Down With Love

The movie "Down With Love" is one of my very favorites. It has been a favorite for a very long time. However, when I stopped watching PG-13 movies... I wasn't able to watch it anymore. I have told David about it many times and we have looked all over for an edited version to buy, but to no avail.

Click HERE for the movie trailer... you will love it. :)

Down With Love is a romantic comedy that is set in the 60's and is wonderful. I love the wardrobe, the plot, the romance... everything! I especially love the whole feminist-theme. I wouldn't consider myself a hard-core woman's rights activist... but I do believe I am a feminist to a certain degree. (I am a full believer that anything a boy can do, a girl can do better. Hence, selling security systems to prove that I could.) I love, love, love this movie.

You may be wondering why I am posting about this right now.

For David's graduation, my parents gave us a Clear Play DVD player. The ClearPlay website says that "ClearPlay is a DVD player that enables your family to enjoy all of the great Hollywood movies you’ve always wanted to watch—without all of the junk you don’t want." David and I have loved it! Neither one of us watch PG-13 movies because of all the junk, but with Clear Play we can watch those movies without any of the junk. Even PG movies have a lot of swearing and junk that gets cut out as well! You choose what you want taken out and can set the level at low, medium or high.

David and I just got the movie "Down With Love" in the mail (NetFlix... gotta love it!)

I can't wait to watch it tonight!

Note from David:

Everyone should go buy Clear Play. It is totally worth it. It does such a good job editing out bad content without ruining the movie. Everyone loves to watch movies but almost every movie has content that takes the spirit away. Most of the time when watching a movie you have never seen you have to worry about what the movie will have in it. With Clear Play you don't have to worry, you can just watch and if there is something bad, you are not going to see it.

The answer is...

I don't know how many of you have seen "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy," but if you have... you know that it reveals "The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything." I didn't particularly care for the movie, but today I happen to agree with Deep Thought (an incredibly smart computer that was created by a hyper-intelligent race of beings to come up with the Answer to The Ultimate Question.) For those of you who haven't seen the movie... you must be dying to hear "The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything." Well here it is: 

Yes, the answer to everything is "42." 

After seven and a half million years of calculation, the answer finally turns out to be 42, Deep Thought (a super computer created to find the answer to the ultimate question by a race of ultra-intelligent beings ) admonishes Loonquawl and Phouchg (the receivers of the Ultimate Answer) that he checked it very thoroughly, and that quite definitely is the answer. He then goes on to say, "I think the problem, to be quite honest with you is that you've never actually known what the question was."

Today I know the question. 

How many days left of Student Teaching? 

42. 

Yes, There are only 42 days left of student teaching (not including weekends or holidays.) Only forty-two links on my paper-chain countdown. 

I love teaching, I love my students, I love learning, I love school. 

I still can't wait to graduate.  

(Graduation Cookies)

Little Caesars Thursday

This is what we are eating for dinner tonight. 

 A couple of weeks ago I declared Thursday night as Little Caesars Pizza night. We missed last week... but I fully intend on not making that mistake again. David is humoring me, but I don't think that he knows how serious I am about this. By Thursdays I am exhausted and don't want to cook dinner. (Not that I have been very good about cooking dinner since THIS unfortunate incident. I think I am scared.) David is really good to share in the dinner making responsibility, but lets be honest... he is busy and tired and doesn't want to cook on Thursdays either. AND I have to leave at 6:15 in the morning on Fridays. By picking up a pizza, we eliminate the need to spend time cooking dinner after we get home at 8:45 AND we eliminate the time it takes to clean up! We are able to rest for a little bit and get to bed early. Another added bonus is that I can eat leftover pizza for breakfast while I am on my way to school. Absolutely no preparation necessary.

Another bonus to this fantastic plan is that we have enough free crazy bread coupons to last us for the rest of the semester. :)  

Hooray for Little Caesars Thursday!

ps. I just had a boy come into my computer lab asking me if I knew anything about a release form his English teacher told them to print out. I was a little confused so I asked a couple of questions. Do you get the release form from the library? - No. Do you need the release form to check something out of the library? - No. Did she tell you that someone in the library could help you? - No. 

