I-DA-SNOW

Well, we've officially been here, in Rexburg, Idaho, for one week now. It's starting to feel more like "home" now....or should I say, more like I know I'm not going back to Arizona, and this is not a vacation :)






(we took this picture tonight, on our way back from checking out the progress of the house...it was snowing when I took this!)



But I like Rexburg, in it's small, quaint little town way. It's slower here. Literally. The speed limit is usually around 25 miles per hour, 35 when we are lucky. And when it's snowing (like today) you go about 10 miles per hour slower than the posted speed! At night, they have Christmas lights lit up going down Main Street. You don't see things like this, or as pretty as these ones, down in the Valley of the Sun.

(this picture is the start of Main Street coming IN to town...but the lights aren't turned on for the night yet...it was only 4:30 p.m....and all the snow makes it look even MORE small townish than it is....I guess it's about 40,000 people right now. We have Walmart, Applebee's, JB's, Frontier Pies, Taco Bell, Taco Time, Arctic Circle...who has the best fries EVER, and the best Fry Sauce to go with them!....Pizza Hut, Dominoes, McDonalds, Sonic, Dairy Queen, Subway, Gandolfo's, Burger King, Walgreens, Cold Stone, Wingers, Bajio, The REX Movie Theater, Kmart, local chinese and mexican restaurants, Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, Papa Murphy's Pizza-Take & Bake, and ALL the banks you could possibly want)








The people....they are SERIOUSLY what make this small town so great. Everyone is so nice. People offer to help you with things like moving, or for you to use their snow scraper on your car :) They are very welcoming at church, and you feel at home, even when they know we will be moving in 3 months, once the house is done being built. For example...someone just knocked on Ryan's mom's door....it was two men from our church coming to help Ryan move our couch into our new apartment. Ryan didn't even call to have them come over! They just showed up, willing and able. That is nice. I t's neat (there's a word I picked up from Ryan over the last year) cause the two couples that live above our apartment are both in our ward. Both of them have really cute babies that we love to watch at church :)


(this is a picture of snow flakes on my car window today)




Two days after we got to Rexburg, we had our first snowfall. Mom and Dad had driven with Ryan and me up to Rexburg to pull a small U-Haul trailer for us with all of our stuff in it (which was a HUGE help to us, and we really appreciated). Mom called me Monday morning, before they were getting ready to come over to our hotel and say goodbye, and asked me,"What's that white stuff outside?". I had told her the night before that I had jumped up that morning out of bed to look out the window to see if there was snow (which there wasn't). I just anticipated it now that we were in "snow country". I had forgotten all about looking out the window that next morning until Mom "surprised" me with snow :) It was fun to see, and exciting since it was only the second time in my life that I had actually SEEN snow fall (the first being in San Antonio, many, many years ago....like when I was 12). I didn't drive in it at all that day cause this Arizona girl was NOT ready for it. I am too scared of sliding around. The snow started to melt a little by the end of the day, but remnants of the first "real" snowfall for the city of Rexburg were left on the ground in peoples yards for the rest of the week. I was so grateful that it waited until after we had gotten moved in before the winter REALLY started.

(Do you SEE how deep that snow is? It was about 3 inches this morning when I took this picture outside our apartment)



Friday brought us a couple different things. The first was we got to move into our apartment! We had been living out of a hotel for a week until the apartment was ready. So that was exciting to have a place of our own. It made it feel more real that we are staying here vs. feeling like we were here on vacation, visiting Ryan's mom and staying in a hotel. SOOO nice. The apartment is bigger and better laid out than our old one in Tempe. And thankfully has a nice, BIG laundry room, cause anyone that knows me KNOWS one of the biggest messes in my house is my clothes...so I'm glad I have somewhere to wash, dry, iron, hang, and leave my dirty clothes hamper in, instead of in my bedroom. I think this will help me be more organized. Our kitchen has a LOT more shelf and counter space...it's lovely. I already had the whole thing decorated the first night we moved in! I was THAT excited....


