I survived!

Well, I just checked out of my offices at both of my schools. Which means, I am DONE with my first year of teaching!

When I walked out of school today without my keys or any files on hand, I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulder. It hasn't really hit me that I'm done though! I got to say goodbye to a lot of the people that I've gotten to know. I'll be sad to leave them. It's been such a bizarre year, and one that everyone said was super hard in general, let alone being between two schools and your first year.

I'm so grateful for the prayers and support that I've gotten this year. It's been the hardest things I've ever had to do. Brandon especially has been amazing. He's cooked, cleaned, done laundry, and everything I haven't had the energy to do after school. But I've learned so much, and I really do want to get a job next year in Miami so I can continue to grow and learn like this... and I mean as long as we don't have kids I can work at this pace. Props to all the other teachers I know, who manage to have balanced lives outside of school. How do you do that??

Note to self: The end of the school year takes a LONG time. Give yourself enough time to finish everything. Like 2 weeks of kind of long nights, instead of a week of crazy long nights. Just saying!

Weekend of partying! (Memorial Day Weekend)

Brandon and I are constantly in the struggle between time and money when we want to go explore. Exploring during the school year was always hard, because of homework and whatever. Our first summer= time. Second summer we had time, but Brandon wasn't working so money was lacking. This summer, we can finally afford to explore (a little), but we don't get to spend much time together on the weekends.

So, fast forward to this week. Brandon got called into work on Tuesday 4 hours early, which meant he didn't have to go to work on Saturday until 6. We decided to go to the wind caves. That's the hike we tried 2 years ago with Dallin and Mikey. Where we didn't make it. But we were DETERMINED this time!
On the way up to the trail, we noticed some snow on the side of the road. Weird, since it was 65 degrees outside. But we kept going. When we got to the trail however, we realized it would be harder than we thought to get to the caves. The trail was completely snowed over! We could only make it about 500 feet. Fail.

 We decided since we were 3/4 of the way out to Jackson, we'd make it out. The pass was BEAUTIFUL, and besides a motorcyclist almost making himself our new hood ornament the drive was uneventful.

We were walking around, and saw that Jackson Hole has a "Ripley's Believe it or Not!" exhibit. I LOVE visiting those places, so I said let's check out the price. It was $12 a person, so we went. Here were some of the highlights from there:

Allosaurus skull.

Made entirely out of matchsticks.

This cat was made entirely out of used up dollar bills. $2,000,000 worth, to be exact.

This picture was made out of dryer lint. Pretty impressive for sure.

The world's largest ball of barbed wire. So obviously I'm trying to look scared.

A single whale baleen. Which just shows how massive whales are.

Us and the world's tallest man... something I'm pretty sure is at every Ripley's exhibit.

This 20 foot long snake skin belongs to a snake commonly found in Miami. Greaaaaat.

Buffalo couch?
There were also bears, vampires, and statues of all the Wild West figures. Annie Oakley, Jesse James, Butch Cassidy, Billy the Kids, etc. Oh yeah, and the world's largest belt buckle collection!
Unfortunately, the pizza place we like in Jackson got closed down so we just got a bagel at a shop for lunch. We took the scenic route back, through the Palisades (where I saw lightning strike the ground, which was intense) and Swan Valley. Of COURSE we had to stop and get square ice cream from Rainey Creek.

Then I brought Brandon to work, but since he only worked for 4 hours we decided to go see the new "X-Men" movie at 10:10. Seriously, we were in party mode! Something about the warm weather...
Sunday we decided to go camping (yes, on Sunday. But it was free so it was like a sleepover outside.) We went with our friends Trent and Chelsea, who by the way is 34 weeks pregnant and a TROOPER! Luckily they had an air mattress for her. It was just way fun to sit around the campfire at night with friends and talk, even when we heard a pack of coyotes... luckily Trent has a pistol.
So Monday, we got back from camping, showered off the smoke smell, and decided that instead of going into work to do paperwork, we'd go to Mesa Falls. I love driving north of Rexburg, because it's so beautiful once you hit Ashton and north.

That was at the lower falls. We heard there was a hike to the upper falls, but after driving around to the upper falls and realizing we'd have to pay to park there we kept driving to Island Park. Brandon wanted to go fish at the dam, so that's what we did.

I ended up just napping in the car... we didn't have pillows while camping.

Now time to wrap up the school year!!

Weekend in Boise

This past weekend was the Famous Idaho Potato marathon. We had decided to make a weekend out of it and spend 2 nights there, it was great!

I got the day off on Friday, so we left Friday morning. We drove through the Craters of the Moon national park, and saw a lot of the beauty that's in the Gem State:

Fact: Craters of the Moon was created thousands of years ago when lava boiled up through the ground.. And it was beautiful.

