Top of Utah Marathon

Don't worry, this was definitely not about me. I have zero desire to ever run a marathon. But our friend Tim did! Tim was Nate's roommate for a couple of years, is still his best gym buddy, and a very good friend of ours. This was his first marathon he's done, so way to go! We decided to go be his fan club.
About 100 yards from the finish line
Wahoo!!!!! Tim did awesome!!! He was unhappy, because he had to walk a little bit, and thought he wouldn't have to. But his time was excellent, and he finished!
Tim placed 14th in his age group. Pretty dang impressive for a first time marathoner, I think.
That night we went to the USU/Idaho football game and tada...the rain brought us good luck! We won!!! And I had to take a picture because it will probably be the only time this season that happens. No offense, Aggies. I still come to your games.

Our life here is currently good. I totally love my new job, really, it's great. Nate and I don't really ever see each other, but sometimes I can go have lunch with him in his office since I am on campus too. Speaking of lunch, mine is almost over and I gotta go! But atleast there's a little bit of an update to all of you who care about us.

HOORAY!!! For several things.

First and foremost, I got a job today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you so much to all of those prayers; I am indeed greatful. It's not exactly a job that's going to change the world, but somebody's got do it. Starting Monday, I will be working for Utah State University in the Controller's Office, doing accounts payable, payroll, travel, etc. I am SO excited to have gauranteed weekends and holidays, done by 5 everyday, and insurance! It will be great to have the same schedule as Nate, and it certainly pays more than what I as getting at Curves. Hooray! Go Aggies!! Next, I finally get to update my blog! With pictures of the last couple of weeks. Nate was home for dinner, but had to come back up to the school for a little bit longer, so I came to so I can use the internet. Hooray! Oh how I miss it. Just an update on our lives besides my job hunt, I no longer have a husband. This is by far his hardest semester so far. He isn't even working an spends an average of 13 hours a day on campus. Poor Nate, i definitely do not envy him, but admire him for his dedication and hard work. Maybe in December I will see him again. Oh yeah, and thanks a lot to all those of you who have never told me I say "chh" a lot. I seriously never even knew, but apparently everyone else does! I guess my husband is my only real friend. ;)

Fuller tradition states that every Labor Day you must attend the Eastern Idaho State Fair. Although this year was cold and rainy (completely opposite from normal), we still had a pretty good time. I loved the cake decorating contest. For those of you that don't know, I spent my first two years in Cache Valley working at a bakery and part of my job was decorating cakes. So I sincerely appreciate the time and effort these people go to for such extravagant cakes. Here are my faves:

The spaghetti cake. The noodles are all frosting, the meatballs were blackberries, the sauce was gel frsoting, and the parmesan was powdered sugar. I had to look closely to even realize this was a cake! I loved it! So creative.

The mad hatter cake took first place. Nate's dad didn't like it, he said it looked sloppy. I said that was the point. How the heck they've got that cake staying in place is way beyond me.

I just had never seen a cake quite like this before, but am convinced we will do this for my sister Stacey's wedding one day. Spikes and all.A purple cake, of course I loved it. I also liked how they stacked it; I enjoy the floating look.

My nephew Trayson is pretty obsessed with pumpkins, so I had to take this pic for him. That probably looks like heaven to him.

These were the ribbon placing pumpkins. I wish I would have had a picture with a person in it too, so that you could compare them to real life. I've never seen anything like them. Here is the prize punkin, blue ribbon. 829.5 lbs! Trayson could've ridden this pumpkin. Unreal.

The following weekend, Nate had to be in slc saturday morning, so friday night we headed to pleasant grove to stay overnight and see our cute nephews and their parents, Nate's brother Matt and his wife Katie. We hadn't seen these guys yet since we've been home from VA, and even before we left, it had been a long time. So this visit was long overdue.

Here is Sammy, rocking my sunglasses. He was laughing so hard at himself, but when I told him to look at me so I could take his pic, this happened to his face. I love it.Sam is a big jazz fan, and he really liked wearing Nate's warmup jacket.

After Nate's thing in SLC satruday morning, we went to visit my lovely sister Stacey who lives there. Our fave burger place back east just opened a joint in south salt lake, so we took her to experience the greatness. Five Guys is just as good in Utah as it was in Virginia. Stacey is now hooked too, and we might be making trips down her way more often.

We were planning on stopping at my parents on our way back home to Logan, and Stacey decided she wanted to come with us. Trayson was so shocked to see both of us walk in the door, 'cause he didn't know we were coming. He was ecstatic to say the least!Here's Trayson caught in the moment of giving Stace some love.We ended that fun weekend with a truck demolition derby (our only one this summer! tears)with some friends back in Logan. This awesome beast of a van came out one round, and we were all so excited. We thought it would just eat all of those other little trucks, and then it couldn't even start when the round began. He had to pull his flag within the first minute. Pretty dissappointed in the van, but it was a great derby. I highly recommend truck derbys!

