Doors are Swinging Open!

Last week was a hard one with the loss of Peanut and everything but Friday really turned things around. I had heard about an opening at the Youth Theatre here at the U and really REALLY wanted to work with them. Youth theatre is what I want to do with my degree/life. So I started working on my cover letter and resume and contacting people as references. I emailed my former acting teacher here at the U and asked if I could list her as a reference. I didn't hear back from here so I just arranged for other people. I finally got an email back from her on Friday saying that for some reason she'd tried to respond but my email wouldn't let her...but that she had already passed my information on to Penny (the artistic director doing the hiring) and that she thought I'd be great. So yay! I was finishing up my cover letter and asked one of my coworkers to read it and tell em what he thought. He in turn asked his friend who is an equity stage manager and she told me the Egyptian theatre is also hiring people for their youth theatre and gave me the name and contact information for that person. That afternoon I got a call from Penny saying she was still looking for an instructor for one of the classes and that Margo had just said wonderful things about me. I dropped my cover letter and resume off and I have an interview later this week!!
I was having a pretty darn good day. After I got home I got to see my good bud, Jace Holland Dredge, aka Papa Dre who served his mission where I went to school in Missouri. We went to the gymnastics meet, met some cool girls in our ward and hung out at my house until almost 12am laughing and being crazy rowdy. When Johnny got off work he came over and met everyone and then told me HIS awesome news for the Day. A) The Bakery he works at got invited to be part of a Soups and Dessert show later in February. Since he does all of their soups he's going with his boss, Romina who does the desserts to be in this show. Awesome news #2) He is going to start doing a monthly TV spot on GoodDay Utah from the Maytag store representing the Bakery. its always good to get himself seen! and FINALLY) Johnny Ray has been asked to be an instructor at Williams Sonoma! which means once a week he'll teach a class inside the Williams Sonoma store here in Salt Lake.
We are definitely very grateful for all these opportunities and know that our Heavenly Father knows our desires and needs! And I'm also grateful for the 75% discount we'll get at Williams Sonoma---you know that's where I'm getting my stand mixer! We are still stressed but we're looking forward and things are looking good. We found out my roommates are not extending their lease so I have to be out by June first which means we're looking for our first home! Its exciting and very weird. I'm starting to feel grown up.
OH!!! and as of today we have LESS than 200 days til we get hitched: 199 to be precise. (6 and a half months) which is much better than the original 12 months and one week! And we have now officially been together for 9 months...now if only we had a baby to show for that ;) JUST KIDDING!

Wedding Stuff!!

Man I love doing wedding stuff!! Its great sitting at my desk all day and looking at different options in between the calls I get. Today......get ready for it......drumroll.........I Found my Tiara!! I LOVE IT..its so gorgeous!!! .I kind of want to wear it like...now

I realize I should probably pick my dress before the tiara and veil and such but I'm so so so torn on my dress and I already have my veil (Something Borrowed) and this tiara should work for any of my dress finalists. And it matches the whole feel of the wedding. And I just love it. SIGH.

Yay for girlie weddingness!!

Ok so I have a question for all you married MoMo's out there... I kind of feel like I want to do my endowments the day before the wedding itself. Both my parents and my sister did it all in one shot...but they were both married before and were being sealed. I feel like doing them at the same time would just make it a really really long long day. If we did our endowments at 11 we would have to be there at 9:30 (which is the earliest I want to be there) and we wouldn't finish being sealed until almost 2pm. That's an awful long day especially since good old Mr. Johnny gets hypoglycemic. Then my parents would have to drive the 8 hour trip home to get ready for the open house the next night. AND B) I know I'm going to be all giddy and dorky and "yay wedding day" and I'm afraid that I might miss out on part of the endowments. But mom points out that they enhance eachother. And I didn't realize it but Johnny wasn't planning on taking the full 2 weeks like I was so he doesn't want to leave any earlier than the 6th...I'm working on that because I don't feel like that's going to be enough time....I dunno. What do y'all think?

