Countdowns Are Fun

don't you think?? I'm counting down to LOTS of things at the moment...but a big one is....

76 DAYS UNTIL CARRIE UNDERWOOD!!

I am SO SUPER EXCITED I CAN"T EVEN DESCRIBE IT TO YOU!! I cannot WAIT to see her in concert. Carrie is probably my favorite music artist ever. I just love her songs and I can't wait to hear them in person! From floor seats even!!

A Simpler Life

A very lovely piece of nostalgia. :)

Numero Dos

So, I know everyone is just DYING to see what our new apartment looks like. ;) Just kidding, you probably don't care, but you get to see pictures anyway! I love this little place....It fits us much better than our apartment in PG did. Sorry for the picture-heavy post. :)

Our room. I am working on a big print from our wedding to go above the bed. That door you see is our closet.

Our bathroom. Seashell-themed, although it's a little hard to tell in this picture.

Right outside the bedroom door - hallway into kitchen. Plus our lovely flumes picture. :)

Kitchen. Needs a valance. And my chili peppers from Mexico!!

View from master bedroom door. Living/Dining area. Ignore the ginormous Texas Rangers cup.

View of kitchen from living room. Also ignore the hamster cage. It's cooler in this room so she stays out here for now.

2nd bedroom. See all those boxes? Those are all my classroom stuff. I am hoping it will be out in a couple weeks. :)

2nd bathroom. AKA Texas bathroom. AKA awesome.

My Mexican fruit from Grandpa Nichols.

Knickknack bookshelf. hi Carl and Jen! :)

Ohhh I love this arrangement above the couch. I love the iron. and the canvas pic.

Dining table decorations. :)

Mantel. And temple! And Jesus. and cake topper. :)

Well, that's it! Our second place! We love it so much!

My Dear Friend Lisa. Frank, that is.

Today, at Walmart, (which, by the way, is a terrible start to a story), I grabbed a binder to hold all my random recipes. I grabbed this binder:

Or something like it anyway. Mine's pink. But it's sparkly, and that's really all that matters in this world. Except, I was very, very, disappointed. Want to know why?? Because they did not sell binders with things like this on them:

Oh, Lisa Frank! I miss  you! I had a LF Trapper Keeper, folders, pencils, erasers, stickers, a diary, and probably more. It was the one trend that my mom indulged me on. :) And I kind of wanted a Lisa Frank binder for my recipes! Even though I'm almost 23 and all grown up now. Supposedly. I still wanted Lisa Frank in my life. I mean, who couldn't use a bit of this colorful, animally goodness?

Teen Talk....AKA Yakking with Youth

And if you know where that reference is from...you win 1000 million points.

Here's a hint....

Full House. Awesome show. LOVE. IT.

Okay, back to "Teen Talk." haha

So, I am babysitting my little sister and her friends this morning...or at least, being a responsible adult around a bunch of teenagers. And I am listening to their conversations coming from upstairs.

Seriously the funniest thing I've heard in a long time.

Did I talk like that when I was a teenager? Did my friends? Or is it a new modern thing?

They are so funny!! It's all, "so and so is SO hot." and "omg did you hear that so and so broke up with her boyfriend??? They were, like, so perfect together."

etcetera.

I can't even count the number of "omg"s and "like"s that I am hearing right now. And I don't say this to make fun of them, but it's so funny to me. I'm sure that's exactly how I sounded at 15. Because Michala and I are very similar. But it's just funny.

Also, how is this girl:

15 now??? How did that happen? She's supposed to be my baby sister....not almost driving sister.

Love you punk!

And the Adventures Continue

This past week we were back in Utah for a family reunion. I love Nichols reunions. They are just so fun!! I'll post pictures about it next time because they are still on my camera.

Unfortunately, James and I seem to find that our basic travels keep turning into adventures and we can't figure out why!

On Saturday, we had planned on taking the 5:25 flight out of SLC to DFW. Funnily enough, my old stake president was flying our plane - Pres. Hathaway! I thought that was pretty funny. We were flying standby (of course) and were numbers 23 and 24 on the list, with only 27 open seats. I was worried we wouldn't get on! Everyone boarded and then they ended up putting all the standbys on the plane. We were very relieved that we made it and went and found our seats - Exit row even! More legroom! Awesome!

