Nordstroms Flavors

My mother gave me the most amazing cook book for Christmas, it is the Nordstroms Flavors book. Nordstroms is not only one of my favorite places to shop, but it is also one of my favorite places to eat, especially their bistro in San Francisco. So last night for dinner Kaden decided we needed to eat something good and he whipped out the pretty cook book. We decided to make grilled shrimp with asparagus and risotto. Honestly it was probably the best meal we have ever made.

The Things My Mother Says

So i have decided to start keeping track of the funny things my mom says, because admittedly Sarah and I say the same exact things, and if it is something we don't really say but just think and my mom says it we will make it a family joke for the rest of time.

This weeks best one was- "Well Sarah how bout you just starve your self for the rest of the week, then maybe your hips will shrink and the dress will look really good for the pageant."

Yes she was totally serious. Poor Sarah, or you could just go with a different dress.

Time to Myslef

I love my husband dearly and i miss him when he is gone, but it was really nice this weekend to have a few experiences to myself. Kaden had to work Friday and Saturday up in Cedar while i stayed in Logandale so i could go to the temple while my Grandma went through for the first time. That experience was so amazing. I don't even know how to describe it. I had never felt the spirit that way before while at the temple or ever imagined i would get such clear answers from the Lord like i did. I had the opportunity while my Grandma was preparing to take out her endowments to do some temple work on my own. It was a first for me, Kaden and I always go together. That time alone though doing work for several women who were waiting for it to be done was so perfect, i felt such a sense of comfort as i relearned of blessings that have been promised to me. I am so excited to go back and serve some more. It was also great to see my Grandma go through, a few years ago i had jotted down a list of goals, mostly spiritual ones, like read my scriptures everyday, say my prayers, fast each month, be married in the temple, help reactivate some people, be an example to my sisters, seal my grandparents, and the last one was help get grandma Karla baptized. In the past year i was married in the temple, we sealed my grandparents, and grandma was baptized, and now she has gone through the temple. I am so grateful to have been a part of that and to see the changes in her life and to witness her growth and know that she will now be with us for eternity.

The rest of the weekend was just as amazing for me. The weather was beautiful, i got to sleep in, and i got to spend quite a bit of time with my sister and with Whitney. It was so great to catch up and kind of reconect and i am so excited to have her back and hang out more. We tanned for quite awhile on Friday and Saturday and now i am probably going to have cancer because of it. Seriously i am so red and i swear i can feel the freckles multiplying.

A Quick Update

After getting my update on the Ty and Annie Leavitt family i decided i seriously needed to update my blog. So here is a quick update on everything that has been going on for the past couple months.

Aunt Dianes- we are still camping out in Aunt Diane's bedroom, and rotting our brains every day with NCIS and the new favorite, Criminal Minds. I honestly can not wait until we don't have satellite anymore.

The King Ranch has died- Near the end of February the truck started acting up and then it died while we were visiting our families one weekend. Penn and Kaden decided they would fix it and ordered up the parts. After a few days of working hard on the dang truck it decided that it still wasn't going to work.  So now our ridiculous truck is sitting out in the shop until Penn and Kaden decide what to do next. I will caution you, do not ever buy a Ford King Ranch! It is not worth it. Luckily my good old Saturn is still kicking though, We have put a little over 7,000 miles on it this year already, and the shifter cables went out, but its a quick trip to pick a part and then its fixed.

San Francisco- Let me start off by telling you how amazing my parents are... They are two of the best parents in the entire world! For our one year anniversary my parents took us back to one of our favorite places. Of course they came with us, but that just made it more fun. On this trip we decided to once again scope out things to do that we hadn't done before. We bought city passes and went to a pretty cool science museum in Golden Gate Park and a little aquarium on the warf. We ate at a few of our favorite places again, Nordstroms Cafe, Mama's, and Scoma's. Seriously the best food ever! Thanks again Mom and Dad we had so much fun!

CAAP Test-  The CAAP test is like a college ACT for education majors. I was so nervous before i took it and pretty much had decided that i would have to retake at least two sections of the test. I got my scores in the mail last week and Guess What!? I passed and not just passed i passed with amazing scores! I usually am not one to brag but i am pretty dang proud of myself.

Kadens Job- Kaden finally has a job! We are both very excited, it was not his first choice of work but he is just happy to have a job. After months of constant praying and applying we were starting to get pretty discouraged, neither of us had even recieved one call back, not even one telling us we didn't get the job. When you have applied at 50 plus places that is pretty discouraging. Then last week the amazing call came from Jiffy Lube, first there was an interview, then there was a job. I also had two interviews this week. We are shouting our praises and crossing our fingers. We honestly feel so blessed right now. 

