Tribute to us!

On Sunday will be our first anniversary! It's funny how time flies! We have moved around so much this year and we have had some interesting experiences but we are so blessed to have a great job and the start of a great future. Despite the many rumors we have heard about people thinking we are unhappy, or that it won't last, we want everyone to know how happy we are. I feel grateful everyday of my life to have an amazing husband and friend, who was raised in the church and who often corrects me when I'm wrong. (notice the often :) ). We are also very excited to have our first little nugget sometime in July. My first ultrasound will be next week, I am still a bit nervous but of course Sam, coming from a bunch of nieces and nephews is fully prepared to take on diaper changing and late night feedings. (only if its a boy) We will keep you posted on the happenings! Thanks for being such great family and friends!

HOME

We just found out that Sam gets a week and a half off! We are very excited to come home and see our families and friends. It seems as if its been FOREVER since we have seen anyone even though its been only a month and a half. Nonetheless, we are thrilled. We are SO excited to go play in the snow! Woo!! Anyway, I just wanted to say we're excited and we will be home the 22nd, we're staying at the Johnsons!

Pictures from Ozona

Things have been pretty boring lately! I spend a lot of time at the local library using the internet and reading lots and lots of books! We found a different ward to go to rather than the disaster we had with the branch. So our church is now a 3 hour drive in all. It makes for a very long day off for Sam! I have been fortunate enough to meet a few of the other wives that live in the trailer park. A few of us walk our dogs every morning! I am starting to like the town of Ozona a little better now, but I wish we could get back closer to home soon! But on the bright side... we will be home in a few short weeks for Christmas and we cannot wait! I am posting some pictures of the town of Ozona, the local grocery store, the Crockett county library, and the amazing RV Park we are staying in! Enjoy!

The dog and I

Sadly to say Wrangler really is the only thing that I have to talk about because I see no one else during my long days without Sam. Wrangler is teaching me a few lessons I wish I wasn't receiving until I had kids but I guess he's preparing me. If I'm sitting in the recliner and I get up to walk the two steps to the kitchen he follows me. If I go into the bedroom, he follows me. If I go to the bathroom he follows me. If I'm in the shower, he sticks his nose underneath the shower curtain and lays underneath the shower until I get out! IT'S DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!! But what can I say at least I have a companion and at least he is loyal.

This dog and I go running together, although I would hardly call it running anymore because he has to mark his territory on every bush we pass, so our runs end up being more like me getting whip lash every 10 feet. At about 10 minutes to five at night he sits in front of the front door and he waits for Sam to come home. I am not even kidding you, he has a sense when its almost time for him to be home. Its kinda sweet. During the day when I am reading a book he has this stuffed duck that he plays with that squeaks and if he makes it make noise he thinks that its alive so he will pounce on it until it moves, which it never does. But it provides great entertainment for me and him!

This is the second week that we have been here and this week has been much harder for me than last. I don't do much but cook, clean, run, and watch TV or read. Its definitely not the life I am used to. Most would tell me to live it up and enjoy the last few months of free time I will ever have. But I am getting the feeling I'm a little worthless. I don't want to get a job until after Christmas because we will be leaving for a week or so during that time. Plus my options here in town consist of the dairy queen, sonic, subway, a few gas stations, and general dollar store. Anyway... options are slim.

Anywho, I hope things are going well with all of you! We love and miss you all!

Ozona, Texas

We made it!!! After many many hours of driving! The drive was... how can I put it.... the ugliest place I've ever been to!!!! As soon as we got out of Page, AZ It was nothing but a dry wasteland. Oh flat, dry wasteland. When we finally got to Ozona, I was mildly relieved... the town was in what Texans call their "mountains" notice the quotations around mountains? That is because what Texans refer to as mountains, are more like what Utahans refer to as hills, if that. But hey at least its not flat and dry! There are cedars all over these hills, its by far the most remotely pretty place since leaving Arizona. The population in 2010 here was 3400 people, 60% Hispanic. I'm gonna guess its MAYBE 5000 now, still mostly Hispanic. I've never felt weird being white... now I do.

We realized sometime last night we may need food for Sam to pack a lunch. So we headed to the only grocery store in town. The Super S Store. Bread was $3.00. A can of soup was $3.50. Milk was $4.00. Groceries it appeared were going to be expensive! When we got home I immediately looked up the nearest wal-mart. 1.5 hours away!!!!!!!!!!! Nonetheless, I had no choice. So I high tailed it to San Angelo to go to Wal-mart.

Which is where I saw my first animal since arriving in Texas. When they say that Texas is the Cowboy capital of the world, I've realized I don't think people know the definition of a cowboy. The whole way here I have seen only a hand full of cows. Not what I was expecting. I thought I would see cowboys with their trusted horses in chaps, boots, spurs, hats, and lasso's herding cattle across the land. And I also thought they'd be... well... white.

Apparently from what I've gathered thus far, Ozona is the Mohair and Wool capital of Texas... In case you don't know what Mohair is... let me enlighten you. Its a silky cloth made from goats hair. So you may wonder what animals are here? yup that's right; goats and sheep. So much for that cowboy herding image.

Also here in the great town of Ozona, Davey Crockett is a symbol of their town. I ran past a huge sculpture of him in the middle of town this morning. They claim Davey Crockett was born and raised right here. Hence why we are Crockett county!

I was seriously hoping that the LDS ward finder was just... out of date or something? And that's why it said the nearest ward... excuse me.. branch... is 2 hours away. So me and my naive Utah attitude I figured we would see a great brick church in the middle of town... nope its true. Church really will be a 7 hour day for us. On the bright side.... well, I may have to get back to you on that. Its only Monday.

