Post-Move

We've been in the Northwest for almost two weeks now.  I can tell because my hawaii tan has faded back to my normal perma-pale.  So far, things are going well.  We had our first friend-date, which is good because it's definitely time for me to meet people.  Meeting new couples since we've been married feels kind of like first dates all over again.  I try on three different outfits, answer all the same questions, and hope they'll call again. We have another friend-date tomorrow night (that's right, we're players), that I'm looking forward to.
Ever since we got back, Erik has had to go to work and it's been my job to get our house all settled. It's been so much fun. Our house is an interesting combination of things we bought new, hand-me-downs, and thrift store/craigslist finds.  It's my hope that one day I'll be able to combine these things into something semi-cohesive, but I've still got a ways to go. I've been reading a lot of home decorating and craft blogs, but mostly all it does is depress me because I can't upcycle an old door into a Cracker Barrel knock-off headboard, or make Christmas presents for my whole family out of a burlap sack I got at Salvation Army.  I've been trying though, and it's been neat to pick and choose and change every little thing in our home.  Even if it's not what I would have chosen if we had infinite amounts of money, I end up loving our new finds because I dug through junk, haggled, bought/returned/bought again and tweaked all the things in our house.
Being in a house is completely different than being in an apartment.  I thought because we were still renting it wouldn't be that big of a change, but having a yard, a garage, and so much more space to fill makes it a whole new experience.  I'm pretty sure my parents are going to start screening their calls because I call them with questions so awesome.
We're finally settled in enough that we're ready for visitors.  Come see us, we've got a guest bed (minus the bed frame, it's on my list) and everything. 

PS-- I'd like to start couponing, but don't really know how.  So if that's something you're good at, please teach me and I'll buy you a diet coke with all the money we save.

What We've Been Up To

I haven't blogged in while.  I've been a little busy with these:

Brief Update:

1) Moving/Graduating
The last week in April was probably the most stressful week of my life.  I was trying to graduate, move a piano from my parents' house to Layton, pack up our apartment, say goodbye to people, finish scuba certification, and arrange everything for our move.  Honestly it sucked.  The positive side was that I got through everything and it only lasted a week.  We had a ton of support from our friends and family and ward (especially Zach and Emily, Bob Zipf, and my brother Alex)  and the move went as well as possible.  We packed up Saturday morning and drove all afternoon and night, arriving in Whitefish at about 12:30 pm.  After a long stressful week and an 11 hour drive, I was neither looking my best or having my best attitude.  I am so lucky Erik puts up with me.
2)Hawaii
It's funny that two back-to-back weeks can be so opposite.  Hawaii was so fun and so relaxing.  It was great to spend that much time together after Erik and I had been apart for a few weeks, and it was fun to hang out with Erik's brothers and parents.  As evidenced by my blogging, I didn't die scuba diving, in fact, I really liked it.  We went out to eat, laid out at the pool and the beach, and did a little exploring.  All in all, a raging success.  
3)  Our New Home
We are settling into our new home really well.  We love our new house.  I liked it a lot when we first saw it, but I love it now that we have all of our stuff here and we're pretty much moved in.  We had so much help unloading our moving van, it was awesome.  I've been really impressed with how friendly everyone here seems to be.  Our ward is great, store clerks have all been really nice, and people in cars that I don't know are always waving at me.  Erik is doing well at his new job, and I'm looking forward to starting my summer gig in a few weeks.

Alrighty!  That's all for now, folks!  Come visit us.

The Emperor's New Clothes

Many years ago, there lived an emperor cared much about his clothes. One day he heard from two swindlers that they could make the finest suit of clothes from the most beautiful cloth. This cloth, they said, also had the special capability that it was invisible to anyone who was either stupid or not fit for his position. Being a bit nervous about whether he himself would be able to see the cloth, the emperor first sent two of his trusted men to see it. Of course, neither would admit that they could not see the cloth and so praised it. All the townspeople had also heard of the cloth and were interested to learn how stupid their neighbors were. The emperor then allowed himself to be dressed in the clothes for a procession through town, never admitting that he was too unfit and stupid to see what he was wearing. He was afraid that the other people would think that he was stupid. Of course, all the townspeople wildly praised the magnificent clothes of the emperor, afraid to admit that they could not see them, until a small child said: "But he has nothing on!" This was whispered from person to person until everyone in the crowd was shouting that the emperor had nothing on. The emperor heard it and felt that they were correct, but held his head high and finished the procession.

