Happy Anniversary!

Today, June 30, 2008, commemorates the one year anniversary that Mike & I have been married. This year has been packed full of fun, excitement, and even some hard times, but I have loved it. I just wanted to share some of our highlights of this past year.

Just a few short weeks after Mike and I got married, we lost Mike's Grandma, Rosemary Proctor. While I had just recently met and gotten to know her, she quickly won a place in my heart. While losing her was hard, it really brought home how lucky we are to have the gospel in our lives. It reaffirmed our testimonies of the eternal nature of the Plan of Salvation that our Heavenly Father has created for us.

A month after we got married, we were able to join Rosie & Mark in the Temple as they were sealed for all time and eternity as their own family unit. It was amazing to be able to join in such a sacred event so short after our own sealing. It helped to remind me some of the things that were said in our sealing (it was such a crazy day, I didn't remember much, except that Mike was supposed to give me money for pizza).

We had a new nephew join the family, who is the cutest little guy ever! This little guy has the brightest eyes, and while he looks so much like his brother's he is developing into his own personality. You should check out some of his great looks here.

I enjoyed my first deer hunt ever. I learned that no matter what Mike says, he doesn't really mean it when he says his turn is next to get out of the warm bed to put wood in the fire BEFORE it goes out...he can't leave the warmth of the bed. This leaves me to get out and put the wood on the fire and then gives me a reason to really snuggle close to get warm again. While it snowed and was cold, I had a blast on the deer hunt and am looking forward to this October and my second hunt!

Mike and I had a tough winter, but we survived. School was tough & Mike's work was tough. I had some crazy wicked classes that required a ton of work and Mike had many days where he didn't work but we made it through. But, at the end of it, I got accepted to the Education program and Mike survived to the good weather.

Currently, I just finished up summer classes and Mike is working graveyards. I leave for work at 8 am and get home around 7:30 pm (slightly a longer day because I ride my bike. An hour there and an hour and a 1/2 home) and Mike leaves for work around 5:45ish PM and gets home anywhere from 5 AM - 8 AM. This leaves us not a lot of time to see each other but we live for the weekends! Recognizing that we were going to live it up on Saturday, the day we decided to celebrate our anniversary. We didn't plan very well. Mike had Webelos Woods (day camp with the Webelos) and I had to work. But, we when we finally saw each other, it was fun.

We went Applebee's and it was delicious! As we walked into the restaurant, I told the manager and the hostess that it was our anniversary. Well, that was a good move because the manager was awesome. The manager came to our table and talked to us (we think that it made the waiter a little nervous but he soon recognized that we weren't complaining about him) and came to wish us a happy anniversary. He asked if we wanted a desert and Mike was all over that. He then brought it out and told us that he gave us a little discount on our meal. Yeah, a little, it was a 50% discount. Let me tell you, on top of some great food, a good time with my husband and some fun conversation, we had an amazing celebration!

I have to say that I am so glad that Mike came into my life. He may tease me for being 'cheesy,' but I love him and am glad that he is my husband. Not only did I get a great husband, but I get to be a part of the great Proctor family. Another thing that is great is that Mike makes the time to go camping (which I love but didn't do too often before!) I am excited because that is what we are doing this weekend. See you all and I look forward to another great year with the man that I love.

Riding the Bike

I have decided to start riding my bike to work. There are a couple of reasons for this.

1-I feel that I have to make some protest against the ridiculous price ($4 gallon) of gas.

2-I have been telling myself for a couple of years that I should ride my bike to work when I am not in school so that I can get in shape, and I finally decided that the time was right.

As Thursday was my first day school free, I decided that this was one of the best days to start. I buckled on my helmet and jumped on my bike and took off. I have to be perfectly honest that within the first mile, I was very tempted to turn around, get my car and drive to work. There was only one thing that stopped me, the fact that I had opened my BIG mouth and told everybody at work that I was going to ride my bike. Right around the Cascade Golf course, it got really easy as it all started going downhill. Whew, if it stayed this way, than I could definitely ride my bike more often (let's just not think about the way home yet.)

