Summer Fun Part I

I am extremely new to the whole slideshow thing, so here's my first shot at it. Not that great, but at least you can see my pictures, I hope! We've had a great 1st half of our summer - camping in the Hill Country in Texas, which was stinking hot, then the 4th of July with Edward's family in Houston, and his grandmother's 90th birthday party. It was good to see so much family!

Piano Recital Fun

Today was my spring piano recital! I just thought I'd post a picture of me and my students (minus 6 of them), so you all could see what an adorable bunch of kids I teach. They all played beautifully, and I had a great time.

My New Job!

I realize I haven't posted in over 5 months, and that I should play catch up, but there isn't really much to catch up on. This winter was pretty monotonous. Work, school, eat, sleep. . . The usual!

Our recent exciting news is that I was hired to teach Kindergarten in the fall at the elementary school I currently work at!!! I am VERY excited. It is hard to get a position in this district right now. They won't even hire anyone outside of the district until they have placed all the displaced teachers - those are teachers who work for the district, but their positions no longer exist and their contracts are still valid (there are at least 100 of them in the district right now). So for me to get this position is a BIG deal. It's all about who ya know. . .

That news will make this summer a busy one. Edward will be going to school all summer long. In June I will be attending staff developments up the whazoo and teaching piano lessons. Good times!Other than that, here are some random pictures from the last few months that show a little of what we've been doing:

Bluebonnets in Washington County

Visiting the Irelands and new baby Amy

Having fun with the nephew

Fun temple trip

What Marian Needs. . .

This post is for my sister, Jen. She googled her name followed by the word "needs", and posted the top 10 results. Since I am such an unimaginative blogger, I figured I might as well do it too! Here is what I need, according to Google (all wise and powerful):

1. Marian needs a proper physician. ( don't I know it)
2. Marian needs a man (Edward's working swing shift this week, and I work days - I won't see him for 3 days.
3. Marian needs a hero.
4. Marian needs help. (This goes without saying)
5. Marian needs to prove that she is still valuable????
6. Marian needs a business loan, maybe.
7. Marian needs to deal with her coeliac disease once and for all. (Wikipedia says this is a disease of the small intestine - diarrhea, failure to thrive, fatigue - hahahahaha!)
8. Marian needs donations of money, food, clothing, toiletries. (All donations welcome!)
9. Marian needs to be known for something.
10. Marian needs. (Enough said)

SOOOOOOOO Sorry!

Okay, okay, okay, I'll update my blog!!! Sorry it's been so long - life has just been an absolute crazy mess since July - but a good one. Here's why I haven't posted in a bajillion years:

1. I got a job working at an elementary school as an instructional assistant for autistic kids. I hated it the first 3 weeks. Now I can't imagine life without someone autistic in it! ;) I sure love those kids - they are definitely chosen children of our Heavenly Father.
2. In addition to the job, I have 20 piano students, who I teach after school. I have a blast with these kids. We're having our very first recital in December.
3. Edward started school at UTSA (University of Texas at San Antonio) this fall, and he dominates the computer ALL the time (luckily, today he is off on some church service project and the computer is free).
4. Since my weeks are so busy, I have to do all the errands, cleaning, church calling stuff on the weekends, and blogging just isn't top on the list.

Despite all the busy-ness, we have had lots of fun moments. Here are some highlights since I laste posted:

The South Texas Corn Maize!!!

Edward's sisters and their families came out to visit for the weekend. Only in Texas do you go to a corn maze in the fall where the corn is STILL growing!

Cutie-pie (the niece, of course - hehe)

Fun with the fam in Idaho

Edwards (31st!!!!!!!!!) birthday

Shhhhh - don't tell him you know his age!

Out to eat at Tucano's in Orem


SOOOO Full!

The whole gang in Idaho


Yellowstone - we did this last year, too.

I promise I will try to post more often!!! Have a Spooktacular Halloween!

Secrets

It's time I told the truth. I have a serious addiction to Sesame Street. Sad, I know. I don't even have any kids. Below are some of the reasons I think it is so great. I mean, they get the best performers on that show! Watch and see if you don't get hooked too. . . .

Diana Krall

James Blunt

Marian saves the day!

Earlier this week while at work, I went to clean a few dishes. I picked up the scrub pad and found

THIS:

A GIANT scorpion!!!!!

Okay, so it wasn't exactly GIANT, but it was still almost 2 inches long. AND it was in the sink with the dishes. Having never encountered a scorpion before, I did what any sane person would do: I called my husband and begged him to come kill it for me (he only laughed at me and told me to kill it myself). So what did I do? I covered it with a bowl and tried to ignore it(of course, I dropped the bowl on it 'cause I wasn't about to put my hands down there). Boy, that made it mad! It's little tail curled up (see picture above) and it started hissing or whatever it is that scorpions do. So then I found some wasp killer and sprayed it with that. Didn't kill it (getting madder all the while). Finally, I threw a paper towel over it and mashed it up with a potato masher. I'm pretty sure that killed it. But not completely. It stayed still long enough for me to get up the guts to pick the mashed up paper-towel thing and throw it in the trash, at least. Phew! That was a close one.