We're not going to be homeless!

Before I get to the main topic of this post-- I had a prenatal appointment today.  We just did a doppler to check the heart beat, but it was interesting still.  It took a while to find the heartbeat, because the sharkbaby kept swimming around to avoid the microphone, and giving it a few good kicks every time the doctor got close!  We've got a mover.  I might be in for some sore ribs once I can actually feel it happening, haha.

When we went up to Washington in March, we checked out a lot of apartments.  On our first day in Spokane, we found several really nice apartments for pretty good prices.  A manager at one of the complexes recommended that we check out a place in southern Spokane, so we decided to go take a look right before going to see the temple and heading back to Utah.  I put the address, and noticed that it looked pretty close to the temple!  We soon realized that it was literally right across the street!    How lucky is that?

We went in to talk to a manager, and she showed us around the complex.  It. Was. Amazing.  Brand new, great layouts, nice fitness center/tanning/pool, movie theatre, 54 acres of private hiking trails, barbeque and fire pit, and working on building the largest dog park in the northwest...  Plus, right across the street from the temple.

The price at this place was a lot higher than other complexes, but it was also a heck of a lot more awesome than anywhere else we saw.  The manager said that the prices change all the time, and to watch the rates.  The weird thing about housing up there is that you have to wait until like a couple of weeks before moving to actually reserve anywhere.  Very different from Provo!  So now that we're three weeks from moving, and the rates have been pretty low, we've locked in a place!

I'm pretty stoked.  The apartment is even on the ground floor, so I can probably do furniture projects right outside my door, and not have to climb stairs with a baby+dog+groceries+stroller+who knows what else.

Meanwhile, I have about two weeks to finish the many projects that I have started.  There's just so much that I want to do!! Building and painting and sewing is just so much more fun than packing :)  Once everything is in place in the new apartment, I'll post better pictures of the new pad!

Seattle, here we come!!

Sam got accepted to Seattle University today!  I was also the first one to find out, due to a convenient order of events.

When I got home from work I decided to play a trick on Sam.  I took a screenshot of his desktop, set it to the background, then hid all of his icons and task bar.  Thus, it would seem like nothing he clicked on would work. Sneaky sneaky!  But, he has a double monitor, so I had to have something open on the one screen so that it didn't look weird, etc, etc... Long story short, I opened up Chrome, and I saw that he had an email from Seattle University.

Um, yeah, sue me for not being able to wait to open that one.

I was so excited that I literally started jumping up and down; "Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap!!!".  Then I went and grabbed a roll of blue streamers-- the only celebratory item we had on hand-- and strung it up around the door.  I went to grab my phone, since I couldn't wait to talk to Sam, but it had randomly turned off (which is does all the time. Piece of crap!) and takes like 5 minutes to turn on.  It finally turned on, and I had a missed called from him.  I got scared that he had already seen, because I really wanted to see his reaction when he got the news.  But he was just wondering if I was coming to get him.

Oh, yeah... I forgot about how I was supposed to pick him up. Which meant that I wouldn't actually be able to get outside because of all the streamers.  Bad call on my part!

I was going to wait until we got home to get him to check the email, but I blurted it out that he needed to look now.  

So now we're pretty happy campers around here!  We're still waiting to hear back from the University of Washington and Gonzaga.  To be honest, Gonzaga is very much a back-up school, and even though UW is the highest ranked of the three, SU is the one I like the most in terms of environment/location/fit...  But I'm not the one who has to take classes, so we don't know for sure yet.  But it's really great to know that we for sure are going to end up in Seattle very soon!

Glassesface, who are all these people, and exciting news!

I very rarely wear glasses.  It's very hard for me to find glasses that don't look funny on my face.  Nothing against my face-- but that's just the way it is.  I do have a pair that are ok, but they are so old that they have the wrong prescription in them, and they've been bent so out of shape that I can't fix them. Also I'm pretty sure one of my ears is much lower than the other, because even when I got them straightened out at the optometrist office, they looked wonky.

Since it has been so long since I've tried wearing glasses, I decided to venture out and try to find some that didn't make me look crazy, drunk, etc.  What I did was go to a bunch of expensive stores and try on their fancy designer glasses, and then wrote down the product codes so that I could find them online and see if I could get them cheaper. The ones I liked were still WAY expensive online, but some glasses-connoisseurs I know recommended Zenni Optical.  Jackpot! Pretty much I just found the frames most like the ones I had tried on and liked, and then order them for $10-20 instead of $$$$$.  Out of the three I bought, I actually love two of them, which I was quite amazed by.

