Holy moly bajoly! It's been forever since I've posted on here. Sorry folks, I've just been so busy lately, what with finding out that we are moving and work and such stuffs. We are doing grand other than we are getting super anxious to move to Reno already. Thank goodness we found an apartment to live in. I'm actually super excited about it. It's a townhouse in an apartment complex and they've just upgraded some things in it. Basically we were told that it looks better than the model. Woopey! For anyone that is wanting our new address you can email me at akn263@gmail.com. Oh and we heard back from the company and they are moving us. Yippy! I'm so happy about that because One, I hate packing/moving. Two, It's the beginning of winter and there is a TON of snow already. Three, we don't have to drive the truck. =]

As for work, I'm having the time of my life. I've been mainly making nothing but banners. It has been so much fun. Make sure you go to Coppin's Hallmark's website to check some of them out. Also, you should check it for my Thanksgiving banner and all weekend after for the Black Friday banner and other sales. And don't feel shy about taking advantage of those sales. I'm no longer in the warehouse and don't have to package them anymore. Bwahaha! lol j/k But seriously, go check out my banners and their stuff. Personally I've got my eye on the Snoozies boots. I seriously want them for Christmas.

So Thanksgiving is coming up (in two days) and I'm super excited. Jesse and I are going to Seattle (don't shoot me Spencer). This is all kind of last minute and by the fly of our pants. We've been wanting to go to Seattle since we moved here and since we don't have the money to fly anywhere for Thanksgiving because of the move, we decided to make one last ditch effort. Now, I know you ladies know that "Breaking Dawn" just came out and you may be pleased (and just a little jealous) to hear that Jesse and I are also planning on going to Forks, WA! Yup you read that right. Bwahaha!!! Boys, stop groaning. Ok so we're not really Twilight nuts or anything, but we couldn't pass it up. Plus we've been told by a bajillion people that the landscape is beautiful there and that is the main reason why we are going. I'll make sure to keep my camera handy in case we see Big Foot, Edward, or Jacob. lol

"Please keep your hands and feet inside the magic carpet at all times,..."

And we are outta here! If you haven't heard yet from either my mass text or facebook, Jesse and I are moving to Reno, NV around December 1st! We are very excited about this as it is a big step for Jesse in his career. The job is still with Kinross, which is the gold mining company here in Washington, and they are transferring us to the Regional Office (that basically takes care of the North American region.)

Now Jesse doesn't have full time just yet *grumble*grumble* but we are getting close. While in Reno, Jesse will be working with a specific site of Kinross' in NV called Round Mountain. We have a guaranteed two months in Reno and then they will be looking on where to put Jesse when/if he is offered full time. It is also a possibility that we could be (hopefully) kept in Reno, sent to Round Mountain or Fairbanks, Alaska! Round Mountain is a lot like Republic in the sense of size, except it's Nevada and not Washington. And well, Alaska is Alaska. We are willing to go wherever need be.

We are super excited about this move and the opportunities and doors that will be opening up. We are going to miss Republic, believe it or not. It's like when you get a calling that you don't like and when you actually start to like it, that's when you get released from it. That's kind of how this is feeling. I'm definitely going to miss all of the trees here. They are so beautiful. Good thing I went native and took a kajillion pictures of nothing but the trees and the mountains.

We don't know all the details on the move other than the date and where (thank goodness). But I will be updating about that when we find out. I'm praying they can move us. Apparently things are lined out differently for interns. I just know I really don't want to be filling a moving van and driving it at the beginning of winter. *shudder* I just get the chills thinking about it. Oh so I made this little map of where we have been in these first years of our marriage. Hope you enjoy and Reno here we come!!!

p.s. You'll probably want to click on the image to make it bigger. Haha oh and as a little guideline we started in...

Rexburg, ID "BYU-Idaho" --> Orlando, FL "Walt Disney World" --> Logan, UT "USU" --> Republic, WA "Kinross" --> Reno, NV "Kinross"

The other day I was reminded why I don't like cooking. Jesse recently won a really awesome basket with a lot of goodies. Two of the goodies were two Mason jars with cookie mixes. One was a Butterfinger cookie and the other an M&M cookie mix. In great anticipation and excitement, I decided to make the Butterfinger cookies. I hit my first problem. One of the ingredients in the jar was brown sugar. It was rock hard. I could not get it out. I could barely chip it for crying out loud. After about 15+ minutes of chipping and chipping and more chipping, I was finally able to get it out. Another problem was that because the brown sugar was so rock solid, it wasn't breaking up while mixing it. That then led to our mixer getting shot. It had been having troubles before, but that was the last straw for it. Determined to make these oh so delicious sounding cookies, I forged onward. Finally, with things mixed and oven heated, I put the first batch in. Wellll, then I remember something else. One of the things I had to add was butter and 3/4 was called for. Now our measuring cups are nice. I mean, they came from Bed Bath and Beyond so they have to be really good right? Wrong. The handle broke off one of them and that is where the measurement is labeled. So when I thought I was using the 1/4 cup, I was really using a 1/3 cup. After realizing that, I also remembered I forgot to set the timer on the oven. So I burned the cookies, however because I put in WAY too much butter, the cookies were still really soft. Needless to say, I pitched them and the batter. I was very upset about it and was reminded exactly why I don't like to cook or bake or anything.

