A New Chapter

I wish I could say that a new chapter would be the start of a little something about 7-8 pounds and 20 inches long haha but it is not.  The new chapter is going to be for myself and it will be running and biking :D  I have been itching to get back into running for well over a year now, even was trying to get a group together to do a 190 mile relay race but plans fell through and I pushed it off but I've decided that I just need to do it and not wait on other people (not saying it's their fault, but I don't like to run alone for safety reasons). To keep myself going I am following a workout schedule that intermixes both activities and am going to start a blog to follow my training.  Once the blog is up I will share the web address with all of you.  I have about 6 different races I am looking at, 2 are in the same weekend so I will have to decide which one I want to do and another 2 are within 6 days of each other so I will probably have to choose between those as well (both of these races are incredibly hard, one is an uphill marathon/half-marathon and the other is a 195 mile relay race).  Either way, that would leave me with 4 races in 4 months and the next 3 months to train for the 1st one lol.  Add those to the Muddy Buddy race I did earlier this year and that will be 5 races, almost twice as many as I had said I wanted to complete this year! This will definitely be an experience and I hope I can share it with everyone!

I am Horrible

I know, I keep saying that I will get better at blogging but I must admit that I am an epic fail at it! Maybe (hopefully) when I have kids I will be better... maybe. Until then, sorry!

Not much new going on, Jared and I are still just plugging away at the house, getting things taken care of and trying to get it under control. I keep telling myself that I need to start taking before and after pictures of what we have done but it never happens and there has already been so much done that it probably wouldn't even be able to show the magnitude of what we have done since buying it. The last couple of weeks have been trying to get the garage taken care of. The entire garage (including the ceilings) was painted off white and has not been painted since it was built so it had yellowed. The previous owner had put make shift shelves and work benches in so there was a lot of nails holes... on one of the benches he had even built the thing with ONLY liquid nail... no screws... no nails, just liquid nail. That of course took some of the wall off with it so Jared took everything out of the garage and off the walls and re-textured the parts that needed to be and then painted the entire thing white. We are now painting the walls blue and this Friday will lay the epoxy floor coating :D Once that is dry (maybe sometime next week) we will be able to start building the work benches that we want and also the laundry system I want. Which brings the next project... moving the washer and dryer from the kitchen to the garage. This is something that I am soo excited for because we will then turn the old laundry area to a HUGE pantry for me :D :D :D This is definitely a must because the only pantry I have now is a small cupboard. I am very excited for this! Once that is all done we should be able to bring over Jared's Chevelle and he can finally have somewhere to baby his baby lol

Another thing that I am really excited about is the Logandale Fair this weekend. I have never been and have wanted to go for awhile. We had figured that laying the epoxy flooring on Friday night would be perfect (it takes 48 hours to cure) because we would be able to go to the fair on Saturday and since we were halfway to Zion already we could go up there on Sunday to go hiking and then come back. Did I say that I was excited! I love hiking! :D

Reception Day

The next day was the Reception Day. Jared and I woke up and got ready to go help with the decorating when we realized (after caring all of our stuff out) that our car had been decorated... not only decorated but wrapped in plastic also... once we got going we got to the chapel and almost everything was taken care of. Most decorations were up and only fine tuning needed to be done. My Aunt Katie and Grandma were decorating my cake and my aunts were taking shifts on preparing the food and leaving to get ready... Did I mention how great my family is for helping us with everything!!!... I had found out that they had gone up to the chapel to start decorating about 8 pm the night before and stayed til around 2 and then had come back up in the morning to finish it all up. The reception was starting at 4 pm so I headed to my parents house at about 1 to do mine and my sisters hair. Got back up to the chapel about 2:30 to get dressed and do my make-up then we had a ring ceremony, which my grandpa officiated, at 3:30 and took pictures and then the reception started.

We were afraid that the chapel we had reserved was going to be to small but after it was all done I was extremely happy that we had decided to hold the reception there because it was a steady flow of people coming in and going and it never seemed too full or too empty. We got so many great gifts and I am soo very thankful for all those that came to support us and help us with the most important day of our life!

That night we stayed at The M Resort and I honestly can say that it was such a nice place to end the wedding weekend :D

The Wedding Day!

It's taken me awhile to put this up so hopefully I don't forget any details! But the week before the wedding it was what anyone would expect --- hectic --- but still I was very relaxed and just happy that the wedding stress was about to be done. We were getting married that Friday and having the reception on Saturday. I had decided to take off that Thursday and Friday (of course) to give myself time to get everything together and then to get married!! Thursday comes along and I got absolutely nothing accomplished lol The day seemed to just fly by and before I knew it it was about 8 p.m. I had promised my sister Jessica that I would take her to the midnight showing of New Moon (from Twilight) that night (I would really do it all over again BUT would suggest everyone else to not go to a midnight movie showing and then get married at 10 the next morning!). For a quick overview of that night... Jared had also decided that he would go with us so we all showed up at the theater about 9:30 and stood in line. 11:30 sit down, movie started at 12:15, got over at 2 am, had to drop Jessica and Jared off, got home by 2:30, had to pack for the weekend... fell asleep packing at 3:30 am with NO ALARM SET!! I will never forget the feeling of waking up at 7:10 am the day of my wedding knowing that I was supposed to be leaving my house by 7:45 to get Jared so we could go to the Temple. Ugh! Amazingly I was able to get my hair done and my car packed and grabbed my make-up and was out the door by 8. Did my make-up out on my way to the Temple (Jared drove) and got there with time to spare. :D

The wedding went great. I had a lot of people telling me that it was one of the best sealing sessions they had been to in awhile. After the sealing session I got in my wedding dress (thanks to my Aunt Bonnie, Aunt Tia and cousin Amber for helping me!) and met Jared in the temple lobby so that we could walk out of the temple doors as Husband and Wife. After walking out we walked around the temple and took pictures and just enjoyed the rest of the morning.

