Moving out of Deerhaven

Deerhaven was the name of the area I lived in before I got married. I had some wonderful memories there. I originally moved in with Cammie and Erin (2 of my friends), but they both moved out, I stayed and 2 other girls moved in that I did not know before. I was in the ___________ Ward and was leaving as the Family Home Evening Coordinator. My friend Michele had been the coordinator just before me and had told me (at first I thought it was a joke) that the only way to get out of that calling was to either move or get married. She had gotten out of it by marrying Alan. I didn't know what would happen, but I met Ryan rather quickly after I got the calling, so I guess it was true. :)

Here are some pictures of my room from Deerhaven. I loved my room and the way it was set up. I really loved what I had set up, but now I'm excited to redecorate with new things from the wedding. Here is what my room and bathroom looked like just before tying the knot with Ryan.

Bathroom pictures. I had my own bathroom and it was great!

I loved my shelf with all my lotions and body sprays.

Blue and white was my color scheme. The towels never were great, just for show. They always shed. The shower curtain was on loan from Erin. She made them. She's such a great friend. My new color scheme is green and white.

 Bedroom, black, white, and red. I really like this and thought it was very classy. My mom helped me make the heart pillows and the black and white board.

I loved the curtains (got them from IKEA) and that I put them up with a curtain rod. My red fuzzy has been with me for years (thanks mom!) so it helped with the decision of the color scheme.

The coats and my jewelry were hung on towel racks my mom used to have in her bathroom. I just painted them black. Yes, my wedding dress is in the closet. I LOVE my wedding dress!!

I thought the mirror was kind of fun. My landlord didn't when it didn't come off. Thank you to Jennica who moved in after me! She found a way to take it off for me. She was a friend in the ward.

This was the extra bedroom, which Erin and I decided I could use, but the closet was for anyone to use. The reason we decided I could use it was because she had the massive master bedroom. :)

The pictures I had hanging on the wall. I don't think Ryan will love the unicorn tapestry I got from New York.

The drapes and desk area. The flowers of course are from Ryan. I tried to dry them. (Didn't work in the end).

My bulletin board with my to do list. This ended up going to school for a Message Board.

A better picture of the flowers. Good thing I got some pictures before they were destroyed in the move.

I enjoyed my time at Deerhaven. We had lots of parties there, friends coming over, family home evenings, sleep overs, dinner groups, etc. There was a lot more to it, such as the kitchen, living room, and basement. It was two stories (three with the basement) and we had lots of fun there. I will miss it, but not too much. I am excited to be moving on to a new chapter in my life. Once we get everything out, I will leave all of my stuff at Ryan's parents house. Then I will stay there for a night before we leave for California to get married. We need to get out there early so that we can get everything else done before the wedding! I am so excited that the big day is finally here!

Happy, Happy Birthday!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010
This is a big year! First of all, I've never had a boyfriend on my birthday. How lucky I am that not only do I have a boyfriend, but he is my fiancé! How wonderful is that! We weren't going to celebrate today on my actual birthday because Ryan is still in the middle of school and had a paper to work on, so we celebrated on July 23rd instead. We really just took it easy because we had been so busy with wedding plans, but we still went out to dinner. We went to Chili's and I had a wonderful 6 oz. steak with pico de gallo on it. Yum! He got me a CTR ring as a present, but it was the wrong size, so he had to take it back. He got a ring with little cubic zirconium's embedded in the sides (like my ring - except there were 4 on each side). I loved it!

Then we went to a movie after dinner.

Happy Birthday to me. I just love those bright blue eyes.

The family at Chili's

Jakers

Another picture, trying to get everyone in the shot. :)

I love my fiancé! He is so romantic.

The next day, Saturday July 24th, was the day I did my bridals up at the Utah State Capitol. (I will do a separate post on that). We went to dinner with Ryan's family for my birthday at Chili's that night. (2 nights in a row? Not complaining at ALL!) It was fun to be with the family and Ryan's parents got me some more things from my registry. Don & Mel gave me a baseball book called "Kiss it Good-bye". They have some fun family traditions and I am looking forward to being the newest member of the Peck family in 12 days!

