People have been asking me what it feels like to be 29…to tell the truth, I don’t know what it feels like to be 29 because I haven’t been 29 for very long. I probably won’t know what it feels like until the day before I turn 30! So right now, I just say it feels great…I mean, what else is there to say? In other words…my birthday was great. I went to work (recieved precious home-made cards), came home and found flowers (in pots) that Paul is going to plant for me :), and I went to an activity for church that was a “Girlz Night” (just the women) while Paul stayed home and planted my flowers…we will probably do something during the weekend to make it even more special. We also celebrated our 8th anniversary last week. I can hardly believe that we have been married for eight years. It has been awesome! I am so glad that I can be with someone, I love so much, for eternity. I am so grateful for that fact! I love you, honey!!
Back to the Grind
Well, MY summer is officially over…school is back in session. Paul is back from his 3 week training, and we are launching into this school year full force. Normally, the first couple of weeks are kind of slow in the subbing world (since what teacher in his/her right mind would willingly miss that time with their new class?), but luckily, I have already had a half-day job and have a 3-day job coming up (a teacher needs to go out of town for her daughter’s wedding…which would have not been when school was in session except for the fact that we changed our track this year, and are coming back earlier than originally planned). While I am sad about the ending of my summer, I am grateful that the paychecks are going to be coming in again 🙂 I am also glad that Paul is home. I kept on telling myself, “It’s only 3 weeks…you made it 14 months when he was in Iraq…how come you can’t handle 3 weeks?!” The reality of it is: when Paul was in Iraq, I was in the credential program, doing my student teaching, and basically working from sun-up to sun-down. I didn’t have TIME during the day to even think about it. As for nighttime, I missed him then, but, thankfully, I was so exhausted, I fell asleep before getting myself too worked up 😉 When he was gone this time…I was on vacation. In other words, I had A LOT of time to sit around and miss him. So I am BEYOND glad that he is home. I am realizing more and more each day how lucky I am to have him in my life, and to be able to spend eternity with him! I can hardly believe that we will be celebrating 8 years of marriage next month…it just seems surreal! I guess it all happens one day at a time, huh?
Vacation!
So we just got back on Saturday from a week of vacation up to Utah. We stayed with Paul’s friend and were able to visit with family and friends…and do a bit of sight seeing as well. We went to Salt Lake one day and walked around. We went to a couple of places that are directly affiliated with our church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) that were really neat. We went to the Church History Museum and the Church History Library. I had been to the museum before, but it was still really neat to see all of the artifacts from pioneer times. I have not been to the Library before, though. They have so much stuff there! Things like pioneer journals, original Books of Mormon…stuff like that. We were able to take a tour and watch a video about the library. Most of the really cool stuff is not open to the public unless they look at it with permission and in special rooms that are made for looking at fragile documents, but we learned that they keep them in temperature-controlled rooms away from natural light. I would like to go back and do some research on my family history…it would be so cool! Other highlights of the trip: going out to eat with my sister and brother and their spouses. we went to Olive Garden…it was SO good! We went out to eat with a former foster family of Paul’s that we still like to keep in contact with. We also went to the movies twice (did I mention that matinee prices in Utah rock?). We saw the A-team (which was entertaining…I wouldn’t call it a cinematic masterpiece, but it was pretty good) and the new Karate Kid…now THAT was an amazing movie! I would watch it again. We also got to go see my other brother, Gary, and his family. Paul got to go shooting with Gary, and that was awesome for him. He had a really good time doing that! Even though it was a realatively short trip, we had an awesome time! I hope that we can continue doing this…it really is awesome to see family and get a break from the rat race!