and I can't remember his name, he is new.
Erica, Hilary, Tiffany, Marissa, Chelsea, Teissa and Dahlia :)

Summer Lovin'

2010-07-27T22:50:00.005-05:00

The summer was so fun. We were able to stay with Dave’s parents. Which is only about 10 minutes from my parent’s house. So we hung out with both of our families and our friends in Utah a ton. We went on so many fun trips too.

Starting out the summer right...

2010-06-29T13:15:00.003-05:00

Dave and I are having such a great summer. It is Dave’s last real “student summer” so we are trying to take advantage of the time off.

Dave finished his first year of medical school at Creighton University; he has really enjoyed his classes. I finished my 1^st year of teaching 2^nd grade at Bancroft Elementary.

We have both loved what we have been doing, and we have made some great friends along the way! Overall we love our life in Omaha.

The summer began with a trip to Florida and then on an Eastern Caribbean Cruise with our friends Greg and Kami Hall. We spent two days at South Beach, which we discovered was a topless beach. Yikes! We had no idea.

Then we set off on the Carnival Liberty.

Our first stop was in Half Moon Cay Bahamas. This is a private island owned by one of the other cruise lines. It was beautiful. There was a long perfect white sand beach with crystal clear amazingly blue water. We saw a bunch of Sting Rays while we were exploring the island.

Next was a day at sea as we traveled to our next destination. We spent the day playing games and exploring our huge ship. Dave and Greg entered a free throw tournament… Which neither won, although they came closeJ They had fun. We went mini golfing on the top of the ship, it was really windy so our balls were rolling all over before we could hit them a lot of the time. It made for a very interesting game of mini golf. :) We laughed pretty hard. There were great shows every night. There was dancing, singing, a hypnotist, and magicians. It was really fun.

It was our first formal dinner night. We got all dressed up and beautiful and took tons of pictures. We felt so fancy. It is fun to get dressed up. Dinner was so fun every night. We all ordered a lot of food, but none of us could surpass Greg. He would order 7 appetizers 2 entrees and dessert, pretty much every night. He almost always ate it all too! Haha, we got some funny looks from our waitress. Dinner was always a huge event.

After sailing all day and night we made it to beautiful St. Thomas. This was, hands down, my favorite stop, and I think everyone else’s too. We decided to rent mopeds and explore the island with the wind in our hair. It was so fun! We stopped at Koki beach first. It was amazing. There was a small reef area right off the shore. We saw so many awesome fish there. We bought dog bones (which they sold on the beach) and fed the fish. They would eat right out of our hands! We met a man who had a delicious smoothie shop there. He was from California originally, but lives there now. How lucky! The next beach we stopped at we met another guy who was playing with his son, he told us that his wife is a doctor and she works on St. Thomas a couple months every year. Oh my, another lucky fellow! :) I tried to talk Dave into doing that someday, but I am sure it won’t happen. Too bad.

Our next destination was Puerto Rico. On Puerto Rico we took a tour to the only tropical rainforest in the United States territory. It is called El Yunque Rainforest. We took a big bus to get there. We then got to take a hike through the forest. There is a river all along the trail and at one point there is a pretty waterfall with a small pool area beneath it. We all got in and swam in the pool. We go there before very many others from the tour did so the four of us had it all to ourselves at first. When we were leaving tons more people had come and it was crowded. So we got lucky. On our way down the canyon we stopped at a little local food stand. We had some chicken empanadas and tostones, which we love. Dave ate them a lot on his mission in the Dominican Republic, and I had them last year when we visited his mission. I love tostones. They are like banana fries made from plantains.

The next day was another sea day. We played ping-pong, Dave and Greg entered the tournament for that and did free throw shooting again as well. Kami and I learned a hip-hop dance. We also learned the dance to Thriller one day. They had lots of little dance classes. There was always something fun to do on the ship.

Our last stop before going back to Florida was Grand Turk. Sadly it was the least beautiful of all our stops. But we still had fun. We actually rented a golf cart and cruised, or I should say putted, around the island. Dave found some huge sand dollars in the ocean there. We drove out to see the lighthouse, which was super old. There were signs there that told how the island people used to turn the light off so people would crash their cargo ships. Then the people would plunder the cargo. Crazy.

We stayed in Florida the night after the cruise, we didn't get a rental car so we walked to dinner. While we were eating it started pouring rain. We hung out at Wendy's for almost and hour waiting for a break.... but it never came. So we got creative!

Well the trip was so much fun, and now we are in Utah visiting our families and friends. We have had family parties, spent a weekend at the cabin in Heber, and went to the Manti pageant.

Oh we are also on a softball team with Dave’s friends. We are just about the worst team in the league. It is so terrible, but we are having fun playing.

April's events

2010-05-23T09:18:00.006-05:00

So I have been terrible at posting blogs lately… Yeah, and by terrible I mean I haven’t posted at all. :) Well I have been super busy. My 2nd grade class has been working on finishing touches for our Literacy Fair. They performed Reader’s theater plays for their parents last Wednesday. They also created books and many other projects that they shared with their parents. My principal and Vice principal also came. I made a video of the students that we watched as well. It was really fun. It was a great culminating activity or my students. They did a great job! They worked so hard and I think they felt great about getting to perform and share their work.
My last student day at school was Friday. I am done!! Yay! I will miss my class, but it also feels so good to be done with my first year of teaching.
This summer is going to be so fun. It’s Dave’s last real student summer. So we are going to try to make the most of it.
We will be going to Florida and on a cruise with Greg and Kami. The cruise is 7 days and it stops in Half Moon Cay Bahamas, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, and Grand Turk. We are so excited!
So I missed a few things like my birthday! Here are some pictures from the things we have done the last month or so.

Walking around the Lauritzen Botanical Garden. It is right next to our town house complex, we get in free so we walk down there a lot. It is so beautiful! Every few days something new is blooming. There is always a new wonderful smell and new amazing flowers to see. I really enjoy it. :)

Teissa's sister Paige's baby shower in Sioux Falls, Iowa.

First trip of the year...

2010-04-11T20:48:00.011-05:00

Yes I do love Disney World! As you can tell from all the pictures :) This is my friend Betsy Cook. She is a high school math teacher. We had the same spring break so we planned a Florida getaway. It was so nice! The weather was absolutely wonderful. We went running outside in the mornings, hung out by the pool, went to Siesta Beach and Cocoa Beach, shopped til we dropped (literally) and of course went to Disney World. :) We did a day of service at an American Red Cross and got a free pass to the park! Super good deal.
Betsy's sister and her daughter at the park with us. We didn't know until right before our trip but her sister and her family were going to Disney World right when we were so we got to hang out with them for the day. They were so much fun!

One day we went to Lake Louisa and had a picnic. There were a million, (not an exaggeration!) little tadpoles in the lake. We took tons of pictures... I don't know why but whenever I see creatures, fish, animals I take way more pictures than any sane person would ever want! Dave will vouch for me! Lol... Don't worry I will only put one of the many up.

Oh we had so much fun. :) And luckily we seem to have brought the good weather home with us. We have even had some days in the 80's here in Omaha! I love the sun. I feel so much more productive when it is nice and warm outside.

So Dave only has 5 more weeks of school and I have 6. I cannot believe we have almost made it through our first year here. 1 down, 3 to go! We are counting down the days til we come to visit everyone at home in Utah. We will be there sometime in the first couple weeks of June. :) See you all soon!!

Happy Birthday!!!

