Summer 2011

Every year since Tyler graduated from ISU, he has been teaching summer school in Pocatello for Upward Bound. It is a great job and he loves it! It is sort of a pain in the butt, though, because that means we have to look for a place to live for two months every summer. Thanks to our good friend Dan (again), we had a little pink trailer in the Pink Flamingo trailer park that we were able to stay in this summer. Moving into that pink trailer was the start of a crazy summer!

We came to Pocatello on Wednesday, June 8th. The next day, at 10:00 a.m. Tyler had an interview at William Thomas Middle School in American Falls, Idaho. Two hours later, I recieved a phone call from the man that interviewed him saying that he would like me to go to Idaho State University at 1:30 to meet with the principals of the American Falls Intermediate School and Elementary School for an interview. Tyler got home right after that and told me he had been offered a job as the 8th grade english teacher, and they wanted him so badly that the principal called the other principals and told them to find me a job! So I went and interviewed (well, mostly just sat and listened while the two principals discussed where they could place me) and walked out a half hour later with a job. The only thing I knew about the job was that it would only be part time teacher in the morning, and part time aide in the afternoon. So Tyler and I had a big decision to make... To leave our home in Harper, Oregon to move to American Falls, Idaho, or not. After weeks of thinking, and praying, making up our minds, then changing them, and knowing what we should do, then having no idea what we sould do, we accepted the jobs and made plans to move. Deciding to move was the hardest decision I have ever had to make! But I finally get to have my own classroom!

This summer was really difficult for us. Living in the trailer was not the most fun thing in the world. We appreciate the owners for letting us stay in their house, but it was rough living quarters. We went from wide open spaces at our home in Harper, to neighbors so close that it seemed like they were in our house! The swamp cooler made everything feel damp, and it even gave our poor Charlie yeast infections in his ears! This wasn't the best summer for Tyler at work, either. He just had such wonderful classes last summer that it was a little dissappointing this year. The best part of the summer was having my sister and her two kids here from Arizona! We spent a lot of time playing with Easton and Piper, and loved every minute of it! We also spent a lot of time and money at Kiwi Loco, the new frozen yogurt shop here in town! Our first night in Pocatello, my mom asked us if we wanted to go get frozen yogurt. We went reluctantly. Tyler even called it the most unnecessary thing he had ever heard of, but our first bite completely changed our minds! Every time we went, Tyler would say his yogurt cup was the best thing he has ever made! I did feel really bad for Tyler because while he was at work every day, I spent almost all of those days playing with my mom, sister, and Easton and Piper. Lots of time shopping at the mall, eating frozen yogurt, and just sitting around at my moms house. We even went to Lagoon without him. How rude of me! Thank you, Tyler, for making money so I could spend it!

Another fun part of the summer was Tyler's reunions. He had his ten year reunion and the Musgrove family reunion in Vale, so we got to go home two weekends in a row for that. They were both so much fun! I learned a lot more about my husband than I wanted to from his old high school friends. One friend in particular had a very difficult time with Tyler's lifestyle changes in the past ten years! It was so great to see all of Tyler's family. I married into a wonderful family and I think I was more sad to see that reunion weekend come to end than Tyler was!

The end of the summer has been the most difficult for us. I was so sad when Heather, Easton, and Piper went home. I loved having them around every day. My mom and I drove to Arizona with Heather so she wouldn't have to do it alone. We broke the trip into two days to make the trip easier on Piper. We had a lot of fun. Then we spent two nights in Arizona before flying home. Heather and Jason went to a hotel for the night so my mom and I got to have the kids for one night. It was nice to have a lot of alone time with them before we had to say goodbye. Piper is the sweetest little girl ever, and Easton is just so much fun! I miss them! Then Tyler and I headed back to Harper to say goodbye, pack up, and move away. I'll give the details of that crazy adventure later...

November

November was such a fun month! We had so much going on and it was all great! Tyler and I are huge Boise State football fans and we got to watch them live on the blue turf! We had awesome south endzone seats. I got hit in the head by a football during warmups and it was so freezing that I could hardly stand it, but it was all so worth it to see them kill the Idaho Vandals!

Tyler and I got all decked out in game day Bleed Blue t-shirts and beenies but it was so cold that you couldn't see how cute we looked!
This is me being so freezing that I can't move. I had thermals on, jeans, long socks, two t-shirts, a long sleeve shirt, sweatshirt, coat, scarf, beanie, and a blanket and I was still cold!

