Today is the first day of my new life

I have been terrible at posting lately!  I think part of it is that I have had very little that I wanted to share about my life.  Life seems to be a constant stream of wake up, go to work, come home and go to bed.  I have been feeling really lost lately and that I wasn't in the right place and as I have pondered on my feelings I have had some wonderful insights.  I realized that I had been living my life for work, that work had become my top priority instead of the things that are eternally significant. I also re-realized that my purpose on this earth was not to live to work or give everything to make an employer happy, but it was to live for my current and future family, it was to make them and myself happy.  I don't want to wake up every single day unhappy because of what I have to do that day and I don't want my unhappiness to burden the relationships that are most important here and in the eternities.  So I have been worrying for the last few weeks on whether I should quit and I finally got up the guts to do it.  It hasn't been easy and I am still unsure what the next month will hold but I feel like today is the first day of the rest of my life, like I am set free and can now live my life without being chained to something else.  Its  a good feeling, and despite all my anxiety over quitting and my wish that I could just walk away today, at least I feel like I am going in the right direction.  I feel like a weight has been partially lifted, like I can begin my life again. Hopefully the future will bring many more positive posts about the joy I am finding in my life!

BABIES!

Today is a great day!  Erin is having baby P as I type!!  A new nephew for me! We are pretty excited for them and to meet our new red-headed baby!  I wanted to post some pictures of my trip with my mom to see the other babies (or not so babies) at Penn State.

March was a really tough month for me at work,  there was a lot of late nights and stress!  So the last week of March my mom and I had scheduled a trip to visit Jake and Jen in State College PA.  It was a welcome break from work!  It was also a chance for me to meet Autumn for the first time.  Here are some pictures from our trip out to PA....

 "Nucle Ross" sent over some big books on space that Hudson LOVED!  We had to read them over and over!

We have family pictures and it took FOREVER  so Ellie and Hudson and I were running around JC Penny's.  It was so much fun and everyone gave us dirty looks but they were entertained.  

 I had to get as many pictures of my mom with the kids since she is never in pictures!

 Ellie and Autumn in their Easter dresses,  they looked soooo cute!!

 Hudson did such a great job at taking pictures!  He has always been one to have his picture taken!  

 Autumn smiling! It was pretty exciting,  notice the pop rocks in the background,  last time we gave Hudson pop rocks he cried,  so we wanted to test it out again and they loved them.  Haha it was pretty funny.

 Duck chasing was one of my favorite moments.  I was freezing but it was so funny watching them chase those ducks around,  I was laughing the whole time

We also had to make a trek to Hersey PA (which is actually called Dery! Its not even really named Hersey) and go to Chocolate world.  It was crazy and there were kids everywhere but we had fun on the ride teaching us about the chocolate making process.   There was a really cool tour all about Mr. Hersey and what a totally awesome guy he was, it was really inspiring and made for good convo on the way home. 

 I was diligently trying to record everything for the scavenger hunt so the kids could get the prize...and the people didn't even check it!  But at least the kids got their prizes

 Watching Tangled with gram while waiting for mom and dad to get home,  we had an Easter egg hunt from my dad, it was sooo much fun hiding the eggs from the kids and the parents.

 This is the day we left,  such a sad day!  But we were glad to know we would see them really soon.  I am excited because I feel completely in love with this little one,  all I wanted to do was kiss and love on her!

 The week after I got back we had the good fortune of Ross having spring break and going to St. George.  The weather was lovely and we enjoyed some time in Kolob and some coconut cupcakes from 25 main.  Sadly I was sick the whole time so there was also a lot of sleeping but it was a great week spent together anyway!

We were so surprised at the beauty of Kolob.  It was a great place to spend some time and do some hiking

It was a leap day miracle....

For anyone who watched that 30 rock episode they will know the reference.  I watched the episode about leap day and laughed at them talking about leap day miracles.  But the really funny thing about it was we had one!!  We have been looking to move back to Logan since Ross will start school full time this summer and we have been looking at places all over but we fell in love with the Falls at the Riverwoods.  Well we had been going back and forth about whether to move and then on the 29th I got onto craigslist and they had a crazy deal that for $29 we get the first month's rent, our deposit, and the application fee! That saves us well over one thousand dollars!!  You had to sign up that day and we got a hold of our land lord (also a miracle) and they said they would let us out of our lease one month early!  We are so excited!  We have been moving bits and pieces over the past week and are so ready to be done! UGH!  Working and moving is not fun!  It was hard to tell the YM/YW program in our ward that we were leaving and I am going to miss the girls in the ward!  It really has been a miracle how quick and perfectly it has come together for us and we are so grateful for all the moving help we have received.  I will have to take some pictures once we are moved and settled and I have had a chance to redecorate (my favorite part!!)

February has redeemed itself

So for the longest time I have always felt that February was by far the worst month of the year.  Even though  it was the shortest month I have always disliked it.  Its cold and miserable and I always wanted it to be spring.  Plus it had Valentines day in it, which was always just annoying more than anything.  But this February has been so great!!   First I learned how to cut a man's hair (meaning really how to give a buzz).  I had never ever even held a clipper and Ross got this grand idea to buzz his hair one Saturday.  I can promise you I put up a real fight but look who ended up winning in the end..Ross. I had to give him a mohawk first.  He totally reminded me of a Scottish hooligan (aka a NED) and it was creepy and hilarious at the same time. 

