Happy Birthday Mom!!

My mom's birthday yesterday. She threw herself a birthday party, ha ha. She sure is funny. Mom and I went and got pedicures so that we have cute feet for the summer.

Mom made dinner and then we played the candy bar game.

Then she made sure we all sang Happy Birthday to her.

It was fun being around people! It has been a little lonely at my house lately. A few of my cousins came and spent the night a few weeks ago. We had fun! We went to the park, yougurt factory, ate lots of treats, and watched Savana Smiles!

Update

I guess I should probably update my blog. I will post a few high lights from this year. I will try to be better at posting this summer.

1. I got a teaching job in Brigham at ACYI. I teach 6th and 7th graders with severe disabilities. I really love my job. It has been a very challenging year but I have learned and grown a lot and hope that next year will be better!

I was the first 6th grade class that went to ACYI and so it was weird at the first of the year because a lot of the teachers I had are still teaching there, I struggled calling them by their first names! I was reading in my journal that I wrote when I went to ACYI a few months ago and saw some goals I had written in 6th grade. I wrote that I wanted to be a teacher and to teach at ACYI, I thought that was pretty crazy!

2. We bought a house in Perry. It has been fun being back close to my family, not that Logan was far away but now I live up the road from my parents. We still don't visit them too often but it is nice knowing they are close. Dave and his brother Cory did A TON of work on our house. They pulled up the carpet, put in the wood floor, repainted the WHOLE house, and lots of other odds and ends. They spent so much time making it so that I would move into the house! I now love it and owe them so much. I will post pictures of our house when I finally clean it.

3. We went to a few concerts (I am putting this in for Dave, ha ha)



My batteries were dying so I couldn't take long videos.


We were able to go to 2 Dashboard concerts, they are VERY good.

I went to my first Smoking Pope's concert. We went to a bar on New Year's Eve in Chicago. We were the only non-drunk people there. We got a few weird looks!

We were able to meet the members of the band Rooney.


4. We spent a week after Christmas in Chicago. We love spending time with Dave's family and friends. (Dave has since cut his hair as you will see if you finish reading the post, I can't believe how long it got!)

5. While Dave's mom had her surgery we took care of their family dog Otis. At first I was so annoyed of him but sad to say he grew on me a little. I never got used to his shedding EVERYWHERE or his AWFUL smell but he was fun to have around. Dave spoiled him, it was kind of cute. He has now gone back to Chicago and I am still sweeping and vacuuming up dog hair, I am not a pet person.

6. We celebrated our 2 year anniversary. We went to dinner at Maddox and a movie.

7. Earlier in the year we went to Vegas. We went to the Lion King and Blue Man Group. I loved the Lion King, I am amazed at how creative the costumes were. I didn't love the Blue Man Group.... We also ate at a lot of yummy restaurants. We even found a restaurant we loved when we lived in Florida a few years ago, I was in heaven!!


8. RIP to Dave's car. Dave totalled his car driving out to Virginia this summer, this picture doesn't show all the damage, sorry. He is very sad. I am sad too because now we get to disagree about what car to buy...he LOVES fancy expensive cars, I like cheap cars. I am sad to say, I usually lose on this battle :(.

9. We will be living in Virginia and West Virginia this summer. It is nice to get a break in the summer and see new places. I do have to admit that I am a little disappointed that the first summer I am not working we are going to the middle of nowhere in Virginia ha ha. Why couldn't we have gone somewhere with a beach? The other 2 summers we were in Miami and NYC. I am sure that Virginia will still be fun, I am just SOOOO happy our friends Nelli and Ashley have decided to come and sell in the same office. It will be nice having a friend to do stuff with.

Wow, hopefully I have some fun things to blog about sooner than 8 or so months!

My birthday and friends

It has been awhile since I have posted! I am back in Utah now. I have been back since the beginning of August. I came back to get my classroom set up and Dave stayed in NY for about a month without me and worked. My parents had dial up up until a week or so ago so it was difficult to use the internet but now I feel free again ha ha! School has started and I am still alive!!! I am so proud of myself, hopefully I don't curse myself.. I finally feel like I am slowing getting above water with work. Dave and I are also in the process of buying a house. We are closing on it next week, I will post pictures after we get it fixed up. We have a lot of work to do to it! Here is an update of the end of our summer in NY. This is a pic of the techs in our office. I love these guys! I definitely can't say that about the techs the year before... This summer has been a lot better for me. The techs worked so hard and were amazing, I wish they would have had more work. The picture above is of them surprising me for my birthday with a cake. 2 other techs also had birthday's around the same time so we celebrated them as well. 2 of the techs are single so if any of my single girlfriends wanna date let me know ha ha. I am trying to get Kurtis and Jason to come to Utah!!

