Nate & Chelle

Baby Nathellia!

2011-06-04T21:38:00.003-06:00

So... I anticipate blogging a lot this summer and want to put a bunch of pictures on here of our journey with Nathellia so far, but I am very tired at the moment and need to go feed her and get her ready to sleep. I hope she sleeps well tonight cause I am very exhausted today even though I didn't do much. Anyway... here's one picture of our baby girl... many more to come (hopefully).

Tummy time on our bed...

2011-01-15T21:46:00.002-07:00

I guess it's time for another update. Honestly, I like to blog, but I never take the time to do it. I decide to clean the kitchen or read everyone's FB statuses or read other blogs and then I am usually off to do something else. Anyway, I feel like blogging right now. I don't have any pics to upload cause I am using my new computer that I have yet to connect to our Drobo, which is basically a little server that I could acess with all my pics on it... need to do that someday. Long story short, my pics are on those hard drives and not this one. Thinking of technology... sometimes it all just annoys me and other times I really enjoy all the computers, internet, hand held gadnets, etc. that we have. It's a love hate thing for sure.
So it's 2011! And January is half over. Wow! Last year at this time I was about half way done with my masters program and counting down the days to Hawaii. Now Nate and I are counting down the days to another exciting event and attempting to prepare for that. I am amazed at how quickly life moves sometimes and yet it all works out just the way it's supposed to. I love that I can look back on things knowing I have been blessed so much and trust that the future holds many more blessings. There are those moments that we feel a bit overwhelmed due to work and 'to do' lists. Nate's preparing for the 2 classes he is going to begin teaching this week. Adobe Flash and Adobe Photoshop. He's doing this on top of his IT job and working at Best Buy a few hours a week... he's awesome and I hope I can be encouraging to him as I know it's a lot to do.
I have been looking into the opportunity to teach English through some online courses and may go to a training for that soon, but it is taking a while to get things rolling. Someday I want to try online teaching and teaching English online a few hours a week now may help me decide if I would really like that kind of teaching. So we'll see where that goes and if it develops into anything interesting.
Beyond these somewhat random thoughts... I have this idea in my head to make it a habit to have people over to our house for dinner or desserts or games or whatever at least once a month, but it hasn't happened like I have wanted and it sure hasn't been once a month. So maybe one of my 2011 goals will be to invite people over more and make it a point to fellowship with our friends more often. Another goal I have is to stay on top of work and not get behind. I have had 1 week back with students, and so far, I'm doing good, but can just see myself getting lazy and letting those papers and data charts pile up and wait for the end of the quarter before I do much with them. Speaking of work, I went to Staples today to buy some stuff my students use and I was getting low on or have run out of... $70 later I have stuff for them to use now until the end of the year. $70!? Office supplies should not cost $70. I was just glad I had an LPO to use to buy it all... markers and paper should not cost that much money. At least I have stuff for them now and don't have to keep borrowing from others.

Random catch up...

2010-11-22T20:42:00.004-07:00

So... I am leading/coaching our school's FLL team which stands for FIRST LEGO League. Check out FLL here. Basically, FLL is a sports tournament for nerds using small robots and legos. I haven't felt like I have done much of a great job with our team until today. My students have completed a few of their missions and our research team is well on their way! I was really proud of their work today and am hoping they know they can do a great job at the tournament in 2 Saturdays. So that's all for now... just had to vent that.
On another note... I am so excited to have a 2 day work week this week! I need to get caught up on so much stuff, including finishing my portfolio that I began 2 and a half years ago when I was hired at the school district. Time sure does fly and it's hard to catch up when I let myself get behind, I know I can finish what I need to finish this week if I did all of my masters degree in just 10 months!! ;)
So that's all for the time being. Nate and I are doing well, but pray for him as he is working extra this holiday season at Best Buy. We think it's gonna be a good second job and hopefully not too overwhelming that he wears himself out. Here's a pic of us at a FREE concert in Douglas a couple weeks ago.
I need to take more pics of us when we are doing fun stuff... we went ice skating the other day too... it was fun. That's all for now... and hopefully I get some good Thanksgiving pics and post some afterward.

Enjoying life...

2010-08-23T21:22:00.002-06:00

well... that was my thought when I began uploading pics but our router or this computer or something with the network does not like my windows 7 machine or my ipad right now so i won't upload any cute photos or videos of my nephews and niece and Bernnie's little girl until this random problem is resolved. We'll see... and then you'll see some cute pics of mi familia... lets see if I can stay connected enough to upload this short message.

Summer break is over...

2010-08-09T20:41:00.002-06:00

I can not believe that tomorrow is the last official day of my summer break... wow! It does not seem like it's been more than 10 weeks since I finished my masters degree. It does seem like it was a long time since Astrocamp in Laramie. Our Canada and grandparent trip was just over a month ago but so much has happened since then. It's been a fun summer though. Exhausting at times, but good. In just a few days, 10 to be exact, it is our 4th wedding anniversary. 4 years goes by so fast. This summer has been a good experience for us in the fact that we chose to work on our garage and house instead of leaving every second we could to go camping or on a short road trip. We've also spent a lot of time with family too and that's been so good. I need to post pics... this is just a short "getting ready to go to sleep before midnight for once in my life, sipping on just a little cup of ice coffee" blog moment I thought I would take in honor of my final day of summer break that I will have tomorrow. There will be more... goodnight!

