My Life Is Different - Sunday Scrapbook

Hello friends! "Sunday Scrapbook" is a segment where I share photos and stories from the past week. And while I'm pretty sure in the past year I've only done 2 other posts, it's a segment I enjoy a lot. Hopefully we'll be doing more in the future.

I spent this past week unemployed, sitting in my apartment stressing over Heroes & Villains and moving, both of which basically happened in the same day.

Yesterday Heroes & Villains premiered on my blog! I'm not going to talk too much about it in this post, but if you want to learn more you can find all the information you need by CLICKING HERE. Basically it's a series of short stories I've written specifically for my blog. I've been working on it all year long so it's been a big project for me. Please check it out if you haven't already and give me your feedback!

Friday I loaded up a lot of my stuff onto a trailer and put it into storage. Then what we didn't put in storage was taken to my parents house. Then Chris and I spent hours cleaning our old apartment, finally left at midnight, and arrived at our new (temporary) home at 1:30. So yeah, Saturday. Big day.

And I'm still tired from the whole thing so here's our midnight picture of us leaving apartment #4 in Logan, Utah for forever, completely unedited because of my exhaustion. And just look at my hair in that picture. I'm still that level of exhaustion.

My post announcing our move was called "The Biggest Change" because leaving Logan is honestly the biggest change I've made in my life in a long time. Already I'm seeing how different my life is going to be just by leaving Logan.

Logan has been great to me. Logan gave me my soulmate so I will always love the place for introducing me to him. But it was time for us to leave. We're both very happy with our decision and anxious/excited to see what will come.

If you're wondering, I'm not actually unemployed. I do have a job lined up, I just wasn't working this past week... which was super nice. Someday I want to be able to just write all day like I did most days this week. Writing is the real job I want. Someday I'm going to get it. Just you wait and see.

I want to thank all my wonderful blog readers/friends for being so supportive of our move. I had mentioned a lot of it had to do with my miscarriage, and the love I've gotten since that tragedy in my life has been greatly appreciated. My internet friends (you) are some of my greatest friends and I feel so blessed daily to get to interact with you.

Well, I know this is a shorter "Sunday Scrapbook" post, but the lack of sleep I've had is not doing me any good. I have some relaxing to do.

Please check out Heroes & Villains! Don't forget to follow me on social media! And I will see you all next week for another post! Love you!!

Riding on a Bus: CVTD

While it wasn't originally included on The Cache Valley Checklist, I realized this is something that needed to be added. Sure the list is mostly just fun things to do in Logan, but I also created it as a way for me to become more of a "Loganite". And what better way to become a "Loganite" than by riding on the bus?

I've ridden on the CVTD before because in my four years of living in Logan I've never had a car for more than a couple months. I sort of have one now but my husband and I share it and since he's a pizza delivery driver he's pretty much in charge of it and I don't get to drive that much (which is a real shame because I love driving).

This Monday I had to take the bus to work because Chris was down in Kaysville and Provo for the day. So I went onto the CVTD website, found the nearest stop, learned when it would arrive and planned out my trip with a transfer at the transit station.

I grew up in the Salt Lake area and I'm in love with Trax and even Front Runner, but I do not like the bus system down there. One time I was taking a bus to Provo to stay with my sister for the weekend and the bus got a flat tire on the freeway and we were stuck. On the side of the freeway. For about 30 minutes until the next bus stopped and picked us up. But parked oddly far so I had to walk with my bags on the side of the freeway with the strange bunch of bus riders to get to the other bus. Yeah... good times?

But the bus system in Cache Valley is absolutely amazing! First of all, IT'S FREE. Yep, you can just hop on any bus and ride all the buses all around Logan for a day and never pay a cent (well technically you do with taxes, but whatever, it's still totally worth it). In my experience I've seen school kids hop on these city buses to get home from school.

These buses feel very safe and clean. These buses go all over Cache Valley and they are extremely helpful. They go everywhere! The drivers are nice and it's overall a really good experience. I think more college students need to take advantage of these buses instead of driving everywhere. There are two buses that go straight to campus and I feel not as many students that could use them do, myself included. Because I work on campus, so if I can take the bus to get to work why do I never take the (free) bus to school??? (Maybe because with the transfer it takes a half hour...)

Monday's experience was fun because this weird kid asked me "What's your ancestry?" Which is a weird question to randomly ask a stranger. He later asked "How long have you had that ring on your finger?" Which was also a weird question but I'm glad he was able to get the hint I was taken.

I think the CVTD is fantastic and definitely helps you to become a true Loganite! More people should take advantage of this amazing bus system! 

SeeeMe

Hey friends! So this month I didn't have a Charity of the Month and I'll be honest, it was all because of laziness and stress. However, in class yesterday my teacher handed out cards for a charity banquet for the organization she works with and I knew I had to write about it on here and share it with my followers.

On February 19th at 7:00pm in the Utah State University TSC Ballroom in Logan, there will be a Hunger Banquet to help the organization, SeeeMe. It's $5 each or a group rate of 4 for $15. So if any of you are in Logan, please go and help out this wonderful organization!

