Bum Bum Bum

So I am sitting in my classroom after a lonnnnng meeting about computers (my favorite thing ; ) and I decided to take a cool off break and look at my blog to cheer me up! I have to admit I am excited to get back into the swing of things and am looking forward to a new year but at the same time, it's a little hard to say goodbye to summer! Now I know some of you are thinking that I should get over it because you didn't even have a summer but in my defence it's hard to get back into the groove and we have a LOT of work to do to get ready for the year!!!! I have been working all day and into the night every day this week and I still have along way to go before I will really be ready for the First Day of school. Teaching is wonderful but you really have to gear up and pump your self up because teaching 6 yearolds for 6 hours a day is exhausting. I love them but I need to prepare my head you know! Yeah I am talking nonsense here but I have been working all day and my head is spinning! The nice thing is that just when your feeling overwhelmed God gives you a the little blessings that you need. I just received some e-mails form Giovanni's family that were super encouraging and those are the kinds of things that make it all worth wild!!! Ok, back to work!!

A little shout out to Matt Kirshen!!!

We have totally gotten into Last Comic Standing!! Last year I was a huge Josh Blue fan and this year Matt Kirshen was absolutely my favorite!!! It was so sad to see him go last week, seriously! I don't think anyone thought he would make it as far as he did and he nearly made it into the top five! Way to go little British guy!

The New Place

Ok, so the next few posts are about our trip and they are actually backwards so if you start with the Sacramento post and move up the blog it makes a lot more sense.

The last stop on our trip was actually back in Azusa at Jackson and Melissa's new apartment. Their wedding is coming up on October 27th and Jackson just moved into their new place a few days ago. It is actually really close to us so we are excited to have them close by. It's a very cute place but not all of the furniture has arrived yet. So, we ate dinner around a 2 foot by 2 foot table in the living room. It was pretty cute! They made a very yummy dinner of rosemary chicken, grilled zucchini and of course cous cous. It was delicious! It was good to catch up with them and it was also great to get home after a long but wonderful trip!!

Good Old Arroyo Grande

After spending a few days at Grandmas and visiting Andy and Berkley and seeing his new apartment we headed to my parents house. We took andy and Grandma with us so including Buddy we shur had a full car. We spent a few days in AG and had a family dinner with everyone including Rick and Karen.

Grandma isn't even an animal person but she really fell in love with Buddy and he loved her too!

Three Generations

Oh, Dad! You've got to love the overalls!!

Sarah and Josh

On the way home from Grandma's house we stopped to see Sarah, Josh and the girls. They are growing up so fast and are just so stinking cute! I hate that we live so far away, we wish that we could hang out with this family all the time!

Caitlin was cracking us up the whole time we where there. She is a little ham. The girls loved Buddy and Caitlin started acting like a dog. She got down on her hands and knees and even picked up a toy with her mouth to act like the puppy, it was really cute!

Abigail just got glasses and she looks so cute in them. I just love these girls!!!

Grandma Johnson's

After Sacramento we went to Grandma Johnson's house in Concord. We had a wonderful time visiting with Grandma and we also got to spend time with Aunt Teri, Uncle Dave and Adam.

This is my "little" cousin Adam, he is a US Marine he always looks tough in the pictures we take these days so I thought I would give it my best tough face as well.

Andy came over from Berkley and we celebrated his 21st birthday. The picture above is a stair step from tallest to shortest like we used to do when we were kids only now the order is reversed. Wa, wa!

I love this picture!!!

Sacramento

Josh and I just got home from a week and a half long vacation where we saw lots of family and fit a lot in! We started off the trip by heading to Sacramento to visit Grandma Ernie. While we were there we also spent time with Kim and Justin as well.

While we were there we visited Folsom Prison. It was really interesting and fun to see the crazy things that the inmates have been able to make out of virtually nothing. It was also fun to see some Johnny Cash memorabilia.

We also spent some time in Old Town Sacramento. We went to lunch and then shopping. The highlight was visiting Sock City, yeah a whole store devoted to every kind of sock you could imagine. We of course got salt water taffy which is always yummy. Later that night we came back to the comedy club where we heard a very funny comedian, I wish I could remember his first name but I think is last name was something like D'felia.

A Brand New Dog

Buddy hadn't had a hair cut in a long time so it was long over due. Plus he had been having a lot of outside fun, including swimming in the pool so he was looking a little sloppy. We asked them to cut it to a half and inch and well, they cut it much shorter than that...

Buddy Before

Buddy After

Yeah, it's pretty short and also pretty funny because he looks like a totally different dog. He is really very skinny under all that fur. Needles to say we will not be going back to that groomer any more but at least it is summer times so a short cut is much needed!

Good Times at the Compound

A few weeks ago Sean was house sitting for Debbie Redgio one of the other teachers at Sonrise and the tradition goes that Sean house sits at this beautiful home and has people over, well the place is so nice and it is so relaxing that people never want to leave once they get there. Josh and I spent a few days and even a night there with Joy and Sean both. We had a fabulous time enjoying the pool, the huge tv, Ms. Packman and the great company of course.

Debbie has a little dog named Abbie so Buddy had a new friend to play with. Abbie has a little bit of an attitude but Buddy didn't care he liked to play with her anyway.

Aren't these two just the cutest! While we were there they finally set their official wedding date for November 24th!!! It's very exciting and will be a beautiful fall wedding!

It was pretty cute how the dogs would always sit together. Here it looks like they are watching tv with me. Did I mention playing Ms. Packman? Yeah, that game is really fun but also really addicting, we played it so much we wore out the batteries but I have to say that I was getting pretty good at it. Not as good as Joy but then that will take more than a few days practice for me to catch up to her mad skills!

Bryon and Elizabeth Come for a Visit

Bryon and Elizabeth just spent the last two days with us. They dropped the older two kids off at their Grandmas and came on over. We had a great time hanging out, relaxing and catching up.

They did bring the baby but she is so easy going that you could hardly tell there was a baby staying here. She is three and a half months now and just the sweetest thing. She was the first ever to get a bath in our kitchen sink. Wow, she is so small!!

On Friday night we went out to celebrate Bryon's Birthday. He wanted Sushi which we are always up for so we went to Shogun. It was delicious!!!

Hooray For Beach Day!/ Happy Birthday Andy!

Being that today is August first I figured I should give a little shout out to my brother who turns 21 today!! Oh, my gosh 21! Happy Birthday Andy kins!

Joy and Sean introduced us to this great little beach spot in Laguna. It's called Cristal Cove and it's beautiful! It's not real crowded, the waves are not too big or too small and it's totally beautiful! I am convinced that these are some of the houses filmed for the OC.
Today we went there with Joy, Sean, Keisah and Eric!
Yeah this is me wearing Eric's life jacket, What? It was easier to carry this way! It was also funny to see the looks I got walking down to the beach like this, I think some people thought I was "special."

I really do!!

Keisha, Eric, Josh, Joy and Sean
So, This little spot is wonderful except for one thing... the Giant Steep hill you have to walk down to get to it. It's a doosie! The worst part is going back up at the end of the day, wow!!

There are days when the job can be pretty overwhelming and stressful but it is truly all worth it! How many other professions allow for a 3 month Summer Vacation?!!!