Christmas Tree

Well, here are some of the pictures people have been wanting to see. It is our very first Christmas Tree!!! It STILL is not complete... my childhood ornaments are still at my mom's house so those will soon be added. But we do have presents under it now! :)

Jon getting some ornaments ready

...and more

Our tree is up and ready for lights!

the lights and star are on

All done! Complete with presents :)

Here is a little bonus picture of our stockings!!! We do not have a mantle above our fireplace so we had to put the stocking hangers on the edge of a table in the living room. Works for now.

Holiday's are here!

Well, this is my favorite time of year! I absolutely love the snow, christmas lights, family, and of course food :) Everyone is so happy around the holidays. I cannot wait to bake cookies with my grandma and make pies with Jon. He is a great pie maker! Jon and I put up our Christmas tree already, I know it is a little early but we wanted to see what it looked like before my family goes to cut down their real one, that way if it was not pretty we could get one too. I LOVE it though! It is perfect and Jon and I had so much fun decorating it. We still have to add all of my ornaments from my mom's house. That will give us something to do this weekend after Thanksgiving. I will post pictures when it is complete!

Married Life

Well, it has been 3 months now that we have been married. 1/4 of a year! So far so good. I just figured out a cleaning schedule and list of chores that need to be done every week thanks to a recent friend Kristina!!! Thanks :) I am starting to get into the swing of things around here with dinners and subbing. Now I feel I am ready to tackle a weekly cleaning routine. I will let you know how it goes soon. I probably will not start it for two weeks because Jon and I are house sitting for my Aunt and Uncle next week, and this week is almost over.

Jon is loving his job as a meter reader, and so am I! He is home everyday by 4:00. It is so nice to be able to get home around the same time and have some down time before dinner and nightly chores.

So far subbing is pretty great for me. I have definitely discovered I like the 3rd graders and older kids much more than the youngins... not that I do not love the young kids, but the older kids are so much more independant and cooperative! It just makes the day so much easier when you only have to explain something once, and only occasionally twice. Pretty sure I am hoping for a 3rd or 4th grade job for next year over a kindergarten one!

A side note:
I am planning my parents suprise 25th wedding anniversary party and my mom is not cooperating! UGH! She is blowing all of my ideas of how to get them there. I am trying to convince her to have family pictures taken with my grandparents but she is not liking that idea. Just an FYI for those of you coming up on your 25th, or a birthday or anything... if you know you have something big coming up and your kids tell you to be somewhere for something... JUST DO IT! I might have to just give in and tell her about the party and make her feel really bad about ruining her suprise.

On another note...
Just some exciting news:
Jon and I got our wedding album in the mail today! It turned out so nice, I absolutely love it!

Catching Up

I have a lot of catching up to do! I promise it will come soon. I need to blog about our wedding, honeymoon, moving, and married life!!! There is a lot to tell but I have no time now. Hopefully tonight!!!

June

Well June has successfully flown by. Next weekend is the last weekend in June! Which means HOOPFEST! My life has been consumed by last minute wedding details and bridal showers. I cannot wait to go and watch some street ball and just relax next weekend. Then it will be back to the grit and grime of last minute craziness :) I am fully enjoying every minute of planning a wedding, but I also am so ready for the final product and our new life! We went and got our apartment tuesday. I am in love with it. I cannot wait to move in all of our things and start our new life on our own. It will be stressfull and scary I am sure, but much needed!

Wrapping Up

Well, we did it! We are officially Teachers! Graduation was so much fun, we got to see all of our friends again and remember what it is like to actually be in a college town. These past four years have definitely been the best years of our lives. We look forward to our wedding day that is quickly approaching and cannot wait to move out into our own place to call home :)

April 8th

WOW! February 27th was the last time I was on here. That seems like so long ago, time flies! Well, a lot has been going on since then I dont even know where to start. Maybe I should get better at blogging on a daily basis. The newest news in our lives is that we both got new eyeware. Haha. Jon is trying out contacts and I have new glasses. I still am battling with the fit though. I have gone in twice now to have them adjusted... that is the drag, but once I get them right I will be set for another two years. Yippee! Not much else going on other than the countdown until graduation. I am done student teaching in only 3 weeks!!! Can you believe it?? Jon only has 4 more weeks. It will be so nice to be able to take a day off and just relax... then I will probably head back to sub :) Well, that is all for now.

