Home Sweet FIRST Home

Welcome to our first home together! Beginning with our first mailbox...

Greg and I will be moving from good ol' Provo, Utah in less then two weeks. He starts his job June 4th, 2012 as a Coorporate Underwriter for State Farm. He'll be a "State Farm Boy" and I am really anxious to see how this job turns out for him. He plans to stay with the company and move up or around to leadership positions or as an agent. I really hope he enjoys the work and the people. Greg seems to be mostly intrinsically motivated...meaning he likes going and doing things he enjoys (the day to day tasks) as opposed to only doing things for a "reward" or "end result." As he tells me often, he doesn't typically just "hang out," he likes to go and do fun things with people he knows. We are taking a step out on a limb and seeing if this could be the perfect thing for him. He seems really excited and so am I! It is really fun to start a new chapter in our lives.

We are sad to leave Utah...cough cough....we really do love the people and all the fun things to do. We are going to really miss those two things. We live so close to all the things we enjoy doing on almost a daily basis including running, hiking, climbing, and biking. We live super close to the mountains, good food, and enough LDS members to merit an LDS temple just a few minutes away for whenever we'd like to go. We have loved these things and will miss the people most of all! We are looking forward to some other things in Colorado like....a steady and predictable paycheck, nights and weekends off (for Greg-no more weekends and nights for him at Applebee's), other mountains to explore and CLIMB, a more diverse population, boating at any number of lakes 5-10 minutes away, Rockies baseball games, and being close to family will have some great benefits too. Greg's office will be in between Greeley and Windsor. We hope to find a place to live in Loveland, which is close to some outdoor stuff that we are dying to get started on! We are looking at both renting and buying, but we have a lot to learn until we decide which one might be best for us right now. 

It is kind of surreal to be moving so quickly, I already had a good idea that we may very well be moving this fall, when school starts. But the decision came so quickly to try new career paths and everything just fell into place so fast that now we find ourselves moving 2 1/2 months earlier then we thought! It has been a lot of fun to start out where we have, we have loved our basement apartment and have many great memories of this unique place we call Provo!

So, here it is, our first little home sweet home....I thought these would be fun in case some time we want to walk down memory lane. We have had some good times in this apartment, cooking, cleaning, games, reading, watching movies, having friends over, having family over, etc. We have enjoyed our church family here and our opportunity to teach sunday school to 16-17 year olds.

 Our apartment is simple and all of the rooms are our favorite! The kitchen, mmmm....so many good memories of yummy (and not so yummy) dinners here. We have seen great things here and some experiments that were much less then what we expected! The things we have made the most in this kitchen, carmel popcorn, homemade rolls, cookies, oatmeal for breakfast, and sandwiches for lunch. We were really spoiled for our wedding, we have many nice-new-handy things that we used here day in and day out. From the bowls, cups, and seasonings to the grill and blender! We have enjoyed and used them all. We will be packing everything up and enjoying them for many years to come.

 We have another book shelf that is slightly bigger then this one but the picture is blurry...this isn't the greatest picture either. But this paints a picture of what we love! We love books. We have two bulging book shelves and books stacked in other places including the kitchen and our bedroom. When we were unpacking we both said if we had know the kind of the books the other person had we would have decided to get married earier! Ha ha...as if it could have happened any faster. That random chair, a funny story along with that as well. My parents wanted to give us a table for Christmas. My mom and I found these beautiful chairs that were originally $200 a piece but we bought them brand new for only $50. Well, we never found a table! So, we ended up sending my dad on our wedding day....looking for a table! He found an awesome one that we love. But now we have these really nice random dining room table chairs. We keep them around! They are great for when we have more then two guests for a meal.

 This is an awesome, sturdy, wood desk that somebody just gave to us! It has been awesome. Greg really likes to study here and I really just like having a desk.

 We had tons of storage room in this old basement apartment...nice and clean too. Before we moved in the carpet had been replaced, tile put in bathroom and kitchen, and new paint.

 My first attempt at trying to decorate a bathroom....

 Check out our awesome and sophisticated decor under that window! Nothing says home sweet home like collaging free Petzel posters they give away at the climbing gym.

 Ha ha...I have to mention the golf clubs. I include a picture of all the camping/climbing gear we keep in the corner of our living room. That was strategic. Greg wanted to let everybody know who came to visit what we liked to do and what kind of people we are-outdoor people!

Ahh...home sweet FIRST home! What a nice place you have been for us newly weds. Now we move on to our second home....

Decisions! Decisions!

The farm boy...soon to be a medical student in Wisconsin. Trevor has worked on the LDS church welfare farm for years now, both during the summer and during his time waiting for medical school applications/interviews to be completed. It has been fun for him to learn and do lots of stuff on this farm with our uncle and cousin. We came out for a visit while Paige was home, so we could suprise her later that night. Trev took us on a little ride to unclog the sprinklers on the pivots!

Greg was excited to have a farming experience....

