Waiting, just waiting

my shirt after the stencil came off
the stencil
GO COUGARS!!
GO UTES!!
Sorry to ruin the surprise Maren, but these are your's
Hooded towel
the start of sock monkeys
my new curtains- poppies will make them sleep

So for those who have not heard I finally got a job!!! I'm really excited but there is a catch- it's in Ohio. I am ok with this, and the commute is only 20 minutes. The bad news is I now have to get a license in Ohio!! AWWWW! I just received my PA license last week in the mail and I had been working on that for 6 months. So while I wait I am trying to keep myself busy with craft projects. I have so many friends and family having babies so most of the projects are about the little bundles of joy but I did make curtains and now that I have discovered freezer paper stencils I just took the shirt off I was wearing and gave it a little sparkle!!

On a side note- Smitty just finished his first med school midterms and he did amazingly! He will no longer have anatomy which I'm sure is a bummer for him because he liked it so much but I'm not minding so much since this means he will not come home smelling like cadavers anymore.

Smitty also received a calling in Primary a couple months ago, teaching the 5/6 year olds. I love that he has this calling because I love the stories! He is sllllooowly starting to admit he likes it. HE has three girls and four boys that he team teaches with another brother in the ward. We think the reason they have two male teachers is because they have some "difficult" kids. (one of them swore in class last week. I know this is not suppose to be funny, but the story is still making me laugh)

We are enjoying the great fall weather and colors out here. The only disappointment was the pumpkin patch. The ones back in Utah and Washington are way better. You don't get to pick your pumpkin out of the patch, more like out of a row of pre-picked pumpkins. Smitty's favorite part was the pumpkin sling shot.

What's that noise? It's called a blinker!!

Leaves on the way home
Cutting the nasty cake
First dance
Cousins
Wedding party
Cake
Spencer built this and proposed on it
Fallingwater
Lake Erie
Cascade Falls, Ohiopyle PA
Phil the groundhog

Meadsville, PA art

I have been on a road trip with my mom and grandparents for the last week. I was excited but a little doubtful because we took the scenic, scenic route. We did not take one highway it was actually really fun. No traffic, no cops and we just took out time and we saw a lot of cool things. We started by driving in pouring rain to Meadville where we found all this recycled art it was very impressive. Then we took the back roads and ended up in Punxsuatawny where we saw the actual Groundhog. We played road trip bingo that we made up as we went our board game included- plastic lawn animals, road kill, yellow school bus, red barn, waterfalls, and 20 foot statues of God and Moses with the 10 commandments of anti- abortion. We ended up in Ligonier, PA where we ate at this restaurant that used old thrift store books for menus. We walked around the shops and went to a replica fort form the french and indian war. They had George Washington's real pistols that he passed down to Andrew Adams.

The next day we went to Fallingwater- a summer house for a wealth family built by Frank Lloyd Wright. We stayed the in Uniontown, PA and on the third day we made the last leg of out trip to Virginia. I drove across four states in less than an hour (Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia) We spent time with family and on Saturday drove to Richmond, VA for the wedding!! Carra and Spencer did a great job with everything she looks so pretty. I had a great time with my family. I don't see them all very often but I am fortunate I had the time to spend with them.

Grandparents/kids say the darndest things

So one of my classmates needed Ash to babysit their kids for about an hour and a half. Well I happened to be home when they got here (it is kind of a rare moment). Well Aria their oldest wanted so badly to play with our kids.... Yeah I know we don't have kids. I believe her first question was "where is the kitty?" Then shortly after realizing that our cat doesn't play so much, she asked us where our kids are. Naturally we told her that we don't have any kids. Well after careful contemplation Aria came to a conclusion. "Well, if you don't have any kids... Are you guys grandparents?" I came really close to spitting the milk out of my mouth. Apparently, married people either have kids or they are grandparents. Well apparently this question was not completely answered the first time because during the hour and a half she was here Aria asked the same question three or four more times. It is a difficult concept how a married couple could possibly not have kids. Well we are not grandparents and we still don't have kids but it sure was hilarious.

