Relief and Happy Birthday!

It is over, done, the end. They found a replacement for me for my Wednesday Draper classes! Apparently and thankfully he is amazing and has been training like madness and will be there next week for the new semester. Which means that as of last Saturday, January 23rd, my 24th birthday, I am officially done teaching. What a huge sigh of relief! All anxiety and anger fled my body when it heard that incredible news. Best Birthday ever.

It was also a fantastic birthday because my husband made me pancakes for breakfast and then gave me The Office Season 4, which we have become addicted to. Piano lessons and festival went well and the Springville recital was okay. Then we went to Clints Deli (the Provo Hickory Kist) and had the Clinster for the first time ever.... delicious.. Seriously so good. I got to chill at home for a min before driving up to Draper for the Draper recital... which was THE BEST Draper recital ever. No kids cried and got scared or anything this time. Everyone played their songs and sang their songs and did everything just so great. And then after the recital I was swarmed with my precious students giving me birthday and last day of being their teacher gifts. So cute and so much fun! I took pictures of all my students so I'll have to post those on here when I can get them onto my computer.

After Draper recital we went to... drum roll... The Cheesecake Factory of course! The party in front of us was told it would be a 3 hour wait... I was almost devastated. There was no plan B for birthday dinner choices.... But we were luckily told it would only be an hour to an hour and a half. YAY! We roamed the Fashion Place mall and built 2 bears at the Build A Bear there for our bedroom.... since it is somewhat a bear theme and will be as we gradually decorate it. So cute! I also found a belt that i have been NEEDING for ages now. Then it was only a little wait longer and we were in cheesecake factory bliss with some of my family! So yummy!

After dinner Dustin and I headed home and had some friends over for a game night... Nathan and Adrienne picked the Celestial Companion game that Dustin's grandparents gave us for Christmas and it was actually kinda fun. So really, it was indeed, the best birthday ever. I hope that 24 is as great as 23 and that this year will be as great as last year. I have a feeling that it will!

Then you Stand

So, I am taking a stand for myself... You see, in August, I was promoted to a manager at StoresOnline, right? It was a promotion I was asked to apply for and I was nervous but knew I needed to do it. It has been SO wonderful in this new position and has helped our family so much, but teaching for the Academy has now become very stressful. Having two jobs in the first place was stressful but adding management duties and not as flexible a schedule has worn on me emotionally, mentally, and in turn, physically. I just cannot do it anymore.
So in August, after I successfully was given my applied promotion, I told the Academy that this would be my last semester teaching.... giving them a 5 MONTHS notice to find a replacement for me. So here we are in January now, 5 months later, the end of the semester approaching next week and I am so excited and so ready to be down to one full time job. And then the dreaded news comes....
I have someone to take over my Thursday classes and someone to take over my Saturday classes but my Wednesday classes have no replacement. And the semester will start again the first week of February... and I am basically just expected to keep teaching until someone magically shows up and is trained... and I am bugged. Very bugged. This is why there was 5 months time to find someone new.
As I just stated in my first paragraph, I AM WORN DOWN. I have become so turned off and shut down towards group teaching which has not been fair for me, my students, or the Academy. Or even my poor wonderful husband who has basically been the sole person to clean our house, do the dishes, make the bed, do the laundry, even make meals. And this was all on top of his 22 credits he had last semester and 12 hours of work. I am so lucky to have the most amazing husband ever. But I don't want him to have to do that. I want to take care of my house, my husband, and myself, heaven forbid if we wanted to have a baby soon and I would want to take care of my child too!
So after being hurt, bugged, and angry, I sent an email. I have to be firm in this. I knew when I gave my 5 months notice that it was the right thing to do. And after sending my email, I felt assured again that it was the right thing to do. I am willing to stay through February because I don't want my students to be stranded teacherless after their hard work. But past February I am MORE than done. I just can't do it anymore. Is it really too much to honor the wishes of an overstressed young married woman who needs to quit? Is there any difference in me quitting because my situation has changed where I am not available for 2 jobs and someone else who is moving? Both cases they are unavailable to teach, yes? It is frustrating and overwhelming.
And here I stand, taking my stand for what I need to do for me. And yet I fear the reaction from the Academy. Of course they're not going to be happy, but I am not happy either. I am anxious and moody and dead. Which is why I need to be firm and stand. Come what may.

Happy New Year

I'm a little late on a Christmas update and New Years post, but better late than never, right?

Christmas was SO GOOD this year! Santa was very generous. We got a Wii which we actually opened up November 25th... guess we don't know which month Christmas is in.... Santa also brought us the Super Mario Bros Wii game, Guitar Hero World Tour, a pink remote for the Wii for me, lots of fun games, tons of movies including the Office Seasons 2 and 3 which we have been ADDICTED to, and some Christmas sweaters. I gave Dustin Wii Sports Resort and some cologne. He gave me a foot massager and a beautiful new hand mixer. It was such a great Christmas morning! Dustin woke up at 5 and could not go back to sleep for the life of him. I made him wait until 6 to actually get out of bed and open up presents. I was hoping to sleep until at least 7, but nope! Hahaha.
Dustin's parents gave us a nice outdoor kitchen unit and a griddle/grill attachment. My parents gave me a coat, Dustin a couple pairs of pants, and we got a Magic Bullet Deluxe which has a blender attachment! Pretty sweet! Seriously, we feel so lucky that we got such a great Christmas!

New Years Eve we threw a little fondue party with cheese, broth, and chocolate fondue. We had to stop Harry Potter 6 to shout happy new year, bust out the bubbly, and pop some poppers. Then we finished the movie and everyone left by 1. It was happy.

