From the Beginning Until Now...

Since I just started this journal about our lives together, I thought I would do a quick recap of what we have been up to until this point. Well, after our honeymoon Tyler had to get right back to work. He works at Harper School as the English teacher for grades 7 through 12. We actually live in the school parking lot in a house that was placed there for the superintendent because Harper is in the middle of nowhere and most people commute. The current superintendent doesn't want to live in Harper, so we get to rent it for very cheap! It is a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house and we actually love it!

Our first FaLL together was very busy. I began my online classes, and they were the most time consuming, difficult things I have ever done! If it wasn't for Tyler's help, I never would have finished them. He felt obligated to help because I would have been able to have an easy 12 credit semester if I hadn't gotten married, which moved me to Oregon. It was worth it though! Aside from the constant homework frenzy, our weekends were filled with football. Tyler coached the junior high football team, and was the assistant/defensive line coach for the high school team. I was their number 1 fan!

The Holidays were so fun, but quite different than what I am used to. I had my first Thanksgiving away from my family and it was hard, but I really enjoyed my time with Tyler's side. We had a family member get hurt playing football that morning, so we had to step in and help get the dinner ready. It was the most either of us had ever helped for a big dinner before. I was fun! We spent Christmas in Pocatello/Utah with my family. It was the worst weather I have ever seen on Christmas and the men of the fam spent a good portion of the morning trying to get Jason's car unstuck in the snow that had accumulated over night. My dads truck got stuck when he went to help! Luckily a snow plow came and got them both out! We braved the snowstorm and drove to Utah to be with the rest of my family. That was a dumb idea! It was so ScArY over the Malad pass! It took twice as long to get there! Although we weren't going to be in our home for the Holiday, we still wanted a Christmas Tree for our house. We bought a huge, fake tree and had very few decorations, but I loved it!

After the New Year, I started student teaching at the same school Tyler works at. I was so nervous! I had nightmares about it for months! I started on January 12, 2009 in Mrs. Anderson's 3rd and 4th grade combined class. It was such a great experience! It made me even more sure that teaching is what I want to do with my life. I got the best experience I could have had out of that semester. I had to have a University Supervisor come and evaluate my teaching on six different occasion, and I did not like him! He was a little pompous, and a little hypocritical, but I passed! I will always remember those students as my first students ever! The teacher I worked with is having a baby and asked me to take over her class for the first half of the school year this fall! I am so excited to be back with half of them (the ones in the 3rd, moving up to the 4th grade).
SpRiNg was also filled with more than my student teaching. Tyler coached the boys AND girls high school basketball teams and it was a time consuming task! I loved it all though! His teams didn't do so well, but definitely improved from the previous year, and from the beginning to the end. He is a great coach! He decided that next year he is only going to coach the girls because it is a young team that shows lots of promise. This picture is of his boys team at the district tournament in John Day, Oregon.

And then school ended! Tyler had a rough year, with terrible students (and parents) so we were so happy to say good ridance to this school year! We had the summer to look forward to. Tyler teaches summer school on the ISU campus for the Upward Bound program. This is his fourth summer doing it. So, we packed up and moved to Pocatello. We are renting a house near campus, Tyler is working, and I am finishing my last class. I can't wait to be done with Idaho State University forever! (Not done with school though. Grad school is next... just don't know where yet.) We feel so bad for Charlie because he is used to open land and freedom to roam about, and he can't do that in the big city. Coming back to Pocatello made us realize we love small towns. Wierd, huh! This summer has been fun. I have been spending as much time as possible with Heather, Jason, and Easton because they are moving to Arizona for dental school in August. I am sad they are leaving, but excited for them to experience this next phase in life. This summer I celebrated my 24th birthday! We spent the 4th of July with my family, and I went to a family reunion in Feron Utah (don't ever go there!). It has been fun. Here are some pictures that depict our summer experience!