November, Birthdays, and First Snow

November is a big month for us because we both celebrate our birthdays! Steven turned 26 this year and I turned 22. To celebrate Steven's birthday we went out for a late lunch at the Hickory the Saturday before his birthday and we had cupcakes and played games with friends on Sunday.  Even though we are still on our diets we kept to it by ordering what I know we can eat at the Hickory and I found a recipe to make low carb cupcakes! (Thank you Internet!!!).  For my birthday, we went to Red Robin for lunch, got a free burger (that Steven ate bunless with a side a broccoli instead of the fries) and I had the ensenada chicken with a side salad. (YUM!) Steven let me go shopping to celebrate my birthday and he bought himself a new game to celebrate his.  We were quite lame with the surprises and gifts this year. It was hard to top last years birthdays though so we did it pretty low key.

We are both still busy with school but things are really kicking up with my fashion show!! It's only 1 month away and boy can I feel the pressure there! I designed and had the posters printed and my committee helped get them plastered all over campus.  I am still working on a few more advertising and marketing things, including standing at a booth handing out flyers for a few hours this week and the last 2 weeks before the show, but for the most part the details are starting to demand attention.  Thankfully I have a SUPER helpful committee that does so much for me!!!

I also had an assignment that allowed me to make a large format print, frame it, and have it on display in the Spori Building!!!!!!  WOO!! I was pretty stoked with how it turned out!!

Today marked the first blustery wintery day here.  It snowed overnight last night and was SUPER chilly and windy all day.  So I finally buckled down and made the insulated curtain we wanted to hang at the bottom of the stairs to help keep the heat from rising up into the loft area right in front of our front door.  Then when I heard that it would get down to around -40 degrees tonight I went around to each window (and the front door) and covered each with a quilt or thick blanket to help keep the heat in tonight.  I hate when it gets so cold like this--it scares me... I'm ready for summer to be back already.  I miss being able to open the window and have the fresh air pour in...  We definitely live in the wrong area for our weather preferences...

Well, that's all I can think of for now!

Until next time!

October Chills

This semester has been a little crazy for the both of us.  Steven is taking 12 credits and still working and I am taking 14 credits and working as well.  I had 16 credits for a while and ended up dropping a class because it was just an elective but had just as much work and time commitment as some of my major classes.  I had the opportunity to complete my senior capstone project this semester and that alone keeps me as busy as possible.  Speaking of which... "Like" the fashion show page on Facebook if you haven't yet! https://www.facebook.com/expressurdress

Steven and I, amongst the busy-ness of our lives, are doing a diet together.  We have been cutting out carbs from our diets and so far I have lost about 10 pounds and Steven has just started a week ago with me and has lost a few as well!  I tend to forget how good it feels to not be weighted down by all the heavy carbohydrates I used to eat all the time.  We will eventually phase back into a normal diet but the rapid weight loss has been nice.

Our low carb treats!

Even figured out how to have low carb french toast! Score!

Before we started our diets, we enjoyed having some sweet treats during General Conference (I live for G.C. weekend!)

Homemade scone pastries

This week we also bought a new kitchen table!  I was pretty excited because, while having a free table that is fairly decent has been a blessing, it's nice to get something of a bit better quality.  We did find it at the D.I. so it needs a little TLC but it's solid wood, so with a new coat of stain it will be brand new again!  It even has a leaf built in so as our family grows in the future, we will be prepared!

That's the quick update on us for now.  More to come another day!

Until next time!

School, Fall, Catching Up!

Right before school started, Steven's work had their annual summer work BBQ.  This year it was at Heise Hot Springs.  We didn't end up swimming in the hot springs, but Steven and I participated in their minute to win it games.  Steven was the all star that made it to the final round.  I had to capture the video of him winning the shaking ping pong balls out of the tissue box game.  I didn't know my honey could move like that!  

I had a cucumber I wasn't sure what to do with that my mom gave us… So I took a whack at making refrigerator pickles.  I'd say it was a success (though I think they turned out a bit more sour than I prefer…).

Steven has been waiting all year for football season to start so I thought what better way to kick off the season than to make our own game day shirts?!?!  Since buying shirts with your team's logo is WAY expensive (more than we'd like for just a t-shirt) we slipped on over to the D.I. and bought our own red shirts and painted the logos on ourselves!  I think they turned out pretty well and they are 100% unique and customized!

