Pics are up!!

So I've posted many posts with the promise of pics to come... I've finally uploaded them all from my camera, so this will be one long post due to lots of pictures to catch up on:

Our trip to Oregon:

My absolute favorite restaurant (House of Good Fortune)

The Oregon Coast (Newport Bay):

Newport Aquarium:

My new friend... Arghh!

Al's going scooba diving



...and the sharks. Swam right above us!




Sting Rays 




Blank Stare...?



duhhh..... huh?!

Touched awesomely colorful starfish

Touched an anemone!

Sea Horses - So cool!

Sea Quills (I think?)

Found a pearl in the oyster!

 My old house:

still all the same landscape

Cannon Beach (one of my absolute favorite places with one of my absolute favorite people):

so glad i got to share this experience with him

held so many tiny hermit crabs

it was dead... :(

real natural anemones... we touched these too!

two years without my rock are going to be the hardest ever...

oregon sunset

love sunsets on the beach

Oregon State Fair:

so cute!!

stayin warm...fashionably...

secret combinations

haha i didn't hit it very hard...

my stud won this ...squirrel... for me

i want these pajamas!

MORE CANNON BEACH:

haystack rock

love him so much!!

we told them to hug each other and this is what we got...

finally captured the hug :)

sand chairs... actually pretty comfortable

he's my best friend...

...what more can i say?!

TRIP TO UTAH SAND DUNES:

dinner... brought and cooked steak on a portable stove. it was good!

skewered with the marshmallow skewer

enjoying his s'mores

WHAT AN AWESOME SUMMER.... CAN'T WAIT TO HAVE ANOTHER ONE OF THESE WITH THE LOVE OF MY LIFE WHEN HE GETS BACK FROM HIS MISSION!

At it again... Venting time...

So... this happens again and again without fail. Ever since my freshman year when I was sick and out of school for a month, and my immune system got very weak...

I'm a procrastinator. Well aware of it. But after a while of staying up late nights to finish assignments that could have been done weeks ago, I wear myself down and get sick... So I have to miss some school. Then I go back to school, am overwhelmed by everything that I missed, and shut down. Then I get further behind, and it takes me about a month to get over whatever sickness I have because I seem to catch one thing after another for a while.

I'm in the "about-to-show-up-to-classes-after-missing-a-week-straight" phase, and am well aware of how far I'm going to be behind in everything.

I'm sure I'm failing all my classes right now, and am going to get in trouble with my parents, if not kicked out of school. I no longer have a car because the dealership that sold it to us, brilliant people that they are, were not allowed to sell us the car because a lady gave it to them on trade in but then could not get approved for a loan on the new car she wanted, so she demanded her car back, and the dealership threatened to call the cops on us and everything if we didn't return the car. Legally, Al and I did not have to give it back since we had the contract that clearly stated it was ours, but it was a gas guzzler and no longer made sense to keep it with Al going on his mission for two years and all.  The dealership just had no right in harassing us the way they did and just made for an all around horrific situation.

I still have no clue what I'm doing for next semester: Al's leaving for his mission on May 4th, and I'd love to spend every minute I can with him until then, but my parents do not have the funds to put me through another semester of college, especially when I'm not going to be graduating from that school, but they said they don't want me to just sit around Utah and work for a semester because they don't want to pay for my rent if I'm not going to school... though I'm trying to convince them that it's the cheapest option that will still keep me happy. Once again, things are up in the air, and I have to wait again for other people to decide my fate...

Just gotta keep plugging along...

Awesome Quotes from the Day

So I used to be obsessed with quotes, but have left them in the dust lately.  Today, I've been reintroduced to the magical world of words. Here's some of my favorites:

LIFE ISN'T ABOUT WAITING FOR THE STORM TO PASS...

IT'S LEARNING HOW TO DANCE IN THE RAIN !

 

'To get something you never had, you have to do something you  never did.'

 

When God takes something from your grasp,

He's not  punishing you, but merely opening your hands to receive something better.

 

 

'The will of God will never take  you where the Grace of God will not protect you.' 

 

 

 

There comes a point in your life when you realize:

Who matters,

Who never did,

Who won't anymore...

And who always will.

So, don't worry about people from your past,

there's a reason why they didn't make it to your future.

Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism; the way you play it is free will.

