OCT 31st

Halloween!!! I didn't dress up but I did my makeup a little crazy, just for fun. It was great to see all the tricker-treaters. Its been a while since I've been able to give out candy. I enjoyed it. FHE that night was a total bust. 3 people came and no one stayed long. Oh well.

OCT 30th

I needed a picture with my buddy KC. He is such a funny cat. I got down on the floor to play with him by the fire. I am also wearing my favorite dress. Its super comfy.

OCT 29th

I wanted to take a different picture for fun. I really like these shoes and I really like wearing black polish on my toes. I just found out the other day that when the top of your toes show like this in your shoes, its call toe cleavage. Hilarious!

OCT 28th

I had a ward halloween party so I decided to dress up as Audrey Hepburn from Breakfast at Tiffany's. I had a lot of fun with it. I got the dress at Goodwill, and made the necklace. Tights came from mom's drawer, earrings and bracelets were mine already, shoes came from walmart, and the gloves were Great Grandmas. The tiara and WIG, yes thats not my hair, came from bartz's.

OCT 27th

I am really excited about my awesome Goodwill buy. I hadn't taken any pictures in my bedroom so I thought I would at least get one in.

OCT 26th

I finally finished my pearl pumpkin! It was rather labor intensive because I had to paint it multiple times to get the darker orange from showing through. I also had to glue the pearls to the pins so they didn't fall off. I really like the way it turned out so I don't mind the work.

OCT 25th

Just chilling on the couch. I didn't want to bust out the camera so I just used my computer.

OCT 24th

For FHE we carved pumpkins! Yay! I love doing this.. so I had fun. I found a pumpkin online I wanted to do, and printed it out, the drew it on. I really like the way my haunted house turned out. I look a little to happy to be using a knife. haha

OCT 23rd

Couple reasons for this odd picture. We updated the shrine to Emmitt on Grandma's wall. And I wore my skirt the whole day. It was unseasonably warm and I was too warm to put my jeans on. We cleaned up the house, and mom and I went through a bunch of things at the house and so needless to say I was wishing for shorts and a tee shirt by the end of the day. :)

OCT 22nd

Mom, Dad, & I went to Michigan to spend time with Grandma Burklow. She got put on Hospice. Her kidneys are shutting down. I dont want to lose her but she has lived a good long life and I know she is tired.

OCT 21st

Allie came over to borrow stuff for dressing up as a cowgirl for a halloween party. We got on photobooth on my computer and goofed off. This one was cute of us. She is such a sweet girl. I sometimes can hardly believe that I've known her all of her life. They are the best neighbors ever.

OCT 20th

This is one of my favorite chill outfits.

OCT 19th

It was time to carve the pumpkins! Chris came over and we had a lot of fun. I came up with a better way to scrape the guts out. I used a clay carving tool. Haha It was so much easier. I decided to do an Owl and Chris did Jack Skellington.

OCT 18th

I decided to have a dress chill day. I wasnt feeling super so I rocked the sweats. Haha. I picked the boys up from Jen down at UWM. It was a really relaxed day. It was also Mom and Dad's 31st Anniversary.

OCT 17th

I spent the day down in Oak Creek at the boys house. I almost forgot to take a picture. I set it up with the timer and just as it went off KC came over to have me pet him. Silly Kitty. I wore black because FHE was playing Ghost in the graveyard at church. I had a hard time running but it was still fun.

OCT 16th

This is probably my favorite outfit I have taken a picture of. Its super classy :) This was the first day we were able to have a fire in the fireplace. I changed into much more comfy clothes and dragged a rocking chair over to the fire. It was great!

OCT 15th

We dropped Liz and Emmitt off at the airport early this morning. Later we worked on the garage. We hauled and stacked wood up. Super fun. I am wearing the headband because it was really windy out and I never would have been able to see without it.

