Sleep Over!

Last night we made good use of our extra beds and had a sleep over!

we had fun "unlocking the vault" and creating projects/operations for us to work on  :)

We somehow managed to fit 6 beds into my room. 

It was quite the accomplishment

This is the after math

Love these girls!

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

On a different note, we have the cutest neighbors ever! This is Jake shoveling our walk for us. 

And yes, he is wearing shorts and cowboy boots.

I love my life  <3 

The Car Curse

Our little house is struggling to keep cars alive. 

But, the good news is that I have such incredibly generous friends and family!

It started a few weeks ago when Cate's car died. Our neighbors were wonderful and came over to get it running again.
Unfortunately, later that same day Cate was in an accident and ended up getting a new truck anyway. 

Yesterday, Chelsey's car died and ended up being towed. We don't know when she will get it back yet.

My front drivers side tire has had a chronic leak since.... oh, since about 5 years ago when I bought it!
 Even after getting new tires, it still has a slow leak. I have to fill it up with air before any trip longer than an hour. It's really cool.

Chelsey was the best person to have with me. We had so much fun!

After home evening last night (which was so much fun!) I thought my car was driving weird, so I got out to check my chronic tire.
It was dead. 100% completely flat, driving on the rim kind of dead. Luckily Chelsey was with me or this story would be really depressing.

I owe Tony big time!

We called my awesome friend Tony who lives across the street from where we were. He got my spare on, which also needed air (I'm telling you, that tire is cursed!) I thanked him and went to leave.... but my car wouldn't start! My battery had died! Chelsey and I were laughing so hard!

Chelsey was on documenting duty. This is me trying to stay warm in my sleeping bag.

Tony got his little truck so he could jump my car. Chelsey and I were freezing at this point and we broke out the sleeping bag that is stored in my trunk. Tony told me I would need a battery starter thing (I don't actually know what I'm talking about here, can you tell) so I asked our neighbor if we could borrow his again (I knew he had one because we had used it on Cate's car and have had it in our garage ever since, until last night when he finally came to pick it up. I'm sure they are wondering what we could possibly be doing to our cars to kill them so frequently. haha!) 

Well, my little car refused to start. In fact, it was actually getting worse!
Tony wanted to try one more thing, but he was afraid he would run out of gas, so we made a quick trip to the gas station.
When we got back my car was so dead that Tony's truck wouldn't even start when it was connected to mine!

watching Lost

We left my car in the church parking lot for the night and Tony dropped Chelsey and me off at home. We told our story to Cate and we decided there was only one thing to do. We were freezing cold so we got in our pajamas, wrapped up in my sleeping bag and blankets, made ravioli and the three of us  watched Lost. All things considered, it was a great night! (except for that minor car dying, tire blowing thing....)

This morning Tony picked me up and I bought a new car battery. I filled my spare tire up with air so I could drive to work. Thankfully, my parents were coming through Logan today, so after taking me to lunch they got my tire fixed while I went back to work.
There is no way I could have gotten this done without them. I have the best parents ever! 

My lesson on Sunday was about tender mercies. I don't know if I'm just more aware than usual, but in any case, this story is full of tender mercies!

- My car died in the church parking lot where it is well lit and right by where I live (almost the same place my car died last time)

- Tony is really nice and has the tools and knowledge to help me

- Chelsey was with me, so I wasn't alone

- I had a sleeping bag in my car to keep me warm (too bad it wasn't this kind or like this or this)

- Our neighbors were home (this in itself is a miracle!) and had the battery thing I needed (even if I didn't end up using it, it was still comforting)

- This happened on a Monday night, which was ideal because I don't have work on Tuesday until 10:30
Any other day and there is no way I would have had time to fix my car

- Chelsey, Cate and I had a great cozy night of Lost! (warning! this link might be a spoiler)

- Again, Tony is really nice

- I learned where I can get air for free instead of having to pay $1 where I was getting it before

- My parents are amazing and just happened to be going through Logan 

- I am a compulsive saver, so this little mishap won't set me back at all

- I'm sure I am missing so many others, so this is representative of everything else

My car is officially up and running again!
Thank you to everyone who has been so good to me!

I have been blessed.

The Neighbors

Soo.... this ended up being kind of a long post. oops.

A few months ago, we got new neighbors.
They are three guys - Rich, Jake, and Corey - who are all going to grad school and already have good jobs. They are all very charismatic.
I was immediately impressed.

We gave each other tours of our houses. They have two deer heads and a foosball table. In their garage they have 2 trucks, 4 four wheelers, a cabinet, 2 garbage cans, and I think they also might have 2 dirt bikes or something like that. All in their garage. Crazy! 

So now that you get an idea of who these guys are, I'll tell you what happened.

Nothing.

Nothing happened.

After our initial meeting and house tours, we never really did or even saw any of them again. 

Sometimes we would think, we should invite the neighbors to our game/movie night or whatever the occasion might have been.
But they were never even home!

However, on the rare occasions that we did see each other at church or ward prayer, they were always very good at saying, "Hey neighbor!" (It's a good thing they were good at this because I honestly wouldn't have had a clue who they were otherwise. That's how often we saw them.) Then we would talk - I would give him a hard time about never being home and being bad neighbors, and he would say "Just come over!" But I don't "just come over" because I think it's awkward, so nothing ever happened.
And that was how it went. The end.

After a while, we gave up on ever being actual friends with the neighbors. They were too out of our league.
Jake had gotten a girlfriend, so he was a lost cause. Corey traveled a lot for work and Rich was busy with school.
They would just be nice acquaintance friends and we would be happy with that.

Then, last Monday, we went to home evening at the Bishop's house where we were combined with another group, and who do you think was there - Corey! (the good news is I actually recognized him this time) He greeted us with his usual "Hey neighbor!" and we had our standard conversation. He told us to "just come over!" I responded with "You're never home! How about you guys come over! It would probably work better." And that was it.

Chelsey and I joked, "What if they actually came over. Haha! That would never happen!"

But, the next night around 10:30 something happened. There was a faint buzzing noise that sounded through the house. It was odd and it took me a while to identify the sound as our doorbell, which is apparently broken. 

It was Corey! 

I just stared at him. I think I was in shock that he was actually at my door! I finally offered him a brownie, which I had made earlier that day. We talked for a while and then we said goodnight and he went home. I was amazed! He had actually come over!
I went upstairs to share my shock with Chelsey who was equally as surprised.
Were we were actually making friends with the neighbors? Maybe it was just a fluke. Better not get our hopes up.

Thursday, Richard added me as a friend on Facebook! I was making real progress! It was probably the most exciting part of my day.... until around 10:30 that night when the doorbell/buzzer went off again. This time it was Corey and Rich! Holy smokes! We talked and they casually invited us over for Sunday to watch Home Improvement which they apparently watch on a regular basis. I couldn't tell if it was a real invitation, or just a "one day that might happen" kind of an invitation. We decided to wait and see if they re-invited us.

Friday, I was at work, but apparently Rich and Corey showed up and jumped Cate's car for her. 

Tonight (Sunday) Cate was playing nintendo and I was working on a photo shoot I did yesterday. Around 10:30 there came a now familiar buzzing sound. Corey had come to invite us to watch Home Improvement! I told him we were playing nintendo and that was all it took. Who can pass up the original Mario!? I tell you what, Corey has some impressive Mario skills.

So, in conclusion, I don't know what happened, but we are suddenly friends with the neighbors!
And I think they're pretty cool. 

It is exciting  :)



p.s  I tried to find a Mr Wilson "Howdy Ho Neighbor!" but I guess youtube decided not to put any of those clips up. oh well.