this guy.

This guy is just my best friend in the whole wide world.

Because ice cream for lunch is good.

One of my favorite things about summer is that I get to see Taylor more.

During the school year, I would crawl into bed to kiss him goodbye in the mornings and then have to wait to see him until the very end of the day (sometimes not until 7:30 or 8pm).

Now that it's summer, I get to wake up with him, get ready with him, see him at lunch, and then right when he gets home from work.

It's seriously the best.

My favorite is lunch-time.

Getting to see him in the middle of the day is pure bliss.

I have a cooked lunch waiting for him to scarf down before he heads off to class.

But sometimes--that lunch doesn't get cooked because this just seems 10x better:

Ice cream with hot fudge for lunch.

Whilst watching my very favorite--Friends!

I was smiling the whole time (Taylor thought I was a little creepy), but I just couldn't get over how awesome it was.
Eating ice cream for lunch, with Taylor, and with Friends--all on a Tuesday afternoon.
Pure bliss. Pure bliss, I tell ya.

A carmex story.

I LOVE carmex.  Anyone with me on this one?

I buy a few tubes at a time, but they always end up lost--isn't this always the story with chapstick and such?

The other day, Taylor tossed a package to me and said, "This is for you. Enjoy."

I opened it up to find a WHOLE BOX of carmex!! 

I can't tell you how excited I was.

I didn't even know you could buy it in bulk! ha!

 I guess Taylor finally got sick of me constantly asking, "Hey, have you seen my carmex anywhere?"

OR he just really likes when my lips are nice and smooth ;)

I'm going with the latter.

So carmex lovers, if your husband hasn't surprised you with a box of carmex lately, at least now you know that you can buy it in BULK! How awesome is that!?

...I give it a month before all 20 are lost.

(or used. but most likely...lost)

ha!

BIG NEWS

I'm still on my "being the best house-wife ever" kick.

See here for details.

On Wednesday night, I cooked dinner and used ALL four burners...AT ONE TIME.

Oh, this is big people.

Real big.

It needed to be documented.

Oh, and a picture of me and my cute nephew, Baby J!

a perfect summer day

Let me tell you about one of the most perfect summer days so far.

First, the neighborhood kids and I went swimming.

I seriously love these kids.

I think it's safe to say that they're all my best friends. haha

I don't have any pictures of our swimming adventures--but we had SO much fun.

Then we decided to make some dessert crepes and enjoy them in the shade outside.

We were living the dream, I tell ya.

LOVE this kid!

After a fun time with my summer bffs, Tay and I played backyard badmitten that evening with some of our favorite friends.

And to top it ALL off, I finally convinced this cute guy to go running WITH me.

He only runs alone--but I finally, FINALLY won.

My short little legs really worked hard trying to keep up with his pace.

It was seriously so fun--the best six miles yet!

It's days like this that just make me giddy.

I love summer with my whole little heart--and these summer activities are my favorite memories.

Oh, did I mention my sisters (+ a cute little nephew) are visiting from California?

I am seriously in heaven! It has been THE BEST last few days with them.

More to come about all of our sister adventures!

Can't life just be like this forever?

Just a few memories.

This morning I was going through some things in our bedroom when I found an old planner of mine.

I'm an avid planner writer.

I find a secret joy in checking off my to-do list items.

Want to know a secret?

Sometimes I'll write something on my list that I already completed, just so I get the satisfaction of checking it off. ha ;)

Anyways, I was looking through this planner, and I found something that made me smile.

Do you see it there? :)

Kind of hard to miss with the arrow I added. haha

This was our first real date.

Looking through this brought back all of the excitement of when we were first dating.

As we go forward in the planner there are lots of exclamation marks next to his name and then doodles. haha

Then I came across something that made me smile even bigger.

I'm also an avid journal writer (as I've mentioned before here).

One night while we were dating, he "stole" my journal and left a little surprise for me to find later that night.

