Getting to Know THE MAN

Well, at least the man of this house.

Thank you all for your congrats and well wishes! We appreciate everyone who is rootin' for us. It's hard enough to live this life, we can't imagine how lonely it would be without friends and family to support us. I did want to clarify that the job is in Salt Lake City, so we will be here for a bit longer. Surprisingly, we're okay with this. We're moving into a new apartment next month and that will help a ton towards lessening our animosity towards this state (although Texas still is and always will be the best!).

Yesterday was Jared's birthday. He turned the big 29! In his honor, I thought I'd do a post about him. Since I'm the main writer on our blog, it's easy for everyone to get to know me. Jared is the most important part of my life, and I think he's pretty dang special. Hopefully after this post you'll think so too ;-).

All righty, let's begin with his hobbies:

Look at those arms. Give me a moment while I pick up my jaw from the floor...

He's passionate about guns. Not in a crazy-psycho way, but in a I'm-going-to-protect-my-family-way. He's an excellent shot (you can check with the army on that one). One of our favorite activities is to load up the guns and go out to the desert and shoot the tar out of everything. Can we say stress relief?

Followed closely by shooting/guns is his love of engines. He's a total grease monkey. This is not an uncommon site after spending a day in the shop. He can pretty much do anything with an engine from rebuilding it completely, to minor belt repairs. We save a fortune on car repairs because he is so willing to do them himself. He's so anxious for the day when he can have his very own shop with all of his tools in one place. Someday babe, someday.

Some of his other hobbies include watching movies, cruising, shopping and most recently golfing.

The other big part of his life is the military:

He has been a member of the Utah National Guard for the last seven years. Right after we got married (and I'm talking right after), he was deployed for a whole long year. It was a rough deployment, simply because of his leadership and the nature of the mission. And, if we're keepin' it real, his not so great wife during the first three months (serious, I was awful. Not a stellar example of the perfect Army wife). He loves being a soldier and is very patriotic (AND he looks good in his uniform). He loves to hang with his battle buddies and talk shop. We've made some life long friends among said battle buddies.

Here are some random tidbits I love about him:

1. He is the hardest working person I know. He does his absolute best at everything he does, and he doesn't quit until the job is finished.

2. He hates it when drawers or cupboard doors are left open. I try my hardest but I will inevitably leave something open and then I hear about it. All day.

3. He does not believe in fat pants. He will wear his regular clothes all day/night and is perfectly comfortable in them. I don't get it. How can you not love fat pants?

4. He is super clean. Almost to the point of OCD clean (I think he gets that from his *coughs* dad *coughs*). But the great thing is.. he is willing to clean! I have my one area where he's not allowed to touch and I can keep it as messy as I want, but for the most part he cleans the house (does that make me a bad wife? When he starts working full time I'll pick it back up again, I promise).

5. He likes thick blankets. Even in the summer when it's boiling hot in our apartment, he'll have a thick blanket on. So during the summer we share a bed but not a blanket, as I don't feel the same way

6. When he reads, he reads self help/finance books. Those are his favorite. He is always looking for ways to do things better or improve himself/ourselves.

7. When I suggest something and he says "we'll pray about it" that means NO. Not only a no, but a BIG FAT NO.

8. He served an LDS mission for two years in England. After he got home, he and his immediate family went over there for a visit. Hopefully someday we'll do the same, except I want to go to London and his response is "we'll pray about it".

9. He thinks I'm crazy sometimes. Especially when I'm reading a good book or watching SYTYCD. Then he just shakes his head at me and smiles. I would love to know what he's actually thinking but I'm afraid to ask.

10. He is... amazing and the love of my life. I'm so lucky!

THE BESTEST NEWS

After all these months of searching for a job... JARED RECEIVED AN OFFER THIS MORNING!!! The company is with Fedex Smartpost (they help out the US Postal Service send letters and whatnot). He's a logisitics coordinator, so basically he'll be working with scheduling the trucks and routes and whatnot (as opposed to being a warehouse manager where he will do the palletizing and shipping/receiving end).

