Another Adventure

This week was pretty busy for Jake and I, but we were busy with good things, so it didn't feel too tiring. Monday was a normal day, with Jake at work and me at school. Tuesday Jake had the day off, so we ran errands and did things around the house. 

On Wednesday we finally started getting cold...when walking from our car to my class, it was 32 degrees outside. Idaho Fall is finally starting to kick in! Wednesday night I went with Jake to our church building so he could play basketball with some other guys from our ward, and that was fun. Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm "athletically challenged", but watching Jake play was entertaining. 

Thursday was a busy day, despite having no classes. That morning I met up with a classmate for a group project, and then went straight over to the high school to do my tutoring. After that I came home and did some homework, and then picked up Jake from work. Once I'd brought him home, another member of the Relief Society presidency picked me up and we went to a meeting. That night while I was trying to fall asleep, I finally figured out what Jake and I are going to be for Halloween, after thinking about it for weeks and having no ideas...I'm so excited! But I'm keeping it a surprise for now, so you'll have to wait til I post pictures ;) 

Friday night Jake and I had our date night: we went out to dinner at the only sit-down restaurant in Rexburg (Applebee's) and then came home to watch a movie. We also finally tried out our bread machine, and the bread turned out SO good! It was really fun getting to make something that we normally don't, and it was great having the whole apartment smell like fresh bread! We're planning on baking another loaf soon.

Saturday I finished my final Halloween project: a milk jug jack-o-lantern. I discovered, much to my dismay, that real pumpkins are super expensive. So, I decided to make my own: I painted a milk jug orange, popped half a toilet paper roll on the lid, and drew a face on the front. I'm pretty proud of it! 

That night after I picked Jake up from work, we went on a drive to try and find a garage sale we'd seen online...apparently it had been cancelled, but we drove through a REALLY beautiful area that I'd never seen before. So of course, I had to take pictures of how pretty the Fall colors are out here.

On Sunday, Jake and I went to church. For some reason there were a LOT of babies sitting near us in both of our first two classes, so we got to play with them and that was a lot of fun. Seeing how good Jake is with kids makes me smile, because I know he's going to be a great father someday. Jake also finally received his calling for our ward; he's going to be a teacher in the Elder's Quorum, which is the male equivalent to Relief Society. He's pretty excited about it. After church we relaxed at home and just enjoyed being together. Sundays are probably my favorite day of the week, because I get to go to church and feel the Spirit, and also spend a lot of time with Jake.

My Church Calling & Jake's Ring

This week was pretty busy, but also pretty great. I went to school as usual and did things around the house, and on Thursday I had my first meeting for my calling in church. I've been called as the Relief Society Assistant Secretary. The Relief Society is the women's organization for our church, and I'd never heard of having an assistant secretary before, but apparently our ward is so busy the Relief Society president decided they needed an assistant a few years ago. The last assistant secretary moved away at the end of July, and the presidency has really been struggling without one for the past few months. I'm really excited about the calling, but I also know it's going to be very demanding! But it's a good excuse to get to know the women in my ward better and to feel like I'm serving a purpose at church.

Earlier this week, Jake somehow lost his wedding ring. We knew it was somewhere around the house, but we couldn't find it ANYWHERE. Our apartment isn't that big, so you'd think something lost would be easy to find. Wrong. We turned our whole house upside-down, and just couldn't find it. Discouraged, we gave up looking for a few days, hoping it would turn up somewhere.

On Saturday, I went to a craft activity for the Relief Society and had a lot of fun. I made these cute blocks; they're the same set just painted differently on each side. One for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas. I'm pretty excited about them!

This morning, I got out one of my cookbooks to look at some recipes for this week. I turned to one of the first pages, and there was Jake's ring, lying right on the page. I started cracking up and Jake was SO confused. We still aren't sure exactly how it happened, but boy are we glad to have found it! God has a sense of humor when answering prayers sometimes ;)

Another Week in Rexburg

It's been another beautiful week in Idaho, no surprise there! The weather was pretty great all week, and today we had some rain. I'm hoping will come back during this week...keeping my fingers crossed!

On Tuesday Jake had the day off of work, so we spent the day together relaxing around the house, doing homework, and watching Bones. It's my favorite TV show and I've managed to get Jake addicted to it. He's almost completely caught up with the current season!

This week was fairly uneventful, up until Thursday. I had my first day of tutoring at one of the high schools here in Rexburg for an English teacher! One of my classes at BYU-I has partnered up with an English teacher at the alternative high school to offer a tutoring opportunity for us college kids. The alternative high school is basically what it sounds like; an alternative place for kids/adults to go when they haven't been able to obtain their GED at a "normal" high school. So the kids there are usually a little more troubled than what you would find in a regular high school, but it was great. The kids had to call me Mrs. G and it was so awesome getting to "work in the field" of my major. That experience just helped me know even more that I really want to teach high school English!

As you can see from my earlier post, my wedding photographer contacted me this past week to let me know that our wedding photos were officially done!! She emailed me a link to the digital download site, and she'll be sending me a USB drive of non-watermarked copies soon, so that I can order prints. I'm so so happy with how they turned out, and excited to order some physical copies to hang on the walls of our apartment!

Saturday, I got together with a friend and we took a walk around the neighborhood after taking some photos with the beautiful fall-colored trees as our backdrop. We visited the animal shelter around the corner from where Jake and I live, and saw the CUTEST little kitten on the front porch! The place was closed for a few hours and this kitten had somehow been left outside, so my friend gave him her scarf and he immediately stopped shivering, hunkered down, and fell asleep. It was the sweetest thing ever.

Today Jake and I went to church, and then had an appointment with our bishop. I've received a calling (position) in our ward, and I'm really excited about it. It's probably the most demanding calling I've ever received, so I'm nervous, but ready to learn! Once everything is official I'll share the position on here :)

Wedding Photos

Last night my wedding photographer informed me that she was finished editing our photos, and sent me a link to download web versions of them!! I was hardly able to sleep last night because I couldn't stop looking at them, and I can't wait to share them on my blog. Click on the Wedding tab to see all of our gorgeous photos, courtesy of the amazing Danielle Armstrong Photography!

Happy October!

October is HERE! I'm so happy, since it feels like Fall has officially begun now. The mornings in Rexburg are getting colder and colder, but they're usually around 35 degrees when I take Jake to work. That means sweater weather! I "celebrated" on Monday by drinking some apple cider from my adorable owl mug!

On Monday after my classes, I went over to the new Supercuts in Rexburg hoping to get my hair cut...only to find out that they hadn't opened yet. However, they made me an appointment for Wednesday afternoon. Since I'm a student and it was their opening day, I got my hair cut for FREE! That made me feel even better about finally chopping 6 inches off of my hair. It's amazing how much lighter my neck feels now that all that hair is gone!

On Wednesday, I had an...exciting evening. I climbed onto our kitchen stool and reached up to get our crockpot down so I could start dinner, and for some reason forgot that the lid was on the crockpot. It came crashing down...and bonked me hard on the top of my head, hard enough that I saw stars for a few moments! Thankfully the lid didn't break (and neither did my head) so all is well now, I just have a bruised noggin!

This weekend was General Conference; a special semi annual event for our church. It happens in Salt Lake City and is broadcasted all over the world! Speeches are given by our church leaders on a huge variety of topics. Jake had to work on Saturday and missed the speeches given that day, but we spent today curled up on the couch in our PJs watching our church leaders speak to us about how to live more Christ-centered, charitable lives. It was a great weekend! We ended the day by taking a walk around our neighborhood, and I took lots of pictures of the unique scenery Rexburg has.