24th of July Weekend

Our 24th of July wasn't what I was expecting. We did nothing like we usually do. Mark had to work so I went over to Amanda's to hang out for the day. We got more things ready for my classroom. This time we created my welcome postcards I am going to send out to my students. Amanda did, once again, an amazing job!

While we waited for them to print we decided we deserved a tasty treat for all our hard work. So we headed over to Rumbi Island Grill for our favorite, Aloha Chicken salad, it seriously is to die for! MMMMM! MMMM!

Later that night after Mark got off work we loaded up the truck and headed down south to spend the weekend with Mark's family. We got there just in time to say hello to everybody set up our air mattress and head off to bed.

While we are down there Mark and I get spoiled. We always have a hot breakfast when we go down there, with all the trimmings. Mark's dad knows how to make the most perfect looking pancakes I have ever seen. They are always golden brown and all the same size. I love it!

While we were down there Mark changed the coil packs in our truck (Don't ask me what they are or how they work! All I know is our truck runs 100 times better then it did before.). We also got to go into the big city with Nancy and go shopping. (I love it, that even Nancy calls Richfield the big city.) Later that night I experienced something I have never seen before. I went to the Salina City Burn Off.

What's they Salina City Burn Off you ask, well its where people get to make a lot of smoke with their tires. Guys bring their trucks and cars to see how much smoke they can make their tires put out in a certain amount of time. It was actually pretty fun. It was fun to watch which ones could make a lot of smoke and also to watch one kid who couldn't make any smoke but kept trying. One of the cars put something on his tires so when he smoked them it put off red and blue smoke. I wish I would have got a picture of that. Although I still don't understand the point of this tradition. Mark promises me that its more fun to actually do the burning of the tires. I think I'll take his word for it.

Then after the Burn Off Chase and Nancy invited us to go with them to see the new Batman movie. It was sooooo good. I have never seen any of the other Batman movies so I didn't know what to expect. I had also hear d that it was a dark movie. I wasn't to sure about going to see it. I loved it though. It was very action packed that was for sure. Heath Ledger did an amazing job as The Joker. I was very impressed.

The next day we slept in until 11:30. After we got dressed and ready for the day we went back over to Salina to go to the Blast from the Past car show. There were a lot of really neat cars there. Its amazing to see what people have hidden away in their garages.

The show had a very special treat too. They had Dale Earnhadrt Jr.'s car. So we had to take a picture for all our NASCAR loving fans.

As you can see Mark was super excited to see the race car!

During this trip Mark inherited a 4-wheeler from his dad. His dad divided up the 4-wheelers and gave one to all of his kids. We are very excited for the 4-wheeler, and we are very thankful to be given one. We can't wait for next years annual 4-wheeling trip! We will be there for sure!

The weekend wasn't what I had expected. We didn't have any picnics in the park, at someones house or in the canyon. We didn't even have Grandma's Birthday cake. But overall we had a good time!

Bread for Birth Control

Yes you read it right I bake bread for cheaper birth control!
I started this little agreement with my pharmacist about a year ago, right after Mark and I got married. You see my pharmacist is a family friend and when I was younger I would make him bread for some extra spending cash. When I got older I quit making him bread. So every time I went into the pharmacy he would hint around about how good a warm loaf of bread would be.
Right after Mark and I were married we didn't have insurance because Mark started a job the week before. My Birth control pills were super expensive. I went in to pick them up with my mom one day and she told me to see if I could work a deal with Brent to get him to make my pills cheaper. So that is when it started. I bake him two loafs of bread in exchange for a discount on my birth control. I did this for a few months until we got our insurance.
Well, since Mark has changed jobs I'm back in that same boat. I will be receiving insurance through the school but that won't start until the first of September. So I'm back to baking bread. Thank goodness Brent is so willing to work a deal with me just so I can save quite a few bucks!
I can't wait for the day that I can tell my grandchildren that I baked bread for birth control.

School Fever

I decided I better post some pictures of my classroom. I have just recently caught the school bug. Now, don't get me wrong I'm still scared out of my mind and am having the first day of school nightmares but I'm enjoying the getting ready and I just want to jump into it.
I have spent a few days here and there getting ready. Starting next week I will be there full time. I will have my last day of work at Seagull book on Friday and then I plan to spend as much time as possible in my classroom.
Amanda and mom have helped me so much with getting the room ready. They have been such a big help! I can't thank them enough.
Her are some pictures of what it looks like.

This is how the room kind looked when I first got my keys. The only difference was all the supplies were in the back corner. I spent a day up there separating things into different piles.



To those of you who teaching in newer schools, check out my orange walls and golden yellow cupboards! Aren't they nifty? I do enjoy the fact that two of my walls are metal so I use magnets to put up all the posters on my walls.

Mom came up to the school and helped me put some things away and start working on putting things up on the walls. Here's how that looked.

We laminated all my bulletin boards that day. We cut out a lot of lamination that day!
Amanda and her boys came over a few weeks ago and spent the whole day with me putting up bulletin boards and helping with other projects. I sadly did not take any pictures.
Then last Saturday Mom and Amanda spent the whole day with me setting up the classroom. We put the desks out and more bulletin boards. We started setting up the class library area and made the room actually look like a classroom not a storage area. Again, I sadly did not take any pictures but I will the next time I am up and then I will post them for you. Its getting closer and the closer it get the more excited I become!

