Our Modest Beginnings... (part 5)

To read more of our adventures written by Andy go here

Our First Apartment: (down the stairs behind that bush/tree)

Our first place was quite special. It was a little 2 bedroom basement apartment just southwest of BYU campus, on a street filled with single people. The people in the main part of the house were 3 single guys. We only lived there for six months, but it was quite the experience.

The "main" part of the apartment was the kitchen/living room area. The living room was probably a 5x6 foot space, that was more of a walkway to the kitchen than anything. All there was room for was our couch (well most of it... it kind of hung over into the "kitchen") a 2-3 foot walk space, and then our TV. That's it. The kitchen was decent sized, compared to everything else in the place, but everything was just tiny. Here are a couple pictures that show the little-ness of the place.

Check out that awesome small stove/oven!

Both bedrooms were down one hall, and the bathroom was down another hall that had clearance of about 5'10" (because of heating ducts). The bathroom, of course, was tiny. My favorite part of the 2nd bedroom was the doorway. 1st, the top of the door frame was not straight. Even if it were straight, it would still hit me square in the middle of the face. Between that door frame, and the hall to the bathroom, it was a miracle I didn't really hurt my head.


This place was far from sound proof. We could hear movies upstairs all of the time, and could even hear one of our neighbors (whose bedroom was also downstairs, just on the other side of a wall) talking on the phone. Oh yes... the wall. The wall that separated our unit from the upstairs unit (with its one downstairs bedroom) was a large piece of wooden wall-paneling from floor to ceiling (no wonder we could hear everything). When the downstairs guy moved out, he actually came down and asked us to take the wall down, so that he could get some of his stuff out. Awesome huh?

Another fun thing, since it was so close to campus, was parking. Most of the time, there was little to no parking available for us on the street. When this was the case, we would have to park in the driveway. This driveway was only one car wide. This meant that if we parked in the driveway, and one of our neighbors was in front of our car, they'd come down (at who knows what time) so we could go out and move the car. Of course, this went both ways. At this time, I worked at 5:00 am doing custodial work. One time I forgot that I had parked in the driveway the night before, so I actually had to angle out through the yard to get out and drive to work. We were SOOO excited when we moved somewhere and had our very own parking space! Woohoo!

Legalized Torture

Dentistry.

It's the simple things...

Tomorrow we're taking the van in to get the drivers side window motor fixed/replaced.

I'm so excited.

After a year of not being able to roll it down, I'll be driving with it down all the time now!

grass whistling

Last night we were outside and Avery decided to try whistling with grass, pretty awesome, huh? (UGH! It's sideways!! blah)

Also, aren't these boys adorable?! I can't get enough of their cuteness!

This made my day!!

So... many of you know that Kizzie got me the entire 1960's Batman series for my birthday. It is awesome. Each individual story consists of 2 25 minute episodes... so it was set up where every week on one day they'd show the first half of the show, which leaves Batman and Robyn in a perilous situation, and then resolves the story the following evening in the next episode. The next week, it would do it again. So, anyway, generally at least once or twice per week we'll watch one of the 2-episode story lines.
In doing so today, I stumbled upon this gem which really made me happy. Sorry for the poor quality... I recorded it with my digital camera, so it does that weird thing with the lines going up and down the tv. Anyway, you get the point. Enjoy.

More From Avery on the Sacrament

So... we've said before how obsessed Avery has been with the Sacrament since his cousin was ordained a Deacon a couple months ago. Evidently, at some point, we must have explained to him the symbolism behind the Sacrament. The last two weeks, he has taken his water, and when the deacon walks away, Avery says "I want more of Jesus' blood." He didn't just say it once, or in a whisper. He repeated it over and over again as we tried to quiet him down a bit. At least he's learning right? We love Avery.

Weekend Activities

So, our weekend started pretty early this week. I got off work at about 12:00 and took my last final. That didn't take too long, so I was home by 2:00. When the boys woke up from their naps, we left on our weekly shopping trip. Our find of the week were 8 pound cases of strawberries for $6.99 a piece... so we got 2 cases, and that pretty much shaped our evening. We had planned on watching a movie... instead... we did this.


Overall... that's 14 half pint jars of strawberry jam.... and it's delightful. That should last a while.

