Halloweeeeeen!

I always say Halloween is one of my favorite holidays...you get to dress up in a fun costume and {when youre single} you just get to go out and dance. 

What could be better??

However, its also a holiday that always sneaks up on me. 

Before I know it, the big day is in like 2 days and I am always without a costume. 

Not too many other holidays do you have to do so much prep for, other than Christmas, and Im usually a last minute shopper anyway. 

This year my roommates were all going out to a party and I was about to sit home with no costume which is basically preposterous! So within minutes, with their help, I gathered a cat costume!

And it was a pretty dang good cat costume if I do say so myself...

So here are the White House roommates out dancing the weekend before Halloween

I LOVE my roommates. We all get along so well and I love that we are kind of a hodge podge put together but we all just fit so well with each other. 

And I love living with my cousin Angie. Sometimes I feel robbed of an extended family since I have grown up without much of grandparents and then since my family is so big and we have been the banished family members in California...so its just so fun to have my cousin here and share my last name with someone. 

However, on actual Halloween I had a pretty awesome costume...

At my school/job the students have to wear pretty strict uniforms everyday and were not allowed to wear costumes on the big day and so weeks prior the Jr High Staff decided dress as the students on Halloween! 

I will admit, I felt really ridiculous getting ready in the morning! 

{but at least my outfit was already planned out!}

But the students reactions were so worth it! They were so shocked and freaking out and loved it! However it was so difficult to tell the students and teachers apart all day! Especially as the youngest staff member, I was told by staff and students that they kept mixing me up with the only blonde student at the school. 

It was so much fun, and the staff enjoyed taking pictures together way too much!

I am still really loving my job and everyone that I work with. Like really love the staff everyone is so great and it just makes me extra happy to be at work. 

One month down and Ive already gotten a promotion too!

About three weeks ago I interviewed for a teaching opening at APA. I didnt get it....but its cause there was an opening as the director for the Character Development program at the school. The head school directors thought I would be a better fit and actually, I couldnt agree more. There are lots of parts of teaching that is just too stressful and although this position will be hard and stressful too its also really fun and I am so excited.  So starting in January I will be the Director and basically the #2 go to person at the Jr. High. 

Basically I really like my job. And Halloween. 

On to Charlotte we go...

After our Ragnar adventure, Heather's family was once again nice enough to offer us a hotel to shower and get a good nights rest on a bed. It was so needed. 

Then I was off to the Tar Heel state {which I just thought I was making it up, but I googled it and thats really the state's nickname} with the Sandall Family. 

I've been so excited to go to North Carolina and see where Heather is living now. 

The drive was so pretty.

It looked like this the whole time, and then all of a sudden, the trees would clear and we would be in a big city but wouldnt even know because it had been covered by trees. 

It was also fun to talk to Kevin during the drive and crack jokes about Heather sleeping so much...

Heather saved the best tour of Charlotte especially for me!

The Charlotte Liberty Walk.
A tour of Revolutionary spots in Charlotte!
But first I saw this sign..

It was the best, and she knew I would enjoy it so much. And we both learned a ton! What was so cool is that all of these sites are right in the center of Downtown! We just walked around the business centers learning about the Revolution.

Such as...Charlotte was the first town to create a Declaration of Independence. They signed it and sent it to the Continental Congress on May 20, 1775. More than a year before our country formally declared independence! The congress saw their letter and said it was too soon for such a drastic measure. Maybe they should have listened sooner to those Charlottonians!

{I know the feet pictures are excessive. sorry. dont judge me.}

Right in the heart of the city is the site of the Battle of Charlotte from during the Revolution.

This battle has a lot of historical significance that I was previously unaware.
The British, being led by General Cornwallis attacked the city; however, were surprised by the Charlotte militia putting up such a strong rebuttal. Although they treated three times, they put the pressure on the British troops, not allowing them to fulling take over the city. The British went back to their encampment and were going to try again. But they were never given the chance. They had to withdraw from the Carolina front upon learning of the British defeat at King's Mountain to support their other armies. Charlotte's brave stand allowed their city to remain free and set the conditions for the eventual capture of Cornwallis at Yorktown.

We also saw the {legit} First Church of Charlotte.

 It was established in 1818 and completed in 1823. This too is centered in the middle of the modern high rises, setting such an interesting juxtaposition. The town cemetery is right behind the church. Most of the people buried behind the church were soldiers from the Revolution and Civil wars and their families were buried with them as well.

I have this creepy love for cemeteries and so I loved walking throughout all of the old headstones.

There were many more sites, but these were my favorite.
I also got to go see one of my good friends Karly Barker and her sweet baby Annie. Karly and James use to live in Orange County but just recently made the move to NC.

