Wednesday, July 11, 2012
A few words.
"It is not as a child that I believe and confess Jesus Christ. My hosanna is born of a furnace of doubt." ~Fyodor Dostoevsky. I respect people who find it difficult or impossible to believe because of so much unjustifiable hurt and pain in the world or because the evidence for God's existence does not seem compelling. But yet I believe. I believe in a God who is powerful, knowledgeable, loving, merciful, and good. I see God in the traditions throughout the world giving meaning, purpose, and direction to God's children. Yes, there is hurt, pain and injury in the world, and yes, God's respect for our free will and freedom to believe requires that the evidence for God be noncompelling. I do not pretend to know easy answers... I look forward one day to receiving explanations or understanding of those tough questions. In the meantime, I am grateful for the whisperings from God's spirit and for occasional experiences that confirm to me God's love and care for me and for all creation. Something to think about....
Monday, June 25, 2012
Our 1st Anniversary!!
We had a fabulous Anniversary!! It will definitely be a year to remember!!
First of all, Bruce planned an amazing date!! No really!! He did!! He PLANNED a DATE!!! All on his own... sort of... (I directed him to The Dating Divas for a little direction... he he). It really was such a great date though!!
I first woke up that morning to this lovely invitation left out on the table. (He actually did this all by himself, no template was used or anything! Impressive... Ha ha)
Basically it was just a fancy way of saying we were going to have a Princess Bride themed movie night. He came home that night and wouldn't let me into the living room while he set up our very own Medieval Dinner for two. We had to eat with only our hands. He picked up King and Queen glass goblet looking things... for like $1 at the D.I.
It was quite the fulfilling meal. We were both stuffed with fried chicken and in our old age when we eat too much we fall asleep.... or at least... Bruce does... Ha ha ha
It was, like, 8:30 and my husband was completely OUT!!! He works soooo hard though (having found a temporary job at the D.I. wears him down!!) But after a quick 30 min. nap or so he woke up so that he wouldn't forget the extra dessert to give me throughout the movie.
When they announced Princess Buttercup we got to eat Reese's peanut buttercups. When Miracle Max creates the chocolate magic pill to wake up Wesley from his dead sleep... we got to eat chocolate covered raisins. And finally when Inigo Montoya found the Six-fingered man, we ate a kit-kat that is conveniently separated into 6 separate bars... ha ha I thought it was hilariously clever and it kept me excited the whole movie to find out what could be coming next.
After the movie, we decided to take a drive up to Tony Grove. It was almost dark but it was nice just to drive out into nature for a couple hours and be able to talk and reconnect. The stars were gorgeous and we saw (and were almost killed by) two dear that were less than a foot from our car. (Absolutely frightening but good memories nonetheless...).
We actually had this date on Thursday night, even though our Anniversary was not until Friday because we had planned a trip to Bear Lake with our good friends Shelby and Adam!
They came up to Logan at around 4:00 in the afternoon. The VERY FIRST THING on our agenda was to see BRAVE!!!! So we made the boys get our dinner while Shelby and I saved spots in line. We got tickets to the 5 o' clock 3D show and we were very, very excited.
The boys went to Costa Vida to get some take out but instead of eating their dinner and bringing ours in so we could go outside to eat while they took our place in line, they just brought it all in. The problem was it was about 4:50, the movie was about to start and we knew they weren't going to let us bring the salads and giant burritos into the theater. Shelby and I went outside to 'scarf' down our dinners while the boys went in to save us seats. As Shelby and I sat outside on the grass, choking our food down, we wished we could eat this delicious food calmly while enjoying the movie.... well....
We're definitely not the rebellious types and even something as simple as sneaking food in a theater stressed us out. Especially because of the amount of food we wanted to sneak in. I'm sure you've seen Costa Vida dishes, those things are not conveniently hidden. Well, somehow we managed to stuff 2 pork salads and 2 pork burritos under jackets and in our purses. We knew we looked ridiculous but went inside anyways. They ripped our tickets and directed us to the right theater. Shelby and I, relieved, started heading in that direction when all of a sudden we heard a "Hey wait a minute, girls, come back!!" We stopped dead in our tracks. We turned around with our overstuffed purses and giant pile of 'jackets', the unmistakable guilt all over our faces. "You forgot your 3D glasses!" Ooooohhhhh!!! Thank goodness!!! We got our glasses and went into the theater. There we giggled and giggled as our husbands looked at us as if we were lunatics. It was like we were Mary Poppins pulling all of this food out of our purses and passing it around to their proper owners. We were able to thoroughly enjoy our dinner while watching one of the best movies I've seen in a while.
Brave was absolutely fantastic!!! I loved it! The previews that they show for it are good because they don't give away anything! After the first bit of the movie I realized I had already seen pretty much everything from the previews and the mystery of the story was so exciting. I won't give it away at all! It was way too fun to watch it all unfold!! I loved it! I want to see it again right now!!!
After the movie we went on our way to Bear Lake. I was able to reserve this lake-side campground that had a fire pit, picnic table, and water spout. We were definitely not alone as there were other sites all around us, but I liked it better that way. I was a little bit more comforted. That night we had to quickly set up our tents before the sun went away. The boys built us a roaring fire and we had S'mores and talked late into the night.
The next morning we woke up with excitement of being able to swim and relax in the warm weather all day. Unfortunately, mother nature decided that severe wind would be a better plan. We had to collapse our tents so they wouldn't break and decided to go to Minnetonka Cave to give the wind some time to die down.
Minnetonka was about an hour drive from our campsite and unfortunately the canyon roads were tiny, long, windy, twisty, and curvy. The perfect recipe for CAR SICKNESS!!!! I was sooooo sick. That's all. You'd think that I'd have learned from the Disneyland experience last February but alas, I was unprepared. At least I didn't hurl. I was definitely weak and exhausted from the drive by the time we got to Minnetonka and was really not sure if I could last for another 888 stairs. But... I did! And I was super proud of myself.
Shelby and I have been to Minnetonka before, but the boys hadn't. We had a really good time! At the end when the tour guide turns out the lights and let's you experience complete darkness we shared a couple smooches while nobody was looking! Ooh! Romantic!! Ha ha Then the tour guide asked if there was someone who had a diamond engagement ring so she could show us a cool trick! I was quick to volunteer and keeping the lights off she shined her red laser pointer into my ring and it shimmered red sparkles all over the cave! It was pretty sweet. Then the tour guide did Shelby's ring, and all the girls lined up to see if their diamonds were real! Ha ha One poor girl went up to see hers shine and the tour guide says "Oh wow, yours is really tiny..." it went silent and she was the last one to go up. Ha ha ha It was kind of funny though...
Anyways!! On our way home we went to find the wind just as miserable as ever. We couldn't relax and play card games, or hardly even eat. We decided to go down by the beach but Shelby and I both weren't feeling the best and ended up just watching our husbands goof off. They both had sand all over their butts as they tried to see who could find the biggest rock/piece of metal debris to skip across the lake. Then Bruce collected a water bottle of seashells for me to go into our Little Mermaid themed house someday. (See?? Isn't he so thoughtful!!) Ha ha
After the sun became too much for us to bear, we headed into town for some famous Raspberry shakes. That night ended with Hobo dinners and many laughs! Ha ha
The next morning we planned on coming home and we were all surprisingly exhausted. We just sat and talked for a couple hours enjoying the calm sun! Then all of a sudden the whirlwind hit out of nowhere and we were scrambling to put away all of our camping items without being blown away! Folding up our tents was the worst!! We literally could use those things as parachutes!! It was crazy!!
Coming home was such just as good as leaving and we said goodbye to Shelby and Adam! We had such an awesome time with them! Honestly I hardly got to see Bruce at all because him and Adam were talking non-stop. They were talking so much they'd just mindlessly make our dinners and clean up while Shelby and I would sit in the tent talking or playing Phase 10. It was nice to have some girl time and also to see how well our husbands were getting along. (Not that we were worried.) We shared many stories and even though the weather was annoying it was quite the therapy we all needed. I'd go again in a heartbeat!!
So all in all, our Anniversary was memorable and I'm so grateful I have such an amazing husband! This first year has really taught us a lot about each other, but I feel we've already made it through some interesting times. I have no doubt we'll stay strong throughout future trials and I can't wait to see what comes our way good and bad! On that note, I start another chapter of my life tomorrow as I start school! I'll be graduated by next March and we'll be ready for even more changes!! I love this stage in life, being newlyweds in love, going to school, barely scraping by. It really teaches you to rely on each other and to rely on God. I'm so grateful that we are so blessed.
