Happy Birthdays!!!

This was right after Chris spit water all over himself, me and my dad.

Blowing out the candles

Chris kept wanting to hold onto the cake!

In the month of May, our family has like five birthdays! There was Chris, Elizabeth and Megan, who all attended tonight. But also there is Eric and Daniel who weren't able to make it to the party tonight. It was a fun night celebrating everybody's birthdays!

Graduations

Bradley graduated from 8th grade and is going into high school!

Erica graduated from high school and is now moving onto college!

Chris and I enjoyed going to both of the graduations! We were actually really really excited because this was the day that Chris's dad got the first call for his transplant, it ended up being canceled but at that time we didn't know about that. We were very very happy!

And no, we did not plan on matching either. It just happened that way! We actually got a normal looking picture for once!

Congratulations to Brad and Erica for moving on to bigger and better things!!

Canning Potatoes

A couple weeks ago, the same week we planted our garden, I canned potatoes. It was really easy. I went to Thriftee's and bought the potatoes on sale, five pounds for 59 cents. Not a bad deal right? Then I went home and peeled the potatoes, and then cut them into tiny cubes and stuffed them into the jars. Then I canned them! I ended up with 16 quart jars full of potatoes that are ready to eat!! That was for my food storage this past week also.

Goodbye Reese's

This cute little kitten left our humble home to go to another home. We will miss little Reese's Pieces.

She was the ugliest kitten when she was born and then she turned out to be one of the cutest ones. We still have five more if somebody wants one or two of them!! They are well behaved kittens and they eat hard food!!

The Prophet Said To Plant A Garden

This last week for our year supply, we planted a garden! We went to Home Depot and bought the manure and the mulch and the seeds and Chris got to work! He loves me a whole bunch to do this on his day off! Him and my brother worked all afternoon while I was at work and when I got home, this is what was accomplished! In our garden, we planted; corn, green beans, peas, onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, chilis, celery, watermelon, carrots, and cuccumbers. So far, our corn has decided to make an appearance out of the earth, and some weeds also. But we are working hard on it!!

Our awesome watering system that Chris created. (We modified it a little bit more for better watering)

And so that's what we did!!!

Transplant

We finally got the call we have been waiting for! Chris's dad was able to get a kidney and a pancreas and had surgery last night! We are really glad now that we changed the day to October instead of August because now his dad will be healed by then and able to come. Sometimes, we just don't know why we do things until something happens like this. We are really glad that we thought and picked a day that is going to work for everybody! His brother will have the baby, his dad will be able to go, and his aunt can go and see us sealed! It is going to be a perfect day and I can't wait until it happens! Only 19 more weeks until this thing happens!

ksl.com - President Monson dedicates Gila Valley Ariz. LDS temple

ksl.com - President Monson dedicates Gila Valley Ariz. LDS temple

Here is a little video of President Monson and the temple dedication/cornerstone. It is pretty awesome. Here are some facts also about the Gila Valley Temple.

Announcement: 26 April 2008

Groundbreaking and Site Dedication: 14 February 2009 by Neil L. Andersen
Public Open House: 23 April–15 May 2010
Dedication: 23 May 2010 by Thomas S. Monson

Temple Facts

The Gila Valley Arizona Temple was the third temple built in Arizona, following the Mesa Arizona Temple (1927) and the Snowflake Arizona Temple (2002).

President Thomas S. Monson's announcement of the construction of The Gila Valley Arizona Temple and the Gilbert Arizona Temple was his first temple announcement as president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Two of four Church-owned baseball fields in the community of Central were cleared to make way for The Gila Valley Arizona Temple and an adjoining meetinghouse.

The groundbreaking ceremony for The Gila Valley Arizona Temple was held on the 97th anniversary of Arizona becoming a state. The shovels were specially arranged so that ground was broken at the location where the Celestial Room would stand.

In attendance at The Gila Valley Arizona Temple groundbreaking ceremony were the current and four previous stake presidents of the Thatcher Arizona Stake, namely Presidents Brian Kartchner, Jay Layton, Kent Woods, Keith Crockett, and Arden Palmer.

On September 22, 2009, the spire and a shining gold-leafed statue of the angel Moroni were installed atop The Gila Valley Arizona Temple, taking the building to its final height and form.

Temple History

President Thomas S. Monson jointly announced The Gila Valley Arizona Temple with the Gilbert Arizona Temple—his first temple announcements after becoming president of the Church.

The Gila Valley Arizona Temple serves faithful Saints of southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, who previously traveled some 150 miles or more to attend the Mesa Arizona Temple or the Albuquerque New Mexico Temple. Located at the base of the soaring Pinaleño Mountains, the Gila Valley is best known among members of the Church as the home of President Spencer W. Kimball, 12th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Though born in Salt Lake City, President Kimball was reared in Thatcher from the age of 3. And after returning home from a mission and being sealed to Camilla Eyring in the Salt Lake Temple, the Kimballs settled in Safford to raise their children and run an insurance business. In the early 1980s, President Kimball initiated an unprecedented worldwide temple-building program—one of the hallmarks of his ministry.