I am so excited it's October! Seriously one of my favorite times of the year. What I think of when it's October and the Fall is...hoodies come out, everyone snuggles around a nice warm fire, cute decorations and CANDY!!! lol just kidding. It also means rain and lots of it. That and fog and when you live in the mountains like we do, this is what you get driving down the road.

Not gonna lie, it was pretty cool looking. First we were like wow! Then we were like WOW!! And then we were like, wooow. Yeah.

So this past weekend, Jesse and I were able to go to Spokane. We took a different route than normal.

We took a Ferry (obviously) but TomTom makes it

look like we were driving across the water.

We got a pretty good kick out of that.

Say Cheese!

*ding*

While in Spokane, I got to go to Hobby Lobby *eek* where I found some uber cute stuff and more stuffs for a project (yes another one), but I'll show you that later. We also went to a pumpkin patch. They didn't have any hay rides which was a little sad, but they still had some fun stuff. And apparently this place is HUGE for the Spokane area. There were like a bajillion people there. It's a family owned farm that just lets people come in, go through the maze, pet the ponies, and pick out your own pumpkins from their field. You of course have to pay for them, but they've got a huge variety. Big, small, round, fat and just plain weird looking. I think I had the most fun picking out the little ones. I got a bunch of them. I'll have to post them later when I take a picture. They are currently residing around our front door with the bigger pumpkins.

Now at the pumpkin patch they had a thing called "Punkin Chuckin" (dare you to say that 5x fast). Basically they took some farm equipment that deals with pressurized air and they shoot pumpkins out of it. When I first saw this my immediate thought was, "I can totally see Dad making one of these!" If you know my dad (which you probably do considering I think only family ever reads my blog) then you would agree. We took a bunch of separate videos of this thing and once we get it all spliced together I'll post it for you.But seriously we wanted to ask the people if we could use the thing to shoot our pumpkins to our house for us. It's that awesome!

Oh, they also had goats...

This maze had to have taken FOREVER to make.

This picture is only half of it.

PONIES!!! oh and there were donkeys too.

I'll just say, I kept expecting one of them to bust out with Eddie Murphy's voice.

The pumpkin patch. This picture only represents about a fourth of it.

And do you see all the cars on the right side. Yeah, there were a lot more than that too.

Found my pumpkin!!!

What a stud!

Baha he's so cute! And he's going to totally match us this year too.

(I promise that was not planned) We decided we're going to be pirates again .

Fall is coming. The mornings are getting colder and hot chocolate is beginning to replace lemonade. And what is better to do during the beginning of the new season than to do another project! I'm was so excited about this project too. It was one of those that kept me up late at night because I couldn't get it out of my head and I didn't want to forget it.

I have refurbished our old mirror that goes to our dresser. For my long time readers, you may remember that I refurbished the dresser by painting it black (prev white). And ever since my parents gave it to us two years ago, we have never put the mirror on it...until now. Bwahahaha!

This is what the mirror looked like before.

*ding*

The edges were dinged and close up you could kind of tell it had a couple of years on it. To give it a new look I added a nice black frame. How did I accomplish this? Floor trim. I chose trim because I wanted something more than just a flat board and trim offers LOTS of different, cool designs. It was approx. $20 for the trim and *macho voice* Gorilla Glue at Lowe's. We went with a little more expensive trim because we wanted a thicker frame. I used Krylon Black, Flat (Metallic Series) spray paint. That's usually about $3-ish at WalMart? *phew* Good thing I already had some of my own! Big save right there.

When it came to glueing, instructions said that clamps or a weight should be put on it so it gets better "stickage."( Yes I just made that word up.) The more weight, the better. Well...we didn't have any clamps so I made due. After letting it dry, with weight applied, for two hours it was ready for installation.

Tada! Doesn't it look so nice? (if no, don't answer that) It opens the room up so nicely! Which is awesome because we have a tiny, tiny, tiny room. Plus it's big enough I can double-check to really see if my dress doesn't make me look fat.

I also spray painted the handles on the dresser a brushed nickel (luurve Krylon's Metallic Series). Before, it was a very worn and dirty looking gold color. At first I wasn't too sure about the smartness level of this touch up. I didn't know if it would look good with all the detail on the handles. But now they look AWESOME!!! I'm very happy with the way it turned out. Jesse wasn't happy at first, only because he had to go without drawer handles for about a day. Which also happened to be laundry day. lol

Have you done any fun projects lately? I think my next one is maybe painting our front door. A nice red would go great I think. Ooh and I bought some hanging baskets while we were at Lowe's too. Now if only I had remembered to buy plants to put in them. lol Now worries, I have this great idea of creating a little mini graveyard in them for Halloween. Little Haunted House included. What do you think of that idea? And remember when commenting, "If you don't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all." lol j/k...but seriously.

