We're In!

Soo.. We got the apartment! We honestly can't believe it still. On Tuesday we got the call from our manager and he finally said those sweet, sweet words.. "We're in!" We immediately packed up our car and started our drive to St George haha. We weren't going to take any chances and we needed to sign that contract ASAP. We got there the following morning (Wednesday) and went through the whole contract, signed it, and got our keys! As soon as we figured out all apartment stuff Paul quickly changed and headed to a job interview! He got the job and will be a bookkeeper for a new accounting company! It all feels like a dream because so many great things were happening at once.

 We're taking visitors now that we have three bedrooms! 

Right after Pauls interview.. haha 

We toured Dixie State University where Paul will complete his Bachelors. HE IS DIXIE.

Our view from our front door! Whaaaat! 

We are so grateful for all that we have accomplished over the past crazy months. We know It wasn't possible without our Heavenly Fathers help. The stress has been unbelievable but we know that when something proves to be hard, it usually means you're doing the right thing (Thanks Joel R. for the inspiration). The quote "May we ever choose the harder right, instead of the easier wrong" by President Thomas S. Monson goes hand in hand with our situation, I think. 

"Hey! We Bought you Dinner!"

With our move to St. George, Paul and I realize we have been so blessed with specific people Heavenly Father has put into our path to help us and make our loads lighter. We are so thankful. Paul and I have challenged ourselves to be more Christ like and look for more ways to serve others around us. Serving others can be difficult for some, especially if you are an introvert (both Paul and I). It would be so much easier to just keep to ourselves. But would that bring us any happiness? "There are so many people in need whom we could be thinking about instead of ourselves.. There are so many ways we could be serving. We have no time to become absorbed in ourselves."-Dieter F. Uchtdorf. We understand that we can have an impact on others and can be a light to those around us. Even if it is awkward or weird we would rather be those things and know that we are doing something good for another person.

Here is an experience I never want to forget. It makes me laugh just thinking about it.

Paul and I took a quick trip to St. George to sign our apartment contract (yessss... that story another time). So we realized at 8pm that our homework was due online at 10 so we ran over to the nearest McDonalds to steal their internet for a little bit. So we ran in and looked around to find a table. It was pretty empty but I noticed (how could we not notice) this guy with really long dark hair, head down, in a wheel chair, and was blaring (literally so loud) screamo music from his phone. First impression=not so great.

We found a table and started on our homework. oh but this guys music! It was SO loud and I couldn't concentrate at all. I wanted to look back at him and give him my stink eye but forced myself not to. I couldn't help but think, "what is wrong with this guy? and why doesn't he have a pair of headphones?" Over Avril lavigne's horribly sad music I heard the McDonalds worker ask the guy if he was going to buy anything. He said he didn't have any money and wondered if the worker was going to kick him out. The McDonalds worker was super nice and didn't (even though I was thinking in my head to pleeeeease get this guy out of here).

Okay so we finally got our homework done and were walking out. As we were walking to the door the guy looked up at us. Paul gave him a nod and I gave him an awkward smile (I was a little nervous). We drove out of the parking lot and started talking about this really weird guy. Paul randomly was like, "Should we get him something to eat?" and then it was like uh yes we need to do this.

We decided to go through the drive through, order him a meal and tell the workers to give it to him... SLOWEST MCDONALDS ON EARTH. We were like, "Oh my heck, hurry up! He's going to be gone by the time we get to the second window!" and sure enough... he was gone. What the heck was I going to do with this whole McDonalds meal and neither of us were even hungry? AND THEN we saw him wheeling himself down the side walk. and I freaked out for a second because I really wanted to run out and tell him to stop and that we bought him some dinner but I was like no. it's dark. and scary. and I don't know this guy. and what if I get eaten. and then I flung myself out the door (Our car is still in line by the way) and ran towards this stranger. There was a big hill of rocks that I climbed  and jumped over a few bushes to get to the side walk.

"Excuse me!" ... No answer... "Excuse meee!!!" ...Still no answer... "EXCUSE ME!!!" Yeah no answer. And I'm like running after this strange guy and he's pretty fast on his wheel chair! and finally I yell, "HEY! WE BOUGHT YOU DINNER!" and he finallllyy turns around and sees me and is wondering why this crazy girl is chasing after him. I told him again that we bought him dinner and I quickly explained that we wanted to give it to him without him knowing it was us but he left and we still wanted to give it to him.. and at this point I'm wondering what in the world am I doing. and then he looked up at me with the kindest eyes and a huge smile and said, "Oh my God, thank you. Thank you!" I immediately felt horrible for being so mad about his music being so flipping loud.

We got him his food and he was SO thankful and SO kind. He told me his name and said he comes to this McDonalds sometimes. I told him that we would probably see him again sometime because we come to steal their Internet and he was like, "Hey I do too!" haha.

