Quite the Picture

Last night my dad sent me this beautiful picture of the Oquirrh Mountain temple just outside of his house. It is so beautiful, I had to share it. This photo is literally taken from his front porch, how cool is that?!Scott and I had the opportunity to go through the temple before we moved away and it is the prettiest temple I have ever been though. It is very modern and up to date as far as style goes and I couldn't believe how beautiful it was. Hope you all enjoy this as much as I did.

College World Series

As many of you may know the College World Series take place right here in Omaha. Not only are they right here in town but they are less than a mile away from us. Our neighborhood has been jam packed full of people and parking the last few weeks as people have traveled from all over the U.S. to support their baseball teams. We are just barely North of the stadium and so it's been fun to be a part in this crazy time!

We were lucky enough to be able to go to a game this week. It was the 2nd game of the playoffs with LSU vs. Texas. Texas pulled out the win that night to tie it up and it was so much fun to be there. I love going to baseball games and just relaxing and I love, love, love the look of a baseball field, it's beautiful. It was great to get in on the fun for awhile and the Rosenblatt stadium is fantastic. Here are some pics from the game:

"The Taste of Omaha!"

Every year they have a fun thing here called "The Taste of Omaha" and so down by the river all the restaurants here in the city set up a tent and everyone comes down and tests out their food! Something like this is right up Scott and I's alley! We LOVE to try new food and eat out! So they had pretty much anything you can imagine from Indian food to Korean, to Southern, to Greek, to whatever. We got fresh corn on the cob that was delicious, yummy smoothies, you name it! It was a blast. Scott got a giant smoked turkey leg, and let me just tell you, this guy was in HEAVEN!!!We went with our friends/neighbors the Motsumories and the Theures. It was a great time with a live band and just walking around testing everything out!(Notice that turkey leg is GONE!)It was a really great time and we look forward to doing it again next year!!

Some thoughts on Omaha

I thought I'd write a few thoughts I have on this new place we're now calling home. It's amazing how it already does truly feel like home to me. I was talking with my cute neighbor the other night (who came out the same time we did) and we were talking about how much we already feel like this is our home.

Omaha is so much different than I expected it to be. I think this place is very "stereotyped", and I am somebody who had that stereotyped vision of Omaha in my mind. I thought this place was just a "flat as can be" place with nothing but cornfields. Boy was I wrong! This is the most beautiful, green, trees everywhere, hilly place! It is so much more beautiful than I thought it would be. I love especially where we live which is right on the river. We're right on the border of Iowa and Nebraska and it is so fun to drive over the river each day. The city isn't too big, but it's got everything you would imagine you'd need. There are fun little places to go. For example, there's a place called Old Market just down the street from us with cobblestone streets and tons of fun restaurants and shops. We are about a 1/4 of a mile away from Rosenblatt stadium which is where they hold the college world series for men's baseball. It's going on right now and so it's crazy around here!!! People are everywhere from all over the country and we can hear all the fireworks going off at the stadium! It is fun to be in the middle of it all. We are excited to go to a game next week!

The people here are so nice and very educated. They are definitely not just a bunch of farmers like I was expecting. I am yet to pass somebody by without a hello being exchanged, everyone goes out of their way to be kind. I just love that.

The drivers here are TERRIBLE! And people think Utah drivers are bad?! Wow I tell ya these drivers are killin' me! For one the speed limit on the freeway is only 55 and people just take their sweet little time! The minimum you can go is 40 and I'm tellin' ya, A LOT of people just go 40. I feel like a maniac on the freeway going 65. Everyone is just so easy going and just movin' right along. It's going to be good for me to slow me down. I have just always been a fast driver!

We go to church over in Council Bluffs, Iowa. It is about a 20 minute drive which I am not used to. I have always had my church right down the street from me. Our ward building is up in a really nice neighborhood and we have a really big ward. The people are all very kind, a lot of converts and it's very interesting to talk to people and to hear their stories. I love being outside of Utah and in the mission field. It's so different in many ways and it's been such a neat experience already.

The best part of living here is this complex we live in. It is seriously the craziest place. Just imagine a great place with tons of students in your same situation, people just like you, always around and hanging out all the time. I'm serious, there are the funnest, neatest people here that already I know will be our lifelong friends. There's something going on every night whether it's somebody just made cookies and invites everyone over, or a BBQ, or the girls watching the Bachelorette, game night, and when all the guys go and play basketball every Thursday night, all the girls get together and watch a chick flick. There have been many nights we've all just brought out our camping chairs and sat on the lawn till late in the night just talking. It is such a fun place, I couldn't ask for a better place to live.

