Our First Home!

I thought that since I am really bad at updating this Blog that I should just post something about our house that we have been living in for the past 4 months.

Here is our awesome #51.

We live in the Utah State University Mobile Home Park, the great thing about it is that it is only half a mile away from the Main Campus, and yet we ride the bus everyday to and from school. :) It is extremely nice to get on a warm bus when it is snowing outside, yes it has already snowed this year and it is only October 13.

A little history on our home, Chad and I had just gotten engaged and I received a text from Chad saying that he put a down payment on the last available trailer. And that is about it. I didn't look at it until after we already had it and we didn't look at any other apartments or houses, we just knew we were meant to be trailer trash.

Anyways here are some pictures of our house, I love it! Notice the green grass, that is my doing :) I put much effort into cleaning up our lawn/weeds to look semi decent. Just in time for it to get covered up by snow.

This picture above is the worst thing about our daily life. The fire alarm, I understand that they are generally helpful but something is seriously wrong with ours and if you can read the small orange sticker it says "$75 fine" if we touch it at all.
So here is the problem. When ever Chad or I take a shower and have a semi warm shower that produces even the slightest amount of steam we get the sweet lullaby of the fire alarm telling us that we have a fire in our home.
Isn't it great?

Our First Home

Here is our bedroom, we are renting the smallest size of trailer available and at first I was nervous that we wouldn't even be able to fit a bed into our room, but good news we have plenty of room for a bed, 2 dressers, and a night stand.

This is the spare room/office/junk room. It is constantly a mess and yet it is turning into my favorite room, because when the heat is on this is a very small room with a good vent and only one small window, thus the heat stays in and is very warm :)

Chad also keeps all this guitar equipment in this room and plays it every once an a while, I think that is when our neighbors love us the most. When Chad has his eclectic guitar plugged in.
This is the hall way. I know very very exciting.
Here is our bathroom. Notice the pink wall paper, it is a gem and I'm sure if we were to take it to Antique Road Show we would be thousand's of dollars richer.

This is our front room, This is my first time attempting to be crafty and cute (note: I have never been crafty or cute or produced any thing close to those definitions) Despite the previously mentioned trial I am happy with how the front room turned out. :)

Before we got married I decided to personalize our home so I decided to make some curtains. I made enough to cover 5 windows, 5 custom made curtains. At the end I probably spent more money and time then was worth it to make my own, I probably should have just bought some. At least the store bought generalized curtains would probably fit another window when we move out of the trailer.

The book shelf with all parts of our life on it, school, church, junk, etc. And the cute little plate holder decor thing, that still doesn't have plates on it :) I think are both great little touches to the room :)
This is one of those custom made curtains that I am pretty sure will not ever have use after we move away from #51. But it sure does have a place and purpose now :)
So far all of our furniture in the front room, well I guess in our whole house, we only bought the blue couch (below) from the DI, it was quite the find. It only stunk for about a month but after a lot of Febreze and dryer sheets it now has no pungent odor repelling of it.

Here is our lovely Kitchen, I love it. It is big and open. The windows provide lots of light and air. There isn't tons of counter space but enough to be able to make dinner.

This picture is for Emily, This is our vent over the stove. All you have to do is pull the cord and the back of the fan opens up outside and presto a ventilation system to clear the air. Its pretty awesome. I don't really see why more people don't have one. I am going to require it in every house I live in. :)
This is our laundry room, after bringing in a wash and dryer that both were broken we finally found a set that serves us well.
Here is the only downfall of our kitchen, the Sink. It is about 6 inches deep and is not very conducive for washing dishes. Which I guess is good because it is very hard to let dishes pile up but when they do it is quite the process. :)

Back to School!

Chad and I have officially finished the first week of a new school year and now have a 3 day weekend to recoup from the crazy past week.
I haven't posted for a while because I have been working crazy hours, last week I work at least 12 hours Monday-Thursday, Friday I only had to work 10. It was really nice although still not my prefered schedule. I started my new job at the Math Advising Office, as a Peer Adviser/Secretary/tell everyone they have to take the Placement Exam then they get angry with me. This is where I held prisoner for the beginning of each day. (just kidding I actually really like it)
There was also a Refresher Course offered from 4-10 everyday last week for students who hadn't had math for a while and just needed to "refresh" on their math skills. So needless to say it was a VERY long week.
This week is better although still almost as busy, I now have class to break up answering phones and students telling me about every excuse imaginable, and why they should be excused from taking the placement exam and why they are fine to go to Calculus even though they have only taken 0900.

Anyways enough about my work.... Although if you are interested in our program or would like to know more about the Math Placement Exam which every student has to take if they haven't had a math class with the last year and want to take a math class, feel free to give me a call and I am quite pro at about 5 different conversations that I just said over and over again :)
Oh one cool thing... ok this is kinda dumb but if you call (435)797-0268 and listen to the recording it should sound familiar... its me :)

Ok So now really to this week...School started and is going well. Chad may have changed his degree to just Economics with a MHR minor. We are feeling good about the change and returned his books for 3 classes that he dropped and replaced with others that he will need.
Although I still think we should both just drop out of school and go live in the Alps or something :)
But for real we applied to go to China to teach English to little kids for 5 months this week as well. We should know in about 2 weeks if we can go and where exactly we will be going. We would leave in January and get back in June. We are really excited about it. So I will keep you posted, also if anyone wants to pay for us it is tax deductible :) just kidding

In closing here are some pictures of us before school on our first day of school :) Chad was kind enough to humor me :)

and my necklace kinda dominates the picture but we were in a hurry, we couldn't miss the bus :)
Happy First Week for School! I wish the best to luck to everyone who is in our same predicament and feel sorry of those of you who no longer get to take first day of school pictures :) Chad and I are still working to get a signed piece of paper that says how smart we are.

Newest Addiction

It started about a month before Chad and I got married, Chad has had this desire to buzz his head. I convinced him to not do it at least not before the wedding. Then after the wedding I convinced him to not buzz it until we at least go to church once, so everyone doesn't think he is going through chemotherapy (just in case it turned out bad).
So after the first Sunday that we attended out new ward I had no other excuse, I thought that he would wait for a while later because he still wasn't feeling extremely healthy. But needless to say I was wrong. He did have to wait until after both the Priesthood and Relief Society Presidencies had come and gone. After all the visitors were gone he broke out the buzzer/shaver/... (I don't know what its called). Anyways. Chad and I buzzed his head using at first a #4 then moving down to a #3 guard and finished it off.

Well that lasted about 2 1/2 weeks then he needed an other fix. And a #3 just wasn't going to cut it. So the only thing to do was to use a #2 guard. To fill you in on my perspective... I liked it and was willing to let him do what ever he wanted to his hair, only because I know it grows back fast.
I was happy with the outcome of using both a #3 and #2. It was fun to help him shave it, I gave my first hair cut :) ( I now charge $5 per cut)

This was in the middle of the process. We decided Chad needed a Mohawk. Just in case you are wondering he didn't keep it. (by the way this is what the $5 will get you)

The #2 held him stable for a few days, the addiction was getting worse. Then about 3 days later the buzzer was brought out again and this time not even a #2 was good enough! The only thing strong enough was a #1! The closest thing to no guard with out going overboard. :)

Ok this is sounding a little to dramatic. So to sum up a #1 was used and the user (Chad) says that his addiction is completely fixed. So I will keep you posted to see if that statement is true.This is the newest hair cut using a #1 guard.
And he still looks good even with almost no hair. (One bonus is that I love the feel of his head now)

The Famous Preston Night Rodeo

Last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were the most anticipated days of they year for many people. I am sorry to not give you this information before but you will just have to live vicariously through Chad and I.
On Friday night we went to the Preston Night Rodeo. I was excited to go but Chad needed a little convincing so I mentioned the activity early that week and by Friday he agreed to go with me.
We met my sister and brother-in-law, Emily and Matt, there and sat next to them and their almost 3 year old son, Owen. We had great seats, maybe not the best for viewing the festivities but for comfort reasons. We sat on the third row and the two rows in front of us were empty so that made the night much more enjoyable.
In the middle during the bare-backs Chad and I went and got a rodeo burger. As my father always says "Theres nothing like a burger and the smell of fresh cow manure."
Overall it was an excellent night :)

Chad, JoAnna, and Owen enjoying the rodeo.JoAnna and Owen really loving the rodeo.I think Owen is going to be a cowboy someday all because of this one night :)

This pictures is mostly for Lexie, It is the only picture I got of the actual rodeo. For those of you are aren't devote rodeo fans this is the barrel race where cowgirls race around 3 barrels as fast as they can. :)

Ear Piercing

I have gone 20 years against the norm. But I gave in last Friday, I finally got my ears pierced.
My sister Cathrine was kind enough to go with me so I didn't have to go by my self and I could surprise Chad. It worked out great.
I don't know what people are talking about when they say it doesn't hurt. I will be honest to all the world... It hurt! Not extremely but it hurt enough. Although now the hard part (the needle, which isn't really a needle just the earing so its not ever really sharp to pierce the skin easy) is over and I am taking super good care of the new hole in my body hoping it won't get infected.

Tuesday Night Excitment

The night started out normal, I went shopping then made dinner. After dinner I went out side to finish raking up our yard...(more on that later). While I was raking Chad came out and cleaned of the grill, when Chad and his friend Dallin moved the grill to our trailer the handle to turn the propane tank on/off broke off.
So it has been sitting next to our trailer for about 2 months with no handle and last night we found out that it was stuck in the on position. So we have a full tank of propane stuck on hooked up to the grill.
Chad tried many times with pliers to turn the lever but it was stuck pretty good. So Chad called Dad Bischoff and he suggested to call the fire department to see if they knew what to do.
But due to the convenient location of our trailer, the fire department is just across the street, and since it was a beautiful night we decided to just walk over and talk to them.
We went over and three fire fighters were just hanging out in the office so we presented our problem to them and they said they would just come over and look at it. They told us to meet them out front while they get their tools.
Next thing we know they pull the fire engine out and tell us to hop in!!! The Fireman who was sitting in front of about 5 different computers told us, "We don't go any where with out our engine."
This isn't just one of the small trucks either. This is the full fledge big red fire engine!
So we rode with them probably for about 0.10 mile to our trailer. They parked the engine next to our little #51 (the engine was probably just as big as our house) and go over to the grill to observe the situation.
The Fireman pulls out his wrench and twists and presto the propane tank is off! But don't worry they were more prepared then just a wrench they had a gas detector and all! :) But a wrench and liquid soap was all they needed. I got the soap for them inside... so practically I'm a fireman now :)
Just in case you were wondering the soap was placed in areas where leaks could occur and if bubbles come up then you know the tank is leaking.
So we chatted for a couple minutes and said our thanks and the Logan Fire Department got in the engine and went back home.

So needless to say I was SO excited that I got to ride in a Fire Engine! I didn't know I would be so excited but it was awesome, I couldn't stop smiling through the whole situation! :) I am very sorry to say that my camera was out of batteries or else I would have a picture with me in the fire engine and the firemen fixing our grill :) So here is a fake picture just to give you an idea. Chad was also excited but I guess he can control himself a little better.