Apparently he just hoped that I would happen to know how to print the form out for his class. I love it when people see the big information sign above me and think that I can answer all of life's most difficult questions. 

Just call me Lucy the Psychiatrist. :)

Something to look forward to...

Our weekend was wonderful. David and I were able to spend Friday together, then after work on Saturday we drove to my house in Morgan to spend some time with my family. (We hadn't been there since over Christmas Break and I missed them terribly.) Sunday we had a delicious dinner complements of my Father. We had teriyaki chicken, steak, shrimp and baked potatoes! Talk about a meal. It was wonderful to spend time with David and my family. Monday we exchanged just a couple small gifts with each other and spent the day running errands, cleaning the house and trying to prep for the next week. 

I made the comment about how sad I was that I didn't have anything to look forward to until March 27th. (I have a booth at the Bridal Faire at Riverwoods for my business!) I don't have any days off of school until Spring Break which is the second week of April. I was a little bummed and felt a little overwhelmed with how much I have to do in the next couple of months.

So yesterday, I was in our living room waiting for David to get home. I heard the car beep which meant that he was finally here. I ran to the door and threw it open to find him on our porch with an armful of roses. I was shocked! 

(A picture was supposed to be here, but apparently my laptop didn't load it onto Facebook correctly and thus I cannot access it while I am here at work. Oh, PS, don't tell anyone that I logged into Facebook while I was at work. I was desperate for a picture of my beautiful roses!) 

They looked something like this:

David said, "You may have to wait until March for your Bridal Faire, but that doesn't mean that you don't have anything to look forward to."

At that point, I was in tears. But he continued on, "And somedays you have more than one thing to look forward to." He then pulled out my next surprise from his bag.

A bottle of Tostitos Salsa Con Queso.

My favorite.

David. As long as I have you to be with every night, I will have something to look forward to.

Happy Valentines Day Shantel!

Dear Blog Readers,

This is David. You are accustomed to reading Shantel's blog posts and I assure you I am not taking her position as head Peaden Life blog poster, but today is a special day. What does that mean? It means I get to post. It is Valentines Day. (Well it isn't until tomorrow but I don't want this present to be late) So I get to tell all of you about how wonderful Shantel is. That is her, below in the picture wearing my tie. She is wonderful and I am going to tell her about her.

Shantel and I hung out for the very first time on Valentines day. I was walking to class and bumped into her as she was leaving work. We started chatting and she ranted about how she hated valentines because it is so commercialized. She also told me that she had to work in the computer labs that night instead of doing something fun. Well, I told her that I was doing homework, so maybe I would go to her computer lab to do homework.

Right after my class I ran home to make Shantel brownies. Everyone should feel special on valentines whether they are dating or not, so I wanted to make Shantel brownies. That night I went to her computer lab to do homework. I handed her my ID for her to swipe and then we talked for the next 2 hours. I never made it to a computer. We chatted about everything and it was thoroughly enjoyable. When she got off I offered to walk her home (She never realized I did not actually do any homework). So I walked her home. She invited me over to hang out and I told her I would love to but had to run home real quick. So I ran home grabbed the brownies and went to her apartment.

We had a ton of fun. We just laughed and talked with her roommates and enjoyed our valentines day. I was totally enchanted by her. The best part. As I was leaving, she gave me a hug! I could not believe how lucky I was. It was the perfect Valentines day. I asked her out a few days later and have been in love with her ever since.

So why do I love Shantel so much. Well let me tell you just a few of the reasons.

1. She is really beautiful. Look at that picture. She is the most beautiful girl I have ever met. When I first saw her in her wedding dress, my heart just stopped. Frequently I think about how lucky I am to be with such a pretty girl.

2. She has a testimony of the gospel. She is such a strength to me and helps me grow closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

3. She is an excellent cook and homemaker. Shantel loves to cook and especially loves to cook with me. When we were dating we were always busy, so making dinner was one of our favorite date activities. We still love to make dinner together. Shantel is an excellent cook. In addition, she is an extremely talented sewer. She makes things all the time, including an apron for my sister and curtains for my mom. Best of all, for Christmas 2 years ago, she made me a Utah State blanket which I love. Her homemaking skills are important to me and one of the reasons I love her. See the picture below, a delicious dinner we made with her family.


