Finding Home

The hardest part about going back to California was having to leave Jonathan. This was the farthest we've been apart since June of 2010. I really didn't like that at all. It was really weird being back in Roseville for the first time in almost 8 months.

Too much distance!

Jonathan was worried that I would get homesick and never want to leave again. I realized though that Roseville isn't my home any more. I still like it, but I feel like it isn't where we need to be. Some people thought that must mean Utah feels like home. That's not the case either though. I am enjoying our time here in Utah, but it doesn't feel like home. When I first realized this, I felt a little lost not having a home. It took a little too long for me to realize it, but Jonathan is where home is. For now, that is more than good enough for me. In the coming years, we will find the location that feels like home. Until then, I am more than happy to have him be my home.

Utah Living

It's hard to believe that we've already been here for almost 2 months. The first few weeks I was having very vivid dreams about California and so I would wake up and be all sorts of confused. Anyways, we've both gotten pretty used to being here.

I think one of the weirdest things to get used to is having only 1 niece that lives close to us. Though, we'll be planning more visits to Idaho to see Seth and Clara as spring gets closer. Mercedes has grown up so much since they moved to Utah last May. She is still a little apprehensive around Jonathan, but it goes away as soon as he starts to play with her.

Last month we went sledding in the backyard with her.

We snuck down to her room while everyone else was watching the end of the Super Bowl.

We've been having a lot of fun taking pictures of the temples in the area. So far we've only made it to Salt Lake, Provo, and Provo City Center. We still have 4 more to visit.

We took this picture from the Church Office building.

Right before we left, a group of missionaries gathered together in front of the temple and sang Church Hymns in a Slovak sounding language.

It is so exciting to see all of the work that is being done to preserve the facade of the old tabernacle.

I'm still getting used to calling Utah home, but it is definitely growing on me.

Home

I am so grateful to my parents for sharing their home with Jonathan and me. It's been such a blessing as we've been working to save money for school and figure out our next step in finishing school.

Life Lately (According to My Phone)

Since I've been terrible at blogging this summer, I think I'll just share some pictures of what we've been up to since my last post.

Jonathan is just about everybody's favorite person to be with.

We realized that Tyler is part spider. He can 'walk' all the way down the stairs without touching the carpet.

For anyone that has seen the movie Pollyanna, I was able to eat her dream dinner of steak and ice cream. It was awesome! I wish I could have steak and ice cream every night for dinner!

My grandpa's brother Gerald came in to town and we were able to visit with him. He was very disappointed that I didn't bring a saxophone to play for him. (That's the next instrument I want to get!)

One night, Jonathan and I went on a walk and we ran into one of our friends from church and asked if we were going to the park to feed the bunnies. We had no idea that there were bunnies there and she gave us some of her left over carrots and we went to the park and sure enough, there were bunnies! We've gone back since then and there are some baby bunnies now!

For Mother's Day, I painted a small painting for my mom. It's the first one I've done since I was in elementary school!

We've been enjoying watching our cute little Charlotte grow up! 

Back in June, Tyler and I flew to Idaho to visit Chris's adorable family. This was Ty's first time on an airplane and he was so excited! (Though he didn't understand why we had to go through security.)

While we were there, we played outside, found rocks and worms, flew kites (that was mostly Annie and me), visited farmer Wayne and Denise (Annie's wonderful parents), picked strawberries, and fed ducks.

Finding worms in the sandbox.

Don't be fooled, this only lasted long enough to take the picture.

I love sweet little Clara.

Annie and I moved pipe because all boys (including my dad and brother) were at a huge Scout encampment.

Jonathan and I got a killer deal on a camera and have been going around taking some pictures.

I've been working all summer and I get to use a stack of Apple products.

They're not as new as the stuff my brother uses, but that's because he actually works for Apple and I don't!

Lyla loved playing with the balloons for her dad's birthday.

So this is what we've been up to. Lots of work and lots of playing with the nieces and nephews. We're so excited that Andy's family is moving to back to Roseville at the end of this month!

Excuse Me, But Can I Have My April Back?

Today can't really be the last day of April can it?

I seriously believe that time is speeding up. Please stop! There is so much that I still need to get done before I am ready for next month.

This month, though a blur, was good. Jonathan and I went to UC Davis for a series of Physics lectures. Oh man, it was good! I'm so glad that I have someone to share those kinds of things with.

The guy sitting next to Jonathan kept falling asleep.
We were both rather alarmed!

My birthday celebration started on Thursday and ended on Monday. I don't think my birthday has ever been celebrated for that long before. I liked it and am expecting the same thing next year. (Good luck Jonathan!)

It started out with my two favorite red heads and miniture glofing.

My gorgeous friend got married! I am so excited for her and her handsome man. We now feel like real grown ups!

Just gorgeous!!!

That same night, I lost my phone and about a week later got set up on Jonathan's old phone. Yes, it is a flip phone and yes, I do feel like I traveled back to the early 2000's with the lack of technology. (It's really only about 4 years old, but it seems older.)

Before we moved in with my parents, there was some water damage in one of the rooms we were going to use. It seeped into the carpet, so after a couple of months of trying to decide on what carpet to go with, it was finally installed. It is amazing! I sometimes just lay down on it because it is so soft and lovely. Now that we have the carpet, we've been able to set up the room the way we want it. My favorite thing that we've done so far is setting up Mega Desk. One entire wall is a desk with plenty of space for both of us. It is awesome! (I'll share pictures when it is actually done.)

