Chop Chop

I loved having my long hair! It was fun to play with and style such long hair-- it allowed for a lot of experimenting! The time was fast approaching that it needed a trim, and I was putting off making the hair appointment. Getting your haircut in a nice salon is SO expensive! And I wasn't quite ready to splurge for that just yet.

 But, as the summer months got hotter and hotter, I decided I needed a real change...

Change:

a. To cause to be different

b. To give a completely different form or appearance to; transform:

Yep, that's a big change! I chopped it all off! I decided to donate it to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths program. They take hair from donations to make wigs for cancer patients.  They give the wigs to the American Cancer Society, who then gives them for free to women who suffer from cancer. It takes about 6 ponytails (at a minimum of 8 inches EACH) to make each wig. It also takes three to four months to make one wig. There is so much put into each wig, I feel like I should donate hair whenever I can to help out.

This is the fourth time I've done the chop-half-my-hair off, and I LOVE doing it. It is so nice to get a fresh start, a new style, and change things up a bit. 

Excuse the wrinkled shirt... I was in the process of getting ready for work when these pictures were being taken.

But I love the new change, Nate loves it, and its great. The summer heat is so much more bearable!

Alterations

When I was in California, my grandma Lynn bought me two super cute dresses, for $10 each! It was a steal and I was really excited to get them. I loved this blue one because I've been looking for a dress with the elastic band connecting the top and skirt. I can never find them that are long enough though! So even though I thought it would be a great one to wear to work because it was modest on top and a light dress, but it was just barely too short. 

I couldn't wear it without altering it, so I needed to change it. I found this great fabric at Joanne's that matched almost exactly! It was not the same type of fabric, but it was pretty stretchy like the rest of the skirt, so it would be restrictive. 

To add length to the skirt:

1. I matched the ends and ironed it so everything would lay flat and even. 

2. I figured I needed another 2 inches at least, so I added another one for good measure (haha sewing humor). I used this ruler to make sure I pinned at the 3 inch mark all the way down.

3. I pinned it down the length of the fabric and matched it to the hem of my dress. 

4. I sewed right above the hem so it would be even and the previous hem wouldn't be seen. And viola! My new dress:

Yay! I love it. And I was so proud of it, I just twirled around the apartment the night I finished it. I love that I have my sewing machine (that my wonderful husband got me for my birthday) and that I can do useful things with it! 

I want to learn more about sewing so I can make clothes for my family and fix modest dresses for my girls! It is such a good skill I can use for the rest of my life. I really like getting something basic, like fabric, and putting it together to make something useful. I feel so accomplished! Hopefully there is more in the future. 

Yogurtland

I work at Yogurtland! I helped open the Orem, Utah store in March of 2011, so I've been working there for just over 4 months. It is actually pretty fun, but I get a little tired of it. I'm a shift leader there, meaning I take the place of the manager when he is gone. I like it for the most part.... I just work long shifts till 1 in the morning, which is pretty rough when I have to get up to work at the Missionary Training Center the next morning. But, it is a good job and I get along with the people I work with. 

Usually Saturday nights are pretty busy, crowded with families out for a treat, teenagers with their friends, and adults out with their dates. Last Saturday was surprisingly busy, without any real break from 6 to 11:30 or so. But what made it extra exciting was our special guest who popped in...

Yep. That's Steve Young, the one and only. Of all 100000 yogurt places in the Provo/Orem area, he and his family came to ours! And I got a picture. Wooo! I felt like such a dweeb asking for a picture, but 1. I had to, and 2. my manager told me we had to get one (we have a picture with Jimmer on our wall, so we're starting a celebrity wall of sorts I suppose). But he was super nice about it and had his mom take the picture for us! 

And, the stinky part- I forgot to wear makeup that day. Oops! But at least I didn't have my visor on.... Then I don't even think I would post this. 

Adventures in B-town

Nate and I were able to go to visit his family in Boise over the 4th of July weekend. It was really fun being able to get away for a few days and hang out with them! It is only the two of them and their youngest, Logan, at home so it is much calmer than my house. We got there after about 6 hours of driving on the middle-of-nowhere roads between Utah and Idaho. 

We entertained ourselves with chatting and talking about whatever popped into our heads. I like road trips for that very reason! I love that we had lots to talk about for hours, on random subjects, just because we can. We're serious, we laugh, speculate, sing, dance, and joke. It's a great ride! But also another great part-- silence isn't awkward. I feel okay not talking sometimes. It's great to have someone to be with and even though you're not talking, you still love being with them. When I was younger I was always afraid I'd get bored of my husband because we'd run out of things to talk about. Granted, we've only been married six months, but I'm glad that I can stop worrying about getting bored with Nate for the next, oh, eternity. Phew! 

