Expert Tile Installers

Matt and I had the "opportunity" this week to help Randy... okay, we did most of it... install his tile floor in his basement. Matt brought me along to be the helper and we spent about 10 hours working on this floor! It was fun to be around Matt while he is working and it was fun to learn all about some of what Matt knows. He is so smart! By the end of the day, our bodies were tired, we were covered in mortar, and our hands were extremely dry, but the floor was put in. Now all that needs to be done is grout! I am so happy that I could help and so proud of Matt for being so awesome.

On our way home, Matt is sitting very quietly in the car and he looks over at me and says:
I have grout in my nose.

Fishing

We have probably a million pictures of us fishing but it is still fun to take new ones every time we go. This week Matt didn't have to work so we went up to Deer Creek Reservoir with Matt's mom and dad, our nephew Brad and Cassie to do some morning fishing!

Matt's dad recently bought a new boat (it's a "fishing boat" though, not a "ski boat") and Matt has been out several times on the boat to go fishing. This was the first time I have been out on the boat since Diet was cleared after his back surgery. They bought two trolling poles and are working on perfecting the art of trolling. I enjoy being on the boat, but think trolling is a little boring. Brad got a little antsy while we were fishing because trolling is well... boring. Sitting and doing nothing while holding a fishing pole isn't as fun as casting the line and reeling it in hundreds of time. However, we still had a lot of fun. Cassie caught the first fish, and her two fish were the biggest of the day!

Brad caught four little fish and had his fun just messing around with the poles and eating snacks.

I didn't fish, but I sat in the boat and held the pole when Brad got bored... does that count?

Matt being... I actually don't know what to say.

Unfortunately for Matt, he got skunked! It was funny because he was the most excited to go fishing and tried the hardest to catch a fish! Hopefully we can find some good fishing up here in Logan so Matt can redeem himself!

Big Green

Big Green had a fantastic spring season! We won all seven of our regular season games and then got way screwed over in the tournament (I'm not going to go into it... Matt is still pissed about what happened). Lucky for us, we still have the summer season that starts on July 9 and we'll play another seven games. I never remembered my camera so we had to take our team picture with my phone after our last game. Again, lucky for us, all of our team members were there!

From left: Tyler, Tim, me, Chantelle, Matt, Janet, Nate, Sharly, Tom, Lindsay

My New Year's Resolution

Every year I set the same New Year's resolutions, because when you don't accomplish them in previous years you have to continue the same ones. Well this has been my resolution for five years now, to finish my monster quilt. I started it a year after I graduated from high school and finally I have finished the top! I know, technically I'm not even done yet, but I am totally counting this resolution as being crossed off!

The Difference Between Men and Women

So Matt was out of town all week last week and left me home alone, so I started watching Friends from Season 1 again. This episode is in Season 2 and is just a funny reminder of how different we really are:

Post Lake Powell

When we finally got home from Lake Powell, this is what we come home to:

 The bar in our closet ripped out of the wall while we were gone!

Matt finally cleaned out his car from six years of working out of it... this picture doesn't even show everything he pulled out of that beast!

400 Pounds of Fischer

Right after school got out, Matt and I went down to Lake Powell with my dad and the Hightowers. What a wild trip! With Matt, me, Alex and Jake, and Cassie, Laurie, my dad, Laurie's six kids, three Hightower wives, two girlfriends, and six Hightower grandchildren, we were definitely a full houseboat. Matt and I are new to having a houseboat at Lake Powell and have to admit that it was nice to have a little A/C and a place where you could be semi-clean if you wanted to be.

We spent time skiing:

 (trying to ski... without success)

(skiing with a lot of success)

Matt getting ripped up on a ski behind the jet ski... We didn't believe it was possible, yet here's the proof!

Watching other people wakeboard:

(again, I tried with limited success)

Jordan- who is awesome... yes, he is upside-down

 Alex- who is also awesome (see below)

Very awesome

Playing with the kids:

 Trevor

 Riley

 Kevin

 Avery

 Sadie

 Kaylee

 Bucketheads

Matt and cute Avery- We couldn't get enough of this happy baby!

