Summer 2011

Alright, so our summer was pretty busy, so this is going to cover our whole summer!

June was pretty fun - Beth's little sister came and visited us all the way up in the frozen tundra.  We made trips to Girdwood, downtown Anchorage, and went to Girl's Camp on Porcupine Island.  It was an awesome time, and made Beth wish she could see Rachel more often!

Rachel was able to find out just how awesome we are, and admitted that Troy is her favorite brother in law, because he's SO funny.

July was great as well - Troy's Dad and Step-Mom came up and visited us over the fourth of July weekend.  They had a great time, and we went on a day-cruise out of Seward.  Alisia and I decided next time they come, we're sending them golfing and we're going to a spa!  :)  We also went and ate at Seven Glaciers, a four diamond restaurant in Girdwood.  The food was divine and the presentation was incredible.  We had no complaints there!

 Doug and Alisia (above) and Troy and I (below) at the top of Alyeska.

 

We also went to a Wildlife Reserve, and celbrated Troy's Birthday.  It was pretty awesome.

August was also TONS of fun.  Troy's littlest sister was getting married, so we made a trip to Utah, and had SO much fun with his family.  It made us realize just how far away we are, and just how much we love them and spending time with them!  It helped to seal the deal that we won't stay here more than the three years, as we just want to badly to be near our amazing families.

 Whitney and I were excited when we found out that we both still had our wedding dresses at Troy's mom's.  We decided to make the best of it, and since Courtney told us we could wear whatever we wanted to to the temple, we wanted to freak her out a bit.  Whitney and I put on our dresses so that when Courtney came home from her hair appointment, she'd come home to us.  We were in luck, because Alex came through the door just before her, and she came in to the above scene!  :)

We took family pictures, and this was one of the pictures of Troy and I.  We LOVE it.

Courtney on her wedding day!  Hooray!  :)

April & May

So sorry that We've been bad about blogging the last two months.

Well, what has happened...?  First off, Beth got her wisdom teeth out at the end of April.  That was pretty eventful.  She had 4 to take out, (Halt, with your two wisdom tooth tale!!)  and one was impacted.  Yes!  She ended up getting a dry socket, and was severely medicated for about a week.  It was rather intense.  She was out of work for 6 days, and don't remember very much of any of it.  Our neighbor recently was telling her about when she (the neighbor) came to walk Trixie one day.  Beth had to ask, "When did you come and walk Trixie???"  It was that bad.  Honestly.  Worst physical week of her life so far.  Beth didn't want to go to the dentist, so Troy convinced her that the root canal she had gotten was worse than getting wisdom teeth out.  Needless to say, he lied!

The weekend before that, Troy was working in Yakutat, and Mikunda Cottrell flew me out for the weekend while he was gone, to visit.  We went to the beach, stayed in Monti Bay Lodge, and saw tons of wildlife.  We saw sea lions, bald eagles, starfish, and the like.

 This was a sunset at Monti Bay.  So pretty!

 Expressing our love in the sand!

 Troy touching a starfish!  They had surprisingly spiny backs!

 Up close and personal with a HUGE bald eagle!

 Aw, we're still in love!!

 The beautiful mountains!

 These three are sequential - Notice the top 'sea straw' (it looks like a feather duster.

Troy reaching in to touch it...

 It sucks its feathery end in when you get close!!  Neat.

 Shipwrecked/beached ships at the harbor.

At the harbor.

 A Panoramic View of one of the beaches we were at.

The moss dripping off the trees on a walk we went on!

Beth finally finished reading The Happiness Project, and started her own.  It's been a unique, but worthwhile experience so far.  Goals such as daily scripture study and journal writing are in this months goals.  It's about time to pick next months!!  Her online schooling also began, and she is almost done with her requisite to all online classes.  It's been mostly about the Spirit of Ricks, study skills, and to give us a feeling of how to succeed in online classes.

These days the sun sets around 11ish, and rises around 4:30.  Beth has a love-hate relationship with this.  Troy can sleep through it, so he doesn't mind.  However the pollen and other things that result of the intense sunshine DO put a damper on his day.  We're hoping Zyrtec will start to take care of that.