Road Trip 2010

2010-07-08T23:04:00.004-06:00

First stop... Antelope MT for their 100th anniversary. Mom, dad, Nate and three of my uncles enjoyed their little parade. Later that afternoon Nate and I visited my grandparents before heading north to...We stayed at a somewhat 'sketchy' motel for like $60 in Regina and then drove the next day to Edmonton and stayed there for 3 nights. Here's some of what we enjoyed in that part of Canada.
View from our downtown Westin motel (thank you priceline!). We would never stay here on our own since they charge an arm and a leg for everything!!! But it was a very nice hotel room with a nice view of downtown Edmonton. We also stayed at The Fantasyland Hotel that is attached to the huge mall... I don't have pics of that... Nate has them. Will upload some later...
A huge indoor roller coaster... along with a huge indoor water park that we spent a few hours in on Tuesday, for free due to having a room at the Fantasyland Hotel. The pic below shows about half of the water park... the slides were awesome and scary. I think one of them knocked the wind out of me and I decided that much adrenaline is not good for anyone's health... ;)

Anyway... I am blogging from a KOA in the prettiest part of Montana. WiFi at a campsite... gotta love today's technology.
Here's Nate sitting by the fire with his laptop... mine is on the table too. We are nerds. Luv it!!
We drove through Jasper and Banff National Parks on the way back to the states and I can say they were beautiful and I am beginning to grasp just how big the rocky mountains are after seeing a large chunk of the Canadian, MT, WY, and CO Rockies...
These are in Jasper nat'l park... This is a taste of what some of the mountains looked like as we ventured through them. I got to touch a glacier for the first time also... very clear ice. That was my only thought.

I better get busy tending to the fire and getting ready for bed. It's 11:30pm and finally almost dark. Gotta love summer time in the north!!

June...

2010-07-03T21:42:00.005-06:00

Some pictures of my June...
Hanging with my mom and Cody and Alissa at The Science Zone

My graduation present... opened and in use within seconds of its purchase.

Wyoming flooded a lot this June.... this is the Laramie river in Laramie near their bike path.

Visiting Walter while in Laramie

The ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp at UW... all 48 kids, 8 counselors, 4 teachers, 2 directors, an ExxonMobil rep, and Bernard Harris himself... it was the best camp yet!! (Although all of the Astrocamps I have been involved with have been very awesome...)

I will try to post more. It's been a fun, exhausting summer so far. I can tell I am getting older and like my house more than I thought I did. But anyway... life's an adventure and I am enjoying it. Nate and I are in Canada at the moment and I should have some more fun pics to share soon... I really like not having homework. It's awesome!!!

One last pic...
Patherfinder Reservoir is full and this is the natural spillway... we played around in the 'rain' the falls create. It's very cool! A once in every 25ish years thing...

oooo... new designs...

2010-06-19T09:22:00.002-06:00

I like when Blogger lets me change the design of our blog and it's fast and looks cool. Anyway... I've been in Laramie for about a week... here are some pics of the week.

Laramie River Flood... I guess this river usually looks more like a big creek. Not this week...

Baby Walter... I get to go hand out with him today too. :)
We had a day of staff teamwork for the camp we are putting on starting tomorrow. Ropes course stuff. I couldn't climb because I hurt my wrist a few weeks ago and it was really bothering me the day we went, but it was still fun taking pictures and watching people do stuff. I would have tried the tight rope and walking across the big log, but I didn't want to do the leap of faith. I would have been too nervous... oh well.
I am exhausted at the moment and so glad it is Saturday! We had a very long week of work and tomorrow it starts all over again. But it will be fun... our 48 campers arrive tomorrow and don't leave for 10 days... say a prayer for us and pray that we all have a great time and stay safe.
Now I must go hangout with Walter and Erika...

Summer Begins!

2010-06-07T21:42:00.003-06:00

So the first week of summer has come a gone and I am hoping my allergies have left with it. On Saturday we went to Rawlins to celebrate Christine's graduation from nursing school. We had a blast playing volleyball, ultimate frisbee and eating some good food.
On Sunday we went to the mountain to visit the land Nate's parents bought recently. There were a couple of piles of random bricks on the property and someone had kind of started using them to build a fire pit. This is what it looked like before...
And this is what it looked like a few hours later...
Between frisbee and volleyball on saturday and carrying a bunch of bricks by hand for like 4 hours yesterday, my arms hurt today!! But it was worth it... kind of a neat, impromptu fire pit. Next thing is to clean up the inside of the cabin so we can have fun enjoying the property without working to hard sometime this summer. So that's the beginning of the summer... have lots more to do and look forward to and am hoping that time doesn't rush by too fast so that we can actually shorten our to do list and relax a little too... more to come later.

Life Update

2010-06-01T11:16:00.003-06:00

I am done with my masters degree. Crazy! It was a lot of work. I am not ever going to say that it was easy, because it wasn't. I worked a full time job and went to school full time. That's never easy for anyone and I give kudos to anyone who does this and especially people who do this while raising kids!! Go you! (This would be many people I had classes with since last summer).
I am so glad for this guy...

He took on a lot of the normal house work that we would have shared while I did my work, he cooked for me, he knew exactly when I needed to take a break and when I just needed to push through the assignments, and he took me to Hawaii for spring break... cool! I love you Nate! Thanks for all you did/do for me! You're awesome!
I just decided I need to go through a bunch of pics from the last year and do a big post on everything... and now I have the time to do something like that. Woo hoo!
The last day of school was Friday. I got my room all cleaned up, packed up, and it's in our basement now cause my school for next year is remodeling some rooms and they don't know where the tutors will be. So two of us are just kind of waiting around for things to happen. It will work out and I am not too anxious to go set up a room yet... need a break for a bit. ;)
I can't be too lazy though. I have the BHSSC to look forward to and need to type up a couple of lessons today and get them to the directors. This camp used to be called Wyoming Astro Camp but we have ExxonMobil sponsoring the camp this year so it got bigger and we have to publish our lessons which was a goal we all have thought about... it's my 6th year involved in the camp and the 5th year I am a teacher... I think... Anyway... before the curriculum was all typed up and we just had a few lessons done, it was already over 100 pages long... crazy! I'll be in Laramie June 14-29. I always like helping with this camp. I just don't like being away from Nate and this year I am tired and just want to stay home. I think the next week and a half will be refreshing enough for me to be ready to go help with Astro Camp... I mean BHSSC... and it's always a fast 2 weeks...
I think that's all for now... I will try to do a picture post of some fun family, kids, life, etc. that has been going on lately in the next few days.

