Coming home from our honeymoon:
I thought this was the funnest idea!
Our first apartment:
We started at the low-end of the totem pole so we could work our way up to a nicer apartment. Sadly, about a month after we moved in we found out the City of Logan bought the house and were going to kick us out at the end of the year to tear it down! We move out in December, but the house wasn't torn down until May! Here it is after demolition started:
Right away we got called to be primary teachers. It was the best calling. We taught the 4-5 year olds and usually had 5 girls in class (occasionally 1 boy would come too). Any church activities we went to our girls found us and sat by us. They were so sweet!
What we remember from our first Summer: Our apartment didn't have air conditioning so we had two fans going constantly. Trevor worked over 100 hours some pay periods because the golf course was so busy, so I spent a lot of Saturdays and evenings at home alone and he spent a lot of mornings alone while I was at work. I potted some flowers.
Marriage can be challenging: one of my challenges came when Trevor wanted me to amputate a strange skin flab on his back. We tied it off with floss so the circulation to it would stop and it would die. Then it got kinda gross and pussy, so we knew it was time to cut it off. Problem was, Trevor thought the scissors on his pocket knife would do the trick, but they were super dull! So I was hacking away, trying not to freak out, it started to bleed, it was hurting Trevor! We switched scissors and cut it off in a jiff. Yuck! Worst ever!
In the fall we went to a lot of football games and then later on to some basketball games at Utah State. We bought a spouse pass for me so that we could go to as many games as we wanted. I got into it and even listened to some games on the radio when Trevor wasn't home! Our football team had a great season and it was a lot of fun to support them.
In our first apartment we celebrated these holidays:
Independence Day: We bought a few fireworks and some sparklers. Trevor had to work that day, so I went into work so I could pick a different day in the month to have off. When Trevor came home that night we made hamburgers and set off some fireworks.
Halloween: We carved pumpkins!
We also bought candy to pass out, but we had Institute so we weren't at home until after it was dark and everyone had gone home. Sometime around Halloween we got tickets to go see Dracula (performed by the Cache Valley Ballet) through my work. We went to Ellen Eccles Theater (my first time there) and got to sit in the top section. It was really fun!
Trevor's Birthday: Trevor had a test that day in Physics so he couldn't miss classes. I went to work as usual. When I got home, we went out to dinner with Trevor's family at Chili's and then went to our house for cake and ice-cream.
Conservice Anniversary: So this isn't really a holiday, but I had my one-year at Conservice mid-November! This meant I got a 1-Year Plaque to go with my name plaque on my desk and I got to pick out a gift. I picked a tote that has the Conservice logo on it. I'm pretty sure this is the first job that I've ever worked at for a year straight.
Thanksgiving: We went to Idaho Falls for Thanksgiving to spend it with Mom and Dad laws. We had delicious food and lots of fun!
Summer turned to Winter and we started to freeze. Firstly, because we quickly discovered that the car heater didn't work! Before we got it fixed it got a little scary a couple of times driving in snow with super ultra foggy windows. It wasn't very safe, but we survived. The water pump had to be fixed ($$$) and then everything worked great again.
At the beginning of December we went to Sacramento for a friend's temple sealing. Kristy was my mission companion when me and Trevor started writing and is a close friend for both of us. We enjoyed our weekend with her and her family and Conservice reimbursed my plane tickets so the whole trip was almost totally free! I am so glad that we could be there for their family's special day!
Trevor finished his Fall 2012 semester with flying colors: 3 A's and 2 B's from Physics, Physics Lab, Electrical Circuits, Calculus, and Linear Algebra. For Fall semester we also took a "Evidences of the Book of Mormon" Institute class together. It was really good, we learned so much about the Book of Mormon.
We moved to our new apartment mid-December and we liked it so much that we spent the first couple of nights there sleeping on the floor, since we couldn't move the bed right away. In this apartment we don't pay for gas, so the heating could be cranked up and keep us nice and toasty. With our new apartment we also got a Logan Parking Pass so we could park on the street during the winter. Right in time, too, because it snowed hard the first night after we got it and we avoided a ticket.
Sometime in December or January we got tickets from work again, this time to go to Drumline Live! also at Ellen Eccles Theater. This was a performance inspired by the movie Drumline, with band players from the South, displaying their musical talents. They rocked it!
