Moving, Our First Anniversary, and a Mission Call

Josh and I are now mostly moved in to our new place. We still need to bring over our computer desk and most of the stuff on it. We are going to pick up the last of this stuff today when Josh gets done at work, and then we will also have to scrub the apartment so that they don't try to charge us a cleaning fee.

So far, we love our new place. It has newer cabinets and counters, floors, and instead of obnoxious pot-smoking neighbors, we get to be with family! It's fun for us to be able to just run upstairs and visit the Stayners for a little while. Often, we even get little visitors from upstairs coming down here, too! Jameson and Samantha love to come play. As you can tell, Samantha finds me absolutely fascinating.

One of the drawbacks of our new place is that the door is super small. So small that our new dream couch that we are in love with and only bought in just December can't fit through the door. So we are couchless. We found seating to make do for now, but somehow it's just not the same.

Yes, we have gone from a tan, microfiber, pillowy beauty that matched everything to these. One navy and one red camping chair. It's probably pretty obvious who sits on which one. (And if it's not obvious, just think of my Alma Mater and Josh's current school. And if it's still not obvious, then just let it go). The brown cushions don't look quite as nice on them as they did on the couch...

Sunday was our first anniversary! In some ways I can't believe it's already been a year, and in other ways it seems like it's been longer. All I know is that I am the luckiest girl in the world! I'm pretty sure Josh is the only guy who could ever put up with me. But he is the sweetest, patientest, most loving, kind, hard-working, generous, fun, selfless husband ever,and he's ridiculously good looking to boot! It's been a wonderful first year! We've had 2 moves, job changes, a couple of trips, a new couch, a new car, 1 hospital visit, lots of visitors, and countless good times.

Since our anniversary fell on Sunday, the celebrations were more low-key. After church, I came home and made Josh a dinner of beef stew on rice and pasta salad.

Through-out the day we'd look at the clock and say things like "Right now, a year ago, we were on our way to the temple" or "we were at our reception." It was so fun to be able to look back and remember the day.

After dinner, we took a walk around our new neighborhood for a little while. Then, later that night, we joined the Stayners at J.L.'s mom's house for some light post-pioneer day fireworks. Jameson was scared of the bigger fireworks, so we stuck mostly to the fountains. It was so cute to watch them pick out a firework and then get all excited about watching it.

When we got home, we exchanged our gifts.

Josh has really been wanting the Indiana Jones movies, so I got those for him. He really loves Indy. One time, we were stuck in a huge crowd and he all of the sudden grabbed my hand and started singing the Indiana Jones theme while he charged ahead to find a route through.

Josh's present for me was way better than mine for him. When we were first looking for rings when we were getting engaged, we had found a wedding band that I loved with my engagement ring, and we were going to get it but decided later on that it would probably be more responsible just to save that money since we were just getting started and would be having a lot of expenses come up. So Josh went back and got me this ring for our anniversary!

I tried to take a close up of it, but my camera stinks...which gives me and idea for next year's present...But anyway, I absolutely love my ring, and I'm so excited about it!

The next day was what we called "anniversary observed." We baby-sat Samantha and Jameson while Janalynne and Liam went to the doctor, and then we headed down to Provo. Jordan's fiance, Kaitlyn, gets free 7 Peaks Water Park passes from her work and she was nice enough to give us one. We picked the pass up from her, and then headed to the water park. We got there, gave them our pass and paid for the other ticket, picked a spot for all of our stuff, and then headed to our first water slide. When it was just a few people away from our turn, they shut down the park because they spotted lightening. Then there was tons of lightening in the sky...it didn't look too promising that this was a storm that was just going to blow over. We went to an office worker and begged for some passes for another day. Despite my pleadings that we hadn't even touched water yet, had been there only 15 minutes, it was our anniversary, and that the entry fee was a lot of money for us to spend, she refused. I was livid. So we found some shelter and decided to try to wait the storm out, even though it looked like it was going to last awhile. Fortunately, however, it cleared up after about 45 minutes and the park re-opened. A ton of people had left, so the lines for the slides weren't bad at all. The only bad part was that it was still over cast, so it was pretty cold. After about an hour and a half, we had done all the rides that we wanted to and decided to leave. We ran back to Josh's grandma's house and showered, and then went out to dinner at one of my most favorite restaurants of all time: Carrabbas.

