First Harvest of the Year!!!

Yum!!!

This is long over due...

I have been putting off putting up my cupcake pictures and I couldn't procrastinate any longer. These are my Spring Garden cupcakes and my Valentine cupcakes and then a cake with the leftover stuff from my garden supplies :)

Moving in 3 weeks

So the big move is only 3 weeks away.  I'm getting really excited.  Work didn't have too much trouble finding a replacement.  I quit last Thursday and they started training a new nurse on Tuesday.  I don't feel bad about that anymore.  Life has been fun.  We have been going on long walks for the last 3 days, the goal being improving our health.  The neighborhoods around us have some beautiful front yards with lots of tulips.  I am loving it.  Life is super great.  We hung out with friends a lot this week. 
           Monday, we went on a double date with Landes' friend Corey and his wife and baby.  We decided on Thai food and received the worst service of my life.  We were in the restaurant for 15 minutes.  Thirty minutes after we ordered, she finished serving the table next to us and said it would be 10 more minutes.  It ended up being 20 minutes until the 1st person got their food.  She brought out 2 plates, then the third 5 minutes later.  My meal came 10 minutes after that.  I was starving.  When we were leaving she said they usually weren't so busy and they just got slammed.  The trouble with this statement was that there were only 2 tables of people and over 20 tables at the restaurant.  It seemed she could only serve one table at a time.
          Tuesday, we drove up to Salt Lake for a triple date with Parker & Jill and Dave & Jen.  Jill made some delicious taco soup and bean dip and everyone brought too many cookies.  We played a movie trivia game in which Landes and I triumphed.  I will miss those friends when we move...so funny.
           Wednesday, we went out for Sushi for my friend Ashley's birthday.  Sushi is a little pricey, but amazing.  My favorite was the Vegas roll.  It was a delightful evening and I was happy to see Ashley and Janice before the move.  A chocolate butterfly cake topped off the evening well.
            Landes had to work Thursday night, do I did dishes and watched tv.  I ended up watching Disturbia, which was playing on tv and wasn't scary until after I was hooked.  I was terrified when I heard a knock on the door, but it was just some little kids.  They offered to take out my trash for $1and I just couldn't turn them down.  It was delightful.
             Also this week, we watched all 4 Tremors movies.  They were not particularly good movies, but funny.  They are about giant man-eating worms in rural Nevada.  Very random.  I worked tonight and will work tomorrow night as well.  We will visit Nan on Tuesday and visit Manti, maybe go on a southern Utah adventure.  We shall see.

Graduation

 

Did it ever occur to you that your mom was a tulip?

 A finished product....our first refinishing project, most of the work done by my father-in-law.  I did do the last coat of varnish and put on the handles

 Graduating=jumping for joy

I did in fact make this dress for a baby already in existence.  Her name is Hailey.  I am happy with the finished dress.

The tulip festival was fun.  There are also plenty of tulips at temple square as well as at BYU.  What a gorgeous world.

We plan to visit Davis this week to explore the school and the town, look at apartments, and apply for jobs.  I will also get fingerprinted at a livescan location and turn in my RN license application.  Hopefully it is a speedy process and all goes well and we can move to California in June.  If we do in fact come next week, we may stuff my car with boxes and leave it at somebody's house so that we can make the actual move in just one trip.  Alternatively, one of you can volunteer to drive a car to California.  We shall see.  We are doing so well, went to the Salt Lake Temple today, went out to dinner, and finished our redone furniture.  I am very happy.  These last 10 1/2 months of marriage have been the happiest months of my life.

house in oroville

So this is the house I might be moving into. We'd only have to pay utilities, and it really looks beautiful. I wanted to move home really bad though, so that's the downfall. Let me know what you guys think!

http://www.century21jeffrieslydon.com/mls/listing/59914/200903325/2476-Oro-Quincy-Highway-OROVILLE-CA

cleaning my room

Sometimes cleaning your room is easier when you can take before and after photos. Just something I've learned.

(And seriously, how do I let my room get that bad?)

