One week down!

So i made it through my first week in St George! I wish i could say that i made it through the whole week all by myself but i didnt... I lasted a WHOLE 3 days before i called crying for Chad to come down (i just love that guy). So being the awesome husband that he is, he came! He had a couple of days off so he was able to sneak away.

I think the whole being away from each other for 5 months is going to turn into 2 months... But we are trying to work out all the details. We will decide this weekend. My sister and her family need to go to springville this weekend so i am just gonna catch a ride with them so i can see chad again for a couple of days!

All in all i think we are going to LOVE St George!!! Its gonna be a fun place to live :)... And im excited to see what the future holds for us!

Finally FINISHED!!!

Anyone who knows my husband know that he is a DIE HARD Nintendo fan, he loves to collect pretty much anything NES (that he can afford)... It really is cute and dorky all at the same time! He's got almost 400 NES games and i cant even put a number on all of the other games that he has. Lets just say me being the wonderful wife that i am ;) let him have his OWN room for all of his collection. I dont mind this hobby because it reminds him of his childhood, and it was a happy memory and so i support it 100%...

Anyhow as i was perusing on pinterest (which i do all too often) i came across a sweet Mario Brothers blanket! I looked closer and realized that this particular blanket had been crocheted. I wanted to make the blanket for chad for his Christmas gift and i just didnt have time to teach myself the stitch so i decided to quilt it. Well i hadnt done that before either but i thought that was totally more doable then crocheting.

So i jumped on facebook to enlist the help (and brains) of my dear sweet niece Corinne. She was JUST as excited as i was. She used her mad math skills to carefully calculate every little square we would need. How many yards of each color and all that fun stuff that i just did not have the patience for :)...

So off i went to the fabric store to pick up all of the supplies! I picked corinne up and we got right to work. We nearly finished the front of the quilt that day! I was so excited all of these little colored squares were finally forming Mario!!! It was super cool! Well i just couldnt contain myself with all of this excitement i begged (and pleaded) for chad to come look at the blanket for almost 2 hours. It was a week before christmas and truly i wanted to have him wake up on christmas morning and open this sweet gift and just love it! But me being the buzz kill that i am would not allow that moment to happen. So chad caved and came and looked at the blanket (just the top). He LOVED it and thought it was the coolest thing ever. But i ruined christmas :(... Nah its was awesome!!!

Anyhow since i had already showed him what his christmas gift was going to be i kind of lost the drive to get it done BEFORE christmas. So the holiday came and went and the poor top of the mario blanket sat so lonely like in my little craft bag :(

UNTIL tonight. I figured ok i am moving this weekend i need to get this blanket done before then. So i headed back to the fabric store and bought the rest of the supplies. And happily i can say its FINISHED!!! Its a little smaller than i wanted it to be but i doubt he will use it, im sure he will display it in his game room, which i am totally fine with!

So here is it in all of its Mario Brothers glory! Keep in my this is my first attempt at quilting. the squares didnt exactly line up (but hey mario is 8bit so it works) so i had to tie it instead of actually quilting so that part looks a tad goody, But i am proud none the less...

Sunny St George Here I come!!!

Chad and i have always wanted to move out of the area. St George has always been appealing, but we figured we would cross that bridge once chad was done with school in a few more years! Well i uess we crossed that bridge sooner than that because we are now moving to St George! My brother in law offered me a job working in his chiropractic office! Its super exciting and i am up for the new adventure!

Sadly my dear sweet husband had to stay back in springville to finish out the rest of the semester and the rest of our lease. So he wont be moving to St George until June :(... Its gonna be super hard, but i am determined that it is the right thing and a good step for us and our little family! Luckily he was 5 days off every 3 weeks so he will be able to come hang out in St George during those days! Also i hope to get back up to see him at least once a month! We definitely will cherish the times that we do have together!

Chad will transfer to Dixie for fall semester and finish out his degree there... So here we are on our new little journey, excited for our future, and trying to get through the next 5 months living 4 hours apart :(... You may "see" me venting on here throughout that time... I will try not to complain (publicly) so much. I know there are so many other ppl who have it worse...

In other news my Sweet Niece Corinne left to serve and LDS mission in Korea. I just cant even express how proud i am of her. She is such a sweet determined girl! Ever since shes been gone (monday) i just cant help but get choked up when i see her picture or read her moms (my sister in law Heidi's) blog. I just know she is going to change lifes, she is such a great example!

Oh and other super exciting news----- I am going to be a GREAT AUNTIE!!! My other sweet little niece mallory is expecting her first baby in may! She is having a little bebe girl which means she is going to be spoiled! Ive got lots of little girl things i cant wait to make for her!

