I hate cars!

Ok, so two months ago we got a new car and less than a month ago, we switched insurance companies from Progressive to Geico cause it was almost half as much. Well, last Thursday I was driving to work in a snowstorm. I am an excellent driver and I had no problem the whole way. Until I got to the parking lot area of my work place. It hadn't been plowed at all, there was a few inches of snow with ice underneath it. I started to slide so I tried to use the breaks and they locked. I tried to steer the slide, but the steering wheel wasn't behaving properly either. I ended up slamming into a curb and I guess I pretty much took out the whole undercarriage, enough to cost $1500 anyway. The car is currently in the shop. It is repaired but we can't pick it up because we are waiting for the insurance company to pay. Unfortunately we don't have a spare $1500 around Christmas time so we are without a car until they get things inspected and approved. And we can't get a rental car either. We do have rental reimbursement, but they will only reimburse until the car is repaired. Since its already repaired, the rental money would have to come from us. So we're having an interesting Christmas this year.

Our First Christmas Tree

Last night we decorated our very first Christmas tree together. The tree was given to us by some friends of my grandparents so we were excited to get a real tree for free. Devan really likes the smell. Here's some pictures of the decorating.

We accidentally broke an ornament before we were even done decorating. One of the ornaments near the top of the tree fell off and hit this one that was near the bottom and it shattered. Sad!

And here is the finished tree. I'm not very good at decorating or designing things so its not very fancy, but it works for us. Devan really likes it. :) And we had lots of fun decorating it together! I love Christmas!

My Journal

Ok, so I decided to copy my cousin Melanie and start posting excerpts from my journal. I've never been much of a journal writer, but the stuff I did write was pretty funny sometimes. Here is one of my first journal entries.
Sept. 6, 1997
Today was a BYU football game. We played against Washington and lost by 22 points. I wasn't happy, but I definitely think we can do better next time if we pass instead of run.
It has been pretty interesting to go back and read my earlier entries. I didn't write about boys much at all until high school. I did find one where I kind of wrote about some boys, but I didn't go into much detail. It didn't sound like I had a crush on anybody at all. Here's an example of one of those entries.
Oct. 28, 1997
I went to my first dance yesterday. I danced with 5 people. Jared Bevan, Curtis Bevan, my uncle Rick, my cousin Brett, and my dad. I know its pretty pathetic that three out of five I was related to. Oh well.
Here's a pretty interesting entry. It's pretty embarrassing, but oh well, that's what makes it funny.
Nov. 7, 1998
Mom and Janelle are such jerks! I wish I could hate them, but as Will Smith says in one of his songs, "Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let God deal with the things they do cause hate in your heart will consume you too."
Hahaha. It cracks me up that I used Will Smith's words for inspiration. and my mom and Janelle didn't really do anything. Janelle was just being the mean older sister that she always was and my mom was taking her side.
Well, that's enough for today. I'll post some more later.

So lately I've been having fun putting photos together in a montage. Here is one of my sister Jamie and my sister Jessica. What do you think? For those of you who know them, doesn't it show their personalities pretty well?

I've Been Tagged By Bonnie

Here are the rules:

1. Post the rules on your blog

2Answer the six "8" items.

3. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

8 Favorite TV Shows:

(I don't even have TV, but I'll tell you what shows I would watch if I did.)

1. America's Next Top Model

2. The Office

3. Law & Order SVU

4. CSI

5. CSI Miami

6. Law & Order

7. ABC News

8. What I Like About You

8 Things I Did Yesterday:

1. ate breakfast (that my husband made for me)

2. went to work

3. read part of "The Host"

4. ate leftovers for lunch

5. called Devan during my break

6. wore my "I love my soldier" shirt cause it was Veteran's Day

7. Checked my bank account

8. went to the annual Veteran's Day Concert at the U

8 Things I Look Forward To:

1. staying at Anniversary Inn on Thursday night

2. Thanksgiving

3. my brother-in-law coming home from his military training

4. a pedicure that my supervisor is paying for

5. taking Friday off of work

6. getting a haircut

7. lunch

8. sleeping

8 Favorite Restaurants:

1. La Parrilla Latina

2. P.F. Chang's

3. Cafe Rio

4. Pier 49 (downtown location)

5. Carl's Jr.

6. Sizzler

7. Leatherby's

8. Spaghetti Mama's

8 Things On My Wish List:

1. a baby

2. Karaoke Revolution

3. a house

4. the movie "Newsies"

5. a car for Devan

6. a good president (too bad that one won't come true)

7. new clothes

8. to not have Celiac Disease

8 People I Tag:

1. Janelle

2. Emily

3. Melanie

4. Stephanie

5. Christine

6. Chante

7. Melinda

8. Genna

My Cute Brother-in-Law

This is my adorable, almost 6-year old brother-in-law. He is a weird little kid, but he's so cute and very entertaining. Every time he hears some upbeat music, he starts to do a little jig. Fortunately I was able to capture his dance with the camera. Isn't he cute?

