IMHO

in my opinion...

couches should always have tall backs.

who wants to sit on a short-backed couch?

these migraines i get which cause me lose half my vision are not fun.

it makes reading hard.

i like twitter.

follow me.

my kitty is so funny.

she is so obsessed with playing outside that she learned how to open a screen door by herself 

and escaped.

lincoln would not know the first thing about keeping our accounts in order.

it's a good thing i like being the banker.

mornings are my worst enemy.

sometimes life is too busy.

and i feel like i'm missing the little moments because my schedule is so booked.

but it's kind of what you have to do when you're 20-something and putting the hubs through school, right?

plus, i'm the kind of person who needs to be busy.

i get bored so easily.

anyway, does anyone know how to be good at life?

because there is always so much to do, and so little time.

well, that's all folks.

IMHO.

what a week!

what a week...

what a week!

is it seriously almost july??!

my mind keeps thinking it's spring still.

so let's talk about this week:

kick ball. 

apparently my body is telling me i should probably exercise once in a while because i can't even play kickball without my legs feeling like death for the next day 3 days.  

seriously. 

it's the kind of sore where you avoid going to the bathroom as long as possible because the half way point between standing and sitting on the porceiln thrown is torture beyond belief. 

and you also find yourself lifting your legs in/out of bed, in/out of cross legged position all with your arms. 

i also recently jumped on a bunch of trampolines. and i don't remember it being that hard.

why is 23 feeling so old already?

also, i got to work one day and a few hours later the landscapers came inside to tell me my back tire was flat.

joy.

good thing my mom remembered i have hyundai roadside assistance with my warranty.

saved my life.

driving home on a spare: 45 min commute.  yuck.

normal commute with normal tire: 20 min

turned out to be a nail which only cost me $12 to fix.

did i mention we just bought FOUR new tires for lincoln's car like 3 weeks ago?

i wasn't too excited at the idea of having to buy ANOTHER tire.

my little nephew left to serve a 2 year lds mission wednesday.

i cried a lot.

love that kid and so proud of him.

he is headed to Louisiana Baton Rouge!

in the past year i've said goodbye to 4 missionaries in my family.

it doesn't get any easier, let me tell you.

i've been really excited about photography lately!

i'm always excited about it, but lately i've been ultra excited about it.

i have some amazing shoots lined up for the next little while and i'm in heaven.

here's my gorgeous co-worker friend, lauren:

beautiful yes?

also, lincoln keeps meeting all these famous people at work which is kind of cool.

nba players, rappers, ben stein, ty from extreme home makeover, and best of all:

brian regan.

totally cool.

and some more nephew pictures:

marshall and his beautiful eyelashes eating pink cake:

and beck mid-word "ball" (his favorite word) throwing mini basketball at camera:

life is great, eh?

hello, tuesday.

rainy tuesday.

is it raining where you are?

it always rains here lately.

and it ALWAYS rains on the days i have photoshoots.

but all the sunny days, i don't have photoshoots.

how mean, huh?

actually, now it is snowing.

yep, snow.

that's REALLY mean.

anyway, what else is there to do on a rainy/snowy morning other than play words with friends with husband.

(i'm totally winning.)

you see, it's the second day of husband's physics class.

i should also mention he started a new job yesterday and didn't get home until 11:15.

anyway, this physics class has homework due every single day, and he didn't get to work on it until 11:15 last night.

we spent a few hours doing the problems, but my brain couldn't go back to 10th grade and remember trigonometry.  i told my 10th grade self that i would never need to use trigonometry again.  and i was right, except that i would need to use it for husband's physics homework.  who knew?

after only getting to problem 6 of 14, we decided it would be a really long semester if we couldn't even do the first assignment.

so he dropped the course and signed up for another one.

and then spent the next hour reworking his entire college career semester by semester.
and making sure to take trig before physics.

school is frustrating.  just saying.



so i mentioned he just started a new job.
i also got a new job, but i don't start for a couple weeks.


we just like to do extremely stressful life changing events all at the same time as a big happy family.

moving.  two new jobs.  school.  having a baby.





just kidding.  no baby.

but that definitely would be another stressful thing to add into the mix, eh?



well, i'm going to go clean.

happy tuesday!

guac, minesweeper, and ice.

hello, there.

it's 11:00 pm and i'm eating a giant bowl of guacamole that i made from a giant avocado from costco.

from now on:  always buy avocados from costco.

they are huge and delicious and the same price as the little dinky ones at the regular grocery store.

i have an obsession with avocados.  they are so delicious.

but the salt is making my lips hurt so i keep trying to convince lincoln to give me a drink of his apple juice that he has on his night stand.

he keeps telling me that i "always steal from him."