2010-03-14T15:27:00.003-05:00

Yay! I love birthday's, :) And Yesterday was Dave's. He is now 27. Boy, we are getting old. It was also his spring break this week. So that was nice. He had the whole week of his birthday off. How lucky!

We had a fun day. Dave slept in. And then we just hung out and had breakfast that morning. Dave's favorite... cold cereal. Fancy, I know, but it was his birthday. Lol.

Then we went to lunch with Dan and Chelsea. We played games at our house and then Dave opened his sweet RC helicopter. Haha. It is pretty fun. We flew it outside for a while. I thought I was getting a mini heli but no. It is definitely outdoor flying only!
Tonight we are going to Skype Dave's family and he will open his package from them. So that will be fun too. :)

Summer, please come soon!!

2010-02-21T11:04:00.002-06:00

Ok so I am officially done with winter. If only the weather could understand that!! :) I am so tired of the cold, and snow, and ice, and big coats!!! Yuck! :) This has been such a cold winter here in Omaha.

We doing well here though. I can't believe another month has almost passed again, February is short I guess. But I am already doing my second end of the month Auction for the year with my class this Wednesday, (They don't have school Thursday and Friday because we have parent teacher conferences). It should be a fun week. :)

We had a fun Valentines weekend. We pretty much celebrated on Saturday since Valentines was Sunday. It was pretty cold during the day but we decided to get bundled up and brave the weather. I have been dying to get out! We went and walked across this huge bringe that crosses the Missouri River. We took some pictures, it was pretty and we enjoyed it! We also went to dinner at American Bistro, a restaurant we really like. it was delicious. Dave got me a new skirt and shoes that are so cute! Thanks Dave! I wore them to church on Valentines Day. We went to ward choir practice that night. :) Not the most romantic thing to do but it was fun.

This week Dave and I hung out with our friends Teissa and Casey on Thursday night. We made pizza and played with the kids. After they went to bed the boys played World of Warcraft... Oh gosh! Teissa and I did the P90X yoga. It was way fun, and pretty hard! :) I really enjoy doing Yoga. My legs were pretty sore the next day. Friday we went swing dancing with the Married to Medicine group (the married medical student couples). It was sooo fun. I love dancing! Dave and I were pretty good after the lessons. Dave hasn't done big band swing before, so it was way fun to learn a new dance. We did some country swing too. I had a blast. :) Dave had fun too, probably not as much as I did, :) since he doesn't really love dancing! Lol! But he is a good sport. And he is really good at it, even though he will tell you he isn't. Ha ha. He really picks it up so fast and has great rhythm.

We actually went to a dance last night too. We were chaperons at the Yw/Ym EFY night. We were there for the dance from 6-9. It was funny to watch all the kids dance. I have to say though, ALL my daughters, (if I ever have any!!!) anyway my daughters will wear at least knee length leggings under their skirts whenever they go to a dance. I saw 2 full on bums, when two different girls were dancing in front of us. I don't think either one even realized at all!! One did a spin and her dress came all the way up like a tutu. Lol!! I think she had on a dance leotard under her skirt. But still, there were tons of leaders sitting there. I bet 10 adults saw it! How embarrassing.

Well that's about all the interesting events from the week. School is going well for Dave, He had a final on Thursday and started a new class Friday. I had Monday off of work and Tuesday was a meeting day. So I only had my kids 3 days. And it's the same this week too, but they have Thursday and Friday off. I have a lot to do to prepare for PTC's though. Ugh! Oh well. It is always nice to talk to the students parents and see how much they care about there kids. It's fun.

So sweet

2010-01-21T15:02:00.002-06:00

OK since I told a silly story last week I thought that I should also share a really sweet story. We have been talking about the earthquake in Haiti in my class a lot since it happened. We are collecting money as a school to help the people. One day I brought up some pictures on the smart board of Haiti and the damage the earthquake has caused. The student's were getting really involved in the conversation, and they really want to help the Haitians. As we were looking at the damage one of the boys in my class, Alejandro said, "Mrs. Wright, is it alright if I cry?"
How sweet!! We talked about how when we learn about sad things it is alright to cry. He put his head down in is hands. I don't think he really cried but it was very touching to see my class, full of 7-8 year old children so touched! They are such caring kids. It is fun to see them thinking of others, who they have never met and being so compassionate.

Gas...

2010-01-16T13:21:00.005-06:00

What is it about farting that causes so much hysterics in young children and adults (or at least young at heart adults) alike?? Well, like I already said, I know that stories from me cannot possible relate the silliness of actually being there, but here is another funny story from classroom Orange 3. It was during an innocent science lesson on the states of matter. My class was naming the three states, solids, liquids, and yes, Gas. The particular student who happened to be called on to name the 3rd state had a bit of a hoarse voice when he answered. And "Gas" came out sounding, well a bit too much like the bodily function. My whole class sprang into fits of laughter that of course I could not escape myself! We were all laughing so hard that it was causing us to laugh even harder. Anyone who has ever played the laughing game will know what I mean. Finally I turned around to my white board took a big breath and tried for some much needed composure if I was ever going to get my class back to the science lesson. The class calmed as well and we were able to get back on task. But seriously those few minutes were hilarious!
Morale: There is just something about the word gas that is beyond funny, my students don't laugh as hard when one of them really farts (which happens more often then I'd like to smell)
Oh, the life of a 2nd grade teacher is not dull. :)

Back to real life...

2010-01-13T16:06:00.004-06:00

I have to work 5 days this week!! It already feels like it should be Friday! Lol. We had two weeks of fro Winter break, and last week I had a work day Monday, taught Tuesday and then had 3 snow days. So this week feels like a lot! :) I am enjoying being back here with my student's though.
One of my little girls had an exciting event this week. She missed Monday and Tuesday because her mom had a baby. She has a new brother and she is so excited!
I also have to write about one of my little boys. He is hilarious! He is always making me laugh. Today we were walking back to class from lunch and he says, "Mrs. Wright? Can I talk to you?" in a very serious voice. He then tells me, "I know you are going to be VERY worried when you see this... But I need to show you something." His voice was so dead serious, and knowing this young man that almost made me laugh out loud. He is very robust and very silly, and very frightened by spiders... and the list could go on. So I ask him what it I figure out that he got hurt somehow, but he tells me that he will have to show me when we get to the class. I think he reassured me by telling me that he was not bleeding. So when we get to the class he dramatically pulls up his sleeve and shows me a scratch that is maybe a 6-7 inches long (but not very deep). It happened at home and it was half wrapped in a cast like homemade bandage.
I know this isn't nearly as funny coming from me... but it made me laugh so I thought I'd write it down.

Christmas Vacation

2010-01-07T21:19:00.010-06:00

Well Dave and I had such a wonderful trip home! But now we are home.... in Omaha that is. And it is FREEZING! No seriously School has was cancelled Wednesday, Thursday and its cancelled for Friday because of the temperature. Today the high was, well not high!

Forecast for tomorrow...

Friday Jan 8

Holiday Safety Tips

AM Clouds / PM Sun

AM Clouds / PM Sun High

-2°F

Low

-22°F

Precip: 20%

Yes bleak. A high of -2. That's right. Right now the temperature is -3 and feels like -30 with the wind chill! This is craziness. Why do I live here? Oh yeah, Creighton Medical School.

Well at least I only have 3 1/2 years of this place. We will not be staying here for Dave's residency. We have made a promise to only apply to programs in warm places. (Hawaii, California, Florida, ect. and Utah) If we don't live by our families we might as well be warm!

