Holy Smokes! It's 2011!

It's AMAZING how much time flys where you're having fun! Guess it's high time I catch up on the holidays.

As I said before, with Thanksgiving, we were able to see some of best friends Sara and Jared at the airport for about an hour. It was so much fun to be able to meet their little boy! We stayed at the infamous Anniversary Inn the night before, and loved every minute of it. We stayed in the one that looks like the inside of a train, can't remember the name..but it was awesome! I love being able to stay there and spend time with my husband!

December came and went so quickly! We were planning on a buying a house that was literally taking for.ev.errrr. So we started looking at houses again, this time we found the one. It's still in our ward boundaries and close to work. Literally 2 blocks away. It has some fixing up to do, but we don't mind, we're pretty excited! We close this Thursday! *eeek* So it'll be pretty exciting! Won't lie, the coolest part of our house is our bedroom. Seriously. The living room looks like just a normal living room, but with the press of a button stairs come out of the ceiling and voila, behold the master bedroom. How's that for privacy? ;) We are so excited to make it ours and decorate. So that was kind of a 2 in 1 update. Found it at the beginning of December, then closing towards the end...well in January.

Also in December we had the opportunity to attend the Festival of the Trees again! It was beautiful! Afterwards my sweet hubby took me to The Mayan. Basically it's this restaurant with overpriced ok food and awesome cliff divers in the restaurant. Woot woot for coupons right? Needless to say, that was our first and list time there (the food didn't agree with Jaren).

We we also able to go see temple square Christmas lights. Note to self: do not go on a Saturday. Period. After a half hour of trying to find parking, we walked shoulder with everyone and their dog to see the lights. The best part was we got to be with friends! Including Angela and her boyfriend! It was so great to see them for the evening. Afterwards we went to Denny's with the whole group: Kevin & Amy, Jaren & me, Angela & Rob, and Katie lol.

A couple days before Christmas Jaren and I took Brooke, Cannon and Brekka to drive around the Layton Park lights. It was raining really hard, but it was still fun to see Cannon's reaction as we drove around while listening to Christmas classics.

Christmas Eve was a blast! We spent it with Jaren's family this year and it was so much fun. We had a delicous Christmas Eve feast and goodies. They put on their Christmas program and we enjoyed each others company. Christmas morning, Jaren and I did our own Christmas gift exchange and afterwards had my uncle Dustin over for breakfast as well as a mini Christmas for him! Shortly after he left I came down with some freak 24 hr cold. But the rest of the day was still enjoyable.

For New Year's Eve we went over to Amy's paren'ts house and played games with friends. It was a great success! We were so caught up in games, Kevin finally was like what time is it? Oh Happy New Year! So we wer a couple minutes late but it was still fun. New's Years day Jaren and I went shopping and spent no money, but still got stuff :) . I won a contest at work and won a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses and a $50 mall gift card. After a tiring day of shopping we came home and watched movies.

Yesterday we attended my cousin, Misty's baby blessing. It was beautiful and we enjoyed a lunch afterwards.

So what's goin' on for 2.0.1.1. Well classes started today! I'm taking online english and bowling (date night and goes towards my degree..woot woot). Then Thursday close on the house and move in Friday. A couple weeks from then will be my birthday! And of course my hubby has already started makig secret plans :) . I'm exicited to see what 2011 brings!

Until next time,

Love Jess

Ups and Downs of Fall

So I left off talking about Halloween, which was so much fun! We got to dress up at work and pass out candy to the kids ( for those who don't know, I work as an optometrist tech inside the doctor's office, inside Lenscrafter's) . After work, we met with friends and played games. I love dressing up for Halloween, I'm pretty sure that's the best part. Jaren dressed up as a minstrel and I was the classic Audrey Hepburn from Breakfast at Tiffany's.

