A little bit of this and that

1) One of the videos I closed captioned today was about spiritual food storage. It was good. The speaker shared this poem by 

James Whitcomb Riley. 1853–1916

"When the Frost is on the Punkin"

WHEN the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin' turkey-cock,
And the clackin' of the guineys, and the cluckin' of the hens,
And the rooster's hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O, it's then the time a feller is a-feelin' at his best
With the risin' sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.
They's something kindo' harty-like about the atmusfere
When the heat of summer's over and the coolin' fall is here
Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossoms on the trees,
And the mumble of the hummin'-birds and buzzin' of the bees;
But the air's so appetizin'; and the landscape through the haze
Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days
Is a pictur' that no painter has the colorin' to mock
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.
The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,
And the raspin' of the tangled leaves as golden as the morn;
The stubble in the furries—kindo' lonesome-like, but still
A-preachin' sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill
The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;
The hosses in theyr stalls below—the clover overhead!—
O, it sets my hart a-clickin' like the tickin' of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.
Then your apples all is gethered, and the ones a feller keep
Is poured around the cellar-floor in red and yaller heaps;
And your cider-makin's over, and your wimmern-folks is through
With theyr mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and sausage too!...
I don't know how to tell it—but ef such a thing could be
As the angels wantin' boardin', and they'd call around on me
I'd want to 'commodate 'em—all the whole-indurin' flock—
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock. I really like it, so I wanted to share. It reminds me of the joy and satisfaction from seeing what you can reap from hard work. I love feeling that I've worked hard and done my part. 2) Throughout the talk, several times there was reference to nutrients. And I was reminded of Nacho Libre, "It gave me no nutrients.... I wanna win!" And so I was giggling to myself a lot- in my own little corner on my own little chair- as I continued to work on the captioning. [post publishing note: David just read through this post and after reading this paragraph he laughed and said, "Yah, you do giggle to yourself a lot."] 3) As I was working there was an audio feed playing from one of the auditoriums on campus. I didn't pay too much attention to it, but several times I caught myself giving it an attentive ear and thinking, "Wow! This guy is really good!" And then later, "Who is this kid and the band??? No college group sounds this good." And then it hit me. Kris Allen, former American Idol winner (?)/contestant is in town this weekend for a concert, right here on campus. He's been rehearsing the last hour or so, and I've been listening to the live feed the whole time (because I work in the Audio/Video Productions department). mwahahah! After figuring that out, I paid a little more attention whilst finishing the video I was working on.  Here's the best pic I could get of the video feed running from the rehearsal. He's the one with a guitar on the right. I love my classes! I'm in the same building all day every day (except for the last required religion class) taking classes that relate to each other and are just plain fun. This week in Arboriculture we operated a Tree Spade   The thing is huge, and can you imagine that there are other spades MUCH bigger?!? Blowing my mind. The one we used is for trees with a trunk diameter of 4 inches max. We were practicing just on the parking lot asphalt, trying to maneuver it to pick up a big construction cone. By the time it was my turn, the anty was upped and the big orange construction cone was switched out for a small, soccer-like, cone. I'm pretty sure I got that cone picked up the fastest! Booyah! (It probably helped that I observed several other people before me and from watching them I had a good idea of what all the levers controlled by the time it was my turn.) We also played with an air spade: Lots of dirt everywhere on that one. The first 1.5 hours of class we're outside and then last 1.5 we're inside for lecture. It's a lot of fun.  Last week we started with harnessing in and climbing a huge tree on campus and zip lining down and out of it, and operating a bucket truck. We were up in the air as high as the Ricks Building's highest floor. Not sure what the heighth  is on that, but it was pretty high. It doesn't seem that high when you're on the ground looking up, but then you get in that bucket and wooee, my stomach might have flopped once or twice. I'm also in a landscape design class. Last week we worked on creating tree symbols and then learning how to color render. Wowza! Loving it. In junior high/high school I always thought myself as not creative and not artistic, and I never thought an art class was for me. The last few years however, I've been tapping into my creativity and discovered that there really is something there! I am loving playing with all the markers. It's also appealing to my architect desires of old- I used to draw up house plans on the CADD program on the home computer all the time. And I still draw up plans for our future dream home. Guilty pleasures, we all have them. This last week we drew up a design using our rulers and stencils and oh boy! Here's my first first attempt on some colored tree symbols. Yes, this was a homework assignment. Mama Nessie thinks they look like cupcakes....I guess I can see her point. And here is what we'll be doing at the end of the semester. Eek! Well, not exactly this very design, but creating and drawing out our own designs. Last week we finally made it to the Farmer's Market- loved it! We had dinner from one of the vendors, I bought a rosemary plant and two little basil plants from the BYU-I Horticulture booth, and then we splurged and got deep-fried oreas. Nom! We had a movie night with Jake and Kate downstairs, and thus needed to squish and roll and force our luv sac down and squeeze it through the door at the base of the stairs. Totally worth it. David's classes are tough this semester, poor guy. He originally was signed up for 17 credits, but we decided to drop one class so that he can do better in his other ones. He has all the classes at once that normally you spread out and just take one each semester with your general/foundational courses. Chemistry, Biology, Botany, Math, and the oh so fun required Book of Mormon. He'll survive. :) He's quite jealous of all the fun I seem to be having in my classes. I do have homework, quizes, tests too, but I am just really enjoying it all. Last Saturday we finally got the curtains up in our room. It looks great, I love it! We also painted an old dresser that Jean and Colin gave to us. We tried sanding the darn thing, but that plastic laminated surfaced just didn't want to come off. So instead we just used the leftover gray paint we had from the exterior house gables and shutters. I saw we, but David did the majority of all of this. I'll have to get a picture.... And now we've made it to another weekend! Crazy. The week flew by. We both have tests and quizes next week that we'll be preparing for, but hopefully we can get a project or two or three finished as well. Also, I can't remember if I mentioned this on here yet or not, David got a campus job!!! Such a blessing. So now we're almost making it to 40 hr/week between the both of us. He got the job he wanted- custodial services at 4:00 a.m. He said he wanted to just get work done and out of the way for the day. Ok, honey! It does have it's perks though- a little bit more pay, 3 days paid leave every semester, and he's right- it is nice to get work out of the way. However, he can only work 15 hr/week. My work schedule for the most part is just coming in whenever, and let me tell you- that's a hard way to get in 20 hrs for the week. One last thing- we found out what our credit scores are this morning. What in the what what what!? (house stuff) We've never had a credit report before, and we had no idea what ours looks like. Let's just say that we we're extremely happy campers as we journeyed to campus this morning. Cheers! It's the weekend!

