12 thoughts before christmas

oh hello, here i am again.

we're busy and there's lots going on but just not anything that exciting to post on the blog. E has told me a couple times that i need to post something, but i've got nothing.

i would like to post some pictures of the house but i haven't taken any pictures of it yet. plus the kitchen hasn't got repainted and maybe it wont for a while. there are other rooms worth photographing but they're just not put together yet, like i want them to be.

i love having the rusty dog around. he is so funny. my favorite is how excited he gets when i get home from work and his little tail is wagging so fast that it makes his whole body move.

we didn't decorate for christmas and we didn't get a tree. so sad.

i'm really diggin this this this and this

we are going to CA for christmas. i am very excited to see my entire family. haven't seen them all together in a long time.

my favorite part about christmas with my fam... the homemade gifts. it is so much fun and i am very much looking forward to it.

i spoke in church last week. glad that's over with.

i love my job and my co workers, they are the best. like a second family, they are.

from one of my favorite books: "Mostly tonight I feel sort of lost and alone, like now I am up on a windy hill and looking toward a new direction where the wind never blew before. I am afraid to leave all that I know, nothing familiar will be nearby to keep me going. I will have to stand on the hill alone."

i got new contacts a couple weeks ago and now i can see. i also got a prescription for some glasses. i am deciding between these or these. thoughts?

i hear ya loud and clear man

life has been just a tad busy. i can't recall the last time i was this busy. i really haven't had much time to do anything besides work and think about/pack for our move.

i love my job (and my co-workers... they are amazing and funny) and i have been putting in some long hours lately. we had a very involved and large event this weekend (fri and sat) that i played a big part in. we had about 375 students go out into the community and provide service at over 20 organizations. the past few weeks have been insane trying to prepare everything for the event this weekend but now it's over, which means, time for blogging.

we closed on our house in gilbert and went straight to work (mostly E working on it because i was so busy at work) on turning it into what we envisioned. E knocked out the soffit thing (in the family room) and the bar/window thing (between the family room/kitchen). then we had the walls patched and textured. then the tile got installed and the painting starts today.

to see before pics scroll down a couple posts

we still have a handful of things to finish like replacing faucets, a new kitchen sink, some new lighting and knobs on the kitchen cabinets. and of course i can't wait to decorate some more after we get settled in (don't you think a nice big flat screen tv would look awesome on that new wall... i can dream right).

we have renters moving into our tempe place on the 29th. so we have to be out by the 28th... this thursday. that's scary because i haven't really packed anything. but i'm sure it will all work out just great. we are so excited to move into this house. it's awesome and we love it.

one bad & one good

this morning i took a pregnancy test... it was negative.
there is pretty much no chance of us getting pregnant naturally. but somehow almost every month i still think i'm pregnant... which results in me taking a pregnancy test, which results in a big fat negative, which results in me having a really bad day because i'm so upset that 1) i was stupid enough to take the stupid pregnancy test and 2) i'm not pregnant.

i started my new job at chandler-gilbert community college yesterday and i am so happy with it. it was busy and exhausting but it was awesome. the office is fantastic and the people are fantastic. it reminds me of when i worked at U of R and that's good because that's what i've been searching for ever since we left CA. it's gonna be good and i need some good in my life right now.

first things first

the jasper house is under contract and in escrow. we are so excited. like seriously, this is the best possible thing that could've happened for us. if everything goes accordingly, escrow will close september 17th.

i got a new job. we are so excited. like seriously, this is the best possible thing that could've happened for us. i start working in the student life department at chandler-gilbert community college on august 30th.

we got the signed contract on the house AND i got the job offer on the same day, within 30 minutes of each other. we were joking that i should've taken a pregnancy test and it probably would've been positive. no luck on that front yet.

two thursday thoughts

oh how i love you thursday. you are my new favorite day of the week {well ok, you are still in competition with friday, but it is a close call}. you see thursday now signals the end of my work week. i have 3 day weekends, every weekend now. the work week is a little harder because being at my desk for so long is quite exhausting {whoever thought that sitting at a desk could be exhausting}. but the fact that i only have to be at the desk 4 days instead of 5 is awesomely great. on this day today, the end of my first week working this new schedule, i feel excited. excited to spend tomorrow {a weekday} with E. and even more excited that the day after that will be saturday. but come monday i know i will feel a little down because working 10 hours on a monday should be considered cruel and unusual punishment. so for the next 12 weeks i will be in this roller coaster of exhaustion and excitement. mondays will be bad but thursdays will be great. so goes the life of summer working.

i am so irritated with lost. every one just keeps dying... everyone is dead except for like 4 people. i mean come on. it was like they decided that a character's story line didn't fit in with their ending, so they got killed by the smoke monster/locke/man in black. and that was that. i was mad when richard died in this weeks episode. i really liked him. he was a part of the show for so long and then all of the sudden, he's just gone with no explanation. this seasons episodes have been decent but reflecting over the past six years of this show, i decided it's just a crazy show. i don't think all the questions introduced will ever be answered. and the 2 hour series finale on sunday has a lot of explaining to do, to get a positive opinion out of me at the end of it. i am hopeful that there will be some closure and glad that the show will be over for good.

steve's new friend, amanda

Remember Steve... I gave him to Amanda, my student worker, for her graduation gift. She loves him, which makes me happy!