Well I got a job! I feel very blessed to have been able to find one so fast. I did a phone interview with this place when I was still in Salt Lake and they called me when I was about an hour outside of Omaha driving in! I went in and did a 2nd interview, and then a 3rd and then was offered the job and started last week. I am teaching preschool kids and it doesn't get much more fun that that. The kids are darling, and so smart and it's been a kick to be with them all day everyday. I am learning so much already and they are wearing me out!

Scott is doing great in school. He's working so hard and studying away. We are only about 5 minutes away from his school and so it's been great. All the guys try to carpool and it's fun for them to all have each other. He is a total stud. It's been so great for Scott and I to really get even closer than we already were. We realize that all we have is each other and already I just feel like we are our own little family. We couldn't be happier!

Our Omaha pad

We are LOVING our new place! I thought I'd post some pics of it for all of you who haven't and probably will never see it! Although it's not very big in comparison to what most of you live in, it feels like a mansion to us! After going from 420 sq. feet to 1,500 it is quite a difference! It is so nice to have some space and a place for everything.

Here is a picture of our place from the outside, and also our front yard which is basically just a park. I love it because there are always kids and moms outside playing and it's fun to be able to go out and chat when we're home.

Next is our kitchen. I love having some counter space and more than anything a kitchen table. Scott and I always ate all of our meals on the couch (which would lead to the TV being on) and it's so fun to sit down and have a meal together without TV and to talk about each other's day. And I got this "hand me down" hutch which I am LOVING! It's great storage space and darling to have in our kitchen:Our living room:Best part of the WHOLE house: (besides our new king size bed!) is the piano! It has been such a treat to have the piano here. I have had it waiting for me for the last 3 years in my dad's garage and now I can finally put it to use! I have lots of practice ahead of me, I am working on a piece at a time of all the classical pieces I used to be able to play. I am one down! Man it feels good!Our bedroom is very "blah" right now because we don't have anything hung on the walls, but it's so great to have some space! We have a fun little couch in there and a TV (that we are yet to use) and we still need a dresser and head board very badly. But our hand me down king size bed is one of the best things that's ever happened to us! Thank you grandma and grandpa!!! Our bathroom:And our second bedroom we haven't done anything with. We were trying to make it into an office of some sort but are yet to do that. The wall paper boarder on the wall is so hideous I can barely stand to go in there! It will be a good summer project and will make a great nursery someday!! So as you can see, we've got a lot of work to do on this room. It's so nice to have though.And that is our house!! You are welcome anytime!

Tag Teaming

It was such a treat to have my mom hang around the first few days we were getting settled. I tell ya, that woman is a rockstar. We got that house unpacked in no time! She was zipping around everywhere, organizing, cleaning, doing laundry....that woman just doesn't stop! I swear if she wasn't there I would have been so dang overwhelmed having to unpack all that stuff, I wouldn't even know where to start. But we made such quick progress, got everything unloaded, and before we knew it we were hanging pictures on the wall and decorating. She has such an eye for that stuff and we made the place just darling. She took me grocery shopping and we loaded up the cart full of food. It was the biggest blessing to have a fridge full of food. I kept crying every time I'd see all the delicious food we had in our fridge. What a treat it's been to have some healthy, nourishing snacks and the opportunity to make a decision on what to eat for dinner! Thank you SO much mom.

Each morning we would wake up and go for a long run/walk, exploring more of where we were. We found a great pathway that runs all along the Missouri River and goes for miles and miles. When we got back we'd have our bowls of fresh fruit and granola and sit out on the porch eating it in the warm sunshine. Doesn't get much better than that!

(Notice the beautiful garden????) I am LOVING my fresh basil and mint.
Here is where we walked along the river. This place is so beautiful and green, I just love it! There is a new pathway that goes for miles and miles along the river, it's perfect to run or ride my bike on.

