Merry Holidays

Happy Christmas all and to all a good day!

It's me Jessica here reporting from Battle Ground, Washington. As of late I have been busy with working and school and soaking in all the family time around the Holidays that I've missed for the past four years of my life.

Work is good. I'm getting a lot of reading done. It's also been a great excuse to just sit down and get my homework done. Some might think it's the most boring job in the world but you know I quite love it. Yes, it may get slow with no one walking in for a couple of hours (mostly when it is down pouring outside) but it gives me some me time. And I never had time for a job at school (or a car for that matter) so I love feeling responsible and finally making some money of my own. I loved this Christmas that I could use my hard-earned money to spend on my family.

As for a school update I'm sure my dad has kept people posted but just in case you didn't know here's the deal on my graduating. Everything was all set up for me to graduate actually this weekend. But at the beginning of my semester I found out that my science class I was taking online was actually a nursing major anatomy class. Short story I was as close to a melt-down as possible and we sorted it out that I would drop the class and just take a couple next semester. (I needed 4 credits, but am now signed up for two 2 credit classes). But I was still going to walk in December, just not officially graduate until April. Well as time got closer, something about it just didn't feel right. There was the weather problem that we were trying to figure out, that if it snowed or the roads were icy we wouldn't be able to get down there and I would miss out. I talked to my friend who was in a predicament like my own and she said she had just moved her date to April. Well I thought about it and the more I thought about it the more right it felt.

So.............. I told my parents I was going to switch the date and boy you should've seen the look of relief on my mom's face. Usually our semester gets over with near the 13th or 14th but our semesters have been getting out later. It just felt like my graduation was getting crammed into the middle of all the holiday chaos and it was causing more stress than happiness. And now that it will be in April it will be more of a joyous occasion and Megan and Rusty have even mentioned coming out.
So there you go, I will be officially graduated in April.

Also, I am officially 22. Thanks to my mom and some visitors my birthday wasn't as ho-hum as I was anticipating. I think more of celebrating me turning a year older it's more seeing how much I am loved. We actually talked about it and I hadn't been home for a birthday since my senior year of high school. So it was pretty great that I got to be around family for it.

Happy holidays! I'm going to try and get more regular at blogging so wish me luck.
Oh and Utah, would you please send us some snow? This monsoon is getting old.

Day Four: Last Day

Day Three: Tea Gardens, Museum and Free Time

pictures just for now:

Day Two: SAN FRAN (aka museum day)

Just pictures for now...

Day One: RENO

So the adventures began like this: after lunch with my momma outside of the airport, got dropped off (felt kind of adult about that) got checked in no prob, got on a plane with a lot of old people and "girlfriends" ready to de-stress themselves. Sat front row on a plane next to a real life cowgirl (more of a cow-lady) and drank my Dr. Pepper while looking out at the pretty clouds and landscape wandering what it'd be like to rule over the little specks I was observing. Got off the plane and ignored all the slot machines calling my name (there were a ton). Successfully got my luggage delivered to me and then got nervous because from then until I met up with my group was when I was feeling most anxious. I didn't exactly know how I was going to get to the hotel but a taxi seemed the best option. Google Maps told me it was only 5 minutes away so I was pretty okay. Went outside and saw some taxis had a guy just take my luggage and put it in his van and he seemed to know where I going so I felt okay. Got to my hotel safely and called my professor who let me know the group was already there. On my way to the room I ran into another of the professor chaperones who asked if I was part of the group. I told her I was and then was informed that we were leaving in like 2 minutes to go to the first museum. Talk about good timing!!
First Museum: Reno Art Museum
Some highlights included:

• my very first seeing of a Picasso in real life. It was one of his instrument abstracts, nothing too famous but I have to say it was a pretty neat experience


• Punk Rock album covers
  
• Portraits of Vietnamese done on leaves


• Abstract Lichtensteins (our school owns a couple that I had to stare at for a whole semester)


• Series of art done by doing mathematical equations to create the image (way too smart for me)

We've definitely lucked out on weather. It's been as warm as I would hope that California/Reno would be (especially after leaving rainy freezing Washington). After the museum we went to the Silver Legacy Casino for a buffet dinner.

It was the first time I had been in a casino and it looked, felt and smelled exactly how I could image it to be. Cody told me that I would fall in love with casino buffets and I'll have to admit that they're not too shabby. Started out with some prime rib and ended with a delectable chocolate mousse pie (and crammed a lot of food in between). All the girls are super nice. I share a room with three other girls and we all get a long quite swimmingly. It's everything I could've imagine and more and I just wish that it could last forever!!

Remember Me?

Heyyyyy... yeah..... so.... I haven't really been the best at keeping up my blog.
I could come up with a billion excuses as to why I just haven't simply come on and just written at least a paragraph about what's happening to me. But better later than never at all.
So HERE I AM :) I'm back!!