Another side of Jon

Well, last night Jon and I were over at a friends house playing farkle and we had tons of fun. It was here that I saw another side of Jon. As we were waiting to start the game Lisa was holding Nikki's baby and Jon was sitting in a chair next to her. He started playing with the baby and talking about how cute Ryker is. It amazed me! Usually Jon runs at the sight of a baby. Then when we got back to my aunt and uncles house (we are house sitting and watching their two beagles) he started playing with the dogs and even let them sleep in his bed!!! He now wants a dog! I have been trying to convince him forever and in all this time waiting I have talked myself out of wanting pets... oh gosh. Well, I guess maybe next year we can think about a dog haha. Talk at ya'll soon!

Tim McGraw!

Amidst all of this stress I have found a way out. Jon and I are going to the Tim McGraw concert in May! I cannot wait for that day to come. That day will mean lot's of fun, but also I will be near the end of stress! I am sure a whole new batch of stress will find its way into my life :)

Bring on the Stress

This semester is flying by. Being with Kindergarteners sure is different than second grade! I love my class and my mentor teacher. However, I cannot wait to have my own classroom. But I guess with my own classroom comes a lot of stress.

Recently I have been making resume's, cover letters, getting letters of reccomendation, and trying to make a professional portfolio website for myself. So far so good, I am done with my resume and cover letter, along with an application for a school district. Now I just need those letters of reccomendation and my website. Wish me luck. I am just a bit stressed out.

As the semester flies by with the blink of an eye, I seem to be getting more things on my plate. Not only am I trying to get everything squared away with graduating and finding a job, but I have to worry about getting certified in two states. Also comes the stress of planning this wedding. Everything is happening all at once, but does that mean it will all be over at once? I sure hope so! I cannot wait to relax and not have to do so many things.

I hope I do not go nuts in these next coupole months!

Christmas

Well, Christmas was great this year. It was my and Jon's last Christmas with our families. Next year will be our first Christmas as the Rowley's :) I cannot wait for that day.

Seeing family was so good. I love getting together and just talking with family. We all had a great time and lots of food! This year we had crab, shishcabobs, salads, and lots of goodies and dips. It was great! Tons of family came and even some friends. I cannot wait for next year's Christmas.

The rest of break will be spent skiing, playing our new wii and wii fit, and relaxing before I hit the kindergarten classroom and Jon hits the third grade! Wish us luck :)

Engagement PIctures

We got our engagement pictures back finally. I love them! They all turned out so good it was hard to pick just one for our 8 x 10 but we finally did. I will upload a few for you to see :)

It's Been A While

Sorry I have not stayed on top of the website! We have been busy lately with student teaching and wedding plans. The day after Thanksgiving we bought our wedding bands on sale! It was a great deal and we both love our rings.

We went wedding cake tasting a few weekends ago and think we know what type of design we want. We also loboth loved the white cake with lemon filling. Jon liked the chocolate cake with mint, and I also liked the carrot cake, and white cake with raspberry filling. We are not sure yet which flavors we are going with but I cannot wait to eat it on the day of our wedding!

Today we have another marriage prep meeting with Deacon Doug. We get to see our results from the quiz we took. I hope we agree on most of the things! I am nervous to see what we do not agree on. Hopefuly they are not big issues that we disagree on. Well, I will hopefully be better at updating :) Talk at you soon!

The Simple Things in Life

As I sat by my computer today the screen saver caught my eye. I realized all of the pictures are of me and my sister. Often we choose to pick at each other and fight. But it is the times we are together that we have the most fun and the best memories are made. I am making a pact to not care about the small nit picky things in life, but rather the larger more simple things in life. Like the joy of having a sister to hang out with. I am going to try to think of fun things her and I can do together. I am also going to try to not care about the things in her life I do not agree with, and rather just be thankful that my life is perfect and exactly what I always dreamt it to be. If anyone has any fun suggestions we can go do let me know :)

A September to Remember

September was a crazy month. Wedding planning came to a hault, and student teaching rushed into my life full force. Jon and I are both loving student teaching. He is in a 1st grade at Evergreen and I am in a 2nd grade at Deer Park Elementary. I wish I could go observe him for a day because I think he is great with the kids.

