ahhh *Sigh of Relief*

For the last month I have been studying my little tail off to take the Praxis: elementary content test, so I haven't had much time for anything else. The test was at 7:30 this morning and I feel like I did really well and now it's over.  I can find out my scores in about 3 to 4 weeks, but all I care about is that it is done. I don't have to spend that extra 2 to 3 hours studying everyday(minus the weekends of course).

As you can tell life has been pretty busy around here and besides studying for the praxis I also have regular class work, a part time job with kindergartners who wear me out and of course a husband who has homework + work of his own. Our lives are going great... busy, but great. Jim graduates in May and he is starting to look for and apply for jobs. We are both really excited to be done with school and Jim has senior-itis SO BAD! :) What symptoms have I seen you ask? Well, it goes back to the deer hunt in the end of September to October. First was the muzzle loader hunt, which wasn't so bad, he left me for a few days (because I didn't have work off) and then the rifle hunt. This is where the senior-itis comes in, he hunted from   the weekend till Wednesday of the next week. He originally wouldn't have been able to do this because he had a test scheduled for Monday (or Tuesday, can't remember) but after talking with his teacher she put it off till Friday! WHAT!? None of my teachers would have ever let me do that. So finally when he got home on Wednesday night at 11:00 he told me that he didn't even want to come home and especially not to go to school. He then hunted till Saturday with his brother here in Cedar. After it was all over he had lots and lots of catching up to do. So as you can tell from my story he is contracting a little bit of that senior-itis. :) BTW, he didn't even get a buck! Can you believe that? All that time, and not even a little 2 point to show? Oh well, at least he enjoyed himself. It isn't often that he gets to spend time like that with his family doing one of the things he loves the most. And that's why I don't mind so much that he leaves me all alone... I know he loves it and if he is happy so am I. :)

Besides the deer hunt, what else have we been doing? Well, lets see.... there was Halloween! We dressed up as the Harlem Globetrotters(It was pretty sweet) and we went to a Halloween Party with awesome food, music, movies and friends. You can't celebrate Halloween with out the Sanderson sisters right?

 

Oh yes, I remember what else happened since I blogged last. Jim is now serving as a second counselor in a singles ward bishopric. He was released from the Elders Corum in August and 1 week later he was sustained as the second counselor in the Cedar City Young Single Adult 23rd Ward. He is gaining some great experiences and having such a great time with the people in the ward as well as those in his Bishopric. It has been an adjust for me. I'm a little sad that I can't sit by him through sacrament anymore and I miss hearing him singing right next to me, but I always sit right where I can see him and it has been a fun experience to be back in the singles wards and not having to worry about what singles worry about...Marriage. Yep, got that one checked off already. :)

Our lives are busy and sometimes a little overwhelming but through the last couple of months I have learned some awesome things (other than who the president was in 1981 and what osmosis is), I have learned that we are not alone in this life. Not even if we are single or our husbands leave us to hunt or what not. We are not alone, our Savior Jesus Christ is always there for us, he has always been there and he will forever be there. He LOVES us. I have learned that often times in our lives we have to struggle and work ourselves hard before we receive answers to our prayers, but guess what? They will come. Faith is a huge part of my life now, before this time it was still a part of my life but now the part it plays is much greater than before. To all who read this blog I want you to know that I know our Savior lives and that he loves me and he loves YOU! and as I have come to know him I know that he wants us to learn to love him the way he has loved and continues to love us. I challenge everyone (even myself) to strive to do this, love the Savior as he loves you.

Here are a few pictures Jim and I took back in the first of September. I loved the sunset that night and I think we did a good job of capturing it.  :)

<3

Projects + Jims Birthday.

In August, between ending summer school and beginning the regular school year I was able to do a few DIY projects.  First I made a wreath with yarn, I found the idea on Pinterest (which is my new favorite thing, Thanks Erin!)
 

I also spray painted a work bench that was in our garage and am now using it in my kitchen. I love it so very much and I now have a new love for spray paint as well.

I love, love, love the blue color. Sorry the picture is so dark.

I also tried to make a Hula Hoop rug, I found the idea on the Disney family fun site. I was so excited to make it and then when I had finally finished and took it off of the hula hoop.... it turned into a floppy basket. :(  I wove it WAY too tight in the center and so it made the sides turn up.  I am not going to post a picture... it is too embarrassing to show you.

+Jim's Birthday+
On August 18th my amazing husband celebrated his 23rd birthday! Wow, I know that's not really old in the whole scheme of things but I really cannot believe how old we are getting.  The reason it probably gets me is because I remember when we were 16 just starting to date. I remember day dreaming about him and like many young teen-age girls wondering if he could be *THE ONE* and guess what?? HE WAS!!  ohhh cute, right? ;)  I absolutely LOVE Jim. He is such an awesome husband and he truly is my very best friend in the world.
This year for his birthday, he had to work... blahh BUT he did get some pretty awesome presents. Although, I don't take much credit for them because he picked them out. I am really terrible at keeping secrets and surprises from him. He ALWAYS guesses right. 

