Thanksgiving

We went to Idaho for Thanksgiving this year.

We cooked:

I was in charge of pies, pecan, caramel pecan, and butterscotch custard. YUM

We ate:
My brothers long hair inspired me to dress him up. Once a big sister, always a big sister I suppose. And look how cooperative he was!

We played games:
Killer Bunnies is always a big hit!

We relaxed:

And we tried to open a massive jar of pickles:
Who would have thought this was the only way to open them. Dad, Brian , Jaron, and Grant all tried and couldn't get the dang thing open.

And we saw friends:
Bests friends for life!

H-Dance Force (minus a few). Sarah (far left) and I talked about everything together, Hailey (the red head) was my dance teacher for 12 years, Mikianna and I have danced together since we were 6, and CoCo my amazing sister who was the only reason I started dance in the first place!

And then we drove home:
A normal 6 hour drive took us 10. Thank you winter snow storms.

Last Teacher Post For A While

Monday was my last day with my adorable 3rd graders at Orchard Hills Elementary. I cried to say the least. They were all giving me sad pouty faces all day long telling me they wished I didn't have to leave. I felt so loved. They surprised me with a book of notes they each wrote to me. I wanted to share a few.

Dear Mrs. Romney
thank you for the fun seince (science) you taught us. Thank you for helping and teach us. Thank you for coming will you come again. Thank you for being my friend. I hope you have fun playing at BYU. Ther's one more thing I want to say. you rock.
your best friend,
Hunter

Dear Mrs. Romney
Thank you for every thing you have taught me so far. I really hope you teach here. You are one of the nicest people I know. I hope your class next year will listen to your lessons. Remember your beautiful.
Sincerley,
Isabelle

dear Mrs. Roumy
I love the sience progecs that you had us do they wer so fun... I want to do it again I ber that you will be a good teacher. I bet evry one in the class likes you even me. You are so nice and you wil always be. You are ready to be a techer.
Love
Amber

Dear Mrs. Romney
Thank you for everything and teaching the class science. And helping me with everything I needed help on ever ciencs (since) you bin hear. Your my best friend forever. I love you and I allways will. Forever I will always cepe (keep) you in my heart I will never forget you threw (through) all my heart. I now (know) I can allways ceme (keep) a seacret with you allways I never had a best friend like you. I like you forever.
Love,
Autumn

Here they are

Pretty adorable right? Man I will miss them.

Grant and I are sitting at home trying to wait out the crazy blizzard that is supposed to be heading this way, worst one in 7 years they're saying. But really we just want to be driving home for Thanksgiving. Dang it snow. Anyways wish us luck, 7 am tomorrow we're braving it! Until then we'll probably just read Harry Potter, our newest obsession.

I'm in love

It's true, I absolutely love, love, love my third graders. They are each so unique and special to me. I can't even describe how much I look forward to seeing them everyday.

You see for the past week and for the next three weeks I will be a 3rd grader teacher in Santaquin. This is a required experience for my Elementary Education major at BYU. I get to teach at least one lesson a day and give individual attention to my hearts content. Can I just say how magical it is when you see the light bulb turn on for a kid. It's truly one of the most rewarding experiences I've ever had.

Today, I was sitting in my classroom observing all my students and I suddenly had to fight back tears. I was overwhelmed with such a strong testimony of how special each and every student sitting in front of me was. Some are shy, some are silly, some give me the most heart melting smiles I've ever seen, some are stinky (but still so loved), some learn easily, others not so much, but all of them are sons and daughters of Heavenly Father and that is so special. I can't believe I could get paid to take care of these little ones everyday. I know some may be skeptical that I really love it this much, but I promise this is the coolest experience I've ever had. I'm not saying I don't ever get frustrated, because I do. Some of those kids can really test me, but I know they are doing the best with what they've been given and what they've been taught. Teaching little chiclets has got to be the best job in the entire world!

The first day I was with my class they were convinced I was a vampire, especially with Halloween right around the corner. But they've realized I'm not scary so I've been promoted to a fairy, which I'm totally fine with. My students think I can fly, so basically I'm their superhero right?!