Our neighbors and long time friends went out of town for a day or two and left their adorable little dog to stay with us for a day.  It was nice to have another soul around to talk to and play with.  I thinks Steven caught the bug even worse now though and he wants his own puppy more than ever now…

We have spent the first couple weeks of school feeling super busy trying to find how we balance school, work, and life in general.  This is my first semester working at the restaurant while being on track so it's a little different because I am not used to working in the evenings on a school night since my old campus job was over by 5 no matter what.  But it has been such a blessing to have this job.  Steven's job has also been kind with their hours so he has actually cut back a few per week to keep up with school work.  We have been so incredibly blessed with our employment here!  For how hard it is to find good jobs in this area I think we scored the best this town has to offer for young college students.

We (thankfully) still find time to spend together a little throughout our days and on the weekends for sure!  Today Steven took me out for lunch and we have spent the evening sprawled out on the floor with a little piece of blanket heaven and a good movie.  I have to say I have really enjoyed this time in our lives where we can spend quiet evenings at home, together, just the two of us.  I hope we can always find time to do stuff like this throughout our lives.  I am blessed with the best husband I could have asked for!

On that note… Until next time!

Food and Fevers...

Nothing too much has happened this week.  My sister and her kids came up to visit for the day on Friday before I had to go to work and it was pretty fun to see them!

Work has been same-old-same-old.  I'm working lots now before school starts which is good.  We are always so grateful for our jobs and the money they provide for us to survive.

Though… Sometimes you have to have a little fun too…

I had been saving up tips from work for a little while to put towards an iPad Mini for Steven (as an early birthday present).  He wanted to upgrade to a smartphone but decided getting a tablet would be a better value for our money.  He didn't know how much I had saved up which was kind of fun!  Especially fun to see how happy he was now that he had something more up-to-date to use for school and his calling!

This morning I woke up with a sore throat and tonight have been running a fever of around 101 degrees.  So hopefully I either get lots better by tomorrow so I can go to work, or they can find someone to cover for me.  Mondays are generally pretty slow anyways so I honestly think they could do without me but there is no way I can serve food with a fever!! 

Steven also made dinner again this Sunday (which was EXTRA nice since I wasn't feeling all too well in the first place).  He made something from scratch from his culinary arts textbook he got a while back when he was pursuing that as a minor.  It was DELISH!  So rich and yummy!

Until next time!

Summertime is Fleeting!!

This summer has gone by too quickly… Steven finished the spring semester out with A's (way to go, honey!) and the remainder of the summer we have spent working and trying o relax before school starts again in September.

We celebrated ONE YEAR of MARRIAGE last month!  Oh my goodness this first year went by so fast!!  We celebrated by doing a few proxy sealings in the Idaho Falls temple followed by some window shopping and a lovely dinner at this small Italian restaurant Steven found.  It was wonderful to be able to spend some time together and to reflect on our year together.  We are so excited for so many more to come!!  Of course I had to take a few pictures of us for our anniversary so here are a few!

Steven and I went to a concert a few weeks ago that was on campus!  Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band came to play for Education Week and we got tickets!  It was lots of fun, and they are WAY good!  We also had 3rd row seats!!  Way fun!!

We also had the privilege to have some of our family come up to visit!  My sister and her family came up for a day and a night and it was nice to see her and her boys.  My mom also came up to visit for a few days this week and, boy, was it so nice to see her!!! I hadn't seen my mom since Christmas!!!  I was WAY over due to have some good mommy-daughter time!  Mom also took us on the carousel that is just a block away from our house.  It was so fun!

Glen enjoys some homemade salsa thanks to mom's supply of home grown tomatoes!

Things have gotten interesting at work.  The owners are going through some transition periods in their personal lives and half of our staff either graduated or found other employment, so the past few weeks I have been putting in lots of hours.  Right now it kinda stinks, but I am excited to see what that paycheck will look like!!  We have been training lots of new people recently though so hopefully by the time school starts we will have a full staff once again, which will be good because I cannot keep working like this once the semester starts… With 14 credits, work, and keeping up with things here at home I will be one busy girl!

