Nothing Much Happening Except...

Apologies for the neglect of my blog. A lot has happened. So to follow up on my last post, no we did not end up going to Switzerland. (I wish we had.) Instead we ended up going to China. It was a misadventure of sorts. We learned a lot by doing it, first an foremost was that we shouldn't travel to countries where we don't speak the language. My cousin lives outside of Hong Kong so we decided to go visit him. He talked us into flying into Shanghai and taking a train down to where he lived. That was our big mistake. We should have gone directly to Hong Kong and spent time with him then came home. We did see a lot and had some yummy food, but the trip was so stressful. Not a pleasant vacation. If I ever go back it will be with a tour group.

So, since then, my husband has changed his major twice. We've moved back up to Cache valley for one of those. Though we will be moving down to the Salt Lake area next summer for sure because his current field of study has a very limited selection of online courses. We have enough for the spring semester but we will need to be down there for the rest. I really hope he sticks with this one!

My nephew moved in with us at the end of November 2014. He was 11 then. It has been a rocky road of emotions and fights and stress. It has been difficult to go from no kids at all to a preteen to now a teenager. Teens are not fun. So dramatic. Ugh. We have good days every now and then, but the majority are hard. So far we plan to keep him. But it's really up to him.
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As for me. Nothing really big up until this past few months. We were trying to get pregnant. So we were seeing an OBGYN and doing fertility treatments. (I have PCOS.) My doctor wanted to do a hysteroscopy because he noticed the lining of my uterus was a little thicker than normal and he wanted to check to make sure everything was okay. He removed two polyps. About a week later I get a phone call at work. He was very somber, apologetic. I was slightly confused as to why he would be until he said it, "I'm so sorry, but we found cancer." Then he rushed through what was going on, or at least it felt rushed. I was in shock. I was at work. I couldn't cry at work. So I went upstairs and found my husband (who luckily got a job at my work in a different department.) I pulled him into the elevator, the only place I knew we could be alone because it's rarely used, and told him. I bawled then and he held me.
A miracle happened for me that day. I forgot to order my lunch before 9 (because of the phone call) so my hubby went over and got me a crepe from The Crepery. While in line my mom walked in. He said hi and then brought me my lunch. When I found out my mom was there I called her asking her to please come see me. She came and I bawled some more as I told her. She held me too and let me cry. I don't think my mo has been that affectionate since I left for my mission, or maybe at my wedding. But I needed my mom and the Lord knew I needed her and put her there for me.
That was back at the end of August. We were referred to a cancer clinic in Salt Lake. Our only options were hysterectomy and hormone treatment. Of course we leaned to hormone treatments right off the bat. But then we were stopped cold by learning that the hormones used were the same ones I had taken as birth control the first year of my marriage. The same ones I gained 50 lbs in one year with. Only this time the dosage would be stronger. This time there would only be a 15% chance that the cancer would go away. In the mean time I would be ruining my body with massive weight gain. So after many long talks and prayer we decided to opt for the hysterectomy. Because, even though I would not be able to carry my own children in the womb, We could always adopt.
Now I am sitting at home after surgery, recovering. It's been two weeks. The first week was the worst. I felt like crap. The pain meds don't agree with me so I ended up not taking them for long and switching to acetaminophen (aka Tylenol.) I'm tired now. But no longer in pain. I get to go back to work part time starting next Wednesday and even though it's stressful, I look forward to it because you can only play puzzle games, watch Netflix, and read for so many days before becoming bored with it all.

Switzerland...oh please, oh please!

On Friday last I had a mission companion send this to me via my Facebook messages, "So (name omitted) is getting married on Aug 22, so we are planning on going. Well we are going to save money for the trip and two weeks before the date check to see if we save up (enough) money, what do you think, wanna come with us?? I haven't been back and it would be nice to see everyone!! I have a buddy who could give us buddy passes for about $150 I believe. I'll ask to make sure. So we will save and see if we saved enough, if you guys decide to jump on board with our plans, that would be awesome!!!!"

I was floored. I have been having dreams about being able to take my husband back to my mission, specifically to Switzerland, for the past two months. Oh please, let this be an answer to my dreams! 

Of course I said we were on board. A lot rides on those buddy passes. Though I know they won't be $150, probably closer to 1K is what I'm guessing. But even that could save us a lot of money in airfare. I was looking to see how much it would be outright. The cheapest tickets I have found are about $1600 each. Not to mention the hotel and food costs for a trip like that. It could easily be 5k total. So if we get the buddy passes, that could make the cost much easier to bear.

I've been looking at hotels and dreaming of Switzerland more now.

