Today is the first day of school and I am not going! It's pretty crazy. Last week I went with Katy and Ashley to buy their books, and it made me homesick for school...but I'm over it. Now I'm just excited to not be a student.

Last Friday we put an offer on a place. Of the millions of houses we looked at, we fell in love with a condo--which was TOTALLY not what we originally wanted. I guess in our price range we coudl afford a crappy house or a gorgeous condo/townhome. The newness of this place just seduced us I guess. I love the idea that no one has ever lived there before--after years in crappy Provo apartments, that sounds AMAZING. It's perfectly big enough for us (3 bedrooms/2 bathrooms), has a laundry room, walk-in closet, dark knotty alder cabinets, stainless steel appliances, and a giant kitchen with granite countertops and a bar. I LOVE IT. And the location is perfect. 4 or 5 minutes from Kyle's work, and still on the side of Springville that is close to Provo. It's by a park, an elementary school, and Hobble Creek biking/running trails. I'm really excited about living there--we should hear back today. I'm trying hard to not get my hopes up. The thought that we could be moving in a month is intoxicating though! For now though, we are having a great time in Council Bluffs/Emily's basement. We're finally all set up down there and it looks cute.

!!!!!!!

Man. 

In the last week, I have:

-moved out of my house

-moved all of my belongings into CB's house

-hung out with my aunt/cousins

-dumped a realtor who was lame

-found a realtor who is amazing

-looked at 17 houses

-hung out with my parents, Katy, and Grandma Joyce

-read several books

-bought new jeans

-spent an evening in the hospital with Celia (who drove back to Utah) with no baby to show for it

-helped move Katy into her house

-decided to probably make an offer on a place to live

And probably more.

I'm currently on Katy's computer in her sweet house.  Kyle/Katy/Alan are in the other room.  I love having people back in Provo!  The next days/weeks/months are going to be exciting, and I have high hopes for the next years.

Epidemic on the East Coast

So, remember about a week or so ago when our friend Caitlin went into preterm labor in Washington DC and is now in limbo? Yeah, I think it must be an east coast thing. Celia went to South Carolina on Friday and guess what? BAM--preterm labor. The medicine the doctor gave hasn't stopped her little contractions yet, and she's slightly dilated. They're going to try a double dose of the medicine, and if that doesn't work, they'll put her on different kind that will mean she has to stay in the hospital full-time. She's only 33 weeks along, so the baby is getting some drugs to speed up lung development in case she decides to come freakishly early. The doctor is certain he can keep her in at least another 24 hours, but beyond that, we have no idea what is going to happen. It could be another day or another 3 weeks. Let's hope it's 3 weeks! Nathan is on his way to her side right now. It looks like she'll be having the baby in South Carolina for sure now, because she's definitely on bed rest.

Celia asked me to keep you updated. Pray for her and the baby!

It's starting!

Today the house search begins! We're meeting our realtor tonight and checking out a house for the first time. I'm really excited!

In the meantime, we have been packing and moving. Tomorrow is the last day, Uhaul and all. It will be so great to finally be done, but I've realized that I'm going to miss our first home together. It's been good to us. I'd be even sadder, but lately there have been more spiders than I can handle. Thank heavens we're leaving now!

The Big News

I got permission to blog about it! I guess most people will know by now anyways. I guess the shock has worn off for some already--most of mine wore off around 7 or 8 months ago. It's still really huge news though!

Tonight I went to the wedding of one of my absolute best friends in the world. Cecilia White is now Cecilia Robbins. In about one month, she will also be the mother to a beautiful baby girl. The wedding tonight was lovely. Nathan's bishop performed the ceremony and did a really wonderful job. It was a very small gathering, with just their closest friends in attendance (and Nathan's family on the webcam!). While some of their friends spent the day beautifying the Pennyroyal (and they did a tremendous job), I was the lucky one who got to spend the day with Celia. She and I (and later, Jessica) relaxed in the Marriott, did errands, ate lunch, and finally got Celia all ready for the party. Celia looked absolutely beautiful. I felt very important as one of the witnesses (I had to work on my horrible signature), the keeper of the bouquet and Nathan's ring, PLUS she wore my pearl earrings.

I love Celia. I am so excited that she is going to live in Provo. I can't wait to meet her daughter and love her. I already feel like her aunt! Celia and Nathan are so happy to be together. Nathan sure is one lucky guy :)

It was a great day, and a really special night.

Massive congratulations to the happy couple!

man alive

Kyle and I were up at Bear Lake this weekend, enjoying some quality time with his parents. Kyle's aunt and uncle have a really nice cabin (two cabins, actually) up there (and by "cabin" I mean "4 bedroom/3 bathroom/3 story gorgeous house with a giant moose head), and we had a really good time relaxing, eating, and watching the water. It's beautiful! The rest of the extended family joined us today, but Kyle and I had to miss most of the reunion because Kyle couldn't get work off.

