Disaster Strikes!

Last night, I wrote the blog entry but couldn't get the pictures to work so I had to wait to post it. Since that last entry, this is what happened to the halls on the bottom floor of our apartment complex.....








These are our friends (and us) doing clean-up. Some of the apartments were flooded pretty badly. Ours really didn't get much because we were elevated more than they, but we were still woken up to screaming and water rushing at like 11:30. Devin is convinced that the world is against him going to bed early....every time he tries to (cuz he wakes up at 6:00), something ALWAYS happens to keep him awake.

We are hoping we get compensated well enough for the damage and that they come in a little later looking for any mold that might have built up. I really feel bad for some of our neighbors though, because I have a feeling it's going to take a LOT of work to get the things fixed in each of their apartments--and to get the apartment complex to cooperate (they claim no responsibility for ANYTHING). At least we now have a good story for our kids someday and how "hard" our life was when we were first married. j/k

Remember, Remember

Recently, I have read several blogs/stories about families whose children have passed away at a young age. It always makes my heart ache for those people who have to deal with the incredible pain that comes along with that type of situation. It really makes you analyze your life and recreate everything the way you know it should be. I bore my testimony today in church partially on record keeping/journal writing and how important it is for us to remember. Reading those peoples' records really rejuvenates me, as well as helps me to write and remember the simple things that we should forever cherish. Here are a few of the things that have happened to us in recent weeks:

We are still feeding our raccoons. One of them is VERY brave. He is still afraid of us a little, but he will come in the house and just look at me until I give him some food. Here are a few close-ups.

A few weeks ago, they had a parade in Springville (just south of Provo) and I participated in it being the Wells Fargo frontier-woman that I am--I just walked alongside the stagecoach throwing candy out to the little children. After the parade, Devin and I met up for the carnival. We just thought it would be a cute little activity....cute and EXPENSIVE. It's a good thing I only brought a little bit of cash...cuz a lot of money COULD have potentially disappeared from our savings account that day. Here are the results:


On the ferris wheel
A lemon ade stand.
They were giving these free kittens. I wanted one...didn't happen.


This is on the ferris wheel. He loves me:O)

Just last Monday, we went to South Jordan to pick up some food storage for my Aunt and Mother, then to Salt Lake to pick up my brother and sister at the airport (they were leaving the next day for the church history trip). Between the two activities, we had a little time to kill; so we stopped by temple square for a little upliftment and some pictures. Devin especially wanted to get a picture of us right outside the doorstep like we had JUST gotten married....tennis shoes, jeans, and all! :O) He also LOVES those trees we took pictures with....they kind of remind me of the garden of Eden for some reason??? We also went into the South visitors center and listened to President Monson talk on families. It was somewhat heartwrenching to see everything of President Hinckley already replaced even though it has already been 5 months. I guess I just never expected him to go away. Don't get me wrong, I also love our new prophet...it's just hard to let go of the nearness of President Hinckley. I love that man!












The next day, I made the mistake of getting my hair done by someone OTHER than my cousins and ended up with a garfield mess! My hair was literally ORANGE! Not JUST orange, ORANGE STREAKS! And throughout my WHOLE head. It was supposed to turn out a little blonde with a little red...NOT! It was definitely orange and I was horrified. I called Devin in panic mode and we went straight to the store for a box of hair dye, which I proceeded to do absolutely immediately! It helped a lot and although I didn't get a before picture, these are the after pictures.....still some VERY RED/ORANGE at the roots, but at least I can feel somewhat decent in public. I cut the bangs myself. I wasn't going to let her do anymore to my hair. Needless to say, I shall not be making that mistake again. :O) Thank you Shelise and Tara for your help in my distress....and for never making me look like garfield or his friends.


Then, we had the Fourth of July. Not only was it nice because it was literally my first day off of work in almost two months, it was also incredible because we were able to spend a little bit of time relaxing, finishing some home projects we have been wanting to do, and EATING! We went to my favorite breakfast place of all time: MAGLEBY'S--LATE I might add, because I got to sleep in that day WITH Devin! Wahoo! Sometimes we just need that cuddle time. And OH how I LOVE it! Then, we did some painting and stuff at home. After that, I made the traditional homemade ice cream, fresh strawberries and all, and we met up with some friends. Our friend Angela (with Jay, her husband) is pregnant and still in her first half of pregnancy. She really feels the anything-but-JUST-morning sickness and had to rest in bed for a while amidst us having some fun. I was glad she was able to join us for the Stadium of Fire fireworks. We had an awesome view (but I didn't get pictures, of course) and a lot of fun talking with them. They are just THE SWEETEST people you will EVER meet in your life! Then, they went to bed because of the "morning" sickness and we went and did a few fireworks by ourselves. About half of the on-a-budget fireworks we bought were duds; so we simple lit them on fire. They proceeded to please us! :O) Here are a few pictures of us having our lovely fun!




This was the sum of our on-a-budget fireworks. We also had some cracker jacks...




This was still the line to get out of Provo ONE FULL HOUR and a HALF after the firework show....


Last of all, yesterday, Devin and I went on a rope swing in a city about 45 minutes south of us yesterday. It was incredibly high up and long and a lot of fun! Unfortunately, I had a minimal amount of space left on my memory card . I only got two pictures and neither of them show you how much fun it really was. We also got to walk around the park. It is always fun to walk with my hubby in nature, hand-in-hand and just loving each other. I love to talk with him and spend time with him. I am grateful for the simple things, and it's the important things in eternity that I always want to remember.

P.S.....

I forgot to tell about my graduation, so I'll just put a few pictures up of it....people usually like the pictures better anyway. Later, I will write about it because it was definitely an AWESOME event and I am SOOO glad I chose to go.

(Originally, I wasn't full-heartedly embracing the situation because I didn't want to wait so long in lines, spend hours listening to speeches, and get a fake diploma, AS WELL AS take a few precious days off of work for the whole occasion, BUT it was WONDERFUL and I wouldn't have traded it for the world those two days)


Here is Devin, holding me because he is so proud. These are all around the infamous "The World is Our Campus" and "Enter to Learn Go Forth To Serve" signs at the entrance of campus.









I'm just standing here :O)

And then....

.
TA DA!!! I threw my cap up in the air--flat box-hair and all!



And one more just for fashions sake. I mean, a square on top of your head and a big over-sized tent of a robe are SO attractive!!! :O)

Obviously, I conquered the world for the day. Red shoes and all...


They really were important though...that's the way my parents spotted me.

I will probably put up a few more pictures of the event later on along with telling a little bit about the experience. I just have to wait till I have a little more time to write about it and my parents send me some more pictures via email.

Little tidbits

Hello all! I am back again...for a short time. I have been working a lot and playing a lot of soccer on my free time; so, I haven't really kept up on the blog. The extremely exciting thing, at least for Devin and I, is that our co-ed team has made it pretty far in the tournament. We only have one more game to win before we are in the championship game! Wahoo! If we win, we get a BYU intramural t-shirt! YAHOO! ha ha Our last game was pretty close. It went into sudden death 10 minute overtime, where no one scored. Then, we had five penalty kicks and were tied again, so we went into sudden death PK's! Our team scored and we went crazy! It has been a ton of fun; especially cuz we've had several of our ward friends to play with. I just love it!

This leads me to my calling in our ward--and yes, you really only find this type of calling in a BYU married ward. It is not the typical calling, nor is it a calling I ever thought I would have, but.....I am the new Relief Society sports coordinator. I work in conjunction with the Elders Quorum sports coordinator and pretty much do whatever we want to sports. I am hoping to play something each Saturday afternoon starting with water-kickball. It is wonderful to get some exercise and an absolute BLAST to get to know other ward members in a whole new light. I would really like to take it from the standpoint that because our soul constitutes a body AND a spirit, we need to take care of both. "Sobering though it may be to contemplate, when we overeat or undereat, overexercise or underexercise, become obsessed with our bodies or neglect our bodies, we may be slowly relinquishing control of our bodies to Satan--as our spirits increasingly lose control" (108, Watson, Purity and Passion). Anyway, I just want to focus on getting the right balance, having our bodies yielding to our spirits--instead of vice versa-- and doing it all with something fun (because I absolutely DETEST doing exercise all by myself in a boring, repetitive motion). Hopefully, everyone will embrace it as I have! We shall see...

