San Diego y Santa Barbara

We were so lucky we got to take a vacation this summer. It's been three years since our last big trip and the relaxation was much needed. Even though I wanted to fly somewhere exoctic Daniel (the realist in our relationship) convinced me a quick trip to the beach was all we needed. The day before we left we decided on San Diego and Santa Barbara.
I love eating outside and the weather was a perfect 72 the night we got there! We ate at this little Mexican Restaurant in Old Town San Diego. It was so pretty on the porch.
Daniel had never been to Sea World before so we started there. I'm not a big fan of going to theme parks without kids but Sea World was really fun with just the two of us. Our favorites were definitely the Beluga Whales and the Sea Lion and Otter show. Very Fun!

We spent a lot of time driving and a lot of time at the beach. We went to Pacific Beach in San Diego Monday and Tuesday then to Butterfly Beach in Santa Barbara on Wednesday. The water wasn't super warm but we were able to boogie board and lay out. It was so nice to just sit and relax with Daniel.

On Tuesday night we had to go eat at Joe's Crabshack, a favorite of mine. We got a table with a view of the ocean and the sunset was so pretty that night. Even though it took us two hours to crack all those crab legs it was still fun!

On Wednesday and Thursday we drove up the coast to see my best friend Genna. She was so nice to put us up for the night. We spent the day at the beach, ate at an awesome authentic Italian restaurant and window shopped. This was the only picture I got of us together though. We went to eat breakfast at her cafe and then hit the road.

It was an awesome trip and I'm glad Daniel convinced me to go to the beach. We loved being there!

Our Summer

I have had a few people tell me that I need to update but of course I had to wait until we actually did something to post about it.

This summer has been really fun. I worked summer day camps for the first half and I've spent the last half relaxing and getting my classroom ready. Daniel has been working all summer which is good, it's just so hot outside right now!

The first exciting thing that happened was Daniel's 2 year graduation. He's halfway! He is planning on starting again in the fall doing business classes for his integrated business and

criminal justice degree. I'm so proud of all the hard work he's doing.

Over the Memorial Day and 4th of July weekends we went to the ranch as usual. It was a blast! We went to the Mt. Trumbell cemetary and I got some pictures of my grandparents and great grandparents graves. It's kind of neat to visit a cemetary where you're related to pretty much everyone buried there.

We went to the Jarman reunion with my mom's family in June. Here is my nephew Dawson with his Potato Derby car. The funniest part was how into it all the adults got!
Daniel was kind enough to spend most of the time fishing with my nephews and nieces. Chloe just loves her Uncle "Danold".

Just keeps getting better with time!

Three years and it just keeps getting better and more fun. I was reflecting on marriage with a friend the other day. I don't think we have accomplished the "normal" things like babies and houses but we have done a lot! Some memories include: Daniel put me through my last two years of school (blood, sweat, tears and all), beautiful wedding in the St. George Temple, remodeled our second apartment, held numerous church callings, danced at the Bundy Reunion, camping trips and fishing trips, built a fort in our living room, got my teaching job and jumped for joy at the first pay check, been to the emergency room and back again, Sunday morning breakfasts with our friends each week, pulled all nighters for Daniel's research papers, checking the bookings for old friends and co-workers, lots of basketball and softball games, our trip to General Conference where I fell asleep and dreamed I fell off the balcony of the Conference Center :), hours of watching "The Office" and quoting "The Office", spending last summer at our pool, races in Vegas, Pinochle and Settlers tournaments with friends and family, and watching fireworks out out apartment window every few weeks. Can you imagine we are still in love after all that craziness? Here's to a million years more!

We are "Pawn Stars" now!

We certainly didn't accomplish much over Spring Break but we did take a little trip to Vegas with friends and a trip to Salt Lake to visit family.

While in Vegas we decided to go the the pawn shop where they film the t.v. show "Pawn Stars". It really wasn't as cool inside as it looks on t.v. but we got to see all the stars of the show so that was kind of fun. I had our friend Skyler take my picture with one of the guys and the batteries fell out of my camera and onto the floor so my friend Danielle and I just took some of each other real quick.

Danielle and Tylee with "The Old Man" in the background.

"Big Hoss" and I

All done!!!

Wow! It only took us over a year but the place is finished. Not to mention that we don't even own it but it has been a good experience helping update our little place. I'm really liking how comfortable we are now. We can even lay on the carpet without getting the heeby jeebies! Just wait until a baby comes (no, I'm not) and turns the place upside down.

Life has been really good to us since I started my job and Daniel has been able to really focus on school. Our cute next door neighbors had their adorable baby girl who I get to hold almost everyday. My hair has changed a bit. Daniel and I have been doing a fitness challenge which has consisted of working out 4-5 times a week and eating a little better. We have both lost weight and I am just feeling a lot better - more positive.

