It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Its been some time and so many things have happened. School went out with a bang! Mike graduated........HALLELUJAH!!!! And....I got a 4.0! I have to say, this semester almost killed us both, but it sure payed off in the end. We worked so hard that we deserved an amazing vacation. We went to Brazil for 12 days!!!! It was unbelievable! It was so fun to go back to my roots and get to know my country along side of my husband. We spent lots of time with family and got quite a bit of sun too!

For the first part of our trip we spent with my aunt and got to know the exciting city of Sao Paulo. It was so neat and so much fun. We ate every kind of fruit possible and between the two of us we probably gained at least 15 lbs. My aunt and uncle were so great at doing everything possible to give us a taste of everything Brazil has to offer.

The next part of our trip was spent in Rio De Janeiro. It was beautiful!!! and the beaches.....terrific! We stayed in a hotel right on Copacabana beach and we definitely got some sun. We got back from Rio and went to a city called Santos and spent just one night at my aunt's condo on the beach. The day was kind of rainy but we did get some time on the beach and headed back.

The last part of our trip was spent in a little town called Rio Claro, which is where my grandma lives. It was SOOOOOO HOT, but so fun. We ate a lot of different things and just got to sit back and relax. No running around. We got to meet family I had never even met and play some serious game of dominoes with my grandparents. Hilarious!

In general, what an amazing trip. With many layovers later we arrived safely home on Christmas Eve. We spent Christmas Eve with my family and ate so much I had food coming out of my ears. Lots of fun and presents and we stayed up way too late. The next morning we got up bright and early and made the journey home to little ole' Logan where we hurried over for Marilyn's delicious Christmas Brunch. Let's just say it was perfect. It was so fun to see all the fam and to catch up.

Now, here I am, without school, work, or anything else to be busy with. I don't know what to do with myself. So I have decided to catch up on my blog, and give this house the TLC it has been needing in quite some time. So I've been keeping myself busy with keeping the house clean, making some desserts, and even thinking about starting a fun new craft. It has been nice to have this break, but I am excited for the New Year and everything it has to bring. So here are some pictures of the end of Our '09! Hope you all had a beautiful Christmas and we wish you a prosperous New Year!

Confidence is Key!

So I never give myself enough credit. I am always way too critical and harsh on myself. I know that I need to work on me and my self-esteem before I can help others, and I also feel like when I help others I help myself. But I definitely have to work on this confidence thing. So here is my attempt in doing so. These are some things that I am good at and should be proud of myself for!

- I am a daughter of god who loves me
- I am married to a wonderful man who thinks I am BEAUTIFUL!
- I made it into a competitive studio and my work is great!
- I am a pretty good cook when I get around to doing it.
- I am a hard worker and very determined
- I have motherly instincts coming out of my ears and I think I will be a great mother one day.
- Kids happen to like me
- I am friendly
- I am personable
- I have quirks that make me different and interesting
- I think I have pretty good hair.
- I have good fashion sense when I get all gussied up
- I have amazing taste in shoes....and way too many of them
- I think I'm pretty funny
- My home is decorated pretty cute, some I'll take credit for, but mostly things people have kindly given us.
- I am good with words, especially on paper. I love to write and I think I'm good at expressing my feelings when I do.
- I'm brazilian and take pride in my heritage and language ( I speak three languages, not too shabby)
- I have pretty brown eyes....they are very dark, but I like them.
- I am pretty good at cleaning, when I want to.
- I think I have good spiritual intuitiveness (or however you would say that)
- I love others
- I am interested in others well-beings and can usually help by giving good advice
- I am smart. Not to brag but I have gotten a couple of 4.0's in my day.
- I am money smart too, I hate owing people money, and I try to never spend more than I have.
- I am good at my calling.
- I try hard to be the best wife I can be.
- I am supportive of my family and can always lend a good ear for venting.
- I have great friends and consider myself very blessed.
- I have a beautiful home and puppy that I take care of.
- I am a good person....who needs to just realize it and stop being so hard on herself.

I apologize if this post sounds self-centered and obnoxious. But sometimes you need to appreciate the good things you do, because positive thinking brings forth positive efforts, and negative thinking does nothing but bring you down. So I guess when I am feeling down on myself and like I am not worthy of all the blessings I have, then I just have to take a minute, look in the mirror and realize I am beautiful inside and out! Heavenly Father created me this way, and he created me this way for a reason, to shine and to live my life to the fullest, loving me and everything that comes with it.

so take a minute and love yourself too...

HILARIOUS!

If you're looking for some funny mormon humor go here. Now no one go get offended, its just for laughs and giggles. Maybe this explains the comments I get all the time! HAHAHAHA...jk Mikey. Love you.

Click on this link.

Mormon Scale of Attractiveness

Home Sweet Home

Husband's back! He's unemployed, but he's back! And for some reason I have not been happier. Even unemployed. Pray for us. I know he's good at anything he does, he'll find something in no time. So give us a shout out if you know of anyone hiring!

