Some Smiths: June 2011

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Daniel turned 29 on Friday! We celebrated all week long!

On Tuesday, June 7th, His parents had a birthday dinner for him and Abby his niece who turned 1! Daniel received many awesome presents. This one makes me laugh the most..

Jenni & Josh gave Daniel this Camelbak. He filled it with tissue paper and water to try it out! He walked around the house with it doing homework and cooking dinner! Thanks for the super cool "fourteener"!

On Thursday, June 9th, Lilly and Landon came over so Kyle and Val could go on a date. We made dinner and cupcakes to surprise Daniel when he came home from work.

Before we ate, I asked Landon to say the prayer. He said "Dear Dad, Why did you take mom on a date, to get married? Goodbye."

Lilly and I looked at each other and laughed. Landon tried again and did much better. : )

L & L helped me wrap presents. We ran out of tape so we used stickers! Landon was so excited to watch Daniel unwrap presents.

On June 10th, Daniel’s actual birthday I made him take me to the social security office to officially change my name. It was quite an adventure. We drove to phoenix and spent 30 minutes with a room full of personality. Afterwards, we met up with Daniel’s Mom and sister at Joe’s Farm Grill. While the kids and I waited for food we entertained ourselves with a photoshoot. Kate, Logan, and Seth all took turns taking glamour shots!

For Dinner, we hit up Liberty Market with some friends and then hit up SUPER 8. (The movie). It was an experience. You’ll have to see it to understand.
We rarely go to movies but after seeing Super 8, we wanted to see something else. On Saturday, we saw Midnight in Paris. Another interesting movie... Better luck next time.

RaNdOM hIGhlIGhts -

Daniel left for work one day this week looking like this... I loved the brown bag look!

Super awesome wedding present - This week, we got these cards! We also realized that card games cause contention! We played many rounds of go fish, since we couldn't remember the rules to any other games.

HAPPINESS IS...
Birthdays
Free food
new toys
Family
L & L at our house
stickers as tape
card games
photographs
Summer!

Thursday, June 2, 2011

All caught up! Get ready for Randomness!

We'll now our blog is pretty much caught up... now do I dare make a goal to post on here daily? I'll try for the month of June. The task is to see if it keeps me away from Facebook... so far it has. What has been truly amazing of my 2-3 days of blogging all this is the memories that have flooded my mind! I have already seen several typos... that's the joy of reading my blog. I have been so motivated to blog. Nuts since I'm not motivated to grocery shop or clean anymore of the house.

This morning, I went outside to find my neighbor moving... makes me sad and anxious to see who moves in. They have been awesome neighbors!

Summer lunch dates are my FAV! I don't get to go out to eat very often during the school year so I love making up for lost time. I met Daniel for lunch today at Jimmy John's! So good, you better check that place out!

I came home and caught a rerun of Oprah... I miss the days of watching Oprah daily in college!

Tonight, I think we will try to tackle some yardwork! I know you are jealous!

HAPPINESS is...
computers that work
neighbors internet
Soda
motivation
lunch dates
doing fun things
blogging my thoughts
memories captured on camera
Oprah
pretty yards!

Mesa Arizona Temple

June 1st! I spent the morning with Ashley at the Mesa Arizona Temple. I love that place.
Afterwards, we treated ourselves to Ned's Krazy Subs! YUMM!

Daniel has been working this week and came home to this.... What a lazy blogger!

Happiness is…
TYPOS
Blogging
Friends who are examples
High school buddies
Girl talk
The temple
Beautiful flowers
Peace
Faith
Religion
Mesa, Arizona

Laundry Mess & Blogs!

Tuesday, May 31st!
This is super embarrassing – too much going on to worry about this… first,second, and third day of summer it got tackled!
These piles of colors were in one of our guest bedrooms. haha

Last night the pile looked like this...

Now it is hanging in my closets! : )

These made my laundry task easier! I think everyone who hangs clothes needs this!

