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