Long and Boring Christmas Post

First off, I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas!! Ben and I went up to Oregon this year. We were going to leave Tuesday morning around 8:00am until we realized that a snow storm was heading towards Utah and since we were driving, we decided to leave at midnight (basically right when I got home from working a double shift at work.... phew!) As soon as we crossed the Utah/Idaho border, we hit the storm. I've never seen so many accidents in my life. We were going about 30 MPH for a few hours. There was at least 40 miles of a single sheet of black ice....As we were driving, Ben decided to change lanes.... ends up that Ben didn't decide to do anything! The wind was so strong that it made the decision for us and pushed us right into the next lane!! After that, we decided that maybe it was getting a little dangerous to be driving (with the wind, the snow, oh yeah, and not being able to see the road since it was so dark outside....) so we pulled over at a rest stop and took a long nap in the car (did I mention that there were 5 of us in our little Corolla? we were not in a good mood....). We made it okay although there were a few slick spots. And when we finished our road trip, we seriously pulled into our garage, parked, got everything out, unpacked, then my dad comes home and says that we have 2 flat tires.... ends up the tires were completely shredded on the inside (whatever that means..) Good thing we made it home! And thanks mom and dad for the 2 new tires.... :)

Christmas here has been great! All the K-moku kids decided not to buy anybody Christmas presents because we were going to go to the Nike Employee store here in Oregon. Everything there is at LEAST 50% off which is awesome for us because we were in need of some soccer cleats. Nike has a limit on how much money you can spend at the store and let's just say that Ben and I came close to having to put stuff back on the shelf....... At least we won't need to buy cleats for the next year! :) The next picture is JUST the shoes we bought....And if your name starts with a "J" and ends with "acob", don't look too closely at the next picture.....









On Christmas Eve, my dad decided we needed to start a new tradition(it's never too late!) and I think it's one that is going to stick around. We challenged another family in our ward to a game of basketball. It was fun just to play around and goof off. Riena and I just wanted to try out our new basketball shoes (which I think are pretty sweet). Ben had to join the other team because one of their sons had to work and I think that's why my family lost. Don't let Ben ever fool you anymore.... Soccer is NOT his only sport!!









Day after Christmas, we headed to the Oregon coast for a day of crabbing! It was fun but so frustrating! Oregon has these crazy laws about only getting a certain size of crabs and you can only get males.... after a full day of crabbing, we had a TON of little crabs that we had to throw back and only 1 crab that was the right size.... but it was a female! Nevertheless, we had lots of fun. The coast is beautiful and we got to eat at Moe's. Seriously, the best clam chowder in the world!!










For our 3rd year anniversary, Ben and I aren't going to do anything big.... I can't believe it's been 3 years! I'll have to post pictures later since this post is going up before we actually go but we're going to go to dinner and then to the Blazer's basketball game(free tickets, good seats....awesome!) And during our trip to the coast, we found this!!









We're heading back to Utah on Tuesday.... don't know what time yet but we're going back to work and school. Hope you all had a great year and will have an even better one this next year!

It's Coming....

If you're here in town the day before Thanksgiving, you are invited to our house for....


Pie Night!!



Get excited....

Soccer Girls are Tough....

.... but honestly?!

Prom Night(mares)

For Young Women's we're holding an Oscar's night for YW in Excellence (for those of you who have forgotten, we're celebrating Personal Progress achievements!). All the girls are going to dress up in fancy prom dresses, do their hair and make up, walk down a red carpet looking absolutely FABULOUS, and maybe get their picture taken by "paparrazi." It'll be fun. We had to find a house to keep all the dresses at, so of course, I volunteered.


A few of the dresses were really pretty (and yes, I still fit in some of them.... some.) A few others though, were.... for lack of a better word.... interesting?

So then I had to look online for some HOTT dresses and decided to share them with you (since nothing in my life has changed since my last post).

Yes, these are diapers.

Oh, my eyes...

Oh wow, symmatrical....

Feather duster....

How can you not look at this picture and not think of a gift bag?!

Time to Get the Cobwebs Dusted Off.....

Wow, it's been FOREVER!! And I doubt any of you are keeping any track of our lives but here's an update for those of you who still care....





