Graduation!

GRADUATION!!!!

I finished my student teaching yesterday! I got in the car after the day was over and started screaming with excitement. I was done with student teaching and done with college! I can't believe it! I came home and celebrated/crashed. I slept for 11 hours last night!

Yipee for me!

Sushi Yum!!

Matthew LOVES sushi! So on my birthday a couple of weeks ago we bought all the stuff and learned how to make our own sushi. He was so excited about it. We started out with doing just tuna fish and crab. We have since made it 4 times. Each time we get better and better at it, and it tastes better and better. Now we do some rolls with variations of shrimp, crab, tuna, avacado, cucumber, and cream cheese. Matthew is getting to be quite the expert at making sushi. We love doing it together, and it's way cheaper than going and getting it somewhere. So if you want sushi - just give us a call and Matthew will be delighted to make you some! FYI - we do not use any raw meat - all of it is cooked and completely safe to eat. YUMMY!

New Tables and Chairs!!!

Matthew did such a fun thing for my birthday! He organized with his family and my family and himself to get me a new kitchen table and chairs. What a great gift and such a fun surprise! I was not expecting it at all. Matthew was so sneaky - he asked me a couple of times if we had a million dollars what would I do with it, or get with it. One of the many things I mentioned was a new table and chairs. Matthew said he looked at over 1000 different tables, and went into a couple of stores looking for some tables that I could choose from and that were in our price range. We spent some of Saturday looking online at some tables. We almost bought one from JCPenney, but the problem was none of the stores in Utah carry furniture, so we would have bought the table without ever seeing it, plus we would have had to pay over a hundred dollars in shipping! NO WAY! Then we saw a table and chairs that we liked at furniture row. It's a new place that opened up by IKEA. We thought we'd go check it out. We found the perfect table and chairs!! We debated between two, then chose our winning table. We got a great deal our them and were very happy with our shopping and purchase. So, if you're looking for good, relatively inexpensive furniture, we recommend furniture row. My parents were so nice to drive up Saturday night and pick it up for us, and Matthew and I spent that night and some of Sunday putting our table and chairs together. They are so nice! They look so good in our kitchen. The table is counter height. It's all black and the seats are a cream suede. We love them so much. What a great gift! Thank you Matthew and everyone that went in on it. I love it!!!

Thanksgiving Rock Band

Matt and I got together with some of our friends over the break and had a great time playing rock band. Jeff and Meredith were our star singers. Jake was awesome at everything, Matt was our hard core guitarist with Katie, Danny, Jen and I jumping in and rocking out when we got a chance. Look out - we're going professional here. As one of Matt's Echoboost bands says "we are the next best thing!!!" Hee hee!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to me!!!

What a great birthday it was this year! It lasted for a full week!! Friday night before my birthday- Nov 21 Matthew and I went to one of our favorite Japanese restaurants then to Comedy Sports. Sunday we had a birthday dinner with my family. On Monday, my birthday, Matthew made me a yummy delicious breakfast in bed!!! I stayed home from school that day - I didn't want to go on my birthday, so I gave myself a present. Matthew and I got all the stuff to make sushi. We made our first attempt at sushi. We love sushi!! Our first roll was pretty funny - but now Matthew is becoming the sushi expert!! It's so yummy! If you want sushi - let us know and we'll make you some!! On Tuesday we celebrated my birthday with the Henage family. On Wednesday we celebrated my birthday with my family. It was a birthday week! I loved celebrating it so many days - it was awesome! My family, Matthew's family and Matthew all went in on getting me a new kitchen table with chairs!!! We have yet to pick out the specific one we want - but what a great gift! I'm so excited for it! I have the best husband ever!

It's Autumntime! It's Autumntime!! The leaves are falling down! We filled 14 bags full of leaves the other night! It was full family affair!! Rick, Jeannine, Alisha, Matthew, Grandma and Grandpa all helped rake up all the leaves! Of course Matthew and I jumped in them and blasted each other with armfuls of leaves! The best part was Grandpa kept saying to Grandma - "who's that?" (pointing to me) "That's Melanie, Matthew's wife." "Oh, look at her go! Look at her rake all those leaves! Wow!" Hee. hee! I was laughing so hard - we sure love Grandpa!! The pictures aren't the best - it was getting dark, and my camera is broken. I can't zoom and I can't put it on self-timer. So it's time for us to look for a new camera!!!

Sylar!!!!

The other day I came home to find Sylar in my house (those who watch the TV show Heros will be familiar with Sylar). I barely escaped his cutting through my head by zapping him with my amazing electric powers! This stunned him long enough to trim his hair and his hunger to see how things work. Luckily I was able to bring Matthew back from Sylar's trap!