See here, this smile is right after he guessed what his present was and... he was right. It was clay pigeons and shot gun shells. The really exciting gift for his birthday this year was a new 42 in. Samsung TV. Yes, he is spoiled. Unfortunately I don't have a picture but I am sure most of you know what a TV looks like. ;)

Kodachrome and surrounding areas... Pictures for Geology 1050

These are a few pictures from Kodachrome that I am putting up for my geology class.
The first pictures are from the national geographic magazine that was printed in 1949. It goes through their visit and talks about the history of the naming of Kodachrome. Originally Kodachrome was known as Chimney Rock State Reserve but then national geographic wanted to name it after the new color film from Kodak. It was quite the ordeal and the name was switched two or three times before it stuck at Kodachrome Basin State Park

These next 5 pictures are of the cottonwood canyon trail

 All the next pictures are of Kodachrome State Park.

 chimney rock ^

 kodachrome ^ v

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. :)

June

June is gone.... where did it go?? I feel like yesterday we were heading off to Disneyland! I have been slacking so much this month so this post is going to be about the great fun that we had June. Where to start....

 At the first of the month we were just finishing planting our garden and now we have corn that is almost 2 feet high, peas that are outrageously yummy, a fuzzy watermelon plant and tomato plants (vines only at this point).

We have been working hard this summer, Jim at his IT job switching out computers and me at the library. Although, I think I have been doing the opposite... hardly working that is. The library was only able to give me 10 hours a week this summer so I have only been working 2 hours a day. I have kept myself busy though. I am taking a geology class and an assessment class. the latter is quite boring and basically a repeat of other classes I have taken. I guess that could be the up side of it though, it doesn't take much to get good grades because I know most of the information already. The geology is a different story. I have learned SO much in that class. I love being in an area where I can actually see many of the things that I am studying about. Jim is also taking classes this summer. Neither of us needed to take classes but we thought, why not? it will just lighten the load for us this coming year. Especially for Jim. He will be graduating this coming may and really didn't want to be taking more than 18 credits a semester. I don't blame him one bit.

Lets see... the second week of June.

I almost forgot the best thing that happened this week! How could I forget this! It was my very first cattle drive and I was pretty much a pro... haha... okay so maybe not. The horse that I rode first wouldn't follow any of my commands and then, after I switched Jim horses, that horse just wanted to eat every single piece of grass we passed by. Oh boy, it was quite the experience! BUT I got some pretty good pictures on this fun outing. I sure do love the Shakespears. They have given me some great new experiences that you can't get anywhere else. :)

 My handsome husband.

 Jim and Zoe. I love this picture!

What a cute couple... oh, that's us! :)

 Ryan and Erin's cute family. We sure do love them!

I got some really great pictures of Emmett riding, but this one was one of my very favorites! This boy has a way with those horses too, I need to take some lessons from him or something. He could jump right on and the horse would follow his commands and everything; I was so jealous! :)

During the middle of the month I took a week off to spend some time with my family in Cannonville. I had such a great time with them. Mom helped me make a very CUTE skirt, (thanks for your help mommy!) we ate pie from the Pines and yummy pizza from the Pizza Place, we fed the chickens, went on walks with boomer (Shan's dog), fished at Barker Reservoir, took jeep rides, watched Say yes to the dress, sang songs with all the wrong lyrics, chased sniffles (Shan's bunny), visited Kodachrome State Park, cleaned Howard's (our next door neighbor) Car, and so many other things.
Here are a few pictures from that week...

Kodachrome State Park

More Kodachrome

Wild Cat

Me and my cute sis.

Mom and Chels at Kodachrome

My cute new skirt! Thank heavens for my wonderful mother, she took the time to help me put this skirt together and after some long hours and me sewing the front to the back we finally finished!

The last weekend of June was the BEST of the best, it was the Nielson Reunion in Tropic. Jim and I had so much fun getting to know more family. We had a blast hiking in some narrows on Cottonwood road, competing for the medals in our family Olympics, eating yummy food, dancing the Virginia Reel (and other great dances), doing the hokey pokey, and chatting with everyone. 

So, I have to take a moment to bask in my own lime-light... during our Olympics I got 2nd place in the three point shoot! Yeah me! ;) I don't think Margaret knew I had that in me.  Oh and I guess I should also tell you that Jim got second in horse-shoes, but he is amazing at everything so... that's all I have to say about that. 

 Zoe climbing high. She was saying "mom! take my picture. MOM!! take my picture" but above the noise of everyone taking and trying to get in place for more pictures she could not be heard. So I stepped in and took her picture. :) I love this little monkey who shares a birthday with me...

.... OH YA, I had a birthday this month. So quickly to interrupt the blurb on the reunion. Holy cow, time flies by so fast. I don't know what happened to the last year, where did it go? So, since I am a grown up (blah...) I even had to work on my birthday. I turned 22 on June 16th. It was also the opening of the Utah Summer Games so yes I got fireworks... on my birthday. pretty sweet. My mom, Chelsea and Shan came over and cooked us a steak dinner along with German chocolate cake (my fav). It was wonderful!

So back to the reunion...