So there is my update! 2012 is going to be perfect in more ways that 1!!!

Our latest project!

Now that we have a few refinishing projects under our belt, we are attempting to create something from scratch! I am particularly excited for this project, primarily because it should be a true test of our abilities. We have steadily stepped up our fabricating skills with each project, and I think we are ready for this. Our intention is to build a hallway table, one that doesn't take up too much space, yet remains functional. Our search has ended up fruitless so far, at least as far as finding an already built piece.

So, without further adieu, here is the beginning of our latest!

Here you can see we simply glued and screwed together two boards side by side. Next, I ripped a third down the middle, and using some 45 degree

cuts, made a border around the two. This proved to be a little more challenging than I expected. The overall length of the top is fifty eight inches, and the depth is about twelve inches. I have always heard: Measure twice, cut once.. Well, it turns out I always end up doing the opposite! I

must have cut those 45's a dozen times!

Here is an overview of the length, which is still in very unfinished condition. More of that later!

After letting the glue dry a bit, we brought it in to start mocking up where we wanted to place it when its done.

Our end goal with this is to have a nice little shelf that we can place some pictures on, have a few little drawers to keep odd things, and a bottom shelf to place a few baskets for other things! More pictures to follow as we make more progress!

We brought it back in for the night, and doing a little more inside work. The drawer shelf is almost ready. We had to make a few extra cross pieces, which proved to be a little more difficult than expected.

Here is the back side of the table. We need to put in some stops in the back to keep them from falling out. Also on the to do list: Bottom shelf, molding around the top, the drawer fronts and moldings.

Here is the molding attached to the top surface. The edges are all lined up flush and sanded. This we purchased from our local Sunrock, a more small town version of Home Depot. I love the vibe of this store!

This is the result of many, many hours of sanding! The bottom shelf was made from ripped 2x4. The drawer faces are also done, created from bead board and molding, just like the ones from our end tables. We used some cute handles purchased from Sunrock.

Some small cross braces were added to help guide the drawers in and out.

We spent a lot of time evening out the seams in between boards on the top surface. This thing is awaiting primer! Its in the home stretch, and we couldn't be happier!

This is the base color, Behr Saffron Strands in a flat satin finish. It is a pretty intense color by itself, but we will mute it a little with stain.

Here is an up close of the drawer.

We applied stain, Minwax Jacobean 2750. Not yet finished is the urethane.

What an amazing weekend!

Honestly if i felt that there were words i could express so sum up what an amazing weekend we had, i would. Its better than i could have ever asked for. The love and support we felt this weekend has been amazing and we are SO grateful to everyone who shared it with us.

To start it off i have to tell you a little back story. Friday night was a normal friday night. Chad worked, i stayed home. It was payday for both of us so i went about paying bills and the first thing i did was take out the 10% of our income to give to our churches tithes. As a family we had gone over this and budgeted it all out. That night though i know that the adversary was working SO hard on Chad trying to change his mind about the whole baptism. In Chads head he felt there would be no way to pay all of our bills if we gave our tithes. I know from the past of the blessings that come from being a faithful tither payer but that was a faith strengthening exercise that i had to learn on my own. Chad will have to learn it to. Its hard to wrap your head around when you are pretty much living paycheck to paycheck. I expressed to chad that we need to put our faith in the lord. The paying our tithing will bring us blessings in ways we could have never imagined. That if we will be faithful we will be blessed for our actions. Then i asked chad to pray for strength and pray that he may have the faith he needs to get us through these next few weeks. I told chad to stay out in the living room, to ponder and think about it and then i went to bed. I dont know if he prayed or how long he stayed out there because i was asleep once he came to bed. But i do know that when i woke up saturday morning it was as if nothing had ever happened. He was ready to be baptized.

That night before i thought for sure i was going to have to call off the baptism. I was terrified that chad was going to let satan win, and i was sad that this all may not have happened, but like i said he woke up feeling refreshed the next morning. I dont know what it was. Maybe he just needed some rest, but i am grateful to whatever it was. My husband was baptized and i just know wonderful things are in store for our little family in the future.

The program went well. Pretty much as planned. Chad was baptized by his younger brother Cody (who really is bigger than him), Chad was so happy that his little brother was able to perform the baptism, and it was such a neat moment for them to come closer together as a family. Cody's dear sweet wife, Carina played the music for the day and it was just beautiful. Thank you both for helping the spirit be so strong there for us. We love you!

I had asked my niece who is getting ready to leave on her mission to Korea (in a couple of weeks) to speak on baptism. It was a great talk. She talked about how it is important to take upon the name of christ. How when you are baptized you are following his example and doing things for him. Pretty much you are his spokes person and its up to us to make sure that we carry on the example that christ has set for us. Well that is at least what i got from the talk, so thank you corinne.

