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.