Birthday, blessings, and book crafts

And another year goes down in the books. Today I'm 22 years old. I know I'm not old, nor do I feel old (well only sometimes when my body aches in ways it didn't use to). But its just kind of funny that in my mind I haven't gotten any older since I turned 20. I remember I was so excited to turn 20 because then when I met people (specifically guys) and they asked how old I was I didn't feel like such a baby saying "I'm 19". But ever since then age hasn't really been a big deal. I almost have to think about it for 30 seconds or so when people do ask me how old I am.

Oh how these 22 years have flown by and the things I have done:

- I have been to at least 20 states that I can remember
- I have sung at a jail with a non-denominational christian choir
- I have been to the top of the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, and other places in NYC
- I have seen 4 broadway shows
- I have hiked multiple mountains and witnessed the beauty of God's creation in nature
- I swam out to an island
- I have lived in Hawaii with amazing roommates
- I have danced hula on a canoe at PCC
- I have hitched hiked almost completely around an entire island with no official place to stay but the tents we were carrying
- I have been in an opera (soon to be 2)
- I have sung multiple concerts with the BYU Choirs
- I have competed in a national dance competition
- I have given a talk in front of over 1500 people (at the same time)
- I have been out of the country once (for our wonderful honeymoon and oh how I prize that little stamp in my passport and long to give it some more)
- I have almost received my college degree (woohoo graduation next december!)
- I have said I love you and meant it to many people in my life. (I use to think that was a bad thing, and that made it less special for when I finally got married/had a family, but I realized that it just means I have a big heart!)
- I have made countless memories with amazing friends
- I have laughed until my stomach hurts many times
- I have seen loved ones come into and leave this world
- I married the most wonderful man in the temple and am so grateful for him
- Mostly, I have been extremely blessed by my loving Heavenly Father over and over again.

It has been a great 22 years and I am so excited for what this one and hopefully many more will bring!

Tyler was so cute on friday because there are multiple crafts that I had been wanting to do all week. So I got out of rehearsal at 6 and he comes to pick me up and there is a big present in the front seat. It was a gift from his parents with the various things for the crafts that I wanted to do. To his dismay though I saw a glimpse of his present for me in the trunk.

But in the bag I got canvases to do a project with, a hot glue gun and glue sticks, and we went and got the styrofoam wreath and cheap books that I needed to make this book page wreath.{Sorry for the crappiness of the picture it looks much better then that, and once I finish the book page canvases I am going to make I'll take a better picture}

So knowing that I kind of and unintentionally saw the gift he just gave it to me on Friday night.
Isn't he such a cute husband! I got my first sewing machine and sewing kit that comes with everything that you could need. Now do I know how to sew....well....not really. But that is just fine! Ma'ila (if your reading this just know you can stay with us) is coming up in a few weeks and she is a master of sewing so she can teach me some tricks. Also, my mom is coming in december and she knows things too. And if all else fails it comes with a instructional DVD so I'll just learn from that. But I'm excited because it was so thoughtful of him; he realized how much I've been getting into this craft stuff and wanted to let me keep going with my fun hobby.

Which by the way, the table and chairs are just about done {thank the lord!} We meant to finish them yesterday but then there was a freak rain storm that came through provo, and that put off the finish day to another time. But I was having such a hard time with the chairs and getting the paint to look good. So I was reading on blogs and seeing that many people just use a paint sprayer to do their projects. I found out that you can rent one from Home Depot, so we were going to do that. We get there and it is one of those 5 gallon, heavy duty, real painter's job machine--which we did not need. So what does my thoughtful husband do. That's right we go an buy a smaller version.And yes it took us a while to figure out how to get it to work just right, but after that we had all six chairs mostly painted (except for the insides of the bottom) in about a half hour!!! And they look great! So we bought staples and I finished all but one cushion's reupholstering. Now lets just hope it doesn't rain tomorrow so I can finish them and get the gorgeousness they've turned out into my house.

So when I first started all these crafts I had nothing. Now I have:

- A sander
- A glue gun
- A sewing machine and kit
- A staple gun (just a hand held non electric/pneumatic one)
- Plenty of foam brushes and a few real paint brushes
- Work rags
- and A paint sprayer

Tyler made one cute plea, can you just make do with what you have now for future projects please? Hahahah, I told him I'll try ;)

Now even though it's my birthday I have to go grade about 300 more papers. Oh the joy of being a TA :)