That same weekend, Tyler's dad took us to Tucanos to treat Tyler to a birthday dinner (even though his birthday was in September). Yum Yum!

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, we drove over 16 hours to get to Surprise, Arizona to spend the Holiday with my family and my sisters house. The drive was a ride from hell but it was worth it. We had so much fun. It didn't exactly feel like Thanksgiving because of the 80 degree weather, but it was great! When we got to Heather and Jason's house, Easton was up waiting for us and he greated my by taking a pretend bite out of my leg and fake burping in my face. So sweet, huh? This literally did not end the entire visit. Every time I tried to talk to him or play with him he would fake burp at me. This is one of the many times he did that...

Our dinner was so delicious! My mom and dad did an awesome job preparing everything and I loved eating it. Thanksgiving was very different than what I am used to but it was a very nice change. I helped with dinner! I cut celery and put easy cheese on it. I hate that stuff but Heather loves it. After dinner we went outside to enjoy the warm weather and get out of the house, and we were so hyper! Heather has some flower bushes and a lemon tree in her backyard and had way too much fun playing in them. I want to post pictures but Heather would kill me...

We woke up at 3:30 am to do some Black Friday shopping. We hit Kohls first and got a car full of stuff. We had to drop it off before hitting the next store because there wouldn't have been any room in the car for anything else. Then we went to Target, with much less success there, and then Walmart where we once again found way too much stuff that we all wanted. I was so surprised how not crowded the stores were. We had to wait in a very long line at Target, but I still felt like it was dead compared to what I have seen on past Black Fridays.

When we got home, I was trying to rest and Easton didn't want me to. He told me to wake up and was crawling all over me. It's ok though, I love that kid.

After shopping all morning, we went to the mall that evening and shopped some more! It was such a fun trip! I did not want to leave. I loved being able to spend so much time with my family, espcially little Easton! Tyler and I planned on coming home on Sunday but decided to take the longer trip home and leave a day early. The drive through Nevada was so boring that we wanted to go through Utah, and possibly stay at my Grandpas and break the trip up. That was a terrible idea. We were loving the drive and excited that we decided to go that way, until we hit the scariest snow storm ever! It was as we were driving over passes and over mountains and I was so scared I was crying! Then we hit Salt Lake just as the Utah, BYU game was getting out and got stuck in horrible traffic. We decided to just go all the way home but got slowed down, again, by thick, nasty fog! We had such bad luck! But we got home at about 5:00 am and got some sleep. I made Tyler help me put the Christmas tree up that day!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I will be posting pictures and a more detailed review of the week soon, but right now I just wanted to comment on this Thanksgiving day. We traveled over 16 hours to be in Arizona with my family. It was a long, boring, miserable drive but we are glad we made it here. I am grateful for the time I am getting to spend with my family. I am thankful that I had the opportunity to come to Arizona to see Heather and her family and thier new home. I am thankful for the yummy food that we got to eat today and to my parents for all of it. There are so many other things that I am so thankful for but most of all, I am thankful for my husband! I sure love him! I really missed the rest of my family that I didn't get to spend the day with. I love you guys! I hope everyone else had a fantastic Thanksgiving!

Shafer Update

I have had a few requests lately for a blog update so here it is. I tried to take some pictures with my camera that doesn't really work, but here we are...

Tyler is grading papers. This is his very favorite part about teaching... NOT! He puts it off a little too much, then has to bring it home with him to catch up on it for grade checks. The elementary part of Harper has a wonderful lady, Evelyn Winslow, that comes and does grading for the teachers, so I rarely have grading to do.

This is me on a day off of work. It is Veterans Day and we had no school so I did not get dressed up. I am also in the process of growing out my bangs (because there is not anyone I trust to cut them the way I want out here), so they are really long and I look a little hideous right now.

And this is Charlie dancing around on his hind legs. It's a little blurry because of the quality of my camera, but he jumps up like this everytime I come home from work and we high-five, so I wanted to share it.

I don't know!?!

