St. George Parade of Homes

Today Nathan, Adam, Joanna, and little Lydia took part in the St. George Parade of Homes.  Basically, it's a chance for builders to show off their handiwork.  There are houses all over the area, some for sale and some sold, that have been staged to show them off.  Most of the ones we visited are far out of what our price range will ever be.  Some, however, were closer to what we could afford someday.  Either way, they were all fun to peep around.  I got the most excited about all the cool bathrooms!  I also took a million pictures of design ideas.  Here are a few pictures of the highlights:

 Nathan and I both LOVED this kitchen.  I think this was by far our favorite.

 Pool slide!

Gorgeous bathroom!  The shower is behind the wall. 

This house had it's own spa!  Sauna and all...

This was a cool infinity pool with a great view.

I loved the old door they used for the head boards.

This was my favorite dining room.  Take note of the wood on the ceiling, the mirror, the chairs and table, and the mason jar light fixture.

The next group of pictures is from our ideal house.  This one was the most fun to look at because not only was it the perfect size for our future brood, it was our style, and we felt like it was within reach since it was closest to our price range.

ADORE the tiled fireplace.

BATHROOM.  Love the tile.  Love the walk-in shower with 5 nozzles.  Love the sink area.  Love that the toilet has it's own little room so one can poop and the other can take a shower and not smell it.  Love that it has a giant walk-in closet at the end.

I love wallpaper.  I REALLY want wallpaper in my future home.

End of affordable house.  Back to pricey pricey.

The water for the bathtub came from the ceiling!!  This cute old man was in charge of turning it off and on for the visitors.

One of the houses had a diner!  With a theater attatched!  And they were watching "Tangled"!

I forgot to start taking pictures until we were about 4 houses into the day, so I missed out on capturing the memory of a TV that popped out of the kitchen countertop and countless lavish fireplaces.  It's also funny to note that at every home we had to take our shoes off at the door and carry them around.  I wore boots... so it was a pain in the butt.  I had insisted to Nathan that we dressed as if it was an actual possibility that we were potential buyers.  (We also jokingly discussed creating false identities and calling each other "Muffy").  So I donned my pearls and he sported a sport-coat and one of the hosts in an expensive house stopped Nathan to see if he needed any assistance.  Nathan said no thank you and we were just getting ideas for the somewhat distant future.  The man laughed and said, "You wear a jacket, we pay attention to you!"  Told ya!

Oh Happy Day!

Yesterday was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.  For Nathan anyway.  And if Hubby's not happy, how can I be?  He was getting discouraged about not getting accepted into a PhD program yet, which leads to worrying about the future, which leads to regretting past decisions, which leads to what I like to call "Nathan's Pit of Despair."  It's not pretty.  So I put on the happy wifey "everything's all going to be ok" face and do a little dance, which sometimes works... but yesterday... not so much.  So we decided to make a trip to the Temple to gain some clarity and hope, like you do, but lo and behold it was closed for cleaning!  Bless his cotton socks, poor Nathan thought that even God didn't want him.  We walked around the temple grounds anyway just to try to feel some peace.  I can't speak for Nathan, but I felt that "everything's going to be ok... I'm not sure how or when, but it'll all be alright" feeling.  We went to Neilson's Frozen Custard for a little pick-me-up, Nathan had a nice chat with his Daddy-O and we went to bed still unsure of the future.

Then.

This morning.

I was dead asleep when Nathan lets out a maniacal laugh from the other room and barrels into the bedroom.  I immediately just said "Where????", knowing that he'd finally gotten accepted into a program.  The next words he uttered were like music to my ears: "Florida!  UCF!  We're going to Orlando!"  Of course, this is a big MAYBE, since we still have a few other schools to hear back from... but we were totally on a high this morning.  We daydreamed about Mickey Mouse, plam trees, old friends and family (mine anyway), and oranges.  Like I said, it's not 100% that that's our final destination, but if everyone else says no, we at least know that we have one place to go!  The future is less uncertain, Nathan's regained his confidence in his career choice, and I can spend the next few months explaining why alligators are WAY less scary than rattlesnakes and mountain lions (He's from Arizona, where even the plants want to kill you, but he's scared of a li'l ol' gator).

