Oh Sweet Corn...

    How I love your sweetness.


Kevin and I went to St. David on Tuesday to take care of some business.  While we were there, we were able to go to my Grandpa Fenn's garden.  It's like a candy store but ONLY better.  There were cantaloupe, watermelons, sugar canes, and of course...CORN! I literally have to restrain myself from eating a TON of corn. The day consisted of me eating corn before I went to pick more corn, then had MORE corn for dinner. On the side note: the fruits weren't quite ready but they are just as AMAZING as the corn.  Hopefully I'll be able to enjoy it in a couple of weeks.  The downside of living 2 1/2 hours away.


My grandpa is known for his watermelon, I guess he just has the special touch to make it that much better. I can't wait for that sweet, juicy watermelon. I'm so grateful that he grows a garden every year so that his family (like me) can enjoy it. Someday I'll have my own garden...someday. 

 I shucked them and it's ready to be cooked for dinner.  We'll see if I let Kevin eat any. 

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!?

Yep, yep...you heard us. We finally got our own place, after a long year!  We love our little place, it's cheap and decent. After living in the hotel, I could not live somewhere without a washer and dryer! We have no carpet and no couches, so as of right now we are sitting on our camping chairs. I'm just so excited to finally be together without living with everyone.  I'm just so grateful that our landlords chose us (out of the bunch) to live here and that everything has been falling into place.  I was able to find a job after two days of living in Chandler.  Good thing for AMAZING friends to help me out. Kevin's still looking around for a job, hope he'll find something soon.  Kevin's convinced that we need Missy Elliot- the bulldog to make it that much more perfect

The front

 Our porch

 The spare bedroom which is our little office/workout room.

 Our little kitchen

 Thank goodness we have this bed to borrow. It could be worse. 

 This bathroom is painted in this mint green color. It'll take some getting used to. :)

 Our chairs

Laundry room

Life of chaos

I just started school and it's intense. It's crazy, I'm loaded with homework after homework after studying and studying! That's what I get for taking Bio 201, 8 weeks. In the end, hopefully it'll be worth it. This week was a total chaos of just starting school to might be moving in with my parents and jobless. I was not looking forward to that, as in me getting up in crack of dawn and driving an hour to class and hour back from class and Kevin not having a job. Luckily us, we didn't have to pack up and leave. We're here for just a little while longer. For the next few weeks, Kevin and I are not going to have a life. Gem show starts this week and goes for 2 weeks, maybe longer. And as for me, like I said I'm too busy working on homework/studying.


The best part of this week was getting our new treadmill! I'm soo excited to start using it, although it's huge and takes up a lot of space.


Anyways, I thought I would just write a little something to take a break from writing my essay. Hope everyone has a good week. :)

Holiday Festivities

Good thing Kevin got the holidays off, so we could spend our first holidays together being married! The day before Christmas Eve, Kevin and I decided to have our own little Christmas with the presents his parents gave us. So, we did the whole 9 yards, we pretended to be asleep for a couple minutes and it was "Christmas morning" and went into the other room to see if Santa came. Then we gave out our presents and opened them up. It felt a little silly but it was fun.

Our tree

Off to the party

Kevin as Santa at his "work" party

We spent the holidays with my side of the family. We went to the Winter Haven Christmas Lights. It was quite interesting. I thought it would be big and a lot more lights. The thought that came through my mind was, "How do people come up with there particular ideas?" Some houses were great and some that were not so great and kind of weird.

Thought it was odd..

Who does that?

We went down the night before Christmas Eve, that we could go fossil hunting. We spent a couple of hours searching for fossils but didn't find any great ones other than a rock with some roots or plant leaves. What we did find was some crystals type of rocks. Let's just say, its not my thing, I'm not very patient. Kevin could've gone all day searching. After we were done with that, Kevin and Preston decided to build a fort out in our back yard for paint balling on Christmas day. Kevin and I had painted some pipes camouflage and bought fanny packs and some protection glasses for my brothers and my dad as gifts. That night, my grandma came over so she could open one of the presents we got her. (Its a tradition that we open PJs on Christmas eve). It was priceless. (You'll see)

Fossil Hunting

She LOVED them!

