Jeff and Kathleen

Well, I have been asked how Jeff, Kathleen, Liam, and Collin are doing since the earthquake in China since they are living in Shanghai. I'm sure you have all heard about the earthquake. It measured 7.8 on the Richter scale, the most severe earthquake in over 25 years. It struck the whole Sichuan area of China-that's big!! Map of China. It hit on May 12th. Just a few details and numbers reported on May 14th:

• Tens of thousands are still missing.
• More than 25,000 people are still buried in the rubble.
• Major phone lines and roads are cut off.
• Millions of homes have been destroyed leaving residents, of whom are still alive, with severe shortage of water, shelter, food, and fuel.
• Thousands of people are still trapped under the rubble and rescuers are using their bare hands to search for survivors.
• Rescue efforts are hampered by rains and road blocks due to fallen boulders and landslides.
• A middle school in Qingchuan County collapsed and many students have been reported dead while close to 1,000 students are still reported buried.
• Death toll tops 70,000.

Also, just a few things about China, they have no architectural laws. You can build anything however you want, as tall as you want, and as unstable as you want. There was tons of flooding caused by the earthquake. So not only was there buildings falling, streets crumbling, but there was major flooding. A earthquake is a very scary thing to be in.
Kathleen said that she could see the tall buildings swaying from her apartment. It was very scary. Liam said that when he dies he doesn't want to live with Jesus, he wants to live with his mom. So cute, but sad to think that death crossed the mind of such a young boy. They are doing fine but still recovering from the scare.
Jeff was traveling when it happened. He was on, I believe it was the 17th floor of a like a 68 story building. It started to move and pictures were flying off the walls and everything going all over the place. He ran down the 17 flights of stairs (running during an earthquake is very very difficult and dangerous because you never know where the ground is going to be once your ready to put another foot down, and many people break legs and bones while trying to run during one) and got to a safe place. He is fine as well and made it back home to his family.
All of China is in mourning and many shops and schools are closed. It will take a while for China and it's people to get back on their feet. Keep them in your prayers. Thank you all for your concern!!

Redken Course

I am so stoked!!! I get to go to a Redken certification course!!! It is a four day thing-2 days this month and 2 days next month!! This month they are going to go over Redken cutting and tools! Next month they are doing color classes!! It is a hands on course and there are only 20 spaces and I get to go!! The school I work for is paying for it- it's quite expensive- they are so great at helping us continue our education!!! I am just so stinking excited!!!! I will be that much closer to being able to be a Redken educator!! That is my plan if I don't have kids soon!!! I am so excited!!! I can't wait!!

Random

So it's just been a while since I've posted anything so I thought I'd just put a few things on that are new until I get more picts taken! So...we love our house!! We love that it is ours and that we can do whatever we want to it!! I love walking through it and looking at everything knowing that it is all ours!!
So, I worked last Saturday and I came home to a freshly cut, weed free yard!!! Mike worked so hard and got it looking great!! While he was working in the yard our neighbor came over and told Mike that our sprinklers are getting her sand box wet... we have a fence so I thought "wow!! that is some good pressure to get the water clear over the fence!!!" So today I turned the sprinklers on. Before we moved in we were told that there was a drip system in the garden areas (close to the sand box). But there isn't, there is just a pipe that comes out of the ground that we can hook a drip system onto. This pipe doesn't have a cap on it, so when I turned the sprinklers on there was a fountain of water coming out!!! I flooded our garden area and the neighbors sand box...oops!!! We'll have to get a cap on that!!!!
I worked in the yard today (and got way sunburned) because their is a very large area for planting bushes and flowers...just too big! So we are going to tear up the cheap black plastic thing that separates the grass from the garden and put grass down. I worked on getting everything level and worked on our actual garden. We are growing strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini!! I love fresh fruits and veggies!! I hope it can grow in our rock infested soil!!!

We are in!!

Here we are!! Finally in our new house! And it's a good thing...my patience was wearing out!! I took these at night so I'll put one of the front of the house another day. And some of the bedrooms I am still painting and getting fixed up. And I can't decide the colors for the bathrooms so, when I make some decisions and get things done I'll post more pictures!! But for now here is our house!!! We love it so much!!
This is the entry!!
This is the living room! We don't have our entertainment center yet so I'm not showing that wall. And not all my pictures are hung up because I just barely bought a stud finder!
Here's the kitchen!! It's so nice to have room to walk around! And we have a nice sized pantry which helps with the space!!
Our dining area! And the door to go to the backyard..which is fully fenced and has a full sprinkler system!!:)
The laundry room!! It's nice to just throw it in and shut the door- it's easier to forget about though!!
Ok- this is Mike's room!! He requested that all these pieces of furniture be in his "study"- which includes a tv with his xbox!! Wonder how much studying he'll get done in here?!!:)
This is the master bedroom! The picture doesn't do it justice! It is huge!!
Same with the walk in closet!! Notice that it's full of Mike's stuff! I have a little bit in the end in the corner down there somewhere!!
And here's the two car garage!! It's so great!! It is protecting my projects I'm working on!!
We love it here!! We have great neighbors who we have met already!! It is such a peaceful and comfortable place!! We are so happy!! Thanks to everyone who helped us out!! We really appreciate it so much!! We will let you all know when we are having our "house warming" party!!!

Getting ready!!

So, I wanted to pack my kitchen but not have to eat out for the next week...so, I pre-made these four meals and froze them!! It worked out fabulously!! It was so nice to have everything ready to go when they said it was time!! I will do this again!!

i LOVE my nephews

So...I love playing with my nephews!! They make me so happy!! I love hearing them make noises and talk on the phone!! I love shopping with them!! I love hearing them laugh!! I love everything about them!! They are so great!!
This is my nephew Joel- Celeste's baby! We were in Jo-Ann's looking for stuff for our houses and found these festive 4th of July pinwheel headband! Only Joel could pull it off!! (someday I'll figure out how to rotate picts!!)
This is Tyler and Dylan- Melissa's babies!! Dylan want to be next to Tyler every second of everyday and Tyler just wants to be by himself!! Dylan is quite the tease but so so sweet!! I love both of them so much!!!

Random picts

Mike and his favorite boys!! Tyler and Dylan come to play and they always have so much fun!!
I don't think Dylan could get any cuter than this!!! He was being fussy because he wanted his mom and so Mike started tossing him in the air and he would catch a glimps of himself each time and just started to giggle!! He loves looking at himself!! He's got the cutest smile!!
I have tried forever to get this pict to rotate but it won't cooperate!! I have had some friends get married and I have been able to do their flowers for them!! This is one of the bouquets I made! I have fun doing them!

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

I LOVE this song!! It is one of my favorites!! I love it with the ukulele!!!! I was so happy when I heard him sing it!!!

Offer Accepted

On Monday we went to get the paperwork to make an offer on a home in Provo. That night Nancy sent me a few other houses to look at. I didn't want to look but I did anyways. The last one we looked at both Mike and I fell in LOVE with!! It's only 2 years old-meaning no fixing!!! It's bigger than the other one and in a very nice neighborhood!! It is in Spanish Fork only 5 min from my job!! The seller was one of my fellow EFY counselor friends!!! We left and about 10 minutes later we called them and made an offer!! They thought for like 2 seconds and accepted!! The contract has been signed and we are qualified for our loan...now we are waiting for the bank!! We will be moving in in a few weeks!!! We are so excited!! Now if I could just twitch my nose and have everything moved for me!!!! If you go to this website there are a few pictures: http://provo.craigslist.org/rfs/625298765.html

We are moving up!

So, we have been searching for a house for what seems like forever!!! We finally found one that we love! It's definitely not our dream home but it is so much nicer than living in a 400 square foot apartment in the middle of all the BYU students. So, we are making an offer this week and we hope to be in by May 1st. We are hoping that with Mike working at the bank things will move a bit faster than normal and this will be possible!! Wish us luck!! We'll have all you over once we're in!!!

Do Your Part-Go Green!!

I feel a little concern for our lovely planet of ours!! So, I have taken action!! I have gone paperless!!! I have paperless bills and statements!!! I also have taken my name off of all the junk mail lists!!! Here are the websites I have used to do this!! If you know of other ones I'd LOVE to know!! This one is for credit card offers: www.optoutprescreen.com
This one if for all that unwanted junk mail: www.secure.proquo.com
That one you can go to stop all and it will cancel the ones you can without having to print out a page, sign it and mail it in!! I know kind of ironic huh?!! But it's worth it!!! They also have catalogs on this site that you can cancel!! They are all online anyway!!! But the best catalog one is: www.catalogchoice.org
Have fun with this!! Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!!! Does this sound green or what!! But we should take care of what we have!!!

Latest Purchase

Mike and I have been using a dresser that was dropped down the stairs and we were lucky if we could get the drawers pushed in and stay in!! So, we finally found a moment to get something new!! This is it!!!! We love it!!! Now for the head board!!! It might take a couple months to talk Mike into it!!! Guess I better keep working!:)