So, there we are, enjoying a day off of work. I thought I would just catch you all up on what's been going on since I last made a post. Tyler's football season took a huge hit and made a downward spiral since my last post about how great the season was going. Somehow, the team sort of fell apart. There were very few days that all the boys showed up to practice and it's hard to work on plays when there is not enough people to fill all the positions. There was a huge wave of sickness that spread through Harper School and it seemed like half the team got it at the same time. Tyler still kept his spirits up about it but after the third game, they ended up playing all the rest of the games with only eight guys. The boy I bragged about earlier decided not to show up to a game once, and they totally would have won but it's hard when the other team has twice as many guys and we have no subs. The next week there was a death in the family of another boy, so we don't balme him for not being there then, but that was another win we had to give up. The rest of the season was plagued with injuries and they had to run many plays with only seven guys. Harper is by far the smallest team in the league but they still played so hard and didn't let that get them down. Even with all the crap, we are still proud of the boys. Tyler praises them because they never got discouraged and never gave up even though it seemed everything was against them. He had a great support group of parents this year and he is still happy with the season. It would have been nice to have a few more wins though. Tyler is now getting ready to start the basketball season. He is only coaching the high school girls team this year and we are really hoping for a good season. The girls have a ton of potential.

There is not much new going on with me. I am still teaching and loving it. I had my first Parent Teacher Conferences! I was so nervous but I thought they went pretty well. It's nice only having eight students, because that means only eight conferences. It is not very much fun telling parents their student isn't doing well in any subject, so I am so glad I have such a smart class (with exceptions here or there). If there is one thing I have learned about parent-teacher relations it is that too many parents think their kids can do no wrong and don't like being told they aren't always perfect in school. Again, I was so glad I have such a good group of students and too much talking is the only problem I have in my class. Parents usually agree that their child talks too much! Any other tiny behavioral issues I may have had seemed to be brushed off by every parent as cute or funny or something! So frustrating! Anyway... I am halfway done with my full time substitute job and it makes me very sad. It is definitely not going to be easy leaving my class in the January.

I wish there was more to report, but we pretty much do the same thing every day. Our lives are going to get a little more exciting for a while, though. On Friday, Tyler and I are going to visit the Boise temple to do an Endowment session. It will be the first time back since we were sealed and I am so excited. We planned to go once a month, but man, the time flew by. Football consumed every weekend and pretty soon basketball will. We are going to try to make a more conscious effort to get there monthly. On Saturday, we are going to the Boise State football game against Idaho! We are so pumped for that. We have awesome seats and can't wait to see the Broncos up close!! We will be making a long trip to Heather and Jason's house in Arizona for Thanksgiving. We are really excited for that, but not the sixteen hour drive! I will give updates on those events after they pass!

What's New?

It has been a while since I updated this thing. I don't think anybody but myself even looks at it, but I will just keep myself posted then. :) I wish I had new pictures, but my broken camera makes it difficult to take pictures.

September was an exciting, frustrating, and satisfying month. In August, I started working as the 3rd and 4th grade teacher at Harper School. I am working as a full time teacher, but for only part of the school year. I get to fill in for the teacher I did my student teaching with while she stays home with her precious new baby girl. I am lucky because my first time as a teacher is in a classroom I already new, full of resources I wouldn't have had in any other first time job. My second year of teaching is going to be the rough one, but at least I will have this much experience to work from! I am loving teaching. I had to jump through many hoops to get my teaching degree but it is so worth it. My diploma was mailed to my mom's house today. I can't wait to see it because I think once I see my diploma, and hold it in my hand, I will actually feel like I am graduated. Being at Harper sort of feels exactly the same as my student teaching, and I missed the graduation ceremony, so I am really excited about that diploma. Six year, thousands of dollars, and much stress later, I finally graduated!! Getting my Oregon teaching license was a huge pain in the butt, a lot of stress, and my wallet took a huge hit, but I finally got that too!!

Tyler started his first year as athletic director and first season as the solo head football coach for Harper High School. He was the assistant coach for a couple years, and had a great man to learn from, so he is doing great! He wishes he had an assistant coach, but school budgets were cut so much that he has to do it alone. He has such a good group of boys this year. Last year, the boys had really bad attitudes, and he didn't think coaching was something he wanted to do anymore. This year the guys are so coachable and have great attitudes (of course there is drama here and there, they are high schoolers) and Tyler likes coaching again. Which is great because he is so good at it. Now the athletic director thing... not so worth it. Very little pay and tons of work. It will look great on his resume though! Harper plays in an eight man league. Tyler has nine guys. There is only one sub, but thanks to the new boy in town, Brad, Harper is definitely holding there own. So far, Harper has won two of their three games. That's a pretty good start for Harper. We are hoping for a good season and a great rest of the year.