Saturday morning, we had the culmination of our big community organization project (another article here). We presented our project and training to community religious leaders. Since we are in Provo, the majority of them were LDS. However, we did have some representatives from Islam, Assembly of God, 7th Day Adventist, and one or two others I think. We had about 50 or so people come, and the response was very positive. This concluded around 12:00 and was the official end of my semester! Woohoo! Later, we went to Mike's house to play some basketball.

Sunday afternoon, we went for a walk, and also went up to one of the duck ponds by campus to feed the ducks. Avery loved seeing the ducks, and throwing bread at them... though he seemed to struggle with the idea that we throw small pieces, rather than entire slices. Oh well, he had fun.

The Ducks

Avery Looking Cute and Mommy Looking Hot

Jack Just Chilling in the Sun

Avery Loved Running Around in the Grass

He got a little far away though, so Mommy had to go after him

We didn't stick around too long though, because there were too many dumb freshmen around taking stupid pictures with their room mates (example above). Another popular one seemed to be the jumping photo... seriously, this group was doing them over and over again! It's been a nice weekend.

Look at him go!

Jack started crawling last week and it's so cute!
He mostly crawls to things he's not supposed to have. Paper, books, Avery's food, garbage, you know- the things babies really want!
Anyway, here he is-

He makes us proud!

This week Andy successfully finished his first year of his Masters program, he starts his first of two internships next month, and he was even awarded the "Hell Raiser" award at the closing social for his class. There were other "awards" that were pretty funny too, I think his class mates all get along pretty well!I'm very proud of Andy, he's been working full time this last year while he's been in school, so his days are very long, but he still comes and plays with the boys and helps me out around the house if I need it.

One year down, one more year seems like nothing now!!

Way to go Andy!! I love you!

Our Modest Beginnings... (part 4)

Read all of Andy's "Our Modest Beginnings" posts here

Dates:
Alright, here are a few of our common date nights while we were extra poor. Interesting how we still do a bunch of these.

#5: Nicklecade - There is a really cool arcade in Orem where it costs a nickle or 3 to play the games. This is always fun, especially all of the racing games, skee-ball, and air hockey. We went again a couple weeks ago for the first time since Avery was born. Still fun, and it cost us all of $10.
#4: Dollar Theater - We love the dollar theater. Who would want to pay $5 (or especially whatever the evening price is... what $7-8?) when there is a $1 theater. We don't go very much anymore, unless someone stays with the boys (we're too big of chickens to try and take the boys to a movie... I'm not sure why). It just requires a little patience to wait for the good shows to come.
#3: Burger King - Our first apartment was a couple blocks from a Burger King that had $0.59 cheeseburgers after 4:00 PM. Ya... that was awesome. We would frequently dig through our pockets and couch cushions (seriously... we did), find $2.50 or so, and go for a little walk. Why don't they have $0.59 cheeseburgers anymore? Geez.
#2: Sampler Platter - This is what we'd do when we wanted to be big spenders. We'd go to Applebees or Chile's and get their sampler platter (usually around $10), and just share that for dinner. That way, we got to feel like we were going out and getting served... and did it cheaply.
#1: Monkey game - This is about the coolest game ever, and completely free. I learned it from a friend when I was going to Missouri Western before my mission. For those of you unfamiliar, the basics of the game are as follows. You go to Walmart, and then you go to the toy section and grab a stuffed monkey (if monkeys are not available, I've also used pillows, granny underwear, and canned hams... the sky's the limit!). Once you have your ammo, you must find your target. You look for an unsuspecting person pushing (or abandoning) their cart. When the opportunity arises, you sneak your monkey into the cart and then walk away, and don't turn back. Best case scenario, you can circle around and watch the person's response (people get really confused... and sometimes they even swear! woohoo). It is especially fun to hit the same cart several times. However, on more than one occasion, I got caught and they made me take it back. Give it a try.

Fun Provo Church Memories

Since we've been married, we've been in 4 different wards. People always say weird/unexpected things in church, but we've had a few experiences that take the cake. Here are our top 4... 1 from each ward. Enjoy.

#4. Faulty History - On Easter 2005, we were fairly new in our 2nd ward. One lady got up in Sacrament meeting and started her talk about Easter/the Atonement/etc. She started her talk by saying that the atonement occurred "exactly" 2000 years ago. I remember thinking, "seriously... exactly 2000 years ago." Obviously, 2000 years is an adequate approximation. However, she really emphasized "exactly." I'm not a history master... but I'm thinking that's not quite right.

