Graduation

So I finished school on Thursday! I'm super proud of myself. Yes, college took 6.5 years, but I made some amazing friends, learned a ton of stuff, and I'm done now, so what does it matter, right?!!

Here are a few pictures from when I was in school. They're not in chronological order because I can't think right now.

When does post-final brain drain repair itself??

Walking in a winter wonderland

Tonight I was having a hard time focusing on homework so I decided to take a walk through town. I did it the other night too, but it was raining and only like 3 people in town had Christmas lights so it was uber-depressing...until I heard carolers. But it helped me focus on my homework!!

Tonight was gorgeous. The snow was resting perfectly on every surface, almost like no one went outside all day. I don't think anyone did because everyone is chickens when it comes to snow, but it was cool to see snow that hadn't been touched. Everything was perfect. I had great music on my iPod, and I thought about my assignments and organized in my mind how little I really have left. I just gotta do it!

Here are the pictures from my walk. Remember, Santa might be bringing me a camera so I am still taking pictures on my phone. No judgements :P

See, the snow just sat perfectly on the bush...okay you can't see what I saw, but it was pretty :)

This is Ben Franklin and he's sitting very lonely with no one beside him...

Here's a lovely couple that at least had each other :)

Here's William Rand Tavern, and Paula Dean has been here!

So the perspective is off, but this is a bench with three little butt prints on it. So much for untouched snow!!

This was supposed to be a nice shot down the street, but I do love that the sidewalks are brick. I do love this town!

First snow fall

This morning we were greeted by snow on the ground. It's super wet snow that is perfect for snowballs!

Brenna and I were against Ian and we won. He ended up coming out with a shield (I'd describe it but he might be embarrassed hehe) but I am sure that even without the shield we would have won.

It's also our 4 month anniversary, which is cool. Like super freaking cool!! I was going to make Ian breakfast in bed but the snowball fight got in the way of that, so I made yummy homemade cinnamon rolls for lunch!!! They were SO good!

Last night we decorated gingerbread houses!!

This is Brenna's.

Me and my house

Ian's House

Popsicle's House (that's my father-in-law)

It was so much fun decorating these! Ian's mom made peanut butter cookies while we were decorating and she put Hershey's Kisses on them! Yummy melty goodness!

Free Christmas Cards?!?!

I want to do *this*, but I don't know that I'll get them in time...but would people hate me if I got them out late? And do people want/like Christmas cards from newlyweds with no kids? I mean, you just got my wedding invitations a few months ago haha! I promise I'll use a "real" picture though hehe!

Even if I don't do it, maybe someone else can use them? All you have to do is post a blog about it and you'll get them. 50 free 5x7 holiday cards. Pretty awesome!

These are my favorite:

Ok, I'll admit, I'd like to use these with my wedding thank you notes....but is that so bad?? I mean, it's a GOOD idea! And that way if they're after Christmas it's not a huge deal because they're also thank you with a dash of Christmas...oh I don't know what to do?! Help!

Our first Christmas

I'm getting so excited! This month is crazy for me: I finish school next week (forever!) and then we have Christmas! We were going to move also, but thankfully (and unfortunately, depending on the day) we are waiting until April.

Remember last year? It was crazy. I was *trying* to work and trying to figure out life on my own and I ran away from it all to move home. I remember standing outside the mechanic shop (read this for a better understanding) and just saying, "Daddy bring me home!" I wasn't sure if it was a good idea but I needed to get away. It was a good choice though, a perfect choice, because I met my wonderful and amazing husband after I got home!

I can't believe how fast this year has gone by!

Here are some pictures of decorations we made/bought for our room. They're from my phone, here's hoping Santa brings me a camera this year!!

Favorite Christmas Commercials

So Target is doing an amazing job this year with commercials. I love their song "You'll Never Find My Christmas."

I was looking for the song and found this blog: click here

Not only does this blog have all the Target ones, but an homage to a ton of awesome commercials! Haha!

