Slight Addiction

We received this game for Christmas and we've been playing it ever since.  We're a little addicted.  :)

No More Tests!

Scott and I have just relieved a huge burden from our careers--nursing and teaching.

 For my teaching career, I have to pass two tests that are called Praxis tests.  One is to initially get my teaching license and the test is in whatever area of subject you graduated in, so mine was in Family and Consumer Sciences.  I took that one about 4 years ago.  The second test is called The Principles of Teaching and Learning Praxis Test.  This test will allow any teacher in any subject to receive their tenure in teaching.  This Praxis tests all knowledge of generalized teaching information (classroom management, theorists, students as learners, etc.).  I took this test first back in November and barely didn't pass.  I took it again in January, just found out my results and I barely PASSED!!  Whew, this is such a sigh of relief to know that this test is done and over with and I can move on and receive my tenure soon.

Scott's huge burden in his nursing career is called the NCLEX. 

I have no idea what it stands for, but all I know is that if you don't pass the test, you don't become a nurse. (His test is so much easier to understand than mine)  Since Scott had been hired on for a R.N. position already, he needed to pass this test to continue working and not lose his job.  We just found out this afternoon that HE PASSED HIS NURSING BOARDS TEST!!!!

What a sigh of relief this is.  Who knows what would have happened with his future had he not passed.  He studied really hard the week before and week of and it totally paid off in the end.

I am so proud of both of us.  We have both just achieved huge accomplishments and couldn't have done it without the support of each other.  I love the support we have between the two of us in all that we do.  That is one of the many things that makes our marriage great.

Valentine Crafts

I usually don't do too much for Valentine's Day in the sense of decorations, food, etc.  This year I decided to do a little more than usual, since I had the time. 

I finally finished the felt rosette wreath!!  We don't have a door hanger, so we just taped it up.  It lasted probably about an hour before it fell down, so I took a picture of us down off the wall and hung it up on the nail from the picture.

Rebecca (sis-in-law) was super nice to let me come over and get some cake decorating tips from her.  I got a basic set for Christmas and decided this was the perfect opportunity to try it out.  Obviously, you can tell that I am just a beginner, but I think they look pretty good despite my lack of artistic ability.  Thanks Rebecca for taking time out of your busy schedule to help out!

I found the X & O salt and pepper shakers at Hallmark and the subway art in the picture frame, I downloaded and printed it out at Costco. 

I printed off these cute Valentine notes and taped a few of them throughout the house for Scott to find in the morning.  Thank goodness Scott checked 'yes' on the 'Will You Be My Valentine?' one ;)

 As a little treat for when we got home from dinner and the movie, I bought these mini Martinelli's, printed out the card, taped it on one and put it next to a plate of these Chocolate Dipped Cream Cheese Filled Strawberries that I made.  I don't have a picture of the ones that I made because they really didn't turn out that pretty, but they did taste yummy!

All in all, it was fun to have a few crafts and decorations done to celebrate the holiday without going overboard.

Valentine's Day

 Valentine's Day went pretty well this year.  Only one little blip happened, but other than that it was pretty great!

I like to have my 8th grade students do a fun cooking lab for Halloween in the first semester and Valentine's Day in the second semester.  I have them make sugar cookies because it is an easy way to celebrate the holiday.  Just cut out the cookies in shapes that represent that holiday.  The kids make the cookies and I make the frosting for them.  The kids have a blast and love being able to decorate (even the boys) the cookies.  It's a busy, tiring day for me, but it's nice to see how much the students enjoy it.

So, the school district I'm in is crazy and decided to have parent/teacher conferences on Valentine's Day and the day after.  Do they really not think that teacher's have lives and would rather spend it with loved ones instead of parents?  Anyways, I am super lucky and since I am 3/4 part-time, I only have to attend one day of conferences.  Obviously, I chose to do it the day after, so I could spend Valentine's with my husband.

Scott called me on his way home from school and asked if I received anything at school.  I said no and Scott had ordered me flowers, but they never arrived!  He called the flower company and at 4:00pm, they were just on their way to be delivered.  Obviously that wouldn't work since I'm a teacher and get done before then.  So, he cancelled the delivery for that day and got refunded the money he paid for a guaranteed delivery on Valentine's Day.  The company said they would re-deliver on Thursday, so Scott said sure, but he was still upset that I didn't get my Valentine's surprise.  I was fine with it because it's the fact that he thought to order me flowers and have them delivered to my school that was sweet.  Anyways, I got the flowers delivered on Wednesday.  He got me an orchid plant in a cute little cup.  Then came today and I got another flower delivery of the same flower!  We're not sure what happened, but we're hoping that he didn't get charged twice for the flowers.  I am totally fine with having two pretty orchid plants.

