here and little, there a little

well clearly i am horrible about keeping my blog up to date but i really need a new computer. my lap top is so old and is getting so slow so anything i feel like i can't do on my phone just doesn't get done, like blogging.

we are loving life. blake is busy with his new company, Keyser. he loves his work, his clients, and his team.  these people are amazing. check out their website and read about the principles they operate from. i am so happy for him.

when i am not at work, i am finding fun projects around our house. i wanted to wait until the house was in a more finished state before i posted more pictures but i think that may be a while before it gets to that point. today marks the 4 month mark of us being in our house.

no that we have some pillows in the front room it feels like is coming together.  i still want to replace the curtains in the front with navy rather than the black they are now but i am struggling to find a drapery fabric that i like well enough.

(ps these photos are from my phone so they are not the best quality)

the chair in the corner was a project for me. i sanded it down and painted it one day, then had my mom help me recover it. the yellow chevron was a little intense at first but it helps brighten up the room so its growing on me.

 

we finally bought a dining table. we were so afraid that we would buy something and then soon find something that we like better. i wanted to find something vintage but got so fed up with looking through so much junk that we bought a new table and 4 navy chairs. we still need to find some awesome captains chairs for the ends and get a rug to go under it.

and we sold our old table with the chairs we had to find new bar stools. we found these.

my most recent projects i needed my dad's help with (he owns tools, i don't). he helped me fix some base boards in the master (now i can finally get it painted), and fix my front gate. whoever built it did an awful job. when we would try to open it, it would drag on the ground and it was falling apart. so we added a cross-bar and replaced some other pieces and raised the latch, then the next weekend i got it all painted. now it finally functions like a gate should. (don't mind the paint chips on the ground around it. i had to scrape all the old paint off- the pieces got everywhere.)

we are excited for new projects and for the house to keep looking and feeling more like our own. we love that we were able to stay in our ward. the Lord had plans for us here. i can't wait to find out what all of those plans include.

no place like [a new] home for the holidays

well we have slowly moved into our new house this past week. it has taken several days as we were waiting on some electrical work and such. we are still waiting for our new sofa and love seat to arrive that we ordered on black friday so our front room is looking pretty bare. but despite the slow moving we have tried to get our christmas decorations up in a hurry as to try to get the most out of them. i image in years to come that we will have our tree up on or the day after thanksgiving.  so here is a little sneak peak into our new home as i show off our christmas decor, most of which is diy stuff.

first off, i blog about this before but here is my gold pine cone wreath on the front door. (i am hoping to get a new door sometime down the road but this one will do for now). i may need to add a bow or something to it but for now that is how it hangs.

right when you walk in the front door you see our christmas tree (in the front window). this is my in-laws old tree and was about 2 feet too talk for our ceilings (blake wanted to make sure we left plenty of room for a beautiful star for the top, which star we have not yet found). we had to saw off the bottom of the tree to get it to fit. i made a lot of the ornaments (painted pine cones and a few glass ornaments stuffed with red flower petals). it needs a few more for next year i guess. but you can see the dark wood floors that i love and the very corner of our rug (another black friday purchase).

i used a few of the branches that came off the bottom part of the tree that we took to place on the mantle behind our awesome choo-choo train stocking hangers.

i used another branch and bent it in a circle to put as a centerpiece for our table. (it is our very small-apartment sized table that we will replace when we have a little more cash.) i put a candle in the middle and threw some pine cones around it. the light was one when i took the picture so its hard to see the chandelier but it is pretty awesome looking.

we bought this small tree to put in the kitchen on the island (along with some salt and pepper shakers that blake has bad since he was a kid), but this picture is mainly to show off the awesome exposed brick wall that i love.

and here is one more from the kitchen. my parents gave us this plate and mug last year from christmas so we have to find a good place for it. (more of that awesome brick wall too.)

this place is starting to feel a little bit like home. and its starting to feel like christmas as well. now as soon as we can get those sofa's delivered we might actually have a place to sit as well. 

we are so blessed.

ness-full-of-thanks

i has been a long time since i have blogged anything. which is crazy considering everything that has happened since may. here is a quick recap of what has happened, and also what i have been thinking about during this month of thanksgiving.  there is so very much in my life that i am grateful for.