Since last time

Wellllllp, since last time this was updated (up at Henry's Lake while at work) a few things have happened. 

This morning I picked up our first Bountiful Basket. Looks like there's a lot of good stuff, and I didn't have to fight with the crowds of BYU-I students (and this weekend, their parents) at the grocery store to get it. And on that parenthetical note, can I just say that it was making me giggle to see all the new freshman and their mommies and daddies at the grocery store, buying their baby groceries just one more time. Ah, too funny. Maybe I thought it kind of odd because I never had that experience. My parents didn't even drop me off. I hitched a ride from Henderson in order to get to Provo. And did my grocery shopping with my bike. hahha. goood, good times. 

Yesterday we finally got internet up and running at the house- goooo David! 

We had visitors! Jenny and Dessa Selch were here to get Dess set  up and settled in Rexburg to start school. Yay! I'm so excited for Dessa. 

Jake and Kate moved in the basement. They seem to really love and appreciate it. And it seems we're going to be best of friends. :) 

I started my new job on campus. In July, I interviewed for a closed captioning position, but didn't get it. But the guy that interviewed me was kind enough to send my resume to another guy in the A/V productions department who was looking to hire a teleprompter. So I didn't even have to research or apply or inquire about this job, it just came to me. What a blessing! The new guy contacted me and asked me to come in for an interview. I got the job! So, Mondays I meet with and work with the devotional speakers and get the teleprompter formatted and ready to go, and on Tuesday I (well not me by myself. There's a team.) run the teleprompter for the speaker during the devotional. The rest of the week I fill up my hours doing closed captioning (the original job I applied for). I haven't been trained on the teleprompting business yet, that will start Monday. But this last week I have been a closed captioning fool! As per federal law in accordance with the Disability Act, all videos used for learning at the university need to have closed captioning. You should come and take a tour of this place! The department I work for, Audio/Video Productions, is housed in the I-Center, where the huge conference center is. Sooo many computers and monitors and fancy gadgets and cables and cords. It's cray cray.

