Happy Holidays!

Jonathan wanted me to post this weeks ago, but I just never got around to it. We put our tree and other Christmas decorations up the week before Thanksgiving! I was just too excited. We went to go buy a new tree this year, because our old one got a little bit wet in the flood this summer. I didn't want to wait to put it up. So we watched ELF and put our stuff up! So fun! I love the Holidays, it is my favorite time of year! I also finished all my Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving as to avoid the masses of shoppers. So not only has our tree been up for a while, but it has presents under it! So Fun! I found these gold and red holly berries at Hobby Lobby this year and bought a bunch to put on our tree. They are probably my favorite part of the tree beside our 2 trombone ornaments and our starfish on the top! Also, check out the snowman! I totally made it all by myself! I made it at a relief society activity. I nailed and painted it all by myself. I am so not crafty, so I was really proud of myself! Jonathan and I are also was stoked for Colorado in a week! It is going to be a blast! Also, I am really excited to have a little over a week off work! About time! Anyway, here are some pictures of our tree and other such decorations.

Chicago

I know it has been a while, so here is a funny story for you. So, as of right now my only days off are Sunday, because we are short staffed and it is slow season, so there isn't a lot of traffic in the store. I was finally able to take a Saturday off. My first real day off in like 2 months. I wasn't planning on doing much until my friend Kim asked me to go Chicago with her. She had a class that she needed to take and she knew that my sister Kim lived there and thought that I would want to go. So sweet of her to think of me. I thought that it would be super fun. I called Kim(sister) and told her about the trip and of course it was a weekend that she wasn't going to be there! Figures. I still wanted to hang out with Kim(friend) and Kim(sister) said that we could stay at her place anyway. Fun. I was packing to leave when I realized that i forgot to call her on Friday and remind her that we were coming and to leave the house unlocked. So I called her Saturday just before we left, and she said that the house was locked, but that the back door was easy to card. No big deal. Kim(friend) and I left Saturday afternoon and headed to Chicago. We stopped at a super huge outlet mall that has all these super ritzy stores like Coach and Gucci and of COURSE we had to go into the Kate Spade outlet! Wow. That is all I can say. Loved it! Too bad I can't afford anything in there right now. One day. Sigh. So after that Kim(friend) really wanted to go to the Nordstoms Rack just a little ways away. I was totally game being that I hadn't been to one since we lived in Salt Lake. I forgot about all the great stuff they have there, especially their shoe section! I found 2 pairs of super cute shoes for 20 bucks total after tax! I know, your jealous, that okay though, I would be too. Just kidding. So at this point we were both starved and found a pizza place called Giordanos. It was awesome! They have these stuffed crust pizzas that the crust seriously is like 5 inches tall. Kim(friend) and I got the thin crust. They looked crazy good, but there was just no way! After having driven 4 hours, shopped and eaten, we were ready for bed, so off we headed for Kim's(sister) house. Well to make a long story short we tried for about 45 minutes to card the door to no avail. We tried knocking on a couple different neighbors houses for help, but no one answered. Sad. I'm sure we were quite a site to see. Well, thankfully I have an amazingly generous father who used some of his Mariott Points to get us a hotel room for the night. When we finally got to the hotel, it was about 2 hours later that we had wanted to get to bed. What a night. Well, the next day proved to be tricky. Kim's(friend) class was from 9-6, I was planning on just hanging out at Kim's(sister) house until she was done, not now, obviously. Checkout at the Hotel was at noon and it was a Sunday. What was I going to do? Sit in the lobby all day? Thankfully my knight and shining armor Jonathan, drove to Chicago and picked me up that afternoon. The sad thing is though, is that Kim(friend) had to drive home by herself! I felt so bad! What a weekend. Next time I take a day off I am staying in bed!!! Just kidding, it was a lot of fun to hang out with Kim(friend) and now we have this killer story to share! So seriously this is a lot longer that I thought it would be. If you have finished this novel then congrats and thank you for not bailing out mid story!!! Here is a picture of us in the hotel after a long day...it was taken with my phone. Not the best picture ever...

Just a quick shout-out to my awesome husband!!! Happy Happy Birthday!

