A Quick Update

Well the house is finally finished and we are trying to get moved in all while finishing up the semester. Things are a little crazy to say the least. We love the house and are so excited to finally be in. THe first thing I had to do was get a Christmas tree and put it up...Kyle was not so excited. I also made him buy lights to put on the house this weekend. He sent me this e-mail begging for some kind of break (to bad our neighbors don't have any lights on their house.)

Student Teaching

Just an update about student teaching....I'm loving it so far except for yesterday.... they were terrible, and of course I was getting observed three days before Halloween when the kids are at their craziest. Let's just say I wanted to crawl into bed after that lesson and never get out. Unfortunately I had to get up and start the day all over again and I started wondering why I would want to do this to myself the rest of my life, but then I gave them a pre-test today and after reading their answers I remembered why.
They got this picture and had to write what it means:


Here are some of the answers they put:
1. bathroom spot
2. for old people
3. people with whill chairs are going to go on a cross walk
4. parking if you have a sign
5. wheel chair parking
6. poking (parking) It took me awhile to get that he just spelled this one wrong. I really thought he put poking.

Finally....the house begins!

Our house finally started getting built. It is such a distraction waiting for it to get done, but we are way excited and hopefully it will be done in a few months.



Our Backyard

Kyle's Brithday

Last Thursday was Kyle's birthday. It wasn't too exciting because he had to work and go to school all day, but hopefully he still had a good one. I gave him two pairs of Jordan shoes that he has been wanting forever. We got a baby pair of them this summer so I just had to get him the big pair. I don't know why I fuel his obsession with shoes that just sit in the boxes in his closet, but I know how happy he is when he gets a new pair so I just had to.

Go Pine View!

Last night was my little brother Mike's first football game with the Pine View Panthers. It is his senior year and he is so excited to finally be playing. The whole time we were in Hawaii he kept saying how much he wanted to go home so football could start. Talk about a crazy kid. During the opening minutes of the game the quarterback threw the ball directly to Mike who was wide open. I swear the ball hung in the air for 20 min and the whole time I was praying catch the ball, please catch the ball. He did and then ran it up the field for the first touchdown of the season! I was so excited for him! He made some some other good catches and some good stops on defense as well. This is the picture that was in the paper of him this morning.

Oh so lucky!

So I've never really thought of myself as lucky. In fact the very opposite. If I speed I always get pulled over, when I play keno in casino restaurants just for fun....I never win, and not to mention that just doing normal daily activities usually ends with me getting hurt. However, after what happened yesterday I'm starting to think that maybe I'm not that unlucky after all. After work I decided to go to Wal-mart and do the grocery shopping. So I get all the groceries, pay, and unload the groceries into my car. After returning the shopping cart I got in my car and drove away. Little did I know I left my purse sitting in the cart. Well the next day I go looking for my purse and it and it is nowhere to be found. After I looked in our house and cars and it wasn't there I started panicking. I knew Kyle was going to be so mad because he is always telling me to keep track of my purse because I do admit I don't pay that much attention to it. As I started thinking of where I had it last I could only think of Wal-Mart so I figured what the heck I'll call and see if someone turned it in. As I waited for the lady to look I thought there is no way it is there. For one, I can't be stupid enough to have left it in the cart and second, there is no way someone would turn it in if they found it. When the lady got back on the phone she said "ya it's here come get it." I about fainted when she told me it was there and couldn't believe that someone actually turned it in. When I told Kyle all he said was "that's my wife" like I do stuff like this all the time :)

Hawaii-Internationl Marketplace

Our hotel was across the street from the international marketplace so we were there almost every night seeing what else we could buy. People line the streets with their little businesses and try to sell things. There were these guys that brought these very colorful birds and would take pictures for people holding the birds. Guys would also spray paint themselves and stand completely still until you put money in their buckets. Then they would spring to life and do some crazy gesture or dance. The first day we were there Michael found this statue and Kyle got a picture of him. It's pretty funny.

Hawaii-Pearl Harbor

On the last day before we had to be at the airport we went to the Pearl Harbor cemetary and the USS Arizona monument. There's a different feeling at Pearl Harbor and it is insane seeing the battleships sunk under water, how big they were, and how it all happened.

Hawaii-Helicopter Tour

We went on a Helicopter tour around the island and saw a lot of cool things. There have been so many movies and TV shows shot on Oahu it was interesting to see where they all were filmed. We saw where Jurassic Park was filmed, The TV show LOST, the house where Mr. Miagi lived in Karate Kid, Blush Crush, 50 First Dates, etc. Seeing Pearl Harbor from high up was also way cool and the fields after fields of Pineapple growing at the Dole Plantation was crazy. It rained a lot of the time and the wind was very unsettling, but we made it out alive.

Hawaii-Sharks

Yes, we were going to get in a cage and swim with the sharks. We were all so excited, but then when we got out there the water was a little rough and the guides were nervous about it so we weren't able to do it. We tried to reschedule, but they were booked for the duration of our vacation. When we first got out there was saw a ton of sharks swimming around the boat and I was freaking out. Then as we got talking to the guides they said that they actually swim with them some times without the cage because the cage breaks and they have to get in and fix it. They also gave us some other information that many people are misinformed about and then I started to calm down. It was still fun to see the sharks, but I can't wait until I can get into a cage and swim with them!

Hawaii-Scuba Diving

Scuba diving was probably my favorite thing just because I couldn't go the last time we went to Hawaii and didn't think I was going to be able to do it this time, but my ears decided to cooperate and we got to see some turtles and other fish. There were these weird little creatures that we would flick and purple stuff would come squirting out of them.