What else, what else......

Dad was here to finish the little things in the basement and around the house and yard. I didn't take pictures of the basement before Jake and Kate got here, woops! I wasn't feeling too great the last week or so and documentation of progress just didn't happen. But I did take a video! (after J&K's first round of bringing stuff in) See in previous post. But see, we're pretty much best buds already, so they don't mind. ..... ;)

The last time Dad was here (the last week of August), David left with him on Thursday night (the 29th). They didn't have time to stop and rest along the way because Dad had a whole butchered cow to get back to Vegas before it thawed. So, he needed another driver in order to accomplish that. David drove all the way from Rexburg to St. George, where he got out and met with Chelsie for breakfast, did some school clothes shopping (he was in desperate need of pants that weren't faded or torn or beat up) while Ch was at school, after Ch was done with school for the day he helped her pack and move some stuff from her place, and then they headed home to Panaca, even caught Preston's football game. Wow, longest sentence ever. 

David stayed in Panaca and had the best time with his brothers and family. Preston has a deer tag and Zachary had a bull elk archery tag. So, naturally, David was in heaven just being able to hang out with his brothers and hunt all the live long day. 

Zach filled his tag:

They think he scored around 350- a trophy sized bull, so they are stoked. Can you imagine packing that huge thing off the mountain, miles away from your vehicle? That's what they did. Crazy boys. The archery tags are early in the season, which means that the elk are higher up because it's still hot, which makes them even more difficult to find, let alone get a shot off. As if using a bow and arrow wasn't hard enough already.

Anyway, if you did the math, I was home alone for 10 nights. Luckily, Jenette came to visit and play for Labor Day weekend. We went to Bear World, dinner at Winger's, drove around town in her fancy new car (ahhhh I miss stick shift!), and spent lots of time in the kitchen. 

We made apple pies, scones, salsa, chili, crepes, corn bread....nom!

   

We painted our toesies and watched Lord of the Rings

She went to Ikea for me on the way up and got spice racks, yay for more counter space! I still have never been to Ikea. This needs to change.

David asked her to take a picture of my Sunday outfit and send it his way

One morning, in my all alone lonesomeness, I made an omelet. And it was delicious. And it looked like it came from IHOP.

I also made zucchini bread one day and it, too, was delicious- no sugar (subbed honey), no oil (applesauce sub), and fresh whole wheat flour instead of the nasty, processed, bleached, enriched white flour.  (I guess now you know where I stand on white flour)

One last story. While David was gone I took to going for a lot of runs/walks. Being outside, rain or shine, always lifts my spirits. On one such occasion I left the house and even had the thought to double-check the doors to make sure I didn't lock myself out. For once in my life I followed through with that and checked to see that the back door wasn't bolted. I've since learned to look more closely. :) I got back from my lovely jaunt and what do you know, I am locked out. While the dead bolt was not in place, the turning lock on the knob was. Even if in the locked position you're still able to turn the knob and get out. Getting back in is a different matter. My dad was gone and had all the ladders packed up, there was nothing laying around that was tall enough to help me get through the upstairs windows, and the key to the shop where there might be something useful/high enough was inside the house. Joyyy. Just the day before I went through the house and closed up the windows (and locked them, so I doubt I would have been able to use a higher, bigger window even if I could reach. . .) But that morning as I was sanding the kitchen cabinets downstairs I opened the east window of the basement to let some air in while I worked. I remembered seeing this window open as I got back to the house from my run and was worried that a certain squirrel that I always see running around found the opening for his next mansion. Don't worry, no creatures have been found inside....yet. Anyway, I ran to the other side of the house and determined that indeed my wide set hips, undoubtedly made for the sole purpose of child-bearing, would fit through the small window, if only I could get the rest of my body to follow. Now, envision this with me. I'm shoving myself through the BASEMENT window. The window sits level with the ground outside. When I'm inside, the window sits above my head and I have to stand on tip toes to see out of the very bottom of it. Meaning: a good drop. I should have gone in with my knees down. Instead, I went in with my cushy bootay down and knees to the ceiling. After getting my hips through and being precariously perched on the sill, half of my body dangling inside and the top half holding myself in place whilst outside, I realized that there was nothing within toe reaching distance for me to place my weight and thus be able to help break my downward fall. And so, not wanting to sit so very uncomfortably any longer and not wanting to try to wriggle myself back out, I gritted my teeth and just went for it. My back caught on the window casing and then slid down, down, down. That hurt. My eyes may have shed an involuntary tear or two due to sheer pain. Sometimes when I stub my toe or smash my finger, an obscenity or two might slip my tongue (Mother forgive me, you know, and I know, that you taught your children better. I mean, CRIMENATELY is a much better word choice). However, be proud! All I uttered was a pathetic, tearful "Owwwwwie."
Can't tell in the picture but the top is all bruised and scratched and slightly bloody. Fun! Excuse the nakeyness.

