catch up

Yes.  I have been a lousy blogger.  No.  I don't promise to get better, because let's face it--that is nothing more than an empty promise at this point.

Thinks have been moving along ever here in my life.  Maybe not moving along exactly how I would choose... but they have been moving along.

Tanner and I had our 2 year anniversary.  We didn't do anything big, but it was nice.  We went to dinner, a movie, and out for frozen yougurt afterwards.  It's crazy how time flies!  We've been married for 2 years and together for 3.  It doesn't seem like it's been that long.  3 years seems like less time than it used to.  I could go on and on about how wonderful Tanner is and how much I love him, but I won't.  Just know that I am so happy to have him in my life and to be his wife <3

We are settling into our new house.  I have been painting and decorating and making it feel like mine.  I like owning a house.  It helps me feel accomplished and independent.  The bad news is that 4 weeks ago some b@*%(#7 broke into our house.  We didn't take a whole lot: Gregron (my laptop of 4 years) and ny brand new ipod touch.  I have been trying to be greatful that he didn't take more, yet I can't seem to get past the fact that someone felt like it was okay to walk into my house, and take my things.  He did, however, leave his ID card on our bed, spit in our garbage can, and leave a beer can.  I thought with all that evidence the cops could have caught him by now, but they haven't.

In my younger years I wrote this list of things I wanted to do with my life: 
                 
                 1) go to beauty school
                 2) graduate high school
                 3) spend a semester abroad
                 4) go to college
                 5) get married
                 6) start a family
                 7) own a car
                 8) teach for a year of two

The good news is it's 7/8 of the way done.  The bad news is that I feel like I don't have as much direction as I have in the past.  My mom told me that I just need to focus on the kids of mother and wife I want to be and set goals for those things.  But that's tricky for me.  Those kinds of goals don't seem as measurable to me and I like to see results that are solid, black and white, yes or no.    So here is to my next phase of life; one with different kinds of goals.

Going on 2 years

In less than a month Tanner and I will celebrate our 2 year anniversary!

Any ideas of a semi close and inexpensive place for us to go?  I was thinking maybe Sedona?

Our new house

Tanner and I bought our first house! It's about a 10 minute drive from where we both grew up and where our parents still live. We are excited to have our very own place! It needs a little bit of work, but we are so happy to have it! :)

Here I am on our closing day. (Side story: I signed all the closing paperwork 'L Layton' which is how I sigh basically everything. Well... This is not my whole name and was not acceptable. The next day I had to re-sign ALL the paperwork 'Lindsey B Layton'. So if you sign on a house, learn from my dumb mistake and sign your FULL name)

Here are some pictures--a few 'before and afters'. I'll do my best to post more pictures as we do more.


Here is the front. The double glass doors are weird, but we have curtains from the inside. We are in the process of painting the trim red. We are also going to do a white picket fence in the front and put a path up to the door.


Here is the front. Those tacky bricks are going... don't worry.


One of our favorite parts of this house is the fabulous storage.




This is a closet in the hallway. In the hall way there is also a broom closet and built in cupboards.


Here's a pantry in the kitchen.



Inside.


And outside.


Here is the master bathroom.

Before...

And after.

Here are some before and after pictures of the kitchen.

After living in a house without a dishwasher for 2 years I vowed that my next home would have a dishwasher. This house didn't have a dishwasher, so my wonderful husband and father-in-law put one in. Yesterday they took one of the cabinets they took out and cut it down to fill the 10 inch space by the dishwasher. They did an AMAZING job. I'll post when it gets installed.


Here's the before and after of the other side of the kitchen.

This is one of the decorations above the cupboards. I had a hard time finding something red I liked for this jar, but love the way these little apples look!

Here's the living room.


Before 2 walls were white and one wall was tan. We painted 3 walls tan and one wall red. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I am just in LOVE with red these days!


Before

After

Here is Tanner hanging out. Don't mind the mess. That mirror I got at a thrift store for $8 and I painted it black.

