January: An INTERESTING Start to 2010...

Well, 2010 came, and with it came many surprises. And by surprises I mean trials. I had a feeling they were on the way because life had been pretty peachy for a while, and sure enough! They came a'knockin' on my door. Hence the lack of blog posting for the last month.

Trial #1: A very sick hubby. Trevor started feeling sick (again) on January 1st. Long story short, he's had intestinal issues for a while, starting before our cruise to Mexico last July. After the cruise, he had a rough couple of weeks but some anti-bacterial drugs helped out until he felt generally better. Then, since August, he's felt generally fine, but just not completely back to his normal, regular self. Then, on the 1st, for some unexplained reason, the terrible symptoms came back with a vengeance! The antibiotics made him MUCH worse. He was so sick for about 3 weeks that I couldn't stand it anymore. We had to put him on a temporary no-milk, no-gluten diet until he could feel good enough to function. He's now currently feeling much better and can eat normal foods, but it's just a matter of time until this happens again. Test results from his samples showed nothing, so now we're waiting to get a colonoscopy that will hopefully shed light on what is plaguing this poor man. Anyway, needless to say, I played nurse for most of January, and there were much prayer and fasting in Trevor's behalf. Still a waiting game now...

Trial #2: One of the six apartments that I manage had a flooding incident, caused by this tiny little nut:This nut attaches the water supply line to the base of the toilet. Apparently it got old and tired, and decided to split apart in the middle of the night and start spraying large amounts of water into one of the two upstairs bathrooms, most likely for hours before one tenant woke up at about 4:30am and heard the noise and was able to shut the water off.

So, when I got the 4:30am phone call, you can imagine that I really had NO idea what to do, especially when she explained that the water was POURING down through the ceiling into their living room, and there was now a hole in the ceiling (onto the brand new sofa, too!!):So, that's about the time in my life when I learned about "restoration" companies, and gained a huge appreciation for the 24-hours-a-day ones! They were able to get over to the unit by 6:15am to start the cleanup process. Here they are, working on ripping up the sopping wet carpet padding:
A few hours later, still working on things, slowly discovering that they'll have to keep ripping out any drywall that was no longer dry. We were all pretty shocked at how much had to come down, and at the fact that puddles of water kept falling out of the ceiling as they ripped out more and more of the ceiling. That water got EVERYWHERE!
What it looked like, 7 hours later:
Well, the good news is, it's been about 2 1/2 weeks since the initial phone call, and we're just a few steps away from having everything back together! The living room carpet padding needs to be re-installed and they are bringing in brand new carpet for replacement! Here is a picture I took about a week ago when they were finishing up the mud for the drywall:They have since textured and painted everything! Hooray! This journey is almost wrapped up!

Trial #3: My laptop finally died. It has made its way to laptop heaven where it can rest from daily usage forever. I turned it on one day at work and all I got was a black screen with a white cursor. Not even "safe mode" could bring me to my desktop. I took my Dell to the GeekSquad at Best Buy and they said this was caused by either a "bad hard drive" or a "bad operating system". Okay... so what you're saying is... it's basically not ever going to be of use again. Sweet. How much is this going to cost?, I think to myself. Well, not TOO bad, considering I had to purchase an external hard-drive and then have them transfer every document and program on my computer to this device the size of a regular iPod. At least I have all my stuff. Even if it's just sitting there, in a device in a box in the corner, collecting dust. I still have the insides of my Dell!

Trial #4: I was called to be Ward Music Chairperson and Choir Director of my ward. Okay okay so this isn't REALLY a trial because I really do enjoy directing choir and spreading my love of Christ through the medium of music. The trial part came when I was informed that one week from being called to this calling, we were having Ward Conference, and the Stake Presidency wanted for the choir to sing. Ok. 1 Week! I can do this! And... I did. AND... It was probably the best choir number ever performed by a choir that I was conducting. We sang "How Great Thou Art" and I really believe that every person in that room could feel the Spirit. So, Trial #4 becomes a blessing! :)

Trial #5: Struggling with work. Needless to say, from all the stress of everything else going on in my life (even with my extreme yoga skills that help me cope with stress better), I began to struggle at work and had a hard time completing a project I was given. I essentially felt like a failure, and yet couldn't lead myself to become a success. This is not who I am! So, I'm working now to turn myself around and go forward on the right foot. February is going to be a good month! :)

Trial #6: In the course of trying to fix Trial #1, I have found out that my new health insurance is not as awesome as I thought. Apparently, when I asked my insurance company if the IHC hospitals and facilities in the Utah Valley Area accepted my new insurance, I was told that they did! This was when we were signing up for the insurance. Little do I know that, SURE, they "accept" our insurance, but they are all considered "out-of-network", therefore changing our coverage and discounts if we choose to go there. At least there's one in-network hospital in Orem that we can go to, but SERIOUSLY!?!? ... I wish I had known this before I signed up. Because I wouldn't have. Blah. Oh well, we'll make it work. Guess if I ever have a baby in Utah I'll be having it at Timpanogos Hospital because I don't really have another choice.

