jared and brielle

a playmate for parker

2012-01-21T20:52:00.013-07:00

it's the middle of january,

and we have no snow on the ground.
seriously?!?! are we even in idaho?
im LOVING this warmer, snow-free winter!

parker got a new playmate a few weeks ago.
my friend and next door neighbor
has a little boy who is just 6 weeks
younger than parker.
we get to play with him in the mornings
while his mama goes to class.

parker was not a fan of him the first week and a half
but we are slowly warming up to hayden, and they will sit
and play for a few minutes together everyday.

parker also got another new playmate this past week.
marcus kade myers was born to chuck and diana on wednesday!
we went to see him today, and oh my heavens...
he. is. precious. all 6 pounds of him.i may have thought for one split second,
''awwww, i might want another one of these!''
but the thought left as quickly as it came when diana
mentioned she had been up ALL. NIGHT. with him.
i was happy to pass him back to his mama
and leave, knowing i was going to get a full night sleep.
because did i mention with hayden coming over to play
parker has been sleeping like a champ.
8:00pm-8:30am. love it.

but marcus is adorable, and charlee is one great big sister.

we all thought parker was so little,
but after seeing him next to marcus today,
we decided he sure isnt so little anymore!

he is understanding so much.
when we ask him to go get his shoes,
he brings us his shoes.
he does the same with his socks too.
and after we get his coat on, he is walking over
and banging on the door to go outside.he can sit down when we ask him to sit down.
he recently learned how to spin in a circle.
he can give kisses, and blow kisses.
and we are practicing our spoon skills.
he is becoming a great little helper.
he especially loves to help with vacuuming, sweeping,
and folding the laundry. he is also starting to figure out how to
"push my buttons"
and throwing small temper-tatrums.
especially after all his fruit snacks are gone.
holy hannah, you'd think the world was gonna end.
i often hear myself praying for patience every day.
he loves books, and any kind of ball.
and loves to play with his daddy.
he loves to eat, and would eat all day if i let him.
his favorite snacks include cheese, graham crackers, yogurt,
fruit snacks, and anything im eating.
though some days im not quite sure
if we will make it to bed time alive,
i sure love this little dude of mine.

moscow... russia?

2012-01-02T15:02:00.010-07:00

i turned the tv on this morning

and saw it was suppose to be 43 degrees.
can you say heat wave?

so this afternoon parker and i headed over to the park.
i took him out of the stroller and let him wander.
boy did he sure love to be outside again.

who would have thought,
on january 2 in rexburg, idaho
we would be out for a walk.
it's a miracle!

he wasnt quite sure what to do when we got to this crack.
and how in the world is it already a new year?
time goes way to fast.
we are very much looking forward to 2012.
we are hoping it brings us
*another bachelor's degree,
*a move to moscow... (russia?)
*and a 2 year old!

jared starts his LAST semester at BYU-idaho.
and he will graduate in april!
WOOHOO!
a few weeks ago we learned he was accepted into grad school
at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho.
not Russia.

so it looks like we will be packing up and moving north
probably sometime in august.
his program is only 2 semesters,
which we are thrilled about.

its nice to see that we will one day be done with school.

lots of celebrating

2011-12-30T21:02:00.020-07:00

holy hannah,christmas is over.

parker is a year old.
and a new year is less than 2 days away.

the last two weeks we have been doing lots of celebrating!
it started on december 18.
parker's aunt diana was kind enough to share her birthday
so we celebrated parker's first birthday
and diana's birthday with the rucks family.

he didnt like his cake.
and he was spoiled rotten by his
grandma and grandpa rucks
and aunt diana.
he got lots of clothes, toys,
and the CUTEST little pair of nike's.

we then traveled to colorado
and had a great time.
while we were there we did lots of fun things.

parker got his first hair cut:
decorated sugar cookies:

played in the snow:

parker did not like the snow.
maybe if he had a snow suit on, he would have enjoyed it more.
we will try to be a little more prepared next time.

celebrated parker's first birthday:
again, he didnt like his cake.
i still cant believe his birthday is christmas eve.
he was again spoiled with lots of gifts from
G&G allred, and his (my) cousins.

met santa:

enjoyed unwrapping gifts christmas morning:

and went to church sunday afternoon:

though we didnt get an ipad, or iphones, or a house,
or any other kind of fancy gift,
we were still spoiled rotten.

now here's to a new year,
good-bye 2011, you sure were good to us.
hello 2012!

the other side

2011-12-15T12:46:00.005-07:00

growing up i couldnt tell you what i got for christmas.

but what i do remember about christmas growing up,
is much more important than any present i ever got.

my family would choose another family from church.
and then we would do an anonymous 12 days of christmas for them.

on the first night,
we would slowly drive by their house
to check and make sure they were home.
and to also look for a good hiding spot behind a tree or bush close by.
then my parents would drive around the corner and park
while we proceeded to get out of the car, our arms full of goodies.

we would slowly creep up to their door step,
our hearts pounding in our chest with all the adrenaline pumping through our bodies.
then with a few loud knocks,
we'd take off running as fast as we could to our hiding spot
so we could watch their faces when they opened the door.

it was priceless.
and i learned it was far better to give than to receive.
(cheesy? maybe.)

the first christmas jared and i were married,
we choose another couple in our ward.
we were a little too poor to do a 12 days of christmas,
so we opted to just leave them something one night.

but then our second christmas came,
and then it went.
and we didnt choose any family to serve.

and then our third christmas came,
and then it went.
and again, we didnt choose any family to serve.

and now here we are,
our 4th christmas married.

a few nights ago,
after we put parker down for bed,
we heard five loud, fast knocks on our door.
at first neither one of us moved.
we sort of looked at each other like, 'who could that be?'

then right as jared opened the door, i said,
"i bet someone doorbell ditched us"
and sure enough there on our doorstep sat this:

i was so giddy the rest of the night.
i couldnt believe that someone had thought to leave us something for christmas.
it was a different experience being on "the other side" of things.
and then the thought occured to me.
we've missed the opportunity to serve others for the past few years,
maybe this was a reminder to get our butt off the couch
and return the favor.

we have no idea who left this for us,
but to whoever you were, thank-you!

chic-fil-a love

2011-12-07T14:22:00.008-07:00

i must have been a sophomore in high school

when my parents started telling me i should go apply to chic-fil-a.
our very good friends (and next door neighbors), the paynes, had the hook-up.
because they had some very good friends, the murphey's.
the murphey's happened to be the operators of this particular chic-fil-a.
but all i could think about it was,
'please. this 15 year old does NOT work at fast food places.'
but i had a change of heart the beginning of my senior year of high school.
i learned money didnt grow on trees, and it was going to be expensive to move out next year for school.
so with my feet dragging, i went to work at chic-fil-a.
thank the high heavens above that one of my best friends,
kara baccus (now mrs. hutchinson...hi kara!)
also started working there.
we had some GOOD times.

this is kara^

one day we were both working and our ice cream machine was acting funny.
kara was workin the drive thru when a car pulled up.
their conversation went something like this:

kara: welcome to chic-fil-a what can i get for you today?
man: i would like a large ice cream cone please.
kara: im sorry sir, our ice cream machine is currently out of control!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

maybe you had to be there to understand how funny it was.
but we laughed about it for DAYSSSSS.
heck, i STILL laugh about it every time i tell that story.

i loved my time working at chic-fil-a.
and i made bank that year.
working from 5pm-11pm monday through friday
and 11am-11pm on saturdays.

needless to say, by the time i went to school,
i had eaten my fair share of chic-fil-a and was ready for a break.
but a few short years later, my craving for the tasty nuggets dipped in their buttermilk ranch returned.

when i met jared, he had never heard of chic-fil-a!
i introduced him and he too loved it. (i think)
we always talked about opening up our own chic-fil-a in idaho falls one day.

but, someone beat us to the punch!
we heard chic-fil-a was opening in idaho falls.
we were bummed we werent going to be the operators of this one.
and i dont really think either one of us had intentions of going to work there.

then one day jared was surfing a job site.
and he saw the position "Business Sales Analyst" needed for chic-fil-a in idaho falls.
he applied and got the job!
chic-fil-a calls the position the "profit champion"
we thought he'd have a pretty cool job.
turns out its a new position chic-fil-a is trying to put in their stores
so until they figure out exactly what he needs to do
he is your typical cashier.

i hope he enjoys working there as much as i did.
call me crazy but i would love to open a chic-fil-a with jared.
their whole atmosphere is far better than a wendy's or mcdonalds.
we went to a grand opening dinner for it and they had someone say a dedicatory prayer for the building and all the employees.
how cool is that?

i always tease jared that his dreams and ambitions and goals change constantly.
but for now our (my?) dream and goal is to be an operator of a chic-fil-a.

we can dream right?
anyways.....
what would a post be without pictures of parker!

he is a walking pro now
and no longer crawls.
its so fun!

he still loves spaghetti too.
actually he loves anything.
he is a moocher and wants whatever you are eating.

(i guess i havent taken very many pictures since thanksgiving.)

im so excited for his 1st birthday and chirstmas!

paper towels

2011-11-26T14:53:00.013-07:00

i cant believe thanksgiving is over.

that means i will have a ONE year old in less than a month.
how did THAT happen?
what am i thankful for this year?
thats easy. paper towels of course.
you see, i am what some tree huggers would call wasteful.
(okay, most people in general would probably say im wasteful)
when i need to wipe something up or clean the kitchen i always grab a paper towel.
always.
and yes, my mama taught me better than that. (sorry mom!)
but i hate using a wash cloth because i feel like i just spread more germs everywhere.
plus i hate the way they make my hands smell after i touch it.

we had a wonderful thanksgiving with our rucks family in idaho falls.
filled with turkey and potatoes, green bean casserole and stuffing, rolls and butter, banana cream pie and pumpkin cheese cake. oh and ham!
parker loved the ham.

we spent the afternoon playing the kinect.
and let me tell you.
it was fun, fun, fun!
i was VERY sore the next day.
jared says maybe i should start working out.
parker looked stinkin' cute in his turkey shirt

and loved playing with his cousin charleewe found exactly what we were looking for on black friday.
thank-you walmart for price matching!
we have spent our thanksgiving weekend getting into the holiday spirit by setting up our charlee brown tree and watching how the grinch stole christmas.and now that almost one year old is up from his nap demanding my attention!
happy holidays!

craftin' fever

2011-11-19T20:38:00.007-07:00

i told myself i wasnt gonna listen to christmas music until AFTER thanksgiving.

then earlier this week i turned the radio on to clean,
and christmas music was playing!
parker and i have been rockin out to justin bieber's "mistletoe" all week.
yup, i got bieber fever.
dont judge.

ive been keepin' myself busy with lots of projects.
okay just two. but they are pretty darn cute.
thank-you pinterest!

im totally excited for parker to wear this bad boy on turkey day.
jared wasnt so much a fan at first. but i think its adorable.
dont mind that the body kind of looks like a snowman,
and that the farthest left feather is off.
oh and ive recently added a gobler too.
(is that what its called?)

ive been waiting patiently to go to a baby shower so i could make one of these:the shower was a superman theme, so i went with superman colors.
it was so easy and so fun to make.
took me about 10 minutes.

the other day my sister cleaned out her basement and gave us our coffee table they had been storing for us back.
parker is pretty sure we put it in the living room just for him to play with.
he crawls through it all day.and the most exciting news here in the rucks home?
parker's walking!!!
he's taken a few steps here and there.
but sunday night (november 13, 2011) he just decided he wanted to really walk.
he isnt walkin around the house yet,
but he is getting better and better everyday.
its so fun to watch him grow.
can he really almost be 11 months?
where has the time gone?

tender mercies

2011-11-06T13:46:00.005-07:00

church with parker every sunday is an adventure.

he is no longer the cute little baby that sits so contently on your lap.
instead he wants to go go go.
when he whines, cries, and screams i feel like all eyes are turned on us.
its LOTS of fun
trying to keep him entertained, and quiet.

last night i was very much looking forward to the extra hour of sleep.
hoping parker somehow knew that he too was suppose to sleep an extra hour.
after dinner, we did our normal routine.
playing, playing and more playing,
a nice warm bath, and a yummy bottle,
and he was out like a light bulb by 8:15.
bliss.

jared and i stayed up later than usual
because we were getting an extra hour of sleep right?
we finally went to bed around 12:30am
keep in mind we are 10 o'clock bedtimers,
so this was a rare occasion.
next thing i know i hear parker.
i look at my phone. it's 2:03am.
i go into his room, give him his binky
thinking he will just go back to sleep like he usually does.
he had different plans.

im not really sure all the details after that.
i just know he was up screaming and crying from
2:03am, until 5:57am.
(according to our kitchen clocks that had not been changed yet)
it was the worst night we have had with him in the short 10 months he has been here.

since we had such a rough night i wasnt sure if we would make it to our 9:30 church.
but by some miracle we did.
given parker's past with church, i knew we would probably spend most of it in the hall because he would be grumpy and tired.
so you can imagine my surprise when parker was absolutely WONDERFUL during church.
all of it. sacrament. sunday school. and relief society.
really an angel.

as i was sitting in sacrament watching him play so quietly on the bench next to me
i couldnt help but feel so grateful.

now we are home from church.
parker and jared are both napping.
and i sit here so grateful that parker's worst night
just happened to be the night we got an extra hour of sleep.
so grateful his worst night just happened to be
on a saturday night so i didnt feel guilty making jared help me.
so grateful for the tender mercies the Lord gives me.
(he must really want me to have another child someday!)

of course last night i wanted to put him in a cardboard box
and sell him at walmart, but i think i just might keep him.
because how can you be upset with someone when they look like this?

flash back

2011-10-30T20:33:00.012-06:00

remember 3 years ago,

when jared and i dressed up like this
for halloween:
totally cute right?

fast forward to present day.
add this cutie patootie to the mix:and you end up looking like this for halloween:even more cute right?
dont worry, we won "best family theme"
at our ward halloween party.

do you think we've changed much in the last 3 years?

does he not make the CUTEST cat in the hat?

parker and i made the 3 hour trip south to utah last week.
parker loved playing with grandma allred:
he didnt care too much to see his new cousin bencyn:
but he did enjoy playing the drums on his feet:and walking outside with 'GG' (great-grandma):and loved his other great-grandma's cookin':
oh and check out this cool flower in my grandma's yard:
cool huh?

so today after church, jared and i had a conversation that went a little something like this:
brielle: have you ever been going about your day doing whatever, and then all of a sudden get this overwhelming feeling of excitement and happiness for christmas?
jared: *laughs* ummm.... no.
brielle: oh... well that just happened to me.

seriously, im so excited for the holidays to start.
i get so giddy thinking about it.
even if parker has no idea what is going on
it will still be so fun to have a little child with us on christmas morning.

bargains

2011-10-22T13:21:00.006-06:00

first things first.
jared took the gmat last week.
he was stressed beyond stressed about it.
i was stressed beyond stressed for him!
his scores on the practice tests weren't as good as he was wanting them to be.
but the morning he was dreading came.
and with a quick prayer and good luck kiss
i sent him on his way to pocatello.
50000 hours later (or so it seemed at least)
my phone finally rang.
he was done with his test.
and he did AWESOME!!!!!!!
way WAY better than his practice scores.
now he can breath a sigh of relief.
and he has started on grad school applications!

so, i have a new addiction.

and no it's not pinterest.
although i am addicted to that as well.
even though i have not made one single craft i have pinned,
i still feel so crafty just looking at everything.
im hoping to maybe make some fun christmas presents for a certain little girl i know
*cough cough* stacey lynn *cough cough*

okay my new addiction.
there's this store.
its called the D.I.
ever been to one?
cause you need to go.
ASAP.

its my new favorite place.
im guilty of strapping parker in the car and going twice a week.
okay fine, sometimes three times.
but if you only knew the kinds of Christmas presents i have found,
and the prices of those Christmas presents i have gotten for parker,
you would be going twice a week too!

sure, its all used stuff there
and a lot of it is quite a bunch of crap.
but with a little digging, you can find some absolute treasures.
and besides, the dude is turning one.
he could care less about whether the toys he gets are used.
but the things i have found him look brand new.
im pretty excited for his birthday and christmas.
now if only jared was that easy to shop for........

we took parker's walker to the park and let him walk with it.
it's a little ridiculous how adorable he looked.i got that walker at the DI for $3.
and his cute jacket? the DI....... for $1.

oh and did i mention all the cute cardigan's and sweater's ive found for myself?
all for $3 each.
sure they are used, but with a short trip though the washing machine and dryer
they are just like new again.
because let's be honest.
we do not make any money for me to go shopping at the mall with.
so i can live with used, cute, cheap sweaters.
and im pretty sure i bought a whole new winter wardrobe all for $30.
if that's not a bargain, i dont know what is.
seriously, its a great store.

parker is so curious about the leaves on the ground.
he kept getting distracted on our walk.
bending down to pick them up and put them in his mouth
learning quickly that it didnt taste very good,
so he moved on to the another leaf,
which also didnt taste good.isnt this the cutest picture you have ever seen?
*sigh*
how did i get so lucky?

sleep? whats that?

