A Timely Thanksgiving Post

We hosted Thanksgiving at our place this year! It was great because I was forced to put something on the walls to make it look somewhat homey in here. We actually even painted the wall a different shade of blue! 

I even managed to make a pretty cute centerpiece. I bought the scented pine cones which I later learned Gab loathes so I had to spray them with febreze and hang them outside to try to get the scent gone. A labor of love, I tell ya. 

Gab's siblings and mom came down for most of the week and I was so so very very happy to have a house full of people. It was a mess! I love big messy houses full of people. The house looked "lived in" and it was truly the best. 

We managed to get everyone dressed in the midst of cooking on Thanksgiving and headed over to Snow Canyon Overlook for some family pictures. 

Notice Gab's hand grabbing me like I'm going to fall off that cliff. Ever so awkward in front of a camera, that boy. 

We've started this little tradition where we take pictures with Castle on our shoulders like this. He usually plays along pretty well but he was clearly terrified at being up there on this cliff side. Poor guy. 

The only thing left to do is the  obligatory list of things I'm thankful for. 

1. Our home that fits plenty of family for times like this. 

2. Castle. And our early morning walks on the mountain. He got lost for 40 minutes on the mountain the day before Thanksgiving and I about lost it. 

3. Technology so that I could Facetime with my fam for a few minutes on Thanksgiving. This is the second year in a row I haven't spent Thanksgiving with them which is super weird and is another clue to the fact that I'm "growing up" I guess. 

4. Game nights with Gab's side of the family. They're pretty epic. 

5. Having adorable little nephews running around. 

6. Gab. Because he is just my favorite person. 

7. And Gab's hair because come on, he has awesome hair. 

Head in the Clouds

A couple of months ago Castle and I have gave up leashed walks in lieu of making the mile drive to the old airport to do the temple quarry hike every day. It's a win win. He gets to run around the mountain hunting birds and getting all his crazy morning energy out and I don't have to get my arm ripped off.

The trail is also a lot prettier than our neighborhood streets. Especially on rainy, gorgeous days like this one when the clouds come down for a visit and you get to walk through them and admire the saturated blacks, greens and reds that are surrounding you.

December is looking quite lovely so far.

Random Story

This is a super random post with no pictures but I keep thinking about this moment that happened yesterday and giggling. So here I am! To write it down. I was up front at work cashiering when an old couple came through my line. They were buying Christmas decorations and lights. The old man was loading things up onto the counter and then just stood there kind of in the way while the lady was trying to pay. They fumbled around for a second before she said, "move!" in a rather bossy voice. Then the old man just said, "ok" in a rather jolly voice. And I just thought it was rather adorable. Why? Maybe I'm picturing Gab and I in 50 years. Maybe I just love old married people. They are a rarity and I bow down to them. That's all.

my tips for traveling with a dog

Apparently I think taking one trip with my dog qualifies me to write down tips for traveling with a dog. But in my defense we racked up over 40 hours in the car with a 4 month old puppy. And we did alright if I do say so myself.

We had Castle for 6 weeks when we took a trip to Washington State to visit family. We had no idea how our hyperactive dog was going to do being in a car for that long. It was a 16 hour drive to Coulee Dam Washington to see my family and then another 5 to Bremerton to see Gab's mom. By the time we got home we had clocked about 45 hours in the car. Luckily for us, besides the farting, Castle did great. Here's a few things we did to attempt to make the trip go smoothly.

1. Buy a new bone that they've never had before. The new taste will keep them busy for a few hours at least.
2. Buy a new toy. They will be excited to play with it in the car, during stops and wherever it is you're going.
3. Set up a designated sleeping area for them. We put his crate in the back with the seats down and he slept in there probably 50% of the time.
4. Take the time to play and run them around for ten to fifteen minutes at every stop. When we stopped Gab would gas up the car and get the snacks and I would try to find some grass so he could go to the bathroom and then I would run around and play with him to try to get his wiggles out. The investment is well worth it because even those ten minutes of play would tire him out to go to sleep for a while.
5. This might seem like a no brainer but make sure you get a hotel room that allows dogs. I had never had to think about that before and it almost slipped my mind so make sure you don't get charged extra.
6. Make sure they have their regular comforts with them. For example, the same food they usually eat  and enough of it so you don't have to buy them new food that will upset their stomach. We also brought his favorite toy and tried to keep his sleeping pattern the same.
7. Pack your sense of humor. Castle was farting so much in the car. We had to roll the windows down going 80 on the freeway like 20 times and we had to laugh or else we would have cried. He also slept on my lap a lot of the time because he could only be in his kennel so much before going completely crazy so I had to share my tiny portion of the car with a 20 pound dog. It was frustrating yet comical.
8. Make sure they still get their exercise even though you're on vacation! They need it!

How to pretend you're out of town for the day.

If I had it my way we'd be visiting a new city every weekend. But I don't have it my way. Yet. 

