Memorial Day

This Memorial Day we went over to Kim and Michael's house. The night before Daniel trimmed a brisket, seasoned it and wrapped it up to go into the oven to cook over night on a very low temperature. Carolyn was a little nervous about the oven being on all night since it is a gas oven. Daniel got up at 2, 5 and 7 to check on the brisket to alleviate some of the stress. 

Michael grilled some chicken wings, Kim made baked beans we brought over the brisket and a potato salad, it was a very American holiday. 

After lunch, Kim and Michael invited us to come to Hawaiian Falls with their family. Hawaiian falls is a cross between the splash pad at KOPFC and Raging Waters. They had fun rides for bigger kids but then a bucket and play set for probably 4 and under. We went down all of the rides including Human Torpedo, where they put you into this case and then on the count of 3 the bottom opened and sent you down a very steep incline. We also went on a slide that basically looks like a big toilet bowl. While we were in line we watched to see how many times the riders(they were on a tube, mostly doubled up) could make it around the bowl. Most were getting 1 some were getting 2 and the really lucky ones were getting 3. Michael was with us, along with Cole one of Mason's friends. Michael really wanted to get around the bowl 3 times. We were looking for the best ways to accomplish this goal and decided the key to getting around the bowl successfully want to stay high on the bowl, keep your bum off the slide, and heavier in the back. Cole was insistent that the heavier rider was in the front. When Michael tried to say ok so you will be in the front, Cole quickly disagreed and said no I am in the back I am lighter. Michael said how do you know? Cole : I can see. It was hilarious when Cole told us that he weighs 63 pounds and we told him Michael weighed 65 pounds, his eyes bugged out like I better not gain any more weight my stomach will be HUGE! Cole was a good time, but didn't seem to like the joking around and had a very stern face on. But I am happy to say Michael and Cole made it around the bowl 3 times. Daniel and I went after them, Daniel was in the back ;) We go down the tunnel into the bowl and go around 3 really good times and then start to sink into the moat of water around the next tunnel that leads to the bottom of the slide. Well, we passed the entrance but then went down backwards. We had seen some people do this and didn't really worry about it. But with Daniel and I being both grown adults we went backwards and then up the side very narrowly so that we tipped, I hit my head and shoulder and then slid the rest of the way down in that awkward position on my head. The lifeguard just asked Daniel if we were ok, made no attempt to get the intertube out of the way or help me off my head and above the water. Luckily no serious injuries were sustained nor concussion. 

The purple slide in the back is the "toilet bowl" slide of death

Before we got wet

After we got wet

After our fun at the water park, we showered and went back over there and watched X2. It was a great day with family and we are looking forward to more fun times together

One Month

Sunday was our one month anniversary. The month has been great. Kevin (Daniel's Dad) picked us up a special anniversary surprise.

We are looking forward to our second month anniversary and hoping it is had in our new home :)

Nightly Walk

Every night Daniel and I try to go on a twenty to thirty minute walk.  We like to get out of the house and are trying to stick to our goal of losing weight during the year. We generally go to the same park in Mansfield, it is big and has many different ways to get around the loop. Sometimes we do  shoppin' walkin' and walk around Marshall's, Ross, TJ Maxx. Last week we went to a new park. This one had many forest trails that you could go on, but they didn't make a loop so you ended up walking the same thing back. It was a nice change. We look like a bunch of rag a muffins because it is very humid and your hair just sticks to you.
Before we went exploring, for lack of a better word, we wanted to stand out on the pier and look into the lake. When I tried to approach, a swan starting panicking. She was honking to alert the male swan so he could protect her. She was laying on her eggs and apparently didn't want any company. So when I tried to get closer the male swan extended his neck and started to come at me! It was so funny. Daniel was nervous to get any closer, I wish I had had my camera out sooner to get a picture of "over protective dad".