 

 

The best relationship is not the one that brings together perfect people, but the best is when each individual learns to live with the imperfections of others and can admire the other person's good qualities.

 

And one funny story to go along with this...

 

FLORIDA COURT SETS ATHEIST HOLY DAY

In Florida , an atheist created a case against the upcoming Easter and Passover holy days. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination case against Christians and Jews and observances of their holy days. The argument was that it was unfair that atheists had no such recognized days.

The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the passionate presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel declaring, "Case dismissed!"

The lawyer immediately stood objecting to the ruling saying, "Your honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas, Easter and others. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah, yet my client and all other atheists have no such holidays."

The judge leaned forward in his chair saying, "But you do. Your client, counsel, is woefully ignorant."

The lawyer said, "Your Honor, we are unaware of any special observance or holiday for atheists."

The judge said, "The calendar says April 1st is April Fools' Day. Psalm 14:1 states, 'The fool says in his heart, there is no God.' Thus, it is the opinion of this court, that, if your client says there is no God, then he is a fool. Therefore, April 1st is his day. Court is adjourned."

You gotta love a Judge that knows his scripture!



The speed of light

That's how I feel like life is going right now... I haven't even had time to update in so long! Chris, my brother got married to Tiffany Petersen almost two weeks ago  (October 9th)!!! and then my cousin Reed finally got married last week to Kamie Jo!  Super excited for both of them, and also super jealous. I just wanna be married already!!  But now that's not going to happen for over 2 years!

Al and I have been talking a lot lately and we both decided together that he needs to serve a mission.  So some time in March or early April (at the latest) he'll be heading to the MTC for three months and then it's off to Oslo, Norway!!!! I'm so excited for him and proud that he made this decision.  It will be a long hard two years while he's gone but we've promised to write every week to each other and I've promised to wait for him.  He'll already have bought my engagement ring before he leaves, but we're waiting until after he gets back to be engaged... It will be so much more rewarding and it will give us such a stronger relationship together as we get to bond spiritually through letters while he's serving. I just really love him and can't wait to get married to him as soon as possible when he gets back.

Before all this talk of a mission came up, Al and I just bought a yellow Nissan Xterra together.  It's such a sweet car! we took it mudding (or digging as the people of Utah call it) up in the mountains with it and got it all muddy. It was awesome!! But my mom just found out that we actually put the car in both of our names, and I think she's stressing out about it for some reason? I don't know.

While Al's on his mission, though, I'm going to move back to Texas and get my two year nursing degree.  That way I will be done with that part of schooling and will be able to already have a job by the time Al gets home and gets in school.  I really am convinced that this is the boy for me and can't wait to start our lives together!!! I love him...

The Rich get Richer...

*Pictures coming soon*

So Al and I went to a performance last night that his seven-year-old niece, Sydnee, was in.  It was some random lady that found a bunch of parents and charged $40 a child to put on a play with their kids.  They only rehearsed 3 days and she had 22 students. That's over $800!!! Pretty good money.  The play was absolute chaos when we went to watch it though... backdrops were falling down, kids didn't know their lines, and they were tripping over each other.  The thing that really got me though was the people's house where they performed.  It wasn't a major fancy house but their land was huge. They build a 3-story tree house thing with a twin bed, working ceiling fan and a slide coming off of the top floor.  They had built a soccer/football field with goals and goalposts and a track winding all the way around it. They're also building on another house in their land for one of their children to move into when they get married.  They also have a small putting green and still plenty of space to spare. It was IMPRESSIVE!!

The play was a good attempt though and Sydnee did great :)

Homeward Bound!

Al and I have decided we want to end up in Portland when we get married. So we convinced his parents to take us on a road trip next week so that I can show him all the places I used to live and we can look for apartments to live in. I'm so excited!

His parents didn't have the money to take us though so we cleaned out his garage and some of the basement and put on a yard sale... to our dismay we only sold about $50 worth of stuff... not enough to get us to Oregon. :( We have been putting random money in this five-gallon water jug over the past three months though and had dubbed it our "Marriage Fund". We decided that visiting Oregon was so crucial, though, that we're turning our marriage fund into our "Travel Fund" temporarily. we have about $185 now. Still not enough to get us to and from Oregon, but it's a start...!