Sleep Deprivation, Breaks and Yoga...

So it is 6:21 a.m. right now and I have nothing better to do than blog. Yes you read that right, it is approximately 6:30 in the morning and I am awake. My family is probably staring at the computer screen right now gasping and wondering who has abducted their sister. In fact, anyone knows I am soooo NOT a morning person. But here I am, blogging at 6:30 in the morning. Reason being is I CAN'T SLEEP!!! It is seriously driving me insane! I will lay in bed for foreeever and not fall asleep. I've even counted sheep, and frankly once I actually started looking at the sheep I was counting I realized my mind invisions weird looking sheep. I've taken Melatonin (it's a natural sleep helper that does not cause addiction or weird side effects) and it works alright. It just works too well. I'll fall asleep bout 15-30 min after taking it and wont wake up til 10-12 hours later. Then I get too much sleep which means I'm definitely not falling asleep tonight.

Now granted I probably know why this is happening. Ever since we moved to Washington I have been "taking a break" from work. Which means I haven't been given anything to do online. Did I mention I'm supposed to be working online for the place I worked for in Logan? I've been livin it up! Watching HGTV all day with sprinkles of Food Network and Discovery Channel! Checkin Facebook whenever I want! Being a lazy bum and not doing my hair or make up! So basically I'm bored out of my mind. However, I have been letting the craftier side of me bloom. I've made a headboard, painted the office and kitchen and I have many more plans! But until I can get supplies and the power tools to do such things, I'm stuck watching TV, surfing the web and discovering that my cat snores when he sleeps.

I've seriously thought of taking up Yoga. Has anyone ever done or is doing that? What's your take on it? I was going to be all nerdy and cheesy and buy Jillian what's-her-bucket-from-Biggest-Loser's Yoga workout DVD at Wal Mart. I'm this >....< close to doing it.

So, if any of you have a cure to my sleep problem, know of a good, cheap, but awesome sewing machine for me and/or know anything about Yoga, please leave a comment. Thank you! =]

*post script*

Other than discovering that Snickers snores is I'm teaching him tricks! =] So far he do "Up" and will sit on his behind. We're working on shake. So far as long as he lets me hold his paw and he doesn't pull back, he'll get a treat. More cool tricks to come. Maybe I can get them on video and post it. Yeah, that would be cool. And NO I'm NOT a crazy cat lady!!!

Crafts, Projects & Other Things

So I HAD to post about this blog I found. It seriously is the coolest, rockin-est, most awesome blog ever. That is if you are into DIY (Do It Yourself), crafts and other such knick knacks. The blog is...All Things Thrifty by Brooke. Taking straight from the creator, Brooke,

"All Things Thrifty is a site to prove to you that decorating can be inexpensive. I've been doing this for years. I am obsessed with decorating, and all my friends seem to think I spend a lot of money. I DON'T! I do it the "thrifty" way, and I decided to share my knack with all of you!"

I seriously love her website. She has some really cute things on there and she shows you how to do it. Most of them are so easy it makes me feel better knowing that I could do it. So check out her blog, try some of the things and post about what you've done. So far I've made a headboard and I'm dying to make some new pillows. Hopefully those will be soon in coming!

Jesse's Do's and Don'ts About Interviewing

So as some of you may know, Jesse has been majoring in Human Resources. We have been greatly blessed in Jesse finding a job with Kinross Gold Corporation where he is doing an internship and working as a Human Resource Generalist. Basically that means that he does a ton of recruiting and interviewing A LOT of people. It's interesting to hear the interviewer's side of the story. So I decided to get Jesse to take notes of the Do's and Don'ts about interviewing. Basically what he notices what people do that are either annoying, impressive, good or bad. So here it is. Hopefully for those who are looking for jobs, you can put this to good use and that it helps.

• Tell me about yourself really means why should we hire you in relation to the position you applied for, not a biography. Focus on your specific competencies that you
have used or gained in past work experiences for this position.

• Give specific answers with details to back up what you say.
Never stray and beat around for an answer. Ask them to
repeat the question to fully answer what they have asked you.

• Employees are looking for a fit, both technically and
personality. Use emotional intelligence to gain an advantage
to match the company culture.

• Every question should be answered in the STAR format:
Situation
Task
Action
Result

• Show up 15 min and walk in 3 min till: Going in too early
puts stress on your potential employer of where to put you
until they are ready.

• Have a positive attitude. Carry humble confidence.

• Don't babble. Recruiters have ADD. They look at resumes
and interview all day long. Try to wow them with a good
relevant work experience that gets their attention.

• Always, always, always have good questions to ask at the end
of the interview. I always ask candidates to tell me
something about the company not found on the Internet;
Wikipedia and Google.

