A Rexburg Visit and an Acceptance Email

Michael and I are always in the mood for a trip to Rexburg! We haven't been back since November and we were itching to go back, so thank goodness our friends David and Alaina were recently engaged and there was reason to throw a bridal shower!

Alaina was my roommate last summer and David was her boyfriend. Michael and David fell in love. And I mean fell in love. They becamse great friends very quickly and seem to miss each other when they are apart. Luckily- Alaina and I hit it off too. So, we have been waiting very patiently and anxiously for this engagement! They are SUCH an adorable couple and the bridal shower was a great time! Alaina was probably the most hilarious opening her special gifts. And it was wonderful to spend a day with my old roomies!Naturally, we went to Horkley's the night we got into town at like 12:30. Oh how I miss that place.Bromance-Michael and I are both really excited to see David and Alaina married in less than a month!The bridal shower crew. Alaina's ring is SERIOUSLY beautiful. That is not an exaggeration. While we were in town we decided to throw a little suprise birthday party for Anessa! Her birthday isn't until August, but we wanted to celebrate while we were all together. We suprised her reallll good considering it was a month early. hahaha! We had dinner, cake, AND snoasis!! I could NOT leave town without my red rasberry snoasis. YUM!Well, David and Alaina were going to be one huge bonus to the idea of moving to Rexburg, and even though we will miss them and all of our other Rexburg friends...

MICHAEL WAS ACCEPTED TO THE ACCOUNTING PROGRAM AND WE WILL BE STAYING PUT!! KEEPING OUR JOBS, KEEPING OUR APARTMENT, AND STUDYING ACCOUNTING!!! yayyyyy!!!!! We feel so blessed and thank you all for your support and prayers! classes start August 1st. We'll keep you posted.

Mom and Dad Came to Visit. Come Back!

Now that my dad is a retired man, my mom and dad ventured out on a road trip! First stop, OUR HOUSE :). I was so so so excited for them to come. I wanted my mom to see my new place, and I needed them both to help me fix it up! Also, now that we have 2 bedrooms, we were excited for our first guests. It was a wonderful couple of days and I wish they'd come back!

We started off the visit right by having dinner and sittin out eating Oreos. Things just got better from there (minus the part where Michael's bike got stolen the next morning... BOOOO). We ate at all our favorite places to eat, mom and dad came to see my work, we played scrabble of course, mom and I shopped, and mostly we worked worked worked on cuteifying our new place! Seriously- my parents are MIRACLE workers!!! I am so happy with it! Remember the shelves that nobody could ever hang? DAD HUNG THEM! They hung all my pictures, hung my curtains in 2 rooms, fixed my pantry door, put together an adorable over the toilet shelf, cooked, cleaned, AND had time to play and laugh with us. Seriously- they were so good to us while we were the ones who should have been hosting them! I found it comical that dad had to sleep on the futon because our guest bedroom full sized bed was too small. hahahhahahaha! Welcome to our lives for the past 10 months! I knew exactly how they felt, so I didn't blame him! We are SO happy with the way our apartment looks now and I will post pictures soon.

Another huge bonus of the visit was going up to SLC to see Courtenay and Johns new baby Everett. OH. MY. HEAVENS. Talk about a perfectly precious gift. I was in love with him at first sight. He is perfect and Courtenay looked fabulous. It was so fun to visit with her and LeAnn.

I was an idiot and did not take nearly enough pictures. As soon as I steal them from my mom I'll post them. But mostly, I just wanted to share how wonderful it was to have my parents visit. Michael and I felt lonely after they left. We had a great time. I can't wait until the day that we get to live closer. Thanks so much for coming, mom and dad! We love you!

What You Said?

The title of this post is my favorite quote from Mr. Easton Rogers, and also how I felt when Michael received his response from the accounting program. Yes- thats right, we got a response.

Remember 6 months ago when they wrote us and told us to wait until July 12th. Well, we waited VERY patiently. FINALLY- July 12th came. Michael called me from work... "Jenni, I got the Email and I want you to be on the phone when I open it". My heart is racing! I had no idea that I was so passionate about him getting in, but now that the moment was here, I was praying praying praying that he would give me happy news. So, he reads the email... "Thank you for your application to the BYU School of Accountancy, you have been placed on the waiting list.".

WHAT YOU SAID?????????

If these people make me wait one more stinkin' day I am going to FREAK! After I composed myself, I decided that this is much better than hearing "you have been rejected"! Obviously they like Michael enough to have him in the program, which is very happy news. In the email they encourage us to go ahead with our back up plan and if we are admitted they will let us know. How it works is that if anyone who was accepted drops out, we will possibly get in. We got the vibe that there are 10ish or less people on the list, although they wouldn't tell us outright, and the people who were admitted have until July 22nd to accept, if they haven't by then - we're in. SO, July 22nd is the new date we're waiting for.

What's our back up plan you ask? 2 options, study finance in China, or study accounting in Rexburg. This is a TERRIBLY difficult decision for us. We have been up late most night hashing out the pros and cons of each and it is really, really difficult. I never actually realized how much I love our life here in Provo until the threat of having to move was in my face. I love my job, I love my new apartment, I love my ward, I love my friends.... I'm not ready to move. There have been tears indeed, but both of us are 100% certain that each option is excellent and after lots of prayers, we will be guided to the right place for us.

CROSS YOUR FINGERS THAT HE WILL GET IN ON JULY 22nd!!!!!!

That's the update!

Happy 4th of July -- Coeur d'Alene style.

I LOVE THE 4th OF JULY! I get really emotional during the fireworks especially because I think it's really beautiful that all over the country, citizens are celebrating our freedom. And I'm so thankful for the people that have made/make it possible for us to live freely in this country.

For the 4th of July this year, Michael and I got to go to Coeur d' Alene, Idaho for the first time. What a beautiful place! Thanks to Shellie, that is where the Woodmansee family reunion was going down and we did not want to miss it! The reunion was a week long, but we could only stay for 3 days, bummer! But, I will say that the time we had there was well worth the 12 hour car ride! It is absolutely gorgeous up there and we had a great visit with Michael's family. This was my first time meeting a lot of his cousins and such and I am so glad that I did! They are all so friendly and have ADORABLE children! So I was definately entertained.

We spent a day out on the boat and it was a blast! And once again, even though it was freezing, Michael was in the water with no problem! hahaha- what am I gonna do with this guy?! He's very entertaining, so I guess we'll just let it slide We stayed in a beautiful house right on the lake, what a view! Shellie really got this whole thing together and we are really grateful to her because it was so nice to see the whole family. Michael and I really love Shellie and Judd and they are so good to us, so we're sad it had to end. We also got to spend some good quality time with Mama and Papa Woodmansee. They were super adorable in their tourist hats, and I might add, smarter than the rest of us. I kept saying that I wish I had a sun hat because I sunburn far too easy! Cheri even brought ear plugs for me so that I wouldn't have to listen to both of our husbands snore all night long. AND- she went without make up to encourage me in my new skin plan.

The fireworks were beautiful, the kids were adorable, the company was fabulous, the drive to and from was really fun and Michael and I had a good chat about how grateful we are to be free Americans. Watching so much 24 makes me especially grateful to be free these days. Don't laugh, I'm serious! So, Happy 4th of July! I hope yours was fun too :)

Happy Retirement, Daddy!

My father worked for Union Pacific Railroad for 45.5 years. WOW! If there has ever been a reason to celebrate, I believe this was definately it. My mom planned a fabulous party and I was lucky enough to be able to go! We stayed the whole weekend at Marc and Connie's which was SUCH a treat! They were so good to us and those boys are an absolute delight to play with!

We went on a train ride starting from Hood River. Everything was perfect. My mom had us all wearing bandanas, engineer style, we decorated the train, the boys were wearing engineer hats, and the conductor even anounced my dad's special day to everyone on the train! We went all out to celebrate my dad and it was all such a blast.

The train stopped half way, so we stopped, had lunch, and broke a train pinata. The whole hour and a half train ride back, Joseph sat in my lap ooooing and ahhhing and the trees, grass, water, mountains. It was so adorable! The best part was laughing and catching up with everyone on the train. It was so nice to enjoy each other, and on a train at that!

Our little conductors- how adorable!The Retiree and Party Planner!It was awesome to get to see the Mitchells for a bit! And I love this picture below if Marc & Connie, Darren & Jill. ADORABLE!

Tina and her family came :) After the train we stopped at Multnomah Falls and it was absolutely beautiful!Pretty much the most tender thing I've ever seen is when Joseph started to cry because he didn't want to leave, and Kellen immediately hugged him. Those cousins are so sweet!

ALL the family who couldn't make it was GREATLY MISSED! And we were thinking of you guys. Thank you, mom for planning such a great weekend! It was a complete success!!

My Skin

This is a long one, but I wanted to include the details, read if you have the patience :)

Well, as we all know, I have terrible skin. It's overly sensitive, it often breaks out in hives, it sunburns very easily, I cannot use normal fun, girly smelly stuff, and worst of all, I have had terrible acne my whole life basically. I have been on every antibiotic known to man to help my skin since the time I was about 13 (with the exception of acutain). The drugs DO help. I took them all through college and I was very happy with my skin during college and on my wedding day. But, here's what happened, I got married. 1st of all, my health went way downhill after that! WHAT THE HECK!? Next, I got booted off of my parents insurance, thus- I no longer have a dermatologist to write me scripts for pills. Slowly the zits began to return. And before I knew it, I looked like a 15 year old again with terrible acne. I was wearing WAY too much make up to try and cover it up, which makes it look worse. I was the annoying wife who always talked about how ugly I am, and mostly I was 100% discouraged that I would be this way for the rest of my life.

Well, as I have previously mentioned, I have the greatest co-workers known to man. Sarah could feel for my big time because she's been there and so she gave me all her tips and secrets. She mentioned that she gets peels, facials, and extractions all from an esthatician. I thought well, that sounds painful, but worth it because her skin looked great. Then, Loriol told me that she gets her facials from a lady here in town who works out of her home and is the best in the business. So...I decided to try it.

FINALLY- a glimmer of hope. Julie Foo has given me my confidence back. She is the most adorable little lady from Syngapore. The first time I met her, she said right off, "you have bad skin, I fix your skin, you will thank me". Let me walk you through the progression of my skin with pictures to prove my progress.

FIRST- She gave me a facial with extractions. What does that mean you say? That means she takes a sharp metal tool (pictured below) and digs into EVERY SINGLE poor on my face until all of the dirt is gone. Painful? HE** YES! That took over an hour.

Then she did some other stuff that felt like I was being shocked, a nice mask, and some burny cream. I came out looking like this...
At this point, my boss called me and asked me to come into work. I was terrified. But decided that this was the price I was willing to pay and I headed off to work. Everyone was really good liars and said I didn't look that bad :) A week later, my face was already clearing up and it was SOOO smooth! I mean, obviously not 100%, but encouraging. So, I went in for my peel. At that point, she puts this super stingy stuff on my face and I chill there for a while. It was WAYYYY better than the extractions and I came out looking like this:
Better, yes? I'm always in my scrubs in these pics haha. It looked way better the next day even. SO- next week, I went back for MORE of those tortorously painful extractions. I wasn't even half as swollen afterwards this time and I'm healing way faster and now, I look like this:
BETTER, YES?! And bethy came to see me :) :) This pic isn't as close up, so I tried to zoom in. It doesn't look that great, but trust me it's better. I haven't even mentioned the hardest part of this yet. Julie Foo says "NO MAKE UP". WHAT?????????I haven't gone a day without make up in decades due to my insecurity. I spent many nights crying about going to work, church, out without make up on, and my wonderful husband has been so supportive. But if I'm going to give this a try, I"m going to give it 100%. she says I can wear make up in a couple of weeks. I cannot wait for that day. This is what I look like everynight now. It takes me over 30 minutes to do my face routine, but I love doing it because I feel like I'm making progress. Look at all of the products I use... Yep, that's 11. Not cheap. Not cheap at all. But worth every penny. So, that's that. My skin is definately not healed yet. I have a long way to go. I'll be seeing Julie every 2 weeks, then 3 weeks, and so on until I only need her every 6 weeks. But for now, I'm feeing hopeful and can see my face improving. yay!

Sorry about the novel.

The Seattle Jolley's Visit!

I'm pretty sure that I am the offical in-law party crasher. Everytime my siblings and their families are anywhere within like 8 hours of me and they are visiting their in-laws, I go crash the party. So, to the families of my siblings in-laws. Thank you, and I apologize for always stealing your time with my siblings and their precious children. I just can't help myself. As a matter of fact, I just got off of the phone with Bethany. She is visiting her grandparents for the week and I'm going to go steal her tomorrow... whoops!

Last weekend we had the chance to crash an Anderson party and see Darren, Jill, Joseph, and Justin. And bonus, the party we were crashing just happened to be Taylor's wedding! Everything was beautiful, especially the bride and groom. It was so wonderful to see them. When we walked in and saw their faces I just felt instantly happy and excited! I haven't seen Jill and the boys since the wedding and the boys are getting WAY too big without me. But they were so sweet and acted like we'd never been a part. And let me tell you something, these kids are PARTY ANIMALS and I LOVE IT! I can already tell that we are going to be getting a long for the rest of our lives because they are a blast!

Joseph the photographer with his cutie cousin Alexis. It was so funny. He was running all over the place taking pictures of cutting the cake, throwing the boquet, everything. He was legit.

Darrennnnn- way to go. You must be Bruce Jolley's son, because Joseph and I were looking good before the bunny ears!
Justin is growing up so fast and he is absolutely adorably charming! His little personality is so much fun. We couldn't get our act together, I thought we were doing silly faces and he thought we were being cute....
And then he thought we were doing silly faces and I thought we were being cute... hahaha!
Michael was all about the cold stone catering... can you blame him?I'm really ticked at myself for not getting a picture with Jill. We were able to spend some time together later in the week. We went to lunch, she approved of my new place, and we played at the park. It was just really nice to spend some time with them. And someday, I hope to be the mom that Jill is to those boys, that's for sure. Anyway, it was really, really nice to see them.

Michael and I have SO much fun stuff going on this summer. I'll be sure to keep you posted. Right now I'm trying something new to heal my skin and I'm really optimistic about it, I'll post about that soon, I've got some pretty awsome pictures :)