Since we got married, Troy has been talking in his sleep.  Beth LOVED to tell him the stories when he would wake up.  These include yelling out "PRECIPITATION!", and "Where's the pretty lady?" followed by him grabbing Beth and saying, "Ohhh!"  Well, sure enough the tables have turned!   Beth was dreaming that her little sister had left behind wrappers for all the good candy, and left all.the gross candy. While searching, her dad kept saying over and over 'Hey Beth?' to get her attention and she was saying 'What?' each time, and he wouldn't answer, Finally she woke herself up when she yelled 'Whaaaaaat!?!?!'at him for real. Troy is so excited that now Beth talks in her sleep!

We ended up getting several movies from the library, as we are too cheap to supplement our small collection.  We checked out the America: The History of Us series, which we had started several months ago in Idaho.  We found it so fascinating and were so glad we found it.  We ended up deciding that Netflix was an acceptable alternative to the library, and have recently begun to enjoy films online.  Quite delightful.  Too bad all the really good movies are on DVD only! 

Troy has begun studying for the CPA Exam. He is also working on an intense future audit/client base for Medicare Providers, as a project at work.  He likes that it keeps him busy.  His work also has a softball team that he plays on at least once per week.  He really enjoys the sports.  He also plays basketball once a week as well.

Beth helped at the Anchorage Theater of Youth a week ago, and will be going back again.  She's helping to organize (a rough guess) 1,000 costumes.  It's fascinating working with them - the manager is an aerial acrobat as well as theater extraordinaire!


We also were delighted that the Lakers didn't win this year.  We watched one of the Celtics games and were so impressed.  Sadly, they didn't make it, either.  The game that we did watch, the Celtics KILLED - Rondo dislocated his elbow, and still kicked the other teams rears.   Love it!

Beth watched about 5 minutes of Oprah's last show (surprising at how much she's watched her last season, actually!), and was impressed by a quote, that everyone should remember.  That is, ‘Please take responsibility for the energy you bring into this space.'  She can't remember who said it, so we'll say "A Doctor".  It was really one of the epiphany moments that caused a paradigm shift - take some time to think on it!!

Well, that's all that comes to mind!  We'll be having company over the next month and a half and couldn't be more excited!!

Until Next Month!



Recommended viewing: Ultimate Caption Fail.

March!

Well, March has been good.

In News: We have a dog!  She's a 3 pound Tea Cup Yorkie.  She loves to nap.  She doesn't understand the concept of fetch, but she loves to snuggle, so we'll let it slide.  :)  We got her off of craigslist (last time I use that!) and when I went to pick her up, she had a jacket on, and was all bundled up.  I got to Troy's work to pick him up, and took of her jacket, to find out she was bald underneath!!  That scammer!  We decided to keep her however, and she is very sweet, and trained relatively well, so we can't complain too much.

We decided to name her Kiwi, and then about a week ago, we were talking about how much we love Trix (the cereal) and asked ourselves why the name Trixie never came up.  After a Facebook poll, we decided it would be acceptable to change her name, so we did! 

I've been working on getting our business up and running.  I've been working with a girl who will be heading up the sales part of the company, and I'm SO excited about it.  I've been working on the website, which is still in the process of being created/developed.  It's hard having another job, to have the motivation at the end of the day.  Fortunately, I really like my day job, so I don't loathe being there, wishing I could be home working on my business.

I made a break with my Beehives, and we've all (as far as I know!) decided that we like each other.  They are awesome girls, and so much fun to work with every week. The Laurels had planned a really fun combined activity - Newspaper and Duct Tape Fashion!  I couldn't believe how creative they were.  They made some elaborate outfits.  These were the four dresses they made.  It was such a fun activity.  The First and Third one are Beehives, and the one on the far right is my honorary Beehive.  They are just great girls!

We also went on a "snow machining" (translation: snowmobiling) trip with the YW one weekend.  It was my first time on a snowmobile.  It was pretty fun, but too cold!  :)  Maybe by next year I'll by gloves or something.

I've been trying out new recipes to add some variety to the five dishes that I could think of.  Troy was so sweet and never complained, but when I finally found his mom's cook book and said something about cooking something different, you could see the relief in his eyes.  Then my boss brought me several cookbooks, which rocks!  THEN my sister, Megan, basically the best cook on the planet, sent me her cookbook that she will one day publish and become a millionaire off of.  All credit for the meal to the right goes to her - We haven't tried that meal yet, but we are going to!  I made Chicken Cordon Bleu, and we ate it on sandwiches - Mayo, Lettuce, Tomato, Whiskey Honey Mustard (for me) on a healthy, wheaty kind of bread, with salad on the side.  It was one of the best meals, ever.