2011-10-07T21:11:00.010-06:00

its friday night.

8:58pm to be exact.
and both of my boys are asleep.
we obviously are real party animals.

back before parker was born,
when i was going to school and working,
10pm would hit, my head would reach my pillow,
and id be out like a light bulb before someone could snap their finger.
people would tell me, "man i can never sleep"
and i would think, WHAT? how can you not sleep?

but these days i just cant seem to sleep.
okay thats kind of a lie.
i guess i eventually fall asleep at some point.
but 10pm hits, and jareds head hits his pillow and he's out cold.
11pm hits, jared is still out cold, and i lay there wide awake.
12am hits, still wide awake.
1am hits, still awake.
but i must fall asleep sometime after 1am,
because i never do see the clock when it says 2am.
anyways....

speaking of time, its october.
and it snowed yesterday.
thank goodness its suppose to warm back up to the 60's next week.
im not ready for snow.
and neither is parker.
he kept crawling towards the door begging to go outside.
i would hold him and open the door so he could see the snow falling.
he had the most concerned look on his cute little face.
and then he would cry when i closed the door again.
its gonna be a long winter.

speaking of parker.
he is so cute, i can hardly stand it.
his two little bottom teeth have come in nicely.
he loves his bath timehe loves getting into thingshe loves spaghettihe loves paying outsidehe loves crawling on daddyand of course he loves his mamaoh and did i mention i finally made an ABC wall in parkers room?
now im off to tuck that cute husband of mine into bed.
hoping he's too sleepy to notice my cold toes on his legs.

there's something about.....

2011-09-15T13:22:00.013-06:00

there's something about the fall in rexburg that brings a smile to my face.

maybe its watching the city come back to life as college students return ready to start a new semester of school.
maybe its the leaves painting the city bright red, orange, and yellow.
maybe its the crisp fall air.
the kind that makes you want to put on a cute sweater
and eat pumpkin anything all. day. long.
maybe its the teacher in me that brings me so much joy as i watch kids shopping for school supplies and see them head off to start a new grade.
maybe its the smell of fall. (which reminds me, i NEED to get me some yummy fall scents to make my home smell splendid.)
maybe this year its the anticipation of halloween because i am SO excited to dress parker up.
but whatever it is, i love the fall in rexburg.
it really is too bad it has to be followed by 6 months of winter.

with fall here and everyone back from summer vacations, we have started up our play group again. did i mention i love it? let's be honest, play group is really for the mama's. i enjoy some girl talk while parker gets some baby action in. then when it's all said and done we come home for some lunch and then parker is out like a light bulb. for 2 HOURS.
love it.

parker's favorite thing to do these days is to pull him self to a standing position. he recently figured out he can pull himself up on the dishwasher door.
and he is pretty proud of himself when he does it.

he is also starting to eat a lot more table food. it is so fun to feed him the things we eat. (note to self: ALWAYS remember a bib)

he is getting really good at picking up food pieces and putting them in his mouth.

parker and housekeeping keep me pretty busy, but i have found some time to do some crafting. ive been on a jewelry kick lately.and the best part about it? all three of these cost me less than $10.
cute. easy. cheap.

i also made a fall wreath. i found this bad boy at the DIand with a little help from parker,we turned it into this:
now im in need of a new project to keep me busy during naptime after my chores are finished.
(im not sure where this line came from....?)

ABC

2011-08-30T21:08:00.010-06:00

parker loves books.

and i mean loves loves loves loves LOVES books.
he loves to look at all the pictures.
he loves to sit on our laps and listen to us read.
he loves to turn the page.
and then he loves to do it all over again.
i love it.
i love that he cuddles up with us.
i love that he is so curious about all the colors the pictures.
i love that he turns the page when he is done looking at everything.
i love pointing to different objects/letters/numbers and reapeating over and over and over again

"banana.... frog.... dog.... train.... car.... airplane.... etc"
"1 dog... 2 lollipops... 3 kittens... 4 balloons... 5...."
"a... b... c... d...."
he loves when we get to 'P'
(singing) "l... m... n... o... P... for parkerrrrr.... q... r... s......."

and lucky for me, i love books too.
(and jared is learning to love books)

anyways...
hi my name is brielle, and im obsessed with craft blogs.
seriously. obsessed.
some people are so incredibly creative and talented.
it blows my mind the things they can come up with and then create.

i quickly learned what the new thing is right now for nursery's.
an alphabet wall.
have you seen them?
ive come across lots of different ones
but these ones are the only two i can find right now.(c/o theletter4.blogspot.com)

(c/o hope, longing, life blog)

SO cute right?
i thought so.
jared thinks they are a little too much.
which could possibly be true.
some of them are a little more extreme than others.
but how perfect for my little dude,
who loves books.

now if only the money tree could appear in my backyard soon.
because this isnt the only project i would love to do.
i have a list of about 5,000 more projects.

by the way, this little dude is a crawling machine.
no more army crawling.
we are up on our hands and knees people!
he isnt very fast yet
but he is already showing us that our house is not very baby proof at all.
oh and did i mention his two bottom teeth are coming in?
you would never guess it though.
he is a VERY easy teether...
and for that i am truly, truly grateful.

just random

2011-08-23T14:00:00.006-06:00

dont you just love that new family picture we have? jared's cousin desirae took them for us and she did a great job! i love how they turned out.

it's cute that our first initials spell out pb&j huh?
i thought so too.

well folks, looks like we have ourselves an 8 month old little dude. can you believe it? me either. 8 months. crazy. as my smart sister carissa put it, "that's like only 4 months away from a year!" (she is one smart cookie.)

yes this is gonna be one of "those" blog posts... you know the ones where a mom brags about all the new tricks their baby is doing. but like everyone else, i want to write it down so i can remember. feel free to skip the words and head to the pictures (which i need to be way better at taking by the way....)

at 8 months parker is.........
*weighing in at 16 pounds 1.5 ounces
*26 inches tall
*army crawling away
*eating all his fruits and veggies
*eating chicken and turkey
*eating ritz crackers (which make a huge mess by the way)
*tried a vanilla wafer from his uncle kyle, and an animal cracker given to him by the bishop at church (he loved both)
*does not like to play independently
*loves his walks
*gets excited when we pull our bikes out for a bike ride
*likes to help me "fold" the laundry
*loves to sit and read/look at books
*enjoys sitting in his bumbo watching his mama sing and dance around the kitchen while she cooks or cleans.
*loves to clap
*loves bath time
*thinks he is one cool dude at the store now that he sits in the shopping cart. (seriously, its adorable.)
*jibber jabbers all day
*laughs so hard when daddy plays with him

this year is really flying by. i mean september next week? really? fall is right around the corner and although im sad to see summer go, im excited for fall. jared makes fun of me because im already stressing out about what parker should be for halloween. i thought since parker's birthday is christmas eve, we should dress him up as an elf and jared can be santa and i could be mrs. clause. but thats about as far as ive got. any other cute ideas out there?

so im googling, and googling and googling until i find the perfect costume. fingers crossed i find something cute!

one happy camper

2011-08-11T15:18:00.010-06:00

the other week we went to utah to go to a family reunion. almost every year since i can remember my whole family has gone camping. there's always lots of fun, family, good yummy food, staying up around the camp fire laughing, four square, kick ball, birthdays/anniversaries to celebrate, bug bites, and yucky outhouses.

this year we managed to have another great time with only 1 emergency room visit, and a whole lotta family drama. but i asked my mom what would a family reunion be without those 2 things? she replied "probably boring."

i was very nervous to take parker because i had no idea how he would do. turns out i had nothing to worry about. he LOVED it. he loved being outside all day, he loved being around so many people, he loved the attention he got from his aunt stacey and grandma allred, he slept awesome at night, he was mesmerized by the campfire at night, and only got 2 bug bites. he really was one happy camper the whole week.
he enjoyed eating watermelon and sucking on tootsie rolls during the week.jared enjoyed playing in the water and building a "hot tub" with kyle and kory. they spent ALL day working on it and were all sore the next morning from lifting the heavy rocks.

parker has been up on all fours rocking back and forth for WEEKS now. im so ready for him to just crawl already! i know, EVERYONE tells me those are going to be my famous last words.

he is still very much a mama's boy. its a love/hate relationship for me. i love that he always wants me and i hate that he ALWAYS wants me. im hoping that maybe once he figures out how to move, he will be more curious about other things and not constantly need me. he loves to go get the mail with me, and thinks he is one pretty cool dude when i let him carry a piece of mail back inside.he is starting to learn what the camera is and smiles everytime i bring it out. its so cute.
i think he looks the cutest when he is sleeping. i LOVE that we can now just put him in his crib and walk away and he will go to sleep. some nights he will cry, but it is no where near as bad as the 30 minute bloody murder screaming his use to do.

i still love this little dude lots and lots and love that he is getting so big! its so fun to watch him grow!

can you believe?

2011-07-18T14:38:00.009-06:00

i know, i know... its been a while since i last blogged.

it's about time i update all you faithful readers out there.
(come on... i know you blog stalk too)

can you believe this cute dude is gonna be 7 months old in a week?
and can you believe he is up on all fours rocking back and forth?
i think he still has a little while before he will start to crawl though.

and can you believe his hair? it is absolutely out of control.
he has one section that is super long.
if he was a little girl it would really make the cutest little pony tail.

and can you believe i chopped all my hair off?
this is the shortest ive ever had it in my life.
and can you believe i have a harry potter baby?
complete with messy out of control hair and a scar.
and can you believe nap time is over already?
those 2 hours went fast.

kicked it

2011-06-26T15:15:00.010-06:00

june has been such a fun and busy month for us here in rexburg. i cant believe it's already over and the 4th of july holiday is NEXT weekend! time goes so fast.

it's been a long few weeks when it comes to sleeping though. but i am proud to say we have finally kicked the habit of swaddling parker. YAY! ive been so stressed out trying to get him to learn how to sleep without it. last night he slept from 10pm-7am. that's the longest he has ever gone, with or without the swaddle.
parker and i have been enjoying going to a playgroup with other mamas and their babies from our ward. we just meet right across the street from our house at porter park for an hour. it's been fun for parker to play with other babies and nice for me to have some mama talk. not to mention the nice tan ive been getting from being outside so much. dont worry though (cough cough mom cough cough) i put a hat on parker and cover his sensitive skin in sunscreen so he is still pasty white.

also at porter park there is a little splash park area. it has been packed full with kiddos of all ages running through the water trying to stay cool in our 75 degree heat wave. i think parker enjoys it. the few times we have stuck his feet in it he hasnt complained.
a few weekends ago we took parker to the sand dunes (the place jared and i met 4 years ago!) and had a bon fire with kyle and carissa. we also took parker to monkey rock, a place were we used to bridge jump. he slept the whole time we were there though. and we didnt do any bridge jumping. the water is way to high and moving too fast right now.
we started parker on solids! he loves his green beans and peas. thats all we've given him so far. i think next we will give him som carrots and squash and then we will move onto the fruits. im a mean mom makin' my child eat his veggies first so he doesnt get a sweet tooth!this was his face the first time we gave him green beans. he enjoys them a lot more now though!he is also sitting up so good on his own now. i just set him on the floor with his toys around him and he is perfectly content to sit and play. he still loves to jump in the jumperoo too. i cant believe he is already 6 months old! most people say they are so sad that their baby is growing up, but i couldnt be more excited to see him grow up. i love how curious he is becoming and watching him learn new things. he is at a really fun age!

i have also recently started doing zumba. if you havent ever tried it you totally should. its a fun way to work out. a girl from my ward teaches it at the church in the gym so its fun to get away from parker for an hour to dance my little hiney off and social with other girls. i also started rereading the 7th harry potter book. i forgot how much i love harry potter. im excited for the last part of the movie to come out. but other than that i just play with parker all day, try to stay caught up on my house keeping and stress about what to cook for dinner.

jared is just busy in school like always. he is doing pretty good this semester with his grades. i cant believe the semester is over in just 4 short weeks. i think jared is looking forward to the break.

we are very much looking forward to the 4th of july weekend next weekend. i think we are planning to go to a parade, maybe do some swimming and BBQing before heading off to see the fireworks. i think parker will like seeing them, but i know he will not like hearing them. ill have to get him some ear plugs or something.

breaking a habit

2011-06-06T14:17:00.009-06:00

let me break it down for ya.

when parker was born the hospital gave us a swaddle. best thing ever. really. we would wrap this little dudes arms down and then he would sleep like a baby. now that he is almost 6 months old (i know.... crazy huh?) and the weather is starting to warm up, we decided it was time to loose the swaddle and let the little dude experience sleeping with his arms free. ive wanted to break him of this habit for a few months now, but have always been to nervous to try it because lets be honest, i enjoy my sleep way to much. well ladies and gents (do guys even read this thing?) we have completed 2 nights swaddle free! the first night was a little rough. parker woke up and few times and the look on his face was like what am i doing awake, with my arms free? the second night went way better, only waking up once. im hoping by the weekend we will be back to sleeping through the night!

last week we had some new people move in above us... at 10:00 pm. who moves in at 10 o'clock at night? ya.... annoying. the next morning i woke up to hear water dripping in our kitchen. i thought maybe our kitchen sink was leaking. i walked into our kitchen and do you think i saw water dripping from our sink? oh no... no my friends, the water dripping was coming from our ceiling by our washer. the new neighbors couldnt wait until the morning to hook up their washer. apparently they didnt hook it up tight enough. it had been leaking all night. luckily the damage wasnt too bad. just a wet wall and wet carpet. the manager should be coming to repaint the wall soon.

the weather this last weekend was absolutely beautiful. parker and i got to hang out with jared all weekend outside playing at the park, riding our bikes, and BBQing.this is how we bbq with kyle and carissa. yummy!

my old roommate melanie came into town last weekend. it was fun to catch up and see her since she will be moving back to colorado soon.
now that parker is almost 6 months old, i have finally gotten around to putting his room together. this is all i have so far.

the before:
the after:anddddd.... i think that about sums up everything that is going on in the rucks home. now if you will excuse me, i need to go take care of my screaming dude... dont let his cuteness in these pictures deceive you!

picture update!

2011-05-21T19:16:00.012-06:00

tonight i left parker with his daddy and ventured up to campus to mooch off their internet. its kind of nice to be back on campus, but not have any homework to worry about.

a new hat for the summer.... a little girlie maybe but still cute!

i love this picture of parker and my grandma. im secretly my grandma's favorite grandchild. so it makes sense parker is her favorite great grandchild.

my grandpa allred fought a tough battle with pancreatic cancer this year. im glad he was able to meet parker though. his funeral was a very nice tribute to the great life he led. it was so nice to be with my whole family for the weekend.

parker has recently been doing this face... you cant really see it but he will suck in his bottom lip... he gives himself hickies by doing it!

this boy LOVES to be outside. and loves to swing. we got him a bike trailer, and we have enjoyed lots of long bike rides as a family.

he still isnt rolling over much... or at all. occasionally he will go from him tummy to back, but not very often... should i be worried?

he LOVES his jumperoo. keeps him entertained long enough for me to get some house cleaning accomplished.

he also enjoys laying on his side. he will roll over to his side but wont go to his tummy because he hates to be on it. i try to give him tummy time. he will last maybe 5 min till his is screaming! maybe one day he will enjoy it.

even if he isnt rolling over, he can sure sit up all by himself now! and loves to be up and playing. he gets a little discouraged when he throws his toys too far and cant quite reach them. he is getting so big and so fun. he loves his rice cereal, and grabs and reaches for everything these days.

jared is just chugging away at school. i feel like we hardly see him during the week. with no internet he is always on campus doing homework and studying. but he is getting good grades and still really enjoying accounting... i think.

life really is good and really cant get much better... except for maybe getting the internet :)

MIA

2011-05-19T10:03:00.002-06:00

okay, so i know ive been missing in action for the last month.... its killing me really. we moved into our new place that was suppose to have internet but for some reason we cant access it.... totally lame. i feel like i miss out on so much now! but it has been kind of nice to not be a total facebook/blog addict anymore. still i miss journaling all of parkers new tricks. he is growing up so fast. i love the new stage he is in. maybe one day we will get the internet to work and i can post pictures, but for now im blog stalking at the public library... i was hoping parker would stay asleep longer so i could do a giant update, but he is awake and im sure the people here would perfer to not hear him scream anymore. since i know i have so many people out there that read this (ya right) to you i say, dont worry... ill be back soon... i hope.

