It's Us!

What??!!

Melanie actually posting something on her blog???!!! Amazing! I used to wonder how people could go so long without posting something. Well, now I wonder how people have time to post. Our lives have been in major fast forward. It's been crazy wild, but we love our lives!

So here's some quick updates on us. Sorry no pics, I actually left my camera in Boise last weekend.

1-Our Freezer Jam made it into Reams. It's been doing pretty good. We're looking to hire someone to sample it for us every Saturday, so if you want an easy side job - let me know! We're also looking into getting it into Macey's - if we can do that, it gets into 20 associated food stores along the Wasatch Front. Cool! We can't wait for that to happen - we just need some more time to make it happen.

2- My brother Mike, married the most beautiful, fun, nice, sweet woman - Miriam. I got to help put their reception together and had a great time doing that for them. It was such a beautiful day. I love having her and her two girls; Shelby and Chanel in our family.

3-We took a quick camping trip up at Crater Lake. We went swimming in it - the deepest lake in the US. It was so blue and so beautiful. We got to me my brother-in-law's girlfriend, Suz. We had a great time with them. Suz was a lot of fun and is a good match for Michael.

4-I took a little trip up to Boise to help babysit my cute nieces and nephew. We had a fun day on the lake - slolam skiing, wakeboarding, wakesurfing. So much fun!!!

5-I started working full time at Freedom Academy. I love my job! I teach PE to all the K-6 grades. I'm still working on learning everyone's names. It's about 20 classes of about 25 students per class for a total of about 525 students!!! On top of that I am also teaching 4 classes of CTE. CTE stands for Career and Technical Education. AKA everything! It's a 7th grade class. So add another 75 students for a total of 600 students! It's a lot! I get to influence a lot of lives. I love that! So the purpose of CTE is to expose the students to all different kinds of careers that are available to them, and help them to prepare for their careers of their choice. So it includes sewing, cooking, marketing, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, child development, technology, engineering, economics, business. It's a fun class to teach. It's challenging because the curriculum is so wide. We are changing subjects every week to two weeks. It's hard to set expectations and routines. Plus I'm teaching 7th graders - enough said. There are a lot of great kids. There are a few who drive me absolutely bonkers! It's been good.

6-I took a cooking class from BYU over the summer to get my teaching endorsement for CTE. Getting my CTE endorsement will be great job security. A definite plus. I'm currently taking a sewing class at SLCC also to get my endorsement. I should be endorsed by December! Yipee!!! I need 16 credits to get endorsed and I already had 11. I just needed those two classes, so that made things really easy. I've decided sewing is just not for me. I wish I was a lot better at it. At the same time, I'm amazed at how long it takes!!!! We are making a men's dress shirt, and I think by the time we're done with it, I'll have put in over 20 hours on it. And then it might not even fit or look good! I think I'll stick to buying things - it's cheaper, less stress, less work, less time...Although, I do love homemade things. I love the things my mom makes - they are always so beautiful! I love the thought of things being homemade. It makes them sentimental. I love being able to customize things and make them how you want. Maybe I'll stick with it and see if I can improve. I do like sewing better than I used to, so that's an improvement. Honestly though, I'll be glad when I'm done with it. It's been taking a least 8 hours a week. It makes for busy weeks! Hence, my no blogging.

7- Superior Design is coming along nicely. You'll have to check it out - superiordesign.com.
They are bringing in some great clients. They have greatly improved their back end system to make making websites a lot easier, faster, and more efficient. They now have 2 employees, which is really exciting! It's so exciting! We're excited to see it continue to grow. So if you know someone who needs a website or internet marketing - send them our way!

8-Our car broke down in Boise, so we had to leave it there and go up 2 weeks later to pick it up. That wasn't so fun. What a mess! We are so grateful for our cars - especially when they function properly

9- Speaking of cars - I can now roll down my driver's side window (couldn't for 2 years), it's a lot quieter, I can use my windshield wiper fluid, I don't have a perdital. I have a love/hate relationship with car repairs. They are so nice when they are done!

