Drumroll Please!

Alright, the results are in!! After a rushed and stressful doctor's visit, we finally come to a conclusion. We're having a BOY!!! Wahoo!!!! People had been telling me lately that they thought it would be a girl because apparently I'm "carrying high". So I'd almost convinced myself it would be a girl and was getting excited, but as soon as she pointed out to me that it was a boy, I was absolutely THRILLED!!! Good thing she could tell cause I had no idea what I was looking at. He was moving around so much, it took almost 30 minutes to get him to settle down enough to make a verdict! I would post the ultrasound picture like last time, but it's not nearly as cool and it looks kind of weird :) It was really cool to be able to see him move on the screen and feel it at the same time. WOW! So, for those of you who have any advice on how to raise boys, let me know!! :) I'd better start preparing! She said he's right on track, and actually growing quickly, so we may want to plan on having him early at this point.
Oh, and for those of you who are far away and don't have the 'opportunity' of watching my belly magically expand, here's an update. :) I'm wearing a tighter shirt so that you can't actually see the bump instead of the looser shirts that kind of hide it. And there you have it!

Doesn't he look excited?

His first day of school was actually this last Monday, but I haven't got around to posting it until now. Every semester I make him stand by the door with his backpack and everything so I can take his "first day of school" picture. :) I can't help it if I get such a kick out of it. I thought since all my brother's and sisters are posting pictures about their kids going to school, why should I be left out of that fun even if we don't have kids yet!? On Mon, Wed, and Fri Richie goes to work before school, so that's why he's got his grungy work clothes on. But then he changes out of them for school. He's got a big load on his plate this semester with 18 credits and trying to work. He also just got called to be our ward clerk! Yikes!
Student teaching is heating up for me as well. Starting this week, I'm taking over the entire mornings. I'm a little nervous since I'm not very familiar with the reading program. I also was just called to be the 1st counselor in the Relief Society.
Some more good news is neither Richie nor I are working at Western Wats anymore! Hooray!!! That was a terrible job and quite frankly we just couldn't handle it anymore. So I'm trying to get a job as a tutor and also I'll be grading papers for a high school teacher later in the Fall.
Sorry....this is sounding like a Christmas newsletter....The End. Have a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Spouse Tag

I wasn't popular enough to actually get "tagged" (whatever that means) with this thing, but I saw it on someone else's blog and thought it would be fun. Here you have it!

What is your husband's name? Richard Thomas Garner
How long have you been together? 1 year and 3 months!!
Who said I love you first? He did. To which my response was, "Are you sure?" (We had only been dating about 3 weeks!)
Who is taller? him, by 2 inches :) I always thought I'd want someone taller, but his height is very much perfect for me
Who sings better? Anyone who knows Richie should know this answer by now. :) Him by a long shot
Who is smarter? wear bothe preddy smrt. (Loved that answer Mary)
Who does the laundry? Me. But I usually prefer it that way.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? If you're looking at it straight on, I do. What kind of a question is that anyway? Phycological?
Who kissed who first? He definitely made the first kiss move. He was very smooth. He had to be to get a kiss on only the 2nd date!

Who pays the bills? I do. I like to know what money goes to, and where and when.
Who is more sensitive? I am sensitive to get my feelings hurt, but Richie is sensitive to those feelings of mine so.....how is sensitive being defined?
Who mows the lawn? Oh, you mean that little strip of greeness that separates our complex? Cambridge Court Management
Who does the dishes? Usually me, but he's really good about doing them frequently. Such a sweetheart!
Who drives when you are together? Who drives these days? Not us! Go bikes!
Who is more stubborn? Depends on the subject. If it's saying sorry first, then, yes, it's me. Hate to admit it, but true.
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? See the above question

Who has more friends? We're both so popular so that's a hard question ;) he's better at making new friends, I'm better at keeping the old.
Who wears the pants? What do you mean by "the" pants? We actually happen to own and wear several different pairs of pants. :) He actually got a pair of hand-me-down jeans the other day, but we couldn't tell if they were for men or women!! They were man's pants, but looked like womens. I wouldn't let him discard them though because they're REALLY expensive jeans. So maybe we'll both wear those pants!

Around the Town

Richie's cousin Kara and her husband Kelly stayed with us this past weekend and it was a lot of fun to get to know them better. While they were here we took them to Mesa Falls which is about 30 minutes north of Rexburg, but it's a beautiful drive all the way there! You wouldn't think that there would be gigantic waterfalls in Southeast Idaho, but you'd be wrong! These waterfalls are huge and just surrounded by green everywhere. You can get pretty close to them to. There's also a bridge on the way there, over a river where there are always big fish to feed.

