Good Friends

What would I have done in college without my awesome roommates? I probably would never have made it. My life certainly would not have been nearly as fun. I had so many good times, and luckily never any drama. I am even more lucky that my husband is friends with all my roommates' husbands so we can all get together! This year we missed our Christmas get-together due to busy schedules so we all met up for dinner one weekend in January. Everyone is living all over the place now, so it is a pretty lucky weekend when we can all meet! It was so fun to catch up with everyone, especially to catch up on everyone's growing families! Matt and I are the last hold-outs with no kids. I can't believe that we've all grown up!

From left: Matt and I are living in Richmond; Jeana, Marc and baby Aric are living in Eureka; Lindsay, Tom and Olivia are in Roy; Natalie and Zach and baby boy (due in May) are in Cottonwood Heights. Jenni, Jared, Trennon and baby boy (due in March) couldn't make it this year, but we'll definitely see them soon!

I wasn't going to post old college pictures, however I had some good ones and couldn't pass up the opportunity to look through old pictures:

Freshman year (2006-2007) at Merrill Hall:
Lindsay and I shared a room. We lived with Jeana, Jessica, Amanda and Darci. Darci had a different style and we didn't see much of her, unless she was having a Guitar Hero marathon on our TV. We usually remember her by her Egyptian boyfriend. Jess and Amanda knew each other from high school, but the rest of us were strangers, thrown together by chance.

Jess, Tom and I. Lindsay was dating Tom at the time so we saw him a lot. Lindsay's ringtone for Tom was "Barbie Girl." One night, Tom called super late. We were both asleep until we heard "Barbie Girl" blasting from Lindsay's phone. He was calling to find out what to do after his roommate put his hand through the window (the closed window) while playing Halo. Good times.

Linds and I... Lindsay and I both very similar. She actually sent me a little profile of herself before we met and I was thinking, "How did I get roomed with the same person as myself??" She even sent me a picture of herself in her softball jersey. It was freaky. 

Lindsay, Jess, me and Amanda. Jess and Amanda mellowed Lindsay and I out. We even would go out dancing together. Amanda even got Lindsay crazy enough to dress up goth one night. Wow. 

Gymnastics in the kitchen. Typical Tuesday night. Is that ice cream and slurpee cups in the garbage? How did we all stay so skinny?

Sophomore Year (2007-2008) at Pine View Apartment:

This year, we still lived with Lindsay and Jeana, but I shared a room with Natalie, and we met Jenni and Natalie W. (sometimes referred to as "Natalie-brown-hair"). This was the year that everyone really started dating. I have a million funny dating stories from all these girls.

Roommate Date night- Lindsay was soooo busy this year, we barely saw her. This night was crazy. We went shopping, tried on some crazy prom dresses, Natalie L. sprayed some dog perfume on herself, and I taught everyone how amazing I am at singing like Celine Dion.

Natalie and I shared a room this year. This was also the year I got a camera, so I have about a zillion pictures of the two of us making faces like this. We went on a lot of double dates and did almost everything together. Nat had a tiny TV and we would climb in our beds after school and watch The O.C.

This was the year that we met Jenni. We got to know each other so well that Natalie and I were out shopping and saw a Valentine's card that was perfect for Jenni so we bought it for her. Little did we know, her boyfriend bought her the same one! It was funny.

Junior Year (2008-2009) at the house in Hyde Park:

This year Natalie and I moved into a house in Hyde Park and commuted to school. Jenni did a semester in Spain and moved in during the winter. Natalie was writing two missionaries, and her dating life was super crazy, Jenni was soooo busy with school this year, and I was coaching softball and Matt and I were hanging out all the time. It was a crazy year!

Jeana got married first of all of us... she got married on August 15, 2008. (I only remember because I got married exactly one year later)

This was the bridal shower for Lindsay, who got married in May of 2009. We were still living in the house in Hyde Park, so we hosted the shower there.

Lindsay asked me to be one of her bridesmaids when she got married. It was so fun!

It was awesome when everyone was able to come to our wedding in August. 

May 2010:

Jenni and Jared got married in Twin Falls, Idaho. Lindsay and Tom carpooled up there with us and we met Jeana and Marc there. We went to dinner after the reception at a pizza place called Gertie's, and the pizza wasn't great, but it was one of the most fun dinners I've ever had.