3 is my favorite number

2011-04-11T10:55:00.006-06:00

and it also happens to be our 3rd anniversary! holy hannah where has the time gone? when we first got married and moved up to rexburg some people in our ward had been married for 3 years (we had only been married for 6 months) and i remember thinking, holy hannah 3 years?!? now look at us... we're old pros :)in 3 years we have:

*managed to live in 4 (soon to be 5) different places
*learned to live (put up with?) with each other's quirks
*had 3 different cars
*had 5 different jobs (split between the two of us)
*been on lots of fun vacations
*received one bachelors degree (hoping to have a second one soon!)
*had the cutest baby boy in the whole world
*gained one too many pounds
*learned, grown, laughed, and cried
*and i wouldn't want to do this with anyone else by my side

thank-you jared for working so hard for our little family. parker and i love you lots!

family update:
this is jared's last week of work! yay! he has been working 60+ hours a week! he has enjoyed his internship and the people he has been working with. we really are grateful he was handed this awesome internship. he is looking forward to getting back into school... the end is in sight for him.... hallelujah!

parker continues to grow! he still loves to be held by anyone that is willing to hold him. he has started grabbing and holding his toys, and tries to reach for everything now. he can sit up by himself for a few seconds (okay so he is bent in half with his stomach on the ground, but still, he doesnt tip over to the side) he loves to reach for and grab his toes, and he has recently found his loud voice, and will jibber/jabber all the time. especially if he is lying in only his diaper and playing with his feet. he hasnt really rolled over again since he did it in february, but we're workin on it.
i am just looking forward to moving back to rexburg and into our own place again. although i am very grateful to jared's parents and my parents for letting us mooch off them for a few months, enough is enough and i cannot wait to have my own space! i am little terrified to finally be with parker by myself all day every day though. its been nice to have my sisters and mom to pass him off to during the day. luckily summer is coming, and we can spend lots of time outside, since our new apartment is right next to porter park you better believe we will be there often.

favorite things

2011-03-24T19:09:00.006-06:00

today parker is 3 months old! the older he becomes, the more i enjoy being a mom... newborns are not my thing, but im totally digging the new stage he is getting into. he no longer looks like a newborn, but is turning into a cute chubby fat baby. just so i remember at 3 months parker can

*reach for and grab onto his toy rings
*sleeps through the night (yay!)
*holds his head up very well
*can roll over tummy to back
*smiles and talks a LOT!
*would rather smile and talk to me instead of eat
*enjoys tummy time more
*survived his first cold (i never want a sick baby again... not fun!)
*loves a small squeaky monkey
*sit in his bumbo for a long time
*enjoys bath time
*loves to be held and be around people
*kicks his legs like there's no tomorrow

these last three months ive found a few new favorite things... baby style.

first up: The swaddle

seriously... best invention EVER! they gave us one at the hospital and parker has not gone a night in his life without being wrapped up tight in it... im pretty sure this swaddle is the reason he has been sleeping through the night since 6 weeks. love it. but he is getting to big for it now... and im scared to put him to bed without it.... jared says the poor dude is still gonna be swaddle up tight when he is 8! hey, whatever works right?

second: Gripe Water

i personally think it should be called miracle water. a friend of ours told us about this wonderful stuff just a few days before parker made his way into this world. boy am i so glad she did. those nights that parker screams and screams and screams, just a 1/2 teaspoon of this wonderful stuff, and it calms him right up, and asleep he goes! it works like a charm everytime. love it.

Third: Aquaphor
if parker ever has a diaper rash, just a touch of this bad boy, and it clears it right up... like within hours... wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!

any other wonderful baby products out there that im missing out on?

of course what would an update be without a picture of the cutie patootie?

a new normal

2011-03-17T15:15:00.008-06:00

ever since i can remember i have always wanted to be a mom. after parker was born i would think to myself, at least once a day... "what in the world have i gotten myself into?" i remember someone once told me that after you get married, your world gets shaken up a little bit, but after you have kids, it gets turned inside out and upside down... SO TRUE!

for the first few weeks after parker was born i would lay awake at night thinking to myself that my life would never, ever be the same... never will it return back to normal. never again can i just pick up and leave to go whenever and where ever i please. after talking to an older lady at church a few weeks ago, she told me she felt the same way after her first was born as well. she thought for sure her life would never go back to "normal." but she soon realized, like i am slowly realizing as well, that her life did in fact return to normal... just a "new" normal.

i've learned my new normal no longer consists of going to school, worrying about tests or projects and homework. my new normal now consists of diaper changes, feedings, tummy time, fussy/cranky times, learning to smile and laugh times, and nap times. there are some days that are really, really hard for me to accept this new normal. especially those days where it seems like parker cries all day. those days i feel like i would give anything to trade spots with jared and go to work all day.

but its those days the lord shows me his tender mercies through parker. like when i go to feed him, and he just wont eat because he is too busy staring up at me smiling and cooing away, almost as if he is telling me, "thanks mom. thanks for feeding me, changing me, playing with me, and teaching me."

this mom business has been a huge slap in the face and real eye opener for me. some days are really, really tough. some days are really, really great. i love parker and feel so blessed the lord has given me this opportunity to be his mama. its amazing he has given me this opportunity to teach me so much with someone so little.

anyways, blah blah blah, yada, yada, yada.... i just felt like writing this down, so if i ever have another child, i can look back and think, i really thought 1 child was hard?

okay, now for an update!

when i was in the 4th grade, we got a puppy... the cutest beagle named auggie. i told me parents i was going to take him to college with me. they told me he probably wouldnt be around anymore. well i graduated from college, got married, and had a baby, and auggie was still around. he became very very sick, and at the beginning of the week, we decided it was time to put him down. it was a very sad day. love you auggie boy!(yes im in desperate need for a new haircut and style!)

parker LOVES bath time. at night if he is screaming and crying non stop, all we have to do is put him in the bath, and he stops.

cute little pruney feet

jared only has 4 weeks left of his internship, then its back to idaho for us! im so excited to be back in our own place again... now to find a decent place to live is the stressful part... i look at craigslist everyday to see if by some miracle a decent house will be for rent in our price range... wishful thinking.....

BIG week

2011-02-28T10:53:00.006-07:00

last week was a big week for parker!

first off, he had his 2 month check up. i was a basket case the night before, and i wasnt even the one that had to have anything done! parker was a trooper with his shots though. of course he screamed and cried, but i had a warm bottle of good stuff waiting for him to distract him right after. i thought i would have cried too but shoot.... the poor dude screams and cries just as hard when i have to suck his little nose boogies out! it was fun to see how big he has grown. he now tips the scales at 10 pounds 11 ounces. a nice healthy boy!

second, parker has slept through the night for the past seven, yes people SEVEN, nights in a row! he goes down at 10 and sleeps till 6:30, eats and goes right back to sleep till 9:00. most nights though he screams bloody murder every time i swaddle him up tight... sometimes he only screams and cries for 20 minutes, other nights it could be an hour. i think he wears himself out and that is why he sleeps till 6:30.

third, we blessed parker! and when i say we, i mean jared. we were so glad jared's parents came down from idaho to be here for it. jared gave parker a beautiful blessing and he looked so darn cute in the blessing outfit my mom made for him.

fourth, parker rolled over! we had him laying on his tummy, and the next thing we knew, over he went! he was on the couch which gave him a little bit of a slant, but dont worry my friends, we put him on flat ground he rolled right over again! you better believe how proud his little mama was of him!

having parker here for the last 2 months has been wonderful.... but i cant lie and say its been rainbows and butterflies the whole time.... this mom business is tough stuff. and as much as id like to think i have the perfect child who is never fussy and always happy, lets be honest here people... i dont. parker sure can cry (and not just when he is wrapped up tight) but now that he is starting to smile A LOT more and recognizes my face makes all the crying and fussy times a little bit easier to endure.

my aunt once told me she was not a fan of the new born stage... i remember thinking how could you not enjoy it? i love holding new born babies! but now that i have been through the newborn stage with my own child, i dont think i am a fan of it either... and even though everyone tells me to enjoy this little baby now, and that "they grow up so fast" im so excited to see him start to laugh and sit up by himself and crawl and walk and talk... and im sure ill miss it, but for now, this first time mama is excited to see this cute little dude grow up...

all you need is

2011-02-14T11:28:00.005-07:00

.L.O.V.E.

and how lucky am i to have TWO cute boys be my valentine this year?

my handsome hubby

AND

my cutie patootie

.im so blessed to have both these boys in my life.
.they both make me so happy.
.i think im the luckiest girl in the world.

.happy valentines day jared.
.you are the love of my life.
.i love your sweet kisses.
.and big bear hugs.
.and i am so glad i get to spend the rest of forever with you.

.happy valentines day parker.
.you are the cutest little dude i have ever met.
.i love your little smiles.
.and cute chubby cheeks.
.and i feel so blessed to be your mama.

smiling's my favorite

2011-02-02T10:08:00.010-07:00

parker is figuring out how to smile! this is the only one i have captured on camera. it is so fun to watch him try so hard to get his mouth to smile. he is also trying so hard to find his voice and talk to us. we have gotten a few coo's out of him but i think within the next week he will be smiling up a storm. and before we know it, im sure he will be talking a mile a minute!

one of parker's most recent favorite past times is looking out the window. we lay him on his tummy on the top of the couch and he will stare out the window for the longest time. he is so good at holding his head up by himself now. sometimes i forget he is only 6 weeks old.when we took parker to the doctor just about 2 weeks ago he was weighing in at 8 pounds 2 oz but the past few days i have been putting him in some of his 3 month size clothes and they fit him. but he can also still fit into some of his new born outfits too.... weird. he is getting to be too long for most his new born outfits though. makes me kind of sad his is growing so fast, but im also excited and anxious for him to get older so he interacts with us more.

jared turned 25 on the 24th of january. it also happened to be parker's 1 month birthday! so we figured out that parker turned 1 month and jared turned 300 months! jared had to go to a class during the day but we went out to dinner when he got home and opened some presents and ate cake and ice cream. i love celebrating birthdays.

jared has also officially started his job. he is doing training all this week and he said he is pretty overwhelmed already, but i know he will catch on fast. i know he enjoys being busy again but parker and i miss having him home with us all day.

other than that, parker and i are just hanging out all day everyday. im looking forward to the summer so that i can take him outside on walks and not be cooped up inside all day because its too cold to take him out anywhere.

parker the porker

2011-01-20T17:03:00.007-07:00

we finally got some kind of insurance arranged with parker here in colorado and were able to take him in today for his first appointment. he has gained 2 pounds and grown 3 inches since his last appointment at 3 days old. he now weighs in at 8lbs 1oz and is 21 inches long. everyone told me they grow fast, but holy hannah i cant believe how big he is getting.

jared started calling him parker the porker when he was first born because when he gets hungry he makes this cute piggy noise. but now that he has gained 2 pounds in 4 weeks, he really is a porker! he eats like his daddy, and sleeps like his mommy. we have been really lucky with his night time sleeping. we usually put him down between 10:30pm and 11:00pm and he will sleep until 4:30am or 5:00am and has even gone until 6:00am. then he will eat and go right back to sleep until 8:30am.

we took parker to church for the first time last sunday but we only went for sacrament meeting and he stayed in his car seat the whole time so he wouldnt be passed around and be exposed to too many germs. he looked too cute in his mr. rogers sweater, which was huge on him.

last week he had started to become VERY fussy EVERY time he was awake. it has been so frustrating having this new baby cry for hours and they cant tell you whats wrong. we finally discovered he had a very bad diaper rash and after putting some aquaphor on him, it cleared it right up, and he has been a happy camper ever since.... and so have i!

we are still in love with this little dude, and love his sweet little spirit.

growing and changing

2011-01-08T15:13:00.009-07:00

when parker was just 11 days old, we set him in his car seat and took off for colorado. he has been to idaho, utah, wyoming, and colorado in the first 2 weeks of his life. he was an awesome traveler and slept the whole way, besides waking up twice to eat.

its still so surreal to me that i now have this cute boy here in my arms. i thought for sure i was going to be pregnant forever. its amazing to me how much he has grown and changed in just 2 short weeks. he really is a good baby and only cries when he is hungry, or has an air bubble in his tummy that wont come out. he usually sleeps 5 hours at night before he wakes up and realizes he is hungry again. when he gets really hungry and mad, he makes this cute little piggy noise. he loves to cuddle and have anyone hold him. but he does not love the sponge baths we have to give him. and he is very good and eating, sleeping, and pooping :)he loves to sleep with his hands up by his facedriving across country. (dont worry, we were stopped to feed him)our party animal on new years eve. looking spiffy in his tux.these jeans my mom wore when she was a baby, then i wore them when i was a baby, and now parker gets to wear them.we think he is one cute little guy!

he's here!

2010-12-27T18:43:00.002-07:00

Parker Daniel Rucks.
December 24, 2010.
6 pounds 7 ounces 18 inches long.
Perfect.

here's his story:

Friday December 24 we had a doctors appointment in the morning. i was feeling really bummed out that he still wasnt here when three other girls i knew who were all due around the same time as me had each already had their babies. i was keeping my fingers crossed that we had made some progress and would be heading to the hospital but, no such luck. we hadnt progressed any. we scheduled an appointment to be induced monday, the 27th at 7:30 am, went over to the hospital to pre-register and home we went.

we decided to go out to lunch around 11:30am as kind of a last-date-just-the-two-of-us kind of thing. my contractions had started to feel very different, but were still coming 15, 20 and 30 minutes apart. after we got home i laid down in bed and turned the tv on. my contractions started to come closer and closer together and were getting strong... nothing too horrible though.

i remember texting my mom "im not sure if we are going to make it to monday..." then at 1:45 i got a VERY strong contraction... 5 minutes later, another one.... i decided to take a bath and when i got into the tub they seemed to come stronger and faster.... jared had gone to help his brother move a few things so when he got home i told him to call the hospital... they told him to have me lay on my left side and drink 2 cold glasses of water and see what happens... i was too uncomfortable and they were coming so fast i couldnt drink any water... i debated back and forth about going to the hospital cause i didnt want to get turned away....

but i couldnt take the pain any longer... and i told jared if this is "false labor" i dont want to know what "real labor is." that drive from idaho falls to rexburg was LONG! every time i had a contraction i would get really hot so we would turn the AC on, then after it passed i would freeze so we would turn it back to hot. we go to the hospital around 4:00 pm the nurse checked me, and i was already dilated 5 cm and 100% effaced... things went WAY fast from there as they began hooking up iv's and monitors... i begged and pleaded for them to get me an epidural and when that man came in and put something wonderful in me all was okay in the world again. i dont know why or how any woman would not want to have one, but props to them... i couldnt do it.

my doctor showed up and immediately told me things werent looking good for the baby and he was 90% sure were going to have to have a c-section... i remember just crying.

finally things seemed to calm down a little and they had me lying flat on my back with a pillow propping me up on one side... they kept coming in every now and then and having me switch sides to see if that would help calm baby down. i kept asking how he was looking and my nurse would say, better but still not great.

at 10:00pm my nurse sadie, who was awesome, checked and said "looks like you're complete! let's start pushing!" i was SO relieved not to have a c-section. we got set up and started pushing at 10:10pm, my doctor showed up at 11:00 and by 11:15pm Parker made his debut into the world!

he is perfect and we love him. he has been the center of attention with my sisters and mom and jared's mom since we've been hom. he gets held constantly by one of them during the day, but i dont think he minds :)

ready, set, GO?

