Flashback to Fall 2008

Ahhh, fall. My favorite time of year. It's when school starts, when football season starts, the weather gets cooler, and my favorite month, October! I was going through pictures when I found some fun fall pics of my adventures back in 2008.

 One weekend we decided to go up the canyon for a fire. This was when I was living in the house in Hyde Park with Natalie and Alex was a freshman. Matt and his roommates also came, you can't have a fire without boys!

This was back before Matt and I were anything more than friends. I never would have expected that one day I was going to marry this crazy photo-bomber.

The best part of the night was when a police officer stopped by to check if we were drinking. Of course we weren't, but then he looked over at Alex, and way awkwardly asks if she is wearing pants. She had shorts on that you couldn't see under her sweatshirt, and it has made for a freaking funny story over the years. I am laughing just writing about it.

Matt's roommate Cameron. He slept on an air mattress for the entire year that they lived in Logan. He did have a desk (why a desk and not a bed???) and everything on it was meticulously organized. Matt and Brandyn would move stuff around on his desk and he would freak out. Cameron's story is also a funny one. About halfway through the year, one of Matt's neighbor girls started acting interested in him. Matt and I were starting to date at this point, and he kind of blew her off. She then started going for Matt's roommate Brandyn, who took her on a few dates. She started acting hard-to-get and he was no longer interested. Finally, she moved on to Matt's third roommate Cameron. He was from Las Vegas and basically told us that he came to Utah to marry a Mormon girl. Well this girl was not Mormon, but won Cameron's heart. He baptized her and a year later they got married. I wonder what they will tell their kids about how they met....

Notice how Matt is nice and shaved? Ahhhh, the good old days....

Labor Day 2008
For Labor Day, Nat, Alex, Matt and I headed up to Bear Lake for the day. I'm not sure why Matt wasn't in Jackson, and he can't remember, but I'm glad he wasn't because this was a fun day. The year before Natalie and Erika and I had gone to Bear Lake for Labor Day and bought dollar rafts and floated around in the lake and got shakes and had a way fun day. I had to continue the tradition with Matt and Alex. The water was too cold to really swim in, so we just played on the beach. I think I also got my car stuck on the beach and had to have some strangers help me get out.

Remember, these are the days when I had a boyfriend on a mission and was dating. Matt and I were just friends but very close friends.

We started taking these jumping pictures. I don't remember what started it, but I do remember laughing my face off the whole time. I start laughing every time I look at these.  Sorry there's so many... I couldn't figure out which ones I liked the most so I put most of them on.

Sisters...

Constipated sisters...

Good times!!!

Utah State vs. Weber State

A few weeks ago, our new season football tickets came in the mail! We start checking the mailbox every day during the end of July and it is a great day when they finally come.

Our first home game was against Weber State for Homecoming. Randy, Jenny and Claire and Harrison came and sat with us in general admission, along with Matt's friend growing up, JL Coon and his wife, Shar, and son, Andrew. Their daughter, Jenny, is a student at Utah State, and JL used to play football for Utah State, so they have a pretty good reason to buy season tickets this year. I think we have them convinced that we have the best seats in the whole place. Utah State played amazing. They were up 49-0 at halftime, which is when it started raining. By the third quarter, Matt and I were pretty wet. This picture doesn't really do justice to how wet we ended up.

Jenny brought ponchos for the kids to wear. The people sitting in the couch left when it started raining, so Claire got herself the best seat in the house!

*Side story about Claire- During the game, she was always looking for Big Blue, the mascot for Utah State. After seeing him, she told me that Big Blue was "fake." When I asked her what that meant, she said that he wasn't real, that he was dressed up. I said, "Who would want to dress up like a cow?" Claire said, "He is a special cow." Later in the game, she told me that she changed her mind and thought that Big Blue was real.

Harrison had been pretty cranky during the first half of the game. When Jenny gave him his poncho he went totally crazy, he did not want that thing on his head. But as soon as they took the hood off, he was sooooo happy. 