Matthew has been so great since I started working full time. He is so thoughtful and considerate of me. He makes the bed every day now. A small thing that means so much to me. For some reason, my life feels put together if the bed is made. He often does the dishes. One really busy week, all our large plates, small plates, small cups, tall cups were dirty. (We were SUPER busy that week - parent teacher conference week) While I was gone to a RS retreate, Matthew spent 2 hours doing all our dishes!!!! What a huge surprise and relief it was to come home to a clean kitchen!!! Wow!!! That meant the world to me! He gives me many little back rubs. He listens to me vent on hard days. He praises and encourages me. He cleans the bathroom and other things willingly without me even asking. He is the best! When I was working part-time I was happy to do all those things around the house - that was my job. But now I'm working full time he is sharing in the load. I so appreciate that!!!

Well, that's all for now. It's time to do a little relaxing - time to watch some Glee with my honey! we'll catch you up on more Henage happenings soon - hopefully sooner than later.

Hello World!

2 months without a post??!!! I thought summer was supposed to be a break!? Not so around here! We've definitely been keeping busy, busy, busy! So here's a quick update and pics on us and our worldwind lives
We attended the sealing of my brother Jeremy and his wife, Therese, to their adopted girls. What a neat day! The spirit was so strong, and what a treat to be there as they surrounded the altar together. I love the temple! I know through the Priesthood power we can be sealed to our families. What a special occasion.
I love their family all in white! Therese made the girls' dresses and flowers. So pretty!!!We took a trip to Yellowstone with the Henage family. Our first time to Yellowstone together. It was a quick trip, but it was so much fun!!! We loved it!
The melting pots were so cool! I was fascinated by them.Old Faithful
We went through the Manti temple for my brother Mike to receive his endowments. All my siblings and my parents were in the Celestial Room. I loved that moment! It was so neat and so special. A small taste of eternity. My parents were so happy - all their kids in the Celestial Room. I love my family!!!
We celebrated the 4th of July with our families. All my family was in town to go through the temple. We had such a fun time!!! Kickball, BBQ, fireworks, mario brothers, playing on the swing set. Good times for sure!!! It was so fun to be with all my family! It doesn't happen as often, so I cherish every minute. My eyes are so freaky looking in this pic - sorry!
The girlies diggin the fireworks
We've attended 2 of our nieces baptisms - Hera Schick
and Hannah Henage
Other exciting events without pics

• I took 16 hours of a sewing class from BYU only to drop out of it (found out it would be $900 - not a chance!!!!)
  

• I'm taking a cooking class and trying all kinds of delicious delicacies

• I went to a week of girls' camp. Matthew stayed home and diligently worked. It was the longest we went without seeing or talking with each other. Needless to say, we missed each other and were excited to be together again!!! I love my Matthew! He means so much to me!

• We got our freezer jam into the Springville Reams and Salem Kneadin Bread

• We braved the wind, cold and rain to sell our jam at Springville's Art City Days

• We discovered our jam is great to make strawberry shakes, strawberry milk, strawberry shortcake, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

• We helped my brother Mike propose to his beautiful fiance Miriam. We are so excited to have her and her girls join our family!! They are so perfect for each other. The Schick family will grow from 2 grandkids to 9 in 9 months!!! I love it! It makes it really fun when we all get together - it's a big party!!

• Matthew's company, Superior Design, landed a big project

• Superior Design hired its first employee

• I made bracelets and necklaces for Hera, Zarian and Jesse for their sealing and for Hannah's baptism

• I made a family proclamation with pictures around it for the Schicks for their sealing

• Matthew is researching and experimenting with making a freezer to put in the stores' shelves. He is so smart!!!
  

• I am training for a 5K and 10K, both races I really wanted to run this year I wasn't able to do because of other engagements

• I am taking a golf class and becoming a pro!

• We attended the Goodman Family reunion (Matthew's family). We had such a fun time camping, roasting mallows, playing cards, laughing and talking.

• We've learned lots of fun new games that we've been playing with the Henages - Dominions, Bang and Phases. I love games!!!

I think that about sums it up! We've been loving our summer! We're always up for fun activities and camping - just let us know!

Schick Kids Adopted!

