Arranging and Rearranging

My bedroom is officially put together, I think. I have rearranged the room three times and hopefully it will stay this way. It is easy enough to reaarange minus one heavy and huge bookshelf. The problem I have been struggling with is that the ideal place for my bed is on top of the airconitioning vent. Lots of people have said I should not cover that up, even though it is so tempting. So last night was hopefully the last of the reaaranging of my bedroom at least for a little while. I need to move on to other rooms in the house.

A New Bed

I finally bought a new bed, but this post is not about that bed. Mikila is moving in with me and she needs a bed. Well I was going to buy a twin bed to put in that room anyways so we set out to find one. After the first store she expressed her desire to have a bed bigger than a twin and I explain that I can't afford to buy a bigger one and she says that is fine she will work it out. This same Saturday I bought my bed and when we pulled around to the back of the store we realized that there are a bunch of old mattresses waiting to be thrown out. So we did what any desperate person would do and waited until after store hours and went and took one of those dumpster mattresses. Ghetto, OF COURSE!!

Mikila was laughing so hard she was really of no help and Dan and I had to do the dirty work. We loaded it and hauled it up all the stairs to her room. Meanwhile Mikila has not been around Dan in a long time and is laughing at everything he says and is making herself sick while Dan and I haul the worlds heaviest mattress.

After all of that she decided it was to big for her room anyways and is now sleeping on an air mattress. Last night in the dark, so no one could see, Mikila and I hauled the dumb mattress to the dumpster and shoved it in, because we don't need it. This story probably does not seem very funny on the blog but in real life the whole situation was hysterical!!

We made it!!

This time we made it to the top of Mt. Timpanogos. We hiked on the Timpanooke trail. I had never hiked that side and it was really nice to switch it up. Timpanooke trail is not as steep as the Aspen Grove side so it was a little bit easier on the knees. Overall it was a fun day. Poor Mikila came to town and I told her I would be hiking timp and she apparently did not realize it takes 8 hours. Luckily Jana and Bem are around and she could hang out with them all afternoon. Saturday was crazy because I had a ton to do even after I hiked so when I finally went to bed I was out.

My Furniture

I am done with school for the semester!!!! Yep, turned in the 20 page paper, the introduction for another paper, took a final at 7:45 am, and did a class presentation at 11 am. I am so excited to be done. A weight has been lifted. I plan on being lazy the rest of the day, except I will go on a bike ride, of course.

I bought some furniture last week. Dan was kind enough to accompany me while shopping. We went to every furniture store in Orem and Provo. I learned that I shop until I find exactly what I want. We shopped for quite a while. But this is what the search turned up: The sweetest couch ever. I love this coach. I love the colors and it is so comfortable. It also has plenty of cushions. I was so excited when I bought the couch I told Dan it felt like my birthday because it was exactly what I wanted. Needless to say after about five high fives he refused to give me anymore high fives and the excitement had worn off for him (probably because we still had to find a table).


I also learned that I am decent at bargaining. I had to bargain for this chair but I got them to take $70 off of their asking price. I was really pumped it is very comfortable as well. Both the couches look good in my living room and when I sit in it I think I really like this room. I will add that the only thing that has not stressed me out in the past week has been my house. School was so stressful last week, I am so grateful that it is over.


And the most depressing news of all is that teacher meetings start tomorrow. I want to cry. But I won't I will suck it up. It just feels like summer has been ripped away. SOOOOOO SAD!!

My new house

This is my new house. It is an end unit townhome. I believe it is 1300 square feet. Three bedrooms and two baths. One full bath and one half bath. This week was crazy. I signed my life away on Monday, got the keys on Tuesday, carpet on Wednesday and Thursday and did hardwood floors on Saturday. All of that along with biking, class, three day PE conference, and moving. Needless to say my week was slightly crazy. I learned I can still function on a little bit of sleep when it is absolutely essential.

Below is a picture of my bathroom. The only room in the entire house that is put together. I will post pictures slowly as I finish decorating each room. There is no hurry and it will probably take the entire month to get moved in completely.

Saturday my cousin Melissa's husband was kind enough to come down to Provo and teach me/ help me put in my flooring. It was one long day and I woke up today more sore then I have been in years. I was not expecting that but it has been slow going all day. Don't worry I ended up buying two different floors because I couldn't decide which one I liked the best. For those of you who have never bought laminate flooring that is a lot of loading and unloading of heavy awkward boxes. That alone was a workout not to mention the actual putting in of the floor. We had lots of help and it went really well until around 9:30pm and my brain would not function anymore I messed up two boards before I decided I was done using the saws for the night. Ryan was great and I really, really appreciate his help. Some of my roomates, my cousin Katie, and Dan all helped as well. Below is a collage of the project.

And below is the final project. One of the floors I bought was actually made in Oroville, California. That was crazy but I ended up liking the other floor better. We have not put the edges in yet but I really love the floor and I am sure it will look much better when I actually clean it.

Just for fun I thought you all might enjoy a good laugh. At the PE conference I went to we went mountain biking on the last day. Don't worry I crashed 4 times. I was wearing my clip in peddles and that was pretty much the death of me. I have some sweet bruises on my legs but they are hard to see becasue of my summer tan. I fugure the crashes are good in the sense that it is how you learn. I am obviously a slow learner. Even after all of those crashes I was not as sore as I was after putting in that darn floor.

