Andie Pandie!

crazy life

2011-11-15T18:43:00.000-08:00

Since I started nursing school, I have had quite the busy life. I really need to keep this updated, but I don't have any time!!! I'm so sorry!!! But since I just noticed that Kim hasn't blogged in longer than I have, I don't feel quite so bad. :) (just kidding Kim) Since nursing school has started, I have also decided to work two part time jobs. I didn't think that was going to be so bad, until I started losing sleep! I am so tired a lot of the time and doing my homework takes up so much of my time that I don't even have time to keep my house picked up! Luckily, the washer machine and dryer work so I can at least have clean clothes even if they aren't folded and put away into the drawers where they belong. Someday I will be all caught up!

I guess I can write a little bit about what we have been up to since school started in August. I have completed my clinicals for this semester. We had a really fun Halloween, where we dressed up (which I haven't done in years!) I was Dorothy and Chris was the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. So much fun! That night we went to a super fun party that our friends Zach and his wife Adri planned which consisted of bobbing for apples (which also has not been done by me in a long time!) And I beat Chris's time by like a lot! My time 8.4 seconds and Chris was in like the 20's I think. I can't remember the exact times but it was so much fun!! We also played the donut game where it is tied to a string from the ceiling and you have to eat it without hands. Not as much fun because it was hard for me, but we had a good time anyway. And then we played some games and ate food with our friends. And we haven't done anything with our good friends in so long because of school so this was a fun relief for us.

In September we went camping with some dear friends of our and their family. We haven't been camping since we were married and it was a short camping trip but we had a blast!!! We totally need to do it again!! We actually met this family since I have started nursing school, Melissa is in my class and we became like soul mate best friends since second block! We have had a lot of fun since school has started!! We are also excited for them to go through the temple and be sealed in December! It's going to be such a happy day!!!

We also bought our first couch!! It is awesome and I love it!!!

It has opened up our house a whole lot. I'm very pleased. We gave our old couch to a friend who is going to be married soon!! Adam and Maryana, that's probably going to be our wedding gift to you :) Just kidding we will get you something else too!!

Chris and I also had his sister and her kids do some fun things at our house this year for Halloween. Sadly, I couldn't be there because of my last clinical, but Chris took some pictures for me to live in the moment when I got home!

Aren't these kids so cute!!! I don't have a picture of the newest member of this little family, but when she gets blessed this weekend I will get a cute one!!!

One last thing I want to put before I end this post is I made these cute little monsters!!!

They were so easy and they added a little extra cuteness to our house for Halloween!

This concludes my update for now. I can't make any promises on how soon the next post will be because I have lots of homework to do and a test and final to study for. Hopefully those who were concerned about us will be reassured that we are alive and well!!! Until next time!!!

School is Back Again

2011-08-17T18:25:00.000-07:00

I'm so sorry blogger friends. I have been a real slacker this summer. I have been organizing my house, working two jobs, visiting with family, and just enjoying summer while it lasts before I go back to school next week! And then I start the crazy schedule for H-E- double hockey sticks. No joke. I have a test the first day of school, an 8 hour day the 1st 3 weeks of school, and clinicals starting the second week of school. Talk about super gross! I'm going to be super busy, but luckily I have been going to Zumba at the Zero Cardio Club in Safford all summer (which is my second and part time job) and I love it! I'm taking it this semester so that is going to be my huge stress relief. The only good thing about having a stinky, busy schedule at the beginning of the semester is I will be done with my clinicals before November and all of my concept maps will be turned in before finals and all I will have to focus on is my Teen Clinic time and Community Service hours. And getting good grades so I can go onto the next block of course! So everybody, if you don't hear from me for a while longer, I haven't fallen off the world, I have just become a professional student again and won't be back for at least until May. Maybe I will update though every now and then, like when my sister in law has her baby and I have to show the baby off :) and when I pass important tests and do awesome amazing things during school. Or if I do any food storage things also. Just be patient for a little while longer my friends!!

This song.

2011-08-17T18:19:00.000-07:00

I heard this song on the radio this morning when I was traveling the two miles between jobs and it made me realize how lucky I am to be "somebody's Chealsea" Also, Reba McEntire's voice is just amazing in any song that she sings anyway. I hope you like this song as much as I do!

Things I want to Make...

2011-07-21T11:36:00.000-07:00

I have really been in the mood to do Christmas stuff because when school starts up again I won't have time to be crafty! I found these cute things online today and loved them! I love the spooky for halloween, my only problem is I have no place to put these if I make them! :( I guess I will have to wait for a while until I actually have a fun place to decorate.

Home Improvements/ Last Post for Today

2011-05-28T16:44:00.000-07:00

When school got out this semester, I told Chris that the only thing I wanted to do was to paint our bedroom. So the week after school got out, I used our 50 dollar gift card from Home Depot to buy some beautiful paint and got to work. I don't have any before pictures, all I have is after, but I love our room now! It is just one more step to making our home more ours!!! Next we get to redo the bathroom and I'm going to try to talk Chris into letting me paint the kitchen red. I will have to elt you know how that one turns out!

I love our bedspread! That's all.

This cute craft I created with help from my friend Kim Pease. If you want to know how, let me know and I can try to find the link for the tutorial. It was super easy and turned out so cute, but I modified it to what I wanted it to be. And I love how it stands out on my wall with our wedding photos next to it.

(The brown door with the mirror on it is eventually going to be white) The board hanging on the wall is the 13th article of faith. We made them one night at a Relief Society Meeting. Also, don't look too closely at the mess on my dresser. It isn't there anymore I just wanted to take my picture then!

Here is a picture of my window. I love the curtain sham that came with our bedspread. I had to repaint the windowsill because it was so gross! And now it looks AMAZING!

This is our bedroom makeover. It looked exactly the same before, only it had boring white walls and these nasty brown colored doors, which I didn't get a picture of but I should!! Now it is awesome and I love it so much!

The Big 2-3

2011-05-28T16:33:00.000-07:00

Chris' birthday was yesterday and I wanted to make it a special day for him. So I woke up and I made him his favorite breakfast. Breakfast burritos.

Yum Yum. And then I took him to work and while he was at work I made him his most favorite dessert, cherry cobler for his birthday cake. (He didn't know I was going to make this, he guessed it before we got home to eat it, but I was excited.)

I was sad because the cobler was too hot and the candles were melting, so Chris didn't get to blow out birthday candles on his birthday. But I did get a picture of the candles in the cake before they melted too badly. And we had blue wax sprinkles in our dessert. Oh well! After I made Chris' cobler, I went to go and pick him up at work and we went to the golf course to practice our putting and chipping skills. Then his parents took us out to eat at Casa Manana. MMM our favorite!

Here is the picture of Chris with his cobler before we started serving it. You can see the wax spots in the cake! (Sad face here) Next year I will make it perfect though!! Then came time for the present opening.

I gave him a hand blender (AKA bean masher) because his real present hasn't come in yet!! This was just one to tide him over. I also got him a head massager which is awesome! And some fancy argyle socks (which he loves to wear to church with his suit.)

My mom got him so nice new shirts for work.

And our friend Adrian gave him an apply cider Martinelli, magnets, handcuffs, and a card came called Fact or Crap.

From his parents he got some golf balls, a new golfing hat, and a towel to use to wipe his clubs off when he is golfing. All in all, I think he had a pretty great day!!! That night he went and hung out with his brother Jacob while I went to sleep haha! Happy 23rd birthday Chris! I hope it was a good day for you!!

Golfing

2011-05-28T16:01:00.000-07:00

This last semester, Chris decided he wanted to pursue his hobby of golfing, so him and his dad decided they were going to go once a week and play a round of golf. Chris bought me a set of golf clubs, which I wasn't thrilled at all about when he first bought them but now that I have actually used them, I'm more okay with it. Chris bugged me and bugged me and bugged me until I could go. I told him I couldn't go during the semester because of school so we waited until after school got out and I went with them. I was terrible at first, but once I got into the hang of it, I actually had a lot of fun, and I score lower than Chris did his first time golfing which I'm pretty excited about.

Needless to say, once I actually get really good at golf, I may be able to beat Chris. That's all!!

Dinosaurs Oh no!!!!

2011-05-28T15:50:00.000-07:00

On the day the world was predicted to end, we celebrated Chris' nephew Curtis' birthday. It was a dinosaur themed birthday party and it was so much fun!!! We went to the Phoenix science museum and they had a dinosaur theme thing that they did where the kids made fossils and looked for dinosaur eggs and they had a blast! I went down the night before to help Anna make the birthday cake. We weren't exactly sure what we wanted to do, but we had an idea so we went off to the store in search for our idea to create an awesome dinosaur cake! We got home and made the cake the next day (because we were too tired when we got hom) and the next day started decorating it. It looks so cute and we left to drive to the science center in downtown Phoenix for the party and got stuck in traffic. When Anna got to the party, this is what the cake looked like...

The end of the world happened on Curtis' birthday cake!! Anna and I were devasted, but everybody else thought that it was supposed to be that way because of the awesome volcano that we made haha! So I guess it wasn't such a disaster after all. Then came time to blow out the birthday candles....

I won't say names, but the little boy on the left was picking his nose right before I took this picture haha!!!

Blow hard Curtis!!!

Here is Cheyenne waiting for her piece of cake.

When the party was over, the kids all had party favors and this is what we saw

Little dinosaurs everywhere!!! We had a blast at the party and I wish that Chris could have come with me, but you gotta do what you gotta do. And this trip, Chris couldn't make it. Maybe next year he will be there!

Relay for Life

2011-05-28T15:34:00.000-07:00

The weekend before finals was Relay for Life. For nursing school we have to have a certain amount of community service hours, and any extra hours that you have counts as extra credit. So Chris and I went to the Relay for Life (which we do every year anyway so it wasn't a very big deal) but one of our friends was selling marshmallow guns and so Chris went over and bought one for me and one for him. The guy was super nice and even though mine wasn't painted, he let me pick the colors that I wanted and painted it for me! It turned out SAWEET!! I wanted it to be pink, but they didn't have pink so instead we used red and silver and black and it turned out awesome. Then Chris and I had a small marshmallow war during the middle of the relay. It was fun! I didn't have my camera, only our phones so its a terrible picture but we had a blast with those guns!

I love this man!

Finals week and Bowling

2011-05-28T15:28:00.000-07:00

I don't know about anyone else, but when finals week comes around, I am a stressed out little girl! This semester I was so close to not passing with my final test that I was extra stressed out. I kept pacing my house and cleaning things that I had already cleaned and I couldn't calm myself down! Chris finally told me to sit down until I had to leave and just relax. I went and took my final and the room was FREEZING!! And I was also nervous because I had to pass this test. So as I was sitting there, I just kept praying I answered the questions right. (My final was on the computer and once you answer a question, you can't go back and change it. Extremely stressful when there are ALWAYS more than one right answer in one single question. Dang nursing school anyway!!) So I answered my last question and I closed my eyes, said a silent prayer and clicked the button. When I answered my eyes, I saw my score and I said (outloud) YES I PASSED!!!!!!! And then I said, oops sorry guys! cause there were still people testing. My teacher came over to where I was testing and told me to print out my scores and then she would do the exit interview while I was there. I said, Okay. (I really didn't want to have to retake this block. It was a very stressful block for me!) Anyway, when I got home, Chris said, "You need a break. How about we go out to eat and then we will go to my class so I can take my final." I said, "Okay surprise me on where we are going to go." We hopped into the car and we ended up at the bowling alley! For those who know me, I always lose every game I ever play against Chris!! Not that I'm bad at games or anything, I just always lose against him. Well, that day was different! I KICKED HIS TRASH!!! It was pretty dang awesome I'm not going to lie! Here are the pictures to prove I won!

The first game neither one of us broke 100 points. I told Chris that my goal in the next game was to break 100 points!!!

The second game we both broke 100 and I almost lost! It was a close game!!

The third game my goal was to break 150 points, I didn't quite make it but I still beat Chris by a longshot!!

The last game was me playing by myself. We had a few extra minutes left on our time and so I was playing under both mine and Chris' name. I was awesome on that game! I got 5 strikes and several spares, which again, NEVER happens! I told Chris that it was because I was stress free about my final being over which is why I did so good and he was stressing about his final that we were going to next!

We went to his final and his ACED it! That's my man right there. So we both passed our classes after a very stressful semester. So glad that it is now summer break and we can enjoy life for a few weeks without school. One year down, One more to go!! Yahoo!!!!

Oscar, the dog

2011-05-28T15:15:00.000-07:00

One weekend, I was hanging out at my mom's house and my aunt called and asked me where my mom was and all I heard my mom say was, "I want a boy one." I asked her what was going on and she said that she was getting my brother a puppy. I was like, uh who are you and what have you done with my mom?!! So my aunt comes over with the CUTEST little puppy I have ever seen. He was so little he was smaller than my cat! We named his Oscar. He is a chocolate lab and when we got him he was exactly 6 weeks old. Now he is getting into everything and is getting bigger but the tricks we have taught him are to sit, give a handshake, and balance on his back two legs. He is actually great at all three tricks! Here are some pictures of the little fellow when we got him!

How cute is this little guy?!!

His new friend Reese's Pieces.

Updating...

2011-05-28T15:08:00.000-07:00

I was looking at my camera to see what I needed to post because its been so long and I found these cute pictures of me and my niece Cheyenne that I had to share. Chris and I went to Scottsdale for the weekend with his parents and stayed at a resort and Anna and her kids came to visit also. Cheyenne was being noisy, (and it was late) so I pulled out my camera and distracted her! I'm the greatest aunt ever! And this is just a random post with really no meaning behind it. Just some fun pictures.

smidge and pinch contest

2011-05-17T10:39:00.000-07:00

http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/2011/05/giveaway-monday-100-to-smidge-pinch.html
go to this link to win some awesome things to plan a party!

new update

2011-05-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

okay i've been really super lame at blogging. mostly because i feel like i have nothing really new to say. school is over for the semester and i get a summer long break! that's pretty exciting. then i go back in august full swing for my last year of associate degree nursing school. i passed my final and the day i passed chris took me bowling and i beat him 3/3 games and then when i was using up our time so we would get what we paid for, i got 5 strikes, 3 or 4 spares, and only 2 gutter balls (which is good for me, usually i get a ton of those!) I painted mine and chris's bedroom, which is something i have been wanting to do all semester, next i'm going to do my bathroom once we get it fixed up. basically we are just enjoying life and enjoying summer break! that's all for now!

contest

2011-04-18T11:17:00.000-07:00

So I sometimes look up craft blogs to get ideas and one of the blogs is hosting a giveaway for an Epic Six press lettering system. It makes super cute crafts and for an entry I need to share this with people on my blog, facebook, or twitter. Go over to this website to take a look and enter the contest for yourself! Thanks everyone!

Hello again blog!

2011-04-14T15:50:00.000-07:00

Okay time for a huge update. I really have no excuse other than, I have no internet, no time, and no interest really in keeping up with my blog! Nothing interesting has happened since Chris and I got married. We are both just going to school and doing homework and living the grand life of being married. Kinda lame right? Well, I can say that nursing school is going great with me. I'm passing which is fantastic right! I have two more clinicals this semester, one more concept map to do, two more tests to complete, zero more clin sims to do, one diabetic clinic, four community service hours (for diabetic clinic) one weekend of relay for life, one final, and then IT'S SUMMER BREAK!!!! Needless to say, I'm so excited for summer break. And next semester classes aren't until one in the afternoon so I can actually accomplish something in the mornings, or go to work and earn money or something like that. Chris is taking online classes, very difficult for him, especially cause we don't have internet so its even more difficult to keep up with his classes. He got promoted to full time at The Home Depot and is the lead generator, so if you need installs for roofing, siding, flooring, doors, window, etc, he's the man to talk to! Alright what else. I haven't been doing very much in the food storage department, I'm going to be canning turkey soon, Oh I did can some beef stew and butter so I guess I have been doing something. I will have to post about those soon. I have mostly just been buying bulk stuff, like beans, rice, flour, sugar, things like that because the way the economy is going I don't know how long i'm going to be able to afford those things! Chris and I are also the sunbeam teachers at church. We have a blast with them! We teach six boys, which can get kind of crazy and out of hand sometimes, but we have a good time. We are going to have a new niece in the family in September! Congrats Anna!! We are super excited about this! (still no kids from us though, at least not until I'm done with school, or almost done! Sorry!!) A couple of weeks ago, we found five baby kittens underneath our house! They are super super cute and almost ready to give away, thank goodness! My parents also got a cute little puppy named Oscar. He is a blast and he loves me! (Today he followed me into my house, which is a no-no but he's so cute I let it be okay for today!!) Anyway, I just wanted people to know that Chris and I are still alive. Maybe I will be able to blog more once my schedule starts getting back to normal again. We are basically loving married life and are ready for summer to start so we can have a break from school!

Knotts Berry Farm

2011-01-16T15:43:00.000-08:00

this is going to be a photo post of our trip to california and knotts berry farm. disneyland and california adventure to come at a later date.

Out with a bang.

2011-01-14T20:22:00.000-08:00

For New Year's Eve we were invited to go bowling with my mom's friend and her family and my mom and my family. it was a blast! We bowled for 3 hours straight, and I beat chris! (Or at least that is what we will say. I can't remember if I beat him or not.) Here are some pictures from bowling. and I know that chris is crazy. i have no control over him. It was a fun night. bring on 2011!!

Christmas! (picture overload)

2011-01-14T20:10:00.000-08:00

Our stockings that my aunt made. She made chris's for our wedding. I love it!

Chris in front of our Christmas tree. I loved our christmas tree. It was great!!

chris and I in front of the tree. Our first christmas married together.

Here we are in our christmas pajamas that santa brought us on christmas eve.

Christmas even santa came to visit us! He comes every year. It's a great tradition.

At the beginning of december, we got our christmas ornaments that my mom always gets for the kids. Chris and I are acting out what our ornaments are. ya i know, we are weird. we are used to it!

On christmas eve, we went to my parents house and decorated sugar cookies. It was fun! usually we made stained glass sugar cookies, and this year we did those in addition to decorating with frosting! It was so much fun! we made our stained glass cookies also.

My sugar cookies got put into the oven and then forgotten about, so they got burned and ruined!

Here are some of the others. they turned out a ton prettier than mine did!

My cousin ty was being a stinker before santa came. my aunt told him "You better smile so we can put you on santa's facebook page so he will know who you are." then he smiled for us. what a ham!

Visits...

2011-01-14T19:05:00.000-08:00

Right after I got done with my finals, Chris's friend Monique came to stay with us for a few days. Chris met her family while he was serving his mission in Brasil and she is nannying in California and was on vacation and came to spend the weekend with us! We started the visit off with a trip to the Mesa Temple to see the temple lights. We invited Chris's brother Jared and his family and Chris's sister Anna and her family. It was a fun night! And it wasn't even cold, so we didn't need our jackets! (we had them anyway though.)

Me and Monique at the Temple

Monique, Chris and lil Jared

I love this little girl Cheyenne! (and I'm her favorite, she told me so!)

My cute nephews and niece! I love these little guys!

Then we drove home and we drove past the Gila Valley Temple to show it to Monique because she wanted to see where we were married! The next day, I went to work and they came to visit.

Then that night, my sister and I were in a baking mood so we baked some Snicker's surprise cookies. Super delicious! Monique was fascinated by our huge chocolate brick that we use to melt for candy and stuff at Christmas time. Caleb came over and we played a game of phase 10 also. I lost.

We also went 4-wheeler riding and gun shooting!!

(The sun was super bright!)