Yesterday, Matthew and I were up in Boise for the adoption of my three nieces. What a great day! 12 hours of driving for a 30 minute court hearing. TOTALLY worth it! I wouldn't have missed it. I LOVED being there for it. What a neat experience in their lives. The judge asked Jeremy why he wanted the girls in their family. Zarian said, "Because we're gorgeous!" I got such a kick out of that! Jer said, "It's as if they were always a part of our family, and we want it to be that way." The same question was asked of Therese. She said, I want to take care of them as if they were my own." The girls are so cute and so fun! I am so excited to have them in our family! Their family will be sealed together in 2 weeks. I can't wait for that! Such big things happening for their family. The girls all wanted their ears pierced, but they had to wait until they were adopted, so they all got their ears pierced. It was fun to be there for that. We went swimming and had such a great time going off the slides. It was a quick, but very fun and rewarding trip. I can't wait to spend more time with their cute family!

New Calling

It's the moment you've all been waiting for...
Okay, so it's the moment that I've been waiting for. Matthew and I were released from nursery back in January. I thought I would get a calling super quick after being released. But I waited, and waited, and waited. I was getting sick of not having something to do! It's nice to have a break and all, but I would MUCH rather have other people to think about and focus on instead of myself. Of course, I still am a visiting teacher. My laurel sister-in-law, Alisha, said when I got released it meant that I would be called into YW. Then a few weeks ago a sister got released from YWs, and Alisha said there was now an opening for me in YW. She's also been saying for a year how fun it would be to have me at camp.
Well, the Bishop called me in and asked if I would be willing to serve. YES!!! Finally!
My new calling is the Laurel adviser!!! Yipee! I was pretty sure I would be called into YWs, but I wouldn't have guessed the Laurels. I am so excited! I was even more excited to see Alisha's expression. She was super excited about it. We're going to have such great fun! And we get to go to camp! Plus, my mother-in-law and I are going to be cabin leaders for camp. What fun! Good times ahead! I've been thinking about some things I want to do for my Laurels. It will be a good calling for me.

In other news, my brother, Mike, called me about a week ago and said he had some exciting news, and asked me if I had any guesses. Well, he's been dating this really cute girl the last few months, so I tentatively asked if he was engaged, not wanting him to feel we were pressuring him if they weren't. He said no. I asked if he got a new bullet bike, no. I couldn't think of any other big things he could tell me. He told me he was going to be going through the temple!!!!!! This was THE BEST news! I am so happy for him!!! It is so exciting! I'm so proud of him, his good decisions, and what he has done to prepare him to take that step in his life. Way to go Mike! July 3 is the date. I can't wait!

And other news, here I thought I didn't have anything blog worthy, but now I sit down to write, I keep thinking of things to share, just no pictures. We've sold 15 jars of jam already! We're still working on our labels. I've been sharing my jam with people I work with and people in the ward. A sweet lady in my ward bought 10 jars last Saturday. One of my favorite co-workers at school, who is actually from my homeward, who has known me since I was 3, was the first person to buy a jar of jam. But he didn't buy just one, he bought 5! That's so exciting! I LOVE our jam, but it's even more exciting to know other people want to buy it and have it. Even if they are doing it just to support me. What wonderful people!

Naturel Freezer Jam!

No we have not fallen off the face of the earth.
We have been super busy starting our Naturel Strawberry Freezer Jam company!!! Yipee! (This is not our label, it's just a practice website I made with Photoshop a while ago)
That's right! The freezer jam you all love so much is coming to a grocery store near you! That is our hope and goal. We're starting out with the farmer's market during the summer and expanding from there. It's been a fun and wild adventure. It's been way fun to work with Matthew on it. We make a great team! There are so many things he's good at and has done that I couldn't do. At the same time, there are so many things I'm good at and have done that he couldn't do. It works out perfectly! This has been in the works for a few years, so it's fun to see it come alive and take shape! So the last couple of weeks we bought 2 freezers to store the jam in, 16 cases of apples, 20 cases of strawberries (160 pounds, 160 individual cases), bought over 500 containers with lids, and
MADE 475 JARS OF NATUREL STRAWBERRY FREEZER JAM!!!

