Easter! and other things...

Happy Easter everybody!   We've had a very relaxing Easter.  In celebration of the upcoming holiday and our spring break, I made cupcakes for my class.  I don't often bring treats for my students, so I like to do something special for holidays.  For those of you that have read my previous posts, Kyle got me some cake decorating supplies for Christmas.  I decided to try out the cupcake decorating tool.  It was pretty slick.  Here's a picture of the cupcakes I took to my students.

  Today to celebrate Easter, I put a ham in the crockpot.  Katelyn came over for lunch, and we decorated Easter eggs before dessert.  We love having Katelyn here and love having family to spend holidays so close.

I made home-made brownies with whipped cream again for dessert.  Yummy!

  Kyle has been cooking more and more and I LOVE it.  He loves to look up recipes online and have us give it a try.  It is so much fun to work with him in the kitchen, and he really does a fantastic job.  Tonight he decided to make Atole, a drink that he had on his mission.  It's very much like a vanilla pudding, but not as thick, and it's warm.  Delicious.  I couldn't help snapping a picture of him doing his thing.

   Another random happening in our lives:  we were asked to chaperone a dance at my high school. Apparently, I'm a senior adviser, and since the seniors put the dance on we were asked to be there.  We decided it would be fun, so the Saturday that Kent and family were here, we spent the evening at an Eighties dance.  I was pretty excited about it, but kind of nervous.  I didn't want to have to yell at kids making out or something on the dance floor.  Luckily, they were all really good kids so it was an easy gig.  I was told before we went that they were excited to get 'cool, young' chaperones.  Little did they know, that Kyle and I really aren't that cool, and this was in fact, the first high school dance I ever attended.  Here's a picture of our fun evening.

Kyle turned 28!

Sometimes it feels like we are getting so old, but other times it feels like we are still babies.  On the 25th of March, my wonderful husband turned 28!  If you know Kyle, you'll know that he loves to do crazy, over the top stuff for me, but hates to have the same done for him.  Well, this year, I may have gone a little too much in the opposite direction of over the top.  His birthday was quiet and not terribly exciting.  On Friday evening, before his birthday on Monday, Kyle's brother Kent, his wife, Kate, and their three kids came to visit.  It was a lot of fun to have them here.  We all crammed into our little apartment and had a fun weekend.  On Saturday, we made breakfast, then did some 'sight seeing' around Rexburg.  Not that there is a lot to see, so we ended up heading to St. Anthony, so they could see my classroom.  For lunch we grilled chicken thighs, ranch potatoes and asparagus.   So Yummy!  For dessert I made a strawberry cream pie.  My grandmother made  a recipe for a rhubarb cream pie, and this was very similar to that.  I tweaked the recipe to make it more like my grandmother's, I just added strawberries instead of rhubarb.  It was delicious, but not very pie like, more like a soup.  Better luck next time.  But Kyle loved it with the homemade whipped cream, so I considered it a success.  We didn't seem to take any pictures of the weekend, except for a few.  So here's one of Stone and Kyle eating their pie soup!

On Sunday, to further the birthday celebrations, we made home-made pizza for lunch.  Kyle LOVES pizza.  I remember in college it seemed that Kyle could and would eat pizza everyday and never get tired of it.   I grew up making home-made pizza, and it's one of our favorite meals.  I have a pizza crust recipe from my Betty Crocker cookbook, and we make our own sauce out of tomato sauce.  I feel like I finally have it perfected.  We had a hankering for brownies, and soon realized that I didn't have a box mix lying around.  So out comes a R.S. cookbook we had gotten for our wedding.  There's a simple brownie recipe called "President Kimball's Favorite Brownies.'  I decided to give them a go, and have now decided that I can never go back to box brownies.  Kyle topped his with the home-made whipped cream from the day before and he was in heaven.

On Monday, Kyle's actual birthday, he came to see me at my school for lunch. He does this every once in a while and my students LOVE him.  They will frequently ask about him, and if someone happened to see him in the hallway, and then he's gone before they get to my class, there's an uproar.  He's a very popular guy.  Later that evening we did absolutely nothing.  Kyle is very busy with school and as the semester is ending, his birthday was no exception.  I think all in all he had an enjoyable birthday.  And we look forward to celebrating another year.

Pat on the Back Moment

*Disclaimer: the following post may make you throw up a bit in your mouth.

This is my first year teaching.  I'm 27 years old, I graduated from Iowa State University in 2008, and this is my first year teaching.  I graduated as an elementary education, special education major.  I never thought in a million years that I would be teaching high school special education.  But here I am.  Now for the pat on the back... they love me, they really, honestly love me.  I have been told repeatedly that I am doing a fantastic job.  That they think I'm a God send for some of these students that need someone to help motivate them and be proud of them.  Well, today after a difficult IEP meeting, my principal fist bumped me and told me I was amazing.  He than told me that the head of special services (who had had misgivings about my ability to manage a classroom) had told a potential hire in an interview that I was the best teacher he had ever hired and the best in the district.   I don't know why you'd tell someone you want to possibly hire that there is someone they'll be measured against, but he did.  So I'm feeling pretty proud of myself right now... and thanks for reading.

Movie Review!

I've never done this before, but I decided to start since I just watched a movie that I want to tell everyone about.  I loved it. 

