Beautiful Colorado

The team after our white water rafting experience at Clear Creek. SO MUCH FUN!

JoRyan got attacked by a dog while he was out knocking doors... Yikes!

Beautiful scenery!

Thought it was a funny name for a street...

Yeah, it snowed in the middle of May. It was cold.

Colorado sunset. Stunning.

My bread was just about done when I heard a crashing sound that came from the kitchen. I hopped up and ran to open the oven, and this is what I found! I guess the risen bread made the pans squeeze to tightly together! Now I only cook two loaves at a time (:

These are the videos of our 7 second shopping sprees at Costco! James only got 5 seconds because (of course) he chose the meat section...

Last, but not least... a video of one of the cutest little boys you'll ever meet. My nephew Bentley (:

Summer's End

This summer has been quite the trip! JoRyan and I have been living in Westminster, Colorado doing summer sales for EcoFirst pest control. Not the ideal job, knocking doors all day everyday, but definitely worth it in the end. I have learned a lot of things about myself this summer! I really miss my family, and I can't wait to get back to Oklahoma. I know, you think I'm crazy for wanting to live in Oklahoma over Colorado, but honestly! I love it there!
We have been through a lot of ups and downs this summer as well... We made an unexpected trip home in May, taking JoRyan to the ER for a Crohn's Disease flare up. The morning we were sitting in the hospital, I got a call from my Dad letting me know that my Grandpa Graves had just suffered a heart attack and was in the hospital as well. What a nightmare.
Things picked up from there though. I started knocking doors and making sales like crazy, and JoRyan was hired on as a technician (a much better job for his needing to be stress-free). We had a couple of visitors. My cousin Lexie and her husband Preston stayed with us for a weekend, my mom and little sister stayed with us on their way to Utah, we went white water rafting in class 4 rapids, we had a 7 second shopping spree at Costco, we bought season passes to the amusement park out here, and we road tripped to Utah for my cousin Spencer's wedding.
It has been a great summer overall, despite the illnesses, the stress, the frustration. And we look forward to starting school again in a couple of weeks!

pictures and videos soon to follow (:

Career Options...

So I've really been debating lately about what I want to do when I grow up :o) I have SO many options, and SO many things I love to do! When I first started college at BYU in 2008 I was all about music theatre because I had just finished up performing as Fantine in "Les Miserables" at my high school that spring. As the year went on, however, I decided that music theatre was not my calling in life. I decided to go the medical route, so I set up my schedules for the prerequisites of nursing. I took the classes this spring at UCO all set to get into the nursing program, then decided that I wanted to go in different direction! PA school. I went in and talked to my counselor about it and she told me that according to my grades, she thinks I should just go to Medical School. So from fall of 2008 to spring of 2010, my future career has changed from music theatre to nursing to PA to med school. Does this sound familiar to any of you college grads? I just CAN'T MAKE UP MY MIND! Let me know what you all think!

Home Improvement

A couple weeks ago, JoRyan and I decided to take on a couple of small projects to make our home a little prettier (: So I went to The Home Depot and bought some back paint, then went to Hobby Lobby to buy a few other supplies... We had a lot of fun and here are some pictures of our home improvement projects!

My parents gave us these shelves that they have had since the got married! They are really old and outdated, but still in good condition...so why not paint them to look like new? (: We painted them both black and they look wonderful! We are very happy with our work.

Spring Break!

Last week was spring break for me. As my family and JoRyan's family left for vacation to Gulf Shores and New York City, I felt like we needed to go on a little vacation ourselves since they so kindly left us behind. ;-) So we booked a hotel in Dallas right next door to Six Flags over Texas! This is a view of the park from our room

We left on Thursday afternoon to drive to Dallas. We got there around 7:30 and checked into our hotel and then went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. MMM! Their baked sweet potatoes and fresh rolls are my favorite! The next day we woke up around 6 AM because we were so anxious to get to the park... too bad for us, the park didn't even open until 10! So we had ourselves a lovely breakfast at the hotel and waited 2 more hours to leave.

This is us in front of "The Batman!" It's a really fun roller coaster where your feet dangle as the coaster hurls you through several loops and turns at VERY fast speeds.

