I set so many goals at the beginning of every year, and yet I hardly meet any of them by the end. So I have limited myself to 3 resolutions this year. That's it. And here they are.
1. To do things that I know have to be done and that are right, even if it is opposite from what I really want.
2. Get in shape. (yes, round is a shape, but it is one I am tired of) :)
3. Pursue excellence...always!
I have decided to do a quick update even though my pictures aren't ready for this post. Christmas was good. I got to spend it in Lake Havasu with my whole family. My good friend, Kyle, and his wife decided to let me use their car for the break, which I was extremely grateful for. It was good to see my niece again...she is growing up way too fast. It was also good to visit with some old friends. But even though it was good to be with the people I love and grew up with, it was nice to get away.
The next week I was back in Thatcher. My old roommate, Erin, came from Mesa with me and spent 5 days in Thatcher. It was wonderful to have her back, but having her leave again was hard. 
For New Year's Eve our good friend Jordan House and Justin barbequed for us and we talked and watched a movie and visited the Grahams...and talked some more. We finally kicked Jordan out of the house at 4 am. Haha! I bet his poor mother had thought he had died or something because he never goes home that late. I am so glad I have those guys as my friends.
So now here I am, sick and preparing to start teaching for one more semester. And I am not prepared! Ok, I'm fairly prepared, I just wish this break could be a few days longer.
Every time I say that I am going to be better at blogging I do worse. But now that I am on Christmas break, I have no excuse. A lot has happened in the past couple of months. So I am going to break this into 3 parts....Personal, Travel, and School.
Let's see...oh yes. With the end of the semester comes the retiring of another roommate. So before she left we did more roommate pictures and had a Pantyhose Pact meeting one last time. Erin moved to Gilbert to attend ASU. Erin has been my best friend this semester so it has been really hard to see her go. She is the one I would stay up late just talking with, or get up early with just to talk about not wanting to get out of bed. She and I h
ave had a lot of different adventures and it is going to be so hard without her. She hasn't even been gone a week! I wish that I could keep all the people that mean so much to me here in Thatcher with me. Anyway, I will admit that I am a brat and have gotten so tired of new roommates that I refused to have a new person move into my room...so my roommate Sarah moved into my room with me. Not only did Erin leave, but now my good friend Kasi is leaving too! She is another member of the Pantyhose Pact. Now only Kyle and I are left. She is going to London to nanny and leaves before the new year. Ay yi yi, growing up and moving on is hard when all the people you care about are learning to live their lives without you.
onderful opportunity to go to Utah for Thanksgiving. The break started out with me being sick and my mom freaking out and my friend Allen taking care of me. Haha. Ok, I'll start at the beginning. My good friend Allen and I were talking one day and we both mentioned wanting to travel for Thanksgiving so we talked about it and in about 10 minutes we had decided to go to Utah and spend Thanksgiving with his grandma in Mt. Pleasant. Of course both our moms freaked about the idea at first, but eventually they got used to the idea. However, that week I came down with a bad cold and the night before we were to leave I had a fever. So mom freaked out and called Allen and Allen got to play nurse that night since I was sleeping at his house. Haha, what a good little nurse he was...Starbucks included and everything! And by 4 the next morning we were on our way to Utah, Allen's uncle included. 
oking and talking and laughing together. After breakfast and getting ready for the day Allen and I headed to Provo where he dropped me off with my most amazing, wonderful, and talented old roommate Amber. We had so much fun just catching up, attempting to make homemade cinnamon rolls, and shopping. Then that night my dear friend Rex met up with us and we all went out for Sushi and ice cream. After ice cream we went to Rex's place and visited with his roommates a bit before heading out to take pictures all over the place. I hadn't had such a great night in a long time. Being with those two again made the world seem like it had stopped and nothing mattered for the time being. I can't tell you how blessed I am to have them as friends.
when you go to bed at 3 am. We were able to go to lunch together and take a little photo shoot before Allen picked me up again. When we got back to Grandma Priest's we helped prepare dinner, which were the best little steaks ever, and then we visited some more before heading to bed. Our drive home began at 5 am and we decided to go a different way, through Moab and the Indian Reservations in northern Arizona. Let's just say I was never happier to see home at 5:30 that night. It was very kind of Allen to go that way so that I could be dropped off in Thatcher. 
seasons affect the attitude of kids. Man, the past few weeks they have been squirrly! I got put in charge of the Christmas program at school, which was so cute, but took a lot of time! And right after the play was a Holiday parade around the track where the band played and the kids decorated bikes and wagons and did a whole performance around the track for parents and the Primary School. It was a really good time. Have I told you how cute my kids are? Well they are, and noone can debate that with me because I'm pretty sure I'll win that argument. Anyway, for a week all we did was practice for our play after school and during school and before school and....you get the point. I was exhausted by the end, but it was totally worth it. So Halloween cam
e and went...it was crazy! It started Thursday night with a date with Levi where we carved pumpkins and watched Hocus Pocus. That was a fun night, but ended so late for it being a work night. It was the first time that I had ever carved pumpkins. I ended up breaking 2 saws as I was carving too! Haha...oops. But our pumpkin turned out really good. It was a really good night.
ed me. I know, mean teacher. And then after they had study hall or music, we had class parties which involved SO much food! It was so good though! I love my job! Right after school my roommate and I went to the middle school and helped set up a haunted house in the middle school. We did that until about 6 pm and then went to dinner with the principal, secretary, librarian, counselor, and everyone else who had been helping set up. After that we went home and got ready for the costume dance at the institute. We were amazing! Erin, Bailey, Kasi, and I were all members of ABBA. It was fun but we were exhausted by the end and my feet were killing me. I passed out on the couch for a bit before going to bed.
