A little too close to the End...

Well, yesterday was the scariest day of my entire life. I watched my husband come inches away from sliding off an extremely icy canyon cliff. I thank the Lord that He was there guiding the car to safety.

We drove down the Shoshone falls canyon to take a look at the waterfall and take some pictures. On the way up there was a side road down to the lake that was covered in frozen mist from the falls. The trees and grass were beautiful, so we wanted some pictures. Little did we know that the road we turned onto was covered in about an inch thick of slick black ice. There is no control in your car on ice like that. The cliff was at our left and the canyon wall at our right. We kept sliding toward the cliff. Finally the car stopped and Scott told me to get out. He wanted to try and get the car turned around or reversed or something.

I had to turn around. As soon as he tried doing anything the car slid more toward the edge. He realized the brake would do nothing and he had to drive down the road and turn around. I was praying harder than I ever had before.

As he was coming up the hill, the car couldn't get any traction right on the last bit, so he tried the brake. Instead of stopping, he slid backward with no control and the Lord pushed the back end of the car into the canyon wall. The car went right between a large rock on the right and left and the back tires found the sage brush and grass. He stopped and was able to get out of the car. I waved down a truck coming down the main road and they picked us up and took us to the top to call home. They ended up taking us home. Mom Dodds called a tow truck and Scott and Sue went down to meet them.

300 feet of cable and chains, a little salt to walk on, and a few minutes, they were able to pull the car up.

I had never been so happy to see and hug my husband as I was when he walked in the door.

It is amazing to think and reflect back on those scary moments and see the Lord's hand in what happened. I am just in awe that nothing worse happened. We were so close to falling over the edge. Especially Scott. I don't know how I could live if I lost him. And the Lord knew that too and kept him safe.

I will never forget this experience and every time I remember it, my stomach will turn and I'll shake a little bit. But I will never forget the love of God and his incredible hand leading us and guiding us through our life. He is there. He loves us. He loves you. He is keenly aware of our needs and the desires of our hearts. Do not ever forget the Lord. He never forgets you.

Graduation, interview and job all in a week!

So my life has been a crazy whirlwind this past week! Here is the timeline:

Monday: finished my last day student teaching in kindergarten

Wednesday: went out to lunch with student teacher friends and found out about a job opening.

Wednesday night: got a call from our advisor that she had called the school.

5 minutes later: got an interview scheduled for the next morning.

Thursday 9:30am: interviewed with the principal and vp

10:03am: got a call and message from principal

10:35am: called him back, wanted me to finish the application and come in for a 2nd interview on friday

3:00pm: 2nd interview scheduled for Friday at 8am with the whole kindergarten team

Friday at 8am: 2nd interview with whole team. GREAT interview :-)

11:10am: phone call from principal offering a job as a Full time kindergarten teacher starting January 4th for the rest of the school year!!!!!!!!!!!!

So after that phone call and talking to him for a bit about what I needed to do, I called Scott and told him. I was super sweating, shaking and almost crying. What an incredible blessing!!! I signed the contract on Monday morning and got the keys and talked to the teacher Monday afternoon.

I am really excited for this job but I am absolutely terrified and overwhelmed. I have no idea where to start or what to do. I'm so used to mentor teachers telling me what to teach or plan or do, and now I have to make all the decisions. What a huge and exciting challenge!

Also, since Scott and I are here in Idaho for Christmas, I only have 6 days to completely set up my classroom and do home visits to about half of the students! AHHHH!!!! I would LOVE any help or suggestions or anything. I definitely need any help I can get! But I'm so excited and I already love the kids even though I don't know them. :-)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

A picture says 1000 words....

Well, since I have absolutely NO idea how to nicely organize photos on this blog, here is an assortment of things that have happened in the last 3 1/2 years. These pictures include novice ballroom attempts up to back up tour team. Also, freshman roommate to eternal roommate. 1 year anniversary, 1st kiss and epic moments caught on film that define us as a couple (pic with sunglasses and hats).

I have enjoyed these past 3 1/2 years at BYU. Enjoy the pictures that captured only small moments in time.

p.s. I AM A BYU GRADUATE!!!!!!!!!! (now I just need to receive that diploma...)

We are excited about our future! It's looking bright :-) And we love you all!

Career Change

Many of you probably know, but for those of you that don't I will let you in on all the new happenings. Karissa and I are about to be done with school, and I was looking for a job, but I have moved a new direction in the career field. Karissa and I have decided that a career in Business Finance is not where I am supposed to be, and so we are going to Chiropractic school. I know that that may sound crazy because it is so different from Business, but I used to want to be a chiropractor. I decided to go the business route only because that is kind of what was easier and I really didn't know what else to do. Karissa and I both feel really good about the decision, and now we are trying to figure out what school to go to, and I am looking to defer my graduation so that I can still go to school at BYU while I get my pre-requisites done. As soon as we know if I can defer or not we will be looking for which school is going to fit us the best. We are so happy and excited. I finally feel like I am headed the right direction in my life which is so nice to know. So instead of thinking that I was a week away from being done with school I am now going to be in school for over four more years. Oh well it will benefit us in the end. Well that is our life in a nutshell for the moment. We love you all.