2010-12-12T21:10:00.004-07:00

okay so maybe i was a little off thinking "any day now." here we are 38 weeks and still pregnant. i know pregnancy is 40 weeks (or maybe even longer) but im ready to be done. this whole pregnancy has really flown by but now that im not working anymore, these last few weeks are going SO SLOW. from the beginning we kind of just assumed he would come "early" and now that "early" is here and he is not, im kind of bummed out. i wouldnt be so stressed out about having him come early if we werent packing up and moving to colorado at the end of the month.

we went to the doctor on friday. i really hate the doctors but these last few months havent been bad... its the same thing every time, weight, blood pressure, urine sample, listen for the heart beat, measure belly, questions, call it good. this time i thought they were going to be checking under the hood for dilation so of course i was nervous all morning. when they checked my blood pressure it was a little high so they checked it again... still high. i told them i was nervous for them to check me and they told me they werent going to be checking this appointment which made me calm way down so they check my blood pressure again and it was back to normal. i cant help but get nervous when it comes to things like this... im not sure how im going to get through labor and delivery and keep my blood pressure down.

my doctor told me im measuring small, but ive been consistent every time so we're just going to have a small baby. he is predicting he will be in the 6 pound range, (but probably no bigger than 7.5 pounds) which is okay with me! he did tell me though that he has seen girls as small as me deliver 10 pounders! YIKES!

we go back in on friday to see if i have started making any progress. i dont wanna get my hopes up too high though for good news. everyone keeps telling me to just enjoy this time right now cause he is going to be here before we know it.... which is true, but im finding it hard to enjoy my time when all i constantly think about is going into labor.

if i could send my little dude a message, id tell him "ready.... set.... GO!"
here's hoping my next post will be of pictures of our new bundle of joy!

any day now right?

2010-11-30T20:13:00.008-07:00

i think its safe to say that this little dude of ours could really come any day now... people keep asking me if im ready for him to come.... im ready to be done being pregnant and to have my body back, but im not ready to keep him and take care of him (does that make me sound like such a bad mom?) he is so much easier to take care of in my tummy. im starting to really stress out and get nervous about this whole thing. im scared outta my mind for labor and delivery, and i have no idea what to do with him once he is here.... i know hundreds of million of women have gone through it and survived, so i think ill survive too. i think im just ready for the anticipation to be over

36 weeks!

every year since i can remember my mom always got us these advent calendars... you know the ones with the chocolate behind each door.... jared and i decided that instead of counting down to christmas, we are going to count down to our little dude. so we will start eating our chocolates on december 2. then if he decides by some miracle to come early, we can just eat the rest of the chocolates!
24 chocolate days till Parker.... yup we are going to name our little dude Parker.... before we were even pregnant i had told jared i liked the name parker for a boy... well i changed my mind and decided i didnt like parker anymore, but jared my sister and her husband called our little dude parker before we even knew it was a boy! so for the last 8 months we (they) have referred to him as parker.... i finally just gave up and gave in and i cant imagine calling him anything else. his full name will be Parker Daniel Rucks. daniel is jared's middle name. so the three of us will be the PB&J family.... parker, brielle & jared :)

with parker on his way, jared and i finally decided it was time to part with our BMW... we figured with a new baby we should probably have a new reliable car that actually had a working heater for the cold winter, and a working air conditioner for the hot summer... so we said good bye to our beamer and hello to this beauty:2010 hyundai sonata. cute. small. comfy. i love it.

student teaching has officially ended and it's one of the best feelings to be done! i went back to visit my class one last time. they were such good kids... i didnt realize how much of an impact they had on my life. as much as some of them drove me crazy, im really going to miss them! i hope i did something helpful for them!
they had all made me cards. i thought this one was too funny:
in case you cant read it it says: "Dear Mrs. Rucks, thank you for teaching. that is really nice of you! you are cute that is why Mr. Rucks marid (married) you. HAHAHA some of the things these kids would say cracked me up... they definitely were the reason why i kept going.

so now we are playing the waiting game... i hate not knowing when he's going to come. is it going to be next week? or will he wait till his due date? after his due date? tomorrow? i have a doctors appointment on saturday and ill be just one day shy of 37 weeks... the doctor told me they wouldnt start checking me for dilation till probably 38 weeks, which kind of bummed me out, but didnt at the same time. all i know is im nervous to have him, anxious to meet him, and scared to keep him.

as for jared, he has 3 weeks left of school. parker is probably going to decide to come during one of jared's finals. I think jared is excited for the semester to end and for parker to come. im glad i have jared right by my side to do this whole thing with me. i hope our little dude looks just like him!

(wow, this ended up being a novel!)

6 weeks left

2010-11-14T15:43:00.004-07:00

well folks, here we are..... 34 weeks along, 6 weeks left, and feeling very large!

for as big as i think i am, everyone tells me im still so little and they cant believe i am a month and a half away from having this baby! but at every doctor's appointment they have told me im measuring right on track.

i had a baby shower yesterday that my mother in law through me and we got more things for this little dude. i am starting to get very anxious to meet him! i have said this over and over but its true.... i really have enjoyed being pregnant but i told jared last night im ready to be done. im starting to feel very uncomfortable, and none of my clothes are fitting me comfortably anymore. luckily this is my LAST WEEK of student teaching, and then i can hang out at home all day in my pajamas and wait for him to make his debut into this world. which i really wish he would let us know exactly when that will be... because i really want him here for christmas.

halloween festivities

2010-10-31T13:41:00.006-06:00

this halloween is jared and mine's 4th halloween together! that sounds so crazy to me, where has the time gone? we did do some fun things for halloween this year. the weekend before halloween we convinced my sister to go to a haunted house.... (sorry carissa, we will never make you go again!)we did have two 10 year old boys walk through with us, they seemed to lighten the mood a little bit and would always tell us where not to step so things wouldnt jump out. they were funny.jared saw his ex-girlfriend while we were waiting in line.

then for school, we had a "spook parade" during our halloween party. all the kiddos dressed up in their costumes and paraded around the school. it was fun to see all the cute and creative costumes some of the kids came up with... i wish i would have remembered to take my camera!

this is the outfit i came up with. i remember my cute friend trista did this to her belly last halloween when she was pregnant.

friday night jared got to dress up for work:he says he wants to dress up every day for work because people were giving him really good tips!

now that halloween is over, im so excited and anxious for the holidays to start! student teaching ends in 3 weeks and i could not be more excited to finally be finished! our little dude is just 8 weeks away from making his debut into this world. we are actually keeping our fingers crossed and hoping its really only 6 weeks away so he can be here for christmas, and so we can be ready to move to colorado by the end of december.

pregnancy update: people always told me that by the third trimester, i would start to get uncomfortable... i didnt really believe them, but holy hannah, i am starting to feel very uncomfortable. i cant bend over very easily anymore, and he loves to kick the right side of my rib cage, which im pretty sure is bruised. he also likes to push his little body out as far as he can. almost like he is stretching... my stomach will get really hard, and it actually hurts a little sometimes. i really shouldnt be complaining though. i have loved being pregnant, it will be weird to not be pregnant anymore i think...

counting down

2010-10-18T17:14:00.003-06:00

i feel like my whole life all i have ever done is "count down" to things....
it seems to have started when i was counting down the days till i turned 12 to go to young womens at church....

next came the count down to turning 16 to get my drivers license.....

then we started the count down to high school graduation.....

graduation came and went, and i started counting down the days till i left for college....

college started and i soon found myself counting down the days (okay really years) to that graduation....

during college i met jared, we became engaged and i started yet another countdown to our wedding day.....

the wedding came and went, i was still counting down semesters to my college graduation, and soon realized i had to add his graduation to my count down list......

now my college graduation has come and gone (the walking part of it at least) and i cant count down the days fast enough to student teaching ending....

because with student teaching ending, my count down to having my little dude come will be even smaller........

am i the only one that seems to always be counting down to something? i know it is probably not a very good habit, and i really should stop and enjoy what im doing at that exact moment, but i get too excited for new things to happen in my life.

with our countdown sitting at only 10 weeks left till out little dude arrives, i am getting more and more nervous by the second! i am anxious for him to get here and to meet him, but a little part of me is absolutely terrified, okay a BIG part of me is terrified! everyone says this last trimester is so uncomfortable, but i have loved feeling him move almost constantly throughout the day... sure he has figured out he loves to kick my ribs, and kick them hard, but it lets me know he is still doing okay in there. the other day i think he had the hiccups cause i felt a constant "kick like" feeling for over 10 minutes in the same place.
so here we are.... 30 weeks.... "and counting"

holy hannah!

2010-10-04T18:13:00.005-06:00

holy hannah hello october! i couldnt be more excited that it is finally October!

i cant believe that i am already 28 weeks along and in my last trimester! in 12 weeks we will officially be a family of 3..... that's crazy! i still feel great and cant complain one bit about pregnancy. i did my 3 hour glucose test the other weekend and my results came out normal! yay! they just told me to lay off the oreos and kit-kats.... bummer.

we ordered our car seat and stroller and finally got it! i love it i cant wait to put my little dude inside instead of this stuffed animal.

things are still moving along for us! i wish i could say i am enjoying student teaching, but im really not. i dread waking up and going every morning. i just keep telling myself, if i can just make it to halloween ill be okay. poor jared has to hear me complain everyday about how much i hate it. i try to have a positive attitude, but its been hard. 6 more weeks.... just 6 more weeks!

jared is still plugging away at school. he only has class twice a week, but he says its hard to find motivation to do his homework the days he doesnt go to school. i think we are both looking forward to the semester ending!

26 weeks and diabetic?

2010-09-20T19:49:00.000-06:00

i really cannot believe i am 26 weeks along! this pregnancy has gone by so fast, and im sure these last 3 months are going to go even faster! i went in this morning for my glucose test (to test for gestational diabetes). well my results came back and i held my tears back as the nurse told me i had failed it and how i would now have to go in later this week for a 3 hour test to see if it was just a fluke, or if i really have developed gestational diabetes. so im a little bit stressed, a lot worried, and completely bummed. i almost feel like i have already failed at this "mothering" thing... all i have to do is stay healthy to let this baby grow and develop the way it should, and i cant even do that. but im trying to stay positive, and hoping i hear good news later this week!26 weeks!

i had a baby shower with my family a few weekends ago and got so many cute things for my little guy! jared and i were talking to the other night about how some days we think, "at the end of this semester we are going to have a baby!" then other days we think, "at the end of this semester we are going to have a BABY?????" its still very surreal for both of us.

other than baby news.... student teaching is still going. im almost half way done and couldnt be happier to finish. jared only goes to school tuesdays and thursdays. i think he is enjoying class, and not so much the homework. but who can blame him?

lots and lots!

2010-08-25T17:49:00.001-06:00

i feel like i have so much to update on, but at the same time we havent really been up to too much.....

the week after school got out, we went to colorado to visit my family. my dad retired from the air force, so we had a little ceremony for him. the next week, we headed to flaming gorge reservoir, and rented a house boat and ski boat for the week! it was a very fun vacation and a much needed break from school! jared had a fun time jumping and diving off the top of the house boat!

i never put up pictures of our little guy from his 3rd photo shoot!i think he is so so cute and love him so much already! i really have enjoyed being pregnant, and now that i feel my little buddy moving more and more i get so excited and anxious for decemeber to get here. i was keeping my fingers crossed and praying for a little girl, but the more i think about this little guy, the more excited i get to be having a boy. and im still secretly excited to still be the only girl in my family! jared has been able to feel him kick quite a few times, but as soon as jared puts his hand on my stomach, he seems to 'swim' away...^22 weeks and 3 days... first day of school as a 4th grade teacher!

and finally i started school! i met my new fourth graders today. we have 14 boys and 6 girls in my class. i am excited to get going and to learn more about my students, but lets be honest, im ready to be done so i can have my baby!

jared doesnt start school for 2 more weeks, so he has just been working and hanging out. thats about all from our end... we are just "patiently" waiting for our new addition to arrive

it's a........

2010-08-16T11:08:00.000-06:00

BOY!

jared was beyond excited when we found out our little one is a boy! as much as i love the color pink and was keeping my fingers crossed for a little girl, im not upset at all to find out we are having a boy! growing up with all girls i dont know the first thing about raising a boy, but i know this little buddy of ours will be the perfect addition to our family. and hey, i'll always be the prettiest one in my little family of three :) ill post some picture soon, he was so cute to look at!

we cant wait to meet him!

growing up and out

2010-07-26T08:40:00.001-06:00

Growing Up:

wow! i cant believe my time here at BYU-Idaho has come to a end, and have i graduated with a degree in my hand. i never thought i would graduate from college, especially with a bachelors degree. i came to school because everyone else was, not really having a plan, and just here to have fun... but......

8 semesters
48 classes
3 retaken classes
13 roommates
a few minor breakdowns
1 wedding
1 baby on the way
and 130 credits later....
im a college graduate!

As much as i have hated school, now that it is all said and done and over, i am SO glad jared pushed me to finish, and now, if i ever need it, i have a degree to fall back on... and i do have to say, i am quite proud of myself :)

where i spent all my time on campus.the girls that made this last semester possible!sisters :)
proud grandparents! im the 2nd grandchild to graduate from collegeproud parents! im the 1st child in my family to graduate from college
and of course, a proud husband! i dont know who is more excited that im done with school me or jared, cause he wont have to listen to me complain about it anymore!

Growing OUT!

this was taken the night of graduation at 17 weeks and 5 days!

I am now 18 weeks and 1 day along and things seem to be going great! we had our 17 week appointment last week, and i was so nervous to go because a few girls i have talked to said they felt their first baby move around 16 and 17 weeks, and i hadnt felt anything yet. everything that i had read said that you usually feel your first one move around 20 weeks, and then it gets earlier and and earlier with each one. so i was relieved when they were able to find the heartbeat! we are going to be out of town the week they wanted to do the gender ultrasound so we have to wait another whole week to find out, but aug 16 is the date! i will be 21 weeks along then! jared, my sister and her husband all think its a boy and even have named "him" so gave in and just assume its already a boy!

fun-filled weekend

2010-07-07T13:12:00.000-06:00

fourth of july is one of my favorite holidays. i love spending time outside, BBQing, watching parades and fireworks and enjoying summer. on saturday i went to the rexburg parade with my sister carissa and her husband kyle, then we went down to the fireworks in idaho falls, jared joined us after he got off work. the fireworks were great like always, and we had perfect seats, we could see them light them off! sunday after church we packed up all our camping gear picked up kyle and carissa and headed out to spend the night in the wilderness. ^kyle and carissa in a very packed car!^Our cute little campsite... poor carissa had bad allergies^we went on a little hike ^and waited for our tin foil dinners to cook

^they were very yummy
Monday we spent all day outside swimming and frying like lobsters. it was a great weekend, and tuesday and school came all too quickly. luckily we only 2 more weeks left, then its GRADUATION time! i cant wait.

i did end my weekend with some sad news. i learned one of my old roommates (who was married the same summer as i was, and just had a baby girl in february) husband passed away over the weekend. ive been thinking a lot about her and her little girl this week, and it really makes you stop and think about how precious and short life is. i need to stop complaining about the daily tasks i need to do everyday and just enjoy being alive and healthy, married to a wonderful man and expecting a little one this year.

speaking of little ones, things are still moving along great (as far as i know)! i can tell my belly is growing every week, and i cannot wait to be able to feel this little one move!

birthday & beats

2010-06-23T16:23:00.000-06:00

monday the 21st was my birthday! i love birthdays. i only had one class, and the girls in my class remembered it was my birthday and brought me a birthday treat. they even gave me a pink candle to put in it... they know me too well :) that night we had my sister carissa and her husband kyle over for dinner. jared made some yummy ziti and we had some cake. i got a new swim suit to fit into with my belly when we go on our family boating trip in august to flaming gorge. and carissa made me a very cute craft to put in my living room, and i got lots of cards from family and friends. it was a great birthday.

today we had our 2nd doctors appointment! they had to draw my blood but i survived. when they went to listen to the heart beat all they could hear was mine cause it was so loud! so the doctor told me we would do an ultrasound to find the heart beat and make sure everything was going good, but that all the ultrasound rooms were being used at the moment so she would come get us when one was open. that was the longest 15 minute wait of my entire life! but the baby popped right up on the screen, and oh man has it changed and grown SO much... it's little legs and arms were just moving around everywhere. im so glad we got to see our baby again so soon! everything is moving along just fine. it is still pretty unreal to me that i am having a baby, but im so excited!

here's baby ruck's at 13 weeks! it does have legs and arms i promise...i saw them! this angle shot just got its upper body!

