A few pictures

Future businessman

We're so glad when Lara comes home. Glad as glad can be!

Welcome home Sis Taylor!

I want to be like Hot Shauna

So I'm going to be a copycat too. I don't usually do things like this, but I thought I'd give it a try. For some of these I had to look back to old journals to see what I was doing. Here I go!

1. Ten years ago: I was a sophomore at BHS. Around this time I had just found out through a friend that a certain boy had a crush on me (I see my own students doing this now: "so-and-so likes you...do you like him? I'll go tell him you like him..." when the two people really involved don't even talk to each other! So funny!) We later went to the Halloween dance together. Another boy who would eventually become my husband was in my AP Euro class and on my ultimate frisbee team. Our team was the best!

2. Five years ago: I had just arrived in France beginning my mission. I was living in Strasbourg with my trainer working in the Schiltigheim ward. The work was slow, but it was there that I had some of my most spiritual experiences. My French wasn't very good, but was improving daily. We spent a lot of time in some neighborhoods we probably shouldn't have been in. I learned a lot of swear words by reading all the graffiti. Besides the low-income banlieu areas, the rest of Strasbourg and surrounding towns were so quaint and beautiful.

3. One year ago: Sam was just two months old and still so tiny. We were preparing to move from the Hadley's home to the Turpin's home. I was going to school full-time preparing for my student teaching. Looking back, I don't know how I survived going to school and taking care of Sam on so little sleep. Twice a week I had classes at the U starting at 7:30am, and I had to leave our house at 5:50 to catch the bus. I was still nursing Sam, so I had to leave about 45 mintues to feed him. Plus get myself ready. Plus get up with Sam at least twice a night before all that. Yikes! I'm sure glad he sleeps through the night now!

4. Yesterday: I tried watching a movie, but Sam pushed some buttons on the remote that messed up the TV, and I don't know how to fix it. We had to take our Jimmy in to get $100 worth of things fixed. Sam also got into one of the kitchen cupboards and found our little jar of old kitchen grease. He dumped it out onto our carpeted kitchen floor (who puts carpet in the kitchen?!). It was so stinky and gross it made me gag and want to throw up. I cleaned it up, but our kitchen still stinks! Anyway, Chris worked 4-11:30am at Great Harvest, and then again from 4-10pm at the Instacare. Oh, and I went to a baby shower for my visiting teaching companion. Oh, and I actually cooked dinner--a real dinner. Very unusual, but hopefully will happen more and more.

5. Five snacks I enjoy: Peach rings, cake batter, cookie dough (for some reason the raw stuff tastes better), French pastries, and ice cream (French vanilla is pretty tasty!)

6. Five things I would do if I suddenly had $100 million dollars: buy a house, set aside money for our kids' college education, buy lots of really cute clothes, travel the world while staying in the nicest hotels and eating at the nicest restaurants, and donate money to family, friends, the church and other charities.

7. Five places I would like to run away to: France, Switzerland, the six states I haven't been to yet, a nice tropical island with no bugs, Africa or China (I want to go to both Africa and China, but that was my fifth place, and I can't decide).

8. Five bad habits I have: using a tissue and then leaving them around the house, or using a tissue and then putting it in my pocket in case I need to wipe it again and then forgetting to take it out before I do the laundry (all the tissue bad habits drive Chris nuts! He thinks it's so gross. I tell him it's just like in the old days when people would carry around hankies in their pockets--he thinks that's gross too!), not liking to shower (I do shower, I just don't like to shower. I know some of you sisters know what I'm saying!), not being as tidy as I would like, nibbling here and there instead of sitting down to eat dinner, and not always exercising like I should.

9. Five things I like doing: being with Chris and Sam, teaching French, giving talks or lessons in church, going to office supply stores, eating yummy foods.

10. Five TV shows I like: The Office, The Simpsons, the news, Gilmore Girls, and any dumb reality show I get sucked into (they are my guilty pleasures).

