Remember Us?

So it's been a summer plus a fall. I just got so behind on the blogging that I kept avoiding it because I didn't want to play the catch up game. Also there is still that whole computer issue. I sit at one ALL day at work so I really don't want to touch one when I come home. I have also been trying to spend my evenings outside and trying to enjoy the warm weather while it lasts (winter always comes way too fast for me). I know, I know enough with the excuses and on with the blogging. Remember how I promised a mega post all the way back in April? Well here are all the things I meant to blog about this past summer. Hopefully I will catch up on fall soon. I will try to list in the order are pictures are below...at this point it's way too hard for captions.

1. We enjoyed quite a few trips to the park this summer to enjoy some frisbee and an occasional picnic. And maybe sometimes I have bad aim and like throw the frisbee over the fence...





2. I officially graduated. Only 208.5 credits and 5.5 years later. It's not quite as bad as it sounds...I started BYU with 42 mostly useless credits I earned from AP/IB exams. Graduation was really nice. I sat by a few friends from my ward for the big ceremony and Elder Oaks spoke at my college graduation! I have to say that my college probably has the most entertaining ceremony because it all music, dance, theater, and art majors. There were lots of great musical numbers and maybe a little dancing across the stage when the names were called. Also I received some kind of outstanding senior award. The art department has failed to tell me exactly what it was for but I did get a nice little check in the mail from BYU this summer!







3. We went to the tulip festival at Thanksgiving point. It was a really cold day but the flowers were beautiful.




4. James and I participated in a project with BYU and some students from the UK called mapping the west. We went camping in Escalante at the petrified forest, had dinner and a history lesson at one of the faculty's ranch in Bolder,UT, had our lunches stolen by a very big and aggressive Raven, completed a book arts project, had a group show and met a lot of really great people! I think the show is still traveling around Great Britain. The book I made was a disaster but I was just having too much fun getting to know all our visitors!







5. Enjoyed Memorial day in Midway with some of my family and some of James' fam. We played croquet and went for a hike.


6. We took a trip to California to visit friends and family and had quite an adventure getting there. We decided to leave after work on a Friday so we would have a little more time in San Francisco on Saturday. First we stopped at the salt flats which were one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen! Then we tried to sleep in Elko, NV but there was a motorcycle jamboree (yes we saw several men in viking hats) going on and we couldn't find a room ANYWHERE! After getting pulled over for forgetting to use our blinker we decided keep driving. We ended up staying in Winnamucha, NV in the "executive suite" at the Holiday Inn which was the last room left in the town. After dealing with tons of San Francisco traffic and some bad directions we found Sarah and Patrick Larsen's house and had a great visit and tour of the city. My favorites were Alcatraz, sea lions at the pier, walking the Lands End trail, and hanging out the side of a trolley that passed a trolley carrying Michelle Obama and all her security guards.

After a few days in SF we decided to have a few more driving adventures and go down to Santa Monica to visit my brother Spencer and his family. We decided to take the scenic route which was cool until it got dark and then it turned into a very scary windy road with lots of car sickness involved. We did make one cool pit stop at a place called Carmel by the Sea to watch the sunset. When we got to Santa Monica we had a great time hanging out with Spencer, Andrea, Kate, and Anna and going camping at Leo Carillo. The weather was great but the body surfing was a little rough (see Spencer's leg below). We also really enjoyed going jogging along the ocean, playing beach volleyball, and going to Venice beach. It was so nice to see everyone and escape from work and from Provo!
























7. For the 4th of July Kate and Richard (now engaged woohoo!) came for a visit. We had a bbq in Provo and watched fireworks in Park City!







8. At the end of July both James' family and my family came for a visit! Busy busy! We went to Seven Peaks with James' fam. And did lots of swimming, took a trip to our friends BBQ joint (Texas Pride) in Huntsville, and had a lady's craft day with my family. It was great to see everyone!





9. We celebrated our 3rd anniversary! To celebrate we went out to dinner and saw an outdoor play at Sundance. Of course it a cold front blew in so it was freezing!



