Some things are better left unfound :)

I was bored and googled myself.. I found this... Kinda creepy huh?

School School.. and more school

I met with my adviser from NAU today and it looks like everything is good to go with being accepted to the Education Program, that is if I pass this Biology class. This class has a ridiculous reputation for being extremely difficult, I tried it last semester- and looong story short I ended up dropping a week before finals, so I'm taking it again. If this all goes well, it looks like I'll be attending NAU, every semester (summer and all) for the next year and a half, taking 6 credits a semester, and and then I'll be DONE with school, which couldn't sound more appealing! After that I'll still have student teaching left, but I feel like that's going to be the easy part.

My same adviser is the adviser for the Masters program and it looks like Kyle is going to plan on starting his Masters of Educational Leadership this summer. It's going to be hectic, but I think we know if he doesn't do it now, it's going to get harder and harder has time goes by. Which I completely understand- because after I get my bachelors there is no way I want to keep going and get my masters :) I'm proud of him though that he has that much of a desire to continue his education. Wish us luck, it's going to be a busy year!

Although I'll be going to NAU- I'm still a devils fan through and through!

Life Experiences

I've been subbing for the past week and a half and it has been one of the most boring classes that I've had. I did kindergarten a lot and I totally loved them. Their activities were so fun and interactive and I was always doing something with them. Unfortunatley, this time it's with 2nd graders and the teacher just has me giving them packet after packet, which is pretty boring for both them, and me!

Needless to say, I've done my fair share of blog hopping this past week, and I love to read other peoples blogs. It's so fun to hear about everyones stories. While Kyle and I were on our way to Hawaii, he told me that he loves being at the airport and wondering what everyones stories are. Where is that guy going? Where's that one coming from? It's fun to hear everyones stories and their different experiences.

The biggest experience that I've seen is, by far, people having children and how happy they make them. It makes me happy to see all these proud moms, and makes me sad at the same time that I'm not a mom. I had a miscarriage about a month ago and it's true when people say that it gets harder as time goes on. It's hard to see all these people saying how fun it is to be pregnant, and knowing that I would have been about 17 weeks now. I was telling Kyle the other day how if we were still pregnant, we would be able to find out what we were having in a few weeks! That would have been so exciting. I know these things happen for a reason, and now I'll definitely be able to sympathize with someone else when it happens to them... but like Kyle's brother told us, it's definitely not a club that you want to be included in.

Sadie Hawkins

To quote Dr. Bruce Bishop (Choir director at EA) we (mostly Kyle though) are eternally tired :)

This week Kyle had his sisters Kellie and Kathleen here to do choreography for his coming up musical review, and his brother Keith here to work on the auditorium and get it running a little better and more smoothly. I think he had something different going on everyday this week, so we won't go into everything because it would probably max out our blog :) This weekend we had the opportunity to go to Joseph City HS Sadie Hawkins dance, where Kyle was the DJ. We thought it would be really fun to dress the same, because all the kids would be matching too.
So we took a trip to ALCO before the dance, but no luck. There was nothing cute in the girls section that would match anything cute in the guys section, and in the guys sections nothing was Kyle's size or my size. So we figured it was a nice thought but oh well. WELL- I was getting ready trying to find something to wear, and I decided to wear this chocolate brown shirt that I usually wear with a black camisole, and I remember Kyle had a chocolate brown shirt too!! So we wore chocolate brown shirts, both long sleeve, and black slacks.
We had fun going to a High School dance together! It was definitely not the HS dances I remember though. It's amazing the difference between a majority LDS school and a minority LDS school. At my school they would all be bumpin' and grindin' (I say they because I didn't dance like it) and here, they just wiggled back and forth :) It was pretty humorous. At my dances there was also almost the entire school there, because people that were younger than 16 went- but here, if their not 16 they don't go- their probably not allowed. They had a pretty good turnout though, practically the whole Junior and Senior classes went.. all 50 of them :) It was also pretty funny that they had the entire dance on the stage, and there was plenty of room to have more.
Kyle was getting kinda frustrated with the kids, because he would play a song with a really good beat- and they would look at him like he was crazy because the songs were too new- Joseph City didn't know these songs yet :) So he went back to the 90's and they were good with that :) Keith came over and helped us for a little bit toward the end, they had a lot of fun tag teaming the songs.

I never realized how much I love to wear flip-flops until this weekend. When I was packing to go to the valley, I grabbed a pair of flip-flops "just in case" and let me tell you, I'm so glad I did.The weather was amazing. It was a little cloudy sometimes- but it was the perfect "park weather". Here, I can't wear them because it's too cold outside and my toes freeze- but I didn't realize how much I missed them until this weekend. They take no effort when it comes to putting on, you just slip your feet on. They are extremely comfortable. They go with anything. I love them. I can't wait till the summer when I get to wear them again :)

My Bouquet!