Banzai!!

So we're in that season of preparation for Anime Banzai, our local annual anime convention. Right now we're trying to decide what we should go as, or more specifically, what anime do we need to watch in order to pick the cosplay costumes in time to order them. It's a tough decision.
Yeah, we've been looking at costumes and we're stuck. (We decided to do it backward and look at costumes first.) *sigh* This might take a few days.

May the 4th be with You!

My hubby and I are big Star Wars fans. (We're also big Star Trek fans, so don't even try to argue with me about them. Both are great!) This year for May the 4th, Star Wars Day, we had the opportunity to wear Star Wars clothing to church. I think we were the only people there today who did. I was surprised at the number of people who did not know that today is Star Wars Day. There were quite a few who said they were big fans, but hadn't even heard of it. :) I'm glad to share the fun.
Here's a picture of my husband's cool tie that we found on Etsy and my Star Wars Shirt I wore to church and I get to wear to work tomorrow.
On that note, I don't believe I have ever mentioned how big a Star Wars fan my boss is. Dave, my boss/company owner, is an awesome guy. He's even more awesome because he's a huge SW fan. (I'm going to abbreviate Star Wars as SW for the rest of the blog to save time.) He's named rooms in our office after SW things. Upstairs is all of the Rebel stuff, ex Jedi Academy is the name of the conference room, and downstairs is the Empire stuff, the conference room is call the Galactic Senate and a secondary meeting room is the Trash Compactor, while a small interview room is the Sith Academy. On May the 4th we get to wear jeans if we wear SW shirts. I'm so excited to wear mine!

AMV - Inspired by EA

Reading EA's post about AMVs got us thinking we'd like to do one too. We think we have a song picked out and an anime to pair it to, now we have to figure out where to start. I'll admit I'm rather overwhelmed by the project. Hopefully it goes well!
Wish me luck!

Needing a Change

Of late I've been feeling rather blah. I feel like we've been stuck in a rut for a while and I can't seem to get out of it no matter how hard I try. There is very little in my life that I feel I have control over. I think it's one reason I keep changing my hair the way I do. (btw I'm getting it cut this Wednesday so we'll see how it turns out.)

The other day I was talking my hubby about things. I think he feels much the same as I do. We've been trying to do things together to boost our morale. We've been exercising together, just a lot of walking while watching shows of Hulu, but we do feel less guilty about sitting here watching shows. We've also been playing a free mmo rpg together (Ragnarok 2 - via Steam). It can be a lot of fun. Usually I have him do all the talking with the excuse that I can run and talk at the same time. (a little gamer joke.) But it feels like we do get a little socialization that way.
This past weekend we spent two nights at my in-laws home. It was nice not being stuck in our apartment like usual. We ran errands, talked, and while the men went to Priesthood session of conference together I got to go to a yarn store with my mother-in-law. (I like craft stores, they're full of possibilities.)

On Sunday we had tickets to go to the afternoon session of Conference. It was hectic getting into the conference center. It usually isn't so bad. The session was great. Though I spent half of it trying to keep my hubby awake. We were up in the balcony and it gets really warm. On a brighter note I did run into someone from my mission. It was two members from Grenoble. They came to visit some of their mission companions and go to conference. It was good to see them, though I felt bad that I forgot one of their names. I'm surprised they actually remembered me though. I don't look much like I did on my mission after cutting and dying my hair (plus adding some weight.) But they probably use facebook and have seen some of my photos or something. It was good to see them.

Overall though, the blah feeling persists. I don't know if it's because i feel like something should be happening that isn't or what. I do know that I'm tired of it though. I want to move on already. I need a change. Or something to bring me hope of a change in the very least.

5th Time's the Charm?

So he lost his job again. *sigh* This was another stupid company reason. Back in September a dozen or so employees decided they'd work on their own personal accounts at work and believe that Google would figure it out. Right. Idiots. You can't hide something from Google. Their business is information.
Well come January Google decided to not renew their contract. (would you?) The company then offered a full-time student a job that requires 8 weekat 40hrs for training. Did they miss the fact that he's a full-time student? Seriously? Needless to say, her had to refuse the offer. 
I'm trying to put a positive spin on it and say he now has time to focus solely on school work. He's still looking for a job, but if he doesn't find one by summer he'll probably be back at his awesome summer grounds crew job that he did last year. The hours are brutal, but the pay is good.