On Wednesday, September 17, 2008, a petition for a height-restriction exception went before the Graham County Planning and Zoning Commission from the Corporation of the Presiding Bishop to allow a proposed 100-foot spire on the temple. The Commission voted unanimously to recommend the exception to the Graham County Board of Supervisors.

On Sunday, September 21, 2008, local priesthood leaders announced the site for the temple to be property at the stake ballpark in Central—a complex of four baseball fields located between Pima and Thatcher along Highway 70. The temple and an adjoining meetinghouse will be constructed on the northern side of the property with the temple on the east, nearer the highway. The northern fields are to be replaced by parking and landscaping while the southern fields and concession stand will be retained.

On Monday, October 20, 2008, the Graham County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an exception to zoning requirements, as recommended by the Graham County Planning and Zoning Commission in September, that allows a 100-foot spire on the temple and a steeple on the meetinghouse.

On Thursday, January 15, 2009, the Church was issued a building permit for construction of the temple and adjacent meetinghouse from the Graham County Planning and Zoning Department.5 This action cleared the way for groundbreaking, which was announced in Gila Valley sacrament meetings on Sunday, January 25, 2009.

Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Presidency of the Seventy presided over the ceremonial groundbreaking (view video) for The Gila Valley Arizona Temple on a crisp Saturday morning, February 14, 2009—the 97th anniversary of Arizona becoming a state. Elder Andersen was accompanied by Elder William R. Walker, executive director of the Temple Department and member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. Services were broadcast via the Internet to various meetinghouses in the region as far away as Silver City, New Mexico, and Sierra Vista, Arizona. Once completed, the temple will serve approximately 32,000 members from the following seven stakes: Pima Arizona Stake, Thatcher Arizona Stake, Safford Arizona Stake, Duncan Arizona Stake, St. David Arizona Stake, Sierra Vista Arizona Stake, and Silver City New Mexico Stake.

ksl.com - Ariz. Latter-day Saint youth perform in temple celebration

If you want to watch a short video of what I was able to witness last night, you can watch it here from this website. And yes, the prophet really did sing that song!

ksl.com - Ariz. Latter-day Saint youth perform in temple celebration

Here is another place that has some fun pictures of the ceremony from last night.  Culture Celebration

This little boy was lucky enough to have the prophet help him apply the mortar to the cornerstone of the temple.

The temple dedication was a great experience.

tonight

Tonight...

I get to see the prophet, live, in person, and in my hometown!

Tonight....

I get to go to the temple culture celebration, where the prophet, President Eyring, and Elder Holland will be.

Tonight....

I'm going to enjoy myself!

Tonight...

I'm going to miss my fiance while he is at work.

Tonight...

I'm going to go to bed early because

TOMORROW!

Is the Temple Dedication!

Such an exciting weekend in Thatcher Arizona!!

Here's What I'm Thinking

This is going to be my wedding cake topper. (Only it will say Chris and Andrea. And October 8, 2010 instead of what is written on it now.)

These for my cake for when we cut it and feed it to each other. (This is a picture of the handle.)

And something like this to decorate the tables with only it will probably only say Chris and Andrea instead of the names on it! Obviously.

Also, for reasons unbeknownst to me, this website won't let me copy the pictures here. But if you click HERE you can see what we are thinking for napkins possibly. Or click HERE to see what else we are thinking of to do on the tables also! And let me know what you think! I'm new at this whole planning a wedding thing!!! All the suggestions I can get I will appreciate!

Wedding Date

So today, Chris and I sat down and we decided on a wedding date. And before I say what it is, we have thought about this and talked with our bishop and we decided this would be the best day for us. We are going to get married on October 8, 2010 in the Gila Valley Arizona Temple. We decided this day because my bishop wants to me to take as many temple prep classes as I can and he thinks that it will be smarter for us to wait until we get the semester underway a little bit so we are going to take his advice and wait. And it's going to be a super long engagement, but we are ready for it! And we are getting more and more excited, even though it still doesn't really seem real, but it will get better! That's all the news I have for now!