Since the reunion (yeah, it's been that long since I've updated you) I have started my last semester online. Turns out going to school is way easier than trying to do some classes online when living at home. At least in Rexburg I was completely giving myself to education. It was my motivation for waking up everyday. But being at home there are so many more distractions and I just feel torn between doing 20 different things, one of those not being homework. But having these classes has kept me connected to Rexburg, which I miss dearly, and I'm learning some amazing things so it's really not that bad.

I have since got a part time job, thanks to a connection at church that saw my application and had it pulled. There's a new side of town called BG Village that their trying to make into a nicer part of town. It's much more trendy and chique. It work at a clothing store called BG Bop Shop (I hate the name) but it's the perfect job that I really needed.


There's not that much traffic but enough and on my shift I'm the only one at the store. So that gives me time to do homework etc. It is the epitome of a chill job. There was a lady that owned it before and pretty much should never have tried running a clothing store so the management that is there now is trying to save it and make it into something good.


They have a lot of cute clothes and purses but there's a lot of crap there too. Apparently the lady who owned it before would get these bundles of clothing (all new, most with tags still on) and she was promised so many high end nice things but then she also got all the rest of the crap that they threw in for a certain amount of money. Well she didn't really have an editing eye so we have a continuing sale to try and get rid of all the crap. But I love it. The worst part is having to listen to the radio all day. I kind of hate popular radio music. 80% of the time they are waaaay inappropriate songs and 90% of the time they are just dumb. My goal in my job is to avoid Katy Perry songs at all costs.

Now for the exciting news. For the next five days I will be on the great adventure that is my Travel Art class!! We could choose to do an internship to graduate or this travel class they offer. There's one that goes to New York (usually for graphic designers), one to SLC (usually for poor college students) and one to San Francisco (for fine arts/general). So I'm going to San Fran! I'm leaving today for Reno where we'll make a pit stop and tomorrow morning make our way to San Francisco. So now for the next five days you will get updates on all of the awesome culture I get to experience. We have placed like the SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), the Japanese Tea Gardens and so much more on our agenda. I'm really excited to show pictures and tell about the neat things I get to go see.
So you'll be hearing from me soon, pray that we're kept safe and wish me fun! :)

ILV2KYK

After graduation Cody has since found a job working at a Dick Hannah used car lot in Vancouver. He loves it because he finally gets to do what he's been studying all these years and preparing to do. He's been really blessed just being able to get the job so fast and being so close to home. But now me best friendless with Cody working until 7 or 8 everyday except for a 2-day 'weekend' (the schedule rotates so his weekend lands on just two days in a row). I've tried not to go crazy with boredom and procrastination of the things I know I need to get to and trying to find a job myself. Change always takes just a little time to get adjusted to like always so it will be good soon.

This last week Cody's 'weekend' landed on Thursday and Friday and now that we only have 2 days to play we are trying to really take advantage of these days. Soooo this last Thursday we went kayaking!! Cody's family own four kayaks and couldn't come up with a reason why we hadn't gone out on them before. The day started out overcast and a bit drizzly but luckily half way through the day the sun finally showed up.

It was a perfect day. We drove up to Lake Merwin which is about 30 minutes past Cody's house up in the mountains. I've never been (which again don't know why I hadn't). It is a gorgeous open lake with a narrower part that leads off to the right and to some small waterfalls. I kept thinking I was going to tip but after about 15 minutes you get the hang of it and it's quite enjoyable.

i may look calm and collected on the surface but i was kiiiinda freaking out

Sometimes we go fast but mostly would leisurely take in all the Northwest beauty. Living in Idaho for a year really makes me appreciate all of the green everywhere. I feel really blessed to live in a such a gorgeous area.

water falling down a rock that we swam up to

my three loves

When we got closer to the falls we found ourselves in this super calm part of the lake so I thought it would make for some cool pictures. When I was getting my camera back from Cody I heard this wooshing noise, looked up and no more than 15 feet away from us flew a bald eagle and landed on a tree. It was one of the more magical parts of the adventure. We just sat for about 10 minutes looking up at him.

To get to the falls we had to park our kayaks (because you literally couldn't go any further due to some major boulders blocking the way. We chose this spot as our lunch location and then headed up to the falls.

after many attempts of me running back and forth from this rock to the camera (two rocks away) to take this picture, this was the winner.

I can foresee a lot of kayak adventures in our future because I simply had a blast. And once Megan and Rusty can steal away from little Olive we hope they would accompany us for a group kayak adventure.

Ah Crepe

Every year we look forward to the time when all of our blackberries are ready to eat. Megan and I got inspired and decided to make some crepes to eat with the berries.

this would be the second batch of batter I made due to me accidentally dropping the little glass bowl full of melted butter into the kitchen aid mixer. I now know that kitchen aid mixers shatter little glass bowls.

Megan came up with the brilliant idea to heat up the blackberries with some sugar to make a yummy berry sauce


all of the yummy ingredients


Google helped us by finding some neat ways of folding your crepe and we thought we'd give them a try