This and That

Thanks everyone for your help with identifying the plant in our yard. I compared it with some pictures on the Internet and it does appear to be Elephant Ear. Now I am trying to decide if I should keep it or get rid of it.

I had a few things I wanted to post (since this is what I consider my journal) so I am making one random post with it all......

James brought me home the most beautiful flower arrangement I have ever seen (I think he's trying to make up for forgetting our 7 year anniversary. I think this works, but I won't tell him, I'll let him decide).
We cut down all the rose bushes in our backyard, but James was thoughtful enough to save the roses for me. It was hard to get a picture of them that showed their true color. They are a very bright pink. James knows that if I see something pink I can't help but smile.
Our house is currently a HUGE mess. We started priming the entry way, dining room, kitchen and living room. It is so nice to walk into the mess and see all of these flowers standing out among the paint cans and drop cloths. By the way, if anyone needs/wants extra money, I am willing to pay them to paint and take off the popcorn... I don't want to mess with it anymore.

Echo LOVES our new house. She adjusted very quickly. She gets so excited when we head out to cut the grass because for the first time ever we actually let her roam around the front yard. We finally live on a quiet street so we don't have to worry about her getting hit by a car.

It's that great time of year again (although it makes me sad that we aren't gearing up to head to Hawaii again)... The 2nd movie in the Twilight series is coming out in less than a month. A bunch of ladies from my ward get together and make a shirt that we can all wear together to the midnight showing. This was last years shirt:

and this is what we made for this year:
It's a fun tradition the ladies have started. I enjoy feeling crafty... occasionally.

As some people may know, I have been on the hunt to find my "passion" for the past month. After reading a blog friend's post about this subject (you can read it here M, I hope you don't mind me putting a link to your blog on here) I have pulled out my fancy camera and all my cake decorating supplies again in hope to rekindle that passion (well the photography passion never died, I'm just making it more of a priority). I have also set a few big goals that I feel will help me feel like I have accomplished something in my lifetime.

That's about all I had for this post. We have been very busy doing things inside and outside of our house and I have taken pictures the entire time so watch out for more posts soon.

Can anyone tell me.....

what's growing in my yard??


I thought these were Calla Lilies when they started to come up, but they are way too short to be that. I don't know why it bothers me so much, but if anyone knows what they are please let me know. One of the many adventures of buying a new home is seeing what new things start to grow in the fall and spring.

Our first month as homeowners

This month has flown by. We are still trying to get used to the fact that we actually own this home. We both walk around the house touching things and commenting "we own this". After trying to get a house for so many years, we find it amazing that we finally have one. This house fell on us. We had finally given up and decided to use our down payment money on things that weren't responsible. Then by some miracle the sellers accepted our bid out of 20+ other offers. We decided to keep it a secret until the day we got the keys. We didn't want to lose the house and have to explain to everyone that once again someone else got our home. We are trying to work on making this house feel like our home.

We spend most nights doing something around the house. Before we moved in we had decided that our number one priority was painting, but after spending a lot of time outside we decided that the landscaping was more important. So we are still sleeping in a pink bedroom, but our front yard is free of bushes and trees. Once we finish all the landscaping I will post before and after pictures.

We were very lucky to have a whole month of 100+ degree weather. Normally, I would be complaining about the heat, but now that I have my own pool I am sad that summer is over. I finally understand why my mother-in-law always says she loves the heat (I thought you were crazy.... maybe we both are now). Generally, I swim laps every afternoon for my workout and then before bed we both jump in to cool off. I think for the past month, my hair has been wet longer than dry.

We have a lot of projects we want to tackle. I will try to remember to post before and after pictures of everything so all our family and friends can keep up with us.

Our first big project

When we moved into our new house, we knew the master closet was going to be an issue for us. (I have to apologize ahead of time for some of the pictures. Taking good pictures of closets is close to impossible!)

We were able to fit half of our clothes in there and the way the closet was set up it felt very tight.

James decided that he wanted to tackle the closet first and make it work better for us. He worked so hard pulling out all the built-ins.

I have mentioned many times before that I think James is brilliant! He proved that to me once again. While at OSH, deciding what to do with the closet, James knew we could fit all our clothes on the back wall only. So we bought a neat closet organizer. We decided to paint the closet a bright color so it didn't feel so dark and boring.

And sure enough, all our clothes fit on one wall with plenty of room to spare.

James wanted to make the closet my "sanctuary" so he decided to get me a nice bench (with more storage).

He also got a beautiful Lingerie Chest for all the clothes I had on the top shelf in our old closet.

The finished product is beautiful. I enjoy getting ready in there now and it feels huge!

Pictures of our new house

I have been trying to put up pictures of our house for almost a week, but it just never happened. We are all moved into our house and have unpacked the majority of our boxes.