A picture of the amazing falls!


I look like a greaser, but Richie looks cute, even when he's wearing my pea-coat!

Then on Labor day, we were just glad to have a day off to rest for a minute, so we didn't make any huge plans, but we had a great day nonetheless! We rode our bikes all around our town despite the chilliness. We went to the tabernacle, played a little frisbee golf at Porter Park, tried to go to some Museums but left when we realized it cost money to get in (go figure), but our favorite was the upstairs of some businesses on Main street.
One of our friends is renovating some apartments there so we went to check them out and ended up finding the coolest place! It's these totally run-down buildings with old signs on them, and there just happened to be a door wide open, so we walked inside to find an abandoned dance studio! So we took some pictures. Our film cameras may have cooler ones on them, but I don't know how to post those. :)

Back to School!

Richie still has another week or so until he starts, but I have officially started my student teaching!! I am in the first grade with an amazing teacher! I have a lot to learn from her and we get along fantastically so far.
These little first graders are so dang cute and take so much patience! "Bless their hearts!" It's interesting being in a classroom where the day's activities are dictated by the bladders and mouths of 22 6 year olds (and one pregnant student teacher:). I can't believe how many times we take bathroom breaks and there are still kids that need to go!!!
So far I have learned all of the student's names and learned things about them, been volun-told to teach music to all first graders in the month of November because I pay the piano, learned 2 different songs to teach the days of the week and made one child cry for making him go to the back of the line. I wanted to laugh, but didn't...
Some of my favorite comments so far have been,
* "If I wear pink, I won't get breast cancer"
*"If you breathe in smoke from a fire, you loose 12 months of your life"
*"You have to make sure you tie your shoes when the fire alarm goes off or else the fire could catch your shoe-lace and go all the way up!"
I apologize for the lack of pictures, but I will post the cover of my favorite book I have read so far in class. The other "Fancy Nancy" books I've read are fabulous, and I think this one is fairly new and it's called "Fancy Nancy, Bonjour Butterfly". If you haven't read them or heard of them, I highly suggest checking them out.

September 19th

Well, Richie and I have been looking forward to today (August 15) for some time now thinking we would be able to tell if the baby was a boy or girl. Unfortunately they told me at my appointment today that we'll have to wait till September 19th. 5 whole weeks!!! Torture!!! Anyway, other than that the baby is healthy and the heartbeat is strong, and I can still sleep on my stomach, (wahoo!) so it's all good.

Our Protest on Gas Prices

RIchie had the fabulous idea to grab his two bikes next time we were in SLC so that we could ride them around in Rexburg instead of using our cars. I was excited to do anything that will save us some money, especially gas money. Gas money has taken it's toll with us traveling and such. It's always depressing to go through our budget at the end of the month and see how much gas robbed us!! Anyone else!?? So, Richie, being the handyman he is, fixed the tires on our bikes and we were good to go! Now, I just need a comfy seat! I'll have you know that we were both on empty on August 1st and have still not filled up yet! That's the beauty of living in a small town and being able to bike almost anywhere you need to go.

Since money is so tight these days, here are some ways we've been trying to save money. Don't knock em till you try em! And keep giving us ideas on how to save even more money!
*I cut Richie's hair and go to a friend for me.
*We wash and save our ziplock bags and reuse them
*I make bread instead of buying it.
*The only dates we do are under $5 usually. (Frisbee, walk, sometimes ice cream, dancing, and 50 cent movies at Horkley's)
*We don't have AC. We just use 2 fans which work really well and cut down on the cost.
*Certain loads of laundry can be air dried, so we don't use our drier.
* We turned the water heater way down since cold showers feel better these days anyway :)
*I usually only make 3-4 big meals a week, and we eat the left-overs on the other nights. That way I don't have to cook every night and we don't buy so many groceries!
*Something I'm working on is only buying the things we really need at the grocery store, only the things that are on the list. That's a tough one for me.
*Ride bikes!
Anyway, those are some ideas. Have any other ideas?

San Jorge!

Richie was able to get a little time off work and we got to visit my family in St. George!! It was so nice to be able to see them for a while even if it was a quick trip. Mom is always worried about not planning enough 'activities' for us to do while we're there, but we just want to sit around and talk to everyone and play with the kids!! We even got to visit one of my good friends Amanda and her husband while we were there for a bit at "In and Out" which was so crazy busy!!!! We went down to Logandale and had a fabulous dinner with Russ and Nat and their kids. And Mom and Adrienne even took me maternity shopping while Richie and Chris took the kids to a water park. THANK YOU!!!!! I forgot how hot it gets down there!! Holy smokes! But it was such a great weekend and we got to stop, like always, and see Richie's family for a few minutes on our way to and from which is always good. Now it's back to work I guess!!


