2009

So I guess I'll hop on the "Goodbye to 2009" blog post bandwagon. 2009 has been kind of a rollercoaster year for me. They say that three of the biggest emotional events you can go through in life are: Dealing with death, divorce, and moving. Even though my grandma died in October 2008, I think I am still trying to deal with it over a year later. I got engaged, which is the opposite of getting divorced, but still a huge life change. I also moved twice. In March, I moved in with Joe and in October, we both moved into the basement of my grandparent's house with David living upstairs.

We are really liking where we live. We have a beautiful fireplace and there is room for our pets to run around. Sometimes it is difficult to have a housemate, but most of the time it is actually really nice.

In many ways, 2009 was the best year of my life. Joe asked me to marry him. I also became an aunt on November 24 to my wonderful nephew, James.

It hasn't all been wonderful. I've noticed that my anxiety issues have gotten worse. I put in a lot of job applications and went to several interviews with no luck (although, I am going to sell Avon soon, which will hopefully provide a little money until we get married and I can go back to school.)

So, I am looking forward to 2010 (especially June). It's going to be another busy year, but I am excited to see what it brings.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was a very special holiday. On Tuesday the 24th, my sil gave birth to the most perfect baby boy. I am an aunt!

On Wednesday, Joe and I had our annual pre-Thanksgiving dinner. This year we cooked a turkey breast, potatoes and gravy, green beans, and stuffing stuffed acorn squash. The turkey took way longer than expected (as usual) but everything was delicious. After dinner, we made the Thanksgiving bourbon pecan pies because the usual bakers (E and J) were still at the hospital.

On Thursday, I got a call from my mom saying HER turkey had gotten done way early (Why do turkeys have to be so tricky?) We headed over and were soon joined by Joe's mom and brother. We were very excited to share our Thanksgiving with them. Some last minute dinner preparations were going on as the last guests came in the door. E and J and baby James were released from the hospital Thursday afternoon and luckily, everyone felt well enough to come to dinner. James was wearing an adorable Thanksgiving Rocks! outfit. He was so good all during dinner (which was perfect as always). After dinner, mommy tried to wake him up to visit and he got pretty upset.

I am so thankful that we were able to share our holiday with so many people.

Wedding update

I noticed that my last wedding update was from quite a while ago, so here are some updates:

~We got our engagement pictures done and I am currently loading them onto my computer. Next step: Save The Dates!

~We're thinking about finding a new baker. We never signed a contract with the one we met with. We have since tried to get her the contract. We took it to her business and called all her phone numbers. She won't get back to us. We were not impressed at the initial meeting so we're thinking about finding somewhere new. (Maybe Granite Bakery?)

~We have asked everyone who will be in our wedding party.

~I have picked out a color and hopefully a designer for the bridesmaid's dresses. Hopefully I can find a store that carries them!

I think that is everything new. I'm falling just a little behind schedule (based on the checklists I have) but I think I'm doing ok. Next steps: Baker, Save the Dates, and florist!

229 days!

Halloween!

I have a bunch of blog entries to make now that we have the internet again (yay!) but I'm going to start with Halloween. This is the first Halloween that Joe and I have spent living together. David, Joe and I decorated the house and spent Halloween afternoon carving pumpkins. We all got into costume and waited for the trick or treaters. Joe and I had the door and David hung out behind the fog machine waiting to surprise kids as they were leaving.

I've never seen so many trick or treaters. We live in a really great neighborhood for kids. Joe had to make an emergency candy run because we were going to run out. Around 9, the neighborhood quieted down and I popped our Papa Murphy's Jack O Lantern pizza in the oven while Joe and David opened their Autumnal beer. I forgot to go to the liquor store for me so I used what I had and mixed vodka/sierra mist/and orange juice. I called it a "ghost pumpkin" because it was light orange. Also cuz I'm lame like that.

Here are me and Joe. We're a black widow couple. (male widows are brown with yellow hourglasses. They get eaten by the females...which is why Joe is looking a bit nervous.)

David

Joe's U pumpkin

Our suit of cards pumpkin.

More punchkins

Re Post

Just reposting this because it's gotten lost on the second page:

Jessica mentioned that she was having trouble leaving comments. It seems to be working for us. Try writing the comment and then choosing the ID "Name/Url" Write your name and leave the URL part blank. It should work.

Mesquite!

The day after Ben's (wonderful) wedding on August 8, Joe and I left for our Mesquite road trip. The trip didn't exactly run smoothly at first. We needed to drop Bomani at Grandma Connie's house and Kody in Heber before we could even get started. The drive was pleasant and, actually, not very long. When we got there, however, we couldn't get a room at the hotel we wanted to stay at (Casablanca Resort). They had given the last room to the girl just ahead of us. So we headed over to the Virgin River hotel instead. We booked a room for one night, hoping that Casablanca would have a room the next day. Even thinking we might just drive the extra hour to Vegas.

