A walk down mission lane...

who is that boy in the back?

water day

lake sevan

my trainer

baby

sisters' favorite food

making lavash (giant tortilla)

burrrrrrrrrr!!!

this girl reminded me of jack black. you know you see it.

hot armenian men. look out ernie - these unibrows are out of control

gathering potatoes

lice

baby #2

the hills are alive?

you can't see it, but i could definitely see my breath. every day. in this kitchen. for a month.

cackling grandma

one of the oddest families i've ever met. loved visiting them but it kind of felt like entering the twilight zone.

big big spider. big. big. big spider. those were everywhere in ararat. especially our bedroom.

mall

one of my favorite companions - native sister hakobyan

cute

very cute

There's something about winter that makes me pay attention to clothes more. Maybe it's because I actually have to wear them, rather than parading around in my bathing suit all summer long at Seven Peaks. Or maybe these dresses just caught my eye from the sunny backgrounds that surround them. Oh summer...I miss you terribly.

Victory!

Congrats Swamp Donkeys! Tonight they have swept the court, won "the most coveted shirt on campus," and become the volleyball intramural champions. We never doubted them.



Tyler doin his thing.



The team doin its thing.



The win!
Check out the kid that rushes the court, by himself.

We heart Swamp Donkeys!

Tyler's BYU intramural volleyball team, affectionately known as the Swamp Donkeys, has successfully made its way to the finals!

Yesterday the team kicked some butt in the semi-finals. There was some stress near the end with the final score of 22-25, but I knew they'd come out on top.

Congrats Swamp Donkeys! Good luck on Thursday!

yes it's 6:30 a.m. and yes i'm at work already. why? because it took me two hours to get here yesterday due to the snow storm. So leaving myself plenty of time this morning, i was delighted to find out the roads were clear and so was traffic....and that i have an hour before anyone even starts showing up.

so here i am.

on a fun note: what about sytycd??? i've never been an avid tv watcher til i got married and got a real job. now instead of working or chasing around boys at night, i get to actually watch some cool shows like sytycd.

my vote for best guy and girl: jakob and eleanore! they rock. amazing. can't wait to find out who's left in the finale!

p.s. mary murphey (the woman judge) should never be allowed to laugh or speak loudly ever again.

am i behind the times? am i the only one that just found out about the new family search website? well, behind or not, i'm already obsessed. move over mariah carey.

the new site is soooo easy to use! and it gives you so much information.

so the past few days i have been overly occupied with looking up my ancestors and who has or has not had their temple ordinances completed. i was especially excited on sunday when i found a whole list of names from making one connection with the help of my mom. she doesn't know much about her father and pretty much nothing about his parents. but now the connection has been made.

so this weekend tyler and i will do the baptisms and confirmations for my grandpa's grandparents and many other people on my mom's side of the family.


to find out more visit www.new.familysearch.org or www.lds.org.

so i suck at writing every day. it's just not gonna happen. but i'll do my best to get some more thankamonies out there before november ends...

today i'm thankful for weekends!!! having a full-time fairly stressful job has really created this extremity in my life. weekdays are really hard while weekends are really not hard. they're wonderful and oh so needed.

this weekend was what i call perfect. tyler and i didn't really do much at all. we spent friday with his dad and sister, jamie at gloria's little italy and byu basketball. saturday we saw "love happens" and had wendy's. today we had family dinner at my parents' for my brother's birthday. what you'd call an average weekend, but what i call perfect. as they said in "love happens", life is not so much about what you do, but with whom you're doing it.

and don't forget sleeping in! i only write this because of this strange phenomenon. i can not sleep in! well, i feel like i am. i wake up between eight and nine and that feels like sleeping in. but i know it's still early. especially because tyler is still sleeping like a baby. but i'm wide awake! this morning i woke up at eight a.m. and just laid in bed thinking for an hour! then i finally stared at tyler long enough for him to wake up, shake his head at me, and turn over. ha.

I HEART WEEKENDS

Wow. I'm ridiculous. The day after I said I would write every day and voice my gratitude, I forgot. So once again, we'll try this out.

Today I'm thankful for one thing: Tyler.

He's often the very best thing I have to look forward to every day.

Do You Believe in Me?

Do you believe in the youth of today? Well you better, because they believe in themselves. Believe in them.

Happy Thanksgiving!

November is not only turkey month, but more importantly thanksgiving month. As my wonderful friend Jenna reminded me today, I have been slacking on the blogging. So I'm going to pick it up this month and my goal for the rest of November is that every day I will write about one thing I am thankful for. Or at least one thing...Today I am thankful for many things!

