Christmas in COLORADO!

jared and i went back to work at the USDA and worked for 2 days before taking 10 days off to spend christmas in colorado with my family! it was sooo fun and im sad the time went by so fast! now we are back in rexburg and back at work :( here are some pictures of our fun trip!

We helped my mom make gingerbread houses out of graham crackers for a little christmas party my sisters were having!

Jared was rather crafty at it! i was pretty impressed, beacuse i couldnt do it to save my life!


Our babies are gonna have pretty eyes :)

the finished product

our cute house of love equiped with a garage, car, heart shape doors, a green sour patch kid representing jared, and red sour patch kid representing brielle, and half an orange sour patch kid representing our future baby :)

jared found a new hobby.....

making wood pens!

jared showing off his pen he just made

The Loot! Santa was very kind to us this year

jared's new stocking!

my hubby and my siblings in our new christmas pajamas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! it was and early morning at our house!

There was no snow in colorado and we came home to a winter wonderland!

There is a lot of snow outside our apartment!

christmas was WONDERFUL with jared and i cant wait till we have little kids running around excited for santa to come and then watch them open thier presents i am definitly looking forward to that! like i said earlier, we are back at work at the USDA. they started working 4 10 hour shifts, so we work monday tuesday, have wednesday off, and then thursday and friday... they are VERY long and BORING days, but i cant complain because i told jared i wouldnt. plus since we are working 10 hours a day, 2 hours of that is over time so that will give us a little extra in our pay checks and hopefully we can save back up what we spent while we werent working! i cant believe tomorrow is new years eve! some friends of ours invited us to a little party with some other married couples so we will go ring in the new year with them probably just by playing fun games and eating! :) and im SOOO excited to be with jared for new years this year and get my very first ever new years kiss :) other than that, life if perfect and wonderful and i couldnt ask for anything more!!! well i could..... but jared says no :)

Sunday dinner.... and more

yesterday jared and i splurged and got a roast when we went grocery shopping. this is the second one i have made since we have been married. we let this one cook ALLL day and it just fell apart when it was time to eat! mmmmm!!!! my mashed potatoes are getting pretty darn tasty and this time i made a lot of extra so we could have left overs! i tried to make home made gravey..... but ewwww..... it did not turn out good at all! ill have to have my dad teach me when we are in colorado next week!




school finally ended on friday! YAY! this semester went by really fast! now we are off track till april. i was really stressing about finding a job here in rexburg cause the pay is very low, and we didnt think we would be able to go back to the job we were at over the summer making A LOT more than what we would make here in rexburg, but jared called and they had spots open for us in the lab! so all winter long we are gonna be looking through a microscope at dirt... bleh... although i hate the job, i am very grateful for it and hopefully we can save a lot again! one of the girls i was studying with this semester, her husband just quit his job so he was looking for another one so i gave them the information for the USDA and he applied and got the job too. i think we are gonna carpool down with him starting next year!
the snow finally found rexburg, unfortunately, so we bought new snow tires yesterday for our car... the ones with the studs on them. we figured if we are driving from rexburg to idaho falls everyday in the winter it would be a smart
and safe thing to do... pricey, but safe... there was a BIG difference! hopefully it will continue to be that way!
we have to go to work monday tuesday and wednesday this week, and then after work on wednesday we are driving down to utah and we fly out to colorado on thursday morning! i am so excited i can barely stand it! i hope the weather will cooperate and it will stop snowing so we can get there! i think this post is long enough.... hope everyone has a wonderful christmas! travel safe!!!

