Indiana Adventures Part 1

Kandis found her way out here from Iowa City to help her pregnant sister unpack boxes. Here's a picture we took before she left:

So, apparently we didn't actually unpack that many boxes. Also, Indiana is great for my hair.
(p.s. - this is my belly at 22 weeks! check out the baby blog for more!)

Once the house was (more or less) established, we added a garden, and a cat!

Meet Winston!

I'm sure I'll have more to update on both of those topics soon!

We also met some fantastic neighbors (who at this point are basically family), and enlisted them in cutting back the jungle that is our back yard. Now it's practically livable! The Chodzinskis have taken to inviting us over for dinner a couple times a week, and sending over dinner pretty much every night they don't invite us over. I have decided that Mindy is convinced I'm not gaining enough weight in this pregnancy and has made it her personal mission to make sure I jump over the 200 lb mark.

Speaking of people taking care of us, our ward here is amazing! We warned the Bishop and Elder's Quorum President ahead of time that we'd be showing up, and so the missionaries were there to help us unpack our truck, and we had our first dinner and breakfast in the home delivered to us. On top of that, we also received our ward callings right after church our first Sunday - I served as the nursery leader until the middle of September, and Jordan served as a Sunday School teacher for the 12-14 year-olds for the same amount of time. What an efficient ward!

Moving to Indiana!

(Blog Catch-Up Post #Elebenty)

Let me just say this: finding a job is very stressful. It was an especially scary time for us because in spite of our (read: Jordan's) Herculean efforts, we couldn't seem to get any bites! (Side note: apparently the trick to getting job offers is to accept one somewhere else. Then suddenly people start calling you back. Go figure.) We pursued a lead with some of Jordan's old lab mates who had been hired out in Indiana, and made some progress! Interestingly, they seemed to like Jordan enough from just a phone interview (which was more like a setting-up-our-trip interview, they basically already knew he was awesome) to fly us all the way out to Indiana and show us around!

We got out in the middle of March to figure out the lay of the land. We had fun learning about South Bend and figuring out where we might survive here, so far away from western civilization.

Jordan aced the interview by being amazing, and was hired on as a Process Engineer at Manufacturing Technology Inc. (Fancy title, right? Get a Master's Degree and you too can waltz around with a bullet point like that on your resume! Wooo hooo!!! Go Jordan!!!). So we figured we should take a separate trip (May 2nd and 3rd) to go house hunting before starting the job a month later (June 2nd).

We spent two *very* full days touring every known 3-bedroom housing unit known to the internet in the South Bend - Mishawaka - Elkhart area (Thanks to Kim and Scott Rose for housing us during this adventure!), and, naturally, ended up at the second-to-last place we looked.

Welcome to 54542 29th Street! Come on down if you're ever in the area!

We're in love with the place, and accidentally picked the home in the best possible location. We have amazing neighbors, are centrally located to *everything*, and have our own garden, huge yard, and more space than we need (read: more space than we can keep clean). We're excited to some day step out of our renter's shoes and become homeowners, but in the meantime this is a perfect middle step.

We're a bit far from family and friends, but looking forward to the adventures and opportunities out here for a little while. Next step: Actually tour Notre Dame campus, rather than just drive by it every day.

Bert-Day

(Once again, this post was written on Blog Catchup Day)

My 2014 birthday was everything I could have hoped and dreamed of!

We started off the season with a Words of Radiance party, hosted by the fantastic James and Charity West the night of the book release. They had an awesome themed party, with fun treats and a self-designed Shattered Plains board game (we competed for a gemheart, aka Ring Pop).

Floured Bread and Jam - An important factor in The Way of Kings (Book#1). Also, mine and Jordan's contribution to the goodies.

A Care Bear Cake with Bridge Four's insignia on it. 

Chicken - mentioned as a delicacy in the books

The majority of the animal life in the book are crustaceans. Someone brought a plate of "cremlings" to share!