(p.s. sorry about the black bar. I wanted to keep other names out--for privacy ;))

He is just too cute, isn't he?

I have no question at all of why I fell in love with Taylor so fast.  He was a very good woo-er. ;)

I've had so much fun spending my morning reminiscing.

Housewife #2

Remember how I said I was being the total housewife lately?

Apparently, I'm not the only one... ;)

haha...I loved "his" apron last night.

Even though it is a woman's apron, I've got to say the cooking in a rolled-up white sleeve shirt was a total winner for me.

He made the most awesome twice baked potatoes last night.

Way to be, babe.  Way to be.

Love this little life we live!

Summer=party 24/7, right?

Welcome to last night at 12am.

I kept trying to convince sleepy Taylor to play games with me.

Which he could not understand--because I am not a night person.  

I crash around 10pm.

And he's usually the one prodding me to stay awake.

But--hello! It's SUMMER!

We need to play and party all night!

He played three rounds with me.

And slept in between each round.

When I cry, I cry.

I can honestly say that I'm not a cryer.

I tear up when I'm frustrated, but I hardly ever actually cry.

That is something that Taylor is very grateful for. haha

Taylor has honestly seen me throw up more times than he's seen me cry.

That is something that Taylor is not very grateful for. ;)

The other night, was a rough night for me.

I wasn't feeling super hot.  

My head was stuffy and aching--summer colds suck!--and I threw up after dinner (I had some weird funk in my tummy that day).

Oh...and it was that special (aka not special at all) time of the month. Which may explain the rest of this post.

It was one of those nights that everything was just going wrong. 

I was frustrated with so many things that had happened.

By the time our evening ended and we climbed into bed at 11:30, I just broke down.

And I can't even tell you why.

Taylor was so confused.

He kept asking me what was wrong, and I couldn't even come up with a comprehensible reason.

I seriously cried for an hour straight.

During the few times that I cry, I cry. 

Once that gate opens--I just can't stop it.

And the whole time, my sweet Taylor was so patient with me.

It wasn't until 1am that I finally calmed down and was able to go to sleep.

The next day, Taylor appropriately called me "coco puffs" for the whole day (you know, because I was so crazy the night before).

It's pretty funny now, but I can't express just how grateful I am for the sweet man who cares so much for me. 

Who comforted me even when I started saying crazy things.

Who held me close when the sobs racked my body.

Who was able to make me laugh even when the tears just wouldn't stop coming.

And who stayed awake even when he had to be up early the next morning.

If I could change one thing in my life, I would have met him sooner, so I could love him longer.

I'm a lucky girl.

The first week of summer

This week has been absolutely crazy!

On Monday I started on my long list of "things to do over the summer."

Don't be mistaken--this is not a fun list by any means.

It was all of the things that I just did not have time to do at the end of the school year.

And in the last two weeks, that list just grew and grew.

Let me give you an example of a few things that I accomplished this week:

clean out the fridge and freezer (which, by the way, when I cleaned out some tupperware leftovers hiding in the back and went through every single condiment that was expired, our fridge literally had six things left in it: cheese, BBQ sauce, tortillas, ketchup, an onion, and mustard...awesome. haha)

Quick pause for a funny story: It took me forever to clean out the fridge. And so I decided that I would wait to do the freezer the next day.  But as I'm in the middle of cleaning the fridge I hear a big BANG in the freezer that scared the bejeebies (how do you spell that?) out of me.  I was honestly a little scared to even open it.  As I slowly opened the freezer door, I saw what looked like a root-beer float EVERYWHERE.  I was sooo confused.  What in the world just happened?  And then I saw it.  An exploded coke-can that my dear sweet husband had put in the freezer the night before (to make it cold, of course) but had forgotten to actually take out. Awesome. Taylor walked in the door right as I was staring at the mess in disbelief.  He paused, laughed, and then asked, "You still love me, right?" And then backed slowly away as I came at him with my daggers.  Haha

Okay...back to the list!

