Pictures of our Trip

Read previous post for details about where these pictures are from. :) Enjoy!

Exciting Times

Phil and I have had some exciting events unfold in the past few days. For the past few months we have been talking about moving out of state to Colorado. You may ask, "Why Colorado?" We love the mountains, we want to move somewhere a bit more affordable than southern Cal. Another bonus is that my sister and bro-in-law are planning on moving near us this summer. We were told by Phil's work that there are almost no job openings in Colorado because they aren't growing there and we decided that we may have to move this summer with no jobs. The Lord, however, had other plans.

One and a half weeks ago, Phil saw a position for a claims adjuster for Progressive in Glenwood Springs, Co. (The town we were interested in moving to). He decided to apply for it. However, when he went to apply, there was an in-house network position open. He applied for that a week ago Monday. Last Wednesday, they called him and said they wanted to fly him to CO (all expenses paid) to meet him and so he could see the area. I was able to go as well but would have to purchase my own ticket. We
got our tickets within 2 days and were in Colorado from Friday night to Monday night. It was an amazing trip. His work paid for our hotel, rental car, Phil's ticket and even some food. We had a great time enjoying the beauty of CO and we even got to enjoy Sunlight Mountain snowboarding in Glenwood Springs.

On Monday, Phil was interviewed in Denver and a few hours later was offered the job! We are MOVING TO COLORADO! It has been amazing to see how the doors have just flown open beyond our wildest dreams. His company is going to help us with the move by packing up our house, transporting everything, unloading everything, helping us find
an apartment in CO and SO MUCH MORE! I get so excited about what's happening and then I find out something else exciting a few hours or a day later!

Phil will be out in Colorado this time next month. I will be staying in CA until my spring break so I can wrap up the semester, write report cards etc. Although it's not ideal that I'm moving in the middle of the schoolyear, I believe things will work out there as well. I just wanted to share my exciting news with all of my blog readers. (Hey, do you like my new little map that tells me where all of my readers are from!? I think it's really cool!)


Enjoy the pictures of beautiful Colorado. All pictures are either on the road from Denver to Glenwood Springs, in Glenwood Springs or at Sunlight Mountain. You'll notice one of the pictures is a sign for the town of "No Name, Colorado." We drove into it briefly as it's right next to Glenwood Springs. The actual name of the town is "No Name"...funny huh?

Goodbye June

A picture of me at June Mountain last year.

Phil started teaching me how to snowboard only 2 weeks after we started dating back in 2001. That first season we just went to 2 resorts and I got my "snow legs" under me. The next season and every year since then we have faithfully purchased season passes to June Mountain. June is located about 20 miles north of Mammoth in the Eastern Sierra Mountains of CA. June is our snowboarding "home." Both Phil and I love that mountain. The people are friendly, the snow is great (usually), we can sleep in our car and use their restrooms at night (they leave them unlocked), the town is small but cozy. All in all, we love June.

This season, we once again purchased our June season passes back in December. Due to a lack of snowfall they were not open at our anniversary which is usually about the time for our first trip of the season. We decided to wait until a snowstorm hit before driving all the way to June. Unfortunately, for us and June, that snowstorm has never come. Yesterday, as Phil faithfully checked the website to see how the base is holding up he found out that they were CLOSING FOR THE SEASON! We haven't been once this season. This is very sad news for us, especially if we move out of state because we may never get another chance to go to June again. So you ask, "What happens to your season passes? Do they give you a refund?" No...no refund.

Phil and I paid approximately $350/person for our passes this year. Instead of a refund, they have done something even better! Now, as a result of June closing, their sister moutain is allowing us to ski there with our passes. Their sister mountain is Mammoth and a season pass to Mammoth costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,500!! We have officially been upgraded! Pretty sweet deal if you ask us. We are still going to miss our litte June mountain but we're excited to snowboard on the expanse of Mammoth this season. If we are both well, we should be heading up this weekend for our first Mammoth trip. How exciting is that? I bet the people who paid all that money for a Mammoth pass were wishing they had purchased a June pass instead!



Me standing next to the snow level at Mammoth LAST year!! They weren't lacking snow then!

Sick

In my mind, being a teacher is one of the hardest jobs to have when you're sick. If you're really sick, you have to write lesson plans which tend to take FOREVER. Then, when you return, the classroom needs to be reorganized and lots of papers have to be taken care of whether from the office or the students. Quiet often, when I am sick I choose to go into work because it is sometimes easier to be present than trying to write sub plans and get them to school before 8:00 AM.

