Fun Facts.

So as some of you know I have been having trouble sleeping at night. One thing I have started doing to try to help this is to listen to podcasts at night. Two of the ones I listen to are from Howstuffworks.com. The other night I listened to one about the Vikings. I must admit I fell asleep shortly before the end but one fact I found interesting is that the Vikings didn't wear hats with horns as is depicted.
One other fun thing I have found while searching out podcats was the collection of CBS Mystery Radio Theater. I remember as a little girl listening to this from time to time in the car with my parents on KSL Radio. I don't know if the program was still on the air at that time or if itwas a replay but I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to those again as well. I also found a podcast that plays some of the old time radio great dective stories. It makes me wish we still had wholesome stuff like that today.
As for life with us we are busy. John more than me. I have enjoyed getting together with some of the ladies in our ward. On Tuesdays I go with a group to the movies. It has been fun to see some of the new releases. I will say that if you haven't seen The Clash of the Titans heres my recommendation. Don't pay the extra money to see it in 3D as most of the movie isn't even in 3D so you are only getting ripped off. John is still really busy with work and school. Hes taking 2 classes at a time and this time hes finding he has to read a lot and deal with a teacher with a crazy grading system. Fortunately he will be done by March of next year. I am still looking for a job and am staying positive. We are leaving on Saturday for our cruise to Alaska. Im excited to spend some time with some family in Seattle as well as seeing the beautiful country.

What to see in Reno

As John and I were driving home from Utah yesterday, we started to talk about the things there are to see and do here. I decided that I needed to give you all a list of things there are to see and do here to entice you to come visit us. Yes we do expect visits, and we don't want you to wait to see when and if we have children. This morning I did some research and compiled a list of things to do and added it to the list that John and I made yesterday. Some of these are things that happen once a year, some are seasonal and some are year round. Some of them are in towns that are an hour or less drive from us. I was surprised at how big the list was and I left a lot of things off. If you have questions on any of it feel free to ask. We look forward to each and everyone of you coming to visit. So without further adu here's the list.

1. Lake Tahoe of course
2. Mormon Station State Historic Park
3. Fleischmann Planetarium and Science Center
4. Nevada Discovery Museum
5. Wild Island Family Adventure Park
6. Great Basin Adventure
7. Arboretum at Rancho San Rafael Park
8. Sierra Safari Zoo
9. Nevada State Fair
10. National Automobile Museum
11. The Balloon Races
12. The Air Races
13. The Best in the West Nuggett Rib Cookoff
14. Bartley Ranch Park
15. Bowers Mansion Museum
16. Chollar Mine
17. Comstock Firefighters Museum
18. Glendale School House
19. Great Basin Adventure
20. Golfing and lots of it
21. Mills Park Railroad
22. Nevada State Railroad Museum
23. Radio Museum of Virginia City
24.Sparks Heritage Museum
25. Steamboat Villa Hotsprings Spa
26. Stewart Indian School Museum
27. Virginia and Trukee Railroad
28. Jazz Festival
29. Blues Festival
30. Art in the Park
31. Chamber Music Festival
32. Skiing
33. Camping
34 Reno Rodeo
35. Street Vibrations
36. Hot August Nights

If I haven't given you enough of a list of all the great things there are to do here then well I will be back with list number 2.

Don't be Afraid

My dad forewarded an article to me today from Elder Dallen H.Oaks entitled " Fundamental Premises of our Faith." This was a talk he gave at Harvard law school. After reading this I realized how often I don't share the gospel with my non member friends and family. I discovered where some of my weaknesses are in being able to share the gospel. For those who read this who are not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints I encourage you to read this so you can better understand what it is we believe.
http://http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/fundamental-premises-of-our-faith-talk-given-by-elder-dallin-h-oaks-at-harvard-law-school

