1 year and 8 months later...

Hi again. I started this blog a while ago as an idea to try to motivate myself to think positive. I only allowed myself to write positive posts about things I loved about the situations I was in even if I did not care for where I was and felt like I was having a difficult time. I can confidently say that I feel because of this blog, I think more positively all the time now! I mean sure I have my downs, but I try my best to make good of whatever situation I am in now.

 It took me a long time to get adjusted to life in Idaho... It's dry, it's a desert, there's not much green and there's A LOT of snow. Not exactly this tropical southern girl's ideal situation. However, I was able to focus on the positive, ended up taking some classes and eventually we moved! Yup! Boy graduated from BYU-Idaho and got a job in Texas! So we moved to Austin. Our apartment was small, still a 1 bedroom and man is traffic terrible there... However, if you are a foodie person, Austin is the place to be. Wow! Torchy's Tacos will forever have a place in my heart. Yum! It was a fun experience to be in Austin and I thoroughly enjoyed spending almost everyday at the pool in the sunlight. Loved it!

Well, another adventure has come our way and Boy has gotten accepted into a masters program at ISU. Yup. Back to Idaho in the most dinky little town called Pocatello. Locals here call it Pokey. I'm proud of him. I am. Boy is super smart and so we are all very happy for this opportunity... but back to Idaho?? They say you can't keep an Idahoan out of Idaho for long and though this Boy grew up in Tennessee... I think he's already spent so much of his time here that he's become... "one of them"... Haha.

I can't say I'm too happy about being back here... It's already too cold for me and it's only August. The berries and mangos are high-priced and our apartment is in some white trash part of town. *sigh* We've been trying to make the most of it, but it's tough being back. It's rough moving so much period! However, I've been trying to make the most of it and have been able to find a few positive things to keep me on the up and up.

1. Though our apartment is small, it's a 2-bedroom. This means.... CRAFT ROOM!!!! I finally have my own craft room! It's been interesting trying to find a space for everything we have with us, but I don't even care because I have a room dedicated to where I will let my creative juices flow! A place where fairies can model as I draw them, where I can sew cosplays and crafts and where I can paint from the light of a window! It has a window too! It's the little things...

2. Zoi yogurt. When we moved to Texas I realized that Zoi does not exist outside of Winco Foods in Idaho. (Not sure if it's anywhere else yet) Zoi is the best greek yogurt I have ever had. Thanks Syd for introducing me to it. I hate greek yogurt unless it's cooked into things, but dang! Zoi is freaking delicious! I stocked the fridge already. Can't wait for lunch tomorrow!

3. Friends. I think this is the best part that made this move a little easier. (I intentionally tried to delay packing because I did NOT want to come back...) On the drive up we saw many of our friends which was super nice. I've missed them! Texas was awesome, but I had... 2 friends. They were sweet and I will miss them though. I can't wait until next weekend when I'll get to see more friends for my birthday at the most awesome burger place ever, The Snakebite! I have yet to eat a burger as good as a Snakebite burger. Delish!

So I guess that's actually 4, but that's good right?! I hope that I can write here more often. Not just because I'm all sad and depressed and forcing happy thoughts, but because this is actually a blog where I can look back and read previous entries and not want to burn and destroy them! I have to figure out how to do pictures and everything again though since apparently Google has changed their outlook here...

Detox

I know I haven't written in a while. After I finally got into school last September officially, things were so busy. Aside from my music and textiles class, I ended up staying at school in the sewing lab until 10pm every Tuesday and Thursday for my advanced sewing class. Whew! It was exhausting, but I'm done with my sewing classes that I would like to take. I am tempted to take Pattern Making next semester though... as scary as that sounds. We will see. 

After the semester ended, we moved south! Boy got a paid internship with the church! We were pretty excited. Unfortunately his hours aren't the best (3 days of 12 hour midnights) but at least he has the rest of the week off. I ended up signing up for 6 credits online myself. I'm in 2 art classes, prerequisites for any other campus art classes. No matter what, these art classes are online which really bothers me. I don't learn well online and have a hard time with disciplining myself to sit at the computer and watch 5 videos of a teacher who sounds like he is bored out of his mind, then read:

Everything in red on the side.... Just for this week....

Yeah, it's a challenge. Even more so because I've already taken drawing 1, but they wouldn't transfer it over. *rolls eyes* Life of a transfer student. 

Anywhoz, so I got sick last week and I have no idea what I had. Sore throat, nausea, fever like symptoms, but no fever... It was weird. I had no energy and felt really weak. Finally I started to feel a little better and I decided to take a detox bath.

Best.

Idea.

