Couples' Retreat!

Aaron and I love going up to Eden, UT...that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone since it has been a year and a half since we first went up there and I talk about it ALL THE TIME. Seriously, we just went up there for New Years Day!

We thought that it would be a really fun idea to share it with our friends. Clarise and Geoff were about to be month long husband and wife and we thought that we would celebrate with them by going on a little get away!

Aaron and I checked in on Friday and watched Say Yes to the Dress and ate pizza till Geoff and Clarise came up. It was so fun to spend the first night just sitting around and chit chatting and laughing. My first girl/boy slumber party! (But not really...since every night with Aaron is technically a girl/boy slumber party!)

The next morning we woke up and awkwardly Clarise and I both got into the showers at the same time and I stole most of the hot water. The boys had to deal with pretty icy showers! We talked and ate breakfast. For some reason we talked a lot about this month's National Geographic. Also, I took this picture in the morning to show the separate beds that Aaron and I slept on! Since this trip was for Clarise and Geoff, we decided to let them have the room with the king size beds. We are so kind.

Next we played Imagine If... It was great. Has anyone else seen Troll 2? Creedance and Grandpa Seth made it onto the board and some of the questions that we had to answer were pretty hilarious.

While we were playing, we saw some kids with sleds go passed our living area window. We watched them all going down the hill and suddenly we were very interested in trying out the hill.

But instead we busted out Settlers of Catan! We played around and Clarise surprised us all by totally owning it at the last minute! Seriously, Geoff was about to win, he was only one turn away from having the largest army and getting the last two points he needed. I had given up hope and told Clarise to do likewise. She rolled the dice and got the perfect number to get her the cards she needed to clench the victory.

When that game was over, we went out to a late lunch at the only Mexican Restaurant in Eden. Carlos and Harley's!!! I love the food there. Last time Aaron and I went there, it was for my birthday. I wish that we lived closer because I think that we would go there all the time. The service this time wasn't that great but the food was still good.

When we went back to the resort, we asked the front desk if they had any sleds and so we got two delivered to us and we immediately went outside.

So much fun on that hill! It makes me wish that I had a sled at home so that Aaron and I could run off and do that sometime.

Anyway, after we went inside and warmed up a bit. We had to run home so that I could get my meds that I left (good thing we were only 15 minutes away) and we planned to go to the hot springs so we were all in swimming suits. It was super crowded there...which was kind of good because we were all tired and ready to relax in the room.

We got some hot chocolate warming up and started to work on the marshmallows.

We pulled out Settlers of Catan and got to battling each other!! They were all pretty close races. It was super fun and we were all being really silly.

Clarise got really creative with the game pieces. We had to stop the game for this one since we weren't allowed to bump the table.

Aaron ended up winning two games in a row...so he was feeling pretty good about himself. Geoff was pretty sad though because once again he was one turn from winning when it was stripped from him.

The next day was Sunday and we checked out and headed to our house. We ended the weekend by watching Casablanca. I was the only person in the room who had seen it all the way through! I couldn't believe it! But it was fun being with them while they watched it and making comments on stuff. It is a great movie and it was a super amazing weekend!

I'm so glad that we've all been friends for so long. The next trip that we take will have to include Andy too because we are 5 people who can't be separated!

Bambi Goes to Preschool!

I got to bring Bambi with me to work on Friday!

I asked my boss if it would be cool since I'm trying to train her to be a therapy dog and go to hospitals and nursing homes. I wanted to see how she did in a larger group. She still has some problems controlling her excitement and maintaining focus on me. We will have to work on that.

While she was there, I talked with the kids a little bit about dog safety and what to do if they meet a dog that they don't know. We also showed them some of her tricks. One child asked where she learned all of her tricks and I told him that she had to go to school just like they did. They thought that that was really funny.

The rest of the day they were asking me when I could bring her back and when they could play with her.

I finished off by reading "Clifford's Family" that I bought at the DI on one of my trips. It was about dogs with jobs.