Our fun this last weekend was attending the ward campout. We LOVE camping! The night ended up being pretty chilly, but we still had a good time. Seeing as how this was our only camping this summer as well, we took advantage of every minute.

Nate and Zach spent the evening cuddling in the the camping love seat in front of the fire. Zach's wife Callie told me to take this picture. :) How cute...

Everyone kept telling me this summer that once we got home, we were going to be so bored. But so far, every weekend has still been packed with fun! I am so happy to be home, spending lots of time with friends and seeing my family. Yes, we did have a great adventure this summer, but I wouldn't trade being home for any of it.

This silly tagging game

I have been "tagged" a few times since being a part of this blogging world, and have never managed to play the game. This summer, it was usually because we had so many other things that needed to be blogged I didn't have time for tag. Now, because I am still unemployed and feeling a bit guilty, I will participate. But I am combining some of the previous tags all to this one. Brandy, I'm doing this because I really love you. ;)

3 joys
1. My husband
2. Exercise
3. Sleeping

3 fears
1. Balloons (I'm not even going to go there to try and explain. Please don't show up on my doorstep with balloons, I will probably cry.)
2. Heights (But I love trying to conquer it.)
3. Losing family

3 goals
1. Get pregnant (one day...)
2. Find a job!!!!!!
3. Lose 11 pounds

3 obsessions/collections
1. Utah State! (Especially basketball)
2. Spiderman
3. Pictures. I really love pictures.

3 quirky facts about me
1. Besides being afraid of balloons and being obsessed with the Aggies? :) I am a little bit OCD, only with certain things. Like how I fill up a glass for water and how I brush my teeth, those are the main ones. Other than that, you may just say I like organization and tidyness.
2. I cannot handle unneccessary windshield wipers action. I suppose this is just a pet peeve, but it's quirky. It drives me bonkers to hear the squeak against dry window. How can you just let that go?!
3. Nate says I have a sound; I say "chh" a lot. Apparently a whole lot. It's the one thing he said he would change about me if he coud. Isn't that funny? I don't even notice. Let me know if it drives you crazy too!

I imagine if you were to ask my husband about quirky things, he could name a whole lot more than me. I don't realize all of my weird ways, because to me they are normal!
I only tag those who think this sounds like fun, becuase if you are like me, you will respond when you get around to it and are good and ready!

No longer homeless, just jobless

We FINALLY found a place to live, hooray! That's why this blog has been suffering. Nate started school last monday and is already ridiculously busy. I have just been trying to put our house together and find all of our stuff! We are mostly there, so now the next task is job searching. I need one, bad! Nate is not working this semester because of his brutal schedule with all his masters stuff, so I m the breadwinner and currently jobless! :) I would take ANY help in this area, thanks.

We decided to share one last bit about our trip home from the east. Remember when I said how glad I was to see Wyoming? Well, I got over that real quick. If you have ever driven through that ridiculous state, you may have noticed some of the 34! Little America signs that cross the state (that's right I counted). Guess what? It really is not that great, at all. But atleast it was something to entertain us.

Wyoming was awesome and terrible all at the same time. It was awesome because we were SO close to being home, and terrible because it just seemed to take forever. But when we finally arrived in Utah I was ecstatic. I was SO happy to see my mountains, I was giddy. For all of my Virginia friends, this is a mountain.

Beautiful Mt.Ben Lomond almost brought tears to my eyes I was so happy. :) This is the big peak in the town where I am from. Isn't she somethin? It's sure funny what things you take for granted when you jsut get so used to seeing them all of the time. Driving up to CacheValley, I felt like I was looking at that road for the first time with new eyes. Willard Bay, the mountains, Sardine, wow it was wonderful.

We spent this last saturday with the Fuller's and went fishin'. Here we are off the bridge in beautiful Black Canyon. Nate is putting on my worm cause I definitely don't do that kind of stuff.

After not even a nibble, we headed down to Trout Creek where you are always gauranteed to catch something. Guess what? We didn't catch a thing. Here is Nate looking way too happy for having no success. He just loves to be out fishing.I, on the other hand, was not so optimistic about the whole situation.

That's more like it. We don't even eat the fish we catch, we just give it to people, so it's not like we were out a meal or anything. It's just the thrill and all the fun we missed. But nonetheless, still a wonderful way to spend a saturday morning.

