Lucky ones

Some people say they are the lucky ones. I never knew how lucky I was. I grew up with parents that loved me and lived for me. I had a brother that adored me, and made life so much easier. I had a good childhood and graduated with a good education with the best best friends anyone could ask for. To top it off I graduated from a good university where I got to spend the best four years rooming with my best friend. To top everything I fell in love with a man who lives and breathes to make me happy. Which is what this post is mostly about.
Josh and I have good days and bad days. Sometimes we have good days and bad days in the same day. We fight and we yell and we laugh about it later. We argue over directions, and complain about things the other one does. We drive around for hours in awkward silence. Sometimes we say too much and sometimes we don't say enough.
We vacation and travel and master the group selfie together. We teach and learn together. We train and practice together. I couldn't imagine a better half or a better Co pilot.

Yours, mine and finally ours

Buying a house is anything but easy. You will lose sleep, you will lose hope, you will lose patience and you will lose faith that it will never be yours. Buying a house is work, from finding the right one to signing the last paper, to moving out and moving on.
We started looking in November and after many set backs, we finally closed in February. We had to adjust our prices but we managed to keep our expectations.
We were looking for a two plus bedroom house with covered parking, fenced backyard, and wood working shop. We got it all, plus six thousand off the asking price and four thousand under the appraisal.
The house....our house was stuck in the sixties, complete with Elvis bed spreads, pink carpets and floor to ceiling wall paper. After a month of what seemed like non stop work we brought it into at least late 2008.
There is no short list of what we did in the house, and nothing was finished in a short amount of time. But here is a condensed list of the work we did:
-pulled three rooms of carpet
-stripped four complete walls of wall paper
-replaced all the porcelain flower knobs with 50 stainless steel knobs and handles
-replaced every two prong outlet in every room with three prong outlets
-filled every hole, sanded every putty spot, and filled and sanded four times
-primed every wall and then painted
-refurbished the wood floors in all three bedrooms
-replaced all the window treatments
-bought new appliances
-replaced every light switch
-replaced the shower head, and fixed the plumbing
-installed magnetic strips
-replaced the outdated fans with new lighting
I'm sure there are things we missed. I'm so happy there were people there to help us. Thank you to Josh's family and my own, along with friends  for all the help and support.

Life follows life

Nobody ever says that weddings follow engagements, because perhaps it is implied. Or maybe everybody says it, I'm just too stubborn to listen.
Weddings! Wow! First you pick a partner then you pick a ring, and then you have to pick flowers, people, venues, colors, dresses, shoes, attire, tables, settings, arrangements, a budget. The list really does go on forever. Under every heading there are subheadings, under every category there are subcategories. I mean, I've never been a fan of eloping, until I got engaged. Now I'm all about Vegas and Elvis. Bring on the drive through ceremony.
I was warned before hand that everyone will try and tell you how to do the wedding, and who the wedding is for. So I will tell you how Josh and I are going to do it, because it is for us. It is our day to share with everyone.
Fortunately my to be sister in law is awesome. She recently was wed, and is giving me the greatest help right now. Planning is usually not my thing, so it is very important to take everything one day at a time, and to remember my wedding is in a year and half. I don't know how brides do it in less time.
Most importantly for us is having a budget so we know how much to save. However making a budget is pretty impossible without considering the guest list, the venue, the season, etc.
My suggestion pick a date. Pick a season, pick a month, pick a day. We wanted spring.  We picked May. Our date was hard and still up in the air.  It will be in May, but none of the days look promising. Once you have a season you can pick styles and colors.
Colors was the hardest, and I had a lot of decision constipation. After looking at many color schemes, we went with our favorite colors. Blue and Green! Thankfully there are a lot of helpful sites on the internet. Once you have colors, you can pick flowers, you can look at invitations, you can get an idea of what a budget should be.
There are step by step guides out there on how to do it, but my mind works like a disorganized library, with letters and words strewn about waiting for the author to put them in order. Guides and step by step don't work for me. My planning is much like my cleaning. I can start in the bathroom cleaning the shower, notice the towels are dirty, wash them, look for more laundry end up in the kitchen, notice the dishes are dirty, start to clean them, realize there are no clean rags. Head back to the laundry start folding, put the clothes away which takes me to the bedroom, there is dirt on the floor, so I start vacuuming, start the vacuum in the next room, find dog toys, put them back in the crate in the bathroom, notice the shower is still not clean, start cleaning it again. This is how wedding planning goes for me as well. Less showers and dirty clothes and more flowers and dress styles.

