Our First Home!

As I mentioned in a previous blog, Mitch and I are living in his Grandma Schmutz's basement. That may not sound too great, but really it's nice! First of all, Grandma is very easy to live with, not only because she's the nicest person on earth, but because she's basically silent upstairs, and she actually lives in Oak City for like 8 months of the year (so we'll be in the house by ourselves). Anyways, our basement has a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom. I should probably also add that it has a storage room and bomb shelter! haha We have our own door so we can come and go whenever we want.... so really it feels like we live on our own. The biggest blessing though, is that we live rent- free! We pay for the satellite and that's about it! Anyways, we love our basement house and really are grateful to be here!

I'm starting to realize that the beginning of marriage comes with all sorts of new adventures.... and our living situation has definately had it's share! First of all, there is something wrong with our vents or something, because anytime the heat is on, a HORRIBLE smell blows out! And I don't mean just a slightly unpleasing smell..... it gives me a stomach ache! They checked the septic tank and it's not that, so we're assuming that maybe something died in a vent? Thank goodness, someone is coming to check the vents tomorrow so hopefully it'll be gone! Over the last few months, I have gone through my fair share of candles, air freshener spray, wall plug-ins, the smelly powder you put on carpet before you vacuum, and even air fresheners that are made to go in vents! And much to my dismay, our house nearly always smells like rotten eggs! Everyone say a prayer that they fix it tomorrow!

Another fun part of our basement is that our TV, computer, and microwave are all on the same fuse. Most days we don't have a problem.... but every now and then, it just can't handle it anymore, and the fuse blows about 3 times in one day! Luckily Mitch can just go switch it back on and we're back in business! haha Another great side-effect of these all being connected is that whenever you turn the microwave on, the images on our computer screen shake back and forth violently..... looking at the screen for longer than about 20 seconds will make your eyes hurt :) Again, we love these little adventures of being married and moving into a new place!

Perhaps my FAVORITE of all the surprises that have come along with our little house includes eight legs, claws, and a tial full of venom!!

Our house seems to be a haven for all the local SCORPIONS!! Maybe I should explain that Mitch's family owns a big hill in the St. George Washington Fields, and we live up on top of it. So we are surrounded by desert... and an animal kingdom. It has the perks of waking up to bunnies all over the lawn... but also includes lots of bugs, esp scorpions! We only found about 4 in our first month and a half of living here, but all of a sudden a few weeks ago, we killed 5 in a day! We have killed about 14 in the last 3 weeks. Idk if it's the warmer weather, or the construction above our house causing them to come into our house more... but they are NOT welcome visitors! They come out mostly at night... so now I always wear shoes in the house, but esp when I hop out of bed to go potty at night. It isn't even a surprise anymore to kill a scorpion or two when I make a bathroom trip at night. Though I now suffer from not being able to fall asleep at night because my feet itch like crazy as I lay there thinking about the scorpions crawling all over our floor! But rest assured, we are fighting back! Mitch has nearly gone crazy trying to find them! I have come home from work to find him, shovel in hand, out in the desert with our dog trying to HUNT the scorpions. So far he's found ONE. haha We also bought spider and mouse traps that are flat and sticky, so we put them by the door that the scorpions sneak in through... and much to our dismay, we've only caught two. But we are still on the watchout. Hopefully they all find somewhere else to go, because I really am not in the mood to get stung! Somehow the idea of intense pain, followed by burning, and then numbness for a week, just doesn't seem appealing! Anyways, my point in that I hate scorpions!

So this blog probably makes our basement sound horrible, but it really is a great place to live! It's way bigger than an apartment and lots of fun to be so close to our family. I've attempted to make our little house took like a home.... but it has mostly been decorated with hand-me-downs, including my sweet couches that my mother tried to give away when I was 16, but I made her save them for me! They go perfectly with the farm wallpaper that Grandma has on the walls down here! Anyways, I took some pictures of our house, so enjoy!

This is our living room... and the door that Andy often runs into!

Another picture of our living room and sweet country couches... thanks mom!

