James' New Job

I forgot to mention in my last post that James got a new job as well. He was working at K-mart AND Convergys for a while. He worked about 65 hours a week during a lot of July and August, bless his little heart. He just quit K-mart this last Tuesday, and now he's working about 30 hours a week at Convergys while he goes to school full time. He was sad to leave K-mart, but it was for the best. Convergys is going good, he likes making angry people on the phone happy by the end of the call. He doesn't like sitting around a lot, so he's starting to work out and play basketball. I need to get my butt in shape too. Hopefully we'll be able to afford gym memberships soon. Well that's about it. I'll try to keep up as best as I can. Thanks for reading!

Significant Events

Wow, it's been a looooooong time since I blogged. Here are a few things that have been happening:

Hamsters.
Yep, we got two robo hamsters about a month ago.
They're really cute. Their names are:
Rhino (like the hamster in Bolt, because he's really fat)
AND
Denny (short for Dennis the Menace because he's kind of crazy)

LAGOON!
We went to Lagoon on one of James' days off. It was pretty fun.

Movies.
We've seen A LOT this summer. Our faves (well my faves I guess) are:
Star Trek (best action movie)
Time Traveler's Wife (I bawled my eyes out)
Harry Potter (of course) but it wasn't anywhere NEAR as good as the book.
Up! (Probably my very favorite)
The Proposal (so funny)

School.
Bleh! I would much rather have James home with me and not stressed about classes....

New job.

YAY!

I just started this week. So far I am LOVING it, but I have to talk to people on the phone so it's a little scary. The pay is MUCH better than my last job, so that's a plus. Also, benefits!
It's such a relief. Things were getting pretty tight. But, we put our trust in the Lord, prayed a lot, fasted, and went to the temple. Just as we were about to go under, I got a call saying I got the job! James teared up a little. He's such a sap.

I think that's mostly all. I'll try to update if there are any other big events that I forgot to mention.

Bonus:
WEDDING PICTURES!
(Since some of you don't have facebook)
Here are some of my faves.

Laid off...

So yesterday I found out that because the rates for home loans are going up, I'm out of a job. It's been pretty slow around the office, which means the loan officers aren't making any money, which means they don't want to keep paying me, especially since the phone isn't ringing very much. I'm pretty disappointed. This is the second time this has happened to me in 6 months. I hate the economy! I would really like to be able to keep a job for more than 3 months. The guys are being pretty nice about it though. They're letting me finish out the month and paying me for a week in July. That's about 2 weeks for me to find another job or pretty much James and I are screwed.... We're pretty low on money as it is. Living on love, I guess. They were a lot nicer about letting me go at this job than at the last one. They told me they would give me wonderful references and even write me a letter of recommendation. I'm even allowed to job search at work, and use any of their resources if it helps me find a job. I'm bummed because I really liked it here, but they all have to take care of their families, and I know they wouldn't be letting me go if they didn't have to. They even asked if they could have me back if they ever needed me again, so I know that it's not because of my personality or because I suck at my job or something. Anyway, we're just crossing our fingers that something will come up. Hopefully if I snag another job it will pay better too. It's really scary, and stressing me out that we're no longer going to have our main source of income, but we're praying and fasting, and ask that you can pray for us too. I know that it will all be okay and that Heavenly Father will take care of us as long as we're doing what's right.
Talk to you later!

