And Summer Ends

Well, it's the end of Brett's term, and it's about time I update this poor blog.  First, I want to just brag about my husband.  I mean, come on.  96% in Intro to Archaeology (without the final and his last abstract, since those haven't been graded yet) and 100.33% in Intro to Art History?  My husband's pretty smart as it is, but he's been working so hard.  He's honestly a better student than I was...

Right now he's in his final for that class.  Part of it was an art project, which he did a week ago.  He decided to make a clay sculpture of King Tut, so we dropped by JoAnn's to get clay and paint.  We came home, and he pulled the block of clay out.  Without knowing what in the world he was doing, he just started playing with the clay.

A few hours later, I look to see how he's doing, and the block of clay has transformed into this:

Needless to say, he had a lot of fun.  After it dried, he painted it:

He was originally going to paint the entire thing and not leave as much gold, but the bottom began to crack, and we didn't want it to crack before he had to take pictures and submit it.  Needless to say, I think he's going to keep that 100% in the class.

In other news, Mikella's very pregnant and very busy.  This week, she has finals, graduation, and they're moving.  We're all crossing our fingers that she can get through it without having the baby.  A few days ago, she had contractions so bad that they went to the hospital just in case.  We'll miss them once they leave, and I wish I could see her baby a lot sooner in person than Christmas, but I'll survive.

And as for me, there's not much new.  I'm working really hard at my job.  Yesterday I had my most sales since I started: 7.  It doesn't sound like a lot, but we usually get only two or three sales a day.  Basically, what I do is I call out to people who were looking for houses, and ask them about their credit to make sure it's not going to hurt them from getting financed for the house they find.  If credit is a problem, I actually transfer them to a credit repair company, and the agents at that company has to sign the customer up for the services.  If the agent closes the sale, I get credit for it, too.  So while I call out to about 50-100 people a day, I only talk to about 25 (because I get a lot of voicemails, no such persons, or person unvailables), and out of those people I talk to, some hang up, some don't need credit repair, some don't want credit repair, a lot don't have time to talk, and only a handful actually get transferred.  But yesterday I got seven sales.  I was pretty happy.  :)

The highlight of my life, though, is cooking dinners.  We got a lot of recipe books as wedding gifts, so I decided to cook my way through them.  Right now, I'm cooking through "Our Best Bites" by two Mormon moms.  Just the other day, I made Chicken Cordon Bleu for the first time, and I can't lie I nailed it.  It's pretty exciting to make something new every day.  Aunt June surprised me with some vegetables from her garden.  Tomatoes, a cucumber, and a gigantic zucchini.  I'm having a hard time deciding if I want to make stuffed zucchini or zucchini bread.  All I know, is that even though I'm not the best cook, I have so much fun making dinners.  (It's also a plus when Brett tells me to make something again because he really liked it.)

Here Comes Summer

Life goes by so fast, it's hard to keep up sometimes.  I can't believe it's already been two months since I graduated.

So what's happened since then?  Well, everyone has already heard bits and pieces, so I'll give the summarized version.

I was contacted about a new job, which I started in early May.  For about a month, I juggled two full time jobs, marriage, and Church callings.  Well, it didn't work out as good as we'd hoped.  I don't know about any of you, but I inherited Mom's inability to handle stress well.  So I put in my two week's notice at one job.    Coincidentally, I was released from one of my callings, too.  (I had previously been the ward choir pianist and Primary chorister.  Now I'm just the Primary chorister, which has been very fun.)  And now I have time to actually make homemade dinners, clean the house, and go on dates with my sweet husband.  And finally, we're starting to study the scriptures together again.  (Impossible when you're gone from 5:30 in the morning to 10:30 at night.)

In other news, Brett just started his first official semester (well, term) as a BYU student.  He's taking two classes: Intro to Archaeology and Intro to Art History.  I sat in with him on his first day (a mutually shared idea, I promise I'm not over-protective), and we both agreed that these classes sound exciting.  Well, I think Art History will be exciting.  Brett thinks he'll enjoy it, but it's not entirely his cup of tea.  And the professor in his Archaeology class is planning to take them on a field trip to some ancient mounds in west Provo, which I really want to tag along for.  It makes me miss being a student...

Oh, and by the way, Father's Day.  My little Primary of three (plus two nursery kids) sang wonderfully.  I taught them some basic sign language for the second verse of Dearest Names, and of course we sang Daddy's Homecoming.  I doubt anyone but the first few rows heard them, but that doesn't matter.  These kids are amazing.  I have never met a group of kids who are so excited to sing the songs I teach them.  I enter the room, and they all start singing what I taught them last week.  They already know so many songs.  I'm not quite sure what song I should teach them next...