I love...

I love....

christmas music

christmas lights

snow

clouds

hot chocolate with peppermint ice cream in it

soft cozy blankets

cuddling with Scott under a cozy blanket

Irresistible Apple lotion from Bath and Body

my Toshiba laptop

our Jeep (even when it sucks)

reading Christmas books

Kenny G and Harry Connick Jr. at Christmastime

making cookies

eating delicious soup

going out to sushi with best friends

seeing best friends get married

big family Thanksgiving dinners

having full and well stocked shelves in the kitchen and storage room

sharing food with others

holding brand new babies

cleaning the house before Scott comes home

teaching school

thinking about being done with school Dec. 15th

sweatpants and hoodies with a blanket on the couch watching a cute movie with my Love

free ward breakfast buffets at Magleby's with french toast

I love...

spending time with my family

I really love...

spending time with Scott

Only one more week of student teaching and then I am done! One more week of classess and finals for Scott, then he is done! Too bad since we're graduating we don't qualify for Pell Grants anymore...

Life couldn't be better!!!!

Why the 15 hour drive took 18 hours. We have the worst luck with cars, EVER!

If you wanna feel good about YOUR car situation, read on :-)

Thanksgiving was awesome. We made the 15 hour drive out to Kansas in our Jeep to spend the week with my family and spend some time in Branson with the Brett's for Thanksgiving. It was such a fun week! We did alot of playing, eating, and not sleeping.

But this post isn't completely about Thanksgiving, it's about what happened afterward, on the way home.

Have you ever driven on i-80? With a broken car? I don't recommend it.

Our Jeep had a couple issues on the way out, but nothing big. We took it to the shop and he couldn't find anything wrong. So we thought we'd be okay driving back.

About 30 minutes west of Lincoln (or about 3 1/2 hours on the road), our day became a nightmare.

Our car started having this problem with the gas and acceleration. Basically, we'd have our foot on the pedal, and it'd be fine then suddenly the pedal would seem to disengage and gas would stop getting to the engine, so we had to coast until the pedal and gas would catch again and we could keep going.

It kept doing this over and over about every 20 miles. Then every 10. Then we couldn't go over 70 mph. Then we couldn't go above 65. At least 4 times we had to pull over and coast or stop to get the gas to catch again and drive.

Twice we the car completely lost power. We had to pull over and sit for a couple minutes before we could get it started.

After this happened continuously for about 200 miles, we decided to start stopping at every town and filling up the tank. Of course it was Sunday and not a single shop was open.

Oh wait, one shop was open. And we went to it. It was in Cheyenne, WY about 500 miles from home.

Biggest waste of 45 minutes ever. The guy was completely dumb and had no idea what was wrong. He couldn't help us at all, and he was rude. The only thing he did was quote a new fuel pump and filter at $400 and 2 1/2 hours. (like we have that time and money)

Plus he was smoking a cigarette. (While messing with the gas gauge and testing the gas pressure.)

So we left.

Scott gave the car a blessing (sounds dumb, but keep reading) and we kept praying...along with my entire family and Scott's parents too. After the blessing we started off again. Going slow, nursing the gas pedal and stopping every 100 miles or so to fill up the gas tank. It didn't completely stop having problems, but it became infrequent enough that we were able to at least drive the speed limit and not worry so much. We only had one more episode of all the lights going off then on, and a few more small episodes of the gas losing power.

Scott was such a trooper and drove the entire way home. He was exhausted by the time we reached Provo canyon, but we made it. We could not have made it home without the prayers and faith of our families. THANK YOU!!!!! It was a crazy adventure, something I won't forget, and something I don't want to repeat.

It was also a testimony building experience about the power of prayer. The Lord really is out there and although we have challenges and trials, He's gonna take care of us. I have never been so grateful to fall into my own bed safe and sound as I was last night (well, this morning around 1:30 am). And that's our story.

Highlights of the actual vacation part (if you keep reading):

-playing rock band with my family

-seeing Kent and talking to him! that was awesome!

-eating amazing Thanksgiving food and watching the men have a towel whipping war after doing the dishes

-finding a great laptop deal at Best buy....

-....camping out overnight for 4 hours at Best Buy in 30 degree weather to GET the great laptop deal

-seeing the Brett's show.

-spending time with mom and dad and the rest of the family

-eating delicious Mexican at Jose Peppers the last night in Kansas

-being in Kansas

-being with my Family!!