Our story

Our story is my favorite. When I think about all the events that fell into place to create our story I stand amazed.
Josh and I first met in the junior high. We had keyboarding together, and I immediately developed a crush on this blue eyed boy. As I grew up it faded and was gone the next year. That was the year of dating and I didn't agree with his choice...'s.  Josh and I continued going to the same school, our clicks we're different and we only had honors classes together.  We both graduated and attended different universities. He attended a university near home and I ventured into the big bold world...aka Logan, UT.
We we're Facebook friends but the extent of our dealings ended with him accepting the request to like my pet cow, petes, Facebook page.
It was three years into college that a chance meeting would change our lives for the better!
After an eventful Pre Christmas holiday spent in Logan I came home. I celebrated Christmas with my family and started planning our new years party. I was cooking in the kitchen, when I saw a red truck pull into our driveway, and drive to the back of our property. I put on my don't mess with me boots and headed out to see who this stranger was. He rolled down his windows and knew me right off, but I was a little more than a foot away when I realized it was Josh. He was always one to grow facial hair, and he now had a man sized beard, and mountain man hair. I didn't know who this man was until I did. We went through the usual conversation of seeing someone for the first time in years; how are you, what are you studying , where are you working, where do you live, etc.
I finished the Christmas break and went back to Logan. Josh continued with work and school and I didn't give him much thought. Then he started chatting with me, sneakily got my number and we started texting each other when we had time. We went on a date during the winter when I came home for a weekend. It was an eventful date that started off with his truck dying. We went country dancing. After dancing we ate at McDonalds.  If me stepping on his feet, and lacking the almost innate ability to be led that probably every girl possesses, didn't impress him then the way I tore my food apart definitely did. We went for a drive and drove all over provo, where I rambled for a good four hours and apologized many times for the nonstop chatter. He politely replied that if he minded he would have left. He did leave practically falling asleep on the porch at two in the morning.
Then it was a couple more months of texting each other if we had time, but mostly if we remembered. I came home for summer school, and caught up with a few old friends from high school, and went out to dinner with one of them that just got off his mission. We went to a restaurant and low and behold Josh was there with his friends. We said hi, he finished eating and left and an hour later we did as well. When I got home I texted josh asked if he was busy and we went for a long walk around the block. And I found myself starting to like him again. The next day we left for Ohio, and our texting was hard due to the lack of service and the wedding we we're attending. I finished out the summer school, and we didn't really hang out, but I talked to my running partner endlessly about him. Poor girl had to endure my indecisiveness and debates with myself. I didn't want to date anyone and just wanted a good guy friend. But all of my friends said we should date. We hung out together for an entire week and as our conversations grew late into the night, so did our feelings. Honestly I thought he thought I was a tomboy feminist and was losing interest in being friends by the minute. So I was surprised when he walked me to my car,and just sat on my hood like he owned it. And then it came, the thing that is even more awkward than our awkward footfives. Even more awkward then a baby giraffe. Even more awkward than Erin. Yes even more awkward than a junior high boy.  So the dtr was started. Where are we going? Are we going to keep hanging out until midnight? What should we do? what are we? Are we anything? Will we ever be? Do you want to be? Where are we headed? Should we date? So it was decided in front of his house on a Thursday before July eleven, we would give this dating a try. Very soon after he told me he loved me and even sooner after I told him I loved me too. Our summer romance was quickly coming to an end. I paid my tuition and realized I only had a few short Weeks to spend all the time in the world with him. And then it happened I waited until the very last possible minute to pack and drive back up to Logan and start my last year. It was hard getting back into school and not having him there to go canoeing, hiking, shooting or camping with. We visited each other every other weekend and I went camping with his family over labor day, and I went with his family to Arizona to celebrate his birthday. I came home for Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and the next semester we couldn't go longer than a week without seeing each other. As much as I hated living far away it was probably one of the best things for our relationship. It made us so strong. We built trust and communication, we hurt each other and we fell in love with each other. 

