It's Yuh Boi Dallin checking in here with my first blog. Its about to get weird. A lot has happened these past 2 weeks in the Graff fam' so get ready for more pictures of us, definitely a lot of pictures of our kids(dogs), and even more pictures of dogs.
Here's our not so petite daughter Josie playing with one of her toys. Shes weird because she prefers to lay on basically anything other than carpet. But I guess when you think about it, who doesn't enjoy laying on a nice piece of paper, licking out an old peanut butter container. If I had a nickel for every time I've done that...
I have a new favorite song that was probably written just for my life. Its kinda my anthem and I have been told I sound EXACTLY like the singer. Enjoy.
My little/big brother came back to Utah from my family's trip around the world and he stayed the night with us. So naturally we took the TV from the living room and set it up on Sydneys desk so he could play X-box. 8 hours of gaming later, after 3,000 calories of Doritos and mountain dew and candy, we called it a night and went to bed. Again if I had a penny for every time I've done that...
Here is a picture of a night drive up Provo canyon that Me, Syd, and the kids went on to see the 'Meteor Shower'. Best part of the night was when Sydney realized that a 'Meteor Shower' was another way of saying 'shooting stars'. She was definitely disappointed. She thought she was gonna see some Armageddon equivalent meteors.
Sydney has always said that this picture captures our essence, so I believe she thinks we are creeps. I could be wrong though.
We had our 1 year birthday of being married and it was not just a trip, but a journey down memory lane. We went through our wedding box with every memory of the wedding day, watched our wedding video, and both put on Sydney wedding dress. Just sydney is pictured below in it. We still want people to enjoy reading the blog. We had a relaxing day of swimming and nice Dinner to cap it all off. Its been an amazing year with an amazing person and we are excited for the future.
Sir Thomas had his birthday, #35 I believe, so we went and celebrated with them. Happy Birthday Tommy boy. They are so fun to hang out with, and we discovered the VIP lounge while we were there! Those recliner seats are no joke!
Coming away with only a broken rib and an almost fractured ankle, here are the pictures of my first downhill mountain bike experience. Clearlink took all of the sales managers for a retreat up in Park City and it got real. My biggest take aways from the experience: 1. When you go off a jump, make sure your feet don't come off the pedals when you land. Otherwise bad things happen. Really bad things. 2. Dressing in multiple layers in August to try to pad the falls that were bound to happen was a bad idea. I assume thats how Hot Yoga would feel. 3. I am moving to Sweden. I rode up the ski lift with a kid from Sweden and we talked for a long time and he was the nicest person I've ever met. He came to the US at the beginning of the summer, bought an old mini-van, took out the seats and sleeps in it every night. He has been driving around the country just mountain biking and enjoying life for months. My life is so boring compared to that guy.
Heres some pictures of our kids sleeping (you've probably never seen this before) and doing other things that human kids can do. Jakey holds on and gives hugs and kisses when I get home from work and I dont even have to hold him. The whole thing about animals not being able to do things because of their lack of opposable thumbs is garbage.
Sydney had her last day at Prodigy Promos because she got the perfect teaching job so this is the first day of her sitting down to start creating lesson plans. So much planning that you have to plan time for when you're going to sit down and plan out the lesson plans and create the game plan for the year of teaching. Lots of plans.
RIP Charles Lester III
Sydneys Dog Charlie passed away this week. He was 12. It's been hard for Sydney, and her dad and Shelly this week, I knew him but not as well. He was such an easy-going, loyal guy. Sammy has never been without him so she will probably be very sad for a while. He is definitely missed. They gave him a burial service in Ne under a tree. He lived a long, happy life, and died peacefully in his sleep.
It was fun being out in Nebraska over last Christmas and sledding with him. (See below)
Me and Syd were lucky enough to be able to have all of our friends over to our new house and have a big pool party/BBQ. We are kind of popular and luckily our small/humble home was able to accomodate so many awesome people...One day....This was actually a pool party/BBQ at the owner of Clearlinks house. It was such an amazing day and I'm grateful to work for such an amazing company.
