Girls night

Sometimes you just need to spend some quality time with a friend. 

We started the night's adventures at Walmart buying laundry detergent because I just soon realized that I had just been using fabric softener for the last month! Whoops. It was necessary to get the right stuff as soon as possible. We also loaded up on St. Patricks day Lucky Charms and Reese Puffs which are my favorite!

Then off to Subway for dinner and to celebrate $5 footlong February! We also won a great prize of free drinks and a cookie! 

Our goal was to make it bowling and since it was a Saturday night it was busy and we had to wait for a little while. What better way to wait than play arcade games!

Katie is really good at this game and stopping it on the jackpot, I have no idea how she does it! Pure talent!

Gigantic connect 4 game was amazing!

We finally got to bowl and went almost 4 games, my first was definitely my best and then they went to cosmic bowling and it threw off my game!

Afterwards we used all our tickets to get some awesome cheap prizes!

I love ring pops!

My mom is the coolest!

Do you want to know something really super cool?!

My mom was a zombie before being a zombie was so cool! These days zombies are the new thing, but in 1976(?) Dawn of the Dead was filmed in the Monroeville Mall and my mom was in it! I finally sat down and watched it while I was home and just being honest, it is kind of a bad movie. But I also wasn't alive in the 70's when this was super good.

You are a movie star!

mom in the red shirt, dead laying on top of the pile!

I think she is trying to find someone to eat!

I wanna go home!

I. Love. Home.

Well even though there are many days that more than anything else I just want to go home, I realize that I can't. That is one of the side effects of me living so far away. But the week of Valentine's day I received a text message from Erica telling me that Pappy Guy was not doing so good. She has been awesome at keeping me updated when he is not doing well because we never really knew when the end was coming for him. Well according to the family the time was finally coming to a close. Erica was keeping herself pulled together but it takes a lot for her to show emotions. With my upcoming 4 day weekend I was prompted with the idea of going home. And that never happens because it usually is not possible. But I wanted to follow through and so the first thing was to check for plane tickets, which I was assuming would be like $800, and for the most part they were. Except good old Southwest! I found the perfect times to leave and come back for only $350. After that I knew I was supposed to go so I booked my flight and called Erica.

I thought about surprising her again but I felt like I needed her to know that I was coming to be there for her. When I called her on the phone and told her I had something to tell/ask her, she jumped to the conclusion that I was getting married! (later that night talking to my mom she did the same thing!) Anyway I told her I was coming and she just started crying and said I love you Megan! That moment right there was why I knew this was right.

Valentine's day 2013 is going down in history as the best one ever. I did wake up around 4am from a text from Erica saying that Pappy Guy had officially passed that morning, and as sad and heartbreaking as that was I had some good conversations with Heavenly Father about taking care of my Pappy Guy for me now that he was with Him. But then I went to school where my children are crazy like always and to add on I handed out 6 dozen cupcakes to keep them on sugar highs all day and then passed out more candy with valentine cards.

I just had to capture her hands in food because she hates being sticky and gross and I just laughed!

(This is not me!)

Looking through old pictures to find ones of pappy. It makes you feel like part of the family when you find pictures of yourself in another families photos!

Sometimes we always like to eat or are hungry! So one night we decided to get a pizza from the Pie Shoppe and watch the Penguins game at home. We called in the order to pick it up as we were passing. We just decided that we were hungry we would get a large, not asking how many slices! Well we were in for a big surprise and when we saw it all we could do was laugh! To us it was hysterical and the lady working my have thought we were nuts but we just kept making jokes about how we did not expect it to be so big. I will say that it barely fit in the car and that brought on a whole new laughing fit!

Oh I had to get a Pie Shoppe gob and it was just like I remembered!!

Another night we went to Eat n Park and afterwards Jeff and I really wanted the smiley cookie so we bought the big ones! When you are little they give these to you for free, but not anymore since we are so big I guess! 

I was just as happy to be coming home so that I could see my parents. I felt like I hadn't  talked to them much since leaving for Christmas because of my mom training and being away for pretty much the month of January. I was lucky to got spend time with them before work and after work that weekend and did lots of talking. I sometimes wonder if I talk to much but then I realize no, I don't! I was filling them in on stories and adventures of my life. A couple times I even got them to laugh real hard! One night we lost power and my mom and I stayed up talking until my dad came home and then she went to bed and I stayed up talking to him until the power came back on. Sometimes the best time together is just sitting around and chatting about life and truly learning more about other people, especially family! I was even lucky enough to spend some time with Nick! He met me at the mall one day and we walked around talking and then I went to his house and watched some hockey and talked some more. I do really love my family and miss being around them all the time. But for now I am supposed to live super far away from them for whatever reason.


