The Launch

It's been a long time since I've had time to blog. Between working full time, school full time, being a mom and now because apperentally I didn't think that was enough Leighton is now doing baseball which requires 3 days of practice plus games and Xia is doing soccer oh and I teach the 5 year olds in primary. However I am going to blog today instead of do homework becasue last night the kids and i got to go to a launch party for our favorite author. We have been lucky enough to go to the last 2 launch parties for Brandon Mulls Fablehaven series and loved both of those. The kids both got shirts and autographs from these parties so when I heard that there was going to be a launch party for his new series "The Beyonders" I was stocked. After I picked up Xia from school we set off. The kids both enjoyed it and got to see many of their favorite characters from the "Fablehaven" series. We also got some cute photos with the characters. Afterwards the kids got to have their shirts and book signed by Brandon Mull. When Xia got up to him she said to him "you write good! I like your books" to this Brandon Mull just smiled and said thanks. I hope that they can remember these launch parties and remember how much they enjoyed them as well as the books. If that is the case then it is well worth the time.



Waiting for the party to begin. Leighton already starting the book!


One of the "Knights of the Dawn"


The "Knights of the Dawn, Fairy Queen, and the "Wrath" from book 3


The "Fairy Queen"


"Merial" from FableHaven book 1


Meeting Brandon Mull again for signings

I'm not spoiled! Well OK I am

I have always said that I'm not spoiled just well loved. Well what can I say. It turns out I am both. My wonderful husband bought me the iPhone 4 which I absolutely love. Then to top it off he bought me the new Schwinn Cruiser that is black with pink and white trim and has a very cute wicker basket at the front of it. Pictures soon to come. I also had a major head ache on Sunday and so he let me sleep in and went and taught my lesson for me in Primary (the funniest part is that, that was also the day the stake primary presidency was at the ward and they sat in on the class for him) Then yesterday I still had that massive headache and it was so bad that I spent the day laying on the living room floor with my kids playing the wii and the computer all day and by 7:00 p.m. when Jake got home and saw that I hadn't moved much all day and I looked ever so lovely he called my daddy and took me to get my neck popped which made today bearable. Like I said I am well loved and a little spoiled but what can you do :)

Jury Duty!

I was called to jury duty for the fourth time this week. However unlike the past three times this time I had the opportunity to serve in a criminal case. The case that I was assigned was a rape. It was very interesting to say the least. Unlike the 8 other jurors that were on the trail I went in thinking this could go either way I wasn't leaning toward guilty or not guilty. The jury consisted of 3 men and 6 women. I was the youngest. In the end we asked each other what our initial thought was before we heard everything, the men and one of the women thought he was guilty going in and then the rest of us didn't have an opinion either way yet. By the end of the first day I still wasn't sure whether the guy was guilty or not. Then on the second day as we heard the rest of the evidence I knew that something had happened how ever the question in my head was whether it was consensual or not whether it happened or not. Then on the last day as we deliberated and got to see the evidence much closer I wasn't convinced that there was with out a doubt that he was guilty and neither was the rest of the jury. After 3 hours of deliberation we came back with the verdict of not guilty. I felt bad for the girl however I wasn't fully convinced that it was unconsensual. I could tell that the girls family wasn't happy with the verdict but I am a firm believer that it is better to set one guilty person free then to send one innocent person to jail. All and all I had a really good experience and would love to serve on a criminal case again. I feel that the justice system really does work and that we are very lucky to live in a place that we are innocent until proven guilty.

The major exspense!

Who knew that getting so close to being finished with school would cost so much. First I dropped $220 for a test (that I better pass) and that's just so I can start student teaching. Then I find out that in order for me to student teach in Jan I have to pay $1000 (still trying to figure out how that works. I pay them to work but then I don't get paid for it.) However if I pay it by May then I get $200 off making it $800. Guess the season tickets for Lagoon and San Fransisco trip are out of the question now.Then when all is said and done I pay another $150 for the last test. All of this then I get called for jury duty which I have to take off work and they pay me $50 for the first day then $11 for any day after that. Can any other exspens come up.
Now taht I am done complaining I do have a wonderful husband taht bought my mom and I floor seat tickets to Reba and George Strait. Even though he doesn't like country he got up at 6 in the morning to wait in the cold so I could have good seats. He is the best.

