In 7 days we will be here...

Don't be jealous of us....actually go ahead!

Life is great and we are so excited for the Holiday season. Not much to update you on this week. My parents are here for the weekend and my dad came to my class on Friday. My kids loved meeting him. A few of my students told me that meeting my dad was their favorite part of 1st grade so far. They are so cute. I love it!
Tagg got me tickets to see the Spurs play the Jazz on December 7th. Can't wait for that. Hopefully my boys will pull out a win.
Spending Thanksgiving in Mexico will be a little different this year, but I am so looking forward to it!!! Total relaxation is just a week away!

Halloween

The past few weeks have been a lot of fun. Tagg's birthday was on the 23rd and I threw him a surprise party. He turned the big 24! I was really nervouse that it wasn't going to work out and that he wasn't going to be surprised, but he really was! He had no idea. Tagg and I went out to dinner and while we were out, my sister and Elise started setting things up before everyone else got there. When we were done with dinner I tricked Tagg into going home before we did anything else. I forgot to tell Megan that we don't lock our dead bolt usually so that was the one giveaway that something was off. Tagg was really confused why the deadbolt was locked and instead of just going inside after he unlocked the door, he kindof stood outside for a minute. I was trying to get him to come in but then through the crack in our door he saw people in the kitchen. He finally came in and they all yelled surprise. He really was surprised up to that point so I was happy. My sister and my friend Elise helped me pull everything together and I owe them a huge thanks, along with anyone else that lended a helping hand before Tagg and I got there. Thanks to all those that came to support Tagg. I am so lucky to be married to such a wonderful man. He is so kind, understanding, supportive, patient, loving, helpful, funny, and all around, just an incredible person. He tries so hard at everything he does and he is always wanting to become better and challenge himself. I am grateful for his "go getter" attitude that will always help him succeed in life. I love you babe!

Things at school have been good too. I am still loving my kids. I look forward to seeing them everyday. Here is one story that I forgot about but definitely always makes me laugh. One of my students was sounding out the word "as" and he said the sound that a makes and then the sound that s makes. Well, in the word "as" the s really makes a z sound so this is what I heard. a...s... with him then saying ASS! So proud of himself. It took about two seconds for him to realize what he said. Then he said, "I mean aZZ. My dad always tells me that word is as (with the z sound emphasized at the end)" As if that wasn't funny enough, about 10 seconds later we got to the the word but and he read it and then says, "not the bad kind of butt though." It was super funny.
Halloween was pretty fun at my school. As most of you know, I hate halloween, so when the first grade team decided to dress up as fairies, I figured that wasn't too bad. I made the skirt for my costume which I was pretty proud of. I didn't get pictures on my camera though. I think a few of my students mom's did and are going to send me the pics so as soon as they do I will post them.






On Saturday, Tagg ran a 5K. I was so proud of him. He did it super fast too! He hasn't worked out in a while and so last Sunday when he heard that the Orem Region was doing a 5K on Saturday he decided he was going to do it. He started running on Monday and kept at it so he could run three miles by Saturday. It was fun to watch him run. He did a great job!



Basically, as you can see, life is great, fun and busy. So long for now!

Exciting things!

Life has been so busy as of late. However, we have been having a lot of fun and doing a lot of exciting things. School is going great for me. I am still loving 1st grade! It is seriously the best. They are so cute. Last week we were reading a book about Christopher Columbus and there was a part in the story where it said the crew members on the ship were mad at Columbus and wanted to throw him overboard into the ocean and leave him there, one of my little boys made the loudest gasp ever and with the saddest little face said, "That is not nice!" I started laughing and I said you are right, that is not nice at all. This was the same little boy who threw an eraser at a little girls eye and when he was told that she could have gone blind he said, "Well it would have been okay, she has another eye." He was 100% serious too!I just love that little boy. Another one of my boys, when writing to my student of the week said, "Dear Cassiah, I think you are nice and maybe a little bit smart. I can't tell if you are smart though because your paper is turned the other way and I can't read upside down. I also can't read with my eyes closed." Seriously! Where do they get this stuff!
Tagg is staying super busy with school and work and doing all of the other things he does for me that I can't do right now. I seriously have the best husband ever. He does the cooking, cleaning, laundry, and all the other little random things that come up during the week that I can't do. He is getting excited to graduate in April.
So, Tagg calls me on Friday and says that this car dealership was doing a big slasher sale and he found a car we could buy for 250 bucks. We wanted to get a cheap second car so Tagg would have something to drive in the winter to get to work. We went and looked at it when I got home from school. It is the ugliest thing I have ever seen. It is a 1991 Subaru Legacy stationwagon. We ended up buying it that evening and Tagg is already attached and loving his new ride, Edna. He named her Edna because when he saw her the first time and sat in the drivers seat, there was a pink flowery pillow on the seat and the seat was pushed all the way forward like an old lady had been driving it.