Ever.

I decided to go all out with a bath, facial and hair scrub. These are things you can do at home too!

Facial:

So I decided to try out this pin someone had posted of taking a 1/2 a lemon with 3-4 drops of honey on it and rubbing it on my black heads. I also took some aloe gel and loaded up the dark circles under my eyes. Left that on for a few minutes or so and after washing my face, it felt so great. With a few drops of lotion on the dry areas, it looked like I wasn't even sick and my skin was nice and soft.

Hair Scrub:

My scalp was really itchy because of my eczema, the dry area we live in and cold winter air. I found this pin on Pintrest and decided, why not?

After following the image to the original website, I found all the ingredients and instructions on what I needed to do. I decided to blend it up in the mixer to make the oatmeal finer and it felt so good to scrub it on my scalp. It was a bit challenging, but my hair is finally back to being thick, soft and feeling so healthy. It no longer itches or feels brittle. Loved it!

Detox Bath:

I decided to do this one last. Now, if you've never done a detox bath before (which I hadn't) there's a few things to know. The website linked there goes into more detail, but your bath needs to be HOT. You probably shouldn't eat too much before or after. You will be dizzy if you get up too fast and you need to drink water! I went through about 4 cups of water right after I got out. However I felt fantastic for the rest of the day and energy to finally go out with Boy. For my bath, I did lemons and ginger, but here are some other ideas you can do with their benefits:

Like I said, you might feel dizzy, so get up slowly and rest a little bit before doing anything else for the day. You'll feel fantastic though. I loved it! It was so great! We decided to celebrate with me feeling better with some crepes. Found this awesome hole in the wall shop which was fantastic! They had Nutella shakes!! YUM!!!! It was a good day.

I guess I should do homework now... *sigh*

Adventuring

I don't want to say "travelling" because to me that sounds really stressful and exhausting. So, due to my lovely dad, who never got lost on any trip, we like to go "adventuring".

Often times, whenever we have a break, we like to venture south and have fun with friends. This time, we actually got to spend time with family too! Sisters, nieces and nephew all came in and we had a little family reunion together. I think we all had a good time exploring the area and having fun in the museums around the local campus with the kids.

Look at them cute siblings!

Watch out Abigail! Hippos are one of the deadliest animals!

There was a camp going on at the campus during the time we were there. It was kinda funny to watch these teens all run around the college campus with their groups and bags and lanyards. Since Boy and I met at one of these camps, we eventually came to this campus and had to re-live the picture that was taken almost 11 years ago? Something like that....

Before (sitting on the ground eating lunch)

After (the ground was wet...)

After walking around, we of course had to stop by See's Candies. It's a treat since we can't get See's down south or really anywhere else we are. Haha. 20 scotchmellows please!

After family left, we made our way with some friends to Zion's National Park to hike the narrows. We didn't really get to hike the full Narrows due to rain and threatening flash floods, but we did hike from the bottom about 5 miles in to Big Springs and back down. 

By the time we got to Big Springs, it started to hail and rain a little. The water level started rising and by the time we got to the end of the trail, there was a sign posted...

Oh deer! (Haha!) It was totally worth the hike. AND! The best part was I wasn't sore the next day! Usually after doing that hike, you are completely wiped out. (Granted we only did 11 miles, not the whole 18 miles...) Still! I'd been working out and training myself to do this hike, and I did it! Now if I can only stay in shape and keep working out.... Motivation? 

The next day, we decided to take it easy and work on our Junior Ranger badges. I want to try and go to as many National Parks as I can and get all the Junior Ranger badges. Make a scrapbook out of it all. I think that would be pretty fun to do. It's always fun doing the easy little booklets and going on adventures, learning with the rangers, etc. Now I have two so far that Boy and I have done together to add to our family "Adventure Book".

Until the next big adventure! (Comic Con) 

Blue Hair

Hey! It's been a while.
Things have been going okay here. We've been dealing a lot with the allergies for the season, trying out different allergy medication, etc. I swear one day I'm just going to sneeze and my head it just going to explode. At least that's what it feels like. Heh. At least it's warmer than 60 degrees. I'm so ready for swimming, tanning and watermelon. YUM!

So in case anyone else was wondering, yes, I did dye my hair blue. I've always been a colorful person and since a teen, have experimented in dying hair. I've always wanted to do something bright and colorful, but wasn't sure what color. Blue it is! Not completely blue though... Being I am a teaching assistant for archery classes at BYU-Idaho and will be taking classes come September, I couldn't make it too bold due to school standards. (yeah, I know...)