Trial #7: In the midst of my main apartment flooding issue, I also had to deal with these other apartment issues that popped up in January: wet spot on carpet in another unit, lower heating coil in oven burst and had to be replaced (I did this MYSELF, mind you!!), and a toilet that overflowed with really really nasty smelly stuff (aka poop). Loooovely.

Okay, so this is a long post, and enough about trials!! Now, I want to talk about the Blessings that came to visit me in January:

#1 - My love and concern for my husband's well-being grew, A LOT.
#2 - I learned a whole bunch about fixing damaged walls in homes. I also learned how to install a heating element in an oven. I learned to make sure to unplug the oven before you do so, or you could get an electric shock that's worse than a car crash (don't worry, I didn't learn this from experience, whew)
#3 - I re-learned my love for music, and was able to experience a wonderful performance by my choir.
#4 - I now spend less time on the computer when I'm at home! Yay!
#5 - I got to go shopping for the ENTIRE day with my best friend Chris last Saturday. It was very therapeutic, and seriously wonderful!
#6 - At least I have health insurance, and we can afford it.
#7 - I've been able to re-evaluate my life and decide who I want to be and what I want to do moving forward.
#8 - Trevor did laundry for me TWICE in the last month! I love that man! :)
#9 - Most of these trials have been (or will be, very soon) completely resolved!!!
#10 - I've drawn nearer to my Heavenly Father through prayer and scripture study.

I definitely believe that trials are hard, but they bring blessings. Good night! :)

My 100th Post!

Wow! I can't believe that I've finally made it to 100 posts! This means I'm an "official" blogger I suppose! It's just sad that it took me over a year and a half to get to this point! Haha.

Trevor and I had our 1 year 8 month anniversary yesterday. So yeah, not a big deal, but it still blows my mind that we've been married that long! And it's been pretty fun, too, if I do say so myself!

Well, we took the Christmas tree down yesterday. It's always so shocking how empty and bare my apartment looks after all the festive decorations come down. I guess I'll just get used to it again. And I was thinking about it too - it's kind of fun to think that I keep those decorations up for a whole month out of the year! That's actually a pretty long time! So, I'm glad I have family members who kindly gift us new Christmas decorations each year, including the cute little Santa Penguin kitchen mat I got this year from Grandma Deanna.

I'm back at good ol' work and I guess I'll have to get used to it because there aren't any holidays for quite a while. But that's okay! We're moving offices today and it'll be enough of a change that I can be newly excited for my job! :)

Starting on February 22nd, I'm certifying at It's Yoga in Provo to become a yoga instructor! It will take about a month. I am SO excited about this upcoming adventure and I can't believe I'm just a month and a half away!! Here's the flier:Yesterday at church, I was extended a new calling! I'm now the Ward Music Chairperson as well as the Choir Director! It's going to be an adventure to say the least!!

School started for Trevor today! I think it's going to be a tough semester so wish us luck!! We are going to be busy busy birds! :)

Well, happy 100th post, and STAY WARM!!! (Spring, please come early this year!)

Wow... It's 2010 Already!?!

Happy New Year 2010!

To celebrate, Trevor and I visited Olive Garden for dinner on New Year's Eve. It was delicious!Let's recap 2009:

• Our friends Meghan and Cole got married - woo hoo!
  
• I visited the hospital for eating a peanut and purchased my very first epi pen! :(
  
• We had our 3rd Valentines day at a restaurant in Park City!
• Finally got to visit my sister in law's house in Las Vegas!
• Attended two temple dedications (Draper and Oquirrh Mtn)
  
• Trevor and I celebrated our 1st Anniversary on May 3rd.
• Welcomed Cohen Sonnenberg into the world - Congrats Meghan and Steve on having your third child!! :)
  
• I graduated from the Business School at BYU!
• Got a keyboard for graduation so I won't lose my piano playing talent!
  
• We grew and harvested a fairly successful deck garden
  
• Went through the temple with my entire family!
  
