May 2014

As noted previously, I spent all of May about two hours south. Here's what we did on my quick weekends at home:

No pictures, but we got the garden planted when I was home, most of it anyway. I would pull in Saturday night around 7:30 with seeds and starts from the greenhouse and we would get right to work until it was too dark to work anymore.

 Took a Sunday drive to Mesa Falls.

Found out that our lil' gummy bear is a boy! It was too exciting not to, so we made the news facebook official.

I would have loved to be a little more creative on the announcing part, but you can only do so much when you're home for about 48 hours, sleep time included. 

I couldn't resist this 'stache and bow tie balloon.

Kind of starting to show! I'll do a bump growth post later.

 

David hitched a ride and met me in Downey so that we could head to Jerrick's wedding reception in Utah. I wrapped my hair with paper towels to get a rag curl (thank you girls camp for teaching me valuable things like rag curls) on the ends, and then had a wet one wipe down in the car to make myself more wedding appropriate. Who needs running water and power to go from greenhouse grunge to wedding glam?

After the reception we went to the Boondocks to play with whatever family could make it. 

Mini golf, go-carts, batting cages, arcade, and the bumper boats- where Joseph lost his glasses in the pool. I think it was David, or maybe it was Uncle Joe, that shot his glasses off his face and down they went. It was pretty hilarious. We had a night full of laughs. It was great to hang out with family.

Visited all the family sites in the Blackfoot cemetery for Memorial Day with Uncle Klain and Aunt Elaine. I hadn't been here since 2001 for Grandma's funeral. It was great to visit when I am older and more appreciative of my family history. 

I put together the geranium wraps before leaving the greenhouses for the day. Pinks for Grandma Azalia and Red,White, & Blue for Grandpa Dean. 

 

Aunt Elaine had flowers for each site.

Baby Anne

We started our summer jobs. We're doing the same thing as last year- boat inspections at Henrys Lake. So for the weeks we had to be at Henrys- one weekend in May and one in June before I finished my internship- I only worked 5 days at the greenhouse instead of 6. So those weeks where I was working both I put in close to 80 hours. That was fun. Okay, maybe not so much. But you do what you gotta do!

The real fun part was taking the boat out again.

First voyage of 2014!

...And just because...

More photos from our photobooth session with our cute blue balloon.

David was pretty ecstatic it's a boy. :)

Internship!

April 14- June 14 I was in Downey, Idaho (south of Pocatello) completing my internship. I worked at Brady's Plant Ranch Monday-Saturday from 9am-6pm. I stayed with my sweet Uncle Klain and Aunt Elaine in Arimo. We couldn't find a job for David down there so we decided that he would stay in Rexburg and keep house, keep his campus job, maintain the yard, work on his online classes. I would come home Saturday night and head back down early Monday morning. I want to say it was a long 9 weeks. But it went by really fast. It definitely wasn't the happiest 9 weeks of my life- working in hot greenhouses, pregnant, away from my husband and my home. But it was a good 9 weeks of learning and gaining the experience I needed and wanted in the field of horticulture. 

The horticulture department requires a 400-hour internship. I wanted to complete my internship next spring after I had more of the horticulture classes completed. In December, Brady's came to the school and gave a presentation. I really liked what they do/how they do things so I interviewed with them just to introduce myself and talk about future possibilities of working with them (like a year out).

In January I really felt like I needed to complete my internship this spring. I really didn't want to. But I kept feeling like I really should. I knew the Brady's already had a BYU-I student lined up to intern with them for the spring and so I was scratching my head wondering what I could do and where I could complete my internship that was relatively close to home. I felt like I needed to contact the Brady's again. But they already had an intern lined up. But if I was going to do this I really wanted to get my hours in at Brady's. I was frustrated and confused. And not feeling well, ever. (Pregnant and didn't know!)

One day while working in the drafting design lab, I overhead the girl that was going to intern at Brady's say that it just wasn't going to work out, blah, blah, blah. I found my in. I contacted Brady's that night asking if they would be willing to take me and all my inexperience on. Seeing that they suddenly had an open spot, they said sure! Heavenly choirs singing! 

