Sad Goodbyes & New Beginnings

Sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith and hope that God won't let you fall.

I loved teaching this past year.  Of course things weren't perfect at my school as many of you know, but I loved working at Liberty Academy.  My students were the greatest and I loved a lot of the teachers and staff there.  With Matt probably going to grad school in another year I was excited to teach one more year at Liberty and help the school keep growing stronger, but sadly things got pretty crazy at the end of the school year.  

My principal who had come out of retirement to be the director at our school decided that he was going to retire once and for all after bringing our school up to such great heights over the past couple years.  However, when he announced this the school board and some of the members of the parent council went a little crazy and decided to try and implement huge changes.  To make a long story short, my school decided to be a new campus for American Preparatory Academy which is a very strict, direct instruction school that uses very scripted programs and teaching styles that I don't agree with.  Without knowing if I would have another job for the following year, I decided that my first year would also be my last year at liberty.  As hard as it was to say goodbye to my cute little kiddos knowing that I wouldn't see all of them again, I packed up my classroom and started searching for a new job in hopes of being blessed if I took this leap of faith.  

Right before the school year ended, I was blessed with a few offers for different schools and chose to work at Freedom Elementary in Highland, UT.  Freedom is an incredible school and it was at the very top of my list so I was sooooo happy when I got the call saying I got the job.  I'll be teaching kindergarten again this next year, but things will be a little different.  For one, I will be teaching two half day sessions of kindergarten instead of one full day session.  I will also have at least 55 students instead of 19 which will be a big change, but I'm really excited about it.  Freedom has great parent support and I'm hoping to even have a teacher's aid for a couple hours each day :).  Oh, and did I mention that the school has an awesome closet that I'm in love with?  Hellooo organization :)  Anyway, I'm really excited.  I will DEFINITELY miss Liberty, but I feel like I'll love this new opportunity even more.  

Before I jump to the next school year too quickly... here are a couple cute pictures of my AWESOME class.  I love these kids so much.  I hope they all remember their nerdy kindergarten teacher :)

Kindergarten field trip to the zoo!

Kinder team

Field Day.  Love these boys.

Final goodbyes.  Love this girl.

Like I wasn't ever there.  Crazy.

Later, Liberty.  It's been real.

 Best team & principal.  So glad I got to work with Rick Clark.

Best class ever... including my sidekick of a sister.  I already miss them so much!

Oh, and.... after school was over I got to go visit one of my students at her parents' nail salon.  Love her forever.  Isn't she adorable?!?

The other hard goodbye was with my sister.  Sarah is happily serving in the Ventura California mission, but it has been pretty hard for me to not have my little sister and best friend here in Provo with me.  Sarah and I went grocery shopping together every Tuesday and we went to Zumba together a couple times a week all year while she was up here so it's been a pretty big change for me.  Luckily I get to write her and she seems really happy, but it's hard not having my only sister to call and talk to all the time.  I posted a couple of these pictures on Facebook a while ago, but here are some cute pictures of the one, the only, Hermana Schmidt.  I was lucky enough to be the one that brought her to the MTC.  Sarah and I got to hang out around temple square for a little bit before going to lunch with Dave and heading off to the MTC.  It will forever be one of my favorite memories.  I love this girl.  She will be one incredible missionary!

 What a cute missionary.

Besties forever.

One final heel click... and she's off!  

As hard as it has been for me to let my sister and my students go, I am really excited for the new adventures that are ahead of me.  I am so blessed. 

Happiest Place & Happiest 1 Year!

Soooo in case you haven't noticed, it's been a REALLY long time since I've posted anything on here.  The truth is that I kept thinking about it, but catching up on things always seems like such a big project and with my lazy summer turning out to be a not so lazy summer, I guess I never got around to it. Anyway, I'm ready to be on top of things.  I think it's about time.  Here goes nothing...

Back in April Matt and I got invited to go on a short, semi-spontaneous trip to Disneyland right before my sister left for her mission.  She mentioned in passing how cool she thought it'd be to go to Disneyland before she left (not thinking much of it), and my parents jumped on the opportunity to do something special for her as a last hurrah.  And what a great last hurrah it was!  We had a blast!

The Start of an awesome day

Love him

CHURROS!!! Possibly my favorite part of Disneyland.

 Sister love.

Haha Dave's face is my favorite.  Buzz!!

Oh and let me tell you... if you haven't gone to Cars Land you HAVE to go.  Honestly, it was soo cool.  I heard it was sweet, but I was seriously in awe when we got there in the evening and everything was lit up.  I felt like I was at the bottom of the Grand Canyon for goodness sakes!  Seriously.  It might have changed my life.  Ok, that's the end of my Disneyland rant.

The day after Disneyland was our 1st Anniversary!  It was a little different than I was hoping for... being with my family and all, but it was great.  Before leaving California to go to Mesa and listen to Sarah speak before leaving on her mission, we stopped by a beautiful beach and ate one of the best breakfasts I've had in a long time.  Finally after the drive, we celebrated by eating part of our wedding cake (which was suprisingly tasty).  We actually ended up celebrating our anniversary a week late in Provo by going to Carrabba's for dinner and having a great night.

Our beautiful cake.  Thanks again Rachel!

<3

 Happy 1 year to us!  I couldn't be happier!!