And of course I was home alone and had to figure out some way to get to my back and treat the dang thing. Luckily that night I went to my auntie's house, where another one of my aunt's was staying that night, and had her help. :) Thank you Jenelle. I should note that this damage was incurred through a solid, cotton t-shirt and the orange sports container. Aycarumbah!

And I think that's all for now! I should go wake up David and make breakfast. Happy Saturday! Saturday is a special day!

Idaho happened

We last left by announcing that we would be transferring to BYU-Idaho to start school in the fall, and that we were looking for housing and jobs for the summer. Well well well, a lot has happened since then and things seem to just keep magically falling into place- Idaho, we love you! 

Oh yahh, I had birthday

And shout hooray- that David got me a dang nice sewing machine!!!! I cried as I was opening it up, I had no idea he had something that big planned. 

Back in March, during Spring Break, we flew to SLC

  

where Ashley picked us up and then we took her car up to Rexburg. But not before we stopped in to see a special couple and to show off the sweet chunk of love.

We looked into a few job opportunities and we checked out pretty much every single married housing option. (...single married housing....hahaha! didn't even plan that one) After our full days of looking at housing, we were pretty discouraged with our options- 1) We couldn't get up here til' May due to school in NV still being in session, and May is mid semester up here so there was NO housing available, ugh! 2) It is more expensive than we cared for- talk about a monopoly on the housing market in a small college town. Double ugh! 3) If we got a job that started at the beginning of summer (end of Mayish), there would be no apts/etc available until July- the end of the semester up here.

We drove back down to Logan to return Ashley's car with our heads spinning, wondering how we were going to pull this off. Da da da dahhh! Parents to the rescue!

They have a house in Rexburg, but we didn't want to pay to rent out a whole house- 4 bedrooms, basement, a huge shop...that's just a lot of space for 'lil ole us. But Daddy-o said that he wanted to get those nasty boys out of his house anyway and that he wanted to put a kitchen in the basement so he could rent out the top and bottom. So we twisted their arms and offered our sweat and labor during the summer as we fixed up the house if they would let us be their new renters- they said yes! ;)
After Azalia'a blessing, we hopped in with KK&KJ...and Jenette to hang out in Utah County while Mom and Dad drove to Rexburg from Logan to check on the house etc. and tell the renters to be out by May 31st. Because we didn't have a ride south until they got back from Idaho, David and I just hung out at Keith and Keri's- played with kids and did yard work.
    

It seems we didn't get a picture of that other cute kid- but in our defense, he doesn't really slow down, so it makes it kind of difficult to snap something of him...  :) 

David finally shaved his beard off, and had fun doing it!

 

I have to admit, he's pulling the mustache off quite nicely. :) He shaved Easter morning, and all day I found myself just staring at him, more than usual- it was like I'd forgotten what he looked like! 

Easter!

    

We were informed that we both qualified for graduation. Look Mom, here's my card to hand to the reader. Had we been walking at our graduation ceremony here's where I would've been in the line-up. High honors, ooooo.ahhhh. pshh CSN, easiest 4.0 of my life.
 
This just in- Grades were finally posted for this last semester. David got straight A's!!!! hip hip hooray! Now we're waiting for that silly school to get our diplomas posted so we can get our credits settled up here. hmph. Like I've said, kids, if you can, avoid transferring schools at all cost! 

 And then we searched and searched and waited, and waited to hear back from possible work prospects. And we also pulled Youth Conference together. David was awesome and came and helped me out with everything. This is us when we got back- sweaty sweaty and worn out! We crashed and fell asleep right away on the love sac (did I mention we got a love sac- for crazy cheap, thank you FB Henderson yard sale; we also got a nice couch, hooray!). I woke up with David attacking my face in his sleep.