We drove through some tiny towns, including a town of 74. Wow.

We first stopped to get lunch in Boise, in Chipotle (of course). We then went to the temple, which was just one exit down from our hotel. It was GORGEOUS. I just wish we could have gotten a picture of more of it, but it's hedged in with the freeway...

So temple #18 for us!

Saturday was race day. Brandon woke me up at 5:15 to get ready for the race, and we were off. 

(Stretching...)

Brandon did SO well on his half!! I passed him probably 5 or 6 times, and made sure to honk or scream so he knew I was supporting him. He ran it in 2:00 flat! And he didn't stop running the whole time, even though his knee was hurting pretty bad by mile 10. I made it to the finish line about 3 minutes before he did, so I wasn't sure if he made it before me or not!

So here's when things got a little hairy. We had to get to the start of the 10k race, but there wasn't even an address. Just a poorly marked map. Aaaaand, I missed the start of my race. By a solid 3 minutes hahahaha. I was running way in the back by myself. The good news is I had about 350 "kills" (when you pass someone), because I passed all the walkers. And I ran it! I checked my time a few times, and stopped to get some water, but other than that I kept going. At about mile 4.6 I stepped off the trail and twisted my ankle. Ouch. But luckily it doesn't hurt too much, more like my ankle. And look at these spectators I found at Mile 5! (Yes I stopped to take a picture, it was too good not to):

GIRAFFES! I'm guessing we're by the zoo or something.

And I finished it! I really tried to kick it at the end, but I was pretty beat. I ran it in 1:14, which I am perfectly ok with! And Brandon was surprised, he thought I'd still be another 15 minutes or so. So that's a confidence booster.

Then he told me to flex: 

My sleeve chafed under my arm like CRAZZZZY. 

So there you have it. We ended up getting Brandon a knee brace, and it's helped a lot.

Side note: we also went to 2 restaurants that have been on food shows: Westside drove in from DD&D, and Flying Pie Pizza from Man vs. Food. Prettttttty great.

Happy Mother's Day!

Wow, I just got on the blog to write about Father's Day and realized that this never posted. I promise that we wrote it on time. Sorry Mom and Karen!
For Mother's Day, we both wrote about our mom and mother-in-law. Here is my part:
As I've gotten older, I've seen just how much I'm turning into my mom. I know a lot of people don't want that to happen, but I figure that's probably the best possible option for me! My mom's such a good example of what a Latter-Day Saint woman should be. She has never complained once about Visiting Teaching or her callings, including when she was Relief Society president while pregnant with her fifth child. She's also willing to give advice, even if it's a kick in the pants type of advice. She's been the one who usually hears about my day when it's fresh, since Brandon was at work most of the time I got home from work. Another big thing is how loving she is with Brandon. I know having TWO daughters get married at 20 was not ideal to her, but she loved Brandon (just like I knew she would) and didn't make it hard for him to join the family. I'm also grateful that she (and my dad) have given us our independence but also make sure we are O.K. with our particular "young, poor, married, going to grad school" situation. If I can raise my kids the way she raised us, I'll call that a success!
And now Karen. I was always nervous about meeting a boyfriend's family, and especially when I flew out to meet Brandon's family because I knew it was serious at that point. So I knew the final big step before getting engaged was meeting and making a good first impression with his family. And I'm so grateful that she has accepted me the way she has! It has really helped us to not have qualms about who to visit for holidays, because we enjoy both places. I love that she calls me, even though I can't always answer (sorry!). She has raised her son the right way, and really cares about us.

And now from Senor Giullian:

I have known my mother for about 24 years, I'm 26 but have no recollection of the first two.  It is hard to put into words what I think about when I think of my mother.  First of all, I think about the many sacrifices she has made in her personal life on my behalf.  I think I will forever be indebted to her for the many years she has looked after me.  She truly knows how to put others first.  One quality that my beloved mother has (that we often tease her about) is her ability talk.  I love having a mother that loves to talk!  It can be difficult sometimes because I am not a very talkative chap, but I know that whenever I need to talk my mom will be there to listen, comfort and love.  She is so friendly to everyone around her and has an excellent talent of making others feel invited and important.  She is faithful to her family and the Lord.  Currently she is working very hard on genealogy and it has been great learning and reading about my ancestors especially my great grandfather Giullian.  She is a hardworking woman...she grew up on a farm...nuff said.  She drove tractors as a young girl with one of her younger sisters pushing down the pedals...it's just funny to think of my mom doing that.  Some of my favorite memories are when she would pick me up from high school  at 12:00pm and we would go out to lunch together.  She just always had time for me!  I could go on and on but I will leave it at that.  Happy Mother's Day Mom and thank you!