This weekend was again, spent at my parents house :) Kyle had to come down anyway to pick up his brother Keith from the airport, so we made a weekend out of it! His brother came down to work on the school auditorium, so Kyle talked to school into letting him use a school car to make the trip down here. Last time we tried this, we found out that if I rode with him, he wouldn't be able to take the car- so I just come down seperately so I could stay later, and it cost us the same amount :)
Our major project this weekend was putting my bouquet from my wedding in a glass globe- and my mom did a fantastic job! I think it's a perfect way to display my flowers and not worry about them getting too messed up at the years go by. It looks exactly how I imagined it in my head :) She is to amazing like that!

Dirk, Kobe, and Steve

Here is another one but this one Caleb showed me.

Plays Of Our Lives

Here is a video Chris showed us that I think is Hilarious

Government Rebate Checks

(This is Kyle again) While I'm all for receiving free checks in the mail the more I learn about these government checks we are all supposed to get this summer the more I am against it. Let me see if I understand this correctly and feel free to correct me if I am wrong because I hope I am.

As americans we have managed to get our selves so far into credit card debt and other *misguided "investments" that we are headed into a recession.

On January 8, 2007, the Federal Reserve released the G-19 Consumer Credit report for November, 2006. It stated the total was $872 billion, or $2,898 of credit card debt for every man, woman, and child in the United States.

This is besides the $1.5 trillion in non-revolving credit, like auto loans. That equates to an additional $4,984 debt per person.

Simply put we spend money we don't have. So what does the government want us to do? Spend More! They are going to "give" each of us around $600 to go spend to stimulate the economy to keep us out of a recession. Now I am no economist but in my mind this isn't going to work. Maybe it post pones a potential recession.

Now granted I do not think it is the governments job to teach us fiscal responsibility

The Outstanding Public Debt as of 15 Feb 2008 at 06:15:15 AM GMT is:


http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

I do think they should not train the American people to continue to spend money they do not have. This is no solution to an already major problem. Is this not just another example of postponing todays problems for tomorrows leaders.

All that aside here is the biggest problem with this plan. This money we are suposedly getting magically from the government has to come from somewhere. And it does... from what I have been reading, comes from your next years tax returns. For example, if a single person were to
receive a $600 rebate check from the government and their 2008 tax
return was supposed to be $900. That person would receive $300.
However, if they were to receive less than a $600 refund in 2008, the
rebate cancels out their refund, and the taxpayer would not owe the
difference.

Thanks but no thanks. Some one please explain to me how this is a good plan.

On A More Fun Side

(This is Kyle again) After that last post haha I just have to share with you a game I have been addicted to. Don't ask me why but I can play this game for hours, so if you have a few check it out and tell me what you think.

http://www.kongregate.com/games/Ninjakiwi/bloons-tower-defense-2

Election Philosophy

(Kyle is writing this) Here is one of those Blogs I probably shouldn't write and everyone is thinking well then don't write it. I have been mulling it over in my head for days. I am not going to pretend that my opinion matters to anyone but me but you all know thats never stopped me from sharing it before, so here it goes.
I have really found this election season to be very fascinating.

What are we really electing in a president?

I read an interesting article in Newsweek this last week where the author made the case for supporting Barrack Obama simply because of his ability to inspire people. Nobody can argue that fact. He clearly has inspired many people to at least get out and vote that never have in the past. The interesting thing is that it doesn't seem like Democrats are coming out to vote for him just to block Hillary. In recent polls democrats have said they would support either candidate in the general election. I find this really interesting because most republicans I talk to are purely motivated by not letting Hilary win. For those of you who remember the last presidential election does this ring any bells?

As a first year music teacher I don't know a lot about how to teach, yet. Though, I have in a large way adopted the idea that my job is not so much to teach even though that is a part of the job (Teacher :) but more importantly to inspire or motivate. Is this true of a President as well? When this election season first started to heat up I remember asking my mom and no offense, "older" people if they ever remember being inspired by a President? Overwhelming I received a NO answer from everyone. Granted my "study" was very small. My follow up questione was more surprising to me though and I would really like to have more answers for this question from anyone who wants to answer. Have you ever even really had "Hope" in a president. Hope in the sense that he (we haven't had a she yet) was really going to help make your life any better? While I didn't get as many hard NO's I still didn't get and Yes answers either. I got more "not really" and "I guess not".

So if Presidents don't really inspire do they motivate even? There are a few famous quotes from presidents that I remember like "ask not what your country can do for you but ask what yo can do for your country", "Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down
this wall!" Did history change because we were inspired or motivated by these statements. Thats debatable.

For this reason I don't think that just being inspirational is enough in a President. Maybe Obama will end up changing my mind.

What is more important in choosing a candidate to support, Issues or Character?

