Sad Day

This update is to tell everyone that I have not been slacking on my blog! I have been working on a project to scan all my mom's scrapbooks and print them for myself. This was harder than I planned for several reasons:
1. The pages were 12x12 scrapbook pages so I had to "convince" my dad to buy a commercial size scanner so I could scan them at home. That took about a week of nonstop scanning.
2. While scanning, I realized that the files were HUGE, almost 1G each, and I have over 300 pages. So I had to connect everything into my 1T external hard drive, and still my computer was way bogged down.
3. Once everything was scanned, I thought I could just upload them to blurb and voila! Done! NOT! Apparently blurb doesn't read tiff files, which is what they all scanned as! Ahhhh!
4. At this point, I had two options. Rescan everything, or convert the files individually. I opted for the second option. I tried to open them and convert them in several programs before I found one that worked. I had to open them all in Photoshop, which took forever because they were such huge files, then I had to resave them, which took even longer!
5. I've been working on converting for about two weeks, and had just finished the first half of the pages when my computer started to get really slow. My macbook is from 2006, when I graduated high school, and has been through a lot. I figured it was tired from the huge project so I finished up and unplugged and shut it down. It did not turn back on.
6. I took out over to expercom, who was impressed it has lasted that long. They called it "vintage". They thought the hard drive was dead, but said they'd look at it. I didn't think it would be a big deal, because I don't feel like I use my computer that much. I was so wrong! In the three days since it's been gone, I've needed it 3-4 different times, and then realized I didn't have it. Then they called me and told me that the hard drive was gone.

I am so sad. I don't know what to do without my computer, and I'm even more sad that I may not be able to recover everything. I backed up my pictures about a month ago so most of those are safe, but all my music and other documents are on that computer. Expercom said they would charge me $100 minimum to TRY to recover anything, and more if it was difficult. I don't know what to do. I can replace the hard drive, but it is an old computer and may not last too long anyway. I could pay to recover my documents and then just use my work computer, although it is a PC and I don't like it. Or we could buy a new computer (probably not feasible after buying a house and new car). So sad!

So I will probably not blog until we figure out what we are doing with the computer situation. I have a bunch of stuff to blog, so when I get back up and running there will be a lot! Until then...

Football Season!

I can't believe it is already fall and that football season has started! I know it seems crazy, but I actually do like watching college football with Matt on the weekend. But even better than watching them on TV is going to the games! We got our season tickets again and are always trying to convince people to come to games with us. I finally convinced my mom and Jeff to come up for a game and to stay the night at the house. It was really fun! The Aggies didn't play very well, but they did end up winning the game! Right before the game, I called my mom to see if she wanted me to buy them new game day shirts, and she asked if she was supposed to wear her Aggie shirt... haha! Of course you wear your Aggie shirt to an Aggie game! Matt was in Salt Lake helping replace his mom and dad's roof and barely made it on time to the game. He didn't have time to change his clothes before the game so excuse his green shirt.

Life in the New House

Everyone always asks us how we are liking living in the new house. It is definitely amazing! There are a few things however that we didn't expect:

• We put out our garbage can every week and the recycling bin every other week. At first, both cans were always overflowing with moving garbage, however now that we are settled, I feel a little crazy taking my garbage can to the curb with it's two little bags of garbage inside. I almost feel like I'm wasting the garbage man's time by making him stop to pick up such a measly load.
• We still have about a million things to do! I thought we were done! Little things like putting the toilet paper rods in the bathroom (yes, the toilet paper roll just sits on the counter), organizing all the crap in the garage, touching up paint, even putting away some boxes! I wrote a list for Matt to work on while I was at work and he has done like two things on my two page list. I guess being homeowners means that we always have something to do at home!
• We are still getting used to being in a real neighborhood, especially knowing that we aren't going to be moving anytime soon! We got to participate in a ward activity that was really fun. One Friday everyone showed up at a farmer's field to harvest an acre of corn that he had planted for the ward. We walked through the field picking corn, and then went back to the common area for dinner and a corn boil! They sent us home with a giant bag of corn (over three dozen ears). Most people freeze the corn, but I just gave most of it away. It was the best corn I've ever had!
• I absolutely love having people over. I almost don't ever want to go to other people's houses because I'd rather invite everyone over. I always make my bed before people come over because I have to give everyone a tour of the house! And last week we got a mattress for the bed in our spare room and I am so happy that I can invite people over to stay for the night!
• After a couple weeks in the house, we started seeing ants crawling around. I didn't think it was a problem until Matt left a box with a doughnut out on the side table overnight. When we woke up the next morning, they were everywhere! It was disgusting. The carpet looked like it was moving because there were so many ants crawling around. That's when we got serious about getting rid of them! Why a brand new house was being overrun with ants is still a mystery to me. We tried some Pinterest  remedies at first, and then bought a small spray, which graduated to some small traps, then finally a giant bottle of house spray. Luckily we haven't had any problems since, but I was furious!

