The Family Get Together

Here are some pictures of everyone hanging out after the blessing. It was good to be with everyone again. We missed Ben though.

Ryan and LaCee
Jared
Gary's Get Sexy Book. He puts it by the weights in the basement to help remind him why he's doing what he's doing! :)
Brianna
Darren, Susan, Dave(standing), Heather, Mary Ann, Rose
Heather
Dad
Luke....I told him to smile, and this is the look I got.
Mary Ann, Kevin, Ethan, Dad, Luke, Mom - the walk home from church
Grandma and Grandpa Bartholomew
Rose
Ami
Jake locked outside the sliding door.

Baby Jenna

Here are some cute pictures of the newest member of my family, Jenna.

Jenna in Great-Grandma Bartholomew's arms
Jenna Pooping
Jenna's little hand on my finger.
Jenna blowing kisses.
Jenna and her proud daddy!

Yard Work (cont.)

Saturday before I left for Utah, I had a couple of really nice friends, Matt, Gina, and Dave, come and help me do some work on the yard. I'm getting close to being ready to plant grass. I show you these pictures because I want your opinion. I took out the garden boxes because I think it will give me more planting room.

Before

after

What do you think of moving the white fence out in front? Is it cute, or too cheesy? It's not attached yet...just propped up, so be honest. Doesn't it look so much better without all the straw too??

Jeff helped me get rid of most of the annoying stone that was in the front yard. I left a stepping path to the car port but got rid of the rest. I like it lots better. Now if I can just get some grass to grow. I also moved more dirt over there to help bury the roots from the pine tree.

Where's Waldo?

This last week for FHE we did something really fun. The leaders in our branch dressed up and went and hid in the mall. They were dressed up so good. No one was even able to find one of them. When you found them you had to get their signature. I wish I had a picture of what they looked like normally so you could see the difference.

He was found in foot locker, stocking shelves. I've never seen him without hair. She was in Barnes and Noble in the coffee shop reading a book. I had to walk by her and stare at her several times before I dared go talk to her and get her signature. She normally has black hair.
Camo guy was found in Barnes and Nobel browsing. He was pretty easy to find. The lady in scrubs was never found. She said she was in Sears shopping. She looks completely different. The next lady was found with her husband (the cowboy) outside a dressing room trying on clothes. He sat in the chair outside the dressing room like a typical bored guy waiting for his wife to try on clothes. The mustache is painted on.
He was pretty easy to find. He had his grandson in a stroller pushing him around the halls of the mall. She was in Victoria's Secret folding underwear. It was awesome. The boys didn't dare go in there to get her signature.

Boise

Last week I spent a couple of days in Boise at a conference for school. I was really not looking forward to going. I was told by my principal that I had to go. I didn't really know any of the other teachers that were going, and I was afraid I was going to be super bored.....however...it actually turned out to be a ton of fun. The conference was actually really good, and I got to know the other teachers real quick. Coming back to the hotel from dinner we noticed that there was a dance going on. We stopped by to see if it was our group....it wasn't, but another lady standing in the hall handed us each name tags from one of the tables outside of the dance and dared us to go in...so we did. It was way fun. All the other people were dressed up in their formals. As you can see from the picture we were completely under-dressed. But we were able to dance better than all the rest. We even scored some glow sticks from the DJ.

Enrichment

If any of you are looking for great ideas for an Enrichment activity, I've got one. We were trying to plan the RS Birthday Party. I was in charge of entertainment, so as a joke I told the EQP that we would like the Elders Quorum to tell us how the RS had affected their lives.....and we wanted them to share it with us in either song or interpretive dance. He started laughing and said okay. I was shocked that he would say yes, so I decided to let them really do it. It was so funny!! Here are some pictures to document the evening.

Background music while we ate dinner. They also served us dinner. (This guy was actually in my ward at Snow)
The Relief Society Centerpiece. We each got one of the roses after.
One of the interpretive dances.
Another interpretive dance.
Opening "exercises".

Icicles

I had the coolest icicles on my house. They were huge. The sun has come out and melted them already, but they were cool while they lasted.

A night in Rexburg

I got out of school early last Friday because of parent-teacher conferences so I decided to go to Rexburg for a visit. I went and got my hair cut. Of course I had to go visit the ladies at ARTCO. It was mother's weekend and they needed extra help on Saturday, so they asked me if I would come in and work, so I just stayed in Rexburg for the night and worked Saturday morning.