Hopefully when we are on a more regular life schedule I will be better at updating our lives here.

Until next time!

Summer Time!

Finally it feels like summer is here in Rexburg!!!  

We got moved and mostly settled into our new place.  It was a bit of an adjustment going from the old place to here but I think we enjoy it here a lot as well!  We love having a few of the amenities this place has to offer, such as a garage and a spare room, but I think our favorite right now is having a dishwasher.  Wow.  I never realized how much time we spent doing dishes until we moved here.  I don't think we could ever go without one ever again!!

When we moved Steven decided he didn't want to move our old junky couch into this new place so we shopped around a bit and bought ourselves some new couches.  I like them!  They look really nice and are really comfy and since we are the first owners we hope they will last a looooong time!

New couches!!

This new place also includes a propane grill out in the back yard!  Steven has enjoyed getting to use it.  It's just outside the kitchen window so we just pop out the screen and pass food in and out as he cooks and I prep it.  Enjoy this lovely photo of Steven rinsing his hands off after putting some delicious steaks on the grill the other night.

Convenient? Yes!

Steak dinner!

We also enjoy how close we are to friends by moving!  Last night the guys went over to the neighbors to have a guys night and I had their wives over for a girls night.  We painted nails and made peach cobbler together and had a great time catching up and getting some good girl talk in!  It's nice to be able to do that more often now we are all so much closer.

My girls!

Peach cobbler

Things have been going well with my internship! I finished this dress my mentor wanted me to create and I am pretty proud of how it turned out!!  I am excited to get started on my next few projects.  I had a client contact me this week and ask if I could turn the train of her wedding dress into a blessing dress for her new baby that's on the way.  I just told her I'd have to meet her and see the dress she has and the blessing dress she has in mind.  I am kind of excited to be working with a paying client as well!

Steven is still doing the school thing and working a lot and I seem to have accumulated more hours than I initially wanted but I think it's a blessing in disguise because even with the move and purchasing new couches we are still doing good financially.  We are actually the managers here at this new place so we do get paid to keep up the yard and the house (which is a WONDERFUL change for not getting paid to do ANYTHING at our old place!).  Our landlords are awesome!  It has been a great change for us overall!

We got registered for classes for this fall.  I got a scholarship so I am registered for a full 14 credit load. Most of my classes are just for fun though because I only had about 3 classes I could take towards my degree this semester.  So after this semester I should be a pro at building my eternal marriage, a pro swimmer, and a pro nutritionist!  Woo!!  Electives!

Until next time!

Catching Up!

Wow. Life changes so fast! Since my last post we have decided to move! Crazy, right? I know. I think we are a little nuts too. However, this will be good for us.  I am slightly bummed because summer at this little house is lots of fun but I am excited to be closer to town, school, work, and friends!

To back up a bit… I am not a mother yet, nor plan to be anytime soon, but Steven made mother’s day a little bit special for me this last month.  He made dinner and everything.  It was nice.  They bishopric gave out REALLY good chocolate bars for Mother’s Day as well.  They were delicious!

We got Steven some new glasses.  We had intended to for a while now and finally after his glasses finally got so bent out of shape, we just went and got some.  Don’t they look so nice?

My internship has been lots of fun.  I started out working on this homecoming dress to see if I could sell it to this local formal rental place.  We’ll see how it turns out and if they buy it or not.  I am excited to see how that goes!  My work on it has been put on hold for now because my mentor has had other things for me to work on in the meantime that are slightly more urgent so this is all I have so far of the top part… Once a week I also go to my other mentor’s place and she shows me more of the alterations side of things.  I have learned how to hem dress pants (in large quantities) and take in waistbands for those pants from the Missionary Mall.  It just makes me want to get all this expensive equipment for myself.  Maybe someday.  The Missionary Mall actually provides her equipment for her, which is cool.  It would be awesome to get in with that kind of set up!  (Not to also mention that it makes decent money!)

Steven’s been taking his first communication design class this semester!  My kind of thing!  It’s been fun helping him learn the Adobe software and to hear him comment on other photos and design work when we are out now.  I even caught a snapshot of him using my fancy camera!!!  Photographer in training!  Woo!

