Our humble abode....and other stuff.

Clay's scholarship money came in over a week ago and we had already set aside money to buy some small furniture for our place and really make it home-y. We went to Ikea (I had never been there, talk about confusing!) because we heard they were cheap. No kidding! We got end tables for 8 bucks. Anyway....so we re-decorated our place. It's not totally done but eh. I am satisfied with it completely as is so we probably won't add to it unless we find something we like. We have to finish Maeli's room still (it's only half painted) but I imagine that won't be for awhile because I have no motivation to start painting again.

So the past week was busy because any night we didn't have anything planned, we drove around looking for good deals. We still made time to hang out with friends though! And the 4-man drill team had two performances this weekend. On Saturday morning we met up with the guys at the Smith Field House around 10. Then we drove to the Scera Theater in Orem for a Veteran Program. It was so cute to see all of the old men and their wives there with walkers and such, wearing their old military hats with pride. There was a man in front of me who was probably my height and so little, but he had served in the marines and it was cute to see him stand up when the USMC flag was brought out. The drill team was one of the first to perform. They did a good job but two dropped their guns. One of them was because of the bright lights directly above them and he couldn't see his gun when he threw it. The other was a fluke. People were still impressed and I always think they do well, just a little shaky in parts. I think it would be nerve racking. All eyes on you, completely silent and if you mess up just a little bit it throws off the entire cadence of the routine. But they seem to be able to keep their nerves together for the most part. Clay is always completely calm....speaking of!

Sunday we went to a holiday party for a special forces group that just got home recently. There's a national guard in Lehi. So we went there (we had friends watch Maeli all day and take her to church) and met up with the BYU Color guard and their wives also. The space where the drill team performed though was probably 4 times smaller than what they were used to so they struggled a bit with their tosses and didn't want to hit anybody in the crowd. At one point Clay's gun hit the hand of another guy and it cut up the guy's hand so well that red blood started soaking through his white glove (I didn't notice but they told me afterward)! It wasn't Clay's fault, he was doing the right move at the right time but the other guy's position was off. At one point Clay caught a gun with his left hand, all while holding his own gun in his right (they were supposed to toss to each other) but he just handed his gun to the guy across from him and kept a completely frozen calm face on. I was impressed! Given the circumstances I think they did great. No guns dropped this time, just some collision. They have another performance on Wednesday for Veteran's Day at the Covey Center for a crowd of Gold Star mothers (Moms who have lost a son or daughter in war) and I have a feeling I'm going to bawl my eyes out. They also were told they're going to perform in Brigham Square on campus for the commander of the Northwest region who is coming to our Dining Out next weekend. I feel like I am the wife of the drill team. This 4 man team plus the captain, Clay is the only one that is married. None of the guys have girlfriends so I just hold all of their things for them, take pictures and videos with their cameras, etc.

We are heading to Las Vegas this upcoming weekend for the big air show. Clay's flight decided to take the trip so we're driving down with another couple on Friday night and we get to stay with Jackie and Gary! Clay is super excited to go on base. He has been doing a lot of research, talking to a LOT of people and I really think he is going to change his #1 job choice to pilot. I support him, and have gotten used to the idea now. There was a 2 star general that gave a fireside last night who was a fighter pilot. The pros just really seem to outweigh the cons of being a pilot and really moving Clay's career forward. I'm feeling better about the danger aspect of it because he wouldn't be in danger like the movie Top Gun. He'd be doing things from afar and the colonel (also a fighter pilot) said that Clay would only fly for a short time as a fighter pilot. Most of his career he would be in leadership roles on bases and things. This is what he wants to fly:

It's an A-10 warthog. He loves how big and ugly it is. In fact, he saw a t-shirt at the Provo airport for it that had a picture of it and said "Ugly enough to be your mother."

We'll see!

Here are pictures from our decorating - Before and Afters...

BEFORE (we hated that shelf in the middle of the window!)

AFTER

We love these gray curtains

BEFORE

AFTER kinda...gotta finish painting

Before...

