My porch is complete!

I had a fun visit from my parents this weekend. They came to Houston for Robbie Hansen's wedding. That was on Friday afternoon and I had them all the way until Sunday morning!

The big project this time was finishing the ceiling of the porch cover my dad built. We've been gradually doing more and more to it, but now I think it's about done! Katherine helped me pick up the bead board at Lowe's earlier this week. I stained some of it prior to their visit, but we did almost all of the work on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.

We only had a ladder and a step stool, so my mom got creative with this Swiffer mop to help hold the boards in place while my dad drilled them into the beams.

After the ceiling was all in place, my dad added the ceiling fan! It works and is lovely out there! Good times with some GREAT parents! :)

Another Farewell

I had another friend leave this week. The only good news is that I don't think I know of anyone else who's leaving. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Wednesday night we said good-bye to Julie who's heading back to BYU Idaho. Hopefully she'll be back in December for an internship. She left on Thursday morning. For her last night out, we went to the Movie Tavern and had dinner while watching the new GI Joe movie. We got some frosties from Wendy's afterward and just had a bunch of fun. Julie, we'll miss you!

Back to School!

Well, it's that time of the year again!

My first official day back (pre-kids) began with a limo ride. The leadership team rode in style to our district convocation. One of our staff members has a boyfriend who owns a limo company. He donated two for us to ride on over that morning. How nice was that?

This is my new first grade team in front of one of the new murals that were painted in our school over the summer. I really like my teammates.

This is my class. I took this one yesterday after lunch. I got a new student today so he's not in the picture.

Here's one with me in it. We did a silly one just before this and I don't think some of the kids got it out of their systems. Here goes my 9th year of teaching first grade!

Girls Night!

We had a fun girls' night out last weekend for Rachael's birthday.

We had a delicious dinner at Olive Garden and then went and watched "The Time Traveller's Wife." Too bad that we all had to spread out at the movie. We got there too late to get seats next to each other. That gave several ladies freedom to cry without wondering if anyone would see or what they would think! :)

The rest of these are a bunch of random shots around the table . . . just for fun. Here's Kim, Rachael, and Megan with her spiffy new haircut!

These are Rachael's roommates - Bonnie and Hillary.

Heather, Nikki, and Adena

Yours truly and Mauren.

Rachael, Stephani, and me again!

Here's the cute song the waiters sang to Rachael. It was a great night!

Hilarious Jokes

I love The Office! I never get tired of this video clip. Watch if you need a good laugh!

Last Day of Summer

Friday was the last official day of my summer vacation. I didn't count the weekend since I'll have those off anyway. A group of us decided to have some fun, so we went down to Galveston for a relaxing day at the beach.

Julie's going to kill me for posting this picture, but it was too funny not too. She can plug her nose like this! I couldn't believe it. Of course, we all had to give it a try! None of us had that talent.

We took the ferry over to Crystal Beach. Stacie was asleep for these next few pictures, but we wanted to get a few group shots of us.

We were pretty excited that we all found matching shirts at this surf shop in Galveston.

This is on the ferry coming back. We saw wild dolphins on both legs of the ferry trip. It was a lot of fun.

We finally got Stacie in a picture.

We were heading back at sunset and it was so beautiful. Kim got this shot at SeaWolf Park. It's been a great summer!

Prank War

We have a prank war on our hands. Luckily, I am not a target, but have sort of assisted in both sides.

The other night Julie put cookies all over Nate's windows on his van. It was really late at night, so he left them on. The next day while his van was parked at work, the cookies started to melt and slide down, then it rained so they were all mushy and nasty. He had to go through the car was twice.

His payback came quickly. He got some of Jr.'s diapers and melted chocolate candy bars in them. We actually caught him with the last two in his hands before he put them on her car.

There were quite a few on there!

It looked pretty nasty, as you can see.

This one was especially bad. At least it smelled good, though! Julie's got for a week and half; we'll see if she retaliates!

More of Kath's House

Lots of my last few evenings of summer have been spent over at Katherine's new house. She's really been working on EVERYTHING, but luckily, she's had some fun friends to help out.

I'll admit that it hasn't all been work. This paint fight happened a few weeks ago.

Nate and Kim got the worst of it, but somehow, I got a wet paintbrush shoved in my mouth. It wasn't Kim.

Samira and Julie were working on this blue accent wall in the master bedroom and Samira couldn't resist Julie's dare to make an imprint on the wall.

Katherine's brother Ricky put in tile flooring in the kitchen, laundry, and both bathrooms. He did tons of other work as well the week he was here. In this picture Stacie is taking off the fronts of the drawers and cabinets for staining.

