So the Weather Outside Is Frightful

Gotta love the lovely weather in Utah Valley. No matter how many years I live in snow, I still find that I still have no liking for it. It's too cold and is so hard to drive in. I don't mind seeing the snow in the mountains, but all around me for a few months is too much to ask. I'm definitely a true California girl. Daniel doesn't seem to mind it too much, he doesn't care to drive in it either; he doesn't care more or less for the snow. This morning I had to be at work at 7 and when I went outside it was snowing down in chunks! I was only 5 mins late to work, but driving through the neighborhoods to get to get to work was not the easiest to do, even in four wheel drive. I kept sliding on the road and just kept thinking how I was glad I didn't have to drive our saturn ion to work. Daniel gets to drive that one to Draper later today :)

So we got our first Christmas tree (pictures are pending). It's a fake tree with the lights already in the tree, it was actually cheaper than the trees without lights. We decided to go with red and gold for the tree ornaments and a gold star for the top. It's 6.5 ft but is just perfect for our apartment.

Congratulations to Daniel! He got the lead position at the boy's group home that he works at. It's basically a supervisor position and along with it comes higher pay, more hours and benefits. We'll have to work a little harder at synchronizing our schedules so that we can see each other, but so far his schedule fits well with mine. It's a real blessing for him to get that promotion and I'm very proud of him.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!

This Thanksgiving I find myself grateful for many things. I'm grateful for a wonderful husband who I love and appreciate so much. He's on his way to North Carolina for a birthday party for his Aunt Linda and boy, if you want to know how much you really care about a person, take a 5 day break from them and you will realize just how much they mean to you. I miss him like crazy right now, especially for the Holiday, and I figure he misses me too made evident by the number of "I miss you texts" I've received right after he left yesterday morning.

I'm thankful for being able to work, something I am currently doing at the group home and will be here until 11PM tonight. I really do love my job here though. The girls here mean so much to me, I know they are awesome people who are trying to make the most of the hand they were dealt with and although they've made many mistakes I still believe they are good.

I'm so thankful for family, both mine and Daniel's. It so nice to be able to add family members and I look forward to be able to get to know my in-laws better as the years go by. Both our families have done so much for us, helping us out financially, spiritually, and emotionally. It's always so hard for me to spend Holidays without family because they mean so much to me.

I'm so grateful for friends. I have such wonderful friends, so does Daniel. I've had so much positive support from my friends and I know that Daniel's friends do so much to help him out as well.

I hope that everyone is able to have a great day today and that we are all able to eat tons of food, watch lots of football and most importantly remember what is most important to us. I love you all, we love you all.

Another Day

Daniel and I both got to work today. I say that with slight sarcasm. We always look forward to Sundays because usually neither of us work and we can enjoy each others company. But he will be working the next few Sunday days at the boys group home he works at in Draper. His shift is from 6AM to 2PM. I had a work meeting at Chili's from 8:45 to 10AM and then work at the girls group home in Provo from 3PM to 11PM (I'm there right now). So I got to see Daniel for a good 15 minutes. I don't mind working at the girls home, just would rather be at home with the hubby. We do get tomorrow evening together at least, I'm looking forward to that.

Daniel loves his new job at the boys home. He tells me that after every shift he works. He get's to play football with the guys and doesn't mind being stern when he needs to be. Today he was in charge of watching the kids who were in trouble. He had to constantly remind them that they needed to be working on something and not talking or sleeping. I knew he would be great at the job and I'm glad his supervisor, my old coworker at the girls home, was able to see that he would be a good fit for the job.

So I am officially counting down until Christmas. That is when I will finally get a break and a vacation. Daniel get's to go to North Carolina for Thanksgiving which leaves me to work that week. I did plan some girl time with a coworker of mine who will be around for the holiday. I'm really sad I won't be going, but I understand his need to go. He told me he'll take lots of pictures so it will be like I went myself. Christmas in San Diego will be so nice. I get to see all my family, go to the beach, eat lots of sushi, and hopefully go to the San Diego Zoo. Mostly it will be nice to not have to work for a change.

