About Jake

This afternoon a woman from church came over to drop by a late birthday gift (She's been trying to bring it for some time, bless her.). Anyway, she asked how renovations on the house are going, so I took her upstairs to look at them, and as we walked around, I kept telling her that Jake had done this or that to different parts of the home. After she left, I spent some time thinking about his home-improvement talents and feeling so grateful for him and all he does for us. He's pretty amazing. I thought about how he has so many practical skills that so many people lack today (We're quite specialized in what we do, and we hire other specialized people to do all the things out of our skill set.). I think I recall Pres. Hinckley encouraging us to learn basic skills of self-sufficiency, and I think Jake has those down. I do not - on the feminine side of things, I can't sew or do many domestic tasks that would be helpful in helping us to be able to really take care of ourselves should the need arise.

But, here are the things that Jake has done to the house since we have been married:

• Cut out some of the driveway cement, install a drainage pipe and re-pour cement.
• Pull up old carpet from the upstairs.
• Paint most of the rooms in the upstairs.
• Weld a bed frame for us.
• Lay laminate flooring (which includes measuring and cutting pieces, putting down quarter-rounds on the edges, laying transition pieces from laminate floor to carpeted and tiled rooms).
• Lay sticky tiles in the bathroom.
• Replace bathroom faucets.
• Replace toilet.
• Rip out old shower and plumbing.

He is in the process of replacing the shower wall, and he will probably tile the bathroom walls. He is going to re-do the kitchen, among other projects. The only thing we have paid someone to do is install carpet into the upstairs' bedrooms. Not only does he have all of these handy-man sort of skills, but he can run a tractor and use it for different functions. He can sew a button onto something, cook, play the piano, and even braid. :)

Anyway, I am so blessed to have him in my life. I feel like our marriage yoke is so unequal - he can do so very much more, but maybe little by little I can work on developing my own skills.

Thank you, Jake.

I Failed

Ugh - I already failed at Nablopomo because it looks like I forgot to post yesterday.  Well, here's a post for today anyway:

I have seen a mouse in the house THREE TIMES today!!  We've known that there are mice here for a long time now - we've seen evidence of them, and Jake has seen one or more in the garage - but I have never actually seen one in the house.

1st Sighting: I was sitting on the couch in the family room, minding my own business (or maybe others' business, too - may have been on Facebook), when something in the kitchen caught my eye. I had a psychology professor who taught us that if your eyes tell you they see something, they probably do (There is quite the story that goes with that lesson.), so I looked and lo! and behold, there was a mouse scampering across the kitchen floor. I called Jake and told him, and then I went and got the kittens, who have been living on the other floor of the house.

2nd Sighting: I was sitting on the couch in the family room, again, when I heard a noise coming from the kitchen. The kittens were near me, so I knew it wasn't them, and that left the mouse as the culprit.  I grabbed a kitten and looked in the kitchen near the stove, where I thought the noise was coming from. There is a hole next to our stove, and I put the kitten near it, hoping he would go in and investigate.  Then, while he and the other kitten and I were all there, the mouse darted out from under the stove and then back under it again. I pushed one kitten into the hole and he stayed in for a minute.  Both he and the other kitten walked back and forth in front of the stove for a minute or two, as well, but they didn't seem as drawn into the situation as I would like.

3rd SightingI decided that I should actually try to accomplish something today, so I started moving baby stuff from the living room to a bedroom - I didn't want the kittens to get into it.  After moving several items, I grabbed a bag, and I lifted it I saw something, which startled me, of course, and then I watched a little grey mouse run under the door to the utility room.  I grabbed the kittens, who were trying to sleep on the couch, and threw them into said utility room for a few minutes.  They probable never saw the mouse in there, but when I let them out, I left the door cracked in case they decide they'd like to look around in there more.

Jake says he's bringing four different types of traps home.

