Advice Needed

What color, material, and length of curtains would work best in our living room? I have no idea; but I really want to hang some, because this room needs some color or something.

Should I try a patterend fabric? Should I try hanging the curtains all the way at the top of the wall or just right above the window? How long should they be?

The window in question. (Most of the apartment is decorated with that same green color as the rug.)

Left side of the room. (Maroon leather couch, dark red mirror)

Right side of the room. (I'd love to paint this wall, too, but I'm not sure if I have time for that much of a makeover--hopefully curtains alone will make enough of a difference.)

Thanks for the help!

Hot Pockets

Last night Kent's cousin, Jake, came over for dinner and we made calzones, or, as I always called them when we'd make them as kids, hot pockets!

I got this picture from the Kraft foods website--our calzones didn't look quite as pretty, but they were sure good! I just used refrigerated pizza crust because I didn't have time to make some, and we stuffed them with whatever we wanted! We used chicken, pepperoni, chopped ham, green peppers, cheese, and a choice of pizza sauce (which I did make homemade), ranch, or barbeque sauce.

This semester is going to be very, very busy for me. So I'm going to have to make sure I do something fun like this every once in a while or else I'll go crazy! I have so much homework-I'm usually doing school stuff until 10 at night every night. But it's kind of satisfying to work so hard when graduation is getting so much closer. Until this semester, graduation didn't seem like it was going to feel like I'd actually done something impressive; but now, I am so excited to graduate, to know that I worked so hard and accomplished my goal of getting a higher education. So, I just have to get through 12 more weeks for this semester, and then only one more semester after that!

Twelve more weeks sounds like a very long time. I need to get started on that homework.

Tony Grove

While we were at my parent's house before coming back here to Rexburg, we decided to spend one of our nights camping at Tony Grove. It was pretty cold up there, but so beautiful, and I'm glad we did. Tony Grove is one of my favorite places. My family went every summer while I was growing up; there are so many memories I have of the lake and campground. And last summer it was our day at Tony Grove that led to Kent asking my dad if he could marry me.

Kent has told me that camping is only fun to him if he can do something while he's there to alter the processes of nature. Build a dam, make traps, create big fires, etc. So when he saw this little stream on the opposite side of the lake, he just had to build a dam.

Kent cooked our tin-foil dinners on the fire. We took up an entire box of wood, but we ran out when there was still two hours until dark. I suggested that we take a walk around the campground, and I'm glad we did, because we found three empty campsites with stacks of firewood left by previous campers. I'm sure we looked a little funny walking around the campground with our arms full of firewood, but it was so nice to have that warm fire as the sun went down.

Driving...Driving...Driving

New Mexico
Colorado
Four corners! This picture has a story. We woke up the second morning of our trip and I mentioned how I wanted to go to Four Corners. It was a little out of the way, though, and our GPS wanted to take us the faster, more direct route. So I called my parents and attempted to get directions to four corners. The conversation went something like this.

Me: "So where do we turn off?"
Dad: "What road are you going to be on?"
Me: "Um...Let me look at the GPS and see if I can figure it out."
Kent: "I need the GPS in .3 miles, so you can't use it right now."
Me (to Dad): "I'm not allowed to use the GPS. I don't know what road we are on. Are you on google maps?"
Later, with Mom trying to translate Dad's directions to me.
Me: "So where do I turn?"
Dad: Mumbles in the background
Mom (to Dad): "No, that's not a road. You're drawing that on the map with your finger. She can't turn there."

Anyway, we finally got it figured out, but then when we got to the city where we were supposed to turn, we spent 45 minutes in line at the Dairy Queen drive through only to get the wrong food, we drove past four people selling "Kneel Down Bread" along the roadsides (?), and we drove a few miles in the wrong direction, only to finally decide to not go to four corners and just follow the GPS.

But I was a little sad about that. So when we happened to see the sign for four corners, we took the road! And then, halfway down it, we realized we were nearly out of gas. And in the middle of nowhere.

We made it to the monument, however, and I was excited! Did you know that you have to pay $3 a person to stand on that piece of cement? Neither did we. And no, we didn't have any cash. I was going to cry. But we sifted through the car and found $3 of quarters and dimes and the lady let us in! I now have a picture of us standing in four states at once! And we didn't run out of gas after all.

No, we found a gas station in a tiny town in the Indian Reservation. But we had to drive slowly through the streets of that town because there were horses on the road!

Other memorable events from this trip include: the awesome lightning storm we saw in Moab, taking breaths of un-humid air for the first time in three months, the hotel where I had to strip the sheets and use my own blankets from the car because of the yuckiness of the room, lots of fun time talking together in the car while we drove, and the gorgeous weather we had while we took a nap in the park in Garland City, Utah while we waited for my family to meet us there at my 99 year-old great grandma's house.

The Carnage

Does anybody else's kitchen look like this when you move? I'm not sure how this happens. Every other room in our house was as empty as could be, and all the small and unplaceable items get dumped in the kitchen. It happens every time I move. I can't explain it.

Oh, I'm so glad I don't have to move again for six more months.

Catching Up

Whew! It has been a crazy busy first week of school. I've been up until 11 or 12 every night doing homework. The first week of school! I can't believe it. It's going to be a busy semester.

But, today is Saturday, which means that I do homework all morning until Kent gets home from work, and then we get to rest and play a little. And for me, that means finally catching up on all the blogging I've been meaning to do but was too busy to.

I'll start with the move and go on from there.

Okay, we're back

Whew. So we're finally back here in Rexburg. And it's beautiful here! Seriously, if it weren't for the brutal winters, I'd be willing to even stay here. We went for a walk around the temple grounds last night, and the weather was perfect. I'm trying to soak as much of it in as I can right now before the cold really hits us.

Our drive back from Texas was long, but we survived. I've got pictures I'll post later, but I'm at work at the Tutoring Center right now, so I don't have my camera.

We had a great week at my parent's house in Logan-we went camping and we also went up to Bear Lake to visit Kent's aunt Kristeen.

And we've got our stuff unpacked and set up in our apartment...well, mostly. I'm in a huge "getting-rid-of" mood right now, and our give-away pile is taking over the corner of the kitchen. Moving is probably one of my least favorite things. Unless it is figuring out my schedule for the semester... that is even higher on the least favorite list. Sigh.