Congraduations!!!

Right on the heels of my brother and his fiance's graduation (which took place the day before we arrived in UTAH for my sis' endowment) my own hubby received his official ribbon of completion of his nursing program!

We scuttled it down to his campus, listened to some speakers, slowly boiled in the warm room, and then led the line of his cohort (class, not crime-buddy) to be pinned with ribbons. Full of ceremony, complete with the essential slight boredom, it definitely reminded us how glad we are to be finished (for now)!here we are, re-enacting the moment!

Congraduations hubby! I am so proud of you. You blasted through this program, worked hard, earned great grades, and made me remember every day how much sheer intelligence you have and how much potential you have to make this world a better place. Your kindness, gentleness, and cheeriness will bring patients relief, comfort, and laughter during your tenure as registered nurse. Great job on finishing your program, and good luck on gearing up for your national boards!

retrospect, eternaspect

Hindsight says I should have posted this one first, chronologically. However, if we are going in order of coolness, and saving the best for last.... then this is the perfect spot.

We just went on a minivacation to UTAH! Nope, no skiing. No dirtbiking, no hiking, no camping..
It was better than that. We stayed at a classy 18 star resort in Lehi - Chateau G. The entertainment was spectacular - mostly notably Yo Gabba Gabba, and Wits & Chips. We rolled in Friday afternoon, were greeted at the airport by our wonderful friends, shown below, and took JD to In&Out. It was a new experience for him, and the first time for me since high school. Our journeys took us to our friend's basement home and culminated in burritos for dinner. Their son kept us amused and wishing for children until his bedtime.. at which point we got to have some grown up time.These were taken too early on Saturday morning, so we are all looking a little sleepy-headed.

Saturday morning came too quickly, and we were off to Provo for my little sis' endowment. I was privileged to be her 2nd escort (my mom was 1st). It was so good to hear the temple matron's instruction again before the session. And, in the face of some seemingly impossible personality/ emotionality disagreements, it not only went off seamlessly, but actually became a wonderful teaching moment. It seemed the Lord had plans for my sis' endowment to not only keystone her eternal journey, but also to begin our family's eternal healing... We got to spend the rest of the morning and early afternoon with my family, and meet my sister's bf, and then we took off home again.
Short, but eternally sweet.

Look, a post!

I feel a little like I've crawled out of a deep, dark hole back to the blogosphere. I'm currently blinking, attempting to let my e-eyes adjust...

After a few uninspired months, and a few more crazy crazy busy weeks JD and I made some decisions.

1. We are NOT moving out of our condo after all (we bounced around ideas for months about where to move, where not to move, how many cars to get rid of, where to put our stuff, how many dogs to teach to play nicely...) It was a little like getting lost in a jungle, hacking brush for an hour, only to find a clear spot that looked vaguely familiar........ I guess be it ever so cluttered, there is no place like home!

2. We ARE going to grow a garden! We still don't own any dirt, but a neighborly ward member has offered her back yard. By we, I mostly mean me because of the two of us, I have a longer list of things I love about it.
ME: I LOVE how dirt smells, feels, sticks under your nails, has worms in it... etc. I love hard physical work, I love planting, weeding, watching things grow, and I love the way water sparkles in the sun when you spray it on plants. I love eating out of a garden. in short: I'm willing to walk or drive a little ways to fill my dirt prescription.
JD: loves eating some things out of a garden. Loves the convenience of plants right outside your home. (there may be other things I'm not aware of).
Here is our garden so far:

My gardening buddies are there too, they are also from our ward. (I am copying JD's cool cousin's idea of not using names in the actual posts.. )

And decision #3: We are going to find out what kind of dog we have!
JD's wonderful father is paying for us to do a DNA test at the vet and find out our doggy's genealogy. Then we will all sit back and say, "Wow, that explains a lot" or "What? Why couldn't you have THEIR personality traits?" or even possibly "A what and a who?"

Im Back!

So I am currentl nowy sitting in my last class of nursing school.  What does that mean?  I'll have a life now, which will also mean more blogging!  /cheer

Thank you, Aladdin

My favorite childhood movie was Aladdin. My hero? Aladdin. My role model? Aladdin.

Instead of teaching me to become skilled at flying a carpet, or to love monkeys... I expressed this adoration through attempting to pick locks and developed a fascination for climbing on roofs.

Today it all paid off. I successfully locked myself out of my condo, with no help near enough to get me to work on time. Using McGuiver-reminiscent skills I remembered days of discovering the magic of springing a lock without a key.

25 minutes and lots of prayer later, the front door opened and I retrieved the desired artifact, just in time to get to work right on time.

Needless to say, we will be double locking our door to prevent other such vagabonds from using "key-card" entry to our home.

Mildew be-gone

It seems like once you do something multiple times you SHOULD be better at it, but often you are just more LAZY at it. Ok, admission: this applies to me, and I don't know any other people it applies to.
I have washed the curtain before. I purposely bought a thicker one so that I COULD wash it and dry it on cool for short amounts of time without melting it. Voila, easy cleaning solution.

This time, it was getting mildewy and my inner cleaning lady started to nag the lazy me. The ensuing clash of the titans resulted in my throwing the curtain into the washer, (beautiful) and then into the dryer where I promptly forgot to turn the heat down, and left it in for way too long.

Result

Please note: it has shrunk about 1.5 feet in length, and melted to become about 3 feet in width. Hence the outer curtain is also in the tub to prevent floor puddles.

No cleaning kudos for me this time. Inner cleaning lady is hiding in embarrassment.

Our home take 2

Despite this place now being easier to clean, it took me a few weeks to get around to getting it cleaned up enough to give an idea of what IT looks like, instead of what our clothes and school books look like.

View from the desk, please notice how easy it is to sit at the desk and work while watching tv. Awesome.

View from the kitchen.  To the right, the TV swivels to face the seat of all things cookery. One can watch BOTH while tasting ones kitchen creations at the stove. Note: I can see when J takes a break from schoolwork to play StarCraft while I am cleaning the kitchen. Enter Big Bride - er, Brother.

Here is the kennel, sufficiently demoted from larger than dining table to blendy with the curtains in the corner. One hardly notices it in the picture above this one. Love it!