(That is our bedroom window to our apartment, with pretty trees beside it, next to the walkway to our cars...and Ryan shoveling our sidewalk after church today)








The second thing that happened on Friday was our second snowfall. AND....Pam drove in it BY HER SELF. That's right folks, I went out that night to pick up some things at Walmart during a pretty heavy snowfall. I didn't like it very much cause it was heavy, my windshield wipers didn't work too well (I need some new ones that don't just smear it around) and it was DARK outside, so I couldn't see the street turnoffs or lane markers. But, I made it home safe and sound. Ryan had me drive out to the house today, and I experienced my first sliding experiences while driving, but nothing bad :)

Friday's snowfall seems to have brought snow on for the winter! It snowed yesterday and today as well....and they are expecting snow all week except for maybe Friday or something like that. AHHHH. When we got up and went to church this morning it was 2 degrees outside! It is SO cold. Our windows get frozen shut on our cars so we have to open our doors when going through a drive thru :) We bought our own ice scrapers/snow brushes for our cars, as well as a small shovel to keep in our cars for emergencies, in case we ever have to dig our cars out :) I can't believe I'm even having this conversation.....



(This is Ryan brushing off my car, and then a picture of my Escape this morning before church)

The snow is beautiful, I will give you that. But it definitely is going to wreck havoc on my Arizona wardrobe. I'm going to have to find a whole new fashion sense out here that is snow friendly. My heels won't work out here very often...

I absolutely LOVE the trees they have here. I'm partial to these kind of "pine" trees, and various other trees that we don't have in Arizona. Seeing them change color for the winter is fabulous.

(These are some trees outside of our apartment)

(And a red tree that I found down Main Street....I love these red trees)

I had a job interview with BYU-Idaho over the phone with the Human Resource lady last Wednesday. It went really well, but she said it will probably take about 2 to 3 weeks until I hear back from them on a formal interview. She told me not to lose sleep over it....it takes a while for this kind of stuff to go through the education system, not to mention it's Christmas time. I'm hoping to hear back from them. It's as an Office Assistant for the Counseling department (like the Psychologists, not counseling for students registering for classes). I'm really excited about this position, because my ultimate desire is to get a degree in Psychology, and become a counselor for women in the church. I can't think of a better job for me than this, to prepare me for what I want to do as a career later in my life. They have seminars and stuff all the time, that I would help prepare for with the Counselors. They just did one a few weeks ago where they had some well known guest speakers come in and give seminars to the students on Eating Disorders. This kind of stuff gets me excited....cross your fingers, and say a little prayer for me. I would love it if I got this job. The HR lady told me I was a top candidate for the position. She was very impressed with my resume and all my experience, and wanted to know if I would be ok with the salary they were offering (wasn't bad for coming out here with no debt and a lower cost of living...$25,400...definitely a lot lower than what I WAS making, but this position is something I really love, and that makes it all worth it!), as well as wondered what was making me switch professions. She remembered me from an application I turned in to her about 3 weeks ago (she said I was a top candidate that time as well), but since I was still living in Arizona, they didn't follow through with me on that job, but now that I'm in Rexburg, she said she hopes to talk to me again soon. Sounded like she was pleased with our interview. I hope so...

The house started getting built more quickly this week, as the builder is wanting to get it completely built up outside, so they can work indoors during the winter snow. They had to wait for the trusses to come, so it stopped the last few days, and when we went out there to look at it this afternoon, it looks like they didn't get the roof on as hoped. And it also looks like they will be doing a LOT of sweeping tomorrow to get the snow out of the house :) They are estimating a February completion date. Only one more move....thank goodness. I'm tired of rotating boxes around.

(And here's a picture of our neighborhood to the North of our house)

My saving grace this week was driving into Idaho Falls two times to go clothes shopping at the mall out there. Idaho Falls is about 25 minutes from Rexburg, and is a fairly big city. It's nice to drive there when you need a little bit of the city feel :) The mall is just like the malls we had in Arizona....at least the older malls in Arizona, like Fiesta Mall :) It has Macy's, Penney's, Sears, Dillards, and all the other normal clothes stores in the mall. I got some GREAT deals at J.C. Penney's Friday night.

We have plans to drive to Ryan's aunt's house in Boise, ID for Christmas. We are leaving the Monday before (I think Dec. 22) and coming home the day after. That will be fun to see what Boise is all about.

