Favorite Picture Friday: Feb. 18th, 2011

I thought this was such a cute picture of our nephew, Matters!

All you need is LOVE: Valentine's Day 2011

What a great Valentine's Day we had this year! We woke up and, as usual, we couldn't resist getting the holiday going. Jason was saying he was going to wait to hand out gifts, but then 5 seconds later he was insisting on us doing gifts.
Jason got a cufflink holder since he likes to collect them when we travel. He also got the frame in the picture below where I drew some pictures of places that we have been. The pictures say: Our love is... as strong as the pyramids... as courageous as the Colosseum... as tall as the Eiffel Tower... as clever as Big Ben... so wherever we are, I will always love you!

Jason spoiled me with getting me a Flip camcorder.

Jason also got me a very special gift that means a lot to me. Every trip we go on I buy a piece of jewelry that represents where we've been, and in Egypt I was looking for a special piece of jewelry. We went and saw King Tutankhamun's headpiece that was made out of blue lapis and gold, so I started looking for a necklace with both gold and lapis to represent that vacation. Unfortunately that combination is impossible to find, but Jason found me this gorgeous necklace made out of lapis with delicate gold designs in it.

Then it was on to the treats, which happens to be one of the best things about Valentine's Day. I wanted to do something special for Jason at his work. One of Jason's favorite treats are the boxes of conversation hearts. As great as those are, I thought I would make my own for him with personal messages on them. There were messages on them that were special for Jason, such as "chat with me" (we like to chat at work), "foot rubs" (one of Jason's favorites), and "Sweetcheeks" (one of his many nicknames).

The one tradition that my family has on Valentine's Day is to make homemade sugar cookies and pink icing with an amazing recipe. I was up early making them for Jason, and thought I should make something for his co-workers, so I made them a pan of fruit cookie bars.

Here is Jason at work after I brought him all of his goodies. He was so surprised and blushed all over, it was so cute!

Jason sent me these gorgeous white roses. What an angel!!

Our rule is if Jason gets me flowers then we have to go take pictures with them. So here are our annual Valentine's Day pictures.

Favorite Picture Friday: Winter Pictures

Conference Thoughts

So I am up in Ogden right now attending a conference as a team member of the Utah Alternative Assistive Augmentative Communications Team (phew). It is a team that is only composed of a few SLP's that are comfortable working with the most severe students in the district that need every type of assistance. I was asked to join since I love technology and using that to help my students and have really enjoyed being a part of this team. It also turns out that I am the youngest team member in the entire state, and even some of the students I help are older than me! But I have realized that as much as I have enjoyed this conference and am inspired to go back and help some students in my district to make their lives better, I have thought a lot about the things I miss being away from home:
-I miss Jason- who wouldn't! I miss Jason so much that I still have him call me as my wake up call so I can hear his voice first thing when I wakeup and I don't go to sleep until we say goodnight to each other. I love it that the first night we were apart Jason said that he was so cold in bed without me that he had to get an extra blanket- so cute! It has been nice, though, because for some reason everyone that I traveled up from St. George just wants to talk about Jason. Some of my co-worker, whom I swear have never met Jason, seem to know a lot about him, that he's going to become a lawyer, and they just want to hear more and more about him. I think that is such a testament of what a great man Jason is and how people can just tell that he is amazing and dedicated in everything he does.
- I miss my pillow. Hotel pillows just aren't quite the same.
- I miss my family. I really don't know what we are going to do when we leave for law school, because just being away from the fam for a few days is killing me.
- I missed Cafe Rio Wednesday. Every Wednesday my family will meet to eat dinner at Cafe Rio. At the conference we had a really nice meal and presentation on Wednesday night, but I will still craving my pork salad at Cafe Rio that night.
- I miss my students- I know that it is crazy to claim that I miss working, but I love my job and the students I work with there.
There are a few things that I will miss after being up here in Ogden, though, such as being able to see Easton. Easton has been super nice about coming and picking up his lil' sis and driving me around Ogden and staying up late. I will also miss his adorable white bundle of fun, Missy.
I miss being away from Jason and wouldn't ever voluntarily do so unless it was required and I knew that what I could gain would be worth the trip.
I hope everyone is doing well and traveling safely.

Favorite Picture Friday: Feb. 4th, 2011

Welcome to a winter wonderland. Don't worry, this isn't St. George! We had to make a little detour the other day to visit some snow, so we will post more pictures later.