We then asked my sister in law heidi who just happens so be one of the strongest most amazing people that i know, to give a talk on the holy ghost. One of the points in her talk was just SO appropriate for that day. She talked about how she lost her brother, and how she had comfort in knowing that he was happy now, and rejoicing. That she WILL see him again someday. I know that brought great comfort to chad because he lost him mom years ago and he cannot wait to join her in the heavens someday.

After the wonderful baptism we had a little brunch with our family and some friends. It was so nice to see everyone and to be together for this special day.

On Sunday Chad was going to be confirmed a member of the church during sacrament. He had asked the elders quorum president if he would do this. He glady preformed the ordiance and gave chad the most beautiful blessing i think that i have ever heard. I know that what he said is exactly what the lord was wanting to be said. He was so in tune and tears welled up in my eyes (and chads) hearing those amazing words and blessings from the lord. I cant pick which part of the weekend was my favorite...

Like i said i am grateful and feel so blessed that this has happened in our lifes. Many wonderful things are to come into our future and i cant wait to share them with my honey!

Here are a few pictures with some of chads family that attended the baptism.

Following in HIS example!

I guess now is the time that i can "officially" share our exciting news! My amazing, loving, handsome husband will be getting baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We are SO thrilled and excited for this new beginning in our lifes. We feel at peace with the whole decision, and my husband has been eager to learn! He is truly such a blessing in my life such a wonderful example to me. He is such a neat man and i just know he is going to be such a wonderful asset to the LDS religion.

This opportunity has also helped me to learn and grow as well. My testimony of the atonement has grown. My testimony in scripture study and Joesph Smith has grown! This is how we want to live our lifes. I want what we have to be much longer than just in this life. I want to share my eternity with the man that i love and the man that i look up to. We are excited! We cant wait to continue to learn and grow together as a couple and to become better people.

The big day will be August 20th. It will be one of the best days in our life :).

Amazingly well!!!

The title says it all!!! We are doing amazingly well right now. Here is a little recap out whats been going on and what will be going on..

We didnt end up going to Hawaii because all of the flights were booked on the way home, so the sisters and mom decided we would just pack up and go to vegas. It was fun. We enjoyed our time just hanging out... I was SO happy to be home though, i really did miss my honey :)

So once i got home i decided i really really (and i mean it this time) really need to focus on me and getting healthy. I know that alot of my problem is what it eat and how often i eat. I get so busy at work and cant take a lunch break that alot of times i dont eat or i just eat something crappy. So by time i get home i am starving and eat whatever is convenient. So its totally tricking my mind and i am storing all of the yucky foods i have been eating.

A friend of mine recently has been posting on her facebook about her weight loss. I have seen her struggle in the past and saw that she was having alot of success with what she is doing now. So i asked about it. She has been doing this health program called Visalus. I got totally interested in it. There are different kits you can buy but the one i chose for me is their 2 meal replacement shakes a day. I know I know you are probably thinking that u cant just drink shakes the rest of your life, but once i saw all the nutrients and vitamins just one shake had i really thought that i could benefit from putting good things into my body. So i have a shake for breakfast and a shake for lunch, and i eat a sensible dinner i try and eat low carb and low calorie snacks. This is SUPER easy for me since i can just drink a shake quickly at work and be done. I havent been hungry and ive got so much more engergy, it really has been an amazing experience for me. Today is the end of week 1 of the body by Vi challenge and i have already lost 2 pounds and 11 inches. It feels good to have something work and not feel like i am starving all of the time. I cant wait for next week...

Here is some other news, Chad applied for college at UVU on tuesday. Right now we are just waiting for his acceptance letter (which just takes time), but as soon as he gets that he can go ahead and register for fall classes. He is going into Elem Education and i just think that he will be the most amazing teacher. He is so patient and tender and i really think its what he is meant to do. It does make us a little nervous because he has his degree in criminal justice and just hasnt been able to find a job in that field. But i figure there will always be a demand for teachers out there, and like his grandma told us there is no such thing as waisted education.

We are coming up on our 2 year wedding anniversary. It really has gone by so fast and it just has been a blast. We truly do compliment each other. I am grateful for his patience and his love for me. I know im not the easiest person to be married to lol...

Some of our adventures for the summer will include- Squaw peak hike, lagoon, st george, vegas, camping, and many more hikes and lots of nice canyon drives, bbq's and friends :)

I will for sure keep ya'll posted about my health and weight loss. If you are interested more in what i am doing get in touch with me. I know what works for me may not work for you, but you never know until you try.