I still didn't know why I was doing this so soon, but I got it all set up. A few weeks later of still never feeling good, I peed on a stick and was shocked to see two pink lines (mid February). Beginning of March we went in for the doctor appointment and sure enough I was pregnant. Click, click, click- that's why I'd been feeling nasty all the time, that's why I felt like I should set up my internship for this spring instead of next, that's why I gathered my courage and asked Brady's to hire someone with no greenhouse experience. Don't you just love it when things work out? 

After getting the doctor's confirmation that there was a little person growing in my tummy, I told my mom....and then I called Karen Brady and told her the situation and if they would still be willing to hire me. She said yes and I was so relieved. She told me that when I contacted them about doing my internship this year instead of later she figured that I was pregnant and needed to get my internship done now. It's a lot easier to do that when a little person is inside of you instead of running outside of you- her words, not mine. We had a nice conversation about when we are listening the Lord will lead us down the road we wouldn't have chose for ourselves but the road we need to be on, even when we don't understand why. Could I have found better employers? I think not. 

I'm working on my final report right now and should be ready to submit it to my adviser soon. I'm so glad that I have my internship done and I can just focus on school, especially with little boy on the way. I will graduate before I die dangit! And having the internship part completed makes this goal much more attainable. :)

Brady's Plant Ranch is the largest greenhouse grower in southeast Idaho. They have 11 greenhouses. The growing houses open up in March as they get production started. When retail opens in April and the stock in the growing houses empty into retail, the ground in the growing houses is tilled and planted. The retail house shuts down at the end of June and Brady Market Days begin every Friday. They sell all the produce from the garden and growing houses- tomatoes, onions, peppers, corn, raspberries.... In the fall/winter they shut the houses down and let mother nature do her job of eliminating pests and diseases. They bring hogs in to winter in the greenhouses. The hogs snout and root and tear up and eat the plants/stalks. And then they house chickens to fertilize the soil. How cool of a cycle is that? They also have a floral shop as well as raise grass-fed/finished beef. You should stop in if you're passing by this summer! You can see the greenhouses from the interstate, to the east just north of exit 36 on the I-15.

And now a few pictures of my time at Brady's Plant Ranch:

Stocked, watered, dead-headed, maintained retail:

1- Floral arrangement for Ashley's birthday! I was able to do a few other cut flower arrangements as well. I'm so glad I took the floral design class! 2-Kitten in a tomato tree. 3 & 4- Custom plantings (two of many)

Top- planted hanging basket recipes- about 3,000! Bottom left- lots of pruning, pinching, dead-heading. Bottom right- filling lots of trays, pots, buckets, and baskets with soil. I went through the soil bin, which holds about a 1/2 ton of soil, about 4 times in my first two weeks alone. I can shovel some dirt seriously fast now.

Seeded and transplanted lots of things. Here is one set that I kind of kept track of. I seeded these tomatoes. Top- seeded trays in the germination chamber. Bottom left- I didn't kill them! Bottom right- transplanted into 1202 packs. 

When I'm done with my report maybe I'll put it up here with better pictures, more details of how I spent my time. But then again, maybe not. We'll see. This at least gives you a taste. :)

April 2014

Tore the whole dash out of the jeep....again. Ugh. But David got things fixed.

Conference Sunday made donuts. So delicious!

Soaked up some sun while studying.  (The yard is much more green now)

Joe and Felicia and kids came up at the end of the semester to visit and then took David home with them to play while I started my internship. He didn't have to work that week so the timing was perfect. 

We've had these red leather boots in the closet for years. James' PJ outfit was begging for them to be pulled out. Can that red-head get any cuter???

I finished my first week of my internship and headed down to Salt Lake to meet up with David and family for Easter weekend. 

Dying eggs.

And sweet Chelsie started the process of bringing my hair back to blonde.

While there we finally announced the news about our growing lil' gummy bear. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up with everyone in one spot and getting to see the big reaction. Plus we concocted a fun way to spill the beans that worked well with the easter season.There's a video somewhere, but all you can hear is Nessie screaming. haha. 