November has has a rough start for me this year. I found out I will not be able to go to my families for Christmas. Well, let me rephrase it, I could have a whole 5 days off which would cost $1800 to fly to AK. Yeah so not happening. I also got some kind of virus going around that makes me feel exhausted. I'm always feeling tired and just want to be at home (which is so unlike me). Jaren and I both came home sick one day and just rented redbox movies, had cider and soup, and just cuddled up in bed. It was so relaxing! Just an FYI: NOT pregnant. Pretty sure 2 pregnancy tests can confirm that. I also had to see the lady doctor, which was an experience I will spare you from. Luckily, I have a wonderful husband who treats me like a princess. After having quite the traumatic doctor visit, he went shopping with me at a boutique and took me to dinner.

Even though this month has not looked too promising, I'm keeping my chin up! Good things are coming this month! The 22nd my friend Shaleena is coming for an overnight visit, 24-25th my hubby surprised me by booking us a room at our favorite inn (take a wild guess lol), and the 25th we get to see Sara, Jared, and Logan while they are in a layover at the airport! For those who don't know Sara is one of my best friends from Alaska, so it will be so exciting to see her family, even if it's only for a few hours.

So random tidbits that happened this month: I'm in Primary, again. I'm excited because I get to work with the sunbeams aka the 3 year olds. And they are an adventure all on their own. In fact I should probably be getting ready for church now...

Until next time..Love,

Jess

Halloween is right around the corner!

Wow, it's for sure time for an update! Things have been going great since I last updated. We've enjoyed the month October and all its fun happenings.

At the beginning of this month I went on an overnight backpacking trip with my husband, two brother in laws and father law. It was beautiful see all the scenery with the leaves changing vivid colors of red and orange. By the time we got up to the top of the mountain where we camped, it started raining. We had dinner already cooking by then and were really too hungry to care. It just made things more adventurous.

Here's just a few reasons why I love October: pretty leaves, cool weather, hot cocoa, corn mazes, haunted houses and pumpkin flavored everything! Seriously. I didn't really start liking pumpkin until last year, and this year I just love it. I've probably had one too many pumpkin oreo shakes, and slices of pumpkin pie. On Thursday we went to The Haunted Hollow, which is well exactly what is says lol. It was a lot of fun to get scared and see all the fun changes from last year. And last weekend we went to a HUGE corn maze.

I'm so excited for this week. Friday we have a Halloween party with Jaren's family, Saturday is "Halloween" for people here in Utah lol. So since I'm working, our boss is allowing us to dress up - yesssss! We even get to decorate the office, which will make work a little more enjoyable. After that we have a Halloween party with our friends -yay!

Oh by the way, we put an offer in on a house. It's a fixer' up. It's so cute and we have all these ideas we want to do with it. It's a short sale which means we have to have the seller approve, then let the bank approve. So the seller approved, now it's just waiting for the bank .

So there's our October so far! I can't wait for all the following holidays. That's all for now!

Love, Jess

Fall Happenings

Hey Everyone!

*Sigh* I've finally accepted that it's Fall. Colors are changing. It's getting cooler. BUT I won't lie I'm excited for halloween. And hot chocolate.

Well, so far Fall has had a good start. We both have started school back up and we received grants to pay for it (yay for free money!). This past weekend we went to Peach Days in Brigham City. It was so much fun! It totally was so much better than the Weber County fair, which was a fail (no offense, but AK does things big, and yeah...) anyways, we enjoyed Navajo tacos, a yummy overly priced drink, and peach cobbler- yum! It was fun to see all the booths with everyone anxiously selling crafts and other fun things. We went with some fun tee shirts that feel like heaven. Seriously, they are so soft. The guy who sold them to us told us we wouldn't want to take 'em off, he was so right. The rides there looked like a blast, but I'm pretty sure I would've puked. And for those of you who know how much fair food is, you wouldn't want to either lol.

So we're looking into buying a house...again. It's been a total pain with the house business because we've set ourselves for a limit and that's why past houses didn't work out. Well 3rd times a charm, right? Hopefully. The house we're looking out now is a charming older house that needs work. We'd also make the basement into an apartment so we could rent it out. This weekend Jaren is going to a class for a Weber County grant $5,000 grant towards a house (HEY! more free money!). So after he attends that we can put in an offer. We've gotten our hopes up, so hopefully it will work out. If not, we know it's not supposed to be.

