SNOW!

There is snow everywhere! I mean obviously, it's Rexburg, Idaho. What was I expecting? I don't know... but this is ridiculous! Our apartment complex spent 12 hours in the last 2 days plowing our parking lot. They even made us park in certain places to get all of it done. As soon as they were done. And I mean not a minute later, it started snowing. It snowed 4 inches in the last 4 hours! Elan drove to work today and I walked to eat dinner with him. The snow never stopped! The car was covered in 2 maybe 3 inches of snow! He was only there for 3 hours! Maybe I am just repeating myself over and over but good grief! I must say I was truly grateful for the Christmas present that Seth got Elan. We have used that baby every day! (He got us a snow scraper) Thanks Seth! We already had a ton of snow and now this! I thought it was pretty funny that it snowed as soon as the parking lot was cleared, though.

Well anyway, life is pretty good. Elan dropped one of his classes to get a better grip on things, and is doing much better! He is happy at work and as far as we know, the financial aid has gone through and will pay for tuition. So that makes us happy. I still haven't found a job. The 2 prospects that I was counting on never called me back after the phone interviews and I think it is because I sound like a 12 year old. I want to work with children so bad! But I applied to many different places, and will continue to apply until I find a job. This is just ridiculous.

Well, I took pictures of our house for everyone to enjoy!

This is the first view of our beautiful home. The pictures Elan got me really look great! (The middle one I got from Patty on my birthday) I LOVE THEM! We didn't have room for the table, so we put it next to the fridge and took two of the stools for the bar area, so it works out alright. We should have gotten the 2 bedroom, I think... But it's okay, everything fits and looks pretty good!

This is a side view of our living room. We are using our bedroom end tables as the living room end tables, so that is why they don't really match anything else in the room, but I do like the lamps and the couch combination. It looks pretty good to me! The only problem with having the couch there is the cold window.

Here's our TV and bookshelf and guitar corner, and shoeville. I think it is awesome! We really do loving having a TV! Thanks SANTA Pat and Patty! So that is our living room... Moving on into our teeny tiny kitchen...

Yeah, that's the whole kitchen. It works really well for one person... But really, I love it! I think it is perfect for our needs. The only problem is that both me and Elan don't fit very well... But that's okay. It is really easy to keep clean! :)

This is the view into our hallway, which leads to the bathroom and our bedroom, you can see the beautiful picture on the wall. That is from Elan as well. I LOVE IT! It is just perfect! You can also see where we put the other 2 stools, that is the small bar area.

Here is a view of our bathroom. This is the best picture I could get standing in the bathtub as far away as possible. It is pretty small, but easy to keep clean! That's my favorite part about small things! We like the mirror because it is an extra storage area!

Here is our bathtub. It is also small, it is about the length of my legs and 2 of my feet wide. The water pressure is ridiculously awesome! But it's pretty hard to take a bath. That's okay though!

And last but not least, our bedroom... There is a lot of space in this room! We just have a giant bed! It works well for us. There is about a foot and a half on either side of the bed so that is good. And we love every part of our cute little apartment!

There have been a lot of small but substantial blessings in our life, and I would just feel bad not mentioning them and sharing the joy of gratitude.

First of all, I want to thank the people who plow the roads every day. Without you, there would be a lot of people who couldn't get to work or to school and we are grateful!

I am grateful for Subway for giving Elan his job back! We are so grateful for that! I don't think we could handle two unemployed people right now! Also, For the people who tipped Elan the last month or so! We collected 65 dollars in tips and had it in case of emergency, and thank you! Because we were able to buy groceries this week!

I want to thank my family.

My sweet mother-in-law Patty, who is just so wonderful! We couldn't be where we are without you!

My dad who is always there for me no matter what!

And everyone else who has lent a helping hand these past weeks and months! We love you so much!

There have been a lot of little blessings everywhere I turn, and I know that someone somewhere is watching out for us, and helping us in this time where we might be struggling here or there. Thank you.

We love you all. Remember to take time to count your blessings! It's worth it!

Love, Tasha

The first week...

Rexburg has been really interesting so far! It's different being married here. I feel like all of my friends who are not married don't really want to be my friend anymore, and I am becoming better friends with those who are married. Just because we have more in common now or something. I am truly grateful to have friends again in any case! Today was our first day in our new ward, and let me tell you... it is different. Everyone is married, but you won't find a child over the age of 4 anywhere. It is a strange difference from the past year. Well, from any church experience I have had! I miss the little kids! I am sure that they have a sunbeam teacher already and enough people in the nursery, but I really would enjoy that. I don't know how long I can stay in the relief society. There are so many pregnant women I wanted to cry. I know that I should be happy for each of them for starting their family and fulfilling those duties of motherhood. But I am just so completely jealous. I know that my time will come, but I am not patient.

Elan has had tons of homework, and I am glad that I have a bit of time to help him out. He has been really stressed about all of his classes and the smallest things have been eating at him. It has been really hard for me because all week, he barely paid attention to me. I am sure that will change as the semester goes on, but for now, I am glad that I have my friends.

It seems like we have really awesome neighbors! One super awesome couple helped us find our way to church today and were really nice! I am super grateful for them! I have a good feeling that we will become good friends.