So what do you think? Should I photoshop out the shade from the tree?

Football!

So, a while ago at work we had a tailgate party. They served us hotdogs and hamburgers and anybody who wanted to could sign up for 3-on-3 flag football. I, of course, jumped at the chance. I would have enjoyed it more if it was tackle, but you take what you can get. My team was with Bonnie and Arni-elei. We took the championship!!! I was amazing the first game that we played. The score was tied and my supervisor said that the next score would win. The opposing team had the ball and they were about 15 yards from the goal. Guess what happened next? I caught an interception! and then Arni-elei threw a pass to me and I caught it and ran about 40 yards for the winning touchdown! It was awesome. The championship game, I didn't play quite so well, but Bonnie and Arni-elei did and that made up for it. As most of you know, I like to brag, so for the rest of the day I was bugging my supervisor (who was on one of the other teams) and made him send out an email to the entire office announcing that we were the winners. Here's some of the pictures. I posted them at work so I couldn't crop them like I wanted so you can't see them very well, but it will have to do.

Halloween

On the 25th we had a Halloween activity at the church for primary. Here are some pictures of the kids in our sunbeam class. Aren't they cute?

The first picture is of Ethan with his brother and sister. Ethan is in the middle. He is quite the handful, but he is very smart and cute. He just doesn't like to sit still as you can probably tell from the picture. The next one is Aubree. She is very sweet and almost always reverent. She knows our names and listens when we talk. The third picture is Rylee. She is super smart and can be very reverent, but can also be a handful at times. She knows a lot and likes to let her teachers know that. She thinks Devan is really weird and is always giving him a look that says, "What are you?". It's pretty funny. Here's a picture of her look. You can see it better when its zoomed in but I'm at work right now so I can't really edit my pictures.

Later that night we hung out with Bonnie and Marc (some friends from work) at Marc's house. We helped Marc make some delicious pumpkin stew and we played on his Wii and watched a movie. It was loads of fun. Here are some pictures of Devan and Marc cooking. Don't they make great chefs?

I got a new shift at work!

So yesterday I started a new shift at work. Before I was working 11:30 to 8:00, which was ok, but I was getting home so late and then I had to cook dinner and we weren't eating til like 9:30. Not to mention the fact that I missed so many wedding receptions and bridal showers because of my late work schedule. As of yesterday I work 9:30 to 6:00. I think I'll like it a lot better, but there are some things that I need to get used to. For instance, I am bored to death at work right now. I used to be able to stop at the library before work and get a few books to get me through the week. But the library doesn't open til 10 so I can't do that anymore. I have to remember to stop after work. and now I can't go to my favorite store (Against the Grain) on any day except for Saturday cause its only open 10-6. But that's ok. These are just things that I have to get used to. I am very grateful to have a dayshift now because I can make dinner at a decent hour and I can go to enrichment night and I can go to wedding receptions and I can spend more time with Devan. On the whole, its a very good change for me. :)

There goes our car!

The National Kidney Foundation had somebody come tow our car away on Saturday. I was sad to see it go. But, we got a really nice car on Friday. It is laser blue metallic and it has remote start. We can start it from inside our apartment so its warm by the time we have to leave. It has a sunroof, heated seats, etc... It is a 2006 Chevy Malibu Maxx and we love it! I will have to take some pictures of the new car and post it.

Our Car Died!!! :(

Devan and I had just decided that we needed a new car and we started looking around. We were excited to be able to have two cars so that Devan wouldn't have to ride the bus all winter long. Then, this past weekend while Devan was heading to Spanish Fork for his guard drill, the car broke down. His parents brought one of their cars for him to use and then they came back later to tow our car to the shop. By that time the back window had been busted out somehow. Anyway, they took it to the shop and Jeff, the mechanic, checked it out. He said it looked pretty sick. The radiator was gushing, among other things. It doesn't even start. He said it would probably take about $800-$1000 to fix. The car is definitely not worth that much so we decided to donate it to the Kidney Foundation and now we definitely need to find a new car. The one that we were looking at before was really nice, but it turns out we weren't approved for the loan because we don't have enough credit references even though our credit score is dang good. So we went into our credit union to get pre-approved for another car that we were looking at. The credit union said it would be no problem so we went to the dealership this morning. It turns out they just sold the car. Fortunately they were able to find a couple more Malibu Maxx's for us to look at. Hopefully we'll be able to get one this weekend or early next week because right now we are borrowing my parents car. Anyway, thats whats going on right now. It's been crazy!