Happy Wife

Well, I am about to make my wife a very happy person. Tomorrow morning we are going to Kansas to be with her family for the holidays. This may not be a big deal to some, but it is huge for Karissa. She is a super homebody, and hasn't been home since last Christmas. She came close when she was in Nauvoo. I am excited to be able to make her as happy as she is going to be. It always makes me happy to see her bright shiny smile and true happiness. I am grateful for a wife that has such a good family, and that she loves so much. I don't know what I would have done if I had married someone who didn't love her parents as much as she does. Her love for her home, parents, family and everyone astounds me. I don't know how she can have so much love to give. She really is a genuine person, and I feel honored to have her in my life and to provide a little bit of happiness in her life. She really is the only person that I have ever met that makes me as happy as I am. Karissa I love you so much!

Scott

Audi problems

Well this Audi of ours is going to be the death of me. Of course our car is broken again, when is it not broken. I knew some of the things that needed to be fixed on it so I decided that I was going to have one of my friends help me and I would fix it myself. Our front brakes were going out so we got the parts and started working and actually it wasn't too hard as long as you have all the equipment. I changed the brake pads and rotors in under two hours, and then proceeded to give it a tune up and of course we had to put in new spark plugs (I remind all of you that the most I had done on a car before was change the oil). It was really fun to learn how to do different things with the car. I then had to take it into a muffler shop to get a part welded back on to the bottom of the car which wasn't too bad. With all of the repairs we did on it, the car remains broken. Pretty much in its same condition. I took it into a shop and they told me that the rear cv joint is torn and that Audi's cv joints are not serviceable and so I would have to get a new rear drive train. Well a new one is $1100, and a used one is $400. I have also been told that I need several other things to be fixed right now. It is all so frustrating and I don't know what to do. I want to fix it all so that I can have a car that works and drive it into the ground, but I am wondering if it is already in the ground. I can't really sell it here in Utah because even if we fix the drive train it won't be able to pass safety and emission. We would love to sell it to someone in Kansas because it doesn't require safety and emission which would be great, but how do we get it to Kansas if we can't really drive it? It is all so frustrating because I was trying to fix the car in order to get it to Kansas for Thanksgiving. Well that is our life in a nutshell. So much going on right now it is driving me crazy!

Scott + Karissa

P.S. We love you all

No more 3rd grade :-(

So here I am, once again, sick.

Sometimes I feel like I get sick more than anyone I know. But, this summer wasn't too bad. And this fall hasn't been as bad as last fall.

I've worked with 3rd graders every day for the past 8 weeks. A couple weeks ago 10% of the school was out with swine flu. About 5 of my kids were gone that whole week.

I'm surprised I didn't get sick until now.

But after laying in bed all day (literally) and not hardly moving, I'm starting to feel a little better. Whether I'm better or not by tomorrow, I'm going to the football game!! (thanks for the tickets Jim!)

And Thursday was my last day with my 3rd graders. What a bittersweet day. I wanted to cry, kinda, but I didn't. We did lots of fun things in class. Coloring, reading, games, halloween computer games, etc. Plus a pizza party. And they all hugged me. It was awesome!

The best part? One of my boys brought me a dozen pink roses!!!!! It was SO sweet! (maybe he should give Scott some tips ;-)) hehe. It was a wonderful day. I'm gonna miss those kids like crazy!!!! I already do.

Scott actually probably doesn't need tips. He brought me some delicious clam chowder from Zupa's today. I couldn't even get up to make myself food. What a sweetie.

And now that I'm feeling a little better, I'm attempting to finish my Teacher Work Sample.

What a beast. I better pass. I can't wait to be done.

It's due on Monday. And I move into Kindergarten on Monday. I have mixed feelings.

the end.

1st day of Fall Break...perfect!

Today was amazing!!!

9:00 am: Woke up. It was amazing to sleep in.
11:30 am: Held the SWEETest, cutest, brand new baby nephew Tysen!!
1:00 pm: Went in for a hair color appointment
4:30 pm: Walked out of Taylor Andrews with HOT new hair!!! It's a great colorS! I loooove it.
4:45 pm: Started fall decor shopping with my sister. It was amazing.
8:00 pm: Finished shopping and setting up the house with some cool new fall decorations.

It was an absolutely wonderful day! I can't wait to see Scott in an hour or so I hope.

and I know you want to see my hair....
I'll post pictures as soon as I can.

...Maybe I'll post a picture of every hair color/style I've had since we've been engaged. :-)

And maybe I'll post some pictures of our Fall styles in the house. :-) I love making a house a home.

Life is Good

Well it has been forever since I did any writing in this blog of ours but I thought that I should tell you all how wonderful my sweet wife is. She is so amazing and is always working so hard to make her life the best possible. She goes to school everyday for eight hours and doesn't get paid for it, and then some nights of the week she goes to work at Tucanos and isn't appreciated as much as she should. Through all of this she still does everything and tries to be happy about it.

I am so grateful for her and all that she does, I really am so lucky to be with a person that works so hard, and wants to be better all the time. I love her so much and am so grateful that I have married the best person ever.

Anyway our life together is going well and we are working towards our graduation in December, we are still looking for a job for me after we graduate. I am really hoping that I am able to find something quickly, but we shall see. I am trying, but it is a difficult market out there. I know that the Lord will help us out and we will find something sooner or later. We are grateful for all of our family and friends and all that you do for us.