Bunko!

So Jake was reading through his facebook and one of his cousins was starting a Bunko group. She was in need of one more person to get the group going officailly so Jake volunteered me. This is a one year commitment that was going to happen on the last Wednesday of every month. Now I have never before played Bunko so I was a little leary about what skills it required. Well, Wednesday January 24 came before I really got a chance to look up the rules on how to play and I got to Gina's house in the dark on what to expect. It turned out to be a whole lot easier then what I thought and I had so much fun. Not only did I get to spend some extra time with family that even though we live so close we see far to little, but I got to have a wonderful night with just girls and they all were over the age of 5. I am so excited now to be a part of this group that is scheduled to meet every month for the next month and nothing can get in the way of it. Yeah for girls night!

A Fun Filled Week

This has been a long week but at the same time it has been a very fun week for me and my family. It started on Tuesday with Leighton's pine wood derby for scouts. Leighton and my dad worked on his car. I think that my dad had more fun then Leighton on this project but as my mom put it "it is more for the dad's then the boys". Leighton loved designing his car and working on it. He has become a little contractor. He loves to build things with his hands. It reminds me of me when I was younger I always was playing with tools. My dad used to say that if a tool was missing he knew where to find it. It was usually in my room. Well back to what I was saying. Leighton had his pine wood derby. We were planning on it lasting from 6:30 to maybe 8 well they didn't even start racing until 8 and there were 64 cars to race. I was glad that Leighton's car didn't make it to the finals because by 9:15 Leighton and I still had not had dinner and neither one of the kids had their homework finished.

"getting ready"


"all the cars"


"Leighotn 's first color guard" Leighton got to be part of his first color guard at this Pine wood derby.



"the race"

Tuesday was followed by Wednesday. Jake, Leighton and I got to go see Jeff Dunham at the delta center. It was so much fun to spend some quality time with just Leighton and Jake. I love Xia but sometimes she requires so much work. I sometimes feel that Leighton misses out on someone on one time because of all the attention that she seems to need. I really enjoyed watching him as he got to see his favorite characters live. We got to see "Achmed's son A.J" before he is put on the next movie that Jeff Dunham is going to do. We got Xia a talking Achmed doll because she didn't get to go and Leighton got a peanut hat and I got a shirt. We all had a really good time. However like I said it was a long night. This show started at 7:30 and didn't get out until 10:30 leaving us getting home at 11:15.

Thursday we finally got some quiet time at home. However we had to catch up on the homework that we fell behind on because of Tuesday and Wednesday so we still didn't get to bed until late.

Then on Friday I had a doctors appointment for my shoulder. I had another round of cortisone to hopefully help with the pains that I have felt. I go back for the last round in March. If this doesn't work the next step is surgery. I hope that that isn't the route that I end up going. Well with this I had to leave work during kindergarten time and so I ended up staying and closing because Brenda had to take Avery to the doctors because she was running a high fever. I was there until 6:30 because one of our parents didn't get there until 6:25.

That was how my week ended. But it was made all better when Jake and I got an extra bonus so we bought a new 42" flat screen T.V. and blue ray DVD player for the living room. I was also able to de-clutter the house and get a bunch of homework finished for school. Yay me!

It's official!!!

I am now starting my teaching courses and have started the ball rolling to student teach in January of 2012! Slowly but surely I'm getting there. My mentor has been very pleased with how much I have gotten done considering how difficult my classes were last semester. She has had so much faith in me and my abilities. She stated that she highly recommends that I student teach in that I have excelled very quickly with the difficult level of classes that I took and passed last term. The classes for this term are supposed to be easier if you have had previous teaching experiences and seeing as how I have taught kindergarten for the past 6 years she said this should be a breeze. I hope so. I just can't wait to be done and really teaching in the school systems. I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's only been 12 years in the making. I guess that the saying "slow and steady wins the race" might just be true after all!