It's late, so I'm going to make this brief for tonight, but wanted to be better at keeping things up-to-date! Life is good! Will write more later (and no, it won't be 2 1/2 years later either!) :)

Here we go again....

So here we go again!!! Let's do a quick review of the year thus far....

January: Rhett started working and learned very quickly which age groups he enjoyed more than others! I adopted a furry little guinea pig named Cody. He currently resides in my classroom, where students are more than happy to feed him carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, celery, and whatever fresh veggies that he is allowed to have in his diet. He does not complain about it! He also doesn't bite, and has adapted well to our classroom environment!

February: Valentine's Day....that's all I really remember.

March: Spring Break was spent in Tucson visiting family. Rhett only had a week off, whereas I had two, so the second part of my break was spent getting errands done, working out, and relaxing.

April: Um....other than AIMS testing for a whole week and a bunch of practicing for it before that, there's really nothing going on too much.

May: Rhett had his first choir concert and survived!!! It was very successful as well! :) Also, we had to get rid of our Pontiac and upgrade to a Chevy Cobalt. The repairs were getting to be to expensive on the Pontiac, and we were tired of putting money into it, when it wasn't worth what we were paying. :( It was a good car while it lasted! Meanwhile, we are enjoying our new shiny car, and hope that it lasts us longer than the Pontiac did!

Also in May, we will be celebrating our third year anniversary in a few days!!! Crazy times! Rhett will also have survived his first semester teaching tomorrow, and I will be done next week (these last few weeks have been sooo slow!)

Rhett's sister, Katie also announced that another niece or nephew will be arriving come November. That will give us five nieces and nephews for Rhett's family! My family still has the ever-so-cute Zoe. :) Needless to say, we are excited to be an aunt and uncle yet again! :)

Well, that is the quick update that I have thus far! I'll try and be good and be a better blogger! :)

November/December

Well here I go trying to catch up again! November and December flew away like crazy! November was spent spending time with Rhett's family in Tucson. We got to spend time with his sister, Katie, her husband David, and our adorable little nephew, Ethan. He's growing like a weed. It was a pleasant visit, although I got sick Thanksgiving night (after the dinner fortunately). There must have been some bug going around because a couple days later, after I was feeling better, Rhett got sick. That wasn't too fun.

Now here's the month view of December:

Birthday: I had my birthday on the 12th. I turned 27....'nough said!


Graduation: Rhett finished his student teaching and graduated from NAU! The weekend before Christmas we went to visit his family, and we had a graduation "ceremony" for him! To my surprise, I was "graduating" too! I didn't walk when I graduated from ASU, so I was surprised by getting a cap and gown and walking with Rhett. His brother Mike was the "guest speaker," his dad directed the ceremony, and Mikah, our sister-in-law handed us our "diplomas." The ceremony was attended by family and friends, and it was very appreciated. :)

Job: The day before Rhett officially graduated, he was hired on as a music teacher for a K-8 school with the Peoria School District. That week he was called in for a screening interview (on a Wednesday), interviewed by a principal the following day, and was offered the job that same afternoon. It was such a blessing and crazy how it all worked out! We just know that someone is watching out for us!

Christmas: The same weekend of "graduation" we spent time with Rhett's family. Mike and Mikah came down with their two little girls from Pennsylvania. It was a short visit, but very much enjoyed. We also found out that we will be and aunt and uncle again. Mikah is due in June! :) We were glad to see Leora and Audrey! Christmas day was spent with my family. Our good friends Mike and Amanda spent it with us, and it was a good day of opening presents, watching movies, and playing games.

New Years: My niece, Zoe, spent New Years Eve with us and New Years day was spent playing games and eating lots of junk food with Diana's (my sister) in-laws. It was fun!

Well that about wraps up the past couple months! We've been very blessed! I'll let ya know how January turns out! So far, it's been doing well!

October/November

Well it's now getting colder! Finally! Although I don't like being woken up to chilly weather! Still, there's the feeling of holiday fun in the air!!!

As for what happened last month....

Family: My older sister, Alisha, turned the big 30. We celebrated by having a small family party for her. Meanwhile, on the same weekend, Katie had one of her bridal showers. Diana and I took the liberty with our good friend Holi to go shopping and make a nice basket for her. It was a fun bridal shower!

Katie went through the temple and got her endowments, and then the weekend after we all traveled to Lake Havasu to have an Open House. People got to meet Ryan and play games. We also had the opportunity to go the the Trunk-or-Treat at church that night. Rhett and I stayed with his parents in Parker, which was a nice visit! Zoe also turned 4 that weekend! There was a lot going on, but we had fun spending time with our loved ones!

