August 17, 2013

Mud Lake Fair and Rodeo

The Mud Lake Fair is one of my favorite parts of summer. I don't really know why besides the fact that it's just dang fun to go out and about and see all of the people in our little town turn out for the event.
And plus, there is always good food to be had. 

I went down the day of the pig show to see Addi, Brevan, Teagan, and Kortni show their pigs. It was a dang long, hot day and I didn't stay for too long because I got all sorts of nervous that school was starting and I had yet to organize my classroom. So I went down to the school for a couple hours and worked and then still was able to make it back in time for the rest of the show. 


 Teagan reminds me so much of Kolton in that picture.
 If moving a pig around a stinky corral filled with fifty others pigs doesn't look like fun, then I don't know what is! 
I did pig 4-H for a number of years and while it really was a good experience...I sure don't miss it too much. Except for the payoff at the end of the summer, that was always nice. 

That night was the big parade. My Grandma and Grandpa Newman were the Grand Marshals of the Fair this year so they invited us cousins to ride with them in the horse drawn wagon in the parade. We had a ginormous laundry basket full of candy and still somehow managed to run out before we made it to the end. We ended up digging out the candy that Keston had stashed in his pockets. 
It was so fun!

 After the parade, we ate at the fairgrounds and I was able to get a picture with the Grand Marshals themselves.

 And of course I had to eat some of the delicious authentic Mexican food that is always the main part of my diet during fair week.
Oh yum! Those tamales and rice were to die for! 

And then on Saturday night, it was time for the rodeo! My favorite! 
I don't know why I love the rodeo so much but I just really do. Everybody in the community turns out for it and it's just a really good time! 
I was even able to drag Kolton out of the combine to join in the fun!

And that was that!
Until next year!

August 10, 2013

If I Only Had A Brain

1. I did a really, really, REALLY stupid thing the other day. So stupid that it makes me want to punch myself in the face. 
So days before we were getting married, Kolton and I were driving to the wedding dress store to pick up my dress when I mentioned to Kolton that I needed to find some earrings for the big day. 
He sat in silence for a minute and then said, "Hey, reach back in my coat in the inside pocket." 
I did as he asked and found in my hand a beautiful little bag and inside the little bag were some gorgeous diamond earrings. The diamonds were fake but the 24 ct. gold surrounding them was not.
I about died over what a thoughtful gift this was. He told me he had planned on giving them to me as a wedding gift and at a little more opportune time, but didn't want me marching in the store and buying some earrings when he already had some. 

Note the earrings...

Fast forward a couple years of me wearing those earrings ALL THE TIME. 
I wore them constantly and hardly ever took them out. 

The other day I was in the shower and was busy shampooing when I heard a little ding sound. I looked down and there on the shower floor were two little dark dots. I had a minor freak out because I realized I had forgotten to check the shower for spiders when I got in and now there were two dead spiders right by my feet. 
So I used my foot and pushed and pushed and pushed with water until those two little black things went down the drain. One was being a little stubborn, but with a little more effort, it eventually went down the drain too. 
I then shuddered a little bit at the thought of a spider being in such close proximity to me and continued with the shampooing. 

When I got out of the shower I was combing through my hair when I noticed I was missing an earring. 
Almost immediately I realized what had happened and I just wanted to die/punch myself for being so stupid. 

Oh I just felt awful (and still feel really awful) and I checked down the drain but it was long gone. So I pulled myself together and called Kolton.
"Um...I did a really really REALLY stupid thing just barely..." was how I prefaced my story. Then I proceeded to tell him all about it. 
He let out an audible sigh and said, "Oh, that's all? I thought you had wrecked the car (he didn't say "again" but I know that's what he was thinking. But that's a story for another day) It's okay." 

And that was basically the end of the conversation.  He teased me about it a little when he got home but I still just get a pit in my stomach every time I think about it. 
When I say I have impetuous tendencies do you now see what I mean? 

August 9, 2013

Just Call Me Mrs. Hansen

It's true!
In a matter of only a few more days I will be known as Mrs. Hansen to 49 fifth graders at good ole Terreton Elementary. 
Cue freak out...