11. Five things I hate doing: spending money, killing spiders, cooking dinner (I have to be in the right mood to enjoy it--problem is that I'm rarely in that mood), watching all my hair get thinner and thinner as it falls out, and being crafty (again, I have to be in the mood).

12. Five biggest joys at the moment: Spending quality time with Sam and Chris, watching Sam discover the world, getting to know more and more Sam's cute little personality, the 30 minute drive home from West Jordan as I listen to old General Conference talks, and teaching French and watching my students get excited about learning.

Another one bites the dust

Yep, we've killed another one. We have been fish-sitting the last six months or so for Chris' family while they remodel their house. It was just a beta fish, and I don't think anyone really cared about him. I don't even know if he had a name. In any case, we found him dead in his bowl this afternoon. Unlike poor Franklin, we know why the fish died--we often forgot to feed him. I guess we don't do well with living things; we killed a lot of the Hadley's house plants when we lived in Farmington, and we were unsuccessful with our garden. We really want a dog someday, and when that day comes, I promise that I will feed it and walk it and not kill it. Unlike many of the other things we've killed, I actually like dogs, and would take care of it--I promise!

My First Day of School

School started today, and it was pretty fun. I'm teaching French 1 & 2 to 8th and 9th graders at Joel P. Jensen Middle School in West Jordan. I teach three French classes, and one advisory period on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (It's just 20 minutes of reading, helping students with their grades, and playing learning games). My biggest class has 34 students, and my smallest class has around 23 students. I know this was just my first day, and I know I'll have days when I won't feel this way, but I really love teaching! And doing this just part-time, I think, will be so nice! I only have to be there till 11:20ish. Anyway, as promised, here are a few pictures of my classroom.

I just got some more posters and stuff in the mail today, so more will be going up soon. One thing I don't like about my room, however, is that there are no windows. And it's hot. Oh, and one more: I have to use a Mac instead of a PC (sorry to all you Mac users, but I just don't like them!). I guess that's three things I don't like about my room. Oh well.

Anyway, so that's my classroom. I'm sure I'll have some fun junior high student stories to tell shortly!

In Memory of Franklin

As the title of this blog implies, our poor bird Franklin died sometime last night. We don't have any idea what could have caused his death. He seemed to be healthy and happy, but then again, I don't know too much about bird health. I was never too excited about having a pet bird, but Franklin in the short 2 1/2 weeks that we had him had started to grow on me. Every morning when Sam would wake up, we would go say hello to the bird. Sam loved Franklin (except when Franklin first discovered his voice and it scared Sam). Sam would waddle into the room and point at the bird cage with a huge grin. Last night I went in to look at him and he was looking so cute asleep on his little bar (no, he wasn't dead at that point--just sleeping). I was getting almost brave enough to overcome my phobia of birds and actually hold him, but in the end I never did. I'm actually very surprised at how sad I am at his death. In the words of a neighbor-boy, he was a good bird.

Announcing a new addition to the family

We were deciding on going out to eat between two places: Royal India (I love love love their spinach thing I always get) or Paradise Bakery (to which we had a gift card). If money weren't an issue, I would have chosen the former, but I figured that we should probably save our money and go to the bakery instead. The food was alright; I really don't like their soups too much, however, I do love their quiche.

After dinner, we decided to go check out Petco thinking that Sam might enjoy looking at the animals there. So we wondered around for awhile looking at the fish and the reptiles. We hoped their would be puppies, but there weren't any. Then we came to the birds. I don't mind them in cages, but I have this strange fear of them when the fly around; you never know where they're going to land. Anyway, the parakeets were surprisingly cheap, and I made the mistake of saying that I wouldn't mind a bird at that price. Chris got excited and somehow talked me into buying one. He said that Sam needed a pet, and parakeets are pretty easy to take care of.

So we have a new member of the Taylor family. His name is Franklin, and he is really pretty. It was a little scary transferring him from his box to his new cage. I think I scared Sam pretty well with all my screams and jerking around trying to run away from the little guy. Hopefully we'll all get used to each other and I'll get over my strange fear.