COLORADO!

2010-06-19T09:57:00.001-06:00

back in the beginning of june jared went to colorado to talk with some accounting firms and to see if he could get an internship with any of them for tax season next year. well today he got a call back from one of the companies and they offered him a place at their company! he will be working in denver colorado and his building sits right on a golf course! he starts february 1, but he has to take a few classes from denver university in january (which the company is paying for) so as soon as this little one decides to come we'll be off to colorado! i couldnt be more proud of jared and i know he will be great!

we have our 2nd doctors appointment on wednesday and we get to hear the heart beat! i cant wait but im also really nervous! i hope everything is still moving along just fine. i still feel great! ive been sick twice but both times i took my prenatal vitamins on an empty stomach, and medicine in my empty tummy never sits well, pregnant or not pregnant! im not really showing quite yet. i can tell i have gotten a little bigger, but no one else really can.

we only have 5 more weeks left of school and i couldnt be any happier to finish and GRADUATE in 34 days! i have made some really good friends this semester in my education classes and ill miss those girls but i know they will all make great teachers! jared is doing good in school also but i know he is looking forward to the semester ending too.

things are great in the rucks home, now if we could just convince the weather that it is JUNE and not OCTOBER things would be perfect! :)

Cinnamon Bear?

2010-06-06T20:12:00.000-06:00

looks like jared and i are going to have a BABY! i am 11 weeks along and due december 26! when we showed my parents the ultrasound picture, we told them we thought it looked like a gummy bear, and they all said it's bigger than a gummy bear now, its the size of a cinnamon bear! for journaling purposes here is our story so far:

on friday may 21, in my 5th grade class we got to watch the "maturation" video. i started to think, hmmm... its been a couple months since i last had my 'gift'. This happend last year too, but it was just stress and i figured it was the samething this time around, but i couldnt get it out of the back of my head all weekend, so sunday i took a test and sure enough, it popped up pregnant! i couldnt believe it. i had no signs of pregnancy besides the obvious one, and i thought i had to be sick cause i only hear horror stories of how sick girls were, and how they couldnt eat anything because it sounded too gross to them, and i was (and still am) the complete opposite! i scheduled an appointment for an ultrasound and sure enough there was this little peanut inside! and they told me i was already 9 weeks along! i am so glad i have not been sick. and i can still eat what i want.

at our next appointment we get to hear the heart beat which i am very excited for but is it normal to be worried there wont be a heart beat anymore? or am i just being overly paranoid?

anyways, we are very excited, a little nervous, and have absolutely no idea what to expect! but we are hoping it comes before christmas so we can enjoy the best christmas gift ever!

we're moving!

2010-05-15T21:53:00.000-06:00

... but dont worry, we'll be back. our time is rexburg isnt up quite yet! this last week i got my student teaching placement and i got lucky enough to be sent to blackfoot, idaho which is about an hour south of rexburg. since jared will still be going to school here in rexburg in the fall, we are going to move to idaho falls so then we will both have a half hour commute everyday. they put me in a 4th grade classroom and i am excited but extremely nervous to start.

school is going pretty good for both of us. i have really enjoyed the 5th grade classroom i go to, but i come home exhausted everyday. i really do have a great class and they keep me entertained all day. jared stays busy with school, homework, and work. with his new work schedule, i find myself home alone a lot, and it gets kinda lonely and boring. but im grateful for the job he has, and what little income it brings in.

i am actually excited to move, so we can get out of our tiny apartment. oh and i will NOT miss our very LOUD neighbors who live above us. can we buy a house yet?

5th Grade

2010-04-23T17:46:00.000-06:00

tuesday we started yet ANOTHER semester of school. it's gonna be a tough semester for both of us. I have 18 credits and jared has 17! I am taking my senior practicum this semester and I got put in a 5th grade classroom and just finished my first day today, and i LOVED it. i definitely want to teach older kids for sure. it's kind of a crazy time to be in the schools since it's the end of the school year and they just have a bunch of fun activities coming up. i have to teach 10 lessons in the next 4 weeks then school is out. so im a little stressed. also my cooperating teacher told me i can teach whatever i want, cause they are done learning new concepts, which is nice, but i cant think of anything to teach....

jared got a new work schedule to fit with his classes and he works nights, and i hate being home by myself, but at least i can get some homework done.....(ya right) i had to quit my job at the elementary school, and it was the first time i was ever sad to leave a job.

tomorrow morning i take the PRAXIS test, which is the test teachers have to take to become certified to teach. i am actually not nervous for it, but im not looking forward to taking it because really lets be honest, who likes taking tests?

wedding weekend

2010-04-12T09:35:00.000-06:00

my little sister got married on friday, april 9, in the bountiful utah temple... i took my last finals on thursday morning and we were going to head down to utah when i got off work at 5. i was packing before i left for work and got my temple recommend out and saw it was EXPIRED.... AHHHHH! it was 1:45, and i had to go to work at 2:00 and we were leaving at 5, i FREAKED out. i had a few different numbers for the bishop and after finally getting a hold of him he told me he could meet with me at 7 that night. he gave me the number for a member of the stake presidency, i called him and he said he could meet with me at 7:30 at his house in sugar city, the opposite direction we were heading in, but i said OK lets do it! im so glad i got a hold of them and they were so kind enough to meet with me! we didnt get down to utah till late, but im glad i noticed my expired recommend before we got down there!

the wedding was beautiful and carissa was beaming from ear to ear all day. they got married in the morning so taking pictures afterwards it was a little chilly, but it warmed up in the afternoon. they had a VERY yummy luncheon at this nice place and then had a reception that night. it turned out great and lots of people came. now the happy couple is soaking up the rays in cancun and jared and i are back in cold rexburg :( it was so fun to see my family and hang out all weekend with them though. I didnt take too many pictures but here are a few.this is at the luncheon its kind of dark but this was the only picture i got of jared and me that day
they were so happy to be married finally!she looked so pretty
jared and i had fun playing with this bundle of joy all week-end. my aunt and uncle adpoted him in july and he has gotten so big. jared says he wants our baby to come out at this age :)

jared and i also celebrated our 2 year anniversary on sunday the 11th! cant believe its been 2 years! the best 2 years of my life :) love you jared!

it was a fun weekend. on our way back to rexburg we stopped in pocatello to see our good friends trae and candice and robby and zenna. it was fun to catch up for a little bit. now we have a week before school starts AGAIN... and i am dreading it. i hope it goes by fast! hard to believe its my LAST semester... my LAST one... thank GOODNESS!

crafty?

2010-03-24T12:49:00.001-06:00

im not really that good at it, or that creative when it comes to being crafty, but i LOVE to make crafts. i could spend a lot of money at porters buying supplies to make cute things for my house but i have no money. i was looking at this blog lyndseyscraftspot.blogspot.com and saw she had made these cute wooden easter eggs covered in scrapbook paper, and i thought we have wood jared got for free and i have lots of scrapbook paper so i thought i'd try it out! we used jared's dad's wood cutting tools to cut out the egg shape and then i decorated them.

don't judge I'm still learning!

i want to find (or make) a cute sign that says happy easter on it or something like that... we'll see what i can come up with. so...to be continued... hopefully.

if you have any cute/easy/cheap easter craft ideas, let me know, i wanna craft some more, and it keeps me away from homework :)

spring?

2010-03-08T12:02:00.000-07:00

Some of you might not think the picture below is very pretty, but to me, it's the prettiest thing ive seen outside in a long time!

I love that the snow is almost all the way melted outside our apartment and we can see the GRASS. i love summers in rexburg and im anxious for it to grace us with its presence once again.

we havent really been up to too much (surprise surprise). jared's grandpa passed away last sunday and we had the funeral last Wednesday. jared's extended family is HUGE. there's a total of 101 grandkids and great grandkids. its crazy! his brother and sister-in-law from washington came down and we had a fun week playing games with his family in idaho falls.

we're both registered for classes for next semester... kind of... im on a waiting list to get into a class i HAVE to have in order to student teach, so im a little stressed, i know they'll add me, but until then...

jared really likes working at jimmy johns. he's made about 80 dollars in tips in the last 2 weeks that he brings home and puts in a little tin jar... i always tease him we're saving it up for a crib :) i havent minded the sandwiches he brings home either they sure are tasty! my personal favorite is the country club loaded with ham, turkey cheese lettuce and tomatoes and mayo. its making me drool just thinking about it.... maybe ill run over to jimmy johns for lunch today?

im looking forward the the semester ending in a few weeks cause then we get to go to utah (real exciting i know) for my sisters wedding and im SO excited to see my family!

friendly reminders

2010-02-11T12:05:00.000-07:00

i was going to title this post lessons i learned this week, but they really arent lessons i learned, just htings i already knew and was reminded of cause i never learn them.

*a clean home is a happy home. i love a clean kitchen and a sink free from dishes
*procrastination will always bring a lot of unwanted stress
*group projects with 6 girls are impossible nothing ever gets accomplished with everyone's different opinions and off topic conversations
*math is hard
*groceries at winco are much cheaper than at broulims
*being a senior in college is hard... even if my major is elementary education
*staying up past my bedtime makes me real tired the next day
*not having to scrape my windows in the morning makes me happy
*its hard to go to school when jared isnt
*having a dinner menu created for the whole month makes cooking a lot less stressful
*online classes are hard. i take one every semester and i never have and never will get a good grade
*basically a lot of things are hard
*i have the best husband in the world who is so patient with me. and still makes me dinner, does the dishes, sweeps the kitchen floor and vacuums even after iv hung up the phone on him cause im stressed and mad and he's the only one i can take it out on.

this was one of the craziest weeks ive had in a long time. all week i felt like i was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. im so sick of school... so so so so so so so sick of it. you know how people talk about hitting a wall when they run a marathon, i think i hit that wall with school. i have no motivation and no desire to do anything. i quit. im dropping out.

(ya right, who are we kidding... jared would never let me)

phew! now that all thats off my chest i feel much better
162 days left till graduation!

golden

2010-01-31T13:30:00.001-07:00

jared celebrated his golden birthday last sunday and turned 24 on the 24th of january! my parents spoiled him (us) and gave him a cordless drill AND two gift cards: 1 to texas roadhouse (a family favorite) and 1 to red robin, jared's favorite. Thanks mom and dad, you guys are the best! we went to Idaho falls and had a very yummy birthday dinner with his family. July is going to be a pretty exciting month for my family, with my graduation from BYU-Idaho, my dad is also retiring from 20 years in the Air Force, and we are both counting down... so here's to us dad, another month down to graduation and retire-ation!

here's hoping the month of love brings us less snow and more sunshine!

a few things

2010-01-17T13:36:00.000-07:00

i feel like all i ever have to write about is school and work school and work school and work repeat. but today i have a few different things on my mind.

CONGRATULATIONS CARISSA!
in my last post i talked about how there could be a possible wedding for my younger sister this year, i was expecting an august or december wedding, but surprise! she just got engaged last week and they are getting married April 9, just 2 days before our 2 year anniversary! i am so excited for her and kyle. they seem perfect for each other. it will be fun to have them move back up here in April.

NEW JOB!
The sandwich shop jimmy johns is opening here in rexburg. jared applied to be the assistant manager for the store. he didnt get that position, but he did get hired to work there. we aren't sure what he will be doing, but he should start in february. it will be a nice job to have while he goes to school. I think he was a little bummed about not getting the assistant manager job, but we are very grateful that he has something again. He has had a few different substitute jobs, but not enough to pay bills so this is exciting for us!

COLORADO
jared needs to do an intership to graduate, and i have my hopes set on him getting one in colorado. I really want to move to colorado and be closer to my family. call me a baby but i miss them a lot! jared and i have talked about potentially starting his career there, and i would love nothing more than to live in colorado the rest of my life :)

BABIES
i know so many people who are pregnant its ridiculous! okay its not ridiculous but i feel like everyone is having a baby these days. must be the "stage of life" im in, but holy hannah, everyday a new person tells me they are expecting. so congratulations to all of you expecting mommy's! i really hope i can hop on that band wagon some day.

it amazes me how fast time goes. i mean january 17 already?! next thing we know its gonna be the end of another semester!

last minute

2010-01-02T14:29:00.000-07:00

our christmas break definitely came and went too fast! jared's parents were going to seattle to visit his brother and sister in law on christmas day so we went over to idaho falls christmas eve and celebrated christmas a day early!

since jared and i are, shall we say, very poor, we decided to just get each other one gift. i got jared the game rummy-q, and he surprised me with a cute craft that says "family" that I've had my eye on for a long time.
jared enjoyed rocking out with charlee's (our niece) new pink guitar set:while we were enjoying christmas eve, we were somehow convinced to go to seattle with jared's parents the next day, so we ran home, packed out bags and headed to seattle christmas morning! we had such a fun time with jared's family. we went and saw avatar, went to an aerospace muesum and got to walk on an older air force one, and went to a fun car museum that had lots of old cars. sadly these were the only pictures i got of the whole trip:
thanks dave and heather for letting us come and crash at your place for a week!

2009 was a pretty good year for us! here's the top 9 of 2009:

celebrating out 1 year wedding anniversary in april
our very fun trip to disney land
finishing 2 more semesters of school (with jared getting all A's both semesters!)
camping in colorado in july
celebrating both our birthdays, jared tunred 23, i turned 21
thanksgiving in colorado
receiving a very nice second car from a very generous family
celebrating christmas with jared's family in idaho falls
our trip to seattle

im excited that its finally 2010. here are a few things we (okay, I) are looking forward to this year:

student teaching
graduating from college with a bachelor's degree
possible wedding for my sister!
possibly moving at the end of the year so jared can do an internship... im keeping my fingers crossed for colorado springs, so we can be close to my family!

my sister said it best when she said her motto for 2010 will be "come what may, and love it."

another one done

2009-12-18T13:32:00.000-07:00

its been a while since i posted, here's a quick update.

jared and i just finished another semester of school. we are excited to check another one off our list. now i only have 2 more semesters left (july cant come fast enough) and he has 4. we can kind of see a tiny light at the end of the tunnel and its a good feeling. jared did awesome this semester with his grades, im so proud of him. he sure is one smart cookie

we both have the winter semester off, but i got accepted onto fastgrad, so ill go to school and work part-time, and jared will work... maybe. the good ol' USDA laid jared off again, surprise surprise, we can always count on them to "let us go." he did apply to be a substitute teacher for the two school districts in Idaho Falls and had his first job today, teaching high school spanish. im excited to hear how his day went. hopefully he will be able to get a job everyday to bring home the big bucks!

we are looking forward to christmas next week and spending it with jared's family in idaho falls. i still cant believe another year has come and gone. time really does go faster and faster each year. we've almost hit our 2 year mark of marriage. hard to believe 2 1/2 years ago we had no idea who each other were, and now we're in it forever :)

hope you all have a very merry christmas!

holiday season!

2009-11-29T15:33:00.001-07:00

thanksgiving break was so nice. I am sad that it is over already. we had a good visit in colorado and enjoyed some much needed rest and relaxation. thanksgiving dinner was delicious as always and we all ate way to much! we did a number of things while we were there...

like practicing our break dancing skills

jared got a couple of taekwondo lessons from a very cute 5 year old

ate cute turkey's made out of candy

put together a very hard 1000 piece snowman puzzle

and set up my parents christmas tree the morning before we left. we also went and saw the christmas carol movie which was pretty cute and ate at a fun japanese restaurant where they cooked right in front of you.

I remember last year writing about black friday shopping and how I would never do it again, so of course we got up at 4:30am to see what kind of deals we could find. my younger sisters had never been before so i told them all about how crazy it was and how long you had to stand in line and how many people push and shove. we went to walmart first and only waited in line for 5 minutes, then we made our way to kohls, were there was NO ONE in the store, it was crazy.

I love christmas time and yes, I am one of those people who set up my tree and decorate the day after thanksgiving.