I mentioned that it was our anniversary in hopes of free stuff (I know, I'm shameless), and our waitress did not disappoint. Dessert of vanilla ice cream with caramel and some kind of pecan deliciousness on the top, on the house!

It was a wonderful first anniversary!


Today, I woke up to a phone call from my little brother, Riley, saying that they were expecting his mission call to come in the mail that day and to be ready to Skype at 7:00 that night while he opened it. Just a couple of hours later, I got another call from Riley saying that his call did come, waiting until 7:00 just wasn't going to happen, and that he was going to open it right then. My computer doesn't have a built-in web camera, Josh wasn't home with his computer that does, and I don't know how to work my attachable one, so I listened on speaker phone while he opened it. He is going to the Portland Oregon mission! We are all really excited...he wanted to go state-side and he got his wish! And Oregon is a beautiful state...my brother-in-law is from there (and actually, he guessed that was where Riley would go!). So, while Riley is on his mission, there is a good chance that the Bells will go there to visit their family, and they will be only minutes from Riley! We are all so excited and so proud of him. He reports to the MTC on October 13!

Let Freedom Ring!

Josh and I had an incredible 4th of July week! It all kicked off when Lindsey, Nick, and Makenzie came in town to visit. They were here for a Bell family reunion, so we didn't get to see them too much during the day, but it was so fun to get to hang out for a little while every night! We haven't seen them since they moved to Arizona at the end of April, so we were really excited. But, as seems to be the motif lately, tragedy stuck. Lindsey was sick with the flu when they first got here. Then Nick was hit with strep throat and Makenzie got strep throat and a double ear infection (guess maybe I should have cleaned up what looks like black mold growing up our wall?...kidding). The saddest thing ever was that poor little Makenzie would be so thirsty and ask for water, but would scream after one sip because it hurt her to swallow.

Since the 4th of July fell on a Sunday this year, we celebrated on the 3rd. I had to go into work for about an hour and then we headed over to LDS Hospital to see our new nephew, Liam! He's so cute and tiny! Poor Janalynne had to have an emergency C-Section. This is making for a slower recovery, but she is doing well.

After leaving the hospital, we headed down to Provo. We grabbed a bite to eat at Taco Bell and then had some frozen yogurt.

Then we parked at Josh's Grandma's house and walked over to BYU's football Stadium for the Stadium of Fire! Our seats were on the opposite end of the stadium from the stage, so it was great that we got to see the stage head-on and not from a weird angle.

It was PACKED!

They had Carrie Underwood come out and sing the national anthem. Everyone was going crazy because we weren't expecting to see her until later in the show. It was the BEST I have ever heard the national anthem sung. And when she sang "the rockets red glare" they shot off red fireworks. Then, right when she finished the last note, 4 fighter jets flew over the stadium. How do they time that???

They did a lot of fun things for the program. A bunch of local young dancers came out on the field dressed in red, white, and blue and put on a pretty good show.

Then, they did the world's largest Eagle's Nest for the Boy Scouts. They had all the Eagle Scouts in the crowd stand up and hold a picture of the eagle symbol that was in the center-fold of the program.

Next was the moment Josh and I had been waiting for: the Carrie Underwood concert! She is my all-time favorite singer; this was the second time I have seen her in concert, and her voice has blown me away both times. She really does sound just as good live as she does on her CD! She kicked it off with one of her current hits, "Cowboy Casanova." She sang a lot of my favorites, like "All-American Girl", "Wasted", and "Temporary Home." I can't even express how fun it was to be there! Here is a picture of me and Josh with Carrie (she's the little dot way in the back drowning in bright lights...)