Pretty flowers in Idaho City!

We had lots of fun adventures in B-town. Thursday we went to Idaho City. It is an old, rundown mining town with museums, antique shops, historic homes and landmarks, speciality stores. There are probably a total of 300 people in the entire town. It was easy to tell the town is not the hopping place it used to be: every time we walked into a store, the store owners were super excited to see us, talk about their store, show us around, ask us about ourselves, etc. Even though we learned a lot about the mining history of Idaho City, my favorite was this old house we stopped by! 

It was so cool! At first it looked like a junkyard, there were just piles and piles of old stuff! And then we figured out there was some sort of a structure, so we tried to find the door to the store. Wrong. Finally we figured out it was a house that was no longer occupado. So we could only marvel at the doo-dads collected and take some pictures. 

Imagine trying to clean this place!

Awe cute!

 On our way out we stopped at a delicious ice cream shop. They were making homemade waffle cones, the scent just caught me so I couldn't think of any other kind of food. So we had waffle cone ice creams for lunch. Yum!

Friday we went to Municipal Park and played all day! Jason and Chantelle came with us, which was super fun! I was glad they joined us for the day. We put up a badminton net and played with this huge birdie and tennis rackets. Thankfully, it was less embarrassing than it could have been for me. We also played football and frisbee and went to the Nature park! We saw some animals, bugs, nature scenes. I got some great pictures! I love taking pictures of things outside, well, mostly flowers and trees. They don't move or make funny faces or run away like other things can.

Jason and Chantelle!

Fish pond at the park

Love daisies!

On Sunday we got to hang out and just played games with Nate's parents. We played Rummikub and a game where you guess everyone's favorite out of a hand of cards dealt to you--kind of like Apples to Apples but you pick their favorite instead of what they would think is funniest. Monday we mostly spent the morning getting ready to leave and hanging out with the family. We got back in Provo around 7ish and were tired of being in the car. We didn't really get see fireworks, mostly because we were tired and didn't care all that much! What a festive 4th of July!

Our Green Thumbs

We have started a little garden on our balcony, and we love it! It is so exciting and fulfilling to see the growth and change that has happened in the five weeks since we planted it. It took us a long time to get started: we wanted to wait until after finals, then after it got warm, then we couldn't decide what to plant, then finally we just found an afternoon where we had time and did it! We started out with strawberries, beets, sweet peppers, and peas.

The first day!

We kind of cheated with a strawberry start, but we have heard it is so hard to get strawberries to grow from seeds. I figure, we are beginners, so its okay to take all the help we can get. When we left for California, we only had a few little sprouts. While we were gone, it seemed that everything woke up from a deep slumber and decided to grow a little bit!

After we got back, we had a Relief Society Activity about self-reliance/the Law of the Harvest and at the end of the lesson we had them plant seeds as an illustration for "that which ye sew ye shall also reap." There I got a green pepper plant and a tomato plant (which, neither of us are crazy about tomatoes, but figured maybe we would eat them if they were home grown?). The green pepper plant was a little sad at first, but then a flower started to form! A good sign! However, all of the leaves whithered and fell off, probably not a good sign. So hopefully they are doing well and will pull through! The tomato plant could not have been more opposite! It is like we flipped a switch and all of a sudden it just sprung out of it's shell and grew to more than 2 feet tall!

the Newbies: green pepper and tomato plants

Our booming strawberry bush

Our sad squished beets

Sweet peppers finally poking out!

Sweet peas are just shooting out!

We're in Boise visiting Nathan's family, so hopefully our little garden doesn't shrivel up at our absence. And I had already started this while at home, don't worry I'm not that obsessed with getting this thing posted on all the time. I just wanted to finish when we had a bit of down time!

Rewind---

Life is great.

Spring term was moderately uneventful, other than I finally finished my online stats class (that I've been working on for nearly an entire year), which was a HUGE relief. And I am pretty happy with my grade considering my track record with math and how much I put off that class. So wooo!

We were able to visit my family in California for a week early in June. It was so fun! I really miss seeing them, just spending time hanging out, playing games, and joking around with everyone. I am so lucky to have the family I do. We're not perfect, but we're good for each other.