So what have I done on my days off? Wednesday I used my new Shark cleaner, thank you Mom and Dad! My floors look better than ever. And today I started painting the upstairs! Yeah! I also went to see The Princess and the Frog with Betsy Larsen and Chelsea Miller. We had so much fun. We saw like 15 cars and a semi-truck all on the side of the freeway as we drove to and from the movie! It is crazy out there. People are sliding off the road all over the place. It looked like Antarctica out there. We were glad we made it home safely.

Betsy teaches high school math and Chelsea works in a 2nd grade classroom so we all have the week off basically. We decided that tomorrow we are making breakfast and having a movie day at my place. It is seriously too cold to go outside for more than a couple minutes. So we are going to drink hot chocolate and try to stay warm in our houses!

Well here are some pictures from our Christmas vacation...

Jenn, Alli and Dahlia

"The Buds" Christmas party. This year we did presents for a family. Usually we exchange gifts. I really liked this better. Great idea guys!

Greg and Kami

Dave and Chelsea

Mark and Natalie

This house had the sweetest lights ever!! They were on a timer so they blinked and went on and off in cool patterns. It was better in real life.. But it still looks cool.

The Wright family

Russ and Kathy

Dave and Mike getting ready to shovel the drive way.

Ryan getting ready to ride!

Lexie, Ryan, Dahlia and Dave at Snowbird

Dave, Chip and Dahlia

Grandma and Grandpa Farley

The Boys and Mary

The girls and Bill

Oh our sweet gingerbread house competition... The girls won (the one on the right) No competition. :)

Dave Christmas morning

Lexie

Ryan

Chip

Mom (this is the best I could do... its her own fault, she wouldn't let me take her picture!)

Mariah Anne

Yes I look high.... Apparently I needed more beauty sleep.

or a little hot chocolate to wake me up! :)

Yes and a mud mask. K this Dead Sea mud mask did leave our skin feeling very soft. But it didn't feel that great while it was on! But we sure looked awesome!! lol!

Merry Christmas....

2009-12-25T13:41:00.002-06:00

I love Christmas time!! It has always been one of my favorite times of the year. I love getting together with family, singing carols, giving gifts and celebrating the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. There is such a fun feeling in the air. We all seem to care a little more for each other. It is even more fun for Dave and me this year because we haven't seen our families for about 5 months! We have missed everyone and have loved visiting with everyone in person. When we flew in I was so excited to see the mountains, Utah is so beautiful. We have been busy with family parties, shopping and snowboarding. :) Dave and I are VERY sore today. We went boarding with my family yesterday, by the end of the day we didn't think we would make it down the mountain to our car.... our legs were melting down! We need to get in shape! Oh my!
Well I will write more later I better get back to the Christmas celebrations!
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!! Have a wonderful day!

Just pictures... because I am lazy and I ate too much today :) HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

2009-11-26T22:06:00.007-06:00

Update….

2009-11-02T14:29:00.001-06:00

This last weekend Dave and I were invited to go to South Dakota to stay with Teissa’s family. We were there Friday evening and we got back Sunday night. We had such a great time! Teissa and Casey’s family are so sweet for inviting us into their home. :) Teissa and her sisters walk a lot, speed walk that it. This is not for babies mind you! They are hard core and I am sore! And I am a rhyming, lol.

Saturday we went to dinner at Johnny Carino’s, (delicious!) and went hot tubbing. Friday and Saturday morning it was pretty chilly. But Saturday afternoon and Sunday the weather was so nice. On Saturday we went out to their families’ property and rode 4 wheelers and had a fire. That night we took Isaac and Bella trick-or-treating. It was so funny! There was the two of us, their parents, their grandparents, and Dan and Chealse. Ha ha! We definitely LOOKed like overprotective parents! They really aren’t of course. We just all wanted to go trick-or-treating! :) Their kids are so cute! It was such a fun night. Afterward we watched a movie and relaxed.

Isaac, Teissa and Casey's son really wanted to play Red Rover... so we did. The guys loved it. HA HA! They all ended up on the same team. I love these pictures! Don't they look happy!?

Teissa’s and her parents are amazing cooks! They made so many great things! I am going to have to try out their recipes. We definitely got spoiled. That is the closest feeling to going home we’ve had in the last 3 months. It was really nice.

Last weekend the married students in the medical school had an activity. We all went to a place called Vala’s Pumpkin Patch. We were thinking that it would have a corn maze and a couple other activities. But no, this place was huge. It was a full amusement park almost. There were haunted houses, 3 different racecar tracks, little restaurants, mini-golf, pumpkin and apple launchings, pig races, and I am sure I have forgotten something. The list was endless.

So while we were in Kansas City we went to Liberty Jail. It was really a neat experience to see that jail and to learn more about the history of the LDS church. There are so many things that I do not know about church so it was really fun. The jail was actually torn down for a while but the church rebuilt part of it and now they have a visitor center there. Joseph Smith wrote many sections of the D&C while he was there.

Ribbon dancing?

2009-10-27T22:09:00.000-05:00

Check out our new hobby. We have been practicing very hard.

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/cDe6upUx2jRinwSX

Kansas City…

2009-10-23T15:36:00.001-05:00

Me and Teddy

A few of the girls who live by us are really great runners. I, as you probably know, am not a great runner. :) Well a couple girls, Ali Thuerer and Tiffany Boss, who are good runners decided to run the Kansas City Marathon. A group was also running it as a relay. They asked me to run a portion. So Dave and I went to Kansas City with. I ran 4 of the 26 miles; my part had a pretty good hill so it was a good run. Running in it really gave me a greater desire to continue running. I don’t know if I would ever want to do a full marathon but I would like to run half sometime.

The trip was so much fun. Dave has been studying so much lately so it was a well deserved break for him. He had Monday off for fall break so I took the day off and we were able to stay in Kansas until Monday afternoon.

Kansas City is a great city. It is really big! Before we left everyone at my school kept telling me that I had to get BBQ while we were there. They are known for their BBQ. We found a fabulous restaurant! Oklahoma Joe’s. It is in a gas station on a random corner, totally looks ghetto, BUT it was delicious! I never realized how tasty BBQ could be. Hands down the best I’ve ever had. Our whole party loved it. Dave even added it to our book of best restaurants.

So if you are ever in KC, Kansas look them up and stop by. :) You will not regret it. Ha ha I am beginning to sound like an advertisement.

We also went to a pretty cool shopping center too. It is called the Plaza. It is a really ritzy outdoor mall. There are tons of fountains and cool old buildings, so it was fun to walk around there. We found out that KC has more fountains than any city in the world besides Rome. Pretty cool.

For Kali...

2009-10-11T20:56:00.006-05:00

This one is dedicated to you Kali! I am so glad that you found a great job. Congratulations! Yay! Sounds like a blast. I am also so jealous that you live in California. SO SO So jealous!!! Ahhh, how would it to be...? Summer all year long. Lucky.

It is NOT, I repeat, not, summer weather here this weekend. If fact Saturday morning I woke up to a good three inches of snow outside! Oh and it kept snowing all morning. :)

I can't complain too much though, it was rather fun. And I almost hit Dave with a snowball. I regret that almost. I saw the snow while he was in the bathroom. So of course I ran down stairs to get a snowball. He was a little suspicious, and just as the snowball was about to hit him.... he slammed the door shut with lightning speed! So sadly the snowball hit the door instead of him. Man, talk about ruining a perfectly good snowball fight. Then all I was left with was to quickly clean the melting snow of the hard wood floor. Oops.