The Tides They Are A Changing

We received some very sad news on Sunday evening; my sister, Brittany, and her husband, Chad, lost their baby. This is always a very sad circumstance but particularly devastating for our family. Brittany and Chad had been trying for three years to get pregnant and had met with much difficulty. They even tried a couple rounds of in vitro and, after that too failed, they decided to adopt. The morning they were to meet with their case worker, Brittany took a pregnancy test and it was surprisingly positive! They were, of course, elated as was the rest of the family. My other sister, Caitlin, is also pregnant and they bonded (And I decided it was another way to exclude me). Everything was going well, the nursery was already nearly finished, they had clothes and blankets, Johnny and I even got the little Peanut a "Baby's First Norwegian Cup" for a Christmas present. Brittany was 13 weeks along and in her second trimester, she'd had three ultrasounds and everything seemed to be going well. At 11 weeks she had an ultrasound where they were unable to see the heart beat but the Dr. said it was just an old kind of fuzzy machine but that the baby looked good for size. What we learned after Sunday was that for whatever reason, Peanut had stopped growing at 9 1/2 weeks, we don't know when the heartbeat stopped, but we do know that Brittany continued to grow the whole time. We are all very sad but are looking forward. We know that they can get pregnant, and that her body knows how to deal with a baby, and this means she can attend my sealing!! This comes just after my best friend, Holly, lost her baby after trying for years, and Brittany's dear friend, Megan, lost theirs after going through a very similar situation as Brittany's. I don't know if its because I'm so baby hungry, or just because these girls are so dear to me, or just my innate love for babies but I have been crushed each and every time. I am so worried that I will lose a baby and I can't even begin to imagine how that feels. That doesn't help when this happens- I know that I don't know what they are going through and I can't really offer any comfort. All I can do is tell them I love them, let them know I'm here, and pray.
This is kind of a downer post. But on the lighter side: Caitlin's Boy is growing healthy and big, Lizardbreath Ducklips is nice and preggers, Jace is in town to party before he moves down here, We're down to less than 7 months to the wedding, and I'm sure there's some other good stuff but I'm at work and my head is kind of everywhere. CALLERS ARE CRAZY!!!

Starting Anew

Ok so I used to post on Xanga and I went through spurts of being really good about blogging and I always love reading everyone else's posts. But it seems lately all my friends are moving away from the xanga and onto the blog spot---always a sheep, Here I am!
Quick overview of Moi and mon vie!

I am currently an operator for the University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics. It is a total switch from everything I've done before (namely, waitressing) and I heart it on a major level. I am kind of a student at the U but haven't taken classes since last spring semester. NOT MY CHOICE!
I get to go raise some heck in there today after work:

You see I transferred to the University of Utah from Truman State for the fall of 2006. I attended half-time paying exorbitant amounts of money for out of state tuition. In the spring semester I had to go through all kinds of hoops because they had not applied my federal Stafford loan because I had not clicked a specific button online apparently. So We clicked the button, had to go fill out paperwork, and do a bunch of schtuff so they would not only apply the loan but not kick me out of the spring classes I was already attending. Fast forward to this summer, just after finally taking care of Truman's mess that sent me into collections for money that I DID NOT OWE! I started getting calls from a collections agency for Utah saying that I owed almost 10,000 dollars... Apparently when I went through all those hoops last spring they neglected to tell me that I needed to attend an orientation meeting for my Loan to be applied. When I asked them why I was never told about this I was informed that they had tried to call me twice and since I a) don't answer calls I don't recognize. and B) never got a voicemail. I never attended this orientation and the school SENT MY FEDERAL AIDE BACK. And was then told that federal stafford loans cannot be applied retroactively. So that rant means that I took last semester off so that I could afford this semester (my job pays 50%) and now had to take this semester off because they say I owe thousands of dollars that should have been paid for by my loans.

If you're still reading.. I am amazed and feel loved. Other than school stress I am engaged to Mr. John Ray Velasquez II. We are getting sealed for time and all eternity in the Nauvoo, Illinois Temple on August 8, 2008 and are having a ring ceremony and reception here in Salt Lake on the 16th. I am all about planning weddings...for anyone. But planning MY wedding just has a bit more fun and excitement attached...call me crazy!

We're not quite sure where we headed after the wedding or what our life will bring to us. We're hoping to stay here so I can finish my degree and then head back towards the midwest to raise our family.

I think that's a good overview...if you have any questions let me know. Otherwise I'll see you here next time. Same Bat time, same Bat channel.