This last weekend we decided to head down to Colorado for a visit. At first, Greg and I were just chatting about my little sister. We thought it'd be cool to go down and suprise her for her birthday. She is always asking when we are coming and even bought a tennis racket so she could play with Greg the next time we come. So, we decided we'd squeeze a weekend in at Colorado, not hard to do...its a fun place for me to visit! It turned out to be perfect because Greg was asked to interview over a teleconference, but was able to let them know that he would be in town and would like to just come in an interview! Lucky? I don't know, some things I think are not coinsidences! The job interview was at a State Farm coorporate office....so here is where decisions start to come into play.

I can remember the first time I ever heard Greg talk, one of the first things I heard him describe himself as was a high school teacher. I thought that was the neatest thing! He has a really special talent for teaching and connecting with students. The more I got to know him, the more excited I got for him to have a classroom of his own and see how he would be valued by his co-teachers and students. I think he would be one of those teachers that all the students love and respect...along with all of the other teachers. He has thought that maybe he would even love to be a principal. I had the best high school principal, and I have thought several times how neat it would be to be a principal. I was excited that he was thinking about this option as well, I grew up knowing my principal very well and I think Greg could be a very effective and influential principal, both for teachers and students. As time has gone on, and applications have been sent, the process has been nothing but road blocks unfortunately. Even in the school districts where we know the princpal or board members, there hasn't been any interviews or contacts from any of the school districts that he has applied. We will keep trying though!

In light of the lack of response and recent changes in benefits that teachers are offered, Greg and I started to think about possible careers paths as alternatives. Some of them have been to just go back to school and look into organizational behavior studies (among other possabilities)...in short, phsycology for businesses or schools and familes or large organizations. I thought Greg might be really great at helping employers to improve the environment for thier employees, improve employee moral, and also help employers to improve employee engagement. Things of this nature would also bring about public speaking, motivational speaking, and training. All of which I feel Greg would be really talented at...he already is! We also talked about overseas schools teaching English and following his Dad's tracks in the military. At one time, Greg really wanted to be a helicopter pilot, but he doesn't have the 20/20 vision requirement. Then, Greg started to ask me about what my Dad does. My dad has been working for State Farm for 25+ years and he has always really liked it. I don't think it was insurance that caught Greg's eye, but that my Dad just talks about State Farm a lot so Greg has started to think that it may be something worth looking into. State Farm has a lot of avenues and opportunities for a variety of interests. It has turned out to be a very good option so far! He started applying for various positions around the west about 3 weeks ago, and we are already getting him ready to fly out for a 4th interview in Billings, Montana! He has interviewed with the Greely Operations Center twice, Pocatello once, and now Billings. He hasn't heard back officially on any of them so I guess there maybe a lot of options opened up to Mr. Gregs here in a couple weeks. I am so excited for him, he would be such a valuable and loved employee not matter where he goes, I am thrilled that his talents and values are being "examined" as he goes off to find himself a career he will love and give him an opportunity to make a difference!

Each interview has been a postive and encouraging experience for Greg, he has been complimented and well received in each situation and in each interview. We are still applying, thinking, and hoping...but we are looking forward to seeing what may happen in regards to Greg's employment this year! Who knows where we will be and what he will be doing, it is an adventure.

For now, we are trying to work extra hours, have some fun, and I am enjoying some time off school! I like to rub it in now that Greg is the student and I am not. FREEDOM!  Although, his one credit online class he needs to take in order to complete his degree is...lets say, kind of silly and a definite loop hole they make students jump through to get their degree (in fact he will probably just finish the whole thing in one week), I still like to brag that I am FREE from constant homework and studying!  Now I need to be the one to make food, do housework, and make him lunches so he can make it from morning to evening and get everything done. He has been the greatest support, going out of his way to help me so that I can study and do assignments without having to worry about laundry, cleaning house, or cooking. I was able to pull off straight A's this semester and I have Greg to thanks for all the time he freed up for me and made it possible for me to have the time available.

And the good news comes as I am in the MIDDLE of this post...Greg has been offered the position at State Farm in the Corporate Claims deptartment!! He has accepted and plans to start the beginning of June, tentatively the 4th of June! Coloardo and State Farm, I hope you are ready...here we come.

Now, on with some more "stuff." So, my little sister discovered that my parents were putting together a suprise party for her. But, she didn't know WE were going to be there! So, it turned out to be a suprise after all! We had a fun time, here are some pics.

Handsome guys!

Pretty Mom!

Awesome friends! We had a great turnout.

And...awesome food!

Greg wrote Paige a little rap, and then used then stood on a piece of furniture to recite it! Not a bad little poem for how much time he had.

Happy 17th Birthday Paige!

A view of the birthday decor.

Presents...lots of them.

We put some bling on Paige that said, "It's my Birthday!"

One of the presents she got, some nice new Nike shorts.

It was a fun trip, we enjoyed relaxing, eating great food, amazing company, and playing a little. Greg finally got to use his new clubs and driver he got for his birthday. Did pretty well, he got a 45, not bad for not playing very often and even then he hasn't played for like 8 months! I am thinking that maybe I should get some clubs myself!