Mississippi here I come!

I am about to make my way to Mississippi to finally be with Brent again. I am leaving tomorrow and after a three days journey will make it there by Friday. I can't tell you how excited I am to see Brent. But I am going to miss this place a lot. Luckily I have a lot to look forward to in going (mainly being with my husband again) so leaving doesn't seem quite as bad as it would otherwise. There are so many things I wish I could do before I leave, but of course no time to do them all today. I will miss everyone!

Lederrick

Another name is Lederrick. He just goes by Tre. I like the name Tre a lot. I think I want to name a boy something and call him Tre for short. Any ideas for the full name? Treyn (pronounced train) and call him Tre? Any ideas?

Kentavius

I have an awesome student named Kentavius. His name is very cool too. It reminds me of a name my roommate had on his class roster - Trentarius. That one reminds me of my little nepehew, I think he would think the name Trentarius was pretty silly.

Anyway, I'm about to leave for church so I can take the 1 hour drive and make it in time to get on the stand and speak. Thats right. 4 weeks there, one talk in sacrament meeting, 2 weeks teaching primary, and 1 week of being new. Its great to be involved here in such a small ward. I'm glad I've been able to help out every week. I'll be back in 5 hours!

Name of the Day

So I have a few minutes to spare right now(read - I should be doing a lesson plan before a meeting I have in a little bit) so I thought I'd share a tiny note about life as a teacher! I am loving teaching and laboring through all the lesson planning and other things I have to do at the same time. If being a teacher was just spending time in front of a class, it would be such a fun job, but honestly, right now, if I get 5 hours of sleep in my bed at night I consider it a success. I would say the average sleep time for the past week and a half during the weekdays is 3.5 hours a night. Its hard not to fall asleep during all the meetings and classes I am taking in between my classes that I teach.

Anyway, the thing I wanted to post about was a little note about some of the awesome names of kids in my class. I'll share one or two when I can. I think their names are awesome. Living here may have an effect on how I name my future children. Many of the children in my class have interesting names, but there are also some fairly conventional names, like my sister's beautiful name - Jennifer.

The first name of the day is Uniqua. It's pronounced like unique, but with a wuh sound at the end. The name is much like the girl - pretty awesome.

Happy Father's Day!!!

Today is a great day. It's Father's Day! I get to spend the whole day with my own dad. But there is one problem. Brinley doesn't get to be with her dad, and I don't get to be with my husband. So I want to say to Brent on behalf of Brinley and myself, happy Father's Day! We both love you more than anything and miss you so much, especially on your special day.

Here are only some of the billions of reasons that we love you Brent:

1. You are always showing us that you love us too. Everything that you do is so genuine. Thanks for spending so much time on the phone with me lately and lifting me up. I know you really care.

Brent is always doing little things for me and Brinley to show us how much he loves us. For example, last semester Brent helped me so much to be able to get through my last few months of school with a baby. I couldn’t have done it without him.

2. You are so much fun to be around!

For anyone who knows Brent, you know that he always wants to be playing. All of our nieces and nephews love Brent so much because he takes the time to go out and have fun with them. He is always coming up with some sort of game, activity, or competition to do. Life is never dull when we are around you and I love playing with you!

3. You are so understanding and patient with me. Whenever I am being irrational (which may be a little too often), you are patient and never get upset. You just help me through it and I really appreciate it.

I am so thankful I married a man who is so level headed. For the almost two years that we have been married I have never seen Brent very upset and have never heard him raise his voice in an angry tone. It keeps our lives so much more peaceful. I feel like this is not necessarily a talent that I have, so being married to someone who helps to remind me to stay calm is really a blessing.

4. You are so trustworthy. You are one of the only people I know I will never have to worry about. You stay true to your word. You always do what you know is right. Again, you are what gives us so much stability in our relationship.

Me and Brent will be apart for a month, but I know that he will continue to be the exact same person apart from me as he is with me.

5. You are a great provider, protector, and presider.

Brent is working so hard right now in Mississippi. Everyday he wakes up at 4:15 in the morning and works hard all day. All I know is that if I had to wake up that early, I wouldn’t even be functional. He is also a great leader in our house and a great father to Brinley. She got the best.

6. You make me want to be a better person. I have learned so much from your example ever since I have known you. I hope that Brinley will be able to learn from you the way that I have. You are the best person that I have ever known. Somehow I got lucky and tricked you into marrying me.

Brent as a daddy:








Thanks for being the best dad and husband in the world. I can't wait until I can be with you again. Happy Father's Day! We love you!

Baby Bisquits

So I have had the hardest time getting Brinley to eat ANYTHING. She hates food. She will purse her lips as tight as she can and not let anything in. Until today. I gave her what they call a baby bisquit today, took of her shirt, and let her go at it herself. I don't know if it just tasted really good, or if she liked being able to feed herself, but whatever it was, she loved it! It was really fun getting all of the food off of her after. Totally worth it for the 20 minutes of happiness.

Grass = yummy

Brinley had a fun time laying down outside, and pulling out grass and trying to eat it today. She is getting quite dexterous with her little hands and now can pick things up with her pointer finger and thumb. I just love this little girl!

Steamboat

I thought this area was very cool. Didn't see any crocs yet, but saw a beautiful crane. While some of the areas by Lake Village look like this(above), most look like this(below).
We had the chance of being invited to a catfish fry in Greenville MS. We were right by the Mississippi River and they had an old river barge that used to frequent the river. Not a great picture, but a cool boat.
It was a long day of apartment hunting, but the bayou and the river were pretty cool.

