Trip to Utah Part 1: Flying

This is long over due, but better late than never right :)

I'm breaking this up into parts because there are too many things to cover so I'm not going to do a super super long post.  Instead I'll do lots of "small" posts.  Ha knowing me they wont be small.

Alright so this fun impromptu trip to Utah all started with a phone call the week before.  My mom called me to see what I was doing the next week specifically on Wednesday (I instantly got suspicious).  Since I don't have a job I'm really free and can do whatever I want.  So since I didn't have anything planned she asked if I wanted to come to Utah for Lyla and Myles' birthday.  My only confusion was that Lyla is not in Utah.  Problem solved!  Thank you Brandon for the buddy passes, so that us girls could have some fun!  Now the only thing that would have made the trip better is if Chase & Rob could have come along.  I sure did miss my hubby and felt bad leaving him home alone for a week.  But boy am I one lucky girl that he said I should go and supported me.

This was at the Detroit airport. I had to take a picture because it was so cool!

Ok so now that you know how and why this all happened, it's onto the details.  Tiffany the girls and I all left on Wed. 9/25, which just so happened to be Lyla's birthday.  Tiff left from Tampa and flew to Atlanta and then to Memphis which is where I met up with them & then we all flew to Salt Lake.

This was my first time flying all by myself and only my second time flying on a buddy pass so I felt a little discombobulated.  Luckily I made all of my flights so life was good :)  My first flight from Detroit to Memphis I got to sit in the seats right behind 1st class, which in my opinion were better than 1st class.  I was able to stretch out my legs all the way and I still couldn't reach the seat in front of me :)
 Since it was a small plane they pink tagged my luggage.  Which was a pain waiting for because I wasn't allowed to leave the ramp until I had my bag in hand.  Normally this wouldn't have been a pain, but I saw Tiff and the girls walk by and I so badly wanted to just run up and give them a hug.  So as soon as I got my bag and all of our tickets I found them and gave them a hug :)  Lyla and Cadence were a little apprehensive at first but Cadence quickly got excited and was hanging on my legs and having me swing her.  Boy do I love that girl :)  Lyla warmed up to me quickly as well which made me one happy aunt and a happy sister!

Flying with them was fun and they did so good!  One time I took Cadence to the bathroom and if you have ever used a bathroom on a plane you know how small they are.  Anyway it was quite the challenge to go potty.  I'm surprised nobody could hear me coaxing her to go potty, us laughing because the flushing of the toilet made us both jump and then a little bit of crying because she didn't like how I was holding her up to wash her hands.  Haha on top of all of that apparently when I pulled her pants up I didn't get her panties too so the rest of the plane ride her undies were not on her bottom.  I'm surprised she didn't say anything because I'm sure that wasn't comfy, haha.
It was a long day of flying especially for Tiff and the girls and we were starving when we got to Utah, so thankfully mom had thought ahead and had dinner waiting for us when we got to the house.

Welcome to Utah!  The first snow.  I was trying to get a picture while we were driving down the freeway to send to Chase. 

I'm also going to cover flying home.

Goodbye Sunrise

So I think that Cadence and Lyla did an AWESOME job with flying both times that I was with them.  Especially considering on the way home they both weren't feeling 100% and they just had a fun filled week.

Yes I enjoy taking blurry pictures. Oh well, this was too cute not to include.
Getting on the plane :)
Again we all flew to Memphis and departed our separate ways from there.  Since we both had time before our next flights we made sure to run around to get rid of some energy.  It was so fun running around the airport listening to Cadence squeal along with Lyla which consequently lead to a whole lot of laughing from all of us.   Good thing the airport was pretty dang dead.  If we made anyone annoyed they should just be glad that this all went down in the airport instead of on the plane :)  It eventually came time for me to load my plane so we all headed over to my gate and waited until the lady at the gate finally decided that she would help me and give me my ticket.  Don't worry that's how it is being on standby.  The bright side about being the very last person to load the plane was that I had more time with the girls and Tiff.  Cadence was so cute waiting by my side!  I sure did love getting to spend all of this flying and airport time with them :)  Lucky me!