In my classroom there is a lot of low income families. It really opened my eyes when I got there. I love those kids so much and cannot wait to go back each Monday. They teach me so much while testing my patience, but I love it. I have already been observed twice by my Supervisor who is also my Principal. She says I am doing great and that she has never seen a student teacher who can make it look so easy and like they have been doing it for years. That dfinitely made me excited! I absolutely love the school I am in and really hope to get a job there someday. The staff is amazing and so is my mentor teacher!

Right now in Science we have insects. The kids love them, but I on the other hand hate them! There is so much work to do with those stupid things. You have to feed them, give them new water (which is fruit or veggies), care for them, and throw away the nasty stinky ones that have died. It takes so much time! Even when you make the kids do it. I will be glad when we get our Butterflies and just have one class culture and not 23 individual containers!

As for wedding planning goes, there is not much yet. But next week I am sure I will start again. We get our engagement pictures done tomorrow so then we can make our save the dates and send them out! YAY! Another check off of the list :)

Hope everyone is doing well in school and student teaching!

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

Yesterday was a great day. First I met some OLD friends for coffee and lunch. We had an amazing time. I always love getting to catch up with high school friends. It seems that good friends will always stay the same and conversation is easy. I love having such great friends!

I also went dress shopping yesterday. It was very fun because it was my third time going. I found out some NEW things that I like and dislike and overall it was very productive. I think I may have found the one, but I have to look one more place first or I will always wonder.

As I was dress shopping a lady came in to have her last dress fitting. She looked great in the dress, but it was one of the top 3 dresses I liked. Although it was nice seeing it one someone and having it a perfect fit, I felt as though if I chose that dress it would almost be BORROWED. I would not feel like it was my dress... but that's ok because as I kept trying on the top 3 #2 was still my favorite :)

So now today I want to go to one last store to finalize my decision making, but I have to round someone up to go with me! I am sure Katie will go if she does not have work, but who knows what her schedule is. After today is over I get to head to the lake! I am so excited. It is a much needed relaxation period at the end of a long week! The lake is so gorgeous this time of year with its rolling waters, BLUE skies, and sunny beaches :)

27 Dresses

The other day I went to try on Wedding Dresses for the first time. I had a blast and cannot wait to find the one. One of my friends made the comment how she is going to be the girl off of 27 dresses because she has been in so many weddings, but never as the bride. I thought it was funny and almost said well that is not that bad, but then I realized I still want to be the one in a Wedding Dress :) The search continues, but now I know more of what I like.

So much planning

This summer I have tried to plan as much of our wedding as possible. It is so hard knowing I will be student teaching this fall and have no extra time for meeting with DJ's, Florists, etc., so I am gung ho on getting the majority of the planning done this summer. I know some might say I will have plenty of time during the year, but I plan on getting hired at a coffee stand and spending my nights and weekends there working to make some money. The lady told one of her workers she will be hiring in the fall because so many of her employees are leaving for college... so I already know she will be needing some extra help. Pray that I get it! I am almost ready to stop planning for a while but I just love checking things off! Those who went to school with me know I am not one to let projects sit there... and this is an exciting project! I have the ceremony site, reception site, center pieces, photographer, bridesmaid dresses, flowers, invitations, and food already picked out and reserved for the most part... now I need a cake, my dress, men's wear, bridesmaid shoes, gift registry, hotel room, transportation, musician for the wedding, and a DJ... man o man I guess I have more than I thought... and I know that is not all. Well, I guess I better be going to get ready for the day and head out to more stores!

Summer Days

Summer has been amazing so far. I got out early May from the University of Idaho and ever since then I have been on the look for a job. Well, no luck still. I have applied to many places and had a few interviews but no one ever calls back. It is so rude. Even if I don't get the job it would be nice to hear back from them to know they are not accepting me, rather than me wondering if they got my application or not. One daycare interviewed me and SAID they would call back. They never did so I called and left a message. They still did not call back. So I went in a dropped off a thank you note just letting them know I appreciated the interview and was looking forward to hearing back whether or not I got the job. Guess what... still no stinkin call. HOW RUDE. This is so irritating. I cannot even believe how ride some people are. If you say you are going to call, you should call!!!!!!!

