Until next year...

I am having so much fun this fall! We went to the Haunted corn maze and 2 Haunted houses and between us we have carved 5 pumpkins! The preschool class I work with also went to the pumpkin patch. And we have had the most perfect fall weather. People told me when we moved here that it usually snows by Halloween but it was like 72 degrees yesterday. I love it so much. The pictures from the time Mark and I went to the pumpkin patch and corn maze didn't turn out, it was too dark but here are some cute ones of the preschool class and our latest pumpkins. With the preschool class we went on a hay ride, and bounced on this huge blown up "pillow" and picked pumpkins. There was also a "corn" box instead of a sandbox. It was a great field trip.

So this is what the sky looked like when we arrived at the pumpkin patch BEAUTIFUL! But not conducive to picture taking. Mark and I both agree that there are beautiful sunsets when mountains and clouds are involved. We always thought that Idaho had such pretty colorful sunsets. Colorado's are looking quite good as well!

Mark at the pumpkin patch, this was the only picture that kind of turned out but we had to go in the evening so we could go to the Haunted Corn Maze, who wants a non haunted one in the daylight? Just kidding they are fun too.



This is the preschool class that I work with. Cute kids for the most part! The student that I work one-on-one with is in the back row with the pumpkin on his head, Sonny.



The Giant Corn Kernel box who needs sand?



And finally, Mark with 2 more pumpkins that we carved. Notice the big large piece spider, that was the one I chose, very simple! And yet Mark still totally beat me and his was a lot more complicated. He did it in like an hour. Oh well.







The finished products. Happy Halloween until next year...

Where were you?

My friend Jenni had this on her blog so I decided to do it too. It was fun to think back on the memories. It's been a good life.

20 years ago 1988

1. My family had just moved into a new house that summer and it is the house where I "grew up." My parents still live there today and it is always a blast to go home and visit.
2. I remember that I loved roller skating and Barbie's, my sisters and I would spend hours making up Barbie Soap Operas.
3. I started kindergarten this year and did not have a successful first day. I didn't notice my mom leave and when I saw she was gone I freaked out! I started screaming and wrapped myself around a pole and would not let go. My older siblings heard me screaming and I think they asked their teacher if they could go help me. I know the office called my mom and she was shocked that I was upset "My April?" Which is funny because there are not that many April's... anyway she came and calmed me down and we made a deal that if I had good behavior and didn't throw any tantrums she would take me out to McDonald's for a happy meal on Friday. It worked! I was a model student the rest of my school career.

10 years ago 1998

1. I was 15 and starting my junior year of high school. I was the captain of the Flag team and I went with the band to Disneyland for spring break. It was a fun trip but a super long bus ride!
2. I got my drivers license, my first boyfriend and my first kiss! (well when I turned 16 but I don't think I can be that specific to being 15 and I will be 26 in 6 weeks anyway)
3. I was a HUGE Sacramento Kings fan. (Basketball for those of you reading and not familiar with the team) One of my best friends (still is today, you would love Colorado Becca! Wink, Wink) Becca loved the team and sport so I started watching. They were such a good team then! Especially #16 Peja! I went to a couple of games and loved watching them play.

5 years ago 2003

1. Mark and I began dating, we all know what that led to!
2. I went on the Mormon-American Travel Studies Program with BYU-Idaho where I was then a junior. I traveled with a group of 35 students in a bus for a month. We went to all the Church History sites and early American History sites. I majored in history so it was so fun to see all the places I had learned about and visiting all the church history sites really solidified my testimony of the Gospel. It was an incredible experience and I am so grateful that I got to go.
3. I worked as a secretary to a History Professor on campus and thought about graduating and then going to secretarial school. I loved (and still do maybe even more) organizing things! I still think about going to get a degree in that although the idea of customer/client service really turns me off to the idea.

