PACKING!

I leave for the airport in approximately 1 hour.

I still have to:

finish packing

eat dinner

and get some odds and ends in order.

...why am I blogging?

UGH

Haven't blogged all week--and there will be a week of NOTHING because I will be in the middle of the ocean with my sweet family.

I will miss Taylor like you won't believe.

BUT OH HEY.

IM GOING ON CRUISE ROUND TWO!

Peace out, America!

Politics.

I have always been intrigued with politics.

It's a natural love.

Until...I became a teacher.

Teacher politics are possibly my least favorite thing in the whole world.

They make me frustrated, shout vulgarities inside my little head, feel sick, rant, cry, and everything else.

Thank goodness for good coworkers.

Who understand my pain.

Who vent with me for hours 

(mind you, a good portion of this venting is while we do Insanity together after school).

We lock ourselves in a classroom.

Pull down the blinds.

Turn off the lights.

And sweat, cry, and scream over our weak bodies bursting with pain.

Then we sweat, cry, and scream over all of the things that upset us.

students, teachers, politics, tests, parents, administration.

Sometimes, I just want to be a TEACHER.

And put all of my effort into being a GOOD one.

I want to do what I believe in.

Not what my "contract" says I have to do.

(silly things that prevent me from being the teacher I want to be)

I will spare you from details.

To save my own butt.

And to save you from boredom.

But if you see me today,

and you are a breathing being,

I will most probably vent to you.

It's bursting inside of me.

THANK GOODNESS break is in just three short days.

I can make it, right?

Five days!

Five days until...

SPRING BREAK!

Which means...five days until I leave on cruise #2!

This cruise will be with my parents, little sister (not so little anymore...she's 18 now!), and little brother!

Taylor couldn't come because he couldn't miss any more school (he doesn't get a spring break). :(

Am I so mean for leaving my husband? ha

I figured I'd be at home all week by myself anyways--since he has work and school.

So why not cruise instead!?

The only bummer is no communication.

I'm going to try to facetime him on the islands though.

This week is going to be such a busy week!

Tonight we are going with our FHE group to Leatherbys...YUM!

Tomorrow night we are going to the temple with the Mckees.

Wednesday night we have mutual (church youth activity).

Thursday night we are going on a double date in Salt Lake City. :)

And Friday night...I leave for sunny California!

And in between that I will have to pack and prepare to be gone for a whole week!

I'm kind of overwhelmed just thinking about it!

But too excited to be stressed!

Okay...this picture has nothing to do with anything.

I found it on my phone, and I have no idea where we were when we took it!

Ha...but what's a blog post without a picture these days? ;)

The cutest card

Last Sunday, Taylor gave me the sweetest, funniest, and cutest card.

Let me preface this by saying that he had BIG help from his sweet and crafty mom.

(after seeing these pictures, you will see the mom-touch to it ;))

I couldn't help but laugh the whole way through--but the sentiment behind it was so sweet and touching, that I had tears in my eyes at the same time.

(for Christmas, Taylor's aunt gave us the SOFTEST blanket.  We call it "the lamby blanket." And we always fight over it. ha)

 (okay...I stink like a fish and a skunk!? geesh...the truth is coming out ;))

Isn't that the cutest card?

I died.

Oh, and here's the back!

Thank you to both my wonderful mother-in-law and my adorable husband for crafting this gem!

Feeling justified.

This article makes me feel justified for feeling stressed all of the time.

My job made #5 of most stressful jobs that are still rewarding.

And it is so so true.

Whenever I feel discouraged or tired from the incessant lesson planning, it makes it all worth it when I see students excited about history.  Or when they remember something we've learned about.

Glad I stumbled upon this!

Girls vs. Boys

On Friday night, Tay and I went on a date with the lovely Mckees.

We went to Nickelcade--and it was boys vs. girls.

The losers had to cook the winners dinner. :)

And guess who came out the winners?

You guessed it!

The GIRLS!

Maddie was awesome and won us 50 tickets!

That changed the game real quick. ;)

At the end of the night, we totaled up our tickets and exchanged them for a ring-pop for each of us!

Such a fun night!

I even got to spend all of Saturday night with Maddie because both of our husbands were in SLC all day for the doTERRA Leadership retreat. 

We mourned over being husbandless together. ha ;)

I can't express how much we love these two!

Now I'm looking forward to that dinner cooked by our lovely Mr's!

the days we were at sea

the last two days of the cruise were days at sea.

It was so relaxing and fun--heck, the whole trip was relaxing and fun!