back in may, i graduated and passed all my board exams to become a dental hygienist. i am now working at an office in phoenix doing what i love. it is fantastic getting paid to do this now. 

june was great because my best friend got married. i flew to denver with my other best friend, calli and got to spend the weekend with her and nate. it was like old times. oh how i love the both of them. and nate married one of the coolest girls ever. for years i was so nervous that he would marry someone that i didn't like. not because i think he has bad taste but because i was so afraid of losing my best friend. kelly is beyond fantastic. and i am so excited to get to know her more over the many, many years to come. (can't wait for nate to be done with dental school and move back to AZ--- he takes his boards today and will do amazing). i am grateful for friends and for the blessings of temples and eternal marriage. their sealing ceremony was one of the most beautiful things i have ever witnessed.

in july we went to hawaii with blake's family and had an incredible time. it was my first time to any of the islands. it was like a dream: laying on the beach, hiking, kayaking, zip-lining, repelling, etc. the weather was great and the company even better.

 

amazing things have been happening with our lives in the gospel. blake is still teaching early morning seminary at arcadia high and loving it. i got a new calling to teach gospel doctrine and having the time of my life learning from the scriptures and the class. my baby brother turned 16 and was ordained to the office of a priest. my baby sister, touched by the spirit during the exciting announcement regarding missionary age at general conference is now preparing her mission papers. which has sent my mind more so than usual to the life-changing time i had on my mission. (and my mtc companion was the cutest thing ever. love her)

blake and i have been searching for a house for a long, long time. we have always looked but for the past 9 months or so, we have been seriously looking to buy. we have watched housing prices go up and up here in phoenix and have been frustrated as we have missed out on several houses. this may be a little premature to announce but things are looking good for us to buy a house (pictures to come when the close does actually happen). today was our original close date but it got pushed back because some things have taken longer than expected. i really like the house and i am dying to close and move in. i have been wanting so badly to be in a house by christmas. i said last year that i would not set up the 3 foot christmas tree in our apartment again, that we needed to be in a house by christmas. i didn't know then that i would take this long to find and purchase a home. i have gotten so excited about it that i have started making christmas crafts to decorate when we move in. here is a wreath i made out of pinecones this past weekend. it still needs a bow or something maybe and i think will look awesome on the red door of the house we are buying.

this project and so many others would be impossible without my incredible mom. she is so talented and is able to make anything look beautiful. i have the best parents ever. sometimes i don't think all of my siblings know how good we have it. my dad is the most self-less man i know and my mom has become such a loving grandma (no kids from us yet, sorry mom) and mother. i get sad when i think that i went through years in which i was so blind to everything that these two do for me. thank goodness for the power of forgiveness. 

and of course i am forever grateful for my amazing husband.  he works so hard everyday to provide for us. he is loving commercial real estate and is so good at what he does. he has had extra work on his plate with this house situation as there have been a lot of moving pieces. i love our simple date nights that we have every night when we get home from work. we eat dinner and cuddle up on the couch and watch an episode or two (or three or four) of the office or the mentalist to just unwind. this boy has such big dreams and goals and i know that we will achieve all of them. this picture is when he surprised me with the news that he closed the deal on this building when we went out to eat near by. (don't mind the blurry photo). he is the best thing that has ever happened to me.

even as i type this i am almost overcome with gratitude for these things in my life. i am grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who is so aware of us, and for the Lord, Jesus Christ who has paid the ultimate price for me and those i love, (and those that are hard for me to love). i love that thanksgiving is just a week away, then starts the season where we celebrate his birth and his life. there are not enough words to describe the peace that comes with these thoughts.

daddy's girl

i wish everyone could have a dad like mine.  he has been my best friend my whole life, though i'm sure there are parts of my stinker teen-age years that he and i have both tried to forget.  i have always been a "daddy's girl."  and today is this daddy's birthday.  he is the best daddy and now is the best grandpa to my nieces and nephews.  sweet heart of 1, father of 7, grandpa of 6, and one of the most self-less people i have ever known.  happy birthday, daddy!