Again the living room... btw I LOVE our brick wall! It's way cute!

Here is our cute kitchen... we bought an island for the middle that is quite useful

Here is our pink bathroom... I know you're jealous of the pink marble!

And here is our bedroom... this pictures makes it look even less colorful than it really is!

Our Little Dummy.... aka Andy

So this last June while Mitch and I were dating, he asked me to go with him to pick out a puppy for his family. We picked out this adorable little girl we named Andy.....

Little did I know back then, she would one day be MY dog haha. After Mitch and I got married, his parents asked when we were gonna take Andy over to our house. I was a little shocked, but now she's ours! Though she occasionally goes back to his parents house next door, she's been at our house most of our first two months. Now I know this doesn't sound like something to blog about.... but this is NO ordinary dog.... she's what I like to call "our little dummy" or idiot or whatever you'd like to fill in there!

Andy has had her fair share of accidents in her first 8 months! Mitch's parents house has a walk-out basement... so needless to say, the backyard is a full story lower than the front yard. One day Mitch was in the backyard and Andy wanted to go down there.... but instead of walking around the carport and down the hill to him, she walked OFF the carport and fell down to the backyard. I'm pretty sure this is why she is so insane! A few weeks later, her leg was run over while Mitch's mom was backing out of the driveway... which I'm sure hasn't helped with her being crazy.

Since she's moved over here with us, she's had a little problem with our sliding glass door. A month or so ago, we had the door open and we'd let Andy out of her pen to run around for a little bit in the backyard. She decided to try to sneak into the house. We were sitting RIGHT THERE in the living room, so as she started walking in, Mitch stood up to tell her to get out. She got scared and turned around really fast and ran right into the door! And if that isn't bad enough, the other night Mitch let her out to run around and she ran to the door to see me sitting inside..... the door was shut, but she must not have seen it, because she ran full speed into the sliding glass door! She must have been embarassed, because she turned right back around and ran into her doghouse! hahaha she is definately entertaining, but I seriously think she has some brain damage! She often chases her own tale, digs hole after hole in her dog pen, plays with bugs, and will endure any weather sitting outside of her doghouse (including FREEZING snow storms) to make sure she can get a clear view through the sliding glass door of our every move in the living room!

Two weeks ago, Mitch took her to get fixed. When she came back home, she was pretty drugged up. I'm pretty sure that is the ONLY time I will ever see her calm!! She even laid in the house for hours and never attempted to run around or rip anything up! One day later she was back to her hyperactive self though!

So for a little history on her name... she was named after one of our favorite characters on the TV show The Office. Andy Bernard from the office is sort of an over-bearing suck-up who just want to be best friends with everyone. He's also pretty unusually happy all the time. Welp we drfinately named our dog perfectly! She thinks everyone and everything is her best friend! She's crazy excited all the time, but it's why we love her! Here's a picture of what she looks like now and also a video of her trying to constantly attack Mitch!

Two Months!!

Mitch and I had our two month anniversary of being married yesterday! Wow time has gone by so fast! It's been super fun though and we're enjoying everything that comes along with getting married :)

Since getting married, Mitch has started another semester of college and hopefully it'll be his last before he starts with a radiology program next spring. He'll apply to a few programs around August, but we're really hoping that he'll get into the one at Dixie so we can stay here in St. George! He's also planning on applying for Weber's online program and also at Salt Lake Community College. If he doesn't get into any programs, he's thinking about going into accounting, like his dad and brother Coby. Mitch is still working at the college from 4 to 7 am.... and let me tell you that I'm already forgetting what it's like to sleep straight through the night without the alarm going off at 3:30 and then him falling back into bed at 7!! He's such a trooper, but I have no clue how he can do it! He's my hero :) I'm still working at the LOVELY Pizza Factory haha I've applied for some full time positions at banks and as a receptionist, but it is nearly impossible to find anything right now! I'm just thankful to have ANY job at this point! The budget is tight, but we're surviving.... mainly because we have lots of help and also the blessing of getting to live with Grandma Schmutz rent free! The other day I had a little meltdown about bills and tuition and everything... but Mitch, being my rock like always, calmed me down and I'm sure everything will work out.