..............................

he's playing minesweeper on his iPad...

remember minesweeper?

really old PC game meets modern new technology, apparently.

he's trying to pass the hardest level... 99 bombs...

and keeps having meltdowns when one goes off.

poor guy.

i believe in you, hunny!

..............................

this morning i was walking across the parking lot at work which was a solid sheet of ice from the storm last night, and it was also like ridiculously windy and i literally was being pushed by the wind on the ice.

so fun.

i'm ready for spring!!

raise your hand if you are too.

..............................

i'm curious, do you have any yummy (easy) guacamole recipes i could try?

i always put a little lemon juice and some season salt in the mix.

delish.

a whole lot of nothing.

hello, friends.

what have you been up to this week?

have you been having ridiculously cold temperatures too?

i feel like i can't even function.

i just want to stay in bed all day.

it's "death" week for hairspray this week too, which means ultra late rehearsals.

poor, husband.

but i'm kind of mad at him because he keeps watching friends episodes without me when we are supposed to be watching them TOGETHER.

well, i guess i can't blame him since we only see each other for the first and last waking hour of the day.

i've fallen in love with clemintines this week.

they are so delicious.  we've eaten a whole bag in 2 days.

i've been thinking lately that we probably should have named midge "spaz."

she is possibly the most entertaining animal ever.

for real.

did you watch the cone of shame video?

it's like that, but all the time.

i have never ever seen another cat like her.

she is all over the place all the time.

i'm so glad we have her.

i love her a whole lot.

sorry for the lame blogging, but winter kind of does this to me...

turns me into a LAME-O!

any cures to the winter-blues?

my week in statuses.

this basically summarizes my week.

how bout your's?

hi, friends.

it's me.

today is my first day "off" in a very long time so i have time to write an actual post.

except i woke up yesterday and today with a sore throat and junk in my face.

i really swear i NEVER get sick, but apparently i've been exposed to too many sickly people this winter.

i was going to (and will still try) to be motivated to do things today like taking down the christmas tree, laundry, and unpacking.

good thing i have midge because she is slowly starting to take of each ornament off one by one.

such a good helper.

i will also have to try to not be distracted by The Hunger Game series.

i know, i know... i'm a little behind the times, but we can't afford to buy books

and the waiting list at the library is like 60 people long.

and i don't have a library card.

so instead i borrowed the series from this handsome kid when we visited him in OK:

i just finished the first one last night and started the second.

what did you think of them?

i think i like them.

in other news, we are spaying midge in a couple weeks.

and i'm kind of really apprehensive about it.

we pretty much treat her like she's our first born and i'm just a little freaked out for her to go under the knife.

ugh.

wish me luck.

i started to write some new goals for 2011.

guess what number one is?

 move out of this apartment.

lincoln said his goal for 2011 was to have a baby.

if he grows it inside of him, then it will happen.

that is all for today.

i better go eat something because i'm starting to feel dizzy.

and here's another family photo:

love them.

popping in.

hey, all.

wow.  we are busy.

today was much better than yesterday with all the sickness stuff.

i think a lot of rest and drinking water helped me get rid of that sore throat and i haven't (yet) gotten all congested like lincoln.

maybe i'll skip that part and not actually come down with a full blown cold.

good thing, 'cause this week is madness!!

lincoln has two massive finals this week which he has been studying 24/7 for.

and learning hairspray routines might kill me.

oh. my. gosh.

talk about cardio.

my legs feel like jello at this exact moment.

in other news, our house is mess.

dishes (always) need to be done,

and we are currently surviving on one working light bulb in our bedroom.

three have burned out.

sometimes it's hard to see in there.

we are just hoping that it will last until we find the time to go buy some.

