Sending you a little Christmas

Here is our Christmas card! Merry Christmas everyone!

Lots of love,

Christmas bells are ringing...

I haven't posted in a little while....
But i'm really excited for Christmas
And you know how I'm married now? Well, does that mean I'm supposed to send out those family Christmas cards? And if so, to who?
Or do I get to wait until I have a kid so that there is something exciting to say about our family besides we love being married and Dustin takes a bazillion classes and i work a bazillion hours....

Just wondering.

We need a little Christmas

So, last Saturday my little brother (age 10) Evan came running downstairs frantic. This was his predicament:

"MOM!! I NEED TO KNOW IF SANTA CLAUS IS REAL OR IS HE FAKE??!! I don't want to be lying in my bed on Christmas Eve, with my wife, wondering if Santa Claus is coming to bring my kids presents! I just have to know!!"

I DIED laughing when my mom told me this story. He's 10 years old, worrying about his wife, kids, and Santa. How freaking cute is that?!

My mom told him, of course, that Santa Claus is real.

Autumn Cruise Vacation Part 3: So-Cal

Our boat returned to San Diego port early Friday morning. We took our sweet time leaving, sad to go. When we got back to our car, we found out that the battery was DEAD. Yep. Dead. So we had to flag down a guy at the Park and Ride and get them to jump start our car. It came back to life and we were hoping it would stay that way!! We drove to the San Diego Zoo but sat in the parking lot letting the car stay alive for a little while longer.

The zoo was HOT!!!!!! The best thing in the world we could have ever purchased was this little coffee/hot chocolate tumbler that you could get soda in and free refills all day long. We got a bazillion. It was crazy. Also, the best thing that we did was take the bus ride around the zoo. That let us see EVERYTHING without walking up and down the hills, which was really nice! After that i was ready to go, hahaha, but we checked out the Elephant Exhibit and got a bunch more drink refills, then left :)

After the zoo, we prayed that the car would start and it did! So we drove to the San Diego temple... and it was beautiful!! We would have liked to have done a session there but did not have time, nor the appropriate dress attire on us. We got to chat with the sister missionaries though and turns out, one of them knows Heather Colbert! I told Heather I would visit her on her mission while we were in San Diego! I just didn't know we'd get that close to actually being able to!

After the temple we headed on up to DISNEYLAND!! The traffic was a little backed up but it wasn't too terrible, which we were very grateful for. We got into Anaheim and checked into our hotel, then we were off to Downtown Disney. We got our Disneyland tickets and checked out Downtown Disney, making sure to peek in the Lego store and sitting down for some food at a Mexican place that was there... dont' remember what it was called, but it was good! Of course, Rain Forest Cafe had like a 2 hour wait, hence the Mexican joint. We also gave in and got a double twisted churro before dinner... I guess that prepped us for Mexican food. Hahaha. The trip couldn't have been complete without a trip to the candy store so we got some fudge and headed to the hotel to get some sleep.

We wanted to go to Disneyland pretty early.... but then when we woke up, we decided it really wasn't worth it. Hahaha. We took our dear sweet time to wake up and get breakfast and the IHOP across the street from Disneyland entrance. We didn't get to the park until 11 ish. We went straight to Space Mountain for some fast passes, but of course, they were temporarily down... so we went to the next best thing, BUZZ LIGHTYEAR!! We grabbed a fast pass for that, then got in line for it. Such a great ride. After riding Buzz Lightyear once, we were able to get the Space Mountain fast passes, but the time was for 11 PM. Seriously... ridiculous. I guess that's what you get for making a great ride "haunted." So back to Buzz Lightyear, we used our fast passes and had another great time! We decided to just wait in line for Space Mountain and it wasn't too bad... only 45 mins or so. And I decided... it wasn't that great!! I liked it better before they made it haunted.
We then made our way over to Adventure Land for some quality Indiana Jones. I still love that ride. My favorite ride out of all though was The Haunted Mansion Holiday. Seriously so much fun! For Halloween through Christmas, they decorate the Haunted Mansion and make it a Nightmare Before Christmas theme. It was seriously so cool. You know the room where there are the dancing ghosts? This time it was a Christmas gingerbread house type room with dancing ghosts and it SMELLED like Christmas which made me so happy!
I really did enjoy having Disneyland all dressed up for Halloween! It was a lot of fun!!! And so cute! Although we got there late, my feet were still killing me by the time 9 PM hit... and I was just about ready to be done. We had fast passes left for Indiana Jones and of course, Space Mountain from that morning, but I didn't care.... We left around 10 or 10:30 cuz I was pooped and my feet were dead! I still had a lot of fun!! And I got to do everything I wanted to do so i was okay with that.

Saturday we checked out and drove all the way home! It wasn't too bad of a drive... but it was sad to come home. Wouldn't it be nice if vacation could last forever? But then i guess it wouldn't be vacation, it would just be life.... oh well.

It was a great trip though!!!

Autumn Cruise Vacation Part 2: CRUISE Day 4

Thursday October 15th was the last day of our cruise. This was our 12 hour Ensenada day! Our ship landed in the port at about 9 AM and we didn’t leave til 9 PM. So does that mean that we hung out in Ensenada all day? HECK NO. We just relaxed for the morning…. Ventured out into Ensenada early afternoon, walked around the shops looking for some good deals to barter on. I got some jewelry, Dustin got a cowboy type hat, and I also got some Mexican vanilla! I haven’t used it yet, but I’m excited to try it out. I didn’t take my camera out at all when we were actually in Ensenada, so I don’t have any pics from off the boat. We got back on the boat early afternoon, got some lunch, and finally got to relax in a hot tub! We made friends with a little girl who’s actually from Spanish Fork! She made up games with dunking herself under water and counting how long she was down there for. Dustin also discovered that he liked going down the water slide :) Apparently it was more fun that it looked, but I couldn’t bring myself to go down it. Um, so now that I’m thinking about it, we might have done the hot tub deal the day before… I really don’t remember. Doesn’t matter anyway, right?
That afternoon there were also free cocktails in the Mikado Lounge and entertainment with the captain. We were excited that they had alcohol free beverages available for free and they kept giving us refills of them, so that was sweet! We also got to dance a little on the stage with a bunch of people. Good fun. :)
That night after dinner we were able to give a Book of Mormon to Ryan and Nicole. Ryan seemed to appreciate it so we’ll see if anything comes from it! There was a hypnotist show that evening and we went to it with our dinner friends. So they didn’t even shun us away after giving them the Book of Mormon! I was grateful for that. There was the last big jack pot bingo before the show, so Ryan bought a card and we helped him try to win…. But he didn’t win. Too bad. The hypnotist show was kinda cool… Dustin was trying to get hypnotized from his seat and it worked for a little while which was really funny!
So yeah! The next morning was departure day so we had to get off the boat! Sad day! It was a really fun cruise but definitely not long enough! Good thing our vacation wasn’t quite over yet….

Autumn Cruise Vacation Part 2: Cruise Day 2 and 3

Tuesday was the second day of the cruise—the fun day at sea. Honestly, I don’t remember what we did… just relaxed. Did some mini golf… tried to hop in a hot tub but they were always full. We ate a lot… slept in… just RELAXED, which was so nice! We found out a little bit more about our dinner friends Ryan and Nicole—Both are 21, from Riverside CA, and Ryan is studying religious theology to become a pastor or minister or something like that… which we thought was very interesting. :) Tuesday night was our formal dinner night so we were all dressed up and took some pictures with the photographers on the boat, but we didn’t really like any of them, which is too bad.
Wednesday was our day in Catalina. We were hoping to go snorkeling or rent golf carts to drive around the island… and did neither. It was very overcast that day which made the water really cold so we decided not to snorkel. To rent the golf carts, you had to be 25… seriously… am I not adult enough?! So instead we decided to do a bus tour of the city and a glass bottom boat tour to see the fish. It was still a lot of fun! Our little excursions we bought on the island which saved us at least 20 bucks, so that was awesome too.
Our bus ride got started pretty rough. The breaks kept locking up because of the rain, which made for very abrupt stops. We had to stop at the Casino ,which doesn’t have gambling, but does have a movie theater and a dance hall, so that someone could come fix the breaks before we headed up into the hills. Good idea, right? We got to explore a little around the casino and such… Dustin held the cruise ship in the palm of his hand :) It was a nice tour of the whole city of Avalon, so that was fun. We had some time to kill before our glass bottom boat tour so we did a little shopping, I got a new jacket that is nice and big and cozy. The glass bottom boat tour was a lot of fun. We got to see lots of fishies and didn’t have to get wet or cold! After the boat tour we had to go get ice cream at Big Olafs! Very yummy. Then we got back on our boat and relaxed again. We decided that we’d give Ryan and Nicole a Book of Mormon that night if they weren’t going to be at dinner Thursday night… since he’s studying religious theology and all… But they said that they would be at dinner Thursday so we held off for another night.

Autumn Cruise Vacation Part 2: CRUISE DAY 1

We left early Monday morning (Oct. 12th) stopping to fill up gas and grab some Starbucks carmel apple spice and hot chocolate. We drove to San Diego and followed the GPS Dustin’s parents let us borrow, but was kinda weird. We parked at a Park and Ride and were shuttled to our big boat. We didn’t have any tags on our luggage and for some reason did not know where to get them, so we brought all our suitcases and everything into the check in because that’s where we thought we needed to go… after going through security and all that, we found out that you were supposed to drop them off before even entering the building, so we were stuck with EVERYTHING and couldn’t put them into our rooms for another hour… oops. Made it a little crazier for when we got on the boat and EVERYONE was there getting some lunch. Dustin stayed with the luggage while I grabbed some food, then I stayed with the luggage while he some food. I felt a little retarded, but whatever. It was kinda fun playing “spot the Mormons” while watching everyone run around the Lido deck to get lunch. Ha ha ha. I guess we’re pretty easy to spot.

Finally 1:30 rolled around and we were able to put our luggage in our room and unpack in our little home for the next 4 days. I thought our cabin was pretty spacious actually… much bigger than my first cruise. We were at the front of the boat and had 2 port hole windows that were pretty cool. After unpacking and relaxing, we wanted to explore a little, so we did. We found that our ship had a water slide (which Dustin really liked) and a mini golf course which was pretty cool. Before long we had our little lifeboat drill so we grabbed our life jackets and headed to the Mikado Lounge (their big theater) because that was our muster station. I thought it was weird that we met inside instead of outside…. But when everyone was ready, we got to go outside to the lifeboats… which were on deck 8 and are a LONG way down to the ocean…. Not quite sure how they lower them full of people, but it really was a long way down!
After putting of life jackets away, we went to the Lido deck to say goodbye to San Diego as we left the port and headed out to the open sea. Our dinner was the late seating, which I wasn’t happy about at first, but then we realized we could eat TWO dinners, one early in the buffets, and then the nice seated dinner. Ha ha ha. Constantly eating on the cruise… best part ever. Hahaha. It turned out that the later dinner was a good thing anyway because we got to make friends with a nice young married couple from Riverside, CA named Ryan and Nicole, only 21 and already married for a year…. Not your typical out of Utah scenario. :)
The first day for dinner we ate a LOT. I was SO FULL….so full that after dinner, pretty sure we went to our cabin and laid there dead. I couldn’t move. Dustin couldn’t move. So that ended our day 1.

Autumn Cruise Vacation Part 1: Let's Start at the Very Beginning

So… we’ve been back from our trip for a week now and it was wonderful! I’m breaking the trip story up into smaller parts so that I can find time to just do a little at time :) So if you’re reading these all, you’ll have to start here and work your way back up.

We left Saturday October 10th and headed off to Vegas. We checked into our hotel, which was the South Pointe Hotel and Casino, which is a ways off the strip, which was kinda nice… Except the lady trying to check us in couldn’t pull up our reservation. Good thing Expedia sends hotel confirmation numbers. After checking into our room and finding that we had the best view in the hotel (please see pic. below), we changed into BYU garb and headed off for the game!

Traffic was a little crazy, but not too bad. We took some “secret” back roads (they had signs that led us that way) and ended up getting into the parking lot from the backside… and no one was there to take money or anything, so parking was free! Which we thought was great. We got our Rebel dogs for dinner and found our seats… which were RIGHT BEHIND two rows of Max Hall’s family… seriously, his mom was right in front of us. Max looks a lot like his mom… and his little brother looks just like him too, sticking out ears and everything. The game was SO MUCH FUN. Like seriously, I think that was the most fun I’ve ever had at a game! I don’t know if it was the fact that there were more BYU fans there than Rebels fans, or if it was that UNLV returned a kickoff for a touchdown which meant that EVERYONE in the stadium got free chicken, the fantastic win we had, or maybe it was just that we were on vacation, but it was SO FUN. Loved it.
We went back to our hotel and got some real dinner food at the Coronado Café where BYU fans trickled in, which was fun to see. The next day we checked out and went to a single’s ward with Curtis Millette, Dustin’s mission buddy. It was weird being in a singles ward…even just to visit. And you know what, I was able to go to Relief Society for the first time in a WHILE since I’m in Primary all the time now… and I got BOO’d. That’s right. I said I went to the BYU UNLV game and I was boo’d by one girl and told to go back to Utah. Such a poor sport… just because we kicked their trash. Meh.
After church, we went to Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers to get our FREE CHICKEN from the game. It was just a kid’s meal, but it was pretty dang good...and it was FREE, which made it even better. Then we went down to the strip with Millette to check out the Bellagio gardens (I’ve never been there in the fall, I really liked it), watch a couple fountain shows, and get some divine dessert crepes inside Paris.
That was the end of our Vegas stay, so we headed down to Primm. Oh yes, we stayed at Buffalo Bills. They were able to easily find our reservation, gave us our room keys… we went up the 6 floors… and found someone else’s stuff there… Seriously, I was tired and knew we were waking up early the next morning so I was a little upset. We went back to the front desk, explained our dilemma, and was given a new room. This one was safe… yes, we walked in and found our 2 queen beds. Ha ha ha. I showed Dustin which one was his. Ha ha ha. Definitely not our favorite hotel we’ve ever stayed at, but hey, for $18, you too could have 2 queen beds and a moldy bathroom. :)

Friday on My Mind

Seriously, I wish I could just skip over today and go straight to Friday.... I am so ready to go on vacation! There is still a lot to do at home to get everything ready, but I just want to skip today and make it Friday. At home I have laundry to do, get packed, clean the house and the fridge, finish getting lesson plans together for my piano subs, and do some reg cards which I might not ever think about until I get back. I don't want to teach piano tonight, I want to work on everything else I need to do! And then I just want to leave.... go vacation... and never come back... live in complete cruise bliss forever and ever. Ha ha ha. It will definitely be a nice break. SO EXCITED!

There is work enough to do

I'm wishful thinking but....

What I would do if I didn't work a lot:

• Write in my blog, update it, add all sorts of cute pictures like of our house and what we've been doing....
• Write in my journal... because it barely even knows I'm married
• Scrapbook. I am WAY behind.
• Decorate my house some more. We even have decorations ready, I just need to put them up.
• Clean.... Organize....
• Cook good healthy meals every single night.
• Call all my friends and make sure their lives are going splendidly well.
• Make fun surprises for my husband.
• Do my hair. Ha ha ha, but seriously....
• EXERCISE every day for at least a half hour a day. And love it.
• Plan fun cheap dates and trips.
• Come up with new recipes and try them out.

The list could go on but that's all I can think of during this short lunch break. What would YOU do?

Home Alone

Dustin is Young Men's Secretary... and young men go on campouts. Dustin found out there was a campout on Wednesday... and then decided Thursday that he would go... So here I am, on Friday, home alone for the first time in my married life. Today was a CRAZY day at work. Things were going wrong with the database, lots of work still to do, problems with payments, and a million tickets I received in my inbox. It felt like a Monday more than a Friday. Added on top was the dreaded knowledge that I would see Dustin for maybe 5 mins. today... I'm so much happier when I get to see him. So by 4:45, I was SO ready to leave work, despite the huge workload that awaits me on Monday. I just wanted to see Dustin before he was gone at 5.
I picked Dustin up and dropped him off at the church. Then I came home and cried a litte. That's right, i cried. I missed him already. We've never had to spend a night apart for the past like forever. And Weds and Thursdays we don't see each other much anyway between work, school, and piano... so Fridays are our days to reconnect and see each other, spend quality time together... and here I was alone on a Friday. Really, I was am sad! So I decided I should make a date with myself and go out to dinner to Cafe Rio with a peanut butter chocolate Reeces shake from Iceberg.... yeah, i treat myself right. ;) I came home to watch some high quality TLC and FoodNetwork. I did a little scan prep and wrote a couple wedding thank yous, then back to Say Yes to the Dress and Unwrapped. I got to have a nice chat with Andrea while eating ice cream, and Nicole also came over to visit and bring her new puppy, which, and I DON'T LIKE DOGS, but her puppy is SUPER cute and cuddly. I hear Momma Creer even calls the puppy her grandbaby. Ha ha, maybe she's trying to get used to that title, though I have no announcements. :)
I think I'll go to bed pretty soon because I do have to get up tomorrow morning and teach piano. I don't know how i'll sleep tonight without Dustin. I really do miss him and I might not let him leave again. ha ha ha. Next time I'll just need to have more prep time to get some girls together for a fun-filled girls night instead of one day.
I miss him a lot.

Money

Yesterday we got to celebrate our 6 month anniversary!!! We've been married for SIX MONTHS!!! Can you believe it? Time has gone by super fast... and yet 6 months seems like a long time... We feel as though we've been married forever, but our wedding was like just yesterday. Such different feelings, but so good! We got to celebrate by going out to eat at the Chef's Table. I haven't been there since senior year prom in high school and it was SO GOOD!! Way better than it was at Prom! ha ha ... Pretty sure life now is way better than it was at Prom! It was a fun little splurging trip and now we'll be saving more than ever and cutting back as we get ready for our cruise (which is in 27 days...) and just life in general.

It's crazy how fast money can go... especially when Dustin isn't working very much because he's taking 22 credits... yeah, it's madness I tell you. We decided we'd try to be poor and start eating top ramen and macaroni and cheese and stuff like that. Do you know how much money we could save that way?!? SO MUCH!! That would be nice. We had dinner over at Nathan and Adrienne's house on Sunday and they have a goal to save $50,000 by the time they graduate... holy cow! That has to take major self control to be able to save that much!! I want to be as cool as that and try to really really save lots of money... isnt' that a fabulous idea?! Some day we'll have loads of money, but for now, we'll try to save save save and good things will happen!

Plus, if we start eating crappy food then the cruise food will taste even MORE amazing, right? It's basically a great idea! :)

Take me out to the ballgame!

30 days. The Countdown begins. We are super excited for our Baja Mexico cruise!!! Seriously can't wait.

I've also been able to decorate the house a little more. Wahoo.

And now we must go to the last Owlz game of the season.

Life is good.

I have changed my signature once again... Guess I just like different fonts :) But it's cute, yeah?

Loves,

Relax

Dustin and I spent this last weekend just RELAXING and it was SO GREAT!!!

Friday night we hung out with Tyler and Sara and went to Los Hermanos, then watched the movie 21 at our home. It was great to be able to go out and chill with friends!

Saturday morning I started teaching my Springville ACMA classes again for the semester and the classes went really well! Those kids and parents are just awesome! Then Saturday afternoon Dustin and I just RELAXED at home. I made some carmel zucchini bars, did lots of dishes, cleaned and organized a little, did some laundry, worked on some scan prep... okay, maybe this doesn't sound very relaxing, but it really was! Just to be home with Dustin and veg in front of the tv while doing some work was so wonderful! We also got to see part of the infomercial about the new Magic Bullet Express, 8 minute family meal maker! It was incredible! ha ha ha. Dustin felt a little sick at night so we stayed home and watched the Wizards of Waverly Place Disney Channel orinigal movie and had a good laugh. We ran to the grocery store quickly to get some stuff for dinners this week (so i'll actually cook and can't say that we have nothing to make!) and then just went to bed.

Sunday we went to church and I got to go to Sunday School and most of Relief Society because the sharing time was combined for senior and junior Primaries so I only needed to be there at the beginning and then the last half hour or so. I made crepe batter for some lunch but it needed to refrigerate for an hour so we decided to take a nap... and woke up 3 hours later, just in time to get ready to leave for my grandparent's house for a family dinner! Ha! oops! We didn't even think we were that tired.... I guess we were! We had a great time talking with my family and my Uncle and Aunt and their boys that came down from Washington. Also my cousin Amber and her fiance Joe! It was nice.

So yeah, just a chill weekend after a busy week of StoresOnline work and starting up the new semester of Art City Music Academy classes! Dustin started his classes at UVU and he's taking 17 credits, plus another 5 of Portugese that he will just test out of at the end of the semester! He has a way busy class schedule and will only be working like 12 hours, but I'll be busy working too! So we really just hope we'll have some time to see each other! And remember to RELAX! :)

It's been a long time coming...

It's been a while since I've written and there is a lot to update on!
A couple weeks ago I was told to make a list of everything I did at work... I was a little nervous, but my boss said not to be worried. The next week an email from our controller went out saying that they had the Preview Express Accounts Receivable Manager position available as Kareena, the previous manager, was recruited to work with another StoresOnline, Imergent company.
Have you ever had those realizations hit you in the face that you were meant to do something? I had that feeling with the Santa Barbara job and I had that feeling with this one as well. I knew they had intended for me to take it, hence the listing what I currently did so they could dish it out to everyone else in my little group. Well, after some coaxing from a few select individuals, I applied for the position, knowing that I would most likely get it. You see, I started in the Preview Express department, I know what I'm doing, and I'm a born leader. Those all equal Manager. I talked with Yvonne, my boss at Art City Music Academy and let her know what this might mean... not as flexible of a schedule for teaching.
The interview was the next day. And within a half hour of my interview, I was told that I got the position... which meant a salary raise, deduction of health benefit costs, and a new job. I was really excited, a little nervous, but it felt good!
The next week I started training and then this week I am been in command. It's been a crazy busy week, but time goes by fast when you're busy! We've had some previews up in Canada which has created a little mess in our end with making sure everything is right as we process the orders. Oh what an adventure! But I have a feeling I will survive!
As far as piano teaching goes, StoresOnline can be somewhat flexible with my schedule for now, but this might be my last semester teaching if we can find a teacher to take my place.
Life is moving onward and upward and continues to be super busy for me and Dustin. We've now been married for 5 months and yes, we're still working on Thank You cards... so don't feel bad if you haven't gotten one yet!
Dustin has completed a great summer semester at UVU and fall classes will start next Wednesday. He will have an over-full schedule and he's looking forward to being on the racquetball team! We're so excited for our cruise in less than two months! Life for the Creers is going well. :)

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE!

WE'RE GOING TO THE TOUR SHOW!!! It's not until November 7th, but I'm super duper excited! Happy Christmas in July to me! Dustin approved getting tickets for the tour and I'm so excited! I went last year with Lauren and it was WAY FUN! And now Dustin gets to go with me! I'm so happy!

Cruisin USA

We're going on a cruise! Here's a cruise countdown!


Anniversary Tickers

YAY! :)

We are a happy family!

My Stick Family from WiddlyTinks.com

For some reason some of my little gadgets i add on get cut off... probably because I have a "minima" template like most backgrounds fit with, but oh well... The addition of Harry Potter to our family is not an announcement... I just thought it was really funny that they had a Harry Potter type little boy. Ha ha ha. I'll adopt him as my son. :)

Everything I Love

Okay!! So, I'm still slowly working on the blog new look, but for now I can give you the info for where I got everything to make it simply wonderful! I also added their buttons on my right column so you can easily click on those as well :)

For some really cute backgrounds and headers, visit:
http://simplyblogitbackgrounds.blogspot.com/
They have some cute backgrounds and some even have matching headers. They like you to change the html, which isn't always my fav because I find it harder to change when you want to frequently change the background. I like adding an html gadget much better, but check it out. You can even request different colors or ideas, which is awesome! And it's free!
Also on this great site is a list of links to other cool blogging sites that will help you re-do your blog look

For super cute handwriting and scrapbooking fonts visit kevinandamanda.com or just click here:
http://www.kevinandamanda.com/whatsnew/new-fonts/19-new-flavors.html
All her fonts are free and there are lots of cute ones! So you can download them and then she has a link (but i put it here as well: http://kevinandamanda.com/fonts/fontsforpeas/how-do-i-use-these-fonts/) to help you figure out how to USE the fonts on your computer or on your blog! Easy step by step instructions, very cool.

I found out how to put cute post dividers from:
http://www.shabbyblogsblog.blogspot.com/
She has a "tutorials" link under labels on the right side that teaches you how to use lots of cool things, like adding in a custom signature and everything. I also really like her backgrounds and extras found at :
http://shabbyblogs.com/extra.html
Here you can find some cute (not a lot, but they are all pretty cute!) backgrounds and again, some matching headers, and post dividers which are always fun!

I made my header on scrapblog.com, which is one of my new fav things! Check it out!
http://www.scrapblog.com/

On each of those sites they'll explain how to use their stuff which makes them the greatest ever!!

I haven't checked this site out much yet:
http://www.blogaroozer.com/
but i plan on it when i get a chance! I'm not a fan of many of their backgrounds, but they have lots of tips and tricks listed on the right column that i'd like to try out.

So there you have it! The tools to start working on your beautiful blog! Check out my thankful blog too cuz I've updated it as well and it might even be cuter than this one! :)
http://iamgladformanythings-creer.blogspot.com/

Then I did...

Cuz I've been waiting all my life for a chance like this, it's a chance of a lifetime, I just know it is. "I gotta go and find my dreams" was the last thing that I said. And then I did. --Rascal Flatts.

This was my song just over a year ago... When I took my job in Santa Barbara. Which is what got me writing this blog, so i could let everyone know what was going on, the whole reason why it's private as well. ha ha ha. I thought I was going to find my dream job, going to be paid well, work with a wonderful family, love love love my job, that it would be bliss. And it ended up being a nightmare. The worst kind of nightmare. Where it's beautiful outside with tons to explore and do but you're trapped inside hell, not able to get out, being dumbed down by the way you are treated and the things you are forced to do.

A teensy tiny bit over a year ago I was able to break myself from the bonds of hell. Yes, I QUIT my job, not knowing what i'd do, but knowing that i NEEDED to get out. I really realized this when I came home for a week to visit my family for Nathan's mission homecoming. It felt so good to be at home, to be with family and friends, to feel loved and appreciated. It was SO GREAT! Then I went back to SB. It was awful. I was yelled at, told to my face that I was stupid for doing something that they couldn't even do themselves, but I did with no problem. I found "lists" of all the things I had done "wrong." I was furious. I was done. So I quit because I knew that UTAH really was THE PLACE for me. Brigham Young could have been never so right in saying those words, "this is the place!"

Dustin flew in on July 23rd to drive back with me. He said he would do "whatever it takes to get [me] out of that hell-hole!" So he flew in and a year ago today we left Santa Barbara. We spent last July 24th at Six Flags and then spent the night in Vegas, me at Jeanette's and Dustin at Millette's. We drove back the rest of the way the 25th and even made it back in time to see Oklahoma, watch Vanessa Sackett get proposed to, and join in the Fiesta Days festivities. It had never felt better to be back at home!

It was a little struggle to get a job after that... I was supposed to be a baker for Maceys in Spanish but that fell through, so then I took up Art City Music Academy (they had been trying to hire me for YEARS ha ha ha) and started training to be the group teacher for the new Draper location, I also finally got sick of being turned down everywhere that I started working for Macey's bakery in Provo and my first day there I got a call from StoresOnline saying they had a position open for me if I wanted it. It was starting out as an independent contractor, but it paid more, had great benefits, flexible hours, and possibility to become permanent. I had to jump at it! So my second day at Maceys I told my boss I was quitting, which she was sad cuz they liked me there, I finished out the weekend, turned in my apron and hat and started in the Preview Express department for what could possibly only be a 2 month stunt. 3 weeks later I was hired on as a real full time employee, 4 months later I was "promoted" and moved over to be a payroll/expense clerk, still in Accounting, but with a raise. :) 7 months later, I am employee of the month for the Accounting department!! I love my StoresOnline job and though it has really NOTHING to do with Home and Family Living, what I graduated in from BYU, it still is really great. I love the people I work with, I love what I do, I love the flexibility, it's just a great job.

It seems like a year ago was SO long ago! My life feels completely changed from when I left Santa Barbara! It was a hard experience, but I did learn a lot from it. A lot of how I learned though was by learning what NOT to do, which is kinda sad. I learned that people should always be treated with respect, the true value of having family come first, how money doesn't make a person happy, how much I love my family and friends, how freaking awesome I really am. :)

I would never want to do it again, but I appreciate the experience, am glad where I am today, and am looking forward to where the future will bring me in the next year.

Come together

Maybe it's a good thing that my blog decided to freak out on me cuz now I'm figuring out all sorts of things like how to add cute fonts, signatures, and more. It's kinda fun! So it's still a work in progress, I'm still searching for that blog background that I LOVE so i can change my header to match too.... but it's fun! When i'm done I will have to post where I found the tools to make all these fun changes. :)

Leave the Pieces

I RUINED MY BLOG!!! And i don't know how to get it back to how I had it.... SAD DAY. I changed the template but didn't know it would destroy my blog. Sad, sad day. Therefore, it is now under some construction....

You're never fully dressed without a SMILE

At StoresOnline we have a new dress code that is going to start being enforced in the next couple of weeks... Mon-Thurs is business casual dress and Fridays are casual, but no shorts or flip flops. I have one pair of dress pants and a bunch of skirts, but seeing as how I keep getting fatter ever since I got married, I don't know if they fit so well.... Which means really I should go shopping! I wish it was like "What Not to Wear" though and they gave us money to go buy a new wardrobe. I mean, I don't need $5,000 like what they give out on that show, but a couple hundred would be nice. The cause for this change in standards is that our company is growing and we have people coming in to look at our business and whatever, but we need to look professional. I'm okay with business casual, I really think it's super cute, but this whole company image transformation also means that we can't decorate outside of our cubicles.... no holiday decorations, no cute name signs, nothing, which is pretty much a bummer. We have lots of fun decorating for the holidays but we can't go all out anymore. And my cubicle is very open to the public eye so I don't think I can be too crazy in here either, ha ha ha.
So where can I get some cute, not very expensive, business casual clothes, especially pants?

Oh they say when you marry in June...

SO glad that it's July now! June was a really busy month with lots of weddings going on...

Started out with Dustin's sister Kendra's wedding on June 6th!

Kendra Creer and Adam Hill were married in the Jordan River temple. It took them a while to finally come into the sealing room and we thought that maybe one of them backed out at the last minute? But then we found out that their sealer had taken them into another sealing room to talk with them for a minute and let them spend some time in there. They looked really happy and Adam said he felt like a "married man" (not sure what he meant by that ha ha ha). The reception was beautiful after all the amazing Momma Creer did with it and with the help of her amazing sisters as well. We helped set up the night before and I swear, it took FOREVER. I don't think, i mean, i KNOW that it didn't take that long to set up mine... but I guess ours was just... different. In many aspects. I'll just stop there. Anyway, yay, they're married, happy day!

Me and Dustin at the reception... Her colors were purple, green, and white.

Then came my brother's wedding on June 26th. Nathan Jack and Adrienne Francisco were married June 26th in the Vernal, Utah temple.

This one we helped a LOT with! Between coming up with the theme for the luncheon, throwing her a bridal shower, doing the bride and bridesmaid's flowers, decorating the car, helping with the cake, and then serving all the food at the reception in Salem, I am SO ready for weddings to be done for just a little while! I'm sure I'll recover soon, but it was such a busy month! I love my brother and am so glad he married a fabulous girl! They are so cute and so happy!

Here are the flowers I did for Adrienne's bouquet....

A close up of the flowers.... pink, yellow, and orange gerbers, green button mums, and white alstromeria. Dustin helped string pearls onto wire which i weaved through the flowers.


This was a bridesmaid bouqet, which I made 4 of them... Pretty simple... same as the bride's but much smaller and no pearls.

Here's the cake that I helped put the flowers on. Matt Clyde made the cake, I helped with the decor. :)


And now family weddings are done for a while! But when they come back, I'll be rested and ready to help out again! I used to want to be a wedding planner until I found out that really, I would hate working with brides. Ha ha ha. So now I'll just help out... but next time, I'm charging for my services. :)