I was grouchy so Joe made me change into my swimming suit to go swimming; what I had been looking forward to all day. It turned out that Virgin River had a pretty nice pool and after a few minutes swimming, I cheered up. After, we went to the restaurant in the Virgin River...the Wagon Wheel or something. We ended up eating there for most of the trip. They had really yummy and really cheap food.

First thing Monday morning, we called Casablanca and they had some rooms available! We made reservations for two nights. However, we couldn't check in right away. We decided to go bowling. The Virgin River Bowling Alley was awesome. Really nice lanes and the cheapest bowling ever. We bowled a couple of games and had some ice cream.

After, we went to the Casablanca to see if they has any rooms yet. The only one available was on the ground floor at the very end of the hotel. It was a really long walk, but I loved it. The room was clean and comfy and our window looked out onto a garden.

We had dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant ever. It's called Los Cazadores and it's worth the drive to Mesquite just to eat there. Their special is an extra yummy enchilada with green sauce.

We spent most of our Casablanca time at the pool. It was huge and freezing and had a waterfall and a slide. We took books and read on chairs under the palm cabanas. Casablanca was great. I would highly recommend it.

We didn't want to leave right away on Wednesday so we hit the bowling alley again. Joe kept getting really high scores and after my first score of 99 (I had gotten 114 the time before) I vowed not to leave intil I broke 100. 7 games later, I finally got a 109 or something. Joe got a taste of the seriously stubborn part of my personality.

As for the gambling: the first slot machine I saw was called Dolphin Treasure. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to play. I didn't actually get a chance to for the first couple days, but when I finally got to play, I won $13! It was the big win of thr trip, but Joe and I did manage to come away with about $15 more than we played. (which wasn't much)

These pictures are all from the lovely Casablanca pool,where we spent most of our time.

Pool chairs all lined up

The hot tub

Pool in the morning. Before the waterfall was on.

Pool with waterfall

The waterslide

Cute cabanas

Us!

Hot July weekend

Since the weather looked nice and we haven't had a good summer weekend at the farmhouse (stupid rainy June) we decided to head down for a weekend in the country.

On Saturday, we mostly hung around the house reading and working on a puzzle. My mom came down on Saturday afternoon and we all had a lovely dinner of grilled salmon, farm fresh corn on the cob, and sweet potatoes.

On Sunday, I really wanted to drive up to a reservoir that my sibs and I found a couple of years ago. I don't know what it's called, but it's beautiful and not crowded. Joe and I headed up after breakfast and I was disappointed to see that there was still some snow on the mountain tops. I thought it would be too cold to play in the water.

When we got there though, it was warm enough for me to change into my swimming suit and swim around a bit. Though, it was a bit unnerving with all the fish!

The lake

Joe only wanted to wade

I wanted to swim out to a rock that I could see from the shore

Pretty wildfowers

Fluffy white clouds

Wedding Updates

I've been busy with wedding related things and wanted to make a list of the things we have done so far.

*We have booked our ceremony/reception location

*We have chosen our colors (I'm pretty sure) light purple, dark purple,and light green

*We have mailed the contract to our first choice photographer

*We have met with our cake lady (though nothing has been signed)

*We have decided on favors for the guests

*We have a good idea of what we'd like for centerpieces

*I have paid the first payment on my wedding dress!

I think that's it for now. I still have a lot of time, but I'm having fun with the planning. 359 days!

finally, -1!

June 26, 2009 marked our -1 wedding anniversary. We wanted to have a special evening so we planned a picnic in the mountains, complete with a campfire and s'mores. However, the weather was dreadful. It poured rain and thundered like crazy. (Hoping for better weather June 26, 2010!) So we went with plan B, dinner and drinks at our favorite bar: The Red Door.

The rain wasn't all bad- beautiful double rainbow

Dinner at Su Casa

The Red Door (haha. I swear we weren't drunk. Just tired.)

April 25 pictures

I got tired of fighting with blogger in the engagement post soI decided to do a separate post for pictures from the day we got engaged.

In the car (does he look a little nervous?)

Lots of traffic

The fog in the canyon

Snowing!

The roof of the cliff spa

Joe relaxing in the Solarium

Engaged!

Looking much prettier at dinner

Yay!

We're Engaged! April 25,2009

I've been meaning to do this post for a while so here it is! Joe thought it would be fun to blog the whole day.