Here is our new Kia. Tagg named him Rosco

Rosco and Edna together

One exciting thing we are looking forward to is going on a cruise over Thanksgiving! I have the best parents ever and they are taking the fam on a cruise because by April everyone in my family including the spouses will have either graduated with their Bachelors or Masters degree.
So, as you can see, life is great, fun and busy!
Here is a photo of when we went camping with some great friends.

The next few photos were actually taken in August at the Logan Temple when we got home from New York. We picked raspberries from my grandpa's garden and then went to the temple grounds to eat them.


Tagg surprised me when I got home from school one day with a brisket dinner. He had everything set up when I got home. So CUTE! We had to move inside unfortunately though because the bees wanted to get a piece of the yummy brisket too.

FINALLY!

I started to think that no one read my blog because I haven't updated in a while and no one has said anything. Recently though, I have gotten many requests for an update. I know this is delayed Mag! Anyway, life is so good right now. It is crazy busy for both Tagg and myself, but we are also having so much fun. Since my last post we have moved into our apartment, I have started teaching, Tagg has started school, I had a birthday and probably many more things that I won't have time to blog about. I wanted to wait to post this to add pictures but I figure I better just post it now.

I am teaching 1st grade this year and I am LOVING it! It is so much work and so busy right now, but it is so much better than teaching 4th grade. The problems are so much different than what I dealt with in 4th grade but I love it. The other day, I had a crazy afternoon. I had one little girl poop her pants, another little boy that picks his nose all the time got a bloody nose and wiped the blood all over his face, and then another girl burst into tears because she thought she had a loose tooth. She had never lost a tooth and she was so scared it was going to hurt when it fell out. They definitely say the funniest things as well. I am always laughing at things they tell me. One little boy told me he was going to change his name when he grew up. I asked why and he said that silent e's are sooooo hard. He said that his name is just Blake but you can't hear the e. It was pretty funny. Another little boy told the class that they need to be reverent in class just like at church. One little girl when asking the class if they had any questions or comments about what she had told them said, "Are there any questions or condiments?" I just LOVE these kids. There are so many more stories I could tell about them, but I won't bore you. Let me just say though that I love when they come up to me and say "Mrs. Petewsen, you awe my favowite teachew evew." I love how they can't all say their r's yet.

Tagg's school is going well too. He is busy with 12 credits and working at the MTC. He has more spare time this semester so he is trying to find another job to keep him busy. Sorry my update for him is not as long as it is for me.

One sad/exciting update is that we have a new car! Lucy, our old Honda, died on us. I am teaching out in Eagle mountain so we HAD to have a car. We had one day to go, find, and buy a new car. We found one we loved and that we could afford. However, we have now been welcomed into the lovely world of car payments.

For my birthday, Tagg and I went up to Park City. We stayed at the Marriott and because it was my birthday they upgraded our room to a big suite. Our room was bigger than our whole apartment. We went fishing, shopping and did a few things at the Park City Mountain Resort. It was a lot of fun. I can't believe that I am 23 though! I feel like that is such a big number.

For Labor Day we went up to Idaho and went to Lava Hot Springs. We stayed in a time share with some of Tagg's family. It was so much fun to relax and enjoy time together without school distractions. And I must not forget about the INCREDIBLE BYU game on Saturday! Wooohoooo! Go Cougs.

Well, that should do it for now. More updates soon. I promise!

The end of an adventure.

