Christmas Vacation

Chris had to work over the holidays since he works in retail, so Helmut and i went to Canada ourselves. It was so much fun! I ended up staying 2 weeks with my entire family at my parents place. Helmut and I flew into Timmins thinking my sisters would greet us with balloons and cupcakes, but as always, my family was late. Helmut and I sat there hopelessly waiting and when everyone left, like in a romantic comedy, they came in. Oh, my family how i truly love you! We ended up watching lots of movies, played games, went on walks etc. I love every second that i get to send with my family. I was able to buy each one of my family members a present and they all really enjoyed it. It was nice to receive thoughtful gifts from my family as well. Us siblings all received a onesie and yes, we wore it the entire trip. I forgot how cold it gets up in the North, but i pretty much froze my butt off. We went for a walk at one time and i wore my dads Parka! I was able to meet up with my best friend Julia and her new squeeze Jeff. We ended playing Monopoly, went skating and went to a cafe. Overall, i had an amazing trip thanks to all my family and friends. I am thankful for a season that brings family together and allows us to be grateful for all the things we have. My goal this year is to be thankful everyday for all the many miracles i have in my life.

Man Crush Monday

I have seen a lot of people doing these things all over Facebook and Instragam, LAME! I am dedicating an entire post to my wonderful Man Lover. Oh the Christopher, the love of my life, the one who refills my water, sleeps next to me, pesters me all the time and the one i love so much. Yes, he constantly bugs me, pesters me , but i love him so much. He is not an affectionate individual who needs to hold your hand, kiss you all the time (cough cough like me), he shows his love in small and simple ways. The way he  looks at me, the compliments he gives me, by him doing small and simple acts of kindness. He is such a kind and compassionate man who is always trying to make me laugh. He is always there for me and picks me up when i fall, literally, but only after he takes a picture; when there are times that are tough, he is truly there for me. I am one lucky pup to have him in my life. He keeps me in line and controls my wild ways. Thank-you so much for being a great husband Man Lover Christopher Duke <3

Family Pictures

Boise vs. BYU

Since my husband is from Idaho, he is a die hard Boise fan! Now that we live in Utah, we are surrounded by BYU and Utah State fans. There was a BYU vs. Boise state game, we obviously had to go. Chris bought us ridiculously cheap tickets and we went. When we went there, we were sitting in the Boise state section, had no idea, and i was wearing white pants and dark blue shirt. I tried to support both teams (i really did not care who won). We ending up sitting by the Boise state Elvis and ridiculously dressed other dude, they gave us beads ;) As we were there, i forgot that in Utah, it is hot in the day, freezing at night. I was wearing flats and a tiny little leather jacket, came night time, i was shivering so much. I had to take Chris's sweater and put my arms in one arm, we had to share. When we got home, i was shivering all night, and i had at least 3 layers on everywhere, plus tons of blankets, Chris says i was a wanny. Boise ending of sucking it up, but overall, it was a marvelous adventure.

Dream Job

I freaking love my job. I wake up everyday, earning for the opportunity to teach young minds and mold them into the spectacular individuals i no they can be. I love them so much and i am very grateful to be able to teach my wonderful students. I am a first year teacher, i am learning everyday and constantly making mistakes. I have such a great team that helps me everyday and i am so very grateful for there support. WAY TO GO 5TH GRADE.

Flood

There was a huge flash flood at our apartment complex. It was crah crah crazy! All of a sudden i was hearing a lot of rain, did not think of much until i went outside. There was water all the way until my knees, Chris could not leave and i could not go visit Malorie. Chris had to leave 4 hours later for work, he could not get out, but eventually the rain stopped. The fire departments was there with sand bags and helping people and there homes recover; some peoples garages were so flooded that all there belongings were destroyed. I am so grateful that i lived in the 3rd floor and that we have all of our belongings safe and sound.

Birthday Bash

 This year for my birthday, we did not have enough money to go all out and par-tay! I was not looking forward to my birthday, i honestly thought Chris was going to do nothing, my family called and i truly did not care. I had the day off, but Chris did not, like i said, nothing was going to happen (i thought this in my mind). My sisters called me and i was super depressed, they ended up calling Chris or texting him, whatevs. They gave his ideas, things he was already doing or whatever. He ended up coming home and bringing me my favorite pastry and cooked us some burgers. We took our burgers, chips, and some great snack to a park and had a picnic with the dog. We got home, ate our pastries, did facials and watched a movie. Thanks to my wonderful Momzie she gave me a wonderful box of goodness, scrapbooking supplies :D YAY! Though this birthday was not as i thought it was going to be, Chris did pull threw and made it a great birthday. Thank-you sweetie for being so good to me.

