[WEDDING VEIL, SASH, HANKY]

In November Annie came to Utah to work on her wedding arrangements. She bought her dress online from David' Bridal but went into their shop to try dresses on just in case. She also needed to match colors and such. Her dress is white and her wedding colors are orange and blue. She wants to accent her dress with the blue. David's Bridal has sashes, veils and hankies for purchase but didn't have the blue! They carry bridesmaid dresses in this color but not sashes, veils and hankies?? Doesn't really make sense to us... Anyway, my Mom told Annie she could make these for her. Annie found the right color of fabric and was excited that she was going to get what she wanted. After my Mom got sick and wasn't working or doing anything, Annie was concerned about it getting done. She didn't want to put any pressure on my Mom and have her feel like she had to do something she wasn't up to. I told her that Nic is in a sewing class in school and he could totally do it for her. When I asked Nic if he would do it, he was a little weird about it but agreed to it. A few days later Annie called him to discuss the details and he told me he thought I meant Annie our neighbor (she got married in April so it fit that way)! Too funny! He thought it was weird that I ask him to do that for a neighbor but he's so cute that he agreed to do it! He was a lot more excited about it when he realized that it was for his aunt! I think he did such an awesome job and it's pretty exciting that he was able to take part in her wedding this way. Good job Son!

[OPERATION SURPRIZE: SUCCESS]

Annie's future sisters-in-law (or is it sister-in-laws??) threw her a bridal shower on May 17. As soon as I got the invite, I KNEW I had to be there! My airline ticket ended up being $235 round trip...not too bad! I thought it would be so fun for all the girls to go so I told everyone what I was doing and invited them to come along. Stacia (and Hadley) is the only one that ended up going with me. Too bad no one else could swing it, they really missed out! We wanted it to be a surprise to Annie and didn't know if we should RSVP and chance the secret getting out. We didn't RSVP but we did let Greg know a couple of days ahead of time. I also called Hyrum to let him know we were going to surprise Annie so he could be there with his family. We got there about 11 pm and called Greg to come get us. He told Annie he had to go pick up their drunk friend for his cover. When we got there, we snuck in the back door. Greg's family was already there and told us that Annie was upstairs in the TV room. Greg went up there to check things out while we waited ANXIOUSLY for him to let us know what was up. Annie had fallen asleep on the couch. Greg told us to go up there and jump on her to wake her up. So I did!! She woke up and was totally disoriented. It took her a minute to focus and realize what was going on. It was perfect and she was definitely surprised...YAY!!

We had a great weekend seeing Annie, Greg, Hyrum, Morgan, McKenzie, and getting to meet Ryan (she was born in January)! Stacia and I helped Annie make her invitations (which was my goal). I had been stalling on sending her any of my supplies to make them after she agreed on the design. We finished them as much as possible, all Annie needs to do is get more ribbon to complete them. I'm so glad that we were able to help her! With us living so far apart, we don't have a lot of opportunities to help so this was perfect! I really love how the invites turned out and I hope Annie does too!

[Movies]

-May 5-9, 2008-


I saw THREE movies this week!


Made of Honor - cute flick.














Iron Man - AWESOME!















Baby Mama - cute and pretty funny.














April Movie:

• The Ruins

March Movies:

• Horton Hears a Who
• Stop-Loss
• Jumper
  

[Mother's Day]

05.11.08

Mother's Day...yah, I spent the morning fighting back tears (or not). Very emotional day for me. Between missing Kody, dealing with Nic moving out and Shawn in bed all day with a migrain, it was a hard one. We went to church and Nic spoke in sacrament meeting. He ALMOST didn't because he hadn't prepared a talk because of moving, school, work, etc. I was horrified/embarrassed and left but he ended up coming so I went back. He just winged it and did pretty good. It was short and we ended up getting out like 20 minutes early. He said that was part of my gift...getting out of church early! He's such a twerp! I finally got ahold of my emotions and the rest of the day was pretty good.