3 years ago 2005

1. Mark and I moved to Utah and enjoyed living there for 1 year. We had fun going to the programs on Temple Square and met some great friends and now don't feel the need to ever live there again.
2. Mark got accepted to the American University In Cairo for a Masters program and we made plans to move to Egypt.
3. Mark took me to Disneyland for their 50th anniversary. This was in November for my birthday/Thanksgiving. I bugged Mark for that whole year and then he agreed and we went. The reason why I really wanted to go was to see the special fireworks show for the 50th anniversary and the night we were there it was canceled due to high winds. I almost cried. But it was incredibly sweet of Mark to take me and we did have a great time!

1 year ago 2007

1. We had been living in Cairo Egypt for 1 year, so far so good!
2. We traveled! We went to Prague, Jordan, America (--I got to go home for the summer after being in Egypt for 18 months so I explored downtown Amsterdam during my layover) Dahab (Sinai Penisula, Egypt) to go snorkeling and climb Mt Sinia, and we went on our after Christmas trip to Portugal and Spain! Mark also went to Iceland, Hungary, and Denmark while I was in America so don't feel too bad about him being left alone in Egypt! He also had a roommate, some friends of ours from church had a family friend whose son wanted to do an internship in Egypt so John moved in with Mark.
3. I began my second year working at AIS (the American International School in Egypt). I made some wonderful friends and began looking forward to moving back home. We also tutored a lot of students. This got to be really hard after awhile because it was right after school and did take up a lot of time but it was worth it because it was the money we used to travel with.

This year so far 2008

1. We moved back from Egypt to the wonderful United States of America. We learned a lot of things in Egypt and will always be grateful that we got to go. We had the most wonderful branch with so many great people. We also go to do so many fun things; travel all over and ride camels (which I loved to do) and do things I didn't think we would ever do. I also learned how wonderful families are and how great America is. It was also good for Mark and I to be over there, it taught us important things about ourselves and how much we appreciate and love each other. We had such a great time over in Egypt but are so so so glad to be back. We love the food, cleanliness and order of America.
2. We bought a car
3. We moved from California to Colorado where we plan on settling down

Yesterday October 21, 2008

1. I was at school from 8:00 in the morning till 8:00 at night for parent teacher conferences but no parents wanted to talk to me. In all honesty I didn't really want to talk to them either, I only see their kids for like 1 1/2 hours a day and I don't give grades so there was really no need.
2. There was an awesome rainstorm. I love the rain and always look for it on a cloudy day. Colorado isn't known for getting a lot of rain but we had some really fun thunderstorms this summer that I loved!
3. Since no parents wanted to talk to me I helped a teacher cut out tons and tons and tons of laminated material. I used to do this all the time in Egypt especially when teachers hadn't signed up for help so I spent the time reminiscing about AIS and Egypt.

Today October 22, 2oo8

1. I went to school and had a great day with my students. It was helpful that my least favorite student was gone. I know that sounds mean but he has the worst attitude! I was freezing during my lunch duty, talk about a wind chill factor.
2. We went to the bank and paid off my credit card! That was nice. We ordered new checks too even though we only use them to pay rent we should have 150 checks next week!
3. We went to the library and checked out books. I love to read and I love libraries! I really missed libraries in Egypt. There was one at the Community Services Association (which I personally found to be very unhelpful!) but you had to pay 20 dollars to be able to check out books and that annoyed me becasue the books were donated to them! In my opinion they are not very helpful to people who work full time, ME while I was there. Moving on...

Tomorrow October 23, 2oo8

1. I am going to work from 8:00 till 6:00, more conferences, but I do not think anyone will want to meet with me...
2. Mark has an interview for a full time Social Studies position at Greeley Central High School, send good thoughts and prayers for us!
3. We are going to some friends house for a Fondue party! YUM!

Pumpkin Carving my most artisitic moment of the year...

Before...

And After!