Grandma Vera

2010-04-26T23:18:00.002-06:00

A little over 3 months ago Nate's grandpa passed away and today brought with it news that grandma also passed away. She was really sick with pneumonia and really missed grandpa. They were married for 69 years! He was almost 94 and she was 86. This is the picture that was outside their room at the assisted living home in Cut Bank. I wish I knew them like Nate knew them. He has so many memories of them and they sound like they were awesome grandparents! We trust they are with the Lord...
This year continues to present some tough times and at times I look back at all the things that have gone on even in the past month and I wonder how it is I am still functioning... but I know there is a purpose for everything and perseverance builds character... I am going to stop rambling now and just say that I miss Virgil and Vera even though I didn't know them that much. They are such a huge part of Nate and I am sad that he doesn't have his grandparents any more.

2010-04-09T20:13:00.002-06:00

I wish I was laying on one of those empty beach chairs right now... I miss Maui today.
And I am only posting because I have zero motivation to do the thing I should be motivated to do, which is my homework. I have less than 50 days, less than 20 assignments to do and am on the home stretch and I can't get myself to work. Please pray for me or the next 7 ish weeks are going to be horrible!!
Anyway... I haven't put anymore pics up because I believe, but don't take my word for it, that Nate is making something cool with the pics and when he is done we will post that... but I am not sure... If I have time this June to post some more, then I will...
Also pray for my job situation. I have a job next year, but it's not the position I have now and I am attempting to 'transfer' into an elementary classroom... we'll see what happens the next few weeks... I just pray it's the position God wants for me and that I can be used wisely in the position... whatever it may be. Alrighty... must sign off and get some work done... I am going to tackle my dumb homework... ;)

Pics will come...

2010-03-18T21:32:00.003-06:00

So... we went to Hawaii for over a week, didn't watch TV, hardly used the Internet and had a blast! It was wonderful. Here are just a couple pics. There are over 6,000 more and we are going through them, Nate's gonna touch them up, and possible make a really cool video with the stills so we can have more than just a folder with our pics in it. Those 6,000 files include video also... we have a great time and miss the temperature and weather. So beautiful!
Plumeria is now my favorite flower! This bloom is the best smelling anything I have ever smelled in my life!! It was awesome! It was from a tree in Hana on Maui. None of the other plumeria I found on the island smelled nearly as good as the ones that come from that tree... I don't think I took a pic of the tree, just a few blossoms that had fallen.
Our little red convertible. It was a good car. A Sebring, just like Michael Scott from The Office.

One of our biggest adventures was to the Hana airport to meet Armin for Power Hang Gliding 'lessons'. This was a blast!!!
We hope to post more soon...
While we were in Maui, my sister had her first baby! His name is Walter Quinn and I am excited to meet him soon!!

It never ends...

2010-02-17T18:50:00.002-07:00

The homework never ends, but I sure can't seem to do it... again! I am a week ahead right now, but if I don't get going on this stuff... i won't stay ahead and be prepared for our planned vacation to this place.
Soooo excited!
Anyway... just had to post something since I hadn't for a while. Back to my discussion board about my thoughts on the role of computers in elementary education. :) So much fun. no... not really...

A quick side note... I like the Olympics. I thought it was funny that 2 of the American snowboard cross competitors are named Seth and Nate... my Nate and his best friend Seth love snowboarding... just a fun coincidence.

Can't Concentrate...

2010-02-07T15:48:00.003-07:00

What I wish I was doing!!

This masters degree thing is driving me crazy! It's all I do anymore. I want to vacuum. I want to blog... (shouldn't be blogging right now). I want to watch stuff on Hulu or whatever is on CMT because they have fun shows as I recall from Christmas break. I want to go for a walk with Nate and Shadow. I want to go buy groceries and not feel rushed. I want to go to church instead of sitting at home finding scholarly articles on Instructional Technology and e-learning authoring systems. I want to do anything but read all this stuff and write a profound paper on my thoughts about the subject. BUT... I can't. I have to get this done. I am working ahead so I can enjoy myself on our vacation over spring break. As of today, I only have 15 more weeks to deal with this. I have picked up some great information for teaching and have absorbed a lot of general information about education, but I am tired and really looking forward to May 30th!! I just needed to vent a bit... maybe now I can focus better becuase I have been getting nowhere with this stuff today.
Mom took Nate and I to lunch though, so that was nice! Thanks mom!!
On to the research and paper writing...

Grandpa Virgil

2010-01-18T09:49:00.004-07:00

Friday brought some sad news. Nate's grandpa passed away a little after 7am. We are going to the funeral this week. I only met Virgil 2 times, but Nate spent many summers with his grandparents in Cutbank, they would visit Casper at least twice a year, and Nate went on a few road trips with them when he was young. He has so many memories of them and the things they did together. Here's a picture of Nate and grandpa last summer when we visited them. He was 93 years old; only 2 months away from 94!! The sad thing is we have been weighed down by other things going on (work mostly), it's like we haven't really let the news sink in. It will be good to spend the week with family and hope that things will settle down.

Unfortunately, my grad degree work doesn't go away. I got done with last week's stuff early, and need to work hard today to get half of this week's work done before we go. So I better make this blog short. I also hope I get ahead on that work so I can go to my sister's baby shower on Saturday and get in the habit of being ahead so I can enjoy our spring break trip to Hawaii... how sad would it be if I had to finish a paper or two while I was there!? Horrible thought... :)

So far this year we have been going to Sunday morning services regularily and have really enjoyed them. God's word has been comforting and encouraging to me even though I feel like all I do is work and homework. It will end soon. There is a season for everything...

I need to let Nate take more pics of me and him and us with our friends. We had a few people over a couple weeks ago and then went to Amanda's for book club last Sunday and it was fun... I'll try to remember pics next time...

Long night...