We've celebrated these holidays in our new apartment:
Christmas: It was a great holiday season, we enjoyed shopping for each other and for our family gift exchanges. At Trevor's work party they had a nice dinner and then white elephant gift exchange, I got a bag of golf tees :/ At the war party we sat with our primary girls again (even though we had moved we went to our old ward through the end of December) and enjoyed the program. We skipped my work party since it was the same night as our ward party and because there wasn't going to be dinner and there would be mingling games :/ We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas at Mom and Dad Brown's house.We got to see Trevor's brothers on skype, calling in from their missions in Germany. Unfortunately, Trevor was sick on Christmas and he slept the whole day! Here are my Christmas flowers:
Keshia's Birthday: We went to Idaho Falls for the weekend to spend the day with Michael and Laura. mom and Dad were out of town, but we stayed at their house. We had birthday dinner at Michael and Laura's - delicious fondue - and played games. We also saw Wreck it Ralph that weekend.
Valentine's Day: I had to work of course, but when I got home Trevor had some roses and chocolates waiting for me!
Mother's Day: Trevor had to open at the golf course, so he missed church and he missed his brothers' calls from their missions. I had a good time at church, our Relief Society brought food for us to snack on and let us sit and visit for half of the hour - we had strawberries, pretzels, and other fruit to dip in chocolate, as well as muffins and juice.
After we got our tax return in January we bought a bike for me! I was starting to hate the bus since it takes so long to get to my stop and we only live a mile away from my job. I couldn't start riding the bike right away, but with the warmer weather I'm riding it all the time! We also got Trevor the tablet he's been wanting since before Christmas.
Early February we got two additions to our extended family - two new nieces born only two days apart. Addie Elle and Makiyah Josie!
In March we started on a whirlwind adventure of doctor visits and health insurance education when my doctor-lady found a 1-inch lump in my right breast. I was at the hospital about once a week while we were determining if it was cancer and if surgery was needed. It wasn't cancer, yay! But I did have to have surgery at the end of March to have it removed. The scariest part of this was definitely the biopsy - it didn't hurt and recovery was basically nothing, but it was scary to be awake while they were poking a giant needle into me! The official diagnosis is that it was a fibroadenoma, which is genetic, and not at all cancerous.
In our new ward Trevor has been called as the Home Teaching Supervisor Helper Guy. He collects all the home teaching numbers from the district supervisors and does the month-end report on it. I don't have a calling yet, but do have a visiting teaching assignment that I'm enjoying.
Just recently we had to get our car fixed again, this time the alternator busted. First, Trevor noticed that the battery had dropped down in volts even though he had replaced the battery when he first bought the car. Then, one day he picked me up from work and said the battery had dropped to 0 volts as he was driving. We barely made it home and then to O'Reilly's Auto parts before the battery was totally dead and we couldn't even restart the car. They explained it was probably the alternator and sold us one. After they jumped us we literally BARELY made it to the Carsmart a couple of blocks from our house, we were literally creeping along in the car with no batterly life. They fixed it up ($$) and the car is working once again.
Trevor finished his Spring 2013 semester with even more flying colors! Two A's, two A-'s, and one B+. his classes included Differential Equations, Numerical Methods, Electrical Circuits II, English, and Biology. For Spring semester we also took an Institute class together, World Religions. It was a fun class.
I started another garden, including my first-ever tomato plant. I hope it survives!
That's us all caught up! Today is the last day of a four-day weekend of our anniversary celebrations. We started off on Friday by taking the car to Les Schwab to check the brakes - metal on metal! Luckily we borrowed one of Trevor's parents' cars, because Les Schwab didn't have the parts to fix the stupid Audi, they have to order them in. For lunch we went to Trevor's golf course, Eagle Mountain in Brigham City, and had some of their delicious french fries. They were the best french fries I've ever had! Then we went to his brother's golf course, Mulligan's, and played mini golf.
It was a nice sunny day and lots of fun. We had 3 hole-in-ones between us. When we were done we went shopping for a bit and then over to Kelsey's. We played with the kids, had dinner, and watched The Lorax in their home theater room! Once it was dark we went outside and got to look through their telescope. We saw Saturn with it's rings and everything! So cool!
We spent the night there and on Saturday morning went shopping again. We were in search for a Real Salt Lake shirt for me to wear to the game that night, but couldn't find one that was cheap. Then we went to Star Trek: Into Darkness. It was such an intense movie! Spock rocks! Afterwards we checked into our hotel and went to their swimming pool. It was a little cold so we didn't swim very long. We went to the Gateway mall to go shopping some more and had dinner there at Applebee's. Then we headed to the Real Salt Lake game!
The game ended in a tie, which was a little disappointing. But it was lots of fun and we had good seats.
Sunday morning, our Anniversary!, we slept in and then went for a walk on Temple Square since our hotel was right across the street from it. Then we headed home! After relaxing for a bit we to a party at Trevor's parents' house for his brother's going away, his family is moving to Texas so they had all the family and extended family come over for dinner. We sat and chatted, but ended the night playing ping-pong downstairs.
And that's everything! Overall, it has been a great year! We're looking forward to spending lots of more years together!