My Aching Feet!

The picture above is my aching feet after hiking for three days. I washed my feet with wipes two times while hiking out and they were still really dirty when I finished. Both years I have done this hike my feet have been so swollen afterwards. It took a good two days for the swelling to come down. I don't know if it is because I drank so much water or because I hiked 10 miles with a 40 pound pack.

Below is another picture I took of the grand canyon. Don't worry I hiked my nice new camera in there with me. I didn't buy the insurance on that camera for nothing. It is going on every trip I take.

A WEEKEND IN PARADISE

Due to the perfect timing of Pioneer Day in Utah I was able to go with some friends to Havasupai again this summer. I love this place and after two summers of going I still have not seen all there is to see. For those of you who don't know Havasupai is an Indian Villaga in the grand Canyon that claims to have water as amazing as Hawaii. I have not been to Hawaii to compare but hope to accomplish that after I graduate from grad school. The first picture is a view of the beautiful grand canyon at the start of the switch backs.

I went with Amber Ellis, Brett Alldridge, and a bunch of Ambers family. They were all great company and we had so much fun. Below is Brett and myself about 5 miles into our hike. Notice we are still smiling that is because there are still 5 more to go. Once at camp we took a nap and then we were ready to hike, swim, and play and we put our happy faces back on.

Havasu Falls is my favorite water fall ever and I really wanted a good picture of it to blow up and put in my new house. Oh, yea I am buying a townhouse. I have not really told anyone but I sign tomorrow. Am I ready for a lifetime of debt, no are you ever? But I am really excited to have my own place to decorate.

For some reason I think it is hilarious taht they have to helliopter the portable toilets in every week. They do the dirty job on Thursdays and so you can see the toilets are flying away. Hope no one is inside.

In order to see Mooney falls there is a crazy hike down the side of a mountain. This is the sign that they have hanging right before you risk your life. I think it is funny because everyone that goes climbs down but hey you were warned. The pictures of Mooney Falls don't really do it justice. It is a beautiful and powrful 200ft waterfall that is a must see. The trip was a blast and I am so gad I was able to go. Amber brought a waterproof camera and so more pictures will be coming!!

Last but not least we stopped at Hoover Dam to take some pictures. I am only posting this picture because when we crossed the dam the first time at 2am I dared Amber to ask the guard if they were gaurding Megatron. Well she did not think that it would be funny but her Dad did it and it was hilarious. I am sure the guard has heard that before but hey he kinda laughed and everyone in the car was busting up so I think it was worth it.

ANTELOPE ISLAND BY MOONLIGHT

Every year there is a bike ride on Antelope Island from 10pm to midnight called the Antelope Island By Moonlight Ride. This year my cousin Katie and her friends, Cyndee & Camille, were doing the ride and invited me to come. I was a little hesitant because I am not used to staying up that late and I did not want to pay the money. But in the end I agreed and had a great time. We got out to Antelope Island just in time to watch the beautiful sunset.

Once there we hung around until 10pm and then the ride began. I rode my mountain bike for this one and we rode with head lamps 11 miles out to a ranch on the island. At the ranch we had some fruit and granola bars and then we turned around and rode back. I was actully really nervous to ride in the dark but it was really fun. There was a full moon as well so it was really beautiful outside. There were over 1000 riders and so it was really fun to watch all the lights on the rode as we peddled along.

My only complaints were that the drive out to Antelope Isaland was really stinky and the t-shirt they gave us was really ugly. Other then that it was GREAT!! I was however extremely tired on Saturday and really did not do anything productive. Going to bed at 2 am just does not cut it for me anymore. We all had fun and feel like we will consider making it a yearly tradition.

SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT

The softball team I play on won the tournament this week. We have taken second to the same team the past three years, but not this year. It was great!!!

My Hike Today!!!

Today I hiked with my backpacking pack on so I can start to prepare for Havasupai next week. My hike was really nice I went with my neighbor Nichole and we did a little hike up the American Fork Canyon. On our way back the highlight of the hike was seeing Mr. Moose. We had to go around him and get pretty close I was a little nervous. There were these teenage boys in the lake fishing and I said, "Do you think it is safe to go around." They replied, "There is only one moose we have not seen a baby so it should be fine." I then said, "If I die please report it so my parents know." One of the boys said, "Don't worry we have our video camera on in case it does attack." Oh good I will be famous after I die from a moose attack. The good news is that I did not die and the moose did not attack. It was sure fun to see one though.

Biking Fun

This week I barely squeeked in my 100 miles on my road bike. Come Friday I had only been on one 20 mile ride. Yikes!! I was still active doing other things but I hadn't road biked much, mind you I road my mountain bike a ton but that does not count towards my goal. On Friday I considered calling the goal off but then I decided I could suck it up and do some major biking. Friday I biked 54 miles and today I biked 27 miles and so I got my 100 mile goal. As if I had not biked enough the past two days I was bored, and doing homework was not really sounding very fun, so I talked Nichole into mountian biking with me and we biked up big springs. Big springs is where I snowshoe all winter long. It was the first time I have taken this bike off road and it was AWESOME. The bike was great and I really like it a lot more than my last mountain bike. Both my road bike and mountain bikes have frames specifically designed for women and I really like that. They are designed for shorter torsos and longer legs which is exactly what I have.