PARTY!

I'd like to officially announce that Neight and I are HOME OWNERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was a nightmare and when we decided to buy a different house we will not be going with the same Realtor or financing company. They gave us the run around, told us the day before closing the different documents we needed that I had specifically asked if they needed previously, and didn't bother to tell our insurance agent that we needed a new policy quote for home owners insurance until the day of closing. After all was said and done our insurance agent said this is the third time the financial company has done this to him, where they know they need a policy at least 10 days before closing, but never tell him until the day of.
So on our closing day I had to take a super long lunch break to sign all of the stupid paperwork, we had to go to their office, they wouldn't come meet us. Anyway, I had worked it out with my assistant manager to take two hours off for lunch thinking that it would be enough time to get everything figured out. So we get there at 1:00 pm and the paper work isn't ready because they are still waiting for the new insurance policy. We didn't sign ANY paper work until 2:45, making me get back to work an hour later than I had worked out with my manager..... Awesome. I was so mad, but thankfully we don't have to deal with that crap anymore. Now the house is ours, we can do whatever we want, I can turn it into a home, and we got a killer deal on it. It's a good starter house and it's so much nicer than the apartments we were living in. It's also a huge amount of stress that has been taken away. Now for all of the improvements! Thank goodness my dad is a miracle worker and can basically fix anything and do any project he sets his mind to.

Also, we're having a baby in June :) And yes, we did plan it ;) This week starts 14 weeks and I'm starting to gain that fun little "baby bump." Except I feel like it's just lard sitting in my stomach. The first trimester was fairly easy for me. I didn't have a ton of morning sickness which was great! I'm just hoping that the rest of the pregnancy goes like this, but we'll see how the third trimester treats me. Neight is super excited and we've already picked out some names that we like. We won't find out if it's a boy or girl until the end of January at the earliest, it might even be in February that we find out. Neight wants a boy, but as long as the baby had 10 fingers and 10 toes and is healthy, I don't care what it is. For a while I was thinking that I didn't want any girls because I have two sisters and the drama growing up was enough for a lifetime, but now I'm thinking I would like one of each. I guess we'll just see how the dice rolled :)

Life has been so crazy for us and I am so thankful the semester is over. Well, for me anyway, Neight just started a new quarter, but he will have his associates degree in June! Next semester I'm only going to be taking 13 credits instead of 15. Hopefully it will be less stressful and not as crazy, but with me being pregnant, who knows. I'm just happy that my due date is after the semester ends so I can actually take the summer off from school and work :)

That's just a little bit on what we've been up to. Hopefully everyone is having a fantastic holiday season!

Catch Up

It has been a VERY long time since I have posted anything, so for now I will just upload some pictures. There are stories behind all of them, but I won't give all the details. I will just post a short, sweet, and to the point caption :)

A delicious vanilla cake with strawberry filling I made for work.

A side view.

Beautiful Cascade Springs. We've made it a tradition that each year we go up and take pictures with my family.

A picture of the springs.... Believe it or not this was taken with my phone :)

This year we all brought up goofy glasses to take pictures with. My daddy is so silly :)

This picture was taken on the first "real" day of fall where it was super rainy for like three days straight and it got really cold.

One day Neight and I went on a lunch date after I got done with school and he was off work. Little did we know that WW III was waiting for us. Munchquen had pushed a box of tissues that were on the table on the ground and Zildjin decided it was her responsibility to then shred that box and all the tissues in it. Oh, and there was poop in the mix because she was home alone all day. Poor thing.

And finally a picture of our silly puppy. When she chews her bones she always ends up on her back... I guess she just gets a better grip on it?

Camping!!

Last week, Neight, Zildjin, and I went camping with Neight's coworker (Brett), his wife (Allie), and their dog (Indy). It was definitely a weekend full of surprises. I won't go into too many details, but, this is what happened.
Saturday as Neight and Brett and I were getting things ready to go we went to Brett's Dad's house to get the key to a trailer we were going to stay in. Well, as we pulled into the campsite Brett realized he forgot the key.... So we had to cut the locks off to get in.
Sunday we took the boat out so the boys could do some fishing..... The battery died on us.... So the boys started rowing to shore and luckily we had some other boaters that came to our rescue.
Monday as we were packing up to leave they put the charged battery in the boat and found out that the engine was dead... so they had to walk it along the shore to the dock.