 Matt and I brought glow sticks for the kids- this is the glow stick ball that we put together

The kids all tried to water ski behind the jet ski- Kaylee was the closest to getting up

Avery's cute scooting

 Wakesurfing- the new favorite:

 Jordan in his swimsuit that matches his girlfriend's

Matt in his camo hat

And.... TUBE WARS!
I cannot say enough about how fun tube wars were. Matt and I talked a lot of smack about how we would dominate tube wars and how the Hightowers weren't ready for the "400 pounds of Fischer" they were about to battle, and it was so true! (Sorry for the millions of pictures... I couldn't leave any out!)

Round One: Couple vs Couple
Matt and I vs. Ryan and Stacey (we definitely won)

Round Two: Boys vs Boys
Basically wrestling on the tube while flying really fast (No real winner)

Matt vs. Kelly
This picture has Kelly pinning Matt on the tube

 Matt starts to make his move...

Kelly realizes that he is going to be in the water soon...

DOMINATION!

Round Three: Norton/Fischer vs Hightower
Matt, Alex and I vs Ryan, Chelsie and Chris (Norton/Fischer winners!)

Chelsie attempts to jump to our tube while Matt holds us together... little did she know in this picture that Matt had just pushed their tube away from ours....

I think at this point she started to realize what happened...

And now she definitely knows what happened. I love all of us on the tubes watching her eat it!

This time Matt and I made our move... Here I'm screaming for Matt to rip Chelsie off the tube first (notice she is holding on to the boys' lifejackets- not the tube)

Ryan is crazy strong! When Matt couldn't get all three of them, I had to jump in and help out....

I started to lose my grip but Alex grabbed my toe... At the end of this, all of us were in the water except for Ryan...

This was called the "Flying Squirrel Formation" by the Hightowers... they all jumped over at the same time, each with a target in mind...

There was a point in this battle that I realized that nothing was happening to me even though Ryan obviously has a firm grip on my body...

Again, DOMINATION!

Celebrating Father's Day:
Laurie brought aprons for the girls to decorate for the boys... Since we don't have kids, mine was a Lake Powell apron with all the nieces and nephews handprints on it

 Matt, Dad, Chason, Chris, Kelly, Jordan

Hanging out on the beach:

 Thank heavens Matt and I came prepared for spending time away from the houseboat. The Hightower crew aren't big on camping so it was lucky Matt and I brought our camp shade and camp chairs for everyone to use while we played on the beach!

Hanging out with Matt:

 On our sightseeing ride...

 Matt found this frog for the kids to see one night...

 Fishing! Yes, Matt went fishing on the jet ski almost every night! I must be bad luck because he and I never caught anything together, but when he went with Cassie they caught 11 fish!

Even the ride home was an adventure:

 The car overheated and threw the fan belt about 40 miles out of Kanab. So we had to get a tow back to Kanab (everything in Panguitch was closed for the weekend), spend the night in an interesting hotel, and get the car from the shop the next morning before we could get on our way home!

Luckily, we made it home safely and had a fun trip to Lake Powell! Thank you so much dad and Laurie for making this trip happen!

School's Out for Summer!

As of June 6, I am officially done teaching sixth grade at East Sandy!

All my desks and furniture are put away:

And all my stuff that is going to my new school is packed and ready:

I am going to miss my team a lot:

Karen, me, Michele, and Chris

*Update:
Now that we are back from Lake Powell, my mom helped me move my classroom up to Logan. In Salt Lake I had to hunt down a cart for us to use and we basically did all the packing ourselves. When we got to my new school, Summit Elementary, the principal jumped right up and started running around collecting carts, ready to give me a tour of the school. The janitor grabbed his whole crew and they unloaded the cars and took everything into my new classroom for me. The janitor, Mike, got me my keys to the school and my classroom right away, told me not to move anything heavy by myself and gave me his cell phone number in case I needed help. The principal got me a schedule and popsicles! I have a huge classroom and the previous teacher left me a ton of her stuff. Seriously the best place ever!