Speaking of kids, that's me in 3rd grade.

Teacher Pants

Usually Halloween kinda just comes and goes in this house. But this year I've been making a point to be a little more festive. I've come to the realization that traditions don't just happen, but you have to make them happen so I'm doing my best. We carved pumpkins with a few really good friends and I must say it was the best pumpkin I've ever carved!

Can you guess whose is whose?

We've gone to 2 haunted houses this year. Nightmare on 13th and a $1 haunted house in Provo. Both were nice a creepy! We're going to the play Dracula on Friday and I think that should do it for Halloween spookiness.

I also started teaching today. Hence the "teacher pants" as the girls in my major like to call them. I met my mentor teacher and she is wonderful. I think it will be a great experience and hopefully I will learn a lot.

My first day of school! Teachers can't wear jeans... lots of "teacher pants" and skirts for the next month!

Jumbled.

Warning: there will be no coherent order to this post.

I am loving this semester. I finally have 3 of my greatest friends all living near me! So we decided we need a monthly dinner in which attendance is mandatory. September's was fab. We ate Chicken Cordon Bleu, salad, potatoes, asparagus, rolls, and peanut butter bars. Yum. Then we played...

Yup you guess it, Quelf. What a grand time we had! Here are some of the favorite pictures of the night.

Meet Aaron. The poor kid had to do all the most embarrassing tasks of the night. (He's my friend Caitlin's, remember the returned missionary, boy toy.) What a good sport!

Jordan was banished underneath the table for a little while, love the face my friend!

Erin and I had to creepily slow dance with each other, circa high school. I'm so creeped out, look at that face.

This handsome guy was a beautiful miming ballerina. Look at those lines!

Oh Aaron you poor thing. He was, I believe a mime stuck in a box on this one. Thanks for all the laughs though!

We also played a rousing game of Guesstures in which the boys pummeled the girls. We were so certain we were going to win too. Bummer.

I love my friends! Jordan is working her fanny off at dental hygiene school, amazing right? Erin is working as a dental hygienist, plus being a mom of the cutest one year old boy I know! And Caitlin just worked her tail of for a year and a half as a missionary. I am one lucky girl to have such incredible friends.

Last weekend I went on a girls getaway to St. George. It was so fun and so nice to get to spend more time with my sister-in-law Elizabeth and her two funny girls. You can read all about the trip here. Basically we went to Tarzan at the Tuacahn, an amazing outdoor theater. We shopped, ate, talked, and watched some seriously amazing people run a marathon.

With the girls. Tarzan was SO good, I cried... multiple times. Who doesn't cry when they hear "You'll Be in My Heart?" Such a good song.

Thanks Betsy for SUCH a fun trip!

Funny side story. As I'm sitting waiting for the play to start, my lovely friend Dantzel comes waltzing in front of us and literally sits directly in front of me. I haven't seen this girl in at least a year... and we both live in Provo! Who would have thought we'd see each other in St. George of all places. Needless to say we resolved to have lunch together more frequent than once a year.

Oh and I dyed my hair a lovely shade of brown. It was time for a change. I'm slowly adjusting to the strange girl looking back at me in the mirror! Change is good right?

Other than that we're just schoolin it up, Grant's murdering his tests... 100%? Ya, he's a stud. Fall hit this week, I actually felt cold once or twice. This morning I walked outside took a big sniff and thought to myself, fall is here. Fall just smells different ya know?

Behind...

Again.

We've been alive the last month or so, although it may not seem like it.

We left Texas with a bang in August. Grant decided to be a rebel and skip out on the first 2 days of school and we spent some time in Dallas with the fam. It was a really nice way to end our summer and have a few days to relax before starting school.


I know, I obsess over my nieces and nephews. I can't help it they are the cutest kids in the whole world. You'd think they were mine.

Grant and I drove the 20 hour drive home like champs. Straight through. I fiddled around with

Artsy eh?

