Bye bye 2013

2013 was a crazy year.

We managed to be in Logan the whole year and plan on being in our same apartment for at least another 6 months. (That's when our lease is up). I'm hoping to not have to move for a little while. 

Somehow we survive every month with Adam working a good job for a student. Adam has a vet school interview on the 21st of this month. Although he is now thinking he would like to go to PA school. (He would make a lot more money and have less school debt and be done with school faster. ) He is so smart and hard working I know he can do whatever he sets his mind to. 

Thayne is 2 1/2 and is a riot. He is pretty well behaved but definitely can get into some mischief. He loves trains, boats, tractors, cars. If you think it's because we programmed him that way you are dead wrong. He has grown up around dolls and stuffed animals and even had a thing for tangled for awhile but that ship has sailed. His fav movie right now is excuse me 2 (despicable me 2). He is excellent at singing and dancing. He knows almost the whole alphabet and could careless about his bed. (He likes to sleep on the floor next to me right now)

Joslyn is the toughest little gal I know. She loves anything Thayne is into and is a crawling machine. She likes to stand but not taking steps (which I don't mind). She loves smiling and laughing. She is 9 months old but already her little personality is shining through. 

As for me I'm pretty boring. I still love the same stuff. I am in a yw presidency at the moment and enjoy my girls so much. Adam and I made a goal to ski at least once a month in the winter and so far so good. We have been twice. Although we might even get to go twice this month. We want to take thayne at least once too. I'm thinking about getting my personal trainer certificate in April  so I can work a little too. 

I think that's about it for us! Here's to 2014. Come see us in Logan! 

Learning from the YouTube

Do you ever just find yourself watching the YouTube to find that one funny video your friend wanted to show you? Then next thing you know hours have gone by? (Please say yes) well hopefully among watching the YouTube to laugh or watch "what does the fox say?" You watch a few videos that are actually educational. I swear Adam passed his organic chemistry class from watching chemistry videos. I'm a total visual learner and have learned a lot of great hair dos from the YouTube. However recently I got really brave... What about cutting my own hair? Scary right? 

I watched this video here and tried it out. 

I want to figure out how to layer the back of my hair better. But for a hair cut that is super quick you can't beat this one. It was a little tricky because my hair is so thick. But I want to find a way to make my hair have a more "choppy" look. If you find any tutorials on that let me know! I feel much braver after cutting my hair… oh you probably want to see what it looks like...

you can kinda see the layers on here my hair is just so thick and straight its ridiculous. I might even go short. You probably can't even tell I cut like 3 inches off.

Have you ever cut your own hair? Saves time and money. However I'm in desperate need of a color and I hate doing that on my own.

P.S. Vet school journey is going again we are waiting to hear back from the schools. Midwestern (in Arizona) has shown some interest in Adam. We are seeing what happens next.

October catch up post...

Don't you hate it when bloggers do a catch up post because they got behind?... Hopefully you don't because that's what you are about to get.

First item of castle of hassell... 

We bought a bed. A fancy memory foam KING size mattress. I haven't slept this good in years... I mean years. So lately we have been very very busy building a bed frame for our new bed. When I say we I mean Adam and our friend Taylor. Taylor and Christin were/are nice enough to let us build this bad boy in their garage. Its been there for weeks now and they still like us. That is definitely one of the hard things about living in an apartment, not able to build in a garage.

Here is the latest on the bed. Adam and Taylor feel 215% more manly by working on this. We should finish this week. More details on that. 

Adam also applied to vet school this week so we are praying that all goes well in that field. This will be his last year applying if he doesn't get in we will have to move on to plan c... D? Maybe Plan V. More to come on that. 

Today... Thayne, Josy, and I went on a walk. Thayne found this praying mantis and had to have him on his arm our whole walk. 

Josy today decided to feed upon the words of the apostles by eating aunt Lauren's conference notes.

Thayne also had me working on a sewing project today. It's in the process I'll also have to show you when it's all done. It's a sweater blanket from all our high school sweats.

What do you think?