• By all means have fun and WOW them. Remember when
you walk out the door they will judge you for 5 min, and
you want that judgement to be a positive one

If you have any questions about any of these points or would like further explanation you can email me at akn263@gmail.com. I will then forward your questions to Jesse. You can also email me if you want more pointers!

Projects, projects, and more projects...

So since I've been watching too much HGTV I decided to make my own headboard. I've been dying to do it for a long time so I sat down and finally looked it up. It's actually a lot simpler than you would think. I seriously think it took us a total of thirty minutes to complete. The hardest part was picking out the fabric. What you need is...

a designated size of length and width of board. We chose 6' x 2.5' particle board ($8, Lowes). We have a king and wanted to make it the same width as the bed. The 2.5' width is because that was the width that we could fit through the hole to the trunk where we tilted the seats down in our car.

Designated fabric. We went a little more expensive and

got this really nice leather type of fabric ($17 per yard, Hobby Lobby)...

(Update Aug. 25) Batting ($13, Hobby Lobby) we used a Full size quilt batting for this. We just folded it in half and stapled it. Staple gun & staples ($15, Lowes)...

Honestly, the pictures don't do it justice but, Tada!

For no more than $65 (approximately) our bed looks

like a million bucks!!! Minus the new bedspread.

(I tried to brighten the picture so you can see

the pattern of the fabric better. Hope it worked.

Try clicking on it to get a better look)

Obviously Snickers thinks the bed belongs to him. lol

Weather Update

So I realize that I haven't posted anything really since we moved to Washington other than pictures of my cat, Snickers. Sooo, here is the weather update. Life is great. Republic is tiny (I'm pretty sure I've said that multiple times by now) but I am actually doing a lot better with it than I thought. I have lived in an area like this before so it did feel similar if not worse when we finally pulled up to our new house. But ever since we got cable, life could not be better. (ok so it could but I'm good for now). I seriously think that HGTV is on non-stop whenever I wake up. Even when I'm in our office "working" I still have an unobstructed view of the TV. However I mainly have it on for background noise to cover Snickers' snoring (no joke).

Other than TV and working we like to go to Spokane every other weekend. According to Jesse it's about the same size or bigger than Salt Lake City and has a really nice AMC theatre there. It has 20 theatre rooms and we always go there. We also like to go to the malls and there is a temple close by that we were lucky to go visit on our last trip. But here is something really exciting! I finally got my passport in the mail! We can now go to Grand Forks, British Columbia, Canada! They have an A&W there and Jesse has been dying to go ever since we got here. It's a good thing it's only about thirty minutes away. So that will be a trip for sometime next week.

Other really fun stuff is we have begun to paint some of the rooms in our house. It is a rental so we made sure to ask if the landlord wanted to pay for it. Which she did! Woohoo! Can't get much better than that! We just finished the office and boy can I tell you I'm so happy with the new paint color. Here are some before and after pictures.

I don't know if you can tell in the pictures but the walls (including the side boards and ceiling) were a light turquoise-ish, kind of a baby blue and the closet/window sill was a lavender purple. Plus on the right wall in the picture above, someone tried to sponge paint the purple over the blue. Not only did it look like a five year old's room, but I kept expecting a unicorn to pop out of the closet any minute. That, plus it looked like the unicorn barfed on the wall too. This is what it looks like now.

We painted the walls pebble gray and repainted the side boards, ceiling, closet, and window white. It looks so much better. It's clean, looks bigger and is now a more pleasing color. Our next painting project will be the kitchen. That one will take us a little more time as it consists of taking wallpaper down. If you know of some easy or simple ways to take wallpaper down, please let me know. I'm pretty sure that it wasn't applied directly to the drywall, or at least here's hoping.

Two Computers of the Same Size. Same Cat of Two Very Different Sizes

Sept 2010 (9 months old, 4 lbs)


Aug 2011 (1 year 9 month, 20 lbs)

Moving

WE MADE IT!!! We have moved to Washington! To be exact? The middle of nowhere. Like seriously. But it is BEAUTIFUL country up here. I mean, coming from Utah, I'm used to mountains. But here, they are green mountains and they are breath taking. Hopefully I can find my camera amongst all the boxes and take pictures to make you all jealous. It was a pretty fun trip. Snickers was amazing. He slept the whole way here. Unpacking the UHaul wasn't bad at all. We had it all unloaded in about an hour and a half. And that was just Jesse and I. The only time we had an issue was when we were trecking up the side of a mountain and about to run out of gas. lol. It was actually the last leg of the trip. If the last 15 miles hadn't been down hill, I don't think we would have made it into town.

One super fun thing about where we are living is we are 30 min away from the Canadian border which also means that is where the closes town is. lol. I'm currently waiting for my passport to come in the mail. The sooner the better. We're already planning a trip to Vancouver! It's gonna be so much fun. Jesse's dad has always wanted to come to Washington as well as Canada, so we're hoping he might want to join us on our trip.

