STATUS UPDATE

Well folks... just thought I should update you on the status of our existence. We made a flying trip to SLC/Provo last weekend to go and retrieve our stuff out of storage. It has been in storage since April! It was a fast trip but all went smoothly. We had the help of Gary, Nick, and Frank! Thanks you guys! We appreciate it. I listened to the book A Clockwork Orange in the truck on the way there and back... VERY good read. I loved it.

We arrived in Las Vegas and Harrison had quite a few people from our new ward that were there to help unload our truck. YAY. I was late getting back to Las Vegas, but I was so happy to see all of our stuff in the house.

We have been unpacking and Harrison has been fixing little things here and there to get the house functioning smoothly. I am so happy to have OUR stuff back and especially MY washer and dryer. HA.

The cats are adapting well and I really think they LOVE the open spaces at the new house. Quite a space change from a small cracker jack apartment to a 2 story abode.

We are anxious to have visitors, so please come and see us. We have plenty of space and plenty of bathrooms :)

SEE YOU SOON!!

Jaala

Every tooth in a man's head is more valuable than a diamond.

... This is exactly what I thought when I saw the total bill for my braces. Woah. $4200 for straight teeth?? Are you kidding me? No, the orthodontist was not. So, in November of 2007 I signed up (laid in a chair rather) and had orthodontic appliances put onto my very crooked and very gnarly teeth. I needed braces for a myriad of reasons, but Harrison and I decided that this simply could not wait any longer.

22 months later, just about a week ago, I had my braces taken off. After almost two years, I couldn't even remember what it was like to NOT have braces. I hadn't bitten into an apple for ages nor had I chewed gum for that long either. I went into the orthodontist very anxious to get the dang things off. All he did was snap them one by one with a pair of pliers. WHAT?? That is all it took to take them off? It took about 45 seconds. I took a look in the mirror and in true Jaala fashion, started to cry! I could not believe that my teeth looked that good! HOLY CRAP! Straight teeth in Jaala's mouth. A miracle to me.

For any of you who read this and are thinking about getting braces but are worried about the cost, pain, maintenance, hassle, blah blah blah... I am here to tell you that it is TOTALLY worth it. Go get those braces. I thought I was "too old" for braces, but my orthodontist specializes in mainly adult orthodontics... so they made things quick, professional, and my braces were as discreet as braces could possibly be... and then I started to notice that there are TONS of grown-ups with braces on! Its awesome!

Here is a time line of before, during, and after photos of my orthodontics history!



I am so happy with the way my teeth turned out. They are beautiful. I can't believe it really. Harrison is really happy too. He tells me everyday how beautiful I am (not that he didn't think I was beautiful before, but I think I really just shocked us both at how good my teeth look). I get compliments left and right on my teeth. Thanks for those (and thanks to the total strangers who give them to me to).

OK, Im done for now :)

YOUR MOM!

Since I have been living 40 miles away from my workplace, I have to commute every morning and evening. I have become accustomed to reading the billboards on my way to and from Provo. This one caught my attention last week and I have been trying to get a photo of it without endangering the other motorists around me. I got one this morning. If you look close, the billboard says "Your mom uses billboards".



If any of you know me, you know that "Your Mom" is a phrase used by me MANY times a day. Anyway, here is the photo... YAY!

Hail the Conquering Graduate!

OK, so I am finally getting to the good stuff. On April 24, 2009 Harrison graduated from BYU with a bachelors degree in psychology. Here are some photos of the blessed event. I am pretty proud of Harrison... especially because he was able to get a job right out of school!

Nick, Jordan, Harrison, and Kay

Harrison and Grandma Aubert

Me and my smart hubby

My mom and sister came. I was very excited to see them!

Charnae, Jaala, Harrison, and Nancy

Nick, Harrison, Aubrey, and Jordan

I think these turned out good. Who knew I had it in me?

So a few weeks ago we went out on a beautiful Sunday afternoon and took Harrison's graduation photos. It was kind of weird for me since I am usually the one posing or posing other people and Harrison is the one behind the camera. Well, it was MY turn to shoot the photos. I had fun, but I was kind of scared that none of them would turn out very good. BOY... Was I wrong. I think a few of them turned out pretty good (I took about 100 photos).

This one is one of my favorites. I love the angle on it and his face. I love this guy. He is pretty sexy.

We both decided that this was our favorite photo. So... with a little PhotoShop.....

VOILA!
Here is the final photo we sent out with the graduation announcements. I think Harrison did an amazing job with the editing. I love it.

After the photo shoot we went up to the trail head leading to the "Y" on the mountain. Harrison was taking photos to put together some HDR photos and so after he was done, we decided to take advantage of the sunset and the remote control for the camera.

We don't show kissing very often!

It was a fun day. I am so glad we went out to do it. I love Harrison a lot and I am so proud of him graduating from BYU. He has worked really hard the last two and a half years. He amazes me everyday with how smart and witty he is. I am so glad that we will be celebrating our 4th anniversary next month! Time sure does fly when you're having fun!

All this cold weather makes me want to puke!

This is a completely true statement. I hate waking up to snow. Today I woke up to snow. I went to bed looking at snow and I woke up looking at snow! It is SPRING for heaven's sake!

We had such a nice weekend last weekend... it was almost 70 degrees on Saturday. I was able to do some yard work and I shut the heater off too! I opened the doors to let the fresh air in... the day was amazing.