Before we left (for Utah/Idaho in March), I think, David applied for this random job as a boat inspector that he stumbled upon on Fremont County's website. Finally, he was interviewed via telephone, and a week later he was told that they couldn't officially tell him he got the job, because they needed to extend the application date to see if they could get any more/different applicants. So, the Mr. asked if his super duper awesome wife could apply, and what they thought of a husband-wife team working together. They said that heck yah she should apply and that they love husband-wife teams. What the what what? Hot dang! So I applied, David was told he got the job, I was interviewed and then about an hour later got a call saying that I got the job as well and that David and I would have the same shift. Heavenly choirs singing!!!! Downside- a 10hr mandatory job training would be held on May 14th... Well, I guess not everything can be perfect all the time. We were planning on having me continue to substitute teach until the 17th, have my piano recital on the 20th, and then start packing. Instead we started packing every night after we got home from a quick trip to Panaca to gather up any gear David had stored there and to fish! We each caught over 20. It was nuts!
       


 I taught until the 10th, had my recital on the 10th, oh and just to make things interesting, I also put together a quilt for the YW auction, loaded Dad's truck and trailer on the 10th/11th, and then we busted out of town on Sunday after church. Madness, I tell you! Madness.
  

Our last night- bittersweet!

We also went to some baseball games that Saturday before we left, and I went to the future Mrs.Amanda's bridal shower.
 

Farewell to thee, basement walls; you will never be forgotten.
 
Seriously- are you impressed with how comfy and homey we had this place? It looks so much smaller with everything out. Weird!

Finally, the day came! Off on our great adventure!
 
We were slowed down for about an hour in the gorge due to an accident. While we were stopped in bumper to bumper, not moving, cars shut off and waiting traffic, we enjoyed marveling at the thousands of bees everywhere. Where did those things come from? And then we looked down to our left and laughed at the guy in his open convertible. haha!
These pictures do not do these bees justice; so many bees; they were everywhere.
 
We stopped in Provo for the night and got back on the road in the morning to stop in Rexburg at the Erickson's on Monday night. Tuesday morning we had to be in St. Anthony for our training. We got trained up a bit and got our schedules. It's a pretty sweet deal. We work 3, 13-hour days, and then have 6 days off. There's a trailer that we sleep at while we're up there so we don't have worry about setting up camp, and we don't have to drive to and from Island Park every day. With both of us working, we put in 78 hours within 3 days- yahoo for having money to pay for school! And with the 6 days off we have time to work on the house.

After training, we got banking shtuff transferred over to up here, and then headed back down to Utah county, because we didn't have anything else to do until our first shift on the 27th, we didn't want to go back to Henderson, and because Keri was due any time with baby #3, so we thought that we maybe could be a little bit helpful. :) We laid pavers, pushed a lot of sand, shoveled out a sand pit, shoveled sand into said pit, and then played and played with some cute kids as we waited for baby to come.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
Welcome to the world, baby Liv!
   

We then scurried up to West Valley to visit with David's Grandma and family for a few days. And didn't get one single picture! Argh! I'm slapping my forehead right.now! grr! But we loved just being able to relax and talk to Grandmama and see some of David's family. Thanks Grandmama and Aunt Bridgett and boys for making us feel welcome. We love you!
Saturday we met up with Chris and Shelly at temple square to watch over their little ones while they were in the temple for a friend's wedding.
 
   
Sighhh, we are definitely going to miss getting to play with these guys all the time.

The next day we headed back north, this time all the way to Island Park to start our first 3-day shift as boat inspectors. Welcome to our office:

Why must he always be so good lookin'? Look at that mugger he gets to hang out with for 13 hours a day! Beautiful!
 
This picture (found after browsing through David's phone) definitely shows my better side:
 
After our shift, waiting for all those boys to get out of the house, we've been hanging out at the Erickson's and taking care of all of those little things that come with moving- new bank, new address= changing all your billing/withdrawals/deposits/insurance + getting utilities set up. Fun, fun, fun!
Now that we're up to date, and David found the box that contained the chord to the camera so I could upload some pictures (bless him), I'll keep ya'll posted on our progress with sprucing up this old house. We got the keys on Saturday, yesterday, and we dove right in to tearing things up. :) T'will be an adventure, and we're looking forward to it!