the picture above was of our trip to disneyland when i was about 4.  it was just the 2 of us and i was in heaven to have all that attention to myself for a weekend. 

to find a roof over our heads

i wish i had a picture to post of a house, our house more specifically.  we have been looking at houses since we got married, and even more seriously these last 6 months.  we have date nights several nights a week looking on mls for new listings.  we spend many saturdays driving to find open houses, and to going to appointments of house showings we set up.  last night we toured a house that i fell in love with.  the inside of the house is 95% done how i would want it to be done (white kitchen with farm house sink, claw foot tub in master bath, white subway tiles in the showers, wood floors, big windows for lots of natural light).  i just wanted to stay there hoping that if i never left that they would just let me keep the house.  we found another house today that blake loved the outside of.  it just went on the market yesterday and already it is under contract.  i guess you've got to act fast with these things. 

we are trying to be patient and be open to what God would have us do.  there are so many big things happening in our lives right now:  i graduate on thursday, therefore i need to find a job.  we don't know if we should buy a house in phoenix or mesa/gilbert and that will greatly effect how far i am to drive to this job i am suppose to find.  we want to have kids at some point; when do we have them? what schools will they go to (in what school district is this house suppose to be in?)  we have such fun things ahead of us.  here is to the unknown and to endless possibilities.

no messin' with sister mesen

after leaving miles city, i was transferred across the whole state of montana to "ronan, mt: my living grave."  (something one of the ladies we pseudo-taught used to say).  i don't know how people could live in such a beautiful place and not believe in God, that he created all that beauty.  and having lived in arizona for so long, i definitely appreciated the beautiful mountains.  i got lots of mountains in salt lake, but nothing compared to the mission mountains in ronan and st. ignatius. 

i was there serving with sister stephanie mesen.  man do i love this girl.  she did not like to cold.  in fact, i think it is safe to say that she hated the cold.  and man did it get cold.  we would tract in -20 degrees F (much colder if you include the wind chill).  we covered some small towns.  ronan was the biggest (i just looked it up and in 2010 it still only had a population of 1,871) and we covered one little town that the "downtown" was a convenient store with one gas pump, and a seasonal beef jerky stand.  so it only took a little while to knock on all the doors in the town before we had to start venturing outside of town and hiking up in the mountains to find someone to teach.  since this was my only chance to do the more traditional missionary work, i wanted to put everything i had into it, (not like i didn't put everything into my work at temple square).  i probably drove poor sister mesen crazy with how much i wanted to get done.  i wouldn't let us stop for lunch most days.  i would just pack snacks for the car that we could eat while we drove to appointments.

i learned so much during my time with sister mesen.  i learned more than ever before in my mission that serving my companion was so important.  she was my "most progressing investigator."  i am so grateful for our time together and how much it prepared me for the rest of my mission, further church service, and marriage.  she was the only companion i had for longer than 6 weeks.  (at temple square we changed companions every transfer while i was there.)

quick funny story, one night i was apparently talking in my sleep.  i never talk in my sleep unless i am in that state somewhere between asleep and awake; asleep enough to think it is ok to talk, awake enough that i can talk.  i was teaching the plan of salvation when i was interrupted by my now awake companion saying, "sister florence, it is not time to teach, it is time to sleep."  i was now slowly starting to wake up.  still thinking it was a little real and also feeling a little prideful, i responded, "hey, someone in this room needs to hear this."  then she, a little upset perhaps and a little freaked out about a potential, "someone" in the room asks who was in the room.  we both fell back asleep and laughed about it in the morning.

i got to see stephanie a couple months ago at sister willhite's wedding.  she and a bunch of the other montana sister came down from utah.  (yes, my cold-hating-companion chose to move to utah after the mission.)  it was so good to see her.

almost there

never mind my squinty-faced smile in this picture (which was taken and edited so well by erin the beautiful).  graduation from my dental hygiene program in just around the corner so we had our class photos the other day.  in the picture with me is autumn, who has been my lifesaver during these last two years of school.  its hard to believe that it is almost over but i'm so ready for it to be in some ways.  i'm am going to try to learn as much as i can during my last week of clinic this next week.  2 weeks from today i will be a graduate.