Week 4

It has been four weeks since we have moved out to Texas. The days seem long but the weeks seem to have flown by. Daniel started his job at PoolMan. He works every day from about 6 to 3, though sometimes he is home by noon. He is paid on a salary and is waiting to get a permanent route or become assistant manager. I am working at Strickland Financial Group as an office assistant. I am paid to answer the phone and do whatever small tasks are needed, but the phone is not ringing off the hook so there is a lot of down time. I work from 10 to 3 Monday through Friday. It is definatley different going from wearing a swim suit and flip flops to wearing heels and a skirt for work. Daniel is starting the process for his teaching certificate, he is currently awaiting his transcripts from BYU. After he recieves those, he can take a test and start applying for openings in the Fall. We are grateful to have jobs in the meantime however.
We are also in the process of finding an apartment to move into. The housing here is pretty limited to what we can afford, so we are planning to file for section 8, which is just low income housing.
Finding work was a great accomplishment, but not very thrilling to blog about. We are trying to establish routines as best we can and have productive days. Every night we go on a walk through different parks. We set one goal for our first year of marriage and that was to lose weight during the first year rather than gain weight. We have been pretty consistant with our walks and being tight on money helps to keep us at home for dinner rather than going out.
The only other major accomplishment I can think of since we have been here is getting a Texas drivers' license and changing my name. A feat that must be applauded.
I had done some basic research on changing your name in Texas and knew that you just had to go to the DMV to get a license just as if you were getting your first license. When I researched it, the website claimed all I needed was my marriage license and prior drivers' license and to do this before I went and changed my name. We decided to take a proof of address along just in case, I figured I would have to prove I lived here before they would allow me to get an ID here. We get to the DMV, which is in the corner of a strip mall, it was so small and so crowded. There were no pictures and a very sad looking paint job. We stood in line and when we got up to the counter she asked what we were there for, when we told her she asked if I had my birth certificate and SS card. I didn't think these were necessary since I already had a license and just needed to switch the state and name. So we go to the storage unit and get my paperwork. We go back to the DMV, it has become even more crowded now. We stand in line, it was now 3 pm and the DMV would close at 5. We got to the counter again this time everything was in order and we got a number. We sat down to wait for our number to be called. The numbers are not called in order so you have no indication of how close to being called you are, as if we weren't frustrated enough. About 30 minutes later we were called to the back. She asked what we were there for and we said to get a Texas license and change my name. She said you've never had a Texas license before? No ma'am. And you haven't changed your name yet? No ma'am. Then you have to go change your name first at the Social Security office. Here is there address and phone number, just drive straight down this road until 360 and you will hit it, you should be able to at least do that today. How come online it says that all I need is my marriage certificate and current license? If you already had a Texas license we could do that for you since you would be in the system, since you don't you aren't, so I can't, but you can come back with the printed out reciept and we will be able to do it since you will already be in the sysem. So we hurry out, knowing it is a government agency and they tend to close their doors at inconvient times. The office is located on an access road running parallel to highway 360. We drove to where she said it would be and could not find it. After the second loop around Daniel called the number, the message said they had closed at 4, 45 minutes ago. So we went home annoyed and decided to go again in the morning since we had nothing else to do. This time we looked at google maps to find it, we had not gone far enough down, mainly because then we would not have been on the road we were instructed it was on. I also filled out the paperwork that was necessary to change my name. In the morning we got up and went to TCC to get Daniel's transcripts and then headed over to the social security office. We drove past the place we were told it was and kept a vigilant eye out so we wouldn't pass it. We hit an intersection, we had passed it somewhere. We looped around and decided to drive through the parking lot of the strip mall. Suddenly I saw the number we wanted, the sign was obstructed by a huge bush. There was no way we would have seen it from the street. We go in get a number and sit down again. This was just as run down as the DMV, but instead of being called behind a wall, all the employees sat at windows right in front of you. I guess this way they could see how many more people they had and how fast they needed to be. We waited and watched people. Some people were in and out, some people didn't understand what paperwork they were missing and why they papers they had were not correct, some people even had the gaul to go up to a window and ask a question just so the worker would take them out of turn. Anyway, we were in and out in under thirty minutes. We then headed back to the DMV. The line was much longer this morning than it had been the day before. We again waited, they even had to pull another lady from the back to help move through the line quicker. We got up to the front again, and answered the same questions, this was my first license in Texas, do I have all my paperwork. They gave us a special attention number which was supposed to be called shortly after given to us, but we still waited 20 mintues. Finally we got to the back and she says, Oh you just changed it today? They told us we could just bring this back and it would work. Alright, let me see. 20 minutes and 28 bucks later she was taking my picture for my new license. It was a lot more hassle than we had hoped, but we got it done.