Work: I got a job at a place called Provo Canyon School and I absolutely LOVE it! I'm just a PRN (on-call) but I basically have hours of a full-time employee, minus benefits. I also am the assistant volleyball coach there. I love all my volleyball girls! They are so fun and TALENTED! I also get to help out with the basketball team... hilarious, I know! Ben is still chugging away at Traditions Mill and still loves it just as much. His boss will sometime try to bribe him with money to skip his class for a day just to stay at work a little longer but Ben is so good, he says no and faithfully goes to.....





School: He's been doing great! He'll go to his class and then stay there "studying" (or napping... usually his studies involve both...but he swares that it's about 80% study, 20% nap). I told him that I'll give him a snowboarding pass for the upcoming season if he gets a 3.5 or above. We'll see...



Play: We decided to grow up and be more mature so we backed off on the sports. So this season we're ONLY on (this is a combined list) 1 women's soccer team and 1 men's soccer team at Timp Indoor and 1 flag football team, 1 soccer team, and 1 co-ed ultimate frisbee team with BYU Intramurals. See? We backed off.



Church: I'm the 1st counselor in the YW presidency in our ward and I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Mia Maids. I have about 7 girls that I'm over and they are so funny! And can I just tell you how EXCITED I am to NOT have a music calling?! Finally!! (But no, this does not mean that I get a break.... they still ask me to play for the choir and sometimes the organist..... BUT IT'S NOT A CALLING!!!) Ben has 2 callings: Elders Quorum teacher (again) and Priests Quorum advisor... which he also loves. The Priests in the ward have so much fun with Ben.



Family: My mom calls me on a Thursday night and said they're coming to visit us that weekend. Good thing my house is clean! We had so much fun seeing them even though it was for just a short time.... but who cares?! I haven't seen my dad in 2 years so we all had a blast just talking and seeing each other! And of course we HAD to take our regular family picture.... I think my dad just thinks we're crazy..... and my mom. Ben was at school (yeah, he has class on Saturdays.... stupid) so that's why he's not in the picture!




Big News: I'm FINALLY (and much more important, legally) a Wheeler. Yup, after 2 years, 8 months, and 18 days, I finally went from being a Kalilimoku to a Wheeler. Don't judge.... it was seriously the hardest thing I've ever had to do!




So there's your big update for all you out there.



....... cricket, cricket.........

Take That Miss A

Well, today was it... my last day at work. Phew.

It was actually really fun. I made the kids these really lame yearbooks that they loved. We spent the first part of the morning signing them. Then we actually did some school-related things (but not much). After that, we watched The Secret Garden. Our class just finished reading the book together so I thought, what the heck... let's watch the movie. Found out that we're definitely NOT supposed to do things like that but oh well.... fire me, then. I gave them all a little goodbye gift (girls got those pens that you stick a flower on top and then wrap in floral tape and the boys got these really stupid foam pencil-animal things....) from me (again, lame and cheap... the gifts, not me). Oh yeah, and a little something sweet. And since sugar is DEFINITELY NOT allowed at school, you can count that as #2 on my list of things I shouldn't do on my last day at school.

So I'll miss the kids and teaching but good bye and good luck! (PS. one of the parents told me that her son was so sad that I was leaving! That was all he could talk about this past week.... He wants to go to another school now because he doesn't like Miss A and thinks she doesn't like him. I told the parent that he would do a whole heck-of-a-lot better at another school too. She gave me her number and wants to talk with me about it. She asked what school I was teaching at next....Take that Miss A. #3.)

Oh yeah, and I "forgot" to clean the fish tank.

(Yup, this is seriously how bad A I am....)

Someone Please Explain This One To Me.....

The difference between a lay-off and a "cut back".....


To put it into context:

Some random person who loves the kids, loves teaching, dislikes the management: "So am I getting laid off?"
Some equally random person who is just awful and lives to make the above person's life as miserable as possible: "You must be thinking of filing for unemployment. This is just a cut-back, not a lay off. We would love to keep you here but it is just not going to happen. Can we call you back in a year if the economy picks back up?"
1st random person (still loving the kids, loving teaching, still disliking the management): (thinking to herself) H*ll no (but saying aloud) "umm.... probably not."


Please. Someone tell me what the difference is. Dumb.