What baby? Oh THAT baby!

So I am finally starting to get a little bit of a baby belly. Which is awesome cause now I actually look pregnant, but not so awesome cause my favorite way to sleep is on my tummy. Guess I won't be doing that for a while. So here is what I look like (well this is about 2 weeks ago, but I am not in the mood to go bet a new picture, so you'll have to deal with this one.) And if you hold your mouse over the picture, you can see what baby look like. Any last minute boy/girl guesses?




Well in case you can't see it... (jk you can't see anything but head, arms, and legs in this picture). It's a boy!!! Yay! We are so so so very excited. Cory, I think, is still secretly doing a happy dance. He is so thrilled that we are having a boy. He's been so nervous about it being a girl and has always wanted a boy first. Guess he got his wish, this time. He will have a girl at some point. But until then, looks like I will be out numbered at home for a while. Happily out numbered of course.

This morning I also felt the very first for sure baby kicks. I think I've felt it a time or two in the last week, but this morning before getting out of bed, I rolled onto my back and laid my hand on my stomach. After a minute I felt like a little flick. I wasn't sure so I kept my hand there. After I felt it 2 more times I decided it was definitely baby kicking. And of course I woke up my husband to fell, which of course didn't happen. He put his hand on my belly and after about 5 minutes of nothing, I decided I needed to get up and get ready for work. No feeling baby this time, but I'm sure there will be more chances. Also now that I know what I am feeling, I'm noticing it more. Even as I sit here relaxed on the couch, I've felt a couple little kicks. Cory might not entirely approve (he wants a football player), but this little boy feels like he might have a great soccer career ahead of him.

Oops. Sorry it's been so long.

So for a while I have been realizing that it has been months and months since my last update, but never remembering when I am actually at home with an extra few minutes to tell you what's been up. Lots. Obviously. Since I've clearly been to busy doing whatever to get on here and tell you about it.

First let's start way back at Labor Day weekend. I have promised Cory that if he keeps winning his golf tournament in North Dakota we can keep going back to play in it. But this year he made an executive decision. No trip. Well really it was "no money" for said trip. We jut couldn't fit it into the budget. It's a long drive and we'd have to rent a car and get a hotel. And with the oil business booming in ND it is almost impossible to find a cheap or even cheapish hotel. Simple solution really. Guess we aren't going. So what will we be doing for the weekend? Well grandma is in Boise and that is only about 5 hours away. Meaning we could do it in my POS car and stay at grandma's. Perfect. Done. It was a great trip. We hung out, relaxed, went to dinner, played football with cousin Mason, and even helped grandma paint her sewing room. It was a great way to spend the weekend.

Ok... what's next... Oooh. Soccer. So as most of you know. I am an assistant coach at Timpanogos High school. And boy did we have a crazy season. Games we should've won by at least 5 goals were decided by one and sometimes even in over-time. Games we should've had a challenging opponent we went out and completely dominated. The girls got emotional and myself and the other coaches got frustrating. But check this, we had one main goal all year, "make it to Rio Tinto" (or the state championship game for those of you unfamiliar with Utah high school soccer.) Ending the season with only one loss, our outlook was promising. Until we got to the quarterfinal game that is. Let me give you a little bit of a highlight/play by play. Less than 10 minutes into the game, boom, we score. Ok not a bad way to start the game. Uh oh, they answer quick by scoring within a couple minutes. Ok there is a lot of time and that was kinda a lucky shot. Well check this out, we'll see your one goal and raise you two more. Score sits at 3-1 for us for most of the game. Until the final 15 minutes of course. 2 more lucky shots (ok they were pretty good shots I guess) and now the game is tied. We're heading into over time. Over time in high school soccer is a little different. It's golden goal. Meaning if you score, you win and the game is over. No pressure right. Well two, ten minute, over time periods go by with nothing exciting happening. Game is still tied. Bet you're thinking, "Now what?" Shoot out. That's what. A shoot out is one player and the goalie. They shoot the ball from 15 yards away from the goal and if the goalie is lucky, the shooter will miss. It's a very one sided kind of game. With the shooter having a huge advantage. Well the other team opts to shoot first. Meaning all the pressure will be on us. So they're up. Goal. We're up. Goal. Them, goal. Us, MISS. Wait what? We missed? Yep, it gets better. Them, goal. Us, MISS. AGAIN!? Oh no. this technically should spell game over. They are up 3-1 heading into the 4th (out of 5) shot. Meaning if they make this the game is over. Mathematically we won't be able to catch up if they miss. Needless to say there might be a little pressure on our goalie to do whatever she can to stop this ball from going in. Here comes the shot and.... IT'S BLOCKED!!! She did it. Our goalie came out huge to make a block. Ok we are still in this for a minute. Our shot, goal. 3-2 for them going into the 5th shot. They make it game over. Their shot, MISS. She missed. Sailed it right over the goal. We just got lucky. If we make this shot we'll go one and one till someone can't match. And the shot is good! Tied 3-3 after 5. So here we go. They miss, we make it. Game over we win. Kinda caught a lucky break and our goalie made a game changing save. She is AMAZING. So we head into the semi-final game. Honestly, we should've lost, but our goalie was playing on her game making save after save. The other team played amazing, but our goalie played better, and we capitalized on one of the few mistakes they made. Winning my the fingertips of a 15 year old girl. Next, State championship. We had made it to our seasons goal. And boy did these girls come ready to play. It wasn't even a great game. Our girls passed circles around the other team like they were standing still. Although we scored our only goal about 5 minutes in, if it wasn't for problems putting it away, and a few great saves by the other teams goalie, we would've scored at least 7 more times. And after such a dominating performance the principal took the whole team out to dinner. What an exciting night for these girls. They felt on top of the world.