Honeymoon

Daniel and I drove out to Arkansas to stay in a cabin for a week. Here is basically what it looked like. It was 

 not very big and as you can see was all one room.
When we got there we went to check in and pay. The owner is a lady probably in her fifties who gets her nails done and has to have her hair just so. She was running our card and said that it was declining our card and said that it had done it before when we had made our reservation. She tried to run it about 5 times. At first I thought the problem was that she was putting in 5/9/11 as the expiration date on the card (which was the days date). We even called the bank to see if it was going through. They told us it was the expiration date that was wrong. She said I have to have a month I can't just have the day ( Daniels card says 9/11 meaning September of 2011 not the 9th day of the month). We had to explain this to her and even resorted to telling her exactly what to type. They told us that it had gone through, but since the system had not approved it, the owner still said it was declining. Above her there was a list a people that were no longer allowed to make reservations there, either because they broke their

 reservation, excessive cleaning was needed after they left, bad credit card, or they were rude or very very rude. I thought it was in bad taste to have this list out for all customers to see. I was also worried we would be on it by the end of the week.
Anyway, she let us go to the cabin anyway in hopes of getting her credit card reader in the mail any day now.

 The tv that they had for us was a 13" so we decided to bring our own. We also brought our own sheets and quilt for the bed. We had called in asking about the equipment they had for the kitchen since it was a bring your own food we will provide the rest kind of deal. She said they had plates and cups and knives and forks and pots and pans and everything you needed for baking. We discovered this was true and we were rather impressed. However, as the week progressed we realized their were things we should have brought for the kitchen. Some of the pans they had were caked in grease, a pot was warped and their was no foil or napkins. We made do with what we had however and we were impressed with the food we could make.

Monday we had pizza for dinner

Tuesday we had french toast for breakfast

That night we made a bacon alfredo pasta which was delicious  and my favorite  of the whole trip

On Wednesday we had bagels for breakfast and a Hogi picnic for lunch.
This is our dinner, a pork tenderloin with a cornbread, apple, cranberry stuffing

Thursday we had omelets for breakfast and then went out to The Chopping Block in Mena, Arkansas

Friday was our last day so we had a bagel and loaded up

Although the cabin was covered in shade we were glad that there was air conditioning. We tried to go for a walk on their hiking trail listed on the map, this ended in sweating profusely and being eaten alive by mosquitoes.

The area also had horseback riding, canoeing, and a swimming pool. I think all but the pool cost extra.

As I mentioned before we had a picnic by the river. We looked on the map to find a nearby picnic area in the national forest. We found and place and headed in that direction. We saw a sign advertising a recreation outdoor center and decided to take our chances on the dirt road. The sign looked unmaintained on the other side and I didn't think it looked promising. The first time we made a major loop and ended up back on the road before turning onto the dirt road. The second time we decided to take a left onto a smaller dirt road.
When we reached a sign that said PRIVATE PROPERTY NO SHOOTING NO CAMPING we decided this was a good a place as any. We walked down a trail and found the river.

 This was very nice and had no mosquitoes. We sat on slate and watched tiny fish swim as we ate our sandwiches.

