Need Some Motivation

So right now I am in serious need of motivation, there are TONS of things I can be doing that I just don't do. For instance, I am looking to go to graduate school and have been off and on studying for my GRE exam and the whole process. Also, I have had a hard time finding a new full-time job which has been an added stressor. I need some serious motivation, I am in a little rut right now.

But on the positive side things have been great besides that, my calling at church is amazing and I am loving life. I have made a personal commitment to read the whole bible and to read everyday - that has been a hard goal but so far I am over three weeks strong and am in Deuteronomy now which is the farthest I have made it to. General Conference is this weekend and I am major excited about it, I will even be able to catch most of it, will just miss Saturday morning session because of work. My institute class is going well, we learned about John Taylor this week and if I knew my prophets better I could tell who is next - but I can't. Well by next Wednesday I will be able to.

Just want to give a shout out to Kylene, I hope she has her baby soon and that everyone is healthy. I am so excited to be an aunt all over again, I love my neice and nephews.

Hopefully I will have some pictures next time, probably Halloween will be the best bet.

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.