Happy Holidays!

jared and i started our thanksgiving break out by driving to utah on friday. my parents and sisters flew in for a cousins wedding, so we drove down to see them! it was fun! we got to go out to eat at red robin, went shopping, and saw a play at the conference center called savior of the world. other than that, we just kind of lounged around all weekend hanging out with family it was a good time. my family flew back home on sunday night and we drove back to rexburg on monday morning. i came down with a cold and didnt feel very good at all monday, tuesday, or wednesday, but luckily by turkey day everything was good! thursday when we got up we watched some of the macys thanksgiving day parade before we headed to idaho falls for thanksgiving with jareds family! we ate lots of yummy food, looked through the ads at what would be on sale the next day, watched a movie, played Wii ALLLLL day and a fun game of uno. we ended up staying in idaho falls that night so we could wake up EARLY and do the black friday shopping thing. i have never done this before in my life, and i dont think i will ever do it again... absolulty RIDICULOUS! our first stop was sears because jared wanted a cordless drill for christmas and they had one on sale with a flash light thing. jared drove by kohls, target, best buy, and the lines were long with people waiting outside. when we got to sears the line outside wasnt actually as bad as i thought it would be. we got there around 4:20 am and had to wait till 5:00am to get inside. the line got longer and longer behind us. we got into sears and picked up our drill and walked right up to the register. we were in and out in 5 minutes. i thought to myself... okay this could be fun :) we decided to go our seperate ways so we could christmas shop for each other, so jared dropped me off at kohls.... BIG MISTAKE! i got him 2 things there and stood in line for almost 1 1/2 hours! it was crazy!!! luckily there was a very nice older lady who i stood in line with and we talked most of the time. all she had to buy was a little jewelry box her granddaughter wanted. at one point she left her jewelry box with me and made her way over to target and toys r us, and came back empty handed, she said the lines there were just as long, and she was hoping i would be farther up in line by the time she got back... oh well, she was such a sweet old lady, and i would have been in a very bad mood for having to stand in line for 1.5 hours if i didnt stand next to her. when we finally made it to the check out, she said, "well, this has been fun talking to you! Merry Christmas!" she made my day :) while i was standing in line at kohls jared made his way to best buy, downeast, kmart, walmart, circut city, and the mall. he didnt buy things at every stop, but he still made it farther than i did! after he picked me up we decided we were hungry so we headed back to his parents house for breakfast and a nap! we decided to go back at around 9:30 and i definitly had much better luck this time around. i found some really good deals! we ended up staying BELOW our budget we had made for christmas! YAY! we came home and wrapped each others presents and set them under our cute tiny little christmas tree! it looks like santa already hit our house this year! :) call us crazy (i guess call ME crazy since i wanted to put our christmas tree up so early) but i figured since we are going to colorado for christmas, we can enjoy our christmas tree now! hopefully next year we might be in a bigger apartment and we can get a bigger tree, but i think for now ours works. i am so excited for christmas this year mostly beacuse its my first christmas married to jared! i could care less what i get for christmas this year, im more excited to see him open the presents i got him! i guess thats how parents feel when they see thier kids open presents on christmas day, and they are not to worried about opening theirs. i think we are gonna call the USDA (where we worked in the summer) just to see if there is any way we could go back. as much as i hate the job it would be nice becuase we could drive there together, and it pays 11.34/hr. we will see though...*crossing fingers* now its time to get started on homework. bummer.... blogging is so much more fun