This made me want to work even harder to get Bambi ready to be a therapy dog because there is so much joy in helping people who aren't well, have a little bit of comfort and happiness from snuggling a puppy and I think that Bambi is a wonderful dog for that.

Pine Wood Derby!

Tonight was the pine wood derby!!

Aaron built a car for it but ended up not using it since it only weighted 2.7 ounces (you want to be as close to 5 ounces as you can). I was sad that I didn't get to see him race. But the boys had tons of fun without seeing Aaron's car race. They were too busy with their own cars.

There was such an amazing variety of cars.

They were so awesome! I liked this police car, even if it was a dad's car.
The excitement in the room was INTENSE! I asked Aaron if the level of screaming was normal for a Pine Wood Derby since I couldn't remember ever going to one. He said that it was actually ridiculously loud and between the 3 wards, we had LOADS of boys there.

I kid you not, a gun could have gone off in that room and you wouldn't have been able to hear it. The boys were chanting the names of their fellow den mates and the boys sister's were shrieking at the top of their lungs. And yet, the announcer could always get the next group of boys up without much trouble.

It was a wonderful pack meeting! The best that I think I've ever been to.

Children's Books Galore!

I love thrift stores! They are the first place that I look for books. Last week I went to the D.I. with Aaron and I got 35 books for $20! Love it!

Yesterday I went with my sister-in-law and friend Michelle to the D.I. to look for a couple things (I went for the books) and I got 29 books for $25 children's books!

I got 3 Dr. Seuss books!! I got Goodnight Moon! I got The Little Hungry Caterpillar board book!!

I'm going to have to take a break from hunting for books because I've spent almost $50 in two weeks on children's books. But when you think about it, I've saved a couple hundred.

It's an obsession.

My Second Greatest Love

I have a new camera in my arsenal and I'm so unbelievable excited about it.

I got the Canon 7D.

It has taken me a year to save up all of my pennies and even then, it was a REALLY long conversation with Aaron about whether or not it was a good idea.

But let's see. In the over 2 years of having my first Digital SLR: I've taken several photography courses to hone my skills. I've had paying jobs that have paid back all of the money that I spent on the Canon Rebel. I've offered my services to my Church to get pictures of the children on holidays. I've taking amazing vacation photos and I've loved every minute of it.

Will this camera be worth the money that we dropped on it?

Heck yes.

I can't wait to take this camera on adventures with Aaron and I! I can't wait to have photo shoots with my friends! I can't wait for improving my skill even more with years and years of practice!

Get ready for some hot photo action coming up!! Because I'm sure that this whole weekend, I won't be able to put it down.

A Ceremony for a Hero

Hundred and hundreds of people went to Jared Francom's funeral at the Dee Event Center on Wednesday. Police cars as far as the eye could see in the procession. American flags from the local LDS stake lining the streets.
His casket was carried on a fire truck. Scouts were all along the procession line holding flags.

Ogden looked so beautiful that day and I think the whole community was proud to give this hometown hero a proper send off. As beautiful as it was to see the community like this, I hope that it never happens again. I'm so thankful to the policemen and others who work to keep our town safe. Thank you Jared Francom.

Swollen Bambi

This morning, I woke up and my puppy dog looked like this:

At first, I thought that a bug must have bitten her. And that there was nothing to be done. Pippen had a similar swollen nose once but more concentrated on the front.

When I got back from class and work, it was worse. Her cheeks were super puffy and she had accident while I was gone. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to deal with it and so I put her back in her room as I ran out the door to my "second job". When Aaron and I FINALLY got home for the night, her eyes were all puffy and swollen...along with her cheeks and nose...and another...intimate area. I called the vet as quick as I could. They said to give her Benadryl and wait an hour to see what happens.

She threw that up...so Aaron and I got to wash the sheets and blankets a little a head of our schedule. On the plus side, some of the swelling has gone down.

Anyone have any idea what could have triggered this? We don't have anything new in the house. I can't for the life of me think of what it could be.

Any help would be appreciated.

