A Novel?? Almost....

I seriously cannot believe how long it’s been since my last post. It’s almost embarrassing. Haha! So I figured I’d better post something now. It will be a quick recap.
Let’s see….what’s happened since April? HA, well a lot! I’m going to do my best to remember back that far. Here Goes:

In May we took a wonderful trip, just the two of us, up to Jackson Hole and Yellowstone. Kind of a revisit to our honeymoon spots. It was gorgeous. And it was definitely different scenery than we had ever experienced while vacationing there. There were WALLS of snow everywhere still. I don’t think I had ever seen so much snow. It was marvelous. We had an absolute blast, as always.
In June we went on our yearly summer trip down to Lake Powell with my family. And as always, it was so much fun. The water was great, the company was fantastic, and the scenery is just so beautiful.
Also in June we celebrated our 3 year anniversary by taking a trip up to Logan to spend the night at the Anniversary Inn. Allen surprised me by not telling me which room we had. It turns out that we had King Arthur’s Court. We had a knight in shining armor in our room, a bottle of sparkling cider, cheesecake, and lots of fun room décor. The next day we were able to enjoy a tour of Logan with our good friend Benson. Overall, it was a wonderful way to celebrate our anniversary. A nice little getaway.
In July, of course, there are the holidays. But we were also able to go camping to one of our favorite campsites, Upper Stillwater Reservoir. We went with the Castillos and the Grahams. We had a blast. The weather was perfect and we had so much fun. And even though it rained a little, Allen and I loved it! We are total fans of rain and lightning, even when camping. Makes it more of an adventure.
August brought sweltering heat and a grumpy Amanda. Me+Heat+A Swamp Cooler That Refused To Work=A VERY GRUMPY ME! We were finally able to get our maintenance team to fix our swamp cooler, or so we thought. But after a wonderful day at Lagoon with friends, we came home hoping to bask in the cool air that SHOULD have been pumping through our apartment. But this was not the case. Nope. Not even close. It was cooler OUTSIDE at 11pm than it was in our apartment. At that point, I had HAD it. I immediately texted my friend, who had mentioned that her sister was moving and needed a renter for their apartment. I asked if it was still available! And it was. We set up a time to view the apartment the very next day.
After looking through the apartment, figuring out finances(due to a raise in rent), we decided it would work perfectly for us. We were so excited. Long story short, we were able to sign the contract and set a date for move-in. The date for move in was September 19th. We were so blessed to have so much help from friends and family. We were able to get moved in fairly quickly. At least all the big stuff. Over the course of the next week Allen and I were able to move the small stuff over together, and that following Saturday we spent a whopping 10 hours cleaning our old apartment. What a relief it was to have that off our shoulders.
Our new apartment is a split entry, 2 level, triplex condo. It has 2 bedrooms, a laundry/bathroom, lots of storage, and lots of entertaining space. And by “lots” I simply mean, lots more than we are used to having. We are loving it. Oh, and did I mention it has CENTRAL AIR! Yes, that was one of the deciding factors.
After moving into the new place in September, the first weekend of October we spent down in Lake Powell with my family, just for a quick little get away trip on the house boat. Which was nice after all the moving.
The rest of October was spent slowly putting things away and getting our new place organized. We also celebrated Allen’s 26th birthday! That was fun. We celebrated all weekend long. His birthday was actually on Sunday(the 23rd) but the festivities began on Friday. Friday night I took him out to dinner at Red Lobster and he enjoyed a nice large plate of all kinds of seafood(ew. Lol). Then Saturday morning I surprised him with a quick ‘lil trip up to Park City to ride the Alpine Coaster. That was so fun! Although the ride itself was maybe 2 minutes long, I giggled the whole way down, and I’m sure Allen was doing the same. We had a lovely lunch at a pizza place in Park City, then made our way home to prepare for his birthday party with friends. This was our first time hosting in our new apartment and it was so fun! Lots of good friends came. I served up steak and baked potatoes for dinner. And we did a non-traditional birthday cake. Instead of baking a cake in the oven, everyone was able to make their own cake using the waffle iron. Yes, we still used cake batter, but each “mini waffle cake” baked within a minute in the waffle iron and then everyone could dress their cake however they wanted…frosting, fruit, whip cream, ice cream, etc. Allen loved his gifts(including his Batman: Arkham City PS3 video game, random little what-nots, and also his footie pajamas. Yes, I said footie pajamas. They are HILARIOUS!) Overall, he loved his birthday.
Halloween has come and gone, yet again. This year we actually had trick-or-treaters. That was fun! But they literally stopped showing up at 8pm. Which was kind of weird. We had trick-or-treaters non-stop from about 6:45 to 8:00. And then BAM. No one. But that’s ok. Allen and I enjoyed a yummy dinner and a scary movie to top off our Halloween night.
Oh! On another note, Allen’s jobs have been in and out still. I think since April he’s had 2 jobs. The most recent was at a place called Wasatch Minerals. He hated it there but was a hard worker and did his best every day. However, a few weeks ago, on a Monday, his boss told him that they could only hire one of the two temps(Allen obviously being one of them) and that they chose the other gentleman because he had more experience and a few more skills. So that was quite a bummer to hear that. But they gave him until the end of the week before his time there was over. In that week Allen was able to apply to a place called Monogram. This company manufactures parts for airplanes made from carbon fiber and other composite materials, which is what Allen completed some schooling for. Allen had been calling this place on a monthly basis to see if he could at least interview there. Each time he’s called in the past few months they were either “not hiring” or “had just finished hiring.” But the day Allen called happened to be the day they decided to start looking at applications again. Again, long story short: Allen applied that Tuesday, had an interview the following Monday, and was offered the job on Tuesday. Our prayers were answered. Apparently he made a great impression on them because typically all applicants have to go through at least 2 interviews and usually there is a week between the second interview and having a decision made. I was so proud of him. The hours at this new job are great. The pay is better. But most importantly….Allen is so happy to be working there. I’m so proud of him and I’m so happy that he’s happy.

The past couple of months we have felt so blessed. We are so grateful for all of our friends and family who constantly support us. A big thank you to all of you!
Well, the holidays are quickly approaching. Time to get shopping! :)