Taxes....Check!! well....almost

Tax season is almost over! Phew! Not that it's been all that stressful but I'm also not the one doing them. I have little or no income to speak of last year between school and traveling but my dear husband has some complicated stuff going on. Plus, we're learning all of our school expenses could be very helpful to us especially next year. I suppose it pays to be informed. Neither of us kept very good track of our receipts for books or school insurance. Oh well. Next year we'll be able to file together! Yeah! And we'll make sure to keep all of our receipts. Live and learn right?

Live and Learn!!!!


Coming up in the few weeks:
3 days until we go to Utah
8 days until classes start

Easter is here!!!!

      It's our first Easter together and it's been fun starting our traditions as a family. Yesterday we colored eggs with Dana's mother and then Dana went to work. Neither of us have colored eggs in years. How fun! Now we have a dozen hard-boiled eggs we're aren't sure what to do with. Ha!

These were my 3 favorite eggs

We had lots of colors!!!

 ....and lots of eggs

     Speaking of things we don't know what do with--the Easter Bunny came last night and now we have enough candy to choke a horse. I wonder if I can't repackage the candy so that we can hand it out to the trick-or-treaters this year. Do you think they'd notice?

     Today we watched the LDS General Conference and I ate too much candy.

     Two weeks and two days until classes start and a week until we visit UT. Life is starting to speed up again. I'm so excited!!!

On With Life.....

It's been a while since I've written and I can't claim being super busy but I can claim no internet. Anyway a friend suggested I update--So here I goes....

Been married now for 2 months and four weeks(at least that's what my Daisypath anniversary ticker on facebook tells me). I'm still in good ol' Iceburg...errr Rexburg ID. Getting ready for school to start in 3 weeks. Can't wait to use my brain again. I'm taking chemistry 105, Math 110 (college algebra), clog dancing (possibly ballet as well), Christian History, if they'll let me in the class I'm taking a sports and conditioning class (really neat side note about that: It'll be the first class I'll have taken for my exercise science major that teaches me to teach others) and last but not least environmental science. If all works out according to my plan I'll be taking 15 credits. Yikesabee!! That isn't always hard but it becomes a lot more difficult when chemistry and math are in the mix. Either way I'm stoked about school starting.

That's all for now....

Stuck in a Wedding Planning Rut

     Since last post my goals were to figure out the cake deal and get the invitations out. Neither one done...Ick! I've been gathering the addresses for the guest list and working on the wording and asking around about cakes. There's been progress. It turns out it's really difficult to plan a wedding from another state. My mother is being so helpful. I'm guessing most of my stress is just from not being able to be right in the middle of all the planning. Am I a closet control-freak?
    
     Not only is it difficult to plan from another state it's difficult to plan from Rexburg. It's tough to shop when you have limited options. If not all of you are familiar with Rexburg: Population 27,500, that is less than a fifth of the size of Eugene, Oregon (population:154,600) - the town I grew up in. Rexburg has 2 bowling alleys (that's a big deal), Walmart, Braulim's (grocery store), Albertson's, Kmart, Radioshack, Maurices, Bajios, Arctic Circle, Craigo's Pizzaria, McDonalds, Wendy's, one craft store....Rexburg just isn't the place you want to go if you want options and to get a low priced option.
    
     Anyway, planning is still going. Cake and invitations are still on my list along with center pieces and bridal photography. The lady I was hoping to have take my bridal pictures is taking some time off this winter so I'm still looking. ::Sigh::

     Dana keeps telling me "We have the Temple, we'll have the mariage license, and a cruise...everything else....Just details." I wish I could be so easy about everything as he is.

So I'm focusing on breathing and counting down the days!!!! (It's 50 days.....just in case you were wondering)

He asked my daddy!

Welcome back!

...they dated for a short time again (about a day) and Jennifer told Dana she was ready to marry him. Dana asked her daddy for permission and his blessing. Her daddy gave Dana the go ahead.

And now I'm planning a wedding.

It's been fun trying to juggle school, Dana, and reception planning. The Lord must have known what I was going to need to do this semester when I was planning my school schedule. I have a fairly light load compared to last semester and what a blessing it's been.

I have my ring, dress, and shoes. I've decided to wear ones that I already have. I'm excited to be wearing flats! We're going to have the dress hemmed so I won't need to wear heels. My feet will be thanking me. I'm not putting pictures of the dress up because Dana can't see it yet. :-)

My mom has been super supportive-really great. She picked out the table cloths set-up already and everything. Things are coming along quite nicely. We already have an apartment as well as a honeymoon.

This week: Invitations.

I need to get the invitations done and out! We have engagement pictures. They were taken by Torsten Bangerter (Picture shown above. To see more of his work: http://torstenbangerter.smugmug.com/, http://tbangphoto.blogspot.com/) We also have wedding photographer Kim Whigman with James Erick Photograhpy (http://www.jameserickphotography.com/)

I feel like we've done so much but there seems so much more to do! I'll be glad when the planning is finished.

Come back soon! I hope to have another update next week. For sure there will be in 2 weeks.

How it happened...And it did happen

Welcome everyone to the first post of our blog! There have been lots of questions about how Dana and I happened. So...It's story time.

Once upon a time there was this really confused girl name Jennifer Bowman. She had a missionary coming home and she wanted to give him a chance. She had nearly made up her mind and thought her decision was concrete when she started to spend time with the missionary.

The semester before her missionary came home she had been dating a boy named Dana Weston. He made her laugh and they became best friends

She told Dana that she wanted to see how things went with the missionary that was coming home. Dana was very patient with Jennifer and still dated her even after she had told him about the missionary.

The day the missionary came home he proposed to her and she said yes. That night though she was having second thoughts. A lot of doubts went through her mind. She really liked the missionary but something didn't seem right.

Jennifer spent the next two weeks with the missionary. They drove from Eugene, Oregon down through Fresno, California back up to Salt Lake City, Utah. The two of them spent a lot of time talking and Jennifer did a lot of thinking but she couldn't settle on the thought of marrying him - even as good of a boy as he was.

She finally made a decision about what to do. Jennifer decided to make no decision. School was her next step. They drove to Rexburg with the understanding that they would no longer be an item when he left.

Jennifer needed to return some totes she had borrowed from Dana so she texted him. From that day on the spent all the time together that they could. In the first couple of days they played with the football, went shooting, conoeing, went on a walk. In a few days Jennifer decided that she was ready to date him again. She no longer felt confused after a couple of days with him. Dana was ok with dating again so they did.

To be continued......