(This is Ryan too chicken to get out of the car in the cold weather while I looked at the house)

And the last big thing I will leave you all with is..............dun dun dun..........no, I'm not pregnant. BUT, Ryan and I are celebrating our 1 year anniversary tomorrow (15th)! HOLY SMOKES! I can't believe it's already been a year. It's been a good year. If they say that the first year is the hardest, we should have smooth sailing ahead! It's been fun to get to know Ryan better this year, and for the man he is. Every day just gets better and better, and we had the opportunity to have some really neat talks on our drive up to Idaho that I wouldn't trade for anything....having a chance to dig deeper into ourselves and really let the other person in. It's a fun experience. Hopefully, in this next year if we are so blessed, we might be able to continue on with our learning experiences by adding another little body to our family. I've got to find me a job and some insurance first though. But you all will be informed of any such events when they transpire :) Here's to all my girlfriends who didn't think I would last a full year of resisting the urge to have a baby....neener neener. :)

I miss and love you all....and my warm Arizona!

Love,

Pam

California Dreamin' with a CPAP

AHHHH!!!! Someone slow the time down, please! There are officially 40 days left until Idaho. I'm getting into countdown mode, and trying to make sure we have everything in place. And yes, that includes anxiety medication! I started taking Zoloft again a few weeks ago to help with the anxiety/depression and also to keep me calm during this move, and in learning a new job and dealing with all the changes out in Idaho. It's helped me a lot. I haven't had any panic attacks for several weeks now.

The anxiety medication also helped cause I had to have ALL 4 of my wisdom teeth removed a week ago! I wasn't really nervous for the procedure, but more for the IV :) Everything went great though...they gave me a IV anesthetic, but didn't put me out all the way since I have sleep apnea, so I was awake during the whole thing (although drugged up enough that all I really remember is him telling me he was done! I don't remember him being in my mouth at all!). He also gave me a local anesthetic in my mouth to numb it up. The only incident we had was when they called Ryan in to the room to get me, and they started explaining to him how to change my gauze in my mouth, he got REALLY dizzy :) He said he started thinking about HIS experience with getting his teeth removed, and remembered all the blood that came out when he went to change his gauze...the thought made him weak in the knees! He told the nurses he didn't feel so good, so they took him to the other room. As he was headed for a chair, he blacked out and fell to his knees right in front of the chair. He came to quickly, and was trying to remember what he was doing...."oh yeah, I was going to sit in the chair". :) I was in the other room all by myself as all the nurses rushed in there with him. I heard them yell out for the doctor, but didn't know what was going on. The nurses came back in with me and asked me who was going to drive us both home now :) They gave Ryan a Slim-Fast Shake, and eventually he made it back into my room, a little more embarrassed :) Poor Ryan. But we got home, and he helped me all weekend with getting my prescriptions filled, buying me food and juice, and helping take my medicine, etc. He was a great help...I love him. My recovery was pretty easy...a swollen face, and some pain in my jaw, but nothing horrible. It was all very tolerable. Overall, I don't know why I put it off so long...I always envision things being worse than they really are. How could I complain about this situation? I had good drugs, a cute doctor, no pain, hardly any blood, and no infections afterward. That was a successful procedure :)



The other inquired about topic by some of you....how goes it with my CPAP? Well....as you know, the first several weeks I really wanted to throw it out just to get some sleep! Here was this thing that was supposed to make you feel refreshed in the morning, but instead, I was even MORE tired from the lack of being able to sleep with something different on my face! I really was scared that it would never get better, despite most peoples warnings that it took up to a month or more to get used to it. HOWEVER, I'm so glad I didn't give up on it (I really was determined to make it work) cause I'm here to tell you that I have officially become inaugurated into the CPAP Hall of Fame. I'm a life long user. I am used to sleeping with it now, and can fall asleep right away like I used to. I sleep through the WHOLE night with it, besides one or two wake ups, but I immediately fall back to sleep. I used to wake up every other hour or so when I first started wearing it. But now, I NEED my CPAP to fall asleep and I have dreams ALL NIGHT LONG! Having Sleep Apnea, I used to always wake myself up before I got into the deep REM sleep cause I would stop breathing, so your body wakes itself up just a little bit to get oxygen again...so I hardly EVER had dreams before :) And the even BETTER part? I don't snore. That's right, Pam no longer sounds like a growling bear (per Ryan), and in return, Ryan sleeps better, too :) I now wake up, and can focus at work. I don't have the fogginess that I used to, where it took people repeating things several times for me to catch what they were saying. I feel smart and capable. AND, I don't have the overwhelming urge to come right home from work and nap! :) YAY! I can see the benefits already, and I'm told they just get better and better as time goes on. I am PRO-CPAP! It was worth the several weeks of getting used to. Yes, I even took it with us to California....they tell you to make sure you even use it for naps!

