End of the semester

I know, you may be thinking your eyes are deceiving you because this looks like a new post! Well, indeed it is. I am SO behind on posting what we've been up to, so here come a few very brief updates on what's been going on at the Cook home!

I finished my last semester of college! That is still pretty surreal to me. In the last few weeks I made a special effort to soak up everything about the school and my classes. Luckily I'll still be on campus frequently since Tom has a couple more semesters. This last semester was so fun! I had a lot of really fun classes that I thoroughly enjoyed. Even though I graduated, it still hasn't quite hit me that I'm done! I guess when Tom goes back to school and I don't maybe that will happen? We'll see.

Without further ado, pictures! Not many and they're not great, but pictures nonetheless.

I took a foods class this semester and it was one of the best decisions I made for classes ever! I learned so much and really increased my confidence in the kitchen. I don't have pictures of our fourth of July adventures (although it was one of the best yet!) but I did get a picture of my very first made from scratch apple pie:

I don't even like apple pie, but I loved this. It was that good, a great recipe for sure.

Moving right along, we moved! It's kind of a funny story how we found our new place but we are now renting the upstairs of a house from an 86 year old woman. It's saving us a lot of money every month (and I mean a lot) in rent and other expenses, so we can handle the odd things that we didn't anticipate about living with good ol' Reldie-pies.

The moving process took place over a period of 3 weeks. We were still in school, so it was very slow going. Just one or two car loads here and there. Then one weekend we recruited help from Tom's parents, our good friend Coty, and amazing cousin Ethan to move all the big items of furniture, clean the apartment super well, and get us somewhat settled into our new home.

It was bittersweet moving out of our first apartment! We have had so many wonderful memories there, it was our first apartment after all! But we were both very ready for this move which is an upgrade in so many ways.

Another big experience for me this last semester was teaching piano lessons! I took a Piano Pedagogy class which is another one of the best decisions I made with my classes. Not only did they prepare you for the business side of piano teaching, but every week we actually taught a student! My student was so great. Her name is Amanda and it was such a great experience to teach her. I learned oh so much from teaching piano. At the end of the semester we had a fun recital themed "Music From Around the World". Each child represented a different country and Amanda chose China.

I'm sad that the only picture I have isn't very good - her eyes are closed and it's a bit blurry! But it captures the idea just the same.

It was such a great semester, full of memorable experiences and a whole lot of growth (and I don't just mean baby bump!). I have loved being a BYU-Idaho student, this school holds a special place in my heart and I'm glad we get to stick around for a little longer before heading off to bigger adventures!