The one on the left I got first and the one on the right I got today.

So, Scott got home from school, took a shower and off we went to my favorite restaurant Applebee's!!  I seriously love that place.  We went at 5:00 and it was the perfect time to go because it wasn't that busy and we only had to wait 5 minutes for a table.

 After dinner, we had some time before the movie started, so we went shoe shopping and I got some cute shoes on sale!  After that, we went and saw the movie "This Means War".  It was pretty funny and we enjoyed it!  We saw the special Valentine's showing, but it really doesn't open until tomorrow.

Then we came home, relaxed and went to bed.  It was great to go out and do something and see a movie (I love movies).  I just love my husband so much and I'm glad we got to celebrate on this day of love!

Let the Training Begin!

At the beginning of January, I did something crazy.  Maybe it was all the talk of New Year's resolutions that got me to do it, but I did it. I signed Scott and I up to run the UTAH VALLEY MARATHON!!!!

June 9th will be the day that we run 26.2 miles.  Now, why on earth would I sign us up for such pain? (I know that the picture says "pain you enjoy", but I doubt that I will be enjoying myself until its over)  Scott has already ran a marathon before (I'm still not sure why.  You'll have to ask him about it. He was not thinking when he was younger. haha), but this is a bucket list item of mine.  I am no hard-core runner by any means, but I love the atmosphere of races.  I've done a few 5k's, a 4 mile race (our turkey trot run this year), a 10k and a half-marathon.  I've also done the Ragnar Relay race twice.  The marathon is the only race I have not accomplished yet.

I ran cross-country in high school, but once I got to college, I stopped running.  I, sadly, gained the "Freshman 15" and to lose some weight, I started running again.  I signed up to run a 10k race with a friend in college.  I loved running again and the atmosphere of the race, especially since it was the DAM Marathon race. :)

My friend Arian and I after the race.

After that, I wanted to continue running and racing.  The next year, I ran the half-marathon in the same race.  I ran this one by myself, but it felt so good to do it.

The Ragnar Relay has been one of the funnest races I've ran.  It's been great the two times I've ran it.

First time running Ragnar.

2nd time running.  Team Risky Business.

Me and my cousin Ben and his wife Jessica.

I'm pretty sure this is going to be one of the best only New Years Resolutions I'm going to complete.  I am actually pretty excited to start training, getting in shape and eating healthier.  If you have any tips to help me train, I would love to hear!  Let's get training! *Rocky music playing...*

What's been going on...

Here are some updates on life:

The Husband: Scott has started working at his new R.N. job!  His first day was Sunday night and it went well for him.  He is with a trainer, so he works all the shifts that she does and so he will mostly work graveyard shifts (7pm-7am) and 3pm-11:30pm shifts.  It will definitely be an adjustment for him to start working graveyards again.  He had graveyard shifts when he did his internship last summer, so it's been a while.  It's exciting to think that he is working at a job where he truly wants to work.

Ready to head out to his first day of work!

The Wife:  Teaching is going good for me.  I went to a conference on Saturday and it is always nice to hear different ideas from other teachers.  I actually used an idea that I heard on Saturday while teaching today and it went well, so as boring as those conferences are, I can get some helpful information.  In my spare time, I have been working on a craft project.  I am halfway done in making a felt rosette wreath for Valentine's Day.  It should probably be done by now, but as long as it's up by Valentine's Day, I'll be happy.

 The two of us: Scott did the sweetest thing last Friday, the 3rd.  I was teaching and at my school and Fridays are shorter days to where school is done at 12:30pm instead of 2:45pm.  The teachers then have meetings from 12:30-2:45.  Anyways, the point is that I got done teaching early around 10:45am.  I wasn't expecting to see Scott until later that afternoon when I was done with school.  I had just barely finished teaching my last class and was at my desk when I looked up and I see Scott walking in holding some flowers.  He had to come up to the area to do things for his new job and decided to stop by and say hi.  I think the last time he came to visit me at school was while we were dating/engaged, so it was such a surprise!  I was so happy to see him and since I was finished teaching and my meetings wouldn't start for another hour or so, we went out to lunch.  It was so nice just to spend time and talk with him.  I hadn't seen him for the last 3 days because of our opposite schedules.
I love bragging about how lucky I am to have married such a sweet guy.  Here are my pretty flowers: