I did it!!!

Those of you who know me well, know that I am a lover of plants. I pride myself on getting most of my plants from the Used Plant Section of local grocery stores. Those of you not familiar with this section have probably passed it by numerous times without even noticing. It is usually a shopping cart filled with various types of post-holiday plants. Shamrocks in April, tulips in March, Mums in June...you get it. Well, my desire to rescue as many of these plants as possible extended to Orchids a few years back. I desperately wanted to successfully grow an orchid, but could not bring myself to fork over the big bucks to buy a big, pretty....live...one. So when I saw one in the Used Plant Section back then, I snatched it up! I read about how to take care of it, and did my best..........and it died. So sad. Next time I found one I did the same. Bought it, read about it, and successfully killed it. I think this has happened like four times. I was beginning to think that I had the opposite of a green thumb when it came to orchids.

I had just picked up what was to be my last go at bringing back a Used Orchid when my step mother-in-law found out about my love. Unbeknownst to me, Orchiding was a hobby of hers as well (I since have seen her house populated with beautiful orchids of all shapes and sizes), and offered some advice on how to properly care for one. I took her advice and tediously tended my new acquisition. It occupied a spot on my tiny kitchen window sill. One day, when I brought it down to water I hit myself in the eye with a shoot of new growth!!! I had no idea! I was so excited that not only had I not killed it (!), but it had thrived!

I have been patiently watching and waiting as bud, after bud, grew on that new stem shoot, and today I was rewarded! I bloom!! A real, live, orchid flower! On my plant! I didn't kill it!! I'm not sure there are sufficient exclamation points to describe how happy I am about this. I can't wait to see all the buds open up!

The full plant with the new shoot going to the right. Thats what I hit my head on.

The little shoot with some early buds.

The finished product! I worked so hard.......

Fight For Air!

I'm back again!

Last weekend we got to participate in the American Lung Association's Fight For Air Climb again. This is our third year climbing and we always have a great time. For those of you not familiar with this event, its held at the Wells Fargo building down town (for one day we overlook the evil overlord-ness that is Wells Fargo) and the point is to climb to the top, 23 floors, as fast as you can. For me that was 10 minutes and 24 seconds. My fastest time yet! But I still didn't even register on the to 20 women my age with that time, I think some people were coming in with like 5 minutes and less. One little boy on our team did it twice and his fastest time was just over 5 minutes and he was only 10!

Here are some photos from the "after party".

Spencer is the coordinator for this awesome climb, and one of Nik's best friends. Thanks for getting us involved Spencer!

She is so cute! And she even posed for me! This is Spencer's wife Jessica and she volunteers at the climb every year. I think this is Jess's second time volunteering while pregnant too!

Nik is acting like a frog in hopes of getting a smile out of Spencer and Jess's daughter L. It didn't work...Nik did the climb in just over 6 minutes.

Go Lisa!! She climbed 10 times!! I'm sure she won't appreciate me posting this, but I had to document her progress.

Aren't we cute? John Stockton and a little Devil! Nik won first place in the costume contest again this year! John Stockton is a go-to look for Nik I guess.

I just love this picture of L.

Two awesome ladies on Team Slingshot!

He finally got a smile!

Handsome.

Also, love the shorts.

2012

Howdy! I just couldn't let it go for a whole year without posting! Heck, I used to post a couple times a day. Now, nothing. I really need to work on that. My old posts were centered a lot around pictures but since the camera was smooshed to an unrecognizable lump on moving day, its been hard to get decent pictures with blogging about. But!! There redemption is here! We just bought ourselves an awesome new camera that will hopefully lead to some more interesting posts. A quick update: We still love our house, but haven't really hung anything on the walls, but we are working on it. Nik got a shiny new iPad for his birthday and is painting up a storm on it. His stuff is awesome, check it out at www.nikenglishart.weebly.com. I have started working out with some of the girls in my new ward and I am really enjoying it. I'm not as dedicated as some of the others, but I still do it! Jillian Michaels will be the death of me. Here are a few pictures of what we have been doing since Christmas. Enjoy!

We went ice skating for the 6th anniversary of our engagement. We went back to the Gallivan Center, where we got engaged. They moved the rink a few feet east, but its still there, and we had it all to ourselves! Well, except for one other guy. Oh well.

Hands down my favorite picture of Nik in a long time.
Look how cute we are in our Christmas get up!

None of these beautiful ladies is me, and no, I am not announcing anything, but I had to post to brag about a few (just a few!) of my pregnant friends. Aren't they cute!

Til next time!

Moving Day!

Moving day went smoothly, well, as smoothly as it can go when you are moving all of your earthly belongings across the valley. We didn't start too early both to give us a few extra hours to pack and in hopes that we would have more help if it wasn't first thing in the morning. Nik had arranged for his scouts to come over after the Scouting for Food food drive and we were lucky to have many good friends, ward members and one family member come to help us. We were on the road with the second caravan before noon.

The new house is easy to find, so I just told everyone how to get there before we left. I was really only "leading" a couple cars: my brother Jeff and my visiting teacher Maya. Maya was a huge help, by the way. She spent two days with me packing the random and last minute stuff. Well, we had just gotten on the freeway at 4500 S, I can see at least one truck with my stuff in front of me. Traffic seemed heavy, but I am not often on I-15 on a saturday morning. Just before the 5300 S exit I see a box leave a truck and promptly be hit by a car.

