Well that was interesting...

We had our ward trunk-or-treat Friday night and dressed up. Ben was so excited about his white overalls we bought for $1 so he came up with costumes for the both of us. He even went shopping for the costumes! We were Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox...problem was Ben and I were not together for a lot of the ward party so people wondered why I was blue with yellow, devil horns. :/


Yesterday was my first day at my new job, and today was my LAST day at my new job. When I interviewed I had asked to not be placed working with the oldest group who had students from the ages of 16 - 22. When I was hired I was not told what age group I would be with. When I showed up to work yesterday I was placed with the exact age group I had asked to not be placed in. I tried to keep an open mind and I really did enjoy the kids and the employees there were soo nice but it was not the right fit for me. I really enjoy working with elementary age children. LUCKILY my job from before had not been filled so I will start back to work on Monday! Kind of a crazy, silly, not recommended way of getting a 3 day vacation from work :P

Definitely Unexpected!

Today was my last day at work. I'm starting my new job at a school for autism on Monday. I didn't realize how close I got to the kids in just 2 short months. It was hard to say bye and there were A LOT more tears than I thought. As I was walking out to my car and then later talking to Ben about it, I realized I have never had such a hard time saying bye to a group of kids. I then realized that these kids are special. They really need good teachers who care about them and they grow especially close to those teachers. I hope they know how much I love them!!

Corolla, NC

The Waters invited us to stay in their parent's beach house in Corolla, NC this past weekend and of course we had to say yes! We had soo much fun relaxing, going down to the beach, eating, playing games, watching movies, etc.

We never got a picture of the whole group. The Larsen's and Bennett's are not in this picture.

The Tracy's, Ben and I trying to be artistic....

Ben was very proud of his heart.

Don't you just love that guy?

Just to make you jealous :)

You is to anyone who isn't enjoying a beautiful Fall where leaves change colors, jeans and a T-shirt get you through the day, and snow doesn't ruin your plans for a nice long season! (you = all my family and friends in Florida and Utah)

This is a tree right outside our house :)

I went on a field trip this week to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens. You know it was beautiful when the crazy third graders I work with were running around saying," Mrs. Brockbank, it is so beautiful," or, "Mrs. Brockbank, come smell these flowers. They are amazing!" No joke...those words came out of their mouths. One girl told me, "Nature is just so wonderful."

Don't judge my attempt at taking a picture to show the pretty colors.
My picture does not do it justice!

This was a cool house made out of sticks we saw on the field trip :) The kids ran around inside picking their rooms!

Oct. 8th Wicked!!!

We went to see Wicked a couple weeks back but didn't have pictures to show until now so here they are! We went with the Vanhilles and everyone enjoyed it a ton!! Now I am trying to convince Ben that he wants to go to see Lion King in February. Duhhh...awesome Valentines Day gift don't a think?

Charlottesville, VA

This last weekend Ben and I decided we would head to Charlottesville, VA to go see Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's home). Everyone ranted and raved about the Michie Tavern near Monticello so we figured we would give it a try. Look at the picture below. We waited in that line for an hour. The food did prove to be delicious but I think if I ever see that line again I probably won't wait.


After eating we headed to Monticello and apparently October is their busiest time of year because we bought a tour for many hours later. This gave us lots of time to look around. The weather was beautiful so we didn't mind too much. You can see the leaves starting to change :)

Can you imagine how big this tree must have been?!

Thomas Jefferson wrote A LOT! I think I remember them telling us he wrote over 20,000 letters in his lifetime. Ben decided if he had to write the way Thomas Jefferson did he probably wouldn't have even written 1.


After we had looked around at everything there was to see other than the tour of Thomas Jefferson's house we still had an hour and a half till our tour started. Ben decided to sweet talk the old lady in charge of getting the groups together and she let us slip into an earlier group. I was so embarrassed/annoyed that he was going to try to sneak in but his big white smile ended up paying off :)

Monticello

Fall is here!

A quick update on our lives...
Ben is doing well in school. He is taking an extra class for anesthesiology and so far is pretty excited about the class. Last week he learned how to do IV's and next week he'll be learning how to do intubations. He's learning stuff the other second years haven't been able to learn yet so he's feeling pretty good about the class.
My life is pretty much the same as it always is. I'm still working 2 jobs and trying to find a more permanent full-time job. I've not had any luck so far so my spirits have been down but something good will come along eventually.

Fall is here and so far I am sooo excited. The thing I love about it here is I know it will last more than a week :) The weather and surroundings are beautiful! Perfect time of year for people to come visit. HINT HINT!


I took some pictures the other day when I went frisbee golfing with Ben. I hadn't been to the park since the hurricane and I was surprised at all the big trees that had fallen over. The trees just fell over pulling the roots out of the ground on a ton of the trees!

I've been doing a good amount of crafts but I haven't taken pictures of any in a long time. My recently redone wall shows 3 of them. The window pane is the newest. The 2 pieces of art that are hanging were actually done quite a while ago :) I had way too much blue, green, and brown in our house so I am slowly but surely introducing some new colors!