Shelly'nor Roosevelt came to town and stayed with us and helped Syd make posters for the Cross Country sign ups. It was fun eating dinner with her and catching up. Maybe I just got lucky and got some awesome In-laws.
We went to Dinner with Rudy and Brian and Michelle tagged along. Hes so freaking cute. The picture that says "Bjergsens Mother" is incredibly significant so please pay attention. I just hit the #1 player in the world in League of Legends with the champion that I play(Blitzcrank). There are 68 million people that play League of Legends so I think being #1 with a champion is kinda cool. I'm sure I'm gonna be super stoked to tell my grandkids about that one. They will care I'm sure.
Sydney and Michelle went on a Girl's Date while the boys stayed home with the kids. They went and watched Mission Impossible 312 or something. I forget how many Mission Impossible's there are but I think its a lot.
This week was the first week that Sydney started her new teaching job at the middle school. Those little 14 year olds are in for a treat. I swear most of my teachers growing up were like 130 years old. In true Sydney fashion, she was 30 minutes late on her first day lol. But at least we got a picture of it. I am honestly so proud of her though. She has worked so hard to get to where she's at and to prepare her to be a teacher and I have no doubt that she will be the best teacher ever. Those kids are lucky to have her. She's amazing.
She took these pictures of her room when it was still being cleaned and painted.
During training week she met a friend named Melanie who's teaching 4th grade (below). She also went and met up with Jessica the teacher she did the student teaching with to get tips on PE.
She got her official contract and we went to utah idaho supply and got her posters for the room. She was so excited I wanted to take a picture. But I was happy to get out of there...
This is the yearbook staff for both jr. high and high school there. She said that all the other teachers are cool and they got together to plan together. She's overwhelmed about it, but I think she'll be great at it.
Syd complained about how long it took her to make this poster, but it turned out great! The first practice is monday!
She sent me these on the first day of school during prep. She said it went well, except when she taught PE. But I'm sure she'll get better at that, she's just used to being in a classroom and it's different in a gym.
I walked her out to the car on the morning of her first day and took a picture. She was so worried about being late she was rushing, but then ended up being early. I love seeing her so excited about what she's doing now.
Today Sydney went to see off Emma for college. She left to go to Utah State. I've met her family before too, and they are such cool, inviting people. I hope she loves college life!
Its been a great couple weeks but it's also been a hard couple weeks. Being an adult is hard sometimes. But at the end of the day, I can't help but feeling unbelievably lucky for everything that I have. I am grateful for my family and friends, great jobs that me and Syd have, and for the experiences that we are having right now. Life is great.
"Life is short. FALSE. Its the longest thing you'll ever do" -Dwight Shrute
I have some big news. The last 2 weeks have been quite eventful! I'm excited to write about it all!
First off,
Having a Wedding Anniversary Is Pretty Cool...
I've never had a wedding anniversary, and I decided I like them. We celebrated it this weekend because we had to cancel the colorado trip once again (you'll find out why in a bit.) So I made this picture while I was reminiscing about all of our time together. Going through all our pictures I've had about 9 different hair styles lol a lot has changed, but a lot has stayed the same too. It really doesn't feel like it's been that long. And I feel lucky because, there's no one else I'd rather spend my life with.
OH MY GOSH!
Now on to my big news. This song is how I feel right about now!
I got my dream job!!
I can't believe it, but I'M A TEACHER!!!
WOO HOO!! I am now a 7th and 8th grade teacher at Summit Academy in Bluffdale! I actually got 2 jobs and got to choose the school I liked better. I never thought this would happen. I thought I wouldn't be able to get a teaching job because my subjects were so limited, but then I got the first job and Summit offered me the job right at the interview!! (That's never happened to me before!)
It's so fulfilling for me that I cried driving home and called everyone I knew to tell every ridiculous detail.
Holy Crap... lots of hats are coming.