Foam Shapes

Aaron and I have 60+ sheets of foam. While I was in the shower (where I do my best thinking) I thought of an idea for at least some of it. I could cut out some shapes and make a shape "puzzle" for the children we sit next to at church.

Have I told you how much I love sitting by them? They make the meeting go by so much faster and I have a reason to have a bag full of toys...without people thinking that I'm going to steal children.

This was my first attempt.

I thought that the shapes AND colors would make it a little too easy to solve.

I also had some left over paper from when I made the flip book for Primary so I thought that I would use those to make the boards.

At least when they are all the same colors, it presents more of a challenge.

But this didn't even make a DENT in my foam stash. We got a good deal at Michael's.
Luckily the kids at church seemed to like them. Foam makes for a very quiet toy so I'll probably keep making stuff to play with.

A Tragic Part of Neighborhood History

Who knew that when the year started and I said that we would have lots of adventures, that this shooting would be one of those things that will make up 2012.

On Wednesday night, around 9pm, I was looking on Facebook and saw that someone in my ward had remarked about the amount of sirens they had been hearing. I had wondered about that and as I scrolled down the comments, I saw that someone wrote that a shooting was in progress. I quickly googled KSL News to see what was going on. All they knew was that a shooting was in progress on the other side of our church building, about two neighborhood blocks from our house.

I went to the back door to look out the window and saw police flashing lights. Immediately I thanked Heavenly Father that this hadn't happened hours earlier while we were having scouts right next door to where the shooting was. Unfortunately, a Relief Society activity was going on in the building. I had completely forgotten about it and I've never been happier that I missed an activity but I worried about the ladies that were in the building. The women were basically locked in the building by the SWAT team and they couldn't leave until the SWAT team came back and gave them 10 minutes to get home.

Ambulances were going passed. Helicopters were flying overhead. All I could do was refreshing the news station page trying to find out what was happening.

The next morning, the first thing I did was read the news page. One policemen, Jared Francom, had been shot and killed by my church building. 5 others were injured and in the hospital. The gunmen was also shot and in the hospital.

This really could have happened in any neighborhood. It was an unstable man with a gun. He made some very horrible choices and ruined his life and ended another man's. This isn't a bad neighborhood, just like Virginia Tech isn't a bad university. Wednesday night, I was scared by what was happening so close to my home. But by morning, I realized that no matter where you live, stuff like this can happen. There are unstable people everywhere you go. You can only trust that Heavenly Father has a plan.

I want to record this because, this is an online journal. This happened in our lives, near our home that we have created in Ogden. It breaks our hearts that this could happen anywhere but it makes it hard knowing that it could happen to our town.

Hopefully the stories of 2012 will also include some extreme joy along with the tragedy. Our prayers and our thoughts go out to the families of the officers who fought to keep our neighborhood safe.

If you want to read news about this event, you can go here.

Reusable Flip Book

I'm having lots of fun coming up with things to make my Primary class better. A couple months ago, I thought of this idea, but I didn't have time to work on it until this last week.

All last year, while I was telling a story, I would try to draw it really fast on the white board but sometimes we got off topic because I took too long...but it helped to have visuals to go with the story.

One time, I made a flip book for a story that I thought would be useful to have. It was "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man". But what about all of those stories that I don't want to make to keep forever?

Well, I got some heavy duty paper and I cut out squares and decorated the border.

Then I got it laminated at a place called Utah Idaho Supply/Map World. They had a ton of cool stuff that made me wish that I had my own classroom.

I cut these out and punched holes at the top and VOILA! FLIP BOOK! Then I got vis-a-vis pens so that I can write the story of "Warren" without wasting paper for a story that I only want for a class period.

Now I can tell this story and erase it right after class and draw out the next story that I will need.

Can't wait to try it out this week!

Fresh Mint Tea

When Aaron and I were in Texas, we left our herb garden in the kitchen...alone. Yeah, it was a bad idea but I was out of sorts when we left. We only had mint and chives when we left.

After we got back, the chives were totally fine but the mint was VERY thirsty. I was sad because...what was I going to do with the dried up leaves?

This is the part that is still hydrated.

