X-Po-Zay

I dropped out of ISU's Medical Transcription Program today. My cousin informed me that if I stayed in that I would not only pay ISU's tuition and book fees but also tuition and book fee's for the company that they certify their students with. Basically, Career Step (the company in Utah that ISU goes through) charges less for their Platinum level program and Job Placement and Textbook hardcopy than ISU charged me for tuition alone! So, I am going to try and get into classes I need at BYU-I, hopefully full time. I want to finish up my minor in Medical Assisting first and then get a job to save the money to do Medical Transcription through Career Step.
Clint and his dad were able to get the Citroen running on Saturday! Whoever buys it will only need to make two more minor repairs and it will be road worthy!

Smiffy & the Wiffy

Smiffy:
-enjoyed time off this week from his job as a lighting tech while his boss was on vacation
-endured having his rolling veins infiltrated in both his arms
-fixed the car...again
-ate
-slept

Wiffy:
-glad to be moved in and have her stress level reduced some / Any future tearful breakdowns associated with moving shouldn't occur for at least 3-5 years
-determined to work her business so that neither she nor Smiffy will ever need to sell their plasma again
-needs to post about our day at Tautphus Zoo
-starts MT program in 2 weeks-ought to order books for that soon
-blogged

*PS* If anyone is going boating soon that would be willing to let us tag along...we are both craving a weekend of water skiing and tubing!
Take us with you PUHLEAAASE!!!

More pics of our new house

22 Pictures

Hope you're all ready for a good long blog post!
We are officially announcing that we are moving out of Cougar Court into our very first place of our OWN! Yes, I said OWN! We are closing on a beautiful trailer on Wednesday and moving into it gradually the first 2 weeks of August. We are so excited and so are our finances! We are purchasing the trailer--it has 2 bedrooms, 1 bath. All appliances are included (gas stove, portable dishwasher, w&d, refrigerator, window AC). It is newly painted inside w/new carpet as well. There's a garden in the back and we have a yard with a small shade tree! It is only 10 years old and measures 14'x67' and has vaulted ceilings. It is fabulous!
There are some changes we hope to make while we live there...like refinish the tub, get a mirror for the bathroom (the previous owners took the one shown in the picture), touch up painting, build a shed, etc. But it's in really good condition and we'll have lots more space and privacy than we do now. Here are some pictures of our new place! (these were taken before the previous owners moved out)







If you haven't read recent blog posts, you've missed that I recently became an Independent Mary Kay Beauty Consultant. I am enjoying my business and loving what I do! Let me remind my family that they receive a 15% discount and friends who host a party or class or get outside orders for me, earn free product and gifts! I also offer free shipping on my MK website. For product promotions, please fan my Facebook business page or visit my business blog. Remember, this is MY business, and because it is personal to me, I will customize my service to be PERSONAL to YOU! I appreciate your support whether it be that you purchase from me or give me referrals...both are great compliments and encouragement to me.

Other than that, Clint's out of school till January and will be working full time over the next 5 months. I start MT w/ ISU soon (to refresh your mind on the subject, read my blog post from March about it but remember that I will be taking a class from BYU-I to keep my enrollment after all).

Something else I can mention is that the Wednesday or Thursday before my birthday, Clint and I got into a tickle fight...it was really fun...until his knee ended it...I was busy tickling my squirmy husby when suddenly his knee came up and clocked me in the face by my right eye and gave me a concussion. (Went to the doctor a couple days later and asked about it and how long I could expect to deal with it...minor concussion he said and a couple weeks of pain...great...a couple days ago I hit my face by my left eye on one of the speakers in the living room pretty hard=another OW!)

So, basically, we're working while we wait on the big move and my MT program to start. Can I just tell you that I am so glad I'm only going to be enrolled at ISU for 2 semesters? I didn't like them in high school and I don't like them much better now. Maybe it's just because I have attended a church university over the last four years...but honestly, I still don't know what books I need, if there will be any time constraints on my coursework, or if I'll just be able to finish it at my own pace. Oh, and am I suddenly going to have to commute for random tests even though it's all supposed to be online? I hope not. I don't need that kind of aggravation. Because I can't get a work-study job till I actually start the program, Clint and I really have no idea if or how much we may have to pay out of pocket if my pell grant doesn't fully cover all my tuition and fees. I even have to get their student insurance waived despite the fact that I couldn't use it as I live over an hour away. I wouldn't let any of their doctors touch me regardless...I don't trust just any health professional. So ya, if they're smart they'll waive that.

The subaru is still working pretty well, but it has been having issues with the battery lately. The amp Clint has in the back, although he thought he disconnected it, seems was still draining power from the battery by some wire he hadn't. I want him to just replace the battery ASAP anyway since the 2 yr life thing is up soon.

I turned 22 last Sunday. Don't really like the number but I'm still young and still feel 21. We celebrated the whole weekend basically...double feature at the Teton Drive Thru on Friday (Up! is my new fav movie and Ice Age 3 was a one time view). Saturday we went to lunch at DQ and free birthday icecream at Coldstone. Sunday morning, my actual birthday, first thing Clint said to me was "Sarah?" like something was wrong and then when I rolled over to look at him, not wanting to wake up and said "What?" he smiled and said "Happy Birthday!" When we opened the door to walk across the street for church there was a card and Tapioca Pudding snacks from my relief society on the doormat. :D It was so cute because the birthday coordinator had called me nearly 3 weeks before and asked me my favorite color, animal, and treat/snack. I told her blue and green, giraffe, and Tapioca pudding! My card had blue and green dots and birthday wishes next to a giraffe on it!