I love willow tree's and I told jared each year for Christmas he can get me one piece of the willow tree nativity scene till I have the whole set. well my parents found this set on ebay for a really great deal and so they went in on it with jared and got it for me for my birthday in june. I have been so excited to set it up for christmas. I love it!

My younger sister gave us these stocking holders for christmas, and they work perfect! I love having our stockings hanging up. I cant wait to see what santa puts in them this year :)

and we cant forget the christmas tree. I bought this my first semester of college. Its little but fits perfectly in our tiny living room.

only 3 weeks left of school till christmas break!

colorado or bust!

2009-11-17T12:16:00.000-07:00

saturday we are flying to colorado for thanksgiving to see my family and i absolutely cannot WAIT! im so excited to have a break from school and work and just relax. ill bring all my homework, but really who are we kidding, its not gonna get done.

While we are there we are going to go see this movie, im excited! has anyone seen it yet?

I love this time of year. and since thanksgiving is next week, i just want to write a few things i am thankful for

JARED
My family (both of them!)
the gospel
a warm place to live
the draper family (cannot say thank you enough to them for the car they gave us)
the chance to attend school here at BYU-Idaho, i complain a lot about it, but i am grateful for the chance i have to further my education, and i know i will never regret it!
my health
the men and women who serve our country (being an Air Force brat i have a soft place for them in my heart)

here's hoping you all enjoy your own turkey day and stop to think about those things you are thankful for!

37 days left till CHRISTMAS... are you ready?

rambling

2009-11-02T10:08:00.000-07:00

holy hannah, hello novemeber! i am so excited october is over, and thanksgiving is fast approaching! we went down to utah this past weekend for my grandma's 80th birthday. i forgot my camera, so i have no pictures to show the fun we had. halloween night i passed out candy to a few kiddos, and then we played glow in the dark dodgeball. it was fun. we also got to stop and see our friends trae and candice and robby and zenna.

im also excited october is over, because that means the semester is almost over HALLELUJAH! this semester has been pretty rough for me. not because my classes are hard, and not because im stressed to the max... but i think maybe because i had to take 2 dumb classes im NOT enjoying, or maybe because if i was on track i SHOULD be done in april, but i wont be, or maybe because senioritis has set in and i just have no motivation, or maybe because im losing interest in school... its just been a bad semester. so im anxious for it to end and to start fresh next semester. poor jared has put up with all my whining and complaining all semester, and i think we are both hoping july gets here fast so i can be DONE!

seems like all i ever post on here is about school, but sadly thats all we seem to do now a days. graduation will come im sure, faster than we both think! there is one thing i am very grateful for right now, and that is no snow outside! maybe we will make it all winter with no snow? :)

busy being crafty

2009-10-25T15:10:00.000-06:00

my friend kara had posted a blog about some fun halloween crafts she made and inspired me to do the same! for the last week i have put off all my homework and made some halloween decorations. these were cute, fun, easy and best of all CHEAP to make. most of the supplies i already had at home.

I made these pumpkins out of rolls of toilet paper and i found that BOO sign for $1!

These are my favorite!
the ghost is made out of an old tupperware container
the pumpkin is made out of a glass jar
frankenstein is made out of a glass vase i found under our sink.

i love making crafts! im starting to look for christmas crafts to start on so if you have any ideas let me know!

18 months

2009-10-11T19:31:00.000-06:00

today is our year and a half anniversary! i know 18 months isnt that long, but i just cant believe it has already been that long! time really does go by so fast! and speaking of fast, the semester is almost half over already, halloween is just around the corner, and then before we know it, the holidays will be here! really, where does all the time go?

it snowed here the other week, thank goodness it was gone by the afternoon

we got a bread maker from jared's parents back in the summer and finally got around to using it conference weekend. jared became quite the domestic husband and made a loaf of bread and a batch of cinnamon rolls. they were yummy.

our good friends trae and candice had their little boy last week, so we drove down to pocatello to see him and them. he was so cute, and so so tiny. congratulations trae and candice thanks for letting us come and crash at your place for a little bit, we miss you guys!

jared is gonna make a good daddy someday

in other news, i got accepted onto fastgrad, which means HELLO GRADUATION in JULY! im so excited i cant wait to just be done. hopefully jared follows me in a year and then its on to MORE schooling for him... sometimes i catch myself daydreaming of living in a house with our 4 perfect children, and jared's perfect job that brings home more money than we know what to do with. then i have to think to myself that its never going to be just me and jared again, and i need to enjoy the stage im at right now. even if we are stinkin poor and going to school... although we might not think so right now, our life really is easy. and i really am enjoying every minute of it :)

(tonight its only going to be 17 degrees for a high brrrrr. hope everyone stays warm!)

Life in an elementary school

2009-09-24T17:32:00.000-06:00

working at the elementary school every day i hear some pretty funny things. this was a conversation i had with a 4th grade boy, who isnt "fat" but a little on the bigger side when standing next to other 4th grade boys.

4th grade boy: Have you ever ran the mile?
Me: Ya i had to do it when i was in elementary school.
4th grade boy: Cool, we ran it today!
Me: Awesome! How did you do?
4th grade boy: *Huge Smile on his face* Well last year when i was in 3rd grade, i ran it in 12 minutes and 11 seconds. This year i ran it in 12 minutes and 35 seconds! My PE teacher told me i SMASHED my record.
Me: AWESOME! *High Five*

HA i tried so hard to keep my laugh back and i didnt want to crush the poor kids heart and tell him he actually ran it slower this year so i just said awesome. you could tell he was so proud.

i cant believe its october next month, time goes by so SO fast. the leaves are starting to change colors, and the mornings are starting to feel like fall mornings do. Halloween is just around the corner and then the holidays can start!

another semester

2009-09-13T10:38:00.001-06:00

seems like school just ended and now we are on to another semester. it has only been two days of school and already i have no motivation to do ANY homework. ever. but after this semester is over, we are that much closer to being done! well... i am, jared still has a little ways to go.

my younger sister started school this semester and its been fun to have her up here. its weird though i feel like she is just here for a really long session of EFY. she is a little smarty pants and is my personal math tutor this semester. lucky her.

i started my new job last week and i LOVE it. seriously, its the best job ever. i dont think i have ever had a job that i LOVE and it makes it that much more easier to go to everyday. the kids are absolutely crazy, but they crack me up with the things they say. it really is a lot of fun and i just go hang out with them and try to keep them entertained. im really grateful for it.

jared is still working in idaho falls at the good old USDA. i know he hates it, but im glad he goes and gets that paycheck! he is gonna have a pretty tough semester ahead of him, but he is a smarty pants too so im sure he will be just fine!

life continues to move forward faster than our feet can walk, but we are just chugging along staying busy with school and work and loving every minute of our poor college life chapter.

seriously so blessed

2009-08-28T15:48:00.000-06:00

*DISCLAIMER: this might be a pretty long post!*

i remember writing one of our first blog entries entitled "spoiled or blessed" and now here i am a year later knowing that i am DEFINITELY blessed. some exciting things have happened recently in the rucks home and we have seen the work of the lord in our lives so much the past few weeks.

first off, jared and i have only had one car since we have been married, which has worked out great for us, but we realized starting in january, ill be going to school in rexburg, and jared will be working in idaho falls, so we were going to need to buy a 2nd car. but with a car payment on the one we have and me not having a job for the last 8 months, we were pretty stressed about buying another car with what little money we have. when we finally decided we were just going to make it work with one car, we get a call from my mom telling us she found a car for us. an extremely nice family in my parents ward, the drapers, have 4 cars and only 2 drivers and were wanting to give away this car that they had. they pretty much gave it to us for free, we just had to pay for some repairs that it needed. we are so SO grateful to the draper family and their kindness they have shown to us. we only hope that one day we will be in a situation where we can help out a newly married poor couple the way they helped us. my parents are going to drive it up to us when they bring my little sister up here for her first semester of school. (which by they way im so excited for her to start college have her up here close to me)

secondly, i got laid of from my job at the USDA in january, 8 months ago, and havent had a job since. living in rexburg idaho, where the majority of the population are college students, finding a job is almost nearly to impossible cause EVERYONE needs one. it seems like you either need to know someone who knows someone or have some other kind of connection. with jared only working part time, it seemed like we spent his paychecks before they even came. my friend candice had a job as an after school aid at an elementary school and it seemed like the perfect job for me! i have been waiting all summer for it to open up and apply because i REALLY wanted this job. after many many MANY prayers, i got an interview and learned this afternoon i will FINALLY be employed, and will FINALLY receive a paycheck again. words cannot express how grateful i am to have a job again and help support jared and i. i love the hours too. ill work from 2:30-5:00 monday through friday so i will still have my nights and weekends to myself. i have never gone to school and worked before so it will be interesting.

needless to say my life is about to take a 180 degree turn going from staying home all day by myself doing NOTHING to school from 8am-12pm and work from 2pm-5pm. ill be busy busy busy, but thats how i like it.

im grateful to know that we have a Heavenly Father we can turn to in prayer, and he will answer those prayers, not in our time, but his own. we really have been so blessed and can only pray that we can reach out to those who need help, maybe not as drastic as the way they helped us, but hopefully we could do something. our testimonies of the gospel have been strengthened so much the past few weeks. my friend deb had this video on her blog, i cant figure out how to upload it, but here is the link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz41YxNiHEg

everyone should watch it. its short, but has a good message.

weekend of weddings

2009-08-10T10:38:00.000-06:00

this past weekend jared and i went to logan utah to attend TWO weddings. i have never been to the logan temple before, it is so pretty and really BIG. the first sealing was on friday at 4:00 for our friends mikey and brittney... so i picked jared up from work early and away we went. i was so glad they invited us to be there, the sealer had some really wonderful things to say. they had a dinner afterwards and of course we got their car.

Brittny looked so pretty and mikey was very happy to FINALLY be married!

our friends Garrett and Kaleena were up next on saturday afternoon! their sealing was also really great and i was again very happy they invited us to be there. they also had a dinner afterwards... garrett tried hiding his car because he saw what we did the night before.... but after some driving around....we found it :)

this picture makes me laugh... it looks like they are about to have a harry potter duel over the cake

Kaleena also looked very pretty all dolled up in her wedding dress and garrett too was happy to finally be married!
on a side note: ever since we moved into the apt. we are in now, our 2nd bedroom has looked like a bomb had exploded in there... well jared and i finally decided to go through it and clean it up and it looks like a whole new room... we found these shelves and hung them up and then this is what jared decided to put on them:

he told me when we have a baby boy, these are the decorations that will be in his room haha. sometimes i just dont know about him. but he sure knows how to make me laugh :)

cousin campout

2009-08-05T09:34:00.000-06:00

every summer since i can remember, my family always does what is called a cousin campout. usually its in utah, and we've had a few in mexico on the beach, but this year it was in colorado and was SO fun! we had one maybe two good days of nice weather and after that it was COLD and RAINY, but i think we all still had a fun time... we spent the week playing foursqaure, cards, ladder ball, eating GOOD food, sitting around a camp fire, hiking, finding a waterslide formed out of rocks in the river, climbing a castle down the road from our camp ground, and only managed to smash one finger with a rock.

the first day: happy to have made it to the camp spot!

foursquare

this castle was down the street from our campground... it was fun to walk through and was SO high.climbing high on the castle

me and my sisters climing on the castle

my family

the hike to the waterslide had some tough parts to climb upthe waterslide we hiked to... it was COLD!jared on the waterslide

Jared took our trusty SEAHAWK II rubber raft out on the lake one day with my sister carissa and her firend andrea... this was on the COLDEST day we had, notice the coats and sweatshirts...

Thanks mom and dad for a FUN vacation!

a tribute...

2009-07-22T16:49:00.001-06:00

to these crazy kids right here: we have had such a fun year with robby and zenna and trae and candice and are so sad to see them BOTH leave. luckily they are both only going to pocatello so we might have to do game night once a month... especially since they both have babies, well kind of... robby and zenna's puppy and trae and candice's little boy who will be here in octoboer! thanks for all the fun times and good memories. good luck in pokey!

as embarrassing as this is, i just have to add this picture in:
it was suppose to be a silly picture... who do you think won?

it's a boy!

2009-07-11T20:31:00.001-06:00

my very good friend candice is having a baby boy and i threw her a baby shower friday night. a big thank you to everyone that came! although there were only 7 of us, i think we still managed to have a good time. we had so many goodies because everyone was so thoughtful and brought something to eat. we played some games, my favorite being guessing what kind of "poop" was in the diaper (really it was just melted candy bars). here are some pictures:

stacy and zenna inspecting the diaperskelcie inspecting the diaperheidi and candice both trying to figure it outapril was good at guessing

the happy mommy to be

candice got some really nice things for her new baby. i made her a diaper cake. ive never made one before and i didnt have enough diapers to make it as big as i would have liked so i had to improvise a little and make it taller... i thought it turned out cute though:

candice isnt due till october, but they are moving at the end of the month so i wanted to give her a shower here before she left. jared and i feel so blessed and are so grateful for the friendships we have made with trae and candice and are really gonna miss them when they leave us behind... :(

fun fourth

2009-07-06T14:59:00.000-06:00

we had such a fun 4th of july! of course i didnt take a single picture and im so sad cause we did some really fun things. we had thursday and friday off of school and it was wonderful! jared had to work on thursday so i thought i would get all my homework done and out of the way while i was home all by myself... so naturally i didnt open my back pack once all weekend :)

friday we went to the sand dunes and played in the water and rode four wheelers with jared's family. it was a lot of fun! jared and i both got some sun on that day. i found a frog there and showed it to our niece charlee and she loved it! she held it and didnt want to put it back in the water when it was time to go.

Saturday we went to the parade here in rexburg with our friends trae and candice... afterwards we were so hot we decided to go back to the lake at the sand dunes. candice and i were just walking around when trae and jared told us to come over to them.. while they were looking for frogs to catch they happened to catch a salamander! it was pretty cool and we spent the next little while playing with it and digging a little sand castle for it... we all felt like 8 year olds again.

That night we went to jared's parents house in idaho falls and had a BBQ with trae and candice and played some card games and ladder ball. then we headed over to the fireworks. we had a pretty good spot and they were awesome like always.

I lied.. i got this one picture of us watching the fireworks :)

yes it was a cold night so we had to use a blanket!

and now it's back to school :( thank goodness there are only 3 more weeks left of the semester and then we are going on a MUCH NEEDED vacation to colorado to see my parents and sisters and im so excited!

the end is near

2009-06-30T14:13:00.001-06:00

the end of this semester is SO close! i cant believe how fast it has gone, but i am anxious for it to be OVER. i really enjoyed my classes this semester. i absolutly LOVE being an elementary education major... jared always laughs at the homework i bring home and says all i ever do in school is color :) this is the project i just recently finished; we had to make a bulletin board:

its a little blurry, but this is what i came up with... a birthday bulletine board. On the candles id write the students name and then on the flame id write the date of their birthday. i worked hard and was pretty proud of it so i just thought id share it.

there are some days when i get so stressed out and just want to quit school (ask jared, he hears it all the time) but then i think about what a HUGE accomplishment it will be to graduate from college with a bachelors degree. and i know that getting that degree is something i will never regret doing. plus im so close now, why stop? 3 more semesterssssssss!!! :)

confused

2009-06-17T14:44:00.001-06:00

this past week i have seen and heard lots of commercials announcing that this sunday, june 21, is fathers day... i think the world is a little bit confused... sunday june 21st is NOT fathers day, its MY birthday... just thought id clear that up :)

and now we all know how selfish brielle can be...

im sure jared is getting so annoyed with me because all week everytime we hear something about father's day, i always say, "hey! i think these people are confused! its not fathers day...." and then he can finish my sentence with, "it's your birthday" (very UNenthusiastic like)

there is not point to this post really except for me to say that i LOVE birthdays, whether its my own, or someone else's i love them, and im not really sure why because the older you get the less exciting they become.

family fun

2009-06-07T21:03:00.000-06:00

This past weekend my family drove over from colorado to utah, so we drove down to spend the weekend with them and we had a blast! it was my grandpa's 80th birthday so we got to see lots of family, and eat good food, while playing outside... whats better than that?

We played many games of 500 all afternoon

Attempted to make a pyramid

whats a pyramid without anyone falling off?
It was a fun weekend and im sad it was such a short visit.

