Ode to the house I call home.

Yes this is my second post in a day. I have sadly forgotten to talk about how much I like my house. I really like my house. It is awesome. Like I said in previous post all I wanted in life was a dishwasher and a second outlet in my bathroom. I got a whole lot more then that!

Now a list of awesomeness from my house/ having a house:

I have a place to put everything! (That doesn't mean everything is in its rightful place yet):
It does not take me hours to do dishes. I rinse them and place them in a shiny white dishwasher that is all mine.
I have lots of outlets in my bathroom now.
We now each have our own room four our own respective junk. Mine being a sewing room!
I have beautiful twinkling blue and white icicle Christmas lights.
I don't have to scrape my car in the Winter anymore. Yay! for a garage.
There is so much space!!!!!
And many more awesome things....

We paid our first mortgage. That was fun.... but at least it actually goes to owning something. I have learned that even though having a house is nice it means that there is lots more cleaning to do. Not so fun.

Planning, Love/Hate Relationship

Once upon a time several years ago I had this grand dream of getting my Doctorate. I was very ambitious and ready to become an independent woman with several levels of degree awesomeness in hand. Then one day this guy came back into my life. He pretty much swept me off my feet. (Cheesy, lame, cliche, but it happened). Out through the window went the Dr. Mallory plan. Then I didn't really have time to make a new plan...... Ok lets be honest the only "plan" going on in my head had to do with a ring, a dress, and a new relationship status on Facebook (kidding). Then my wildest dreams came true (Thanks Pedro and Napoleon. Yes I just referred to a movie that was only cool for like three months.) We got married. Then I realized I needed a new plan.

Here is a hypothetical conversation from my head. Ok Mallory let's be honest here. You are awesome but realistically 8 more years of school probably isn't going to happen. Don't you want a family, a house, a job without two houses worth of student loans? So then I said to myself, Hey how about you just get your Master's degree. You kind of need it anyways if you want any chance at making enough money to feed your husband and 1 hypothetical child. You already are a good student and whipped through college in three years what's three more years on top that?

So now you know how I got to my current plan that I am trying to fully execute. The thing with plans well my plans at least is that they pretty much never work the way they are supposed to. Somehow, somewhere, someone likes to throw things into the mix. Then I have to do more planning of plans that I will probably never see the full fruitation of.

Marriage seems to make choice a bit more difficult. Instead of just considering my different options in life and how to plan them out I now have to plan for two people and maybe up to 12. (yeah..... (9 kids..... and a dog)......... right). Trevor I think perhaps enjoys the fact that I am slightly (*cough* we can only hope) crazy... about planning things out. He probably just enjoys the entertainment but i will pretend that he enjoys having me plan out both of our lives so he doesn't have to worry about it.

Anyways holy cow that all brings me back to what I originally was going to write this post about. SCHOOL. dun dun DUN. I LOVE it!!!!! It is so nice to be so entirely focused on stuff that is completely applicable to my career choice. I sit through four hour classes and actually can pay attention THE entire time! (Except for my current class due to a teacher that resembles Dolores Umbridge (Harry Potter) in every way) Everything I am learning is really fascinating and I can see it in my own life and see how it will help my future client's. Sometimes I will get really excited about random things I have learned in class such as the stages of mental development. The next time I see a  "everyday regular person" in my life, which is usually Trevor, I will say Oh this is random but it is so cool and I have to tell someone! Then I will proceed to tell said person all about that random thing that they probably aren't very interested in. Yes I am and nerd and Yes that is how much I love school. Oh how nice it is to be in a place where I know who I am and where I am going.

I HATE it!!!!! Every single Monday without fail I tell Trevor I am going to quit. The reason is because I have a paper due the next day and have yet to write a sentence. I confess I am a hardcore procrastinator. So hardcore I have actually developed the awesome power of actually being good at it. It's Tuesday at 3pm. I have a 3 page paper on moral development due at 6pm. I have to also drive to PG in that time slot. No problem. I will whip the paper up and have time to spare to eat, do some dishes and check my Facebook. Currently I have a 6 page paper waiting to be written by Tuesday at 6. I haven't even thought of a title. That will be putting a bit of pressure on my procrastination skills. I am not bragging. This is all a confession.