Here is a picture of our house. Unfourtunatly, this is an old picture. Our house was a foreclosure that was vacant for at least a year. With lots of hard work and patience, our yard will look this beautiful again real soon.


The kitchen

The Family Room

The Dining Room (Yes, we will be painting pretty much the whole house)

The hallway to the bedrooms

Entryway

The Living Room. It will soon be a Pool Table room, until then it is our ping pong table and piano room.

The very purple guest bathroom

The pink Master bedroom (it doesn't look pink, but trust me it is)

The guest room

The workout room

The Laundry Room. I don't think I have ever been this excited to have a laundry room. In our last house, the washer and dryer were in the garage. I hated that!

The backyard







For everyone that is worried.... Yes it is still in Clovis 3rd ward!

What's new with us?

2 Years ago today

We were sealed for time and all eternity in the LDS Las Vegas Temple.



Wow, what a day! Two years later I can finally look back and laugh. It has seriously taken me that long to not be bitter about the whole weekend. Most Mormon couples get married in an LDS Temple on their wedding day. We were rebels and eloped in the Provo courthouse so we had to wait 1 year before we were able to get sealed in the Temple. 5 years later, we went to the Temple (another story for another day!).

When we got married, it was just James and I, the Judge, and 2 county clerks as witnesses. I don't think my family even knew we were getting married. I imagined our sealing to be our wedding day with most of the hoopla that we skipped. We had 26 of our family and friends drive or fly to Las Vegas. It was wonderful to be surrounded by people we loved. We got sealed on a saturday morning. We were running late that morning so our breakfast was granola bars. We followed mapquest exactly, but got really lost. We were supposed to show up at the Temple an hour early. But after numerous calls to get directions we arrived at the Temple moments before we were scheduled to be sealed. We were rushed in however, the ceremony started really late.

After the ceremony, we got changed and went out to meet our guests, but we couldn't find anyone. At this point James was on a major sugar low (anyone who knows a man knows what this does to their mood). I should mention it was a very cool summer Vegas day. The temperature was only 120 degrees and very windy- seriously who's idea was it to go to a desert in the middle of summer?! We took a few pictures before tempers flared...

For our "reception" we went to Planet Hollywood to eat at the international cuisine buffet. I insisted on wearing these black high heels despite James' protest. I didn't expect to walk for 30 minutes to find the buffet. We walked around in circles lost. By the time we found the place, I was in PAIN (my motto still stands pain=beauty). The buffet hosts wouldn't let all 20+ of us sit by each other without charging a HUGE gratuity so each family was seated in separate areas of the restaurant. The place was so big that we never even ran into each other when we went up to fill our plates.

The rest of the weekend was a blur. All I can remember is that James was mad at me so we didn't talk again until Sunday night. By sunday night I had had enough. I told James he was going out with me alone after all our friends had left and our family was asleep. We walked the Vegas Strip until 4 in the morning. This is my favorite memory of the weekend. We walked hand in hand enjoying all the sights.

Although the weekend didn't turn out how I wanted it to, I am very thankful for James. I love him more than anything and I am so excited to be his eternal partner. 2 years down, a million more to go...

A lack of posts....

I know it has been a while since I have blogged. I/We have been very discouraged with life so I needed a little break. I believe I am feeling somewhat better so hopefully I will have some new posts soon (of course we have to have something exciting happening here for me to write about first!).

Girls Shopping Trip

All last week, I was on vacation. My boss was going on a vacation so he closed the office and gave me the week off too. James wasn't able to take last week off with me so I decided to plan a girl's getaway. Two of my good friends and my sister-in-law came with me on a shopping trip to San Francisco. We decided to trade in the 110+ degree weather for 50's and 60's. It was a wonderful break from the heat!

We shopped our way up there on thursday stopping at a few stores along the way. Finally around 7pm, we got to San Francisco. We stayed at the Westin St. Francis. We had a beautiful hotel room in the Union District right in the middle of all the shopping. Here is a view from our window:

We went out for pizza and then did a little shopping before going back to our room to play games and hang out. Friday, we shopped ALL day long. You will notice a lack of pictures. We were too busy trying clothes to bother taking out our cameras. On saturday, we decided to go home a different way and stop at the Gilroy outlets on the way back into town. Here is the car after all our shopping (this is only part of the bags):

I have such awesome friends! It was so nice to splurge on myself for a change. I hope we are able to do that again real soon!

I am very thankful for my friends! I have way too many great friends. The first 4 years of our marriage, I didn't think it was important to have any friends besides James. Once we moved to Clovis, it seemed like I couldn't help but have friends. Now I would never live without them. I am thankful for all their love, support, and comfort they offer me. Thank you for being my friend!!!