OKC-ing is Believing

Well, hello there! We are in OKC! We got here the second week of April. We had lots of fun road trip adventures driving from Idaho Falls to Oklahoma City. We have already had so many adventures since being here and have learned so much about ourselves and our marriage. I've decided it would be more effective to just list our adventures in a bullet list. :)

• Our first apartment will always be special to us...

So sad to leave the only apartment we've lived in together.

• Road trips aren't always so bad...

We went from Idaho to Oklahoma and we DID actually have fun! We made the drive in two days and stopped in Denver overnight. We discovered that we really like Colorado (neither of us had ever been there before). It is GORGEOUS!

Beautiful, right??

• You know you're in the south when...

JESUS IS REAL

• We have been so spoiled since arriving (and so grateful for it)...

The view of our apartment complex from our very own balcony.
We have two pools, a hot tub, a game/theater room, weight room,
valet trash, gates, a free car wash and vacuum, and that view...

• Our car did NOT get spoiled on the trip...

This is AFTER cleaning it half-way through (including dead bird)

• We've been so spoiled by meeting people from Austin's mission. We've had a different "dinner appointment" each Sunday.

Giant sandwiches!

Austin's giant sandwich at the Bailey's

• There are, in fact, a lot of bugs around here (good thing he's selling pest control, right?)

Squished bug on our wall

• I still love crafting as much as EVER (especially now that I have more time for it)

I'm making a cross-stitch project of Starry Night by Van Gogh.
This is about 1/12th of the whole thing.

I've been making decorations/projects for Stephen & Victoria's wedding.

• Austin secretly loves to vacuum...

...especially if he gets to act like a ghost buster

• I discovered Braum's ice cream and all my summer fitness plans RAN out of the window

Best. Stuff. Ever.

• Maybe you've heard me mention the weather here before...

The weather radar EVERY DAY in May

Watching the torrential rains from our balcony.
It was still fun for me at this point because it was before the tornadoes.

• We have spent so much time with great people that make us better

Once a missionary, always a missionary. These guys are the best!

I understand that this is a dog, but look at him.

We've made some very...special friends

This was such a crazy cool experience. This is Mariah and we have been best friends
 since we were only a few weeks old. Her and her husband actually live in OKC and we
had the privilege of being there when they blessed their new baby boy. Yeah, she has
TWO kids...what am I doing with my life again? haha

• We've been able to see many of the great things OKC has to offer, but this is something special...

The OKC Bombing Memorial

• Probably the most important thing we've experienced since coming here is recognizing the Lord's hand in our lives every day.

Sales can be pretty difficult. I'm sure that's not a surprise to anyone. Anytime your income is solely commission-based it can weigh heavily on your mind. Austin has been doing such a wonderful job. We have had many ups and downs, but the ups always outweigh the downs. He had been struggling with making sales because we got about 20" of rain in May (it basically poured all day every day). He had been doing great before then and suddenly, as is what often happens in life, things go downhill so quickly. There was a week where we had tornado watches every day (frightening for me), Austin struggled to make any sales that whole week (frightening for him), and when we had both finally had about all we could take our car was towed and we had to pay a hefty price to get it back. Even thinking back on that day right now it doesn't seem so bad. It's been a good reminder for us that things TRULY are never as bad as they seem at the time. It took lots of prayers, motivational conversations, and FAITH to keep us out here. We struggled to know what we should do, if we were even doing the right thing, and why the things we were experiencing were happening to us. After this awful week I knelt down in prayer and poured my heart out to Heavenly Father. I didn't understand what we were doing wrong. We had prayed so hard before we came to OKC to know if it was the right thing for us to do and we received so many confirmations and feelings that we needed to be out here. But it's funny how you can know you're supposed to be doing something and then when NOTHING seems to be working out we revert back to thoughts of doubt (self-doubting, doubting in the Lord's plan/will for us, etc) We went from knowing we were supposed to be here to almost packing up and leaving. So in this prayer I told Heavenly Father that I knew he wanted us out here, and that we couldn't stay if things didn't turn around. That very day Austin made 5 sales...he ended up making about 15 that week. There was also a day where he was struggling and I got down on my knees and poured my heart out to the Lord again and WHILE I was still praying he texted me to let me know that he got a sale. So, among all of the many lessons we have learned in our short time here so far, this is the main one:

