Season of Love!

Sorry for the delay in posts - it's been a BUSY summer with lots of traveling. The most important events: WEDDINGS!!!

One of my best friends Amy got married in Orlando over Memorial Day weekend in the Orlando Temple. SUCH a beautiful temple.


The day before all the bridesmaids got mani/pedis. LOVED the massage chairs.

Renae and Amy:

Kelsey and Ashley:


Then we went to Downtown Disney for dinner. Did you think we'd be in Orlando and completely ignore the Disney magic? (I went by myself for lunch while others were still traveling, we went for dinner on Friday, then went back to window shop on Saturday after the happy couple left for their honeymoon).

Look who else came! SO good to see Joanna (Tolsma) Fountain. And YAY for Sarah and Brett!

What a BEAUTIFUL couple! This was their slow motion walking while smiling pose.

Like her hair? You should. Ashley and I did it. :)

Yay for being bridesmaids!!

And back to Downtown Disney for window shopping. What a MAGICAL weekend!!! (The only way it could've been better was to eat a Mickey Bar or actually see the Mick-ster himself.

The reception was two weeks later, post-honeymoon. I love my best friends for several reasons, one of which is that they are SO fun and love to have fun/dance, regardless of what other people are or are not afraid to do. Yay!!!

And yes, we are doing an EFY line dance. Can you move it like this? We can!

3 o r 4 weeks later I went out to Utah to visit friends and go to my cousin Shannon's wedding. It was in Sandy on a BEAUTIFUL Utah summer day.

Riley and Lauren were the cutest flower girls EVER. Riley kept HURLING the flowers to the ground.

As Greg is their bishop, he got to perform the ceremony!!!

Our camera stitches together landscapes. I think it turned out okay, but it is a little small. It was a BEAUTIFUL property and such a glorious day!!!

Our camera is also cool enough to zoom in enough that I could take pictures of them holding each other's wedding bands.

SO fun to see Abbott cousins! It's been a while since our last reunion, so it was lots of fun to go visit.

Water anyone?

Congrats Amy & Lorrin!

Congrats Shannon and Preston!

Love you all!

Vanilla Twilight

So, with working for Delta comes the blessing of flight privileges. Traveling becomes so easy that there is no excuse not to go places and see people. However, this blessing isn't so fun when Erin and I don't get to travel together. Right now Erin is in Utah visiting friends and family for her cousin's wedding. She is having a great time but it is not fun to be apart.

A few weeks ago Erin was in my current position(home alone and missing my spouse) while I was in Idaho over Memorial Day weekend for my Grandpa Badger's 85th birthday. On the flight from Salt Lake to Atlanta I was missing Erin quite a bit and a perfect song from Owl City came on the in-flight radio I was listening to. I found out it is called Vanilla Twilight. I have attached the video below. Check it out and listen to the words and you will see why it is a great song when you are away from the one you love. I love you and miss you honey!

I GOT HIRED!

So as many of you know for months now I have been applying and interviewing for full-time position at Delta. I have been working for them as a baggage handler and feel so blessed to have any work, but have been anxious to get something that pays a little more and has benefits. Also, crouching down while trying to cram 170 bags into the belly of a plane when it is 90 degrees outside isn't the MOST fun. Well today all our prayers and hard work paid off. A few weeks ago I interviewed for a position as an administrative assistant in the in-flight service department. The interview went well and the job sounded like it provides a lot of variety and would be a great place to work. They called me back this afternoon and offered me the job, which of course I accepted. I will start on Tuesday, June 1st. It is full-time with benefits and vacations and EVERYTHING. We are so excited and feel so blessed. Thank you all for your prayers, love and support I will give you more details after I start.

More Gardening

Well it is that time again for the garden update. I hope someone out there is following this and enjoying watching things grow as much as we are. So a few updates. We went to the store the other day and bought a bulb of garlic. As many of you know often there are litte green shoots coming out of some of the cloves. I have always heard you aren't supposed to eat those(I don't know if that is true, but whatever) anyway instead of cooking with them I wondered if they would grow if I planted them and sure enough within a few days they were poking through the dirt and are now 6 inches tall. I also planted some marigolds at the top of my tomato planter, they are huge but no blooms on them. Anyone know of a weird marigold species that grows tall but doesn't bloom?