When I landed in Detroit I had a text from Tiff saying that Cadence was so sad to see me go that she cried for 10 minutes after I left :(  It breaks my heart, but makes me happy at the same time because I know that even though we don't see each other often, we can still feel the same kind of love!  I love you Kiki girl and I can't wait to see you for Christmas!

It was lovely coming home to the man that I love!  I sure did miss him and was so happy to see him at the airport :)

Things to learn

Why does nobody tell you as you are growing up or when you get your first job or start going to school or when you get married that, "hey if you are ever wanting to buy a house you better start saving now!"  "It's going to cost you a whole lot just to even sign the papers!"  "Then you are going to have a payment."  "So yeah start saving those pennies now because buying a house will take it all!"
I wish I was told all of that (well I guess I knew some of it, but not all) so that I could've had a pretty penny set aside just for the lovely costs.  I would've had a different account that said Future Home in 30 yrs. (because it probably would've taken that long on the measly amount that I made.)  Then if you got lucky you would have married someone that had the same kind of account with another pretty penny.  Then you would have two pretty penny's and you would be set! :)
Well all of this advice would have been nice, but it didn't happen that way and instead we are trying to roll with the punches & figure it all out as we go.  Good thing Chase has a good job :)  So instead of continuing to wish that I had a stash of money set aside just for a house, I'll look to the future and start saving for the next time that we decide to buy a house.  That way it wont be such a shock to my system :) (hopefully)

Now this is only one thing out of a big bucket that you need to know as an adult.  Next up we need to learn more about retirement (we know to be setting aside money, but how much and all of that jazz is still a little shaky).  We also need to learn about investments and stocks & bonds and stuff because to be honest I'm a little clueless when it comes to this topic.  I know I had a class in high school that covered it a little bit but come on, I was 16.  Did they really think I would remember?  Well I didn't!  Then we need to learn some more about more of whats in the big bucket.  Gee, that's a lot of learning we have.  Guess we better get started.

Be The Match

Not to long ago I fell upon this blog www.kissesforcami.com and decided that I wanted to do more.  More as in, if I have the chance I want to help save a life.  I've always said yes to being an organ donor on my drivers license but I've wanted to do more.  When I found kisses for Cami I realized that there is more that I could do.  I never even realized that I could be a bone marrow donor, and after reading up on it I realized that this is something that I wanted Chase and I to be a part of.  So with no convincing Chase agreed and I ordered us our kits.  We got them in the mail yesterday and it was so easy.  We swapped our cheeks together, sealed up our envelope's and I put them back in the mail today.  Now all we have to do is wait until we are contacted to help save somebodies life.  I have no idea if we will ever be called and if we are, when it will be.  All I know is that we are on this list until we hit the ripe age of 61.  I will admit that I felt a little nervous once I got the kit in the mail.  However seeing Chase be at such ease and realizing that I am doing something that could potentially help save a life then the nerves disappeared.  

Here's my challenge to you.  Go to http://bethematch.org and read up on it yourself and decide if you also would like to help save lives.  Or I could just put it this way, Chase and I are doing it, so what about you?  Ha, I'm kidding.  You have no pressure from me!  I'm solely sharing this because I am happy to know that I am going to be a part of this national list and I could one day provide hope :)

Labor Day Weekend Fun

I know I'm really late with this post but I wanted to include it anyway.

Our Labor consisted of mountain biking, great company, wonderful food, and extremely large crowds.

We first started out Mnt. biking with a family friend Mike Lyon.  We then went to his house and played around on his property.  Our playing consisted of a short ride on the wave runner in the pond, a four wheeling ride and just exploring, along with chatting mixed in with eating yummy fajitas, muddy buddies, and other delicious food.  We had a great day and I was exhausted by the time we went home.
-Side note: Mnt. biking was a lot of fun but it really wore me out.  By the end I was getting grumpy because I was going even slower and my legs were burning so bad.  So this is to Chase:  I'm sorry I was a grump!  Thanks for still loving me and letting me know that I could do it and that I was doing great, even though I didn't think so and I let my emotions take over.