Scott

car problems...again

Once upon a time I thought it was a really "good" idea to buy a cute, fun, materialistic Audi because it was "nicer" than a Honda Civic. I figured people would think I was really COOL and had money because I drove an AUDI.

2 years, $5500, and more care repairs than I can name later....

...It wasn't the best idea I've ever had.

Now the transmission fluid pan is cracked and leaking transmission fluid everywhere. Our first quote? $900. Yeah right. I'd take it to the junkyard before I pay $900 to fix that. Scott's done his research though and hopefully it should only put us out no more than about $350.

Do you know what I could buy with $350???

A brand new wardrobe for me and Scott
2 pairs of latin heels (if I was still ballrooming)
5-6 weeks of groceries
A new couch set
A month of rent
7 dinners at Cheesecake Factory
A new puppy
An ipod
New cell phones
Golf clubs (for scott)
A Provo league soccer team (haha)
A new TV

And the list goes on. But guess what? We're spending that money on a car. An old, beat up, won't-start-unless-you-hold-the-key-turned-for-10 seconds, falling apart, money sucking AUDI.

Will we ever buy another European car again? NO!


On a lighter note, Scott is my hero. He is amazing. I feel so blessed to be happily married to him. He takes such good care of me when I'm sick (like now), and works so hard to pay for expensive things we wouldn't have had to pay for if I wasn't so dumb when I was 18 (like my car).

Everytime I find out another person close to my age is divorced, I just feel so grateful for mine and Scott's marriage and relationship. I couldn't live without him.

And now I am off to plan my lesson for tomorrow, drink some more Emergen-C, blow my nose 23 more times, sneeze 14 more times, and try not to cough my lungs out.

I think I'm allergic to Utah.

biggest bruise ever

So remember that one time I thought it was a good idea to not wear shin guards at soccer practice?

...and then I got kicked in the shin...

..hard.

And now I have the biggest goose egg bruise of all time?

Oh yeah.

That was tonight. :-)


At least I think it means I'm pretty aggressive and not afraid of people. hehe.

Too bad I can't take a good picture of it...it's huge.

what a good day

We watched Coach Carter today.

What an awesome movie with a great message.

Too bad they have to include inappropriate words, actions and music.

When will they start making good movies again? Without the trash?

Oh well. I still loved it.

And tried not to cry :-)
It's a good ending.

My life is great.

And I have the world's most amazing Husband.

For no reason.

He's awesome and I love him...

...way more than you. I promise.

:-)

Sunday's rock my world.

86 days!

100 days until Christmas day...

Do you know what that means??

...86 days until we graduate

86 days until we can leave utah

86 days until we can do whatever we want, whenever we want, WHEREver we want



Wahoo!!!!

The sky was amazing tonight. Looked like a potentially good storm.

Disappointing as usual.

But 5 guys burgers is good stuff!

And the clouds were awesome despite the lack of storm. :)

I like my life.

And Scott.

He'll be 25 tomorrow.

Wish him Happy Birthday!!

remember Bill Nye?

I'm pretty sure there was snow on Timp this morning....

...it probably melted by 10am.

I have to keep reminding myself that my stress load will only last for about another month. That's if I can figure out how to understand the TWS (teacher work sample) and figure out how to do it.

I'm doing my unit on health.

I'm pretty sure the TWS is written in Chinese...

And yes, I did just watch a Bill Nye science movie about nutrition.

Twice.

Our neighbors stink up our house sometimes.
Good thing I got an Apple Cinnamon air freshener.
It smells like Fall.

I need some serious chocolate.

Fall Fever!

This morning was beautiful!!!

But sometimes I think my definition of "beautiful" is skewed.

I absolutely thrive on waking up to clouds and wind in the morning. It seriously makes my day.

Then when it gets sunny in the afternoon, I get sad.

I'm getting soooo excited for Fall.

For some reason I love it.

I love the trees changing colors, the leaves falling down, the mountains being 50 different colors, the sharp wind, the low dark clouds, the drizzle, the rain, the smell of pumpkins, the smell of apple cider, warm sweaters, soft blankets, sweatpants, scarves, hats, the mystery in the air, clam chowder, taco soup, hot chocolate, movies and popcorn while snuggled in a blanket, cool air, spicy smelling candles, trick or treating, fall decorations, etc.

I love fall. It may be my favorite season.

Fall is just, so, Fall-y. It's dark and mysterious. You never know if it's gonna rain or snow or be dark and windy, and I just LOVE it!

Plus, Halloween is my favorite holiday to have during the school year (in an elementary school). It's just so fun with all the fun decorations and everything.


I don't have Spring Fever, I have Fall Fever! And I love it!

And I'm so happy because I just got the best phone call. :-)

i need a dog.

I was so excited to finally have a day off and do something fun.

And then the day flopped.

I think I hate one day holidays.

Sorry I'm a pessimist right now. I'm just in a crummy mood. I need a girls night out. Or something. Something fun and different.

