Tausha: Eagle Scout, Family Pics & Relaxing

What a short trip to Nebraska! There is seriously SOOOO much I think about doing while I am here, and I end up never having time to do anything. For example, this trip I wanted to:
-Go take a silly picture by my old apartment
-Eat at Charlestons
-Go to Cheeseburger in Paradise with Steph
-Go to Sonic with Steph
-Go visit my old school and the Photo lab
-See my old friends
-Sit down and talk with my parents about my life
-Go take my mom for a pedicure
-Take my dad to lunch
-Visit my baby brother at work
-Take Landon out to dinner with Khora
-Attend Sacrament meeting at the Singles Ward
-Shop at Nebraska Furniture Mart
-Shop.
-Go to the Zoo, and Rosenblatt.
-Visit the fairy "O"

So yep. This trip was short, Friday night at midnight till Monday at 7 am. Next trip, hopefully the hubby can come with and we can do my list of things.

I miss this amazing group of girls:

*tear* I miss my Nebraska days.
ANYWAYS:
Today, there was a lot of relaxing around the house, we watched tv, SLEPT (for me, a lot - I love naps....hey, maybe thats why I never get things done! *lightbulb*)
I was able to pry myself off the couch to go to my baby brothers Eagle Scout Ceremony....Nic and his best friend John got their Eagle Scouts at the same time:




At the Eagle Scout Ceremony we had Root Beer Floats and got to hang out and look at pictures with everyone - my mom made this really cool showcase of pictures of Nic from his entire life - it was really cool!
Then time for family pictures:
Look at this two handsome brothers of mine!!
The two greatest people I know - never can repay my parents for making me who I am today. I love them more than I can even begin to describe, and I wish I never put them through half the crap I did.

After that, I hung out with my brother Landon and his girlfriend Khora. Let me just tell you about this kid - he is one of the smartest people I know, he is so thoughtful, and puts EVERYONE before himself. I've always had a deep appreciation for this kid, I am sooo glad he is older now - so we can talk and be real about life. Landon's girlfriend Khora is such a sweetheart too, i had a blast hanging out with them....AND they play Settlers like Chad and I do with Fred and Terri! Major plus!
And yes. My parentals have a pinball table! Pretty sweet huh?

So, got to pack and sleep. Flight leaves tomorrow at 8 am. ICKY early.

Tausha: Nebraska Graduation and T.Swift!

I had such an amazing day today, (I miss Chad terribly - btw!) I could literally talk for hours about how incredible this entire day was. (Incredible day = LOTS of pictures!!) We woke up at like 8 am (6 am my normal time!) and got ready for Nic's graduation. My mom and pop loaded up the van with myself, Landon and his gorgeous girlfriend Khora, Gma, and 2 of the Boys Town kids....We headed downtown, and anxiously waited for Nic to come out!
Here he is:I don't think I have ever seen such a large graduating class, I was in awe the entire time! Mind you, my graduation was held on our football field, with all our family and friends sitting in the bleachers - I think there was like 120 of us that graudated, and that was a good year for my High School. Check out this graduating class!
We were sooo excited when Nic led his line of kids up to the stand, and we all screamed as loud as we could when he was handed his diploma...

And then he jumped and clicked his heels, and we LOVED that! :)

I was soooo proud of him. High School is such a horrible place, kids are sooo mean, the peer pressure, the teachers, it is a lot to go through, and I am sooo proud of baby brother toughing it out and finishing! We headed out front to meet up with Nic to take some pictures, the halls were PACKED with people...

Me and Nic after graduation, he was popular! We've got TONS of pictures of him with everyone, this is just one of me and him!

This is Nic, HAPPY GRADUATION BABY BROTHER!