We gave Amelia a puzzle (of a cute yellow chick) with a note on the back that said there's another egg to find with a big surprise inside. We got everyone outside and David hid the egg (which looked like a cute yellow chick). When everyone came back in it was a mad house. I've never seen an apartment torn apart so fast. Sorry, Felicia. Finally the egg was found! Nessie opened it and ignored the black and white picture (she said she thought it was a map or something to another egg) and began reading the back which said: "We're EGGspecting this chick to hatch in October!" She stumbled over the EGGspecting part and then it clicked before she could finish reading and she was screaming and jumping and down. It was pretty great. 

We also sent the same message in an egg with some candy via snail mail to our grandparents and all my siblings to be opened Easter weekend. It was fun getting all their sweet messages of surprise and excitement as the weekend rolled out. And it was nice to be around family without David reminding me to, "Suck it in!"

Cute boys sending me some love during my first week of my internship.

 

I should also mention that David made it through his second chemistry class! These classes are repeated more often than not, but mister D got through them both in one try. Oh happy day! 

March 2014

Final project for my floral design class:

Celebrated my birthday with friends at Snake Bite. So yummy! We told them at dinner that there was a bun in the oven. At this point we had only told my mother and my future employers for my internship. So it was an exciting night. We see Brandon and Janet a lot and David, okay me too, was struggling to keep our little secret a secret for much longer. (photo taken outside restaurant. Downtown IF has random very large...art? pieces. Like skateboards, bikes, and other items that I can't remember right now...)

Came home from dinner to this beautifully arranged fruit pizza from David and Reed's Dairy ice cream from the Peacock's. Yum!

Went on a field trip with my horticulture propagation class to USU and drove by Pedro's house in Preston, ID on the way back. We got to meet with professors at USU and talk about their research, etc. We also stopped at the ISU extension site in Aberdeen to see the research work being done there. Lots of cool stuff and the only picture I took was of Pedro's house. ha! I was worried about this field trip all semester because I had been nauseous and tired and nauseous the last three months. But by the end of March, right in time for this trip, I was finally feeling ok again. It was a much appreciated blessing to not have to worry about being sick and still trying to be perky and act not pregnant alllll day with my peers and professor. I also got to see Ashley and Azalia when we stopped for lunch. It was great!

Finished my shirt for my clothing construction class.

 When I measured myself for this shirt, it was going to fit perfectly. By the time I finished it I was three months pregnant and it was a little snug. Needless to say, I've only worn it once.

Finally got serious about putting some pictures and decor up.

Found these on my thumb drive and figured I'd put them on here just for me. But you might think they're cool too. This was one of two final design projects for my landscape design class last semester. (My design won! eee!) We were given a plan view of the house and property with dimensions, a sleuth of problems with the property (the most cumbersome being the large rise in elevation), and a list of what the client wanted- which was a lot for a tiny amount of space, no backyard. We had to draw and color everything on paper as well as create a 3-D model on the computer. I have video of the model where you can "walk through" the yard essentially, but the format isn't compatible to anything except the design program- so it won't play on my computer, or anyone's computer for that matter that doesn't have VizTerra. But these pictures are fun to look at.

February 2014

February. We did some stuff. And if I didn't have pictures I wouldn't remember it. 

But first, a few things about the fun classes I'm taking this semester.

Here is one of my attempts at a corsage. Floral design is part of the required work for the Hort major, otherwise I don't think I would have taken this class, but I really love it. And I have complete and total respect for florists now. Wooza. So much skill is involved in seemingly simple things, I could never be a floral designer. 

Obviously, part of the class is flower i.d. Honestly, I could probably identify maybe 5 flowers before this class, but I'm getting close to the 100 mark now, and I think that's pretty cool. 

 

 

My second fun class this semester is clothing construction, but it is actually really hard and stressful. Here is my shirt pattern all laid out and ready to cut.

 

And here's a pair of PJ pants I made. This was our second project, the shirt is our third, and we'll be finishing the semester with a skirt. 

