Happy 26th sista!

For the longest time I've called my sister Jade, "sista." She laughed a lot the first twenty times I called her this, and then it just stuck. She doesn't laugh when I call her sista anymore, that's just her name. She's such a gentle heart and kind spirit. One of my favorite things about Jade is that she's actually a pretty good story teller-- but in the moment she usually doesn't realize she is telling a story, and that makes the story come out even better! She'll just mention something that happened at work or at school or something and she'll talk very matter-of-factly about it, but to me it's always a hilarious story! Jade and I have had some good times together and I'm glad that we've been able to live just ten minutes away from each other these past couple years. The most recent picture I have of her is from Jake's concert last week. For whatever reason we thought it would be fun to make angry faces for the picture. I LOVE YOU SISTA! Happy Happy Happy Birthday!

A post just in time.

So I made a goal to post at least once a week. I just feel like this week has been so dull and there's nothing much to say. Jake and I are still playing the waiting game... Waiting to hear back from Florida State to see if we got in or not. We know what we're doing if we get in-- the verdict is still out for what we're going to do if we don't get into school.

I've decided that waiting has taken it's toll on my body. Every week I wait in line at the grocery store. If I want to eat good food then I have to wait for it because fast food is not good. At the movie theater girls always have to wait for their turn in the bathroom. When I was single I would wait by the phone for some dumb boy to call. When I was engaged I was waiting for... well you know what. And now we're waiting, not by choice, to make some HUGE decisions about where to live and what to study.

I know we'll have an answer from FSU by the end of the week, but I had to make a post today before the week was up. So... that's what's on my mind and that's what you get.

The Heaviest Cat part deux

There's another great show coming up! Check it out!

Who? The Heaviest Cat, Wild Apples, St. Michael the Archangel & His Possum Pals

What? A Pioneer Day of Music
When? Saturday July 24th from 8-10pm
Where? Muse Music 151 N. University Avenue Provo

Why? Because you're never too old to get down

This last weekend we had some fun-filled FAMILY time! The parents on the Shumway side were able to take a road trip and visit their children, making a huge loop from Arizona to Los Angeles to Las Vegas to Provo and back to Arizona! We wanted to make sure my parents left from their relaxing vacation somewhat exhausted so Thursday we took them kayaking at Utah Lake. Then Friday we biked down Provo Canyon. As grandparents of six, almost seven grandchildren, they kept up pretty well :)

Then on Saturday we had a Boucher family fun run. Most of the family RAN the 5k but Jake and I BIKED it. I had a good excuse--rolling my ankle on Thursday (not from kayaking, just walking... of course). Then Sam pulled out the griddle like it was nothin' and cooked up a bunch of pancakes for everyone. I also got a lesson in chi gong from Andy which made my ankle feel better! Then we fed ducks and threw some rocks into a pond, just one of the many things to do in Salt Lake. I love hanging out with my families!!!!!!!!!!!

Hamster Sitting

Our friends are out of town for a month so we've been stopping by their house to check on Alan, the hamster. I know he 's used to a 1 1/2 cubic foot cage but I still feel bad that there's nobody in the house with him all day. So... Jake let me bring him to our house for a sleep over! I told Jake it would just be one night but now I think it will be two :)



It's nice to have another living creature in the house with me when Jake's not here. I've found myself feeling like Alan is another person to talk to. I'm understanding more and more the cat lady thing. You can talk to the cats if you feel like it, and if you don't then you just let them do their own thing. It's friendship on demand and I kind of like it.

I'm not sure how Alan felt about Jake's artwork... And I know our house probably smells all kinds of different to Alan so I hope he doesn't go into Boucher culture shock.

Passed

Guess who's the newest licensed electrologist in town??? I passed both the written and practical exams and I'm ready to start working for myself. Goodbye corporate life. Goodbye boss. Goodbye Monday through Friday nine to five. Hello life!!

It's that time of year...

Everybody's getting married! We went to a couple weddings/receptions last weekend. My sweet, funny, beautiful, good friend Zoey that I met at BYU-Hawaii had a gorgeous wedding ceremony and a delicious dinner party. It was really exciting because Zoey's parents were able to come all the way from Mongolia, and a lot of Richard's family came all the way from Ghana.