Ryan and I had the opportunity to go to San Diego, CA two weekends ago for a friends wedding in the San Diego Temple. I lucked out cause my recommend expires at the end of this month, and I had forgotten to check the expiration date! I would have felt so bad if I had missed it. It was a beautiful wedding, and a true testament of change and the happiness that can enter our lives.

Couple other incidents while we were out in Cali....the first is we almost ran out of gas on the way to San Diego. YES. Pam's WORST FEAR actually almost came true! And guess who was driving???? ME! I screwed up. Normally, on the straight drive to LA using the I-10 we can get there on one tank of gas. However, the drive to San Diego is different with more mountains to go through, using up more gas. Stupid Pam misjudged it, and as we were getting to the end of the drive, the tank was getting lower and lower. We had to stop a few times in the mountain for Border Patrol check points, and after the last check point, the gas light came on. OH CRAP! Sitting in the middle of the mountains, without civilization around. We came up to an Indian Casino, but all I saw was the casino! Ryan made a short mention of "Maybe we can get gas at the casino?" I guess as his cue to me to get off....but I looked over and just saw the casino, so I kept going. We kept driving, and I could tell Ryan was getting really nervous as he would keep making comments about "hopefully we can get somewhere without running out", etc. This just bugged me cause talking out loud about it wasn't going to solve the situation! So I would turn up the radio as my cue to him to be quiet, and told him that "I'm saying a prayer", and I meant that quite literally. I had no other option at that point other than to pray that we would get to a gas station in time, leaving it in Heavenly Fathers hands as I coasted down the mountains, trying not to use as much gas as possible. And my other option would be to deal with the running out of gas situation when and if it actually happened. It wasn't going to do me any good if I sat there and worried about it. I figured if worse came to worse, we would use one of those emergency call boxes to get help, or call 911. We weren't THAT far outside the city that someone couldn't get us help within a reasonable time, and there was plenty of traffic. Of course, I rather NOT have that situation :) I kept praying and praying, and pleading and pleading. And low and behold, a gas station appeared up a hill ahead. Ryan had gotten a little upset at me, but mostly out of fear cause he said he didn't know what he was supposed to do if we ran out of gas...so that fear put him in a defensive mode :) But he later apologized as we were back on the road with a full tank of gas (we had .2 gallons left...we were almost on fumes!), and I let him drive the rest of the way so I could have a good cry and get out my fear and anxiety from the situation! I hope that never happens again. We got gas in Yuma on the way home :)

The other thing was we went to Scripps Aquarium. It was much smaller than I remember. It was interesting to see, but I have to admit that I like the Long Beach Aquarium better....it has WAY more things to see. The weather in California is COOOLLLL. Ryan would say it was cold :) He froze the whole time we were there! The weather in Rexburg has already cooled WAAYYY down, so we are in for quite the shocking surprise when we move :)

We also went to see the movie "Express" at the theater in Cali. It's the football movie based on a true story about the first black man to get the Heisman Trophy. It was a really good movie. Highly recommended. We enjoyed it....

Lately I've become addicted to watching CSI over and over on DVD. LOVE it. I watched several episodes on our laptop to and from California in the car :) The other thing we have been watching lately (and probably will be for some time, considering how many episodes and seasons there are) is Stargate SG-1. Ryan has all of the episodes, and LOVES that show. After a lot of pleading, I finally gave in and watched some with him (I always avoided it cause I assumed it was like Star Trek). I actually like it! They have sarcasm and humor in it that I like, and the story lines are pretty good.

The other thing I'm addicted to is reading the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. It's that series about vampires written by an LDS lady. I'm on the third book, and I'm making Ryan go see the movie with me when it comes out next month :) I can't decide who I like more...Edward or Jacob. I have a feeling there are a lot more twists and turns to come as I keep reading :)

Just a BLAAAHHHHG

September! Already....

