A Day With The Graffs: Made it to April

Hello there. The last couple of weeks have been one surprise after another.

2 Weekends Ago

Our date last Saturday was going out to eat with Alan. He is an old family friend and he's just such an awesome guy. He used to date my mom when I was in 2nd grade I think (crazy right?!?) and we've kept in touch. He lives in central Utah with his family now so Dallin and I haven't seen him in a long time. It was so good to try a new restaurant together and catch up. We had a lot of fun!

After that we took the kids to the field.

It was so sunny out that we were literally sweating. That was the day that it was 72 degrees outside. It felt so good that we wanted to continue it and we decided to go tanning.

MAJOR MISTAKE

I fell asleep in the tanning bed, and had to go to school on Monday looking like this. If you're a health teacher looking for a way to show the students what NOT to do, just scorch your skin. I was so embarrassed that I had become a walking advertisement for anti-skin cancer campaigns in a junior high. So, instead of fess up to the whole tanning bed thing, I decided to make a game of it. I was trying to spread a thousand different rumors around the school about what happened. So each time a student asked me how I got sun burned, I came up with a different, extravagant story. For example, "I was gardening my 40 acres of land over the weekend." "I went to the Bahamas for a day and came back." "I went up into the mountains to see if I could live off the land." "I biked all the way to California and back." "I went out for a walk and got lost." Etc. It was pretty fun, but it didn't work unfortunately.

There were several stages. 1. Magenta and immovable

2. Red and stiff

3. Pink and Okay

4. Tan and Beachy looking

5. Flakey, multicolored, & as itchy as a dog with fleas.

This pic was on day 5 of course. The tan was peeling off, leaving me with sections of tan, white falling off skin, and other white parts where it had already peeled. HOT.

It was especially embarassing after the sun was no longer out. There were 2 other teachers who came back from the weekend with sun burns for actual legit reasons, so it felt okay at first. But once this happened, I just felt like a red girl that was trying too hard. lol I hate "spring."

Cutie Kids.

I couldn't find Jake, and finally he poked his head out. He had smashed himself into the tiniest space ever! He's done it once again since this, and it is the funniest thing to see him try and get out. He has to jerk and drag his body out. lol You do what you have to do to get privacy I guess! (In that picture, Josie's asking him how on earth he got in there.)

Jake and Dallin have a really special bond, and we always end up separating in the evening. The boys cuddle and the girls cuddle.

I don't really know why, but for some reason Josie loves me more and Jakey loves Dallin more. That's an exaggeration of course because we love both, but I think that's the best part about having 2 dogs. We both get cuddles, but there's not one getting left out. I wouldn't want more than 2.

(Josie does this thing where she likes to just stare lovingly into my eyes lol and don't worry. That brown thing is just the arm of a teddy bear that they ripped off. It looks like poop, but it's not.)

Clearlink Perks

Dallin and Brian are trying to make it so that more of the incentives have a plus one because it gets annoying to be the one always getting left behind. Anyway, we got to go to a free dinner at Carvers! I freaking love that place. I ate so much because it was so good. I decided I like scallops!

Us with the human Jake! :)

We got to go see the superman vs. batman movie on clearlink too! They rented out the theater so we took Whitney and Shad with us. It was fun even though I thought the movie was lame and I laughed at all the wrong parts. lol I just think super heroes should have to wear pants is all.

Saturday

Last Saturday we didn't really have a date since we knew we were going out Monday. So we stayed in and watched a movie and ordered chinese. It was great to relax since life has been so busy lately.

Nails.

Gave up on the gel. This way just works better for me. That pink one is a lot prettier it just doesn't photograph well I guess. It's one of my favorites.

Workin' Hard

Holy crap it's done. March is done. Ugh I hated March. It is definitely "incessant." We finally FINISHED THE YEARBOOK!!!! It's done. The only thing I have left to do is submit it. Now I've replaced that section of the board with "37 school days left." lol I can see the light.

Plus, we're on spring break now!! Woo hoo!

Our teacher supply receipts were due today so I bought PE equippment. Although it's not a lot, it will definitely help if I can keep buying a little more each year to build up the supply we have.

TRAGEDY STRUCK. I opened an email on my school account that had a virus that wiped every file from my computer. EVERYTHING. I was so depressed over losing a full year's worth of work that I went through all the stages of grief. My students even felt bad for me. I guess that will be my project for spring break. Re-making all of the disclosures, worksheets, signs, handouts, lesson plans, and downloading all of the music and videos again. It could've been worse. I'm so glad the yearbook is made online, because we would've been screwed.

Look! That yellow bar was only half way like a month ago and we finished it all up!

We've had our first couple soccer games and the team did pretty good.

It's the end of the quarter so we had to submit grades. No one really did this, I just thought it was funny.

We got to go on a feild trip to see the new building that they built for us next year. It looks really good! I'm really excited for it.

Draft Day for Doctors

So match day happened for Trenden. It was really cool that they streamed it on the internet so that we could watch it live. I was trying so hard to be happy for him, but literally while I was watching it, the tech guy was telling me I had lost all my files and there's nothing he could do. So I was pretty stressed while I watched this.

Each student walked up and said where they're going in the microphone and then went and put their sticker on the state.

There he is putting on his sticker. He's going to OHIO! Whew! I think they're happy with it and he seemed excited so I'm excited for them too. It's really pretty in the midwest. So now they have a couple of weeks to pack up and move out! My mom is down there now helping them because Kaylynn's gonna pop any day and Trenden has to go to New Mexico for his last rotation. So I'm sure life will be very busy for them the next few months with everything going on.

The presidential stuff going on seems to be a bigger deal right now than it usually is. The students are even talking about it, and I don't think I was that aware when I was their age. I swear every other commercial is about a candidate.

House Stuff

We've been going over several different options with our next move for another house. There are pros and cons with everything, and it's hard to know exactly how much risk to take. So we've looked at existing homes, and been to builders to see about building. We've thought about condos, student housing, flipping a house, and on and on. We're just weighing the options but at least getting close with deciding. This was Dallin in a model home.

We wanted to build this one but ended up deciding against it.

Big Momma's House

We had the family dinner at my mom's last week. She was looking over some floorplans with us and telling us her experience with building. It was good to see them all again. It's been a long time since everyone's been so busy.

Easter

Easter was kinda lame this year. We just mostly laid around watching tv and not really doing anything to celebrate. This was our first year not doing anything for Easter too. (Seriously- St. Patrick's day, my half birthday, and Easter? Are we becoming old? I always celebrate every holiday!) We did go to Matthew and Shanna's for easter dinner with the graffs, and the littles had an egg hunt.

Witnessing a Legend

Best. Night. Ever. We got to see Kobe Bryant up close! It was the most amazing experience and I'm so glad we went. It was so cool to watch a game that close- I think I'm ruined. Watching games any other way will no longer suffice. Anyway, he's Dallin's idol, and it was his last game in Utah. So when he walked off after his last play, he got a standing ovation. I know he didn't play very well, and the lakers got their trash beat, but it was the coolest thing in the world regardless of the outcome. That's a memory we'll always have.