I had spring break last week, and for 3 days SOLID I worked on freezer jam. No joke 8am-11 or 12pm. I was tired after all that! My amazing, awesome Mom came and helped those days. I couldn't have done it without her or Matthew! Matthew also helped a number of times. They were lifesavors! We make our own pectin. The trick has been to figure out exactly how we want our pectin to be. I love saying it's made from our own pectin! That means a lot less sugar. But the jam is still so yummy and sweet. It's a lot healthier because we use our own pectin. Only 3 ingredients: Strawberries, pectin (from apples), and sugar. We are solidifying our labels right now and will have them soon. If you want some yummy, delicious, healthy freezer jam, you know where to get it. We'll be happy to sell some to you!

Caribbean Journal

Brittany and I had a great time journaling together while we were on our cruise. Hers is way cute with fun watercolors and drawings. I'm definitely not artistic like that, but I did still want to do a journal of our cruise. I wrote stuff down while we were on our cruise, then while in Honduras, I bought this journal. I then transferred everything into our cruise journal. Once I get some pictures, then I'll put them in too. I was so happy with how it turned out. I just about messed it up at the beginning, but with Matthew's help I was able to make things work out better in the end. Matthew's so good at coming up with good ideas and helping me with my meltdowns - small or big ones. Thank you Matthew!!! I'm so glad I did this! There are already so many things I've forgotten about our cruise, so it's fun to look back and see what we did. I probably wrote too much. That's one of my downfalls when I journal. Who's actually going to want to read it? I'm trying to get better with that. I'm just afraid of missing details. If no one else will read it, I sure will. I love it and am so happy with it! So originally, the rope letters said Roatan (for Roatan, Honduras), but part of the T fell off and got lost. Then some other letters started to fall off. So, I pulled all of them off. Instead of leaving it naked, I switched the letters around to say cruise. It's not perfect, but I liked how it turned out. Hopefully my adhesives will keep the letters on!
This is a Mayan calendar we got in Belize. I love it! Good purchase Matthew!
We also got this map while in Honduras. Also once we get pictures, I'm going to put pictures around it and frame it - Matthew's idea. I'm excited to work on that! Such fun memories! I loved our cruise and am so glad and grateful we got to go. That's all thanks to Matthew. He made it happen. Thanks Love!!!

Our Dream Vacation

I've been dying to post these pics, but haven't gotten to it until now. Our cruise was AWESOME!!!! In a nutshell it was our dream vacation! We loved EVERY minute of it! Here's a little run down of our trip.

We flew into Miami Saturday, February 27, 2010
We got on our Carnival Cruise on Sunday, February 28 - accompanied by Daniel and Brittany (Matthew's brother and wife).
Here we are in Miami getting ready to get on the cruise!
Lunch on the cruise with our AWESOME view of Miami!
Our sweet stateroom - with our big window!
Top of the cruise overlooking Miami - pretty much everywhere you look looks like downtown.
Sunday - Embarkation day
Tour of the cruise ship, eat yummy food, played trivia game - Brittany got 18 out of 20 right and won a medal
Played game show mania - Daniel and I played - Name that tune to tv shows, songs, and movies, Carnival showtime - singers and dancers
Monday - Day at Sea
Eat yummy food all day, lounge in the sun
Formal Dress night
Carnival showtime - comedy act and singers and dancers
Fun/Crazy pics in the cruise library

The 2 foxy ladies
Tuesday - Georgetown, Cayman Islands
Scuba diving! Saw a HUGE lobster! We took some pics with an underwater camera - I'll post those pics on a later post
Walk around shops in the area
Back on ship, eat yummy food
Carnival showtime - juggler
Getting geared up for scuba diving
View from the deck of the Cayman Islands
Lounging on the deck
Wednesday - Isla Roatan, Honduras
Pirates of the Caribbean 8 zip line tour. This was SO FUN! It was probably my favorite thing we did! It was so green and so pretty!
Here's me getting ready to take off While we were zip lining, we could see the ocean in the background - beautiful! Matthew gettin ready to go
The view of the zip line ready to go!
Loved this rickety bridge! So cool!
Playing with the monkey - giving loves to Daniel
Matthew plays with monkey - luckily the monkey peed after Matthew put him down and not while Matthew was holding him

