Our first major married life accomplishment

Aside from getting married itself, Brad and I have reached one of our first big married life accomplishments. Thanks to our tax return we were able to pay off our our 4Runner and officially call it "ours"....rather than Nebo Credit Union's :D Thank you, Mr. Tax Return! We were really excited to be able to do this, and to celebrate we spent a night out on the town....at least for us it was. We headed to Applebees for some good eating, strolled over to the liquidation sale at Circuit City where we purchased 2 seasons of King of Queens (our latest addiction. seriously. an addiction), made a stop at the pet store to look at the puppies (my favorite part of the night....aside from the ice cream I'm about to mention), grabbed a movie and the ice cream and headed for home to enjoy a night in comfy clothes and some good movie watching all with the weight of one less payment hanging over our heads. I insisted we take a picture of us with the newest edition to our family (the car...of course) while at the credit union so that I could scrapbook it later. Since it may be a while until I am able to find time to scrapbook, the pic can be found below (complete with ecstatic faces :).

Viva Las Vegas

For Valentine's day Brad and I decided to take a trip to St. George and Las Vegas. I hadn't been to either since my senior trip 5 years ago, and Brad hadn't been even longer to St. George. It was his first trip to Las Vegas. We packed up and left Friday morning and stayed in St. George. We had a lot of fun hanging out around town, hitting up the outlet stores, the movie theater to see "Taken", and of course...Coldstone. (Oh, how I'd do anything for Coldstone!) Brad was ecstatic to find they have an In-and-Out Burger there, and joked that we were eating there every meal....turns out we only made it there once, luckily for our waistbands. Saturday we hit the road and headed into Las Vegas.

By pure coincidence while talking to my parents a few weeks earlier we found they were going to Las Vegas for the President's Day weekend, and Brad and I mentioned we were going over Valentine's day weekend....after talking a bit we realized those holidays are the SAME weekend! So, we rolled into Las Vegas and met up with my parents to hang out in Vegas for Saturday and stayed in the hotel/casino Sam's Town, which was really nice. After hanging around the hotel for a bit, we headed down to the strip for the afternoon and Brad was far from impressed. Lots of walking, a little shopping, and a ton of weird people. I enjoy watching weird people, so I was somewhat entertained. All in all we had a great time, and it was sooo good to get away from the regular routine of our lives right now: work, school, sleep, work, school, sleep.

Somebody's Gotta Be Crazy....

Last Sunday morning a counselor in our bishopric stopped by our house before heading over to church, despite our somewhat diligent attempts to go unnoticed and unassigned at church. Our church is at 9:00am, so needless to say we weren't ready or expecting him when he stopped by at 20 mins to the hour. He said he wanted to talk to us both, but since we weren't ready yet he'd just catch up with us at church. In the bottom of my stomach I knew exactly what he was stopping by for, not only did I know he was going to extend to us a calling, I knew which calling it would be and I had had that feeling since we first moved into this ward. As we were getting ready for church, I told Brad that if they were going to call us to nursery, like I suspected they were going to, that I was going to cry. (I have never really been "exposed" to kids much, my sister was only 3 years younger than me growing up, so I never had much experience with children. And frankly, I've always just seen nursery as a 2 hour day care...not quite what I wanted to do. I'm bad, I know.) He just laughed and said if that's what it was going to be then it would be a "good experience" for us. As you can see, he had a much better attitude about this than I had.....
After sacrament meeting we met with the counselor in the bishopric. And sure enough he said, "We'd like to extend to you a calling to serve in the nursery as teachers. Would you be willing to accept this calling?" Brad's response was and enthusiastic "Yeah, I'd love to!" (which almost made me wanna slug him for being so enthusiastic) while mine was a mere "sure, I'm willing to do that." If brownie points are gained in heaven for the enthusiasm shown when accepting a calling, I'm not counting on recieving very many for this one.... :) I am glad to say though, I never did cry about it like I told Brad I was going to if this were our calling.....so, I should get some points for that, right?
Not only were we given a nursery teacher calling, which was to start the following week, we were asked to sub in the nursery that same day. Guess they wanted to get our feet wet a little bit before pushing us completely in the water. Yes, pushing. At least for me. I know Brad will be jumping in on his own head first. I'm beginning to think that someone "up there" is crazy, for putting me in the nursery. They've gotta be. But I know there is a reason I've been called to serve in that position, and I'm going to try my best to have a good attitude about it and find out what my purpose is there. My guess is that the purpose for me may be to find I'm not gonna be ready for kids anytime soon. Lol. Just kidding. But luckily I have an enthusiastic husband serving with me, and hopefully I will be able to learn from his example and willingness to serve. So, buckle up, we're in for an adventure!