Even though it was full of surprises I had a lot of fun :) It was nice to go and relax AWAY from civilization for a few days. We had plenty of delicious food and running water which was nice. We were also in good company. Maybe next year when we go up things will go the right way? Here are a few pictures that I took.

The leaves in Parley's Canyon are already changing!

Such a cute puppy!

Headed out on her first camping trip :)

A Fall Fling

So I feel like it's been forever since I've been able to update any of my blogs, but while Neight and our new puppy :) are sleeping, I'm going to take a few minutes to post this before I start doing everything else that needs to get done today.

School has been going decent for me, I'm starting to think that I bit off a little more than I could chew, but I'm sure I'll be ok. I feel like all of my time at home that isn't devoted to cooking or cleaning, or taking care of the animals, is devoted to homework. Weekends aren't too bad, it's the middle of the week, Tuesday and Wednesday, that are my problem. There just isn't enough time for me to do all of my homework assigned on Tuesday by Wednesday. I'm going to try getting ahead this week to see if it helps at all.
Neight starts school again tomorrow, I think... It might be next week, I'm not sure.

So like I mentioned earlier we got a puppy. Neight and I had talked about it for a while and finally decided that we should. So Thursday we drove all the way out to Coalville to pick her up. The drive to get there was like an hour and a half, the lady literally lived out in the middle of nowhere. She and her husband are ranchers, I guess would be the best way to describe them, so our dog basically could run around for hours in all this space. I feel kind of bad that we took her away from all of that and brought her to the city. I guess though, that Magna, is kind of like the country. We do have a decent sized yard that she will be able to run around in.
The entire drive to pick the puppy up Neight was thinking of names, he thought of two he really like, Lucee and Zildjin. After we played with the puppy he decided that she wasn't a Lucee type dog and so he picked Zildjin. Now, you're probably wondering "Where does a name like that come from?" Well, let me explain, Neight is a drummer and very into music. Zildjin is a cymbal brand that he uses, it's pronounced Zil-d-gen. So we now have a Munchqen kitty and a Zildjin doggy. Only in our house :)

She's a very cute dog and pretty good so far. I thought we were going to have a problem with her sleeping through the night, but I was wrong. I never thought I would be a dog person, but for her I think that can change. I just hope that Munchquen doesn't feel like I'm neglecting her. Munchquen is very territorial and is having a hard time adjusting to Zildjin, but every day Munchquen will wander closer, mostly while Zildjin is asleep, but Munchquen will hiss if she gets to close to Zildjin. It's kind of funny to watch, but yesterday there was a time where I had to take Zildjin to the other end of the house because she cornered Munchquen and Munchquen freaked out. Zildjin will bark at Munchquen thinking she's playing, but Munchquen sees it as being attacked. We had to buy a baby gate and turn our office into Munchquen's room so she wouldn't completely hate us.

They match!

Last week Neight went fishing and FINALLY caught some fish! He said that as soon as he put his line into the water he had a bite and reeled it in. This happened for hours and he got a nice big bucket of fish.

Luckily Neight was fishing with a friend because there is no way that we would be able to eat all of those. Neight and I are going camping in a couple of weeks and he's probably going to go fishing. I don't know that he'll catch anything, but we'll see.

It's been really nice having a house for the last couple of months. We've been able to grill (yummy) and Neight has been able to play his drum kit. I like that it's nice and quite and almost ours :) We are supposed to close on the house the day before Thanksgiving, if all goes well.

Neight's grilling area.

Neight's drum kit.

I hope that everyone enjoys the end of summer/beginning of fall, as it will turn into winter very shortly. (Don't hate me for telling the truth.)

Weekend fun!