I also got to experience Grant with a "beard." I call it a beard because it's the most facial hair I've ever seen on him! I thought it was pretty sexy if you ask me.

When we got back to UT one of the first things we did was camp. Well we ate at Cafe Rio first... but then we camped. We ended up at the same area we went to last time, it was beautiful just like always. We planned ahead this time and brought our extra sleeping back for some cushion. We both slept MUCH better.

Oh and we roasted GIANT marshmallows. I highly recommend these puppies.

Since then we've done a lot of school and homework. Grant's teachers are trying to kick his fanny, accounting does not sound like a fun major to me. So much reading. But Grant is a stinkin hard worker so he's doing awesome... LAST SEMESTER BABE!!

We've spent a lot of time with our lovely friends Bridger and Jordan, we even played another round of Quelf, (remember this game) and laughed our heads off like usual.

It's always joyful being back in Provo, only this time it's slightly bittersweet. I'm noticing everything is my last! My last fall semester on campus, meaning no more beautiful changing leaves. My last semester living in UT with Grant. My last fall in UT. My soon to be last winter in UT, although that isn't really all that sad for me.

For those of you who didn't know, Grant is moving to Dallas in December to start up a pest control company. I, however have one more semester left at BYU so I have to stay behind. Yup, 4 months apart. It will be worth it we know, but still sad. In April I will giddily join him in Dallas and we will make a little life for ourselves there. Woot!

On a side note... we're always looking for people who need or want a summer job to come sell with us. Let me know if you're interested!

Life is good for the Romneys here in Utah!

She's back

After a LONG 1.5 years, this little peach is back and you better believe I'm so excited to see her!

Dear Caitlin,
You have been missed dearly. I will give you a giant hug when I see you.

Reunited will feel so good....

Suckas LOVE YA!

Favorites

#1. A quick visit from our babelicious friend Courtney.
#2. The absolutely delicious dinner we had at the Braken Store Cafe.

(Can I just tell you, best burger and onion rings ever.)

#3. This season of So You Think You Can Dance and basically every dance on it! Sooo good.

#4. My favorite summer reads:



#5. Late night swims and chats with him.



#6. Mostly just that guy up there. Ya, he would have to be my number 1 favorite.

Nightmares

It has been a LONG time since I had a nightmare. I had forgotten how horrific they can be and how real they seem!
I was walking into a grocery store at night, it seemed like Albertsons, with my friend Caitlin. All of a sudden this white truck comes charging at me. I managed to jump out of the way, but in my dream I threw some profanity at the boys driving it. THAT MADE THEM SO MAD!

Stupid dream Zaundra doesn't know when to shut her mouth.

Anyways, it was this truck of 4 boys straight from Hotel Rwanda, machetes and all. I remember running into the store just as it closed so they knew I was the only one inside and had to come out sometime. I was in an office in the back of the store with the only store manager still there when all of a sudden we hear the vroom of the truck as it's slowly passing by the back of the store. Then the boys starting banging their machetes on the windows looking for me.
I wake up at this point, but my heart is racing and I'm sweating. I have to open my eyes look around and cuddle up to Grant to make sure it's not real.

So... I fall back asleep and it starts AGAIN! I'm still hiding I'm imagining all the horrible things that could happen. I call the cops, but my dream doesn't want the cops to come so somehow they never arrive and I'm stuck. My dream must really want me dead, it's horrible.
I woke up I again opened my eyes cuddled next to Grant again and tried my very best to think of happy things like flowers, Hawaii, the ocean. And luckily the dream doesn't come back.

Needless to say I'm exhausted today.

Nightmares suck.

To Remember Summer

This post is for selfish purposes. I've realized my only posts from this summer have basically only been about bugs. Gross. Personally, I would like to remember this summer for more reasons than just those.

Texas really is beautiful. It isn't Utah or Idaho mountainous beautiful, but it has it's own unique beauty.The sunsets are glorious here. No mountains to block them!

This was the scenery during our drive home from Dallas last time.

