A lot of Utah in one day

About a week and a half ago, we went with Tanner and Allie, and Lisa and Shawn to visit many of Utah's wonderful places. I wasn't expecting the day to be as fun as it turned out to be, and I really enjoyed learning more about the state I've been in for over 4 years (can you believe it??)! We started the day off with "This is the place," which I haven't been to since I was a little girl. It was really cool to read the stories and see statues of the people involved in the coming to Utah. We then headed to Promontory Point, which is a LONG drive. Tyler and I fell asleep for almost an hour and a half, and we still a little ways to go. If you haven't heard of Promontory Point (like myself before I went), it's where the east coast railroad and west coast railroad met. There's the "golden spike," which the last spike they put in the railroad. It's not actually at Promontory Point, but we did see some replicas and other really cool things. They had 2 replicas of the trains they used to use as well...definitely my favorite part of the whole place. After Promontory Point, we headed to the Great Salt Lake. It smelled awful! Everybody but myself (because my shoes were paper thin and would get SO ruined) walked out to where the water starts, and they saw several dead birds...gross! After the Great Salt Lake, we went to our last Utah monument for the day...Kennecott Copper Mine. It was quite the site. The trucks they use for that place are HUGE. Massive. Lastly, we went to dinner at "The Pie." We've never eaten there before, but have only heard great things about it. It's quite a dive, but it was just as good as everybody said, and better! Yum!
All in all, it was a really fun day, and it was good to finally see the things that I keep hearing so much about.

Vegas or Oklahoma??

Currently, Tyler and I are waiting to hear back from dental schools. This is all to see if my smarty pants husband will be admitted to dental school next fall. So far we have gotten some no's, but we HAVE gotten 2 yes's. And, when I say yes's, I mean interviews. For those of you not familiar with dental/medical school, students have to interview before they are admitted to the school. The 2 places we have heard from (drum roll please...) are UNLV (Vegas) and OU (Oklahoma). These may not sound super duper exciting to anyone else, but Vegas is perfect location, being right in the middle of both of our families, and OU is awesome because our best friends and Tyler's uncle and aunt leave near the school. Either would fabulous. Tyler has an interview in Oklahoma in 2 weeks, and one with UNLV the first week in December. Wish us luck! :)

Super 8

Saw this movie last night... It was so great. The kids were hilarious, and definitely made the movie. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it! Best part? It's at the dollar theater now :)

Busy busy days

Once again I am behind on blogging! My days have consisted of planning, teaching, planning, and teaching...it's the same thing ALL day, everyday. Don't get me wrong, I love my students, but sometimes it's a bit tiring. I plan for a day and think everything is going to go peachy (like today), and then it turns out to be a disaster b/c the kids can't focus, or whatever the reason may be. It's just that I get home, and all I want to do is sit on the couch when I get home and do nothing! And, that's pretty much what I've been doing, sadly. However, last night I did make homemade meatloaf (Grandma Gregory style), along with cheesy mashed potatoes (also homemade). It was quite a treat for Tyler since he's been deprived of good dinners for a while now.
Even with our busy schedules, we did make it up to Idaho last weekend for some time with the grandparents (the Gregory's). We drove up with Tanner and Allie, and stayed Friday to Sunday. It was a short trip, but very eventful. We went to "Spud day," and met up with Mike & Vicky (Tyler's aunt and uncle) and some of their kids. We walked around, got some amazing kettle corn (best I've had), and chatted a lot with family. We also went to a corn maze, which was actually a really good maze. It took about 45 minutes to get through, and the boys went in for more (almost took them an hour).
The rest of the evening consisted of being extremely disappointed with the BYU game, and more eating :) We ate so much food, and every meal was better than the last. Grandma Gregory is the best cook, seriously.
The weekend before Tyler and I celebrated a belated anniversary gift. Tyler bought me Rascal Flatts tickets at Usana theater. It was a great concert and it was packed!! Holy cow, there are a lot of country folk in Utah. Sooo, the music was great that night, but the boys did not look very good at all. They looked extremely odd, wearing black leggings or tight white pants. It's a very odd for 3 married men, in my opinion. Then, on the way home from the concert, we got stopped on the freeway for 2 1/2 hours! We got stopped first for a car accident (I'm guessing it was a fatal accident), and then for construction work. We didn't end up getting home until 1:30 ish...it was terrible.
The next day I went to a bridal shower for Lisa Hoppie, a good friend from home. It was really good to see her and April, another friend from home, and catch up on a lot of things.

A good day

Being a teacher is a funny thing. When you're a student, it looks so easy. Easy enough, that anybody could do it, right? Wrong! It's not that being a teacher is hard necessarily, but it's a lot of work and it's difficult work. It's very rewarding too. When a student who is normally confused and lost during a discussion understands what you are saying (finally), it's a a really good moment. Being a teacher has been overwhelming for me and at times I think to myself, what am I doing and what did I get myself into? However, it's days like today when I think, today was a good day and I remember why I chose this profession... The kids were great, almost the entire day. Mind you, it was an early out today so I only had them until 1:30, but still, they were great compared to the last couple days. At the end of the day 2 students had me in tears because I was laughing so hard, and that really made my day. I'm not sure why and I have no recollection of what the 3 of us were even talking about, but it made me happy and it made me glad that I can be apart of so many childrens lives. I know for a fact that some of these students really need me and my support, and I'm starting to really love each and every one of my students more and more, even the ones who make me go crazy once in a while :) A realization I have had in the last few weeks is that children are much easier to teach and connect with when they're in small groups or alone...teaching 26 ten year olds all at the same time is tough, but they are so sweet and nice when I've got their undivided attention.
I just wanted to blog about how overwhelmed but happy I am today (and hopefully this will happen on several more days) and how it's the little things that really make a day better (at least for me).
*Side note: remember when teachers would say, "I really don't want to do this but you guys are making me take away blank (some sort of reward) or making me give you more homework?" Do you?? Well, I do. And I remember thinking, well just don't give us more homework, or don't take our reward away. Well, I find myself doing this every day. It's interesting what kinds of things happen (especially when you swore they would never happen) when you become an adult.