Moving On

After 4 years of cinder block, and tile floors, and not-insulated-windows....

And all-nighters at school, and models, and supplies, and reviews...

And the best ward, and the best friends, and some of our best memories...

We have moved out of the Village.

Last night we planned to move most of our things into storage, but leave the rest for next week, because it was so late and we didn't think we'd have enough help.

Turns out, we had TONS of people show up. Including people we didn't even know, who were new to the ward, but offered their help anyway. I was so touched.

Moving is very stressful for me, but with all of the help, we were able to move almost everything in one night.

And then our families helped us unload it all in two different places and made it almost easy.

Thank you to everyone!!

And thank you to all of those we're leaving behind. We love you all!

Rearranging

The other night Brian and I discovered that the only time we really get grumpy at each other is when we're moving.

This stems from the fact that we don't have the same method when moving things.

Actually, we do. We both agree that when you're moving things around or moving apartments, you should clean things out and get rid of things.

But I don't feel that 10:00 at night is the time to do this. So I decided we should just move the furniture and not worry about deep cleaning things.

However this frustrated Brian as he kept finding piles of things that he didn't know why we were keeping. And then he'd come ask me why we were keeping them.

Which frustrated me because I have a tendency to hold on to things just in case we might use them someday. A bad habit I picked up from my mom.

Brian tends to be more like my dad and just wants to throw it away. He even admitted that one day he'll just start throwing stuff away without asking me, which also upset me.

But it was all for a good purpose.

We got a new couch!!

It was a great deal, and we've been wanting a real couch instead of our futon for a while. It's our Valentine's/Anniversary gift to each other. 

It's nice and comfy and we can actually lay down on it together to watch movies. 

So happy!

The wall is a little bare because our hutch and bookshelf used to be there (as can be seen here). Brian's going to take pictures with his fancy camera to fill it up. I'm going to buy a cute shelf so I still have somewhere to put my decorations. :)

We moved everything to the back room so now it looks like this:

Still tiny, but we fit it all in.

Happy Friday!

House Plans

Tonight we had a ward fireside at the house of one of our high councilmen, Brother Cornelius. It was the first house that Brian and I have both walked into and really liked. I've always worried that we're never going to be able to design a house together because we have such different ideas, but this house was awesome. Lots of natural light, really open, but still feels homey. And of course, a library, with a rolling ladder. I just stared at the shelves for awhile.

One day, we'll get there.

Our Apartment

This past Saturday I swept, mopped, vacuumed, washed the dishes, cleaned our bedroom, and washed and folded the laundry, all before noon. I was so proud of myself. Our apartment isn't that big so it doesn't take long, I just don't like cleaning. But I really loved having a clean living area. (Even though in these apartments it doesn't matter how hard you clean the floors, they sill look dirty.)

And then I realized we hadn't posted any picture of our new apartment. So here you go:

Brian in our living room. (I love our big windows in the front room/kitchen).

Dining area:

My tiny kitchen, yet still bigger than the last one:

Our bedroom:

The second bedroom/Spare 'Oom/Bike Room:

We're loving the new place so much!

Brian's Surprise

Today when I got home from work, Brian gave me a big surprise:

We're Moving!

But not far. We put in a request for a 2-bedroom a couple weeks ago, thinking that maybe we'd get one sometime next year, closer to when (hopefully) we need it. But things happened way faster than we thought. We got a notice today that an apartment will be open by the end of the month and it's only about 25 yards away from our current one. :)

So we'll be moving at the end of October and we're really excited!

(More details to come later.)

Shocking

Our apartment shocks us. I don't mean it's shocking in that it is messy, or the dishes aren't done, or that laundry is on our bedroom floor (all of which is true unfortunately). What I mean is that we receive electric shocks from our apartment. I guess I could blame it on the colder/drier weather, because I don't remember this happening in the summer, but who knows?! I just know that every time I get up from the couch, where I've been messing around on my laptop, and I go to set it down, it shocks me! Or when Brian will come home from school and I go to give him a kiss, we get shocked! (A shock on the lips or nose is SO not fun.) Anyway, we've resorted to touching hands first before any contact with our faces. :)

That wasn't really the point of my post, but it happened right before, so I had to write it down. Moving on.