Happy Dia de los Muertos

I'm not really writing about Dia de los Muertos, but I thought I would wish you a happy one anyway since it is today.  I thought about finding a Mexican store and seeing if they had any pan de muerto, but I didn't do it last week, and the Sabbath is not a day to shop, so I guess I'm out of luck - maybe next year.

This evening Jake said that we only have 3 1/2 weeks until the baby's due date, which freaked me out, but I think it is closer to 4, which is still crazy.  She has been moving around a little this evening, so I have spent a little time watching my belly be moved about a bit; it's strange to have a part of my body move from inside without me being the one to do it.  Anyway, Jake is getting more and more excited to meet the baby, and I'm excited to meet her, as well, although I'm also getting increasingly nervous about the process of getting her here.  If any of you know of how to stay calm about the situation, I would love to hear your suggestions.

Nablopomo 2014

My husband was wondering what Nanowrimo means when he saw a FB status update from my brother, and that reminded me that Nablopomo starts today. I hope to participate in it until the baby arrives (which means that I hope I fail due to the baby being born before the month is over).  So here's to hoping that I can remember to do this everyday until then.  Cheers!

Engagement Photos

I guess the next thing sequentially is engagement photos.  My dear friend, Abbie (who I totally miss - we were roommates for seven years), came up to visit and take pictures for us, which I really appreciated.  We didn't have much time to get them taken, but here are a few of the shots (Didn't Abbie do a nice job?):

Outfit #1

Outfit #2

We ended up with lots of kissing poses, but I don't think we were sure about what to do. I have spared you most of them.

This was one of my favorites, but we didn't go with it for the main picture on our announcements.

A New Beginning

It's been so long since I blogged; I'm going to try to start over.  For my first few (or more) posts, I want to write about some of the significant events over the past year to get up to speed.  Today's event occurred a year ago, September 8, 2013.  I got engaged to Jake Ellis!  Crazy.  There were probably lots of people who wondered if that would ever happen to me.

My anxiety issues made for some nice (or not-so-nice) times throughout dating, and I wasn't able to enjoy the proposal like I think a normal person would.  However, Jake proposed, and I accepted.  How did it happen?  We had Jake's boys with us.  It was a Sunday.  We went for a drive in Provo Canyon (I think that's where we were - someone correct me if I'm wrong.).  James kept asking if we could pull over somewhere, and I kept saying no.  I didn't know he was trying to find a place for Jake to propose.  We tried driving to some spot, but you were supposed to pay to be there, so we kept going.  We finally stopped at Bridal Veil Falls (That's not where Jake planned on doing it, but it was appropriate, I guess.).

After spending a little time there, we started heading back to the car.  If I recall correctly, I was ahead of the others - maybe Chomper was with me.  Then Jake called me back to the bridge I had crossed over.  When he did that, I knew what he was going to do.  He had each of the boys tell me why they thought I would be a good mom (Chomper had a hard time with this - he and I discussed this and how it was okay if it took some time for him to get used to the idea), and Jake asked me to marry him.  I said yes - I guess kind of mechanically (that whole anxiety thing I mentioned), and Jake gave me my beautiful ring that he had picked up a few days before.  I had always said that I did not want to be involved in picking my ring, but I was totally involved. :)  Jake made me go ring shopping way early in our relationship ("just to get some ideas," he said), and I really liked this particular ring, so I decided that I'd better let him know, and I did.

Anyway, so there's the proposal, and here are a few pictures from the day:

I'm married!

Once again, it's been forever since I have written.  The past several weeks have been quite busy because . . . I got married!  We didn't know if it would happen when we planned for it, but because of the Lord answering lots of prayers and fasts, Jake and I were married on Saturday, December 7th. We didn't know until the Monday prior. Once we found out, it was try to get ready the rest of the week, go to St. George, get married, go on an awesome honeymoon and relax for a week, and then get right back into the thick of things. More details to come, but I wanted to update that and also let you know that I really might change the name of my blog. I hope you and yours had a wonderful Christmas. The Savior is the reason for us to have hope and happiness.  I'm so grateful for Him.