Too Pre-Occupied to take Pictures

I am sitting in a living room with no carpet, boxes with odds and ends, paint chips taped to the wall, my hair is curled, make-up on and I am still in my pajamas. I have been experiencing a sore throat for the last 3 days. I keep looking down my throat with a flashlight and not seeing anything bacterial I have just been drinking more water and going about life. Last night I lost my voice. I hate that. I feel fine but sound horrible. My mom called me prior to my horrid 1 pm church time and was upset by how sick I sounded. I am laughing because I feel better than before and I am almost old enough to have a grandchild and my mom is still worried about me; and I am laughing because it was almost noon and I had not spoken all day and did not know how bad my voice was.  Scott left at 4:40 am for work and I have not spoken since.

Well I opted to stay home from church. I am sure I have some viral thing that is normal to Vernal-ites and since I am new my immunity is not up to par for these small town bugs. I predict I will be fine and survive this with no problems or complications!

I was reflecting on the 3 weeks I have been here and I realized how easy it is to be with Scott. Time has gone by so fast. I went to a dental conference for the necessary continuing education (ce) credits I need for my license. I have also taken 10 hours worth of ce online for pharmacy technician license. Between my two licenses and two states I have had to keep a lot of ce credits. I have to get 10 more pharmacy ce hours done before March 31 and 3.5 more dental ce hours by May. This has taken me a lot of time.

I also enjoyed a day at the Manti temple because my sister Jo Ann took out her endowments. It was wonderful to be with my siblings, and other family! I am so grateful for my chance to attend the LDS temples! They give me such perspective, blessings, and peace.

Today is Scott's birthday. He had to work-hence my vow of silence, so we celebrated yesterday. Scott wanted a new pair of cowboy boots. I looked at his old pair which have a hole worn in the ball of the foot and the size was worn off. I am not new to living around cowboy boots but have never ever bought them, worn them or looked at them. I was overwhelmed by the variety, sole traction, length, square toe, pointed toe, two-toned, stitching, brands, and more and more and more. I guessed and was 1/2 size off. Scott returned them for a pair he liked better. I also got him some FR (fire resistant) jeans. I have never spent over $60 for a pair of pants and here I am buying multiple pairs of $70+ jeans. Good for OSHA requiring FR clothing. Scott and I spend the day cooking a wonderful lasagna and a boston cream pie from scratch. It was so extremely fun cooking with Scott. He was stirring the custard for the pie/cake and it went from liquid to solid in 1 second. It freaked us out. He kept whisking and it smoothed out like a crazy miracle! We ate the lasagna for dinner and taking the cake over to Scott's mom's house tonight for dinner. The lasagna was a vegan recipe. Scott does not like cheese but loves cheese-less lasagna. the sauce was rich and flavorful. We substituted beef and sausage for tofu and made the vegan dish a wonderful carnivorous meal! I cannot wait to dig into the boston cream pie! I predict it will rock because we licked the bowls!

Later last night we busted out the sipping chocolate I got from the chocolatefest. We made it and quickly realized we made too much. It is so thick and rich that a sacrament cup is enough!

I am very lucky to be able to enjoy sipping chocolate, cooking wonderful food, utah drivers license gettin, window shopping, boot buying, sun shine enjoying, sore throat fighting, church sluffing, blog writing week!

The Next 7 Days

Just before Scott left Utah to come help me pack and move his mom suggested and my father strongly suggested we just elope. Our wedding plans were becoming difficult and I was getting sick of it. I did not want a big wedding or a reception. I didnt want dinner, a cake, or flowers. It was becoming very irritating to me. So when Scott asked if I would be ok if we drove through Nevada and got married in some chapel of love I was ok with it. But then Scott was not ok with it. He was worried about honeymoon situation and location. He had one planned for later. We discussed and each of us took a couple days to think about it and we decided to get married in Utah. The office where you get your marriage license charged $30 for in office marriages. I was thrilled! Ubber inexpensive and perfect. 

