Our Brief Visit

Daniel got to come home for a week. Then I found out he won't be getting leave for the rest of his deployment!!!! =( Needless to say, I'm very sad. We didn't do a very good job of taking pictures. We get so caught up in the moment we totally forget about the camera. Here are a few pictures that we did take. We had so much fun in Las Vegas. We went and saw The Lion King. It was AMAZING! I love music! We also saw The Variety Show. hahahah...it was CRAZY! I have several favorite parts, first when the little guy balances on the head of the big guy with just one hand and is upside down in the air! (It totally reminds me of knocked up when they are watching Cirq du Soleil.) I also really enjoyed this guy...I can't remember his name now...but he throws this balls onto a keyboard and can play the most amazing songs! Balls are just flying everywhere and it sounds so beautiful!

This picture is so funny. It took him almost 5 minutes to open the thing! These are really cool little Japanese drinks that require you press the top with a plastic opener and push a marble through to open it. I'll post the video later.

Gellato!!! Yum, Yum, Yum!!

We forget to take pictures....This is us after The Lion King at our Hotel. Can't you tell!? We have hotel lighting....

Simba is Happy!

Daniel and I aren't very good about taking pictures with each other or of each other, but we did get a few during his leave. This is my favorite video though. Molly doggysat Simba for us, when I went to pick him up, Daniel hid on a chair under a blanket. I managed to catch a little bit of Simba when he finally finds Daniel. I didn't catch the best part though, Daniel was making weird noises when we first came in the door and Simba was running wild all over the room looking for him. ha ha ha ha....dogs are so silly! I sometimes wonder what he's thinking!

Red, white, and blue

We decided since Daniel will be home soon to visit that we would help make Simba more Patriotic to welcome him home. =)  Simba enjoyed it of course.

Painting Our Toes

Amanda and I had a girls night tonight. These little piggies splurged and ate pizza, hot wings, AND ice cream! It was fantastic! We watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and painted our toes. (If you look close you can see little pig heads by our big toes.) Then we painted Simba's toes.

30 Day Shred

I'm doing this circuit training program by Jillian Michaels (The Biggest Loser Trainer) and right now I'm feeling like a pretty big loser.  I just worked out and I haven't for a week or so...and I AM TIRED!  Hopefully I will be able to catch up on exercise.  I also need to get running!  My sister signed us up for a Pioneer Day 10k on my birthday...  I only have until July 24th to be ready. I hope I make it!  Especially since we all know I am a SHORT distance runner.  Any advice?!

My Trip to Reno 5/11-5/15

The trip to Reno was pretty interesting. I brought Simba with me because I was worried about his leg. He was pretty funny in the car, he started leaning on the console and soon he was in the front seat! I kept thinking, "Where is his seatbelt!" (He ate it!) Then he would want to put his head out of the window, so occasionally I'd let him stick his head out. It's fun to watch his face flap in the wind. (By the way, all the pictures were taken from the front seat of my car...I know, I know...dangerous...but I just pointed and clicked. My eyes were on the road the entire time!)

I forget how amazing and beautiful the desert is. I hear so many people complain about how ugly it is here, but I see beauty everywhere! I really like the picture of the sky when the sun is setting and it makes it look like butter, like in the book, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. As you can tell, I love sky pictures. =) I think Nevada is BEAUTIFUL!

I originally went to Reno for a class I have to have for my teacher license renewal. When I was there I found out I also have to take another class because although it is considered a Nevada State Law and Constitution, it doesn't cover US Constitution. LAME! So I had to quickly sign-up for an online course for US Constitution. Teaching is costing me a lot! Seriously contemplating a career change.....

While I was there I assisted my parents put in laminate flooring for their condo. It was pretty interesting...mostly because Simba was putting his nose into everyones' business. He wanted to help with everything...ok, not help, just get in the way. Eventually, without Simba's help, the floor was finished. It made the kitchen area look so nice and bright. It is fun doing things like this, now I just need to figure out how to do the cutting and measuring and I could do it all by myself. Anyhow, home improvements are always great! Right now I'm trying to get my house de-cluttered. We'll see how it goes.

So I drove home last night. I had a killer migraine. I took a nap and woke-up realizing I didn't want to drive in the heat, so took off from Reno in the still of the night and made it home around 3am. today. Thank God for Coca Cola! I was wired because I haven't had caffeine in over a year! I made it though, safe and sound. Also, Simba's leg is doing great! It's almost all healed up! Well, enjoy the beautiful pictures! Oh yeah, one of my favorite pictures is the last one of a gas station I stopped at. Don't worry guys, I got regular. =)

Packing Update-Wednesday, June 10

Simba looks very excited to be there with us. Look at how he's glaring at us!!