Arches

For a little getaway during fall break, Matthew and I decided we'd take a little gander at Arches National Park. I made my first tin foil dinner - delicious! We froze during the night - our tent has an open top that is awesome during the summertime. It has a top that goes on it, but for this trip we didn't put the top on while we camped and suffered because of it. We found the only way to stay warm was to cuddle close to each other. It's always fun to cuddle, but not when you're trying to sleep on hard ground. One of those fun camping adventures! We did a six mile hike and got to see Landscape arch, Navajo Arch, Partition Arch, the fallen Wall Arch (the remains of it), Pine Tree Arch, Tunnel Arch, and Double O Arch. We ate lunch under the Navajo Arch. While we were eating lunch, I had four pieces of bread all lathered up with Majo. I bent down to get some cheese and one of the pieces of bread fell majo side down on my shoe!! Hee hee! My shoe was gooped in Majo! Part of it got in the dirt. Matthew scraped off what dirt he could then offered to eat that piece. We got a good laugh out of that one. We were exhausted after our hike! We wanted to also see Delicate Arch. We saw it from a distance, but didn't have enough energy to hike to it. It was fun to see all the arches! We sure love camping! Let us know when you want to come with us!

Crochet Time!

About 6 weeks ago I spent the afternoon with my mom and she taught me how to crochet. I'm finding that I love it! I am very much a beginner and am still learning the jargon, how to start and end a project and so on. I crocheted this baby bib for Brittany (my sister-in-law) and their baby Lincoln for his baby blessing. Now I'm working on some baby booties that are way intense. My mom is definitely helping me figure out those! My mom and I went to the General Relief Society meeting together at the conference center. While we were waiting for it to start we were both crocheting! Like mother like daughter. Thanks mom!

Student Teaching

School has been going for about 6 weeks now. It's definitely been an education while I've done my student teaching. I'm learning 7-9 graders are very chit-chatty! They don't like to listen, but they sure love to have fun! It's been quite the challenge, but it's been fun. I'm excited to either get my own classes or say c-ya to teaching all together. We'll see how I feel about things at the end of the semester - know of any good jobs?

Wish Granted

Matthew and I got new callings in our ward. Ever since we moved in Matthew has been saying he wants to be called into the nursery - that way he can play while he is at church. I kept saying the LAST calling I wanted to have was to be in the nursery. Well........any quesses as to who won??!! MATTHEW! We got called into the nursery! Matthew almost busted out laughing when the Bishop gave us that calling. Last Sunday was our first day. Matthew was stoked and I was crying - literally. I'm sure I'll find the joy that Matthew finds in being the nursery.

Eggs Benedict Perfection

So I have made eggs Benedict a number of times since Matthew and I have been married. And finally today I reached perfection with it!!! The Hollandaise sauce was perfect - in the past it's been too lemony. The cheese was melted perfectly on the eggs - usually I fry the cheese. The eggs were cooked just right - I usually pop at least one of the yolks trying to turn it. The bacon was cooked just how we both like it. The English Muffins were done just right - I usually cook those too long too. Everything about it was just perfect!!! I was loving and savoring every bite! I'm sure Matt got sick of hearing how perfect everything was and how much I was enjoying it. He sure enjoyed it too, but not near as much as me!!! Yummy!!! Now we'll see if I can replicate it again sometime...

School Begins!!

So here's a little funny -
I have one semester left at BYU. I'm doing my student teaching at Lehi Junior High for 2 months then Pleasant Grove High School for 2 months. I thought we were supposed to start when the students started (August 17) instead of when BYU starts (September 3). So I have been going to Lehi Jr for the last week and a half. I found out yesterday that I didn't need to be there until September 3!!! Oops! Hee hee!
So I called my teacher at Lehi Jr today and asked if it would be okay that I not come in until next week - when I'm actually supposed to be there. She said that would totally be fine. The whole time she was so surprised I was there so early. I could have had a longer summer, but it's been a good experience for me to see what the first week is like and what happens in that time. It was a fun and funny learning experience!

All Across America!

