I Love This Man

I guess I should really be saying I love these men and this time of year. All of the people asked to speak in general conference do a tremendous job, and are truly lead by the spirit. I'm so grateful that Dieter F. Uchtdorf was asked to speak tonight to the women of the church. He's message was very powerful and uplifting. If you didn't get to hear his talk make sure to get a copy and read it. I promise it will help you feel good about yourself. Listening to the speakers tonight has me all excited for next week and all of the talks we'll get to hear.

Confusion

That debate didn't help at all! Well, it did make me feel a little better about the Bailout package, maybe it is a good thing. Anyways, I'm more undecided than ever. I agree with both of them on some things, but neither of them has impressed me enough for me to say, "I'm voting for that guy!" I think I might have to make a list of issues and then prioritize them, and see who I agree with concerning my top priorities. Am I the only wishy washy voter out there?

Swing

I'm a swing voter. I'm almost positive who I'm going to vote for, although I still don't love either candidate. Anyways, the Debate is on tonight after all! They have change the topic for foreign policy to the current state of our economy. I don't know about you but this is super important to me right now, and will definitely influence my vote.

It's on at 7:00 p.m. on KSL 5.

p.s. Who else is glad the bailout plan was stopped this morning? As a tax payer I really don't want to pay to bailout wall street, it's bad, but there has got to be a better/different solution.

I Was Right-- Change

I had substitute orientation this morning and after I left I got a phone call offering me a long term substitute teaching position. I was a little surprised, but I'm so excited. It's a half a day job so I'm done by noon, the school is only 5 minutes from our house, and this teacher doesn't work Fridays. There are only 16 students and it's first grade, sounds like fun to me. I'm still nervous though, it's an emergency situation so I'm the teacher.

Raindrops

It's the first day of fall and appropriately it rained at our home all morning long. I woke up with only one goal in mind. I knew that tomorrow I would be stepping back into the work force and shortly after I completed phase one of unpacking I allowed myself start reading Breaking Dawn. So somewhat irrationally, all I want to do was finish the book. It was nice to spend the entire day reading. I just finished and it was weird to read, The End. Which brings we to my next thought. All day long I have felt like change is coming into our lives. It might just be the fact that I'm wrapped up in two sweaters and anticipating the seasonal changes. But I'm excited to finally be embracing this new situation and feel like there will be lots to look forward to here. Let me elaborate on my vague thoughts. I absolutely love our new ward. We fit right in and I can't wait to build a comradere with our new church family! I'm going back to work, not just work, but the classroom; how could I not be excited about that?! We have a new rhythm of life, which includes things like seeing each other, reading together, things feel restful in comparison to the pace of school. I've tried to keep my options open the last little while (not signing into a teaching contract was a big part of that), and I just feel like any opportunity could come my way. I feel like Aaron and I are fully open to the will of our Heavenly Father, we are ready to take the path he puts us on, and frankly I find that so exciting! Anyways, I thought I'd try to share that with you.
p.s. Now I have that song in my head, "Raindrops keep fallin' on my head..." It's in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. I love that movie.

Before and After

I just going to be lazy and link you to the very first disaster pictures of our house, to see them click on the word CUCUMBER. *to get back to this post click the top of the blog* Don't you just love my enthusiasm in that post I said, "this will only be an 8 week process" Ha Ha Ha 4 months down the road, that's really funny!

Alright now that you have clicked on my favorite veggie, lets enjoy the progress and beauty that is this home. We're still not totally finished but it was finally clean enough that I felt comfortable taking pictures.

Here we made the front room a little smaller by adding a tile walk way into the kitchen. We also put in a different style of carpet here to set this room apart from the rest of the house.

I know this is dark, but one of my favorite things about this house are all the windows. Every single room has lots of sunshine! I love it! It makes it feel cheerful and open.

We're still working on doors that's why they're all MIA.

This is the kitchen dining area. Shout out to Aaron for hanging that light fixture. It was not easy!

Let's go up stairs...
This is our office. It wont stay completely green like this. We're going to do a high white chair rail around to room to create contrast and make this room feel bigger.

This is the other bedroom that we have set up as a guest room for now. We'll use it as a nursery when that time comes.