I also don't like school because it gets in the way of my planning. I have to plan for my work and school schedule and Trevor's work and school schedule and divide that by one car. I also have to plan for a new job (crossing of body parts) and eventually an internship. Sometimes people try to plan for me. In the culture bubble that is Utah it is almost expected that after a sufficient amount of time (1 month up to 2 years) being married you should introduce everyone to your new bundle of joy.  I was asked several times within months of marriage, by not a "everyday regular person" but by different somebodies "I kind of have known for years but not really" when we would be starting a family. Nunya.  A small human being takes planning. Lots of planning. It, being the small human, also takes lots of time being taken care of. We do not have that time. I do not have that sanity (yet?). Honestly, my mom bought me two housewarming plants when we moved into our house, I can barely keep them alive. And all I have to do for those is give them sunlight and water. I think it is best for the sake of a human life to stay away from planning that life altering decision into my life just yet.

Okay this is officially the longest post on my blog yet. It kind of makes up for the short posts and lack there of.

Home Sweet Home!

We are just about settled in our new home. That does not mean however that everything is put away in the right place. We had a bit of a headache trying to close on the house and ended up closing five days later than we were supposed to. The day after Halloween we loaded everything into a Uhaul and took it to the house. With the help of my FIL and two little brothers we got everything into our garage. From there we put away in the house throughout the rest of the week. Buying a house is stressful. Moving is stressful. Writing a paper for a Masters class while in the midst of all of this is even more stressful. Luckily by some twisted stroke of fate the crap paper I turned in ended up supposedly being an A paper. I will take the grade and run. So we have spent the past couple weeks putting together our home. It is strange to think that we will be here for awhile. It is even stranger to think that one day far away our children will live and breath here. We love our house and are excited to build a home for our family here.

Piles of boxes

The boxes are starting to pile up in our front room. Packing is such a pain. First of all it has made me realize how much junk we have collected since we got married. I am trying to go through things and throw stuff out. It is quite the undertaking. Secondly I am pretty much to the point where I can't pack anything else up until the day we move. We close next Wednesday. Trevor plans to pick up our fridge and take it over to the house on Wednesday. It also has decided to move our bed and some essentials over so that we can spend our first night in our new house on Wednesday. We are so excited and a bit overwhelmed with everything that needs to be done.
I also have started my first class of my masters program. Holy cow it is a lot of work. Even though I only take one class at a time the workload is worth a semester full of classes and I do it all in six weeks! Although it is extremely stressful I love it! I love that I am learning about stuff that I enjoy and that will help me in my future career.

A house!!!

After several different offers and subsequent heart breaks for different houses we finally have a house! We were seriously about ready to give up. Our house is perfect for us down to the peach tree in the backyard. It has everything we want and need. Best of all there isn't anything we even need to fix. Even the walls are the colors I would paint them. All we need to do is buy a fridge and move in. We are set to close on the 28 of this month. Hopefully everything goes smoothly and we move in that weekend. We are excited.
Also after six grueling weeks of class I was accepted into my masters program! I was so nervous the past week so it was good to hear that I was "a perfect candidate for the program " it feels so weird to be to this point in my life. I kind of feel like I have finally met up with my future. For so long I have had this dream and now that it's finally here i can hardly believe it! I am a bit nervous and I should be nervous because the program is pretty hard. It will take me three years to complete and then two years to get my license. By the time I get my license I will have over 5000 clinical hours logged!

The Bathroom Stall

I am telling this story because I was reminded of it today.
So a couple years ago ( k really I can't remember when) I was going to school at UVU. It was a daily ritual to go sit in the student center near the cafeteria upstairs and hang out till my next class. On this particular day I went to use the bathroom. After doing my business I tried to turn the little thing to unlock the door. It wouldn't budge. I tried several times. Apparently my little finger muscles weren't strong enough for said turny thing. I started to panic. How was I going to get out! I waited till every one had left and then made sure I was all alone because I knew whatever I was going to do to get out of that stall would be highly embarrassing. I decided to crawl under the door. I shoved my backpack under the door and got down on my hands and knees and the stomach. Gross. I crawled under the door and stood up unscathed. I washed my hands several times before leaving the bathroom. And that is how I made it out of the bathroom stall alive!