In Mongolian tradition, the father presents the new couple with a Hadag. A hadag is a Mongolian traditional ceremonial scarf-like piece of fine, loosely woven silk. The color blue symbolizes the endless ocean and eternal sky. It is a symbol of peace, honor, purity, goodwill, auspiciousness, and reverence. The hadag expresses the highest form of respect and when used as a gift to a respected guest or friend it means, "I am presenting from the bottom of my heart good fortune to you." All of the guests also received a hadag from the happy couple.

My favorite part of the night was getting to dance with my hubby bubs. It's a rare occasion to see Jake on the dance floor but he actually has some charming moves. I love my man, even with that beard.

The Heaviest Cat

Jake played a concert right here in Orem this last Thursday. They are a two man show: Jake on the upright and electric bass, sometimes a little keyboard, and Andrew on the drums! These guys can make a lot of sound between the two of them.

They were really fun to watch and sounded pretty amazing for their first show together. I'm looking forward to seeing them play again. This is a copy of the flyer that Jake drew up on the spur of the moment so we could get the word out. Next time I'll post something about the concert BEFORE it happens.

Some of our friends who came to the show told me they really enjoyed the music and I believe them-- especially my friends from Africa. They went on and on about how good the band sounded and they wanted to buy some cd's. So Jake will have to get busy making some cd's now! I don't know if it is a coincidence or not... but I find it interesting that Jake really, really likes African music, and my African friends really liked Jake's style of music (which does not sound African at all.)

Overall, it was a good night and we had a lot of fun. My husband is an awesome musician and I love when he's up on stage.

I love the 4th of July!

We had a very fun 3rd & 4th of July. I guess anywhere there are a lot of mormons-- if the holiday falls on a Sunday you're gonna celebrate it on that Saturday instead. We pretty much hung out with our friends Kelly & Mac this whole weekend. On Saturday we played some frisbee golf which is always fun to do with someone who has never been before. I won't say if it was Kelly or Mac but it was funny to see the awkwardness of their first game of disc golf. I remember my first time playing.... I could only get the frisbee to fly about ten feet so it would take me anywhere from 10-15 throws to make it to the basket. Thanks to Jake's training I've improved since then, but one of Jake's throws still equals two of my throws!

After frisbee golf we ate at SmashBurger which I would highly recommend and also suggest getting the Spicy Baja 1/3 pound with Rosemary fries. Jake and I are two out of a billion fans of In-N-Out which just opened up across the street from SmashBurger, so I hope this smaller chain can compete with the bigger guy and stay in business for a while. Everyone should at least try SmashBurger once, and after eating the Spicy Baja you'll understand how someone would crave the crazy chipotle mayonnaise and fresh cut jalapenos that In-N-Out simply doesn't offer. I love food.

Then we watched the fireworks from the Carterville Road bridge. It was actually a great spot to see the stadium of fire show, and convenient because we could walk and not have to worry about parking or traffic. At the end of the show the fireworks just kind of stopped, without a finale. We instantly started complaining about how cheap we thought it was of the city to use the 4th of July as a good time to start saving on the budget. It's the one day of the year in Utah where the weather is nice enough and when Americans are actually friendly enough to sit their blankets down on the grass next to each other in peace and make friendly conversation with strangers and let their kids play together.

With such a huge production as the "Stadium of Fire with Carrie Underwood" LOL you would think we'd get a decent fireworks display. Oh well. So everyone around us started to pack up and leave. Just like in a crowded movie theater, we waited for the masses to get through before we even attempted to stand up. In situations like this Jake says he doesn't want to feel like he's being herded like cattle. So ten minutes later we stood up and began the walk back home when.... the fireworks finale started. ? ? ? I don't know why they faked everyone out with the fireworks show but we were happy to get a finale! It just goes to show us what good complaining does.

Fireworks never turn out amazing with my easy-to-use camera so we just took pictures of our beautiful selves! Jake decided to make a toga out of our sitting blanket.

And this was supposed to be a surprise picture

of Kelly & Mac. I turned around really quick to

snap a candid picture of them in the dark but

they have like a .002 second reaction time!

Then Sunday we went to Jade & John's for a barbecue. I LOVE barbecues! There's just something about grilling meat and veggies that is soooo good for the soul.