Arizona Sky

Here are some pictures from tonights sunset! it was so pretty i had to take some pictures. i cant believe it but i think today marks our one year since we moved away from salt lake. wow. we have officially been residents of Arizona for one year. i think its okay. its nice, i actually havnt missed the snow. i really love the weather this time of year, its perfect. i did miss the fall with all the leaves changing and that, but i dont miss icy roads and freezing hands and fierce arctic winds, and icy snow getting in your shoes. i like wearing sandals, and not worrying about a coat, and walking outside at night, and being able to do outdoor things. So here it is!

Late Valentines

Hey Happy Late Valentines Day
Me and dan were sick on valentines , so ours will be probably like friday. other than that , not much has been going on. a lot of little things have been going on to keep us busy, just nothing that interesting. anyways, nothin else to say. dan is pretty upset i didnt capitalize him. haha hes pretty funny.

Bully

Today i was subbing at Cactus Middle School. everything went pretty well, i was a sub for the boys class (they have 2 girls and 2 boys classes during each hour, and since they separate them into genders, i just waited for them to dress in the girls locker room), anyways, everything was going pretty well, until we went out to play basketball, and one kid, the biggest kid in the class (wears glasses), comes walking toward me with tears streaming down his cheeks. these are 6th graders by the way. and so i ask him, whats wrong? and hes so upset he cant talk for a few minutes, but i get the idea its not physical hurt. and so he says some kid was calling him fat, and saying they dont want his fat *** playing with them. i was furious. i called the kid over that was name calling and asked him why he would do that, its hurtful, its mean, and the kid said he did that jokingly, i was just like WELL HE"S NOT LAUGHIN. i let the kid know i was pretty mad. i was so sad for the fat kid , it made me want to cry. so i wrote the namer caller kid up. well, i had the other boys gym teacher write him up. poor kid, i wasnt sure what to say to him, he was obviously overwieght. and the kid calling him fat was skin and bone. so i just told him to shake it off, and that it didnt matter what other kids said... anyways, so now tonight we are going up to the temple in mesa. dan is working out in the yard, its a great day out, but i've been outside most of the day, and i think im gona take a little nap. oh ps i found out casa grande DOES have city softball leagues. i need to call and see about that. so if you want to play with us, and live here, leave me your name on a comment or call me!
Later!

Lassen Volcanic

Lassen Peak reflected in the waters of Manzanita Lake. Before Mt. St Helens stole its thunder in 1980, Lassen Peak in northern California boasted the most recent volcanic eruption in the lower 48. (that was taken from my book i got the picture out of. credits go to Susan Burke). alright. it was fun, i liked working more with the foliage and snow, i had never done anything with snow, and i've always thought about it. i was really practicing using as many different shades as i could , i was consciencly remixing and dabbing in colors all over the palett. Well, gotta go.

So Far Away

Alright. i touched it up a little bit. what do you guys think?

Wah-LA

here is the last painting i've done. i did it on Febuary 4 2006. woa!! i didnt even notice that. 02-04-06. Wow. i didnt even mean to do that! its F8. remember mare? hehe. one time me and mary were flying to anchorage and we just decided to sit down in the minneapolis (i believe it was minneapolis) airport at this one gate that had nobody else there and rest. so then we decide to start looking for our gate, and what you do know? its right where we were sitting. what are the odds of that? but wait- it gets better. i look at the gate number, its F8. (get it, Fate). wow. i tell ya wow. i'm sure crazier things have happened. but this ones pretty crazy. like 02-04-06. what better way to remember what day i painted this picture? anyways. can anybody guess what this picture is of? its done from a photo. and even the state it is in would maybe count..we'll see who knows their mountains. this one has significane over Mt. St. Helens... that is your LAST clue!!! i might have to redo some of this painting.. does anybody else see a flaw in the reflection? well, now you all will. so i better go correct it as best as i can. the paint is PRETTY thick.

Thought for the Day

Supposing today were your last day on earth,
The last mile of the journey you've trod;
After all of the struggles, how much are you worth,
How much can you take home to God?
Don't count as possessions your silver and gold,
Tomarrow you leave these behind,
And all that is yours to have and to hold
Is the service you've given mankind.

