Day to Day

Well, after all the excitement of graduation, we have now settled into a routine.

Mine hasn't changed much. I got to work, every day. Whoopdy-do.

Brian works almost every day on his portfolio (almost finished!) and when he's not working on that, he works at the bike shop (or goes on bike rides, since he's been so deprived in the last four years.)

I have started looking online for Architecture jobs and I'm getting really antsy about finding out where we're going.

Brian is feeling less excited about moving because he realizes he's leaving all his biking friends.

He's also afraid we'll move somewhere without any of these to ride on:

I have also started thinking about a business idea that I could do from home. I don't think I'd make much money, and it wouldn't happen until we move probably, but I'm still mulling it around in my head.

Next week we're going to Arizona for Brian's cousin's wedding. I'm excited for the break and for the warmth.

I'm almost finished with this:

So I ordered this, to hopefully help fill the 22 hours of driving we'll be doing:

But I guess I waited too long to order it. Because it's sitting in the UPS Regional Processing Facility, in WEST VALLY CITY.

Do you think if I just wandered in, they'd let me just pick it up? I need it by Sunday.

Brian wants another one of these:

(Disclaimer: This is not the actual bike he wants. I have no idea what it really looks like.)

I told him he has to sell one of his other two bikes first. He thinks this is unfair.

(Not really, he understands my logic, he just doesn't really like it all that much.)

We got our extension request approved by housing. (Good thing, otherwise we'd be moving in 2 weeks.)

Our official move out date is on or before September 15th.

At least that's some kind of plan. :)

It does make it a little more real, which is weird, but happy at the same time.

And so that's our life for now. Exciting, huh?

What We've Been Doing All Month

Not much actually. The weather's been pretty pathetic considering it's June. It was pretty sunny all day, while I was inside at work, and as soon as I'd go home it would get all rainy. Lame.

At the beginning of the month, I got a new road bike! We sold my mountain bike to my sister, because she'll probably get more use out of it that I ever did. And I'm a wuss and I don't think I'd ever have really taken it mountain biking. But I can ride on the roads, no problem. :)

Unfortunately, due to the weather, I wasn't able to ride my new bike until last week. We went to the bike shop and got me the official spandex shorts and we've ordered a jersey. We then rode for about 4 miles and even though I wasn't dying at the end, my sit-bones were really sore!

Last night we went for another ride, this time on campus. I did much better and we ended up riding 5.5 miles. I'm really enjoying it so far. I just wish I was an expert right away instead of having to work up to it. But at least my sit-bones are only a little sore today. :)

Here is my awesome bike:

The only problem I've been having is that my feet keep cramping up if we stop for too long. I've always had trouble with my feet cramping (because I have very low arches) but it's now impairing my biking because we have to wait for 10-15 minutes for my feet to stop hurting. Does anyone have any suggestions or home remedies for this kind of thing?

Overheated and Sick

Brian loves his road bike. I never thought I'd see the day that this hard core mountain biker turned to road biking. But he has started to love it. Enough that he has even taken to riding his road bike to PARK CITY! From the U. That's a long way.

He rode up there last week for class and got a ride home. He decided to ride with a couple other guys in his class yesterday all the way there and all the way back. Well on the way home they came back through Big Cottonwood Canyon and got all the way to Snowbird when he finally called me. It had started raining on them and Brian didn't have his cold weather gear. So he asked me to come up and get him and the other guys road on.

Side note: As I was driving up to get him I noticed a double rainbow over by the mountains. Right as I was about to enter the canyon, I noticed that the double rainbow perfectly centered over the entrance. I thought it was such a perfect picture and I wished I had a camera.

As I was driving up the canyon all of a sudden a light on my dashboard lit up and I didn't know what it meant. I knew I should pull over, but I happened to be on a stretch of road that didn't have a shoulder on the right side, (more like cliff) so I had to keep going. Eventually I found a place to pull over and tried to calm myself down that it was just my car overheating. I tried to call Brian though and I just happened to be in the worst possible area. I couldn't get through so I just decided to wait until the car cooled down.