2010-01-09T11:04:00.002-07:00

First off... returning to work this week was rough. I really enjoyed vacation and now I am feeling overwhelmed by work and homework. It's a lot each week. I survived the first half of my degree and am praying that I can do so for the last half also. I am praying my headaches don't return, that I can find the time to read everything, understand my assignments well and formulate my thoughts well enough to remember what it is I am doing as a Masters degree student. As my current professors says, "You are masters of your education. Prove it!". And I must do all of this while working with all my kids at school... planning and preparing for them so that they too can be successful at what they are attempting. It's overwhelming, but I'll get there... :)

So last night after I began one of my assignments and had a pretty good grasp on things, we decided to watch a movie before going to sleep. It was after 1 by the time the movie was over. I let the dog out one last time, shut off lights, and was crawling into bed when I hear a knock or tap 3 times on one of our windows... it freaked me out. Shadow barked his vicious bark and it stopped. Nate was already buried in pillows and said he thought it was just the dog making noises, but I know it was a knock on a window near us and obviously Shadow knew it was something more than himself making noises. Then... not 2 minutes later we hear a bbgun or a paintball gun sound about 4 times hitting our fence or our neighbors fence and then all the dogs outside begin barking... and many of them rarely bark! We get up, hear more 'gun' shots and decide it could actually be a gun from pretty far away and not just some kids paintballing random stuff in our neighborhood, which has never happened to us. We've never had anything like this happen in our neighborhood. I decide to call the police just to get someone to patrol. We hear more shots, all of our neighbors are now awake and turning their lights on too. The cops wandered around our houses for like 20 minutes and we didn't hear or see anything more and then we finally go to bed at around 2:30... it was weird. This morning... no evidence of anything. No footprints in the snow near our windows, no paintball splatters or bullet holes (thank goodness!) and it doesn't seem like our neighbors had anything happen either. It made for a disturbing night and if it was just some stupid people messing around then oh well, but it would have been fun to watch the cops chase them or something... :) I always try to find the positive side to everything. And as Nate says, don't worry. You know how to use a gun too if it ever came down to it. I pray nothing ever happens where I would have to use a gun to defend myself!

So that was our long night... maybe I overreacted by calling the cops (which Nate thinks I did) but i don't care. If someone is going to harrass me and my neighbors like that, I want them to know I don't mess around and I use my tax money by calling the authorities. That's what they are there for.

Alright... enough recall of events. Must get back to my paper of the ADDIE model of instructional design. I know... so much more interesting huh? I love homework...

Here we go again...

2010-01-04T19:04:00.003-07:00

So... vacation is done. My weeks of staying up late watching TV or movies and waking up without an alarm clock are over... oh well. I got a lot of our house more organized though so that was good. The more time we live here the more it feels like our home and not just a house we're paying for each month. That's a nice feeling! We really enjoyed our time off. Nate did have to work a few days here and there, but he had a bunch of time off too and it was nice. We will miss taking the dog to the park a lot to watch him climb trees. He does this all by himself! He's crazy fun!

We went to a wedding on New Years night and had a lot of fun catching up with people. New Years Eve involved staying home to watch a Net Flix and then sleeping in. We also had my dad's b-day dinner and then another friends b-day party on Saturday night and Sunday we went to church, ran errands and came home to prepare for the next few weeks.

It's back to work and school now. I have 10 weeks of class ahead of me and Maui is 9 weeks away. This means I need to be ahead of schedule so I don't have to do anything but enjoy Hawaii during spring break. We may go to Keystone in a couple of weekends with some friends, but we'll see. My sister's baby shower is this month too! So busy busy... but blessed and enjoying life. We'll see if we can stay on schedule with our p90X workout, which is really cool but hard and makes us feel really out of shape... but it's good for us! Happy New Year!

Christmas Vacation

2009-12-27T20:46:00.003-07:00

Our winterwonderland!

I thought my homemade caramel latte looked cool this morning... anyway...

It has been too long since I updated this... thought since the last post was "summer vacation", this one should be titled "Christmas Vacation". :)
I am half way done with my masters degree in education!! Yes! I began that degree in July and I will be done May 30. It is tough working and then coming home to work on papers and reading about curriculum and education theory, but it's a good experience and I am so glad I am doing this before we have babies. It's a 20 month degree but the accelerated program gets it done in 10 months! I have survived a research project and a class on curriculum theory which I had never studied before and have realized that the job I have with our district coincides with a lot of the stuff I have had to study. It's made some papers and assignments easier which is good. I will spare the details about data and test scores... blah blah blah
Due to my school, we have basically stayed in Casper most of the fall and don't plan to go anywhere until Spring Break... Maui here we come!! Yay!
Here are some more pictures of our Christmas weekend... lots of snow and time to ourselves and family!! Hope you had a great Christmas and I hope I update more than every 6 months!

At mom and dad's house Christmas Eve night opening presents with everyone...

At our house with Shadow's green eyes... I mean our little Christmas tree...

If we don't bury him... he eats all the snow we shovel. :)

summer vacation

2009-07-05T09:24:00.005-06:00

I wish I blogged more, but hey... I am having too much fun roaming around the Rocky Mountain States road tripping with the husband. Here's a pic of a portion of Arches National Park. It's called Park Avenue...

Then we hit Las Vegas and saw New York there too...

Vegas is a weird city. If all the 'mega resorts' were missing... there would be a small little town with not much to do. However, they really do decorate nicely in those hotels... holy cow! It was very neat walking through all of them. Ceasars Palace, Mandalay Bay, and MGM grand were my favorite. These flowers were all over MGM and I thought there were cool looking...

That's all for now... I am going to go eat at a BBQ place with Nate in Kalispell, MT... where we happen to be now. I will hopefully upload more pics of our fun in Vegas and our other travels so far this summer at another time...

Some Pics

2009-04-05T22:00:00.002-06:00

I finally found some time to put pictures on this blog and start an album on Facebook.

This is Hamilton Pool in Texas. We visited here with our cousins and uncle when we went down to Austin over Christmas. It is a pretty neat place.

This is the water from Hamilton pool flowing toward a river who's name I do not remember. The water flowed so slowly and it was green as ever. I had never hiked in a place like this. It was neat.

Here's Shadow and Nate at the dog park. We spend a lot of time wandering around doing nothing or getting some good exercise. Over spring break I walked here almost every day and it was nice. I wish it was right next to our house...