I am so excited but so overwhelmed at the same time. I'm going to be teaching 4 subjects (which is a ton!) Health, PE, Dance, and Yearbook. I'll also be coaching cross country and track. I'm going to be getting ready like crazy because I have so much to do. (And I don't even know how to do it all!)
At first, the job was just health, dance, and PE, which is crazy enough. Then just 2 days ago the principle offered me the yearbook class as well. She remembered that I was a journalism major first and that I was on newspaper and wrote articles for voxxy. So that was cool. I think it'll be right up my alley because I obviously love taking pictures and documenting what happens in life. The only problem is, I have no idea how to teach a yearbook class...lol I think this school year is going to be a trial by fire kindof year. I guess I'll have to just figure it out as I go!
A little journaling
Moving from job to job is not enjoyable, and each time convincing myself I liked it was not effective. Since graduation in December, I've found the job-hunting experience to be quite hard on me because jobs for what I wanted were so limited. I was so excited to graduate only to be slapped in the face by life when I found out getting a job was nearly impossible. I had almost convinced myself that I didn't want to teach simply because I was so afraid of failing. I didn't want to even apply for jobs because the chances of me getting one was so small, and I thought it would be so embarrassing. I didn't want to seem less capable, so I basically didn't even try applying until a couple weeks ago. I finally got fed up with feeling no purpose in my job, and decided life's too short to feel so little fulfillment in what you do 40+ hours a week. So a manned-up and tried. I was scared going to the first interview, but afterwards I felt so proud of myself. I practiced interviewing, wrote up samples, tried on 20 outfits, etc. During the interview, she told me how many others she was interviewing and applied, so when I got the job it was that nudge I needed for my self esteem that I didn't have before. It's so stupid now that I think about it, but your self esteem can really be tied with your career. No matter what I did, (I thought about going into HR, getting a masters, etc.) I know I wouldn't have been happy until I proved to myself that I was good enough at what I studied in school. And no matter how much I tried to convince myself otherwise, I want to be a teacher. Plus, it was a dance teaching position that she offered me (always something I was insecure about in college because I didn't grow up dancing so I worried about getting a dance teaching position.) Boom! Anyway, After I got the job at the first school (Eastmont) I had to go interview with the district. When I went in to interview, it was my high school principal that interviewed me! She remembered me from the school news and said she was proud that a Bingham student is teaching now. It was such a cool experience. When I went to Summit to interview, I got lost and my gps wasn't working, so I called my dad. He remembered where it was, and I was so lucky because I ended up not being late. He and my mom and Dallin all helped me prepared too and quized me. I could not have done it without them. At the interview, it was amazing because as we talked it was clear that my philosophy matches up with theirs perfectly. They offered me the job at the end, and it's funny but the thing I was most excited about was coaching cross country. I felt like my life had come full circle because I was interviewed by my old principal, and I ran cross country back in the day. It's so cool to think about because if you would have told me back then that I would one day be coaching and teaching I wouldn't have believed you. I was never what I wanted until 2011ish, but now that I have it I finally feel happy. I've learned my lesson- money doesn't matter if you're not happy. Dallin comes home from work smiling, he's made so many friends at his work, and he's going far with it. I wanted the same thing, but I had no idea how I was going to get it. Now I know that what I'm doing is definitely going to be a challenge, but I'm going to love every minute of it, and that's what's important.
Leaving Prodigy
I felt so stupid telling them I was quitting after I had only been there a month and half, but I guess I had to go through it in order to finally make my mind up. I felt bad because the girl before me only lasted a month too. I have a problem of carrying guilt for ridiculous reasons, so this week have had some anxiety over it. But at the end of the day, I'm leaving to do something I love, not just something that pays the bills.
I posted on facebook to help replace myself, and I'm so glad Sagan got the job! I knew her from school and also her husband works with Dallin. It's been really fun to train her and spend time with her rather than someone I don't know. I think she's going to do well and I'm leaving prodigy in good hands. She's excited as well, so it's a good situation all around because all parties are getting what they want. I agreed to stay with Prodigy a little longer than I wanted to, and they're doing a little goodbye party for me. So at least it's not a bad goodbye.