As for our house and our move…  So far I have had a few people interested and a couple of them will come look at our old place this week.  We signed the lease and got the keys to our new place already so now it’s just time to pack, and get this place taken care of.  Thankfully our lease here was up so we aren’t obligated to pay rent here but we are trying our hardest to help out our land lady to find someone to move in.  She is about 90 years old and starting to lose her mind a bit so we are helping as much as we can.  Like I mentioned, we have a couple people looking at it this week so hopefully someone will take it!  I mean, other than being a ways out of town (which is what we loved so much about it in the first place) there’s not much else keeping people away.  It’s cheap rent, your OWN place—nothing shared or whatever.  Private outdoor space.  What’s not to like?  Steven figures someone will take it once they see the inside and stuff because it is a pretty nice place.  And for a one bedroom place it’s bigger than most apartments in town! 

I feel like there is so much more to talk about but that’s all I can think of for now.  Work is good, Steven’s doing alright with school, and the weather has finally turned into summer!

Until next time!

School, Work, and EASTER!

Steven started school again today.  He is taking a few online classes and just one class on campus.  He wasn't too excited to get back into school but we are on the downhill slope now! WOO!!!  And I'll be honest… I am MORE than GRATEFUL that I am off-track this semester.  Boy, did I need a break!!!

My man is back to school!

For Easter we really didn't do anything special… We just had a nice dinner (Steven cooked… which made it even NICER!) and I made some fun cupcakes to celebrate.  Steven's family doesn't really have any Easter traditions and my family really only did a few of the ones for us when we were small, so we didn't do much.  

Easter dinner

A couple weeks ago I threw a few maxi skirts together really quick--mostly because I needed something to wear to Sam and Kayla's wedding and I had lots of fabric from L.A. Here's the one I wore to the wedding.

I have started waiting on tables at work now and I think it's way fun!  Especially the earning tips part!!! It's fun to get to take home a handful of cash after work!  

Today the weather has been so nice!!! I am so excited for warmer weather! Steven even pointed out that he thought it was warmer outside than in our house today! WOO!! Time to open all the windows and let the sun pour in!!!  I can't wait to get out and play in the warm weather and get some of our yard work done!

Until next time!

Recovery Time!

Wow… These last few weeks have been INSANE!!!  I just finished up finals last week and then we spent the weekend in Utah for our friend's Sam & Kayla's wedding.  I feel like it's taken me almost 2 full days just to recover from it all!!

Since my last post lots has changed actually.  I went on my trip to LA and had a blast!  I bought so much fabric from the fabric district (SOOOO CHEAP!!!!) and would have lots of pictures to share from that trip, but unfortunately my camera was stolen the last night we were there… So alas, I don't have very many pictures, just the ones I did take on my phone. But I met some great people that have been successful in my field and I got to learn a lot from them! 

So since the camera incident I bought a new camera from a girl here that was graduating and didn't want to move it.  I love it and am grateful for Steven for encouraging me to get it.  Especially because I was the photographer for this wedding we went to this weekend.  That was a fun experience as well and I am excited to add that to my portfolio!

Also, the day I left for LA I had a job interview at The Hickory (one of our favorite local restaurants) and I got a new job!!! YAY!!! I am on the serving staff so occasionally I work on the cash register/hostess and sometimes back in the kitchen on, what they call, Expo (Basically I do whatever needs to be done that the servers don't have time to do during their busier nights).  So far I love it!  The people I work with are great and it is probably the busiest job I have had so far.  I am actually going to start training to be a waitress this week!

Steven still works a lot and hopefully will be able to balance work with school next week when he starts Spring semester.  Thankfully I am off track so I can help him more with school this time around.  I will however have an internship starting on Monday as well working with alterations and designing my own clothes.  It will be lots of fun!

Here are some pictures I thought I'd share.  Enjoy!

My plants poking through back in March!

The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising fashion show!!

Outside the museum in LA

Diane Von Furstenburg exhibit at the museum

Trolly at The Grove mall 

Our fabric we fit in our van!

Fashion District downtown LA

My final design for Pattern Making

Finished product for my final design (on the right is me at the fashion show)

Still have no clue what to do with all this fabric… :)

The rest are just some pictures from the wedding.  Enjoy!!

Until next time!