The Dog

It is still not quite spring here. This was a couple weeks ago, but the back yard still has snow in it.
We went snowboarding yesterday and it snowed all day with the really nice fluffy "champagne" snow as Nate called it today. We barely made it up the mtn in our front wheel drive car (thank you snow plow!), and by the time we went to go down the mtn, there was so much snow drifted around our car that we had to get towed out of the parking lot to the road where we then followed another plow down the mtn. It was awesome. It snowed all night up there and by the time we got up there today they had 30 new inches of snow in 24 hrs!!! It was really good snowboarding! The problem, besides being their last day open, was the line to get on the lift was about a 20 min. wait, so we only went down a couple of times and had fun, then went to Pizza Hut... So anway... it's still winter here, but I don't think for long. I am ready for nice moderate temperatures and lot's of sunny days. And now that the mountain has received ~70 inches of snow in the last 2 weeks, there will be plenty of snowshoeing to do for a bit. Anything to get into shape... i have goals. We'll see if I meet them. Nate has goals too... so we're trying to encourage each other. Alrightythen... I feel a little sense of accomplishment having put some photos on here and Facebook. Better go get ready for the week... goodnight.

Goodbye Spring Break

2009-03-15T18:48:00.003-06:00

I had a really great week doing nothing. Ha... not really. I did a lot! I even went to work for a few hours on monday to get my desk cleaned up, file some papers, and get some paperwork done for my kidos so I can keep track of their progress in math tutoring. I got to visit my friend Hannah, tried to go snowboarding but it was too icy and hard, spent time with my mom and took the niece and nephew to The Science Zone for a while, saw my sister for a bit, and I got to have lunch with Nate everyday... but Friday. Instead I slept in and took the dog to the dog park to walk/jog while he played in the river and climbed his trees. I began a big project in our home office also. We got a file cabinet for cheap (legal size with 4 drawers) and I began going through our papers and pictures and began filing things so that we are more organized. I threw a couple of boxes... BIG boxes of paper and old junk mail away... i think that stuff has been around since we got married. I recycled old magazines and cleaned up our room of stuff that was just laying around doing nothing. The organization of the office may take a few more lazy days (whenever that will happen again) to really get done. I am contemplating having a garage sale in June, but... ya know. It may be easier to sell some stuff through the school district classifieds/email and then give all our junk to salvation army or some place like that.

Anyway... now it's Sunday night and I really need to write my "professional goal" and submit it to HR this week. Gotta love all the logistics of working for such a large employer. It's a good job though and I really do like what I get to do. I want to be at Bar Nunn again next year too and I am thinking about beginning my master degree in Ed. Tech. or Spec. Ed. and that may be easier if I am a tutor and not a classroom teacher. Someday I would like a classroom, and then a classroom in my house... with my own children. :) We'll see what God has in store for us!

And by the way... my best friend from high school had a baby a little while ago! He's a cutie!! Visit Colin, Stacy and Bennett's blog here.

OK... back to the spring break thing. It was a good week and I am thankful for the time I had to do whatever I wanted. It was much needed and I can't wait for June to roll around so I can experience this again. Nate is kind of jealous that my job gives me breaks like this. One of these breaks we'll for sure go somewhere and sit on a beach with some fruity drinks and do nothing for a week. That will be great and that will be a reason to post some pics... but who wants to see me in my sweatpants on the couch with a pile of papers and file folders watching The Office? See why I don't post pics. :)

Thoughts for the moment...

2009-02-28T20:20:00.002-07:00

1. Is the chicken in campbell's chicken noodle soup real chicken?
2. I hate being sick! This is an annoying cold/flu...
3. I honestly wonder if I will be well enough to go back to school on Monday. It's that bad!
4. Why is it that I can blog, watch movies and look at Facebook, but can't get some much needed to do work done when I am sick?
5. I just want to go to sleep!
6. I have so much stuff to do.
7. I wish this coming week was spring break... but I have to wait another 6 days.
8. The Office season 1-3 are quite entertaining, but make me laugh too much which makes me cough... but I still enjoy the show.
9. Nate and I have been home since Wednesday afternoon after I took him to the hospital to get his white blood cell count. (minus the class I had today and eating at Barry's with mom)
10. I should go put my partylite order in.
11. Nate just made me laugh while I was blowing my nose and it made a whistle sound... good times!
12. will anyone read this?
13. I should put a link to this blog on my facebook.
14. Back to facebook...
15. 15 just seems like a more even number to end on even though 15 is actually an odd number. Weird!

2009-02-02T23:35:00.003-07:00

I would like to post some pics of our fun time this weekend in Pinedale with Lyndsay and snowboarding, but I dont have the pics on this computer and the computer they are on is not hooked up to internet... or maybe it is... anyway, I don't have them on this computer. I hope to have them someday.
I decided that I could live in a place like Pinedale someday. It's quiet, no wind, peaceful, beautiful and not so busy... or so it seemed for the short time we were there. I like it. Nate and I probably won't live in Casper forever and now I am getting ideas of where I may really enjoy living. The lack of wind just turned the place into paradise even with a foot of snow on the ground. you don't realize how nice a place can be if there is no wind. Gotta love Casper. I am off to bed. Spent too much time reading this blog... http://mghinwinter.blogspot.com/ talk about a cool job! Nate and I could do this... and love it. You have no idea!!! We would love it! Good night!

Snow Day!

2009-01-27T22:10:00.003-07:00

It's been a while since I logged on here... today is a snow day, so why not today? Actually, I am about to go to bed, but thought I would blog real quick.
Yesterday I woke up with a stomach ache and headache and just couldn't get myself to go to work, which was a good thing cause then I did get sick and slept until noon... crazy! So I felt better by yesterday night and woke up refreshed and ready to head to work this morning. I got out of the shower and looked out the window at all the blowing snow and thought, "I better check the school district email." What do I find? An announcement that school was canceled due to inclement weather, aka strong winds and very cold temps... it ended up being sunny most of the day, but the blowing snow was so bad I couldn't see my neighbor's house much of the day. Back to the story... I had already showered and just stayed up. I made a big pot of coffee after Nate left, put The Office season 2 in the dvd player and sat on the couch for about an hour. Then I decided to put Christmas decorations away, then vacuum, then move furniture to vacuum under it, then rearrange completely. I even got our "catch all" room cleaned up enough to walk into. The bed is even cleared off and if someone needed to stay at our house, they could do so. So it was a productive day for me. Next time we have a snow day... maybe I will attack our office and throw a bunch of junk mail and old papers out so i can use my desk again! I do wonder if we'll have another snow day tomorrow though... our roads are worse now then they were this morning. Who knows.

