Our New Addition

No, we are not pregnant. Sorry for those of you who got their hopes up just by the title of this post. However, we do have a new addition to our household. It is a 21 cubic feet Frigidaire freezer. It is amazing! We haven't plugged it in yet because we don't have that much food to store, but it is in our house waiting for the day to start. Here is how we came to receive our new beauty.

My parents give us a graduation present when we graduate from college, high school or anything else. So, when my graduation approached I could have asked for money or something else but my exciting self asked for a freezer. Yes, a freezer. I guess that when you get married the stupid things in life are really exciting. My Grandma Pratt and Josh's mom helped to chip in. I worked for nine hours in my dad classroom for a part of the freezer as well. On Saturday we went around to three different stores looking for one. We found one that was a decent price and we got a freezer. Yes, I would like some new clothes but at the same time I can now store a lot of food in my freezer! YEAH!

At first we had trouble deciding where to place it. We finally found the perfect place in between the kitchen light switch and our security system. Of course we have to move a few other things as well but our kitchen looks really good now. Anyway, here are some pictures of our new addition!

I guess that I should mention that our freezer is a little bit bigger than our fridge. Weird huh? My dad said that I would want a big freezer in the long run. We'll see.
Here's the inside. The shelves in the door are adjustable. Coo huh? They only gave me five little shelves to place in it so I staggered them. Because of by OCD it was the only thing that I could do for them to not bother me. Josh just laughed.

Job Offer

I wish that I could say that both of us have received a job offer. Once again: I wish. However, Josh is starting a new job on Monday. I cannot wait; and neither can he. We are both really excited. I will admit that I was getting sick of seeing him ALL THE TIME! So, one o'clock on Monday he will begin the paperwork for his new job. YEA!

Tuesday Truths

My friend Tara has a section in her blog that is titled Tuesday Truths. I think that it is a great idea because every Tuesday I am able to learn a little bit more about my friend. I learn about things that don't come up in an everyday conversation. Since Confessions of a Student Teacher posts have been "cancelled" I decided that I should do this. We'll see how well it goes. I will probably do only five truths a week so that way I won't run out of ideas.

1.The truth is... I hate being around a lot of people, it scares me.

2. The truth is... Harry Potter was my favorite book series until I read the amazing books titled Fablehaven. If you haven't read them, I definitely recommend that you do so.

3. The truth is... Josh and I read to each other every night. We had to come up with a system to decide who reads each night or we would argue who gets too.

4. The truth is... I get really jealous easy. (I'll probably mention this a lot more during Tuesday Truths.)

5. The truth is... Josh and I have never really gone on a vacation together unless you count our disaster trip graduation weekend. I don't count it anymore because it was a HUGE DISASTER!

Pictures

I finally was able to get the pictures of graduation off of my camera. None of them are that great, but I thought that I would post some of cute Kaiden. Her rode in our car from Prescott to Flagstaff. He was doing some goofy things so I had to get some video and pictures. ENJOY!

In this video, you can't hear Kaiden but he's singing "this is the way the cowboys ride". My mom does this with all her grand kids. She starts off soft with the ladies and then moves to gentlemen. After that, she sings "this is the way the cowboys ride" and they go crazy. She bounces them on her knee at the same time. I thought that it was cute because he was doing it with the bear. By the... sorry that it is sideways, I can't figure out how to turn it.

This next pictures is cute Kaiden with my cap on him. He "discovered" it in the back seat of my car when we were about 20 minutes outside of Flagstaff. I, of course, had to take a picture. He also had fun playing with our stuffed bears. Hence, the picture of him being covered in them. He's always loved my bears and loves playing with them.

Worst and Best Weekend Ever ( and a really long post)

I have most recently decided that Josh and I are not going to go out of town again for a VERY long time. Our first trip together and turned out to be one of the worst weekends of my life yet one of the most exciting of my whole entire life. Here is a breakdown of my weekend.