A Blog Update

To appease my mother.

An update on my life:

About a month ago I bought some aquarium plant bulbs so I could have live aquarium plants in my fish tank. I planted three of the bulbs in my regular fish tank with the fish, and the fourth I put in a little betta bowl with the intention of someday getting a betta. (btw, I never got one). The three bulbs in the fishtank are still sitting at the bottom of the tank, unchanged. The betta bowl one, however, recently grew into a beautiful plant. About an hour ago I took the plant from the betta bowl and put it into my fishtank. I just now looked over to see my goldfish finishing off his third stem!!! I put the plant (what's left of it, anyways) back into the betta bowl. Goldfish are savages.

I should find out soon about the credential program. I think they are sending out letters this week, so I'm going to be pretty diligent about checking the mail. I feel really good about it though, so I know whatever happens is going to be what is meant to be.

School is going okay. I'm looking forward to it being over. I am learning a lot in my classes about being a teacher, so that's good.

I will probably work for the census during the summer and stay here in Chico. I guess this is contingent on if I get into the credential program and if the census job works out. Lindsey Lopez, my friend from Anderson, said she could probably hook me up with a job at Michael's. Maybe I'll just look into that. :)

Everything else is going well. I'm spending way too much time on Farmville, my car needs to be cleaned, and my room is a mess, but what's new? I think my mouth is healing well from the wisdom tooth ordeal. The sun finally came out today, and it is beautiful outside.

Love you all!

Midas Gold Rose from Christmas - blooming!!!!

I just love the yellow rose, it is so beautiful!! (the other silver one is coming too), I have the most awesome family!!

Baking

 Landes' Birthday was on March 18th. He is 26 years old.  I made him some really delicious Reese's Peanut Butter Cup cheesecake.  Here is the link to the recipe...

http://www.thatsmyhome.com/cheesecake/reeses-peanut-butter-cups-cheesecake.htm



Here are my Easter Sunflower Cupcakes.  I brought them to the Mitchell family Easteregg hunt.  They were impressed : )

BYU has put Landes on the waiting list

This has resulted in some indecision on our parts.  Our current, for sure accepted, choices are Univeristy of Iowa and University of Utah.  The biggest difference is in cost.  Utah cost about $17000 in tuition a year while Iowa cost $42000 in tuition per year.  Iowa is ranked 26th in the nation while Utah is ranked 45th.  This is a substantial difference.  Average starting salary is lower for Utah graduates, but we would have much less debt (around 100,000 less).  This is a difficult choice.  We have been praying about it and have not yet come to a conclusion.  We need to decide by Thursday, or just pay $250 to reserve Landes' seat at Iowa.  That'sa chunk of cash we don't want to spend if we are definite about not attending Iowa.  After the first year at Iowa, Landes may be able to pay resident tuition and do a masters in Philosophy at the same time as his JD.  He would love that and it would only increase his schooling by a year, but we don't know the odds of his being accepted to the program.  I have been checking the mail frequently today, hoping for an acceptance letter from UC Davis so we can just pick that instead of worrying about these two options.  We shall see.  Please offer any suggestions you have and pray for us in our decision making

Oh yeah, so we were supposed to like blog and stuff instead of the weekly updates.  We are doing fabulously...just super excited to graduate.  We had Derek and his boys over this afternoon for some playground using.  We also provided cookies, popsicles, and candy canes.  The goal is definitely to be the favorites.  Hopefully we hear from BYU Law tomorrow and hopefully its a yes.  We shall see.  I got a raise.  I had my evaluation a couple weeks ago and my direct superior recommended a raise, but she said I'd have to ask the payroll person in a week to see what the administrator decided to give me.  That payroll person is never there when I am though...annoying.  But the administrator was in yesterday and I just asked her.  She could not remember the exact amount, but told me it was over $1 per hour...pretty thrilling.

Salad, from the garden!! Lettuce, spinach and peas, a great Sunday dinner!!!

Tulip and herbs!!! This is the tulip Matthew gave me last year for Valentine's Day, look how beautiful!!!