10. James participated in his first Triathalon! He struggled with the swimming but did great with everything else. I was so proud of him! He is such a hard worker and great at accomplishing his goals.







11. My mom turned 70 and we had a great party at my Aunt Susie's house.


12. We ended our summer by watching an outdoor movie at Rock Canyon park!

Provo + Red Box = BAD

You know what is very annoying? Going to a redbox, getting excited that they ACTUALLY have the movie you want, selecting that movie, then swiping your card a million times until you realize the card reader is for the billionth time broken. Do you know what is even more annoying? Driving to another redbox, feeling triumphant when it too has the movie you want, selecting the movie, watching as the screen says "vending dvd" for 10 minutes while no dvd comes out, reading the error message, being stubborn and trying again, watching "vending dvd" for five more minutes and reading the error message again. All this for a stupid girl movie to watch alone that wasn't worth paying $4 for at Blockbuster. Let's just say it was a rough night.

**P.S. I know I am a terrible blogger lately but I have lots of pictures to post from our spring time activities, graduation and such....plus we are going camping this weekend with 40 people (12 of them visiting from Liverpool, England) so get pumped for a mega post soon. It's gonna be huge.

long time no blog

As you may have noticed I have been a very bad blogger lately. I blame it on the fact that I now sit in front of a computer for 8 hours a day at work and have no desire to be near one when I come home. Plus I have been back to my incredibly busy self these days. Anyways, here's an update of some of the happenings in our lives. Sorry to lump it all together like this.

1.MERE'S JOB: The "new" job is going pretty good. The people are nice and we actually have more freedom in the design process than I expected. I had a really hard time being at a computer all day for the first couple of weeks but I think I'm finally getting used to that part of it. Also I haven't been new to a job in a long time (BYU library for 2 years, the Gap for 5 years) so it has been a little bit humbling to be the one who doesn't know what they're doing. Mostly at a time like this I'm just grateful to have a job where I can use some of the skills I acquired in college.

I usually try to go for a walk on all my breaks at work so I can stretch and get my blood pumping a little. I work in a very industrial part of Provo so the walks are not too scenic but I kinda think trash is interesting to look at (or at least it makes me want to go home and make a collage) so I sometimes take my camera along. Here are a few pics from one of my routes:











2.JAMES' JOB: James got a promotion a few weeks ago so he is no longer an intern! Although he is still only working part time, he now gets benefits like health insurance and retirement. It's pretty awesome.

3. PRINT EXCHANGE WITH BYU AND BYU-I: Last month I was back at my old stomping grounds working on a print for an exchange with 26 artists (BYU and BYU Idaho and a couple of local artists). It was so much fun to be back in the intaglio room and hanging out with my BYU art friends. I miss seeing them all the time. Although I procrastinated a little too much and didn't really sleep for a couple of weeks, it was a good reminder that I'm happier when art (esp. printmaking) is part of my life. I just have to learn to always leave a little time for it. I will try to post pics of some of the prints that I received in the exchange but if I don't get to it there will be a show in the fall at BYU with all the prints.

P.S. - speaking of being up at BYU...3 prints from my BFA show are up right now in the HFAC as part of the Annual Student Show.

4. GENERAL CONFERENCE: I have always looked forward to general conference weekend (when I was a kid I think it had to do with my mom's cinnamon rolls and watching church on TV instead of dressing up and going to Church on Sunday). Now I think I look forward to it because it is a much needed reminder to get my priorities in check and to be better, more hopeful, and more faithful. And as usual the talks this conference were exactly what James and I needed to hear.

On Saturday we had James' siblings over. We had a good time relaxing and being entertained by baby Trevor's every move. Also I attempted to make my own cinnamon rolls this year...they turned out okay but nothing like my Mom's. So far all my bread making attempts have been about like that so I guess I gotta keep working. On Saturday night we headed up to my parent's house in Midway and watched the Sunday sessions with some of my family. As usual we ate too much, played the Wii, and went for a walk to check out the new houses being built.


Here is Uncle James and Trevor. Trevor stayed like this for about 2 hours. James decided he might need to lose a little weight if his belly has become that comfortable.

