Summer Super Post

Are you ready for this? 

I'm about to catch you up on my whole summer in one super-sized post.

Here is how I spent more of my summer vacation out of town (and the heat) 

than in it.

My first excursion was a road trip to San Diego with Tim.  

He got to visit his cousin and I got to visit my best friend. Win-win. 

I only thought to take pictures at the zoo, but we did plenty of other fun things while we were there. I promise.

I was very sad to leave the nice weather, so I went back to California 2 weeks later. 

This time I was in Oceanside with my mom, sis, and nephew for our annual girls trip (girls+cute baby).

See, I told you he's cute.

(and no, I'm not trying to punch him)

 Plus, some cute little Buswell girls came to visit us for a bit.

And of course, we had to take the annual jumping in the air shots.

I'm still working on jumping with my mouth closed, but it seems to be a hopeless endeavor at this point.

After being back home for about 4 days, I left again to go to Utah.

The crowning moment of the entire trip was when I won the 

Annual Cox Family Rock, Paper, Scissors Championship.

I'm kind of a big deal now. 

After 2 weeks in Utah, I went home for a week.

Then, I went camping!!

I totally dominated in Peanuts/Nertz and then Tim creamed us in everything else.

Lesson to learn: Don't mess with us.

Do not be fooled by this picture.

I let a lot of clay pigeons live this day.

The whole gang.

I sure love them.

(and Ray & Diane's trailer potty)

Now that I've been home about 5 days, I have one last little Relief Society cabin retreat to attend and then it's back to work for me.

Man, I love summer. 

One Year Older

For my birthday this year, I couldn't stop thinking about was how blessed I am.  

I was so happy to be able to spend my weekend with people that I love so very much.  

On Friday, I got to spend the day with my amazing students.

One of them rallied her family together to decorate my classroom door for me.

Plus, it didn't hurt that it was pajama/read-a-thon day

(One of the perks of sharing your b-day with Dr. Seuss).

On Saturday, I invited two of the most non-morning people I know to go to breakfast with me.

And they came!

To thank them, I introduced them to the awesome bathrooms at Liberty Market.

 Jen had a great time in the "kitchen" stall.

And I'm not sure what sort of experience Tim had in this one,

but I'm sure it was life-changing.

Plus, Lydia was in town!!

Her super cute daughter brought "my baby" all the way from CA to me.  

I apparently am not quite prepared to be a mother yet because I haven't

invested in a car seat for Baby Iris. 

I also enjoyed a scrumptious dinner at Joe's Farm Grill with a few friends.

That picture is on someone else's camera and I haven't pestered her for it yet.

Another highlight was receiving the most amazing poster ever:

Oh, JTT.

I don't think I need to say anything more.

On Sunday, I had an incredible evening with my incredible family.

Those pictures are on someone else's camera, too.

I'll just say that you haven't lived until you've made pizza on a barbeque grill. 

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that it was a wonderful weekend!

Thank you to all of you who made all my birthday wishes come true.

That reminds me, I forgot to make a wish before blowing out my candles.

I guess I didn't really need to make one.  :)

There are 2 types of people in this world...

...those who like Neil Diamond. And those who don't.

This weekend, I discovered that I'm a part of the latter group.

I also discovered that hosting a "What About Bob?" party can be a lot of fun.

As the guests arrived, a Neil Diamond CD from the library was playing.

I had to turn the volume down really low so as not to go insane.

 My new pet, Gil, was excited to see his namesake on the screen,

 so we started the movie.  

I love "What About Bob" more and more every time I see it.

There is almost always something new to find humor in.

One of my very wise guests pointed out that

Dr. Marvin's children are named after Sigmund Freud and his daughter Anna.

Bob loves that Fay's corn is hand-shucked.

After the movie ended, we had a corn shucking contest.

It was intense.

 And the winner of the Salt Substitute is...

Jen with 10.5 seconds!

Unfortunately, Dr. Marvin didn't show up for a book signing,

but we did enjoy reading the cover of Baby Steps.

If you ever need "a vacation from your problems,"

let me know and I'll gladly watch Bob with you too. 

Let's Kinect!

My friend Mary got a Kinect for Christmas.  

I would like to share some fun photos with you now from my first Kinect experience:

 We look just like Japanese Power Rangers, do we not?
Definitely the best song on Just Dance 3.

