Quarter Century

Hey!
I am officially 25 years old. Weird right?
I love the way life's turned out for me so far. When I reflect about things, there's nothing I'd change in the past. And we have a lot of moments where we sit back and say, "This is the life." I don't want anything to change for a long time because I'm having so much fun with what we're up to now.
Anyway...
Dallin made my birthday a breeze. He gave me backrubs, spent time with me, drove home to let the dogs out before our plans, made me snacks, let me choose what we watched, just all the best stuff a girl wants.

Our Date Last Week

We went to a Real Salt Lake game! Omg it was the funnest thing ever. Those fans are legit! They are sooooooo passionate about that team! And it makes sense because they're good! The stadium was packed, we had excellent seats (on the 7th row), and we saw some amazing soccer!

(Plus they had cinnamon roasted almonds. My dad woulda died they were so good.)

It was just the funnest sporting event because when you go to Jazz games nobody really cares. To see them do well, and be around people who are cheering like crazy, is sooo much fun!

They got a penalty shot on our side, and we got a video! It's so cool! I am now a soccer fan.

My First Parent Teacher Conference as a Paid Teacher!!!!!

It was great. (That's not even sarcasm.) There wasn't really anyone who had a bad grade and all the parents were nice. Plus we got free food and the night went by quickly. (as Peyton Manning would say to the Nation Wide jingle) "that's a first rate caso dip." We took a faculty picture before hand. I couldn't possibly work with better teachers. They are the salt of the earth and inspiring, hard working people. 

Yearbook staff chose a cover!

We had a lesson on themes, and then I presented them with 12 options and they voted. Of course they picked one that I didn't like! lol but I'm happy we at least have a cover now. Here are some of the options that the manufacturing company has for templates.

The Green Fam threw me a B-Day Bash

They asked what I wanted for dinner and I said pasta carbonara and hot german potato salad. Both of those foods are very good, but I didn't think through the fact that they're also very starchey. Needless to say I had the best meal followed by the worst gut ache of my life. While we were there I caught a pic of Jake and my mom in action during tug of war. And poor Josie became the bud of our jokes as she was placed inside a laundry basket lol 

Last Thursday...

Josie had a vet appointment for her ear, and Jakey was feeling abandoned because he always gets to go with and he's rarely without his sister. 

So when I got home we went on a walk. He was so happy and so was I. It's still beautiful weather and I think that I had an exaggerated idea of what this job would be like. Everyone says that your first year of teaching is a lot of work, but my struggles are the opposite. I don't feel that it's a lot of work at home, but I do seem to struggle with different things while I'm teaching. I can make lesson plans easily and I think it's fun. So it really doesn't take me that long. (I still say competing and getting ready to compete for miss utah is significantly harder than anything else in the world-even teaching. lol compared to that time management and gettin' crap done's a cake walk.)

That was rambling. Anyway, Jakey is so cute and I love him!

We got to see good ol' Miss Tonya!!!

We went to Olive Garden and then she came over and saw our house and we hung out for a while. She's one of the strongest people I know. She's been through a lot but it hasn't slowed her down one bit. Her and I have a history for sure, but I'm really glad she's still my friend. It was so great to see her again. 

And she got to meet Josie for the first time! Jake remembered her and missed her of course. And idk why josie couldn't put down the toy for this picture lol 

 

Part 1 of our Date last Week

We took the dogs to the "Dog Days" promotion at Thanksgiving Point Gardens! That's one of my favorite places on earth, and every time I go there I think "I wish we could bring the dogs here they'd love it." So when we could, I jumped on the chance. We went with my mom, tom, bentley and it was beautiful. 

Look how freakin' cute this picture is.

 Dallin has been taking care of Josie so well with her ear thing. He took her to the vet, remembers her med schedule, and does all the cleanings and stuff. So she loves him :)

 I got my school pictures back!

I ended up doing re-takes because I wanted a picture with my short hair. But of course when I got these my mom cut one out to save it lol just like old times. 

Except this time we didn't have to pay for it!

Speaking of School...

I think I'm getting over the "honeymoon" phase of teaching. I've had a few rough days, and recently ended up in tears because of it. But I still love it. And the weird thing with 12 year olds is that they will come in to the next class period completely different depending on the day. So luckily, although I've had 2 or 3 horrible class periods, they were a lot better the next time. 

I had to be really patient and remind myself they're in a weird phase of life. In the end it was all worth it, too. 