That, and I'm wanting to start doing some genealogy.  Brett and I are studying Preach My Gospel, and it got us talking about how we can do missionary work in a 99% Mormon neighborhood.  Since we don't have a family ourselves yet, we thought maybe we should look to doing some temple work.  But we don't have names.  Yet.

But that's what's new in our lives.  (By the way, the Higgins surprise visited us on their way up to Idaho to go house hunting.  We took them to a hot dog place called J Dawgs, and yes, we got Heidi to eat a hot dog.  Are we magicians, or what?  But these were specialty dogs.  No one can resist them.)

The Last Homework

I just submitted the last homework assignment I will ever have in my undergraduate studies.  I am officially finished with school.  For now.  Oh, what a relief it is.

Commencement

Today, BYU held its commencement exercises for the graduates of April 2013, me included.  To start this account, I must explain that I was under the impression that it began either at 5 or 5:30.  Thus, I got off work at 3.  Dad, who drove the lonely road up here by himself, picked me up so we could go together.  We stopped at home to check what the recommended attire, but instead realized that we were ten minutes late for the academic procession.  We ran out the door, me with my regalia still in its packaging, and Dad dropped me off in front of the Marriott center.  I quickly donned the cap and gown and watched the herd of graduates file by until I found a couple classmates I could attach myself to.  (Oddly, as I was waiting for any familiar faces, a photographer asked if he could take a picture of my silhouette...)

We slowly shuffled into the Marriott Center, took our seats, and listened to addresses from President Samuelson, Michael O'Connor (BYU Alumni Association President), Conrad Rosenbrock (funny-accented graduate), a musical number, and Elder L. Tom Perry.  Then, we were on our own.  I met up with Dad, and we picked up Brett from home to go to dinner (after an hour of watching the NFL draft, of course).

We decided to try a sushi/Chinese restaurant called Wild Ginger.  Mention it to Dad, and I'm sure you'll get his signature look of disgust.  Poorly fried sushi rolls that all tasted the same, service that kept us lacking (literally: Brett never got his pop, and we never got our second round of sushi), and an all-you-can-eat price more expensive than buying the sushi individually.  Needless to say, we paid for the sushi individually and refused to give the waitress a tip.

To make up for the bad taste in his mouth, we brought Dad to J-Dawg's to have a bun-less hot dog.  After that, he was satisfied.  Tomorrow, we'll treat him to a better restaurant.

And that, in a nutshell, is how I spent my first day of graduation.

What do I have to offer from it?

1.  The knowledge of a very bad place to go for sushi.

2.  Two men (Brett and Dad) on my couch watching the NFL draft.

3.  A program.

With my name in it.

And a scholastic recognition.

And tomorrow, I walk.  At 8 in the morning...

Last Day

Today is officially my last day of class.  Am I excited?  Of course.  I've been looking forward to the day I'm finally finished with school since the eighth grade.  That doesn't mean I'm not sad.  Spend sixteen years of your life doing anything, and the ending will always be bitter-sweet.
I don't think graduation will be the end, though.  There'll be a graduate program waiting for me in a few years, and I'm sure eventually I'll find my way back into school as a teacher or professor.  But for now, I'm finished.  After today, I have a week to get ready for finals, and then only two to take.  Then graduation comes on the 25th and 26th.
What will I do once school is out?  I'm going to clean my home.  I'm going to catch up with the endless pile of dishes and papers.  I'm going to read a book.  I'm going to write a book (or not).  I'm going to practice the piano and the violin.  I'm going to sit around doing absolutely nothing.  Then I'll go to work until the wee hours of the morning.  Then my shift will change, and I'll finally have a regular work schedule.

Then, I'm going to finally have my evenings with Brett back.  Thank goodness.

Counting Blessings

I have a feeling like God's wedding gift to Brett and me was a lifetime of extra blessings.  I have seriously never had life go so perfectly well.  Don't get me wrong, there are stresses and hard times - it wouldn't be life without them.  But honestly, we've been blessed so much, the trials seem smaller than cracks in a sidewalk.  I just wanted to list a few blessings we've received, mainly because they have a lot to do with what's been going on in our lives, and so they're not just blessings, but news as well.

1.  Brett got a job within the first two weeks of us being in Utah, which has made it so much easier to pay for all the crazy expenses that come with living on our own.

2.  Brett got promoted.  He is so stinking good at what he does.  And just a month into his new position, he's already gone above and beyond and set a new standard.

3.  I got a job recently, too.  :)  Brett's been doing a great job providing for us, but it's about time we started saving up more for the months ahead when he'll be starting school.

4.  Brett got into BYU!  We're so excited for him to start.  We've got his schedule for his summer classes already.  He's only taking two classes, math and art history, so both of us can work full time and get ahead of the game.

5.  I only have two more weeks left of school!  Admittedly, I will miss being in school, but I am ready for a very long break between my undergraduate and graduate studies.