This last month just flew by! And we are already half way through this month. I have a feeling that the next 3 months we have left here in Arizona before we head out to our new adventure in Idaho are going to go by very quickly.

I don't have anything cute to share for this past month (happens when you don't have anything but a husband right now :) No cute kids to speak of, or take pictures of). But a few things happened for us.

I went to the doctor earlier this last month for chest pains. I've been having these sharp pains in my left side of my chest. After one full night of nothing but pains, I decided to go to the doctor just in case (I have high cholesterol and triglycerides, so that worried me a little). While I was there I also asked if I could go in to get a Sleep Apnea test done. I've snored ever since I can remember (at least from the age of 10...I have a rather long and thick Uvula...you know, that thing that hangs down in the back of your throat? Yeah, my siblings used to tease me that I had a long "hangy").

The first set of roomates I had, I shared a room with one of them. After several months of living there, I noticed my roomate walk in to our bedroom super early in the morning. That's when I clued in that she had been sleeping on the couch for several weeks cause my snoring was so loud she couldn't sleep. I felt SOO horribly embarrassed, and slept on the couch myself for the next several months until our lease was up. I decided at that point that I would never share a room again with roomates to avoid that embarrasment and situation. I was often teased at girls camp for snoring (I think that's one of the main reasons why I never made it past my 3rd year at girls camp...you always hated that dreaded question before the first night of,"Does anyone snore??") and have a horrible memory of being teased by my mean boy cousins when I was 12 years old when I was visiting them in California and they were sleeping in the living room with me and my sister. I woke up and heard them in the kitchen making some kind of concoction to pour down my throat while I slept since I was snoring. I looked up and one of my cousins had come out of the kitchen and was standing over me to see if I was still asleep. They ran and got back in bed when I turned and looked at him. The next night when we were getting ready for bed, one of them said,"Don't snore like a freaking pig again tonight", really rudely. Needless to say, my snoring has always embarrassed me, but it was something I could do NOTHING about. It wasn't cause I was overweight, or something that I could control. It had to do with the make up of my throat! Man, it has always been such an anxiety creator for me if I knew I had to sleep with someone in the same room that wasn't my immediate family. I always dreaded getting married cause I didn't want to have my husband hate me for keeping him up all night. Thankfully, Heavenly Father must have known this was one of my worries, cause he gave me Ryan, who is the soundest sleeper there is. But over the last several months I've thought I needed to go get checked out for Sleep Apnea cause I wake up often feeling like I had stopped breathing, and am tired ALL DAY LONG, can't focus at work, and have a hard time pulling words out of my brain when having conversations. It really affects my whole life every day.

Anyways, the doctor set me up with a Stress Test (where you have to go run on a treadmill and they take an ultrasound of your heart to see if there is any blockage) and a Sleep Apnea Test.

I went to the Stress Test first....and I'm happy to report, that my heart is as healthy as it should be. No problems there. The cardiologist sent me on my way....but it WAS cool to see the ultrasound of my heart pumping :)

Then I had my Sleep Apnea Test. I wasn't nervous going into the test, and they have the room set up like a mini hotel room. It's very nice and relaxing, except for the fact that you have about 20 electrodes hanging off of your body and head, and there is a camera in the ceiling so they can see which side of your body you are laying on during the test. Anyone who knows me knows I suffer from anxiety. And I guess the idea of being somewhere different, with the camera, and that someone was monitoring me all night long was too much. I literally slept maybe an hour the whole night. At least in that hour, they were able to tell that I had episodes of Sleep Apnea.

They requested I come back in and get tested wearing the CPAP machine (little air mask you wear while you sleep so the air keeps constant pressure going through your throat at night, which stints your throat open so it doesn't close up and you get fresh oxygen to breath). They sent me back in with an Ambien to try to help me sleep this time. I'm not sure the total number of hours I slept that time (it still felt like it wasn't a full night, but definitely more than the first time...I remember I dreamed a little). I just got the final report back from my doctor, and they did diagnose me with Obstructive Sleep Apnea, and I have to pick up my very own CPAP machine to try at home. I told Ryan he could start referring to me as an Elephant :) I'm only 29, and I'm looking at having to use this machine for the rest of my life....but if it helps give me back a quality life, I'm all for it. I just want to feel normal and not in a daze all the time. They also say that Sleep Apnea can cause anxiety, so I'm hoping that some of my anxiety might go away too...wouldn't that be nice!!! I'll let you know how it goes once I start my CPAP therapy here at home.