Joe made a placement at his job so we decided that it would be fun to go out to dinner to celebrate. Joe decided that we should make a whole weekend out of it and we decided to go to the symphony Friday night and the Cliff Spa and dinner at Frescos on Saturday.

The symphony was wonderful. I love getting dressed up and we picked a wonderful performance to see. Saturday morning, I was grouchy. When Joe took Kody out for a morning walk, he saw that the side of our house had been spray painted. It turned out that most of the neighborhood had. We decided to go to Village Inn for breakfast/lunch. It was very crowded, but we didn't have to wait too long for a table. I had my standard BLT and Joe had french toast.

We decided to go back home and grab the camera so we could document the day and also to stop for some books/magazines to read at the spa. On the freeway, we got stuck in a major traffic jam. They were doing road construction and it was down to one lane. Finally, we got past it and headed up the canyon to the Cliff Spa at Snowbird. It was snowing! Hard. It looked like January in April. We got changed into our swimming suits and headed for my favorite part of the Cliff Spa- the hottub. For a while, it was just the two of us. It was snowy and foggy and really beautiful.

When the hot tub got a little crowded, we headed inside to the saunas/steam room. Then we settled in with our book/magazine in the solarium with some tea. Before we left, I wanted to relax in the hottub one more time. We went back onto the roof and got in. Joe was gettinga bit impatient to leave. I kept saying 5 more minutes until he finally just had to say, "ok. I'm getting you a towel!"

I took about 5 minutes getting ready because we were going to a nice dinner and I wanted to be able to get ready at home first. I didn't put on any makeup or fix my hair. Big mistake on my part! I met Joe in the hall and asked if he was ready to go. He said not yet, there was something on the roof I should see. I was thinking that the fog had cleared and he wanted to look at the view. (The fog had actually just cleared) When we got on the roof, Joe turned to look at me. He put his hand in his pocket and took out a ring box. He got down on one knee and asked if I would marry him. I said yes. We were both a bit shaky. He asked if I wanted to try the ring on and I said, "put it on me!" hehe. It fit perfectly. It is beautiful.

We stopped at my brother's house to tell my mom and David and called Ethan and Jessica on the way home. (Joe's family already knew.) When we got home, I prettied up and we went to a fantastic dinner at Frescos (Thanks for the Recommendation E and J!) It was a perfect day.

Valentine's Day

Joe (finally) downloaded picasa so I can better use our pictures. This one is a bit late, but I wanted to post it anyway. It's us looking cute on Valentine's Day.

Weekend

Saturday morning we headed down to the farmhouse. We spent the day relaxing and driving around. It was a beautiful day and we spotted a couple of bald eagles. David brought some different types of beer down so the guys could have a beer tasting. Jessica and I covered and numbered the different bottles so they didn't know what they were drinking. After, they all shared their impressions and the types of beer were revealed. Then we had a really yummy dinner cooked by Joe and played a few rounds of UNO (I won!)

Sunday was Superbowl Sunday! We left Mount pleasant early and headed to Heber to watch the game. Mary had chips and salsa, yummy queso dip, chicken wings, and lots of other tasty things. It turned out to be an awesome game and the Steelers won. (Yay!)

Next weekend is the LSAT. Joe is going to do great. Wish him luck!

Comments

Jessica mentioned that she was having trouble leaving comments. It seems to be working for us. Try writing the comment and then choosing the ID "Name/Url" Write your name and leave the URL part blank. It should work.

The Cliff Spa

For my birthday, Ethan and Jessica gave me an awesome present: A day at the Cliff Spa at Snowbird with both of them and Joe. The cliff spa is at the top of the Cliff Lodge. There is a hot tub, a pool, a steam room, and the Solarium- a nice room where you can relax and drink tea while reading or watching the skiiers.

We decided to go on December 13, a day that turned out to be very snowy. The pool and hot tub are on the roof so we got snowed on. It was nice to be in the really hot water while the snow flakes were falling all around. Even though everyone got ice crystals in their hair, it didn't feel cold. We even had a few snowball fights.

After spending a lovely afternoon at the spa, we went from the roof of the Cliff Lodge to the "basement" to a yummy Mexican restuarant. Then, it was back up to the Aerie lounge for drinks.

Just Arriving

Joe looking sexy in the hot tub

Ethan and Jessica. See the snowflakes?

Joe's frozen hair

At the Aerie Lounge

Hello!

Hey, this is the very first post on Chelsiver! Welcome, everyone. We met online on a website called OKC in April of 2008. Our first date was May 22. It was a great date. After that, we went on many more dates, including some wonderful trips to the Hogle Zoo and the Red Door. Before long, we were in love!

We have decided to write a blog chronicling our adventures, including lots of fun trips and moving in together this March.

:)