A few minutes later Brian called and got through and I was able to quickly explain what happened before the phone cut out again. Thankfully Brian understood what happened (I may or may not have been crying) and he called his mom. She came up the canyon and picked me up and then we continued all the way up to Snowbird and picked up Brian. Luckily, a police officer was up there and let Brian sit in his car because he'd been standing out in the rain and wind waiting for me.

So we picked him up and rode back down to the car. We started it up again and it had cooled down and we were able to drive it home. This is the first time we've ever had trouble with my car and the first time it's overheated. It was kind of scary because I was driving by myself and it was getting dark when I had to pull over and I didn't have any way to get in touch with anyone. But we're all ok now.

Except... Brian was fighting off a cold before he went on this ride. Now, because he was standing out in the cold for so long and riding in the rain, he's even sicker. :( Poor Brian. So hopefully he gets to come home early from work to get some rest.

One Month Recap

So even though I'm not in school, I seem to be able to keep coming up with excuses as to why I never update this thing. I don't have all the pictures, nothing exciting really happened, I want to spend a little time with my husband when he's home.... etc. But here it is, September in Summary:

Girl's Weekend 2008

So my mom & I headed down to St. George early the Friday before Labor Day. We listened to The Host on her Ipod. I loved it, by the way. When we got down there we went to dinner with Nat and then the store to pick up supplies. We hung out at the condo until Brian, Brad & Dani got there. Then we picked up Dani, went back to the condo and watched a movie. My mom also got us cute girlie things like loofahs, and body mousse and way cute pajama pants. They're Sleepless in Seattle pants! My favorite movie!

Take pity on this picture. It was bed time when she sprung these on us so we have no make-up on and our hair is undone. :)

Of course Nat & Dani fell asleep during the movie. But I didn't! It's a miracle!

The next day we gave each other pedicures and watched movies & played card games. My mom, Nat & I did a puzzle, which Dani refused to do with us. It's just not her thing.

We went out to the best fast food place in St. George, Frostop. If you ever go down, eat there! I love it. Then we went back and played more games and hung out. We had Papa Murphy's for dinner and then went to the late showing of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 movie. Way cute! My mom made fun of how loud I laughed, but there were only 17 people in the theatre! Including us. :)

Sunday we went to church with they boys, because it was Nat & Adam's ward. We had a family lunch for Nat's birthday, which was earlier that week. Then we split again and us girls went back and watched Titanic, the edited version. We all met up that evening for a party for Nat with Adam's family. We of course had ice cream cake. :) Then we all played Hand & Foot, which I really like but haven't played forever.

Of course, when we got home, we chose that night to stay up way late talking about everything. Dani unfortunately wasn't feeling good all weekend so she went to bed early. The rest of us stayed up until 1:30 talking. It was great! I love talking with my mom and Nat.

Monday morning Dani really wanted to go swimming, but it wasn't quite as warm so we only dipped our feet in and then went back to get ready to go home.

It was another great trip, and I'm so glad that my mom decided to start doing this. Next year it's going to be up north, I think in Midway. I can't wait.

No School

Being out of school has been a lot of fun for me. I've started tons of projects like: decorating my house. We went and bought some garland to cover the empty shelves in our living room. Brian is an awesome interior designer and he draped the garland over picture frames and wicker baskets we had just laying around. It looks awesome. I might do the same thing in the kitchen.

...organizing my music. I have stacks and stacks of music and I finally had the chance to go through it, organize it alphabetically, and put it into page protectors and binders. There is still a little stack left because I need more page protectors, but it's so nice to have it all organized. Now I just need to play a little more.

...reading. OK, it's not really a project, but I am still so happy about it. I've actually started getting a lot of books on CD, and putting them on my computer. I put them on my Ipod and on Brian's. He loves it because it makes the time go by much faster, and he's reading (listening) to more books than ever. I love it because I can listen to a book and still be doing things, like cleaning or organizing or cross stitching.

Also, I got my diploma the other day and Brian bought me a nice frame to put it in.