This is the extra bathroom. Don't worry we don't like the light blue either with the tile color, it's just what we have for now. Can you see doggy corner in here?
The Master bedroom. I really enjoy having the accent wall in this room.
But my favorite part of this room, again, is the huge window. It's the biggest one in the house and we have a great view. No one will ever build behind us because that's were the city water tank is. We're high enough that at night we can see the entire Salt Lake valley from our window, I like to look at all the city lights. It's also a great spot to watch the sunrise.
Master Bath, all I have to say is...we got it clean! It's a really nice spot now.
Down stairs entertainment room.
We added this walkway of tile from the garage to try to keep the carpet nice.
Lastly, I end with Aaron's handy work. He built me some shelves for the laundry room, and it's helped me a ton. It's the little projects like this that make me step back and look around at all we've done. It really has been a wonderful experience working on this house together and celebrating all the little completions on our to do list. We take turns crossing things off of it. But, we're realizing the list will never end. We both enjoy working on the house and we keep thinking of things we want to do to make it nicer. This weekend we're working on the yard. We're putting in compost for flowerbeds and planting some shrubs. So we have lots of other projects we'll share. Heck, one day we might even frame our basement. I'll have to keep Brooke on speed dial if that day ever comes. Thanks for caring enough to reading this.

Postponed

Sorry, pictures tomorrow. I went to a funeral today and ended up staying much longer than I thought. So sad, my old Sunday school teacher and a good friends father was killed in a car accident. He was only 47 years old, had 8 kids, and was soon to be a grandfather. Life is to short, and so precious! I will be going to Enrichment tonight so I won't have time to post the pictures.

I'm so forgetful

Last post of the day...I hope. I kept thinking there was one more thing I left off.

I'm officially a Substitute teacher for Jordan School District. Boredom got the best of me. I'm hoping Sydney can make it through an 8 hour period alone. We've been trying to ease him into it, but he has struggled a bit. I was really hesitant to be a substitute because it can be exhausting, but I'm thinking this will be a good gig. I can take jobs as they come, if I decide I don't want to work I just don't except a job that day, and it pays pretty well because I'm licensed. Not to mention I don't have to deal with parents, grading, and really unlike full time teaching it's a honest to goodness 8 hour a day work schedule. I'll keep you posted.

I forgot to mention

• My calling is to be the Ward Chorister. I love it! The only hard part is the having perfect attendance all the time. But, even that is a good thing.
  

• This Sunday Aaron and I were both called to be our ward's Young Single Adult Reps. It sounds very involved and I was shocked at how many young singles were in our area. The funniest part for me though was our responsibility to chaperone, because there were maybe 5 of the 30 something singles that were actually younger than me! Yes I laughed and made the 2nd councilor laugh. Keeping track of these people is going to be difficult but I think together we can do it!
  

• We are done with our first phase of unpacking, which means I can promise, cross my heart hope to die, to have before and after pictures of the house for you tomorrow! I'm only a month or so late...sorry.
  

Recent Haps

As I look over this post I'm thinking maybe it should have been called Recent Sydney Haps all of the pictures are of him. We seriously do love our little pup.

Aaron calls me Anastasia when I wear this hat.

While we were out...

While we were in...caught at the scene of the crime.

The two boys in my life.

Sydney likes to be close and he'll go through many uncomfy situations just to be touching you.

Aaron was so proud of his block lettering.

As Aaron mentioned in his post last week we're getting a fence for Sydney, this is phase one of the project. We're hoping that this Thursday we'll have a finished project.

Temper Tantrum Germany Night. I wish I had some Gulash right now. So good! I made B a birthday cake a month late. But, I think the fact that it was a butter yellow cake with chocolate frosting makes up for the lateness.
I love you Baylee Jo!
We're calling this Lost and Found. I've been trying to locate Aaron's graduation pictures for a while and they were tucked away on the computer. We all thought he looked like a Wizard decked out in his Masters Degree gears.

Steadman

I got to go meet Steadman last night and visit with his parents. He's the perfect little guy. I held him and he went right to sleep. Making it easy to soak up his cuteness. It's a miracle and I'm still amazed at how wonderful their little family is. Congrats one more time my friends, he is darling!

First Tag...Ah...

1. What is his name? Aaron Ray Gelter (Ray, after his dad, grandfather, and great grandfather, etc.) He loves telling me that! Can you bet what our oldest son's middle name will be?

2. Who eats more? He does

3. Who said, "I love you" first? He did.

4. Who is taller? He is by 9 inches.

5. Who is smarter? I would have to say him, he's a total brainiac and every once in a while a nerd. But, truth be told I love hearing about his work and all of his research, it fascinates me the things he can create.

6. Who is more sensitive? That would be me. I tend to be a little over-sensitive, but he's decreased that in me since we've been married.

7. Who does the laundry? I do, and unlike my sister-in-laws I don't like doing laundry. I've been doing it since I was 12 and it's just the same old, same old. Aaron does help fold and that's my least favorite part!

8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I make Aaron sleep by the door because of a "Big Bang Theory" episode. It really depends on the room and where I feel safest. He lets me try both sides and sleeps on the side I don't want.

*As a side note, this is making me feel old because everyone else I've seen do this are newlyweds compared to us! I'm not old, I really should not feel old.