Things of somewhat interestingness

This month has been interesting enough it is deemed worthy of writing about.
I will start my masters program next Tuesday.... holy cow! I have so many thoughts running through my head about this but I don't know quite what to say. Maybe once I get the hang of things I will have more on the subject.
My mom went into Huntsmans yesterday and found out she has passed all her "tests". She is in complete remission and is expected to make a full recovery in 6 months. I can't even explain what a relief this is to my family.
We have been patiently waiting to hear about a house we have fallen in love with. It has been 5 weeks. We are supposed to hear back by Friday. Our fingers are crossed.
We went to the demolition derby on Saturday. I so badly want to compete in the powder puff division. I am good at smashing cars. So why not do it for some $$$$? I have decided to hold off my debut until my brother returns from his mission. More than anyone I think he will appreciate my performance.
That is all.

Update

Its not so much that I am a terrible blogger as it's that my life is pretty unexciting. Every week I go to work, sleep and eat and that pretty much sums up my life right now. Thats right I am one of those girls that gets married and becomes pretty boring. Growing up I always couldnt wait to be an adult and do what I want. That so is not the case now. Me and Trevor were talking the other day about how lame life as an adult really is. Well there isn't much we can do about it now so oh well. The one part I do like about being an adult is having a job that I love. I work at a state secure care facility for juveniles. Every day I go to work I come home knowing that I made the right decision to get a degree in behavioral science. It is a career field that fulfills me. Yes I know I will have times of some burnout but doesn't every job? I am also way excited to start my masters program in the fall. Its so crazy that I am to this point in my life. It has always felt so far away and now it is here! When I graduated in April my mom told me that I have always grown up faster than I am supposed to. I feel like that right now with starting my masters looking for a house and being married. If you would have told me when I graduated high school three years ago that all this stuff would happen in three years I would have laughed and said yeah right.

Old Cake

So when we were planning our wedding and it came time to choose the cake we were both excited. It was one of the few parts of planning that was pure fun and easy. We had a three tiered cake so we wanted to do three different flavors. We each choose a flavor for the bottom two tiers. There was no doubt in our minds what the top layer was going to be though..... Carrot cake! Our wedding cake ended up being every thing we wanted it to be. It was the most delicious cake ever! After all the cake was gone we had a conversation bout how we couldn't wait for our anniversary when we could try the carrot cake. So the year sped by. Our anniversary came and went. This last Thursday I opened the freezer to put something away and lo and behold I saw our wedding cake. I felt pretty dumb for forgetting to get it out on our anniversary. So I sat it out to defrost. Might as well eat it now! I am here to report that it is delicious and everything I thought it would taste like a year ago. Who knew that year and two week cake could taste so good?

How To Be A Good Wife

To celebrate the fact that I have I officially been a wife for a year now. I have decided to post this with my awesome commentary. This came from a 1950s high school home economics textbook.

  

1. Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, to have a delicious meal -on time. This is a way of letting him know that you have been thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home and the prospect of a good meal is part of the warm welcome needed.
( Over the course of this year I have learned that YES, the best way to a mans heart is through is stomach. However a home cooked meal every night is just not going to happen in my house. I don't quite have it altogether yet. In fact I don't think I ever will. So when there isn't a home cooked meal he will still be able to survive on whatever he can scrounge up. If I give him a good back rub he will forget the fact that I didn't make dinner )
2. Prepare yourself. Take fifteen minutes to rest so that you will be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your makeup, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh looking. He has just been with a lot of work weary people. Be a little gay and a little more interesting. His boring day may need a lift.

( I don't have much to say about this. All I know is it is a good thing that I found such an awesome man who doesn't care about the fact that I don't wear makeup everyday.)  

3. Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable or suggest that he lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him. Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soft, soothing and pleasant voice. Allow him to relax and unwind.
(When he gets home from work its more like I spill out everything that has happened while he was gone and anything else that I need to tell him. He patiently listens and then falls asleep. I guess my voice counts as low and soothing if he falls asleep.)

Well on a scale of one to ten I am not the perfect ten. However, I have learned so much from this year together and I have decided that I will keep him around for at least another year :)

Food Storage

Part of the reason I married who I married is the shear entertainment value he holds. He is always saying something hilarious. The things he says are usually funny because of the way he presents them. He will find a round about way of making a statement so I will agree with him.

Last night he came home and said, "You know when we are older and more established and own a house and land I am always going to have a meat cow, a pig, and chickens. (then he hurriedly said this next sentence before I could say anything else). The prophet tells us we need to be prepared, so that would be our food storage."
Yup. Very convincing. He is a keeper.

Dish Washer to Houses

This is not a complaint post. It is a post about gratefulness in the future. One day I will be so grateful for a dishwasher. One day I will have one of these shiny beauties.

