Update

Thanks everybody for all of your nice comments about baby Deceuster!  I'm just about 11 weeks and my doctor does the gender ultrasound at 15 weeks.  We are so excited to know!  1 more month and I can start buying stuff!  Can't wait!   Also, please take a minute and vote on our new poll to the left!

And here's a little update of our lives...

• So I had all these plans to do lots of projects this summer.  I think on that list so far the only one I have completed is cleaned out our closet.  Morning sickness, or for me, all day sickness, has kind of put a halt to my plans.  But I am looking forward to the 2nd trimester where I can hopefully get a lot done. 
• Last week we spent the 4th of July in California with Dan's family.  I was a little worried about the traveling part, but Unisom saved me!  It has really helped ease the nausea for me.  I don't know if I would have made it otherwise.  In California we went shopping, watched a parade, watched fireworks, BBQ'd, played mini golf and had a Jane by Design marathon (love that show... and got Dan's mom and sister also hooked... I highly recommend it if you have Netflix).  It was so nice to relax the whole week and not think once about cooking or cleaning!  
• We got home last Saturday and Dan's mom and sister came with us.  They are spending the week with us.  His mom has also been cooking and cleaning here... she is helping me so much!  Being in the kitchen has been the hardest thing for me.  
• Dan's brother Ethan & his wife & 2 kids moved down here this week.  We are so excited to live by family!  They live just a 2 minute drive away.  
• We saw Hairspray at Tuacahn last night.  I was really worried about going (since it was in the 100s) and I didn't want to have to run out of the performance if I got sick, but once again, Unisom saved me!  That and a lot of prayers :).  We enjoyed the show and are really looking forward to seeing Aladdin in October.  
• I have decided  to go back to my job in August!  I have been debating, but I feel like it's the right thing to do.  I talked to my principal and she told me I could work as long as I wanted.  My plan is to work just til Christmas break and then be done.  Then I'll have a good month to get things ready for baby.  I think working will help the time pass by more quickly.  I'll go crazy if I just sit around and wait for baby to come.  
• Went swimming today!  It's been super hot here... 109 to be exact, it was so refreshing.  
• Other than that I've just been resting and taking it easy.  So happy I get the summers off!  

books, pictures and christmas trees

Finally! I have some things to blog about.  It seems I haven't been blogging much because we've just been working and that's about it.  But... here are a few things from this past week.

1. On Friday at my school I found out all school employees got 50% off at the book fair.  I was so excited!  I love collecting children's books.  So... I bought 3 pictures books.  I am most excited about "If You Give a Dog a Donut."  It's the newest addition to the "If you Give a..." collection (ya know, If you Give a Mouse a Cookie, If you Give a Moose a Muffin, If you Give a Cat a Cupcake, etc).  I wanted to buy more books, but I restrained myself.  In just a few weeks the school district is having a big book warehouse sale and all books are 50-80% off.  I figured I would wait and see what they had there.  If anyone is looking for a specific kids book for x-mas, let me know.  Maybe I'll find it at the book sale :).

2. We just got our family pictures taken on Friday.  I can't wait to get them back!  My friend Jessica did them in downtown St. George and I really think we got some good shots.  We wanted something for our Christmas card and also we've never really had professional pictures taken of us before (aside from our wedding).  I'll be sure to post the best ones.

3. Yesterday we went to the Jubilee of Trees!  It's St. George's version of the Festival of Trees.  It is definitely not as big as the one in SLC, but I was fine with that.  I was always done about half way through the trees at Festival of Trees anyway.
We had so much fun!  I loved looking at all of the trees but we kind of wished it took place after Thanksgiving because we celebrate every holiday in this family!  No Christmas decor til after Thanksgiving here.  They even gave us slips of paper to vote for our favorite tree.  I also thought it was cute, they let every kid vote for their favorite tree too.  The last 2 awards they were going to give out were Viewers Choice and Kids Choice.  So fun!  Here are the trees we voted for....

I chose this tree.  I loved how it had Santa's workshop underneath.  Pretty awesome!

Dan chose the palm tree Christmas tree.  He said he had to because we live in St. George.

A few other favorites (too bad we could only vote for one).  The Harry Potter tree!  I really just liked the sorting hat on top.  I thought it was pretty clever.

The Angry Birds tree!  This was made by one of the elementary schools.  I thought it was cute how they had the birds shooting at the tree and the tree was tilted.  Oh and one thing I loved about the Jubilee is they had trees in different sections.  They had a whole section of just trees from the elementary schools.  Festival of Trees needs to do that too!  I remember decorating a tree in 5th grade with my class and when I went to see it at the Festival it took FOREVER to find.  Way to be organized, Jubilee!  And sorry I am not mocking Festival of Trees.  I always loved going to Festival of Trees.  I was SO happy to find St. George had a similar event so we could continue the tradition.

That's about all that's been happening in our house.  We are just looking forward to family coming this week for Thanksgiving!

new job

I got a job!  Since I moved here during the middle of last school year, I decided to wait until this school year to find a job.  As much fun as sitting around the house trying to stay busy for the last 7 months have been (ok I really actually have stayed pretty busy... thanks to all our great visitors!), I am looking forward to a change in my routine.

I knew I really wanted to work at the school near our new house because I liked the idea of being able to walk/bike to work (especially here where I don't have to worry about cold/snow days).  Plus it's a great way to get some exercise!  Last year I got very sick of the 25 min. drive to the school I worked at, so for me proximity was a high priority.