So, yeah.  Happy day!  I was in such a good mood I decided to finish a skirt that I gave up on before we moved to England.  It has a zipper in the left pocket and it was warping.  I figured it out and now I have a cute skirt with cute pockets and a cute husband who'll tell me I look cute while we eat cute breadsticks at cute Olive Garden tonight!  (Don't hate 'cause I'm ooey gooey when I'm this happy).

Below is a picture from yesterday's Temple walkabout.  We got married in this Temple, so we walked around re-living our wedding photos.  Here is where our families stood and posed in the hot desert sun almost 4 years ago.

What Time is it?

I have a cute husband.  He's my best friend.  He grew a beard just for me.  We laugh at people together.  He sings Adele in the shower.  He watches movies for his career.  He thinks I'm funny.  He can't do math, but he can tell you about any war ever and knows all the US Presidents.  He hates shorts and sandals.  He takes me on adventures.  He smells nice.  He's very protective of his technology.  He's my sweetie.  And I love him.

He brought home a rose for me, then we revived our date tradition from Provo: a movie and Five Guys.  We were excited to see that one of the movie theaters around here was showing a bunch of Oscar-nominated films, including "The Artist".  We both had really wanted to see it, but thought we'd missed our chance!  We were SO thrilled that we got to see it.  It.  Was.  Amazing.  By far the best movie I've seen in a while.  It's silent (except for music of course) and it's in black and white, but that shouldn't be a deterrent.  If anything, it should intrigue you.  Nathan' is the critic, but I can hold my own in a film discussion and I know when things are excellent.  I won't give a full synopsis, but I will say that the story is beautiful, the shots are beautiful, the acting is beautiful, and Jean Dujardin is be-yoo-ta-ful.  He has the unique gift of drawing you into his story with just a smile or an eyebrow.  And his smile.... *needs a second*  Nathan and I agreed that Jean could be my Valentine too.  Ooo Ooo!  I just put this together!  Jean's character in the movie was George Valentin!  Snap.  Happy Valentine's Day.  I hope they win every Oscar.  Even the one's they weren't nominated for.

Here's some more pictures from Christmas.

Me at the International Wildlife Museum in Tucson,

next to a big ol' cactus,

and shooting a cute little gun.

Yeehaw.  I think living in England made me a mega-American.

Oh and YAY HOORAY!  It's my 100th post!  Not that anyone really reads this here blog, but I've decided it's for posterity and I'll keep updating for them.

New Obsessions

ZUMBA!!

I've finally found someone who'll go with me to a class!  It's cheap and the instructor is a BEAST!  I love feeling sore the next day.  And from what?  Shaking my booty.  Best.  Excercise.  Ever.  The first class I went to I had not taken my inhaler and I had a full belly of jumbalaya.  Dur.  I felt like I was at the Biggest Loser ranch on the first week.  I thought... am I really this out of shape???  But then I went this week and kicked butt.  Tips to noobs: pace yourself, bring water, don't fill up before hand, and don't watch the other people in the class (especially the gals in the front row...  you know, the ones who bought the Zumba merchandise or are wearing their dance leotards and tights... just focus on the teacher).  I found this funny picture on Pinterest:

So true...  Zumba reminds me of my old stake dance days...  I've re-connected with my inner funk.

This was 5 years ago... wuuuut??  I'm trying to get that bod back.  I'd say I'm not too too far, 15 or 20 lbs-ish.  Just a layer of padding I'd like to see disappear.

Anyway, next obsession:

Pink Ladies!!

No no no.  The apple.  The Pink Lady apple.  We've been getting them from CostCo by the pallet and I can't get enough.  We also just bought new floss, which comes in handy.

Oh and I also had another weird dream.  Nathan and I were staying at my grandparents house when a little wooden baby came into our bedroom when we were trying to sleep.  He told us to follow him into the laundry room.  Once we got there he turned into Mr. Clean magic eraser sponges.  I was happy because I love cleaning with them! 

Weird.

Till next time!