speaking of shopping, we haven't been legitimately grocery shopping since november 17.

that's really bad, people.

someday, maybe i'll learn to like grocery shopping.

anyway, just thought i would pop in and say hello.

does anyone else feel extremely disorganized in december?

that's me... every year.

stop the madness.

hello, there.

so today i have the day off, which is ultra nice after having the weekend off.

i'm feeling an overwhelming need to get organized so my life will run stress-free...  

or maybe just less stressful.

i'm starting with the 500 loads of laundry that need to be done.

how do two people acquire so much laundry?

what will it be like when we have kids?

yikes.

oh, and it snowed today.

boo.

and i'm also going to edit some pictures of some very pretty people i've 

photographed recently.

stay tuned.

and my enter button isn't working for some reason,

so it's proving difficult to write this post.

happy monday!

i just want to say some things...

i feel like i haven't ever caught up since the wedding...

like my life still feels like a big disorganized mess.

even though i'm done with school (got my diploma back today!  good samaritan), i still feel like i have zero time.  zilch.  nada.


oh, and guess what?  we got a $30 parking ticket when we attended general conference today.  i'm still really sad about it.  and i shouldn't really care about those things because there are way more important things in the world, right?  i just feel like it was really unfair.


lincoln just discovered that he has a 50 question quiz tomorrow at 7:30 in his hardest class.  poor guy.  he's stressin' loads right now.  oh... and it's 10:30 p.m.  in my honest opinion, his teacher is lame-sauce.  he basically doesn't teach them anything and then they have these crazy hard quizzes/tests.

man, i'm glad i'm done with that crap.  sorry, linky.


anyway... back to feeling like i can't catch up.

you see, i still really want to blog about all the wedding vendors we used.  but somehow we've been married now for almost 4 months (what?  how did that happen?) and i haven't gotten around to all of it.

it's almost as hard as planning the wedding itself.
would you be like, "blah... this is old news.  i don't want to hear about that!" ?
or would you like to know?


oh, and i also think that sometimes i'm really bad friend.  sometimes i forget birthdays or forget to send wedding presents.  and i feel really guilty about that.

i decided that starting today, i'm going to write everyone's birthday on my calendar and be really good about sending a card or surprise to them.  i definitely need to be better at those things.



speaking of birthdays, mine is on thursday.

i'm turning...

23.


i feel really weird about that.  like, i'm really weirded out about 23.


do you know what most girls my age do at 23? 
they have babies.

and that weirds me out even more.  everytime i see pictures of people who have babies, i get really scared about that part of my life.


so everyone quit asking...  i'm more "house hungry" than i am "baby hungry."




well, i think that is all i have to say.

have a lovely monday!

guess what?

are you sick of me talking about how busy we are?


well, it's all that's going on, so it's all i have to blog about.


guess what?

(happy news.)




tomorrow is the first tuesday this summer that i don't have to drive 160 miles!  yay!



guess what else?


i have 4 photoshoots this week.  4!!!!

why i do this to myself?  i don't know.



oh yeah...


and guess what else?


i have about 5 or 6 other shoots to edit.



guess what else?


i'm almost done with my internship.

i can actually see the light at the end of tunnel.

and that means...


i am done with school for forever!!!!!!!!!



and after i'm done.  we are going to cancun.   like in 3 weeks.

pretty excited about that.



and guess what else?


 i love that boy named, lincoln.


a whole whole lot!




but you already knew that.

the thoughts that came to mind as i sit here at my kitchen table.

this blog is need of a make-over.
a really really much needed make-over.

but when does one have time to do a blog make-over when she basically works 3 jobs?
(regular job, internship, and photography)

speaking of photography, my photo-blog is in need of a much needed make-over as well.

luckily people are still hiring me even after they look at that dreadful thing.  (thank you clients!!)



did i mention internships are hard?


last week i worked about 53 hours between the first two jobs listed above.  it was hard.
and the husband works 2 jobs.

we basically are pooped.  all the time, all the time, all the time.

i even had a dream last night that i decided to take on two more jobs.  (orbit irrigation-former employment, and lagoon-local theme part).

apparently my subconscious thinks i have more time to do such things.