And now there is ice and snow on the ground. Doesn't Mother Nature understand that I am allergic to the winter weather? Mother Nature is NOT as understanding and loving towards me as my real life mother. My real life mother would understand that I get very sad and upset when it is cold and it snows. And then my real life mother would turn the cold and snow off so that I would be a happy daughter. I think Mother Nature needs to take a lesson in nurturing from my own real life mother.

OK, I think I am alright now.

Thanks for listening!

Our Deer Friends

We are excited (for now... until our flower/veggie gardens are planted) for the little family of deer that call our yard their second home. It looks like a Mamma deer and her 3 babies for now. Harrison has seen a young buck as well, but I think only once

Here are some photos Harrison snapped of the cute little things.

This is me looking at the deer through our front room window.

The New House

Here are some photos for your viewing pleasure of our new abode. We are enjoying our spacious and QUIET hill very much!

This is the side of the house (South facing). The covered porch faces the BYU football staduim and we will have a perfect view of the 4th of July fireworks from here. I am planning on planting quite a few flowers on this side of the house as well.

This is the front of the house (West facing). There is a second little apartment that is on the right side of the house (over the garage and just to the left of the garage). That little space will stay empty while we live here. I have started seedlings inside and they will be ready to plant in the many flower beds around the house in a couple of weeks. I am super excited!

This is the back of the house (East facing). We would like to plant a vegetable garden on this side of the house... we will see if we get that far this spring/summer.

An Unwanted House Guest

Harrison and I came home for lunch a couple of days ago and look what was meeting us at the door! Oh yes, that's right. A big BLACK WIDOW!



So, what did I do? I waited for Harrison to snap some pictures of the little wench and I got the bug spray and sprayed the life out of it. Or so we thought.

This picture is of the spider coming back to life after it tricked us into thinking it was dead. So gross. So, I just squished it with my shoe after that. So now it is gone. I hope to the heavens there are not anymore in or around the house! What a way to kick off the Halloween season!

A Good Weekend With Friends!

We had our good friends Kristin and Karl over along with my best good friend of Grand Junction Kim (Kristin and Kim are sisters)! We had a blast. We ate yummy hot dogs and hamburgers prepared to perfection on the grill by Harrison.
I am so happy that Kim is here in Provo. We are such good friends. I told her that her being here makes Provo bearable. Yay for the best friends!
Kristin and Karl's little girl, Addy, screamed with terror when they came over. Harrison answered the door and his presence scared her half to death. She literally screamed and cried. It was quite funny. Maybe we should change his name from Harrison to Scarrison. After Addy got over the initial shock of Harrison, she was such a good helper. Harrison would scoop the ice cream for us and she would take it to everybody! What a great little helper!

Here we have the future Paris Hilton! See the sunglasses?
Mom and Dad would like to be part of the trend as well.


Sunday was such a fun day. We are so thankful to have good friends like Kristin, Karl, and Kim!

An Awesome Find in Provo

I was so excited to finally visit The Coal Umbrella (click here for website) here in downtown Provo. What a fun place! There were handmade jewelry, journals, vintage paper packs (my favorite), and hand picked vintage clothing. The little boutique has an indie feel to it. They also have vinyl records from indie artists. I suggest everybody check it out. I really think there is something for everybody!

One of the coolest parts of the whole place was their selection of vintage t-shirts. I was told by the cute girl there that the Montana shirts (there are a plethora of designs) are "dead stock". They were purchased from a guy who had a souvenir shop in Montana and it went out of business in the 80's. He kept all of his inventory and the boutique bought the stock. So, the shirts are brand new with the original tags and such. They are awesome.

So yeah, that is my fun find for the week. I can't wait to take Harrison! I think he will LOVE it!

Half of Robyn's Bridal Shower

I say half because I only have half the pictures! I ran home right before the shower started to get cleaned up and grab my camera. I searched the house in all of the usual places for the camera and it was nowhere to be found. Truth be told... I was pretty scared that somebody took it. When I got back to the party (15 minutes late I might add) Kay told me that Jordan had used the camera at Robyn's graduation that morning and it was probably still rolling around in his trunk. GGGGRRRR. Robyn's sisters, Melinda and Alicia, were nice enough to snap some shots for me. Here are some of them.

Hey... do you notice my BONJOUR banner in the background? Robyn got this CUTE apron!

Here is The Allen Family. We had fun!

It was so much fun to be able to meet Robyn's family. They were such great people.

Melinda is supposed to send me the rest of the photos from this fun event, including pictures of the amazing cupcakes I made. I can't believe I didn't have my camera to take pictures of my beautiful spread. Shame on you Jordan for keeping my coveted camera locked away in the trunk!

How May I Be of Service to You?

Harrison read the blog entry from yesterday and asked why I didn't post any pictures of my wonderful photographer's assistant skills. So, here they are. My job during the 3 hour photo shoot was to come up with poses, hold the reflector (so there was good light on our patient subjects), and hold the diffuser up (so the sunlight was not blinding the subjects). So, please find below a sample of my work.

(This is me figuring out a pose)

(Here I am using the reflector)

(And... here I am using the diffuser... well sort of)

Engagement Photo Extravaganza

Last weekend Harrison and I went with Jordan and Robyn (Harrison's younger brother and his bride to be) to take their engagement photos. We went to a few locations here in Utah County including: The Riverwoods Mall, The Harley Davidson store, and The Utah State Hospital. Below are some of my favorites. Harrison is so talented. It was such a blast to go out and do this with them! Thanks for the opportunity Jordan and Robyn :-).