So sometimes you have to visit your own city. Here's how. 

Step one: Sleep in. Then when you finally wake up around noon and get ready, put on your hawaiian shirts. This ensures you get in the right mindset. Party mode, if you will. 

Step two: Have lunch at the Painted Pony outside on the deck. Order a vanilla italian cream soda with two straws. Take pictures, because that's what you do on vacation. 

Step Three: Take your dog to the dog park that's clear across town. He'll meet new dogs, you'll meet new dogs. It's all so new and so very exciting. 

Step three: Stay up late watching a movie and making out with your sexy blonde husband because he is sexy and blonde and you are on fake-one-day-vacation.

So this post is a fake. We did sleep in but that's not unusual and after we cleaned our house (so not vacation like) we got ready to go to lunch, and realized we were both wearing Hawaii type shirts. A mirror selfie ensued (Gab loves those). It is true that Painted Pony's deck totally feels like vacation but Gab is the one that ordered the drink and the waiter took it upon himself to bring two straws. Gab was upset he had to share.  When we went to take Castle out we decided that since it was Saturday we would drive clear across town to the other dog park for a change of scenery. But it's always true that Gab is a sexy blonde and how lucky am I that I get to look back on a day with him and realize it was kind of like taking a fake one day vacay. 

Labor Day 2014

Labor Day this year was chock full of...labor. Our darling (ha) little Castle man is a ball of energy and one morning after Castle pantsed me when my hands were full and then proceeded to bite my legs and sweatpants I texted Gab and said "we're building a fence this weekend". So we did folks, we did.

Well we got started on it at least. It's expensive stuff, but anything for Castle man. Just kidding, it's for my sanity.

I take him on a walk every morning but every morning when we get home, after he's eaten, he goes nuts and starts running in circles around the house as fast as he can and just barks and yeah... typing it out makes it seem really normal but it's quite the event in person.

Onward. First Gab mowed the lawn and Castle followed him around and barked and tried to be a tough guy around the big bad lawn mower.

Then we went to talk to the friendly peeps at Home Depot to get all our supplies. We tied Castle up so we could be productive and he was none too pleased.

Then Gab dug the holes for the posts. Castle helped. He guarded the dirt. 

At this point we had been in the hot sun all day and we were starving and itching to spend the Painted Pony gift card that our realtor gave us. And it's always nice to get a little dressed up after you've been sweaty and dirty all day long. So we went to Painted Pony and had a lovely meal. Gab pleasantly surprised me when he said, "let's get the mussels" for an appetizer. But then he took some convincing to try my tomato and mozzarella stacked salad. There's the picky guy I know and love.

It's a definite adjustment not having family around all the time. I'm so used to, and in love with, the craziness that comes standard with a family of nine. But quiet meals with my husband on days like today are pretty great too. 

The Story of Home

This is the story of how we came to be the proud owners of a darling brick home smack dab in the center of a cul-de-sac. The house is perfect, the process was not. But whose first-time home-buying process is perfect? If yours was, don't tell me; it's much too soon.

I've been looking into buying a home for about a year now. Very tentatively at first, just trying to figure out if it would be in any way possible. I loved the idea of not paying rent anymore and making a good investment and being able to paint the walls without Freaking Trent making it so impossible. I searched Remax and local sites whenever I had time, wishing and dreaming. I did that for about 6 months until I found a tiny two-bedroom 900 square foot house for $95,000. It was old and adorable and I saw so much potential with the property. Gab took some convincing but we got pre-approved for a loan and put it an offer. Well someone else was quicker and we didn't get it. I was bummed and even that small process was draining so I hung up the towel for the time being.

When Gab and I started looking for our own place to rent we wanted to find something very, very cheap so we could purchase a home in a year or so. We were looking at one bedrooms and studios that went for around $475 a month. We were ready and willing to rough it for a while basically.

Then one day a Craigslist miracle happened. I was browsing through the rentals on my lunch break at work when I came across the most ideal place for our situation. I hurried and called the lady right then and it's a good thing I did because she had so many calls the listing was only up for probably three hours. We set up a time to go look at it that night.

The place was an above the garage apartment in my favorite St. George neighborhood (up above Diagonal). The lot was tucked into the very corner of the street against the mountain and the garage was detached and enormous. The apartment was small but the deck was probably 900 square feet. I had already started looking for outdoor furniture and planning barbecues.

When we pulled up I was flipping out at how gorgeous the place was and then we saw a Vivint truck in the driveway. Um, Gab works for Vivint. Connection. We were in. The lady showed us the place and gave us an application and after some very intense nudging and eye contact with Gab he finally got my message and brought up the fact that he also worked for Vivint. She perked right up. She left us there to fill out the application and about three minutes later her husband came out. Boom. We chatted for 20 minutes. When it came up that I worked at Hurst he said his wife was always buying clothes in there and how much they loved the store. We left with plans to go home and pack our bags.