So the second to last very exciting thing to happen recently was going to Florida. My parents decided it was time for a DisneyWorld adventure. Ok I'm in. How could you not? Yep, spent the week in Florida. It was great. We went to Universal Studios specifically to visit Harry Potter world. Which was awesome, by the way. Then of course we hit up all the DisneyWorld parks. Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. I am currently more unable than usual to go on rides and so I enjoyed more of the walking around exploring, like at Harry Potter world and Animal Kingdom. It was Cory's first visit, and he loved it. Or at least he told me he loved it. We both had an absolute blast just people watching.

Ok last but not least. I'm sure you've noticed the new addition to my page. And if you haven't well that's ok. I guess I'll just tell you now. We are expecting!!! YAY!!! We are so so so excited. We had a super fun time telling my parents too. We had a themed dinner (which was mostly unnoticed til dessert) with baby back ribs, baby carrots, baby spinach salad, baby corns. Fun stuff, but the best was definitely dessert. My sister and I decorated cupcakes with binkies and bottles and onsies and "gma" and "gpa". As soon as we set the plate down my dad said, "Hey I think there was a theme to this dinner..." Lynne didn't even noticed for a minute till she noticed that all of us were smiling then she finally looked at the cupcakes and screamed, "Are you serious?" It was definitely worth it. All the soon to be grandparents are very very excited. As are we, and basically everyone around us. Cory wants a boy (surprise). And I want twins, a boy and a girl. I guess we will have to wait and see. We have our first ultra-sound/heartbeat check next week. And hopefully I can talk the Dr. into telling us what it is before Christmas. Either way, I'll keep you posted.

Try-outs, Idaho, 9-year olds, and interviews.

Ah... It's that time of year again. Time for soccer and job searching.  The soccer season started last week, meaning the ever so stressful try-outs. Not only super stressful, but also very encouraging. A few years ago I remember there being a huge split between the talent that showed up to try-outs. There were many who clearly stood out as top tier varsity players, and also people who just wanted to play a high school sport, and very few right in the middle. This year, there were not so many stand outs on either end and about 15 players who could easily be interchanged without consequence. And that is where the biggest problem was. After picking the initial 16 players and deciding that the varsity would only hang onto 19 total, we now had 3 open spots, and 5 girls who equally deserved and earned the spots. After much deliberation and lots and lots of running through all the different options, it was decided to keep all 5 girls. Great choice!

This past weekend, was the annual soccer trip to Idaho. Our head coach has lots of family members in Idaho falls who happen to be out of town every year on this specific weekend. How convenient. So we stay in their house. All he girls sleep in the basement in sleeping bags. Well maybe not sleep, but that's where they stay. We spend 4 days practicing, doing service, attending church and a fireside, and over-all just bonding. It does wonders for the cohesion of the team. The new members of the team often get their protective shell's broken and surprise everyone by how vocal and social they actually are. We came straight home to the very first game of the pre-season. And what a game it was. 1-1 in the first 15 minutes. Followed by 87 minutes of nothing. One of our returning sophomore's scored the winning goal with less than 3 minutes left to play. Not a bad start to the season, and now we know that driving for 5 hours and then playing a soccer game is probably not the very best idea.