Paul and I are laughing so hard while I write this because the whole thing was just so weird and we are so awkward haha. But we are SO happy we chose to do something out of our comfort zone. When I got back in the car after talking with this guy, we couldn't stop laughing and smiling. The whole thing made us SO happy.

"The happiest people are those who lose themselves in the service of others." -Gordan B. Hinckley

Apartments and Prayers

We took a reallllly last minute trip to St George last week to figure out our apartment situation. It's SO hard to find anywhere decent to live in St. George through the internet so when we happened to stumble upon a certain neighborhood with the cutest little town homes we got to work. I think I've called the landlord over 10 times (I'm not being annoying I promise.. well at least I hope not!) and have been very persistent. Before we knew it, the Landlord was telling us he needed to meet us in person and have us go over all the paper work in his office. We didn't even hesitate thinking about driving the long 7 hour drive from Rexburg as soon as possible. We want this place that much. 

When we finally got into St. George we quickly drove around the neighborhood to see everything in person. It's seriously perfect. The town homes are right next to the Virgin River and Paul had a little hay day when he saw how perfect the water was for skim boarding. It's even located next to a Dinosaur Museum for goodness sake! But it's not just the town home or the location or the landlord (Or the dinos) that is pretty perfect... The price is just what we need to get started in St George. I don't know if you've seen the prices for apartments these days but sheesh... 

So we met with the Landlord and felt like he really liked us. He gave us (A LOT) of hope that we would be able to move in the first of April. The Landlord had to check just a few final things and said he would let us know when everything was taken care of. We left feeling suuuper good and suuuuper excited to move in. 

So here we are back in Rexburg, a week later, and as anxious as ever. We haven't heard much of anything and I'm seriously dying and so stressed that we won't get in for some reason. I keep telling myself that there is no way we will not get it! But it's still so hard! It's taken a huge leap of faith to make the (scary) decision to leave home town and move to St. George where we know nothing. 

Since Paul and I have been married I KNOW without a doubt that our Heavenly Father has been mindful of where we have lived. We have been so blessed with each living space we've had. I know know know Heavenly Father will answer our prayers whether it be through this particular place or somewhere else (although I am really really praying that it's in God's favor that it's this place). Through this whole process the words "I'll go where you want me to go" have been on repeat. Through faith, Paul and I will be directed to go where he wants us to go and I'll be happy wherever that be. 

(So yeah. But let's still pray hard it's this particular place. :)) 

It's a miracle!

Today I opened our front door and left it open for a whole 20 minutes! I sat just where the cold breeze couldn't get me but where I could feel that sun that I've missed for too long. It was amazing.

This picture took me back

Paul and I were walking back from the track when all of a sudden I saw this! I hadn't seen this picture in yeeeeaars. 

This picture took me back to my tiny years sitting at our old circle table and eating cream of chicken whatever. It hung above our dining table and when eating dinner I would often stare at it instead of listening to my parent's politic talk.

I've always loved this picture. My parents always said that it represented our family. Julia bent down working hard, Jason staring off at who knows what, Stacy observing and learning from Julia, Brian looking like a tiny dwarf and trying to do too much for his body size, and me sitting and doing my own thing. Pretty accurate haha.

Moved In. Moved Out. Lessons Learned.

The time we moved into an apartment. Sat on our couch for 3 minutes. And then moved out.

Paul and I were living in a great apartment complex that was pretty close to campus and my job was actually a quick walk to the main office of the complex. One night I was doing my usual craigslist scan for cool apartments and there it was. An apartment so unique and so "cool" to this area and for a great price! All wood floors, white kitchen cabinets, loft bedroom... We clicked through the pictures over and over again and thought, "We have to have it." You know that impulse you get to buy that Snickers at the check out of Wal Mart? Like that. Except this was an apartment.

We called and saw it the next day. It was literally everything we wanted. The only downside was that it was about 10 minutes from Rexburg and we would need to drive that every day for work and school. That didn't sound like a problem to us at all. We signed the contract and felt good about our decision.

We didn't want to rush our move so we took a couple days to take each car load of boxes to our new fancy apartment. There was one night where we brought over our clothes and a few other things. We were considering sleeping there for the night for the first time but as I sat there I suddenly felt uneasy. The most horrible feeling came over me. All of a sudden I hated the place. The sounds, the neighbors, the smell.. I can still imagine that smell of the new wooden floors and I get sick. I have never had such a crazy feeling come over me and I wanted OUT.

