No Doubt

Remember these guys? The band that launched Gwen Stefani to solo artist stardom?

Yeah, I totally won tickets to the reunion tour this morning on the radio! Be jealous!

I called Ty to tell him and his exact words were "Well, there is NO DOUBT that you'll have to find someone else to go to this concert with you."

Any super fans out there? Anyone? Bueller?

My birthday is off to a great start!

Those Who Can...

I love my job.

One of my sweet angel boys wrote me a letter for Valentine's Day that was just so cute and I wrote him a thank you card for it on fancy stationary. Ever since, he has been writing me "thank you for the thank you" letters about once or twice a week.

Today, it was sealed in an envelope from home that he had decorated with flowers.

Dear Mrs. Bogle,
think you for the litter you sent me. I love you as a teacher and you are the Best and most cind teacher I ever hade. I love you as a techer more than the galexey and more than that. Love Derek


My job here is so much fun. I've been thinking about trying to get a job in the Laveen district once we move, but I can't imagine leaving this school and these kids and my humongous classroom. I guess we'll just see what happens.

Speaking of Laveen, we should be closing in the next week or two... Our official closing date isn't until March 20 but we should be moving before spring break as long as there aren't any huge holdups.

I CAN'T WAIT!

Good News!

So many wonderful things have happened lately so I'm excited to blog about them today!

1. Tyson and I were sealed on Valentine's Day and spent the weekend with my dad and stepmom in Sedona. It was so nice to be up in the mountains again =) I really miss it. Oh and being sealed is cool too haha

2. Tyson and I celebrated Valentine's Day on Tuesday by having a candlelit dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches and ramen noodles with Pomegranate sparkling cider. Mmmm. He got my High School Musical 3 on bluray and I got him a nice framed picture of the temple.

3. On Wednesday, Ty was talking with his manager about work stuff and the possibility of transferring to a f&e closer to our new house. Long story short- his manager gave him the asst. manager position and said they promise to work around his school schedule! He jumped from making $9/ hr. to $12! Awesome.

4. Also on Wednesday, I won a $50 gift card on the radio!! It is for some American Bistro in Phoenix that is supposed to be pretty good. I had to guess a riddle that sounds like something wayyyy dirty but is really a household object.

5. We should be closing on our house in the next few weeks! We are so EXCITED!! I can't wait to have my birthday party in our monster backyard. Oh- and we are already discussing the tetherball 'court' that we will be setting up as well.


All good things! Oh- and someone contacted me about advertising on my Year of Pizza blog that I made in January (but i never posted anything on it) because it has had 80 hits already! haha. That could be fun...

Catch you later!

Ketchup

I am the worst blogger on the planet.

In an attempt to rid myself of the guilt I feel for not posting since Christmas, I will update you briefly on everything going on in our lives:

Shanda's job: Good. Today ranked top 3 worst days at school. My little challenge child attacked me and wouldn't stop punching me in the stomach and arms. I'm okay. He is suspended.

Ty's job: Great. Everyone loves him. He was told that he was next in line for an assistant manager position, but his availability with school won't let him get it. I'm glad he isn't dropping out of school! He might be getting a new job doing car detailing that pays better. We'll see.

House: We bought one. You can look at pictures on this craigslist post http://phoenix.craigslist.org/cph/reb/992990653.html
We will be closing sometime in March I think... Hopefully earlier, but we'll just have to see.

Misc: Ty is the best husband ever. We made a resolution to be more romantic and I'm sucking at it just as much as I suck at all my resolutions. Ty has started doing cute things all the time =) Last week he painted my fingernails for me during One Tree Hill. Today I came home and he had left a trail of flowers from my parking space to our apartment door. There was a bouquet inside and the entire house was clean! Luckiest girl ever.

Also, we will be getting sealed on Saturday, Feb. 14 at 9am (i think thats the right time...). Does anyone want to volunteer to do my makeup? Please?

Never got around to making Christmas cards... Here's our family portrait anyway =)

Merry Christmas Eve

I really just wanted to post this picture. My grandparents played Santa and Mrs. Clause in their older years and I love this picture.