Another fun thing about moving here is we are renting a house!!! It was a little bit on the smaller side so it was a bit of a shock but we are getting used to it. It's so nice being able to watch a movie and not have to worry about annoying our neighbors! In fact, we just watched all of the Twilight movies. Yes, yes, I know. But I mean, come on. We just moved to a little town in Washington. I think I understand what Bella was going through a little better. lol Something that is nice about living in a smaller community is that you can walk everywhere. Today I walked to sign up for all of our Utilities.

Doctor Update

So I guess I should let you all know what happened at my doctor visit. Not too much. We talked to one of the mini doctors. You know, the ones who aren't the actual specialist but works with the specialist hoping to become a specialist themselves. Anyway, we talked to him after they checked me out a little and explained that they wanted to do more tests. I was like yeah ok that sounds good. That is until I learned exactly what they were going to do.

Now I guess I can let you know the exact type of problem I have. I get way too many bladder infections. If you want to stop reading, be my guest. You can skip to my post about our move. If you've already read that, well go read it again. So anyway, what exactly they wanted to do was a Cystoscopy. Yeah it's hard for me to pronounce too. Basically it's where they stick a camera in a not very nice place and take a look around at things. That happened this last Monday (which was supposed to happen the Friday before but schedules kept getting mixed up.) So I went and did that on Monday. Don't let anyone tell you it doesn't hurt. Cause it does. Really, really badly.
Results from the procedure showed that there was nothing weird hiding in there. I didn't have a weird African fungus lurking about. But apparently my Urethra is shorter than normal and it is set back. I don't really know what that means either. Let's just say it made it very difficult for the doctor to find it. They also did an ultrasound of my kidneys and they checked out fine. So apparently I'm just extremely unlucky when it comes to getting these infections.

But here is the kicker about all of this. After the Cystoscopy, multiple ultrasounds, paying bookue bucks and other stuff, what the doctor "prescribes" me is water. Drink more water. Apparently I should start going to the bathroom about six times a day and once at night. Isn't that ridiculous? Is there anyone who even does that on a normal basis? Now however stupid this all seems and dumb that we had to pay a doctor so much just to tell me drink more water, at least that's all he had to tell me.

Someone really did say Washington...

Guess what, guess what, guess what! Jesse got a job!!! WOOOHHOOOOOO!!!! And believe it or not but it's in Washington! lol, it's not the same job that he interviewed for earlier in the year. The company is Kinross, and is one of the top gold mining companies in the world. Jesse will be working in the HR Department (Human Resources, like Toby on "The Office"). We're super, super excited about it. One downside is we have to be there in two weeks. lol. We still haven't found housing yet. Part of that issue is, it's a very small community (950 people) so it's hard to find a place that is for rent instead of sale. But I'm sure we'll find something. Jesse is super excited for it. Mainly because we're finally beginning to transition out of the student life and finally starting a career. Now, technically the job is only an internship but we are really hoping that it'll translate into a Full time job.

In other news, some of you may know that I have some serious issues with a certain type of infection that I'll keep unknown. They just never seem to leave me alone and go away! But I'm finally going to a specialist! We've been greatly blessed by finding out that I'm still on my dad's insurance. Apparently it's something to do with the changes Obama made with his Obama Care. I'll just say, Obama you finally did something right. But, in the words of my brother, it's more like he's finally done something that's to my benefit. lol. The appointment is today and quite frankly, I'm a bit terrified. I've never been to the doctor for something serious. It's just been for the general check up and all of that. Hopefully there's nothing wrong with me. Jesse tries to make me feel better as well as tease me by saying I have a rare African fungus that just needs a special medication. I hope it's just that I need a certain medication, I don't think I want the rare African fungus. But keep us in your thoughts while we move and pray I don't have a rare African fungus!

Can I just say...

I HATE ALLERGIES!!! I don't know what it is with this year but this is the worst my allergies have ever affected me. I'm constantly sneezing, and my eyes/nose are always itching. Not only that but I'm so tired all the time because of it. Yesterday I seriously fell asleep for about five minutes at work. I just propped my feet up, leaned back and *zonk* I was out. Surprisingly my chair is very comfortable to sleep in. Also, when I finally got home from getting a new drivers license (p.s. I love the nice guy there who let me pass the test even though I technically failed it), I took a two and a half hour nap. Three hours later I went to bed and when I woke up I was exhausted. It's super bugging me. I'm so tired of being tired all the time. I used to have this awesome allergy pill called "Genahist" but now I'm out and I don't know what to use. Jesse bought me a 24 hour relief one that you are only supposed to take one a day. It makes me a little nervous to take it. Does anyone know of a good allergy pill that would also hopefully help me not be so sleepy?

Weather Update

Hello my (few) dear readers. Life is great! It was my birthday this past weekend and it couldn't have been better. My birthday is July 3rd and I love it. There are always fireworks and having your birthday during the 4th of July weekend just means more fun time. One thing that was a bit of a downer was that my dad wasn't there to spend it with me. We have the same birthday and we have always spent it together. But hopefully we can make up for it next year.