We went to my Mom's for Second Sunday/Mother's Day. Next year we're going to change May's Second Sunday to a different Sunday...it's not really fair that Second Sunday always lands on Mother's Day, especially for the other Mothers in everyone's families. So every other year sounds fair to me and it's how we handle holidays so why not Mother's Day?

Melanie decided to have everyone bring their own meat and we BBQed instead of her taking her turn to bring the main dish. Sounded like a great idea to all...why should she have to worry about everyone on HER day! It worked out good.

My gift included CKU and photography classes that start in June. Nic also got me a gift certificate to get a massage...what a sweet boy! I can't wait to use it!

Because of all the money that was spent (Shawn and I contibuted $500 as did Melanie/Aaron and Ben/Dom. Joey and Stacia did WAY more than that.) on redoing my Mom's bedroom and living room while she was in the hospital in January, Stacia and I decided to give her cards (mostly birthday and thank you) with supplies from our stash so we didn't have to spend any more money. Plus, some of the cards she was sending out were hideous! Some of ours weren't that great either (I misplaced some of my REALLY bad ones...) but they were still better than this one of hers:

She appreciated them either way so it was all good!

[Movin' Out]

05.09.08

The day I've been dreading for years is here...Nic moved out. I'm not very happy about this even though I've KNOWN it's been coming. He and Hannah (my youngest sister) have been planning this for many months and have had a place lined up for a few weeks. The day Hannah was going to move her stuff, the apartment complex called and said they didn't have the unit that they were promised. This unit was perfect for them - it was an end unit with the model below them. Apparently a 'new' employee gave it to someone else. Because the lease stated that particular unit, they were able to get out of it. They feel like they lucked out in the long run (especially since a girl that was moving out warned them to NOT live there!!) but were stressed out for a couple of days trying to find another place. They finally found a place near Murray High that was the same price but a HOUSE with a yard! This is really nice because Hannah has a dog. They are happy with the end result.

Here are some pictures of Nic's old room. We let him do pretty much what he wanted with it except paint. Over the years he has plastered the walls with flyers from shows he's been to along with other things he loves. I think it's pretty cool and I'm gonna miss it! Now his room will be the 'office'. We will move one of the computers up there and the

vinyl cutter. It will be nice to have extra room but I'd MUCH rather have Nic there... I'm so sad... I totally understand him wanting to be independant, I just wish he'd wait until he's done with college! I sure hope Justin waits...I DON'T want an empty nest, half empty is bad enough!

[Cell Spray]

05.08

Joey and Stacia had Cell Spray come and put insulation in their attic. It ends up being free to the homeowner (through rebates from Rocky Mountain Power and Questar Gas with no $ upfront). So I called them have have our home done. They snaked a big ole tube from their truck to the closet in Nic's room. It only took about 30-40 minutes and should help with our cooling and heating costs. YAY!
















If anyone is interested in finding out if you qualify (not sure if it's old homes or what but they come out and check for ya), give them a call:

Jameson King
801-886-0707 (office)
801-949-7215 (cell)

Here is his card:

It's worth checking out!

[Utah Valley Womens Expo]

05.02.08

My friend Stacy invited me to go with her and Shannon so I met Stacy at her house, then we picked up Shannon and headed down to the expo.

Last summer/fall was the first time I went to the 'Utah Valley Womens Expo'. CTMH (Close to My Heart) was the sponsor and they had mini classes they were doing so OF COURSE I was there! This was also when I first saw 'For the Love of Shoes' and signed up for a home party. They were supposed to be there this time too (I thought) but they weren't.