Picture perfect private beach - it was one of those beaches you see in a postcard or on a calendar. It was so hard to believe we were there!
We did some snorkeling, and while snorkeling - I got bit by a fish! No joke! There were 2 mean black fish hanging by the ladder going down into the water, just waiting for bait - me!
Here is the bite mark for proof!Back on ship, eat yummy food, carnival showtime - magician
Matthew likes to call the cruise ship a hotel on water. Check this out! We are on level 9 (There are 11 levels) The bottom floor you see is level 3. On the right are the elevators. So cool!
Thursday - Belize City, Belize
This is what their cemeteries look like. They bury their dead only 3 feet into the ground because the water table is so high.

We saw this a lot - pretty much the foundation and 3-4 walls of a house
Most of their houses are on stilts like this or even higher. This is to avoid flooding as well as to avoid little insects and creatures from getting into their houses. So intriguing!
Xunantinich Mayan Ruins - 4 hour bus ride round trip
We took this river wallace to get there
Tour of the ruins and climb up to the top of them - 130 feet, tour of Belize
This is from the top of the temple - 130 feet. So cool! It overlooks Belize and Guatemala
The temple is in the background
We found a sweet banana tree - yummy! I never knew banana trees had flowers at the end of them like in this pic - I thought that was so cool!Back on ship, eat yummy food
Carnival showtime - comedian
So here's a funny story. Matthew one night wanted to get a smoothie they had on the menu under the kids section. So we got it. We drank about half of it when the drink receipt came. As we looked at the receipt, it said we ordered a Miami Vice and the price was $2.00 more than what it should have been. It was the price of alcoholic drinks instead of the smoothie price. We asked our waiter about it. We had really ordered the Strawberry Pina Colada. He said the Miami Vice is the Strawberry Pina Colada. We asked if it had alcohol in it. He asked if we ordered it virgin. We said no. He asked if we could taste the alcohol, because it did have it in it. We said didn't know, because we had never had alcohol before. He was so surprised about that. He started laughing and said we would feel a little tipsy that night. Needless to say, we didn't drink any more after that. We got a big kick out of that experience. It was so funny! Oops! So the next night we ordered the Strawberry Pina Colada Smootie VIRGIN. Hee hee! Friday - Cozumel, Mexico
Scuba Diving - swim through a little tunnel
Checking out shops at Cozumel
Check out that water! Love it! So clear! Such great visibility - made for some AWESOME scuba diving!
Sportin our new shades!
Still can't get over how big cruise ships are! They are Massive!
Back on ship, eat yummy food - I have lots of pics of our yummy food, but didn't want to bore with all the pics I do have, so here's a small sample. This was smoked duck. I really like duck. It's so yummy! Every night in our stateroom we were greeted by a new towel friend. Here's just one of the many. We also could get ice cream any time, so every night we got ice cream cones. So yummy! Perfect treat for perfect days
Saturday - Day at Sea
Games, play speed basketball, twisty water slide
Eat yummy food
Carnival Showtime - singers and dancers
I watched the sunrise Sunday morning from our window - here are some of the pics from it. Loved it! Remember they were from our window, so some are the best
On top the cruise ship one last time
Sunday - Miami
Day at the beach, soak up the sun even with chilly wind, walk downtown South Beach
Here's our hotel
This was our bed - Yikes! I about died when I saw that! I gotta sleep in that??!!! Actually the bed was fine, it's the comforter that is all bumpy. They should really look into getting new comforters!Hotel overlooking the beach - check out that view! 2 minute walk and we were at the beach! Love it!
Monday - Miami
Day at the beach, soak up the sun, snorkeling, swimming in the pool, DELICIOUS sushi!
We climbed up onto the roof to check out the sunset
Tuesday - Miami
Walk along beach and watch sunrise. Fly home. Memories to last a lifetime!
Super long post! Sorry! I tried to narrow down my pics, but there were so many good and fun ones!
I HIGHLY recommend a cruise for a vacation, but especially for a honeymoon! It's such a fun way to travel! Your hotel and food and entertainment is all taken care of for however many days you go. They are such good deals! You can find some really good deals on them too!