The Bowen's

Our Home and What We Love

2012-01-29T21:07:00.000-08:00

I told you a while back about my cross stitches that I framed. This is the cabin I just recently finished.

This is a lighthouse that I finished a few years back. I actually won a red ribbon at the fair with it. Which was pretty cool because the first place was this huge one of an eagle. This is my favorite lighthouse of all time.

This is a wall in our living/dining room. We have no couch, just a kitchen table.

This is the other wall, the fishing section of our lives.

This is our sexy shower curtain.

This is why we have no table in the kitchen! Our outdoor sports are a little bit more important than a couch! Dan built the big tall wader/clothes hanger. I'm always impressed by him and his skills. This has changed from duck hunting stuff over to ice fishing.

This is some of our kitchen.

This is the other half of our kitchen. Sorry it's too small to get it all in.

So moving onto another house... This is my parents basement starting construction. This right side will be a canning storage with the water heater. Then a bathroom added onto that.

The back wall is the start of another bedroom downstairs. Amazing things have happened and I never thought I would see this happen. I can't wait to see it. There is a toilet at the bottom of this picture. That has sat there ever since the house was built. We've had curtains up and you were kind of taking your own risk at hand going to the bathroom downstairs! Now there will be a door. My parents will have their own upstairs. It will be great for the whole family I think.

This will turn into the hall way. That door is my brothers room.

I forgot to take a picture of the carpet they got upstairs. It's absolutely gorgeous. I love it.
It's great to see such great changes happen at their house. It is kind of a happy/sad moment for me. My cat has been gone for over a year and I miss her and with her gone these things are able to happen for my parents. My parents deserve these great things though.

Last week, my bro came up with his family. I did crafts with Averi and Tate. It was a lot of fun to spend time with them.

These are the cute mailboxes they decorated. Tate was crazy about stickers! I think he put on three packages.

We went night fishing last night and caught 8 trout. We had a great time and I froze my bum off. We are die hards for ice fishing.
Dan is going to be over the fly shop sometime soon at Walmart. I'm so excited for him in this new adventure. I hope he can make it a success there. If he boosts sales it will be a great thing. This will be a full time position and better hours.
We're primary teachers of 5 year olds and that is one of my greatest challenges I've had. I can't really say that I'm totally in love with it. Hopefully it will get easier.
After church today Dan and I both got sick. Dan got the chills, rushed out of the church building cause he was about to throw up. I drove home and have been sick to my stomach and Dan threw up at work. Poor guy. So hopefully this doesn't last long.
Kevin, Dan's little bro, was made an Elder today. What a great time for him at this point in his life. We are so proud of him. It was an emotional day for me when Dan got his Elder ordination. He's such an amazing strength to me and I love having a worthy priesthood holder in our home.

Random Pictures from My Phone

2012-01-25T09:50:00.000-08:00

Dan and I decided that buying these cute stockings were easier than for me to do the felt ones. I have the felt kits for our kids, but we both loved these. I just loved the fishing hat, the flies, and the cute pole.

Back in September my dad had shoulder surgery. I had to take pics of this cute man. He had on this amazing purple gown. They plug in this tube and you get heat. I could have used that in the hospital, I was freezing! He was so excited for surgery.

Here's the full shot.

This is him after surgery and TOTALLY out of it! He was barely coherent to wave! You can tell that he has spent many years out in the sun. That is a Farmers Tan baby! My dad is doing so amazing and I'm so happy that he obeyed everyone so he could have a full recovery.

Dan shot a wood duck and I love this picture. They are such a pretty bird.

Here's a different day, more birdies.

Here's our Christmas tree this year from the phone. It didn't turn out too bad.

I'll have more pictures later. My bro and his family are coming to see us and I'm so excited to spend some time with them. We are going to do some Valentine crafting! I also have some pictures of my parents basement. I can't wait to see the finished project. My cousin has done an amazing job.

Christmas and all the works

2012-01-08T20:54:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am horrible at blogging these days. Life is just crazy with us. Christmas is a horrible time for me and having time for anything. I am just happy to go to sleep!

November was a pretty good month. Dan turned 23 and he didn't get a birthday cake, but we spent the day together.

We had two Thanksgiving's this year. His mom had one early, so we were able to make it and we took some family pictures. It was FREEZING, but we had a good time.

We went to my parents for the big day of Thanksgiving. It was not the greatest I've ever had. My parents had mice a while ago, so we had to go through my bedroom and clean everything. We pretty much worked the whole time we were there. It looks better, well it did, until my parents decided to finally finish the basement! Life is ever changing. My brother and sister in law have been down there cleaning it out for the last couple days and we get to finish it up this week when we go down this week. I never thought this would happen. I don't even know what it will be like to see it finished. I will take some pictures while I'm home. I never took a picture of their new carpet either. Lots of changes!
I'm really happy for my parents, this will be a great thing for them to have finished. I just feel bad that both of their health is awful, but they keep going.
This was our Christmas picture this year in our OH SNAP shirts. I love Shrek and these shirts made me laugh so hard.

Dan can't decorate anything without personality. He designed a face in the tree. We had a great first Christmas together married. We've always had great Christmas's, but this one was official! We are loving being married and enjoying the outdoors. We love our neighbors, they are great.

This is our whole tree.

Here's a close up.

Here's Christmas at Mom and Dad Henriods.

The rest of Christmas is at the end. I can't move the pics! We went fishing at Mantua and we had a BLAST! I love ice fishing with my honey. It is our favorite all around thing to do I believe. This fish was the most beautiful rainbow trout I've ever seen. It was bright blue and purple. This fish also has an amazing story to go with it. Dan was fishing out of my hole and caught this monster. I was next to the hole, just wanting to see what this monster was. Dan almost had it out of the hole and I had a hold of the line to help this fish out of the hole and the line broke. I dove down that hole after it and Dan jumped in too. We had it and then it slipped out of Dan's hands, but I kept a hold of it. All said and done, the line wrapped around my arm and I pulled this monster fish out and our two jigs that we would have lost. So technically, we both caught this fish! It was a great day!

Dan with the fish.

Me with the monster.

Dan got a little bit more of a surprise by catching two perch on the two jigs at the same time!

Dan hooked this blue gill by the fin and thought he was reeling in the monster of a life time! It was a crazy day!

We bought this new LCD 32" tv screen and blue ray player. It is amazing! We love watching tv without a whistling sound.

The rest of Christmas..... Dan got a DeWalt jigsaw, with blades.

I got him a power sander to refinish our table.

I got him a tool box, not this brand, but something to hold all of this stuff!

I framed two of my cross stitches and gave them to Dan. I will take pictures of them later. They turned out beautifully. Dan gave me some fish jigs, the one we almost lost on the first ice fishing trip! He bought me two jewelry sets, that are absolutely beautiful. One is a sapphire and the other are red and pink stones in shape of hearts. He helped his mom pick me out some shirts. He loves to buy me clothes. On Christmas Eve, we opened a present each and I got an empty box of our hand held vacuum. Nothing says Merry Christmas like that! It was a great Christmas.

Dan got a job at Walmart! We are so happy that he has a job. We both work weird hours put together, but maybe down the line, things will work out. He gets his schedule way before me so we can get the same days off.

My brother and his wife are legal parents to Tate and Cannon now. We are having them sealed to our family in March.

We have been truly blessed lately. We hope that you guys had a Merry Christmas!

Updates on Life

2011-11-01T22:15:00.000-07:00

As I was downloading some pictures from this weekend, I realized some things I had forgotten about! After we got married, we went fishing at Strawberry Res with Grandpa Bowen. What a fishing trip of a life time! I had a blast! It was a foggy morning, which made it creepy and cool. This was the beautiful sunrise.

We had ducks and geese fly in, it was pretty cool.

The boys had some success, but I had the most. I caught the most and the biggest. It was hard not to rub it in!

Here's my biggest one.

This was one of Dan's fish.

This is our duck shower curtain.

For one last big gig, Dan's whole family showed up. We had a great time dancing and just having fun. It was the most fun gig I've been to, just because I had people to dance with and have a great time.

My dad went in for shoulder surgery and my mom decided to get new carpet. This is her room all torn apart.

This is the living room. I bought her some new curtains. I can't wait to see the new carpet.

For Halloween, I dressed up in camo. I had to be picky on what I wore to work, because I could ruin a lot of clothes with my job, or I would ruin framing jobs with my outfits. My mother in law, was a butterfly princess.

I made her tiara. It was fun.

We had a dinner murder mystery party for Halloween. We had a good time. I was awful at it. These are our neighbors. Dan, me, Sarah, Andrew, Jessica, Davin, Sam and Austin. We really love where we live.

This was my Halloween decorations.

These are the ducks on our bedroom ceiling! What a great view!

This is what Kaydee was, a SMURF! I loved it so I thought I would share it with you guys!

Our Wedding Day!

2011-10-21T22:00:00.000-07:00

Dan and I got married on the 10th of August. We went through the temple on the 9th. My mom was in the hospital for a few days and got out on the 8th. It was a very stressful time for the family, but I was so glad that both of my parents made it. It was two very emotional days, but they were great days.

This is my parents and Dan and me.

While we were on our way out of the temple, my niece and nephew were peaking through the window waiting for us to come out. It was so cute.

This is my whole immediate family now!

This is my whole family now!

This is all of Dan's side.

This is Dan's side with the grandparents. I don't have a picture like this because mine have all passed away.

This was all of our support for the day. Thanks for coming to support us! We loved this day.

Us and the grandparents.

The Bowen siblings.

All the siblings.

Dan's parents.

Dan's parents with their spouses.

Stan, Me, Dan, and Chris.

Lyle, Me, Dan and Jenny.

My pappy and me. I love this man. I have been Daddy's little girl from day one. We were both crying in this segment of picture taking. I think he cried the hardest when congratulating us after we were married. I just hope they were tears of joy! I know he was having a hard time letting me go, but he loves Dan so much.

This is my BIG bro. I feel like such a midget! But I couldn't ask for a better big brother.

This is Dan and me with our photographer, Krista. Who is my cousin but we are truly sisters at heart. She has been so great to me my entire life. Thanks Krista for all the amazing pics!

Dan made most of these mini wedding cakes, but I did help with some of them.

This is the wedding cake. I designed it and my cousin decorated it for me. Thanks Desta! She was 8 months pregnant and now has her cute little baby girl!

I love this shot. She did this amazing rose on top.

Desta also made us camo cakes. Mine was pink and Dan's was the more traditional kind.

Here's our wedding rings in the flowers.

Our wedding rings on the cake.

My mommy in law bought me this gorgeous apron to put over my dress so I wouldn't spill on it.

This is one of my absolute favorite pictures. It had information on it about being donated and such. I love photoshop! I personalized it to our wedding date instead!

These are just some fun shots that we took.

Here's a close up of me.

I love getting the whole temple and us together.

Shhhh we're kissing!

Our rings with the bouquet.

This was us right after we walked out of the temple.

We went on our honeymoon to Bountiful and had a great two days there. With all the stress from work and planning the wedding, I slept for 12 hours the next day. I know, what a lazy wife. But what a great vacation! We then went to the cabin and had fun out in the wilderness.
I came back and went to work and haven't really cared to be back since! Vacation is not a good thing for me apparently!
We have moved into our own place and we love it here. Dan has built some things for the house to make our outdoor hobbies more efficient. He's so creative. We are duck hunting and loving it so far. We camped out in the back of the truck in our sleeping bags awaiting opening day. We had Kevin and Sam with us. We also went and camped out in our hammocks this week in our sleeping bags. That was so much FUN! We double layered our sleeping bags but it was so much fun. I want to do it again some time.
We bought a new car! YEAH!!!! I love having a more reliable and smaller car. A week after we got it, we took my dad to the hospital in Provo so he could get his shoulder replaced. That was a while ago and he is now doing his strength exercises. His arm is doing great. He was in so much pain, I didn't really even get a hug from my dad because his arms stayed by his sides. I'm glad that he is free of some pain and sounds a lot happier about life!
We have great neighbors. I live by my cousin and we left through the wall of someone Dan went to high school with. It is such a better and fun environment. We play games and do dinner together some times. We have really enjoyed it here. We planted our own flower garden! I'm so excited. We're going to have a garden! It took us a while to get everything moved in but we are pretty set.
I think that is all for now, but I will try to update more often now. I had to edit some pictures and have more to do, but just wanted to post about the wedding and move on!

Dan's Ordination

2011-07-21T08:43:00.000-07:00

A big event happened for Dan on the 10th of this month. He was made an Elder! Things are coming together and it's such a great thing to be a part of. It pulls some heart strings for sure, because I am so happy and it's great to see the events unfold. It's such a wonderful thing to watch Dan grow spiritually and we can grow together. It's been a great adventure. He gets his patriarchal blessing this Sunday and I'm so excited for him.

Here's the pics from the ordination. L to R: Bishop Roskelley, Brother Israelson, Lyle Henriod (step-dad), Clint (my bro), Stan Bowen (dad), and Val Sorenson (high counsel). Bottom row: Dan and Brother Watts. Sorry that the sun was in your eyes Stan, but.... I look at this picture and see Bro. Watts and with the sun in his face, he looks like my dad. This is what my dad looked like when he was in his 30's. Glasses and all.

Here are the mighty men of our ward. They are a great bunch of guys and a ton of personality. We love these guys.

Here's the men representatives: Lyle, Clint, Tate, Cannon, Dan, Kevin, and Stan.

Here's most of the fam. Jodie is taking the pics. Jenny, Lyle, Clint, Tate, Cannon, Dan, Kevin, Kaydee, Stan and Chris.

Here's Dan and his dad. His dad ordained him.

Dan and his two daddy's! I love this picture because it reminds me of the AT& T towers. Don't be offended, it just makes me giggle! They are like the perfect height difference for it. I never noticed it until this picture.

Here's Dan and Lyle.

Afterwards I got to open a present from Grandma Bowen, Grandma Warburton, Chris, and Kaydee: they gave me a sleeping bag that has the option of zipping with another sleeping bag. Dan got his for his graduation present. We have wanted these for camping, but I didn't know they still existed. I'm way excited. Thanks again guys!

On the inside, it's pictures of duckies! What a better way to sleep!

Thanks for all who came and supported Dan on that special day. It meant a lot to both of us.
Right now we are sending out the invites. We are stamping and mailing. It will be good to have over with. Dan is dreaming in the morning now, that every time his phone goes off, it's another person calling to give him an address. I think my honey is going to be scarred for life!

Addresses

2011-07-09T23:05:00.001-07:00

I don't know if I have everyone's address, so will you please send me yours at mondanbowen@gmail.com. Thanks!

The Time Has Passed

2011-07-08T19:39:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I last posted. A lot has been going on and planning for a wedding has taken a lot of my spare time. My Aunt Dorthy passed away on the 7th of June, which was kind of a shocker. We had her funeral on the 11th. Dan had a gig that night, which was a bummer because we had to be separated for the weekend. We both wanted to be in different places supporting each other, but we made it through. It was a rough weekend, to say the least. I took the funeral pretty hard, I was very close to my aunt and I will miss her. I had my tender and sweet moments with my family. My mom and I cried together as they shut the casket lid and I was a casket escort, with the rest of my cousins, and since Dan wasn't there, my brother took me in his arms and let me cry. I am so blessed with my family.

Here are the pallbearers, some of the guy cousins. My Aunt planned her whole funeral and it was amazing. It was hard to sing with the whole group of cousins, I pretty much cried through the whole thing. I'm glad I didn't have to sing a solo! It's been really hard for me to take sibling pics of my parents. They dwindle in numbers and it makes me worry about when my parents are going to go. These are my wonderful Aunts and mom. I love them dearly. They are great women and very spiritual. I look up to all of them.

Here are all the escorts.

This is Averi's dress for the wedding. We had a bridal shower on the 25th of June at my moms. I had a great turn out and it was a lot of fun. I missed 3 questions out of 20. Sorry if anyone is offended that they weren't invited, please don't be. With my aunt's funeral, I really didn't want a lot of people traveling back down again. I didn't want to put people out.

Dan and I bought some serious aerial fireworks this year and it was a lot of fun. We set some off at Dan's moms and some at my house. We had a great time. We got some wiener roasting sticks at the shower and so we have roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and just fall in love all over again. I'm so happy!
A lot of great things have been happening in our lives. Dan is getting ordained to an Elder this Sunday. I'm so happy and proud of him. He's come a long way. He's getting ready for his patriarchal blessing soon as well. I got my temple recommend and my parents are coming up next week! Yeah!
As I was sitting in Relief Society on Sunday, I was wondering what was wrong with me, I haven't had that strong spiritual urge to bear my testimony. I didn't feel it in that meeting, but it happened in sacrament meeting. I have been with Dan for 3 1/2 years and he's never heard me and it brakes my heart. It was a wonderful day.
My cousin came up and took my bridals and our kind of wedding pictures. It was so much fun. The next day, Jaymie took our casual engagement pictures. Here's a little sample of them. She's 16 and I think she did an awesome job! We just wanted to have fun and give her some experience. Thanks guys!

I was fine all day and forgot to take my allergy meds. Well this was the result out in the grass! I'm apparently allergic to that as well as everything else! I love how Jaymie captured the pain I go through in my sneezing! I hope you guys get a good laugh.

I will update you with the bridals when I get everything else ironed out. Things are coming along pretty great! I'm so excited! We have a month left and it's flying.
Also, while we were down for the bridal shower, I got stuff for a water fight and we had a great time. Tate even got my mom wet. He grabbed a great big glass of water and dumped it on one knee and then came back with another glass for the other knee! He's so dang cute.

The Twins Graduation

2011-05-30T21:23:00.000-07:00

Dan and I went down to Kaydee and Kevin's high school graduation. They were 14 when I met Dan and now, they are graduated. The time has just flown by.

Here's the two of them together.

This was one of my favorite pictures taken. This is Grandpa! I took pictures of the parents but the faces never worked out and I know if I put one pic up, the person that doesn't look good, will be upset. So... we'll just keep the good ones on.

This is the twins and me.

Here's Kaydee the graduate!

Here's Kevin the graduate!

Here's all the siblings!

It was good to see everyone! It was weird to be at a high school graduation again. It was fun though.

As for plans on the wedding, here are all the flowers. The first ones are what the women are wearing.