And of course, I got roped into one last photo shoot before I left. I don't know why the pics from them always end up blurry but here it is.
Slow Progress on the Table
I have learned something from this experience- DIY sucks! It is so hard, and it's taking forever! I'm sure it'll turn out great, but all my dreams for painting other furniture are becoming a lot less dreamy. Anyway, Dal and I stripped the sealant off the top of the table together, and it was actually really cool. Kindof like peeling the sticker off of a new tv or phone.
Then afterward we put the primer on and painted it black. I still have to do the same to the legs of the table and the leaf. I still have to put another coat of sealant on the chairs too.
Miss Emma Saves the Day!
What would I do without Emma? She helped me cover the chairs with fabric and we watched the Longest Ride. (Such a cute movie!) I was afraid of the staple gun at first, and it was really hard work! So I reeeeeeally appreciated her help because she worked those cushions over like a maniac!
She was so excited for me when I told her about my teaching job. It's so nice to have such caring friends and family, because everyone has been really supportive and happy for me.
A Family Affair
My grandma was in town for my cousin Skyler's wedding and so we had dinner with her, Chris, crystal, jim, my aunt darlene, Bentley, my aunt kim, uncle ray, cousin miki, and my mom and tom. This is us and the kids after dinner. It was so great seeing everyone, and the pasta carbonara was divine!
It was kindof weird seeing my mom's new renter go downstairs to where we used to live. I wanted to see what it looks like down there now. I've also wanted to go back to the townhouse in Provo I used to live in to see what that looks like now too. It's sortof like it being your territory and those feelings don't really leave immediately. She's a girl who my mom knows from the neighborhood and she's so cute. I'm excited for her because it's just like how we were. She's getting married soon and they're going to live down there.
The kids were really tired on the way home from playing with Bentley.
It's a great day for a wedding!
Well, our crazy days are officially over. Skyler's hitched! We went to his luncheon and reception and it was all beautiful! I'm really happy for him. She seems really sweet and they went to the Bahamas on their honeymoon! It was also nice to see family members for the wedding that we don't get to see very often.
Herky's 2!!!!
Can you believe how much he looks like Trenden!? He's a freaking clone. I like him, he's a pretty cool little dude. He probably doesn't even really know me, but I remember when we went down to AZ and he was like 2 weeks old.
This was the first time I held him. Crazy how time flies and he's all huge and 2 now!
Last weekend.
After the wedding we went to a late movie with jon and sophie mccutchan. I thought ant man was going to be stupid, but I actually really liked it! The concept is ridiculous but they make it work! (And of course we had to see it in the recliner seats lol)
Jon and Sophie are so cool & funny, I hope to hang out with them more. They just got a new car and showed it to us, and it gave Dallin the gimme's lol
Josie: The Un-luckiest Puppy.
Poor Jojo can't seem to catch a break. She was coming up the stairs on the back porch and her toenail got stuck in a crack in the stair. When she went up to the next stair it RIPPED COMPLETELY OUT! She screamed and was crying and bleeding everywhere, and Dallin started caring for her immediately and I was worried about getting the blood out of my comforter lol (not a proud mom moment.)
I went outside to try and figure out what happened and saw her full toenail sticking out of the concrete steps! She just had a gaping hole in her hand where her nail used to be, so Dallin wrapped it, and we iced it to numb it up a little. I cannot imagine the pain. That would be awful. Josie has the pain tolerance of a champ though since everything happens to her. She was really cuddley for a few days while it healed, but now it's fine. She's so used to being hurt she doesn't even try to take the wrap off or lick it because she already knows the drill. If you look at it now you can tell it's healing. (And we got the blood out of my bedspread.)
I'm pretty much a gourmet chef.
I laughed after I made Dallin lunch. I'm a health teacher who teaches about MyPlate and then give my husband a fruit by the foot for his side dish lol
We Fancy.
Jakey is Growing up!
This lil' guy had a birthday! He's always loved staring out the window. He'll sit there for hours just staring, it's so funny.