Love these for hanging laundry! I searched Walmart, Target, Big Lots and was emptied handed. My mom found some for me today at Big Lots! Yahoo! It makes laundry a million times better especially when you have too many clothes to wash at once... Time to get rid of more clothes!
Daniel started a summer class called PROJECT MANAGEMENT -He is devising a plan to clean up our house! It was pretty entertaining to hear his ideas!

Yesterday between loads of laundry I chatted with Becca about awesome blogs…
Well that consumed me! I am so impressed with people’s blogs! I love LOVE love looking at them!

My friend Mandi, told me she got rid of Facebook and is now just blogging! I kind of want to try it! I think I’m addicted to FB!

Teacher moment – I found this incredible blog!!! (My ultimate dream is to teach preschool) Need something to keep the little ones busy print some of these :
http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/preschoolpacks.html

Math Website - for all grades!
http://www.ixl.com/math/grade-1

Tonight while Daniel did homework, I ran errands with my madre. I told Daniel I was going to get his birthday presents. He informed me that he wanted me to buy him hiking boots. I told him to use his graduation money and he explained that presents aren’t as cool when you buy them yourself… How fun is it when you tell someone else exactly what you want. Needless to say, I think he ordered his boots and I shopped (It’s been a long time, it was so fun! I didn’t even buy anything for me.) His presents are waiting…. The countdown is on! 8 Days to go!

HAPPINESS is…
Clean clothes
Smell of laundry detergent
Warmth of the dryer
Shopping with my ma
Buying gifts
A Clean Hallway!!!
energy to get things done
SUMMER BREAK!

WeLcOmE SUMMER!

Welcome Summer! Memorial Day Weekend!

Last Friday, we drove to Payson to hang out with Pops at the cabin. I had a relaxing weekend, reading by the pool in the mountains while the boys entertained themselves. Daniel and my dad played HOURS of tennis! My dad was so happy to have someone to play with! Daniel started to become addicted to the game! When Daniel was playing his glasses fell off and the lens popped out. My dad called Wal-Mart and we went to get his glasses fixed. They fixed them for free! Thanks Wal-Mart!!!

Once the glasses were fixed Daniel made a wire hook to keep his glasses on his head while playing tennis. I wish I would have taken a picture. It was comical. It kind of looked like headgear. : )

When came home on Monday to party at a Memorial Day BBQ at the Gifts! Which consisted of great food, fun friends, hours of swimming, and volleyball in the pool!

We topped off the weekend ROLLERBLADING with Todd and Amy at Freestone Park!

HAPPINESS is…
Tennis
Being poolside
Sunblock
Reading Magazines
Payson, Arizona (no I don’t want to live there)
Friends
BBQ's
Volleyball
Swimming Pools
Rollerblading
Holidays
WATERMELON!

Baby Sitting Ms. Elle

On the last day of school, Daniel and I were honored to watch 6 month old baby Elle. Daniel was helpful with the baby but took the words from her parents very seriously! Heidi and Chris told us to make ourselves at home… Daniel explored the backyard finding a lawnmower... Look at this picture - Daniel push mowing their yard. It only had one handle. The yard was already nicely trimmed but when he went around the yard once it made a noticeable difference. I think he was done after that but I convinced him to mow the rest of the yard. When he finished he picked lemons of their gorgeous lemon tree. About 20 minutes before they came home we made a huge mess making LEMONADE in their kitchen!!! I’m sure Elle thought we’re nuts as she watched from her Bumbo chair!!
Heidi and Chris bought us sandwiches from Johhny Jon’s (http://www.jimmyjohns.com/findAJJs/findAJJs.aspx) my new favorite sub shop and brought us yogurt from Yogurtland!! We had a fun and adventure night! : )

HAPPINESS is…
Baby Elle
Subs from JJ’s
Babysitting
Yardwork : )
Making lemonade
Bumbo Chairs
laughter
friends

End of the school year party!