First of all, Bruce planned an amazing date!! No really!! He did!! He PLANNED a DATE!!! All on his own... sort of... (I directed him to The Dating Divas for a little direction... he he). It really was such a great date though!!
I first woke up that morning to this lovely invitation left out on the table. (He actually did this all by himself, no template was used or anything! Impressive... Ha ha)
Basically it was just a fancy way of saying we were going to have a Princess Bride themed movie night. He came home that night and wouldn't let me into the living room while he set up our very own Medieval Dinner for two. We had to eat with only our hands. He picked up King and Queen glass goblet looking things... for like $1 at the D.I.
It was quite the fulfilling meal. We were both stuffed with fried chicken and in our old age when we eat too much we fall asleep.... or at least... Bruce does... Ha ha ha
It was, like, 8:30 and my husband was completely OUT!!! He works soooo hard though (having found a temporary job at the D.I. wears him down!!) But after a quick 30 min. nap or so he woke up so that he wouldn't forget the extra dessert to give me throughout the movie.
When they announced Princess Buttercup we got to eat Reese's peanut buttercups. When Miracle Max creates the chocolate magic pill to wake up Wesley from his dead sleep... we got to eat chocolate covered raisins. And finally when Inigo Montoya found the Six-fingered man, we ate a kit-kat that is conveniently separated into 6 separate bars... ha ha I thought it was hilariously clever and it kept me excited the whole movie to find out what could be coming next.
After the movie, we decided to take a drive up to Tony Grove. It was almost dark but it was nice just to drive out into nature for a couple hours and be able to talk and reconnect. The stars were gorgeous and we saw (and were almost killed by) two dear that were less than a foot from our car. (Absolutely frightening but good memories nonetheless...).
We actually had this date on Thursday night, even though our Anniversary was not until Friday because we had planned a trip to Bear Lake with our good friends Shelby and Adam!
They came up to Logan at around 4:00 in the afternoon. The VERY FIRST THING on our agenda was to see BRAVE!!!! So we made the boys get our dinner while Shelby and I saved spots in line. We got tickets to the 5 o' clock 3D show and we were very, very excited.
The boys went to Costa Vida to get some take out but instead of eating their dinner and bringing ours in so we could go outside to eat while they took our place in line, they just brought it all in. The problem was it was about 4:50, the movie was about to start and we knew they weren't going to let us bring the salads and giant burritos into the theater. Shelby and I went outside to 'scarf' down our dinners while the boys went in to save us seats. As Shelby and I sat outside on the grass, choking our food down, we wished we could eat this delicious food calmly while enjoying the movie.... well....
We're definitely not the rebellious types and even something as simple as sneaking food in a theater stressed us out. Especially because of the amount of food we wanted to sneak in. I'm sure you've seen Costa Vida dishes, those things are not conveniently hidden. Well, somehow we managed to stuff 2 pork salads and 2 pork burritos under jackets and in our purses. We knew we looked ridiculous but went inside anyways. They ripped our tickets and directed us to the right theater. Shelby and I, relieved, started heading in that direction when all of a sudden we heard a "Hey wait a minute, girls, come back!!" We stopped dead in our tracks. We turned around with our overstuffed purses and giant pile of 'jackets', the unmistakable guilt all over our faces. "You forgot your 3D glasses!" Ooooohhhhh!!! Thank goodness!!! We got our glasses and went into the theater. There we giggled and giggled as our husbands looked at us as if we were lunatics. It was like we were Mary Poppins pulling all of this food out of our purses and passing it around to their proper owners. We were able to thoroughly enjoy our dinner while watching one of the best movies I've seen in a while.
Brave was absolutely fantastic!!! I loved it! The previews that they show for it are good because they don't give away anything! After the first bit of the movie I realized I had already seen pretty much everything from the previews and the mystery of the story was so exciting. I won't give it away at all! It was way too fun to watch it all unfold!! I loved it! I want to see it again right now!!!
After the movie we went on our way to Bear Lake. I was able to reserve this lake-side campground that had a fire pit, picnic table, and water spout. We were definitely not alone as there were other sites all around us, but I liked it better that way. I was a little bit more comforted. That night we had to quickly set up our tents before the sun went away. The boys built us a roaring fire and we had S'mores and talked late into the night.
The next morning we woke up with excitement of being able to swim and relax in the warm weather all day. Unfortunately, mother nature decided that severe wind would be a better plan. We had to collapse our tents so they wouldn't break and decided to go to Minnetonka Cave to give the wind some time to die down.
Minnetonka was about an hour drive from our campsite and unfortunately the canyon roads were tiny, long, windy, twisty, and curvy. The perfect recipe for CAR SICKNESS!!!! I was sooooo sick. That's all. You'd think that I'd have learned from the Disneyland experience last February but alas, I was unprepared. At least I didn't hurl. I was definitely weak and exhausted from the drive by the time we got to Minnetonka and was really not sure if I could last for another 888 stairs. But... I did! And I was super proud of myself.
Shelby and I have been to Minnetonka before, but the boys hadn't. We had a really good time! At the end when the tour guide turns out the lights and let's you experience complete darkness we shared a couple smooches while nobody was looking! Ooh! Romantic!! Ha ha Then the tour guide asked if there was someone who had a diamond engagement ring so she could show us a cool trick! I was quick to volunteer and keeping the lights off she shined her red laser pointer into my ring and it shimmered red sparkles all over the cave! It was pretty sweet. Then the tour guide did Shelby's ring, and all the girls lined up to see if their diamonds were real! Ha ha One poor girl went up to see hers shine and the tour guide says "Oh wow, yours is really tiny..." it went silent and she was the last one to go up. Ha ha ha It was kind of funny though...
Anyways!! On our way home we went to find the wind just as miserable as ever. We couldn't relax and play card games, or hardly even eat. We decided to go down by the beach but Shelby and I both weren't feeling the best and ended up just watching our husbands goof off. They both had sand all over their butts as they tried to see who could find the biggest rock/piece of metal debris to skip across the lake. Then Bruce collected a water bottle of seashells for me to go into our Little Mermaid themed house someday. (See?? Isn't he so thoughtful!!) Ha ha
After the sun became too much for us to bear, we headed into town for some famous Raspberry shakes. That night ended with Hobo dinners and many laughs! Ha ha
The next morning we planned on coming home and we were all surprisingly exhausted. We just sat and talked for a couple hours enjoying the calm sun! Then all of a sudden the whirlwind hit out of nowhere and we were scrambling to put away all of our camping items without being blown away! Folding up our tents was the worst!! We literally could use those things as parachutes!! It was crazy!!
Coming home was such just as good as leaving and we said goodbye to Shelby and Adam! We had such an awesome time with them! Honestly I hardly got to see Bruce at all because him and Adam were talking non-stop. They were talking so much they'd just mindlessly make our dinners and clean up while Shelby and I would sit in the tent talking or playing Phase 10. It was nice to have some girl time and also to see how well our husbands were getting along. (Not that we were worried.) We shared many stories and even though the weather was annoying it was quite the therapy we all needed. I'd go again in a heartbeat!!
So all in all, our Anniversary was memorable and I'm so grateful I have such an amazing husband! This first year has really taught us a lot about each other, but I feel we've already made it through some interesting times. I have no doubt we'll stay strong throughout future trials and I can't wait to see what comes our way good and bad! On that note, I start another chapter of my life tomorrow as I start school! I'll be graduated by next March and we'll be ready for even more changes!! I love this stage in life, being newlyweds in love, going to school, barely scraping by. It really teaches you to rely on each other and to rely on God. I'm so grateful that we are so blessed.
Friday, June 1, 2012
The Little Merbabe
You may have some idea of how much I love mermaids.... or you may have absolutely NO IDEA how insane my obsession has lately become. Poor Bruce, I have mermaid decorating plans for, like, every room of our future house! That may or may not happen.... But, the other day Bruce called me his Little Merbabe, and I have started to demand that he address me that from here on out... Yeah... Not weird at all... right...?
Anyways....My Birthday was on Monday (A.K.A. Memorial Day... In memory of... my awesomeness...)! Woo! Officially 21!!