about a busy day too. We woke up and got ready and went to the middle school to finish setting up the haunted house. Let's just say we were there until we had come home and get ready for it. Erin, Kasi, and I were all in it. It was crazy! Then we ran back to the middle school and put finishing touches on the haunted house before 
it opened for business. We did that for 3 hours. It was fun! I was a mad scientist in the labratory and I looked crazy! Erin and I showed up at a surprise party for about 10 minutes after that before going home and cleaning ourselves up and then going to bed. Our feet were once again killing us! So it has been quite the crazy weekend. But it has been an incredibly good weekend, except for the fact that it is almost over and I feel like I haven't had a break at all!This is going to be short and to the point.
No ice cream.
No more him.
I'm so done with it.
The end.
Well...it has happened. It is now my turn to owe my roommates M&Ms and Skittles. No ice cream...yet. I'm holding out on that one. If you have no idea what I am talking about...just keep reading. In our house, the Lighthouse, we have certain "special" rules when it comes to guys. There are only 4 rules, if you don't count the "no guys in the bedroom" rule. Anyway, these rules are as follows.
1. Cuddling: Skittles
2. Hand Holding: M&Ms
3. Kissing: Ice Cream
4. Engagement: Steak or Nice Dinner
The first time you do one of those things with a new boy then you owe your roommates. Pretty simple rules...I've never had to pay up until now. And honestly, totally took me by surprise! Anyway, if it goes anywhere I'll let you know, but for now it sits at being a big fat nothing...except for the occasional cuddling and hand holding. :)
ould have done my research first because this sucker is going to get huge in the years to come! He is very cute and little right now and the kids adore him, but one day down the road I am going to have to find an alternate home for him. His name is Tiny Tim. Haha. Ok, so on with August. My friend, Kyle, was getting married to a girl I used to visit teach. I kind of set them up. And since his fiance asked me to be a bridesmaid I got to throw her a bridal shower. We also had to throw a bridal shower for my roommate who was getting married. The only available day for both of them was August 23rd. So my day consisted of bridal shower stuff from 7 am to 7 pm and I would not have survived without my amazing roommate, Erin. It was ri
diculous and I was a little more than grouchy afterwards. Note: that was the first weekend I had been in town since I had moved back. The next weekend was Kyle and Kyia's wedding so my roommate and I once again went to Mesa. We made it to Glendale for Kyia's bachellorette party and I stayed at another bridesmaid's house. Let's just say that everyone's hair had to be the same, which meant our day started at 5am and we did wedding stuff all day until 10pm. I was so exhausted. (The picture is of me at the wedding with 2 of the groom's men, Spencer and Eric...love them!) It was a good thing that my friends, Allen and Justin, had offered me their condo to stay at while they were out of town. I crashed for a good 12 hours after that. So in a nutshell...that ends my month of August.
ould get out of work to go so I didn't think that I could go on the trip. Well, Cameron called me the night before and told me that Marquette really needed some of her old friends because they were having a hard time adjusting to Tucson so he made up an excuse to stop in Thatcher on the way to New Mexico and they picked me up! It was great! We were able to spend a day at their grandparent's ranch in the mountains. We played with horses, swung on a tire swing, walked in a waterfall until we were completely soaked, and hiked. (The picture is us in front of this cute little cafe and store in a town in the mountains...this was taken right before we had the bright idea to get in the waterfall). It was great! One of the weekends at the beginning of September we were told that Thatcher was creating a single's ward for those people not going to school or living at home. I got more upset by it than I should have. I had a hard time accepting the fact that I now had to switch to a ward where I wouldn't be with college students when I already didn't have the chance during the week to be with them anyway because I was at work. I was really mad that I had to go to that ward and the Lord knew it. So He decided it was time to humble me and I got called to be the 1st Counselor in the Relief Society. It is a tiny ward so it is going to be a challenge to get girls interested in being there. So far we have had a record of 10 girls in Relief Society. Each week we cross our fingers that more people have decided to leave their home ward and join us. We will have to see how that goes.
ommates ever. We get along so well. I am so blessed to be back in Thatcher. I just cannot seem to get away from this place. Everytime I think I am going to leave something brings me back and it feels like home here. Thatcher has stolen my heart.
look around. So he walks over to this ditch we are by and pulls out shines his flashlight in it and pulls out the bottles. Then he keeps looking and shines his light on the tree that the Bud box is under. I thought Dave was going to have a heart attack. So Justin asks us if we want to change our story and we don't so he calls for backup. Hah! So Jordan comes driving up with his red and blue lights flashing and he starts talking and looking around. And he knows all of us so he is acting like he is trying to be our friend and that he believes us but he has to be professional. So he asks to talk to me off to the side and while he is doing that Justin is telling everybody else that someone has to go down to the station to take a breathalizer test and tell the chief their aliby. At the same time, Jordan is telling me this and I agree to go so he puts me in handcuffs. This is the time where I for sure thought Brittany and Dave were going to wet their pants or something. They were calling my name and asking what was going on. So Jordan puts me in the truck and then says that the others can come talk to me through the crack in the window. Dave pleads with me to let him take my place since I'm a teacher and all, but Jordan said that I already agreed so he couldn't. Then Justin walks up to them and says, "I just got another call and I'm supposed to tell you all....this is all a prank!" IT WAS SO FUNNY! Brittany and Dave believed the whole thing! We got them so good!