4. Shantel is very kind to me and to others.
5. Shantel is patient.
6. Shantel has a great sense of humor! She loves to be silly and have fun. Shantel and I laugh all the time. That is one of my favorite things, Shan makes me laugh. From the first time she threw flour all over me, to the awkward conversations, to just last night resting at home. We are always laughing and happy. (P.S. Don't you just love those glasses?)


7. Shantel is very sincere and gives sincere compliments. One thing you have to know about Shantel is that she is always sincere and always gives meaningful compliments. So when she tells you something she means it. Shantel always makes me feel good and appreciated.

8. Shantel has the world's cutest sad face. I mean really, look at that face. Wouldn't you do anything to make that face go from sad to happy? Well I do. Shantel pretty much gets anything she wants from me mostly because of her extremely effective sad face.


9. Shantel is full of surprises! You never know what she has up her sleeve next. It keeps my life interesting. This is a picture when Shantel somehow got me to go ring shopping. We were at the mall and she told me she needed to check about getting her mom's pearl ring fixed, so I agreed to go in. Next thing I know she was trying on engagement rings! We kept these pictures under lock and key since this was in January and we didn't get engaged until March! She is tricky and fun and I love her. We had so much fun looking at wedding rings and pretending like it was all a joke but both realizing we really just might get married.


10. Shantel loves Utah State just as much as I do. This was especially important because I would wait at the Spectrum all day (really from about 7 AM to 7 PM when the game started) to be on the front row at Utah State basketball games. She not only supported me waiting but also came and often waited with me! I can't thank her enough for the long hours she spent waiting in the spectrum because she loved me and knew how happy being on the front row of Aggie games makes me. Thank you Shantel!


11. She really loves Utah State. I know you thought that last bit was great, but it gets even better. Shantel even let me have Aggie blue as one of our wedding colors and let us put a wooden "A" cake topper just like the one we were sitting on in the picture before. That is why I love Shantel. She supports me in everything and does anything she can to make me happy.


12. Shantel will be a wonderful amazing mother. I love Shantel because I know she will be the best possible mother for my children. She is so good with children and has so many of the virtues that make a good mother. She is kind, patient and hard working. She is diligent and spiritual. I know that she will be the most amazing mother. She is already so good with kids. Look how good we look holding little Aubrey. Some day when we have children Shantel will be the one to help them reach their full potential.


12. Shantel is perfect for my family. My family loves Shantel. In fact, they probably like her better than me now, which I do not blame them. They love to play games with her, talk with her. She fits in perfectly.

13. She loves to play games. Part of the reason she fits in so well is that my family loves to play games. Well, so does Shantel. She has so much fun playing them and makes me so happy as we play games. My favorite part is that she likes to talk big. She doesn't care so much about winning (except when it comes to Attack) but she does care about who does the best trash talking.

14. Shantel is easy to talk to. I love to talk to Shantel about everything. We talk so much and I love that she will always listen to me and my ideas. What does the picture below have to do with talking? Shantel loves "feet" pictures. She loves pictures that just show people's feet. So we will talk about why those pictures are great. Or about politics, or movies, or business tactics or cooking. Shantel will talk to me about anything.

15. Shantel is intelligent. Shantel is extremely smart. She is a 4.0 student but that doesn't even explain how smart she is. She can do anything she wants. For example, she wanted to start an invitation design business so she did. She wanted to make curtains so she did. Whatever she wants to do, she will figure it out. I love Shantel because she helps me be smarter. We both love to read, so we will read a book and then both talk about it and analyze it.

16. Shantel is beautiful. (There is a reason I put that one in twice, she is just really really gorgeous)

That is a little bit about Shantel. I hope you all know how lucky you are every time you get to read one of Shantel's wonderful blog posts!

Happy Valentines Day Shantel! I love you and I am so glad that two years ago I bumped into you on the way to class. I may have been late to class and missed out on a few notes, but if I had been on time I would have missed out on the best thing in my life, you! I love you!