So. We all headed back home, got lunch, and then Nic and I went to the park to take some more "Senior" pictures...(The ones he had taken turned out okay, but it's always nice to have more).....I will post just a few of my favorites, but we got a LOT of good pictures, I am going to try to get some of them edited so we can print and frame them. My baby brother got HANDSOME! The last time I lived with him he was this short, fat, long haired goober - - and now he is a High School graduate who works at a Restaurant Part Time, and works out, and has really figured out who he is as a person, and I couldn't be a more proud sister: Enjoy my handsome newly graduation baby brother Nicholas Layne Piercy:

Nic's girlfriend Tori is just ADORABLE! She met us at the park:

Then Nic, Landon, Me, and Tori went to the mall, and then Ross to try and find a new outfit for guess who? TAYLOR FRICKIN SWIFT!!! Nic and Tori got tickets for the concert tonight, and I was sooo jealous, My dad told Nic if he could find me tickets, he would buy them for me! AND GUESS WHAT? Nic found 2 tickets from a friend of his, and for CHEAP! So, of course I asked Mom to go with me, and we got dressed and took off to T.Swift!

Need-To-Breath opened for Taylor, and then Taylor blew me away! It was such a beautiful show! TONS of costume changes, pyrotechnics (firework stuff), ballet, intricate choreographed numbers, Taylor danced and moved all over the venue...It was seriously incredible! I will admit, I LOVE Taylor...And I spent most of the show with my hands on my face in tears because I was in such awe. My mother definitely thought I was insane...but I fit right in with all the other 13 years old screaming their hearts out. Hahaha. I was soooo bummed that I don't own a camera (it would have had like 42323848 pictures on it at the end of this concert) buts heres a few I snapped with my almost dead iphone: This is the view we usually had, it really wasn't that bad, the big tvs were very helpful...


Taylor walked through the people sitting on ground level, and came back by us to sit on this tree that rotated to sing a few songs..
And for the finale, Taylor got in a balcony that was lifted and circled the stadium, she got so close to us and with my hands outstretched, tears streaming down my face, i LOVED it.

Here is a video of my favorite song from our concert that I found on youtube...

And her is "Enchanted" my second favorite song....SO BEAUTIFUL!

And here is "Last Kiss" song on the tree back where my mom and I were sitting!

SUCH an amazing day. My throat hurts from yelling at Taylor all night. THANKS DADDY FOR TICKETS!!!

Off to Nebraska --> Oregon/California Coast

This morning Chad packed up and left with our previous singles ward Bishop- Rich Harlow, and a good friend Cameron Tidwell to bike for 8 days (with my best friend Kari as a chaperone) 500ish miles accross the Oregon/California coast. I call them crazy, but these boys LOVE it. So, at the same time Chad is in Oregon, I will be departing to Omaha, Nebraska to visit my family and watch my baby brother graduate High School and get his Eagle Scout. Excited to see the fam!
Heres a picture of Chad that I got tonight:

Isn't this a beautiful sunset?


My flight left late, I parked in Economy parking, and got to Nebraska about midnight Nebraska time.....SOOOOO excited to be home and to spend some time with the family!

Fail.

I don't know why I didn't drop the math class as soon as I found out it the final had to be taken in person....I guess I figured, "YA, right! He's just trying to scare kids out of taking the class - he will change it!" Guess what? It didn't change. I actually had to go take a Math final, red eyes and pockets full of tissue. It went horribly! I only got 2/25 correct. Who needs absolute values, and square root squiggles anyways? Lame.

The End of The World Party...

WARNING: This is about to be a long post.

Par-Tay Time!!
Mr. Harold Camping thinks it is the end of the world. So we are going out in style.

Today was our reception to celebrate our 2 month old marriage beautiful new marriage. I'm kidding.



It truly is amazing.


We reserved the Brookside Outdoor Pavilion at our old Singles Ward – and were so excited that the weather was supposed to be warm and sunny, and that we had an awesome playlist to relax to with everyone. I woke up
early (and by early I mean almost 9am)
I started making more Rice-Crispie Treats for our chocolate fountain and dessert table, and I got a phone call from my Daddio, asking what I was doing. Didn't think anything of it.


15 minutes later...The doorbell rang. "Who the heck could that be?". Crap. Our foreclosed house sold. Were getting kicked out the day of our reception. *FACEPALM* Yep. Thats me, always thinking worst case scenario.

*opens door* "Oh hello beautiful BIG wicker basket full of treats, welcome to my doorstep, come on in. Wait. Who the flip is this from? - CHADDDD!!!!!"