We were able to put up most of the decorations and things around the house, and they look awesome! Elan got me some framed wedding pictures for Christmas, and they look really good on our wall. Overall, I am really happy with everything in our apartment and around it!

On the job front, I have looked on Craigslist and Care.com because of Laura's sweet recomendation, and I applied to a couple different listings. It turns out that there are hundreds and hundreds of girls who had the same idea, and each person who responded to my email said that they have been overwhelmed with responses. But I do have an interview for a daycare next week. Boy, that would be my dream job! I just wish that I was in a place where half the women were NOT Child development majors. But anyway, we are in a pickle because of money and have eaten chili and baked potatos the last couple nights, with top ramen today! I think we will have some kind of stew and mashed potatos tonight. (Potatos are really cheap in Idaho.) Hopefully I will find a job soon because we can't live without money. We really regret the money decisions we made before we came back to school right about now.

But all is well, we will be living our lives righteously and no matter what happens, this is a temporary part of life in a temporary moment of eternity. We will survive and be happy.

To all who are reading, we love you and hope that all is well wherever you are!

The journey

We started our journey to Rexburg almost as soon as the truck was loaded and it was really hard. I know that I have never found home until I moved to Washington, and I hope to return very soon. Of course I knew I was going to cry, but Patty had to start the waterworks and then I was a goner. When we crossed the state line is when I probably should have pulled over, just to let it out, but I kept trucking on--tears and all. The drive was alright, the roads were good all through Washington, and there wasn't really a time when I was uncomfortable, so it was a good day. We stayed the night at the Frei Cabin with the Renchers, and it was a good time. I got to play Pinochle which I haven't really played in a long time. And there I learned that a pinochle is actually worth 40 points, not 60! My whole life has been a lie! We looked in the official card rule book! (Yes, that book exists.) That threw off my game big time, and me and Tyler lost horribly! It is all because for my entire life, I was saved by those extra 20 points time and time again.

The next day, we got ready to go and on the way up the road, we got stuck. We had to get the chains out to make it out of there. It was stressful. I was really glad that Elan was there because I don't think I would have known how to put the chains on correctly. I am even more glad that Patty told us to buy those chains last year! We finally got out of there and started on our journey. This driving day wasn't so good. Before we started driving, Elan pointed out that it would probably be a bad day to have a broken windshield wiper fluid dispenser because of the muck and snow combination on the roads, but we didn't really think about actually fixing the problem. Elan was right, it was awful! Absolutely the scariest thing that could have happened to me! There were times when my windsheild was so covered in muck that my wipers couldn't keep up on their own, and I couldn't see a thing. I completely lost visibility a few times, and it scared me to death. I was going to kill Elan for making me drive by myself while he drove the big truck! It really was super frightening! But, I made it out alive, and I learned that no matter what, I need to make sure that is fixed before I go on another road trip!

I got scared again as night fell because the roads looked more menacing and the ice was more scary. But it turned out alright! We stopped at a gas station and I washed my windows and the headlights... it was amazing how dirty they were! And we were off! We passed a car with the emergency lights on and I thought, "We should stop and help them..." And then I thought, "Nah, the last time I did that I got into a lot of trouble, so I won't." about ten minutes later I got a phone call from Sister Rencher, and those were her kids that we passed, and so we turned around to help them after all. It was kind of funny.

We made it to our new apartment and got all the paperwork done. It is a really nice place. I am glad that we chose this one! Everything looks brand new and there are no eyesores of any kind! We love it! So we had this giant moving truck and just me and Elan. I hurt my shoulder a few days ago, and it wasn't any better, so we knew that it wouldn't be alright to do this all by ourselves. When Elan opened the truck, I felt like we would never get it all done! It was massive! So I called around and posted on my facebook that we needed help! Eric finally answered and came over to help! It was amazing how quickly that pile of stuff turned into another pile of stuff! That Eric is one of the best people I know! I am really glad to have him as part of my family!

After Eric left, we were exhausted from a long day of driving and unpacking, and so we put together our bed and laid down, and fell asleep. It was sure good to be home.

We woke up a few times because our water heater is going crazy and making a loud knocking sound. The maintanence guy is going to fix it soon. Elan got his job back at Subway, he starts on Friday, and I am looking for a job! Which we need desperatley, Elan's highschool finally sent the highschool transcripts that he requested ages ago and so the financial aid thing can go through, but we are still stressed about that and we might be needing to get a student loan. While Elan was at school today, I unpacked everything and got the furniture to the right places and completely killed my shoulder. (Hopefully this pain goes away soon.) But it was worth it because when he got home, the relief was immenent and he was very happy! So that made my day completely worth the pain. We still have to organize the bedroom but the living room and kitchen are done! I am happy, and we love our new home! Happy days everyone!

Tasha

Introduction

Before I begin, I just wanted to explain my reasoning to having this blog. Elan and I don't have a lot of time to tell everyone everything that is going on in our lives, and we thought that if we made this blog, we would be able to reach out to people in ways that we couldn't by just having our regular once a week phone calls, if we even enjoy that much. We love you, and miss you all!