Because of this, SeeeMe is the Charity of the Month for March and the rest of this month. My teacher told us all about what she does in Uganda to help out these kids and it is such an incredible organization! They honestly make every penny count in helping out these people. So please don't forget to donate by CLICKING HERE. 

I want to thank all my readers for your participation in Charity of the Month! It's still in it's beginning, rocky stage, but you are all a big help. Remember that all I ask for is $1 a month towards charity and together we can help change the world. THANKS!!

October Review

While October is probably my favorite month, nothing substantially exciting happened this month. In fact, it was kind of just stressful and boring. However it was so beautiful outside! I loved it. :)

The first weekend was General Conference. I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!! I feel that I learned so much! My sister drove up here from Provo. We went to Rumbi's and ate their delicious soup. We were going to go to a corn maze but got distracted and tired. We spent most the night looking at Twitter's trending topic, #addawordruinamovie. Some of them were so funny! Then we watched The Wedding Singer when my husband got home from work. We all had a sleepover in the living room and watched The Iron Giant as we fell asleep. I love my sister! She's my best friend! It was a great weekend having my sister there and watching conference together and I enjoyed Tweeting through the whole Sunday session. I loved it so much!

I went through an emotional crisis on the 11th. I was sort of angry at my husband and sitting in my room alone, wishing I had someone to talk to and realizing that I don't have anyone to talk to... except my husband. I have no friends. At that point I began bawling hysterically. I ran to my husband and he held me tightly, trying to comfort me as I moaned, "Why don't I have any friends? Why doesn't anyone like me? What's wrong with me?" He couldn't successfully comfort me because I was so emotionally distraught. He then sat me on a mattress in the living room, turned on Tangled, and gave me my cookies. It was the hardest my husband had ever seen me cry and I hadn't felt so emotionally torn apart in so long.

To say I'm better now would be a lie. It's really hard to feel like you don't have any friends, and even worse when no one talks to you; that pretty much solidifies it. We have a framed quote in our little apartment that my best friend gave me years ago (we're still best friends even though we live two hours apart and hardly ever talk, but I still love her with all my heart). The quote says "Good friends listen --Best friends hear." If this quote is true, than I'm in trouble, because hardly anyone listens to me. Certainly no one tries to talk to me. I consider this to be an opportunity to find new friends, ones who will care about me, but since I'm switching my major I've realized recently how much older I am than all my classmates (they were in 1st grade when September 11th happened, I was in 5th). I've always had a hard time making friends and now that I'm married and older than my peers, it's only gotten harder.

So if any of my readers are in the Cache Valley area or even just in Utah, I need a friend. I swear I'm not crazy. I cried because I felt so alone, but I normally don't cry that much. I like dance and music and writing. I like to give service and LOVE buying gifts for people. I think that I'm a good friend (which is why it's so hard that I don't have any). If any of you have tips to getting more friends, please leave a comment. I'm struggling and I need help.

I decorated our apartment for Halloween and it looks fantastic!! It was also super cheap and you can read all about it my CLICKING HERE. Hopefully next year my decorations can be more exciting because (hopefully) we'll have more money then, but with our current situation, these decorations were all we could do, and they were still fantastic. And we are the only apartment in our complex that is elaborately decorated, so I'm proud of myself. :)

On the 12th Chris and I went to Little Bear Bottoms. You can read all about our adventure by CLICKING HERE. I love my husband because even though we're low on money, we find cheaper ways to have fun, and honestly, just being around him makes my life more fun. I love him!

October 13th Chris and I drove through Logan Canyon and I took pictures of all the changing leaves while Chris fished (you can read about it by CLICKING HERE). It was fun spending time with my husband in such a beautiful setting. Afterwords, we went to my Aunt Cherene's house and they fed us dinner. I love having family nearby! It was good to talk to my grandma (who recently moved to Utah and moves between my parent's and my aunt & uncle's house) and to see all my cousins that I'm really close with. I also got to see my cousin Nate and his very pregnant wife Kara, who two days later...

Photo Credits go to my Aunt Cherene

HAD THEIR BABY!!! He is the cutest little baby and I already love him so much!  I'm so happy for the two of them and their adorable baby! CONGRATULATIONS NATE AND KARA! I LOVE YOU BOTH SO MUCH!!

October 17th I first met with a "math tutor". It was really just my friend Kyle... and his baby Kyrani (and Kyle is a real friend and doesn't count in my above rant about friends)! She's so cute! I got to hold her a few times. Back to math, I've been stressing out because it's been four years since I've done math and I absolutely HAVE TO get into Math 1050 next semester, which (because USU has weird math rules) I have to take the Math Placement Exam to try and get into it. (Even though I've already taken Math 1050, see? Weird math rules!) So I was stressed because a few weeks ago I tried to take a test online and couldn't even remember 7x8. I forgot basic multiplication! So I met with Kyle so he could help teach me, but ironically, all he really had to do was remind me of thing. I ACTUALLY REMEMBERED MATH! It was hard and each question took me a long time to figure out but I did it! I still have a lot of work till I feel ready to take the MPE and when I'm actually in Math 1050 I'll still want his help, but I did it! And I'm feeling very accomplished. :)

On October 18th for fall break, Chris caught this monster. It was huge and gross and covered it garbage, but I'm so proud of my fisherman husband because I know that fishing means so much to him, and he's so good at it too! I'm glad he has something that keeps him happy.

