We did it!

After a week of celebrating, we made it back home just in time for the REI sale. Noah took off early this morning in search of more things to curb his appetite for camping, hiking, etc.

We had a FANTASTIC Christmas in Chicago where we ate delicious foods, watched copious amounts of movies, and enjoyed time with the fam.

Surprisingly nothing strange happened to us, except perhaps the very drunk individuals on the plane who discussed: relationships, alcohol, and the woes of not being able to get drunk enough on a tight budget in Utah. They progressively talked about these same things in a louder tone of voice throughout the plane ride.

And the only picture from the entire trip is Noah riding Sandy at the grocery store,

2 1/2 Years of Marriage

...and one beautiful, REAL Christmas tree!

Dear Nicole,

I would say that Friday was the sixth time someone told me I looked like you. At my weekly Friday meeting the fifth grade teachers at my school decided I am your love child and are unsure whether I'm really born of my goodly parents.

We should hang out and be twinners.

Love,

Becky

P.S. Apparently I have Tom's smile.

Thanks for a Thankful Day

For Thanksgiving I was in charge of:

Sweet Potatoes
Green Bean Casserole
Pies



(My pies were dang good.)
Punch
Centerpiece


Overall it was fun to be with friends and to have a low key Thanksgiving. :)






Noah learned how to carve a turkey from YouTube and wore such a cute little apron:


A big thanks to Martha Stewart for the place settings:


After Thanksgiving we...you guessed it--went hiking! Unfortunately for our bodies, it was a complete sheet of ice.


Highlight of the trip:
Sitting in the hot springs

Low point of the trip:
I slid over a rock and it went right up my bum. I lay crying on the trail in the ice for awhile. We realized that on every hiking trip I end up crying halfway through.

Overall, I'm thankful no bones were broken post feasting.

Race You!

"Noah, let's race to see who can get to bed fastest."

I won because Noah cheated. Cheaters never win Noah.

Dear Drivers of Utah,

The person in front of you has somewhere important to go too. When they need to merge, for goodness sake, let them in! Driving around school buses on the left hand side while it's stopped for children is illegal. Pull over for ambulances because that could be you one day and you wouldn't want someone else to stop you from getting to the hospital. When someone is basically in your lane of traffic trying to back out of a stall it's very dangerous to speed around them. Most of all, it's not just your life you're messing with when you get into a car. It's mine. Stop driving like you're the only person in the world.

Sincerely,

Becky Coleman

Halloween Thanks?

Technical difficulties have prevented me from being as hilarious as you are all used to. In the following slideshow please enjoy the following: pictures of Noah in a nightgown (big bag wolf, eh?), pictures of dear Isla's visit, my Thanksgiving banner for the house, the beginning of my quilt, and culinary delicacies we made at Whitney's Halloween party.

Anecdotal Notes

So I've been talking to some people and trying to recruit them to join me in the marathon we're running in June. So I've decided to share with each of you my running schedule.

Things of note:

-We're not going to grad school next year and I'm teaching a third year of school. Woooooohooooo!
-One of my students is a chronic nose picker. They ate one of their boogers while I was teaching.
-The nose picker also farted in my classroom AND WAS FANNING IT AT THE STUDENT SITTING NEXT TO THEM. Needless to say I felt bad for them and then it wafted up my way. Oh goodness. I had to make a blanket statement asking anyone who needed to "pass gas" to please leave the room. "Pass gas? What's that." Fart, if anyone needs to fart please leave the classroom. The whole time they're sitting back there grinning.

There are no other things of note at this time. For further updates please stay tuned.

Another Hike for Another Day

So it was fall break this weekend!
Noah and I took advantage of the good weather and we...you guessed it...WENT HIKING!
Oh my goodness it was perfect.

I believe this is about where Noah LIED and told me we could go to Chik-Fil-A after our hike (I was HUNGRY) and he said no because I forgot my coupon.
The following is an actual transcription:
Me: I'm not going any farther until you promise me Chik-Fil-A.
Noah continues walking and turns around: Come on. Does a bear poop in the woods? (Side note: I have always hated this phrase.)
Me: Sometimes they poop in a meadow.
I begin walking.
Me: But this bear is going to poop in your mouth if I don't get Chik-Fil-A.