OCT 14th

This was the last day with Liz and Emmitt here. They flew home this morning. I just adore this little cutie. We all went out to dinner to celebrate Dad's birthday from last month. We went to Gyros West. I had pancakes! I didn't even know they had pancakes. Behind me is the wreath I made the other day.

OCT 13th

Today the weather got cooler so I pulled out my argyle sweater. We went to a relief society activity and made witch shoes. They also did a demo on how to make cake pops. It was a lot of fun. I talked to this woman Christa and her friend Jenny. They are super hilarious. I really enjoyed myself. Dad stayed home with Emmitt so when we got back Liz and I woke him up and changed him then Liz fed him and put him back to sleep.

OCT 12th

Yesterday.... was a really long day. All three of the boys I was watching had meltdowns. Good times. Normal for the 18 mo old but not the 4 or 6 year old. Oh well. Usually I only have the two younger ones from 8 to 4 but I was with them from 7:30-6:30. Which meant I was so tired and hungry when I got home. This was shortly after I inhaled my dinner. :)

OCT 10th

First of all... How cute am I? Mason & I painted today. He took a white pumpkin and made it orange and green. I made an argyle one! I like the way it turned out. Took a little longer than expected.... as usual, because of drying time. I am still working on the other ones in this soon to be set.

OCT 9th

The 9th was sunday. I wanted to be comfy at church so I opted to wear my favorite white skirt with my brown Steve Madden shoes. Took this after I got home from church but before we went to the Brukl's house to celebrate Kyle's 9th Birthday with chocolate bunt cake. Mmmm

OCT 8

We went down to Chicago to have lunch with Judy and Becca and then dinner with Grandma Gierke. Emmitt was pretty good, considering he didn't get a decent nap and had to ride in the car so much. I almost didn't go, but there isn't a whole lot I wouldn't do for my little Emmitt Fou Fou. It was good day. We took our picture at Grandma Gierke's house.

OCT 7

Such a fun day! We went to the Bear Den Zoo out in Waterford. We saw all kinds of animals; a Bear, tiger, tortoises, a lemur, a Llama, goats (that we got to pet), and birds. We got to hold baby chickens, and Bunnies, and kittens. When we petted the goats one bit my elbow, it was super funny cause it didn't hurt. Gavin scraped his knee but recovered pretty well. Mason had fun with his new friend Evan. We also got to go on a Hay ride and pick out pumpkins. It was such a great day I might have to post more on it later.

OCT 5

Tried out a new outfit combo here. I paired my brown tank with a tank top shirt. It only goes down a little way but makes any tank modest. I like this tan short sleeved one. As you may notice I am still wearing t-shirts in October, thats because its been super warm. You will see...

OCT 4th

If I look a little crazy in this picture its probably because I just got done singing a the funeral of a woman I didn't even know. It went well. Liz and I sang Be Still My Soul. We took all the little boys with us. Mom and a lady at the funeral home watched them while we sang. Then we left.

OCTOBER 3rd

Mason and I did a bunch of yard work. We drove the lawn mower around and took sticks to the burning pit. I didn't put makeup on until the afternoon. Took the picture using my tripod. Yay!

OCTOBER PHOTOS & Day 1 & 2

I decided that I want to post a picture of myself everyday in the month of October. Now of course the first day of the month... I forgot. haha. I am a genius. :) But I was wearing my blue American Eagle t-shirt... I might take a pic in it to put on here. We'll see. It was a pretty chill day watching General Conference on TV at my house.

Alright time to play catchup:

2nd - I went to conference down at the Grams house in Eagle Wisconsin. I took a lot of pictures and had a lot of fun. We even found a frog that let me take a really close up picture of it. Took this photo by the pumpkins Liz and I got the Friday before. I really love this tank top, Liz gave it to me. I love Paisleys, so fun.