On another note, we got a grill from jared's parents. its pretty old but we love it! everything just tastes so much better on a grill

SUMMER TIME!!!!!!!!

2009-05-26T09:41:00.000-06:00

we had a 4-day weekend this weekend and it was so much fun! summer has FINALLY decided to grace us with its presence and we took full advantage of it! last summer we bought these 2 person rubber rafts to float some rivers, so saturday we took them out for the first float of the summer! the sun was so warm but the river water was FREEZING cold!

The boys pumping up our rafts. this was the only picture i got cause i didnt want to bring our camera on the river.

Sunday after church we went down to Lava Hot Springs and met up with our good friends Trae and Candice and Robby and Zenna from our ward and went CAMPING! Jared and i were in charge of dinner for the night and we were going to do tin foil dinners, but changed our minds at the last minute to taco salad instead, and good thing cause it POURED rain and made making a fire quite difficult! We did finally manage to get it started after we borrowed some dry wood from some nice people.

jared trying to chop some wood... with an extremely dull ax...

Trae caught a fish with a homemade fishing pole

I taught everyone how to make banana boats... no one had ever heard of them before! i think they were a hit.... i enjoyed mine! :)

After we ate our banana boats the rain was starting to come back so we headed to the tent and played some games and went to sleep. monday morning we all woke up pretty early. Trae and candice were in charge of breakfast and they made some yummy pancakes bacon eggs and sausages! we packed up camp and headed to the hot springs, which were VERY hot.

around 11 we went and found a park to have lunch which robby and zenna were in charge of. we ate hot dogs and chips. then it was time to head over to the pool, which is my favorite spot in idaho... they have diving boards, platforms, and slides.... of course the sun went away when we got there and it rained a lot on us, but i still had a blast! i love to try to remember how to dive, but usually i have someone there egging me on to do things, and no one was there doing that this time.

even though the sun went away during the day jared and i still fried like lobsters... we even put sun screen on, and a lot of it too... our poor white skin :( it was such a fun weekend outside! i love this time of year! camping and swimming, it doesnt get much better than that! im bummed these were the only pictures i got the whole trip... i always forget to take pictures!

may already?!?

2009-05-07T13:32:00.000-06:00

i cant even believe it is already may. where has the time gone? i hate updating when i have no pictures to post cause that means we havent done anything real exciting lately... bummer.

we have almost finished our 3rd week of school! im really enjoying my classes this semester. they arent hard, just busy. i think jared is enjoying his so far as well. he just hates, HATES doing homework, but who doesnt? he is still working at the USDA tuesdays and thursdays and im still looking for a job :( the two i talked about before didnt fall through; but a big thanks to caden for all her help in trying to get me her job! something is going to work out (i hope). My friend courtney told me the dollar tree had a now hiring sign out, so i applied there. we'll keep our fingers crossed. other than school and work/trying to find work, we arent up to much. we live real exciting lives i know, dont be jealous.

jobs

2009-04-23T09:22:00.000-06:00

so yesterday I was in my first class and my phone went off twice, within just a few minutes of each other (of course i forgot to silence it too... whoops!) so after class i listened to my voicemail and had a message from a lady about a job i had applied for. It is a custodial job in the evenings 5-10pm tuesday-saturday. definitly NOT what i want to do, but beggers cant be choosers. then i looked at my texts and my friend caden had texted me about her job. She works with a little handicapp girl monday-friday for 3 hours a day and just put her 2 weeks notice in and said i should apply for that since thats my major. i was sooo excited to hear about that one! so i think today im going to call the custodial job back and say im still interested in the job and keep my fingers crossed that this little handicapp girl one works out so i dont have to spend my evenings cleaning :(

the happiest place on earth

2009-04-18T13:53:00.000-06:00

our trip to disneyland was so SO fun and i was so sad to leave. we got an awesome military discount through my dad and were able to get 2 three day hopper passes for the price of 1. it was a blast!

Monday: our first day there was beatiful weather. we spent it in california adventure. i was so excited to be there and felt like we needed to do EVERYTHING as fast as possible. by the time 2 o'clock rolled around we were exhausted and took a break then went back to the park later that night. R is for Rucks

they were doing a lot of construction

california screamin

Tuesday and Thursday were DISNEYLAND. jared was such a good sport and even went on alice in wonderland and snow white with me!

jared loved space mountain

disney and mickey with the castle in the back

jared was so excited to get a picture on splash mountain and then my hand ended up covering his face

we stood in line for WAY too long for this picture

Wednesday we drove down to the San Diego Temple and did a session. it was so BEAUTIFUL and im so gald we did it.

that night we went to the Midevil knights dinner. that was a lot of fun. we were on the yellow knights team, but he didnt win. i did catch the first flower her threw to the crowd though :)

there are still so many pictures i want to post, but i think ill just put them up on facebook. i told jared the next time we come to disneyland will be with our kids, but they all have to be old enough to walk by themselves cause im not dealing with a stroller there.

things that start with the letter s

2009-04-09T13:05:00.000-06:00

Scrapbooking

i have been scrapbooking with my good friend candice from the ward. she has been doing it for a little while and i have never scrapbooked before, but i thought it woud be fun to scrapbook our first year together. its been fun and has kept me busy. here are a few pages ive done...

Spring
... FINALLY came this week... well on monday and tuesday at least. we were in the 60's! it was so beautiful outside and porter park was PACKED with everyone enjoying the warm weather. its been raining the rest of the week but thats okay cause its not snow :) hopefully when we get back from california spring will have officially arrived and there will be no more random snow storms! then we can count down to Summer!!!

School
... starts in a week and a half! im actually excited to get back to school. well i guess to get back to the classroom and learn. im not too excited about having to worry about homework and tests but it will be nice to be productive again and feel like we are moving forward with our lives and not jsut standing still. jared will have a busy schedule this semester. he basically has all general ed classes. he will be going to school all day from 7:45 till 3 (i think) monday wednesday friday and working tuesday and thursday. so he will be busy!

Scentsy
we got a sentsy candle thing for our wedding.. (if you dont know what it is go towww.scentsy.com and if you dont have one GET ONE!) and we ran out of scents to use. a friend from the ward jsut started selling sentsy and had samples of all the different scents. there are some really good ones and really not so good ones. jared told me i need to get a job before i can buy anymore... so the job hunt begins.....

Saturday
April 11 is our 1 YEAR anniversary! i cant believe we have been married for a year already! we have been so so SO blessed this past year and we are so grateful for all the blessings we have recieved. im so grateful for jared and love him more and more everyday :)

Sunday
.... we leave for DISNEYLAND! we are so excited to get out of idaho and travel somewhere other than utah! i know the trip will go by way to fast but what a way to end our first year of marriage than visting "the happiest place on earth?!"

mini vacation

2009-03-29T18:01:00.000-06:00

this weekend we were able to go on a "mini vacation" with jared's family. it was a lot of fun! we went riding at the sand dunes down in utah called Little Sahara. i was a little nervous to go cause i havent had too much experience riding but we didnt do anything too serious, just a lot of cruising. i was so excited to go cause i got to wear my new pink helmet; one day ill own a pink four wheeler to match it.

pulling up to the dunes

Lots of dunes to ride

hanging out at the top of a dune

the chain fell off one of the fourwheelers... waiting to tow it back to the truck

my pink helmet

i love to watch jared ride. he looks so good :)

one of my friends from highschool lives in provo and just had a baby so we stopped by to see her and meet her new little girl Alice. she was so tiny and so precious. it was fun to catch up with megan and hold a baby

(dont mind the no make-up and hair not done on either of us)

jared was a little nervous to hold alice at first, he thought he was going to break her, but looks like he's a pro to me! thanks megan for letting us stop by on such short notice :)

it was nice to get out of cold snowy rexburg for a few days and enjoy the warm sun in utah! only 2 weeks left till DISNEYLAND!

Surpirse visits

2009-03-22T16:39:00.000-06:00

Last week one of my friends from texas called and said she was driving up to rexburg this weekend and that we should get together. (she lives in provo now) so yesterday she showed up to my apartment and i thought it was only her but she brought along a vistor, one of my best friends from high school, eelan! we got together with 2 other girls from san antonio that live here in rexburg. it was fun to see everyone again and catch up on each others lives.

(dont mind my red eyes... or my hair, its really dry here in idaho and thats what happens to it)

we bought the wii a few weeks ago and jared has been playing a lot. i think bowling is the most fun so we have been doing that a lot. well last night we went bowling with some friends from the ward and i guess practice on the wii has helped! jared bowled the best game of his life at 148! right when we were walking out the door jared handed the camera to me and i said i didnt want to take it... i should have though so we could have taken a picture of the score board to always remember it! after bowling we went over to the church and played some pretty intense games of spoons and catch phrase. it was a fun night and we are so grateful for the friendships we have made.

Only 21 days left till we go to disneyland :)

disneyland?

2009-03-10T11:29:00.000-06:00

our one year anniversary is next month! i cant even believe we have been married for that long already! i really want to do something fun for it right before school starts so yesterday i looked up hotels and ticket prices for DISNEYLAND! i texted jared about it while he was at work and i guess he started thinking if we are going to spend money and do something why not go to HAWAII?! ive been to both multiple times and jared has never been to either. we both know we should probably jsut save our money because that would be the smart thing, but it would be fun to go do something cool especially since jared hasnt been to either place.

spring came last week. it was in the high 30's so i started walking with my friend candice every morning. it was nice to get out into the fresh air and socialize but the nice weather didnt last long so we havent been able to walk the last couple of days. the weather said its supposed to warm back up the end of this week and we should be in the 40's YAY!

so ready....

2009-02-27T12:31:00.000-07:00

for it to be SUMMER! im ready to put my coat and sweaters away and bring out shorts, flip flops and swimming suits. i keep thinking that because its going to be march next week all the snow should be gone and the temperture should be back in the 40's and 50's (maybe even the 60's?) i love summer in rexburg and im anxious for it to return again! but until then i guess i will have to live summer through pictures.... our first summer together 2007

cant forget about bridge jumping

or white water rafting in Jackson

or the beach in San Diego

and of course who doesnt like a fun slip-n-slide?

we set this one up behind our friend sam's house in idaho falls

and this is one i went to with my cousins in burely idaho:

so summer please hurry up and come. im ready to soak up some rays and tan again!

fun in the snow

2009-02-15T13:41:00.000-07:00

happy late valentines day! on monday jared came home from work and wanted to go sledding. a guy at work had told him to go to this place in ashton, about 45 minutes from our house. so for FHE we drove up but by the time we got there it was already getting dark so we only got about 45 min of fun. i told jared we should come back on saturday during the day, so for valentines day we drove back up and spent about 2 hours playing in the snow! jared had his snowboard and i had a sled. jared tried to teach me how to snowboard using his board. i kept falling, and falling and falling! i finally made it down one time without falling. his board was WAY to big for me, but i still had fun!
this is jared on monday night... see our little car way down there?!? it was a BIG hill! it used to be a ski resort, but it doesnt get enough snow anymore i guess...

jared fell forward and looked back at me and said, "Take a picture!" it was funny

isnt it pretty with all the snow?

jared at the bottom of the hill

getting strapped in to jareds big snowboard!

jared did his very first cartwheel, going down a snowy hill... check it out!

we had a good time playing in the snow! we ended the day by going out to eat at a chinese place here in rexburg and then watched a chick flick :) it was a very good valentines day! its crazy to think a year ago today jared proposed! time flies when you're havin fun!

surviving

2009-02-09T12:12:00.000-07:00

i survived my first week at home.. barely. i was feeling fine all day but by monday night i had started to feel very sick. i did not sleep at all that night and came down with a fever over 100. i felt lousy the rest of the week and spent my days laying on the couch feeling miserable. jared got off work early everyday last week, which was actually a blessing to me so he could come home and take care of me.

my friend amie told me about this preschool opening up and i was gonna submit my resume last week, but i was too sick to move, so this morning i thought id send it in and when i went online to look at the job posting, it wasnt there anymore... so i dont think they are accepting anymore applications.... which is a bummer... i was really hoping that would work out for me. so now i guess i will join the other 5000 plus students looking for employment here in rexburg.

im just grateful jared still has his job. he actually has 2 jobs. he is trying to start up with a financial company selling life insurance... his only problem is he has to find people to go talk to and thats been tricky trying to find people he can help...im sure he will though. he still has to take a test to become licensed to actually sell life insurance. maybe after he has that done he'll be able to find people. i wish i knew people he could call up, but everyone i know in idaho are all college age kids who arent interested in that kind of thing yet.

our ward started this playgroup thing every wednesday, they said everyone can come even if you dont have kids. i think ill go check it out this week just to get out of the house and socialize with some girls in the ward and maybe play with a few babies :)

staying at home....

2009-02-01T17:22:00.000-07:00

on monday we recieved the news that they had hired too many people for the lab, where we work at the USDA, and that they would have to lay off about 15-20+ out of 60+ employees... bummer. i was laid off, but jared still has his job! i was pretty bummed out that i got the boot and was feeling pretty down about it... luckily i have the most amazing husband in the world who tried everything in his power to cheer me up. ive been thinking a lot the past few days that i have no reason to be sad and depressed about being laid off because i have so many other blessings in my life that i should be grateful for and that bring so much happiness into our marriage.

so... looks like starting tomorrow i begin my duties as a house wife/a stay at home mom minus the mom part. we have enough money saved in our checkings and savings and jared makes pretty close to $12 an hour that we arent too worried about money issues. we only have one car, and jared needs to to get to idaho falls everyday, and walking through the snow does not sound like a fun thing to do. plus there arent too many people, if ANY, hiring in rexburg right now. i am applying to a pre school that is opening up here in march that my dear friend amie told me about. im crossing my fingers that will work out for me and then i can work there AND go to school this summer! so im hoping this lay off business is a blessing in disguise. we will see..

totally switching topics... there are so many stinkin cute babies at church every sunday... it makes me want one! plus so many of my friends are having babies... i told jared now that i stay at home i need a baby to take care of! i told him i wanted it to just come right now and we wouldnt have to wait 9 months! he said he didnt think it would work that way... i know right now is not the right time for us to have a baby, but it sure is fun to see all of them at church! it definitley makes me excited! :)

happy birthday jared!!!

2009-01-24T22:20:00.000-07:00

jared turned 23 years old today! conviently enough our ward had rented out the bowling alley here in rexburg for a ward party so jared got to bowl for free today! he got some very nice cuff links that match his wedding ring, a concert ticket and some tools from my parents. red robin just opened up here in IF and so we went out to eat with his parents and brothers. it was YUMMY! we got an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen cause we figured if i made a cake he would eat the whole thing by himself. it was very good and we have a lot of left overs if anyone wants to stop by and have some!

im so grateful to have him by my side everyday. i couldnt have asked for anything more. i cant wait to see what else is in store for us as we continue our life together! i love you sweet cheeks!

9 months!!!!

2009-01-11T13:34:00.001-07:00

jared and i have been married for 9 months today! i cant believe it! time goes by sooo fast! i say 9 months like its a LONG time, but it really isnt! its funy we had a lot of new couples move into the ward today and they have all been married for 2 weeks, 1 month, 1 week... me and jared are the ancient ones now compared to them! i told jared the next ward we live in we will be able to say we have been married for 1 year! that is crazy! these past 9 months have been so awesome and jared and i have been so blessed! the lord really is watching out for us and im so grateful for that! im sooo grateful to have been able to be married and sealed to jared in the temple! and i LOVE going back to the temple with him every week!

other news happening here in the burg, we were just called as gospel doctrine teachers... i think i almost cried after i heard that.... we taught today and i was more nervous than anything! i LOVE teaching, but i like teaching 8 year olds! i think it went somewhat well... we teach every other sunday so hopefully we will know a little more what to expect for next time!

right now we are just working.... i might stab my eyeballs out im SOOOO bored at work, but i cant complain cause its easier than anything ive ever done and it pays well!! we are trying to decide what to do for our 1 year anniversary coming up in a few months and since we didnt have a honeymoon when we did get married, we are looking at cruises right now! i want to go SOO bad, but we just cant get ourselves to purchase the tickets... we'll see if we end up going or not! i told jared if we dont go now, we probably wont ever go.

i know this is going to sound totally random... but we went to the distribution center last week to get jared some new pants for the temple and i was looking at all the cute little dresses and tux's that they have for baby blessings... then i thought about my wedding dress that is just hanging up at jared's parents house and i think i want to find someone who could make a baby blessing dress/ or tux out of it for when we have a baby... i think it would be cool... probably pricey but i think it would be neat.... anyways... just my random thought for the day!

