The Intrudor in Aunt Dianes House...

For the past week Kaden thought i was going crazy. At night when we would be watching TV i would hear strange noises and make him turn off the TV and listen for them. Of course the noise would never happen then and Kaden would tell me i am paranoid, which i know that i can be so i would dismiss the noise and try to forget about it. Then Saturday night i heard a huge crashing noise from the kitchen and then weird noises from under our bed, honestly i usually would freak out and think someone was breaking into the house  except for i had already convinced myself that i was crazy just like Kaden said. Sunday evening my craziness was proven to be illegitimate. As Kaden and i were watching TV just like every night we started to hear a weird, loud, scrapping type of noise in the kitchen. I made Kaden go investigate...i knew i wasn't crazy. Kaden screamed OH MY GOSH! Can anyone guess what it was?....Thats right, it was a mouse! and it was dragging a spoon from the kitchen into its home. Kaden instantly made it his goal to investiage and terminate. The mouse had no chance, Kaden went all out putting on shoes and even a head light to find this thing. Then at 12:00 at night Kaden went to walmart to buy traps. At first this mouse was smart and didn't take the bate but after a day of being taunted by the beautiful cheese....well lets just say we woke up to an amazing noise this morning. The sound of a snapping trap.

Job Hunting

Kaden and I have now applied pretty much everywhere in Cedar. We have not received even one call so of course no interviews. I understand that the economy  is bad but this is getting ridiculous. I have held several great jobs with good titles. Both of us are running out of ideas. Our business teacher told us that entrepreneurs are the only people who make money in Cedar  but being an entrepreneur comes with a lot of risk, and when you have no idea what to base your business off of besides photography you are in trouble. So basically, we are in trouble. I did just apply at a pre-school today though and i am praying that this job works out. Please keep your fingures crossed our shout out a prayer for me, this might be our only chance at work for quite awhile and we really need to move out of aunt Dianes place someday.

The Week of Snow

This week has been rather cold up here in Cedar City, especially at night. The trend is for it to snow all night and then for the sun to come out during the day and try and melt all of the snow away. Last night is snowed so much that the majority of it was unmeltable (i know this is my own word). Since the snow actually stuck around past 10 a.m. we decided we better let Tiffany go play for awhile because we have been really bad about taking her for a walk every day and she is getting pretty bored in the house. We decided to head out to the high schools baseball field and let her run around as much as she wanted in the gated area. She was so cute! The snow was pretty deep so she had to hop through and she kept eating the snow and digging big holes in it. Her and Kaden also had a race and i am pretty sure it was a tie. After the fun time in the snow Tiffany got stuck at the house alone while Kaden and I worked on a few papers that we have due next week. Since i am still on the internet, this means we are still at the Library and Kaden is still typing away. So far school is still going well, except for that i got a 69.8 on my Biology test the other day, I just really suck at all things science. I refuse to get anything lower than a B in the class though so i have started my studying for the next exam already. Hopefully next weekend we will head back down to the Valley, it is kind of weird not seeing our families almost every day, and even weirder is them not feeding us. Poor Kaden has had to put up with my cooking on a super low budget. Dinner this week consisted of, Macoroni for two = .50, Beans, Rice, and Tortiallas = 2.00 and tonight will be Chili and Corn Bread = 3.50. I would have to say we are getting the saving part down, but it is so tempting to fight the urge to go out to eat. Someone please lend me some encouraging words to keep me away from Cafe Rio.

Moving and School

I finally was accepted to SUU like the day before Christmas. I also was offered a pretty nice scholarship and was able to get Kaden one as well. I would like to send a huge THANK YOU to Melinda for all of her financial aid help. School started January 4th, so of course we didn't start packing until December 30th. I was amazed at how everything worked out for us though. We emptyed our little home into one bedroom at Penn and Nancy's and packed up our essentials to take to Aunt Dianes. Yes we are now currently residing in Aunt Dianes trailer and by the look of things we will be camping out there for a few months. We would really love our own place but due to the lack of jobs for college students in Cedar and the truck bill we haven't been able to get rid of camping is our only option at the moment. I call living at Aunt Dianes camping because that is what if feels like. Our stuff is ever where and in no order at all. Free rent is a small price to pay for the decision we made to be poor college students. It will take us a little time to adjust but we will eventually get used to it. We just keep reminding ourselves how important it is to receive an education and how there are way more people out there worse off then we are. We know how blessed we are to even be going to school right now so we are pretty happy with that. By the way, Tiffany absolutely loves the snow, but really misses being able to run around outside. She doesn't have any friends to visit up here either so she mostly just sleeps all day now. We plan on taking her on walks every day now to help make her happier, so far it has only happened twice.

