Football

My brother, Mom, Dad, Josh and I tailgated at the USU vs. Boise State football game.
Here's the exact same picture but with me instead of my mom.

During the game, a guy came up to me and asked if I would participate in one of those half time activities. I said no repeatedly, but Josh said yes-and he won. The best part was that the guy who was asking me to do it said, "The other girl, her name is (I don't remember), and you totally look like you could take her." HA! Like somehow that is going to convince me.
The object was to put on a jersey, and helmet, punt the ball, and run to the other side of the field. When they were explaining the instructions, they said, "You just have to kick the ball, it doesn't matter how far it goes." So I took that literally. My dad said it was the first time in history that someone outran the punt.
I figures I had an advantage since I used to wear Josh's jersey all the time. But I still lost! (They announced over the loud speaker that I won though.) The consolation prize was $40 to Angie's, so I guess it was worth the embarrassment.

The Only Constant is Change

We've had a lot of updates lately, and I decided to kind of split things up with different posts, so sorry there are four new posts. Most of the news will be old news for most of you, so you can just skip past those. They are also just updates, no pictures. Sorry! It's pathetic how few pictures I have taken this year, and it's my goal every week to take pictures, but I get involved in other things.

So... Josh and I were finally starting to feel settled. We closed on our house, and were mostly moved in, expecting a baby, Josh had gotten a couple promotions at work, and of course, as soon as you start making plans, life takes over. On July 7th, exactly one week to the day that we closed on our house, Josh had a conference call at work saying that his company is closing. (Luckily he didn't call me until he had more information, or I would have freaked out.) When he told me, I thought it was either a cruel joke, or we had really ignored a lot of signs saying that we shouldn't buy a house. It's actually just the branch of Wells Fargo that Josh works for is closing, but they are relocating any employees who aren't management. So rather than working for Wells Fargo Financial, Josh is going to work for the bank as a personal banker.

I'm hoping that this was all just a huge blessing in disguise because from the looks of it, his commute to work will be cut in half, his salary will be the same, and he has been debating for a while whether he should switch to the banking division or not. So maybe this was just the kick in the pants that he needed.

Happy 4th!

Because of all the craziness with our house, our anniversary really wasn't much this year. We went to Rodizio's with my parents, and the food was great of course, and we were staying at Josh's parents' house for our actual anniversary. But I just had to mention that Josh and I have been married for 4 years on the 24th of June! I thought a lot lately about how our relationship has changed overtime. It was really fun when we were newly married (or I guess super-newly married, because we're still kind of newly weds) but really the longer we're married the more I like our relationship, and Josh too for that matter. We've had quite the year this year with the miscarriage, the pregnancy, and the new house, and I really feel like Josh and I have grown so much closer through it all. Josh has become more my best friend lately than he ever was before. I feel really lucky that I get to be with him everyday. So happy 4th anniversary Josh! I love you!

Nothing Short of a Miracle!!!

So I posted a long time ago that Josh and I bought a house. After I wrote the post I thought, "We didn't actually "buy" the house, we're just under contract." But what could go wrong, right? Ha ha! Famous last words. In the offer that we wrote, we had until June 9th to close. We got to the 9th and my mom (who was our realtor) asked Josh if there were any concerns with our loan or if it was going to go through. At that point, everything looked fine, so we extended the date. A couple days later, Josh told me that our loan had been cancelled. To make a very long story short (that I honestly don't understand very well), the house that we bought is a flipped house. It was sold as a foreclosure in February, and we wrote our contract at the end of April. Apparently, that equals a problem. (If the house is resold within 90 days.) The month of June for me was full of appraisal after appraisal; inspection after inspection. I was so frustrated because I felt like everything could have been handled with one inspection and one appraisal but apparently that wasn't the case. After 2 months of ups and downs, Josh and I decided that if we didn't close on the house by June 30th (the day the tax credit ran out) we would take it as a sign that we weren't supposed to buy the house, and make other plans. Well eventually our landlords said that we couldn't stay in our apartment anymore, (who could blame them? We originally told them we were moving out Memorial Day weekend, and they had already rented to someone else) so June 18th, we moved to Honeyville with Josh's parents. They were so nice to take us in on such short notice and we are forever grateful, but at that point, I had had enough!!! On June 25th, Josh was told by our processor to plan on closing on Monday the 28th. Josh got off the phone and said to me, "I don't see how that's possible. They haven't had our paperwork for long enough to know that everything is fine." Sure enough, Monday morning, Josh received a phone call with more problems with our loan. The worst part was that it was the dumbest things that were keeping us from moving in. Our most recent inspection said that the water heater "burned dirty," which we already knew and thought our home warranty could take care of, there was a hole in the dirt by a window well that needed to be filled in, and there was a crack in the siding that needed to be caulked. Josh ended up just fixing them himself, and I met him at the house that night and kept thinking to myself, "I can't believe that a hole in the dirt, and an inch long crack in the siding is keeping us from moving into our house!!!" Needless to say that was a bad day! I learned what my breaking point was and I hit it that night. So of course, on Tuesday the 29th, we had yet another inspection, but the good news is, everything was roses from then on out! As I said in the title, with nothing short of a miracle, we closed on our house on June 30th at 4:00 pm. (I know! Nothing like waiting till the last minute.) I can say without a doubt that without Josh and my mom's persistence, there is absolutely no way that we would have been able to get into our house. I also have to say that we can't say thanks enough to Josh's family. They did our first, (and what should have been only) inspection, they helped us move TWICE, and took us in when we were homeless. Now we are enjoying being in our house even though we have an ENDLESS list of things to do now. The joys of owning a home right? I will put pictures this weekend when I have had a chance to put some more things in their place, and clean.