Great News!

I should just face it that I am not a great blogger, but I need to post in order to let everyone know how excited I am to be marrying the man of my dreams in 29 days. This joy and happiness that I feel is so incredible and hard to describe, but it was worth the wait. I am marrying Ryan Gammon Peck on August 6th, 2010 in the Oakland, CA Temple. We went on our first date on January 23 which was a set up by my cousin Jason. They are in the MBA program at the UofU. It has been wonderful ever since. I definitely fought it a little bit at first. Those that are close to me will remember that the big deterrent for me at first was his height. (He is 6'1" and I am 5'2" :)


However, height definitely did not matter in the end. It was just so natural our relationship. There are a lot of things that played into why this worked out so well, but on my part I remember thinking that I was going to go into this relationship not hiding anything. I was going to be completely myself and if he liked me, then he liked me, but I was not going to worry about it if he did not. I was ready to find the love of my life and it didn't take too long. I am so grateful for who he is and his dedication to the gospel, his schooling, family, friends, and our relationship. We have set up another blog that I will be better at :) Tracy, my girl, helped me make it the best it could be. Thanks again Tracy. Click on the picture to follow the new blog, so please check it out. I will talk more about how we met and fun things like that on there. This is definitely another transformation in my life and I am loving it. Thank you to all for your love and support.

Blessed

I am truly blessed to have a great family and wonderful friends. In the past few days I have had some wonderful talks with wonderful people in my life. I am so grateful for the support that they show me and how much they care for me. It is the last part of spring break and I am sad because I need to go back to work, but school is coming to a close and we need to persevere to the end. I have some great examples in my life of those that have continued to press forward, or kampa pa (shempa po - can't write it in swedish lettering) which means "struggle on".
There are some hard workers out there and I have seen how they have been blessed because of their choices. I hope to be like them someday. Thanks to all of those who have supported me throughout the years. I am truly blessed.

What happened to February?

Okay, so my last post was on the last day of January and I was welcoming February into my life. Where did it go? It is gone. I know it's late and Ryan if you read this, sorry, I had to post before midnight :) but on something I wanted to.

This blog started out to be about my running. As most of you know, I was in a roll over accident in October and have not been running for 5 months. I thought I would just say, I am starting over, slow with the running, but I have a plan to get back into it. I was so sad when I found out I couldn't run the REX LEE RUN this year because I have to take the PRAXIS at 7:30 that morning. There is no way I will be done with the test and be able to run at 9. So sad.

However, that aside, I am beginning slow. Yesterday, I ran for 20 minutes, but it was a 1 minute run, then 3 minute walk, alternating. It was fine since I was just getting back into things. Today, I did pilates, abs, and walked fast for twenty minutes (which ended up being up and down my stairs).

Am I excited? Do I feel great about getting back into running? YES!! An emphatic Yes. Now, I just need to be consistent and listen to my body as I pursue my goals to be back where I was previous to my accident. I also want to finally get my mountain bike and start biking around. Spring is coming and Summer will be here around the corner. I am so excited.

February, I'm sorry I missed you in the blogging world, but it was a good month, lots of good things happened. :)

Musings of the month of January

I'm not sure what to say about January. It was the first month of the new year. It flew by and I feel like I got a lot accomplished, but then I don't. Do you ever have those feelings? Am I doing significant things that are helping me to move forward? I was talking to a friend tonight and we came to the conclusion that if we recognize what we've done and are thankful for what HAS been accomplished, we can feel more satisfied.

First, I survived another term of school and another round of parent-teacher conferences. Those can always be stressful, but it is over with, for the most part. I still need to round up 3 more students for the meetings, but those should be done before the end of the week.