VENTING

Smitty and I just got home from our Labor day vacation to D.C. We Hung out with Maren & Ryan and I finally got to go to the zoo!! I have tried to go every time I have been in the area for the past couple years- and I am sad to report that after all that I was not that impressed. However it was free and the weather made up for it. Thanks again guys for giving in.

I love getting away for quick trips but I hate leaving my cat. (I KNOW I KNOW every one thinks I'm a dork) Since we have ESPN and the Mountain we have no problem finding a cat sitter because every one out here loves BYU.

So I ask this couple and I tell them they can even have people over to watch the game if they will watch the cat. I even cleaned my house since I know people will be coming over.

SO guess what I come home to!? Old food from the game, left over drinks, something sticky all over the remote and no food or water in the cat bowls!

No Beuno!!

Cadet Stevenson is Home!!

look how serious!!
Dane and Hannah
Dane's squad- ROMEO

My brother has had quite a busy summer. He has traveled for the past month and a have to two months straight! He spent a couple of weeks in Africa helping build a school and an outhouse and stupidly chased an elephant until it decided to charge at him.

For the month of August he spent his time at field training in Alabama and Mississippi for the Air Force. The weird thing was I was more excited/ nervous for him to be at training than I was for him to be around the world in Kenya.

We got to video chat with him on Saturday & Sunday and it was so fun. He did this cool thing on the computer where you can screen share with audio so we were able to talk and look at all his pictures at the same time.

I love video chatting with my family- Smitty rolls his eyes a lot but I think it's great. We just laugh a ton!! I can talk to them while they do their hair, eat, show me projects/ new outfits, work on the computer, etc. Hannah even shows us how she can put her foot over her head we laugh at each other the whole time.

Love you guys

August 2009

I just need a moment to say how excited I am for my husband. He has been in school for 6 weeks now and he is acing Anatomy! He is loving every every moment of Medical school and it fits him so well. He is a born doctor. He has been doing really well on all his classes. Every Sunday one of the guys tells me that Smitty is on fire and he is the smartest guy in the group.

We had a little incident in our home today. For the past month every time I turn the oven on it takes about 45 minutes to pre-heat and the main floor of our house smells like gas the entire time I'm cooking. I finally had time to call the management company and they sent the whole neighborhood over to fix it. They have yet to fix the water heater, doorbell and they need parts for the oven. We were in no immediate danger but the headaches were starting so I'm glad they came so quickly and that Smitty wanted to eat out after his big test today because I will not be turning the stove on until it is fixed.

I was thinking today that I need to write down all the things I have learned about moving to make myself little reminders for next time of for the next wife in my shoes: sell as much of your furniture as possible before you move. The next place will probably require a different layout anyway. Make sure you organized, purge and LABEL everything you own so you know what you have and you can keep track of everything. Put aside at least $3500 for moving expenses and $5000 for living expenses for the first couple months- look up all the info on renters/ car insurance, drivers licenses, registering cars, transfer your mail, renter's walk thru- complete with photos, I recommend not working for the first couple of months so you can meet people in the ward and have time to get to know them. Move to the area and live in an extend-a-stay hotel for a couple weeks so you can get to know the area and can find somewhere to live if the internet is not helpful( like in erie) Take to first week or so to find what you need to make you feel comfortable- Mall, Target, new favorite grocery store, drug store, movie theatre, dry cleaner, etc. drive around and "get lost" so you can get to know the area- closet parks, gym, post office, library, etc.

That's enough for now

Peace out

What happens when your not employed

Ambush's recent activities
72 hour kits with laminated labels- yes I answer to nerd
extreme close up!!
New labels on bins
Storage
Scrapbooking & card supplies
New TV stand
So when I am unemployed I make up a lot to do. In the last couple of weeks I have refurbished some furniture ( I am very proud of this one) and organized, organized, organized! I should have thought of this before we moved 1850 miles across the country but better late than never I guess. With my trusty label maker and my new computer (Bert is back people) I should now know where everything is. My life should be easy as pie now, right?! AS soon as all the project are done my evil little fur ball sees a fly that needs to be caught mid air so she jumps in the direction of the fireplace mantel and there goes my cute little hurricane glass of red beads. Oh well I think target is calling my name!