After most of the packing and organizing was done my mom and I decided to have a fun day out on the town. We really wanted to do a session at the Winter Quarters temple (which is the temple closest to us.....only about 15 minutes away) but you have to make a reservation and they don't rent out any clothes. We thought for sure we were out of luck so we decided to just go and see it from the outside and check out the visitor's center. When we were leaving we decided we'd just take the chance and make sure that there were no earlier sessions going on that day. We asked the guy at the front desk and he said they were actually doing a special session at 2:00 that day and that we were welcome if we wanted to. We told him we didn't have our clothes but they said they would provide. We were so excited, my mom really wanted to do that before she left. It worked out just great! It was a little more stressful than I'm making it sound.....to put the story in a nutshell, when we were entering the temple, my mom couldn't find her recammend ANYWHERE. We were searching through every card in her wallet and it was nowhere to be found. She was positive it had fallen out with her driver's liscense at the airport. The little old temple workers were just staring at us going, "Who are these crazy ladies?" We called her bishop and she miraculously got a hold of him, but then they had to go find the temple president to "okay it" and couldn't find him anywhere! Needless to say they finally found him and we were in! I tell ya, the things my mom pulls off...... The temple is beautiful and very simple. It is much smaller than any temple I've ever seen and it has gorgeous stain glass windows. It was very neat to be in such a beautiful place and I feel so blessed to have a temple close by to where we will be living. Right behind the temple there is a cemetary where a lot of the pioneers are buried. There is a gorgeous statue of a pioneer couple burrying their baby. It was very powerful and it was really neat to think about all the trials that the pioneers went through. At the visitor's center we were able to watch a video on the pioneers about how and why they stayed at Winter Quarters. It was a blessing to be in such a sacred place. It was hard to have her leave but I couldn't ask to be in a better place for being away from family. We are living by the greatest people, who are already becoming like our own family. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for everything you did for us mom! Here's to you coming out next time!!

Having mom and dad around

It was a huge, HUGE blessing to have my mom and dad here to help Scott and I. My dad made it all possible to get out here a week later by driving out with me. I could not have done it without him. Since we left 2 days later than we had planned, my mom flew in (since she had already had her flight booked) the afternoon we got there! It was so fun to overlap and have both my mom and my dad there with us. We got a tons accomplished together. It was great to have 2 strong men to move around furniture for us till we found just the right fit.

The first night here the four of us went to a place called Old Market. It is a place just down town (really close to us) that has a ton of fun restaurants and shops. All the streets are cobblestone and it is really a neat place. We ate at our new favorite restaurant (so far) called M's Pub. It was delicious, and here is a picture of us eating our desserts! Delicious carrot cake, a fruit crisp, and tiramisu! Mmmmm!It was great to sit and talk about our new adventures and everything else that is going on in our lives right now. I truly have the best parents in the world. The next morning my mom and I got home from our walk and my cute dad had his music blasting and was painting the living room (it was a stark, ugly white on the wall you look at right when you enter the house). He got the whole wall done before he had to fly out that morning, it was a HUGE help! It was hard to say goodbye to him at the airport, it didn't hit me until I had to drop him off that I wouldn't be seeing him for awhile. I sure love ya dad. THANK YOU so much for all you have done for us. Can't wait to see you at Christmas time.

After my dad took off it was just me and my mom and we got to work! We unloaded tons of boxes and did lots and lots of gardening and decorating! Here are some preview pictures of our darling garden:

We've already had our first fire in our place. Yep, we didn't know the drawer under the oven was the broiler. We thought it was a storage drawer. So our first night cooking in our kitchen we were exposed to big flames! We had the hot pads in that drawer. We thought it kind of smelled funny, but thought maybe it was just the oven after being cleaned or something. Sure enough Scott opens the bottom drawer and flames are a flamin'! Say goodbye to our only two hot pads!

After that we enjoyed a yummy first dinner in our new kitchen!

A long journey, but we made it!

It was a LONG drive all the way here to Omaha, but we had a wonderful time. My dad and I split it up into 2 days and did about 10 hours the first day and 4 the next. It was a crack up driving in that Penske truck and towing the Subaru. After we passed Cheyenne it was all flat after that and the truck did great! We had some great talks about life, the gospel, playing the "would you rather game", listening to music, and before we knew it we were here. Coming into town we weren't quite sure which exit to get off of for our place (we could tell the iphone was a little off with directions) so I called Scott to ask him and he couldn't remember exactly which exit # it was. He was just on his way home from school and then all of a sudden he says, "I see you on the freeway! I'm just getting on the on-ramp, I'm right behind you and I'll guide you there!" We couldn't believe it! It was the most perfect timing! It was so fun to pull up and see where we would be living for the next 3 years together. This place is wonderful! We love it!

When we arrived there were about 10 guys that just showed up to help us move. We seriously had that puppy unpacked in like 15 minutes. It was amazing, all these darling students we didn't even know were just coming out of the woodwork to help. This place where we live is truly amazing. The people here are so much fun and so great.

Here's dad and I before the long drive began!

Dad driving the big rig. And notice all the flat land in the background?!

This is when we had just arrived and were about to start unloading the truck! That puppy was jam packed full! Couldn't have had it be another foot smaller, it was the perfect size!

Scott and I's first picture in front of our new home! We love it!

And the first piece of furniture carried over the threshold! A kitchen chair!

And then the long journey of unpacking began......