These are what the guys are wearing with white lilies.

This is my bridal bouquet flowers.

Here's the close up of the orchid.

These white ones will also be added to my bouquet.

Dan and I are getting married August 10, in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. The 9th we are going through the temple. Some may be surprised, but we aren't doing a reception. We are doing an immediate family luncheon afterwards. We are sending out announcements of the exciting time in our lives, but we will not be holding any big gathering.

Things are going good for us. We are our ward indexers now. It's so much fun to have a church calling with my honey. The gospel is such a blessing in our lives. We are truly blessed.

Dan's Graduation

2011-05-19T22:12:00.000-07:00

For Dan's graduation, we went to Mantua and Willard Bay. Dan's mom and Lyle came with us and my brother and his family met us there. It was the most beautiful day that we have had yet. I got a lovely sunburn and my brother was the only one who got a fish. I had a fish bite, but lost it. Here's my brother and his rainbow.

Here's Dan and Lyle.

Here's Jo and all the cute kiddo's.

Dan's mom with the little baby! He wasn't really liking the heat.

Here's some of the pictures I got of Dan is his gown. The lighting was bad, but oh well. I tried.

Him with the Old Main building.

My cute little graduate!

Here's a close up of the graduate!

I'm obsessed with magnolia trees and there is a huge one on campus. I love this picture.

Graduation was a lot of fun. It was a great day and way better than sitting through a ceremony. Thanks to all those who came, we had a great time!

Random Post

2011-05-19T10:32:00.000-07:00

I was just going through some cd's of pictures and thought I'd share some. Dan and I went to the Willow Park Zoo to look at birds. A few years back, I saw this Mandarin duck and thought it was beautiful. I just thought I'd educate you if you've never seen this pretty duck. Wood ducks are absolutely magnificent! It was raining so I didn't have my camera yesterday.

I think this was my 21st birthday picture. I had really short hair, was tiny like a size 0, and I look like my mom in this picture when she was my age. Sometimes that really freaks me out. I look at this picture and just realize how lucky I am to have Dan and how he has truly saved my life.

This was one of my favorite photo shoots that I did. My brother took them for me. I just graduated from Snow College.

These are two wedding cakes that I'm trying to decide on. The top one I would design it like my wedding dress. I love the rose one. Desta, what do you think?

This is me in my mom's wedding dress. I have never looked good in it! My mom made it and she didn't get to cheat like on my dress. She sewed every button up the back and on the sleeves. She is amazing. I'm glad I get a zipper! My mom looked beautiful in her dress and I doubt I can fit in it now. She was small and tall.

Let me know your opinions on the cake.

The Winning Dress Is...

2011-05-02T23:24:00.000-07:00

I think it is funny how you guys liked three! The one I absolutely hated was #6. I had tried on my wedding dress, I loved it. I went to all the other places, tried on all my dresses I liked there. I got to Leven's and that was the closest dress she had. I look like a fat cow and an over stuffed pin cushion. She told me that the dress I liked at Pedals and Promises wouldn't look good in pictures down the road. I wouldn't be caught in public wearing #6. I just had to put it up because of the controversy.

Anyway, here's the front. The lighting is horrible, so sorry.

I did a special effect with photoshop so you could see all the amazing detail that was put into my dress.

Here's the unedited version.

Dan thinks I look beautiful in it and I love this dress. To me, that's all that matters. People can say what they want, this was the dress for me.

Wedding Dresses

2011-04-28T22:53:00.000-07:00

Since Dan was my little photographer while I was trying on dresses, I have some shots of what I looked at. I want to see if you guys can pick out my wedding dress from the line up.

Here is dress #1:

Here is the front of Dress #1:

Here is Dress #2:

Here is Dress #3: (Sorry, I didn't have a clue of when he was taking pictures....)

Here's the back of dress #3

Here's Dress #4:

Here's the back of Dress #4:

Here's Dress #5:

Here's the back of Dress #5:

Here's Dress #6: (it's from Leven's, the rest were Petals & Promises)

Here's the back of Dress #6:

Here's a pic of the happy couple. We were up burning papers in a snow storm. I know, idiots! The fire was a pain because we didn't have any dry wood and we were tearing up paper as fast as we could just to stay remotely warm. After a half hour, I had enough, I was freezing! Our dinner got cooked, so we ate at home. I can't wait to marry this man.

The decision is now yours, what one do you think I got?

Cannon's Baby Blessing

2011-04-28T22:36:00.000-07:00

I know, I get engaged and then I never update my blog! Life has been crazy. My brother was able to bless his little boy. It was his first one. Averi was already blessed and was 9 months when they got her. Tate was two, so Cannon has been their only new born. They are all so adorable. Averi hates pictures, I can't tell you why. Tate only hangs in there for a couple and then he's done! I think I'm the only person who likes pictures in my family besides my mom! This is my family. I love them.

The only other happenings since then are packing up Dan's house. He's moving out this weekend, before finals, and moving back into Logan on the 9th. He's staying at his mom's for the in between time. I'm exhausted, because today was the long haul of getting it all together. We've been packing little bits at a time and taking the stuff out to his mom's, but today was a lot. He was able to sell some of his furniture, which is good. The place he is moving to is fully furnished. We are keeping the kitchen table.
Our Easter was pretty chill. I had my Easter hunt for my engagement day. We went out to his mom's and played Killer Bunnies. We bought some of our center piece stuff. She has the goldfish out at her house and only one has died so far. We thought it would be best to get them now and weed out the weak ones. I don't really want dead fish on the wedding day! Dan and I might be outdoorsy, but some of our family is not! I love fish, they are so entertaining.
Our lives have been pretty boring and will probably be that way for a while until the full swing of things kicks in.
Have a Happy Mother's Day to all you mom's. I'm sure I won't be on here before then.

My Greatest Day Off!

2011-03-27T23:47:00.000-07:00

My day off was Wednesday and I had the morning booked with an eye appointment and getting my hair cut. I got a text at 8:31 a.m. from Dan. He wrote a song 831, which means I Love You. It's just been our thing in our relationship. I knew that it was the day, because usually I'm the one waking him up! I had to go to the restroom and almost close lined myself on his note that he had suspended across my doorway.

I walked into my bathroom and he had this yummy smelling candle lit. I heard someone downstairs and no one answered back. I was wondering if I should go downstairs or not. I decided to go down and Dan had made me breakfast and we ate together and then I left for my errands.

I went and did all my errands and came back to this cute figurine on my pillow and this message that I was supposed to find Timothy, our lost son. (You can click on the pics so you can read all the messages).

Isn't this cute! The clothes even move back and forth.

It told me to go to the fountain and under it I found this watering can. With it I was supposed to go and water his garden.

Out East of my house he had put in these roses and had a stone placed that said, Welcome to My Garden. Super cute!

This is the message from the egg.

I went out to the shed and found these gloves.

I put a glove on and went and dug in the dirt. I had pulled everything up and had taken it in the house, so I had to remember where the flowers were!

In that egg, I had to use the key to unlock Timothy from his hiding place.

I went out to the tool shed 5 times. I just thought this tool box was part of the saw. It was turned away from me so I couldn't see the lock right off. He's sneaky!

Here's Timothy.

I looked forever for Timothy and for this next clue. I looked in the kitchen under chairs and the table. I searched in the living room and finally behind this stack of books. I found this message with a beautiful picture frame.

Here's the majestic Golden Chicken! You push on her head and she lays bubble gum. I was going to upload all the egg messages but there so many pictures already!

The first couple of eggs were easy. One was in the fridge, one was in the oven. Then he bought me this cute garden sign. I tore the Christmas bow off and will put an Easter one on. I thought it was adorable though.

The hardest egg to find was one in the food storage. I looked through all of it and then went upstairs and looked through all her canisters. I looked through the freezers, and it was in the storage room, on the top shelf behind some green chilies. It took me forever on some parts and others were a piece of cake. The last egg told me to go where you would cook food in case of an emergency. I was looking in the kitchen and then saw the grill just out there all lonely. I peaked under the cover and there was a lock.

Inside was the message with a cute basket.

It's camouflage, what more could a girl want!

The message from all the eggs was, Enjoy the treasures within. The key resides with the one you love. At this point, Dan had about 10 minutes left of school. He thought I'd be done in an hour and half. Nope it took me close to three hours!
When he got home he pulled this noted and key out and I headed through the house following the pedals everywhere.

It lead into the sitting room for the home teachers and such. It ended in the middle of the floor. Bonnie had moved what I was looking for, so Dan kicked me out of the room and brought it back to where it was supposed to be. I unlocked it and told Dan to take a picture and as I turned around, he was on his knee. I said, or you can just propose to me! In essence, he gave me the key to his heart. I will treasure this moment forever. He really made it fun and special.

Here's my pretty ring. I've had my heart set on this for 3 years. I tried on bigger diamonds and just didn't love them. I do so much with my hands, that I don't want some ring in my way. I want to wear it always and not be afraid of what's going to happen. After he gave me my ring, he wanted to go home and put his on. He feels more committed to me and wants to also adjust to the ring. I love that he wears it. We are pretty much going against everything traditional, cause we think it's a bunch of crap.

We haven't set a date. Thus why I didn't really care to get engaged a while ago. I hate the question and we'll let you know when it will happen.

Right now, we're just happy and enjoying life. It's been fun to kind of fall in love all over again. I love him more and more every day. After the engagement we went to DI and bought Dan a purple and pink bike. His is getting scary to ride, so he's trekking around on a girls bike for now. But he's in heaven with something that works. Friday, we went and burned some of his school papers and had tinfoil dinners. It was freezing, so we came home and ate them. After dinner we roasted smores over candle light and decorated a plate for an hour and a half with melting candles. We had so many random left overs from things, that we wanted to get rid of them. It was fun.

Saturday, we went to dinner and came home and did a spa treatment. I gave him a back massage and leg massage with massage oil. Then I got a hand treatment with a gift his mom gave me for Christmas. It was awesome. I loved it. I let him put them on and he thought it was weird. It was very relaxing.

Sunday, I woke up at 4 in the morning with a pain in my tummy. I was up three times and then I got really sick around 7. I called Dan multiple times trying to wake him up. He grumbled to himself saying there better be a good reason you're calling me this early because I'm not waking up this early for church! I was crying and he said I'll come get you and take care of you. I tried to eat yogurt, that just hurt, so he made me chicken noodle soup and then I fell asleep. Then I started having my muscular skeletal problem and was crying in pain. It was a long morning. I was glad that he was there for me. He was worried it was another E.R. trip. I knew it wasn't serious, but it was a bad morning. I got some sleep and then we went out to his moms in the afternoon. We got out there and they found out that their horse had a baby. It was pretty cool. I'm not fond of horses, but it was fun to see it try to walk. It was a nice relaxing day out there. I tried to help his mom set up a pattern for a quilt. The only one I've done was on the computer, so designing it on the floor wasn't an easy thing for me. She has come a long way with her living room and it looks awesome.

I think that's about it for news. Have a great week.

What I've Been Up To

2011-03-22T22:52:00.000-07:00

I don't remember if I mentioned that I was doing a cross stitch for my framer, Misty. In case I haven't, her grandma died before she finished this for Misty's mom. No one knows how to cross stitch in her family and so she asked me to do this for her mom. They are going to surprise her for her birthday. The mom and baby were done and the blue of the dress, but the rest I did. I've had it a little over a month. It's been a fun project and really weird to finish something someone else started. Especially since she was a fanatic about what the back looked like. Not me, I just want to get them done!

Here's the whole thing.

Here's a close up of the mom and baby.

Here's a close up of the dress. This was the most insane part of the whole project. I've never used the sparkly thread and man it's a pain in the butt! This was really out of my comfort zone of what I have done, but I enjoy growing. In return for payment she gave me some amazing kits for me to keep and do. I think I got the better end of the deal. But no one was going to do them.

Dan and I went out to his moms this last weekend. We were going to go fishing or hiking or something outside. Yeah right! It was so cold. I was hoping to get the ring this weekend, but we didn't even go anywhere. We looked at fabric with his mom for our quilt. I'm so excited! We helped her paint a little. It was a fun relaxing weekend. Thanks for letting us come out!
The latest happenings at work... Last week, I was #1 in the district and world in sales. It was awesome. My name was mentioned at Corporate for the success. I was pretty excited. I don't really know why we jumped so much this year. I would hope it's because our customers enjoy working with us. It's really empowering to be a part of something so big. Who would of thunk it?! Little old me!
Dan got his tassel today. My little boy is all grown up! Just kidding. I'm so proud of him, he's really worked hard this year. He's not walking but I want the tassel for pictures and to hang it by his picture.
I also got a calling, I'm the visiting teacher supervisor. I went to go get set apart and Dan was leading me out to the parking lot! He was ready to go home and totally spaced that I was supposed to get set apart! What a cutie!
Things are going great for us, I can't complain. I hope you all have a great week.

Deer, Dear, I Love My Dear

2011-03-14T23:38:00.000-07:00

This is the company I get to see everyday around where we live. Deer are all over the place here. My mom was wondering where I got this photo and it's my backyard.

The first weekend of March, we went down to my parents. It was supposed to be Clint's birthday party and such on the ice, but his family got sick. Dan and I had planned to go, so we packed up the car and a way we went. My dad has a hard time getting around. He is much worse now than he was a few months ago. It's really hard to see them go downhill. Dan is a sweetheart and he pulls my dad out on the ice in his sled. My dad trusts him, which is a big thing because my dad is always in a ton of pain. His shoulders are really bad. We tried forever to get him out of the sled and we finally got him up. We drilled some holes, okay, Dan drilled some holes... and it started to get windy. My awesome man got out my dads ice house and put it over him and dug me a hole. My dad and I were burrowed in the nice warm hut the rest of the day. Dan braved the cold, but he's pretty hot anyway! Dan was the first one to catch fish and made the rest of us jealous. Fishlake isn't a place that you really get bored though. Here's Dan with his first catch.

I caught some perch and kept some really nice sized ones, my dad kept everything! He's still like a little kid fishing. I just feel bad he can't do it on his own anymore. I caught the biggest rainbow of the year.

My dad and his splake. I was so jealous because I've never caught one.

But little did I know, I'd catch this MONSTER! It was only 16 inches, but I rarely catch fish this big. I can't complain, it's been a great year of fishing for me. I wish the waters had been a lot more safe, but we had a great season fishing. This is my first splake and the biggest fish of the day.

This is Dan's splake, his was bigger than my dads, but my dad caught two. We all walked away pretty happy with our day on the ice.

Here's the comparison when we got them home. My rainbow is the top one, then my splake, my dads two and Dan's on the bottom. We also brought home 104 perch. We had a party cleaning and flaying those things!

The other reason why this day was so special.... was because Dan asked for my dads permission to marry me. It was a great thing to be a part of and watch those two interact. My dad loves Dan and they laugh so much together. Since I was in the ice hut all day, Dan really couldn't ask him, so on our way off the ice, Dan stopped the sled. There was quite a hill to get him up and I was a little nervous, but Dan said this is a great time. He sits on the side of my dads sled and said, while I have you here and work my guts out to get you back to the truck, I'd like to ask for your daughters had in marriage. My dad just laughed and said well if you don't get me to the truck, you for sure are not going to marry my daughter! We had a great laugh about it. Dan got down on all fours and just powered it up the mountains. He made me so proud, that I meant that much to him to go super speed up that hill so he could get permission. Before we got him out of the sled, I asked my dad what his answer was and he said, oh I guess! You can't get a straight answer from my dad!
On our way home though, my dad said this little girl means a lot to me and is very special, but I couldn't think of a better man for her to be with. As much as you guys spend time in the outdoors doing the same things, a couple like you two will have a great relationship. I truly agree with my dad, we have a lot of fun and build great memories in the outdoors. My dad was actually serious for once talking about how much I meant to him and how much he truly cared for both of us. It was such an amazing day!
We got home and told my mom how Dan asked my dad and she busted up laughing. At the dinner table, my dad said, well we're losing our daughter and told her the story all over again. Dan truly made it memorable for all of us and it's fun to laugh about. My dad was so excited to call up people and tell them how he did it. It was an awesome weekend. It was so perfect.
On our way home, in the rain...., we stopped at Cabela's and bought some binoculars and I got some waders! Yeah! We bought some jigs for our honeymoon wherever we may go fishing. I know, most brides don't get excited about fishing for their honeymoon, but I am.
Also, I took my wedding dress down and showed my parents. They loved it and my dad was kind of choked up about it. I really thought my mom would be, but she was just happy. Dan was also really sneaky and showed my parents my ring while I was sleeping! He just hasn't figured out how to propose! He's so adorable!
I went into the eye doctor today and for the first time in 6 years, I have contacts again. I messed that one up for myself a while back by leaving my contacts in for months and it became super painful if they were in and if they were out. The doc told me I'd probably never wear contacts again, but I went back and he just told me to be careful. The problem is still there, my eyelids underneath are just not inflamed like they were. So I wore contacts today and didn't have to worry about kissing Dan. Usually a surprise kiss would end up with my glasses smudged and me irritated. Not anymore! I can hunt now and see. I have had to look over the top of my glasses and it's all been a blur. I can see everything now. The only bad thing is that my eyes have been behind transition lenses and have been shaded, I need sunglasses. I tried on some tonight but didn't like any of them. I'm also glad that I won't be a blind bride!

Valentine's Day Way Late

2011-03-01T23:53:00.000-08:00

I'm way behind on posting, what's new, right!? To start things off we had a great Valentine's. I made mini heart cheesecakes and we topped them with blueberries! Yum.

I heart attacked Dan's door, which took forever, but it was fun. I put his real Valentine in the middle.

I made a little message path to his room from the front door. I had plastic conversation hearts that I put candy in and wrote the rest in paper. His hands were pretty full by the time he got to his door!

I sprinkled the left over candy on his bed. This is the Valentine he made me. What a sweetheart! It was really cute.

I painted him a picture as well. I've been stressing over this thing for a few months, but finally finished it. I may add more later, but for now, I've had it!

