August Already!?

I still can't believe it is August! This summer has gone by quickly! It's kinda crazy to think that I have been out of school for almost 4 months...it seems like just yesterday school was just getting out for the summer! The student/future teacher in me always associates August with going back to school. I just get into school mode when August rolls around! One of my favorite parts of school starting back up is...BACK TO SCHOOL SHOPPING! :) I went with Connie, Amy, & Peyton yesterday and didn't end up buying anything with them. I brought Casey back to the mall with me and bought a few of the things that I really liked. :) Sometimes all I need is my husband's stamp of approval to buy things...i'm just too indecisive for shopping! The 4 things that I bought yesterday :) The white flare pants...so comfy...so cute! Only $12 at New York & Company... I couldn't pass them up! They will give me a taste of summer when it's icky outside I think! My burnout with rhinestones on it! I have been wanting a shirt like this for a year now, so I was pretty excited when I found this one and Casey loved it! The beautiful navy lace top that I plan to wear with my white pants/jeans! :) Last, but not least, my PLANNER! It is zebra! Yay! :) August is going to be a good month...some of the things that I am looking forward to are:

• I only have 2 more weeks of babysitting (thank goodness. I'm sure there will be a future post about that experience).
• I also get to go to some teacher meetings and trainings in about 2 weeks! I'm not required to go to any of them, but I am a slight overachiever, and I figure why not learn EVERYTHING possible before I have to do this all on my own right!? (Plus it gets me out of babysitting for 2 days).
• We also get to see my family for 3 weekends in a row! I am excited about that...we haven't had a whole lot of time with them this summer, so it will be good to see them a lot!
• Casey starts school August 22nd! He is going part time this semester so that he can still work full time, but I am excited for him to get going with school!
• AUBRI'S BRIDAL SHOWER is coming up! I AM SO EXCITED! I found the cutest party favor boxes for the party favors I am giving to all the girls that come to the shower...really, if I was rich this would be the most fabulous shower ever, but I hope she still loves it!

• My little sister Jaylen turns 16 on August 29th! I can't even believe it, but i'm SO excited for her!
• I start student teaching August 29th and begin my final countdown to being a college grad :)

Happy August everyone! Enjoy your final days of summer! Casey & I are heading to the pool...only a few good pool days left! :)

Student Teaching Survival Kit

My mother in law is so sweet and put together a "Student Teaching Survival Kit" for me! I was excited for student teaching before, but now I am even more excited! Today has just been one of those days that I really feel like i'm going to be a teacher, and this little kit just put a smile on my face! I got a card (with zebras on the front-totally perfect) from her explaining everything that was in it, so I wanted to put it all here so that I remember it all!

• Stickers-Everyone loves them-use them freely.
• Hand Sanitizer- Use often. Kids love to share their germs.
• Note Cards- Your students are their parents pride & joy. Be thankful for them & let their parents know all the cute & good things they do. Your time will go a long way & parents will love you.
• A good pen- Always have a nice pen just for yourself. It makes correcting papers and writing things more fun.
• Journal- Write things down. You will never remember it all. Write what works, what doesn't, & funny things kids tell you & do. Let your kids write you a nice note in your book.
• Bubble Bath- Take me away or laugh with Mr. Bubble as you remember the day.
• Chocolate- Cures everything. :)
• Coke- You're gonna need it.
• Money- Buy yourself a new outfit or two for some added confidence.

Isn't she the cutest mother in law out there!? It helps that she is a teacher too, so she knows what to get for me. I have been so lucky to have so much support from ALL of my family! My grandma has been slowly collecting things (colored pencils, crayons, EVERYTHING) for my future classroom for about a year now. And my mom is always there to back me up and make me feel like what i'm doing is the right thing-even when I am having a bad day. I am SO blessed to have such great family around me! :)

Whitaker Reunion (Casey's Mom's side of the family)

This is a picture before the reunion...we rode the Front Runner down to Salt Lake to watch the Days of 47 Parade and Peyton's face was just too cute to not include it! This past Thursday & Friday we had the opportunity to go to the Whitaker reunion in Vale, Oregon where Casey's grandparents live. Vale is kind of in the middle of nowhere about an hour and a half past Boise. We went to Bully Creek Dam and had a great time. Our campground was right on the water and it was grassy. (That's my kind of camping). Dirt is gross. Haha. There were lots of laughs and fun times with family. The Kings had the biggest turnout out of all of the families. I have a few funny stories.