We went back to our old apartment and I just sobbed and sobbed like it was the end of the world. Paul had no clue what was going on haha. I just kept telling him how horrible of a feeling I was getting about the place and how I could not live there. He wasn't getting the same feelings I was and I was just SO confused! I thought for sure that the Spirit was literally yelling at me to get out of the situation we were in. I didn't understand. Paul and I were married, weren't we supposed to be "spiritually in tune" and on the same page all the time? So I pushed the feeling aside the best I could and we continued to move our things into the new apartment.

The day came and we had our very last load which included our bed and table. We had a friend from our ward help us with his truck and we carried in the last of it. Paul and I sat down on our new sectional that came with the apartment. Instead of a feeling of relief, we both looked at each other and knew.

The most embarrassing part about the whole thing was that we called our friend who had the truck literally 5 minutes later and asked if he would be willing to come back. He said he was on his way back and with 2 other guys who would help us move everything back in one drive. He didn't question us he just did it. I can't believe he actually came back. He was a huge blessing to us that day.

We moved everything back into our old apartment and everything felt right again. My heart was at peace and I knew with everything in me that our Heavenly Father had protected us. From what? I will never know the answer to that question. But there are a few things I learned through this experience.

Number one is that Heavenly Father is SO aware of our needs. Number two is that even if you are married and go to church and read the scriptures and do all that you should be doing... Sometimes you and your spouse won't get the same feelings of the spirit at the exact same time. That doesn't mean one is more in tune with the spirit than the other. It just means that Heavenly Father knows what we need and how we need it.

Paul recently brought this memory up to me in regards to how it was such a big lesson to him. He said that he kept asking himself over and over again why he never felt anything bad about the new apartment until after we had already moved in. But after the experience and later on in our marriage he says he was able to learn that we need to trust each other's feelings as a couple. It taught him to trust his wife's feelings if she (I) gets that prompting and he doesn't, or vice versa. Because sometimes it's not a lesson of listening to the spirit but a lesson of listening and trusting in your spouse.

We've had experiences since where we have had to rely and trust in each other completely to get through some difficult decisions. The experience with the apartment was a huge pain, embarrassing, and both physically and spiritually straining, but the experience was a lesson that we both needed to learn.

Oh and we also learned never to impulse buy on anything ever again. :)

Beef and cheese, toots, and primary

When I think about moving I get sad about only a couple things, one of those things being leaving our great ward and callings. We have the best calling in the whole ward. Here's some pretty awesome moments we've had so far. 

Little girl leans over during sharing time and whispers-"My dad told me that Jesus is made of beef and cheese"

Me- "Jesus is always watching over us!"
Little boy- "alllllllways watchinnggg" (Monsters Inc. reference)

Little girl in other class- "I got four starbursts for being bad today!"
Me- "What? That doesn't make sense."
Little girl in other class- "Yeah, I was bad and I still got four starbursts!"

Little girls starts to pray- "We're grateful for Primary. Please bless me that I'll kiss Gus on the lips"
Me- "No no no start over that's inappropriate"

While trying to have a spiritual moment during the lesson one little girl lets out the most ginormous man toot I've ever heard. Everyone dies laughing. The spiritual moment is gone forever.

Speaking of toots.. Those classrooms we teach in are small and congested and everyone is usually pretty crammed (There's only 6 of us) but we almost ALWAYS have to open the window because the smell that comes from these stinkers  beautiful little angels makes my eyes literally burn! And they are totally proud of their man toots!

After giving a really good lesson on faith and feeling pretty good about how it went, Paul and I stepped out in the hall to make sure the kids got to their parents okay. I over hear a conversation between a little boy in my class and his mom.
Mom of little boy- "What did you learn about today?"
Little boy- "Martin Luther King!"
Yeah, no. That's not what we learned about haha.

Primary Chorister- "Okay children, I want you to sing as loud as you can!"
Little sunbeam girl automatically plugs her ears with her fingers.

One Sunday my patience was gone so I made them take an oath that they would behave in Primary and for their leaders. One little girl shouts out, "We need to put in our oath- no more tooting!" Why is it that we have to talk about gas every Sunday?!

A little boy was super sad in sharing time and didn't want to draw.
I asked him-"why aren't you drawing like the rest of the kids?"
Little boy- "I quit drawing. Drawing is just not one of my talents"

During Sacrament meeting I looked up to see a little boy we had last year staring at me. He then proceeded to use sign language to communicate with me from across the chapel. I had to google how to spell "Hello" in sign language to answer him back.

Me during lesson- "What could we do if we woke up in the night feeling scared or frightened?"
Little boy- "I would grab my wooden sword and run to my parents room!"

Primary leader in sharing time- "How do we know the scriptures are true?"
Little girl- "By taking a shower and eating lunch!"

We're in sharing time and it was the first sunday the sunbeams were there. One little girl must have been bored because she began taking one article of clothing off at a time until she was almost naked.



We love these kids. I'd be happy if we had this calling forever.