Being a Band Teacher

Well, I cannot tell you how much I love my job. It's the coolest thing in the world to me that I actually get to be a band teacher, and that I get to earn money for doing it!! I just love it. Last month my band took a trip to Boise because we were playing pep tunes for the State Basketball Tournament.

This is the High School Band. We went to the Old State Penitentiary and did a tour there. It was pretty cool!

This is my all time favorite picture!! At one of our games that we had to play at, none of my tuba players showed up. So, I had to save the day and play tuba with the pep band!! It was so much fun. The flute is my main instrument, so switching to the tuba was quite a difference! :)

Switching topics a little bit - I've been taking a cake decorating class. I can't say that I was very excited about it. The instructor could hardly speak two words of english, and it was a pain in the butt to try and make so much frosting!! But, I was able to make a couple of cakes. This was my first one:

Not bad right? I took it to the teachers lounge the next day, and it was gone within a couple of hours. Here's my second cake:

This one started to down the middle. Oh Well. But, the roses on the top were so hard to make, but they looked so pretty! Here's a close up of them:

I made this cake on my birthday, thus the reason it says Happy Birthday to me. I'm glad the cake class is over. It was a little too stressful to me. But, hey, at least I learned a few things.

Update

I promise everyone that I will update my blog soon!!! I've been such a huge slacker with it - but that will change. You can expect an update very soon!! Thanks for being patient!

Tragedy

It was a very scary day for all of us at Snake River High School yesterday. We had a student who became suicidal and came to school with a gun. They put the school on lockdown, and there were a ton of police with assault rifles searching the school for the student. The students were terrified, but around 4:30-5:00 they were finally evacuated. They cleared out the school because they were worried that the student might cause harm to others or to himself. By the time we were all evacuated we were so relieved that no one was hurt. However, the police finally found the student. He walked out to a field behind the High School and shot himself. I was so devestated to learn this news. I cried for a long while last night. This is such a close-knit community, and they care for eachother so much. I know that this is going to be so hard for everyone. My prayers go out to the student's family. I've posted a news link down below for more information.

http://www.localnews8.com/global/video/popup/pop_player.asp?ClipID1=2201587&h1=Snake%20River%20High%20School%20Student%20Found%20Dead&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=577567&LaunchPageAdTag=News&activePane=info&playerVersion=1&hostPageUrl=http%3A//www.localnews8.com/global/story.asp%3Fs%3D7881748&rnd=54320776

Baby Instructions

In the past few months, our family has been blessed by three new baby's! Adylae Reid, Jay Tingey, and Michael Thompson. Here are their pictures:

I felt that it would be appropriate to give these new parents some instructions when it comes to dealing with their new babies. To help, I've included some illustrations below.

New Book of Mormon Challenge!

I don't know if you've heard, but there is a Book of Mormon Challenge going on to honor President Hinckley. All you have to do is read the Book of Mormon in 97 days. Sounds easy enough, right?! Well, to help, you can track your progress at www.hinckleychallenge.com I'm really excited about this, and I'm putting a picture on the side of my blog to track my progress as well. I think everyone should do this! It's not only a great way to honor President Hinckley, but also a great way to strengthen your testimony of the Gospel and enrich your life!

Pictures of Miss America

Well, I know that some of you are dying to see pictures of the behind the scenes at Miss America. I was hoping to bring my camera in to take a bunch of pictures during the pageant, but was told that I would be thrown out if I did. So, I got some pictures of the after party stuff. This was the first time I got to see Jill upclose. I gave her a huge hug!!

Here are those mean judges from the Reality show that didn't like Jill very much. My Aunt went and chewed them out when she saw them. It was hilarious!

Jill made the judges do push ups with her!!

The Army was following Jill around making some sort of documentary. It was kinda cool.

Here's a cute picture of me and my mom waiting to see Jill after the pageant was finally over.

Overall, everything went great! We are all so proud of Jill for being America's choice. She did so great, and never once compromised her standards. Way to go Jill!!

Miss America is Here!!

The Pageant is on tonight!! Make sure that you all watch! I'm down in Vegas right now about to leave for Planet Hollywood where the Pageant is being held. I'm so nervous, but really excited to see her. It's been a long week for my sister. She's had her ups and downs when it comes to her performances and interviews. But, we know that she's supposed to be here, and she's never prepared for anything harder in her life! So, make sure you tune in tonight on TLC. It's going to be a party!! Go Miss Utah!!

Miss America

For those of you who don't know, there is a new show on TLC called the Miss America Reality Check. The first episode was on last night, and it will be on every Friday for the next three weeks until the pageant. The cool thing about the show is that we can vote everyday online and get Miss Utah (my sister!!!) into the finals of the whole pageant!! Last night was a great episode because Jill was put into the top 3 out of all 52 girls!!! I was so excited! But down below I'm giving you two different links. One link is to go and vote for her - which all of you should!!!! :) and the second link is to watch a cute video of the Reality Check where they feature Jill alot!

To vote: http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/miss-america/miss-america.html

The video: http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/miss-america/video.html?playerId=1351302826&titleId=1364230192

For those of you who don't know Jill, in the video she is the one who is talking with another girls hands behind her back. When you see the hands talking - she is the hand that says she loves all of the cameras in her face. Hope you like the video, and go and vote!!!

Christmas Vacation

Well, it's sad to say that our Christmas vacation is already over. We are both back to work at Melaleuca. But, we did manage to go over to the Boise area to visit Kirks sister and her family. We had such a fun time! She's got the custest kids. We were also able to see Kirks brother a couple of times and he has a brand new baby! That brings our total to 24 nieces and nephews!! Crazy! Here's some photos of our vacation.

This is me with Amy's (Kirk's sister) kids - Kiersten and Brennan. So cute!!!

Kirk holding baby Jay. He was only 11 days old in this picture :)

Look how cute he is!!!

Me holding baby Jay for the first time. I can already tell that I'm his favorite Aunt!

I had to put a picture of this in. Amy and I made the most amazing Christmas Eve dinner!! It was my first turkey and it was a success. I was so proud of what we did that I had to take a picture of it!! :)

Graduation

Well, it has certainly been a while since I've posted anything, but life has been crazy! First of all, I've finally graduated from BYU-Idaho!! I'm so excited! Graduation was on the 14th of this month, and I had a lot of family come up for it. It feels so good to finally be done. I received a Bachelors of Music in Music Education. Here's some pictures from the big event

This is Kirk and I at the Graduation Luncheon

Me and my Mom :)

My Dad and Step Mom drove up from Las Vegas

I thought this was a cute picture of me and my sister Jill

I've also officially started my new job as the Band Director at Snake River High School, Junior High, and Middle School. It has been so much fun! I've been there for two weeks now, and I just love it. It's definitely going to keep me busy though!

Elf Yourself!

Okay, so I saw this on a few other peoples blogs and I thought it was so funny! So, I had to do it for Kirk and me. http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1243841648 Just click on this website!

Christmas

So, it's no contest that I have the cutest nieces and nephews in the world. I was home for Thanksgiving and got to hang out with two of my nephews Drew and Cameron. Drew has started learning Christmas songs, and I got a few videos of him singing with my mom. He's so adorable!