Night Visitors

Last night we woke up around 12:30 to knocking on our front door. At first I thought I was dreaming, but then we heard it again! It totally freaked us out, but Alan went to check things out.

Here was my first thought: Oh, no, Jared called 911 and the fire department showed up to make sure things are all right. (By the way, Jared actually did call 911 a couple of Saturdays ago, and we didn't know it until we got two phone calls--one from the fire department and one from the police--to make sure everything was all right. I guess the thought didn't occur to me that Jared went to bed 5 hours before this knocking, and it would have been too long of a delay to actually be the fire department.)

My second thought that it was my brother or sister-in-law, who live fairly close to us. But then, wouldn't they have just called if they needed something?

The mysterious knocking ended up being a couple in our neighborhood, telling us that we left our garage door open. They didn't know our phone number, so they couldn't call us.

Hmm...was closing our garage really important enough to wake us up in the middle of the night? And was it worth scaring us to death?

A Wedding and Two Handsome Boys in Tuxes

Last week Alan's brother Paul was married to his sweetheart, Courtney. The entire day was wonderful, and we are so excited for them to start their new lives together!

The two men in my life

I don't usually like to post pictures of myself, but someone told me that I looked "stunning" that evening.

Finding time to be silly

More Domesticity

Sorry that I have been neglecting my blog. Our computer is not in the most convenient place right now (until we get wireless someday), so I have hardly been spending any time on it. It's probably a good thing. :)

I am so horrible at taking pictures, but here are a few things I've been up to lately:

bread making (my first time from scratch!). . .


flower arranging (we have our own rose bushes!). . .

and fort building.

Organ Shoes

So, I just got called to be one of the ward organists. I don't really play the organ, but I did take a beginning organ class at college five years ago where I learned proper techniques for both hands and feet. Luckily I saved all of my books of hymns from that class. I'm excited to expand my talents and really learn a new skill!

I decided today that I would be more serious about learning to play better if I bit the bullet and bought some organ shoes. My organ class five years ago recommended buying shoes from this website, but they are like 50 bucks! Thank goodness for the internet, because I found this other website, where you can buy dance shoes that look and feel just like organ shoes for 20 bucks! (I think the heel is just 1/4 inch higher than what is recommended, but I think it will definitely work!) I thought I would just spread the good deal around, since I have many piano-playing friends who may also get this opportunity some day. . .

What we have been up to...

1. Moving
2. Unpacking
3. Assembling an armoire and cabinets for the laundry room (these took several days!!)
4. Thinning our peach tree (like we even knew what we were doing)
5. Knocking down wasps nests (two, in fact)
6. Mounting bookcases to the wall
7. Organizing
8. Cleaning
9. Laundry
10. Dishes

What we still need to do...
1. Assemble a desk, a bed, and two kitchen chairs
2. Mow and spray our extremely long grass
3. Fix about 30 small things around the house
4. Hang pictures
5. Buy tons of things for around the house (rugs, garbage cans, etc.)
6. Finish unpacking
7. Organize storage room, den, garage, and two bedrooms
8. Meet more of our neighbors
9. Check out all the parks nearby
10. Catch up on sleep!

What I have NOT been doing...
1. Checking email or blogs (my GoogleReader says I have about a zillion things to read)
2. Exercising (well, does running around my house unpacking things count?)
3. Giving Jared enough attention
4. Reading my library books that are due soon

We love our new house. I pretty much walk around all day with a big grin on my face. :) I can't wait to get even more settled in.

Excitement!

Our lives have been very crazy lately, and I haven't wanted to blog about our exciting news in case something fell through. But we are moving very soon to a house! I'm not going to post pictures of the outside so that all of our stalkers won't find us, but here are some lovely pictures of the inside. (I wish our furniture looked this nice!) By the way, for those who are wondering, yes, this is the same house that I blogged about a while ago.








We are really excited! Our house has 5 bedrooms, a completely finished basement, a den, and a playroom, plus a swing set, small vegetable garden, and two fruit trees in the backyard. Wish us luck as we make this transition!

Simpsonize Me

Alan

Jenny

My brother Matt sent me this link to Simpsonize yourself. You upload a photo of yourself and then you can adjust features like hair length, body type, etc. I've only seen a handful of Simpsons episodes my entire life, but this was fun nonetheless!

The Buddy