Random good happenings!

So our lives have gone from Zack being super busy to both of us being insanely crazy busy in pretty much no time at all.  Here are the things that we have been up to:

• Bensons came
• We had 2 weeks for homework,  good housework, homework, some rest, school, homework and work. (all the homework was Zacks and all the rest was mine)
• Zack's parents came to visit the day his school got out and stayed for a couple of days. (see blog about it!)
• After Zack's parents left, we had 4 days to literally do nothing/whatever we wanted.  It was SO amazing!! 
• Monday of last week was Zack's first day of school, but it was only 1 class and super easy.  Also this marks the day that we became 2012 Notre Dame season football ticket holders!  Such a joyous occasion.
• Tuesday Zack had his first real day of classes and I had what was supposed to be an hour long breakfast meeting at the school I am student teaching at, but it turned into an all day event, well until about 3 because I had visiting teaching. 
• Wednesday I started my Student teaching!  I was not supposed to start until this coming week, but at the meeting on Tuesday, they asked me to start, so I did! It has been so much fun getting to know all of the kids that I am teaching and all of their little personalities!  Lets just say, I think I was born to teach.  It is just the most wonderful thing ever.  SO exhausting. SO SO exhausting. In fact, a funny fact about me is that when I was little, my mom always told me that whoever I married and had to sleep next to at night, she felt sorry for, because I am a crazy sleeper. However I have recently discovered, actually Zack discovered,  that I'm not too bad of a sleeper when I am well rested, however, when I am exhausted, I become hilarious.  I have not been too crazy since we got married, only a few occasions have I talked in my sleep or slept in odd positions, but apparently the last few nights I have been a little crazy.  I felt really bad about it because I can sometimes keep Zack up when he really needs his sleep, but then he told me that he eggs me on!  Like for example, I guess the other night I sat up in my sleep and said in a panic, "No! You need to go first, I'll go second."  So, naturally, Zack said in a panic, only he was completely awake, "No, Bailey, you can't go second. Please don't go second."  I have no idea why he egged me on, but apparently I got mad at him and I don't remember any of it.  Well actually, I do remember him being really annoying during the night, but I couldn't remember why.  That must have been it.
• Thursday and Friday were a blur of teaching and school and early mornings and late nights.  
• That brings us to the weekend where we got lots of rest and went to a beautiful baptism and really enjoyed ourselves.  So now it is back to the grind!

Below are some pictures depicting some of the fun we have had.  Hope you enjoy! Til next time...

Holding our season tickets!  With our great friends Brian and Carolyn Esplin!!

I hurt my shoulder lifting with Zack one day and didn't want to do my hair, so Zack did it for me.  This was the finished product.  Needless to say, my arm got better REAL fast.

ND soccer!!!!  Not half as fun as football, but it was still a blast!

This is our pseudo pet Frogger.  We named him Frogger like the game because he lives outside and every time we see him he is crossing the sidewalk.  We see him always at nights and I give him water.  We really do love him.

So, it had been about a week since I had seen Frogger, and I was literally getting worried about him.  The lawn had been mowed, and I was afraid that he had gotten chopped up or eaten my a nearby cat that Zack saw.  However.... He lives!!!  We saw him just last night at I was so excited that I literally got teary eyed.  Why do I care so much for this toad?! 

Its Time for Mike and Steph!

Wow! What a whirlwind of weeks! We were so grateful to have a visit from the Olsens!!! Seriously it was so good to have family around.  I hope that when I say this, I do not offend anyone, because it is not meant to be offensive.  But when we lived in Utah, don't get me wrong, I always loved seeing family and having them around, and we didn't get to see them much, so it was still great whenever we saw them, but I guess I never really appreciated how much they did for us.  When we were only a couple of hours or less away, it was easy to give us a freezer full of meat, or left overs from dinner that would make a few lunches for us.  Or when Zack got hurt, it was so nice that his parents were able to give him this ice machine thing.  I mean, I was always grateful for the help, but I don't think that I realized how nice it was to just be able to go home.  And the funny thing is, "going home" could be used for when we went to Toquerville or Kaysville.  Both Zack and I felt at home in both places. 

But back to what I was saying before, I never really appreciated the perks of having family all around.  Yes, the left overs, or pumpkin bread from Grandee (my grandma) or going out to dinner with Nana, (Zack's Grandma), or getting left overs or meat or whatever it might be, was wonderful, but the best part was being surrounded with love.  We are surrounded with love here in South Bend, our ward and friends are so wonderful, but being surrounded with loving family is something that is irreplaceable.  That was really brought to my mind when Mike and Steph were here.  They are so incredibly willing to help us both physically and emotionally.

I am grateful that even though we live far away, I know that families can be together forever.  Not just for this life, but for eternity!  It gives me comfort every single day. (to learn more about my beliefs visit www.mormon.org )
 
 Below are some pictures of all the fun times that we had together while here!!  I hope you enjoy! til next time...