We are hoping for a lot this year. We are trying to enjoy the sometimes draining presence that is Harper. We are spoiling Charlie way too much lately because we feel bad that he is home alone so much. We are all doing pretty darn good!

August 15, 2009

Tyler and I celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary on August 9! We had already celebrated the week before, since the 9th was on a Sunday. Tyler's mom saved our wedding cake for us and we got to eat it! It was so delicious! It tasted exactly as it did on the day we were married! From what I hear, that doesn't happen very often. Thank you Linda for wrapping it up so tight, keeping it fresh and yummy! The best part of our anniversary was that it marked the day that we could go through the temple and be sealed as an eternal family. On Saturday, August 15, 6 days after our anniversary, Tyler and I were endowed and sealed in the Bountiful Temple in Bountiful Utah. It was the most important day of our lives and we are so glad we set and achieved that goal.

We chose to go through the Bountiful temple because all of my family had to travel to Oregon for our civil marriage and I thought it was only fair that Tyler's side travel this time. Unfortunately, that made it so very few of Tyler's immediate and Oregon residing family were able to be with us. We are so greatful for those that did make that trip to Utah to be there: Linda, Grandma Jean, and Sean and Krista! Our good friends Steve and Allyson came from pocatello to go through with us and we were so happy to have them there! Tyler's Uncle Tom, Suzzette, Aunt Lee and Gary, and his cousin Eric and his wife all came, and we were so glad they could be there! Unfortunately, everyone but Sean and Krista stayed in Draper, UT the night before and got stuck in traffic on the way to the temple. Lee and Gary made it but Tyler's mom and Grandma Jean missed our endowment session. Stupid Utah traffic!! Of my family, my mom and dad, Heather and Jason, my aunt Becky, Grandma, Grandpa and Patsy, and cousin Hillarie and Jeremy were there. It was nice to have them there with me! My aunt Lynette, and all of Becky's kids were outside waiting for us after the sealing and I loved to walk out and see my family there. I love my family so much! I was pretty sad that my brother and sister weren't there, but at least Emilee was at the house waiting for us with little Easton when we got back to Grandpas. After our sealing, we had a lunch at Grandpa and Patsy's house. It was good eating! Unfortunately, none of the pictures that we took outside the temple were very flattering for either of us, so I don't have any to share. I didn't wear a wedding dress or anything, and since it wasn't really our "wedding day" we didn't worry too much about the pictures. It makes me sad, but I guess we should have done it right the first time and I would have the pictures I want, right.

Thank you Grandpa and Patsy for letting us use your house, and to everyone that helped with the food. And most importantly, thank you to everyone that was there to share in the most important day of our lives. Tyler and I can't wait to go back to the temple!

More Summer Fun

Tyler's summer school job ended on August 31, so we finally get to have a few weeks of vacation and together time. It started off with a bang! Our Anniversary was August 9, but since there is nothing to do in Harper, we decided to celebrate it in Pocatello before we moved home. Tyler got us a room at the Black Swan Inn, and we stayed in the beautiful Garden Suit. It was extremely expensive, so we decided not to get each other gifts, but the room was worth it. We had a jet tub and a dry sauna in our room and a huge tv! We loved it. After that, we got to go to Utah with my family and go to the Hogle Zoo and Lagoon! We had such a good time. The best part was watching Easton experience these places for the first time! He was so funny and so much fun! I am still convinced he is the cutest boy ever! He loved the rides at Lagoon! Tyler did better this year at Lagoon than the first summer we dated. He was terrified of the rides the first time, but he actually enjoyed himself and went on rides this time! It was so fun. My cousin Hillary and her husband Jeremy came too and I am so glad they did! It was fun spending time with them, and me and Hillary have many memories of Lagoon together! We got to go to Lagoona Beach and my dad rented tubes for us to share and we had such a blast sliding and swimming. I felt like I was 10 years old again at the water park! I don't have any pictures of us at Lagoon, but here are some from the Zoo! Enjoy!

This weekend, the 15, Tyler and I are going to be sealed in the Bountiful temple and we cannot wait! It will also be my goodbye to Heather, Jason, and Easton. It is going to be such a bitter-sweet weekend. I will tell you more about it when it's all done!