Organzing

We live a two bedroom apt., one of which is basically just storage. But we decided to buy some great shelves for our food storage so that we could actually see all that we had and to open up the room.
The funniest was that when we were all finished, Andrew's comment was, "It looks like a store, but not for the public."

Hooray for more floor space!

November

Hi Friends and Family! This year has been going by SO fast. I have a student teacher right now that has been awesome! She is so helpful and let's face it, I love being able to chat with someone all day. I've never liked doing things by myself. Don't get me wrong, of course I like "me" time, and I'm finding that I'm a home-body. But, when it comes to work, I love working with other adults. :)
Most of my life I have had short hair, but with encouragement from Andrew and the girl that cuts my hair, I have been growing it out. So I have the before and after pictures of it. I also got some low lights. We discovered that my hair pulls red so I actually had to go back and get it fixed. The total process from beginning to end was 41/2 hours (over a course of two days). I don't know if it was worth it, but it's done. Good thing hair grows!



I do like to ccok...but not when I'm tired. When I was young, I remember my mom beginning to prepare dinner when I arrived home from school...about 4 o'clock. I've decided that that is a great idea because if you wait when you are hungry you either snack along the way and are full when dinner is ready to be served, or you have cereal. Since getting married, I have tried to make real meals (not cereal or sandwiches). I'm usually tired and starving when I get home from work, so I have found myself making meals that take 30 minutes or less. :) Anyway, so I was proud that I thought of this pizza meal while grocery shopping. I actually have seen these before on bagels and I'm sure that on the muffins too...but I was proud so I wanted to post. Anyway, these little pizzas were cute, fun and a big hit in the Long household.

Fall Break

Over Fall Break I went to WA to visit my sister, Penny. They live in small town north of Bellingham, WA. It was a beautiful time of year to visit! I only got pictures of three of the five kids...I don't know why!! Dang.

This is Evan. He wanted to make his own sandwich. Check out the two items that he put on the bread...mustard and ketchup!! So funny. Penny said that he always chooses that when he is making one himself.

Maggie was sporting a fun hat for "Hat Day."

Brayden isn't the biggest fan of getting his picture taken, but I was able to get him! :)

Streets in Bellingham...Gorgeous!

October Fun

Andrew was gone to a career fair thing, and so my mom came down from MT to come and visit me! We got crafty after having to attend a Super Saturday that I had to participate in. I'm pretty excited about these new additions to our home. Also, we tried to spice up our entry with corn stalks, pumpkins, and Andrew eating a cookie. My mom and I had a great time. We really didn't do much but we just chatted a ton!! I used to be kind of critical of those who visited their moms often...mainly because I couldn't. But I would love to have mine close enough to visit often.

Andrew, Mom, and I went for a drive up Provo Canyon! We loved the colors, of which are not captured in this picture.

My cute mom!!!

I painted this and added these sticker things.

SALES!!! The day of Halloween, I went into a store here in Springville and saw this dang cute Halloween decoration on sale for 40% off. I was happy to add it to our decor.



Halloween night we went over to some friends house in the ward....everyone and thing was so festive!

The Classroom

This year has been the most fun teaching so far! The kids are fabulous and I feel that I am more efficient in my planning, teaching, managing, etc. Don't the pictures of the room make you want to come back to fourth grade and enjoy the simple things of life, like learning long division, adding fractions, and about the state of UT?!

Ikea makes it betta

One trip to Ikea, made our house more homey. It's amazing what fake stuff adds to a place. :)

Camping

For Labor Day weekend, Andrew and I decided to go camping one night up at Diamond Fork in Spanish Fork Canyon. We were the only campers using tents. I must say that it's great being out in nature like that, but the sounds of a generator echoing throughout camp is quite distracting! :) But I think for the first time ever I wasn't cold during the night in the mountains. Andrew had bought me a new sleeping bag that brought much warmth to my bod. A semi-good-night sleep is much better than a lousy-night's sleep. Andrew definitely took care of me up there. The pictures prove it!


He cooked.

He cleaned.

He made fire.

And he was happy about it!

Now entering...

So I've never done this before but I'm thinking that this is what is going to help me pass my time while Andrew studies hard! I've often thought about blogging as I often have stories that I feel everyone should hear, but realizing that isn't the case...I just need to spit it out somewhere. Therefore, this new found blog might be a relief to many of you as you can just read up on the little things that happen in my life rather than getting a daily phone call.
After Andrew found out that he got into the MBA program at BYU and after work was done for the school year we played and played. We had a fabulous summer of traveling to CA, MT, and MD. I ate crab for the first time, and Andrew helped with harvest for the first time. Life was so carefree...we really had fun!
I've started my fourth year teaching and I think it's been the best year so far. That could be because I'm free from my masters classes and from other professional trainings that were required by the district in my first three years. Also, not to mention, my fourth graders are fabulous! They are so obedient and just good kids. I don't have any students that seem high-strung or that go looking to cause trouble. Refreshing.
Andrew has been enjoying getting back into school. He stays right on top of his work and is happy to be in classes with is twin brother.

We went to New Jersey with Andrew's parents.

A nice mom...patiently waiting for the ferry.

A nice dad smiling.

We saw fireworks on the beach in Ocean City, MD! It was so fun and gorgeous!

We went to Kalispell, MT for a Quinn Family Reunion.

Flathead Lake, MT

We had some close encounters at the Hogle Zoo.

We enjoyed a trip to the beach in San Fransisco with Andrew's sister Lindsey and her cute family!

We went back up to MT and I had liderhousen cake for my birthday!

Andrew got to practice his shot in the wide open spaces!

We bonded with my cute nephew, Jacob. Andrew is a good bubble blower!