Photo Credits

Basically October was filled with school and beautiful colors. The above picture was on the Utah State Facebook page and I fell in love with it! This is my campus and I love it so much! I love going to school at USU! I think this October was more beautiful than usual because of the lack of snow, which I am super grateful for. It snowed in the mountains and it's starting to get super cold, but I'm not looking forward to the snow.

I realized my hair is like the autumn leaves, because for some strange reason, recently my hair is full of reds and blonds and browns, like autumn trees. I don't know why or how this happened because it used to just be dark brown. Although I am grateful that my hair didn't have an awkward growing out faze from dying it. The whole thing just changed colors. I want to color it again though but I'm not sure what color and I don't have the money to do that, but someday it will happen.

On Saturday the 26th Chris and I went to the Pumpkin Walk!! It was so much fun! We went last year and loved it and had to go again. It was super busy this year but totally fun. The Pumpkin Walk is on The Cache Valley Checklist and I'll be writing a post about it soon.

That night after the USU Howl, I had to work and clean up after it. It was disgusting and I was super tired. I've been to the Howl twice and it can be a really fun event if you go with a good group, but otherwise it's just a building full of crazy sluts and alcoholics. Thirty people were arrested this year at the Howl, all alcohol related arrests.

This is my handsome little brother. On October 27th my brother received his Eagle Scout Award! I drove down to Sandy to be there for the Court of Honor. I'm so proud of him! He's such a fun brother and one of my best friends.

So it sounds totally pathetic, but one of my favorite moments this month was on the 28th when these girls from my class invited me to lunch. I've been feeling so lonely and friendless so it was just a wonderful moment to be invited to eat lunch with these girls. They will never understand what that meant to me but will probably never invite me again if they read this paragraph. Regardless, I'm beyond happy that this happened for me!

Obviously it hasn't been Halloween yet, but we don't have anything exciting planned because we both have school and work. However I am going to make cookies and we might carve pumpkins! I'll write a post about my Halloween, but nothing too exciting is planned.

We had such a great October! It is truly my favorite month and it was just so beautiful and wonderful! 

To see my other monthly reviews CLICK HERE! 

I'd love to hear about what you did this October! Leave a comment below! 

Just Another Saturday

It's the weekend!! Is everyone having a good Saturday? I don't know if I am yet. I haven't done anything exciting today yet. 

We're getting all our laundry done and doing a lot of cleaning around the house, which is super important because things were getting a little to messy for my liking. We have a lot of laundry!! Lots of clothes, towels, and we have to wash our bedding. But it's good to be getting all this done on the weekend, because during the week the two of us are super busy with school and work.

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So we eat out way too much, especially considering we're short on money, and both of us want to lose weight, so we're making a dinner meal plan for the week! This is difficult for us because I work 5 to 9 and Chris works nights too, so we'd either have to eat dinner together at 4:00 or 9:00. I can't decide which is better. But the main goal is to have a set meal so we don't end up just eating out. Once we get it going I'll write a post all about it to tell ya'll if it worked for us.

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I have a math tutor now. I am required to retake Math 1050 in order to graduate, because last time I got a D and that's not good enough to pass. I'm awful at math! I also have to study for the Praxis Exam in order to get into the elementary education program, but while taking a practice exam, I realized that I don't even remember basic multiplication. This is a major problem. So my good friend Kyle is majoring in math and has decided to help me out. In exchange I'm going to babysit his adorable little baby sometimes. I like this arrangement and hopefully I'll remember the math I've already learned, and get better for my future math classes.

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Is anyone else super excited for General Conference next weekend? I am! I love hearing from the leaders of the church from the comforts of my own home. It also mean German pancakes!! ...that's the tradition in my family. My sister wants to drive up next week to watch conference with us and see our apartment, which she hasn't seen yet. I love my sister so I really hope she follows through with this!! I will also be making a General Conference Bingo for all my followers, so stay posted!

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Charity of the Month starts in a few days! Are you excited? It will be a struggle sometimes, but I honestly feel that giving to charity is always worth it! Basically I pick a charity every month, talk about it, donate a minimum amount (which will raise when I am more financially stable), and encourage all my readers to donate as well. Things about this segment will change as it goes on, but for now I'm keeping it simple. I don't know if people will donate or if it will make much of a difference, but it's worth trying.

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Fall is here!! I don't know about you, but it's getting really cold here in Logan! I sat outside for Chris's soccer game on Thursday, shivering the whole time! All I really wanted was hot chocolate, and I have a good hot chocolate maker, I just don't have any hot chocolate mix. It's a shame really. But we'll get some soon and then we'll be prepared for these awful Logan winters. Honestly, winter in my least favorite part of living in Logan. It just gets too dang cold! Also, somewhere between moving from my parent's house to our new apartment, I lost all my gloves and hats that were in a bag together. I'm super angry and I hope they turn up somewhere soon.