Now my Mother-in-law.  Let's begin by saying that there simply isn't a better mother-in-law than Dana Myres Murphy!  She plays frisbee! That s awesome! And she even almost tackled me once!  She is very approachable and has such a big heart!  Right now Dane takes up most of it but she still has so much for everyone she associates with.  She truly cares about people.  I love that Dana has such a strong testimony and has worked so hard helping her children value the gospel (because I married one of those children).  She is very knowledgable and has great prespectives and insights.  Happy Mother's Day Dana!


We also love our grandmas, aunts, cousins, siblings, and friends who are mothers. I have such great examples of mothers to look up to, and I'm grateful for it every day.

Some recent sleeping stories.

Brandon has told me that I talk in my sleep a LOT. But he can't remember too much of what I say, it usually has to be something super odd for him to remember in the morning. But within the last week we've had a few funny incidences.

Last Saturday night, Brandon was woken up by me scrambling backwards in bed, trying to get up against the wall, with a look of complete fear on my face. He asked what was wrong, and I said, "There is a man in our room!" I don't know how he fell back asleep after that, but he just got me to lay back down and went back to sleep.

Then, a few nights later, Brandon said I was laughing really loudly in my sleep. (Which is scarier than talking, in my opinion) He tried to get me to calm down by touching my arm. He said I went from laughing to growling at him in about 3 seconds... "DON'T TOUCH ME!" Again, creepy.

This morning we were planning to do a run put on by the Junior High. As I haven't been feeling well, I told Brandon to wake me up. He woke me up at 7:30 by SAYING "It's 7:30." That's the time I have to be to work, so today I thought it was Friday. I was laying on my stomach, and Brandon said I jumped and rolled over in mid air, then sat up really quickly freaking out about how late I was. It took a solid 10 seconds for me to remember that it was Saturday. Phew.

Good to know my personality hasn't entirely been squashed!

Pride.

Ok, I'll admit it, I'm a prideful person. I hate to admit it, because nobody wants to. But I know my stubbornness causes issues at times...

So, that's why I'm pretty sure I got this job. Because for the last 9 months I've learned a lot about pride and humbled, realized I don't have all the answers. But this isn't about my job.

So back in September I signed up for the Famous Idaho Potato Half Marathon. I'd been thrown into a really difficult teaching year, and I told myself that I would do this to prove that I could not only do hard things, but do hard things and keep a balanced lifestyle. Plus, when I signed up everyone told me things should calm down after Spud Harvest... then Thanksgiving... then Christmas... then President's Day... then they just said hang on for the ride.

THAT DID NOT PAN OUT.

I have TRIED so hard to run a lot over the last few months, but as my year has gone on I've really been struggling just to stay afloat. Seriously, how do people have a balanced life and do things after work?? So, I have not been running a whole lot. In addition, I've been getting more stressed about my long runs. I'm not mentally tough enough to do it yet, especially when I get off work after a 10-11 hour day and am so mentally exhausted. But, I told myself, "I can do hard things. So I can do this half." And here we are, a week from the half marathon, and I just now decided that keeping my pride up is not worth damaging my body. Even if I ran the half marathon, I would not enjoy it and I would risk serious damage to myself.

I hate it. I feel like a failure as a runner. I told Brandon that I HAD to do this! I was sooooo set on it for the entire school year... and I feel like I let him down. This has actually been a hard choice for me. But I decided that I will run the 10k instead. I know I can do that, and I will be able to enjoy myself at the end of the day. And besides, this weekend will be so fun even without me killing myself over a half marathon. I'll have 3 whole days with Brandon, we'll go to Boise and see friends, go visit a new temple (#18 for us), and a 10k isn't much to cough at. A few tears may have been shed as I finally admitted to myself that I was wrong... and that Brandon was right as he asked me if the 10k would be better. And Brandon loves it when I tell him he's right. He told me he doesn't regard me as a failure, but someone who was overwhelmed with work.

So, there you have it. I'm running a 10K next weekend. But don't worry, I've found a new option for a half marathon later this year...

http://www.halfmarathons.net/usa_half_marathons_florida_jewfish_creek_bridge_run_half_marathon.html

Spring Update for the Giullians

I haven't been very good about blogging lately... it's been crazy. But we are getting so excited about our move!

Rexburg has finally warmed up, but some of the days are so windy. Case and point:

It was SO windy... that is a maxi skirt, and not a mid calf length skirt. You can't even breathe out there. It makes running harder, but I love that I don't have to wear a huge coat every day!