I'm way excited to get to see my old friend Lavell on the way through Idaho and my friend Rachel while I'm in Oregon. Her wedding is the same day as my brother's so I'm going to miss it :( Hopefully I'll get to spend a little time with her though and catch up on all the things we've missed over the past year. I really miss both her and Michelle and the friendship we used to have. I love them both!!

So Al and I are taking thursday in my home city to show him my childhood and look at apartments (going to be a busy day!) and then friday we're going to spend the day at Lincoln beach and Newport beach. Saturday we'll make our way up to Cannon beach and then head back to Idaho. We'll get into Utah Sunday afternoon and my classes start Monday morning! Then Monday evening I have to move into my new apartment!! Going to be a crazy week!!!

This week just holds about 45 hours of work in hopes to save up a little more money since we're draining our marriage fund for the trip. Oh what a sad day it is when you have three sources of savings and they're all getting drained before they're supposed to.


I'm still working on getting skinnier before the wedding. I've started doing the Wii fit and DDR. It's been pretty fun :) Al and I were looking into getting P90x but it's super expensive. He found it for free online and is trying to figure out how to download it. A month and a half to go!!

Prove them wrong!

Ok so new plans are in the process of being finalized:

My wedding has now been moved to April (9 MONTHS AWAY!!!!) because my parents want to help pay for it, but with my brother getting married in October, they won't have enough money until then. That seems like forever to wait, but hopefully he'll be able to find a job and we can actually save up some money before the wedding since we're both basically run dry on funds.

I'm way excited for my brother's wedding though. They're super cute together!! They both went to the jewelery store yesterday and purchased their rings together. She just bought all our brides maid's dresses. I'M GOING TO BE A BRIDES MAID! I've never been one before and I'm super excited. The outift was super inexpensive, but I have to get skinnier before I'll feel like I look good in it :) I HAVE TO start eating better and exercising! No question about it. Plus it will be good for me to get that way before I have to get into a wedding dress. I'd be much happier at -20lbs and have 2 months to get there :P

Al and I are staying in Utah for the fall - I'm going to school AND working 20 hrs/week and he's still trying to find a job and plans to work full time during the fall AND winter to save up... I'm scared though cause as much as we need money, we both need to get done with school and on our way. He feels like he can't go through school right now while he's living with his parents though cause they nag him too much. I know he can do it, we've just both slacked this semester and HAVE TO do better from now on! After fall semester I'll move back to Texas to work full time for 3 months and plan the wedding while Al's in Utah... hopefully working and going to school... though he only wants to work and wait until summer to go to school. We'll get married in April in Texas and have a reception and go on a cruise right after. When we get back we'll pack ALL my stuff up and drive to Utah where we'll have another reception, pack up all his things and move out to Oregon where we hope to live for quite a while. On our own. Living our life how we want to while going to Portland State University. The only problem with that is that PSU doesn't have nursing. So I'm not sure what I will do with that becaue I really want to be a nurse. Hopefully Labor and Delivery... I may have to look into more of a medical-based school in Portland.

My parents are still resistant to the idea of us getting married becaue they are so convinced that we will be financially unable to make it. We just have to really step up and prove them wrong...

My mom did agree to go wedding dress shopping with me when she comes to visit in October though which I'm super excited about because there are not many modest dress shops in Texas.

Another Wonderful Sunday Afternoon

So before I get started with yesterday, I've been left in awe at my boyfriend once again. I'm sitting at work doing a project and texting him about how I forgot to bring a lunch today, and what does he do? 15 minutes later shows up with this huge meal from Panda Express, remembering how the other day I said I'd been craving it!!! So now my tummy's super satisfied!! :)

Anyways, yesterday Al and I were deciding what to do for our sunday stroll together. We decided to go hiking up this trail. It was such a beautiful walk and we sat and talked the whole way up. He even brought a fishing pole and we went fishing for 3-4 hours, just sitting and talking some more. He only caught one fish, and I caught 3 but one got away 5 feet from the shoreline. We let the other 2 go and kept one. It was way too hot to walk all the way back to the scooter so his dad picked us up and drove us back :) I got a pretty awesome sunburn too...

When we got to his house he cooked up the fish for us. It was DELICIOUS with just some slabs of butter, seasoning salt and lemon pepper!!

After enjoying our fish and taking a nice cool shower to soothe my burns I called up my dad and had a pretty nice chat about my future. Granted he is still not fully supportive of my decision to get married "so soon" but he is trying to understand. Hopefully all goes well with getting the parents on board!!