how does one organize a kitchen?
i've been staring at boxes for weeks, because i just don't know what to do with all of it.

i wish i could hire my own personal organizer.  that would be the coolest.




did i mention that our apartment smells?  not everywhere.  just in certain select places.  and i can't identify the source.  by the way... it's a BAD smell.

my friend whitney gave me some great suggestions (fabreeze and wall plug ins from bath and body works) which helped immensely!.... until this morning.

you see, we have this "mud room" area.  door to the outside and door to the inside.  it has carpet.  and smells like an old musky basement... which is exactly where we live... so that explains it.

you'll be surprised to know that i do not like that smell.  i have to hold my breath every time i come into the house.

so the fabreeze and wall plug ins helped...

but this morning the smell had overpowered the products.  the smell of something dead... some drain backed up.... i do NOT even know!!



i need your help people.  how in the WORLD do i get rid of it??!
any ideas would be GRRREEEEAAATTT!!!




so that is that.  and this is this. 
my thoughts that came as i sit here at my kitchen table.

a pair of items.

1.  the bangs are back!

yay!

i've missed them so.

2.  and the husband has fallen asleep at 9:45 pm.

party pooper.

so precious.

i had to answer like a bajillion emails, and i think he got bored.

poor guy.

p.s.  pardon our ugly wall paper.

not my doing.

oh, renting...

the final final.

well, peeps.

this is it.

no, not the michael jackson movie.

i have one more final.

it's a friday final.

aren't those are the worst?!

who has finals on friday of finals week?

anyway, it's a doozy.

like, WAY hard.

probably the hardest final i'll ever take.

isn't it kind of weird that my final final for the rest of forever is going to be the hardest final i'll ever take?

you don't even know.

i'll spend more time stressing about it than studying for it.

which isn't a good thing.

i also have to have all my cleaning done and stuff moved out of my apartment two hours after this final is over.  and i also have to be at work at the exact same time my cleaning is supposed to be done.

needless to say, i will be MIA from this blog for the remainder of the week.  i hope you understand.

but i will have glorious graduation pictures for you next week if i don't end up in the hospital because i gave myself ulcers from stressing about the aforementioned final.

in other news...

after friday i will see lincoln every single day for the rest of forever because i will officially not live 80+ miles away from him.  yay for that!

i also found a job.  yay for that too!

and the best news is.....

there are only

wait for it

30 more days

left until i marry this boy.

he's not going to be happy that i posted this picture, but i think it's hilarious.  it describes him perfectly. 

he's the goofiest kid i know.  he makes me laugh every day.

this picture was taken after we had been dating for about a month.  back in september.

30 days people!  until we are married!!! 

do you feel like this has been the longest 5 months of your life hearing me talk about it?

me too.

well, now you only have 30 more days of hearing about it.

we started out at like 182 days, so now 30 sounds WAY better.

30 sounds doable.

i can do 30.

also, in a span of two weeks i have 5 bridal showers.  i was looking at my calendar the other day for may.  isn't that nuts?  whoa.

may is going to be cahh--raaazzzyy!

so much to do still.

thanks for all your sweet comments on our engagement photos.

and welcome new followers.

and uhhh.......... bye.

oh, sweetness.

can you hear that?

do you hear that noise?

what is it?

oh, it is the sweet sound of

freedom!

i can't even express to you how relieved i feel right now.

my two huge projects are in and i am a happy camper.

i haven't even taken my final tests yet, but i feel an extreme release of stress.

there is a substantial difference in my mood right now than two days ago.

i feel like skipping down a street and swinging around a pole and clicking my heels.

that's how happy i am.

this week was not my favorite.

for one, my internet hasn't been working for about two weeks in my apartment (until last night). 

talk about frustrating.

i've been stressing about finding a job.

but today is friday.

and friday is fiance day.

 before we were engaged.

yay!

in other news, i did a press check this morning for our invitations and they look AMAZING!

i'll tell you who did them and show you a picture some day.

and also, one of my big projects was an estate plan,

so i had to write a will and all that good stuff.

part of the assignment was to write my own obituary.

i totally cried.

it was the saddest thing ever.

we had to write it if we were to die right now.

i got to the part about talking about lincoln and i had huge alligator tears running down my cheeks.

