Seven Homes in Eight Years

This summer John and I will celebrate our eighth anniversary and we will move into our seventh home. Considering we've been in our current home for 4 years you can guess we moved a lot in the first few years of marriage. I think every couple is supposed to have stories to tell about their first home. We are certainly no exception. I think our first home is the epitome of starving student housing.

It was affectionately named the Cheese House. I think it was a decent sized house when it was built but to make it more profitable to rent it was turned into 7 apartments. Truthfully we had one of the larger apartments in the house. Anywhere they could squeeze in another apartment they did. Our bedroom used to be the upstairs balcony. How could we tell? Well, the living room window that looked out onto our bedroom was the first clue. No joke. Look.

We also had a patio door with a window that led into our bedroom and lovely shower that you couldn't stand up straight in. But our pride and joy was our refrigerator. The Kelvinator. It helped keep us on budget and on a diet. That blue thing was our freezer. No, we never bought ice cream. There just wasn't room.

OK, truth be told we didn't love the kelvinator. If fact we noticed that one of the other apartments had a normal refrigerator and it was empty and unlocked. We decided that we would switch out the refrigerators in the morning when a friend could come over to help move it. I had some chicken that I had just bought that I put in the empty freezer because there was more room. Of course the next morning when we went to get the fridge we discovered that someone had moved in during the night. Well I couldn't let the chicken go to waste! I knocked on the door met the new neighbors and asked for our chicken back. What would you know, we became great friends. It was even more fun when we ran into them at Stake Conference a few years ago. It turns out we both moved to Arizona.

You can tell from the pictures that the decor was lovely as well. The first time our home teachers ever came over one of them remarked how he could see five different wallpaper patterns from where he sat. I think my brother put it best when he first saw the apartment. John was explaining how he was trying to discretely drill a hole in the bottom of the wall so that he could get the phone line into our bedroom. My brother just looked at him and said "Why don't you just string it through the window? I don't think it will really detract from the decor." We did. And it didn't. By the way, if you ever wanted to see our first home, you can't. It was demolished shortly after we moved out. Big surprise.

Really, it was a great place to start. After this, everyplace was better. Our third apartment we thought was really nice. It had two bedrooms! And it was the first place that could fit more than a loveseat in our living room! It was a little old but really well kept up. We really appreciated the place. I always got really annoyed by the newlyweds who would complain about what a dump the place was. I won't chronicle all of our homes as this post is getting really long, but I'm glad for all of our homes. Really the houses were just wood and brick, but the friendships and memories we've made are really what makes a house a home.

The Best Mothers Day Gift

I got a "love kit" that Alan made at school. Inside were various things he had made with a cute note attached. My favorite was the teapot card he had made. It was shaped like a teapot and inside was this cute poem.

Here's a gift for Mother's Day:

"I'll try my best in every way."

But when you get upset

with ME.

Relax and have a pot of Tea.

Inside was attached, not a tea bag, but a packet of hot cocoa mix. Alan told me "It was going to be tea but I reminded Mrs. E that we don't drink tea in our house." What a fantastic gift to have Alan remember these things and to not be afraid to share them!

Grrrr. . .

If you know us well you know that John and I are a little slow to enter the technological age. We got our first cell phone just a little over a year ago, and we have one of the worlds ugliest and oldest TV's in our living room (but that's another rant). We don't have cable and we don't have Direct TV or any of that stuff. So needless to say we are having to get a digital converter box.

Problem is, we have tried FOUR converter boxes and none of them will work right. Actually the first one worked for two months and the broke. We tried three more, and all of them have a LOUD buzzing sound in the background. You have to turn the volume up really high to hear what's going on over the buzzing. Grrrr. . .

We even considered buying a new TV instead. We thought we could spend $100 for a cheap new TV. Nope. If you haven't gone TV shopping in a while (OK I realize that we are probably the only people in the U.S. that haven't), the best $100 can get you is a 4 inch screen. Sorry I just don't' want to spend $400 on a new TV (seeing as we only spent $25 for our current one).

While I am complaining about digital TV. . . . Two years ago John got me a nice under cabinet TV for me. It was a stretch of our budget for John to get it for me, and now two years later it is obsolete. Oh I could get a digital converter box but come on, I got an under cabinet TV because I didn't want anything on my counter. Come on! I just want to be able to watch Lost! At least the digital switch happens during the summer. Maybe we will take our next step into the modern age before the next season starts.

Saleing

When John and I were engaged we were at my parents house one day. My sister who had stopped by said to me,
"We're going saleing on Saturday. Do you want to come?"

"Sure" I replied. "What time?"

"Eight o'clock" my sister informed me. "I'll pick you up"

"Sailing?" John asked surprised (and excited). "I didn't know you guys had a boat."

"No John, SALEing. Not SAILing." I explained to him. "As in, garage saleing."

I think John was a little dissapointed but he has since learned to appreciate my genetic love for garage sales. Growing up it was just what we did on Saturdays. Alan is starting to appreciate garage sales too. I don't think I could go saleing by myself anymore if I wanted to. If Alan sees me gettting my shoes on Saturday morning he run's to his room to get dressed quickly so he can come too.

It's become a special time for us. He happily holds my hand as we look for treasures, and he talks to me about school, his friends, scooby doo; all the important things. He tells me things that don't simply come to mind when I ask him "how was school today?". I dry his tears as he realized that the giant oversized stuffed animal costs more the the one penny he has left, and I see his excitement when the man at the garage sale gives him a compass for free.

It takes a little bit longer to get through a garage sale as he spends 10 minutes in decision as to which action figure to buy. But Alan and I, we make a good team .

My Husband Rocks

So yesterday as we were in the middle of finishing up tiling our bathroom (yes the six week project is almost done!), I was surprised by my sweet friend Becca P. showing up. John handed me some cash and told me to that he was sending Becca and I out to lunch and out shopping for my Birthday. How fun!

Check out the darling apron Becca made for me. Isn't she so talented! And now my favorite 3 boys are making me chocolate peanut butter fudge cake while the pot roast that John made is cooking. Is this a good birthday or what?

Not too old

I always seem to be surrounded by people older than me. Obviously being the youngest in my family does that. My freshman year of college all of my roommates were juniors and seniors. Most people assumed I was older because, why would a bunch of seniors room with a freshman (answer: my sister was one of those seniors).

One day I was talking to John (who then was merely a friend) and his roommate Spencer. They were discussing how they really wanted to move out of the apartment complex we were in. Spencer lamented the fact that "It seems like all the girls here are 19 year old UVSC students." At first, I laughed at the joke, because I was a 19 year old UVSC student. Then I realized that it wasn't a joke. He didn't realize that I was only 19. So instead of him teasing me about being young I got to tease him about being a jerk (Spencer and his wife are still dear friends of John and I. I wasn't really offended but it's great that I can still tease him about it 10 years later).

Now my friends are still for the most part all older than me. Every birthday I still feel like I am the young one (it helps to have my husband 4 years older than me).

My birthday is on Sunday. I was feeling great about being so young. Then this morning, I found my first grey hair. Maybe it's time I stop deluding myself.