Sunrise

Sunday, my little sister Jessica and I went up Ensign Peak early in the morning to see the sunrise. Isn't it beautiful? I was so tired afterwards, and its now Monday night and I'm still tired, but it was worth it. Plus it was fun to spend some time with my little sister.

Saturday, Devan and I went car shopping. We thought we wanted a Chevy Cobalt, but after looking around, we decided we want a Chevy Malibu Maxx. It is a Malibu with a hatchback. Its kinda funny because Devan and I both thought we hated the look of a hatchback, but we both fell in love with it. We don't know if they'll give it to us at the price we want though. If not, we'll have to find one at another dealership.

My New Camera

Last week I started a photography class and bought a new camera. It is a really nice camera and it cost a lot of money, so I have to get good at photography or I'm in trouble. Anyway, these are a few of the pictures I took this weekend as I was trying out my camera. The sunflower and bumblebee one is for an assignment for my class. And in case anyone is wondering who the adorable little boy is, he's my nephew. He loved smiling for the camera as long as the flash was going off. It was very cute.

Devan's Birthday

This is the cake Janelle made for his birthday. Devan loves Star Wars and Yoda is his favorite, so he absolutely loved the cake. His birthday was on Friday. He works for the state, so he has Fridays off and I took the day off for his birthday too. We went to see the computer-animated Star Wars movie that just came out. It was pretty good, Devan really liked it. We also rode Trax downtown to get pizza for lunch and then we tried out the swimming pool at our apartments for the first time since we've lived here. It was really nice and we were the only ones in the pool at the time. I got Devan a ClearPlay DVD player for his birthday so he can watch all of his war-related rated R movies, but we tried to watch a movie that night and the DVD player wouldn't work so I had to go exchange it this morning. Hopefully the new one will work. Anyway, school starts on Wednesday. Devan is going to school full-time so he can get done as soon as possible, and I'm auditing a personal finance class with him as well. We decided that would be a good one for both of us to attend, maybe we can learn how to budget better.

The best husband ever!

Yesterday I was sick and ended up staying home from work, but Devan didn't know I did because I decided I was too sick to go to work after he had already left and he accidentally left his cell phone at home, so I wasn't able to text him and let him know. Anyway, I was feeling better by evening time and decided to make dinner so I could have it ready when Devan came home and surprise him. He usually gets home around 7 and I don't usually get home til 8:30. 7 o'clock rolled around and he didn't show up so I decided maybe he missed the bus and took a later one. I decided to clean up the mess I made while I was waiting. As time went by and he still didn't show up, I started to worry. I got on the internet to see if there were any accidents involving TRAX or a bus, I was just freaking out. He finally came in the door around 8:30. He had stopped at Fashion Place Mall after work to buy some massage oil and some salt scrub and body butter and was hoping to beat me home and surprise me. He gave me a massage and a pedicure after dinner. I thought it was so sweet. Its not my birthday or our anniversary, he didn't even know I was sick. He just randomly thought of it. and its not as if it was easy for him to stop by the store. He doesn't have a car so he has to take the bus or TRAX everywhere. Anyway, I just think I am so blessed to have such a sweet, thoughtful husband. He is the best.

The Curious Innkeeper

We only have one car, so Devan rides the bus and Trax to work. Last week he had a book with him, but he accidentally left it on the bus. He had given that book to me for Christmas last year, so he felt bad about it. There was also a paycheck stub that he had left in the book. Well, yesterday Devan got the mail and there was a large envelope with nothing but "The Curious Innkeeper" in the spot for a return address. He opened it up and it was my book! Somebody must have found it and mailed it to the address on the paycheck stub. Included was a note which said:
Dear friend,
In an absent-minded moment you left your book on the bus. Wouldn't you like to know the end of the story? Good luck in your search for truth.
-The Curious Innkeeper
(In case you're wondering what that last line meant, the book was a novel about somebody's search for truth). Anyway, its just little things like that that make me realize how many nice, good people there really are out there. About a month ago, Devan dropped his wallet at Wal-Mart. He didn't realize it til the next morning, but when he did realize it he called to see if it had been turned in. and guess what? Somebody had picked it up and turned it into the Customer Service desk. and there was nothing missing from it, not even a little cash. We've been very blessed to have the things that we loose fall into honest hands. Hopefully we won't press our luck and continue losing things.

