Today was my last day of student teaching. It was a total party day at school. I went to lunch with the kids and went to recess and schooled them all in freeze tag. Then the teacher and all the students organized a huge celebration for me with a billion presents and treats. It was the nicest thing ever. EVER. I felt like 1 million dollars.

And to top it all of, I came home and walked into Miley Cyrus 'Party in the USA' blaring and this...

My very own party. With 100 balloons...He is so nice

Maybe I got A little Jealous of Julie's Shauna Post...Maybe

Dear Shauna,

Happy birthday darling!!

We love you very very very very very very very much.

You're real pretty, and skinny and funny and miraculous.

And you tie Julie for my favorite sister.

And we were real good/rich business partners

And I think you might have been grandmas favorite.

And Collin's hair looks so funny in this picture, I couldn't not post it.

I love you. Balloons or no balloons, but always preferably balloons.

Especially on your birthday

LOVE,

Corine

****

It snowed today in Rexburg.

This place is so lovely, it kind of makes me very happy.

Love and Light

This is Elder F. Enzio Busche. He was my mom's mission president when she served in Munich, Germany a long long time ago. I got to meet him one day. He is such a powerful, kind man. Hearing stories of my mom's mission all growing up inspired me to serve. It was one of the best decisions of my entire life. Meeting My mom's mission president was so so cool. Overwhelming. I just wanted to thank and thank and thank him for the impact he has had on my life.

And I LOVE his tie. I think its a real thick shoelace.

Here is a little message from his heart to yours.

Happy Halloween!

Corine and Preston's Halloween Past

Preston's not in this one, but how hot is Shauna's hair cut?

I don't know why its underlining everything i type here. and i'm too computer lame to figure out how to fix it. Anyway, my favorite costumes were from when Julie Tresa and I were kids. My mom went allll out making them. I don't have pictures here, but maybe soon. Our costumes were killer. I think thats where Julie gets her costume making talent. Can you believe that she made these? and these?

AND ON A DAY OF THE DEAD KIND OF NOTE...

3 years ago today, Grandma Bell decided to peace out and make Heaven just a little bit cooler. I was on my mission when she passed away and it was the hardest thing of my life. Even knowing about life after death and the gospel of Jesus Christ, it still super sucked and I might have cried at least once a day for 2 years. The thing that did make it a little better was the fact that she died on Halloween. Like early in the evening so there were still plenty of trick or treaters who definitely got the ultimate halloween spook by seeing a hurst pull up to the house and roll her on out. And i feel like thats how Grandma Bell would have wanted it, just a little creepy and sneaky and reeeeal funny. I love her so much and i miss her to death. Preston and i got to go to the Temple for her a few months ago. It was such a healing experience. The Temple is so real. Families can be together forever.

Porch Swing

I served a mission in Oklahoma. Preston wrote me letters every week. I wrote him back. i would tell him how much i love loved the porch swings. They were everywhere. And it was such a dream to just sit and swing and watch the world.

While I was still out serving, Press wrote me this song below.

Push play for a listen.

And then for my birthday, he build me this...

I'm kind of more than obsessed with it... and him.

Sometimes

Sometimes when I'm bored I like to show off for Preston.

He's a reeeeal great singer and musician. Look at this

I don't want him to think he's the only one with musical talent in the fam.

(can you hear him say 'you are the worst lip singer ever!' in the background?

He LOVES when I make him music lip singing videos)

We Got The Beat

I teach fifth grade science. We're learning about the circulatory system.

I thought, how cool to let them see a real heart.

So I called a butcher and asked if he could save me one.

I expected a clean little organ that i could just stick in a jar and let he kids look at.

When I got to the butcher's he handed me the bag he saved for me. It was reeeeal heavy.

I got home and turns out he was a way generous guy cause he gave me the ENTIRE chest cavity of a sheep, fatty heart membrane, heart, lungs, trachea, intestines... the works.

So all i have to do is take it home and extract the little heart out. I'm freaking out at the thought of it. And pretty close to abandoning my amazing 'let them see a heart' science lesson and just printing off a picture from the internet.

Lucky for my students, my mom-in- law is a surgery nurse and offered to perform the surgery on the sheep guts and get my little heart out.

I'm nominating myself for teacher of the year.

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Dear Lindsay

Just look how pretty you are. And not just that, but soooo talented. Remember when Preston asked you to paint some of his musical inspirations for him and you came back with these most incredible canvas paintings? Me too. you are AWESOME. Pleeeease can you start a blog? Cause it would be the most perfect thing ever. And I bet i'm not the only one begging.

Thank you. Love you.

RAfting

What we learned on our family white water rafting trip down the Snake River:

-Preston + Short Shorts= The best tour guide ever

-If the tour guide says it takes 3 hours to do a 26 mile stretch, he means 7 1/2 hours

-It's not necessary to prepare for the huge rapids 12 miles in advance and when i say prepare I mean wrap Kason in 5 garbage bags and not let him cut arm holes.

-The rapids are always just around the corner and they're HUGE and when you get to the corner and the water is as still as still it means rapids are just around the next corner and when they're not there either, its just the next one. And if we would have rowed for 8 hours instead of 71/2 I just know we would have hit A rapid cause i really think they were around the next bend

-Kason can walk faster than out raft rafted.