Anyway, it was here again and this time CTMH was doing their warehouse sale there...YAY! Why the heck do all the companies do their warehouse sales in the same timeframe?? Kinda hard on the pocketbook but I'm still at them!! haha! I thought it was a weird place to do a warehouse sale and wondered how that was going to work out. Yah, it was definitely weird and I seriously think they should rethink it next time. It was WAY too small of an area and they actually had a line and wouldn't let people in until others had left! Luckily we got in before that started. Those poor girls were probably chomping at the bit to get in! There were some awesome deals. I got quite a few stamps sets. They were selling them for $2-$8 per set, regular price $22+! YAY! I also got birthday card sets: $1, markers: $.50; embossing template grab-bags: $1; paper packs: $1, etc. There were definitely some good deals! We were just grabbing a bunch of everything and then went to the side and sorted things out and made sure we all had what we wanted. It was crazy! Then it was off to stand in line to pay...what a joke! By the time we got in line, it was wound around the whole place. Come to find out, they were adding tallying people up on a piece of paper and then they could get in the REAL line to pay. Luckily we found that out quickly and got our stuff tallied and got in line. Then it went fairly quickly. Some people were there FOREVER though.

Then we had lunch and visited the other booths. I got this AWESOME bag. I *heart* it! I almost didn't get it and started walking away to 'think' about it but only got a couple of booths away and went back and got it! YAY!

There was a spa place that was handing out free cupcakes that looked so big and delish! They ran out but claimed they were getting some more in about an hour. We decided to hang around for one and in the meantime Stacy and I got chair massages. They were nice but the guy was a bit rough...especially on my arms! OUCH! Finally the cupcakes came but they weren't like the first batch...bummer! Oh well, they were still okay.

We ran into Nikki for a few minutes too. It was nice to see her...haven't for awhile (except for a few minutes when I got the tickets for the expo from her!)...we should change that Nikki!

It was a fun day and I'm glad I got to spend time with my friends!

[CKU]

-Wednesday April 30, 2008-

YAY! I'm all registered for my SECOND CKU! I was a bit nervous about it because I thought registration started at 8 p.m. and that is right smack dab in the middle of YW. But I found out a day or so before that it started at 8 p.m. ET so 6 p.m. for me...YAY! My friend Lisa from CK Media was going to sign me up early like she did last time but we didn't get all the information worked out in time. It all worked out though and I'm signed up and ready to go! The first time I went, they had changed the format to "Albums" and I really liked it and heard that it was better than a regular CKU. This year they are changing the format again. Instead of picking classes and hoping you get what you want, everyone does the same things, just at different times. This is why is was more important that Lisa signed me up last time. Hopefully this new format will be cool. I think it will be but sometimes not having a choice doesn't work...especially if you don't like the project! We still have an Album Track to pick though. I chose the Making Memories one. I'm excited and the instructor, Margie Romney-Aslett, is hilarious so it should be awesome! This year they are also including lunches which they never have before, so that will be nice. Heck, they should be included at the price! I think it was $350 the first time I went (which was $50 more than the year before) and now it's a whopping $445!! PLUS they are doing ala carte classes on Wednesday for additional costs. It better be worth it!!

Last time I went with my friend Nola and we stayed with Lisa in her hotel room (except the last night, we stayed with Karen). Now Nola isn't into scrapping anymore...she's into photography. She even got rid of all her supplies...crazy girl! Anyway, so she's not going this time. I'm going with my friend Rachelle! This is her second CKU also. My first one was in 2005 and hers was before that...2004? Maybe 2003? Lisa invited me to stay with her and some of her other friends but Rachelle and I already have a room reserved. There wouldn't have been a cost to stay with the other girls but they are staying in Sundance, which is about a 20 minute drive, and there are some pros and cons about that. It'd be WAY fun to stay with a bunch of girls all going to the same place but I think the commute would be sucky. It's going to be nice to be in the same hotel as CKU though. Either way will be FUN!

[ANOTHER New Car!]

Nic is a crazy kid and went into a car dealership so see when he would be able to get into a different car. Yah, they talked him into trading in his car of almost one month. Same thing as last time though...doesn't qualify without a co-signer, which I'm NOT doing. I advised him to stay AWAY from dealerships until he is ready, with the money, to buy. And IF he needs to finance, which I advised NOT doing, he needs to go to his credit union and get preapproved. He agreed that that would be the best thing.