Daniel's Birthday and some other updates

Yes I know that this is a couple of weeks after Daniel's birthday, actually closer to a month after, but we are very busy people who don't have the internet at our place so enough said. In memory of Daniel's 24th birthday I would like to share some photos from what we did to celebrate. We went to Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake and saw a
Cheetah,

A baby elephant,
Penguins, A baby giraffe, And a Tiger!After seeing all that we could at the zoo we went to Big Cottonwood Canyon to take in the changing leaves. We also wanted to revisit the place where we got engaged as well. It was the perfect ending to a great birthday for Daniel. We definitely didn't want the day to end, especially since we would be returning to the real world of work.

Along with work news last week was a pretty busy work week for us. Daniel worked from 8AM-noon with one guy Monday through Friday (minus Tuesday), then from 2:30 PM- 7PM with another guy same days as the last. I worked all day Monday, all day Tuesday, all day Wednesday and unintentionally all day Thursday. Thursday I was asked to come in early to work at (6AM to be exact) to take someone to the hospital to get her stomach scoped in Salt Lake. After her surgery I traded off with another staff and stayed with another gal in a different hospital in Salt Lake for bunion surgery. She was scheduled for surgery at 12, didn't get in til 2 and we didn't leave the hospital til 7. So I had a 14 and a half work day when I was only supposed to work until 3PM. It was nice to have Friday night off and all day Sunday to ourselves.

I plan on being better at updating the blog, I'll just need to start bringing my laptop with me to work, or maybe talk Daniel into filling out a blog every once in a while.

The 5K run

Last Saturday went really well. Daniel was one of the top runners for a little bit and I kept my slow and steady pace. He eventually decided he had enough of running and waited til I caught up so we could take a break and walk together. I was happy to take the break but, had my own goal of running the whole time. We decided to run the last stretch, of course Daniel beat me. I managed to get my time in 29:18 which hit my goal (a time under 30). Even though we didn't win we still had a lot of fun doing the run. Daniel and I both came to the realization just how out of shape we really were.
After the run we decided to treat ourselves with protein smoothies from gold's gym, then were off to pick up the kid that Daniel works with for his job.
This week has been another busy one, but we're gearing up for Daniel's birthday on Monday the 28th. We're actually celebrating it on Sunday since we both work Monday, but I at least got the evening off instead of working all day like I normally do.
Also Amber comes next week for general conference weekend so that gives me an excuse to finally get our place in order.
Well we got a few more things to do tonight before we turn in so we'll have another update next week.

Getting Things Together

So we moved into our basement apartment starting last Wednesday and finished getting everything in by last Friday. Unfortunately we are still in the organization process. Work for me has been slowing the process down and Daniel as well has been busy with work and school, all though football tends to be a bit of a distraction for him ;) We hope to get the place totally cleaned up and neat on Sunday when we both have the free time to do it.

I had plans to work on it Wednesday afternoon, but was disappointed to discover that for some reason the sink was draining into the dishwasher. It was pretty annoying considering the dishes were pile high on account that I had worked the last 3 days all day. I was looking forward to putting my evening off to good use but ended up watching TV with Daniel. We told our landlords about it yesterday and they came over today while we were out and about to fix it! Daniel and I are both very grateful that our landlords were so speedy to our needs.

Tomorrow Daniel and I are running a 5K for Chili's, well the money goes to St. Jude's Cancer Research Hospital. I'm a little nervous, but excited all the same. Just hope I can keep up with Daniel, ha ha that's not going to happen. I plan on going a good pace and then kicking it up once I'm almost done. Wish us luck! The winner gets a $25 gift card to Chili's, our favorite restaurant!

Other news Daniel and I finally gave in and bought a laptop. It's Toshiba with a 16" HD screen, intel core 2 duo, 3GB SDRAM, and 320 GB HDD. I'm not totally sure what some of that means but I do know it's really good as far as speed goes. Daniel will be using it for school and I'll be using it when I go to school with the girls at the group home. So hopefully I will be able to keep my weekly update promise for the blog.

We Found a New Place!!!

