March and April Happenings!

Well these past few weeks have been wild so I thought I'd give a quick run down of all the fun and craziness we've had....starting back at the beginning of March.

1. Over a month ago I decided to forget about homework and sew all night and this was the result:

A bag for Mom since she has had a lot going on in her life lately.

2. Next came my cousin Tyler's birthday. He refused to let anyone celebrate his birthday on the actual day. He didn't even tell his roommates that it was his birthday. I didn't want to blow his cover so I had to find another way to celebrate his birthday. It just so happens that the next day, March 4th, was the day that Abraham Lincoln (in 1863) signed an act creating the Idaho Territory and so this is how we celebrated:

3. Next we went to Idaho for Easter and General Conference. While there we had the greatest Easter egg hunt created by my dad. He is amazing. He works hard to put together an Easter egg hunt where we use the GPS, metal detectors, shovels and irrigation boots. This year was really cold in Idaho but that made it even better. As always it was a blast. Thanks Dad! We love you! Here are some pictures of the fun we had that weekend:

We left Friday night after Blake's mission reunion and the roads were HORRIBLE. We could not see the road right in front of us and so we had to pull over and stay the night in Malad. The only motel in Malad was full due to the storm and so we made some friends while scraping our windows.

All of the grandkids LOVE Grandpa!!

Cute little William!

Cute Grant!

Tanner wearing one of the cute hats Dad got for all the grandkids! So cute.

4. I just attended my last class at BYU....ever. It was bittersweet. It was such a relief to finally hand over my 20 page paper about the Family and Medical Leave Act to my teacher. I did however have a rather embarrassing thing happen last week. So I'm taking a Family Recreation class from a teacher who is also named Heather. So while I was writing my 20 page paper about FMLA I would periodically email drafts of my paper to myself just in case my computer crashed. Well I sent a total of 12 backup emails to myself. Last night I received an email from Heather, my Family Recreation teacher. She said:

Hi Heather,

This was in my inbox [BACKUP11]. Figuring you sent it to me on accident. Just wanted you to know in case you needed to resend to someone else.

I read it. It was really interesting.

See you in class.

So apparently I sent my entire 20 page paper (this was email 11 of 12) to her instead of myself since our emails both start with heather...and SHE READ IT.....that's the funny part. I wonder if she thought...how is this girl graduating from BYU...she can't even send an email to herself. Oh well. We all had a little laugh over that.

Anyway I turned my paper in today and when I came home I tore the special POLICY PAPER link off of my countdown chain:

Well life is great! We are just looking for housing and a job for me in Cedar City and we are so excited to be moving in 2 weeks.

Dear Great Value Fruit Smiles,

This variety is not acceptable.

Please don't let it happen again.

Love,

Your Loyal Disgruntled Customer

IF YOU BURN IT....THEY WILL COME

As I was walking home from class Monday night around 6:30 p.m. the Provo air was filled with smoke. When I got home I told Blake to put on his shoes cause we were going on an adventure!! We hopped in the car and just started driving towards the smoke. I don't know why this was so exciting to me (maybe I'd been studying too long and needed an adventure) but apparently it was exciting to hundreds of other Provo-ans because when we got to the edge of the field there honestly were hundreds of people parked along the road and standing along the edge of the field. Kids were racing their scooters and bikes to the scene. Any way I just thought of the movie Field of Dreams where the guy builds a baseball diamond in his field and people just drive there instinctively. It was actually pretty eery and we felt silly getting caught up in the whole thing...especially when I made Blake take a picture out the window just in case I wanted to post about this. At first Blake and I thought these people must not burn their field very often because in Idaho and Southern UT fields are burned--on purpose--every year so we are used to it. I guess it was a lakeside wildfire that caused several homes to lose power: Power Interrupted

HOLY SMOKES!!!

So the official countdown as of today is 26 days until graduation! Ahh! So crazy to think about. Half of me is SO ready to be done and the other half of me is sad because it's what I've been doing for 18 years of my life. My list of things to do with my post-graduation life is getting longer each day. A few of those things include: read, sew, expand my gluten free menu, work as a Social Worker and actually get paid for it (not that I haven't loved my internship but 480 hours and no money to show for it...oh well), take up photography, visit my sister and new brother-in-law (almost) in Kanab--and the list goes on and on. I thought I'd share the newest picture of my count down chain. Blake and I are just doing homework and projects like crazy and that's about as exciting as our lives are right now. I spent 20 hours at the library in the past two days...but I now have 9 pages of my 17-20 page paper done...woohoo! I just have to keep reminding myself that in about 3 weeks I will never have to do homework again!

If you could see what I see....

I am currently doing an internship at a community service agency in our area. At our agency we meet with individuals who are in need of some sort of financial assistance. We have funds to help with rent, transportation, clothing, work, education and so much more. Many people come in and out of our agency and receive help. Sometimes they express gratitude and sometimes they don't. Either way I am grateful to take part in the great work that takes place in this agency. On occasion we will have individuals come in and express sincere gratitude for the help they had received from our agency and other such agencies in the area. These individuals are so grateful for a second chance that is made possible through community agencies. This happened today and I was so touched when an individual said that the people and agencies in his life would never know how much of a difference they make. Today I remembered why I am a social worker. Today I thought that if people could see how much of a difference they could make in the lives of those they serve or in the lives of those who are served by the agencies to which they donate they would give a little more of their money, their time and their love.

Today is a great day.....for three big reasons!!

1. Blake and I came home to some very exciting news today.....
Blake got an email today from the BYU Accounting School saying: HE'S IN!!! We are so thrilled. I'm so proud of Blake. He's worked really hard to get into the program and it all paid off. He'll start the Accounting program this fall.

2. We sold our contract. We put it online a couple of weeks ago and several couples have been coming to look at it but today someone actually wanted to buy it! What a relief!

3. Blake and I went to Joann fabric and bought some material and essential sewing supplies to start my newest (and only second) sewing project. I've decided that tonight I'm going to forget I'm a student and sew my little heart out!

END IN SIGHT!!

The other day I was feeling slightly overwhelmed with this semester and so in an effort to relieve some stress I decided to make a countdown to graduation paper chain. It started out equal on both sides but has now taken the shape of a hangman game. Each morning the first thing I think about is taking off a link. It really has helped me keep life in perspective. YAY FOR PAPER CHAINS!!!!