As far as current life plans: I'm staying at BYU for the fall, Al is working on getting a couple jobs and working through fall, beginning of December I will move back home to Texas to spend 2 months with my parents before getting married FEBRUARY 4TH!!!! I'm glad we finally set a date, just waiting for him to propose now!!! Who knows when it will happen now that I'm staying for fall... the only thing pushing him was knowing I was leaving so soon... I guess we'll just have to wait and see!!!! :D

On my own

Things are up in the air again. I guess I really don't know what I want... I talked to three different people last night saying how both Al and I really need to figure out what we're doing with our lives before we try to start a family, which I totally agree with! I need him to show me that he's responsible and is working towards being able to take care of us in the near future... this means having and holding a job, and getting on with his school. I'm debating again whether to stay here and go to school for one more semester... I could keep my job, get another semester out of the way, not have to travel back for my brother's wedding in October... I'm just not sure if being here is helping or really hurting Al to get his stuff in order. We just want to spend all of our time together, so neither of us are really focusing on what we need to... I really just wish I could see even 8 months into the future and the outcome of all of this... I was talking to Al's friend yesterday who got home from a 2 year mission in Taiwan... he's just so mature and focused and I know that Al going on a mission would really help him, and I would totally wait for him... but he's apparently against that idea now. He would get to go to Norway! I think that's just an opportunity that should be hard to pass up.

I truly don't know anymore...

I can't talk to my parents because they're against the idea of us getting married so young... well for him... I can't talk to his parents because they just want to keep me and it doesn't matter if he stays or goes... anybody in the church just seems like they'd be biased and pushing for him to go on a mission... I guess it's just all up to me to decide what's best for me and I really am lost... I guess basically I have to make my choice, whatever it is and go with it and see where it gets me... I may (hopefully) be that happiest girl I know, married to an amazing guy I love, living out our dreams together... I may be a young girl in love but struggling to make it through life being so naive when we got married... if I wait too long though I may end up losing him...

I think ideally we should wait another year to get married, but it's so hard being apart from him. We work so much better when we're together and working on/towards the same thing...

Too bad I don't think I have any 3rd party un-biased readers to offer advice... like I said, on my own...

Another day, Another dollar

Al is so cute! He's been trying hard to find a job, but hasn't been successful. So last night he created and printed up 50 flyers saying he only had 3 weeks left to buy me a ring and asking to people to hire him to mow their lawn and do yardwork. He stapled rubberbands on them and delivered them to people's doors at 11 last night!! I told him that he was crazy for doing it so late, but he said he wanted people to see them first thing this morning when they walked out. Sure enough, he got put to work for two different people. One this morning and one this afternoon. The guy from the morning is a landscaper and asked Al if he wanted to help him out with this new project he's working on. He said it wouldn't pay as much as him doing it on his own, but he would hire him for a few hours a day the next two days probably. He's now $40 closer to getting my ring :)

Things are going great with Lenny and Einstein (the puppies). they're back to their usual constant wrestling and Lenny's back jumping on tables and countertops. I've never seen a dog that could jump the way he does.

Just studying for my Anatomy quiz this evening and hopefully going to bed early! NO SCHOOL/WORK TOMORROW!!! bad side is I won't make $80, but at least I'll hopefully get the much deserved rest that I need.

Time to learn about the heart and major arteries. WOOHOO!!! :P

Past Events

A few things from the past that I wanted to remember....



Al and I went to a fair on the 4th of July with his friend Ben and his girlfriend Rebecka. We got these bracelets that are made of like string. Al got one that said A.N.J. EVR and mine says C.A.S. 4 it's supposed to be for when we put them together it's like CAS ANJ 4 EVR. Cute idea!! What's even cuter with mine being CAS 4... Al told me he wants to name our son after him so he would be Charles Aldrich Strange the 4th... so I told Al today that I wanna save my bracelet for our son to wear :) It would be so perfect!!





Another thing... our puppies!!! Al and I adopted this poodle/shihtzu mix named Albert Einstein. He's so cute and was going to get euthanized if he didn't have a home in a few days from when we first saw him, so we fostered him at first and ended up adopting him!!! And what a little model he is! ;)



we also fostered this Bichon Frise named Frosty... we ended up getting him adopted out to this super cute family with 3 kids. They've had him for about a month, but we're watching him again this week cause they went out of town and didn't want to kennel him. Al says he's his dog and that he doesn't wanna give him back.