January is almost over! Nate and I have been able to go snowboarding a few times in the past 2 weeks. I thought I might have forgotten how to do it... but I am actually better this year than last year and sometimes I get really brave and just head straight down the hill... yikes... I'll get better as time permits. We've also began a Bible study at our church called Experiencing God and it's been a good way for us to spend time in our word and pray together each day. It is challenging in that we are memorizing verses also... so far so good! I better head to bed now in case I do have to get up early enough to drive on the bad roads to school... goodnight!!

more shopping

2008-12-26T23:09:00.002-07:00

So... I guess being on vacation has turned Nate and I into shopaholics. We do pretty good at home not to spend too much money on stuff we don't need... but seriously. We have gone CRAZY the past week. We shopped in San Antonio, San Marcos, and now Austin. I have like 5 new pairs of pants from places like Delia's, Express, American Eagle... some really nice sweaters, victoria secrets pj's, sweats, and sweatshirt... I got skirts and shoes etc. etc. Not to mention all the good coffee I have been drinking. Nate got a blue ray player and today we found some not too expensive blu ray discs at Fry's Electronics... where we spent like 4 hrs roaming and being nerds with all the elctronics. We did well to walk out with just 6 blue ray movies and nothing else. One of the projectors was quite tempting, but that should wait until we have our movie theatre room... if it happens. With all that said and done... NATE AND I ARE SPOILED!! We actually had this conversation... we are totally, completely spoiled. We don't usually do much more than work and work related things... which keeps us busy, but we are really spoiled. We're thankful for the abundance we have, but we have set some goals for the new year and are going to work toward being completely debt free, save wisely, and give wisely. Besides... I don't think I ever want to go shopping again. It actually made me dizzy today... and I have no more money to spend. :) Good thing the relatives are allowing us to stay with them!! By the way... this part of Texas is pretty neat. If you ever get a chance to visit San Antonio or Austin... do it! Now I hope to go to bed... oh yeah... It's my dad's birthday tomorrow... good times!

Christmas Vacation

2008-12-24T21:27:00.004-07:00

Merry Christmas!! Nate and I are in Austin, TX. We took a detour to get here... enjoyed a day at Carlsbad Caverns then a couple nights in San Antonio at a really neat hotel on the river walk, which to me is like another country... here's some pictures.

Our living room in our hotel room

This is the path just across from our hotel... so cute. At night it's all lit up with white lights that follow the arches. Our room is above and across from this spot.

A nice fountain.

Here's a picture of our hotel. Our room windows are the second windows up on the right side. We had a nice view of the river walk.

We left San Antonio this morning and stopped at the largest outlet stores i have ever been to and we walked like 20,000 steps today ( i wore a pedometer to see) and I am exhausted now and not feeling well. I am glad to be in vacation mode and able to sleep a lot and live without a watch. I shouldn't get too used to it though... the drive home and back to work life is not far off...
Merry Christmas!!

Legos and Robots Rock!

2008-12-07T21:29:00.004-07:00

Yesterday was the Wyoming FLL (first lego league) Championship. I volunteered to help with our school's team and we have been practicing since September. I helped as much as I could, but being a new teacher requires many meetings and taking classes, so I missed almost half of our FLL practices. Anyway... FLL is pretty fun for 9-14 year olds. It's basically like being on a basketball team for nerds. The top team goes to Atlanta to compete against teams from all over the world. Our team tied for 10th for Robot round points. They did pretty good considering they are mostly 4th graders and competed against 8th and 9th graders. Also, we were in 1st place after the first 12 teams and by the time 58 teams had gone were were still in 5th. It was a LONG, but fun day.
Here 2 of our team members are helping their robot get ready to run another mission.

Here's a look at the competition tables from the stands.

Here's the crowd during opening ceremonies. I am guessing there were about 500 kids there plus coaches and parent. Good times. All four of us who coached our team are very glad it's over, but we'll probably all help next year because we are nerds and enjoy this kind of science, robotics thing.

Today Nate and I went to church to watch the children's choir, then went to lunch with my mom and dad, then did a bunch of Christmas shopping and we have just a few things left to get, but we're pretty much done. Now I am exhausted and can't believe we go back to work in 10 hours. YUCK! Weekends aren't long enough. I did absolutely nothing in my house this weekend... that's always awesome later in the week. :(
I better get some stuff done before I go to sleep... have a great week!

2008-12-01T22:15:00.003-07:00

I actually wrote this update last night, but didn't post it until my internet was working again... so here's the post...

Why does the long weekend have to come to an end? I really enjoyed all the time off we had this week. We both had Wed-Sun off and if was great! We went to a movie, had everyone over for Thanksgiving on Thursday… and by everyone I mean 11 adults and 2 kids in our not so huge dinning room, but it worked and was a good time with the family. Someday we may not all be able to get together like we did this year, so it’s awesome that it happened.
On Friday we went to Pottery By You with Erika and mom and had a fun few hours painting pottery. I can’t wait to see what my cup turns out to be… it was fun painting. Then Nate and I went home and decided that we had time to do something that every couple should do once in their lifetime… Watch the Lord of the Rings Trilogy back to back… it didn’t work out to watch all of them at once, but we watched in shift and finished the third one Sunday afternoon after church. They are good movies, but I don’t know how you could watch all 12+ hours of the extended version in one sitting… way too hard!
Sunday night we had friends over to our house and it was very random, but fun. I got to see Bernnie… our friend who has decided to become a Georgia girl. She and her husband even bought a house there… Nate and I will go visit someday. Anyway… it was a good time with the friends, many whom I haven’t seen in a while, and we even got a carpet cleaning lesson. Isn’t it weird how things happen in groups or pairs? Hear me out… our dog Shadow is a very well behaved dog. He never makes messes, hardly ever barks and is just fun. Tonight he puked on the carpet right when people were showing up, so we cleaned the carpet and discovered our carpet cleaner was stupid, then my friend Jamie was balancing her cute baby (Jordan) and a plate of salsa and chips and the salsa ended up on the carpet in a different spot. How crazy is that?! We haven’t spilled on our carpet at all (except water) and the dog never pukes and both happened tonight. So I ran to Wal-Mart and bought some good carpet cleaner and all seems well… it’s just odd how things come in pairs like that.
Now I am watching Nate play Wii Music and it’s kind of a crazy video game. We played lots of Wii Fit this week too and it’s awesome! I want to try to do it every day and see if it really does get me into shape. My muscles hurt from it. Well… I have lots of other things I could write about, but this is already long. It was a good long weekend and I am sad that it is ending, but maybe it will be good to get back into a routine and I do want to see my school kids again… they are a hoot.

