Catching Up and Goodbye to Mikayla

I'm a little bit behind on my blogging, so let's see if I can remember everything I wanted to blog about.

Last Saturday we spent the day doing homework and the usual stuff, and then James and Miranda invited us over for dinner! It was very thoughtful of them, and the pork chops they made were really good. Thanks, guys! We hung out for a while, and went out to get ice cream together after dinner. That was a good choice. It was like a double date.

Oh, and we found out that scheduling for that muscle experiment isn't going to work out for us, so we're not doing it anymore.

Sunday was nice. I was asked to come to church early so they could extend a calling to me. I've been asked to be a visiting teaching supervisor. So, that should be good. Hopefully I can find a way to get my district (usually 8 or 10 women) together and excited about visiting teaching. I know it's really important, but it's not like I've been perfect at it in the past. Church was nice. I spent a good part of my weekend writing a paper for my New Testament class about the Atonement, and it seemed like the things I studied went hand in hand with the lessons in Church on Sunday. Maybe that's just because it was on my mind a lot.

Mikayla flew in last night (Tuesday), so we picked her up and took her out to eat at Applebee's. She'll be heading into the MTC in about an hour! (I'm in class right now, so I've already said goodbye to her.) She has been called to serve as a full time missionary for our church for 18 months in the Las Vegas West mission. I'm really excited for her. I think she will have some amazing experiences and she'll be able to touch so many lives. She is understanding and compassionate, and she has a strong testimony. Spencer had to work for a couple hours this morning, so Mikayla and I went to iHop for some breakfast! They give a free meal to people heading into the MTC that day. It was a bit of an adventure finding it, no thanks to our GPS. We ended up on the freeway, and a lot of "recalculating" and a couple u-turns later we got there. The food was good and our waiter gave us both free hot chocolates!

We picked Spencer up from work and headed back to our apartment for a little bit. We played some mini golf (the card game, but with mini cards... get it? Mini golf? hahahahahaha). Then we skyped with Mom and Dad for a little while. Now I'm in class, and Spencer and Mikayla are going to get lunch at Zupas, then he'll drop her off at the MTC!! We'll miss her.

Hot Chocolate at iHop

Mini golf! Get it? Playing golf with mini cards. haha.

Mikayla and Abbey saying bye

Spencer and Mikayla at the MTC drop off

Pioneer Day

Wednesday was Pioneer Day, which is a real holiday out here. They have parades and fireworks and most importantly, we don't have class or work! We didn't go to any parades, but we did do some fun stuff in the evening. I don't really remember what we did for most of the day. We probably slept in, did a little homework, and lazed around or something. 

We had a very fun evening planned with the Mooney's, though! First we had dinner at a chinese restaurant called T-bones down in Springville. Do you see how much food they served us?? We had our leftovers for lunch for the next two days. 

Eryn and Kelly are a couple of my favorite people. Eryn was my visiting teacher in our old ward. I wish we could live near them forever.

After we ate we went raspberry picking!! I love berry picking. There are a number of farms in the area, and this one is in Mapleton.

Eryn and Kelly showing off their practically empty bucket.

But there really are berries in there.

Mapleton's a nice area.

Picking out our best berries.

We picked until it was getting dark, then we made our way over to the park to see some fireworks! There was a live band playing, and they were pretty good! Eryn and I went over to watch them and danced for a while. The boys stayed behind to watch our stuff. Neither of them like dancing.

It was a really fun night, and the fireworks were good. They claimed they'd be better than the Stadium of Fire, but let's be real. You can't really top those. Rumor is that some orthodontist who lives in Mapleton buys all the fireworks each year, though. Anyway, we had a great time with Eryn and Kelly, and I'm glad we went out to join in some of the Pioneer Day celebrations.

For Science!

Spencer and I have decided to be part of an experiment. The exercise science department is doing a study about how muscles recover after exercise. It sounds like the research is being applied to help understand degenerative muscular diseases, so we figured we'd join the cause. Actually, we figured we'd join the cause because there's a $200 compensation. It makes me feel better that it's also for a good cause. After all, where would science be if nobody was ever willing to be a subject? The study is 5 weeks, but three of the weeks we don't do anything, and there's only about 8 hours of time required. There are 4 muscle biopsies involved, which make me a little nervous, but they don't sound too terrible, so we signed the consent forms this morning. That biopsy needle is huge! The things we'll do for a little extra cash...

This past week was pretty busy with school work. We both had two tests and I have a paper due this morning. I spent pretty much all weekend trying to focus on my paper long enough to get something coherent down on the page. I'm not sure I ended up with anything coherent, but that's just how things go sometimes. I took my New Testament midterm on Saturday, and it went alright. I need to pay more attention to names and places for the next one, I think. The class has been really insightful though. On Saturday afternoon we went to a ward activity for our new ward. It was at a nice community waterpark up in Lindon, but the waterpark is kind of geared for kids. I think most of the ward must have known that because only like 6 couples came. Ward activities are always a little awkward when you're too new to have any friends and it didn't help that nobody we'd actually met in the ward came. Actually, my roommate from freshman and sophomore year's older sister is in my ward, so we knew them a little bit. I'm glad we went, and we had fun with each other in the lazy river, but I hate being new in a ward.