Jace's Funeral

Jace's funeral was today. I was nervous going, i didn't really know what to expect. I got up early and got dressed and tried to look as good as you can when your going to funeral. Sarah and I met our aunt and uncle there around nine to save seats for the rest of our family. I am so glad that we went early and not just because of the seats. I got to catch up with a few people who i really enjoy talking too. It was nice to be able to express my gratitude for Jace being a part of my life to other people. The service itself was amazing. I could not imagine a better service. Funny and Spiritual stories were shared from Jace's life, his testimony was shared by Kevin and Elder Cook from the Quorum of the twelve apostles spoke on a number of things but also blessed everyone who was in attendance and the valley. The meeting was so strong and spiritual, i have no doubt in my mind that Jace was not pleased with his funeral, probably so pleased that once we get to heaven he will make fun of all of ours because we didn't have an apostle speak at ours. Okay well at least he will do that to me. I am really going to miss Jace and so will everyone else who knew him,  but i truly know he is doing the Lords work and that he served his time here on earth. I am so excited for the day that i get to be with him again and we can once again make fun of each other and council one another on the little things we always have. Jace was and is a great friend and he will always have a special place in my heart. Jace really did affect my life in more ways than he will ever know.

An Amazing Saturday Night

So Saturday night I got to spend some time with a few old friends. It was seriously so much fun, i wish i had more pictures but i'm pretty luck that i even got this one. The night started off with me picking up Sarany just like the old days, and then it got better as we were leaving her house and honestly couldn't get very far because of a huge river that took over the road. It had been raining quite a bit Saturday but in a matter of minutes a river formed and we weren't able to pass. We laughed so hard as we just sat and stared at this huge river and tried to figure out what we should do. We decided we would try the back way out which is a dirt road. It didn't take us very long to figure out that the back road was destroyed by the rain as well. Then Sarany decides we can just go get her dads truck and take it. So we head back to her house, get the keys and stomp through a ton of mud to the truck. The truck was stuck and we couldn't back out of the yard. Instead we just spun the tires down into the mud for awhile. After laughing about the mud forever we made our way back to the car and decided to just see if the river had disappeared yet. So we drove back to the river and sat and looked at it for awhile contemplating whether or not we should try to cross. After quite a long time i decided my car should probably just die anyways and i drove into the river. Ha Ha it was like driving through a puddle. We had no reason to worry the entire time. We laughed for so long afterward and drove on to Brett's house. We spent the rest of the night with Jeff, Spencer, Brett, Amanda, Lexi, Carlie, and her Fiance Josh. It was a lot of fun. We reminisced and watched old high school videos.  

Jace

Saturday night as i was driving Sarah to the Bellagio Sarah called my mom and instantly started asking what was wrong, my heart sank as tears filled Sarah's eyes. I was on the phone with Kaden when i imagined Lilo must have got ran over, (Sarahs dog) but as the words left her mouth i let out a scream i instantly understood what she was telling but i am not quite sure how well i was able to grasp what it meant. Jace Davis past away last night. How could that be true he is on his mission. Missionaries don't just pass away they are protected. My emotions have gotten the better of me for the past few days. I can't have any normal thought with out it finding its way to Jace. I know this will pass and this process of grieving is necessary but i do wish i could be happy for him and excited for the amazing mission he must be serving with our father in heaven. My thoughts and prayers have been with his amazing family and will continue to be for quite a while if not forever. His family has been through so much in just the past couple of months it breaks my heart to imagine this being added to it. Shawna Jesson pointed out though that have been through the refiners fire. They have been being prepared. I hope Jace's parents can find comfort at this time in knowing what an amazing son they raised. Jace always had such enthusiasm for life. He did everything with his full heart. I have been reflecting back on a lot moments i shared with him and i wish now that i would have taken more care to preserve them than i have. I have known Jace since the first week that my family moved to Logandale. I met him at church my first Sunday there and he honestly was probably the first boy to ever tell me i was hot. Haha i remember him adding me to msn and messaging me and saying hey you were the hot new girl at church right. Jace always had a way with the ladies :). I am sure he proposed to half our graduating class at least. Even though it was all fun and games he did have a way of making everyone feel special. Our senior year of high school we spent a good majority of our time together. We were both very into getting the year book just right and bossing around all the new year book kids. We had some days that we would just sit in the computer lab talking about life and our small problems that then seemed to be so big. I think Jace made sure i knew that i was beautiful everyday and that conley or joe were stupid for not being in love with me. I made sure that Jace knew the same thing about the girls he liked too. I have so many thoughts running through my mind of the things we did and how much he made me laugh. I hope that he knew what an influence he was on my life and how much he did to help me. Jace was one person who always stayed my friend no matter what, i haven't had very many of those people in my life but i am so grateful that i had him.