 I also realized how great Valentines day is when you are married.  It is a day to celebrate being loved and loving someone without all the expectation and sometimes awkwardness of Vday as a single person.  Ross was so good to me this year!  First came these flowers at work in the morning (side note, when we were engaged over Vday i had to work and the girl working next to me got all this stuff for Vday.  I was just glad to have someone to love that day, but a guy came up to the window and said to the girl with all her stuff right on the counter "oh you must be loved!" then he looked at me and said "oh you must not be".  well the guy was dumb obviously because I knew I was, but it got under my skin.  Grr i was so mad and ever since then have wanted flowers delievered to my work, and Ross sent me TWO bouquets!  I was so excited and felt so special.  It was a wonderful day and a reminder of how lucky I am every day to have such a great husband who always takes care of me.  I am now a Vday convert of 3 years! YAY!!

The first batch.  It has roses, lillies and tulips!  And Ross picked it out himself!  I am so proud

The second one.  I was pretty excited!

I found him a giant card which was pretty awesome because it was giant!! 

Dora is a fan of flowers too! 

 
February is only half over and I am enjoying it so much.  I can tell its only going to give us more great things and happy memories!  Life truly is wonderful!  The other reason why I am loving February is Ross and I's new "diet"  that cuts out all sugar.  We have only been doing it for a week and I feel so much better!  We had yesterday off and i think both Ross and I ate quite a bit of sugar and we were both so sick yesterday and today!  I have been amazed how much better my body performs during the day without sugar.  It has been tough and there is a lot of saying no to things but it has been pretty great.  I am liking our new life direction....lets hope it pays off for Lake Powell in June!!



Another reason why February has been great was the wedding of my very best friend Darlene last week.  She looked amazing and I was so grateful to be able to see her sealed in the temple.  The spirit was wonderful and I am so grateful that she is happy!  She has been such an amazing friend over the years and I can think of many many ways she has made my life so much better.  I wish I had a better pic of her but  I only had my phone! It was a great day for sure.

Finally Updating

Wow it’s been a while and I am feeling overwhelmed at the amount that I need to catch up on!!  But it’s not like it’s not my pattern, go a few months then post a ton.  I have been looking through pictures and realized all the things we have done lately.  It’s been a busy few months with the holidays and both Ross and I working, but we have had a great time and have been really enjoying our life so far. 

 The holidays were great; it was so nice to spend time with family and to have a week off of work!!  That was sooooo great! J  I finally got up the courage to try to reupholster something and I found a little beauty on KSL for $15.  It was a rocking chair with nasty 70’s green crushed velvet that was overused.  I didn’t even want to touch it much less sit in it, but Dora loved it!  Hahaha I was glad to see the green go!  I drug it home one weekend in December and my Mom and I started to tear it apart.  It was quite the adventure and I learned a lot!  I had so much fun picking out fabric and finally decided on a damask-like pattern with pineapples on it (kinda weird but I loved the color and the uniqueness of it, plus it was only $5 a yard!).   The chair was a pretty long project with the holidays and work and the typical amateur screw ups, but we finally finished and I LOVE IT!  Too bad my stinkin cat loves to chew on it!  I have had to put a fleece blanket over it to protect it from her.  Here are some pictures of the process

EWWWW the green was so gross

Dora was a fan.  She is a fan of anything she can climb

The finished product!   I love it so much!  It turned out just how I wanted it. 

Another project I just finished was my secretary desk.  It turned out exactly like I wanted and I couldn’t be more excited!  Originally it was a yucky cream color from the 70s that someone had distressed.  It was cute enough by I wanted something not so beat up.  So I found this inspiration picture on line and had to try it.  I had never varnished anything before so that was a learning adventure and I think it turned out just like I had hoped.  I love it and it fits perfectly on our little wall in our kitchen, plus it is one more place to store our junk!!  YAY!

These are from my phone so the quality wasn't the best.  

It was cute but so bland!

I started out by sanding but quickly realized I would need to strip the nasty paint to get anywhere

Ross helping me with some elbow grease.  He is so good to help me!

Post stripping.  Man it was so nasty!  but it worked and I was able to sand much better by then. 

Sanding in the snow...it was surprisingly warm that day 

We were in a mess for a while!!  Its a good thing that Ross is so patient with me and my love for projects

The finished product!! 

I found these knobs at Joannes and I was so excited when I saw them!  They complete it so perfectly

My mom stumbled upon some green velvet liner one day and so she got it for me.  It looks pretty great! Plus it reminds me of something you would see in the furniture on Downton Abbey

The varnished inside 

It was a lot of hard work in sanding but it paid off.  I love the difference between the paint and the varnish!! 

The holidays also meant decorating!! I love love love decorating for Christmas and was so excited to finally have a chance to decorate my own space.  We took one more step towards big kid world by buying a Christmas tree!  It’s so beautiful!  I had it up for a few weeks before December without decorations just because I wanted to make sure it worked and then didn’t want to take it down.  Dora loved this addition to our home and defended it like it was her own nest! Hahaha we couldn’t get near it without her jumping out of it or pouncing on us from under it.  We had a great second Christmas together with our families! 

The finished tree.  It was so much fun to decorate my own tree!!

Work ugly sweater Christmas party. One of the white elephant gifts was this beauty of a do-rag

Jaimie and I tied for ugliest sweater,  we had to do a walk off to Spice Girls to pick a winner,  a tie ensued and we split the prize,  a coaster set!  Woot Woot

Showin off the sweaters

Annie gave us all a little gem of a picture of herself.   Cort was the lucky recipient! 

Katie got me more into Christmas than ever, just look at that shirt! Only she would own a  shirt like that :)

Some of the girls at work,  Katie's sweat had Santa skiing on it and it said "its all down hill from here"  I loved it!!

The happy couple

Sam, Bryn and I getting ready for the Menlove family Nativity scene.  Sam looks more like Moses than a Shepard.  He has his serious face on!