October

Picking & canning apples

Aunt Layna had a bunch of apples on her trees just waiting to be picked. We decided that this year we would try our hand at canning. A big thanks to Jenn for letting us use her canning equipment and take over her kitchen for an entire day. We canned 15 bottles of apple pie filling and 14 bottles of apple sauce - sorry, no pictures. While we were there the kids broke out their book that teaches all about apples. They are very good teachers!

Painting bedrooms

My brother and sister-in-law bought their first home in September, so we spent some time there painting their bedrooms. Kristen chose some wonderful colors and we had a great time taking the rooms from drab to fab!

Nick's volunteering

Nick started volunteering 4 days a week at Utah Legal Services. He does mostly paper work, copying and deliveries on cases dealing with domestic violence, divorces and other family law issues. It has been good for him to be busy and he's learning a lot about family law and working with a different type of client.

Sewing blankets

I learned how to make a quick and easy baby blanket (thanks Mom and Aunt Layna) and was in charge of a Relief Society activity teaching how to make them. I got to get back into "teacher gear" for a while and possibly got a little too into making it organized and easy to understand. I had the girls come in shifts so that I wouldn't be running around trying to help everyone at once, and that worked out really well. About 15 girls came and made blankets.

New roof

Grandpa's roof has been leaking for a while, so Nick and I finally took some initiative to get it fixed. We have been waiting for it to rain/snow so that we could test it out. It has finally snowed, and there are no leaks. Hooray!!!

Yard Sale

After mom and I cleaned out her basement, we had a large pile of things to take to DI. I suggested that we have a yard sale in the hopes of raising some money that could go toward new blinds for a couple of windows. Mom wasn't able to be there, so Matt & Kristen helped out SO much in getting everything set up and priced. We ended up making about $180. Two more windows down, only three more to go!

Gardner Village/Making Books

My good friend Diane made me a little scrapbook once and gave me the idea to have one for each of my nieces and nephews to keep their school pictures in. I have been needing to make more, so we got together and she taught me. While the glue was drying, we went to Gardner Village and looked around. It was fun to see all of the witches they have around doing silly things like riding a bike through the sky, or playing softball. I can't wait to fill the books with pictures!

Mini-Golfing with Lyss

As ridiculous as it is, Lyss and I haven't hung out for about three years, even though we only live 30 minutes apart and were inseparable at CEU. Lyss, it was so good to see you and play, and eat, and talk. Let's not wait so long next time :)

Baptist Draw slot canyon

Our good friends Nicole and Tristan took us to hike through a slot canyon in the San Rafael Swell. We had such a great time! The scenery was beautiful! It was Nick's first time seeing a slot canyon, and he was amazed (as I think everyone is, whether they've seen one before or not) at how amazing the canyons are. We did two rappels, one of which was about 80 feet. I'll admit to being a little nervous when I got about half-way down, but once I started to figure out how to maneuver better on the rope it was fun. These pictures aren't the most amazing, but I plan on doing another post with better pictures and possibly a video that Nicole's making. There were just too many to cram into an already long post.

Spring Canyon

Grandpa is always telling us stories at dinner about growing up in various mining towns near Helper. We had some extra time when we were driving down to Price, so we thought we'd drive up Spring Canyon to see some of the ruins of ghost towns like Standardville. There isn't much there, but it was interesting to see how small the towns would have been, and how they were built up along the side of the narrow canyon. Some of the stone walls were still standing. We loved the way they used the rock. It is so beautiful.

Emily's Baby

Diane and I made a trip up to see our friend Emily after she had her little baby girl. I always forget how tiny newborns are. The baby was beautiful and let me hold her for quite a while without fussing. Emily looked great, and it was fun to visit with her mom who I haven't seen in a long time. Congratulations Em & Jeff!

Tending the Zs

Jenn won a free hair cut and color, but had to come down to Provo for the appointment. Nick and I tended the kids while she went. We had a great time. Ryan helped me cut out sugar cookies and it went something like this:
Me: "Okay Ryan, you'll have to wash your hands before you can cut out the cookies since we don't want germs."

Ryan:"Look, I cut out a ghost. I love eating cookie dough."

Me: "Ah-oh Ryan, now you have to go wash your hands again before you can cut out another cookie. Remember, we can only eat the cookie dough after all of the cookies are cut out. If you put your fingers in your mouth, you'll have to keep washing them and will miss out on the fun."
Ryan: "Okay."

Ryan: "Look, I cut out a pumpkin. Mmm, I love eating cookie dough."

You get the idea!

We frosted cookies, ate cookies and played games. Another big thanks to Nick and Aunt Layna for watching the kids so Jenn and I could go see a movie together. We've never done that before, and it was nice to have some rare sister time.

Now that I'm caught up to November, hopefully I can start posting things in the actual month that they happen!

September Update

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. Here are some short snip-its of what we did in September!

Jepsen Reunion
(actually in August and deserving of it's own post)
The reunion this year was in Saugatuck, MI. It was my first time being around the Great Lakes and it was beautiful country.