Now it is January 12 and Dustin is back in school. He does not have as many credits as last semester and is able to work part time, 20 hours, so that is awesome as I will not be teaching for the Art City Music Academy after this month.

Dustin just started Slim for Spring, a competition with some family friends and family to lose weight and be healthy! The program is 12 weeks long and you are given points based on things such as drinking 48 oz water, exercising 30 mins, eating 5 fruits and veggies, no treats, etc. Then of course there are points given for losing/maintaining weight and inches. We already miss chocolate but it's kinda fun to try to really be healthy! We are buying lots of healthy food and just bought the Wii Fit Plus bundle so we can work out before we play any other games on the Wii. Hopefully this will help a little and will be a fun competition.

Sending you a little Christmas

Here is our Christmas card! Merry Christmas everyone!

Lots of love,

Christmas bells are ringing...

I haven't posted in a little while....
But i'm really excited for Christmas
And you know how I'm married now? Well, does that mean I'm supposed to send out those family Christmas cards? And if so, to who?
Or do I get to wait until I have a kid so that there is something exciting to say about our family besides we love being married and Dustin takes a bazillion classes and i work a bazillion hours....

Just wondering.

We need a little Christmas

So, last Saturday my little brother (age 10) Evan came running downstairs frantic. This was his predicament:

"MOM!! I NEED TO KNOW IF SANTA CLAUS IS REAL OR IS HE FAKE??!! I don't want to be lying in my bed on Christmas Eve, with my wife, wondering if Santa Claus is coming to bring my kids presents! I just have to know!!"

I DIED laughing when my mom told me this story. He's 10 years old, worrying about his wife, kids, and Santa. How freaking cute is that?!

My mom told him, of course, that Santa Claus is real.

Autumn Cruise Vacation Part 3: So-Cal

Our boat returned to San Diego port early Friday morning. We took our sweet time leaving, sad to go. When we got back to our car, we found out that the battery was DEAD. Yep. Dead. So we had to flag down a guy at the Park and Ride and get them to jump start our car. It came back to life and we were hoping it would stay that way!! We drove to the San Diego Zoo but sat in the parking lot letting the car stay alive for a little while longer.

The zoo was HOT!!!!!! The best thing in the world we could have ever purchased was this little coffee/hot chocolate tumbler that you could get soda in and free refills all day long. We got a bazillion. It was crazy. Also, the best thing that we did was take the bus ride around the zoo. That let us see EVERYTHING without walking up and down the hills, which was really nice! After that i was ready to go, hahaha, but we checked out the Elephant Exhibit and got a bunch more drink refills, then left :)

After the zoo, we prayed that the car would start and it did! So we drove to the San Diego temple... and it was beautiful!! We would have liked to have done a session there but did not have time, nor the appropriate dress attire on us. We got to chat with the sister missionaries though and turns out, one of them knows Heather Colbert! I told Heather I would visit her on her mission while we were in San Diego! I just didn't know we'd get that close to actually being able to!

After the temple we headed on up to DISNEYLAND!! The traffic was a little backed up but it wasn't too terrible, which we were very grateful for. We got into Anaheim and checked into our hotel, then we were off to Downtown Disney. We got our Disneyland tickets and checked out Downtown Disney, making sure to peek in the Lego store and sitting down for some food at a Mexican place that was there... dont' remember what it was called, but it was good! Of course, Rain Forest Cafe had like a 2 hour wait, hence the Mexican joint. We also gave in and got a double twisted churro before dinner... I guess that prepped us for Mexican food. Hahaha. The trip couldn't have been complete without a trip to the candy store so we got some fudge and headed to the hotel to get some sleep.

We wanted to go to Disneyland pretty early.... but then when we woke up, we decided it really wasn't worth it. Hahaha. We took our dear sweet time to wake up and get breakfast and the IHOP across the street from Disneyland entrance. We didn't get to the park until 11 ish. We went straight to Space Mountain for some fast passes, but of course, they were temporarily down... so we went to the next best thing, BUZZ LIGHTYEAR!! We grabbed a fast pass for that, then got in line for it. Such a great ride. After riding Buzz Lightyear once, we were able to get the Space Mountain fast passes, but the time was for 11 PM. Seriously... ridiculous. I guess that's what you get for making a great ride "haunted." So back to Buzz Lightyear, we used our fast passes and had another great time! We decided to just wait in line for Space Mountain and it wasn't too bad... only 45 mins or so. And I decided... it wasn't that great!! I liked it better before they made it haunted.
We then made our way over to Adventure Land for some quality Indiana Jones. I still love that ride. My favorite ride out of all though was The Haunted Mansion Holiday. Seriously so much fun! For Halloween through Christmas, they decorate the Haunted Mansion and make it a Nightmare Before Christmas theme. It was seriously so cool. You know the room where there are the dancing ghosts? This time it was a Christmas gingerbread house type room with dancing ghosts and it SMELLED like Christmas which made me so happy!
I really did enjoy having Disneyland all dressed up for Halloween! It was a lot of fun!!! And so cute! Although we got there late, my feet were still killing me by the time 9 PM hit... and I was just about ready to be done. We had fast passes left for Indiana Jones and of course, Space Mountain from that morning, but I didn't care.... We left around 10 or 10:30 cuz I was pooped and my feet were dead! I still had a lot of fun!! And I got to do everything I wanted to do so i was okay with that.

Saturday we checked out and drove all the way home! It wasn't too bad of a drive... but it was sad to come home. Wouldn't it be nice if vacation could last forever? But then i guess it wouldn't be vacation, it would just be life.... oh well.

It was a great trip though!!!