Last Days of Summer

Since we've been back from Cali, I've put my life on hold and dove into the preparations for the start of school. I spent a week or so before we left but when we got back, I only had two weeks to get everything in order and prepared. One week until back to school night. I've spent numerous hours in my new classroom. The last teacher left a blank slate for me and I'm not so sure how much I liked that since it felt like I've put in many more hours than I did last year on the room organization and decoration. The classroom did get new carpet this summer so that is nice!

Back to school night went well. I took pictures of all the students that came and printed them off the other day and all my students are cutie-pa-tooties! I'm excited! School starts Monday. I took some pictures of my room before I left yesterday. I wish I would've taken befores because it's changed tons since I started.

This is where I'll be molding young minds this year

Our garden today
What I picked today...there are 2 orange bell peppers almost ready too!

San Diego Part II

I flew back to San Diego early Sunday morning after districts. The flight flew by because I sat next to a guy that loved to chat. He was from a military family and it seems like people who come from military families know how to keep a conversation going. He was nice and it seemed as if he'd seen and experienced a day or two in life. He told me all about his oldest son (in the Marines stationed in San Diego) and then his youngest son that was 4 as well as his job as a roofer and so forth. I was so happy to see Dave's stinking cute face and I know he was happy to have his audience back again. He couldn't hold back with his wittiness. We spent the afternoon and evening at my uncle's house.

Dave using his physics knowledge, air in the bucket under water , I tried it and swam under to get air and it really worked, it was freaky

Monday, I got to see a lot of my dad's family. My cousin Caroline, uncle Jim and Aunt Sharon came down from L.A. So I got to spend the day with Caroline and Kristen. Later that night we met up with other family, including my granpy at his favorite, Filippi's (Italian of course). Tuesday morning, Caroline and I went for a run along the marina, ate Belgium waffles, and then I took her to the train station so she could get back to her parents. Tuesday night we spent at the beach and then decided to head downtown to the Horton Plaza (an interesting, architecturally, mall) and Gaslamp District to gander and maybe find some grub. It was a fun experience. We finally settled on Chinese food for dinner and after walking up and down the streets full of happening bars, clubs and restaurants, we ended up at a little humble, hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant (see picture below). It ended up hitting the spot and we were happy with our decision and felt like we were helping out a restaurant.

Wednesday, we were able to go to the San Diego Temple. I love that temple! It became Dave's favorite modern temple (he still ranks Manti as #1 over all) after that night inside the celestial room and all. We then ate a picnic dinner overlooking the temple from La Jolla Scenic Drive. Then came Thursday and Dave had to have one go at boogie boarding before we took off so my cousin James tagged along and we headed to Del Mar Beach. The weather was a bit chilly the last week there so I ended up wearing a jacket and not getting in the water that week but I couldn't ask for anything more than a good book and a beautiful view with a giddy husband in the distance.

The drive home wasn't too bad. We left early afternoon Friday. The traffic wasn't as bad as on the way but we were worried because of the Las Vegas weekend goers. We stopped in St. George for the night. Woke up early the next morning to beat the heat and get a ride in. It was beautiful. Ate at Bear Paw for breakfast and then headed on the road. Dave and I have an enjoyable time together on the road. Even our little arguments are fun.

We're back and busy as ever. We haven't quite gotten back into the swing of things. We both feel a little overwhelmed plus under slept. Dave begins his H.E.double hockey sticks semester next week and he's been on this project at work that he got thrown back into this week and it's kept him tied up at work and then he comes home to a jumbled mess at the house that I'm trying to balance along with settling into a new school which is coming to be a lot of work but I am so so excited to have little munchkins around me again. One thing I've got to boast about is even with being on vacation and away from my home, my routine, my cooking and my salads (I got called the salad master or something last year because my salads always looked so yummy, and they were) for 3 weeks I was able to lose weight! I finally feel like I've got an understanding of my body and what I need and how to control what I really want. I weighed myself yesterday and I had to take a double take at the scale. I was ecstatic!

The Nasella girls, minus Kaitlin

This store held rows and rows of jewelry! A girls heaven!

Chinese Restaurant

Salt Lake Tennis Districts & Michael's Birthday

Wednesday, I flew home to Salt Lake because my mom's tennis team that I had been playing on this summer made it to districts and districts was August 4-6. Michael's birthday was on Thursday, the 4th, so I got to celebrate with the fam too. We went golfing at Willow Creek, I pretty much just drove the cart, went to lunch, and then after our match that night we ate at Spaghetti Factory.

In districts we had 4 matches. The team decided to match each day by wearing the same colors. I played singles each match. Playing 4 singles matches in 3 days is quite hard on the body. It was great excercise though! I won two and lost two of my matches and the team ended up winning 3 out of the 4 matches. I'm so glad I got a chance to go back and play in districts. It was a lot of fun! I enjoyed playing on this team. The girls on the team were so amazing and fun!

Michael is 23

Thursday, the uniforms were black and white

It poured right before the match so we had to wait until it dried.

Friday was pink and white

Saturday was a white top and colorful skirt.

My mom wanted to look like a bunch of easter eggs.

Week 1 &2 in San Diego

San Diego has been great so far! The first few days the weather was quite humid but nothing too bad. The weather has been beautiful though! The fog along the coast burns off around noon sometimes a little later. Everyday you can expect the sun to come out, the temp to be around 70 degrees and a little breeze from the coast. It really is beautiful. While Dave goes to his class, I've been relaxing and working on making this blog into a book. It takes a lot of time so it's been good that I've had the time to do it. We've done a lot of fun things so far! The first week we hit up the beach a few times. We tried out a few different beaches. Ocean Beach is its own interesting place with interesting people. We ate at Hodads (definition: a surfer poser). I have been fantasizing about stuffing an amazing burger in my face for quite awhile and the burger did not dissappoint. It was called the Blue Jay Burger I think and it was loaded with blue cheese, blue cheese dressing, bacon, sauteed onions, and lettuce and tomatoes. The tomatoes were huge as well as the burgers! We hit up Mission Beach twice. Once just us and the other with Bridget and Ryan the next week. Dave and I had a picnic in Balboa Park and then walked around to see the cool architecture and gardens one night too. We also took our bikes over to Coronado and rode around and up and down the pennisula. Friday, we rode them up and down the coast through Del Mar. We decided we don't like California for the biking...it is quite dangerous. We both almost were hit while someone was parking and didn't see us.

Bridge and Ry arrived later Friday that first week. We stayed at my uncles in Rancho Santa Fe that weekend. Saturday, we spent the whole day at Del Mar Beach. The clouds never burnt off but we all were quite burnt and crispy by the end of the day. Overcast is always so deceiving! Sunday, we scored some free Padres tickets from my uncle. The seats were right above the visiting team's dugout. They played the Rockies and ended up winning after hitting a few doubles in the 8th inning. The Rockies couldn't stop them. All weekend we were fed like kings and queens. My aunt Joyce cooked all weekend long for us. Monday, we visited Old Town, the Sunset Cliffs and then went back to Old Town for dinner. Tuesday, Bridge, Ry and I went to Balboa Park to explore some more. When Dave got home we headed to Mission Beach. We played on boogie boards as well as some couples ultimate frisbee at the beach. We finished the night walking the beach in Coronado and eating.

Dave's burger from Hodads

The tomatoes alone filled me up

Balboa Park
Del Mar Beach
Padres game

Yankee Jim's gravesite in Old Town's cemetary. He was hung for taking a row boat...we didn't agree with his sentence.
Mormon Battalion building in Old Town
Sunset Cliffs