We had taco's for dinner, I was craving them and we needed to eat avocado's anyway. For our event, we went shopping to find new outfits, I ended up with a few shirts. One is the new camo one later down the list of pictures. I got a new sparkly blue one, which I love. I may end up with pictures of them, who knows.
On the 16th, we went to Ogden for a concert put on by the Air Force. It was the Tops in Blues. We stopped in to see my bro and his family. I got to see my new baby nephew and he's adorable. Except for when he filled his diaper while sitting on my lap and spit up on me a few times. Dan looked at me and said, yep, we're not having kids. I don't handle those kind of things very well. Everybody says it changes when they are your own, but I don't really believe them.
This is Cannon.

We put him in moose antlers and he was so content just laying there as my bro and I took pictures of him.

Dan took this picture of my brother. Dan dared him to try and put them up to his head. They were really heavy and my bro's wrist still isn't that great after breaking it. My bro is a nut, I love him! He makes a weird lookin' moose for sure!

Here's Dan and I with the newest family additions. I think Cannon is more like Dan and Tate looks like he could be mine. Two adorable kiddos and I'm so happy they are a part of our lives. We only got one picture with Tate, he's not big into it and I tried to get Averi, but she wouldn't. Oh well, some other time.

Dan's step-sister, Jette, is in the Air Force, so here she is singing. I loved this back drop, it was very pretty. It was a great performance, but I hated that we went outside to 4" of snow. Ridiculous! I had to drive back in it too. Sardine was the worst part of the whole drive. We made it safely though.

Our latest news, they split our ward and now church is two hours earlier, but I get to go to church. I worked it out with my boss to go in at 1 on Sundays, so I can go to all of church. I'm really excited to be able to go to church with Dan every Sunday.
We are headed to my parents this weekend to go fishing. It was supposed to be for my bro's annual birthday party, but all his family is sick. We'll see if they get better enough to go down. Dan's going to ask my dad for permission to marry me and sometime, I'll get my ring. I'm also taking my dress down to show them because I can't wait another month until they come up here. So maybe you'll see a picture of it soon....
We haven't really done much because Dan's been catching up on work and studying for his exam. We get to party for the weekend though, so it will be fun. Have a great one!

Great Trip

2011-02-15T23:46:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday, I had the day off. It was a pretty day, only a tad windy. We headed to Newton to give our fish finder a test of it's capabilities. Newton is one of the hardest places to catch fish. I felt like we were pretty lucky. We ended up in some random places throughout the day and my wonderful man drilled all the holes. He's really such a trooper. Our first holes, Dan caught some perch, and they were nice sized. I wasn't into taking our pics with them, because we catch them all the time. Here's a picture of our first bass of the year. I've never catch a fish this small, dang they are so adorable. I really want to take them home and put them in our fish tank. I can't cause it's illegal!

Those tiny fish were close to shore, so we went to the opposite side in a little cove and I caught this large mouth bass. The mommy of the last fish pictured!

This year I've been the lucky one on catching the huge fish. I feel bad for Dan but he usually makes up for it with the most or something. He did get a bass, so don't feel bad for him. He actually had on a monster bass, but it got off when he got it to the hole. He pulled his pole out and jammed his arm down the hole. He was so mad that huge fish got away. I was sad for him over that one. He was pretty cold from that point forward.
I took an overall picture but I didn't figure you guys would appreciate the blood and such. So... you don't get to see all the fish.
When we were walking back to get to the car, Dan wanted to try our first holes again. I said sure, why not. I sat down and started fishing and within a minute I caught my first crappie (croppy is how it's pronounced). I was way excited. I put my line down the hole and I pulled out this MONSTER crappie! It's was almost 10" long. These fish are like catching a plate, they are so cool. My brother has beat me by three inches on this fish. If I can ever get records above my bro, I have it set!

As I go through my files trying to find pictures I want to upload, I always try to find semi-okay ones. Then I realize, I'm ice fishing. This is no beauty contest. So sorry all, I'm just out there having a great time with my man! We have some greatest times of the year on the ice. This year has been rough with all the weird temperatures, it's made us leery on going out. No fishing trip is worth our lives. I wanted to go many more times, but it might be winding down soon. I hope we can get a few more trips in.
After fishing, we stripped a few layers and went to Michael's to buy all the flowers for my bouquet and for the family. I wanted him to be a part of this because his opinion matters. I've never really been set on wedding colors and I never would have expected what I got! I'm so happy though. I see them everyday in my room and see my dress in my closet and I'm happy!
I will update later on Dan's Valentine gig and our Valentine's day, but my camera is at his house and we're headed to Ogden tomorrow. I get to see my new baby nephew and I'm really excited. Until next time!

A Little Fun

2011-02-09T23:30:00.000-08:00

It has been so long since I played in Photoshop. Wow I miss it! I was doing a picture for Dan's Grandpa Bowen and then had too much fun and ended up with these. There are some others on the side of my page too. Here's Kevin decked out with glowing edges. I like this a lot, but it has to be a certain type of picture to look good.

This is a line sketch.

This is a canvas overlay or something, I don't remember.

I found a really cool thing though, if I do a patchwork setting, I can design my own cross stitch patterns. That will help me a ton with my future projects I have in the works.

On one of my wedding dress pictures, I did the plastic wrap setting and it looks so awesome. That's what setting our main title picture is in snowmobiling gear.

We are headed ice fishing tomorrow and hopefully I can get some flowers for my bouquet. They are seasonal so I have to get them soon and they are on a great sale! Then maybe I can put a hold on wedding details.

I found out today at work that they split our ward. I'm a little upset just because we made friends and got to like it more, now we have church at 9:45. A girl I work with is in the same ward as we are. We just got our pictures taken for the ward directory... what a bummer.

Hopefully Valentine's turns out to be a success. I have a lot planned, but don't know if I can pull it off if I have to work that day. I bought some mini heart spring form pans. I'm so EXCITED!!!! If anything, I will have enjoyed all the work I've put in to this day and the surprises. He has no clue, and that's what's fun. Though it's really hard to keep a secret and keep things hidden. In any other situation, that's a good thing!

I better get some shut eye.

The Happy News.... so far

2011-02-08T23:49:00.000-08:00

Sorry, I guess I can't write just one message on here without putting in some sad stories. Life has been full of ups and downs lately, but the good moments make up for the bad.

I just wanted to post a picture of my cute Grandpa Waters. He was truly an amazing man and I will always be a die hard BYU football fan because of him. My dad and I would go over and watch games at his house. It was a lot of fun. I'm glad I got to know this great man and make memories with him. Even though he's not my "real" grandpa, he was definitely that to me. I love you Grandpa!

I believe this is my last dressed up picture with my cat. This was before I met Dan or during the Christmas after we had just barely met. Not really sure. Here's Puff! My amazing cat for 22 years. I miss her all the time. I will be driving and see black cats everywhere and think of her.

Okay I'm going to move quickly to a different subject! As I was looking for a pic of my cat and me, I came across some pics of Dan and me when we very first started dating. These pictures at the temple were a pain in the butt! All the snow kept showing up in random places on our face and look dumb, but we had fun. He was in a German class and his professor walked past and asked him questions about me. I just stood there wondering what was being said! I know a little German now, but not a ton.

This picture totally freaks me out. Not only does Dan look young....! but I'm really tiny. I have the greatest man in the world. He helps me overcome food all the time. I have given in and tried new things. We went to an Indian restaurant and it wasn't my thing, but it was fun to branch out. When you have a roommate from India and your clothes and stuff reek of her, you don't really care for the smell. Once I got to that point while I was eating, I was done and wanted to leave. I hated banana's when I met him. I'm a big texture person, but he's put them in smoothies and I love them. When I was sick, I actually ate a banana right out of the peel, he knew I was sick!

On Saturday........ I purchased my wedding dress! It was not planned. We went to finalize our rings and get them ordered and I wanted to go try some new places in town. We ended up at Petals and Promises. The first one I tried on, I fell in love. I went to all the other stores to try on and look over what I had tried on before. I didn't care for any of them. I wanted to change things with them and wasn't completely satisfied. The one I loved was perfect in every way. I wouldn't change a thing. I was not going to settle for something that is going to be in pictures that will forever be looked back on. So that's my happy, HAPPY news moment.
So anyway.. Saturday, we didn't wake up at 6:00 a.m. to go fishing, so we decided to go night fishing! This was a first for me. Dan went last year with a -15 degree temperature. Sorry, it's not worth that much to me. It was 32 degrees and I lasted four hours, which is good for me considering the sun isn't out. We had a beautiful sunset.

Here's Dan fishing.

I had a great time with him. I've been able to look back a lot to things in our relationship and I just love all the things we do together. There is little in the outdoors that we don't do together. I think hiking, because of asthma, and biking, because of a broken tailbone, are the things that I don't really care for. I will go on hikes, but I'm not an avid hiker. I love the scenery but I focus more on where my foot is planted than what is around me. I'm not fast either, I'm very cautious of what I'm doing. I hate the hospitals!
Here's Dan and his big (little) catch! jk.

I only tease because I caught the biggest Rainbow Trout that we have ever pulled out of Hyrum. That's a big thing for me, I never get the biggest of anything. This year is a good one for me! I got the biggest perch and trout so far this year!
We had a great fish fry. I love being able to enjoy the outdoors and then eat what we have caught. It's pure bliss! I know others may not see it that way, but it's all about the memories!

We've been going through plans on what to do for the deer hunt this year. I haven't hunted a deer and been successful since I was 14. Holy Crap! As sickening as that is, that's a half of a life time ago. That's so wrong that I'm in my teens now for half my life span! Anyway.... I have been with my bro a few years back, but didn't get anything. I would love to hunt a deer with Dan and now that we will both be working and not worrying about school, hopefully it will be great. I love deer meat and have found that my body can't handle a lot of animal fat. Beef makes me soooo sick, so I try to stay away from it. If someone cooks it I'll eat it, but I try not to go anywhere after! I would like to be at a point in our lives that no matter what we kill throughout the year, we can sustain ourselves.
I'm going to head to bed, but wanted to let you know that after my mom sees my dress, you guys can. She won't be up here until April..... That was the one tear jerker moment of this process. She can't get out because of the cold weather and I had to get this fast. There was a bridal fair and I didn't want my dress going to someone else. Plus I got a $90 veil for free! I felt bad because I'm the only daughter and I wanted my mom there. I'm glad that Dan was there though. I break all the rules, so don't lecture me about that one! I just do that I guess. It was fun to see his face ignite with a smile when he saw me in my dress. In April, I'm going to go pick out some dresses and take mine in and try them on to see if she can pick what one is mine. I still want to do something special for her. The only up side, was that I didn't cry while in my dress, only after I took it off! No dry cleaning bills so far! I tried on a dress when Jodie was trying hers on. My mom was crying, so the two of us together, not a good combination for a pure white dress!

The Good with the Bad

2011-01-24T23:54:00.000-08:00

A couple years ago, Dan's grandpa gave me this wonderfully hard puzzle. He said that he'd never put it together and dared me to try. I LOVE puzzles. The harder, the better. I took on his challenge and man.... this puzzle took me a whole semester to put together. It was a 1,000 piece puzzle and I had to cut it down to fit in this 18X24 frame. There was a puzzle piece missing about three rows up from the bottom, so it worked out nicely. I'm really excited to hang this in our house one day.

About a month ago, Dan bought me this wood grain skirt. I haven't worn it since he bought it and there was a reason why.... I had no shirt to match it! After a couple of trips to the stores, we finally found one, though I haven't taken a picture yet. I was going to but ran out of time. While we were out shopping Thursday, I got a call from my mom, telling me that my adopted Grandpa Waters had passed away. This wonderful man has been the Grandpa that I never had. My Grandpa Brunson died the year I got baptized and my moms dad, had nothing really to do with us. My Grandpa and Grandma Waters have taken me in as one of their own. A few months ago, he fell and broke his hip and leg. He hadn't even healed from the surgeries and such, and he passed away. His legs filled up with water and he was in a lot of pain. It's been hard to let him go, but no one deserves to suffer. I will miss him. I can't make it to the funeral because I have to work, so I will never get to officially say goodbye. (Side note: he's my uncle's father, that's how we became so close). It's been the time of loss for me apparently, but it's nice to have knowledge that they are happier where they are.
For something completely different... Dan had a gig on Friday, a benefit concert for a girl who got bucked off a horse and had some brain damage. I was glad I had the day off so I could go support him and get to dance and laugh with him all night long. Jaymie Durrant dances with her friends at every dance, but there are never any guys her age really. One dance, I had Dan go dance with her so she could learn some new dance moves. He tried to teach her the cha cha and during the "chase" part, he turned and she just broke out her moves! She was supposed to chase him. After some more teaching, she had it down! She's so adorable! Dan's used to dancing with someone shorter than him, but she's taller than him, so he actually had to look up!
The next day, Saturday, we went ice fishing with my visiting teaching companion and her friends and Jaymie. What a blast! Here's the whole group: Dan's the one in brown, in the back left is Jaymie, Holly is in the middle, Laurel is on the right side, the front left in black is Mackenzie and her kind of boyfriend Cory.

We were able to get all the girls at least one fish. I had caught the most until the crew left. Jaymie came with us, so we fished longer. It was her first time ever fishing, so we decided to get her really involved. This is her first little perchy!

This is Laurel, my visiting teaching companion! A definite blessing from vting, she's awesome. This whole adventure started because she bought our ice fishing package that we auctioned at the Christmas party.

So after the gang left, Dan taught Jaymie how to drill a hole, even though they look like they are playing tug-of-war!

Dan caught a rainbow trout and got a nose bleed, so Jaymie stole the catch to claim credit! We wanted a different fish just to show her the difference.

When we were all finished, she caught more than me, so it was a great day. I think we might have another fishing buddy on board. We went home to clean them, and she helped clean and fillet the fish. Dan taught her a lot and he's a great teacher. I just can't explain it very well what's in my head. He does a great job. He's such a good sport too. We were only supposed to have Laurel and her two roomies and Jaymie and then they added two more to the mix, but one didn't show up. It was fun and I hope they all enjoyed it.
After the fishing trip we headed to Coalville to Kaydee's play. She was in Footloose. She was the mom of Ren or whatever his name was! She did a really good job. On the way down, I got a little worried I wasn't going to make it. I got really sick and we made a pit stop and I was okay for the rest of the night. I don't know why my body freaks out sometimes.
We went to church and band practice Sunday. This morning I went to start my car and it wouldn't turn over. My battery was dead. I guess I hit the dome light button, which is burnt out right now, and didn't know it was on. It was on the frits anyway, because my car starts way better with a new one! My wonderful man did all the running around for me and fixed it while I was at work. He got a really nice massage though to make up for it! It's so weird to think that you can actually fall more and more in love with someone every day. I never thought it would be possible, but for me it is. Which is huge because I've never really given my heart completely to someone before. Dan had some homework planned and he fixed my car instead. I am truly blessed with him in my life.
It's late and I have to call some cute man at 7:30 to make sure he makes it to class! I better hit the pillow! Have a great week.

Christmas at My Parents and Happenings

2011-01-16T21:56:00.000-08:00

This is an awesome I picture that I did for someone. He was an adorable old man, one of my favorite customers.

For New Years Eve, we went fishing to Mantua and caught a couple of fish. It was kind of scary with the ice, but we had a fun time. Afterwards, we went to Dan's moms house and celebrated Christmas with the twins. Dan opened his remote control helicopter. We all got pj pants. Kaydee's were pretty snug, Kevin's were really slim and long (he looked like someone in the 60's), Dan's were big! He posed for pictures but told me I couldn't post them. My pjs were just right. We sound kind of like the 3 Bears!

Here's Misty and me, she's my framer, with the guitar we put together.

Here's the guitar all finished. It was a lot of stress and a lot of loss of sleep, but it's done and turned out great.

I haven't worked on my advent calendar for a while because of other projects. This is it so far. I'm working on Dan's Valentine present, so my crafts are on hold.

At my parents house we did Christmas and just relaxed. Dan got this guitar spatula! It's so cool. My mom didn't know what to get Dan and she shops way before I even think about things.

He got a guitar alarm clock and when the alarm is turned off, you can play it just by touching it.

My mom tried to complete my china set. This is the set I get when I get married. I loved the pieces she got for me.

Dan got arrows from my dad, which were from my cousin Kirk.

I got this food processor from my Dad and my Grandma Brunson. They cleaned out her house and he decided to give me the stuff now instead of when he passed away. My Grandma has been gone for 7 years, so it was nice to have some of her things. I will remember her always. For some reason I really missed her this Christmas.

I got her china set as well. The one that she used a lot, but it's still a piece of her.

My dad got a hoe! Dan had so many jokes to go along with this present too. He said man your mom must really trust him to give him a hoe! You would never give me a hoe for Christmas! The list goes on and on. He's a hoot, I love him. This is an extra long one so my dad can still sit on his 4-wheeler and weed. He can't get on the floor anymore, this will be good for him.

I bought my bro and sis-in-law this outfit for my new little nephew. He's now home. I told Jodie it was his blessing outfit! It camouflage in case you can't tell.

This is the cute little Tate! He was posing in Averi's sunglasses and it was adorable, I had to get it.

Dan and I have been fishing at Hyrum and had a blast! I caught a 9 1/2" perch, the biggest I've ever caught. It was fun.
When I went home, I found out that my cat had passed away. She died on the 9th. She got pneumonia when my mom was in the hospital and my mom had to put her down. It was a hard year with my mom and her heart and losing my best friend that I had for 22 years of my life. She was old, but I loved her so much. I was looking forward to taking one last picture with her, but she was gone. I told my mom I didn't want to know when she was gone, so I wasn't expecting the news. I saw her everywhere. Dan's boots were by the door and I thought it was her wanting out. I had to keep correcting things because I was so used to her being around. Anyway... she's out of pain and she lived a good full cat life. Maybe I'll share memories later, but I can hardly see the screen.