We sat down and got comfy, expecting to leave the gate right away. But, the cabin door stayed open. We didn't go anywhere. Pilot finally comes on and says that we are finishing up a maintenance issue and will leave by 6:00. Okay, cool, I thought. I immersed myself in my book until I heard the pilot come back on. "Sorry, folks, DFW is gridlocked with the storms and they are delaying our flight until 7:30." So we de-boarded the plane and sat around until 7:00, when they let us board again.

This time, everything went well. We taxied, took off, and were finally on our way to Dallas. They passed out drinks to us, dinner to first class, and we were about an hour into the flight. Halfway there. I was almost asleep. James was.

And then....

"Sorry I have to be the one to break the bad news to ya, folks, but the storms are too bad in Dallas and the airport is gridlocked again. We were told to turn around and head back to Salt Lake."

What?? Back to Salt Lake? I was confused. And not so happy.

So we were diverted back. I called Russ and Pam and we stayed at their house that night and they took us to the airport the next morning. They just delayed our flight until 8:45 the next morning.

And the whole time we flew back here, I was just praying that we wouldn't be turning around AGAIN heading back to Salt Lake. I don't think I could have handled that well.

We Made It!

Hooray! We made it to Texas. It was quite the adventure, let me tell you. I don't have pictures now, but I will eventually.

Friday, June 1:
James, Kim, and Carl all arrive in Pleasant Grove. By this point I have packed up 75% of our house and there are boxes of crap everywhere.

Monday - Thursday:
Doctors' appointments galore between the two of us, James had his wisdom teeth out, and the moving trailer was delivered. On Thursday we packed it up with the help of Carl, Brother Greene, and Jen. Then cleaned our apartment for checkout the next day. Also, James gets in a fender-bender accident because of stupid Utah drivers (seriously, they need to learn how to drive). We pray that the car is driveable and drive up to South Jordan to the hotel.

Friday:
Got up early and checked out of our apartment. Good to go - passed all the cleaning!! Thanks to the help of our wonderful neighbor, Kristie. Then it was off for Carl and Jen's wedding!! It was so fun to be with them on their special day. It was also special to be able to attend their sealing -it brought back so many memories from our own sealing 7 months ago. In between the sealing and the reception we ran down to Provo to turn in our apt keys, grab my wedding ring (it was being dipped) and getting the car checked out. Crazy day!!

Saturday:
Decided to stay in Utah an extra day so we could get the car checked out (we didn't make it Friday night because of the traffic). Got it checked and then hung out with our best friends Nick, Carly, and their daughter Emery. So fun and I'm gonna miss them SO SO SO much!!!

Sunday:
Left for Carlsbad at 8:15 AM. Arrived at 11:45 PM. LONGEST DAY EVER. It is not supposed to take that long! But for several reasons, it did. Oh, and the whole time James was dealing with a very sore mouth from his wisdom teeth (it was also full of puss. yuck) and we thought it was an infection.

Monday:
Emergency call to a family friend who is a dentist. Get James teeth checked out. Dry sockets plus an infection. Go fill prescription for a Z-pack. Leave Carlsbad for McKinney about 2:30. ETA 10:30 in McKinney. It was a nice drive for about 3 hours, then we ran into a terrible semi accident. We were re-routed off the freeway. There were 3 semis involved and it looked nasty. Once we got down the road a bit, we were hit by a nasty thunderstorm. So bad we could barely see the road. When we got to Abilene, we checked the weather, and the bad thunderstorms were pretty much all the way to DFW, so we decided to make an uncharted stop and avoid them. We found a hotel (which was a little sketchy, but whatever..cheap) and got dinner and hung out at Walmart for a bit (i know, I know. It's Abilene. There's not much to do).

Tuesday:
Up and checking out of the hotel at 5:45 AM. SO EARLY. We had to get James to Arlington by 9:00 so he could sign all the paperwork for his new job. We were really hoping he didn't have to stay long because I waited out in the car for him. Then we FINALLY made it to McKinney. What an adventure.

We are so happy to be here. It's so fun to be with family again and back in the South! The culture really is different - people are more friendly and helpful and just downright nice. We unloaded the moving trailer into storage on Wednesday and are all moved in! Today was James' first day on his new job. I think he's going to do great!! :)