Happy Now-May 20

As seems to be a trend for me now, I have let too much time pass since my last blog post.  Over the past few weeks, Darren and I have busy packing, visiting with family and friends, and squeezing in some last minute Utah check-list items.

1.  Dinner with friends--Over the past few weeks, Darren and I have been able to meet up with a couple sets of old friends for dinner: Kelly and Whitney White and Sara and Ian Frost.  We are sure going to miss living close to these friends and many others.  Darren and I have been so lucky to have so many wonderful people around us here in Utah.

2.  Visit from Parents--My parents were able to visit us at the beginning of the month.  I love having my parents in town!  My Dad had never seen our little apartment and both of my parents were able to come and spend part of the school day in my classroom on Friday.  They immediately won my students over by walking in with a couple boxes of donuts.  It was fun to see my students interact with my parents and vice versa.

3.  Provo Half Marathon--Before we left Utah, Darren and I made a goal of running another half marathon together.  We ran the Provo City Half Marathon on May 5.  My parents had planned their trip to coincide with our run, so they were waiting at the finish line for us.  This picture my Mom took as we approached the finish cracks me up.  I think it captures how both Darren and I were feeling at that moment.  I was able to manage a wave, but could do little else.  I was SO ready to be finished running.  Darren, on the other hand, seemed like he could go on forever.  In fact, at about mile ten, Darren whipped out his phone to call my parents and let them know where we were.  He started chatting with my Mom as if he were lounging at the park.  When he asked if I wanted to say hello, I could barely manage, "Are you crazy?" before I had to stop talking and focus on surviving the run again. :)

4.  Family Eats--After the run, my family and I were able to have dinner with Katie Houston and Mary Wintch at Outback Steakhouse.  I will miss both of those ladies so much!  Katie has been such a great friend throughout my college years and beyond, and Mary has hosted us for so many Sunday dinners reminding us how fortunate we are to have her as family.  The next morning, Darren and I hosted my parents over to our apartment for breakfast (the only meal I feel really comfortable making for other people--mostly because Darren did half of the work making eggs while I made the waffles). :)  I felt truly grown up hosting my parents and being able to cook for them.

5.  Apartment Packing--With how excited I have been about our up-coming move, I surprised myself by getting pretty sentimental when Darren and I started packing our apartment last week.  Our new apartment will have many "luxuries" that our current apartment does not (dishwasher, garbage disposal, more space, etc.), but (at the risk of sounding completely sappy) this apartment has something no other apartment/home can have: this was my first home with Darren.  This is where our little family started and, though I'm excited for this new step, part of me is sad to leave.

6.  Closing Up the Classroom--I have very similar feelings about starting to pack up my classroom as I do about packing up our apartment.  Darren and I packed up about 80% of my classroom yesterday, leaving just enough out to make it still look like a classroom for the last week of school.  Taking posters off the wall, putting library books in boxes, and cleaning out cupboards brought back some wonderful memories of setting up my classroom three summers ago with my mom.  What an exciting time that was--something I hope to repeat with her this summer in Arizona.  I have had some teaching moments in my current classroom that I will never forget, not because of anything that I did as a teacher, but because of what I was able to learn from my students and about myself as a person.  There have been moments when I've felt like I was the luckiest person in the world to be able to teach my students.

6.  Choir Concert--One of my students this year is in the Utah Valley Children's Choir and invited me to his concert last night.  His mom provided me and Darren with tickets, and we were so impressed with how well the choir sang.  Their sweet little voices were amazing!  It was fun for me to see some former students in the choir, as well, and visit with all of them after the show.

7.  Candleford--I am putting Darren's "man-card" in serious jeopardy again by mentioning a new television show I am forcing him to watch with me: "Larkrise to Candleford."  Until the next season of "Downton Abbey" airs, I have needed something to satisfy my craving for British drama.  Darren puts up with these girlish tendencies very patiently, and I love him for it. :)

8.  New Teacher--I have started to mentor my teaching replacement at work and, while it has been selfishly a little difficult to think of handing over my classroom, I have really enjoyed getting to know her and know she is going to be amazing!

9.  Concert from Mary--Darren and I had our last Sunday dinner at Mary's tonight.  She pulled out all the stops for dinner by serving us T-bone steaks, potatoes, and salad with homemade lemon pie for dessert.  The best part of the evening for me, however, was hearing her play a few cello and piano pieces after dinner at Darren's request.  She is so musically talented and played beautifully.  It really made me miss having an instrument around and look forward to playing again sometime soon.

