Teaching

I have been teaching since the 13th at Cumberland Elementary. At first I didn't know how I was going to do it, but it's getting better every day. I have 6 students who are all very unique and fun in their own way. The kids are very loving and teach me things all the time. I know my patience has become a lot stronger in the short time I've worked with these kids. Even though they can be challenging I know that their spirits are gentle and sweet. I feel so great at the end of the day, even on tough days, knowing that I've done something good in the lives of these kids.

This week we went to the public library on the city bus. For all of my students it was their first time riding the city bus. It was a lot of fun to see how excited they got when the bus stopped for us and how well they sat on the bus. One little girl keeps asking me every morning, "Bus today? Ride city bus?", so I think we'll be taking the bus at least once a week some place in town.

Chicago!

Last year for Jesse's birthday he went to Chicago for a day with his friend Jeremy and Jeremy's dad. I thought it would be nice to continue this tradition and take Jesse to Chicago again for a day. We went with our friend Kevin and his two daughters, Isabelle and Sophie. Kevin's been to Chicago several times so he was our tour guide. It was A LOT of fun, but it wiped us out. One thing for sure, pregnant people are not made to walk around big cities for 12 hours!!

We started off by walking around some of the parks and looking at all the neat fountains. There are a lot of interesting statues and fountains all throughout Chicago. I was amazed at how beautiful the parks are and how secluded they seem.

We walked over to Navy Pier and Jesse rode the swings with Sophie. She was afraid to go on them, but Jesse convinced her to go on. He's so great with children, I can't wait for the day when it's our kid he's taking on amusement park rides.

The picture on the left needs some explaining... as we were walking to Michigan Ave we saw a building with random stones sticking out of it. This picture has a rock from Idaho (Craters of the Moon) and one from the SLC temple. Further down the road there was a rock from Mt. Rainer. It was nice to have little pieces of home right there in Chicago. For the past year Jesse has been talking about this pizza place in Chicago and telling me it's the best in the world. For dinner we decided to go to the original store and have some pizza. I was AMAZED at how big the pizza was! One piece was like a piece of pie. Surprisingly I ate two pieces, but I couldn't help myself it was that good!!

As we walked around we went to a couple of stores. We went to a Hershey store and I bought Jesse a cookbook. He loves making desserts so I figured where better to buy a dessert cookbook than Hersheys. I also found a really cute t-shirt for the baby that Jesse let me buy. We also went to the American Girl Doll store for Isabelle and Sophie. It was insane! A million little girls running around with dolls buying new outfits and stuff for their dolls. The store even had a doll hair salon... and people were LINED up waiting! As we walked further up Michigan Ave went to Lego Land. They had all these huge creations made of Legos. They had a life size Lego Haggrad from Harry Potter, a huge snake running along an entire wall, and a bi-plane flying around the entrance to the store. There were tons of other things around the store. I spent the whole time just looking at things while Jesse was looking for Legos to purchase. I felt old walking around the store because I kept thinking, "these have changed since I was a kid." Now people can build cars, etc. out of Legos and they work on remote control! Jesse bought a box of Legos that can be used to build several types of motorcycles, ATVs, etc. He's such a kid at heart!! After shopping we walked back to the car in pouring rain. Jesse bought me a sweatshirt to wear so I wouldn't get too cold and wet walking, but I think he bought it for me because he felt bad that all day I was buying him things. The drive home went smoothly and as soon as we got home I passed out asleep. Apparently Jesse went to bed around 2am because he was busy playing with his new Legos.

Happy Anniversary!!

The 6th was our 3rd year anniversary!! We bought a washer and drier set for our new apartment. Jesse says I get the drier and he gets the washer. I also bought him some wall stickers to decorate the baby's room. He bought me a broom (I've been complaining that we don't own one) and some scrapbooking stickers.

I tricked Jesse with his present. I promised him that I only spent $5 on his present but when he saw how big it was he was confused. I wrapped the stickers inside of a new toolbox. The toolbox is his birthday present that I gave to him early because he starts school on his birthday so he'll be busy. We went out to eat at this really nice Italian restaurant La Scalla in downtown Lafayette. This is how I looked BEFORE we ate. I'm pretty sure my stomach looked twice as large after we ate!! Jesse had this veal and pasta dish and I ate a crab and linguine dish. It was SOOOOO good!!

We were too full to eat any dessert at the restaurant so we took some cheesecake home to eat later. Jesse put 3 candles in it to be silly.