I haven't been feeling well for a few days and on Wednesday morning at 3:30 AM I woke up knowing that I should not be going into work that morning. So, at 3:30, I logged onto the sub system and requested a sub and wrote lesson plans for 45 minutes. At 4:15ish or a little later, I finally dragged myself back to bed to try to attempt sleep. I wanted to warn Phil not to wake me up in the morning when he saw me still in bed when his alarm went off but I couldn't do that without waking him up. So, when his alarm went off he got really scared for me because his alarm wakes up 5 minutes before the bell rings for me to pick up my students. (If I really do oversleep and wake up to Phil's alarm, I will be in BIG TROUBLE!) Anyways, I stayed home, slept in, relaxed, read, and took drugs to clear my head (I'm fighting sinus/head nastiness). Alas, nothing has worked and I feel just as bad if not worse than I did this morning. So, I had to call in for another sub and write MORE lesson plans. It's really hard writing lesson plans when you don't know exactly what was covered in the classroom today. Yes, I know what work I assigned but that doesn't mean it was covered. I don't know if I'm giving too much or too little. It all depends on the sub. So, tomorrow, I am definitely calling the doctor to see if I can't get something that will kill this sickness. Hopefully by Friday I'll be back in the classroom and able to catch up. I do NOT want to be writing anymore sub plans for a LONG time!!!!

SNOW!

Well, for those of you who don't have the pleasure of experiencing a Southern California "snowstorm" we had one this week! Now, before you East Coaster's get too excited, a snowstorm here means that a few blobs (not necessarily flakes) of some white stuff fall from the sky. However, Wednesday morning about 9:00 AM as we were sitting in class half of my students were VERY distracted by other students who were outside. It sounded like a rambunctious gym class so I told them to sit down and focus and to ignore what was happening outside. Well, we were just about to head out to another classroom when I looked out and realized it was snowing-of sorts. So, of course, I told the kids to go outside so they could enjoy it. Although I didn't let them run around the field like some other classes, I did allow them to enjoy the pleasure of a few specks of snow falling on them. They pretended to try to gather it for a snowball but of course there wasn't nearly enough. The ground turned slightly white (not covered) but enough to stay for a little while. I let the kids hang outside for about 5 minutes until it started just turning to slush/rain. They were so excited! Some of them were screaming and running in circles. We then headed to our next class. It rained quite a bit after that and then later that day it snowed again after lunch. The poor kids wanted it to snow during recess but alas, it was not to be. I'm glad to say that I have officially seen it snow in Southern CA.

Today there was a lot of ice on the ground at school and of course the kids could not be disuaded from "ice-skating". We warned them to stay off but they had to slip, slide and fall. Although I half-heartedly warned them to stay off the ice, I know that if I were a kid I would be doing the same thing. It's hard being a teacher while still a kid at heart. :)

Haircut Pictures

Well, here's 2 pics of my new haircut. It's growing on me but it's still hard to get used to.

Christmas Break

This post is dedicated to Rachel O as she became the squeaky wheel that restarted my blog. Sorry to all who read. I usually try to blog more frequently. I can't say I don't have time as an excuse as I still haven't returned to teaching from my winter break. I go back next Tuesday.

Here's a little update.

I taught until the Thursday before Christmas and used the remaining few days to catch up on shopping and Christmas errands. Phil and I were going to have to stay down in LA and not spend Christmas with family since Phil doesn't get a lot of time off of work. Everything was going great until about 2 am on Christmas Eve. I woke up with the stomach flu and was sicker than I have ever been with it before. After my body emptied itself of nearly all of my bodily fluids (or so it seemed) I could barely get out of bed on Christmas Eve. I opted to sleep in bed with my cell phone by my side as my caller for Phil. I didn't even have the energy to call out for him if I needed something. He took very good care of me and of course I called my mom and told her that I needed my mommy. Unfortunately, she couldn't make the trip but the talk was comforting.

Needless to say, Christmas day was spent by ourselves. We didn't go anywhere or see anyone. I was at least able to get out of bed but still didn't have energy to do much. Not the most thrilling Christmas ever but Phil and I had a nice quiet time.

After Christmas I got to work on my to do list. This included reading, cleaning, shopping and a few other odds and ends. On the 31st I drove up to my parents in Redding. They knew I was coming at some point to visit they just didn't know when. I called them when I was about half-way to let them know I would be there that night. I hadn't really set a time to leave so I neglected to call them because I didn't want to be rushed...I ended up rushing them to get ready. (Sorry Mom and Dad!)

My sister, bro-in-law and beautiful niece, Bekah, drove up to Redding on the first. All of us enjoyed a nice relaxing week talking, playing with Bekah and of course playing Settler's of Catan! Great game! Sarah and Chris purchased Seafarers, Cities and Knights and the expansions for us for Christmas. We are thuroughly enjoying them!