So anyway, on the blog there is also a link to the Target website where you can download the whole album for FREE. After getting the free VeggieTales Christmas album last week, I'm definitely excited to listen to this one. Maybe Ian will still like to listen (he wasn't a fan of the VTC).

Enjoy!!

I'm alive!

So I post all the time on my religion class blog and I forget about this one. But...here I am!

Dang, I don't actually have anything cool to say.

I've been hanging out with people from Relief Society lately. That's been fun. We made some coasters!! I have another set in the car, they weren't done drying yet so I left them out there because I didn't want to drop them on the way in. I did something crafty!!!

I fell down some stairs like over a month ago. This picture is about 2 weeks old. I still cant touch my leg without it hurting super badly, but at least it doesn't look as gross.

I graduate in 17 days!! Which means I should be doing homework now but I did a lot this morning and I'm kinda tired of it. But I'm doing well. The other day I got some feedback on my work and the teacher said "I wish everyone turned in work like this!" Haha, it took me about 20 minutes to do it haha!

I gotta get back to work. Toodles!!

Wake me up before you go go...

So married life is still good :)

I started a job last week nannying a sweet 6 year old. He's easy to work with most of the time but there are spurts of me really earning my paycheck.

I started school this week: last semester before I graduate!

My friend Ash just got married and Ian and I got all dressed up to go to the reception. It was nice.

We're getting closer to ready for Idaho too, which is very exciting!

I'd put a picture but I don't have any recent ones....

Wedding Excitement

I had such a great week.

My friends Cherie and Whitney came in on Tuesday. It had been 3 years since I saw Whit and like 9 months since I had seen Cherie. It was as if I saw them yesterday, I loved having them back. On Wednesday Aly came in which was also fantastic!

Thursday, Ian met my mom and sisters and then we headed up to the hotel with my bridesmaids.

We got a call on the way saying the temple was without power and they weren't expecting it on Friday either. There were huge storms in the area. (I guess that's what we get for get married on Friday the 13th, huh? haha) When the girls and I got to our hotel we said goodbye to Ian and we went and got our nails done. Then we went to dinner and the awkward waiter gave me my drink and our appetizer for free since he wasn't allowed to sing a song for me getting married, and I suppose he didn't know one either! But free food is always better than a song.

I was actually able to sleep pretty well Thursday night, and got up around 5am to get ready. The girls and I got breakfast downstairs and then we did hair and makeup. We got to the temple right on time and it was amazing.

By the time we got outside the sun was peeking out from the clouds and gave us great light for the pictures. We only took a few because we knew traffic would be bad. The drive home took 6 hours! It normally takes around 4. Boo traffic!

The reception was lots of fun, though there were some problems getting the audio set up. It was nice to see everyone and we finally got to see our cake! There wasn't as much dancing as I hoped people would do, but Ian and I had fun and that's what counts right?

We went off to our honeymoon in Williamsburg and ate soooo much good food! Ian's uncle and aunt got us certificates for dinner and they were well used :)

Now back to the job hunt and life, but I am loving married life! It's pretty much amazing!

Mrs. H

That's me!!

Pictures later!

Loves!!

Psst...

I'm getting married on Friday.


YAY!!!

Giveaway!

I found this from a friend, Lisa (the one that did the family photos with Ian's family). How cute is this stuff? I saw the aprons and thought of you Stacey! But if you, don't tell me :P

http://homemakerscottage.blogspot.com/2010/07/announcing-ultimate-homemakers-giveaway.html

Best blog-hopping night...EVER (Fairly wordy, but I think it's a good post)

So tonight after I left Ian's house I felt so good. I am so excited to marry him and be sealed to him forever. I sent him a text from the first light after his house (no drive-texting for me!) and said "While I don't like the feeling of leaving you at night, I love the feeling of knowing that we are being completely good right now." We've been engaged FOREVER it seems and it could be very easy to mess up, but we both know it's not worth it so it's not going to happen.