Progressive Dinner

If anyone has never done this, I would highly encourage it. Our ward does it about twice a year. You have people volunteer to host the appetizer or the dinner, and then you all meet as a large group. You're divided up so about one or two couples go to each house (plus the host couple) for the appetizer. Then you meet again, and switch the groups around, and go eat dinner. We all then meet together for dessert and maybe a game or two, but it's a really great way to get to know more people in either your ward or neighborhood.

I was especially thrilled with we got to have waffles and ice cream for dinner! I've had it for breakfast, but I know have justification to have it for dinner. :) Brian's thrilled I'm sure. We had a really great time, and I even got to hold the cutest little girl almost all night. Such a sweetie!

I can't wait for the next one. Maybe I'll even host something. If the house is all decorated. :)

Road Race

On Saturday, Brian participated in his first ever Road Bike Race. My mom's company helps in this charity every year, called Bikes for Kids. They raise money to give 1,000 bikes to 1,000 underprivileged kids, including helmets, locks, etc. This wasn't the main event where they actually give the bikes away, but it was to raise money. It was also a fun BYU v. UofU contest.

Brian of course, raced for the U. It was out in Draper, and was 3 miles long. Doesn't seem that long you say? Well it was also 1300 feet of vertical climbing. So it was pretty tough. Brian did a great job though.

Just starting out. Still smiling.

Right at the finish line. He sprinted past two other bikers to finish ahead of them. That's his mom in the car taking a picture of him.

We stood at the finish line and cheered on the racers until we saw Brian. Then I know at least my volume tripled. I screamed so hard for him. He said he heard me from probably a quarter mile away. :) That's a trait I get from my parents. He said it really helped though to keep him going. I was so proud of him. He finished with a time of 22:07, which is about what he wanted. For never having ridden in a road bike race, and for not having any training for this, just jumping on the bike and going, I say he did a really good job. :)

This is us right after his finished. He's exhausted, and had to leave quickly after to go cool down. He said he felt like throwing up, and some bikers did. That was way nasty.

Go Brian!

Nat & Adam came up for the weekend and were there to help support. Brian had to go back to school for a few hours, but we spent the rest of the day just relaxing and watching the football games.

I taught Sunday School again on Sunday, and I felt a little bit more comfortable. I still get nervous, but I think it will get better. This Sunday was interesting though, because there were a few comments I didn't really know how to handle. But I think I did OK. And there were a bunch more people participating, which is always nice.

So there you go. Our month in summary. I'll try and be a little better at posting, but life is just the same old stuff since Brian started back to school. You never know though. It's when life settles down that you have to worry, because things tend to get exciting real fast. :)

Our Bike Shop

If anyone ever doubted when I talked about calling our apartment a bike shop, doubt no more! This is what I came home to last night:

The blue bike on the left is my brother-in-law's, the two in front of the TV are my brother's and dad's.

Mine & Brian's. Standard in the kitchen.

Yes I live in a bike shop.

This weekend is our Girl's Weekend. My mom started the tradition last year because both Natalie & I got married and so my little sister Dani was left alone in the house with two brothers. So we all get together for a little weekend trip just us girls. This year we're going to St. George. We're staying in a condo and we're going to have a blast.

Brian and my brother are also going down, to have a Boy's Weekend with my brother-in-law. They're planning on going biking, of course. Brian has his new bike, Adam just bought his bike because he was cleared to do fun stuff by the doctor's, and so of course, Brian had to tune-up a bike for Brad, and for Phil. (Phil is no longer coming.) Also unfortunately, my dad can't make it because his counselors are going to be gone and he has to conduct or teach or something on Sunday. :( Sad. But I think the guys will still have fun. And this way they can bike all they want and not have to worry about leaving us girls out. :) And we don't have to worry about leaving them out.

We are planning on getting together for a family party on Sunday though, for Nat's b-day. That will be fun too. I'm so excited. And it's so nice to be able to go down there and just enjoy myself and not worry about homework or things being due next week. I love being graduated. :)

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend. And remember, if you need your bike fixed, you know where to come.