In the master bedroom there is a double walk in closet! I'm in love!

We are loving it and look forward to making improvements.

** A couple people asked about my license getting suspended. I got a photo radar ticket for running a red light turning left at Country Club and University July of 2009. I sort of avoided it for 8 months. I finally paid the ticket in January, but didn't get signed up for traffic school. They sent me a paper in June saying my license was suspended until I went to traffic survival school. I can only get one ticket in the next year without getting in trouble... So I've been driving EXTRA carefully lately.**

This is for McKenzie

and for Brad my brother, and

to those who haven't given up on me as a blogger.  Thank you!

I am having trouble putting writing between the pictures, so let me just give a brief overview of what I have been up to.  I successfully completed my first year of teaching (hooray!),  I got to have a summer vacation that was paid, I went to my parents' cabin, went to Disneyland, stayed on the beach for family reunion #1, spent a few days in the mountains with the young women in my ward, got my license suspended, spent the 4th of July in Manti Utah for family reunion #2, bought my very own atlas, wore a flower pin that one of my students made for me, fell in love with chocolate soy milk that's individually packaged, went to the Landmark resturant for my birthday (1st time there and I loved it!),  went to the Manti temple, played in the last-day-of-school-teachers-versus-6th-graders-softball-game, packed up everything in my classroom so I could move rooms, hung out with my family, slept in almost every day of this summer, went to my cabin again for family reunion #3, and an gearing up for family reunion #4.  We are also buying a house! 

Here's what I have been up to lately.

New addition to my family...

We call him Willy Wii.  And we love him.

Gulash

I have been told that gulash is a Hungarian stew that has a little bit of this and a little bit of that.  Just a big mix I guess.  For some reason that's how I feel right now.  I don't feel like stew, I just feel like a little bit of this and that...

I have been super busy with school recently.  I always heard that the first year of teaching was "SO MUCH WORK!" but for some reason thought that that wasn't going to apply to me...  Haha!!  Yes.  Teaching IS a lot of work.  SO much work.  But I am loving it and learning SO MUCH!  Those little second graders take a lot of energy, but they are also so full of love.

Yesterday as the last day of school this year.  We had a little holiday party and made 'gingerbread houses' out of graham crackers.  It was a ton of fun that every single students thoroughly enjoyed it.  It is always fun to see my kids enjoy something so much :o)

My favorite holiday is coming up!  I simply love this time of the year!!!  I am trying to enjoy every bit of Christmas I can.  It's probably weird, but I also don't like when Christmas gets so close, because I know that soon it'll be gone and I'll have to wait 10 months until the NEXT holiday season.  Silly, right?  I have yo remind myself to enjoy what's here while it's here.

Last night I was SO TIRED!  I went to sleep to take a little nap at 6:30 and just slept all night.  Well, until 4:30 this morning that is...  And here I am, WIDE awake at 5:20 typing a blog.  :o)

I always look forward to my breaks from school, but once they're here I don't know what to do with my time...  I need to start some projects.  Or buckle down and do my report cards... 

The day after Christmas I am going up to my parents' cabin for 5 days.  I love it up there in the mountains.  Except when I get cold.  I hate being cold.

I'm off to clean my house.  

Enjoy your holiday season!!!

My voice....

...is gone.

I guess it got jealous of my hair...

Yesterday at 10:00 am my voice started going.  Here I am the following night totally voiceless.  If I talk normally just air comes out.  If I scream it comes out just below my normal voice level, but all crackly and scratchy.  If I whisper it sounds like a whisper.  The strangest part is that I feel fine--there's no pain.  not yet at least...

Today at school I had to whisper directions to one student and have that student loudly tell the rest of the class.  I am taking tomorrow off to rest my poor larynx.  (The first time I've called for a sub.  I'm slightly nervous seeing that I'm quite attached to my class.  The good news is the sub is my mother-in-law, so they're in good hands).