gah!

anyways, 

happy happy day!

i survived the homework.

now, i just have to pass the tests.

have a wonderful weekend!

harry potter.

the other day lincoln and i were driving someplace and i turned to him and said,

"do you know what musical out of ALL the musicals i would just love to be cast in?"

he guessed a few... with no success.

so i said,

"i'll give you a hint... it starts with an H..."

his immediate response,


"HARRY POTTER!"


first, i have to give him credit for knowing how obsessed i am with Harry Potter
but, sadly, Harry Potter is NOT a musical.


good guess, hun.


answer:  Hairspray

so great, don't you think?

i just love that musical.





anyway, back to Harry Potter.

every night i usually read some pages of some novel before i drift off to sleep.

lately, i've been re-reading the 7th book of Harry Potter.

i wanted to re-read it considering i read it the first time in about 12 hours.

i think it's pretty cool that i'm a senior in college and i still love reading harry potter.

i just love it.

for all you HP fans out there, i'm at the part of the big battle in Hogwarts.
the first time i read it, i cried through the last 100 pages.
did you?

gosh.  so great.  i wish it wasn't over.

(lincoln has never read the books.  shame!!)




does anyone know when the movie comes out? 

leaps, thank yous, and countdowns.

remember how i was going to adopt all those great qualities that my future husband possesses? 

well, i want you to know that i'm rocking at getting things done ahead of time and not procrastinating them until last minute. 

and my life feels a whole lot easier. 

i've been getting assignments done that aren't due until friday and monday.

and let me tell you, that is one giant leap for jalene.



i want to thank all of you that sent me money monday questions this week.
i got a HUGE response and i'm really excited about that.

i might have to combine some questions, otherwise it'll be months before they all get answered.

i'm glad that all of you are interested, because this is really going to help me prepare for my internship experience this summer. 

consider this a big fat thank you!


and here are some count downs for you.  if you really care.
but i think they are pretty darn exciting.

in one week i will be photographing a wedding.
in two weeks i will be done with attending classes.
in three weeks i will be finals free for the rest. of. my. life.
in three weeks i will be attending graduation.
in three weeks i will also be moving within a few miles of lincoln and no longer be living 80+ miles away from him.
in seven weeks and two days i will be getting married!!!

on this thursday morning...

well, today is the day.

we are FINALLY taking our engagement photos.  

(it snowed on tuesday so we rescheduled)

today there is a slight chance of wind and rain...

come on, utah!!  give us a break.

and this is the second morning i've woken up with a sore throat.  

yipee!

and i have a GINORMOUS test tomorrow.

yipee!

but all is well.

and we are happy.

happy happy happy.

wish us some happy weather, okay?

and go enter my giveaway.

-------------------------->

the button is over thurr.

click click click!

nylons at

hour ten of the day...

are very very uncomfortable.

just sayin.

spring break comes to a close.

well, my spring break is pretty much over.

i had to come back to work today.
ten hour shift today,
friday,
and saturday.

30 hours in three days.
good heck.  that's a lot.

it was worth it though.  i got to spend 6 straight days with mr. lincster.  and that was the best.
we had lots of fun.

do you know what's weird?  when you don't have work or school or homework, the day lasts a really really long time.  it was glorious.  the weather was also glorious.  not having to wear a coat was glorious. 

do you know what's not so glorious?  waking up with a kink in your neck.  not glorious one bit.  i'm walking around like a robot because the rotation of my head is at a minimum.  quite the sight...


so i think we finally got our engagement outfits figured out... hopefully.
we are supposed to get our pictures taken on tuesday (weather permitting) and i'm feeling all sorts of anxiety about that.

some of you have told me not to worry because (apparently) you think i have a good sense of fashion.

 

false.

 

i do not. 

 

for instance, i realized half way through the day that i'm wearing the exact same outfit i wore to work on friday.

pretty embarrassing. 

 

 

so pray for our sense of style to look good on camera.  and pray that the weather will be good.  i've been looking forward to these for about 3.5 months.  i would hate to postpone them longer. 

here's a picture of linc and i enjoying the warmth.  don't let our expressions fool you.  we really are enjoying it. 

that's all the ramblings i have for you today.
happy thursday!