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3/28/2011

Great Quick Weekend!

Well things have been going pretty good the last few days. Last Thursday I saw someone post on facebook about some fire in Parker, Colorado. I proceeded to go to trusty 9news.com and saw that 8500 people had been evacuated because of a huge fire! I called my mom and she was on her way out of their house! This was so scary! The fire ended up burning 1600 acres, but thank goodness didn't get to any houses. However, it was just my mom, Nicole, and Damon at home, and my mom told me my Dad, Skyler, and Lance were on their way to Utah for the weekend. I called my dad, and Jared and I decided to head down there to see them! So Friday after Jared got off work we went down to my Grandma's and got to spend a day with a few members of my family! It was so nice to see them and hang out. I miss my dad so much!! We went and saw Limitless (TERRRRIBLE movie by the way) and went down to my uncle Steve's house for a few hours, then everyone met back at Grandma's for a great dinner. Plus, grandpa made spoon fudge....my favorite thing in the world!

At Steve's house we got to play with their cute dogs, Baloo and Remington. Remington is my new one true love, and he is a pyranese/poodle mix, and is about 8 weeks old. He also won Jared over a little, and gave dogs a few points in his book, I am always trying to convince Jared how great dogs are, as long as they aren't too big and are hypoallergetic, so this was a good start...plus...how could Jared resist this face!?

Yes this is probably the worst picture of me and Jared in history, but its the only one we got!! haha

Then we came back up here Yesterday morning, and I have so many projects to do this week I have been working nonstop! Next week is finals and I have a lot to do, but I am so close to getting it done!
We decided to keep trying to get our car and are crossing our fingers that everything works out, and we are still planning on heading down to Austin in 2 weeks! Please pray for us that it will work out!

3/23/2011

So blessed

Well I feel like I have had a pretty rough week, well...like 3 weeks haha. I have been ridiculously busy, Jared has been working nonstop (which is a blessing, but still so hard). And we have been dealing with this stupid car business...so I guess that is where I will start
We have already purchased our nice Nissan Altima, and my sweet generous Uncle has been working on it for like 2 months now. However, it seems like every week a new problem is found, and we just can't spend anymore...we don't have it!! So yesterday Jared gets a picture message from Ramon and it is this twisted melted looking piece of metal that apparently is the car's central computer system. Apparently when it was in its wreck, battery acid leaked on the computer, and it is toast. Cost to buy a new computer? $700...on top of the other thousands of dollars. So we are trying to figure out what to do, but chances are we will be selling back the car, and will live off of the moped for a little while.
OOOOHHH speaking of the ped. I love the thing, but it has been a PAIN in our butts and our wallets. A few weeks ago I was driving it home from school and it would not go over 12 mph (which is difficult when you are driving on streets that have a 25 mph speed limit.) Someone pulled up next to me and said my back tire was like completely flat, and that I should get off the road. Well thanks kind citizen. So Jared took the wheel off, and took it into the place, and not only was the tire totally flat, but the rim was bent because SOMEONE soooo competent (that would be ME) rode it with a flat tire. SO we had to fix that. Then, for the last few months the starter hasn't been working, so we've been having to kick-start it, which is a HUGEEE pain. I can only do it about a third of the time, because you have to kick it at the right angle and it is so hard! So I would get it started, ride it to school, then go to start it and I just couldn't do it, and Jared would have to come save me. So that was just a matter of getting a new battery, which we did, and I LOVE the ped so much more when I can automatically start it, but still, another wallet dent...
And oh yes....I love that terrifying feeling of panic and hopelessness when on the school finances it says how much you owe for next semester's tuition...and it is about 20 times as much as you have in your bank account right now...Best feeling ever.
However, though we have gone through trials in the last few weeks I do have to say the flip side, and this is just a couple of aspects i feel like I was blessed with.
1. I have never felt the Spirit more strongly in my entire life. I am reading my scriptures every night and really getting into them. I have questions, and write notes in the sides, and follow footnotes, and it is wonderful. I am saying my prayers faithfully (because I need all the help I can get!) and just relying on Heavenly Father so much. I am also about to go to the temple by myself for the first time (while Jared is working) and I am so grateful the temple is two blocks away, I have been excited to go all week long.
2. I am always complaining to Jared that I feel like I don't have friends. I mean, yeah, I have friends from back home I talk to on the phone once every other week, and I talk to my sister once in a while, and mostly I talk to my mom, but I mean friends here. I feel like every really good friend I've had here has left! (thanks Aubrey and Stephanie!!! haha). So over the last few weeks, and also praying about this, I have had an outpouring of friendship rain on me.
Sweet Tara Hibbard made time out of her busy day to come talk to me about something totally dumb (haha) but it was so nice to talk to her, and she is just so kind. She made me feel so much better that day.
Also, AMAZING Mallory Ling. I was having a really rough day last Friday, and in class I mentioned I wanted to sit on my couch, eat an entire bag of chips and watch Grey's anatomy for like 8 hours. After class I get a knock on my door and there is lovely Mallory with a bag of bbq chips, willing to spend a few hours talking with me. She completely cheered me up, and it was so nice opening up to her.
Plus I got to spend like 2 hours talking to my amazing sister last week, which was so nice, and sweet Stephanie Hatfield who is still one of my greatest friends, even if she is far away, and always makes sure I am doing alright.
I just step back and look at the people in my life and realize I have so many great people. Not to mention a great husband. Even though I have had a really rough go of it lately, I have so many support systems and I am so thankful for that, because I definitely could not do this alone.
I love you all!

