Kinderkids Give Thanks

Thanksgiving has been the theme for the past two weeks in kindergarten.  We have talked about pilgrims, indians , turkeys, family, and being thankful.  Today we wrote about what we were thankful for and reenacted the thanksgiving feast the pilgrims and the indians had so long ago.  After the feast we sat around in a circle and took turns saying what we were thankful for.  We all started our sentence by saying I am thankful for... The following is a list of what my class is thankful for. 

Family

Brothers

Sisters

Babies

The World

Food

Princess Barbies

Pilgrims

Indians

God

Jesus

Bruce (My Cat I've told them about him)

Pikachu

Life

Turkey

Thanksgiving

School

Mrs. Rich

Dogs

Fish

Hamsters

Cats

Pets

Starwars

Friends

BYU

Christmas 

Christmas Trees

Mom

Dad

Grandma

Grandpa

Cousins

I am thankful for the innocence of children that allow us to see the world in its simplicity.  It is the simple things in life that really matters.  

Mormon Times

     Josh and I have been so busy recently.  We have been very bad bloggers.  I have been busy working.  You never understand how much time teachers put into teaching until you become a teacher.  Josh has been busy painting and working on music stuff.  Josh owns two businesses Rich Coatings (painting) and Rich Music Studios.  Recently he has been very busy doing both.  This week he has put in 14-16 hour days between the music and painting businesses.  Josh has a very talented vocal student, Aubrey, that has entered a music contest.  Josh introduced her to Stephen Nelson who composed an arrangement of Amazing Grace.  This week Josh has spent his time between painting and recording, mixing, and balancing her song.  Aubrey is a 13 year old girl.  She had a lot of fun in Josh's small recording studio.  It was the first time she has recorded a song.  This young girl is truly Amazing.  The contest is through Mormom Times the web address is 

http://music.mormontimes.com/contest.php?id=757 Please check it out.  Become a fan and vote for Aubrey Taylor.   

*Josh will be entering this contest next month so we will be asking for your votes again.    

Happy Valley is Right!

So, i've never cared for the the name given to Utah Valley as "Happy Valley," but that's what is was yesterday! I'm fortunate enough to have tickets to BYU football and yesterdays game, while not close, was very rewarding.  BYU simply pommelled the Pac-10 UCLA Bruins 59-0.  

The weather was perfect.  A cool 80 degrees and most of BYU's scoring happened on my end of the field which was fun to watch.  Fans were shaking their car keys before half time.  The photo to the left is a pretty good view of where UCLA spent most of the game. . . on the turf.  Not bad for a "less athletic, slower, over-rated" BYU football team.  I think a few ESPN analysts had to eat their words after this one.  In fact the Mountain West Conference beat 4 Pac-10 teams yesterday, including a UNLV win over 15th ranked ASU.  

It was a great day for Cougar fans.  I couldn't resist taking a picture of the beautiful scoreboard afterwards.  Especially considering most experts put us only winning by about 8 pts.  Just add 51 more and they were right:)  The "Quest for Perfection" continues.  Go Cougars!

I am a Kindergarten Teacher!!

Josh and I have not blogged in awhile because we have both been so busy. I just got a job at Central Elementary in Pleasant Grove. I am teaching Kindergarten :) The past two weeks all I have done is get ready for teaching. I have 24 students. So far they are the best Kindergarten class ever. They are really well behaved and very cute.

My Most Embarrassing Experience Ever!!!!

Today at work I taught my class as normal. I went and had lunch, went back to my classroom, worked on lesson plans, went to the bathroom, copied things in the faculty room, went back to my classroom, etc. After I had been working on things in my classroom for a while I needed to take something down to the office. On my way down I had one of the teachers stop me. She came running down the hall and said, "Mrs. Rich your garments are showing." I looked behind and found my skirt tucked in my garments. What a way to start my new job. Who knows how many people saw my tush and said nothing. At least I was decent while I taught my class. Couldn't you see a bunch of Kindergarteners going home to their parents saying, "We saw Mrs. Rich's underwear." I guess it can always be worse.

American Idol Results

So Josh went with a group of friends to tryout for American Idol. We got is line about 7:00am and the cameras were everywhere. Once they got all the shots they wanted to outside they started to let people in. We got to our seats around 8:30 am. Once we were inside the Energy Solutions Arena the cameras were going full force. They had the whole group singing "Aint no Mountain High Enough" and another song that we didn't know. After the song shots they had the whole group cheer. I was surprised at how so many girls were screaming at the top of their lungs when they were going to be auditioning. Isn't that bad for your vocal cords? I felt like I was back as some boy band concert. (Yes I went to those when I was young.) A few hours latter they started the audition process. They let all the special needs and pregnant women go first. Because of our all nighter we were in the next section to audition. Our friend Dan called us because he was in the last section to audition and wanted to trade me(Lindsey) seats so that he wouldn't be there all day. It was finally Josh's sections turn to start going down to the cattle call. How they have it set up is they have 11 tables lined up next to each other. On either side of each table they have thin black curtains. While you are auditioning you may have other people singing their lungs out right next to you. They have you stand in lines of four people. Four people stand up to the judges and one time. The judges listen to you sing for about 30 seconds. The judges will converse a little bit and then they will either give you a golden ticket or send you out the non winner door. In American Idol there aren't any losers just non winners. So Josh and all his friends were down in ling waiting to see the judges when the judging stopped. Ryan Seacrest stopped by and the filming and screaming started up again. Girls were just throwing themselves of Ryan Seacrest. After about another hour of filming the auditioning start up again. I was so nervous for all of them. They went one by one and one by one they exited the non winners door. Well the only thing we could think of to make us feel better was food. We went to Tucanos and stuffed ourselves silly. Some of the judges said things to them like, "Your just not what we are looking for, etc." All I can say is that while we were there we saw only 10-15 people out of a few hundred get tickets. Out of those people about half of them were freaks. I guess we will just have to wait and see what they were looking for when the season begins.