Today I made a bit of progress. I took Simba with me because I was worried about his poor little leg. It looks like puss is starting to come out of it, so I am keeping a close eye on the little guy. Anyhow, i got a bit more packed...right now what's left is the clutter.... All the little things in my cabinets and floor (that I pulled out) and the desk. BOO!! I'm excited to slowly be getting to where I want to be, but I am nowhere ready for school in the fall!! I hate the feeling of being overwhelmed!! Anyhow, Cindy's boys (my third grade team) helped me pack today. Kyle and Cole did a good job of taking things off the walls and packing things into boxes for me. It's nice to have someone there to talk to when I get things taken down. I'm going to miss my friends at Hafen. I know I'll still see them and get to do things with them, but it will never be like working with them and knowing you have people who care about you and watch out for you right where you work. They all made working at Hafen a great honor that I am pleased to have had.

Ha ha ha....funny thought

I was just looking at my blog and realized that for the longest time I didn't know how to embed photos into the post and I have a kazillion pictures on my blog from a LONG time ago. I'm going to leave them though because they make me laugh. I really like the one where Simba is balancing a turtle on his nose. hehehe... My dad's dog is also funny. She was a HORROR to dog-sit! And the pictures from my first real fly fishing experience remind me of pictures of when I was a kid. I'll have to get a copy of it and post it. it's so funny becasue when I caught a fish when I was like 5 I was so excited that my smile was so animated and my eyese were so little and the fish was so huge. ha ha ha...good times! Anyhow, just looking at my blog and t hinking abotu how blog-illiterate I was and how I'm getting a teeny-tiny-bit better. =)

Simba's Owie!

My dog really reminds me a lot of myself. He is constantly getting into trouble and hurting himself. Most of the time I'm not even sure HOW he does this! It's frustrating! I come home and he has a huge gash on his head or is bleeding or has a huge scrape on his paw. I'm not sure how he's doing this or WHERE he's doing this, but I though it was odd. Today his owie was hurting him, so we laid around and slept all day (I was exhausted for some reason too). It was a nice and restful day. No packing was accomplished... =( Here are some pics. of my sad dog and his scrape. I bandaged him up because he wouldn't STOP licking it and he was making it red and gross!

Addicted to blogging....

It's so late! My bed is calling to me...and yet I'm still here...posting things. I'm ADDICTED! Ok, maybe not addicted, but too bored and can't sleep that I'm here posting....any ideas!? Maybe I should take sleeping pills. Anyhow, going to try to go to bed again. I've been having a hard time sleeping since Daniel left. :( BAH-HUM-BUG and Good Night!

9 DAYS!!

In 9 days Daniel will be here!!!!! I don't know what to do with myself!! It'll be so much fun!! We have tons of stuff planned! We will try to take pics....but we're NOT very good at documenting life. We're having a little mini-vacation in Vegas. We'll stay at the Excalibur the first night and the remaining time at South Point Casino. I like South Point more than the other casinos for some reason. It has THE MOST COMFORTABLE hotel beds and great shampoo/conditioner. And it has fun things to do there, midnight bowling, movies, pool, away from the strip, etc.

We're also going to be going to THE LION KING!!! I am so excited. I love THE LION KING!! Even my dog is named SIMBA. :) I love it!! Then we're going to check out the variety show too!! It's hopefully going to be a good show. Who'd I'd really like to see is Wayne Brady!! Anyhow, I'm excited for out little vacation together. I feel like I haven't seen him in YEARS!! YAY!!! ONLY 9 DAYS LEFT!!

Field Day Funny...

The last day of school was June 4th. At our school the last day of school is field day. Field day at Hafen is a glorious day prepared by Mr. Verzilli. It was a bitter sweet day filled with joyous and at times annoying frivolity. Here is one of the highlights of the day. The kids were SO FUNNY all day long, this made me laugh the hardest though. I hope it will make you laugh too. Watch out! They just might get you too!!

Packing Update

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Today I was packing my room up. Luckily I've had help from Liz! She's such a good friend!! As you can see in the photos my pile is getting bigger, but the mess seems to have just popped out of the cabinets!! It is SO SCARY!! I am so thankful that Liz has been helping me. Before she showed up today I was just sitting there looking at everything...hahahaha...and missing my third grade cohort already!!!! Packing with Liz made me miss third grade even more! We were packing and talking about third grade things like teaching cursive, going crazy, silly kids, saxon math (WE HATE IT), and other boring things. ha ha ha ha...but it was so much fun to talk to someone and pack. Liz is SOOOOO organized! She helped me clear a LOT of the clutter and get it into boxes. HA HA HA HA....well, Marcy and Cindy (my third grade team) were also so very organized! I wish to be more like them! Maybe moving to Floyd Elementary will FORCE me to be that quality that I admire so much in my colleagues. Anyhow, my room is a mess...and my packing pile is HUGE!!!!! More updates later. Have a great day!

Packing My Classroom and Stuff

Yesterday Alyce Johnson came over for dinner with the missionaries. It was pretty fun. Simba couldn't get enough of them. He even nibbled on Elder Finance's tie!

Today I worked on packing up my classroom. I've only been in it for 3 years and OH MY GOSH I have tons of stuff!!! hahahaha...I must admit I'm a book-junkie! I have over 15 boxes of just books!!!!! I just can't get enough books! (I'll post SCARY pictures of my room later.)