My BFF & My Bike Shop

On Thursday, we spent most of the day with Brian's family for the holiday. We had "Mountain Man" breakfast, and then when I went to lunch, Brian & his dad worked on a project together.

As mentioned previously, I missed all the baby showers for my best friend Val's first baby. So we went out to lunch together on Thursday to catch up. We went out to Training Table and had a really good chat.

Val is due on August 8th. (08/08/08) I'm so excited for her. And I'm excited because I'm the 3rd phone call that her husband's going to make when the baby's born. Just the moms, and then me. :) I'm special I know.

For her present, (the first of many) I got her this book. My dad read this book to me every night before bed when I was little. So it's literally the first book I ever read. :) I still love it.

Lunch took over two hours, and we could've gone on longer. I love just talking to Val. We went back to her house and talked with her mom for a while, and it all ended up making me more baby hungry. Go figure.

After I got back from lunch, we went to the movies with Brian's family. I got a little overheated and sick, but I drank almost a whole Gatorade and felt better. We stopped by my mom's house real quick and I opened a time capsule I'd made in the 8th grade. Wow. I don't know what I was thinking when I put some of that stuff in. But it was pretty funny to look through.

Then we went back and did fireworks with Brian's family.

Brian and I had an epiphany the other night.

We went to Barnes & Noble to get Val's gift, and as soon as we got in there I started going crazy. I was getting so excited over all of the books and all the ones I wanted to buy for our kids, or just for me to read. (I know this must seem weird to most people, but I love that place.) I never go in there because I either don't have money to buy all the books I want, or because I've been in school for the past 6 years and don't have time to read for myself. So I was really happy to be in that store.

Brian just looked at me like I was crazy, and then all of a sudden had this realization. He turned to me and said, "This is your bike shop." And just like that it all clicked. We both understood each other on a totally different level. Brian loves bike shops and I love to read, and neither of us really understood that until this moment. It was awesome. It just made us both laugh.

Brian's always felt bad about how much his bike stuff costs, because I've never really bought a ton of stuff for myself. But now he realizes what trouble he's in because I'm almost done with school and I can start reading for fun again. This'll be great. :)

Quick Post

So, this past weekend was a blast at my family reunion. I have a few pictures and am waiting on some from my mother, so I'll post about that later. But I thought, since I'm bored at work, that I'd give a quick update on other things in our life.

First, I was called a couple weeks ago to be a Gospel Doctrine teacher in our ward. When the bishop asked me, I almost started to cry. This is the most terrifying calling to me. He assured me that he thinks I will do really well. Gratefully, he also has told the Sunday School president not to put me in the teaching rotation until after I'm done with school. This is a huge blessing because I just don't think I could do both right now. Brian seems to think that teasing me and making me more nervous about teaching is the way to help me. Not! I told him that because he's been such a smart-alec he has to sit on the front row and answer every question if there's more than a five second pause after I ask a question. :) My mom thinks this calling is pay back because I told her she had to learn to love her Young Women's calling before they're release her. We'll see how it goes. I really am just so scared it makes me sick.

And here's the schedule for my last week of school:

Tonight: Spanish test, Spanish Composition due, Spanish redo test due
(The teacher informed us all last week that we had all pretty much failed the last test, because we all answered the question one way, but he was asking for a different way. This makes no sense to any of us. Doesn't it stand to reason that if we ALL failed, not just some or a few, that it means he's the bad teacher and not us? Anyway, we got the chance to redo the test at home, but we were only given two days, at the same time we had to write a composition, and study for the next test. I HATE this teacher.)

Monday: Possibly Spanish presentation (which I haven't started, and has to be memorized, for 10 minutes. That is this weekend's major goal.)

Tuesday: Final paper due for one English class, (shouldn't be too awful.) Final project due for other English class, (also, shouldn't be too awful) and final exam in one English class (this I'm freaking out about because it's a Modernist poetry class and I have no idea. I guess I'll just wing it.) And Spanish presentation if I didn't go on Monday.

Wednesday: Last day of Spanish, if there's any presentations left to do.

