jobs, travels, and birthdays

The last three jobs I've had I've only lasted three months each. Is that bad? I'm going to go with no. One was a summer job, one was a semester job and my last one was a starter job. Now that doesn't sound so bad! I was lucky enough to find a pretty good job out here in Iowa fairly quickly. I was a receptionist that had a few other responsibilities but nothing to crazy. I learned some good stuff about insurance but most of the time I felt like I was wasting away. I decided to keep looking and found an orthodontic office that was hiring. I worked for an orthodontist as a senior in high school and loved it. So I went over and met the doctor and staff and got a tour of their amazing office. It is seriously so cool. By the time I left I desperately wanted the job. I kept going back and then I got the job!! I will start in two weeks and I can't wait. I'll be in both the front office and back office. Hopefully they'll train me to be an assistant too!

Also, my 21st birthday is in two weeks! Whooo hooo! I love birthdays. My mommy was so kind and decided to fly me back to AZ for my birthday weekend. I'll be at the pool, getting my hair done, shopping and going to my favorite restaurant. It'll be great. I'm so excited to see my family and I get to see my cute little brother play football. It'll be an awesome weekend except that I'll be away from my sweetie for the first time since we've been married. I will miss you my hubby but I'm so excited for this much needed getaway.

I love my crazy family!

we get by just fine here on minimum wage

I love married life and my hubby who does such sweet things for me. We were really lucky to have had so many things given to us before moving out here. Things like couches, a bed, a desk, dresser, kitchen table, a sound system, good pots and pans, awesome gift cards, and lots of other things. They have helped us so much. We have been blessed so that we haven't had to buy too many things to get our home in order.

Justin and I feel really strongly about staying out of as much debt as possible and living within our means. I have a full time job out here and was lucky to have found it so quickly. We use the student loans for tuition, books, and anything else school related. The rest of our expenses come from my paycheck. Its not always the easiest but we think its what is best for us. If I was unable to work or if we had kids it would be a different story and we would be glad to take advantage of programs to help provide for and feed our family. But I'm glad to be able to work and let Justin focus on school and his goal of becoming a great Chiropractor.

Clean Clothes

Upon moving to Iowa and finding a place to live for the next three years I had a few requirements. One was a washer and dryer. (In our next home I'm adding a dishwasher to the list...) I love things to be clean. Especially my clothes, sheets, towels, ect. I had done my laundry at a laundermat while at school and I dreded doing my laundry because something always went wrong. I just wanted to wash my clothes from the comfort of  my own house! So we were going to rent some from our landlords but decided it would be cheaper over three years to just buy some. When I got my job here at a quite little office I mentioned to my boss that we were looking for a washer/dryer and he said he knew a way to get a great deal on a fancy new red pair. Justin and I did some research and decided to take him up on that generous offer.

So now I have this awesome washer and dryer to do my laundry whenever I like. All I have to worry about is avoiding the scary spiders that live in our basement. Speaking of spiders... there are tons here and I have a small case of arachnophobia. Its not a very good combo. Anyway, they spin webs on our back door so that I can't come inside until Justin kills them and tears down the web. But they always come back and are there to scare me the next night. Its awful but hopefully I'm getting better with tolerating them. Maybe.

Go Cougs!

When I'm at work sometimes there isn't much to do so I have a lot of time to think. I think about what I'm going to make for dinner, the things I forgot to get at the grocery store, how I wished I worked out more, how its getting colder here, what Justin is doing at school and what I would be doing if I were at school. I think about what I should major in when I eventually (hopefully) go back. I never really figured it out while I was at BYU but I think I was on the right track. I was studying Exercise and Wellness, which Justin sometimes thinks is a fake major, but I really liked it. I think I figured out what it is that I would like to go back for and that is Dietetics. I love learning about nutrition and the effects what we eat takes on our body. I would love to work out diets for people, especially kids, who have certain conditions or allergies. I could work with pediatritions or in even in Justin's clinic one day. Who knows, but I think that sounds good.

I hope I can finish a degree when Justin and I move to Utah for a couple years. There really is something special and truly inspired about the BYU campus. I just love it. 

So what it comes down to is... I miss BYU. A lot. Particularly during this season of football. The campus is beautiful, the people are full of spirit and enthusiam, you're getting into the swing of your classes and it isn't too cold to play outside with your friends til the late hours of the night. Even when it starts to get too cold to go out, you can always stay up all night laughing and baking delicious things with your roomies. (I miss you Haleigh and Amanda!)

Eventhough we don't have TV at our place, our friends have been kind enough to let us watch the football games at their homes. I can't pretend to know too much of what goes on all the time but I just enjoy the game (and food) and sport my BYU attire. It will do for now!

the Mexican in me

Sometimes I crave Mexican food, because out here in Iowa its hard to find a place to get good Mexican food like there is in Arizona or even Utah. It's one thing I really miss being out here. But Justin and I had heard about this place called Azteca so we decided to try it last night. Turns out that its amazing! I was so happy from the moment we walked in because it had the colors, the smells and the smiling faces that you would expect to find in a good Mexican restaurant. Then we sat down and were given warm chips and hot salsa. By this time I thought I'd left the little state of Iowa and was back home! I got a quesadilla supreme and Justin got the carne asada taco and both were delilcious! So needless to say, we loved everything and we'll be going back regularly.

I can't even tell you how happy that little place made me and my tummy!