The Intrudor in Aunt Dianes House...

For the past week Kaden thought i was going crazy. At night when we would be watching TV i would hear strange noises and make him turn off the TV and listen for them. Of course the noise would never happen then and Kaden would tell me i am paranoid, which i know that i can be so i would dismiss the noise and try to forget about it. Then Saturday night i heard a huge crashing noise from the kitchen and then weird noises from under our bed, honestly i usually would freak out and think someone was breaking into the house  except for i had already convinced myself that i was crazy just like Kaden said. Sunday evening my craziness was proven to be illegitimate. As Kaden and i were watching TV just like every night we started to hear a weird, loud, scrapping type of noise in the kitchen. I made Kaden go investigate...i knew i wasn't crazy. Kaden screamed OH MY GOSH! Can anyone guess what it was?....Thats right, it was a mouse! and it was dragging a spoon from the kitchen into its home. Kaden instantly made it his goal to investiage and terminate. The mouse had no chance, Kaden went all out putting on shoes and even a head light to find this thing. Then at 12:00 at night Kaden went to walmart to buy traps. At first this mouse was smart and didn't take the bate but after a day of being taunted by the beautiful cheese....well lets just say we woke up to an amazing noise this morning. The sound of a snapping trap.

Job Hunting

Kaden and I have now applied pretty much everywhere in Cedar. We have not received even one call so of course no interviews. I understand that the economy  is bad but this is getting ridiculous. I have held several great jobs with good titles. Both of us are running out of ideas. Our business teacher told us that entrepreneurs are the only people who make money in Cedar  but being an entrepreneur comes with a lot of risk, and when you have no idea what to base your business off of besides photography you are in trouble. So basically, we are in trouble. I did just apply at a pre-school today though and i am praying that this job works out. Please keep your fingures crossed our shout out a prayer for me, this might be our only chance at work for quite awhile and we really need to move out of aunt Dianes place someday.

The Week of Snow

This week has been rather cold up here in Cedar City, especially at night. The trend is for it to snow all night and then for the sun to come out during the day and try and melt all of the snow away. Last night is snowed so much that the majority of it was unmeltable (i know this is my own word). Since the snow actually stuck around past 10 a.m. we decided we better let Tiffany go play for awhile because we have been really bad about taking her for a walk every day and she is getting pretty bored in the house. We decided to head out to the high schools baseball field and let her run around as much as she wanted in the gated area. She was so cute! The snow was pretty deep so she had to hop through and she kept eating the snow and digging big holes in it. Her and Kaden also had a race and i am pretty sure it was a tie. After the fun time in the snow Tiffany got stuck at the house alone while Kaden and I worked on a few papers that we have due next week. Since i am still on the internet, this means we are still at the Library and Kaden is still typing away. So far school is still going well, except for that i got a 69.8 on my Biology test the other day, I just really suck at all things science. I refuse to get anything lower than a B in the class though so i have started my studying for the next exam already. Hopefully next weekend we will head back down to the Valley, it is kind of weird not seeing our families almost every day, and even weirder is them not feeding us. Poor Kaden has had to put up with my cooking on a super low budget. Dinner this week consisted of, Macoroni for two = .50, Beans, Rice, and Tortiallas = 2.00 and tonight will be Chili and Corn Bread = 3.50. I would have to say we are getting the saving part down, but it is so tempting to fight the urge to go out to eat. Someone please lend me some encouraging words to keep me away from Cafe Rio.

Moving and School

I finally was accepted to SUU like the day before Christmas. I also was offered a pretty nice scholarship and was able to get Kaden one as well. I would like to send a huge THANK YOU to Melinda for all of her financial aid help. School started January 4th, so of course we didn't start packing until December 30th. I was amazed at how everything worked out for us though. We emptyed our little home into one bedroom at Penn and Nancy's and packed up our essentials to take to Aunt Dianes. Yes we are now currently residing in Aunt Dianes trailer and by the look of things we will be camping out there for a few months. We would really love our own place but due to the lack of jobs for college students in Cedar and the truck bill we haven't been able to get rid of camping is our only option at the moment. I call living at Aunt Dianes camping because that is what if feels like. Our stuff is ever where and in no order at all. Free rent is a small price to pay for the decision we made to be poor college students. It will take us a little time to adjust but we will eventually get used to it. We just keep reminding ourselves how important it is to receive an education and how there are way more people out there worse off then we are. We know how blessed we are to even be going to school right now so we are pretty happy with that. By the way, Tiffany absolutely loves the snow, but really misses being able to run around outside. She doesn't have any friends to visit up here either so she mostly just sleeps all day now. We plan on taking her on walks every day now to help make her happier, so far it has only happened twice.