Maybe I'll make a million dollars at work tonight and I can buy a house for us and finally get the puppy I've been dreaming of and life will be happy!

hair color...always a dilema

I want to dye my hair dark brown again.

I think I look better that way.

What do you think?














Or this.

life in orem. it's cool

Well, it's been awhile since either of us posted. A couple of new things are happening!

1. Scott (finally!) started his job with Pirate Island Pizza. We went in the first day it opened to get 50% off food. It was...okay. They still need some practice cooking...maybe I should teach them. ;-) The idea is great though! And it looks pretty awesome on the inside. After his first serving shift later that night it was oh-so-refreshing to hear him come home and tell me everything I already know about how people tip, how serving really stinks sometimes, and how they kept him there after his shift for no reason doing nothing. I'm glad he will now be able to really feel my pain when I have a bad day and make no money.

I think he'll like it there though.
Hopefully.
We'll see.

2. I (finally!) got my student teaching assignment! I'll be in 3rd grade (gasp!) at Sharon Elementary here in Orem, which is like 2 minutes from where we live! How awesome is that. I bet I could walk to school. Seriously. Maybe I will...when it's warm. And not cold. Or hot. Just warm. I'm really excited to be in 3rd grade, but I'm super de dooper nervous! I only have experience in Kindergarten, and that's a humongo jump! It will definitely be a good learning experience.

I think we want to move to Colorado. Well, I know I want to move to Colorado. I keep day-dreaming about it. Do you know anyone in Colorado? Scott needs a job there I think.

I had a dream last night that we had sextuplets (that's 6, right?). And we lost 2 of them somewhere. Then we lost another 2 of them. Then we found 3 of them, then found the last one. I took one of them to the hospital cuz she was sick, and the nurse stabbed her with a needle in the bum and she stopped shaking. Then she told me I had to feed them. Then Scott and I were trying to get in a suburban to go somewhere, and we didn't have car seats so we just put the babies in a big cardboard box with blankets. I had to sit in front and try to feed them, then he held them. Then I woke up. What a weird dream. I'm sure as heck not sure I'm ready to be a mom, but I'm definitely getting more excited to start having kids some day.

I think.


We did find out that if we get prego while on BYU health insurance it's way cheap.

But once we graduate in Decemeber, our premium goes up to $500 a month.

We decided to try NOT to get prego until we're graduated and on a different health insurance plan.

And I want a dog.

Really bad.

And I think I want to quit Tucanos.

Last night was bad. Really bad. I'm nervous to go in today. ugh.

Nauvoo!!!!! readers digest version

I'm back from Nauvoo!!!! What an amazing trip and experience. I had such a wonderful time performing with my team and traveling alot! We went to Carthage, Fairfield, Springfield and Quincy besides Nauvoo. We did a show in all of those except for Carthage. Since the tour was 2 weeks and I would hate to bore you all with the details, I'll just list some highlights.

-Spending the first morning there rehersing on the outdoor stage, eating lunch, then spending the afternoon rehersing on an indoor stage because of a threat of rain. (it never rained)
-I got really sick about the 2nd day, luckily it only lasted about 2 days. Prayers truely get answered!
-We performed every night on an outdoor stage. It was a very rough, unpolished, painted floor that was oddly shaped. What an adventure dealing with that floor, humidity, bugs, and the weather!
-At our show in Quincy, our key to the trailer lock broke so the Fire Dept had to come and cut the lock with huge pliers. It was pretty crazy.
-Friday afternoon we drove through some crazy thunderstorms with reports of tornadoes all over. I got some wicked awesome pictures of a small, supercell storm we drove right under.
-Testimony meeting on the last night we were there. What a spiritual exerience.
-The people of Nauvoo were amazing! They absolutely loved us and practically worshipped the ground we walked on. We were Nauvoo celebrities! Our "tour guides", Dean and Kathy Hughes were amazing as well.

And of course, I can't leave out seeing Scott and my family for a couple days, and then seeing Kim and her kids the next day! It was so fun to have family come out!

And now I'm back home and soooo grateful to be back with Scott. I'm in the process of finding another job because I'm tired of working in a restaurant and they don't give me enough hours. Any ideas anyone?

Some day when I find my cord or a computer that works, I'll upload and post some pictures. We're pretty behind. love you all!!!!!

Alone :(

Well monday night was the first night that Karissa and I have spent apart since we got married and letting me tell you what it was not very awesome at all. When she left I thought I might enjoy sleeping alone for a little bit and I would be able to hog the whole bed to myself, but it was a horrible night. I couldn't sleep very well and I just was worrying the whole night because she wasn't there. This last night was much easier but I just enjoy it so much better when she is in the bed with me. Life is just better with her here.

I am in Twin Falls Idaho currently with my family until later today. I came up to talk to some family friends about the food storage and how I can help them get what they need to be prepared for the future. Hopefully I can sell something so that I don't really come home empty handed or anything.