I took down almost everything from the walls and my room looks absolutely naked! It's horrible seeing it in such condition! I imagine I will survive. I will be able to move into my new room after June 30th. I will be in room 52. I'll miss room 117 at Hafen Elementary. I haven't even seen my new school yet! Weird, huh! Michelle is going to show me around next week some time. I am going to miss my beautiful school and fun-loving staff!!!! I'm also going to miss the student bookstore, Tomes for Domes, that I opened up last year. It's been fun doing things at Hafen, hopefully I will get a chance to be as involved at my new school.

Feeding a Lamb!

So I've been going through my pictures and I keep finding fun ones that I haven't posted. This is of me feeding a lamb!!! I think it's pretty awesome, I really LOVE ANIMALS! And this is the first time I've done something like this. I use to want to become a veterinarian, maybe if teaching doesn't work out I'll go back to school.

Shopping With My Sis!

Angelina came down to Vegas a few weeks ago and we went shopping to cheer me up. These shirts were some of our favorite purchases. We had a lot of fun cruising the outlets and getting lost thanks to the GPS.

Sorry Girls, Mr. Hong Kong got married! 5/2/09

Sorry ladies, Michael is officially taken! I went to his wedding in May and look at how happy he is! It was fun to get to hang out and see my little brother. He looked so pretty in pink! I also did the tea ceremony for his reception...what an interesting opportunity!

We're part of the Furious Five!

Amanda and I are just so furious! We saw Po and just had to take a picture with him because he is so cute. This was right before we saw Terminator Salvation, which by the way was an AWESOME show! Erik was of course too embarrassed to take a picture with Po, so he took the picture for us. =)

I still can't believe how expensive theater food is!

Simba's Shoes!!!!

The asphalt gets so hot here in the summers so I got Simba shoes! They are so funny on him! When he put them on he walked around all silly, like he had tape stuck to his feet. But eventually he got use to them.

5th Grade!

So I am going to be teaching 5th grade at Floyd Elementary next year! CRAZY!

The Dust Has Settled...

This morning I was sitting in a room with 40 other teachers, waiting to see who would have a job and who wouldn't, it was pretty nerve wrecking. I arrived on time, 8 o'clock, not earlier. Luckily, because they started the whole process REALLY LATE! At about 9am they started the whole thing. (For those of you who havec no idea waht was going on, Nye County School District decided to cut 28 elementary school teachers. They cut teachers from each school that were the lowest depending on their seniority, instead of cutting from the bottom of the seniority list. So now the teacher's had to bump other teacher who were less seniored...yes, yes.....A HUGE MESS!) So at around 9 am we start the bumping process. They took one person at a time and told them the jobs they were qualified for in the district and gave you the least seniored person to bump. Some people took a long time. I was the 16th person from the top, so at around 10:30 am I was called in.

Now I've been really nervous about this whole situation. First I was ANGRY! ANGRY doesn't even describe it, I loathed the person who made these decisions. Then I was SAD! Now I've come to grips with change...and even though this year at Hafen Elementary School we have had a "Dream Team," I'm reminded that life is full of changes. Something has to make sense somewhere...I feel that this is just such an insane move that somehow it was meant to be. I know it is actually. I am starting to feel more and more at peace with the idea that my only close friends here will soon be off to new adventures in the East. AND that Daniel is deployed. AND that I will be switching schools. I am ok with that. In fact, I am praying that Erik gets his dream job. Afterall, I really feel that he deserves this. I'm actually feeling like a change in schools wouldn't kill me, it will give me an opportunity to reinvent myself and not allow myself to get complacent in the workplace. I feel that God has to watching out for all of us and even though all of this is INSANE and CHAOTIC and feels UNNATURAL, we will all learn and grow and continue to live. I feel that God will protect Daniel and that we will all somehow make it through the mess that we call life.

Anyhow, I was given options of where to accept a job. The choice was obvious. And now I'm sitting on this decision and feeling it is okay. I haven't felt this much peace in a while. I'm so thankful that I feel this. I'm embracing myself for the next bump in life, as life goes....but until then, I'm glad the dust has finally settled.

Too nervous to sleep...

I am still up...and I have work in the morning! Actually, what I have is a displacement! I am going to be over at the Southern District Office, waiting around to TAKE someone's job! YIKES! ALL of this is just so crazy and is driving me crazy! I hope that it all works...well, I know that somehow all of this WILL work, it's just my nerves that aren't letting me think that.

The other day I was talking on the phone with a complete stranger, I had met her at a teacher conference. Her name is Marie. Anyhow, I was talking to her about a product I really want to use for math when she said, "Is everything ok? I can here an edge in your voice." I was totally shocked at the complete and total intuitiveness of this stranger and felt a connection. Marie told me several things that hit home, one of which was, "Jessica, you just need to trust life." I had never really thought of it that way. Trust life? Now that I've been thinking about that, I do. I do need to trust that whatever God has in store for me will happen. And I am starting to believe that. I am feeling calm. AND I've even began feeling that all of these things in my life that I feel are trials are beginning to be blessings in disguise. I cannot explain the thoughts that cross my mind or the feelings running through my body. Somehow I know it will be ok.