Happenings

We got all moved in and got all the appliances working. We had a problem with the dishwasher. First it flooded the kitchen floor after a cycle because the tubes in the back were loose. We tightened them and ran it again. No flood! But it didn't drain either... Why? Because they didn't knock out the thing in the garbage disposal when they installed the dishwasher. We did it and now it runs great. We love our washer and dryer. It's the first time I've used a front loader by choice. I never liked the coin-op front loaders in my old apartments. They stunk. So I was apprehensive about buying one. It was a great deal at RC Willey and will turn out being a lot cheaper in energy savings. It said that with a gas water heater it will only cost $13 a year to run the washer 8 times a week.

Plus we got a Christmas surprise. We have been thinking about getting a kitten, but were waiting until we were in a place that allowed pets. On Boxing Day I was just browsing the ksl.com classifieds and found one that had just been posted. I called to see if we could come see the kitten. The lady found her in the backyard under the bushes on Christmas night. She waited to see if the mom cat would come back, but at around 9 she brought the kitten in so it wouldn't freeze. The next day she tried putting it back outside for the mom to come get it, but she didn't. The lady was allergic to cats, and needed to give it away asap. We went and saw it and I adored it. How could you not?


We think it is a "she" and that she is about 4 weeks old. Usually kittens stay with their moms until they are about 8 weeks old. That's when they can really do things on their own. We got kitten formula and have been feeding her a bit with a bottle. We are also feeding her a mixture of the formula and canned kitten food. She loves it and gets all messy because she's just learning how to eat from a dish. I was worried for a while because she hadn't pooped at all but she had been eating. Very young kittens can't eliminate on their own and they need stimulation to poop. She seemed old enough to do it on her own, so I was worried she had worms or was constipated or something. But she's pooped twice now! The first time was on the bathroom floor (we keep her in the bathroom at night) and the second time was in the litter box! She's so smart already. I feel like a proud parent of a potty trained kid... even though one success doesn't necessarily mean she's trained. But it is a victory. Mostly she eats and sleeps. She likes to cuddle up close to us on the couch and sleep. That's what she is doing right now. She hasn't caught on to playing with toys yet, they scare her. But she will be a lot of fun.

She still doesn't have a name, hopefully we'll pick one out tonight.

Homeless.

Well, we did it. We got out of our spider ridden apartment. Surprisingly enough, as we were packing and moving I didn't see any... where do they go? I swear they know when I'm home all alone. The other night I grabbed a Kleenex out of the box and just about had it to my nose when what did I see? You guessed it, a SPIDER. Right by my face! Doug wasn't home, but he probably could've heard my scream a mile away. I don't scream much, never at sporting events, not when I hurt myself, not even in Provo traffic. Spiders are pretty much the only thing that will raise a scream out of my little lungs.
That was a tangent I wasn't planning on making. I meant to tell about how we packed up our entire apartment in one day, got it into a 14' U-haul, and two Toyotas, and eventually made it back to our hotel room. Doug stayed home from work today and started packing things up this morning. I got home at 3. His parents came to help at about 4:30. By 6 we were on our way to the storage unit in Spanish Fork where we're keeping our stuff until the condo closes. We get to the storage place around 6:30. Find our unit... with the lock still on it, and the office closed at 6... I panicked. But we got it open and by 7:30 we were done. We still had boxes at the apartment, and we had to clean. So we went back, filled up both cars again (we had returned the U-haul) and closed the door to Cambridge Court for the last time. It was a good feeling. Now it's just a wait until we get to undo what we spent so long doing today. But I don't mind so much. The hotel has a very nice heater.

The End.... is in sight

As the semester is winding down, so are our nerves. Thankfully we don't have much longer to endure. I only have one more 5-page paper left to do, and three portfolios. No more tests until the finals though! We're moving into the condo on Saturday. Couldn't have picked a better time to move... not. Chance of snow, 30 degrees, right before the last week of school... Not complaining though, at least we got it sold (after we held it for a couple for an entire week only to have them bail out on us last minute). I'm looking forward to hot water, a warm apartment, and best of all NO SPIDERS! I'll be sure to check all the furniture and things for spider egg sacs so we don't contaminate the new apartment.
Side note: After watching The Biggest Loser Doug and I want to run a marathon someday.

Gobbled

Tonight we got "Gobbled." So apparently there is this thing going around in the ward (besides pregnancy). You get "Gobbled" and you have to make treats and give them to 3 others in the ward, in the dead of night. We got brownies (not as good as Mom's, but not really complaining). There's a paper with it that has the rules of gobbling. Once you've been "Gobbled" you're supposed to put that paper on your door so you don't get "Gobbled" again. Doug wants to leave it off, so we can get more treats... Sounds reasonable to me.
We're putting our contract up for sale. If someone buys it then we'll move into a condo that Doug's brother bought and wants to rent to us. We'll see how that goes. My only concern is having to move when it's cold. Brrr.
I'm glad that it's finally Thanksgiving break. I don't have anymore school this week. Doug has classes on Monday and Tuesday. We'll both try and work Wednesday, and then have Thanksgiving at the Jaffa's on Thursday. I'm still undecided whether I want to go Black Friday shopping. I can't think of anything I want, well, want bad enough to wake up early (or not go to bed at all) to get.

New Post

Doug got me some flowers. There is a before picture of them in our favorite U of U cup. And then an after picture after I arranged them in a jar.