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Speaking of fall, Chris and I have a lot of fun plans for the month of October. Many of which are on The Cache Valley Checklist. So if you're living in Cache Valley, be sure to check that out. Also, we'd love new friends to do these activities with! If you'd like to join us, just leave a comment or send me an email and we can make plans together. I promise we're a super fun couple and we aren't creepers. Just normal college students. :)

The Cache Valley Checklist!!

I was raised in the Salt Lake Valley (not born, I was born in California, that's something special about me!). My husband Chris was raised in Davis County (and also born in California, how weird is that?). Together, we are stuck living in Cache Valley. It's not that we hate Cache Valley... it's just that we would never want to live here permanently. No offense, but all the Loganites (what I call people born and raised in Cache Valley) are strangely proud of this little valley and think their high schools are the best and are very adamant about exactly which city in Cache Valley they live in and if you get it wrong, they get angry. Loganites tend to never really leave Cache Valley. We don't want that.

We are not Loganites. I am a Salt Laker, Chris is a Kaysville Man... but want us to be Scottish... Regardless of what we are, we're currently renting an apartment here, I'm changing my major so I'll be in school longer, so we'll be posing as Loganites for a few more years until we both are graduated. So while we're here, there is a list of things I want to do in Cache Valley, AKA, the Cache Valley Checklist! I'm making a list of 100 things to do in (and around) Cache Valley before we move away. I would love it if all you USU students and even true Loganites would join me in these things during your stay as Loganites!

This list is not in order, some are specific events and special occasions while others are things to do at anytime. When I complete an item on this list I will cross it off and write a post about it that will be linked beside it. Don't forget to read my thoughts on the activity by clicking the links! The farthest I got from the actually Cache County was Brigham City and Bear Lake, but I'm counting it because all Cache Valley tourism sites count it as well. (A very few of these things I have already done, but for the purposes of this post they don't count yet)

Here we go:

1. Black & White Days (Richmond)
2. That Famous Preston Night Rodeo (Preston, ID)
3. Crystal Hot Springs (Honeyville)
4. Bear Lake Trip (Bear Lake)
5. Aggie Ice Cream & True Blue Aggie Cheese factory tour (Logan/USU)
6. Cox Honeyland (Providence)
7. Logan Tabernacle Concert (Logan)
8. Crumb Brother's tour (Logan)
9. Rockhill Creamery (Richmond)
10. Casper's Ice Cream Factory & Malt Shop (Richmond)
11. Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theater performance (Logan)
12. Kayak or Canoe on Hyrum Dam (Hyrum)
13. Logan Aquatic Center (Logan)
14. Cache Valley Gardner's Market (Logan)
15. CVCA Gallery Walk (Logan)
16. Cache Valley Cruise-In (Logan)
17. Downtown Logan Sidewalk Sale (Logan)
18. Alvey's Chocolate Factory (Richmond)
19. Summerfest Arts Fair (Logan)
20. Peach Days (Brigham City)
21. St. John's Episcopal Church (North Logan)
22. Herm's Inn (Logan)
23. 4th of July Freedom Fire (Logan/USU)
24. Hyrum City Museum (Hyrum)
25. Intermountain Herbarium (Logan/USU)
26. Museum of Anthropology (Logan/USU)
27. Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art (Logan/USU)
28. Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum (Paradise)
29. Camping (anywhere)
30. Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge (Brigham City)
31. Logan Cave (Logan Canyon)
32. Explore Fall Colors (Logan Canyon) POST
33. Mountain Valley Trout Farm (Smithfield)
34. Golf (Logan or Smithfield)
35. Multiple Hiking Trips (anywhere)
36. Horseback Riding (Beaver Creek Lodge)
37. Stay a day/night at Beaver Creek Lodge (Beaver Creek Lodge)
38. Stay a night at Anniversary Inn (Logan)
39. Rock Climb (Logan Canyon)
40. Rock Haus (Logan)
41. American West Heritage Center (Wellsville)
42. Brigham City Depot (Brigham City)
43. Golden Spike National Historic Site (Near Brigham City)
44. Country Village Antique Mall (Logan)
45. DragonGoose Farm (Lewiston)
46. Horse-Drawn Sleigh Ride Hardware Ranch & Elk Refuge (Hyrum)
47. Holmgren Historical Farm (Tremonton)
48. Logan Regional Family History Center (Logan)
49. Old Morgan Pea Factory (Smithfield)
50. Providence Inn Bed & Breakfast (Providence)
51. Seasons at the Riter Mansion (Logan)
52. Smithfield Implement (Smithfield) 
53. Whittier Community Center (Logan)
54. Bluebird Candy Factory (Logan)
55. Weeks Berries of Paradise (Paradise)
56. Old Ephraim's Mountain Man Rendezvous (Blacksmith Fork Canyon)
57. Art on the Lawn (North Logan)
58. Festivals of the American West (Wellsville)
59. Celebrate America Show (Logan/USU) POST#1
60. Pumpkin Walk (North Logan)
61. Mendon May Days (Mendon)
62. Pony Express Days (Clarkston)
63. Trout and Berry Days (Paradise)
64. Novemberfest (Logan)
65. "Clean the Sink" at Angie's (Logan)
66. George S. Eccles Ice Center (North Logan)
67. Jump Zone Trampoline Park (Logan)
68. Willow Park Zoo (Logan)
69. Home & Garden Show (North Logan)
70. Attend Event at Riverwoods Conference Center (Logan)
71. Old Ephraim's Grave Hike (Logan Canyon)
72. Cache Valley Civic Ballet's The Nutcracker (Logan)
73. Bear Lake Raspberry Days (Bear Lake)
74. USU Homecoming Football Game (Logan/USU)
75. USU Basketball Game (Logan/USU)
76. The Antics Comedy Improv Show (Logan)
77. Cache Valley Parade of Homes (Cache Valley)
78. Poetry & A Beverage (Logan/USU)
79. Stokes Nature Center (Logan Canyon)
80. Volunteer with Cache Valley Volunteer Center (Cache Valley) POST
81. Run any Cache Valley 5k (anywhere)
82. Country Swing Dancing (Logan)
83. Multiple USU Theater Productions (Logan/USU)
84. Attend Logan City Meeting (Logan)
85. Sledding Down Old Main Hill (Logan)
86. Become a True Aggie (Logan/USU)
87. Open Mic Night Logan Arthouse & Cinema (Logan)
88. Hardware Ranch & Elk Refuge (Hyrum)
89. Martin Harris Pageant (Clarkston)
90. Vote For Logan Offices (Logan)
91. Color Vibe 5k Run (Logan)
92. Man Vs. Mud (Logan)
93. Logan Film Festival (Logan)
94. Picnic in Logan Canyon (Logan Canyon)
95. See a Show at Pickleville Playhouse (Bear Lake)
96. Window Shop Downtown Logan (Logan)
97. Little Bear Bottoms Corn Maze (Wellsville) POST
98. Stargazing in the mountains (Cache Valley)
99. Cafe Ibis Tour (Logan)
100. Find the Perfect Cache Valley Sunset Spot (Cache Valley)
101. (These next ones are added from comments people left me!) Go to a high school football game (Cache Valley)
102. Make boats and float them down the canals (Logan) POST
103. Float down the Oneida Narrows (Preston, ID)
104. Get an O'Aggie Bar at Bluebird Candy Shop (Logan)
105. Buy raspberries from a cart vendor (Cache Valley) 
106. Pepperidge Farm Factory (Richmond)
107. County Fair (Logan)
108. Eat at Maddox (Brigham City)
109. Gosner's Factory (Logan)
110. Baby Animal Days at American West Heritage Center (Wellsville)
111. Hike to the top of Mount Logan and look out over the whole valley (Logan)
112. Demolition Derby (anywhere)
113. Cache Valley Ballroom Fest (Logan)