So this last week we did a little home searching, not to buy of course, but to rent. We found one place that was cute and pretty close to UVU campus. We were planning on living there until Daniel found a place on craigslist that looked like it had a lot to offer. We went together to take a look at it. It wasn't too much, but just what we needed for ourselves. It's a basement apartment in Orem. You walk in and there is a kitchen area that we could easily fit a table into to make it a dining room as well. There is a dishwasher which we are excited about! The bathroom is nice looking, it has a tub that also has a shower head and there is a stacked washer and dryer which is another bonus for us. There is only one room which we have decided to make the bedroom/ living room. We plan on getting a futon so that we can make it a couch by day and a bed by night. It's a very cozy place and just what we need. The only thing it doesn't have is internet but we are looking at our options, we may have to do without for a little while. Needless to say we signed the contract and put down the deposit. Pictures will be coming soon.

Daniel is back in school but has decided to only take a few classes so that he can help me out with work and saving money. Luckily we don't have to buy too much stuff for our new place since it's so small, but we will be paying a little more than we are used to paying so we know money will be tight. We're just happy to get our own place finally. We've been married for almost 6 months and have needed our own place, especially since we've been stepping on toes and having our own toes stepped on at the place we are at now. Let's just say 2 young newlyweds were never meant to live together, especially for almost 6 months at that.

Other news we have signed up to run a 5K on September 19th for Chili's in American fork. The money is going to St. Jude's Cancer Research Hospital. Chili's takes donations every year for the foundation in the month of September. Guests can purchase t-shirts, keys, and even peppers to color all in the name of St. Jude's. What's so important about this hospital is that they help any child who is in need of cancer treatment regardless of insurance. The hospital relies solely on donations and takes 1 million a day to run because of all those in need they are willing to help. So just a little plug, if you happen to eat out at Chili's this month and can spare any donation is appreciated. As for the run I (Tiffany) am a little nervous about it. I really don't like running but i fugure it's an excuse to get me working hard so that I can do my best. I've only gone running once this last week but have high hopes. I already told Daniel to run ahead of me since the winner gets a $25 gift card to chili's and we can use all the help we can get. We'll post pictures on here from that event as well, but may be a bit since like I said earlier, we don't have internet at our new place yet. Don't worry though, we'll still find a way to keep this blog up to date.

The Beginning

So in hopes of being able to update our family and friends more than just once a month, we've decided to give into the peer pressure around us and start a blog. Our goal is to update the blog once a week, but we make no promises seeing how Daniel is back in school and working and Tiffany is working 3 jobs (mostly chili's and the group home). Both of us are very hard workers with little time to play so when we do have time together we make the most of it.

Today was one of those days that we had time together. After church we came home and ate lunch; followed by the usual Sunday nap. Daniel really wanted to use up his energy so we went to Kiwanis Park in Provo to throw the ball around a bit. Later we went to a work party for Chili's in Herriman, UT by a large pond. The food was great and we even broke our diet to eat one of our friend's delicious, carrot cupcakes. It was worth every extra calorie! Now we're just taking it easy, Daniel is unwinding playing video games and Tiffany is on the computer starting the "updating" blog.

Currently we are trying to save money for a trip to North Carolina for Thanksgiving. Daniel has a very sick aunt and his family is having a big get-together for her. Daniel's mom updated him on it and he really wants to go. Hopefully we can go together, but Daniel may be the only one who will be able to make the trip because we're pretty poor newly weds. But we're keeping our eyes out for any good flight specials and looking at our options. Tiffany would really like to go to see where Daniel grew up since he already saw her stomping grounds. We'll keep you up to date on what our Thanksgiving plans end up being.

Daniel is getting geared up for football season. He's pretty much been waiting for this time of year since basketball ended in April. Daniel is a huge UNC Chapel Hill fan. He feels they will have a pretty good season this year and expects them to do even better next year. For NFL he's definitely a Carolina Panther's fan. We butt heads often since Tiffany is a Charger's fan, more out of loyalty than out of the love of football, so there is a lot of trash talk going on in the home. We'll hopefully be able to check out some college games around here, but for sure we want to support the local sports and start going to some high school games. I'm not sure for which schools yet, but I'm sure we'll find one we want to support.