Pools, Pirates & Portland, Oregon

So, I know it's summer and I should have time to post my adventures, but well... I'm lazy:) So, I know it's August but here's what's been happening in June/July (besides buying a house...)

JUNE:

After school got out I decided to spend a week with my favorite 2 & 4 year olds, in the great city of Cincinnati, Ohio. We had good times! We spent a lot of time just "chillin" at the house but did make it to the Air and Space museum in Dayton (Is that right Jamie?) All in all I enjoyed reading, sleeping, playin' with the kids, and more napping :) It's just what the doc ordered!

Here's Allie swimmin in the pool on the deck...



And Lindsay chillin'



Hot babes...




So part of my job during the visit was to help Jamie (my sis) prepare for the next addition to the family by cleaning out the "play room" in their basement. We started working, but were soon attacked by the cutest little pirates EVER... take a look!

The ANGRY ALLIE Pirate



Then, she turned friendly



Then the terrible two-some, Lindsay and Elmo



... Just Lindsay...



We did spend one day at the museum... I took a few pictures, but Allie wasn't in a very good mood (she got scared when we walked under the planes for some reason, which made the visit a little interesting)... so most of the good ones were of Lindsay.







Okay, and to top things off... well for the weekend of the 4th of July I headed to Portland with some girls that I work with. We spent an afternoon at Mt Saint Helen's (which was pretty darn cool!) and I even got to do a session at the Portland temple one evening (which was AWESOME!!! and I needed it that week!). On Saturday (the 4th) I hung out with my friend Ashley (who now lives in the Portland area) and we headed to the beach for fireworks and a good time. It was pretty amazing to see the fireworks while sitting in the sand on the beach! An experience that I won't soon forget... Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera to the beach! Oh, well! I have the memories:)

A hike to some waterfalls...



The temple...



Mt Saint Helen's

A HOUSE... that's BIG NEWS!!!

Tonight I was just looking through my email, deleting emails that are "old" or ones that I don't need to save, and saw an email sent to me by my relator on July 9th. Today is only the 15th, but SO MUCH has happened between the time that she sent that email and the one she sent Today!

So... a little "brief overview"... For the 4th of July I went with a few girls I work with to Portland. Before I left I'd found a place in West Jordan that i really LOVED, but the location wasn't feeling "right". I told my realtor that I would think about things over the weekend and then get back to her when I got back into town... I didn't feel good about things and started thinking it might take a LONG TIME to find something that I would like that much any time soon... I felt a little discouraged! I called her when I got back and set up an appointment to go see a few places that my Mom had found online. There were some properties that looked promising and I started to feel hopeful.

We started a a place that I'd looked at before, but had felt like was too pricey for me. On the return visit, I decided that perhaps, with some bargaining, I could get the price down to something "affordable". Feeling pretty good, we headed to the next stop, but it was way out of my price range, (by about $15,000). I was a little "bummed" because I was thinking this 2nd stop would be a possible match (because I really liked the location of the project). However, after some looking around, we realized that they were building some townhomes (to be finished in September) that would possibly fit within my budget. SO, we decided to take a look. Looking around I immediately liked what I saw... I was thinking that my mom and realtor were not necessarily sure if it was a good buy, so I was a little hesitant... But, the more we saw, the more I LIKED it... and the more it seemed to fit - to ALL of us. So, once done seeing everything, we went back, got some info (they were running a "deal" that ended in 3 days!, and then started a serious look into actually buying one of the unfinished properties.

The next day, I called and got approved for a loan with a GREAT interest rate! and my realtor looked into the builder, the developer, and all the paperwork stuff. We made an appointment and went in to the office on Saturday to put in an offer, and ernest money...AHHH! They told me that they would let me know Monday if my offer was to be accepted (I had some adjustments from their "asking" conditions.)

Early Monday afternoon, hoping that my offer would be accepted, I went to the interior design company and picked out counters, floors, paint, cabinets, etc. Wow, was that OVERWHELMING! So many choices, so many different prices! What can I afford? What's the best choice for me and for a resale? I had a HEADACHE by the time we were done! And then I got a call, late afternoon, from my realtor telling me they had accepted my offer! Yeah, AHH, awesome!, OH MAN...what did I just DO!?!?!?

On Tuesday, I contacted the lender I was HOPING to use, and found out that their interest rates were MUCH higher than the other lender, who had pre-approved me for a loan (and locked me in at that AWESOME interest rate). So, that was a let down, but not a deal killer... I spent some of the afternoon looking at what it would cost me to put in my own granite counter tops, and travertine floors... Man, more decisions! So, I headed back to the "office" to figure out what structural upgrades I wanted to add. Can I say, TIRED!

Today I met with the lender (with the awesome interest rate!), headed back to the interior design place to finalize me counter tops, cabinets, kitchen floors, carpets, paint, etc. WOW, it feels like I've made 1,000 MAJOR decisions! 5 days ago, I was thinking I might have to go back to renting for a while, and now I'm BUYING A HOUSE, I've picked out EVERY inch of it, (hoping that it all turns out okay!!!) and will soon be in some major debt! SO MUCH, SO CRAZY!, SO EXCITING! Did you catch all that? It happened pretty quick... I'm tired just reading about it all over again! Time for a nap! Wait, I'd better take some pictures to post!... no rest for this girl!

"The Wedding"... but not MY wedding...

As I know most of you know (because you came to it) my bestest single friend is no longer single! LAME! Okay, I guess it's okay because in reality I DO like having Adam as part of the family... but STILL! I'm back to being literally on my own... So, a little about the big day! Well, MY version of her big day...