Christmas in COLORADO!

2008-12-30T19:28:00.000-07:00

jared and i went back to work at the USDA and worked for 2 days before taking 10 days off to spend christmas in colorado with my family! it was sooo fun and im sad the time went by so fast! now we are back in rexburg and back at work :( here are some pictures of our fun trip!

We helped my mom make gingerbread houses out of graham crackers for a little christmas party my sisters were having!

Jared was rather crafty at it! i was pretty impressed, beacuse i couldnt do it to save my life!

Our babies are gonna have pretty eyes :)

the finished product

our cute house of love equiped with a garage, car, heart shape doors, a green sour patch kid representing jared, and red sour patch kid representing brielle, and half an orange sour patch kid representing our future baby :)

jared found a new hobby.....

making wood pens!

jared showing off his pen he just made

The Loot! Santa was very kind to us this year

jared's new stocking!

my hubby and my siblings in our new christmas pajamas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! it was and early morning at our house!

There was no snow in colorado and we came home to a winter wonderland!

There is a lot of snow outside our apartment!

christmas was WONDERFUL with jared and i cant wait till we have little kids running around excited for santa to come and then watch them open thier presents i am definitly looking forward to that! like i said earlier, we are back at work at the USDA. they started working 4 10 hour shifts, so we work monday tuesday, have wednesday off, and then thursday and friday... they are VERY long and BORING days, but i cant complain because i told jared i wouldnt. plus since we are working 10 hours a day, 2 hours of that is over time so that will give us a little extra in our pay checks and hopefully we can save back up what we spent while we werent working! i cant believe tomorrow is new years eve! some friends of ours invited us to a little party with some other married couples so we will go ring in the new year with them probably just by playing fun games and eating! :) and im SOOO excited to be with jared for new years this year and get my very first ever new years kiss :) other than that, life if perfect and wonderful and i couldnt ask for anything more!!! well i could..... but jared says no :)

Sunday dinner.... and more

2008-12-14T15:36:00.001-07:00

yesterday jared and i splurged and got a roast when we went grocery shopping. this is the second one i have made since we have been married. we let this one cook ALLL day and it just fell apart when it was time to eat! mmmmm!!!! my mashed potatoes are getting pretty darn tasty and this time i made a lot of extra so we could have left overs! i tried to make home made gravey..... but ewwww..... it did not turn out good at all! ill have to have my dad teach me when we are in colorado next week!

school finally ended on friday! YAY! this semester went by really fast! now we are off track till april. i was really stressing about finding a job here in rexburg cause the pay is very low, and we didnt think we would be able to go back to the job we were at over the summer making A LOT more than what we would make here in rexburg, but jared called and they had spots open for us in the lab! so all winter long we are gonna be looking through a microscope at dirt... bleh... although i hate the job, i am very grateful for it and hopefully we can save a lot again! one of the girls i was studying with this semester, her husband just quit his job so he was looking for another one so i gave them the information for the USDA and he applied and got the job too. i think we are gonna carpool down with him starting next year!
the snow finally found rexburg, unfortunately, so we bought new snow tires yesterday for our car... the ones with the studs on them. we figured if we are driving from rexburg to idaho falls everyday in the winter it would be a smart
and safe thing to do... pricey, but safe... there was a BIG difference! hopefully it will continue to be that way!
we have to go to work monday tuesday and wednesday this week, and then after work on wednesday we are driving down to utah and we fly out to colorado on thursday morning! i am so excited i can barely stand it! i hope the weather will cooperate and it will stop snowing so we can get there! i think this post is long enough.... hope everyone has a wonderful christmas! travel safe!!!

Happy Holidays!

2008-11-29T13:24:00.000-07:00

jared and i started our thanksgiving break out by driving to utah on friday. my parents and sisters flew in for a cousins wedding, so we drove down to see them! it was fun! we got to go out to eat at red robin, went shopping, and saw a play at the conference center called savior of the world. other than that, we just kind of lounged around all weekend hanging out with family it was a good time. my family flew back home on sunday night and we drove back to rexburg on monday morning. i came down with a cold and didnt feel very good at all monday, tuesday, or wednesday, but luckily by turkey day everything was good! thursday when we got up we watched some of the macys thanksgiving day parade before we headed to idaho falls for thanksgiving with jareds family! we ate lots of yummy food, looked through the ads at what would be on sale the next day, watched a movie, played Wii ALLLLL day and a fun game of uno. we ended up staying in idaho falls that night so we could wake up EARLY and do the black friday shopping thing. i have never done this before in my life, and i dont think i will ever do it again... absolulty RIDICULOUS! our first stop was sears because jared wanted a cordless drill for christmas and they had one on sale with a flash light thing. jared drove by kohls, target, best buy, and the lines were long with people waiting outside. when we got to sears the line outside wasnt actually as bad as i thought it would be. we got there around 4:20 am and had to wait till 5:00am to get inside. the line got longer and longer behind us. we got into sears and picked up our drill and walked right up to the register. we were in and out in 5 minutes. i thought to myself... okay this could be fun :) we decided to go our seperate ways so we could christmas shop for each other, so jared dropped me off at kohls.... BIG MISTAKE! i got him 2 things there and stood in line for almost 1 1/2 hours! it was crazy!!! luckily there was a very nice older lady who i stood in line with and we talked most of the time. all she had to buy was a little jewelry box her granddaughter wanted. at one point she left her jewelry box with me and made her way over to target and toys r us, and came back empty handed, she said the lines there were just as long, and she was hoping i would be farther up in line by the time she got back... oh well, she was such a sweet old lady, and i would have been in a very bad mood for having to stand in line for 1.5 hours if i didnt stand next to her. when we finally made it to the check out, she said, "well, this has been fun talking to you! Merry Christmas!" she made my day :) while i was standing in line at kohls jared made his way to best buy, downeast, kmart, walmart, circut city, and the mall. he didnt buy things at every stop, but he still made it farther than i did! after he picked me up we decided we were hungry so we headed back to his parents house for breakfast and a nap! we decided to go back at around 9:30 and i definitly had much better luck this time around. i found some really good deals! we ended up staying BELOW our budget we had made for christmas! YAY! we came home and wrapped each others presents and set them under our cute tiny little christmas tree! it looks like santa already hit our house this year! :) call us crazy (i guess call ME crazy since i wanted to put our christmas tree up so early) but i figured since we are going to colorado for christmas, we can enjoy our christmas tree now! hopefully next year we might be in a bigger apartment and we can get a bigger tree, but i think for now ours works. i am so excited for christmas this year mostly beacuse its my first christmas married to jared! i could care less what i get for christmas this year, im more excited to see him open the presents i got him! i guess thats how parents feel when they see thier kids open presents on christmas day, and they are not to worried about opening theirs. i think we are gonna call the USDA (where we worked in the summer) just to see if there is any way we could go back. as much as i hate the job it would be nice becuase we could drive there together, and it pays 11.34/hr. we will see though...*crossing fingers* now its time to get started on homework. bummer.... blogging is so much more fun

Procrastinating

2008-11-12T19:05:00.000-07:00

i dont really have any exciting news to talk about, but i just really dont want to do, or think about school right now! there is only about 3 weeks left of school and i cant WAIT for the semester to be done! i have enjoyed all of my classes this semester and i think the grades i have have been the best ever, but im ready for a break... i think jared is feelin the same way. which brings us to our next predicament... since we both have next semester off... where to work in rexburg idaho? jared told me today when he picked me up from school that one of the alarm companies works during the winter semester, so maybe he should look into that. we would have to move to where ever they want us, but i guess some people can make pretty good money... so anyways... just a thought, he'll look more into it and then we can decide what to do. other news... i have hated trying to come up with something for dinner everynight, so i finally sat down and made up a dinner menu, so now we have dinner planned out everynight for the whole month and i LOVE it! it makes my night so much easier! jared and i went and bought everything we needed for the month, so hopefully we can save on groceries, and we wont end up buying "extra" things. plus im hoping to keep this habit up and then it will be a lot easier for when we have a family to feed. i've recently become obssessed with the show on TLC jon and kate plus 8... i dont know why, but i could sit and watch that show for HOURS, infact, im watching it as i type this. its a good show, and jared makes fun of me for always watching it! occasionally he'll sit and watch it with me :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

2008-11-01T10:01:00.000-06:00

Its been a long time since i last wrote, but i feel like nothing exciting has happened to write about it till now! yesterday was haloween! i havent ever been too excited about halloween since i stopped trick-or-treating, but this year we got invited to a halloween party so we thought we would dress up! our ward is a ward of brand new families, most of the couples have been married 2 or 3 years so they have little ones, so our ward had a trunk or treat night on thursday! we didnt use our real trunks cause it would be too cold for the babies out side, so we just set up tables in the gym. It was fun to see all the babies dressed up! they were SOOO cute! it made me want one so i could dress one up cute too! it was fun to see what everyone else came up with for costumes too! jared and i were Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Dr. Suess. i thought our costumes turned out rather cute! jared loved the blue hair thing! jared met a kid in his spanish class when he was going to school in idaho falls and he lives up here in rexburg with his wife and invited us to a halloween party. i was a little nervous going since we didnt know anyone but them, but it was a ton of fun and we met some really nice and fun people! we had food and played games and me and jared almost won the best couple costume, but the salt and pepper couple won instead... oh well better luck next year! we were just glad to go out and do something fun for halloween! i missed living in a nieghborhood and seeing all the trick-or-treaters though cause i like to see all the kids dressed up! anyways.... now its november 1, i cant even believe it! time has gone by so fast!!! now that halloween is over, im anxious for the holiday season to start! i want to put up my christmas tree and decorate for christmas and listen to christmas music! but i think ill wait just a little longer! other news happening up here in the burg.... we are looking for a cheap 2nd car to buy. jared and i both have next semester off and we were planning on just going back to the job we had over the summer making 11.34 an hour, but they dont have any room for us in the lab cause they have hired more people so no we are probably going to have to get 2 different jobs. im looking into substitute teaching and jared isnt sure what he is going to do. we found a cheap car on craigs list that we are gonna go look at today its an older camry but they are asking 2900 and he said it could probably even go for 2500 so we'll go look at it to see how beat up it is. i just need a cheap car to get around town, and then we still have jared's newer car. i just wish if we could get a new nice car if we are gonna get a new car, but i can wait till we graduate and have real jobs. i dont know if i mentioned jared changed his major from mechanical engineering to business finance. hopefully he will like that better! i think thats about all from us for now!

snow...

2008-10-12T14:32:00.000-06:00

yes its true.... those lucky enough to live in rexburg experienced winter a little early. the week before conference weekend we were in the 80's, and the week after that, its snowing.... some how we skipped fall and went straight to winter. i hear its suppose to warm back up this week... i hope. school definitley kept us busy this week. jared is struggling a little to get his homework done, and to pass those darn tests. he is actually thinking about changing his major right now... he loves the building and designing part of mechanical engineering, but he is not so sure if he wants to put forth all the studying and math and more math that goes along with it. he is really interested in business/finance so he is looking into that. he is reading a book right now called rich dad poor dad that talks about money and that kind of thing. he keeps telling me about everything he is learning from this book and it sounds like something he is really interested in, so i told him he should do something he likes. we'll see what he decides. i have had one class taking over my life this past week. its a special education class that all education majors have to take. we are learning about all the laws, and case laws, and cases and everything that goes along with special education. we have to pass the test with an 86% to pass it. so this test is online, and there are 250 questions total, but you only get 50. (so in other words, you have to get 43/50 to pass) the first time you go and take it, if you get an 86% on it, you get an A. if you have to go retake it, the next time you can only get an A-. if you have to retake it again, the highest you get is a B, and it gets lower and lower everytime you take it. you also could get different questions each time you take it. i have been studying and studying for this test, and the first time i took it, i got 38 out of 50, which i wasnt too bummed about cause i knew i wouldnt pass it the first time. so i end up studying with arica and emily, two of my friends who are also taking that class. i go back and retake it only to get a 41 out of 50. anyways, to make a long story short, i ended up having to retake that test 4 times before i finally got that 43 out of 50. what is really frustrating is that i didnt fail that test once, but i did because i didnt get that 86%.... *sigh* its a tough class, and im not looking forward to the next test. since i was so busy with that class all week, i had a lesson plan due in another class that i threw together at the last minute only to find out i did it wrong and i didnt get credit for it. luckily after class, my teacher emailed me and told me if i redid it and turned it in on monday she could give me credit for it. which was such a relief! heavenly father does answer our prayers and looks out for us! anyways, thats about all the news from us... school is taking over our lives at the moment but we are enjoying every minute of it, or trying to at least :)

relaxing weekend

2008-10-06T18:51:00.000-06:00

Jared and i went to utah this weekend! he had a missionay reunion to go to in salt lake on friday night. When we got there i actually ran into a girl i knew from san antonio, rebekah. her husband served in the same mission as jared. so that was kind of cool, jared got to see a lot of old friends, but had a hard time remembering names. it was fun. they fed us lasagna and breadsticks and salad. it was good. we just hungout at my grandparents house the rest of the weekend not really doing anything. we listened to conference but other than that just kind of relaxed.... didnt do any homework. it was nice to be stress free for a few days. we did watch a lot of college football.... i guess my grandpa really likes it. we drove back to idaho after the sunday morning session and listened to the afternoon session in the car. we got back home and i really had no desire to get any homework done, i attempted it, but i enjoyed being lazy this weekend too much i just couldnt get my act together. jared got a lot done though. this morning when i woke up i felt like i was running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get all my homework done in an hour. if i didnt forget to do one thing, i forgot to do another... i am the best procrastinator, and i definitly paid for it today. it was definitly one of those mondays. luckily though i have the best husband in the world who made me dinner and cleaned up the kitchen while i was at a study group tonight :)

Spoiled or Blessed?

2008-09-28T19:49:00.000-06:00

jared and i have been sleeping on a full size bed that his parents gave to us. not a big deal right? cause we are newly weds and we like to sleep close right? so thats why we went out and bought a king size bed yesterday :) it is HUGE! before we moved to rexburg, we thought we were getting an apartment that has washer and dryer hookups so we set aside some money to get our own, and when we got up here, there were no washer and dryer hook ups, so instead we used that money to buy a new bed! after we bought it i kept telling jared over and over, i cant believe we just bought a king size bed. (which by the way if you are reading this laurie, we have your bed in a bag you got from bukoos that you gave to me, we havent used it yet, and we probably wont know, so we are bringing it down to utah this weekend, conference weekend, so dont let me forget when i see you) everyone we talked to yesterday when we were looking at beds kept telling us, "my wife and i slept on a full size bed for 20 years!" we were like, ya we've been married for 5 months haha. we have been very blessed to have such nice things for being newly weds. our couches were only a few years old that his parents gave us, we have an extremely nice tv he got for christmas, pretty much all the furniture we have our parents gave to us, so the only thing we have had to buy is the bed we just got. niether one of us have to work this semester cause we had such a good job over the summer we were able to work a lot and save enough to get us through this semester, before our off track, which has been a blessing cause we are both very busy with school. so spoiled or blessed? probably a little bit of both :)

there is acutally a little bit more walking space at the end of the bed, but we have our old bed up against the wall, so it looks like there is no walking space to get to the other side.

School

2008-09-21T20:30:00.000-06:00

School has finally started, and we are both staying BUSY! jared has 17 credits, and is really busy with calculus and chemistry, but i think he is really enjoying his mechanical engineering classes. only 6 more years of school to go for him :) i love my el ed classes, and i cant wait to graduate and start teaching! only 4 more semesters to go with me!!! :) other than school, we arent really up to too much. we went to a dinner theatre thing last night and saw joseph and the amazing technicolor dream coat. jared was really impressed, and told me he wished he could sing and dance! it was fun and we had a good time. Oh ya, today i made my very first roast and mashed potatoe dinner. it sure was tasty :) im slowly learning how to cook its kind of fun!

September 1st 2008

2008-09-04T11:47:00.000-06:00

Today we moved into our new wonderful apartment in Rexburg Idaho. We are preparing to start school on the 8th.