Life Update

Life is crazy, there are always unexpected twists and turns, and thats to be expected. But it seems that this last month was full of more of those than ever before! Yes, it has been a month of homeless/vagabond-ness. We left our apartment in Denver on August 26 and have yet to move into an apartment (although we are scheduled to move into one tomorrow!) As this month of interesting adventures comes to a close, I began to look back and see if I would have predicted any of it. Jared seems to think our life could never be made into a movie. A phrase he often used to describe it "You couldn't write this stuff if you tried." And I have to say it is true. From our daily happenings to the month as a whole, no one could have guessed all the weird and random things that have presented themselves, and even to look beyond that, no one could have predicted the happenings of this year of marriage! But, thats what makes life fun! Our last month has been filled with staying with many different family members (and again, Thank You all so much for letting us invade your homes!!), looking at and debating taking jobs, searching out places to live (in various states), and just having fun and enjoying being together wherever we were! I love Jared and although at times I was sick of not being stationary, I have really enjoyed and am thankful for that time I got to spend with him! But I am also way excited to move into an apartment tomorrow and start another chapter in our lives! I think I'll title it 'Stationary Times' haha

Stinkin Utah Roads!!

So, Jared and I have not been in Utah more than three days and we already are being driven crazy by the roads! The WHOLE STATE of Utah is under road construction!!!! On friday (Aug 28) Jared and I had a full day of appointments to look at apartments, so full we were a little worried about making them all on time. So we leave my aunt Heather's house and head down to Salt Lake (a trip which previously took us a little less than 20 mins to make) We had been on the same freeway for an hour and a half and had not made it to Salt Lake yet!! Jared was not very happy about the traffic, in fact he was fed up with it. He said that traffic jams caused by something cool are ok but this "stupid roadwork jam" is unacceptable! Oh I was laughing quite hard. We finaly make it to an overpass, which is a couple exists from down town and all of a sudden a police car pulls in front of a car ahead of us and makes the whole line stop! We didn't know what was happening until Jared saw and told me to look.
This is what I saw, and I did not see anything out of the ordinary, until Jared told me that the 'support beam' behind the red truck is infact not a support beam, but a new fuel tank that the truck was carrying!When people started realizing what was going on they began to turn off their cars and walk around. We were going to be there for a while. There were even kids running around playing with toys and balls. Jared and I called our appointments and tols them we were not going to be able to make it. But it was fun to be walking around the freeway. =>
They unhitched the truck and he drvoe away. Believe you me, it was a good thing the north bound side of the freeway was empty, that trucker was raging mad! and who would blame him!?!? Can you imagine going 70mph down a freeway and all of a sudden being jerked back and have your cargo stuck on the overpass? That can not be a fun feeling => After he drove away two large forklifts came across the freeway and knocked the tank off the overpass. Jared was watching it but I wasn't paying attention, and all of a sudden this huge noise was being made. Now I had never heard a bomb go off in real life, but I would imagine it sounds a heck of a lot like that big boom we heard when that thing hit the ground! It was cool!
After the tank was down they began to let cars pass, so we got to pass right by it! That thing was enormous!! Look at that damage! I would not have believed it had I not seen it!! Could you imagine if a car had been behind that truck!?!? I don't think any were, and I do not think anyone got seriously injured, but there was a line o police cars and amblences like I had never seen before! Not to mention news crews up the wahzoo! Once we initially passed it the roads we open and clear. And Jared had decided that that was a cool traffic jam and was glad it was not a dumb construction one! =>
I don't have any pictures of this next one but the next day, coming back from Pleasant Grove we were in ANOTHER traffic stand still ont he freeway! But luckily again we were up pretty close to the front so we saw the action. A WalMart truck had tipped over and they had to bring another one to unload all the cargo into and then a machine to get the truck out of the road! We passed by as they were still unloading the truck but the take-off machine was there! And not to mention the coutless other times any day that we were stuck in dumb construction traffic!! So a caution to all, when in Utah avoid any sort of timed commitment because you never know how the Utah traffic fairy is going to strike! =>

Trip to Idaho and Family Reunion!

As I said in the previous post, Jared and I went to Idaho this past weekend. We drove thru Wyoming, which is entirely the same the whole way thru!!! These pictures were taken well apart, and yet...

