Pottery! I'm getting better.

So this semester I am taking an advanced hand building pottery class. I love it!! It is just so relaxing and nice to have a fun class. So here are some of my pieces that have been fired once. They still need to be glazed and then fired again.

This is one of the two large pieces I have made so far. I really liked how it turned out. With this one you start the bottom with what you call a "pookie". Basically it's a plaster mold that you use to build up the bottom in larger pieces. I am going to be sager firing it. That means you put a bunch of "stuff" for a lack of a better word like leaves, dirt, etc. When it is fired, this stuff transfers onto the pot and creates really cool colors and patterns.

This is my second large piece and it is my favorite out of all of them. I'm not sure how it turned out so good but I love it! I painted on a white slip, which is basically watered down clay. And I am planning on using a crackle glaze.

This is a smaller piece and is made a little differently than the other two. It is called a half and half. You take a smaller "pookie" and roll out a slab of clay and out it evenly in the small pookie. Then you put that in front of the fan and let in harden a little bit. Then you do the same thing again so that you have two exactly the same. Then you let them harder to the same consistency and use slip to fasten the two halves together to make one small pot. Then you can do a lot with them. You can leave them without an opening or carve an opening like in the one below. I also did a little extra carving on this one too.

This is also a half and half. I used some white slip to paint on this one. I really liked how it turned out.

This one is another half and half. I painted this one with a yellow slip and am planning on putting horse hair on it after it fires. It turns out so cool!!

This is the last half and half and I painted it with red slip. I also really love the opening on this one!

A better view of the top.

And this is a picture of me making tiles. We made a original tile from clay using a pattern that we liked. Then we poured plaster over it to make a plaster mold of the tire. When that is done, then you put more clay in the mold and can make as many identical tiles as you want. I will take a picture of the finished tile later and post it.

Thats all my pottery for now!

Weekend with the Girls

So this last weekend I was able to get together with a big group of my girlfriends. We have all worked at Cafe Rio at one time or another and thats how we all know each other. Needless to say, just look at the pictures, we have a blast when we get together and it doesn't happen nearly enough. It's pretty ironic that everyone of us, except Katherine, lives in Utah and we only got together because Katherine was in town! Oh well, regardless of why we got together I am so glad we did because we always have so much fun. The kind of fun that your cheeks hurt at the end of the night because you are laughing so much. Here are some pics from the night.

This is Ayme and Vicki. They are hilarious!

This is the whole group.

Vicki, Adrien and Havila

Me & Katherine. The Modesto girls!

Another of the group.

Okay, one more...

I love these girls! And we love Cafe Rio, of course.

Heros, Blessings, and Books

So there are just a few random things that I have forgotten to blog about in the last month or so. First we went to our cousin Johnny's daughters blessing a few weeks ago and I never wrote about it. It was really nice. They decided to bless Hannah at their house which always makes it a little more personal. Hannah is a very cute baby and we couldn't love their little family more. It is always fun to have other young married couples (who just happen to be family) around to hang out with. Here is a picture of Johnny, Lorna, Lily and little Hannah at the blessing.


Also, I started an Internship for the Red Cross. I'm not sure if I have blogged about this yet but I will now. It is a really awesome opportunity and I know that it was the right internship for me. As much as I would have loved to write for the church magazines, it just wasn't meant to be. So instead I am an intern for the Greater Salt Lake Area chapter of the Red Cross. The Red Cross is an awesome non-profit organization and I am really excited to be working for such a great organization. I am working in the communication department and helping their PR director. So far I have helped edit articles and write profiles of the volunteers. I also got to help with the 2009 American Red Cross Heroes Award Luncheon. The RC basically was honoring 10 different heroes in the community. It was really good and cool to be a part of. I was the light person for all of the short videos they played! lol


And also I just finished reading this really great book called Confessions of an Economic Hitman for the Labor Economics class I am taking. It is definitely a pretty quick read and just gave me a different perspective on the world, especially third world countries. I recommend it to anyone that has an open mind and wants to learn more about our economy and economics in general. It is not boring!! Don't worry.

Two visits with Nichole...

So last week was my spring break so I has a lot more free time than I am used to. Because of this, I decided to visit my sister and my niece on Tuesday and then I also went again on Saturday. We always have fun hanging out together. Of course I got to play with Brielle and while she was napping Nichole and I got to talk and hang out. We are both really sad that in 6 months Chad and I are moving back to California so I am trying to get in as much quality time with her as I can. On Tuesday we had a really fun time. We went to the mall to pick out a new bow for Brielle's hair and we got lunch there too.

Brielle snacked on some kind of rice cracker thing (forget what it is exactly)...anyways, as you can see she is eating here...

And another....

Now she is paying attention to the camera and not to her cracker...

And now she has completely forgoten about the cracker and is intent on just staring at me... I love her!!

We also had a good laugh trying to watch her crawl (to no avail) but she is getting very close. I have some viedos of that but am having a hard time posting them so I will try again later. Lastly I got to watch her eat baby food. It wasn't her first time, but it is still pretty new to her.

We were really laughing at this picture because she kept wanting to lean foreword so in this picture it looks like she is a little tipsy and the food on her face doesn't help. But she is still cute regardless.

I love my sister and my niece and I am so glad they live so close....at least for the time being!! I always have fun with them and I just realized that all my pictures are of Brielle and I didn't get one of me and Nichole...I'll need to do that next time.

Lots to catch up on...