The Great Outdoors

So Matt and I got a little grill for our wedding that we were soooo excited about, but for some reason we didn't ever take it out of the box until Matt suddenly decided on General Conference Saturday that we HAD to barbecue that day.  Being the supporting wife that I TRY to be, I agreed to go to Winco with Matt so that we could get some meat and charcoal so that we could BBQ.  Sarah came over and we were all set but the coals didn't get warm enough because apparently we bought the cheap kind.  We finally decided to bring our shish kabobs inside and cook them on our Griddler.  We were a little disappointed that we had to bring it all inside, but we still ate it out front on little lawn chairs and had a great time.  I'm hoping we can figure out this grilling stuff soon though because I plan on barbecuing all summer.

Oh and during Priesthood Session of General Conference Sarah and I took a little bike ride to Sub Zero for some ice cream.  We decided to bike it back before we ate it so that I could save some for Matt, but Sarah's was a little melty by the time we got home.  I must say though... I was proud of myself for biking one handed the whole way home.  Just imagine me biking with a big pie box in one arm.  I'm sure it was quite a sight to see.  Anyway, the ice cream was delicious so that's really all that mattered.  Oh and Sarah looked awesome in her bike helmet so even though she didn't want me to I had to snatch a picture :)

I don't know what I'm going to do without the girl when she goes on her mission in just over three weeks.  I am so grateful that I was blessed with the most incredible sister and best friend.  

Spring Break

So this is a little weird to explain... I LOVE my job and it makes me really happy, but I'm always looking forward to my days off.  For a long time I was really looking forward to Spring Break and all my waiting finally paid off because I had a great time with my family in Mesa.  The weather was nice and warm, and I had a lot of fun playing Mike and Jill's family, Tim and Brittany's family, my parents, and my two bestest friends Shauni and Tara.

I got to spend a lot of time with Macey and Sydney because they're living at our house right now.  Just look at those cute faces haha... I'm already missing them.  

Syd and I bonded because we like the same foods: Lucky Charms and...

Nielsen's frozen custard!

It was so great to hang out all these cute girls.  I'm so glad they all live in Mesa now!

Oh and as a side note... I FINALLY got my licensed changed so I'm officially a Calton (again).  I was kind of hoping to keep my fifteen-year-old picture, but it was pretty bad so I wasn't too bummed about the change even though my new picture makes me look like I have a chubby face.  Oh well.  Maybe I'll change it again in about fifty years when it expires and I actually do have a chubby face.  

This is the old pic.  It was time. 

Holidays, Family, and Great Food

Things have been pretty great at the Calton house recently.  We've made some fun new discoveries and we've been going on some little adventures that I always get excited about.  The weather's been getting better too so it's been nice to actually be able to spend some time outside.  I  can't wait for all the fun things we're going to do this summer, but I probably shouldn't get ahead of myself because right now things are pretty great too.  

A little while ago Matt and I discovered this new Colombian food restaurant in Provo.  At first I was a little hesitant because some of the Colombian food we've had was just ok in my book, but after trying this place I am totally addicted!  I swear I think about arepas and yummy guanabana juice all the time now.  Good thing we have a budget for eating out or we'd probably be going broke because I seriously love it.   

Matt and I also played our first game of "soda pong" at a St. Patrick's Day party.  It was a lot of fun.  At first I was TERRIBLE and I couldn't make a shot for several rounds, but eventually I got a lot better so I was pretty proud of myself :).  We played guys vs. girls and the loser was the first team to go to the bathroom after drinking all the soda.  Lucky for me... I have a sweet husband that just happened to inform all the other guys of my bathroom habits on car trips so they all focused on me and I had to drink tons of soda.  Sadly Matt and I had to run off before the game was over, but I don't know how much longer I would've lasted so I think I got off easy :)  

A few weeks ago, Matt's brother, Mark, and his cute little family came into town and we got to babysit David and Abigail while Mark and Megan went to a choir concert.  Matt was seriously in heaven because we don't get to see them very often but Matt LOVES David.  It was pretty cute to watch them play hide and seek and Mario Kart together.  

 We were also blessed to be with family for Easter this year.  My little brother and sister both live in Provo right now so we got to host the "big" family dinner this year.  After the easter bunny came for Matt and I :), we did the traditional Decker dinner of ham, funeral potatoes (Schmidt potatoes) with rolls and peas and then we even topped it all off with a delicious banana cream pie.  It was a lot of fun to spend the day with my family.  I'm so lucky to have them all so close.

The Easter bunny was pretty good to us this year :)

My adorable sister :)

My ridiculous husband haha... love him

Throw Back Whatever Day

I realize that it's not Thursday so I can't exactly do a TBT post, but while I was at home by myself for a good eight and a half hours today (ON SPRING BREAK) I took out my old computer and started looking at all the pictures I've had since I got my macbook after graduating high school.  Sometimes I forget about all the funny stories I have.  Anyway, here's my throwback whatever for the day :)

That one time Shauni & I went down a pudding slide...

 When Nicole and I successfully attempted to share my fatty patty pants

 Summer of 2011 I think when Tara got married.  This was her bachelorette party-ish.  We missed her.

 Two summers ago when Jess and I made a two person cow costume so we could get free chicken

 One of the many pictures my old roommates and I took to battle with our friends in a roommate picture competition.

One of the many dress up experiences I had with Tara

 That one time I fit myself into a dryer

And the cute boy that I liked in my chemistry class that I ended up marrying :)

What a happy life :)