I can't believe he's already 4! He was the cutest puppy I've ever seen, and we have been so so happy having him. He has such a unique little personality & I love him! I wish I could go back in time for that cute little puppy he used to be. My mom got him a huuuuuge lamb bone for his birthday and he loved it. I feel bad that I can't do as much as I used to for his and Josie's birthdays. He loved that first birthday party I gave him, and I want to do it again, but I just don't have time anymore.
Our Anniversary Stay-cation
I have to start at the school soon so we won't be able to go to Colorado on our actual anniversary anymore. Dallin surprised me with a Stay-cation! It was actually really relaxing and fun. I think just as fun as regular vacations are. I used to think stay-cations were lame, but it was actually perfect because we didn't have much time to be able to leave but we still got the experience.
We went a spa and did the oxygen bar and then a couples massage. Then we went to a hotel and checked in, went the pool, and then the restaurant at the hotel. It was soooo good!
On the second day we rented a jet ski and spent the day at the lake! It was so fun! It was so powerful that it could go 65 mph and pull a wakeboarder or tube! We got a tube with it and pulled eachother, rode around the lake, ate lunch, looked at the museum inside on the lake's history, and laid out. It was the perfect blend of excitement and relaxation.
Then we took a nap (it's really tiring to be out all day on a jet ski) and put on aloe because we were both sunburnt. We went to Communal for dinner to try something new, and it was really, really good. We ate a disgusting amount of food and talked, then went back to the hotel restaurant for dessert. And edema-me. lol Dallin just wanted it for some reason. We stayed a really nice hotel, so it was a beautiful lounge-like atmosphere, and we just talked for hours. It was really fun. Then we watched Pitch Perfect 2 and went to breakfast the next morning. My mom babysat the dogs all weekend and I was grateful but it was funny how much we missed them.
It was such a good weekend. I love how no matter how long it's been we always keep getting to know each other better. It wasn't like I thought it was going to be since we always said we'd go somewhere, but I wouldn't have it any other way. We had to change plans because I got my dream job, and we had the most amazing time.
Inside-out braid
It's like a brain fart trying to do it because you're so used to braiding normally, but once you figure it out they look pretty cool.
Graff/Black Swimming & Grub
We had a bbq with Matthew and Shanna and her family, and that was really fun because I hadn't really ever met them. (Besides Ciera of course because I work with her) We had brats and they were soo good!
The Perils of PG
This is not a joke- our lives are in danger. As you can see, there is a birds nest on the front porch. At first I thought it was cute and had this "Snow White" thought in my head like it was going to be pretty, peaceful and nice. Not the case. This bird is MEAN! It had babies, one fell out of the nest and was sitting there dead, Dallin threw it away, and ever since the bird is out to get us. We literally run to our cars because it sees us and makes crazy noises and swoops right at our heads. The bird has also recruited friends to help him in this war against us. It's like he told the entire bird community that we're murderers. One time at had 5 birds all fly at me while I was trying to run from the front door to my car. It's gotten to the point that I flinch when I see birds because I swear they all hate me.
It has obviously also pooped all over the pillar and the porch. I consider myself an animal person, but this thing has got to go. I have no idea what to do, but I know something has to be done because I end up ducking, covering my head and screaming every time I try to go home for lunch at work. I've also gone out the back door a bunch of times because I'm too scared to go out the front. We're going to have to get creative here. We can't show our weakness- it'll only make them stronger.
Kiminy Crash Course
Kim is so cool! She a real professional dancer and she's one of my besties! Anyway, she gave me a lot of advice the other night about dance because it's been like 3 years since I was a dance ed major. I'm sure it'll come back to me, but it was so comforting to know I could call her. She was so nice to help me out, I definitely owe her one. I wish I wasn't so busy so I could see them more.
Life with the real Dallin Graff
He's always so funny!! I think he's going to get me this shirt lol
He had an incentive at work where he was giving reps cash, and of course I found these pictures on his phone just posing with the money like a gangsta.