Second, Benchmarks (reading levels) are done for the 2nd time. A lot of my students were able to move up a few levels. One girl moved up significantly. She moved up 3 levels. I was so proud of her. Her comprehension is amazing. I found out she watches the Discovery Channel a lot. I love that channel. :)

Third, I just finished the training for the Arts program we have been going to this year. The last one was on Friday. That makes me so happy that I am done and get a credit towards my teacher professionalism. That is one more step in the right direction.

Fourth, our FHE program has been significantly heightened by a little more unity among the groups, and some healthy competition. For January, we did ice cream sculptures. A lot of the groups had some great ideas and creations. My group came up with a scene from UP! When I get the pictures, I'll post some. My co-chair and I gave talks, as well as another FHE leader and just an attendee. They were great and I learned a lot about why we have FHE in the first place.

Fifth, I have been working on my ARL. I did not do as well in a class that I was taking online, so I need to do it again, but now I understand how to do an online class. Much harder than I though. I'm sure there are others that would have no problem, but I struggled. Now, I am set up to take the PRAXIS for content knowledge in March, and the PRAXIS PLT in April. Overkill, maybe, but I need it in order to keep up. I am still working on my ESL endorsement as well. So much to do, so little time to do it. :)

Sixth, I have joined a dinner group, which I love. I enjoy spending time with friends over meals and getting a chance to eat someone else's cooking. I cook only once every three weeks (we eat 2 nights out of the week). I think it is fabulous and I love the people I eat with because they are such great conversationalists. I was lucky and took over a friend of mine's position, and now we are losing another friend Kathryn, but should be gaining another one soon.

Now that I look back, I realize that a lot has been accomplished and I feel a sense of satisfaction, but there are still some loose ends that I need to tie up. This is not a problem, since I recognize the need, but I need to understand the path of how I should attack the problems I face. I have a hard time getting the big, ugly projects out of the way. I remember seeing a motivational video about eating your frog. They tell you to eat it right away in the beginning of the day. Then, the rest of the day will be a snap since it gives you the confidence to accomplish hard things. It's about procrastination, since we will usually procrastinate a difficult task and then it drains our energy since it goes on for awhile as uncompleted.

I need to learn to prioritze and EAT MY FROG!!! I have been trying to be much more organized. I just created a six week workout routine for myself in order to get in shape for the REX LEE RUN. (I may not be able to run because of the PRAXIS now, darnit all). However, I'll still follow the plan. Then I have plans for what I'm going to eat and cleaning schedules. I need to delegate. So many people have offered to help me in my classroom. I need to take them up on it.

So, here is to a new month. February, it's going to be awesome. Groundhog's Day, Valentine's Day, Chinese New Year. Maybe I'll make up some new resolutions for Chinese New Year. :) Good-bye January, hello February.

RAGNAR RELAY 2009 - Wasatch Back, Utah

Here was the race of the year. I had run in this race one time before, but not as an actual participant. It was more as a support. This time I was team captain and I was in charge of a group of 12. There are two vans with six people in each. I had one van be captained by my cousin Shane and his wife Shannon. They filled their van with people they knew. Then I was in charge of the other van and filled that with people I knew or they knew. They people I originally had in my van were Camilla Hodge, a friend and fellow ward member, and Elizabeth Cooper, a friend and companion from the mission field. I still was unable to find the last 3 members of our team until the last possible minute. 2 of them came from Camilla. One was her "cousin" Mark and he brought a friend of his Alyssa. Then my cousin Shane told me he knew a girl that really wanted to run and she was going to call me. Well, she never called and it was 6 am the day of the race. We were supposed to start at 10. Luckily, Paul came through and got work off for two days and came running with us. He was supposed to help by volunteering at one of the stations (I had tried to get him to run before), but it wasn't until I was desperate, he was able to bail us out.
This is a long one, so stay tuned, I'll add more later. :)