Anyway, here is my favourite pair.  I took these pictures in my bathroom (FOR SHAME!). 

I'm still pretty sure my ears are crooked.

I don't wear bright red lipstick on a regular basis (hence I made a dumb face in the picture since I felt silly), but tonight was Young Women in Excellence so I figured I'd try to be fancy even though my hair was up in a nanny-bun.  I wish that I had better/more pictures of the room, because the ladies who decorated it did SO WELL.  Never has a Primary room looked so good.  I hope somebody else got some good shots of it! I missed the lanterns, chandeliers, fancy banquet table, and all the neatest stuff! Here's the only picture I got:

Look at all those girls! And that's not even all of them!  I'm still not even close to keeping all of them straight D:  I need to creep around and get picture of all of them so that I can study or something.

On to the MOST EXCITING NEWS OF ALL!!! I guess that only those who stuck through bathroom shots and random girls they don't know get to find out ;D 

..........................................

Sam is heading to grad school! Law school, to be precise. But wait! There's more! He has been studying his butt off for the LSAT, which is the test you have to take to get into law school. This whole time he has been hoping and trying for a 165, but wasn't super confident that he would be able to get it.  Well, thanks to hard work and some prayers, and after a stupid month of just waiting around to get the results, he got a 167, which is the 94th percentile.  All was happy around our house when we got those results.

Right now he's working on applying to schools.  We want to end up in either Seattle or Spokane. Neither of us have even been to Washington, but it's where we feel we need to go.  From what I can tell, anyway, it seems like the ideal state.  The climate is just how we like it.  There are endless running and hiking trails in gorgeous Waterton-esque mountains.  There is fresh local food and art aplenty in the many farmers' markets.  They aren't dog-haters like Utah is and there are a TON of apartments that allow dogs (FIRST THING I'm doing when we move is going to a shelter and getting a big four-legged friend).  They also just legalized marijuana, apparently, so that's cool I guess.

We're planning on staying in Utah for several more months just trying to pay off all of our undergraduate student debt.  Then we're selling most of our furniture, packing up, and heading north!  Unfortunately, instead of being 12 hours from Alberta, we're going to be 12 hours from Alberta and Utah.

It's exciting to be moving on to a new stage of life-- or rather, the repeated stage of going to school... But at least it's in a new place! 

Broiled Parmesan Tilipia

Tilapia is my favourite fish.  It has fanastic flavour without being too fishy-- because we all know seafood tastes best when it doesn't taste like seafood, right? It's also a very quick and easy recipe, but tastes like you put a whole lot of work into it.

Broiled Parmesan Tilapia

• 1/4 c Parmesan cheese
• 2 T butter, softened
• 2 T mayonnaise
• 1 T lemon juice
• 1/8 t dried basil
• 1/8 t ground black pepper
• 1/4 t onion powder
• 2 6oz tilapia fillets

Place your oven rack in the highest position, and preheat to a broil. Grease a broiling pan.
Stir together the cheese, butter, mayonnaise, and lemon juice.  Add basil, pepper, and onion powder.
Place fillets in a single layer on the broiling pan.  Broil for 2 minutes.  Flip and broil for another 2 minutes.  Spoon mixture onto the fish and broil for another two minutes, or until fish flakes with a fork and topping is slightly browned. Do not overcook!

The happiest calling of all.

This last Sunday I got a new church calling in my ward!  I am now... The Young Women secretary!  For anyone who is wondering what the heck I'm talking about, that means that I have been asked to help with the 12-18 year old girls who are in my church congregation.  I'll be in charge of the record keeping items, as well as helping to organize mid-week activities and teach Sunday lessons now and then.

When I was asked if I would be willing to do this, I exclaimed quite enthusiastically and had a really dumb, happy look on my face.

Bishop: We would like to call you as the Young Women secretary.

Me: Oh, yeah! That's like my dream calling!
Bishop: ...so is that a yes?

I had an amazing experience in YW.  I credit that to an awesome group of girls, as well as absolutely fantastic leaders.  I lucked out and had a relatively small group of girls who also loved adventurous and outdoorsy things, were freaking hilarious, and got along pretty well (as far as I know!).  Our leaders were equally fun, adventurous, wise, and inspiring.