Devin hasn't gotten his calling yet. We'll probably find out soon. It's a good thing in some ways though, because he has been incredibly busy these last few weeks while finishing up the term. Next week he has finals, and then hopefully we can get a little bit of the break for a week! We MIGHT be able to go to Newport Beach in July because my parents have a timeshare there. If I can get the week off of work and Devin can afford to take off a few days of class, we can definitely go! That will be REALLY exciting!!! Especially because I do not have any more days off the rest of THIS month; so, I could definitely enjoy some days off in July.

We bought a new couch last week with some money I got for my graduation. It is super exciting because we haven't had a REAL couch the whole time we've been married thus far. It is really comfortable and very cute. I didn't want to get something that looked leather-like because everyone gets those. It's just a loveseat, but it has some cute green pillows that came with it. The Sage matches my house really well. Eventually, I would like to get the chair that goes with the set. It is the same material as the pillows! It will be SO cute! Here is a picture....it definitely doesn't do it justice.


I love the couch though. I am trying to do a lot of projects around the house to spiffy the apartment up, so that's probably what I'll post for a while now. Here was my last project. I wish that I had a before picture, but I don't know that I have one anywhere. We bought this dresser for $10.00 at a garage sale just before we got married. I waited a long time to paint it because we didn't have the money, but again, I used some of my graduation money to buy some paint and got my projects started! I didn't quite finish the mirror yet because of lack of time, but I will do that when I complete the headboard. It will be REALLY cool because I am going to paint some of it gold underneath and then pull it through the black. I am excited to get it done! I will paint a few other items and get some other decorations up, and THEN I will have to find some other projects to get started on. It's a ton of fun to decorate the house...and especially for as cheap as we can!

Well, there are some little tidbits for ya! I will let you know if we win the tournament! Hope everything is going well for everyone else! Let me know if there is ANYTHING I can do for you. :O)

SICK!

So, we have been moving back into our apartment for the last week and haven't had working internet. It kinda stinks, because I can hardly get online anymore. It's a big time commitment to make to race all the way down to campus, and frankly, I don't have that kind of time...even for a few moments so that I can check my mail, keep up on blogs, and do the whole facebook thing. :O) Today, I have managed to get to campus though, for a few short minutes, and am only regretting it because I am still a bit whoozy....

Yes, I am sick, AGAIN! YUCK! But this is seriously the worst sick I have ever felt. Yesterday, I woke up at 4:00 in the morning with one serious stomachache. I thought, "Oh, maybe it was those few cookies and sweets that I had eaten for our Mother's Day celebration" considering all of those unborn children I have. (I will post later on what Devin did for me for Mother's Day...but I am waiting for permission :O)--You see, it's kind of a funny; almost embarrassing story for him.) Anyway, an hour later, I was throwing up and throwing up and throwing up. I haven't thrown up in years, first of all; nor have I ever thrown up that many times in my entire life combined....TIMES FOUR! I ended up throwing up approximately 13 times and had the achiest muscles of my entire life...even with a mere temperature of 100 degrees. Today, I am doing a million times better--even to be able to get out of bed is a feat! It has really got me to thinking about having morning sickness...Tara, I have SOOOO much more sympathy for you than ever before! I hope, by now, you are also doing a million times better.

When I have a little bit more time, I will write about graduation & the move, put pictures up, and get updated on everyone's blogs since I've had very little time to read them. Once I am all better, completely finished moving in, and not working everyday, I will become a little more involved and indulged in the blog world again. Hope everyone is doing well!

95 words

Speed test

Oh the Joys!

Well, my last post seemed like a real downer, even though I didn't mean it to be; so, I decided I better post quickly before everyone thought I was sulking. I have too much to be happy about.

First of all, I'm so grateful that I had a willing and able husband that suggested we try living in Las Vegas for a few months to see how it went. He has never been much of a Vegas fan, but he knows how I have LOVED growing up around my family and that ALL of our family get-togethers have been highlights of my life, so he thought we should try it out if he got an internship here. He did, and we have been here for the last four months. There have been a lot of fun things about being around family, playing softball, and having new jobs and experiences....and there have been a few things from which we have since learned our lessons. I have loved it here...Devin has coped well, and we will be returning to Provo in the next 2 weeks for my graduation and for some new fun adventures. (I am personally excited to get back to intramural sports again. I LOVE to play co-ed soccer with my hubby! He is AMAZING! It is also fun and great exercise, and I just plain feel better. Plus, we are JUST in time for rock climbing season! All I can say is WAAAHHOOOO!!!) I really will miss the family though. I get a little bored in Provo sometimes. Mainly because I don't do as many silly things as I did when I was single and we don't have a dishwasher. ha ha. I know...pity me. --Trevor likes to remind me that only 2,000 people (in Australia) have dishwashers out of like 3 million)...so then I am forced to count my blessings--