The two weeks before Christmas brought more snow to St. George than I've ever seen (and definately tons more than I ever saw growing up in Vegas!!) Mitch built a snowman, only to have it knocked over by our precious little idiot dog, Andy! We love her even though she is seriously insane! I took a couple pictures of the snow... though this is two days after it snowed and a lot of it had already thawed out. The pictures also show off our view from the hill we live on :)

Being married really does come with many treats that I hadn't initially thought about.... such as the calling that Mitch and I recently received in our ward. We are the teachers of the CTR 6 class for primary. We've taught about 3 lessons so far and it's been pretty fun. We're still struggling with making a lesson for 6 year olds last for a full hour, but I'm sure we'll eventually figure something out :D Now I'm just dreading the inevitable talk we're going to have to give in sacrament as the new members in the ward!

Anyways, married life is awesome and I'm so happy to be living with my best friend! He definately puts up with me and my crazy cleaning habits and bad moods and everything haha Being married is going to be a fun little adventure!!

Our First Christmas!!

I've done a horrible job of keeping our blog updated for the last few months, but now that we have the internet I'm gonna try to post things pretty often.

Right after being married we got to enjoy the holidays together! It was definately different not just being with MY family, but it was fun to see everybody. We had Thanksgiving dinner with my family and then had Chrsistmas with Mitch's family. Luckily our families did things at different times, so for the most part, we were able to be with both families to open presents and eat.

I definately enjoyed decorating my own little house for the holidays... though I'm not the best at it haha Here are a few pictures at my attempt...

I love Christmas and am sad for it to be over, but I'm already looking forward to our 2nd X-mas together!

Wedding Pictures...

So we FINALLY got the internet here in our basement so I can update my page!! Here is a link to some of our wedding pictures, which turned out amazing! Enjoy!

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=12714719&albumId=3140950

I Should Be Asleep!

I really should be asleep right now... but instead I've been trying to fix up our blog :) I used to be really good about writing blogs often on my myspace page, so I'm gonna try to do that on here. I was thinking that maybe I should write more about my background and Mitch's since most people who look on here only know one of us or the other. I think I'll have Mitch write about himself... or I'll write it another time, but for now I'm just gonna write about myself.

I am the youngest of 5 kids. I was born and raised in the great Las Vegas! At the time it was great, but now it's a little scary to look back on haha I have three older brothers and an older sister. They are all so different and I think that being the baby, I watched them while growing up and now am a little like each of them. Though my sister and I both played with dolls and barbies and stuff like that, I'd say that we were never really "girly girls". I don't think our brothers ever would have allowed it. As a kid I loved going camping and playing sports.... mostly I remember wanted to do ANYTHING with my brothers, though it was a rare occasion that they would let us stick around them and their friends haha. I was the kind of kid that was an ANGEL at school....... but my mom wanted to kill me at home!! It wasn't so much that I was doing bad things, I was simply a fit-thrower. Nearly anything could throw me into a tantrum (ie- I wanted to close the door, but my mom did) and then I'd literally cry for hours! I was known for stiffening my legs and digging my toes into the ground...... the reason being that I had to hurt myself to have a reason to keep crying! Seriously, I think that raising me gave my mom a ticket straight to heaven! Anyways, I did well in school and from 4th to 8th grade I was in choir. I also played the piano from the age of 8 to 18 (though unfortunately I'm not nearly as good as I should be!) My oldest brother got married when I was only 8 and my first niece was born when I was 9! I've been an aunt for over 11 years and absolutely love it! I was an avid babysitter from 9 to about 18... then my first two jobs were nannying and working at a daycare. Needless to say, I love children and I can't wait to be a mommy! I went to high school at Las Vegas High School and I will consider myself a Wildcat til the day I die. "I bleed red and black!!" I was involved in student counsil, the president of STATUS (a club against alcohol, drugs, and tobacco), and a member of the yearbook staff for 4 years, three of which I was an editor, and my senior year being the editor-in-chief. Though it may come off that I was very outgoing...... I was always hoping that I'd blend in with the back wall in high school!! I was incredibly shy for most of my life, and still am at times. Though I didn't take all the classes I probably could have, I still managed to graduate with a high honors diploma. After high school....... you'd think that I woulda gone off to college like all my responsible friends, right?! NOPE!! That's just not like me! I've always been the kind to go against the crowd... even when it's the right thing to do sometimes haha. About 6 months after graduation, I moved here to St. George, Utah. I started hair school about a year after I graduated... and though I enjoyed doing hair, I absolutely hated going to hair school! So after wasting a year there and lots of money, I eventually quit. Then last spring I decided to go to college! I absolutely LOVED it! I felt like I was using my brain again and for some reason I thrive off of the challenge of school! That's about the time that I met Mitch and my whole life changed. I wasn't looking for a relationship, let alone to get married!! But isn't that just how life goes? So... now that we're engaged, we can't afford to both be going to school. For now, I'm putting Mitch through school, and maybe eventually I'll go back. I was originally thinking I'd go to be an elementary school teacher, but now I'm considering photography. Maybe even journalism... obviously I don't have a hard time writing haha. I've always loved writing, but my downfall is that I always write in too much detail. My mom tells me stories about me coming home from school and she'd ask "How was school today Val?" and 2 hours later, I'd finish telling her about every little detail of my day haha. All of my brothers are now married with kids and my family has grown from the original 7 to 18! The last few years of my life have been filled with lots of challenges and growing experiences. Though I definately haven't always made the right choices, I have become a completely new person since high school, and I couldn't be happier! And now I get to marry the best guy on earth!