What happened was that the U-Haul rental was $200+ cheaper to have it returned to Salt Lake City. We arranged to return it to SLC knowing Scott's car was waiting for him in a parking lot near the airport. We got to Vernal on Tuesday Feb 7 at about 6 am. We slept for about 2 hours and then I got up to find Scott had already been up for about 30 min and half unloaded the U-Haul by himself. I jumped in to help him. He was going to let Jo Ann and I sleep while he did it! 

Jo woke about 5 minutes later. The 3 of us unloaded the truck. We were still tired and I was grumpy. After it was unloaded we took showers and ate breakfast and got back into the truck. Ugh the pain of getting back into that blasted U-Haul truck for 3 more hours. 

Finally we made it to SLC and got the car from the airport shuttle parking lot. We dropped off the U-Haul. We were very blessed with dropping it off because we were over on miles (about 50 miles) and we were prepared to pay the $0.40/mile fee but the girl said nope that we were good and let us go. 

This is when my snippiness was at its worst. I was nervous. My stomach was going crazy. We had eaten out for days and days and the resulting nervousness was making me miserable and I took it out on Scott and Jo Ann. We made it to the courthouse/government building. Scott and I changed our clothes and I left my shoes in the car. Jo Ann had some that would work and she traded me. That helped because the shoes were borrowed and old ha ha ha. I had a bag of clothes and I made Jo Ann hold it. Scott thought I was being rude and i was. I am so used to bossing my little sister around. I was tired, exhausted, and emotional. It was a little difficult to be happy and nice. 

Scott took the time to calm me down and make me feel better. My fuse was very short and I was irritated at the littlest thing. After Scott talked to me I felt so much better and calm and excited to get married to him. He offered to do this another day. He was very worried I was regretting my decision. I wasnt. I was honestly very tired with normal nerves. I am thankful to Scott for helping me relax and enjoy this great experience. We filled out the license and my brother showed up. Jo Ann and Daniel were our witnesses. 

Our judge was perfect. She preformed a simple ceremony. It was tender and touching to Scott and me.

After the legalities were finished we parted ways with my siblings. Scott had reservations for dinner at Melting Pot. I did not think my stomach could handle the richness and grease. Scott kindly cancelled the reservations and started driving me toward home. I was so excited to get home and make a salad. 

Scott had other plans. 

Scott had made reservations at a cabin at Daniel's Summit Lodge. I loved this place instantly due to the bears on top of the sign! It was a wonderful cabin. Wonderful fireplace, horrible toilet paper, great view, superb food, cute general store, and quiet!!!! There was a large group staying in the lodge and while they were loud at dinner they were out riding snow mobiles and we didnt see them much. Scott wanted to go for a ride but I didnt bring a coat. I had a jacket and one pair of jeans. I didnt know I needed to pack clothes for overnight. It was a total surprise. Luckily we had plenty to do!

I saw these bears in the country store and had to have them! Scott didnt even blink and instantly purchased them for me. He spoils me completely! 

Now it has been 1 week-7 days-of marital bliss. I am still unpacking boxes. Luckily my husband purchased and assembled 2 dressers from Ikea preparing for me arriving. Between the 2 of us we did not have one set of drawers! I love having bedroom furniture!

I woke yesterday (Valentine's day) and whipped up a blueberry breakfast cake, some eggs, bacon, and chocolate milk. I served Scott in bed. We ate together and enjoyed the slow morning. 

We had a lot to do, taking advantage of Scott's day off work. We had to get names put on bank accounts, look at home remodeling supplies, get me added to health insurance etc. It was a busy day. 

I had organized 7 gifts for Scott. He was pretty spoiled! It was very fun.

I knew Scott would spoil me! Here I am eating chocolate covered strawberries! They were so wonderfully sweet!

And here are my roses! Note the hot chocolate cups on the table (and moving boxes I am still working on).

To remind you, Vernal has a wonderful coffee stand with wonderful hot chocolate. Scott stopped and got me one! It was a great day! We spent our afternoon relaxing on the couch looking at stuff online and watching tv. It was a perfect valentines/week anniversary day! 