Some of the brothers went fishing in Lake Michigan and we had many fish fries to celebrate!
The "Full Weight" of all 7 brothers on a cousin's fiance.
Welcome to the family!Walking on the beach. It felt pretty much like being at the ocean.
The annual Jepsen baseball game. Nick and I both played pretty well. I actually had good hits every time - where were those skills in YM softball games?
Shuffleboard at the Goshorn Lake Resort
5-6 hours kayaking = major sunburns!
Picking fresh blueberries. Yum!

Organizing our house
Once we got back home, it was to work on all of the boxes we had been stacking in Grandpa's laundry room since we got married. It was a lot of work, but we're finally organized.

Laundry room before:

Laundry room after:

Craft supplies stuffed in our "closet room":

Craft supplies happily organized in my new sewing room (aka, Grandpa's spare bedroom with no bed since we're using it!)

Our messy living room for weeks while sorting:

Our clean living room:

Mini-golfing w/Jeff & Em
One of my favorite things about not working is being able to spend more time with my friends and family. I hadn't seen Jeff & Emily for WAY too long, so it was really fun to re-connect over mini-golfing and dinner.

Salt Lake Bees Game
Chel and Ady were in town at the same time and we got to hang out at the baseball game.

"Pants" weekend
My friend Nicole and I wanted to make our own "Sisterhood" pants to remind us of each other as we move away and can't hang out as often.
We met in Price and spent a wonderful day eating pizza (of course), watching the Sisterhood movies and decorating our pants with things that remind us of each other. There is a dragonfly for Gilmore Girls, a bejeweled MB symbol for Michael Buble, a vine with flowers where we will put a ladybug for each child born (two right now for Nicole's cute little girls). What else, charms for being school teachers, Nauvoo, a snowflake, a giraffe, and a cow. They aren't officially finished yet (sorry Nicole), but they are super cute so far!

Stewart's Farewell
One of my mom's cousins went overseas for two years. His family had a going-away barbecue for him. It was great to see family that we usually don't see. This is the only picture I took with my camera.

Cleaning out mom's basement

My mom had a week off of work so I went down to help her clean out her basement. We hoped that it would only take us 2 days and we could enjoy the rest of the week. No such luck. It was a very long project, but I am very proud of all we got done. You can actually see the floor in the basement :)

Before and during the sorting:

Treasures we found along the way:

Building storage shelves:

After pictures:

IVs
While I was at mom's Kristen needed to practice putting in IVs. I was brave, and have good veins, and she got one working! Matthew, on the other hand, was not so lucky. His veins were not cooperating and after several attempts in the arm and hand, we had to give up on him.

Tending Dallan

We got to tend Dallan for the day. He has such a fun imagination, and just loves to play with Uncle Nick. They were going lion hunting. Nick was the lion and Dallan was the hunter.

The lion attacking:
Check to see if the lion is really dead:
Oh no! He was just pretending!

Taking out the ivy
This was one of our more difficult fall projects. Grandpa's ivy has been getting very out-of-control and we thought it was time for it to just be gone. People, never plant ivy. Trust me. It might look pretty for a season or two, but those roots are growing deep and thick and spiders are living there. It is not fun to get rid of!

Ta-Da! There really was a chimney under there!

Color Me Mine
I've been wanting to go to Color Me Mine for a long time. The last time I painted pottery was Mrs. Delling's class in 5th grade, and I loved it! So, Nick went with me and we made a date of it. It was hard to choose what to paint, but we finally decided to work together on this serving dish set. We did not intend for the colors we used to match the ones they have on their bags, it just turned out that way. We had a lot of fun, but found that it took longer than we thought. Since we had so many pieces we started to get lazy at the end, so our last two don't look so spectacular.

In other news from September, after applying for and visiting many offices (even driving to CA), we found no jobs or places to spend our year. We are officially taking FR up on their deal to wait out the year and hope they offer us a job again next October. So, here we are in Utah enjoying a year free to do what we want. Nick is volunteering 4 days a week at Utah Legal Services, and I am keeping busy with a long to-do list of projects I've been wanting/needing to do. We're keeping tabs on grandpa, making sure he eats well, his laundry gets done and his bills get paid. It's fun to think of things we can do with him to keep him from getting too bored or depressed. We are loving spending time with each other and doing things together every day! I feel blessed to have this year to be with family and friends and to serve, even though it's difficult to know what will come at the end.

Stay tuned for a blog update (as soon as I can collect and organize my pictures).

The Body Bag

Nick's mom brought us this duffel bag Nick used to use. It is the LARGEST duffel back I've ever seen - Seriously! I was teasing Nick that it looked like a body bag, and he decided to see if he could fit in it. Ha! He did :) There was room for his head, if he could bend that way. I think he looks like a cat! When I got into it, I could have been zipped in (if I wasn't feeling a bit claustrophobic).

Anyone in the market for a body bag? If so, look no further.

This week we have painted our "closet room" and are sorting through all of our boxes. Whew! When we're done I'll post our storage before and after pictures.

As for now, this is what our apartment looks like :( I hate that cleaning makes an even bigger mess at first. We have a cable guy coming later today - how embarrassing. I hope he can find his way through this maze!