We took Monique on the Thatcher tour, which of course included cotton pickers!

The last thing we did in Thatcher was we went to our ward party, where Erica and I stole Moniques camera and took this lovely picture!

On our way out of town, we stopped by the Gila Valley Temple to show Monique the nativity scene that they had.

Thus was the start of our Christmas break! We had a blast with Monique and were sad to see her leave to go back home. We were glad we were able to share a few days with her though! it was great!

Slacking.

2011-01-13T10:07:00.000-08:00

I have been such a slacker with this blog since I have been married. It's not that nothing interesting happens in my life, because it does, but because I am so so busy with school that it's almost impossible to find time to do anything for myself except for study...and this semester is going to be way harder than last semester. Luckily, I looked at my schedule and I get all of my out of town clinicals done EARLY!!!! Wahoo. That's a relief. (I hope Chris can fend for himself while I'm gone for a few days for three weeks in a row...) Some things that I need to update are: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years Eve, and DISNEYLAND!!! Yes, we finally went on our honeymoon and it was great. I guess I need to just go through my camera and find what I have missed and update on that. I carry it with me everywhere! There's got to be something else I'm missing too. Anyway, to end this slacking post on a funny note. One day, last semester when Chris and I were getting ready for school, I decided to be a good wife and make breakfast. I made his favorite...breakfast burritos, with eggs and ham and cheese and potatoes. I got the tortillas out and I started rolling the burritos (well, I acutally handed them over to Chris because I can't roll a burrito to save my life! And he worked at taco bell so he's a professional) and as I was getting ready to hand over another tortilla to him, I forgot to pull it out of the bag and i dumped the eggs on top of the tortilla in the bag! I didn't know I did it until I tried grabbing the tortilla and all I got was a handful of eggs. Anyway, I looked up at Chris and said, "Well, that's not the first mak I've ever mistade." And right after I said that, I looked at him and said, "What the heck did I just say?" And we thought it was so funny that we started laughing and laughing and then before we knew it we were both crying! Welcome to the life of Andrea. The end! Hopefully more posts will come soon, but don't count on me too much because I'm in nursing school. My life is unpredicable!!!

Things I'm Looking Forward Too

2010-11-21T17:55:00.000-08:00

1. Nursing school being over for the semester. I have only two more clinicals, two more tests, one more paper, one group presentation, and hopefully I pass with enough points to go on! Then I have to buy my books and everything for next semester. Fun.

2. Thanksgiving. This year Chris and I are going to be able to go to both of our families Thanksgivings. We are very excited!

3. Finals to be over. The day after finals are over (luckily I only have one because I'm only taking one really hard intense class, but Chris isn't so lucky. He has 5 finals. Yikes! Glad I'm not in that position anymore!!) We are going to Mesa to go and pick up one of Chris's friends that he met in Brazil is coming to stay with us for a few days in December.

4. Temple lights!! I love the temple lights at Christmastime. This year, Chris and I are going to take Monique, the girl who will be staying at our home for a few days, and I invited Anna and Tracy and Jared and Deandra! It's going to be a big fun family party in Mesa at the temple in the middle of the week! I think it's going to be grand!

5. Christmas!!!! Christmas is probably the best time of the year. I'm so excited for Christmas Eve parties and Christmas lights on people's houses and the spirit of friendliness that is abundant everywhere! I love seeing people's faces light up when they open presents. I love watching Christmas movies and putting up the Christmas tree and the decorations. I love just this time of the year! It is definitely "The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year." I LOVE Christmas music! That is probably the best part of the Christmas.

6. Our honeymoon. Hopefully we are going to be able to go on our honeymoon because Chris just got promoted to full time and he is going to start full time hours as soon as finals are over. So I'm praying he will be able to take a few days off, if not than I guess we are going to have to wait for that also. Or we will go to Mesa for a day and go do something together.

7. November 28, because that means my talk in church will be over! Yes, we have been married for a little over a month and we have already been asked to speak. The fun thing is my brother will be speaking with us so it will be like a family sacrament meeting! It's going to be fun!

8. Possibly blogging more. Does anybody even read the blog anymore? I know I've been really bad about it but I have been doing my best to keep it updated! It's hard when I don't have internet at my house, or I lose the camera cord. Anyway, there is nothing too much new going on! Just getting excited for the holiday season!!!

Pulling Weeds

2010-11-18T15:28:00.000-08:00

We went over to Chris's parents house to help them pull weeds. Since Chris's dads' transplant, he hasn't been able to do yard work and when Chris moved out, nobody did it, and with the rain, the weeds kinda got out of control! This was a tumble weed Chris chopped in the backyard. When he was on his mission in Brazil, lots of people that he taught and talked to would ask him if "those things that rolled across the road" really existed. So when he pulled this week, he had to get a picture to prove that they really do exist in Arizona!

Wedding Night Story...

2010-11-18T15:22:00.000-08:00

Chris and I didn't have time to go on a "honeymoon" so we stayed at a hotel in town for the night. We were supposed to have a honeymoon suite thing where the hotel leaves sparkling cider and chocolate/snack stuff in the hotel room and it was supposed to be decorated all cute or something. I'm not really sure because when we got there, it was a regular hotel room. Nothing special about it. So in the morning at breakfast, we went and talked to the receptionist about it and she felt so bad! We weren't mad or anything and she gave us the stuff that was supposed to be in the room anyway. So when we went back up to pack all of our stuff and check out to go home, I hurried and decorated the table. We are going to go on our real honeymoon hopefully in December to California! That's the plan anyway!!

The Car.

2010-11-18T15:13:00.000-08:00

Of course you can't escape away on the wedding night without the car getting all decorated! Chris's siblings (and I think my brother) all decorated my car. I told them they could do whatever they wanted as long as they didn't put anything underneath the handles. They complied! They wrote a bunch of different sayings with cheez-it crackers and put oreos and marshmallows all over the car and windows and there was toilet paper EVERYWHERE! I forgot to get a picture of the inside, but they wrapped it around the head rests and the handle bar things in the backseat and put it around the handles on the outside of the car. It was fun though!!

The End!!

Wedding Pictures

2010-11-18T09:18:00.000-08:00

These are just a few of my FAVORITE pictures that were taken by the amazing David Palmer. To see more of his pictures go here. Our day was perfect! Even the weather was great! Hope you enjoy the pictures! There will probably be more to come also, I have more on a different camera, but I forgot the camera cord somewhere and I can't remember where I put it!

Coming out of the temple as Mr. and Mrs. Carrell.

Cheyenne ran up to Chris and I right after the sealing. She asked me, "Andrewa, why do you have flowers?" And I told her, "Because I'm a princess today."

Then later, she saw a picture of Chris and I in our wedding clothes, and she told her mom, "That's Andrewa as a princess, and Christopher!" I love that little girl!!

Everyone that was there!

My side of the family

Chris's side of the family.

My parents and my mom's parents

My parents, Chris's parents

Me with my mom and sisters! They are the best!

Me and my father!

What daughters do best right?

My parents

Me and my mom.

My dad, brother, and husband

My wedding cake turned out BEAUTIFUL!!! And it was delicious also!

So, just now I realized that we didn't get any pictures of Chris with his parents, siblings, grandparents, ect. Dang! I guess its a good thing we took Carrell family pictures earlier that day!

Updating...

2010-11-17T14:08:00.000-08:00

I promise new updates are coming soon!!! I have been super busy with school and trying to find time to clean the house so any free minute that I have is either studying, doing homework, and cleaning the house!! But I have some fun updates coming soon! (Hopefully!)

Prom Night

2010-10-31T21:22:00.000-07:00

The young men and young women in our ward threw a "Prom Night" for all the married couples in the ward. And because Chris and I are married now, we got to go! We learned that we have been married the shortest amount of time, and the couple that was at the dance that had been married the longest have been married for 56 years! That's a long time! Here are some of our pictures that a lovely young woman took for us! It was a very fun night and a great opportunity for all of the married couples in the ward to get away for a little while! For one of the dances, they made Chris and I go in front of everyone and dance because we were the "newlywed" couple. It was fun, but I don't like being in the spotlight! Also, it's really hard to wear a prom dress with garments! It was a challenge, but we finally found one of my old dresses, which is actually the dress I wore when Chris and I went to our real prom in high school together. Fun times right?!

Football

2010-10-31T21:10:00.000-07:00

This was Bradley's first Varsity Game and Ty's first football game! Ty was so excited to go! I went and got him a football, and he held onto that thing the whole entire time! He really looks up to Bradley and enjoys doing lots of activities with him! It was a fun night, and starting to get cold. Perfect for football season!

Halloween Pumpkins

2010-10-31T21:04:00.000-07:00

Our annual pumpkin carving family home evening.

The pumpkin with the stars is mine and Megans.

I forgot to bring a pumpkin and Chris and I haven't had time to carve it yet.

When we do, I will post pictures.

It was a fun night!

PS... does anyone know how to post more than one picture at a time? i hate putting only one picture up at once. If anyone can help me, that would be great!

Reception Pictures.

2010-10-31T20:49:00.000-07:00

So, I still haven't gotten the "professional" pictures yet, but my mom took a lot of pictures on her camera so I decided I would share those! (Kim, these are for you to live vicariously through!) It turned out beautifully. Thanks mom and Tracie for all your hard work! You guys are great! And some of these pictures are from at the temple waiting for me to come out also.

Married!

