Creative Creations

I've wanted to try some new things these past few weeks and finally got around to talking about it. Last January, I found this sled on sale and bought it. It started out as just a wooden sled but then I painted it to look like this. I am surprised at how well it turned out.With the cold setting in a week ago, we picked all our tomatoes from our garden. When they ripened, we made homemade salsa. I made it yesterday and it tastes so good. I don't like salsa much but Joseph loves it and he loves this kind! It tastes great and I can't wait to grow tomatoes again so I can make it. I did learn an important lesson in making it: don't rub your eyes after your cut up a jalepeno pepper. It burns for a long time.

I wanted to make a fall centerpiece for our home so off to the Dollar Store I went. For three dollars, I made this lovely thing. It smells good too!

General Conference Highlights

Joseph and I visited Nephi yet again for Conference Weekend. It began Friday evening with a BYU victory over Utah State. I really didn't care which team won since I like both schools a lot. But I was happy to hear BYU won.

Saturday morning is my favorite session, mainly because President Monson normally announces temples. I build up so much anticipation for the announcement that Joseph and I even made our predictions. Joseph had the closest with guessing Cedar City, Utah when President Monson announced a second Provo Temple. I'm quite excited to hear that Africa will be blessed with two more temples in the future. I thought it was humorous that President Monson was running late. Click on this article to read more about it. I enjoyed listening to Elder Scott and his encouragement to memorize scripture passages. I worked on memorizing the Articles of Faith and that took so long because I'm not the best at memorization. But I will try my hardest in the future to memorize some scriptures. They really do become friends in times of need.

I also enjoyed the talk about the importance of looking up, not down, in life. If you ask Joseph or my mom, they both will tell you that I am pessimistic about the world. I don't see many things going well right now with the economy, education, war, etc. Some days, it is tough to trust in the Lord and trust in His timetable. The talk helped me place all things in perspective and try to "look up" more often in life. I have so many blessings that I have no reason to look down.

My favorite talk, if I can say I have a favorite, was Sister Elaine Dalton's talk about raising daughters. It was meant for fathers but I loved that she spoke about the crucial need for parents to raise righteous children. With the world going awry around me, I feel more and more burdened when it comes to raising a family in the Gospel. It will not be easy and I worry and fear for my children in the future. I enjoyed listening to Sister Dalton and the sweet truths she stated about raising daughters to be loving and kind. I'm grateful to have a husband who holds the priesthood and will bless our children in ways we can't comprehend yet. Here is her talk. (Scroll down until you find Elaine S. Dalton).

We hung out at Joe's parents house Saturday and they picked apples- 8 boxes of apples. So we brought home two bags of apples and I look forward to making apple pie and more applesauce! We also celebrated my birthday on Sunday by eating cake and playing a game. I got a new hot glue gun! I wanted one really badly as I start being more craftier in our home. All in all, it was a great and uplifting weekend!

General Conference Prep

I am busy trying to create an activity for my nursery kids on Sunday. I want to do something with General Conference but there's only so much you can do with kids 18 months to 3 years in age. While I was looking for some ideas online, I found this! I really like it!

Where will it be?

These past two weeks, Joseph has been extremely busy with school and finding an internship. He's met with ExxonMobil (his #1 choice) a number of times and has applied to many engineering companies. The Career Fair is this Thursday at BYU so he will meet all the recruiters then. Hopefully some interviews will come his way. He's even applied for an internship in Australia. Se here are my top picks for him and why:

I think it would be cool to work/intern here because I have a feeling we would get TONS of free stuff like shampoo, toothpaste and whatever else they make.

Joseph knows I love the pharmaceutical companies the most. I feel the job there would be so rewarding. But Joseph doesn't feel his strength is in biology. But alas, it is still my favorite. He might humor me and apply.

Joseph loves Dow and so do I, mainly because their headquarters are in Michigan, which is close to Wisconsin. They are a chemical processing company, whatever that means... But he likes them and they always have free stuff at the Career Fair so I like them too. Last year, they gave us a water bottle.

