New Experiences

Being from a family of all girls has opened up many new opportunities as I married into a family of all boys. On Tuesday, Matt took the day off work and we went ice fishing with his parents. Now, I would never have done this had I not just bought Matt an ice fishing tent (so it wouldn't be as freezing) and known there would be heaters inside the tent. Being warm is just more important than catching fish. So we went up and set up our tent, and for four hours, we caught fish. It was pretty fun. Yes it was still a little cold, I still had on all my snow gear inside the tent with both heaters running, but we were comfortable. I was a little nervous about standing on the ice, and drilling hole in it, but we were safe. I was surprised at how many fish we caught. It was also super fun to watch the fish swim around under the water on Matt's underwater camera. You could see them swim right past your bait, or be ready when they started nibbling. All in all, it was a fun experience, one of the many new things I have done in the past six months that I have enjoyed.
Mr. Jigger and our hole (I don't know why this is sideways...sorry)

Diet and Myrna showing off one of their fish

Matt and I outside the tent (of course it was snowing outside when we were ready to go!)

Matt knew if he really put his lips on that fish that he would be waiting a long time to kiss me again

The Christmas Marathon

December 23:
My dad has a new tradition he is starting for the night before Christmas Eve. We all got together and made our own pizzas with Denise, and then we helped decorate one of my dad's Christmas trees with all the ornaments we got together on our cruise last year. It was fun to look at all the ornaments and remember where we got each one. Then we took a few family pictures and set out on our crazy adventure! Roberts craft store was having a 75% off sale on everything Christmas. Each person in our family (Dad, Alex, Cassie, and me and Matt) gets to pick a decoration of some kind for themselves and everyone else in the family (so you buy 4 things, one for yourself and three to give away). Matt and I got some cool Christmas plates. The idea is to buy decorations for each other to use in upcoming years, and for my sisters to have when they get married. My dad went way crazy buying decorations and fake trees, who can blame him-everything was way cheap. We even had to go out to another store to pick up more stuff. Let's just say, you know things are getting a little crazy when Matt and my dad are calling each other "Honey" around the store. Good memories. We were going to decorate cookies when we got back, but it was a little late and Matt and I were beat, so we went home. I'm excited for all the new traditions!





Christmas Eve:
On Christmas Eve, we spent the evening with the Fischer family. Our new family tradition is to go bowling and have take-and-bake pizza when we get home before we open presents and all that jazz. Bowling was way fun, although I'm not a hard core bowler and was tired after my two games. Last year when we were bowling, there was a family who all wore ugly Christmas sweaters (they were there again this year... must be their tradition too) and Matt and I wanted to do something so we got sweet knee-high socks and wore those. Matt's dad and brothers were a little embarrassed to walk around Sportsmans with him, but he didn't care. Randy made a DVD of the year's events and it was really fun to watch that while the kids were playing with Nanny and Papa. I wish I was as talented as Randy! Of course it was fun to give presents and open everything, especially watching as Brad and Claire opened their huge presents, but the best part of the night was just being together. I'm so glad to be part of a family that loves each other as much as the Fischers do. I love you guys!


Matt and I did all our gifts to each other after we left the Fischer family party. It was fun to sit in the light of the Christmas tree and open presents together, then play Tetris and old school Mario on our wii. It was such a fun first Christmas together.

Christmas day:
We got up early and headed out to my mom's house for presents and sticky buns (yummmmmm). Matt was so excited for his Mr. Jigger, and my mom was pretty happy about her first experience shopping at Cabelas. When you have all daughters, you don't get to do that kind of stuff! I got Photoshop Elements for my computer so I can start making digital scrapbooks and I am excited! I still am trying to figure out how to make everything cute, so if you know how, let me know! (Kendra that means YOU) Matt commented on how calm Christmas morning is at my mom's house, which it totally is. We had hot chocolate, listened to Christmas music and had the fire going while we opened presents. It was so nice. Then we went over to my dad's house for breakfast and more presents. We got spoiled this year for sure. My dad got us our armoire to go with our bedroom set, along with some other fun stuff. Then we ate homemade scones and just hung around. Matt and I took a little nap before heading out to Grandma and Grandpa Norton's house. Then we headed back out to my mom's house for dinner with the whole Decker crew and just messing around together. We had such a fun day. We were exhausted, but it was worth it.

Update Your Address Books

My new email address is torifischer@hotmail.com. I tried to email everyone, but if you didn't get an email, update me in your address books!

Forgotten Carols

For the past couple years, my dad and I have had a little Christmas tradition to go see the Forgotten Carols show. Of course, Matt had to come this year and my dad also got tickets for Cassie, my grandma and grandpa Norton, and my cousin Holly and her husband Dallin. I LOVE the music and the whole experience. I always leave feeling the wonderful spirit of Christmas, and usually crying, although this year I didn't cry... that much. We had great seats, really close up, and that made it even better. Matt was a little bummed he had to miss the Jazz game, and also didn't really think the humor was that funny, but he was still a good sport and didn't complain. He even said that he liked it. Well he said the music was good. Thanks dad for a fun experience. If I knew how to put music on this post for you to listen to, I would put some of the songs from the show, but since I don't know how to do that, you will just have to look them up yourselves.

