Family, Friends, Spring & School

FAMILY TRADITION

Nick's family has a "Chinese Dinner" tradition where each of them make a Chinese dish and then get together and have an AMAZING YUMMY dinner. I can remember when Nick and I were just dating once he got off his mission and I was invited over for Chinese Dinner with his family... after eating that amazing food, I knew I had to be part of that family and if Nick didn't propose to me, I would have to propose to him! ;) Of course the Chinese food isn't the only reason I wanted to be part of their family... just a major PLUS!! :)

SO... over Spring break, Nick and I planned and homemade our own Chinese Dinner. We invited a good friend and her son over for dinner to join in the fun with us. :) Like Terri said, making these recipes sure is a lot of work, but its SOO worth it!! :) WE LOVED it and I was SOO excited that it all turned out so good! I do have to say the hardest and longest part of the process was probably finding out what half of the ingredients even were before going up and down and up and down each isle at Walmart trying to find them. :)

(I apologize in advance for the lame pictures... my camera was dead, so Nick took them with his phone. I even had the funnest table setting for the occasion, but you would never know!)

Our appetizer was PF Chang Lettuce Wraps:
I actually got this recipe from cousin Claire!! :)

We did 4 main dishes:

1.Beef Broccoli

2. Panda Express Orange Chicken

3. Egg Rolls

4. Fried Rice

I love Chinese food and am SO excited that I know how to make it from scratch. Thanks Kim, Terri, and Claire for ALL the yummy recipes!! Our friend was able to take home left overs and we also had left overs for a while!! :)

TENDER MERCY
When Nick served his mission here in Las Vegas, he met the sweetest and kindest family, the Geworski's. Nick baptized the mother of the family, Laura, as her daughter, Ashley, was already baptized. Nick became great friends with the family and even today, they call to "check up" on us and have us over for dinner all the time.

Ashley is a great eaxmple and has such a strong testimony and has decided to serve a mission. Last week she recieved her call in the mail and asked if we would like to be there when she opened it. Of course we said yes and went right over. Here is a VERY important fact to this amazing thing that happens next... about a month ago Ashley was telling us that she had a dream that she was going to be called to the New Hampshire mission. She told everyone about it and how wierd it was and how in the dream she was upset because it was cold there and serving in a cold place wouldn't be fun. SO... as she opens her mission call and begins reading it outloud for everyone to hear, she read that she had been called to serve in the NEW HAMPSHIRE Mission!!!! Overcome with emotion and the strong feelings she and everyone felt in the room, we were all crying. It truly is amazing how well the Lord knows each and every one of us! Congrats Ashely, you will do GREAT!!

Crazy thing happened while we were there... we met a guy named Ryan (whose wife and 2 kids names I cannot remember) who asked where we were from... we said small town in Wyoming. He asks what's it called. We tell him Lovell. Then he asks us if we know the Crosbys. :) Of course we know them, I worked for them for years and Nick helped them around the farm. Ryan and his wife went to school in Arizona with Chris and Crystal Crosby!! It's a small world!! :)

SPRING BREAK SUCCESS

Some of you may remember my "to do" list for Spring break. Well I got MOST of those things done on that list... I did a lot of sleeping in, watching movies, and spending time with Nick. But I also completed:

1. Addie's surprise package...
a book, a jacket for her spring walks and more hair things!! :) flowers made out of fabric!!!

(if anyone is interested in knowing how to make these or wanting some yourself, let me know)

2. 50+ Mother's Day Cards for Young Womens Camp Fundraiser:

Adding cardstock behind them and some ribbon to attach them to the top of the dinners will fully complete them!

3. Successful Stampin' Up Party at my house! Of course I have No pics of this either... camera was STILL dead and I ran out of time to get batteries! :) We had lots of fun with good food and had a great turn out too!! THANKS EVERYONE!!

BACK TO SCHOOL

Now were back in school and only have 6 weeks left!!! WOW... its been FLYING by so fast, and its a good thing too, we're SO excited to be able to see all of our families SOON!! Last week in Nick's Fire class he got to put out car fires and a "bon fire" as well. He loved every minute of it. Hes been studying and preparing for his fire tests this summer in Montana and is looking forward to that.

I am trying to keep up with all the school work and internship hours. It's crazy that I'll be done with school so soon. You would think after 5 long years I would want to be done and just stop with the schooling, but guess what?? I found an Online Interior Design Bachelors Degree program through The Art Institute of Pittsburg Online Division!!!! I know, I know... 5 years in school and I STILL don't have a bachelors??... things never goes as planned and between back surgery and a degree change, here I am with two Associates degrees and thats it!! I have always wanted to finish online, so that I could get a job now and finish up as I go... well, NOW this is possible. I have looked and looked for online Interior Design programs but NO ONE offered them until NOW!!! So crazy as it is, I applied for the school and sent all my transcripts in to see what credits they will accept. If everything goes as planned, I will probably begin that program within the next year. Never stop learning and progressing, right? :)

HAPPY EASTER!!!!