Ringing in the New Year

2011-01-03T23:55:00.000-08:00

I don't have pictures here with me, not that I took a ton anyway. To celebrate the New Year, Dan and I went ice fishing to Mantua on New Years Eve. It was pretty crowded and pretty scary in places. They say that there are inches of ice and so on... but still... We went from 8 inches in one place to 3 inches in another. There are hot spots like crazy there, so you have to be careful. We caught some bluegill and perch. I got to try out my new fish finder that I got from my daddy for Christmas. It was an early gift since he knew I'd be dying to go fishing before we went down there for Christmas. He apparently knows I have too much of his blood in me. I love duck hunting for sure, but ice fishing I actually get to wear all my warm winter clothes, but still freeze! The trip was great and we ended the day out at Dan's moms because Kaydee and Kevin were up. We played some games, had dinner, and watched Shrek 4! I love Shrek. Dan got another surprise present, a remote control helicopter. For all us kids, Jenny made us jammies! We had a lot of fun posing for pictures. Dan's and Kevin's were definitely the best! I will have to post those later.
New Years Eve night I got a phone call from my brother saying that Cannon was in a relapse because of the drug with drawls. Which is so sad to hear. They had to hook him up to morphine, tiny doses, and try to wean him off of the drugs his mom consumed. The birth mom of Cannon was clean for the whole pregnancy up until the last week before she delivered. She is a prescription drug addict and we don't know what she took or how much, but this little baby is suffering because of her DUMB decision. It's so sad to hear about what he's had to go through and how much he shakes because of his with drawls. But he's a fighter. I will give you updates later on when he finally gets home. He was born the 29th, so we're hoping that he comes home soon.
For New Years day, Dan and Sam went fishing at Mantua and had a better day for sure. I was jealous, because I had to work. Oh well. That night I had two of my friends come over and we played Killer Bunnies. We had a good time. I'm not really into the whole party thing, I don't dig it at all really. I would seriously rather just sit home and chill with the man, cause he still loves me at the end of the day! But I enjoyed having my friends from work over to have some fun. I was going to take a pic of my friends and me, but didn't have the camera handy. We had some issues with his roomie that night, nothing new, but it's getting old.
Tonight we watched the Bachelor, I know, make fun of me if you must. I loved Brad the first time, he has guts. I love that he didn't pick someone just to make everyone happy and then break things off later. It took a lot of courage to do that and I respected him for that. I am pretty sure by the ads that he will go home alone this time as well, but I still enjoy the adventure.
Work has taken a total 360 on me. I was swamped for Christmas season. Running around with my head unattached and now, I'm trying to keep myself busy. I dusted the bars off that my frames hang on. There are things that need to be done, but it's just weird to go from total chaos to having time to do things. I've missed the normal. I did learn how to work faster on orders through the Christmas season, so that will help me more this year as I go through things.
I will post pictures later, but for now, I'm headed to bed. Have a great week!

Projects and Christmas Vacation (Most of it), and Great News

2010-12-29T23:35:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to show the finished product of the Happy Everything.

This guy had spent years rebuilding the old classic. His wife brought in the picture to be framed. I didn't get an after shot, but it was a sweet car.

Now for Christmas. We went down to my brothers to go duck hunting and we decided to just do our Christmas to each other while we were there. He told me that he wanted .22 shells for his gun. Well... I wanted to do something a little bit more creative than that. My mom likes to confuse people and make them work for their presents. I've taken on that tradition. I gave him the obvious scripture of Jeremiah 16:16 for his shells, but the other two had something to do with what I added to the box.

If you notice on the grapevine there are some grapes missing on the end. That was supposed to trigger that it had to do something with grapes. He noticed but it didn't really hit him for a while. He spent about 15 minutes trying to figure this out.

Here's his face of concentration.

This was what was inside... I gave him two cans of his favorite pop, Welch's Grape Soda. And his box of .22 shells.

We had Christmas day Christmas at Dan's dads. We went snowmobiling the day before and here's a pic of Dan and Kaydee.

Here's Dan and me.

Dan got stuck on a side hill, but it wasn't too bad.

I told Kevin to go jump for me, so I got a few pictures of him. I was at the wrong angle for some of his jumps. I did get a couple I really liked. I just liked this close up of him on the sled here.

He's really good at maneuvering the sled, so here's a sweet shot of that.

We drove through fog for quite a while and then we got to the top and we were higher than all of it. It was pretty cool to just see fog and then the tops of the mountains clear out there.

Here's the big day. Kaydee pulled out some creativity with her dads present. He had to search for it and she put it's last destination out in the wood pile! Outside at 6:50ish in the morning!

I painted bird houses for both of them. His dads is a replica of the cabin and I put in Kaydee's watch dog in the window. Chris likes giraffes so I did that on hers.

We gave her an advent calendar, she collects/loves snowmen.

Stan gave Chris a giraffe that can be put outside/inside, wherever she chooses.

I just realized I didn't get pictures of our stuff we got down there. I got a pink camo shotgun case, a cool pocket calendar, a salad shooter, a picture from Kaydee, some jewelry and candy.

Dan got some hikers, an elk calendar, foot/hand warmers, a picture from Kaydee, and I can't remember the rest. I'll try to get pictures of it all.

We made a random trip out to Dan's moms on Monday to open our presents because they cheated and opened the ones we gave them! Dan asked for an ice fishing sled, and since we are going this weekend he wanted it before we went! He was dead set on that and knew he was getting it. He's so funny.

We opened the loot in our stockings, which they were full of awesome stuff. We each got an ornament, mine is a cute little snowman, we got candy, hand and foot warmers, (can you tell I freeze!) I got a cute little chocolate walrus and I got some jewelry.

Dan got cool deer coasters, which we will love in our house some day, he got a fishing moose, hand warmers, candy and a cute little basketball hoop that you shoot bubble gum into.

Here's the grand sled that he's been wanting forever. He went down Tuesday and bought another one so we could get all our stuff out on the ice. I had a scare on the ice last year and didn't know if I was going to make it back to shore, so this is definitely a life saver for me if it gets bad.

Here's Dan and all his loot of clothes. He was really excited to get more pants. He's still wearing shorts! He's crazy.

Here's me and my clothes and etc. I got two gorgeous royal blue shirts and an awesome red coat, that is light but really warm. We both got twin beanies. I got these cool pamper gloves to put on my hands to help them stay moisturized and soft. Which I can definitely use because my hands are cracking big time. I got yummy apple cinnamon drink mix. It was a great sporadic trip to Paradise. We had a lot of fun!

Here's Dan and the picture Kaydee did for him. She insisted that we get a frame. Luckily it was an easy size to frame. So Kaydee, here's proof it's framed.

I was at work Monday and got put on registers with all the people. I heard a cough like Dan's and look up and there he is. He brought me lunch and flowers. What a sweetheart! I only saw the peach ones and so the other ones were a surprise when I got home.

Saturday night when we got home, Sam gave me Godiva chocolates, which are my forever all time favorite chocolates. I was jumping up and down! I love them.
The Great News.... is that I am an Aunt again! Cannon was born 12/29 and had some breathing problems, but I think he's doing better. I can't wait to meet the little guy! Now they have three kids and have adopted two kids in the last 2 months! A two year old and a new born.
It's been a great year! I'm headed down to my parents this next weekend to spend some time and do Christmas down there. My mom is doing pretty good I think.
Work has returned to normal and I love it again. Thank Goodness Christmas is over! I worked out on the floor today helping with truck and it was nice to talk to people and work with others. I have felt some anger my way because of my just staying in the shop. It was my priority though. Now maybe I'll be a little bit more appreciated. I don't think they realized how much I really did. A lot of people had to cover what I did out on the floor and it got taken for granted. Technically it wasn't even part of my job either, I just did it to get it done and help out. So... the manager over that, totally loves me now, she's not so stressed out.
I hope you all had a great Christmas, we did! I'll update more after my parents trip.

Updates on My Mommy

2010-12-15T22:58:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to thank those who left kind messages about my mom. She was in the procedure for 7 hours and she is a rare case, I think that's why it took longer. They found 5 masses in her heart that needed zapped and there were about 15 places they zapped. They will possibly have to do this again in three months, but do it from the outside of her heart. The doctor was worried that he burned her esophagus, which wouldn't be good, but I'm sure she will be fine. They completely knocked her out for the rest of the day. Every time I called my dad told me that she still hadn't woken up. I was getting worried, because my mom's doctor a while back said that she's easy to knock out, but hard to bring back. That's how I almost lost her the last time. A little on the scary side. She did end up having some bleeding problems in her leg, so they had to put a 10 lb sand bag on her to make it stop.
She was able to go home today. That's a huge blessing. I'm glad that she's okay. I'm such a worry wart and she knows that. Instead of me consoling her that she would be fine, she was telling me that she'd be fine. Dang I'm such a wuss. I played it up pretty good before I met Dan, but since I met him, I'm a huge bawl baby with everything. I never cried in front of anyone in the hospital and now I cry more than the patient! G's! My parent's are rocks though. They have had so many things dealt to them with their health and they just keep going. They are both such great examples to me.
Thanks again to all who have followed this whole ordeal with me. I haven't talked much on the phone and such because it was just too hard. Thanks for the prayers, I know she'll be fine. She's home for Christmas and that's what she wanted.
Have a great Christmas, I don't know that I'll be on here much before then. Be safe and enjoy the holidays!

Total Slacker

2010-12-13T22:37:00.000-08:00

I will work backwards with this post because I don't want to rearrange the pictures. I wanted to just show some of the things that I do everyday at work. I see a lot of cross stitches, I love doing them, but stitchy pinning them all the time, really gets old. Plus it hurts the fingers. I fell in love with this pattern and some day want to add it to my collection. It covers every seasonal holiday I believe. I thought it was cool. It's not really the colors I would do, but still it's cool.

These kinds of projects take a lot more time. I'm lucky if I can finish one of these bad boys in 4 hours. If you enlarge this picture, you can see that I have pins sticking in it. I have to sew all of those things to the mat. You have to put matting around the inside of the frame and bla bla bla. There is also a name plate thing in the background that I did as well. Pictures are easy compared to this stuff. They tell me I should be getting one thing done every 25 minutes, yeah if it's normal. I have had a ton of sales and I'm really stressed with work and my load that I have everyday. I'm at 10+ orders a day, some easy some not. I can't wait for Christmas to be over with.

This project is more on the random side of things, but usually everything comes with a meaning. This guys grandpa just passed away. He was a painter and opened his cans of paint with a screwdriver. He wanted these in shadow boxes to keep the memories. I thought it was weird but cool.

Dan and I celebrated our 3rd year anniversary on the 30th of November. I can't believe it's been that long. Totally worth it though. I actually came home early that night and it through Dan off of his plans. He made me a great dinner of mini pizza's and yummy punch. He's such a sweetheart.

We spent Thanksgiving out with his mom and Lyle this year. His mom just purchased a new table so it fits all of us rather well. We can have some serious games going on out there! It was nice to semi-chill, I had to work later that day. Can I just say that I hate people who shop on Thanksgiving. Stay home! The rest of us would like to spend time with our families instead of working so you can get some flippin' deal. There were people coming through the line saying sorry you have to work. Yeah right, if you cared, you'd stay home. This has been a huge adjustment for me as a job. I don't get to see family anymore and the holiday time sucks. It's all about money and no longer about family time. It kind of sucks cause I actually love my family and enjoy spending time with them. I've never been a big shopper and hate big crowds shopping. Right now, I just try to stay off the floor and stay back in my own little hole, because if I go out there, I don't come back for hours. All the customers asking where things are and other dumb questions that I don't have time for. Sorry I'm working nine days straight and it's wearing me out. Anyway.

Here's the sexy man posing for me while playing pool at his moms.

I haven't posted for a while because I got some scary news on the 4th that my mom was being rushed by ambulance to the Utah Valley Hospital because of her heart. I had woken up that morning all ready to paint the bathroom. I was headed to Dan's to grab some breakfast and head back to my house. Well en route to Dan's I got a call from my brother. He asked how I was doing and I was all chipper. He asked if I'd heard from dad and I said no. He told me about my mom and he told me he'd wait for me to drive to Ogden and we'd all go down together. I start bawling and run in Dan's house. He's sleeping on the couch and Sam is in the chair sleeping. I just freak out in a meltdown. Dan's thinking, what happened to my girl on the way here. He thought I'd got in an accident. I told him about my mom, so he got dressed, I ate and we were out of town.

I didn't know how serious my mom was because we didn't know what was wrong. Her resting heart beat was 155, it's supposed to be in the 70's. We got to the hospital and met up with my dad, who had been up since 4 a.m., poor thing. We got to my mom's room and I told her just cause I had a three day weekend and was thinking about driving down and seeing them, that she didn't need to pull a stunt like this just so she could see me. They ran tests and tests on her trying to find out what was wrong. They sent a thing up her artery in her leg with dye to see if she had clogged arteries. She didn't she was great that way. They decided that she had some electrical problem with her heart. She had to go through an MRI, which I've never wanted to experience. She was freaking out. She looked completely exhausted and all I could do was cry. I was fine as long as nothing happened but as soon as they took her to do things, I was freaking out and crying. My mom would tell me not to cry that she would be okay. I felt bad because I know you're not supposed to show your pain to the person who is causing your heart ache, but when I'm faced with losing my mom for the second time, I have a reason to cry.

She stayed in the hospital for two days, they released her and told her they'd schedule another procedure in a few days. Well that day is the 14th of December, today (since most will not be reading this tonight). Her birthday was the 13th, yesterday. What a crappy birthday. She got to Provo, checked into a motel, with my dad and bro. She goes in at 5 a.m. and this procedure will take 4 to 6 hours. I know she'll be okay, but it's still really hard for me to take. I'm glad that my bro is there to take care of both of them. I wished that I had driven down that first time with just Dan and me. I felt bad that my dad had to wheel himself around in the wheelchair. It seriously sucks for both of them. I feel bad that I have to work, but we'll celebrate when I head home after the holidays.

I'll let you know how everything goes. Keep her in your prayers. I want my mom to be there when I get married. I'm just waiting for something to happen, because every big event in my life, someone dies. I would really like to get married and have all my family still with me.

Good luck with finals for those of you in school. Dan's been studying like crazy. He's suck a go getter!

Dan has Great News!

2010-11-19T23:23:00.000-08:00

Dan got a job today. I can't believe how effortless this has seemed. He talked about a job posting on campus writing papers for a professor. He put in and the teacher wanted to meet with him. He went in today and was given the job pretty much and later the guy let him know! He will be researching things in his field and writing papers for a learning/training module. I'm so proud of him and it seems surreal to me because he didn't have to put blood, sweat, and tears into it like we did this summer! I'm just happy that we both have jobs, we are truly blessed with this economy. And it will give him some work into the summer so he can be searching after school is out.
Also, my alternator went out, but I got a new one and Dan installed it for me. The guys at checker insisted that I needed a 100 something something... I don't know all that crap. Well turns out I only needed the 40 something ..... So I spent 125 dollars on the 100 and then got some serious cash back. Morons. I asked them if they were sure, because my car is old and I didn't think it needed that much. I was lucky because it was cheaper than Dan's and Sam's. Plus I had a sexy mechanic work on my car for me! Who can top that! No labor charges, but I did buy him some things for brownie points! And gave him a massage, that should be good right!?
I'm headed to bed, but have a good weekend!

I Finally Completed a Project!

2010-11-15T23:56:00.000-08:00

This first project I'm showing you is one that Chris, Dan's step-mom, gave me last Christmas as a present. I finally purchased the marker to make my life easy, but decided I wanted to change it a little. Instead of the antler hoof prints and oak leaves, it was supposed to be x's and hearts. I wanted a little nature added to it, so I put in the hoof prints, the leaves and some acorns to dot the i's! I have fallen in love with this. I made it a lot harder than it needed to be, but it will fit our home environment some day. Thanks Chris and I hope you like what I did.

Here's a closer look at it.

My other project is my advent calendar. I haven't painted on it for a few days, but it's going to be decked out with glitter, so some of the base colors may look ugly, but it will look awesome when it's done.

Dan and I went to Shopko the other day and had a lot of fun. We love Clearance sales and I got these towels and cute tablecloth for under a dollar. I bought Dan a lot of bags of candy corns because they were only $.19 a bag. He was really excited.

I also got some new shoes over the weekend. I needed some black boots for work. I do have black boots but they are five pounds and Sorrel boots. Not what I want to climb a ladder in! It was a huge sale at Payless so I got three pairs and I talked Dan into trying, yet again, another pair of basketball shoes. I've never met someone so hard on shoes. I hope that we can be successful sometime.
I have had three days off of work and have loved every minute of it. I do miss work, but it was nice to really take a break before the holiday rush of life for the next few months. After that I can't wait to take a few days vacation!
I hope you guys have a great Thanksgiving if I don't write before that! We're out to his mom's for Turkey Day and I'm excited. I miss the family and events going on.

Halloween and Presents

2010-11-13T18:43:00.000-08:00

Halloween was a pretty chill day. We did a little hunting, and didn't get anything. We went out to my cousin's house to take pics with her kiddo's. That's our annual tradition. They get excited to dress up, so it's been fun for us to have a reason to find something to dress up as. This is Boyden, Coulter and Thayne.

Here's the whole crew. Dan's superman, I'm superwoman, I'm holding the fire dog, Coulter is Paul Bunion, Thayne and Boyden are obviously the firemen.

After stopping to see them, we went out to Dan's moms and I sewed together our blanket. It's orange and black tiger striped mixed in with some camouflage (of course!). I tried something new so it wasn't a huge bunch of fabric where the seem was. Well I am not good at sewing blind, I'm not great at sewing period, but oh well. It's just going to be an around the house/hunting blanket.

Remember this sexy man and his guitar...?

Well this sexy man and his guitar got a present for his birthday/Christmas. I got him a guitar case! It was kind of stressful because it was delivered to the wrong house! It was a day late at his house and it told me it had been delivered. We ended up getting a day late, but I'm just glad that it arrived safely. They had a new driver and he doesn't know how to read addresses. Dans place is not that hard to find. Oh well.

Here's the product out of the box!

For Dan's birthday I made him a cake a day after his birthday.... He didn't want anything big. His dad and step mom came up and surprised us by taking us to a Due West concert and we went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. It was a great night and I'd never heard Due West and they were really good. They are a country band, kind of a cross between Rascal Flats and Keith Urban. To me anyway. Thanks for the great night guys!

Dan and I got some new shoes and clothes, which has been great. We started Christmas shopping and found some things. We're getting closer to being done. Shopping for others is so stressful!

Dan went hunting with my brother and he shot a rabbit. He went hunting another day and got a pheasant. We've been eating great!