Nat and Zach got married on June 5, 2010, the same day my dad got married. I was so mad I had to miss their reception that night, but I had to be at my dad's wedding reception.

Summer 2011:

Lindsay was pregnant with Olivia, so I got to throw my first baby shower! Since they had already picked out her name, we had an Olivia-themed baby shower. It was one of the only times everyone was together over the years. 

We tried to get everyone together for a Bee's game in Salt Lake, but Lindsay had just had Olivia and they couldn't come. Jared was so excited the whole game. He never took his baseball glove off his hand. Jenni was pregnant at the time and they were excited to have a little boy to play baseball with.

We had a baby shower for Jenni in September 2011. Look how little Olivia was! She was born in July.

2012:
This is from our Christmas party. Jenni and Jared have Tren, who was just over one at the time, Tom and Lindsay had Livi, who was almost 18 months, and Jeana and Marc were pregnant with Aric, who was born in February.

I can't believe how fast time has gone. It feels like yesterday when we were all living together, doing stupid things every day. I love you girls!

Going to the Temple with Cassie!

Cassie getting her mission call has been so exciting, just finding out where she is going and helping her get everything she'll need. However, we got to participate in the best part, which was going through the temple! Cassie asked me if I would be her escort, which was really special to me. This is something that I probably won't get to do again (unless I have daughters, which may not happen, let's be honest!) so I was especially excited to be there for Cassie. She went through the Draper Temple, which is where Matt and I got married. An extra fun part was that we didn't have to get ready in the regular dressing room, but got to use the bride's room, which brought back some great memories. Again, this is a room that I probably won't get to go in again so I was happy to have the opportunity. We had a very special night, and got to go out to dinner with the family after! I was happy to have such a special, sacred moment with my sister and am so proud of her!

Matt

These are my favorite stories to write and share. Matt is definitely an interesting person. We have some funny conversations. One day, we are driving home and I'm telling Matt about a friend who recently announced that she was pregnant. She told me how she told her husband, and he was excited and a little overwhelmed. It is no secret that Matt and I have been waiting to have kids and so we talked about how Matt would like me to tell him when I get pregnant. He said, "I think most guys are mostly overwhelmed and scared when they hear their wives are pregnant. I think the excited part comes later. Don't expect me to be really excited right at first." (You know, since we know everything about how it feels when you get pregnant) This did not make me feel too good! Since I will DEFINITELY be overwhelmed and scared, I told him that I would just put a note on the door that says, "I'm pregnant. Don't come in until you are excited."

January 10, 2014

I am probably the only person who would even recognize this day, but on January 10 I remembered my two-year "anniversary" of my brain biopsy. It is hard to believe that it has been two years. It seems to me like it was yesterday. I feel like I am finally starting to understand how to live with my disease and treatment. There are no real updates, everything is still pretty much the same as it was two years ago: I still have a "numb" leg and foot. When I use it a lot it starts to feel "heavy" but no one can really tell. I have to have an MRI in the spring before I see my specialist and I have another doctor who does blood tests for me in the fall. I still do my weekly injection, and still get sick. I'm learning to manage my symptoms, but still have bad weeks. That's pretty much it! I'm very lucky to have everything under control and hope that this year things stay as good as they are!

Sheeting the Roof

I'm getting myself ready to be working on the house every Saturday, but today was a bit of an exception. Matt, Todd, Randy, and Tim put the plywood sheeting on the roof, and Matt told me that I am not allowed on the roof, nor am I allowed to use a saw, which means I couldn't help. So I ran errands while the boys put the sheeting on the roof today, and I brought over lunch and helped pick up random pieces of garbage and wood and swept up. Even though I wasn't much help, the boys got the entire roof sheeted and it is now protected from the coming snow!

I took this picture before they finished putting plywood on the overbuild over the porch. I am going to love having a covered porch to sit and relax on.

View of the east side of the house. The door and window are both in the garage. Again, I took this picture before they finished putting the sheeting on the overbuild over the garage. This did get finished today and the garage is closed in.

Back of the house. Look at how small the wood piles are getting! You can tell how far along a house is by looking at the wood pile. Big pile means not very far along, and little pile means almost done with framing!