My Dream Ride.... as aLimo

Ever since i was young, my favorite ar has always been the Hummer. I have this faint memory of my dad taking a picture of me with a hummer that was in a mall, i fell in love. It is so big, tough, and so freaking sexy! My friend Chandra, her dad owns a limo company and this recently just bought a sweet, new ride. I was over at her and her husbands place for game night. While i was there, her father dropped by the famjam to show us the new limo he just purchased. None of us new he was coming by, he just wanted to show Chandra his new ride. I was so amazed of what i saw. A HUMMER LIMO. Yes, it may not be a hummer, but it is still a hummer, just stretched a little. He took us for a joy ride and it was freaking sweet. The inside had champagne classes, a mirror roof, an amazing sound system, disco lights, so amazing. It was so exciting to be in one a dream come true (that sounds cheasy but it is so true)!

Rainy Day Off!

On the days that Chris get off, we tend to run errands together and grab something to eat. I do not know what it is, but we love grocery shopping together, i think it is his way of making sure i do not over spend. On this day, we ended up going to wal-mart to grab some things. We decided we did not want to spend tons of money on dinner so we just decided to buy something off the dollar menu as we were leaving. As Chris was grabbing our food, my jaw dropped. I looked out of the store window and rain was coming down fast and harder than that Bolt runner dude. We did not park close to the doors, kind of far actually, it was a pretty day at the local wal-mart. Since chris and i would literally be swimming, we decided to just wait it out. We literally waited in Wal-mart for 20 minutes and nothing, it was still pouring. After all the waiting, we ran as fast as we could, threw our things in the car and high tailed it out of there. My feet were soaked and cold, my pants were dripping and it felt like i was thrown in a pool. UGH!! The joys of weather.

July 4th

July 4th!

July 4th was so amazing. I was so excited that Malorie Monson invited me to go to stadium of fire with. Since Trevor was working, i was able to steal his ticket. This year of stadium of fire they had Cirque de Soliel, Karly Rae Jepson and Kelly Clarkson. It was so amazing. I met up with Mal and The Monsons clan and we drove to down to Provo together. We stopped at Arby's before we entered the gate; Mal and i walked around for a bit before we entered the gates. After entering te gates, we walked around in there and found our seats. We arrived a tad early so we were sitting there for about an hour. After an hour i really wanted a frozen lemonade ice cream thing, i got one. Once we returned, the show started. They had dance companies from around the countryside come and perform a number bout America. After that, they had a talented young girl who came out and sang the anthem, freaking talented child.... and then magic. Cirque De Soliel came out and was amazing, i totes want to see them in Vegas one day, then Karly Rae, she was so amazing, it is probably because she is from Canada! Following her, Kelly Clarkson came out. She was so amazing, i was so impressed. I did not no that it was a full on concert, and yet, it was. I was so impressed. Mal and I sang every song she sand with her, danced hard, truly sweated threw our shirts, but it was so much fun. After Kelly, the firework show commenced, and it was the best fire worls show i have ever seen. It truly was a memorable 4th of july! Loved it!

 

Amazing Wednesday

I went to summer school today to teach my students math, reading and many other subjects. In our last period, we did activities that strengthen friendships/ social skills and we then turned it into a writing assignment. In the end, i had all my students show there writing assignment in front of the class. The writing assignment was to write about the things you learned about your friends ie. the other individuals in the class. I had many students go up and use many creative styles of writing and portray there new found friendships with the rest of the class. It was so touched when one of my students stood in front of the class and told his classmates that he wrote his paper on me. He stated that his new friend is Mrs. Duke and he learned new things about her. He stated that I am such an amazing teacher and i am so patient. He also said that i was his favorite teacher and he loves that i take my time to help him with his many difficult subjects. I was so touched that there was a student out there that appreciated me. I know that my students love, care and appreciate me, it is just very nice to here it out loud.

