Unfortunate Events

Firstly, let's check in to see how my mother's day flowers are doing:

Huh. Apparently they need sunlight and water. Let's hope my kids fare better.

For many months now, we have been having neighbor trouble. One of our neighbors smokes all the time, and the walls here are thin enough that the smell permeates our apartment and makes it reek. Well, one day when Jordan was here visiting, he mentioned the smoke smell and we told him that our neighbor smokes cigarettes all the time, to which Jordan responded "That's not cigarettes that's pot." Greaaaaaaat. For awhile, I didn't really want to do anything about it because I was afraid if we reported him, the druggie neighbor would come kill us in revenge. But, eventually, we couldn't take it anymore. So we talked to management. And the security patrol of our building. They all told us that they would keep an eye on it, but there's pretty much nothing they could do. So we figured we could live with it for the next few months, and then move out when our contract was up at the end of July. Then, one day, the smell was so incredibly bad that I couldn't take it anymore. We called management one last time, they told us one last time that they couldn't do anything, and then I took drastic measures. I called the police to see if there was anything that could be done. They said they would send out a cop. Of course, by the time he got here, the smell was already gone. But he also said there wasn't much he could do either (which makes me wonder why they even bothered sending anyone out and didn't just tell me that on the phone...). But he was a really nice guy, and stayed and talked to us a bit. He asked how long we have been here, and we told him we moved in last August. He asked how much longer we had until our conract was up, and we told him at the end of July. And then he told us to move out of here as soon as we could. Apparently, the cops are here all the time. Apartment break-ins, car break-ins, wild parties, and drug dealers. He said one time the police were in hot pursuit of a guy, and he ran back here into his apartment. When the police got in there were piles of marijuana and cocaine all over the place. The cop even said he and his wife lived here when they first got married, but they moved out after a month because of how bad it was. And that was 20 years ago. Needless to say, we went out as soon as the cop left and bought this:

The cop also mentioned that because we are in the very back and on the third floor, that has probably helped to keep us safer. We definitely feel like Heavenly Father has been watching out for us and protecting us. We have felt like Stonehedge was the right place for us to live at the time, but we also feel like that time is definitely up. It wasn't hard to make the decision to get out of here when our contract is ended.

This began a strong apartment-hunting effort. The problem with Salt Lake City is that if you want to live somewhere safe, you've got to pay for it. There are nice apartments in better areas, but they are quite expensive. This was discouraging for awhile. But we now have 3 different options, and just hope that one of them works out!

But let's end with a more positive image: Josh enjoying a dinner of chicken cordon bleu.

Future Mother's Day

This was my first Mother's Day as a Sadie (married lady)! Even though I am not a mother, I feel like getting married has gotten me one step closer, so figured I may as well be celebrated as a future mother! They gave me the flowers in church and everything (I remember wanting a flower so bad when I was little). I ended up with 2 because someone brought me one AND Josh brought me one, and Josh forgot to put his back. But I love how much fresh flowers brighten up the apartment.

Josh, however, was not aware that I was hoping for a Future Mother's Day. So he didn't have anything for me...but he ended up having something for me the very next day! I don't know what made him catch on. Maybe it was the fact that during sacrament meeting when the speakers talked about recognizing and appreciating all the women and mothers in Zion, I would shake my head mournfully and say "not ALL the mother's in Zion."

Anyway, he figured it out. And he brought me my most favorite candy in the world, Reese's, and the movie Pinocchio!

Pinocchio might seem like an odd present for someone my age, but it was perfect for me! For the past few years, I have been trying to collect all the classic Disney movies. I was absolutely obsessed with Disney growing up, and to be honest, I still am. So I want all my kids to grow up watching and loving these movies, too. The collection is really coming along!

I still need Alice in Wonderland, The Jungle Book, and Toy Story...and probably a few others that I can't think of right now. And yes, that IS a Chinese Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Now I know to read the fine print on eBay...