Who doesn't love doing cartwheels? I don't. And I especially don't enjoy it on the soccer field. But let's see you try and convince a 9 year old girl to stop doing cartwheels. Yeah I have a hard time with that too. I recently was assigned to help coach a group of 9 year old girls. I'm still not quite sure what I've gotten myself into. Don't get me wrong, these girls are adorable, and already attached. At my second practice they were already running up to me and giving me a welcome to practice hug. That's something my high school girls have never done. But it's really hard to coach soccer to girls who want to do cartwheels and pick flowers. How in the world do you get these kids to pay attention long enough to teach them anything? I certainly have no idea, but I certainly try. I didn't want to come in and be the automatically mean coach. So I am easing into it. I am running practice Friday morning and I think I will be instigating a few new rules not limited to but including, 5 push-ups and 5 sit-ups for each cartwheel, for every minute myself or the other coach has to wait because they are talking while we are explaining something, they will owe us one lap (they have really small fields, one lap is probably not even 300 yrds). I think they can handle this. Plus they might actually learn something about soccer.... Crazy right?

Along with it being soccer season, it is also almost time for my job to be evaluated again. Every year at the end of September my job and performance are evaluated. If they like me and the work I do, I get hired on for another year. If not, it's adios and good luck. Well it's officially that time of year. So I am trying to make sure I'm well liked, while at the same time applying and interviewing for as many jobs as I can find. Not so easy. Especially in this market where it seems like no one has a job and you can't even apply for a job without a bachelor's degree AND three years experience, of which I have neither. So I am relying on friends and the Army. I had an interview yesterday for a Recruiting position with the Army, and another tomorrow for a Supply position. I was supposed to get a call from a friend's company for a receptionists position, but I didn't. Looks like I'll be calling her. Either way, I'm starting to feel that push to find something new. I'm getting the feeling that with budget cuts my job might not exist this coming year. I mean really, how important is Facebook?

I want to move to California... well kinda.

So we spent part of last week in California. It was Lynne's birthday and she wanted to go to the "Pageant of the Master's" in Laguna. Ok why not? Sounds like a few days in California. "Maybe I can find some cool art for my house," I thought while boarding the plane. Um... no. No I can't. I figured $100 might get me a cool vase or a small painting. And yes it would've gotten me a SMALL painting. But really who wants to display something the size of a postage stamp. I mean you'd have to be like 3 inches away to see what it was. Don't get me wrong. There were some very very VERY cool things there. The cheapest of the things I would've liked to bring home was hovering somewhere around the $800 mark. And trust me, there are about a dozen million things I'd rather spend $800 on right now.

Ok how about onto the part about I want to move there. Hello, 75 degrees the whole time. I mean it dipped a little lower than that late in the evenings and Thursday when it was over cast. But think, it's July. It's touching the 100's at home in Utah and it's only 75 in Cali. Love it. Want it. PLEASE?! The downside? Holy expensive. We went to brunch on Balboa Island the morning we got there. My 3 slices of french toast, scrambled eggs, and 2 slices of bacon was $12.95 BEFORE tax and tip. Now add up brunch for 7 people. Ouch... And that is brunch. The least expensive meal of the day. We went to birthday dinner at the art festival before the pageant Cory and I paid $10 to split the Pork chops. Delish! But the extra $10 was the cheap option to a second $25 meal. I think the hefty price of California helps keep the AC going all summer.

The trip home was quite the adventure. We fly standby to most of our destinations (Lynne retired from Delta giving the fam a few benefits). Well because of this, if flights fill up or people with higher priority come along, we get booted. Which we did. 3 times. After the 3rd boot, we decided to explore some other options. Buying tickets would cost a whopping $500 a person (here's a tip: buy your tickets as early as possible. Last minute flights are expensive). Ok there are 6 of us still here (dad took the only open seat on the earliest flight cause he had to be back for work) 6 x's $500 = way too much money. Rent a car. Hey we can do that with a military discount for less than $200 + gas. Ok keep that on the table. We can wait for the next flight which has lots and lots of open seats, but it leaves in 4 hours. Ok keep that on the table too. Too bad we left the terminal to check on rental cars. So it's back to check in to get new tickets and back into the terminal. As we are about to check in, the lady behind the counter says something to the effect of, "You won't get on. Looks like a few flights just got canceled." This means our empty flight will be filled with frustrated travelers who's flights got canceled. Rental car it is. To the dismay of Danaca who had a date scheduled for the evening. So we got in a very nice Chevy Tahoe and headed home. Stopping once for lunch, once for a bathroom break, once for fuel, and once in St George for some dinner at my aunt's house. 12 hours later falling onto my bed and being asleep before my head hit the pillow.

