Days like today...

Days like today age me... I feel old, tired, and beat down. 

Days like today make me feel physically sick...

Days like today make me not want to be an adult....

I just want to hide in a pillow fort and watch Netflix until the problems go away...

Tomorrow is another day, hopefully by the end I will feel better.

Have you ever just felt busy?

Have you ever just felt busy?

Cause I swear I feel busy all the time, I know people probably look at me and say "just you wait..." But, between work, church calling, my dogs, projects, and family time I always feel tired by the end of the day. This is my excuse for not blogging in such a long time.

Inspiration to start blogging again? I attended Church down in Bunkerville for the first time in probably 2 years, pretty much all the meetings were on family history. As I was sitting listening to ways we can find our ancestors and that we should preserve our history, I started thinking about blogging and how it is kinda like a journal. I want to remember these times in my life, the good and the bad. So I am going to start blogging again.

So life as of late has been pretty grand.

Shane is in his Third semester of school, he is such an amazing student (He puts me to shame). He is taking classes that I would never have wanted to take, but he will be an amazing engineer someday because of his amazing work ethic. Most of his fee time is spent doing homework, but he still finds time to be an amazing husband.

I have been working, working, and working. The Fall semester is more than half over and I am so excited for the holidays.

I hope to chronicle our daily lives, our struggles, and our triumphs.

Love,

Nellie

Thoughts

"I know it is hard for you young mothers to believe that almost before you can turn around the children will be gone and you will be alone with your husband. You had better be sure you are developing the kind of love and friendship that will be delightful and enduring. Let the children learn from your attitude that he is important. Encourage him. Be kind. It is a rough world, and he, like everyone else, is fighting to survive. Be cheerful. Don't be a whiner." [Marjorie Pay Hinckley] ♥

I just love this quote. I am often asked when Shane and I are going to start having kids; I have been asked this since before we were even married. Yes, we have many different reasons that we are waiting, (education, jobs, and security) but one of the first reasons, and most important reason, was that we wanted to wait to develop our relationship first. We wanted to know each other fully before committing ourselves to a beautiful child. We do plan to have children, but I want to them to know without a doubt that their parents love one another through thick and thin. That we are committed to one another first and foremost. I love family; I love the relationships that I have with my siblings, cousins, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc... I want my children to have the wonderful example that I had as a child of a loving and eternal family.

P.S. This is not to offend anyone; this is just the path that Shane and I have chosen for now. We know that everyone has their own path and choices, and what we choose to do does not make any other couples choices wrong. Plus, like we all know, plans can change or the lord can change them for you. 

Also, Shane and I are going to be rockin' awesome parents someday.

Spring has Sprung

I love spring, I love seeing the sun, I love it hitting 75 degrees, I love seeing flowers come up in our yard, I love mowing the lawn, I love figuring out what in the world we are going to do with our yard in the future.

I could not be more excited for this spring, maybe it is my cabin fever from this last winter, but I have never been happier for it to warm up!


P.S. I did help mow the lawn, Shane just didn't get pictures of it.

The story of us

Since it's Shane and my 2nd wedding anniversary today, I have been feeling a little sentimental and decided to tell you all the story of us.

Shane and I first "met" (meaning I saw him, but didn't really talk to him) when Kurt invited me to go hot tubing here in cedar. It was the second semester of my freshman year at SUU. I saw him and immediately liked him. He was very much my "type". Although we didn't talk much, I found out that he was going to be going to San Diego with a group of friends for spring break. Shortly after our meeting, I was also invited to attend this trip. 

We went to San Diego and had a blast! Shane and some of the other guys brought their motorcycles. I was too scared to ask Shane for a ride for most of the week, but eventually bucked up the courage and asked. (This was my one and only ride on the R1, sad) We had a long in depth conversation while hot tubing and I decided he was even more my type than I thought. (I really, really, really liked him) But, I was the little sister of one of his good friends, so me being my introvert self did nothing. 

I saw Shane a few times after that, but summer came and I moved back to good old B-Town. It came as a surprise to find on Facebook someone had posted "R.I.P. Shane Lee", I thought he was dead for a good week or two before Betty Jo came home and I was able to ask if he died. Luckily, he hadn't. But, he had been in a serious motorcycle wreck, that had broken his back, given him a good concussion,  and messed him up in general. 