We did get a couple pictures of the snow before Dave headed to school to study. Here they are.

Today I found a recipe my mom gave me a while ago for chicken chili and flat bread. She made it for us once and it was delicious. It felt like a chili day, with the cold weather and snow so I decided to make it. I really enjoyed making the flat bread. I really enjoy cooking breads for some reason. There is just something fun about the smell of the yeast and the dough rising. I love it. It reminds me of being a kid I guess. We made dessert breads after dinner which was fun too. Dave had chocolate and cinnamon on his and I had honey butter.

Here's a picture of the leftover bread.

Oh so I signed up to go to a birthday card making night a couple weeks ago. I did not know what I was doing! But I gave it a shot. I had to design a birthday card and then make enough for 16 other people to assemble my card. So I got the supplies to make 16 more of the card I created and headed down to the clubhouse here at Village Green. I put together one of each of the cards other people brought and now I have tons of super cute birthday cards, too cute to give away in fact! LOL! So I took a picture of them all. That way if I ever want to make one of them again I can remember what it looked like. And I don't feel like I can't part with them.

I can't believe how creative and intricate some of the cards were. I am definitely not as high tech as some of these card making women. (Mine is the orange one on the second to bottom row, right side)

Well I can't think of anything else super exciting.... I am loving teaching here in Omaha. I really like living here. People are friendly. One complaint the fastest speed limit anywhere is 60 mph... yes 60. And no one speeds at all. Oh my, it is a good thing I live half a mile from my school and I hardly ever take the free way. Otherwise I would be bound to get a ticket, I swear I have a lead foot. It is very easy for me to get going over 60 on the freeway.

It's Friday!!!

2009-09-11T12:16:00.003-05:00

Yay! The work week is almost over. The weekend is ahead of me. I love that feeling. :)

Dave had his second quiz today and it sounds like he did really well. I guess it was a pretty hard one. So there is another reason for cheer! YAY!!

Last weekend Chelsie and I got some materials to make wreathes for our walls and doors. This weekend I think we may have time to make them so that will be fun.

Dave has made a couple good friends from his class. We are getting together with them on Saturday. Casey and Teissa invited Dan and Chelsie and Dave and I to a BBQ at their house.

They are really nice. I am so excited for that on Saturday.

The boys have their first test on Monday so they will study while we make dinner and probably while we hang out afterward... Oh the long hours of study. I do not envy that at all. I am so proud of Dave for doing it.

Omaha

2009-09-08T20:33:00.005-05:00

Dave and I are having so much fun here in Omaha. I love teaching my 16 wonderful 2nd graders. They are such funny, great kids! I love spending the day with them. :)

Dave is so busy with classes, labs and studying. It is nice that I have been super busy as well. He had his 1st quiz last week. And he did really well! So we are very happy about that! Great job Dave! He has been working really hard. I am very proud of him.

He has another quiz on Friday and his 1^st test on Monday. So cross your fingers that he does well. :) I am sure that he will.

Last week we wnt to the Botanical Gardens right by our house. We actually get in free because our townhouse complex sold them some land a couple years ago. So we can go whenever we want. It is beautiful!

We really like our neighbors here and our ward is awesome. The Bishop is such a great guy and the ward members are very friendly.

We have made some fun friends too. One of the other 1^st year med students in Dave’s class lives in our complex. He and his wife are not in our ward but we have become friends with them. Their names are Dan and Chelsie. They don’t have any kids; almost everyone around here does, so we have hung out with them quite a bit. Last night we all made dinner and played games. It was really fun. :) Last weekend we all went to a little Diner that we really like. Its called Petrow's. Here is a SWEET pic of one of the cars in the parking lot.....

????????????? :)

We have also hung out with Scott and Teddy Elder. They are such a fun couple. We love that we live right across the street from them. Dave and I have been friends with them for years. He is in Dental school and Teddy is a 2^nd grade para-educator. Maybe next year she will work in my school!

There are Sunday evening BBQ’s here a lot and girls getting together to work out in the complex so that’s been fun too.

On Saturday we went to the Farmers Market downtown. That was fun, we took a lot of pictures. It was a fun holiday weekend.

We also took some pictures out at the old train station. Its just a few minutes from our house. It is pretty sweet over there. The station has huge but now it is really run down. There is another train station across the tracks that has been kept up and it is a really pretty old building. They run a museum inside it now.

We have been so busy...

2009-08-22T09:22:00.000-05:00

...and so I haven't posted in a couple weeks. We have the main floor pretty much done. :) Yay!! We still need to paint some moldings (but just around the pantry doors), and hang our paintings, but we are so close. Woohoo!! Its so much nicer down there now. Here are some pictures. We are loving it....

We haven't worked on the house at all for the past week and a half because we have both been so busy getting things ready for school. I decorated my school room, which took forever. I have had tons of meetings and then of course I had to find time to plan what I was going to teach my 1st week with my second grade class. It was crazy busy.
Dave had orientation and his white coat ceremony last week. That was fun his family came out for a couple days to attend. It was fun to see them.
This week he started classes. He was been studying and working hard. He has anatomy, molecular and cell biology, embryology and ethics. He also has anatomy lab 3 times a week. This week he and his lab group, there are 5 in his group, started cutting up there 1st cadaver. He really stinks when he gets home, so gross, so I can’t imagine how smelly it is in the lab. Sick... I could never do that! He is handling it well though. He doesn’t enjoy the smell but it hasn’t made him sick. I guess some of the other students have had to step out of the room because the smell was getting to them. Just thinking about it makes me sick!!
I am glad I am the teacher and he’s going to be the doctor. It works out perfectly. :)

Well I hope that everyone at home is doing great! We miss you guys!!

Ok this is getting good...

2009-08-08T10:54:00.000-05:00

The house is looking so much better. Everything is still in disarray BUT we are getting close to having a kitchen again.

Dave has been working SO hard all week to get the tile in the kitchen and entry way. Last night he put down the last of it!!! YAY! He has done such a nice job. :) It looks great. I grouted the most of the kitchen last night and then some this morning. So this evening we will be able to put our fridge and stove and everything else back in there. That will be so nice. Not only will we be able to stop going out to eat for basically every meal but we will also have a family room again!! All the kitchen stuff is in there right now.

All the walls are painted, the moldings still need to be finished, but even the moldings (which look like they haven’t been painted since the 80’s) look better with color on the walls.

Anyway enough of my blabbering, here are some pictures…

K the “Bud Family” gave us a great BBQ for our wedding and we couldn’t have it out at our apartment so we are finally getting it put together. THANKS GUYS!! We are so excited to use our BBQ! We finally have the perfect spot for it.

2009-08-02T17:45:00.000-05:00

Ok so obviously this is still a work in progress... but all but one wall on the main floor is now a color, not white!! YAY!!! I can't tell you how excited I am to live in a house 1st of all, but a house with painted walls! I am not a white wall kind of girl. :)

We started painting on Friday. The accent wall in the kitchen is red the rest is tan. We will paint the accent wall in the family room a chocolate brown color tomorrow. Then all we will have is the floor molding to paint in the main area.

Hopefully this week after the paint is done we will get the new carpet and tile put in. We found some great looking tile at a store called Menards. It is going to look really good in a week or two. :)

Lol!! Dave is napping right now. He is beat. We have stayed up super late every night since we got here. And I can't sleep in so we have gotten up early too. AND we have worked hard pretty much every minute we have been awake. We are pooped.