Anyway, Happy Mother's Day to all! And a special Happy Mother's Day to my own Mom, who is also my best friend. I'm so grateful to her for being there for me through thick and thin, all through growing up, and even now that I'm an adult! I couldn't have asked for a better mom, and I know she'll be an awesome Nonnie one day when I have kids.

Also, a special Happy Mother's Day to Josh's mom, who has been absolutely incredible and accepted me as one of her own. I can't thank her enough for raising such an amazing son! She'll also be a fabulous Grandma to our future children.

New Couch Cushions

The last time my mom was in town to visit, we decided that the apartment could use a little more color. I have been going with a color scheme of sage green and chocolate brown, so I thought it would be nice to throw in some yellow and a coral pink. If you've ever been in my parents house, that color scheme might sound incredibly familiar. But what can I say? My mom has great taste.

Since Josh and I have been married, we've been trying to slowly collect more and more stuff to make our little apartment more home-y, and have come along way from when we first got married. Now that we have more colors, I'm trying to get things that will help tie in those colors. I thought more couch cushions to go with the chocolate brown ones that I already have would be a great way to do that. The problem was, I have been looking for new couch cushions for months and haven't been able to find any that I like. So finally I decided that I could just make them, and then they would be exactly what I wanted.

This brought in a new set of problems. The first was that I had a really hard time finding fabric that had my colors and had a pattern that I liked. After some searching, I decided to just get different fabrics in my different colors and put them together. Eventually, I was able to get what I needed from a combination of Wal-Mart, Hancock Fabrics, and JoAnn's.

The next problem: I don't have a sewing maching. And I couldn't borrow Lindsey's because they were moving. I thought of maybe using the fabric adhesives that you can buy, but I wasn't sure if that would be strong enough to hold a couch cushion together for a long period of time. So my only option was to hand-sew them.

The problem with that? Despite the fact that I have a mom who designed, sewed, and sold children's clothing, I don't exactly have a lot of experiece with the craft.

I ended up accidentally sewing the pillow to my pants who knows how many times. I'm sure Josh was getting pretty worried about how they were going to turn out.

I was making 3 pillows total: 2 identical 12x12 pillows, and one smaller 12x16. I started with the 12x12s because I thought they would be easier to begin with. And the first one turned out surprisingly well; it at least gave me enough confidence to keep forging ahead.

The middle cushion was going to be trickier, because it had a lot more details. I had to make little fabric flowers to go on it, and sew lace to the fabric before I could sew all of the fabric to the edging.

I think the flowers are my favorite part.

You can tell that they are handmade and not the best craftmanship, but it was fun to do, and we like how they turned out. They really brighten up the apartment.

Dad's Visit to Utah

Recently, Dad was able to fly out from South Carolina and come see us all here in Utah! It's always so great when he can come out for a visit, and we were able to do a lot of fun things while he was here!

He came out not long after his birthday, so we had a little party for him on the night that he got here. The Bells, Jordan, and Kaitlyn all came up from Provo and Lindsey and I cooked a Mexican dinner for everyone. We had a fun time talking and catching up and, as always, Kenzie was great entertainment.

Lindsey has been teaching herself cake decorating recently, and so she made Dad his birthday cake. And, I have to say, it is pretty much the most adorable cake I have ever seen. Dad loves Star Wars, so Lindsey used that as inspiration and created this Yoda masterpiece.

Love it.

One of the main reasons Dad came out was because Nick was graduating with his master's degree in electrical engineering, and all of the graduation ceremonies were that week. We are all so proud of him! We were able to watch him go across the stage and get his diploma, and then went to an awesome graduation party that Lindsey put together that evening.

The only sad part was that just a few days after, Lindsey, Nick, and Makenzie moved to Arizona. We are so happy for them that Nick found such a great job, but we miss them already. But we had a great time during Dad's visit, and can't wait for the next time he comes! Mom is hopefully coming at the end of May, so that's the next fun visit we have to look forward to!