We had James our mutual friends Katie and Taylor over for dinner on Sunday. It was really fun, and AnnaMarie's sweet and sour chicken recipe was a hit. James brought some yummy brownies, too. That's about all we've been up to lately. This week will be less busy, and we get wednesday off because of Pioneer Day! Hopefully we'll go camping on Tuesday night or something. (Pioneer Day is a holiday celebrating the Mormon Pioneer heritage. It's kind of a big deal out here. They have fireworks and people do reenactments and stuff.) We'll probably go watch the fireworks with the Mooney's.

A Perfect Weekend

This last weekend was so good. I just wanted to do it all again monday morning instead of starting another week of class. On Friday after work we went camping with Josh, Katy, Carrina, Mikayla, and James. I ran to the grocery store after work to get some things, then ran home to cut the watermelon and pack all of our stuff. When Spencer got out of class I picked him up, then we picked James up, and convinced our car to drive all the way up the mountain. :-) Josh and Katy found a really nice, free spot up by squaw peak. A little after we got there, Mikayla got into town and joined us. It was beautiful up there, plus we were high enough up in the mountains that it was nice and cool at night. We had hot dogs, watermelon, and chips for dinner. It rained a little that night, but by morning it was clear again.

 No campsite is complete without a pack'n'play. There wasn't really any grass, so it was nice that they had it for Carrina. Plus, there was a random pile of old bones and a not-so-old deer leg laying around the campsite. Gross. We were sure to put all the food in the car before we went to bed so cougars and bears wouldn't come eat us.

Don't let the picture fool you. That ten is HUGE! And awesome! (Thanks Mom and Dad!) It's like a harry potter tent. It gets bigger when you get inside. Really, though, I can stand up inside. We love it.

 Spencer and James hanging out around the fire.

 Mikayla and Spencer in the morning.

Josh and Carrina

 She's adorable. In every way.

 The whole gang, minus me because I'm taking the picture. :-)

 Josh and Katy making breakfast.

This is us looking our best in the morning.

 This is more typical. 

 Nice hair, Spencer.

 Did I ever mention that I made some awesome tie dyed sheets for our sleeping bag?

Because I did. This was our first chance to use them, so I never took pictures before.

 He's so good with her.

 It's hard to tell, but she's trying to grab a plant.

 James putting out the fire, Spencer playing with Carrina, and Josh protecting his head from the flies.

















On Saturday we had some awesome breakfast burritos, enjoyed the fire, and then got everything packed up. Spencer and I went home to do our homework. I had a paper to write, and he had some chemistry. When we finished that up we went to Seven Peaks for a while. It was so packed that all we did was hang out in a pool and use the lazy river for a while. I got some good Carrina snuggles in the lazy river. She was loving the water, but tired herself right out. She fell asleep on my shoulder.

Sunday was our second week in our new ward. I met a couple girls in relief society, so that was good. After church we went to Josh and Katy's to see Mikayla before she headed back up to Idaho. She's leaving on her mission at the end of the month, so we don't have very much time left with her. We're gonna miss her a lot.

We had Bekah and Taylor Vogan over for dinner. It was really fun, and I'm so glad we had them over. We ate and played some games, then we just chatted. Until like 11:00. None of us realized that it was so late. I am wondering why we didn't do more with them when we were in our old ward. Aw, well, I guess late is better than never. But really, we didn't do much with anybody. :-) We have future plans to go out for sushi with them some weekend. That might end up being sooner than later. It was a really fun evening.

4th of July and a Dinner Party

Well, I haven't taken any pictures since we moved. I should have, but I kept leaving my camera at home. Sorry. On the 4th of July we went spent most of the day unpacking our apartment, but we squeezed a few festivities in. Well, I made Spencer go to them with me, really. We went to the parade here in Provo with Josh and Katy and Carrina. We actually just ran from our apartment. It's less than 2 miles and we didn't want to deal with traffic. In the evening we went to Katy's parent's house. Their neighborhood all gets together to do fireworks together. In Utah it is legal to buy aerial fireworks, and a couple of them got tipped over and shot off into the people sitting around. It was kinda scary. Everyone was okay, but one guy had a hole burned through his shirt. It was nice to go watch and hang out though. We didn't watch the stadium fireworks. We figured we'd be too far away for them to be very good, so we just headed home and to bed. We had class the next morning, after all.

On Friday night Dr. Wilcox (my boss) invited us over for dinner. His son, who I also work with, and daughter-in-law were also there. His wife made some really good fajitas, fruit salad, and homemade peach ice cream. It was heavenly. After dinner we played some games all together. It was a fun night, and it was so nice of them to invite us over!

That's about all that's been happening lately. We've had classes and work to keep us busy. We tried out our new ward on Sunday. It was good, but when would you ever go to church and come home saying it was terrible? :-) I want to have a couple over for dinner every Sunday so we can get to know people in this ward. Besides, if you invite people over for dinner, you'll probably start getting invited over other places. We're not the best at making friends, so I'm trying to work on it right off the bat in our new ward.