What an adventure. If getting home from California was such a mess I'm super excited to see what it will be like trying to get home from Florida in October. DISNEYWORLD 2011!!! WOOOOO!!!!

AT, Wendover, and soccer

Wow, it's been a little while since I've posted. A good reason for that is because we spent the first 18 days of June at AT (annual training). It's the two week part of our army contracts. Luckily for us, we got to go all the way to Camp Williams. For those of you who don't know where that is, next time you drive on the freeway and pass over the point of the mountain take a look off to the west. That's it. That's Camp Williams. Super awesome. It goes from all the buildings you can see off into the mountain out west as far as you can see. Meaning it's huge. And there is nothing there, except a few machine gun ranges, a long range artillery range, and of course, a few gravel piles for the engineers to play around with. Well it was a long couple of weeks full of lots of dirt pushing. We fixed up a couple roads that had been washed out from all the rain we've been getting and built a parking lot for September's upcoming Governor's Day (basically the worst day of the year. We stand in formation while the governor and some other people speak. Then we leave. It's very hot and we generally get a few heat casualties.) We did do a fun event that our battalion has decided to make an annual competition. We split into squad's and had to hike somewhere between half mile and a mile between 9 different challenges. It was a blast. Possibly the one thing we're looking forward to about next year.

Wendover! Ugh. So not as cool as the commercials try and make it look. As soon as I got back to work after AT I was told I was going to Wendover for the weekend. At first I was kinda dreading it but I eventually learned it was for an airshow. Since I'm a big fan of flying and airplanes I got a little excited. Until we got there. Super creepy. The town is split into two sides. One in Utah and one in Nevada. The Utah side is certainly worse, but the whole place is kinda no bueno. There are very few actual houses. Most people live in trailer parks. Now not that there is anything wrong with that, but combining the fact that half of the trailer parks look abandoned and falling apart and the fact that the only thing that is green is the small strip of astro turf grass one of the hotels has our front makes it look like a barren creepy little town. I didn't get the chance to actually go into any of the casino's, but I feel like unless you are hiding out inside you probably wouldn't want to spend too much time there. And I probably won't be going back any time soon, or any time ever for that matter. As far as the airshow goes, it was pretty good. They only really had two acts. One was a local guy that built his very own little plane, and the other was a group of retired military pilots who travel to shows and competitions. They certainly did some fantastic flying.

This week was soccer camp for the high school. Probably one of my favorite weeks of the year. It's basically an extra 4 days of tryouts for the coaching staff. We get to see what the incoming freshman look like and also how the returning kids are doing. And coming from a high school team who had a hard time finding 20 people for a varsity team, it's fantastic to see all the talent that is growing. We're going to have a hard time finding 20 people, only because there are close to 40 who could easily make the team. Look out 4A, Timpanogos is here to stay.

Mowing lawns

So many of you know what this is. This is what newly married couples buy right after they buy a house and realize they now have a yard to maintain, but not enough money to buy those fancy gas powered mowers that have the forward assist. Oh man those sound nice. Alas, this is the lawn mower we have. Not a big deal, we have a very small yard. We put some fertilizer/weed killer on it, now it looks great. Much greener than the other yards, the weeds are dying (it used to be mostly dandelions, now it's mostly grass), but it grows at an incredible rate. I mean we need to mow twice a week, but we only do it once. Which brings me to my next point. No wonder parents have kids. Spread the work around a little. Between dishes, laundry, mowing the yard, and work I hardly have time for anything else. Plus mowing the yard with this thing is a serious work out. It stops far to easily when the grass gets a little thicker, or a small twig gets in, or it just flat out feels like stopping. Gotta love it. As I was mowing the lawn yesterday school got out. Holy cow. Apparently today's youth has never seen a manual lawn mower. Every kid that stopped within eye sight stopped for a few minutes to watch what I was doing. One even asked, "What are you doing?" Ha. I remembered the days when I used to see kids on TV with one of these and thought how cool that would be. Let me correct the mind of my younger self, not that cool. Unless you plan to mow your yard every other day, this thing is more work than it's worth. Plus the blades only cover about 10" at a time. Meaning the little bitty yard we do have turn into a fairly large project, 8" at a time (allow for overlap to make sure you don't miss any). And no, I didn't do the weed eating. I got done mowing and thought. "Forget this." It has now officially been designated as Cory's job. But it seems like cleaning is my job so I guess that evens out. Look how domesticated we've become. It's going to be an interesting day when we get back from two weeks at training and have to mow that yard. Not it!

