So, I just finished doing all my edits for my wedding photos. I decided to do them myself since I'm a perfectionist, but this way it's taken a lot longer to get done. But, I finally think I'm finished! I know it has almost been a year, but I still love them (obviously, they are about my wedding :). So, I figured for document sake I should put them on my blog. And being an amateur photoshopper, I figured I should get some feedback if anyone has any. Thanks!

So, the more I think about this the funnier it seems. I love Skyler and he is a great husband, but he's pretty clueless when it comes to women. :) He finally admitted the other day that he thinks I am the only woman who cries. I'm not offended, I think it's hilarious. It's not like I cry every day of course, but I'm a woman. If I get really mad about something, I usually cry. Obviously the same goes for when something makes me really sad or frustrated. Also, sometimes I randomly cry during movies, commercials, or reruns of Extreme Home Makeover. I thought this was a normal thing to do... but now he's got me thinking that maybe it isn't....??? When we were leaving Chris and Alisa's Saturday night I mentioned this idea to them and Chris said "Alisa cries all the time, especially when she's pregnant. Then it's at least every other day!" And Alisa thought that was understating it! So, in the car on the way home I asked Skyler if he was convinced that I was normal yet and he said "What if it just runs in the family?" So please, my lovely fellow women, can you tell me if I'm normal or are my crying ducts just way overactive?!

So, it has been a really, really long time since I last posted. Since then Skyler and I spent a wonderful, fun filled summer in Montana with Mom and Dad, and have moved back to Provo. This semester is just about half over already! Time flies. So, I'm terrible at keeping up on my blog at the moment. But I've been telling people about our new apartment and I'm not sure if they are catching on as to the size :). So, I'll post a tour of it here:

Hopefully I will have time to catch up a little or at least start from what's going on now. :)

Slide Show of Baby Rachel that I forgot to post :)

Baby Rachel is three weeks old now! A week after she was born, we all headed down for the blessing/baptism which was so much fun. She is adorable of course and Brooke was so beautiful. She, like Emma, wore my baptism dress afterward. How special for me! It's funny to think I was that little at one point.

Before I get to the Utah trip though, Aunt Lela and Whitney came up to visit for the weekend after Memorial Day. We rode horses and went down the slide in Anaconda and had ice cream! They did lots more fun stuff while we were working. We spent some time in Anaconda checking out the fish hatchery and the railroad museum. It's actually a pretty fun place! I have been surprised at how cool of a little town it is when I used to make fun of it in high school. I have been working hard weeding in the cold and rain lately at the parks, but hopefully soon it will pay off. I took my thermos full of hot cocoa one day, but then I couldn't get it open!

So, back to the Utah trip. Dad, Mom, Sky and I drove all the way down after work Friday and then got up for the activities around 7! Brooke's baptism was first and then as soon as they were done with the confirmation, they blessed the baby. I was carrying Rachel for a while and a lady stopped me and asked how old my baby was. I was so flabbergasted that I didn't even say anything. Skyler said "She's a week old!" and pushed me down the hall. I was so embarrassed. :) I'm not old enough to have my own baby!!! Wait......

Afterwards we had a fun party at the house with all the cousins and Becky's family too. It's always a party with our family.

We took Colten and Trevor home with us for a week while Alisa went to her writing conference at BYU. It was an adventure! They did lots of fun stuff and us workers got in on a little too. It was fun having little people around the house. The craziest part was that Skyler's parents made a surprise visit for a few days! They just drove up while talking to Sky on the phone and then Skyler came to pick me up from work in their truck. I was so confused! The first night we rode horses and the next night his parents and Skyler and I went to Butte for a delicious dinner at the Derby, more touring of Uptown Butte and a stop at DQ on the way home. It was a short visit, but it was great to see them.