I also saw my cousin Heather and her babes Rex and Alice.
I dont know how I randomly have two good friends and a cousin in Charlotte, but it was so great to be able to see them all during my short visit!

The rest of my time was spent just chilling with Heather and more with her adorable baby Brookie.

I absolutely loved hanging out with them both. Brooke is so beautiful and just melted my heart! Thank you Heather for letting me come spend such a long and amazing vacation with you and your family!

I loved it and I love you! 

Tar Heel Trotters

And Im back with the East Coast...

After spending a few days in DC, I was off to run my third Ragnar. 

What I love about Ragnar is that even though this was my third time, each race is unique and brings a different experience and memories.

The Maryland course (I refuse to call it the DC race since we ran in the district for like .2 miles) was absolutely beautiful!! 

Rolling hills and quaint little towns.

sooo different than So Cal! 

Im pretty sure I said "I want to live here" in like every little town we went through. 

This years team consisted of my favorite little Heather Fay, husband Kevin and Heathers dad, Lee and members of H&K's Charlotte, NC ward.

Of course {like always} it takes no time to get to know your vanmates and just have fun navigating your way through the unchartered territories. 

For this race, Im pretty sure Heather and Kevin thought I was way more intense of a runner than I actually am (just because I ran a half like two weeks prior...) and I got signed up for the 2nd longest running legs of the whole team! Just behind Kevin, who actually ran cross country in college. NBD.
This ragnar, we were Van 2! and I was runner 12! 

Heather started our van off as runner 6.

She killed those hills!

Our vanmate Dave had to conquer a huge hill for the next run. One of our favorite things to laugh about as the race went on was that Dave had a huge hill on every run. "Whats the point of running up this hill!?" Poor Dave. 

My first run was through the cutest little town!

Running 7.3 miles at around 6ish at night. 

with some rolling hills and one big hill that I might not have been ready for but always good to get the first run under your belt.

Our van was then done now for awhile. We found a little restaurant in the cutest town who even stayed open late to feed us starving runners! 

I now had a looooong time till I was running again. Bummer of being runner 12. 

I slept, cheered on our van first few runners, slept some more. 

Next up...9.6 miles in a scary forest! at around 4 AM. 

Seriously, I was running through some wooded areas. {And getting passed like woah. Thats what happens when you have the second longest mileage.}

Needless to say it was a little creepy but also really cool. 

Side Note: During my half, I had kinda injured my leg. I was hoping it would be healed by Ragnar but nada. It was still kinda hurting, especially throughout this run. My team was awesome and stopped a lot to check on how I was doing.

But I finished it, and super proud to have run that long of a distance. 

I dont know how I keep getting good hook ups for Ragnar, but this race, Heather's mom and sister rented a hotel near our next major exchange. So once again we were able to shower and take a nap!!! 

This was definitely the best hook up, as I slept for two hours solid! in a bed! and then we went down for breakfast!

At this point we were all a little worried if I was gonna be able to run my last leg. I was icing my leg and limping a bit. But I was gonna run my team into the finish! I had to get better! 

Luckily, as it came close I was feeling better and left Alexandria right in the middle of the hot day for my 4.5 mile run into the finish line. 

I loved running through an area that I knew from my DC days. And I was able to run through such a great part of town. 

Seeing an old cemetery

{kinda crappy picture. but i was running..on a windy bridge..}

and running across the Wilson Bridge into Maryland with a great view of the DC mall!

It was hot. Real hot. But kept going, kept pushing to go to that finish line. 

21.2 miles later...

{are we there yet??}

wooooo!!!

 I did! And brought those Tar Heels with me! 

Seriously so fun coming into the finish line together. It makes the feelings of a Ragnar accomplishment even more prominent and exciting. Its exhausting and I really had to push myself to get to the finish line and help my team finally finish too.

However, I might be a little Ragnared out for awhile.
Of course I say that now...

- 

Pardon the Interruption

Im taking a brief blogging break from the East Coast

to share some small details of the weekend. 

Perhaps another great perk of being back in Utah is the ability to see some of my very dear friends more easily. 

This Saturday I headed down to Provo and was able to hang out with Annie and Monica. Sometimes the very best thing to do are just lounge with your friends. And thats when you know that you have made it to the BFF stage. You dont even have to be doing anything fun or crazy to be having an enjoyable time. I helped Annie organize her closet and we went to Smiths. And it was the best way to spend an afternoon. We realized that in our "old age", less is more. 

I then sped off to Terra Mia, a Provo favorite to be reunited with my DC friends. 

On my last Provo trip I saw Ms. Dixon and Ms. Pratt but this time Ms. Slade was able to join too! 

