C'est la vie!!!

I'm SO excited to tell you all about our new trip!! Yes, it's true....we've already booked our tickets......we're going to Paris, France!! We'll be going for Spring Break 2009 and my parents have agreed to come along with us (My Dad served his mission in France, so he speaks fluent French. He'll obviously be our interpreter. Thanks Dad!)!! We'll be there for 9 days and we'll see the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumphe, Sacre Coeur, the Notre Dame Cathedral, etc. My Dad also wants to take an excursion up to Normandy, and another to the chateaus in the Southern region.

Unfortunately, I just found out that our hotel is in the Moulin Rouge region and each couple will either be sleeping in 2 twin beds, or a double bed. We'll be quite cozy! But it's all about the experience, right? :)!

I'm so excited to eat all the yummy food (which I've heard is MUCH better than English food), see all the architecture and museums, and just being in the "city of love"! I'm sure I'll be obsessing about this trip for the next 7 months, but who's counting! C'est la vie!!! (BTW....I had to Google that phrase.....the only phrase I can say in French is "do you speak English"! I guess I'll learn!)

Happy Birthday to Sam!! Cha-Cha-Cha!

Yesterday was Sam's 28th birthday (he said that he's starting to feel old now). He said that he had a good little birthday. I had a candlelight dinner waiting for him when he got home from work, along with some sparkling cider. Then he opened his gifts. Next, Sam wanted to go on a walk around our neighborhood. Finally, we sang happy birthday (yes, Sam sang to himself!), and then we ate cake and ice cream. Lastly, I fell asleep at 8:30PM last night (I swear my job is aging me!) while Sam played on the computer. In commemoration of Sam's birthday, I decided to post some pictures of him when he was a youngun'. Notice in both birthday cakes that they're both angel food cakes (his favorite). What a cutie! I also think Sam's going to fall asleep in the last picture! Oh well! Happy birthday babe! :)!

Sam's New Toy!!

Last year, one of Sam's buddies from work was talking about selling his big screen TV to Sam. Sam talked about it for FOREVER and eventually I figured I had won that discussion and that we wouldn't get the TV. Well, Sam actually DID buy it on Saturday and it's HUGE! It's a 65 inch projection TV.


We had say 'adios' to our entertainment center because the TV is bigger than the entire entertainment center. I'm still getting use to it, but I think it'll be better for our next house (*hint*hint* SAM!!) when we'll have more room. I guess it makes a man feel more masculine to know that he has a big screen TV (I would go so far as to say that it's a monstrous big screen TV... notice that it takes up the ENTIRE wall!).


Sam and I bought some shelves to go above the TV so that I can at least put a plant up there and our candles. I'll post more pics after we get those shelves up. But all of my trinkets from our entertainment center will need to find a new home somewhere else in our house! Hopefully our house won't collapse from the weight of the TV....but wait, maybe that would mean Sam would have to buy me another house!! Hmmm...tempting!

And the Best Husband Award Goes to.....Sam!!!!

I just have to say, that I have the BEST husband EVER! I was totally having a bad day today (parents are SO the worst part of my job!) and I was just cruising around on the internet this evening, while I'm listening to the music on our blog. Then the song "Love of my Life" comes on. Sam walks over to me, pulls me off the computer and slow dances with me! It TOTALLY made my night! He really just knows how to cheer me up! I'm so blessed to have such an AWESOME support in my life! I LOVE SAM!! :)!

BTW- I just find any excuse to post more pictures of our England trip whenever I can! :)! This pic of Sam is in the gardens at Hampton Court Palace (King Henry VIII's castle) in Surrey, England.

I got TAGGED!!

So I've been putting off this tag (sorry Tina!) because I REALLY don't know what to say that most people don't already know. We'll see how this goes.

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you. Tina
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
6. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

1. I HATE to drive. I guess it stems from the fact that I always had older siblings to drive me around, but I really don't enjoy driving. I'm very content being a passenger.