 Dancing the Virginia Reel.

 Gettin' ready for the Hokey Pokey! Oh yeah!

Tyce wanted to be in our Family picture, it makes the picture so much cuter when there is a little one in it. Don't you think? ;)

WOW this was LONG... Maybe this month I will be better at blogging so it won't be so long next time.

Until then, enjoy life to its fullest, don't miss out on the small things and enjoy the journey.

Wordle

Found an awesome site called wordle... you need to check it out!

Disneyland!

We had such an amazing week in California this past week!
On monday we traveled to Anaheim; we arrived around 2:00 (their time) and got our room all settled and headed to Newport Beach. It was windy and quite cold but it was still great to see the ocean. After we had explored the beach, picked up a few seashells and ate an amazing italian dinner we headed back to our room. We walked up to Disneyland to see how long it would take us to get there and I am pretty sure Jim just wanted to go in right then. He was way excited. :)

The next day, Tuesday, we woke up to wind and rain... we looked at the weather and found that it was going to be rainy that day and the next. So we decided to go to Knott's Berry Farm that day and Disneyland the next two days.

We absolutely loved Knott's Berry Farm!! The rides were incredible and the lines were super short, the longest wait we had for a ride was probably 15 minutes. Most of the other rides we just walked right on to. The rain scared all the other tourists away but we were stuck with high school kids (they must have been on an end of the year trip or something like that). Jim loved, I mean really loved one roller-coaster in particular it is called the Xcellerator. It goes from 0 to 82 mph in 2.3 seconds! That evening after we were done with all of our roller-coaster riding we had an amazing dinner at Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant. Jim had BBQ ribs that basically fell off the bones on their own and I had the famous fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy that was to die for! Jim tried rhubarb and it was disgusting and then on top of it all we had apple pie!

   

Wednesday we spent in Disneyland and California Adventure. We were so happy because it didn't rain on us, although it was windy and quite chilly. The first ride we went on was Its a Small World... my favorite ride... NOT! we were told that we had to go on that ride even though I don't like it. We have been waking up every morning since then singing that song... its like the plague! hehe. Okay maybe not that bad. ;) We had a very very LONG day, we waited in lines for much longer than the day before at Knott's Berry but it was all worth it. We loved the Matterhorn and Space Mountain. Although those were the longest waits we had for rides that day. Of course my favorite was Pirates of the Caribbean... it would have been splash mountain but it is closed until June 3rd.  We went over to California adventure this day as well and rode California Screamin' which is such a great ride. Jim was not that impressed because it was 'so much slower than the Xcellerator'... you would think he was a pro right? lol. That night we ate at a Mexican Restaurant inside California Adventure and we watched a little of the World of Color water and light show. It was amazing to watch so we decided that the next day we would get fast-passes so we could have a good view.

Thursday we started out in California Adventure and first thing was first we got fast-passes for the World of Color. Those passes went out really quickly, we got to the park about 15 minutes after it opened and there was a huge line waiting to get the fast passes. After that we immediately got on to a water ride that was so dang fun! We were in a tube with about 6 other people and the best part of the ride was hearing these two cute girls probably about 6 or 7 and possibly twins squeal and scream every time they got a drop of water on them. :) It was so funny! Then after a while we ventured back over to Disneyland to hit a few rides that had been closed the day before, Indiana Jones and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The lines were SO SO LONG but they were worth the wait, those are two of my favorite rides and I was so excited to take Jim on them.

Then we wandered around Disneyland and at one point we stopped on some benches over by toon town and Jim fell asleep (imagine that) and I got a pretty good recording of his head bobbing. We had people passing us just snickering and telling their friends to watch him because it was so dang funny.  After he woke up from his jammin' nap we rode around the park on the train and came back to Pirates to ride it just one more time. Then we left Disneyland for the last time and headed over to California Adventure to eat and get ready for the World of Color show. The World of Color show is so amazing as it started to play I started to cry (good tears of course).

Friday we woke up, packed, and headed towards the LA temple. I was so ticked because we forgot to bring our temple bags and my recommend is in my bag so we weren't able to go in but we got a few good pictures so that will have to suffice for now. Then we ate a quick lunch at McDonalds punched in our address to Jim's cool phone GPS navigation system (whom we call Ann... just ask Chelsea) and headed on our 8 hour trip home. Jim was so great to drive the majority of the way there and back which I am so thankful for... I can't do that city driving. :) So I drove for a little way over the desert and he took the rest. When we got to Las Vegas we stopped at my Aunt Ann's new house, which is pretty awesome with a pool in the back yard and everything, and she took us eat. We were able to go with her, my Aunt Pat, Ginger (who is my Aunt Ann's Daughter) and her family. We had a wonderful time talking and laughing with them. Then we continued on our trek home and arrived in Cedar at 1:00 on Saturday morning.

This vacation was so awesome for us... I had such a great time showing Jim all the awesome things in Disneyland and I loved seeing the few new things they have added here and there. As aways we were sad to come back to reality but we made memories that will never be forgotten.

If you want to see more pictures you can go to Jim's website at www.jmshake.com