We've joined in on some of the local Texas fun. First we went tubing on the Comal River.... well river in Texas standards. The river goes right through the city. I wasn't so sure about the lack of nature, but I'm biased (the Hathaway's are hardcore river rafters you know).

This is not an exaggeration of how many people were there. Texas is HOT people, and cold water seems to be the only way to survive. Needless to say the river isn't the cleanest, or really even clean at all, but we had an enjoyable time. The whole sales team came and we just relaxed and laughed at all the crazies on the river.

There is this little concert hall/bar that I pass by on my way to work everyday. Much to my surprise and excitement Jerrod Niemann's name was listed on the billboard as an upcoming artist playing there. Jerrod Niemann sings one of my favorite summer songs "Lover Lover."
Jerrod was a slight disappointment. His songs were fun, but all he wanted to talk about was which ladies were going home with him that night. Really Jerrod? I mean your cute and have a very nice voice... but not everyone wants you. It was worth it just to hear him play "Lover Lover." You know that happy excited feeling when you hear your favorite song on the radio, well this was like that times 10! I totally smiled the whole time and sang along at the top of my lungs. It was an outside concert and it started about 8 so it was nice and cool..... er.
By the way, Texans totally dance!! I've never seen people dance the way they did, I can't even describe it. They get real close together and kinda shuffle around the stage, it looks slightly boring and mostly awkward. I felt the urge to line dance and Miss Caitlin Walton if you were there we would have rocked it.

We have eaten A LOT of yummy food, mostly stuff I've gotten to make. Here are some of our favorite new recipes:

Butter Brickle Amazingness
S'mores Bars
Sugar Cookie Bars
and
these White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

So we really like sugar and goodies in this house.

We had dinner with Micah and Katy, and they're adorable baby Madison, some great friends of ours from Provo. I loved catching up with them and seeing them in Texas, if only we could live close by forever! It was so fun to hear how life has changed for them in Texas and how well things are going. I finally learned how to play Settler's and I'm basically hooked!

Oh and the bugs are still here, don't worry. Yup, that is a bag of crickets. Did you know crickets smell like dirty rotten diapers when they die. Grant gags every time he goes out to our porch because of these little suckers. Oh, and our washer and dryer are on the porch so occasionally our clothes smell like dead cricket diaper because yup you guessed it they figured out how to get in the washer.

San Antonio you've treated us well. Let's keep it that way for our last 2 weeks here please.

I promise there are more exciting things in Texas

The bug stories are just too good not to share. Monday morning we woke up to a nice surprise in our sink. Until Monday I had managed to steer clear of the dreaded cockroach. Not only just a cockroach, but a half alive cockroach. Grant started messing with it and it started hopping around. I screamed and jumped and did a bit of a "getting attacked by a bee" dance. It seriously creeped me out.

The story in TX is that where there is one roach, there are more. Grrreeeeaaatt. Well here's our roach. It is NOT a small roach.

Yup that roach is nearly the size of Grants pinky, and no Grant's pinky is not small.
Oh and ya that's the roach IN A BAG. Grant wanted to bring it to show and tell at work. (He is a pest control salesman you know.)

How did we kill the roach without smooshing it? Grant attacked it with bleach. It worked.

What a guy huh? Grant didn't scream, but I know he was freaked out.

(Notice the plate of cookies in the background. I may or may not have made homemade cookies every Saturday since we've been in TX)

I do promise that there is more to Texas than bugs, but there are A LOT of bugs. Come visit, I'll show you.

In Case You Were Wondering

I have the ABSOLUTE most adorable nieces and nephews in the world. Grant and I spent the weekend in Dallas and let's just say it was EXACTLY what I needed.

Look at that smile! haha. Phoenix is a fun fun kid. He is always up for a good tickle fight. He would just run and throw himself at me, I loved playing with him!

Paige has the most friendly and bubbly personality. She gave me the BIGGEST hug when she saw me this weekend. It was a rare thing to see Paige without a smile on her face.


Scotty is becoming a little man. He wanted to hold my hand the whole time we were grocery shopping in Costco. What a lovable guy!