Cookies, Kinect, and Tangled

So what do Oreos and chocolate chip cookies have in common. The chocolate maybe? Or perhaps that they are both delicious. What makes them better. Combining them. Cookie Stuffed Cookies. Delicious. I found this recipe here. And just had to try it. We went over to some friends house for a night of dinner, friends and Kinect. I was asked to bring dessert. Ding ding ding. Perfect. I'll make these cookies. Which by the way turned out to be delicious and I definitely will be making them again. On another note. We played the Kinect for the first time. I have wanted one for a while. Especially after I played my little brothers Wii. We played "Just Dance" and I thought it was a blast. But Cory thinks the Wii is for kids, which is kinda true. So since we have an Xbox I thought we could get the Kinect. Cory was not convinced. So he decided he would test it out, then make his decision. We had a fun night boxing, playing soccer, getting our butts kicked at bowling. All in all I had a blast. Plus I still want one. Cory is still not convinced. But I win anyway. While watching the Bulls/Heat game Sunday afternoon we saw a commercial for "Micheal Jackson: The Experience". Which is basically "Just Dance" but all Micheal themed. And whoever thinks that man can't dance is out of their minds. Anyway, I think that may have convinced him. So we might be getting one... Yay!! And today, I just had one of those days. So on my way home I stopped at no less than 5 RedBoxes trying to find "Tangled". Which I did eventually find. Came home, got a big glass of milk and some Oreos (which have some what lost their luster after the delicious cookie stuffed cookies) and enjoyed a lazy afternoon with Disney.

On a completely unrelated side note: For those of you who are ready to kill me cause I haven't posted any more house pictures, relax. That will be my project for tomorrow afternoon: Take pictures, and get them posted. Now let's hope nothing crazy pops up between now and then.

Quality time.

Some of you know, and some of you don't, that Cory and my work schedules are completely opposite. And it sucks. I leave about 8 (right after I wake him up) in the morning and I'm home by about 3:30-4. Which is about the same time Cory leaves for work. Then he gets home between 10:30 and 11. Which is right about the time I like to go to bed. I'm not a fan of not sleeping. We deal, and luckily I have most Friday, Saturday, and Sundays off. So at least we get to spend time together then. But I think it is starting to weigh on me a little. I'm enjoying my job less and less. Not that it's not a great job, cause it is. I just hate the fact that is is so perfectly opposite of when Cory works. In March the new mall in Salt Lake opens up. They have a brand new and obnoxiously huge (150,000 sq ft) Macy's opening too. I'm thinking since it's an anchor store it will open sometime within the 5 months before the mall opens. Which is huge for us. Not only is it opening the opportunity for Cory to get a better position, perhaps one with a salary, but also his schedule will change a bit and he will have some opening shifts and also some mid-day shifts. Meaning that we will have more than one night a week to spend together. He will have to work more hours. Probably closer to 50, but I'm ok with that. As long as the 50 hours he works don't happen to be the same 50 hours that I have off.

On a side note. We had drill this past weekend. FTX (field training exercise). It was freezing at night and quite warm during the day. We have 3 weeks till we head back out for AT. Which will not be as nice. We will be in tents somewhere on the mountain. Meaning power will be limited. Showers and bathrooms will be harder to get to. However, we will be more prepared. We know what's coming this year. We have a large cooler on hand and are planning ahead as to what kind of treats need to be brought. Should be a fun time. Perhaps we won't actually have to be in the field for the whole two weeks. I mean two weeks with people only having the chance to shower maybe 2 times a week. Things start getting a little... Tense. Wish us luck.

Extreme times

It might not be that extreme, but it totally is. Our budget and a list of debts have been on the white board on the fridge for ages now, but we still spend extra money, all the time. I've decided to go to the envelope method. Basically another way to try and cut spending. All our bills are paid automatically, which is really nice, help entertainment. Pretty simple really. We pull cash for these expenses and put it in an envelope. I'll pull half on the 1st and half on the 15th. That way we don't spend all the money at once, plus that's when I get paid and it just will work better that way. When the money is gone, we're done spending. I mean IF we stay exactly on budget we should have some extra money to pay bills or put into savings. But because we are consistently over spending, usually on stuff we don't need, we have yet to find that extra money. This should help us stay on budget. If this doesn't work, then we just might have to lock up our debit cards for a while. Can't spend money if you don't have any right? Wish us luck.