Catching up!!

Things have been very very crazy around here... midterms, birthday, church callings, work, and not much sleep. First off, I want to THANK EVERYONE for all the wonderful birthday wishes. I got so many phone calls, txts, and so many cards and birthday packages in the mail... it was so fun and very much appreciated. You would think that the older you get, the less excited one becomes about their birthday; however, this is not the case for me. I was so overly excited about my birthday this year and I'm not really sure why?? Maybe because it was a good excuse to get to go shopping? :) Of course Nick went WAY over the top and spoiled me rotten. I woke up to breakfast in bed :), and then when I went downstairs to go to school for the day, Nick had hung up "happy birthday" banners all over in the living room. The floor was also covered in balloons from mom's package. Nick had gotten up in the middle of the night to set all of that up for me. After I took my History midterm, Nick took me to lunch at Panda Express (my favorite Chinese place... I could probably eat there everyday). After lunch he took me SHOPPING!!!!!! The only time I really ever go shopping is when my friend Kate comes to town because it's NOT Nick's favorite thing to do. Thats how I know he loves me so much... he took me shopping! :) After shopping, he took me to City Center (if you aren't aware of what that is check it out here) I've been dying to go see all the Interior Design, so he took me to walk around and see it. After that he had arrangements for a limo to pick us up and take us to dinner. Dinner was amazingly good and after that FUN FILLED day, we were both so exhausted that we went straight home and to bed!! :) Thanks sweets for the great birthday!! You are the BEST!!! (sorry I forgot my camera that day...no pictures)

Midterms were this last week and it certainly was NOT a fun week. I had two juried presentations and three written tests. It was a long, stressful, sleepless week, but I'm pretty sure all the hard work paid off. Even though I haven't recieved any grades back, I feel pretty good about it all. Now I have Spring Break and have a whole week off school!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm VERY VERY excited about this if you can't tell. This break is very much needed. I was asking Nick the other day if I'm crazy because I asked him this question... "If I just wanted to take a whole week and admit myself to the hospital to be fully hydrated with fluids from an IV and also get something that would allow me to sleep for a full week, am I crazy?"... he said I think you mean you need a vacation? "Ya I guess that's what you might call it!!" :) I'm also excited for Spring Break because it gives me a chance to catch up and also get ahead on a number of things, like....

1. Finish a surprise I've been working on for this little sweetheart....

2. Design and make 50+ Mother's Day cards for our Girls Camp fundrasier. (for those of you who didn't know, I've been called as Assistant Camp Director this summer for Girls Camp. It's already been a ton off work and huge learning experience) Yes I know, Mother's Day isn't until May, but I won't have time to even think about making that many cards after I start school again.

3. Get ahead in my online science class so I can focus on all my design classes the rest of semester.

4. Finish some projects around the house.

5. Start researching to get fun ideas for Nursery. I have been in Nursery as an assistant for about 7 months now. Last Sunday, there were some changes made and I was asked to now be the Nursery Leader for the 2-3 year olds. WOW... what a huge responsibilty. You may be thinking, really??... don't you just watch kids play all day... no, I have 25, 2-3 year olds that I have to plan a lesson, music time, snack time, and activity time for each and every week. Even a bigger job when you have one sweet little guy who has a huge problem with biting another child everytime you turn around... :( 5 kids were bit last week...ya, its a problem!

6. MOST IMPORTANTLY, spend time with Nick... sleeping in, eating, watching movies and relaxing!!!!!!

Sounds like I have one AMAZING Spring Break planned! :)

And for the MOST EXCITING & BEST NEWS EVER....................

Nick got a schedule change!!!! He is officially DONE WORKING GRAVEYEARD!!!! That may not seem like such a big deal to some, but to us it is TRULY A BLESSING!!! If any of you have worked graveyard before I'm sure you can totally relate. It has been MORE then hard on Nick and I'm so excited that he will finally have a normal and consistent sleeping schedule. Also, it will be amazing for him to feel good and not be tired all of the time. I will enjoy every night of having him sleeping next to me as this has been a trial for me for a very long time. Sleeping alone by yourself every night in a huge scary city is NOT very fun... but that also might be because I'm a wuss!! That's about all that has been going on with us latley, now we're all caught up!!