Me at 31

I had a birthday... actually a pretty great birthday.  Jeremy was out of town (that wasn't the great part).  I also had to work, a lot of people felt bad about that, but my reply was "At least I get to spend the day with family!"  I am so blessed to work with the people I do and I truly do consider them my family.  Peggy and Sherry both made me birthday cakes... Peggy also made piggy cupcakes, and got donuts the day before.

After work, Dr. Bradbury felt bad that I would be going home by myself for my birthday, so he and Galima invited me over for dinner and had a sweet birthday party complete with minion party hats, flowers, and sparking trick candles.  Max said the prayer... it went something like this:

Max: Please bless that... Silence
Bradbury: Max, come on.
Max: whispers Dad, I can't remember her name
Bradbury: Jami
Max: Oh yeah, please bless that Jami will have a happy birthday.

Haha... so cute, made my day.  I cannot express what this kind gesture meant to me.  See why I consider these people my family?  Thank you so much Bradbury's!  I am looking forward to paying this kindness forward. :)

My life has for sure not played out the way I thought it would, but I have the best friends and family a girl could ask for.  I KNOW that Heavenly Father is aware of me and blessing me in the way that is best for me.  Here is me at 31:

Birthday Interview:

What is your name?  Jami Collette Wells... unless my Dad says it, then it sounds like he messed up cuz my name is Jami Collette Hurst!

How old are you? 31 and I'm okay with that :)

What is your favorite thing to do? Make cards-love all crafts, but cards are my favorite!  Here are a couple of my most recent:

What do you want to be when you grow up? A nurse practitioner... and a mom :)

What is your favorite food?  Ice Cream!

Who do you like to spend time with? Family and Friends.  All of them.

What do you do really well?  I think I do crafts really well.  Maintain relationships, I also think I maintain a positive attitude.

What makes you laugh?  Everything.  Even things that shouldn't-like when people get hurt... I don't know why that is so funny.

What is the best time of day?  I am a night owl.

What are you afraid of?  Letting people down, not living up to my potential.  And the dark.

Who is your best friend?  Jeremy

What do you like to do with your family?  Talk and play games.

What do you love to learn about?  The human body fascinates me.

Where do you like to go?  Home.  And Disneyland. :)

What is your favorite book? Masquerade by Sierra St. James, and A New Dawn by Jack Weyland... both adorable love stories!

If you had one wish, what would it be?  That I could be a mommy!

Guest Room Re-do

This is the first room in our new house that I have painted and made mine (yep... 2 years later!).  I am thrilled with how it turned out.  Take a look!

When we moved in, this room had an awesome (cough) powder blue accent wall, paint lines that make me want to cry (sadly, there are more in the house), and a sharpie-d on I love you sign that I didn't love.

Let the work begin:

First the walls.  Filled holes, 2 coats of primer over the blue and an antique-y white... at this point I am not sure I love it, but I still have great things in mind.  I wanted to do a chevron accent wall, so thought I needed a pretty mellow base color.  I think I made the right call!  I am SO IN LOVE with the chevron wall and I could not have done it without my mama.  Thanks Mom!  I figured out how many stripes I wanted and plotted my grid on paper-then moved to the wall with a chalk line.  Once the chalk was down (sorry no pics of any of this) used paint tape to make the chevron.  I really thought this step would be awful... not so.  I'd probably even do it again :) 

Are you impressed?  Me too!

Next a headboard I got off the local yard sale site for $10 (I didn't get a true "before" pic :( ).  The paneling was cracked, so I took it off and replaced it with beadboard.  Primed and then painted the whole thing teal and then used antiquing glaze.

The nightstand:

I found this at the D.I. several years ago, and this is it's second makeover (kind of a poor "before", but at least I have one!).  I painted the stand itself black and sanded the drawer down to bare wood, stained with a pecan stain and then added a teal arrow to the front to tie it into the rest of the room.  

And my favorite piece, the dresser.  My friend Sherry sent me this pic and asked me if I wanted this dresser for free.  Are you kidding me??? Let me think about it... uhhh... YES!!!  Have you ever seen better bones for a furniture re-do?

Love how it turned out!  Sherry's hubby wondered if it was too late to ask for the dresser back. Yes... yes it is.  I am emotionally attached.  

The details are beautiful no?  Antiquing glaze is a beautiful thing!

Here is everything all put together.  I'm sure I will add some to the walls in the next bit, but for now I am pleased with how it all came together and find it much more "me" than powder blue!

Thanks for looking!

FUN TIME!!!

