Graduated!

Well, on Saturday I graduated from Utah State with my degree in Psychology! Unfortunately, I woke up incredibly sick that morning and was worried that I wouldn't be able to make it to the ceremony, but I decided to tough it out and just go. How often does one get a bachelor's degree? So my plans for life now are to just work and start applying for graduate school this year. I want to get into the school psychology program and then we'll see where I go from there. Now we're going to work on getting Jared graduated asap!Savannah giving me a big hug after the ceremony!

I'm graduated!

~Mod Podge Blocks~

Here are the instructions and steps I followed to make the mod podge blocks that I did for my familia and friends. I put up a couple of pictures so that you can kind of see what I did, but it's all really easy. You can make things up as you go, use different materials, types of paper and pictures, etc.

1. Get the blocks that you are going to use. I worked with two different sizes and they both worked really well. I did like the 3 x 3.5 inch blocks a little bit better than the perfect cubes. It made it easier to have more space for the pictures on the size. This is just a preference though. The ones I used were sanded and had the edges rounded off.

2. I painted all the edges of the blocks the color that I wanted the base to be. Let dry.

3. Not all of the blocks I used were exactly the same size so I made sure that I measured each block then the pictures and papers that I was going to use to those measurements. I just used different scrapbook papers. I found that the thicker kind worked a little bit better and were less prone to wrinkling, but the other kind works as well.

4. Put a layer of mod podge on the block and lay the paper/picture on it. I rubbed them down thoroughly to make sure that there weren't going to be any bubbles underneath. Make sure that you don't go super crazy with the mod podge because you don't want the pictures or papers to wrinkle.

Here you can see the painted edges, an example of a paper, and picture.

5. Once you've done this for all of the sides, make sure that everything has had a chance to dry. Put a final layer of mod podge on the top of the pictures and paper. I used the matte pod podge for the bottom layers and the paper, but used the glossy mod podge for the top of the pictures. It doesn't really matter what you use, I'm just very particular about what my stuff looks like. Both matte and glossy look good for everything.

6. For the letters I just bought some of the foamy 3-D letters to put on, but I imagine you more crafty people can think of more creative ways of doing letters or whatever you're doing with them.

This is one of the blocks for my sister in law and her family. I cut out the stars from the same paper that I used on top.

7. You can add whatever you like to them. Some people's I used stickers, some I cut out thick, glittery paper for stars and flowers, and others I used little, fake flowers.

This is the one I made for my family.

This was a really fun project for me. I'm not a particularly crafty person although I would like to be. It took a little more time than I anticipated, but then again I did end up doing about 52 blocks in a couple week period. But they're really easy and really cute. (If I do say so myself.)

~Tis the Season~

On December 12 another one of my very best friends Mandy got married to Dan Gordon who is also one of my very good friends. I love weddings and theirs turned out beautifully. The weather was so dreadful that day but the bride was beautiful and the reception was beautiful and it was all just a ton of fun.



This year we spent Christmas Eve with Jared's parents in Richmond where everyone got a chance to speak to his brother Brett who's in Fiji on his mission. He'll actually be coming home on January 7th and everyone is very excited to have him home. I'm excited to have the chance to get to know him, since I only got to meet him twice before he left on his mission. We each got to open one present from Jared's parents, we watched most of 'Up' (which is such a good movie), then went home where we stayed up until 6:30 Christmas morning while I finished everyone's homemade Christmas presents I made this year.

Jared being the donkey for Mary and . . . the other Mary.

I had been working on these mod podge blocks for weeks, but somehow got behind while in school and going to work still. Rachelle's husband Shane helped me out by cutting and sanding around 30 of the blocks that I used. What I did was get enough blocks that I could have one for each letter of each family's last name. In the end I had 52 blocks total that I made. I don't think I really realized how big a project I was undertaking but it was totally worth it. I will post instructions that I used for them later.

Christmas time really is my most favorite time of the year. I just love having a break to be able to spend time with my family and most importantly with Jared. The presents are pretty fun too. I love that both of our families live here in the valley and it's so easy to get together with everybody. Santa was very good to us this year.

