Back in I-Dee-Ho

Other than my last post, it's been quite some time since I've recorded anything and boy, have a lot of things happened! Where to start now... First off, student teaching finally ended! It was a great experience, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I were with Clay, not that I didn't enjoy it. Luckily, I had friends and family around so I spent time with them. So now I am no longer a student!!!!!!! It is weird being graduated from college but it feels great! Clay and I will walk together in July so pictures coming then. I also took a last minute road trip with my bro-in-law to Vegas for General Conference weekend. That was oh so great basking in the hot sun, even though I'm never pleased with the weather...I'm either too cold or too hot which was the case but I didn't care...it was better than Idaho.

I quickly caught on to this contraption, whatever it's called, I forgot but some type of long board. It was pretty fun! But it was nice just relaxing in Vegas :)
Well, the time FINALLY came to be reunited with my long lost love, Clay :) I packed basically everything at my place in Utah which was a pain in the butt. I drove to Burley, left my car there for my brother Jared to have now for college, celebrated my other brother's birthday, Jake, then my dad drove me to Boise to fly out on Thursday. The anticipation was killing me waiting in the airport and the flight itself. Luckily, it was shorter obviously than flying from Salt Lake. Once I finally flew into Seattle, Clay was just about there so I waited outside for him. Well, I was on the upper level and he was on the lower waiting for me so the suspense was even worse because he had to drive out of the airport and back in again, grrr. Ha ha Anyway, we finally met up and it was so weird! I hadn't seen him for 2 months but it felt like an eternity and was weird getting into the car-feeling like I didn't even know or recognize him! Ha Oh it was an absolutely wonderful reunion! We each had a night of planning and mine was the next night. But we went out to this awesome Brewery that afternoon overlooking part of Puget Sound.

This was by the Brewery/Restaurant but I wish I would have taken a picture from the place so you could see it all! The next day was Clay's last day at work. I drove him to work, went to Wal-Mart to change the oil, did some shopping for my night that I had planned, and did it all with the great invention of the GPS! I would have absolutely gotten lost had it not been for that. Clay got it for his birthday before he moved to Washington so it saved his life too :) I later went to pick Clay back up, met all the people he worked with, and drove back and just relaxed. I won't go into details of what my night plans consisted of, but here's a picture of the candles on the counter after we blew them out....I think it's cool because you can see the smoke from it.

Well I had made a little picnic on the living room floor with shrimp and cocktail sauce, kiwi, cucumbers, sparkling cider-a MUST, little cinnamon swirl breads, and whatever else. Later that night we went to get some pizza at this bar which was FABULOUS! Clay has gotten me into eating Jalapenos and hotter stuff and so we got cheese and Jalapenos on the pizza and was it ever good! We went for a walk around the glass museum and by the boat docks.

Clay had taken this picture a while back ago when he was by the Glass Museum but they have this bridge that have these structures above and all around you, it's amazing!

Well enough of that...Saturday morning we packed and left Washington. We stopped in Othello to visit Clay's Aunt which was fun! I was getting way motion sick so I drove the rest of the way until Boise. We stayed there that night but we had a short little family reunion. Half of the kids now live there so my parents came up and the rest and we had a picnic in the park, took a family picture and had a nice time chatting. My older brother Jeremy had gotten back from Iraq a little back ago but I hadn't seem him since he got back and I didn't see him leave so it has been years since I've seen him so it was great for that, although his wife couldn't be there. They had just gotten back from vacation in Mexico...luckily they didn't bring the Swine Flu back with them, although my sis-in-law's sister has been really sick and has had to be quarantined (sp?). So anyway, we stopped in Burley for Easter, then finally to Utah, packed up, and drove home the next day.

This doesn't look too bad but it was a pain to pack everything as I'm sure many of you know. It was pouring rain too so that didn't make it any better. Well, back to Idaho. Good bye U-tard territory! I have come to accept the fact that there really are U-tard drivers. They simply are retarded, at least the majority. And just to let you know, I was and am not a U-tard driver.

