Recaping the last year and a half!!!!

Well family and friends! its time that i started blogging again! AND I HAVE A YEAR TO RECAP FOR YOU! where to start! well as you all know i wasn't able to serve my mission due to bigger and better things that the Lord had in store for me! so i was able to stay home this last year, and what a year it has been! i moved into a little house up on Darwin Ave, called the

 "Half Way House" soon after I moved in my roomie Erin decided that we are no longer the drug rehab House but the Comfy Cottage, and were known as that from that day on.

(Original rommates of the Comfy Cottage; Maddie, Tawny, Erin and Me, Oct 2010)



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Tye Die Partys were a regular in our house!



 The room that was left to rent was the room under the stairs! yes everyone, this room use to be the utility closet and they made it into a room!



 I of course being the brilliant mind that i am....thus named my room the HARRY POTTER ROOM! i charged 5 dollars for anyone to come and look at it...so naturally i made enough money to sustain myself since everyone wanted to see if ERICA EBERT really could live i a room that was 5x7! literally!!!! and yes let me tell you that i did! for a whole year! and yes the room got the better of me more then 3x a week and according to my roomies there were constant bombs going off in my room and the only thing that kept me sain would be coming home to a perfect pathway created by my roomie Erin who would clean my room just enough that i could walk straight to my bed! hahaha she new me too well knowing that everyday at 2 was nap time for me!

My Polly aka Erin Taylor

During the year I was able to stay in my same ward YSA 21st Ward and there met the most remarkable bishopric ever in the whole world! And also I was still able to keep my calling in the Relief Society Pres! what an experience! I was able to serve the woman of my ward and what a blessing that was for me! there were so many opportunities that I was able to do because of that amazing calling. I loved serving! and the best part was that I was able to teach once a month! I never knew how much I love to teach! wow who would have thought!

The school year started at Little Wonders and I was back at teaching preschool! I had over 24 3 year olds this year! and wow what a year we had! Some of the big events that went on in school this year were our letter C unit. I wanted to be the best preschool teacher out there so of course I needed to provide my kids with things that would blow their mind and get their little creative juices flowing. So naturally while we are reading all about the "Very Hungry Caterpillar"

 I needed to get a real Caterpillar! So my friend Jace and I went searching high and low up Logan Canyon, and finally after about 2hrs and some prayers, and yes Jace prayed..hahaha we found one! and he was huge!!!! BIG, FAT, GREEN AND BLACK WITH HORNS OUT THE HEAD! WOW!!!! my kids thought that was the coolest thing they had ever seen!

Kaven in his cacoon

 My little Jade decided she would name him for the whole class and he was there know as Kaven the Caterpillar. Jace of course had named him Biggy after biggy smalls, but the kids overrulled. Kaven soon came to the fate of Erin, and was disected prematurely because he hadnt come out of his cacoon fast enough for erin and she wanted to see if he was still alive...and yes he was! and she killed him! and Jace gave me hipe about it forever!

Some of the funny things that my kids said during the year are as follows... J.T once told me early in the morning during free time...

J.T: "Ms. Erica, why do you have glasses on?" Me; "because my eyes are tired" J.T; "oh..(puzzle thought and concentration look) "well i think you look so beautiful!"

my heart melted! hahaha he was such a cutie and such a cuttle bug! Some other funny things they would say are "I want to hold you", during reading and math time Jaxson would ask a lot "Ms Erica? when are we going to do something Fun!" hahah what Jaxson, you don't think reading and math is fun?? No he didn't, all he wanted to do was run around and play cowboys! he was a hoot. During nap time J.T once was singing "I am a Child of God" and when it came to the part where you sing "parents kind and dear" he so kindly inserted "Erica kind and dear!"



Firefighter Day!



Happy Halloween 2010



Teaching was an amazing experience where i came to love and appreciate the small and simple pleasures of being around children. There are so many underlying blessings that the Lord has provided me with this past year that I cant begin to describe or we would be here forever. I just know that my Heavenly Father and my Savior are looking out for me. And I need to pay close attention.



Our famous hats!

During the fall semester I was able to take another trip back to Texas with my friend Mayo AKA Cody May, it was so fun! we went to the Rangers game! And I love the Rangers! It was an awesome night!!! Everyone loved mine and Lisa's hats and the best part was that we made them!!!

 

Texas was so so much fun! It was great to be out there with the Mays they are home away from home. Lisa and I always have so much fun together! We also did some crazy shopping, and always up to no good!!

Mayo and I went to the Zoo, out to eat a lot and just hung out at the house together, it was a great trip with my best friend!



