I'm in a funk called Blanding

I am in a little bit of a funk when it comes to living in Blanding these days.  I wish, wish, wish that we lived by family.  We haven't lived by family for awhile now and when it comes to the weekends I feel the isolation.  Everyone in Blanding has family around them.  And I'm talking about a LOT of family around them.  That's why if you are from Blanding you can't date anyone in Blanding :)

City is growing up pretty darn quickly.  He is such a sweet puppy.  He hasn't mastered "off" yet and loves to jump up on everyone.  It's not much of a problem now, but when he is full grown I can see how it could be a major 40 lbs. problem.  It is amazing to see how happy he is when we get home.  The love of a dog is something I've been craving for awhile!

We tried out Hovenweep National Monument today to get out of Blanding.  It's located in Colorado and includes Pueblo ancestral ruins from the 1200's.  It's amazing to see how long these structures have lasted in the desert.  We were also able to take City on the trail with us.  He had  BLAST!!!   

We finally got our side yard weeded today!  I have been waiting to see what has been hiding underneath those weeds.  We found chunks of concrete, rebar, a water meter, garbage, and lots of holes.  Its disheartening to see what a mess the CEU builders left in our yard.  I wish we had found a house that came with a yard, but we have the endless options to think about!!

 This is an image of the end product!  It doesn't seem much, but its an amazing difference overall.  Now we have the task of burning all of those weeds.  

Randi came down last weekend to visit!  It was a lot of fun to go to Arches with her and go on a few great hikes.  This picture is probably the most random picture we have of the two of us, but its my favorite!  

Funny things in our lives...

I have been wanting to blog for a few weeks now, but the time seems to escape me somehow!  I have also wanted to take pictures of the house (inside) to show everyone, but once again time seems to escape me somehow.  Instead I thought I'd take a few minutes to tell about some funny happenings at the Merket household.

1.  The other day in my honors class a student told me she wanted to knock on our door on Sunday and make us go to church.  Only in Blanding would this happen.

2.  On accident I pronounced "sex" while slowly pronouncing successor in class today.  (The funny kind of stops here.)

3.  City continues to make us laugh every other minute.  He is such a funny puppy.

4.  We are trying to get used to having our new roomie.  The lack of privacy isn't bad because he is rarely home. I get a little irritated when the window is open 24/7 and we are paying to heat the house.  Malia is awesome and its fun to go on weekend getaways around Blanding.  They share a lot of the same attitudes towards Blanding.  I'm thankful we have them.

5.  Malia found this video on youtube.  On our honeymoon Chris and I took a foods tour.  At the end they asked us for a video.  We had completely forgotten about this video until Malia brought it to our attention.  Apparently she searched for "Utah Luaus" and this was on the results page.  I laughed when I saw it.



6.  I have rearranged my seating chart in 5th period about 15 times to accommodate the students who cannot manage to keep on task.  I even got 2 extra desks from the basement of ARL to put in my classroom.  I have one student sitting right in front of my desk and a student in the very back of the room.  I also have a student who sits by the pencil sharpener in the front of the room.  It's very similar to babysitting... BUT IT WORKS!  Now I am rearranging a few students so the races are mixed a little more evenly.  Its sad to say that some students will stop talking when they are placed next to a Native American or a Caucasion.

7.  We are excited to decorate our house for Christmas.  I'm going to really try to get into the Christmas spirit.  Its been a few years since I've really tried...