Second of all, I'm glad we were able to make some money. It's not going to be much and it won't last long with tuition and stuff, BUT we actually had an income for almost FOUR MONTHS! WOW! I can't even believe the luxury it is to be able to work and have a consistent income from BOTH of us! PLUS, I was able to get transferred from my store here to the store in Springville; so I will continue to have a steady job with some GREAT benefits! :O) The only thing is, we're gonna have to get used to both of our full time jobs to just me being PART time for a while....at least until they can rotate me into a full time schedule. I'm sure once I get there it won't be a problem. I was offered a position at another branch too, but had already accepted the other offer....I am still trying to weigh out the options and determine what might be best for us.

Third, I am SO thrilled about the friends I was able to make at this branch here in Vegas. I know that there are some frustrating people in the world, but for all of them, I swear there are at least 15-20 absolutely FANTASTIC people if we truly give them a chance and our love. I have met people from all walks of life who DO truly care about people believe it or not. And we have had a blast! I have really loved my team!

Fourth, it is SO wonderful to have a practically fully functioning body again~! I haven't been on permanent medication for about 3 months now and have been JUST fine! I am still very tired most of the time, but I can get over that compared to what I WAS experiencing! I am grateful for a body that can get the things done that I need to get done!

We'll just do one more and then I'll be done. Last night, I was able to go to the Savior of the World musical that they had here in Vegas at one of the recreation centers. It was BEAUTIFUL! The music was inspiring and my testimony has grown! I'd like to thank all of the people who put so much hard work and dedication into sharing that beautiful message! (Thanks Kara!) I love my Savior and I hope that we as LDS members can share that love with ALL people we come in contact with...whether it be through our actions, thoughts, or words. Christ loves us all and I am so grateful to know that He is there and listening, guiding my family, and providing the way for us to return to Him! I am grateful for that knowledge!

Hope you all have a wonderful day! It is joyous to be here on earth! (And yes, Becca, a little sunshine can go a LONG way~!!!!)

April Fool's Joke Gone Bad

Well, I was GOING to play a GREAT April Fool's joke on Devin today. I know, I know...it's typical....telling him that I was pregnant, but it was going to be SO good. I was going to buy a little Texas Longhorns baby outfit and have one of my pregnant friends "pee-on-the-stick" for proof and all; however, after having what we think was my second miscarriage last week, I just couldn't carry it through! Dang, it ruined all of my plans. I've seriously had it planned for months, but when you have a miscarriage, you can't hide it; so, it's not like I could have pulled it off at this point...not without some SERIOUS proof from an OB/GYN anyway.

We weren't trying to get pregnant or anything...not yet. But I could tell that my new birth control wasn't quite working properly (that is a whole other story in itself--we just can't get me on ONE birth control pill that doesn't cause some sort of major problem with my health). Two weeks ago, I started feeling pretty nauseated in the mornings and throughout different times of the day. It wasn't very bad, but it was noticeably different. Then, my back started ACHING! I stand all day at work--we're talking 9 1/2 hours), so I thought maybe I just needed to sit for a while, but it didn't make sense because I had already stood through the entire previous month without any problems. I thought, "maybe it is because of the car accident a few years ago??" but I haven't had MAJOR problems with that in a while, so I shrugged it off. Anyway, I started to sit down at work (because we can if we have a Dr's note) and hoped it would get better...which, it didn't over the next several days afterward...

After a few days of this pain (I SERIOUSLY couldn't MOVE; especially after work), I started spotting even worse than I have for the past four months, so I was semi-concerned. Last Tuesday, however, I didn't just spot...I full on bled...BIG TIME! Now, my back is feeling MUCH better and I haven't been spotting as much since...which kinda makes me wonder how long I was pregnant, and if I had known that that was the reason for my spotting earlier that this story may have ended a little differently. Anyway, so much for my April Fool's joke gone bad! Did anyone else get a good one in?!?!?!