When we were headed down to Mexico I got a call from the Superintendent asking if I would like to come in for an interview for a teaching position. 
I somehow stammered out a yes and was shocked beyond belief. The whole vacation I would find myself thinking about the interview and if I would really get the job and what in the heck I would do if I actually did get the job. 
For the record, going on vacation the week before a big job interview is actually a pretty good idea. I would get stressed and be a nervous wreck, then go for a dip in the ocean. I would start stressing about my lack of skills in classroom management and order a pina colada. 
It was a very stressful/non-stressful week. 

Finally we came home from the trip and the long awaited day came. The interview got postponed for a few hours and then it was finally time. 
I was dressed in my most "Don't-I-look-competent" outfit as I jumped in the car and backed out of the garage. As I did so, I saw a slip of paper on the passenger seat about my car insurance. Ironically, I was thinking about car insurance as I continued to back out of the garage and also as I backed into the four-wheeler that was parked in my driveway.

I said a few bad words in my head and then jumped out to assess the damage. Nothing too serious besides a shattered tail light. And then I had to call Kolton and confess to my stupidity. 

For the record, wrecking your car before a big job interview is actually a pretty good idea. I would start to get nervous and then remember what I had done to my car and want to punch myself in the face. I would start worrying about what type of questions they were going to ask me and then remember that I was the one who had parked the four-wheeler behind my car.
It was a very stressful/angry drive.

When I finally got to the district office I was a jumbled mess! But then the rapid fire questioning began and I didn't have time to be nervous as I was spouting off answers to the strangest questions ever. 
When the interview was over, I really didn't know how to feel about it. I shook their hands really not knowing if I had the job or not. Right as I was about to get to the car, the superintendent opened up his office window and yelled, "Jayci! Come back!" 

He brought me back into his office and asked me questions about my certification, whether I was certified or not. Then he showed me how to get certified and told me, "This is your job this week. You HAVE to get this done!" 
After that I was pretty sure I had the job. 

Sure enough, less than two hours later, I got the call and had got the job! 

And the rest of the summer has been stressful ever since! 
I've tried to start planning everything and my head gets so full of ideas that I can't fall asleep at night. I lay awake forever thinking about what I want to do and what I want to change about this or that. But now school is right around the corner and it's almost showtime! I have some pretty extensive notes.

 For example, here's the first day of school:
 And here's the desk where I try to figure and re-figure everything out.

Anyway...
I am nervous as all get out, but really excited too! I think it will be a really good learning and growing experience for all of us involved. 
Wish me luck!

August 6, 2013

Pre-Birthday Celebration

My fun friends decided to plan a little pre-birthday celebration for me for the afternoon. We had a really nice time seeing each other and catching up!

I met up with Kandice and we rode together into Rexburg where we met Baylee at Great Harvest for lunch. Um....yummo! My sandwich was so good! We spent lunchtime visiting and wrangling a couple one year olds who were a little too busy running toward the food prep area to sit and eat. 

After lunch we headed to Rexburg Rapids. I had never been before, and I was impressed with it! It was a fun little park and only a couple thousand people were there, so it was pretty good.



We just played with the girls in the Splash Park area and had a nice time visiting and catching them as they jumped off the side of the pool. It was such a nice afternoon and was made even better when I FINALLY satisfied my snow cone craving. I love snow cones more than ice cream in the summer...I know, crazy. 

After a little more time spent soaking in the sun both pools got closed because of some unfortunate accidents of the bodily function nature. So we left. But it was a nice time and I loved getting to see those girls and catching up and playing with their cute kids. It was a perfect little summer afternoon.







August 2, 2013

So....Many....Potatoes.....

So this year for the Monteview Ward Reunion that was also a Pioneer Day Celebration that was also called a Community Get Together- Kolton was in charge of cooking the dutch oven potatoes. 
Now Kolton has only made dutch oven potatoes once before. 
That was on our second date, and it did not go well. 
After over two hours of cooking and adding briquettes, he gave up and our potatoes were crunchy as could be. 
So understandably, he was a bit nervous for the daunting task of making dutch oven potatoes for 200 people at the ward reunion. 
He decided we needed to practice to prepare for the big day. 