So, as promised, I took pictures of the weekend and now it's time to blog :)

Sunday, Neight and I decided that we were going to go to the zoo before we went to dinner with his co workers. We've been to the zoo so many times before, but it's still fun to get out of the house and spend some time outside. As usual not many of the animals were out and about, but we did get lucky in the Elephant Encounter area! There was a trainer doing a "presentation" with Zuri (the two year old elephant) and her mom Christie. The video that I'm posting is WELL WORTH your time to watch. Zuri does some things in there that I didn't know an elephant was capable of. Don't mind my commentary, I was pretty shocked at what was going on :)

Here are some pictures of Zuri and her mom.

Zuri balancing on the ledge.

 

Also, at the zoo there were some pretty intense dinosaur exhibits. It was interesting to see scale models of different dinosaurs and facts about them. I didn't take very many pictures of these because they weren't as cool as the real animals. The exhibit that blew me away was the T-Rex. This thing was actually life sized!!!! I would FREAK if I saw a T-Rex coming towards me. It was pretty funny to see all the families there and how the kids reacted to the dinosaurs. As we were walking by the T-Rex this little boy asked his dad if it was real. The dad said "yes it is." At that boy the little boy's face went pale as a ghost and his eyes were FULL of terror. I thought it was HILARIOUS! because that is TOTALLY something Neight would do if we had a child. Poor thing.

When we got home from the zoo I started making the salad for the dinner. It's a pretty simple recipe and it tastes DELICIOUS!!!! Here's a picture of it :)

The dinner was pretty fun. Only three of Neight's co workers showed up, his boss was also there, being that it was at his house. There was a lot of good food and two super funny dogs. One was a little Chihuahua and the other was a huge Boxer. Now, I'm not scared of dogs, I just don't like their wet noses and yucky tongues.... That might change when we get a dog. The funny thing about these two dogs is that the Chihuahua is the one in charge, and when the two of them lay down, the Chihuahua lays on top of the Boxer. I wish that I would have been able to take a picture of it, but I didn't get a chance :(

It was a nice weekend and I really enjoyed it. My new semester at Westminster starts next week! I'm super nervous! Neight finds out his classes for next quarter tomorrow! Look at us being grown up :)

It's the weekend!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought this picture was so freaking cute! I love the little baby fat rolls on the arms :)

Anyway, the weekend is FINALLY here, and in about 3 hours Neight will be home to enjoy it with me :) We don't really get to see each other throughout the week, but that's basically how it's always been. So, this weekend is a little different because we actually have two WHOLE days together! and it's going to be a busy weekend.

Tomorrow, Neight's department has a dinner that we will be going to. I'm a little nervous to go because I won't really know anyone so we'll see how it goes.
Monday, Neight wants to go fishing with some buddies at 5:30 in the morning! I say "good for him!" He loves to fish and goes as often as he can, but unfortunately he really hasn't caught anything this year (he started fishing in April) but maybe tomorrow is the day? Maybe he'll come home with a gazillion and a half fish..... Ok, I doubt that it will be that many, but two or three would be nice.

The lake yesterday morning. It looks so peaceful and relaxing!

After fishing, depending on what time Neight gets home we might go to the zoo! For the summer, Hogle Zoo has put together dinosaur exhibits throughout the grounds. It ends next weekend and we really want to see it! We went the same week that the zoo was putting the dinosaurs up. It looked really cool even when it wasn't finished.
Brian and Amanda are coming over Monday for lunch! I am very excited because I haven't seen them in about a year and a half, and Neight hasn't seen them since their wedding last October, so almost a year for him. They are out here looking for possible job and housing options :) I would LOVE if they could move out here, because I would have another friend!!!!!

Those are the plans for out weekend. If we end up doing all of this stuff, you better believe that I will be taking pictures and blogging about it later :)

Weekend Fun!

Yesterday Neight and I went to visit his family and have dinner with my family. It's so nice that they live in the same city and about a mile away. That way we can see both families on the same day.