YOU KNOW YOU'RE POOR MARRIED COLLEGE STUDENTS WHEN:
1. Since there's no money in the bank account, your husband steals flowers off of a grave in the Cemetery so you can have a nice birthday surprise. (OK, NOT REALLY!! That's what he TOLD me and I about DIED!!! Then he said he had a coupon for a free bouquet... I'm still not sure what story to believe exactly....)
2. You scramble all over the house, emptying piggy banks, looking in old purses and wallets, moving the couch cushions, and raiding the car to find exactly $6.00 in change so you can do something fun. (We had a buy one get one free admission into Crystal Hot Springs and admission is EXACTLY $6.00!! We paid in 12 quarters, 17 dimes, 10 nickels, 30 pennies and a 50 cent piece.)
3. You get a birthday card in the mail from your Grandma and Grandpa that has $30 dollars in it and you almost cry because it means you'll get to go out to Kneader's for your birthday dinner which is the only thing you really wanted to do anyways. (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Cawley!!)
It was such a fun birthday! At first I was really down about not really having money because Bruce and I didn't know how else to really make it 'special' feeling. We couldn't even buy a cake... or a slice of cake... or a slice of bread.... But I think we really made the best of it! At the end of the day we were both stuffed, sun-burned, relaxed, and exhausted, and ready for a nap!! Which we took on the air mattress that we blew up in the living room, and then when we woke up (3 HOURS LATER!!) we watched the movie What Lies Beneath and I pretty much peed my pants I was so scared. The end.
These will probably be my most favorite memories in the years to come.
GOOD NEWS!!!
Since I'm starting my Esthetics program on June 26 of this year, it apparently falls into the category of the '2011-2012' grant year. July 4th is when it is officially the '2012-2013' grant year. So.... I qualify to get TWO YEARS WORTH OF GRANTS!! Isn't that great?? Especially because Bruce was on his mission and didn't make any money, so when we did our FAFSA for the 2011-2012 year we each qualified for $5,000 in pell-grants!! When we applied for our FAFSA for the 2012-2013 year (this upcoming school year) we were approved for about half of that because Bruce worked part time through-out the school year. We'll still have to take out student loans but not $10,000 anymore!! Probably only HALF that!! I'm sooooo grateful that that worked out! Just another sign that everything's falling into place the way it needs to be.
I also got a job where I will be able to work full-time while going to school full-time. I don't know how I swung it, but a friend of my Mom's works at home as a Record Transcriptionist. She mentioned they were hiring and my Mom got all the information for me. (Thanks Mom!) I got hired and have been working 2 jobs for the past little while. It hasn't been too bad because I'm still in 'training' for the new job so I only have about an hour of work to do a day on my own time. When I'm done training it'll be about 4-5 hours of work to do on my own time. (Which hopefully I can balance). As a record transcriptionist, I just listen to recorded statements (between insurance agents and people who have been in car wrecks or need to file an insurance claim) and I type it out verbatim. That's it. Pretty easy, and it pays well. I'm super happy about that because we can't afford both of us working only part-time.
NOT SO GOOD NEWS....
Bruce has been unemployed for about a month now. It's really stressing him out. He's doing all he can do to get a job. Each morning he gets up same time as I do, gets dressed in suit pants and a tie and takes his resume to every company he can think of. He's probably applied for 50+ jobs and that's not even exaggerating. Every time we think that he'd be perfect for a job or has it in the bag, we find out they hired a friend or relative instead. It's all about who you know here in Logan.
During school Bruce was SUPER on top of things as far as Internships and Scholarships go. He printed off the 5 pages of everyone who was going to be at an Engineering Career Fair, highlighted all the internships he'd be qualified for and printed off separate and custom resumes for each company. When he found out his group of friends (who are all sophomores with him) weren't even going to try for an internship (because sophomores don't normally get them over juniors and seniors) he convinced them all to come with him last minute. I'm so glad he looks out for others, but it ended up all of his friends got internships and not him! :( The same thing happened with Scholarships from the College of Engineering. He convinced them to apply and they all got a scholarship but Bruce didn't. He has said it would be different if he felt these were guys who were way smarter than him, but he feels like they are all pretty equal. I feel bad for him because I know he feels like he's failing somehow, but he is trying so hard, I don't know how that can be counted as failure.
Now we're having the same trouble with just regular summer jobs here in Logan and I just can't wait for him to get busy again. He stays super productive at home (like baking home-made bread, and doing the dishes, and doing the laundry, and cleaning the bathroom, and... wait... maybe I don't want him to get a job...) But I know it drives him crazy knowing that he's not 'doing all he can do'. Which he is, but I understand how he feels.
We just keep trying though. He'll get one eventually, this we KNOW! I mean, we both quit our jobs and felt great about it. So far, it's just worked out for me, but that doesn't mean that those blessings aren't benefiting the both of us. I know he'll get one soon. We're just trying to stay afloat (especially with the Bills) in the meantime. But who hasn't gone through these times, right? We'll make it, and we're having SO much fun while doing it!!
Anyways....My Birthday was on Monday (A.K.A. Memorial Day... In memory of... my awesomeness...)! Woo! Officially 21!!
YOU KNOW YOU'RE POOR MARRIED COLLEGE STUDENTS WHEN:
1. Since there's no money in the bank account, your husband steals flowers off of a grave in the Cemetery so you can have a nice birthday surprise. (OK, NOT REALLY!! That's what he TOLD me and I about DIED!!! Then he said he had a coupon for a free bouquet... I'm still not sure what story to believe exactly....)
2. You scramble all over the house, emptying piggy banks, looking in old purses and wallets, moving the couch cushions, and raiding the car to find exactly $6.00 in change so you can do something fun. (We had a buy one get one free admission into Crystal Hot Springs and admission is EXACTLY $6.00!! We paid in 12 quarters, 17 dimes, 10 nickels, 30 pennies and a 50 cent piece.)
3. You get a birthday card in the mail from your Grandma and Grandpa that has $30 dollars in it and you almost cry because it means you'll get to go out to Kneader's for your birthday dinner which is the only thing you really wanted to do anyways. (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Cawley!!)
It was such a fun birthday! At first I was really down about not really having money because Bruce and I didn't know how else to really make it 'special' feeling. We couldn't even buy a cake... or a slice of cake... or a slice of bread.... But I think we really made the best of it! At the end of the day we were both stuffed, sun-burned, relaxed, and exhausted, and ready for a nap!! Which we took on the air mattress that we blew up in the living room, and then when we woke up (3 HOURS LATER!!) we watched the movie What Lies Beneath and I pretty much peed my pants I was so scared. The end.
These will probably be my most favorite memories in the years to come.
GOOD NEWS!!!
Since I'm starting my Esthetics program on June 26 of this year, it apparently falls into the category of the '2011-2012' grant year. July 4th is when it is officially the '2012-2013' grant year. So.... I qualify to get TWO YEARS WORTH OF GRANTS!! Isn't that great?? Especially because Bruce was on his mission and didn't make any money, so when we did our FAFSA for the 2011-2012 year we each qualified for $5,000 in pell-grants!! When we applied for our FAFSA for the 2012-2013 year (this upcoming school year) we were approved for about half of that because Bruce worked part time through-out the school year. We'll still have to take out student loans but not $10,000 anymore!! Probably only HALF that!! I'm sooooo grateful that that worked out! Just another sign that everything's falling into place the way it needs to be.
I also got a job where I will be able to work full-time while going to school full-time. I don't know how I swung it, but a friend of my Mom's works at home as a Record Transcriptionist. She mentioned they were hiring and my Mom got all the information for me. (Thanks Mom!) I got hired and have been working 2 jobs for the past little while. It hasn't been too bad because I'm still in 'training' for the new job so I only have about an hour of work to do a day on my own time. When I'm done training it'll be about 4-5 hours of work to do on my own time. (Which hopefully I can balance). As a record transcriptionist, I just listen to recorded statements (between insurance agents and people who have been in car wrecks or need to file an insurance claim) and I type it out verbatim. That's it. Pretty easy, and it pays well. I'm super happy about that because we can't afford both of us working only part-time.
NOT SO GOOD NEWS....
Bruce has been unemployed for about a month now. It's really stressing him out. He's doing all he can do to get a job. Each morning he gets up same time as I do, gets dressed in suit pants and a tie and takes his resume to every company he can think of. He's probably applied for 50+ jobs and that's not even exaggerating. Every time we think that he'd be perfect for a job or has it in the bag, we find out they hired a friend or relative instead. It's all about who you know here in Logan.