As If I Don't Talk Enough During the Day.....

Lately, although it is pretty entertaining, I am feeling a little guilty for keeping Brad up at night with my sleep talking. I notice this worsens as my stress level heightens or when significant changes take place in my life. I'm guessing the reason for my most recent sleep-talking episodes is stress from work and the need/want to make some career changes. Not to mention going back to school this semester. I am pretty sure I sleep talking is regular for me, but seems to increase and become more "entertaining" as stress settles in in my life.

For example, just the other night I apparently woke (or as he says "scared") Brad out of a dead sleep kicking my legs in bed and patting my head with my hands while yelling "woo hoo!" If this wasn't so hilarious to me, I would most definitely be too embarrassed to mention it. Brad woke me up asking (although I'm pretty sure he was yelling, must've been the adrenaline from scaring the crap out of him) if I was okay, and explained to me what I had done. I had no recollection of it, what-so-ever . Yet I found it incredibly funny and probably giggled uncontrollably for the following 15-20 mins while lying in bed trying to fall back asleep. Although most of my sleep talking fits arent quite this extreme, I still manage to find something to say while sleeping that I always find funny the next morning when Brad brings it up. Don't get me wrong, it is quite entertaining, but at the same time I almost feel bad for waking Brad up with my uncontrollable mouth....as if I dont talk enough during the day, right? :D

Digital Scrapbooking

In an attempt to scrapbook our wedding photos (aside from having a photo album already), I've decided I'm going to do all of my scrapbooking digitally and then print them out to put in the scrapbook binder, rather than using all the paper materials, although I've seen so many cute paper products. So far, I've been having a blast, I've been designing my own "paper" and layouts. There are so many cool things you can do with photoshop, that making this scrapbook is getting me really excited for my attempt at a degree in graphic design. Here are a few pages I've made so far:

Ice Fishing

Over Christmas break weekend, my dad took us ice fishing up at Scofield Resevior. Neither Brad and I or my mom had ever been before, and were kind of excited to give it a try. We were suppose to meet my parents in Spanish Fork at 6:30am, meaning we'd have to wake up a little after 5:00 to get ready...needless to say, some of us were more excited than others. Brad woke up at 4:00am, tossing and turing, finally getting out of bed at quarter to 5:00 because he was so excited to go ice fishing. I couldn't help but laugh, he reminded me of a little kid who couldn't sleep waiting for Santa to arrive. (Only, he wasnt even THAT excited on Christmas itself, and this was just a fishing trip).

We headed to Scofield, which was a lot longer of a drive than any of us remembered it being, and set foot on the ice. It was freezing, especially with a cold crips wind blowing around. There were a lot more people than I had anticipated, and ice tents were set up almost mimicing little cities on the ice. My dad got a new tent last year that he was unable to use because Gary Coleman plowed into our truck making it so my dad couldnt take it fishing, so this year my mom and I got to have the pleasure of watching him put it up for the first time on the ice, with the help of Brad. It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen, and we were almost rolling in the snow laughing. They struggled and struggled with the tent, it folding in over the heads, and my mom's reply was "That tent is kicking your butt!" It truly was, and I thought I was going to die.

Once the tent was up we settled in for a good 2 hours or so of fishing, with not so much as a nibble from any fish the whole time. My mom and I had plenty of jokes about "ice holes" (yeah...we're mature) to keep us all entertained as we waited for the fish to bite, with no luck. Nevertheless, we had a great day enjoying each others company and a few laughs. Here are a few pics from our trip:

Our Christmas Tree Expedition (the novel edition)

First off, I'd like to apologize for this REALLY long post, but its mostly for journaling purposes, and for those of you who can bare to read all of it. It definitely was a memorable experience....