• Story # 1: We were all setting up our tents and mom decided to keep the rain fly top off of our tent so that we could look at the stars. After Amy saw this she says "Ya maybe I will take my top off later too." Haha it was one of those things she realized she was saying mid sentence. Needless to say we all had a few good laughs about that one!

• Story # 2: We were all going to bed and Casey & I were already all situated on our air mattress and Emerson & Warren were dozing off in their sleeping bags. Mom walks into the tent to lay down and go to bed and all of a sudden she goes "There's a frog in our tent. There was something dark on Warren's sleeping bag and then it jumped on to Emerson's sleeping bag!" Ellen heard her and came into our tent with a flashlight to look for the culprit. Ellen was looking around with her flashlight and couldn't find anything and all of a sudden goes "OH YA THERE IT IS! AND IT'S BIG!" Mom hates slimy gross things (so do Casey & I), so she took off... I followed her pretty promptly. I stood right outside the tent. Casey took pictures and held the flashlight while Ellen caught the frog and took care of it. Thank goodness Ellen was there because i'm pretty sure Emerson would have been the one saving us all haha. Warren slept through the whole thing. Mom, Amy, Ellen, and I stood outside for about 45 minutes talking after that trying to get our heart rates down. We knew someone must have put the frog in our tent because it was sealed the whole day. Even if we opened it we closed it right after getting into it....the mystery was solved at breakfast the next morning...

"JUMPY"...our little frog friend...needless to say he was not just some tiny baby frog...he was BIG!

• Story # 2 1/2: The Kings all woke up and went in to the Starlite Diner for breakfast. It was just easier to eat there instead of trying to pack tons of food. We were all sitting down and mom says "Jackie just text me and said she was so sorry about the frog in our tent...it was her fault that it was there." So, Aunt Jackie was the CULPRIT! Mom played a little prank on her saying that the frog landed on Dad's face about an hour after he got to sleep and then he flipped out on us saying we had left the tent open and had the boys crying...so she scared Jackie a little bit before telling her she was "TOAD-aly kidding" haha. The frog was pretty entertaining to say the least.

Casey & I eating breakfast at the Starlite Diner :) I wore my Utah State sweats & sweatshirt around the campground a lot and Casey said he liked it because so much of his extended family go to Boise State...BOO! :) Here are some pictures of us down at the reservoir: Overall the reunion was great! It was definitely a whirlwind trip...Casey, Ryan, & Peyton left at 4:00 a.m. on Thursday and Mom, Amy, & I left at 8:00 a.m Thursday, and dad came up late Thursday night...then Casey, Ryan, Peyton, Amy, & I left Vale at 7:30 p.m. and we finally pulled into our apartment at 2:50 a.m. LONG TRIP. Today I am all off because going to bed at 3:00 a.m. just isn't that great for my body's internal clock. I think the Kings were probably the "prissiest" of all of the families there...between eating at the Starlite diner for breakfast, freaking out about a frog in our tent, and Casey & I showering at Grandma & Grandpas house because we just felt gross, we were definitely the city people amongst the country folk, but it was great to be around family and get out of Layton for a day or so!

Baby hunger...

Yes, I will admit I have had baby hunger a lot lately. That doesn't mean that I am going to act on it and have a baby, but I was looking at the Utah State bookstore website and found these two things... At least one of my future children will be wearing these things... how stinkin cute are they!?