Tagg and I go back to Utah tonight after he gets off work. We have enjoyed our time here, but we are really excited to be going back to Utah. Being here has really helped me appreciate the simpleness of life in Utah. I am going to miss things here in New York like going to Broadway shows, incredible food, China town, things always going on in the city, etc, but there are a lot of things I won't miss. For example, the subway and the subway yellers or crazy people on the subway, the smell of cigarette smoke everywhere, the other disgusting smells that New York has to offer, the immorality that is everywhere, and the F word being said about every 30 seconds by someone around me. We have enjoyed our time here though and have learned a lot about life and where we do (or really don't) want to live in the future. We have decided that we want a house with a yard, and we want to be able to get in our car and drive to wherever we want to go. We can't wait to get back to our 92 Honda! We are more suburban dwellers that want to live a simple life. Speaking of Broadway shows though, did I mention that my husband is the luckiest man ever! We have entered into 2 lottery's and Tagg has won us tickets in both. Most of the shows do a drawing about two hours before the show starts and you can get 1 or 2 front row tickets for about 25ish dollars each. Tagg won tickets to West Side Story about a month ago and then last week he won tickets to In The Heights. It is a new show that is about life in Washington Heights. That just happens to be the area we live in here in New York and I think that is why we loved it so much. There were a few things that were a little inappropriate, but it is better than the things I listen to and see when I walk out the door. The seats were incredible as well! That brings our total to 7 shows we have seen out here. We saw Mary Poppins twice though. (Shrek, Phantom of the Opera, West Side Story, Wicked, Mary Poppins, and In The Heights) The great thing about it is that we never paid full price for any of our tickets! They were all either free or at least half off.
Well, we are at the end of one adventure but about to start a new one. Tagg's last year of college and me teaching 1st grade! Can't wait! We get back to Utah at almost midnight tonight. We took our luggage down to Tagg's work this morning so we can just leave straight from there. I didn't want to try getting on the subway and everything all by myself so I went with Tagg. It was quite a spectacle. Tagg and I each had two huge suitcases plus carry-ons that we piled into a jam packed subway car with us. We took up a lot of room but most people were actually nice about it which was surprising. I felt so bad for Tagg because he had to carry 4 big suitcases up the stairs (and it was a lot of stairs) after we got off the subway. He is such a trooper. We decided to take a bus that will take us to the airport this evening. It was cost us a little bit of money but it is totally worth not having to go up and down stairs again and jam onto a subway car with all of our stuff.
Wow, I think that is it for now. If you read to the bottom of this, you deserve a treat! So long for now.

A visit from Ned and Gena

I have so much more to blog about! I am getting behind. Ned and Gena came to visit us a week and a half ago and we had so much fun with them. It was great to show them around the city. Tagg and I really don't feel like we are tourists here anymore. We did a lot of fun things with Ned and Gena but I think we wore them out. Tagg and I have learned that we are not very good at measuring walking distances anymore. We will say oh, it isn't very far from here and then we realize it is 7 or 8 blocks away. We are just so used to walking everywhere that 7 or 8 blocks is nothing to us anymore. Hopefully we will continue the walking when we get back to Provo, which for any of you anticipating our arrival, we get back in one week from TODAY!

New York Fun

There has been so much going on the past few weeks. Tagg and I have had a lot of visitors and I am just now getting around to blogging about it. Megan (my sister) and my cousin Charlotte came out in the middle of July to visit us and play for a few days in New York. We had so much fun. We had some great New York Pizza, saw Rascal Flatts on the TODAY show, did some shopping, saw Wicked, went to China town, bought a turtle (Hank), saw Mary Poppins, went to Central Park, went to the Temple and just had tons of fun and laughed A LOT! I am so glad they came even though it was only for a few days.

4th of July and Anniversary Weekend

This has been one of the best 4th of July weekends ever! I don't think anything will ever top last years with getting married and all, but it has been pretty fantastic. Tagg had Friday off work so we got up early and saw Brad Paisley perform on Good Morning America. It was really fun and we were really close.

We took a long nap that afternon which was also a treat. Friday evening we went to see UP. We loved it! It is such a cute movie. Saturday, the 4th, we went into Time Square to see what kind of tickets we could get for a Broadway show. They had Phantom of the Opera tickets for 50% off. We got tickets in the orchestra for just $62.00. Tagg had never seen it before so we were really excited to go. We both loved it. Saturday evening we entered our names in the lottery to win tickets to West Side Story. Most of the broadway shows always do a lottery before the show and give away tickets for 20-30 bucks. We didn't win them but we are definitely going to try again. Saturday night we went up to the roof and watched the fireworks. They were everywhere! It was so beautiful.

Today we went to church and celebrated our anniversary with macaroni & cheese and hot dogs.

We actually ate the top layer of our wedding cake the day before Tagg left for New York. It was SO good. It tasted like it had just been made that day! Shayna, I don't remember the name of your friend, but she did a fantastic job on our cake.

