Missing him.

Okay, call me pathetic.  Taylor is going on a Young Men's camp-out tonight, and I'm already missing him like crazy!  This will be our first night apart since we've been married.  I know, I'm a baby.  You can say it.

I love this boy.  Everything happened so fast with us, but everything was so perfect and so right.  I love everything about our relationship and marriage.  I feel so lucky every day to have him.  He is my best friend in the entire world.  And he always makes me laugh.  So, even though I'll be a little sad as I spend the evening without him, I have enjoyed dwelling on all of the reasons why I love him so much...which is what makes me miss him so much!

 Sorry for the mushiness folks.  But I sure hope every girl gets as lucky as I am.

This face.

This is my "I'm tired, ready to get off of work, go home to my handsome husband, and cuddle up to an episode of Nikita" face.

It's been a long day.  Can you tell?  But...one piece of good news: had my first official interview today! Can't wait to be an official teacher for some high school kiddies. ;)

Busy week!

I was so good at posting everyday...and I fully intend to revert back to that habit.  It has just been a crazy week!

A little glimpse into what was missed:

My parents came into town this last weekend.  We had a lot of family time with all of the siblings in Utah.  It was so much fun! Why do I have the best family ever? (not to mention the best in-laws ever) I love family!

I spent a large portion of the weekend (before my parents came to town) spending time with my little niece Emma.  We went to Marci's soccer game together, went to the library, and treated ourselves to Jamba Juice.    She spent the night at Aunt Kelli and Uncle Taylor's on Saturday night (it was so cute how excited she was about it!  She was even the one to ask to spend the night!) Here's some pictures to prove what fun we had together:

On Monday night, Taylor and I went to watch Hunger Games. Yay!  I had been dyyying to see it!  Taylor wanted to re-read the first book before seeing the movie, but he finally gave in to my pestering and surprised me with a plan to see it on Monday night.  We both loved it!

Tay and I have just been enjoying life and counting down the days until summer.  More enjoyable posts to come!

Pictures from our weekend

I know this post is a little late, but I just saw some pictures on my phone from this past weekend that I thought I would share.

Even though Marci looks slightly bored in the picture on the right, we had a great time.

On Saturday night, we had our friends, Luke and Kaitlyn (soon to be married!!), over.  Taylor made an awesome dinner, with yummy cookies brought by L&K to enjoy afterwards. Yum! After dinner and dessert, we sat around the table and talked for a few hours.  Taylor got too excited at one point...and this is where he ended up.  It was too funny.

I think I need to start enforcing the "four feet on the ground" rule with Taylor...

This has been my life as of late: 

Reading. Eating snack-pack pudding.  It all brings me back to a more nostalgic, carefree time of my youth. Love it!

I'm a Lucky Boy

'Nuff Said.

I'm a lucky girl.

I love the nights that I get to just spend some quality time with Taylor.  Last night, we went on a late night shopping trip to buy:

3 cans of soup
Boylan soda
German chocolate brownies

Random?  Yep, it was.  But we had such a great time.

Days we're looking forward to:

March 16th: A get together with my three siblings and spouses will result in a riotous night full of Hand and Foot games

the sibs.

 March 17th: Our adorable niece, Emma, is spending the night at our house.

Emma Babe

March 27th: My parents come to town!
April 3rd: Taylor is going to Park City for the weekend for work.  While I'll miss him like crazy, I know he's excited for the good times he'll have up there.  He's staying in a Penthouse!
April 8th: Our six-month anniversary!

 
April 9th: I get to go with my awesome mother-in-law and sister-in-law to Southern California...girls trip!
April 17th: End of BYU finals! I don't have finals this semester (yay!), but Taylor is stoked to be done.
April 20th: My graduation from BYU. Oh yeah!
April 21st: OUR SUMMER BREAK BEGINS!! ...and we are celebrating by buying awesome sunglasses.  Great way to start the new season!

Tried these on in Nordstroms the other day. Fell in love.

May 23rd Taylor's brother, Seth, comes home from his mission!  Since their missions overlapped, Taylor and Seth haven't seen each other for almost four years!  It will be such a sweet reunion.

Too much happiness in the next couple of months! I just can't wait!

I'm a teacher.

I love the students in A-4. Funny kids. Smart kids.  Today, we did texting polls to review for what we learned last class.  Texting polls work like this: students text in which answer they think is the correct answer.  As the program receives the text, it will automatically reflect which percentage of students have guessed which questions.

It's the best program ever. I love it.