So, I figured that if I changed my template that I would get in trouble that I didn't actually post anything. I knew that I wouldn't be able to get away with that one... Sadly enough, though I don't have anything really very interesting to talk about. Jonathan and I have been super busy with work and school. I officially taken over as the Manager and because we lost Katy, the only other full time employee, I am now working about 45 hours a week. Kinda sucks. Right now my only days off are Sunday. I really shouldn't complain though, because I do get overtime pay and my raise was a hefty one. I just know that I desperately need to get someone hired for busy season or life will really suck. I wish that I had some fun pictures to post, but alas, I just haven't gotten around to it. I do have some from my really good friend Katy's wedding a couple weeks ago. We had a blast and she, of course, looked beautiful! Here are some fun little tidbits...


This is me and my buddy Allison. We work together and were both Katy's personal attendants. This is just before the reception.




This is me with my friend Monica and the beautiful bride!




This is quite a few of the wedding party and some other randoms. I wish that you could see how beautiful the wedding was!




Had to throw this one in. Jonathan and I with our ribbon mustaches. It was a great night!!!

Okay, seriously I know that I need to be way more consistent in my blogging. A lot has happened since my last post. Jonathan and I moved into our new apartment, went to Colorado, Jonathan started school, and I got offered the Manager position at work. Crazy. So, we love our new apartment and the community we live it. We have a great couple that is in our ward that live across the hall from us. Also, there is also a lot of other families from our ward that live close which is a really nice change. It is nice to see a lot of them more than just on Sunday. A week after we moved in we went to Colorado the visit my Mom and Dad. We had a great time. We were able to hang out with Chris and Ixchelle and meet our cute new nephew Shaden, So fun! Mom and Dad were generous enough to take us to a Colorado Rockies game!! We had such a blast. It was my first professional sporting event. They were playing the Arizona diamondbacks, so we got to see Randy Johnson. He is huge!!! So freaking tall! What made the night really memorable was late in the game when it started to rain these huge rain drops and then the rain turned in to slush. Only in Colorado in August. We came back home and started to get more settled. Jonathan got started with school and is super busy, as the school of music won't be open theis year due to all the flooding, the have classes all over the city. Makes for long crazy days. Too make things more crazy, I will be taking over as the Manager of the store in about 3 weeks. Jonathan and I right now are trying to talk the owner into selling us her store. We right now are waiting to get a number from her. So hopefully we will be store owners by the end of the year. Lets all keep our fingers crossed. So, that is a quick update of what has been going down here in Iowa. Here are some pictures of the new place and and of some of our summer fun.




If you couldn't tell, this is Jonathan and I at Garden of the Gods. We weren't able to stay too long. The altitude got to us faster then we thought.




This is us outside of Coors Field. I bought a new hat for the occasion. Sadly enough, I have such a small head I had to buy a childrens hat...




Here is our living room. Notice behind Jonathan is our new fireplace! Wahoo!! It was a selling point for me, Also, you can see that the bookshelf made it! Hallelujah!




Here is our messy kitchen, but it is bigger!

So there is the short tour of our new place, I guess if you want to see the rest that you will just have to come and visit! We are always open for guests!!!! Please come visit! We live only 2 hours away from Nauvoo!!

Only one more week!

So we only have one more week in Oxford! Hallelujah! I can't even begin to express how excited I am. I haven't even slept in a bed for 6 weeks. Dumb. We are now trying to figure out what we need that we lost in the flood to make life livable. Yea for moving! I will post pictures of the new digs next week once we get all moved in. On a different note, as most of you know I am doing Weight Watchers and I am proud (but not unrighteously proud) that I have lost 12 pounds! I only have 6 more to go for my 1st goal! Sweet. Jonathan said that I get 50 dollars to spend when I reach it! I think I will making a stop at the gap... So after all of the madness this summer, I was looking through my iphoto and remembering some more positive carefree times. I found this picture of Jonathan and I the day after we got engaged. We went to the Museum of Natural History in Albuquerque. Crazy to think that it was 4 years ago that we got engaged. How time flies...



Well, like I said, next week will be a much better blog with pictures of the new digs!!!! Wahoo!