Jon has a job though, so that is good. He is working for Avista again for his third summer and got a raise! It is amazing. He is making so much money. I wish I could get a job that paid half of what he is making! I am so proud of him, he is such a hard worker and his boss loves him.

The first weekend of summer was Anna's graduation from the University of Idaho. We all rode down to Idaho in a Limo. It was so much fun. My grandma brought doughnuts and cookies and sparkling cider. Then we rode back and the next day everyone came out to our house for her party. It was a busy weekend but very fun.

Then the following weekend was Memorial Day. Jon and I went to the lake with my family for Memorial Day weekend and went to the parade. It has become one of our traditions we have together. I love traditions! Jon and I look forward to the parade every year. It is a very small rinky dink parade that only lasts 10 minutes, but it is so fun to look through all of the booths at the locals crafts, foods, etc. This year was the first year Jon and I decided to spend money on anything. We bought some scone mix from a man who makes the mix himself from his grandma's recipe from germany. The sample was delicious so we had to buy some. We got a orange blueberry mix, sounds a little funky but it was so good.

The weekend after Memorial Day was Katie's Graduation Party. She had her party a weekend early so that she could attend her friends parties the following weekend. I helped my mom prepare dips, veggies, snacks, and drinks. It was a long morning but time with my mom is always fun. Then I went into town and picked up balloons, cake, and decorations. It was a hectic outing, but worth the look on Katie's face :) That night Jon and I went up to my uncles lake cabin because he had invited us out at Katie's party. So we went up, it is only 20 minutes from our house. It was so fun hanging out talking with my cousins and aunt and uncles. I cant wait to go back!

That following week I went to the lake with a friend and hung out for three days. It was so much fun but I missed Jon. It was well worth my tan though! Well, I burnt first, but now it is a tan!

The next weekend was Katie's actual graduation. Whhooooeeee! Busy busy. On friday I helped my Aunt with her daughters birthday party at the pool and then the next day I helped with her sons! They are twins and this year they wanted their own parties. Then on Saturday I went to Borders with my aunt to spend 500 dollars on books for her classroom! It was very fun picking out all of the great books I had learned about this year.

This weekend I am going to the lake with my family and enjoying doing nothing! I cannot wait. I guess I have not had much time to be having a job, but still... I would love to get one! Keep me in your prayers :) I promise I will not wait this long again to blog.

Engaged

On May 11th Jon proposed to me. It was probably the happiest I have been in my entire life! Here is the story of how it happened:

So last month was Jon and my two year and we told each other no presents, but I suprised him with Sho Gun dinner... he had never been and it was really fun so then he felt bad and said he was going to make it up this month for me and take me on a date May 11th (our two year one month)... so tonight I was all excited. We went outside and an old-fashioned limo car thing pulled up and I was so excited and told him he definitely made it up to me! So we cruised down twon to our reservations and he said that we were going to be really early so he asked the LImo driver to drop us off at River Front Park... so we got out and decided to go on the Gondola ride over the massively flowing river, it was gorgeous! Then on the ride back over the river he said it was really scary, but he would be ok cause he could spend the rest of his life with me and then got down on one knee and pulled out the ring and said the magic words... Will you Marry Me! of course I cried and then said yes and wrapped him in my arms and never wanted to let go... but then we had to get off once we got to the end of the ride haha. Then we went to Red Robin (its a thing of ours... whole other story) and neither of us could eat cause we were so nervous/excited/happy/ etc. THen the Limo driver picked us up in an Old Fashioned car... it was a 1933 Packard Super Eight Town Car... it was so cool! Then we just rode all the way home and it was a GORGEOUS drive home... the weather turned sunny right when we got downtown... it was perfect! GREAT NIGHT!

The Night was perfect and I cannot wait to start all of the planning. We have already started a little bit to make sure we get the place and date we want... and I am already a little stressed! Haha.

Jon and I heading out on our Date

After Jon Proposed

The Car We Rode Home In