Although we had to stand in lines for most of the day, we had a blast at Six Flags. What a great place to just go and have fun! We were completely wiped out by the end of the day.

This roller coaster is called "Mr. Freeze." It is one of my favorites as it shoots you through a tunnel through loops and straight up...then in goes backwards through the whole track again. Oh, and it goes from 0 to 70 in a matter of seconds. What a thrill!

My Superman! (:

JoRyan thinks I look like Supergirl for some odd reason.

Saturday morning we left the hotel and went to eat at IHOP becuase we didn't wake up in time for the free hotel breakfast. Oops! Then we were able to go to the Dallas temple and do a session. It was by far the best part of our trip. Even though it was about to snow in the picture!

Overall, we had a wonderful time on our mini-vacation, and I am so glad we got to go! Thank goodness JoRyan works at a hotel so we could get the discounted rate! Hooray for Spring Break!

I'm sitting in my bed next to my sound asleep husband. I am dreading waking him up to go to work because I know how tired he is. He has to work the night shift from 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM, drive an hour and a half to Anadarko to get our new license plates and tags, drive an hour and a half home, get in a couple hours of sleep, then be back at work from 3:00PM til 11:00 PM...

There is something wrong with this.

Last week JoRyan got an average of 3 hours of sleep per day. He has been working the night shift a lot at the hotel he works at. He has also been training for his new job-- he is going to be a driver's ed instructor at Merkley's Driving School-- so he has been working his little hiney off and sacrificing his sleeping hours to earn the money to pay the bills.
I love my husband. He brings so much joy into my life.


I can't wait to go to Denver this summer. JoRyan will be selling pest control with the same company my brother James has worked for the past two summers, and I'll get a full time job doing something else. We are so excited! Denver is a beautiful place, and I'm looking forward to the non-humid summer and the vast amount of outdoor activities...hiking, camping, boating, 4-wheeling, fishing, biking, etc. It's going to be a good summer (:

Ask and You Shall Receive

This past week has been an absolutely CRAZY one, but at the same time... so much good has come from it. I have been studying away for finals week, finishing projects, trying to get homework done, etc... and all the while we have been trying to plan this wedding! JoRyan had a jeep out here that we had been trying to sell for about a month. We posted in on craigslist, KSL, and some other classifieds site. It is getting really close to the day we leave to go back to Oklahoma, and we were just praying that we wouldn't have to drive this jeep back home. On Sunday night, we both said prayers asking for Heavenly Father's help to get this jeep sold. The next morning we went and parked it in a parking lot of a grocery store with a for sale sign on it and our phone number. A few hours later we received a call from a man asking about the jeep. He said he wanted to test drive it, so JoRyan met him there and let him take it for a drive. He literally drove around the parking lot, came back, and said "I'll take it!" It was a miracle! The man gave JoRyan his business card, and guess who he is? The PRESIDENT of NUSKIN! This guy is filthy rich! He said he needed a vehicle like the jeep for his wife and kids to drive in the snowy weather. JoRyan met him at the bank a couple days later to switch over the titles and get the check. He asked the man how he was liking the jeep, and he said that it was in the shop having some work done. "Like what?" JoRyan asked him... and he said he was getting a brand new engine installed, all of the rust on the bottom taken care of, a new paint job, and all new tires. "It'll only be about $30,000" he said! WOW! Why even bother buying an old jeep when you have the money to go buy a brand new one?? I think he was inspired. We needed to get this jeep sold, and Heavenly Father definitely answered our prayers!

Another miracle of the week: Cassie and Bryon took Kyler in to the doctor again about his soft spot closing up too early and to see about the surgery that they were almost positive he was going to have to have in order to stay a healthy boy. The doctor found out that something called the souchers had not fused yet, so he doesn't have to have the surgery after all! HALLELUJAH!

I am so grateful for all of the many wonderful things that have been happening lately. Sure, there have been some trials too... but the good things seem to override those by a long shot! I am so grateful for an incredible fiance who loves me and who is so close with his Heavenly Father. I am so blessed to have a wonderful family whose faith is impenetrable. I couldn't be happier!