The Owl

This is for Michael, Grandma had talked to him about an owl that was sitting on our house. Well here are some pictures of him sitting on the house, and up in a tree in our backyard - our trees are kind of different from yours but I guess owls aren't picky.

First two pictures are the owl in the palm tree in our backyard, this was about a month ago and Brian thought it was so amazing that we had an owl.





These last three pictures show the owl right outside mine and Mom's balcony, Dad came upstairs to tell me there was an owl and when I went out I couldn't see him. Mom came too and had to show me, he was pretty cool, just sat there and would occassionally glance at us.

Dogs Haircut

So, this actually happened in May over Memorial Day - which was a weekend when Mom and Brian were in Maryland and Dad and I were home together. He decides that it is a great time to give the dogs haircuts. I will not dispute that they needed it, but I did not want to spend my day off to do it.

Behr has a ton of hair! I wish I took pictures of the hair we buzzed off, it was layers and layers of hair in our backyard. Here are some pictures I found of the dogs before their trimming.



This one is my personal favorite of Behr - it was taken in the winter so he does have a winter coat - but still - this dog has lots of fur!





Here is the after photos - this is actually 2 trims after. Dad and I took off an inch the first time, but then 2 weeks later Mom, and I took off another 1/2 inch. They look pretty goofy in the pictures, but the hair has darkened to a nice red again.





The hair has also evened quite a bit too.



Brenlie was a little coward when it came down to the cut, she had way less hair than Behr and took a fraction of the time to do.



I really love my dogs, because that was definitely a labor of love.

Mom's 50th Birthday

Mom celebrated her 50th Birthday on Thursday, unfortunately she had to work that day and so only in the evening could we head to Olive Garden for a nice family dinner. MaryJo took her to breakfast on Wednesday morning and made her chicken salad complete with croissant rolls and Nicole made her a home-made cheesecake with fresh raspberries.

I took Mom out to get her first pedicure ever! The only reason she agreed was because we went to a patient of Dad's and so Mom decided that she could maybe handle Tuyen Kim touching her feet. Well she claims that she liked it and admits that they are not as terrible as she thought they would be. Below are pictures of mom's and mine pedicure.





Grandma Banks had a dozen pink roses delivered to the house, and it was such a special suprise for Mom to get on Friday.



Dad got mom a printer/copier/fax machine, and I am also grateful because now she doesn't have to rely on mine. I didn't take a picture of that, but it is nice, it is a wireless printer - Dad wouldn't help try and figure out the "wireless" portion of it so as of right now that feature is not working.

My Church Calling

I am very excited right now, I have been in my Singles Branch for a little over 6 months and I finally got my call. I am the Branch Service Committee Member! There are maybe 3 people in the committee including the chairman and there is also one honorary member. Our first service will be feeding the homeless in some shelter in Phoenix - sometime next month I believe. It is going to be amazing, I love my singles Branch.

Beyond that there is nothing super new right now, I am working at the bank as a teller still and posting out for full-time job at least once a day now. Mom and Brian are going to Utah tomorrow for the Fourth of July and should come back with some fun pictures, and I still have to post their pictures from Maryland. I did get my diploma in the mail yesterday and it looks pretty plain - but how can you really make a paper look that exciting?

So no pictures this time, sorry.

More Graduation Pictures

Brian is not the only one who had a photoshoot. I wanted to get some nice photos in my cap gown wearing gold ballet flats - I couldn't find any so I ended up wearing the ones I wore to my cousin Whitney's wedding.

I also wanted some pictures with my glasses - I hoped they would make me look smarter or sophisticated.



But I also got some pictures with the contacts. This is at Red Mountain Park with the itchy grass and people walking their dogs that we had to avoid in our shots.



This one is my favorite - the pose of relief!





The next two pictures were taken at Las Sendas, there was a pretty rainfall and I think these two turned out amazing. Sister Smith did such a wonderful job.





Mine and Brian's were one of the last free photoshoots she did, beginning June she officially starts. It was a lot of fun, I had done a previous shoot with her at Tempe Town Lake that I loved, and the pictures were great.

Brian's Photoshoot

Brian had photoshoots done by a lady in our ward who is starting a photography business. Mom wanted some different pictures pictures of Brian smiling. Most of the shots were taken at Red Mountain Park which gave a great background of Red Mountain and by the river.



Brian had a hard time smiling naturally on cue, sometimes he looked pretty silly but they turned out really nice. He doesn't like to smile with his teeth, Mom told Sister Smith to be sure to get a toothy smile no matter how unnatural it looked.





She wanted Brian to be doing something other than just smiling, a more "natural" pose for him. So Brian whips out his DS and starts playing it, and I'm pretty sure this is the photo Brian liked the best.



Great Job Sister Smith, they look great. MUCH better than Brian's yearbook pictures.

ASU 2009 Graduation

I am officially done with school for at least a year! Today I attended my convocation at the Wells Fargo Arena at 1 p.m. and I had an okay time. My parents had to rearrange their work schedule in order to come to the ceremony and support me. I am thankful that the ceremony took place in doors because it was warm today, at least 103 degrees, and in the cap and gown I was dieing trying to find them outside.

This is me walking to my seat, I am the short one, I was so angry that the girl behind me was some amazon woman - plus the seats were tiny and she was all over my space.



This is a photo mom took of me, I guess they saw me instantly when I walked in - I was the fifth person and sat down close to where they were sitting. So although they were high up I had a pretty clear view of them, I think you can see my hand waving at them in the photo below. I sat by a friend of mine, it was so nice to know someone there and could keep each other company.



We wanted to take a picture behind something that said ASU but for as many people as there were, and for how hot it was I figured the palm was good enough. This is me right after I found mom and dad in the outside lobby - they made all the graduates exit which made finding everyone difficult.



Brian was kind enough to take a picture of mom and dad and me, he had to come with me in my car to save seats for them. So he was there over an hour early too - thankfully convocation did not take as long as I thought it would and lasted from 1p.m. to a little before 3 p.m. Mom was really excited that I decided to walk, I was really against it, but like she said - it only happens once so here we are.





This one is my favorite, I am so glad that my family came and supported me for this step in my life. After this picture we went to a late lunch, watched the Diamondbacks win a game and then later in the evening went to Nielson's for frozen custard. It was a great time.



I should get my diploma in 10 to 12 weeks, it is kind of sad to think that my school career is almost over - now I have to work for the rest of my life. Awesome. Seriously though, I am excited, college has been a great experience and I have a year to think about going on to a masters program.