The month of June

I guess there's a few things I could blog about our lives, but I tend to be more of a reader of blogs than a poster. June has been a pretty fun month. I guess I'll just start at the beginning, and try to remember the eventful things that have happened.
The weekdays are pretty boring, but I guess we've done some stuff on the weekends that is pretty "blog-worthy".
We've been going back and forth from Logan to Salt Lake quite a bit this month, and it's been really fun to spend so much time with our families. I can't wait until James is done with school and we can move back down there again! The first weekend in June I'm pretty sure we spent in Salt Lake. Don't know if I told you guys this, but we got a NEW BED! So awesome. We were sleeping on a full size mattress, and we got ourselves a queen. It's so nice! It's amazing how much difference 6 inches makes, we have so much more room now! My parent's were nice enough to buy it for us as a wedding gift/you give us your old bed and we'll buy you a new one. Most of the weekend was spent driving our old bed down to my parent's house and moving a bunch of other beds around. We also got to spend some time with our good friends Jake and Sydney, and their beautiful/adorable boys Beckham and Holden. Jake and James are best friends from high school, and Jake just left for Navy Basic Training in Great Lakes, IL on the 20th, so we tried to spend as much time with them as we could this month. I LOVED it. Jake will be gone for a couple of months and then the whole family will be moving to a navy base somewhere that is too far for us to visit very often. We're pretty bummed about the whole thing, we're going to miss them a ton. They're one of the very few couple friends that we have. We're super proud of Jake though.

The next weekend we traveled down to Salt Lake again for our nephew Logan's baptism. It was so neat, he's such a great kid! He promised that he's going to be perfect from now on. I got to spend some quality time with Lynette (Sister-in-law) and the kids while James helped her husband Ian go pick up and move in the new fridge they just bought. I freaking love Lynette, she is an awesome SIL. That night (Saturday), we were also able to go on a double date with James brother Randy and his wife Angie. They are awesome. Even though we're like 10 years apart in age, we have so much fun hanging out with them. We went to dinner and then went and saw "My Life in Ruins". It was an okay movie, not my favorite, but I still had fun.

That week and the week before (like the 3rd through the 18th) I was SUPER sick. I seriously wanted to DIE. I went to the doctor right before the weekend of the baptism and they told me I had a weird throat infection that is similiar to strep. They put me on antibiotics, but I was still sick for like 2 more weeks. It was awful. I'm so glad I married a man who holds the priesthood though because he was able to give me a blessing and it helped so much. Man I love him! I'm finally at the end of the illness I think. I only had to take like 2 days off of work, which is awesome because we can't really afford for me to take a ton of time off. I'm about 95% better, but I can't WAIT to be 100%. I don't think you ever realize how much you take for granted being well most of the time.

The next weekend (11th-14th) we decided to take a break from going home because it was starting to get expensive! We did have a chance to go on a little date on Friday night though. We went and saw UP! It was so ADORABLE. I am in love with that movie. They did a great job on it, it's definitely one I think we'll be buying in the future. It made me think a lot about my own life and how I am so glad I chose to marry someone who I can see myself growing old with. The adventures will never cease, I'm sure of it!

Last weekend was Father's Day, but we only went down to Salt Lake on Sunday. We got to spend a little bit of time with James' family. They are the coolest in-laws ever. I love his Dad a ton. He has always welcomed me into the family and made me feel like I'm one of his own. Right after James and I got engaged, we got together with our parents so they could all meet for the first time. After dinner my Dad kept saying "Boy, his Dad sure likes you." I guess Chris decided he should tell my parents how great I was and how happy he is that we were getting married. He's so sweet, I love him so much. I couldn't ask for a better Father-in-law, and he raised James really well (with quite a bit of help from Peggy, might I add), so I love him for that too.
After we spent a few hours with the Blacks, we had dinner in Ogden with my fam. It was a lot of fun. My dad is seriously the greatest. I have never questioned that he loves me unconditionally. He was always a great dad, and he taught me a lot. One of the biggest things he taught me is that I am a daughter of God and that I have a lot of worth. James and my dad are alike in a lot of ways, and I know it's because I've always thought my dad was great, and I loved the way he treated my mom, so why wouldn't I marry someone like him? Love you dad!
I gave James a little "Future father-of-my-children's Day" present on Saturday and he LOVED it. I bought him Finding Nemo and we watched it on Sunday night when we got home. Pretty sure he cried/teared up through a majority of the movie (he's so cute!). I love that about him. After we watched it he said that it was probably the best Father's Day movie that he knows of. I wish that boy would get done with school so we could just have babies already! I know he's going to be SUCH an amazing dad.