Kev

It was 70 somewhat degrees, A PERFECT DAY, but didn't feel like Christmas. We got up semi-early to open presents and have our breakfast. My parents got us some stuff and kitchen appliances so that we- (when I say we, I  mean me) could cook. And Kevin got a new drill. We are grateful for everything we were able to get from both our parents. We love them all very much. After our breakfast we went paint balling- it was my first time and it was a lot of fun. Then we were off to my grandpa's for our lunch/dinner with my mom's side of the family. We just hung out and then my Aunt LuCinda came over with her husband, Rob. He's an interesting fellow. We watched a video about him and some other guys who dealt with drugs in Michigan, played Widow's Poker and chatted.

Our First Christmas!

Dad with his bag and glasses we gave him!

The Gang

Watch Out!

Isn't he the Cutest thing you ever seen?

They love him!

 Papa Bert

Love that guy...

Mom and I

For New Years Eve, we went to dinner with Kevin's Aunt Pam and Uncle Rob which meant all they talked about was the HOTEL. Then we went out to my Aunt Tammy's house in Benson. We did fireworks and played Widow's Poker, we were up til 3 in the morning! On New Years day, the guys and my brother's friends came over and they played paintball for a few hours while I just hung out with my mom and move stuff from the trailer into my grandpa's house. Then we were back in Tucson that night to hang out with David, Kevin's brother and my parents hung out with us. Nothing to exciting. :)

Our new home... Palo Verde Inn and Suites

Its been about a month since I wrote a post and in that time we moved to Tucson, AZ- the GHETTO-VILLE. We just don't like Tucson but we are grateful to have a job and it has been nice to be closer to my family. Too bad  you can't have the best of both worlds. Its been quite an interesting adventure living in a hotel. Just about every day or night something crazy happens. Kevin has been working the front desk and maintenance. And I just hang out here, or go hang out with my mom. I'm glad to be starting school tomorrow and for the next few months. It will get me out of this hotel and keep me busy, but with the way things are going here at the hotel, it sounds like I may have a job doing finances or housekeeping.  Extra money don't hurt.

We're just trying to make ourselves feel at home, trying to make our rooms kind of like an apartment. We've got almost everything we need for our place. We got our Christmas tree up and decorated and presents under the tree. I'm just grateful to have a place to call "home" even though it's not every one's dream to live in a hotel.     




Pictures aren't always what they seem.

  
As I was saying, we have had some interesting experiences as we been here at the hotel. Here are a few stories.

Our First Night

Our first night at the hotel we were put into this room that had 2 full beds, one was broken and the other was slanted, therefore, Kevin and I slept in different beds. Late that night, someone had slashed someones tires. Makes me nervous that we'd be next but somewhat comforting that it's a personal matter between that person's car and the person who did it. The next day, we got a different room that had a king size bed, thank goodness.

Kevin's First Day at Work

It was Kevin's first day of work and he worked at the front desk. The cops had stopped by asking about so and so and showed pictures. He found out a lot about the hotel from his co-worker. For a while I guess the cops stopped by everyday and were finding people they needed to bust. His co-worker told him, about the guy who robbed Circle K in southwest Tucson was staying here at the hotel. The swat team came and arrested him. The funny part of it is that the owner of the hotel was here for a couple days from California. I could imagine how he felt. 

