A Novel of an Update

Wow! It has been a looooong time since we last updated this thingy! Since so much has happened, I'm thinking I'll just make a list of the highlights... and of course, the pictures!

1. We finally found some chairs! They match our table really really well, and we only paid $25! Talk about a stinkin' sweet deal! One of them is a little rickety... It feels like it might snap in half, but as long as you don't lean back it that one, it's good. We've been really happy with them, and we think they fit really well in our apartment.

2. For the first half of our winter break, we went to Oregon to spend some time with my family, and Jeffrey was only going to be there until the 21st, so we needed to catch him before he went to Washington. We had an amazing time spending time with my family, and checking out all of Eugene's most awesome attractions.  We celebrated an early Christmas there, so we could have Christmas in both Eugene, and in Highland.

3. After an amazing time in Eugene, we began our journey to Utah. My first Christmas with the Brooks was an amazing one. Todd's family is amazing, and I'm so lucky to be a part of it now. Probably some of the highlights of being in Utah include snowboarding at both Brighton and Snowbird, sledding/snowboarding off jumps on the golf course behind the house, taking the kiddos sledding, and just relaxing with family. We also had the opportunity of attending David and Allison's sealing the weekend before we came back up to Idaho. It was a beautiful ceremony, and it was so great to see a lot of the Fajardo family. Also, this Christmas we decided to invest in a little "family" christmas present, which is a Canon Rebel T3i. With all the sledding we did, I had a blast testing it out, and it is UH-MAZ-ING! I love love love love it! The pictures turn out so great, and I was able to get some pretty sweet shots. Here are some of our favorites from our time in Utah.

Our cute matching PJs

Todd's impressive facial hair after about 2 weeks

Ping pong tournament. Pretty much went on for like two weeks

I just love this picture! What a cutie!

Funniest picture of all time

Todd is a pro... that's all I have to say

Cute little Annie

LOVE this picture of Noah!

My first attempt at going off jumps

The Brooks "Cheesy smiles" at David and Allison's wedding

The happy couple!

So cute

This one rival's Noah's for best picture OF ALL TIME

Photo-bombed!

Todder's and I at the Salt Lake Temple

 4. So now we're back up at school and the updates are much less exciting. We also have no pictures to go along with our updates. So the school has started these "Open Pool Kayak" clinics in the school pool on Thursday nights. Todd heard about it and has been working on his "kayak roll" and thought it'd be a sweet place to learn, with people who can teach him. In just an hour, he improved soooo much, it was fun to watch! 

5. So this week I had my student teaching interviews. Student teaching is a little less than a year away, but they want us to be squared away with where we will be student teaching pretty early. It turns out there isn't a partner high school in Salt Lake City that we can student teach at, but there is a middle school in South Jordan. So I interviewed with pretty much all of the high schools that I could have (in Vegas, Mesa, and Ogden). In the end, we decided that even if I have to student teach middle school, it would be better for us to save some money by possibly living at home for a few months while I student teach instead of moving to Vegas or Mesa or something. So the way it works is we turn in a "wish list" of our favorite schools, and the principals turn in wish lists of their favorite student teachers, and they try to match us up with one of our top choices. So if we don't get our number one choice of South Jordan Middle School, I will either be going to Las Vegas High School, or to Mesa High School. We won't find out for a couple months though, so it'll be interesting to see.

In other news for "future plans," Todd and I recently heard about opportunities with the Coast Guard. There could be some benefits that the Coast Guard could offer, like paying for Todd's grad school, and our housing, and things like that. Anyway, it's only something we've barely started looking into, but it could end up being a good option.

6. Finally, for the sad news. You may have seen on facebook that I re-injured my ACL. How did it happen, you ask? Ultimate Frisbee.... again. I don't think I have the best luck with that sport. The doctor doesn't think I tore it, but he thinks it may be "stretched." The problem with this is that once it stretches, it never goes back to normal. And the stinky part is that an MRI doesn't even help to show how bad the stretch is. So we basically have to wait and see if I'm going to need surgery again. For now, I'm just trying to get better, slowly starting to walk again and trying to get my strength back. Keep your fingers crossed! If it's not stretched too badly, I won't need surgery, and I could be playing again in just a few weeks! We'll see though... I'll keep you posted.

In short, despite all the stress about my knee and our future, we are happy and loving life more than ever. Life just keeps getting better and better, and I can't wait for the new adventures that are to come!

Our Humble Abode

So I know we've been here almost two months already, but I finally took some pics of our apartment. Part of the reason it took so long is because it took this long to get most of the pictures up on the walls. We still have a few frames left to put up, but we need pictures to fill them first! Anyway, as promised, here are some pics of the apt!

 Our bedroom is probably the most boring room in the house, those three pictures are the only ones up in there. I'll work on making it pretty.... eventually :).

