Moving out

The time has come for us to move out and into our new place! We are so excited, but neither one of us is a fan of packing things. We've starting packing a couple different rooms, and luckily we don't have a whole lot of things. I'm exciting to get pictures up of the new place as well!

It is a little sad just because this was our first place together. This is where we spent our first year of marriage together (almost to the date). It's always fun to get a new place though. There's just something about it that makes me happy.

Still got it

Today at work was, what you would call, awkward. There is a new tenant in the building that I work in. I have seen him and his co workers around but I have never talked to any of them. I was coming upstairs from talking to one of the students that works for us when I see the new tenant coming in the front door. Here's a recap of the conversation we had:

New tenant: Hey, you work in the building right?

Me: Yes, I do. 

New tenant: (Gives me the up/down look) Are you married?

Me: Yes. 

New tenant: Oh. (Walks away)

What the what? I just walked away and went back to my office. A couple of the guys from the E Center (another business that we work closely with) come into my office and say, "Did that guy really just say what we think he said?" Yes, yes he did.

It was completely awkward and I'm so glad that we get to see each other at work and I get to relive the awkwardness in my head. I mean the least he could do was play it off and and say something else like, "Oh, do you know of any good married housing around?" Something! I guess a positive from this whole experience is that I still got it!

Another D.I. Find

I talked back here about the amazing find from D.I. that I had bought.  I'm still in love with them, but they're not quite ready to be seen by the general public visiting my house, so they have been upstairs in our guest bedroom/office.

A girl that I worked with and I decided to head over to D.I. and see if there was anything purchase worthy. Other than those orange chairs, I really have never found any furniture that I love enough to actually purchase it. This day was different. We headed straight back to the furniture section and the moment it caught my eye I was in love. I found the perfect chair to put in our living room. It was a neutral gray/white weaved upholstery and it was so comfy! It's one of those chairs that you can just curl up in a ball and read, sleep, watch movies alone, etc. It was perfect.

Other than a few little spots that needed to be cleaned up a bit, and a nice cleaning in general, there was nothing I had to do. No upholstering, no slip covers. I can handle cleaning! I had the Fusion and I knew it wasn't going to fit in there so I texted my very gracious husband to come pick it up for me. I then got a text say, "Nothing is impossible" with this picture attached.

Isn't he fantastic? Honestly though, the best part about this chair was that it was $6.00. Let me repeat, $6.00. It was originally $8.00 (a little steep for my taste.. totally joking), but when the girl rang me up, I didn't realize she had charged me $10.00. When Ethan went to pick it up, he asked them about it and they gave us a $2.00 discount because he was so patient. I guess the movie Rigoletto (please tell me I'm not the only one who knows what movie I'm talking about) was right, patience is a virtue.

I think the fact that it was so cheap was my favorite thing about it. I can't wait to get it cleaned up and move it into our new place this week!

Hard things

We all have to go through hard things. It's inevitable. Some may have harder things, but in all reality it's all hard to us. Sometimes we have unexpected things come up that we don't know how to handle. We struggle through them because that's what we're supposed to do, right?

I can honestly say there are somethings that I just want to walk away from. Why go through the struggle? I always hear the saying, "God never said it would be easy, just that it would be worth it." He didn't say that. At least not those words. It was at the point where I just kept asking why is this happening to me? What did I do to have this happen?

I was preparing for a talk in church when I came across this:

"When you face adversity, you can be led to ask many questions. Some serve a useful purpose; others do not. To ask, Why does this have to happen to me? Why do I have to suffer this, now? What have I done to cause this? will lead you into blind alleys. It really does no good to ask questions that reflect opposition to the will of God. Rather ask, What am I to do? What am I to learn from this experience? What am I to change? Whom am I to help? How can I remember my many blessings in times of trial? Willing sacrifice of deeply held personal desires in favor of the will of God is very hard to do. Yet, when you pray with real conviction, “Please let me know Thy will” and “May Thy will be done,” you are in the strongest position to receive the maximum help from your loving Father." - Richard G. Scott

Slap in the face? Definitely.

