NSD - National Scrapbook DAY

So yesterday (5/3/08) was National Scrapbook Day...or as everyone calls it NSD (everyone in the digi-scrap community used 5 million acronyms it is quite annoying because I never know what they are). Anyway, what National Scrapbook Day means to the DIGI world is FREEBIES!!!!! and SALES!!!! So, I was downloading scrapbook stuff ALL day yesterday. It was fun....and I even bought a few things for some screamin' good deals!

Here are A FEW of the fun things that I got FOR FREE:








And here is what I bought:


It was fun...yet time consuming...but I was still able to download all of these items, get all of my work down, clean the entire house (except the bathrooms because that is Craig's job), and go to 2 movies at night. We saw Made of Honor and most of Iron Man. We had a nice evening; and I had a good day.

BEST landlords EVER!!!

So we have the most AMAZING landlords EVER!!!! In our house there is a long hallway as you enter and there are 2 niches for pictures. I was really excited about the niches because I love picture niches....I think they are fun and beautiful. So I have been trying to figure out what to put there. Then the other day our Landlord was over working on something and he said that he paints and that he had a couple of LARGE paintings that he had done recently that would fit perfectly in those niches and that if I liked them I could have them! So, of course I said YES!!!! And he is so humble and nice and kept on saying "but if you don't like them that is fine...its up to you" and thinks like that. So he told me that he was going to have them matted and framed and then he would bring them over for us to look at them. So this morning (4/30/08) he brought them by and they are GORGEOUS! They are water color paintings of the local area mountains. He is so sweet he even hung them for us! HE is SO NICE it is crazy. By FAR the BEST landlord anyone could ever imagine!

Here are the 2 paintings....and what they look like in their niches.

CRAZY move

So we have been planning to move to the Palm Springs area since August 2007 and have been making plans for our business since then. Before we actually moved out here we did a lot of research on the area to figure out where we wanted to live and everything else you could think of. We decided that we wanted to rent out a house so that we could have our salesmen live with us to save a little money on rent. Craig and I started to look for homes to rent in EARLY February, with plans to move into a home on April 12, 2008. We looked at A LOT of homes! Some that we found on our own through CraigsList.com and the newspaper, while others we found through a few different Real Estate agents. We actually found some that we really like and wanted to get; and others that could have worked but not the prettiest.

When it got to be a month until we were needing to move, we started to put in offers on homes, and for "SOME REASON" things just were NOT working out. It was either the Landlord was being weird and changing their minds about wanting to rent out there home, or not returning phone calls, or they just leased it to someone else. It was so FRUSTRATING! Time after time things just did not work, and the day to move just got closer and closer. So we just had to RELY on the Lord and PRAY that everything would work out. We just pressed on with school, finals, business plans, and packing up our apartment. We planned to drive to California the day after graduation, stay at my sister Tara's house that night, and move into our house the next morning (Saturday).




Well, Graduation day came...we had 90% of the apartment loaded into the moving truck (with the help of both of our parents, Aunt Donna, Julie, Brent, and Aunt Linda) and still no home locked down. So we just pressed on, kept looking, and praying some more. Friday morning...still no home, but we drove to Tara's house. Saturday morning, we had a few homes to look at with a Realtor, the homes were nice but there we some things standing in our way on every home that we REALLY wanted. After looking at those homes we went to look at a home that we were approved on (credit check) but we had never seen it so we wanted to look at it before we signed a lease agreement. Well, we went to look at it and it was not up to my standards...and I would not have been comfortable there AT ALL. So we told the landlord that we did not want it and he got all PISSY at us...it was just a frustrating day. Needless to say all Saturday we were looking at houses.

So there was no luck on homes on Saturday. So we were hoping at this point that we could move in somewhere on Sunday, because my best friend Bianca and her husband Ethan came down from Ventura to help us move in, my parents were here to help too, and Craig's 2 friends (Kiel and Devon) who are our salesmen got into town too! So we had this huge GROUP of people here to help us move into a home that WE DID NOT HAVE! Sunday we went out and got breakfast and picked up a newspaper, and while Craig and I (and the boys) were out looking at homes with another Realtor my Mom was nice enough to look in the newspaper and call some homes from there. She called a "really nice" lady named Karen, who said she would be busy for the next 3 HOURS but she would give us a call and she had 3 homes to show us that afternoon. So, we played phone-tag with this lady for a little bit but then we spoke and she was so nice and we planned a time to meet up, but before we got off the phone she said tell me a little about yourself. So, I told her that it's just me and my husband, no pets, no smoking, no drinking, etc. Then she asked "Are you MORMON?" So I said "yes" and she replied, "me too!" So we were then really excited to meet her and see these houses. She wanted to show us the BEST one first...so we met her there. It was BRAND NEW and EVERYTHING that we wanted! The only "downer" was that we could not move in until Tuesday morning. So, Karen showed us the other two homes and Craig made a joke that the first home was Celestial, the second was Terrestrial, and the third was Telestial. And Karen LOVED that joke!! So we decided that we wanted the CELESTIAL house. It was EVERYTHING that we had wanted...and more. We thought that we were going to have to settle for and OK home...But the LORD provided us with the BEST house because we were ever enduring, and patient, and just had to wait a few days longer. The reason why we could not move in until Tuesday is because ESCROW didn't close until Tuesday April 15!

We were also blessed with AMAZING landlords! They are an older couple from Germany that live here in Palm Desert for most of the year, and Canada in the summer. They are so kind. On Tuesday (the day we moved in) as we pulled up with our moving truck and they opened the home up for us they asked us what time we wanted lunch? And they brought us Pizzas and Soda as we were moving in! How sweet is that?!?!?!?!