This year for my birthday a bunch of my family came out to Wingers (love! Wingers), enjoyed some good food and some free ice cream pie. We had an awesome waiter. Then we had cake and shot off fireworks! We all tried to pitch in so we got some good ones. Jesse and I also went to Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon. It was great! I'd say it was worth the money and give it two thumbs up. I didn't mind that Megan Fox wasn't in it (p.s. i dont know why people are so obsessed with her) and I thought they did pretty good in replacing her.

But out of all that, that's not the most exciting thing about my birthday. For my birthday I got the iPad 2!!!! It's flippin sweet! And some of my brothers and sisters were so kind enough to get me some iTunes gift cards. I've already bought Plants vs. Zombies (oh yeah) and now i'm trying to decide what I want next. Jesse was nice enough to already put one game on for me that I wanted. It was Harry Potter Lego: Year 1-4. Yeah, can you believe it's on the iPad? I couldn't. I've already gone through year one and it's pretty sweet. It's pretty easy to play to considering you don't have a controller in your hand. But there is a virtual D-Pad that you can use on the screen. Overall it's pretty sweet.

So some of you may remember a long time ago I posted how I got a job at Coppin's Hallmark. Well, I just thought I would share with you a little bit of what I've been doing lately. Lately I've been working on a lot of their banners, big and small. These are a couple of my recent favorites that I've made. For other banners you can go to their website and see what else I've been up to. Also, just click on the title of the banner beneath the picture to view info about the product.

4th of July Holiday Banner

Fun fact about this banner is I have no idea where

the fireworks actually went off.

Meaning, they probably weren't actually in New York, but

I sure do make it look like it. lol j/k

Father's Day Pillow Tie Banner

I think Pillow Ties are an awesome product. Coolest thing about them

is you can take the inflatable "pillow" out if you want and just

have the tie!I love to give them to my brothers for their birthdays. lol

Shoulder Buddies Banner

These little guys totally remind me of those little troll toys

from back when I was a kid. It's probably because of the hair.

Should we throw Flowers or Tomatoes?

So because I usually don't have much to say on my blog, I've finally decided what I can actually blog about. Movies! Now, anyone in my family can tell you that we're all movie nuts. When i was younger (a.k.a. still living at home), every friday or saturday night was family movie night. It wasn't always something new, sometimes just whatever we had that everyone could agree on (which always took a while). haha Jesse always wonders how I can quote and remember movies so well. Well that's because I grew up watching movies over and over. I think it was a tactic of my parents. They had nine kids and movies were probably one of the few things that they could get us to hold still and not wreck havoc around the house. Now as I got older I actually went to the movie theatre a lot with friends. Of course, being the sweet 16 year older that I was and by using my powers of wooing, most of the time I didn't even have to pay for my own ticket. ;) And one thing that I love about my husband is that he loves to go to the movies too. So now i will start to blog about the movies we see. Whether I think they were worth the money and if I want to buy them when they come out on dvd.

The first movie I'm blogging about, we saw just last night. "Green Lantern" is another comic movie. This is a DC comic, not Marvel. DC is your Superman, Batman, the Justice League, etc. where as Marvel is X-Men, the Hulk, Iron Man, etc. IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base) gave this movie a rating of 6.5 out of 10. Rotten Tomatoes sadly gave it a 4.5 out of 10. Unfortunately I think this movie was underrated. One mistake people have when they watch movies is they expect it to be the greatest movie to ever hit the screen. Well if you do that then off course you're going to be disappointed. Now, granted i wasn't really all that excited about this movie but Jesse wanted to see it so i agreed and we went. I was pleasantly surprised to find not only did I really like it but I kinda wanna see it again. So my rating would be a 7.75 out of 10. It does need a little more work, spend more time in some areas of the story, but then again that's why there's gonna be a second one right? Overall, was it worth the ticket price? We saw it in 3D so it was more expensive than normal. I thought it looked great in 3D. Especially all the parts when he was in space. Put that together with a HUGE screen and the entire room pitch black, you've got a pretty awesome space scene. Now it probably wasn't worth the $10 but I think it's worth seeing it on the big screen. Do I want to buy it when it comes out? Maybe not full price. Wait a little bit so it'll go on sale and grab it.

Check!

I can now check off something from my "Summer To Do" list. Get a coffee table. Doesn't it look so nice! However, as awesome and amazing it is that we finally got a coffee table, i'm more excited about our new couch! I'm so excited about it! Jesse knows/knew a girl from his program that is moving to Florida for her internship and wont be coming back. So she was trying to get rid of the couch and coffee table and she was either going to sell them or give the to DI! So we got them for super cheap and the couch is only 9 MONTHS old! Isn't that nuts? Needless to say, this is probably going to be the nicest piece of furniture that we will own for a while. Snickers loves it too. However, more because he now gets the other couch all to himself while we're on the new one. lol.

Netflix Junkie

I love Netflix!!! No commercials, no waiting, I can pause and play when I want. It is amazing! A couple of shows that I've been watching lately are...