The past few years my parents have made it some-what of a tradition to get a tree permit and go pick and cut down our very own tree. In spirit of that tradition, Brad and I decided we wanted to do that this year as well, with it being our first Christmas together as a married couple. We had gone in years past with my parents, and always had a good time, and were excited again to go. I was in charge of getting the permits this year (which will probably be my last year of being in charge, needless to say). Thinking that it was the same area that we went to last year to cut, I got Brad & I and my parents tree permits for the Vernal area. When we received the permit and map of where we could cut a tree in the mail, we realized it was about 100 miles just to the cutting site, one way. Nevertheless we embarked on our journey to cut down our trees at 10:00am. I must mention that my recollection of our tree cutting adventure in years before was filled with lots of snow, and cold temperatures. So I bundled up, and I bundled up well, expecting the same conditions. I was decked out in 3 pairs of pants (one pair being thermals), 2 shirts, a coat, a beenie, 2 pairs of gloves and socks, and snow boots. (You'll find this attire to be a little over-kill later in the story.....) Anyways, all was well as we made our way to Price, heading out towards 9 Mile Canyon, but as we exited the freeway in Price for the turn off, we quickly found that our luck was beginning to go in another direction.

The truck began thumping and shaking pretty roughly. It felt as if it were coming from the driver's front side of the truck, where my dad had just replaced a tie-rod end. We pulled over to a gas station where my dad could take a look, and was unable to see anything wrong. With it being a Sunday, we were unable to find a shop open to take a look at the issue, and were a bit hesitant to continue on our journey with another 30-4o miles still yet to go to the cutting area. Lucky for us, there is a Walmart in Price (as much as I hate Walmart, and swear I'm never going back yet find myself there anyways, I was actually a little relieved to comee across one that day). Unable to do anyting with the truck, and not knowing exactly what the issue was to begin with, the Walmart tire shop suggested perhaps the noise and thumping was coming from a bushing, and it probably wasnt a huge deal. After a while of debating, we decided to continue on our journey to find a tree, figuring we had come that far already and wasn't turning back without some reward for our long drive. Once we hit the dirt road we could not tell the difference from the washboard road and the actual thumping of the truck. When finally arrived at our destination, 100 miles from home, we began searching for the perfect Christmas tree to take home, which was actually a little hard to do seeing how the trees in that area were not the big, full beautiful trees you find in the forest. We were in the Utah desert, not quite what I had imagined. Here is where my attire comes in to play....there was no snow. None, zero, zip,nada. The temp was at least a crisp 60 degrees or so, and I was dressed as if I were expecting the greatest snow storm of the century. Who woulda thought that there would be no snow & warm air well into December in the Utah desert?? I felt kind of dumb decked out in snow boots and a million layers, but hey, better safe than sorry right? Anyways, we found the "perfect tree" and decided to head back for home, this time going over to Duchesne and down past Strawberry resevoir and Heber expecting it to be a little be quicker with more paved road than dirt.

We were some-what right, yet it still took us forever to get home. Once we hit pavement we realized the truck was still thumping, especially when we would turn left. The max. speed we could travel was 50 mph, and if my dad went 1 mile per hour over we experienced intense shaking and I'm pretty sure at least some point during our trip home we each feared for our lives at least once. Making jokes and poking fun at our situation, we continued on our way at a mere 50 miles per hour....at 4:00pm with 100 miles to go still til we get home. Once we hit Starvation Resevoir or so my dad, in the midst of our joke making, said "Yeah, but this (meaning our situation and trip) is what makes memories!" and at that very moment the passenger front tire blew out veering us onto the shoulder of the road (and nearly scaring the crap out of my mom. literally). After calming down a bit, my dad and Brad began working on putting the spare tire on the truck only to find the spare was flat, and all we had to pump it up with was a little 250 psi pump, which took about a half an hour to inflate the tire itself. Upon changing the blown out tire and heading for home...again, we found that the shaking and thumping had stopped and all the while we had just been driving on a bad tire. We were so lucky that the blow out happened where it did, as we had driven at least 80 miles on a bad tire. We finally made it home about 8:00pm with our trees, 10 hours and 200 miles on the truck later, and lots of memories. Needless to say, I wont be in charge of picking the area to cut trees again, and we definitely wont forget our 2008 Christmas tree adventure.