I have painted more on the advent calendar and the Christmas trees and sewed more on my stitchery thing. Nothing is completely done though. I'm just enjoying doing my own projects for now. I will have to switch over to things for others soon though.

That's pretty much all for now. Have a great one.

Pics

2010-10-26T21:45:00.000-07:00

Here's my cute advent calendar! I'm so excited to get it painted!

These are my mini pumpkins that I love, just don't know what to do with them. Any ideas!?

All Done!

2010-10-24T21:38:00.000-07:00

Life has been crazy and interesting this last week. Dan and I went down to my brothers for the weekend. It was my nieces birthday and I got to meet my new nephew. It was fun to be down there and be with the family. My niece said my name finally. She totally loves Dan and his name is so easy to say, but mine is a little harder. I know she's been saying it for a while, but she has never said it around me. It was a great event. My brother, Dan and I went duck hunting Sat. morning and we had a great time. I only shot two shells the whole day! I was way to in the moment to shoot! My brother was on my right and I just felt too close to him and I didn't want to shoot him. But the ducks came in and sounded like the planes coming in full bore over a stadium. It was so COOL. I fell asleep for a little while..... I had way too many early mornings!
I took my mom shopping at Michael's and we had a great time. I miss just hanging out with my mom and having some fun together. I found some fabric that will be perfect for my pillow I'm making.
When we got home Saturday night I felt a little sick and woke up at 3 in the morning with what felt like heartburn. I drank some milk and tried to go back to sleep. The next morning I woke up and spent most of the day in the bathroom. I went to Dan's to try out some Tums or something, but my food and stuff just felt like it was getting caught and then it came back up. I was so sick for three days. I missed two days of work and I've worked my butt off this week trying to catch back up. I'm feeling better now, but that was the worst stomach flu I've ever had.
When I got feeling better, I finished painting my aunts Christmas nativity and gave that to her Friday night. She loved it. I got to see some of my family that I haven't seen in a while. Dan had a last minute plan to get together with one of his friends and so he dropped me off at my cousins house and I chilled with them. It was a great way to save gas and get things done that we needed to.
Last night we watched How to Train Your Dragon, I love that movie. I also got Beauty and the Beast. That is my all-time favorite Disney movie.
Recently I bought an advent calendar from Michael's. I'm totally excited to paint it and make it my own. I don't know if I want to put candy in it or do little mini decorations and decorate a tiny tree every year. I also bought some mini pumpkins that are some sort of pod. I don't know how I want to decorate with them yet. I guess I could have had pics for you, so maybe I'll attach some later and you guys can give me some feedback on what to do with the pumpkins.
My dad had a cousin pass away last week. He was a great man and will be greatly missed.
Oh, also while we were down at my brothers, it was totally cute, Tate loves my dad. He would take my dads cane and walk around the house with it. He immediately called my parents Grandpa and Grandma. But he wouldn't give me a hug or anything. He climbed up on the couch and sat next to my dad and just became best of friends with him. Averi hasn't had much to do with my dad, but Tate loves him. I'm glad my dad has a grandkid who adores him. Tate also had a severe ear infection and the doctor said he wouldn't be surprised if his eardrum burst. So far it hasn't, so that's good. It was pretty scary.
I think that is all for now. I'll get some pics for next time. Have a great week!

Hunting and Gig

2010-10-14T00:46:00.000-07:00

The last little while has been pretty crazy. I'm just faithfully working on my aunts nativity and I'm so close to being done. I don't know if I will have it all completed by this weekend. I hear that she is coming up at the end of October, so I will try to get all that I can done now and if I have some stragglers, she can take them back with her.
On the 9th, which was a very LONG day, was my first day of duck hunting this season. You can read more about that when I upload pics to Dan's blog and he tells you the story! I didn't walk home with any, but it was a great day. I told Dan all I wanted was to see a frog, well shortly after, I found this little guy. I love frogs, they are so cool.

Here's my cute little man picking up all his decoys. He's been so excited this year for the hunt. He's out sleeping in his car tonight and hunting in the morning. He'll get in 4 days of hunting straight by the time the weekend is over. Good for him! He's been working so hard on school, I'm so proud of him. I love that he does it all by himself and I don't have to say a word. He's great.

Anyway, on the 9th, we got home from duck hunting, he took care of the meat and then we headed to Paradise. He had his annual barn dance gig. It's usually in September and I think I prefer it then! I think I got chilled at the duck blind, then I had to sit in the freezing cold out there. I had three blankets and was still freezing. I was up at 5:45 a.m. and got home and to bed that night at 2 a.m.. It was a long day but it was fun. I ended up getting a migraine half way through the gig. I was the one driving because Dan's car has been giving us problems. In the two times he drove it, it broke down three times. He did make is safely today though.

Sam and I went out to see Dan and took a pizza for dinner. He had a ducky there for us to bring home. It was a great time. I came home and painted some more and Sam cleaned the house. I owe both of them big time after this project is over with. I am completely zoned on getting those things done, so I don't do dishes anymore, cook when Dan needs me to, or clean. I just paint, paint, paint.

As far as work, it's been nuts. We had an auditor come today, we failed with a 66 and we need a 75 to pass. They came when our store manager wasn't even there. I thought that was stupid. Oh well. We had a person leave us, Janet. Sad to say but I was kind of glad to see her go. She's older and slow, but good to the customers. I would really like some fast people there and maybe we can get some things done!

I've had a rough week and half I guess, emotionally. I'm still stable, no worries. I let Sam know how bad he had hurt me over the last 3 years and cried through a good portion of it. I've had my share of men in my life and I'm just getting sick of a lot of crap. I may be small, but that doesn't mean you can walk all over me. Dan and I have worked through things and we have a great relationship. I'm blessed to have that man. Anyway, I told Sam how I felt and he completely shut down on me. But he has been a lot nicer to me and hopefully things continue to get better.

The worst part of my week, was making the decision and giving permission to my parents to put my cat down. My mom said she's doing okay right now, but when Puff gets bad, she's not going to let her suffer through it. My dad keeps thinking I'm going to make it down to do it. I just can't get down there and I don't know that I could do that. I have bawled my eyes out and go to work with swollen eyes and blood shot veins in my eyes. I've had her for 21 years or so, she's earned her right for sure. I called my parents house thinking that my mom would answer, no my dad did. Dang! I started crying and my dad doesn't do well with tears. It's a sign of weakness I think to him. I've never liked crying in front of him. He tells me that it's okay and that I don't need to say goodbye to my cat. I just wanted to be at peace and he wouldn't let me! He handed the phone to my mom and she took the phone out to my cat. She meowed at me and I told her how much I loved her and just cried. My mom was crying too, which made me feel better. My cat has been my best friend my entire life. She was very sensitive to me and I don't know that most cats are. I'll save the stories when she actually passes. I have some great things to say about my cat.

Anyway, enough with the tears. I'm headed to bed and I'm going down to my bro's this weekend. I get to see all my fam and get to take my mom shopping. I'm excited. I can't wait to meet Tate! I got both of them some clothes, now I just hope they like them.

Have a great weekend! I get three days off! Yippee!

Guns and Blinds

2010-10-02T23:04:00.000-07:00

First off I just want to ask any of you, who have upgraded the blog layout stuff, if you like it. I am hating it personally. Are there any shortcuts to add all your pictures together like it used to be?
Anyway. I got an upgrade on my ring and the only pic I have of it so far is this one. We were taking pics of us in camo for Dan's blog, so here you go.

We went out this last Wednesday and shot clay pigeons. I did a lot better this time. I was told that I had to shoot 3 in a row in order to go home. The next three shots, I got the target! The first time I got 4 out of 45. This round I got around a little more than half of them. I shot maybe 20 shells and the guys finished the rest of the box off. This next picture, if you click on it, I captured Dan actually shooting the clay pigeon! It was pretty cool.

I put this picture on just because when Dan saw it, he said, man look at how HUGE my muscle is. I think it looks pretty sweet.

This is a couple views from the duck blind that Dan and Sam built. I love that I have quite the engineer/handyman/creative genius for the rest of my life. He's amazing!

These are the benches that Dan created and sat on today. He said 14 hours on them is not the greatest, but I think they had fun.

Dan and Sam are hiding from me.

Dan, Kevin and Sam all went duck hunting today and they shot all hens! The goal this year was to have all drakes, but it's not looking very promising. I had to work, but next Saturday, it's going to be me baby!
With Dan's blog I will let him tell you about all his adventures. I'm sure some of you wouldn't appreciate another season of blood and guts! So if you want to check out his fun adventures, go to his blog. I am going to maybe give some highlights, but it's mainly going to be his thing.
As for the crafty side of me, I'm going to be doing some stitchery during General Conference and I'm way excited. I organized one of my counted cross stitch patterns. I think I will just bombard myself with tons of projects and see how many I can get done. Right now I'm going to see if I can get that nativity done when my parents come up for Av's birthday.
Also, I'm an Aunt again! They were able to adopt a 2 year old baby boy. His name is Tate! He's dang cute from his picture, but I can't wait to meet him. Av is not used to having someone around and she has been de-throned. She is no longer queen. If you would like to see pics of my niece and nephew give me your email. I will not be posting pics of them until I turn my blog private, which probably won't happen for a while.
I think that about wraps up what I've been up to lately. I finally get a Sunday off and I'm EXCITED! Enjoy conference!

My Birthday Good Ol' 27

2010-09-21T01:30:00.000-07:00

September has been a crazy month of birthdays! Dan has all three of his best friends birthdays in two days. Sam's is on the 12th and Devin and I share the same day on the 13th. This year was pretty weird and crazy. Dan killed his deer and came home, for two days... He left for three days and the day before he had to leave, I worked until 11. Pretty lame, I just dropped him off for the trip. He got home and we went to a gig of his. The drummer in his band had his house start on fire last year. This was like a grand re-opening and it was amazing. It was kind of emotional with all the details of the fire and what it destroyed, but it was a great night of celebration. We invited Sam out for the weekend at Dan's moms, so he wouldn't spend his bday alone.
We had a lot of fun together as a fam. All the siblings were there and it was good to see everyone again. We went to church, played killer bunnies, ate, and went to band practice. That was an awesome night, cause I ended up really sick and actually fell asleep through most of band practice. They don't know how I do it, but I used to drive my mom nuts growing up doing that very thing. I'd crank up the rock music and fall asleep to it. I enjoyed myself, my parents not so much!
Here are some pics from that weekend. Sam took this one and he was acting all professional and told me to give him some, so I did!

Sam is a man of many muscles and I quite like this picture. He's always flexing for me and showing off his muscles.

Here is my mighty hunter showing you how he took it down! He left his antlers in a bag, in his trunk. Dumb idea. I didn't want them to get ruined while he was gone on his trip, so I took them out of the bag and put salt on them and dealt with other nasty things. His antlers are now safe.

Kaydee and I were having a good ol' time posing for pics. She's absolutely adorable, I love her. She has Dan's eyes and she reminds me of "Puss in Boots" off of Shrek. They both have those big doggy eyes that make you melt. LOVE IT!

Here's a close up of some of the arrows Dan did at my parents house. They are called flu-flu arrows. He's so creative. He saved money by buying turkey feathers at Michael's and sanded the veins down so he could put them on the arrows. He definitely loves to learn things instead of just buy.

And yes, I got my sexy gun I've wanted for the last little while. I love it. For my birthday, I got off of work and picked up the guys and went and shot our guns. I went through 45 shells and it was fun. I need some practice, but this year is going to be awesome.

Here's a close up of it. I love the wood grain!

We went out grouse hunting on my day off. That was fun, we didn't get anything, but we saw some deer and a bunny rabbit! We were sitting on a stump and we heard movement in two different directions, it was just two chipmunks that ratted us out. They are so noisy!
I worked the entire weekend, but got today off. I painted some on my aunts nativity, did a ton of dishes and then got ready for the Scarlet Pimpernel. Holy crap, that was AWESOME!!! I love the movie but this production was hilarious! It's totally a must see. Dan didn't care for the movie and was set on hating this thing, but he liked it. This was a present from my mom and it was great!
We went to Kohl's and had two $10 gift cards, so I got a new ring, love it, and a new dress/shirt. Not long enough to be modest, so I wear it as a shirt. Photos later. We bought four things for 7 bucks and saved around 97 dollars. Yeah, it was awesome.
I got my work shirts printed on Sunday and I'm excited to wear lots of color to work, no more white shirts, yeah!
And last but not least, Dan started his own blog. So for all of the MEN who think blogs are a girls thing, check his out if you like hunting and fishing. You can see his duck blind they worked on. It's on my list under, The Adventures of Bowen Arrow. I had to change my whole blog, cause he tried to start another one under my name and changed some things on mine! So I just kind of started over.
Have a great one, it's 2:30 a.m., I'm tired.

Dan Got One!

2010-09-06T08:30:00.000-07:00

Dan got a deer! I'm so excited! We have been together for almost three years and I've never even seen a buck when I've been with him. Everything exciting always happens when I'm not there. I'm so glad that we have meat to eat this year. He brought home the heart and liver, which I love. The meat will be really tender because it's so young. He had a great time with his dad and bro.
Today while I'm at work, Dan and Sam are setting up the duck blind. I have to go to work, which is a total drag... I'm not used to this whole work vacation days. In the 12th we'll be open on Sundays, that sucks.
Over the weekend, Dan's step sister got married. They got married at Niagara Falls. They were originally planned to get married in May.
Dan's been looking for shotguns on ksl for a better gun for a better price. I would love a semi-auto shotgun, but we'll see what happens.
I have to get ready for work, have a great Labor Day vacation.

My GUN!

2010-09-02T00:11:00.000-07:00

Is this not sexy or what??!!! Mine will be a shotgun, so a little different, but I finally found a pic of what it looks like.

Lots of Stress and Tears

2010-09-01T23:31:00.000-07:00

I don't have any pics for this blog, life has been pretty crazy. Dan has finally started his last year of college! YEAH!!! He has a 7:30 a.m. class on T and Thurs, which I call and wake him up at 6:10 so he can get ready. Luckily I get to go back to sleep! He had a 4 hour lab on the first day. Tonight he had to read 50 pages of statistic crap. He actually fell asleep before band practice and woke up at 6:11. He was supposed to be there at 6. Poor guy. He also has a field trip the weekend before my birthday and will be gone for three days. What a rip! He will barely make it to his gig on the 11th.
My boss is in Dallas and should be back tomorrow. I have accomplished most of what she wanted. I have been installing new things on the high wall and it's become a great success. I'm pretty pleased with all of it. I've had to do orders everyday on top of it. I have so much to do and so little of time. I'm also supposed to be training people in framing, so when I'm not there they can still take orders. I have til the 15th to get everything done.
Michelle, who is probably one of my best friends, is moving away. I've only known her the time that we've worked together and I've never really been that emotional over someone moving away. Roommates, no big deal, most I didn't care about. The ones that I still keep in contact are the ones that matter, even though it's not a ton. Sorry guys! But today, I said goodbye to her before she leaves for California. I was undoing frame orders when she walked out and then she came back in to tell me I had customers. I'm crying and I have to help people! Are you kidding?!!! I walk out there tears streaming and have to explain why so they don't think I'm so off balanced girl! Most know I'm not big on crying, but I have softened a little since meeting Dan. I never cried over ex boyfriends, but losing Michelle has been really hard on me. I don't even know her that well, but I loved working with her and we just got each other. We did have her over for Dinner on Saturday and it was fun. I made my homemade pizza and she brought brownies and cookies. I will miss her greatly.
The other sad news is that the people I live with, Bonnie, her sis in law passed away 2 days ago from cancer. Her cancer started in her lungs and just grew throughout her body. She suffered and she had enough of chemo and all of that. They gave her 2 months to live, she made it less than 2 weeks.
So basically this is the week of tears and it's been really draining on me.
The up side of it all is that Dan and Sam are working on the duck blind. I am getting a shotgun for my birthday, TOTALLY EXCITED!!!!! And Sam and I went to Village Inn for free pie. Dan was at practice, but I brought him home some pie. Since Bonnie and Jeff and Dan will be gone this weekend, I'm staying home and painting the house!!!! ROCK and ROLL baby all weekend! A got the newer Seether cd and love it. I guess I got Dan hooked on Seether and his band may do a song sometime. A very mellow song for sure.... I'm pretty sure I listen to the hardest music of my entire family, cousins and everything. I don't know what it is but I love it! The harder it is, the better. I don't like death metal or acid rock, that's a little too much yelling and not understanding for me. This weekend will be a good venting for me with all the tears.
I hope everything is going great for all of you.
Thanks to Cass and Desta (with two cute little boys) who came and saw me at work. It's so nice to see familiar faces. Sorry I was super swamped when you came in Desta and probably seemed kind of duh. I really loved seeing you. I don't think work will ever slow down unfortunately, but it's good for me.
Take care all and have a great weekend!

Trip Home and Birthday Wishes

2010-08-26T22:13:00.001-07:00

First off I want to tell Kaydee, Kevin, and Jessica HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I have been terrible at birthdays this year. I totally spaced that it was really August, so I'm sorry you didn't get any calls from me. I guess Dan talked to you all, but know that I love you too! I hope to see you all soon!
Okay, so I'll try to make this short, cause I am always trying to update this thing before I go to bed.... sorry. I deleted my pictures of the nativity cause my mom was freaking out that I broke copyright. Which I'm not selling these for profit, just trying to show you all my progress... oh well, don't want mom to lose sleep.
One of my new painting projects, when the nativity is done, will be these two cute little doggies! It's a paint by number. My neighbor, Tori, had one growing up and I did a couple strokes on it and was so jealous that I never got one. I thought I'd give it a shot! I'm excited and terrified! These will be the doggies I adore for the rest of my life!
So we went to my parents and holy crap, their garden looks amazing! They did have some weeding help this year from the scouts, who needed service hours. They were a lot more proud of their yard since it was weed free. I feel bad that I can't do more for them, but I do what I can while I'm there. I just had to show you this 4 year old peach tree. It was about half this size last year. It grew so much that it started to split a branch and it started twisting. My parents have a ton of peaches!

This is my parents garden. People drive by to look at my parents garden, pretty weird, but oh well, they do a great job.

With the garden comes canning time!!! We were able to help them with some corn. It took my parents 12 hours to do what Dan and I did in four. My parents helped of course. And Dan at most of the corn as you can see!