So if just being inspirational is not enough then what is truly important? I have heard some argue that we need to focus only on the issues at hand and where each candidate leans on each. Find the candidate you most line up with on the most issues and there you have your candidate. Others argue that you need to find the candidate with the strongest character that you can rely on to make the most correct choices in any situation that may arise.

Issues are a tough thing to understand and new ones arise all the time so how can we as the general public be expected to stay up to date and understand all of the issues. Or isn't that why we elect government officials in the first place. We all have busy life's where we have to go to work, raise family's and a million other little things so that we don't have time to research all the issues. So we "hire" or elect someone to do it full time on our behalf.

A lot of people would use Bill Clinton as prime example of the exact opposite of a character president. A lot of people in the country accepted that he cheated on his wife and then lied to everyone about that fact because he seemed to do a just fine job running the country at the time and as a country we were just fine. I would argue that if you would combine the problems President Bush faces today and throw a controversy like that on top and the people would surely not stand for it.

I believe the most important factor in a President or any elected official for that matter is character. If I was hiring someone to manage my finances, schools, freedoms, etc. I would not hire someone whose character I don't trust.

Romney or McCain?

While Character is the most important I will still vote for someone who has the same basic political views over someone who doesn't. I am a registered republican but would consider myself more moderate than ultra conservative. Thus it would come down to a republican and because I think Ron Paul and Huckabee are extreme conservatives it comes down to Romney or McCain.

A lot of people I have talked to throw there support behind Romney with what seems no or few questions asked. Being more moderate I think I would have supported the Romney that was the Governor of Massachusetts over the Romney that ran for president. And that is a big problem right there that I define them as two different people. I don't agree with all that he did as Governor, especially his health care solution which I view as Liberal, not even Moderate. Nor do I agree with all of McCain's views either. I don't think global warming is as important as he does but nor do I think improving our environment is a bad idea either. He is a little more moderate than I am.

The biggest issue between the two for me is the character issue. Any way you spin it Romney changed his views too conveniently on too many issues for me. I understand that to get elected you have to be willing to compromise some things but Romney seemed to me to try and be someone he wasn't. Some argue that the Romney running for president was the real Romney the Governor was what he had to be to get elected there. Well then he lied to people then or now. Either way this changing is not the character I am looking for in a president.

McCain is a moderate has always been so and everyone knows it. We know what we are getting. I believe him. I believe he will do what he thinks is best for the country and that is what I expect in a president.


Long story short

There are always issues that are deal breakers. For example I will never vote for someone who wants to legalize abortion or some one who wants to legalize gay marriage. But most issues to be honest I don't know enough about to have even good opinions about. I believe that McCain is the best most reliable candidate to lead the US into these difficult and changing times. He is old but when has that ever been a bad thing just ask President Monson. He may not be the most electable against a democratic candidate but I refuse to vote for someone out of fear or to block someone else. I know a lot of people may not agree with me and I would love to hear from you, isn't that what makes America great.

Tickets!

We booked our flights!! We are leaving at like 9 in the morning on Sunday March 23, and coming back Sunday March 30. We also got tickets to The Lion King on Broadway :) We are going there on Saturday the 29 at the 2pm showing :) I'm soo thrilled!! Thank you Marie!! (Kyle's mom) For the last 2 hours or so we have been looking at all the TV shows that would possibly shoot in NYC to see if we can get tickets, we think we might have a pretty good shot at the People's Court, but kyle is really hoping that the Letterman show or the Colbert Report will call us back- so let's keep our fingers crossed for him! I'm personally hoping for the Tyra Banks Show (it's the only show I could think of that would be there haha) but we'll see.

NYC or Bust!

I feel like it's time to let my enthusiasm out and let you all know that we're going to....

::Drum Roll::

New York!!

Kyle's brother Brent and his wife Jodie live in Rochester and his mom is soo very nice and invited us to go with her to stay with them for a few days and then go to New York City and see the sites there! We're hitting all the church history sites in up-state New York, doing the whole Broadway Musical thing... Niagra Falls... Statue of Liberty... Ground Zero... Central Park... Time Square..whoa I'm excited!! We'll post more about it when we've actually gone haha, but it looks like we're leaving on March 23ish and returning about a week later. I've never been anywhere east of Thatcher, AZ so I'm really excited to get to travel a little bit! I guess I married into the right family for that huh?!

We've Been Tagged!

I always wanted to be tagged!

7 random things about Alli and Kyle...

1. We met in a singles ward...
2. Kyle dated Alli for about 7 months, but Alli only dated Kyle for about 2 :)
3. Every night Kyle has a list of chores to do while Alli lays in bed... here it is: get alli a drink, lock the doors, turn off the lights, turn on the fan, and make sure the closet doors in our room our shut. If he forgets any... Alli is sure to remind him :)
4. Kyle doesn't like gum
5. Alli doesn't like stew. ew.
6. We both love Mr. G's pizza and subs!
7. We both support John McCain. Eat that!