Wedding Plans

So just to keep people updated, Chris and I still don't have a date picked out. We still need to have a meeting with his parents and my parents at the same time. However, we do have what our colors are going to be. Our colors are going to be pink and brown, and we are going to probably have like an ice cream/brownie type of reception/open house. It is going to be casual. We are going to get married in the Gila Valley Temple, mostly because it's close and that way we only have a few families that have to travel instead of a ton of people who have to travel. Also, what are people's thoughts about having like a family dinner the night before so that way Chris and I have some time to hang with the family and not be so stressed on the wedding day trying to finish the reception stuff, taking pictures, and spending time with family? Good or bad idea? We have also started typing up addresses for announcements. I think next week sometime we will probably go somewhere and take some pictures for announcements. Our house colors are going to be: kitchen; black and red, bedroom; still undecided, but probably browns with some highlights of pink or something like that. bathroom: brown and blue. and the family room; well I have a red and green kinda couch so it will probably be with those colors. That is what I am thinking. And the guest bedroom/storage room is going to stay white. We still don't have a cake or anything like that. We also need to find somewhere where we can borrow some round tables. That is going to be a hard one too. We have some things for decorating that people are going to let us borrow which is great! Pretty much, we are excited to get married, we just need to hurry so we can get married! I will keep everyone updated though!

Year Supply

So I have had this idea rolling around in my head for quite a while. How can I use my blog to share my beliefs? Well, I decided that I will just tell you what I believe! I believe in having a year supply of food and i believe in having an emergency supply of everything that you use on a regular basis. Even though Chris and I aren't married yet, we have started on our year supply. So far we have; green beans, peas, corn, cream of chicken/mushroom soup, tomato/chicken noodle soup, some pork and beans, some tomato sauce, some flour, sugar, rice, beans, some hamburger, jelly, green chili, potatoes, beef, some spagetti noodles, fettacini noodles, elbow noodles, lasagna noodles, macaroni and cheese, ramen, some jello packs (vanilla/chocolate), some cool aid, peanut butter, hormel chili beans, salt and pepper, miscellaneos spices, cake and brownie mixes, I have wheat and oats on order from the church cannery, and several other items.

So, how did I get started? I shopped the sale items. Last week, a local grocery store had peanut butter on sale 2 for 4 dollars plus a one dollar coupon off. So it was really 2 for $3. What a steal! That is an amazing price! I also bought some chicken alfredo sauce too with the same deal. A lot of grocery stores here have buy 10 for $10 dollars, which is usually a steal also. Some other things that I do is I check my prices. If I go to Wal Mart and I know something is on sale at the grocery store, I see how much it is at Wal Mart and compare prices. Same with any store I am at. I also do a lot of canning. Out of the items I listed above, I have canned the green chili, jelly, hamburger, beef, potatoes and some beans. Chris and I are also going to plant a garden for this summer and we are going to eat a lot from our garden and our year supply. Granted, it's not a lot of food, but we have plenty to get started.

I don't think that people realize how easy it is to start a year supply on a limited budget. There was a story I read one time in an Ensign about a lady who lived in England and an apostle went there and asked her what her year supply was like. She was embarrassed and didn't want to answer him. He asked her again and she shyly admitted, "I can only afford one can a month." He looked at her and said, "Sister, as long as you keep getting one can a month, it will be enough." One trick that I have done is I save $10 dollars from every paycheck and I go and get something that will benefit me in my year supply. Sometimes, I just have to bite the bullet and spend more because I know Chris and I won't be able to afford food once we are actually married and both going to school. Already, we feel a lot less stressed about how we are going to afford food. especially with gas and food prices going so high. So everyweek, I'm going to try and post something that I have done during the week for my food supple. And I hope that it will help to motivate other people to get their year supply. Even if it might just be a quote from a person about having a supply of food. It is important to me and my family and I want it to be important to yours also.

Freedom!!!...and Stress

School is now over officially for me this semester! I'm going to graduate with a generals degree in general education and then next semester I'm going to be going in strong with the nursing program. Now for the stress of the summer, planning a wedding. I don't even know where to start! I guess picking a day would be good...or finalizing a day. We have a couple of different dates in mind, but we keep changing them as we talk about it more. Luckily though, we have our colors picked out. Pink and brown. And the celebration afterwards is going to be at my parents house. Other than that, nothing is accomplished. Kellie has volunteered to take our engagement pictures...actually I asked her a long time ago if she would and she agreed. What a great friend! I also need to plan when my bridal shower is going to be, or assign someone that job, but I'm kinda scared for what some of my friends might do for a bridal shower...I guess I don't really care either way. I just want to have all of the planning and stress over with. I guess I need to get my parents and Chris's parents together and plan everything. I want everything to go perfectly! And we also have a whole bunch of house improvements to make also. Mostly putting a ceiling back up in the bathroom! That's what's going on with me this week.

Today

Today is going to be a good day. You want to know how I know? Today I reached into the M&M  bag that my mom got for mothers day and pulled out 6 M&Ms two were red, two were blue, and two were brown. It's just going to be a great perfect day!

Are you Ready for This?!

