Beaver Weekend

              Last week I received a call from my Aunt Lorene inviting Brandon and I to join her and her family at my uncle's cabin in Beaver for the weekend for some nice R&R. I was in love with the idea immediately. Family, food and relaxation, how could it get better than that? Especially since the rest of my week had included work, homework, and three very hard midterms. It took a little bit a persuasion to get Brandon on board with the idea (since it would require him to forgo studying and of course the BYU football game on Saturday) but eventually he agreed.
          Friday my cousin Kristin came down from Layton to pick up Brandon and I and her brother Justin, (the rest of their family had gone down on Thursday) and as soon as Brandon came home from work we were off. We arrived in Beaver pretty late and just managed to drag our exhausted bodies off to bed as soon as we arrived.
    The next morning, after sleeping in we wandered downstairs after the tantalizing aroma of fresh pancakes, french toast, bacon, and eggs drifted up to greet us. Most of the morning was spent lounging around in our pjs, reading, talking, playing games and of course loading up on junk food. I was perfectly content until my aunt mentioned that a friend of theirs that lived in the area had a few horses and was wondering if any of us wanted to go out riding? Horse riding really?!? Of COURSE!!! It had been ages since I had last ridden a horse and I jumped at the chance to go again.
   That afternoon we meet with Doug Peterson who owned the horses. Since he had only three extra horses we split up into two groups. Brandon, my cousin Kara and I went first. As soon as I saddled onto my horse (Hershey) I knew that it was going to take me a little while to remember what I was supposed to do. Kara on the other hand took to riding like a fish to water. That girl was a natural!
      It was great to be back in the saddle and to be able to enjoy the beauty around us. After our ride we went back to the cabin and switched riders. We spent the rest of the day just as we had spent the first, lazily and relaxing. After the second group came back from their ride we packed up, and went out for Mexican  and then all headed back home.
   It was a short and sweet, and much needed vacation. It was so wonderful to be able to see my family and catch up with them and just to simply relax and have some fun with so many wonderful people. :)

Kara, Aunt Lorene and I all had on Polka Dotted pjs so OF COURSE we needed a picture of it! 

Following our trusty guide .

Kara (riding Bunny) Brandon (on Katie) and I (on Hershey) ready to ride!

Isn't it beautiful up here?

Practicum Assignment

    Finally, after all the talk, speculation and waiting I have received my assignment for my first practicum! For anyone unaware as to what a practicum is and why I would be so excited about it I will explain. A practicum is where the elementary education majors at BYU take a month out from their regular semester and go into the local elementary schools and observe, and more importantly gain some real, whole-class teaching experience.
   This is the part of the program when you really get to get into the heart of teaching and get your hands dirty. This is where we get to see if/ how all of the  theories, and principles that they teach us work in a real classroom, with real students. This is where we get to apply what we have been learning. Most importantly this is the reason we get to see the reason why we are becoming teachers. To help real students in real situations.
    Well we start our first journey into the world of teaching a week from tomorrow, October 25th 2011. And today that step seems much more real then before. Today I received my assignment to work in Westmore Elementary School in Orem. I will be working in a second grade classroom, which is a little unnerving because I have no previous experience working in second grade. However, hopefully this will be a great learning opportunity. So ready or not here it comes. The real word is beckoning and this will be my real first step into it.  

Operation: Fort Reid

      Last Saturday night started off just like any other. Work, chores, BYU football game. However, this weeks game was much earlier and so for the first time in over a month we found ourselves with a free Saturday night. Great, now what were we supposed to do?
  Brandon suggests all of our usual (if somewhat boring) weekend activities. Food, movie, ice cream. BORING. I wanted to do something new, something different. Of course I was no help coming up with options for us to do and after a few failed suggestions I'm sure Brandon was feeling a little put out. Then somewhat flippantly he said "well we could always build a fort"
BRILLIANT! The my inner child got the better of me (which is an often occurrence), and I was hooked on the idea. I casually mentioned to Brandon that I had never made a fort before which made our Saturday night plans very clear. We were going to build a fort!!!
 First, though we had to run to Sonic to obtain some much needed junk food. According to Brandon junk food is a mandatory aspect of fort life, and who was I to disagree if it meant I would get mozzarella sticks and a shlusshie?
   When we got home we went straight to work. We decided that the best place for our fort would be in our spare bedroom, and so with the help of our extra bed sheets, a couple of blankets and the 'fort master' as Brandon called himself, we went to work. I mostly just watched and followed directions because I'm not exactly the most graceful person on the plane, and let Brandon work his magic.
  When it was all done our office was transformed. We settled in for an evening of sweets, junk food, and of course The Office.  What a great night.

Phase one.

                                      

                                              

It's starting to come together!

                                                  

I even helped!

                                           

The final Product.

                                              

Brandon demonstrating how to use the 'door'.

 

Snacks and entertainment.

Sonic mozzarella sticks and watermelon slush.= Heaven

New Blog

So I've finally caved and created a blog. I've been toying with the idea of starting a blog ever since Brandon and I got married but wasn't so sure about it for several reasons. 1.  Who would want to read about what's going on in our lives? We don't really do anything really worth mentioning about in a blog. (between school, and work who really has time to do exciting things??) 2. even when we do do something worth mentioning I've never been really good a recording it. (I've been a horrible journal writer in the past and my previous blog has been neglected for over a year).
   However, I figured that this could be a place more for my own personal reflection and recordings and if anyone else happens to read this then you will have an extra insight into our lives. Hopefully we won't be too boring for you and that I will be able to remember to record what fun things we have done.