Well you can probably guess we didn't get it. The lady called and said that it was a hard decision but they decided to go with someone else. I was crushed. The only thing I can think of was that they wanted a single occupant renter.

I took it as a sign and told Gab we were supposed to buy a house. He's very good at going with me on my ideas, whether they're small or crazy. I started hitting up remax.com again every day. Our original plan was to get something small that we could pay off super quick and then turn around and rent it while we buy something bigger and more long term. We looked at a few condos and townhomes but the HOA fees were stupid high and the rooms were dark. I was so done living in dark dens. The good thing about looking at those condos was the fact that we met Ray, our real estate agent. He was very knowledgeable and patient with us over the next couple months and would always check in with us every couple weeks to send us a listing or see if we saw anything. The answer was always no. I hadn't found anything.

We had decided to look for a single-family home in the price range of $100,000-$150,000 and I really wanted to stay in downtown St. George. There were options but if I were going to spend that much money it had to make me swoon a little instead of just checking off the boxes.

One day I decided to see what happened if I upped the price slightly. I was trying to stay strict with myself but nothing was happening. So I changed the maximum to $200,000 and what do you know, my house was staring me in the face.

Side note: I always get very strong feelings when things are meant to be mine. My car that I've been driving for 3 years that I love? I saw it and instantly felt a connection (if you can call it that). My dad tried to talk me out of buying it because it had a rebuilt title. I kept coming back to it and when it was still available a month later and I had found nothing else I just went with my gut and bought it. That's how I felt about this house.

It was brick. I love brick! The kitchen was white. I love white kitchens! It was in a cul-de-sac! Guess what? Yep, I love cul-de-sacs.

The next day we put in an offer. We offered $199,000 and asked them to cover closing costs. When our offer was accepted a couple days later we were on top of the world. Our closing date was set for June 26th, a couple weeks before the wedding. It was all working out wonderfully.

I went to the bank by myself because Gab's work schedule wasn't going to allow him to be there. After an hour of being there we discovered that Gab's credit score was five point too low. Those five points cost us the loan and maybe the house. The only thing we could do was try to get the score up and then come back in a month and try again. I didn't know if the seller would be willing to wait a whole month just to see if we could get the loan.

I called Ray and told him the predicament. His expertise came into play and the next day I was on the phone with Debbie, who worked for SGI mortgage. Ray said that if she couldn't get us a loan then no one could. I actually knew Debbie slightly (benefits of small towns) and she knew my dad pretty well. So she gave us a step-by-step plan for increasing Gab's credit score and then she was going to do something called a rapid re-score where we could get the score back in a couple days instead of a month.

Well it worked. Gab's score went up twenty points. And once we started on the paperwork we discovered that going through SGI our closing costs would be $3,000; at the bank they would have been $10,000 plus we got a better interest rate. Basically my number one advice is to shop around. I felt a lot of pressure to hurry during this process because A) we had experienced not getting a house because someone got there first B) the wedding was coming up C) we were supposed to be out of our place July 2nd so we didn't have much wiggle room. But can you imagine my shock and relief when I realized that we had just saved $7,000 by going through a different company? Sure, the seller was paying closing costs but only up to $6,000 so that made a huge difference.

As long as this post already is I could easily double it by going into detail about our loan process. It was an endless, stressful mess. It got to the point where I was almost ready to walk away. I was going to walk away from my dream home! With the brick and white kitchen and fireplaces! But we were going big for our first time buying a home so bumps in the road were expected.  Plus ya know, I was planning a wedding at the same time (I don't recommend that).

Anyways, our closing date got pushed back twice and currently it was going to be July 3rd, two days before the wedding. The Monday of that week I got a phone call from Debbie saying that technically she was supposed to have called us the Friday before and told us sorry, but it wasn't going to happen. But she didn't! She wanted to try one more thing. What a champion. This literally wouldn't have happened without her and I can never thank her enough.

On July 3rd at noon we met at the title company and signed papers on our house. What a strange feeling that was. I don't know that I'll ever understand the whole process behind buying a house but I definitely thought we would be handed keys at this point. We weren't. Everything had to be sent to the deed company and because it was the afternoon the day before a holiday they didn't know if they would get to it that day. If they didn't we wouldn't be able to get keys for 1-2 weeks. We had all of our belongings in our cars and we were planning on having a 4th of July  bbq with all the family that was in town for the wedding. All we could do was leave and pray.

Hallelujah, prayers are answered. At 6:00 P.M that evening I met Ray at the house and was handed the keys! Oh how I loved those keys! We basically threw everything in the house that night and I went to bed completely exhausted but so satisfied, humble and grateful.

I talk about this a lot but I strongly believe that things happen how they are supposed to. I put my blood, sweat and tears into getting this house and it almost didn't happen three different times. So now that we're in it and I sleep here every night I know that this is where I'm supposed to be. And that's a good feeling.

The first photo of us and our first home!