From the Mouth of a High School Student

One of the classes I teach is Financial Literacy.  I really enjoy the students in this class.  It is filled mostly with juniors in high school and I have a pretty great mix of kids.  The other day in class we watched the movie '30 Days'.  It is made by the same man who did 'Super Size Me'.  This time he lives on minimum wage for 30 days.  The kids seemed to really enjoy this video and it definitely opened their eyes.  After watching the movie, they were assigned to write a half page reflection on the video.  I asked if they would do anything differently, how they could have been better at saving money, etc.  While grading those papers today, I came across this little gem:

"Well, congratulations you proved some people are poor.  The minimum wage has been raised since then and for an obvious reason.  I am now filling space.  The rest of this is nothing.  If you read this sentence I will buy you a Dr. Pepper."

This student did go on to say a few more things that were actually relevant to the assignment, but I couldn't help but laugh so hard!  I'm not even mad he said that.  THIS IS WHY I LOVE HIGH SCHOOL. These kids are hilarious and keep me laughing everyday.

I underlined his Dr. Pepper sentence and added that I will need him to change that to a Sprite.  His paper is now on top of the grading pile.  I sure can't wait for class tomorrow :)

Quiet Book Reveal!

The quiet book is FINISHED!  I am so very pleased with how it turned out!  This was SUCH a fun project.  A big THANK YOU to all of those who participated in it with me, and for your hard work.  I hope you all enjoy the pages that were made.  I'm so impressed!  So, without further ado:

Here it is from the front cover!  They were all bound with different colors of bias tape! 

 The first four pages: hair braiding, letter writing, matching colors/doing buttons/stop light & matching!

Apple tree- use snap them on and off!  Matching shapes/colors, get me dressed, telling time!

Here we have a pea pod (you un-zip it to find 3 little stuffed peas, so cute!), fish bowl, tie the bears bow, slide the car across the road.

The last pages- gumball machine where you count them all up, and a little note card that is all about the authors of this fabulous book!  Thanks everyone for such a job well done!

35 Weeks!

Only 5 more weeks to go- CrAzY!!

Baby Showers!

This past weekend I was very spoiled!  I had two showers in one day!  It was a lot of fun :)  One was a family shower, the other was with some of my girlfriends.  It was so fun to see all my friends and family that I don't see often and to visit with them.  Here are some photos from the day!

Here I am with my mom, sisters Nicole and Natalie, and their adorable little girls Ali and Emery.  My mom hosted the shower at her house and put it all together!  She did such a great job!

 Here is a picture of the 'spread'.  My mom had the shower be similar to a little girls tea party!  Of course there was pink everywhere, and we even got to eat on glass plates with little glass teacups.  She set out all of her antique dolls on the table too.  The food was delicious of course!

 All of the Pugh ladies were able to come as well!  It was fun to have just the girls from the Pugh side since we rarely see each other without their husbands and kids! They certainly spoiled our little girl and I was happy they could all come!

 Here I am with my Aunt Denise (who I am named after) and my cute grandpa Watkins at the young age of 94!  He was so excited to come to the shower :)  He told all his friends at his assisted living center that he was going to a shower that day!  I'm glad he was able to be there.  There were MANY more people that came, but for picture overload sake, I won't post them. But a big THANK YOU to everyone who was able to come.  We are so blessed to have this baby girl in our family and appreciate your friendship and generosity to us! 

After my family shower, some of my girlfriends (Shauna, Janae, and Lacy) threw me a shower.  Kristen was kind enough to host it at her home.  I got to see a lot of friends I hadn't seen in a while like old roommates and high school friends.  We had a great time just visiting and catching up. 

Instead of playing games, Shauna instructed everyone in how to make these darling appliqued' onesies! They all turned out so well and will definitely a more personal gift from all the girls.  I love how they turned out.  It was a great day and me and and Elise are some very spoiled and lucky ladies!  I feel much more prepared for her to join our family! 

Happy Zacky Day!

Happy Birthday to this guy!!  This is one of my favorite pictures of him.  This was taken in summer 2009 on the streets of Hong Kong somewhere.   Doesn't that meat look delicious?

Zack's birthday was on November 14th and we had a great time spreading the celebration out for a week.  

