Valentine's Day

My Valentine's Day went something like this:

[1] Going out for ice cream sundaes with the 6th graders.

[2] & [3] Exchanging valentines in creative boxes - remember doing that in elementary?!

[4] My husband sending me flowers at work (a.k.a. the sweetest thing ever).

[5] Eating even more sugary treats.

[6] Coming home to find a little blue box on my laptop with a note from Daniel. That little blue box happened to contain the Tiffany & Co. earrings I had been coveting for years!!

Best Valentine's Day ever? I think so.

Best husband in the world? Most definitely.

Love you, D!

Fish & Chips

On our Monday off, Daniel and I went on a little lunch date to Summerhays' Fish and Chips. It's a cute little restaurant in Holladay near our apartment. When I was growing up, it was called Neil's Fish and Chips. It's one of my dad's favorite places, and he used to suggest it all the time when we were kids. It's only now that I'm an adult that I appreciate my dad's fabulous taste in restaurants. We both ordered the halibut and chips, and I have to say, it really hit the spot. The fun atmosphere made it feel like we were on vacation, even though we were only five minutes from home.

What are your favorite places to go on dates? We love suggestions!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love, 

M & D

Happy Birthday to D!

February 5, 2012

Dear Daniel,

Happy 25th birthday, sweetheart! Can you believe you're already 25? This age is a milestone for a few reasons: 1. You can now officially rent a car (without all those crazy fees), 2. Your car insurance rates go down (yay!), and 3. You're a quarter of a century old! Yipes. I've had a great time celebrating your special day with you all weekend. Being with you makes me happier than anything else. Thanks for all the little things you do that make me smile every day. Thank you for making me laugh, for working so hard, and for helping me to be a better person. You've always been my better half. Happy birthday Daniel! I love you so much. I'm so very glad you were born :)

Love always,

Mandy

elk adventure.

Here are some photos from our little elk adventure to Hardware Ranch with Daniel's family this past month, if you'd like to see!

And now for some elk trivia!

1. Elk, along with moose and caribou, are members of the deer family.
2. An adult make elk is called a bull, an adult female is called a cow, a baby is called a calf, and a yearling bull is called a spike because his antlers are spiky.
3. Only male elk have antlers, but both male and female caribou (a.k.a. reindeer) have antlers!
4. The elk's antlers (along with antlers of all other animals who have them) are made of bone! They fall off and re-grow each year. 
5. Horns are a different story. Horns are never shed, and they are made of the same stuff that our fingernails are made of.
6. New antlers are covered with a fuzzy skin called velvet. It has a lot of blood vessels running through it. Because antlers are made of bone, they need to have blood flow in order to grow! 
7. The elk's canine teeth are made of ivory.
8. Cows, calves, and yearlings live in herds for most of the year while bulls live alone. This means that a cow is usually the leader of the herd! Of course, this changes during the mating season.
9. If an elk feels threatened, they make a barking sound.
10. The elk's coat makes them essentially waterproof. 

And that is the end of my elk facts for the day. If you want to see one of these guys up close, I suggest you visit Hardware Ranch! We had a blast!

Confessions of a Teacher-in-Training: Updates on Student Teaching!

It's been a while since I did one of these posts, and I figure it's time for an update! I successfully completed last semester's classes, and passed the PRAXIS II (big scary teacher-licensure test) with flying colors. Even though I was deathly ill with food poisoning the day I took it. This semester, I get to teach full time! It's lots of work, but it's super rewarding. I definitely feel like all I do is teach, teach, teach! I go straight from teaching 6th grade all day to tutoring 3 or 4 students at Thorup Tutoring after school. After I finish my 12-hour day, then I go home and plan. I'm getting lots of practice :)

Here are a few things I've learned/discovered/experienced over the past two weeks:

1. Teaching is the most rewarding thing in the world when your students get excited about a lesson you teach. Learning is magical!
2. As much as you love them, your students might still give you a headache sometimes.
3. You probably shouldn't eat a Lean Cuisine for lunch every day.
4. Planning takes up....your life.
5. My site teacher is the most amazing person ever. She is the kind of teacher I hope to be one day.
6. Lessons that are fun for your students are fun for you, too! Therefore, fun lessons are a win-win.
7. If you rap for your students even just one time, they will ask you to do it again every single day.
8. I carry so many things to school every day that walking up the stairs feels like climbing Mount Everest. I hoped I'd never say this, but I think it's time for one of these.
9. I would also love these for grading papers. Wouldn't 6th graders love them?
10. I got observed today by my supervisor at the University of Utah, and it went so well! Observations are always super-stressful, but there's nothing like getting positive feedback on your teaching. It helps remind me that this is what I'm supposed to be doing, and if I work hard, I might even be good at it!