I think it's extremely easy for us to assume that if things aren't going well at the moment or are really difficult that we're doing something wrong. We think we're being punished for the lives we're trying to live righteously. I had many conversations about this with my very wise mother. She pointed out to me that the Lord gives commandments (so we know we must do them) but when is it ever easy? Are there times when it makes absolutely no sense to us why we're doing it or how it could possibly turn out to be for our good? Of course. That's the way the cookie crumbles. Think of the life of the Savior himself. He knew exactly what his mission on this earth was, but just because he knew that he was supposed to do it didn't make it automatically easy for him to accomplish. He, in his darkest hour, poured his heart out to his Father in Heaven and asked, "Father, if thou art willing, remove this cup from me.." Nothing great that we ever have in this life comes without difficulty, and hardly ever are we asked to do something and NOT have our faith be tested in the process. Since our most difficult time things have gotten much better, but they are still far from perfect or meet expectations we've had. But we have had other blessings from being here. We've been able to meet with members and recent converts from Austin's mission and be strengthened by them, we have been placed in situations where we have been able to help those around us in ways that we never thought possible. We have met people that we would not have otherwise met and learned so much from them. We have seen God at work in our lives and learned that in the times we most feel like He has left us that these are just the times we have been blessed with to grow, and that He has never left us. Even when Christ was suffering for the sins of all mankind and in his worst times, Heavenly Father watched for him, fought for him, but most importantly, he allowed him to do what he needed to do in order for him to accomplish the greatest thing ever done. Sometimes God is blessing us by NOT taking away our trials. I am so grateful for the absolute tender mercies we have seen unfold all around us day by day.

In the words of our current Bishop: "EVERY DAY is a GOOD DAY"

And it really, truly is.

Utah, NBA Autographs, Subarus, and Summer Plans

Hello all!  The month of February has been very good to us. We had the opportunity to go to Utah for Valentine's Day weekend to be with my cousin as she went through the temple for the first time, and to see my Aunt & Uncle get sealed to each other. My parents and Grandmommy drove up from California so we go to see them, too! It had been a while. This past Valentine's Day was the two-year anniversary of when we first met...I know, I know, it's cute. Anyway, we went to Roxberry in Highland, UT to get some smoothies because I am trying...TRYING to not eat too much ice cream. =P We went and saw Taken 3 with my parents afterwards. Let me just say, I don't know why people don't start warning one another that taking things from Liam Neeson does not end well for anyone involved...

......just don't do it.
We drove back on Sunday and then had Monday off for President's Day. That night we stayed over at Austin's family's house in Idaho Falls. We went to go eat at Costa Vida with his sisters...when we realized it was the anniversary of our first date. We drove in his mom's Subaru, ate at Costa Vida, ordered the same thing, and he was even wearing the same jacket! We did not plan that I promise.

Our accidental 1st date reenactment.

We had some car adventures later on that week. By adventures I mean wanting to punch our car in the face, and not so much having of the fun. While I was trying to leave for lunch on Thursday from work I could NOT steer my car at all. Luckily Austin was in Idaho Falls already at his internship so he came and rescued me. We were able to get it to a mechanic where they told us our steering pump(...?) was fried because there was a leak. So they kindly put more steering fluid in it and I was able to get back to work and home. The next day was a different story. I started to drive to work in the morning and I had a bad feeling about it because it was really difficult to steer again. So we took it into the mechanic and they said they wouldn't be able to look at it until at least 11....so no work for me (yay!) After a while we heard from the mechanic and he said it would cost $600+ to repair. Now, for those of you not familiar with my car, it is a piece of crap. Excuse my French. We decided it wouldn't be worth it to repair since we planned on getting rid of it within the next month anyway. Lucky for us, Austin's parents had a brilliant plan. We managed to get our difficult car to Pocatello where they met us at a Subaru dealership. They were looking to get a different car for his mom so we were able to trade for one of their older ones (although it's the newest car I've driven!) So we were lucky enough to get a 2011 Subaru Legacy and it actually runs! It's a miracle. The even better part is that we now have the car that we drove on our first date, yeah that's also cute.