 

So I just did streaks that were neatly hidden on the underside of my hair. I scared the hubby and sent him a picture of the blonde with a text saying "what if I went blonde instead?". Haha. With my skin tone, I don't think it would look right. It was a good laugh though. 

After sitting under the dryer for what seemed like forever, we finally washed out my hair again, making it look like we killed some smurfs. My salon girl had a blue tint on her hands by the time we were done. I couldn't even see the blue with my hair all wet, but when we dried and curled it, it was VERY noticeable.

Like I said before, it's all underneath my hair, so you can't really tell in the second picture, but it is there! It makes me happy every time I see it when I put my hair up in cute buns and curls. I think my favorite is to curl it though I need a thicker curling iron than just my 1/2 inch. Maybe it's a 1/4 inch thick? Either way, it's little.

I've noticed that when I wear certain colors, the shade changes slightly. For example, green makes it look more like an aqua than the bright blue it is. I try to wear blue and make it stand out more when I'm not at school to make it stand out more. Latest fashion? Bandanas. Especially as seen here in this picture where the knot is on top of my head and my hair is in a pony. I also like to drape the bandana on my head and tie my hair in pigtail braids which include the bandana, securing it into my hairstyle. It is fun. 

So even 2? 3? weeks later, my blue hair makes me almost as happy as this man. It's been a whole year! Can you believe that? I can't. It makes me so proud to be married to him. The best for me. I've already decided that if we end up moving next month, I'll most definitely make my blue streaks a little more bolder for the fall. Have you ever died your hair fun colors? or wanted to?

Gardening and Flowers

I haven't written in a while because I've been busy getting the contract and legal things out of the way for this book I'm illustrating. Then I'm also going to start school in the fall and I've been trying to figure out what classes I need to/want to take, when registration is, etc. It's been busy for sure.

So I may or may not have posted about flower before, but oh well, you're going to hear it again. :P I've never really been any good at gardening and planting things. I always tended to kill them or they just don't grow because of my lack of knowledge in such subject. My dad's favorite story to tell is when I was little, I had a greenhouse from like McDonald's Happy Meal or something and we watered it for like two weeks and nothing grew. He finally asked me jokingly, "Are you sure there's a seed in there?" and my innocent little toddler self asked, "What's a seed?"

Yeah, embarrassing. Anywhoz, I've tried to grow things, flowers and stuff in our family garden, but if it wasn't for mom or dad (I'm sure the humidity of the area helped too) my plants probably wouldn't have gone far. Since then, on my own if I tried to grow things, I would try and do what the instructions told me, but I always thought plants were those kinda things you just do once, let it be, check on it every so often and it'll just do it's thing. No maintenance required. Haha... I've at least learned since then that they don't require at least as much attention as Kate does. It's not like I have to take it on a walk everyday. So far, I've been able to grow green onions...

So I planted tulips in the fall, which never sprouted this spring. So I had a friend come over and teach me how to grow things. She's a horticulture major and definitely not afraid of dirt. Even in a skirt. Awesome. So, we found my tulip bulbs about a foot under dirt (they are only supposed to be about 2-3 inches under...) and I'll try to plant them again next fall maybe. I bought some dahlia bulbs and we planted those in the pots instead. Later that week, I found some cute little lavender type flower bulbs to plant at K-Mart. They are supposed to bloom in the late spring, so it was a little late, but looking at the bulbs, they seemed to already be blooming. Now they are all so cute with their little blossoms!

The other Dahlia's in the pots haven't bloomed like the one on the right, so I'm a little nervous, but we will see. I've been trying to give them sun as much as I can, but the tree's are in the way. We'll see. Dahlia's aren't supposed to bloom until summer anyway, so maybe I have some late bloomers?

I even took some of the lavender type flower bulbs and decided to try something from Pintrest. So far it seems to be working! It should be rather pretty for our window when they bloom.

Cool huh? I haven't watered them yet today. I've been trying to be good about remembering to water them. It's so dry out here, I have to water them everyday! I can't even remember to drink water myself, let alone give some to my plants. lol I can't wait for them to bloom though. It'll be exciting. In other good news, I have also managed to keep my clover plant alive since March!

Isn't it pretty?! :) I'm excited that it's still alive. I was afraid it wouldn't last long at all, but it's still goin' strong and it's getting so big! I might have to put it in a bigger pot, but I'm nervous about that. Every time I change pots, things die at that point due to the shock... So we will see. I'll have to ask my friend about it again and maybe she can help. Hehe.

Well, that's my happy point for today. Just watching them grow and waiting for the blooms. Course a watched pot never boils... lol If you have any suggestions or tips from me, let me know! Please!!