deep clean my car

run errands (mostly returning things)

go to the bank to deposit...oh...you know, about $2,400 worth in checks. Don't ask why that went on the summer list.  Haha--seriously that's how busy I was!

get my wedding ring cleaned

grocery shop (yes, I even put this on the list of things to wait to do until summer started. which is why our fridge was so empty...haha)

deep clean the bathroom (this means cupboards, drawers, scrubbing all of the jacuzzi tub hose things--I don't know what they are called...?, and a serious sore back afterwards)

prepare for all of the school children I will tutor over the summer

I also got some important (aka not important at all) personal things done: a hair appointment to fix my dang roots, a summer pedicure, and a new set of eyelash extensions (my very favorite thing in the world...ha)

And that's not even everything I've accomplished this week.

I have been feeling quite productive.

I've been a running machine lately, too--really trying to push myself and go father than my regular 3-5 miles.

On Monday, I run 9 miles! I haven't done that in so long!

And I've ran 6 days a week for the past 3 weeks.

I'm coaching cross-country again this year, so I'm really feeling the pressure of getting ready for that.

Pretty proud of my efforts.

On top of all of that--I have a dirty little secret:

My goal this summer is to make Taylor fall in love with me being a stay-at-home housewife.  Not a stay -at-home mom...not quite ready for that.  But a stay-at-home housewife. ha! How awesome would that be?

I figure if I make him love it enough, he'll say, "You should just quit your job and do this forever!"

Except, in all truthfulness, I have mixed emotions about that because I really do love my job. haha

So, everyday when he comes home for five minutes in between work and school, I have a yummy hot lunch waiting for him to scarf down or take on the road.

And for not being a cook--I've been pretty impressed with myself.  These are real meals, people!

Then, I have dinner ready by the time he walks into the door.

Last night we had homemade PF Changs Mongolian Beef, and Mr. Taylor even said, "Kel, we need to have this on a weekly basis...it's delicious!"

That was big. Real big, folks.

For the first time in our whole marriage, I can say that I have cooked 5/5 days this week (lunch AND dinner!)

Even with all of the craziness, we have had some fun things going on too.

Mom and Dad Gilbert bought the whole family Jersey Boys tickets for Wednesday night.

It was so fun to be with the whole family.

Ready for this picture of Taylor?

Haha--just love this boy.

It's pretty frustrating when your husband ALWAYS dresses better than you.

He's way too trendy for me. haha

Pink shorts!

I also got a little bit of pool time this week and got to hang out with a few of my teacher friends last night.  

Alright, some real posts are in the future.

Sorry about being MIA...but does my productiveness count as a good excuse? :)

I'm back from the grave...

Where have I been?

Everywhere.

At least it feels like it.

I have had so much going on these past two weeks--but things have finally started calming down, and I'll be back to a regular blogging routine.

Where to start?

First--helloooo summer!

Mmm...I haven't had a break like this in years.

And I am SO excited.

No work? No school?

What will I do with my time?

swim, sun, boating, theme parks, shopping, sleeping, reading, running...

oh, life. We're really going to enjoy each other for the next 10 weeks.

I have so much to write about--especially the end of the school year.

But I get teary just thinking about it. 

Man, I love those students.

And I wish them nothing but happiness and success in their futures.

But let me leave all of that to its own blog post.

Coming this week.

First--let's start with why Taylor and I are currently sitting in a hotel in St. George with no clean underwear for tomorrow. ha!

Mr. Taylor and I drove up to St. George last night

(oh, p.s. did I mention summer welcomed itself by giving me the flu early Friday morning?  The car ride wasn't the most enjoyable, but I'm slowly feeling 100% again.  And I wasn't going to let no stupid flu keep me from our first summer adventure! ;)

I can't exactly say why we came up here--at least not yet. 

So I apologize in advance for some vagueness in this post. ;)

Tay and I stayed in a beautiful hotel last night, went to the yummiest breakfast, and then parted ways.

this here is the most FUN game to play while waiting for food to come out.