Carrie wrapped up the concert by singing "Before He Cheats" and then (though we all begged for an encore) it was time for the Stadium of Fire fireworks, which were unbelievable! Seriously as good as Disney World.

And while they were shooting off, the dancers came back out onto the field and made a giant outline of the USA. This looked awesome, but it got scary because they shot some fireworks out of the side of the stadium and some stray ones bolted right for the crowd of girls, which was terrifying.

When it was all over, Josh and I began the long walk back to our car. We were really lucky, because it didn't get cold when it got dark. Perfect weather! When we made it to Josh's Grandma's house, some of his cousins, his aunt, uncle, and sister were there, so we stayed and talked for a little while before making the drive back to Salt Lake.

The next morning (which was the actual 4th of July) was church, so we tried to dress a little festive.

While we were at church, the Bell's had to leave. But they left us behind a "thank you" in the form of a ColdStone gift card!

Thanks, Lindsey, Nick, and Makenzie! The ice cream was delicious.

Meanwhile, in South Carolina, my brother, Jordan, proposed to his girlfriend, Kaitlyn! She came to South Carolina to visit, and he popped the question while they were out walking on the beach. She was completely surprised, because Jordan had convinced her that he didn't want to get engaged until after the summer was over. They will be getting married in December of this year!

The week following the 4th of July, I went over to Janalynne's a couple of times to help out with the kids. Because of the C-section, she's not supposed to go up stairs, lift anything heavy, bend over too much, etc...which is pretty much impossible when you have 3 kids and are trying to keep a household going. Then Josh had a great idea...we were supposed to move into their basement apartment at the end of July anyway...why not just move in now so we could help Janalynne out while she recovers? She readily agreed, and now our apartment looks like this:

We took a load of stuff over yesterday, and we'll be taking over another load today when Josh gets back from work. Hopefully, we will be in by the end of the week. We are so excited to be in our new place!

Future Father's Day

This past Sunday we got to celebrate Father's Day! The day kicked off with me getting to give the Young Women's lesson on Father's Blessings (how appropriate).

Josh got roped into singing with two other guys in sacrament meeting. And I say "roped" because they literally asked him ONE hour before sacrament to sing with them. But he did awesome! He really does have an amazing voice. And, of course, at the end of church they handed out the "father's day gift", which was homemade white chocolate covered cashews.

Then, when we got home, I got to give Josh his Father's Day Gift from me!

And he got...

A capo for his guitar! He has taken up playing guitar again lately and loves it! But some of the songs he wants to play needed the capo, and Father's Day was the perfect opportunity to surprise him with it.

So Happy Future Father's Day to Josh! I know he's going to be a wonderful Dad when the time comes.

Also, Happy Father's Day to my own Dad! My hero and the smartest guy I know. Growing up, he always had a ton on his plate, what with running the resort and being stake president. But he was always, ALWAYS there for me, no matter how long his day or how exhausted he might be, whether I needed him to help me with math homework or just to play games or watch movies. Thanks for everything, Dad, I love you!

And Happy Father's Day to my Father-in-law! He has to be a super dad to successfully raise 11 kids! And if it weren't for him, I wouldn't have my amazing husband. He taught Josh to work hard and encouraged him to go on a mission. Lots of Josh's great qualities can be attributed to him. Thanks, Fred!