I have only been at SUU for two weeks now but i absolutely love school. My program is so amazing! The teachers that have all are specialists on their subjects and have PHDs its such a refreshing change compared to UNLV. Most of my teachers their were actually grad students who could care less about their subjects. I feel like the education program is perfect for me I am already applying to get accepted in and everything the only problem i have is trying to get my UNLV credits and hours to count towards things at SUU but i am sure i will get all of that resolved eventually. I have also made a few friends already in some of my classes and i love seeing people from the valley around campus it is such a nice atmosphere for kaden and i to be in. Kaden doesn't feel quite the same way about his classes at the moment because he is taking some pretty useless ones, but he does enjoy his criminal justice one and he is hoping right not to be able to get into a PTA program. Tomorrow i have an interview for the education program. Wish me luck!

Christmas!

This is our cute little Christmas Tree, notice there are no ornaments at the bottom...

Tiffany wanted to play with them so we had to move them all to the top.

This year was mine and Kaden's first Christmas together as a married couple. It was so amazing! We definitely splurged a lot more on each other than we should have though. I bought Kaden a gun for who knows what reason other than he wanted it and he promised me a luxurious vacation and a camera, both things we can no longer afford. (Kaden got the good end of the deal) not that I am complaining because he did get me a very nice coach bracelet, beany and scarf that i love! Over the Holiday we spent a lot of time with both of our families, it is so nice having them so close to one another so we can do presents at Penn and Nancy's at six in the morning, then go home and open ours, and then head to my parents and still make it back to Penn and Nancy's in time to talk to Vance. The day was eventful for sure but we loved every moment of it.

P.S. Kaden was supposed to work Christmas day, I am so glad that he decided to quit the power plant because it would have been so sad not spending it with him.

The day after Christmas was pretty fun as well. My cousin and his new wife came to Vegas for their honeymoon and we met them there for the day. We took them out to our favorite place, Serendipity, and shopping at Ceasars and the Fashion Show. It was so nice to hang out with another married couple for once. I truly think that was our first time even hanging out with another couple at all since we have been married.

Then on Sunday after Christmas we headed to the mountains with Kaden's parents and luke to go tubbing. Me and Nancy decided it was way to cold for that so we mostly just watched and tried to keep warm. The boys had a blast though.

Disneyland and The Wedding

 

Its the weekend before Christmas now and Kaden has officially been accepted back into SUU. I am still waiting on my transcripts to arrive, for some reason CSN thought it would be a good idea to drag my process out as long as possible. I shouldn't complain though i am the one who applied so late. So anyways about our weekend to Disneyland and the wedding. Friday after noon My family and Kaden and I packed up and headed to California. It took us awhile to get to Anaheim because we decided to stop and shop in Barstow at the outlets. There were amazing sales and we couldn't pass up a chance for some last minute christmas shopping. Then we made another stop for dinner in Corona at Chad and Daisy's home. It was so n ice spending the evening with them. They are so much fun and they are so sweet i love when we get to see them and their girls. Daisy made an amazing dinner and I tried Brussels sprouts for the first time. I loved them! Thanks Chad and Daisy for inviting us for dinner! I hope we weren't overly entertaining with all of our laughing and even crying. ( I cried because Sarah brought up an old memory of my cat being hit by a car). We always have such entertaining dinners. The next morning we woke and got ready and headed for the temple so we could be there in time for the seiling at 10:30. We were pretty bummed out when we got a call on the way asking us where we were because the sealing was already over. Thats right we were completely off on the time. Sorry again Brian and Tiffany, we really did want to be there. The lunch in was a lot of fun, we got to hang out with my cousins Michael and Kevin as well as Chad and Daisy and it was nice to hang out and joke around with them. The reception was beautiful and there was a ton of amazing desserts. Michael and Sarah and I also had some fun dancing like idiots while Kaden laughed at us.