When we got home Sunday night around 11, we came home to find out that one of our cupboards had completely fallen off the wall!!! I guess we had too many cans in there or something. But we were lucky nothing was broken or damaged....besides the cupboard on the floor of course.

Book Review and Recipe 2!

So I just got done reading "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was such a fun book to read! Not very long and easy to get through. It's full of fabulously cliche detective stories. It's nice because the book isn't one continuous story, every chapter is a new story! That also made it kind of hard for me to get in to, but all of the stories were great! It is narrated by Holmes' 'trusty sidekick' Watson who is an old doctor friend of his. Sherlock always insists on having Watson around to help him solve his cases, although Watson can rarely add any insight to the genius of Sir Sherlock. Since I can't give you a synopsis of the story line, here's just a taste of the book.

"You appear to read a good deal upon her which was quite invisible to me" I remarked.
"Not invisible, but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring you to realize the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a bootlace..."
"Well, Watson," said Holmes, when our visitor had left us, "what do you make of it all?"
"I make nothing of it," I answered, frankly. "It is a most mysterious business."
"As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this matter."
"What are you going to do, then?" I asked.
"To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three-pipe problem, and I beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes."



Now, for the recipe. I tried to think of something new that I've tried lately, but I kept coming back to taco salad! This has got to be one of my all-time, favorite recipes. It's easy, tastes really good, and goes especially well with some County-time lemonade!

TACO SALAD
1 lb ground beef
1/4 c chopped onion
1 16oz drained kidney beans
1/2 c Catalina dressing
1/2 C Water
1 T chili powder
*Brown meat. Drain. Add onion, cook until tender. Stir in beans, dressing, water and chili powder. Let simmer for 15 minutes. (I usually double the recipe. FYI. I just brown the meat and onion, drain it, then throw everything in a crock pot together and put it on warm while we're at church. SO easy!)

The rest of the ingredients are up to you! Or whatever you happen to have in your kitchen.... :)
lettuce
tomato
tortilla chips
green onions
sour cream
olives
guacamole
cheese
catalina dressing
*But may I stress the correct way of layering the ingredients, since the Crosby household has it down to a science. :) Place the tortilla chips on your plate and smash them. Then add the meat and beans, then the lettuce. Everything else is then up to you, but make sure you mix it all around good before eating. ENJOY!!

First Ultrasound

I got to go to my first doctor's visit the other day and it was so fun! They did an ultrasound so I got to see how the baby is progressing. It was nice to know that there really is a baby inside of me and I'm not just getting chubby and that this is really happening! She said the heartbeat is strong at 174 beats per minute on average. It's to early to tell the sex, but she said if she had to guess, she would say boy at this point. Who knows!? It was moving around a lot, which is so crazy to me since I can't feel it yet. She burned the entire ultrasound onto DVD which is really cool, and if I can figure out how to get it on here. Anyway, this is the picture she gave us from the ultrasound. Is it just me, or is there an uncanny resemblance to a skull and cross bones? :) So I guess our baby's gonna be a pirate! The crossing section are it's legs, the big round area is it's abdomen, and the little black dot inside the abdomen is, I think she said, the bladder. There you have it! Our baby's first picture!!!

Back in the Burg

We moved back from Nampa last week, and while we loved our time there, are SO glad to be back home! Although gas prices seem to kill a little bit of my soul every time we had to fill up.

We moved into the same apartment complex, just a different apartment. We now live in a spacious 2 bedroom! We lovingly call the 'spare oom' the baby's room but are currently using it for storage! The best part is that the hall closets are bigger in the 2 bedroom, so our washer and dryer actually fit in the closet and can be hooked up! WAHOO! No more walking from the 3rd floor, across the complex, in the snow...uphill both ways to do our laundry. And although we don't have AC, it's suprisingly not bad. We bought 2 fans and they do a good job.

The first week back has been a whirlwind! We first were able to get a day off for the Garner reunion in Bear Lake. What we thought was just going to be a short drive turned into 4 hours, but it was definitely worth it to see everyone. I'm still trying to learn everyone's names, but it is a great family! I feel very at home with them.

Then, the day after we got back was our ward campout, so we packed up some stuff and headed about 30 minutes away to some of our bishop's property. It was so much fun. We absolutely love our ward. We had great food, played horseshoes, caught up with everyone, but the highlight definitely was the human rubber band. For those of you who were there, you know what I'm talking about! :) I'll try and post that video if I can figure it out.