Anyway, love you all. Thanks for the support through this hard time in my life. Or week. haha. Sorry for all the drama. I am truly grateful for the wonderful husband I have that even though I am sometimes irrational, he loves me and supports me anyway. He even stands up for me. I love him very much and could not ask for someone better or more hardworking than the one I have. He's the crayon box with 64 colors, not just the 8 color kind. (haha). He's perfect (well.... most of the time).

Love,

Jess

So I am officially husbandless...

Now don't you fret, little readers. Not divorced, just husbandless. How do you become husbandless you ask? Well it was actually more of an ordeal than I expected. I thought you just kick them out the door, and there you have it. But no, it becomes a lot more dramatic. It involves a lot of crying on my part, blood-shot eyes for 4 days, and sulking, not to mention the other dramatic events that come along with that.

Husbandless. Mike comes home to me Friday and declares he is starting a new job, he leaves on Tuesday for BAGS. WYOMING! "Wonderful," I exclaim, as I have always wanted to be married just one year then become husbandless for the rest of my life but still having to be MARRIED without any of the privileges. Go ahead and assume my facial expression. Ticked! Anyway, there you have it. If you are ever needing to feel alone, depressed, and completely betrayed, make your husband mad enough to get a new job where he has to move to BAGS, WYOMING.

Now that I'm off my soapbox. I have had an extremely hard week. My body agrees. Everything hurts, my head, my stomach, my eyes, my legs, and my heart. I feel like I went into surgery to have a piece of me removed without any anesthesia. Ok, call me dramatic or whatever you'd like, but its harder than I thought it would be. The house is deathly quiet, my mom is 2 hours away, and most the time I feel like crying in bed all day and not getting up for school.

But guess what, reality is this, I have to go on living my life, pretending that every thing is honky dory! But at least on my blog I can vent. I can say how mad I am at Mike for leaving me here in this state. I can say that I wish we lived elsewhere that he could find a better job, Logan isn't really the job metropolis. I can say that my major is so overwhelming right now, I want to quit; and I can even say that I'm pissed at anyone involved at taking my husband away, for at least a couple more hours or days anyway.

Am I being livid and negative, probably, but I can do that here, this is my only way of venting before I go out of my mind. So if anyone is offended by my inappropriateness, please unsubscribe to this blog, and you will never have to read of my rantings again. Simple as that. Love you all who have supported and tried to help in this situation, but for now, I choose to sulk.

A day in the life....

Here goes...venting sesh! Prepare yourself for whining, complaining, and anger. I hate tuesdays and thursdays! YES! I DO! Why do you ask? Well let me tell you. I get to school at 8 freakin 15 in the morning to start a ridiculous FOUR HOURS in the studio. By eleven, frustration, boredom, and hunger sets in, and my ability to listen and focus is completely gone. Then we hurry to the hub to get something to eat before booking it to our next class. Another hour and 15 minutes of lecture in the dark after lunch = very sleepy eyed, bobble headed Jess. But its not over yet folks. By now its 3:00 and I'm ready to call it a day, but oh......no.... natural disasters. Literally, that's the class I go to next. Try staying awake in that dark room of approximately 300 people and your sitting in the back where the professor doesn't even know you exist. Impossible. Pretty much, today, I slept, and might have drooled a little too. Then on tuesdays, the fun isn't over for another couple more hours where I leave class to attend an MRC meeting. Heels is not always a best choice on these days, but you know me, and my shoe fettish.

Anyway, today was a THURSDAY. Already a "not looking forward to waking up" day. I decided I would do it with a positive attitude and actually shower and get READY! I know, miracle. I got up, hopped in the shower, and did my new sassy hair! I was feeling pretty good, and decided this might be a good day. New dress, cute hair, feeling cute = positive Jess. Got to the studio, where the temperature can't decide if it wants to be winter or summer, and begin the day. LONG DAY is all I can say. By the time I waited 20 minutes for the shuttle in 85 degree weather and then got home, I was hammered. Mike wasn't even home yet. bad news. He leaves for work at 5:30 and isn't home at 5? eeekk....he's going to be a big green (smelly, might I add) monster. He's ultra stressed out with school, work, life, etc... that I know working all day will make it worse. But do I have any strength and energy left when he arrives to pick myself up then tend to his needs? Not really. I know, Terrible right?

Well as a good husband he went straight out again to mow the lawn and play with the dog who has been building up enough energy in the last couple of days to take out a small nation. She seriously has gotten on my every nerve this week. ANYWAY, I need to nap. He's mad. I'm napping and my house looks like a tornado has gone through it. Not only that, but the 85 degree weather IN the house isn't helping my energy level either.

In conclusion, BIG FIGHT! I'm telling you this only so you don't think we're perfect. Cause I know that's what you were all thinking. I was so furious, FUMING at the ears. Anyway, now he's asleep (on the couch might I add) and not cause I told him to sleep there, but because he fell asleep watching tv with Bella. Should I wake him and lure him to bed with apologizing kisses?