January Blues

Winter brings a change from the oppressing heat of summer. We also get most of our water during this season as well. (I live in a desert.) But Sometime this season gets so depressing! We get very little sunlight and it's too cold to spend much time outdoors, unless you ski or snowboard, but I don't have the knees for that anymore.
I know we need more snow. We haven't gotten nearly enough. (People in the Eastern US, send us your snow!!!) I'm ready for spring to start. I know I've still got two months or so, but sheesh! I need some natural happiness around here already!

Also, work and family events have become depressing because of people being pregnant. No one tells you how hard it is to conceive and how discouraging it is when nearly everyone around you is having babies. Not to mention that some people are extremely insensitive about prodding you, "When are you having kids?" "Are you planning on kids?" "If you wait to long..."  I might just scream at the next person who "lovingly" asks when we're planning on having kids. We're trying. It's not happened yet. Get off my case.

To those of you who have been patient and understanding, you are awesome and we love you.

Happy New Year!

That last month flew by. But we had some excellent things happen. My hubby got a job! Christmas! And I survived all the parties we had to go to!
We played card games with my parents and their friends for New Year's eve. We also enjoyed some yummy snacks and got rid of the rest of our ham hock and bean soup. (Which everyone complemented us on. Thank you Allrecipies.com.)
We're not completely out of the stressfulness just yet, but things are definitely improving. It's nice to have two incomes again. It was very stressful to do it all by myself. I'll have to remember that.

We've been dreaming of a new car again. Not that there's anything wrong with our current one. (Well, besides the little odd annoyances. But what vehicle is without those?) We were looking at the Chevy Cruze.

But then we were looking at the Spark and liked it too.

I guess it really depends on how much leg room there is in it. It says front leg room is 42 inches. It's a 4-door and the back seats fold down to give more cargo room. And we'd probably do the lime green. :)

Not that we're planning on getting a car anytime soon. We're just dreaming.

Gratitude

Thanksgiving is this coming Thursday. We've been talking a lot being grateful lately and I've been thinking about all of the wonderful blessings in my life.
Things have not been easy for the past little while. We seem to have a little roller coaster going on, but I realized that I learn gratitude when I have to go without. I am grateful for canned food. It's cheap and filling. It might not have the best nutritional content, but I can make a meal of it that has a showing from most of the major food groups. :) I also appreciate fresh foods so much more after a stint on food storage.
I am grateful for my husband. We're not perfect but we suit each other. We can make each other laugh and we can cry together too. It's nice not to be alone.
I am grateful for animals. They always seem to know when we need them. Even strangers' pets can tell when you need an extra cuddle from them. I firmly believe God gave us animals in our lives to give companionship and love. (I wish we could have one in our apartment!)
I am grateful to good neighbors. They're mostly quiet but are willing to stop and chat for a bit when we all have time. They don't ignore us. In fact they smile when they see us. It's good to feel welcome.
I am grateful for my family. I have very kind and generous parents. They talk with us and they also know to let us struggle along as long as we can manage by ourselves. They also know when to tell us we're being dumb and they're going to help us whether we want it or not. :) They also feed us. It's been nice to have food that is different from what we've been eating...which I'm still grateful for.
There's also camaraderie to be had with our siblings. We can go to their homes and play games. We can talk. We can ask them for advice without being judged for it. I appreciate it.
I'm grateful when my husband gets a job offer. It's a relief knowing I wont have to be the sole provider. That has been quite stressful. I am grateful that my husband, though discouraged, never gave up looking for a job. It's not fun filling out applications with little result. (He just got a job last night and starts Monday btw. We're excited!)
I'm grateful for my religion. It makes sense. It brings me peace, joy, and hope. I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to share it with others in France and Switzerland five years ago. I am grateful that I learned a beautiful language in doing so and made many wonderful friends along the way. I hope I never forget them.
I am grateful for all my blessings. And I know I should be grateful for the trials I have too, but I'm not perfect and I really don't care for them, even if I know I grow from them. ;)
Life is Wonderful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween Approaches

Banzai was good. It was a relief to not have to worry about costumes, but at the same time it felt odd not to participate in cosplay with everyone else. We'll start planning early for next year's Banzai! Now we only have to decide what we want to do.

One more thing to love about my job, we get to dress up for Halloween! They allow face paint and masks! I've never had a job do that before. I'm excited.

We just put up some Halloween decorations, a little late, but better late than never. We didn't do my Jack Skelington door as we have in the past couple of years. I decided that since we have a west-facing front door it wouldn't be wise to decorate it and have the decorations get sun bleached. When we move somewhere else, maybe we'll get a porch and then we can decorate it?? On vera.

Wake Me Up When September Ends

Where did this month go?! 

