GRADUATION!!!

So, the day finally came! I gradiated! Don't I look fantastic in a cap and gown!?

I just love candid photos! The long walk to the podium!

Brucey Juicy came to watch. All of the excitement inspired the rugrat to walk farther than he'd ever walked before... He went a whole 9 or so steps without assistance!

Craziness!!!

So, life is pretty crazy!

• Today is my 6 month anniversary!!! EEK!
  
• I graduate in less than 3 weeks!
  

• I was almost murdered by primary kids today! I REALLY need a new piano player!
  

Graduation Countdown!

22 days until GRADUATION!!!

EEK!

New Job!

So, Julian started his new job yesterday. He liked it. He's really excited (and so am I!)
He's been working at 24 Hour Fitness for the past little while but he's not the biggest fan of it. Now he's at Community America Credit Union. It's an automatic raise of $5 an hour plus benefits. He did realize how much sweeter the benefits get once you're a full time employee. DUH! Now we're just ready for me to have a job.... Then we can rock this place!

Another cool thing about the credit union is that they really like employing the friends and family of employees! That means that if I don't get the job at Park University that I'm applying for then I could probably get something at the bank. Too bad their HR department is full... We'll see what they have in a little while. Who knows!?

But for now we're all just way excited for Julian and having a job that he doesn't hate and making a more decent amount of money doing it! Plus, since he wants to go into finance he'll actually have some experience involving money!

Graduation Countdown!

ONE MONTH UNTIL GRADUATION!
This means that all I have left is

• 3 group projects
  
• 1 all by myself project
  
• a portfolio
  
• 4 papers
  
• a handful of finals
  

Then I'm ALL DONE!!! WOOHOO! Who wants to throw a party?

I'M BACK!

Basically, I realize that I fail. As far as my blog is concerned I am both not married and married but living in Lee's Summit. Neither of these are accurate. I have pictures at home so I will post some more recent shots of the happy little family later.

So, for a bit of an update:

• Julian and I will have been married for a whole 6 months in a few weeks. Happy day.
• I live in Gladstone with my mama and Julian and I are having a good time helping her out.
• I drive a ridonkulous commute to school everyday... It's lame.
• Graduation countdown can start as of today with ONE month and TWO days!
• YES! December 12th = a very joyous occasion.... I am done with the University of Central Missouri! Go me!

That's me for now. I promise to be better......

What will my calling be???

So, lately I've started to feel that I'm being tested by the ward to see where they want to stick me.

It all started when Father's Day came around. I sub-taught Primary so that some guy could go to the Priesthood party they had 3rd hour.

Then this week they asked me to be the guest speaker in Young Womens next week. It's a 30 minute lesson with all of the girls. YAY! After this I got suspicious.

To top it all off Sunday night I got a call from the Relief Society president asking me to teach RS on the next Sunday.... Hmmmmm interesting.

Plus, to make it even stranger... All of the lessons from all of the different manuals happen to be on forgiveness. Is this a coicidence or is my life just weird!? So, I'm going to get some calling soon and learn a lot about forgiveness. I guess I can look at it as a blessing! I'm new and I'll get to meet the WHOLE WARD in one month!

I'm terrible... I know.

I'm the worst blogger in the world. I blame it on the fact that we don't have internet in our apartment. I think it's a great excuse!

We got married.... I think you could have guessed. I am now a Furrow, which is uber weird and I'm trying to actually answer to it when people talk to me!

We moved into our cute little one bedroom apartment in Lee's Summit (pretty much by Independence if you don't know where that is) If you do know Lee's Summit... It's right where 291 and Chipman hit by the giant Burger King. Oh yes!

I'm in summer school. I'm taking a comedy film class! It should be good. Class started today and there are 5 of us. No hiding out in that room! Somehow my professor remembers that I was in her Film Appreciation class in 2004... I'm a little afraid of if that is good or bad!

I love married life. NO I'M NOT PREGNANT YET! I just thought I'd clarify that one!

Julian is working as an admissions rep for Grantham University over at Zona Rosa... that means we both commute. Boo.

Today we'll probably be buying a car. It's a 2006 Ford Taurus. It's pretty nice. Maybe I'll show some pictures. It'll go nice with our Focus we already have. You'd guess by that that we like Fords but honestly I am in no way partial to anything. Eh.

But yes. I promise to randomly post some crazy things that have happened soon. It'll be out of order because I fail at posting but at least you'll get some good stories. I might even put some pictures on. You've seen some of Kim's pictures from the wedding but I also have some sweet ones from my grandma. I'll see about working that out! I so much fail at this.

