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!

Best of 2013

It is really hard for me to remember things that happen in a calendar year, because teachers think of years starting in August and ending in June. However, I have compiled some of my favorite pictures and moments of 2013. Enjoy.

February: Most importantly, we had a new niece in 2013! Kailee was born on February 11. So fun to think that in 2014, Lance and Kendra will have another baby, and we will have another nephew! We also will have another new niece when Kamie has baby Blakelee!

April/June: Cassie not only went to prom, but graduated from high school in 2013!

April: Tim and Kamie not only bought a house in March, but got a puppy in April! Matt loves Jack and is still jealous that he can't have his own dog.

May: Matt and Tim both got to bring their elk home! Matt's elk "Spike" has been in Diet and Myrna's basement since we got it. All my friends think I'm so crazy for having a dead animal mounted in my house. Unfortunately, I don't really have a choice!

June-August: This summer I spent almost every day in my big sun hat, sunglasses, and beach chair. It was the best! This is at Kamie's parent's cabin at Bear Lake over Memorial day in May.

June: Matt's birthday present was tickets to the RSL game and his jersey. Best present ever. He wears that shirt all the time.

June: Harrison has definitely gotten to the cutest age this year! I love how much he talks and interacts with you. Most importantly, he learned how to get treats from Matt.

June: I learned what a great babysitter Matt is. We were in charge of watching the kids one day and Matt cut holes in the bottom of the cups and made up a game for the kids to play. They were entertained forever!

June: We have seriously the best friends. This summer was our first "friends trip" and we went camping. Natalie and Zach, and Tom and Lindsay were both able to come. The boys spent the entire weekend shooting birds and anything else that moved with their BB guns. I'm so happy that we are all still close (and that the husbands are all friends) even though we have been out of college for over four years.

July: Annual Bear Lake West golf tournament. Definitely fun to see all the boys together.

July: More babysitting adventures. Claire was nervous to sleep in the same room as Spike.

August: Park Day! I went to almost every park day this summer. What a great way to spend time with friends and family and play outside!

August: My mom, Alex and I got to take Cassie to Dixie State to get her set up for college!

August: Matt and I celebrated our four year anniversary.

August: More babysitting. Matt and I had Reagan for a day and it was the busiest day of our lives! We love that crazy girl! I couldn't decide which picture was better, this picture of her trying to become part of the zoo exhibit, or the picture of her licking the ground.

September-November: Football season was cold this year! Most of the games were wet or cold or both, but always fun!

September: After moving in with Randy and Jenny, we have gotten close with the kids. This face was pretty typical for Harrison this year!

October: Matt and I signed the paperwork to start building our house! Definitely growing up! We started this process in August. It took almost two months to get paperwork together!

November: Our lot! We finally got all the paperwork together and were able to start work in November. I can't wait to put together a comparison of all the pictures of the house as it has slowly gone up!

December: Cassie got her mission call in December. She leaves for the Fresno, California, mission on February 26.

December: This is the progress of the house on December 31. I can't believe that next year we will be living in our finished house!

I have so many other good stories and fun times from 2013. Sad to see all those things pass, but definitely excited for some new things in 2014! We are looking forward to having a new niece and a new nephew, sending Cassie on her mission, finishing another school year, getting started on my Reading Endorsement, finishing and moving into the house, a long summer with a lot of camping and spending time with family and friends, more babies from all my pregnant friends, another batch of fourth graders, and in no time it will be the end of the year again!