Carving pumpkins has certainly become more complicated from when we were growing up . Admittedly this is our own fault. Both Mark and I carved pumpkins with our families when we were little, the standard triangle eyes and nose and depending on the year a crooked smile or a mouth that was supposed to be scary that turned into a smile. The last four Halloweens, even in Egypt (thanks to branch members who have the American Commissary grocery store, (aka a little piece of American goodness in Egypt) and can buy any American product) we have used the little patterns that you poke out with the fancy saw and poker and scraper. We look through the patterns and it always ends up that I choose the master level carving and spend 3 hours poking and sawing at my pumpkin and Mark chooses the beginner level yet, great picture done in 45 minutes to an hour pumpkin. While my hands are orange and tingly, Mark lights the candle and enjoys his pumpkin. BUT.. it is all worth it when we finish and see our awesome pumpkins. I tell myself next year choose a simple one and be done with it but why give up my most artistic moment of the year. Here are our Pumpkins from this year. (They are starting to fall apart a bit so we might do another one... we will see which picture I pick)

I am so proud of my pumpkin! I worked so hard!

Trick-or-Treat!

Halloween comes to our house!

It was fun to decorate our house for Halloween. I love doing it for all holidays. Its just nice to have a change from your normal surroundings. The pictures are a little blurry but oh well. Happy Halloween!

Here is our front door.



This is a picture of our front room that didn't turn out very well. I was trying to take a picture of the cute Ghosts I made and hung from the ceiling. Mark likes these more because he doesn't have to duck when he walks in like at the front door. He will probably be glad when the Halloween decorations come down.



Kitchen table complete with awesome Halloween scarf I found in Egypt.(and beautiful flowers Mark got me!)

Last night's dream, Literacy nightmare rather

Last night I had the strangest dream, nightmare rather! I was at school getting ready to teach the literacy class (which if you do not know from my complaints is the longest most boring class) and instead of my students coming in I had 4 classes of 4th graders. Not only did I have triple the amount of students I was supposed to have they were not all from the school I am working out now, I wasn't even in my classroom here, I don't know what school I was at. My students were made up of the people that I graduated from high school with and students from AIS, my school in Egypt. The teachers brought in their students and they were the 4th grade teachers from AIS from last year Miss Amanda and Miss Arni plus the teacher I work with now and some man who was quite unhelpful. For some reason it did not register with me that there were too many students and I keep getting mad at them for sitting on the floor instead of at the desks. I spend all this time trying to explain why I want them in the seats and not on the floor and then it occurs to me that I don't have enough desks. Meanwhile, while I am yelling (which I really try not do) at the students the teachers are totally criticizing me. After I get the kids all seated and explain the lesson 2 teachers decide they want to do literacy by themselves and take their students away. So I finally start teaching and the bell (my alarm) rings and everybody vanishes. WEIRD!! It is one of the few times I can remember my alarm stopping a dream. I felt like I looked like someone in a movie who just woke up, you know how so many movies start with a bedroom and someone jerking awake from a dream. Anywho, needless to say I got out of bed really quick today.
Any guesses on what this dream meant?? Wondering in Colorado...

The fall!

I have had so much fun being here in Colorado for the fall. I love autumn so much. I really missed having seasons in Egypt. When we were trying to figure out where to move to after we got home a good fall was right near the top of my list. It is the beginning of my favorite holidays and there is just a feeling in the air. Here are some of our favorite pictures from our drives up in the mountains. Mark was so nice and we went camping twice in three weeks and on a mountain drive once a week for those three weeks. We went up to Poudre Canyon which is about an hour away from where we live. Unfortunately I think the "fall" is about over. All of a sudden it went from being 70 degrees and sunny to cloudy and in the upper 40's! Not that I mind the clouds and rain it just was quick. I am so glad that we went for the drives when we did or we may have totally missed it. I made this cool video of pretty fall pictures so enjoy!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Free Wireless Internet

Well, when Mark and I moved into our apartment the manager informed us that since our apartment is in the main building, its right above the office we got free wireless internet through the office. Sweet! Well it worked really well for August and September but it has been worse than our Internet in Egypt for October so I have been unable to post any pictures which is really too bad because we took some really pretty fall pictures the last 3 weeks. This also explains why I have not had any postings at all lately. Maybe it will decide to work one day, which would be great. I guess I should look on the bright side that yes its not working but at least we are not paying for not working Internet which was often the case in Egypt. So, until the Internet works either look for posts without pictures or just get ready to have a lot of posts all a sudden!