Happy Father!!!

Alright, the title was just to get you interested in the blog post. According to Amy, who loves her dough, I am the father of this beautiful "dough baby" so we thought it would be funny to do a little false advertising for a future event. We definitely are anxiously anticipating the arrival of our little one. We still haven't made a final decision on a name but I think that it will end up being Elise (or Elyse).

Before the rising of the dough

Amy really does make an awesome BBQ chicken pizza. She added some caramelized onions and cilantro to it this time which added some awesome flavor. We were able to make two large pizzas out of the dough, sauce and chicken we had so that means we'll be eating good for the next couple of days.

I will be honest and say that I bring the lunches that everyone else at school is jealous of!

This Sunday Amy and I spoke in our ward sacrament meeting on the power of covenants. It went really well. Amy put in a lot of effort preparing her talk and it paid off. She did a wonderful job! A number of people expressed appreciation for what was shared. Amy was quoted by the bishop in another meeting. Another lady called in the afternoon asking about a reference Amy had used in her talk and then later on this evening another guy in the ward called thanking her for her talk. In Amy's talk she mentioned her early commitment to obedience and said that she wouldn't do homework on Sundays even if it meant an early morning for her on Monday. The guy said before her talk, he had some homework planned for later on in the afternoon but Amy's talk reminded him that he used to live by the same principle and that he was grateful for what she shared because it strengthened him. Yep, I got a great wife! It's easy when you're married to the most wonderful woman in the world. I don't know how Layne and Cheryl raised her but they did a great job! I'm thankful!

Hopefully our next post will include baby!

N'Awlins!

On Friday we decided to head to New Orleans (just over an hour away) just to check it out, since it might be our only chance before Jeff starts school and baby gets here.

We were only there for a few hours because it started to pour and we called it quits early, but it seems like there's plenty to see and do down there, so we look forward to going back. We spent all our time in the French Quarter. It's a very interesting place- I spent most of my time just looking around and trying to figure it out, but I don't think you can. New Orleans is definitely it's own place with a culture and history unlike anywhere else.

We're not in Provo anymore...


My impressions on how to pronounce New Orleans:
N'Awlins-- The born and raised, thick accent through and through's say it this way
New Awlins-- Those with thick accents
New Orlins-- This is how I hear it most often

Or say it your own way, but definitely don't say New Orleeeeeeens!!

St Louis Cathedral
Here's the outside of St Louis Cathedral and Jackson square- this photo is from the web- it didn't look like this when we were there, because like I said, it was pouring!
We were excited to try some of the food, so we ordered a sampler type dish- it took us a few minutes to figure out what was what- but here ya go clockwise from top: Red beans and rice, Gumbo, Jambalaya, and Crawfish etoufee. Yum!


We also got some beignets and Cafe du Monde- these are a simple, deep fried dough served with powdered sugar. They're the official donut of the state of Louisiana.

And finally here's Jeff on the famous Bourbon street. I took a different photo with a better view, but upon almost posting it I noticed there were some profanities in the signs, so I decided to spare you those and try to keep this G rated!

Well, that's all for now. Okay, one last picture: Jeff and I both got colds since moving here. Jeff had a pretty bad cough one night, so here he is at 3am under our homemade humidifier (pot of boiling water and a sheet). The indoor air here is actually pretty dry because the A/C runs a lot...

We love Craigslist!

I love Craigslist! I've always loved finding a bargain (my financial motto is "never pay full price") and Craigslist is just the place to find some great stuff at a great price.

We moved here without a kitchen table and without a couch. Last week we found what we needed on Craigslist. We found this neat 1960's Drexel Heritage walnut table with 6 chairs for $150. It's very pretty and functional and from the research we did online it might be worth quite a bit more.


We also got a microfiber 1 yr old couch and loveseat for $100 total! What a steal! They are clean and really comfy. The guy we bought them from was moving and just wanted to get rid of them. Here they are in our living room, which is still quite bare. Time to look for some bookshelves/tables!


Oh, and we finished the un-wallpapering and re-painting of the upstairs bathroom, so here's the "after" shot:

Man vs. Wallpaper

This has been the week of cleaning, unpacking, and looking for furniture since we moved here with so little. When we moved in there was old, dirty, ugly wallpaper in the downstairs and upstairs bathroom. Some of it was already falling off the wall, practically begging me to tear it down, and before I knew it I was tugging, then pulling, scraping, spraying, sanding, buying paint, taping, etc-- it was all out war. The wallpaper didn't go down without a fight and it turned into a much bigger, 3 day project than we anticipated, but it looks SO much better!

Downstairs wallpaper

Jeff did a lot of work. I sure love this guy!

Downstairs bathroom after:
Here's what the upstairs wallpaper looked like before:Upstairs bathroom- halfway there! I'm sure Jeff has a gigantic grin under that mask.
More pictures to come...

We'll sign off for today with a pic of us having our first dinner that we cooked here in Baton Rouge. Can't beat camping chairs and a cardboard box table :)

Baton Rouge adventure begins

HI YA'LL!!!! We made it to Louisiana!!!

First impressions: it's muggy (we are REALLY glad we went through the trouble of selling our other car and getting one with A/C), thunderstorms every day- one right above us right now in fact, seems like everyone has an accent, groceries are more expensive (milk for $3 to 4.50, what?), gas is less expensive, LSU logo everywhere (Geaux Tigers!), everything is green even without sprinklers (we saw grass springing up in the middle of the road), people are friendly, I hear a lot of yes ma'am, yes sir. This picture is crossing the Mississippi on the way into Baton Rouge- that's LSU stadium -- it's HUGE!

Things are going really well! I'll be honest, the first day or two was a little rough- our aparment smelled like a dog and then our power was cut-- obviously two things we didn't expect. We spent Friday night on an air mattress in our hot, stinky apartment, waking up every hour or so due to the heat, smelling the dirty doggy smell, bemoaning our fate (at least I was moaning, Jeff is Mr Optimistic and was handling things a bit better than I) and trying to fall back asleep. It sounds dramatic, but the situation wasn't pretty, at least not what we expected!

But Saturday, things turned around-- our landlord agreed to replace the carpet downstairs to take care of the smell and the power came back on unexpectedly when we had been told it would have to wait til Monday (they must have taken pitty on the pregnant lady).

So life is good. We went to church today and everyone is really friendly. There seems to be a lot of young couples going to school or recent grads and then a lot of older couples. Not a lot of families with primary/youth age kids. Did I say everyone is REALLY friendly? Two other gals are due to have babies in the next month and one had a baby last month, so I feel like I fit right in.

Pictures of the apartment to come in a day or so once the downstairs floor is done and we've unpacked. But here's what the entrance looks like: