Finally!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my great pleasure to announce to you the official opening of

WHOOT!!!

I have been working on this blog all day to get it up in time for a bunch of things that are going on! I'm so excited! Please, everyone go visit this blog and tell your friends about it!

You can get to this blog by clicking here!

Challenge Day 1: Remix!

So for the 21 day challenge we had to pick an item of clothing and "remix" it 3 time throughout the 21 days (meaning that every Monday I will have to wear the same article of clothing, but make it a different outfit somehow. Fun!) I picked this fabulous dress that I found at the DI. I have no idea where it originally came from but I LOVE IT. The picture quality is not the best cause I don't have a camera... this was taken on my husbands phone!

Dress: DI (brand unknown)

Vest: Gap (ages ago)

Belt: Savers (brand unknown)

Sandals: Old Navy

Headband: Made by me (check out my new blog when it is finally put up!)

Blessed

I am so blessed. Seriously. I am so grateful for all of the amazing people in my life. Here are a few and why:

MY MOTHER

She has always done so much for me and continues to go above and beyond the call of duty for me. She is the best mom that I could EVER ask for. After the whole incident with the burglary she has helped us so much to get our home security up to where it should be. From helping me install a security system to checking up on me when I was too scared to leave my house alone, she has done it all and I am so grateful for her. I am so grateful for the support and love she is constantly giving me.

MY FRIENDS AND CAST

I could not have asked to be in a more fun show with more amazing people. I couldn't ask for it, cause it can't be found. These people are amazing from their talent to their friendships. They are golden. I am so grateful for the laughter they provide, the friendship they share, the love they offer, and the support and help they render. To all of you amazing people, thank you for everything. You have made an impact on my life in a way that you probably don't understand. I also want to thank the group of people who started the "Garside Camera Fund." What a sweet thing to do. I am so grateful for all of your selfless kindness. I can't express my gratitude enough.

(and many others not pictured)

MY AMAZING HUSBAND

My husband is not the 3rd thing I'm grateful for, rather he is the 1st thing I'm grateful for so I decided that I would put him third since I ALWAYS blog about him! That's what happens when you love someone as much as I love him! I am so grateful for him. His strength in the gospel, his energy, his ability to make me smile every single day, his love for me, his concern for our well being, his faith in our Heavenly Father, and so many other amazing qualities are just a few reasons why I am grateful for him. I am grateful we are together. I am grateful we are in love. I am grateful that our marriage is eternal. I am grateful that we can laugh and be extremely stupid and ridiculous together and we know that it is only making us love each other more. Ah! I love him.

MY HEAVENLY FATHER

I am grateful for his love. I am grateful for prayer and personal revelation. I am grateful for the Holy Ghost and the comfort that it brings me. I am grateful for the protection the Lord has offered. I am grateful for the lessons he teaches me. I am grateful that he wants me to be happy and helps me to be so. I am grateful that he provides me with opportunities to love and grow. I am grateful for the opportunities provided for me to go to the temple regularly. I am grateful for the restoration of the gospel and everything else that he provides me with. The blessings he sends are innumerable and I am so grateful.

Challenge!

I'm always up for a good challenge! This should be a super fun way for me to really make use of my clothing and find new ways to wear my stuff. It'll be good for me to mix and match some stuff. Thanks to Hilary for wanting me to do this with her! I'm stoked!

Burgled....

Our house was broken into yesterday. I am going to keep this short cause thinking about it too much makes me all nervous and jumpy. But yesterday, sometime between 10:30 AM and 4:00 PM our house was broken into. Brandon and I found the screen to our living room window laying on the back lawn when we came home from picking him up from work. Our DVD/BluRay player, some of my jewelry (but nothing super important or special), $50 out of our change jar, my backpack, and my camera with two of it’s memory cards were all taken... Yes my camera is gone. The police have it registered at the pawn shops and stuff to look for it, but it has been stolen. So yeah. Our house feels violated, and it is hard to feel safe here now, but we are so blessed. We are so blessed that I wasn’t home when it happened, we are so blessed that nothing else was taken, we are so blessed that they didn’t take anything that was irreplaceable, and we are so blessed that no lasting or expensive damage was done to the house. Very much blessed. We are taking the necessary precautions to make sure our house is even more protected, including installing a security system, motion sensor lights, a motion sensor video camera, bars in the windows so they can’t be slid open, moving all of our valuables to a safer location, and we are thinking about getting a dog. If anything good comes out of this it will be that we were able to get a dog. We have been looking for an excuse to get one, and now we definitely have one. We’re thinking about getting a German Shepherd. I hope it works out that we can. I also hope that we can get my camera back. Out of everything that they took, I just want my camera back. They can have everything else. Once again I would like to express my gratitude to the Lord for protecting our house from damage and for protecting our irreplaceable and special belongings from being stolen. We truly are blessed.