Usually when we visit Neight's family we play basketball with his brothers. Yesterday I sat out and snapped a few pictures. They aren't the best and I was trying to be discrete about it.

When we went to have dinner my family my mom asked if I could help her with her banner. A few weeks ago I used pastels to color the pirate for it. The finished project looks so good and I'm very proud of how it turned out. My mom was so thrilled and very grateful for all of my help. It's definitely very nice for me to have a mother that has the same profession that I am going in to. It will be very nice to brain storm ideas with her when I'm actually teaching.

Each of the little hats (Neight's idea) has a child's name on it. The pictures that are colored have different "treasures" that first graders learn. They are reading (the treasure chest full of books), math (the parrot), spelling (the flag), and writing (the treasure chest that is empty). The beads in between the hats and pictures are representing the dashes on a treasure map to lead you to the treasure. I think it's adorable!

A Home!?

I don't even know where to begin with this post. I guess I will start with the back ground information and then end with the current situation.

Back in April, Neight and I found out that an aunt that was renting his grandmother's house lost her job and couldn't make the payments for the house. Well, Neight's grandmother had not lived in the house for 3+ years and couldn't make the payments either. So, to keep the house in the "family" Neight and I decided that we would try for it. We had been talking about purchasing a house and even found some we were interested in. Our apartment lease was set to end in July and we figured that would be enough time to find a house and make it ours. We were very, very, very wrong. With the house being Neight's grandmother's our Realtor had to buy it to take it out of the Korous name and then sell it to us.

As the months went by we really didn't hear much other than Neight's grandmother had signed all of the paperwork to sell the house. Any time we had contact with the Realtor we had to contact him... We didn't even get a phone call to update us on the status.... we still don't get a phone call. Anyway, at the beginning of July we hadn't heard anything about the house and we didn't know what to do with our living situation. We called the Realtor to find out what to do and he said that he "thought" we could move into the house, but he needed to find out. He told us to call him in two weeks....... In reality he should have been the one to call us.... but with no phone calls previous we waited the two weeks.

Two weeks later we called the Realtor and asked him, once again, if we could move into the house. In response to this, he asked another Realtor that was sitting next to him if it was o.k. to do that...... SERIOUSLY!!!!!!! Why couldn't he have done that two weeks previous!? So we had our deadline of two weeks to tear up the carpet, paint the walls, clean, and make the house livable (the aunt had neglected the poor house and it was a disaster.) That weekend Neight and I had planned to go down and visit my grandma, after talking about it and looking at our schedules Neight decided that because he already had the weekend off he would get some of our friends and fix the house up that weekend. I'm not sure of all the details, but when I got home Sunday I found out that there had been a slight bump in the road of painting..... There was wall paper in the two bedrooms.... Not just one layer, and not just two, but THREE layers of wall paper..... and each layer of wall paper had been painted over. Neight did a lot that weekend and it sucked that I wasn't here to help. With the amount of wall paper that there was the walls didn't get painted, but the carpet did get pulled up, making the house smell so much better (the carpet was covered in dog urine that had stained the padding underneath.)

With that little set back in repairs I started to FREAK out. I had no idea how we were going to pull everything off in the short amount of time. All of our spare time was devoted to getting the house ready. On Pioneer Day (25), I started to prime the walls. it took me 12 hours (by myself, Neight was helping my Dad with other repairs) and I only got 3 of the 4 areas done. We were scheduled to moved on that Friday the 29th. I panicked. Neight and I both had Thursday off, so we decided that we would work in the house all day and finishing painting and cleaning. After working all day on Thursday we had just barley finished all of the painting, but none of the cleaning. We left the house at 11 pm and went to the apartment to finish packing. I was up until 4:30 am trying to get things packed and ready to go, with a meeting at work at 8 am. I got two hours of sleep that night and amazingly had enough energy to keep going. It must have been the adrenaline that was flowing through me that kept me going. We had found out on Tuesday that the bank had approved the sale to the Realtor and we were really going to get the house.