So I am doing a little bit of bragging today. My really good friend is getting married in September and I am one of her personal attendants. A couple of her bridesmaids were planning to throw her a bridal shower, but they really didn't want to do things how she wanted, (which would have been easy) so she told them, Thanks but no thanks. She decided that she would just do it herself. Isn't that the dumbest thing you have ever heard!! No bride, especially a super nice one, should have to throw her own bridal shower. So I stepped up to the plate. She really wanted it to be coed since her fiancee is going to be in town that weekend (he lives in Albuquerque). We decided to do a fun BBQ. Anyway, on to the bragging, we looked everywhere for invitations and just weren't finding any that we liked, so I decided to make them. They turned out so cute! I am not one to brag, mostly because I am not this proud of the stuff that I do, but LOVED these invitations. Maybe I have discovered my new hidden talent....new business venture perhaps? Well, here they are. If you don't love them as much as I do, then just lie to me and tell me you do! Thanks!

P.S. if you click on the picture, you can see it larger and they look even better!

Well I guess that it is about time for an update. After the flood, things were a little crazy for a while. Still are actually. Our apartment ended up with about 2 feet of water in it. So, needless to say, we did lose stuff. We were able to get back in to the apartment about a week later. It was a pretty horrific smell. Not recommended. We decided that we were definitely not going to move back into the same place, so we started looking for a new place. We found something a little further out of town, but nice and no where near any body of water. I mean, we were flooded by a creek!!! No water please. We move in August 1st. As for now, we are staying in a friends apartment out in the middle of nowhere. They are gone for the summer and graciously offered to let us stay there. It is about 20 miles out of town and there is nothing here. I never thought that I would live anywhere where I would have to say "lets go into town" So hick-ish. I really shouldn't complain because it is free, but it is rough. There is almost no cell phone service and they have a double bed! We are used to a king, so we are actually sleeping on out air mattress in the living room. Note that the air mattress takes up the entire living room. It touches the couch and the other wall. I am so ready to be living in my own place. Not to mention that on Saturday night they had a town dance right outside our building, on our window side of course. It went from 9 until midnight. I was so irritated. We have early church and I am not a morning person as it is, so I really need my sleep. Stupid town of Oxford.

We are very thankful for a lot of good people out here. We have the stuff that we were able to save at about 5 different peoples' houses, which ought to make moving day fun. At least the stuff is already in boxes though! Long story short, this summer really blows and look forward to it being over. Here are some random pictures of goings on here.



This is notice saying that we can go back into our building as long as we don't have to wade through flood waters to get there. There were many people arrested for going into the flood waters. Gross.




This is a crack in the foundation in our guest bedroom. We found it after they took the carpet out. Also, they aren't fixing it. Glad we are moving.





Here is a picture of some of our wreckage. Fun huh?






Here is our washer. You can see the water line. Crazy stuff...

The Wise Man built his house far away from the river....

So, little update, as most of you know we are flooding and we officially evacuated from out house yesterday. We went and packed up all of our valuables and took them with us and then just piled the rest of our stuff up high as far as we could. We have no idea when we will be able to get back in and try and salvage the rest of our stuff. Last night the water was close, but we thought that we would still be able to get back in this morning, to no avail. Our apartment was already flooding and there was no way to get in. Here are some pictures of the whole fiasco...




This is the front of our building tonight. Our apartment is the one in the back right. As you can see the water has invaded the entire front on the building and parking lot.





This is our back yard. We are the last apartment on the end...the most flooded one...




This is a few from the top of our street taken tonight. The river is supposed to go up another 5 feet...yuck





This is us just before we left the apartment. As you can see we have our bed, bookshelf, and other valuables on top of our dining table...note the sad faces. This really sucks...




Our friend was helping us move everything, here is a picture of his tetris genius at work...

More on the Flood

Here is an update to our flood. This picture is a view from our apartment parking lot into the street. Send brain waves our way...just make sure they are real waves! It is pretty crazy here...

Our little Flood

So here in our little Eastern Iowa town, we have had what is known as a little flood. There is a park just a few miles from our house where the whole thing is under water. It is right on the edge of the river. There are park benches and BBQ's that are completely covered in water. It is nuts. They are comparing this to the big flood of '93. I guess that was a pretty bad flood. Right now they are saying that the river is about 7 feet above normal and is expected to rise another foot. Luckily I don't think that we have anything to worry about. The river about a half mile from our house is flooding too. It is pretty crazy. They have had to close a few streets because there is so much water overflowing from the river onto the streets. Here are some pictures from the river by our house.