 We are also getting suuuuuper excited about moving to Miami. We've been talking, and we haven't gone on a "big" trip just for the heck of it since we've been married. Every trip has been to family (which is the best reason to go) in one way or another. We have also been getting super excited about all the cheap flights that we can get from Miami. It's cheaper to fly to Costa Rica than it is to California! So we have been saying, "Oh man, we should go to the Bahamas... we should go to Puerto Rico... we should go to the D.R... we should go to Panama..." etc. Makes us sound super fancy right? (hint: Still cheaper than flying home.)

So last night, we were at Barnes & Noble and ended up sitting in front of the "International Travel" section. I was staring at the Caribbean section, and I told Brandon, "Ok, we're doing it. We're buying a book tonight, and we are making that our first big trip out of Miami!" So with some discussion, and looking up some flights, we found a destination:

Look at those flights! I'm going through our orange book right now and highlighting worthy attractions... We don't know when we'd go but we will!

The D.R. is a definite place I've wanted to go, but I figured I shouldn't go when a certain elder is there... so that he can serve his mission. But in Year 2 of PA school, here we come Dominican Republic!

Celebrating 26 years of Brandon

So, Brandon's birthday was celebrated in 2 parts- the surprise party and the birthday itself. Part 1- the party.

So I like doing surprise parties for some reason... Maybe because I feel like he'd like everything more if he doesn't know about it beforehand. But anyway, we had to do it pretty early because a lot of our friends were leaving for the summer (or for good) at the end of the week. So I planned it for April 7. Then we both got sick the weekend beforehand. Luckily I have great friends, because I texted my friend Janelle to see if we could do it at their apartment. I figured we didn't want to have people at the germ factory.

The only time I almost blew it was when I was texting Janelle about the cake. I told her the cake was orange fun fetti with a black gel, to look like a basketball. Then, I got a text from Brandon asking what I was talking about orange fun fetti and black icing. SHOOT! Luckily I dodged a bullet and told him a story about talking to someone at work about it.

After work, I had to go grab 26 balloons for each year of Brandon's life, for the party guests to write notes and attach to the strings. Balloons are EXPENSIVE. But, ultimately it worked out. I dragged Brandon over to Trevik and Janelle's apartment for FHE, and he was very surprised. And he loved the cake.

All in all, a good night.

And then yesterday was Brandon's actual birthday. I gave Brandon a White Sox hat and a birthday coupon book, with coupon such as winning an argument, getting to watch a sports game without any complaints, and getting to veto a restaurant that I choose for the night.

Brandon made sure to make a nice Easter dinner today, it was way nice. Pork chops, asparagus, deviled eggs, and stuffed potatoes. 

After that we went to the nature park and fed the ducks. Not a bad weekend. We were grateful for the chance to celebrate Easter, and to remember the reason for the season. Happy Easter!

(The cavalry of ducks)

Because of Him.

It's the Easter season, and I've been running around like a crazy person this week so I haven't even been able to sit down and think about it. One of the things that has been going around on social media are the pictures with the hashtag #becauseofhim, along with things that happen because of Easter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S3TI4bYerU#t=149

Need I go on? Ok one more, this is my favorite.

I haven't had much time in a while to think of Easter, but I'm so grateful for Christ's Atonement and resurrection. Because of it, so many of my questions about life are answered. In the wake of so much heartache and sadness that has happened in our family over the last few months, it's so wonderful to know that all hearts will be healed and tears dried.

And it is just a bonus perk that it comes the day after Brandon's birthday... much to be grateful for this weekend.

Silly String 5k

Yes, another race. We don't have one for at least 2 weeks... and I am now motivated to really dig in and train my behind off. Half marathon in t-minus 7 weeks!

So this one was a fun run put on by a company in Rexburg. It's a running/bike store that just opened up. We went to pick up our shirts yesterday, and were totally disgusted by the customer service. The worker there didn't even say hi to us, and while I stood next to him for 15 minutes he didn't ask me what I needed. We finally left, and I think he heard me tell Brandon that I didn't want to go back. Which is too bad, because we both want to get new shoes this summer so that's a couple hundred dollars they just lost.

But getting off my soapbox... The run was HARD. More than half of it was uphill. But when I finished I felt so great! And, as was in the name, everyone sprayed us with Silly String. Brandon tried to give me a crown of silly string, but it didn't work.

And-surprise of all surprises!!- Brandon was the one to suggest our next race. There's one in a few weeks in Rigby, which he said he wanted to do.

Ok back on my soapbox... I'm so proud of Brandon. He's been training so hard, and is doing way better than I have with running. He ran 7 miles the other day... who does that?! So he will do great (if) he does the half marathon with me in Boise.