Farewell Summer

Summer ended all too soon.  Luckily I was able to find a job for the school year, it came very last minute, but it is so worth the wait!  I got a job with Mesa Schools, it is currently only part time, 3 days a week, but it is still wonderful.  It is 100% better than last year, so amazing to see such a change in the different schools.  I teach at 4 different schools, I'm kind of like the clean up teacher, picking up different general music classes that the full time teacher at the school couldn't fit into their schedule.  Nothing against where I taught last year, staff morale is so much higher and I feel more valued and respected.  On the other days I'm not teaching I will be able to sub or just chill at home, I'm really excited for this change.  One of the best things about my new job is my first school on Mondays and Fridays is 5 minutes away from my house.  No more 45 min of rush hour traffic!  I can leave my house an hour later, which means I can sleep an hour more and it also makes for a happier Wendi!  I did take a pay cut only working part time, but its still enough to get by with and I'm living at home so I don't have too many expenses.  Life is good!  Now I just need to find people who want to take a trip Oct. break because I need a vacation.  As much as I love my little sister Tiffany, she ruined my summer vacation plans, so I need to get away.  Luckily I'll be leaving AZ this weekend to go take some stuff up to Tiffy and Jeffy up in Provo, I'm not looking forward to the drive.  It will be a quick fun trip and a chance to get away for a little bit and to see my dearest Tiauna whom I haven't seen for a year and miss dearly.  Summer was too short, good thing I'm not working full time so the school year isn't too intense yet!

Oh What do you do in the Summertime

This summer has by far been one of the craziest yet most amazing summers ever!  My sister Tiffany had been dating this guy Jeff for awhile and he was conversing with Marilee of when he was going to propose.  Well he finally proposed on June 1 when his family came up to do some shopping.  Jeff only has one brother and he was leaving on his mission June 30.  So to be accommodating we planned the wedding for June 25.  Let me tell you how intense those 24 days were between the engagement and the wedding, there wasn't much time to come up for air!  It is amazing everything that we accomplished in such a short amount of time.  The next day we went dress shopping and didn't have too much luck there, since we aren't made of money.  Luckily we found the dress from China and it came just barely in time, as in Tuesday 3 days before the wedding. (See previous post for more info)  We quickly became a sewing factory making 8 bridesmaid dresses and amazingly finished them all.  Tiff and I also were able to get our temple recommends because I decided it was time for me to go to the temple.  I've been wanting to go for a while now and was just waiting for the perfect time to go, which I thought was going to be the end of summer.  Tiff wanted to go through the Gila Valley Temple since she had been going to school down there and being a part of all the temple festivities, it was a part of her now.  So I went to the Mesa temple June 18, and then the next day we drove down to Thatcher and Tiff went through down there.  It was such a neat experience.  It was the best decision I made, and it wasn't just so I could go to Tiff's wedding.  Then the next Friday Tiff and Jeff were married and I was the lucky one to walk around with them after the wedding to take pictures.  I was going to die.  June in AZ is killer if you are outside for more than like 10 minutes.  When we finally made it to the family dinner I had like 10 cups of water before I even started eating.

The next day we traveled back down to Thatcher so that his side of the family could have an Open House before Taylor the brother left on his mission.  It was a fun little party and a nice little get away for us.  This wedding ruined my plans for a vacation so staying in a hotel in Thatcher is pretty much all I got.  The cake the Patty, Jeff's mom made for the open house is amazing and super cute.  I loved the idea that she found in magazine.
 

The awesome cake at the open house. It was so much fun to watch Patty's Father and Brother who are engineers piece it together. It was a big puzzle for them

We waited 2 weeks to have the reception back in Mesa so that we could plan that and get ready for an awesome party. It turned out so beautifully. We don't have too many pics of how beautiful it was because we epically failed taking pictures. It was very simple and elegant.

The happy couple with the beautiful cake that Emilie and I made

The reception was decorated very beautifully. 

I love my nieces, they are so cute and love to hang out with each other and do what the other is doing

My nephew was having a blast in his walker roaming around the cultural hall.  He thought it was the greatest thing ever, and then my niece had to join in and push him, they were having the greatest time playing.

They have such a great relationship can't you tell?!

My mom is an amazing florist. 

Sisters, sisters!