During school Bruce was SUPER on top of things as far as Internships and Scholarships go. He printed off the 5 pages of everyone who was going to be at an Engineering Career Fair, highlighted all the internships he'd be qualified for and printed off separate and custom resumes for each company. When he found out his group of friends (who are all sophomores with him) weren't even going to try for an internship (because sophomores don't normally get them over juniors and seniors) he convinced them all to come with him last minute. I'm so glad he looks out for others, but it ended up all of his friends got internships and not him! :( The same thing happened with Scholarships from the College of Engineering. He convinced them to apply and they all got a scholarship but Bruce didn't. He has said it would be different if he felt these were guys who were way smarter than him, but he feels like they are all pretty equal. I feel bad for him because I know he feels like he's failing somehow, but he is trying so hard, I don't know how that can be counted as failure.
Now we're having the same trouble with just regular summer jobs here in Logan and I just can't wait for him to get busy again. He stays super productive at home (like baking home-made bread, and doing the dishes, and doing the laundry, and cleaning the bathroom, and... wait... maybe I don't want him to get a job...) But I know it drives him crazy knowing that he's not 'doing all he can do'. Which he is, but I understand how he feels.
We just keep trying though. He'll get one eventually, this we KNOW! I mean, we both quit our jobs and felt great about it. So far, it's just worked out for me, but that doesn't mean that those blessings aren't benefiting the both of us. I know he'll get one soon. We're just trying to stay afloat (especially with the Bills) in the meantime. But who hasn't gone through these times, right? We'll make it, and we're having SO much fun while doing it!!
Friday, April 20, 2012
March Sadness!! -and then Happiness...
I can't really believe how quickly life changes. One second you're watching a movie and the next second you're applying for $9,000 in student loans!!! Let me explain... ;)
So I FINALLY heard word back about the music program. I didn't get in. Not even a little bit. My voice teacher (who is currently a junior in the program) said that although it was unlikely that I wouldn't get in, if that happened they would probably offer me private voice lessons with the instructor and try again next year. I got no such offer. In fact the rejection hit me so hard that I felt like there was absolutely no hope in the words of their e-mail. Just a big fat NO! It kinda makes me tear up just thinking about it. All my hard work since High School, the patient waiting, all the things I did to ensure that I would someday get my education...just to be rejected. Needless to say, I was disappointed. I wish I could say I was completely over it...
Anyways! The next couple weeks were pure confusion. I couldn't decide if I wanted to just enter as a pre-music major and try again in another YEAR!! (the anticipation might really have killed me...), or switch my major to Theater. I feel like my voice has not been trained to be classical, and to be a music performance major, or chorale education major you have to be this picture perfect opera singer. I have a lot more diversity to my voice... I guess... and I just couldn't see myself being able to conform to what they wanted. Whereas in Theater I could still do musical theater but I just didn't know what else to do except to teach.. and I'm not sure that's where I wanted to be...?
So my solution was to cry. Ha ha I tried to keep a positive frame of mind, and it really worked when I had to go to work and see everyone and tell them the news... but then I'd come home... and I started to think that I'd never get out of Phlebotomy.. that I'd be stuck doing mediocre work and not feeling very fulfilled in my life...
I thought maybe we were supposed to have kids! ...Yeah.... that was definitely not the answer either...
The thing is whenever something has been "right" in my life it's all just sort of fallen into place. It becomes something I desire and things happen so "coincidentally" that I know it's not coincidence and I feel like I'm actually heading in the right direction. Very similar feelings happened when I decided to go into Phlebotomy. I happened to get into a class immediately without having to get on a waiting list, for about $100 cheaper than anywhere else. After I got my certificate (I had to wait 5 months..) but I got a full-time job that was able to support me. I moved out alone into a nice apartment and bought a car. I still don't know how I supported myself... by myself... but everything just worked out. Same thing happened with Bruce. In dating other guys I would think maybe I was supposed to marry them, or at least try and see what happened and things just wouldn't force together. When Bruce got home though things just fell together so easily like I always felt they should be.
So here I am trying to FORCE my way into school for the last 3 YEARS and WHY isn't it FALLING INTO PLACE???? I really couldn't understand. I felt it was a righteous desire, that I had my faith in the right place, that I was doing my part... everything I felt was right...
Then I get called into the Bishop's office and he calls me to be the new Relief Society President. I'm 20 yrs. old. There are girls in my ward with MUCH more experience... with children... and marriages that are older than 10 months... I truly felt scared out of my mind but this calling is the thing that saved me out of that manic depression.
I was able to start focusing on other things and keeping busy. Not to be so self-absorbed in WHY I wasn't getting what I WANTED...
After I quit feeling sorry for myself... and came to terms with... everything... I started to latch onto the idea of not going into music... ever. I had to tell myself that it was OK. That there must be other things I'm good at... that it won't mean that I give UP music... just that it becomes a hobby and something to do on the side. That's OK. I can still do community theater. I can still enjoy my love and passion for music without learning EVERYTHING there is to know....
Bruce took me out on a date to see a movie. I think he felt sorry for me always being cooped up in the house while he studies and works, that he didn't argue when I asked if we could see the new movie "Mirror, Mirror." It was darling. I love fairy-tale happy movies like that. The whole time I couldn't stop looking at Snow White's eyelashes. They were so long and beautiful. The whole time I was obsessed with them and the first comment I made when we got out of the movie was "I want eyelashes like Lily Collins..." Bruce laughed at me but it got me on this super weird rampage of searching for places that do eye lash extensions here in Cache Valley. I was determined to get some beautiful long luscious eyelashes. Don't ask me why!!
Well it's pretty expensive anywhere you go so I thought I'd look into the neighboring cosmetology schools to see if they offered a discount. Come to find out Estheticians are the ones who are licensed to do eyelash extensions. Estheticians also learn everything there is to know about the skin. Acne, hormones, rosacea, aging, allergies, skin treatments like facials, microdermabrasion, lasers, hair removal, and much MUCH more!! Oddly enough as I found myself staring at the Esthetics program I felt the odd urge to learn more. What do they make? How long is the program? Where can I work?? I began to do more and more research and found out that Master Estheticians can work in Dermatologists offices. I have told Bruce that the only way I'd ever go further into the medical field was if I could do Dermatology, and since I had no desire to go to medical school, I pretty much had thrown the idea aside. But here was this program staring me in the face.
It's a 10 month program, and there is a school here on Main Street in Logan called the Maximum Style Tec School of Cosmetology. This school offers a 1200 hr. Master Esthetician program where we are able to learn treatments that are not offered anywhere else in the state of Utah. Who would've guessed that Cache Valley held one of the BEST schools for Esthetics in the whole STATE?? Wierd...
Then I read that you can pretty much work anywhere you want. Dr.'s offices, salons, spas, out of your house...
Then it dawned on me. The reason I wanted to get a Choral Education Major was just to teach voice lessons out of my home and be able to earn my living while being a stay-at-home mom. The demand for voice lessons is high but I can't imagine I'd have more students than maybe 6 or 7 a month. Whereas the clientele for face treatments, hair removal, and eyelash extensions, would be much much more. (That fact has been verified by the numerous people I've talked to who have told me about people they know who have done services out of their home and been so busy they had to stop...) My end goal would be to work in a Dr.'s office anywhere. When I worked at Circle of Life, they had a spa downstairs and it's not uncommon for Gynecologists to offer these kinds of treatments in their offices even though it's skincare.
I ran to tell Bruce of my findings and thought for SURE his first comment would be "Cosmetology...?? You want to go into Cosmetology??" But I was SHOCKED at his enthusiasm of what I had found. He really encouraged me to go into this because he could see how excited I was getting about it. That overall sealed the deal for me. We also like the idea of being able to be done with school in 10 months vs. 4 years, and being able to start a family sooner than expected. Another plus is that I'd be fully licensed and able to work full-time while Bruce finishes graduate school. Master Estheticians can start out anywhere from $30-$40 an hour (including tips.)
Well, this is where things finally started falling into place. After finding the Max Style Tec, and finding out that their next class starts in June we decided to go for it. Then we found out it was a $14,000 program. Yeah... I'm not lying...