We got up early and headed down town to the temple. And despite an April wedding day, (we thought that the tulips would be out and were hoping it wasn't raining...) and it WASN'T raining! It was SNOWING!!! Yep, snow in April... gotta love Ut. The temple ceremony was really nice and I throughly enjoyed the sealers comments... Personally, my favorite part of the ceremony was where he talked about the fact that if we had been endowed, and didn't have the chance to get married, we had essentially "made it"... So, maybe he didn't say that but that's what I heard. He gave the two of them some great advise on making their married strong through serving each other... which was awesome to think about... and then performed the ordinance. Something funny when I thought about it later, was that when they knelt down, I felt this tightening of my chest and I thought "this is it! you can't turn back!!!... are you SURE about this!" And then I realized, oh, WAIT it's not ME committing to this... it's someone else...WHEW! I'm okay! Guess perhaps I'm not ready for marriage after all!

After the ceremony we went out for family pictures... luckily the snow had stopped but it was really COLD. They turned out pretty good considering that we were all wearing coats and shivering with red noses and pink cheeks!







After all that fun, I headed home and finished up all the flowers. I spent the rest of the day finishing things up after spending the night before getting them started. They all turned out even prettier than I had hoped, due to the HIGH quality of flowers that I got in from my wholesalers... It was LOTS of work but it was all worth it! I just hope someone in the family will return the favor when it's my turn... HINT, HINT!











The reception part was FUN, and there were plenty of people to visit. Things got pretty crowded (despite the nasty snowy, windy weather!) and warm in there but it was awesome to see people from my past. I was glad after all was said and done to be able to GO TO BED! after a long, but memorable day!

A Spring time Trip

So, you'd think that I'd be a little more on the ball, but alas... better late than never, I always say! And generally I'm LATE - SO, here's what happened three months ago in my life!

So, in March Paige and I went on our last "single" sister trip. We decided that we should go see our older sis & nieces before she got married and was too poor to go anywhere. We hopped on a plain, & headed to the Ohio. We didn't stay long - only 3 days, but it was fun to see the girls and to have a few days to do "sister" things. Okay, so mostly we just hung out and watched the girls act like the goofy kids that they are, but I enjoyed it!

A few photo's...


Yes these are "panty liners" that my niece's decided to put on the door below the sink :) Luckily they were on the INSIDE of the door... Nice decorating idea Allie! (Don't worry... there was also one behind the toilet :)... She's bound to end up on HGTV designing someone's new home...)

And, if you thought that the interior decorating skills were good... check out the fashion tips from Ohio this past spring! I know, sorry they are so late... but hey, it's Utah! We're always a month or two behind the times anyway... Check it OUT!

Here's the back view...(complete with wings!)...


And the front... what STYLE!



Don't worry, Lindsay's got the Gammon style vibes as well...



All in all, the trip was enjoyable and these fashionable munchkins were a blast to spend a weekend with! We ended our trip at the museum where the kids (who by the way BEGGED to go to the dinosaur exhibit at the museum... but got scared, so we went to the "discovery" part of the museum...) had a great time playing. Unfortunately my battery died, so you are stuck with some "less than perfect, but all we could get with that last battery juice" pic's...

Not Dead YET!

So, to those of you who think I've died, due to a lack of posting, I say, "I'm NOT dead YET!" The past few months have been VERY busy and have been full of High "highs", and some pretty Low "lows"... such is life I guess. I'm really looking FORWARD to a RELAXING summer break, with NO school and LOTS and LOTS of sleep... something I've been missing out on A LOT lately. I know already that it's going to be full of craziness and hopefully lots of time with family and friends! I hope I'll have more time to update life when I get there... only 4 days left!!! I think I CAN make it!

... a thought...

So, as many already know, my sister is getting married in like 3 weeks! Things are getting rather crazy around our place and since I'm doing lots of the decorating, I'm starting to feel rather stressed too... well, I wish I could say I was perfect, but of course we all know that I'm far from it - which means that I have been neglecting my scripture reading, which means I am captain cranky pants lately...

This morning I decided that 5 min wouldn't make or break my schedule and I sat down to read from the Book of Mormon. I can't tell you the difference it has made! Well, to top that off, I was reading an email from my cousins son, who is currently serving a mission in Australia. He sends a mass email once a week and my cousin forwards it to me. It's funny how his little thoughts have been a real pick me up at times. Gotta love missionaries :)

Well, the thought I had was this one... in this email from Elder Jones, he mentions that if we all would pray with more faith to do what the Lord asks, we would have more confidence, etc. He mentioned the fact that Joseph Smith went into the grove with a sincere faith and desire to really do whatever it was the Lord asked him to do. Now, I may be on my own here, but I've always had this idea in my head that Joseph Smith must have had way more faith than I'll ever have - I mean he was the prophet of the restoration! But it dawned on me, that he didn't have any more faith that I can have! The difference was he was sent here to fulfill a different mission and purpose than me. I guess that means that if I had the faith and it was according to the plan, I could have the same experiences that he did... That makes me want to do better with the whole scripture reading, faith based prayers, etc. EVEN when I'm stuck planning a wedding, and feeling stressed out... I have the same potential and capacity! Just a thought... what do you think?

My height says...

So, I sometimes get a little "curious",... okay nosey, and start blog hopping to random people's blogs, and ran across a link to this thing that tells you what your height means. (You can try it yourself if you'd like...http://www.blogthings.com/whatdoesyourheightsayaboutyouquiz/)

I read this and about died... the last sentence really made me crack up for some reason - so what do you think, is it accurate - not the mexican part, but the rest of it...?


What Does Your Height Say About You?

Your Height Says You're Kind

You are a gifted communicator, and you understand other people well.
You are compassionate and empathetic. You feel other's pain a little too easily.

Because of your open heart and open mind, many people admire and adore you.
You are classy and well mannered. You have the art of charm mastered.

You are about as tall as the average Mexican woman.