My first "teacher" Valentine

Yesterday, I received my first Valentine from a student. She came into my classroom before school and said "Mrs. Peaden, this is for you. Happy Valentines Day." I nearly melted all over the floor. It made my entire week. Then later, when I was in class another student came up to me and slipped me a heart shaped piece of chocolate, wishing me a very happy Valentines Day. 

I have decided that I love 8th graders. They are old enough to be treated like grown-ups, but young enough to still bring Valentines for their teachers.

I love being a teacher, and am so grateful for these two students who did something so small that means SO much to me.

New Haircut...

I would describe myself as a fairly conservative hair person. I generally just find something that I like and then stick with if for a looooooonnnnngg time... making minor modifications here and there. However, in honor of my new haircut. I have decided to document a few of the stages that I have gone through in my life. Most of you know me as having brown hair, but that is a fairly recent development! I was blond for the first 18 (almost 19) years of my life. I have only had brown hair for about three years. If I have to write down what color my hair is, my first instinct is still to write "Blond."

This is my beginning stage. (I am sorry that the picture is so blurry! I am working with the resources I have right now, which consist of... well.... facebook.) See how cute I am with my long blond locks? I really loved my hair. This is when I am still at that cute stage. Thankfully my awkward stage is locked away at my parents house. I won't subject you to the torture of my "glasses and headbands are really cool" stage. Because my glasses were not glasses like this:

They were glasses like this:

And it wasn't a cute headband like this: 

 

It was a headband like this: 

Yeah, just try to imagine it. Not pretty. 

So you saw that I started out as a blond. But as I grew up, my hair started to darken. This was about the time that I started putting highlights in my hair and started flipping it out. This was my standard haircut for about 5 years (I started it in like seventh grade, these pictures were taken my senior year of high school. I look the same in all of my school pictures.) 

  

Can you find which one is me? 

After I graduated, I decided to become more "sophisticated." So what did I do? I started curling my hair UNDER!

(Pictured here with one of my darling "almost" sisters, Heather.)

Then I decided to get really brave and dye my hair brown. Haha. This was how brave I ended up being. (Sorry these are fuzzy, they were taken with my phone and then uploaded onto facebook back in the day when it was a big deal to have a camera on your phone and actually be able to get them on the computer.)

 

You can see that it wasn't as drastic of a change as I thought at the time. 

Because then came:

WHOAH! HUGE LIFE CHANGE! 

I was no longer blond, and I no longer had "long" hair. 

This lead to a new stage in my hair. This was also right before the semester that David and I met. He has only ever known "Brown haired- Shantel". 

I ended up trying out some extremes after that. 

Here is my "I have brown hair!" phase.

  

(Please forgive my gross appearance, I had been stranded on the side of the New Jersey Turnpike for over 13 hours at this point. This was the only picture that I could find where you could see the dark hair really well.)

Here is my "Red-Hair Phase."  (Complements of Melissa Hulse.)

And then my  "Gothic Phase".

Okay, okay. This was actually from my freshman year of college when I dressed up as a gothic for a documentary on discrimination. I couldn't resist putting it in. 

This is where I have been for the last little while:

It looks really gold here, but it is actually a nice shade of brown (I haven't dyed it for over a year.)

And here is where I am today! 

  

Literally. You can see the class of students hard at work behind me. These photos were taken with PhotoBooth on the consultant computer I am sitting on while I am at work. (Just one more reason why Macs are better than PCs.)

Anyway... I really like it. I am really happy with the way that it turned out. I just needed a change. I used to have this really weird quirk that whenever I would break up with a boy I would have to change my hair. Even if it was a simple trim, or a slight color weave. I needed it to feel like I was prepared to move on and face the world with a new perspective. I know that probably doesn't make sense, but it was true! I did it almost unconsciously. I never had the thought, "Well... now that [insert boys name here] and I are broken up, I better go get my haircut!" But I always seemed to end up with a new hairstyle within just a couple of weeks. Some of my friends teased me about it when David and I were getting married. They were worried that I would be stuck with the same hairstyle for the rest of my life! 

However, I have found that getting my haircut provides the same motivation to pick myself up and move on in other areas of my life. Not just dating. I have been struggling with my student teaching a bit, and even though I love the kids... I have been getting really frustrated. However, I have a new haircut... which means that I am a new person. All of my frustrations were left with the split-end clippings on the beauty shop floor. I have the power and motivation to succeed. 