Blessed

I have truely been blessed over the last couple of days. I have a true testimony that my father in heaven loves me and knows who I am and what I need. First off I have had difficulties getting my car tagged. Thankfully it looks like the last obstical has been overcome. Second, I have been looking for a job for the last couple of months. I have applied for four and found out today I got one of them. Its a job I know Heavenly Father blessed me with. Again because he knew what I needed at this point in my life. I feel truely humbled right now and very greatful for all the blessings I have been given.
My goal with this job is that once we purchase a bike for me and once it warms up I will be able to ride a bike to work. This may shock some of you but yes me not driving to work and its all my idea :)

New Year

With the Christmas season approaching and my desire to decorate I finally was able to get all the way unpacked and to get our house decorated. I know some of you are wanting to see what our house looks like. Sadly the only pictures I have at the moment are from Christmas but I wanted to share because I loved how it all turned out. We had a wonderful Christmas. Johns parents were able to close on their house and made it up here in time to share the holiday with us. It was nice to have some family here especially since I have been pretty homesick. We had a wonderful Christmas.

The holiday was dampered with the passing of my grandpa. He died December 7th and I was able to attend his funeral and see my family which was nice. I was also able to go see the lights on Temple square with my cousins. I love christmas lights and being able to spend time with cousins I rarely get to see was a great joy. Especially my cousin Amy who I had not seen in three years. Through this grieving process I have learned that things are just things and that the most important things we can get from our loved ones is the memories and to spend time with them. Its sad to see what greed can to do people.

In other news Im in the hunt for a job. Hoping just for part time but will take full time. As my husband put it I need to get out of the house and go places other than the gym and the store, so we will see what happens. Also John started back to school this week. Hes taking two online classes so between that and work he should be pretty busy. I have begun my craft projects which keep me busy and entertained. I am also finding that getting married and changing your name brings on a lot more headaches than I think I like, and John can tell you its testing my patience..Something I need to work on.

Baking Tip

So yesterday I decided I wanted to make cookies. While I was rounding up the ingredients I realized that the brown sugar, which was in its origonal packaging, was hard as a rock and would in its state at that time would not be usable. While I was talking to my mom on the phone I mentioned my problem with the brown sugar. She said she thought there was a way to soften hard brown sugar. So I grabbed my laptop and began a search to see if I could find any information. WA-LA I came across this website tinput.com/10-ways-to-soften-hard-brown-sugar. I picked one of the methods I wanted to try and it actually worked. Here I was already to throw it away and there was a way to save it. I thought I would share it with all of you because I figured we all could use some tips to help us save money.

Life in Reno

Cabo San Lucas

Ensenada

View of Ensenada from the ship

Leaving San Diego

A wedding pic

I decided that since we are now married that it was time to change the title to our blog. Im still new at this so bear with me. It took us 4 days to drive to our home here in Sparks. For those of you not familier with this area Sparks is a suburb of Reno, NV. The two cities are right next to each other. For those of you in Oklahoma its like OKC and Bethany. Anyway back to the story. After two long days of driving we reached Las Vegas. John's parents graciously allowed us to stay at their house while they were at our house here watching our dog Cheyenne.

Spending the day in Vegas was the best thing we could do. We spent the day relaxing and did a session at the temple.

We got to Sparks late Thursday night, so we went to bed and decided to unload the moving van the next day. I didn't bring that much stuff but lets just say boxes were put everywhere. John even allowed me to put boxes in the garage which serves as his workshop. Hes ready to have it back so he can work on a couple of projects so Im working hard to get everything unpacked. Its been a long process and we had the planning of another reception to add to it. We had a lot of help from two sisters in the ward and I'm greatful for their help. We were also blessed to have my parents and John's parents come stay with us the weekend of the open house here. I'm looking foreward to having my parents come visit again. John's parents should be moved up here by Christmas assuming everything goes through on their house.

I have also been going to the gym two to three times a week, and have started working with a trainer. I love being able to go with John. We each do our own thing but having someone to go with is motivating.

Two weeks ago we went on a cruise to Mexico. It was wonderful and to be honest we didn't want to get off the ship. It allowed us to relax and forget the business of life. We were able to se Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas. The weather was warm and sunny. It was wonderful to wear shorts in November.

I will try to do better at updating the blog.