We would like to tag....

Chris and Kati
Steven and Meghan
Stormison
Tara and Seth
Caitlyn and Zach
Tara and Kyle
Breezy and Dave

(That means your supposed to do 7 random things about you!)

He's NOT my DAD!

Saturday we took a little trip to Winslow to go to Walmart with Kyle's mom... we're just walking around, getting all the stuff that Kyle's mom was in need of.. and we happened to be in the food section. Let me paint a picture for you...
We're walking down the bakery section...
thinking.... We wish there was little food samplers like Sams Club and Costco..
What do you know?! There happen to be a stand right ahead!
The Lady working there looks at Kyle and says "Would you a sample?!" Kyle replies "Sure! But there are three different kind, which one should I choose?!" The Woman replies "You can try all three if you would like."

I know what I want... so I say "I think I'll have this one..." and I reach out to get one..

The Lady grabs my hand and says "Don't touch the table!! If you would like one you can ask your father and he get get one for you!"

Astonished, I look at Kyle and say... "This is my husband!" and Kyle says almost as astonished, and at the same time "This is my wife!" as we both reach in to hug each other

The lady looks at us in amazement and apologetic... so I look at Kyle and ask "Dad- is it ok if I have some?!"

We can't decide if it was a compliment or not... or who the compliment would be to... any suggestions?! haha

One Fun weekend!

Friday we were able to go to Buckeye like I mentioned in my last blog, and we had so much fun! Saturday it was my mom's birthday so we all went to the park by the lakes and really enjoyed each other's company. We played a little football and Kyle and I had fun swinging on the swings.. we had some hamburgers and had some amazing Strawberry Dream cake *yummy* and then headed back home on Sunday. I guess I love going to Buckeye so much because it still feels so much like home to me... I love it there.


Yesterday was... incredible.
We woke up at about 6:30 to a phone call from Kyle's principal saying that his school was on a two hour delay, because of how bad the weather was. We looked outside to see what the weather was going to be like for our little outing to Snowbowl, and everything was covered in snow. That's a pretty good storm if Holbrook gets 5 inches of snow. So we called my dad and they were already on the road headed up here, so we figure alright we better start heading up cuz it's gonna take us awhile in this weather. So we headed out at around 20 miles an hour toward Flag. The roads were pretty bad until we got a little past Winslow which was really good! About half way to Flag we had a stop really fast because a Fed Ex truck had flipped on it's side, which caused us to have a pretty good spin. But we landed in a fresh pile of snow so that' was good- I would have rather landed in that than the Fed Ex truck or another car.
After 2 1/2 hours (we usually make it there in about an hour and fifteen minutes) we finally arrived in Flagstaff. The whole way there I was pretty nervous that we weren't going to be able to make it there on time, but when we came into Flag the sun started to come out and the clouds started to turn into big white fluffy clouds instead of dark dreary clouds. Well we finally made it to the bottom of the mountain and hoped in with my dad, Chris, Steven, Derek, and My Uncle Gary and started to the top of the mountain to SnowBowl.


When we first got there we met up with Stormy, Alex, and Seth and we weren't very smart, and the first run we went on was a blue run (kinda hard) especially because the mountain and just gotten a foot of snow, so there was fresh powder everywhere, not good for snowboading. It was only my second time boarding, and Kyle's first, so it took us a good hour to get down the mountain. Kyle got stuck pretty good in a powder pile so it took him awhile to get out, and he was exhausted after that. We were both a little worn out at the end of that run so we went into the lodge to chill for a little bit. I decided that I wanted to do something that i already knew how to do, so my dad and I went and rented me some skis and Kyle took about an hour nap in the lodge :) After a little run to get me to remember and 2 runs from the tippy top of the mountain with my dad and Derek, I went to the lodge to see how Kyle was doing. He wasn't there! He's such a good sport and started at the green runs (easier ones) and we was doing great. So the rest of the day we went on the green runs which was an excellent idea. Kyle got to figure out how to board without getting caught in powder hills, and I got to ski pretty relaxed while watching Chris and Kyle biff it :)
Afterward, we finally saw our whole group again and we all went to eat a bun huggers. It was amazing. At the end of a ski day I'm always hungry, so it was the prefect place to eat. It was awesome.
We came home and the roads were amazing. There was no snow on the road and everything was nice and clear. It took us a little over an hour to get home, we showered, climbed in bed, and were sleeping by 9. It was awesome.
We both woke up this morning and are completely sore. From our heads to our toes!
Tonight we get to travel to Thatcher with a group of Kyle's students, spend the night, perform tomorrow, and some back tomorrow night. It's been a busy couple days, but they've been so fun!