3/13/2011

Floral Show!!

Oh what a crazy week. This has been the craziest week of my life, I've never stood up for so long, or spent so long in a school building, but it's over! And the show was fabulous. Here is a walk through of my room right before we were finished


And here's a video of the whole tour, it is like 17 minutes long, but it is pretty awesome, but a warning, it is pretty shaky, you might get dizzy watching haha. 





The show was great. This week on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we cleaned the cooler, and processed $16000 worth of flowers. This took hours and hours and hours! Our group also made our beautiful aisle runner, which took a few hours. Then Thursday night I had to be there from 3:15-10:00 while people were making their bouquets because of the committee I was on, and during that time I also made my bouquet, which I totally love and am so proud of!!
Then Friday, after having my normal cooking classes from 8-2 where I am on my feet the whole time, we met at 2:30 to start working on our room......and we didn't leave until 1:00 that night. We set up plastic on the walls, arranged a TON of flowers, and just helped everything get set up, that was SUCH a long day, my feet and knees are so bruised from standing that entire day, I could barely walk! Here are some of the flowers I did



I didn't make that bouquet, just the arch with all the little lilies in that arch
Then Saturday we met at about 8:30 and worked until 1, when the show started. That's when I built my orchid trees, aren't they so pretty!?


Then the show started and tons of people came through, that's when it really calmed down for me. Most of the time I just sat in our room answering questions about designs and things. My favorite was when I hear people raving about designs I had done, and they didn't even know I was there! Anyway it was such a cool experience, and I'm so glad I was a part of it. All of the cakes in the rooms were made by the advanced cake decorating class, and I'm going to take that next winter for the show, so I will have one displayed!
Also for this show, some of the Northwestern members of AIFD (american institute of floral design) came to put on a few workshops and do a bouquet show. AIFD is a huge deal, its like getting your doctorate in floral design, people that graduate there have "AIFD" after their names like doctors would have "MD" after their names. But anyway, it was a HUGE deal to have them at the show. I wasn't able to go to their workshops, I was busy working on our room, but I got to go to the bouquet show, and although some of it was pretty stupid, and some of these people are just a teensy bit full of themselves, it was amazing to see their designs, even if they are way too over the top. Here are my favorites!


Well that was my week, I do have to say I'm glad the show is over, and 2 of my classes ended with that. Oh I also registered Friday morning, 19 credits again next semester, but I am so excited! I'm taking Interiorscaping (1st block class), Flower Identification (2nd block class), Culinary Nutrition, Cake Decorating, Marriage, Family Relations, Family Foundations, and my Foundations Capstone(1st block class). 
On top of there only being 4 weeks left, and then starting a new semester, and also having family here, AND getting our car, I am just excited it is warming up! Well...we are about in the 40s now, so we are making progress! I cannot wait to be outside so much more next semester!

3/06/2011

I am employed!!

Well finally, for the first time in 2 years, I have a job!! Woo hoo!! I have been applying all over like crazy and filling out applications and running all over town, but for my job all I had to do was email in a resume (which Jared spent about an hour helping me put together), they called me in for an interview on Thursday, and yesterday they called!! So I am a Brigham Young University-Idaho Tour Guide. I will be doing tours for visiting elementary, middle, and high schools, alumni, visiting general authorities, and anyone else who is not a prospective student, that's a different department (but for those of you who are thinking about coming to byui and want a tour, I'm still a good option so let me know!!). So I am super excited. I start training next week, and I can finally start making some money! Plus it's a job that has nothing to do with the food industry thank goodness, that was my only stipulation!
Other than becoming a working girl...hehe...this week has flown by. I have been bombarded with homework, and I've been trying to finish it all for next week too because the Bridal Floral show is next Saturday (please come!!!). I am going to be crazy busy, because of the committee I'm on I haven't had to do any work until the week of the show, and that will be a lot. I have to be there every day, but it will be so fun and it will all be worth it! I'll make sure to take a lot of pictures for those of you who don't live in Rexburg.
Friday night we were able to hang out with Peter, Tara, Ross, and Shawn, and it was so fun. Jared and I feel like we've been kind of anti social this semester because we have been so busy, but we love our friends and I'm so glad we have such good ones. We just played scene it and watched "Devil", and it was so nice! But we miss all of our friends who aren't here!! Plus we cannot wait for family to come here, just 5 weeks until Mariah and Ethan come out...and I can FINALLY meet my brother in law!!
Well I don't know how much any of you care, but here are more flowers from this week. I love taking pictures of them and adding them to my portfolio. These I did in groups, so I'll have to give my partners a lot of credit, but it's a cool technique. This is for wedding or big event work, and this is when the client wants to use big tall vases. You take cellophane paper and scrunch it up in the bottom, then decorate the inside, then when you fill it with water, it looks like crushed ice! Then you just make a normal centerpiece design on a dish that sits on the top. This is much more affordable than filling the whole vase, and looks nice and high-end!
Here's the top of one, I love this one!! This was done by me, Tia, Nick, and Ashley-

Here's the whole thing! Doesn't that look awesome on the bottom??


This is a different one, that Sarah and I did-the top-more garden-like


I like the inside of the vase of this one! And there's cellophane at the bottom too, I just couldn't get it in the picture


Alright I love you all, have a wonderful week! And I hope to see a lot of you at the floral show! Saturday in the Benson from 1-5, just come by any time between then!