where have we been?

Well its been a while so there is quite a bit of catching up to do...
In September we went to Virginia to visit Jonathan's brother and his family. Our nephew was getting baptized so that was the reason we went when we did. It was absolutely beautiful out there! I fell in love with it. We went to Washington DC a couple of the days and even got to visit the DC temple. We were surprised at how cranky everyone in DC was. Even the tour guides and customer service people who you would think would be kind were quite mean. It was neat to see all of the sites though. My favorite part of DC was probably t he Lincoln memorial. He is one of my favorite people and the sunset there was beautiful. The pictures are all below. We also visited UVA campus. There is so much history behind everything there.
We celebrated both our birthdays this October. Jonathan brought me to dinner and cleaned the house and even made me a cake for my birthday. I got him a cat for his. Neither of us actually like cats but this little kitten came up to me when I was in Spanish Fork seeing a patient. It was snowing and the poor thing was shivering and wet and tried to climb up my leg. I couldn't find an owner so I brought it home and put an ad on KSL classifieds to find it's owner. I will admit it was cute but it was quite the little pest. We named him Pedro. We found a home for it and that will certainly be the last time I try to "save" a kitten.
We had a lot of fun dressing up for our ward Halloween party on Friday. I love Halloween and I have been planning our costumes since July! I decided we would be the children from the movie "Up" (Carl and Ellie). Mainly cause I like the idea of wearing overalls and blacking out my tooth. I am already thinking of next years costumes...
Life has been so good. We are just enjoying this stage of life and working on planning for the future. We are still not sure where we will be the next few years but that is what makes it so exciting. There are many good times and hard times ahead and I am grateful to have such a wonderful spouse with whom I can face it all.
white house

Capitol Hill

monument at sunset

honest Abe

DC temple

Hiking Crabtree falls

Jonathan's Birthday

My birthday

Halloween!!!

And for laughs...

Life on the Farm

I always wondered what it would be like to be a farmer's wife... now I know :) Having a farm is extremely hard work. It often requires a lot more than a normal city 9-5 job. It is neat to see how it all works though. I have gained a greater respect for farmer's and their hard work since helping out on the farm. It certainly builds character. And muscles.

Date Night

We have had a fun and interesting night tonight. I planned to surprise Jonathan by going to see John Schmidt in concert for our date night this week. We were working on the farm today though and got held up so we didn't make it to the concert. Jonathan wanted to make it up to me by taking me to the Olive Garden for dinner. We usually get a "tour of Italy" to share - which has quite a bit of food and is a little bit more expensive but we just get one and it evens out to about $8 each. Well we ordered as we usually do and asked for two plates. When the waitress came she had two plates all right, but both plates were full of food. I think the looks on our faces were enough for the waitress to know something was up. We were so surprised and we didn't know what to say! All I could say was "uh huh" when she asked if I wanted cheese on it. We just looked at each other and back at her... we felt bad saying anything. when she walked off we just started laughing and adding up the cost of our meal. The whole time we were just laughing and saying how the cost of our meal was going to equal our food budget for the week. When she brought us our check we noticed we were only charged for one meal...so we asked her about it and she said they just separated it between the 2 plates (this was a meal that is hard to separate and it looked like there was a full amount on each plate). As we started to leave we noticed that the waitress station was right next to us...which meant she probably heard us saying all those things! It was so embarassing! It was really funny though. As we drove away we looked out the window and saw an old, white, "beer-bellied" man sitting on a bicycle in a speedo!just chillin on the side of the road... we had a good laugh about that one too. It turned out to be a fun date :)

sacrifice.

We are finally all moved into our new apartment! It was a crazy week but we survived and with sense of humor intact. Like when we were putting stuff away and Jonathan found an almost empty can of my shaving cream... he thought it was air freshener and sprayed it across our living room floor! We also discovered that the fire alarm will go off anytime we use the oven. It is a gas stove too and I now understand the meaning behind the saying "slaving over a hot stove all day". It will take some getting used to the new place but I think we will find it to be cozy.

adventures of newlyweds

We are moving! Reason #1- please see above picture. Although there are other reasons, I feel the above pic gives enough justice. We will still be in the same complex but we will be in a smaller apartment on a higher floor.
We have had so much going on and it has been a blast getting through it all! We have been busy making decisions...like how and what to eat on a newlywed budget...