Thanks to everyone, especially D, my family, D's family, my fellow student teachers, and my amazing site teacher for helping me make it through last semester, and for continuing to support me during this one. I am blessed to know such wonderful people!

Dear 2011,

What a year! You have taken D and I on some of the wildest rides of our lives. But through the ups and downs, we grew to love and appreciate every experience you brought our way. Here are some of our favorites:

• In January, we stared the year off with a bang by going on a shooting adventure with Daniel's family. We also got called to teach the Sunbeams in our ward. It was one of our favorite callings (most of the time), and we grew to love those darling 'beams. This was also the month I locked myself out of the apartment. I didn't blog about this, but Daniel lost his job (and our main source of income) on January 10th because half of the lawyers walked out on the firm he was working for. It was the first day of one of my hardest semesters. I was pretty much beside myself when I got the message because I had just quit my second job to finish school faster. By some legitimate miracle, Daniel ended up getting his job back the same day. We will be forever grateful.

• In February, we celebrated Daniel's 24th birthday along with our 6-month anniversary (!). We also spent our first Valentine's Day together as a married couple! We went to the temple, ate at our favorite restaurant, and spent a fun night at home. This was the month I decided I was a Steelers Fan (even though we lost the Superbowl). I also wrote D a mushy note, and made a craft!

• In March, I stayed up until 2 a.m. with Marianne making animal hat templates for a 3rd grade art project. She and I took a really awesome education class together at Tanner Dance Studio that you would have had to experience to believe. I also had a run-in with a shirtless man in my laundry room, and posted a funny picture of invented spelling by a 1st grader. School and my tough semester was starting to own my life at this point, can you tell?

• In April, Daniel and I went on our first road trip together to St. George, Utah, complete with some shopping in Vegas. We had so much fun! I even got my first Kate Spade bag. We celebrated Easter by wearing our loveliest Easter church outfits and coloring eggs with the Jacobsens. I also drove a steamroller, became an aunt again, and wrote an angry letter to Utah weather. 

• In May, I finished a 19-credit hour semester (somehow) and I found out what grade I would be student teaching. We celebrated Cinco de Mayo and Memorial  Day, went to a Bee's game, and laughed at Daniel howling with Rufus. We also posted the solution to one of our favorite arguments up on the blog - the difference between an anteater, an aardvark, and an armadillo.

• In June, we had epic car problems. I also took a million classes over the summer so I would be able to start my student teaching in the Fall, and I felt really old when my little brother graduated from high school.  I spent lots of time with my girlfriends at Melissa's bachelorette party and beautiful wedding. Daniel and I went on a gorgeous summer hike at sunset, and I decided to write down our love story.

• In July, Daniel and I took a mini-trip up to the cabin. We celebrated the 4th of July and the 24th of July with lots of fireworks, and I made revolutionary berries. We went on several summer adventures, including the art's festival, the temple, and our favorite, The Hogle Zoo. 

• August was a big month for us! On the 16th, we celebrated our ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY! I also invented wedding week so I could post lots of wedding photos on the blog. I started student teaching 6th grade, and took way too many classes on top of it. I shared my first confession-of-a-teacher-in-training post, and had some hilarious conversations with Daniel.

• September was a blur of classes for both of us, but I did have time to share a quote, a teacher-confession, the A-Z of M & D, and some thoughts.

• In October, we celebrated my 22nd birthday, and my students threw me the most darling surprise party ever. I also made Salsa with my mom, and spent a long week home alone while Daniel went on the elk hunt and shot a 6-point bull! We also went to the pumpkin patch and celebrated Halloween as a CSI agent and the SWAT team.

• In November, we had a great Thanksgiving! I was still drowning in classes and thinking about the stages of first year teaching, but we had a lot of fun hanging out with family over the holidays and going on dinner dates together. Oh, and we spilled an entire melted candle on our carpet.

• In December, we experienced a lot of mini-miracles. The fact that I made it through finals week alone was a miracle! We celebrated our second Christmas together, played a shepherd and a wise man in the nativity, and I threw my very first Christmas potluck! We also made resolutions for 2012 together, and had a lot of fun ringing in the new year at a friend's cabin.

Well 2011, you were a year packed with adventures! We are sad to see you go, but we're so excited to see what 2012 has in store for us! 

Lots of Love,

M & D