Christmas Morning!! (On a lengthy 3 hours of sleep.)

For New Year's we spent most of the day at my parent's house. My dad was out of town which sucked, but we did get to play with everyone else. We spent many hours watching sports and America's Funniest Videos. In fact, over the whole break I think I watched more athletic events then I have ever watched in my life. They're pretty fun though so I enjoy them. We went home about 1 am from my parent's house and stayed up until about 6 am watching Grey's Anatomy. How many husbands would spend hours upon hours watching such a silly yet entertaining show with their silly little wives? I guess it's only fair though. I watch hours upon hours watching sports too. Ha ha!

One of the days Jared and I got to go to Salt Lake to see all of the lights on Temple Square with two of our best friends Shane and Rachelle. This is one of my most favorite traditions even though I know it's something that pretty much everyone else in Utah does. I was really worried that we weren't going to make it this year, but luckily we got it to work and we had a blast. It was prety cold and pretty snowy, but so beautiful. We ate dinner at Applebee's and spent the whole way home talking their ears off. Jared and I can't seem to control ourselves sometimes. I am so grateful for such good friends though.

Jared and I posing like models by the temple.

Anyway. It's been such a great break. Thankfully I'll be graduating this Spring and I can have a tiny break of just working before I get into grad school (which hopefully really does happen). We actually have tons of plans for the year 2010 . . . but that's another blog for another day!

Happy New Year!

Worst Semester Ever, but . . .

The semester is finally almost over and I am pretty sure that after that one . . . I can do anything. Jared has pretty much been the best husband ever in helping me out so much with everything for the past couple months. Not only by making dinner every night, doing dishes twice a week, and always taking out the garbage, but having so much patience with me! Waking up at 5 every morning to get to work is pretty much the worst thing ever for someone who is a through and through night owl is the worst!Going to work, then class, then work again until 6:15 makes for really really long days.

Good things that happened this semester: Being spoiled by Jared every day. One more semester down! One more and I'll graduate!! Yay! Hockey season! We have made it to every home game so far. And so far we haven't lost at home. Hockey is the best. Jim Gaffigan! Oh Jim. We love you (and bacon). Football season. Hmmm. Let's just say Jared loves that more than me. And more recently, New Moon. We went to see it on a double date and got to sit by some screaming old ladies rather than screaming 13 year olds. Funny and weird all at the same time. We decided it's not that great. About the same as the first Twilight movie. Eh.

Nothing really exciting but that's the last couple months in a nutshell.

Summer's End

I always feel as though I never truly appreciate my summers. Because by the time we start doing some stuff and really getting into it, it's over and school's started all over again. We started out the summer with one of my very best friends in the world getting married in the Logan temple. They looked so incredibly happy and are doing so great!



In June, Jared and I celebrated our one year anniversary (yay!) by spending the weekend in Salt Lake. We stayed in a suite which was pretty nice. It was big and . . . we'll probably never go there again. It really wasn"t all that great. Ha ha! We spent a good majority of our time at the Clark Planetarium watching movies in 3-D in their I-MAX. It was awesome! I'd have to say my favorite was the ocean one. We also watched a couple of movies in the dome and I'll admit I dozed off once or twice. It rained cats and dogs the whole time we were there which was pretty disappointing. All that mattered though was that I was with Jared; my most favorite thing ever.



We also went to the aquarium in Sandy which I absolutely loved!! I love anything that has to do anything with the oceans, water in general, etc. I was like a little kid (shoving the real little kids out of the way, pushing pregnant women so I could get a better picture, and screaming when Jared forced me to touch the sample of an electric eel's shock.



We went to the Larsen family reunion and even though we only got to stay for two of the nights, we always have a lot of fun together. I made Jared go canoeing with me (which was my first time ever) and I loved it. It was just nice to get away from work and real life to be able to just relax and spend time with the family.



All in all it was a really good summer. On to school.