"Psych"


and "Drop Dead Diva"

They are both HILARIOUS! "Psych" is your detective/cop show with lots of humor and comedy. Main character, Shawn Spencer, has exceptionally good observation skills that allow him to see the little things. With these skills he poses as a psychic and helps the Santa Barbara Police Department solve crimes in very odd and very funny ways. "Drop Dead Diva" is about a young aspiring model who gets in a car accident and dies. But she doesn't want to be dead yet. Breaking the rules, she sends herself back to life, but she's landed herself in the body of somebody else. She landed into the body of a very smart and very good lawyer, who just so happens to work with the love of her life.

If you haven't seen either of these shows, you should. They are super funny and you'll be dying to watch the next episode!

McGriddles just without the "Mc"

I have been craving a McGriddle for so long! The thing that stinks about it is that I can never get one because of the rules of the breakfast menu. You know, you can't get any breakfast after a certain time. It stinks. So I decided to make me one.


They were soooo good! I even put syrup in the pancakes.


Snickers wanted one too.

10 Things to Do this Summer

It's finally feeling like Summer (we completely skipped Spring in my opinion) and I'm so excited. Jesse doesn't have anymore school! It's finally shorts weather out. Our swamp cooler is back on and life is great. I have so many things I want to do this summer. Such as...

1. Paint the kitchen
2. Tear the nasty wall paper in our apartment down!
3. Get a tan
4. Put up more twinkle lights in the front room
5. Make a scrapbook (50 pgs and Digital)
6. Go swimming, like a lot
7. Go to Lagoon
8. Finally get a kitchen table!
9. Finally get some bedside tables.
10. Go on a really fun vacation!

I'm going to leave this list on my blog and check them off as I go through the summer. Hopefully I'll be able to add more to the list as well. But I also need all of you readers' help. As you can see with #10 I want to go on a really fun vacation. But I don't know what! Nothing like DisneyWorld (done that already) or anything. Something just so Jesse and I can feel like we are at least doing something semi exotic this summer. Wouldn't I love a cruise. But we don't have the funds for that. That's another year. So post something we can do! And I'll let you all know what I decide to do. p.s. you guys should totally make a Summer To Do list too!

Weather Update

So since my blog's name is "The Weather In A Short Person's World," here's a weather update. Rain...cloudy...really rather depressing...and wet. Really wet. Not only is that a physical forecast but also a mental forecast as well. In other news, Jesse was FINALLY contacted by Insitu. They unfortunately said no (stupid pigs). We were really rooting for that internship. Jesse and I are both really bummed about it. But we're still trying to look for the sun through the clouds. Some good news is Jesse did get an internship with the school at least. It's only 10 hours a week *grumble(that was the thunder).* He doesn't get any benefits from working for the school, i.e. help with tuition *grumble*grumble(I swear that's the thunder).* But at least we have something. Some rays of sunshine is at least we don't have to move. We can go down to see my parents next weekend with my brother and sister-in-law (Mom, tell dad we're bringing Snickers whether he likes it or not). We don't have to get lost trying to find our way to our new place. It's happened before. Note: If you are ever traveling in Florida, buy a GPS system.
So with all of this rain, clouds, and news, hopefully it'll bring some beautiful flowers later down the road.

Did anyone say Washington?

Hello one and all. Or more likely one as I haven't written on this thing in forever so who knows if anyone pays attention to it anymore. So news, news, news. First of all, the semester ends this week and oh is Jesse ever so excited. I know I am too. I'm tired of him always being so busy with school. It'll be nice to see him around the house more. However, there is a condition that comes with the end of this semester. Jesse is supposed to be doing a summer internship that is required in order for him to graduate with his MSHR. Jesse has been doing so well in applying to so many places. When I say he's applied everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE!!! Right now we have a couple of possibilities going for us. #1 is Insitu, located in Washington (we would be about an hour outside of Portland). If you've ever seen Iron Man then you know what Stark Industries is. That's pretty much what Insitu is. #2 is Walgreens, in California. #3 is Lyondellbassel in Texas. And I have now idea what that one is. Heck, good luck on pronouncing that. We should be hearing back from all three sometime this week. Of course sooner would be WAY better than later at this point in the game. We're so ready to find out what we're going to be doing for the summer. Personally, yes I would LOVE to move to California, but I've been dying to move to Washington for a really long time now. So I'd have to say overall I'm rooting for Insitu to call us with an offer. So everybody (or the one and lonely person who actually read this. Thanks mom!=]), cross your fingers and say your prayers! Cuz I want to move to Washington! =)

I would like to recall my last post. It snowed last night and it's snowing now...grrr

Spring is COMING!!! It's finally started to warm up a little. I'm so happy there's no more snow on the ground. Makes me even happier when it rains instead of snows. Breath it in. Now let it out. Smells great doesn't it! =) Wet grass, fresh linen from your neighbor's dryer. Yeah it's good.