Federal aid and our savings covers about $5,000 but we will potentially have to take $9,000 student loan. This also terrified me and was a HUGE reason why I didn't want to go to school (the music program) in the first place. I knew I'd have to take out loans every year for me. Bruce is pretty set... until graduate school. After much prayer and consideration, we decided that there's really no better time to take a risk like this. While we're young and childless. In the end of the 4 yrs. it would've taken me to graduate, we would've acquired this much in debt anyways. The only other program around here that teaches Esthetics is in Brigham City. Although it's considerably cheaper, the cost of gas would make it so we'd have to take out a $6,000 loan. So either way... we're screwed. OK, not really. It just seems like a good investment at this point.
This job prospect came out of nowhere as well, where I may still be able to work full-time even though I will be going to school full-time. That's pretty huge. We'll see how that works out. The good thing about all this is the doubts I constantly had about going into the music program, about not being smart enough, or talented enough, or not having the funds to be able to get through... are gone. I told Bruce over and over that I would NOT quit my full-time phlebotomy job until I KNEW we were set with the part-time jobs we needed AND the federal aid and student loans figured out. Well... I haven't found a job yet... I will be taking out more loans than I would've in the beginning... and Bruce may not work at all next semester... but I went ahead and quit my job! It's scary but I love that I'm not terrified to do that anymore.It really confirms to me that things are going in the right direction, and our lives are in the right hands.
So I have to say I'm still sad and disappointed but that is slowly being taken care of because of the faith that I have in my Savior. I know that things will work out. I don't know how but I'm so glad that for once I can say that they WILL... no matter what. It's a good feeling... :)
So I FINALLY heard word back about the music program. I didn't get in. Not even a little bit. My voice teacher (who is currently a junior in the program) said that although it was unlikely that I wouldn't get in, if that happened they would probably offer me private voice lessons with the instructor and try again next year. I got no such offer. In fact the rejection hit me so hard that I felt like there was absolutely no hope in the words of their e-mail. Just a big fat NO! It kinda makes me tear up just thinking about it. All my hard work since High School, the patient waiting, all the things I did to ensure that I would someday get my education...just to be rejected. Needless to say, I was disappointed. I wish I could say I was completely over it...
Anyways! The next couple weeks were pure confusion. I couldn't decide if I wanted to just enter as a pre-music major and try again in another YEAR!! (the anticipation might really have killed me...), or switch my major to Theater. I feel like my voice has not been trained to be classical, and to be a music performance major, or chorale education major you have to be this picture perfect opera singer. I have a lot more diversity to my voice... I guess... and I just couldn't see myself being able to conform to what they wanted. Whereas in Theater I could still do musical theater but I just didn't know what else to do except to teach.. and I'm not sure that's where I wanted to be...?
So my solution was to cry. Ha ha I tried to keep a positive frame of mind, and it really worked when I had to go to work and see everyone and tell them the news... but then I'd come home... and I started to think that I'd never get out of Phlebotomy.. that I'd be stuck doing mediocre work and not feeling very fulfilled in my life...
I thought maybe we were supposed to have kids! ...Yeah.... that was definitely not the answer either...
The thing is whenever something has been "right" in my life it's all just sort of fallen into place. It becomes something I desire and things happen so "coincidentally" that I know it's not coincidence and I feel like I'm actually heading in the right direction. Very similar feelings happened when I decided to go into Phlebotomy. I happened to get into a class immediately without having to get on a waiting list, for about $100 cheaper than anywhere else. After I got my certificate (I had to wait 5 months..) but I got a full-time job that was able to support me. I moved out alone into a nice apartment and bought a car. I still don't know how I supported myself... by myself... but everything just worked out. Same thing happened with Bruce. In dating other guys I would think maybe I was supposed to marry them, or at least try and see what happened and things just wouldn't force together. When Bruce got home though things just fell together so easily like I always felt they should be.
So here I am trying to FORCE my way into school for the last 3 YEARS and WHY isn't it FALLING INTO PLACE???? I really couldn't understand. I felt it was a righteous desire, that I had my faith in the right place, that I was doing my part... everything I felt was right...
Then I get called into the Bishop's office and he calls me to be the new Relief Society President. I'm 20 yrs. old. There are girls in my ward with MUCH more experience... with children... and marriages that are older than 10 months... I truly felt scared out of my mind but this calling is the thing that saved me out of that manic depression.
I was able to start focusing on other things and keeping busy. Not to be so self-absorbed in WHY I wasn't getting what I WANTED...
After I quit feeling sorry for myself... and came to terms with... everything... I started to latch onto the idea of not going into music... ever. I had to tell myself that it was OK. That there must be other things I'm good at... that it won't mean that I give UP music... just that it becomes a hobby and something to do on the side. That's OK. I can still do community theater. I can still enjoy my love and passion for music without learning EVERYTHING there is to know....
Bruce took me out on a date to see a movie. I think he felt sorry for me always being cooped up in the house while he studies and works, that he didn't argue when I asked if we could see the new movie "Mirror, Mirror." It was darling. I love fairy-tale happy movies like that. The whole time I couldn't stop looking at Snow White's eyelashes. They were so long and beautiful. The whole time I was obsessed with them and the first comment I made when we got out of the movie was "I want eyelashes like Lily Collins..." Bruce laughed at me but it got me on this super weird rampage of searching for places that do eye lash extensions here in Cache Valley. I was determined to get some beautiful long luscious eyelashes. Don't ask me why!!
Well it's pretty expensive anywhere you go so I thought I'd look into the neighboring cosmetology schools to see if they offered a discount. Come to find out Estheticians are the ones who are licensed to do eyelash extensions. Estheticians also learn everything there is to know about the skin. Acne, hormones, rosacea, aging, allergies, skin treatments like facials, microdermabrasion, lasers, hair removal, and much MUCH more!! Oddly enough as I found myself staring at the Esthetics program I felt the odd urge to learn more. What do they make? How long is the program? Where can I work?? I began to do more and more research and found out that Master Estheticians can work in Dermatologists offices. I have told Bruce that the only way I'd ever go further into the medical field was if I could do Dermatology, and since I had no desire to go to medical school, I pretty much had thrown the idea aside. But here was this program staring me in the face.
It's a 10 month program, and there is a school here on Main Street in Logan called the Maximum Style Tec School of Cosmetology. This school offers a 1200 hr. Master Esthetician program where we are able to learn treatments that are not offered anywhere else in the state of Utah. Who would've guessed that Cache Valley held one of the BEST schools for Esthetics in the whole STATE?? Wierd...
Then I read that you can pretty much work anywhere you want. Dr.'s offices, salons, spas, out of your house...
Then it dawned on me. The reason I wanted to get a Choral Education Major was just to teach voice lessons out of my home and be able to earn my living while being a stay-at-home mom. The demand for voice lessons is high but I can't imagine I'd have more students than maybe 6 or 7 a month. Whereas the clientele for face treatments, hair removal, and eyelash extensions, would be much much more. (That fact has been verified by the numerous people I've talked to who have told me about people they know who have done services out of their home and been so busy they had to stop...) My end goal would be to work in a Dr.'s office anywhere. When I worked at Circle of Life, they had a spa downstairs and it's not uncommon for Gynecologists to offer these kinds of treatments in their offices even though it's skincare.
I ran to tell Bruce of my findings and thought for SURE his first comment would be "Cosmetology...?? You want to go into Cosmetology??" But I was SHOCKED at his enthusiasm of what I had found. He really encouraged me to go into this because he could see how excited I was getting about it. That overall sealed the deal for me. We also like the idea of being able to be done with school in 10 months vs. 4 years, and being able to start a family sooner than expected. Another plus is that I'd be fully licensed and able to work full-time while Bruce finishes graduate school. Master Estheticians can start out anywhere from $30-$40 an hour (including tips.)
Well, this is where things finally started falling into place. After finding the Max Style Tec, and finding out that their next class starts in June we decided to go for it. Then we found out it was a $14,000 program. Yeah... I'm not lying...
Federal aid and our savings covers about $5,000 but we will potentially have to take $9,000 student loan. This also terrified me and was a HUGE reason why I didn't want to go to school (the music program) in the first place. I knew I'd have to take out loans every year for me. Bruce is pretty set... until graduate school. After much prayer and consideration, we decided that there's really no better time to take a risk like this. While we're young and childless. In the end of the 4 yrs. it would've taken me to graduate, we would've acquired this much in debt anyways. The only other program around here that teaches Esthetics is in Brigham City. Although it's considerably cheaper, the cost of gas would make it so we'd have to take out a $6,000 loan. So either way... we're screwed. OK, not really. It just seems like a good investment at this point.
