Snow Day!

My Christmas Break started early because we had a decent snow storm on Thursday which means everything closes down. If we had been in Utah we would have still been in school and going about our daily lives.

Ben and I drove Kurt to the airport while it was still snowing. We made it there and back safely but there were many people on the side of the rode who had slid into the ditch. The whole ride I kept pointing out the smart drivers from the stupid drivers. The drivers here are ridiculous no matter what the weather is apparently. I thought they would want to drive a little bit better because of the snow but I was wrong!

Brrr....

This last week was freezing! I don't think I have ever been this cold before. It doesn't matter how many layers you put on. Humidity makes the summer hotter and the winter colder, and it messes up your hair no matter what season. You just can't win!

We've been having lots of Christmas fun for the last couple of weeks. Last weekend was our ward Christmas Party! Ben and I were put in charge of finding Santa. We got our friend Evan to do it. I took a picture of him and posted it in my last post. At the party we were able to sneak a picture with Santa in between all the little ones who wanted to see him!

We had our first snow last weekend and to me that means Christmas. It wasn't much which is my kind of snow! Even though I grew up in Florida, when I think of snow, it still makes me think of the Holidays. :) I'm pretty sure it's because of all those Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies I couldn't get enough of while I was growing up.

This weekend we went on a date to see a bunch of amazingly lit up houses. We went to 6 or 7 different houses that were on the Tacky Lights Christmas Tour which is all across the U.S. We obviously didn't go further than 4 or 5 miles away. It made me excited to find out it is everywhere because I plan on looking for some in Florida when I go home. If you want to find out if there are any near you go to tackylighttour.com and put in your zip code.

I thought this one looked like a ginger bread house!

My favorite time of year!

I love the Christmas season. I love the lights, the music, and the cheeriness of it. December has always been a crazy, yet fun, month for my family. My brother starts off the craziness with his birthday on Dec. 6. Then my nephew's birthday is Dec. 17. My sister and I are next with a birthday on Dec. 21st and then my brother-in-law's is Dec. 23. Of course, Christmas comes next. Today I was getting some blood drawn and the lady asked me my birthday. We started talking about the craziness that it brings. She said we should just have a celebration the whole month of December and I agreed! I decided I would want to stretch our December celebration out a little bit to include Ben's birthday on Jan. 6.

Tonight we went to a Grand Illumination celebration downtown where they had a big, lit up Christmas tree and lots of lights around. Many of the buildings were set up nicely with Christmas decorations for people to see. After that we headed down to the First Friday Night Art Walk that is held every month. It was my second time going and I enjoyed it a lot. There are always so many interesting things and PEOPLE to see. My favorite tonight was the boys dancing on the median in the middle of the street.

I couldn't figure out which picture to post because one shows the lights better but the other shows us better so you get both. You're welcome! Ben and Evan decided they shouldn't have added the Grand in front of Grand Illumination because it wasn't spectacular enough to deserve the grand but I thought it was great.

I have to include a picture of our friend Evan who will be Santa tomorrow at our ward Christmas party. Ben was originally going to do it but he couldn't get the suit on! You would think the suit would be made big enough for him because it is Santa but sadly it wasn't! I would have loved to get a picture of it on him :)

Blog Post...finally.

Once again...too much to write about and I actually want people to want to read my posts so I will try to keep this short and sweet. Here are pictures and captions to describe some recent events :)

Ben finally got me to play Killer Bunnies again. There are several games I am not a fan of and this is one of them. I won the game and now Ben can't keep complaining that I won't play!

We went to the Med Ball with some other people in Ben's classes. We danced a little. Mostly I wanted to dance and Ben wanted to be goofy. My favorite part was getting dressed up and going out with my husband. He's a keeper.

***Somehow I didn't get a picture of my family while we were home for Thanksgiving. This is where that picture would be :) We drove to Florida on Wednesday and drove back on Sat night/Sunday.

Some highlights of Florida were....

• Lauren Clough (Ben's friend from BYU) came along! I had fun getting to know her better and Ben and her got to talk med school talk (A LOT).
  