I'll start with Chad's grandmothers funeral. His grandma on his mother's side, Paloma Clawson, dies on March 11, 2009 at the age of 88. She has a severe case of Alzheimer's and really didn't know who too many people were anymore. She was living in a care center away from her husband of 70 years when she died. Although we are all sad to see her go, we know that she no longer has any pain or misery and she is definitely in a better place. We left on Friday the 13th to drive to Idaho for her viewing and funeral. Friday was the viewing and it was really good. Grandma Clawson looked radiant and peaceful. I know many people don't like to go to viewing and normally I don't either but it was hard to deny how good she looked. The whole Clawson family was there, minus a few, but most made it. I was really impressed at the family's dedication to their sister, wife, mother and grandmother.
The funeral was the next day and was also very well prepared. They had a family prayer before it started and then continued with the actual funeral. Two of Grandma Clawson's son-in-laws and one of her sons spoke. They all gave very good talks and you could definitely feel the spirit there.
That night much of the family stayed at the church and visited together. Although we were there for a funeral, it was still nice to see so much family and have a good time together. I think everyone cried a lot, but laughed just as much.
I am a strong believer, that while it is a good thing to mourn for those we have lost, it is also a good thing to laugh about the good memories you had of them. Overall it was a really good weekend and we were happy to be able to see Chad's family, especially his parents and siblings.
We also got to meet Emily's fiance Bobby for the first time. We can definitely say that he was welcomed into the family with open arms. I give him a lot of credit for meeting all of the family at once. I did the same thing and it is a little intimidating, but he handled it well. We are really looking foreword to going to their wedding in a month.

Here are a few pictures I snapped as we were all hanging out after the funeral.


From left to right: Katie(sister), Brittney(cousin), Lorna(cousin), Emily(sister), Taylor(cousin), Michelle(Mom), and Jill(sister).


From left to right: Hans(cousin), Andrew(cousin), Johnny(cousin), Chad, Bobby(soon to be brother-in-law), Eric and Maddy(cousin and 2nd cousin?).

Good, no great, no fantastic news!!!!

Omigosh, omigosh, omigosh!!! Can you tell that I am very excited. I am sure you want to know why and I want to tell because it is so very exciting. So as most of you know, Chad went to the emergency room a couple weeks ago because he had a kidney stone. Well, as luck would have it just a month or so prior to this, he had started a new job and we had lost our insurance from his old job. So we were pretty annoyed/sad/scared/upset because right after we lost our insurance of course one of us had to go to the hospital! (Doesn't life always happen like this?) So I gave the nurse our old insurance card just in case it hadn't quite been cancelled. I really didn't think much of it. I just did it on a whim. So Chad and I are pretty upset when we get our $6,000 hospital bill. We have a pretty meager income right now so there was absolutely no way we would be paying this baby back anytime soon. So we had been praying about it a lot and just trying to ignore it until we absolutely had to confront it.
So here comes the good news...yesterday I opened the mail and found a statement from Blue Cross (our old provider). I expected to see, a so sorry but we won't cover this ER visit because your insurance was still canceled. Instead it was just a notice of what day our insurance had been terminated: March 1st. I quickly tried to remember what day Chad had gone to the hospital and finally went and got the bill. February 24!!! He went on February 24th which means that our insurance had not been canceled yet and we were saved from paying $6,000 in medical bills!! I almost started crying I was so happy. So I called Blue Cross just to verify and sure enough the agent that helped me said that in fact they would cover the bill since we were still technically insured on that day. Even better she said that they should cover 100% of the bill. All we have to pay is a $100 copay. Well that turned into much longer than I meant it to but it really is worth the time. A little miracle happened today and Chad and I both know that our Heavenly Father is definitely looking out for us. Not only has he provided a way for us to get our bill taken care of but he has also helped provide a way for us to sell our lemon of a car, he has helped us find Chad a job when he really needed it and he has also done so much more for us.

Some more exciting news is that Chad spoke with one of the fire chiefs in Modesto yesterday and he told Chad that once he was done with his Fire Science classes and the fire academy he would be more than happy to help him find a job. We are about 99% sure that we are moving back to Modesto in August so this was really good news. It means that within a year/year and a half Chad could have a job as a firefighter. He is so excited! We are also really ready to move back to California and I am really ready to be done with school!!!

Cody's Gone... : (

So my brother is officially on his mission. My whole family took him into the MTC on Wednesday about noon. We sang "Called to Serve" and the MTC president and his wife both spoke. Then we watched a short video on missionaries. Then they told us it was time to say goodbye. Many of us were already crying at this point and the ones who weren't cried when they said goodbye to Cody. We all gave him hugs and then we exited out the "family" door and he left through the "missionary" door. It was surreal. It was hard to believe I wasn't going to see my brother for 3 years until he had actually left. Anyways heres some pics from the MTC.

This is my dad, Cody and Micki.

Me, My dad, Cody, Nichole.

All the "kids".


Here is Cody when we first walked into the MTC. He is getting his name tag.

And here are my mom and Cody after my mom put his name tag on.

And the nametag itself.

I just thought this picture was funny. I was trying to take a picture of his name tag and his hand got in the way. But whats funny is his mission name on his hand. (By the way, the picture is upside down).

Here is Cody's address in the MTC if anyone wants to write him!!


We had a really fun couple of days prior to taking Cody in to the MTC. My mom, stepdad Tracy, little sister Ariana, Dad and stepmom Micki all drove here from California for the special occasion. We squeezed a lot of activities into a very short time. (I was exhausted when everyone left to say the least. I also got sick! Go figure.)

Sunday when my dad, Micki and Cody got here we went over to Nichole's house in Lehi to spend the afternoon. Here are some pictures from that afternoon.


We call my dad the baby whisperer because he love babies and can always get them to stop crying!

I thought this was a funny picture because you can see the happy mama in the background!


I really like this picture.

This is my favorite.



On Monday we went to the Draper temple open house. It was a really cool experience. The Draper temple is really amazing. Here is Cody being silly. He is pointing to his mission.

Here is a group picture.

And here is one more of my cute little niece! And another view of the mountains.