The last year

This last year has been so crazy.... I don't even want to think about everything hard that has happened most of the time. Today I cant help thinking back to a year ago. I feel awe thinking about it being a year since Mabry and Loren were called home. They were such great, fun, funny girls. I wish I could heal the hurt that we all felt at their passing. I know it was worse for their friends and family than for me, but I felt the pain all their friends and classmates felt. I experienced loss of people close to me for the first time in my life. I found that I had to rely on my faith in the plan of salvation more than I'd been asked to before. Thankfully, when tested, I realized that I know its true. I have every confidence that Mabry, Loren, and Brody are not gone forever, they have moved on to the next phase of existence. I miss them, and will continue to do so until I get to see them again. I thank Heavenly Father for their presence in my life, for all they taught me, for all the students as West Jefferson taught me. I will never forget them.

DAY 30!!!

The last day is of someone you miss. I have lots of people that I wish I could see more. But my BFF Alyssa and her family are going to be my photos. They are awesome.

I love my Emmitt FouFou !

Mom, Liz, Emmitt and I went to the Aquatic Center in Pocatello last week. It was so much fun! Emmitt is really funny about the water. He doesn't like shallow water but is mostly good in the deeper water (of course being held by his mommy or aunt suzi or grandma etc.). I love his bathing suit, it matches his buddy, Landen Royer. I will get the pictures of me and the boys at the pool in Idaho Falls.

Day 29 A pic that makes me smile

day 28

Something I'm afraid of... I have an irrational fear of sharks. Irrational because I don't live near an ocean so I can go swimming where there are sharks. I have crazy dreams about there being one that I cant see in a pool that I am swimming in.

DAY 27

Me and a family member.... Decided to do one with a few. L-R. Daleen, Abrie, Liz, Me and mom. We took this in Rexburg before we all left. Dee and her family moved to TX, Mom and I are in wisconsin, and Liz is actually moving back to the burg. Gotta love smith park

Day 26

Something that means a lot to me. My time with my cute little buddies.

Day 25 July 27

Day 25 is a picture of my day.. I will post some pics of my last day in Rexburg. It was mostly spent packing and cleaning (not pictured). Dinner was the highlight and also the hardest part of the day. The Royer family is moving to Texas this next week and it was our last get together. I have spent a great deal of my summer soaking up my time with them. I love them dearly and will miss being able to play with them.

Day 24

Something I wish I could change. I could rant and rave for hours, literally, about education in the state of Idaho. Obviously I am not happy about the budget cuts since the first thing on the chopping block was my job and I am now unemployed, but I really wish there was more of a dedication to education because I care about the students here. I also think that the whole education system is deeply flawed. The only way you can make a decent living is to be in administration and pretty much all the administrators are power hungry people who dont care about the students. Teachers cant make enough to support a family, I can barely make enough to support myself. Its a completely ridiculous situation!

Day 23

My Favorite Book. Ok, so I have a lot of favorite books. But I really love Twilight... not the movies, the books. Written word = much better than - Movies!

Day 22

What I wish I was better at! RUNNING! I wish I liked it. hahah

Day 21

Day 21 is - a picture of something you want to forget - I don't have anything that forgetting would help. I believe in taking everything; the good, and the bad... I wouldn't be me without the bad, or the good.

Day 20

I want to travel to Hawaii. Among other places. I love to travel, anywhere, anytime, its my passion. I really want to be sitting on a beach right now though.

Day 19 Finally!

Day 19 is a picture of me when I was little. I like this one cause its me and my sister and two brothers. Its a pretty classic photo of me. hahah

Day 18

Biggest insecurity: probably would have to be my surgery scars, I really hate the way they look and how they show.

DaY 17

Today is something that has had a big impact on my life. In August of 2010 3 of my students were killed in accidents. They were all wonderful kids whose lives have touched mine and I was pretty wrecked losing them. I am grateful that I was given the opportunity to know Loren Johnson, Mabry Neville, and Brody Newman. I am forever changed by knowing them. I truly believe that Heavenly Father called them home but I will miss them.