• My mom cooked us a GREAT Thanksgiving meal. I hadn't been home for Thanksgiving in 3 years.
• We went to see Harry Potter #7 Part 1 to get ready for the Park.
• All of the girls (plus my brother-in-law) got up at 4 to go Black Friday shopping while Ben slept in and played the Wii with my niece and nephew.
• Went to lunch with Sarah to catch up.
• Went to the beach and saw a sand snowman!
• I got to see Reina and her new little baby. She is soo cute!
  
• We went to St. Armands for ice cream with some high school friends.
• And last, but not least, went to Islands of Adventure and got to see the new Harry Potter Park. After we had finished for the day we went to dinner at the largest Hard Rock Cafe in the world and then said good-bye to my mom. We'll see my family again in 3 and 1/2 weeks for Christmas!

Brockbank Update...

Life is going well and we are getting busier and busier. Ben is doing very well in his classes. He got a card from the lady who interviewed him for med school. The card congratulated him on getting Honors on his first med school course. She also said she knew he had a bright future ahead of him. I'm very proud of him!

Working has been great for me. I'm having many opportunities to teach and I am working with some AWESOME kids. I'm doing what I love and kind of enjoying the fact that I get to come home and be done for the day. As a teacher I got used to coming home and always having something else to do. I never felt done. Now, I really don't have anything else I can do :)

This last weekend we went to D.C. The Olson's were planning on going and invited us along. We went to the temple for a session and then went to the zoo. We saw some really fun things and enjoyed our time there. It was kinda chilly out. The boys didn't bring sweaters and Paige and I had light sweaters. Everyone else was walking around with snow clothes on! They had BIG jackets on, leg warmers, and beanies. It was making me laugh. That would have been me if I never moved to Utah!

Checking in

Ben finished his 2nd and 3rd class of med school about a week ago. He is now working on anatomy. He is studying harder than he has had to so far in med school and he is learning a lot. He has come home smelling like the gross anatomy lab a couple of times which is pretty nasty. Also, they have taped people being dissected and Ben has left the videos up on the computer for me to see. I definitely don't appreciate that!

Work is going very well for me. I am enjoying BOTH my jobs a ton. I've been given many opportunities to teach and am enjoying not having the lesson planning and grading part that go along with it. Being in other teachers' classrooms makes me really wish I had my own but being with the kids is the part I love most about teaching so it's okay for now.

Life is Changing and We Like it.

We are feeling EXTREMELY blessed these days. On Monday I started a job as an instructional assistant at Fair Oaks Elementary. I get to work with kindergarten, 2nd, and 3rd grade students. I am loving it so far. This next Monday, I am starting another job as a a tutor for Sylvan Learning Center. I will head there after I work Monday through Thursday. I will be tutoring in 2 different elementary schools so between both jobs I will working at 3 different schools. I am hoping this is just what I need to get a teaching job next school year.

Highlights from the last 2 weeks...

• Chesterfield Berry Farm. It was decent but I went expecting it to be like Hunsader's Farm. I grew up going there every October with my family. It wasn't as fun and now I am missing Hunsader's big time. Some things we did there were shooting corn at a target. I was the closest. :) We looked at all the animals, looked at their small selection of Fall crafts, and ate some yummy BBQ food.
• We went to a Folk Festival that I was also a little disappointed in. Everyone had a beer, cigarette, or both in their hand. We decided those might have made it more fun for us...NOT!
• I finished another book. It was called Change of Heart and written by Jodi Picoult. It was about a man sentenced to death for killing a woman's husband and child. He wants to give his heart to the woman's other daughter because she needs a new one. The story has a cool twist to it that you can figure out on your own before the author tells you it but I really enjoyed it anyway.
• We got to watch Benson all day today! His parent's (Paige and Kurt) went to Busch Gardens to celebrate Paige's Birthday so we convinced them to let us have him. He's such an awesomely GOOD baby and we enjoyed it. We went to the store and two old ladies behind us were whispering that he looked like his mom for sure. I didn't have the heart to turn around and say, "Actually he isn't ours!" HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAIGE!
• I've been cooking/baking some more and am really starting to enjoy it. Some things I tried for the first time were chicken noodle soup, chicken enchiladas, and banana chocolate chip muffins. I'm going to be a pro before you know it!

We really like him :)