I realize that none of you really care about this, so don't feel obligated to leave a comment... (even though I have been reduced to begging for comments to validate the existence of this blog.) This was more for me than it was for anyone else. I just need to keep telling myself to focus, laugh, and love this time of life.

Underprepared....

I know that I shouldn't be wasting my time writing this blog. But I am in desperate need of something to relieve my boredom. Unfortunately, no one has updated their Facebook in the last 10 minutes and I have already stalked all 100 blogs (personal, crafty, food, photo... you name the blog.. i've read it in the last 3 hours) that I have on my blog roll.

A waste of time? No! I have found inspiration, laughter, love, hope, and happiness.

I now have 5 dinner ideas I'm desperate to try out. I have three baby shower gift ideas that I think will turn out fabulously.

Have I written any lesson plans? Yes! (Three of them.) Did I write ALL of the lesson plans that I planned on writing/need to write tonight? No. Not even close.

I am really struggling with being prepared. I got stuck when I was starting the Dairy Unit with the Foods I class, and haven't been able to catch up. Class is going well... and I have been blessed enough to be able to pull everything off without feeling like an idiot. But I feel like I am constantly under prepared until right before class is starting, and then I can pull it all together.

However, like I said... my student teaching experience is going really well. I am learning a lot, and LOVE being up in front of the class.  At first it really weirded me out to have the students call me Mrs. Peaden. But now I LOVE it. "Mrs. Peaden? Are we cooking today?  Mrs. Peaden? Jason is touching me. Mrs. Peaden, Mrs. Peaden, Mrs. Peaden!" I LOVE it. It makes me so happy and I love telling all the little eighth grade girls about my dashing and wonderful husband. You would think that our love story was the cutest chick flick that they had ever seen. It's so fun!

I realize that I should be doing lesson plans instead of writing this blog right now, but I have declared myself finished for the night, and now have 15 minutes to get ready for bed before lights out.

Hidden Valley Ranch.

David and I love ranch. Hidden Valley Ranch to be specific. No other ranch will suffice. Simply put, Hidden Valley Ranch tastes the way ranch is supposed to taste. 

  

Many of you know this, most of you however, don't understand the extent of our devotion. We eat ranch with most everything: veggies, pizza, spaghetti, salad, chicken, macaroni noodles, you name it. Needless to say, we go through ranch at a fairly rapid rate. Before we even got married, we started buying all of our food together. After going through an entire bottle of ranch in a shockingly small amount of time, we decided to set a life goal together.  Someday we will have our own hidden valley ranch commercial. 

Sounds far fetched? Give me a break. You remember Jared right? And now Christine with her "drive-thru diet." 

 

Why shouldn't David and I someday become the spokespeople for Hidden Valley? 

So what did we do? We have started numbering each bottle of ranch that we buy at the store. I regret to inform you that we did not get any pictures with the first five bottles, but I can guarantee that they were numbered! Our eventual goal is to contact Hidden Valley with hundreds of pictures of us using their product throughout our lives together in hopes that they won't be able to say no to giving us our own commercial. Just picture it "Music playing in the background. Thousands around the nation buy Hidden Valley Ranch every day because they and their families can taste the difference, but one family would accept no substitute for the very best ranch around... and they documented their dedication to Hidden Valley through the last 50 years they have spent together. Flip to a shot of David and Shantel. David says, "Before we even got married we vowed to never buy a brand of ranch that wasn't hidden valley. It was part of my promise to give Shantel the absolute best that she deserves." (Or something really cheesy like that.)

Okay, Okay, I'll spare you the rest of what will someday be an award winning advertising campaign. Maybe we will even get a spot during the super bowl!  

Here are some pictures of us with our beloved ranch bottles.

And then of course from our "European Adventure" (we are trying to capture our Hidden Valley Ranch in context.)

Please try not to be disgusted at how much ranch we consume. Just be impressed with our foresight. This is our brilliant get-rich-quick scheme (minus the quick part). But if we are going to be eating the ranch anyway... we may as well document it and then try to get paid for it later! (At the very least, we may end up in the Guinness Book of World Records!)