Making a House a Home

Well, I am feeling a little under the weather, so not wanting to infect others, or to make this worse, I am home today. I took a nap, but then I got hungry, so I made a grilled cheese sandwich. Mmmm. It was yummy. But then I wasn't hungry anymore, and now I am bored, so I thought "Why not update the blog!"

The last time I posted was before we signed on our house, so this is a little timeline of the events since. You will quickly realize why I was so anxious to move. This is what our apartment looked like (to some extent) for exactly 1 month.

This is the hallway upstairs. Those boxes are probably shoes and purses. :)

Who needs a kitchen table when you can sit on the floor?

Oh wait, what floor?



We loved living in that ward. The people were so wonderful, and the price was too perfect! I will miss my very first garden. Here are some freshly picked Sun Sugar tomatoes. (yes, they are supposed to be orange) They were delicious!

Finally, Aug 26th arrived, and we signed on our house!! Thanks Critchfield, for working with us!! We have a house!!!!

Our first Sunday in the new ward, we made some awesome friends! They have had us over for dinner countless times since we started attending this ward, which was before we moved in! They helped us pack and load the moving truck. We are so glad you guys are our friends!! This is Nancy and the lovely cake she made me for my birthday! It got a little crushed in transport...it has character!! Thanks again for the exclusive party. It was so fun! (now back to work!)

After a few days of mad unpacking/cleaning/whatever, we headed down to St. George for my birthday to see Aida at Tuacahn. We had such a FUN time!! This is Radames and...I forget his name. :( sorry! But dude, you were amazing!!!!!

We stayed through Sunday, so we attended the Deaf ward with the Perkins, a family from my mission (who, obviously, moved to St. George). We love you!!

Well, we had to come home, back to reality. This is my mom, taking a break. ("Please don't make me move this couch again. Let's wait 'til Matt get's home, ok?")

We had to use KILZ paint in the basement. It "kills" the smell and bacteria, so we used a ton of it! This is Cutie Pants Matt painting the food storage room. Notice the hole in the wall? That used to be a coal chute!! Awesome, huh? Isn't Matt so cute?

This is my papa gearing up to fix this silly mess. The previous tenants decided to tear down this corner wall, exposing the brick, and a big fat mess. You'll notice we had to take the cupboards down to do the job right.

Dad's "Amy" smile

A job well done. Thanks, Daddy!!!

Matt's dad spent Saturday putting up our rain gutters. Doesn't it look lovely? Thanks Brad!!

My mom helped me get organized on Friday and Saturday morning, as well as decorate. We'll call this "fun with the label-maker".



I swear this was clean the other day! This has been the working space for all our projects.

After 1 1/2 months, this room finally feels complete.

This is my cute mat.
(I am so excited to use this! I bought it at the post-holiday sale last year)

This is my cute Matt.
(Picture hanging in our hallway)


I love this wall! It's my favorite place. It's what you see when first walk in. Thanks mom and Janna for helping me decorate! I am so happy with how everything turned out.

Matt's bobble-head collection.

Thanks again to all who have helped us so much, especially our parents! We are so excited to be in our very own house. We would love to have you over!

I WANT MY FREAKIN HOUSE.

MORE BIG NEWS!!!!!!!!!

NOT PREGNANT. BUUUUUT...I passed 4 out of the 5 things that I need for my level 2!! I know that many people don't know about interpreter testing, but 4 out of 5 is AWESOME!!! Hooray!!! Only 1 more thing to pass, and I am officially level 2!! WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok, that's all!

Big Announcement

Hello everyone! Well, you've all been waiting for big news. I get questions about it all the time. "When are you going to add a few more feet to your family?" "Is that extra room for a baaaaaaby?" "Seriously, cut the crap. When are you gonna have kids" (Thank you Jason Hall). Well, we have thought about it. Thought and thought. Thought till we thought our thoughts would come back to haunt us. And now we have a solution.
We bought a house!!! So someday when we actually DO have a baby, we can put the aforementioned "children" in one of the 3 bedrooms, because we are expanding to just over 1900 sq ft. HAH! We are so excited to have a house. Everything "should be done" by the end of the month, and we will be leaving the apartment world forever. We have been so blessed to have lived here in our $500/mo apt, but Obama offered us money, and we are taking it! Here are some pictures...

This is what we will wake up to every morning.... Hello sunshine!

The fireplace. So cozy! (Don't worry, we hate the rock, too)

Hello cutie pants Matt!!

HELLLLLOOOOOO DISHWASHER!!!

Front room from the fireplace

We hope you will come visit our home! Our home that is a house. And ours. :) In only 360 payments...it will be ours. Hooray!!
Ps. It's in Provo.

I have a reason...

But I just wanted to say this right now: "Vintage" is NOT all the old crap that your parents had in the 70's (that is covered in some form of "gold", orange, or those clocks that look like the sun with bounteous rays of love) that no one wants anymore, but you want to sell it on Craigslist to make a buck and label it "vintage" so it will be seen. That stuff is crap. CRAP. And no one wants it.
:)

Bloggin down the weight

Hi everyone! Just letting you know that I have started a new blog in addition to this one. The address is amysfitnessblog.blogspot.com. The purpose of this blog is for me to track my daily progress toward my goal of losing weight, eating healthy, and exercising regularly. I was so inspired by another blog I saw that was created for the same purpose, that I decided to make my own. Anyway, check it out.

San Francisco

Last week was UVU's Spring Break so we decided to head out from sunny Utah to sunny California. We had a blast. One of Amy's best friends lives in San Francisco so we stayed with them. It was so much fun. They did a great job of showing us the city, making sure we ate good food and keeping us entertained. As you will see in the pictures below we saw a lot of sites and altogether did a ton. We couldn't have asked for better weather.

Of course we saw the Golden Gate Bridge. We even drove across it! Twice!

We took a trip to the infamous Alcatraz

"Itty bitty living space"

This is Amy and her friend Loni with Downtown San Francisco in the background

This is a square of toilet paper from one of the bathrooms in San Fran. Like I said we were very entertained.
Mmmmm! Ghirardelli Square was YUMMY!

This is Danny, Loni and little Jaxson. Our fearless and devoted tour guides.

They were awesome!Amy confessed her undying love for me in the beach... That is until the tide comes up :(

We enjoyed the artistic Palace of Fine Arts

Too much of this and we'll have a Full House before we know it.

It was such a treat to go to the temple where my parents were married.

It wasn't until after the sun had set and the lights were on could we see why they "really" call it the Golden Gate Bridge

It was definitely worth the 29 hours in a car across lonely deserts and snowy passes... but next time, we're flying!

Thanks Danny, Loni and Jaxson!

If you want to see a few more pictures of our trip to San Francisco, check our Danny and Loni's blog

The Latest House in the hunt

So while looking in Lehi one day we decided that we should also look in American Fork. We realized that whether or not we were East or West of the freeway didn't change travel time. We found this house pretty quick and both really liked it.