Well our plans for next weekend are going to Salt Lake again. James has Saturday off so he wants to go and hang out with our families a little bit. Our 3 main reasons for going are:
1. We want to FINALLY get my ring cleaned, sautered, and tightened at Shane Co.
2. Transformers is coming out, and James wants to see it with some of his brothers/family.
3. Hedgehogs. Yes, Hedgehogs. James "stumbledupon" a picture of a hedgehog a month or so ago, and ever since he's wanted to get one as a pet. SO, we're going to look at a pet store that supposedly has them in West Valley. They are really super cute, and hopefully if we have a pet we won't be so baby hungry, haha. James started a "hedge fund" and has been putting money in a drawer in my jewelry box for the past month or so. We've earned up quite a bit, so hopefully we'll be able to get one in a month or two. EXCITING!

Well, sorry that every time I post it's like 3 miles long, but I guess that's what happens when you do it MONTHLY! I'm going to try to get better. I have a lot of free time at work, so being busy isn't really an excuse anymore. I'll have to tell you how the hedgehog adventure goes, so check back in about a week (hopefully!).

Bye!

Working Hard, Playing Hard

Oh man, sorry it's been so long since our last post! We've been busy, we've been playing, and we've been lazy! It seems like May has just flown by!
We are sure loving this whole being married thing! 82 days! Haha, the only reason I know that is because it updates on my facebook profile everyday. But we've been having way too much fun together, there's no time for blogging it seems.
I'm really liking my new job. The guys here are really laid back, but they work hard. Mostly I just answer the phones, but sometimes they give me other little tasks to do. It goes by really slow at times, but I keep myself occupied when I have nothing to do with facebook, reading, and writing Thank you notes. It's pretty fun I guess. James has been working hard to. They recently gave him another job at K-mart. He's filling in as recieving manager while the woman who usually does it is on vacation for a couple weeks. He works during the day now, which is so nice because I get him all to myself at night, which is probably another reason we haven't gotten around to blogging. He will be done with that pretty soon though, so I'm trying to convince him to find another part time job, but he's having difficulty finding something that works with his hours at K-mart. (He doesn't want to quit K-mart because they're so flexible while he's in school). Right now we're just hoping everything works out, but we have faith that it will.
Last Sunday we both talked in church. It really was a growing experience, at least for me. I've never done a talk in church longer than 5 minutes, and I was told I needed to speak for 20. I did my best, and I think it turned out pretty good. Someone even told me that it was one of the best talks he'd ever heard. I was glad to hear it. We talked about the temple, and the blessings we receive from attending. I really feel strongly about attending the temple, so I loved speaking about it. We try to attend the temple once a month, and we really notice how much of a blessing it is in our marriage and in our lives.
I love that it is summer now, it's so beautiful outside. Our house is right on the river and we just love opening the window at night and hearing it flow all night. We've been going on walks a bike rides, it's so much fun. Every once in a while we take our old bread and feed the ducks at First Dam. I love it. We've also really been enjoying all the summer movies that have been coming out. Summer is the best time for good movies, and we LOVE our movies. So far we've seen Wolverine, Star Trek, and Night at the Museum. We've really loved all of them really. We've also watched all of the Harry Potter movies that have come out, it's been really fun! I hadn't seen any of them but the 5th, and that's the one we're on now. They've all been really good, but I think the 2nd and 4th are my favorites. I'm so EXCITED for the 6th to come out. July 15th, woohooo! We're also really excited for Transformers to come out! It looks like it's going to be so good! Haha, we're seriously movie freaks!
Anyways, that's the update on our life lately, sorry it's been so long since the last post. I'll try to keep up on the blog a little better. I guess I just don't feel like our life is that exciting, even though I'm loving every second of it. Hopefully you're a little entertained by reading this. I love reading everyone else's blog, keep em coming!
Love you guys!

