A Year In Review 2014 Edition

This will be a long post, but I promise it'll be mostly pictures. I won't be offended if you just look at all the pictures though. 

This year by far has been the best yet (though I know 2015 is going to beat it).

We spent winter semester hanging out with friends and having an epic married couples sleepover.

We played Betrayal at the House on the Hill, had lots of snacks and lots of laughs.

 We have been blessed with such great friends here in Rexburg and I will hate to go whenever the time comes. 

Oh and we built a fort!

Later on we went down to California to visit Garett's family for a weekend and to take a break from the Idaho winter.

I must say I love going down there to see his family and also the beauty that is southern California.

 Our friends Katy and Sam added a new member to their family, their cute puppy Marley. 

 In the srping my mom came to visit and we go to go to the drive-in theater. 

In the spring Garett and I found out we were pregnant with Joshua.

I have to say it was a beautiful surprise right before mother's day. 

Though that brought about morning sickness which lasted all semester.

I was taking ceramics that semester and throwing on the wheel made it worse.

I'm surprised I survived that.

(No that wasn't thrown on the wheel, but I'm not particularly proud of the stuff I threw)

We had our first appointment right before my birthday and it started to settle in that Joshua was really there, growing and becoming an awesome little person.

I remember my doctor telling me not to increase my exercise dramatically and of course I had a travel study down to Moab, UT the next week where we got 3 hours of sleep and hiked 15 miles. 

It was worth it though! 

I made some great friends on that trip and had tons of fun despite being sleep deprived.

Goes to show that you can still handle a lot even with being sick, or maybe I just got really lucky.

 After our 2nd appointment and making sure Joshua survived that semester as well, we decided to announce his arrival!

Garett graduated with his Bachelors in Microbiology.

And my dearest friend Haley married her love Bryce.

She made a beautiful bride!

Around our 2 year anniversary we went down to California and got to go camping at Carlsbad beach with Garett's family. I loved it and would do it again in a heartbeat!

I got to see Garett surf for the 1st time in 5 years and it was by far the coolest thing I've ever seen.

Surfing is a very attractive sport. 

Shortly after that we found out Joshua was a boy!

To prepare for Joshua we moved to a 2 bedroom apartment in our complex. 

For Halloween we continued our tradition of carving pumpkins with our friends Katy and Sam.

Not pictured is that his past semester Garett and I got to have a pretty fun game of D&D with several of our close friends. Garett was our DM and made it fun for all of us.

During Thanksgiving break Garett and I went down to Utah to see my family as well as Grandpa Bonds one last time.

He was thrilled to hear that his great-grandson Bonds was on his way. 

(FYI Joshua is the 1st great-grandchild to carry on Grandpa Bonds name, so he was pretty thrilled)

My final semester kept me busy with walking lots and climbing 4 flights of stairs every day. 

On the bright side it helped me keep my pregnancy weight under control. 

In December I graduated with my Bachelors in Photography at 37 weeks.

Then we played the waiting game over Christmas break.

Due to being so pregnant, Garett and I spent our first and only Christmas alone in Rexburg.

Luckily we had great friends (Ron and Bryton) to share Christmas day with.

Shortly after the new year I went into labor and gave birth to our son Joshua. 

Grandpa Bonds despite his health lived to see Joshua being born.

Though they never met in person it was wonderful that Grandpa Bonds got to see pictures of Joshua and his arrival into this world.

It was a roller coaster of a year thanks to Garett and I finishing school, making new friends and me being pregnant for most of it.

We had a wonderful year and loved getting to share it with such great friends and family!

We love you all and this year shall be even better!

-Megan

Posting for Posting's Sake

I don't particularly have much to say. I PROBABLY could show you pictures but I am being lazy. Plus all the fun ones are on my phone. One of these days I will post them. Probably around Christmas time so don't hold your breathe.

Currently I am sitting in the I-Center on campus in between classes. I would have been done at noon but I have another class at 3 pm. =/ On the bright side I killed my Medieval art history test! Take that Late Christian/Early Byzantine Style! Not to mention studying Codex from different gospels. So I am happy.

Now I just have Studio Lighting left in which we will review our last assignment and then my teacher will monologue for the next 2 hours about nothing in particular. You see his wife is teaching our class for these next 3 weeks so we are doing her assignments. The assignment we are reviewing today is the last one from him for awhile, but I don't know what else he has to say since he's not giving the assignments for a few weeks. But regardless he will monologue the whole class period, despite it supposedly being "lab time" which should be optional....not that I am bitter or anything.

I really am in a good mood though, despite my lack of sleep from studying for my test. Mostly I was anxious for that test so now all is good. I am going to try to get my online homework done here in a few minutes though so I can pack tonight.

Tomorrow we are going to pick up the AMAZING Haley and then head down to Utah to keep my dad company and see my little brother! Extremely jealous of you mom! In case you were wondering she is in Michigan with my sister, her husband and Nikolai! REALLY REALLY jealous mom! But it is okay because we're going to see our most favorite author of all time Brandon Sanderson on Saturday! I hope I can play it cool though, because honestly I just want to flip out, but I don't want to come off as some insane fan girl. Though I really am...anyway definitely looking forward to that and some open road car time with Garett.