So after a free meal, a bird, a birdcage, food, and all the rest, I think it would have been cheaper in the end had we gone to Royal India for dinner.

You are all invited!

Hey everyone. Just a quick note to let you know that we will be celebrating Sam's birthday on Wednesday at 7:30 at our house. There will be cake and icecream. Come if you can!

For those of you who hadn't heard...

Just in case you hadn't all heard, I got a teaching job for next fall! I was starting to get really discouraged and stressed that I hadn't found anything yet. I even started looking at school districts in far away places. They say that teachers are in high demand in Utah, but I don't think they mean French teachers. So I will be teaching at Joel P. Jensen Middle School in West Jordan in the Jordan School District (8105 South 3200 West). It's just part-time for now, but really I think that's all I would've found anywhere at this point seeing that I'm only qualified to teach French. Since I'm just part-time, hopefully I'll be able to take whatever classes are needed in order to become endorsed in other areas. The administration seems really great and they sounded so excited that I accepted the job. I'm excited about it too!

Eeeeek!!

I've been trying to have a more healthy lifestyle. I try to be more active and eat good foods. Well, today, I exercised and then decided to eat some lunch. I pulled out my bag of salad, cut up some tomatoes and cucumbers. Only after I had eaten about three-fourths of my salad did I notice a little intruder: a dead bee! Ew! Yuck! Plegh! Gag! I wanted to throw-up! I know in some cultures eating insects is a delicacy, but not here! Not me! I had to throw the rest of my salad in the garbage. Who knows how many bug parts were unknowingly consumed! Yuck!

Once while we were shopping, we picked up a bag of salad and found an alive bee flying around inside the bag. If this is how it's going to be, maybe I won't be buying bagged salad anymore!

The 9 Month Visit

So we had the 9 month doctor visit yesterday. Here are the stats:

Weight: 15 lbs. 0 oz.
Length: 26 in.
Head circumference: 45 cm.

For his weight and his length he is under the 5th percentile and his head is in the 45th percentile (these percentages are still adjusted for him being born a little prematurely). The doctor said that he's growing and developing just fine, and she said that his gums on top are a little swollen. His third tooth should be coming soon.

Oh yeah, some other exciting news is that he finally figured out how to crawl foward! Last Wednesday it finally clicked! Now he's completely mobile!

Tired Baby = Free Food!

Last night we were at the Gateway getting new glasses for Chris (he's been going blind for over a year now...we thought it was about time to get some new ones). While we waited for them to finish, we headed over to Biaggi's to get some dinner. Neither of us had ever been there, so we thought we'd try it out. We ordered our food, and waited and waited. I didn't mind too much; I was just enjoying being together. By the time they brought our food out, Sam was getting really tired and fussy. So after just a couple bites of our food, we asked for boxes to take home. They felt really bad that it took so long, so they gave us our meal free! I'm glad we decided to order appetizers! We figured we got close to $30 worth of food. I was very impressed with them and will definitely go back again sometime.

My hard work is starting to pay off!

Chris has been so wonderful and supportive as I have worked on finishing college. He has worked so many long hours so many days of the week just so I could become a college graduate--a promiseI made to my mission president and to myself. It hasn't been easy; in fact, it feels like I have been running a marathon for the past bunch of years trying to get all my credits in. Throughout my entire pregnancy, I took a total of 47 credits. And then again with a wee baby keeping me sleep-deprived I somehow continued taking classes, and have even been able to successfully do my student-teaching. I've tried to think of my schooling like my job, even though I don't get paid. I have always hoped that somewhere down the road all my hard work would pay off. Well, because of my hard work and good grades, I was invited to submit a valedictory speech for the U's commencement ceremonies. I will find out in a few weeks if I am among the top ten finalists. How cool would that be to talk at my graduation?! And then today I just found out that I was selected to receive the Kennecott Scholarship which is a cash award of $2,500 from the U's Department of Teaching and Learning! I am so happy that I was blessed with the strength and endurance to finish school and that I am able to contribute in a small way to our family's finances. I applied for four other scholarships from which I am still waiting to hear back. Anyway, it's all very exciting and strange to be graduating. It's weird to be looking for an a real job. Hopefully the Mustangs will have me?? We'll see...