2010-10-17T19:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I didn't want to be one of those people who gets married and then the next day is blogging about it, or on facebook, however, I did love one of our wedding photos so of course I got on facebook to put it on there! :) And we didn't go on a "honeymoon" so I didn't feel too bad being on facebook. And I waited until Sunday. Anyway, back to the wedding. It was PERFECT! And we are so happy! I think my favorite part of the whole day was being able to sit in the celestial room with Chris before the sealing and just relax and think about what we were going to do. And then we went into the celestial room and I was scared because I didn't know what was going to happen, and then it was over and it was great and we were married!! We changed our clothes and came to our reception. We got back to the house and made a plate of food and ate something really quick. I didn't finish eating my food because people were showing up a half an hour early! So I went outside to go and greet people and Chris stayed in the house to finish eating and then he came and joined me. Everything turned out so perfect and the weather was great and everyone loved the decorations and it was perfect! We enjoyed the reception and afterwards Chris remembered he had to take a test online haha! Great wedding night story right? Anyway, we went and saw our car that his sister and brother and other family decorated and we went to the hotel! I wish that I had my pictures back from the photographer. All I have are a few that my cousin took with my camera and there are only a few that have Chris and I in them (mostly when we were cutting the cake) so as soon as I get the pictures back I will post them, but Chris and I are married now and its great! Also, if you want to see some pictures, go here and you can see some! The ones I have seen so far have turned out fantastic and I can't wait to see more! Hope you are excited too!!

Its that time of year again!

2010-10-03T12:16:00.000-07:00

I love this time of year! October is the greatest month ever! Its when the weather starts changing and the holidays start coming and everything is happy and magical! This year the things I am looking forward too are: my endowments, Chris and I getting married. Hopefully passing my nursing midterm. Maybe make some pomegranate jelly. Decorating with fall decorations/winter decorations. Starting to pull out winter clothes (hopefully, if the weather ever decides to stay below 100* for more than a day) Family Home Evening carving pumpkins and eating homemade chicken noodle soup. Celebrating mine and Chris's first real holiday together, Halloween. And many other things! Hopefully I will have time to blog about them, or something but school is pretty busy!

Fun Times/The Many Faces of Chris

2010-10-03T12:01:00.000-07:00

I think that this post is going to be pretty random. One day, I got ready for work in our new work shirts that we got and Chris and I ended up wearing the exact same outfit! A red shirt, blue jeans, and white tennis shoes. In Chris's family, there is a joke about his brother and ex-wife that when they would wear matching clothes, they wouldn't be fighting, when they're clothes didn't match, they were. So Chris and i weren't fighting this day! And he wouldn't take a picture with me, instead he did all these crazy faces...

ah finally a normal one!

And then I talked him into finally taking some with me!

And of course we had to take some goofy pictures too. We wouldn't be normal if we didn't!

These cute things need a new home...

2010-10-03T11:43:00.000-07:00

Our momma cat had kitten at 5.5 weeks ago. On Thursday they are going to be ready for a new home! yay! All of the orange ones are boys, and the black on is a girl. And two of the orange ones are super fluffy and cute and there is one that is orange and white, and the other one is all orange. If you want a little kitten, these ones will be ready for a new home soon!!

Endowments

2010-10-03T11:35:00.000-07:00

On Friday, I went through the temple and got my endowments. I was really nervous right at first but when we came out I realized that it wasn't even something to be nervous about. It was a great experience and I'm excited to come back and do another session soon! And also for the sealing on Friday! It's going to be awesome!

Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Week

2010-09-30T18:49:00.000-07:00

When I was little and in school there used to be this book called "Harry and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day." I kinda feel like Harry in that book this week. Monday started off good. I went to school and learned and it was great! That night we even set the trap to trap the skunk that was living under the trailer and caught it! And then it roasted in the sun on Tuesday so we didn't even have to drown it! (little blessings. it was a blessing indeed!) Tuesday was the worst day in the history of the world! I passed/failed one of my skills tests. (Its hard to explain because I passed everything except I did one technique wrong so I failed, and had to remediate, which is just awful and embarrasing!) And Tuesday, Chris and I also got in a teeny fight because I told him he smelled like a skunk when he wanted to give me a hug. I felt really bad and told him I was just stressed out from my test and I didn't think I was going to be a good nurse and cried and had my meltdown and was fine! Wendesday I had a test, so on Tuesday night I was studying, and halfway through studying (like almost 2 hours into studying) I realized I was studying the wrong chapter. So on the good side, I guess I'm halfway ready for my test for next week! I went in on Wednesday and took my test and I actually think that I passed it. There may have been 2 questions that I missed, but I got one of the bonus questions right, so I may have only missed 1 question. Then I sat in school from 8 to 4 and was tired and exhausted and then came home to study for the test I had to go and retake. Thursday (today) wasn't quite as bad. I went to school at 7 and woke up with a super huge headache. We learned today how to put in NG tubes (nasogastric tube, where the tube goes into the nose and down into the stomach and nurses are able to feed patients that way.) There were a ton of students that actually volunteered in my class (don't worry, I was NOT one of them. I figured with as bad as my week had been, I would probably get the tube in my lung or something like that) and that was pretty fun! I wish I would have been more brave though and volunteered to put one in somebody, however, I was a chicken and just practiced on the easy manequin. (I don't know how to spell that!) I'm thinking that this week has been so awful because I'm going through the temple tomorrow and its going to be a great experience and I think there has just been a lot of adversity for me. I have never had such a hard week of school ever in my life. I hope that after tomorrow I will be able to get through the rest of school with hardly any problems. Now I need to figure out how to upload pictures up here!

Some things kinda annoy me...even though they shouldn't

2010-09-19T19:27:00.000-07:00

Like... people asking me how many days until I get married. The answer today: 19. And tomorrow it will be 18. And then the response: Oh how cute, you guys are counting. Like we are two year olds counting down to Christmas, and like its a bad thing. And then the all stupid question...Are you guys excited? If we weren't excited we wouldn't be getting married....DUH!!! Seriously, I've been in the "singles ward/college ward" for two years. I'm ready to be out of it and moving on with life. I seriously think it's like in the movie Singles Ward II and the girl gets engaged and all the other girls have daggers in their eyes like the engaged girl is now an outcast. Ya some Sundays that pretty much how I feel. Needless to say, I only have one more week in the singles ward and I'm really excited about it! Even though I'm going to miss it because it has been fun, I'm ready to move onto bigger and better things...including getting the wedding over and focusing on school. And if you ask me if I'm excited, I will answer yes, and that isn't going change if you ask me 10 minutes later.

4:38 AM dilemma

2010-09-16T14:47:00.000-07:00

I wonder if this happens to anyone else besides me. Everynight before I go to bed, I always drink at least one big huge gigantic glass of water. And sometimes I drink two! And I always wake up one hour before my alarm is going to go off to wake me up for the day. My dilemma is always the same, "Do I get up now and go to the bathroom, or do I just go back to sleep and wait for my alarm to go off?" Sometimes, it is a serious decision. And today, it happened at 4:38 AM.

Onto a more happier note....only 22 more days until I am no longer Andrea Ferrin. Kinda crazy right?! I hope it comes fast and stress free!

24 Days and Counting

2010-09-14T16:37:00.000-07:00

In 24 days, I will no longer be single. It's kinda scary but exciting at the same time! I just want it to be here already. I'm done planning everything. I wish that everything would just fall into place and be done! Poof. Like as if my fairy godmother came and did everything for everyone! That would be great! Man, if only my life were a fairytale.

I will soon be joining the marriage club with my other two cousins who got married this summer also! It has been a Ferrin family wedding summer that's for sure!! It's been fun!

Update

2010-09-10T17:21:00.000-07:00

I have noticed that since school has started, I haven't had much to update on! I haven't done any canning, or bought anything for our food supply. (I know, I've been bad.) However, I am passing nursing school!! Yay! I have taken two tests and passed them both, next week I have two tests, one on Wednesday and one on Thursday. Eek! Kinda nervous for that, but it will all work out! Okay, so lets do a recap over things that have happened over the last month.

1) School started for both Chris and I. Even though I am taking less classes than Chris, I have like twice as much homework and I have already had 2 tests and he has had NONE!! (dang nursing school anyway, they think we need to be smart and be tested all the time.) I was even so tired on the first day of school that we didn't even take first day of school pictures!!! Bad me. Next semester we will get those taken care of!

2) We went to go and register for our wedding. All I have to say about that is...WHAT A NIGHTMARE!!! My friend Kim said that even though it was a waste of time, it was still a fun date night for her and her husband, Chris and I will never never ever ever ever ever register for anything ever again in our entire lives!! (Yes, it was THAT awful!) First of all, we went to Wal Mart to register, and of course, everyone in this town that works at Wal Mart doesn't know how to read or talk or any of that good stuff, so we went to go have the lady help us at the jewelry checkout and we told her what we were doing. All she said to us was, "Oh, I don't know how to do that. I have to call a manager to tell me how." So she called the manager and the manager lady was like, "Well I don't know how to do that either." Not nicely, and in a very snotty tone. So Chris and I were like, Ok, whatever we will leave and we aren't going to register at your store. Well, we forgot our paper that printed out from the machine, went back to pick it up, and I saw the number for the main store manager, so since I was pretty ticked off anyway, I called the number to tell them I was very UNSATISFIED with the store and the workers there. When I called and asked for the manager, she wasn't available and the person I was talking to wouldn't tell me her name, well unless her name was "A WalMart associate", which I don't think it was. Anyway, we decided to wait for someone to come and help us. 20 minutes later, nobody had showed up. The lady in the jewelry checkout said, "I'm sorry, I'm from the shoes department and they needed some help here so I don't know what I'm doing." (Just as a note, don't tell that to someone who is already ticked off and smoke is coming out of the ears!!!) I finally asked Chris for the printout, read the SECOND sentance where the instructors were, and he went up to the lady, said, "Look, this is what the paper says, all we need is the scanner thing." And she gave it to us and we went to register. However, we were both so mad that we didn't register for half of the stuff that we needed and we are too mad to go back and register for anything!! So, pretty much, just send whatever the heck gift you want. If his mom didn't work at Wal Mart in receiving (she's not one of the dumb people that don't know what their doing) then we probably wouldn't shop there anyway. Phew, that was a long story, and a very bad day! We should've just registered at Home Depot.

