Update #3 - Seattle

Matt's company has a meeting each year for the Federal Contracting Group. This year the meeting was going to be held in Seattle and we lucked out because they decided to pay for the spouses to go as well this year! Matt and I flew out to Seattle with some of his co-workers on the 12th of February. We got in around 12PM and so had time to look around the hotel, relax, etc. before dinner with the whole group. The hotel was really fancy (I think a four star hotel) and our room was amazing! Each year the meeting is held at a building that Mortenson had part in building.

The next day Matt had meetings and a lunch to attend that was only for employees. All the wives from Matt's job got together and we decided to visit the outlets stores nearby. Luckily there was another wife there that was my age and also LDS which was very nice! I found some amazing deals at the outlets store. I got a pair of pants at the GAP for $7.00 and a pair of pants at Banana Republic for $20.00 and two pairs of shoes from Aldo for about $40.00 for the both. These were all items I needed! After shopping I met back up with Matt and we attended several seminars together. They were about benefits, 401K, and financial managment. For the most part the seminars were interesting and had good information. After the seminars we went and relaxed and then had a delicious dinner with the group again.

Saturday (Valentine's Day) was a day that we had to do whatever we wanted. We went to downtown Seattle and had tons of fun. We went up the Space Needle (not so great in my opinion, I would have rather spent the $15.00 on food). After the Space Needle we went to the fish market and walked around. The fish market was super crowded, but still fun. All the fruit and vegetables look so pretty and colorful. Also, it was fun to watch the fish be thrown around and the funny workers. I ate a free sample of smoked salmon and it was delicious! After walking around the fish market Matt and I went on an underground tour. It was really funny and interesting. Basically the short story is that they built the roads up higher and then built sidewalks over the old sidewalks (like a bridge) so when you're at street level, you are actually looking at the second story of the buildings. The tour was a lot of fun and we were glad that we did it. After our tour we were starving and so we headed back to pike street (the fish market) for some food. I decided to have these mini doughnuts for lunch (they were absolutely delicous) and Matt got a sandwich. We walked around a little more and then headed back to the hotel. We were worn out when we got back to the hotel so we ordered room service and had a nice relaxing night.

Matt and I at the top of the Space Needle

Pike Street

Our Underground Tour
Skylights underground the sidewalks

We left the next morning and getting home was nothing short of a nightmare, but we made it home safely. To sum it up, our flight was cancelled due to preventative maitenance and trying to find another flight home that left before 11PM was not easy. Luckily we did get a flight and made it home around 12AM.

Overall our trip was tons of fun and we lucked out with no rain the entire time we were there!

Update #2 - A Full Time Job

I finally have a full time job!

Subbing jobs were becoming scarce and I was tired of waiting for a phone call or trying to check the computer constantly to find jobs; so I decided to just start applying for different jobs. I applied at banks and wasn't having much luck. I then decided to look at preschools.

In my search online for different preschools in the area I came across some Montessori schools. I decided to add them to my list because Matt had previously mentioned to me that I should look at Montessori schools. I started calling many preschools to see if they were hiring and called one Montessori school. The Montessori school I called wasn't hiring, but they knew of another school that was. She gave me their phone number and told me to tell them that she recommended me. I called the Montessori school (Montessori Children's House) and they were hiring and asked me to send them my resume.

I sent my resume over right away and she called me back to set up an interview. I was excited to at least have an interview and be able to talk with someone face to face. I went in for my interview and felt that the interview went really well, but it didn't seem that the director was too excited that I couldn't tell her for sure how long we will be in the area. She told me that she had one other interview that day and would get back to me in a week. I was really nervous and wasn't feeling very confident. But I ended up getting the job.

So far I absolutely love my job. All of the other teachers are very nice and the kids are so much fun. The school only has about 45 students enrolled and has preschool and kindergarten. For now I am with the preschool, but if we are here in September then I will be moved to the kindergarten and will be their teacher. I love going into work every day and spending time with the kids. I get to teach them one-on-one and also I get to teach Spanish to the kindergarten students for half an hour three times a week. It's fun to be able to actually use some of my Spanish and also to be in a teaching environment again. It was truly a blessing to have found this job!

Update #1 - Christmas

We spent two weeks in California for Christmas. We had so much fun being with family and seeing Lila. Ashley and Byron got a new camera for Christmas, so we have TONS of pictures. I picked just a few of the hundreds we have. We did lots of fun things, but here a few highlights:

1. My parents bought Matt, Ashley, Byron, and me tickets to see Wicked. We absolutely loved it and I wouldn't mind seeing it again!

2. Wii - Rock Band: Matt is a pro at the drums and well... I never got very good at any of the instruments... I am pretty good at bowling though!

3. Hiking to the tidepools in PV - it was a gorgeous, clear day. We saw lots of big star fish and other little creatures, it was really fun.

4. Enjoying time with family - we miss everyone!

**I'm having problems with the pictures, so hopefully I'll be able to add to them this post later.

Handmade Fun (Updates still to come)

My sister had this posted on her blog and I won, so now I am posting it. I'm excited to see what I get from Ashley, I'll try to make something good for you!