I love to do crafts! My wonderful parents over the past year have bought me a Cricut machine and a sewing machine. With those two things alone, I have made many things and fixed many things. Lately, I have been working on refurbishing items that people have thrown away. I have painted a bajillion frames, scrap booked many items and etc. My goal lately was so create things and buy things that will give way to Chris's personality and mine and to also add to our beautiful home. To keep myself busy this past week, i painted an ugly, never used, bulletin board i had in college. I decided to paint it, bring it back to life so i could include it in my classroom. I love being crafty!

I am an Idiot, yet very Brilliant!

Oh man, I am not so smart, yet brilliant! We have two cars, the car Chris and I bought when we first got married and the car his grandparents gave us. The car his grandparent gave us is a green Buick that has been really used over the years. His dad use to take this car to and from work everyday, has eatin multiple meals in this car, spilled pop in it and etc. It works just fine, do not get me wrong, there are just some things i would like to change about it. 1. The window if rolled down, will sometimes not roll up. 2. It sucks to drive in the winter 3. It tends to blow hot air for air conditioning. Sometime ago in the winter, i went to order food for Chris and I at Arctic Circle. I arrived and my window would not roll down. I tried everything, punching the buttons, restarting the car, screaming at it, hitting it, i mean everything. I finally had to step out the car to order my food and to receive my food/ pay. I went home and continued my day. The following day i had to go pick up a friend to go to a wedding shower. It was then, that all of the kicking and screaming finally worked, my window went down; I started the car and the window went down. I am assuming it got jammed, all of a sudden it unjammed itself and got jammed again. Chris was at work and i had no idea what to do. I started the car, let it run for a bit (like 30minutes), then i ducked tape the window shut with garbage bags to keep the hot air in, nothing! Nothing worked. Chris's dad had to come down the next day to fix it because i was useless! BUT!! i resorted to what everyman does..... ducktape, which makes me brilliant.

Chris's Birthday

Chris is 25!

My wonderful husband is 25 years old. He thinks he is old, but i think he is getting cuter in age. I am so excited and grateful that i made the choice to marry him three years ago and that i can spend this day with him. Chris's perfect birthday involves hanging with friends and family. Chris does not need a ball with sparkles, and a huge party with an elephant ride, he is completely happy when he is surrounded by friends and family who love him. I decided to make this day, his best day ever. He had to work that day, so i planned a dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings, desserts at our place, and games with friends. We went out to dinner with our close friends, came back to our place for dessert, and played games. It was so exciting to eat out with friends and have the waitress come out and have everyone sing happy birthday to him, as he held a flashing siren. Chris was quite embarrassed, but it brought laughter to all of us. After dinner, i had bought specialty cupcakes for everyone and a big cupcake for Chris. I thought it would be a good treat for everyone to have a cupcake and for Chris to have his own cupcake. After we ate our cupcakes, we played with our friends and talked. It was such a relaxing evening and it turned out, Chris loved his birthday.

First NBA Basketball Game

We have finally attended our first NBA basketball game; it was so much fun. Chris was able to get us  pretty close to the floor for dirt cheap. It was so amazing to see all the basketball players and how amazing they show there talent. We went to this specific game because Chris is an huge Duke fan and there was a player that was drafted to this team, "so we just had to go", said Chris. I enjoyed going downtown Salt Lake and watching this game and going with Chris.

Graduation

     Chris and I graduated a semester apart. I decided to combine the posts and write about our experiences together. I went to school to study Elementary Education and graduated December 2012 and Chris graduated in April of 2013. We have been attending BYU-I since 2009 and have been working our tails off.  I am so grateful that my parents have instilled in me the value of education and for the drive that Chris has it for it as well. My Graduation was so much fun because my family was able to come and charish this moment with me. My brother Helmut and my sister Melanie were unable to attend my graduation but I am still very grateful for their love that they shared with me on that day. Helmut is currently serving his mission in Vancouver Canada and Melanie was unable to visit due to a family emeergency. My parents took me out to dinner and bought me a whole pie for dessert. My mom bought me a sewing machine so I can be domesticated and my sister Melissa made me laugh every second of that day. I am so glad that I was able to listen to my parents guidance all throughout my life. Being on that stage, receiving a diploma was so rewarding because I was able to the happiness in my families face.
     Chris's Graduation was so much fun as well! His mom was unable to come but his father was able to come. Chris is the only child and by graduating, he was made his family very proud. His dad cried threw the whole thing and truly appreciated all of Chris's hard work. Chris will now be applying to get his second bachelors which will then lead to more schooling; getting his doctorate in Physical Therapy.