I made it to work in a wonderful 55 minutes. Not bad for traveling 9 miles, huh?

The way home, that was quite another story. I got to Will's Pit Stop and had to get off my bike. I really felt that my legs were going to fall off. Have you ever had that feeling? It isn't fun. I eventually got on my bike again as I rationalized that if I walked the rest of the way home it would take me much longer than the 2 hours that I had figured. See, when you are going uphill, it will probably take twice as long, right? I finally made it though! In just under an hour and a half! As I have continued, I am getting a little faster and today, I only got off to walk up the stupid Orem hill rather than 3 times before that. Pretty good, huh?

As I have started riding around Provo/Orem, I have learned some things that I would like to share.

1-Cars do not pay attention to bikes. Beware and keep your eyes wide open if you are the one on the bike!
2-The worst cars/vehicles to drive by you on the road is the UTA Bus. They blow the hottest air on you. (Not really fun when you are dying of the heat anyway.)
3-When a bug smacks into your face when you are going downhill really fast, it is a little gross. Actually, really more than a little gross, it was really gross!
4-There are some parts of Orem and Provo that smell really good (especially by the country club on University Ave right around dinner time, can we say yummmm???)
5-There are also some parts of Orem and Provo that smell really bad.
6-Riding downhill is really a lot of fun!
7-Your behind hurts more on the way home because it is all uphill and you end up sitting on the seat more...can we say ouch?
8-You really start hating the bicyclists whiz past you as you are struggling up the lowest grade hill. But you REALLY hate the runners that are going faster than you!
9-There is a nice spot by the office buildings just north of Borders that makes a great place to stop and stretch and drink some nice water.

The most important thing that i have learned?

10-A ride down the canyon with my buddy Tait looks and sounds really awesome about the time I reach the mouth of Provo Canyon!

King Arthur

I had to redo my King Arthur movie. Here is the version that I did in Photo Story 3. Just a note on the side, do you know what I get to do tonight? I get to choose any book I want and read it! I can do that for the rest of the summer!!! Yippee!! Maybe I may tackle the Twilight series...hmmmm...any thoughts on that?

YEAH!!!!!!!

A couple of weeks ago, I learned about a type of loan available for those in the education program. It is the Terrel H. Bell Teaching Incentive Loan Program. The great thing about this loan is that they count it as a scholarship. See, if you get the loan for 1 year, and you teach in the state of Utah for 1 year, than you don't have to pay it back. They even give you 3 years to get a job after you graduate, which is amazing! I was told to go ahead and apply, but that UVU didn't get any money for this loan last year, but it is always worth a try, right? I decided it was worth a try, and even though I found out about this 2 days before the deadline, I decided to go for it. I put in the application, and then, to be honest, I promptly forgot all about it.

I got home from work today and there was a letter from UVU. I was wondering what they would be sending me a letter for and was very excited when I opened it to read, The College is pleased to offer you a incentive loan for the year 2008-2009. Yeah!!! I got the scholarship that they only count as a loan if I don't end up teaching. I can't tell you how excited I am! Really, I am totally stoked to the point that I am even excited about writing my 6 page research paper on the Psychology of Motivation for students.

What I have been doing lately

For any of you ever considering taking 4 summer classes in college, all at the same time, I would suggest you don't. Not unless you want to be swamped with homework and assignments as they squish a normal 14 weeks of learning into 7 weeks.

In addition to being in school (still, but almost over!) Mike has been working nights this week and the next few. It leads to short times each day in seeing each other. On Tuesday, I begged to get off work an hour early only to see Mike for 30 minutes. It is hard, but we will make the most of our weekends, that is for sure.

I wanted to show you what I have been doing in one of my classes. I had to make a movie and chose to make it on King Arthur. Here you go! When school is over, I will come back and tell you guys more of what is going on in our life, I promise.