For a reward, we went for a trip up Gooseberry. I haven't been there in years. I used to go to Girls Camp, but I don't remember ever going to the top. It was pretty.

While I was involved with wedding stuff this weekend, my dad and Dan stayed home and did guy stuff. They made bow strings and fletched arrows. I haven't taken a pic of the arrows that they finished, but will before they get all bloody. Here's Dan sorting out his different arrows.

We stopped by Fishlake on our trip and this is a pic I got there.

Friday I went to Ephraim to decorate. It took my 4 hours to decorate this thing and make it perfect. Jessica, my cousin's wife, hated how her friend did it. So we stripped the entire thing and tried to make it beautiful. Her friend flipped out A LOT at the wedding. I apparently missed it cause I was sleeping.... OOPS! Anyway, here's my hard work.

The morning on the wedding, Saturday, Dan had the brilliant plan of going deer hunting. It was opening morning and I felt bad that I had taken him away for the weekend. I woke up before the men, at 5:30, and we headed out hunting. It was obviously a beautiful sunrise.

Dan took this sexy picture of me, it was cold and I had no idea he was going to take my picture. I just wanted him to look at the sunrise pics I took. I figured you haven't seen my face for a while, might as well put up a nice one!!!

I got home from hunting, made breakfast and got ready for the wedding. I tended kids at the temple, and then went to the luncheon. I was so tired that I went in the primary room and fell asleep. Picture this: I was sitting in a swivel chair with a high cushioned back. I was too cramped trying to sit in a ball, with a skirt. I flipped the chair over so it was laying on the floor and used to tall part of the chair as my pillow. I just sprawled out on the floor and took a 2 hour or so nap! AAAHHH! So, yes, I missed the taking of pictures, which is something that I always do. I don't know what I'm going to do when I get older, I'm already tired at the end of my work shift.

Here's the happy couple. She's such a sweetheart and I hope they will do great with their relationship. I think they can do great things together by helping each other out. Davin's got a lot of crap growing up, but I think she can help him not stress so much. Anyway, it was a fun weekend with the fam.

At work, I have been offered a new position to be the CEM(Customer Experience Manager), but I don't want it. They are very pleased with what I've accomplished, but I just don't feel like I have everything down yet. It's only been 3 months and I like where I'm at. It was an honor for her to think of me though. That meant a lot that she would consider me after so little time.

One of the framers called in yesterday to say he wouldn't be in today. So I had to do 12 orders by myself. It made me mad because he knew he had to move and clean out his apartment, so why not ask it off? He told everyone else that he wouldn't be in, but didn't bother telling me, his boss, that he wasn't going to show up. He does this all the time for dumb things, I'm about ready to get him tossed out.

Anyway... I'm headed to bed. One more day and then it's time off for the weekend!!!

Progess with Creativity

2010-08-17T23:01:00.000-07:00

Dan and I had a date night on Wednesday last week. We went shopping for random things and ended up at Village Inn for the free pie deal. We got blueberry pomegranate lemonade, a pita bread thing and our free pieces of pie. It was an awesome meal. I loved it. We don't eat out much at all and hardly go on planned dates. We usually do something fun once a week that's random.
This last weekend, we went to the rodeo. Sam was in bull poker and we went to watch him. He's the one in the khaki vest. The guy on the left with red stripes on his hat won. I have a video below so you can see it. It was pretty good. Sam kind of got jipped cause the table fell on his side and his bucket fell over. Oh well, he's going to do it next year.
This is what I left tonight..... Dan is so pumped about duck hunting. He's into it way early this year. He gets duck fever so bad. I love this man. They have been trying to figure out seating and how it's all going to work this year to make it better. Sam had bought all this PVC pipe for their ice house, I figured why not use it for something else as well. So they were putting it up tonight and playing with the idea. It was like watching to little hiper boys in mens bodies. We're talking of getting me a shotgun, one I can handle and use easier. I love to shoot, but hate what it does to my body. Dan did take a break and walk me safely home. What a cute man.

Since Dan has been so intrigued with hunting, there hasn't been much painting at my house! It's okay though. He's going to be learning how to do his own arrows and such from my dad this weekend. I'll be busy doing other things and so they will have a lot of guy time. I'm excited to see how everything goes down. Dan's a little nervous around my dad just because if something happens to my dad, Dan doesn't know what to do. If my dad ends up on the ground, rather volunteer or accident, he has his certain ways that he has to get up. Dan will learn with time, but I am sure this will be a safe activity for them. I'm glad he can learn something from my dad while he's still around. My dad loves me, but doesn't care to teach me much about hunting and such. I think it was how he was raised. I think my brother taught me most of everything I know. If I have questions, I can ask my dad and he'll tell me, but for something new, ask my bro. At least Dan will know enough for both of us.

Okay I better head to bed so I can wake up and go to work and then drive 4 hours. Have a great weekend and enjoy the movie clip!

My Bathroom and Moose

2010-08-11T22:52:00.000-07:00

I have two pictures quick before I head to bed. We found this moose picture at the DI for $.50. I was stoked because it's signed by the artist and everything. I had to trim it down a tad to get it to fit the frame, but it works and I love it. I had to take it in black and white so it would look good.
I got up and painted at 7:00 this morning. Crazy, I know. All these early mornings are messing up my sleeping schedule. I decided since Dan would hate to paint this, I would surprise him and finish it all before he got up. I finished at 10:30 and headed over to make him breakfast. He does so much for me, I might as well feed him a meal that I can still cook! I'm way out of practice. I felt really bad, because last night he was searching out music to do the rock medley and I just curled up in my bed and fell asleep. All I remember was him kissing me goodbye. I told him to call me when he got home and he said don't worry about it. I didn't either, I fell back to sleep! This getting older is the pits. When I'm tired, I'm tired and just fall asleep. We bought a lot of fun things we needed. Picture frames for his duck that he's painting, a painting that we already did a while ago. I got me some colored work shirts, which will be awesome. We found him some new ties at the DI. I'm so tired of the same two for almost three years! I will have to get some pictures. One has the Tasmanian Devil, which is Dan's favorite, so why not. We got a hiking backpack so we can over night pack in or whatever. He thinks I got it so I can help him haul out his deer! Oh PLEASE!!!! Okay I probably would, maybe a hoof or something. Meat is heavy! I'm not built to be a pack mule! We also went to Village Inn and had free pie Wednesday! We shared a meal and had pomegranate blueberry drinks and yummy pie. A great date meal. We don't get those very often.
Anyway, sorry got into the story of the day.... we got home and I put on the second coat of paint. Dan finished up his brown he was doing and helped me roll two walls and I did the rest. Not too bad for a day. We spent 6 hours shopping, holy crap!

Well have a great one! That's probably all this week unless something really exciting happens. Oh, by the way, today (11th) was the year anniversary of my heart ring that Dan gave me last year! We went looking for a sapphire one, but way too expensive or the wrong size. Bummer.

Updates on the Painting

2010-08-10T20:45:00.000-07:00

Dan had a gig for a high school reunion this last weekend. It was at the Riverwoods and it was a nice place. I loved the landscape. Here's a picture of the waterfall.
There were a few waterfalls, so here is one of the biggest ones.

I took a picture of Dan and his sexy guitar.

Here's Dan's band.

Here's the recent updates on the painting.

Here's the entry way.

This is the upstairs and the dark brown wall is the entry to my room. I love it!

Here's the before of my bathroom and I'll give you the after, when I'm done painting it tomorrow. I just taped it off tonight.

I went into work at 5:00 this morning and got home at 1. I started right on the painting. I have missed it. Dan is hating it big time. It was originally planned that he would just help and these guys would paint most of it. Nope, he's painting the whole thing by himself pretty much. I am going to take him out tomorrow and get him out of the house. He's starting to get stir crazy.

I don't have much to tell, just painting and working. I'll let you know how it goes and get you some more pictures. During the day time if I remember, night time doesn't really work with my camera.

Way Behind

2010-08-06T22:04:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, we went fishing at Mantua. Guess what time I got up.....? 5:30! We didn't end up leaving Logan until 7:00 because Sam needed a license. Oh well. I was pretty tired and still had to work when we got back. I was pretty worn out. The guys did pretty dang good. Dan caught 3 of these 4 fish. The HUGE bass was the last thing he caught. It was 13 inches and 1 lb. I caught a bunch of dinky fish, but at least I caught some. It was an okay day for me, too bad I couldn't bring one home to really prove I went.
We are painting at my house! I am loving it, but Dan is not. Humm, I wonder why... cause my wonderful man is doing most of the work! I am taping everyday before I go to work, so he can just get painting. He's not minding it too bad. He's such a hard worker and has almost the whole house painted. I don't have any great shots of the after yet. Here's a before, the stairway.

Here's a different view of the stairway. This wonderful wall painting is what I came home to one night. Originally up the stairs are photo's of their kids on their wedding day. Dan had to paint around the nails and ended up painting portraits instead! I love working with him, he tries to turn all the boring stuff into making it lively and fun.

Here's the view from my room. This is the living room walls and Dan is on a 2 layered scaffolding to paint all of this. He's pretty afraid of heights, but he's doing a great job. This my rent payment and sadly he's doing most the work. It's a time that works for them.... not for me. I am just the project manager/designer/consultant. It's a tough job!

It's pretty sad when you dread going to work, cause you don't get to stay home and paint. I don't know why I love it so much, but I do. Dan doesn't have the zest for it that I do, but he's doing a great job. I'll be home early tomorrow, so I'll try to get some up dated pics. I will end now, I have to be up at 5 for a huge meeting at work. Have a great weekend!

Random Events

2010-07-22T23:05:00.001-07:00

Sorry it's been a while. I have been busy with work and my spare time is with Dan. I haven't even had time to download pictures until tonight and they're 2 weeks old!
To start off, Dan went fishing at Mantua and also went crawdad fishing up East Canyon. I've never seen a crawdad up close and they are anything but cute. I freaked out when he opened the cooler. I didn't even want to touch them to eat them. Here's the bluegill and small bass he got at Mantua.
Here's a crawdad, yuck. They turn bright red just like lobster after they are cooked. Such a weird thing. They are good, but kind of a waste of body. All you can eat is their tail and little tiny claws.

Here's Dan holding one, I couldn't believe he touched them. He caught these with a butterfly net my mom got him for Easter a few years ago! He said it was great.

We went down to my parents for a family reunion, which I was not in the mood for. I really wanted to go fishing instead. Which Dan went with my brother out to Lostcreek the night before. Dan loved it and knows why I loved fly fishing. I hate it now because you can't catch anything up here. Everything is so overly fished. They came back all smiles though, which was great to see.

We cleaned some things up at my parents. The garage is slightly getting more clean. We hung my bicycle, cause I never ride it. Dan and I made some shelves, which my dad was very unhappy about. My dad just hates change that isn't his idea. I think he realized we were just organizing and not throwing out a lot, he kind of calmed down. It's always nice to help my parents with things, because they can't do it alone.

At the reunion, the only thing that thoroughly entertained me was this little girl! She's so adorable and has a great personality for someone so young. She was trying to help a dead bird by putting it in a bush. It was really funny, there were three girls playing with a dead bird, no boys around!

The most traumatic thing was watching her pop two balloons and after the second one, this was her reaction. She was scarred for life it seemed.

Look at this sad face. I shouldn't have enjoyed it so much, but she's so cute, even when she's bawling her eyes out.

She's headed in to find her mom, notice her popped balloon in her hand.

Her was her better idea, a flat balloon, that way it doesn't pop.

Someone finally talked her into getting it blown up. I don't know how it ended up, but I hope she isn't scarred for life.

After the reunion, Dan, my parents, and I went to Maple Grove. I've told Dan how beautiful it was, but we always go down on busy vacation weekends. He loved it and someday I'll take him fishing there. The only bad thing is that there are a lot of snakes. Aren't these waterfalls beautiful!?

Here's a picture of my parents garden, well some of it. My parents have always had a big garden. My dad can't do it all anymore, so my mom and I plant it and he waters and picks the produce. It's his life and always has been his love. He'll sit out there all day watching his garden grow.

After that weekend, Dan has had a gig out at Providence. It was fun and I had one of my friends from work show up. My brother broke the little bone that goes to his right pinky. Luckily it wasn't his whole body. He was falling a tree and it snapped and went the other way. It pinned his hand down by the stump and so he has a cast for a few weeks. It's really amazing that he is okay. I had a bad migraine the day before that happened and had to stay home from work. The good news that we've had recently is that my dad doesn't have cancer. We were all a little worried. Last year he was close to having prostate cancer and this year his numbers were even higher. I'm glad that he doesn't have to deal with that. I got word that one of our dear friends passed away and my dad is speaking at his funeral. His wife died a year or so ago and he just kept getting worse. My mom called me the night before and told me he didn't have much longer. They called me before work to tell me that he passed away earlier that morning. It was kind of a sad day at work, but I know he's happy.

I was #1 in the district for my sales I made Wednesday. That was pretty exciting. I love my job, even though I'm doing a lot of cleaning right now. It will look amazing when I'm done. Dan and I made cookies for everyone I work with and they all loved them.

I hope everything is going great!

Crazy Busy

2010-07-04T18:32:00.000-07:00

Kaydee wanted to make an appearance on the blog, so I took her pic. It's been a LONG time since I last saw her. I've missed her greatly.
We went down to Dan's dads for the weekend, so we could go camping and relax. I have missed just getting away and work has been crazy. We stayed at the cabin and rode around on the four-wheelers. There is a little pond up in the hills and it's so pretty. When we go snowmobiling, this is what I drive over.

We saw quite a few deer and it was fun capturing them.

This is probably one of my favorite. This deer just posed for me and wouldn't move.
Before we left, we colored! I have missed coloring. In my profession I got to color 24/7 while going to school. I have never colored with Dan and it was fun to color a picture for each other. Dan's not really into Carebears, so he did his own rendition of them. It was fun.
This weekend we went up Providence Canyon, all the way to Mount Logan. Absolutely SCARY! The look on Dan's face says it all. He got really sick and I felt really bad.

Sam was enjoying it, can you tell!?

Here's just the beginning of our climbing adventures. We saw a waterfall, but that's on Sam's camera.

Here's a shot just to show you how we are pointed and how the hill is slanted. It was crazy and this was an easy road at this point. We were on roads that were pure boulders.

Here's a view of the valley and the water.

Here's a pretty sunset.

Here's another view.

Here's Dan and I in the vehicle, I was hoping to tan, yeah right.

Here's us with the sunset.

Here's the sunset fading as we are going down the mountain.

As far as work goes, I met the Vice President and some guy that is over a new project that we are working on. I worked 11 to 7:30 pm and then got up at 5 am to make it to work at 6 am and got home at 2 pm. I had to make sure all the labels faced out and everything had to be perfect. It was quite the project. Work has been going good, but has been very stressful. I have some really crazy days coming up, but then it's a trip to my parents for the weekend. I'm so excited, I got them a new microwave, which will be their Christmas. I also got me a box rigged up for the tree skirt, so I'm glad that will be out of my room. I'm just excited to get out of Cache Valley.

I hope that you all had a good 4th.

Overwhelming Joy and Gratitude

2010-06-22T22:59:00.000-07:00

It's been a little while. I have been busy with life. Dan played at a wedding on the 12th of June. A guy in the band got married. It was the worst reception I've been to, just because it was bitter cold. I seriously felt like I was out in winter weather. The bride was beautiful and it was really great, just not the weather. The band did amazing, as always, I never tire of hearing them. Which I think is weird to me, cause I know all their songs by heart and have heard them for 2 1/2 years. They do choose new songs, but you get the idea. I have loved music since I was a kid and I love seeing the smile on Dan's face. I always want to be that support to him, like he is to me. I always gave support to others growing up and never really got it back. That is a huge thing for me, so I never want to let Dan down. Even though I work now, if I can make it to a gig, I am there to cheer him on. If anyone wants to head to Newton, Friday for a night at the park, his band will be playing there. It's from 8 to 10 I believe. Anyway, here's a picture of my sexy man at the wedding. Dang, he cleans up nice! (He was going to play his new guitar, but it was threatening rain, and he didn't want to ruin it.)
Here's the gorgeous bride! This is during Boot Scootin' Boogie. She had boots just for this song! I loved it and that it was really cute!

Dan and me at the reception. They took a little break, so we all ended up getting pictures done.

Here's the band, minus the groom. Bret is the drummer, Alli is a harmonizing/lead singer/guitar player/pianist, Dan guitar(electric, acoustic and some bass)/singer/song writer, Tom Bass guitar, drums, singer(way amazing with talent), Julie, the mom, and she does the sound, Ed plays piano, sings, and plays guitar. These guys feel like family to us. We spend pretty much every Sunday night together and we have a great time. There is a lot of amazing talent and brains in this picture and I'm very fortunate to know all of them and consider them my friends.

Jaymie and I palled around the whole time I was there. If there is one funny girl to meet in life, this is her! She's the highlight of my days at practice. We have great games of Killer Bunnies and she just cracks me up! She recently painted her bedroom and she did a sweet job! Thanks Jay for always entertaining me!

Most recently, since the 4th is coming up, I have been working on decorations. I found some tall pumpkins that I started in Young Women's. Well I didn't like them and wanted to change them into something. Dan came up with fireworks! What a genius he is! I painted them the colors I wanted. I bought the stickers and stars on wire at work. Dan helped me decide where to put the stickers and then he drilled all the holes and did the fountain spray out the top! I came home from work and he had them finished. How awesome is that! I love that he will do crafts with me, help me out, and think of his own things to do. I'm so lucky.

Dan and I have grown so much in our relationship, it's unreal to me. I just finished reading Wednesday Letters by Jason F Wright. It was like a 2 dollar book at Seagull Book. We figured it was cheap, might as well try it out. I loved that book. This husband wrote his wife a note/letter every week that they were married. The both died the same night. She died of heart failure and he had been battling cancer. What a way to go. I hope that's how it is with us.

Dan was gone this weekend, to his dads, and I missed him a lot. I felt bad that I couldn't be there because of work. He's just been so wonderful and supportive, so I wrote him a love letter. I just let him know how much he meant to me with all that we had been through. We've been through a lot and I'm glad we've waited to get married, because we'll know what to expect from each other. With divorce in both our families, I'm not going into this blind, I want to know what I'm up against. I just feel my love for Dan step up a few more notches than it was before I read the book. It's made me step back and see how great he really is. It's the type of love that gives you strength to make it through anything.