But seriously, the class is hard. The teacher looks at every stitch and measures everything and ahhhhh. Kind of takes the fun out of sewing, but I've learned a lot and that's what I wanted. 

  

David totally won at Valentine's Day this year. I don't care what your husband did or how much he spent, David still totally wins. The only thing we planned was trying out Chiz's- a small restaurant in St.Anthony. We drove up to St.Anthony to find that the place is beyond packed, duh, so we drove back to Rexburg and just went to Arby's. (But we did try Chiz's last weekend and it was glorious.) We went home and contemplated going to see Thor at the cheap theater. But then David whips out a treasure hunt for me! He had little clues hidden all around the house and shop attached to something- a stack of pallets he collected (I have a few projects on my to do list), a throw pillow (you can see some of it in the picture below), new boots that he got a stealer deal on (see RV photo below), and this sign that he made!

 

I was so shocked to see this and everything else. And then to see that he made this whole thing himself just brought me to tears. This is one of my favorite songs from the musical "Guys and Dolls" and I'll sing it to my mister every now and then. He found these boards, put them together, stained them, mixed paint until he had the perfect color, laid out stencils, and painted the letters in. Ohhhh my heart, my heart, be still. It is seriously so perfectly adorable and so well made. I love it so much. I should have been tipped off though because earlier in the week I texted him a line of this song (I love you, a bushel and a peck), and he responded right back with the next phrase (And a hug around the neck). So I texted the next phrase (and a barrel and a heap), and he got right back with the line after that one (and I'm talkin' in my sleep about you!). Because he'd looked up the words and was painting them totally under my nose. The other thing that totally surprised me about how he did so much, and I had no idea, is that he also had a chemistry test on Valentine's Day that he had been studying for all week. Not only was he working hard to do well on that (and he did sooo well on it!) but he was creating this thing of beauty for me. My oh my if I didn't pick a good one.  

Our friend, Janet, works for Bisch's RV, so we went to visit her at the RV show in IF on our Monday off. They had this darling little photo booth set up. My mind was BLOWN AWAY with how fancy RV's and trailers are these days. Holy moly. 

Speaking of our friends (yes, we made friends!), we tried to make an igloo in the front yard with Brandon and Janet. We got the snow all piled up in one place, and then you have to wait to let it "compact." At least, that's Brandon the igloo building expert said. And of course after we get our mountain built we don't have snow for 2 weeks and everything melts. Sigh. But it did snow all day yesterday, and it's supposed to be colder this week, so maybe we'll get to dig out our igloo after all.

AND THEN we had a spontaneous trip down to Utah. We really wanted to play with family, and we'd been thinking heading down there for a quick weekend for a while. And then Friday morning we got a text from Joseph saying that we should come down and pick him up from the SLC airport (as he had a job interview in Salt Lake that weekend). So we decided to go for it. And it was great. We finished classes and work on Friday and got to Provo around 10 that night. We played hard on Saturday and then just hung out on Sunday. And it just so happened that my brother, Daniel, and his wife, Tricia, were singing in sacrament mtg for their ward and I was able to be their piano accompanist on Sunday. No wonder we felt so good about bugging out of town. We got to see a lot of family and offer some of our services- taxi, child care, and piano skills. Pretty much, it's a really sad situation if we're not your aunt, uncle, brother, or sister. ;)

I got to hang out with these guys all day on Saturday as we rode the train up to Salt Lake and then played in the city. (David was grabbing Joe from the airport and they went to the BYU basketball game) Afterwards we met up with everyone for dinner. We got to see Daniel's family and Jenette and just enjoy being with the fam.

Krugh was beyond excited to ride the train, always saying things from Thomas the Train- clickety clack down the track....

And Jade is beyond adorable always. 

Just look at that face!!!! (not mine) She kind of looks like she's from Whoville in this picture. tehehe.

And we finally got to see this new little one. She is such a doll! Such a happy, happy, girl that just smiles at you all day long. (I didn't think to get a picture of her when she was actually awake.)   

Good gravy, I wanted to take her home with us.