I feel bad, this week I've probably gotten to talk to Garett no more than 5 minutes at a time. It's been one of those weeks where I'm running constantly for about 14-16 hours a day non-stop. Let us hope next week is a little slower. Bless his soul, he has been extremely patient with me. I am the luckiest girl to have such an easy going, sweet husband. I am definitely the anxious, stressed out crazy one in our relationship. Garett's just crazy in good ways, though no one ever sees it but me. That man, he comes off so quiet and sweet. Don't be fooled, he's actually a very hyper child. I mean that in the sweetest sense possible. He's hilarious and makes me laugh all the time and it is wonderful. Honestly I need his goofiness all the time.

Anyway sorry for the off topic rant. He really is awesome. I hope all of you get to meet him one day. And for those who have met him, I hope one day you get to see his goofy side because it's hilarious and so much fun. For our friends who have seen his goofiness...you understand. =]

I guess I'll end this. Sorry it's so long, but if you have read this far, good job. I owe you a hug.
Keep laughing y'all.
It really is the best medicine!
-Megan B.

Julugust

So this is a mix of stuff I just forgot to post all together so I apologize.

Below is my first aluminum plate from lithography.
Remember all my complaining?
It was over this!
So was drawn with just a basic grease crayon, which later becomes an image from talc, gum arabic, acetone, lithotine and asphaltum. I won't bore you with the obnoxious details. Later we fill the image with ink thanks to the acetone and asphaltum which holds it in place. But before before having to let it sit over night twice.



And it produces this!

My 2nd project was this. It was done with grease crayon, xerox transfer and there was a wash but it didn't work out, probably for the better. A wash is toner, water and soap. A xerox transfer is a toner printed image and winter green to make it stick to the aluminum. 

And my last project was a 2 run project (each color is a different plate) used on photo plates, meaning you paint/draw on Mylar and then expose the painted image on the Mylar over the plate for a few minutes. 

Oh and Garett and I celebrated our one year anniversary with Jimmy Johns and a picnic! Though now we're more like 14 months. 

He's too cute!

During the 7 week break we went to the sand dunes with some of our good friends, the men went sand hill jumping and then we all played Betrayal at the House on the Hill. Best game ever even though we were freezing. 

And our dearest friends Katy and Sam got married!!!
We also got to see lots of Garett's old companions like Troy (his "son").

I also had the opportunity to shoot my sister's brother-in-law Tim's reception here in Rexburg.

I was kind of obsessed with the lanterns in case you were wondering.

Anyway that's all for now.
I'm sure I have more stuff documented on my phone which I will hopefully get around to in the near future!
Until then SMILE!

Meg B.

Spring Has Arrived!

 I'm hoping if I say it and truly believe it that Rexburg will go along with it.
Plus it's been in the 60's this week and it can stay that way.

Lately Garett and I have been reading fiends. Here's just a taste of what we have been reading.
I'm working on the Saga of Recluce series and Garett has been trying out some new stuff.  

I cut my bangs too short and too much by accident but I think it turned out for the better. 

I actually like them this way. 

What do you think?

This weekend Garett and I went down to Utah to see my family and for his mission reunion.
We watched Rise of the Guardians which we enjoyed thoroughly.
Then spent Saturday afternoon hanging out with my family, enjoying an afternoon walk and the wonderfully warm weather.

Saturday evening we went to the reunion.
Garett served a church mission in the Zimbabwe, Harare Mission.
It covered Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi.
While there he made some awesome friends and I finally got to meet some of them.

This is Nate. I found out he is from Asheville, NC. The best state ever.

Then there is Troy. Garett's son. (That is what they call the missionary they helped train when he is new).
I had met him before, but it is always fun to see them together.

There is Fasi. He is half Samoan, half Jewish which is an awesome mix. 

Here is some of them together.
(There were about 80-100 people there including their mission president Elder Dube and his family)
There was a dinner and a get-to-know-you segment.
It ended up being a blast.
Plus I got to meet Sam's girlfriend who was just wonderful.

From left to right: Nate, someone, Sam, Kenneth, Fasi, Troy, Garett and Chris.
They were a fun bunch.

Oh and Steven spotted Garett while he did a back flip. I was so excited. I hadn't seen Garett do one before.

Sunday my mom made a fantastic Easter dinner which we all got to share.
I got to meet the exchange student from Brazil that my parents are hosting, Flavia.
She was really nice.
In case you forgot who was in my family.
Left to right: Dad, Mom, Aaron, Flavia, Catherine, Jesse, Nikolai, UJ and Garett. 

Now here are some adorable pictures of my sweet nephew, Nikolai.

He loves phones.

So many teeth!

I love this one. 

Look at his dimple. =]

It was a much needed relaxing weekend filled with friends, family, good food and warm weather.


That is all.

Sunshine makes life better.

Megan B.