Grandpa Bing

Delmer "Bing" Byington passed away on April 22, 2009 in Pocatello, Idaho. He was struggling with many complications basically due to Parkinson's Disease.
As far as I can remember, I have the most fondest memories of my grandpa from St. George to Downey, to Pocatello. He and his wife, Georgia Belle, served a mission on St. George Temple grounds and our families would go there every Thanksgiving. Lately, I have been thinking a lot about him and remembering all my great times with him. I can remember him always walking on the Dixie college track in the early mornings and I went with him once. He had the coolest invention or whatever with dispensing peanut M&M's ever since I can remember and he'd always make us get some whenever we'd come visit. I can remember him sitting in the stands at my basketball games. One summer there were too many Jessica's and my coach out of no where said he was going to call me Bing. He knew grandpa somewhat and I decided that was a good nickname for me. My teammates know me by that and I have never forgotten it. I always tried to play my hardest, especially for him when he was there...I wanted to do my nickname justice for him :) Just simple little memories are the best that I have of him and the list would go on forever. I will never forget one time at the home in Downey, for some reason that I don't quite remember, all I remember is that he had a Josh Groban CD and he mentioned this song, "To Where You Are" and said something about it for grandma. Ever since then, I have never forgotten this song and think of grandma and think of grandpa listening to it thinking of his dear sweetheart that he would someday be able to join by her side again. The day has come. I know without a shadow of a doubt that he and grandma are finally together again and are now watching over all of us. This song depicts this perfectly. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMxgOcuMVjo
I know that grandma was watching over grandpa and he could feel her presence and knew that she was there by his side helping him get through everything, despite him not wanting to be here much longer and be reunited with her. He did great in his life. I wish I were closer to him than I was, but that's the lesson we seem to learn when it's too late. So, never take for granted the times when you are with your loved ones. Take every advantage of visiting them, don't make up any excuses, especially if you are in the area but "don't have time". I know that grandpa and grandma are now watching over me and I can't wait to see them once again. This gospel of Jesus Christ is perfect! I love the Temple and being able to give the opportunity of those who have already passed on the chance to accept the gospel in the spirit world. I cannot imagine my life without this gospel and the knowledge and testimony that I have. It is my life and I am eternally grateful of being able to be sealed with a wonderful husband who loves the Lord and that we can be together forever. FAMILIES ARE FOREVER!!!

Gotta Love 'Em

This week was quite busy for me with family coming to visit and all. My brother came Tuesday night and we went out for an early birthday dinner. He came down because his little girl had to go to the hospital to get checked to see if she had to have surgery because of kidney problems. Wednesday, my birthday, Clay sent a huge bouquet of flowers to school! My cooperating teacher brought it in to class before class and so all my student sang happy birthday to me! The flowers were absolutely gorgeous!!! There was an assortment of pink and purple roses, carnations, tulips, and orchids! I think my favorite flower is now an orchid! :) So I went to the hospital to meet up with my niece and brother for a minute. Turns out she was fine and didn't have to have surgery! Good! So my brother and I just walked around the Gateway for a while then I headed home. I had a couple of visitors who came and brought me presents :) This lady in the Relief Society presidency came and brought me something out of no where. I was completely surprised and feel so grateful for people like that that I hardly know, but yet we have the bond of sisterhood! Another friend of mine, Kelsie, was so great to cook a cake for me and some other fun stuff! I wasn't feeling well later on in the night so I stayed home and watched the Jazz game and unfortunately they lost and ended their winning streak. Anyway, good birthday! Thursday, my brother Jared and Dad came and stayed with me. We went out to the Mayan for dinner. They left for Provo Friday and went to the Draper Temple Open House and then went on the BYU campus because Jared is going there this summer semester. I hitched a ride with my friend Jacobie and met up with them. We shopped the rest of the afternoon and headed to the Hotel. Saturday we looked for housing for Jared and did some more shopping! It was so great to just be able to hang with them! Too bad the Jazz lost again to the Heat in 3 OT's :( Boo. Anyway, I had a great week though! I feel bad because Clay doesn't have family or anyone in Tacoma to really go see but I get to fly back up there in less than a month! I can't wait to finish student teaching, although it's been a positive experience, I'm ready for it to be done. Those of you in Rexburg . . . see you in a month!

YEAH for Melissa!!!

WHAT A COMEBACK!!! So I just changed the channel to watch Dancing With the Stars and had no idea Melissa was taking Nancy O'Dell's spot! What's so cool is that they didn't even start training until just this last Saturday and the score they got was a 23 out of 30 - better than half them there! Anyway, I'm super excited that Melissa has pulled through the whole heart break-up from The Bachelor, Jason, and is going to have great cardiovascular workouts, creating lots of endorphins, making her twice as happy as she was with Jason :) There's my health input for ya! I was just excited for this so I thought I'd post it. Tell me what you all think about it!

Survivor!