The last few years have really made me miss them around the holidays. I wish Ty could have met them. Grandpa Dean had a huge heart and always sat with me at the counter cracking pine nuts when we would visit. I would eat them as fast as he could crack them open. Grandma would spend all day in the kitchen baking and bustling. I remember as a kid just trying to stay out of the way. My brother and I would usually go play in the garage which was the size of a pretty big barn and completely filled- floor to ceiling- with old stuff. Rolls of carpet, bull horns, sharp, rusted metal. It was a kids playland and a parent's worst nightmare. I can even remember a few times that our parents would come calling for us and we would just hide. They probably would never have found us if we hadn't popped out from wherever we were.

We spent a lot of holidays with my Grandma and Grandpa Dean because they lived so close to us, and I'll always remember the love and warmth that filled their home at Christmas.

http://www.designspongeonline.com/2008/12/uxus-designs-mcvillage.html

this is easily the coolest mcdonalds playland i have ever seen. too bad its in amsterdam or else me and ty would have to plan a roadtrip.

design sponge is the coolest if you haven't ever checked it out before...

Picture Post

Halloween



First Year Anniversary at Landmark

Westin and Katrina's wedding

Kids Vote

I've never been very politically active or even aware, but this election I am really trying to pay more attention. I hate to admit that I've never even voted before and that now, as a 21 year old adult, I had to ask my mom how to even register. I don't want to talk politics here though, or even discuss my feelings about the presidential candidates; I want to share a story about the students in my class.

I teach second grade in inner-city Phoenix. We are a charter school, so we serve a pretty large area- any parents that want their children in our school are welcome to come no matter where they live. Every student at our school receives free lunch because of their low family income. It can be heartbreaking hearing about their home lives and realizing how sheltered I was as a child.

Today at recess a group of third graders asked their teacher, a good friend of mine, who she was planning on voting for in the upcoming election. Being a diplomat, she asked who they thought she should vote for and the students started debating the candidates back and forth. My second grade students and I started listening to the older kids as they discussed what they had heard about both McCain and Obama. It was surprising and pretty cool to hear the students talking about how their lives would be effected by the outcome of this election.

Eventually the conversation turned to immigration laws and how the presidential candidates were going to change or reform the laws and practices. My students began to join the conversation and started talking about how scared their family is of Joe Arpaio. They were under the impression that if Obama wins this election, their families will receive the paperwork they need to stay in this country and they won't have to "hide from Sheriff Joe" anymore.

It doesn't matter how I feel about Sheriff Joe, Obama, McCain, or even immigration laws. It was emotional listening to these children trying to make sense of the politics that are forcing their parents into hiding. They don't understand why they can't live freely in what they learn is the Home of the Free. There are no easy answers.

I talked to my students a little bit about voting and being good citizens, but I want to do a more in-depth political study with them. I hear that Nickolodeon has Kid's Vote online so I'll be doing some research there to guide our discussion. Any feelings on this topic?

Hope everyone is having a great day.

Oh- and my phone got stolen from Ross. Super lame. Call Ty if you need anything.

Loving, Laughing, Living

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let the countdown begin...

so I haven't posted in a while, and I haven't posted pictures in even longer... so here are a few from May... A few days before graduation, me and Ty went down into Oak Creek Canyon which ranks in the top 3 of my favorite places on the planet. Dandy loves it there too. She is such a water dog and loves all the smells and running on the river rocks and chasing lizards and butterflies. We have a special place called Grasshopper Point that we love to go to because it has a beautiful portion of the creek running through it along with a bunch of waterfalls and big still pools. There are walking trails and big trees that change color in the fall. Every time we visit Grasshopper Point I find more things I love about it. Its on of the only places I've ever been that makes me feel so close to Heavenly Father because of all the natural beauty. These pictures don't even do it justice, but if anyone wants to go- I'll share my special place with you =)







Oh and this is a tree frog we found... You can't tell from the picture, but his belly was BRIGHT NEON YELLOW! It was so cool.

I also graduated from NAU in May!! YAYYYY! It feels so good to finally be done!

I have some cute pics of me and Ty, but can't get them to work at the moment so I'll save those for later!

We are moving down in about 2 weeks! Both of us are getting super anxious already.