AFTER

Still need to build our headboard

BEFORE

AFTER (we're going to enlarge the right photo - I bought the frames at DI for 5 bucks total and spray painted them)

Our living room curtains

I loooooove lamps! Seriously. The lighting from a lamp is so calming to me

BEFORE

AFTER

And their Veteran program performance:

part 1 - Clay is 2nd in line...and after they disburse from the line he is on the left!

part 2

4-Man first real performance

Yesterday at LLAB (it's a 2-hour period where all of the ROTC cadets get together for lectures, guest speakers, practice marching, combat days, etc.) the topic was Drill and Ceremonies. The cadets in charge thought it would be a good idea to have the 4-man team perform for everyone because drill team is the epitome of well...drill. The uniform of the day were their BDU's but when they perform this at SCIDM and other places around Utah they are in full service dress (the blue suit) and have special hats to wear and white gloves. They have a performance tomorrow at the SCERA theater in Orem that is open to the public and will be their first time performing for a big group of civilians. Their performance is divided into two because our stupid camera will only let me record a 3-minute long video and then automatically stop. So if you want to buy me an awesome video camera or something of that relation, that would be great! There was only one gun drop in the performance. Clay was trying to catch it and it dropped but I am sure he would like me to point out that it wasn't his fault, but Cadet Gross' throw and was sure to point out to me that Cadet Gross kept apologizing afterward. After the performance cadet Captain Williams (the drill team captain who everyone is scared of) came up to me and we talked for about 10 minutes about Clay and his future. Clay is considering putting pilot as his first job choice because of the possibilities it would give him compared to any other career choice. If he wants to be general, his odds go way up if he is a pilot. Plus he gets extra pay, other benefits, shorter deployments, and gets a lot of special treatment if he goes that route. We haven't made any final decisions but Capt. Williams was trying to help persuade me to let Clay be a pilot, and I'm not totally opposed to it anymore. We'll see! Clay talked to the Colonel for an hour this morning allllll about his career options, how to become a general and what he needs to do. We'll keep you updated. He has a year to figure it out :)

Anyway - here are the videos. I put them up on Youtube this time so that the other cadets could watch and critique themselves. Hopefully you don't get too sick of seeing this same performance in another day or two. I plan on putting it up here so you can see what it looks like in their other uniform with the hats and all.

2 years ago today...

Today is our 2 year anniversary. It actually took us both by surprise. I was looking at a calendar on Sunday and saw November 3rd and thought "Why does that date sound so familiar?" I figured it out and reminded Clay. On our one year anniversary we were in the hospital and had been for two days already. It was a bummer and we never celebrated it. We're not really sure how we're going to celebrate this year...what do people do on anniversaries?? We're going to have a nice dinner tonight - debating between going out or having a nice candlelit one here. And eventually we're going to go up to Park City for a night but things are so busy that we don't know when we'll get around to that. Oh well.

When our wedding pictures were being taken there are only a handful where Clay was actually looking at the camera. He couldn't keep his eyes off of me!
Sometimes it's hard to think that it's already been two years, but also feels like we've been married much longer than that. Next Friday (the 13th, scary!) will be the anniversary of our very first date - 5 YEARS AGO! I guess I feel like we've been married that long. The other Sunday in church a teacher asked who got married after knowing each other for only 6 months and then asked who had known each other a year before they got married. Clay and I were one of the few couples who couldn't raise their hands. We had been dating for 3 years (technically he was in Taiwan on his mission but, I still count it)! I love being married to my best friend - he always makes me laugh and is the best dad and husband. I know he would do absolutely anything for me if I asked him to. Here's to an eternity together!

Side Note: I randomly came across an old picture of my niece Tia when she was younger (not sure exactly how old but somewhere around how old Maeli is now). It threw me for a loop when I had first glanced at it. Don't these girls just look related?

Tia

Maeli ( they look even more similar than these pictures show but I couldn't find one of Maeli close-up smiling really big with her hair in those cute little pigtails on top of her head)

Halloween is, like, totally radical!

