xoxo

OOOOHH I can hardly wait.

I feel so Christmasy this year.

Maybe its all the kindergarten crafts

Or that we've been ripping links off our paper

Christmas countdown chain every day since

Thanksgiving.

Or that we have a Holly Madison bobble head doll

instead of an angel on our tree.

I loooove it.

I'm still not into Christmas music.

But i'm into everything else Christmas.

Let it Snow

Woke up this morning to this. And it still hasn't stopped.

Perfect cozy sunday.

Church, Taco Soup, Wrapping Christmas presents,

Arrested Development and cuddling with Press.

It won't be long

We have a good life. We both get to do exactly what we have always wanted to do. Since I can remember, I have wanted to be a teacher. i love love my job. My Kindergardeners inspire me and remind me of everything lovely in life. Preston is so good at everything he does. He is brilliantly smart and so handy. His passion is music and he gets to do it as a profession and support our little family by traveling the country and playing songs from his heart. How cool is that. This means that our life lately consists of Press being out of town at least a couple days a week. This last trip he has been gone for a week. We are both pretty independent people and I do fine by myself, But of course we are so much better together and sometimes, a lot of times I miss him. bad. So we go on skype dates and talk a bajillion times a day and I tell him about kindergarten and Grey's and he tells me about New York and Vermont and Wisconsin and airports and shows that went real well and ones where he accidentally dedicated 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas' to the only Jewish girl in the room.

So Thank you technology. because seriously, how did life even exist without cell phones and Skype and youtube and texting and Modern Family? Thank you technology. Cause you make Preston feel a little less far away even when he is miles of air and road and land away.

One thing that is nice about having time to myself is that I am extremely productive. Like just last night I watched at least 3 episodes of Greys Anatomy while cutting out 40 giant paper candy canes, separating 20 boxes of crayons by color, and water proofing all my snow boots. Oh, and I shaved my legs. Happy Saturday night.

Thanksgiving

We flew to Tahoe. It was real snowy.

Then We road tripped to San Jose

To See Aunt Babe and Uncle Tony:

Babe

Tony

It was so nice to just be with my family.

I love love them.

Mostly we were real lazy. Ate a lot, lounged a lot.

We got Lou Lou a Lady Gaga hair piece.

Looks very nice. Can you believe she is 11 years old?

So pretty. She's my oldest niece.

Then theres Kes who is the cutest 3 year old ever.

I think I'm obsessed with her. Good job Tresa. She is real perfect.

I can't wait to see everyone again at Christmas.

Dear family can you please all move to Idaho?

Immediately?

Our Kindergarten Thanksgiving was awesome. We partied hard, then watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and ate popcorn. I wish I could post more pictures but I feel like its maybe not ok to put pictures of the kiddies on my blog. But this one's just the back of their cute heads loving Charlie Brown, so I think its ok.

Yesterday

Yesterday in kindergarten...

Little girl motions me to lean in real close then whispers in my ear:

"Mrs. Pugmire did you know there are two kinds of P? One is like the letter P.

P says 'puh'. The other one is like I have to go pee really bad."

Me (laughing): you're right

Little girl: "and I really do have to go pee.

thats what made me think of it."

______________________________________________

-Then the other day at recess another girl

in my class came up to me tapping her chin & said:

"Mrs. Pugmire right? I remembered you!!

Want to know how I remembered it was you?...

(I think: um...because I'm your teacher and have been every day for the last 3 months? Or because I JUST saw you in class 2 minutes ago?)

...I remember your earrings.

And I remember your voice."

Perferct.

And I really do wear the same earrings like everyday,

but its a good thing, huh?

Cause how else would my students know it was me when

they saw me on the playground?

ALSO.. We made these turkeys for art the other day. They turned out so funny looking, more like deranged big birds than thanksgiving turkeys. But my favorite part is that without any provocation from me, all the boys cut the eyelashes off their turkey eyes. I noticed it and asked one of the boys if it was an accident.

He said: no, you accidentally gave us girl eyes.

Girl Turkey

Boy Turkey

Its been a while

I was looking through my pictures today. These made me happy...

First: Preston's little brother, Kason is so into art. He draws constantly. We took him to a local art show a few months ago. He fell in Love with Makana's style.

So Makana offered to come over and teach him some things.

They cut up magazines and drew tattoos all over pretty girls.

Second: Double Rainbow! Right over our house!

What does it mean?

Look at Preston geeking out.

Third: Belly Dancers opened for Preston when he played in Tacoma.

How funny is that?

Fourth: We got to go to SUU last weekend. Preston played with We Shot The Moon. Jonathan is launching his solo career and just raised over $13,000.00 in a month on kick starter to record his album. So cool. People are amazing and generous.

Preston loves Jonathan a lot.

Like enough to dry kiss him.

Last: These little faces.

It was crazy hair day so we took a crazy class picture.

For Real Last: Preston's mom got these aprons

when she married his dad 29 years ago.

We recently inherited them.

mine says To- For- Preston gets -Gether -Ever

And yes, they're denim.

Saved By The Bell

Why, yes that is Preston and Mr. Belding

They met at a conference this week in Tennessee.

He sent me this picture probably to make me extremely jealous,

and it worked.

but one time I did meet Uncle Joey from

Full House.