Matt and I couldn't resist our usual cheesy smiles

Matt's Early Christmas Present

Matt, being who he is, was so excited for his early Christmas present. He was at Sportsman's and wanted to go in on a new ice fishing tent with Lance and Tim. He called me to ask if it was okay, and I figured since I still needed to finish his Christmas shopping that I would just tell him to buy it as his early Christmas present. He was so excited! Of course he had to tell me he loved me about a million times that night, and of course he had to set it up in our front room. Our front room could barely contain this tent, as you will see in the video. Of course, he had to take it over to his parent's house and set it up for them to see, and then set it up again when Timmy came over. I don't think I ever need to have children with Matt around. I totally saw how kids are so excited on Christmas morning in Matt's eyes that day he brought his new ice fishing tent home. He is actually gone today to test it out. He sent me a picture of a fish he caught and I will not put it on the blog because it is disgusting! I guess one of these days I'll have to go up and see how this whole ice fishing thing works. But only if I have on a lot of warm clothes and a really good book and a really good heater!

Matt and Timmy setting up the tent in our front room

Graduation!

On December 12, 2009, I officially graduated from Utah State University with my bachelor's degree in elementary education! It is official now... I am a licensed teacher! What a special experience. I wasn't very excited about graduating until I got there and walked through the tunnel into the Spectrum, where the walls of the tunnel were lined with USU professors clapping and smiling. I got all choked up with emotion. I felt like I was truly joining the ranks of other Utah State alumni who were excited and proud of my accomplishment, and the accomplishments of the other 1,900 students graduating.

After the ceremony, the band played the Scotsman and everyone stood and participated in the school song. I was filled with so much school pride. I loved every minute of being an Aggie. There's just something special about a school where 15,000 people will stand up and pretend to milk a giant cow at basketball games. I am so glad I was able to complete my education through the many challenges that I have gone through over the past 3 and a half years.

My roommate Jenni also graduated in the College of Education, although not Elementary Ed. Now, she is going to grad school at USU to get her Master's degree in physical therapy (or something close... I can never remember the real name! Sorry Jen!). While I love being married, I miss my cute roommates and all the fun times we had. Like the time when we saw Jeana holding hands with Marc (it was a big deal), or the time that Natalie and I bought a Valentine's card for Jenni and it happened to be the same one her boyfriend got her! Or the many, many boys in and out of our apartment at late hours... ("we were reading a book..."), and the hours of not studying or writing essays at 4:00 in the morning for your 7:30 class... okay that was me. I miss all those girls so much!

There it is! My name in the program!

Thank you Matt for supporting me as I finished my education. I know Matt was excited to be able to get back into school now that I am finished, but it was so wonderful to see how proud he is of my accomplishment. It makes it all worth it.

My mom and Jeff, my dad, my grandma and papa Decker, Diet and Myrna, and Randy were all able to come to the ceremony to support me. I was so happy to see them all up there, cheering as they read out my name and I walked up to take my pretend diploma (I won't get the real thing until like February!). Thank you so much for your support, and everyone who couldn't make it but was supporting me through the process.
After the ceremony, we met Jenny and the kids at Olive Garden with about a thousand other graduates and their families. We waited forever to get our table, which of course brought out some grumpy Fischers! Finally, we got seated and had a fun meal together. The waiter dumped water all over my papa and, being as cute as he is, he just laughed! Needless to say, the restaurant gave us a few free goodies that afternoon. Then, sadly, we had to go home through the winter storm raging in Logan. It felt so normal driving in a blizzard through Sardine Canyon. I should have worn my snow boots as I graduated to really represent my experience at Utah State!

This Week's Schedule

I am very excited for this week, and wanted to share everything with you guys! I finish my student teaching on Tuesday. I am taking Wednesday off and on Thursday I am going to spend the day in my new school in the classrooms of the other fifth grade teachers, getting to know the schedule and different programs they use there. On Friday, I'm going to interview the students that will be in my class throughout the day, while the substitute is teaching, so I can get to know the kids and where they are at in fifth grade. On Saturday, I have graduation up at Utah State University! The commencement ceremony starts at 10:30 AM. I'm really excited to graduate! Next Monday I start teaching!
Today at church I was thinking about how blessed I am right now. In a difficult time, I got a job with a long-term contract and a salary. I am graduating from college, and Matt will be able to start again. We have everything we need. I can't explain it. I was overcome with emotion just thinking about everything. Thanks to everyone who has been such a huge support as I've gone through the last few years.

Officially Employed!

It's true, I'm officially employed! I am a fifth grade teacher at Copperview Elementary! On salary and everything! I am such a grown up!