The countdown!

So, I haven't posted in a while. I think we all know I'm terrible at this.
Right now I have a few things to count down to....
I have one more day of classes- tomorrow.
Then I have one week of finals! Dumb!
I have three more papers to write before it's all over.
Then, the things that's most exciting to count down to....

I'm getting married in three weeks and two days!

YIPPEE!

ENGAGEMENT PICTURES!

SO, we finally did it. We got our pictures taken. Now hopefully we can get our invites out!

Aunt Kim and Uncle Brent helped us out and took some great photos for us!

It was uber cold and kind of raining.
They also made me climb up onto the railroad tracks where I almost fell and died.

But after everything... I think we look pretty fantastic!

Especially because neither of us are wearing our own clothes.

You may recognize all of my jackets from Kim's closet!!!

I am not a goober.

Kim popped his collar!

This right here is how I got him!

We felt very much like we were little kids... and the tree was HUGE!

Look, I found a boy that's just as much a goober as me!

Nauvoo the Beautiful

This past weekend I got to go to Nauvoo. My MTC companion's aunt and uncle were getting sealed. She's from Arizona and I haven't seen her since the MTC so she flew to KC and stayed with me a little while. Then we drove to Nauvoo. We brought my friend Amanda with us too. We stayed with her family there. It was so fantastic. You can sure tell that her mom is a Bowen because she's pretty dang awesome! (one of the reasons I've always believed that my MTC comp, Jasmyne, was as amazing as she is was because she's half Bowen! What are the chances!?)

Basically, it was a great experience that helped me see how much prayer really works. This family had been praying for their brother and his wife for over 20 years and they finally got sealed. Also, it made me want to get married RIGHT NOW! I guess I can wait until May!

But for a small side note.... while I was writing this post I wasn't paying attention and went to eat a handful of nuts... It turns out that for some reason my dad has a cup full of dog food on his desk. WHO DOES THAT!? GOO! My life is strange.

I'm still here!

So, as Maren said, I've been stuck in the wedding prep void. That's not completely true... It's been more of the wedding prep/going to school/buying a car and figuring out how to pay for it void. It's a fun one.... BUT I now have a car! It's in my name and everything. They actually let me do it without a cosigner. Too bad that meant that I had to pay more down and now have to figure out how to get it all titled and stuff.... but yay! Life isn't fun without great big challenges, right?!

I also have a dress. It's perfect. I love it a ton!

I haven't failed out of college... yet. I do, however, HATE my lit class. It's ok though, I still love my communication classes. I guess that's why I'm a comm major. But this whole being a senior in college thing is way harder than it sounds! It's also fun and lame living in two different places. I LOVE staying with the Nielsens but I'm pretty sure my room back home never gets touched! My poor family probably won't even notice when I actually move out!

But life is generally happy... just with no money!

The date....

So, my wedding will officially be on May 22nd in Nauvoo. The reception will be on May 23rd. I'm pretty darn excited! If any of you are able to make it then YAY!!!! You should tell me! Then I'll make sure to schedule you in!!!!!!! But yes.... YAY!

I'M ENGAGED!

I'm officially engaged. The boy is beyond ridiculous! I'm pretty dang excited about it, though.



Ok. Here's the story. Julian planned this big prank on a friend of ours. I thought it was really stupid. I told him that and I didn't want to go. THEN he talked me into it, only after getting my dad in on the prank. We drove all the way up to Jake's place in Galiton (about an hour away). There also happens to be a lot of snow up there! EEK! COLD!

Then, as we were sneaking around the house to get to the back yard, Jake came running out of the house with a gun. He started yelling "Who are you? What are you doing on my property!?" and he shot the gun. I freaked! Julian and Kat (who was also with us) started running. Then Jake threatened to shoot them if they didn't stop. I yelled for Jake to stop because it was just us. Goodness... the jerks! I was so freaked out. HE SHOT A GUN AT US!

This is Kat and Jake... the one's who were in on the prank!

Then Jake came over and asked us what we were doing. I was still a bit startled and told him straight up that I didn't want anything to do with it and said it was dumb. Then he asked me what I said.... I was way confused until I turned and saw that Julian had gotten down on one knee in the snow and had a ring out. Yea....


So, this whole thing was a bit ridiculous... but luckily for Julian, I still said yes! YIPPEE!