Here's some news: Kyle and I have decided to commit to Utah. We've been in total limbo all summer, hoping that a great job in California would turn up for Kyle to snag. And we're sick of it. While we still want to end up in California, we've decided to wait for several years. Limbo sucks and we may as well just stay here. The biggest reason for me to stay is that it turns out that Kyle loves his job! I had no idea! Good jobs are hard to come by, and jobs that make you happy are even more rare. It makes me really happy that he is happy with his job, and that by staying, we're making him even happier. So we're giving Utah another 5 (ish) years of our lives. California will still be there when we're ready to go.

SO that means that we're looking to buy a house! We've just started the process. We're very excited--it's basically all that we talk about. We're hoping to live in Springville, where Kyle works, but we could really end up anywhere in the general Provo area. We'll stay in Council Bluffs/Emily's basement while we look/find/love/have it fall through/start over/give up/finally buy a house.

There's so much going on. We're moving, my family's coming, Katy P.'s visiting, old friends are returning to Provo. Other huge stuff is happening but I don't know if it's bloggable yet. I hate to be cryptic, but it's not my news to tell. I could just not mention it altogether, but it's constantly on my mind and it's the reason that I'm still awake even though Kyle is sleeping next to me. Sorry.

quick/long recap

This has been the greatest weekend! We've been so busy with fun things. I'm so mad because I didn't take one single picture--oh well. I used to be a picture-taker--and a picture-blogger. But now it's all words and Google images.

Wednesday we saw Night at the Museum 2. For some reason I thought it was hysterically funny. Maybe it was my mood, but I laughed a LOT. The whole time. Hank Azaria just totally gets me! I love him.

Thursday we were pretty adventurous. Emily and I (with some help from our husbands) made chicken tikka masala. And it was actually good! I think I liked it the least--I kept saying that we should keep making different tikka masala recipes until we found one that we were in love with, and Kyle kept protesting that he was already in love with this one. So we'll see. Next time though, I will seriously need naan bread. I don't know if I should even attempt to make it--maybe just Bombay House takeout?

Friday. Friday I was just happy. Kyle and I went to DI and dropped off some bags of clothes, and bought some bags of other things. I got a sweet mustard yellow suitcase, a cool picture/frame, and a secret present for Katy. Then we did my favorite thing in the world: get shaved ice from the place by Helaman Halls! It's so the best. As the sun set, I was slowly eating my shaved ice with Kyle and thought to myself, "THIS is what I love. I am so happy." I don't know if it was the black cherry syrup going to my head, but I'm pretty sure I experienced pure being. When we got home we had a geeky night with Alan. We bought some computer cables, hooked my laptop up to our big tv, and watched The IT Crowd. Geeky so often equals fun.

Saturday morning I finally went to the Provo Farmer's Market for the first time! Kyle and I went with CB and Emily. The Provo Farmer's Market, surprisingly, has very little fruit. I was slightly disappointed. It's mostly crafty people selling their wares, which is definitely cool still. We bought 2 lbs. of gorgeous cherries and a freshly baked loaf of 10-grain bread. SO GOOD. We stopped at the Pennyroyal, because Nathan was/is selling a bunch of the cafe's kitchen stuff (they're changing the whole idea of the place--no cafe anymore) and a lot of Celia's stuff that she didn't want to take with her. We bought a big copper colander and two silver dishes that are comparable to something you would get chicken tikka masala in at Bombay House. After dropping off CB and Emily, we picked up Alan and headed to Rice King for lunch. It was the best lo mein I've ever had there. Or anywhere. It was incredible. What did we even do after that? Oh yeah. We went to Savers (didn't get anything) and Ross (finally got an ice cream scoop). And watched even more IT Crowd.

Saturday night we had an excellent meal at Nancy and Scott's house and played with the kids. Then they took off to see a play at the Scera theater, and Kyle and I got to babysit just Grace! It was fun to have one on one time with the baby of the family. We went to Maceys and got ice cream cones, and fed bread to the ducks at the botany pond. Grace is a riot and we had fun playing with her all night. Again, no pictures. There is something wrong with me!

Sunday we started packing. We're going to be moving to CB/Emily's house around the 20th, so I'm getting started early to avoid stress. I am stressing anyways, unfortunately. BUT we've already made a dent in it, so I'm optimistic. It's only August 3rd! I need more boxes though. Anyone?

Today was Danny's first chemo treatment. I'm sure Christy will blog about it. Think good thoughts for him!