Change

I've never been one to enjoy change. Change is hard for me. I enjoy the regularity of the same routine every day, the same job, the same people in my life, and the same old things. Most of the times I've been stressed throughout my life have been due to change. I had mono the first few months of my freshman year at BYU. Come to find out I had caught it b/c of the stress I was feeling from many different changes I had experienced in such a short amount of time.

Well, I'm going through a lot of change lately. A lot. I'm feeling nervous and excited all of the time. Some of the changes I'm making are:

1. Quit a WONDERFUL job to do an internship for graduation

2. Not having a job, and therefore, living off of only Rob's income

3. Grandpa Shaw died last week, and we're missing him

4. Saying goodbye to people I've grown to love b/c life goes on, and people go different ways

5. Getting ready to meet a lot of new people (mostly senior citizens) and hoping they like me

6. Rob has a lot of night classes, so we will have less time together each day

7. Still getting use to our nursery calling. Loving it, but each week brings new surprises

8. Looking forward to graduation and feeling lost on where I'll end up when it's all over

Though change is hard for me, I'm grateful for the things I learn through it all. Yes, sometimes I have to say goodbye to some people, but other people quickly come into my life, and I'm grateful for them. It's amazing how much change can refine and strengthen us. We learn more about who we are and what we are capable of. Though I dislike change, everything always turns out right.

Elder Marvin J. Ashton said,

"Yes, there is pain in change , but there is also great satisfaction in recognizing that progress is being achieved. Life is a series of hills and valleys and often the best growth comes in the valleys."

So here's to change, new experiences, and growth!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Erin!

I have the best sisters in the world! I'm just claiming that right now, and getting it out in the open. What's better than sisters? There is no one else like them, and no one else that can share the bond that sisters have. Well, my sisters are some of my very best friends, and today it's Erin's birthday! Because I love her so much, I thought I'd dedicate a post to her and say HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I love you! Some of the reasons I LOVE Erin are:

1. She is always there when I need to talk
2. We laugh about all of the same things
3. She has the very best plastic bag dance ever!
4. We play the meanest piano duets together
5. She always offers me the greatest advice
6. We can talk for hours on the phone as if we were standing together in person
7. She is an amazing example of what I want to be as a Mom
8. We have the best "I don't like your girlfriend" dance duet
9. I've always looked up to her in everything she does b/c she's "my big sister"
10. Even though she lives across the country, our relationship never changes!

I love you! And I hope you have a great birthday :)

Crafty Me!

I have officially finished one of my long time coming crafts/projects! And I am soooo stinkin' proud of my final creation. So proud in fact, that I can't resist sharing it with you. And you want to know how much the whole thing cost me? Only 2.00. Yes, that's right. Two bucks. I try to be resourceful and considerate with our very tight budget. But enough rambling. Here's what I did! And like the wonderful craft bloggers I follow, I'm going to follow in their footsteps and include pictures for you :)

Here is all of the supplies you'll need if you decide to make this ridiculously cute decoration: a square wood frame, unfinished. I got mine from Michael's for only a dollar! You'll also need some mod podge, cute scrapbook paper, paint to match your paper, ribbon, and a paint brush.
Oh... and did I mention that you'll need something to go in the frame? Well, my Mom just happened to have two patterns that I've been wanting to embroider. So I did two frames, and these are the finished embroidery pieces to go into the frames. The pattern for the embroidery is actually what inspired the rest of the project. You can't just embroider something and not have a cute frame of some sort to put it in for display!

So here is my favorite quote of all time:And another great one to go along side it:
Step 1: paint the edges of your wood frame(s) with your paint. Sorry about the picture... my flash was not cooperating.
Step 2: trace your wood frame onto the scrapbook paper, and cut it out.
Step 3: Using your mod podge, glue the cut out paper to the top side of your frame. I personally like to use mod podge over all other glues. I apply one coat of glue to the frame itself, press paper firmly onto the frame and smooth out any bubbles, then apply one more coat of mod podge to the top of the paper. This gives it a nice finishing look, and keeps the paper from some wear and tear. After the glue is dry, make sure you don't have any air bubbles.
Step 4: Place your picture, embroidery, or whatever is going inside your frame in it.

Step 5: Wrap ribbon around the frame, and tie a cute bow. (Once I buy a glue gun, I'm going to put a few drops of glue on the back side of the frame to hold the ribbon in place.
Step 6: Find somewhere to hang and adore your new creation! (I have yet to complete this step.)

I also still have to buy orange ribbon for the "Find Joy in the Journey" quote and frame. Then all will be complete! I'm overly joyed with the finished project, and proud of myself for creating my own craft. Typically I just follow someone else's steps and ideas, but this is created by yours truly! And other than the embroidery, the frame and assembly part of the project only took me a whole 30 min. :)

Stewart Falls

This weekend Rob and I finally fulfilled one of our summer bucket list items! We hiked Stewart Falls, which has been talked about by everyone we know living in the Provo/Orem area. I've been wanting to do it for two summers now, and we finally did it.

(This is the moment we spotted the falls for the first time.)

It was a beautiful hike, completely shaded 100% of the way, and not too difficult (if you're in shape at all, which I am not after having surgery). I got a fabulous work out because I haven't been hiking in a good year or two. To the average person it is a very doable and enjoyable hike. And once I got my second win, and had Rob pushing me from behind during the moment I thought I would just sit until someone came to carry me out, the hike continued to be wonderful. I was amazed at the falls themselves. It was gorgeous! And after a summer afternoon hike, the falls provided the best AC you could find. The mist from the falls hitting rocks was the perfect cool down.

All in all, we loved our hike and would recommend it to anyone. We saw multiple families with young children who seemed to be enjoying themselves. I will say that from the look of it though, I am NOT looking forward to carrying children on hikes. Rob will be fulfilling that parental duty :)If you haven't visited Stewart Falls, we highly recommend you do so!