Last night, I was 'spending time' with Kyle by watching a movie on my laptop while he did homework.  He kept giving me the stink eye because I was laughing and making other noises.  Part way through I stopped it to do other things and proclaimed that it was quickly becoming one of my favorite movies.  Kyle asked if it was better than 'Lars and the Real Girl.'   I don't think it's quite as good, but it's right up there.  Anyway the movie that I am loving right now is...

I can't even tell you why I love it so much.  It's a story about two people that both feel lost in life, but then they meet each other, and their lives take on meaning.  It's not even as if their lives revolve around being loved, it's that they support each other and are able to be theirselves around each other.  At one point he encourages her to speak out about something.  She timidly does and her opinion is taken seriously.  Then later, she decideds to voice her opinion again.  This time it's the idea that he planted in her that she can do anything that encourages her.  Anyway, it has some big names and faces you'll recognize and I strongly recommend it.  I'm sure some of you may watch and decide that I'm off my rocker.  And that's okay, but as I am sitting here in my classroom, waiting for parent/teacher conference to be over (3 hrs and 20 minutes remaining) I can't wait to watch it again.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I feel like it's starting to become spring!  This week I finally took down the plastic wrap from off the window and put up three stained glass owls my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas.  I really hope it doesn't get super cold again.  But it is Idaho.  We have a gorgeous view of the temple out our window, but just this week they started developing the land right next to us.  Hopefully it won't block our view.  It's been nice to see the House of the Lord from every window.

Kyle and I have been keeping busy, as usual.  I really love my job and I especially love the people I work with, even my students!  It's been such a blessing to be able to have a great job.

For St. Patty's day today I wanted to make corned beef and cabbage,  just like a million other people, I'm sure.  Kyle thought it was okay, but wasn't super thrilled about it.  I also made samoa cookies, or like they are being called now 'caramel delights.'  Anyway, the girl scout cookies with the coconut, caramel and chocolate.  They turned out delicious!

The baby blessing

Last weekend we went down to Spanish Fork/Orem for my nephew's baby blessing.  It was so much fun to spend time with my parents, who had flown in.  Of course, we love seeing sweet baby James and hanging with Beth, Wade and Ginny.  Here's a picture from the special occasion.

What I did last night...

   So a few weeks ago I lost one of my mittens.  I love these mittens.  They're the kind that has the flap that turns the mittens into fingerless gloves.  I don't know if anyone knows what I'm talking about, but I bought a pair back in college and have proceeded to buy a few more pairs when the mittens have died.  Well, I lost one.  And I was devastated.  I thought that I had lost it on campus somewhere when I had gone to work out, so I sent Kyle to check the various lost and founds.  Nothing.  So I started shopping around.  The ever money conscience Kyle, suggested I just make a pair.  Well, the idea appealed to me, but if anyone knows me, I am not a huge fan of lengthy crochet projects.  I am a 'sit down and get it done in one sitting' kind of girl.  Well, last night I spent over FOUR hours working on one mitten/glove.  I'm pretty proud of myself.  Kyle is so funny about my crochet products.  He always thinks everything is the coolest thing he has ever seen.  Well, here's a couple pics of my mitten/glove making adventure.  I think that I'll redo this, and not make a second like this one.  I want the cuff longer and the glove needs to be a little bigger in general.  But it's still pretty cool!

The mitten!  (with the flap down). For those that aren't familiar with this kind of mitten/glove, the button is to keep the flap back, when needed.

the fingerless glove!  (please forgive the chipped nail polish)  ;)

January!

    My big 27th birthday!  It was one of my tougher birthdays.  I usually love my birthdays, but this year I just felt old.  But that's not important.  What's important is that Kyle, Katelyn and I made a fabulous birthday lunch on Sunday the 20th, the day before my birthday.  I decided that just a family meal would be best.  We decided on an Olive Garden replicated meal.  We made Chicken Gnocchi soup.  It's chicken, carrots, spinach and a dumpling-like noodle.  We found a recipe for a garlic cheese roll, made with Rhodes rolls, and then I made chocolate filled cupcakes for dessert.  I practiced my icing decorating skills and made owls on my cupcakes (I love owls, for those of you that don't know that about me).  It was a lot of fun.  Kyle got me a fun purple(my favorite color) scarf and an owl necklace.  Katelyn got me a much needed apron. One of my good friends here got me two pairs of owl earrings.  I really got some fun, good stuff!  Here's a slightly awkward picture of me at lunch when I got my gifts.  I need to figure out how to put videos on here.

New Adventures with New Crafts

    I had grown up with my mom decorating all of our birthday cakes and had decided that I wanted to learn the art.  I had gotten a few tips and bags previously, but Kyle went all out.  He bought me 55 tips, bags, rubber bands to keep the icing bags from exploding on your hands, and two decorating books.  The books were really the 'icing on the cake.'  They taught me how to make the icing, as well as techniques for making different basic designs.  Since Kyle isn't a huge fan of cake, I decided to make some sugar cookies and try out my decorating skills.  Here are the pictures from early January of my attempts.

This is a picture of most of the cookies.  I made them at the beginning of the semester, so some have cute phrases for Kyle.  

This is my favorite!  I love flowers, and these were so easy.  I can't wait to do this all along the side of a cake.

Cute fishy!

Little worm.

My attempt at some roses.  Still need to practice!