Our little whitey (nickname pending...as you can tell)

Our first big adventure with the new car was when we took it on a day trip to SLC to see the Jazz v. Spurs game. I don't care to talk about how the game ended (except to let that annoying Jazz fan that was sitting right next to us know this: AT LEAST OUR TEAM IS IN THE PLAYOFFS. HAVE FUN WATCHING THEM FROM YOUR COUCH!). Anyway, we got there early so I could (hopefully) meet some of the players. I got to meet Manu Ginobili, Patty Mills, Tiago Splitter, Marco Belinelli, and Boris Diaw....and get their autographs. Surprisingly, I got way more star struck than I had thought that I would. Patty Mills came to sign his autograph for me and he looked up at me and said, "Hey, how are you doing?" in his Australian accent. Now it's very possible that I just imagined this, but I was the only person he talked to so...we're practically best friends now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patty_Mills

We watched the game, bought an extremely over-priced hot dog, and had a great time on our short trip. We were driving back really late that night when we saw this:

http://www.amsmeteors.org/2015/02/satellite-re-entry-over-western-usa/

...and we pulled off to try and get a better look. We couldn't, obviously, but WOW. It was awesome to see. We were back to work/school/internship the next day. Austin has his last week at his KIDK internship this week. That will be one internship checked off of the list and one step closer to graduation! We have also made a pretty big decision, at least the biggest we've made since we've been married, I guess. We are moving to Oklahoma! Just for the summer. We had a really difficult time deciding where we should go for the summer, but in the end, we felt the best about Oklahoma. Austin is going to sell pest control with a company that he knows the owner of from his mission. We'll be in the same areas he was in which will be super exciting! More than anything, it will be really nice to try something new, which is our main purpose in going. We will leave shortly after Austin's semester ends in April. We are super excited for the future and for more adventures! Happy February! =)

Our soon-to-be home for the next few months!

Long Time No See.....err...Read

Hey there! Well, now that I've procrastinated as long as possible updating on here, happy 2015! Austin and I enjoyed a lovely Christmas break (which was light on the break as we both had to work the whole time) in Idaho. We pretty much went back and forth between our apartment in Rexburg and his family's house in Idaho Falls. We got the first main snowfall of the season on Christmas Eve...magical, right? We were very blessed to get some awesome things for Christmas (not that it's about what you get). Austin got a Wii U with some games, and I got a Kitchen aid! It's shiny and red and I refer to it as my sports car for the kitchen. We got our very own Christmas tree donated to us by the lovely Grandma Fransen (she happened to have an extra Martha Stewart, 7 1/2 foot tall, pre-lit, ROTATING, Christmas tree lying around....but who doesn't, right?) We had a great Christmas and a New Year's Eve occupied by playing games with Austin's awesome BFF's from high school (they played Super Mario for the Wii ALL the way through before it hit midnight...and I fell asleep on the floor and woke up at 11:59 PM. In between those two events, we celebrated our 1st Anniversary! It was on the 28th which was a Sunday, so we went out to Texas Roadhouse the night before and paid a surprisingly high amount of money for a surprisingly small amount of food...but, such is the case with most restaurants of that caliber. Austin started a new semester at BYU-I on January 5th. He switched his semester tracks so he can hopefully take school off this next semester so he can take a small break and we can have some adventures (but let's be real, we'll probably just end up working all summer like last year). He is currently going to school full-time, doing an internship, and working. SUPER. MAN. He is doing an awesome internship (it's his smaller one out of the two he needs before he graduates). He's interning at KIDK in Idaho Falls. KIDK is technically channel 3, broadcasts the channel 8 news, and also broadcasts for ABC and Fox...I think. It's a little fuzzy to me: http://www.localnews8.com/ He's only been interning there for three days and has already gotten to meet all of the anchors and crew, and has even been able to help film and edit the promos that end up on TV. I'm still convinced he will have to fill in for an anchor one day in the event of a "tragic accident".  So far he is having a blast there. I am still working at his dad's insurance company while Austin is still in school. It's been good for me because I love to organize and make things more efficient than they were before, so I've had lots of time to do that. Another thing I've been doing is organizing EVERYTHING in our apartment....when I say that, I mean everything. Our paperclips have a special container....just as an example. Austin says I have a problem....but, when is organizing ever a problem?! Although I have become an organization supply hoarder...which seems a little ironic. Also, crock pot freezer meals are my new best friend. I had been racking my brain trying to come up with a better dinner plan for the two of us. We're both gone all day and don't get home until around 6 PM, and by that time, ain't nobody wanna make a home-cooked meal. Luckily, I found this: http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/09/slow-cooker-freezer-meals-make-8-meals.html the holy grail of crock pot freezer meals. They have been so easy to put together and have made a world of difference for us in the evenings. I highly recommend! Any-who, that's pretty much all that's going on with us as of late. Happy January!