K everyone, let's be honest here.  Did anyone else think Kate's dress was kind of ugly?

The Beginning of the End

I've become that girl we all make fun of and secretly judge.  The one who considers herself dressed because she showered and changed sweats today, and is openly proud that she would have won $10,000 if she had been on today's rerun of Singing Bee. Turns out I am kind of a boring person, but at least when Erik is here he validates my lameness with his company.  When Erik is with me we're a cute little couple relaxing together after a long week of work and school.  When Erik has already moved back to his hometown,  bringing home the bacon, I'm that creepy neighbor who wears her bathrobe over her PJ's at 2:00 in the afternoon that everyone wonders how she ever got married.  I was so lonely this afternoon that I seriously considered joining my wife-beater clad neighbors chain smoking on the steps talking about the best junk yards to get car parts just for some company.  Did I mention Erik only left this morning?  I am that pathetic.
Erik took a load of our stuff down, so our apartment looks a little different.  We took some pictures so that in ten years we can look back on them from our beautiful home and think "Man, it's good we moved up in the world."

You can't see our super cute purple throw pillows.  Thank to everyone who gave us BB&B gift cards for the wedding.

We bought a bed set yesterday.  It is black and adorable and the nightstand has a special kindle drawer.  Yes please.

Aside from my chain smoking neighbors whom I've lovingly nicknamed Bubba and Rex, this kitchen will be the thing I'm least sad about leaving in Layton. 

Kyle came over last night and helped us pack up this morning.  We love Kyle a thousand.

  Come visit me and save me from myself.  There's only so much CMT a girl can watch before things go south.

Don and Debbie came down to Utah for General Conference.  We love when they come because aside from being excellent company, they take us out to dinner and we get to mooch off their complimentary cookies at the Hampton Inn. We had a very fun time during their visit and really enjoyed attending the Sunday afternoon session of Conference (tickets also courtesy of Don and Debbie).

I took a picture before it started.  I don't know if you're actually allowed to do that.  Let's all practice our secret keeping...

It's a good thing we enjoy the fam, because, in breaking news, we are moving to the Northwest on April 30th!  (This is actually common knowledge to anyone who knows us, but seeing as this is this fact's first time in the blogosphere, I felt it deserved bold lettering.)  Erik was one happy camper on his last day of Enterprise, let me tell you.  Enterprise was good to us this year, but Erik is definitely ready for a new challenge working at Don K.
 The same day Erik finished up at Enterprise, I had my last day at my internship.  It was a good experience and I learned a lot, but I'm definitely excited to move on and to have that time freed up.  The whole last week I did parties with all my little character groups and played games with my individual students.  I'll particularly miss hearing a little first grader call me Mrs. Kaltberger every week.

Please excuse the creepy faceless children. 

I'm off to house search online. I'm heading to the Northwest for a long weekend next week, and hopefully we can find something nice.  Almost anything would be an upgrade from where we are now though.  Last week on my way home from the gym I caught my neighbor urinating on a tree in our courtyard. It's a sad sad world when we're supposed to be the classy ones in the neighborhood.
Come visit us me soon, the window of opportunity is closing.

New Obsession

Tonight we took my grandma out to dinner for her birthday.  We went early enough to get the early bird special, which included a dessert.  I had creme brulee.

 It was the most delicious thing I have ever tasted.  I never want to eat anything else ever again. 

While We're on the Topic...

While we're on the topic of things that have been going on recently (I know, two blog posts right in a row-- I have officially out-losered myself), on Wednesday we had our cheerleading banquet.  We had it at this yummy Mexican restaurant called Javier's, and I was really happy with how it went.  We did paper-plate awards and plaque awards, and my cheerleaders got me a cute framed picture of all of us that they all signed.  I'm gonna miss these girls (and guys) and this job so much, it's seriously the funnest job I've ever had.   

 For reasons I still can't figure out, Erik and I decided to take a different route to the restaurant than we took when we tested it out. I think we thought it would be faster.  It was raining really hard, I was feeling pretty stressed, and I told Erik to take a wrong turn.  We got horribly lost, and I was not my usual ray-of-sunshine self.  I think Erik wanted to kill loved me more than ever at that moment.