Its worth it though. This place is starting to look good!

Ok so I have one complaint about Omaha. 1. THEY DO NOT HAVE ROSS STORES!!! I love Ross. Lame. They dont have them in Iowa either. So I can't go to Ross ever basically, unless I want to drive 6 hours to Cheyenne Wyoming. Which I don't. Oh well... I guess I will appreciate it even more when I go home to visit.

Moving into Village Green

2009-08-01T11:08:00.001-05:00

We are finally here! We have almost everything put away and we are painting! Yay! I was so sick of living in our white walled apartment in Utah. I am so excited to have a cute fun place that we can decorate and paint however we want.
It is definitely a work in progress but it’s starting to feel like home. :)

Update... and Happy 24th

2009-07-24T10:26:00.000-05:00

Happy Pioneer Day Everyone!! :) We have a fun day ahead of us. We are going to breakfast with my family up at Ruth's Diner in Immigration Canyon. Then this afternoon we are going to Dave's Aunt and Uncle's house for a pool party. BBQ at my parent's after that and then fireworks ! :)

Ok so here are the Pictures from our fun day!!

Yay! Let the fun begin!

So... here's an update because we have been so busy lately! As you know we are moving next week to Omaha, Nebraska. We are so excited and so sad at the same time. We are ready to get going, Dave is antsy to begin school again, and I am nervous and excited to begin teaching my new class of 2nd graders. Dave and I haven’t been working for a few months now, which has been so fun, but we are ready to do something. And… it’s all starting next Tuesday.

When we were in Omaha a few weeks ago we found this great townhouse. It is in a really nice location and almost everyone who lives there are students at Creighton. Many of them are LDS too. So I we will have lots of people doing the same things as us around. It'll be a fun place to live.

We are going to do a little bit of updating to our townhouse when we get to Omaha. Every day we are talking about colors and ideas! It is so fun. Dave is going to tile the kitchen and entry way. He can’t wait to begin. I am going to paint. Yay!!! No more white walls!! When we are finished it will look so great!

We have had so many fun things going on the last couple of weeks. Here are some of the things we have been up to and some pictures….
Dave’s cousin, Justin went to the temple for his endowment and left on his mission.

Greg’s sister and I had a wedding shower for Kami, which was so fun. I will miss her wedding, Dave may be able to come back for it though! :) She is such a sweet girl. We are really excited for them!

We saw Dave's cousin, Melanie star in Singing in the Rain at Hale Theater. She is so awesome! Even Dave loved watching the play because of her! :)

I got my hair done! I Finally cut it, I have been wanting to for a while.. but I always chicken out. Then we hung out with Chelsie and Martin. They are the sweetest friends and some of the most generous people we know. Thanks you guys.

Natalie Nickel's wedding shower... I will be gone for her wedding too! :( So sad, I guess I will be missing a lot of weddings over the next 4 years... maybe 8. Who knows where we will be for Dave's residency. Nat looks so beautiful. I am so excited for her and Nick.

And of course throughout all of the excitement we have been packing up our apartment. It looks crazy right now, almost everything is packed into a box. You dont even want to see a picture! Ha

Some of the girls I grew up with went to dinner with me... last time I'll see them at least until Christmas. :( Goodbye is sad. Shanelle was there, but I didn't get a picture of her... Sorry

Farley Family Reunion

2009-07-19T10:41:00.000-05:00

Over the 17 and 18the we went to Heber Camp with the Farley side of Dave's Family. It was a blast. We all had so much fun together.

Dave getting splashed! :)

Lake Powell

2009-07-14T16:35:00.000-05:00

Over the 9th-13th Dave and I went to Lake Powell with my family. It was so much fun!! Cece and Jeff and their kids even came. It was a great trip.
Thanks for taking us! :)

We had so much fun in the sun. Lake Powell is so beautiful we boated; wake boarded, swam and camped.

The weather was so perfect, and it wasn't very crowded. The water was great too.
Ryan is better at wakeboarding than I am now... He jumps much better than I do. Dave still wins though! We got some pretty good pictures of them jumping.

Hailey, Austin and Kaden are so funny. They say the cutest things. Hailey is growing up so fast. She is really starting to be fun to talk to, and she talks to more of us than just Mariah now! LOL. She loves Mariah. She is such a sweet and smart little girl. She and Austin were riding in the tube behind the boat, going about 5mph, and I guess the tube was a little flat because she leaned forward and water started coming in the front.

Cece and Jeff were a little worried letting them ride alone so we were all prepared to jump out if anything went wrong. Well Austin fell out so Dave goes jumping of the side and I dove off the back. I got to Austin and Dave and I told him good job. He thought it was pretty cool after Dave encouraged him. It was really hilarious that Hailey dumped him out!

Kaden is a little rascal, he's two! Every time you turn your back he runs away and usually into the road!! Ha ha. He is a handful. He snuck away one time and colored Lexie's car with crayon. It was pretty funny. He is trying to live up to the "terrible two's" expression. He is so cute though. You can never stay mad at him because he has the best innocent sweet face ever!

Austin always says the funniest things. When we were taking down camp he came and asked me for a treat. I told him I wasn't sure where they were. A little later I found them so I gave them all a licorice. He took one for himself and one for Dave. When he found Dave he hid them behind his back and said, "Dave guess what Dahlia found?"... "Treats! I brought one for you."

He gave Dave one and then later he told Dave that he was happy and he asked Dave if he was happy. He said yes. He told Dave that he was glad he’s happy. How cute. He is so funny. I wish I could remember all the funny things he said on the trip.

Pictures...

2009-07-07T13:50:00.000-05:00

Just because so many people asked I wanted to quickly say that Dave took those pictures. They are great huh!? He's getting really good. He recently became a photographer. LOL! at least for the 2 of us! I think he is great!!!
You can see some more pictures he has taken at http://www.shutterstock.com/results.mhtml#gallery_id=362029&page=1.

I am a working woman!

2009-07-07T13:39:00.000-05:00

I got a job!!!!!
Wooohooo :)
I am so excited. I had a couple web cam interviews last week. Dave and I went to Omaha this week and I had two interviews scheduled. I had one on Monday and one on Tuesday. Well Monday I had a great interview, but it was with the human relations department. The lady I interviewed with was great and she sent me to interview Tuesday in a second grade. I went there and loved the school and the principal. It seemed like a great fit. But Monday evening I had received a call for a job I had interviewed for last week. They wanted to hire me; I asked them if I could have some time to decide.... they gave me until 5pm Tuesday. So I was a little worried that I wouldn't find out about this new job soon enough. I left the interview and I was hired within the next half hour!! Yay. The school is less than half a mile from where we will be living. I can walk when there is good weather! It is going to be great! Today is a GREAT day! :)

Happy 4th of July

2009-07-04T10:25:00.000-05:00

Happy Independence Day Everyone!!

I love this time of year. :)

A few days ago Dave and I went out to the Great Salt Lake and took some sweet sunset pictures. I have been wanting to put some on my blog, so here they are.

Enjoy....

SUMMER!!!

2009-06-25T17:02:00.000-05:00

I love the summer season. It is AMAZING. This summer has been particularly great by the way. :) This week has been a week full of beautiful hikes. On Monday Dave and I hiked up to Donut Falls... we forgot the camera, but it was gorgeous.

Tuesday we hiked to Lake Blanche and the two lakes near it. I really think this hike is one of the most beautiful hikes I have ever been on.