Mike and Steph in front of the Football stadium!  First time being to campus, and I think they really loved it!  It was different than they expected, and I think it was the same for Zack and I.  You expect it to look so... old I guess, and really it all looks pretty new.  But regardless it was fun to be there and walk around campus.

Steph and I at this really great beach only about an hour from us!  It was so hot! We wished that we brought our bathing suits. :(  I would have gone in but we had to drive home in the car.  But we did all get our feet in! (besides party pooper Zack, he didn't want to have to take his socks off and get them all sandy)

This is a beautiful picture that Zack took while we walked around a lake on campus.  It was such a beautiful night for a walk.

White Sox game!  Loving time with the parents!

Zack and I on the pier at Silver Beach.  Like I said before, so beautiful!

Walking around Chicago on the first day with the  Olsens. So fun! and a really cool piece of art.  The funny thing was how HOT it was up by it! That sun just reflected off it and it was like 10 degrees hotter when you got up by it.

Visit from the Bensons!!

What an amazing week!!!  I had the week off of work, Zack had an easier week of school, and... drumroll please..... THE BENSONS CAME!  Well, most of them.  Mike and Truman were spending some much needed father son time, but Debi, Tatum, and Talmage came and stayed with us for an entire week!! I seriously cannot describe how much fun that was for us!  It was a lot of work, having 5 people living with 1 bathroom, 2 small bedrooms, and a tiny rest of the house, but man oh man was it worth it! 

On the way to the airport, we saw a plane land, which might have been theirs.  I was so excited for them to land that I may or may not have rolled down the car window and screamed at the top of my lungs, "Hello Debi! Hello Tatum! Hello Talmage!!!".  I may have, or I may not have.  I will let you decide what you think.

The first day they got here late in the evening so after they got here we got them all settled in their little room and basically put them to bed.  The next day, we all slept... a LOT! I was so happy to have some sleep that day and get some rest to gear up for the rest of the week!  I would go into details about all the crazy fun things we did, but honestly, I'm not sure it would sound all that fun to anyone but us.  We went to a soft ball game of Zack's, we went to the pool, out to dinner, out for ice cream, cleaned/re-finished my couches, and just enjoyed each other.  I know that might not sound like a crazy fun week, but man oh man, I cannot tell you how much I absolutely enjoyed it.  I honestly don't know if I can express how much this sweet family means to Zack and I.  We have been with them since Talmage was 3 months old.  They have taught us so much about parenthood and relationships and how to overcome obstacles.  They have helped both Zack and I mature and treat each other more fairly and overcome those little petty immature arguments.  These kids quickly stole our hearts and then we grew closer to their amazing parents.  If it weren't for them, we would not even be attending school at Notre Dame.  They have believed us and pushed us forward and inspired us to become something more than we had originally planned.  However, even more than that, they have become our best friends.  It was such an amazing week that I cannot even describe.  I took lots of video, but for some reason all of my videos from my phone, no matter what way they were filmed, are loading side ways.  There is one below that you can watch because it was too good to leave out, but here are some pictures! Please note that Tatum took over 100 pictures on my phone of herself.  I believe that when she did this she got crap on my lens.  Because of that, Hardly any pictures that I took turned out until I figured it out and cleaned it off.  I know it looks like we love Talmage more, but it is absolutely not true! We love all of our kids the same! We just have more pictures that turned out with Talmage in them.  Anyways, I hope you enjoy!

Til next time!

Surprising the Olsens!

So, a couple of weeks ago, Zack and I get a text from his dad saying, Hey I need to talk to one of you ASAP.  My first thought? Oh great, who died?!  Don't worry, nobody died.  He just had a plan.  He wanted to surprise everyone and fly Zack and I out to Kaysville to go to Jace's ordination. (He was ordained an elder!)  It took a little bit of work, but we were able to nail down a time that we could make it to Chicago to make a flight to Kaysville, stay for one day, and then fly right on back.  We woke up at 4 am on Saturday to drive 2 hours to the airport. It was an EARLY morning to say the least, but we barely made it on time! 

When we got to the Salt Lake airport Zack's dad was there to pick us up.  He had told his wife he needed to go put gas in his truck.  Just in case you were wondering, it takes 20 minutes to get to the airport from Zack's house, so by the time he left for the airport, really got gas, and returned, it was well over an hour.  I thought his cover up would not be good enough.  However this was not the case, he pulled off the surprise just perfectly.

Steph, please don't kill me, but I am posting the video of the surprise.  It was the greatest thing, and it needed to be shared.  The good news is, it is side ways, and I was not a good recorder, so it is hard to see.  Also it makes a big fool out of me.  I am very much like my mother in the fact that I am absolutely horrible at surprises.  You can tell I am shaking with excitement, and my stupid goofy laugh is just ridiculous.  But it was priceless.

The day went well! we went to Kaden's baseball game, then had a fun dinner around the fire, then woke up and went to Jace's ordination, hurried home to scarf down some dinner, and then were off on our way to the airport.  With such a whirlwind of a weekend, I only got one picture, but you can see it below!

Til next time!