So after I got home, feeling all good about myself and what not, I decided to do some blog hopping. I hit the lovely "next blog" button on the top of the screen. I was sent to a family from St. George. I ended up clicking on a friend of theirs, a photographer, because I wanted to see more of her work. After checking it out, I hit "next blog" again (what? You know you blog stalk too :P)

*This time I was sent to one with a quote in the sidebar about heaven.
*Then one with a tagline (that's what I'm calling that little line people put like over their picture) "We have been chosen to raise children of the King. A son and two daughters of the Most High. What a privilege...and a responsibility."
Again..
*Thanking Jesus for the men in her life
*A blog with a list of ministries and Bible commentaries in their own section of sites s/he visits.
*I was greeted with a picture of a man with a cartoony giant ear and the title "Listening to God today?"
*A blog titled "Moms United Prayer for Unsaved Family"
*A blog from a cancer patient who leads ministries around the world. His tagline is "Dave's point of view with a Christ-like perspective. "God said it, not me""
*A blog following a mission youth group's activities
*A pastor's blog
*A blog from a student who's just finished her first year at a Christian University who had an amazing poem of God as her top post. (Remember this one...)
*"Chocolate and Coffee, being a Pastor's wife"
*A mom wanting to update her friends on her daughter's Bible study*
*A religious works author, who is a convert to the Catholic Church and a former Episcopal priest.
*Another Father's Day post being thankful to all the fathers in her life, including in Heaven
*Looking at Truth, Looking to God's Word for real answers to all the questions life brings
*Lectionary commentary from the Massachusetts Bible Society
*Remember that blog about the student with the poem. It brought me back here...


So I decided to read the poem. It's the lyrics to a song called "In Christ Alone." There are so many versions of it on youtube. Here is just one I found...



I think it's interesting of all the times I hit "next blog" I ended up with a strong overtone of love of God. It's funny because I always feel weird talking about religion too much on here, but I'm not sure why exactly. Here's 20 some blogs that I just clicked on randomly that have no fear or regret posting these messages.



By the way, I thought I'd see where else it goes. The next one led me to a post about a solar oven. I thought I had finally run out my luck? Nope, I scrolled down a little further. The man was making a solar oven because he lives off the land so he can enjoy all of God's wonders. Let's see what else....

My bouquet!

So I finished my bouquet! Yay me!! I wanted something original, something that wasn't silk flowers (real ones are $$ and they would die between the wedding and reception seeing as they're on two different days), and something I could be proud of.

And what better time than to come up with some sort of crafty skill to put in my book of things I know how to do.

My inspirations....

Aren't they FANTASTIC?!

I love them. So this is what I came up with. I can't wait to get some better pictures of them (like with me in my wedding dress haha!) I made "button-eres" for the boys and some to put on the tables as well.

Here's my basic approach:

100 ft of "clothesline wire" (I think that's like 9 gauge?)

800 buttons--slightly overkill if you're just doing bouquets, but I've made table decor, "button-eres" and jewelry for the Moms also.

Beads

Needle-nose pliers and wire cutters

Tape (floral or duct)

Ribbon

There are different types of buttons. Some have "shanks" on them and some have holes, either 2 or 4. I bent a 12-15 inch piece of wire at the top third and added a shanked button at the top. After bending the wire tightly around the shank (without breaking it off), I would add other buttons either by sliding them through two ends of wire, or alternating them with one button on one end and another on the other. I added beads to space the buttons out more. Then I wrapped the ends together and made it as small as I could so it would stay together. The bridesmaid bouquets have about 15 "flowers" and mine has 30. I wrapped them in tape to keep from getting poked and then added the ribbon to make it look prettier.

The great thing about these being on wire is I can bend it out wider or narrower as I want. The button-eres are single "flowers" and the bracelets for the moms have the buttons laying flat on the ribbon.

Mother's bracelets

Mixed in with the other table decor

"Button-eres" Notice the center one has a matching button as my bouquet. That's Ian's. Awww

All of the girls

Hardest project of all of them. I had to stack the beads, connect the ends, and loop them around so they'd connect. But I LOVE it now that it's done! This is something I feel like I can hang on my wall even after the wedding and be proud of!