Hey 3 bucks for 30 meals is pretty good. pretty unhealthy, but pretty good.
We have also been deciding whether to go back to school or not, to move, and to switch jobs or not. It is wonderful to have someone by your side to make these decisions.
We went to the park on Saturday and had a picnic, started planning our lesson for Sunday, slept, and played frisbee. It was a lazy day but very needed in our crazy schedule. Lack of money can be a cause of stress on a marriage but I say it can also be a means of strengthening a marriage- if you'll let it. During these years when money is limited we learn how to be creative and how to work together. We try to have a date night every week and we each take turns planning them. Sometimes we just go for a bike/longboard ride and come home and watch a movie. One time we gathered a bunch of our food storage and had a competition to see who could make the best meal. Jonathan's meal- scrambled egg, corn, plain pasta, and cheddar cheese. I made bread sticks which turned out but the pasta salad not so much. These things don't cost money and experiences like this will turn into fond memories in later years. I'm sure we will also be able to look back at our first apartment and the mold, abnormally large spiders, ants, and water problems and laugh. I love what Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin said about finding humor in life: "every life has peaks and shadows and times when it seems that the birds don’t sing and bells don’t ring. Yet in spite of discouragement and adversity, those who are happiest seem to have a way of learning from difficult times, becoming stronger, wiser, and happier as a result...The next time you’re tempted to groan, you might try to laugh instead. It will extend your life and make the lives of all those around you more enjoyable."
(I will put the link to a video with an excerpt of his talk on the picture of us in the top left of the blog). I know that things happen that are not easy to laugh about and there are certainly times when it is even reasonable to cry, but there are also times when its okay to laugh and yet we react with feelings of anger, sadness, or being annoyed. If we view these experiences more "lightheartedly" then there would be less friction and tension between those we are around and more happiness and humor in our lives. Let's enjoy the journey!

recent happenings

I have spent thousands of dollars and several years to obtain a small piece of paper and today, it came in the mail! (Its my RN license in case you were wondering). I took my boards last Thursday and found out on Monday that I passed. It is such a relief to be done. No more home work, no more books, no more teachers crooked looks! A little childish, I know, but I've waited a long time to say that. If you know of anyone who needs Weber State Nursing textbooks let me know. I'll sell them at a great price.
We went to a friends house for a game night the other night and accidentally locked ourselves out of our apt. Luckily we had an open window so we took the screen out and climbed through. It was a good laugh.
Our contract for our apt will end mid August and we are supposed to tell them by Saturday if we are going to renew. We have no idea what we are doing yet. We are looking for possible apt anywhere from Lindon to Payson... if any of you know of anything affordable let us know! We like the apt we're in now but we kind of don't like the mold.
Well we hope all is well with all of you!

Jonathan on fourwheeler at Sand Dunes

nothing but fun

Well life has been busy lately. We had a surprise luau birthday party for Jonathan's sister Karen a couple weeks ago, hence the reason Jonathan is in a grass skirt in the above picture. He is such a stud!
Now that I am finished with school we are enjoying all the free time we have! We went to the sand dunes with Jonathan's family this last weekend. We also went to see the movie 17 Miracles...so good. We will be going out of town again this weekend and then we have a BBQ and parade with my family the next weekend and a family reunion up in Bear Lake that same weekend. I love not working on the weekends! I didn't know life could be this good. We hope everyone is doing well!

Mold.

Mold is growing on our carpet. By mold I mean the fuzzy green mold that could potentially start breathing at any moment. There is a leak in our apartment and the maintenance man cannot figure out what is leaking. They said it might take a couple days to finish... or start.
I have started my new job and am loving it. Its a challenge to learn everything but I am sure I will get the hang of it. I was visiting another nurse's patient today and I was having trouble finding the house (surprising, I know). So I called the nurse and asked her for help in finding it and all she told me was that it was between 4400 south and 5000 south. Thank you. I will be sure to bring the GPS next time.
Jonathan has been down in Moroni taking care of the farm while his family is away. But no worries... the neighbors have been feeding me. He loves the farm though and he is such a big help to his parents.
We are enjoying life. Still working on the online business and getting ready to take the nursing boards. stay tuned...