Mayo and I at the Zoo



 Lisa and Jim also were able to come to Logan this last year for Christmas too! That was so fun! I was able to have 2 Christmas's this last year! Awesome!! We spent a lot of time together hanging out going to the movies and of course opening presents from each other! I love being spoiled and Lisa does a wonderful job of that!

Marianne got Married too!!! of all the people that said that she was never going to get married...she was swept off her feet in a matter of days and never looked back! 

Me and my rommies and friends also did the famous "Ugly sweater party" up at the cabin! it was so fun! and the funniest part about it was it was all my girlfriends and Mayo! hahah he was the only boy! so fun! we are definitely doing it again this year for sure! Tradition!

So many things to recap but who has the time to just sit and blog! not to mention i haven't even posted pics yet! wow this alone is a full time job! most of the rest of the year after Christmas was just surviving the Logan weather and the dreadful mornings of scraping 10ft of snow off your car in -14 degree weather. You get spring fever pretty bad up here and you cant wait till summer, one of my favorite things to do besides tear up Beaver Mnt was go for bike rides with my man spencer! I LOVE THAT BIKE!  

One particular day I remember was when my mother came up to Logan to spend the weekend with me. We decided to take one of the days to do a little skiing and snowboarding. By the end of the day I was completely done, i was exhausted! But was my mother? oh No! she turns to me and says " you just sit here and rest I'm going to take a few more runs" Oh Hello! my mother is in better shape then me! wow things need to change! so off she went! haha it was a great day! and a wonderful weekend full of shopping sleeping at a hotel dinner at my favorite restaurants and more! wow i love my mother!

Lisa May also came into town for sping break! that was awesome too! she was one of the few that was privileged enough to be able to stay in my Harry Potter Room! hahah what an experience! she soon realized that staying at the hotel was nicer and better :) but we had a wonderful time all the same! cant wait till she comes again this spring break!

Another thing that happened to me this year was that in the middle of March, I was wrestling with Kody Nielson and he flipped me backwards and my foot stayed where it was, so long story short, i broke the top of my foot and tore 2 ligaments! and therefore restrained to crutches and a boot for 8 weeks!!! so awful!!!

Bowling in a boot is harder than it looks!





Soon enough the semester was coming to an end and it was time to move out of the Comfy Cottage and into a new apt, with new roomies and a new ward. Oh how my heart ached to leave my last ward. Bishop Wright had and has been such an influence to me that I was so sad to leave. But Life and the Lord had other plans for me. I soon moved into Oak Meadows with Maili, Kaylee and Taya. We soon were decorating and making frequent trips to the D.I to furnish our apartment. Summer was soon here and the pool had finally opened! Laying out by the pool, taking morning walks with my girlfriend Jill on the river walk consumed my mornings. With the Preschool year ended I needed to find work for the summer. But first things first, laying out, working out and taking frequent trips up to the lake to wakeboard and hang out with the Texas Boys! What a summer!

My birthday also came and went but what a party!!! Turning 27 was the best birthday ever!

 Maili and Kaylee surprised me with a stripper cake! and yes i do mean a stripper cake! My friend Trayvn jumped out of the cake and did a dance for me in a very questionable outfit and cowboy boots! what a night! it was the greatest! presents, grilling food, surrounded by the ones i love! how does it get any better then that!

Ebert Triathlon 2011 



Me and Dad after the race!



Family getting ready for the mile swim!

 For Dads Bday this year we did a family Triathlon! THAT WAS SO AWESOME! my parents have been working so hard to get into shape and to be healthy! they are amazing and i wish that i was in the same shape as them. Everyone participated in the triathlon and we all got shirts made for it, courtesy of Russ of course! I couldnt participate because my foot was still broken and in a cast...but I was designated photographer of the blessed event! This was a pretty big deal for my family, dad didnt want to be 60 and considered "old" even though he knows he's the stroke victim! This was a great way to get together and do something different for a change! what a great day! and it's sad to say that my parents are in better shape then me!

Now onto more adventures and death defying adventures!

Small side note... this is the bonfire that braiden and travyn put together in the backyard of thier apartment inbetween the other town homes. and yes it is illegal, we had the fire dept called, the police, the maintanence manager and the property manager called.. and of course we all got off with a

warning! hahaha 

In our new ward we have made some great new friends and another pack of boys that we refer to as the "Cave Boys" they are a hoot and are so much fun to be around. Brett, Cole, and Travis are all brothers and then there is Dave, the southern boy from Florida and yes he has an accent! hahah hold onto your panties ladies cause hes a catch! of course all these boys are like another set of brothers and have no romantic interests at all :) so of course they care nothing for our safety or well being. Which would describe my next big event perfectly.