Stuff

2008-11-19T21:48:00.002-07:00

It was a little over 2 years ago when a former coworker brought me a small, green piece of a Christmas Cactus plant that has been in her family for over 50 years. I didn't really know what to do with it so she advised me to stick it in a cup with a little water in the bottom and watch for roots to sprout, then plant it. Well... i do remember it taking forever for the roots to sprout. Nate kept telling me to be patient to plant it and let the roots get longer. So I waited. They got longer and I put it in this pot. Many times I thought I had killed the thing. I forget to water my plants some times, and they almost die, then I rinse them out with nice water and stick them in the sunshine and they keep bouncing back. Well this one is really bouncing back... gave it a good watering a few weeks ago and sat it in out front window where the sun shines most of the day and I noticed it has buds on it. It's going to bloom this year! Yay! I really didn't know if it would, but here it is. Pink buds preparing to bloom around Christmas. It's kind of a fun thing to see.
Christmas? Thanksgiving? That's next week! I remember last year's Thanksgiving like it was yesterday... time flies when you are busy.
Today I really felt sad for some of the kids in my school. One was excited because she got to go pick up her mom from jail tonight. Another student i was going to work with freaked out when he didn't get help with a math problem and was sent to 'time out' for the rest of the day because he wouldn't calm down and he just kept screaming. I saw 2 teachers almost cry today because they are so frustrated with teaching kids who don't care or don't learn because their lives are so messed up outside of their school day. It's sad. Working at the science zone for 4 years made me forget some of the hard parts about teaching. I was disconnected from really getting to know kids. Now i don't know if I want to know what they have to deal with. It's easier. That sounds bad, but it's true. The hardest part is that I know what it is that they need, but can't share it with them freely. I did see one of my kids at Nate's mom's church the other week, so that's good. I really don't know where this blog is going... just had some time to kill before going to bed. Nate's dad will be home tonight and will be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. I know I have other things to blog about and have other pics to show, but they're on Nate's computer and I don't feel like going to get them.
I am off to get ready for bed... ah sleep... one of the best parts of each day!

2008-11-04T21:57:00.002-07:00

quick thoughts on the election. Let's just say... we didn't vote for the winner and we're not excited about the fact that the House and Senate are going to be ran by democrats also. It could mean some very interesting changes for America in the next four years. So... we're not too excited about it. However, we trust that what's supposed to happen does and God will do what He must.

On happier notes... we went to Denver this weekend and it was 75 degrees and hardly windy and we had a great time. We went to the science museum and saw a couple Imax films, ate out at some good restaurants and even went dancing... which we aren't good at but we have fun and wouldn't do without each other. For fun we looked at some apartments in a 24 floor apartment building and asked about pricing... let's just say some of the apartments we're well over $2,500/mo. It made me feel like my mortgage payment isn't so bad... at least we have something to show for our money. But if that's the life you want... it was a very beautiful building with tall ceilings, swimming pools, fitness center and coffee shop. Anyway... i want to post pics again someday. I promise to get around to it before Christmas... which is sooo soon! Yikes! Hope you are all doing well.

Weekend

2008-09-21T20:53:00.002-06:00

So... the week ended much better than expected, which is lovely.

Today Nate and I worked on our house, did laundry, cleaned, and went to the mountain to make dinner on the campfire. Good times. I feel like I got a lot done this weekend, but there is always more to do. Having had a job that consumed my brain so much these past few years caused me to just do nothing whenever I did have time off, but now I have time to think about all the neat things I could possibly do with my house and with other people, like fam and friends. And again... I am so thankful for the new job I have. So yeah... no pictures to post. I have been too lazy in that area of my life... I'll get to it someday.

2008-09-17T21:29:00.003-06:00

Today wasn't the best day. Actually... this week has kind of sucked. I was late for a staff meeting which was quite embarrasing since I'm the noobie and all, and today my kids were bad and I feel like I don't know how to teach them, but I have no curriculum or specific structure to follow and I have 25 different kids and have to plan 25 different things for them to do each day and this is a run on sentence, and I have been helping out at The Science Zone because the new director is in the dark about exhibits and they are setting up a new exhibit and it's just been too much. Did I mention the 3 hour training I had to go to last night and the 2 hour training I had to go to tonight and all the extra work I have to do because of the training? Anyway... i am whinning, but sometimes I just have to get it out to get beyond it.
OK...
So that's that. It's been a busy week and it's only Wednesday night. I am going to try to sell more PartyLite again. I hope some people can come to the party I am having. I need to go send an email out to people so they know about it... I should call some people too. I am also going to have a booth at a craft fair in November and try to sell some extra stuff I have, candles, and maybe get people to have shows so they can get free product too.
I have nothing else to say. I am going to go read my book and go to sleep. wait... I just thought of something. I really miss being on worship team at church. I haven't been able to sing for well over a year and it's sad to me. I miss it. I feel like a part of me is not the same without it. Is that weird?