Thursday: Last English final, which I'm not too worried about.

Then I'M DONE!!!!

I can't believe I only have about 5 more days of school. I'm still freaking out though, because I'm really worried that I won't pass Spanish. I do not want to have to take it over again. And my whole class agrees that this teacher is an idiot. Not that he doesn't know what he's teaching, he just doesn't realize what level we're at. He's asking us to analyze and writes essay responses on tests when we're still trying to understand basic grammar. It drives me crazy. I end up crying every night because of the stress. (I just realized that I must sound like the biggest baby on here, because I cry so much. I promise, I really do not cry all the time, I'm just overly stressed right now.) Anyway, Brian's been a big help. We've stayed up late the past two nights just trying to get my Spanish homework done and done well so I can have a better chance at passing.

I'm already planning what I'm doing the minute I get out of my last class. Brian's picking me up, and we're driving to Park City, where we'll have lunch and go shopping for as long as I want. Then we'll come home, go out to dinner at the new Red Robin they just built by us, and then go to a movie, or rent a movie, and just relax and stay up as late as I want. Well, probably not too late because it's a Thursday and Brian still has work the next day. I may or may not be working on that Friday, and I am treating myself to a day of pampering. I'm getting a Mani/pedi, and maybe a new hair do. And then again, just chilling at home, with about a bazillion new books I'm going to buy or check out from the library, and just start reading until I can't see anymore. I'm SO excited, can you tell? It's a good thing I get paid on that Thursday or else I wouldn't be able to celebrate at all and that would be totally lame.

So yeah, I'll post pics later, maybe even tonight, and write more about the reunion then.

5 MORE DAYS!!!

(K, I just realized that I didn't post anything about Brian. :( Sorry Brian. I'm so self-focused right now.

Brian is doing well. Still just working at the bike shop. He is currently selling both of his bikes. He took his new one on one ride and decided he didn't like it. It's not what he wanted. So both are up on eBay right now. (Look under Trek Fuel EX 8 or Specialized Pitch if you're interested.) We're constantly checking both of them to see if he gets the amount he wants. It looks pretty good so far. My only concern was if we'd get enough to pay off the credit card, which we have, and any amount over that is Brian's to spend on his new bike. He has been really worried about spending so much on a bike, but I really want him to have a bike he likes. You know how some people get depressed in the winter because there's no sun? Well, Brian gets depressed when he can't ride his bike. It's his outlet for stress. When he can't ride he's just not as happy. So him getting a bike is not just a material thing. It's essential to our marriage. Well, that's kind of exaggerating. I'm sure he would figure out another way if he couldn't have a bike, but I want him to be happy.

Other than that he's doing well. Being an awesome husband by keeping the house clean and doing the dishes and laundry because I'm never home. Just one more week, babe! We can do it!)

Wonderful Spring Weekend

(I'm trying to still be positive about this past weekend, despite the fact that it is snowing, that's right, snowing, AGAIN!)

I absolutely love warm weather. I was thrilled this weekend when I got to wear Capri's and a light jacket. It was so great to spend most of Saturday outside in the sun. It was good I had the jacket on though, because you can get sunburned without even realizing it. Ask Brian. I got a little sun on my face, but that's probably a good thing. I'm so pasty white.

Brian went biking in the morning on Saturday, with another guy from our ward, even though I said I wanted to go, but we never had a chance to go up and get my bike. So it'll have to wait. But then he came home, and his bike was muddy. Now it's been muddy the past couple of times he's gone, but it's never been good enough weather for him to wash it outside, and I didn't want him to freeze while doing so, but because it was good weather, we agreed that he should wash it before bringing it back into the kitchen. So he washed his bike and then his mom and brother came over because Nathan's bike needed a tune up. Of course, Brian was tuning his own bike first, so we had to wait a while for him to finish. So we just got a chance to chat and sit in the beautiful sun. I loved it!

After Brian finished with the bikes, we changed and went to dinner with my cousin Wendi & her husband Ben (Bendi) to celebrate both of our husband's getting the Kennecott Scholarship. We went to dinner at Chili's and just had a great time. I love going out with them because we all get along so well.