These are the dried up leaves that I pulled off.
I got this tea ball and I decided to try it out. Shoved it full of the dried up leaves and soaked it in the heated water.

Best tea of my life!!! Now I need to start growing mad amounts of mint so that I can dry some AND keep some for other stuff.

I highly recommend you trying out your own teas. I'm in love with my fresh teas. And...it is PALEO!! Because yeah, I'm still trying that out.

New Years Day

Aaron and I started a new year, for 2012, by going to sleep early on the last day of the year and waking up early to watch the sun come up.

We went to sleep at 10:30pm on the 31st. At 6am, Aaron woke me up and helped me get in the car with the puppies and blankets and some breakfast things. We drove into Eden and parked in our favorite lot that gives us a great view of the reservoir and the mountains.

We sat in the car while the stars started to disappear and talked about what we wanted to get out of the next year.

Light started to creep over the mountains and we started to drink hot chocolate that Aaron made that morning and eat some yummy bear claws.
It was beautiful watching the light push all of the stars out of the sky. Since we were out in the middle of no where, there were tons of stars to look at and watch disappear.

And I loved being with my little family.

When the sun came up, we jumped out of the car and did a little jig and celebrated the new day...maybe with some kisses.

I'm super excited for this new year. Aaron and I are going to have a ton of adventures, I can feel it!

Happy New Year 2012

This is my annual letter to myself and another one of my favorite things that has "officially" become a tradition since this is the third year in a row that I've done it. Man, being married has been great for me looking back on my life and being consistent with my growth. Probably a great decision. You can read the other letters here and here...though it might get confusing. It is so fun for me to read back a year ago and see how much has changed.

Dear 2012 Katrina,

This is 2011 Katrina...well, the last day of 2011 Katrina. The Katrina that has been through all of 2011....if that all makes sense.

First off, I'll answer 2010 Katrina's questions about what 2011 was like.

The first question was if I thought that this tradition was going to be awesome...and yeah. It is probably the best thing ever. I really love it so far and I can't imagine ever wanting to stop.

The CTR4 class was INCREDIBLE this year. I loved it so much. It started off a little rocky. We had 10 kids in the class that were showing up on a regular basis and even though we were able to maintain control most of the time, it was a little much for us when a new boy moved into our ward. They ended up splitting the class and immediately we were able to feel the benefit of one on one time with the children. A smaller class meant more time to get to know each of the kids in the class. Aaron and I had so many great moments with the class this year...even though I got bitten by one of the kids (not AT church which is good). I'm going to miss them being in my class so much. But Aaron and I are so excited for the new kids to come into our class.

Last year I wrote that this was the longest that I've ever had a calling...well it has been two years now...so it is officially the longest calling I've ever had by a TON. I've been so used to my life having a very fast turn over time. There is something so calming and reassuring about the consistency in my life right now but I do miss being on the move.

We have also LOVED being Webelos leaders. It was a blast this summer going on hikes with the scouts and going to day camp. They, seriously, made our summer awesome. We get to do so much stuff working on activity pins and I felt so proud at the Arrow of Light ceremony for one of our boys a couple months ago. I almost started to cry because I felt so happy that we were able to help this boy get his Arrow of Light.

2010 Katrina asked me if I like who I'm becoming. The answer is yes. Last year, I was in a pretty dark place by the end of the year. So much stuff had happened and I was so discouraged about not being able to have kids and the way other stuff went down. I was so sad most of the time and so serious. Last year I wrote about how I felt like I'd calmed down so much from the year before. I mean, I was feeling pretty beaten down by life.

This year, I'm proud to say that I've been looking at my life with greater optimism. I'm going to be a mom someday. I know that. I have so much to do with my life. I don't have to become completely obsessed with this one part of my life. I'm a strong and capable woman. I fixed our roof. I ripped out nails and laid down shingles. I started working again. I'm working at a preschool and I love it so much. I made homemade presents for people this year. I've grown spiritually and I feel closer to God. I've gotten healthier. I don't feel nearly as "calm" as I did at the end of 2010. I feel alive again and happy all the time. I'm very proud of who I am becoming and I'm glad that 2010 Katrina asked me that.

