Political Paula

Normally I don't take such an interest in city politics....But that's because I've never been a home owner before. Cindy (one of the three Cindys in office) sat in front of our house, surveyed our new deck, and sent us a letter informing us we have to take down the deck because it was out of code (two feet too big). SO that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Lance was sick of Provo city pushing him around....He wanted to do something about it. We were trying to find an investment property, but BECAUSE OF CINDY - we aren't able to right now. (Long story short)... Our real estate agent just happened to be a HUGE advocate for Sterling Beck, as well as the others we were rooting for. He enlightened us on their backgrounds and gave us their phone numbers. Lance got really into it - flyers, signs...he even stood up in all his BYU auditorium-filled classes and made announcements discussing his knowledge and rallying for students to care, and vote.

VICTORY!

The results are in.

Mayor

John Curtis, 5,321

City Council District 2

Rick Healey, 1,229

City Council District 5

Sterling Beck, 695

Citywide Council District I

Laura H. Cabanilla, 5,550

WOO HOO! all our guys won. I really hope they live up to the hype. I love my deck...

ON a even MORE exciting note:

Mitch and Kensie are getting married in a few days! Lance and I are carpooling over to California for the event... I can't wait! These two have really become close with Lance and I... I can't wait to have more married friends! :)

BOO!

So last Monday, we continued our new tradition of FHE with Mitch and Kensie (Kensie didn't make it till later, so Von took her place at first) (we missed you Heather and Nick). We had a snappy little lesson and carved pumpkins! Lance was so cute because he even got into the Halloween spirit. Not only was he excited to carve pumpkins but he suggested we watch a Halloween-ey movie. Not surprisingly, all the pumpkins turned out pretty cute - and each one totally matched our personalities. This was so much fun... i really wanted to do it again the next day.




(Mom do you see the little flags in the lantern? I made those! They say Halloween-ish type things in English as well as French. I think you'd love them)





All of our jack-o-lanterns lit up!
(This little banner says "SPOOK". I made it with the cute little pumpkins Audrey gave me at my wedding shower which i painted black, and my inherent creativity skills my mother gave me. Thanks Mom!)

Hiking.

SO Surprise, surprise, Lance and I went on yet another adventure. We wanted to get out of the house and enjoy the fall leaves before the colors turned from brilliant yellows, greens and reds into brown and naked. So for our date night, we set off for the hills. We made our way up to Squaw Peak, but instead of turning right to the fork which leads you to Squaw Peak, we went left where the camping grounds are. The light was fading fast, and we couldn't find a really awesome hiking trail... So what's left to do? Blaze your own, the Pocahontas way. So we did. It was pretty cold, which is why there was snow spotting the ground. But it was beautiful. The way we hiked had every kind of terrain possible. Flat, rocky, gravel, trees, brush, open, prickely, and so on. It was pretty difficult, and the sun was setting once we reached the top, but something about reaching the peak of a mountainside is completely satisfying.









Coming down the mountain was actually more difficult than going up.... Here's how Lance and I got creative getting down in the more dangerous parts....hahah...

Off to AZ

Lance and I finally hung our whiteboard so I could feel a very satisfying feeling of accomplishment after the laundry list of work we do gets done (oh come on, i know it's not THAT weird to love checking off something once accomplished.) SO. In order for both of us to feel justified in me going to Arizona this weekend on a girls trip with Virg and Heather, we made this list and I finished everything! (Don't worry. Lance has his own laundry list to do, we just didn't write it down... like re-roof the roof..hahha)

The smell of fresh baked whole wheat bread is drifting down the hallway into my room....that means my list is done. AZ here i come!

PMS

Seriously, why is PMS even necessary? I am an emotional nightmare. Today I cried at a toilet paper commercial. For real. Poor Lance. But the boy knows how to suppress PMS Paula back into her deathcave. He took me for a surprise trip to the grocery store and got this bad boy:


yes, that is a tub, folks. a TUB. Not a little packet, not a tube, a TUB. That means I get to sneak cookie dough for a long time.

and to my surprise he indulged too. Any of you who may know Lance will be slightly shocked at this entire post.

Ah the (literal) sweet taste of success.

Still remodeling...

Here's our SERIOUSLY awesome deck:
(and lance's parent's dogs that i LOVE)






This is our carport roof... i guess these quail live in our bushes, but they all just showed up on our roof while we were putting up the deck. they were just so cute and funny i had to snap a picture.








i also painted this wall... i think its like 25+ feet long and extends from the living room to the dining room. i really dislike purple, but this eggplant color turned out really great, i think.





anyway. the maddness continues!

Our First Night Home...

SO This first group of pictures is actually our very first night in our house. My in-laws and sister and hubby were all so sweet and had set up our bed, cleaned the house (which was previously occupied by some very unclean boys), and surprised us with a new dining room table! wooha! So here is a picture of our very first night in... it was a disaster area! i was so overwhelmed, but we found happiness in it somewhere along the way.










eventually our home ended up looking like this:



not too shabby, but not exactly home either. note the really awesome blinds we've got goin on.... yay for renovations.