Well lets see, my high school reunion went well. My hubby and I mostly hung out around my bf and her hubby. We did see a couple other friends too but most of the people there were never good friends, just people i knew by name. I did see one friend and she had her guy friend whom I worked with in Salt Lake. Small world. The new high school is so huge too. It didn't feel like I was going back to my high school. It was just weird.

Then the next Friday I went to my twin brother's wedding. It was a lot of fun. Though I don't normal hang out around so many intoxicated people. It's interesting what people will do and say under the influence. The food was yummy, especially the cake! Red velvet!

My hubby lost his job. I am really unhappy with his employers about it because they were too harsh. He only worked twice a week and on the third week they told him that he had made too many mistakes and they could either let him go then or give him a grace period to try to earn their trust. The grace period was another week (or two more days). At the end of which they simply let him go. There were no warnings or anything. Truthfully how can any employer expect an employee not to make any mistakes in their first 6 days of working there? It's no wonder that few of their employees had been there for more than a few months. Now I have a disappointed husband who blames himself and feels discouraged trying to find another job after the school year has already started. At least this time I'm not going to school and I'm working full-time at a place I really enjoy. 

I'm just hoping that being near a larger city will provide him with more job opportunities than Logan did. I really don't want a repeat of last year. It was too stressful.

School

Yesterday I went to my soon-to-be sister-in-law's bridal shower. My two older sisters were talking to me about school. They asked what I was going into and what I planned on doing with it. I said that I didn't really want to do anything with it, just be a mom. They then asked me why I was still going to school if I wasn't really planning to use it. I admitted that one reason was to defer paying my student loans. One sister said, "You don't have to go to school to defer your loans." Well that was news to me. They told me that I can fill out a deferment form for financial hardship (which my older sister has been doing for years at a much higher income than ours.)
When I picked up my husband on my way home (he was spending some extra time with his family while I was at the bridal shower) I talked it over with him. Truly, I am tired of going to school. It's a lot of stress and I felt guilty over accruing more debt to do so. I do find it interesting to learn new things, but the papers and other homework really do stress me out. My hubby pointed out that I'm a lot happier when I don't have to stress over school.
We also looked at it financially. I have about 4 semesters of school left before getting a 2nd bachelor's degree. Or two more school years. In students loans it could save us $11,000 if I stopped going to school. Not to mention books and other supplies.
Now I just need to talk to financial aid and figure out how to do a complete withdrawal from school. Where school doesn't start til tomorrow I shouldn't have any penalties or anything to worry about. I just hope I'm doing the right thing. I think I am, but will I regret it? Hmm. I think only time will tell.

New Semester

I have a little more than a week until the next semester starts. I'm slightly nervous. I don't know what to expect with Weber. I have two night classes and two online classes. I'm actually more nervous about my online classes than the other two. I've taken a few online classes over the years and they always end up being harder than regular classes.
Also, my schedule and my hubby's schedule don't line up so well. He has classes during the day and works in the evenings. I have work during the day and have most of my evenings free. The only time we'll really have together are Tuesday nights and the weekends. It's going to be weird not seeing him. I feel like I barely spend time with him as it is and now we're reducing that time majorly. We'll need to plan it better for the spring semester.
We paid for our Anime Banzai registration! I'm so excited for it. Though we aren't really planning on wearing any costumes this year. I couldn't think of anything to do. The theme is mecha, as in large robots with human pilots. I've watched a few shows that meet the criteria, but none of them really make me want to cosplay one of their characters. I guess we don't have to dress up, right?
Well I need to get to sleep. We've not been getting enough sleep of late and it's really starting to wear me out. No bueno. ttfn!

New Apartment

Sorry for the long delay in posts. We only just recently got internet installed at our new apartment. :) So we moved in at the beginning of July and felt very overwhelmed with all the boxes we needed to unpack. But luckily we had a small vacation to take our minds off of it.
Washington D.C. over the 4th of July was awesome! We watched the fireworks at the National Mall (which is a large green area in between the Smithsonians and most all the major monuments.) I've never seen such a spectacle. It was brilliant. We hope to take my in-laws sometime to relive the experience. (A few years down the road.) We went to several of the museums and also attended the wedding of one of my mission companions. It was a lot of fun. Though the mosquitos in the area are not nice. I still have remnants of the bruises they gave me.
We came home wishing for a longer vacation and went back to work. The garden is growing nicely. We've had a lot of tomatoes and zucchini already. The watermelons are about 6 inches long. We're excited for those! Green River watermelons!
Ian and I also made our first batch of freezer jam, thanks to mom Allred, it turned out really good. We need to make our apricot puree into jam sometime too. (apricot pineapple) We have some black caps too. I'm not sure if I'll turn them into jam or what. Maybe I'll try to make syrup? That would be good.
School starts in a little less than a month. I'm not sure how it's going to go. It makes me a little nervous transferring to a new school.   