The other BIG news is that Ryan was officially accepted to BYU-Idaho!!! That was our final step before the big move...making sure he could actually attend! I'm proud of him and am excited to see where BYU-Idaho leads him in his future career endeavors.

We are just getting geared up for the move. I'm sure it will be here before I am ready. I need to start packing boxes and throwing things we don't need away! I still have stuff sitting at my parents house that I need to go through! EEK. Not fun. But it must be done....

Rockband 2 comes out on Sunday. Ryan is planning on running down to Best Buy first thing Monday morning to pick it up. We are excited for it, and the new songs we get to play!!! YAY!

I've been in kind of a depressive funk lately, and I'm hoping I come out of it soon. I think the move, and leaving my friends and family, is part of it. I think my medical stuff lately is another part, and being anxiety ridden about the fact that I have officially been TOLD I stop breathing while I sleep (I can't WAIT for that CPAP machine, just to stop worrying about it!). And I think the fact that I've gained 15 pounds in the last 9 months that I've been married (after staying at a decent weight for 3 years while I was single) and can't fit into any of my cute clothes anymore, and my hair color looks like crap ever since my best friend moved to Las Vegas last year....it's all just piling up. And the sad thing about depression is once you are in it, you can't do anything to fix the problems you are complaining about cause you just don't feel like doing ANYTHING! I hate this cycle. Hopefully it will pass soon...I usually get into a depressive funk a few months every year...and this is my time this year! I'm hoping to get out of it before we get out to Idaho, cause I want to start trying to have a baby soon after we get out there, but if I can't get out of this funk, I'll ask to get on some medication...and I don't want to be on that medication when I'm pregnant (they prefer you NOT to be). I think if I could motivate myself AT ALL to start exercising, that would be half of my battle. Now if I could just do that..............

Sorry, I didn't mean this post to sound negative or anything. Things are going good for us! We are getting all our debt paid off before the move, are enjoying our time together as a married couple without kids, and are both looking forward to what lies ahead for us and our family.

OH, AND we got a new calling at church as Primary Teachers for the Valient classes (age 9-12). Ryan does good teaching them about the scriptures. He had to teach all 10 of them by himself last Sunday while I was having my last Sleep Apnea Test done. I was so proud of him and how he handled it. He enjoyed teaching them.

I got to go out to lunch with two of my sisters today, Candy and Kristen. I'm trying to spend as much time with my family as possible before I move, and it was fun to go out with them. We also went and spent some money together at Target, clothes shopping! I still had some gift cards from our Wedding, so I bought myself a treat with a few new clothes. I needed them! :) We had fun together.

I'm also addicted (no pun intended) lately to that show on the A&E channel, Intervention. It's about families who are surprising their family member with an intervention for their drug or alcohol abuse, to send them to a treatment center to recover. I find it interesting to see where people come from in their lives that bring them to that point. They all have stories, and they usually are full of abuse or dysfunction. It's interesting to see how we all really have two roads we can travel in life, when dealing with hard things growing up. Some people will choose to go down one path and keep their lives going in a positive direction despite what has happened to them, while others take what was done to them and spiral out of control down the other path. I love the psychology of it all, and quite honestly, the sympathetic/compassionate side of me aches for these people who have experienced so much tragedy in their lives, and makes me yearn for their happiness and success. I want to help and save them all, but I can't. As I want to do some sort of counseling later in my life for women dealing with abuse, I am interested in learning all I can about how people end up in these situations, and figuring out what the best way to help them out of something that seems hopeless to them, keeps me watching.

That's about it for me today! I'll try to have some fun news to share later this week to off set this plain old blog :) I can't pull my creative Pam out today, but I'll do that soon!

One Word Questions

One word. That's all you can write as your answer. Can you do it? Not as easy as you might think. Change the answers to fit you and post! It's hard to only use one word answers!