I think So!

Goodnight!

One whole year! WOW!

So here I am to enlighten you on some events.

1. Girls' Road trip in St. George. What a fun and relaxing weekend it was! Liz, Tami and I decided to take off for the weekend to St. George and do whatever our little hearts desired. We shopped, we lounged, we laughed, we tanned, we played, we bonded, we ate. and so much more. Mike also had a little getaway to Jackson Hole with Justin and he came back so excited about his adventures.

2. San Diego! What a fun week. I love San Diego, not only because its NOT Logan, but it is the home to my favorite place on earth. SEA WORLD!!! Mike and I decided that for our anniversary we would splurge a little and do a fun trip. Well my family has a timeshare in San Diego and were already going, so why not get a free place to stay. I will admit, it was a little hectic and crazy, as family vacations always are, but overall it was a great time! It was also so fun to see my sis, niece, and brother-in-law that I don't get to see very often. Many memories were created that weekend, good and bad. We crashed BOTH rental cars, had long layovers, got very sunburnt, went to sea world, got sand stuck in too many places to count, and loved every minute of it!

3. Baby Gwen! What a precious little being she is. Natalie, Mike's sister, delivered beautiful baby Gwen on August 12th and she is so awake and jittery. She's darling and mr. tate is a cute big brother.

4. Our 1st Anniversary in Salt Lake! So we got back from San Diego saturday night and still wanted to sweet our sweet new niece before making the long and boring drive back home. So we went to see her and It was getting late, and I was getting more and more concerned of the drive home. On our way home Mike made a detour into salt lake and surprised me with a night's stay at the new Hyatt by the gateway! I was so relieved we didn't have to drive all the way home. It was a really nice place and we had a great time ;) ! For our anniversary I had a fun little photoshoot so he could always remember how sassy and cute I was, since it probably won't last our whole life! HAHA. We came home sunday and enjoyed a nice and quiet day just being with each other.

Our Sweet Hotel Room


The photoshoot

Sorry they are kind of immodest. It was my anniversary, I get a freeby right?

5. My new Do! So I was totally ready for a haircut. I had had it with the mormon mommy do (sorry if any of you out there have this do, but I'm not mom YET.) I remembered the time that I was known for having a fun and sassy haircut all the time, but marriage and being a student takes its tole on your hair. Serious. It was long, and flat and BORING! So....solution.....chop it! and add some RED!!!! Becca Lee did it, and I love it very much. I finally feel comfortable in my own scalp again.

Sorry this is such a silly picture. I didn't want to pull out my camera again. So webcam it is!

6. Bella got spayed. There's not much more to that other than her looking a little like an alien with a big green cone around her head!!! HAHAHAHAHA! Its pretty funny to watch her run into things because she can't see. Sorry Bella. I love you. She's been a trooper though, and I'm impressed at how fast she's recovered.

7. Back to School! So the day finally came. No matter hwat I did to try and stop it, whine, complain, kick and scream, it came anyway. My first day was fine, kinda lame with all the syllabus and crap you have to do, but other than that it was pretty easy. I am a little nervous about the intensity of some of my classes, but it should be no big deal for me as a 4.0 student (yeah right). Anyway, its here and I'm ready. bring it on. Tomorrow....high pitched, bubbly, and exhausting Interior Design girls. so for now, adios amigos.

The dreadful update blog! Update Update Update

Ok friends. So I know I have been a bad little blogger and have not updated this in quite some time. Forgive me. But let me tell you what we've been up to. Life! This summer has been jam packed with small trips, weekend getaways, daily activities, and lots and lots of sunshine. I am loving not having school so much, that I just might retire. Ok, maybe not. But just the thought of school starting in less than a month gives me the heeby jeebies, or how ever your spell that. I love my major and all, but it is a kick in the pants with a million projects, so much time and money spent, and really dramatic and sometimes obnoxious ID girls. Not all! (ID readers) just some. Anywho, I've been so busy soaking up the last little bit of happiness before the ID Project devil comes to devour my soul, that I haven't had much time for blogging.

So....Without further ado, here are some things we've been doing. I know you've been dying of anticipation, without update of our fabulous life.

We dug trenches for Sprinkler, and Installed Sprinklers! Hooray!

We stole sod from the church and enslaved many men to lay it.

We have had many barbecues in our newly finished back yard.

We laid out, worked on our tan, and even did some swimming!

We sailed our little boat.

We looked a little retarded when Bella graduated from Puppy Class.

We went to the Farmer's Market.

And to the Cruise-In.

We went boating with friends.

We shot some guns.

We went camping.

And we even had a sexy time at Bouk's Ranch!

So there you go folks. An Update from the Watts'! Has your summer been this great?

Look forward to posts about our fun girls' weekend in St. George (we're going tomorrow) and our family trip to San Diego (Next Weekend)

.....then

....our annivesary

....then



...school : ( BOO!