After dinner we went back to our place & decided to watch I Am Legend. I don't know how I got talked into that one. I HATE scary movies. With a passion. I used to watch them but I just can't take it anymore. And I'm such a visual person, so that once something is in my head, I can't get it out. I'll be picturing scary faces appearing in windows for weeks after. But Brian really wanted to see it and Bendi said it was good & they liked it. I sat there with my jean quilt on top of me, even though I was burning hot. I needed that shield to protect me. And I really am okay if I see the scary monsters or people sneaking up to attack someone, it's the suspense of not being able to see what's coming. I hate that even in real life. (Britt, you should analyze that fear for me. :) I personally think it's got to do with control issues.) But anyway, I barely made it through the movie. I almost had a heart attack. So I now stand once again firm on the decision to not watch scary movies any more. Life can be scary enough without watching things to scare you more.

Sunday I spent almost all day reading, to catch up on what I've been slacking on. I only have about 2 weeks left of this semester & I just don't know if I'm going to make it through. Luckily, this week my boss is gone on vacation with his family. That makes things a little easier.

Oh, on Sunday I did take a quick break to go take a few pictures in my cap and gown. I'm trying to decide which one to put on my graduation announcement. I know it's last minute, but I wasn't able to even buy the cap & gown until a week ago. But it just reminded me of a couple things, 1) I hate taking pictures of myself. 2) I hate trying to choose a good picture of myself. 3) I have no eyes when I smile.

While we were taking some, Brian told me to "Be fierce" because I watch America's Next Top Model and we laugh when Tyra Banks shows the models how to look fierce with their eyes. She just looks silly. But this is the picture I took while trying to do the same thing with my eyes. I just look like a normal person with eyes, compared to my regular smile without them. Owell. Brian thinks it's cute though.

(K, back to the stupid weather for a minute. Because this is Utah, and because the weather does fluctuate so drastically, it tends to mess with my health. I think I am starting to get a cold because of this stupid snow. Grrr. And just in time for finals and graduation. Perfect.)

"That Point"

I have officially reached "that point" of the semester. I don't know if any one else reaches this point, but I do. Every semester. I don't know what it is. We have just about 2 weeks left, and I have no more motivation to do anything. I don't want to read, I don't want to write papers, I don't want to study, and I don't want to go to class. I'm just done. It's really bad actually. And I don't know what exactly to do to get out of this rut. I'm just ready to have the semester be over. And I'm ready to have the summer semester start, which is weird, but I am excited. My schedule is set, so I'll only be doing school Tuesdays and Thursdays and work the other days, but it'll be nice. I hate the running back and forth to school.

The other rut I'm in is food. I just haven't had the time or energy to cook at 8:00 at night, so we're eating a lot of spaghetti and frozen pizzas, etc. And I'm really tired of it all. I'm craving chicken stir fry, which is weird, because I usually don't like all the different veggies, but I really want them. And I just want the time to cook good meals and to eat healthy. (Speaking of which, if anyone has any good recipes or sites to find good recipes, send them my way.) The other night we needed to get a few essentials at the grocery store, but I just could not go and do it, so Brian went by himself. On the list I had a few sour creams, because they were on sale and we use it a lot. He came home with low fat, and non-fat sour cream, which I never ever buy. He said he just wanted to try it out because it's healthier. I love sour cream, on baked potatoes and potato casserole, etc. It's used in a lot of recipes I have, and I know it's not the most healthy but it makes things taste so good. So it just made me realize that I'm lucky right now because our metabolism is still in high gear and we're both pretty healthy, but it's not guaranteed to stay that way. So I need to start now to try and be more healthy.