1. Where is your cell phone? .................... Purse
2. Your significant other?....................... Ryan
3. Your hair?.................................... Poopy
4. Your mother? .................................Caring
5. Your father?....................................Works
6. Your favorite thing?..........................Food
7. Your dream last night?........................Interesting
8. Your favorite drink...........................Pepsi
9. Your dream/goal?..............................Mom
10. The room you're in?..........................Living
11. friends?.....................................Funny
12. Your fear?...................................Death
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years...........House
14. Where were you last night?...................Home
15. What you're not?.............................Organized
16. Muffins......................................Crumbs
17. One of your wish list items?.................Perfume
18. Where you grew up?........................... Arizona
20. What are you wearing?.......................G's
21. Your TV?.....................................Sony
22. Your pets?...................................Roaches
23. Your computer? ..............................Laptop
24. Your life?...................................Anxious
25. Your mood?...................................Tired
26. Missing someone?.............................Jen
27. Your car?....................................Useful
28. Something you're not wearing?................hmmm....
29. Favorite Store?..............................Clothes
30. Your summer?.................................Hot
31. Like someone?...............................Yes
32. Your favorite color?.........................Brown
33. Last time you laughed........................Today
34. Last time you cried?......................Saturday

Winning Streak

So this last weekend proved good for me...

My good friend, Tera, that used to work with me before she ran off and had twins, invited me and Ryan over Friday night so I could play with her and her Bunco group (Ryan hung out with her husband, Jeff, and had fun of his own by going out with Jeff and buying a really expensive video game without talking to me first ;). It was her turn to host Bunco night, so she thought she could invite me :) I've never played Bunco before, but heard it was a lot of fun. All these women seem to get addicted to their Bunco groups. I figured why not give it a try? It's a dice game, sorta like Yahtzee, where you each take turns rolling dice and you get points if you roll the right number (this is a very condensed description :) Anyways, about 12 women showed up (all married, and most with children)...and Tera, I must add, was a gracious host and supplied dinner for everyone (yummy Chicken Enchiladas) and homemade guacamole and bean dip...YUM! The first round of playing I had NO idea what was happening. I trusted my teammate to keep track if I was supposed to keep rolling or not, and if I got points :) Finally, after a few rounds, I quickly caught on (it's quite easy, but VERY fun...it also has to do with the sociality of it all, that makes it so enjoyable). And guess what???!!! I WON! That's right...I had the most wins at the end of the night (see attached proof) and as the winner, I got this lovely crystal bowl from Tera! WOOHOO!

I loved the Bunco group idea so much, that I hope when I move to Idaho I either get a group started on my own, or find a group to join! It's so much fun to get together with a group of friends and play games!

ALSO, the other big win in my life....last night, Ryan and I went bowling down at Apache Lanes for our Family Home Evening together. Generally, Ryan and I both suck at bowling. It's not our best sport. Our night bowling is usually spent down the "Walk of Shame" (you know, that really embarrassed/defeated walk back to your seat when you roll gutter ball after gutter ball, and you have to pass all of your friends? That's the Walk of Shame). We decided to play 3 games together. The first two games stayed true to who we are...and that sure ain't bowlers! I broke 100 on the second game, and Ryan came up at 60. Well, something must have changed in the air, cause on the 3rd game, miracles started happening. Yes. Miracles. I'm up first....and I start off with a BANG! It was a STRIKE! Then my second bowl....another STRIKE! WHAT IS GOING ON??? Third bowl....you guessed it....A TURKEY! STRIKE! Amazing! Of course by the 4th bowl, I had to take a break, and didn't get the strike...5th bowl...STRIKE! This went on TWO MORE TIMES! I got 6 strikes total! AND a spare! 7 out of 10 aint bad folks! I had already hit 100 points on my 4th frame, and by the end of the game I got a 186! Holy cow...that's nearly 200! Ryan was in utter disbelief (as was I). I kicked everyone's butt that was playing around us...it was awesome :) I think Ryan being the man, took a hit to his ego a little bit, and the Walk of Shame seemed a little more painful for him in my glory...but he was a good sport as we left the building and he told me how good I did and that he was proud of me :) I have to journal this event, cause heaven knows it might not ever happen again :) Truly amazing.