I did spend a lot of the weekend with the Beitel's at the funeral home. 3 viewings and a funeral service were enough for the whole town of Jeannette to come and pay their respects to this great man. Erica and I over the years have just been in agreeance that you bottle up our emotions and don't let anyone see you be weak. Well every once in a while the bottle gets too full and the top pops off. I am glad I got to be there for her when her top popped because not many people understand me like she does and I also don't think a lot of people understand her like I do. I guess that's why this friendship is so amazing and rare.

The amazing Pappy Albert Guy

 

During some down time as we were waiting. One is Jeff's and the other is mine, can you guess whose is whose!? hahahaha

It was an amazing service and then driving up to the graveyard and seeing the 2 firetrucks with ladders up and hanging an American flag, was so cool. I can't even begin to describe how much this man gave to people around him and loved them, because I don't even know. I only knew him in his late 80's until he was 96! That's a lot of years of doing good that I missed.

Sometimes you just need your best friend...I love you Geeka

Learning to Snowboard

I can't believe that I forgot to blog about this wondrous day! I learned how to snowboard! Last year when I moved to Utah I learned that January is learn to ski/snowboard month and there are some really great deals. I did not have any friends last year to go with so I never made it last year. I was determined to go this year and luckily some girls girls joined me for their first time as well. Nicole and Liv and I drove up the mountain and the first thing I noticed was how great it was to get out of the polluted air in the city! The ski resort was high enough up that we escaped the nasty air.

We started on the very basic small bunny hill and I was struggling a bit trying to figure out how to toe and heel, but I started to catch on when we then started practicing stopping. The first hour I could hardly concentrate because my feet hurt so much in my boots and trying to keep my knees bent so they wouldn't hurt so bad. After a while it either got better or I forgot about it.

This was after we all got off the ski lift and were waiting to go down out first mountain ride.

We successfully made it to the bottom once without dying so we rode back up to try it one more time before leaving. I love that this girl came with me! I also love that we are still friends after so many years!

The second run went a lot better and I felt like I totally got the hang out of! I even learned how to turn as I was zig zaggin down the mountain instead of stopping and having a hard time flipping my board over on the ground. Also as I was going down the mountain and flopping around the first time, there was an older man on the chair lift above me with a camera and shouted down asking if it was my first time! After telling him yes he told me not to worry because I can always remember it by the youtube video he was making of me! That sure boosted my confidence. I still have not found it so no one can see me making a fool of myself.

After a long exhausting day on the slopes!

School update

I did not know where to start, so I decided to start with the most common thing in my room and that is poop! I did have a phantom pooper but he has been caught! For all of you wondering why it is because he physically does not know when he has to go. Basically I am potty training him at school! So that is the story there. But that is not the end because this glorious picture is not from him, this is from a substiute pooping on teachers chairs! Yep that is also real life. She has subbed twice in first grade and both times this has happened! I walked past her in the hall as she was searching for the bathroom and noticed the nice large stain on the back of her pants as she shuffled to the bathroom. Once. okay we wont judge you everyone has accidents or problems, but twice! After talking to the principal I don't think this sub is coming back to our school. We have enough bathroom problems as it is.

There were a couple of days that have been extremely stressful in my classroom. Which leads me to letting my frustrations out by going to the pool and swimming 3 miles. I did have to share my lanes with some old men but luckily not for longcause passing people that slow is always a little weird. But it was good to go and sure wore me out afterwards!

Since we got back from Christmas break it has been so stinkin cold that we have had indoor recess everyday! It is downright awful. One thing my children like to do is color me pictures. I used to hang them on the front of my desk but then it got to be too much so I now have a basket for them to put it in for now and then I will make a book out of all of them. Anyway everyone has been making hearts lately so I have probably almost 100 hearts in that basket! But this little boy gave this to me and I was so excited about it. I love 3D pictures of pop-ups, whatever you want to call them. I have no idea how he figured out how to do this but I absolutely love it!

I remember celebrating groundhogs day every year growing up, but that might have been because we live closer to Punxsutawney than they do here in Utah. So I decided we celebrated a day early and teach my children about it! I made them be reporters and they had to ask everyone what they thought was going to happen, shadow or no shadow? This was the best my class has behaved in a long time and the best they have followed directions. Usually they would be running around the room or getting in fights or crying in a corner, but I had none of that and I couldn't help but capture the moment to remember!