I can't believe it has been a whole year since Tagg and I got married. It was definitely the best day of my life when we were sealed and I am so lucky to be married to such an amazing man. He really is my best friend and I feel so honored that he chose me! The past year has been amazing and such an adventure. I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for us.

Washington DC

Tagg and I got back from DC early this morning around 3:00.  We are glad to be back but we had such a fun time and it was great to celebrate being married for almost a whole year!  Here are some pictures of our trip.

Life in the Big City

I have been here for almost a week now and I am adjusting.  Life is definitely VERY different here than it is in Provo.  Some of the things about New York I absolutely love and some I am not really fond of.  I decided I would make a list of things that I love and don't love so you can decide if you ever want to live life in the city. 

Things I Hate About NYC: (in no particular order)

1. The Smells- I will be walking down the street and all of a sudden it smells SO bad I feel like I want to puke and then four seconds later it smells fine again.  It smells like pee in the elevator at our apartment. It smells like cigarette smoke all over the place.  Even our apartment smells like it except for in our room which has truly become a safe haven from EVERYTHING going on in the world. 

2. Drinking/Smoking-everyone here smokes.  I think there would be much less pollution if people would just stop smoking! I hope I don't die an early death from second hand smoke.

3. Immorality and Immodesty- you can't walk down the street without seeing scantily clad women or men for that matter. As Tagg says, New York is full of R rated sidewalks....SO TRUE!

4. Foul Language- I have never heard the F word so much...ever! Growing up in Texas I definitely heard my fair share of bad language but it is ridiculous how much bad language is used here.  It is so common place and ordinary for people.  I should count how many times I hear the F word in one day.

5. Unfriendly- The people here are so mean.  I guess they are just so used to their busy lives that they don't have time to offer a helping hand.  The customer service here is also pretty crappy. 

Things I LOVE about NYC: (also in no particular order, except for #1)

1. Tagg and I are together and really that is all that matters and therefor I can put up with everything I listed in the above section.

2. Our room! Like I said, it is a save haven for us and I love it.

3. The shopping- I love H&M.  I am not rich enough to enjoy all the shops here but there are so many great stores around.

4. The food- gelato, gyros, fresh fruit stands, NY pizza, Chinese, Carnegie deli 5th avenue pie, and much much more!

5. So much to do- there is always something going on here and it is fun to be able to just walk around downtown and explore.

6. The temple- to be honest I haven't been yet but I am so excited to go. Tagg went while I was still in Utah and said it is really cool.

7. Honking- I think it is so funny that cars honk here ALL the time.  I am sure everyone knows that but it just makes me laugh.  More often than not, a car will just start laying on the horn when they are getting to an intersection to give a warning of their arrival.  I love it!

So, there ya have it.  I am sure I will have much more to add to these lists but this is just a start. This summer will definitely be an adventure but Tagg and I are loving it so far. 

Here is a picture of us at the Yankees game we went to on Saturday.  It rained for most of the game but it was such a fun experience.  I had never been to a professional Baseball game before. Tagg got tickets from his work and they were awesome!

And here is a picture with Tagg and the Naked Cowboy.  Quite the resemblance I think!

1st Grade

I realized that I never posted about my job for next year. I got a job teaching 1st grade. I am SO excited. I had two job offers and they were both for 1st grade so it was somewhat of a hard decision. I picked a school that is a little farther away but when I went to the interview I felt so good about the school and the principal and the other 1st grade teachers there. The school is called Pony Express Elementary School. I am so excited for a change in schools and a change in grades as well.
On a different note, I miss Tagg. Being apart really stinks. This is the first time we have been apart in just over 11 months of marriage. 15 days is a long time but we only have 6 more sleeps until we are together again! Thank goodness for that.

I'M DONE!

I'm done with 4th grade! It is so crazy that I taught for a whole year now. It was definitely a difficult year for me but I can't believe it is all over. My kids asked me if I was going to cry when they left and I thought to myself, "Heck No!" However, now that they are gone and I have cleaned out my classroom and turned in my keys it is a little sad to be done. Looking back it seems like it all went so fast. Life has a way of doing that to you though. I really will miss most of my students (at times) but it feels so great to be done. Now, I just have to finish moving out and cleaning our apartment. Tagg has been in New York for over 24 hours now. I miss him like crazy but we only have 13 days until we are reunited!