Anyways, after doing a few review-based texting polls at the beginning of class, the students asked if they could do one more that was just a "fun one."  I agreed, and asked them what question they wanted to answer.  One student said, "Let's guess your middle name!" Sounds good to me.  I made a bet with them:  if 100% of the students got the answer correct, they could all leave class (keep in mind, this was about 10 minutes after class started).  Risky bet?  Very.  But I was confident in my "trickster" skills.  Since the projector was still on, they could all see me create the poll.  So they saw me put in every answer option.  I "thought" about each option, so as to throw them off.  Then the ultimate curve ball?  As I was "thinking" of the last name to write down (the correct answer), I stalled a little longer than the other three times.  One student shouted out, "Use the name Camille!"  So I started typing "Camille" and then paused, backspaced and said, "No, I just thought of one."  And then typed in "Kristine." <----the correct answer.  They were all confident that Kristine was not the answer.  At least they were smart and all chose to answer the same one. But sadly, they did not get it right.  Ah, the joys of being a teacher.

A Great Sunday

I love my church calling. I also love the internet, where I find some great ideas for my lessons.  The lesson this week was on supporting families.  One of the stories in the manual went as follows:

One daughter recalls that her father demonstrated how children can fill each other’s needs within the family. “One time [dad] brought two buckets into the family room—one filled with water, one empty. Then he had each of us think of something that made us upset or frustrated or discouraged that day. For each thing we named, he took a cup of water out of the full bucket. Then he told us that we are like that bucket, and when things happen during the day that disturb us, a cup of self-esteem is taken out. Gradually we get closer and closer to … the bottom [until the bucket is completely empty]. Then he turned to the other bucket. He asked us for suggestions on how we could help a person whose bucket was empty to fill it up again. With each suggestion, he had us step up and dip a cup of water back into the empty bucket. Then dad concluded that home is the place where we come to get our buckets filled, and that we should watch for and be sensitive to others, because we are responsible for helping to fill our brothers’ and sisters’ needs” 

I loved this story.  I saw a cute idea online to buy little buckets for each Young Women, fill them with candy, and stick an inspirational quote on the bucket.  Taylor doubted that I would be able to find little tin buckets, but I did! I was so proud of this find:

Sunday evening, Taylor and I pulled out one of my favorite cookbooks (a wedding present from Ms. Carmen Beutler): Cookiepedia!  Yummy cookies in the Gilbert home were much enjoyed!  

Such a relaxing Sunday.  Hope yours was just as enjoyable. 

Let's play!

Taylor and I had an awesome Friday night.  We were invited on a quadruple date with some awesome couples. The hosts, Brody and Jenny, always cook the best food ever.  On the menu for the date?  Crepes! We love crepes!  First, we had savory crepes.  With a choice of ham, turkey, cheese, avocados, tomatoes, and more!  The best part?  We all sat on pillows on the floor around the grills.  We ate to our hearts content!  Then, came my favorite part: desert crepes!  Nutella, strawberries, bananas, whipped cream galore!  There were lots of laughs and good times around.

To end the night, we played our Mormon version of beer pong: root beer pong!  Taylor and I made it to the final round, but alas, did not come out the victors.  I was soooo full and ready to lose all of my crepes on the last round, so my good man was such a gent and drank all of my cups that round.  Thanks, babe. :)  I did feel a little guilty when he had to sit outside for 10 minutes afterwards to keep himself from throwing up.

Taylor and I had to leave the festivities early, because I had a big test in the morning, but we sure had a good time. What a great night!  I'm excited for what the rest of the weekend has in store for us.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend as well!

The Little Things

Thursdays are my least favorite day of the week (yes, I know today is Friday...this post is for yesterday!).  Why?  I student teach from 7:15am-2:45pm.  Then I go straight to work for my longest shift of the week, 3pm-9pm.  By the time I arrive home at around 9:15, I'm absolutely exhausted from going, going, going all day.

However, yesterday turned out being my favorite day this week...and it was a Thursday (the day I hate the most!)!  And it's all thanks to the little things in life:

1. Once again, I came home to an awesome meal made by Tay.  I couldn't believe that he waited until 9pm to eat dinner with me. What a stud.  He's made dinner every night this week!  I have an awesome husband.  And, don't tell anyone, but...his meals are ten times better than mine.  (I guess this is more of a big thing than a little thing.  But regardless, it made my day)

These little things. (The potatoes were so dang good! pepper-jack cheese bacon burgers on wheat bread...yum!)

