NEW BLOG SITE!!!

Follow me on my new blog site...

allenandhaley@blogspot.com

This one is linked to an old email address so it makes things difficult. I'm going to try hard to keep my blog updated but I find it difficult when I only have me and Allen to talk about. Once we have little ankle biters, I feel there will be more to keep everyone updated on. Until then, I will try my hardest.

Bathroom Transformation/California Trip

In March we started demolition on the upstairs bathroom. Here's before...





Don't you just love the blue porcelain??? Yeah, me neither. It ALL had to go.

The easiest way we could find to fix the tub without having to retile was to do the epoxy that you spray on the tub. So it's the same tub...just white! :) Here's some of the during pics...






We painted the walls and ceiling, did new flooring, epoxied the tub, granite counter tops, Allen built the frame for our huge gorgeous mirror...it is my favorite room in the house!!!






*~*~*~*~*California Trip*~*~*~*~*

Allen is working in California all summer. He's selling pest control. Ugh. I'm sure you can guess how much that thrills me! Luckily I have been busy with trainings most of the summer so it's been alright. I did get to take a trip out there this past week though which was a lot of fun. We went to the San Diego temple (gorgeous!!!), Sea World, and Newport Beach. Much fun for all! I was there for 4 days and it wasn't nearly long enough.

Not giving up...

Today is the first day of my spring break and the sun is shining! It snowed about an inch yesterday (which shouldn't ever be allowed in April) but I'm hopeful everything will continue to warm up. Sadly, I don't have a whole lot planned for the week because Allen is still in school and working every night. However, we will probably be going down to St. George for the weekend to visit some of his family down there that I have never met and that will be fun. I'll also be in my classroom planning the last 7 weeks of the year!! I can't believe my first year of teaching is nearly done.

So for the last week I have been doing that workout that many of you have heard of and possibly even done yourself. I've been doing P90X and it is kicking my trash! I do enjoy the workouts though because every day is something different so I don't get bored. I also HATE running. I don't get the endorphins that most people do. And so I would take this over running any day. I'm only a week into with...with 12 more weeks to go and I'm not giving up.

I have this problem. I always give up when something is hard. When I was 6 I was in gymnastics and I decided I would rather play with friends than stick with the gym...so I quit. Then a few years later and I was playing the piano. I was surprisingly good (not to toot my own horn) but didn't want to spend the time practicing. SO after many arguments and fights with my mom, she let me quit, but told me that I would regret it. Oh how right she was. Another year later, I was playing the violin. I quite that too after a year. In high school I decided I wanted to join the swimming team. After the first practice I went home and told my parents I wanted to quit because it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Here's what they told me, "Haley, there are very few things you have followed through with and finished. We aren't going to let you quit. You decided you wanted to be on the swim team and so you are going to finish out this season. However, if by the end of the season you still want to quit, you don't have to do it next year." I was so angry with them and cried many tears. However, I couldn't thank them enough for making me stick with it. Being on the swim team has given me some of my fondest memories from high school. I swam all 4 years and have never regretted it.

So here I am now, attempting a strenuous and difficult work out program. Because I (and now you) know my track record for quitting...I can overcome that weakness of mine. I won't let myself quit because I know that I can achieve anything I put my mind to. I have to get up at 5 every morning in order to have time to work out before work but it's been easier than I would have thought.

ADDITION TO THE FAMILY!!!

Yesterday, after hours of signing papers and waiting...we got a new car!! I'm very excited because my 98' sentra just isn't quite cutting it anymore. We're gonna fix it up a bit and try to sell it on KSL or something. But let me tell you, my new car is a beauty! It's an 07' Nissan Altima, gray, dark charcoal/black interior, sunroof, spoiler, double exhaust...mmm so tasty. When we got married, we agreed that when we got a new car I would be the driver because Allen wants to drive his truck into the ground. But I think he is having second thoughts after testing out the sound system in the new car. ;-) He is all about his music.

ADAM GETS HOME IN 11 DAYS!!! The initial plan was for me and Al to drive out to CO with grandpa about a week after he gets home. But after some discussion we decided that (allen agreed) I could fly out to CO the weekend Adam gets home so I can be there with my family to welcome him off the plane!! I wasn't able to go with my fam to drop him off at the MTC so I am jubilated! I will still go out the following weekend with Allen and Grandpa so I get double!

SLACKER!!

I know, I'm a slacker. I haven't posted since Allen proposed and now I've been married for nearly 6 months! It's been lots of fun though!

Right now I'm back teaching my 6th graders and Allen goes back to school on Monday. Life is hectic when he's in school (and working full time on grave yard shift) and when I'm teaching. This summer should be nice because I'll be out of school...but he'll still be going 100 miles an hour with school and work. Maybe I'll have to consider switching to his schedule...awake and nights and sleeping during the day. I might be able to see him more that way? No, I could never be awake all night by myself and not get scared. Scratch that.

