This is for me

Being back in Rexburg is bringing back lots of memories. Tonight Charles and I went to soccer practice at Porter Park (one of my favorite places here:) It was just like last summer, everyone there people form our old ward and old roommates. Something was missing though. Jess! (This is her blog) My best friend and previous roommate. She graduated with her Associates and moved to WA where she is now working and going to school for her bachelors. After playing soccer for about and hour I got tired so I sat down by all the bags. While sitting I heard a phone ring, it was the same ringtone that Jess always had. Talk about de ja vu. Crazy. So since I miss my friend so much and have been reminiscing about all we used to do I thought I would take you an an adventure down memory lane.

This is where it all began Kerr 221. We hit it off right form the start. Along with our other best friend Ashlee, there was never a dull moment. (I think its our crazy personalities)



We pretty much became joined at the hip. We went everywhere together. Both of us are a little oc and clean freaks so we even had fun cleaning together. (Though sometimes it would get a little outta hand;)



We could always be found laughing (especially if it was three in the morning :)



No matter what we did we seemed to have fun. Of course there was drama (lots and lots of drama) But hey, can you really live in a dorm full of girls with out it? Its interesting to me that even though we had some really rough semesters when I look back and remember I think of the good stuff.








So now we are all off doing different things. Jess is a pilot and planning on running an airport someday, Ashlee will probably find the cure for cancer and while also learning tikwando and how to surf in Hawaii. I am married and back in Rexburg. Still, you never forget the people you love. Somehow as you share experiences and grow together they leave a piece of themselves with you. It becomes a part of you and you carry it forever. Bottom line I love them, miss them and cant wait for the wonderful times we will have ahead! :)

Our Grand Adventure Chapter 2- The tire saga

It had been a day... quite a long day. We had been trying to get to Idaho Falls (IF) but as I told Charles later that night, sometimes you make a day and sometimes it makes you. FAFSA for example. We found out that we had to turn in a bunch of papers on campus. Then we decided to buy books but the bookstore was full so when we got out we were already late to buy chairs from this lady. Once we had taken the chairs home we learned that my brother was coming in and didn't have anywhere to go. He said that he was fine just skating around Rexburg. However I didn't think that would be fun to do till ten o clock at night so I invited him to come with us. His ride to Rexburg decided that since we were going to IF that we would all meet at the Walmart. (as a side note, there are two walmarts in IF) We were about to leave to go get him when, I checked my e-mail. I had e-mailed someone about a desk earlier, they had replied with a picture. We decided to buy it. So off we went to pick it up. On the way we swung by and picked up my friend Kori. (She needed some stuff in IF as well) By the time we got the desk back to the apartment and left for IF we were a few hours later than planned. About half way to IF I noticed that the steering wheel was not letting me go straight. The car kept swerving. I could stay in my lane but something was definitely wrong. The car helped me out by letting out a "pop" and swerving even more. At this point it was pretty obvious that we had blown a tire. Being the amazing driver I am I quickly pulled us safely off the freeway. At this point I was feeling a bit...(bad that I had told my friend that we would be in If a while ago, bad that Jacob was probably stranded at some random Wallmart with nothing to do, frustrated that everything seemed to be getting in the way of going to IF, worried that we blew a tire and wondering what kind of damage we had done to the car, and tired from carrying loads and loads of stuff up and down tree flights of stairs multiple times) well, I was feeling a lot of things. Charles Kori and I went out to see the damage, this is what we saw...



We must have looked dazed because Kori spoke first pulling us onto action. She asked Charles where the spare was. I went and found the instruction manual and Charles began getting the tire out. A very nice guy stopped by to see if he could help but between the three of us we had it under control. Charles and I carried an ant infested rock (mini boulder) from the field over to support the opposite wheel in the car. Then Charles removed the tire. He also had me help keep the car from tipping by sitting in the driver's seat. (I was all to happy to oblige it was freezing and it looked like rain) How nice of him to do the dirty work and let me get warm :) Here's Charles trying to figure out where to put the jack on the car.



The switch





Kori! I am so glad she came along, her help was greatly appreciated!



Me "securing the car"



As soon as we finished and got back into the car it started to rain. That was close! I called Jacob to let him know we were back on the road. He told us kind of where he was (none of us really knew anything about IF, I can find the temple and that's about it.) At this point you have probably guessed, we got lost. For about an hour. we found one of the walmarts (remember how I mentioned there were two, yeah now we now where they both are. on opposite sides of IF) We found Jacob perched on one of the shopping cart stands. I wish I had a picture cause he looked pretty funny. He loves to do random stuff like that. So it was about 7:30pm and we still hadn't done any shopping. We were starving so we went to McDonald's (yuck) To make the shopping story short we went to Target and Walmart. We figured it would be a good idea to go back home the way we came so as not to get lost. Before we left Jacob offered a prayer that we would find our way home and get there safely. as we made our way down Yellowstone we saw the flashing lights. The entire street was blocked off, we couldn't see what had happened though. We tried to go down a side street but the whole area was blocked off cover a few blocks. We figured it must have been a train accident, what else could block off such a huge section of the city? By shear chance I saw a small sign pointing us to the 20. We arrived safely home in Rexburg around 11:30. (Still in time for Kori to get in before curfew thankfully!) Crashing into bed I realized that I had it all wrong. Things may not have been how I had planned but We were still being blessed. We now had furniture and had been able to get really good deals on it. We had safely gone to and from IF despite the trouble with the tire and getting lost. The spare tire was full size so instead of having to get a tire right away we could keep going, the rain held off till we were done so we were not soaking wet while lost and shopping in IF. We had found Jacob and then by being so late with shopping maybe avoided getting in the huge accident in Yellowstone. So even though I was exhausted and knew I had to wake up in five hours I went to bed happy and grateful.