Josh, Dan, and Ryan

The Cattle Call

Josh is in the middle. This is right before his audition.

Josh is in the middle. His judges were at table three.

The Non Winners :(
They weren't too crushed.

American Idol Auditions

Last night Josh and I pulled an all-nighter to register for American Idol. We went to Energy Solutions Arena at 2:00 am and got in line. We spent the next five hours people watching because there was nothing else to do. I always wondered how American Idol got all those crazy people on there show. Let me just say they were everywhere. The crazy people go to American Idol and the truth is most of them really do think they can sing. At about 5:30am the cameras started to come out and that is when the crowed started to get going. The camera crew came by us and I over heard the producer say, "Do you see anyone or anything interesting?" They went on and interviewed people with crazy hair, weird costumes, or anyone that looked out of the ordinary. Needless to say we were not interviewed. At around 6:30am the camera crew came back to the front of the line and took a lot of group shots. They had us cheer and say things together as a group like, "Welcome to Salt Lake City, Welcome to Archie Town, We will take the gold," and so on. A little after 7:00 they let us into the Arena to register. We were at the front of the line but the line wrapped around the entire building. There were thousands of people in line waiting to register. Josh register to audition for the show I register to be his guest. We both got American Idol wrist bands and tickets that give us an assigned seat in the Arena on the day of auditions. Auditions are not until Tuesday. Some of you may not know but this is not the audition for Simon, Paula, and Randy. You actual have to make it through three auditions before you ever see them. Tuesday is the first round of auditions. If Josh does make it through the first round of auditions they will make us sign all sorts of confidentiality forms saying we will not tell anyone. So josh is trying out for American Idol but you will have to wait with the rest of America to find out if anything comes of it. Wish us luck.

Josh and Lindsey's Movie Review

Josh and Lindsey give The Dark Knight two thumbs up. Dark, complex and unforgettable, The Dark Knight succeeds not just as an entertaining comic book film, but as a richly thrilling crime saga. Posing moral questions about the nature of good and evil and examining the dynamics of living in a free society that depends on the civility of its citizens to survive, the film explores the nature of heroism and villainy to reach the conclusion that they are not very far apart.The film contains a degree of intensity not normally found in features of this sort. Make no mistake, this is not a movie for children. A great many things separate this from previous Batman films, chief among them the portrayal of the Joker. He’s nothing more than an agent of chaos, a walking contradiction as his actions seemingly defy logic yet wind up being part of a grand sinister plan. He has more than a few cards up his sleeve and as portrayed by Ledger he comes off as one of the most memorable villains in film history. If there's one thought that will stay with audiences after Heath Ledger's stunning portrayal as The Joker in The Dark Knight, it's this: He completely and totally nailed it. While we loved this film we strongly believe it is not for children. Experience the film for yourself before you take your kids and then decide if they can handle the darkness.

*This review is based off of various reviews posted on www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_dark_knight/

Family Reunion

This year my(Lindsey) family had their reunion at Bear Lake. We had a great time as usual. There was great food and great company, what more could you ask for.

This is a picture of us enjoying the beach.
My mom got all of the girls in the family t-shirts that truly express what we are. The t-shirt says Angel.

Josh took my family to places around the Bear Lake valley that he new about. Josh's parents grew up in Paris Idaho which is along the northern part of the lake. This is a picture of the Paris Tabernacle.

This is a picture of us entering the Paris Ice Caves. The Paris Ice Caves are awesome caves in the mountains with ice in them. I don't really know how else to describe them.

This is a picture of us at Bloomington Lake. Bloomington Lake is a glacier lake. It is so deep that they have never been able to find the bottom of the lake. The cliffs in the background are the cliffs that Josh took some of my cousins and my sister cliff diving. They had a great time.

At Bloomington Lake. Lonnie, Dave, Kay, Steven, Jeff, and Joan

One of the games we enjoyed playing at the reunion was golf ball horseshoes. It is similar to horseshoes but with a twist. This is a picture of my uncle Tom and Larry (Josh's Dad). Josh's parents came up for dinner one of the nights.

Grandma Jane and Dorothy (Josh's Mom) watching us play golf ball horseshoes.

The lovely ladies: Mary, Joan (My mom), and Stephanie

Yes, this is me in a Cowgirl hat. Josh got this for me as a present. I guess you could say She's gone country back to His roots.