On the 13th, Skyler and I left to mark off something else on our Montana List. We first took the tour through the Lewis and Clark Caverns which was amazing as usual. They've updated some of the lights so it's even better. Skyler really enjoyed it! Plus the drive up there is so beautiful as well. Then, we took the scenic route to Virginia City, the old mining town. We drove past at least five huge mountain ranges. We love Montana! It's been such a wet spring that everything was super green, but also very wet! It started raining about twenty minutes after we got to Virginia City, so we didn't get to enjoy it too much. Guess we'll have to go back! This past week Mom was down helping Becky with the kids so it was pretty lonely and quiet. But, we did get a lot of work done! Dad picked up the double doors that they wanted for upstairs and we surprised Mom by putting them in while she was gone. Sadly, I wasn't there when she saw it, but it sounded like it was worth it!

This Friday Sky, dad and I spent the night relaxing at home and watched "True Grit" (classic John Wayne movie). Seriously, it was one of the funniest and best movies I've seen in a long time! I'd definitely recommend it. Saturday Skyler and I went to Deer Lodge for their Territorial Days and took the Old Prison Museum tour which is always cool and then we went to the Deer Lodge parade. It consisted of the city ambulances, fire trucks and police, a few old cars, two floats, and everybody's tractors. hehehe... But they did throw a lot of candy! Then we went back to the Old Car Museum which is amazing. Of course I loved looking at the cars from the twenties and before, but I didn't realize until now how many pictures I have of the muscle cars from the sixties (and every other era)! I love, love, love Mustangs, Challengers, Camaros, Corvettes and Firebirds. And the new Challengers and Camaros almost make my heart stop. I've never cared to much about cars but these are AMAZING. Anyway, we had a great time and met up with Mark and Mary and their kids and had lunch with them which was fun.

Finally we made it home and Mom not only made it back, but she had four grandkids with her! (Emma, Nicole, Brooke and Evan!) So, we spent a great fathers day yesterday and they've already ridden the slide, swam in the Washoe Pool and fed the ducks! Tonight we're having a picnic inside since it's STILL cold and rainy. I love Montana, I really do. But, I would like it to be summer sometime soon. :)

It's only been about two weeks but as usual, we've been going non-stop. Troy came that Monday and did our texturing upstairs. When he was finished we asked how long it would take to dry before we could paint and he said "By the time you go to town and come back with the paint, it will be dry enough". Woohoo! We were thinking a day or two maybe. So Mom went downstairs and found some primer that we had from a previous project and we got started that afternoon. Painting is my favorite part!! We finished priming Tuesday I think and then it took us two hours in WalMart to figure out what colors we were going to do. We decided on summer pecan and sky blue, with a darker brown to do the faux on the bottom. I'll put some pictures of it so you can just see. I'm painting clouds on the horizon line of the ceiling so there is a picture of that in progress also. We have had tons of fun and Mom and Dad can't believe that we've gotten so far up there! Now all they need is carpet and the master suite upstairs will be finished. Thursday I got a call for an interview in Anaconda for the Horticulturist position. I went and felt like it went terrible (They asked questions like, "What's the best way to take care of poppies", or "What maintenance is required for a flower bed"). My answer half the time was weed, water and fertilize. What else is there to do?! Anyway, he called me later that day and said they gave the position to someone else but wanted me to help him part-time with the flower beds and part-time as the Washoe Park Pool Manager. I accepted even though I'm not too excited about being in charge of the high school lifeguards, but it was a job after weeks of nothing! It was perfect timing because we had just finished the upstairs.

That weekend was Memorial Day and we did our usual Hogge Tradition of going to help Grandma Aldridge clean up her house for summer. We painted and trimmed and mowed and cleaned and all sorts of things. It was great fun! Doug and Heather's family came and Alisa & Chris's also came for a night We camped out in her backyard which is always fun. Grandma didn't have enough projects to keep us all busy for two days so Monday we headed to Chris and Alisa's to fix their back porch. The boys ripped out all the old windows and framed in three new big nice ones. It looked great! Alisa will have to post pictures because I forgot to take some with mine. Meanwhile the cousins had a great time playing together. We also took a trip to the Brady greenhouses and got some flowers, and Alisa and Chris announced that they were having a baby in October!! (We found out later that it will be another boy). It was a fun weekend!