After the wedding Jared's parents had set up a little luncheon for the family and we had fun hanging out with our family and close friends. For our wedding present from my aunts and uncles we had gotten the night at Lake Las Vegas and were headed there as soon as Jared got the ok... Btw, 2 beds is a must for newlyweds! One for play and a clean one for sleeping :D The room was gorgeous and it was such a relaxing and nice place to unwind and enjoy each other.

The Endowments

On November 14, 2009, Jared and I went to the temple to take out our endowments! Without going into a lot of detail it was actually not as weird as I thought it would be and it was definitely a great experience. We had originally scheduled the endowments for 9 in the morning but I found out my uncle Kevin and aunt Jessica were flying in at 9 so we pushed them back to 3 in the afternoon. I am soo glad that we were able to move the times and that they were able to come and be a part of the process :D My aunts Bonnie, Tia, Katie and Jessica were there and my uncles Scott, SheKenny, Mike and Kevin. I had my cousin Amber there as well, she was my escort and Jared's dad (his escort) and his friend Jake were there. It meant so much to me that they were willing to come share this experience with me and Jared. It was something that I never forget and i cannot wait to watch my children do.

After the endowments we had a family dinner with my family and Jared's family at my aunt Bonnie's house. One thing I've always known but it definitely hit me with all this wedding stuff going on is that I have one huge family but every single person is more than willing to help out another when needed. The day was great and I did realize soon after that it is definitely going to take some getting used to wearing these garments! :D

Only 30 days left! :D

Wow! 30 days left!! It does not feel like it's already October. This year has gone by so fast and I just know that these next 30 days will go even faster. It's getting to be soo exciting and at the same time I just want it here and done with so I can start my family (we are however going to wait for about a year before we start trying for kids... that means I get a year of practice first ;-) lol). It's been really fun and for the most part not stressful at all, but I must say that I am grateful for everything that has made me who I am otherwise I would be flipping out by now. Good news about the planning is that I have all the centerpieces ready to go, I have mailed out 100 invitations, have another 15 waiting to be put together and another 60 that I don't have addresses for (reason #1 that I should be freaking out). I found the flowers (we are using fake flowers b/c the are cheaper and I can make everything which makes everything cheaper) that we are using for the corsages and boutonnieres and made all the boutonnieres over the weekend and all the corsages last night :). I still do not know what I am using for the bridal party flowers or my bouquet but I think I will use the same flowers (they are orange roses) and add in a couple other types of flowers for mine, but that's a job for this weekend. For decorations I am just waiting (this is reason #2 that I should be freaking out). We think we are going to be able to borrow some tool from my aunt Tia's friend but we found out that they lent it out to somebody getting married at the end of October so we won't know what shape it is in. Reason #3 and #4 that I should be freaking out is that I do not have a photographer or a DJ... this will be interesting lol.

Other than that though we are just plugging away. I've decided that I want to run a marathon but can't find one that has a date I can work with but while looking I found a relay race that I am trying to get on a team for. It is a 170 mile race ran by teams of 12 people, each person has 3 legs and it goes from Logan, UT to Park City, UT. I'm just waiting to see if I am able to get on an old high school friend's team but if I'm not able to I am going to be trying to get my own team started. It is in 8 months so I'm really excited! :D

This Saturday will be the last Saturday I can work on wedding details so we are hoping we can get a lot done! Wish us luck!

Only 7 more weeks!

So, 7 weeks and 1 day left until I am married!! crazy to think that's it's coming up so fast. Everything is falling together nicely and I can definitely say that my family is great with helping out so much. There is still a lot to do but a lot has already been done as well. Amber and Leah are planning the bridal shower/bachelorette party :D which I am sure will be fun. The aunts and grandma are always on the look-out for the stuff we still need and are already helping with the catering and decorations. I still do not have invitations done or a guest list finalized - which by the way is not my fault. I have made a list and have requested guest lists from all parents and Jared about a month ago and no one gave me it so I asked for them again a week ago and of course, still do not have them! Jared still hasn't gotten his tux or suit or his groomsmen suits (go figure, he was so into it at the beginning with the "it's gotta be this way cause this is the way I always thought it'd be" but now... does he even know our colors??? lol) I think I'm beginning to realize that planning takes so long because you are always waiting on other people... that and money lol there's a big difference when you finance a wedding and pay for it in cash. Even with everything not happening as fast as I'd like I am still excited for it and am finally getting to the points where I can start counting down days instead of weeks (5o days from today!)

Other good news is my brother flies in from Germany in 3 days! and will be staying with me for about a week. It'll be nice to see him again and then he will only be in Cali and I will be seeing him a lot more :D Can you say Road Trip!?! and I love them, so it'll be nice for me. Beach during the summer and snowboarding during the winter! yay!!!

Well my life seems like it's full of good news cause in other good news my house is coming along really well. I'm hoping that it'll be done, or most of the way done, before my brother gets here and as long as that happens I should be able to finally take pictures of it before it gets ruined or dirty again.

More later when it's closer! :D