Kissing Keith Goodbye

We've been trying to sell Taylor's car, Keith, for about five months now. In reality it hasn't been that long, but it felt like forever. After months of waiting, people trying to scam us, and people who didn't follow through it is sold. Out of our parking lot. Parked in some strangers driveway. Never to be driven by us again. Gone forever. We had to drive down to Logan to sell it, but it was so worth it.

Very happily signing the title over

His grandparents gave him this car, but it wasn't very practical for us or for the Idaho winters. We Taylor has been car shopping constantly for months, and we found a car that is perfect for us. Selling this car was the answer to our prayers. It really taught us that things are not done in our time, but they are done in the Lord's time. The guy that bought it had looked at five others cars, but he chose ours. It was such a blessing for us to sell the car at this time. The car that we are planning on buying should be done in a week or two, and now it won't be as big of a deal for us to buy it. We're no longer stressing over it and trying to figure out how we'll make ends meet. I can't even express how happy I am that it is gone. I'm pretty sure that I told Taylor at least fifty times that I'm so happy that we sold it. 

We had some time to kill before the guy got to Logan so we figured that we would make something out of it by shopping, visiting the temple, and going out for dinner. 

We saw the bulls, and I tortured the boys with a Hobby Lobby trip. sorry not sorry

I'm in love with everything about the Logan temple.

Our 'hooray we just sold the car' dinner date was to Chik-fil-a so clearly we're still cheap. We stopped to drop off Taylor's brothers and talked to his parents for a little while and then we headed home. It turned out to be almost a twelve hour trip, but it couldn't have gone any better.

It's About Time We Budget

In the first few months of our marriage we would spend the income Taylor made and save the income that I made. We were spending more than what we should have been, but it wasn't that big of a deal because we were still putting enough into savings each month. Then I lost my job for at least a little while because the father of the kids I watch lost his job. Well there goes my income and the money we were putting into savings. I also start school again next month which means more spending and less money that I can bring in. I had talked before about how we needed to make a budget, but now I knew that we really didn't have a choice.

I was absolutely shocked when I added up all of our spending from July. I had no idea how two people could spend so much on what seemed like nothing. It was a huge wake up call for me. We want to pay off the one student loan I have before I finish school, and we're planing on buying a car within the next couple of weeks so we don't have any room for the kinda spending we were doing.

I didn't really know where to start, but I knew how much our rent/utilities were each month and I kinda just went from there. I decided to make a meal plan like I did in the very beginning of our marriage. I figured this would stop the "I can't think of anything to make tonight, but we have some KFC coupons so lets just do that." Well an unnecessary eight dollars later, and I'm starting to think that we should have just made something at home.

One thing that I have done is written down every single time we have swiped our cards or spend money. Almost all of our spending is done with cards which isn't really a problem, but simply watching our overall amount get smaller wasn't enough to show us how much we were spending. Even though every transaction is listed on our account online I feel like physically writing it down on paper, and adding up the amount we have spent every couple transactions has really helped me to see how much we are spending.

I didn't make a budget until about a week into this month which means that it hasn't been perfect. We might have spent a little too much money between our trip to Grace and going to the rodeo, but having some fun is a necessity. Even though we aren't where we should be with the budget I made we're still trying not to buy anything for the rest of the month, and that is different than ever before. Hopefully we'll do better with our spending next month and kick butt at budgeting!

The World is a Beautiful Place

I'm loving this quote right now. Sometimes this world kinda sucks. Watching the news anymore gets depressing. Why is the eastern United States getting more rain than they can handle while the west is struggling with wild fires? Why are there soldiers dying every day fighting for this country? Why does a father with four kids lose his job? Why did they kill Lexi and Mark off of Grey's Anatomy?

At the same time, why do we have beautiful sunsets? Why do I have a husband who is so patient with my short comings? Why do people do random acts of kindness for complete strangers? Why has my family been blessed with sweet baby Raelyn? Why do we have friends to help us get through any tough times? Why do we have mountains, forests, and beaches? 