FACTS ABOUT BURGLARIES:

- A burglary occurs every 14 seconds in America.

- Despite the common vision of burglary as a by dark of night phenomenon, most burglaries occur in broad daylight between 6:00 am and 6:00 pm.

-Burglars enter the front door in more than a third of the time – and often forcefully.

-FBI statistics show a historical correlation between a down economy and an increase in burglary, theft and property crime.

- On the other hand, technology has made the costs of home security lower than ever with many home systems starting at only $35 per month. Major national companies including GE, ADT, and Broadview Security (formerly Brinks) are offering deals on installation, low monthly costs and in numerous packages and tiers of service to customize to customers’ homes and budgets. No longer is home security a privilege of the very wealthy.

- This site is FABULOUS. I recommend everyone read this article: http://www.urbachletter.com/Archive/Safety_1003_BurglaryPrevention.htm

BE SMART. Don't Let it happen to you.

Brandon's Birthday Week!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DARLING, SWEET, AMAZING, LOVING, ADORABLE HUSBAND!!!! Yay for turning 24! And what a week! It has been birthday week for Brandon and we have definitely partied it up.

On Monday my dad, Amy, and Lee took us to get all you can eat chinese food and it was REALLY good. I ate so much it hurt to sit in the car after we left. It was really fun to see them and very nice of them to think of Brandon on his birthday. We had a good time in each other’s company and were able to catch up a little bit on what has been happening and what will be happening in all of our lives. My favorite part of the evening was when Brandon discovered that the crab meat wrapped in bacon was actually spelled “Grab Meat” on the little identifier tag thing. It was pretty funny!

On Tuesday that party continued with a big party for Brandon that included all of our family except for my dad and his family. Seriously, everyone was there. It was amazing to see everyone in the same place at once. That hasn’t happened since Brandon and I got married. It was pretty cool for Brandon and I especially because everyone got a long pretty well! We had hamburgers on our hand-me-down grill and ice cream and cake. I made a cake which was really yummy but not very pretty... it kind of crumbled and fell completely apart! So mom ran to Smith’s and grabbed a sheet cake for me that I decorated with a Jazz logo! Brandon loved it, which made me really happy. It was a good party. Brandon made bank too! He got everything he wanted (which included a soccer goal, a chin up bar, oat meal creme pies, money for a wireless keyboard and mouse, a tent and two sleeping bags, and $195 dollars besides that! He scored. Also, he bought a basketball hoop off of a guy down the street for 20 bucks! It was his birthday gift to himself. Haha!

BEHOLD THE FAIL CAKE :)

Wednesday was pretty normal and such with the show, and same with Thursday, but Thursday after the show (yes at 10:30 PM) we left for Bear Lake to go to the Bloomington Cabin with the McGregor family. It was actually a lot of fun driving up there! There was a huge lighting storm that we enjoyed watching while listening to disney music to keep us awake (which I loved and Brandon was mostly annoyed with hahaha! But he did like it sometimes) and just enjoying each other’s company.

We spent today hanging out at Bear Lake, riding the ATV’s and hanging out with family. It was a lot of fun! I got a super bad sunburn on the back of my legs, and Brandon’s feet have strips of red across the stop of them, but he didn’t get sunburned other than that, which is quite an accomplishment! Caitlin and I also went to the craft fair and bought some treasures. I bought some fabric for my headbands (which I’m going to try to get serious about selling... we’ll see how that goes) and a really cute necklace! I didn’t even spend all of my money, which is good cause I don’t have much of it. We will be spending the night in Bloomington again tonight in Brandon’s new tent that he got for his birthday! We will leave tomorrow around 2:30 pm so that we can get to the show on time, and pray that we have enough energy to do it! Hahah.

It has been a great birthday week. I think Brandon enjoyed it almost as much as I did! hahah! I love that man so much. He is the best husband any girl could ever ask for. He is my best friend and I am grateful that he chose to come into this world and that the Lord loved us enough to put us together. I am so grateful for my sweetheart! I am such a lucky girl!

Finally... maybe?

So after hundreds and hundreds of dollars in doctors visits (thank heaven for medical insurance), blood tests, colonoscopies, EDG's, consultation after consultation, going off birth control, and a new gluten-free menu, I think we are on the verge of a break through!

I am still chubby as ever, BUT I went to my doctor and he got down to business. After everything we've discovered the past couple months with other doctors and such he is going to be running some blood tests and other tests to finally pin point what the crap is going on inside my body.

HALLE-FREAKING-LUJIA!!!

Keep your fingers crossed and a prayer in your heart that we actually find a solution this time.

Stay happy! Keep smiling!