Our Second Night

The second night, as you all know I wear a hearing aide, so at night I don't sleep with it therefore, I'm deaf. Plus I didn't find out until the next day, mid-afternoon what happened. The front desk forgot to switch our names to a different room and checked in this guy into our room.  Here it is, in the middle of the night, someone was trying to get into our rooms, thankfully we had the latch. He yelled out, "Is someone in here?" "Hello?" "Is someone living in here?" Finally, it dawned to Kevin what was going on while being half asleep. He replied, "Yes!" The guy, quickly apologized and shut the door. Kevin called the front desk to find out what was going on, the front desk had made a mistake and in the background Kevin could hear the guy saying, "Thanks for not shooting me!" LOL.

Also, someone stole a guest's truck but didn't make it far without the cop stopping him.

 Room #120 & 143

Rumor has it that there is a ghost in room 120, a woman was killed there and I guess she makes noises and she'll call the front desk but never says anything. The other day Kevin was fixing up the room so they could put the room back on market. He freaked himself out, but maybe it was her. Creepy.

In room 143, a man died in his sleep a year ago. His nephew kept calling the hotel asking for his uncle then asked them to check on him and when they found him, he was stiffed. He apparently haunts the hotel.

Hot Spot for Stealing

The hotel is a hot spot for stealing. Just about every night there is always an attempt of stealing a vehicle. We have these monthly renters whom are construction workers. They have their dump trucks, tractors and semi, and whatever else. Well, one night someone tried to steal the dump truck/semis. We worry, or at least I do every night that we are going to wake up to no car or when I leave the room and shop, our stuff is going to be gone. People break into the rooms all the time and trash the rooms. It's AWFUL!

Sunny-side Up

One day, Kevin was doing maintenance and was helping these weekly guest. This weekly guest, is quite LARGE. Apparently she was sun-bathing and was wearing a bikini with no top on the sidewalk with a radio blaring Christmas music. This sidewalk is not just any sidewalk, its out facing the road. She's a brave woman, but Kevin thought it was quite disgusting. I was disturb when I heard this story.

The Safe Box

There was this safe that a guest had put his personal belongings in and it wouldn't open. And He asked the maintenance if there was a key or something to open it up but they told him that they were unable to do so. The guest was anxious to open it up but had to leave, he was curious what was in it. He wanted Kevin's help to open it. They busted it open and there it was... DRUGS and a pipe to go along with it.

Gratitude

Last night I was up late preparing some brownies and made a card for my ladies that I visit teach. I decided to teach gratitude since it was a month of Thanksgiving. I wanted to teach the lesson before we moved and it was my last chance in the Branch. We're sad to leave the deaf branch, especially since we are starting to make new friends and being more involved. And everyone was sad to see us go, they kept questioning if we had to go back to Arizona.  I'm so grateful to have been part of the deaf branch and to have met great people. They have been an example to Kevin and I. I'm grateful that he was called to be the clerk, and it hasn't been long, but I have seen the blessings from accepting the calling.


As I was thinking about what I had read in the recent Ensign, the conference talks, by President Monson. I pondered on how I needed to show/express more gratitude towards our Heavenly Father. President Monson said, "A grateful heart...comes through expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His blessings and to those around us for all that they bring into our lives." I have so much to be grateful for: Kevin, eternal marriage, Kevin's new job starting, having a place to stay, transportation, family and my new family, friends, education, and so much more.  One of the sisters in the Branch mentioned how we shoudn't dwell on the negativity and focus on the postives things, and that remind us of the things that we do have.

What do we have to lose...5 MILLION DOLLARS?

The last two weeks Dave, Mike, and Kevin decided to wait last minute to do the Dorito Commercial. The last day you could submit a video is the 15th. They prepared a storyline and Kevin and I went searching for costumes and props. It came down to it- the last weekend and it was all about the Dorito Commercial. 

Renette, Summer, and I went to Salt Lake last Friday afternoon to get a video camera. We had complications throughout the whole weekend! Finally on Sunday (the last day we could film), they shot some footages with a whole new storyline. It was good, but I had hard time picturing the footages together. So today, Kevin and Dave were working on the computer to put all the footages together. It's turning out great, I'm excited about it and excited for them. It would be AWESOME if we won!