Weekend in Park City

This past weekend Devan and I had the opportunity to attend a marriage seminar in Park City put on and paid for by the National Guard. It was really nice. Friday we both took the day off work and just spent some time together before heading to Park City. We went and saw a movie and went to Pier 49 downtown for pizza because they have gluten-free pizza there. It was lots of fun. Then we headed out to Park City. We had two free nights at the Yarrow Hotel and meals were provided for breakfast on Saturday and Sunday and lunch on Saturday. We also got ice cream sundaes on Friday night. It was really good. During the day we attended the seminar and learned some good things about communication. We thought that we were just going for the free room, but we actually learned a lot about speaking and listening to each other better. We thought we were doing well before, but we were able to discuss some things that both of us were upset about and were finally able to understand each others point of view. They let us go in the afternoon and we were able to go have some fun. My favorite part was the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. I love chocolate! It was also good to meet some of the guys that Devan was deployed with. I found out that Devan is known as "the happiest guy on earth" and "the ever nice guy". They said he was always smiling, even over in Iraq.

4th of July

Tomorrow is the 4th of July and Devan has been asked to speak at the flag ceremony for our old ward. I have never heard him speak before so I am excited! I'm sure he'll do a great job. Our new ward is also having a flag ceremony and I signed up to help make breakfast for it. Our new ward's flag ceremony is at 7 and our old ward is having it at 8 so we will have to go to the first one, drop off the breakfast, and then hurry to the second one. It'll be a busy morning, but it will be really nice to have Devan home for Independence Day. We also just got a Wii. It is lots of fun! My favorite game is Rock Band and Devan likes Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

More Celiac Woes

Well, here's the story. Sunday we had a family party at my grandma's house and she made two yellow cakes with fruit to put on the top. One of the cakes was gluten-free and the other one was not. We ate dinner and everything was delicious and then some of us were ready for dessert. My sister Jessica, who is also a Celiac, asked my grandma which cake was gluten-free. My grandma told her that the cake closest to the house was (we were eating outside). After that 3 or 4 of us celiacs got up and served ourselves some cake. Looking at the cakes, we were surprised to see that the gluten-free one was fluffier and looked more appetizing than the regular cake. I don't know why none of us realized that if it seems to good to be true it probably is, I guess we all still have hope that everything we eat will someday be just as good or better than normal food. Anyway, after we had all got our cake and started to eat it, we found out that my grandma had switched the cakes around after she had already told Jessica which one was gluten-free! It was delicious cake, but then we all got sick afterwards. Definitely not worth it!

I hate being a Celiac!

For those of you who don't know, I have Celiacs disease, along with all the other females in my family. That means I can't have anything with wheat or gluten in it, which really includes more than you would think. Anyway, I get sick if I eat anything with gluten in it, my stomach hurts really bad. Sometimes it doesn't bother me as much, but other times I will get sick and I can't even figure out what it was that made me sick. It could be anything as small as a natural or artificial flavoring, or maybe it was something that was processed in a place where there is also wheat. Or maybe it was cooked on a pan that other non-gluten-free foods have been cooked on. It could be anything! Anyway, usually I don't think its that bad, I'm pretty used to it. But today I was sick all day long and I was in the mountains with nothing but an outhouse so it was pretty miserable. I'm just tired of it all and I wish I was normal! I'm sure I'll get over it by tomorrow though.

More Pictures

This is Devan and his unit and the flags that the Young Men put in our yard to welcome him home.

I finally got around to posting pictures

Ok, so here's an explanation for these crazy photos. The weekend before Devan got home, my sister Jamie, my cousin Ashlee (who was also my roommate while Devan was gone) and I decided to have some fun. We went to a chocolate factory, went out to dinner, went to a movie, and because we were doing all this fun stuff together we got kind of hyper. We found a video that my cousin Vanessa had bought from the DI for $1. It was called Darrin's Dance Grooves. We put in the video and learned the choreography for the chorus of "You Drive Me Crazy" by Britney Spears. When Devan got home, we dressed up all crazy and did the dance for him so he could see what his crazy wife had been up to the past year. While he was gone I didn't really feel like a wife since we had just barely gotten married before he left and I didn't have time to get used to it. Now that he's home, I feel like a wife so I am much more grown up and will never be doing anything like that again. :) As for the other picture, we went over to Devan's parents' house for Father's Day and Devan grilled the chicken. His sister Brina made him wear the cute apron with the bow and I thought it was adorable so I took a picture. He didn't like the first picture I took cause it was a close up so it didn't show the grill at all, just him with the cute apron. He made me take another one with the grill so he could look somewhat manly. :) He's funny.