I can't believe how much the kids are growing up! I don't really feel like I'm getting that much older, I still feel the same as I have for years. But seeing how tall the boys are getting and how mature the girls are just trips me out! I am so proud of the people they are becoming. I hope that I was a good enough sister while I was at home. There are definitely things that I would like to take back, things I wish I would have changed years ago, but what can you do. I guess the only thing I can do is just be the better sister now. But, it's just not the same.

I wish they all lived close by! Like close enough that it takes less than 12 hours to drive there and we can see them more than every 6 months. I like to know what goes on in their lives, their feelings, etc. without grilling everyone everyday. Regardless... for now I'll just have to deal with it. Sad day.

So while we were there, Alyssa was baptized! It was great... I am really glad we were able to be there for her special day! She looked so pretty that day, just pure and clean and innocent! Grandma and Grandpa Isom were there, as well as Grandma Lynn. We had lots of visitors, but I think it made it even more special for little Lyss. Nate, Trey and I went golfing together on Monday. We were not very good... Nate was 19 over par and he still beat us! (But I beat Trey--kinda) It was a fun afternoon together!

I kept trying to sneak a picture of Trey, and finally got one!

Alyssa's pretzel sand castle

Tuesday we went to the beach and got FRIED! We all got so sunburned, it was painful for almost a week after. We played in the sand, had Jillian fetch the volleyball from the water, kicked around in the freezing water and just had a good time! We then went to dinner for Trex's 15th bday at a DELICIOUS restaurant called Maggiano's. I was so stuffed I could barely move, but it was so worth it.

That was not a real candle

Wednesday we played croquet, just played around, and went to see Pirates of the Caribbean with Mom and Trey. It was really good! It was long, but it didn't seem to drag on like some movies do, so I was grateful for that. And it was the first movie Nate and I had paid for in a regular theater (rather than a dollar theater) in over a year! For some reason I'm decently proud of that... I think its because regular theaters are so dang expensive that I like saving money and exercising self control by waiting 2 months till it gets to the Provo dollar theater. haha.

Thursday Dad took the kids and grandma to the Ventura Pier so we could ride tandem bikes. It was really an adventure! They were more like pedalling go-carts, rather than two bikes attached, so we teamed up and raced up and down the beach. There were two little go-cart type vehicles, and one that was a mini trolley that sat 4 and they all pedaled while sitting up. That was the hardest to pedal on! It was realllly heavy and hard to maneuver. Poor Dad was in that one the whole time. Then we walked on the pier perusing the fishermen, their catches for the day and chasing pigeons!

Friday we were going to try to come to the beach again, but it was so cloudy and chilly we decided not to go. Mom and I had some girly bonding time shopping and the boys did some sport shopping. We just hung out, played more croquet, and my parents took Nate and I out to dinner to P.F. Changs! It was so yummy and fun to chat with them.

Grandma and Jill 

Croquet was the favorite game of the week!

All in all, it was a great trip. We left on Saturday, and by Sunday I was wishing I was back home!

The culmination of all things educational

Finals are approaching... and with it my brain is disappearing!

For some reason, during my busiest times, my mind loves to come up with things it would rather think about than the task at hand. All things crafty and homemade are swirling around in my brain, and I can't get ideas of what I want to do this summer to subside while I'm trying to remember what I've learned for the past 4 months. This seriously happens all the time! I can't control it. Well, at least not yet. But I'm getting lots of fun ideas for painting and sewing and such to decorate my wonderfully cinderblocked apartment. I also have this strange urge to write a book--but have no idea what it would be about! I don't even know enough of anything to write a book! Also, Nate has this wonderful Family Home Evening lesson about gardening, and so we are planning on starting a mini one after this semester on our little balcony, which I am pretty excited about.

In other news, my friend Alise Coombs had her little baby boy! I am so excited for her and her hubby Phill, even though I had to find out from my mom (refer to previous post about no Facebook for Lyndsey).

I am just SO HAPPY now. I love my life, and am so blessed. I enjoy the fact I am almost done with school for the semester. I have a pretty fun job working at Yogurtland, despite the fact that everyone thinks I'm making up the name. BONUS: I also am being promoted to shift leader (woo!) and don't have to wear the goofy visor anymore, plus I get more moolah. I also get to start my job at the Missionary Training Center in the Human Resources department, which I am even more excited about! It will be great to work in such a wonderful environment, and Nate and I will be working at the same place. Double Bonus: it is a 10 minute walk from our apartment, so no wasting gas! My family is doing well, and (as they tell me) all are happy and doing well! My friends are finding the loves of their lives, and consequently there will be about 6 weddings this summer. That just makes me even happier, knowing they are happy and in love (eww)!

