Early Merry Christmas to Us!

We have been searching for a new couch for a while. The couch we have been using is older than both of us, and while very comfy, just not big enough or what we needed. So Thanksgiving rolls around, and Cory and I were looking at ads with my mom. She points out an excellent deal on a set of couches at RC Willey. They are awesome, but there are only 15 at each store, and you know how those Black Friday shoppers can get. But my mom offered to give them to us for Christmas, and they were just too good to pass up. So four o'clock Friday morning, Cory and I bundle up, grab some hot chocolate and blankets and go set up camp in front of RC Willey with all the other crazy people. Although my toes got so cold it took an hour in the store to stop tingling, it was so worth it!
They take up more room than we thought, so we had to do some rearranging of the TV, but they are SO comfy and wonderful!
Back in that corner we put the coffee table as an end table. Its low enough that you can't see it here, but I'm planning on putting a lamp there, and maybe a plant or two to make it look more full. HOORAY FOR COUCHES! Thanks Mom! ;)

After 10 months.....

....I decided it would be a good idea to get my wedding pictures. And what kind of person would I be if I didn't share them with the world?
Still the best wedding cake I have ever had. Seriously. Cory and I are so excited that it's almost our first anniversary, not because we are celebrating our marriage, but because we get to eat the top! :)
I'm trying to remember if this is before or after I started turning purple. 16 degrees people! That's cold!
First dance!
I kept thinking it was a good thing my dress was ivory or I would have blended right in with the snow!

The winds of change turned out to be a tornado...

It all started with health insurance. With me not being covered by BYU anymore, it became essential for me to find a job with benefits. So it was with a heavy heart that I started looking for other places to earn my keep. You'd be surprised at how hard I had to look. Since I had never before applied to a job I didn't get, it was quite a different experience for me. But finally, I got an interview at Discover Card. It was the longest interview process of my life. Three hours. Not joking. But finally, I got an offer for Cardmember Assistance aka Collections. They just call it cardmember assistance to make it sound nicer. But hey, they pay me lots and have amazingly awesome benefits.

So I gave my two weeks to Maple Lake and started to get ready to start a new job. Living in Provo, the commute was going to be over an hour, since Discover is up by the airport, just off Bangerter. Therefore, we also started looking for apartments. We quickly found one we loved at Allegro Apartments right by Ikea, and put our Provo apartment up for rent. Not five minutes after we put it up on KSL, this guy calls and wants to see it. Um, okay. Way to be on top of things. But it turned out he came, he saw, he wanted. YAY! But he would like to move in on the first. Even bigger YAY! But we found this out Friday at five and the only day we had to move between then and the first was Saturday. Not so yay. Thanks to all the help we had from family, mainly Annika for packing up the kitchen and my mom for helping me know how to pack for reals, we were able to do it. After 15 hours of packing and moving non-stop (and I mean non-stop, we didn't even stop to eat until 9 that night) we were done. Whew.

Now we are just trying to settle back into the groove of things. We love love love our new ward, and we are really happy with where we live. Its close to the freeway, Bangerter, and of course, the parentals. Which is really nice for Sunday dinner. :)

After weeks of searching....

.....I found a beach that wants me. :) YIPPEE! My mom called with a surprise opportunity to go to San Diego with the family a week from Friday. Well of course I said yes! Who wouldn't? So Cory and I are going to spend a week on the beaches of Mission Bay, doing all those fun beach things. I'm super excited. This is also going to be a great photo op, so expect great amounts of pictures soon! In the meantime, I'll be packing, planning, driving, swimming, sunning, eating, more sunning, shopping, more swimming, and maybe Sea World-ing. We shall see!

Who put ME in charge here?

Really quick news.....

I got a promotion at my work.  YAY!  I'm now an assistant supervisor on my shift.  Mostly it means that I get my own set of keys and they leave me in charge every once in a while.  Scary.  Honestly, I think the part I was most excited about is the keys.  Now I don't have to worry about ending up with the set that gets stuck in the lock every time you use it, even if I do only end up with that set about 10% of the time.  Still.  Now I just have my very own.  

So next week my supervisor (Elena) is leaving me in charge because she thinks she should go out of town for her anniversary or something.  Whatever.  Mostly I'm just jealous that she's going on vacation.  But that means that I will be in charge all next week at work.  I'm super nervous.  I really hope everyone is wonderful and there are no crisis situations.  Hey, I can hope, right?  :)

Camping Adventures

Finals are over, we had the weekend off from work, what else were we to do?  We went camping!  Hooray!!  Most of the up-the-canyon campsites are still closed due to the fact there is still snow on the ground, so we chose to go to Antelope Island which is conveniently open all year round.  We got all packed up, made sure we had everything we could possibly need, and took the drive up to Syracuse aka the gateway to the island.  What could go wrong?

