A little help....please?

Remember this girl?

Well, that was ONE year ago..... One year later, I am still all natural in the color dept. and haven't even had a trim (yes I know you're supposed to cut your hair more than once a year, but time just gets away from me) ..... Here we are today....
I love the ease of having short hair but I also love the versalitity of long hair.... So I think it's safe to say that something needs to be done....but the question is "What?" Do I hack it all off again? Do I keep it longer and maybe add some layers or highlights? I really don't know what to do so any help is appreciated.

Stop. Breathe. Blog.

In my eternal attempt to become a better blogger, I find myself again playing catch-up. So here's the latest...

We moved! (up the street, but still!) We now live in a townhouse with my Mom. We are really enjoying the new place and the three of us are getting along really well (My mom loves Bryce more than me, but I'm OK with that)..... For those of you who are wondering, my Mom is doing very well. We feel very fortunate to be here with her and support her as her health continues to improve. She's an amazing lady and we LOVE her to pieces! For those of you who didn't hear, I quit my job with the CHP. Long story short, It was NOT a positive work environment and my co-workers were less than supportive towards each other. I was bummed that it wasn't what I expected but the experience made me realize how much I LOVE teaching and that sticking-it-out as a substitute for now is in my best interest.

That being said....A week after I quit, I was offered a long-term substitute assignment (good timing huh?). So for the past 6 weeks I have been teaching Adaptive P.E. at 7 different schools and I LOVE IT! Teaching special ed has been an amazing experience with countless rewards. I seriously love my students so much :)

A few weeks ago I got to go with the Youth to do Baptisms for the Dead at the L.A. Temple. It was a wonderful Saturday! We had forty some-odd youth and we even went early to have a picnic and check out the new visitor's center (wich is amazing!) I LOVE my calling!

Even with all of our busy-ness, we have still found time for our sweet, wonderful friends. We were especially excited to see our friends Jeff and Hannah from Idaho! Bryce and Jeff were roomates at BYU-I and we were also in the same married student ward. We were overjoyed to share some Disney magic with them :)

We learned to draw Pluto

Tania's Baby Shower!! We miss the Brunners!

Bryce and I are also both currently coaching volleyball (among other things) for Parks and Rec. and are having so much fun! Unfortunately our teams are in different age divisions so we don't get to have a marital throw-down but it's still super fun. So between subbing and working for Parks and Rec. I have been averaging 50+ hour work weeks... yep, I one tuckered out girl most nights. That's all for now!

Endless Summer

This has truly been on of the funnest summers ever! We have had a great time with friends and family and are sorry to see this season go but I know the holidays will be here before we know it (they always manage to sneak up on us). Here's what we've done lately....We went to the US Open of Surfing in HB with Pam and Mike...

And saw Kelly Slater :)I said good-bye to Day Camp and my fellow counselors...

Bryce got these...

...I got these....

...and these

To celebrate our 3rd anniversary!! We also went to a yummy dinner at the Fish Company and saw the movie Flipped (super cute)

We got donuts with Sean and Jill at 1:30am

But before the donuts, we saw an awesome band play for Jill's B-day

They are called the Spazmatics and they played some great 80's songs!

We had a yummy dinner at Wokano in

downtown LB (it's 50% off Mon-Thurs!)

We went to the Red Bull Flutag where ordinary poeple build "flying machines" and launch them over a platform to see how far they go....aka HILARIOUS

We welcomed home Elder Johnson :)

And shopped for a WEDDING dress for the Future Mrs. Marengo!!

So Much fun! Unfortunately, our current project is MOVING. For those of you who didn't hear our fun story... As it turns out, the owner of our condo has put it up for sale so we're out. The funny thing is that our place was on the market for 39 days before we found out! And the ONLY reason we found out was because the REALTOR (not our land lord) called to ask if she could take pictures...I was like, "For what?" They told us we could stay until it sold, but it's not fun to live in a condo that is constantly being shown to prospective buyers and what not. So we're bunking up with Bryce's parents while everything with our new

place is finalized....but that's a post in itself!!

Hooray!!

My amazing, sweet, wonderful friends Ricky and Shannon are GETTING MARRIED! I am SO excited for them! Congrats!

It was such a sweet experience to be there when Ricky proposed! Both of their parents were there and everyone was just so happy! They are so in love!!!
In other news, we have been enjoying our Summer. We officially kicked off the season with a bon fire with some great friends! We roasted so hot dogs and ate delicious s'mores! So much fun!

I also was able to go up to Sacramento for training. I met some really fun people in my class and we had a good time learning together. There were a total of 8 of us from all over the state. Here are a few pictures from our trip to the capitol (and yes, I made a few classmates do High School Musical pictures on the capitol rotunda)

In between my two weeks of training, I got to come home and see my favorite cousin and two of her four adorable kids...I hate living so far from them!

Apparently I needed a reminder of how short I am...thanks Eva :)

And lastly, a while back we had friends over to Bryce's parent's house on Memorial Day weekend for fun in the pool. It was a blast! we love our friends! Phew! Lots and Lots of fun! Hope you're all having a great Summer too!

Where to start...

We went to an Angles game and I made Bryce take a

picture with the State Farm sign...employee pride!

D-Land with these two is always a treat :)
We went to a taping of Let's Make a Deal!
Putting on our costumes...
Ready to see Wayne Brady! Unfortunately none of us were chosen,
but look for us on May 27th! With great sadness, we had to let this girl and her hubby move to AZ.

But we had some fun first...Ugly Faces!! I realized that summer is definitely on it's way :(
We partied it up at Tyler and Becca's wedding Always a fun group We celebrated my mom's 66th birthday (I can put her age on her because I know she doesn't read it :) My mom had some health problems the begining of this year, but we are so greatful that she is doing much better now... Love you Mommy! And I got to go to D-Land (can't get enough of that place!)

with the cutest girls in the world!

Last, but not least, we have a big change coming in June... I will be starting a new job! I'll be working for the CHP (California Highway Patorl) as a dispatcher. Yes, that means yours truly will be uttering the phrase "911 what is your emergency?" Cool huh? It's so funny because I never thought I would be working in Law enforcement but when I applied for the job (last July) I just had a feeling that this was something I could do and be good at. So needless to say, I'm stoked. Not only for the new challenge but to finally only have ONE stable job and the perks and benefits that come with working for the state.

I will definitely miss teaching. I plan to keep looking for teaching positions while I start my new career, but I'm not getting my hopes up (if you haven't heard, CA is letting go TONS of teachers right now so full time positions are few and far between). We definitely see this as a huge blessing for us and a chance to save some more money for the future. Timing is also good because Bryce is yet again tinkering with the idea of going back to school... more on that later.