Crazy couple of weekends.

Sorry for not posting for so long. It's been a crazy couple of weekends, and looking like the next few will be too. Here's how they went.

Last weekend, we had my little brothers so my parents could go to Italy for Easter. Rough for them I know. It was actually a lot of fun. Between Nerf darts being strewn all around my house, the ridiculous amount of candy left by my parents for Easter, and the boys doing all the yard work leaving me to bask in the sunlight it turned out to be a great weekend. The boys were.. pretty good, only a few trips to the corner. Only one bloody knee. And kids begging to come back to my house. I think it went pretty well, although why they needed to have such ridiculous Easter baskets is beyond me, but oh well. I sent them home with most of their candy still in the baskets. After all, they bought the candy, they should be the ones worried about kids eating Peeps for breakfast right? Here's some proof of the madness.


Rollover for a closer look!
Click for more Easter morning Pics!


So that was fun. We decided we needed a weekend. Ok ok I decided we needed a weekend. After all it was our very first anniversary. Wait! What? Like we've been married a whole year? Holy cow, that went by fast. I was thinking about all the things we've done. Got married. Went on family vacations. Celebrated friends getting married. Celebrated friends having babies. Remembering grandpa's. Golf trips. Remembering friends. BUYING A HOUSE. That was kinda our big one. Wow. It's been a whole year. Oh yeah, back to my weekend. We went to Park City (not as glamorous as I had originally planned, but buying a house kinda put a damper into going anywhere that would cost more than the $300 we spent). Started the weekend off with a great 60 minute massage. Cory had never gotten one and the few I've had have either been from friends or family that went through massage school, or those chairs in the mall you pay $5 for 2 minutes. Anyways, I loved it. Cory was skeptical for a long time before and quite some time after. He didn't realize that it's different for men and women. For example, they massaged his chest, they didn't massage mine. He thought they did. He was very (quietly) upset about this cause he thought they might have taken advantage of me. I cleared that up quickly. That was really the big thing we did. We spent a reasonable amount of money on dinners and a few things at the outlets. But overall it was just a weekend for us. Which was very nice. It's been a while since we've just had a weekend for us. Seeing as how my family wants to do dinner almost every Sunday and Cory usually works late Friday and Saturday. It was nice. Very Nice.

Not his weekend, but the next is drill. Yay! Pretty sure it's an FTX (field training). Meaning we will be staying in tents. Probably cold. Waiting all day for our turn to drive the truck for a couple hours. Most likely we will have our weapons, but won't be using them for anything. So we'll get to clean them. MMMM Sounds like a good FTX to me. I hope we get MRE's!

BIN LADEN

Ten years ago. I was sitting in class, staring at a television. Not sure what to think. I can honestly say there was a part of me that did not believe that what we were watching could be true. Or maybe, it was that I didn’t want it to be true.

 All I know for sure is that seven years later I signed the dotted line joining the National Guard. Was September 11, 2001 my main motivation? No, But I promise there was so much of me that thought of the families that suffered and are still suffering as I fought to make my decision. The decision was not easy at all. I didn’t know if I could do it! Heck I didn’t have the slightest idea what I was thinking. The only thing I knew for a fact is I did not want to be one who stands aside and watches as other people destroy what we live for. At the time I didn’t know that by joining the National Guard I would be starting a family. Not to many people go to basic training and find the love of their life, but for me that is exactly what happened. Allanna entered my life and I refused to let her slip from my arms.

May 1, 2011. Almost ten years after the day that changed the face of this country forever. Allanna and I are celebrating our first wedding anniversary and the news says that we finally killed Bin Laden. I don’t know why but my heart and my brain worked in a funny way last night. First I was so happy. For the families of those taken. For the soldiers we have lost, and for our great country. Then a wave of concern took over. I do not know what is to come of this but no matter what happens I do know this. Our world must stay as ready as ever. This could bring retaliation, a fight for a new leader or both. We must stay prepared to stand up and hold our flag in the air as we fight this demon and we must stay together. I will never forget the feeling of unity our country had in those days soon after September 11, 2001, and with this news of victory against Bin Laden my hope is that we again feel a sense of unity across this nation!!!