6.  Brett and I both have callings!  This actually may not seem like a blessing, but it is.  Brett's a counselor in the quorum presidency, and I'm both a Relief Society meetings committee member and the ward pianist.  These callings have seriously helped us become a part of the ward.  Otherwise we might be social recluses.

7.  My visiting teachee is pregnant with her second baby!  I'm excited for her, and I've been dying to tell everyone, but I decided it would be best for her to break the news.  After all, it is her baby.  But at least I can tell people who aren't in my ward, right?

8.  Brett and I are acing our classes.  I know that's not saying much when you consider that Brett only has two classes and I only have three, but working full time and going to school is hard.  I get so tired, so fast.  But we're staying strong!

9.  We got to see our family over the weekend.  How could this not be considered a blessing?  We never get to see anyone, but Mom, Dad, and Clarke came up for the mission reunion, and we got to meet with them and take them out to lunch.  (We also took Aunt June and Uncle Gordon with us, and we watched the first session of Conference together.)

10.  We're almost finished with our taxes!  Maybe this may not actually be a blessing... but it's the first time we've ever done taxes together, and we were blessed to have Brett's dad help us through it.  I'll admit, I slept through the entire thing, but Brett and his dad toughed through it, and now all we have to do is mail the forms in.  But thank goodness we won't be stressing about them come April 15.

I decided I needed to have an even number of blessings/news, so I stopped at 10.  There's so much more, but I don't know how interesting they'd be, especially when they're so obviously (like having a car).

In other news, we also got more photos back!  As a wedding gift, someone Brett's parents knew took our pictures.  Since they're all up on Facebook, I don't think I'll put them here.  But I will put one of my favorite ones.

Why this one?  Because first off, it's cute.  But second, how nerdy am I?  I totally forgot to take off the sticker on my pants!  Eventually I'll photoshop that out, but for now, Brett and I can just look at it and laugh at how silly I am.

Also, Brett's parents sent lots of pictures from the California reception and the pictures Heidi took at the Arizona photo shoot.  I've decided not to put them up, because I'm lazy.  Except for one that Heidi took, because it just happened to be a great picture.

Great job, Heidi!  It's actually become one of my favorite ones, too.  Derrel's not the only one that can take amazing pictures.  :P

Bad Hair Days: The attempts and failures of following Pinterest hair tutorials

So I don't actually go on Pinterest, but every now and then when a friend likes a hair tutorial, I look at it.  Having not-quite-curly-not-quite-wavy-but-somewhere-in-between-and-untameably-thick hair, I'm especially interested in recent how-to's for no heat curls.  The gist of it is to twirls your hair when it's wet, clip it up so it stays twisted, and don't take it out 'til your hair's dry (in my case, that's 'til kingdom come).

I've probably tried this no heat curl idea three times.  I don't know why I insist on trying, though, because every time it comes out the same: amazing curls in one spot, and awkwardly flat everywhere else.  I suppose I have yet to perfect twisting my hair?

All I know is that every time I try and fail at this hair-do, I have to keep my hair in a ponytail so no one can see how badly I failed at my hair that day.

So my question is:  How in the world do you twist your hair without getting straight parts?

Also, what are other quick hair-do tricks that make your hair not look like you just rolled out of bed and pulled it into a bun?  (Because that's what my hair looks like every day.)

The Biscuit Idea

So the other day I decided to buy a roll of biscuits because I thought it would be cool to make some kind of dinner with them.  I saw a commercial featuring non-Sloppy Joe's, and had bought the biscuits with that in mind.  But today when I was looking at recipes online, I found a stuffed biscuit recipe, which inspired me to make my own stuffed biscuits.

So they may not look restaurant-worthy, but they were easy to make and Brett LOVED them - so much that he asked that I make more.

I didn't really follow a recipe - no exact measurements, or anything.  But this is what I did.
Ingredients:

• ground beef
• onion
• spaghetti sauce
• cream cheese
• cheese
• biscuit dough

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Mix spaghetti sauce and cream cheese together, to taste.
3. Cook the ground beef and onions together.  (We love garlic, too, so we always add some garlic powder to our meat.)
4. Press biscuit dough into muffin pan, and fill them as much as you want with the cooked meat and mixed sauce.
5. Top it all with however much cheese you want
6. Put it in the oven and cook it for 10-ish minutes (until biscuits are golden).

It was easy, not too long, and again, Brett loved it.

And then as we were eating it, I thought, "What else could I put in a stuffed biscuit?"

Honestly, it's easy enough that you could do whatever you want in the middle.  Or you could choose the meat to put in and your family could choose whatever else they want to put in it.  The original recipe for this had bacon, turkey burger, cream cheese, broccoli and Worcestershire sauce.  What can you think up?