1. I am thankful for women. It is so inspiring, healing, brightening, just simply delighting to be around fabulous women. This evening I attended a bridal shower for my friend Sarah. Such great women were there and I feel like I was renewed from their presence. Sarah, if you read this, I know you loved my present! Don't be ashamed girl. You will love it ;)

2. I am thankful that I was happy today at school. Teaching is just dang tough sometimes. It's a heavy burden to carry. But today I just felt a spark in my spirit that helped me get through the day with happiness! And let me tell you, things are much more enjoyable at school when I'm in a good mood.


3. I am thankful for those peanut butter cookies I/Betty Crocker made that await me so wonderfully at lunch every day at school.

just a little trip to the great southern utah...
















the dust...it's like art.

Some dreams are not meant to come true...

I seriously had a dream last night that I got pulled over by a cop on the freeway. And guess what happened this morning. Awesome.

these are some of my favorite pictures from our wedding, so far...we will be getting the actual photos from our actual photographer on sunday, but we were lucky enough to have a second photographer in colorado and a third photographer in salt lake (my friend christine olson). the above and next few pictures are in thornton, colorado.

the rest of the pictures are in salt lake on the day of our wedding, actually before we were sealed.

this last picture was our "first meeting." it was the first time we saw each other on our wedding day.

dancemedia.com :: "It's Gonna Be a Long Walk" by Travis Wall

Watch this video!!! I especially appreciate the second half.



"The world would be a miserable place WITHOUT THE ARTS." - Elder Boyd K. Packer.

I've often thought to myself how crazy it is that I'm still dancing...after 20 years since my first dance lesson...The answer is the space in my soul that the arts feed.

Art. The definition is "the expression or application of human skill and imagination typically in a visual form, producing works to be appreciated for their beauty and emotional power." Why do humans continually have a desire to express themselves? For me, when i feel something deeply, it almost itches at me to get outside of my body. Whether it's love, anger, hurt, happiness, fun. I want others to see it and experience it too. Perhaps that's why I love dancing so much. And
choreographing.

I just found this video online but it really struck me! The choreography is amazing. There is so much going on; I think I could watch this dance over and over and over and still find something new. It's itneresting to see the formation and growth of CONTEMPORARY dance. Contemporary dance is the major form of dance today. It is basically a conglomeration of all dance forms. When I watch this dance, I see ballet, jazz, lyrical, modern, and hip-hop. As dance matures into the 2010's I only imagine more of a fusion. All forms are coming together and what it's creating is a union of human expression that goes far beyond what each of those forms could produce by itself. I see so much emotion and expressional value in the dancing of today.

We're married! Finally it happened. 09.03.09. I'm so happy! Nothing is better than knowing that when I'm finished with work, I just get to spend the entire evening with Tyler. It's awesome.

Maybe even more exciting than our wedding, perhaps, is what happened this past weekend...We had a second reception in Denver (where Tyler is from). It was really great! It looked beautiful there. Tyler's mom and dad did a great job putting everything together. The rather unpleasant part of the trip came when we headed back to Utah on Sunday. Tyler and I drove with my parents, which was the first mistake. JK mom and dad. We're driving along, Tyler and I fast asleep in the back of course. Suddenly the car starts shaking! It wakes me up and I look out the window. Whoop! Not even kidding, the tire falls off the car and roooolllllsssss across three lanes of traffic!!! I thought I was dreaming. So the entire tire fell off. Long story short, we were towed to Rawlins, Wyoming and spent Sunday evening and half of Monday stuck in a podunk hotel room. The most exciting part of the stay was probably when Tyler and I went to Subway. Give me a break. There was nothing to do. So, finally, at 4:30 PM on Monday, some family friends came four hours out to Rawlins, picked us up, and drove us back four hours to Salt Lake. It was pretty cool. Really, though, we were blessed. We didn't get in an accident and neither did anyone else. Whew. Thank heavens for prayer before traveling.

Anyway, we're married now and happier than ever! More pictures will be coming!

We're getting married in THREE DAYS. I'm speechless.

"Pizza has changed my life because of its deliciousness."

An actual thesis statement from my seventh grade student for his autobiography.

the stars lean down to kiss you. and i lie awake and miss you. pour me a heavy dose of atmosphere. cuz i'll doze off safe and soundly. but i'll miss your arms around me. i'd send a postcard to ya dear cuz i wish you were here. i'll watch the night turn light blue. but it's not the same without you. because it take two to whisper quietly. the silence isn't so bad til i look at my hands and feel sad. cuz the spaces between my fingers are right where yours fit perfectly.

- owl city. love this band.

i have finally and officially finished moving into our apartment!

now i'm just waiting for tyler to get here...

Today I'm missing...

Tyler.

A lot.

It starts the same with a boy and a girl...

and a huh and a game