3) I got my wedding invitations mailed! yahoo!! I don't have to worry about that anymore except for the few people who are barely giving me their addresses. But thats ok. I have tons of leftover invitations! So if someone reads this and wants one, please give me your address. I will send one to you!

4) Chris finished his training as a backup supervisor for work. It was a 6 week course and he had like 6 hours of training each week. I'm glad that he did the program, but I'm soo glad that he is done. Hopefully now he can find a full time opening at home depot and then we won't have to worry about him not working very many hours and we can be able to pay our bills! That's a good thing right?

5) Bridal shower is going to happen on September 25 from 1 until 3 in the afternoon. It's going to be a fun time! So you should come!!

That's all that I can think of for now. Life is busy and always changing! I think tomorrow I'm actually going to do some food storage stuff. We are going to can some apple pie filling! So stay tuned for that! It should be pretty good, unless it ends up not happening because we are busy with other stuff!

Canning Chicken

2010-08-25T18:09:00.000-07:00

This week, Safeway also had chicken on sale for $1.99 a pound for the boneless, skinless chicken breast, which is the best for canning because there is little/no waste.

You get your chicken all unpacked and ready to cook. You can also raw pack chicken and can it that way, but for my first time, I decided to cook it. Well my mom actually did that for me, because I was in school for 7 hours today. Ah the joy of being a professional student.

We cook our meat in our huge roaster oven. Most people who are reading this probably don't have a huge roaster oven, but you can cook it in your regular oven as well. Cook your meat at 350 degrees until the chicken on the top is tender. Then you can turn the oven off and it will continue cooking even as its cooling.

When the chicken is cooled, you will pull it out of the pan and clean it. We put it in a cookie sheet and it will cool down even more.

As you clean it, you will shred the chicken to put into your jars for canning.

Here is how much meat I had when it was all finished cooking. You may have less depending on how much you want to can, but I wanted to do enough for this semester because I'm going to be so busy with nursing school I won't have time to go grocery shopping or do very much cooking!

(These are all the pictures I have. We forgot to take the camera out as we were finishing, but I will explain it well from here on out!)

You will wash your jars out in the sink and then fill them with the chicken almost all the way full. You will leave a little space though. You fill up the rest of the jar with water (Or the chicken broth from when you cooked your chicken, water works just fine as well.) Then you add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to every jar. I canned my chicken into pints because it is only going to be me and Chris. And we won't need a whole quart of chicken for the both of us. That's a lot of food! Then you put your lids on and put the jars into the pressure cooker and can at 10 pounds of pressure for 60 minutes if the meat is cooked, and for about an hour and a half if its not cooked. Then you pull them out of the pressure cooker and now you have chicken on your shelves! Yay! Out of the chicken I did today, I was able to get 25 jars. That is two flats and one extra jar! It's not very hard, and it will be worth it when you have it on your shelve for your peace of mind.

Canning Grapes

2010-08-25T17:50:00.000-07:00

So do any of you guys like cherry pie? Or cherry cobbler? Or cherry burros? Or anything that needs a cherry filling? I have a secret here that will definitely WOW you! And the secret ingredient is....

GRAPES

Yes, that is right. And now I will tell you how it works! (Well, I don't really know, but it is super good, and a whole lot cheaper than buying cherry pie filling!)

First, you buy your grapes, but you only buy them when they are on sale, because otherwise, it is not a good deal for you. I bought a ton of grapes for only 79 cents a pound this last week at Safeway, and this week, they are $1.99 a pound, so I saved a bunch of money! After you buy your grapes, you devine them and wash them good in a colander.

After they are rinsed, you put them in your jars. You want to do them in quart size jars because for the most part, you will be making pie for a bunch of people, and you want to make sure you have enough filling for everyone there!

We use green grapes because they are usually seedless and not all of the purple ones are. But don't worry, I will tell you how to make them not green anymore!

While you are stuffing the jars, you want to get some sugar water warm on the stove. This is your syrup that you put in with your grapes. You want to do 9 cups of water to every 4 cups of sugar. Get the sugar dissolved and almost to a boil and then pour it into your jars with your grapes.

After you get the syrup into the jars, you will add 1 teaspoon of red food coloring.

(My picture is really stinky, but you get the idea.)

You can add the food coloring before or after you put the water in. We actually put it in before and as you add the water, you can see if start turning red.

When we were adding the food coloring to our grapes, Chris said, "That's all you guys do to make it red? That is so dissappointing! I shouldn't learn how these things are done because I think they are so much more extravant than they realy are!" Ah silly boy, he has much to learn about me still!

You want to boil your seals and use this nifty little magnet to get them out and put them on the jars so you don't burn yourself!

Then you put the jars into your STEAMER, I didn't get a picture of the steamer but you don't want to use your pressure cooker. (If you look when I did apricot jam, there is a picture of the steamer there if you have a question about what a steamer looks like) And you steam the jars for 20 minutes.

And then, you have some instant cherry pie filling!

Ok, now I will tell you how to make the pie filling. You open a can of your grapes, a jar of crushed pineapple from the store, and a cherry package of cool aid, heat it up on the stove and add some cornstarch to thicken it a little bit. I make cobbler in a dutch oven usually, so after it is warm, I put it in the dutch oven with a store bought cake mix (white or yellow) and put a couple slices of butter on top. Then you cook it until the cake mix is slightly brown on top. You can also cook it in the stove, probably at 350 degrees until it is done. I have never made it in a stove, so I'm not sure!! You know you are amazed by this recipe! Try it, your family will love it, and after they have eaten it, ask them if they knew what they were eating! They willl get a kick out of it also!

monsoon season is the greatest

2010-08-25T17:04:00.000-07:00

I love monsoon season. Yesterday we got the BIGGEST storm we have gotten in a long long long time! It was so great!! Although, it was kinda scary driving in my little car into these huge huge puddles, but my car is wonderous and made it through all of them! It rained so hard that all of the washes and canals were overflowing, the cotton fields by my house were flooded, and so were all the hayfields. And when I was driving in town, the roads looked like lakes, and I'm pretty positive my car almost got struck by lightning...SCARY!! It was a fun experience. These are the only pictures I got becaue it was raining too hard and my other ones you can't see anything through the windshield!!

Our HUGE Watermelon...

2010-08-25T16:57:00.000-07:00

Maybe you will remember the garden that Chris and I planted? Well, this is our first product from our garden!! It was about a 40 pound watermelon...ok we don't really know how much it weighed, but it was super heavy! And looks can be deceiving, because it wasn't the best watermelon I have ever had, but we have 7 more growing on the vine right now so we will see if those are any better!!

21 Years and Counting...

2010-08-13T10:41:00.000-07:00

So yesterrday was my 21st birthday. It just felt like another normal day honestly, but it was still fun! I only went to a half a day of work. I went and got my hair cut and styled. My mom took me shopping for a new skirt and some shirts. I got an ice cream cake. There was a huge ward party I went to. Mr Chris stayed up with me and watched some movies. My sister got sprayed with her own pepper spray. The moon was beautiful last night! (I wish I had gotten a picture of that!) It was a pretty good day. Here are the few pictures we took!

All in all it was a good day. And as someone told me last night, "Turning 18 or 21 isn't any fun if you don't have any bad habits!" And that was pretty much the gospel truth!

Anyone up for a good laugh?!

2010-08-03T17:43:00.000-07:00

Today, I was driving to work and I had the radio on and the local news came on. It was the radio person reading it from a local website that updates every other day or so, and when she started reading this post, I started laughing so so so hard! I just had to share!!

The title is called, "MAN STABBED IN RIGHT BUTT CHEEK." And this is how the post goes.

A Safford Officer was called to Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center, at around 1:35am, Saturday morning, to a report of a man who had been stabbed in the right butt cheek with a knife. When the officer arrived at the hospital, he spoke to the man, identified as kenneth Barry, and asked him what happened. Barry told the officer that he had been stabbed in the butt by someone. Barry told the officer that the stabbing happened at his ex-mother-in-law's house. When the officer asked where Barry had been stabbed and who stabbed him, he told the officer that he did not want to say. Barry also said that he did not want to give the officer the person's name because he did not work and could not support his children and his ex-wife was supporting them without his help. The officer observed approximately 1/2 inch cut on Barry's right butt cheek while the nurse was treating him. Barry refused to give the officer any more information on the stabbing. The officer ran "wants and warrants" on Kenneth Barry and found that there was an outstanding warrant out of Thatcher for the arrest of Barry on charges of possession of marijuana. After Barry was released from the hospital's care, the officer plaed him under arrest for the outstanding warrant and took him to the Graham County Jail.

If I were the radio lady, there would be no way I could have made it through that article without busting a gut!

So, of course when I get to work, I tell my coworker and we were both laughing about it. Because seriously, getting stabbed in the bum is a bad enough day, but then to get arrested on top of that? Talk about a bummer. (No pun intended.) And so, we went over to eacourier online and read the article there. I don't know which one is more funny!!

EA Courier story. Headline, "Man stabbed in rear, arrested on warrant."

Story. Unusally, a stabbing victim is not the one who is taken to jail. That was the case, however, of a Safford man who was stabbed in his posterior early Saturday morning. Safford officer Wayne Crum responded to trauma room four at the Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center at about 1:35 am in regard to a stabbing. The victim, Kenneth Dean Barry, Jr, 23, said he was stabbed at his "baby's momma's house." Barry alluded that his baby's momma stabbed him but would not identify her because he does not work and she supports him and his children, according to Crum's report. As the nurse came in to clean the cut, Crum observed a small incision to Barry's right butt cheek about half an inch long. Crum later discovered Barry had an active warrant for his arrest for possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. When Barry was released from the hospital at about 2:30 am, Crum arrested him on his warrant and booked him into the Graham County Jail.

The best part about EA's story, is the comments after the article. If you have a moment and you're bored, check em out!

This was the funniest thing I have heard in a long time and all day long I was laughing about it!!

