Preschool Graduation

So you may remember that we were doing a preschool co-op with some other moms and their kids for Nathan’s preschool this year. Well, that year has flown by and last week we had preschool graduation! I still can’t quite believe it’s over and summer is already here. Nathan has loved going to preschool!

The kids put on a little program of nursery rhymes and songs. This picture sums up pretty much how Nathan felt about doing it while I was watching…

Awesome, right? I know. ;)

After the program they got their graduation caps and certificates.

This is his camera smile, ha ha

Afterwards, the kids made rockets to launch out in a field where we had a picnic lunch and I think everyone had a really good time. In the folder with his certificate, there was a little questionnaire they he had supplied answers to before graduation. I wanted to write down what he had said :)

Nathan - June 2017

My Favorite…

Color: pink
Food: Lightning McQueen Mac and Cheese
Thing to do: play with my Jackson Storm bath toy that Jason gave me
Book: about princesses
Animal: dinosaurs
TV Show: Hot Wheels and Bob the Builder
Thing I did in Preschool: playing

I don’t like dinosaurs to eat me

I’m really good at playing with garbage trucks

When I grow up I want to watch Dino Trux and Hot Wheels movie

I love it when my Mom hugs me.

I love it when my Dad go to work.

We were cracking up at the last two because Nathan is not a hugger, and that he likes when Dad leaves…? ;)

We are already looking forward to next year!

I can’t believe it’s over…

As of this last Friday, I am completely finished with my 6-month internship at the French Pastry School of Chicago. What an experience. There were certainly days when I didn’t think it would ever end, but wow those 6 months flew by. I can barely remember my first week, running around wondering what the heck I’d gotten myself into.

My last day was the students’ graduation day. We worked through the buffet, serving treats and trying to control the chaos of lots of hungry people. The interns and chefs were all there finishing setting up at 6:30 in the morning (graduation was at 9). One of the nice things about being part of the set up is that I FINALLY have nice pictures of the buffet! For both of my graduations, I couldn’t get nice pictures of the set up because of all the people! But during prep, I could take as many pictures as I wanted! ;) So now, at last, pretty pictures of the buffet ;)

The chocolate sculpture that one of the classes made with Chef Josh
Even some of the bowls and platters were made of chocolate!

Sugar Candies!
The sugar sculpture made with Chef Scott
And one of my faves, pate de fruit! ;)

Tarts and Petit Fours

The bread pieces made with Chef Pierre and Chef Jonathan
And the crocodiles were back for another celebration!! With those toasted almonds for teeth…they looked like they really needed to go to the dentist… ;)

And finally, the wedding cakes made by the cake program. This is one of my favorite parts, I love seeing what everyone comes up with for their final!!
I love the 3rd one back in the picture with the poinsettia and the damask. So pretty!!

So we got to be at the first part of the graduation ceremony, so I met up with my mom and Jennifer there.

And the interns got a group picture…I’m way in the back ;)

A little bit into the ceremony is a little blurb about each of the interns and then we headed back the to school to finish prepping for the reception. Mom snapped a picture of me before I had to rush out with the rest of my group. I got ANOTHER rolling pin. I have so many… 

Then the reception. John was able to meet us there and even though I had to work the whole time I did get to see him and my mom and Jennifer and they got to meet some chefs and eat yummy food.

Once we managed to shoo the final guests away, we cleaned. And cleaned. It wasn’t toooooo bad I guess ;) We basically had to put the kitchens back together so that work could resume again as usual on Monday (the weird part was knowing I wasn’t going to be there…). Once that was finally over, the school treated us all to a sushi smorgasbord and we got to sit and eat and chat and celebrate another successful term.

It was definitely bittersweet to say good bye. I’m going to be honest with you, there were days when I didn’t want to be there, when I felt like it would never end, when I’d wonder why I was taking my time to do this in the first place, but looking back, I have a lot of amazing memories with the crazy ladies that I worked with as interns, I learned so much about working, time management and being able to just get the job done. I learned how to push through the tiredness, the crazy students and the cleaning. Oh the cleaning. I’m amazed I still have the motivation to clean anything anymore ;)

And now for the next adventure. I wonder what it will be?

Downtown with the Family

And my family came into town to see us! They also had stuff to bring me (Like we need more stuff…oh well!!) We spent time with extended family and then we also went downtown to the Sears (now Willis, but honestly, who’s going to call it that??) Tower. It was so high up and REALLY cool!! The elevator to the 103rd floor was so fast, you could feel the change in pressure quite well in your ears. On one side there are these glass boxes built right out into the air!!! So you stand in one and it’s a pretty crazy experience to see so far down below you.

   

I think Mom was a little nervous… 

Pretty crazy, huh? We also walked around and saw my school (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and then headed back on the train. Lots of fun!

The cougar has landed!!

Or…something to that effect. Jason has arrived at BYU and starts classes tomorrow!

Our love and well wishes!!!! We totally miss being at BYU…so yeah…I’m a little jealous ;)

Also a shout out to our daddies for Father’s day! We love you and we hope you have a wonderful day! We miss you lots and are so grateful for you in our lives. You’re pretty much awesome. :)

For a very long while...