This is the first cute thing he did: My birthday is a summer birthday, so I am pretty used to no one remembering it. Shane was the only person, besides family, that made the effort to wish me a happy birthday that year. It made my day.

We started "hanging-out" shortly after that because Kurt started inviting me around  (Thanks, Kurt!) We had many Dr. Pepper fueled evenings watching movies, stealing signs from friends, having dance parties,  and doing bomb fires.

It was on one of these said "movie nights" that I decided to walk Shane out because he had to go to work. This was the beautiful backdrop to out first kiss. (Yes, he kissed me before out first real "date") 

Shane then asked Betty Jo if it was okay if he asked me out on a date, apparently she thought I would say "no". I didn't, and we had our first date that weekend at City Cafe and Deli. They used to do these fun dinners where they cook a big meal and you just eat what they make. Makes decisions easier.

Pretty much it was history from there, we never fought, and never had a reason to be apart from one another. We found that we really enjoyed each others company, and I feel like we have only progressed since then. 

We started dating: September 20, 2009

We were married: April 9, 2011

We were sealed: October 10, 2012

We have only been together a few years now, but I couldn't imagine my life without him. 

I love Shane with all of my heart. I never could have imagined what loving with "all my heart" could mean until I met him. 

In the eye of the beholder...

So I have felt a little, well a lot, out of shape lately. I have packed on pounds I didn't know existed. Which has led me to the daily drama of trying, mostly failing, to work out.

Then something happened, we went for Saturday "brunch" at Wunderbar. They have on of the cutest/nicest/funniest waitress there. She is short and spunky. As we were getting ready to leave she gives me a big hug (I love random hugging) and she tells me that she thinks I have a great butt, like awesome, and she wishes she could have a butt like that. I wasn't embarrassed cause I though it was so sweet of her to say so and from her it was totally not weird.

This got me thinking, my body really is not as bad as it could be, yeah I weigh more than I want and I still need to have a more active lifestyle but, at least I still have a butt that someone wishes they had and I should be grateful for it and all my other good to adequate qualities.

The things kids say

I love the comments that come out of children. They are so honest and so cute. 

Example 1:

I was working in our front garden on Friday, trying to pull some of the weeds that had accumulated. It was a spring break and I had Friday off, but schools are still in. As the bus dropped off the kids from elementary school they all come running by my house, we have some large rocks in the front yard that (apparently) they like to play on. The kids couldn't really see me because I was working on the other side of the yard. Most of them just ran on by, but one little boy (couldn't have been more than 6) turns around and says "I like your grass", smiles and runs off. I was in a fit of giggles for a good 5 minutes after that. 

Example 2:

We had Kat and Sam's kids over on Friday night to watch "Wreck it Ralph". We had a grand time watching the movie and playing the Wii after. As we were getting ready to taking the kids back to my aunts house. Lindsey (the youngest) Turns to me and asks "Why does your car smell so bad?" I guess I have never noticed if it had a smell, and I actually had just had my carpets cleaned so I was not sure how to answer her. I guess I need an air freshener, Lindsay said that lemon would work. 

Example 3:

I love my nieces and nephew they often get me laughing, but I received and email from my sister today that made me miss them all the more. It went like this:

Ember keeps talking about her birthday and every time we say its her and Madi’s birthday she says “ And Shane’s don’t forget Shane's!” It makes me laugh she is so funny!

They are so sweet to think of Shane's birthday too. I hope we get to go celebrate their birthdays together soon. 

Love, Nellie

Made me laugh

Okay, I had to laugh. Not only is this my FAVORITE movie, but it is so perfectly describes some Sundays. 

Link for the whole list of "Snark and Testimony" Here

When you and your spouse make it through all three hours of church:

Other ones I loved:

Being called to be the relief society president in your 20's:

When they announced they were lowering the missionary age in conference:

This one, mostly because Lark and I had to sing in church last week.

Sitting back in the congregation after you nailed a musical number:

Expectation:

Reality:

G.I. Joes

Lark informed me about a place in cedar called G.I. Joe's, at first it sounded like an Army surplus store. come to find out that it is a restaurant that serves breakfast and dinner to Veterans and  the Homeless. Not that they only serve these people, they also are open to the public for a small cost. By small, I mean SO SMALL.