On Thursday, my mom helped me drive back to Southern Cal. She helped drive in the beginning and helped keep me awake in the end. It was a beautiful drive most of the way down but got pretty stormy going over the Grapevine. While at our place, Mom helped me refinish my sewing machine table. Thanks Mom! I'll have to post pics later. I haven't got any of the finished product yet.

After I dropped Mom off at LAX on Tuesday I decided to get my hair chopped...yes, not cut, chopped. Well, it's chopped. I really wanted a change and I got one. I don't really like it. I can live with it until it grows out but quite honestly, I wish I hadn't had so much cut off. But hey, I went with it and it's done. Now I just have to figure out how to keep it out of my eyes. It's about chin length with layers cut higher than that. Kind of makes my head look bigger and rounder.

Oh yeah! My mom got me started on a series called the Galway Chronicles by Bodie and Brock Thoene which I thuroughly enjoyed! I started them about a week and a half ago and just finished the last one today. (There are 4). Great books!

Well, other than procrastinating about my lesson plans for next week, that's about all I've been up to in the many weeks I haven't blogged. Hope all my readers are doing well. Sorry about the lack of pics this post. I'll try to do better next time! God bless.

Boarding and the Beach

On Monday, December 18, 2006, Phil and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary. We had wanted to go snowboarding for the weekend but June Mountain where we have passes doesn't have enough snow so it's not open. We hemmed and hawed and at about 1:30 AM on the day of our Anniversary we decided we would go snowboarding in the morning...after we woke up. So, after about 4 hours of sleep we dragged ourselves out of bed and drove to Mountain High. We had a nice time on the mountain although we weren't used to the lift lines because June doesn't usually have lines. We left the mountain after about 4 1/2 hours of boarding and drove home, took a nap and then jumped back in the car and drove out to the beach! We've always wanted to go snowboarding and to the beach in one day. Now we can say we've done it. We enjoyed a nice dinner in a "Chicago Ribs" restaurant and then we ran out onto the beach in the pitch black and took some pictures. We were going to watch a movie as well but decided we were too tired and we headed home. All in all, we had a GREAT day!!

Christmas Tree (the real one) & Decorating

Well, today Phil and I actually went hunting for OUR Christmas tree. We went to the tree lot that is owned by one of my student's parents. (No, I didn't get a discount...although I wish we had!) We walked in, looked around briefly and then met a worker who was going to show us some new trees that had just come in. I saw one in a stand while he was talking to us and I said, "How about this one Phil?" He looked and we took it. Pretty easy trip. We toted the tree home and set it up. I think it looks beautiful and I LOVE having the house decorated for Christmas. It's such a nice time of year! One of my favorite things I did today was decorate my railing. It turned out beautiful. After I took these pictures, I set up my Nativity that I received from Katie Coffin and her mom for my bridal shower. I LOVE it and set it up on my new buffet. It looks so perfect there. Anyways, enjoy the pics.

Phil came home the other day and found Puma sleeping in our wreath. We had to take it off of the door temporarily because it had been painted. Here's a cute picture of Puma sitting in it. I couldn't get one of her sleeping in it.
















My beautiful stair railing















Our pretty tree




































A Christmas hanging made with love by
Great Grandma Della. She gave it to me last Christmas.

Christmas Tree Hunting with the Kuhners

Well, it's been awhile since I posted. I had a MARVELOUS time with the Kuhner's up North! Phil was able to come up as well which made it that much more special. I LOVED seeing my beautiful niece for the first time and I got lots of quality cuddle time with her while I was there! Definitely makes me want a little one...especially since I wasn't the one getting up in the middle of the night to feed her. Unfortunately, I took more pics on Sarah & Mom's camera than my own and didn't end up getting their pics before I left. I do have some cute ones I took when we went Christmas tree hunting with the Kuhner's and they're Sunday School class. Phil and I had a fun time hunting for trees of our own (even though we weren't planning on flying them back on the plane with us). Here's what we came up with!

First, Phil wanted a nice big "manly" tree.



















I liked this one because it had lots of cute pine-cones.
(Um..the picture wouldn't load!) Grrrr.

Next, Phil picked out a tree small enough to take with us.
(Again wouldn't load)

I then thought this tree looked like a good spot to sit...unfortunately, it wasn't very comfortable so we left it behind.





















My sister, Sarah, thought this tree would be very easy to water and it would have ample space to stack presents under. Unfortunately, Chris didn't give his vote in favor of the tree.

(As you can see, we had a lot of fun!)










I got a cute picture of Sarah & Bekah sitting on an old wagon. Aren't they cute!?