Adam comes home in 2 months!! I am so excited to see that boy. He says that he's gotten fat and I don't doubt that he'll have quite a belly on him. He's quite good at that. USU has their spring break the week after Adam gets home so we're all gonna drive out at the end of that week and stay for a few days. I may end up going back during my (elementary) spring break beginning of April just because it would be nice to spend more time with him. But Adam plans on going up to BYU-I for the summer so I will have lots more opportunities to see him with him being that close.

I don't have time to write much else right now, but I'll put up a few engagement pictures that I have, and I'll put some wedding ones on once I have the copies of those.

Woah!

Alrighty, I know it's been a long time and I promised Linh that I would start keeping up my blog once I was engaged...so here I am! :-)

First I'll tell you, we've known that we're gonna get married for quite a while now. I actually have quite a bit of the wedding already planned...and just got the rign yesterday! I would have had it a few weeks ago but we had it designed so they had to make it and that took a little while.

So Allen was going to propose on Monday but when I got to his house at 12:30, he had only been asleep for an hour (he works grave yard shifts so he sleeps in the morning/afternoon) so he was exhausted. He told me that he had been working on a flier for their upcomming concert but that was a lie. Come to find out, that morning he drove to and hiked up the trail where he wanted to propose so he could make sure it wasn't too muddy. He went up there and got home all in under 2 hours. This was quite a feat considering it took us 3 1/2!! No wonder he was so tired!

Anyways, so we did the hike yesterday. On my way to his house I wasn't sure if we were going to be able to go because it had been raining in North Logan and the clouds didn't look too inviting. I didn't suspect anything because he'd been talking about wantng to go on a hike for several weeks...and he did it on purpose so I wouldn't suspect. So when I got to his house I decided I would let him decide if we would still go, obviously he wanted to, rain or shine, cuz he wanted to propose! Before he left he asked if I minded if he brought his guitar. I thought it was weird that he was asking my permission to bring it, but he asks permission on lots of random things so I didn't think anything of it and also didn't really think it was weird he wanted to hike up with his guitar on his back because he's almost more in love with his music than he is with me...almost.

On the drive up there I asked if he'd heard anything from Needhams because as far as I knew, they weren't done making it! (Turns out he had picked up the ring 4 days earlier) He told me he hadn't heard anything but that we could call when we got back into town and he would see where they're at with it. So we start hiking, Allen carrying his guitar and the blanket, and I had the backpack with our picnic in it. I was kind of whiney during the hike cuz I was already kind of tired from running that morning and he later told me that he felt bad and was tempted to just stop and have lunch on the trail and give me the ring there...but then decided that I had to earn it and get to the top. haha The hike was really beautiful. There is a stream that you follow the whole way up and cross a few times and about half way there is a waterfall. (I would have pics of all of this but I didn't take my camera and Allen is a boy and doesn't think of things like that!) So at the top it opens up to this meadow with grasses and flowers. It was beautiful. And so far, the weather had been perfect and the sun was out. Just as we reached the top it started to drizzle a little but nothing too bad.

We set up and ate our picnic and then he started messing around on his guitar. He stops and says, "Haley I wrote you a song." My response was, "no you didn't". He laughed and said he really had and wanted to play it for me. I had no objection! It is such a cute song and still I didn't even suspect he would propose cuz I didn't think he had the ring! Near the end of the song he says something like, "marry me and be my wife" and I was like...hmm this would be the perfect moment to propose! When he finished the song he laid down on the blanket and we talked for a few minutes and then he gets up, and takes out of the backpack a ring box!! I CARRIED THE RING UP THE MOUNTIAN AND HAD NO IDEA!! Anyhow, he got on one knee and you know how the rest goes. It is absolutely gorgeous and I haven't been able to stop staring at it. Here are a few pics I took with my camera. :)

I'm getting married August 27th!!!

Here I am!

Okay, so I really never thought I would conform to the bloggers...but here I am!

I'm kind of on an "I love life" high right now so it seems to be the appropriate time to share the happiness with my friends.

First, I just want to say, do not judge me for my poor writing skills. My aunt and sister are the eloquent writers...not me. Nicole, do not correct any of my grammatical or spelling errors. :)

So I am loving it here in Logan way more than I had anticipated. I mean, I knew it would be fun because I am living with my Aunt Ann (A' Ann) and her family but I was nervous a little to move here not knowing anyone my age. It was quite slow going at first. I was quiet at church ( I know right! Me? Quiet??) and it took me about 6 weeks to start meeting people and making friends. I have a lot going against me in the social department since I don't have classes to meet people, no room mates to tag along with, and no people my age at work to hang out with. But don't worry, I'm quite settled in here now.

I love my job. For those of you who don't know I work at a charter school. Right now I'm the aid for the middle school special ed. department. There's one kid that I help in most of his classes and I teach one pre-algebra math class. I NEVER thought that I would chose to work in a middle school but I have loved it and the kids make me laugh on a daily basis. The reason I'm on my "I love life" high right now is because there have been some pretty exciting changes going on at work. The lady that I work under is going on maternity leave in January and she wants me to be her long-term sub for those three months while she is out! This is going to give me amazing experience and will help out the paycheck a bit too. :) I'll switch to being her sub beginning of January. This is such a huge blessing for me and I am so grateful for it!