Creepy Crawly Critters

Seriously...I DON'T LIKE BUGS. They need to leave me alone. Ben found a big spider right outside our door while I was on the phone with a friend. The spider was so big and the web it had spun was so awesome that we made our friend come over with her kids to see. Here are the events...

1. I zoomed in all the way on my camera to be able to get a shot of the spider. I didn't dare get too close to it. This prevented me from getting a good picture of the web. Haha...you can imagine how far away I was if that picture was all the way zoomed in! :)

2. Ben sprayed then swatted the spider, I screamed, and the Layton's watched with interest.

3. Because Ben had sprayed the spider and then swatted it when it fell, the web was left intact and I was able to get close enough to get a good picture! That web had been made overnight!!

It's Our Fault...and we're soooo sorry!

We should have known when we "accidently" invited way more Ute fans to our home on game day than BYU fans that it would end in a disaster...and it definitely was a DISASTER, or catastrophe....which ever you want to call it.

We're pretty much the coolest people ever!

And then there were the Utes...we still like them though :)

I especially like the BYU pillow in the background that Ben's sister made for him!

A week to remember!

Ben and I were in an earthquake and a hurricane (kinda) within the same week.

Earthquake story: I was just getting home and walking from my car to my apartment when the ground started rumbling. I looked around to find the big truck that was coming down the road that could create such a rumble but didn't find it. So then I looked up at the apartments and started cursing the complex in my head thinking...man these things are a piece of junk. I bet something is falling apart. THEN...all my neighbors started running outside (FYI you are NOT supposed to do that in an earthquake!). One guy was screaming, "Did you feel that? Things are falling off my walls!" I finally realized we were experiencing an earthquake and I thought the end of the world was coming or something! I kept trying to think if I had ever heard of an earthquake happening in Virginia and I had not. Later we found out the center was only 50 miles from us. The magnitude was a 5.8 and it was the biggest to hit Virginia in over 100 years! Where was Ben during all this? Ben was in an exam room with a tongue blade in his mouth. A classmate was practicing an exam on him!

Hurricane story: This one isn't too exciting. There was LOTS of rain and LOTS of wind. In our backyard some trees fell and we lost power for only 2 hours. Can you guess what we did for those 2 hours?! Our friends came over and we played games! We thought it wasn't too bad but then we went out driving and saw many big trees down in the roads. Also, some people were without power for a week. We felt blessed and protected. Here's a picture of our back yard:

Missing in Action!

Not sure if anyone noticed...BUT I just realized I haven't blogged in a month and a half. Thought I'd give ya an update about what you've missed in the Brockbank life.

Ben started school again! He was ready to start back up so it was a good thing. It was nice to realize we have 1 year down but bad to realize we have 3 years left! This year started out stressful and with a lot of work and I am fearful that the whole year will be like that. It will definitely be nice when we can say year 2 is done with :)

This summer I have not been working a whole lot so I have had lots of time to go to the pool (my white skin doesn't show it) and to read. I've read some way fun books that you might want to try. They were:

• Wither by Lauren DeStafano - it reminded me a little of Hunger Games. It's set in the future and cancer has been cured but along with that another huge problem has been created.
  
• Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness - If you liked Twilight you'll like this. I loved it and couldn't put it down!
• A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard - You probably have heard of Jaycee Dugard's story. She was kidnapped when she was 11 and was help captive by a man for 18 years. She had 2 children with him before she was rescued.
  
• The Room by Emma Donoghue - This book was so interesting! It was written from the point of view of a 5 year old boy. His mother had been kidnapped when she was 19 and this little boy and his mom lived in a room his whole life. He didn't realized there was an outside world. Definitely worth reading.

I got to go to Florida to see my brand new nephew! My mom was awesome and bought me a plane ticket to see my family. I was there for a little more than a week and my nephew made his debut smack dab in the middle of my trip! It was perfect. The first half of my visit I got to spend lots of time with my sister and her kids and the second half of the visit I got to spend lots of time with my mom (when we weren't bugging Alyson to come see Dominic). Here are the pictures from my trip!

A trip is never complete without the beach. Went once with my mom and once with Sarah :)

Hanging out with my niece and nephew at the pool!

Marina Jacks!

Dominic!

He looks just like his older brother when he was born!

Christopher was sick of hanging out at the hospital so my mom treated Christopher and I to a movie (Smurfs) and a yummy BBQ dinner.

Dominic's brother and sister love him tons!

It's 2 in the morning and I am an emotional wreck!

I've been laying in bed for a while and my brain won't shut off! I went from thinking about a billion crafts that I want to do, to thinking about what I need to do to lose weight, and then on to thinking about friends and family that are struggling which led me to thinking about the gospel and the knowledge and blessings it brings to my life. Don't ask me how those all go together but in my mind they do!

Summer has created lots and lots of free time in my schedule which means I am back to browsing craft blogs like crazy. I CAN'T stop...

I need to lose weight! Ask me in a month how I'm doing. 3 goals: 1. Eat more fruits and vegetables during the day 2. Get out and at least go for a walk during the day 3. No Pepsi for a month (not sure if I can do it)

I live a blessed life. People around me are hurting. Some of them can't help the things going on and others can. Either way I am glad I have the gospel to give me a brighter perspective on things. I am grateful for the blessings I have received. Lately, I am realizing one of the biggest blessings I have been given is an amazing husband who I get to spend eternity with.