Skittle bowling

A few weeks before our friends moved away from us, we went bowling for family home evening. The bowling alley here has games for $2.00 if you buy them before 7:00 pm. We decided it would be a cheap and fun activity. We decided to spice up the game a little bit by playing Skittle bowling.

How it works is you take each color of the Skittle bag and assign a different way to bowl. We had things from bowling with your eyes closed to throwing the ball between your spouses legs. You draw a Skittle from the bag and bowl according to the color. It was a lot of fun and we wish we could have had more time with them before they moved. But alas, they don't live too far from my parents house which means it's a short enough difference to meet up for lunch when we're visiting.

I didn't get any pictures of the actual bowling, but we got a few of us. And look at their little guy! He melts my heart every time he gets his big grin! We sure miss them!

Amazon trade-in

At the beginning of this semester, we opted to buy Ethan's books from Amazon. They were cheaper than buying them at the bookstore, and they had the option to trade it in at the end of the semester. Well, it's the end of the semester and it was time to send out books back.

Even when you buy the books at the bookstore, they do a book buyback, but it always seems so much less than what you paid for it. I wasn't expecting much from the trade-in with Amazon, but I was pleasantly surprised. We're getting a decent amount back for the book and they'll pay for the shipping.

Not a bad trade. I'm pretty sure if we have to buy anymore textbooks we'll be doing it through them again!

It's that time of year

I can't believe that today is graduation which means it's now been one year since I graduated. It seems almost unreal. So much has happened. I have a feeling that this next year will be bring even more amazing memories and experience. Here's to the graduates of Spring '13- Congratulations!

First logo

I mentioned before that I was helping my best friend with the branding of her new company B. beautiful artistry. I worked on her blog a bit, and then it was time to get her a logo. Other than my visual media class where I made a logo for my fake bakery business, I've never really designed much.

But, after many drafts, I finally came with the final logo for her.

I've already got another person wanting me to do one for her photography business. I'm so excited to be doing something I really enjoy. 

Sleepy

Ethan always gives me a hard time for falling asleep. It doesn't matter if it's on the couch, floor, or in the car. The worst part about it is the fact that I fall asleep with my mouth open, ready to catch some flies. I've accepted it and I'm ok with it.

Little did he know, he falls victim to the same fly trap as me! And I just happened to catch him in the action.

Although, he does look very peaceful. 

Family History

I've never been very good at family history, because in my family, most of the easy names are done. Now we have to find people and search records, and it's a long, grueling process that I have shied away from. But there's something about learning who my family is that intrigues me. I'm not necessarily trying to find out who my great-great-great-...... grandfather is, I just want to know who my grandmas and grandpas are.

Being the youngest of five with parents the youngest and middle child of five, I was on the low end of the kid line. Other than my Grandma Yule who just turned 95, all of my grandparents died when I was under the age of 10, and my Grandpa Oxnam died before I was born. I look at old pictures and I want to know the stories behind them.

One of the ones I most want to know about it my Grandma Rosella Oxnam who died when I was 3. This year, on July 28th, marks the 20th year of her being gone. She died one day before her 72nd birthday. I know people, especially in my family, don't believe me but I truly have very vivid memories of my grandma at that age. I wonder if it was the trauma of her death, or that I just have a great memory, but I remember things. I remember the tiny, steep staircase, I remember not being able to breath on the right side of her neck because she had had surgery, I remember getting hit in the eye by little blue berry-like things from what I think is a juniper tree at her house by my brother, and I remember singing at her funeral and seeing her in the casket. It's not big grand memories, just little snippets.

There are a few pictures, in particular, that I have seen and wish so much that I had known her.

Isn't she absolutely gorgeous? She must have been a model from the looks of the pictures. I remember I was looking at all of these pictures one day and I asked my mom what she was like. It was at the same time I was doing the pageant and she told me how much she would have loved watching me compete and how proud she would be of me. Just thinking about that now is enough to make me tear up wishing how I could have known her. I feel like we would have been very close. 