On that same subject, we're finally going to go get my bike this weekend. We've left it with the rest of our stuff, because I don't ride in the cold, and right now just having Brian's bike in the kitchen takes up most of the space. But the weather's getting nicer and I really want to ride with him on Saturdays, so we're going to get it, and take more room in the kitchen until we can get a new stand. I'll have to post pictures of how much room we don't have. :)

Oh, another note, we had to give back the Honda to my dad, because my brother Brad got his driver's license. Ahhh! Scary. Just kidding. We were borrowing it because it got better gas mileage than my Jeep, and they needed somewhere to store the car because at the time they had 3 other cars in the driveway. So it worked out when Brian's engine exploded and we needed that car. But now we've given it back and I'm driving the Jeep. But gas prices are killing me, so I did something I'm very proud of. I looked up the bus schedules around our house that will get me to my office. So that's what I'm going to do in the summer, because Brian will have a job, we don't know where yet, and it'll just save money to not have us both driving. And it's really convenient because the stop by our house is about a block away, and then it drops me off right in front of my building. Literally. And it'll give me time to just relax and even get some more reading done while I'm riding. Who knows? Maybe I'll keep doing this even in the fall.

Life as we know it...

Always changing. Never predictable. Sometimes boring, but never for long.

So here's an update from the Glad family.

As for Brian's car, it ended up costing over $900 to fix, and then as he drove it away was still broken. He took it to someone else, who charged us only $340 for more work than the other place had done and we thought it was all fixed. Not so. The mechanic told us our best choice would be to sell it. But how do you sell a car that you know is going to break down on the buyer? I don't know.

Luckily, we had been surviving driving only one car for the week it was in the shop, so we know we can still do that. It'd probably be smarter anyway, to save on gas. And, in some of the best news recently, we won't have to worry about even that much longer either.

A couple days ago, we received an email saying our name had been reached on the waiting list for the student apartments, and if we chose, we could have an apartment to move into November 6th. We immediately replied yes, and it is now official. We are moving!! Woohoo! This takes a major stress off of both of us, because we were wondering how much notice they would give us or if we'd have to go find somewhere else come the end of October. It's been really nice living in my grandparent's home, just because it's free, and comfortable and very nice. But it's also been hard just because it's far from school and work and family. We were always having to evaluate whether we could go visit on Sundays because we already were driving down every day of the week and using up our gas. Our new apartment is right next to campus, close enough for Brian to ride his bike, or take the shuttle, and it's by the freeway, which means 10 minutes to work for me. :) I'm so excited. It will also be nice just to have a place of our own. We can decorate and put up pictures and buy DI furniture. The whole shebang! :) I'll post pictures when we move in.

School is sort of calming down. Or at least we're almost getting the hang of it. Brian's still very very busy. He was at school from 9 to 5 on Saturday, and I was home, trying to get things done around the house while at the same time, trying to read two whole books and a bunch of excerpts from other readings. We'll get there. It's almost a good thing he has to stay late at school most night, because that forces me to read all my stuff instead of distracting myself with cleaning or laundry.

This last weekend, Brian's family went camping at their property again and invited us. We couldn't go the whole weekend though, because Brian had to work on a group project on Saturday and then Jason & Brooke blessed Lily on Sunday, which we also went to. That was a lot of fun to see everyone. Sunday night though, we drove down to Fairview to camp over night with them. We got down there around 6:30 and after dinner, Brian's brother Nathan wanted to go biking with Brian and his cousin Jason. So they hopped on their bikes and went off. It's a long story as to why, but I didn't feel all that great about Brian going biking when it was starting to get dark, but they said it was a short ride and their dad was picking them up at the bottom anyway. So they left. About 30 minutes later, their dad came squealing into camp and jumped out of the car yelling for their mom. Nathan had been zooming down the trail at 30 mph and a deer had jumped out in front of him. So he slammed on his brakes and dropped on his side and skid for about 20 feet. His arms and legs were all torn up and his side that he skid on had a big hole in it about the size of a quarter. It wasn't bleeding profusely or swollen, but he was shaking pretty bad from the shock. The boys gave him a blessing and his parents took him to the nearest ER.