He loved looking at the rain. He didn't notice that he was getting wet until his little hands were freezing. That was when Randy and Jenny went home. I was impressed with how well the kids lasted in the rain!

Matt and I of course stayed until the end. Utah State ended up winning 70-6. It was so much fun, even though it was raining like crazy! The best part was that we rode the motorcycle to the game so we could get good parking. That backfired a little bit when we had to ride home in the rain! We both had some very wet clothes and blankets when we got home!

Go Aggies! Can't wait for more football!

Watch Out for Bears!

As Labor Day comes and goes, so does our annual trip to Jackson Hole. The Fischer family has been going to Jackson every year for a long time, and Matt and I joined in when we got married. This is a hard trip for us because it is right after school starts, when I am unable to take any time off. Matt and I went to the Utah State football game on Thursday night, headed back to Logan for work on Friday, then headed up to Colter Bay on Friday night after work. Every year we set up our tent in the dark, and this year was no exception. We are the only crazy people left who stay in a tent, which I guess means that we will be the first to get eaten by a bear. What a good way to go. Just make sure to write on my tombstone: Tori Fischer, Eaten by a Bear.

On Saturday we went into town for our annual shopping trip and lunch. Matt and I have never taken a picture with the famous arches, and this year Melissa made us stop and take a picture. We stopped in a few stores and then headed to some place for lunch that Randy found on his phone. It had more stars than the place we ate at last year so we had to check it out. Sooooo Randy.

Matt's favorite place to shop is the candy store. He bought all the kids rock candy suckers and a huge bag full of taffy. Matt let Brad help choose some taffy and I think the bucket doubled in weight thanks to Brad.

After shopping, we headed up to the ski resort to do the alpine slide. Matt and I both went down and I must admit that I am more of a chicken as I have gotten older. I definitely did not like going super fast. Some of the kids scared the crap out of me flying down the slide! I think Reagan had fun, wouldn't you say?

After a long day of shopping and playing, we went to the chuckwagon dinner and Bar J Wranglers show. This is also an annual tradition, and I thought this year's show was the best I've seen. Every year we have a new baby at the show, and this year it was Kailee. She was captivated by the lights and music.

I never take any pictures during the show, so this year I decided I had to take one. My favorite guy is the one on the far right, Brian. If you've ever seen a show, you know why. He is hilarious.

Harrison was exhausted by the end of the show. We wrapped him up in my sweatshirt and he eventually fell asleep in Jenny's arms.

Claire. What can I say about my girl Claire? Love her!

I think Matt kind of likes Claire too.

On Sunday after breakfast, Matt and I headed into Jackson to do a little more shopping. We didn't spend a lot of time actually shopping on Saturday, more like walking around keeping the kids entertained, so we had to go look again to see if we could find what we were looking for. Matt found this shirt that he thought was so funny. No, I didn't let him buy it, but you know he would have.

After a busy day on Saturday, it was nice to relax on Sunday. The boys took off to go look for animals while the girls chatted and kids ran around. Our group is huge so it is fun to have some calm time. On Monday, everyone got up and headed home early. We were lucky to get our tent down before it started raining. I think it rains every year while we are cleaning up. Thankfully, we did not get eaten by a bear, so I think we can go again next year!

You Don't Get to Sit with the Crimson Club Every Day

Matt and I are very lucky that we know someone with Utah football tickets, because when we saw that Utah State was playing at Utah, we knew we'd get to go! But going to Rice Eccles means sitting with the die hards in the Crimson Club. Matt and I were the only people there in blue and we got our share of dirty looks before and during the game!

All the Utah fans in our section were in white. The stadium looked like a giant candy cane.

My dad introduced us to all the people he sits near, including a woman who owns an ice cream place in Logan and gave us a bunch of free ice creams. It seemed like everyone really had a soft spot for Logan and Utah State. We had a blast harassing my dad and Laurie through the whole game, and were sad when Utah State lost.