There is a necklace that my mom received after my grandma passed away that I have always loved. When I lived at home, it was probably the piece I borrowed most. I definitely wore it more than my mom, so when I left for college, she let me take it with me. I wear it all the time and get tons of compliments on it. I always let them know it was my grandma's. And every time my aunt sees me wearing it she comments on it. I love wearing something that reminds people of her. I can only assume that if we have the same taste in amazing jewelry, we probably had a lot of other things in common as well. 

As much as I would love to sit and talk with her and hear about her life, from her, I suppose I'll just have to ask everyone else what she was like and have a relationship with her through those stories. And if that's all I can have right now, I'll take it. 

Finals week

It's hard to watch Ethan stress out during finals week. There's nothing I can really do to help and I feel helpless. I know how stressful they can be, especially because there's so many other things on his plate. He's in the process of getting an internship and I know it's stressing him out. Basically there's a lot of stress and not much for me to do. So I just try to stay out of the way as much and possible and help him anyway I can.

Finals week can go away anytime now.

Running on empty

Literally. I cut it too close.. almost.

Happy 95th

This is one of my favorite ladies of all time and she's turning 95 today!

There are so many memories of visiting my Grandma I could never write them all down. But I do want to write down just a few things:

1. Missoula Carousel 
2. Ice skating
3. Hikes up on the hillside
4. The bird clock that makes a different bird sound each hour. My favorite it at 12:00- it's an owl
5. Sitting at the table and watching all of the little critters on her porch
6. Two stuffed animals in particular- the big brown bear and the yellow dog
7. Her toaster- it sounds like a ticking time bomb
8. Playing memory with these old nature memory cards
9. Clogging all over the house for her
10. Fruity marshmallows on the top of her fridge- every time I smell them or have one, it reminds me of her

Happy birthday Grandma, we love you!

Summer campfires

This past month we have gotten to know a couple in our ward. We all got together with two other couples and had a campfire and played some mafia.

Since then we've hung out with them multiple times and have created a really good friendship. And who would have guessed, they move at the end of the semester! The plus side is that they're moving only 30 minutes from my parents house, so hopefully we'll be able to meet up with them occasionally.

We still have a couple weeks until the end of the semester, and you better believe we're going to soak it up with more campfires and mafia!

Photo op

I have realized I don't have certain pictures when I'm trying to find them for a specific purpose, whether it be a picture I want to print off, or to use on the blog. One of those pictures is pictures with my dad. I have a few with my mom, but the pictures I have with my dad are really old, or are from my wedding.

When Ethan and I had the opportunity to spend time with him on the 4th of July, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to get the shot. My dad doesn't enjoy getting his picture taken, but we got him to cooperate and ended with a pretty good product.

 I thought I get a picture with Ethan and my dad too. Two of my favorite guys right there.

Extravadance

Every semester here in Rexburg, they have a dance performance called Extravadance. I've always enjoyed it, so when I heard it was that time I got us tickets!

I remember the first time I went to Extravadance, my sister Kara was going to school at BYU-Idaho, and we came to visit her. The theme was kind of a "world travel" theme, and I remember being on the edge of my seat the whole time. It was amazing. 

This year the theme was famous art pieces. It had a lot of contemporary dances, which Ethan and I both were not huge fans of, but there were a few dances that were great. It definitely wasn't my favorite of Extravadance performance ever, but we still had a fun time. 

4th of July weekend

We had a great 4th of July weekend this past weekend. Definitely one for the books. We drove down to Payette on Wednesday after work. We stayed at my parents house that night and most of that day. Ethan's parents and brother Jared were driving up from Salt Lake (where they flew in to). Jared's wife unfortunately had to stay in Utah for a funeral, and we were bummed that she couldn't have been there for the whole weekend (she got in late Friday night).

They got in about 8:00 pm or so and we headed to the grocery store. We picked up some stuff for dinner and food for Friday for our day on the lake. We got home, had our dinner and sat around and talked for a bit.

We started to hear fireworks going on around us so we decided to head outside. We didn't have any fireworks of our own, so we improvised and sat on Jared's rooftop. It had an amazing view of the entire Boise valley and it was just as good as doing our own fireworks, without having to shell out the money for it!

On Friday, we headed out early to pick up the boat and jet ski Ethan's parents had rented and headed to Lake Lowell. It was absolutely gorgeous, and there was hardly any one on the lake. We boated, jet skied, wake boarded, skied, and rode the tube.