Mud Bogging Fun

2010-07-23T10:44:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday night, it rained pretty hard here in T town and I live on a farm so there was lots of mud everywhere. I went to work on Thursday and my brother called me at about 4:30 and said, "Andie, we have the 4 wheelers ready. When are you going to be home?!" I told him I get off at 5 and that they can go ahead and start going.

This is what I came home too. Two boys and two 4 wheelers all covered in mud!

Then, of course, they wanted me to come with them. I said I was not going with my nice clothes on, cause I just got home from work. So, I went and changed my clothes (I really didn't want to get all muddy. So I was kinda taking my time.)

Chris said, "Do a goofy face!" I did, He didn't. Go figure!

The sun was right in our eyes after we were done!

We had a fun time going in the mud and getting dirty. I was glad I went, even though as soon as we were done, I rinsed my clothes off outside, ran inside as fast as I could, and got in the shower to get the rest of the mud off of me! We had a good time though!!

More Wedding...

2010-07-21T17:08:00.000-07:00

#1. Shoutout to my cousin Ashley. She is designing my announcements, and what she has just started with is AWESOME!!! I'm super excited to see them when they are completely finished!!!

#2. Dress shopping....DONE! Yahoo! I went to three different dress shops, and loved one dress at each place. The first place...dress to small, will take six to eight weeks to order a new one in. Bummer. Second place, Dress SUPER huge. I mean, I'm size 14, this was a 20, but it was very beautiful!!! We went to the last place, weren't very impressed with the way we were greeted and stuff, and then the lady came over to help us, and she was AMAZING!!! I tried on only 3 dresses at that place, they all fit PERFECTLY! and the one I liked the best, was the second one, but I didn't love it because it didn't have sleeves on it. So we tried on the 3rd dress and the more that lady was talking to me, the more I realized I could make that dress work. YES! So, I called my amazing grandma, who is a great seamstress and asked her if it would be possible to make some sleeves and the back a little taller, and she said, "Of course!" So, that was the dress we got. Another plus, the dress that I got PLUS the veil, shoes, poofy skirt, and little bra thingy, and the jacket to make the sleeves, was less than the second place dress only! We left pretty happy! And when I tried it on for my grandma the next day, I loved it even more! Whew. And it wasn't even that stressful!

#3. All the paper goods are bought for the reception/party afterwards. It's gonna be great!

#4. Working on the sign in book/scrapbook for the reception/party. It's going to be great also! Chris is "helping" me. Okay, really, my mom is doing the majority of the work. I just say yes or no haha! But it's turning out awesome!

#5. Wedding bands bought. And they are what Chris wanted, and they match and its great!

#6. Bridal shower. Okay, I'm having two of them. One is going to be a "close friend/young people party" and the other one is going to be with my aunts and grandmas and all that! So if you want to come to the "fun/lingerie" party, let either me or Collette know!

#7. Cake. I found someone in my ward who is going to make my cake for me, and also help my mom decorate. Shoutout to Sister Warren for being so creative!

#8. Photographer. I finally found a photographer! Yay! I still need to call him, but he has been contacted and said he would love to do them! Everything is finally starting to fall into place. I feel like now I can start nursing school and survive my first semester.

#9. I love Chris and I can't wait until we are married for eternity! It's going to be great!

Lisa

2010-07-12T09:00:00.000-07:00

My cousin Lisa is coming home from her mission TOMORROW!!!! Ahh what an exciting time! We are going to party it up folks!

Funny Story

2010-07-06T21:24:00.000-07:00

Today I called the temple to reserve our day to get sealed. I called about a month ago, but the temple called back and said that the computer had kicked all of our information out! They told me to call back today and schedule everything and it shouldn't kick it out. So I called the temple and the lady that answered said that the day I wanted and that time were already reserved for someone. I was like, "Wow, that day must be popular already!" So we went through the other times that were available, and we decided on a different time, and as I was telling the lady our information, my mom said, "Hey, just ask her and see if you are already the one scheduled on that day." So I asked her, and lo and behold, I was the one that was scheduled on that day at that time! So stress is off, I have the day and time that I want! Wahoo!! I just thought that it was kinda funny. It's kinda puzzling though because the computer kicked all my information out, and then they had everything that they needed today when I called again. Oh well! I guess I'm supposed to get married at that time on that day! Also, I found a wedding dress I hope! I still have to try it on and make sure it fits and everything, but a nice girl in my mom's ward is going to let me borrow her dress! I am super excited!! And it is beautiful!! Hopefully it works!!

Dear June

2010-07-02T12:52:00.000-07:00

Dear June,

You flew by in a flash. During your time in 2010, you took my mom and wedding planner/consulant away to Girls Camp, Oklahoma for a weekend, and to Florida for a week. She was also called to be relief society president which is going to consume lots of her time and energy.

Also during your month, I took my CNA test, which took up lots and lots of hours studying and practicing skills, but now I'm a CNA so I guess that I will forgive you for that stress.

You also passed the 100 day mark until I get married to Chris, which puts us into the double digits of the countdown to plan everything and get everything done, but since my mom was gone for the majority of your month, I was unable to get very many things done. And now, it is July and school starts in one month and two weeks and I will have no more time to finish planning my wedding going to nursing school.

So now June, you have put me in a very stressful situation trying to plan my wedding to Chris. Hopefully everything goes good and will be put together well and not last minute.

Sincerely,
Andrea Ferrin

Wedding Preparations

2010-06-19T14:27:00.000-07:00

The other day my mom's friend Laurie came over and created these amazing covers for candy bars for the wedding. I think they turned out very very cute!

She also made these little dots to go on the bottom of Hershey's kisses.

I don't know which design I like better? Any suggestions? Please let me know!!!

Apricot Jam

2010-06-19T13:49:00.000-07:00

This one was a first for me. Chris's family was able to get a harvest of some apricots off of their tree, and since his dad has just had his surjury, he is not able to enjoy them, and he won't be home for a few more weeks so we decided to make some jam out of them. I don't like apricots, so I didn't have any, but Chris said it was good!! So here is how we did it!!

Chris and I first brought over the harvest. We had three bowls like this that were completely full. Not bad for a first time harvest on this tree!

Then we chopped up the apricots into little tiny pieces.

The recipe that we had called for 2 1/2 cups of apricots, and we doubled that because we had so many apricots still! Then we had to bring the apricots and one package of pectin to a rolling boil.

When it came to a boil, we added in 5 1/2 cups of sugar per batch (so really we added 11 cups of sugar) and stirred that in and brought it to another rolling boil and boiled it hard for 2 minutes. (Only do 1 minute if doing one batch at a time)

And then we filled our jars until about 1/4 inch from the top of the can. (and yes it gets a little messy!)

Then you wipe off the can and the top of it so that the seal will seal and not seal haha. That doesn't make any sense but you want to wash off the very tops of the jar and the rest of it is sticky and hot, that is why I am using a wet rag to hold onto the jar.

For doing jams/jellies, you don't have to pressure cook them, instead you steam them in a steamer, so we got our steamer out and got the water hot inside of it and filled it up with our jars.

This was after all of our jars were finished. We steamed them for about 25 minutes, just to make sure the seal would seal and then we pulled them out and Chris took a jar to his dad in Tucson while he is still recovering! Hopefully he thinks it is good! When we doubled the batch, we got 11 half pint jars filled. Also, when you do any kind of jam recipe, you want to follow it EXACTLY if is says only 2 1/2 cups of fruit, don't add any more than that!! It will mess up the jelling process to make the jam thick.

And this is what we did early one morning. It doesn't take very long at all and then you can have some different kinds of jam/jelly on your shelves for your food storage also!

I have a title.

2010-06-19T13:28:00.000-07:00

Attention everybody. Andrea Ferrin is no longer just regular Andrea Ferrin. Andrea Ferrin is now officially....

Andrea Ferrin, CNA

That's right. I passed my test yesterday!!! After all of the stress and worry and waiting for 4 stinkin' hours, it is official, or will be once I get my card in the mail!!! Yahoo!!! Nursing program here I come!!

Kim, this one's for you!!

2010-06-17T11:10:00.000-07:00

Okay my pictures aren't in order, but I did my best. The last picture is supposed to be first and until I can figure out how to get it there, its going to stay at the bottom for now!! So let's start there! First you start off with your million pounds of potatoes. Okay, not really, but thats about how many we had this time around so thats what we did.

Then you peel the skins off of the potatoes. (and yes, I wasn't very happy about doing this job!!)

Here I am, still peeling away the skins!

Then you wash the potatoe under water, it doesn't matter if its hot or cold, you just want to get any dirt off that got on the potatoe from the skin while peeling.

Then you cut off all the bad places on the potatoe.

These next two pictures are mixed up. First you want to dice them up and put them into a bowl of water so that the potatoes don't turn brown.

The potatoes chopped up on the cutting board. Be careful not to cut your finger!

Here is one box of potatoes that I had. We had a whole other box of potatoes we had to can as well!

Then you put your potatoes into your canning jars and put them in your pressure cooker. You pressure them at 15 pounds of pressure for 40 minutes, and it take about 60 more minutes before you can open the pressure cooker! So when you can potatoes, make sure you have nothing else going on during the day so that you can monitor your pressure cooker!!!

Engagement Photos

2010-06-17T10:37:00.000-07:00

These are my favorite engagement pictures in no specific order so far. They might change as I keep looking at them though!! let me know what you think!!!

Spring Break-Air Show

2010-06-12T15:32:00.000-07:00

Okay, I realize Spring Break was a long time ago, but I forgot to blog about that too, so here goes nothing! My cousin married a guy that is in the Air Force, and during Spring Break, there was an air show and they invited us to come and watch it, so we did because we have never been to one before. And it was really fun! We went with my aunts family also. I don't really have a whole bunch to say about it because I don't know what the plane names were or anything, but here are some pictures that maybe describes how it was!

