Found!

Well the puppies owners called and were very happy to claim them! We were sad to see them go, but really relieved at the same time. They drooled a lot and that grossed me out. It made me appreciate our doggies! I guess these two are quite the escape artists, this wasn't their first time getting away! They even escaped our backyard last night and we had to go find them. Naughty! Anyway, we were happy to get a little reward for taking care of them. We'd have totally done it all for free though!



So another bit of news- we're MOVING!!! We found a new place and are SO excited to move in! It's in Cedar- since we are planning on moving there for school. Ben's interviews went really well and we are very optimistic. Even if that avenue doesn't work out, I'm still going to finish my schooling and get my bachelors degree. ANYWAY...the townhouse is 3 bed 2 1/5 bath with a garage and nice big backyard for Figaro. It's a stand alone pair of townhouses, not part of a big complex and our landlords seem WAY nice. They gave us a free month of rent, so we can move in anytime and not have to pay till April! YAY!!! So we're going to have a tight budget for a while but know this will all be a good leap of faith. I'll get pictures up ASAP!

And in other news...I was VERY excited today when I got on the scale and saw that I had lost TEN pounds!

I have been so frustrated and incapable of losing weight, but in the past week I lost the extra 4 pounds I needed to put me at ten! Only 30 more to go so I'm 25% done! :)

Anyway, that's our news of the day!

Found some puppies!

So today Ben and I drove up to Cedar because he has two interviews for grad school. The first was with the head of the department and at the last minute they planned one with the Dean of the Fine Arts School! YIKES!!! We are so excited and nervous at the same time. We just hope everything works out for the best and he gets into this program! They only accept 5-6 every year, so it's really hard to get in. It's a terminal degree, meaning it's as high as you can go in the arts admin program- there's no doctorate. I'm trying VERY hard to have faith and not give into any doubts I may have! As I sit here and type I think he's in his final interview! AH!

Anyway, the point of my post. We were driving around looking for potential places to live when I told ben to STOP! He almost ran over two little dogs! There aren't really any houses in the area, just some new townhomes and the new hospital. I couldn't see anyone calling for them or looking for them. I even asked a lady pushing a stroller if they were hers and she'd never seen them around before. So I contemplated for a bit then when I saw them almost get hit by a few more cars I scooped them up and put them in the car! I wouldn't want MY dogs to get hit! So I put an ad on craigslist for them. They have no tags, no identification at all. Ones a boy and ones a girl. I'm not sure if they are siblings or being bred together. They are SO cute and sweet, and I named them Charlie and Abbey. Haha...they sorta answer to the names even. I'm hoping someone is just at work and doesn't even realize they are gone yet! If we don't get a call before we leave Cedar we are taking them with us until someone claims them. If nobody does we might be waiting on some puppies then have a few dogs to find good homes for! The female is in heat, so we're thinking she's either pregnant or about to become pregnant :)

Anyway, that's my excitement for the week! Everyone knows how much I love dogs! I'm not going to put any of their description yet just in case someone sees my blog and claims to own them. They are an expensive breed and I want to make sure I find the real owners!

DEALS!

Oh man I love a cheap deal! If anyone needs a really cheap getaway and lives in the Southern Utah area, this is a deal! My family loves going to Primm, NV for little trips. My mom loves the shopping, my sisters love the tram that goes from one hotel to another, and I LOVE the roller coaster. Normally the hotels are already VERY Low priced around like 15-20 dollars a night! Whiskey Pete's even has a great cafe that has a breakfast for like $1.75 or maybe a little more...it's just really fun! And it's also a great halfway point when driving to/from California when you're just too tired to make it all the way. Ben and I have done that a couple of times.

WELL....last night I was looking at rooms for Primm since we are going to visit California, and thought it might be fun to break up the trip on the way back. I was TOTALLY shocked when I saw how cheap the room was! $3.73!!! I love LOVE hotels.com. They have the greatest deals. I mean other sites have the room for that cheap but hotels.com just has bargains. They even had maintenance on their site later on and it gave a 10% off coupon code for when I book. HAHA. Anyway if anyone wants to book it, they have that price for SEVERAL dates including spring break! Click HERE if you're interested. I want to stay there JUST because it's SO cheap!

Anyway, couldn't resist!!! :)

Do they make a pill for this?

I'm not sure if it's from the pent up stress that being unemployed brings or WHAT, but I cannot CANNOT stop crying! It comes on so fast I can't stop it, and it goes on for what seems like forever.  And the things that trigger it are totally random! Like today I was watching old home movies, and it was from 12 years ago when my cousin left for a mission. I BAWLED.  He's been home for a WHILE now. And I cry watching commercials.  I cry when I read two lines of a poem.  I cry in every meeting at church.  I cry telling a story that has been told a hundred times! I even cried telling my mom that Robyn's fridge had been ruined when all the food had gone rotten due to the fridge breaking. Not sure why- but that just really got to me! And NO I'm not pregnant. Trust me I wish I could blame it on that. 

 It's been going on for a while but just gets worse.  And when I really DO need to cry, like the other day I was talking about how hard this whole part of life is and I really couldn't control it--it's SO frustrating! I wanted to talk calmly, but the water works kept going.  And at Marley and Me I cried so hard I was dry heaving! (But honestly, how cute is that dog?!)

