Time to update this thing

UPDATE: This one is a long one... so buckle up!

This blog contains stories about kids, being HOMELESS, and family and friends.

So... you know you haven't blogged in a long time if it took ya about twenty minutes to figure out how to add a new post.

Yeah... it has been awhile folks!

All I really want to say is how much I love my life here in Arizona! I fell in love with this place but also the AWESOME people here!! And life really could not get too much better!

I have a good job! I get paid well, but working with kids is really just a passion of mine. I like to take care of them and I get some pretty good laughs. Sure, it is HARD at times. Kids are a handful, but the love that grows from taking care of someone is immense! And lately my job has given me nothing, but joy!! My hard work has paid off because Nora's (the five year old girl I nanny) behavior has changed DRAMATICALLY!!! No more yelling, hitting, and fighting! For the last month it has been lots of please and thank-you's and giggles. And she is listening! So wonderful!! 

Nora in a nutshell

Ethan (the 18 month old boy I nanny) is finally talking! He is adding words to his vocabulary like no one's business right now and it is fun to see his progress!! He is absolutely adorable and has an obsession with car keys right now! He kinda holds ya hostage cause it is pretty darn difficult to get your keys back from him without him getting suuuuper upset!

Ethan

I got to take them to the Science center back in September and it was so cute to see how excited Nora was over all the activities and displays. And well Ethan enjoyed most of the time there, but the body section pretty much terrified him because of all the noises!

Also why my life here is amazing is because of my amazing roommate KRISTIN!!!!! She pretty much is the greatest! I love how we function together as roommates. It is a joke between us that she is like the man of the house and I am like the wife cause she is gone all day working and helps me reach the things I am too short to grab and I am at home "taking care of the kids" (my nanny job) and cooking and cleaning. I kinda love to cook and clean. 

We hiked Camelback! My first hike in Arizona!

And soon we are gonna move into a house and add another member in our little family. ha But here is the thing... we both had to live HOMELESS for awhile!
Basically... I hate house hunting! When you are a poor college student looking for a good deal that will work for roommates it gets a little difficult. Plus, as a girl you want the safest neighborhood possible. And being LDS you want a good ward. But being in college you want something that you can be the "party house" ---Mormon style of course. Which means roasting marshmallows and playing board games and well okay some cooler things than just that, but you know. So yeah, it was hard! And because I don't know Mesa too well it presented a bit of a challenge. I did not know what places I should avoid and therefore, ran into some neighborhoods that kinda gave me the hebe gee-bees, and I grew up with five boys.
So we finally found an awesome house! A house that I was stoked about. But then things happened and we lost the house. I was devastated because after looking for a couple months I gave myself a date to decide and on that very day things fell apart. I had to try and dedicate more time to house hunting but I also needed to do school, which luckily was go at your own pace, but I had a five week time frame to finish six chapters and take two unit tests and get CPR certified and so on... a lot to do with house hunting and working. Just saying. 
But then when I finally broke down and realized I did not know what else to do. That I have done all that I could but NOTHING was working out at all. And after a few desperate prayers, I got a call. The house that I fell in love with re-opened. And Kristin and I applied and it is now ours!.... well SORTA
Yep, the story continues.
The week that we had to move out of our apartment and into the new house we find out that a pipe broke and that the house would not be ready for our original move in date. Okay... so we talked it all out with them. They said they thing it will be TWO WHOLE WEEKS until we can move in! Okay, so where are we supposed to live?? Where are we supposed to put all our things? Luckily people LOVE kristin and I. haha but seriously, we had many people open their homes for us and even someone who opened their garage for us to store our things!! So with all that mess worked out, we thought that our luck would shift. 
It didn't.
WE HAVE THE WORST LUCK EVER....SERIOUSLY!
Separately we are pretty bad. I have bad luck, but let's face it, I tend to make life harder for me than it has to be. Not on purpose at all... my family all calls me ditsy and as much as I would like to say there is no reason for that kind of talk, there really are plenty of reasons. haha Mostly I can't handle cars... or life. hahaha And well Kristin is known as "poop-stick" to her friends because a lot of crappy things just seem to happen to her. So together it really is no good. No good at all.
On the day we had to move out it rained. Okay, it poured! All week we had pretty awesome weather, but nope... it couldn't have sprinkled a tad or been as nice as the other days. It had to release a lake on us. Good thing I like lakes... but what I don't like is my stuff getting soaked and water damaged. Good thing none of my stuff is really nice though and I didn't spend a penny on most of it. It's nice to be a poor college student sometimes, it really is. 
Thankfully it stopped enough for us to get the nice T.V. and chair and couch out. Those are our only valuables Kristin and I posses. 
And thankfully my fake uncle Les let us borrow his trailer and my brother Ryan helped us move and also our home teacher George. 
So despite our bad luck, we are loved, and we are blessed! Hey! Being homeless ain't so bad! 

I also love it here because I have family here. I love being close to A brother and his family, versus my other alternative in Utah which would have been zip... Plus we get some family visits :) Which is the best!

  

I have the BEST and most Gorgeous and WONDERFUL family. Hands down. I do not care what you say, I do. hahaha









I also have accumulated some pretty fantastic friends here. They are pretty legit, I must say. And I love the fact that I got to know these people. Yeah,  this whole blog has been a little mushy and it is just gonna continue that way. Sorry...

Jared helps me get out and have some adventures :)

Halloween!

yeah...

Not the best pic, but its all i really got.

I swear I have more friends than just these guys! haha but these are some of the only pictures I have. I am not a big picture taker! ha
But these are some of the best of them anyways!








And more friends to make... My new ward is proving to be pretty awesome and I am really excited about it!!

Loving my new ward!

So, yes that was long.
And YES!!! I love it here in good ol' Arizona!!! I feel like I have found a true home away from my small little hometown. I found a place I'd like to plant my feet in for quite sometime.