My thoughts on Harry Potter... :)

So since we went to the final Harry Potter movie for our anniversary and since it is the LAST one I figured I would give my feelings on it... keep in mind I have only seen it once and it was late at night haha. Just looking at the movie as a movie I think it was a great movie... very entertaining, etc... but the books will ALWAYS be better than the movies in my eyes! I literally grew up with these characters... I got the 1st Harry Potter book for Christmas the year I turned 11... I fell in love with the books from the moment I picked the first one up. The movies were great, but the books were way better in my opinion. I honestly think the true Harry Potter fans are the people who read the books and stood in the lines at midnight to get the books, not see the movies (sorry to all of you who only watched the movies, but it's just a fact)... if it weren't for the fans of the books the movies wouldn't have been half what they were in my opinion. Seeing young kids (who I would almost guarantee never read the books) all dressed up at the movie and hearing all the gasps and things in the theater was really entertaining for me because you could just tell who hadn't read the books! I know i'm a bit of a Harry Potter snob, but really friends... if you haven't read the books you must do it! They will change your life! I LOVE HARRY POTTER!... and if I have anything to do with it my future students will be exposed to at least the first book! :)

1st Anniversary!

It was our 1st Anniversary on July 15th! I can't believe how quickly that year went! Time flies when you're having fun I guess! Casey and I have had a great year filled with love and happiness... no it wasn't always blissful, but in the end all that really mattered was that we loved each other. I am so lucky to have a man like Casey for a husband... never met a guy who is more understanding, patient, and just genuinely good! He brings out the best in me and pushes me to do the right things! Marrying him was the best decision I could have made! We got lucky enough to have the final Harry Potter movie come out on our anniversary, so of course since I am obsessed with Harry Potter, Casey took me to the midnight movie! The theater we went to did a wristband thing, so we got up extra early and sat in line for a few hours to get our spots in line! We were 108 & 109 out of 450, so we had great seats in the theater! Waiting patiently for the movie to start :) After sleeping in until 12:30 the next day we headed down to Salt Lake to stay at the Hyatt Place right next to the Gateway Mall. Since we have basically no money we decided to have Subway for dinner (it's the same thing we ate on our wedding night). I know it's totally romantic, but I loved it :) Casey enjoying his sandwich :) cute dude he is! We went to Applebees and got a Triple Chocolate Meltdown (YUM!) and then enjoyed our stay at the hotel! (Thanks Mom & Dad King!) The next day we went to the Bountiful temple and did sealings... it was a great way to end the anniversary celebrations :) It's been a great year and I can't wait for the many more to come! I love you Casey :)

Exciting news/ 4th of July

Sorry it has taken me so stinking long to post! It's been almost a month now! Kinda crazy! But... you know my camera that I lost about 9 months ago that I swore someone must have stolen because I looked EVERYWHERE and I couldn't find it!? My brother in law needed to use my eye glass repair kit that I had in my purse, so I was searching in my purse to find it and I found my camera! There is a tear in my purse, so it had fallen into that and underneath the rest of my purse! I told Casey that since I was losing things in my purse that I must need a new one... I had fallen in love with a new purse already, so once I get paid from my babysitting job I get to get it! I AM SO EXCITED! I must say I was SO excited when I found the camera! It was definitely a happy moment :) My cute purse that I am going to get! We spent the 4th in Pocatello this year... it was filled with lots of swimming and fun with the family :) We went to the fairgrounds in Pocatello as usual and the fireworks were great! I have always enjoyed the fireworks in Pocatello... Probably mostly because I am with my family! I did feel kind of sad that I wasn't in Arizona with my family because we were considering doing that, but it just didn't work out for us this year. In the end it's good we didn't go because it was too dry down there to set off fireworks in Heber! Overall it was a great 4th though! :) Sister Jaylen... what a sweet facial :) haha As part of the swimming joy I basically didn't wear makeup the majority of the weekend.... :) Momma and Carly at the fairgrounds :) Me at the fairgrounds... wearing red doesn't really work when you are a little sunburned! Our first fireworks as a married couple :) Isn't he cute!? I'm a lucky lady! I got a babysitting job until school starts... the only reason I like it is because I get money from it haha. Sometimes that's just how jobs go I guess...It's kinda cutting in to my swimming time and into my summer, but it's worth it to have a little extra money to help out with bills and things! I am getting to where I am ready for school to start again... this time I get to be a teacher and a student at the same time :) I can't believe I will be done in December, but I am so excited to be done and get a real job soon!