Plein Air Art Show

This weekend was the Midway Plein Air Art Show. To participate in the event, painters around the valley get their canvases stamped earlier in the week and have to turn in their finished paintings by 5pm the day before the judging. All the paintings need to be of local subjects. Winners are chosen and the paintings go up for sale and are displayed until July 4th. Mark and Shauna were event sponsors this year so they got to have the painting of their choice before they went on sale. We helped them pick out a painting that was done by our painting teacher, David Dean! Here we all are with the painting we chose!

Art Update

After a flurry of creativity around April, I decided to buy Alex some painting classes for his graduation gift. I went with him the first week and have continued going with him. We really like our teacher, David Dean, at Provo Art and Frame and we're really learning a lot.

Here are our completed projects, (forgive the phone photos):

Week 1: Pears

Week 2 & 3 old master Landscapes/freestyle floral

Current unfinished projects: 

Birthday Surprises for Erica

Today is my 25th birthday. I have been alive for a quarter century. Tomorrow is also our first anniversary, so   its a significant week for us.  Its getting late now, we are back from a wonderful birthday dinner in Heber (thank you Mark and Shauna, Dan, Sara, and Tatum!). Alex is getting a few more hours of studying in for his pending test. On July 3rd, he will be taking the first round of CPA exams. nail bite*

I feel really grateful for all the love and kindness and thoughtfulness people showed me today, and in general for all the richness and goodness in my life. I just want to thank my family and friends for making me feel so loved.

I really feel like I've been totally spoiled this week for a few reasons. First, I got a job this week. I've been conducting  a pretty intense job search since April; I know I've applied to at least 35 teaching jobs in the Bay   Area. A job just landed in my lap on Thursday afternoon.

In May Alex and I went to California so I could interview with three schools, one of these interviews in Hayward seemed promising and we stayed in contact over the next month. On Tuesday I got an email from them saying that they appreciated all I had done, but they went with someone else. That email concluded any promising job prospects.

On Thursday I got a call from a principal of a sister school in Oakland, for a job I hadn't applied for (I don't think?). He said that my contacts at  the Hayward school had a lot of great things to say about me and had suggested me for an interview after they didn't hire me. We had a conference interview then and there and two hours later, I had an offer.

The school serves a lot of kids from rough parts of Oakland, kids who need a lot of help, and adults who believe in them. I'm grateful for this opportunity where I will learn a ton, and hopefully make a difference. It feels like the right place for me next year, and I feel very blessed to have the job secured. I'll be teaching 11th and 12th, which will be interesting.

The second way I was totally spoiled can be seen below:

I got a sweet road bike from Alex for my birthday/anniversary gift. We went on a couple of rides this week and its been super fun and great exercise. For our anniversary we want to take our bikes and tent for a little retreat to Yellowstone or someplace after Alex takes his test. I'm glad we have another hobby we can enjoy together. Overall, my birthday was great, like I said, my family and friends really spoiled me and I'm a lucky lady.  Thanks again, to everyone who made an effort to make my day more special, like I said, I'm very spoiled. 


Especially because of this guy, by the way, these to Mastiffs that we saw were HUGE, this picture does not even do them justice. 

A Flurry of Creativity

Things have been getting a little more creative around our house. And I think we're really enjoying it. Alex has been dabbling in oil paints, and making some strong first efforts, in my opinion. We're planning on taking a painting class at the local art shop this spring. And I wrote a song this week, something I used to do frequently.
Another healthy habit we've been working on is fitness. For the last 8 weeks I've satisfied my gym attendance goals, and Alex is in week 11 of 13 of p90X.  I hope these healthy and happy habits continue.

Birthday Eve

The night before Alex's birthday we celebrated by going ice skating with Nick, Julia, Jeff, Sam, Tara and her roommate. It was fun and Alex got to show off his ice skills. We stopped by the hospital after for drinks and finished off the night with fudge cupcakes at our house. Thanks for joining us, friends. The next day Shauna made a great lasagna dinner and Dana, Sara, and Tatum came up. Cute boy. Happy Birthday, Love.

Luxury McDonalds

Alex and his buddies are studying at the nicest McDonald's I've ever been to in the United States. (I say United States because all the McDonalds I saw in England were nice like this one, but McDonald's isn't seen as really cheap there..) Lots of stainless steel, light fixtures, logo waterfall, wood trim and free Wifi. Alex and I tried the new asian place by our house tonight for date night. It was pretty good. We will probably both get something different next time, but it made us excited to move somewhere with a real China town and lots of good restaurants. 

Birthday Month

Alex's birthday is just a few days away from Valentine's Day. Our wedding anniversary is within a few days of my birthday. Its interesting how these events matched up. Anyway, I've been doing the twelve days of birthday for Alex and its been pretty fun for me. On the first day of birthday Alex got some resistance bands for his P90x workouts. I was planning on saving those for later but I felt bad that Alex was using his accounting books for weights.

So far his other daily gifts have included: wool socks, Ritter Sport chocolate, a big bag of jerky and turpentine for his paint brushes. I hope he's enjoying the gifting ritual as much as I am. I do love to give gifts!

Last night we went to Ruth's Chris in Park City with Mark and Shauna. This event has been a long time coming--finishing Alex's mission, getting into the Accounting Program, giving a talk in church in his home ward etc.. Alex has been reminding Mark to take him for about as long as I've know him. It was really really good. Shauna and I got the barbecue shrimp and Alex and Mark split the Porterhouse for Two.

We went in between Mark and Alex's birthdays so it was extra special... and we got TWO complimentary desserts... banana creme pie and bread pudding. A feast to be remembered. 

US :)

Fall 2009

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Sring 2010

March 2010

April 2011

June 2011

New Blog

Welcome to our new blog! After a little prodding from family and friends, I've decided to make another attempt to keep a blog. Its after midnight on Friday night and we still have 40 minutes left of The Wedding Singer, so until next time then.