Our Little Friend

As I was walking down the hall to bed, I ran into this little guy on the wall. It was not exactly a pleasant experience. I stood on the toilet laughing while I listened to Adam shriek like a little girl as he chased it around the apartment trying to kill it as it scurried away. Since our marriage, I've discovered that he's surprisingly wussy when it comes to bugs.

After a little internet research, we found out that it's called a house centipede. From Wikipedia, "The house centipede is one to two inches long and has an average of 26 pairs of very long, delicate legs and a rigid body, which enables it to run with surprising speed – up to 16 inches per second– up walls and along ceilings and floors." Ewww!!!

We both have those creepy-crawly goose bumps all over where we feel like there are bugs crawling all over us. The knowledge that where there's one, there are others, makes me extremely uncomfortable. What if they're in my bed? What if they're in my cereal and my shower? What if one crawls on me when I least expect it? I am seriously grossed out and terrified right now!

Canoing on the Potomac

My sweet mother-in-law Jane and two littlest brothers-in-law Zach and Nick are here visiting for the week. It has been so much fun having them! Adam's been taking them to all the sights and museums during the day while I've been working, but we've all been hanging out together after work. Tonight we went canoing at this charming little place called Jack's Boathouse. It was HILARIOUS!


The evening started out well. Everyone was excited and happy.



We got in the canoes and took off, but somehow, Zach and Jane found themselves rowing in circles right around the dock. They couldn't get themselves to head in a straight line down the river for the life of them. We were laughing our heads off, so we decided to head back to the dock and get them.


We tethered our canoes together and headed off even though we got a lot of weird looks from people.


The sunset was beautiful!


When we got back to the dock, we unstrapped Jane and Zach's boat from ours and docked. I don't know how it happened, but they ended up back in the middle of the river again! Jane is scared of water and she was practically in tears. We were laughing our heads off because they were going in circles again.


They finally managed to get close enough to the dock for Adam to grab the rope and pull them in. What a night! It was a blast!

No Olympics for us........ so sad!

While everyone is enjoying the Olympics, we don't even have t.v.! We can't watch it! I am dying because it sounds like everyone is having so much fun watching it. We're still the only people living in our whole building, so it's not like we can drop by a neighbors house to tune in, and because we're new in our ward, we don't know anyone yet and we can't go to their houses either. Does anyone in Arlington, VA want to be our Olympics friends and want to let us join in on the fun?

Romantic Anniversary Dinner

For our anniversary, Adam put together a romantic surprise dinner on the roof of our building. He cooked (gasp!) a delicious pasta dish with fresh parsley and garlic that he rode his bike to the store to get, some fluffy focaccia bread with oil and vinegar for dipping, and ice cold Martinelli’s in goblets. We also have some delicious key lime sorbet in chilled glasses for dessert. Adam had carried our kitchen table up there and presented the food so nicely. The view was gorgeous and the weather couldn’t have been better. We spent more than three hours up there eating, talking, laughing. He even brought his guitar along to serenade me with some new songs he learned. It couldn’t have been a more perfect night. Thanks, baby!

Goodbye, Old Friend

The time has come to say goodbye to the Mexican Princess II. She has fought a good fight, but alas, her end has come. She’ll have no more road trips with Andi and Adam to keep her company, never again honk her wussy little honk, never have the chance to drip condensation from the air conditioner onto the front passenger’s feet again. She will never be able to shake violently when accelerating to more than 20 mph, never be able to grow mold on the carpets from the constant dripping water, or have her check engine light glow for all to see. But best of all, her owners will never have to spend another dime fixing her!

Yes, that’s right folks. As of last night, we traded our 1997 VW Jetta in for a 2005 Nissan Sedan! The story of the Jetta’s demise is actually kind of a nightmare. Want to hear it? The car just passed inspection a month and a half ago when we went to get all of the paperwork done to make it legal- getting Virginia driver’s licenses, changing the title to Virginia, getting Virginia plates, inspection and emissions, etc. We were hoping and planning that it would make it through law school and that we wouldn’t have to get a new car until it was over.

Everything was running smoothly until about 2 weeks ago until it started overheating. When we took it in, they told us that there was a crack in the coolant hose. No big deal, right? The $7 part turned into $225 with labor and fees. Not fun, but whatever. At least our car was fixed. The day after we picked it up from the shop, I was driving on the freeway and it started shaking violently. Even though I was flooring it, it wouldn’t go faster than 20 mph. I turned my hazard lights on and tried to pull over to the side of the freeway. People were honking at me and not letting me over, which is just unbelievable to me. LIKE I’M GOING 20 ON PURPOSE ON THE FREEWAY!!! Come on! I finally got over and had to get it towed. We waited a few days for them to run the $100 diagnostic test to find out what the verdict was. The call came. $2,200 to fix it. I’d give you the list of things that was wrong with it, but it would take too long to type it all- it was like 3 pages long. So, we decided that we obviously didn’t want to fix it because it would cost almost as much as the car was worth.

We found a car we wanted and went to the dealership last night. When they first looked at the Jetta, they told us they’d only give us $300 for it! Ha ha. That was so depressing considering that a month and a half ago, it had been worth $3,000. We talked them up to $1,100 for trade-in and also walked away with a new (used) car. We’re so excited to finally be free of her!

Happy 2nd Anniversary to Us!

Two years ago today, Adam and I were sealed in the St. George Temple. It was the best day of my life, and I couldn't be happier with the decision I made to marry my best friend and soulmate. Here's to a lifetime and beyond of joy!

Pictures of the New Apartment

The view from the front door when you walk in

The kitchen. My favorite part is the huge island. I can make food and fold laundry on it, and we can even use it as a bar to eat at!


The view out one of the living room windows. I love the greenery outside! We have a view of trees out of every window- a change from the concrete views we've always had out of our windows in previous apartments.

My favorite picture of Christ (Circle of Rembrandt, Head of Christ, 17th Century, oil on panel, Brigham Young University Museum of Art)


Our teeny, tiny washing machine. It can only take a few sheets or shirts at a time. I'm going to have to constantly be doing laundry, but at least we have one.

Our wine cooler, filled with bottled water. We had a couple knock on our windows the other day and tell us they've been watching the progress of the building as it's been being renovated. The first question they asked was, "Is it true you have a wine cooler?" Apparently this was a big selling point. People have gotten so excited about the silly wine coolers!

Built-in bookshelves and our hideous t.v.


We have a jet tub! It feels oh-so-nice after a long day.

The view from the roof

You can see the Air Force Memorial on the right side of the picture. Virginia is so green!

Can you see the Pentagon in the center of the picture?

A bench where we'll hopefully spend a lot of time reading and relaxing.

Please excuse my half-closed eyes and pajamas and Adam's squinting!

For those of you who are wondering, we do have a bedroom (obviously), but I didn't want to post pictures of it because it is still pretty messy and unorganized. Our poor bedroom always takes the brunt of the clutter. Whenever we have something that we don't know what to do with, we throw it into a corner in our bedroom. We have endless piles of junk with no place to call home. The piles are just a random assortment of stuff!

We love having visitors! Everyone is welcome. Just let me know if you want to stay at our place while you're visiting D.C.