Six years ago, Matt and I got to use my dad's tickets to watch Utah State while he was out of town. This game was at the end of September of my sophomore year at Utah State, two years before Matt and I got married. Alex brought a friend and the four of us went together to the game. That was one of the only times I've ever been rained on AND SNOWED on during a football game! I guess I was just getting prepared for future years of cold football games in Logan!

Matt Moment

Many of you know that Matt is closer to a six-year old than the 28 year old that he is.

This week I saw that my tools were out, and I asked him why he needed them.

He told me, "I used them to open the Pepsi."

Yes. My husband used my tools to open a 2-Liter. Good thing he's so cute.

Back to School 2013

Wow, I can't believe that I have been back to school for over three weeks and haven't posted anything. Okay, I can believe it. This class that I have this year has already been a doozy (it took me a while to think of this word... there were many others I wanted to use instead but thought would not be appropriate).

First of all, I started the year with 33 kids. The other fourth grade classes had 29. The day before school started, the principal asked if I'd like to move a couple of them into the other classes, but I had already gotten everything ready and I said no. This has turned out to be a good call, because some of the kids that have moved in since then would have been hard to bring into our class.

I read a book written by the Disney Imagineers this summer that inspired my bulletin board for the hallway. I HATE making bulletin boards so I try to make boards that I can leave up for a while. This has so far been great. I got a lot of compliments from other Disney freaks like me about how much they liked it.

I have a cartridge for my Cricut that is Disney and does the cute Mickey heads and Minnie bows.

Back to school night was the best I think I've ever had. I actually said everything that I needed to say, and several parents told me after that I did a great job and they loved the information they received.

The first day of school was crazy. I've never had a class with so much loud energy on the first day of school. I barely got half-way through my regular first day of school material. I was so frustrated at the end of the day, but it taught me a lesson about my class: EVERYTHING takes longer with this group. I have to lower my expectations of what we can accomplish during the day or else I will be frustrated every day that they aren't getting through it.

Needless to say, the last few weeks have progressed like the first day. Lots of noise. Lots of frustration. Lots of kids messing around. I have made a million changes, and had a lot of kids in trouble already, and still nothing is working. One day, I had about the worst day I've had in a long time, definitely my worst day at Summit. In the middle of the day, my principal saw me and asked what he could do to help. Jokingly I said, "Refill my Coke!" About 10 minutes later, I had a fresh Pepsi on my desk to help me survive the day. Definitely good principal award! This week, I went to see my principal and we talked about some of the reasons the kids are so crazy, and he was so great to tell me that it wasn't my fault. I needed to hear that!

This week we went on our first field trip. This is a fun, outdoors field trip, usually held up Logan Canyon. They had to relocate due to the rain, but we were still outside for the day. I didn't expect to have any problems. I mean, this is a field trip! Kids love field trips and are usually on very good behavior for other adults, especially fun and interesting adults! I was so sad at the result. The kids were crazy and disrespectful all day. Around lunch time, I had the feeling that we should go back to school. I gave the kids a warning and we stayed. Within an hour, I knew that I was right, that we needed to go back to school. Luckily (or maybe by divine intervention) we had our own bus and were able to leave immediately. The kids didn't know what hit them. I called the principal and he met us back at school and gave them a lecture following my lecture. I have never felt like my whole class should have to leave a field trip due to behavior. It was very sad for the kids to miss out on a fun activity. The principal told them that they'll have to earn back their field trips for later in the year, that at this moment, they are not going on any other field trips.

I love the support I'm getting at school from my principal and other teachers. I've had many teachers and parents tell me how hard this group of kids is and how they are supporting everything I'm doing to get things under control. I also have the best husband and sister-in-law. One day Matt came in and brought me lunch, and Jenny has brought me Cokes more than once since school started. I hope that things turn around for the better with this group of kids! And soon!