*Small head peaks around corner* "DADDDYYYYY!!!" Yep. Daddy flew in to surpise us!!
I finished cooking while catching up with Daddio, Karen and Jim arrived and we loaded up the Vanagan and they took off to start setting up. I got ready, and headed over to set up:
-We had an entry table, were people could sign a frame we purchased at JoAnns, and there was pictures from the cruise, some shells and other decorations...
-We borrowed white tableclothes from the church, and set up tables and chairs...I found these really cool nets (via 99c store - booyah) that felt really nautical, so I put those on the tables, then put some vases with the glitter swirly things, sand (from Santa Cruz) and shells....and then some dollar store frames with some pictures on each table...Pretty simple, but it looked really pretty...when the wind wasn't blowing over the pictures, and tangling the netting.
I think things turned out great. I'm super happy. We had a big dessert table with two chocolate fountains, tons of bulk candy in small containers with little shovels. We had cellophane bags people could take candy, and plates to eat it here. LOTS of soda, cucumber and lemon water...lanters that we bought from OrientalTrading.com....
A radical playlist (High Five to the hubs)....and PRESENTS!! *YAY!*



Here are a couple pictures from our dessert table....I LOVED it!! I am so glad that I spent the most time planning on this. THANK YOU to Terri Fairbanks, Cyndie Parker, Stephanie Greenlee, Rachel Smith, Nikki Buell, Lisa Huerta for your food, set up and take down help, chocolate fountaints and your love...

We also had a little "picture booth", courtesy of Terri Fairbanks and her backdrop, and help with bunting...we set up a table with a bunch of props from the Harlow family...and some moustaches I made last month...It was a hit!! All the pictures are posted to a Shutterfly account...





It was a fun day - I am very thankful that it is all over and now we can just be married, and not worried about buying candy, tableclothes, sound systems, play lists....or anything else. PHEW. Thanks to everyone who stopped by!! We love and appreciate your support!


Mr. Harold Camping you crazy old man. You were wrong - we are all still alive!! Muahahah!!!



All pictures in this post are from photographer Terri Fairbanks ...Not that your going to steal the pictures, but if you do, please give credit to her. Gracias! She's got a bunch of pictures from the reception, so as soon as she touches them up, I will post!

Date Night!

YAHA! Us poor college kids LOVE cheap movie night. Our Stockton Theatre has $5 Tuesdays, so we decided to make it a date night :) As soon as I got home from work, we watched some YouTube trailers and headed off to dinner. We had dinner at a little place called, "The Ave" on Miracle Mile, then we had some Baskin Robbins and headed to the movie. We saw 'Water for Elephants' which was AMAZING! I teared up a few times, I definitely recommend it - Chad even liked it too....my little man who loves the circus :) We got home after midnight and feel right asleep in our warm.comfy.bed (yaawwnn) Hope you all had a fabulous Tuesday!!

My favorite place....

I'm not sure why, but Santa Cruz is my happy place. I LOVE when our schedules lines up perfectly and we can go spend the day riding bikes, and laying on the beach. We headed down Wednesday night after Chad finished his last class of this semester! EEEKK!!! Chad had packed up the vanagan with our bikes, snacks, and the pillow top mattress.

So we drove down, and as soon as we got into the city we headed to the beach. We are doing sand/shell centerpieces for our reception in a couple weeks, and Chad said we might as well get the sand for free, so we took a big bucket (those huge plastic see through ones) and filled it with sand. That sucker was HEAVY! Its got to be like 80 pounds. We loaded that in the car and then found a free place to park and sleep overnight, we cracked the windows, broke in the vanagan ;);) and then got a good nights rest! In the morning we found a $5 all day parking spot, and rode up to the lighthouse, rode down the pier, to get some Starbucks, and then layed out towels on the beach and got our tan on....It was sooo great! I love Santa Cruz, everyone on their bikes, the beach, the sand, clam chowder....It's my favorite place, and It's so nice to be there riding bikes with such a handsome man. I wish there was a Dental School right on the beach, then I could lay there alll day while Chad goes to class. I guess San Fran won't be toooo bad. Now that Chad is out of class, he is studying for the DAT and working on applications that will go out mid June. Any suggestions?