We moved all our stuff in last Friday and cleaned the apartment and turned in our keys on Saturday. Finally we were all moved and were getting the house, or so we thought. Yesterday, Neight got a call from the Realtor asking when we would be moved in so he could set up showings of the house! WTF?!?!? A few days previous we had been told that we would be closing on the house in 90 days.... I was so upset that I cried, and cried, and cried. Even today I still am very upset and don't know what to think. The Realtor said that this morning's showing was to another Realtor, just in case our loan doesn't go through. Well, and this point if anyone makes a higher offer than we do in the next 90 days we won't be getting the house..... Just our luck.

I just want a nice home where I can raise a family..... Although, when we first decided to try to get the "family" house we said it would just be a starter house and that later we would sell it or rent it. I hope that's what it is, because I really don't want to live here for the rest of my life. It's also very upsetting because I don't know if we are making the right choice. With the housing market right now, we could have a huge, awesome, beautiful house for half the price of what it was originally sold for. I get jealous hearing about the awesome deals every one is getting, especially with the houses being in better shape than "ours." Are we doing the right thing by trying to keep this one in the "family?" Everyone has so many memories here, that maybe it is. Like I said, I just don't know what to do at this point. I guess things happen for a reason and if it is meant to be, then it's meant to be......

Here's for another few months of this roller coaster ride...... Hopefully by the end of the year I will be able to have a house to call my home.

What a week!

The week is only half way over, but I feel like it's been a MONTH since Sunday! Neight and I have both been so busy with work and trying to get the house ready for us to move in that we haven't had much time for ourselves. I have been SO stressed out with all this house drama, but I have to keep telling myself that it's worth it. Neight seems to be enjoying himself, so I guess that's good.

So here's a quick breakdown of our week:
Sunday- Neight and I stopped by his parents house for dinner. I made some awesome cookies..... Well, the store made some awesome cookies, but I baked them. After having dinner with Neight's family we went to my parents to visit. While we were over there my mom asked if I would help her with some of her school stuff for the first week. Of course I said yes because I love anything that has to do with school work. I ended up coloring ( I wish that I had drawn it) a pirate for her school theme. Here is the end result:

I used pastels for the awesome colors. I've always loved working with pastels so I was even more excited to color. When I finished I realized that coloring is very therapeutic and I need to get myself a coloring book to help control my stress.

Monday- I had the WHOLE day off  and Neight had the morning off. So, we went over to the house to start painting. Neight was working with my dad on some of the other things the house needed so I got to paint myself. I only got primer on 3 or the 5 areas that needed paint in the 12 hours that I was there. The walls weren't too bad, but the ceilings were hard for me to reach, even with an extension to the roller. When painting the ceilings the paint splattered in my face. It got in my eyes, in my mouth, and all over my hair.

This picture is kind of dark, but you can see the paint on my shirt. Don't mind the garbage in the background, it will get cleaned up tomorrow.

Tuesday and today Neight and I both worked and haven't had time to go back and finish painting. Tomorrow we both have the day off and we have about a million things to do before we can move in on Friday. talk about stress! Everyone keeps telling me that things will be ok and that it will be worth it. I'm going to try and trust them and just take it an hour at a time at this point.

Happy 4th of July

I love summer! Warm weather, fireworks, and LOTS of barbeque's with my family!

Last night Neight and I went over to my parents to celebrate the 4th of July. We did it a day early because Emily was home visiting for the weekend. Neight and my dad cooked an AMAZING meal! They made kabobs with chicken, shrimp, and steak! Talk about DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!! After eating we were SO full that we all ended up taking a nap. Once the sun set we pulled out our fireworks and more fun started! Luckily we weren't the only ones on the block doing fireworks and we got to watch all the other ones as well. I didn't even think to bring my  camera, but Emily did, so here are a few shots of the fun.

HAPPY FOURTH! 

Summer Vacation!!!!

5 days in Disneyland and California Adventure..... sounds like a fairy tale, right? Well..... that fairy tale came true for me!!!!!