On Friday Clay finished his side job at the Provo airport and then we went to Home Depot to return unused caulk, and other random odds and ends that Clay has been storing in the Jeep for the last YEAR! They gave us 40 bucks back so we decided to use that money and buy wood and cinder blocks to finally build a box spring for our king sized bed. All we bought was the mattress so it had been lying on the floor ever since we moved in and I wanted to have a real bed finally. So Clay went to work and built a really sturdy box spring for it - it took him 10 minutes - it was pretty amazing to watch him work. And instead of buying a frame, we decided to just place the box spring on cinder blocks strategically placed to support the whole box spring. BUT first I spray painted them dark brown so they would look like fancy wood and match our bedding. I LOVE spray paint. It is so easy and immediately transforms everything. I told Clay I am going to have to buy spray paint more often and just spray paint things to instantly make them look new. So here is our bed... (With Clay's makeshift "night stand/lamp stand"...we're going to buy a nightstand sometime)

I looooooove having a real bed that is off the ground. It's amazing the difference it makes in the room. It makes the room look so much cleaner and bigger. On Friday morning Maeli and I went to DI to look for some 80's garb for our Halloween party we were going to but instead I bought NICE stuff. I got Maeli her first pair of real shoes, they were in great condition. And I bought myself the most awesome denim skirt - it's even Ralph Lauren and cost 4 dollars. I love DI now. They really do have some awesome stuff and so what if someone owned it before, as long as it is in great condition and you wash the "DI Stink" out of it, it's yours. I told Clay this must be a confirmation that we have reached "poor student" status - when you love DI for REAL clothes and not just costume clothes. Here are her shoes -
Friday night we FINALLY got around to carving our 25 lb. pumpkin. Nothing like last minute, right? Well we decided to try a different route and instead of carving it (the pumpkin was super thick and it would've been a hassle to carve) we decided to peel it, using Clay's carpentry chisel. I designed the old tree freehanded and then Clay carved a big hole in the back so that it would cast a shadow on the wall to look like a full moon. Then I drew a witch flying on a broom, colored her black with a marker and taped her on the wall.

Our autumn evening...if you click on the pic to enlarge it you can see Maeli has something dark on her mouth - she's chewing on a leaf.

It was too hard to get a good picture of the pumpkin lit up but you can see the moon/witch in the background. It really did light up well but the camera couldn't capture it.

So cute...

We decided to walk to a park on Saturday afternoon because they just made it. It is 3 blocks from us so it takes about 5 minutes to walk to. Here is Maeli saying "please, please, no pictures"

I told Clay "She looks like a real human with shoes on!"

I swear she's turning into a puppy

Saturday night we had been invited to go to a friend's halloween party with an 80's theme. It was a lot of fun and we got to see some old friends from our old ward again. We played 80's Scene It - which was way fun, I bet Kev and Nicole would especially love it. We were worried it'd be really hard and most of the people there were only alive for half of the 80's but I knew most of the answers (except for the movies), and I credit that to having older siblings that lived through the 80's and actually remembered it. We also played Mafia which was a LOT of fun. I was a detective for half of the games we played it seemed like and my partner would always be the first one dead so I was on my own but still managed to kill off the mafia most of the time. Fun game, good times.

My 80's outfit

Maeli was SUPER grouchy about 30 minutes before the party because she hadn't had a nap but...here is her 80's outfit. I got that jacket from mom so it was authentic 80's!

Here is a video from Friday night while carving pumpkins. I put on some music to see if I could finally capture Maeli dancing on camera. Sorry it's a little long but it's cute!

Nerds everywhere!

Just wanted to post some pictures from our Air Force Halloween party last night. We all went as nerds. Although we didn't get a close-up, Maeli's pacifier says " I heart NERDS" and Clay's pocket protector says "I am not a geek, I'm a level 9 warlord." We had fun, especially making an appearance at Sportsman's Warehouse right before the party in our nerd apparel to buy some gloves for another cadet. I thought it was especially funny that Clay looked so dorky and yet, when at the register he asked the cashier "Do you give military discounts?" She probably thought less of our military until I blurted out "We're going to a halloween party!" With that said, Maeli won the child costume contest so we got a gift card to Wal-Mart - although the colonel (one of the two judges) told us that she is too cute to ever be a nerd, no matter how we dress her up. Aw shucks.