Shane and I decided to try it out last night and we surprised, in a good way, with what we got. You eat what they make, which is great for people as indecisive as Shane and I. We had homemade chili and cornbread (nummm...) and to top that we had chocolate peanut better cake a la mode (yummm...) and we got all this for (drum roll please....) $1.50 each!!!

Okay, so it is usually $1.99 but we bought a punch card that had 10 meals for $15. What a deal, and the people that run the restaurant were so sweet. They made us feel so welcome and even made us feel like the little bit we paid for our meal was such a help to them and their cause.

Needless to say, we have quite a few meals left on our cards and we intend to use them. If you are in cedar and want a good, inexpensive meal check them out!

I wanna grow up to be like Grandma

My Grandma Anderson always has the most beautiful gardens, full of color and life. I have always envied how she tended her gardens and received such wonderful results.

Ever since I have lived in Cedar I have been wanting to grow something, anything! I even attempted to start some seeds in our apartment, they died.

BUT, now that we have a house, I have been itching to plant. With constant snowfall I have not been able to until today!

It is officially march so I can now plant bulbs. The bulbs of choice are daffodils (courtesy of Grandma Anderson, I am tickled that I got some of her flowers) as well as some pink peonies. I am hoping and praying that they grow and I can start my own flower garden.

The last owners left these little gems (used to be a water feature). 

Grandma's Daffodils! 

Yes, I planted these after dark, and Yes, I am weird. 

Love, Nellie

An Ode to Dessert

As of late, I have been striving to cook at home a lot more often. I do not always succeed, but I am doing a lot better than I was a few months ago. (Imagine Fettuccine Alfredo, Chicken Cesar Salad, Sticky Finger Salad, mmmm.....Good.)

Because I cook at home more, I also feel the need to make dessert more too! This is good bad. My love for  Janet Mikkelson's Chocolate Chip Cookies, Oatmeal Cookies, Chocolate Dipped Strawberries will be the death of me. 

(Tempting isn't it?)

Throwback Thursday

Terrible cell phone picture, but it is the first picture that Shane and I took after we started dating. We had gone up cedar mountain before the snow set in to enjoy the view and each other. I love this man. 

Confessions of a Girl with Curly Hair

I don't think I am alone in my feelings about naturally curly hair.

It's:

Frizzy

Crispy

Unmanageable

Unpredictable

Lazy Looking (Only on me, not on others)

Never the same twice

Makes me look like a 5 year old

It's also:

Easy

Having had curly hair my whole life, I know the struggles all too well that come with curly hair. I know how it feels waking up to crazy bed head with only 10 minutes to tame, and no idea what to do with it. I also know the frustration and upper body strength that come with straitening my hair every day just to look like the rest of the girls that hair air dries like that. (Curly hair does not air dry that well, ever). 

Don't get me wrong I probably wouldn't trade my hair if I could, but some days I kinda wish I could temporarily. There are some perks of having curly hair, and maybe some day I will go into them, but not today. At least I have a husband good enough to say he loves my curls. So, here is a photo montage illustrating my points.  

Point to be made: These are some of the pictures where I "like" the way my hair looks. I have pics that are much worse, but what can I say, I am a little vain.

Short Curly Hair: Not my best look (hence 5 year old comment)

(Rant Over)

Love, Nellie

We're off on an ADVENTURE!

Camille and I had the unique and kinda exciting experience of going snow shoeing and rock climbing, neither of us had gone before, but it ended being a super fun time! (Plus, we couldn't of have a more beautiful day!)

We started off by snow shoeing into where the waterfall was, it was a fairly short hike.

First, we had to use ascenders to climb up the side of the waterfall (the ice was too brittle to ice climb).

Checked out the view, and then repelled back down!

(Yes, I am repelling down a ice waterfall) 

How I felt right before we went. Yep, I need to get out more.

Love, Nellie

Paper, Rock, Scissors!

Shane knows when I am having bad day, or at least in a bad mood.

The other day I had no idea what was wrong with me, I was just grumpy. At one point in the day he says we need to do something, I didn't want to but to get it over I just has the attitude "whatever I will do it". Shane stopped me and said we should do paper, rock, scissors to see who should do it . I had little desire to do so, but whatever I will do it. This then turned into probably an hour and three different variations of the game. After a few minutes I was so happy and in a better mood.

