Jeremiah and I decided to celebrate our 3rd year anniversary (it's next week) at our favorite place - The Melting Pot! (where we got engaged). They don't have that restaurant in Central CA, so we decided to take advantage of it while we were down in Orange County this past weekend. We invited my mom and dad to celebrate with us! Look at all the yummy food!
As if we needed anymore chocolate!
This past weekend we traveled down to Orange County to celebrate Cindi & Steve's wedding. I felt like Fanny Brice in 'Funny Girl' when she sings I am the Beautiful Reflection of My Love's Affection...and comes out quite pregnant.... 
I took the day off on Friday and the dogs joined me and napped ALL DAY LONG! :) I got up from my reading spot, and Clara took my spot on the couch!
Jeremiah and I joined his mother, her fiance, his sister Charlene, and a couple of our really good friends in Lake Tahoe during this past 4th of July weekend. On the way up (the ride is about 6 hours), we stopped in Sacramento and toured around the state capital and Old Town Sacramento for about 4 hours. It was LOTS of fun, and a very good learning experience for me as I'd never been there before. I'm excited to show the pictures to my students this coming year.
On Thursday evening, I came downstairs to find Sandy and Clara surrounded by candy wrappers - and not just any candy ...CHOCOLATE wrappers. Sandy and Clara had found my candy bag that I'd just brought home from school. From the looks of it, they'd eaten a whole lot of it too...
This past week was our Spring break, so we took a journey away from Porterville and our home and enjoyed spending time with our friends Rebekah and Aaron on the central CA coast!
Yup...our dogs did neck surgery on their stuffed animal toy while we were at work...
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To all of our blog readers - it's definitely been awhile! We've already completed our first quarter of the school year, and we are almost halfway done with the 2nd one - CRAZY! We've been so busy this quarter, but thankfully everything that has been going on in our lives has been wonderful. Jeremiah has been working on his lessons for 2 different classes at his school, finishing BTSA (a teacher induction program that requires 2 years of added work in order to receive a teaching credential that will never expire) and his masters classes - he's almost finished, looks like he'll graduate in March if all goes as planned! I have been working on my own lesson plans including a new drama class that I've been assigned to teach this year, I'm also finishing BTSA, and I've been taking classes sponsored through my school district to get certified in a program that we are about to implement at our school called IB - International Baccalaureate - it's a very rigorous academic program that we'd like to offer - we just changed our name to Summit Charter COLLEGIATE Academy, so we're trying to live up to our name! The class I'm taking is currently online, and my other classmates are literally from all around the world, it's pretty amazing! I've also found myself the coordinator of all sorts of other programs at my school like field trip coordinator and ASB (Associated Student Body) Leadership coordinator for 7th and 8th graders - which means I'm helping to get together fund raisers, school dances, and other activities like the Spookfest that we had on Friday night - we set up a ping pong table, and had kids try to bounce a ball on one side of the net into one of three "fish bowls" on the other side of the net - and if they did, they won a goldfish - it was lots of fun, we made lots of money to help fund raise for the kids...but I am so tired!!! Anyhow, can you tell we've been a bit busy??!! But we're both having a blast this school year. 
Regarding the pictures, we've made some new friends here! I met my friend Nancy at the church we attend in Porterville last year before the school year even began. Turns out that she is a substitute for my school district, and she has subbed for my class almost every single time I needed a sub, and she is WONDERFUL! Well, we've gotten to know one another pretty well over the last year, and this year I finally had a chance to meet her two daughters - one is my age, and one is just a couple of years older. They are both married and both have a child. Last week, I went up to Nancy and her husband's mountain cabin that they've been building for the past 2 years and had a scrapbooking party with her daughters, and this week we brought Cindi, Steve and Charlene up to that home and hiked around the area. (It's called Camp Nelson). The weather was beautiful up there today (about 45 degrees, so chilly!) and the hike felt so great! We brought Sandy and Clara along as well, and they've never seemed happier - but it wasn't much fun cleaning up their muddy paws and fur afterward! Pictured above is the living room of their mountain home, and Sandy and Clara are sleeping on my lap with Jacob, one of Nancy's daughter's sons, posing with us! Nancy is the lady in the chair to my right. They are the greatest family, and we feel so blessed to have friends! (Below, by the way, is a picture of a bunch of ladybugs on a log - perhaps they're trying to get warm??? - well, it looked pretty neat) You can also see the snow-capped mountains in one of the pictures - the scenery is so beautiful up there -it's hard to believe it's only 35 miles north of Porterville! 
Yesterday, Jeremiah and I came home from an incredible Royal Carribean cruising 
adventure that took us to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta. Everything was beautiful on the cruise ship, and our destinations were beautiful too...and everyday was definitely a complete adventure. We went snorkeling in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, horseback riding on the beach, ziplining across the Sierra Madre, we climbed down waterfalls...and we're still alive to tell the stories! We relaxed on deck, ate some amazing food, played miniature golf, swam, ice skated, worked out in the gorgeous gym almost every morning, ate some more amazing food, read some good books, talked with lots of friendly people, saw some incredible entertainment (musical theatre productions, comedy acts, jazz music, singing performances, etc), ate some more amazing food, and slept (and dreamt about the amazing food we ate)! The trip was for 7 days, 3 of which were simply at sea. The weather was beautiful outside, though windy on deck quite often. The trip was fantastic in every way possible, and it made the 6 weeks of summer school work well worth it! :) 
So, it has been about 5 weeks since we've last posted, and a lot has been going on! I've been teaching summer school and am getting ready for my very last week (hooray!) I've been teaching students entering 11th grade who are taking my 6 week US History class in hopes that they will pass it and not have to take the class this year. While the class has been fun and rewarding for me, I definitely must say that I am thrilled to teach middle school students throughout the school year. High school students, while a bit more independent, have a lower energy level than middle school students (which most normal people love) but my energy level matches middle school students much more! Jeremiah has been working hard on his master's classes. He is attending California State University Bakersfield and continuing his Masters in Education: Curriculum and Instruction. He should be finished by next June!!! In his spare time, he has also been the best husband in the entire world! He's cleaned the whole house each week while I've worked, he's done the laundry, he's taken care of and trained our puppies, he packs my lunches, and so much more! And on top of all of that, he picks me up each and every day at 2:45 on the dot showing me all the love that a wife could ever ask for!
So what else has been going on? Well, as the next picture shows, we've been making some yummy foods! One of our fun nights involved making this pizza... nothing special, but super delicious! So, even though I've been teaching summer school, we've definitely been enjoying our summer break to its fullest as well!
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