Lindsey, Karen, and Grandma Jane

Kirsten, Mickelle, Kaylee, and Lindsey playing Cards.

The Return From- Past The Point of No Return

This is where I parked while we scouted out how to get down the big cliff.

This was just before the first cliff we had to maneuver down. You can see how deep the sand was.

These were the two cars that went down the trail.

Ok, so here is the story. A good friend of mine and some of his other friends decided to do a little car challenge. They called it the "300 Challenge." It was titled such because each team had to purchase a car and have it in running condition for $300 give or take a little. The plan was that they would then take it on a little rally race through central Utah with some specific challenges. It was requested that I would bring my truck along as a support vehicle and to haul supplies. Seems simple enough right? Well it was until we took a wrong turn. The road we took split off at Goblin Valley and was supposed to loop, which it did, but we didn't. We followed a river bed that we thought was a trail but was actually just a wash. We managed to get all the vehicles, cars included, down several cliffs, and after about 10 times of pulling cars out of the sand, we got into open space.
By this time it was getting late and we were all exhausted and low on water. We decided to send the Jeep ahead to go to town and get supplies assuming we were on the correct trail. Well, about a mile down the "trail"( I use the term loosely) the Jeep was there baring bad news that there was no way out. About this same time I blew a tire and one of our party, Shawn, split his lip wide open to the point of needing stitches. Fortunately I had a spare, and an air tank with barely enough air to get the truck running again. We also had a first aid kit to take care of Shawn until he could receive further medical help.
At this point we decided to kneel in the middle of nowhere and ask God for a little direction. Following the prayer we all agreed that we would abandon the cars, load whatever gear was in the cars into the truck, and hall all nine people out the way we came. We had 4 people in the Jeep and 5 in the truck(3 in the cab and 2 in the back laying on top of gear. It wasn't too bad minus one of the last cliffs we had to climb. The Jeep went first and I followed. Near the end of the climb I was crawling sideways on a hillside with a drop-off on the lower side of the truck. Do to the additional weight in the truck the trail literally crumbled beneath the back of the truck and I felt it drop! Knowing that if it continued to slide I would roll down the mountainside and roll over one of my spotters, I simply reacted. With no time to think I simply floored it! With both rear tires popping in the air as they bounced up over the ledge, I pulled to safety. We then drove safely the remainder of the way out of the wash.
When we stopped at the Forest Ranger Station to report the abandoned cars the Ranger stated that we had taken the vehicles "Past the Point of No Return" as they like to call it. They also informed us that where we had gone wasn't even listed as a 4wd trail on there maps. Only a few weeks earlier a man had gotten stuck there in his Jeep ant they had to take in heavy equipment to get him out.
It was a much bigger adventure than any of us had planned for and we were all grateful to have returned safely from-Past The Point of No Return.

God Bless America

Josh and I spent this 4th of July in Logan, UT and Preston, ID. Josh had a paint job up there. I had the week off so I thought it would be fun to go up and help Josh paint. I quickly discovered how much I hate painting and how much I appreciate Josh for doing it as a living. As we were driving back to Preston from Logan on the 4th of July Josh was looking around and he said, "This is America." I looked around and what I saw was cows and hay bails. So I said, "America is cows and hay bails." That wasn't what Josh meant. To Josh America is the country and the roots that made our nation. It is where he grew up. His parents taught him to work the land and love the land. Agriculture was the initial start for this country. As I thought about this I have realized that America can be many things to different people. God Bless America for giving the people here a life they can freely enjoy and love. God Bless America that we may hold this country dear and remember what it stands for. God Bless America and protect it from the growing evils of the world. Bless God for America who inspired men who founded this great nation.

Josh and Lindsey's Movie Review

Josh and Lindsey give Hancock two thumbs down. John Hancock is a alcoholic, superhero, and a complete jerk who "helps" the city of Los Angeles by fighting crime. Unfortunately he seems to have fallen from the good graces of the public because his vulgar and extreme ways he fights crime. Hancock saves Ray Embrey from a train wreck. Ray Embrey
is in public relations and decides to help Hancock change his public image. The show starts out a bit vulgar to paint Hancock as a bum. While the show may have had potential it failed to deliver in the end. It had a lot of loose ends and no concrete climax. It was disappointing for a Will Smith movie.

The Best Form of Birth Control

The best form of Birth Control is going from no kids to six boys. Josh and I had the fabulous experience of babysitting our six nephews for a whole week. They were savages and we have proof. We don't even have a picture of all six together.




















See the similarities between them and gorillas.

Recent Encounters

Josh and I just got back from a Family Reunion. We were at Bear Lake with all of Josh's extended family. I met most of his extended family for the first time.























This is a picture of Josh's brother Jeremy during the family talent show. (This is not his real hair.)






This is a picture of us inside Minnetonka Cave. Minnetonka Cave is a fascinating 9-room cave of stalactites, stalagmites and banded travertine that was originally found by grouse hunters. There are over 400 steps inside the cave. If you go to Bear Lake this is a great spot to see but be prepare for a hike. (400 steps in 400 steps out)