Special Day

so... today i subbed for special ed in middle school. i mean REAL special ... i was in shock the first half the day. literally , i didnt even know what to think. or do. or say. i was just in complete shock. i was like speechless. like a few kids in the class. at first, when the bell rang i was pretty worried. nobody was there... not any of the 3 aides i was told about, and no students either. i didnt know the office extention and i didnt know if maybe i was in the wrong room, but i thought i was in the right place... so i waited, and then come some wheel chairs. i felt a little better when they showed up a few minutes later. i was in the least functioning of the special ed classes...there were 5 kids (i just remembered i forgot to turn in attendance) and 3 of the 5 were in wheelchairs that they were strapped to and like had VERY little control if any over their body, they were drooling, and couldnt control their limbs and could only make weird noises. it was actually kind of funny, this one kids named stephen always made a lot of noises, but i didnt know if he understood people or not, so i was asking one of the aides, and the other aide was helping another student and wasnt really listening but was, and i asked the aide next to me "does he understand , like what his name is and things like that ?" and the aide that wasnt by me, helping the student, overheard, and was like "because his last name is garcia?" and i looked at the aide next to me like "what?" and i was like "no ..." and i was thinking in my head "no because he doesnt seem to understand anything..." and then me and the aide next to me started laughing, and this other aide realized her mistake (she knew this student ). anyways it was really funny. she was thinking at first i was asking if he understood spanish, and she said because his last name is garcia because he isnt spanish i dont think... it was funny. and then the other 2 students didnt talk , and were sort of like just roaming the classroom picking something up every now and then. one of the kids liked to throw stuff, and the other liked to tip over chairs. at first i was thinking, why? thats all i could muster in my brain.. i was like thinking if God wanted them to be healed, they would be normal instantly. and then i thought, but he doesnt. there is a reason they are being protected from Satan. they are like little children, satan cant touch them. they must have been very righteous before they were born. they have a golden ticket straight to the top. so in that way, they are very lucky and very blessed. but i dont envy them at all...i felt very ungrateful for my body and mind being around those kids. i have complete control of both, and i think i take that for granted most of the time. i get caught up in little things and i miss the big picture. just being able to eat food that isnt spoon fed to me from a gerber baby can. ...
so tomarrow i am subbing my first middle school non special ed class. its 7th grade language arts, aka english. we'll see how that goes!! im a little nervous cause i've never subbed normal middle school before. i will get a new class every hour and a half i believe, they have a /b day schedule. one class on day A, a different class on day B. anyways, well im gona go!

Company!

Jeremy and his wife Crystal and their baby Jayden came down for a visit, and we had a good time! heres a few pictures we took before they left.

Jinxy

 here is one of me and jinx dan took the other night, jinx has taken to sleeping on top of the couch recently.

Chill

so not much exciting has been going on since we went hiking, just working in the yard, added some plants and 2 small palm trees, dan is very concerned about frost or freezing since ourlows have been in the 20s and 30s lately, and so he put up our Christmas lights on all the ficus trees (we didnt have them all up outside for Christmas, so jan 15 we were out stringing lights, our neighbors probably are wondering what is going on) but its supposed to keep them warm. anyways, then dan dumped water on the trees to keep them warm, and it shorted out the lights, so now they are purely decoration... subbing (today for special ed at middle school), helping dan with mortgage notes, he looks them up and i write the letter and address the envelope. so far i think i have 50 something ready for him. anyways, just getting ready for Robert to come fly in monday for the 3 day training. just sort of chillin at our house.

Hiking

heres some pictures, it was pretty bright up on the top!

Camelback Mountain! Hold to the Rod. The Iron Rod..

We got up early this morning...and a slow start it was. we dropped my mother off to the airport at about 7 or so, and headed over to Camelback Moutain. we thought it would be somewhat of an easy trail, a little over a mile each way. however, it was a VERY steep trail, parts of it we had to hold to the rod! the iron rod! and other times we were climbing up rocks after rocks, sort of a steep hill that has big rocks everywhere. tons of hikers too! not TOO much but a lot, and lots of dogs. that really kept emma going. was seeing how the dogs were at the top, and having me ask the owners if the dogs liked hiking or not. that question made me feel really stupid, asking dog owners if their dog liked to hike. OBViOUSLy the dog did. but it made emma happy. luckily i only had to ask one owner for emma to be satisfied that all dogs would. and then she really didnt want to continue about half way... she told us that saturday mornins were her day to sleep IN! and that this wasnt very fun to her. and that her legs were tired. it was sorta funny. but then dan and dave had gone alittle ahead to i left audrye and emma cause emma wasnt going anywhere, and then audrey convinced her i had the food and that i might eat the food if she didnt come to with us. it worked! emma caught up to me, and then she was a GREAT hiker !! after that, she hardly complained at all. everybody commented on how cute she was a what a good hiker she was. dave and dan were ahead of us most of the time , me and audrey and emma, because emma was a little slower since she is still quite small, some of the rocks were harder for her to climb over quickly. but thats okay, we had fun! the summit was very cool, you could see Mt Lemon all the way in Tuscon. well, heres some pictures! enjoy! Oh, and we took lots of breaks, we left at 8 exactly and were back in the car by 11:20. a little longer than we thought, but we did hang out on the summit for a little while.

Jinx!

We are in the middle of putting up our over the ranger microwave, and jinx LOVEs that plastic that is sitting around, she sleeps in there all the time.

Last days of Break!

ITs a Beautiful DAy!

Heres some pictures of the latest and greatest happenings here in Casa Grande! My mother leaves tomarrow morning, so we were baking bread today. and i took some more pictures of our paintings we did yesterday, and today is gorgeous outside!! we layed in the hammock in audreys backyard for 1/2 hr and it was so nice. didnt wana get up! it was so relaxing. tonight i think we will go out to dinner, and then who knows whaT! tomarrow morning we want to go hiking bright and early at Camelback mountain.

Painting

Yesterday my mother and I finally got to have a painting day! we started about 2 or 3 and finished up around 8. it was a lot of fun! at first, that rock was really hard, but i kinda learned how to do it. my mom taught me about leaves and trees, and flicking to make the rock look more real! it was a lot of fun! thanks mom!

Sleepy kitty

Christmas Eve

Here we are Christmas Eve. We get new pjs every year! i got a robe this year, which i have loved! and then there is a picture of us outside my parents house on our way up to see the Mesa Temple's lights.

And a happy new year!!

Here we are on Christmas, Everybody! the kids have all gone away, dave and emma went to Des Moines to see their grandma there, tom and michelle left this morning, and my dad flew home to alaska.