Whew! That was long and difficult! Thank you to Lisa Loves Logan, Cache Valley Visitors Bureau, and Nothing to Do in Logan for helping me out with this list. For anyone interested, Nothing To Do in Logan is a fantastic website that keeps up with all events going on in Logan and the surrounding Cache Valley. It's a great resource for Loganites! PS, if you like this post, you might also want to check out My American Journey, which is all (well most) the things I want to do in every state in the USA. 

If you think I'm missing anything from this list, please leave a comment below! I'm willing to add more if it's something special! Also, don't forget to comment if you join in on The Cache Valley Checklist as well! I'd love to hear about your adventures! 

Welcome to September!!! (and August in Review)

Welcome to September everyone!

I always like September. It's when (in Utah) we can pull out our boots and scarves. I can wear jeans and not be sweating like crazy. Things cool down. People get too excited about Halloween coming up. The leaves begin to change colors. It's the first full month of school. The weather is perfect. My brother turns 18 (actually, I don't want to think about that, he's way too young to be turning 18). September is a beautiful month and I am so excited for it!

I set the bar incredibly high for myself last month by writing 42 blog posts... 42 in 31 days? Crazy! And while I would love so badly to beat that number this month, I'm almost positive I can't, because I'm focusing a lot on school. So if I seem MIA for the next... four years... it's because I'm being a good student.

So this is also my August Review post (with pictures!!!) and I'm just going to talk about all the crazy things that happened to us this August. 

So end of July/beginning of August we were in Jackson Hole! My family goes there every year and it was so great to have my husband come with me this time! We visited Yellowstone and Old Faithful, like in the picture above, and just had a fantastic time there! I absolutely love going to Jackson!! 

So this is a picture of the inside of a car (and it was taken in July, but works for these purposes). Chris's car broke down this month. It was awful. However because of that, Chris's parent's brought up a spare car for us to use, and now that Chris's car is fixed, we have two cars! Which is really nice. The spare one is for Chris's brother, but he's on a mission till November so he doesn't really need it right now. 

We both got Pell Grants this year from the government to help pay for our school! I was super excited! Even though they still messed things up and dropped my classes and I still had to pay money, getting that money was exactly what we needed. 

This month I started a goal to read one book every month, which is also my new Book Club. I'm pretty sure no one has joined my book club yet, but that's okay. I know that it'll be a little rough in the first few months, and I'm fine with that. For September we'll be reading Beautiful Creatures. So if you want a goal to read a book a month, you can join my book club, it's absolutely no commitment. And please leave comments of book suggestions! Thanks! 