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted anything but things have been crazy crazy crazy! (Aren't they always?!) We've barely had time to EAT to be honest, let alone blog. I started writing out this post as I was remembering what's been going on in our lives for the past two weeks or so, but it was coming out very unorganized and word vomit-y. So, I just deleted it, and now I'm starting over. I think I'll try going in a kind of day by day fashion.
So the last post was on Thursday, April 16th. That was the day after I got laid off from my old job, big bummer. Well, because I had so much "free time" on my hands, James and I decided to finally try to put our house together. We got together all of the gift cards we received as gifts at our wedding, and we went shopping crazy! It was so much fun. Decorating your own house is the best! We drove down to Ogden on Friday night and had dinner, went to a movie, but most importantly, went to Target! It was fun to get away for half a day. On Sunday, the 1st Counselor in our bishopric surprised us with our first calling as a married couple. We're teaching the 16-17 year old Sunday School class. I was blown away. Pretty much by the fact that I would've been in Young Women with most of these girls. It'll be a challenge, but the Lord knows what He's doing, and I'm sure we'll be just fine. James is super excited about it. He's always wanted to work with the YM/YW age group. We're teaching our first class this Sunday. The next few days I mostly was trying to maintain my sanity while diligently searching for another job. On Friday I attended the bachelorette party for my dear friend and former roommate Samantha Stoll (soon to be Whitely). I'm so excited for her and her soon to be husband. They're getting married this Monday (May 4th), and I couldn't be happier for them. Congrats!
We drove down to Salt Lake on Friday night, and didn't get there until late. We're crazy. On Saturday we got to see Kim (my sister-in-law) finally. She just got back from New Zealand! She wasn't able to make it to our wedding, so we were glad to see her for the first time as husband and wife. We're both so glad she's home (as I'm sure the rest of the Black family is too). Also on Saturday, we attended Conner and Rhia's cousin's shower. It was a lot of fun. They're such an adorable couple! Our partying was doubled because we were also celebrating Grandpa Petersen's 87th birthday! It was so much fun to be able to spend so much time with the family. On Sunday we went to Char Bridge's (a great friend of mine from high school) farewell. She's leaving for the Honolulu, Hawaii mission on May 6th. I'm so excited for her, I know she'll do great. After spending some time with my family we headed back up to Logan for finals week....yuck! James has been really busy with that the past week, and I finally got some interviews. My first was on Monday, then one on Wednesday, and the last one was just yesterday. Well, good news, I got hired! I will now be working as a receptionist at Diversified Home Loans. I had my very first day today! I think I'm really going to enjoy it. The pay is only minimum wage, but we'll see how it goes for a while. I'm just really grateful to have a job. We are so blessed! Also on Thursday, I had lunch with some of the best girls in this whole world! We had a blast! Mariesa came up to Logan on a whim, and it was so good to see her. We had dinner with James' old roommates on Thursday night, and that's when I got the call saying that I got the job. Needless to say, it was kind of a celabratory dinner for me after that. We also went to see X-Men Origins:Wolverine midnight showing. We had super good seats thanks to Stephanie Maxwell, so I wanted to give a shout out to her. In hindsight, it wasn't the best idea. James had a final this morning at 7:30, I had my first day of work, I had to check out of my old apartment before work, and we still need to clean our house because all of James' family is coming up for Kim's graduation. It's almost 9:00 and I'm pooped! The movie was fun though, it was nice to get out and do something carefree since our lives have been so stressful lately. It's really felt more like two days instead of one today, though. Anyways, I think that's about sufficient for this post. I'm pretty sure I wrote a TON! Off to change the laundry, and James gets off of work in about 3 minutes, so See Ya!

Campout in our Living Room

On Tuesday, James wanted to buy some sleeping bags at K-mart that were on clearance for $8. He told me that they were really good sleeping bags and that they only weighed 3 pounds so they would be really good for back-packing. We've been talking about going back-packing this summer with our good friends Sam and Drew. We could also use them for camping, which I am DYEING to do this summer with him. I thought it would also be a good idea just to have them around the house, for "just in case" reasons. Plus, the one he was getting for me was purple. So, obviously all signs pointed to yes, and we bought them when I picked him up from work that night.