11 Days to DC!!

So, I don't know if I mentioned this before or not, but one of my favorite mission companions-an person in general- is getting married this July. I'm super excited for her she totally deserves to have happiness in her life. I think it's also cute that she met her fiance in New York doing clean up after hurricane/super storm  Sandy.
Anyway, Ian and I are flying out July 3rd for the wedding that weekend. We're excited for the wedding and also to see the fireworks on the 4th of July!! They should be absolutely amazing in the nation's capital. We were told that we should try to be at the Washington Monument to watch them. We'll have to see how late the buses run and if we can do that.
We're also planning on spending time at the Smithsonian Museums, the Holocaust Museum, and wandering all over the place. We really want to visit the Washington D.C. temple too. I hope we can!

As for an update - we are currently staying with my parents in an itty bitty apartment in Perry while we wait for our apartment to be vacated. (They're actually moving out this coming week!) Truthfully, it hasn't been bad living with my parents. Both Ian and I are at work most of the day so we really only see them in the evenings. By then we just eat dinner and get ready for bed. Weekends have been fun. We've been helping in the garden. It's a large garden plot and I'm super excited for late summer and fall when we get to harvest!!
Our new ward is good. It's a little too big though. The primary is huge! I'm not used to being in such a noisy sacrament meeting. Ian and I got to substitute in primary for my mom. She teaches the 4 year-olds. We had 8 little kids to take care of. It was chaos but a lot of fun too. Ian had never taught primary before. I was surprised.

It's Moving Time!

For those who don't already know, we're moving to Perry. 30 whole minutes away.

Ian and I will be transferring down to Weber State this fall, so we felt we should move closer to school and Ian's job. We're excited he has gotten a job at last! Also, Ogden seems to have better job opportunities in general. We'll have to wait and see how Weber is. We've heard that it's more medically based, so that will be good for Ian. I'm hoping to be able to finish my 2nd degree in a few semesters too. We know we have at least two years for Ian to finish his bachelor's degree then another three years at a physical therapy school somewhere. So we still have school in our life for at least the next five years.

I've got a little over one week to have my apartment packed and cleaned for the move. I hope I have enough time! Ian is going to stay with his parents for a little bit while he starts his job. It's not going to be fun to be away from him during the week. We're planning on him coming to Perry on the weekends. We have to wait for our apartment to become available. :( C'est la vie. At least it isn't as bad as our next door neighbors. The wife is going to Washington (state) for the summer and the husband is going to Virginia. I think we can handle being apart for the week days.

Goodbye April!

Beginnings and Ends

Life is full of beginnings and endings. We begin school as a timid 6 year old and graduate some time later as an adult. We begin books full of curiosity and end them with either satisfaction or frustration.  We begin life as small fragile babies and end as small fragile adults.

Today I'll be attending a funeral for a life that was truly great. I'm at peace to know that he was released from much pain and didn't have to suffer for too long. For the past couple of months Ian has been visiting every week and we've seen his health declining and knew it was coming. What's beautiful to know is near the end he said he could see the light. He is in a better place.

We love and miss you Grandfather Allred!

Happy Easter!!

So my sister Heidi is moving to Missouri. I'm not too happy about it because she's doing it for her Facebook boyfriend. I can only hope he is good to her. She's had a run of crappy guys in her life. Granted, she isn't the easiest person to live with.
I hope I have time today to go say goodbye.

Back to Happy Easter! I bought some awesome chocolate online. I found these way good Milka eggs. Ian liked them a lot last time I bought them. The come with four to a carton and you eat them with a little spoon. They are milk chocolate with a while milk chocolate mousse inside. Way yummy!
We also got Ghirardelli mini eggs and Lindt mini bunnies. I forgot jelly beans. (I like the Starburst ones.) Oh well, chocolate is good enough, right? I also put a new book in our basket. We love new books!

I hope you all have a great Easter!

Curly

 So I tried doing pin curls in my hair. I forgot that my naturally curly hair has a tendency to grab onto curls and run away with them! (Here are some pictures!)






So, as you can see with these 3 before pics, my hair is way super poofy and curly.

The curl is out of control!!! Luckily I still had the bajillion bobby pins sitting nearby  so I could tame it. See bottom pictures.

 See, I can tame them a little. I don't think I'll try this again for a little while. And when/if I do I'll be doing larger sections of hair per curl.

As it was my loving and patient husband put in 25 bobby-pinned curls. He's awesome!