I really can't wait to see Karissa in a few days. I am going to Nauvoo on Friday to see her and I can't wait. It will be really fun to see her dance and see her so happy as she is totally enveloped in humidity which she loves and the Midwest storms which she doesn't see much when she is living in Utah. I can't wait to see her and then after I see her another week alone. I am not excited about that but maybe I will get some things done that I need to.

Scott

Pre-Tour Ballroom Show!!!!

Hey everyone!!!!

As you know, I'm leaving with my ballroom team in about 6 days for our Nauvoo tour. Before we go, we're putting on a Pre-tour show!!! It's absolutely free and it's gonna be awesome!!!

Details:
Saturday, June 6
6:00 pm
BYU Wilkinson Center

As far as I know, you don't need to "get" tickets, just show up a little early and grab a seat. This is the last time you'll get to see me dance with my team, and probably dance ballroom. I'm done with dance after the tour ends. So sad. So take advantage and come watch!!!!

my hair is gone....

I chopped my hair off.

It's gone.

At least 8 inches...maybe more....

And it's now SUPER blonde.

Pictures coming soon.



-karissa

New Job

Hey everybody I just wanted to write and let you all know about the company that I just started working for. I am working for a Food Storage company called Tomorrow's Harvest. I am sure that very few of you have heard about it but it is a company that sells food storage in a much better, efficient, and inexpensive way. I understand that food storage can be a hassle and annoying at times but it is something that is really important. I would love to talk to everyone and anyone about this and if you live close enough I would love to come and cook you a free meal and explain more about the product. I know that it is something that you would love. If you know of other people as well that would love to know more about this I would be more than happy to talk to them about it. If you want to know more before you talk with me or other people want to know more about this company you can look at their website which is http://www.tomorrowsharvest.com/index.html. I hope that you all look at this and that you have the desire to do something about the importance of food storage. These products have a storage life of 25 years and are more than 50% cheaper than the Cannery. Thanks you guys are the best.

Scott

Yay! for new...

Yay!

for new carpet!!
for painted walls!!
for tv in our house again!

It's been a mess around Jim/Kim's place, but it's so worth it! The carpet is looking and feeling great! And most of the walls are all painted, including the basement and our room. Things are looking fantastic! I'm excited to move stuff back in and rearrange a bit. :-) And we moved our tv so now it actually works and we can watch more than movies! Yay!? hehe.

and yay for new jobs! I'm loving working at Tucano's. It's a ton of fun, and definitely holds the potential to make a ton more money than at Brick Oven. Wahoo!

I love summer! (I feel much more productive in the summer...)

Happy Birthday!!

Happy birthday to me!
Happy birthday to me!
Happy 21st birthday deaaaarrr meeeeeeee!
Happy birthday to me!!!!!

Yes, it's true. I'm 21. I feel old. But young. Scott's been great. After the day ends, I'll write all about it. So far I got breakfast in bed and some awesome presents, and a super clean house last night! Yay!!

Please help my sister!

Hello friends and family,

My little sister, Danica, is taking an honors composition writing class at a local community college in Overland Park, KS. She is not even 16 yet and is accomplishing such a feat. This honors writing class has been a great challenge for her, and she needs extra support to complete her final project. She has created a blog for people to share stories about how they have been touched by service in their lives. She has included a statement about her requests for the project and your contribution, as well as a wonderful Christmas story about how she has been touched by service. It would be a small, but wonderful, act of service if you would take five minutes from your day and leave a comment on that post with a short story of a way you have been touched. So far she only has one comment, and I am sure she needs a great deal more than that. Even if you don't know her directly, know that she is my baby sister and it would mean alot to me if you wrote something. Thank you so much for you time and energy. Love you all!

http://www.touchsomeoneelse.blogspot.com/

karissa

Our New Car!!!!

Alright so we got a new car and we are really excited about it. We hope that all of you are excited about it too. We feel like we got a good deal so we are happy. In fact we could probably turn around and sell it for a profit of several hundred dollars, but we like it too much to do that.

New jobs for us!

We got new jobs!!!

Scott will be starting working at Pirate Island as a server as soon as they open. It's like an upscale Chuck E. Cheese but better.

I just got a job at Tucano's as a server!!!! No more Brick Oven! Wahoo! I am so excited. I really could not stand Brick Oven, it was wearing down my sanity!

Yay for school almost being completely done!

Now we just need two cars....

our life is like a tornado

So it's been awhile since we've written on this. It's been the craziest past 2 weeks ever! I feel like our lives are constantly whirling and twirling and I don't know when we'll get a break. Summer? Hopefully!! So here's the reader's digest version because nobody likes to read super long entries.

-dancesport march 12-14, we averaged about 4 hours of sleep a night for about 4 or 5 nights
-praxis test march 14th. worst thing I've ever had to do.
-NEW nephew! Aaron is such a cutie. We loved being able to walk to the hospital to see him and Becky
-transferred to a new classroom for my practicum, huge blessing! :-) :-)
-beautiful, warm, sunny, gorgeous weather for about a week...now it's snowing
-I got sick, again, on wednesday night...still recovering
-scheduled an interview with Nebo school district for an internship
-Car Auction on march 21st, really cool actually. ALMOST bought a car...
-Draper temple dedication on sunday, cool
-Power outage Sunday night, for 3 hours. not so cool. the whole neighborhood was out.

