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.