Also, on our travels from SLC to Palm Desert we stopped in Las Vegas to visit Tricia and her boys for lunch. Tricia was really sick so we just stayed and talked for a short time. We had fun with Shane and Trevor...they enjoyed an apple snack in the backyard with Gramma Stewie.
Craig and Dad took Shane and Trevor outside to see the moving truck...they were intrigued by it. Shane kept on asking "WHY?" questions. As Dad told him that Craig and I had all of our stuff in there...he asked WHY? and on and on....everything was WHY? I guess he hit that stage in life. The funniest why question was he saw the blue exercise ball and he asked "why is there a ball in there?" Cute boy!
Shane got to look in and see ALL of our stuff!
Over the weekend when we were looking for homes in the valley Bianca and Ethan were helping us look on Saturday and in the evening we went to dinner at Islands. We had a good time! It was so good to see Bianca. I hadn't seen her since Thanksgiving...so it had been a LONG time.

New HOME

So I have a BIG LONG moving story that I will post later but I know people are DYING to see pictures of our home. So here they are.

Graduation

The night before Graduation mom was checking her email and she gets LDS new articles and there was one about LDS Business College's Graduation. It was talking about how Elder L. Tom Perry was going to be the key note speaker and some facts about the graduating class and then it listed the two student speakers which included ME! So we had to print the story and read it to everyone. I was so excited to be in CHURCH news.
Craig and I were blessed to have both of our parents, my Aunt Linda Bradbury, Craig's Aunt Donna, and Craig's brother Brent and Sister Julie-along with daughter Kaylee, come out to our graduation. They all traveled LONG distances to share this special occasion with us. We truly appreciate there love and support!

Here are some pictures of some of my designer friends that my mom took:
(from left to right-Katie, Steve, and Kathy)
(Keassa, Laura, Lindsey, and Jacque)
President Woodhouse gave some fun statistics about the graduation class of 2008. My favorite is that the youngest graduate was 18yrs old (my friend Jamie-my old roommate) and the oldest 61 yrs old (My DEAR DEAR friend-Kathy) He also did a little improve statistics. He asked people to stand if they were foreign students, or from other states other than Utah, or if they met there spouse/fiance at LDSBC, and other fun facts. Then when he was announcing the program he told a little bit about the two student speakers. Ironically the other student speaker was named Cynthia too. She was from Mexico. Pres. Woodhouse said that after they picked both of us they wanted to know how many Cynthia's were graduating and we were 100% of the Graduating Cynthia's...it was funny.

This was taken during the stand up stats. The school was so nice in making room for Craig to sit on the stand with me. It was so nice to be able to sit together and enjoy the graduation ceremonies together.
Elder Perry was our key note speaker and he did an amazing job. It was so nice to get to meet him.

Here I am giving my talk. It was so fun to be the voice of my fellow students. My parents said that Elder Perry was smiling all through my speech...you can see it in this picture. My talk went really well...everyone loved it. I had a little shout out to my design girls in it and they all "whooted" for me...and everyone seemed to enjoy it. I got a lot of wonderful compliments afterward.

Craig and I got to go and get our diplomas at the same time. They called my name first, I took my little picture and then they said "and husband Craig Broadhead" and he got his picture, but then Elder Perry said, "Hey get her back here so she can get a picture with her husband." So they called me back and Elder Perry stepped into the picture with us!!! We were the only people that he stepped into the picture with. How cool is that. We were also the only married couple graduating together! The sad news is that I just got the proofs from the "professional" photographer...and they cut Elder Perry out of the picture! I am so MAD...what kind of church photographer cuts an apostle out of a picture! Luckily Sharon got this picture...it's a little blurry...but better than nothing.
Here are the BROADHEAD KIDS!
Here is a picture of the Interior Design CLASS of 2008! There are 27 girls and 1 boy. The head of our department is Miles Hunsaker...he is the one in the bottom right corner. We are a little family. We all are so close and really helped each other get through this CRAZY program. Lots of fun memories.

Here are pictures with some of our close friend Josh and Melody. They are so much fun. Josh had one more year at LDSBC...he is going to be the class president next year too.Here is Craig and I with my parents in front of the Assembly Hall where our graduation was held.

Me and Lindsey...we worked at Noble House together and we became REALLY close friends.Here is my friend Katie. She is such a sweet girl...I actually worked with her at Lisman Richardson.
At our wedding Craig and I have the BEST picture of us clicking our heals...so we tried to do it again...not quite as good but it is the fun memories.
It was so special to graduate from a church school and have commensement on Temple Square! There was a special spirit there that day...So much joy and excitement to be together with friends and family on this special occasion.
The BEAUTIFUL Assembly Hall
Here is Heather...she was my best friend in the Design Program...the first year we were INSEPARABLE! I love her. She is such a wonderful friend and an inspiration.
Laura and Kathy are two of the sweetest girls. I love them both!
After Commencement they had a reception at the school for graduates and their friend and family. It was nice to just relax and have fun times. My mom even spoke to some parents that traveled all the way from Mongolia. They didn't speak English and were non-members but they had a wonderful conversation. Their daughter who graduated translated for my mom.
For our graduation CELEBRATION dinner we all went to LEATHERBY'S! It was perfect...some got food, and/or ice cream. It was DELICIOUS and the perfect setting for a large group...we were basically the only people there and we could all hear each other and have fun times.
Here is my Aunt Linda who drove out ...she is so wonderful! I love HER!My mom is too freakin' cute...she brought up decorations for us...it was so funny to see and empty apartment with deco's on the wall. We had a good time.