And I think that's pretty much the exciting stuff. Scott's just been pluggin along right there beside me as we try to stay afloat during this busy time. He's such a trooper. Today I don't have to be in the kindergarten classroom because they don't have school. It's super nice, but I wish we lived closer to campus or had two cars so I could hang out at home and not be stuck here alllllll day. Oh well, eventually I might get caught up on homework....or life in general?

To-Do
-grocery shopping, lots
-clean the kitchen
-clean the living room
-clean our room....yikes.
-laundry
-homework
-lesson plans
-cook
-make phone calls
-sell concert tickets
-team performance on tuesday
-practice for medals exams
-find a new job
-....sleep?

Just me, Rissa, blogging...

Well, I'm not too good at writing in this consistently. Sometimes I feel like I have to write for other people and sometimes I don't. So this time will mostly be an update and writing for me.

Life is progressing well here in Orem at the Dodds' home. We're way busy with school, work and dance (for me). It's getting even harder to spend time together. I savor every moment I get to spend with Scott. For example, today we had class from 8-4, then I had to work at 5:30. But, it takes 20 minutes to get there, so we saw each other for about an hour including a 20 minute car ride, so really only 40 minutes. Then I got home at 10:15. It's crazy. Oh well.

I started working in the school's this past week. It's been quite an adventure. I'm still not really sure what to do, and the teacher hasn't been clear what she wants me to do, so that's tough. And this might seem dumb, but her classroom looks like a tornado hit it and it's driving me NUTS! I can't stand the piles of junk everywhere and how she can never find anything. It's so annoying. My classroom will definitely be organized but still user friendly. We taught m-w then came back to campus thurs-fri. It's weird being on campus again. And next week is gonna be killer...all my teachers decided to load all the assignments in one weekend. Ugh.

...and I'm still working
...and dancing
...and TRYING to keep a clean house
...and cooking
...and everything else.

I feel a little stressed.

It's been so fun to have Jasmine out here though. We've had her over several times for dinner and to play and I love it. I love that she's not doing a whole lot out here yet so we can be friends. I'm sooooooooooo lonely at this house. I hate it. Scott is wonderful and awesome and I love his company, but sometimes it's just so nice to have girl friends and to hang out with other people. Living so far in Orem is rough because nobody wants to drive that far and we haven't made friends in the ward yet. It's been a really hard on me.

Other news, not much. Just busy. It's competition season too, so instead of seeing a steady income we're seeing a steady outflow. It'll be over March 14th though. So far my partner and I have just done one competition. We made semi-finals in Novice latin and 1/4 finals in Pre-champ. We also compete tomorrow. Fun.

I can't wait til summer. Winter is so depressing to me. Spring is my favorite season, but in Utah it's nothing like Kansas so I need to prepard myself to be disappointed. I'm betting there won't be nearly as many thunderstorms, no tornado activity, and no humidity. Ugh. I wanna be somewhere else. Anywhere but Utah.

On a happier note, I calculated that we both only have less than 5 months of school until we're DONE!!!! Yay! I can't wait. Christmas this year will be the best EVER! (cuz I won't have to go back to class) :-)

Pictures! Valentine's day!

Alright, here are long awaited photos of ME and Scott. :-) We had a wonderful Valentine's day aside from me being sick with a really bad cold...for the 2nd year in a row. :-( Hopefully not next year! On Friday, Scott surprised me with a really pretty rose after my dance class. Then we went home and chilled. I called in sick to work, and then got even more sick than I already was. He made me chicken noodle soup and brought me Emergen-C, what a wonderful guy.

Valentine's day morning I was feeling a teensy better so I made him heart shaped french toast, eggs, bacon, the works. I brought it to him in bed. Mmm, yummy. Then he surprised me again with my choice of a black purse, out of two. I still haven't figured out how he knew that I didn't have any black purses at all, then found the two cutest ones in the store for me to pick from. I, of course, chose the Guess one, and I LOVE it! Then we got dressed up and went to lunch at Macaroni Grill. Our server was lame, but the food was wonderful and the company couldn't have been better. On our way home he, yet again, surprised me with a bag of dove caramel chocolates. My fave. So good. Then we got ready and went to my team's ballroom show in Salt Lake. I barely managed to pull through while feeling horribly sick, but I made it. What a wonderful day!

Here's pictures of my hair color changes. Brown...

Then orange....you can't tell the color as much in the picture as you could for real...

Then finally a good blonde color! This picture doesn't
highlight my hair, but it highlights my awesome new purse!!

We were matchy-matchy and lovey-dovey :-)

MUAH!

Bubba the Beta

I got a Beta Fish last night! He is a really pretty blue, teal and red color. I named him Bubba and he lives in a bowl, currently in my room. I love him.

