An Update!

Okay guys, here it is, an update! You've all been asking for one for a while so I finally am doing it. Happy? Well, I'm doing it but I have no idea what to write about except for the fact that I almost just spelled write "right" so that pretty much shows how my life is going right now. I'm busy and I'm losing my mind. I think that my college education is already slowly slipping away and it's only been four or five months. At work we have been sold out and completely booked with Christmas parties so I've worked a little extra and things have been more stressful than ever with the staff. Not to mention that I've still had to prep a primary lesson and go to my own Christmas parties. By the time this week alone is over John and I will have gone to 4 Christmas parties--both our work parties and two of our friends' parties. And, three of them are white elephants which means that I will have been to WalMart at least once every night this week as well buying stinkin white elephant junk and last minute food/party items. Not to mention the extra house key I had to go get cut because I can't find my house keys. That keyring also has my office keys on it meaning that when I got to work today I didn't have a way into my office!!!! CRAZINESS!!! But I am very pleased with the way things are going with Scentsy. I am loving the product myself and it seems like everyone else does too. I'm also excited by the prospect of having a little extra fun stuff on the side (not that I need more to do) and an excuse to party with my friends. I've had my first two parties this month and I'm really looking forward to January because I'll be having a couple more parties. John started working at Kohl's too because he wanted a way to make extra money for the holidays too. But he works there after his other jobs which means that he doesn't get home until about 12:30 at night and I haven't been able to go to bed before he gets home. I am enjoying his discount though. We are both really looking forward to the holidays though--so much so that John's already given me most of my presents--but we are both very excited to see family and especially for James' wedding. This is a long post and you probably won't read it anyway because there aren't any pictures but oh well, at least I gave the people what they wanted.

Movin on Up!

We have officially moved to Idaho Falls and we live in a little town house in a great little spot. It smelled really funny for some reason--I'm pretty sure the people who lived here before had hamsters or a bird or some other small animal who poops in sawdust. The landlord said that he cleaned the carpets but I'm not sure if he really did because it stank. I finally got it to smell mostly normal now that it's slightly lived in and I bought some airfresheners. Now it smells like Hawaiian breeze with a slight hint of poopy sawdust! : ) No, seriously though, there were a few things that I was disappointed with at first but now that I've cleaned most of it and we've unpacked a lot of stuff those quirks have grown on me a little. I really like the kitchen because there's a lot more space to breath in, but unfortunately that breathing room may be due to the fact that there is a little less counter space. I love the pantry and HALLELUJAH there's a garbage disposal and I don't have to accidentally clog the toilet with grody old cookie dough because I had no where else to dispose of it (don't ask, don't tell!) But the fridge is a little funny because it has wheels and it moves every time I try to open it. And, so far I've had to use our dinky little card table instead of a real one--which is fine, I love you honey! : ) Also our bed frame/headboard thing broke in the move so our bedroom is looking pretty empty too. But it's starting to feel like home so that's good. At this point in our move I dream of Genie, no really! I just wish so badly that I could snap my fingers, cross my arms and nod, wiggle my nose, or whatever other magical gesture there may be to get my house to be amazingly clean and decorated. I want a cute house that feels like home but as you can see from my lovely photos, I've got a LONG ways to go!

This is my little front room when you first walk in.

This is the left corner of my kitchen where all the stuff isn't piled up at the moment!

Here's my cute little half-bathroom between the kitchen and front room.

This is my upstairs vanity area which connects the two bedrooms (kinda odd I know)

This is the bathroom/shower that is behind the vanity area. I got them unpacked first out of everything in my whole house--necessity can lead to great things! : )

Jelly-Stone Park

West Yellowstone!!
Okay, I know I'm still back-tracking here but I want to get caught up so I can be up to date. The day after graduation John and I went to Yellowstone with my family. Becca, Aiden, Chris, and my parents were all loaded in the van in time to make it up there for a 2pm matinee of Oklahoma at the Playmill. As most of you know I am in love with that play and could probably act out every part for you myself. But I had never been to the Playmill and had heard that it was a lot of fun so I figured graduation was a good excuse to take a little trip over there.

The play was well done and the little theater was really cute and had a nice atmosphere because it was such a small little box theater. It was hilarious because my dad decided to rename it the "moulin bleu" because it is a mill and looks a lot like the moulin rouge in Paris (and from the movie). So, those of you who know my dad know that he likes to keep a good thing going and he was making cracks about if this was a burlesque version of Oklahoma with some topless dancers and maybe a little bit more action in the dancing underwear girls scene (during the many a new moon song). And we kept laughing which only encouraged him and we were basically calling it the moulin bleu all afternoon and of course we were saying it with ridiculous french accents. Here it is so you can get the full mental image:

While we were watching the play my nephew, Aiden, was being pretty well behaved and walking back and forth in the aisle. Then he tripped over himself and whacked his face on the chair-back in front of us and bounced on the chair seat behind him. Then of course he started wailing in pain and my sister had to squeeze out of the tiny, box-theater row. After a few minutes of him still screaming my dad went to check on him in case he hit his mouth or something like that. They had to take him all the way out of the theater and walk along the sidewalk until he could calm down because it turned out that he got a nice shiner. There was a gash next to his right eye and he looked pretty pathetic. This is a cute/pathetic photo of his little shiner:
After the play John met up with us, he rode his motorcycle up, and we ate at a delicious fifties style diner that unfortunately was out of garden burgers : ) My sister was all excited because they had them on the menu but then they were all out of them and she was moody the rest of the evening. It was entertaining. There was a toy train that chugged around a rail on the ceiling too and Aiden loved it. I had an amazing chicken sandwich and we ordered some great malted milkshakes. I love fifties diners if only for that reason alone; I love malts! If you don't know this about me already, I'm obsessed with photos so here are some fun ones of my family at the diner:

John and I

Mom & Pop

Becca & Aiden

The Crazy Boys

On Sunday we went into the park and hiked around looking at all the geysers. My dad and I were mostly being obsessive photographers and spent at least ten minutes at every spot worth taking photos of. When I get them edited and everything I'll probably put them on my website or a photography blog when I start one. But here's a sample:







We got back to the hotel pretty late that evening and decided that we really didn't get enough time in the park and especially that we hadn't seen enough animals. So we decided to wake up really early Monday morning (I know you guys are laughing because you don't think my family could wake up and be anywhere early) and go back in for more photos and hiking around. Dad really wanted to see some good buffallo herds and such. We made it in by 6am and did some nice little hikes to some cool water falls and saw quite a few buffallo. We even saw a bear way far away that some park rangers had pinpointed in the telescope. It was fun.

Mr. Buffalo

In front of one of the pretty water falls.

Sweet Rapids

Really Pretty Water Fall

That was yellowstone!
The End!

Graduation!!

I finally graduated from BYU-Idaho after what seemed like forever. In reality it didn't take me too much longer than average to finish my degree. I earned a bachelors of arts in communications with a minor in French. I am glad it's all over with but am not quite sure what to do with myself...well, technically I could be unpacking but who wants to do that. Here are some photos of my graduation which was on July 18th 2008.

That's me by the pretty little Y-of-I made out of carnations.

That's me giving my valedictorian speech. : )

Really pretty flowers in front of the podium...

"Look Jay-chel Grampa's taking a picture!"
Me, my siblings, and my nephew

The ones who got me there!

Me, my hubby, and my sweet mother-in-law.

Me with one of my favorite teachers.

Most of the AVM Girlies!

Like mother like daughter.

Without him I wouldn't have made it either
Although I gotta admit he was a distraction occasionally : )

Everyone but Kyle made it over for the big event.

Buffalo Wing Thing

I've decided that one of my new favorite foods is the Buffalo Wing Thing pizza from Craigo's. It's kind of a funny story too because I was in a group for school and I told one of the group members that "I could have a hot and steamy love affair with that pizza." He laughed--who wouldn't :)--and told me that was ironic because he invented that pizza. Apparently at Craigo's they let their employees be creative with pizza toppings and sauces and such. So this is my shout out to James Rognon (not that he'll ever see this) the father, and creator of the most savory/delicious/scrum-diddly-umptious pizza I've ever had in my life! Ok, so that was a little over dramatic but I really do love that pizza!! I'll explain food-critic style:

The buffalo wing thing pizza is a brilliant combination of two classic American foods--spicy buffalo wings and pizza. The thick Craigo's crust is a perfect palette for this masterpiece which begins with a healthy slathering of barbecue sauce. This savory sauce is joined by deliciously melted mozzarella and warm tomatoes. Finally the creation is topped with the piece de resistance: the buffalo wing. This sweet and spicy combination sends the taste buds into a delighted frenzy urging for more, and before long an addiction is born bringing the cravings and withdrawal pangs along with it.

I know, being a food critic could have been my calling in life except I hate fish. Oh well, I'll have to stick with blogging about amazing foods.

Now that you know about my love affair with the buffalo wing thing pizza it is plain to see why I took my family to Craigo's for dinner the night of graduation and here, of course, are the photos to prove it:Aren't we so cute?!

Just chattin it up!

Ah, look at all those tasty Pepsi products.

num, num, num, num delicioso!

Notice how there aren't any more pictures after the food came...

Groats at BYU-I

Right before graduation I got a chance to hang out with my in-laws before my family came up. They came to help Jarom and Stacy pack up and move to the new house but we got to spend a little time with them too. Kristine even got to stay for my graduation which was really neat. But, after I finally finished my last final ever and turned in my website I got to go play with them for a while. We went geo-caching of course because it's Kristine's favorite new hobby. It is pretty interesting and can be a lot of fun. All my nieces and nephews especially love it and they made her an easter egg hunt using coordinates on her gps so they could geo-hunt all of them. But we found a couple nearby and got to go trekking around and trying to be sneaky around all the muggles--yes, that is what they call non geo-cacheing people! : ) I took some photos of us walking around and then Jarom showed us the little garden he planted in his gardening class so it was a lot of fun.

Looking for the cache...

Jarom resting up after all the hard work it took to find the cache.

And of course, the classic photo posing in front of the BYU-I sign.

This is Jarom's little garden from his class. He had to take a moment to stop and smell the flowers...ah...so lovely.

Here is Jeff in the middle of a very classic Jeff Groat explanation (note the stance and serious expression).

Jarom still being giddy about how lovely his flowers turned out...

Now, Kristine is busy explaining something--sharing her master gardening skills.

Jarom examining his tomato plants

Like father like son (note the stance and serious expression)
: )