When I got home from work tonight, he wasn't there, he was at band practice. He made me lasagna and left it waiting for me. He also left me a love note that was really sweet. It's amazing what just a little note can do. I love it and I hope it can continue in our relationship. I went to my place after eating and watched the Bachelorette just to see what was going on. I feel so lucky and I'm glad I have Dan in my life. She told Frank he needed to step it up in group dates and be made known. I thought about the times when Dan and I are in a crowd, he always makes sure I know he's there. Just the little things, mean so much to me. I hope that I'll never take it for granted. Sorry this has been mushy, but my heart is just so full of joy. I couldn't ask for a better man to make me happy.

I'm done with the sappy! G's I'm sorry! Have a great week!

My Amazing Man!

2010-06-11T08:59:00.000-07:00

My day off this week, was Tuesday and Dan wanted it to be special and relaxing. He made dinner for me and we watched some Dr. Quinn, and then went on a short jaunt into the mountains. He had biked this trail the day before and found a bench where you can over look the city. He was on his bike though and he didn't know how far it was! We walked the trail and I kept finding all these flowers, some big and small. These ones are less than a 1/2 inch wide. Really small and he was wondering how I could see them. There were other flowers you could barely tell if they were flowers. It was an amazing adventure. If anyone knows what this flower is, let me know, I love it!
Here are some blue flowers.

Here are some evening primroses. I love them, they are such a delicate flower.

We finally made it to our destination and this was our view. The sunset wasn't that bright, but we had a great night just sitting there talking about life.

Dan has been so supportive and helps me with whatever I need. He's made lunches, a lot of dinners and ran a lot of errands. He's the greatest ever! I'm very lucky to have him in my life. He's so understanding and loving.

Before I head off to work, my day off is Thursday next week, and we are doing a 60% off sale on Custom Framing. So come see me!

First Week and Projects

2010-05-30T21:03:00.001-07:00

I survived my first week of work, I thought I wouldn't! It was quite a week of adjustment. I never thought it would be so taxing to the brain. I haven't been under this much pressure since I first moved here. I know that my weaknesses now will be turned into strengths when I get it all down. I was saddened by one customers work. It was in an oval frame and I was so excited to make it special for him. We don't have a circle cutter and I thought we could get it special cut. Not the case. So I had to call him the next day and tell him we couldn't do that for him. I felt so bad. It was my first customer that I got to help all by myself. I got to learn how to run a register, which is so COMPLICATED. The day they taught me there was a bunch of coupons and crap that came through and it was ridiculous! My boss is very nice and patient with me. Nathan, the certified framer I work with, he's been so kind and helpful. He only worked with me three days and then I was on my own. I have to reprice everything and change things around. It builds character I guess!
Dan and I went for a walk to find some duckies on Friday. On our way, we spotted this bird. It flew up to Dan and just landed on the sidewalk. I thought it was strange. I got a cool picture of it though.
Here's the same bird, just in a tree.

We went to one part of the canal and it was a flop. We walked quite a ways and found what we were looking for and more! We found a muskrat. He climbed out when we walked past and when we came back by, he had a bunch of alfalfa in his mouth!

We found a mom duck with some little chicks. Aren't they dang cute!?

The drakes were pretty protective of their kids, which was cool to see. I caught one flying.

We saw a mom duck with a bunch of ducklings a few months ago. We haven't seen them since. We found them though and they are so big! We thought they had froze to death. We saw them and then it turned off really cold, well it's still really cold! I'm glad they survived.

Dan left Saturday to go out to his mom's. He flew out today and called and told me he made it safely. He wasn't allowed to take his phone, so he called from his mom's. It's going to be a long couple days. I didn't realize how much I really depend on him to be there when things are sad or when things are good. I can't just call him up and tell him about my day. I hope that he will have fun in Florida, but I miss him a ton! I have been working on projects this weekend and I got my tree skirt completely finished. The ric-rac is on and the backing is on as well. I'm so excited! Now I just need to find out how to store it.

Here's the back.

I have also been working on my elk cross stitch again. I finally finished another square! It's been a long time. Almost a year. I found a Halloween project at my mom's that I do remember starting. I decided I didn't like it, so I'm making fireworks out of it instead. I'll take a picture when I get that done.

For Dan's trip, I wanted to get him something special or make him something. I knew I couldn't just send him out there with nothing. He's been so great with me having this job. We went to Wal*Mart and found some stickers. We found some that said Florida and had alligators, trees and oranges. We also found some fishies. I wrote him a futuristic letter for each day he was gone. So every night he could hear about my day and how I hoped his day went well. It was a little different writing in the future, but I'm glad I did it. I guess it's like a homemade bedtime story for each night.

I work tomorrow and have Tuesday off. I haven't decided on what I want to do with my day. Either work next door and help her out or just stay home and paint. I need a haircut, that's for sure!

I hope you guys have a great week and thanks for all the kind words that were left in my behalf.

Parents, Back Home & Great News

2010-05-22T18:34:00.000-07:00

First off, before I start telling stories, I want you to know that I finally found a job! I'm so excited. It will be very stressful. I am the framing manager at Michael's. Yes, the craft store, and yes I'm in heaven! Their framing department isn't doing that well, so I will try to improve sales. The day of my first interview, I actually picked out a matte frame insert for a guy and he loved it. I spent an hour and a half for my first interview and then had an hour interview on the phone with some high up person. I am feeling very blessed right now. The pay is higher than I've ever had and hopefully this will be a huge blessing in both our lives. Dan actually was the one called about the job, but since he will be in school in the fall, I called them. She said yeah fill out an application and call me when you're done. She looked at my info and set up a time to interview. I couldn't believe it!
ANYWAY.... I spent a week and a half down at my parents. I did some weeding and my mom helped me pull out elderberry suckers. Here's a picture of all my hard work.
My mom had me buy some pastel Easter eggs and she made a wreath and then she had some curly ribbon. I helped her curl it and this is what it turned out to be! I love it.

My mom had a hair cutting apron to copy, so we decided to make our own. I was going to do a blue one, but we didn't have enough fabric. I made a red one and decided to surprise Dan with a Superman one! This is what the fabric looked like before.

This is what it looks like after. The coloring is bad, but it is red. I'll take a pic when I cut his hair.

This is my parents pie cherry tree in bloom. I stuck my camera under the tree.

I helped my mom organize the Christmas corner in the basement. We had huge boxes on the bottom and it was a disaster. She bought some shelving and got some Avon boxes from a friend and we went to town. We threw out all the extra cardboard boxes when we were done. She was so excited about all the changes. She still has some more organizing to do, but she just needed someone to start the progress. I couldn't have done it by myself and so with our team work, we accomplished a lot.

I printed out a bunch of family pictures for my mom. Our computer is pretty outdated and so is our printer. It cost me 84 dollars just for ink. Dan and I have decided that we are just going to give them our laptops when we are done with them. That way we can get a more cost effective printer. So I printer off every picture we had on the old computer.

I also started the planting of their garden. I wanted to get more done but it rained all but two days. I pounded posts and did things that were hard for both of my parents to do. I went home late Saturday night and came home to this....

Sexy, isn't he! He grew a beard the whole time I was gone, cause I hate facial hair. He said well since you are leaving me, I'm not going to shave!

He spoiled me rotten while I was away though. I cam back to flowers!

He finally finished his dream catcher. I taught him how to do the ring, but he wouldn't add feathers. He knew I wanted it done, so he surprised me with that.

He bought me a few shirts, which I love.

He even color coordinated his closet for me! What a sweetheart! I have my closet color coordinated, now it's easier and more efficient with laundry!

Today we went and celebrated me getting a job. We were too tired yesterday, after trying to find clothes for work, to even want to do anything. I'm required to wear a white button up shirt and black slacks. It's harder than you think to find a white button up collared shirt. We spent 4 hours shopping.

Today we went to Hobby Lobby to find me things for earrings and they had sweet sales, so we got some stuff. We got fish mugs, I love them.

We got some rocks to put in them to hold the arrangement I wanted to do.

Here's what we picked out to put in the cups.

Here's the finished product. Dan helped me find everything and helped me put them together. I love that he is crafty. He's such a great support.
We found some glass things that we loved. Dan couldn't decide what one he wanted. I fell in love with this blue purse.

He got two doves. He wanted an eagle but it was 20 dollars on 66% off sale. He debated between these or a turtle. We loved a lot of them.

I wanted to grow our own ducky since we want one so bad. We would raise our own if we had our own place.

We got this pad and 6 zebra coasters. All of it was under 6 bucks! Sweet!

Since I'm going to be framing manager, I thought it would be cute to have framing earrings. Dan's going to make them for me.

We got some other things for people for Christmas and etc. I can't show them to you until after the occasions. I just wanted to update before I started my job. Have a great next week. I'll try update when I can. I don't know how crazy my life will be now.

Soooo Close!

2010-05-06T23:42:00.000-07:00

I have finally finished all the stitching on my tree skirt. What a project! I have enjoyed it though. The lighting in my room at night is pathetic, so I'll see what I can do later. This weekend and next week, I'm hoping to put the ric rac trim on and put a backing on it. I'm a little nervous to put all this work under an unpredictable sewing machine. I just hope it works. I can't wait! It looks so much better in person.
Here's an angle kind of shot.
Here's a top view. Soon you won't have to hear anymore about my tree skirt. Thanks for letting me share this experience with you.

I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day! I'm going to have fun working hard in the garden! Can't wait! If any of you are home down there give me a call. Have a great weekend!

Pictures Anyone!?

2010-05-05T01:14:00.000-07:00

I have a ton of pictures. I just chose a few to put in here. All the ball ones need to be photoshopped. I have yet to get to it though. I'm only 12 leaves away from being done with all my stitching on my tree skirt. I can't wait.
But about the Blue Carpet Ball, it was a great time. I loved dancing all night with the man I love. It was hard in heals, so we both took our shoes off. Dan was so sweet. He gave me a corsage, his mom made it and it was lovely. He had this vest in high school for one of his dances and it was amazing how well we matched.
We danced to a live band, which was fun. I have really gotten accustomed to live bands, since Dan does it so much. It's so much better than listening to dumb pop and rap songs. We danced for a long time and then went to Coldstone and got ice cream. It was amazing. It felt like a real date. We don't do much of that and it was nice to feel like a true princess all night.
These are taken before we left.
Dan loves this picture, so I thought I'd add it to the mix.

Here's me in my dress.

Here's Handsome Dan.

Here's an up-close picture of all the jewels and corsage. We got the bracelet and ring for 5 dollars at Kohl's, on sale. Originally 30 dollars. I did the custom painting of my nails. It was fun to get all dressed up.

This is a picture of a robin I took on the way to band practice.

Last week, I went out to the Durrant's, to help with the bathroom. They wanted to change the color and I figured I'd put in some time, since they bought Dan a guitar. I loved my time out there. They are great people and we have a lot of fun with them.

On the way home that night I stopped by the temple, since I had my camera, and took this pic.

This is one of our baby platy's. I'm sad to say that our Guppy died last week. We raised him in our tank with our goldfish since he was a baby. Apparently one of the fish we got had some parasite and killed 5 of our fish. It was pretty sad. We have 11 babies though and they are so cute.

Dan was a sweetheart and bought me roses and some salt and vinegar chips. He hates vinegar, so it was nice to have my own bag!

Monday we tried to attempt a fishing trip. Dan has been waiting forever to go fishing. The weather is crap here. Dan actually tried to fish, and it was very windy. I just took pictures of birds. Since his bird class, I've been obsessed with bird pictures. Here are two pelicans flying.

I took a picture of the man from far away. I thought it was cool with the dead tree.

We saw geese, robins, a pheasant, killdeer, Franklin gulls, white faced ibis, and black tanagers. It was a fun day, despite the crappy weather. I also took him to Panda Express and we had a great lunch. It's kind of a tradition to be spoiled during finals week. My mom used to send me 20 dollars and tell me to buy a pizza that would last me all week! So far Dan has gotten the royal treatment. I made him french toast this morning, made 7 layer bean dip, chicken alfredo, and sometime I need to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I will be leaving Friday and going to my parents. I'm helping them plant their garden. I know my dad wants the stuff but can't really do the work. Dan will be at his mom's and so I figured I'd go spend some time with my parents and get some things done.

A Couple Pics

2010-04-22T01:06:00.000-07:00

I finally have some real update pictures. I have been working on my tree skirt like crazy. I've had a lot of down time lately with arthritis, gotta love it. I've spent a lot of time watching Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, at Dan's house. Health just hasn't been a high spot for the last couple weeks. I have just sat and stitched.Here is a picture of a raccoon and his present. This is supposed to be a squirrel, it doesn't seem to me that it is, but oh well.

Here's the whole deal, aeriel view. I have the two presents on the left side, by the birds and wreath to finish. After that it's just add all the holly leaves. I have a lot of work for after it's finished to keep it preserved and such. It's coming along nicely though!

Here's a crappy picture of the birds and wreath. I need to take pictures when there is actually sunlight in my room.

Here's what my aunt's nativity looks like so far.

I didn't get all gussied up yet. I will get some serious pictures on Saturday if the weather holds. I did put mousse in my hair, but nothing beyond that. I got some new jewelry today. I love it.

Here's the man with his new guitar. He loves it.

It's time for bed, I get to see all my fam tomorrow! Have a great one.

Long Time Sorry

2010-04-12T21:32:00.000-07:00

I've tried to get some pictures of things going on. I haven't taken pics of outfits yet though. I work so much next door, and I have to pull up my hair, that I don't get dolled up much. When I do, I never am around the stuff I need to take pictures of. They will come some time. I went through all the flower beds and weeded and pulled out all the old stuff. I wish I would have had my camera before I started. When I get in work mode, I don't want to go get my camera. Trust me, this looks tons better!

On our way down to my parents for Easter, we stopped in at my bro's place. He was almost done with things. They need to paint and touch up things, but it's looking amazing! Here's the wall and the faucet.

Here's the vanity.

Here's the corner.

This last Sunday, we were told to come out to band practice early. We couldn't figure out why. Well Ed and Julie gave Dan this beautiful guitar. He was so shocked. This has been his dream guitar his whole life. All I could do was cry. Emotional me sitting on the sidelines. Oh well. They have been so good to us, treating us like family. I told Julie I'd repaint her house for free for all that they've done for us.

Anyway, back to Easter, sorry I didn't want to drag that picture. We got to my parents Thursday night-ish. Around 5 or 6. We ate dinner and then went to Richfield. I saw my aunt who had surgery. Turns out when I got there, she only had an artery to her heart cauterized. She made it sound like she had open heart surgery. So I stressed over nothing basically. I was a little perturbed. Oh well, I saw her, showed her my projects and then went to see my Aunt Donna. I showed her the guitars I made for Dan, her Precious Moments nativity that I had done so far, and my Christmas tree skirt. She loved them all. She's so amazing and always caring about the little things I do. When we were coming back from her place, we were in a white-out snow storm. I was going 15 miles an hour on the freeway. Pathetic. That night my eye started to hurt and I woke up with a swollen eye. Awesome! Oh well, it wasn't going to keep me down.

Friday, Dan had an all day bake day with my mom. She absolutely adores the man. Both of my parents do. I went and pruned the elderberry bushes and he baked. He made a mile high lemon meringue pie, a strawberry pie and a peach pie. Here's the strawberry. I did the beautiful garnish on top!

After all the baking, we started experimenting with chocolate! We did mints, raspberry-peach jam filled, peanut butter, and plain chocolate. YUMMY! It's so time consuming, but so good!

We also made chocolate Easter eggs, with little peeps inside. They are hollow and Dan did most of the work. He was really tired of being in the kitchen, that's for sure!

That night, we taught my parents how to play Killer Bunnies! We played it with all of our cards showing so they could understand what was going on. I think they really liked it. It was fun to play a game with my dad, he's not a big game playing guy. Unless it's checkers and he'll kick your butt every time. I've only won 4 times my whole life!

Saturday morning in between conference sessions, we did the Easter basket thing. I hid my parents and Dan's. My mom found hers in like 3 seconds. It was by her chair behind the curtain. Story behind it though is that she was in the bathroom and my cat was in with her drinking out of the tub. I told her not to come out until I told her. She opened the door before I had placed it so I put it the closest place and hopped away. Come to find out, she just let my cat out! I couldn't re-hide it after that. Oh well.

I stumped the men this year. I was dang proud of myself! I hid my dad's in his end table by his chair. I told him it was within arms length. He got up and looked around behind the couch, behind the curtains. What a cutie, I love him. He sat back down and I kept telling him, within arms reach. There was a big box in front of his end table, so that's why he didn't think it was there. I had to move the stuff for him, but he guessed it.
Dan was next. Dan is way to polite and way out of practice on how we do Easter. He doesn't dare pick things up and take things out. I hid his basket in the pantry, in a huge box, and covered it with trays and a huge bowl. He walked past it so many times. Opened the closet so many times. Finally my mom gave him hints. It was probably a good 20 minutes for him to find his basket. I was giggling inside the whole time! My mom and I are crazy when it comes to Easter. Here's an idea of what I did.
Here's Dan with his prize. I gave him the last three sets of Killer Bunnies! I didn't have anything in my basket, it went all to him.

With my basket, he took it down Friday night and hid it. Later he text me and said you're never going to find it! That's what drove me to being so cruel! I went down stairs and went straight to the craziest storage place in the whole house. I went to this corner and there was some batting and I moved it. I noticed there was this hole big enough for my Easter basket to fit. I had to climb some to look down there. Here's the whole.

Here's me and my prize. It took like 3 minutes or less. He was so mad, cause he told my mom she could go hide clues outside, we were going to take a while. Yeah right! She didn't even have time to leave the house. He said of all the rooms to check, you chose this one right off!

After find those baskets, we had two more. My mom had hid our big ones somewhere and we had to go on a treasure hunt to find them. That took a while, because I found out I don't know all of the types of fruit trees we have at our house! Oops! We had a great time. One clue were were supposed to find a bucket, Dan just looked under one. I said no you have to look under all of them. He said yeah right your mom wouldn't do that! I said oh you want to make a bet. Go check all those buckets in that trailer, you'll find it! Sure enough he found it! My mom pushes us more and more each Easter. She knows it's my favorite holiday and she's made it so fun and creative our whole lives. Easter candy is the best and you can just have some much fun. We had a great time. Conference was great!