Nothing much else new going on...we got a letter in the mail today from Ryan's old employer. When Ryan quit his job his boss didn't process his paper work, so Ryan got automatic deposits into our bank account on two paydays AFTER he quit. I finally had Ryan call down there and tell them what was going on so they would stop. But we still had his paychecks in our bank account, and obviously had to return the money ($2050!). We were smart enough not to spend it when it got deposited, so we cut a check and sent it back. They sent us a letter today saying they received our payment, were very appreciative of us taking the initiative to send the money back, and ended it by saying how Ryan's honesty was "admirable". That was a nice end to our day. Trust me, saying goodbye to $2000 to a couple getting ready to move to Idaho and are trying to save as much money as they can, wasn't the easiest...but it was the right choice...I couldn't have lived with myself knowing we had money that didn't belong to us.

Anyways, I'm off to make Spaghetti. Ryan called a few hours ago saying it sounded really good, and wanted me to make it and bring it down to him at work for dinner...he tends to get wrapped up in his computer game he plays before work, and doesn't eat. I'm sure he's starving by now! At least Spaghetti is something I can't really ruin, can I?

Garage living....

So, while I was home for lunch last Monday, Ryan's mom called and told us about her final plans. She is going to build this house (only probably not so much of the wood on the inside walls) and build on the attached three car garage with an apartment above it, for us to live in. The garage will be attached to the back of the house where the mechanial room and cedar shower and tub are, and our apartment will be above that, next to where the loft is. We can either go in and out through the garage (our own private access...she's building stairs through the garage, which will be nice in the winter) or through the door in the loft. She's also going to have the gazebo out front more swung around on the side of the house, and she is putting a hot tub on the gazebo! YAY! She thinks the grandkinds will like the little "Bonco" area below the loft, where they can read books in their own little nook.

We thought this was a great idea for her, first off, because it is a TON LESS than building an UNFINISHED basement for us to live in. And she will have an extra apartment that she can rent out to relatives (nieces or nephews, but the grandkids stay for free!) in the future if they want to go to BYU-Idaho...or a place for us to come stay at when we come to visit in the future, so we don't have to stay at a hotel. The only outstanding debt she'll have is her house, which she will pay off within 15 years (when she turns 65...perfect for retirement age). I thought she made a great decision to set herself up for retirement :) I think it will be a great investment for her. The builder likes the design so much that he thinks he can get away with building it in a REALLY nice subdivision, even though it will be far smaller than the other houses. He thinks the architectural integrity of the house will let them get away with building there. Which will also be a good investment for her to have the smallest house in a very prominent neighborhood. Should be easy to sell if she ever needed to.

Anyways, should be fun! She says if we start having a family while we are there, she would even switch us for the house/her in the apartment, since she has two bedrooms, and we'll just have the one bedroom in the apartment. I told her she wouldn't have to do that (it makes me feel bad!) but she said it would be plenty of space for her to live in while we finish out school there...I told her we would figure it out when the time came :) I'm alright putting any little ones in the living room for a while, while we finish up school there. We'll see what the future holds. But it's getting more exciting the more firm our plans get, like mom getting a house built! YAY!

http://www.eplans.com/craftsman_house-plans/HWEPL55632.hwx
http://www.eplans.com/traditional_house-plans/HWEPL64436.hwx

Sleep Talking

Ryan is a sound sleeper. Which is good, cause honestly, I snore...not a little bit...but A LOT. So I've always appreciated that I married Ryan cause he sleeps right through it all.

The other thing I appreciate about him is that he sleep talks. AND he's one of those who will respond right back to you. Usually he doesn't remember anything he talks about when I ask him in the morning.

Well, this morning, around 7 a.m. I wake up feeling the whole bed shaking. I look over at Ryan and see a HUGE grin on his face. Ryan is laughing hysterically in his sleep (yet completely out loud). This wasn't just a small laugh, it was a full-on hearty laugh, as if we were having a conversation and he was laughing. I decided to play with it a little bit, so I asked him what was so funny. He chuckles a little and says,"1-800-STINK!" and then busts out laughing again. :) Crack me up.

When I talked to him about it this morning, he actually remembered saying 1-800-STINK, but can't remember what in the world his dream was about. Too funny.