Anyways, I'm sure there's lots more I could write, but I really need to go to sleep!

Our Crazy Lives!!

So I have done a horrible job at keeping our blog updated!! Life seems way too crazy lately to find the time to stop and write everything down.... but I'm gonna try to do better from now on :) Everything is going pretty good for Mitch and me. We're both staying really busy and it's helping the time FLY by! Mitch had 3 big tests last week so for the last 3 weeks he's done nothin but work, go to school, study, eat and sleep! Thank goodness he can relax a little bit now and we can see each other a little more. Life has been going a million miles an hour for me and most days, I feel like there aren't enough hours in the day! I moved a few weeks ago...... most of my stuff got taken to the basement where we'll live when we're married, and the things that I need came with me to my parent's new house here in St. George. I can explain how glad I am to have that move behind me!! I felt like I was going insane there for a little while! Everything is going really well with the wedding. Little by little, everything is getting done.... though there are still tons of little things that we have to finish up on. We've had a few hang-ups along the way though. Our invitations have caused a little grief because of some misunderstandings with the printers..... but leave it to my mom to march down there and demand them to be redone hahaha If you know my mother, then you know that she got her way after spending that much money! So our invitations are being reprinted, and hopefully we'll be getting them tomorrow. We took our Bridal pictures on Oct 6th and I just got the disk of the pictures back today.... here's some of my favorites.....

Our photographer took over 100 pictures and I could only narrow it down to my top 50 today..... so obviously there are too many to post on here! But if you want to see the rest of them, I posted them on myspace, so here's a link to see them:

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=12714719&albumId=2911652

You can either use the "previous/next" buttons above the pictures to go through them, or if you just click on the picture, it will go to the next one. I love them!! Our photographer did an amazing job! When I get my favorites narrowed down more, maybe I'll make a little slideshow and post it on here.

Other than school, work, and the wedding, there isn't much to say about Mitch and I. It's actually pretty sad. It kinda feels like we don't see a whole lot of each other anymore, but we both know it'll get better when we're married. Life is so fun right now though!! I had my bridal shower in St. George this last Friday and it was lots of fun. I was bright red with embarassment for part of it..... but it was still a blast!! My other bridal shower in Vegas is this Saturday and I'm super excited! It'll be good to see everyone from back home again. Anyways, life is going good and I'm more excited than ever to be getting married to my best friend! I'll try to write again soon!

-Val