Day 1: Friday
Josh and I were really excited to leave early to go to Prescott for the next two nights. Josh was supposed to get off around 12:30 but it ended up being an hour later than that. Since it was the last day of the closing of his store, there was a lot of stuff to do (who knew). We got a later start than we had planned. I was okay with that since there wasn't a whole lot for us to do in Prescott. Just for your information we stayed at my grandma's place in Prescott. I will admit that it was weird because she wasn't there with us. Normally she is. I did feel very privileged to be able to go up without her. I think that I am one of the first grand kids to be able to do that. Anyway, leaving late was only the first part of all our troubles. When we were climbing the hill to Prescott we noticed that my car was getting a little hot, we kept an eye on it. After the big climb she cooled back down until we were about 15 minutes away from the trailer in Prescott. All of the sudden the temperature climbed up. We had to pull over, called my dad, and then had to let her cool down for about 10 to 15 minutes. The temperature wasn't bad outside so we waited in the car with the windows rolled down. It was really windy. We finally got to the trailer around 4:30 and took a break. We let my car cool down as we "set up camp". In other words we had to turn on the water, power, and water the trees before we could really do anything else. The rest of the night wasn't that bad... we drove into town really quick (the car was okay) and got some chicken at Fry's for part of our dinner. We had dinner, watched a movie, and played a game. Oh yeah, I didn't turn the water heater on soon enough and I ended up taking a cold shower. Not to mention that I shaved my legs with a new razor and it cut me so much it looked like a cat used my leg as a scratching post. I would post pictures of our fun events but I can't get them off my camera at the moment.


Day 2: Saturday
Where to start on day two. Well, we had a pretty good morning. We wanted to go to some yard sales but since we didn't have any cash on us we really couldn't. So, we played Monopoly. I won even though Josh landed on free parking about five times. My parents (as well as Karen and her two kids) came to the rescue and met us in Prescott. My dad wanted to check out the car. Then we would all head over to Flagstaff for my graduation. On their way up Karen's car started acting up (yes, my poor dad now has two cars to be concerned about). We thought that my car was okay after adding coolant and were hoping that it would go all the way to Flagstaff with no problem. We were going to leave Karen's van on the side of the road near the I17 and then take two cars (instead of three) into Flagstaff. Karen could therefore just leave from Flagstaff to go home to Eagar and me, Josh, and my parents would go pick up the van and travel home. I guess I should quickly mention this but Josh and I were going to stay in Prescott another night. Our trip was cut short. My dad didn't want to chance it in Karen's van by himself so he wanted us to follow. Anyway...

On the way up to Flagstaff my car (you guessed it) overheated again! Once again, this was about 15 minutes outside of Flagstaff. So we pulled over, let her cool down and then drove on in for graduation. Josh and I went over to the Skydome while my parents (and Karen with her two kids) drove around Flagstaff looking for a part store to get a thermostat. That is what my dad thought the problem was. They also got some food and made it in time for graduation. I actually had a lot of fun. It did feel weird to think that my schooling is over but it was very exciting. I was able to sit with my cohort members and saw two of my favorite teachers that I had. We all got a picture together at the end. It was great! But my troubles are not over yet.

After graduation my dad took the time to change the thermostat on my car. We filled the car with more water (to help keep it cool since we didn't have coolant) and then drove to the gas station to get some gas. Quick side note but it was really windy outside as dad changed the thermostat. I cried as I brushed out my hair that night because there was so many knots in it. Back to my story. On the way to the gas station the car overheated. It was less than 1/2 a mile away from where we parked. So, as our car filled up on gas Josh and dad looked at the car again. They think that there was an air pocket in the cooling system so that is what made us loose a lot of water as well as overheat. During this time I went to look for some food. I WAS HUNGRY!!! My dad also disconnected my AC so that way the fan would be on to help cool the engine. I think that is what he did. Needless to say, we didn't have any cold air for the drive home. We had air, but it was not cold. That doesn't work well here in Arizona, at least not during this time of year. However, we made it home with no more problems. Let's just hope it stays that way. I didn't mention this but Karen ended up driving back to the valley with us. If my car was okay on the way to Flagstaff she would have went home. However, we didn't want to be stranded so she was awesome enough to accompany us. THANKS AWESOME SISTER!