The Move

Well, we moved. It was a whirlwind. We found the apartment posted on Wednesday, so I called to set up a time to go look at it. We had looked at a few others, but none of them worked out. We went to see it on Thursday night, found out Friday afternoon that we got it, and moved in Saturday. On Thursday I packed up our textbooks just in case we got it, but we still spent ALL night Friday packing. We have so much stuff. I really can't believe it. Where does it all come from??

We went over to the new apartment Saturday morning to pay our rent and deposit and to sign the contract! The rest of the morning was spent packing everything else in our apartment and cleaning. At 2 James, Miranda, Josh, Katy, Taylor, Katie, and Kyrie all came over to help us move. It was awesome. We never could have done it without all of their help. (Taylor and Katie are in our ward and were James' friends even before that.) I felt pretty loved when everyone volunteered to help us out. I also felt kind of bad because it ended up taking like 4 hours, and everyone is too nice to say no or just leave. We did buy pizza to try to make up for stealing their entire Saturday afternoon. At least we had everything boxed up before they got there, right? Oh, yeah, and we had to pick the hottest weekend of the year, too. It was like 95 degrees.

So, we're all moved in now, except for some cleaning supplies we left over there. We have to make one more run to Deseret Industries with one of our old couches and some things tonight, and then we'll probably vacuum and sweep one final time. We like our new apartment, and it will be nice to get everything moved into place. We've been taking it one box at a time. I'll post some pictures when we're done unpacking. We'll probably spend all day on the 4th working on it since we won't have class or work.

On Saturday after we finished moving in our last boxes, we managed to find our sunday clothes and went to my cousin Courtney's wedding reception. She is Uncle Bill's daughter. It was good to see Aunt Shirley and Uncle Dave again, and to meet some of my cousins and relatives on Mom's side. I'm glad we went, even though we looked all sweaty and gross from moving.

Yesterday we had our last Sunday in the 41st ward. We'll miss it. We really enjoyed our callings there as ward temple and family history directors. It was kind of sad that we left so abruptly, but that's life sometimes. I didn't really want to move, but once we found the apartment, I got pretty excited about it. I like change. It's good. It motivates me to work harder at things I'm struggling with. Like keeping up with our dishes (We have to now. No more dishwasher.) and laundry, and getting back into running. Like keeping things more organized and actually finding a home for everything we own. Our old apartment was bigger, but it had less storage space, so some things never really had a place. I thought a lot about how lucky I am to have Spencer when we were moving. I feel so blessed to know that no matter where we move, or what changes we have to go though, we'll do it together. Change is less scary when you're not doing it alone.

We're both pretty tired from the very busy weekend, but we're happy. Now I have to go catch up on some reading I didn't get around to doing over the weekend.

Apparently We're Moving...

About a week ago we got a call from our landlord with some bad news. The city was onto him. The zoning laws in this area of Provo, which we knew nothing about when we signed our contract here a year and a half ago, say the owner cannot rent out the house to two sets of renters. Right now we are renting the basement and other people are renting the upstairs. The owner either has to be living in the house to rent part of it, or be renting the whole house to one family. In short, the way it was being rented was unlawful, and we will have to move out by August 1st. After all, we can't really afford to rent out the whole house.

We had considered renting the house with Ben and Sydney (who are having trouble finding a new place to rent because they bought a puppy), but because there are two kitchens in the house, it's not legal. It's complicated stuff, but I called the city to check, and the answer was no. So the house hunt begins.

I probably spent a good 3 hours looking at listings on KSL today while I was at work. Work has been slow lately. We checked a few places out tonight, and I'll call a few more tomorrow. One was small, dark, and too much like a basement. It was a basement, in fact, but not as finished as the one we are currently living in. The next was nice, and we filled out an application, but there were a lot of people interested in it. Unless the current renters really take pity on us for our tale of woe, we probably won't get it. The last was very nice, but too expensive with internet and utilities thrown on top of rent. It's probably the kind of place we'll want to look for when we move for medical school. Not dumpy, student housing, but nothing too fancy.

I'm not too upset about moving. To be honest, I had come across something online about zoning laws in Provo several months ago and suspected that our landlord was renting improperly. I didn't think we'd actually get booted over it, but here we are. I guess someone down the street from us called the city to report the situation. I am a little annoyed that it had to happen right when classes were starting for us. The first day of class was today, people! If we are lucky enough to get into the apartment we applied for we'll be moving out of here within a week. Yikes. It would have been great to do all of this 2 months ago when we were just working. On the bright side, it's summer time and there are plenty of apartments posted right now. We'll find something. We might find something to move into by July 1st, but most likely we'll be moving at the end of July. Right when the term gets crazy with exams and papers, most likely. :-)

I am sad to be leaving our ward, though. Spencer and I aren't really that good at making friends and being outgoing people. It takes us a while to get to know a ward and feel like we're really a part of it. We like our ward right now, and it will be sad to leave, especially with such short notice. This Sunday could be our last Sunday there!