Debt Free by 2012

Ok so I came up with a great new budget plan. Here's how it goes. STICK TO THE PLAN. We've been on a "budget" for over a year now. But we really haven't been on the budget. So I came up with a plan to stick to the budget. First of all it will be written (not like it wasn't before), but it will also be posted on the fridge. Meaning if you come over to my house any time in the next year, you will be able to see what we spend our money on. We are going to be couponing and cutting out everything that is unnecessary, like movies, and going out to dinner. We won't be going unless we have gift cards, which we do have a few of. I also have a few other ides, but they seem like a lot more work. So if simply posting it doesn't change things, then we'll go to plan B. Which is to cash all the allotted money we have for each category into an envelope and stick that to the fridge. When the cash is gone we are DONE spending. A little extreme I know, but extreme times call for extreme measures. The student loans are starting to add up. I'd like to spend extra money on things like trips and golfing rather than bills. I hate bills. I budgeted our spending based on a low paying month, then subtracting a few hundred just cause I'd rather have a little extra in the bank than not enough. Then I set up a solid pay schedule based on what we pay now, and the money that is GUARANTEED. I also just realized that I didn't count any of the money we will be getting from the 2 extra jobs we just picked up. The way I figured, we should be debt free (except the house) by tax season next year (not including extra money from extra jobs that might add a speed boost to this process). It's so close I can almost taste it. Now if only I can get the printer to work so I can get this process going. PS anyone with an iPhone should look into the APP Home Budget. The only thing it lacks is actually connecting to your bank account. All spendatures have to be entered manually, but I like this better. I tried using Mint for a while, but It always seemed to be a few days behind the bank account. Mint said I had money to spend, but the bank account didn't. Got myself into trouble more than a few times. Home Budget takes more discipline because you have to enter everything your self, but at least that way I pay attention and I know that things are correct.

Home sweet home, Easier said then done.

I played a guessing game with my friend yesterday. It became a little more intense last night. Here are your first set of options:
Closet
Basement
Dishwasher
Linoluem

And your second:
Has us stumped
Flooded
Ripped
In process

Can you guess which goes with which?

We'll go down the list one by one, with stories.

Closet: In process
This might be the only happy story. We moved into our house and all they had in the closet were these cheap, wiry little shelves for things to set and hang on. So lame, plus I have WAY more stuff than those would hold. Solution. I have a handy husband who happens to have worked in construction for a solid portion of his life. Can you say "Built Ins". Yep, that's what we (he) are doing. Two shelves that go from side to side, one set of 3 that goes down the middle, hanger rods up top, and wicked cool pants hangers on the bottom. One word: Awesome. When it gets done of course.

Basement: Flooded
So after finally hooking up our washer and dryer, I started a load. All seemed to be in good working order. It was late so I figured I'd go to bed and put everything in the dryer first thing in the morning. Typical. Until I got downstairs in the morning. Water. Everywhere. Awesome. Apparently the hoses from the water source to the washer hadn't connected right (the one was completely stripped of it's threads). I hurried and switched the water off looking at my partially flooded basement thinking, "Well lucky us the basement is COMPLETELY unfinished. Therefore nothing got ruined." Here was another project for my super handy husband. After sawing off the stripped part of the tubes, there was plenty left over to hook up the hoses and get it running flood free. YAY!

Dishwasher: Has us stumped
Still nothing. The washer works just fine. Except for the part about it getting no water at all. We reconnected a hose under the sink and turned the water on thinking this would be an easy fix. No. We were wrong. The hose actually went to the fridge (which I will talk about in my next story). So we still have no idea why the dishwasher is getting no water. Stumped.

Linoleum: Ripped
So I got home from work yesterday a little frustrated cause I know I still have a million things to do in my house, but half of them can't be done because the closets aren't done and we have no water to the dishwasher (looks like another little while of living out of bags and boxes and hand washing dishes, boo). Also my garage has become a temporary workshop, full of saw dusk, extra wood, and a random assortment of tools. No biggie, closet needs to be done. Whatever, walk past it into the kitchen. Again I find a huge puddle of water. Seriously? Didn't I just deal with flooding downstairs? Ugh. It's coming from under the fridge. Which means either the fridge is broken (crossed fingers and praying that's not the case) or the hose behind it that SHOULD be hooked to the fridge but isn't has begun leaking. After moving the fridge I discover I am lucky. Leaking hose. So I clean up all the water and put a small plastic tub under the hose to catch any leaking water, since I have no clue where the hose connects or where the shut-off for it is. Later that night we learn it is the one we thought went to the dishwasher. As I stand up to go change and move on to other mundane projects, I notice a hole. In my haste to move the fridge and clean the water I neglected to notice that I had torn a hole in the linoleum. Part of why I want tile or wood. Alas, it's not a huge hole. It's actually two small ones. One the size of a quarter and the other the size of a nickel.