The alcohol content of a drink could be determined by its color. Or, in the case of this party, the "alcohol" content. 

A pretty impressive map of the Shattered Plains, complete with horses, gemhearts, and a Parshendi

On a Costco trip a few days before my birthday, I asked Jordan if we could get all the books in the Divergent series. I had started the first book and liked it, and figured I would one day want them all in my collection.

As it turns out, I was wrong. The books were fine, but I don't know that I'll ever read them again, and the whole series took me about 4 days to read. Definitely should have put that money toward something more lasting....

My actual big day was filled with a series of perfect-timings. Jordan took me to the Hogle Zoo! We hadn't gone together, and it was fun to see the changes they made, and appreciate their art exhibits. We made it to *every single* animal feeding. I think we were unintentionally following the zookeepers on their rounds throughout the zoo. We were pretty sure we'd catch the end of the sea lion show, but ended up getting there a couple minutes before it started.

A picture from the zoo. Feel inspired.

After the zoo, we got ourselves back to Provo. Jordan asked me to text Nadia to see if we could drop something off at her house, and she said to come on over. So we did!

Guess what.

It was a SURPRISE PARTY JUST FOR ME! And we got there *just in time* as the cake was getting finished.

Nadia made a fantastic Peruvian ice cream cake, loaded us up with sugar, did my hair and nails, and then sent us on our way for our hot date. Also, I think we watched the Goofy Movie.

I kept these nails pretty much up until we moved. 

Jordan took me to one of my favorite restaurants - the Roll Up Cafe. We were worried that we were arriving a little late, but if we'd arrived any earlier, we wouldn't have learned about an awesome bluegrass band - Wandering Woods

Someone was really looking out for me to make sure my day was special, and not just the man of my dreams. Hooray for Tender Mercies!

Valen-Times

Once again, this post is actually being brought to you by July 14th, 2014 (which shall heretofore be referred to as "Blog Catch Up Day"). Let's see what I remember about last Valentine's Day!

First of all, I was working all day. Sounds like a bummer, I'm sure, but it wasn't too bad - Dr. Park got us treats! And staff members wrote each other Valentines! And I got to say "Happy Valentine's Day!" to people on the phone. So, overall, a good day at work.

After work, I got home, showered, shaved my legs (for the first time in way too long) and straightened my hair (again, it had been a while). Jordan and I exchanged gifts (I got him a card and a My Little Pony Trading Card Game set, he got me a love letter and re-gifted last Valentine's Day's stuffed otter (he and I both think he got me something else, too, but can't remember what it was).

Then we went to the Kyoto Steakhouse and Sushi Bar. I had been there once before, and was so excited to share it with Jordan!

As it turns out, we should have made a reservation. There was an hour wait for a table, so we walked over to Shopko and Seagull book to browse and kill time. Even when we went back an hour later, we still had a bit of a wait. Then, after we were seated at a table, we continued to wait (while they found others to sit our table with us?). I went up to the waitress and begged to at least get a Sprite (I was 7 weeks pregnant at this time, and the smells of the cooking meat combined with the very empty stomach were just a bad combination). The hostess was so embarrassed, we were quickly supplied with our drinks and a roll of fish-free sushi that tasted *delicious*.

Unfortunately, this was all I was to taste that evening. I spent the majority of the remainder of the night hiding in the bathroom away from the smells. When I finally emerged, Jordan was gone. I was a little nervous, until I checked my phone and saw that he'd run home to grab his forgotten wallet. He came back, settled the bill, and got me home.

Never fear! Our doggy-bagged leftovers tasted even better the next day after having a chance to marinade, and I learned my lesson about going to a Hibachi grill during morning sickness.

Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Years Group Post

It's official. Jordan and I need to become more of a picture-taking family. All of these pictures are more or less shamelessly stolen from family members (love you guys!)
Update: I'm actually getting around to writing this post on 7/14/14. So, as it turns out, there will now be more or less no pictures.... oops!