Here we are on graduation day. I will miss my student worker {turned friend} as we both pursue different paths in life.

















Everyone in the office keeps telling us we could be sisters. I see that we have similar features, but I really don't see the resemblance... isn't that funny. What do you think?

elfing and a raffle

We had our University Holiday Luncheon on Tuesday. I made all these Elf costumes for the event. We also did a toy drive together with the luncheon, which means that each employee that attends the luncheon has to bring a toy to donate for their admittance to the event. A co-worker in my office heads up the toy drive, which means I got to help. It is so neat to see how many great toys get donated to a good cause. It is inspiring. The luncheon was fun and the food was amazing. Plus I got paid for eating and visiting for 3 hours and that never hurts.

To top it off, there is a raffle at the end. They raffle off about 50 gifts (were talking good stuff too) donated by people and departments throughout campus. My name got called, I was a winner. Do you want to know what I won... 2 park hopper tickets to Disneyland/California Adventure. I was so excited that I jumped out of my seat. Yes, I love winning things!

Eric and I have been talking about going to Disneyland for a while... ok, I have been talking about going on my birthday and I've been trying to convince Eric to come. He is not a fan, I think mostly because it is expensive and not his first choice of activity. But now he has to go, he has no excuse, because we're getting in FREE! I'll let you know how he likes it.

halloween, part 2

There was some talk that I needed to produce some pictures to prove that I wore my costume to work. The proof is in the pictures...

















Yes, I am pretty much the only person that dressed up. But you know, life is more fun this way.

Sport Court

I just finished this court that I thought was pretty cool. It was at a vacation home in Lake Arrowhead.

She works hard for the money

I went to lunch with my boss yesterday and had my 6 month work evaluation. I am happy to say it went extremely well!

My boss got all teary eyed when he was telling me how much he appreciated me. He kept telling me that I was such a blessing to the office and that he will do everything and anything to keep me happy so that I will stay forever.

It is great to have a job you love. On top of that, it's even better when the people you work for/work with love you & appreciate you more than you thought possible.

busy

where to begin...

These first pictures are of our new apartment empty. I took these before we flew back to Utah to get the rest of our stuff.

We flew back, picked up the truck and started packing. Anne (my sister in law) was awesome. She picked up dinner for us Sunday and Monday night and she helped me pack up a ton of stuff, thanks Anne! Andrew was convinced that he was going to ride in the back of the truck and come to California with us. He told Anne that she could come pick him up later. He is so cute, we already miss him tons!

We made it to our place Tuesday night. We unloaded about half the truck on our own when we got there. Then Wednesday morning my parents met us at our place and helped us unload the rest. The place was a mess after we got everything in it. Remember the size of the condo we were living in, it was huge. We moved into a 1 bedroom 650 sq ft. apartment. Needless to say, all of our stuff isn't really fitting.
















This is the apartment today. We have almost everything unpacked. We are still trying to make everything fit into any place we can find. Its a work in progress. We love the apartment though. We have used the pool, hot tub and gym and can't wait to use the tennis court.












This beautiful place is only 10 minutes away! Living in Utah means you usually have a Temple quite close. But moving to California I thought for sure we would have to drive a ways to get to one. So we are extremely blessed to have one so close. I am excited.

I got the job at the University of Redlands. I started working this past Thursday. It was so crazy because we barley unpacked the truck on Wednesday and then I went to work Thursday morning. I have been pretty exhausted lately, it has been a long week. I am so excited about this job though. It is such a great environment and the people are awesome. I'm the administrative assistant for the assistant registrar and so far i LOVE it. The first picture is of the building I work in, The Administration Building. It is the oldest building on campus and very beautiful. The last picture is of the view from my desk, it is gorgeous.

The weather here is exactly what we were looking for... warm. It is so fun here. In the few days we have been here, we have grown to love this great city. We went to "Market Night" on Thursday night; every Thursday night they close state street and sell produce, flowers, hats, food, treats, bread, socks, jewelry. We've also eaten at some great little restaurants. There is downtown Redlands (which is older) and it is boutiquey and eclectic. Then there is the newly developed part of Redlands which has Target and a bunch of other well known stores/restaurants. We are right in the middle of the two and it is awesome.

This has been a trying & stressful week but I am happy & life is good. I feel extremely blessed.

This post is dedicated to Loni

Eric and I are house sitting/babysitting a family this week while their parents are on vacation. It is day 5 of 8 and to be honest, I am not enjoying it. Which makes me depressed because I really hope that raising a family isn't this miserable.

I interviewed for a job at the University of Redlands. The interview was hard, the hardest one I've ever had. But what da ya know, I got a second interview. I really hope I get this job, I really want it and I think I would really enjoy it. Even though secretly I don't want to work at all.

I am super baby hungry at the moment. I watch the baby shows on TLC every chance I get and I always end up crying sometime during the show. I want to get pregnant.

I want to cut my hair short. But I am too afraid to actually go through with it.

I am so excited to move and finally be settled into a routine again, even if it does involve working 40 hours a week. I am getting tired of being in a different place every couple weeks. I never thought I'd get tired of it.
I am nervous about trying to make new friends(the old ones are so great) and I am nervous about being in a new ward(although I am sure it will be 10 times better than the old one). Change is so exciting and hard but its just what I need.