I first discovered this trailer in the month of August, and that's why it's in this post. This commercial honest gives me chills and makes me smile. I can't explain it. Bravo on making an awesome trailer! I'm super excited to see this movie! This movie is based off of a short story by James Thurber and I hope to read it before the movie comes out. But we'll see. Maybe I'll add it to my book club. 

I became a crossing guard this past month. Ha ha. It makes me feel old or something. Anyways, I'm just an alternate, so when the other guards are sick or on vacations they call me up. I've only done it once since school started (besides my training) so it's not steady income. But I get paid $2 more there than at my regular job, so doing it every now and then is fun. Plus I get to talk to little kids, which is always fun. 

I also got my janitor job back at the student center. It's not exactly what I wanted to do, but I absolutely love my boss and the kid I'm partnered with, Todd, we're real good friends. It's a fun job and I'm actually really good at it. It's just sometimes, we find nasty things in the bathrooms as we're cleaning them, and I'm not too fond of that part of the job. But it proves that I work hard to get my money. 

My best friend got married this month! I'm so happy for her and I loved spending the day with her! She looked so beautiful and so happy the whole day! CONGRATULATIONS LAUREN AND TREVOR!! 

For Lauren and Trevor's wedding gift I made them these mugs! I was super proud of myself! If you would like to know how I made these mugs, leave a comment below! It's super easy, but I'd love to make a tutorial for you if you want one. 

This mountain near our home caught on fire! My camera did a fantastic job with this picture... I'm amazed. (PS, these pictures are not necessarily in order)

But for me, the biggest thing about this month was that I started college again, after taking a year off of school. I had a fantastic first week and although I have tons of reading homework already, I'm so excited for this semester! I'm just so happy to be back in school (even though I have no idea what my major should be anymore, help me!!). 

Well this is my August Review post! I hope you enjoyed it! August was a crazy month for me and I had a major breakdown in the middle, but it ended perfectly (with my dad's birthday!) and I loved it! I'm super excited for September (and my brother's birthday!) and to continue on with this semester, but keep in mind I am a full time student and a part-time custodian so if I don't post a lot it's because I'm either doing homework or catching up on sleep. Please forgive me. 

Thanks for reading!! 

Dear Companies in Logan, Utah ...

Dear Companies in Logan, Utah,

My name is Kaylee. I'm twenty-two years old, recently married and a student at USU. I got my first job at the age of fifteen, working as a teacher's assistant at Sylvan Learning Center. From there I continued to work many other jobs, and finding ways to love everyone of them. In the 6 years I've been in the working field I have always considered myself a dedicated employee, and so have my employers. In fact, I'm still friends with many of my past employers.

I am very good at being on time. I am never late for work without a reason previously worked out with my manager. I also hardly ever ask for time off work. I've always worked through sickness (unless I literally can't move) and times when I'm feeling sad or stressed. More importantly, I don't believe I've ever let my emotional or physical condition affect my work in any way.

I always strive to do my very best, every day. I'm not one to sit around and do nothing. I'm always looking for more work to be done. I like to keep things organized and clean in the work area. I like to make customers happy. In fact, that's one of my favorite things about working, customer service. I love working with the customers and doing everything I possibly can to help them out and make them have a better day.

I have worked as a custodian, a childcare provider, a medical receptionist, a cashier, and more. And no matter what the job, I adapt quickly to the new environment and learn to love my job.

I love working. I love feeling like I'm accomplishing something with my life. I love making my own living and being able to afford my apartment (which I currently cannot). I love the feeling of helping customers. I love learning new things. I love interacting with my coworkers and the customers. I love providing a service. I love being productive with my days. I love spending my time feeling like I'm accomplishing something important and doing something for the greater good. I love to work. I love having a job.

I currently am unemployed and feel as if I've applied for everything I can in Logan, yet have only received one interview so far. For about two months I've been working hard to find a job and have found myself so profoundly unsuccessful that I'm beginning to feel more and more anxious, applying for any job in sight.

I hate not working. I hate not being able to afford my apartment. I hate putting so much pressure on my dear sweet husband to make money with his low paying job and by donating plasma. I hate having to ask my parents for some money to help us get by. I hate feeling stuck and useless with nothing to do. I hate not having a job.

So, to all the companies in Logan, Utah, I am available for hire!! I'm a quick learner. I'm available basically anytime you want/need. I'm getting a little desperate so I'll take anything. I love working, I really truly do and I always work my very hardest. So please, Logan, help me find a job soon.

Love, Kaylee

Summer Classes

So I haven't written in forever and it's because I am so terribly busy and stressed that I just can't force myself to write on this blog in the rare bits of free time that I do have. One more month till my wedding! ... and we've been having complications with the invitations and trying to get them sent out this week. So I'm sorry I haven't written. Blame Chris for proposing to me. :)

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Today I registered for classes at Utah State University for summer semester. I AM BEYOND EXCITED!!! I love USU! I've been a student there for three year, then took a year off, and now I'm going back! I'm so happy! I'm taking Human Anatomy and Introduction to Technical Communication, both of which are classes required for my major/minor (English teaching with a minor in physical education coaching and an ESL endorsement).