Xian or Bertha May

On June 11th we had our ultrasound. Since we've been pregnant Josh has been joking (or at least I hope he's joking) about different names for our child. He said that if the baby was a boy we should name him Xian (pronounced "Sean") and if she was a girl, we would name her Bertha May. So...
I know it's kind of hard to tell from the pictures, but we're having a GIRL!!!!! I was so excited, and I think Josh has come around to the idea. (Her name won't really be Bertha May-don't worry.) Everyone always says, "We just hope that the baby is healthy... etc." I didn't realize how true that was until we were at the ultrasound. It was so amazing for the tech to say over and over again, "Everything is perfect!" And I absolutely loved watching the baby suck her thumb or yawn. It made it all so much more real. The ultrasound took about an hour and the whole time the tech was trying to figure out if it was a girl or a boy, but he just kept saying, "The baby is really stubborn." "The baby is just comfortable where it is." Josh and I could have told you a long time ago that our baby would be stubborn. It runs in her blood. :) So bring on the bows!!!!!

Changes

So I haven't posted for awhile, because, honestly, I've only had one thing on my mind, and everything else paled in comparison when I thought about posting. I know many of you know by now, but Josh and I have some big changes that are happening in our lives. In April, we made a snap decision and bought a house. Honestly, Josh and I have talked about buying a house since the day we got married, but were never sure if it was the right time, or where would be the best place for us to buy. The last 2 weeks of April, because the tax credit was running out, Josh decided that now is the right time. I have been the one pestering him to buy a house for 4 years, and when he finally committed, I started freaking out. (Of course, that's how it goes, right?) I'm still getting used to the idea of staying in Cache Valley, and right now, I think both Josh and I are just dreading all the work ahead of us, but I do think it is the best idea for us right now.

This is the front room.

Kitchen

and more kitchen.

Family room.

Master bedroom.

Second bedroom. :)

And mine and Josh's full time job for the summer. The yard is pretty big, and has a quite a bit of work required. I've promised Josh that I will help if he will help paint. And I promised I would mow the lawn if he doesn't spend all of our money on a riding lawn mower.

So that is actually just one of the big changes that is happening, but the one I really care about is...The new addition to our family! For my birthday this year, Josh got me an ultrasound to hear my baby's heart beat. (And so far, this baby is only the second most expensive birthday present Josh has gotten me, because 4 years ago, he proposed on my birthday. Like I said, so far... We've only made a "down payment" on the baby-so I know that record is not going to last long.) According to the ultrasound, we are due on Halloween, and so far, all of our appointments have been very routine, and everything seems normal. (Which I know, is amazing, Josh and I are normal!) So far, I have had a very "No Complaints" pregnancy because I really haven't been very sick. I've just been very tired, and hungry all the time-which is not that different for me. Right now, I'm about 16 weeks along, and we'll find out in June what we are having. So I'll keep you posted!!!

Success after 3 years!

Yes, we are alive and I think about posting every once in awhile, but I talk myself out of whatever I was going to post because nothing is happening in our lives that I think anyone else would really care about. So I know that our lives aren't super exciting, but I want to point out that the last line of my last post said, "I hope I post again before Christmas!" Well, I didn't quite make it. So... Josh and I enjoyed Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. My goal this year was to take pictures of some of those events, and you can tell how well that worked out by the fact that I didn't post about any of them.

This year, Josh and I have enjoyed going to the Utah State football and basketball games. We got a really good deal on season tickets, and I'm finally accepting the fact that I am not a student anymore, and have been out of school for almost a year longer than I was ever in school, (which was a hard realization for me to come too.) and therefore, we don't get to sit in the student section anymore. But this year has made me realize that I can enjoy basketball games even when I'm not in the student section.

Josh and I finally succeeded at Valentine's Day after 3 years of practice. I've kind of struggled with Valentine's Day for the last little while, because I think that it causes more fights, than makes you think about how much you love each other. Most years, I tell Josh that we don't have to do anything big, and he takes that literally, and so I end up mad when we are either watching sports with his brother, or he tries to take me to Angie's for dinner. But I think Josh and I are getting better at this marriage thing, because we talked openly about what we wanted to do for Valentine's Day (instead of me dropping vague hints, and waiting for an amazing surprise that never happened.) The only thing that didn't go so well about the day is that we tried to get breakfast at McDonald's at 10:30 and 5 seconds, and they refused. (See, McDonald's breakfast is a tradition of ours dating back to Josh's family bringing it to the temple on our wedding day. We have pictures of walking out of the temple doors, and then both of us eating an egg McMuffin.) After the McDonald's disappointment, we went snowboarding, ate dinner at Iron Gate Grill (one of my favorites in Logan) and then went to see the movie Valentine's Day. And we made it through an entire Valentine's Day without any screaming, fighting, or not speaking to each other. YEA!