Comfort

Today, this talk--given by President Monson in the October 2008 General Conference--has given me a lot of comfort.

I don't really feel like explaining why, but I just wanted to put it out there for all of you to read.  But for many reasons, this made me content today.

If you'd like to read it, I highly suggest it.

Please click here:   Finding Joy in the Journey

Changes

It has been a long time since I have posted anything on here.  But I don't feel like there is a lot to say at the moment... 

We moved back to Logan at the end of August.  I believe we got up here on the 30th?  I wish I could remember but I can't, my memory is awful!  I packed most of our stuff up one day while Scott was at his last day of work with Verizon.  When he got home, we moved a bunch of the big stuff into the trailer that Scott's dad brought down for us.  Then, I think the morning of the 30th, we woke up fairly early and packed up everything and cleaned our empty house.  It is weird how much smaller our tiny, 500 sq foot apartment looked without anything in it.  It seemed bigger when we had all of our junk inside.  We left for Logan probably around 4:00 or so the day of the 30th, I believe.  I'm really glad we were able to live in SLC for our first year and a few months of marriage.  We definitely learned a lot that helps us so much in our marriage.

{Of course we had to visit a few of our favorite restaurants before we left though-- Ruth's Diner, and The Red Iguana.  Yummy.  I was also able to go through one more session in the Salt Lake temple.  I will miss going to sessions there regularly}

Our last night in SLC, over looking the city

Packing/moving=crappy 

Goodbye ghetto, 500 sq foot apartment, you treated us (fairly) well

We moved into a basement apartment in Smithfield on 300 South.  It's a 2-bedroom apartment that is pretty big, I think we got a great deal on it!  We live in the basement of an 83-year-old lady's house.  She is darling!  We had called her about the apartment a while back, and the only reason she called us back was because she noticed "Perkes" on her caller-id.  We later found out that she "dated" Scott's Grandpa Perkes.  What a small world!  I haven't taken any pictures of our house yet...who am I?  Geeze.  I will soon, when my house is cleaner :)

Both Scott and I are working at the hospital now.  I got my old job back on Mom/Baby as a CNA.  (Yes--my old job.  Yes, I am still/always looking for jobs in my field. For those of you who don't know, I'm taking my licensing test to be a CSW on November 16. After that, hopefully I can find something soon..)  It has been tougher than I thought being back and having to answer everyone's questions about why I'm working as a CNA again.  But i'm glad that people are interested in us and our lives :)  It just makes me feel silly sometimes.  I love my job, but I feel silly having to explain to everyone why I have my Master's Degree and am still working as a CNA.  I think I am just insecure about it.

Scott got a job as a tech in Central Processing.  It is a great job for him to have during school.  He is working a 1600-0000 shift so he is able to go to school in the morning and work in the evening.  He had to complete a pretty lengthy training but he has finished with that and is liking his job.  He cleans surgical instruments, and organized them into sets.  He says he gets some pretty "nasty" stuff back that he has to sterilize.  

Scott also started flying helicopters last week!  He is really liking it so far.  It is really challenging for him but he will pick it up soon enough.  He is doing online school, (to get his BA in Aviation Science through UVU) ground school at Mountain Ridge Helicopters (at the Logan Airport) 3x a week, and he also flies 3x a week.  So he stays REALLY busy.  But he is enjoying it.

He is flying these helicopters--I think they are called "Robinson Helicopters"

We have been able to enjoy a bunch of things about Logan:  family, the fall weather, friends, biking, Aggie football, hiking in Logan canyon, family, and friends :) 

After we beat Utah

Beautiful Logan canyon

Lovers ;)

I love the fall colors

I guess I had more things to share than I thought I did....

WAY Past Due

I don't even know where to start with this post.  This summer has come before we knew it!  It has gone by so fast... A lot of decisions were made, and a lot of stuff is new.  We have been quite busy this summer that in my spare time, I have wanted to spend it all either with Scott, or studying.

First of all--to start off with, Scott and I celebrated our ONE YEAR anniversary on July 2nd!  Holy smokes this one year has gone by SO unbelievably fast!  We decided that since we had a couple vacations coming up, we would just play it low key and enjoy our anniversary in SLC!  So, we went to 7 Peaks to spend the day... and went to Wingers that night.  We both love Wingers...and it's the place we went on our first date :) Haha... We spent the night at home reminiscing over our first year of marriage, watching our wedding video, and eating a slice of the top of our wedding cake! (Which probably tasted better than it did on our actual wedding day!)  To sum it up--this year has been amazing!  I love Scott and being married to him was the best decision i've ever made.

1 YEAR!  (I know--Kinda a doofy pic, but meh...)

Aww :)

Another great thing that happened was going to my best friends wedding!  Yep, that's right, one of my best friends in the entire world got married!  Brittany got married to James on July 7th in the St. George temple.  It was a hot day, but it was a wonderful one!  Britty looked beautiful, she looked like an angel.  I am incredibly happy for her and James!

Two days after we got back from St. George, we left for Coeur d'Alene, Idaho with Scott's family.  We were able to stay there for the entire week with them.  The drive up seemed to last a long time (stuck in the car with crappy AC) but once we got there, holy incredible!  CDA was beautiful--one of the most beautiful places i've ever seen!

We stayed in this cute house near lake CDA...

We went to a fun amusement park with everyone--the rides were so much fun.  It was so incredibly hot that day so after riding rides, we went to their water park to cool off.  It was nice and refreshing.  Everyone had a good time--it was great fun!

Dakota Bronson Dallin Me Scott

We hung out at Lake CDA for a couple of days...