Freedom Run 2009 10K

I have run the Freedom Run the last 3 years. The first time, I ran the 10K, second time, I ran the 5K, but this time I wanted to run the 10K again. I had just run the Bridal Veil Falls 10K just a little over a month ago. My brother had just gone to EFY that week and my mother was in town, so she went to go pick him up so they could watch me run the race. I wasn't quite sure where they would be waiting, but I knew they would be there. I saw them only a little bit into the race. They were waiting for me near the top of the 900 East climb. They were on the corner where the BYU Law Library is and the Creamery on 9th. My brother wasn't really paying attention (lack of sleep from staying up every night at EFY), but my mom saw me right away. I saw them as well, and ran right next to them. My plan was to kiss my hand and place it on my brother's cheek, but the way he turned his head to see where I was, his surprise and the fact that I was running past him made it awkward and it looked like I slapped him. I at least wanted to run under an hour this time, to make up for the last run I was in, but I can't remember my time. If I do, I will post it later on.

Bridal Veil Falls 10K

This blog originally was about my running career so I need to update you a little bit about the runs I have had since the Rex Lee Run in March. I wasn't planning on running in this 10K, but Paul was signed up, so I decided at the last minute to run it. It was on May 30, 2009I was going to go support him at first, but then I got up early, put on my rumming clothes, and went over to sign up. Since I run pretty regularly, there isn't really a problem with jumping in a race like that. I knew that Paul would beat me because he was really getting ready for it, where I wasn't. There was one place where you turn around so, I saw Paul running on his way back. He came over and gave me a high five. It was a fun run. I wasn't really pushing myself and that's why my time was a little bit over an hour. Paul beat me by 10 minutes, which is totally fine. The breakfast afterwards was good. They had cantaloupe, watermelon, and pancakes. Very good. Then we took some pictures by Paul's new buy, the Isuzu Rodeo, and he went off to work and I went home to sleep. It was a good day. Not my best run, but it felt really great.

School Days become better when. . .

So, I am still here at school, despite my New Year's resolution to not stay past 5. First, I was supposed to be here until 7 because of an ESL class that I am taking, so Tuesday is the only day I should be here that late. Well, unbeknownst to my colleague and I, we didn't have class, so I thought, "Sweet, I can get a lot of stuff done in my classroom that I put off when I went home for the holidays and closed my classroom door not to return until a day before school resumed."

However, when I got to my classroom, I did other things, such as reading a little bit ahead of my students in "The Tale of Despereaux" (that is legitimate classwork since I need to read it with my students for Guided Reading), emailing my Christmas letter to family and friends that I did not have an address for, and then I got hooked on looking at my friend Erin's blog.

She is one that I can always count on to have some witty post on her blog. Well, the one for today got me hooked. It was a class posted at a school titled "How to Survive a Zombie Invasion." For Real?!? I laughed so hard. Please check out her blog just to see the details of it. Then I saw that she had posted all of her texts for the past year, 2009. I did not know she did this and found some of mine in the smattering of texts. I loved it. I even checked in January of 2009 to see if she had posted her 2008 texts, and she had. I was amused to find the one we still joke about today. I wrote "Hurry, they are eating all my candy." This was because we didn't realize children would actually trick or treat at our door, so I sent her to Allen's and she got whatever was left there.

The point of it is, I spent a long time looking at some of her posts, laughing my head off and just remembering good times. I may have needed that more than getting school work done because it was a long day. Or, I really should've been working instead. Either way, I'm still at school, but soon to be gone. Thanks Erin and thanks to everyone that posts and makes my day a little bit brighter.

Sub for Santa

This is a long one, with an awesome ending. . .

I am the ward FHE co-leader in my ward and I have had a lot of fun doing it, but nothing was quite as rewarding as what we did as a ward for the month of December. Each auxillary has a chance to be in charge of Service 2 times a year. FHE has always had December and it is a tradition to do Sub for Santa. This year, my co-chair and I decided to change things up a bit. We still got names of families, but we tried to get it from the group of children that we help to tutor on Tuesday and Thursday nights. So, we went through one of my FHE leaders aunt's wards and she was able to get the names of 6 families that were in need. We thought it would make it more personal since they were families that we were already serving.