Troy and I ended up finally finishing Friends.  I made him watch it with me when I was sick, and he got so into the story, that he just had to know what happened.  Ten seasons later, here we are.  He found out how big of a cry baby I am.  I cried for several episodes, beginning mostly at the Monica/Chandler proposal.  Doesn't matter how many times I see it, I lose it every time.  Pathetic.

Well, that about sums up our month.  Marriage is definitely a fun ride.   So glad to be on it! 

Our New Lives

Alright - so I'm just going to do a quick recap of the last few months.

December - I finished work a week and a half before the wedding and put on "A Christmas Carol".  I need to put an album on FB of it.  It was quite awesome.  The kids were fabulous, and it was SO much fun.  Troy's mom came up on the last night to surprise me.  It was sweet of her.


We got married on the 18th.  Most of you were there, but it was a good day.  Megan made a GORGEOUS wedding.  :)  So glad she's my sister!


We went to Catalina Island for our honeymoon.  I didn't know where we were going until we were on the way.  Troy wanted it to be a surprise, but our flight was delayed, so he had to call and change the time we were taking the Catalina Express, which tipped me off.  We got to LA and took a taxi to the port.  We took Dramamine so that we wouldn't get sick on the rocky water, and it actually knocked us out for the next 15 hours.  We only woke up to get from the ferry to our hotel, and then were out cold for a long, long time.


They ended up having record rainfall while we were there.  It rained 4 out of 5 days we were there.  Apparently they rarely have rain that lasts longer than an hour, and so this was out of the norm.   It rained and rained, and rained.  Everything to do was closed, and a lot of stores and restaurants were closed for leaks/flooding in their stores.  We watched a LOT of movies to pass the time.  Finally on the last day, a glass-bottom boat tour was open.  It was fun to see the fish and kelp, but the run-off from the island made the water murky.  We decided that we could plan a fabulous Catalina trip, but wouldn't have it last longer than 2 nights, and it would be in the summer so that the water wouldn't be a bad idea.  We toured the Casino, which isn't what we think of as a Casino today.  "Casino" means a place of gathering and entertainment, so it is a theater, dance hall, and gathering place for big events.  It was a really interesting place.  It was built by the Wrigley Family (as in the gum) in the 20s, before Casino meant "a place to gamble."  It was one of our favorite parts.


We went back to Utah for a few days, and had Christmas, and prepared for Alaska.  We flew up here on the 29th, and found a place and moved in on the 31st.  It's a two bedroom, is freshly carpeted, tiled, painted, and has been a great place in general so far.  Our landlord is awesome.  Our dryer didn't work one day, and he got us a brand new one in less than 24 hours, and he's replacing our furnace next week. 


January - Our neighbors above us are in our ward, and have been awesome.  They recently lost a baby, that was stillborn (she died the day she was due), and wanted to move somewhere to get away and have a fresh start.  They have a living son named Kai, who is 3 and is a peach.  He is one of the cutest kids ever.  Don't worry, your kids are cuter.  They also had a son older than Kai, who passed away as a toddler.  They are an amazing family.  They made us Cafe Rio salads with the pork... So. Good.


I started working for Kanady Chiropractic Center and had a hard time at first, mostly because I was so far from anyone I knew, but it's turned out to be an awesome job.  I work directly with the owner, and it's part time.  She believes that part time employees are happy employees.  I believe she is right.


Troy is starting to get used to his new job.  He misses his work buddies from Idaho, but we're glad we're here.  The economy up here is SO much better than it is down there.  Apparently it's a lot worse than it was before the recession, so I can't imagine what it would have been like pre-crash.  We're so grateful to have our jobs.



February - He traveled to Barrow on Valentine's Day.  He got to stand on the Arctic Ocean.  That's about as close as you can get to putting your toes in it.  He sent me pictures, and it was solid ice.


Since he was gone, he took me to Crow's Nest for Valentine's day before he left.  I was starting to get sick, and was quite sick with a respiratory infection for several days.  It was so nice to have that night before I got too sick.  He bought me a beautiful watch for Valentine's day.  Since he left in the midst of my being the most sick, our neighbors took care of me and brought me meals and a Valentine.  It was so sweet.


Well, that about sums it up!!