Kim did most of the actual staining.

I helped out with that as well. This picture was the day Kirsten came in and was also the day before the luau - that's why I had my hair braided, so it would look more Polynesian-ish for my dance.

This video of Julie cracks me up. Nate had her using the nail gun to put up some trim and she would yelp or scream every time she shot it. By the time I got the camera out, she was trying to hold it in, but I caught a little one in this video.

Just a couple of nights ago after working at the house, I got to cut Nate's hair. I was pretty excited about it. I've only ever trimmed Susannah's hair so I was excited to try his.

I thought I was pretty cool until he told me he usually lets his kids cut it! Great!

I posted a few of these to show the world that most of my guy friends cannot seem to make nice normal faces in pictures. Why?

I loved this shot of Katherine taking a break from putting some texture on her ceiling! It's been fun and there's still more work to do!

Bye Scotty!

Summer's almost over, which means a lot of things. One of the sad things is that some of my friends are leaving.

Scott was just here for the summer for an internship. He has to go back to Weber to finish up school. We had a couple "farewells" for him before he left. First, he had a bunch of tickets to get into this giant arcade place called ITZ. We had a lot of fun. The guys got kind of hooked on this car race game.

He left on Monday. We had dinner and game night at my house to say good-bye. Here's a group picture of the friends who were there.

Before Scott drove off into the distance we set off a few firecrackers. It was pretty loud! We'll miss you Scotty!

Luau

It's time again for our annual Houston YSA Luau. Our ward was in charge once again.

Sort of a change this year, was that they got a real pig. As you can see, it's not very big, so we still had a bunch of roasts that were cooked as well.

It was quite the ordeal to get it on the spit. I took a lot of pictures which look pretty gross now! It smelled good out there while this was roasting, though!

Here's Scotty already to do the Haka!

Here's the finished pig. I think it was more for show during the luau. Don't worry, though, I'm sure it got eaten.

Here are some of the fabulous servers.

There was a good sized crowd there - around 400 people!

Nikki did the Tahitian number with me this year since Susannah is now a resident of Idaho. She was kind enough to let Nikki borrow her costume.
We wanted to take a few pictures before our dance so we wouldn't be all sweaty! :)

We had to take a hip shaking picture before our dance.

Nate showed up just before the performances started. He brought Katherine's brother, Ricky, who was in town to help her out with stuff on her house.

Here are some of the guys doing the Haka.
My dance turned out pretty okay. For some reason, I can't get the video on here. If you want to see it, check it out on my Facebook profile or come visit me! :)

Kirsten

Kirsten has been in Guatemala all summer. She's been learning Spanish and doing all sorts of volunteer work.

It just so happened that she had a layover in Houston on her way back to UT. Kim and I picked her up at the airport and got to hang out with her for about an hour. It was great to see her, but I wish she could have stayed longer!

Sad News

We had some tragic news the other day. My cousin, Justin, passed away. He is on my mom's side of the family. I pasted his obituary below. Click here to see a skiing video he made.

Justin Patrick Wyman

1982 ~ 2009

Justin Patrick Wyman, 27, a smiling, vibrant, loved one and friend, passed away on August 2, 2009.

Justin was born to Thomas Wyman and Darlene Wyman on May 25, 1982 in Provo, Utah. He was the epitome of an outdoor enthusiast. His love for the outdoors was only matched by his love of family and friends. A brave yet gentle young man, Justin had no problem skiing off a 50 ft. cliff, but could speak and listen with genuine affection.

He found solace and excitement in outdoor activities, and no matter how cold or hot the weather, he found adventure in all of nature's elements. He loved people and the community he lived in and found joy by being fully engaged in both. He leaves behind an enormous circle of friends who loved him, admired him, and just loved being in his presence. Kind-hearted and full of life, it was easy to make him laugh for he was a child at heart.

Throughout his life, and especially as a child, Justin was extremely photogenic. His smile was infectious and his image was easily and rewardingly captured on film. It is fitting, therefore that Justin's love, study, and hobby was the art of photography, whether still or motion film, and his talent was well evidenced by his work in school and activities. He loved photography, music, his employment, his friends and colleagues, nature, and the interaction amongst them all. He was easy to love because he loved others so comfortably. His warm smile and concern for others always expressed that love.

He will be immensely missed by so many, but is now in the presence of his Heavenly Father, surrounded by the same love, fondness and admiration he gave to his fellow man. We honor Justin's name, life, and the vibrant contribution he made to others.