According to Daniel I'm a little more feisty as a redhead. :)

Christmas 2009

Good Christmas this year! I always think that this is the year that I am going to get way into Christmas and do every fun thing that comes up then... I don't get done working until right before and by that time I'm ready to relax which is exactly what I did! Daniel and I pretty much shopped, ate, and hung out with family and friends for 10 days straight. It was awesome! One of the best gifts - our new carpet was put in a few days later. That's right, our tree was up for a total of 4 days before we had to move everything. We are loving the new remodeled floors and I will post pictures soon of the finished product!

I can't even remember which present he's opening but he looks really excited about it. :)
I loved this. We made breakfast for some family and friends one morning and this is what Daniel decided to wear. The little nieces loved it!

I had the privilege of narrating the nativity scene this year at Daniel's parents. They really went all out with scenery and everything!

Got spoiled by my students.

Got spoiled by my husband.

I hope Christmas was good to you all. Happy 2010!

Who says it doesn't snow in St. George?

A couple of weeks ago Daniel and I ventured out into the snow right here in St. George. We may have to move to Salt Lake in the future and that's all I could think about while we were driving 20mph up to the Veyo/ Gunlock area. When I told Daniel that I was going to freeze to death in Salt Lake he said "You'll be fine. We'll just get you some cute boots." Haha! I don't know if boots will save my life or not but it was fun to just have one day in the snow!

There is always something to be thankful for...

What is there to say about Thanksgiving? We had dinner at my parents...I ate a total of 8 pieces of pie...including pie at Daniel's parents that night...went to Wal-Mart to watch all the crazy people at midnight...then went to bed.

The next morning we hung out at my parents then went to ride my uncle's horse. It was a very relaxing weekend full of food and sleep. I did pretty well on the horse if I do say so myself.

I love Daniel's Cowboys shirt while he's riding the horse. It was very fitting I thought!

My brother Jordan was just like a little kid - "Annie. Take a picture of me kissing the horse!"

Look how cute Daniel and Chloe look. We love my little niece. She keeps every family event interesting.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving also!

Buddy Walk

My niece Hanna has been such a blessing to our family. One of the ways that she has blessed me has been by opening my eyes to how wonderful and sweet people with special needs are. On Saturday, Daniel and I with some of my family were able to go to the Buddy Walk for Down Syndrome. It was a big party and walk at the town square. It was so fun to see all the kids with special needs dancing and playing. I just love Hanna and I'm glad that we get to do stuff like this with her.

I had to post this picture of Chloe and I because I love this lady in the background with her sign.
My sister Jana, Hanna, and my mom. Chloe was in the background wandering by herself.

The people from Home Depot donated a ton of building stuff so my dad and nephew Hunter got to build a tool carrier.

First good day in a long time!

Daniel is in school full time. I am working full time. Hopefully all this will get us somewhere soon.

Nevertheless, I am beginning to understand why anybody would stay with this job longer than their first year. Here's the whole sleazy story:

First of all, I go to at least five meetings a week for school. Some of these meetings require me to report the test scores of my students to show my accountability as a teacher. I stress so much about this. I feel like my students are darlings, they are funny, they are thoughtful of me, and most of them are able to catch on to what I'm talking/ teaching about but not enough on paper.

For the past two weeks I have been teaching multiplication and division concepts. I am pretty sure that they are getting it so I'm so excited when I gather them on the floor around me to start my lesson. So far so good. I figure "Okay, let's review for our test tomorrow. If I buy one ticket for $5 how much would two tickets cost?" I call on one little boy sitting in the back. He was raising his hand so I figured he knew. His response "Eight dollars. It's eight dollars!". I almost lost it.
(Just so you know we talked through it, pulled out the play money, I'm pretty sure he knows it now.)

The children leave, I vent to Daniel and my mom about how hard I'm trying, then I decided that I can only do so much. In Daniel's words "You can't take the test for them."

Next day, a little extra practice, a little extra encouragement. They take the test, which took about an hour. Stressed me out! After school I grade the tests and analyze the scores. My class was at 90% proficiency, which means 90% of the kids who took the test scored higher than 80%. All but about 2 or 3 students out of 26.

I couldn't stop smiling when I reported that score at my meeting that day. I felt like I had arrived as an actual teacher. Those smart little buggers sure fooled me. I guess all my hard work, missed lunches, and walks to my car in the dark parking lot (I hate that) after school are paying off.

I'm starting to think that good days aren't necessarily up to the 26 third graders I teach, it's most definitely up to me!

Girls Night!

Can I just say that I absolutely love my friends? Daniel and I have such great couple friends that we have so much fun with but because my girlfriends have all been spread out in different places until recently I rarely get to see them all at one time. The last time all of us were together was two years ago so it was due time.

Girls Night is wonderful because it doesn't cost a lot and we just laugh and laugh the whole time. This time we had it at my house and although I don't like all the cleaning that I do leading up to it, it is definately worth it to have a nice, warm place for us all the eat and catch up. I have been friends with these girls since we were 15 and I miss them a lot now that we aren't running around screaming anymore, but they are all totally unique in what they are doing with their lives and they are just awesome examples to me.