I love Shane, he makes me a better/happier person.

Home Sweet Home

Finally! After what felt like forever we are currently living in our home. Here is the story:

It all started when I decided (mostly out of curiosity) to start looking at homes online, after looking for a couple days Shane started to wonder what I was up to. I confided in him that I was checking out the local real estate options, assuring him that I wasn't going to make him buy a house. It started to become something that we would do together, we would sit and look at all the listings and even went out to a few houses to do drive byes. Most of the houses we looked at were eliminated within the first few looks. (Neighborhoods matter!)

After a month of so of this, Shane asked if we wanted to go talk to an agent to get a better feel for a few of the houses that we did like on the outside. I had never gone house hunting so I had no idea where to start or who to go to. We decided to just stop by an office of a prominent agent in town. After asking if we could talk to someone, a good friend and member of our ward walked in, we started chatting with him and found out that he actually was a licensed Realtor in Cedar! Yay! Someone we knew and trusted. We went and met up with him and told him what we were looking for and he gave us some options.

Our requirements:

• Garage (Mostly Shane's, but so glad for it now)
• Good neighborhood
• At least a 3 bed 2 bath
• I wanted some kind of a yard if possible
• Weirdly, I wanted fruit trees
• Fireplace/Wood stove
• Move in ready, we looked mostly at structure, but didn't want huge projects to start out with, plus tons of $$$ goes into big projects.
• Within our budget  

Shane pretty much dragged me to this house, the pictures online made me think that I was going to hate this house. But, after some persuasion we decided to go take a look. It ended up being love at first sight. I couldn't believe it was the same house! It had everything I wanted and more. We put an offer on the house right away, little did we know it would be more than 8 months before we would be moving in.

What this house has:

• 5 Bedrooms
• 3 Bathrooms
• 2 Wood burning stoves
• Vinyl and brick siding
• Good size lot, enough backyard 
• Apple and Cherry Trees
• Solar powered water heater
• 2 car garage
• RV pad (storage for toys)
• Shed in the back (Shane calls it the mother-in-laws quarters)
• Plenty of room to grow
• In our budget :)

There was enough drama in getting this house that I believed we would never get it. It was a short-sale and even though we knew that it could take some time, I was not prepared for all the little things that had to be done and took forever to get done! Not only that, but when we finally got approval to buy the house we all the sudden had problems with the owners and terms of the contact that they did not uphold. Gr.... (Breathe, we have the house now). 

Long story short, we are in and have started making the house ours! Slowly I see the changes and they make me excited for the rest. I have to tell myself to take it one day at a time. 

I will post before and after pictures as we change the house.

Love, Nellie

Our life up to date

Where to start?

Shane is currently working at Home Depot as a kitchen designer,  he made the decision to go part time at work and pursue his education at Southern Utah University in the Fall of 2012. He is currently in his second semester working on an Integrated Engineering Degree. I could not be more proud of how hard he works both at work and school. He has much better study habits than I ever did!

I have finished my bachelors degree in Social Sciences. It is crazy where life can take you, I EXPECTED to be doing my student teaching in the Fall of 2012, BUT instead I applied for a full-time position at SUU in the Financial Aid and Scholarships office. This was a big change from where I thought I would be, but apparently the lord works in mysterious ways because I love where I work and the people I work with! Only three short months after I was hired, I was promoted to a Financial Aid Counselor. I hope to start a masters program in public administration in the Fall of 2013. (crossing fingers and toes)

We recently bought our first home! We love cedar and have decided (at least for now) to make it our home. We started looking at homes early in 2012 and ended the year with buying the first home we looked at, and waited 8 months to get. Short sales=No fun! I will do a house post soon...

Other than that, we live our lives day by day!

Love, Nellie

Welcome!

Hello All,

I have decided that it is about time that I blog about us, this is really more for my benefit than anyone else.  I feel that I never write down what is happening in our lives and because of that I never remember the "important" moments in our life.

I will not lie, I am not perfect. But, together I feel that Shane and I have a perfect love. We share in each others triumphs and pull each other back up after we fall. (I fall a lot). I can't promise that this will be the funniest or even the most informative blog, so if you don't want to read it please see yourself to the door. For the rest of you left, I hope you enjoy my thoughts.

Love, Nellie