Then we also decided to raise some money before hand by doing a Service Auction in our ward. We had people submit different services that could be rendered, such as making dinner for an apartment, giving piano or sports lessons, making a blanket, and of course, there were dates auctioned off as well. :) My favorite was the ice fishing for 4 couples that went for $124. Everyone came together and we bid on each others service. It was a lot of fun. Dan was the auctioneer for awhile and then I got to do it. Going once, going twice, sold. It was kind of fun. Sometimes people would just leave their hands up and I would keep going up, 10,11,12,13. . . until only one person was left. If it was really popular, I would start going in increments of 5's. We weren't sure how much we were going to make. We were just thinking it would be fun to have service done among the ward members and then do service for someone else. We were guessing we would make maybe 300 dollars. We far exceeded that. When we tallied up all the money in the end, we had raised $1,621.00. I was shocked and amazed, but very humbled by the generosity of everyone. That was why we were able to take care of 6 different families.

That is only the beginning of the story. So the auction was held on the 30th of November. Then when we got the names, I had Maria call them (they were all Hispanic families, I can speak Swedish now and all my Spanish went out the window, so I needed help). As she talked to each family, they were very gracious and thankful for the help during this season. We found out that most of them did not have heat, so we took some of the money and Krystel went to buy a blanket for each member in our six families. IKEA is so great!! We were able to get a ton of blankets since they were about $3 a piece. They were the warm fleece blankets as well. Then we divided up the rest of the money among my 5 FHE groups. (I know we had 6 families, but 2 of them there was only one kid in each family so we combined them and gave them to one group). Each group was able to get the clothes and toys each child wanted and needed for Christmas. I was able to shop for most of the clothes in my group with my friend Megan. We had so much fun shopping for our girls. We had 4 girls from the age of 18 months, 5, 10, & 15. It was so fun to do that for them. If anyone had money left over, we were able to give that to them to use with their own discretion. We turned some of the money into gift cards to Wal-Mart. All of the gathering took a long time and it was a lot of work, but finally we had everything wrapped and in my town home by December 22.

However, we did not deliver them until December 23. I had 5 wonderful people that came to help us out that evening. Matt, Vilate, Christina, Maria, & I went to 4 of the 6 families. I should have said that Maria's group took theirs on the 21st, and then Christina & Krystel dropped one of earlier that evening. We knocked on all of their doors to drop off the gifts. Each family was so happy, and so grateful for what we were able to do for them. One lady gave us hugs and candy canes. She had a bare tree before that. Then another family was leaving in a basement and the wife came out to greet us and bring us back to her apartment. She had only been in the country maybe 8 months, and was speaking English very well. She had the cutest little baby girl with big wide eyes. She was so enthralled to see all of us there. Her husband was not there at the time, but as we were leaving, he came and rushed out to greet us and thank us. It really made all of the effort so worth it. These people were so humble and it humbled us to see what life is like for others in need. I really felt blessed to be part of these events.

Thinking that was the end of Sub for Santa, I didn't think about it much until one of my leaders Krystel told me about what happened at Testimony meeting today in her aunt's ward. We didn't really know this, but one of the families in the ward was inactive. Apparently, they decided to come today and bear their testimony. This family had not answered the door when we went to take the presents to them, so we left it on their door step. She said that she went out and saw all of the presents and had no idea where they came from, but she knew that it was someone generous and kind. She said that act of kindness convinced her enough to come back to church to bear her testimony about it. We don't know if it will keep her active, but it gave her a testimony that people are kind and that the church is true. I truly hope that it will keep her coming and I'm sure her ward will do their best to continue helping her feel welcome at church.

What an amazing blessing service can be to not only those you serve, but you as well. Like I said, this project was a lot of work and to be honest I was having a tough time feeling the spirit of service of Christmas. I am so thankful for the opportunity I had to be part of this and the many tender mercies I have seen along the way during it. So many generous people, willing to give service and help others out. And that one act of kindness that helped to rekindle a testimony that had been forgotten. People are essentially good and want to do good things. Pay it Forward.