With as much bad as there is in this world, there is also so much good. There is so much to be thankful for, and so much to look at and love. Always look for the good in other people, and in any situation. Don't let the world ruin who you are. Smile through the bad, and do whatever you can to be happy.

Road Trip to Grace

We took a quick road trip to Grace this weekend. It was nice to get out of Idaho Falls for a little while. It was the first time we got to go riding since right after our wedding. 

Two hours can take a long time

My husband has a girl butt, and the view from behind him.

Riding front for the first time

Both video qualities got a lot worse once I uploaded them.. 

The weekend we were planning to come down just so happened to be the weekend of Caribou county fair. It was the smallest fair that I have ever been to, but it was still nice to go to. There was a parade that goes past you once, and then it turns around and goes past you again so you can see the other side. 

The demolition derby had a station wagon, and I picked it to win. It won the first round!

Terrible picture quality, but in between the derby rounds they invite all the little kids to go into the arena and have a dance party for a couple of songs. It was super cute.

They also have some atv events in between derby rounds. In this game one person drives a four wheeler and the other person has a bat(a pool noodle) and a balloon on their helmet. They go around and around trying to pop each other's balloons and the last person with their balloon unpopped wins. It was interesting and funny. 

Sheldon didn't want to give up his bed for us so we took it as the perfect opportunity to try out our new tent. My parents got it for me for my birthday, and I love it. It is nice and big and oh so awesome! I'm hoping that we get to take it on a real camping trip this summer. The tent has an easy thirty second set up, but getting it folded up was a whole different story. Hopefully, next time will be easier. 

We left early Sunday morning so that we could get back in time for church and for Taylor to teach in elder's quorum. Having late church pays off every now and again. I hope that we can make another trip before summer is over, and maybe next time we can go to lava hot springs and hit up the pool or the hot pots.

Ammon Days and a Rodeo

Saturday turned out to be a perfect summer day. Taylor worked in the morning, but we filled up the rest of the day to make up for it. Every year the city of Ammon hosts Ammon days. It was better than we expected it to be.

There was a lot more people there than what we expected. They had free food, snow cones, and cotton candy. The food was so good, and cotton candy made for a delicious dessert. I'm pretty sure that they had some free bounce houses for little kids, and the pool was open for free swim all day. A lot of local businesses had tents set up with mini games, and some advertising things. They had talent shows through out the day and other contests. I was surprised by how much they had there.

I was so excited to get to go to the rodeo. The last rodeo I went to was in Tennessee in 2007 I believe so I was long overdue for another. The tickets were a little pricey, but money raised from the rodeo goes to support local veterans.

We were treated to a pretty sun set.

Right after he proposed to her. So cute!

It was the first date that we have been on in a little while which made it even better. It was the perfect way to spend a Saturday.

Idaho Love

For the past couple of weeks I have been trying to come up with some type of arts and craft project to do. I mainly just wanted something to fill up some of my time since I haven't been working much. Of course when I decided on something it was 7 or 8 on a Friday night instead of when I'm home alone, but it turned into bonding time so it was worth it. I based it off of this tutorial. 

Sometimes Taylor talks on the phone like a girl...

It was nice to have company while I worked on this and even nicer to have help. We ran out of nails about half way through the state. I figured that I would just finish the next day or sometime later, but Taylor wanted to run to Walmart at 10 at night just so that we could finish it.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

We were deciding between doing Pennsylvania or Idaho. We first met and had our first "I love you" in PA, but our first date, first kiss, wedding, and most of our relationship has been in Idaho so Idaho won. We also liked that Idaho is a much easier state to recognize than Pennsylvania.

All finished and hanging on the wall!

The white walls in this apartment kill me so I am happy to have something else on the wall to break it up. I love that it is kinda 3D and that it gives our apartment more character. I can't wait to add pictures from our wedding to the wall once we get them.