Just look at this group: a world traveler, a recent R.M., a nanny, an orphanage volunteer, and a teacher. P.S. Three of these girls are still single, so if you know any guys that like crazies, let me know! :)

Happy Halloween!

I wish that I could post some pictures of my cute class but I have been encouraged not to post anything for privacy reasons. Halloween in the third grade was pretty fun-EVERYONE got dressed up. The only melt down I had was when the room mom's busted out the gooey, sticky donuts that I knew would make a huge mess.

The third grade teachers.

As far as Halloween day - I totally vegged out while Daniel finally found time to fix up our Jeep. It felt really good to do nothing. That night we had homemade chili and corn bread at my parents (YUM!) and then headed over to my sister's to see the children in their costumes. I didn't really get dressed up but Daniel pulled out the old alien mask and scared people. We had a pretty mellow Halloween but it was good.

My dad with my niece Chloe

Daniel the alien, my nephew Hunter (Obi Wan), and Chloe the ladybug

Sunday Afternoon at the Carpenters

Daniel's brother Chad's family came down last weekend so we got to visit with them a little bit at the Carpenter's. I love my mother in law's cooking! It was neat to see his brother Jarod with his trophy from racing Nationals and our little nieces and nephews. I just thought I'd post a couple pictures for the far away family.

Such cute litttle girls!

It's a Christmas miracle!

Last week, after our big trip to Salt Lake (pictures to come later), I was sick and tired of not having a camera. I begged Daniel for one the week before but our agreement was to buy a trip instead of a camera. So on Monday while our friends Skyler and Danielle were over I asked Skyler to try to fix my old camera. I felt like I had tried everything possible already. He didn't do much but then when he handed it back to me I turned it on and it worked! I looked through the pictures and realized the last picture I took was on February 28 and it was of Daniel golfing. I am so happy to have a camera again and I hope it lasts at least until I can get one for Christmas! Hopefully the blog will be updated a little more often now also!

Office Wedding Dance

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School = Life the past month!

So I have been wanting to do a post lately but my camera is still broken so I've had to use my mom's to take all the pictures of my classroom so it's been a long time coming but here it is!

First and foremost the big news is that due to the Vista charter school's enrollment I was transfered from Red Mountain Elementary to Bloomington Elementary a week before school started. You might be thinking "Wholy cow! How could they do that to you!?" And I agree with you 100%, but the move went smoothly and I wouldn't have it any other way. Bloomington has been a great school with great teachers, principal, and kids.

My class is adorable. I now have 26 students in my class rather than the 16 I had at Red Mountain but they are pretty good little buggers. We have a lot of fun. I would say the toughest thing about being a teacher right now would be all the preparations that go into every single day. I feel like I'm there until dark a lot of days and it's hard. Daniel is going to school full time so he's busy too but I miss our summer of relaxation. Christmas break sounds pretty good right about now.

Other things that have been going on besides school - hard to imagine I could fit anything else into my life but we have managed. We went to the Corn Fest in Enterprise with our good friends Skyler and Danielle and their cute kids which is always a good time. Daniel has been playing a lot of softball. My family has been in town a lot too so that means barbeques and shopping trips.

Last but not least - our apartment is almost finished! Daniel has been working really hard on laying tile and once it's finished we get new carpet! Yes! It has been kinda tough living in a place that looks dirty all the time but it's finally almost done and it has been nice of our landlords to pay for the update!

Well...that's all. I'm tired of typing.

The classroom finished product.
My mom, dad, and Daniel helped me out so much! Here my mom is sewing some stuff for my classroom.

My class library. Probably one of my favorite parts.

Daniel and Danielle at the Cornfest. Danielle is picking corn out of her teeth I think :)

Annie Goes to "Annie"

I was so fortunate to get to go with my mom to see "Annie" at Tuachan last week. I have been wanting to see it but didn't think it would be a sacrifice Daniel would want to make. Anyway, my parents callings in church are advisors for the Special Needs Mutual and Tuachan donated a bunch of tickets so I got to go in my dad's place.
Little did you all know that I was in the play "Annie" when I was in fourth grade. I couldn't sing then and still can't so I didn't make the lead - but I was still one of the orphans.
This play was really fun for me because I knew all the songs and it was just me and my mom. I loved it!

Carpenter Family Camping Trip

Over Pioneer Day weekend we went with Daniel's family to Panguitch Lake. It was awesome because his whole family was able to go (with one exception) which rarely happens because his brothers and sisters are kinda scattered in different places. We did take the camera with us - then we realized the memory card wasn't in it! So the only picture I have of Daniel and I is this one I stole off of Kylene's Facebook page. :)

It was fun to relax for probably that last time this summer. We played Skip-Bo, ate, went on a hike, tried to fish but caught nothing, then ate some more. Daniel and I even slept in the back of a truck under a shade thing, but technically under the stars. It was a great time. I really love my in-laws and I'm happy that we can do stuff like this with them.Todd, Katherine, Daniel, Annie, Angela, Milissa, and Colby Carpenter