This job prospect came out of nowhere as well, where I may still be able to work full-time even though I will be going to school full-time. That's pretty huge. We'll see how that works out. The good thing about all this is the doubts I constantly had about going into the music program, about not being smart enough, or talented enough, or not having the funds to be able to get through... are gone. I told Bruce over and over that I would NOT quit my full-time phlebotomy job until I KNEW we were set with the part-time jobs we needed AND the federal aid and student loans figured out. Well... I haven't found a job yet... I will be taking out more loans than I would've in the beginning... and Bruce may not work at all next semester... but I went ahead and quit my job! It's scary but I love that I'm not terrified to do that anymore.It really confirms to me that things are going in the right direction, and our lives are in the right hands.
So I have to say I'm still sad and disappointed but that is slowly being taken care of because of the faith that I have in my Savior. I know that things will work out. I don't know how but I'm so glad that for once I can say that they WILL... no matter what. It's a good feeling... :)
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
For the Love of February
February came and went, and so did my mind. It was quite the CRAZY month. Let's start with the 11th.
Since December (I wish I could have had longer...) I decided to take voice lessons. Really it was a fabulous decision, I just should have signed up earlier. I forgot how LONG it's been since I graduated High School, and in those few precious years since then.. I had completely lost a lot of my technical ability to sing. It was really frustrating my first lesson to have her nagging me about my vowels... UGH!!! But, with a lot of hard work it all came back quickly, and to my delight, I was able to prepare an Italian Aria (Pieta Signore) and an Art Song (Silent Noon) to sing for my audition at USU to get into the Music Education program.
The dreaded (and highly anticipated) day finally came. On February 11th, I gave it my best shot and left it ALLLLLL on the floor for the judges to see. ;) My ONLY regret is that I started with my Italian piece. It's 6 pages long, and basically repeats itself twice. I had honestly worked my butt off on contrasting the emotion so that the second time I sang it through would still be interesting. After I was finished, they asked me to sing my second piece but to be aware that they'd cut me short. This, of course, should have been expected. It's just that the second half of my second song was probably my best stuff... emotionally and technically. So I was kind of bummed that I made that mistake. OH well!! I still gave it my all. I had to sight sing, echo... sing.... ha ha, and take a theory test. As I was walking out of the room I literally had my head held high. I was SO proud of myself. Bruce was sneaky and came in to video-tape the audition for me. After I watched it I just started over-analyzing, over-thinking... etc. I was hoping to hear back from them immediately, and after a month of PURE TORTURE, I decided to e-mail them to see what was going on. I found out, I still have to wait til the end of this month to hear if I was accepted or not. Seriously. KILLING ME!! I'm going to post a little "snippet" of my audition video... Be nice... :)
SO!
Having my audition over with was a huge relief and I was able to focus on the upcoming week. Valentine's day.. and DISNEYLAND!! Woo! I was really looking forward to being able to spend V-Day with Bruce this year. We've known each other for 5 YEARS!! (Only dated for 3 of those years...) And we were never able to be together for Valentine's day.... I couldn't wait.
I had spent a lot of money on Christmas, and Bruce's birthday was Jan. 4th. I used the money I got for Christmas to buy his birthday presents...because we're poor...so I didn't want to do anything too expensive for V-Day. I went for simplicity: His favorite candy bars with his favorite movie.
It's funny really when two people come from two completely different families. My parents always give us a Valentine. Bruce's family completely ignores the holiday. So I understood this in advance... and ignoring the advice that men ALWAYS give women (to say what you want to their face, or they're not going to KNOW what you want...) I hinted... when the subject happened to come up... How much I enjoyed seeing the other girls at work get flowers on their birthday... slash.. Valentine's Day... I really honestly thought that Bruce would be thoughtful enough to do something amazing... so I left it at that.
Well, Valentine's Day came. I woke up and Bruce made me breakfast (Which is not out of the norm...) and I went to work. Surprisingly... No surprises... Ha ha I expected to come home to some sort of gift... I didn't even care if it was extraordinary. Well... we ate dinner... The night went on. Finally, I couldn't hold it in any longer and I brought out his gift with a huge smile on my face! I was ok that he didn't do anything BIG for me, but was excited to read the card he got me... Oh wait...
Bruce accepted the gift and expressed his gratitude to me for thinking of him. Then... continued on his way. There was no "I'm so sorry honey, I forgot about you.." or.. "I didn't get you anything! I didn't even think about it!!"
If you're thinking that Bruce really was playing dumb and planned a huge surprise for me, and just made me THINK he forgot... you would be wrong.
I tried not to be upset because really, how stupid is it to be sad that you didn't get a gift? But... it was our FIRST Valentine's Day! I went silent... like I tend to do when I'm mad or sad, but don't want him to know or get his feelings hurt. He didn't even ask what was wrong until like 11:30 pm... right before bed. Where I started crying and told him that it really was ok, I had just gotten my hopes up.
The innocence on his face was real, as was the embarrassment. He truly did not think to get me anything, and did not realize it was important to me... or anyone for that matter! Ha ha ha
The next morning I was completely over it. Bruce had gotten up early to work on some homework and then announced that he was going outside to clean the snow off my car. (This is not unlike him). When I went outside there was a poem taped to the dashboard of my car... It is SO stinking cute.. and hilarious. I'm going to embarrass him by letting you all read it.... *Ahem*
"To My Sweetheart Alyssa"
There's too many reasons why I love you
to ever put into words.
We're two peas in a pod, twins, we're nerds.
You help me understand what is of real value in this life.
Love, compassion, devotion, that's why you are my wife.
Your child-like love is so fun to be near,
I always smile because of how cute
you are when you say, "Oh Dear".
I know I can be myself around you
without being judged.
You always make sure to let me know I am doing something wrong
with a loving nudge....-ed.
You are so affectionate, caring, passionate,
tender, and warm-hearted.
When I was waiting to propose
I was outsmarted.
You have a heart of gold.
I adore your sincerity, and genuine, sweet personality
... I am sold!
Your focus in life is to make others
happy and feel important.
It is a positive influence to everybody
around you and on the world you grant.
You are pure and real
There's nothing about you that's artific..-ial.
You know how to show true love.
That's a gift from up above.
Yes, you are like seven
But, age isn't important in heaven.
You are beautiful, gorgeous, lovely,
radiant, alluring, and stunning.
Being with you makes my heart start running.
You are talented and downright amazing
without measure.
You will forever be my treasure.
I'm pretty sure every time I read that, I can't stop laughing. That is word for word what he wrote, along with the phrasing. LOL! He is truly... talented....
To be fair, we really are super poor. So even if he wanted to do something "grand", I don't know how we would have afforded it. Also, it is in his nature to treat me extra special EVERY DAY! Not just on a holiday. So I really have to give him credit. He is ALWAYS helping me out with chores. Even though I don't need it. (Except for with cooking...) He'll do dishes, make breakfast, do laundry, make the beds, scrub up my puke (we're getting to that...), scrape off my car and MUCH MUCH more.. I love him so. :)
This is becoming a looooong post, but I'll continue.
Disneyland came the next couple days and it was such a NEEDED vacation. Bruce is SO swamped with school and homework that it was really hard to get out of the mindset of doing homework every spare second. He was doing homework in the car, the plane, the bus, the hotel room, and finally... It was time to have fun and forget about life.
Our hotel room was SIMPLY FANTASTIC!!! We stayed at the Paradise Pier Hotel. Disneyland is a SHORT walk. The Hotel is in the resort. :)
This was our room, minus one bed. :)
And THIS was our view... :)
We had an absolute BLAST on this trip. Seriously fantastic. I won't go into too much detail cuz there is SO much to remember. All I can say is, I bought a gorgeous sequence mickey purse, and Bruce and I got Disney shirts for souvenirs. These are just a FEW of my favorite pictures. :)
We just had so much fun with my family and THANKS to Mom and Dad for treating us. We were so glad we could go and spend time with them. It was the perfect vacation!