I kept catching myself staring at Romney. He is the most beautiful little boy. He's a very calm and serious little guy, so mature for a baby.

Daniel and I have a special bond. Well at least I do with him. He was my baby last summer. He has the cutest little raspy voice. I could listen to this kid talk for hours. His scream doesn't really even bother me because I'm just so obsessed with this little guy.

I didn't get a picture of Stacy and that describes her pretty perfectly. She is always all over the place so energetic. Stacy and I had a rough start, I'm not used to children defying me. But Stacy is a smart cookie, she can really have an intelligent conversation. Stacy was cracking me up all weekend.

And Chase. I wish I had a picture of Chase, but whenever he was awake he was in my arms so I didn't have any free hands to take a picture. What a SWEET baby!! I miss holding him already.

I loved this last weekend in Dallas. I'm so excited to live so close to my awesome in-laws. I really can say they are close friends as well! Only one more year and we're here for good.

I reek

... literally.

*caution grotesque image below*

Tonight I stepped on one of these nasty boogers. All I wanted to do was get the laundry. Every night I walk out on our back porch I see tons of these creepy insects, and every morning they're all belly up. Tonight the beetle won the battle.

I took a step...
I felt something squishy and squirmy under my BARE foot.
I instantly knew. I instantly freaked out.

I raced back inside and sat down to breathe. And this STENCH fills my nostrils... it's coming from my foot. Yes ladies and gents, here in Texas these are called stink bugs and I squashed it, unleashing all it potent juices onto my bare skin.

Best part... the smell won't come off no matter how much I scrub.

If I were you I would stay away from apartment 8107 tonight. (sorry hubs your not allowed to stay away ;) )

Goodbye Utah... see ya in September

We left Utah again and here we are in SUNNY, WARM, TEXAS! I'm actually surprised we made it on time.
Grant was busy with finals ALL week long (he did really really really well this semester) and I was packing ALL week long.

Back up. So the weekend before we left Grant and I watched London and Layla, well Grant studied and I watched them, but it was fun to have him with me in the evenings. I love these girls.
London loves LOVES music. Her favorites, "willy wonka willy wonka the amazing chocolate chair" I guess chocolatier isn't in a 3 year olds vocab yet. One day she came up to me and said "bow chicka wow wow!" And my favorite, "Zaza your hair is wild!" (7:30 am just rolled out of bed)


Layla makes the funniest faces and was basically a doll to watch, when she wasn't screaming for me to hold her.


Hard to resist right? haha


Can I tell you how AMAZING it was to get to hold a baby in my arms every 3 hours to feed her.

Yes kids are EXHAUSTING, but holy cow it was awesome to wake up to her smiling face every morning.

Yes, we were busy, but don't let it fool you we still had time for fun. There is ALWAYS time for fun!

Jordan and Bridger came over for games and hamburgers. We broke out our newest addition to our game family, QUELF. IT. WAS. SO. FUN. We captured some great moments from the game below.


Bridger had to lick a piece of paper and get it to stick to his forehead for 30 seconds. EASY.


I had to drink a glass of water from the opposite side of the rim that you normally drink from. HARD-ISH. Thank Grant for this amazing shot, nice view eh?


Grant had to roll 3 3's all while having his finger in his nose. HARD. (He gave up)


I didn't have a picture of Jordan from the game, but she had to say "I have you now," everytime she made eye contact with someone. HILARIOUS, and awkward. haha. (This pic seemed to fit)

We got to see a lot of Grant's family. Between visit's for Womens Conference and weddings he had 3 siblings in town and his mom. Basically I loved it. Womens Conference was SO what I needed. Thanks Karen for the ticket! And I was totally reminded of how EXCITED I am to live in Dallas with Greg and Christy and Mer and Bart and all the kiddos after seeing all of them!

Then Grant and I got in the car at about noon on Friday and drove straight to San Antonio. 22 hours baby. We rock (at driving that is). We took turns sleeping and driving and I ate A LOT of sunflower seeds to keep me awake between 11 and 4 am.