5. EASTER: We were supposed to spend Easter Sunday at my brother's house but my Mom and my niece ended up being sick so we postponed the celebration. James' siblings were going to come with us to my brother's house so we ended up throwing together an Easter dinner of our own and eating it at our apartment. Christine, James, and I had already dyed eggs on Saturday in preparation for the annual egg roll so we decided to go ahead and have one out in front of our condo and it ended up being really fun. As usual James was the winner of the game. The weather decided to act like Spring yesterday and I was grateful we could all get out and enjoy it.










THE END!

March

A few things I love about March (in order):
1. A glimpse of Spring....it's amazing what a big difference a little sunshine and sandals can make after long, long, long, Utah winters.
2. March Madness...I love the adrenaline rush of back to back, down to the wire, college basketball games.
3. Girl Scout Cookies...no need for an explanation there.

Come on get happy...

Okay so I kind of want to apologize because my blogging lately has been kind of depressing. In fact my friend Kate told me "I glad you got a job so you will start having happy posts again"...which made me laugh really hard but also feel a little bit guilty for complaining so much. Anyways in sunday school at my parents ward today the teacher mentioned an article he found in the NY times talking about a study that showed happiness is contagious. I believe it and I know I need to work harder at accentuating the positive. We are so blessed and I was grateful to have the reminder today that I have a million reasons to be cheerful. Here is the link: http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/is-happiness-contagious/?emc=eta1. Sorry I couldn't get the little blogger link thing to work. I'm not sure if this is the same article he found but I think it is taken from the same study. I especially like the part about if your friend's friend becomes happy it has a bigger impact on your happiness than a $5,000 extra dollars in your pocket.

Weekend Update

James and I have actually had lots of excitement the past few weeks which is probably why I haven't posted in awhile. It really has been a lot of random events and the order of those events is kind of jumbled in my head so I apologize if this post doesn't make any sense. I am trying to put most of it in list format so there is some order. Here we go:

1. Rachel (James' sister) and her husband Ryan had their baby Trevor Arthur Stephens. He is adorable and James and I have had a lot of fun going over to visit him. They even let us hold him...ha ha...I think we are both scared of holding newborns so we are trying to get over that.
2. I got a job as a graphic designer at a scrapbook company (the interview I talked about in the last post). I start on Tuesday and I am a little nervous because I know nothing about scrapbooking. But mostly I am excited to have something to do. Hopefully it won't be too rough of an adjustment after my several lazy months.
3. We went to the Draper Temple open house James' mom and his sister Christine. It is a beautiful temple and it was so fun to take a tour through it. I can't believe how windy it is in Draper though!
4. James' dad and brother Blake came to town for Trevor's baby blessing (his mom was already here helping Rachel with the baby) and we had a good time going bike shopping for James' Dad at all the local bike shops. Sunday was the blessing. It was a really nice blessing and it was fun to get together with everyone. Plus Ryan's mom gave me a quick lesson on how to crochet!!!
5. I entitled this last week as "freedom week" because it was my last week of very little obligations. I was able to work on some letterpress projects, go to the gym/yoga class, work on my sock monkeys, work on house drawings with James, practice my bread making skills (which still need of lot of work...I place most of the blame on our crappy oven though), meet up with some old friends, visit the BYU printmaking wing, and get involved in some art projects. It's amazing how knowing something is going to be gone soon makes you much more appreciative and productive.
6. James and I were able to go to a couple friends' art shows in the HFAC and to the gallery stroll. I was so happy James was able to leave work a little early on Friday and go with me. Definitely go the HFAC and check out Whitney Johnson's show and Laura Reynold's show.
7. James and I escaped to my parents house in Midway this Sat and Sun. We spent a lot of time driving around looking at houses. We have been doing far to much of that lately but James loves to look at houses and draw house plans and now he's got me hooked. Mostly we just dream about the day when we will own a house. We also ate a lot, watched Flash of Genius (okay movie), and played a lot of Mario Kart. Sometimes it's just nice to get out of Provo.

Here are a few pics from our activities...sorry I didn't get any pics of cute Trevor with my camera:


Me at the letterpress in my lovely apron.