The picture above reminds me of one of the first pictures I ever saw of Ethan. He looks just as attractive if not more in that picture from years ago!

Ethan's dad Dwayne tried wakeboarding, but he decided that skiing was more his thing.

I spent a good amount of time lounging on the front of the boat. The water was warmer than I expected, but it was still cool enough to keep me out of the water for the majority of the day. 

Jared was the first of the group to slalom ski. We found that it was a lot easier to start on a slalom from the tower of boat.

These two guys had so much fun together. It was fun to watch them interact. It was like they were 12-year-olds all over again. I don't know how many times on the tube they were tackling each other or giving each other kidney punches. Yet, they continued to ride with each other. 

Ethan, Dwayne and Jared all spent plenty of time riding the jet ski. I'm pretty sure two of the three got themselves flipped off. I suppose that's why they have the wrist strap with a kill switch!

Even though there is no proof, Sarah did get in the water and she skied like a pro. I was hoping to see her barefoot ski, but she said it had been too many years. Dang!

This was my first time riding a jet ski. And while I may not have been as adventurous as the guys, doing 360s at 35 mph, I got used to it and started getting a bit more adventurous.

 Another fall caught on camera!

A kiss was caught too!

 Ethan and his mom Sarah. I love that he loves his mom so much.

We've decided that we could totally be boat people. We just need to find an extra $20,000-$30,000 lying around. 

The rest of the weekend was spent recuperating from all of the friday fun. Shannon got into town that night and we spent time talking, the boys went shooting while we went shopping, dinners, game and a movie on our last night. 

We had such an amazing time and we can't wait to have another Thomas reunion. Thank you Dwayne and Sarah for everything you did for us this weekend, and thanks for hosting everyone Jared and Shannon. Let's do it again soon!

Exciting weekend

We have an exciting weekend coming up and we can't wait! We get to hang out with Ethan's brother and sister-in-law and his parents are also coming in to Idaho. We haven't seen them since Christmas so it'll be awesome to spend time with them because we don't get to see them nearly enough.

I'll be away from blogging for the weekend so Happy 4th of July one day early everyone!

Counting our blessings

I wrote back here and here about how we were in the process of looking for a different place here in Rexburg. After much frustration and also humbling myself, I started to like our ward and didn't want to leave. That made looking for a new home a bit more difficult, because we got a pretty good deal on our place and we didn't want to pay much more than what we were  paying.

I was searching online every. single. day. on Craigslist hoping someone, somewhere would have a place for us. I had asked a couple people in the ward to keep their ears open for us and let us know if anything came available. Prayers were answered.

There was a new couple that moved into our ward this semester. I had talked to her a few times and she seemed like a cool girl. I told her about our situation and she said she'd keep a look out for us. One day I get a text from her out of the blue asking if we were still looking. I told her yes, and she asked if we wanted to take over their place. They had originally planned on staying for a job here in Rexburg, but they decided to go a different route. She asked her landlord if they would mind if she found someone to replace them. They were happy about that and thankfully trusted their judgement on finding someone.

A week later we went through the house and I fell in love. Hard wood floors in the kitchen, flat top stove (so much easier to clean than a gas stove!) and his and her closets in the master bed. Heaven I tell you!!

I knew rent was going to be about $15 more a month, but it was worth it to us. I texted the landlord and told her we were very interested. However, I asked if she would be willing to match the rent we were paying already. She asked her husband and asked when we'd move in. We told her as soon as the other family was out we'd be ready to move in.

Right in the middle of texting her, I got a call from Ethan telling me that the Realtor for our place called and told us they had someone coming to look and they were pretty anxious. I was a little bit frustrated because I had just been home and could have picked up a bit, but Ethan said he could pick up real quick and they would be gone before I got home from work.

We got off the phone and I had a text message saying that as long as we moved in right after they left (pretty soon after graduation on the 23rd of July) they would match our rent. I was ecstatic! We were definitely getting a better deal for our money.

This could not be happening any more perfect, especially for timing. We're sure counting our blessings!