Texans have a funny way about themselves, they are very kind; like when today I was driving to San Angelo on highway 163 and people would drive at 60 MPH on the shoulder to let an individual pass. They probably just assumed because I was from Utah I would drive up their rears, so they let me pass.

Something else I've learned in this short time, Texans LOVE BEING FROM TEXAS!!! Every sign is about Texan spirit, their fast food joints have menus with things such as "The Texas Way Burger" Or "Texas BBQ Sandwich" Or "We love Texas so much if you litter you pay $2000 fine. I've never felt so much love for such a... GORGEOUS PLACE (wink, wink)

It hasn't even been 24 hours and its already been an adventure! I'm not sure what this next year will bring us, but I'm sure we will have a great thing to tell when we're old.

Good News... Bad News

I guess it would be a good time to give a report on what we have been up too! Not much but working, and stressing out about finding Sam a job! So the good news... WE ARE MOVING!!!! Sam leaves Monday to Mesa, Arizona for a disaster clean up job, then we will be leaving for Ozona, Texas 3 to 4 weeks later! We are stoked! Sam is a bit nervous I think... but hey who wouldn't be! So we found us a trailer to live in and we will hopefully be closing on it tomorrow! Although at this late in the day, I wouldn't be surprised for something disastrous to happen. Why so pessimistic you ask? Welp... I accidentally hit a cinder block wall and ruined my rim and tire... a spendy investment. On top of that... we were suppose to close on the trailer today, and my loan lady was gone... until TUESDAY! Oh, and did I mention we got a nice BIG FAT BILL from Sam school saying we hadn't paid part of his tuition! I have decided that every time Sam and I move something bad ALWAYS happens! Like when we first moved to Idaho and I got pulled over, 2 bad tires, and a safety inspection later... I arrived.THEN.. on our way home from Idaho.... We left half our stuff in Oregon (a 2 hour detour) anyway, wow I went on and on.. .my point is... there is always good news and always bad news! I just have to take a deeeeeeep breath and calm myself! :) That's all the news for now!

Lineman Rodeo

I am putting pictures of Sam's awesome graduation day! It was so fun to see what he had been doing for the last 15 weeks, and we were fortunate to have Marcia and Dean with us. We are all so proud of Sam! We can't wait to see what our future holds.

Summer End

The last week and a half has been ridiculously busy and full of fun! My parents came and stayed the week with us and we played from the minute they got here to the minute they left! It was a BLAST! We went to the Kotter family reunion and boated till our hearts content, then we swam, swam, and did some more swimming. We finally ended off the week with a trip to the mountains of Cascade Idaho where we stayed in an amazingly GORGEOUS cabin, and we did ALOT more boating! I tubed for about 6 straight hours! We were all fried and sore but it was so worth it! Now its back to the last 19 days of Sam's schooling, Triathlon and Marathon training, and packing to temporarily move back home until Sam finds a job! If anyone here's of anything pass us along the info!



The last time I blogged was the first week we were here in Oregon/Idaho. We are now coming to an end of this summer. I can honestly say it has been a growing experience, we have been so blessed to meet the people we have and even more blessed that they have been so generous and good to us. This summer hasn't turned out exactly the way we thought it would but we also realize that that is life for you! We are so looking forward to moving on to bigger and better things; but not without saying thanks to those who made this summer bearable.

Adrian Oregon

Well, after a busy week we have finally moved in to our house in Adrian, Oregon. We're about 30 minutes from my grandparents house and about 40 from Sam's school. Which by the way Sam is really enjoying. I am putting a whole bunch of pictures of where we live and such. The HUGE white house and the pristine yard is Grandma and grandpas house. Sam even let me take pictures of him in all his gear! By the way the town we are living in is so rural that I have hardly any cell service. But Sam has more than me! So if any of you need to get ahold of me go ahead and call me on Sam's phone! I am also posting some pictures of some wood posts... in the summer time they grow hopps for beer. The yellow field is a pickle field! A lot of farmers grow dill in Adrian. The house we are living in is the trailor looking house and all the green farm fields surround us. We can't even see into our neighbors house we are so far apart! There is also a picture of the snake river which separates Oregon from Idaho. Its pretty much right across the road from us! We attended our ward today for the first time and they were all pretty nice. It was funny to hear people refer to their tractors in sunday school as God's way of teaching them things. I think thats when we realized we would fit in just great here! After we got home from church a younger guy came and invited us to the "community dutch oven night" on Friday nights. I guess all the farmers from Adrian get together every friday night for some good times! Ha, ha, yep we're gonna like it here!

News!

So, there is ALOT of exciting and scary things going on in our lives right now, some of which is too painful to even repeat so I will spare you all the tears. I am just finishing up my last exams for finals and I will be headed up to Idaho to meet up with Sam. We are still planning on living in Adrian, Oregon. Although some tragic news there, Ruthy (the lady I was going to be paid to take care) passed on today, so I no longer have a job. My old roomie though is coming up this weekend to help me find a job with a local farmer. So I am feeling blessed and relieved and everything will be fine. We still get to live in the house and we are paying no rent, and wrangler can live there with us so its going to work out. We are at least going to try it for a month and see if its worth it to us. I must say its going to be GREAT having our own place, on a farm, in a town with the population of 140 people! We will make it 142! It will be SO amazing to train for my marathons around all the farming ground. And it'll be GREAT to experience a new place. As you might all have guessed, I'm really trying to be positive about all the turn of events which have happened in less than 24 hours. You could say I've been a WEE BIT stressed! :) But hey, thats what happens when you become adult like and all that crap! Anyway, I will be posting LOTS of pictures of Sam's school and the strawberry farm we will be living on! Love you all!

Family Wedding Pictures