When we got back to P-town, Nate got an unexpected call from his favorite mission companion. He lives in Las Vegas and was at Bear Lake for a family reunion. We thought we were still in VA, but called to tell us he was about to pass through Logan. So we immediately took off to head back to Utah and met up with him for a quick catch up and bite to eat. Nate and Green were just so happy and laughed all through dinner with memories. They absolutely love spending time together, and it just doesn't happen nearly enough; they are total goof balls. We were trying to think of a single girl we could have him meet and fall in love with so we could make hime stay in Logan. No such luck cause we unfortunately don't know any single women. Thanks for a good time, Green! Always a pleasure. :)
Our house is getting closer to being put together and actually feeling like a home. Which means major crackdown on the job hunt now, no excuses. Nate's car is currently broken so we are in a bit of crummy situation, but life could be worse. We spent Labor Day with the Fuller's and Co. at the Eastern Idaho State Fair (big tradition). It was very cold and wet, but always a good time. We don't have the internet, so my blogs may not be as often as they were, but hopefully that will change soon, if I have any say. Wish me luck in my job hunt!

On the road again

Tennessee was completely lined with fir trees basically the whole time. So this is pretty much the best view we got of the place; real cool. Nashville! That's as close as we got, we have major deadlines. But we were stilly happy we got to see it.
In Kentucky. this is the most exciting thing that we saw. Yay bridges! I don't even remember what river we were going over.
Here is us crossing the Missippi river! Wahoo!!!! It really is ginormous.
Metropolis, IL was our destination for the first day. For those of you that aren't aware, my husband likes to think he is Superman. He is a really big fan, and this was basically on our route, so we couldn't just drive by!

Nate was like a little kid here! He was giggling and just so excited. His smile the whole time in Metropolis was priceless. This Superman statue is actually bulletproof. Honestly, how cool is that?!
Nate had a blast here. I think we spent over an hour jsut looking at anything Superman you could ever imagine, all while listening to Superman music. It was pretty cool.
Supergirl is not really my thing, I'm more about Wonder Woman but they didn't have one of those to put my head in.

Wow, what a hunk!!! Metropolis was good to us, I'm really glad Nate got to go there. A note for anyone ever palnning to go there: Metropolis is indeed NOT a Metropolis. It's about the size of Preston, ID and just about as excting, except for there is a casino here. And Superman of course.

How could we NOT eat here? Thanks for a good time Missouri.So it's true what they say, Nebraska is really flat. There is so much sky! It's a whole nother world, and one that I would probably be ok with never seeing again.
We just so happened upon Cabela world headquarters.
It is literally in the middle of nowhere. We didn't stop and go in since we have our very own Cabela's in Utah. But it was still exciting to see because it's something other than corn to look at!
One thing I will give to Nebraska is that with all of the sky that there is to see, it makes for some pretty spectacular sunsets.

When we got to Wyoming I was shocked at how happy I was. There was more than just one dimension! I actually found myself in awe looking around and thinking it was pretty. Granted, I think western WY is the really yucky part, and that's what we will be doing tomorrow, but right now, I'm just ecstatic to be in Wyoming because that means we are only one state away!! I am SO excited to see my mountans! :) Ozzy puts it best, "Mama, I'm coming home!"

No Regrets

Well, after a summer full of surprises, our fun times have come to an end. We have to go back to reality now. What an incredible opportunity this summer has been for us; we couldn't have asked for more. We got to do every single thing on our "list", which I am so pleased with. I am so grateful for the chance I had to step out of my shell and experience so many new things. In honor of Wicked, I feel that I have changed for the better! We leave Virginia exhausted, but with absolutely no regrets. We are excited to get back to family, friends, and most of all Logan. THere are a lot of things we are going to really miss about being out here in the east, but everywhere has its pros and cons. We spent our last weekend with Sara's family and had a blast! Dance parties, delicious Sunday dinners, hide n seek, and late night talks with Sara are some of our very favorite memories.

This is a picture of my teeny tiny Curves, just to show my cache valley curves ladies how greatful they should be for their space.
Here is Hannah being a star right before her backflip off her mom's legs. It was awesome!
The girls watching a video of themselves on Nate's phone. They got a kick out of that!
Even baby Bella got her turn being a little trapeze artist. She just loved it!
Here's what the girls thought of us leaving. Bella just is always laughing, no matter what.
We have become so attatched to these girls this summer. I don't know what we, especially Nate, are gong to do without getting to see them all of the time. They own him. :)

Wow girls, where did you get your funny face pulling gene?Sadie, me, and Hannah after our very last dance party.

Here is Sara and all the girls waving to us as we left their house this morning. I cried for atleast an hour. Yes, we got to do and see a lot of way cool stuff this summer, but the absolute best part has been getting to spend time with Sara and her family. I feel so blessed. Thank you a million times over.

So day one of the long haul home is over, but it is too late and I am too tired to post all about our first day so tomorrow night will have to be a double hitter.

At dance party one night, Hannah created this totally sweet dance move and she calls it the hula. We make her do it ALL the time. Sadie then came up with her own version too. This is them doing their hula's at sunday's dance party.