Jakey gettin' his tan on

The kid loves to sun bathe. He wouldn't come inside! He just wanted to stay there on the step!

 

Last Saturday 

Last Saturday we sat around watching football, drinking tea, I did my nails, and it was wonderful. I simply love fall. As I age I'm starting to like the seasons more and more. I used to hate everything that wasn't summer, but now I'm actually ready for it to start cooling down. I'm sick of sweating so much outside at PE! lol
We got the mail, and our Halloween costumes were inside!

 How 'bout that eclipse!

That was pretty cool to see. I never used to understand when people would say that the moon looks like cheese. Now that I've seen it looking sortof orange I totally get it!

 Cross Country News

We've had good runners who usually place, but our team score has never been that great. 

THAT ALL CHANGED YESTERDAY!!!!! 

I was sooooo happy! The boys team got 3rd overall and the girls team got 1st!!! 1st 1st 1st!

They did so great. They said they dedicated it to me because it was my birthday! 

(I just found this on pinterest and thought it was a cute idea. Some of the runners on my team have gotten medals and they get numbers, so they could get one of these!)

For the reward for getting 1st, the girls all got candy, and then we all played flag tag for practice instead of just running. They had fun with it, but I knew they were still working out! lol Flag Tag's hard work!

 Another addition to the office.

Slowly but surely it's coming along! I keep adding more and more yellow accents so it's slowly getting cuter. I painted this jar and got the flowers, and I'm in the middle of painting a cork board to hang as well. 

 High School Reunion

I can't believe it's been 6 years. We got together with my high school class, and it was a lot of fun. Even Dallin said he had a lot of fun. Everyone was so nice, and it was a good change of pace to socialize with people we don't normally see. It was good to see my old friends again as well. Afterward, we went out with Rachael and Randy and ate and played shuffle board. That is a really fun game and I'm actually good at it! The Utes game was on as well (lucky I was wearing red) and they rocked it. Plus the restaurant was excellent and cheap! Win.

 Made some stuff for Health class

They were all nice and grossed out which was what I was going for. 

I'm old.

I'm so old that the students made fun of me today for not knowing how to "whip & nay nay" lol I know the song but I didn't know there was a dance associated with it!
I definitely felt the love on my bday. My dad called at 5 in the morning and played the "they say it's your birthday" song on a dancing, battery-operated frog we had growing up. It's tradition. lol
And I loved not having my birthday on facebook because then it meant  alot more when people told me happy birthday. I had so many texts from friends and family, and I really reminded me of how lucky I am and how many people care about me. It was perfect. 

 This is when it's awesome to be a teacher. If I woulda had my birthday at my old job, a couple people woulda pretended to care and we would have gone to lunch and had an otherwise boring day. At the middle school however, I swear all 130 of them knew about it and were stoked. They came in between classes to sing, dance, deliver candy, and ask questions about how old I was and what I was going to do for my birthday. They complimented my "birthday headband" and outfit, made me cards, and all of my classes were ultra-behaved. The students sang happy birthday to me in every class period, and Dallin even had flowers delivered during my 3rd period class!
Of course I blushed and the whole class went "AWWW!" And they wanted to smell them and see the card.
Although there are hard days, 12 year olds are still a lot funner to be around on your birthday than adults.

 After School,

I went with the green fam to celebrate my mom's birthday at an amazing Italian restaurant. We sat in the "Pope room" where they have pictures of the pope all over and a plastic pope bust on the table.Lol it was AUTHENTIC! and soooooooo GOOD! It's definitely an experience to go there. I will definitely go back! It was the perfect dinner on my bday because I love italian food. And they sang happy bday to us there (pic on the right with teh candles).

My present from my mom

I asked her to make me this shabby chic sconce I saw on pinterest for in between the bathroom mirrors. She did great and it looks so cute in there!

And all of my birthday festivities aren't even over yet! I'm getting a pedicure tomorrow with shanna and michelle, this weekend we're doing more, and then we're going to Colorado for both dallin and my birthday since we're so close. I'm spoiled!

Upside down french braid

This is the only way I can get all of my hair up into a bun now that it's short. Don't judge, it was hard to make it straight because all the blood was rushing to my head lol I had to put a flower there because there was a big ugly rubber band there holding the braid. 

I'm cutting it shorter on Sunday so I won't be able to do this anymore! I'm stoked to go even shorter!

Just for kicks...

So that's our life.
cya next time!
-Sydney Graff :)