The first FIVE people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!

2- What I create will be just for you.

3- It'll be done this year. (might be a little while)

4- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be a joke book, autographed picture of myself, handmade bag, or a little invention of my own! I may create you a blog header or paint something for you with my food. (That would be scary). I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows?

5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. Believe me... it may blow your mind!

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it! Sounds like fun, right?

So let's play!

Updates to Come

Quite a lot has happened since November, I felt overwhelmed by blogging about Christmas due to the mass amount of pictures to sort through, so I never actually did blog about it about. However, an update is soon to come!

Thanksgiving

I thought that I had better post about Thanksgiving before Christmas is here! We drove up to New Hampshire the Saturday before Thanksgiving. It was a 12 hour drive, but it went by surprisingly fast. I guess when you drive through 8 states (Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire) it feels like you are making great progress. We stopped in New Jersey and ate some really good hoagies at a little deli. Then we also stopped in Boston to visit my high school friends, Jena and Jaclyn, and meet Greg, Jena's boyfriend, for the first time. I had lots of fun visiting with Jena and Jaclyn who I hadn't seen in a while. We got into New Hampshire late that night and visited for a little then went to bed. Here is a quick recap of everything we did:

Sunday - We went to church
Monday - We went grocery shopping with Mom H.

I'm working away at the puzzle, while....
Matt and Nugget take a nap

Tuesday - We went to Matt's high school and looked around (it is no longer the local high school), we then went and looked at the Hersam family grave stone. It was a little odd to see my husband's name on a grave stone. Matt and I then drove to the beach and looked at all the big houses and decided which ones we liked and didn't like.

Matt's High School

Wednesday - We drove to Maine to go to the Kittery Trading Post. It is a big outdoorsy store. It was a lot of fun to look around.

Thursday - I was in charge of the mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. I made both the morning of Thanksgiving, which wasn't the best idea I ever had. Both of them turned out delicious. I used my Aunt Deanna's recipe for mashed potatoes and they were so yummy. I then made my first pie ever and it turned out perfect! We had a delicious dinner and had fun visiting. That night we went to see Twilight. I didn't love it... all I could do was point out things that weren't consistent with the book (I had very recently read it).

Sitting down to dinner (minus Ellen, she's taking the picture)

Here is my pie half eaten
Dad H. helps in cleaning up dinner

Ellen and Mom H. also help in cleaning up

Friday - We went candle pin bowling... which is not a talent of mine. Matt and David did well. Matt and I also went to a local restaurant (The Loaf n Laddle) for lunch.

Matt showing off his great candle pin bowling skills

Saturday - We had to drive back home. The drive home did not pass as quickly. Getting off of the New Jersey turnpike was a nightmare. Drivers were being incredibly rude and I was getting really angry at them. There are lanes for cash only and then many lanes for ez pass, however, it seems that very few people actually have an ez pass. So people were going in the lane for the ez pass and then trying to cram their way into our cash only lane, where we had waited patiently to get near the front. These cars were incredibly crazy and several came within centimeters of our car! Luckily my sweet husband remained calm and relaxed through the whole thing while I was staring down the other drivers (who refused to look at us). We ended up making it home safely. We got all of our stuff unpacked right before the rain hit.

This sign says "Reduce Speed Congestion Ahead"

We did lots of puzzles and read lots also! I finished the 2nd, 3rd, and almost all of the 4th book of the Twilight series (I wasn't impressed by any of them) and Matt read The Hobbit. It was a fun vacation and now we're looking forward to California for Christmas!

Tapping Into My Creativity

Two Saturdays ago (the 8th) I learned how to etch glass from a girl in my ward. It takes a long time, but it was really fun. I etched the D.C. temple into a glass tile. It didn't turn out perfectly, but I would say it looks pretty good for my first time. Here are the basic steps to etching:

1. Clean your mirror with some windex
2. Place contact paper over the glass
3. Measure where you want your design to go and mark the corners
4. Glue the design you want to etch onto the contact paper
5. Then with a box cutter or exacto knife cut along all the lines of your design
6. When finished cutting all the lines, pull out all the pieces you cut out (so that the mirror is
visible)
7. Pull off the design
8. Make sure the glass is clean (use some windex)
9. Wipe on some of the acid solution (this will etch the glass) and leave it on for about 10 minutes
10. Clean off the solution with running water
11. Pull off the contact paper and again clean the glass with windex

I'm excited to try etching some other things, it was a lot of fun and is an easy way to decorate a room.

Here is a closer view of what it looks like (Moroni was very difficult)

Last night for FHE Matt and I made hand turkeys. Matt decided to get extra creative and have Santa riding his turkey. I felt like my turkey looked boring after that so I added an elf and a sign. I think they turned out really cute and who knew my husband was so creative?

Matt's turkey
My turkey

On a side note, Matt and I leave for New Hampshire this Saturday for Thanksgiving. We figured if we are driving the 11 hours, then we should stay for a while. We're really excited! Happy early Thanksgiving!