Anyway, we love our place. We don't have a whole lot of furniture or fancy decorations, but it's all ours, and we absolutely love it. 

On two completely unrelated topics... 
I finished my first sewing project, which was a baby quilt for my friend Audrey and her new baby. It took probably about 100 times longer than I expected, and was the most stressful project of my life, but I finished! And it turned out alright for my first one, I think. 

The other unrelated topic is that tonight is Halloween! And I'm sitting at home (alone) writing a blog post. This is because Todders has to do a clinical shift in Idaho Falls tonight (sad me). We did get to celebrate last night, however by going rock climbing in our halloween shirts!

That's about it for new news! Miss you all!

~Most Triumphant Brooksies~

A Year of Bliss

Hello one and all!

The first weekend of this month, Todd and I celebrated one year of being together!!! This past year with Todd has been the happiest year of my life, and it has also gone by the quickest. It really has made me think about how blessed we are to have the opportunity to be sealed for time and all eternity. You know how they say, that in the spectrum of eternity, a few months or a year will be merely an instant? I feel like I have had a glimpse of the immensity of eternity because this past year has truly felt like merely an instant. Not only am I so blessed that Heavenly Father thought me worthy enough of such a great man in my life, but I am so lucky that Todd thinks so too. He makes me feel like I am so special, each and every day. He puts up with me when I am ridiculous, he goofs off with me when I'm being silly, he'll hold me when I am sad, he'll do whatever it takes to make me happy. He truly makes me feel like I am the luckiest girl on earth. 

Anyway, in celebration of our year of bliss, first and foremost we slept in! I say this because we've been getting up early every day for sooo long it seems, and sleeping in was heavenly. Once we were up and ready, we met Stacy and Michael at Boondocks and had lunch with them. Then we went up to Red Rock and went rock climbing. It's a pretty sweet place, and I think it's where Todd and I both gained our appreciation for outdoor rock climbing. 

Professional

After rock climbing, we went home and got all cleaned up. Then we played outside with the kiddos for quite a bit. They all are so stinkin' adorable, and so so fun! We also got news that Ciara's pregnant! We're so happy for her and Brandon... and maybe also super jealous :-p

Trying to get lil Annie to smile with me for a picture :)

Annie chasing Todders on the tramp

Todd was launching Alexa and Noah. He got Alexa up super high!

I love this one!

After playing with the chillens, we headed out to get some grub! Cafe Rio was super packed, so we went over to Chile's since I had never been there. It was delicious! Then we went over to the Haunted Forrest! It was really sweet, and super well done, especially the first part!

A lot more has happened since I last posted, but I think I explained our crazy schedules in the last post, and it has indeed been crazy. However, I recently put in my two weeks at Little Caesars and my last day was Monday! There were a few reasons behind me quitting, but the main one was that I never got to spend time with Todd. There would be days that we'd get maybe half an hour of quality time together the whole day, and it was no fun at all. Even this last week alone was amazing without having to go to work. We're still pretty busy, but we managed to go on 2 dates and I got to cook dinner! I was starting to worry that Todd and I would quickly become obese because we were eating Little Caesar's for dinner every night. Not healthy. It did save money on groceries though, that's for sure. 

Life won't be slowing down too much, however, because Todd just got hired at the fire department as an EMT! It is such a great opportunity for him, and he really loves the work. I'm so happy that he's loving the field that he's going into so much. It's great to see him light up telling me about the people he gets to help. 

Last night, I also finally set up the sewing machine my momma gave us. It's been almost two months, but I did it! I also have a project I need to start soon... maybe even today. One of my really good friends is having her baby shower in about a week, and I want to make her gift. I won't reveal what I'm making for two reasons. One, if it fails, I wil be embarrassed. And two, I don't want her to read this and find out what it is. Anyway, I'm excited to be a little crafty now that I have the time. 

So, this Sunday was apparently our Stake conference, and we had no idea! We showed up to church at our normal meeting time, and Stake conference was just drawing to a close. I'm afraid our bishopric might start to think that we're inactive! Oops! Haha. So we got home and decided to take a drive out to Mesa Falls. We had tried going there twice when we were dating, but were never able to make it. We made it this time though! We had a great time at the falls, and also stopped to feed the fishes on the way back. Did you know that they'll eat Little Caesar's pizza? They ate about half of the pizza! It was hilarious!

Ring Pops!

Todd was so excited that we finally made it!

Lower falls

Also, last night we had the COOLEST date ever! We laid out plastic on the dining room floor, and made a twister board out of paint. We had an automatic twister spinner going on the computer, and we played twister! It was super slippery, and we didn't last long. So then we just wrestled in the paint, haha. SO fun! I highly recommend it!

Well, I believe that is all for now folks! Love you all!

-Most Triumphant Brooks-