Monday, May 23rd!
Wrapping up my 2010-2011 aka Ms. Hendrickson – Mrs. Smith school year! Daniel and I invited my class and their families to Peter Piper Pizza. I will definitely do this again! The parents chipped in for Pizza and we provided the drinks. Each family was responsible for their child and for purchasing tokens for games. The atmosphere at Peter Piper is a little nuts but they had so much fun!!! I have loved getting to know each of my students and their families.

One of my students parents, RSVP’s no and I worried about my precious buddy. His parents both had to work so I asked them if I could pick their child up. I was a little surprised that I offered… I’ve never driven a student anywhere… His parents were thrilled! We picked him up and cruised to the party! He had a blast!

HAPPINESS is…
Students outside of the classroom
Excitement
Pizza Sauce of your face
Pepperoni's
Tokens
Tickets
Laughter
Families
Memories
Thankful parents
Grateful kids

FIRST GRADE IS MY FAVORITE!

It rocks my socks. I loved my class this year. Okay, I love all of my students every year. However, this class meshed very well. They help me to have a positive perspective on life. They are so easily interested in things and happy! My favorite sounds are children’s laughter and the silly innocent conversations they have! I love seeing the kids in and outside of the classroom. I tried to hit up some of their extracurricular activities; I made it to tackle football, t-ball, and karate! When Mr. Smith came around, the kids went wild with excitement!! They loved having him come to school. Anytime we had a pride day, celebration, or half day… 21 panthers wanted to know if Mr. Smith was coming! : ) Mr. Smith was super supportive of my class. He listened to all my crazy stories and enjoyed helping with projects!
Happiness is…
Having an awesome career
Patterson Elem.
First Graders
Laughter
Silly Conversations
Great Co-worker!
Working with Katy!
Helpful Husband
Pride Days
Patterson Pride
21 smiles
Fun projects
So many helpers!
Playground Fun!
Kickball
Basketball

NAU Grad!

Lauren’s Graduation- May 14th!

I started my masters with my student teaching mentor, Kym. She is one of the greatest teachers I know! I loved being in her classroom! I often miss teaching with her! We took classes through Northern Arizona University – Distance learning in the East Valley and some online classes. We slaved away over the past 2 years, I think I took 5 online classes last summer! These beach pics are the loads of fun I had between school work! I hope to never be stuck reading or writing papers on the beach again.

When trekked it to NAU for our commencement ceremonies! Daniel, My parents, Daniel’s parents, and Aunt Mary came along to celebrate! The day before we were at Daniels grad and my mom was talking about our disrespectful the graduates were – not Daniel. We got up to NAU and I busted out my jeans and wore my cap and gown! I thought my mom was going to give me a talk about proper clothing instead she just laughed.
Kym and I had fun waiting for hundreds of names to be called. I occasionally stood on my chair to see my clan. After I got hooded I strolled to the center stage… did a little dance… cried a little bit (this is a regular issue)… and danced some more.

HUMOR of our adventure – we walked back to the car to find this –

I just had to laugh! Daniel changed the tire quickly and we went to the Crown Railroad Café! Super good food if you are in Flagstaff! Look at this random
YOUTUBE VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dButYi7_OE

It is a great relief to be done with my masters! Now I’m trying to decide what to do! I gave the Doctorate some thought…. I’ve looked into some programs. My biggest fear is writing more papers. I think I’ll stick with first grade writing and work on other avenues!

HAPPINESS IS…
Supportive family
KYM and I sitting in classes together
Awesome friends
Car ride to Flagstaff
Staying at hotels
spare tires
Husband with car skills
Graduation ceremonies
another degree
accomplishments
An awesome photographer, Rick!
A weekend in Flagstaff

ASU Alumni!

Daniel’s Graduation!!!
We took the Light rail to The ASU Football Stadium. Daniel decked out in his garb before we even got close! He was so excited!!! It's been many year coming!
If you look closely at the last picture, Daniel got a green and white beach ball.
My favorite part was the FIREWORKS and how happy D was!

Friday was his Cozy