Visiting

About a week ago, Matt and I went down to Layton on a Sunday to visit Lance and Kendra, but really we went down to visit Kailee and Clayton! We had a barbeque and we played with Kailee and Rudy! I can't believe how big Kailee is getting! It is fun to see her start talking and playing with us! I wish we could see them more often. Matt and I keep trying to get them to move up to Cache valley... too bad they bought a house only a couple months ago.

Of course, Matt likes playing with the dog almost as much as he likes playing with the kids!

Isn't she so freaking cute!?

The End of Summer

I'm always curious about what people consider to be the "end" of summer. For teachers, and probably parents, it happens on the first day of school. The month of August was basically the only month that we really spent time outside our house, and I didn't even take any pictures! Matt and I started spending time with some of my friends from work and their husbands. McKenzie and Devin and Molly and Andrew. Kenzy and Molly both teach fifth grade at Summit. None of us have kids, so we get to spend time doing pretty much whatever we want! Things like:
1. Playing mini golf
2. Going out to dinner
3. Playing Halo
4. Going to movies
5. Watching Ridiculousness
6. Playing Super Nintendo and Wii
7. Having fire pits
8. Playing cards and Settlers of Catan

It has been so much fun spending time with friends. I especially love it when Matt gets along well with my friends' husbands. Last night, the night before school started, we went out to dinner after back-to-school night. I can't wait for more fun nights to come!

From left: Devin, Kenzy, Andrew, Molly, me, Matt

5 Year Anniversary

On Friday, August 15, Matt and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary! Matt said that he couldn't believe that I put up with him for five years. I can't believe that he has survived living with such an OCD woman for five years. On our anniversary, we had to go to Matt's physical therapy in the morning and then we went out to lunch at Costa Vida. Then we went to the Logan temple to do an endowment session. It was so special being in the temple on our anniversary, and even more fun seeing all the newly married couples taking pictures with all their friends and family outside the temple. I remember when that was us. Sometimes it feels like it was yesterday, but other days it feels like we've been together forever.

We definitely are older, and fatter, but happier than we've ever been before.

That night, we went to test drive a new car. Since Matt's Nissan has pretty much died, we've been looking for a new one. We played with the idea of getting a beater for Matt to drive to work, but then we decided to upgrade my Ford and let Matt drive the Ford to work. And a few days later, we bought the car as our anniversary presents to ourselves! Pictures to come!

In the past five years:

• I finished my bachelor's degree in Elementary Education
• I have had three different teaching jobs with five classes of kids
• Matt has been a student at SLCC 
• Matt has had two jobs
• Matt and I have lived in five (yes, five) different places (Millcreek, Cottonwood Heights, Logan, Randy's basement, and our house in Richmond)
•  Matt and I BUILT A HOUSE
• I had brain surgery and Matt had ankle surgery
• We have had five nieces and nephews born (7 now total)

I can't wait to see what happens to us in the next five years!

Sisters

I was looking through some old pictures and found this picture of Reagan from Brad's baptism in 2012. She was almost five months old. I couldn't believe how similar she and Blakelee look! Blakelee is actually almost the EXACT same age in this picture as Reagan was in her picture. Almost five months old. Crazy!