Charlie's new location...

My brother Charlie is serving a mission in Portugal, and was transferred to Sao Miguel. 
I went on the internet and googled Sao Miguel---

yeah, that's right... he is on a tropical island where Hydrangeas grow like weeds. (I seriously found tons of photo's showing the Hydrangeas) They are used for hedges.... I immediately turned to Ryan and told him we needed to move to Sao Miguel... :)

here is his newest message:

So I did get transferred.   It’s a place called Ribeira Grande.   It's pretty close to the ocean!... actually it's sitting about 500 miles out in the middle of it... yep I’m sitting on the island of São Miguel in the Azores ha-ha it was a bit of a shock.  They called me up at about 10:00 pm Sunday night (February 17) and said "pack your bags you have to be in Lisbon by 7:00 am tomorrow morning!"  I don't think they realized it's a 6 hour bus ride.  So they changed it.  I grabbed a bus at 9 the next morning, traveled to Lisbon, I had an hour and a half to get to the office weigh my bag (I could only take one) and get to the airport.  Grabbed a plane at 6pm and arrived in São Miguel at 8:30pm slept at the missionaries house in Ponta Delgada then grabbed a bus in the morning and got to my area Ribeira Grande.  I then found out that we have nowhere to do internet in Ribeira Grande so we waited until today.  Yeah it's a bit of a change.  But then they surprised me on Saturday and told me "oh by the way you're being called as the first counselor in the Branch Presidency; yeah quite a change from my last area...

photos courtesy of:
http://www.theodora.com/wfb/photos/brazil/brazil_photos_06.html
http://www.123rf.com/photo_1768722_azores-typical-flowers-at-the-island-of-sao-miguel.html

Happy moments when things work out.

I found out today that it looks like I only need to take 4 more classes. I also found out that the art department at BYU-I is going to be accommodating of my situation, and will be flexible in the last four art history classes I need to take. This means I will be able to take at least two of them online from CSI, and then find equivelents for the other two (hopefully online) from another school (It does not appear that CSI has any upper level art history courses). It looks like things will work out. I am breathing a HUGE sigh of relief.

randomness

http://pinterest.com/pin/238127899017672015/

                                            http://pinterest.com/pin/275352964688745646/
I'm getting excited for my trip to LA. As a class we are supposed to make "thank you" gifts, also called leave-behinds or something like that. Anyways, they are for the people at the different museums, etc. that are going to be helping us with behind the scenes type tours. The other class members have been less than enthusiastic to participate, so I came up with a gift idea, and we are slowly getting it going (and the teacher LOVES it). Above are pictures of the basic idea of what we are doing.

we are going to basically make an accordion book (contained in a box) that will include artwork from all those going on the trip. The purpose of these types of trips is for students to get their work noticed by publishers, etc. with the hopes of getting a job. Obviously, I am not looking for a job, and I am quite aware that my art work is not yet up to the standards Dream Works, and others in the art community, are interested in. However, I am still taking the project seriously, and maybe it will prove beneficial to one of the other students on the trip as a means to gaining recognition in the art world. I will post pictures when it is complete and awesome :).


I just finished reading Othello... it took a lot longer than it normally takes me to read because I had trouble focusing. I feel so accomplished getting it done, simply because it took me several hours today, because I kept getting distracted. Random thing to blog about, but oh well :).

I'm so ready for spring. And I want to be doing yard work instead of homework, but I keep plugging along. On a happy note, I'm getting all a's and one b. That is pretty good, I think, for being a mom taking 15 credits.

On a frustrating note, I have NO idea how I'm going to finish my last four or five (its under debate right now what exactly I need to graduate) classes in order to graduate. BYU no longer offers them online (I'm hoping they simply pulled them for spring, and that they will be available again in the fall). I'm trying to see if another school offers them online (they have to be transferable to BYU-I). Ryan and I were talking about what I would do if we can't find them online- I mean, seriously to come so close to graduating, and all those years of work, only to stop 4 or 5 classes away from a bachelors!!!?? I don't know. Ryan said I'll just have to be content with an associates, but I won't be content with that, not after all that work. I did have the strong impression when I started school again that everything would work out, so I will keep chugging along and have faith that it will all work out for the best, whatever that is.