Hopefully things will settle down a little. I mean if I keep coming home to floods and ripped linoleum I might just move into my car. No linoleum to rip and no washers to flood. Not really. But I would like my house to just calm itself a little. It's stressing me out.

Spring has sprung!

So this will be short and sweet. After some time cleaning my house this morning I decided to take a small break before I needed to shower and head to work. I am photographering at the Blaze game tonight. Hence the work free morning. I went outside to check the mail before taking my break and noticed how absolutely gorgeous it is outside. After dropping the mail and grabbing my laptop I headed back outside, uncovered the couch we left on the porch, partially cause we didn't want to carry it downstairs and the other part cause we decided it would be nice to sit on during the summer. We were right. It is very nice to sit on when the weather is so nice. Thought I'd brag about how beautiful it is and how lucky I am to be able to take advantage today.

Color Much?

This weekend, my sister invited the family to the Hare Krishna Festival of Color. It was a blast. And an absolute mess but that made it so much better. I think it was a Hare Krishna leader who explained the festivals origins. Basically himself and about 5 other people started it 15 years ago by just what they do today. Throwing colored powders at each other as a celebration of the beginning of spring. So that's just what we did. We bought a bunch of bags of colored corn starch. Sounds messy and it is, but it's non toxic, taste funny, and doesn't ruin any clothing (although if you wear white you're likely to have tinted clothing). The boys were a little hesitant at first, but a handful of purple and yellow and permission to "throw it at dad" and they were sold. We stayed long enough to witness one color throwing where everyone in attendance throws handfuls of colored starch in the air at the same time completely blotting out the sun, and get more or less completely colored. Then headed to Cracker Barrel for a bite to eat. We had a blast. If you've never been to the festival it's too bad you missed it this year, but come next spring ask around or pay attention to the news and go enjoy an hour of color. It's free to attend, but colored starch will cost about $12 (for 6 bags).

Moving In!!!

So we bought a house. What comes with that? Moving. Yay! Ok that might be a little sarcastic. I HATE moving. I love the new house. I love new adventures. I love new neighbors and new people. I HATE moving. Packing and hauling and cleaning and unpacking. Ugh. Not my favorite, but alas, it had to be done. So we started off the morning bright and early. Picked up the moving truck at 7am. My grandparents came to help us load up. We got everything into the moving truck and headed out by 10:30. Surprisingly we have a lot of stuff for just two people. Unfortunately when we got to the new house, it was just us. Cory, with a healing (but still weakened) shoulder and me. Another surprise, we got everything into the house in a little over 3 hours. That's when Cory had to leave to take the truck back and head to work for the evening leaving me to do what I do best, Organize. To be completely honest I was exhausted. I did get the living room mostly sorted out. And also put a chunk into the kitchen and bedroom. It still needs some work, but this is one adventure I am very glad we are taking together. We still have no window coverings, so the first night in our new house is going to be very interesting. Wish us luck!

Pictures as promised: Our new house!

Oh...  How cute! Our first house.

The living room.

Cute kitchen!

It might look like a spare room, but Cory has claimed it as an office.

So this one will be the spare room.

Master bedroom, with a weird mini closet. Must be for all my extra jackets.

Main bathroom. At the top of the stairs.

Master bathroom. A little small, but it'll do. Cause it's in our very own house.

Now that's a closet. Well half of it. And ok so it needs a little work.

Cory's favorite part. the unfinished basement. That I've given him permission to do whatever he wants with.

Catch up over the last 2 years

Ok so here is a little back story on the last 2 years. Cory and I met in basic training for the army. We then moved onto AIT together where we became very close. After returning home in June (and promises from him during training to move when we got back) I realized I wanted to be with him. It took him a few months, all the way till September, to tie up his loose ends in North Dakota before making the move to Utah. Once here he fell right in and instantly became a part of the family. After a deployment scare in December, he asked my father for my hand. In May we were married. It's now almost been a year and we are about to close on our first house. We got very lucky and found a great deal on a foreclosure in Eagle Mountain, Utah. We spoke with our mortgage consultant on Friday and he thinks we will have keys no later than the 21st. Perhaps earlier. I am so excited! I can hardly wait. Even if packing is last on my list of things I want to do. Pictures will follow.