But why does school have to be so darn expensive??? And weddings for that matter!! I stopped going to school so I could save up money to go back to school. But then the government got angry and made me start repaying my loans, I had to pay for parts of my wedding (my parents are very generous and have helped out so much (I love you mom and dad!!!)) and all the money I was "saving up" is now mysteriously disappeared. All that's in my bank account is enough to pay for summer semester.

I'm going to have to take out another loan. I already have two out, Chris has one out, we aren't married yet and we're already very much in debt.

But for some reason, I'm very calm about the whole thing. Sure in one month I'll go from having two jobs to being job-less. I'll be moving back to Logan and have to pay rent on a beautiful apartment that I'm in love with. Tuition is due the 24th of April. I still have wedding expenses to pay for...

... but the fact is, I'm so happy to be going back to school, I can't really complain! I'll be married to the most wonderful man who ever lived and I'll be continuing my education. How could I ask for anything more?

I'm so happy that I've had the opportunity to go to college and that I get to continue and work hard till I can finally graduate! :)

Moments

Today is going downhill. It started out good. I woke up feeling great and well rested. I watched parts of Despicable Me and Ever After (both fantastic movies). I drove to Logan (which seemed to take forever!!). We got some Paradise Bakery (yum!!!). Then I bought Chris's ring (we only have 48 days left!!!). We looked up housing options (we're running out of time!!!). Then he left for work...

So I've been sitting in his apartment playing on his laptop for the past two hours watching Avatar: The Last Airbender.... and his roommate joined me...

I feel awkward... But whatever. Only a month (ish) till his only roommate is me. :)

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I LOVE MY NEW HAIR COLOR!!! I always have my cousin dye my hair because she's great at it!! She is fantastic and is doing my hair for my wedding. She lives in the Orem area and can give you her contact information if you're in need of a new fantastic hairstyle. Pictures of my new hair will be coming soon. :)

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Avatar is fantastic. I just can't stop watching it! I'm very upset that Nickelodeon won't play it for me anymore. It makes me very sad and depressed. They play it sometimes, but at inconvenient times. And it's best when the play it with Avatar Extras, because they're funny and let me learn more about the show, which is good since I've already seen every episode... multiple time.

Avatar is available on Netflix if anyone wants to check it out. That's what I'm watching it on right now. I also get it for free on my Kindle Fire through Amazon Prime. I'm so glad my dad has Amazon Prime. It gives me Avatar and helped us buy stuff for my wedding for cheaper. Good times. :)

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I love Christopher! He just makes my life so much better! He means so much to me. And he's very attractive. So attractive! How did I get someone so attractive? I'm so lucky!! He's just the nicest guy ever!

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If I lived in the Avatar world, I'd like to be an airbender like Aang. Just watch the show, Aang can do almost anything! He's super talented and can pretty much fly! Who doesn't want to fly? More importantly, airbending can be done anywhere! Air is everywhere! Waterbenders need water, earthbenders need earth, firebenders can produce their own fire so... ignore them... but airbenders can get air from anywhere! They can be unstoppable because air is everywhere! 

I'd also like to say Toph is amazing. I'm watching the episode 'The Blind Bandit'. Toph is amazing. Truly amazing. If I was an earthbender, I'd want to be like Toph. My brother wants to be an earthbender. I think earthbenders are really cool... but mostly just Toph. :) 

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I don't really have anything else to say except more about Avatar. But that's cool. Have a great day! You're awesome! 

My Valentines Day 2013

I found the idea for Chris's birthday present on Pinterest, but really I could have thought of it myself.

So I made this box as pink and girly as I could, because that's what Valentine's Day reminds me of. I just covered a Vans shoebox with scrapbook paper. It looked really good!

On the inside I had a ton of paper hearts that had reasons why I love him. I also threw in a finger soccer game, which is really funny because it gives you mini cleats for your fingers. Chris loved his gift and I'm happy I made it all myself. :)

Chris gave me balloons and flowers!!!

White daisies are my favorite flower and I love the red flowers that were in there too! I also love balloons! Getting balloons just makes me happy!! He also gave me a necklace with my birthstone that matches the earrings he gave me for my birthday!

Jerrick's Fine Jewelry is good to us. It's where he got my matching necklace and earrings and my engagement ring. Chris likes them a lot. When he went in last week looking for a Valentines gift for me they remembered him and they remembered my birthstone from my birthday earrings.

If that wasn't enough, we went out for a lovely dinner at Chili's (because Logan doesn't have very many fancy restaurants) and had the most amazing dessert! Then he surprised me with tickets to go see Safe Haven. Which was pretty good. I've always liked Julianne Hough (she graduated from Alta High School like me!!) and Josh Duhamel (because he's amazing looking). My favorite part was when all the girls in my theater gasped because this guy was hiding in the shadows. It was the funniest thing ever because it was so obvious he was there!