The festivities began on his birthday this past Sunday.  With his calling he had the pleasure of getting up early and go to 5 hours of meetings even BEFORE our 3 hour block of church started :)  After church, we headed up to Sandy to celebrate with his whole family.  We ate one of his favorites- chimichangas!  His parents and siblings spoiled him with some great gifts!  My parents and Zack's parent and me all pitched in and bought Zack the new iPod touch.  Unfortunately it was still en route from China, so he didn't get it on his actual birthday but he surely LOVES his present!  He's hardly been able to put it down since he got it.  Here he is opening the gift when it finally came in the mail!

He was definitely putting on some great faces for the camera.  Even though he is acting here, I swear he really was that excited to finally have his present here. 

Ah, sweet bliss!  It finally came :)  Zack, I sure do love you!!  We have the best times together and I am so happy to be married to my best friend, even if we do finish each others sentences!  I hope you had a fabulous 25th Birthday!!  I hope we have another 65 birthdays left in store to celebrate!

I miss you....

See how relaxed this woman looks?  I really miss sleeping on my stomach. We had a good time.  Wonderful dreams were had, relaxation occurred.  Until we meet again in January! 

What did you miss a lot while you were pregnant?

Anna's Little Pumpkin

Among other things this weekend, I was able to co-host a baby shower for my good friend Anna.  I met Anna when I moved into my ward about a year and a half ago.  She has been nothing but fun and friendly from the get go!  Anna is due Jan. 3rd so it has been fun to talk and compare pregnancy stories with each other and have a buddy to go through all of this with! 

We decided to throw her a "little pumpkin" shower since it is fall now.  We had a fun time preparing delicious food like Autumn soup, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin chocolate chip bread, wassail, and gingerbread cookies cut into pumpkins and dipped in chocolate!  I think its safe to say we feasted well!  Here are some photos from the event! 

Here are all of the trimmings!

A lot of Anna's friends were able to be there! We had a good time visiting, sharing pregnancy stories, and making her some adorable hand appliqued onesies! 

Shauna, the guest of honor and her "pumpkin", and Mackenzie
Can't wait to meet your little one Anna!  Lets keep our fingers crossed that BOTH these little girls come in December for the tax break :)

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is definitely one of my favorite holidays and this years did not disappoint!  At school we could dress up on Friday so it was fun to see many of my students in costume!  I love how creative they can be. Saturday morning was the annual Pugh Halloween Party.  We all got together for pass the broomstick, pumpkin walk, great food, and of course a donut on a string eating contest!  It was so much fun!  This year Zack and I dressed up at Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Dr. Seuss!  

Later that night we got together with the Phillips for our Ghoulish Feast!  It was delicious!  The menu consisted of Haunted Tostadas, blood for punch, eye ball dip, pumpkin cake pops, wormy jello, and scary cookies!  

After stuffing ourselves, we watched the classic Garfield's Halloween and Coraline.  Thanks for hosting us Phillips- we had a great time!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!!!

Chicken dinner that is, not steak.  I got an email from RC Willey today letting us know that we came in SECOND place.  However, since the votes were so close, they have decided to let us have a sofa of our choosing that is $399 or less.  Wahoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I will certainly take it!  I just wanted to give a huge THANK YOU to those of you who helped us out by voting.  We appreciate it more than you know.  We are so lucky and blessed to get this opportunity!  Since we have our choice of couches it makes life a little harder.  Zack and I are the WORST decision makers!  Here are some of my favorites right now. Let me know which one is your pick!

This one is a 92" (so a little long probably) chocolate microfiber couch.

Slightly different design.  This is a beige microfiber sofa.

This one is Zack's favorite.  This one is a brown upholstered sofa.  No microfiber here.

And another chocolate microfiber. Different from the one above. This one has 4 pillows on top as opposed to the 3 on the other one.

Thoughts?  Which one is your favorite?  Clearly we will go into the store and give them the "butt test" to see how comfortable they are.  Do you like microfiber?  Keep in mind we will now have a sofa and still keep our ugly love seat but use our slip covers.  The slip covers we have are a dark khaki color and I would like them to match.  Let me hear your opinions!