For my birthday Dave and I went with some of our friends to dinner at a place on Broadway called stardust dinner(or something like that) the waiters and waitresses at the diner sing Broadway songs as you eat. They want to be on Broadway and are working towards it. Sometimes people from Broadway shows come and hire them. It is getting late, dunno if that made sense. Anyway, it was fun. Definitely different folks in there ha ha (Thanks Neli for being a good sport!). After dinner we were going to go on the Staten Island fairy and went to move our cars....Neli and Ashley's car was gone and we had a $150.00 ticket on ours. Not a happy moment. Neli and Ashley's car had been towed. The worst part is we had paid the meter and thought we were okay. Good old NY.

Dave is so cute. He got me princess stuff for my birthday!! I loved it.

The week before my birthday we went to Boston and celebrated. We stayed in a cute bed and breakfast and went on some tours there and went to Salem and visited some witch museums. Dave was a good sport doing things I wanted so we also went to a Green Day concert while we were there. I am not a huge music lover but this concert was AMAZING! I was impressed and Dave was in heaven. While we were there we found a "Friendly's" it is an ice cream shop back east. We have a Five Guys in Utah so hopefully we can get a Friendly's also!! That would be great. I got my usual 'Jim Dandy' ice cream. It was fabulous.

We went on a duck tour of Boston. It was pretty fun. The duck drives around the city and also goes in the water. It was a nice weekend away.

The techs and us at "Uno's." I love food if you couldn't tell. :) If you haven't ever experienced this Chicago deep dish pizza you need to!

Me. Micheal, and Ashley after our Friday lunch date. It started raining while we were eating. We had walked to the restaurant and so we got very wet on the way back. It was a lot of fun. I made such good friends this summer, I really miss them! Ashley, you are still close...no excuses!

Another picture of us on a Friday girls day at the Cheesecake factory. Luckily we didn't get wet this day.

Fun BBQ

I am back in Utah!! Some of my friends wanted to get together and have a BBQ. It has been awhile since we have all gotten together. It was so fun to see some of my friends that I haven't seen in a few months and some it has been a few years.

I have such great friends! This pic is of my friend Megan and Bailey.

Liz and I and at BBQ a few weeks ago

Brit, Ashlyn, Hillary, Sadie, and Bailey

Visit from my parents!

So these are all out of order but I am frustrated and am posting them anyway. I still need to figure out how to upload pictures in the way I want them to show and also how to get the text to go before the picture....one day I will hopefully figure it out!

My parents came to NY to visit us. We had such a great time. I was able to do some fun things with them and work at the same time. The lead tech this year is awesome and has been so good to me. It helps to not feel like a prison in my apartment this summer and also have someone who will do his job! My parents and I got to see a lot in such a short time, we are not just VERY worn out. They got in around 6:30 am on Wednesday morning and they were supposed to leave this morning at 6:30 am. We got them to the airport at 5:40 but since they were not there an hour before the flight Delta would not let them on the flight (never heard of this before, I have gotten tot he airport 30 minutes before my flight and gotten on). The flight they were to go on was also a half hour delayed so they really were fine. Delta over booked the flight and already gave my parents tickets away and so they were out of luck. They now have to catch a flight tonight at 7:30. I am not impressed with Delta or there customer service! I guess they fit in well with NYC! I should complain cause we have had such a fun week, it was just really frustrating.

The picture above is of my mom and I coming out of the sacred grove. We were able to go there Sunday afternoon until Monday afternoon. It is so beautiful in Palmyra and peaceful.

Mom and Dad at Hill Cumorah

Mom and Dad in the Sacred Grove

Dad and I at the Palmyra Temple after doing a session.

Mom and Dad at the Yankee's game. Mom took score in her little program she bought. We have no idea what all her little marks meant but she sure knew what she was doing ha ha. :) She also got her a Yankee's shirt and was so proud of herself.