#3. The man crush - It is typical for young couples to introduce themselves, how they met, etc when giving talks in a new ward. One man was doing this and said his wife was one of his friend/roommate's sisters, and that she looks just like him. He said that his other friends would often tease him, likening it to the time on Seinfeld when George was teased for having a man-crush on Jerry when dating the she-Jerry. Man-crush is not a term frequently heard over the pulpit.

#2. Boldness - In another ward, we had a very young and bold Bishop that we really liked. He was never afraid of telling it like it is, which we always really liked. In this ward, there was also an older man, who was the bishop prior to this Bishop. He was always one to comment and make his opinion known... often to an annoying level. One fast Sunday, he got up and spewed out a long travel-log about fishing with an inactive grandson, and things of this nature. Then he discussed the need to respect the church building; all of this is just fine. He mentioned that this inactive grandson had a hard time at church because of all of the noise. He went on to tell all of the young parents, essentially, to keep their kids quiet so everyone else can have the peace and quiet, feel the spirit, etc... and that all of the noise (not just crying/screaming) is distracting; then he ended his testimony. Our Bishop got up immediately after this testimony to rebut some of his comments. He said that the former Bishop has a good heart, but seems to be having a hard time adjusting to his new role. He went on to tell us all about how loved all of the children are, and that we want everyone (including our children) to be in our meetings. We just thought it was funny how incredibly bold he was.

#1: Polygamy - This one, at least for me, takes the cake. In our 1st ward, one Sunday, a new young couple spoke in Sacrament meeting. They were both about 18-19, and just newly married. The girl was a convert of just a year or two... and her talk will go down in infamy. I believe it was around 24th of July, and the topic was pioneers. She spoke for a while about challenges faced by the pioneers. At one point, she said "Sisters, look at your husband. Isn't he wonderful? Don't you just love him so much? Now, turn to another sister sitting nearby. Can you imagine sharing your husband with her?" Seriously? In Sacrament Meeting? It's fun to remember though.

I am interested to hear of other unique experiences you all may have had in church. - Andy

Mini Vacation: Logan

Selissa called me earlier in the week to tell me they were coming to Utah, yay! So we decided to go up to Logan for a mini vacation. We got a motel room and everything, it was so exciting. I told Avery about it and he wouldn't stop talking about swimming at the motel.

We did some shopping, swimming, eating out, Baby Animal Days, picnic at the temple, more shopping. It was a lot of fun packed into a short time!

Here are some pictures...

Swimming time!
Waiting for our dinner table

At the Logan Temple

Baby Animal Days

Morgan and Avery

Avery and Wynne watching a sheep chase or something...

We saw a sheep getting sheared!

Sisters!

The sun was right in our face so a picture like this was so hard to get! I think Avery thought we were crazy!

Easter excitement

This morning the boys came down stairs to find some Easter surprises for them, much to Avery's disappointment he had to eat breakfast first.

(side note: maybe we're bad or mean parents but we don't do the Easter Bunny, or Santa. fyi. So these were from us, not the Easter Bunny. Are we making our kids miss out on the magic of childhood? maybe. But that's the magic of parenting, we get to decide! :) )

Anyway, I made Avery a little bag he can use for his special Sunday bag, instead of using a basket. I would throw the basket away tomorrow anyway, so I thought a bag was a good idea. Anyway...so he got a bag with a couple plastic eggs filled with very little candy and some cheap-o toys, that he loved. Both boys got giant plastic eggs with Little Einstein characters in them. Jack doesn't care about what's inside, he just loves the jumbo egg. Avery loves Little Einsteins, so he was excited.The boys had matching outfits to wear today, and we attempted to take an adorable picture that would prove to everyone we have the cutest, nicest, best behaved boys in the world. Turns out they are the cutest, but in the other departments they're pretty average! So this is what we got...
This evening we went to our friends house for Easter Dinner, we had ham, potatoes, veggies, bread and for dessert egg shaped cupcakes. We also did a mini egg hunt with the boys, more little toys that won't make it through the week probably and a little bit of candy.
We had fun visiting and trying to talk over the racket 4 boys 3 years and under can make!



More posts to come of the exciting adventures of our little family!