When You Were Young, Part II

I've been blessed to go to a lot of cool places in my life. My parents loved to take us places when we were kids--short day drives, longer two day weekends, and even a few looooooong hauls to Idaho, Maine, and Florida (my father was a brave man).

Angel's Landing in Zions National Park in Utah. I thought I was gonna die going up those switchbacks, and then again when you reach the point where you have to grab the chains and haul yourself up the side of rock, but being at the top was worth it. Now I can say I did it :)

Ever read the Misty of Chincoteague books? This is on Assateague Island, twin Maryland sister just north of Virginia's Chincoteague Island. I grew up 40 minutes from here, and it's still fun to drive the nature loop on the lookout for wild horses.

Oh, BYU foam day. Can't remember what the occasion was, probably a game or something :)

Blarney Castle in Ireland. Yep, kissed the Blarney stone (well, sorta, I faked cuz its kinda gross if all those other people before kissed it!). You kinda hang down backwards over this hole that looks straight down to the ground..kinda scary if you are not a huge fan of heights!

Half Moon Bay, California. Running away from the surf. That capped off a fun trip that included San Francisco and San Jose!

Yesterday When You Were Young

I occasionally like to peruse the thousands of pictures stored on my computer and reminisce. I have a little bit of senioritis (law school wives can have that too, right?), but I also like to think back to days when school was my job, and I got to be around friends and family all the time, all day...it was awesome! Like I've said before, I'm enjoying this time in my life, but sometimes I feel like I'm still adjusting to being an adult with real responsibilities and more difficult challenges. Hence, a walk down memory lane is nice every once in a while.

Todd and I often talk about what we would think of each other before we knew each other in college. That makes me think of people I know now, that didn't know me before Topeka or Boise State or BYU. These pictures obviously have a greater sentimentality for me because they're mine, but when I look at them, I think about who the person in the pictures is...would friends and family I have recognize that Megan as the one they know now?

Anyway, here are some fun pictures :)

Todd and I started dating not long after this picture was taken. This was in my apartment at BYU, in Provo, UT (one of the several places I've lived college and post-college). My roommates and I had affectionately dubbed it "The Periwinkle Palace" because the cabinets and walls in almost all the rooms was a shade of purple. This was a celebration my kind roommates did for my birthday, which conveniently coincides with Valentine's Day celebrations (real convenient for any female roommates on a manhunt!) Todd came, and a few days later he and his roommates dropped off a delish cake and introduced me to a cinnamon roll hug. We started out as neighbors, became FHE brothers and sisters (that's Family Home Evening in Mormonspeak, our apartments did activities together on Monday nights, so we became "brothers and sisters"). Now, we've been married almost five years :)

This is the night Todd graduated from BYU in front of the Provo Library. In December 2011, we will have another graduation (hopefully our LAST!)

This is a picture of my cousins and I as we attempted a train of sledding down a hill in eastern New York. I have such good memories of visiting my Honeoye Falls cousins, outside of Palmyra New York. Every time I hear a western New York accent, I perk up and ask them where they're from :) Oh wait, you can't even see me in this picture, but that's okay, it's still pretty cute!

A long time ago (okay it feels like a long time ago!), I was deciding if I was going to go get a Master's Degree...this is pre-elementary ed degree, and post-theater degree. Todd was living in Chandler, AZ at the time, and we visited the campus of ASU. It was really beautiful...I could picture myself attending a university that has palm trees on the campus, plus I loved that it was so big. That plan didn't work out at the time, as a certain boyfriend of mine proposed my senior year of college and I decided I'd rather be a teacher than a recreational management master's candidate :)

This is me my sophomore year of college. oh dear. I am so old now :)

More to come. This is fun!

Slaves

So, my students got a crash course on slavery yesterday in library. They were really enthralled, and listened intently to the story of a man who had stowed away in a box in order to reach freedom. They were horrified by stories of treatment to slaves.

So, today, during reading groups, I asked the kids to put away their notebooks and books. The following conversation ensued:

Student: So, Mrs. Thomason, we're slaves then right?

Me: What?

Student: We're like your slaves.

Me: Why?

Student: Because you make us put things away!

Me: (because I was being observed, I was a bit flustered by this innocent accusation):

Well, I guess you're kind of like my little slaves if you put it that way

(geez, don't ask me why I said that...the assistant principal was giggling at this point)

Anyway, this is an ELL student and I probably need to go back and talk about the difference between a slave and a student tomorrow :)

Awesomeness

(Any man who would let me post this picture on my blog MUST love me!)

Today is love day. I am joining the cheesy bandwagon just to say that I definitely married up. I have such a good life, and Todd reminds me often, and his gentle reminders make me sit back and think about what's really important.

We started dating in February 6 years ago. He is my best friend.

I had a student today (who drives me nuts pretty much every day of the year), who brought this huge ole Valentine in for a little girl..."This is for R, she's such a sweet girl" said my little nightmare child in this darling, sincere voice.

I love Todd, he's such a sweet boy too :)

Lame-O!

Since both Valentine's Day, my birthday, and Todd's birthday are all on LAMEO days of the week this year (Monday, Wednesday, Tuesday, respectively), we are fitting in our celebrations where we can. Yesterday, I grabbed all of my fun birthday coupons and set out to use as many of them as I could. I was pretty successful at Arby's, Kohls, and Beauty Brands, and I also used my Groupon to get my haircut, which I loved. Please excuse the photo, but my Mac's Photobooth is much more efficient at taking the quick picture!

So after my haircut and shopping, Todd and I went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse. For some reason, the Texas Roadhouse here is ALWAYS BUSY, but we enjoyed the wait. For Todd, this is another semester from heck, and so actually being able to sit and talk for an extended period of time is a rarity. It was fun to watch the sports bloopers, eat peanuts, and talk about anything. We stuffed ourselves full of rolls, potato skins, steak fries, and pulled pork. Then we headed to the mall for a quick walk to walk off our full bellies (and saw the Pearcemobile on the way home, HI PEARCES!). After dropping off movies at the library (where I read the sign and determined my late DVD of Lost might only cost me a few bucks instead of 10, hooray), we settled in at home for a movie.

Of course, when you are old like we are, you watch about an hour of the movie and decide that you are totally exhausted, and save the rest for another day :)

I've got a few more coupons to use today (it's so hard to NOT use a coupon for B1G1 at Gap), and so the birthday celebrations continue. February sure is our month of Looooveee!!!

Oh, and Peterson family, ADORABLE PICTURES OF CARTER!!!! We love him already, as I'm sure you do!

PA Glimpse

I facebooked it, but I like to have my pictures in a million different places in case the "cloud" suddenly goes haywire.

These are some pictures I took while in PA with the fam.

I won't post the picture I took of my sister on the ski hill right before some snowboarder totally took me out :)

(This kind of posing used to drive my grandma crazy. We've grown up...a little)

(oh my gosh. the hat! this kid is gonna be a heartbreaker!)