I have only been at SUU for two weeks now but i absolutely love school. My program is so amazing! The teachers that have all are specialists on their subjects and have PHDs its such a refreshing change compared to UNLV. Most of my teachers their were actually grad students who could care less about their subjects. I feel like the education program is perfect for me I am already applying to get accepted in and everything the only problem i have is trying to get my UNLV credits and hours to count towards things at SUU but i am sure i will get all of that resolved eventually. I have also made a few friends already in some of my classes and i love seeing people from the valley around campus it is such a nice atmosphere for kaden and i to be in. Kaden doesn't feel quite the same way about his classes at the moment because he is taking some pretty useless ones, but he does enjoy his criminal justice one and he is hoping right not to be able to get into a PTA program. Tomorrow i have an interview for the education program. Wish me luck!

Christmas!

This is our cute little Christmas Tree, notice there are no ornaments at the bottom...

Tiffany wanted to play with them so we had to move them all to the top.

This year was mine and Kaden's first Christmas together as a married couple. It was so amazing! We definitely splurged a lot more on each other than we should have though. I bought Kaden a gun for who knows what reason other than he wanted it and he promised me a luxurious vacation and a camera, both things we can no longer afford. (Kaden got the good end of the deal) not that I am complaining because he did get me a very nice coach bracelet, beany and scarf that i love! Over the Holiday we spent a lot of time with both of our families, it is so nice having them so close to one another so we can do presents at Penn and Nancy's at six in the morning, then go home and open ours, and then head to my parents and still make it back to Penn and Nancy's in time to talk to Vance. The day was eventful for sure but we loved every moment of it.

P.S. Kaden was supposed to work Christmas day, I am so glad that he decided to quit the power plant because it would have been so sad not spending it with him.

The day after Christmas was pretty fun as well. My cousin and his new wife came to Vegas for their honeymoon and we met them there for the day. We took them out to our favorite place, Serendipity, and shopping at Ceasars and the Fashion Show. It was so nice to hang out with another married couple for once. I truly think that was our first time even hanging out with another couple at all since we have been married.

Then on Sunday after Christmas we headed to the mountains with Kaden's parents and luke to go tubbing. Me and Nancy decided it was way to cold for that so we mostly just watched and tried to keep warm. The boys had a blast though.

Disneyland and The Wedding

 

Its the weekend before Christmas now and Kaden has officially been accepted back into SUU. I am still waiting on my transcripts to arrive, for some reason CSN thought it would be a good idea to drag my process out as long as possible. I shouldn't complain though i am the one who applied so late. So anyways about our weekend to Disneyland and the wedding. Friday after noon My family and Kaden and I packed up and headed to California. It took us awhile to get to Anaheim because we decided to stop and shop in Barstow at the outlets. There were amazing sales and we couldn't pass up a chance for some last minute christmas shopping. Then we made another stop for dinner in Corona at Chad and Daisy's home. It was so n ice spending the evening with them. They are so much fun and they are so sweet i love when we get to see them and their girls. Daisy made an amazing dinner and I tried Brussels sprouts for the first time. I loved them! Thanks Chad and Daisy for inviting us for dinner! I hope we weren't overly entertaining with all of our laughing and even crying. ( I cried because Sarah brought up an old memory of my cat being hit by a car). We always have such entertaining dinners. The next morning we woke and got ready and headed for the temple so we could be there in time for the seiling at 10:30. We were pretty bummed out when we got a call on the way asking us where we were because the sealing was already over. Thats right we were completely off on the time. Sorry again Brian and Tiffany, we really did want to be there. The lunch in was a lot of fun, we got to hang out with my cousins Michael and Kevin as well as Chad and Daisy and it was nice to hang out and joke around with them. The reception was beautiful and there was a ton of amazing desserts. Michael and Sarah and I also had some fun dancing like idiots while Kaden laughed at us.