To most of you, this might just be a lame post. Ha ha but this is my life currently! I had to do Parent-Teacher Conferences these last two days at the High School. I was freaking out afraid of saying the wrong thing, having furious parents, and all of everything else that could go wrong. Well for the first day of conferences, my cooperating teacher was going to be about an hour late so I had to start it all on my own - AHHH! I suppose to make this a short post, it really wasn't all that bad as I had thought it to be! I'm surprised that I have learned all my students' names and called them by it when they came to my table - which did impress some of their parents :) yay! There were no mad parents, just concerned that their student was failing Health class - of ALL classes! I don't want to see anyone fail in there so I'm basically pretty easy going. Anyway, it actually was very nice talking to the parents and seeing how the students interact with their parents. Some of them were quiet like in class, others it brought out their personality more, and some were just disrespectful to their parents which shows me they are the same at home as they are in class. SO . . . overall, I would have to say that I enjoyed Parent-Teacher Conference! I only have 3 more weeks of teaching and then 1 more week to go back to observing! I'm almost there! I'm super excited to be back with Clay and can't wait for that time!!! Sorry if I bored you with that post, but just lettin' ya know the updates :) Chow!

The Background :)

Just a quickie explanation for the background that I chose :) I've been excited for the Jazz to finally be getting healthy and getting everyone back (Boozer is back in a week!) and after they beat the two top teams of the NBA - Lakers and Celtics - I figured that the Jazz pretty much rock! I haven't gone to a game yet this season but I have to since I live there! ha ha But I thought I'd support them with my blog background! YEAH! Also, March Madness is in a week so go Duke! I haven't kept up much with the NCAA but I love watching any basketball! SO . . . go JAZZ!

Half-Way Mark Weekend

I thought the time would never come when I was going to finally see Clay up in Washington! Well the weekend was so surreal! It went by slow but when I got home it seemed like it never happened. When I first came off the plane and saw Clay, it felt like butterflies all over again right before we got married - I was shaking non-stop! We stayed across the harbor on another island from Tacoma called Gig Harbor at a Bed and Breakfast called the Maritime Inn (I highly recommend the place) for a couple nights. This was our room below - a little small, but perfect (not like a regular hotel room ya know)!

We just relaxed the rest of Friday night which was so nice to finally be back with Clay. Saturday morning (Valentine's Day) we took a walk around the town along the boardwalk and saw all the boats and looked out across part of Puget Sound which was absolutely beautiful!

Later on that morning we took a drive around the town and basically through the forest with all the towering trees (hello, it's Washington! ha ha) and grabbed some lunch. So Clay told me that whatever else we did we just had to be done before 2:00. So that time came and we took a walk down the road and we walked up to this place called Jax Salon. We got in there, Clay checked in and this lady brought us champagne glasses with Sparkling Cider. Clay surprised me with an afternoon at the SPA!!!

We both started out with pedicures, had a dish with strawberries and chocolates, and got the best foot scrub and massage! After that, we got to take a hot steam shower. The shower head was like 12'' in diameter and there was steam coming out of a hole in the wall! It was just amazing :) Below is just an example that I found on the internet - Clay and I want to get ourselves one for this next Christmas!

We then got to get into those awesome white robes and white, soft slippers and head off to the massage room. Clay wasn't so sure about this part but I assured him he wouldn't look back after getting one and he'd look forward to getting another one! It was an hour massage with hot rocks and hot towels - SPECTACULAR! So that pretty much ended our spa time but it was definitely well spent and was the best Valentine's present! Kudos Clay :) Later that night we went to an Italian Restaurant which was pretty good and enjoyed the night out. Sunday we checked out of our place and headed off to Clay's church. Boy, was it ever good to be at church with Clay - it's been hard to go to church each time without Clay and then see all these couples. I met Clay's housemates when we got back from church and just chilled the rest of the Sunday afternoon.

Monday, Clay first took me to the military base that he works on, Fort Lewis, and we drove around seeing where he worked, etc. It was neat to know earlier that my mom first moved there on the base when she first came to America from Germany and her sister was born in the old hospital there that you see above. Below is the building that Clay works in!

Later that morning we headed off to Seattle and walked around probably like 10 miles - at least it sure seemed like that!

We parked right by Pikes Place and walked around there and then down on the boardwalk along all the piers. We went to all the big department stores and decided to check the Space Needle out. Well, it ended up being more pricey than what we had thought it was, so we figured that we'd skip out on it since it's kind of like the ride at Sea World that takes you up to the top to overlook the park.

Anyway, well we really had nothing else to do since we hadn't made plans so we headed off to the airport. It was the hardest to leave Clay behind me and go through security, but obviously it had to happen so off we split and now 7 more weeks until we see each other again! It still stinks not seeing him like it was when he first left, but we're both doing great in our internships and can't wait to be done and be back together! It's so crazy to think about the year ahead of us because we're graduating in July and who knows where we'll be by the end of the year! Here's to the year ahead . . . !