When we got back, we went shopping on Monday or so and found a dozen roses on sale for 2.50! How can you pass that up! They are absolutely gorgeous!

Other things going on, I applied at Ogden's Carpet. My family, maybe, will remember me working there and hating it. But it's under new management and I met him and another guy. They are both so nice! I debated on what to do, because it was such a bad experience, but I decided I'd try. We'll see what happens.

I'm so excited for the Aggie Blue Ball, it's the 24th of this month. We're going and I'm way excited. My prom in high school was me just going and getting it over with. I had a serious boyfriend in high school, and I didn't want to date other guys. I went with my two wonderful cousins to my prom and my senior ball. I couldn't have asked for better company. Dan and I were sharing stories a while back about prom. I told him I sat at the dinner table with my aunt, cousin and my parents and had dinner. He took me to prom, had pictures, danced and came home. I wore a fancy dress that my cousin gave me to wear to church. All I had to pay for was the flowers. No huge expense. I was glad for that. I hate wasting money on things that aren't that important. I hated high school anyway, so why put money into it. I at least got treated with respect those two nights and didn't have to worry about some creepy guy touching me. I wouldn't change it at all!

I washed windows at two houses this last week! What a work out! Speaking of working out, Dan and I have started doing that. He's trying to loose weight to fit into his pants! We are both so sore! It's been good for us. I do work outs that hurt me and doesn't faze him and it's the opposite for other things. I use my arms a lot, but my tummy muscles, not so much. It's really been good for us though!

Nothing else has been going on really. He's just focusing on school and I'm just doing what I can. Have a great week!

A Little Good News

2010-03-29T23:40:00.000-07:00

Today I slept in, yesterday was a rough day, emotionally. For some reason I am the delegated one to visit people in the hospital or call. I don't know why. My parents always have told me to call or do whatever for this person, or that person. I try really hard to stay strong and not cry and try to say positive things. Well one of my things I have been worried about lately is my Aunt Dorthy. She fell a while back and was sent to the hospital, then put in the care center. After running some tests on her, they found out she had some heart problems. The left side of her heart was enlarged and that some of her pathways were weak. I have worried about her dying for a little while and my mom wanted me to call her this last weekend before she went into surgery, in case she didn't make it. I called Sunday and chatted with her a while and trying to be optimistic. I was fine until I told her she was in my thoughts and prayers and that I loved her. Then I started to bawl. She understands though, we've been close for years and it's just so hard to see people I love go through this kind of stuff.
Today I got the news from my mom that she went through the surgery well and they sent her back to Richfield. I hope she recovers and lives a fuller life. Now I can take a breather and just hope for the best.
Dan's studying all week this week, and I'm trying to get as much as I can done. I worked for 5 hours on two flower beds today. These flower beds are way more work than my moms, that's for sure! I can finish all five of my moms flower beds in that time. I think it's all in what they plant. Oh well, I enjoyed my day outside, minus getting chased by a bee. I don't even know why it was after me, but after it landed on me, I hit it and went inside. I hate bugs, especially flying ones.

The Latest

2010-03-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

A lot has been going on, but not much all at the same time. Dan and I went on a DI shopping excersion and we didn't find what we went for, but we found more! I got a prom dress, royal blue, Dan's favorite color on me. I couldn't pass it up, it fit perfectly. I'll take pictures sometime when I actually do my hair. Since I've been working in the yard, I look more like a guy than anything. We also found our goldfish a bowl and put a little baby fish in the other tank. It will be fun to watch a baby fish grow.
It's been an emotional rollercoaster the last little while, good and bad. I think it's some of the reason why I haven't written anything for a while. I just hope everything turns out okay for those in my life. I don't really care to explain what is going on with those close to my heart. Maybe later if things all turn out well.
Dan had a gig Saturday night. It was fun to watch him play and have people come and watch. This is the first gig they've had that people had to pay to get in. Even I had to pay, which didn't make me very happy. I had to pay 5 dollars and the band only gets 1.50 of that back. Of all the people Dan and I invited only Jeff and Bonnie came and his roomie. We were pretty upset about it. Some people have kids and I understand, but I have tried to support a lot of people and never get anything back. I guess that's why Dan and I keep to ourselves pretty much. We're tired of making an effort. If people really cared about us, they'd come see us, instead of us always going to them. I'm just tired of making everybody happy.
Onto a happier note, we're going to see my parents for Easter and have a lot of fun things going on for that. I'll post pictures later, when I have time to actually get to things. Sorry for the bummer post but I'm just really tired of things lately. Have a great Easter/Conference weekend. Hopefully I'll cheer up by the next time I write.

Demolition at My Bro's House

2010-03-18T01:23:00.001-07:00

It was a party this last weekend! Even though it was a lot of hard work, I really enjoyed my time. Dan and I went down to my bro's on Thursday. We played the Wii Resort and Killer Bunnies. We stayed up til 2 talking and playing and got up at 8 to start tearing down. They are redoing their upstairs bathroom and so we helped them tear it down. Here is the before of it all in tact.
The faucet.

My sexy bro showing off! We all wore masks because of the dust and mold. Which was a very good thing. I still ended up coughing. Gotta love asthma and allergies! This is the "during" picture. Dan and I tore out the vanity. It was a great stress release!

This is a hole my bro had to cut to get out mold and make room for the new stuff. Which hasn't ended up being anything like he had planned. Notice the tub, it's full of crap! That tub, by the way, is made of cast iron with a ceramic finish. In other words, UNMOVABLE. They took a big sledge hammer to it and broke it into little bits. Very loud process, but they enjoyed it.

I was in charge of trying to get the vinyl flooring to come away from the wood. RIGHT.... We just ended up taking up the first layer of wood and taking out damaged wood and calling it good. I worked for a long time trying to get the vinyl up and never got anywhere. My brother is on the vinyl and the rest is all ripped up. Top right corner, no tub, it is gone!

Here's the wonderful faucet again. Sure looks different. We painted all the wood by the shower with some mold be gone stuff. I don't remember exactly, but I hope it works!

That was that project. I finished painting the shelving in the boys bathroom today, next door. I decorated for the Relief Society birthday party dinner. The RS president asked me where I was going. I was going out to Paradise with Dan while he recorded some of his songs. I'd rather be supporting him. I did what I loved for the party, decorating. The person that was over me on the committee knew what was going on and she didn't want me to be late and just really easy to work with. No pressure. I hate being pressured and tried to be made feel guilty. If I want to go, I'll go, don't tell me I'm going to go. I'll admit I'm out of practice with the whole RS stuff, because in singles wards, there was no point. I knew that there was nothing there that they could really teach me. I know a lot and if they ever did anything that interested me, I'd go. I went to RS activities with my mom at age 5. I've been involved in a lot of things and really enjoyed them in my home town. Singles wards just ruined a lot of things for me. If I want to learn something I ask Dan's mom, my mom or Bonnie, or someone else. Anyway...

I have been painting on my aunts things and coming along pretty well. I try to work on my tree skirt as well. Here's some updates on that. Here's the present and the dove.

Here's the Christmas tree and the squirrel. I love it's tail!

I have been working on Fish pillows. I know big shocker. I'll post pics some time of those. They will be cute. I'm making them for us and for my bro's house. I won't make ours yet until we actually get married and have a stable house somewhat. Flat material is easier to pack then stuffed.

I made my brother a body pillow and I think he likes it. He also went and picked up some shoes for Dan. He tried them on up here and they didn't work because they were the display ones. They were awful feeling and I asked my bro if he'd pick them up in Layton. He agreed to and now Dan is happy to have new shoes. It was a great surprise. My bro handed them to him and said Merry Christmas. Dan was confused because he was wondering how Clint new about the shoes. I'd sent Clint a pic of them and everything. I told him what we had planned and he was totally surprised. Surprises just don't work in our relationship, we're both always too excited and end up giving it to them early! I'm glad this one worked. I might try to get a pic of him in them and show you.

Well it's almost 3 a.m., I think I'll hit the sack! Have a great one!

More Photos of Next Door

2010-03-09T11:23:00.001-08:00

I have most everything done next door. They canceled the blessing this last weekend, so now I have time to do everything that we didn't get to. Hopefully the weather will be nice and I can get all the windows cleaned.
I painted the downstairs bathroom and here is a before picture. I took it half way through the job! I forgot my camera and Dan grabbed it for me. What a sweetheart!
Here's during.

Here's after! It's amazing what some color can do.

I didn't get a before picture of the draperies, but here's an after. She just had up some beige sheers shades that were wrapped around the rods. Nothing too fancy. Now she has sexy drapes!

Nothing too exciting has been going on. My niece has been sealed to us now for 2 years. That's exciting. I can't believe that it's gone by so quickly.

I might be starting another blog, dealing with Dan's band. They are starting to professionally record some songs and people always ask what kind of music they play. I would like to put them all up and see if we can get some people to play for. It's an idea Dan and I came up with on our way back from band practice.

Speaking of his band.... on MARCH 27th, 10:00 pm to 12:00 am, his band will be playing at the South Firehouse Pizza. It's 5 dollars to get in and an extra 5 if you want dinner while you're there. All proceeds go to the band. If you'd like to come out and support us, that would be AWESOME!

Have a great week!

Next Door Proof of Work

2010-03-03T23:09:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to post some proof that I am actually busy working next door. The last two days have been really amazing. I'm doing what I went to school for, and I have loved painting, but I actually went to a store with someone and helped them pick things out. It's fun to watch things transform just by changing some simple things.
Here's the bathroom shower curtain before.
Here's the vanity and old wall hangings.

Here's nothing behind the bathroom door.

Here's the shower curtain, towels and floor mat after.

Here's the new wall hangings, which feels like a spa and retreat now! We love it! Too bad I don't get to live with it everyday.

Here's the other towel rack with the vanity and candle arrangement.

Here's behind the bathroom door with new wall hangings. We might paint the outer edges sea foam or something. Also, more towels.

Here's a close up of the candle arrangement.

Here's the downstairs plain wall, which I just painted the crown molding. Awesome lookin' I know! Anyway here's the before.

This is the after.

I have really been on cloud nine and it's really made me realize that I love my major and it's great seeing people smile. I put a lot of effort into this and she really loves it. It's a lot of fun working for someone who actually cares and listens to your opinion and shares what they like. I thought this job would just be cleaning bathrooms everyday, but it has been so much more and I really love it. I really couldn't ask for a better job. I went out in residential and this is what I've wanted to do. Small house projects and painting and I'm loving it!!! Stressful but fun.

Sorry We've Been MIA

2010-03-02T10:15:00.001-08:00

It's been a while and my time off wasn't that great. I wish I was out having a blast and had some amazing thrills to tell you, but I don't. Before crap hit the fan, Dan and I took my little cousin ice fishing. He's 8 and needs to learn about fishing for scouts. It was a lot of fun teaching him about the different things of fishing. It was fun to take him out fishing during a time that most people think we're crazy to even attempt. We took him to Hyrum and he wasn't leery at all. He just walked out on the ice like it was just snow. He started walking and got tired pretty quick! Dan said keep going a little farther and he said, I'm tired. Dan drilled some holes through 14" of ice. He was taking breaks and Coulter asked him why. He asked Coulter if he wanted to see why. Here's a picture of Dan and Coulter drilling the ice hole together.
After they finally got through, Dan taught him how to find the bottom and how to work the reel. Such intense faces!

Dan drilled me a hole as well and the two of us did most of the fishing. Coulter didn't like to sit still with the pole so you couldn't tell if he had a fish or not! It was fun teasing him about how it was bouncing all over the place. Dan and I would try to get fish and if they were on, we'd have Coulter come over and reel them in. When they were off the hook and on the ice, he then proceeded to save their lives. He made them a little pond, which drenched his hands, but he saved those fishies. It was really cute. He would ring out his gloves and they had a good amount of water in them. He'd take our ice scoop and hit the fish to see if they were still alive! Boys! You have to love them! I think I was a more morbid kid by his age because I was raised with this kind of thing. He didn't dare touch the fish.

With this picture, we told him to hold the fish and he ran away from it. We just told him to hold the line. I think he enjoyed himself. His little brothers wanted to go, but I don't think we could have handled all of them at the same time. This is the first time I've ever done anything like this with a little kid and probably Dan's too. Watching him with Coulter, he'll make a great dad some day. Even though he tells me he doesn't want kids, which I don't either for a few years. I guess I'm too selfish right now, plus we're not married, but kids just get on my nerves if I'm around them constantly, which leads to our next story.

The people I live with had their daughter and her four kids come stay with them for a week. During that time they had a lot of cousin slumber parties that included about 12 or so grand kids. It would have been different if they were told to be quiet at 6:30 in the morning. But no, their parents were who knows where and all these kids were downstairs yelling and having a great time. I have a deadline next door to get all of this work done and I can't even get a good nights sleep. My fuse was getting pretty short. Along with that, the grand kids would come into my room when I wasn't there, which makes me really mad. I have a lot of breakable things and projects everywhere that don't need to be touched by curious hands. I dealt with this for three days and I'd finally had it. They had gotten into my lunch food and didn't care whose stuff it was. I had it in a bag in the back of the fridge. They always seem to eat my stuff when they are here, and it's mostly the mom's that get into it to make it for their kids. I was pretty peeved.

Finally I said I've had enough, I'm leaving. Dan has a pull out couch and I'm crashing there until these monsters are gone. Bonnie was watching me leave, thinking we were going somewhere for the weekend, nope, leaving...... She was teasing me about taking my food out that morning and putting it in my car and asking if that's where I was storing it so the kids wouldn't get into it. I said no, I just put it out there. She just thought this was all so funny. I get to Dan's and get settled in, he comes down with the stomach flu, I get it the next day. He then gets a cold and I get a UTI, which had started going up into my left kidney. I hate infections and this one made movement really painful. I couldn't twist or anything. I had to lay flat on my back and couldn't even attempt to sleep on my sides. Dan pretty much couldn't touch me. He couldn't squeeze when he hugged me. I was pretty lame company. It got bad enough I had to go see a doctor. He was kind enough to reduce my visit price down. I had to piddle in a cup and all he told me was that my pee looked painful. It has been a long road of recovery for me and Dan's getting better as well. I'm glad I was at his place when it happened because I couldn't even do stairs and I wouldn't have made it at my place. I felt bad that I couldn't help Dan out, but he's a great man, I'm very lucky.

I missed a whole week of work and I'm back now catching up trying to get things done. Dan got out and went fishing with his mom at Hyrum. Here's the result.

I felt bad I couldn't go but I wasn't going to risk it. He had fun and I think that was the last ice fishing trip of the year. The ice is getting pretty soft up here. Dan fell through on the edge while he was getting off. I hate doing that and so I won't push my luck.

I hope everything is great with all of you. Have a great week.

Post Valentine's

2010-02-17T20:55:00.000-08:00

Today I worked a long day and tomorrow is going to be even longer. I figured I'd go pick up Dan something that he wouldn't buy himself. A razor to shave his face with! I hate facial hair and he has a cheap razor, so I figured I'd upgrade his and see if it improved his life. I called him when I got done with work and asked what he was doing. He said I'm getting a surprise for you! I had to go get gas in my car and so he told me to meet him in Wal*Mart.
I walked in the doors and he was checking out clothes for me that were on clearance. In his little basket was a huge bouquet of roses mixed with lilies. Never in my 26 years have I been given a dozen roses from a boy. My mom sent me 21 roses on my 21st birthday, but that's because I'm her only daughter. No guy has ever thought enough of me to send me flowers or to buy a dozen. Dan will usually do a couple and I'm always excited to have them. I love flowers!

I also got some jeans and a turle neck shirt. I'll have to post a pic. Now Dan and I have sort of matching jeans. They are way comfy. That's all for now. I have to get to bed! Hope all is well with ya'll!

Valentine's Day Weekend

2010-02-16T19:59:00.000-08:00

Not a ton new is going on with us. Our Valentine's was a series of three days. Dan bought me Killer Bunnies starter deck and the red one, we bought the green, violet, and orange ones a while ago. We added on to his mom's deck and I have wanted to get the starter deck to teach my family and not feel bad about taking it away from Cache valley.
Friday night we stayed up late playing Killer Bunnies with some friends. We were going to get up early and go ice fishing. I decided 4 hours of sleep wasn't enough. We watched a lot of Smallville on Saturday and just had fun vegging. Last semester I didn't have Dan around much and this semester I get to spend time with him. It's been really great, but a little getting used to. I wasn't really planning on Killer Bunnies for Valentine's, we were just going to do simple things. I made this for Dan for Valentine's. I know that Valentine's is supposed to be a woman's day, but it's his day of love too. That's how we do it anyway. I'm not going to have him make a fuss over me and him not get anything. It's not who I am. Anyway, this is what I made, I free handed all the cutting out of letters, I was pretty proud. These are some of the scraps I had left over from my tree skirt. This is it in the light.

This is it in the dark. I didn't have my tripod handy, so this is as good as it gets. I wanted him to have something to look at in the dark and remember me. I love glow-in-the-dark things.

Sunday, we went out to his mom's for Valentine's dinner and that was great. I went to band practice with him and played Killer Bunnies with the girls there. We had a lot of fun.

Monday, we got up at 6:30 and went ice fishing. I've never been to Newton, so we tried it. We didn't catch anything and didn't even get a nibble. Rediculous! Then we went into Smithfield to a sale and bought some things. We got breadsticks at Pizza Plus, Dan's favorite. I cut his hair, which he hates getting done. My shaver wouldn't even cut his hair it was so long! Then we got ready to go out on the town. We went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse, the end of our gift certificate. It was great food while it lasted. We came back to my place to watch Bachelor (1/2), 24, Castle, Bachelor second part recorded. It was a full night. All I have to say about the Bachelor is that if he picks Vienna, he deserves her if he's that stupid. I'm sad that Alli is gone, but I like Tenley. Anybody else following?

Dan's been doing great in school and I'm still painting to my little hearts content. I absolutely love the lady I work for. Life is going pretty good.