They're both so cute and funny!!!! :)

We also have two Rex Rabbits. Their names are Creme and Cookies. They're like plush soft and it's funny to watch them run around when we let them out of their cages!! They're tiny bunnies in the picture. It's from when we first got them at about 5 weeks old, but now they're full grown and much larger. But still cute!! :)







I think as of now I've decided that I'm going back to Texas for fall. I'm not doing well in classes here and feel like I'm just wasting money. Plus I just need to regroup and save money before I move on with the next big part of my life!



We found the ring that I love! it even goes along with my anniversary band so well that I'll probably turn it into the wedding band. Everything seems to be going great except that he needs a job, and we both need money!! I need to buy the Mazda from my parents and pay for a wedding!!!!



Chris is thinking of getting married in October which is super crazy!!! But I'm happy for him. Tiffany seems super cute :)

I'll post another one tomorrow probably about other things Al and I have been up to this summer. So much to catch up on :)

Best Boyfriend EVER!!

Ahh!

Yesterday was a nice refresher of how amazing Al is!!

I got home from church and was surprised with him standing there with a picnic basket and a blanket ready to take me on a picnic. He took me to Bicentennial Park. It's beautiful there!! He had made us PB&J sandwiches (just how I like it) with a huge bag of crunchy cheetos and a big jug of cold milk. (one of my FAVORITE meals ever!!) Then he topped it off with oreo cookies for dessert and was taking pictures of me the whole time telling me how beautiful I looked. Then he pulled out a baseball bat and a glove and he pitched me softballs and encouraged me through my attempts at hitting them. Then we took this super romantic walk through the wetlands there along this cute trail and he got some super cool pictures of bugs and leafs. He's a great photographer. After our walk we just sat on the blanket enjoying the warm sunshine. It was a wonderful afternoon!!

Sad thing, though, when we got back to his house, I got off the scooter and was helping him unstrap the basket and scortched my knee on the pipe. I spent the rest of the afternoon with cold water and a bag of ice on my knee. It would not stop burning!!! :( I even put on some aloe and nothing helped.

I woke up this morning though and didn't even notice it. So I'm glad it's finally getting better. Just have a nickle-sized blister... :)

Still going through the Pros and Cons of staying here or moving home... too hard to choose.

Pictures to come soon!!!

Think About It...

What would happen if we treated our Book of Mormon like we treat our cell phone?

What if we carried it around in our pockets or backpacks?
What if we turned back to get it if we forgot it?
What if we flipped it open several times a day?
What if we spent an hour or more using it everyday?
What if we used it consistently to receive messages from the text?
What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?
What if we searched for new applications?
What if we used it as we traveled?
What if we used it in case of an emergency?

What WOULD happen if we treated our Book of Mormon like we treat our cell phone?

After reading this I haven't been able to get it off my mind. What is simple analogy with a powerful message. How different our lives would be if we only did treat our Book of Mormon differently.

How do you treat your Book of Mormon?
Think about it.

Starting Up Again

So... It's been a while since I updated anything... and with so many things happening, I thought it might be fun to keep track of it all :)

I've been going to BYU since Spring 2010, and am taking Human Anatomy this semester. Hardest class I've EVER had!!! :(

Rachel Hornibrook got engaged and her wedding is October 9th in the Portland Temple!!!

Just trying to keep up with it and decide what I'm going to do this Fall.

Move back to Texas: Save money on rent and school, quick pharmacy tech license, work and go to school towards nursing... be home with my family.

Stay at BYU: stay with Al, experience a "real" semester, not have to travel back for Chris wedding, keep job at BYU, Fashion ReMix for work, Lion King on Broadway...

I'm actually having a really hard time deciding what to do!!

Other than that, I'm loving life with Al. We really have a great time together!!! He makes me laugh all the time, takes such good care of me... all I wanna do during the day is spend time with him!!!! He's such an amazing boyfriend and whichever location I end up in, I just hope I can be with him! I wanna spend the rest of my life with him and we just need to get things in order before that can happen.

**'Tis the season to get engaged... tra la la la laaaa la la la la!!**