Hawaii-Waterfalls

So I found this ad in one of the Hawaiian tourist books for a secret waterfall tour and thought it would be way fun. We hiked to two waterfalls and were able to swim in the second one and jump off a 30 ft cliff into the water. The other people that went on the hike with us clearly had never jumped off something that high into water beofre so Derek and Michael (used to jumping off cliffs at powell and sand hollow) went first to show everyone that they weren't going to die. After we all went the other families decided they would go to, however they weren't very good at landing and smacked the water pretty hard.

Hawaii-Laie Temple

While we were waiting for the show to start at the PCC we decided to go over to the temple and check it out. It was closed for renovation so Kyle and I couldn't go in it,, which we were way bummed about, but we decided to still put it on our list. The temple doesn't look that good because of the renovations, but Derek and Michael were being super funny and doing the funniest faces in the pictures.

Hawaii-PCC

Kyle's favorite thing was the Polynesian Culture Center. We were there all day learning about the different Polynesian Cultures. At Samoa I made the mistake of grabbing some coconuts that the guide was handing out to people (apparently we missed this show last time) and then learned I had to go on stage and do a dance that they taught you. Let's just say I was the only one over the age of 8 and was very embarrassed. Later that night we went to a Luau and then a show called "The Breath of Life." It was amazing!

Hawaii-Dole Plantation

Of course we had to visit the Dole Plantation and get pineapple ice cream. We tried to do the maze, but it was hot, confusing, and to get your card stamped at each checkpoint you had to wait in a long line of people so we found one checkpoint and decided to call it quits.

Hawaii-Pali Lookout

We went to Pali lookout where a war or something forced armies to retreat off the cliff (didn't really pay attention) Anyways, it was a sweet view.

Hawai-Hanauma Bay

We went snorkeling at Hanauma and saw tons of fish and weird looking things.

Hawaii-Sandy Beach

Our trip to Hawaii was so awesome and way fun! I really didn't want to leave and usually after long vacations I can't wait to come home. I'll post everything we did in seperate posts because we did so much. We went to a beach called Sandy Beach. We found it the last time we went to Hawaii and had to go back. The waves break really close to the shore and if you are in the right spot they completely take you out and roll you up the beach. It is way fun, but really dangerous. Just as we got there the lifeguard made an announcement telling everyone that this beach is not safe and has a high percentage of broken backs and necks. It was comforting to hear. All of us got rolled at least once and that was enough. It hurts pretty bad and my sister and I almost lost our swimming suits. Here's some pics of the waves. Since Kyle has never been to this beach he was all for getting in the waves, but Derek and Michael knew better than to get too close.

Draper

Yesterday we went up to Draper to be at my half sister's sealing to her husband and little boy in the Draper Temple. We went up a few hours before the sealing and went to the mall. We were actually surprised when we left that mall without spending a single dollar. After the sealing we went to another mall and this time spent way too much money, but we just kept seeing all this stuff we wanted to have for our Hawaii trip coming up. Then we ate at P.F. Chang's because we both had never been. It was really good. The Draper Temple was so pretty tucked away in the hills. There were huge houses surrounding the temple (most of them for sale), but the view was incredible. We tried to get a good picture of us in front the temple, but the wind was blowing, the sun was right behind us, and we had no one to take the picture for us. Luckily Rachael (half sister) and Brandon came out and finally took a good picture for us. One more Temple down on our goal to attend as many temples as we can.

My Birthday!

June 30th was my birthday and it was so much fun. Kyle brought me flowers to work and then later in the day we had a big family get together with mine and Kyle's family at my dad's house. Mandy loves to throw parties and goes above and beyond what is expected. All the kids swam and had so much fun going down the water slide (even though they were cut up and bleeding by the time they were done). We had two pinatas for the kids to hit, but none of the kids were able to break the first pinata so I had to step in and take care of it. They were completely full of candy and the kids had sackfuls that were comparable to Halloween Trick-or-Treating. The younger kids didn't get as much candy as the older kids because they didn't understand why candy was falling from the sky, but they still got quite a bit. There was tons of food and snow cones (which everyone loves) and Kyle threw me into the pool like he said he was going to. Kyle got me sunglasses and shoes that were I love and Natalie and Jamie (Kyle's sisters) got me a picture frame and a really cute plant decoration for our house. I also got money from Kyle and his parents that I will be forced to spend because I never spend money on myself (so they say). I wish I would have gotten more pictures, but here is a few of the nieces and nephews.

Wedding and Reception

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Critical Swine Flu prevention tip: DON'T DO THIS!

Old School

Since Kyle was so fed up with our internet he decided to cancel it before making arrangements with another internet company, so we haven't had internet for a couple weeks, but will be getting it soon (hopefully). I've been using my dads computer at work to get the blog started and was looking through the pictures he has on it and found some old ones of us up at Jacob's lake where we have the McLaws family reunion every other year. Michael looks so little and i'm sure Gina will appreciate the picture she took of herself being shown to the world. Last year I took Kyle to his first McLaws reunion and i'm surprised he decided to marry me after meeting my family. My dad has 5 brothers and they spent the day asking Kyle to bear his testimony and then harassing him because he wouldn't. Then, if you know my uncle Mike and my brothers you know that when putting those three close to eachother something crazy will surely happen. This particular year Mike brought his paintball gun and the day ended with my dad's yukon being splattered with paint and Kyle and my brother running down the road screaming, I swear like girls, as my uncle shot at them. It was pretty funny. I think Kyle must have liked it though because a few months later he decided to let his brother and dad shoot at him with paintball guns while he ran across the backyard.

Finally!

Well I FINALLY got this thing going. I started it probably last summer when Kyle and I got engaged, but haven't really touched it because of the craziness with the wedding, holidays, and school. Since I have some what of a break until school starts again I just had to get it up and going. Here are some pictures of the wedding (once I figure out how to put pictures on this haha) for those of you who haven't seen them yet.