We drove North up to Sandpoint, ID and hung out at a beautiful lake there called Lake Pend Oreille.  Apparently it is so deep that the navy used to test submarines in it.  Crazy stuff...

We went mountain biking on the Hiawatha Trail, which is a section of an abandoned rail-road system.  We biked about 16 or 17 miles of it. It was so breathtaking!

This is the whole CDA clan at the start of the trail--about to go into a tunnel over a mile long!

Beautiful scenery, right?!

We even were able to ride through tunnels...

(We had to have head lamps because some of the tunnels were over a mile long and completely dark!)

It was such a pretty town!  We all loved it!  It was so great to spend so much time with family!  Thanks for the awesome vacation Perkes fam!  We love you :)

I will update more later--there is lots more to write about but no time...

DONE!

I'M DONE WITH SCHOOL....

FOREVER!

WOO HOO!!!

Now what?

STUDYING FOR THE LICENSING EXAM! (I HAVE to pass it the first time!) Yikes...  

And...

We are for SURE moving to Logan! 

(After a lot of going back and forth....deciding...and weighing our options..)

Now it's Scott's turn to finish up school...

And I'll be the sugar momma!  :)  Haha... riiiiiight.

It will be nice to not have school anymore!  No homework, no papers, no busy work!  Just work :)

I can't wait :)

Hooray for being done with school!  

...But why do i feel like this...

???????

The real world is gonna be a scary place!  I hope I can use my degree and be good at it!

We are looking forward to this next chapter of our lives :)

Mountain Bikes!

We just bought mountain bikes!!

Scott's is the light blue/silver in front.  Mine is the black/dark blue in back

We found both of them on KSL classifieds.  They were an unbelievable steal of a deal--we definitely could not pass them up.

We also pieced together a nifty roof rack and bike racks for our car, again-- thanks to KSL classifieds...  :)  These will come in handy on our upcoming trip to Coeur d'alene soon!

Isn't it beautiful? :)

There are bikers EVERYWHERE in SLC, and we wanted to join the club.  There are so many bike trails that we are currently exploring.  It has been really fun so far.

This is our first ride--we didn't have helmets yet :/

Except that my bum hurts due to the tiny little bike seat.  I need a nice big fluffy seat.  Does the pain ever go away?

We have helmets!  Scott uses his skateboarding one.  We got a steal of a deal on mine too! 

We have really enjoyed using them--it's a different way to exercise that both of us find enjoyable.

 

  

Don't we look so great? :) 

My Graduation

It has been a while since i've blogged, so I figured that I probably should...

I "graduated" on Thursday, May 3.  I say it like that because I walked with my class, but I still have 8 credits left to take and will officially be done June 20th.  So I will have to have my own little graduation party then.

My graduation announcement

On the day of my graduation, my entire family came down to spend the day with us.  Toni was even able to spend the weekend in Utah so it was so nice to have the ENTIRE family together again.  That morning, we spent the day at Hogle Zoo!  It was a long-time family tradition that we used to have so it was nice to be able to go together again.  It was so fun to be there with little Boston--He loved loved loved the animals.  The favorite I think were the monkeys.  He loved being there.  Whenever we would want to move along to the next place, we would say, "Boston, are you ready to move on?"  He would always say, "nope!"  It was cute.  After the zoo, we went to this place called Ruth's Diner up Emigration Canyon.  It is this really yummy, quaint diner that has become one of mine and Scott's favorite.  It was so good!

Me and Scott by the baby elephant and her momma!

The CUTEST little boy in the whole world!

The whole gang at the zoo :)

When we got home, I was greeted by the most beautiful flowers from the best husband in the world.  I am such a lucky gal :)

Best husband ever

Beautiful!

My ceremony started at 7:30 at Kingsbury Hall.  I left my family to meet up with my MSW classmates to take the walk over to Kingsbury Hall and to take pictures of course.  The ceremony was...interesting.  I don't know how I quite feel about it.  I can't decide if it felt "off" because I knew I couldn't fully enjoy it because I technically am not finished with school yet, or if it's because it was a weird ceremony.  Either way, I was glad when it got over, haha.  I met up with my sweet family, and Scott's mom and sister who were so sweet to come down too.  We took some pictures and that was that!  

Me. Camille. Natalie.

Camille. Me. Ellie.

Aww :)

The weekend of my graduation we headed up to Logan for a graduation party my mom hosted for me and Toni (who graduates soon)!  It was great to have my family and friends there.  My mom gave me a sewing machine for my graduation gift, which is awesome!  I'm excited to finally be able to learn to use it.  Overall, it was a really fun weekend.  It really made me feel lucky and blessed to have the family and husband that I do.

The CUTEST graduation cake that Chelsea made me! 

These cakes weren't only beautiful, but they were so tasty!

So what's next?  Good question....  I have classes 3x a week until June 20th.  From there, all that I'm sure of is that I need to study for the licensing exam and hopefully have it taken by the first of August.  We will hopefully figure it out along the way.  I am just trying to stay positive.  I have been having a hard time with the fact that all I am doing with my life is going to school.  I have always had a job and somewhat of a plan and now that I don't right now, I am trying to readjust.  It's an adventure and I'm really trying to enjoy the unknown.  I'm looking forward to the plans we have in the next month or so. First off, mine and Scott's ONE YEAR anniversary is coming up on July 2nd!!!  Next, my best friend Britty is getting married July 7th so we'll be heading south for that, and third, we are going on a fun vacation with Scott's Dad's family up to Coeur d'alene Idaho!  I've never been so I'm excited--they say it's gorgeous up there.  I'm definitely looking forward to those things...