I hope to be DONE with antibiotics. Yesterday was my last day of doses and I finally feel NORMAL today! hurray! And now, I hope that we will not need them for quite a long time. But I guess we can only hope and pray and exercise and eat right and...all those things. whew!

So I'm doing much better, and we're excited for this weekend, we're going to Sea World with the Skankeys!! So that should be way fun. I have only been once a looong time ago, at the Sea World in Ohio. I didn't know there was one there. Turns out it's not there anymore. sad. So it'll be my first time at the CA Sea World. John has been before but it's been a while for him too, so we're pretty stoked! And even more stoked that I'm feeling well enough to go! Yay!

Not much else going on around here really. John finishes this semester next week and he's really looking forward to a little break :) He's only got one semester to go after that!!!

Good luck on your finals John!

But wait! There's more!

I also wanted to tell everyone that I passed my last class for my BYU undergrad and will be officially graduated as of December 18!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We Heart BYU!

Yay for more family coming to visit! My dad came in from Virginia for the weekend and although he says it was to see us, the BYU vs. SDSU football game definitely had something to do with it ;) But we had lots of fun! The day dad got in we went to Balboa Park and shopping at Costco and had yummy dinner at Outback Steakhouse (my FAVORITE!) and then on Saturday was the game. As the faithful football fan, i spend most of the first half finishing up the book i was currently engrossed in (Magyk, by Angie Sage) but by the second half, the cougars had my full attention :) And we won! Apparently, our defense wasn't that great, but we managed to hold them off to win by 10 points. (i don't really pay much attention to the quality of the playing, and although i understand the game must better than i used to, let's be honest, it's a bunch of guys running into each other) But we had a great time together even after getting scorched in the sun. We were sad to see him go back home, but we all had to get back to reality eventually.

RA, RA, RARARA
RA, RA, RARARA

RA, RA, RARARA

GOOOO COUGARS!!!

Schools and Sores

Well, where do I start? John started classes at SDSU this week and doesn't seem to think it will be too hard of a semester, so that's a relief. I have to somehow keep myself busy during the 6 hours he's at school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but I think i've done pretty well so far.

A bit of exciting news: I got accepted to the French Pastry School of Chicago for Fall 2010!!! I received an email on Tuesday and then I got the actual acceptance letter in the mail just yesterday. I'm so excited!! I can't believe I'm actually going to become a pastry chef!!! Now I just have to be patient until John finishes his masters here in San Diego, and then I get to have my fun in pastry school! :)

Some unfortunate news: I have a staph infection. blech. I had some sores show up on my hip late last week and over the last couple of days, one of them has gotten quite large and VERY painful. It was keeping me (thus John too) up at night because of the pain! :( it has been very sad. We went into the urgent care center in La Mesa yesterday and the doctor said it would be best if we opened it up and drained it of whatever yuckiness was in there because it was most likely a staph infection. He gave me a numbing shot (which had to have been the MOST painful shot EVER - but once it kicked in it was fine) and then cut it open and drained it out. Trust me, i'm sparing you the grody details, but man it was gross. Ha ha i don't know how John and I are going to have kids! I'm not the best with pain, and poor john was there at the doctor's with me and held my hand during most of the "operation" but went white and had to go sit down a couple of times. But he always came back. :) So after enough doctor trauma for the both of us, we ran to wal-mart to fill to prescriptions for the antibiotics and pain killers and after about 20 minutes of waiting for them to be filled...the numbing shot wore off. uh oh! Because the sores and cut are on my hip, I have been having a really hard time walking. We still had to get around wal-mart, so John got me into a wheelchair and he had a grand time pushing me around wherever he wanted to go. ;) But i didn't mind too much, i learned how to escape and how to turn the wheels left and right, and off I went! ha ha

So now I'm on the mend, thank goodness. Still hard to walk around, so I'm mostly confined to the couch and chairs. John has been so wonderful helping me get around the apartment and being my gopher (getting me things when I need them) ;)

So all in all, kind of a stressful week with having to go to the doctor's and all, but we're just pluggin' along. We're going to the temple tonight, and I'm quite sure we'll feel much better after that :)

San Diego, here we come!!!!

Hurray! After a long week apart, ;) John and i will meet up in San Diego tonight!! We'll spend the weekend looking at and researching apartment complexes, hoping to find somewhere nice to live after we get married! But first, i have to make it through 2 final exams and get to the airport!! eek! but i'm very excited to see john again!

John is awaaaaay!

John has gone to California for a week and a half before i get to see him :( We have still been unsuccessful in finding him a job here in Utah for the summer, so he's gone home to work for his parents for a little bit, and then as soon as finals are over for Spring term here for me, i'm flying down and we're meeting in San Diego to look for an apartment! yay! but in the meantime, i might have several posts up here because i'm bored ;) This will be the longest we haven't seen each other since we started dating back in january, and although i have already been twice as productive with my schoolwork, it isn't nearly as fun as having my sweet boy around.