After the reception Michael, Kevin and Camille all showed up at the hotel for a big slumber party. It was so much fun for us to hang out with them, there honestly was never a dull moment. My Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Heather and their boys, James and Justice joined us at the hotel as well. They kept the party going as well. James and Justice are always so much fun to be around and we always wish we could see them more often. The next day the real party began when we went to disneyland. Hannah, Katie and Jimmy's family were all early birds and hit up the park as soon as it opened. The rest of us took a little longer to get ready but we still made it before noon. Thats good for the Hendrix family. Sunday at the park was pretty packed but later in the day it wasn't to bad we got to go on all the important rides, like, space mountain, small world, the materhorn, thunder railroad, pirates, the haunted house, the tower of terror, star wars, buzz light year, soaring over CA, the two roller coasters at ca adventure, Mr. toads wild ride, and a few more. We also found time to eat a lot, get birthday and aniversary pins, it wasn't anyones birthday or anniversary but it was still fun to have, and best of all we got into pin trading. What is pin trading you ask? It is a hobby made up by disney to give people something else to do and spend tons of money on while they are at the park. My sisters and Kaden and I all got lanyards and a bunch of pins then we found collections that we liked and we thought were valuable and started trading the cast members for them. I know sounds pretty lame, and it is, but it does get addicting. So addicting that when we got home Kaden ordered a pin off ebay because it was the last one he needed to complete his collection. The other thing that we got addicted to at disneyland was searching for "Hidden Mickeys." This was the best, Kaden and Sarah have this competition thing between each other that will last their entire lives and Sarah though the hidden Mickeys were amazing (she even has a book on it) so Kaden had to find a way to one up her. So of course he used his blackberry to find an updated list of the hidden Mickeys. Hidden Mickeys = mickey shaped objects that are hidden on every ride, store and restaurant. They are seriously everywhere! Sarah's obsession got so bad though that Monday while we were leaving California and eating dinner with Jimmy's family at Red Lobster the waitress told sarah there was a prize for whoever found the hidden mickey in the menu. Of course Sarah found one and James had to break the news to her that it was a joke. Monday at Disneyland was crazy. The park was so packed that it shut down. The only real ride we got onto was Indian Jones and that was out of sheer luck, we happened to be passing by the ride at the perfect moment as they were reopening it. Otherwise the lines were hours long for everything. Susan, Cami's mom joined us Monday though and it was great to have them their. I love every chance i get to spend with Camille and her family. It doesn't happen enough.

Well the weekend was amazing if you couldnt tell. Thanks Mom and Dad for taking all of us! And thanks everyone who came for making it so much fun! We miss you all and can't wait to see you again.

My Final, Finals Week at UNLV

Kaden and I still hadn't heard back from SUU at this point but the only thing keeping me sane during finals week was the thought that i would never have to go back to UNLV again. Now i don't hate UNLV i just had a rather interesting semester. Watching Silence of the Lambs and writing a paper on a Porn Star just was a little much. Not to mention the hour and half drives to school and the late math class that changed its mind every other week on whether it was offering me credit or not. The raising class prices were getting pretty out ragious as well. The spring semester was going to cost me 4,500 for 12 credits. Ridiculous, i know. Okay onto my finals. My English final was a 3-5 page essay written in class and my philosophy was a twenty five question test worth a hundred points. Math was not so bad i cant even remember how many questions there were but it was worth 60% of my grade (still not sure if the class even graded). Well the tests sounded easy enough but i am a freak when it comes to tests, especailly finals. I drafted my English essay about a thousand times, that may be a little over exagerated but i really did quite a bit. Then i studied for my Philosophy for a few days and then six hours strait in a silence room in the library the day of the test. I was so excited Thursday, December 10th, when i walked out of my math class and said good bye to UNLV. I guess i wasn't positive i would be leaving but i was definitely keeping my fingures crossed.

Thanks Giving, and Our Crazy Decision

Thanks Giving was quite awhile ago now but that is where i left off, so that is where i am going to start back up. This year Kaden and I had a pretty quiet holiday weekend that we spent with both of our families. Sadly Kaden only had Thanks Giving day off because he was working at the power plant for the rest of the weekend (gotta love shift work). I know that i don't say this enough but i am so grateful for all that i am blessed with! I have the most amazing husband and both sides of our family are just wonderful. Thank you everyone for being a part of our lives!

So onto our crazy decision... After only being able to spend one day together over the holiday we decided something was going to have to change. Twelve hour shifts were making Kaden grumpy and me crazy. It was hard enough before jugling our schedules between work and school but now it was just ridiculous and we kind of figured it was not how we wanted to spend the rest of our lives...so. Novemeber 30th we sent in our applications to SUU, the day before they stopped accepting for the spring semester.