She was in town visiting from Arizona and I hadnt seen her in 2 1/2 years! Jamie and Jessica hadnt seen Naomi since being in DC! 

It was great that those friendships dont change either. We still laughed so hard, just like we always did back in our DC apartments. 

Making fun of el eds v. sec eds. Making fun of me doing more dancing in my classrooms than teaching. Making fun of my speech impediment and just straight up making fun of each other. 

Im pretty sure thats what we do best. 

I dont think I have laughed that hard in such a long time. 

Thanks for hanging out with us Naomi!! It was so good to see you. 

{sad things is, i dont think any of them will see this, since they have all giving up on blogging!!!!!}

Back in the District.

Lets rewind for a sec, 

back to my unemployed days and before I made the plunge to SLC, 

 back to September when I was finally able to go on my long awaited, previously blogged about trip. 

Going back to the District. Seeing some of my favorite friends. Running Ragnar. Visiting Charlotte. 

So here is Part One of my East Coast adventure.

Washington D.C. 

It was my first time going back since my short stint as a student teacher and I can easily say that DC is my favorite city and place to be. 

I took off on my first red eye. I bought my little neck pillow and was all set and ready and before I knew it, I was flying over Mount Vernon.

And boy, was I excited to be there. 

It didnt matter that I maybe got 3 hours of sleep, I was so giddy and it felt oh so good to be back to my stomping grounds. 

First stop: White House 

Which was always one of my favorite stops. 

I felt a little rusty on my navigating skills in the District {made some rookie mistakes, as Allie liked to remind me} but also loved that I felt confident in tackling the city all by myself. 

I met up Heather Fay and her great family for a tour of the White House.
It was so good to see Heather! We havent seen each other in over two years, and I loved our little run to each other for a hug. And i love love love that baby of hers!
 Our tour was a little bit of a let down, {self guided tour?? really, can't we do a little bit better for the historic home of the President??}

We hit up Ford's Theater.

Unfortunately we couldnt go into the theater, but were able to go to the museum to read all about President Lincoln's life and the details of the assassination. 

{which at this point is when some sleep deprivation set in} 

{John Wilkes Booth's gun}

I learned Abraham Lincoln is the most written about president, as proven by this massive stack of every book printed about him.

And this was barely even a full photo of this stack.
We also wandered to the home in which Lincoln was taken to after he was shot.

We wandered to the National Mall. 

{ahhh so beautiful}

Walked the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and war memorials. 

It just made me so happy to be back walking along my favorite places. I just really, really love it.

The Shumways were off back to their hotel and so I took to the metro to go back to my real stomping ground. 

Wilson High.

This place will always have such a special place in my heart. Those first times teaching, the students and all of the wonderful memories that happened there. Again, I was giddy to go back. 

But its a different Wilson High that I left behind.

My ghetto and old school has been completely remodeled to a brand stinking new school. This partly made me really sad. The hallways were different, I couldnt remember how to get around and that ghetto vibe was gone. But its awesome for the school.

I wandered down my old hallway and missed it so much. Missed my students and all the fun we had. Missed having that room be my room. I missed the charm of the old and worn door and my students work posted along the hall.

{my old door. new door}

However I didnt miss the students giving me cat calls outside the front doors of the school. Cause yes, that did happen again. I guess some things never change at Wilson.

I walked away trying to not have regrets that I had left that school and my city and rather filled my mind that I was off to go to another favorite place of mine.

A baseball game. And not just any Nats game. A Nats vs. Dodgers game.

My boys in blue knew just how to make my DC trip just a little bit better.

It was a little rough to face the Natitude from Allie and her friends, and I will give them the benefit that the Nats ended up winning their division but it was tough to have a 6-0 lead dwindle to a 6-6 tie and face those reprecussions. But Kemp delivered and I walked out with a W.

And feeling like I fit in more with the east coasters as I finally enjoyed some Shake Shack. Allie and I did have to wait in a 30+ minute line to get it...but it was worth the experience.

And great to be at the game with Allie!!

Love spending time with her. She graciously let me stay at her house and then gave us the best tour of the Capitol the next day.

Allie is doing an internship for Senator Hatch and is full of knowledge of the Capitol and gives great tours!

{This spot marks the exact middle of the District of Columbia and is suppose to be good luck. My vans wanted in on that action!}

And we saw Brother Brigham!

Basically I was jealous the entire time of Allie's job and I really want her life. 

My favorite spot in the Capitol:

The place where John Quincy Adams could hear the echo from the other side of the room. 

It really works! and is so cool. 

We finished our stint at the Library of Congress.

Its so pretty inside and we all enjoyed watching little Brookie climb the steps.

We then had to hit the road and leave DC. We had Ragnar to conquer and 200 miles to run before I could see my beloved DC again.