My Birthday

Things have been great since Devan got home. We moved about four days after he got home and we love our new apartment. We still haven't gotten everything unpacked and organized yet, but yesterday we went to our new ward and the bishopric asked if they could come over Thursday night so that will hopefully get me motivated enough to get things done. My birthday was on the first and it was great to have Devan home for that. He took me out to dinner and a movie the night before and he gave me my favorite movie- Phantom of the Opera and he gave me the soundtrack too! He also ordered me a white gold CTR ring because I can't wear sterling silver. It was a great birthday. Everything else has been going well too. Devan started his job at the Driver License Division today and I finished most of my training at work and now have my own computer and my own phone. We love our new ward, everyone seems very friendly and the bishopric seems very on top of things. All in all, its been a great couple of weeks!

Devan is coming home today!!

Devan is coming home today at about 2:00! I am so excited, I could barely sleep last night. This morning I got up and cleaned the house and got ready and now I am just waiting. I am so restless! Its pretty cool that he gets to come home on Memorial Day though. Most of the people in the neighborhood have a flag in their yard today and the young men put all the extra flags in our yard, I think there's about ten. I'll be making a huge sign to put out on the house too, so hopefully it will be a good homecoming. I got the whole week off work, so hopefully we should be able to have some fun together this week, and then we're moving on Friday! This coming Sunday is my birthday, and I think it will be the best birthday I've ever had. There's no birthday present that could rival having my husband come home after being gone for so long!

We're Moving!

We've been looking for an apartment for the past month so we can move when Devan gets home. There was one that I really liked, mostly because its smoke-free and dog-free. Also, our home teacher works for a company that does security for a lot of different places and I was talking to him and found out that he does the security there. He said it was their quietest area, nothing ever happens. And my bishop's son used to live there and he really liked it. Basically, I heard nothing but good about this place, and I felt really good about it right from the beginning. So I called in a bunch of times until they had a vacancy and then I went in and applied right away so nobody else had a chance to get it before we did. Anyway, I just found out that we have been approved and can move in whenever they get it all cleaned out, probably sometime around the first week of June. Yay!!!!

Devan's comng home soon!!!

I just heard from Devan and he said that their replacements are there and they are now training them so he should be back home soon!!! I am so excited! Of course, we don't know exactly when he's coming home, and we probably won't know until a day or two before he gets here. Thats just how the Army is, but I don't even care right now. I'm just so happy and excited that he'll be home and we'll have a normal life.
I also just got a new job. I'm going to be taking inbound calls for a company that sells health and wellness products in Japanese and English. I'm excited to finally be able to use the language I learned on my mission.

I've been tagged!

A: The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B: Each player answers the questions about themselves
C: At the end of the post, the player then tags 3 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
I was 13 years old. I was probably getting beat up by my older sister, Janelle. She couldn't stand me back then. I probably was a little annoying though.
2. What was on my to-do list for today?
My plan was to apply for more jobs and call people and bug them til I get an interview. It worked! I have one tomorrow at 1.
3. What would I do if I suddenly became a billionaire?
Well, I'd for sure get a house for Devan and I. And a new car since mine is falling apart. And a car for Devan. (I'd pay my tithing first of course). And we'd use it to live on while Devan goes to school so he doesn't have to work at the same time. That would be really cool. Too bad I'm not gonna be a billionaire anytime soon.
4. 3 Bad habits...
I let the dishes pile up too much.
I'm on the computer too much.
I watch too much TV.
5. Places I have lived.....
Utah, Mississippi, England, Japan
6. Places I have worked...
Allgrunn Insurance (file clerk), CAO Group (production operator), Roberts (nanny), Granite School District (substitute teacher)
7. 3 Things people don't know about me....
I can solve a Rubik's cube in under 5 minutes, I know Japanese but have never seen any anime and probably never will, and I won the spelling bee in 9th grade.
I'm going to tag Christine. (everyone else I know has already been tagged).

Our Two Week Vacation

Today I graduated from Salt Lake Community College with my Associate of Science! I never thought I'd get that far, but I did! Hooray! Devan wasn't able to be there because he is still in Iraq, but he sent me some beautiful flowers! Devan should be coming home soon, possibly as soon as the end of this month. We are looking for a new place to live and I am looking for a new job. Its been kinda crazy having Devan gone for a year while we were still newlyweds, but I think that we have both learned a lot from the experience. I don't think either one of us will be sad to see it end though. Last month Devan was able to come home for his two weeks leave and we were able to spend our first anniversary together. It was absolutely wonderful! Its not often that you get a two week vacation for your anniversary.