Because of this, I'm both excited and nervous.  I know how great YW can be, but also how crucial.  It's a really important time of life for those girls, and having a good example and companionship from those around them can make a big difference.  The other intimidating part is that there are 46 girls in my ward. That's HUGE compared to the, what, 15 that my ward had.  I'm also not very good with names and faces.  One time I took a university compiled facial recognition test and I failed miserably. The test told me that I might have an actual cognitive disability with recognizing faces. So there you go. It's going to be tough trying to keep up with everything and everyone, but thankfully I will have the Lord's help in discerning their needs and learning what I need to!

I hope that I can help give these girls a positive experience in YW. If I can do even half as well as my leaders did, I'll be satisfied.  Fortunately I was in there only 4 years ago, so maybe I can get my brain to flashback to those years and remember what it was I needed to hear back then, and share it with them.  Maybe I can also bring the joy of Screaming Ninjas and Snipe Hunting to these lovely girls.

I'm pretty sure one of them ran into a glass door shortly after this picture.

We were supposed to do something cultured. So we decided to wear togas and do art...

...but then this happened.

"...I'm peeing"

And running downhill made us laugh so hard Michelle totally bit it.

**If any of you are embarrassed by these pictures, too bad, because you should know that I have 10x worse on my old laptop but I'm too lazy to go find it.

Nannyish

I'm employed!
This week I started a nanny position with two different families.  M-F I work in the mornings with a 3yo boy and a 5yo girl.  The girl really likes art projects and playing make believe games. The boy goes with what his sister wants to do, but if it's just the two of us we play on the swing set and throw balls for the dog.
I'm with the other family just once or twice a week in the afternoons.  They have four kids, but I just stay with the younger two while the older brothers are in school and mom runs errands.  I can see why mom prefers to have someone stay with them at home while she goes out.  They're 2.5yo twin boys and they have boundless energy and mischief going on.  They totally egg each other on and seem to plan their trouble together.  They're pretty easygoing, though.  One boy was born without one ear and the other has partial hearing loss, so their mom said that she thinks half the time they can't hear you and the other half of the time they ignore you, haha.  I play with them for an hour, then they go down for a nap and I just read and watch TV for the rest of the time. Pretty easy gig! They also have a dog who keeps me company and plays fetch/naps with his head on my lap.

Not going to lie, I was really excited when I found out that both families have big dogs I can play with, too.  The moms were both saying "oh, I hope they don't both you- just put them outside if they do".  Actually, I'm pretty sure being able to have vicarious dog ownership is the biggest perk of the job.

Two grand years.

I've been married to this guy:

...for two years!

For our anniversary, Sam worked all day and I ran errands all day. Yippee! But right after Sam was done work we went to the Mount Timpanogos Temple to do a sealing session.  This is the temple that we were sealed in 2 years ago, so it was just perfect. For those who don't know, we did sealings for other couples who were married civally but had not been sealed for time and all eternity before dying.  We act in proxy for them, and then they are able to accept or reject the ordinance as they wish.  But I must say- the spirit was so strong as we worked in the temple that day.  I think there are a few more happy families who have been reunited. 

Sam's pretty darn awesome.
I like being his pillow for naps, and vice versa.

I love that he takes care of me.

This EXACT thing went down when I threw out my back.

Artistic rendition courtesy of Megan

I enjoy the fact that he appreciates the weird stuff I do. For example,  I hid under a nearby desk for over 30 minutes waiting to see if he would find me.  He didn't. Even with the text picture I sent him.

 

I love that he is such a hard worker. Not only at WORK, but at home and church too. This boy is going places.

A great deal of credit also goes to him for getting me done with school. I had some really hard semesters that crossed over with some really hard times, and he completely got me through it and made me believe in myself.

I love this wonderful family that I now get to be a part of.  My family sure loves him too (Uncle Sam-I-am)

He HATES costumes, but he will even humor me so long as I look sillier than he does. Which I always do.

He is so supportive me me and my goals and interests.  Him coming and supporting me with my races means the world to me.  Sometimes the exact thing you need to push through the last mile of a marathon is knowing that somebody is expecting you at the finish line (and will hold you up when you're pretty sure you're about to die). 

We sometimes go do fun awesome things:

And sometimes we just act like hobos:

But pretty much, he's my best friend, and he's awesomesauce.