Tree hugger!
To illustrate this point:
Noah asked me on the hike if we could buy an electric car (WHAT?!?!)
I told him when he learned to put the peanut butter away when he makes a sandwich, then I could trust him to plug in our car every night.
Today, he told me he made TWO sandwiches and put the peanut butter away BOTH times.
I'm still not buying an electric car.










8 miles later we were back in civilization.
I still can't get over how exhilarating it is to hike somewhere.
I'm afraid this is turning in to a "Noah and I went hiking and camping blog."
I'm not sure I'm all that sorry about it.

Here's to conquering the obesity epidemic one person at a time!

This is probably a good time to mention that because I felt justified (I hiked 8 miles, duh!) I ate pupusas, a cupcake, ice cream and two dinners yesterday (and today?)

Sigh.
Tomorrow is a new day. :)

My Friend Rie and A Blog about Color

I was reading my friend Rie's blog and found this fantastic blog all about color. She's having a giveaway until Friday which is uber thrilling, so check it out!

The Color Issue

Happy Halloween

In honor of the season and Pinterest
(because of course that's where the inspiration came from):Happy Halloween

Escape from the Train Menace

Sometimes the tension gets to be too much with the train by our house so Noah and I escape to the mountains even when it's dark.

Noah's idea of escaping is a bit more extreme than mine. I've been wanting to go fall camping for awhile to see the beautiful leaves. Well we saw some beautiful leaves, but we also encountered a lot more than I had bargained for.

It was definitely cold (duh Becky, it was snowing) and Noah took advantage of my incapacitation and snapped this lovely.

I suppose I deserve it for all the embarrassing photos I've put up of him.

Anyway, here's Noah in the morning drinking hot cocoa with pumpkin spice marshmallows (yeah we eat good stuff on our trips. That includes tortellini for dinner and blueberry oatmeal with freshly dehydrated blueberries for the morning.)

And here after I had a very tiring night of listening to the snow fall off the tent and thinking it was bears because we had to eat in the tent (because it was snowing, have I said that enough? By the way, it wasn't bears or any other wild animal, just snow.)

Funny story about cooking in the vestibules of the tent. Noah had the stove going and I was enjoying my toasty sleeping bag. I lay my head down and next thing I know there's huge flames coming from the front of the tent. Apparently he had the water almost boiling and the stove ended up falling over. Thankfully, no animals were hurt, including Noah.

And here's the view in the morning from the tent. The trees were beautiful.


The hike down though, was the whole reason I came. We left pretty late so we didn't reach the spring we were going for, but it was better than hiking in total darkness in the snow, following all sorts of animal tracks. So we camped in the above meadow and on the way down in the morning we got a beautiful view of the valley.

Noah isn't so good with downhill.


Sigh.


Overall, it was a good trip. The thing that probably saved us was zipping our bags together that night. We were so toasty warm! Next time, we leave a little earlier and it doesn't snow. Noah loved it so much he wants to book a camping trip every month.

This concerns me just a bit.

The Train Menace

Dear Train Conductors,

5:45 a.m. is not an acceptable hour to blow your horn right next to my home. If I have ear plugs in I should not be awoken from my peaceful slumber by your stupid honking.

Love,

Becky

My Favorite Teaching Moments

Morning supervision--saving lives one pedestrian at a time.

AND I got to wear a super sweet orange vest.

I also got a few new students (and by a few I mean a gazillion).

One of my students just made me chuckle. When I asked what they did this summer at Seven Peaks they screwed up their face really tight and put their fist to their head and said, "I'm tinking...I'm tinking..."
Oh, I love it! It was so cute!

And best quote so far this year:

"Mrs. Coleman, every time I see you I think that you're going to have a baby."

My reply:
"Thanks ______."

By the way, I'm not pregnant, but maybe they have special psychic powers and I will get pregnant. Then I might just thank said student.

I should have my own T.V. show...

Because I'm so darn creative and I make lots of things while Noah is off in the wilderness. Take, for example this before:

And after (this does not capture how hideous it was before and not hideous now:
Before:


And after:
I also bought some nice little onesies and decorated them for baby showers:



And while Noah's been away I finished up some paintings I've been tinkering on for awhile:



I took my sewing machine to the watercolor paper so when you hold it up to light you can see through it.

I'm feeling so crafty.