Tuesday, I started work at 8 a.m. and have been weeding flower beds everyday since then. They were out of control! The lady who was the previous horticulturist liked to drink on the job and waste the hours talking to passers-by. So, needless to say everything looks terrible. So me and the full time kid (He's going to Montana Tech and is two years younger than me) have just been digging and pulling to get things looking better. It's great to work outside especially in the parks. Washoe Park is actually a great park right on the creek! I ran cross country there back in the day, but it's a fun place. I never thought I'd like outside jobs too much especially weeding, but I love it. I love Montana! Besides, I've gotten to meet up with Skyler for lunch sometimes which is a lot of fun. Thursday, Aunt Lela and Whitney flew up for the weekend and we had a picnic for lunch which was fun! They came up to ride horses and visit so it should be a great weekend. The best news of the day though is that Becky and Vince finally had their baby this morning! Little Rachel Victoria was 7 lbs 7 oz and 19 inches. They sent everyone a picture of her to our phones! Hopefully they'll be posting more pictures soon so we can all see her.

This weekend was full of meetings for Dad, and a few for the rest of us, but it was great. Saturday we babysat Mark & Mary Hathaway's two oldest children so they could go to their training meetings (Skyler had a blast with them as usual). Then we headed into town to go to the adult meeting. Just before the meeting, we headed into my optometrist to pick out my NEW GLASSES!!

I finally broke down and went to the optometrist and decided I wasn't leaving until I had good answers. I have gone to two different doctors in the past two years and they never seem to listen and can't figure out my eye problems. I tried contact after contact with no success. They were always blurry and painful and dry and I ended up wearing my stupid glasses most of the time. So, I was dragging my feet to try out a doctor here in Montana because I figured he'd give me the same old thing of "just slowly get used to wearing contacts" or "put in eye drops more often". If I put in eye drops more often than I do now, I might as well not put the cap back on after each use. But, this guy was different. He wasn't exactly the most friendly doctor I've ever had, but he knew his stuff and wasn't afraid to tell me about it. So, verdict is I have Giant Papillary Conjunctivitis. Yeah. It's an infection that contact lens wearers can get from a build up of protein in the eyes. It blurs vision and makes the eyes dry and itchy as well as painful. Hmmm... well that makes sense! The only bummer part is the best way to cure it is to stop wearing contacts for a while. Hence, the reason why I got to pick out new glasses. I have some daily contacts I can wear for waterskiing and such but the fastest way to get better is to not wear them. So A+ that he "wasn't afraid to be the bad guy" and tell me the truth but D- that I have to wear glasses possibly forever. Note to everyone: CLEAN YOUR CONTACTS VERY WELL ALL THE TIME!! I did it to myself in high school because I thought I was invincible, you know how that goes.

Anyway, back to conference. The general authority who was supposed to come stay with us ended up changing assignments four days ago, so we had Elder Pace and Elder Seldon. They both stayed in hotel rooms and I only ended up meeting Elder Pace in person. But, they were great and we had a wonderful adult meeting and an equally great general session this morning. Dad was extremely stressed as always before the conference, so he was grateful to have it over with I think! He wore the tie with Orca whales that I gave him when I was in 8th grade :). He said "I wear this tie when I need comfort". That was good enough for me. It really was great and very spiritual. Dad gave a great talk first thing this morning, then had his new counselor speak and both general authorities spoke. Today, Skyler conducted his first FHE which was fun. We've been doing that since we were tiny, but his family wasn't quite as formal about it as we were. But, according to tradition, he stood in front of the TV to start the meeting. (There is a picture of me doing that when I was like 1, and it became Hogge Family Tradition).

Tomorrow, we are having Troy Jenrich come and texture the upstairs. Mom and I have spent days up there sanding and mudding to finish up the drywall, and now we can texture. After texturing is the best part of course... PAINT! That's our favorite. So, I've been quite motivated to get it all finished. It was quite the job and Dad always came home and said "You girls look terrible!" (we were white as ghosts with the sanding dust all over us!) But we had fun. Sky helped whenever he wasn't too tired from roofing. He is loving his job. Currently he is working on a home at Georgetown Lake which is a beautiful area and he likes that his muscles are getting big again. :) I'm still looking. I have a few prospects and hopefully something will work out soon. One is working in a youth residential treatment home which would be great experience for my major, but like mom says "If it's right, then it will work out". So, I guess I'll keep praying!