And before the pictures, just some other info - Clay's stipend officially started pouring into our bank account. Yay! He also scored 100 on his physical fitness test yesterday for the first time. He had always gotten extremely close- 98.5 or more but they get really picky about what push-ups and sit-ups count and don't count. Now he gets a t-shirt and gets to be in the "Warrior Club" AND at the end of the semester (or year I'm not sure) he gets to add a ribbon to his uniform. AND lastly - he got his military ID on Wednesday so now he gets discounts and we can go up to Hill AFB whenever and buy stuff. Woo hoo! Maeli and I can get it as well but we'll have to go back later and bring all of the documentation we need.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! We have another party on Saturday night that is 80's themed so it should be fun. Clay thought it'd be funny to dress in civil war attire and when we show up say "OH you meant 1980's!" but...we don't have clothes to do that. Oh well. :)

She is too funny. She claps ALL the time now. She can pull herself up to stand, and often times does this in front of the long mirror in the hallway so that she can talk and laugh at herself. And if she finds another pacifier on the floor she ditches the one she already has...as seen here. Oh, and she LOVES to dance. It's hilarious. Any time music starts she starts bouncing and clapping.

My nerdy family...Maeli did so well. She kept that headband and the glasses on all night! I couldn't even do that...

Clay didn't know what to do with his free hand. I think this picture is hilarious.

Pie eating contest. Unfortunately the man next to Clay won, and boy did he! He dumped his pie out onto the table (you had to eat all of the crust etc) and he ate all of that, then Clay took his pie in his mouth and dumped half of his pie in that guy's mess, and he ate that too and still beat everyone!

The aftermath

The Grinch...and a jellyfish

Me and my baby

Football and Fun!

On Friday I was feeling much better (not nauseous, just a sore throat) and on Saturday I was back to normal! Yay! On Friday I made Apple Butter in the morning and it cooked all day. It was really easy and made about 7 jars. After Clay got off work we went to the Provo airport so he could work on finishing up the carpentry job there. When we finished we went to Sammy's. It's a little burger joint in Provo that I have heard about a lot - mostly for their shakes. We got burgers and I got a Chocolate Cream Oreo pie shake. Clay and I thought it was good but not worth all of the hype it's gotten. We would pick Red Robin any day because you get a lot more food for your money. We spent the rest of the night at home (We were going to go to a pumpkin patch but ended up working and everything too late that we didn't want to).

On Saturday we started bright and early! We were up and ready by 7:30 and then headed to campus to park the car and then walk down to our church parking lot (right across from the stadium) where ESPN College GameDay was happening. There were a lot of people, some had camped out to get a good spot. We just stood and watched from the back for about 40 minutes with a couple other Air Force guys. There were some pretty good signs. We had to head back to the Marriott center by 8:45 to make sure Clay was there on time to rehearse with the drill team. We hung out there for an hour until the parade started at 10.

I tried to get videos of them marching (I got plenty but none of them are great, clear videos). I've found it's really hard to walk down all of 9th East trying to record them, when I have an overflowing diaper bag on one shoulder and a camera in one hand WHILE trying to steer a stroller with a sleeping 9 month old. And I also found how inconsiderate parade-watchers are! They take up the ENTIRE sidewalk. I had to walk on the grass half of the time - up and down steep hills because people had their chairs, blankets, etc. taking up the whole sidewalk. Not to mention, when Maeli and I finally stopped to enjoy the rest of the parade, there were two big families to the left of me that stood the whole time and inched their way more and more into the road and ended up HALFWAY in the street. A man to the right of me had to ask them all to back up to the sidewalk so everyone else could see! Ridiculous.

Clay met up with us toward the end of the homecoming parade (the color guard and drill team were the very first parts of the parade). We headed home and ate, took naps, and prepped for the football game. We all painted our faces and headed over. Okay so to summarize - the game was a complete waste and it didn't even seem like it frustrated the players. I'll admit, I wasn't totally convinced that BYU would be able to pull off a win against TCU anyway so I wasn't that surprised. I think if we didn't have to stay for stadium clean-up, we would've left during the 3rd quarter. I don't know what has happened. They've kind of been in a downward spiral since Oklahoma and have just gotten lucky that they play a lot of teams that aren't that great. We DID realize that since we have revolving seats - We get great seats for the big games and then not so great seats for the not so great teams. This would be awesome except for the fact that we have yet to WIN one of the great games so it's not that fun to be up in the front rows. I feel good about beating Utah but...it doesn't matter to me as much now that we've already lost twice - and this time to someone in our own conference. Maybe next year......?