Being a teacher I love the $1 bins at Target! I found these great markers the other day and had to buy them. I am not sure if I justified buying them for my class or because I loved the jokes!

After another frustrating day of school our PE teacher Coach Eddie gathered some teachers in the gym and we did Zumba after school. It was alot of fun and a good way to let go of everything that happened that day!

Near the beginning of the year I had a boy terrorize my room and rip almost everything apart. This was the only poster that survived and I put it in my closet for a while to keep it safe in case that happened again. Well going through that closet I found it and hung it up to help remember everyday there needs to be smiles and laughter! Maybe talking about this on Monday will help motivate my children to cry less! One can only hope, I have got the most emotional class in the whole school!

Date at Eight

I have been on a lot of dates lately, more than in the last 6 months! I will recap them real quick for you...

Date #1 Dinner and bowling with FunnyGuy. I have known him for a few years now so it was real relaxed and fun, and he could keep me laughing for hours. He warned me he had not been bowling in a long time and I think my bowling shoes intimidated him. The first game I won by a lot and the second I was winning again by a hefty margin but he ended the game with a turkey to come within 2 points of beating me! Then we went home and made some delicious desert of ice cream and chocolate chips cookies only partially baked! :) I learned he can play the uklalee like a champ and he has got some sweet dance moves.

(I was the 152!)

Date #2 Set up blind date with Texas. My friend Erika really wanted us to meet so we went out for breakfast on a double date. I am not real sure what I thought of him because I didn't really get to know him all that well. I may have been more interested in catching up with Erika and her new man that she is planning on marrying. I did learn that Texas is left handed and we did not bump elbows sitting by each other eating pancakes, that's always a good thing for me! He did make a real good choice of going to IHOP which is my favorite so props for that Texas!

Date #3 Picnic and the park with MusicDoctor. I know this guy from church and it was another double date which started with a picnic in his basement. After we played a card game Nertz which I am not so good at because you have to be doing a lot of things at one time. Then we decided to go to a park we had never been to but had heard of. Draper park is pretty legit if you are okay with things that spin! The first was a chair like thing you sit on and it spins faster and faster with your momentum. I had my legs out flying around and that did not help me at all and caused me to fly off the seat and land hard on the ground. (a week later I still have a hip that hurts!) We did have races to see who could spin for a certain amount of time and then run and climb up a slide and go down the other side...that was not easy! Last there was this "ride" if you can call it that, you sit inside and people spin you around and around!Once you get going it's not so bad but afterwards we all wanted to throw up! The whole drive home I thought I was going to be sick, but I made it home and took a long nap to shake off the nausea.

(This was the spinning ride of death!)

Date #4 Bowling with HolmesHome. I met him a couple of weeks ago and one night we were talking about things we like to do and bowling came up. So he decided to take me bowling to what he calls a ghetto bowling alley...this place is no where near some of the ghetto places I have been to. There was 42 lanes and it was awesome! He wasn't lying when he said he was alright. His highest of the 3 games was 159 and mine was 135. I came close to beating him one game and then he threw 4 strikes! But the first game I did beat him and a friend said that he did that on purpose and he made sure to let me know it was not on purpose and that no one really does that to make someone feel better. I agreed with that statement! I was also glad that I truly beat him and not because he wanted me to!

 They have all been fun but the test is now to see if any of them ask for a second time!

Sledding with Katie

  

I have a friend Katie Lee who doesn't like sports and won"t play them, but when it comes to winter outside activities she is so there! We have been sledding multiple times and ice skating a few as well. Not many of my friends here seem to enjoy either, or at least they don't come with us. Anyway the other day Katie texted me at school and said lets go sledding after school and of course I was so excited!

 (We love sledding)

This park is right outside of my house and the children did a good job at building jumps and leaving paths for us to utilize. The jumps I went off of were crazy and I got a lot of air and a couple hard landings but the best was the luge track. That's at least what we call it because it was almost all ice by the time we got there. We flew down this path and could make it about halfway back to my house, and that is real far for this sledding hill.

 Snow angels!

 Katie fell many times, the snow was very icy!

And this is Walter the greatest snowman ever built! Nilla wafers for buttons, oranges for eyes and mouth, ribbon for a sweet bowtie, and wrapping paper for headphones of earwarmers!

Oh and we are glad when the snow storm came and blew out the nasty air that was slowly killing everyone! It is nice to be able to see the mountains again!