I have some exciting news... I am almost done with my Bachelors!!!  I have one final left to take and I am D.O.N.E.  I have rewarded myself with some crafting time!  I haven't done a scrapbook layout for almost two years.  I remember why I love it so much!  Here are a couple of layouts I did this last week. I got some Kiwi Lane templates a few weeks ago, the 2 page layout was my first try with them... I kind of love it!

P.S.  Crafting our Disneyland trip makes me want to go back SO BAD!!!

OK, another funny story... I was messing around and wondered if I could use Mickey Mouse ears somewhere... I put them on Jeremy and thought they were so funny I took a picture and texted it to him.  Here's how it went:

Full Release

We went to SLC Thursday for an appointment with Dr. Kubiak's NP.  He said Jeremy's leg was fully healed et gave him full release to return to normal activity as tolerated.  WHOOHOO!!!  To celebrate, we got tickets to a SL Bees baseball game (Jeremy doesn't know how to get his pic without some crazy face or sticking his finger up his nose)...

Other than the chilly breeze, we had a great time.  We made it to the 7th inning before the tight bend required to sit in the stadium became too much for Jeremy's knee... Oh well, it was fun while it lasted!

 Jeremy's "All-Star Dog"

My Momma

Isn't she beautiful?  She's amazing too.  She is one of my bestest friends ever!  I am one lucky girl. 

Some of my favorite things:

Special holiday meals:  She always made holidays special.  Valentines breakfast included a pink heart shaped waffle with cherry/strawberry syrup and cool whip, pink milk, and a treat special for each child by our plate.  Green pancakes, green eggs, green milk etc for St. Patricks.  A variety of colors, fake raw eggs (pudding and half a peach) for April Fools Day.  She always out does herself for Halloween... here is an example:

For Christmas, we would always have her "magic cocoa" before bed.  Hot cocoa, whip cream, sprinkles, and a candy cane stirring stick.  Our birthdays were a big deal.  We got to pick our favorite food for dinner... she would make us a special cake (our choice), and homemade ice cream.

She always took/takes time to make each child feel important.  It seems like a little thing, but when she would make big grocery trips, she would take turns letting us skip school to spend the day one-on-one with her.  I NEVER heard my mom talk about how excited she was for school to start or for us to go back to school.  She was always just as excited about days off school and summer break as we were.  Even yesterday she told me how excited she was for school to be out to have Levi home for the summer! 

How important the gospel and Jesus Christ are to her and her willingness to share her testimony with us.  My mom sees the Lord's hand in everything!  I hope I can have half her faith some day.  She made family prayer, family scripture study, and FHE a priority in our home.  I remember her et my dad frequently taking the day to go to the temple-showing us how important it was.

She always tried to make chores fun.  We would play clue and all sorts of other games to get the chores done.  My favorite memory was playing Mrs. Piggle Wiggle... that didn't work out so well though, cuz she would put one of us in the dungeon (root cellar), but we liked being in the dungeon (it meant we weren't doing chores)!

She was always willing to play with us.  Snow sculptures in the winter was a favorite.  We made all sorts of animals et she would put food coloring et water in a spray bottle so we could color our creations.

She always took time and still takes time to really talk to us. 

She still takes care of me... even though I'm 27!  For instance... this year Jeremy and I were doing in-vitro... Jeremy broke his leg right in the middle of it.  Mom came to SLC et went to appointments with me, and then came home with me et took care of me on bedrest... when Jeremy was able to come home from the rehab center she took care of us both for a week.  We COULD NOT have done it without her!

I love you SO much mom!  HAPPY MOTHERS DAY (even though it's a day late)!!!

Go Fish!

I am the Primary chorister in our ward, I was so scared when they asked me, but I can't think of a better calling... I LOVE this job!  Today we went fishing.  All the fish had songs on the back and if the kids sang the song well the fisherman/woman got to keep their fish if the song was iffy the fish-and-game (primary presidency) made them throw the fish back.  I was trying to give more kids a chance to fish, so along with the sea creatures, I made an old tire, a boot, and some seaweed (no songs attatched).  A little guy got the tire... he cried... I felt like a bully... I still feel like a bully... boo :(

How's Jeremy Doing?

He's doing good!  He has been back to work for a month... maybe six weeks.  Thank goodness he has a desk job et has been able to work!  He is still on crutches/walker... but is only two weeks away from the 3 month mark at which point he will be able to start walking on it... YAY!  For the most part his pain is pretty minimal, though he is finding storms hurt!  A couple weekends ago Crystal, Doug, et Levi came to visit, we were all outside et I guess Jeremy was feeling left out...

Good thing the 4-wheeler has a crutches rack!