ExxonMobil is probably Joseph's favorite. It became my favorite this past week. If we interned here, we'd be in either Fairfax, VA or Houston, TX. The recruiters said Houston costs 40% less to live there than Provo, which is a relief. The recruiters also said they only paid $75 in medical bills when they had a child because the health insurance is the best. ExxonMobil is considered the #1 chemical engineering company in the U.S. so it would be an honor to intern there. Joseph had lunch with them last week and has breakfast with them today.

Joseph's dad worked at BP for many years in Alaska so Joseph contacted his dad's co-workers and applied. We would probably go up to Anchorage for the summer if we interned there. Joseph tells me that the summers in Alaska are amazing and I would love to go visit where he grew up. It would be far from anything I know but a great experience.

All in all, I am proud of Joseph and the work he is doing with this. He will get a great internship and we should know by mid-October what his options are. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Gardening

At the beginning of the summer, I decided to grow a vegetable garden. It was my first one and I had low expectations. I planted TONS of lettuce and pea plants. And I also planted about 10 tomato plants. Out of all of that, two pea plants sprouted and one lettuce. Only two tomato plants survived. That's it! But I was happy with what we got. We left for our trip and our tomato and lettuce plants were pretty small. But I guess late August is their time to shine. We came home to this:

5,000 Miles

Joseph and I just got back from the longest trip I've EVER been on. We drove nearly 5000 miles to Wisconsin, Kirtland, Washington D.C., Nauvoo and back to Utah. Our car survived (other than the CD player breaking in the first hour of the trip) and we survived all the heat and humidity. Here are some highlights of our trip.

The first part of the trip we drove to Wisconsin. My step-sister Rindy got married and we went to that. We also were able to see my sister for a day before she left for school in Louisiana again. Mom took us up north to go to Jim Peck's and Boulder Junction. We also went swimming at the cottage. The sad part of our trip was that Tilly, our dog, had to be put down. She dislocated her hip badly and it wasn't repairable. Here are some pictures to highlight Wisconsin.

Joseph is feeding the bears at Jim Peck's. I love doing this all the time!


At Rindy and Max's Wedding. It was a beautiful day.
At Jim Peck's Zoo, you can feed goats who are just in the open. I saw this goat climb in the stroller and thought it was pretty cool.

After Wisconsin, we headed out to Washington D.C. for my friend's wedding. We stopped in Kirtland along the way. We visited the Kirtland Temple, which was cool to see. So much history exists in those walls. After my friend's wedding, we stayed in D.C. for a day to tour. Joseph had never been to D.C. and I love that city! We went all over and were quite busy! Here are some pictures.

At Historic Kirtland! We went to the temple after this.

At the National Zoo with gorillas. They started to play a lot when we were there so it was neat to see how human-like they truly are.Outside the Washington D.C. Temple

After D.C., we took off to go to Nauvoo. Joseph went there when he was a toddler and I have only went once a few years ago. We camped there and spent three days in Nauvoo. While we came too late for the pageant and other shows, it was not really busy. It was nice because we could do whatever we needed. Here are some highlights

Because we came during the slow season, we were able to go "behind the scenes" and see how they make the legendary Nauvoo bricks.

We loved the Nauvoo Temple and enjoyed going there together.

This is Joseph's ancestor who we found records of in the Seventies Hall in Nauvoo.

The trip was great but we look forward to sticking around Utah and only driving 10 miles a day instead of 700!

Hot Summer Days

Since our visit to Salt Lake City a few weeks ago, Joseph and I have been up to a whole bunch of nothing!

Joseph is continuing his classes this summer by taking Organic Chemistry, English, and Book of Mormon. He is doing amazing in all of them! Many times, he comes home and tells me a surprising fact about chemistry. I humor him and listen.

We're preparing for our HUGE trip in August. For preparation, we bought an air mattress. I blew it up and it appears nice. It even came with two inflatable pillows! Now, we don't need to bring pillows! Once I take my GRE exam the first week of August, I am packing for it. I can't wait!