All grown up

Brinley just looked so grown up today!

Hello!

I love you Daddy!

Signs

So I am using this blog as a way to stay connected to home and share some pictures. I tried to take pictures of every state sign when I entered a state, so here are the pics. Kind of boring, but for me this was a lot of states.
Goodbye Colorado. Hope to see you soon. Kansas...not so much.

I had to take a little detour to make it to Oklahoma. Missouri didn't even have a sign on the road where I entered the state, so I had to take a picture of their sign when I was leaving.
I entered Arkansas at the very northwestern corner and I drove diagonally across the state, through little rock and exited the state at the very southeastern corner. It was long, but I have to say I thought it was beautiful and very green. It was pretty cool.
We'll see how many more states we add to the list while we live in the south.

Back to School...

So I just moved into the dorms...again. And it stinks, but not literally - so that's good. My roommate, yes I have a roommate, is a nice guy and is from Montana. I just thought I'd pass on a few pictures.

We get to share our bathroom with the two guys next door. Aren't the dorms great!

Sleeping Baby

Brinley did not want to take a nap today no matter how hard I tried so I finally just gave up. After a little while she ended up falling asleep next to me on the couch. I guess sometimes it is just better to give up and when you do, things finally start going your way. Okay so I don't know if that's actually a lesson to be learned but it did work out that way this time.

First Tooth!

Brinley is finally (although in reality, all too soon) getting her first tooth! It has been a little bit of a bother to her and made her a bit fussy. But at least I now know WHY she never wants me to put her down. The tooth is on the bottom and is just barely poking out of her gums. She is such a cutie and getting through it great. The last few days have been a bit rough going for us, but today she seemed much happier and even would let me put her down for a few minutes at a time! I love you Brinley!

The Journey

Well, I am sitting in Cleveland, Mississippi and happy to be here. The only problem is that my family isn't here with me. I thought I'd tell you a little about my trip.

A little background information for you - I was born in Colorado and I have only traveled east of Colorado one time. That time was to a lake just on the border of Nebraska and Colorado. I have never been east or south, never left the country, and only lived in Colorado, Utah (for school), and California (for my mission). Also, those three states are the only states I ever went on vacations to, so this trip was going to be something new for me.

Christa, Brinley and I went to Colorado and stayed there for a few days until Christa and Brinley flew home to Utah. I left the next afternoon (after fixing the air conditioning in my car) and drove to Wichita Kansas where I slept in my car in a grocery store parking lot.
(The sun was bright and I was really tired, but that's where I slept)
I got up the next morning and drove farther east, touching 5 states - Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, and ending in Mississippi.

That night, after some searching, I slept in a Wal-Mart parking lot that wasn't too scary.
I liked this other Wal-Mart that had 3 entrances, one for the food, one for the other stuff, and one for the liquor.
Thankfully, Sunday was the next day and I was able to find the church and ward we will be attending. We will be living in Arkansas, attending the Greenville Mississippi Ward, and be a part of the Monroe, Louisiana Stake. I think that's pretty cool.

Today after church I drove back to Arkansas and checked out where we will be living. Its a really cool town on the edge of a giant lake.
You can see from this lookout the docks on the left. We are hoping to rent a house that is right on the lake to the left by those docks. It is a huge lake and really beautiful. I saw people swimming and playing in it and petting alligators. They are so tame here. There were boats and canoes and all sorts of stuff. Unfortunately I didn't actually see any alligators, but the fact that people were swimming in it means that they probably aren't in the lake. YouTube did prove to me that there are alligators somewhere here.

I liked this stretch of the lake where the trees are growing out of the water. It looks cool. Oh, and sorry the pictures aren't great, I took them with my phone because my camera doesn't have a memory card. I left it in our video camera in Utah. So I can only take like 5 pictures on the camera and I can't put them on my computer. My phone doesn't zoom or anything either, so sorry.

One way cool thing is the new bridge that is being built over the Mississippi river. Here are some bad pictures of it that I took while driving over the current bridge.
I think its pretty cool looking. It will be better than the other one and have more lanes. Here is another picture of the start of the bridge. This picture is what most of the roads look like, minus the bridge on the right and minus the curves in the road.
Anyway, now I am showered and sitting in the air-conditioned house of my new Bishop. He heard that I slept in the parking lot of the Greenville Wal-Mart and offered me a place to stay at his home. He and his wife are very kind and I am so thankful for their hospitality. The members of the ward are so nice and welcoming. Many drive an hour to get to church every week.

Well, I figure I have had a good day and I need some rest. I am really excited to sleep in a bed tonight. It feels good to write this, knowing that this is my way of connecting back home with people I know and love. Have a great night!

Goodbye Brent!

The day has finally come for me and Brent to say goodbye, for at least a little while. For the next month and a half or so Brent will be in Mississippi for training for Teach for America while I stay in Utah. We found out that we are most likely going to be living in a place called Lake Village, Arkansas. So, instead of moving all of our stuff down to Arkansas and me being all alone there, we decided it is best for me to stay in Utah. Of course this means that I don't get to be with Brent, and he may be missing some fun things as Brinley continues to grow and develop. Because we will be apart for so long (yeah, this is VERY long for us), I promised Brent that I would at least put up a picture of Brinley or something every day so that he doesn't miss out on anything. I am going to miss you so much Brent! Love you!

Christa