It is pretty long, AND I almost died before reaching the lakes, lol, but it was so worth it. Plus when it’s hard it makes it that much more rewarding when you finally get to the top!

This hike is just off the “S” curve in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

Thursday Dave, Megan and I hiked around Solitude and Brighton Ski resorts. We went to Lake Solitude and Silver Lake.
It is so amazing up in the mountains. We are going to miss the mountains in flat Nebraska!!

CaLiFoRnIa

2009-06-19T11:21:00.000-05:00

Over the 13th to the 20th Dave and I went to Cali with his family, Grandparents and Staples cousins. It was so much fun! Thanks for taking us with you!!

We stopped in Vegas the first night and walked around there.
Monday we went to Six Flags. The weather was perfect. It was slightly overcast but not rainy, so it never got too hot. The rides here are so exciting, everyone had a great time.

Tuesday we visited the happiest place on earth, Disney Land! :) We had a blast; Brenda is great at getting fast passes so we were able to get on all the best rides without waiting in huge lines. I was another perfect park weather day too!

Then we headed down to Laguna Beach we stayed there a couple days.

The waves were perfect for boogie boarding. They were big, fairly close to shore and they broke continuously.

Dave was out there a lot!! The wet suits were definitely needed though. The water felt so cold to get into.

The weather was great though! We got a lot of sun. The only drawback to boogie boarding was the seaweed that was everywhere. After a few tumbles under the waves my hair was plastered with plants! It looked really funny. :)

We also played a ton of volley ball, which I am not very good at. Everyone knows this that sees me play! LOL. But I did get a lot better by the end. I believe I wasn't even embarrassing myself anymore. Ok that is pushing it. Probably every 4th time I TRIED to hit the ball I still embarrassed myself. But that was a huge improvement! Ha-ha.
On Friday we stayed in the Newport Beach area. We went to Huntington Beach that afternoon and Dave boogie boarded while Russ and I tried to swim out to the waves… which we could never fully accomplish.

After the beach we hung out in the hot tub. Fashion Island mall was right across the street from our hotel so Jen and I went shopping that night.

teaching 1st graders

2009-06-19T11:11:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago I was able to go visit the 1st grade class I student taught in. They are the cutest kids in the world!! I loved teaching them so much. I am so happy that I was able to see them and the teachers all again before the summer vacation... and before I move. I was so lucky to work with such a great site teacher, Dorma Lindsay. She is an amazing teacher and I learned so much from her. I will be a better teacher because of her influence and teaching. The other two first grade teachers were such a huge help to me as well. They supported me and gave great advice. I couldn't have asked for a better experience. I even took a ballet class with Patricia Jones, one of the 1st grade teachers. It was so fun!
If any one of you reads this; THANK YOU!! :) And THANK YOU to my amazing students. I am so happy to know you. You are amazing people with so much potential!
Teaching is the best!

Republica Dominicana!!!

2009-06-01T19:04:00.000-05:00

May 10th to the 26th

We got to the Dominican Republic Sunday morning (May 10th) around 11AM. Happy Mother's Day by the way!!! We spent that first day looking for members of the church who Dave had taught on his mission and those he was friends with. We talked to lots of people and we stopped by the missionaries' apartments.

Three hermanas are living there right now. They showed me around Dave's old house. It was crazy!! They even gave me some of a Dominican treat they had made earlier to try. It is called habichuelas con dulce, it is a sweet bean dessert. It tasted good but it was weird to eat sweet beans!! That night we went to a café on the main street in the Colonial Zone of the city for dinner. We had Platanos (they look like big bananas, but taste more like potatoes) and eggs... it was actually really good! We are staying in the capital, Santo Domingo, for the first 4 days we are here.

Monday morning I was so excited because our breakfast buffet had yuka! I have been hearing about yuka and platanos since I met Dave. I had to try it! It is a root like a potato… but much starchier and really white. It is very good! After breakfast we shopped around the city.

The street in front of our hotel used to be the main street; now you cannot even drive on it because it is all a shopping district.

We walked around for a while and then found the local shop area. It was much stinkier! Peehew!! But it was much less expensive too. It is amazing to see how these people really live.

After shopping we went to Tres Ojos. It is a place that has three underground lakes. It was so incredible and beautiful. To get to the lakes you have to walk down into a cave like area. It is super humid down in there, but the lakes are all crystal clear and the land around them is like a tropical rain forest. I guess that many Tarzan movies were filmed in there. The third lake is reached by taking a little boat across and then walking through another underground trail. It was very cool, not something to miss if you are ever in Santo Domingo.

On Tuesday, May 12th we went exploring around Dave's other 2 areas here in the capital. We had so much fun! Dave was so excited to see these people who he loves so much and has not been around for 5 years. One guy actually spotted him first and ran over to him and gave him a huge hug!! It was so sweet! We were looking for a guy named Jose when we headed toward a Colmado (A little shop; these shops are on just about every corner. They are where the locals shop and hang out all the time.) Randomly we ran into him there! They were both so happy!! I don’t know exactly what they said because I don’t speak Spanish! LOL! I can understand some thing they say but they go so fast that most of the time I can't even distinguish between different words. J We met so many people, but the last person we saw was Dave's maid in the area. She and her daughter were so sweet! They invited us over to dinner the last Sunday we are here. She is going to teach us how to make some Dominican meals! YAY!!!

Oh, that night we went to dinner at a restaurant called Adrian Tropical. Dave got fried Platanos with his meal. They sound so weird but they are good. They are kind of like fries but maybe even better! I have to mention 3 drinks we have had here as well that I forgot to write about. The first one I tried was a papaya juice. It was really not a juice though, more like a smoothie. It was made with juice and condensed milk and ice. The next one, which is now what I get every time we go to a Colmado, is called Merengue. Who knows what it is supposed to taste like… but it is delicious. The last drink… smoothie… was made at Adrian Tropical. It was mango and passion fruit. It was seriously wonderful. Best smoothie I have ever had.

Wednesday we went to the Botanical Garden in the capital. It was huge! It took us a couple hours to walk through it all. The plants there were so beautiful. There are so many birds; I think we saw a humming bird every 5 or 10 minutes. There were butterflies and turtles. It was great.

One area in the garden is a Japanese area. It was sweet!! I will put some pictures on…
After the Garden we went shopping in the city. It is so crazy. In the shopping area there are paintings stacked up everywhere. Everyone sells the same type of things, but the prices are all different. It is a good thing Dave lived here so one of us knows how to shop. All the stores tell you different prices for the same item. We got some great stuff though, and I think we did pretty well, or I should say Dave did pretty well bartering. It is funny how much they mark everything up. After a few hours of shopping we were both all shopped out, and I had a TOO MUCH shopping headache!!! Ha ha.

Thursday we drove out of the capital city and traveled about an hour to a little town called Yaguate. This was Dave's first area on the mission. When we got to the city we did some visiting. We saw the sweetest people! We visited with a couple families that were good friends of Dave's. One of the daughters, Miguelina, cooked lunch for us. She made tostones and salami. I love them! It's all fried though… so probably not the healthiest.
We also visited a lady and her two sons. The oldest son who is about 23 reminds me so much of my sister Lexie's first love, Eric Meldrum. It was so funny. He talked like him, and pulled expressions just like him! J Their family made boiled bananas with onions and salami. It is surprisingly really good. Boiled bananas did not sound good to me but it really changes the flavor. I am trying to learn how they make some of these things so I can try them when we get home!!