Day 3: I wish
Oh wait! There was supposed to be a day three but we couldn't have one since we came home early. It will probably be a long time until Josh and I go on vacation again. Why does it seem that the ONE time we get to go somewhere we have problems. No one else seems too... or do you not post it? Anyway, enjoy the few pictures that I do have (thanks to my dad's brand new camera). I guess that I should mention this, it was the best weekend EVER because I graduated. It is scary but very exciting!

Here is a picture of me and Josh after graduation. Wearing the cap and gown stinks because they are so hot!I hate to admit it but I think that I may actually like this picture. It may sometime end up on our wall.

Me and my amazing parents. My dad is behind on grading at work so he said that he would pay me to come in and grade them and do some other things. After this weekend, I'm doing it all for free, even if we need the money! I have to mention my mom because she is great! I love her and I'm glad that she was able to come even though it was a crazy weekend.

And here is a picture of me, Karen, Kaiden, and Raegan. I'm glad that they came although the kids we going crazy during graduation. That is what I heard anyway. I do owe them a ton of thanks for coming. I have some more cute pictures of Kaiden but they are on my camera. I'll post them as soon as I find a cord that will fit my camera. For now, I'm thinking about going to bed.

Update

I just thought that I would give a quick update on how Josh and I are doing. We are both working hard at finding jobs. Josh is bored at work because there is nothing really left to do since it closes in two days. He has a really good prospect at another store but we are not sure how well that will work out. We are in the waiting mode. The night that we found out that his store was closing and he was losing his job we both decided that it meant he needed to go back to school. Next week we start the paperwork for him to start ITT in July (I think). I cannot wait for him to start and neither can he. He is still going to have a job, he just has to find one that will allow him to go to both school and work.

As for me, I had a job interview the other day. I think that it went really well but you can never be too sure. I am preparing to graduate in a few days and have a small vacation with Josh this weekend. Don't worry, pictures to come of that major event.

Both of us have been working really hard in our backyard. We lost out jungle of weeds (yes, it was really bad) and our garden is growing great. Here are some pictures.

Our amazing weed jungle... before we pulled them.

This is after we pulled them. There are some dead parts of a weed in the rest of our backyard but there are no live weeds. It is awesome!

Josh pulling some flowers we wanted out of an area with a small tree and flowers. We are going to turn that into an area to grow watermelon and pumpkins. We are still in the process of pulling out the tree. Hopefully we can work on that next week in the morning.

This is a picture of our lettuce. It was taken a long time ago so they are still small. We now have a ton of lettuce. It is really good. There is nothing like homegrown food. Oh! We also grew carrots, which were really small as well as leeks and peppers. The leeks are still growing as well as our peppers. I can't wait to try them!

Confessions of a Student Teacher: Finale

Sixteen weeks. I've been student teaching for sixteen long weeks. It is actually really hard for me to believe that one of the most amazing experience of my life (keyword one) is over. I have to admit that I am a little depressed with the fact that when I drove away from Gilbert Junior High today, it was may last day. No more visiting with students in the morning. No more watching the students change friends multiple times because of one stupid argument. No more watching Who Wants to be a Millionaire at lunch trying to win the big money. It's all over and I don't believe it. I've been counting down to this experience for the past four years. It blew by!

I will have to admit that this week was really boring because I went back into observation mode. It was a lot better than my first week at school because I knew the students and was able to do things such as take attendance, make copies, help the students, and write the quiz for the end of the week. I did have my moments of boredom, who wouldn't?

I do have mixed feelings about being done with my student teaching. I will miss my students. I had the most amazing sixteen weeks EVER! My students were amazing, my teacher was a lot of fun to be around and now I am off to "the real world". I'm excited to be done because I can spend some time at home relaxing but I think that after this first week I will be bored and want to return to student teaching. I'm scared to go out and find a job. When you first start college you count down to the days that you graduate and graduating sounds so far away. It's not for me. Now I have to dace the challenge of having a "real job". It scares me to death. I don't have the support of school anymore and life is going to be different.

Eighth grade promotion (or graduation) is in a couple of weeks. I plan on going back to see my students walk and be promoted to high school. I'm already counting down the days to see everyone again (students and fellow teachers). I'll let you know how that goes. Of course, we still have three weeks until that. For now, my graduation is in less than a week. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!