Crafting

The other day I went into Michael's craft store to buy some stuff for my classroom, and the scariest thing happened: I had the desire to craft! Yikes! I am so anti-crafting because for one, I'm not very cutesie, and two, it stresses me out to make so many decisions. But while I was in the store for those few minutes, all of my excuses went away, and I thought that it could actually be really fun to create something. Maybe when we have older kids and I'm not so busy with school I'll try to do crafty things with them. I think it's in my blood, but it's really hesitant to come out.

I Love Office Supply Stores!!

Can I just tell you how much I love going into office supply stores! I went into Office Max yesterday to buy some big envelopes, and wanted to buy the whole store. With so many boxes, binders, paper, dividers, tape, and other such organizational items, it gets me so excited to organize anything and everything. Lately, I've been thinking about creating a teaching portfolio, and it's silly how happy it makes me to think about putting it together in a new three-ring binder with colored divider tabs and plastic protector sheets...sigh. Maybe that will be my post-student teaching project in April.

He's getting so big!

So Sam has been hitting some major milestones the past couple weeks. At his last weight check, he weighed in at 14 lbs. 5 oz, if I remember right. He can wear some of his 6-9 month clothes; however, most of them still swamp him. February 12th he rolled over for the first time from his back to his belly. He is now mobile and rolls all over the place. Let the baby-proofing begin! He is eating a variety of veggies: peas, carrotts, squash, and soon sweat potatoes. And as of the beginning of this week, his first tooth has finally popped out! And it's sharp too, so everyone beware! What a fun age!

My Girlfriend, Part II

So yesterday I was out running errands and decided to pop into Great Harvest to say hi to Chris. Just as I was about to leave, I noticed my girlfriend and another neighbor eating at one of the little tables. I almost just walked out without saying hi because I know what'll come out of my girlfriend's mouth; but then I decided to show Sam off to her because they have never met.

Girlfriend: Oh, is this your baby?! You know, this should have been my grandbaby!

Exactly the sort of thing I expected her to say.

Girlfriend: I really wished you and Steven could have gotten together. But you and your husband do make cute babies. I guess I could forgive him for marrying you.

If she forgives him, does that mean she'll stop bugging me about her grandson every time I run into her. I mean really...the last time I went on a date with her grandson was 6 1/2 years ago, we're both married now, and I have a baby! It obviously wasn't meant to be.

As I was walking out the door, I said goodbye to Chris. I guess my girlfriend didn't realize who he was until then.

Girlfriend: Ooh! Is that your husband? He is soo cute!

Maybe she'll start having a crush on both of us now!

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig

I am happy to report that we finally made it home from Texas last night. Coming home from vacation always seems to take longer than the getting there. Our plane was originally supposed to leave at 6pm-ish. Late yesterday afternoon we got a phone call from Delta saying that it had been delayed till 7:30 because of severe weather in Dallas. It had been raining really hard, there was lots of close thunder and lightning, and even some tornado watches, all of which are unusual for this time of year. When we got to the airport, the plane coming from Salt Lake that was going to be ours coming back was delayed. Because of all the crazy weather in Dallas, they left Salt Lake late, and then once they got here, they had to circle the area for at least an hour and a half to wait their turn to land among all the other delayed flights. Once that plane landed, we were informed that it had been hit by lightening, so they had to check it out and make sure it was okay for another flight. Luckily nothing was damaged too seriously, and we were in the air by 10:30pm. Again, Sam was a great little traveler and slept the entire flight home. I wonder if he'd make it to Europe so well behaved. Anyway, we got our bags, took a taxi, and were home by about 12:30am. I had been looking forward to my warm comfy bed, but because we turned off the heat while we were gone, our thermostat read 42 degrees in our house. I went to bed with my new winter hat, new fuzzy socks, warm pajamas, a hoodie, and a tootsie-toaster. Poor Chris went to bed for an hour before he had to go bake at Great Harvest at 2am. He had to go in so early because he also has to work at the InstaCare from 10am to 10pm. Back to the real world, I guess.