Wedding pics and a job!

Well I finally landed a job! It was feast or famine. At first I couldn't get anything. Now I am actually turning down jobs. They hired me on at Access home health and I am so excited! In other news, we have our wedding pictures back!!! They look amazing! Thank you to Marvell (Vellvet Images Photography)! We can finally take the pictures that come in the picture frames out and put ours in! We are settling into our apartment just fine. We have the best neighbors! They invite us to dinner and they bring us food all the time! I think they have noticed how skinny we both are so they must think we are starving :) We certainly are not complaining.

memorial day

 

Thank you to all of the brave men who have served and for those now serving. Here's to my brothers Matt and Daniel who are in the reserves. (sorry Matt, No picture of you in your uniform). Also, Here's to My wonderful father in law who was in the National Guard. Jonathan's cousins (Brad and Ken) are in the National Guard as well. Thank you and love you all!

Sand Dunes

We decided to go on a last minute over nighter to the sand dunes with Jonathan's brothers and cousin Brad on Friday. It rained as we were setting up tents. It was so cold during the night and in the early morning and we couldn't get a fire started! We even tried gasoline! Jonathan would like me to add that it is because the wood was wet that they could not get the fire started. There was rain in the weather forecast but it ended up being very warm all day Saturday. We all received some pretty bad sun burns. It turned out to be a fun time with no serious injuries

hasty heart

We went to Hale Centre theatre last night with my old Roomie Michelle with some free tickets we had. The play was called "A Hasty Heart". It was so good and I recommend it to you all. Plus it had a nurse in it.
Speaking of nurse... I called DOPL today to figure out why I haven't received my authorization to test yet. Turns out they "misfiled" my transcript and therefore never sent it in. Its been sitting there for weeks. I will continue to wait and so will our income :)
Jonathan buzzed his head.

graduation!!!

Monopoly and modge podge

We went for a bike/longboard ride the other night for our date night and then we stayed up till about 2:00am playing monopoly. Jonathan went bankrupt. I however, had $6,433 left. If only that was real... I think I will let him win next time though so I don't have to be in charge of finances :)
No word yet from any of the places to which I have applied or interviewed. I have so much time on my hands. I m learning how to cook new things, including artichokes. Oceanmist.com actually has a step by step movie on how to cook them. Technology is a wonderful thing. I have learned all about artichokes actually! I have learned that they are chuck full of antioxidants and fiber. They also have vitamin C, potassium, iron, and magnesium. Do you see what my days have amounted to? I am googling exotic vegetables! I also have a bottle of modge podge. I am finding things around the house to modge podge. Jonathan is going to come home to a modge podged house if I don't get a job soon.
Hope all is well with everyone!

job well done.

It worked. I started this blog an hour ago and already we have two followers. Faithful Haley and Mo. I don't know who you are Mo but that was fast.

Est 2011

Jonathan and I decided to start a blog for our family. We certainly are not a "bunch" yet but I like to plan ahead :) I don't know the first thing about blogging in fact it took me a few hours to set this up.... so many choices in colors and names. In fact, I'll be somewhat upset if it doesn't work. I don't see any buttons that say "save". Anyway, its a good way to keep up with us.
Right now Jonathan is working on the turkey farm. He goes down for a few days every week. Since I am currently unemployed I went down and helped too. I augered feed. I won't explain what that is, I will just allow you all to think I am cool. I am still on the job hunt. I landed a couple of interviews. One was at a plasma center. It would be a great job if it wasn't so far away. Its up by the University of Utah. The other interview was as a head nurse kind of thing at a small assisted living center in Lehi. It would be a great job but I'll be honest... I don't really want to be in management again. A job is a job and I'll take it if its offered but part of me hopes its not offered to me. The guy who interviewed before me looked like a stalwart young man who would do a great job. Also, the owners were so nice and I would hate for them to hire me and train me and then lose me if I found an RN job elsewhere (not in management). I would almost feel guilty taking the job. Other than that I have been spending my days applying for jobs, cleaning the house, figuring out this blog thing, and riding my bike. I am trying to remember what my hobbies were before I went to school.
Jonathan is also trying to put his business management knowledge to the test by starting an online business. He has some really good ideas and I think it will really go far if we can get it going. If anyone knows how to start a website let us know.