On our way home, James came up with a brilliant idea to break them in. A campout. Well, since it's been pretty cold in Logan lately, it wouldn't be a very good idea to go up the canyon, so we compromised with our living room. First, we needed supplies. On our way home from K-mart, we stopped at the grocery store to get all the things we needed for tin-foil (sheep herder's) dinner. YuM! We also got chips and soda, all essential to the full campout experience. We stopped at redbox too, to rent an "outdoors-ish" movie. Turns out there weren't very many of those, so we settled on the new "Journey to the Center of the Earth". After we got all the supplies we headed home.

Before we "set up camp" we decided to put our tin foil dinners together and put them in the oven. While they were cooking, we set up our fort. It's a good thing we bought that table last week, because the chairs were just what we needed for a base. In order to be more comfortable, we spoiled ourselves and brought in the matress from our bed to sleep on. Give me a break, I had work in the morning. So here are the results of our fort:
Pretty nice, huh? We even had the T.V. inside of it, and we tied a bunch of James' ties together and hung them from the ceiling to keep it up better. It was a pretty sweet set-up.

After we set up our fort, we ate our delicious tin-foil dinners. Oh man, they were so yummy. Here's a pictures of those so your mouth can water over their deliciousness.
After we ate our dinner we got into our fort and watched our movie, which totally turned out to be really good. We weren't quite tired after the movie was over, so we popped in "All Dogs go to Heaven." James gave that movie to me for Easter, he's a sweetie! I pretty sure we might've fallen asleep before the movie was over, but anyway! Here's one more picture of us inside of our fort.

R.I.P Kermit

On Monday, our dear frog Kermit, went to the fishbowl in the sky. Sad day. Kermit was the smaller of two frogs we got in January. He was a good frog, but due to a bad decision on my part (we bought an evil puffer fish, "Shrek") his front two arms and back two feet got nipped off. He fought a good fight, but two days after we found him in his chewed up state, he gave up the ghost. We had a nice funeral. We said a few things, and then we tossed him in the river that runs through our backyard. We're deeply saddened by the loss. His brother (or maybe lover), Raymond, is still hanging on, and we're hoping he'll make it through the loss of his two front hands. Frogs can grow that sort of thing back thankfully, so we're hoping for a full recovery.
We'll miss you Kermit. Just keep swimming.

Update

So things have been just a little bit crazy lately. I'm going to try my hardest to remember everything that has happened the past week and a half or so. I'm not doing so well on keeping up with the blog, but I'm trying!

So a few new things lately. We got a new kitchen table. YAY! It was quite the fiasco though... I took the day off of work last Thursday because James had it off too and his class got canceled, so I thought it would be a good time to get some stuff done. We got the first table at K-mart. Brought it home, put it all together, turned it over....BIG CRACK! Right on the top. James was NOT happy. He was pretty furious in fact. So, we took it down, took it back to K-mart, and we were just going to exchange it for another one, but turns out the other one they had wasn't in such great shape either. So then we went to Wal-mart, and got the same table, and price matched it. It's all set up now, and our place is finally starting to look like home.

We also got our wedding pictures back. Well...most of them... The ones towards the end of the night are missing, I'm still working it out with my photographer as to where they went. Anyway, I'm going to try to get a few posted on here in the next couple days, because as it turns out, I'm now jobless.

Which brings me to the next new thing. My (former) boss decided that they didn't really need me at work anymore, and she couldn't afford to keep paying me, so I got the ol' chop. I don't really consider it as being fired, more as like, being laid off I guess. So now I'm looking for another job. Don't worry, it wasn't TOO much of a surprise, my boss kind of warned me about a month ago. I've already sent out a few resumes. Who knows, maybe it will be a blessing in disguise. I'm trying to be positive.

Also, I guess we didn't quite get the hose on our new washer tightened up quite enough, because last night, I noticed the floor in our office/guest bedroom was soaking wet. So yeah, our house is flooded now, but only just the one room.