Our Trip to Texas

I think time moves faster in Texas because I can hardly believe our time here is just about done. It's been such a nice trip, and it will be hard coming back to real life.

We left Sunday afternoon--Christmas Eve. Sam was such a great little traveler; it was his first time ever on an airplane. He slept almost the entire flight to Dallas except for the last 30 minutes or so, but even then he was a happy guy. I hope he does just as well on the flight home tomorrow. The first two nights we stayed at Chris' Aunt Elaine and Uncle Richard's house. We had three big families staying over for Christmas, so the house was filled to capacity (it's a really nice big house, so it wasn't so bad at all). Sam had so many admirers and googelie-eyed people playing with him that it overwhelmed and overstimulated him making him more fussy than usual. Being so popular and loved is so hard! The rest of the time some of us have been staying at Chris' dad's parents house, and the others at Chris' mom's parents house--they both live in Irving.

Christmas morning was fun as we opened our presents. The best part was having Chris' grandpa come for a few hours. He's been in the hospital for the last three weeks, and they let him out for a couple hours Christmas morning. For that set of grandparents 50th anniversary, Chris' mom put together a nice DVD of old family pictures and family movie clips. We also put together a nice quilt for them--each son, daughter, grandchild, grandchild-in-law, and great-grandchild (Sam is the only one) was in charge of decorating a square, and they were all put together as a quilt. It was a very nice present.

Sam has had many firsts on this trip. He went to his first movie. We went to see Eragon. Again, Sam was very well behaved for the most part. We only had to go out of the theater once for a diaper change. He went to his first museum. Today we went to the Dallas Museum of Art to see a Vincent Von Gogh exhibit. It was very cool! And to get there, Sam went on his first train--the TRE (the Trinity Rail Express, I think). We spent the whole afternoon there at the museum, and Sam just sat in his Snugglie carrier so content and happy. What a good boy.

He hasn't been this good the whole trip. Like I mentioned earlier, he has been passed from one admiring fan to the next. One of the nights we went out to a crazy restaurant called the Magic Time Machine. If ever you are in Dallas, you must go to this place. Each waiter plays the character of someone. Our waiter was one of the Spartan cheerleaders from Saturday Night Live. It was so loud and so crazy that Sam let us know just how overwhelmed he was. He rarely cries so hard. Poor guy.

So that's pretty much been our trip. We've eaten like crazy (I think I've gained lots of weight), and spent lots of fun quality time with the extended relatives down here (Chris' one grandpa got out of the hospital for good this evening). The weather has been amazing, and it's going to be so hard to come back to the snow. I guess our vacation can't last forever! Too bad it can't!

Time flies when you're having fun

Three years ago from today I came home from my mission. Four years ago this coming April Chris came home from his mission. That's two sister-missions for me and two elder-missions for Chris!

My Girlfriend

So yesterday at the bridal shower, I ran into my girlfriend from the family ward who I haven't seen in a very long time. She's still as crazy as ever and still wishes I had married her grandson.

Girlfriend: So how are you and your husband doing?
Me: Really well.
Girlfriend: Darn! So you two are happy together?
Me: Yeah, my husband is wonderful!
Girlfriend: Darn! My grandson got married, but the girl is completely opposite of you. I wish he had married you!

She seriously said all that! How am I supposed to respond?! When Chris and I were engaged, I brought Chris to the family ward so people could meet him. When I tried to introduce him to my girlfriend, she refused to shake his hand because she was mad that he was taking me away from her grandson. More than two years later she still hasn't gotten over it. She does this all jokingly, but as the saying goes, many a truth is spoken in jest. Why does she love me so much?