New Sidewalk

2008-09-10T20:56:00.004-06:00

The joys of living in a new development come with some frustrations... like having to replace the entire sidewalk up to our front door and part of our driveway. We decided to have some fun with it though and put our hand print and the year we moved into the house on our sidewalk... so that's the pic to the left. We even had Shadow put his paw prints on it, then washed his paws very quickly! Good times. We'll have to see if they laid the concrete correctly this time. It lasted just over a year before it began cracking, shifting, tilting and splitting apart. Thankfully our foundation is looking just fine and the reason for so much shifting on the driveway was due to a water line and them not compressing the dirt correctly after digging the hole.
On to other stuff... life is busy. My new job is great, but time consuming. I would like to sell PartyLite candles still, but I don't know if I have the time. I just like all the candles and I don't mind getting them for free, while making money. I have an entire 'buffet' full of candles and accessories... i guess if I don't ever sell anymore, I can make that work for a few years. :) Well... Nate and I need to get off of our computers. Sometimes I feel like I live in front of this thing... I use it 50% of the time at work, and then come home to check personal mail, check the weather, look up random stuff, and read family/friend blogs... tis life!

New Job... Old Pic

2008-08-07T19:59:00.002-06:00

This picture is from my sister's wedding the first week of June. Now it's August. Wow... I hope i have more time to post pics in the near future. I feel like a lot happened this summer, so far, and going through pictures will help me remember. I remember better when I write posts more often too... journaling is not a bad thing.
So I began my new job this week. I still don't feel like I have closure on the old job... maybe that's because I am still working there a bit? I don't know how long I will be able to do that, but I had made a promise to some things and I need to let my 'yes be yes'.
This week has been pretty easy. Sitting in trainings, soaking up a lot... I mean A LOT, of material, and meeting my colleagues, but it's nothing compared to what I was dealing with at The Science Zone. The Lord surely knew the right timing to give me a job with our school district. Sometimes His timing is everything... actually His timing IS everything and it's hard being patient for Him, but I have a great appreciation for the way He worked this job out. I have a lot to learn, like where my office will be, but that will come next week. Tomorrow we (all the new faculty) have a breakfast with all the administrators in the district and then learn about the education association and policy stuff. Monday we are in our schools rushing to get ready for students who show up on the 18th... I actually think that next Tuesday night is "back to school night" at the school I will be in. Oh yeah... I'm not a classroom teacher. I am a district tutor placed in one of the elementary schools. I bring in new strategies and techniques for students who are not excelling with the ones the school/teacher has used. Could be an interesting job. I believe God provided it for me, and it will be a good experience.
OK... getting long. I just have so much to catch up on. I hope more people I know will begin to read this thing It's hard to keep in touch with people, and if you have a blog and use it, that's how I keep in touch with you!
That's all for now...

2008-07-08T12:27:00.000-06:00

two blogs in a row... crazy! I am really just playing with it figuring things out, like how to post photos and stuff. Anyway...

This photo is from Museum Adventure Quest Camp which is a camp I made up last summer. This year we had 5 of Casper's museums together with only 15 kids, but it was still fun. Ft. Caspar Museum made camp fires with the kids. Can you tell what the campfire ring is made of? They're m&m's! It was totally cute and a great way to teach kids how to build a fire. Pretzels were the logs, a graham cracker was the base of the fire, oreo crumbs are the dirt you push away from the fire ring. What a fun idea for kids and summer... Anyway... now that i know how to upload photos, I hope to get many more on here, and now that we are using blogger, more people can comment!

2008-07-06T23:54:00.001-06:00

hello blog world. I don't have much time, as always, but I just wanted to blog for a second. Life is weird. Random. I used to listen to tons of music everyday. I can go for days without listening to anything more than the radio, which is fine cause I still get music that way, but seriously... I guess I didn't realize how much I miss music until I have a night like tonight. Nate and I are members of a cd club and we earned 6 free cds and then had limited $.99 for all cds once you buy one at regular price. So we are gonna catch up on the music scene. We ordered 23 cds tonight. they range from new Christian artists like Addison Road who I am excited to have to music like Nelly Furtado and Timbaland so we can go clubbin in our living room... :) I just hope we have time to listen to it all.
Here's another example of random... I got a call from a principal tonight, SUNDAY, and he asked what job I was interested in, said he would look for my resume and call me back. I was totally excited and ready to set up a time for an interveiw and now it's 11:40 pm Sunday night and I haven't had a phone call back and it's kind of dissappointing. I honestly think that the second they hear or read that i work at The Science Zone, they black list me. I have had almost no positive response from principals once they learn I work for the museum... I don't get it. And isn't that illegal? So anyway... it was really weird getting a call on a Sunday evening of a holiday weekend from a principal, but it's even more weird that he didn't call back to say he needed another copy of my resume or that he found the resume I already gave to him after he said he would call back. I'm totally frustrated with lack of a real teaching job... it would be such a blessing financially and in so many other ways, and I really do have a desire to teach in my own classroom. I am trusting God will provide. I am also trying to decide if God is telling me to leave my job since it hasn't been doing much good, even though it's been such a learning experience... I don't know what to do about it anymore. I'm done thinking about it tonight.
Hope you had a great 4th!! We have tomorrow off too! Yay!! I hope to post some good pics of our real quick trip to Denver and Rocky Mountain National Park...we got realy close to some elk... REALLY close and we won a trip to Orlando... it will be the first time we're on an airplane together and the first time on the ocean together... I'm excited. We just have to pick the dates and go. More details to come...

2008-03-21T20:06:00.001-06:00

So... this blog is going very slow, but whatever. I am trying to learn how to do some 'design' stuff with it. Like the header? I don't know how to get rid of the original header, but I thought I didn't do too bad with the picture of Estes Park taken on our honeymoon over a year and a half ago and our names looking all cool...

Well... It's Easter Weekend!! I hope everyone enjoys celebrating our Savior's most AMAZING gift of forgivness and love this weekend with family, friends and fellow believers! YAY!!

The First Post

2007-12-17T17:40:00.000-07:00

Nate and I are joining the blogger family. This is a trial run. He will make it look good with his graphics design abilities... I will type away with my rambling abilities. It's a perfect match. By the way... he hasn't done anything with the graphics. That will come later.