I am so happy to be married to this great man. I have my demons, he has his. Together we try to be better people. 

Last Meals

My last dinner in Portland was seafood. Scott took Jo and I to McGrath's Fish House. We had wonderful fish choices. To close it all was marion berry cobler. This berry screams Oregon and it was wonderful to close my last dinner with. 

My last meal ever in Portland was at Black Bear Diner. It is my favorite diner not just because it is dedicated to the black bear that I love, but the food is simply wonderful!

Biscuits and gravy of Scott's

My corned beef omelet 

Jo Ann Blueberry sweet cream pancakes!

The meal was perfect. We finished with the last minute things in the apartment and had the check out and finally we departed. We were driving along and stopped 3 hours in to verify shifting and to get snacks. 

Scott was a bit congested with his gummy worms--

The moon was one night away from full. It was starting to rise as we were entering Idaho. It was such a long drive. We went straight through.

Overall I was so glad Scott and Jo Ann were there to help me leave the life I had. It was hard even though I knew it was time.

At hour 16 of sitting in the truck I was pretty loopy. I had snoozed a bit but was exhausted. Scott was a trooper and drove the entire way! I started laughing and crying. It was too emotional. 

I ended up singing a song called U-Haul truck. Imagine the tune of Toby Keith's song Red Solo Cup---

Oh U-Haul Truck I fill you up!

Lets have a party

Proceed to party

Oh U-Haul Truck I hate your guts!

I want to tip you.

Regardless it was a pretty brutal time there at the end. But we made it safe and sound and ZERO breaks or shifting. Scott packed pretty expertly! Tetris does come in handy!

Last Week in Portland

I have moved to Vernal, Utah. I have not had internet service for a week. I was able to pirate a neighbors signal for limited online access but it was not fast or strong enough to load pictures. Therefore I have many pictures to upload and write about the last few weeks of my wonderful life. I cherish the memories I made!

To begin my sister Jo Ann came up to help me pack. She arrived on Jan 31. My last day of work was Feb 2 and while I was at work Jo packed up my kitchen and cleaned and did all sorts of annoying tasks for me. She rode the max light rail all by herself and met me for lunch. It was so fun having her with me during this time of need. I really and truly appreciate her. I know I was snippy to her and bossy and plain horrible, but I did try to be nice and have fun and be strong while I said goodbye to Portland and my job and close that chapter.

Jo Ann wanted to go to the Portland Art Museum. We went and enjoyed all the things an art museum has to offer. Sometimes I think art is lost on me. I dont always appreciate it. I did love the Native American exhibits they had depicting each region and the artifacts from each one. I really liked this bear, bird, seal, hawk, mask winged wood sculpture. 

After we were done and lost in the museum we decided we were hungry and walked down to Little Big Burger. 

Home of the little yet big burger.

The portion of fries is larger than this little burger nugget! It is so delicious though. The fresh potatoes are fried in truffle oil and give it an amazing crunch and flavor.  A definite must try!

On Friday Feb 3 Jo and I went down the Historic Hwy and visited the waterfalls. We ended up at Cascade Locks and splurged on some of the best soft serve ice cream while we drove over The Bridge of the Gods.

Saturday Feb 4 Jo and I went to the coast. We went to Depoe Bay. It was pretty fun. I had never been that far south and it was such a beautiful day. We tried to spot some whales but we missed them.

This tree was hanging out mid ocean-the tide is going out.

Jo and I had a wonderful meal of seafood. The view was superb. We started our fast after this. Scott reminded me that it was Fast Sunday. I was floored that he suggested and urged me to fast. I am so glad we did. It was a wonderful weekend.  

Scott and Jo and I went to Tillamook and Oceanside one last time on Sunday Feb 5 (yes super bowl sunday). Scott arrived at Portland airport at 10:45 am and we picked up U-Haul and took rental car and went for the coast. I love the ocean and I love that Scott proposed shortly after this picture! It was completely perfect for me and I loved it. I cherish the memory of Scott getting down on one knee and asking me to marry him! I am very blessed and happy to have Scott in my life.