• My little brother left on his mission to Boise, ID
• I turned 22! And Trevor turned 25!
• Went on a cruise with friends to Mexico - SO much fun!
• Trevor transferred from UVU to BYU.
• I switched jobs from Buckle to Empower Group, got promoted, and got a raise!
• Attended a murder mystery party for Halloween
• I made my very first Thanksgiving dinner! And it was a success!
• Welcomed Luke Porter into the world - Congrats Shawn and Jana!!
• Had fondue at least three times and sushi an innumerable amount of times!
  
• Changed health insurance - whew... that was a chore.
• Trev took up golf. And I don't think he'll be "putting it down" for a long, long time. And I learned how to swing a club and survived my first 9 hole game!
• Met some truly fantastic people!
  

I'm looking forward to a fun-filled 2010!!!

Christmas 2009!

Christmas was a little more low-key for us this year as we didn't travel to North Carolina for any festivities. I was pretty sad to not get to see my family, but in hindsight I'm really glad we didn't fly out because it would have been a hassle at the airport dealing with the crazy amount of winter weather as well as the terrorist threat on Christmas Day. Flying would have been a big headache and, for that reason alone, I am glad we didn't go to NC. But thank goodness for Skype where we had the chance to say hi and chat with everyone over there! :)

Our Tree and stockings (taken with my phone, sorry for bad quality) :
So Trevor and I spent a lot of time with his family as well as just doing a lot of relaxing around the house. Of course, we made gingerbread houses, as I posted earlier. Our big Christmas gift to each other was a Wii! It's been a ton of fun so far and I have this hilarious video of Trevor hula-hooping on Wii Fit, but he said he'd be VERY unhappy if I posted it, so you'll just have to imagine how funny it is! :)
On Christmas Eve day we went up to Trevor's parents' house in Elk Ridge. Trevor got a haircut (finally!!) and I spent some time baking a Fool's Toffee recipe that my mom always makes. It wouldn't be Christmas for me without it, so I tried my hand at making it and it actually turned out pretty well! Grandpa Kayle even requested the recipe!!

A little later we had their traditional Christmas dinner and we made more gingerbread houses with Kanyon and Scarlett. Finally it was present opening time! Here is Jill with Kanyon and Cohen. Kanyon was being so nice to "help" Cohen open his gifts--although Cohen really gave it a good try!
And here's my niece Scarlett with her new Ariel PJs on! Such a cutie with those pigtails! She would twirl for us too, and MY! what a nice twirler she is! :)
And I had to post this picture too! Grandma Deanna got a SNUGGIE for Christmas! She modeled it for us and I had to snap a picture! Lookin' good! I'm actually a bit jealous now that I know about 5 people who got a snuggie for Christmas. I think I'd really use something like this since I'm ALWAYS cold! Even in the summer!
After most everyone left, Trevor and I played a game of Settlers with his brothers Troy and Trent. I ALMOST won, but alas Troy came through in the end. It was a really fun day!

On Christmas day we played with our new toys for a bit and then mosied back down to Springville to visit Meghan's house for a Christmas dinner, which, by the way was excellent!!

I also got to talk with my brother Mike, who's on his mission, on the phone for a little while! He seems to be doing well and it was so nice to talk to him again because it's been since July that I last heard his voice.

So, just to list some of our gifts, here we go:

For us: Wii, games for the Wii. For me: Sims 3 computer game, new undershirts from Downeast, nice long black coat from Banana Republic, chocolate galore, socks (my fav!), yoga workout videos, and a new iPhone! For Trev: socks, new sweater from Banana Republic, a tie, shirts from Gap, radio player plug for his iPhone in the car, golf balls, golf club cleaner and divit tool, utility knife, shoe polish kit, chocolate galore, a thumb drive, an umbrella, and some other fun stocking stuffers.

It was overall a nice, relaxing holiday! Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Gingerbread Houses

So, to start a holiday tradition at the Shipp household, Trevor and I made holiday gingerbread houses this year out of graham crackers, cream cheese icing (only the best!) and assorted candies we picked out. We made them about a week before Christmas and it was actually really fun to tap into my kid/creative side for a while!

I also loved the fact that our kitchen table got seriously messy--kind of like it used to when my brother and I would play with Play-Doh as kids :)Here's Trevor hard at work (and also in desperate need of a haircut!):
I worked hard on my house and used a plastic bag to help me squeeze out clean-looking icing lines. The next four pictures are the four sides of my home... Front (notice my green Santa gummy bear on top with his chocolate chip hat):
Right side:
Back (watch out for the giant worm!):
Left side:
I was pretty happy that it stayed in tact and that it turned out really pretty! Of course I had to take a picture with it:
Here's the front view of Trevor's creation, which kept wanting to cave in toward the end. We caught this picture really quickly before it completely collapsed (he has a Santa bear too!):
And this picture just makes me laugh! It's just so appropriate! :) Trevor's collapsed little gingerbread house on the left and my sturdy, "perfect" one on the right. Now, I don't want to say that this picture serves to represent our personalities because that wouldn't be fair to Trevor... but... in reality the picture really is quite fitting... :)
It was a fun little tradition that we started that hopefully we'll continue throughout the years! I'm sure it will get more fun when we have kids who are excited about it! More Christmas pictures to come!