Today was a good day. Church was good, and I especially loved our Relief Society lesson on Visiting Teaching. I didn't share anything but I did have good feelings about my experience with visiting teaching, so I thought I would share them on here. I was never really good at going visiting teaching, and when we first moved into this ward, my partner wasn't either, so we were lucky if we even discussed going. Luckily, I did have good teachers coming to visit me. I think this helped me realize how important it was. Then there came a point when I didn't really feel like I had any real friends in this ward. I knew some of the sisters, and I liked them, but I didn't feel like I connected with any of them. I just didn't feel like I fit in. Then one Sunday, after having complained to Brian the night before of the very things listed above, we got a new visiting teaching assignment sheet. I had a new partner and new ladies to visit. And it just so happened that these two ladies were two of the very ones that I had wanted to get to know better when I discussed it with Brian the night before. It was a pretty cool experience for me and strengthened my testimony that the Lord knows me and is aware of my struggles and desires. So anyway, ever since then I've tried to do my best to go every month. Also, I love my current visiting teachers, and I love the fact that they'll stay and talk with me for so long because I really need that sometimes. Even when I'm not feeling very chatty myself, it's just nice to sit and listen to conversation. :)

After church we headed over to my parent's house for dinner and my cousin's that are down at BYU came up & ate with us. It was really great to see them and just have a good time.

We got home around 9:30 and spent the next 1 1/2 hours helping Brian write a book review that's due tomorrow. 1,000 words. About the theory of architecture. It's a good thing I was an English major because I totally just b-s-ed my way through it. I actually think it sounds pretty good, and Brian does know what he's talking about. I just tried to make things a little longer, used big words, things like that. :) Now he's back to school and I'm contemplating bed myself. It's hard to go to sleep when he's not here though and I worry about him driving home so late. At least it's only a 3 minute drive instead of the 20 minute drive it was when we lived in Bountiful. :)

I saw this on another blog and thought it was a good idea. I'm going to list one thing I love about Brian every day in honor of Valentine's Day. But then I thought I should do it next month because it's our anniversary so maybe I'll keep going. We'll see how I actually do at it.

This is Brian last night when he got home. (11:30, actually a little earlier than planned.) He was so tired that he couldn't stand up to brush his teeth.

I love how hard Brian works. He puts so much into school and I know it wears on him. But I know he does it because it's what he loves and because he wants to provide for our family later on. Even though I miss him when he's gone late at night, I appreciate all he's doing. I love you Brian!

On This Day In History: 11/06/07

On this day, one year ago, we moved into our current home, our lovely University Student Apartment, in the West Village.

While it is tiny and made of mostly cinder block, we really do love it. It's nice to have our own place and have somewhere that's "home". We've now lived here for most of our marriage and I love the memories we're making here.

Here are just a few improvements that we've made so far.

First there's the carpet, which I've already posted about. It really makes a huge difference. Somehow it opens things up more and makes it feel like a home. Brian especially loves it because the places he lived in Venezuela had tile floors all throughout, so he's happy to be done with that. I just love it because there's less floor to sweep and mop.

Then there's the shelves I've already talked about. I love having just a little more space to put things and having a mini-vanity for my hair & getting-ready stuff. :) Brian recently added the hooks on the sides to hang my accessories up so that it doesn't clutter the shelf any more than it already is.

Not to be outdone by... himself, Brian recently built us another shelf for the bathroom. It's an amazing shelf that is not even attached to the wall. It slides in next to the window and along with a brace on the underside, it is supported by the bike cables you can see here. (Brian is willing to make a similar shelf for anyone who would like one for a minimal charge. :) He also used a "green" wood sealant, which just goes to show how Eco-friendly he's turning into because of his studies.)

And this is what it looks like with all our stuff on it. As I don't usually take pictures of our bathroom because it's tiny and hard to get a picture of, you probably won't realize how much this shelf helped. We were able to put a lot more stuff up there and threw away a bunch of things so now our bathroom seems a lot more open. I love it!

And last but not least, my two favorite improvements to the apartment, our shelf above the window and our living room wall. Both of which were my idea, but I could not have completed without Brian's help. I can be fairly artistic in theory, but not creative enough to pull off the completed project. :) We spruced up the shelf with garland and extra baskets we had hanging around, as well as some of our engagement pictures that were used as center pieces at our reception.

The wall is probably my most favorite though. I can't take full credit though because the idea came from some show I was watching. I loved the idea of having a complete picture-wall, covered with tons of different pictures in all different kinds of frames and sizes. Right now most of the pictures are wedding or engagement but we did print off a few more recent ones. I love the puzzle effect of it and hope to keep expanding it as we go.