Things have been good and productive this month. Next month will bring the end of another semester, Taylor and Kenzie moving (BOO!!! It's actually good for them, but I'm in denial of that part), and more projects. I guess I will be okay that April is over.

I Am Grateful For This

I am grateful for medicine and comfort items. I came down with the flu a couple of days ago and sleeping has become very difficult. Last night after going to dinner with the Nelson's and dessert with the Patterson's, Jonathan ran to the store to get me some medicine to help me sleep. (Thank you people who were working on Thanksgiving. It made feel so much better knowing that I could get the medicine I needed!) Well, it wasn't working so I turned on Pride & Prejudice and that worked like a charm!

Today, I'm having a Downton Abbey marathon while Jonathan is working. I am so grateful for all of the little things that are helping me feel a little better.

My medicine, cough drops, and delicious juice!

I love my cozy, warm comforter.

 I am so grateful for Jonathan and how much he takes care of me. Only a few more hours and he'll be home from work!

My Biggest Project Yet!

I finally finished my biggest project that I have tried so far. I updated a chest that was Jonathan's parents, but they didn't want any more. I called it the green thing because I wasn't really sure what it was other than green...

I have spent a lot of time on pinterest and I love seeing all of the painted furniture and reading the tutorials. I decided  to paint the green thing. I originally thought about painting it a nice creamy off-white color, but after awhile I realized it would just blend in with our white walls and light tan carpets. So, I had to think of a different color... I thought about different shades of grey... but it didn't stick either. Then I knew that it needed to be navy! I talked about doing it and finally started to actually work on it in July.

Getting ready to move it to my parent's house.

All of the random stuff that was in it.

Yes, we have a huge tv and can't afford a tv stand.

After we got the green thing moved out, I started getting just some of the many supplies that I would use for this project. Before anything else could happen, I reattached part of the interior that broke off.

Wood glue is a wonderful thing!

 I left the chest out in the hot sun and the old green paint got all bubbly and weird. The lesson learned is if you really like a piece of furniture, don't let it cook outside in the sun. Lucky for me, I was going to strip the old paint anyways!

Before:

Farewell green paint!

Ready for some love!

 The paint came off really easily on the lid and three of the sides. Jonathan saw it at this stage and was confused by the stripes.

The front was the hardest part to strip off the old paint.

I spent a few hours on stripping just the front.

I used some pretty harsh chemicals to get rid of the old paint.

 Once I was done with all of the stripping and cleaning, I could finally get some paint back onto the chest (at this point it was no longer the green thing). I was really nervous/paranoid about painting. I kept worrying that it would be terrible. (I had these feelings later in the project...)

All prepped and ready to paint!

The primer went on beautifully! I got great coverage with the spray paint and nothing horrible happened!

Next up was the blue. I was again paranoid, so I made my mom supervise me at first and then got comfortable enough to do it all by myself. I was rather concerned when the color was a bright blue rather than navy, but I just kept thinking that it will be better with more coats and I was right.

A few coats later, the chest was navy and gorgeous!

The most anticipating part of this project for me was to find the perfect knobs. From the very beginning of this project, I knew that I wanted the knobs to each be different. Lucky for me, Anthropologie has the perfect knobs for me. They have my favorite colors and some great patterns. This was one part that I knew I needed my mom's help again because she knows my style and she can visualize how the finished product will look.

These were the possible knobs.

These ones made the final cut!

One of the final steps was to seal the chest. I did a lot of research and because this was going to be our tv stand again, I decided that sealing it would be good to protect the paint on it. I saw one tutorial that used a sponge roller, so I went ahead and used one. I was paranoid about my coats being too thick, so I made sure I only had a small amount of sealer on the roller. It was horrible! There were so many air bubbles on it that it totally changed how the chest looked. It was an ugly blue thing! I didn't take any pictures of the horrible bubbly chest because I was so distraught! My mom came out and helped me sand down the bubbles and then put a fresh coat of paint.

Re-sanding the chest.

 The second time we applied the sealer, we used a nice brush. It looked so much better!

The next thing to do was paint the interior of the chest and lid. The chest was lined with old ivy paper and I just wasn't feeling it.

No more ivy!

Before I could attach the new feet, I had to take off the last one. Three of them came off easily, but the fourth one would not budge! I got really creative in trying to get it loose. I used the dremel to get some separation between the chest and the foot. It kind of helped, especially when I started to chisel away at the foot. Eventually, I got enough leverage and unscrewed the foot. Next up, was adding the pretty new feet!

We did have a small problem with the new feet. The bolts that they came with were too big and really short. At this point, I was ready to just glue them on and call it good. (I was really ready to be done with this project). I told Jonathan about my plan, and he told me that we should get the proper sized bolts because we needed to it the right way. I'm glad that we did it the right way. It was worth it.

Using the drill press to make deeper holes.

My favorite part of working on the chest was figuring out where the knobs would go. It took about two dozen different combinations and then we found the perfect fit!

The first try!

They are so very pretty!!!

One of the finishing touches on the chest was trimming the bolts on the knobs. It took so long, but it made it so much easier to fill the chest with all of our games.

 When I started, the head of the dremel looked like the one on the left. I used one and a half heads to cut through all the bolts.

The extra pieces of bolts.

 The chest was finally done!!! All we needed to do was move it back home.

My baby finally came home!!!

 Our chest is now the home of all of the games we rarely play. I have storage in the closet again!

Our tv looks so much better now that it's off of the floor.

I am so glad that this long project is finally done and it looks so good. It was quite an adventure with all of the steps and now I feel like I can tackle another furniture project. Watchout coat rack, you're next!