It has been a good week, as you can tell. I just figure that's just how newlywed life is. All these things are definitely NOT the end of the world, and we are still so blessed.

Well, it's about that time where I go pick up James from work. I'll post again soon. We had a little camp out last night which was really fun and eventful. I promised James I'd blog about it, and we even took pictures. Just wanted to show off how adventurous we are! Coming soon! I promise!

See ya!

Marriage Milestones and Conference

Today I had the opportunity of attending the afternoon session of conference at the conference center. What a neat experience! My beautiful older sister was singing in the choir, and she performed beautifully. I am so glad I was able to attend. The spirit you feel while you are there in unlike anything I've felt before. We are so blessed to have such great leaders in our church. It makes me want to go shout the truth of the gospel to all the world. If only everyone in this world could be as blessed as me because of the gospel.

Although I wouldn't trade my conference experience for the world, it did necessitate a separation from my sweet husband. On Thursday we made the trek from Logan to Salt Lake in order to find and buy a washer and dryer for our apartment. We found one! Our first major purchase as man and wife. What a milestone! I'm so excited that we don't have to go to the Laundromat anymore! We stayed at James' parents house in West Jordan Thursday night, and then James had to leave at about 6:30 Friday morning in order to make it back to Logan for a test he had in Sociology, poor thing. I decided to stay with my parents so that I would be able to attend conference today and support my big sis. James had to work Friday night, so we spent our first night apart. Another milestone, kinda...I didn't like it one bit! And I wouldn't recommend it either. But I am grateful for the time I have been able to spend with my family, I hardly get to see them anymore.

James had to work tonight too, until close....boo! But, he is headed home as soon as he gets off, and I'm super stoked! Only like two and half more hours until I get to see him! We're pretty much pathetic when it comes to being separated from each other, but it makes it all the more sweet when we are reunited. Just got off the phone with him, in fact, and now I'm even more excited! I love that man!

We're spending most of the day with his family tomorrow. Conference, tacos, puzzles, and birthday cake. What more could you ask for? I really love his family. Tomorrow will be the first time we've hung out with his family since our wedding, another first. I doubt it will be any different from the time we spent with them before the wedding, but maybe. I guess I'm really a legit part of the family now, even though I've felt like a member since the first meeting.

Also exciting news, tomorrow I will finally get my pictures back from the wedding! AHHHHH!!!
Can't wait! I will post them on Facebook for sure, and I'll try to get some on here too. It was the best wedding ever. I'm pretty sure when I post pictures, you all will be jealous.

Anyway, I'm going to go get ready for my husband to come home. Thanks for reading!

The Beginning

So here I am, blogging. I've seen a few other couples' blogs and I thought it looked like a cute idea. We thought it would be fun to keep our friends and family updated on our lives. If they don't read it, then I guess we'll just have fun talking about ourselves. I created the blog in early February, but due to the fact that I was planning our wedding at the time, I didn't really have a chance to get around to doing anything with it. I've been tweaking around with it today while James is at work, and I think it's starting to look pretty good.

I was going to try to go with more of a neutral background, something not so girly since it's mine and James' blog, but then I figured, what the heck, might as well be something bright and fun that I really like. James probably won't care either way.

Right now we're just up in Logan, trying to get everything sorted out post-wedding. Our house is pretty much still a mess, but we did clean the kitchen yesterday, so that's exciting. We're also trying to get on top of our Thank You cards, but....we haven't exactly started yet. It's next on the list, after we finally open all of our presents.

The wedding was so awesome, and we are LOVING the whole marriage thing. It's so fun to wake up next to the love of your life every morning. We haven't gotten our pictures back, but hopefully really soon! I want to see them too! And hopefully I can figure out how to put them up on here. Maybe I'll have to ask my new niece Hannah. She's pretty hip to the whole blog thing.

So anyway, this is the beginning of our blogging adventure. Hopefully we keep up on it. I'm really excited. I'll try to keep it interesting too. If nobody reads it, that's okay, I'm sure I'll have lots of fun looking back on it in the future. See ya!