Justin is preceded in death by his aunt, Wendy Russell, and his grandma, Janet Wyman. He is survived by his parents, Thomas Wyman and Darlene Wolfe; his grandparents, W. Patrick Wyman, Darl and Norma Wolfe; Laverne Evans, brothers Matt and Mike Spencer, and many aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Funeral services to honor Justin will be held at 11:00, a.m. Saturday, August 8, 2009 at the L.D.S. Pleasant View 6th Ward Chapel at 2445 N. 650 E. (Timpview Dr.), Provo, Utah. Friends may call Friday evening from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Berg Mortuary, 185 E. Center St., Provo, Utah, 84606, and at the Ward Chapel on Saturday from 9:45 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. Interment will be at the Eastlawn Memorial Cemetery. Condolences may be sent to info@bergmortuary.com.

Pre Luau Fun

The big annual YSA luau is coming up this weekend.

I had a few people over for some games on Sunday night. It started out sort of relaxed as you can see Katherine enjoying the grass out in the backyard.

For the luau, I'm doing my Tahitian dance again and everyone was begging me to do the dance for them. I finally gave in. Nate wanted to learn how to do it.

I also showed Kim and Scott some of the moves as well.

Here are some of the happy audience members.

I was telling them about how hard it was to dance with the skirt on because it's so heavy. I let people try it on. Nate tried it on and was doing some funny moves.

We wanted to video him, but he said no. Stacie tried here, but got caught. He knew I had a sea shell bra thingy that I hadn't been able to find and I asked him if he'd let us film him if I found the bra for him to wear. He said he would so after about 15 minutes or more of searching, I finally found it.

Here I am getting him all ready for his big moment! (Side note - I do not wear this shell bra during my dance - or ever! It was a gag gift given to me by some friends from HS. )

Almost ready. After this little addition, he put the skirt back on and . . .

. . . this was the result. I can not stop laughing about it!

This last video is where I was trying to teach Nate how to "bump" his hips. It's pretty funny.

Underwater Hawaii Pictures

As promised, here are the picture from the underwater cameras Kim got. Most of them don't need a lot of explanation.

All of these were taken at Black Rock Beach in Ka'anipali on Maui.

I like this shot of the beach from out in the water.

We saw several of these fish. They had weird horn looking things coming out of their foreheads.

The big excitement were the sea turtles. I think there were 3 total that showed up while we were there.

These pictures don't show how huge they were, but they were massive.

I love this one with this guy's head sticking out of the water.

Pure enjoyment of nature!

Katherine's House

Katherine closed on a new house on July 24th, but wasn't able to get in to it until the 27th. Since that day, I, and some of my friends, have been helping for a few hours here and there at her house.

These pictures are all from the first day, the 27th. Our first order of business was painting. The previous homeowner had painted almost all the walls with this horrible peach paint. These pictures do not show the full grossness. Here's Katherine doing the first brush strokes of paint!

The color she chose for this kitchen area is a really nice tan color.

Maylene and Darrell bought a really cool paint thing that sucks the paint up into the handle so you don't have to dip the roller. I bought one for myself over a year ago, but hadn't used it yet. It came and super handy and I LOVED it!

We took a quick painting break to unload her new fridge from the back of her truck and bring it inside. We were pretty proud of ourselves.

Kim started in the living room on the maroon accent wall. She worked for HOURS on it and it is now spectacular! The other walls in that room are a really nice beige color. Other things since then have included painting the trim and pulling up the existing flooring so she can put down her laminate wood floor. I'll have an update soon with the changes! Other helpers besides Kim, Stacie, and myself have included Nate, Ed, Katherine's mom and two sisters, Katie, and some of Katherine's co-workers. There have probably been more as well!

Bad Luck

Some of you may have seen on Facebook that I had a string of bad luck right after I got home from Hawaii!

The first was that my birthday present from Abraham, Nacho, the beta fish, didn't quite make it. He died the day I got home, but just before I saw him. Seana said he ate breakfast that morning! Poor little guy. I had to flush him to his new home.

The next one was so random and I still laugh every time I think about it. We had a Relief Society/Elder's Quorum BBQ at a park in the Woodlands. I was sitting at a table, just chatting with some friends and eating when I felt something nail me on the head! Apparently, a branch from 20-30 feet above my head had become dislodged from a tree and used me as target practice! This is the actual branch! Luckily it hit me with the flat part and not an edge. I was a little stunned, but A-OK!

At that same BBQ, Nate noticed that my tire was super low. It had a nail in it! Luckily he and Brock changed it to this little donut. This story has a happy ending; I took my car into Discount Tire and they fixed it for free! Yahoo!