Ok the rest of our weekend included Arts, Beats & Eats in Royal Oak.  I'm glad we went to this even though all we really did was walk around.  I still enjoyed being outside, eating food, and just looking at each booth as we walked by, haha.  The crowds were crazy and it was hard to do anything outside of the flow of traffic.

It sure was a fun weekend! 

Missionaries

UPDATE:  I wrote this forever ago!!!  But I figured I'd post it anyway :)

So since I feel like I do so much with the missionaries I feel it's only fitting that I write more about them :)  I have loved that we have 3 elders in our ward so that I can help them out more than usual.

Lets start from dinner :)
So I had them over last month and told them to be at my house at 6pm.  Well Chase and I had packed our evening that day because thats the night we were going to make an offer on a house.  We still met with our real estate agent that night so I had limited time to get dinner put together before the boys came over.  Needless to say we weren't completely ready when they showed up.  That's alright though because Elder Smith was more than willing to help us out.  The others helped with setting and arranging the table as I placed more and more on it.  I had originally told the boys to just sit and relax, I'm sure some down time is nice every now and then.  For dinner we had one of my favorites pepperoncini beef sandwiches.  Boy oh boy am I ever glad that Mom Birks found this recipe.  I love it! Moving on!  After dinner the boys talked with us about how Chase and I can follow through with our goals and what they can do to help us.  It was great getting to hear their suggestions.  We then had dessert which Chase loves!  We had eclair pudding cake, which, p.s. is so so yummy!  If you want the recipe let me know.  During the night Chase would talk about his mission and he brought out pictures, some memorabilia and his mission planner.  It was so fun to see them gawk over the fact that Chase had zero's written down in his planner.  They then pulled out theirs to compare numbers.  Two whole different missions boys :)  Anyway it was a lot of fun having them over.  I feel like it's my duty to take care of these boys.  It's like I'm their older sister or step in mom at times.  I worry about them and want to make sure that they are being taken care of :) haha.

Now teaching-
I've talked about this before, but I really do feel so honored that I get to help them teach the gospel and that I get to see them in action first hand.  I love it.  I love how much energy they have and I love seeing how much love they have for this gospel.

Transfers-
Elder Jones found out he was being transferred so I wanted to get a one last picture of Chase and I with him before he left.  Which meant that yes I took my camera with me to church.  He instead wanted to stop by our apartment on Sunday evening to say goodbye.  I felt so cool that Elder Jones wanted to say goodbye to us :)  So they stopped by and I made some dessert at their request, haha.  What stinkers, asking for sweets ;)  That's alright I enjoyed the fact that they asked me, so of course I had to oblige.
Transfers was the following Tuesday and they asked if I would take them.  I didn't know anything about the city that we were going to so I was nervous to go by myself.  I also didn't know what to expect.  I had it in my head that I would be a single lady sitting in my car in a parking lot all on my own so I was sure to be jumped or something.  So I invited Emily to come with me.  I didn't tell the Elders so when I showed up at their apartment with Emily in my car their faces said it all.  I could tell they were thinking what the crap.  Why is Emily in the car?  How are we all going to fit in the car?  It was funny and couldn't help myself from chuckling at them.  I then realized that I probably should've thought that one through better since Elder Jones' 3 suitcases took up my entire trunk, which meant no room for his front bike tire since my bike rack doesn't hold the extra wheel.  It also didn't dawn on me that our new elder could be bigger than Elder Jones.  Oops!  Sorry boys.  Just think of it as initiation into the new trio :)  Alright so transfers was cool and next time I'm going to sit in on their meeting (if there is a next time).  It was fun hearing their hoots and hollers as new companionships were announced.  It was sad saying goodbye to Elder Jones though.  Like I said I feel like these boys are my brothers.  Don't worry though I didn't hug him or cry to make him feel awkward :)

From left to right: Elder Jones, Elder Smith & Elder Varner

The 3 Elders squished in my back seat.  Sorry boys I didn't think that one through.  