SERIOUSLY?! What gives!? Sometimes I wish I were a man and could be totally strong in situations.  My whole family looks at me whenever anything remotely emotional happens, anticipating the tears.  And it almost makes me cry harder! UGH.  

Anyway...tonight I went to Enrichment night and the topic was visiting teaching.  I always love those stories.  The talks were REALLY great- and of course I cried.  I love feeling the spirit from other women and knowing that other ladies know what I feel.  They have been through struggles and it reminds me that I'm not alone.  My life could be MUCH worse.  But it's hard when things don't go at all how you planned.  I know it's time for Ben and I to get our butts to the Temple.  I've been feeling the prompting for a while now, and when we were GOING TO GO--the temple here closed for cleaning/maintenance.  I have been in a rut, not staying as close to the spirit as I could.  It's hard to be diligent when life seems to be crumbling sometimes.  You'd think that would be the easiest time- but after having a bad experience in our old ward we just became lazy and forgot to seek the spirit.  But I feel my heart stirring again and perhaps that's been the cause of the crying.  I'm grateful that Ben wants to make sure we go to our ward every week to ensure that we don't get caught in the same snare of not going to all our meetings.  I'm thankful for him and the man he is.  

I'm thankful for all of you whose blogs I read that aren't afraid to speak of your testimony.  Sometimes I get scared to share these feelings and thoughts in case someone I don't know reads it- or someone who isn't of my faith.  But in reality those are the ones I should HOPE read this!! I really do know the church is true- and while it's members are not always perfect- there are some real angels among us and I'm thankful for the ones who are around  me.  I love my family and I'm SO grateful they have taken us in.  It's been hard to find a groove, but I'm SO glad we have a place to call home.  I love my parents.  I love my sisters and it's GREAT watching them grow.  I know this trial will not last forever, and I'm glad that it has made us more aware of money and preparedness.  

I'm so glad we are studying Joseph Smith for one more year. I love reading about the restoration and hope to be as great a person as he was-as well as all the saints who followed him!

I love the gospel and I'm so in love with all of my friends who share their love for it as well.  Thank you for your examples! 

Love,

Kirsten

P.S. wish me luck to stop my crying! 

Valentines Mini Vacay!

Ben and I had a little fun last minute vacation on Thursday night with my parents in Vegas. We were going to go to lunch down there on Wednesday just for fun, but decided we didn't have enough time because my mom had stuff to do. We looked at rooms for the next night just for fun and they had one at the Tuscany Suites for $19.60! Believe it or not the place looked pretty decent. Later that day we checked again and it had gone up to $32.75. Bummer! But we talked my dad into going still for that price, still SO cheap. But then Ben didn't want to spend the money...being unemployed and all...so we gave up. I went to check something online at like 6:30 that night and refreshed the page and the hotel had gone down to $17.00 for the night!!! What a steal! So I booked it with no regard to Ben's complaints, my mom did the same and we left at 7:00! We got to Vegas around 9:00 and had dinner at Sweet Tomatoes with my grandparents and my grandma Sharon's son Allen. We LOVE Sweet Tomatoes!

Grandma and Grandpa enjoying their first time at ST. It was fun to see them!!!

The best part was the room...I couldn't believe how nice it was! We paid under $20 including tax!

I told Ben to do his best sexy look...I got a roll of the eyes instead.

We walked around the Bellagio and saw their latest display...pretty neat.

And we of course stopped to see the famous water show!

My mom totally ruined this shot with her bunny ears in the background. LAME.

This was Ben's first time seeing the water show. We got to watch "All that Jazz". It was really spectacular, as always! :)

We got cheap deals all around. I'll tell you what we spent cuz I'm so stoked! First of all we took our car, which gets roughly 50 miles per gallon and spent a total of $14.00 on gas- split in two so $7.00. Then we got our room for $19.60- such a deal. I found some expired coupons for Sweet Tomatoes that they accepted (expired Nov 08!) which made our dinner $17.85. We had a late breakfast/lunch at the Sunset Station Buffet...long story short someone told us about a coupon in the paper that got us a Buy one get one free to the buffet, and I got a players card which saved us $1 per person. Our grand total for the meal was $15.00 split in half...so $7.50! SO grand total for the 24 hour trip--- $51.95! Most people spend double that just for the room!!! We were really proud of our savings. I also bought a new shirt and new Steve Madden shoes, and a new XOXO wallet for a total of $33 dollars at Burlington Coat Factory. I love getting good deals!

Valentines started early for us- we went and had Valentines Breakfast at Denny's at midnight, (SO GOOD) then went to Walmart to get a few V-day goodies ;) We got home at 1:30 and woke up at 7:45 to go clean the chapel. We took a long nap then got ready and went to Marley and Me at Flood Street--I've NEVER cried so hard in a movie. NEVER. It was SO good though! Then we went and picked up our Cafe Rio that I had called in before the movie, and our special Valentines Tres Leches with chocolate covered strawberries. (Darn no picture). We drank sparkling cider and watched "Brideshead Revisited" which was sort of a bust- not a cute romance..sorta weird. We enjoyed time alone and even went hot tubbing for a little while. We resolved that next Valentines we won't go ANYWHERE..we'll enjoy the fact that we have our own place. Living at home with parents is HARD but we are grateful! We had so much fun not spending much money and just enjoying each other!

Hope you all had a Happy and Romantic Valentines!!!