Then here's Doug making Ramen Noodles, I think. (For some reason it started underlining and there isn't a button to make it stop).
Side notes (my computer is wacko and won't turn off italics either):
Can't wait for Thanksgiving break.
(I can't wait to be finished with school period.)
These are the most interesting pictures I could come up with, since some of you have demanded some.
Friday night we went and saw the 6th Harry Potter movie at the dollar theater. The movie didn't start until 10:10 p.m. And there were THE (too bad everything is italicized so you don't get the full emphasis) most annoying girls there. I assured Doug that I was not like that when I was 13.
I haven't had too many more frightening encounters with spiders in the last couple days. I still want to get pest control in here and spray for them though.
We go through cereal pretty fast. We buy 2 bags (one of his kind, and one of mine) each week, and they're usually gone by the time we go shopping again. However, my new breakfast of choice is strawberry poptarts and chocolate milk. So I still have a pretty full bag of Marshmallow Matey's.
At this moment I am procrastinating doing homework. The story of my life.
Doug doesn't have anything to add, and neither do I.

Hope this will suffice for another month.

Nothin' much

Nothing much has happened since the last post. But here are a few:
School started, it stinks.
I got a new job at BYU laundry. It feels like I'm working in a big industrial factory.
Football season started. And I'm actually watching it. Another shock, I'm actually kinda interested in it. Too bad BYU lost so horribly at our first home game (my first live college football game ever).
It's getting colder, which means the Hot Chocolate is making his appearance one again. And now I have awesome Ute mugs to drink it out of (Thanks Sarah and Nate.)
We still don't have callings in our ward... no complaints here.
So life is good, school and work keeps us pretty busy.
More to come when there are actually interesting things to report.

New York

First day:
Went to the Museum of Natural History. That was a lot of fun, I couldn't help trying to find all the spots featured in the movie "Night at the Museum." I got a picture with the Eastern Island Statue

We walked around Central Park for a bit and then went off to find the Hard Rock Cafe. I got the twisted macaroni and it was delicious!



Second Day:
Went to Staten Island on the ferry. Then to Liberty and Ellis Island. We came back to Times Square and walked around and in to the cool stores. Such as the Toys-R-Us, the M&M's store, Hershey's store, etc etc. We ate at TGI Fridays. Yum.

Third Day:
Went to the Metropolitan Museum. We spent a lot of time there. There's just so much to see. I was amazed at all the artifacts, I've seen a bunch of that kind of stuff in text books, it was just so much different seeing it for real. Like the Met is one of those "real" museums where the real stuff is, not just one of those little podunk museums I've been to that have the "fake" cheap stuff. I don't know, it was just cool. After the museum we stopped at a hot dog stnad and got hot dogs. Man they were good! I don't know what spices or whatever they put in them, but it's delicious. We then walked through Central Park, it's so stinkin' big! There's a cool little castle right in the middle of it.
As a side note. It really wasn't that bad staying at a hotel right by the airport. There was a free shuttle to the airport from the hotel, so we'd take that to the AirTrain, which took us to the subway. The subway ride was maybe 30-45 minutes and the air conditioning was great. I'd do it again anytime. Being back in Provo I'm really missing the subway system. It was just so convenient.

New Apartment

This is the view of the kitchen filled with all the great gifts we got from the shower... minus a couple (Thanks Jen and Cath). And then the table we bought from IKEA. It was a great deal, and fun to put together. I convinced Doug to read the directions, and to let me help. Thanks to Cheryl we were able to purchase a new table.

Then the bed and dresser we got from RC Willey. Another great deal. A night stand was included, it's not shown in the pictures because it just doesn't fit in the bedroom. We painted the walls this color, they used to be lime green. That wasn't what we were going for.

Happy Father's Day

Well school is finally over for the summer, and I think I got fairly good grades, especially considering how awful they were last semester. I got put on academic warning for it... oops. Doug has been a good influence on me, he gets good grades, and my competitive nature won't allow me to totally fail. We found a place to live for the fall. It's a really nice apartment, close to campus, and it's right across the street from where Doug works. We decided to just bite the bullet and sign it for July, a lot of places are only renting for July, August contracts are hard to find, and we wanted to secure a place. It will be nice to have the extra month to gradually move the big stuff in as we get it. Plus, the bedroom is lime green, that doesn't really fly with either of us, so we'll be painting that. We got our engagement pictures taken last week, and we're going to get the announcements taken care of this week. We met with a lady yesterday who does the decorations for weddings, and picked out what we wanted. Everything is just coming along nicely.

The Ring

So here's the ring. I had told Doug basics of what I'd like, and he just picked it out. He did an amazing job.

Engagement

It's official. Tell your friends. Lizzie is engaged.

The Boy

Here he is, mystery boy. Just for the record. His name is Doug Jaffa. He's from Sandy, Utah. He's a computer science major, a.k.a. nerd. But that's okay. He has four brothers and one sister. Almost just the opposite of our family, he falls second to last too. He went to Germany on his mission (bonus points there). I don't know what else to say. He's great.

So... Ummm

So, the past few weeks have been kinda crazy.... There is less than a month of school left. Then I'll be trying to find a phlebotomy job. I have a boyfriend, another one, Jenny and Cathy have met him. I hope you guys liked him, because, well, it's not official, yet, but you will probably want to clear your calendars for the end of August.... If you know what I mean.