Kate and I could be friends...

Here are some reasons why I am pretty sure I could be good friends with Kate...

1) We share a love for her wedding dress. Long sleeved, v-neck, lace. 3 of my favorite words too, Kate.

2) We both wanted a Lilies of the Valley bouquet. I would have loved to have Lilies of Vally in my bouquet. They weren't in season. I bet it smelled incredible though!

3) We both had tiered cakes.

4) And, we both have a thing for princes.

These are just a few reasons and you can see that they are all very substantial and very specific commonalities. Naturally, it means we could be friends. I would invite her to my birthday party, but I'm sure they will still be on their honeymoon. Maybe next year.

A Night in New York...

...Stake Center style.

This weekend we went to prom. You read that right- prom. Our stake puts together a big prom for the youth. It's become a big deal. They go all out decorating the stake center to the different themes. It's gotten so big that they make a night just for the adults. So you better believe I took full advantage of that.

It was fun. Some girls from the ward got together and did hair and make up. I personally loved how my hair turned out. I love having my hair done. It feels so good.

We had the fantastic Baers come down and we all went to Olive Garden- like prom goers do. Here's the gang before the Baers got there.

After dinner, we went to find out what all the hoo haw was about and we were not disappointed. The entry was a subway tunnel with fog machines, construction zones, bums (mannequins) warming by the fire, and a pile of garbage that had a rat (fake) going around on a train track- this kind of grossed me out. (Sorry for the blur-it's the fog machines)

Then you walk into beautiful Times Square of New York, New York. Our ward had helped build these awesome sky scrapers. I loved the "Sleepless in Seattle" reference.

They were very meticulous and made sure there was room for the beautiful Manhattan Temple.

It was all pretty intense. I also helped decorate the bathroom to look like a 5th Avenue dressing room. However, I didn't take pictures because I thought that might make me a creeper. But, you get the idea. (I made my shoes part of these window displays later in the evening.)

And, of course, there was dancing...

Although is was cliche and nostalgic, I loved every second of it. And in the words of Eliza Doolittle, "I could have danced all night." Thanks for indulging my little girl fantasies, Baers.

Stress for everyone. Anyone?

Well, this week was a bit stressful to all parties involved at school. It was end of level testing this week and I have never felt so much pressure before. It's amazing how much these tests matter in our world today. That's how my school gets funding. Test scores! Multiple choice tests! Wow. Another great decision made by people who have never taught before.

Anyway...I do hope my class did well. I feel their scores reflect my life this past year. It's sad but true. I've worked so hard so that they could feel confident answering basic questions (in my mind) about what they have learned/ what I have taught ALL YEAR! So don't even get me started about how many students came and said "I'm tired and I didn't eat breakfast this morning!" Seriously!? Or how I truly avoid looking too closely as I was monitoring the room because I am positive that answers were circled when the question was not even read all the way through! How do I know this? I saw it ALL year long as I tried to help them!

Overall, I just had to take deep breaths give my students life savers, pretzels, granola bars, fruit snacks, and jolly ranchers and say, "Ok. You know this. Do your best." I try to tell myself that I've done all that I can. Like I said, stressful!

Because we depend on these tests so much, the school made it a well oiled machine with plastic totes that have everything needed including the testing materials, sharpened #2 pencils, erasers, sample fill in papers so the students knew exactly how to correctly fill in their forms. The tote also included this helpful page to hang on our classroom doors...

As you can tell, teachers who know how to spell were really stressed too. It definitely made me laugh a little to see these signs up all over the school! And I really did laugh when I saw other signs after testing...

If you build it with air conditioning, we will come...

...especially if we get to sit by the Baers!

I love baseball season and I still love that this stadium is air conditioned. Even though for this game, we didn't need it since it was so beautiful outside. Just look at how that moon is as bright as the lights.

Maybe soon we'll have a sports team worth going all out for, but for now, I'll continue to enjoy the baseball atmosphere and stadium hot dogs! (I liked this pic because Andrew's corn dog made it to the picture and it looks like the baby's head is on my hot dog. That's serious photography skills.)

(Michael ate his before I could even take a picture...nice)

Even though they lost, it was still a wonderful outing. I can't wait for the games with fireworks this summer and for more dates with my handsome guy.

Spring Fever

I will give Arizona credit for stepping up to the plate when I feel like it should be spring, it joins in and gives me beautiful weather instead of snowing on me. And because it has been doing this for me, we enjoyed the evening outside the Mesa Temple watching the Easter Pageant.

It's amazing how huge the production is! I honestly loved being right outside the beautiful temple. Looking into the visitor's center windows and seeing the radiant Christus statue and then seeing the grand stage depicting the miraculous Easter story. It really is a wonderful feeling to be surrounded by people who share my love for the Gospel and the monumental event surrounding this Easter holiday.

And for the cherry on top, we tagged team with the Campbells. We got the seats. They picked up the Cafe Rio. Ah... I love perfect Spring evenings.

And I also loved the many comments the sweet, old man behind had for Michael's shirt. Every time he thought of a new funny, he told us. It was hilarious.

The Transition Continues...

I had another first in Arizona!

I went to my very first Suns game.

My Uncle took me! We had pretty nice seats. And man oh man, they were super comfortable seats. I guess that's what's nice about having casinos help sponsor things. Seriously! Look at those...

Those seats definitely helped the sorrow of watching Phoenix getting spanked. It was also a great perk to be able to see my cousin dance at half time. I do love having family near by and having all these sports teams to see. It was a great time!

Hidden Treasures

Monday was great! Especially since we had a wonderful General Conference weekend. We had Family Home Evening with friends. They told us about this place just 5 minutes from our house. We climbed over a few small sand dunes and roasted mallows and hot dogs right by the river. Who knew my desert abode had such a retreat?

I know the picture quality is hot, but you get the picture.

PS Instead of using Hershey's for the s'mores, we used Reese's! How come I never thought of that before?! Brilliant!

Back to the Future

Flash forward 7 years and I hope our house will look like this...

I wouldn't mind a girl thrown in there somewhere. But I won't be picky. Until then, we will have to enjoy these adorable neighborhood fellas. Look how cute his binky smile is.

And you can acknowledge how professional our child proofing of the cupboard is. Thank you newspaper boy for the rubber band.

Pizza, Sprinklers, Games, and "Megamind" on the air mattress- bring on the future!