So let's see...These trees are not supposed to be under water...






There is not supposed to be water to the left of these trees... The trees are supposed to be where the water stops... Not so much...






See those trees all the way in the back?? That is where the water is supposed to stop... So pretty much there shouldn't be water in this picture really.

My Trip to Chi-Town

Okay, I know that it has been FOREVER since I have posted a new blog and am begging for forgiveness. I know the best part of blogs are the pictures and I honestly haven't taken any, thus the lack of blogging. No excuses though. A little update though. Right now Jonathan is in Utah at the International Trombone Festival, and I am just hanging out. We bought Jonathan a ticket out of Chicago because it was so much cheaper. So I drove him to Chicago and spent a few days with Kim and Chris. It was a nice break and it is always fun to hang out with family. I was really excited though, because I got to make a trip with Kim to Ikea and buy the bookshelves that I have wanted for a while. They barely fit in my car, but I was able to make the drive with them home. I wanted them to be a surprise for Jonathan so I had to put them together, of course. I got all but the last piece on pretty easy, and the last piece just wouldn't go on. It wasn't lining up. I was getting so frustrated. Needless to say I had quite the meltdown. I had been trying for an hour to get the top on and it just wouldn't go! So, I called Jonathan in tears for numerous reasons; I couldn't get the top on, I made a dent in the top in all of my hammering, and then I called Jonathan for support which no longer made it a surprise. Rough night. I did end up getting it all put together and I love it! It worked itself out. Here are some pictures of the finished project.
P.S. Another perk of having Jonathan fly out of Chicago, is that I get to go back and see Kim and Chris again! Double Trip!!

Prom Season

I officially hate prom season and can't wait for it to be over. I have had enough of the whiney prom girls that think their prom is going to be the most important day of their lives and the moms that want to barter with 500 dollar dresses!!! We are not Mexico, we don't barter! Not to mention that least week was Spring Break out here and a lot of employees were gone so I worked 9 days straight had a day off and then worked 8 days straight. Yuck! At least the paycheck will be be nice. Also, I am not sure when prom dresses became so scandalous. The worst part of it is the moms that are encouraging their daughters to dress like this, and telling me that they want to order a smaller size because their daughter is going to lose weight. Pressure much? Why are these moms teaching their daughters at such a young age that you need to be skinny to succeed. Enough of my ranting though. I though that I would share some pictures of some popular styles this year and you can get a glimpse into my little prom world.



First we have some serious slits...




Then on to the open backs...




and then the open sides that go down way too far...




This one was our best seller this year...not as bad as the rest



All in all, I have to say Yikes!!! I did get a break from it all by going to Chicago to help Kim and Chris move in. It was a nice break from work and a lot of fun to see them.

The River

Last week Jonathan and I decided to go for a walk, since it was finally warm enough to be outside longer than two seconds. We are just a couple blocks away from the river and really enjoy walking over there. Since we have had such a crazy winter, there were these huge ice chunks floating around. They were really awesome. There is a mini little water fall, so we were watching the ice chunks get destroyed. Not a very exciting story, but we had fun and it was nice to get out for a bit. Here are some pics from the walk.

Tagged

So I know that I am way behind the curve on this one, but I still thought that it would be fun. I have actually had the images for this blog on my desktop for a week or two and am just finally getting to it and Cory tagged me like 3 weeks ago. Lazy much...I think so.

Age you will be on your next birthday

24



A place you would like to visit

Disneyworld!!!



One of your favorite places

Wonderful Colorado



Your favorite object

My real Kate Spade



and my bed...



Favorite Food

Chocolate!



Favorite Color

Green



Favorite Animal

Panda




Name of past pet

Claiborne



Where you live

Coralville, Iowa



Middle Name

Elizabeth




College Major

Undecided



A bad habit you have

Staring



Favorite Holiday

4th of July




Hopefully I will get a real blog out soon, but knowing me I wouldn't hold your breath!!