It was pretty scary for all of us, and Brian's brothers were especially shook up. We all went to bed expecting that they would take Nathan home and come back for us in the morning. But at 2 AM they came back and we all had to wake up and rearrange sleeping because Nathan could not be bumped. They said by the time they got to the main road he'd stopped shaking and was talking and making jokes, and by the time they got to the hospital he was dead asleep. They cleaned out the wounds and put some glue & medicine in them, but they couldn't stitch them up because the skin was completely gone. Not just torn, but gone. So they put him on Lortab and he'll have a pretty good scar.

Needless to say, we were very tired when we got home. I'm still not a big fan of camping. Brian says it makes me grumpy. Yet he keeps insisting that we go. Go figure.

Killer hills...

Brian and I have been trying to go biking on a more regular basis lately. Things get in the way some nights, but we try. On Tuesday night we rode about 1.5 miles and I was doing OK. Brian has made it his goal to make my bike as comfortable as possible so I won't hurt as much after. He got me some cute new bike shorts, so my bum won't be sore. (It's still not used to the bike seat, but at least I can sit on a regular chair without moaning.) And he got a new stem, so I won't be hunched over, and he raised my seat so my knees won't hurt. He's so cute about it. So last night we decided to go out again and try and go a little farther.

So we were riding around and just gradually climbing up the mountain behind our house, up to the temple. I was doing pretty good, not really hurting, except for the good kind where you know you're getting a good workout. Then we realized that we were just down about a 1/4 of a mile from the temple. So we decided to go for it. We turned the next corner and come face to face with.... the steepest hill I've ever seen! Well not really, but trying to ride up any amount of steepness on a bike is really intimidating. So we start going for it, and I'm doing alright, until we get about 3/4 of the way up. So we stop, drink some water, rest a little, and start again. At this point we'd already ridden the 1.5 miles to match the night before and I was feeling it. So we get going again, and all of a sudden, my body is killing me. It definitely did not want to go on any more. I pushed myself all the way to the top, about 150 feet and I literally threw myself off my bike onto the wet grass. (Did I mention it was 8:00 at night and still probably 90 degrees?) So yeah. I just sat there wanting to cry because my body hurt so bad. Mostly just my knees because I don't have the muscles there that I need yet. My heart was beating really fast as well.

So I sat there and tried to stop hurting and Brian came over to sit by me too. This older lady came out of her house across the street and asked if we were OK. I guess she had been watching and saw me throw myself to the ground. I said I was fine and I was just tired. I thought that was nice of her. Finally, I was able to stand again, and I realized that we were about two blocks from the temple. But it was still all uphill. I just couldn't make it. So we road home, mostly downhill all the way, which was good. We'll save reaching the temple for another day.

My legs felt like jello most of the night, but this morning I seem to be fine. A little sore, but not dying. Brian said even he was sore and he does this all the time, so that made me feel better. :) We rode 3 miles and climbed about 700 feet. Go us! We'll see if we can make it all the way to the temple next time.

P.S. I'm toying with the idea of starting another blog, just for scrapbooking purposes. For those of you who are interested I'll keep you updated.

Biker Chic!

Me?! A Biker?! Who'd have thought?! Only Brian. :)

This is my new bike! Brian got it for me for my birthday.

We recently switched our schedules to start working full time, because school's....out... for... summer! (Name that song) Anyway, and because Brian works in Draper and I work in Sandy, and we both have to drive to and from Bountiful every day, we worked it out so that we can carpool. Which means Brian gets off at 6:00 and picks me up and we can actually spend some time together doing things in the evening! Yay! It makes me way happy because he used to get home at 8:30 or later. So the other night we decided to go for a ride together.

I know, Brian looks a lot more natural, but he has been doing this longer.

He's also just a big show off. :) But I love him!

Our ride only last about 15-20 minutes, most of which was spent going uphill. We live up on the benches, about a mile or so from the temple, and it's all hills up there. We also live just below the "B" (for Bountiful High), which you can reach by driving up about a mile from our house. Brian thought that would be good ride for us to do. I only made it about halfway up, but once again, all uphill and a lot of switch backs. My legs and lungs were burning! Brian made it up most of the way on one wheel. That's his favorite trick. But we had fun. I'm a little impatient, because I just want to be really good right now, but I need to get in shape first. We'll get there though.