I followed up with my neurologist last week about my MRI and EEG. The EEG is abnormal, meaning I obviously still have epilepsy, and the MRI was normal. My neurologist is moving, so I'm going to start seeing a specialist down in Salt Lake City. I'm excited though because she specializes in epilepsy, and she can help us with baby planning. I've been really nervous about having kids because of my epilepsy, but the doctor reassured it would be okay with my medication and this other doctor can really help. Just FYI, we're not having a baby just yet, but we feel it's more sooner than later. Yikes!

Last but not least, my uncle Dustin's acting career is going fabulous! He was in a small local film here and we go to the premier next week. He also had a HUGE audition we're waiting to hear back from. Keep your fingers crossed. Here's to never giving up on your dreams!

Upcoming and exciting events: Dustin's premier of American Rejects next Wednesday, putting in an offer on a house, anxiously awaiting for our family pictures to come in. Grandparents are coming to visit! That's all for now!

Love, Jess

1 Year Anniversary! A little belated post...

So I originally had wrote this post a couple days afterour anniversary, BUT it got deleted and out of frustration I was so not in the mood to rewrite it. Anyways, here's what went down for our 1 year!

We started out by being good kids and going to church, we had made reservations at The Anniversary Inn in Logan. Yes, for the 4th time, BUT we've NEVER paid full price. An

d $60 is a smokin' deal! SO we chose Rich's Drive Inn!

It was so cutely set up! The bed of the truck was actually th

e bed! We loved it! It had a the huge big screen, so we're able to borrow some of the movie

s they had there and

just relax. We chose My Best Friend's Wedding (or well I chose that...) and Secondhand Lions. We also finished watching the 2nd "Pirates" because I had fallen asleep the night before. But what would the drive in be without snacks?! Luckily for us it came with dinner and a movie!It came with hot dogs, 4 drinks, popcorn, 2 king size can

dies of our choice, Martinelli's sparkling cider and cheesecake in the fridge.

So, we uh enjoyed the movies ;) and took some

silly pix with th

e fun decor in the room (on facebook), and filled out this fu

n "About Us" book I bought . It was a fantastic stay! We loved everything about the room. It had a cozy feel and a huge tub! We did the extended stay so we

could finish the movies and relax.

The next morning we had a yummy breakfast and headed out. Our first stop was a little restaurant for lunch called The Bluebird. We had read abou

t it and decided to give it a try. Long story short, it was our first and last time going there ha ha. The girl who was supposed to seat us made a scene about it. So someone else sat us. The food was okay, nothing special. We did like the chocolates from the chocolate shop in th

ere though. So if we go back for anything, it'll be the candy.

Our next stop was a little antique shop we passe

d by. Mine and Jaren's thing is antique shops, ever since the first date, so it was kind of fun to browse around. As we were headed home Jaren said he had another way we're going to go home. We instead went up the canyon and enjoyed the view. We even happened to run into a rattle snake! I was so excited/ scared. I wanted to poke it (note I was in the Jeep so I was a little more daring). Instead of being attacked I settled for getting a picture

.Our last and final stop was Inspiration Point. It was a fantastic view. We sat up there and enjoyed the scenery and filled out more over our "About Us" book. After hanging out there for about an hour of so we made our way home. It was a f

abulous anniversary. 1 year and counting! We're excited for our adventure to continue.

Until next time...

Love, Jess

Summer's coming to an end..boo!

Hey!

Well summer is coming to an end here soon. I'm so sad, it was an amazing summer but went by TOO fast!

Last time I updated I was getting ready to do my sleep deprived EEG. That was horrible. I stayed up by helping my cousin with her baby, Cannon, which was fun. Then I went home and literally watched America's Got Talent online from 3 am to 1o am. And painted my fingernails in between. It was an exhausting day, and I still don't know the results! I have to wait till my appointment in September.