Procrastinating

i dont really have any exciting news to talk about, but i just really dont want to do, or think about school right now! there is only about 3 weeks left of school and i cant WAIT for the semester to be done! i have enjoyed all of my classes this semester and i think the grades i have have been the best ever, but im ready for a break... i think jared is feelin the same way. which brings us to our next predicament... since we both have next semester off... where to work in rexburg idaho? jared told me today when he picked me up from school that one of the alarm companies works during the winter semester, so maybe he should look into that. we would have to move to where ever they want us, but i guess some people can make pretty good money... so anyways... just a thought, he'll look more into it and then we can decide what to do. other news... i have hated trying to come up with something for dinner everynight, so i finally sat down and made up a dinner menu, so now we have dinner planned out everynight for the whole month and i LOVE it! it makes my night so much easier! jared and i went and bought everything we needed for the month, so hopefully we can save on groceries, and we wont end up buying "extra" things. plus im hoping to keep this habit up and then it will be a lot easier for when we have a family to feed. i've recently become obssessed with the show on TLC jon and kate plus 8... i dont know why, but i could sit and watch that show for HOURS, infact, im watching it as i type this. its a good show, and jared makes fun of me for always watching it! occasionally he'll sit and watch it with me :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Its been a long time since i last wrote, but i feel like nothing exciting has happened to write about it till now! yesterday was haloween! i havent ever been too excited about halloween since i stopped trick-or-treating, but this year we got invited to a halloween party so we thought we would dress up! our ward is a ward of brand new families, most of the couples have been married 2 or 3 years so they have little ones, so our ward had a trunk or treat night on thursday! we didnt use our real trunks cause it would be too cold for the babies out side, so we just set up tables in the gym. It was fun to see all the babies dressed up! they were SOOO cute! it made me want one so i could dress one up cute too! it was fun to see what everyone else came up with for costumes too! jared and i were Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Dr. Suess. i thought our costumes turned out rather cute! jared loved the blue hair thing! jared met a kid in his spanish class when he was going to school in idaho falls and he lives up here in rexburg with his wife and invited us to a halloween party. i was a little nervous going since we didnt know anyone but them, but it was a ton of fun and we met some really nice and fun people! we had food and played games and me and jared almost won the best couple costume, but the salt and pepper couple won instead... oh well better luck next year! we were just glad to go out and do something fun for halloween! i missed living in a nieghborhood and seeing all the trick-or-treaters though cause i like to see all the kids dressed up! anyways.... now its november 1, i cant even believe it! time has gone by so fast!!! now that halloween is over, im anxious for the holiday season to start! i want to put up my christmas tree and decorate for christmas and listen to christmas music! but i think ill wait just a little longer! other news happening up here in the burg.... we are looking for a cheap 2nd car to buy. jared and i both have next semester off and we were planning on just going back to the job we had over the summer making 11.34 an hour, but they dont have any room for us in the lab cause they have hired more people so no we are probably going to have to get 2 different jobs. im looking into substitute teaching and jared isnt sure what he is going to do. we found a cheap car on craigs list that we are gonna go look at today its an older camry but they are asking 2900 and he said it could probably even go for 2500 so we'll go look at it to see how beat up it is. i just need a cheap car to get around town, and then we still have jared's newer car. i just wish if we could get a new nice car if we are gonna get a new car, but i can wait till we graduate and have real jobs. i dont know if i mentioned jared changed his major from mechanical engineering to business finance. hopefully he will like that better! i think thats about all from us for now!

snow...

yes its true.... those lucky enough to live in rexburg experienced winter a little early. the week before conference weekend we were in the 80's, and the week after that, its snowing.... some how we skipped fall and went straight to winter. i hear its suppose to warm back up this week... i hope. school definitley kept us busy this week. jared is struggling a little to get his homework done, and to pass those darn tests. he is actually thinking about changing his major right now... he loves the building and designing part of mechanical engineering, but he is not so sure if he wants to put forth all the studying and math and more math that goes along with it. he is really interested in business/finance so he is looking into that. he is reading a book right now called rich dad poor dad that talks about money and that kind of thing. he keeps telling me about everything he is learning from this book and it sounds like something he is really interested in, so i told him he should do something he likes. we'll see what he decides. i have had one class taking over my life this past week. its a special education class that all education majors have to take. we are learning about all the laws, and case laws, and cases and everything that goes along with special education. we have to pass the test with an 86% to pass it. so this test is online, and there are 250 questions total, but you only get 50. (so in other words, you have to get 43/50 to pass) the first time you go and take it, if you get an 86% on it, you get an A. if you have to go retake it, the next time you can only get an A-. if you have to retake it again, the highest you get is a B, and it gets lower and lower everytime you take it. you also could get different questions each time you take it. i have been studying and studying for this test, and the first time i took it, i got 38 out of 50, which i wasnt too bummed about cause i knew i wouldnt pass it the first time. so i end up studying with arica and emily, two of my friends who are also taking that class. i go back and retake it only to get a 41 out of 50. anyways, to make a long story short, i ended up having to retake that test 4 times before i finally got that 43 out of 50. what is really frustrating is that i didnt fail that test once, but i did because i didnt get that 86%.... *sigh* its a tough class, and im not looking forward to the next test. since i was so busy with that class all week, i had a lesson plan due in another class that i threw together at the last minute only to find out i did it wrong and i didnt get credit for it. luckily after class, my teacher emailed me and told me if i redid it and turned it in on monday she could give me credit for it. which was such a relief! heavenly father does answer our prayers and looks out for us! anyways, thats about all the news from us... school is taking over our lives at the moment but we are enjoying every minute of it, or trying to at least :)

