September 11th a few days late

I've never written down where I was, or what I remember about Sept 11th so I thought I would now.  Nothing super moving, but I want to be able to tell my future kids one day, and I really enjoyed telling my students about it when I taught last year (we had a great lesson, and the kids were AWESOME). 

On Sept 11th I was in 7th grade at Serrano middle school.  I remember before I went to school I saw the first plane crash, and I really didn't think anything of it, except for how sad it must be for all of those people.  Then, I came into homeroom and my teacher was crying, and I didn't understand why this lady would be crying for something that was so far away.  I didn't understand the magnitude of what had just happened.  Not long after getting into homeroom, the second plane crashed.  The TV was on in homeroom, but I really don't remember much after that.  But, I do remember not understanding what was going on, and not really knowing that our country was under attack.  I mean, I was only 12. 

Last year when I taught my students about 9/11 they really didn't know much.  I think 5th grade is a good age to teach them about this kind of stuff.  It hit home for some of them, and they really took it well.  Most of my students were not even born when 9/11 happened.  Some didn't even know what it was.  It was neat to share stories and watch clips from that day.  I really hope that it taught my students to be united b/c that's what is important, and that's what our country needs.

The April after 9/11 my mom, Tiersha, and I went to NYC for a week during Spring Break.  It was a really fun trip, and included seeing "Ground Zero."  It was a tremendous sight.  The holes in the ground were huge, and extremely deep.  It was an emotional experience for many of the people on the tour bus.  I'm really glad that I got to see it though, and understand the depth of what had happened. 

We're an aunt & uncle!

 

Cute Baby Charlotte was born September 7, 2012!  We're so excited to be an aunt and uncle...can't even stand it actually :) I'm headed to CA on Sunday to see the cutie, and will post more pictures then!

Finding the creative side

I've been pretty obsessed with pinterest lately, as most of you can probably tell.  I have had a LOT more time on my hands than I am used to, which means I can do a lot of projects.  The latest project I found was creating your own canvas, and since today was Labor Day Tyler had all day to help me with a project :).  We have been searching and searching for a giant canvas/painting to go on our large, empty kitchen wall, and have had NO luck (unless we are willing to spend the big bucks).  Sooo, I saw a project for creating your canvas and liked it right away.  The whole thing took around 2 to 3 hours, and was pretty easy for the most part.  It's by no means perfect, but it's "perfect" for us because we created it together (and had fun :) ).  Enjoy the pictures...it's pretty "step-by-step."

Paint, brushes, and canvas cost around $25 or $30 total

Lay towels down so you don't get paint on your carpet :)

Tape the canvas, so you can paint different colors

Begin painting!

Paint 2 coats, and let it dry (it doesn't take very long to dry)

After it's dry, remove the tape

Once you're finished, you have a beautiful canvas!

Camelback Mountain

This weekend we journeyed all the way up to...(drumroll please)...Scottsdale!  A whole 25 minutes from us ha.  Even though it was close, it was nice to get away for a couple of nights to celebrate our anniversary/enjoy the holiday weekend.  We stayed at the Firesky Resort (Kimpton), which was awesome.  They had 2 really nice pools with LOTS of lounge chairs, and LOTS of sun.  During our stay we saw a couple movies, tried out Movie Studio Grill (we had a groupon from earlier), lounged by the pool a whole lot, shopped til we dropped :), hiked Camelback Mountain, and did more laying around by the pool.  It was all around a great weekend, and much needed...especially for Tyler who has been studying his brains out for the past 6 weeks.  

At the start

15 minutes into the hike,  and I'm already pooped!

At the top!

More pictures from CA

 Fashion show before church

2 monsters

He'll sit all day with that thing 

The Sheppard side

 Desiree's cute babies again