I watched "Cat in the Hat" with the boys. It was fun. Jake sat through most of the movie. And every time the screen would change so you couldn't see the dog anymore he would put is hands out and say "Where go?" It was really cute. Ethan was sick. He offered to let me come sleep with him in his bed. He's nice like that. And Kevin just imitated Thing 1 and Thing 2...jumping on couches etc.
Jacob and Ethan fighting over the buzz lightyear toy.
Jacob eating M&M's out of my hand. I held my had out so he could grab them and instead, he just dove down and started eating them right out of my hand. It was cute!

Competition

Last weekend we had cheer competition. The girls did really well. They took first in one of their areas, and third in the other. I was proud of them. I thought they did a really good job. This is a picture of their basket toss during competition. It was one of the best ones they have ever done. It's nice to have competition done and have cheer come to an end finally. I like it, but I'm ready for a break.

Spring Fever

Before

after

I'm really getting excited for spring. I know I still have to wait a while before I can do too much, but Saturday was a really nice day so I went out and worked in the yard for a while. I cleared off six bags of yard waste. The rest of it was still frozen to the ground, so I couldn't get it all. Then on Monday, my neighbor brought over his truck and trailer and helped me haul off all the branches that my dad cut off back in November. My yard looks bigger now. And cleaner. I'm getting really excited to plant grass. I've been doing some research on the internet about planting grass, but I'm willing to listen to any ideas you all have for anything in my yard. I've never been a landscaper.

Tis the Season

One of my favorite things about this time of year!!!

Roses

Today at church the Elders Quorum surprised us all by giving each of the girls in the branch a rose for Valentines day. They even attached a name to each rose with a little statement about what they appreciated about us. Aren't they just sweet!! They wrote a little note about how special we all are and how much they appreciate us. All the old ladies in the room were crying!

A trip to Utah

A while back my friends and I made a list of a bunch of things we wanted to do. One of the things on the list was a hockey game. So last weekend we took a trip to Utah to watch the Grizzlies play. It was tons of fun. Before the game we went out to Tepanyaki (I think that's how you spell it) for dinner. It's a Japanese restaurant where they cook your food right on your table. It's good food, and a lot of fun.

Some of the crew eating
Our chef and Jeff
The hockey game. It was a really good game. We got there a little late, but right as we walked in, a huge fight broke out on the ice. I tried to get my camera out fast enough but was only able to get the referees pulling them apart. The game went into overtime, and then into a shoot out. A win for the Grizzlies!

Spring??

Susan posted about everything starting to melt, so I decided to post a picture of my yard. All the snow is starting to melt, and I can see my messy yard again. I'm going to have a lot of work this summer. I'm really looking forward to planting grass, and hauling these limbs off that have been sitting there for months. If anyone is looking for some yard work this summer, you're more than welcome to come over. I plan on pulling up most of those stepping blocks, to allow for more grass. I think it's going to be pretty hard as I've been told that they are pretty heavy. I guess I'll just have to invite some strong boys over to help. :)

Cheer

So we were digging in the cheer closet today and found these sweet outfits. We then realized that cheerleaders used to be bigger than they are now, so we could fit into the cheer uniforms. At first I found the small poms but then after we dug for a while we found the monster ones you see in the first picture. Pictured here with me is Amy, the other cheer coach.



This is just a picture of me working the music for practice with Isabell. Isabell is the daughter of a girl that comes and helps us coach just for fun.

Sewing Class

So I've started teaching sewing this semester. It's been a challenge. I've never taught sewing before, so deciding where to start and what exactly I want to teach has been a bit of a challenge. However, my mother inspired me with all of the rag quilts she made for the grandchildren. I decided it would be an easy enough project for my classes to do. It's all straight seems, and I can teach them how to use the rotary cutter, and teach them the importance of seam finishes. I'm making one out of these fabrics, to demo it for them. Then I stole one of my nephew's quilts to show them what one looks like when it's all done.
I decided while I was working on this project that as soon as my washer and dryer are paid for my next purchase will be a kitchen table and chairs. It has to be a table that doesn't shake all over the place when I sew. Right now the little card table I have just doesn't do the trick. It drives me crazy to sew on it. Plus it's tiny!