Thanksgiving -
Thanksgiving was spent in Manti with the Wonderful Walser family. On the way up we discovered how important it was to have a working windsheild wiper fluid  nozzle, specifically on the driver's side. That was some wet, muddy snow we were kicking up!
We got to spend a lot of time with Aunt Caty & Uncle Adam's kids, Alex, Neala and Lici (Alicia). These poor snow-deprived children have grown up in Vegas, and so were very excited about building a snowman. Well...we tried. The sandy snow we were getting in Manti didn't want to help us out, but we tried! It was fun to see them so excited and re-opened my eyes to how much fun snow can be! And then my toes froze. And it stopped being fun.
Dinner was fantastic, the company beyond compare. We even got to join in on the Despain/Till Thanksgiving circle via phone. Hooray for technology!

Christmas -

We had a lot of fun decorating our little apartment for Christmas. We even had some presents (mostly our own Black Friday purchases) to put under the tree!

For our Christmas trip (soon after our fireman fiasco), we first quickly swung by Manti to say hello to the family and exchange gifts. Grandma Walser learned from Thanksgiving that I am a huge fan of peppermint patties, and gave me an appropriate gift.

She is one. Classy. Lady.

After nowhere near enough time, we braved the weather (which wasn't too bad) and started the trek up to Oregon. We slept in my attic bedroom with the two beds pushed together. It was so fun to get to spend that much time with Jordan in the home where I grew up! We also accomplished finally cleaning out my room. We didn't have much snow to speak of, but we made out like bandits with all kinds of good loot, including a new T.V., which we thought we were buying ourselves, but Mom beat us to the punch. The hardest part of Christmas was getting all of our gifts back with us!

A big highlight of our Christmas adventure was getting to talk to Hermana Chrysta Despain for the first (and with the way her mission is going, second-to-last) time since she started serving in Tampa, FL. It was so great to see her!

New Years -
For our New Year's Date we treated ourselves to a fancy dinner at La Jolla Groves at the Riverside Mall. A bit pricey for us starving non-students, but worth the splurge! Those guys have some fancy menu options. It was really good to have an excuse to dress up and do something different. We also made some plans for the  new year (writing this post up 7 months later gives me a good chance to check our progress!)
Resolutions:
Health - Lose extra weight, do 30 minutes of cardio 3x a week, improve on pullups and mile running time, stick to the Feel Great in 8 Challenge
Academic/Skills - Get Jordan graduated, find a new job, find a home, program (on the computer) a playable "Hand and Foot", learn how to sew with the machine (Angela), look into becoming a certified veterinary technician (Angela)
Character - Talk negatively about others less, and serve more.
Spiritual - Be 100% on church callings, including home and visiting teaching. Finish the Book of Mormon, attend the temple monthly, be consistent in journaling.

(July Update - well, a lot of the health goals got shot to pieces with the pregnancy. Now that I'm feeling better, I should really pick up on them! But I think pullups and running a faster mile might be out of the question for me. Academically we still have a little bit of work to get Jordan graduated, and I more or less gave up on certifying as a veterinary technician, but there's no reason not to finally open up the sewing machine! I think we're doing fairly well on our character building and spiritual goals, but might need to pick it up a bit on our progress in the Book of Mormon, and we definitely need to be more consistent journallers)

It's a Christmas Miracle!

So, on Saturday, our car exploded.

We'd been driving around shoveling snow and ice off of most of the sidewalks in the city of Provo per our status as Continental Apartments R.A.'s.

It was magical.

(In all seriousness, it was actually very satisfying work. Although, if anyone knows of a way to shovel multiple blocks of snow without tweaking your back, both Jordan and I would love to know your secrets)

We got home, and got ready to make a fantastic dinner for some friends. You see, I have these Christmas dishes this year, but discovered that I had no one to share them with. So we've been inviting people over! It's like real Christmas!