Wedding: November 5th was Katie's wedding. We went down to Thatcher. She looked beautiful in her dress! She and Ryan were married in the Gila Vally Temple that evening. The next day was the reception. Alisha took it upon herself to decorate. She did a fantastic job, and it turned out beautiful! We were all super exhausted at the end of it, but we are very happy to have a new member of the family with us!

Cari: I got to see my bestest friend in the whole world! Cari got off her mission a few weeks ago and was able to come to AZ with her family. On our way back to Glendale, we were able to stop by in Mesa to see her. She looked amazing! Made me want to get back on the weight loss. She got so skinny! It was good to see her. I missed her!

Well, that's about all that has happened! I know we still have some of November to cover! I will post more updates as time goes on!

July, August, and September

Yes, I am a slacker. So here's what we're catching up on!

July: Around the middle of July we packed up our junk once again (luckily this time most of it was in boxes), and head off to Glendale! It was quite an adventure, let me tell ya! We got to work unpacking our belongings and getting my classroom set up for the new group that I would have. We had a good visit from our friends Mike and Amanda at the end of the month, and went to the temple with them. Good times!

August: The second day of August I started school. Rhett started the week after I did with student teaching. He is now at a high school out here, and I am attempting at teaching 29 rowdy eight and nine year olds. I am enjoying my new school! Rhett had his birthday on the 11th, as did my mom on the 17th. Rhett got together with some friends in Tucson and played at a battle of the bands. The band got asked to come back. It was tons of fun, and we're excited to see him play again. Can I tell you he looked HOT? :)

September: This month has flown by like no other. Where in the heck did it go???? I can't even begin to think of anything exciting that happened this month, other than the fact that I went and found an outfit yesterday with my mom, grandmother and my older sister, Alisha for Katie's wedding. I just know that the next few months are going to be nuts! I'll try to be better at updating.

June

Oh my goodness where do I begin? So much has happened! Let's see here....

-Moving: At the end of May we packed up all our junk (and yes, it really is junk!) and moved to Lake Havasu. We had such good help from the Elder's Quorum in both our Flagstaff ward and the Crossman Peak Ward. Since I still was working at the time I went back to Flagstaff for two more weeks.

-Job: I finished my job and said good-bye to my first teaching assignment. It was difficult. I knew I would miss my kids and the friends I made there. I also knew that I didn't have a job lined up just yet (the interview I had didn't fall through). So off to Havasu I went to be with my hubby. Well, I had a week off to relax and enjoy my time off, as well as send in a few more applications. I went back to Flagstaff once again for a class I was taking for professional development, even though I didn't know if I'd be using it. Well, as luck may have it (actually it was more than luck of course!) I got a call that Monday while I was in class to interview with another school. We set it up for the following week on Tuesday, so I finished my class, said good-bye to my friends that I made, and off I went back to Havasu. Three days later I was in the car with my hubby heading to Glendale. I studied interview questions like a crazy person, and despite my preperation felt really nervous. On Tuesday I got up, studied some more, got in my new interviewing outfit, and went with Rhett to the school. The interview went great. All the questions were what I studied and I walked out of it feeling like a million dollars. The next morning I was back in Havasu and got a phone call from the school. They offered me the job to teach third grade. Rhett and I laughed and cried (I think I did the crying mostly), and immediately called our family and friends. So....blessings do come and I am now employed! Phew! No more applications!!!

-New Addition: Nope! Sorry guys! Not us! We'll get there! However, Rhett's sister, Katie gave birth to a beautiful baby boy on June 4th. His name is Ethan Michael. We are actually in Tucson visiting with him and his proud parents. He will be getting blessed tomorrow and we're very happy to have a nephew! Rhett still says we need to have a boy to carry on the Penn name. We'll see what happens!

-Utah: We had a chance to go visit some friends up in Utah. Our friend Chris had a birthday, and his wife, Rachel, wanted to surprise him. So...we snuck up there to help with dinner and decorating and then hid from him when he got home from work. It was sooo good to see them again! I wish all our friends weren't so far away and that we didn't have anything else going on in our lives so we can see them all the time! Darn those necessary evils (money, jobs, school, etc.)! Such is life! We'll have to make more of an effort to see them!

Well that's about all that is going on so far for June! It's been good to be with family. I'll update in July! Moving time again!!!

Quick add on....

So Rhett has officially moved out. We ended up in Havasu on Memorial Day weekend. The majority of my family decided to come up to celebrate my twin sisters' birthday. They turned twenty-four on the 30th. Craziness!

As for job hunt....I'm hoping for an opportunity that just arrived. Last Tuesday I got a call from a charter school in Glendale. They asked if I could come in to interview on a short notice, that Thursday at 2:00. So I asked for the afternoon off, brushed up on interview questions, and said a million prayers. I feel like I did a decent job, my nerves didn't get the best of me this time. So now...it's the waiting game....I'll let ya know in my June update if I get it!