We flew there early Saturday morning, and spent Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday in the parks. We flew home late Tuesday night. So after a day of thrill rides, we had to leave to catch our flight. The last snack I remember eating was mint chocolate popcorn that I bought last minute as we were walking out of the park. When we got to the airport we probably had like 10 minutes to grab food for dinner. We went quickly to McDonald's and got on the plane. Unfortunately there was an abundance of turbulence as we tried to land in stormy Salt Lake City. I SERIOUSLY thought I was going to blow chunks on all the good-natured people around me. Thankfully, I did not. Once we got on solid ground, I thought for sure I was fine. The two-hour car ride home went smoothly, and it was a blessing to walk through our apartment doors to our own bed. It was probably about one in the morning when we finally settled down to sleep. I was still complaining about nausea but thought for sure it'd go away by morning. An hour later, without warning, I was puking over the side of our bed... like 4 HUGE times consecutively. (TMI?) There was no chance of me running to the bathroom. I felt absolutely awful. We were exhausted and Bruce was trying to clean it up, and I kept telling him to go back to bed, and he kept telling me it was ok, and to go clean up myself. I took a shower and we didn't get to bed til 3.
That motion sickness stayed with me for the whole weekend. It was absolutely NUTS!! And because of the vomit-in-the-sinus-age... I got a sinus infection (I guess I could have got it elsewhere, but the doctor had this theory...) and I gave it to Bruce. We just BARELY got over the CRAZINESS of February.. and are in MUCH need of another vacation. ;)
But all is finally back to normal...
Sort of...
More to come.. in March.... :)
Since December (I wish I could have had longer...) I decided to take voice lessons. Really it was a fabulous decision, I just should have signed up earlier. I forgot how LONG it's been since I graduated High School, and in those few precious years since then.. I had completely lost a lot of my technical ability to sing. It was really frustrating my first lesson to have her nagging me about my vowels... UGH!!! But, with a lot of hard work it all came back quickly, and to my delight, I was able to prepare an Italian Aria (Pieta Signore) and an Art Song (Silent Noon) to sing for my audition at USU to get into the Music Education program.
The dreaded (and highly anticipated) day finally came. On February 11th, I gave it my best shot and left it ALLLLLL on the floor for the judges to see. ;) My ONLY regret is that I started with my Italian piece. It's 6 pages long, and basically repeats itself twice. I had honestly worked my butt off on contrasting the emotion so that the second time I sang it through would still be interesting. After I was finished, they asked me to sing my second piece but to be aware that they'd cut me short. This, of course, should have been expected. It's just that the second half of my second song was probably my best stuff... emotionally and technically. So I was kind of bummed that I made that mistake. OH well!! I still gave it my all. I had to sight sing, echo... sing.... ha ha, and take a theory test. As I was walking out of the room I literally had my head held high. I was SO proud of myself. Bruce was sneaky and came in to video-tape the audition for me. After I watched it I just started over-analyzing, over-thinking... etc. I was hoping to hear back from them immediately, and after a month of PURE TORTURE, I decided to e-mail them to see what was going on. I found out, I still have to wait til the end of this month to hear if I was accepted or not. Seriously. KILLING ME!! I'm going to post a little "snippet" of my audition video... Be nice... :)
SO!
Having my audition over with was a huge relief and I was able to focus on the upcoming week. Valentine's day.. and DISNEYLAND!! Woo! I was really looking forward to being able to spend V-Day with Bruce this year. We've known each other for 5 YEARS!! (Only dated for 3 of those years...) And we were never able to be together for Valentine's day.... I couldn't wait.
I had spent a lot of money on Christmas, and Bruce's birthday was Jan. 4th. I used the money I got for Christmas to buy his birthday presents...because we're poor...so I didn't want to do anything too expensive for V-Day. I went for simplicity: His favorite candy bars with his favorite movie.
It's funny really when two people come from two completely different families. My parents always give us a Valentine. Bruce's family completely ignores the holiday. So I understood this in advance... and ignoring the advice that men ALWAYS give women (to say what you want to their face, or they're not going to KNOW what you want...) I hinted... when the subject happened to come up... How much I enjoyed seeing the other girls at work get flowers on their birthday... slash.. Valentine's Day... I really honestly thought that Bruce would be thoughtful enough to do something amazing... so I left it at that.
Well, Valentine's Day came. I woke up and Bruce made me breakfast (Which is not out of the norm...) and I went to work. Surprisingly... No surprises... Ha ha I expected to come home to some sort of gift... I didn't even care if it was extraordinary. Well... we ate dinner... The night went on. Finally, I couldn't hold it in any longer and I brought out his gift with a huge smile on my face! I was ok that he didn't do anything BIG for me, but was excited to read the card he got me... Oh wait...
Bruce accepted the gift and expressed his gratitude to me for thinking of him. Then... continued on his way. There was no "I'm so sorry honey, I forgot about you.." or.. "I didn't get you anything! I didn't even think about it!!"
If you're thinking that Bruce really was playing dumb and planned a huge surprise for me, and just made me THINK he forgot... you would be wrong.
I tried not to be upset because really, how stupid is it to be sad that you didn't get a gift? But... it was our FIRST Valentine's Day! I went silent... like I tend to do when I'm mad or sad, but don't want him to know or get his feelings hurt. He didn't even ask what was wrong until like 11:30 pm... right before bed. Where I started crying and told him that it really was ok, I had just gotten my hopes up.
The innocence on his face was real, as was the embarrassment. He truly did not think to get me anything, and did not realize it was important to me... or anyone for that matter! Ha ha ha
The next morning I was completely over it. Bruce had gotten up early to work on some homework and then announced that he was going outside to clean the snow off my car. (This is not unlike him). When I went outside there was a poem taped to the dashboard of my car... It is SO stinking cute.. and hilarious. I'm going to embarrass him by letting you all read it.... *Ahem*
"To My Sweetheart Alyssa"
There's too many reasons why I love you
to ever put into words.
We're two peas in a pod, twins, we're nerds.
You help me understand what is of real value in this life.
Love, compassion, devotion, that's why you are my wife.
Your child-like love is so fun to be near,
I always smile because of how cute
you are when you say, "Oh Dear".
I know I can be myself around you
without being judged.
You always make sure to let me know I am doing something wrong
with a loving nudge....-ed.
You are so affectionate, caring, passionate,
tender, and warm-hearted.
When I was waiting to propose
I was outsmarted.
You have a heart of gold.
I adore your sincerity, and genuine, sweet personality
... I am sold!
Your focus in life is to make others
happy and feel important.
It is a positive influence to everybody
around you and on the world you grant.
You are pure and real
There's nothing about you that's artific..-ial.
You know how to show true love.
That's a gift from up above.
Yes, you are like seven
But, age isn't important in heaven.
You are beautiful, gorgeous, lovely,
radiant, alluring, and stunning.
Being with you makes my heart start running.
You are talented and downright amazing
without measure.
You will forever be my treasure.
I'm pretty sure every time I read that, I can't stop laughing. That is word for word what he wrote, along with the phrasing. LOL! He is truly... talented....
To be fair, we really are super poor. So even if he wanted to do something "grand", I don't know how we would have afforded it. Also, it is in his nature to treat me extra special EVERY DAY! Not just on a holiday. So I really have to give him credit. He is ALWAYS helping me out with chores. Even though I don't need it. (Except for with cooking...) He'll do dishes, make breakfast, do laundry, make the beds, scrub up my puke (we're getting to that...), scrape off my car and MUCH MUCH more.. I love him so. :)
This is becoming a looooong post, but I'll continue.
Disneyland came the next couple days and it was such a NEEDED vacation. Bruce is SO swamped with school and homework that it was really hard to get out of the mindset of doing homework every spare second. He was doing homework in the car, the plane, the bus, the hotel room, and finally... It was time to have fun and forget about life.
Our hotel room was SIMPLY FANTASTIC!!! We stayed at the Paradise Pier Hotel. Disneyland is a SHORT walk. The Hotel is in the resort. :)
This was our room, minus one bed. :)
And THIS was our view... :)
We had an absolute BLAST on this trip. Seriously fantastic. I won't go into too much detail cuz there is SO much to remember. All I can say is, I bought a gorgeous sequence mickey purse, and Bruce and I got Disney shirts for souvenirs. These are just a FEW of my favorite pictures. :)
We just had so much fun with my family and THANKS to Mom and Dad for treating us. We were so glad we could go and spend time with them. It was the perfect vacation!