However, we were missing some very Hawaiian Haystack necessary ingredients (namely, slivered almonds. I started the night being adamant that they be slivered. I have since determined that they may be sliced. It is acceptable... but still not the best).

So my daring husband went out to trek to the grocery store, and the car wouldn't start. It would make angry noises and smell like gasoline. So I went to stare into the maw of the beast, and was rewarded with a gasoline geyser to the face.

After calling my mechanic Dad, we determined that it was probably going to not explode immediately upon starting it. So we did it again, discovering the source of the spewing. A hose (I think leading to the injector? I think? Is that a thing?) had a inch or so long split along the seam. So, being Saturday night, we were grounded.

Luckily, we live within walking distance of church. Unluckily, I found out I was working on Sunday (not that it would have made a big difference, but it's always frustrating to find our your working the day before you work.... /rant). Also luckily, my dear brother offered to drive me to said shift. It was very frustrating to be dependent on him for getting to work, but we survived it!

So, this morning, Jordan and I slapped some duct tape on the sucker and revved her up.

Turns out, gasoline dissolves the adhesive on duct tape.

SCIENCE.

So, we ("we" being "me" - Jordan had to go to work) called our handy dandy USAA towing (I married the right guy. Go USAA!) and told them that we had a fuel leak.

So, that was bad word choice.

Next thing I knew, I had a 9-1-1 operator on the phone and a fire truck in front of our apartment complex.

Anywho, those guys were the bomb. I apologized to them for calling them away from real emergencies, and showed them the busted hose. These guys were great. They took a look and he said "Well, as a fireman, I'm going to go ahead and clear you to get your car towed. But as Joe Blow from down the street, I'm just going to fix this for you."

AND THEN THE MAGICAL FIREMEN FIXED OUR CAR.

They were charming and kind and very proficient. He cut off the busted part of hose and reattached it. And now it purrs like a dream. And I gave them a plate of snickerdoodles.

And now the car is ready to go up to Oregon this weekend! Although probably we're going to still replace the hose, but at least now I can go to work today!

We are so blessed. It was much better to discover this problem now, rather than somewhere in the middle of Idaho during our trip. Grateful for the little miracles!

Final Halloween Post

In spite of what the publication date may say on this beauty, I'm not actually writing it until almost a year later (7/14/14)....oops! Let me see what I can remember on the few topics that I put in this unpublished draft...

Work Party - The posse at the Park Animal hospital put up an awesome potluck party, complete with gross veterinary-themed treats. Bladder stone lemonade, kitty litter cake, and tapeworm spaghetti were up there on the list. We brought blood punch (yeah, we're not super creative or fantastic cooks....), but as I recall there was enough other punch that we never actually ate it. Ah well!

The party also involved us all sitting in a circle discussing our favorite spooky memories. It was a really fun way to get to know the staff better, I still felt so new!

Work also gave me an opportunity to display a few awesome decorations sent to me by Grandma. Our front desk was very well dressed up, including my betta fish (in costume, of course!) and the gorgeous glitter pumpkins made by Laura.

Overall, my favorite work Halloween memory had nothing to do with the party or decorations. It was time to prep some animals for surgery, so I went and found Chawnee, and said "Hey, Chawnee, I vant to drraw some bluud.", she said ok and started walking back to the treatment area. A little disappointed with her lack of reaction I said "Well, get it?" and she whipped around and said "YEAH!!! 'CUZ HALLOWEEEN!!!"

Made. My. Year.

I also loved having the chance to wear Halloween scrubs and a fancy Halloween bow I made all by myself (with leftover ribbon from the wreath).

One Last Memory:
Trent and Nadia's ward put on an amazing party, which Jordan and I were late for. But we got there in time for the costume contest! Which, as Nadia rightfully insists, we really should have won outright. We did place in the top 3 in the family contest! I think we would have done better if the judge hadn't been confused about what we were (really? We were dressed as some of the most iconic video game characters of all time! Come on!)

We're already talking about dressing up together again this year, this time as characters from the Zelda series.