We soon found out.  After getting there about 5:00, we found our campsite without a problem.  It was a great spot, right by the west beach.  Perfect for watching sunsets.  When we got out of the Jeep, however, we were attacked.  To put it lightly.  There were swarms of little biting brine flies everywhere!  We couldn't believe it!  And of course, after all our careful planning and organizing, neither of us thought to bring bug spray.  Uh-oh.  Well, we thought, they'll go away after a while.  Maybe a fire will help, to kind of smoke them out.  So before the tent is even up, we started a fire.  Didn't help.  And we're not talking a minor irritation here.  We're talking biting, crawling in your ears, nose, hair, etc, making you want to run away screaming little buggers.  We got the tent up and started getting all situated, putting up the air mattress, etc.  And we brought the air mattress with a hole.  Of course we did.  No bug spray and a faulty mattress can mean only one thing.  Emergency trip to Wal-Mart!  I'm pretty sure the guy at the gate was laughing at us as we drove by in a mad rush.  Anyways, we got what we needed, doused ourselves in bug spray (100% deet and everything) and headed back.  I'm pretty sure that the bug spray didn't really help, but luckily the sun was going down and that seemed to be the brine fly cure.  We spent that night playing Uno (which I dominated) and sitting by the fire watching our dutch oven season.

It wasn't too cold either, which I thought was a bonus.  After a very windy night, we woke up to a very cold and slightly rainy outside, but we got up and started to make the infamous mountain man breakfast in the dutch oven.
It turned out super yummy!  I was so proud.  My very first dutch oven meal.  True, all I had to do was throw everything in and stir, but still.  We ended up heading back in the tent after breakfast because it was rainy and cold, played more Uno and took a nap.  We then went in a search for things to do.  And that's when it happened.  The bugs came back.  We don't want to seem like camping wusses or anything, but you have no idea.  It was bad.  So what ended up happening was we took a short hike to the top of a little mountain....
.....saw some antelope (on Antelope Island?  No way.....)......

.....took some pictures, got eaten some more by the bugs, I felt like I had lice, realized we really just wanted to go to a movie, packed up, and went home.  But before you judge, you must understand.  I had little red dots all over my hairline on my forehead and Cory's legs look like he had the chicken pox.  After we went home and showered a few dozen times, we went to the Wolverine movie (which is excellent by the way) and spent the rest of our weekend bug free.  So our three day camping trip was really only one and a half, but we've learned our lesson.  Don't go to Antelope Island in the spring.  The brine flies will eat you.  Seriously.

Um....now what?

So.  I'm done with finals.  HOORAY!!!  However, now I am left with that ever burning question: what do I do now?  I'm taking the rest of my classes through Independent Study and should be done with them fairly quickly, so that leaves a lot of my time open.  I need a new job.  Really, I do.  I've been applying anywhere and everywhere, but so far......nothing......not good.  

So here is where you all come in.  If you know of anything (and I mean anything) that people will pay me to do, and let me do it full time for a while, and preferably give me benefits, let me know.  And if it's not in Provo, excellent.  I want to get out of here for a while anyway!  ;)  Anyhoo, that is my plight for the moment.  

Oh and by the way.  Reasons I love spring:

1. Its warm enough that we took the top off the jeep.  WOOT!

2. We've have our window open for the last week.  Its excellent.

3. Last month, our utility bill was $40 less than what it was in February.  Most excellent in my book.  Lets never turn the heat on again.

4. Class is finally over

5. We had a picnic in the grass today.  And I got a little sunburned.  Summer tan, here I come!

And Lyn,  I know we need pictures, but to post pictures, we need to take pictures.  And our life consists of work and school.  Not many photo ops there, but hopefully summer will bring more!  :)

The things that happen that early in the morning....

This morning, Cory and I got up at the crack of dawn (no really, it was about 5:45), went and picked up my brother Michael, went to the middle of nowhere (which takes longer to get there since all these people keep wanting to live where the middle of nowhere once was), and shot at stuff.  Okay, it was a little more planned out and sophisticated than that, but not much.  We pulled out some targets and some bottles/random beer cans we found and shot them.  We had a little 22, a 223, and of course Cory's ever favorite 30-06.  Yah, I'm good with the 223, mostly because I can stand up while shooting, but I still feel like I'm shooting something.  Although the 22 is quite fun in its own way.  Anyways, we shot for a few hours, and then Cory wanted to go "try out" the Jeep.  On hills.  That I'm pretty sure were so steep I wouldn't be able to walk up them.  I think I'm in trouble, because it was very scary!  And this is nothing compared to all the Moab stuff Cory wants to do.  I think from now on I'll close my eyes and hang on!  :)

Just a small update.....