We flew there early Saturday morning, and spent Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday in the parks. We flew home late Tuesday night. So after a day of thrill rides, we had to leave to catch our flight. The last snack I remember eating was mint chocolate popcorn that I bought last minute as we were walking out of the park. When we got to the airport we probably had like 10 minutes to grab food for dinner. We went quickly to McDonald's and got on the plane. Unfortunately there was an abundance of turbulence as we tried to land in stormy Salt Lake City. I SERIOUSLY thought I was going to blow chunks on all the good-natured people around me. Thankfully, I did not. Once we got on solid ground, I thought for sure I was fine. The two-hour car ride home went smoothly, and it was a blessing to walk through our apartment doors to our own bed. It was probably about one in the morning when we finally settled down to sleep. I was still complaining about nausea but thought for sure it'd go away by morning. An hour later, without warning, I was puking over the side of our bed... like 4 HUGE times consecutively. (TMI?) There was no chance of me running to the bathroom. I felt absolutely awful. We were exhausted and Bruce was trying to clean it up, and I kept telling him to go back to bed, and he kept telling me it was ok, and to go clean up myself. I took a shower and we didn't get to bed til 3.
That motion sickness stayed with me for the whole weekend. It was absolutely NUTS!! And because of the vomit-in-the-sinus-age... I got a sinus infection (I guess I could have got it elsewhere, but the doctor had this theory...) and I gave it to Bruce. We just BARELY got over the CRAZINESS of February.. and are in MUCH need of another vacation. ;)
But all is finally back to normal...
Sort of...
More to come.. in March.... :)
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Twenty Twelve!!
I am just so happy to say that it is 2012!! What a great year it has been!! I remember this time last year, Bruce had 2 months left of his mission. There was excitement, anticipation, anxiousness, and every other emotion imaginable in the air. I was grateful to see 2010 leave, and ready to start a new year fresh. I am just grateful it turned out the way it did. Bruce and I were able to celebrate our 6 month anniversary on Dec. 22nd, right before Christmas.
I want to share the date idea that I had, and hopefully it's not too inappropriate, because I thought it was just so fun!! Bruce would be embarrassed if he knew I was advertising what I had done for him, but I thought these ideas were so cute!! I found these ideas on this website: http://www.thedatingdivas.com/
These women, are all about keeping dating alive in a marriage and they have some of the most CREATIVE ideas. I took about 3 of their ideas and combined them into one.
First I made an invitation and invited Bruce to a "Rein-DEAR Frolic". I told him to meet me in the "mountains" (our living room) at 7 p.m. on the night of our 6 month anniversary for some fun! Dancer would be there to provide the music, Dasher would bring a "dash" of something sweet, Prancer would bring something for him to prance around in, and Vixen brought something for me to look like a "Vixen" in. These presents were all wrapped individually, and presented to him that night. We went out to eat at the Coppermill Restaurant, which sits on Main Street directly across from the Tabernacle. It's a fun view, and good food. It felt nice to go somewhere a little more special.
On our way home, I blindfolded Bruce and made him walk to the door like that. I had previously decorated the living room. Pushed all the furniture out of the way, laid down a dark green quilt to look like grass, rolled up a brown blanket to look like a log, strategically placed silver pillows or "boulders", emptied a box of tissues... I mean "snow", in piles around the room and especially on our Christmas Pine Tree, and put glow-in-the-dark Stars on the ceiling. It looked pretty fantastic, if I do say so myself. The whole thing looked like a little camp-out spot, just for us... without the cold. :)
We also had another fun activity planned, but for those of you (Mom) who would rather not know, I'll just post a link to the details. It was SO FUN! And I highly recommend you married people trying it out, if you like to have as much goofy fun as Bruce and I do! :)
http://www.thedatingdivas.com/kiirsten/go-picasso/
We were so excited about the gifts that we had gotten for each other for Christmas, that we decided to open our gifts right then and there. He got me a pearl set of ear rings, a necklace, and a bracelet, and Harry Potter Scene it. I must say, he did I MIGHTY FINE job!! I was SO pleasantly surprised. Here's a picture from the Morgan Jeweler's website, doesn't do the set justice, but you get the idea.
I got him some lights for his bike and helmet, a really nice scripture highlighter pen, and a super-mega-foxy-awesome-hot jacket that he looks SMOKIN' in!!! :)
We went down to my grandparent's house for Christmas Eve, and spent the night at my parent's so we could spend Christmas morning with them. Along with a trip to Disneyland (Yes, folks, a fully paid trip... we are SOOOOO spoiled!!) Our gifts included a super nice bag I use for church now, biking sunglasses for Bruce, a gift card to Maurice's, Silly Puddy, House Decorations, an HD Video Camera... and more! I simply cannot even describe how spoiled we were, not just by my parents, but from his parents and BOTH my sets of Grandparents. Overall, our first Christmas together, was MAGICAL!! I am so glad I don't have to spend anymore Christmas' separated by the OCEAN!!!
The Next weekend was New Year's Eve and we went to the Terrace Plaza Playhouse to see our friend Adam Jones as the lead in the musical A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. We got to see all of Bruce's friends before making our way to Salt Lake to see the lights. We had a BLAST!! It was a treat to spend New Year's Eve in Temple Square because they have a lot of bands playing for entertainment, activities for families and kids, and then FIREWORKS at midnight!! I loved it!! Here are some pictures we took that night!! It was FRIGID!! :)
Happy 2012 Everyone!! I hope your Holidays were as GREAT as ours were!!
I want to share the date idea that I had, and hopefully it's not too inappropriate, because I thought it was just so fun!! Bruce would be embarrassed if he knew I was advertising what I had done for him, but I thought these ideas were so cute!! I found these ideas on this website: http://www.thedatingdivas.com/
These women, are all about keeping dating alive in a marriage and they have some of the most CREATIVE ideas. I took about 3 of their ideas and combined them into one.
First I made an invitation and invited Bruce to a "Rein-DEAR Frolic". I told him to meet me in the "mountains" (our living room) at 7 p.m. on the night of our 6 month anniversary for some fun! Dancer would be there to provide the music, Dasher would bring a "dash" of something sweet, Prancer would bring something for him to prance around in, and Vixen brought something for me to look like a "Vixen" in. These presents were all wrapped individually, and presented to him that night. We went out to eat at the Coppermill Restaurant, which sits on Main Street directly across from the Tabernacle. It's a fun view, and good food. It felt nice to go somewhere a little more special.
On our way home, I blindfolded Bruce and made him walk to the door like that. I had previously decorated the living room. Pushed all the furniture out of the way, laid down a dark green quilt to look like grass, rolled up a brown blanket to look like a log, strategically placed silver pillows or "boulders", emptied a box of tissues... I mean "snow", in piles around the room and especially on our Christmas Pine Tree, and put glow-in-the-dark Stars on the ceiling. It looked pretty fantastic, if I do say so myself. The whole thing looked like a little camp-out spot, just for us... without the cold. :)
We also had another fun activity planned, but for those of you (Mom) who would rather not know, I'll just post a link to the details. It was SO FUN! And I highly recommend you married people trying it out, if you like to have as much goofy fun as Bruce and I do! :)
http://www.thedatingdivas.com/kiirsten/go-picasso/
We were so excited about the gifts that we had gotten for each other for Christmas, that we decided to open our gifts right then and there. He got me a pearl set of ear rings, a necklace, and a bracelet, and Harry Potter Scene it. I must say, he did I MIGHTY FINE job!! I was SO pleasantly surprised. Here's a picture from the Morgan Jeweler's website, doesn't do the set justice, but you get the idea.
I got him some lights for his bike and helmet, a really nice scripture highlighter pen, and a super-mega-foxy-awesome-hot jacket that he looks SMOKIN' in!!! :)
We went down to my grandparent's house for Christmas Eve, and spent the night at my parent's so we could spend Christmas morning with them. Along with a trip to Disneyland (Yes, folks, a fully paid trip... we are SOOOOO spoiled!!) Our gifts included a super nice bag I use for church now, biking sunglasses for Bruce, a gift card to Maurice's, Silly Puddy, House Decorations, an HD Video Camera... and more! I simply cannot even describe how spoiled we were, not just by my parents, but from his parents and BOTH my sets of Grandparents. Overall, our first Christmas together, was MAGICAL!! I am so glad I don't have to spend anymore Christmas' separated by the OCEAN!!!
The Next weekend was New Year's Eve and we went to the Terrace Plaza Playhouse to see our friend Adam Jones as the lead in the musical A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. We got to see all of Bruce's friends before making our way to Salt Lake to see the lights. We had a BLAST!! It was a treat to spend New Year's Eve in Temple Square because they have a lot of bands playing for entertainment, activities for families and kids, and then FIREWORKS at midnight!! I loved it!! Here are some pictures we took that night!! It was FRIGID!! :)
Happy 2012 Everyone!! I hope your Holidays were as GREAT as ours were!!
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