All in all it was a perfect experience. Frustrating, annoying, long, hilarious and we all learned about love and patience. We hit zero rapids and were fighting the wind to cover inches of ground. It was such a funny day. For me it was a huge wake up call about how I show up in life. I blamed my frustration on everyone else. And i thought i wasn't happy because the trip wasn't going exactly like i thought it would in my brilliant head. So I was more than bratty, mostly on the inside, but I might have let a few bad words fly out. And then i decided that maybe instead of it being everyone else, maybe the problem with my happiness was me. And i was right. I was looking and looking for it and it never came. Its because there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. If I look for it i'll never find it. Happiness is something that I bring to the table. There's no happiness to be found in doing things, I can only bring happiness to every experience. The first half of the trip I was pulling out my hair crazy annoyed at the situation, and then I just chose to BE.

And I remembered that its always a choice. And when I'm frustrated or mad or whatever, its cause I'm choosing it. And i can choose out of it just as easily. I can see it so clearly now, but you should've seen me on that raft. Can you say brat?

P.S. Preston wins for shortest shorts check out those legs for days.

Sing us a song, you're the piano man...

Went on a date with The Gillrie's. Matt got us a table at the Dueling Piano Bar in Salt Lake. The fact that all 4 of us we were unintentionally (ok so only 3 of us were and we pressured Press into complying.) color coordinated pretty much guaranteed a perfect night.

And when i say perfect night, i mean Preston dancing on top of a grand piano to Sexyback in front of a bar full of strangers. No big deal, just my life.

Dirt made my lunch

I went to Nicole's to get some fresh veggies out of her garden. I've never ever picked food from a real garden. It seriously blew my mind. Like this carrot just got made out of seed and dirt and water and how does that even work? And these corn stalks were taller than me!! And grew the biggest sweetest corn. But it all came from just dirt. And it was sort of a spiritual experience, like I loved that the earth just created all this food and if that's not a miracle, then what is? And now all i want is my own garden. So I can put a seed in dirt and get a giant zucchini out of it.

Dear Shauna

Dear Shauna, do you miss Viv as much as I do...SOOOOO much?

Meet My Brothers

I grew up with four sisters. Lori, Julie, Shauna, and Tresa. They are so pretty and my best best friends.

Lori and Tresa both have Girls. And i have a Girl mom and girl dogs. (my fav. sister, Shauna not pictured)

Then i Married Preston and got FOUR brothers!!! They are the Best!! Matt plays pro table tennis (who does that) and can do a gainer off a 30 ft high dive. Jamin is the buffest tallest 14 year old in ever, There is no one funnier than Cyrus and Kason can school ANYONE at checkers and is the best artist i know.

Also, Kason is the strongest 2nd grader in his school.

Boom. I got hooked up.

Our first date

My most favorite video in ever.

This is how Press decided to end our first date.

You'd marry him too.

(Don't mind the butt crack)

zzzzzz

Preston fell asleep

So, I might have surrounded his little body in bread crumbs. you know, just to see to see what would happen.

Funny.

This is how I know that Preston loves me.

Cause before bed at night, when I wash my face, I look like this. And he still calls me pretty.

Lost and Found

When I was a kid, my Grandma Bell gave me her wedding ring to use when I got married. So before I left on the Mission, I gave it to Preston, to give back to me when I got home.

A year and a half later, I got home.

We dated for a good while longer.

One day we were at Taco Bell, which is maybe my favorite food and definitely my favoritefast food. So, I’m on my second to last bite of the best bean and cheese burrito ever made, when Press says, “I lost your Grandma’s ring”. My heart sank into my gut. And all of a sudden, my heavenly burrito tasted like dog food. My immediate thought was ‘Why are you telling me at Taco Bell?’ and my second thought was ‘are you kidding or are you joking? either way, its not funny’.

Now I do get to say that Preston had been absolutely sick over this for the past year and a half. He didn’t think ‘oh, Corine loves Taco Bell, so I’ll take her there to tell her about her Grandma’s ring’ it was more like he finally got the courage to tell me and didn’t know when he would ever get it again so he told me. flat out. He lost the ring.

I cried. Not a lot, but medium. I knew he felt so so bad and I didn’t want him to feel worse. I sorted through all my mixed up emotions and bottom line, I loved him deep and I wanted to marry him and it wasn’t about the ring. Its just a material thing, I could get over it. And the good news is that Grandma Bell didn’t just give me one ring, I have a ton of her jewelry and even a ring that looked real similar to the lost one. So I gave it to Preston and told him we could use that one.

We’ve been married for a year and a half. I love my life. I love love Preston and I love my ring. It was my Great Grandmother’s so it’s real special too. I had pretty much forgotten that the original one was lost when last week Preston took me up to the temple. We were walking around and he was being real cute and hand holdy and I felt like we were fifteen. I had no clue what was going on. I said ‘what are we doing here, are you going to propose to me?’ he asked where I wanted him to do it. I picked a spot, totally thinking he was joking. He got down on his knee and pulled out a ring box and opened it. It was my grandma’s ring. Nothing, nothing could have surprised me more. 3 years later after losing it, he found it. And now I’m blinging it up with 2 wedding rings.