Just a little background, I LOVE DISNEYLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The atmosphere is so magical and really makes me forget about all of the things in "real life." Walt Disney was a brilliant man and I love his quote about the theme park.

"Disneyland will never be complete. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world."
~ Walt Disney

Our journey started on Sunday, Neight and I left at 6 am, which meant waking up at 4 am. The drive down to California didn't seem very long, although it did take a 12 hours. We could have made it in 9-10 if traffic wouldn't have been so slow. Driving through California I decided that the state just gives out licenses like candy. NO ONE knew how to drive. There was no use of blinkers, no common courtesy when merging, and lots of accidents. Go figure.  It was super frustrating and I feel bad that Neight had to deal with all of that. I offered to drive, but it's probably best that I didn't. After we checked into our hotel Sunday night we walked over to Down Town Disney and looked around. The four previous times I was there I didn't have enough time to wander around, so it was nice to look at new things.
Monday - Friday we were in the park and it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!! The only problem was that my feet were KILLING me by the end of Monday. It lasted throughout the week, but I tried to suck it up and not complain about it. I just had to sit down a lot, but I was still able to enjoy the atmosphere. Wednesday Neight and I grabbed breakfast at a near by Mc Donald's before heading to the park. Once in the park we picked a bench at the end of main street (opposite from the castle, just as you walk in) to eat. It turned out to be the perfect spot because 5 minutes after we got there we got to see many characters come out and meet people. There was Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Chip and Dale, Cruella deVill, and Alice, from what I can remember. I wasn't close enough to get any pictures, but it was the first time that I had seen any characters that weren't in the parades. It's kind of funny at how much of a child I turn into when I'm in Disneyland :)
Thursday was the night we decided to watch the World of Color in California Adventure. It was one of the coolest things I have seen in my life! I would recommend it to anyone, no matter what age. It's insane at what the people of Disney have come up with to entertain the masses of people that visit each night.
Friday was the day that Neight and I walked around all the stores and bought all our souvenirs. It was nice to have a day to do this because I found some things that I didn't know existed. There's this really cool place in California Adventure that had a real life flip book. It was mind blowing. This "flip book" was set on a round turn table. When it stood still there were little figurines from Toy Story, each figurine was slightly different from the other. Then the turn table started to spin. At first I really couldn't see anything happening, but then when a strobe light was turned on the figures were moving!!!! This wasn't just a scene for one character, there were multiple one. Woody, Bullseye, Jessie, the aliens, the green military men, and the penguin. Needless to say, I watched it about three times. Friday we also watched the Sound-sational Parade and Fantasmic.
Disneyland was a great vacation! We are planning to go back in 3 years with my parents and sisters!

Vegas was a little different. I've been there before, but this time I felt WAY claustrophobic. There were SO many people and it was busy and loud. TOTALLY different from Salt Lake. When we had planned this vacation originally we were just thinking Disneyland, but about two weeks before we decided to stop in Vegas as well. With it being last minute we didn't get a great hotel and didn't have a whole lot planned. We did walk the strip for several hours, but it was just too hot and there really isn't much to do unless you gamble, which honestly, I didn't have the desire too. In Vegas we also got the news that my Uncle had passed away after a long battle with cancer. I have to admit, it was nice to have a few days to relax before coming back home.

All in all it was a very good time. I was happy to have vacation and am excited to do it again in 3 years! I won't be counting down quite yet, but it will be in the back of my mind. Here are some of the pictures of the vacation. For all of them, check out my facebook page :)

This picture was made out of FLOWERS! It was in the conservatory of the Bellagio lobby

The yellow part of the dresses are actually staffs with notes on them. It tied in with the theme of the parade VERY well!

Our view from our hotel in Vegas.

In the area with the statue of Walt and Mickey there are bronze statues of the classic Disney characters. Donald, Minnie, etc. I had never seen them before!

World of Color

This is another bronze statue I didn't know existed. This is located at the back of the castle after walking through.

LOVED!!! Minnie's skirt! I would totally wear something like that!

There were doing renovations so this is the welcome sign that they had set up.