Denver, How I Love Thee

If you are a follower of my blog (or if you just know me as a person), you know that I spent a year in Denver, Colorado for a sabbatical from teaching. I haven't gone back to visit for about 9 months, so I was MORE than ready to visit last weekend. When my plane landed, I felt like I was "home" again. My excuse for going, besides just for fun? Jessica, my former roommate, and person that moved to Denver with me from Utah, got married! I had a glorious weekend of visiting friends and former coworkers, eating yummy Colorado food, seeing Jessica get married in the Denver temple to a Canadian (so therefore, I enjoyed being around Mac's Canadian family and friends with their cute accents), shopping, hitting up a haunted house and corn maze, and making new friends! Can't wait until my next trip back!

Right after I flew in to Denver, my old roommate and friend Hilary picked me up and we headed straight to Red Robin to eat with friends. John Henry Parker, one of my favorite people of all time, manages the Red Robin that we went to and he brought me a HUGE serving of the campfire sauce to dip in my fries. He knows how much I love that stuff! (I put a dime next to the container to show the size of it. Yummy!)


My good friend Brett and I were talking about how we hadn't yet got Jessica and Mac a wedding present, so we thought we would be funny to take pictures together and frame them to give as our gift. You betcha, that's really what we gave them! Below are just a few of the hysterical ones that we took..

My good friend Sara and I after the temple session, waiting for Jessica and Mac to come out for pictures.

John Henry Parker, up close and personal.

The cute couple!

Hilary and I. Notice the height difference. We are known as Talls and Smalls...

I love this girl!!

One of my favorite temples of all time. This temple got me through a lot the year I was there!

After the wedding, we were starving so we got brunch at the Original Pancake House. I have been to the one in Salt Lake a few times, but I FINALLY ordered something that I will order forever from there. The Pecan Banana crepes are to die for! Notice my side of bacon and the original potatoes. Yep, I really was that hungry!

I met a few new friends in Denver, this girl was my fave. Her name is Debbie, she's good friends with Hilary. She hung out with us the whole weekend. I haven't laughed that hard with someone for a long time! I love meeting new people who are fun, easy going, funny, and a charm to be around.

Graduate School, Here I Come!

I was officially accepted into the School of Graduate Studies today, in the School of Teacher Education and Leadership! I will start in January to work towards getting my Masters Degree in Elementary Education, with a reading endorsement with it (which will make me more highly qualified to teach reading). My mom brought the letter to school today, and I was so excited when I opened the letter and read that I had been accepted. I can't wait to start going to school again! It will be tough with teaching all day and taking night classes but I look forward to it making me a better teacher and person. Utah State, Hey Aggies all the way, here I come!!

Glee

Yep, I'm a total Gleek, I can't get enough of Glee each week and the music. This week was no exception to that. I cried the whole episode. God is Great, God is Good, God doesn't make any mistakes!

For Now

I have decided to deactivate my Facebook account...for now anyway. I need more time to get back to myself...the other day I was reading an AMAZING book my roommate let me borrow called The Gift by Hafiz, the Great Sufi Master. I had just had a great discussion with her about how I've been feeling so out of balance with myself, lost and unsure of so much with myself. I turned to a page in the book, and he says "...to give myself, to myself." It hit me so hard that that is what I need to do. I am so good at giving freely to others, to always lend a helping hand to those I love, to those in need. My job is one where I sacrifice so much of myself, my time and my efforts. I love my job so much, I can't imagine having any other job (in fact, I went into school Saturday to work for a bit, and while I was working, I had this overwhelming feeling of gratitude because I'm doing what I love to do most. How lucky and blessed that makes me!) But I come home drained and tired a lot. I'm not giving enough of myself TO myself. So that is what I'm going to work on for now. Get back to me, get back to who I am, figure out what I love and desire and follow the dreams in my heart. I'm sure eventually I'll get back on Facebook, it was a great communication tool for so many people in my life. But until then, if you need to get a hold of me, hopefully you know how! :)

I read NieNie's blog, and I noticed she' s been starting to add something lovely and something horrible about the days she writes, so I'm going to start doing that on the days that I blog:

Lovely: I had a great talk today with one of my closest friends, Curtis (who I lovingly refer to as Bob. I met Bob when I worked for 2 summers as a camp counselor. He was a fellow counselor and his camp name was Bob, so that is he who is to me!)

Horrible: I stayed WAY too late at work and came home and did some more work, so I wasn't able to finish the book Mockingjay tonight like I was hoping to! I can't get enough of the Hunger Games series, I highly recommend all 3 books to everyone and anyone that loves to read! (I'm dying to know...Peeta or Gale?! But don't you dare spoil it for me!)

I discovered this song a few weeks ago, and it brings so much joy to my soul. I love every word, it's how I want to be again, getting back to myself! Enjoy!