relaxing weekend

Jared and i went to utah this weekend! he had a missionay reunion to go to in salt lake on friday night. When we got there i actually ran into a girl i knew from san antonio, rebekah. her husband served in the same mission as jared. so that was kind of cool, jared got to see a lot of old friends, but had a hard time remembering names. it was fun. they fed us lasagna and breadsticks and salad. it was good. we just hungout at my grandparents house the rest of the weekend not really doing anything. we listened to conference but other than that just kind of relaxed.... didnt do any homework. it was nice to be stress free for a few days. we did watch a lot of college football.... i guess my grandpa really likes it. we drove back to idaho after the sunday morning session and listened to the afternoon session in the car. we got back home and i really had no desire to get any homework done, i attempted it, but i enjoyed being lazy this weekend too much i just couldnt get my act together. jared got a lot done though. this morning when i woke up i felt like i was running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get all my homework done in an hour. if i didnt forget to do one thing, i forgot to do another... i am the best procrastinator, and i definitly paid for it today. it was definitly one of those mondays. luckily though i have the best husband in the world who made me dinner and cleaned up the kitchen while i was at a study group tonight :)

Spoiled or Blessed?

jared and i have been sleeping on a full size bed that his parents gave to us. not a big deal right? cause we are newly weds and we like to sleep close right? so thats why we went out and bought a king size bed yesterday :) it is HUGE! before we moved to rexburg, we thought we were getting an apartment that has washer and dryer hookups so we set aside some money to get our own, and when we got up here, there were no washer and dryer hook ups, so instead we used that money to buy a new bed! after we bought it i kept telling jared over and over, i cant believe we just bought a king size bed. (which by the way if you are reading this laurie, we have your bed in a bag you got from bukoos that you gave to me, we havent used it yet, and we probably wont know, so we are bringing it down to utah this weekend, conference weekend, so dont let me forget when i see you) everyone we talked to yesterday when we were looking at beds kept telling us, "my wife and i slept on a full size bed for 20 years!" we were like, ya we've been married for 5 months haha. we have been very blessed to have such nice things for being newly weds. our couches were only a few years old that his parents gave us, we have an extremely nice tv he got for christmas, pretty much all the furniture we have our parents gave to us, so the only thing we have had to buy is the bed we just got. niether one of us have to work this semester cause we had such a good job over the summer we were able to work a lot and save enough to get us through this semester, before our off track, which has been a blessing cause we are both very busy with school. so spoiled or blessed? probably a little bit of both :)

there is acutally a little bit more walking space at the end of the bed, but we have our old bed up against the wall, so it looks like there is no walking space to get to the other side.

School

School has finally started, and we are both staying BUSY! jared has 17 credits, and is really busy with calculus and chemistry, but i think he is really enjoying his mechanical engineering classes. only 6 more years of school to go for him :) i love my el ed classes, and i cant wait to graduate and start teaching! only 4 more semesters to go with me!!! :) other than school, we arent really up to too much. we went to a dinner theatre thing last night and saw joseph and the amazing technicolor dream coat. jared was really impressed, and told me he wished he could sing and dance! it was fun and we had a good time. Oh ya, today i made my very first roast and mashed potatoe dinner. it sure was tasty :) im slowly learning how to cook its kind of fun!

September 1st 2008

Today we moved into our new wonderful apartment in Rexburg Idaho. We are preparing to start school on the 8th.