It rained again.  And the ceiling leaked again.  Bummer.

Jeeps and Leaky Ceilings

Life is excellent.  Well, besides the fact that I have finals this week.  But other than that small detail, life just keeps getting better and better.  But we do have a funny story!

The other day, it started raining pretty hard here in Provo, like it has been on and off for the last few weeks.  Perfect setting for popcorn and a movie.  So we decided to hook up the laptop and watch a movie in bed, mostly just in case I fell asleep.  :)  About five minutes later, I heard a "plunk.......plunk......" in the popcorn bowl that was on my nightstand.  Uh oh.  We turned on the light and sure enough!  The ceiling was dripping.  A lot.  And the paint was bubbling around the leak.  Seriously?  So we call the emergency maintenance people (keep in mind this is all happening around 9:00) and they said they would be there in about 45 minutes.  First of all, what kind of "emergency" maintenance people are 45 minutes away?  Second of all.....they didn't show.  Well, we finally went to bed and after we were asleep, Cory got a call at about 11:30.  Yah, we didn't answer.  The next day, they called back and said they would be there 12:00-12:30.  Again, no show.  As of right now, we still have a leaky ceiling and I'm just hoping it doesn't rain again!!  :)  

Okay, now for even bigger news.  A couple weeks ago, Cory and I bought our first car.  More specifically, we bought a Jeep Wrangler.  And we don't even have a car payment.  HOORAY!!  The Jeep (affectionately known as Wally) is orange, but its a good orange.  We have lots of big plans for making it super fun to drive in Moab.  Tee hee!   

Katie's Moment

I.  Hate.  Snow.  

It should be spring.

That is all.

I need more time in my life.....

It is apparent that I have been WAY too busy to update, so let me do it now while I have a few minutes.  The last month has gone very well, considering some circumstances that have arisen.  Cory and I still like each other (whew! =) ) and are still just loving being married.  School has started to pile up, and the pressure to keep it all up is growing.  Midterm tests were all last week, and one this week, but at least that part of the semester is almost over!  Work for me is going well, besides that fact that I recently got kicked in the head repeatedly.  That was super fun.  =)  Cory's work is going well too, and it looks like we'll be able to pay bills again.  Which is so not as much fun as shopping, but I'm learning.  Tee hee.  We were able to go on a mini vacation a few weeks back to Reno of all places.  That is where my grandparents are, and we went out to visit them along with the rest of my family.  Cory and I got there a day before everyone else and had some time to go see the car museum and get a lot of starbucks frappachinos.  It was so much fun.  I love vacations.  March is going to be a month full of birthdays and birthday parties, so hopefully I'll have some more to say in the near future!

One Month!

Today is the fantastic one month anniversary.  Woot!  I can't believe its already been one month, and in others, I can't believe it's only been a month!  But don't get me wrong, we LOVE being married!  It pretty much rocks.  Anyhoo, let's catch up.  We both have started school and work.  Cory's been working at the Sears Auto Center, and I've been working with the energy vampires at Maple Lake.  :)  I love my job, and I know Cory enjoys his.......most days.  Tee hee.  School is, well, school.  I have two classes in particular that I just adore, Child Psychopathology and Clinical Psychology.  Its been a rather eventful month, full of moving (still, I know), shopping, decorating, working, schooling, sleeping.....whew!  It doesn't help that I apparently am not allowed to sleep in anymore.  Cory and I had our first morning where both of us didn't have to be anywhere last Friday.  The very first one.  We are just so busy!

And So It Begins....

Whew.  We made it.  We're married!!!  I know, I can't believe it either.  But let me tell you, so far I am LOVING being married.  It is so amazing.  So let's catch up.  Our wedding day was incredible, but incredibly cold.  Taking pictures was so very very freezing.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to get them back and I'll either be red or blue.  I haven't decided yet!  ;)  Anyways, the luncheon was SO yummy.  Holy cow.  Then it was straight from the luncheon to the reception for more pictures, but these were inside at least, so I didn't freeze again.  Whew.  The reception was amazing, so beautiful and went perfectly.  Not to mention, my cake was so good.  Yay!  A yummy wedding cake!  That doesn't happen every day.  Then Cory and I left and spent the night at Little America in the most amazing room I've ever seen.  The next day we made our way down to Vegas Baby!  We spent a few days there and then came back up for New Year's Eve and present opening.  And then we started the moving process.  I'm telling you, I am not moving again for a very very long time.  We've been here about a week and we still have boxes everywhere.  But things are getting better.  It finally looks like people live here.  I'll post pictures soon.  And to top it all off, school just started.  Wow.  So not ready for that one.  But hopefully being married won't be as hard on my grades as being engaged was!  ;)  Tee hee.  We'll keep you posted on how things are going!