The girls did NOT plan to all wear the same color.  We could not stop laughing at how matchy matchy we were--on complete accident!

Gilbert siblings!

the day I found out there was a kids menu at dinner was the best day ever.
I am so the opposite of fancy-smancy.
I would have two bites of the french named dinner and then just wait for dessert.
and then I found out about this gem:

And I was SO happy!
Grilled cheese, fries, and mac&cheese?
Yes, please!!

Oh, and you better believe Regan and I had chocolate milk every night for dinner.
By the third night, our waiter had it waiting for us on our table before we got there! ha!

this was my view for the last two days. 

I can't even tell you how amazing this was.

Okay, now two hundred pictures in the same spot--because I couldn't just choose one!

I have no idea what I'm doing here...gang signs? 

Yep, it was the most fantastic week in the world!

Thanks Mom and Dad Gilbert!

Now we are dying for summer to come!

10 minutes!

Taylor has been out of town for the past few days for work.

I finally get to see him in 10 MINUTES!

I can't tell you how excited I am.

I know this is extremely pathetic--I don't know how wives with travelling husbands survive.

REJOICE WITH ME!

My best friend is almost back!

the day we went to jamaica

Our last stop on the cruise was Jamaica.

It was beautiful!

We decided to take it easy and relax on the beach.

I couldn't help but smile whenever we talked to a Jamaican.  

They really do say "yeah man" after EVERYTHING!

One last cruise post to come!

I'm 22 and I went on a field trip today!

First things first...if you know me well enough, you may have caught my small mistake in the title of this post.

I'm not 22...I'm 21.

But I thought I'd leave it to prove how brain-dead I am at the moment.

After writing it, I literally sat here for 30 seconds, trying to figure out if I was 21 or 22.

(I even sat and did the math from my birthday...pathetic)

I remember being younger and not understanding how my mom would have to "think" about how old she was.  My little self used to always think, how do you not know!? I know how many months and days until my next birthday!

And now...at the ripe age of 21 (or 22?) I now understand.

Sorry for judging, mama. ;)

Anyways! The reason of this post!

Today I led my first field trip (all by myself!) for my two government classes.

I had 3 awesome dads who came and helped chaperone--so grateful for awesome parents.

I was so nervous last night, I could hardly sleep.

What if something goes wrong?

What if I lose a student?

I'm a stress case...clearly.

I got to work extra early this morning to lay everything out.

We left at 9am.

To the Utah capitol we go!

One small hiccup:

Our tour started at 10am.

When I got there, they said they had no tour listed for my school.

What!? I scheduled this in NOVEMBER, and even got an email confirmation!

I started panicking--what am I going to do with all of these students and no tour!?

Then one of the employees offered to give us a tour (even though she normally doesn't).

Saving grace, I tell you!

And some serious answers to the prayers I said all last night and all this morning asking for things to run smoothly--don't you love when that happens?

So, we got the tour!

It was awesome.

Thanks to some major digging and asking around--we got 2 PRIVATE tours not open to the public!

One to the capitol basement.

One to the Utah Emergency Quarters (wrong name--something close to that).

One of my student's grandpa works there--connections! Love it.

That place was so cool.

We got a picture with our representative.

We got recognized on the House floor.

And the whole House applauded my little class for coming.

Oh...and my students convinced me to be in a Harlem Shake Video in front of the capitol.

All in all, I felt pretty successful by day's end.

Plus, the students loved it!

Yep..I am the one on the very right...and yep, I am shorter than all of my of students.

Whew! Glad that is over. :)

the day we went to the Cayman Islands

Our second stop was the beautiful Cayman Islands!

Papa Gilbert chartered a private boat to take us around the Cayman Islands.

It was so magical and breathtaking!

We were able to snorkel, swim with sting rays, cruise the islands--it was perfect!

The houses along the ocean were stunning.  Taylor and I have a goal to have a home in the cayman islands one day!

 My cute sister in law :)

Our boat driver took us to the most beautiful sandbar.  You could walk far out into the ocean and still just be a few inches in water--and then at the end of the sandbar, it just dropped off into the deep ocean.    

It's one of those "had to be there" things--pictures do not do justice to how unique this place was.

Taylor's cute grandparents :)

I love these next few shots of the Gilbert brothers.

I sure do love these cute (and fashionable--look at those ray bans!) parents!

We ended the evening by playing some ping-pong on the ship.

I am already dying--regular life is so boring compared to cruise life.

I can't wait for spring break--and cruise round TWO!

I am seriously addicted to cruising now.

And my wonderful tan is already starting to fade into the Utah snow. :(