Roller Coaster Ride

The past couple of weeks have been a bit of a roller coaster ride of emotions. First, as I mentioned before, was all the stress of trying to find a new apartment that was safe and affordable. Josh and I had decided that we were going to move to Foothill Place apartments. We looked it up and saw that it had 27 times less crime than Stonehedge (literally...in the same amount of time that Stonehedge had 27 crimes, Foothill Place had 1, according to crimereports.com). So we were really excited that we found somewhere safe to live. The problem? It was going to be almost $200 more a month. But we decided that you can't put a price on safety. It was the weekend, and Monday was Memorial Day, so we were planning to go in and put down the deposit on Tuesday. That Sunday, however, we ran over to Janalynne and J.L.'s to pick something up for Josh's parents. While we were there, they mentioned that the current renter of their basement apartment was moving out and they were looking for a new tenant. Josh and I immediately felt that a door was opening up for us. Here, Josh would still be able to take the bus to work and we would be paying $40 less a month than we are paying now (or about $240 less than the place we were planning to move to)! Our contract in Stonehedge isn't up until the end of July, but Janalynne and J.L. were willing to hold it for us until then. We are so excited! It will be so fun to live so close to family...and save money!

Josh also got to go hiking with his friend and co-worker, Everett, on Mt. Olympus. They didn't go all the way to the top, because Everett wasn't feeling very well that day, but they had a great time.

Then, just a few days ago, I was making dinner because Jordan and his girlfriend, Kaitlyn, were driving up from Provo and we were going to have FHE with them. I was talking to my sister, Lindsey, on the phone while I was cutting potatoes into strips to make potato wedges. All of the sudden, the knife slipped and tore into my skin between my index finger and thumb. All I could do was scream and cry as the blood began to flow. Lindsey later said she thought I was being murdered because the only words she could make out in my hysterics were "knife!" and "blood!" (What can I say, I have a low pain thresh-hold). I was home alone, and Josh was at work. And he didn't have a car, because he takes the bus. I tried to run the gash under water, but that just made the blood flow harder and the gash sting worse. So I held a wadded up paper towel over it. Once Lindsey managed to figure out what was going on, she hung up the phone to call for help. I called Josh and his boss immediately began closing up shop so he could bring Josh to get me and take me to the emergency room. They ran out to his boss's car, and the battery was dead. So they started looking for a jump. In the meantime, I got a phone call from my Dad because Lindsey had called him and told him what happened. While Lindsey was talking to him, Mom was talking to Jordan, so they relayed the message to Jordan (who at that point was thankfully about 10 minutes away) to hurry and help me. When Jordan got here, we all jumped in the car and were able to go to the hospital. Josh and his boss got a jump for the car, and ended up being only about 10 minutes behind us.

So of course a long wait in the waiting room followed. Eventually, we decided Jordan and Kaitlyn could go back to the apartment and finish making dinner because we'd all be hungry. Josh stayed with me at the hospital. First, they had to give me a Tetanus shot because I couldn't remember the last time I had one. Then it came time for the numbing. They jabbed a shot of numbing stuff directly into my laceration like 15 times and it hurt SO bad! But better than being able to feel it while they stitched me up, which came next.

Here is the cut pre-stitching:

Here is me, tragically waiting for help:

And Josh looking concerned (or slightly amused...):

After the numbing shots took effect, the doctor began stitching. It was such a weird sensation to see someone sewing your skin together, and even feeling the pulling of the needle (or rather, little hooky thing...) and not feel any pain! After 5 stitches, my cut was completely sewn up and the bleeding finally stopped. (I don't have the best camera, so it's really hard to see the stitches in the picture.) Jordan and Kaitlyn were so nice and helpful! They had come to my rescue and taken me to the hospital, and when Josh and I got back, dinner was all ready.

So, now my hand is on the mend! I have to put a grocery bag over it when I shower, but I suppose there are worse things.

The very next day, I had to go to Girl's Camp for my Young Women's calling. We drove out to East Canyon in the morning, set up the tents, and hung out while everyone else settled in. The very first night was our turn to make dinner for the stake. The camp director, Jenny, is an expert dutch-oven-cooker, so she took the reins and helped to teach us. We made barbeque chicken, cheesy potatoes, and three different kinds of cobbler (which was my favorite!). Not longer after dinner, I headed back home because we were way out in the middle of nowhere and I didn't want to drive the scary mountain death roads after dark.

And that's not even all that's been going on, but that's enough for now! I'll end this entry by showing you what happens when your husband gets a hold of your camera:

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.