And the best part of everything-- My husband Nathan. He is so wonderful to me, I could never ask for anything better. Knowing that I get to see my best friend and eternal companion and spend time with him just keeps me happy all day. Every day my love grows! He is so dedicated to his school work, and so positive about his job (and who wouldn't be-- it's like the top job in town!) it inspires me to work harder and do better. We have our funny little jokes. We watch Seinfeld every night before bed. We check up on each other to make sure our homework is getting done. We play card games in our pajamas and spy from our back porch. It is an ordinary, married college student life. But its the best one I could ask for.

Disconnected

As of Wednesday, March 2, 2011 I have officially been off of Facebook. Not just un-signed in. But out. Off. Gone. Invisible.

I realized, 90% of the people on my Facebook I don't really care if I ever see or talk to again. And that 10%  are people I DO care about... and I actually talk to them on the phone, in person, or text them when I have something to say to them. SHOCKING! I know, what a concept.

I used it as a distraction, something to give myself a break from homework, or whatever else I was doing. But then I would end up stalking random people who showed up on my feed. OR re-stalking my friends. Oy ve. It really was stupid. So I deleted it. And I still have my bored moments. But then I just finish my homework in one sitting. What a concept!

The only negative aspect-I can't stalk my younger brother. It is MUCH easier to find out about which girl he likes by looking at whose pictures he comments on and whose wall he posts on than to ask him 5 thousand questions about it, and not even getting an answer. Ha.

So I challenge you. TRY IT!

Hidden Beauty

In the deep of winter (and particularly under all of this snow) I really start to miss my home of sunny southern California. Yes, hard to imagine, but I miss the warm sun, the sand that always makes a mess, and especially that the only coat I need in the dead of winter is a sweatshirt. I miss not having to worry about freezing when I decide what to wear everyday. For now, I don't really have a choice. So as I was bundling up to walk to class the other day, I realized we live in such a beautiful place! The snow changes everything and makes it look so COOL!

 

The mountains reflect a thousand different colors at sunset and the trees add silhouettes against the evening colors. I love that I can take these pictures when I'm walking from my apartment to class, that I get to see such unique scenes every day.

I love where I live! I love being here and actually seeing seasons, something missing from my hometown.  I'm glad I get to play in the snow, enjoy the fall leaves, and enjoy the outdoors in the warm spring weather. The summer I love, but I might shrivel up and die in the heat here especially without a beach! But we'll see how it goes with my first summer in good 'ol Provo!

I love movies! I love watching them at home or going to theaters to see them, seeing them with lots of friends or just by myself. For me, movies are a kind of way to escape daily life and enter a new world for a bit. It is like story time for adults... We get involved with the characters in their setting. We (or at least I) try to figure out what the problem will be for the characters, and when it comes up, try to figure out how they will fix everything.

The reason I bring this up, is the numerous movie ads that were shown during the Superbowl yesterday. Let's count the new ones they showed... Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Thor, Cowboys & Aliens, Super 8, Captain America: The First Avenger, and finally (give me a second to breathe) Fast and Furious Five. First of all, I think it was very smart to announce these movies coming out during the Superbowl. They get millions of viewers on the highest-watched program of the year. At the same time, I kind of feel bad for the lesser known movies getting overshadowed by the already well-established Pirates, Transformers and Fast and Furious movies (even though these three are the ones I really want to see). I think the newer ones (ie. Cowboys and Aliens-which seems a bit weird, Super 8 and Thor) could be easily forgotten over the hype of these highly anticipated films.

Anyways... I know what I'll be doing this summer!

There is a first time for everything...

I've never really been a huge fan of blogs to be honest. I find them consistently used for people to tell the world about their lives, to brag, to complain, to ramble to people who really don't care all that much for the minute details of lives. If there is anyone interested enough to read it.

But now I am starting one! Mostly for my advertising class (which I am really excited about), but also because I have been thinking lately it would be kind of fun to have a place to put my random thoughts, ideas, and all the other things that I don't have room for in my brain (thus-the brain spillage). I am a little nervous to start one only because I wonder if people will think what I write is weird or pointless or whatever. Or think I am weird. I guess we'll just see how it spans out. So all you Comms 230 students... here is the access to the excess of my brain.