My sister-in-law Andrea commissioned me to do a letterpess print for a friend's baby shower. She told me that her friend liked vintage robots so this is what I came up with. I have lots of extras so if you're interested...


A house James and I liked in Midway


Out of all the houses we drove by this weekend we liked this one the best. The picture below is the same house just farther away.

random/ very long/ too personal post

Sometimes I feel like I share a little too much personal information on our blog. Normally I'm not really one for sharing my feelings. But some reason it seems like it's easy to do that on a blog. However, I figure since I'm terrible at keeping a journal, I can at least go back and read the posts on our blog (along with everyone else...yikes!). Anyways here are some things that I have been feeling like writing down - random remembrances and the personal.

First, I had a funny experience on Valentine's Day that reminded me of two other funny valentines experiences I had in high school. As I mentioned before James was out of town for V-day so I volunteered to babysit for my brother. When he and his wife got home they were talking about their dinner and how Matt's "feast for one," wasn't much of a feast. I have experienced the "feast for one" at Brick Oven and was surprised to hear him say that. We then figured out that the waitress never explained to Matt that he was supposed to go to the pasta bar to get the rest of his food. They decided they should call and complain. The manager said they could come in and pick up the rest of their dinner but they decided it wasn't worth it. I however live very close to Brick Oven so they told me I should go get it. I'm not one to pass up free food so I went for it. It was only when I started walking into the restaurant alone at 9:30 PM on V-day I realized what I was doing was a little weird. As I arrived at the pasta bar alone with a very large plastic take out container, I realized the guy running the pasta bar was an acquaintance from my freshman year. I definitely turned a little red and proceeded to have a very awkward conversation during which I attempted to explain why I was there.

This experience made me remember how my junior year of high school I had a Valentine's Day party at my house. In preparation I went to the grocery store and stocked up on A LOT of Blue Bell ice cream. Anyways, as I was heading to the check out with my arms full of ice cream I ran into the young "hot" track coach from my high school. He laughed and looked at me like I was the saddest creature on the face of the earth and I'm pretty sure he believed all that ice cream was for me and me alone. I said a very quick hello and ran away.

Thinking about that made me remember v-day my freshman year of high school. I was putting my books in my locker before first period wearing my new red shirt when out of no where this kid jumped around the corner pulled at my shirt and poured some kind of hot sauce/salsa concoction down it before I could do anything. I turned to see who the culprit was saw that it was one of the boys from the Special Ed class. What was I supposed to do...beat him up? I ran to class told my teacher I would be late, went back to my locker grabbed my track shirt, went to the bathroom and attempted to clean myself off. Let's just say I smelled like a lovely jalapeno for the rest of the day. Later that day my mom called the school to tell them what happened and they told her he must have "escaped" from his class and that he had a fascination with pouring things. Ahhh the memories.

Now for the personal. Life has been interesting lately. I feel stuck, cramped, lost and literally bored to tears. I think of things to do but I know if I get all my art stuff out it will overwhelm our apartment and I will be stir crazy after 10 mins. I have not been handling the graduation transition very well. I miss school a lot. I miss people. I never realized how much small daily interactions meant to me. I miss printmaking. I want to spread my stuff all over the intaglio room and answer the little freshman's questions while I work. Art is tricky...it's hard to finish a big project and to start something new, it's especially hard to do it alone. I am trying to figure it out because I love making things and I need to learn to do it all by myself like a big girl. So here's the favor I ask - be my art friend. Come do a project, send me a cool link, mail me a collage and I'll mail you one back. Tell me to get off my butt and go make something!

I have a job interview tomorrow. We'll see what happens. I'm scared. In most ways I want a full-time job - I love schedules and I love being around people all day. Plus I know I have a lot of time ahead of me to do lots of things. However, in some ways I feel like kind of a sell-out. I know that's weird but I'm sure most artists feel like that at some point in time. I just keep reminding myself of what one of my favorite optimists said:

"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just like people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is just like an old time rail journey ... delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride." - President Gordon B. Hinckley