Wedding Gown Shopping in Provo

This weekend Maggie and I went down to Utah to help my niece, Alyssa, find a wedding gown!!  Maggie was so excited to go to Aly's apartment and get to be a part of the action.

Here's Alyssa trying on the first wedding gown, mine!  She looks beautiful in everything she trys on.

 And Aly after trying on about 15 dresses! LOL!

The attendent was so wonderful.  Maggie was getting a little antsy so she got to have a chance to stand on the podium and try on a veil.








Maggie truly was a trooper during our 3 hours in the store she was taking taking notes for her own wedding options in the future in her handy dandy notebook and drawing the dresses that she thought were very pretty.  Apparently she already knows what kind of cake she wants.  The list below states the color of the dress and how many layers she wants it to have.

 After many different styles it came down to these two dresses.  Aly fell in love with the one on the bottom.  Smart girl!  It was a green line item (was about to be discontinued) so she got a smokin' deal!!   Doesn't she look amazing??  I can't wait to see the big day pictures! (I had her permission to post these)

 When Maggie's patience wore thin I handed her the camera and let her play photographer for a while.  Here's a few of the shots she came up with.

I'm so grateful that I was able to get to be a part of Alyssa's big day, especially since I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it back to Iowa for the actual wedding.  Thanks Aly!!

I Can Do It!

After baths the other night I tried to get the girls to let me fix their hair and Maggie insisted that "she" could do it.  So, I let her and this is what she came up with.  They had such a fun time!  Sisters are great.

 

It's just about that time of year again.  I will be running the SLC Half Marathon on April 17th.  Israel is having trouble with his plantar fascia band and will not be racing with me this time, but will be supporting me at the finish line.  But my friend, Valerie, will be running it with me!!  Yeah!!  This will be my first time running this Half.  Last year the 5K in SLC was my first race ever and I'm excited to get to try this new course.  If you're in the area feel free to come and join us or cheer us on!

Reaching For Goals

Years ago I came up with an idea to help me get motivated to lose the baby weight.  Well, I gave up on that goal and dream after I had Emma.  NOW, I am 15 lbs away from my goal weight and have been stuck at a plateau for nearly 5 weeks.  So, I'm resurrecting that dream in hopes of finding the drive to push just a bit harder to get to where I want to be.  Israel agreed many moons ago (don't be judging, it was totally my idea) that if I were to reach my goal weight he would take me anywhere I want to go.  He is still keeping true to his word and is willing to make this happen.  Here's my problem, where do I want to go??  So, I need your help to visualize this reward.  Where's a place you've been that you LOVED and had so much fun?  Here's some things I'd like...I want to do NEW things, I want to experience culture, I want to be ACTIVE and also relax, and most importantly I want to be WARM!  And if I could avoid breaking the bank, that would make me happy.  Any good ideas?  I've considered a Cruise or Hawaii or the Caribbean or Europe....I don't know!!

Wait...What?

So, I got hired as a Classroom/Reading Intervention Aide and..well...apparently they can just change your job description at any given time (something new I'm learning while working within a school district).  So NOW I'm actually a Resource Aide.  My day goes very quickly because I'm all over the place.  I start out helping a 6th grade spelling/grammar (yeeaahh...I had to look up indefinite and reflexive pronouns), then go to 2nd grade Math (I think I can handle that), then I work with a VERY busy 1st grader keeping him on task for his Math worksheets, and somewhere in between I help a 4th grader with her Math (soooo...going to have to study up on this one) and a sweet little blind 4th grader with Social Studies.  Whew..amazing that all of that can be squeezed into 3.5 hours a day.  So far I really do like it and it doesn't seem to be affecting too much at home yet, then again it's only been 3 days so we'll see how the next few weeks go.

Workin' Girl

After 2 years of staying home with the kiddos and some bills not seeming to get any smaller, I made a decision...I'm going back to work.  I have been blessed enough that every time I need to go back to work, I've been able to find employment within a week.  This has been no different.  I was looking over the District 91 website last weekend and saw a vacancy for a Classroom/Reading Intervention Aide and jumped on it.  I got my paperwork together and was offered the job on Friday.  I begin work this Wednesday.  It is beyond ideal for our family situation.  I'll be working 3.5 hr/day 5 days/week at Ethel Boyes Elementary with the 2nd Graders running Math Groups and running Reading Groups after school.  I think I still remember 2nd grade math...;)  We are so blessed since Israel works nights he'll be home rested in the morning and I'll go to work in the afternoon and be home just in time to help finish up dinner before he's off to work again.  It's not a perfect scenario, Iz and I, will have limited time together (maybe we'll make more time for date night on the weekends HINT HINT) but I won't have to worry about someone else raising the kids.  They'll be cared for by their father!  wait.....   He's a pro and I'm not worried...my house on the otherhand...yeah, a little worried...  So, if I'm not as good about staying on top of everything for the next few months, well let's just call it an "adjustment" period, shall we and hope for the best.