Well, it's not really a secret anymore mostly because I couldn't keep it a secret anymore and we are just so excited, but CHRIS AND I ARE FINALLY ENGAGED! And I couldn't be happier! I love him, and I love my ring! It is kinda weird to call him fiance though. I guess I will have to get used to that though huh! Anyway, I know you all want to hear the story, and it's kinda traditional/some may say it's lame (like Chris does) but I DON'T CARE!

We were actually getting ready to go to a family dinner for Mother's Day and for a celebration of my cousin Kacie's baby being blessed. Mostly it was just a reason for the whole family to get together and eat dinner haha! Well, Chris and I were going to take a separate car just in case he would have to leave so his brother could go to work, and when I got in the car, he said, "Oh crap, I forgot my phone in your house." I just told him to go and get it and I would wait out in the car, no big deal. When he came back, he went around to my side of the car and opened the door and gave me a big hug. When he was hugging me he said, "Andrea. I love you so much and I want to be with you forever. Will you marry me?" Then he pulled the ring out of his pocket and I said, "YES!" So then he put the ring on my finger and before we left to go to the family dinner he said, "Let's wait before we tell everyone though." So we took my ring back off....(trust me I didn't want to do that!) and we put it back in the box and went to the family dinner and when we walked in everyone was like, "What have you guys been doing?" "You been making out?" And a whole lot of other comments like that, but we didn't want to say anything, so we just told them that we forgot something in the house and had to go back and get it. Keeping it a secret was soo hard! I wanted to spill so bad! haha! After the dinner was over, we came back to my house and we gathered all my family together and we told them that Chris had proposed and we were going to get married and my younger sister took off running out of the room and started calling her friends! I was like, Julia you weren't supposed to do that!!! Anyway, my mom said, "Well, you didn't ask my permission?!" So chris said, "I really love your daughter and want to marry her. Do we have your blessing?" And my mom said, "Are you going to take care of her?" And Chris said, "I'm going to do my best." My mom then asked him, "Are you going to love her forever?" And he said, "Yes I will love her forever." And then my mom said, "Well, I guess that is okay then." And then we talked about it a little more and told everyone to keep it a secret until we could go over to Chris's house and tell his family, so we go over there and tell his family and call his siblings and everyone is all excited! Then i sent out a mass text to all the friends that I could think of would want to know right away and we got a huge response back haha! Love you friends! (And you all knew at the same time so I didn't tell one person first ;))

Anyway, long story short, Chris and I haven't picked an official date, but it will probably be at the beginning of August because we want to get married before school starts so its not so stressful to try and get married in the middle of the semester while I am in nursing school. And a Christmas wedding will stress everyone out so we are thinking the first week of August, but it's not official! We will let everyone know as soon as we know!

And here is a picture of my ring! I love it!!!

Can you...?

Can you keep a secret?

...

...

...

...

So can I!

And I promise it's a good one!!!

Is school over yet?

Can I just say that, SCHOOL NEEDED TO BE FINISHED A MONTH AGO! I am going crazy with my finals and assignments and I'm super stressed about Pharmacology because if I don't get at least a B in that class, then I can't move forward in nursing school and I'm right below a B and if I get an 85% on the final then i will get a B. Super super hard for this class. And Public Speaking stinks! I will be so glad to be done with that class. And World of Music is super super super super super boring. I'm glad I never have to take that one again. Really, the only class I'm going to miss is my Early Childhood Growth and Development class. Oh well, what am i going to do about that? Pretty much, school is over next week and I couldn't be more excited!

NieNie

I'm sitting here at one o'clock in the morning, not feeling good, and writing a speech that I have to give in eight hours. I needed to take a little break and one of my favorite things to do while I'm taking a break from homework is look at this blog by Stephanie Nielson who was in a plane crash with her husband and she writes about her everyday life. Tonight, I signed into my blog to see if she had updated and she had! Yay. So I click over and I watch this video. My New Life is the title of it. It was on her blog with a link to go over to the church website http://www.mormon.org/ and i watched it on her blog and just started crying. She is such a wonderful woman. I wish that I could be like her. If you have about 8 free spare minutes, take those 8 minutes and watch this video. It is absolutely amazing and I know that you will love it.

The Post You've All Been Waiting For...

So today after I was done with school, I went by the nursing department just to see if they got the list in on who is accepted and everything (and I knew they had the list because some other people had already found out if they were in or not.) So, I went in and I asked the lady Carolea..you know the scary nursing secretary... and I gave her my name and the town I live in and she said, "let me look realy quick." And she said...

I'M ACCEPTED IN THE NURSING PROGRAM!!!!

I start the nursing program on August 23rd when school starts. Well, I guess technically before then because I have a CPR class on August 14 and then I have "roadmap to nursing" the weekend before school starts and then I have a stressful semester of clinicals and classes and fun stuff! Yahoo! One stress down, now if we can convince Chris to hurry and get a ring. (I know that's really the post everyone is waiting for!)