Also since I last updated the newest lil' addition to the family came: Lyla Melo! She's my new little niece and she sure is a cutie. It was fun because just a couple days later my best friends Shaleena and Angela came to visit! They stayed the night at my place and we caught up and laughed just like the good ol' days! The next day Jaren made us waffles and we tried on wedding dresses for Angela, and walked 25h st. and had a "photo shoot" at the Union Station. Shaleena also gave me highlights while she was here.

Thi past week we went to Lagoon, we had a blast, but I must be getting old because I got sick on some rides that usually don't bother me :( lol. We were able to go with Tannon & Jossi and met up with Angela! It was great! We got bounce back tickets so hopefully we'll be going back Wednesday.

Upcoming and exciting events: tomorrow: looking at a BEAUTIFUL house, Wednesday:Lagoon, Saturday Weber county fair, SUN-MONDAY ANNIVERSARY INN FOR OUR 1 YEAR! YAY!

Summer & Such :)

Hey Everyone!

So far this summer has been such a fun one! My family came down and were here for a few weeks and it was a blast. We also celebrated Jaren's birthday and the 4th! So I'll just kinda touch up on those and something things happening :P .

It was so nice to have my family here. We did a lot of family dinners and visiting. One thing that was really special was my grandpa was able to do a session in the Salt Lake temple with me and Jaren and my Grandma. It was such a nice time, and we got to eat at the yummy Lion House cafe- yum! Another fun thing we did was go to Boondock's, which is a mini- golf/ go cart/ arcade place. It was a lot of fun, and we plan on going back and doing some of the other activities there again. I FINALLY had someone to go and get pedicures with! My mom and grandma went with me. It was nice the nail technician actually asked if I was 18...last time I went I was asked if I was 13 :P . Of course for those who know, for a flower on your toenail it's $5. My dad is most likely getting promoted here shortly, so when they asked if we wanted those on our feet, my mom said, "my husband is getting a promotion - give us all flowers!" ha ha. The time was fun, but it came and went really fast. My family is now at Fairchild AFB (Fairbanks), AK. SO jealous.

So we just had 4th July weekend and it was for sure a memorible one! We started it off by doing crazy bowling with a group date with some of our best buddies. It was a lot of fun! We used the color of M&M's to determine the way we bowled. We probably looked silly, but it was worth it.

Saturday the 3rd was Jaren's birthday, and I wanted to do something fun. I had planned on doing swimming at Cherry Hill, at water park here, but wanted a get away. Anywhere sounded good, even if was a hotel down the street. It just so happened that the hotel I was trying to book wouldn't let me for some reason, so I began searching around some more. B&B everywhere else were costly, and not too great. I had just about given up when I decided to look up The Anniversary Inn. We've been there before and LOVE it! I figured it'd be way too much with wedding season, but was bored at work and took a look. It just so happened there was a July 3rd deal. ANY room $99 (which was nothing compared to them being $200-400 a night). So I booked one! Since I still don't drive, I made up clue to lead him the way. It was windy at Cherry Hill, so we opted out and went straight for The Anniversary Inn. We had anice room, it was a mountain hideaway theme and looked like a log cabin. The shower was the best with a cave shower/ jacuzzi that had a waterfall in it! That night we went and watched fireworks in SLC and they had awesome ones with star shaped fireworks and smiley faces :) (debt free is the way to be kids) . The next day we celebrated Jaren and his brother Tannon's birthday and had onion burgers at Jaren's family's house.

So some of you have been keeping up with my facebook know I've been having stomach problems for quite some time. I didn't know what was going on. I wasn't too concerned until I started bleeding and wasn't on my period. I freaked out and had Jaren call the doctor. I always assume the worst and thought I just so happened to be pregnant and was miscarrying. Long story short, that was so not the case. They did blood work and an ultrasound and I'm still waiting to hear back. I finally had my neurology appointment and that went well. Next Wednesday I have 24 hour sleep deprived EEG. AHH! So no sleeping. And I have an MRI that day too :P.

Anyways, that's an update with us! Upcoming and exciting events: Angela and Shaleena are comingto visit! And our 1 year anniversary is coming up -yay! That's all for now!

Love, Jess