9. Who pays the bills? We both do, we figure it's best if we're both aware of where and how we spend, save, or invest our money.

10. Who cooks more? That would be me! Aaron makes a mean Mac N' Cheese, but I love to cook so I haven't really allowed him to explore the kitchen. He hasn't complained yet. ;)-

11. Who is more stubborn? Me, I wish I could blame it on the red hair.

12. Who is the first to admit they are wrong? When we were first married it took both of us a while, but Aaron was better at it. Now we really cannot stand being unhappy with each other so it takes about 5 minutes for both of us to apologize, forgive, and forget.

13. Who has more siblings? We tie. 6 and 6. Before the Thompson clan joined us though Aaron kicked my trash.

14. Who wears the pants in the relationship? I like to think I do, but we are equal here.

15. What do you like to do together? We like to work on things together, take walks, plan adventures, giggle before bedtime, dance around the kitchen, watch movies, talk about our dreams for the future and (ahh) at the dreams that have already come true, spending time with family, eating yummy food, debating obscure items, talking about the gospel, asking the question "Go?" (it's like penny for your thought). SO pretty much we just like to do stuff together!

16. Who eats more sweets? That would be me, I've got a sweet tooth. Especially for chocolate.

17. Guilty Pleasures? His: irritating me just for the fun of it. Go ahead and ask him...he really does this. Me: planting the puppy right next to his face so Sydney will wake him up.

18. How did you meet? We lived across the hall from each other and my roommate had a crush on him. To see the whole story read this.

19. Who asked whom out first? That would be me.

20. Who kissed whom first? Long story, but let's make it short. One night Aaron went to kiss me, last second I turn away and say, "No, don't kiss me!" Confused, he apologies and leaves. Next day I explain that I promised myself I wouldn't kiss anyone again until I knew it was right. (3 years no kiss). 2 weeks later I informed him that he could kiss me. So, he kissed me first, but had to wait for my permission.

21. Who proposed? Unofficially we agreed to get married on my birthday, and I got to pick out my ring the next day. Officially, Aaron did on the steps of the Meditation Chapel at Memory Grove Park where we had our second, much less awkward, more romantic kiss.

22. His best features and qualities? I'll just list my favorites.
He loves me, he's witty and makes me laugh, he works hard no matter the task, he's gentle and so patient with me, he understands me even when I can't explain it, he's got a cute butt, and he's the perfect friend to spend eternity with!

I tag anyone that wants to.

Semi-Amusing

I went to the doctor today for my yearly check-up. I got up this morning wondering if I should guzzle water just in case they needed blood. At my late yearly they needed blood and I had accidentally fasted the same day. For someone who already has petite veins, the shrinking effects of fasting made for a traumatic experience that took 2 hours, and left me black and blue, with lots of entry sites. I thought it through and there really wasn't any thing they would need blood for so I just had my normal morning liquids. Well...They needed blood. GRRRR... This time I went in with all the information,

"I know you don't want to hear this, but I have bad veins that are ridiculously small. You will need a butterfly on me. I'm scared of needles, but I promise to do my best. "

Well with two phlebotomists and the smallest neddle you can get I'm happy to say I was only poked once and I don't even have a bruise! Now the semi-amusing part. Where they priked my finger to test my iron is bruised. Isn't that stupid!?

New One

I just got a text from my cousin BreAnn letting me know some wonderful news. She gave birth to their baby boy at 1:35 this afternoon.

Steadman is
6 lbs. 9 oz.
19 inches long

My heart is overjoyed for them!

Fun with Sydney

We love our dog! We're all way excited to have a fence put in our backyard this week so Sydney can run his little heart out without us wondering if he's being eaten by one of the "big dogs" in the neighborhood. It's sad and cute at the same time when he sits at the sliding door and just dreams of being outside. He's become our baby in place of a real one and he's just tons of fun. He's gone from out of control to calm to out of control tonight and gets excited over the littlest things. We took this video tonight because he was just making us laugh so hard.

Where are you going?

This is sad on a few levels. First of all our all time favorite band, the band that aided us in starting our friendship, is dealing with the grief of losing a loved one. LeRoi Moore the bands saxophonist (the guy on the far left) died unexpectedly mid August. We are hoping the band continues through this. The second sad part, they have officially canceled their Utah show, and we wont get to see them. :( Aaron had bought me tickets for my Birthday and we were both so excited to get to see them again. I'll have to come up with some other fun and exciting thing to do with that birthday money, but nothing seems quite as good as DAVE tickets.

Giggle

We saw this new "Get a Mac" commercial while watching the U.S. Open yesterday. It made us laugh, Aaron particularly liked it.