The year ended thankfully and I moved back to Provo. Now we really are inseparable. I decided not to graduate that May and took another semester of classes, probably the hardest semester.  Never go to school close to home. As the semester progressed we became way more serious and talked about marriage and rings.  We looked at rings and one day we bought my ring. And I waited and waited, and waited for him to "pop" the question. I told him how cliche every possible proposal was, including looking at lights and then proposing. Then I felt like an idiot when he told me days later that he was going to propose after looking at the lights and a carriage ride, with both of our families there. Sounds romantic now. So the day we went to look at the lights and then went on a carriage ride, I waited and waited but he never asked. I was supes disappointed, and a little irritated.
Christmas Eve's eve came, and still nothing, and then Christmas Eve. After opening our presents, he asked me for a glass of water, at which time he placed the last present under the tree. I came back and started opening it, and saw it was a box through tears of joy. Then he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. It was the best Christmas Eve! Although we don't have a date picked out, we know the year. 2015!
Looking back I'm so glad I was the one who stopped him in the driveway.  I'm so glad it changed our lives forever.

School

cleaning attire 

This is my last week at the junior high I so loved working at. It is bitter sweet, mostly sweet. I gave this school a good six months of my life, working early mornings and late nights.
To be honest if my boss was managerial material I would probably be working here next year as well. However having to be manager and grunt worker while making the same pay as someone that does half the work, and only making three bucks more than the grunts is not worth it. In the past month this job has made me miserable.
The only thing I complain about is having to work at the school. Complain...I never complain about work, because I have had jobs that I love or at least can stand. But this takes the cake. When I started the junior high, I had my doubts, but then school ended and we started the summer cleaning which I fell in love with. Physical labor, and for the most part I was in charge and ran the show, and was rewarded for it. Then summer came to a close, my best worker had to go back to school and we got a crew of degenerate do nothings. The work became dull, especially because I had to pick up their slack. People found the job hard, or boring, or perhaps didn't fit into their ten hour day of watching TV, so they quit. Which meant I had more work. I had more work and yet my pay never went up. However other people
So here I stand training the newb that will take over my many duties. Good luck high school kid!

Clean library floor

my freshly waxed floor

carpet cleaner

all of the locks broken off of lockers

The dread vacuum 

My wax bucket, I almost cried after waxing my last floor

not affected by the quitters suddenly got a pay raise and I said hold the door shut the gate stop the bus. Told myself I didn't need this job and the stress, with my two other jobs and school, and gave my one month notice. My boss was stupefied, "what you want to quit, but why? You are working twice as hard as me for half the money. Don't you love it?" That might not actually be how it went. But he was surprised that I was leaving at the date I said I would leave when he hired me. In may I had high hopes of the future and said I could work until December at which point I would be graduating and working anywhere else. So when I gave him my one month notice in beginning November he threw a toddler sized fit and thought I was staying until January, silly bosses never listen and this one never learns.

