Where has the Time Gone?!!!

I honestly can not believe that it is already December! I will do my best at catching up on my "exciting" life. Teaching is going great, and I am really enjoying living in Afton other than it is DANG COLD, and everyone tells me that it is going to get colder and the snow is here to stay until May. Yippee.

Over Thanksgiving I got together with two of my bestest friends, Heather and Kenzie, and had a girls night! It was so fun to catch up and spend time with them!

This year we of course continued our Black Friday shopping tradition, but with a twist. Because the stores opened as early as 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving night we decided to start them. We went from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m., we were SUPER tired on Friday, but we all agreed that it is easier to just stay up all night then to get up at 3 a.m. and start. We plan on doing it again next year!

Friday night I celebrated my birthday with my family. Boston and Daxton were the best helpers, I didn't even have to blow out my own candles or open my own presents. :)

Lately I have been hanging out with a new friend. Last night he took me to a Christmas Production thing and it was so much fun! He may think I am a bit crazy because I was dancing and singing along.....oh well :)

Donuts, Pumpkins and Golf

This weekend was my Fall Break so to celebrate I went home to Lewiston for Donut Day! My mom is amazing and did most of the work, however Grandma Hall and I put in our fair share of work too. When all was said and done we made 185 donuts, not bad for a days work.

After the donuts were made I headed to Logan to participate in a pumpkin carving night. This year I decided to take it seriously and purchased a pumpkin carving kit. It took me a while but I finally was able to carve out a figure that resembled a witch.

To top off the weekend I went golfing at the Preston County Club with Roy, Benson, Lyndie and Kevin. It was a beautiful day and we had so much fun!

Top of Utah Marathon

One of the things on my "bucket list" has been to run a marathon. So after participating in Ragnar this year I decided that I shouldn't put it off any longer. So after some thought and some persuasion from my friend Jamie I signed up.

(Before the race, standing in a tent while it poured rain)

Even though it rained and hailed for about 10 of the 26.2 miles, I survived. I did really well until about mile 20 and then I started to get super tired and was wondering what the heck I was doing. But crossing that finish line in 4 hours, 40 minutes and 20 seconds made it all worth it.

Jamie and I after the race, we could barely stand but we had smiles on our faces.

My proud parents and I after the race.

HELP! I need your ideas.

Well today was my first day spent in my classroom! Today I mostly "dejunked" the room and brought some things in from home.

So here is my question to all of you, can you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give me any ideas, suggestions or thoughts of things you would do to this room to make it more inviting. Decorating is not really my area of expertise.

The kitchens.

The sewing portion of the room.

View from the front of the room to the back.

Angle from the front door.

What you see immediately after walking through the door.

DIY Weekend

Okay so I was recently was introduced to Pinterest and have fallen in love! I found so many cute things that I want to make and so this weekend I decided to try my hand at a couple.

The first one I did was a paint chip garland. I went to Lowe's and grabbed a handful of red, white and blue chips, went home cut them into triangles and strung them on a string. I think that it turned out super cute.

Then I went and got some 4th of July paper at Carolee's Creations, cut it up, folding them up, tapped them together and then hung them with paper clips. So I may be biased, but I think that it turned out pretty cute.

A couple of weekends ago I found a table along side the road in Lewiston with a sign that said "Free", so of course I picked it up. Today I was finally able to fix it up.

I forgot to take a picture of it before I started but it was just a beat up table that was stained from top to bottom. I started out sanding it and then I painted the legs a cream and then to finish I put a dark stain on the top. I think that it turned out super cute and am really pleased!

Tada!

Running the Back of the Wasatch

This year was my third year running in the Wasatch Back race that goes from Logan to Park City. Out of all the races that I do, this one is by far my favorite.

This year I ran with my cousin Mindy Hall and the Ski Patrol at Beaver Mountain. It was kind of funny that I was on their team because I do not ski or snowboard.

I ran Leg 3, which equaled out to about 19 miles. The hardest one was an 8 mile uphill run that was at 3 a.m.....it was interesting to say the least. But I felt so good once I was finished!

I had so much fun and can not wait to run the race again next summer!

Cruising in the Caribbean

As a graduation present gift to myself I went on an 8 day cruise with two of my friends to the Western Caribbean. The cruise left from Miami and we made four stops at Cayman Islands, Honduras, Belize and Cozumel Mexico. We left on Sunday May 29 and returned on Sunday June 5.

Monday and Saturday were "fun days at sea" and so we spent those days getting massages, eating soft serve ice cream, laying out, visiting the buffet, going to comedians and eating some more.

For those of you that have been on cruises before know that when you are on the ship there are photographers EVERYWHERE and at first we just annoyed them but then we decided to embrace the camera love and from Tuesday night on out we went to every single photo booth ad by the end of the week they had taken over 200 photos of us, it was pretty great.

The two friends who I went with were Jamie Kidd and Brittny Harris.

So on the ship they had about 12 soft serve ice cream machines, this was not a good discovery. I probably ate my weight in that ice cream. It was so yummy!

When we were in Belize we went on a 'Raiders of the Lost Mayan Cave' tour which included zip lining, rock climbing and belaying. It was awesome!

The beach in Cozumel Mexico

In Mexico we went on a tour of the Mayan Ruins....SOOOO COOL!

This was in the center of the towns square in Cozumel

These are our guides for when we went in the Mayan Caves.

The beautiful beach we went to in Honduras

In the Cayman Islands we went to a turtle farm. At this farm they had a turtle that was over 300 years old and weighed 565 pounds, I had no idea they could get that big.

Also in the Cayman Islands we went swimming with dolphins...this is me with Alma.

I had an absolute blast on my cruise and I can't wait to plan and go on another trip!

I am a Graduate!!!

Well after five years of college I finally made it. On Saturday I graduated from Utah State University with my Bachelor of Science degree in Family and Consumer Science Education and a minor in Family Finance.

This is me with 3 of my professors. Julie Wheeler, Lu Oaks and Lindsey Shirley.

These are the girls in my major.

Kevin and I both graduated on Saturday. It was pretty cool.

My Last Week.

Well I have officially finished my student teaching. It seems so strange to me that I am finished with this experience and within the next couple of days I will be a graduate of Utah State. Anyway during the last few days at school I took pictures with each of my classes and my cooperating teacher.

This is group of girls was in my "advisory." They were a hoot and always said and did the funnest things.

On my last day my student, Meryl, showed up to school with this shirt on. The caption on the shirt read, "I love Ms. Hall." I tried turning her in for a dress code violation but it didn't work.

This is my cooperating teacher, Lynn Harris. She was amazing and I feel so lucky to have been able to learn from her.

This is a cake that one of my student's made for me. Isn't it awesome?

News Flash!

Well I am on my way to becoming an official teacher. I accepted a job offer yesterday afternoon and starting this August I will be teaching at Star Valley Middle School. It has 7th and 8th graders and about 400 students. I am slightly nervous but really excited for this new chapter in my life!