BYU Basketball

The first weekend in December, Trevor and I joined Randy and Jenny Buck up in Salt Lake at the Energy Solutions Arena to attend a BYU Basketball game! I'm still not sure why it was in Salt Lake, but it was a good excuse to go up there! During the drive up, the first big snowstorm of the season blew through Salt Lake! It was so exciting to finally see some snow, even if it was REALLY cold outside!

The Cougars played the University of San Francisco and we killed them! Always fun to do things with friends :)It was fun because I've never been that close to the floor in the Energy Solutions Arena before! :) Maybe one day we can get this close watching the Jazz! This was the view from our seats (after we moved here from our less-desirable designated seats). And I had to take this picture of the little guys playing a scrimmage game during half time. They really were awesome! Look at this shot... can you spot the ball?:
Afterward, Trevor and I got a little more Christmas shopping done at the Gateway mall. But it was hard to stay patient because it's an outdoor mall... and it had just snowed! Overall, it was a fun date and a great trip to Salt Lake!

My Very First Thanksgiving Dinner!

After we had Thanksgiving day at the church in Heber, we decided to try and make a Thanksgiving dinner on our own. I was mainly inspired by the cooking class we went to where a friend in our ward showed us how simple it could be to make a delicious turkey! So, I wanted to give it a try, despite my tiny stove, oven, and kitchen in general. So we invited Dave and Heidi over for Sunday dinner at our house. Thanks for being our guinea pigs! :)

We pulled our little kitchen table over into the living room to give us a bit more room to eat and so all four of us could squeeze around the table. Here's the table all set and waiting for food:And due to my lack of oven space, I had to ask our neighbors for the use of their oven to bake a couple things. Seen here are the delicious yams, green bean casserole, and the cranberry cake I attempted to make. I think I baked it a few minutes too long even though it was still 10 minutes less than was called for (thank you, high altitude, for making baking SO simple... blah). But yes, I had to use my end table as a serving table because I honestly had no room anywhere else! Haha
The stove was also full all night. At one point we had the potatoes boiling, gravy cooking, stuffing being mixed, and cranberry sauce simmering all at once. Here's the DELICIOUS cranberry sauce that Trev's sister Meghan gave us the recipe for. It did make quite a bit of sauce, however, and I should have halved it but didn't really have time to think about it! But... considering I've never really been a fan of cranberry sauce, this was AMAZING. I actually couldn't get enough. You could definitely taste and smell the cinnamon and orange in it:
Here's our table trying to fit all our food and drink and condiments and everything on the table. It was so small. I look forward to having a nice, big, STURDY kitchen table one day, where the whole thing won't shake when someone's cutting their turkey! Haha. But the food still looks delicious as I look at it now! :)
I'm taking the picture, hence not being in it, but here are Trevor with the Kimball's. Trev's tie looks weird because he had to loosen it and put it behind him when dressing the turkey. After it almost dipped in the turkey juices once, he learned his lesson. We also didn't want it to catch on fire from the oven either. Haha. Oh dear.
So... the results? Well... it ACTUALLY wasn't as hard as I thought it would be! Making the food itself is quite simple. What makes it all tricky is the timing of the dishes so they all are ready when the turkey's ready and not before other things or they get cold!

But we got great reviews on the food! Dave and Heidi said the turkey was actually quite juicy and tender--so much so that they actually enjoyed the turkey this time, whereas they usually aren't too huge on it! I felt the same way. I was quite proud of my first turkey, despite the fact it was still a little bit pink on the very inside and we had to make sure to cut around it! Everything else was great, as well, my personal favorite being my Nana's yam recipe and that cranberry sauce! :) So good!

I am glad to say that I overcame the fear of making a turkey and that it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. We'll see if we make a tradition of doing this yearly... maybe, maybe not. I'm still young enough that I should be enjoying someone ELSE's cooking on Thanksgiving. I feel it's a rite you have to earn--being able to be the "Thanksgiving chef". But hey - now I know I CAN do it and it's actually pretty fun! :)

Happy Late Turkey Day!