West side of the house. The windows are in the master bedroom and master bathroom.

View of the main room inside. You can see where we will have the regular ceiling in the kitchen and the vaulted ceiling in the dining room and family room.

View from the other direction. I LOVE the vault.

View of the tray ceiling in the master bedroom. It feels bigger than it is with the higher ceiling.

We apparently need to put some hangers on the bottom of each of the trusses to connect them to the house even better than they already are, and looking at all those trusses, it's going to be a lot more work!

Trusses in the garage. We tried to keep the trusses as simple as possible to keep the costs down. I can see why the complicated roofs cost so much to build because even building the overbuild over just the garage and porch took more time than doing the entire rest of the roof. 

It is crazy all the little things that end up costing a lot of money. Matt is working on a house with a very specific roof and specialized trusses that took over a month to build, and cost a ton of money. It will take over a week to set the trusses and sheet them, while it took us two days to do ours. Think of all the money they will have to pay in labor costs! I will never look at roofs the same way again!

On Monday, Matt and I are going to pick out our doors and windows so we can start getting everything closed in. Matt has a bunch of smaller projects now that he will work on in whatever order he can. Projects that include: putting ice/water shield on the roof, putting tar paper on the roof, putting hangers on the trusses to connect them to the house/exterior walls, building the stairs and other framing stuff. We are getting into the part where we can get some lights and a heater and work at nights. I feel like the new year is giving me an eye to the end of the house building and the school year! Only five more months of both (hopefully)!

Trusses

I was glad that I was back to work for this day. Matt has been making me nervous all week walking on unsupported beams and sketchy ledges and this would have been terrible for me, not to mention my minor fear of heights.

 Matt sent me these pictures from his phone. I ended up working until 6:00 and it was too dark for me to take any pictures when I went over.

We were excited that these came so quickly because we have been hearing that it is going to snow this weekend. We wanted to try to get the trusses on and sheeted before it snowed, and this got us halfway there!

Last Day Working with Matt and Back to Work

New Year's Day was the last day I had for Christmas break, so it was my last day helping Matt on the house. It was just the two of us, and we framed all the interior walls of the house! I was so proud that I was able to help. I spent the first hour of the day getting all the 2x4s we would need into the house while Matt measured everything to make sure it would all fit together perfectly. Then, I laid out all the walls and Matt nailed them together. The best part was standing them all together and literally being able to see each room come into existence. It was amazing.

I didn't take any pictures because we worked until it was way dark, so I came by after work on Thursday and took pictures. Todd and Matt spent the day putting on top plate on all the interior walls and finished putting plywood in the garage and the exterior walls and laid out all the trusses so they would be ready for the crane on Friday.

This will be the pantry- it is six feet long and two feet deep. With the layout we wanted, we couldn't find a way to get the pantry in the kitchen, so it is just off the dining room, next to the kitchen.

Kitchen and dining room. You can see that the plywood is all finished, no more holes in the walls except ones that are supposed to be there!

This is the entry. There is a small coat closet on the left.

Master bedroom. Love that I'm getting blinded by the setting sun in my little window. We are planning on putting our bed just below the high, skinny window.

View from the master bedroom into the master bathroom. The master closet is just past the bathroom. We are not putting a door on the closet because you have to walk through the bathroom to get to the closet.

Main bathroom for the two bedrooms.

Hallway to the bedrooms. I didn't think I'd like this hallway, but it turned out better than I thought it would.

West bedroom with the bigger closet. AKA Tori's library/craft room.

East bedroom with the smaller closet. AKA Matt's hunting/work clothes room.

All the trusses laid out, ready to get put up.

Living room. Todd on the phone. Slacker.

Mudroom/laundry room! I am going to love this room, but Matt will hate it because I'm making him build in some custom lockers and a bench. It's going to be awesome!

Plywood on the garage. We will have a 9 foot garage door so Matt will be able to drive a boat in with the tower, or put a four-wheeler in his truck and put the truck in the garage. Little luxuries that we can afford.

More trusses all laid out. They put the plywood on them so they didn't have to do it on a ladder. Smart boys.

Front view! So fun seeing what it really will look like!