Teaching school starts in 2 weeks. whoa.

that's all!

...and it's snowing.

...and I need to post some pictures...

Life is SOOOO exciting!!!

Okay, so I'm really totally way excited about the news I just got. Our Ballroom team (back-up tour) is officially going to Nauvoo for a 2 week performance tour in June!!!!!!!!!! We haven't been sure or known if we were going or not for the past couple months, but today our coach got official word that we HAVE been invited!! I'm so freakin excited :-)

Other exciting news, Jasmine is finally out here in Utah! She's been debating for awhile whether or not to come out, and she finally did. She and mom drove out on Wednesday, so not only is Jasmine here for awhile, but I get to hang out with Mom this weekend! What could be better?....

.....Dying my hair Blonde!!!! Yes, I did dye it blonde. It was quite the process. I tried dying it myself with Scott's help on Monday night. After two boxes of color, it was a golden/orangey color. So I made an appointment with a hair school, Bon Losee, the next day. They spent about 5 hours trying to fix it. It was still too red and a bit orange so I went back the next day, Wednesday, to get it re-done. This time the gal knew what she was doing and did an AWESOME job! She got 99% of the orange look out, and put brown and blonde in. It took another 4 hours, but I love my hair now. It's very sassy and fun. I'll post pictures asap.

Other than that, life is good.

And dying my hair blonde is really not better than hanging out with Mom and Jas... :-)

Undecisive

Last night I had a dream about twins. Don't over-analyze, I'm not pregnant.

Sometimes I get really bored and have alot of thoughts to write down, and there's just not enough room on facebook. Plus, I don't really know that alot of people read our blog, so I guess I can blabber on as much as I wanna. Right now my current dilemma is: Blonde or Brown?

I keep looking at past pictures of myself and I get to the Blonde hair and think "Oh my gosh! I love blonde! I wanna be blonde again!" then I get to the dark brown pictures and think "no way! Dark brown is hot!" And then I think "well, maybe I should cut my hair? It looks cute short!" but wait! "It looks awesome long too!" Such a dilemma! I don't know what to do. Anyway. Those are my thoughts right now. Blonde or Brown. Should I be daring or safe? Long or short? Ahhhh!

Ear Infection? Yeouch!!!

Yep, that's right, I, Karissa Dodds, am experiencing my very first ear infection. And let me tell ya, it's hurts like a freakin.....!!!! yeah. Anyway, I started by getting sick with what I thought was a cold, then Thursday night my ear, very quickly, got completely clogged and started feeling excruciatingly painful. I had no idea ear infections hurt so bad! The last time I remember pain this bad was when I broke my foot when I was 12. Man, poor little babies who get it all the time. I guess I know what to do when our kids get sick now...

Scott's been great through this whole thing. I have a vivid imagination and when I get really sick I start thinking of every possible worse case scenario. He's awesome at calming me down and telling me I'll get better and not to be worried. So far so good :-) It has been a bummer going through the first week of school. At least I already know everyone in my classes so they don't think I'm some weirdo.

My New Years resolutions now are:
-Eat more healthy (not so much sugar)
-Invest in and TAKE vitamins DAILY
-Exercise and drink lots of water
-Do whatever I can to alleviate stress
-And everything else I hope to accomplish...the list is long

My immune system seems pretty shot and I need to boost it up so I don't fall over dead with illness student teaching next semester, or even this semester for a couple months. Yikes! Hope everyone is more healthy than I am!

Scott is for sure. ...he doesn't get sick. Lucky.

School

Well, school has started and the week is almost over. I guess half over today but it seems like more than half over. I got two homework assignments the first day of class, due the third day of class and it just took me 2 1/2 hours to finish them. Man, this semester could be tough. I'm excited though. Feb 25-April 11 I'll be spending three days a week teaching in an elementary classroom, then two days sitting in classes on campus. Then next semester I student teach and GRADUATE! Ahhh! It's crazy. :-)

Anyway, aside from school, it's been a little stressful around here. Our car is having problems again. We had it taken to the shop while we were out of town, and they "fixed" it for a nice chunk of change. 4 days later it wouldn't even start. We had to have it towed to the shop again and "fixed" again for another chunk of change. It's been pretty crummy. It hasn't helped that it snowed a foot in a day, school is in Provo and we live in Orem, all the stress getting ready for school, living in a new place, working etc. Not too mention it's been a little crazy around here getting those neighbors moved in the other side and fix-ups done too. Jim and Kim have been great though, I think they've made alot of progress! Hopefully they don't continue to find too many more things needing to be fixed, they've already found a ton! :-)

So yeah, on top of all of that, I've gotten pretty sick. Again. Congested nose, sneezing, really sore and constricted-feeling throat, and awful cough. Plus a headache and lovely womanly pains. Oh the joys. Hopefully it's just a nice cold from the Kansas-Utah weather change, and I get over it quickly. Other than that, life is great. Peace!