After checking the Washington School District (only school district down here) website almost daily, I finally saw a posting at that elementary (it's called Bloomington Hills, in case you are curious).  I was super excited!  It was to be a reading specialist and work with all of the low readers.  I applied and just a few days later got a call from the principal.  I had an interview and felt it went really well.  I really got along with the principal (probably b/c we have the same name) and she told me I would definitely be hearing from her.

A few days later the principal called me and mentioned she had a new position open up.  It was to help in the kindergarten.  Since I already had experience in a kindergarten she thought I might be interested in the position (which I was).  We discussed it a little further and she told me I had to turn in another application (kind of ridiculous, but still had to do the district procedure).  Last week I turned in the application and finally today I heard I got the job!  I figured if the principal called me and told me to apply, then I would get the job.  But it was still nice to officially hear an offer from them.

I will be working in both morning kindergarten classes, but will probably focus more on the kindergarten class with the special ed kids.  I will only work about 3 hours each day.  Sounds so perfect to me and is exactly what I wanted!  I will be done by noon every day and even earlier on Fridays.

I know a lot of people wonder why I haven't applied to be a real teacher.  I do have a degree and a valid teaching license, but I have never really had the desire to be a full time elementary teacher.  I actually went into Early Childhood Education thinking one day I would teach my own preschool.  I still do want to do that, but I'm thinking I'll have to wait until our basement is finished before I try to teach preschool out of our home.  For now aid jobs are perfect for me.  I enjoy being in the schools and working with the kids, but I still have free time to pursue other interests.  In fact I'm already thinking of taking photography classes in the fall and possibly even starting a little craft business where I sell crafts at the local outdoor market.

And I'm sure even more people wonder why we don't have kids yet (although a lot of you already know)... believe me, we would LOVE to have kids.  We just haven't been able to yet, but we're working on growing our family and are seeing a doctor to hopefully help us work towards that goal too.  I guess I don't really have to explain myself, but now you know.  So yes, I am having to come up with a Plan B for my life.  I never planned on working much, so it's been interesting trying to figure out exactly what I want to do with my life.

Lots of changes coming my way!  Can't wait to be in a new house with a new job :).  

goodbye BYU... you will be missed...

I am officially done with college! I just finished typing my last paper ever. It is bitter sweet! Student teaching was definitely one of the hardest things I have ever done, but I did it!

I am going to miss my time at BYU. I can't believe how fast it went by. It seems like just yesterday I was a freshman moving into Heritage Halls, staying up late every night and being crazy with my roommates. It has been a great 4 1/2 years... I met so many awesome people, had a great job on campus, learned so much, grew in my testimony of the gospel, met my adorable husband, and got my degree- I feel very accomplished! And now I'm excited for the future... time to find a real job!

Thanks to everyone who I met along the journey and to everyone who supported me. Especially my parents (who helped me realize the importance of education, and funded the venture), my 3 favorite roommates ever (mel, lacey & lei- even though none of them read this blog), and my husband (who also helped fund my education and put up with me during the stressful times)!

back to school

So i started my co-hort today (teaching in the schools) and i now want to change my major! haha... this is so sad, but i really did not enjoy myself. i think it's because i am in 2nd grade and i really just like teaching preschool. the kids are too old in 2nd grade! that and i just sat and observed for 6 hours, so it got a little boring. i like the teacher though. i am just ready to get this semester over with! anyway, i guess i can't judge it all just by the first day. hopefully tomorrow will be a little better....

catching up

It feels like I haven't blogged for a long time. I always thought that I had an interesting life and that I would have tons to say, but I usually don't even know what to blog about! So here are some random thoughts/updates on what we have been doing....

I have found that I am kind of obsessed with changing my blog background. There are just so many cute ones! I can hardly wait til Christmas comes so I can put up a Christmas one... I'm waiting until after Thanksgiving to do so, although I will admit that I am currently listening to Christmas music! Oh and I decided that I want to learn how to make my own blog backgrounds, anyone know what program the blog background maker people use? It can't be that hard, right??? I've been wanting to make a header for my blog also, so it's not so boring looking, I've got to figure that one out too.

Last weekend Dan and I went on a date! And it was fun! I love going on dates (which we do regularly)! We decided to try out this Mexican restaurant that we always see in Provo on Center Street. It's called Joe Vera's (Dan, did I get the name right???). It was actually really good! And my favorite part was they put the salsa in this cute little bottle. We also saw Dan's ex-girlfriend (little did we know, she works there). I made sure my gorgeous diamond ring was visible at all times :) After dinner we went and saw the musical, "Aida". My work gave me free tickets, so we figured we might as well! We were on the 2nd row and VERY close to the action... it ended up being pretty good. We weren't all that impressed with the music, but the story was good. Although the main characters who were supposed to be in love had probably a 15 year age difference, which made it harder to believe.

I'm excited because I think I have school all figured out. I was planning on graduating in April without a teaching certificate, but then I found out that I will probably be able to student teach in the summer! So I can graduate in August, which works out perfectly for us, because our housing contract is up in August and we don't really want to sign for another year. Then we can just see where Dan's job takes us. I'm really excited because if I do get to student teach during the summer, it will most likely be at the BYU kindergarten! How great is that? Then I don't have to drive far away just to teach. I'm hoping it works out! I think I found out in January or February.

And last news for the day.... I lost my umbrella this week... and it's raining right now :( I brought it to school Monday, but must have left it in the library or something. I am really not looking forward to walking home in the rain.... oh well!