So there it is folks. Our home. I'm grateful that we made the decision to move here. We love our ward and the neighbors we have. We immediately felt welcome and think this was the best place for us at this time in our lives. Feel free to come on by if you want to see the place in person!

Handyman Husband

I'm so grateful for how handy my husband is. In our small little apartment we struggle to fine space to store things. And there isn't much shelf space anywhere, including the bathroom. Actually there's no counter or shelf space in the bathroom at all. It has made it really hard to get my hair and make up done, which is made even more difficult by the fact that there is not outlet in the bathroom. Yeah, no outlet. So I have to plug in my hair stuff outside the bathroom, and I've been using a breakfast tray for a counter. And we had to hang a full length mirror in the hall so I could have someway to see how I was doing my hair. Needless to say, it's been difficult.


So on Saturday, Brian was my hero and made me shelves! Once again, I never thought I would get so excited over shelves.

Before

One good thing about having tile floors. It's a good flat surface to do projects on.

After

All we have on there right now. Don't worry, I'll fill it up. And Brian's already got more plans on how to keep my hair stuff more organized on there.

Brian's black-tipped fingers after he was done. This is what happens when you use Gorilla glue on projects.

I'm so happy with my shelves. And Brian's already got an idea in his head for how to make me shelves actually in the bathroom. He's all excited because it involves bicycle cable. Don't ask. You'll just have to wait until it's done. :)

Carpet!

I never thought I would be so excited over carpet, but when you've lived without it, you realize how great it is. Our entire apartment has tile floors. Living room, bedroom, everywhere. Now, for the kitchen and the bathroom that's not so bad, but it really stinks to have tile floors in the bedroom, especially in the winter when you get out of bed. Very cold toes.

So anyway, my cousin & her husband recently bought a home & decided to redo the carpet. They generously offered us their old carpet. Granted, it's an old design and there's no pad underneath, but I absolutely love it! It really changes the feel of our house. I helped Brian put it in the bedroom on Tuesday night and then last night he put it in the living room. We cleaned everything up and moved it all back and now it looks great.

On a school note, I still hate it. I hate that I have to keep going even though there's only 2 weeks left. And actually I really don't mind my English classes, there's only 2 left. But my Spanish class is going to kill me. I'm really worried I won't pass, just because it's a huge fear that I'll have to do it again. But another reason is because it messes up my plans. My best friend is pregnant. The only shower I thought I was going to be able to attend is on Monday night. I was going to miss Spanish to go to it, but I found out tonight that I definitely cannot miss Monday night. So I have to miss her shower. It's her first baby and I won't have been to any showers for her. Totally sucks. I just started crying after class because the stress of everything and then feeling like a bad friend.

I've felt like such a bad wife this summer because I'm never around to do anything for Brian or dinner or around the house. And then adding this on top, I'm now a bad friend. I just have to make it through two more weeks. 6 more days of classes. I don't know if I'll make it. Though I probably will, and I'll just have a nervous breakdown at the end.

Our House

So, I realized that I never posted any pictures of our new place. So here they are.

This is a plaque that my friend Heather made for us for our wedding. I love it!

Our messy bookcase. That's not even all the books I have had to buy for my major.

Our new bed!! Well, the mattress is new. The frame was given to me by my best friend's parents. On Saturday we went and purchased our new memory foam mattress at a close-out sale, and Brian was so happy. No more springs in our backs. :) I was very excited because it's a little bit bigger, and because of that we got to get new sheets and you can't tell, but they match our quilt. (Yellow, blue, green stripes.) I'm so weird, but that's all I ever really want. Just for things to match. One day when we get to build our own house and I can design the rooms, I'm going to have rooms that match. :)

This table we also got on Saturday from Brian's parents. Brian's mom's grandparents gave it to her for her wedding, so it's very old but in really good condition. :) Nancy was so happy to give us this because it's one more thing she got to get out of her house, but I was happy because it was one more thing to make my house feel like it's really a home.

This is Brian sitting on our couch, in front of our new coffee table, which we also got on Saturday at the close-out sale. It's solid mahogany so it's very heavy, but I really like it. Notice, the Oreos and Kisses, that's study food!