Between some of our visits we went to a couple beaches in town. The ocean is so beautiful here. The water is bright aqua. The sand is really dark, almost black. The water felt so great. We haven't been able to go the beach yet because the water in the capital is really dirty.
One highlight from the capital: On Sunday and Tuesday Dave accidentally left the lights on in our little rental car. We got to our car both times and found it totally dead! The first time a really nice lady jumped it for us in the grocery store parking lot. The second time we were in the middle of a really poor neighborhood. Some guys tried charging it on a little homemade charging machine… but it still wouldn't work. The power kept going out too, which wasn't helping at all! Finally they got our battery on and hooked up another battery to it and we were able to start the car. I can't believe we killed it twice in the first 3 days we were here. So dumb!

Friday began the next phase of our trip. We stayed in the capital last night, but today we left it for good. J We drove about an hour and a half down the coast to the city of Azua. And then the adventure began. Dave had gone to a beach once with some members and he really wanted to find it. Well about an hour after driving through the mountains on a rugged dirt road in our Chevy Spark, which looks almost like a Smart car, we made it to the end of the road. And…. At the end of the road was an incredible salt, um farm….? LOL! We laughed so hard. It was pretty cool, but only something you need to see once, if that!
We turned around and found a beach a little way back that we hiked down to. It was beautiful, but not the beach we were looking for. It had a dead coral reef area that went straight into the ocean out as far as we could tell. It was about 10 feet across. We walked out that quiet a long way. So we still found a cool beach, just not the one we were looking for.

After the beach we found a lady, Inotilde, that Dave baptized. We hung out at here house for a while. She had a dance group that she taught and the dancers were there. The showed us some of there dances. It was pretty cool to see. We then left and drove a ways down the coast to Barahona. We found a great hotel called Playazul. It is right on the beach. It was a great place to stay. The restaurant there was good and we really liked the atmosphere.

Saturday we decided to head west and go to the San Rafael River. Where the river meets the ocean, the locals have created pools of the fresh water to bath in. It looks so gorgeous. By late morning there were lots of people there swimming in the pools. Dave and I hiked up the river as far as we could. It was beautiful. There were waterfall areas all over. Oh and we found a gigantic spider, I didn't love that part. It was really creepy looking.

After playing at that beach we headed to El Quemaito beach. It was a beautiful white pebble beach. We didn't think we would love a pebble beach but they were small and actually quite comfortable to lie out on. It also made swimming much cleaner because sand wasn't mixing into the water. I also loved the sound it made. The waves would crash on shore and then the rocks would roll down with the water. They clinked together softly. It was really a relaxing sound.

Sunday we went to church and found the ward Dave served in. It was fun to talk to the missionaries and see the ward. I couldn't understand anything during the meeting, of course because it was all in Spanish. After church we drove up into a town in the mountains that has a huge salt water lake. At the lake there were giant iguanas all over. We took tons of fun pictures of them. There was a family there feeding them so they were swarming around us.

About 2 hours west of Barahona there are supposedly great beaches. Monday we decided to see what they were like. We drove out to Pedernales and found a wonderful white sand beach. The sand was like flour and the water was crystal clear and smooth as far out as you could see. After the beach we decided to look in town at the hotels. We found a good one called D'Oleo Mendez. We ate lunch there. We had a typical Dominican meal, la bandera, which is white rice with a bean sauce mixture on top.

That night we drove back into Barahona, and on our way back it began to rain. We went and got some dinner, and by the time we left, it was a downpour. There were literally rivers of water coming down the streets. We thought it was going to wash our poor little Chevy Spark away! We wanted to use the internet, so we drove up the street to an internet place. Dave said it had never rained that hard in the two years he had been there, so it was kind of exciting. When we got into the internet shop, lightning struck so close it shook the building! It killed all of the computers and left us quite startled. We stayed a while longer, and after another bolt of lightning, we decided to head back to the hotel. On the way back a Toyota Camry was driving in front of us and the water was up to the top of its tires! It was quite an adventure, but we made it safely back to our hotel, and Dave even put on his swimsuit and played in the rain and the pool that night.

Tuesday was a huge adventure. We left Barhona and Playazul and began the next phase of our trip. We drove out to Pedernales to stay for a few days. We stopped a couple places along the way and took pictures there are some great views along the way. When we got to a town called Oveido, we decided to stop at Laguna Oveido. There are supposed to be tons of bird and turtles there. It had rained so much that it you couldn't drive around and they wanted us to pay for a guide to take us around in our car… we decided we didn't want to pay. So we found a place to hike in down the road. We hiked for so long!! Finally we got to the Lagoon. There were birds but it was so wet that we could barely walk through it.

The real highlight was getting back to our car. We were in the middle of nowhere and I had no idea how we were going to find the trail we had taken. But somehow Dave found our way back. We had gone through 3 fences and followed 2 real trails… not to mention lots of not real trails. Ha ha. But Dave found some poles sticking out of the ground that he remembered. I still thought maybe we were going in the wrong direction. Then the next thing I know Dave has taken us to the exact spot we had gone through one of the fences. I could not believe it! I had wrapped some wire around a post there.

Wednesday was a pretty day. It was a little overcast but the clouds were thin and the sun was still shining through. We went to the same beach we found Monday and spent about 6 hours there. We snorkeled and found tons of big conk shells.

They were everywhere along one stretch of the beach. It was a really nice relaxing day. We love that beach. We only saw 2 other people the entire day!! It's crazy that such a beautiful beach is so empty.

Thursday we took a boat ride out to Bahia de las Aguilas. This is a beach you can only get to by driving a crazy dirt road, way worse than the one we took to see the salt, ha ha, or by boat. We chose boat, and we were glad that we did. There were two places offering trips one from a restaurant and one from a few guys who work together. We went with the guys because they weren't as rich as the restaurant owner, or so they said.

The beach out there was amazing. It cost 1500 pesos; the lowest price we could get at either place, but it was well worth it!! We snorkeled, swam, lied out, and explored the long beach area. There was a big pavilion there with picnic tables and a little pier. There were also bathrooms and a tall look out building too. It was pretty nice. The beach had great sand and we found tons more huge shells. I can't believe how many shells there are out on this side of the island.

Well we are to our last leg of the trip. bahaha… But we got to our hotel today in Juan Dolio, which is east of the capital, and it is SWEET! We thought we might be ready to relax by the end of our trip and this is just the place. It is an all inclusive resort called Barcelo something or other. There are pools and restaurants all over. They have mini-golf, tennis, sand volleyball, basketball, dance lessons, shows every night, and a gym. Oh my, it is heaven. We are here for 4 days.

This morning as we were driving along the coastal road to Juan Dolio I couldn't help but think of all the things I am thankful for as a United States citizen. This land is so impoverished and most of the people live in conditions that I could not have imagined living in as a poor newlywed. So here is my list of things I am thankful that we have in the U.S.

1. Great Builders
2. Construction workers/road construction
3. Engineers
4. Water treatment plants
5. Garbage cans everywhere, which people actually use
6. Garbage collectors
7. Environmentalists
8. Technology
9. Medical… everything
10. Local, State and Federal Government

There of course are many more things I could list but those are the ones that stand out the most after spending time here in the D.R. This is a great place to visit, but I am very glad to have the opportunities and luxuries I have in the states.

GRADUATION!!!

2009-05-29T09:24:00.000-05:00

I did it! Yay! I am officially a teacher. :) Amazing!