4th of July

We had a great 4th of July weekend! And yes, since it's the 12th of July, this post is a little late. Three day weekends are what I live for these days. I went from being a full-time BYU student to married, and working full-time. What's wrong with this picture? Less free time, and time away from the hubby. Three day weekends are the little getaways that Rob and I long for! We have no plans, no work, no school, and we can do whatever in the world we want. Well, this three day weekend was perfect.

On Friday we went to the temple right after work. Going to the temple is one of my absolute favorite things to do! Especially when we can go together. After the temple Rob's little brother, Chris, slept over. We had already been planning to have a Nacho Libre themed night, so Chris joined in on the fun. We watched Nacho Libre and made some supreme nachos to eat during the movie! It was wonderful.

Saturday we slept in. The perfect start to a great day! After forcing ourselves out of bed, we made some waffles with fresh strawberries, syrup, and powdered sugar. MMMM :) Then the three of us made chocolate covered strawberries. But they were no ordinary strawberries, they were festive strawberries! I've seen lots of people do them this month, but I wanted to try them after seeing them on a blog I found. Here is our finished project!
Don't they look great! I think so, and they tasted great too. I was suppose to use blue sanding sugar for the blue end, but when I asked at the store, they had no idea what I was talking about. Therefore, we activated plan B- food color white chocolate to be blue. Then while Rob and Chris watched movies all morning I deep cleaned our apartment. And I loved it! I am my mother's daughter, which means I like a clean, organized, tidy house. And that is how we live. Luckily, Rob is a clean person :) After sweating up a storm from cleaning and the lack of AC, we spent the afternoon at the park, then headed over to Happy Hour at Sonic for some limeades!

Later the whole Draper Family came over and we played some games, and then headed over to set up camp in Ashlee's (Rob's sister) parking lot for the stadium of fire and BBQ. We were just outside the stadium and could hear the whole concert! It was wonderful. Brad Paisley :) One of my favorites! The firework show at the end was honestly the best one I think I've ever seen! (Aside from Disneyland, which is hard to beat.)

Sunday we spent the day alone together. Need I say more? It was pure bliss. Monday we headed up to Sandy to spend the official holiday with my family. It included family, Super 8, hamburgers, ice cream, games, and a firework show put on by the boys. It was perfect!

I hate three day weekends.... you want to know why? Because when they're over, it's off to another week full of work and responsibility. Yuck.

Stars, S'mores, and the Good Outdoors

Yes, you guessed it. We went camping this weekend! And boy did we have ourselves some fun! Last week we went up to SL to borrow a bunch of our parents' camping stuff, we went to the grocery store to load up on the essential camping food, and loaded all our stuff in the car ready to take off right after work. Much to our dismay, when we finally reached the campground after traffic delays and getting home later than expected, ALL of the spots were taken! Yes, TAKEN!! We were officially bummed out. As we made our way back down the canyon, we tried to have a conversation about what to do instead- both of us were too sad to actually imagine doing anything fun. So we decided to splurge and make ourselves happy. We each got our own foot long from Subway, rented and watched Little Giants from the library, and lounged around. It ended up being ok.
We decided to leave the car completely packed, and get work off an hour early the next Friday so we would be guaranteed a good camping experience. We did just that, and it was wonderful! We arrived at Diamond Campground up Spanish Fork Canyon and had our choice of whatever spot we wanted! We set up the tent and got out our love seat camping chair which was the best part of the night. Not having to sit far away, but being able to cuddle up by the fire under the stars. We played a few games, tossed a tennis ball around, watched some neighboring scouts, and finally decided to get the fire up to make some hot dogs!

I knew we had forgotten something... mustard and ketchup for the dogs! Such a disappointment. We had to turn the night back into a good one by making some DELICIOUS reese's s'mores!!! If you haven't tried it, you must. Replace the Hershey's bar of chocolate with a reese's peanut butter cup! To die for. We watched the fire die down, got ready for bed, and snuggled under the stars before actually heading to bed.
We woke up early and packed up to head home and actually be productive, but this little get-a-way was exactly what I needed right now. Absolutely perfect!

"One of Those Days" Cure

I have just realized that I am a blogger. I live and read blogs. I search people's blogs I don't even know, and they inspire me. I look forward to coming to work, finishing my assignments quickly and getting on to reading more blogs! Well, on my journey of blog reading today I found the next project I am going to complete.
I was introduced to a new blog called The Dating Divas. They are great! It's a blog of LDS Mom's who's slogan is, "Strengthening marriages one date at a time." Everything they write about is related to dates, little acts of service to do for your husband, or talking about their husbands. It's wonderful! It has helped me in my journey to become the ultimate wife!
Today their post is titled, "The Husband Survival Kit". I highly recommend reading it! Especially if you're looking for something CHEAP and EASY to do for your husband to show him you love him.

Read it here: http://www.thedatingdivas.com/you-me/show-him-the-love/the-husband-love-kit/

It is exactly what I needed today. Rob just started his very first day of school as a BYU cougar! We were so excited for him to have finally gotten accepted and start his career as an official BYU student. He's only taking two classes, but during Summer semester, the material is covered twice as fast. And he's taking one of the most time consuming classes offered at the school- Human Anatomy. Every student who has taken this class would agree that it is a lot of work and time consuming! Well, he was feeling very overwhelmed yesterday with the workload. So we're working hard to focus on school and put studying first. I took the class two semesters ago, so it's fun for me to help him study and remember all of the terms. Luckily it is something we can do together, but I'm so excited to give him this survival kit! I think he'll like it, and he needs a little motivator and pick-me-up to keep him going strong :) Thanks Dating Divas!