Like I said, sometimes you make the the day and sometimes it makes you...

We are moving back

I wish! Today we woke up to this.

Isn't it supposed to be spring? It's almost May for crying out loud! A better person than I would be thankful for the moisture which will help the farmers grow potatoes. I on the other hand think that a WARM spring shower would be fine as long as it didn't SNOW.

Our Grand Adventure

Packing the car was like watching those clowns at the circus who one after the other keep getting into the car till you wonder how they all fit. We kept bringing stuff down and putting it out on the lawn like a yard sale. Somehow we managed to fit everything into my Rio to go up to Pasadena. (Of course we drove at a whopping 55 mile an hour almost the whole way)

We stayed in Pasadena for a few days then we traveled up to Utah to stay with John, Jenny & Co. It was so fun to see every one. Charles took part in many battles risking life and limb to defeat the great Jonah! (Somehow Jonah always came out victorious.)

We loved Ruby she is so cute! I think she was wondering why I was interrupting her breakfast to take pictures.


Jenny and the kids left to go to Idaho on Monday. The kids were so excited, they kept wearing their backpacks.

Jenny's Dad came to drive with them, he was a fun Guy. I can now say that a bishop taught me how to play poker on Sunday! We had fun playing! (I did pretty well actually :)



On Tuesday we went to Salt Lake city where we stayed with Sarah and Jason. Driving there was interesting. As soon as we left Orem it became a blizzard. We stopped at Ikea (I love that store) on the way. By the time we got to Salt Lake there was a pretty good layer of snow on the car. Luckily we had decided to put the stuff from the top rack into the explorer, otherwise all our clothes would have been soaking wet!
On Wednesday Jason took us shooting! It was a lot of fun. Charles and Jason of course have been before and were old pros. I was pretty shocked when Charles shot the clay pigeons out of the sky one after another. I had no idea what a good shoot he was!

children and trains

This is an article which my friend Amy came across. I found it to be very interesting. I am not sure what I would be comfortable with since I don't have kids as of yet. I think that she has some really good points though. Sometimes we get so scared that everyone is out to get us that we not only overprotect our children but ourselves as well. By doing that we miss out on a lot of "growth" opportunities. I thought the the most interesting line in the whole thing was "A child who thinks he can’t do anything on his own eventually can’t." I think this is true, when you let someone figure things out on their own they become self sufficient, its like that Chinese proverb, give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime.

recycling gone to far

While shopping for various home essentials we went to the toilet paper aisle. There on one of the bags it advertised, 40% recycled! We realize that it is a good thing to protect the environment and recycle but come on... really.

Almost there!

At about 5:30 in the morning we will make our trek up to Idaho! I cant wait to move into our apartment. I was telling Charles after packing our suitcase for the umpteenth time that I cant wait to have a place to just put my clothes! So this is what our day will be like
5:00 wake up (hopefully to no snow! It is snowing right now,fourth time since we got here. Isn't it April???)
5:30-6 pack car and leave
9ish get to Idaho and unpack car (we live on the third floor)
10:30 to 11 ish go to storage unit (located on the second floor of a building, unload and put into car then drive HOME and haul up three flights of stairs)
1:00ish find some food
1:30 ish drive back to IF (Idaho Falls) find a bed, and any other furniture we can
oh and buy some groceries to put in OUR fridge at OUR HOME :)
7 ish collapse (if we find a bed then onto that if not then onto the floor)

Even though it will be crazy I cant WAIT! we found out that DI sells new beds at a cheaper price. So we will probably try there. They also have used beds but people keep telling me that there may be bugs in them (gross) So who knows.

The trip up has been AWESOME! We have loved seeing everyone. Today we went shooting (yes I shoot a gun four different ones, a rifle, shotgun, revolver and pistol to be exact. That was an adventure! Don't worry, I will post or facebook pictures soon. (I look pretty good holding a gun and Charles looks HOT:)

Moving

We are moving. Yep on Monday we leave San Diego. I am actually quite sad. I love living here in warm sunny California! I hear that it is still snowing in Idaho. Snow. Hooray. We have been packing everything in between conference sessions. We have a lot of stuff, where did we get it all? We have only been married for a month and a half and we don't even have enough room in our car for it all! What kills me is that it is all stuff we use. We sure do use a lot of stuff. The good thing is that we get to visit a lot of people on the trek to Idaho. We are stopping in Pasadena and then in Provo to visit John and Jenny! Our last stop is in SLC to visit my sister! We are very excited to see everybody!

Well, I am trying to be good so I should stop procrastinating and finish packing :)