Back to School

Back to school, back to school, to prove to dad that I'm not a fool!!!

Pretty much, it's weird to be back in classes after being gone for so long! All of my friends graduated! :( I'll work it out though. I can make NEW FRIENDS! YIPPEE! But my classes are all pretty good. I like my professors for the most part. I've got a really lame Lit class that I'm not excited about. My professor somehow compares the bad characters from our ancient epic poems to George Bush. Crazy Liberal professors!
The rest of my classes are all communication classes. YAY! I like those! It's what I do! My first project I did for my interpersonal communication class involved the whole class throwing chocolate at each other! I'm starting the year out right. At least she won't forget that any time soon.
I am also officially graduating in December. Somehow taking two years off in the middle, only taking 13 hours this semseter and all the other crazy stuff I do didn't stop me from graduating in 3 1/2 years (of actual being in the country time!). Basically, I rock!

I'm also alreading enjoying the whole back and forth thing. It's not all bad. I'm part of two families and two branches now! More people to love! The only nutso thing is that the Nielsens actually wake up at 6 to do the whole going to school/work thing. WHO DOES THAT!? But being woken up by Joe playing the piano and Linda making me breakfast isn't half bad! I was way productive. I guess I'll have to start waking up at 6 more often. Can you believe it? That's even EARLIER than you wake up as a missionary!

So, now I just have to try not to fail out. Coming back has actually lead to some sweet conversations about the gospel. I got a high five from one of my professors! Life is fun!

A little of the life of Jeni

Hey look at me! I'm subbing again and, as I've mentioned before, this is the only worth playing on site that I can get onto through the school's firewall!

A little update on the life of Jeni:

• No matter what my mom called and told any of you... I'm NOT engaged. Not yet anyhow!
• School starts in a few days and I've got mixed feelings about if I'm excited. It will be fun to have a purpose back. I'll have something to work on that will last in y mind for more than a few hours. Subbing doesn't really help fill the void of no purpose! On the otherhand, I'm SO going to fail out of college. I've been gone two years and I'm going back to my senior year! EEK! I don't even know English grammar anymore! My journalism teachers are going to LOVE that!
• I'll be down at school three days a week... Tuesday through Thursday. I've been lucky enough to have a family, the Nielsens, to let me crash in their basement whenever I need. Linda said she'll just make me her slave while I'm there to pay her back! I'm game!

I really think that's it. My life is so sad. I could only think of three points. :(

WELL! I've got one.... I almost put it as a point but decided that it deserved SO MUCH MORE!

I'M AN AUNT! YAY! Little Bruce Oskar Bowen has arrived. He was born on Wednesday morning at around 8. He's ADORABLE! He's got dark brown hair and was 7 lbs 1 oz. I'm pretty sure he was 19' long. I still can't believe that Hy is a dad. Goodness. The world really is a crazy place!

Welcome to 2009!

New Year's Eve was basically the funniest night of my life! We went to the regional dance with all of the young single adults. I've got some friends from church that have been giving Julian and I a hard time. You see, Dean and Rachel got engaged after dating for two months. Julian and I have been dating for two months. They want us to be engaged. They haven't left us alone about it for a while. We decided to play quite the little prank on them!

• Pre-dance prep: I bought a ring at Claires for $5. Then, Julian called Dean and told him that he was going to propose to me at midnight on New Years Eve.
• At the dance: Julian showed them the ring to prove it wasn't a prank. (A few bystanders got pulled into the prank by accidentally seeing the ring too. Poor Kat!) Then at midnight Julian got down on one knee and tried to give me the ring. I said no and left the room. I went and hid in the bathroom. Rachel came and had to talk me out of the stall I was hiding in. She made me go back out to talk to him. When we got to the hallway Julian was gone. He had gone outside into the cold (not in the plan... bum got me all cold!). Dean and Rachel both made me go find him so that he didn't get too upset. When I got outside, he was standing there laughing. Then we came back in and told them that it was all a joke.
  

Ever since that happened EVERYONE has heard about it. I went to the movies with some people last night and they all knew. They weren't even at the dance. We were the talk of the dance. Sure, I expect some kind of revenge from Dean and Rachel but we got them really good so I'm alright with it!


This is us at the dance. All of the cool kids there wore purple! Those are some of my friends. Rebekah, me, Julian and Katy.

This was our friends trying to get pictures of "The Proposal." Really, they were horrible. THIS was the best picture they got. But that was my dress that my mommy helped me fix up.