Sweetheart Day

First Valentine's Day as a married couple?  Well, Brett was at work most of the day, and I had a job interview.  We didn't get to see each other until about 6.  What did we do?  Well, we tried to go out for dinner, but without reservations, it's impossible to get a table without waiting over an hour.  But then we discovered the genius idea of getting take-out.  We got Carrabba's Carry-Out, and instead of waiting over an hour, we only had to wait about twenty minutes.  Then we got a movie, and ate at home.  Not romantic?  No, I think it is.  It was our own little beginning of a Valentine's Day tradition.  At least, until we have kids.

We decided that waiting over an hour for the ambiance wasn't worth it when we can have a comfortable dinner at home while watching a movie.  It turned out to be a great Valentine's Day, despite the lack of preparation and restaurant.

And seriously, how could Valentine's Day be anything than wonderful with this cute hunk of a husband?

A Colorful New Year

Happy New Year!  (A month and a few days late, I know.)  The pictures are here!  I wish I had all of the families' photos, but I only have my own and then the huge group photos.  The girls in my family worked so hard to make sure all the colors worked together, and they did!  The photographer did an alright job.  There are a few things that we're not too happy about, but nothing a bit of editing and some Photoshop can't fix.  And since I was introduced to Picasa, I thought, "Why not fiddle around with these pictures?  So I did.
(On a side note, counting this photo shoot, Brett and I have had our pictures professionally taken as a couple five times now in the last year.  I don't think we'll have any problems filling our home with photos of us...)

It was such a fun week, seeing all our family.  Since everyone was there, we had a family reunion with games and food and fun.  It started with New Years Eve and a trip to the temple.  New Years day was a kickball game and watching football while eating yummy hors d'oeuvres.  Another day we did a service project.  The last day of the make-shift reunion was these pictures.  It was a long day, and some of us were tired of smiling by the end of it.  But nonetheless, it was fun.

To top it all off, at the end of the week, Clarke got his mission call, and he opened it in front of most of his family and lots of his friends.  The call:  Spain!  Which is awesome.  Maybe I can sneak over in his suitcase.  He doesn't leave for another few months, but that's alright.  That means Brett and I might have the chance to see him off.

It was a great start to the New Year.  Hopefully the goodness keeps coming!

Catching Up

It seems I can hardly keep up with myself, even though I'm now a Jones.  So I need to do a quick review of the last six months.

Aug 2, 2012
After ten months of dating, two years of waiting, and eight months of being engaged, my best friend and I finally got married!  It was a fabulous day, despite the above 100 degree weather.  Leading up to this day, My mom took over the preparing and planning while I was working in Japan.  When I got home, I had about three days to get everything ready for the Big Day.  For me, that included a haircut, hair and makeup practice, getting nails done, pictures, receiving my endowments at the temple, and my birthday/bachelorette party.  After not seeing my cute husband-to-be for three months, I hardly had any time to catch up.  Thank goodness for the honeymoon.  Anyway, back to the wedding day.  It started with getting up and getting ready, which took hours.  Our sealing was later in the afternoon, and the dinner in celebration of the event was in the evening.  We were surrounded by close friends and family, and it couldn't have been a happier day.

After the fun, we were sent off with sparklers and cheers, and began our happily ever after.  We went to Disneyland for our honeymoon, which was absolutely fun and amazing.

Besides riding lots and lots of rides, we ate at delicious restaurants.  It was so fun!  But, after a week in Disneyland, we were ready for some more big kid rides.  So, when we went up to San Jose for our California reception, we decided to go to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom.  Since it also happened to be my little brother Clarke's birthday, we took him with us for an awesome day riding crazy rides.  Plus, we ran into a few familiar faces; by coincidence, Tera was visiting Six Flags with her kids and sister-in-law for a day of fun and free lunch from Dave's work.  It turned out to be awesome!

Then, of course, we had more pictures.  My mom absolutely loved the picture we got for our engagement, so she wanted us to get some pictures of us in our wedding clothes on the beach.  We headed to the beach in our white and black and had a blast with our photographers.

After that, we had our reception, which was so fun.  Donna, Brett's mom, did a wonderful job with the decorations.  We got to see so many old friends.  It was great.  We haven't gotten photos yet, but I'm excited to get them soon.

A few days later, we headed to Utah to set up a home in Provo.  Our apartment is definitely not state-of-the-art.  Cinder-block walls, no dishwasher or air conditioning, ugly carpet, and things that break a little easier than we'd like.... But it's close to campus, and the ward is really nice.  So we can tolerate it for a few years.

Moving in was easy.  Since our family came earlier to set up, all we had to do was rearrange and put away things.

That's not the end to our blessings, though.  Brett got a job after just a few weeks.  We've been living comfortably and happily.  We've gained so many memories and stories, but it would take hours to retell them.  I'll stop for now.