After the reception Michael, Kevin and Camille all showed up at the hotel for a big slumber party. It was so much fun for us to hang out with them, there honestly was never a dull moment. My Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Heather and their boys, James and Justice joined us at the hotel as well. They kept the party going as well. James and Justice are always so much fun to be around and we always wish we could see them more often. The next day the real party began when we went to disneyland. Hannah, Katie and Jimmy's family were all early birds and hit up the park as soon as it opened. The rest of us took a little longer to get ready but we still made it before noon. Thats good for the Hendrix family. Sunday at the park was pretty packed but later in the day it wasn't to bad we got to go on all the important rides, like, space mountain, small world, the materhorn, thunder railroad, pirates, the haunted house, the tower of terror, star wars, buzz light year, soaring over CA, the two roller coasters at ca adventure, Mr. toads wild ride, and a few more. We also found time to eat a lot, get birthday and aniversary pins, it wasn't anyones birthday or anniversary but it was still fun to have, and best of all we got into pin trading. What is pin trading you ask? It is a hobby made up by disney to give people something else to do and spend tons of money on while they are at the park. My sisters and Kaden and I all got lanyards and a bunch of pins then we found collections that we liked and we thought were valuable and started trading the cast members for them. I know sounds pretty lame, and it is, but it does get addicting. So addicting that when we got home Kaden ordered a pin off ebay because it was the last one he needed to complete his collection. The other thing that we got addicted to at disneyland was searching for "Hidden Mickeys." This was the best, Kaden and Sarah have this competition thing between each other that will last their entire lives and Sarah though the hidden Mickeys were amazing (she even has a book on it) so Kaden had to find a way to one up her. So of course he used his blackberry to find an updated list of the hidden Mickeys. Hidden Mickeys = mickey shaped objects that are hidden on every ride, store and restaurant. They are seriously everywhere! Sarah's obsession got so bad though that Monday while we were leaving California and eating dinner with Jimmy's family at Red Lobster the waitress told sarah there was a prize for whoever found the hidden mickey in the menu. Of course Sarah found one and James had to break the news to her that it was a joke. Monday at Disneyland was crazy. The park was so packed that it shut down. The only real ride we got onto was Indian Jones and that was out of sheer luck, we happened to be passing by the ride at the perfect moment as they were reopening it. Otherwise the lines were hours long for everything. Susan, Cami's mom joined us Monday though and it was great to have them their. I love every chance i get to spend with Camille and her family. It doesn't happen enough.

Well the weekend was amazing if you couldnt tell. Thanks Mom and Dad for taking all of us! And thanks everyone who came for making it so much fun! We miss you all and can't wait to see you again.

My Final, Finals Week at UNLV

Kaden and I still hadn't heard back from SUU at this point but the only thing keeping me sane during finals week was the thought that i would never have to go back to UNLV again. Now i don't hate UNLV i just had a rather interesting semester. Watching Silence of the Lambs and writing a paper on a Porn Star just was a little much. Not to mention the hour and half drives to school and the late math class that changed its mind every other week on whether it was offering me credit or not. The raising class prices were getting pretty out ragious as well. The spring semester was going to cost me 4,500 for 12 credits. Ridiculous, i know. Okay onto my finals. My English final was a 3-5 page essay written in class and my philosophy was a twenty five question test worth a hundred points. Math was not so bad i cant even remember how many questions there were but it was worth 60% of my grade (still not sure if the class even graded). Well the tests sounded easy enough but i am a freak when it comes to tests, especailly finals. I drafted my English essay about a thousand times, that may be a little over exagerated but i really did quite a bit. Then i studied for my Philosophy for a few days and then six hours strait in a silence room in the library the day of the test. I was so excited Thursday, December 10th, when i walked out of my math class and said good bye to UNLV. I guess i wasn't positive i would be leaving but i was definitely keeping my fingures crossed.

Thanks Giving, and Our Crazy Decision

Thanks Giving was quite awhile ago now but that is where i left off, so that is where i am going to start back up. This year Kaden and I had a pretty quiet holiday weekend that we spent with both of our families. Sadly Kaden only had Thanks Giving day off because he was working at the power plant for the rest of the weekend (gotta love shift work). I know that i don't say this enough but i am so grateful for all that i am blessed with! I have the most amazing husband and both sides of our family are just wonderful. Thank you everyone for being a part of our lives!

So onto our crazy decision... After only being able to spend one day together over the holiday we decided something was going to have to change. Twelve hour shifts were making Kaden grumpy and me crazy. It was hard enough before jugling our schedules between work and school but now it was just ridiculous and we kind of figured it was not how we wanted to spend the rest of our lives...so. Novemeber 30th we sent in our applications to SUU, the day before they stopped accepting for the spring semester.