We painted her face while she drank a bottle - it worked out great!

Clay painted my face with cougar scratches - I told him if I knew he wanted to add blood he should've made the scratches white and the blood blue so that I could bleed blue! Maybe next time.

So at first I was supposed to paint his face blue and add white cougar scratch marks...then he decided he wanted to do the Joker face but I didn't want to start all over and paint his face white so...it's reversed. Weird since he hates clowns.

The view from our seats...while we still had hope

The Homecoming parade - Cosmo

ESPN Game Day - notice all of the different school flags

We were next to the sign that said "Harvey is Ungabelievable" - if you ever saw that

Standing at parade rest (I think?) right before starting the parade. I think the Army guy to the side looks like a space man.

One of the videos...

The joys and bummers about changing seasons

Another update (Am I on a roll this week or what!? This is #4!) - I have had the worst sore throat of my life since Sunday. It hurts to swallow, let alone eat ANYthing because it hurts going down. On Sunday I had some sores in the back of my throat - white in the middle and red around it...looked it up online and got some different results about certain types of mouth ulcers and that some people are prone to them. I am prone to them I guess. I've had them before and they're not pleasant but usually go away on their own. They did. But my throat was still sore. Yesterday I thought it was getting better but I woke up at 3 this morning and it KILLED to swallow at all. It was the worst it's been all week. So I caved and Clay took me to the urgent care at the Student health center this morning. The thing I was dreading was the strep test. Plus I didn't want to go to the doctor because I just figured it was nothing serious and would go away but a week long sore throat with no other symptoms besides a headache from the painful swallowing seemed a little weird. I couldn't take it anymore. SO we went and I got a strep test (definitely gagged on that one) and they did a blood test to check my white cell count to see if it could be mono. And...NOTHING. I tested negative for both. So she said it was probably a viral infection because my lymph nodes are really swollen and my throat is pretty raw and red. That was it. No medicine or anything. I think Clay is going to pick me up some chloraseptic spray after his classes though to numb the pain a little. I've been sucking on cough drops but even those don't help at all. Guess I'll just have to suck it up and hope it goes away quickly! (Real quick - WHILE I was typing this I got really nauseated and dry heaved a few times in the toilet but nothing came - probably because I haven't eaten much today besides some rice cakes). I don't know what the deal is.

Yesterday we had our temple recommend interviews (It's been 2 years since we got married - almost!). But our interview time got pushed back a half hour so we decided to do a quick run (more like drive) to Buy Low Market. I had seen an ad we got in the mail and they always have EXTREMELY cheap produce...especially Wednesdays. I had been wanting to buy 5 lbs of apples because I want to try and make apple butter. I've never had it but I randomly saw it on recipezaar.com and thought "That sounds delicious!" and it makes a ton so you can store them for later or give them away. I have a list of things I want to make during the Fall because something about the weather just makes me want to eat apples and pumpkins. Buy Low had apples on sale on Wednesday only 4 lbs for $1! Talk about a steal. So we got those and bought a big pumpkin we're going to carve. And we're talking BIG. It was a 25 lb pumpkin and guess how much it cost us? 2 DOLLARS. They were 9 cents a pound. Isn't that crazy? We also bought a 10 lb bag of potatoes for 99 cents. Score one for us.

And lastly - I'm going to post another video of the 4-man drill team. They had another practice last night with the drill team commander...guy. He's a POC and taught them everything and is super tough, which Clay loves...so he's the guy you see off to the side while they're practicing. They have their whole routine now so they just have to practice a lot to get all of their timing right. They have two performances coming up - one for a Governor's ball type of thing and another for the Gold star mothers - those who lost their son or daughter in Iraq. They have a few weeks before those come up and I think they'll do well. They are just now practicing with gloves on which gives it a whole different feel for them. When they perform they'll be in uniform with white gloves on and hats that make it really hard for them to see what they're doing! Hopefully it goes well!

Taken this morning. She has a rice cake in her mouth, those aren't teeth (well some of them are)

Last night during drill team practice. I was trying to fix her little pigtails but both hair bands broke so she looked pretty silly all night.

5 1/2 lbs of apples!

Our big fatty pumpkin - we're planning on going to a pumpkin patch tomorrow afternoon and buying a few little pumpkins