Happy 4th of July!

We didn't do much for the 4th of July but we enjoyed what we did (minus the 100 degree weather). Monday afternoon we went to Meadow Farm Museum which has a lot of open land. There was a big 4th of July celebration. IT WAS HOT is probably an understatement. I'm the only crazy person who wore pants. We watched pig races, the kids went for a train ride, we watched sky divers, and had some ice cream. After that, we went to a BBQ with some people in our ward. Then, Ben and I had some friends over to play games. We didn't watch any fireworks but we were both okay with that. It had been storming big time so we didn't feel the need to go out.

Ben said he was wearing 4th of July colors because his shirt
was blue, his socks were white, and his lips are red.

Cara and Aryana :)

The advantages of being small and having a big guy around.

Aryana got to see the pig races from Ben's shoulders.

Ben and I started reading Ranger's Apprentice around Christmas time. We were waiting for the 10th book to come to the U.S. and it did. Ben finished the book way before me but I finally finished it tonight! I loved it and would recommend it to anyone looking for something fun to read.

Utah/Vegas Trip...all because 2 people fell in love!

After almost 10 full days of a fun vacation I am back in Virginia to blog about it. We had a blast but it sure does feel good to be home. It is amazing how a year ago Virginia wasn't home and now we are both happy to be back and are able to call it home. Ben's little brother, Bry, was getting married so his parents bought us plane tickets to Utah! Here are the bullets of the main things we did...

• I visited with some awesome friends while Ben visited with some of his and sadly only got a picture of these amazing ladies! I missed my 2nd grade team from Riverview so it was AMAZING to be able to catch up. Love you guys!! (Special shoutout to Jess and Dave, Emily, Dre, Melissa and Katelyn, and Savannah! I had my camera and fully intended to take a picture with you all! Jess and Dave...thanks for driving all the way to see me, Emily-thank you for staying up way to late to visit with me, Dre: thank you for taking a break from work to walk around the mall with me, Melissa and Katelyn-Thank you for spending an entire evening with me! and Savannah...thanks for running my errands with me!) I've decided being a girl is tough because you have way tooo many friends to fit into a visit and you feel awful if you didn't get to see everyone you wanted to see.
  

• Majority of the trip revolved around these two!Bryan and Sarah were married for all time and eternity in the Vegas temple! We had many get togethers, 2 receptions, and a temple ceremony to go to for them. All of it was FUN!
  

• We went to the strip to gamble!!! SHHH...don't tell. I won a little. Ben lost a little but in the end since I married the guy we lost together so I guess we don't need to worry cause we don't pay tithing on zero dollars gained...

• We went to a baseball game to watch the Salt Lake Bees play which just so happened to be our first date 2 summers ago! The difference between this game and the previous game is we both watched this one a little more. We talked and flirted so much at the 1st one that neither of us knew what was going on in the game!

Life Lately

Well, Ben has been out of school for 2 and 1/2 weeks now. I am working on my last week of school and we are very giddy to get to Utah to see our family and friends again.

2 weekends ago Ben went paint balling for the day with a bunch of guys so I hung out with the Pattersons! Cara is the 3rd grade teacher I work with and her daughter is quickly becoming one of my favorite people. We went to a work party together, then went to see Aryana cheer, and then went to their church for a carnival.



This weekend I got to take Aryana for the night! We made a craft (we both love them), played games, and watched cartoons. I had a blast and she is excited to come back. (That may or may not be because she saw our pool and hasn't had a chance to get in it yet!)

We made a mess but we had fun doing it!

She made a magnet to put on the fridge with clips to hold her pictures.

Memorial Day Camping Trip! (Finally)

We went to Peeks of Otter in the Blue Ridge Mountains for a 3 night camping trip! It was so much fun to get away but it was no fun not taking a shower for 3 days. I think all the husbands secretly loved being dirty and getting away with not taking a shower but the women sure didn't. Here are pictures of our fun trip with our amazing friends.

We started off every morning and ended every evening with delicious meals. These 3 took charge a lot of the time to make sure we were fed :)


Our first day there we found a frisbee golf course (Ben is obsessed STILL). We played 18 holes which definitely starts to wear on your arm. I made it the whole way and surprised myself by having a very fun time.


That night we sat around the campfire and I brought out my favorite treats! I am not a smores girl at all (I don't like marshmallows). Camping and sitting around a fire is not right for me unless I have my oreos and twizzlers!


The next day we went on a hike and it was beautiful!



After the hike we went to a waterhole that Evan grew up going to. My husband is a goof ball and definitely gets sick of me taking pictures!


But I thought he was an even bigger goof ball when I saw he was sharing the water with a bunch of cows.


It may look like Ben and I were by ourselves for the trip but here are a few group pictures to prove we weren't. We've made some really great groups of friends out here. The group we went camping with is special to us because we have family night with them every Monday. We love them tons and appreciate their friendships!