Chocolate Fountain and Fondue

I guess since Darren and Susan can't update right now, I will post pictures from last weekend. We got together at their house and had a Chocolate fountain, and cheese fondue. It was tons of fun. Then we played games and had a sleepover. My favorite combo was the pretzels in the chocolate, and then at the end we got Ritz crackers, spread some peanut butter, and dipped them in the chocolate. That was tasty. We also had strawberries, pineapple and marshmallows. MMM Good. My favorite thing in the cheese was the ham. We also had bread, pineapple, and pretzels for that too. Don't you all wish you lived closer so you could come party with us??

ARTCO

I stopped in to visit my friends at ARTCO the other day when I was in Rexburg. It was so good to see them. I rode up with Jessie, so I just waited around ARTCO until she was ready to come back home. While I waited, I started helping them put together some notepads for Valentine's Day, hauled some stuff up from warehouse, and counted paper. In the back room I found this poster: A big round circle that says "Bang head here!!"



I guess they've had it pretty rough since I left. The girls they hired to take my place have been real flaky. One of them decided just to not show up to work for three days....so needless to say she no longer works there. My supervisor said that she wanted me to come back. I told her it might would be fun to come back up during the summer, but that it would have to be worth it for me to drive everyday. She told me that she could start me at the same wages that I ended at. Then a couple days later she sent me an email with an "official offer of employment". What do I do????!! It would be nice to have some extra money...maybe I could buy a piano. But then I wonder if it would be worth it to give up my free time for the summer. Any suggestions???

Waiting for the Bus

I'm getting all sorts of harassment about not posting so here goes. I don't have a picture to put on yet. I need to find the cord to my camera, so I'll post a poem I found. It's written by 27....whoever that is.

Waiting for the Bus

There are times in life when we are all waiting for the bus.
Sometimes we miss it, admit it, in that instant we might cuss.
The driver stopping at his stop taking the passengers to their various destinations.
When in life there is only one stop, one chance, one driver, one realization
We must do what it takes to be on time
When that driver pulls up with His bus, we must be in line.
Because there is only one stop, one driver, one time,
for all of us to be in line.
Don't be the ones that he can see in the rearview as he pulls away from the stop
it will hurt him to see you.
You have a chance. Are you going to take it?
If opportunity knocks, will you hear it?



So lets analyze this poem. What do you think it means???

Darren's Art Show

So Darren has some work displayed in the faculty art show up at the university, so we decided to go up Friday night see the show and then hang out with them for a while. He did a great job. All the people that were looking at the same time as us really liked his work as well.

After we got done at the art show, we went to Craigo's for some pizza. Jeff and I were almost broadsided by a truck that didn't see us along side of him and went to pass the car in front of him in a hurry. But thanks to Jeff's mad drivings skills we weren't touched. I was shaking for a while after though. While at Craigo's, Jeff started swinging Kevin on his arm. When he got done, Kevin said "You should go to the circus" When we asked him why, he said "You could be a ride there. That's fun!" It was pretty funny.

After dinner Jon and Darren decided to help the waitress by stacking the glasses to make it easier for her to carry them. Aren't they nice?
We then headed over to Susan and Darren's to play some cards. As we were leaving, Jeff opened the door for me as he usually does, and I leaned over to unlock his door. When I looked up, he was no where to be found. Then I see his hands on the hood of the car as he's pulling himself up off the ground. It was pretty slick, and he ate it big time. I couldn't help but laugh, and made him pose for a picture. I still laugh now, just thinking about it. He's okay though. No harm done...except maybe his ego. :)

Mess Maker

I had the opportunity to hang out at Mary Ann's house for a few days over break. We decided to make fruit smoothies one night. As I was pouring the shakes into the glass all of the shake came bursting out and spilled all over. Fortunately I was pouring over the sink so I didn't have too big a mess to clean up. They were tasty shakes. I guess that's what really counts!

Kate's Wedding

While I was home for break I had the opportunity to attend the wedding reception of one of my most favorite companions from the Mission: Hna. Kelly. We got a long so well. Kate has never been known to be like everyone else. She has her way of doing things different. Here are a few pictures from her reception. The Theme: Masquerade

Masquerade Cookies
Me and the Bride
Bride and Groom (Neil and Kate)
Mary Ann, Me, and CC sporting the masks were were able to make at the mask making booth at the reception.
Her cake top.