This is when the drive seems to be going fine...
and then we realize this is taking forever!!! Ok, so the pictures were not taken at the beginning and end of the trip, but they were taken a good distance apart, and yet the backgrounds look almost identical! Oh Wyoming!!
When we got to Idaho the first stop we made was at our storage unit. I posted before about stuffing the beanbag into the trunk, and we also stuffed two huge tubs of kitchen crap and a very large suitcase filled with clothes. but before we unloaded all of that, we wanted to get our rock climbing gear out.
And of course, its in the back of the storage unit, towards the bottom of a stack of tubs! So I climbed on back there and began rearranging things so we could get our gear out, but in the process I packed myself in. => Silly me lol
On Friday we went to Brett's wedding (previous post) and on Saturday we went to the Miller family reunion! They reserved this place in Rock Springs. It had two GIAGANTIC slip-n-slides and a big zipline! What a fun place!
Jakob, Jared's older brother, wanted to go down the slip-n-slide but didn't want to get wet, so he tried this position. A little further down the slide one of his cousins pushed him so he got all wet! All that balancing skill for nothing! =>
Jared's sisters Katie and Melissa were just having the time of their lives, getting as wet as they could!
Jared didn't want to miss out on all the fun, so of course he grabbed the biggest tube, to try and be king of the slip-n-slide, but again, some of his cousins put the kaibosh on that and totally rammed into him, flipping him over! Oh so funny!!!
The party really got started when Drew and Karen, Jared's parents, went down! They are so fun and cute together! =>
Jared decided he wanted his body to meet the sun. => Haha Look at that handome stud with the huge farmers tan!! I love him!!
This zip line was definately not what I expected. The zipper things you hold on to come on and off, and don't clip on, just lift on! I thought for sure I was going to turn my body the wrong way or something and have it get off the cable and I go plumiting to the ground!
But it didn't, and I am still alive and kicking! But it was a littlee touch and go there for a while because to get off, you have to run on the ground to slow down or you would hit a big metal wall at the bottom, and my stop running was a little rusty. =>
There was this beautiful, manmade waterfall behind the zipline! And of course we had to get pictures by it! =>
This is like the twentieth shot! We are not very good at taking pictures of us and capturing something in the background! => But it finally worked! Yay!
While walking back to the coverd area with the food, we passed the top of the slip-n-slide, where a lot of his family was waiting to go! It was like a slip-n-slide party!! =>
And before people started leaving, we needed to take a family picture! All of Jared's siblings were there! It was so fun to see them all again!
There are two pictures that I put up because I like different things about both of them, so if there was a way I could combine them, I would => But I can't so I figured if I put both of them up, I will have covered my bases =>

This is Jared and his dad! They always have to have a talk about politics or money or some political thing before they leave! I think it is so cute! And I tried to catch them in action, but a pose is cute too!!

After the family reunion we went back to Jakobs house and I took a nap. And when I woke up, this is what I woke up to.... the boys glued to the screen playing Halo 3! These boys could play this all day if their wives let them! Personally I think this game is stupid and pointless, you just go around killing eachother. Now Mario Cart, thats a good video game! => hahaha

That night we went to Olive Garden with Jakob, Haylie and their adorable baby Madison! I think this picture is so cute! Can't you just see the love for their baby gushing out!?!?! Thanks again for letting us crash at your house Jakob and Haylie!

We had so much fun on our mini vacation in Idaho! Now only two more weeks of selling then off to the tropics with my family!! We can make it! =>

Dang Packing!!