Graduation was May 9th. It was held at

Kingsbury Hall at 1:30 in the afternoon.

Enjoying the sunshine in Florida!!!

2009-05-07T13:05:00.000-05:00

April 29th to May 5th, 2009

Dave and I went to Orlando, Florida on April 29th. We got back on Tuesday night. We had such a fun time! The weather was perfect the whole time we were thereJ! The first day we were there, Thursday, we went to Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios with Greg and Kami. We had a blast; Islands of Adventure has 5 different island theme areas that all surround a big lake.
Our favorite ride was called Dueling Dragons. Two roller-coasters take off at the same time and then in the middle of the ride they head straight for each other. It looks like they are going to crash into each other then at the last minute they both go up. It is exciting.
That night we hung out at the hotel pool and sauna. We stayed at Caribe Cove Resort. We had a suite with 3 bedrooms and a nice big deck surrounded by bug screens. All the houses down there have a big area surrounded by the same screens in their backyards. Pretty smart!! The hotel was great. It had a huge kitchen and family room and a wash room. We could live there and be happy!
Friday Greg and Kami went to Disney World and Dave and I drove to Cocoa Beach. It was about an hour and a half away on the Atlantic side of Florida. I guess it is a great surfing beach and while we were there lots of people were out surfing. The waves were a great size for learning. The biggest ones were only about 70 feet out from shore and they went along the entire coast area. They also broke very consistently…. So we decided to surf! We had so much fun. Dave had never really surfed before but after a few tries he started catching every wave he went for! He was a lot better than I, and I surfed a bit when I lived in Hawaii a few summers ago. We are now surfer bums! LOL!!
Saturday we decided to try out a gulf side beach. My parents were in Florida the week before us and they found some beaches that they loved. They told us about a beach in Sarasota called Siesta Beach. We decided to go there. The sand and water were amazing! The sand was like powdered sugar or flour. It was so white, soft and fine. We decided that it was the prettiest beach we had ever seen. The water was crystal clear out as far as you could go. Dave had a blast snorkeling around looking for sea creatures. He found 2 big hermit crabs and a sea slug. The sea slug was so cool! It was about a 8 inches and had a suction strip down its entire belly. It suctioned to Dave’s arm. I thought it would feel slimy, but it was really smooth and soft. It had the coolest “wings” J It would close them and just look like a slug, but when it was swimming they would open up and it looked like it was gliding through the water.
That night evening we went to Magic Kingdom in Disney World. We rode all the fun rides… and one awful ride. Ha Ha. The Stitch ride/show was terrible! I would not recommend it to anyone! We stayed there until about 10:30. We left after we watched the fireworks.
Sunday was such a nice day. Greg and Kami got up early to go to an Atlantic beach where they were going horse-back riding on the beach. Greg proposed there! She said yes of course! She was so excited and the ring is beautiful!
We got up after they left and found a church. It was fun to go to church in Florida. It was a really nice meeting. The people were so friendly. After church we went to a state park that was only about 15 minutes from our hotel. We had a picnic there and then explored the area. It was so pretty. There were lakes and trails all over. We talked to a Ranger and he told us where to look for land turtles and alligators. We walked along a trail and found tons of Gopher Tortoise holes. They dig and then live in these huge tunnels. I guess some of them are so big that 32 could live in one! We walked for a long time before we found a turtle… but then we saw a spot that looked promising. We made our way through the area and found a turtle hole. We knew we couldn’t be too far from finding what we were looking for! A few minutes later Dave found it. A Gopher Tortoise had heard us and was making his way quickly back to his little hole. Dave caught him... or her. We took lots of pictures with him and then followed it home. We were much more excited to find it than it was to find us!
We finally started to head back to the car, and on our way we heard a knocking sound. We looked around and saw a woodpecker with a red Mohawk in a tree right by the trail. Dave snuck close to it to take some pictures and found that it couldn’t have cared less that we were right up next to it. It was busy eating its dinner and paid us no mind. It was fun to watch it hammer the tree with its head.
We left to go make dinner at the hotel around 5:30. We talked to Kami and Greg when they got back about the proposal! Then we went back to find an Alligator. We saw one in a beautiful little lake, but it was pretty far away, so we didn’t get to really look at it well. The park was so beautiful, especially at sunset. The lake and trees looked so brilliant with the sun setting behind them.
Monday we went to a beach called Clearwater, which was misleading because the water wasn’t even half as clear as it was at Siesta beach. It was a fun beach though. There were little shops up and down the road and we found some cool shells there. Kami and Greg left for home that afternoon. We were tired that evening so we went to dinner and read in our hotel room that night. Tuesday we played around at Islands of Adventure again and then flew home. It was a fabulous trip!

New Mexico

2009-04-25T01:22:00.000-05:00

Over spring break weekend Dave and I went to New Mexico to visit my sweet sister and her family. We had so much fun! I have the cutest, nicest, smartest.. etc.. etc... niece and nephews! I know that I may be a bit partial but they are really darling!

We had so much fun. Cece is such a great host... to good maybe. he he I think I gained 2 pounds in the 3 days we were there. She is a fabulous cook. :) Thank you!! We shopped and played and just hung out.

Student Teaching

2009-04-25T01:06:00.000-05:00

So I can't believe it but I am done student teaching! This past year seems like it has flown by in many ways.... and in many ways it seems like it has been a very, very long year. Some things that happened 10 or 11 months ago seem like another life! LOL. Today was the orientation for the new students who are beginning their student teaching year. Many of my graduating class went to talk to the new students and answer their questions. Kali and I were talking about some of the things that went on last fall. So much has happened since then! We have all changed our ideas, many times, and have grown so much as educators... We have become educators when we were not! It is so fun to be done!

It is weird and kinda sad and yet so amazing that we are graduating. My cohort group and especially my school group have become so close! It is a little bitter sweet to be graduating and moving on. Dave and I will be moving out of the state and many others will be as well. Chalee and Jared may even move to Africa if they join the Peace Corps! Very exciting! I will miss seeing all of my friends often! But I am excited for the new fun adventures that will fill my life. I know that Dave and I will have a great time wherever we go. I am so happy that I am married to my best friend so I never have to face my adventures alone.

Medical School... Iowa?

2009-03-31T23:11:00.000-05:00

Well we are moving.... Probably to Iowa. Dave has been accepted to a couple schools now and I think Carver is the top choice. I finish up my student teaching this week so we will be going out there soon to find me a job :). We have been researching housing as well and it looks like there are some great condos very close to the medical school.
This summer is going to be crazy busy but so fun. I graduate on the 8th of May. May 9th we are heading to the Dominican Republic where Dave served a mission. We come home on the 26th. We cannot wait!! In June we will be in California. We are going to Lake Powell sometime soon and we are going to visit Cece in New Mexico before we move as well. Good thing neither of us will have a job :)

Moab Trip

2009-03-29T18:28:00.000-05:00

Dave and I went to Moab this weekend with our friends Greg and Kami. It was so fun. Kami and I had never been to Moab for a biking trip and neither of us had done much biking. We had a blast. We slowed the guys up a bit, but we loved it. We also went boulder tipping and hiking in Arches National Park. It was an adventure :) We had a sweet bonfire by Ken's Lake.

It was great weather during the day but it got chilly at night. We stayed in a hotel Thursday night but were planning on camping Friday. We ended up staying in a Hostel cabin. Lol! It wasn't as bad as it sounds and we were grateful to have a heater.