Mom and I at the game

Dad and Mom in front of the new Yankee Stadium. Dave and I bought my dad Yankee tickets for his Father's Day and birthday present. My dad has always been a Yankee's fan since he has been a little boy and has always wanted to go to a game. It was so fun to surprise him with tickets!

We went to China Town and my dad was in heaven in the more authentic parts. He served his mission in Hong Kong and so seeing the bakeries and shops brought back memories for him. He hated Canal st which I love to get all the cheap knock off purses and such!

This is a pic of my dad buying a pastry. He ordered it in Cantonese. I was so proud of him and super impressed, the Chinese people in the store were also impressed!

Us playing games

Mom and Dad in times square

Mom and I waiting for Wicked to start!!!

Mom and Dad at Central Park

Mom and I going to Wicked. Yes my dad even went. He said he liked the acting but not the story line. I am not sure what to think about that. I LOVED it!! It was my second time and it was still amazing. My mom also loved it. I was so happy she was able to see it.

Mom and Dad at the Museum of Natural History. This is where "Night in the Museum" was filmed. I didn't have cell phone reception so I was not able to go through the museum in case I got calls for work but was glad they could go. They enjoyed it but we got there with only an hour or so before closing so they didn't get through the whole thing.

Dad and I in Central Park. We had to buy a few umbrella's cause it started raining SOO hard. I should have known by now to take an umbrella. Oh well it was still a blast. We walked a ton that day. We walked from Grand Central Terminal to 79th street. That equals a TON of walking. Sure have gotten my exercise this summer! Ha ha.

I am so glad they were able to come out! I had so much fun. NY is such a fun place with so much to do. I will miss it!

Fun visit from family

Dave's parents came and visited us over the 4th. It was so great having family here! We had such a good time with them. Dave worked a lot but we were able to all spend time together Sunday and Monday morning. On Saturday morning I was able to go into the city with his parents and go on a tour of Upper Manhattan and Harlem. Harlem is quiet the place! It was a little scary but was a good adventure. Dave's parents went on a tour of lower Manhattan the day before. On Saturday night we went to a Chinese restaurant and then watched fireworks for our apartment. We are up 22 floors so we are able to see them very well. There was 2 firework shows in in the city we live in that we were able to see plus about 10 others we watched from surrounding cities and Long Island. It was awesome to see so many at one time. The night before we counted 10 shows we watched as well. I LOVE the 4th of July and am so thankful to live in this country. I just hope that things continue to be safe and ran well....
Dave and I at Turtle Pond in Central Park on Sunday!

Dave and Renee at the Manhattan Temple. It still is so crazy to me to see a temple in the middle of skyscrapers and so much traffic.

A note his parents wrote on the wall of the Apollo theater in Harlem from Dave. Ha ha. There was a huge shrine there in memory of Michael Jackson. There was people blasting his music and selling all kinds of merchandise of Michael Jackson in the street. The day he died and the day of his funeral a lot of the guys had a hard time selling because people were so upset. I think Michael Jackson had a lot of good music but he was creepy.

His parents writing on the wall.

Latest NYC adventures!

Dave and I were able to go to the Manhattan temple one morning to do a session with our friends Nelli and Ashley. It was a beautiful temple!! I was surprised because the outside doesn't really look to much like a temple and it is in the middle of a lot of buildings in NYC but we were amazed at the inside. It was a wonderful experience and we hope to go back again soon!
My friend Brook and her baby Bridgett came for the day to hang out. It was a lot of fun! They sure wore me out though ha ha. I am not used to much exercise and we walked ALOT!! It was a great time. We went to Central Park and I saw so much more than the last time I was there. It is crazy how big it is. This is a castle at central park by turtle lake. There are hundreds of turtles in the water. It was cool. We met a nice older man who walked us to the castle and told us about central park. It was crazy to see such a nice person in NY. Usually people are screaming, swearing, or honking at you. It gave me more faith for the people in NY, ha ha.

This is a pic of us in Central Park. Brooke's friend also met us downtown (Brooke I stole this pic from your blog, hope you don't mind). We went to China Town, Central Park, and Tiffany's. It was such a fun day. It is nice to be around people and not just seating on my couch all day!! Dave's parents are here for the weekend and I am so excited, they are so great to me! I will post pics soon.