Another addition to our garden family are some yellow supper squash and ANOTHER zucchini. Erin LOVES fried zucchini, grilled zucchini and she makes AMAZING zucchini bread so she wanted LOTS of zucchini. As anyone who has grown zucchini before knows, typically you get so many zucchini and they are SO big that by the end of the year you can't give it away fast enough. Well Erin was concerned that we would only get a couple and they would be the cucumber sized ones like you buy in the store, despite be trying to convince her otherwise we planted another so if any of you would like some zucchini PLEASE let me know. We added a summer squash cause we realized we eat it a fair amount. But now, as you can probably imagine, the entire length of our deck is lined with buckets and plants.

We are very excited about everything and have tomatoes on our plant (LOVE the Topsy Turvy p.s.) and have dozens of green beans and radishes. Our only disappointment is that one of Erin's flower planter baskets is doing awesome and the other one hasn't quite figured things out yet. Look at the picks you will see what I mean.

Just...a little... farther...

There are technically 15 more days of school left and I think I'm more excited than my students. We took our EOCTs the last week of April, which means the last 4 weeks of school consist of review/preview for next year. We're all stir crazy and I wish we could just say "well, we've taught you everything the state said we had to, have a great summer. Peace."

Unfortunately we'd probably not have jobs anymore if we did that :( At least there are exciting things every week/weekend to look forward to and help count down the days!

Upcoming excitements:
This week: Thursday is yearbook day, which means the schedule is weird and there's one less period to teach. Friday is Career Day, which means NO MATH CLASSES! This weekend is busy: Sat I have an all-day volleyball coaching clinic at Emory, afterwards is a student's eagle court of honor. Sunday our darling friend Allison is getting baptized.

Next week: Seniors' last day is Wednesday. I don't teach senior classes, but it makes the rest of us excited. Saturday is Amy's college friends' bridal shower, hosted by me. Way excited to use a lot of the funner serving stuff we got for our wedding.

Week after that: Tuesday is the last day I see my students as they all get to exempt EOCT classes' exams. Thursday is MY last day of school b/c I'll be going down to Orlando for AMY AND LORRIN'S WEDDING! Friday is hanging out/rehearsal dinner etc... Saturday is the big shebang. We drive back Sunday.

Monday is Memorial Day. Post-planning is Tues/Wed June 1/2. Volleyball open gym is Tues - Thurs.

The next week is Open Gym Mon - Thurs.

Next week: girl trip to Utah. Cousin Shannon's wedding is that Friday the 18th. Then back to Georgia.

Rest of the summer: rest, relax, poolify so I can get tan for the first time in a few years. Justin's birthday is July 2nd. Going to a Braves' game that day - you're all invited to join! It's a Friday night Fireworks game. Then Saturday we'll do our romantic birthday dinner going out for Sushi. Yum!

Luckily we have flight benefits. Poor Justin works 6 days a week, but I'm happy to come visit people who need visiting! We'd also love to let our guest bedroom get some use, so if you wanna come visit GA we promise you'll have a great time!

Ode to Utah

As Erin mentioned, I was in Utah last week for my older brother, Ryan's, graduation. Although it was not so much fun to be away from Erin I did have a blast and LOVED seeing my family. The week was mostly graduation commencement, a really long convocation, awesome food(thank you Molly) and lots of fun with the fam. It is sometimes hard to be away from the place that I called home for 24 years and the fond memories I have there so I decided to put together a little tribute to Utah and some of the things I love about it.

But before I do I want to say a big CONGRATULATIONS to Ryan for graduating from BYU in history and Britney for graduating from cosmetology school. I am so proud of you both and know how difficult it is. Love you both.

OK so now to what I call "Ode to Utah"

First off...The beautiful mountains

Next..The Mountain of the Lord. I miss having a temple so close.


Friends and COSTA VIDA!

The recent addition of In N Out Burger. Double double, animal style with fries and a strawberry shake.


Macy's grocery store and GRANNY SYCAMORE"S BREAD! YUM!


And of course FAMILY!



Here's to you Utah!

Garden Update

So as near as I can figure the last pictures of our garden were taken on April 9th. I just took these pictures so you can see exactly how our garden is doing. We are obviously having so much fun with it and are just now beginning to reap some of the fruits of our labors(literally). I would encourage everyone to start a garden if you haven't already it is so easy and so rewarding.