Our "new" Elder to the Trio Elder Borup

New Elders-
So I guess it never dawned on me until transfers came that we will have lots and lots and lots of missionaries in our lives.  Our time with the missionaries will not end when Elder Varner, Elder Jones and Elder Smith go home.  We will always until the day we die have missionaries in our home.  Sounds pretty exciting to me :)

Sister Missionaries-
Alright so I can't forget about the sisters.  When we went to the adult session of stake conference the missionaries were the special choir.  Lucky for me it gave me the chance to spot some sister missionaries that I know from Riverton.  Afterwards Chase and I tracked them down, chatted and I took a picture with them.  The first is Sister Tracy.  I know Sister Tracy because she is the little sister of my friend from school.  I knew that she was out here serving I just didn't realize that she is in our stake. How cool.  She told me multiple times to let her sister know that she misses her and loves her :)  The other sister is Sister Decker.  She was a grade younger than me so I knew her from school.  Plus it helps that she is very outgoing and I'm sure everyone knows who she is :)  So it was fun getting to talk with both girls and see familiar faces.  Unfortunately I don't think they will ever end up in my ward :(  Hopefully I'll see them again.

Sister Tracy

Sister Decker

Alright I have officially written a novel.  If you read my novel good job!  If you just looked at the pics I'll forgive you this time :)

Track Day

On 8/24/13 Chase was able to take his car out to the race track.  In preparation for this day Chase had to do a little work on his car, make sure that his roll bar was bolted down and put the miata's new race/summer shoes on.  Then it was off to see how fast his little car could go.  Chase had to have an instructor (Gary) since they didn't know that he's already amazing.  Well after two rounds he was given the go ahead to be out there without his instructor.  I think it's safe to say that he had a lot of fun :)  He was even schooling the brand new Porsche's.  He was keeping up with them and even passing them.  Which made them a little embarrassed.  I'm sure Chase enjoyed schooling the Porsche's but I think that he had the most fun when him and a fiat were battling it out.  It was fun to watch him having so much fun during the day that sweating in the hot sun was worth it :)
After a full day of racing, which meant a lot of track time for the boys and girls, the Porsche club then had their end of the year party.  What a great time to join a club, just in time for delicious food :)
It was a great day and what made it a great day was seeing my hubby grinning from ear to ear all day long :D

Lets Be Honest

Ok so I think it's time for some honesty.  Not that I haven't been honest in my posts, but I would be lying if I didn't include how life can be hard at times.  We are all meant to have our trials so that we can grow.  Well right now I feel like my trial is friends.  I have a few girls that I hang out with from the ward which I love, but moving out here has made me realize that I don't keep friends very well.  Growing up I've always had best friends, but for some reason the relationships faded.  I still consider them all friends but it's nothing like it used to be.  Reflecting on this also made me realize who I've always considered my best friends, and that would be my family!  It also comes at no surprise to me that when I married Chase his family quickly became my best friends as well.  Which by the way I LOVE that I consider my families my best friends.
So the reason I bring this up is because I've been sad about this lately.  It makes me sad when I hear about people being best friends since 3rd grade.  It makes me sad that my best friends and I grew apart and that we lost connection.  It makes me sad that I moved away from the best friends that I had.  It makes me sad that not only did I leave my family behind but I left my best friends behind as well.  It makes me sad when I realize best friends don't just happen over night like I wish they did.
Now even though I listed all the things that make me sad concerning best friends, I also realize that it takes time and I will have best friends again!  So onward I'll go, building friendships that last :)  It's a darn good thing that I have the ultimate best friends with me on this journey.  Chase and my Heavenly Father will always be my best friends!!! :)
As a side note, even if I don't end up with best friends I know that I'm going to make a lot of friends.  Now the question is how I'm going to do that.  Being home all day makes that a tad bit difficult.  So I think it's time to get out of the house and go make some friends :)