president's day cabin fever

Thank goodness we had great presidents in our country so much so that we have a whole day dedicated just to them which means no school! For President's Day weekend we went up to our cabin and enjoyed ourselves greatly.

My mom gave us 6 lasagnas to take up there and they were delicious. I really wanted us all to sit down as a family around the table and Matthew thought we didn't need to set the table or anything but I obviously won and it was fun to all eat together.

We whipped out the ukuleles which are always a classic cabin activity. We made a pretty good band playing songs like 'You Are My Sunshine' and 'He's Got the Whole World In His Hands.'

We even set up all the posters of chords and songs to make our ukulele playing experience even better.

Jen and Anna became experts at the snowmobiles.

The whole crew that came up. It was a great weekend away just to relax and have fun. Long live Abraham Lincoln and George Washington!

i'm really blessed

Today I read a book called Uncertain Lives:Children of Promise, Teachers of Hope by Robert Bullough. It was a really interesting book that kind of goes into lots of different things that children these days deal with. It was humbling to read about these students that deal with poverty, abuse in all forms, death, neglect, parents being divorced, drug abuse, pre-natal syndromes, hunger, lack of mom or dad, and the list can go on and on. It really was so sad to realize that this is the reality for so many people. While reading, it just made me so immensely thankful for my family and the life I have been given where I am loved and have been given so much. You don't realize some things but it's such a great blessing to come home to a stable home where my parents love each other and people are treated with kindness and respect.

It also made me excited to be a teacher where I can help provide a safe place for children and be that loving person that encourages them to be their best. Reading this book just really put things into perspective and made me realize that I really do have it good.

heyyyyy blue house rocks!

I live in the blue house. This fact makes my aunt Camille crazy happy because she lived in this same house when she went to school here. She makes us care packages with lots of things that are blue and even made us matching shirts for Christmas. I love living in a house. I love that the house is blue because that's my favorite color. I love that it's so close to campus. I love my roomies. I love that we have sunflowers in front when it's warm. I love that I can climb out of my window in my closet onto the roof. I love leaving my house in the morning walking to school. I love all the natural light that comes into the house. I love when people get confused when I say I'm at home because they don't know if I mean home home or at the blue house. I love that we have a special blue house honk. I just love everything about this house and yes I am starting to sound like my obsessed aunt I know but I can see where she's coming from now.

(The random guy taking these pictures for us on the street thought this was a very artsy photo. He was quite talented obviously)

my mom the representative

Friday I got to go watch my mom working it on the floor of the House of Representatives voting yes and no and creating new bills like nobody's business. It was really fun to go and sit next to her and see her in her element as she works.....

here.

my hometown

This past weekend I returned to my hometown. The big apple. NEW YORK CITY!! I love it there. It was a ton of fun to be with my team and see my family and do cool New York things.

You KNOW my dad came. I mean he really had to force himself to come to the coolest meet and watch and see his granddaughters. I'm so glad he could come!

Sage and the boys side at Sunday brunch at this cute place called "The Corner." Yes it was on a corner.

After the meet on Saturday we went and saw the Addams Family which was really good. We had awesome seats and then we went and got some cute cupcakes.

We went to the MoMa and saw a bunch of cool things including famous pieces by Jackson Pollock.

Lion King was simply AMAZING. I had forgotten a bunch of the scenes and it was remarkable to see how they did each scene with the costumes and just everything. It was incredible.

The girls side of the table at brunch after church. Naomi was soooooo cute at the meet. She made a sign that said "Run Sarah Run" and she yelled those three words over and over again during my whole race. She was also sure to provide me with LOTS of pictures and letters and notes. It was adorable.

KDA and I holding the trophy because we won the meet. Woo hoo.

We all went to the temple Thursday afternoon and we maneuvered our way through the subway all thanks to me but I mean I was born there so I do know what's up

Times Square.

We totally punked a girl by getting all the tags and putting them on her bag without her even knowing. Lacey is so hard core.