I'm so excited for Easter. Mainly because of the candy. When I was a kid growing up, the tradition in our family was that the Easter Bunny would come over to our house, while we were gone at church and throw candy EVERYWHERE! And when I say everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE! As soon as we would get home we would hurry as fast as we could to change then grab our easter baskets and when my parents would signal, we'd all dive into the room scooping up as much candy as possible. We never got to keep it for ourselves though. We'd all put it in the "community" bowl and then snack on it later. Sometimes the East Bunny would put some candy in our beds for us too. Man, I love Easter candy. I seriously think it might beat Halloween out in my book. I've already bought some in preparation for the Easter Bunny to "throw" it around EVERYWHERE! lol I feel like a little kid again.

lunch break + bored at work + black sharpy = an orange afraid for his life...




he didn't make it...

And So It Begins

Alright, you all can be witness to the beginning of my first book. Scrapbook that is. I've decided I want to make a book of Jesse and I's engagement/wedding + our first year of marriage. Right now though I've started on the cover for when we lived in Florida. So tell me what you think, I'd love to hear your comments. And yes I used the same picture for my blog header =).

So Check Me Out

I finally went to the eye doctor this past week. After two years my eye sight has changed little. However, the doctor dilated my eyes this time. For those that don't have to go to an eye doctor, that's where he makes your pupils HUGE and with his funny looking optical devices he can look inside your eye and check to make sure everything is A-ok on the inside. However, the effects are not so much fun. It makes it so you can't see things up close, sensitive to light, and it's really hard to drive afterwards. Thank goodness Jesse was with me. I felt like an old person though. I had to keep holding things far away from me so I could see it. It was weird. I guess I know how my parents feel now (LOVE YOU MOM!!! =D)

So other than the doctor practically blinding me, he also decided to steal my wallet. Right now we don't have optical as part of our insurance plan. Good thing I have a job because it was a doozy buying everything. I got a year's supply of contacts but my eyes are two different prescriptions so times that by two, new frames, protective stuff for frames, and the actual exams. But I got new frames and their PURPLE =D! Check me out!

I did it. My first Digital Scrapbooking creation! What do you think? Please comment!

Digital Scrapbooking

So tonight my Relief Society did a Digital Scrapbooking activity where one of the sisters in the ward came and showed us how to do it. She also shared some of her books that she has made and oh my gosh they are so cute. I'm so glad I decided to go. I almost didn't due to taking a nap, still needing to eat dinner, etc. But I am so glad I did. She has inspired me and I've finally found a way to scrapbook without the mess and ridiculous cost of things. Thank you, thank you for sharing with us!

If you want to try it, give me a heads up and I'll see if I can send you the instructions she gave us and some websites that she has found plus ones I am finding myself. Oh and here is the fun part of it all. Other than printing pages out, majority of the kits and stuff you use is for FREE!!!! [Cindy I know you're reading this. If you haven't found this stuff already I am expecting you to email me =D]

How Do You Deal With Pain?

Recently I've discovered how I deal with physical pain. You know, like the rip your hairs out very painfully over and over again until your skin is red hot kind of pain! Some people scream. Some people even cry. What do I do? I laugh.

A while ago my best friend, Keshia Miles, and I decided we were going to get our underarms and legs sugared. Sugaring is a lot like waxing, however it is supposedly less painful, it doesn't come back as quickly and if you do it often enough it will end up permanent. So we thought why not? Yesterday was the fated day. Don't let anyone ever tell you that it DOESN'T hurt. It hurts...a lot! Or at least it did for me. And honestly it hurt more on my legs than it did my armpits. Reason why I guess is because I come from a very hairy family whose hair is naturally very thick and courser than others. But like I said, I discovered that I laugh when it comes to hair ripping pain. The girls that were servicing us told us we needed to come back because we were so funny. One of them said they could hear me laughing all the way out in the main area where they do the haircuts. I don't know if I should be embarrassed about that or not.

But on the flip side to all of that pain we also got mini pedicures, I got acrylic nails (that are so stinkin cute, two of my fingers have purple glitter as the tip), and Keshia got a mini manicure. Plus now I don't have man legs as Jesse called it. But the one thing I am the most excited about is now anytime I get the goose bumps after shaving it's not going to be instant pricklies anymore. =D

Pet Peeve

You know what one of my biggest pet peeves is? When looking at a dear friend of mine's wedding pictures and all I see is a photographers logo. I mean come on!!! The point is to look at the beautiful picture, admire it, ooh and ahh at it, and then in a dying urge to know who took such an amazing photo we search the corners for the logo on the picture. However, I've noticed a lot lately that photographers/designers feel the need to plaster their name on their work as big as they can and as brightly colored as they can without being too obvious yet very much there. Now if I am offending anyone because they are a photographer/designer and they might possibly be doing this, I'm not really that sorry. Turn the volume down and let us enjoy a beautiful picture. Instead of *BAM* your name and then oh hey that's a nice picture.