August 6-13 Matthew and I went on the craziest adventure!!! We had planned a trip to go visit his brother's family in Wisconsin, then Matt's dad bought a natural gas car from New York City, so we added a few days to our trip to pick it up and drive it back.
We picked up the car and it seemed like a great car...
While in New York we walked and drove downtown, saw the empire state building and rode the subway for the first time. We didn't stay long in the city because we wanted to see Palmyra. We soon discovered the car wouldn't go over 65 MPH and sometimes going uphill we would get down to 35 MPH!!! It took 3 hours longer than expected, but we were able to experience the Sacred Grove and the outside of some of the other sites.
The guy we bought the car from said he filled up with natural gas and regular gas. We were getting low on gas, (we thought we were on natural gas) so we filled up with regular gas just in case we were running on regular gas. As we tried to pump gas we discovered the tank to be full, so we were set to go. Or so we thought.
30 miles later we found ourselves stranded. We ran out of natural gas and couldn't figure out how to switch it over to regular gas. A tow, many hours and dollars later we were told we ran out of regular gas and the natural gas wasn't even set up to work!
We set out for Cleveland - another grueling long drive with how slow the car would go. We picked up Matthew's parents in Cleveland. We visited my second home - my mission - Kirtland!!! It felt so good to be there again. We went to the Kirtland temple. They have a new visitors' center. I was very impressed with their new one. What a I loved the most was they show you a movie, they open the curtains to a huge window looking onto the temple! It was beautiful!
We went to the Kirtland sites. How I love Kirtland! The memories came rushing back as we took a tour. I must say, it's so different being on a tour than giving a tour! It was great. Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the John Johnson home because of how slow the car was. And of course, a trip to Kirtland wouldn't be complete without going to RJ's and Kokomo's!

The next day we journeyed on to Wisconsin to see the Henages. We were greeted by Hannah (6) and Richard (3) who anxiously waited all day for us to arrive. They were SO excited to see us! The next few days were filled with fun with the kids as we played games, went on walks, went to the zoo, read stories, listened to Hannah's stories, went swimming and so much more. The car received a new fuel pump and filter. One day as I was getting ready Richard whispered to his mom "Mommy, she is beautiful!" It was adorable! When the time came for us to leave Hannah and Richard went around giving all of us hug after hug. Richard was shy around me and didn't give me a hug till the very end - that was cute too. As Hannah was going to bed she said "Mommy, when I try to go to sleep I think about goblins, and when I don't think about that I think of Matthew and Melanie leaving and it makes me sad." What a cute and fun family! I enjoyed getting to know them and we loved spending time with them.
The long trek home began. We left at 11:30 pm and made it home in Provo at 11:30 the next evening. We had another tow on the way home which again delayed us. This time the emergency fuel pump switch had got bumped and the car shut down. All they had to do was flip the switch back on and off we went. Needless to say, by the time we got home, we were all sick of the car!!! Poppa Henage said "I never want to get in that car again!" Hee hee
It was definitely an adventure for all of us! We had such a good time and were so glad we were able to go!

Matthew's Birthday!

July 23 - Matthew's big 26th Birthday! We went camping with his family up Spanish Fork canyon. We got to try out our new tent the Henages gave us for our wedding present - we like having a tent now after our last camping trip. Let me tell you about that one! We were up in Boise and went boating, camping and boating with Jeremy and Therese (my brother and sister-in-law). Matthew and I borrowed a tent, but we wanted to sleep out under the stars. In the middle of the night we heard a little creature rumbling some things by our campfire - not far from where we were sleeping. We awoke with a start. We looked in the moonlight to see what it was. Matt guessed it was either a skunk or a badger. We tried to go back to sleep, but every sound startled us thinking the creature was back. Shortly thereafter, the creature returned. Matthew shone our flashlight on our little friend. We saw the stripe and we saw him start to turn around. We took cover under our sleeping bag hoping and praying he wouldn't spray. Lucky for us our skunk friend didn't spray, and we were able to sleep after that.
Needless to say, we were excited to receive our tent and not have to worry about creatures this time. We played the fugitive game where his mom was at homebase. She would close her eyes and count while we attempted to run and touch 3 specific locations. When she opened her eyes she would shine her light and try to catch those on the run. I was victorious along with others, but Matthew got caught. As he was running, he tripped and tore open his hands and scraped his elbow and leg. We spent the next while cleaning and bandaging him up. What a fun little trip! Our families pulled together to get Matt what he had been wanting for a long time - a new iphone! He's totally digging it and me too. Hee hee Especially because now I got his ipod and have an ipod!

First time for everything

The time has come that Matthew and I join the blogging world! Yipee! It always takes me a little longer to jump on the band wagon of things. Maybe one of these days I'll jump on the band wagon of having an ipod too.

We love summertime! It's hard to work when there is so much playing to be done! Last weekend was great with the 4th of July. We floated down the Provo River with his family. Matthew and I had a double tube that we bought for the occasion. Within seconds of being on the water our tube was full of water! We floated down in our own little bathtub! The second run down the river the tube popped - so much for that tube - it sure provided fun and adventure while it lasted!