This pic is my favorite because it shows how "good" I am at following dance instructions. Everyone else is facing the screen and I'm still turning around. Haha!

I can't wait to do this again on New Year's Eve!

Lt. Holmes

This is Steven:

AKA Lieutenant Holmes:

Last night he left the U.S. to serve our country in Afghanistan,

and it's all his fault that my emotions have been on a roller coaster ride all day. 

This morning, I started crying as we were saying the Pledge of Allegiance at school.

 I think I only made it to "I pledge" before I had to stop talking.

Then, one of my students noticed the menorah I put up for Hanukkah and said,

"Miss Jones is Jewish?!!"

That made me laugh.

Only a few minutes later, they had a special visitor appear on the announcements.

It was a father who came home last week from Afghanistan for a short while.

He presented an American flag that flew on Sept. 11, 2011 in Afghanistan and was dedicated to our school.

Crying again.

The rest of the day went really well.

After school, I stopped at Walgreen's and they asked me if I wanted to buy a candy bar for the troops in Afghanistan .  I said, "Yes I do!" without shedding a single tear.

I picked out a great one for you Steven.

I can't wait for you to be reunited with your wonderful wife and
soon-to-be-born little girl!
Thank you for serving our country!

It's All in the Family

About 6 months ago, a set of twin brothers joined my ward.  I have to ask them their names every time I see them since I can't tell them apart.

I had a dream about one of them the other night.  Even in my dream, I didn't know which one I was talking to.  All that I can remember now is that we were at a wedding reception, sitting at a table.  He commented that there must be a red, plastic bird in front of him, bobbing into a cup of water. There was.  It looked like this:

This may not seem like a significant observation to you, but it would if you knew that both he and his brother are blind.

I still remember their first day at church very vividly.  My friend is their cousin, so they sat by us in Sacrament Meeting.  Afterwards, I escorted one of them to Sunday School class.  It just so happened that we were having a lesson from the New Testament on a blind man. Talk about the scriptures having more meaning.

About a week ago, I was sitting next to one of them at a dinner.  I was beyond grateful that I could see my food and the utensils that I needed to bring that food to my mouth.  As we were talking, I asked him if there was anything he would like to invent that would be really helpful to him as a blind person.  I was not expecting the answer I got.  He said, "Honestly, the best thing that a blind person could have in his life is a great family.  I am really lucky to have great parents who support me and who have helped me to be social."  Wow.  I guess that family really is important,  no matter what our situation in life is.

That Had to Hurt

I don't blog about all my dreams; mostly just the ones that I can remember plenty of details from.  This morning I was telling my dream to my roomies and one of them said, "You better go post that on your blog." I explained that I didn't really think it was blog-worthy, but she told me that I better post it anyway. So I am.

I dreamed that I was at the lake and we went cliff jumping.  One girl jumped off a super high cliff and landed wrong.  She ended up with a bruise alllllll the way up her thigh.  It was super nasty.  The end.

See. I told you it wasn't really blog-worthy.  So I'll try to spice this up a little bit by telling you about my weekend that inspired the bruise dream.

Yesterday, I woke up at 5:30am.  Yesterday was a Saturday.  That's what time I wake up all week long.  I was very much regretting this decision as soon as my alarm went off.  It was totally worth it, though.  Plus, I didn't get any bruises, just some sore muscles.

I jumped into my swimsuit and headed off to the lake.  We started the day off with wake boarding.  Best to do that before the water gets to choppy.  Still, the water was too choppy.  Not that it mattered to me anyway, since I couldn't even get all the way up on the board.  Close, but no cigar.  Whatever that means.  I'm pretty sure that next time I go, I'll look more like this guy:

Next, we busted out a three-man tube.  Apparently the tube-making-people want their tubes to be safe now.  Where's the fun in that?  We were going speedy quick and flying over tons of bumps, but I didn't get thrown off once.  All I got was a sore bottom from sitting in that thing.

Later, we went cliff jumping.  I was told that I had to jump so I could tell my third graders about it on Monday.  I did jump, but I don't really think that I'm going to go tell a bunch of 8-year-olds that it's a good idea to jump off the side of a cliff and hope you don't hit any rocks on the way down.

As soon as I got home, I took a three hour nap. And that was my day.

Note to Self

If you have a nightmare and your roommate is the person in said nightmare who you are afraid of, you probably shouldn't tell her about it once you wake up.