Now, at this point several things are going through my mind, here are a few of them:

* Oh, that sucks.

* Wait, thats my box.

* It just got hit by a car, there is stuff everywhere.

* I have to get it! It's my stuff!

* Its the freeway!!!!! I can't get it....

Last second I pull off into the "free space" the exiting lanes create and almost forget to turn off the car before I get out. I am now booking it the opposite direction of traffic toward my things, grabbing everything I can see. Among the things I see first are a pair of my new work pants, a tee shirt, a wicker basket that is now demolished, the cardboard box in several pieces, a tupperware, several papers of varying import. As I am gathering up all this I realize that my brother is now with me, also picking up everything he can see. After only a few seconds I look around and think that we've got everything and we start back to the car. I am throughly out of breath and my legs are dead (hopefully because of adrenaline, not because I am out of shape, but I don't doubt the later) so I am moving slowly. About half way back I notice something I missed on the first run. My camera. On the freeway. Smashed.

Yep. It had not only been in that box that was hit, it had been run over by a car almost immediately. I just about stopped breathing. Not really a feat at this point, but now its from shock and not exertion. But I couldn't dwell on it now, on the freeway, so we just dumped everything in the back of my car and continued on. Traffic made it so we couldn't get back on the freeway, so we exited and took state the rest of the way.

Once I knew that those behind me knew the new plan, I called my mom to tell her what happened. I would just like to point out here that my parents chose this weekend to go to St. George. I thought she was kidding when I got that text, but nope, they were really going to St. George the day I was moving into my first house. I told mom I would maybe be able to forgive them in about 10 years. It was a little less than that, but don't tell them that. Anyway, mom had the appropriate response of being horrified and shocked that that had happened. As I was relating the story and got to the part about noticing Jeff was on the road with me she suddenly exclaims "Jeff was on the freeway!?!" Thanks mom. He's fine. Oh, and your DAUGHTER is fine too.

I wish I could post a picture of it. It really is like a train wreck. You just can't turn away! But other than that, everything went great! Lots of people helped us get the house ready to move in (cleaning, painting, etc), helped organize boxes in the rooms (thanks again Jeff! And thanks Emilee for letting Spencer spend the afternoon moving our boxes. He's a great 10 year old), and helped get the boxes unpacked and put away. A big thanks to my mom who spent the better part of a day helping me unpack. One of the reasons I have forgiven her for not helping me move. Oh, that and helping me shampoo the carpets before we moved in.

We really love our new place. And would love to host anyone who wants to come see it. Just know that it is still a disaster from trying to unpack. We will certainly be having a house warming party so everyone can see it, but it will probably be when the weather is a little more stable and warm. Stupid snow.

We're Moving!

This would be followed by a YAY!! And is, for the most part, but I want it on the record that we are very sad to be leaving our neighborhood. We LOVE our ward! Nik is the Scout Master and is going on 3 years in that calling. That is a good 3/4 of the time we have been in the ward. He has accomplished so many great things with those boys, and it makes us both sad that he won't be there to help them all to their Eagles. I have been teaching that same age group (the 14-18 year old youth) in Sunday School for more than a year, and, believe it or not, I LOVE my calling! I very much enjoy being able to teach the youth the Gospel. It really reminds me what I was going through at that age, and I feel privileged to be the one that brings them these stories, and answers their questions at such an important age. I love that I have life experience now that relates to the gospel. And because I was not necessarily raised in the church, and I can relate to more of my class. Some of them are from homes with only one parent active, or they are the only ones active. I love all of them. I know its cliche, but being with them has taught me so much. I will miss them all.

We connected so quickly with this ward. They loved us from the beginning, not knowing how long we would be here. In fact, we are the longest running couple in the apartments right now (just shy of 4 years). To my knowledge. We have watched so many friends come and go, it makes me feel good that we got so much time here. Please keep us up to date on the parties and such, cause you know we will come back!!

What I will not miss: My apartment. It has been home, yes, but I think it was Managements goal to make it as difficult as possible to live here. I could go on for a long time about them, but I choose not too. Just know that I am glad to have a place of my own, regardless of what it needs done to it.

So, on to the house stuff! It is in Sandy. It is near the mall. The closest grocery store is Reams. Guess which one of those I am disappointed by?......................Thats right! Reams! Yuk. That was the closest store when we lived in Cottonwood Heights too, but we had the option of a Dan's just down the road. Now I have to go like 10 minutes out of my way to get to a Harmon's. And I will. I will really miss Smith's though. I have very much enjoyed being so close to that store. Is it weird that I am sad to be leaving my grocery store?

The house is 3 bedrooms, 2 baths. Two fire places and a two car garage. The back yard is HUGE so yes, you can come over. Nik is excited to have a place to paint, and I am looking forward to having space to do my glass. It will be the same space so I hope we still love each other by the time this is all over :)

I will need lots of help moving though......anyone want to volunteer? We are planning to move at the end of March, but there are no guarantees cause we don't have the keys yet. Oh, and we aren't packed. Like, at all. Oh well. I am sure we will get there. Oh, hey, if you want to come help with that too?

I am willing to take any and all home-ownership advice. Also, financial advice. It is scary how broke we will be for a while. How did y'all do it?