Adam and I got to go to conference this weekend. Our first time together ever. So awesome. I know you can feel the spirit at home when you listen, but the feeling when the prophet enters the room is indescribable. I was so touched by each talk and learned much. Now I need to change my ways and act on all the promptings I got.

I also did a cheap update in the kids room... Christmas lights. Thayne loves them. And it makes the room look bigger. Have you ever used Christmas lights for anything other than Christmas in the house?

So totally random post. Lots of projects going on lots to write about later. Glad you can see our life in the process. These past few months have brought a lot of craziness. Things are definitely in fast forward. 

Interview time

Adam applied to vet school clear back in September. 

He applied technically to Washington State. 

Utah State has partnered up with Washington to be able to get more students into vet school. 

What does that mean?

Well, it means that we are here for two years then off to Washington State for the last two. 

Just last month we heard that Adam had an interview for this month!

He just did it yesterday! Oh my goodness! 

What was it like? 

Well it sounds like there is a panel of vets who decide if you are man/woman enough 

to make it through vet school. 

They like to ask about your chemistry... 

They also like to ask you questions about specific vet issues.

They also want to know how you are going to pay for vet school (seriously? student loans!) 

So glad the interview part is over. Now we have to wait two weeks to hear back from them!!! UGHHHH!!!

I got to go to a mix and mingle type of social with Adam last night. 

While there you get to talk to students who are working on their first year of vet school, professors, and vets. 

It was interesting to talk to different people going into the same professions with completely different plans. I learned last night there are vets who specialize in fish. I had no idea. 

They also had a question and answer session for those who are interested in vet school and those already in attendance. A wife raised concern about how students manage to juggle everything. 

It sounds like none of the vet students work and that their spouses do (poor Adam) 

so they put in the time they need to study and try very hard to be done at 5:00 every day 

just like a job. The weekends they try to focus on family time and fun. 

Meanwhile back in Washington we have friends who are at vet school there and the husband is going to vet school and working two jobs... he is also someone who doesn't need a lot of study time. 

Everyone is so different. I know that vet school will be doable and I know that it will take a chunk of time but so does work. We can't wait to hear back and see what our next step will be. 

Happy New Year!

I started off this year thinking, "wow January is a big month".

Then I got thinking about everything that will be happening this year and decided that this

is going to be a BIG year!

Thayne will turn 2, Adam finds out if he gets into vet school (and hopefully starts this year), 

Garett returns home from a mission, Lauren graduates high school and hopefully comes to school

at Utah State. 

Along with the big events are small events each month Thayne and I are working on

him sleeping in his big boy bed...

Naps he is doing great! But night time well he just doesn't want to go to sleep. I read something about 

18month old sleep regression. Anyone else experienced an outta wack toddler?

I did set new year resolutions but they are pretty personal. I'm already in a habit of exercising, I am always trying to eat better... ok so maybe I had a tiny bit of cream cheese brownie for breakfast. It was a rough night last night.

This year I am trying to do better at setting monthly and weekly goals. I call it my "What I want to accomplish this week... month... list"

So far so good. It helps me survive stressful times. 

I have to tell you about a failed craft...

Here lies a great 18 month old snow suit. Problem? 

Its pink. Thayne is a boy and I want all our snow gear navy so its easy to match and goes both ways. We recieved it from some very kind souls who 

claim they are done having children. I thought I could just dye it. (I dye my own hair why not right?)

My mum tried to warn me saying it could turn purple. I figured it was just light enough that it probably wont... guess what?!?!?

It's very purple. I tried the navy blue dye and this is the result. I then tried a black dye that made it even darker purple. Needless to say I have given up and given in and bought Thayne a navy snow suit. If you see this one at your DI you know what happened. 

As far as Us... Adam is amazing at handling stress and luckily its rubbed off on me a little bit.

He has his interview for vet school Jan 22. 

We are both learning that student loans are harder to obtain than we thought. (bills are coming!)

Adam has to retake a class but USU doesn't offer it this semester so he has to take it online.

Taking him from 12 credits to 16. 

He stays calm through it all. Which helps me stay calm. 

It might sound crazy but I know that we are doing what the Lord wants so it will all work out. 

It might be super hard, but it will work out.