I write this post because I am in the process of doing dishes right now. Process yes that is right. A tiny sink plus a pile of dishes means lots of soaking sessions for groups of dishes. I realize that while we are in this apartment I will be the dish washer. However, we are buying a house soon. Trevor is in it for the house. I am in it for the dishwasher (and a second outlet in my bathroom).
Speaking of houses.
As we are in this process of buying a house we go back and forth and pretty much everything. When to buy this year, what to buy, how to buy it, etc. Do we put down a down payment or use that money to fix up the house. What kind of house do we want a brand new one? an older home with character? Yup lots of decisions. Also a whole lot of learning about home buying. Who knew that you had to learn so much! All these new terms make my head spin sometimes.
I seriously think they need to have a class in college just for things you have to do as a responsible adult that you never learn about in school.
We put an offer on a house last friday. The house is a cute older brick home. It needs some work but its mostly cosmetic things. My favorite part about it is the gorgeous old wood floor that covers the entire upstairs.  We are waiting on the bank to approve the price. They are some issues right now. Hopefully they will wise up. Hopefully I will be moving to a place with a dishwasher. Then I will do a whole post dedicated to how much I love my dishwasher :D

Gorgeous!

 

Candy Bouquet

So my dad's birthday was Friday and Trevor's birthday is tomorrow. I made an awesome candy jerky bouquet for my dad. Trevor said he wanted one. Since I am a awesome wife and all I decided I would make him a candy bouquet. It was really easy and way cute and cheap. Here are pictures of them:

Dad's

Trevor's

So with my dad's I used full size candy bars and with Trevor's I used the fun size candy bars. I think I like the look of Trevor's better but I can't quite decide.

This is what you need if you want to make one. I bought all of these things at the dollar store.

• Glue gun/sticks
• Vase
• Rocks or filler for inside the vase
• Fake greenery 
• Ribbon
• Candy lots and lots or anything else you would like to use (I used jerky sticks too)
• Shikabob sticks or something of the likes

Then start gluing and arranging!

ADELE

Sometimes I find songs/artists that just get to me. I can play them over and over and never tire of them. Adele is one of those. I loved her before she was on the radio. Her voice is so unique. She isn't just another thin blonde crappy voiced pop singer. Right now her song "Rolling in the Deep" is on repeat for me right now. Plus the music video is amazing. There are so many things I love about it, her hair and clothes, the pile of broken dishes, the person dancing, the duct taped sheet on the wall, oh and the best part of it is the hundreds of glasses of water throbbing to the beat of the drums. It makes me thirsty. I feel bad for the intern that had to fill up all those glasses though!

Take a look!

"You Know He Married You For The Barn?"

Last year when we were still dating my husband decided that he would take full advantage of the 4 1/2 acres and barn my parents own. He bought 25 baby chicks, built a chicken pen in the barn and a run out into the field. He loved those chickens with all his heart. In fact he was obsessed with them. Any spare minute was spent "chicken whispering" as my family calls it.

The night before our wedding we had our wedding dinner. After dinner we were running around getting stuff ready for the reception. Trevor went off to do something for me. After awhile I realized that he was taking way too long. Sure enough I went out to the barn and there he was building a ramp up to the nesting boxes for his chickens. My reaction was that of any bride under lots of stress :S  I eventually laughed about it. Eventually being the keyword. Little did I realize at that moment what I really was in for.

Skip ahead a year.

Last Friday my husband and dad went up to Salt Lake to get some more chicks. They came home with a hundred and three to be exact. 103. So now the little flock has grown to over a hundred and twenty five chickens ranging in size from a enourmous annoying rooster to the cutest little mini chick you have ever seen.

 

 (This isn't actually my hand. It is some random person on google.)

Oh the chicks are cute right now but give it a couple weeks and they will grow and be between fuzz and feathers which makes them not so cute. My mom said to me the other day, "You know he married you for the barn?" Yup mom I know.

Come August when all the new chicks start laying we will have major amounts of eggs. When I say major I am talking MAJOR. Last year with the flock of twenty five chicks we were getting over twenty dozen eggs a week. Now add one hundred more chickens and BAM! Omelets galore! 

Oh and I also have two incubators in the second bedroom of my apartment. Give it twenty days and I may have some baby chicks hatching in my apartment!

So if anybody out there wants some real fresh eggs CLICK HERE!