On Monday we planned dinner with my family because it was also Brody's birthday. Tylee had her friend Kelsey staying with us and we spent the day attempting to wash my Grandma's windows and swimming in the pool. 
That night we got together and started cooking the potatoes. 


 Unfortunately, this potato cooking experience went much like the last one and after two hours of cooking we decided to give it up, split some leftovers, and try it again the next night. 

The Tuesday night attempt was much more successful. This was probably due in large part to the fact that we used a camp chef. The potatoes really were delicious and we were able to get a feel for what needed to be done for the party the next day. 

Kolton and I spent a few hours prepping for the feast. We had to pick up dutch ovens and camp chefs from some nice people and then set them up and get started cooking. I helped for a bit until I got replaced by more willing men. 
While Kolton was busy slaving over the cooking fire I was able to spend some quality time with this sweet thing and his momma.

The dinner was delicious and the potatoes were a hit. After that, Kolton was able to relax a little bit and was even goaded into joining the pie eating contest. 

Getting his game face on. 

 He lost terribly, but it was still fun to see him get some pie in the face. And that was that!

August 1, 2013

Storm Riders

Last night at the last minute Kolton and I decided to take my dad's Harley for a spin around town. So we hopped on and away we went. 

 We didn't get too far down the road before we hit a bit of a rainstorm. The wind was blowing like crazy and the rain felt like tacks being thrown at us.
We heard some weather advisories come across the radio and decided to take a quick stop at the gas station to fuel up and see if the storm would pass as quickly as it had come on and we would be able to continue on to town. 
We sat in the gas station for about ten minutes and after some calls to family in Idaho Falls who said the weather was beautiful there, we decided to journey on.
 We hit a little patch of rain on the freeway, but other than that it was smooth sailing. 
We took the scenic route (more scenic than the freeway, anyway) and had ourselves a nice ole time. 
When we got into town we made a stop at our favorite Olive Garden for some chicken and shrimp carbonara, our dish of choice that we always split.

 After that we cruised around town for a little bit. The sun was warm, we had our music going and as we went around the roundabout I had the "we could be in a movie" feeling. 
Because everything was just that perfect.

We made a quick stop in at the mall which ended up being a little longer than we had planned because we were in search of some shoes to go with some church pants Kolton got for Easter. 
Of course we didn't find what we were looking for, because it is my belief that one of the cardinal rules of shopping is that if you are looking for something specific it somehow seems to magically vanish from all shopping venues no matter how many of that specific thing you have seen previously. 
I don't even know if that makes sense, but it happens to me All. The. Time. 

So after our quick stop at the mall ended up being a long-ish stop at the mall, when we finally emerged (with still no luck on the shoe front) we noticed it was getting pretty dark outside. This didn't worry us until we looked in the direction of the way home and noticed big black storm clouds brewing. 

We jumped on that bike and jetted outta there fast. When we pulled onto Sunnyside we had a clearer view of the angry black clouds and an even better view of the huge bolts of lightning that were not that far in the distance. 
I was a bit nervous, to say the least. 

But we just kept going and going and when we made it to the freeway, we were relieved the discover the storm was still a little ways off, and that we had the best seats in the house for a seriously awesome lightning show. 
Maybe not the safest seats in the house being that we were outside straddled on a motorbike, but I did have a pretty good view of the constant lightning and we cruised down the freeway. 

We hit a tiny bit of rain, but not too bad and we were feeling relieved again, until we turned in the direction of Monteview and saw the big storm clouds and even more lightning. 
I kept mentioning to Kolton that we could stop and have our parents pick us up, but we just kept going and I just kept getting texts from my mom warning us about the storm that had been moving in. 

We actually did okay until we hit the Monteview church and found ourselves in the middle of a downpour. The rain was pelting us, the windshield was covered in wet, and I was grateful I was able to at least duck my head and close my eyes. Kolton wasn't so lucky. 

I was so relieved when we finally got close to my parents house and found my dad out there with the shop door open and a big grin on his face as he watched us pull up sopping wet, at least one side of us was drenched, but the other side fared a little better.
Sure enough, by the time we had gotten everything situated and walked out of the shop, the rain had completely stopped. 

Good night, that was sure an adventure we won't be forgetting anytime soon!





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