Jared and I are going up to Idaho this weekend for his friends wedding and a Miller family reunion. And our schedule after that will be: work for two weeks, cruise for one week, work for 1/2 week, move to Utah, so we came up with the plan to take anything we dont need to live for basically 2 weeks and put it in our storage place in Idaho. Well, since Jared is working from sunrise to sundown, the lovely task of packing and organizing and stuffing things in the car has fallen on me. This morning I enlisted the help of one of the wives that lives right below me to assist in the moving and stuffing of our giant bean bag!This bean bag is 8 ft long!! It is giagantic!! Here is a picture of it to give you some persepctive.This bean bag weighs 95-100 pounds and is huge and akward to carry, so we slid/pulled it down the stairs and to the car on a blanket. And after stuffing for a while, then we had the idea to document it. This is the bean bag, probably about half way in. Crazy I know! It looks like the car is pooping out something huge and blue!
And with more pushing and tugging and tucking, we were able to make some progress.
This was officially my work out for the month! I would have never guessed, but every single muscle in my body can push, and can be sore from pushing!
In this picture I like the blanket just chillin there. We used it to lay down and push with our legs. We even brought one of our folding chairs our to use. This thing is crazy stubborn!
After and hour and a half of pushing and pulling and tucking this is how close we got! We were all out of energy and ideas on how to get the trunk to close all the way!!So we walked over to the apartment office to see if they had some twin or something we could use to tie it down, but to no avail!
When we got back I had a renewed determination!! And my a true miracle we got the trunk closed!!!! Oh I was soooo elated!!! And not 10 seconds after it closed there was this huge thunder clap, and a storm started coming! It was a great modern miracle of bean bags!! And no, my plan did not work out entirey, fo I wanted the bean bag to be soely in the trunk and fill the back seat with tubs and such, but I will take what I can get!
At least the trunk is closed and our bean bag is in the car!! I have packed other things, but the boxes are too heavy and big for be to carry out alone, and it is pouring rain, so that adventure will be saved for later tonight! But for now, I will just relish in the triumph over the bean bag!!!

GiAnT Bean Bag!!

When we arrived at our apartment here, there was no furniture, and we left ours in storage. There had been a miscommunication between many people. => We could rent furniture for about $900 for four months, but we decided to to things our way => We didnt want to purchase things that we didnt need or already had, so we improvised. We bought a nice blow up mattress, a card table with two folding chairs, and our latest addition, joining our apartment yesterday is a giant bean bag! We bought it from http://www.monstersak.com/ and we love it so far! I ordered it on Monday, and we got it on Wednesday! With free shipping! It was amazing!! It was a process to get ready tho, and we still dont have it completely fluffed.

Since I was working all morning and afternoon the FedEx guys dropped the 95 lbs bean bag at the apartment office. I went there to get it and realized, I could not carry a huge 95 lbs bean bag back to my apartment by myself. The Apartment managers husband was there and was nice enough to stick it in the back of his SUV & drive it in front of my building.
But then it did have to be carried into the building, & up the stairs. =>
They were such strong lifters!!! => These are two of the wives that are here, Janae and Danae. We all hang out when our husbands are off working 15 hour days.
It didnt come in a box, it came in a blue sac, and that thing was the hardest thing to get off, EVER! It really took us like 45 minutes to get the dumb thing off of the bean bag!
We finally triumphed!! But the bean bag was succtioned so hard, it felt like a rock, so began the fluffing.....
So we began "fluffing"... aka doing tricks onto the bean bag => This is Janae's kung fo-ing.
Danae, and her..... i dont really know what this is, kindof like a "oh my goodness im flying" =>
And best of all..... my superman!!! I would totally reccomend this company and these bean bags to anyone who wants to buy one. I have researched and tested so many different kinds I cant even count. And this company was by far the cheapest (about as much or even less than what people were selling used ones for on craigslist) and the best high quality product out there. Our is still in the fluffing mode, there are still the vaccummed packed lumps in there. So I cant wait to have it all smoothed out and fluffed up!!! Big 8 foot bean bags are the best!!! =>

No Internet is Hard

So, for about the last month we have not had internet in our apartment! It will work for about 10 minutes a week!!!! Just long enough for us to check Jared's email but nothing else! I never realized how much I use the internet on a daily basis and how much I relied on it! That was definately a huge adjustment to try and deal with! And I was doing so good at posting, then the internet drought hit! Well Jared and I are safely in Denver!! Yay!! I had my first day of work today, and Jared has been out for 1/2 days these last two days. We like Denver. When we arrived the weather was gorgeous (we arrived Saturday late afternoon) and it continued like that through Sunday, and Monday (the day Jared was supposed to go out and knock) we woke up to about 4 inches of snow!!! It was crazy!!!! Today the snow all melted and it was gorgeous again. Talk about the weather being confused! => Thats all the update I can give you now, without any pictures. We dont have internet in our apartment here but they do have a "club house buisness center" where they have 2 computers to use, but you cant save the pics from your camera to the comp to put them on the web. Bummer. So I will figure out something, dont you worry. hehehe Have a wonderful day!