Before the air show, we went and visited Chris's grandma. Chris actually had to miss the air show due to work rescheduling him to work that day. Yes we were both sad.

It was a fun day. By the end of the day, my sister and I looked like little crabs!! I think the next air show we go to, we will remember to wear sunscreen!

Button Button, who's got the Button?

2010-06-12T14:43:00.000-07:00

One Sunday after church, Chris noticed on his suit there was a broken button. So when we got back to my house, my mom has these really huge containers full of buttons, all kinds of colors, shapes, and sizes. So we decided to start looking for a button!!! We got the help of everybody and eventually found buttons that all matched and were the same size, and even matched the suit! Yay! Go us! As I was looking through the camera I found these pictures and thought that it was a fun day!! If you ever need a button, just let us know.

Canning Tomatoes

2010-06-12T14:30:00.000-07:00

This last week my mom went up to Girls Camp as a cook. And every year when the week is over, there is always a TON of leftover food. This year, there were lots of tomatoes and potatoes. But since I've already blogged about canning potatoes, today I'm going to talk about tomatoes. And it is a long process. But totally worth it, as is canning or preserving any food. So let's start with the pictures.

We started with two flats. The other one had a few more tomatoes than this one did.

Then you wash your tomatoes in the sink.

You get a pot with hot boiling water in it. And its best to wait until the water is boiling because then it doesn't take as long for the next step!

You put your tomatoes in the pot until they "blanch"

Blanching is when the skin starts to split. You don't want the skin on the tomatoes and it makes it easier to take the skin off when it is blanched.

After the tomatoes blanch, you put them into a different bowl that has ice cold water in it. It will cool down the toamtoe so that you can actually touch it and peel the skin off.

Here are the skins!

After the skin is off of the tomatoes, they are ready to start getting diced. You can actually can the tomatoes whole, in halfs, or diced, and since I don't even like tomatoes, I think that the diced ones are perfect so that when you use them, it is easier to blend them up in the blender to put in your food! :)

You get your cutting board, knife, and tomatoes ready.

You cut out the center where the tomatoes connects to the stem.

And then you chop them up! Tomatoes are really watery and you want to make sure that when you move your tomatoes into your next pot that you move the liquid over also.

Once you get about this many tomatoes on the board, they are ready to be put into the pot.

This is my mom's big huge soup pot that she has. When all of the tomatoes are cut and put into the pot, you put the pot on the stove and you boil the tomatoes for five minutes. I don't start the timer until the tomatoes are at a rolling boil. Then you can turn the fire down a little bit so you don't get tomatoe splatters all over the place.

You want to make sure that your jars are clean and you fill them up until there is about a 1/2 inch of space left at the top. (Being the slacker I am, I forgot to get a picture of pouring it in. But I think you understand) Then you put them in your pressure cooker for 30 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure. And then you have lovely tomatoes on your shelf for your food storage.

Talent

2010-06-06T20:30:00.000-07:00

I don't know how many people have sisters out there who are as talented as mine. Since my sister has started driving, she has managed to put the car through the water shed, sink it into the field when they were irrigating and make the car go over cement blocking thing in a parking lot in tucson. Luckily, she was with her bf and some big strong friends that could lift her car over it with only their bare hands! Also her car isn't very heavy. I'm proud to say, I have a very talented sister whom I love very much!

Happy Birthdays!!!

2010-05-31T22:03:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-31T21:52:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-31T21:43:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-31T21:36:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-31T21:28:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-29T09:55:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-23T20:05:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-23T14:13:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-22T17:25:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-19T16:22:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-16T23:22:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-15T20:26:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-15T12:25:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-12T14:15:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-10T10:03:00.000-07:00

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?!

2010-05-09T23:21:00.000-07:00

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...?

2010-05-09T12:35:00.000-07:00

Can you keep a secret?

...

So can I!

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

Is school over yet?

2010-05-07T10:57:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-05T01:11:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-05-03T15:20:00.000-07:00

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!)

Graduation.

2010-04-29T22:37:00.000-07:00

I must be in a blogging mood today. I don't know what is going on! Today I received a letter in the mail from the college saying that I have enough credits to graduate with an associates degree in General Education. Not the degree that I want, but hey it's a degree right? Maybe someplace that I work for in the future will recognize that I went to school for two years and worked hard for that degree and maybe pay me a little bit more because of it!!!! Now I'm just waiting to hear about Nursing School. If I don't get accepted at EAC for August term, I'm probably going to take a semester off and catch my breath and work to earn some money. Who knows what the next four to five months hold for me. Hopefully something exciting though!

Cousin's visit at Grandma's House!

2010-04-29T18:14:00.000-07:00

Okay. These are me and my cousins that came to visit from Oklahoma! My favorite little cousin is my cousin Alannah and she was nutso when she was here!! I couldn't believe how crazy she was! I have an awesome video of her new names of me and Kandis, but I don't know how to upload a video since I changed my settings and updated it but whenever I figure out how to do that, I will upload it. But she changed both of our names to "Andis." Pretty much our names were too similar for her! But she is still cute! Also, my cousin Emilie is so much taller than me! I just can't believe it! I still give her all my hand me downs though and the shirt that she is wearing is a shirt that I gave her. Their visit was way too short and I didn't get to see them as long as I wanted too, but hopefully they come back soon!

Update for Those who Care

2010-04-29T13:23:00.001-07:00

Which is probably actually everybody that reads this blog. I know I'm not very interesting and my life is pretty boring, but I do some fun things every now and then. I've been getting lots of comments from people that I see, on facebook, and now in blog comments! My mom has been asked a million katrillion times the same question also so I'm going to clear up any confusion right now. Chris and I still are NOT engaged. I know it's been forever since he's been home/we've been dating for four years...blah blah blah. What's the holdup? School is stinkin expensive. That's all really. He keeps telling me that it should be soon that we will be engaged and we want to be married hopefully by the end of the year. We will see how that goes though. Maybe by the end of May we will be engaged. We don't know when we will get married, but it will happen! Just keep being patient! I had to wait for two years before he got home, and now I'm still waiting to be with him forever. When we went to the temple, we were talking afterwards and both mine and his favorite room was the sealing room. I think we were both imaging what it is going to be like when we actually get married. It's still kinda weird for me to think about getting married. Am I already that old?! Am I ready? I hope so because it's probably coming up pretty soon! Anyway, for now just keep checking back! I promise to keep everyone updated and hopefully everyone will know before I even post about it! Keep watching for a fun post of me and my cousins having a good day chillin at my grandma's house!

School is almost done!

2010-04-28T11:54:00.000-07:00

So last year, I had this great friend named Tanner Gilliland (I guess he is still my friend, he is just on his mission right now) who diagnosed what is called Jenkins and all college students get it about one month before school gets out. I decided that I have the Jenkins really bad!!! I can't wait for school to be out! I have not liked this semester at all. The only good thing is I'm going to be getting an associates degree, not in what I want, but a degree nonetheless. And then I will have two months to take a breath and recharge for the crazy semester I will have next semester if I get accepted into the nursing program. That's all for now!

Another Nursing Program Post..

2010-04-28T11:34:00.001-07:00

So today I talked to one of my fellow nursing application student friends and I asked her if she knew when we were supposed to hear about being accepted into the program or not. Here is our conversation...

Her: I went and talked to Carollea (who is the scary nursing department secretary...she knows all!) and she said that she gave the list to be approved by the board members TEN days ago and she hasn't heard anything yet.

Me: TEN DAYS AGO!!!! I feel like I have been waiting forever to hear!

Her: Well, what are your points like? (points are one of the most important things to get into the nursing program. Points are the accumulation of all of our grades from our pre/co reqs that we have had to take. Point score is VERY VERY important!! Along with having everything else done too...)

Me: I have a point score of 23 points.

Her: You have nothing to worry about. You're going to get in.

Me: Ya, well I wish they would let us know so I could sign up for classes next semester. I'm only signed up for .5 of a credit! I don't even have to pay the college next semester if i don't get in!!!

Her: Well, hopefully we hear by the middle of next week.

Me: I really hope so!

That was the end of our conversation. So the deans are looking at the "approved" list of what Carollea (the scary secretary) decided and put together based on point scores and everything else. So keep your fingers crossed that I get in.

Oh and also, last night, I was sitting in my Pharmacology class and there is this cop that is in there that ALWAYS pulls me over (he is the only cop that has pulled me over. Luckily we are pretty good friends so he just lets me off with warnings cause I wasn't speeding that bad. Then we talk on the side of the road for a half an hour...different story for another time) and he said he went and talked to Carollea on Monday and she said the same thing. That once the board gets the names back to her than she can let everybody know if they got in or not. So basically the twiddling of thumbs continues for another week or so until I find out. I really hope i get in!

My thoughts...

2010-04-27T09:08:00.000-07:00

Tonight I get to go to the Gila Valley Temple open house. It's going to be great and I'm super excited. When I was serving cookies on Saturday, everyone that I talked to said that it was so beautiful and amazing. I can't wait to go inside and see everything! Oh and I also can't wait to hear if i got in the nursing program or not. They said that I would hear by the end of April or the beginning of May, and it's the end of April, so I'm hoping I will hear sooner rather than later. It's wearing on my patience waiting to hear!!! That's what has been going on with me!

Gila Valley Temple

2010-04-22T14:47:00.001-07:00

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/public-to-tour-the-gila-valley-arizona-temple

Go to this website NOW!!! Check out how beautiful the temple is. There are 19 pictures of the inside and the outside. And if you have a chance to, go to the open house. It's free. The tours are every Monday from 9-5 and Tuesday through Saturday from 9am-9pm. And you even get cookies after the tour is over! Come and look at this beautiful building and learn more about it. If you want someone to go with, give me a call, or shoot me an email or something and I will find time to go with you! You will not regret this!!

The sealing room.

One of the ordinance rooms.

Now go to the website to view more beautiful photos!

Kittens...