It was a wonderful Valentine's Day! :)

Lindsey Brogdon Photography

I want to thank Lindsey Brogdon (of Lindsey Brogdon Photography) for taking my engagement photos last Saturday in single digit temperatures in the snow!

They turned out beautifully! Lindsey is so much fun to work with (I grew up with her, I can attest to her fun-ness) and very talented. Please check out her website (linked above) to learn more about her and her amazing photography! I do highly recommend her and hope you consider her for any of your picture taking needs. She's worth it. :)

THANK YOU LINDSEY!!!

(we've never had a picture of us kissing before and we very rarely kiss in front of other people, this was a new experience for us, but the pictures turned out great!)

Just Updates

So I'm in Logan for the weekend. Having lots of fun hanging out with my fiance. The main reason I'm up here is because we got our engagement photos done today! (thank you again so much  Lindsey!) But we've done lots of other fun things as well.

I went ice fishing today for my first time. My fiance loves to fish. Which is why I gave him a fishing related Christmas presents. So he has lots of friends who also love to fish. Which is great. And I actually go fishing with him a lot. But we've learned I'm bad luck. See, every time we go fishing together, we never catch anything, but if Chris goes fishing without me, he always comes home successful. So, as tradition proves, we didn't catch anything this morning. But I did nearly freeze my toes off and we walked across the entire lake and heard the ice cracking below us. It was certainly an adventure!

We rented the third season of Friends and I've been watching all the episodes. I just love that show and we are trying to go through all the episodes. But it's difficult because there are very few movie rental places anymore and the one we do know of doesn't have the first two seasons, which is fairly important if your planning on watching a whole series. So...

Dear Netflix, 

I would greatly appreciate it if you would put all the seasons of Friends on your website. I would watch every episode multiple times like I have with How I Met Your Mother and Avatar: The Last Airbender, and it would just be great! Thanks so much!

Kaylee

Getting our engagements done was great! Except it was freezing! It snowed all last night so we had a beautiful amount of glittery snow to work with and it was fantastic! But it was so cold! At one point I felt like I had been at the dentist and he had numbed my lips because it was really difficult to smile. I wonder what those pictures turned out like... I should be getting them back in one to three weeks. I'll keep you posted.

I played FIFA with Chris. I hate games, but I usually like video games. And while I have nothing against this one, I was just pushing buttons. I had no idea what I was doing. It was a struggle. And in normal soccer, the score doesn't usually end up 7 to 0. So... totally unrealistic game play.

We have gone out to eat for every meal. We've had Subway, Wendy's, Rumbi, Jimmy Johns, Einstein Bagels, and Cafe Rio. And the greatest milkshakes in the world. Seriously! I first had it on New Years, the first thing I had in 2013 and it was the greatest milkshake of my life, and I had it again on Thursday, still the greatest milkshake of my life. F'real. Find one and get it!!!

Once Upon A Time.... (Part 2)

So the boy then knew he wanted to date the girl. So he got her number and began texting her. He asked her out (through text, to which she refused to reply until he called and more properly asked her on a date).

But the girl was scared. She couldn't help but remember all the previous dates she had been on with boys that were rude and selfish and used her. She didn't want to face that again. She didn't want to date again. So she begged her roommate to go with her and make it a double date. Arrangements were made and the boy's friend was planned to drive up to Logan to meet them for the date.

The girl stressed the whole day. She had bought a new outfit, wanting to look extra cute. She vented to a good friend while drinking a bunch of energy drinks to hype up her attitude and calm her nerves. She realized how terrified she really was of dating again.

But then the phone rang.

The boy called her to tell her that his friend was stranded in the canyon, his car having caught on fire. He had to drive to help his friend.

Their date was cancelled.

TO BE CONTINUED

Once Upon a Time.... (Part 1)

Once upon a time in Logan, Utah, there was a sad, lonely little girl who wasn't interested in dating anymore after the recent hardships and heartbreaks of the last year. She didn't want to deal with boys anymore. She didn't want to do anything anymore. She had lost her drive. She had lost her will to care about anything.

One day, close to Halloween, after a long day of work she arrived back at her apartment to find her favorite roommate with a boy at the kitchen table. They quickly invited her to spend the evening together, Boo-ing people (you give out treats to random strangers by doorbell ditching them and leaving a ghost that gives instructions to do the same to other people. It's lots of fun, maybe I'll make a sample for the blog and share it with you all... next Halloween time).

It was a fun night making cookies and masks to go Boo-ing in.

It was also the night that the girl decided she could be happy again. And while they didn't know it at the time, it was the night the girl would share a photograph with the man she would someday marry. 

TO BE CONTINUED... 

Celebrating Halloween

Last week I had a very fun time with my boyfriend celebrating Halloween. Here are some picture to show you!

We carved pumpkins, went to Odyssey Dance Theater's Thriller, and went to the Pumpkin Walk in Logan. It was truly on of my favorite days ever!

Little known fact, our first was actually last Halloween. So tomorrow is the one year anniversary of our first kiss, and this Sunday (also my 22nd birthday) is the one year anniversary of us dating. This past year with him has seriously been the greatest year of my life and I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with him.

Love you Christopher!

--Kaylee