2. One of our table chairs is a little broken.  If you stand it up, you can't tell.  But you don't want to sit in it...haha.  That's actually how it broke: Taylor sat down on it one day, and then...CRASH! He came tumbling down, along with the chair.  It just snapped! Anyways, I always sit in the chair next to the broken one.  Since the broken chair is extremely weak, every night (without fail) my elbow will knock it over while I'm trying to eat.  It's come to the point that we don't even mention it anymore.  We sit down for dinner, start to eat, my elbow bumps the chair, and it falls over. Every night. After dinner, I'll stand it back up and let it await it's daily fall during tomorrow's dinner.   However, last night when it's daily fall occurred, Taylor stopped, mid-bite, and said, "Every night."  And we couldn't help but burst into laughter.

This little thing.

3. I was so excited when Taylor told me our Girl Scout cookies had come! Yahoo!

These little things.

An Evening with Mr. T

#1 reason why I love my life?  I get to spend every day with Taylor Ray Gilbert.

Last night Taylor made dinner while I folded some laundry.  We sure are domestic. Ha

As embarrassing as it is to admit, the folding of this basket of laundry was much overdue.  Taylor jokingly nicknamed his morning search for clean clothes from the basket  as "the daily dig." 

Taylor made delicious chicken avocado wraps.  With Taylor's spicy chicken, my homemade ranch dressing, and fresh vegetables, they were absolutely fantastic! Taylor even made extra and packed me some to take to lunch today.  What a sweet guy :)

Ode to childhood

While walking to our apartment door at the end of the day, I noticed this little bike toppled over on the sidewalk in front of our next door neighbor's beautiful home. I was caught off guard by the nostalgic feelings of childhood I was suddenly consumed with. I was reminded of my own sweet childhood memories: trying to to keep up with my siblings on my tricycle (a gift for my 4th birthday) as we raced around the court, dropping everything as Mom or Dad called us in for dinner, chatting noisily around the dinner table, being pushed on swings (the best was when Dad would push us and do is infamous "underdog" swing), crying over spilled milk or a broken Barbie, quietly playing bedtime games when we were supposed to be sleeping, using our imaginations to play innovative childish games that we couldn't get enough of, snuggling up on Mom or Dad's lap at the end of the day, getting a kiss from Mom on bruised knees, elbows, or even foreheads (that's a story for later) when you run too fast for your little legs to keep up, hiding behind Dad's legs when you're too shy to say hello, feeling so great about yourself when your Mom praises you for your beautiful picture of the family and hangs it on the fridge for all to see (when in reality the picture is nothing more than an array of scribbles and disconnected lines) ...I could go on and on.

There is something so precious in the simplicity and innocence of childhood. As much as I miss these sweet memories, I know that they have shaped me into the person I am today, and I couldn't be more grateful. A hoorah for wonderful moms and dads all over the world is much deserved.

What a wonderful weekend!

Hello, again!  Sorry for the late post!  Taylor and I had such a great weekend.  It was exhausting, but everything about it was wonderful.

On Friday, Taylor had two basketball games.  The final game determined which team would take first place in the championship.  His team won second place, with a final score of 72 to 74.  Such a close game! Once again, Tay played an awesome game.

My man in action...#20.
On Saturday, Taylor and I had the opportunity to go to Taylor's aunt and uncle's sealing in the Mount Timpanogos temple.  They were sealed for time and all eternity, and then were able to be sealed to their three year old doll, Brooklyn.  It was such a sweet experience.  Not a dry eye in the room.  I am so grateful for temples and for eternal families.  What a blessing.  Click here to learn more about eternal families.

With a lot of the Gilbert clan in town, we spent the majority of the rest of the weekend visiting with family.

Last Sunday, Regan locked me in her closet for a good 40 minutes. And since her room is in the back of the house, no one could hear me yelling for help. Taylor and I planned for revenge. Last night,right before she went to bed, I snuck into her closet and quietly waited in there for about 30 minutes. Taylor sent her a scary text to set the mood. Then, when she least expected it, I jumped out of the closet and scared her. She was scared to tears. I think she'll think twice about locking me in the closet again. Revenge is sweet. :)

Another highlight?  We got to Facetime with my parents and siblings in California last night.  It was so fun.  I love modern technology!

Things I loved about today...

#1. I loved coming coming home from work to find my wonderful husband cooking dinner.  And he certainly can cook! 

#2. I sure loved these delicious dinner tacos.

 #3. I (secretly) loved when Tay made fun of me for not knowing how to fold a burrito.  But, I guess that's what you get when you ask your mom to fold your burritos for you for 18 years.

#4. I loved (and always do love) sitting across the dinner table from this handsome man, who never fails to make me smile.

#5. Cadburry Eggs! I loved snacking on these throughout the evening! 

Just a few things I loved about my life today.  Happy March to all!