I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. Thanks to all of those who have been praying for us, putting our name on the temple roll and generally just rootin' for us to suceed. It was SUPER hard to be patient and find out where the Lord wants us to be, but He has definitely blessed us and out path is clear.

YAY!!!

Snap Out Of It!

So I'm sitting here at work having a massive pity party for myself. Ya' know the kind where you think one bad thought and a billion pop up right after it? For example: "Man, I'm having a hard time breathing in this shirt..why did I wear this today? I'm such an idiot...well, self, if you would EXERCISE then maybe your shirt wouldn't be tight and you could take a breath..how come I'm such an idiot and don't ever exercise?..man, I want a DP and a whole batch of chocolate chip cookies right now..I need a new job..well, self, you could apply for them..but what's the point when no one ever calls for an interview?...I don't have any special skills to offer anyone.. I'm going to be stuck at this job I hate forEVER...wow, look at that pretty cupcake. I need one of those.."

Yep, that's what I've been doing for the last hour. In an effort to get myself out of my pity party (and away from chocolate chip cookies), I've been thinking of random stories from my life. That way instead of feeling sorry for myself, I'm laughing at myself. Genius!

1. I was playing chicken with my fellow bus-stop friend while waiting for said bus in the 2nd grade. The bus driver caught us, and I had to go to the principals office. I was so stressed out about it that I threw up after the meeting and then had to go home. That was my first and last trip to the principals office.

2. I was looking out a window at a particular nasty rain storm and wondered, out loud, to my fellow employees "Doesn't the bed of your truck fill-up with water when it rains?" Wow.

3. My favorite outfit as a kid was a navy blue sweater, red skirt, black sweater tights and one bright purple shoe and one bright pink shoe-- on the wrong foot. Plus, I had a mullet. That's future model material right there.

4. The very first time Jared asked for my number he said (exact words) "So uhh.. can I get your number so I can call ya' sometime? To ya' know... chat? About things?" (I know that story doesn't make me look ridiculous, I just think it's cute!)

*sighs* I feel better.

Weekend in the Wilderness

The state of Utah is predominantly LDS, and as such, July 24th is a big state holiday. It's known as Pioneer Day and there are parades, fireworks AND most local companies get the day off! Since I did, we made plans with Jared's cousins to go on a camping trip. For two nights, in the middle of nowhere. Needless to say.. I was dreading it. Was being the key word. I loved it! Jared's cousins own a camper, so we had a toilet which made the trip for me. Going #2 over a log in the middle of bear country did NOT seem fun to me. We left early (and I mean EARLY) Friday morning, drove about two hours up into the mountains and set up camp. I had made a trip to the library earlier in the week and I had tons of books to read. We had the perfect campsite and it was so nice to get away for a weekend. Even if I did smell slightly bad when I came home. I am very proud of myself for not being a stink-butt the whole weekend. I thought I was such a diva and needed a shower, bed, hair and make-up done, but I did all right. Yay for me!

Meet Adorable Mason. So cute, SOO dirty. He had such a great time playing in the dirt with his Tonka trucks/tractors. Oh, and throwing it at people too. But he was so cute, what could we do?

The other lovely lady in this pic is Jessie, Jared's youngest sister. Here we are making hobo dinners on Friday night. Yum!

Talk about YUMMY.

Meet Matt and Laura. The oh-so-cute parents of Adorable Mason.

The three cousins. Jared, Matt, Shane. Jared didn't actually catch any fish, he just wanted to pretend he did.

Jessie guttin' a fish. This was one hurdle I'm not ready to jump quite yet. Baby steps people, baby steps.

And this is typical of camping out: sitting around an awesome camp fire, eating delicious peach cobbler, solving all the worlds problems and trying to avoid a face full of smoke. Ahh.. the joys of nature.