 It was very pretty. The water was too cold to swim in but very nice just to dip our feet in.

The week went by and soon it was Friday. We had to return to the office to try to run our card again. This time was a little less complicated, but we still were there for 30 minutes trying to figure out what was wrong. Ironically, the owner works with Authorize.net to run her payments, this is where Maren works. I thought that was funny. Well she called them to try and do a verification over the phone to bypass any problems the system was having. The first thing the operator on the phone says is that the addresses aren't matching which is why there was a problem. When Daniel had made the reservation in February we were living in Provo, shortly after he switched all of his bills and cards to the Arlington address. We were happy that the problem was finally resolved. This only took about 5 seconds to figure out. Unfortunately, we then had to wait for her to chicken peck on the keyboard all of her information and passwords before she even got to running the card. It took her 3 times to enter in her password correctly since her long fingernails hindered this process. But finally we were done and could leave. 

We decided to stop at a local store. I thought it was just an old antique store, it turned out to be a museum of an old radio show. Kind of interesting. 

This is Daniel with the two men with the radio show in which the museum was established for Lum and Abner. 

New Bed

  Daniel's parents had a king bed in the room we are staying in. We originally were going to bring my bed from Utah but decided we wanted nothing in the bed of the truck as to not tempt someone from stealing our things. So we slept on the king last night ( it only lasted the one night) and decided it was time to get a new bed so we could have restless sleep. The room was also cramped with a king and really only has room for a queen. We went to 3 different stores here in Arlington. The first store we were almost sold but decided to keep looking around. The second store was a no brainer, we were not going to buy from them and they kept constant pressure on us. The last store was just our kind of store, he was very casual and just let the product sell itself. The bed we fell in love with is his top seller. He sells this mattress 3 to 1 to any other mattress in the store. We decided to buy this bed and miraculously he had it in stock and we were able to take it home today. 

This is the room once we got the king out and had it ready for our bed.

King all loaded up in Daniel's truck. Wedonated it to the Mission Arlington.

Roadtrip: Texas Bound

There isn't much to be said about the trip to Texas. A lot of desert that is about it. Daniel and I were happy to go where  the GPS sent us, so we took a scenic route. Saturday we started in West Jordan and ended in Cortez, CO. The drive was mildly short and had very pretty sights with lots of red rock and many canyons. Sunday we decided to hit up a church service. We entered in the coordinates as before into our trusty GPS, we began driving and it proceeded to lead us to a dead end! Needless to say the GPS was the punchline of most of our jokes after that. After a very friendly sacrament meeting in Cortez we continued on to Tucumcari, New Mexico. We went a different route that took us through more canyons and helped us bypass major construction zones. Yay for the GPS!

Tucumcari was shut down. We had no idea the town would be so shut down. I guess we had forgotten it was sunday. Anyway, we had asked the hotel worker where would be a good place to eat that had some Mexican food. She said Pow Wow was a good place. Daniel looked online and said it was a buffet, neither one of us are keen on buffets so he looked around the area and found another restaurant. We sent out to find dinner and a post office to mail out some thank yous for wedding gift we had received. As we drove into the town more we noticed closed signs posted and it dawned on us that the small town would be all closed and the worker had suggested the only restaurant open. So we headed back to the hotel and decided to try a local burger joint-Lotaburger- it was descent and we got to see what the people of Tucumcari were like first hand( I would say the people of New Mexico, but I don't think that would be fair.)
Monday was our final day of driving. We drove most of the day in Texas but still had to drive for 7 hours before we arrived in Arlington. I would say it was a pretty easy drive and most of the way was straight once you get out of Colorado. The worst part of the drive was when we took the exit for Amarillo and we were on a highway that took you through small towns so you would be at the speed limit 70 and then suddenly it would drop you down to 50 then 30 to pass through the town. Also, I was pulled over for driving in the left hand lane, which by the way is only for passing. I did not get a ticket though which was a bonus :)