 "Floating Cutler"

 Now to the average reader this might sound nice, leisure and somewhat relaxing....well i am here to correct that fantasy and set it straight! Floating Cutler is the most dangerous thing you could ever do! and let me tell you it is far from the lazy floating river at Lagoon!

It's a swirling, raging river of terror! and I almost drowned on this little outing. Floating cutler is suicide! you have to first go in the middle of the night because this little trip is illegal because of trespassing reasons, also you have to hike back to the drop off point for about 20 min, over scafolding towers high enough that i was already terrified and we hadnt even reached the bridge! Once you get there you then need to climb over the bridge railing and then jump to your death! Then you are in the water and being carried away before you can even catch your breath. There are cement planks and re bar poles that stretch across the river width wise, not to mention that with all the moister and snow that we received this year we had extreme flooding issues and everyone was told not to be anywhere near the rivers! so take that into consideration, which we so knowingly did not.

So once you have jumped in before you know it the cement planks are upon you and you need to duck under neath them or float on your back well enough that your nose can slide easily underneath them, well of course this isn't going to be easy and of course the boys didn't tell us about any of this!!

This is how I felt after

 So as I'm floating to my death i am then needing to duck, hold my breath and hope that when i come up for air its clear..well when i came up for air it was not clear and i smacked my forehead on the cement plank and got knocked out! yes now seeing stars, churning like a burrito in black water and thinking to myself, this is how i am going to die, luckily for me when the last air was leaving, and my lungs were burning my friend Dave found me and pulled me out of the water. Never again will I ever float cutler!! Come to find out later that the canal that we floated is the Cutler's Power Plant canal, the water in their is sewer water and all the floading water that has been sitting in the valley all combined together! Yes in fact its not even safe for bodily contact! And i swallowed at least a gallon of it! I had a goose egg the size of a bird for about a week after!

Rock climbing, and regular BBQ's, Star gazing and frequent trips to Porcupine for Cliff Jumping filled the summer afternoons and weekends! what a life!

 

 Some random pics from the year, rock climbing with Chadders, Bonfire with the Texas boys, Shaun Kingston concert, and so much more!

Another Fun Event this summer was

CRAW FEST!!!

This was such a blast! We went down to  strawberry, with the Cave Boys, the whole perpose being to catch a butt load of crawdads, and have a huge daddy bake! We camped overnight and had a great time catching them! I liked to catch them with my net, but Maili and Kaylee are a little more daring then me and were catching them with their bare hands!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The boys were crazy funny when it came time to catching the crawdads, especially trav and dave! I mean look at dave -> what a psycho! hahha

  Summer ended as quick as it came, Jonathan FINALLY made it home from his mission! and that was so exciting! I couldnt believe that 2 years had finally come to an end! 

He looked so good! He has grown up so much from his mission and the experiences that he had! His homecomming was a big fat party and his talk was so good! One of the funny things that he said in his talk was about him talking to an investigator just on the street and the investigator was not of any religion and told Jonathan that he believes in the wrong Jesus (meaning Jonathan) and Jonathan's reply to him was "Funny I thought there was only 1 Jesus"! hahah so funny! Another thing that he said was when he was being transferred to a pretty scary area, where the KKK got started, Jonthan called to remind his Mission Pres. that he wanted to check and make sure that Pres. King remembered that he was BLACK! haha I laughed so hard! Jonathan has such a way with words and his personality is priceless!

Well family, we finally made it! I think that I have updated enough of the things that stand out in my head, so hopefully I can stay ontop of this weekly, because let me tell you, I am not ever doing this again! Recaping the last year and a half has been awful! and I got to the point that blogging is just not worth it! So glad I finished!

 Now at present time, I have a new job being a full time nanny to 2 wonderful kids!



Cashie Cash, just turned 1 on the 28th 2011



Ava 3 yrs old and such a Princess!





I started doing the Medical Assisting program @ Bridgerland, and am loving life. I love my new friends and my new ward, its still not the same as Bishop Wrights ward, but its still good. My new calling is FHE Grandma! so hopefully ill be able to come up with some Bomb activities and it wont ruin my rep! hahahah, I miss being in the Relief Society, and being able to teach Gospel Principles, but I know that I am called by authority and this is what I need to be doing right now.

Well i feel like this entry is so long that no one will read all the way through it so for now that is it. I will post again this weekend and then from there stay caught up! wow that's very ambitious of me! but here it goes!