The machine I learned to fix

The dreaded snow

Well folks it is that time of year again when everyone celebrates the first sow fall. Back are the snow tires and penguin walk across the snow. Snow and cold really aren't my thing, but instead of making this blog awful somber I while try to look on the white side.
Perhaps I hate snow and cold so much because I was born on the hottest day in summer. Where even at two am it was warmer than the hottest day in winter. Or maybe it is because I can't make my own body heat. I am cold blooded by nature.  If there is no sun or other means of getting warm I stay cold. If my bed is not warm when I enter it, it will stay that way. The year I got my electric blanket was the best year of my life. 
With the snow returns layers, two pairs of socks on feet, under shirts followed by long sleeved shirt followed by a sweatshirt followed by a coat. The time of never taking hands out of pockets until you are safely inside has returned. The Rosy red cheeks return as all the blood rushes to your head to keep it warm, to no avail.  Driving on ice and snow packed streets is no longer a nightmare. I always found it funny that everyone always said you should know how to drive in snow, living in Utah...however I only learned to drive in the snow during college in Logan. I have made many a trip through the canyon in a blizzard/snow storm. I'm not comfortable driving in the snow and avoid it as much as possible. Often I like to walk an icy road before I drive it, unfortunately on the freeway this is not widely accepted. Roads that are traveled at eighty plus, slow down to high thirties. My first time driving in the snow was in high school, I came to a stop at a stop sign, only the car kept going and skidded into the intersection. There was nobody around, and I promptly drove back home and had my mom take me.
As I sit here I realize that my car is probably stuck right now.
Onto the bliss that comes with snow. My favorite part of snow is doing doughnuts, in church parking lots. This year thanks to the snow plowers of the ward, that thought they were doing everyone a favor by plowing every church parking lot, we had to drive well out of our way to enjoy doughnuts. We found the parking lot and enjoyed our snow.
Onto the yay it snowed part. It was our puppies first snow and it was one of the funnest things to watch. He ran to the door and skidded to a stop and ventured outside with mild trepidation. First one step then the other and then running through it and getting covered. 
Snow weather also means Elf.  Quite possibly the best movie. When it snows out comes Elf and our favorite hot beverages.
Thanks for reading, stay tuned for the wonderful sun stories.

John, Jen and Marley

Marshmallow puppy

This weekend Josh and I fell victim to Marley and Me. By the end of the show we were bawling because it became abundantly clear that Jorge, Josh and Jack are Jen, John and Marley.  Our clearance puppy is actually our marshmallow puppy.  Jack was the chubby little puppy sleeping in the corner, and I fell in love almost immediately.  He was very lethargic and when we inquired the kids selling him informed us that they had been feeding him marshmallows.  Right away I knew we needed a marshmallow puppy.  Once he had passed the rest of what the kids were passing as his food he became quite lively.  We brought home our bundle of bouncing joy expecting a sweet mild mannered well behaved lab. We didn't get the opposite, but we did get a few surprises.  Within the first couple days we learned just how smart labs are.  Working at a vet clinic I've been around every dog, and Jack by far is the smartest at only four months. He is part Collie and the only Collie that shines through is his herding ability.  As long as everyone is in the same room he is wagging tail and calm demeanor.  As soon as someone decides to leave, he runs after them and tries to cut them off.  He hasn't learned to turn anyone back yet, but he does a good job tripping them as he tries to get them to change their mind, and go back to the populace.  He is surprisingly good at herding insects and often corners three or four bugs at a time, and then watches them.  Here are the similarities to clearance puppy: he is bitey, jumpy, rambunctious, would probably eat a gold chain if he had the chance, but most importantly loyal.  If you are sick or sad he is your best friend and he won't leave your side. When I am sick in bed he will fall asleep at my feet and only get up after I am awake. I'm impressed with our chubby puppy, and can't wait to see what he will be in his adult doghood.

Our first night with him

 I will share a story called Josh scared Jorge and Jorge scared Jack.  After going to a birthday party we were standing in the yard waiting to return home next door. Josh said something and pointed, and I turned around and threw my arms up and screamed a little. I don't know what I was expecting to see, perhaps a bear, but it was Jack. It scared him he shrank back and then ran all the way home with his tail between his legs.  We all started laughing, I felt so bad for scaring him when he was just coming to see us.  The gate had been left open, and when we put him in the backyard he explored and then left through the open gate to explore some more. I'm so glad Jack loves home and didn't run away, but instead like the smart dog he is, he went to see his friends next door and then returned to our doorstep, waiting for us to let him in.
The most hilarious thing he does is keep his back legs on the couch or chair and then he walks his body around on his two front legs.

Some quality face time

Our hipster dog with the neck scarf