This is our hutch that was given to us, and my new electric piano that my parents gave to me for Christmas. The hutch, couch, bookcase, red table, and TV were all given to us by a lady in my parents stake. It was so amazing that she would give us all these wonderful things to make our apartment a little nicer. And they all fit perfectly. Like, down to the inch, they fit in. Any bigger and we couldn't have them. :)

I did not take picture of the kitchen because it was messy, and the same with the bathroom. And those are the only two rooms that actually have a theme going on. (Kitchen - red, Bathroom - blue). Owell, maybe sometime in the future. So there you go. We're getting there. Eventually I am going to put up more pictures on the walls and decorate and such, but that'll have to wait until I graduate probably. And then the only thing missing will be carpet, though we might get some of that in the summer. :)

The Move

Well, I was putting this off because I wanted to be able to post pictures and everything of our new place, but I never remember to steal the camera from Brian's studio and I don't have all the pictures up that I want anyways, so until then, I thought I should let everyone know how the big move went.

On Tuesday November 6th, Brian and I moved into our own apartment. We had loaded up the jeep early that morning to take one load down on the way to school. We checked in and unloaded and then went off to class for the day. After class I drove back up to Bountiful and loaded up the jeep by myself and unloaded it by myself and then picked up Brian and we headed up again. Our families came and help, as well as my friend Heather, and we were able to get practically everything moved that night. Most importantly we got our bed moved so we could sleep in our own place and not have to drive back up to Bountiful that late at night.

The next day, because I could not stand the mess of my new house, I took the day off work to try and unpack and organize. Luckily, my boss was out of town, so it was OK. So I spend the whole day unpacking and got the kitchen and bathroom and some of the bedroom done. This had to be done, because that night we were going to pick up our furniture.

A good friend of my mom's from work, who is also in my parents' stake, ended up being my favorite person ever. She told my mom she was getting new couches, so we could come look and see if we wanted to take her old ones since she knew we were moving. So we went over to check them out and while we were there, she offered us a bookcase, a table, a hutch and a TV! We decorated our apartment for free in one night! It was amazing. We moved everything in that night and it all fits perfectly. Like the apartment was made for this furniture. :)

After a few more nights of organizing and semi decorating, I was so happy to be mostly done. I convinced Brian to put up all my clocks, and then the next task was drapes. That first night we ended up putting sheets over all the windows and I couldn't live with that for very long. So we got drapes for me and rugs for Brian. So not counting all the pictures and plaques I still want to put up, we're all settled in!

The apartment
The apartment is small, I'm not denying that, but for just the two of us, I think it's perfect. And they painted everything before we moved in and the stove and fridge and shower and everything are in really good condition. I was worried it would all be old and moldy and gross, but it's really nice. Nicer than I thought anyway. The one drawback that's hard to get past is the tile floors. In every room. Including the bedroom. Hence the rugs. But it's not hard to get used to. And the builders really utilized the space they had to work with. We have two storage closets, a coat closet, three closets in our room and 16 drawers. We have tons of cupboard space and shelves all over the place. It's great. Everything fits. Well, almost. We have yet to find a good place to store Brian's bike. It's custom designed by him, so it's not really a bike you steal and ride and then dump somewhere, it's one you steal to sell for parts. So he doesn't want to store it in the laundry room like everyone else does, which I understand. We'll figure it out.

The Ward
The first Sunday we went to our ward, we walked in and my best friend growing up was sitting right there with her husband. We lived next door to each other when we were young but had drifted apart a little during high school. She got married a few months after us and I knew she lived in those apartments, but I didn't know where. So that was awesome to know someone. The ward was really welcoming and I already have a good feeling about being here. The second Sunday they had a linger longer after church and we had turkey dinner and the whole she-bang. I didn't think we would stay very long because we didn't know anyone, but we ended up being one of the last people there with our little group around us. It was awesome! I'm excited to become a real part of the ward, because I know we'll be here for a while.

The Commute
The best part of the move, is the fact that it takes me 10-15 minutes to get to work, 10-15 minutes to get home, and 5 minutes to get to school. The shuttle stops right outside our back door, and drops my off right in the middle of where I need to go. It's wonderful. Also, Brian's been able to ride his bike to and from school, though it's getting colder now, so maybe he'll take the shuttle. And he's getting home earlier because he can utilize the hour we spent driving when we were in Bountiful.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So things are going well. We're wrapping up the semester so Brian's getting stressed, but it'll be over soon. I'm done next week because I have no finals. Brian's final presentation is on the 10th, so until then I don't expect to see much of him. But he's doing really good. His grades are based on a 1-5 scale. 5 being the best. On his last two assignments he's gotten 5's and they hung them upstairs on display for a while. I'm so proud of him.

We're both excited for Christmas break because then Brian will have a break and we can spend some more time together and with friends and family. I will post pictures as soon as Brian's done with his projects and he can hang some pictures and plaques for me. :) Promise!

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.