2010-04-20T13:21:00.001-07:00

Today I woke up to my mom telling me, Andie you need to come up here. I was like, uh okay that is kind of strange so I went upstairs and I went outside and I could hear my dad up in the roof moving around saying "here kitty kitty..." And my mom said, "Momma kitty had her babies!" And so I climbed up the ladder and I got momma kitty out of the roof and gave her to my mom on the floor and I asked my dad how many kittens there were. My sister swore up and down that there were only going to be 4 kittens...and he said "Well, I can find only 5 so I hope that is how many there are..." WHAT THE?!?!?! That was a ton of kittens! Then when we got the kittens in a box and momma kitten in there, my mom said, "I think she has at least one more baby in there." I said, No way, she already has 5 of them she can't have another one. Well, low and behold, I got to see the 6th one born! It was pretty exciting stuff. So now we have 2 adults cats and 6 baby kittens. My house is going to be known as the house at the end of the road with the old lady with a million cats! Fun times. Pics to come soon!

Nursing Program.

2010-04-19T18:50:00.000-07:00

I'm still waiting to hear if I got into the nursing program. Hopefully I will find out within the next week or two. Keep me in your prayers! I want to be accepted and get over as soon as I can. It's going to be great fun! I will keep everyone posted.

Random Happenings at work

2010-04-15T09:12:00.000-07:00

So I have some funny stories from work. The other day I was helping a patient and I answered the phone and I couldn't hear the guy very well at all. I was straining to hear, and I finally asked him, "I'm sorry, I can't hear you. I either need to move to a quieter place or I need you to speak up. I'm sorry." He said, "That's okay. I will speak up." Me: Thank you. Guy on phone: Can you hear me now? Me: Yes that is a lot better! Guy on phone: It's kinda like the verizon guy, actually I kinda look like the verizon guy. Me: (short-kinda long pause) Well that's pretty awesome! And then we finished our conversation like it was nothing. It was pretty dang funny though. I've never talked to a guy that looks like the verizon guy. It was a pretty happening day!

Me and Chris

2010-04-05T21:25:00.000-07:00

These are some pictures that we decided to go and take the other day. No they are not engagement pictures. Trust me, you will know whenever we get engaged. They were just some fun pictures we wanted to go and take while there were still poppies.

Canning Hamburger

2010-04-02T21:42:00.001-07:00

So today for the first time, I canned hamburger. I have watched my mom can hamburger lots and lots of times but today was the first time I did my very own batch. It was pretty exciting. I cooked the hamburger all the way and then I stuffed it into the jars and put the lids on and pressure it at 10 lbs of pressure for 55 minutes and then I pulled it out and now it is ready to use! It's pretty amazing if you ask me. Now I have 10 jars of hamburger to put into my year supply! Yay! Go me!

Gila Valley Temple!!!!!!!

2010-04-02T21:36:00.000-07:00

Our beautiful valley has a TEMPLE!!!! It is so exciting to me watching this beautiful building go up. If anyone would like to attend the open house it starts on April 23, 2010 and it will continue until May 22. There will be tours starting every 15 minutes monday-saturday, but tours will end by 5 on Mondays for family home evening! Please go and see this building! It is beautiful on the outside and i can't wait to see what is looks like on the inside!!

Hello again. Have you missed me?!

2010-04-02T19:14:00.000-07:00

Well, this past month has been pretty busy. I haven't posted in a long time, and I'm sorry! The last "major" thing I posted about was applying to the nursing program....no I still haven't heard anything. Also, for those of you who are wondering, Chris and I are STILL not engaged. Trust me, when we are, people will know. And for those weird rumors going around town that we broke up BECAUSE his grandpa died....false. So don't believe anything unless you hear it from either me or Chris, because otherwise, it probably is not true. And if you have any questions...just come and talk to me, I'm not embarrassed about anything, and I will answer your questions! But for now, still not engaged.

Let's see. For spring break, my family and I went to Carlsbad New Mexico and it was pretty neat! If you ever have a chance to go, it is worth seeing because it is so amazing. We also went to White Sands on our way home. After I got back from New Mexico, Chris and I went to his grandma's house in Tucson to help her do some yard work and to plant a garden. They look great. We built her a square foot garden and it turned out awesome! Also during Spring Break I bought the movie "The Princess and the Frog," mostly because I love frogs more than anything, and I love princesses second most! ;) I'm really glad i bought it! I think it is a great movie and i laughed through almost the wholel thing. And the music was something new and unexpected in a disney movie also! Also during Spring break, we went to the air show in tucson and it was awesome!!! I got super super super sunburned though, but now it is a good farmers tan! ;) It was a really fun day!

After Spring Break, I went back to school. I have also been cleaning out the trailer that I was living in last semester and getting it ready because that is where Chris and I will live someday if he ever decides to get a ring...but we will wait and see about that. I finally got it all clean today! And I only cut one finger, and that was on accident. But now it is all clean and I can start going through the dishes that are in my closet down in my bedroom right now that are for when I get married and move out for good! That is going to be a great feeling because then I can put other stuff in my closet, like MY CLOTHES!!!

Another thing I have been working on is trying to get a 3 month supply of food for when after Chris and I get married. So far I have 12 cans of green beans, corn and peas, 24 quarts of pinto beans canned already, a ton of pomegranate jelly, and right now I am listening to the pressure cooker pressuring my hamburger! I also have 12 cans of cream of chicken soup and cream of mushroom soup. It's not a lot of food but it's enough for a start I think. I'm going to order some wheat and oatmeal this month and get it stored so that way we have some grains too. It's pretty exciting.

So that's what has been going on in my life lately. I will add pictures later because it's getting late and I'm tired!!

Christmastime

2010-03-11T12:22:00.000-08:00

Okay so this post is a little late, but I was cleaning out some pictures on my phone and I found these that I had forgotten about and decided they were still blog-worthy so I'm going to post them and hopefully you get a laugh out of them. We were at our ward Christmas dinner and during the Christmas message, my dad got a little bored, and this is what he decided to do. (PS The pictures aren't so hot because they were with my phone but oh well)

He got the butter and the butter knife and started scraping and molding the butter into a car.

Then he added on the wheels, windshield, and rearview mirrors.

Then he added the number 53 and made Herbie the Love Bug!!

This is me and my favorite little cousin Belle!!!

Needless to say, this was probably the best ward Christmas dinner I have been too. We have never had as much fun as we did that night! And then we moved the car next to a different family so we didn't look like we were guilty.

Why I love Chris Carrell

2010-03-09T22:11:00.000-08:00

He's my best friend.

He NEVER can take a serious photo!

He's super smart.

He holds my hand.

He calls me honeybunch.

He takes me to Monster Trucks.

He loves me even when I'm not perfect.

And he makes this great face in pictures...

The end.

Nursing Program

2010-03-02T09:54:00.000-08:00

Last week I turned in my nursing application for nursing school. I'm glad I turned it in a little bit early because this last week has been crazy! (I will post about that later) Anyway, I had to turn in some other papers besides just the nursing application that I didn't know about so I had to keep going back to the nursing office at EA and talk to the secretary there. Anyway, this past week Chris's grandfather passed away (which is why my week has been so crazy with the funeral and viewings and everything) and one of Chris's relatives is an instuctor for the nursing program at EA. I'm good friends with her and when I went to go and see the school councelor about all the paperwork for applying, she added up my "points" (which is the letter grades for all my classes I have taken) and I have a point score of 23 points. The school councelor told me that they have accepted students with point scores as low as 14. The councelor also told me she would be way surprised if I did not get accepted in the program. So I left feeling pretty confident, then when I turned in my application, I realized how many people were applying and then I started feeling pretty nervous about it. At the luncheon after the funeral, I was talking to Chris's relative and I asked her about my point score, and when she heard what it was she said, "Just go and buy your books. I'll be your teacher next semester." And I said, "Really?" And she said, "I have no doubt that you will be accepted in. If you aren't I will be super surprised." So that made me feel a ton better about applying. So now is just for the time of sitting and waiting for a month and a half before I can hear if I am accepted into the program. I'm excited though because if I get in here at this program, then I won't have to leave Chris! These are some pictures that we took after the viewing on Sunday. He wanted to get a picture of us all dressed up. (And no, Kim/Collette, they are not engagement pictures yet) ;)

Paper

2010-02-26T17:59:00.000-08:00

Right now I am sitting at the computer thinking about doing my public speaking paper that is due on Monday but I just really don't want to work on it. 1000 words doesn't seem like much until you have to sit and make an informative speech that long. Oh well, maybe I will do it tonight, or tomorrow, or Sunday night, or early Monday morning and it will get done. Mostly I just want Chris to get off work so that way we can go and do something! Maybe that is why I'm procrasinating. Oh well, it will get done and will be good. I'm just super excited that I have my nursing application turned in!!! Now I just have to wait until probably either the end of April or the beginning of March to here what I need to do before school starts in August, which will be another super long list of things to accomplish. Just keep a prayer in for me that I will get accepted and I can start moving forward in my education!

Snow Day

2010-02-14T17:05:00.000-08:00

All winter long I have really wanted to go and play in the snow and last Thursday Chris asked me on a date to go up to the mountains on Saturday to play in the snow! I was so excited! We invited Erica and Jake to come too and we ended up with three little girls that wanted to go also. We made a snow man family and our snowpeople turned out huge!!! It was a blast making them! When we first got there, we had a picnic, which was ham and cheese sandwiches with some chips. Then we made the snowman and about halfway through making the snowmen, another group of people showed up that had sleds and they let us use one for a little while. I got videos but I will have to post them another day cause I'm super tired right now. Anyway one of the little girls got hurt on one of the runs, so we decided it was probably time to go. We played in the snow for about two hours but the time went by so fast! And yes, I'm not even wearing a jacket. We found a spot where it was too hot with a jacket and only too cold without one when a snowball fight broke out. Here are some of our pictures from our crazy day in the snow!