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Hello hello!

This weekend was great! Friday I had a meeting with Antoinette (my PD for Teach for America), where we caught up and talked about teaching a bit. We also went to Target and purchased some lamps for our often dark living room. (We have a ceiling light/fan but it mysteriously doesn't work consistently...)

Saturday, I got kicked in the butt at a kick-boxing class at the local YMCA. I had a doctor's appointment last week for a general checkup and my weight is...eh. I really want to try and get in shape by summer. We then hit the cleaning force to tackle our crazy house. Stephen was awesome! He mastered the kitchen and the bathrooms while I crawled out from our piles of laundry. At the end of the day, we were very pleased with our progress. Our house feels very livable again. Stephen spontaneously took me on a date to the movie Marley and Me (I loved it enough to see it again and he hadn't seen it yet.) and to dinner at Cracker Barrel. It was fantastic! Well, the screen actually was shaking the entire time during the movie, but it was slight enough that it didn't ruin the movie and we got 2 free "Raincheck" tickets for another movie sometime!

Sunday was a lovely day of rest. The talks at church were quite engaging - Brother Button from the stake gave a talk about being prepared. With the recent crash of the plane into the Hudson River, we need to be "prepared for impact." It got me thinking about my students and how we give our students all of this preparation for their exams that they know they will have to take but yet they shy away and fail their exams. Just like we are given so much guidance to help us grow and prepare for the celestial kingdom in this life yet how often I shy away from what I know I'm supposed to do. I fall into the same traps as my students - I want to watch TV, sleep, surf the internet, etc. There should be no excuses. I need to continually be preparing myself for the exam that will someday come my way.

Thanks to JT and Alison for an awesome dinner and super fun game night. Stephen and I continue to stink at Buzzword but Stephen's solo winning streak does not cease to end! But as he says "I win, I can't help it." Sheesh. Good job to my honey!

Today was a very lovely balanced day as well. We woke up earlier, worked on our lesson for tomorrow (together!! It's so much easier to work on a lesson together) and got ready for a day trip with JT, Alison, and Jakob. (Jakob is rediculously cute!!) We drove up to Amelia Island (and even took a ferry!) and ate lunch at a place called Beef 'O Brady's. The weather was awesome - 60's in January is fabulous. After a nice walk around in downtown Fernandina Beach, we headed back home for another butt-kicking workout at the YMCA.

Now we are about to start a new week...thankfully I feel rested and ready for a great week!

It will be interesting to tune in tomorrow to the president's inauguration - let's cross our fingers for a good 4 years!