10.  Anticipating the Last Week of School--I feel like a kid looking forward to this last week of school, which begins tomorrow.  It is always such a fun time in the classroom.  While I expect to have some pretty mixed emotions when school ends on Friday, I look forward to the fun events we have planned this week.

*Bonus #11:  Baby Noelle--I received news yesterday that my friend, Tessa Hendrickson, gave birth to her first baby--a precious little girl.  I could not be more happy for Tessa and Paul.  Noelle is one lucky girl to have them as parents.  Love you, Tessa!

Happy Now-Oct. 30

I decided that instead of writing descriptions of ten things that made me happy this week, I would represent them through pictures with small captions.  While there were things earlier in the week that made me happy, all of these pictures came from happy moments over the weekend.  Here are my Happy Now 10 from this week:

1.  Being able to run (and finish) the Provo Halloween Half Marathon yesterday--they asked us to wear a costume while we ran, which, for me, translated to cat ears and black running clothes. :)

A few things made #1 possible:
2.  A dedicated husband who, because he couldn't run, was at every 2 mile marker cheering and taking pictures

3.  Running through Provo Canyon in the fall helped me concentrate on my beautiful surroundings and less on running.

4.  I was keeping my eyes out for every mile marker along the run and somehow missed the mile ten marker.  I thought that mile nine was the longest mile of my life until Darren, at about the point this picture was taken, told me I was approaching mile 11.  Phew!

5.  After finishing the run I took a hot bath (to ensure my ability to move over the next couple of days) and lit some candles. 

6.  Guilt-free vanilla milkshake with burger and fries.

7.  In preparation for a friend's Halloween party last night, Darren and  I went to pick out the first pumpkin that we would carve together as a couple.  Darren was very protective of our little guy.

8.  This was the first time I had carved a pumpkin that didn't have triangular eyes and a toothy smile.  I was quite proud of our two little ghosts (though the other pumpkins at the party were much more impressive).  Thanks, Sara and Ian, for a fun night!

9.  This week I have loved creating a Pinterest account and collecting images that I find inspiring in different areas of my life.  Check out what I have so far here.

10.  We are just about to head out to have Sunday dinner with a couple in our ward.  I offered to bring dessert and, despite my best intentions, resorted to something store-bought (a pumpkin pie from Kneaders), but it looks oh, so good!  Can't wait to try it and enjoy a fun evening with Kareena and Chris!

Park City

Park City is a beautiful mountain resort town nestled in the mountains east of Salt Lake City.  Darren and I love visiting there as often as we can.  Over the past couple of years, Park City has become a favorite city of ours not only for its natural beauty and artsy shops, but because it has been the location of some important milestones in our relationship:

• On one of our first dates Darren drove me to Park City to have dinner and to go on the Toboggan Ride.  It was a great date.  It was on this date that I realized how much of a true gentleman Darren is.  While walking around Park City he traded me spots on the sidewalk several times to make sure he was on my road side.  He opened doors, asked me questions about my job, LISTENED and then asked more questions, and sacrificed some of his own warm clothing to make sure his unprepared date was warm enough on the Toboggan.  I will never be able to live down, however, that despite the fact that I was enjoying the date, I fell asleep on the car ride home--for just a few minutes.  In my defense, it was a Friday night after a long week during my first year as a teacher. He's lucky I was able to maintain consciousness as long as I did.  :) 
• A little less than a year later, we decided that we wanted to take some of our engagement pictures on the old Main Street in Park City.  We met Darren's brother, Steven, there early one Saturday morning and got some great shots!

We didn't know it at the time, but this picture was taken in front of the hotel where we would stay on our honeymoon a few months later-- the Marriott Park City Summit Watch

• I knew our honeymoon would be somewhere close (either Ca or Ut) because I only had a week off of teaching and we both wanted to keep our travel plans simple.  Darren still made it an exciting surprise, however, by secretly arranging for us to stay at the Summit Watch for a week and then revealing it to me during our first dance at our reception.  The hotel was in the perfect location at the bottom of the old Main Street, so all of the shops and restaurants were within walking distance.  Needless to say, it was wonderful!

Honeymoon--old Main Street, Park City

Honeymoon--Dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse

• Most recently, Darren and I ran our first 1/2 Marathon together in Park City.  Darren is naturally much more athletic than I, but he ran with and encouraged me the whole 13.1 miles.  He was even sweet enough to give me a heads up when we were approaching a race photographer so that I didn't look like I was dying too painfully in any of the pictures.  As you can tell in the pictures below, however, I was focusing too much on surviving to even think about smiling for any pictures.  The true smile came out only once--in the picture taken as we crossed the finish line!