My last question to myself was what my travel wish-list for 2012 is going to be.

Thailand is my DREAM destination. I'm not going to lie, I've been pretty home sick the past year and I want to show Aaron where I grew up. We are going to Ohio for another wedding! I'm really excited about that! Other than that, we don't really have any other travel plans at the moment. I would love to do a couple small trips here and there throughout the year. Maybe to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We will have to see.

In other news about 2011:

• Geoffrey and Clarise totally got married. WHAT?!?! YES! Last year in my letter I wrote that he was coming home soon and I hoped that "they can pick up where they left off and live happily ever after" and guess what? After a couple hiccups, they totally hopped on that and I couldn't be happier for them.
• Aaron and I redid the roof and the garden in the backyard. We got rid of the railroad ties in the backyard and I'm so happy about it. The garden was LAME this year but whatever...it looked way cuter than last year. The roof almost killed us but it makes me proud every time that I look at it. Seriously, Aaron and I against mother nature, fighting to save our home. Such a great bonding experience. Plus, our appreciation for our friends up here grew so much.
• Bambi and Pippen are doing great. Bambi is learning so much and actually got her CGC (Canine Good Citizen) this year! I never think about getting rid of her anymore which is a total blessing. I love both my dogs so much and Aaron and I have so much fun with them that I can hardly stand it. Training, the dog park, and hikes are some of the things we like to do together, not to mention the snuggles we get to enjoy from them. I'm so glad that we have them in our family!
• I still love photography. I've been doing a lot more work for people lately and it has been great. I love giving my talents to the church to use. I use my talents all the time for the Primary. I got the opportunity to take pictures at the Halloween party and the Christmas party. After a year and a half of taking pictures, I'm still in love. We did a couple fun shoots with friends where they dressed up and we played around. And I got to take pictures at Clarise and Geoff's wedding.
• Aaron got to meet family in California this year! I'm so happy that I got to show him off. He is such a kind and wonderful man and it is perfect when other people can see that too.
• We went to Mexico and had an amazing time! I still can't believe all the stuff that we got to learn and lay on the beautiful beaches.
• We recently returned from our trip to Houston, TX. Aaron got to meet more of my relatives from Louisiana and I hadn't seen them in a really long time so it was great. Luckily Clarise was getting married in Houston so we saved on tickets! Kind of a slower summer of travel than last year but still good.

Goals for 2012:

• Actually look at this list from time to time so that you remember what you are suppose to be working on.
• Epic garden next year (This years garden was lame. Raspberries, cherry tomatoes, wild green beans...end of list LAME!) There better be an herb garden...it will help with the Paleo diet!
• Read the whole Book of Mormon with Aaron and the New Testament by yourself.
• Go to a new state with Aaron...like Wyoming.
• Go to the temple at least once a month.
• "They are doing the best they can."- Live by this and say it to yourself every time you want to judge somebody.
• Stay on a Paleo diet...hopefully you will get pregnant (but getting pregnant is out of your hands and so that part is not a goal).

Questions for 2012 Katrina:

Did the world end? Just curious...How long did you stay on the Paleo diet? I hope well into a pregnancy but again...that is all in God's hands. Did you get to travel more than you expected? Do you have more friends in Ogden? Were you able to take some couple retreat trips with Clarise and Geoff? Are Bambi and Pippen the best dogs ever now? Are you still hopelessly in love with Aaron? Why is he such a wonderful guy and so hot at the same time? It makes it so hard to get stuff done.

A year is such a long time but it seems to fly by. Embrace every day this year. The more you enjoy it, the faster it goes by and so I must have really loved 2011. 2012 will probably go by just as quickly.

Katrina, you are loved. You are stronger than you think. No matter what 2012 throws at you, you can take it. We have proved you in days that are passed. Good luck with school and work and your personal life.

Don't forget to write to me next year! This is one of the best personal traditions!

See you on the flip side!

2011 Katrina Reinert