Oh and p.s. see Taylor's ring? Love that thing!

Taylor had to take care of some things while I sunbathed at the hotel pool.

Oh--did I mention it was 106 degrees today?

So by sunbathe I mean completely bake my skin to death.

Good thing I don't burn anymore--(which I don't know how to explain..? When I was little I burned like crazy, but for the past five years or so, I've been a tanning machine. Not complaining...ha)

Anyways, Taylor told me he would pick me back up around 2:00. 

3 hours of sun-time? mmm...couldn't ask for anything more heavenly. :)

It's like where's waldo--can you spot Taylor? ;)

Well, 2:00 came around...and then 2:30, and then 4:00.

Where in the world was he?

By this point, I was so sick of the heat, that I went inside and relaxed in the hotel lobby.

We had already checked out of our hotel, because we were planning to drive back home this afternoon, so the hotel lobby was my only indoor option.

Finally, Taylor called to tell me our car wasn't starting!

What!? UGH!

OF COURSE this would happen while we are out of town.

Keep in mind, this is a 2009 Civic--nothing too old school here.

I was so frustrated.  Between our two cars, we have been having car problems all over the place.

See here and here.

Luckily, Taylor was with some awesome people who helped him get it towed to an autoshop.

After a few more hours of waiting (can I tell you how bored I was?  If you're my instagram friend, I probably stalked all of your photos twice),  the awesome people who were with Taylor picked me up.

Okay--here's where you know there are some people who are just good.

After helping to get our car taken care of, and driving us around for awhile, these people gave us one of their cars to drive around town while we waited for our car to be fixed.

And by car, I mean an absolute beauty.

Taylor couldn't stop smiling as he drove this giant truck.

By this point, we decided we didn't want to drive the four hours home when we were both so exhausted.

Dad Gilbert was so helpful and booked another hotel for us for tonight.

After a long day, some extra cash spent, lots of waiting, and a lot of sweat (it's so dang hot!), we finally got our car back and are now relaxing in a nice cool hotel once again.

Even though our clothes will be nice and wrinkly tomorrow, I'm loving the extra night we have away from the world.

What a start to our summer!

Okay, after writing it out--it doesn't seem as crazy as it felt.

But I attest that it was one hot mess.

Thank goodness for so many good people who helped us out!

teachers can be kids sometimes too, right?

A few of my favorite teacher friends decided to hold an obstacle chair race during our 3rd period class today.

We set up an obstacle course, brought our classes out, and off we went!

Each of us had a student push us--and thanks to the wonderful student that pushed me, WE WON.

Maybe because I threatened to give him an F if we lost? ;)

The students LOVED it.

It was so fun to just relax with them today and not have to worry about the regular pressures (lessons, notes, hormones, tests, homework, management, attitudes...ugh)

This year was awesome.

I had to say goodbye to my all-time favorite class today.

I wish they knew how much I truly loved them all.

Yeah...it was pretty much the best.

Teachers can be fun sometimes, too!!

My very own summer

The only thing my mind has been thinking about for the last two weeks is how CLOSE we are to being done with the school year.

And I think this might be my 19719839 blog post about it.

LAST WEEK, GUYS.

Today is the last real day.

I'm giving out my last tests.

It is so strange to finally be at the end.

I thought the end would never come.

Man, this year was challenging.

It had its ups and downs and in-betweens.

More about my reflections later though.

But in the end, I can honestly say that I love what I do.

And boy, am I ever looking forward to my summer starting in just four more days.

This will be my first real summer in a long time.

I've been doing school during the summer since right after high school.

Then last summer (after being graduated) I worked full time.

But this summer?

Oh, this summer--I'm working about 10 hours a week.

And the rest of the time, I will be at my Mom and Dad Gilbert's pool, or out boating, or reading, or dancing, or singing at the top of my lungs about how excited I am to have my very own summer. :)