I woke up about 2 hours later. Clint wanted to go on a walk. I said okay, but was curious to find that the living room and kitchen were much cleaner than I'd left them the night before. I asked him why he cleaned when I was happy enough with how it was. He said he wanted me to be really happy because now it was all really clean! Now, let me backtrack a sec and tell you that when we went to the Drive Thru, he asked if we could count it as part of my birthday. I said I don't know, you're planning my birthday...(we had a discussion a couple months back that if he didn't plan anything I wasn't going to deal with it because I hate planning my own birthday parties therefore, if he didn't plan anything and my birthday was just another day, that was his decision)...ok, where were we...Oh, he said it was part of my birthday. Same with lunch at DQ on Saturday. So, Sunday, he wants to go on a walk. So we railroad tracked it to Porter Park and it was HOT...but as we're walking he keeps texting. I asked him to put it away because in my peripheral vision it just looked like he was trying to figure out some wierd place to go on some map in the I-Touch. Of course he teases me by actually pulling it out but not turning it on and pretending it's a compass : P When we reached the park, we sat on the grass for a few minutes to rest and then got right back up and walked home since we didn't have any water and I wasn't about to let him push me into the sprays of the splash park.

On the way home, he picked a yellow blossom for me...it smelled so good! I told Clint to smell it and then he started rubbing my nose w/his shirt...apparently I got my nose in the flower enough to rub orange pollen on it. Clint thought it looked like I'd smeared mac & cheese sauce on my face. Ha ha.

Anyway, we get home and I walk in. Clint flips on the light when I reach the edge of the kitchen island, and fifteen people (friends from the ward and neighbors) all jump out and shout "SURPRISE!" I was definitely surprised...I SCREAMED! Renewed everyone's faith in surprise parties that's how loud and long and sincerely I screamed, they got me so good. So then Clint goes around and pulls a cake out of the freezer. It was my monkey cake that I always look for when we go to DQ! It had been in the neighbor's freezer the day before but now it had my name on it!

Here's something else for you to laugh at...Clint could have put it in our freezer and I wouldn't have known, but he'd hid it upstairs in our neighbor's and tempted them to eat it for breakfast, even though, I hadn't opened our own freezer all weekend.

After I finished screaming...still in shock

Super excited for my cake

Blowing out the 'candle'

Some of our friends brought blonde brownies for everyone to enjoy so we all ate brownies and ice cream cake and talked and laughed over my reaction. It was AWESOME!

Before I forget, let me tell you how well Clint lead me on to believe nothing like what happened was coming. We stopped to invite one of my friends over for cookies and cake that I was going to help Clint make before we went to the park. The whole time though, Clint knew they weren't going to be there because he'd called them the day before. So I left a message w/my friend's visiting sister and we went on our way. The whole walk Clint kept texting people every now and then, but I decided to let it go cuz he said it was our buddy Jeff and he wasn't texting back. Turns out he was actually texting directions to my friend Chels and letting everyone know they could go inside our apartment that I thought he'd locked...but cleverly tricked me and hadn't. How he got the cake was the night before he took Jeff ''grocery shopping'' for 3 hours while I was shopping online for my birthday dress. Earlier that day, I actually went shopping all over Rexburg for a dress or skirt if I could find one because he hadn't told me yet that he wanted to get me what I actually got; but when he tried to find it himself couldn't remember where to look for it. While I was galavanting around looking for something I liked in-town, he was calling everyone to tell them to come surprise me for my birthday the next day.

So there you go, probably the longest blog post I've written. Especially since I have more pictures to add to it once Chelsea emails them to me. I loved my birthday! It was awesome! Thank you everyone and can't wait for next year's surprise dear husby!

Here's some pictures of everyone waiting to surprise me:

Shalyn and Michael keeping a lookout by the window/Karen and David chillin on the couch

Tyler laughing...Todd, Rhen, and Nicole posing


Joe and Stephanie, Doug and Ashley(kept the cake in their freezer...thanks for not eating it for breakfast!)

Mika Rose

Okay, so I have to tell you all about my new favorite place to get modest clothes that are trendy and modern too! Mika Rose is a fabulous store in Provo, UT that sells modest clothing for women and girls with a huge dose of great style and flair! I found them when looking for online stores selling Modern Modest Dresses because I haven't owned a dress for a while (other than my wedding dress and a formal that will now forever sit in my closet 99-100% of the year). Anyway, I just really have needed to replace some of the items in my wardrobe since my style has changed and needing a boost of personality injected into it.
The dress I chose and that Clint bought me for my birthday is the Ella in black w/red trim (love the picture!) I had to call them to get it because it was listed as out of stock online; but they found they had one left in the warehouse and it was my size! Somebody loves me! Anyway, they put it online so Clint could buy it for me and it will be here next week.

To get me even more excited, they called me after Clint put the order in and said that they were coming up to Rexburg next week to visit w/the BYU-I Bookstore buyer. The hope is that their dresses and tops and soon-to-come skirts will be available here in our little bubble! Isn't that awesome!?! I am so stoked! Honestly, Maurices, DownEast, WalMart, KMart, and DI don't exactly give me all the variety and choice I want in the fashion department. Mika Rose has fabulous design and it's ALL MODEST! Go online and visit their site(FYI, the title for this post is a link to the Mika Rose website)...they do have a Clearance section with some dresses up to 75% off =$12...SWEET! If you live in Provo, go to their store. If you live in Rexburg, look for them in the Bookstore this Fall semester. Seriously, do it! Post a comment or check a reaction box(interesting, cool, funny)! I think you'll definitely agree that Mika Rose has got some fabulous style for us modest dressing folk!