Except I can't find the picture so does it even count?

boom

Preston made cheesy potatoes. He put them in the 350 degree oven to bake for 45 minutes cause thats what the recipe said to do. At 4o minutes the entire Pyrex pan exploded. Like a nice new heavy duty Pyrex. Weirdest thing i've ever seen.

And way sad, cause the potatoes looked way good.

No big deal, just scooping glass out of the bottom of our oven.

This is a more accurate brown hair picture,

cause the last one looked like black hair.

Kindergarten

I started teaching kindergarten two weeks ago.

Dream.

Its real fun slash reeeeal busy and my voice sounds like a frog from using a nice friend voice and singing everything all day long. I teach two half day kindergarten classes.

All the kids are to die for adorable. And real funny too.

I died my hair dark because i'm obsessed with Julie and Kristine who are most likely obsessed with Jane's darkness.

this is the only picture i have right this second to post

Preston starts his fall tour at the end of the month. He's going to Maryland and Pennsylvania and a bunch of other East Coast colleges. Then he'll be in the MidWest most of the winter. I'm so proud of him. He works real hard. He played in Rexburg the other night. Such a killer show. He is my favorite

Life...

I just finished this book for maybe the 5th time.

I am so in love with it every time.

I cannot explain the gooeyness I feel for every word on every page

and the story as a whole.

Perfect.

I think i stop at least once a page and beg Preston

to let me read him a passage or just a phrase.

Julie, who is the best book recommender,

gave me this book a year or so ago

it changed my whole mind about books and reading

and life.

- I got a teaching job this fall. I took 4 state exams last month

and the job is pending I pass all 4 of them

I have passed 3 and am waiting for the results of the last one.

But I feel real confident about it.

Confident enough to post that I have a job this fall

I will be teaching either Kindergarten or 5th grade.

The principal will let me know...

the first day of school.

awesome. keep me on my toes.

-Also, Preston's first name is not Preston, it is Donald after his Grandfather.

We were with all the cousins yesterday and we were guessing middle names. I told his 8 year old cousin that Preston's middle name was Preston.

She looked at me like his parents were the weirdest baby namers on the planet and said.

"His name is Preston. Preston. Pugmire?"

Funny.

Its like when there's some missionaries

whose last name is actually Elder

so their name tag says Elder Elder.

I always think that's so funny.

HAVASUPAI

Just got back from the most incredible place in ever.

Really.

We hiked down into the Grand Canyon to the

Havasupai reservation.

Dream land.

Preston's whole family came.

Matt planned it all out and it could not have been more fun.

We started down the canyon at 4:30am

I really thought the 10 mile hike would be not too bad.

I've been working out regularly and i've hiked long hikes before,

but this was absolutely killer.

Maybe it was the 20lb pack on my back that did me in

and I think mine was the lightest of the crew's

I felt like a 100 year old lady by the time we got to the camp.

All my joints were creaking.

But it was real worth it.

We hiked through caves and down mountains to waterfalls

Walked for miles through forever green ground to go cliff jumping

stopping to fix my feets

All the boys jumped off the ledge and off the waterfalls.

i took pictures. cause i'm not the jumping off high things type.

We slept in hammocks.

and swam in blue green water.

The hike down was 10 miles, but if you and your hubby and his 14 year old step bro accidentally miss the turn that leads up the switchbacks to the parking lot and follow the river bed instead of the trail for 3 miles in the wrong direction then the sun goes down so its pitch black out and you only brought a key chain flashlight and you're real disoriented and freaking out, then run into another group of lost hikers who just saw 3 mountain lions eating a dead horse so they're a bit more freaked out than you and so you end up hiking in a more wrong direction with them for a few miles before your family organizes a search team to come find you... then the hike out takes about 18 miles plus a few extra creaks in your joints and blisters on your feet.

Bruises on the bottom of my scraped up feet!!

so lately i've been eating ibuprofen like its candy

walking like a gangsta with my gimp legs

sporting slippers

...and dying to go back to Havasupai

and do it all again next year.

Arizona

We spent a long weekend in Arizona to visit family

It was a mild 115 degrees

and it maybe got down to 95 at night

Maybe

Press took extreme measures to keep cool on the drive down:

yes, that's a wet sock draped over his hot face

and yes he took his shirt off

and rolled it up in the window to block the sun

and yes the car was air conditioned,

but not enough for Preston

Despite the hellish heat, we loved every second of it.

we got to go to Kyle and Jillie's sealing and reception.

We love them madly.

Their reception was one of the best:

mustaches on a stick for photos,

a candy land emporium center piece

where you got to fill yourself a bag full of treats.

an ice cream bar with heart shaped scoops and toppings galore

great music and dancing.

I love weddings.

We stayed with the Kemptons,

Preston's mission presidents.

The kindest people in ever.

President Kempton cooked us breakfast every morning

and Sister Kempton made us a huge basket of treats for our room

Our bed was so high off the ground

there was a stair case to get into it

We felt like royalty

Thank you, Kemptons.

We went to a Diamondbacks/Dodgers Baseball game

The Diamond backs are the worst baseball team

Ever

Its just true

They are really bad &

baseball is a really long game.

but the game was really great

because it ended by the roof of the stadium splitting open

and fireworks going off.

Dream.

We love you, Arizona.