2. I am ADDICTED to children's books (surprise, surprise!). My classroom book orders and book fairs are very guilty pleasures for me. I mostly enjoy picture books (some of the pictures are AMAZING!), but I do enjoy some good chapter books (Sideways Stories of Wayside School, Chronicles of Narnia, The Twits, Harry Potter, etc).

3. I was just nominated (by my principal) to be our Technology Lead Teacher at our school. With this I get to fix everyone's technology problems at our school and in return I get a minimal stipend. YEAH FOR ME!

4. I really don't like doing the dishes. I'd much rather do the laundry, clean a toilet, or vaccuum. The sad thing is that we have a dishwasher, and I just can't get myself to enjoy putting the dishes in the dishwasher. Sam is the appointed one to put the dishes in and out of the dishwasher. (I really don't understand my problem with the dishes!)

5. I am a perfectionist (especially when it comes to my classroom). Sometimes it's a really good thing, but most of the time I stress myself out because it's not perfect. Oddly enough, I never expect perfection out of my students. I always seem to get these great ideas to do in my classroom and then I get frustrated halfway through the project because it doesn't turn out the way I wanted it to. For example, last year I made my students DVD's of pictures throughout the school year. I worked on that DVD for 5 hours one night because I couldn't get the music to match up just right. I eventually just burned the DVD's the way they were.

6. I'm terrified of bees. When I was in college, I was stung by a bee and I developed an allergic reaction to the bee sting. Luckily, it wasn't too bad of an allergic reaction, but I always run away everytime I see bees.

OK I'm FINALLY done! This was seriously the hardest post that I've ever done!

People I'm tagging: Emers,
Kyle and Amanda, Tiffany, Christi (it's payback!! Haha!), Margo

Our Mammoth Lakes Trip!

Sam and I just can't resist going on trips to the mountains! We just got back (ok, we've actually been home for like a week now) from spending 3 days in Mammoth Lakes with my family. My family rented a condo and we had a good little time. It was a QUICK trip (cursed Sam's lack of days off!), but it was well worth it. Here are just a few of our pics from our trip.

Kyle and Amanda had the privilege (heheeh...aka, they were carless) of driving around with us for the weekend. Here are the two love birds as we're parking to go run into a store (we had a catastrophe...one of my rubber bands broke on one of my pigtails as we were driving to Mammoth Mountain.... so we had to go find a store!).

We took a gondola ride (which was pretty scary, I might add) up to the top of Mammoth Mountain, with an elevation of 11,000. In this pic, we're looking down on the Mammoth valley from on top of the mountain.

This is a picture looking at the mountains that are near Yosemite National Park, from on top of Mammoth Mountain. After we took numerous pictures, we also had a nice little picnic with quite a view!!

Ah! The ever wonderful close-up of the photographer.....ME!! Notice the pigtails are all in place, thanks to the rubber bands we found at a local store!! Woohoo!! This was taken from Mammoth Mountain.


**Caution! This picture may be too hot for some of you to handle!**Here Sam is flexing his muscles. I think the mountains make him feel all masculine. Nice hat dear! Men and their sense of fashion!!

After we went to Mammoth Mountain, we went to Devil's Postpile. Here they have the oddest looking hexagon shaped rocks! Oh well! It makes for an interesting picture!

Sam and I are taking a break from hiking in Devil's Postpile. We found a cute little bridge and stream here and so we wanted to take some pictures by it!

My parents resting in the shade at Devil's Postpile. I think Sam's odd fashion sense is rubbing off on my Dad. My Dad lifted the edges of his hat up because he thought it looked "cool", and you KNOW you can't argue with a lawyer (did ya like that joke Dad? Hahahaha!).

On our second day in Mammoth, we went to Yosemite National Park for the day. It was beautiful, but I don't think it was the right time of year to go. Most of the waterfalls had already dried up and it was close to 100 degrees in the park. We're hoping to go earlier in the summer next year to see the waterfalls and the nicer weather.

All in all, it was a great trip. Alas, my summer has come to an end. School starts tomorrow and so that'll be the end of our trips for a while. But, what a good summer it's been!