How Many of Me?

I saw this on a friends blog and I had to try it out and post my results. So how many of you are there?

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 65 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Silly Boys

On Sunday Mark and I went over to Amanda's to watch a movie and hang out. Tait asked Uncle Mark if he would go downstairs and see his race track. Mark told him yes and Mark, Cameron and the little boys headed downstairs to check out the shake and roll race track. Amanda and I remined upstairs for a little while longer before we joined them.
We were a little surprised to find this happening down stairs. Notice the little boys are no where in sight.




Click on the picture to watch the movie.

Tagged!!

1. What were you doing 10 years ago?
I was thirteen years old and probably hanging out at home and enjoying my summer!

2. Five things on your to do list today?
Complain about being sore
Pick up Grandma’s prescriptions
Return my library book so I don’t get another fine.
Cut out letter wheels.
Put something up on the blog so I don’t get a nasty text message at 8 in the morning from a certain sister.

3. Snacks I enjoy:
Everything! Chocolate, Ice-cream, brownies, Oh’ Henries, Cookies, anything with peanut butter,

4. What would I do if suddenly I were a billionaire?
I would pay off the cars and my school loans and buy a new house and Mark a better truck with a natural gas kit in it.

5. 3 bad habits:
Worrying
Chewing my finger nails
Putting things off for another day

6. Five places I've lived:-
Orem
American Fork
Heber
That’s it!

7. Five jobs I've had:
Preschool aid/ teacher
Provo Craft warehouse worker
Seagull book
Magazine distributor
Substitute teacher

8. Five things people don't know about me:
I broke my arm playing kissing tag in fifth grade and told my mom that I just tripped over my friend’s foot so my friend wouldn’t get in trouble.
I have a great moose call and I always seem to do it at the most embarrassing times.
I secretly love old western music, the kind my dad listens to but I wont admit that.
I have had plastic surgery
I hate being tagged because of questions like this one!


I tag: Amanda, Erica, Heather, Lindsey, and who ever else!

Look what we have been up to!

I decided I had better get on here and blog before I get too far behind. A lot has happened in the past few weeks here at the Curtis’. We have been very busy!


On May 27 Mark and I had to say good bye to our very good friends the Mack’s. They left to make the long trek back home to Ohio to begin a new chapter in their lives.

As you can see both Mark and I are very sad to see them go, but we are excited for them as they begin this new adventure much closer to family. We just hope to make many trips out to Ohio to visit often. Thank goodness for blogs to keep us up to date!

Mark and I have been looking for natural gas vehicles off and on for a little while, but when the house deal fell through we decided to take it a little more serious. We spent days and nights scouring the internet for a good deal on a natural gas truck. After quite a search we found one. I was on KSL cars just moments after someone posted a 2000 Ford F-150 pickup. I called Mark immediately and told him what I found. We called the guy right away and set up a time to meet to check the truck out. We were a little disappointed to find out how beat up the truck was. Mark decided he could fix it up, so he negotiated with the man to sell it for a thousand dollars less. We are now the proud owners of a 2000 Ford Natural Gas Truck. Mark has received quite a bit of criticism and teasing for buying a Ford, but he just tells everyone he will be the one laughing when he is paying 64 cents a gallon to fill the truck up rather than $4.00 a gallon.

That brings me to my next bit of news. We are selling my Cavalier to get rid of an extra car and an extra car payment. If you know of anyone looking for a great little car that is excellent for gas millage let us know. It’s a 2004 Chevy Cavalier, it has super low miles (37K) and it’s in great condition.




We are also selling Mark’s truck if anyone is looking for a Dodge D-50 Convertible! This was Mark’s show truck that he built in High school. It has all the added little extras like shaved handles and a suicide hood. It can also be a low rider truck if that’s your cup of tea.


My Birthday was last Friday and I guess you could say I am one year older and wiser too! My sisters boys made my day when they called and left a message on my phone whishing me a happy 13th birthday! When Amanda asked them how old they thought I was, Tait guessed 13! Man Mark married young.

Last year for my Birthday we went bowling with some friends from the singles ward a day or two before my birthday. We ended up celebrating my birthday and another friend from the wards (Blake) birthday. I was excited to find out we were doing it again this year. Here are some pictures from the event last year and this year! I don’t have too many from this year since my camera batteries were dying.
Last year:

















This Year




On my actual Birthday Mark surprised me by giving me a picture of Christ. All day Mark kept hounding me to go pick up my paycheck from work. I continued o tell him that I would either today or tomorrow because it wasn’t a big deal since I was only picking up the paycheck stub my check had already been direct deposited. He kept insisting I go. So after lunch I decided I would go down and get it and then go get my hair cut. When I got to work Jared came to the back to give me my schedule and to give me something Mark wanted me to have. Mark had bought the Simon Dewey picture, “The Lord is my Sheppard” .
the night before and instead of trying to hide it from me just kept it at work. I was so surprised! This is one of my favorite pictures.
Later that day I treated myself to a haircut for my birthday. Then when Mark got off work we went out to dinner at Macaroni Grill. It was a wonderful day! Mark did a good job on the surprise too! I definitely have the WORLD’S GREATEST HUSBAND!
Then to end the week Mark and I were able to attend my friend Gina’s wedding up at the Salt Lake Temple. It was a beautiful wedding.

It has been a busy few weeks but we have enjoyed every minute of it.