Simply Shafer

Home Owners!

2011-10-29T19:02:00.000-07:00

Buying a house was the scariest thing I have ever done! Wow! But it has been so great! As I said before, we kept finding houses that we liked, putting offers on them, and having things just not work out. And it all happened for the best. When we would spend time driving around American Falls looking at homes, or search through real estate websites, I would always see this adorable house that was just out of our price range. I always thought "I would love to be able to buy a house like that." Well, one day we heard of a house that we had looked at sell for thirty thousand less than the owners were asking. At that time, we were going through all the crap with the house that we were supposed to be buying, that we were trying to get out of. Well, I told Tyler to just call the realtor selling this house we always saw, because at that point, it was like why not give it a shot. Maybe we will get lucky and get it for thirty thousand less than asking too! We looked at it, and fell in love. Then I was mad at myself for looking at something we could never afford. But we put a low offer in, just for the fun of it. We expected the owner to counter offer at least ten thousand more than what we offered and we would have to decline. But she came back with only 5 thousand more, and offered to pay closing costs! We said we would take it, but our realtor thought he could get her down another couple thousand, which he did! We ended up getting it for only three thousand more than our original offer, which was a very low offer to begin with! When we had to back out of the first house, I was so bummed because we were giving up an amazing interest rate, and I had heard the interest rates had gone up. When we called our home loan specialist to get the process of purchasing this home going, she was able to give us an even lower interest rate than the one we had just given up! Everything seriously just worked out so perfectly! We got the house of our dreams! We feel that we have been so blessed, and we know that everything we went through was just leading us to where we are now, and we are so happy to be there!

Our house has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, central a/c, a two car garage, and a huge, fully fenced in backyard. It has everything we wanted in a house. Tyler has lived in about 18 different places in his life, and this is the first time he has ever had a garage. The garage leads into the laundry room, which I love. The house has high, vaulted ceilings, beautiful pine doors throughout, and it came with all the appliances. No other house we looked at had everything we wanted. In every other house we would have either had to buy appliances, install a/c, or fence in the yard. The only thing that has dissappointed me about this house is the master closet. It is the smallest walk-in closet I have ever seen! The door can't even close with clothes hanging on the rack! Behind the door, there are shelves, but we can't even get to them. The closet door is actually in the master bathroom, so we might just take the door off, because you can't see it from in the bedroom anyways. Our master bathroom has two sinks, which is amazing! Our house in Harper had two sinks in the master bathroom, and we got so used to that. The house we rented while we waited to move into our home did not have two sinks, and I hated it! Here are a few pictures of my beautiful new home!

We closed on Wednesday, October 12. We could not wait to get out of the rental! We hoped that after we signed papers, we could move enough stuff in so that we wouldn't have to spend another night in that place. Our realtor wasn't able to get the keys to us till late that night, we couldn't get anything moved until the next day. The guy we were renting from wanted us out by the 14th, which meant we had one day to move! Tyler and I did as much as we could by ourselves, with what we could fit in our two cars. My parents came out around 6:30 Thursday night with their truck to help. Montana and Emilee weren't able to come, so we panicked a little. Tyler called the Elder's Quorum President from our new ward, and we are so grateful to him for showing up last minute, with a truck, to help. Everyone was amazing. Within only a couple of hours, we were completely moved out of the rental and into our new home! We love it!

Moving Sucks!

2011-09-17T21:47:00.000-07:00

I know, such a negative title, but moving really sucks!

Goodbye House!

In one weeks time, We "lived" in three different houses, and had to move twice. Can you say stressful! We moved out of our summer home (the pink trailer) on August 11. We were renting someones home, so I definitely wanted to leave it cleaner than when we got there, to make it look like we were never there. They were so kind to let us stay in their house, with our dog, so I cleaned that place till it shined! We packed up all our stuff and drove back to Harper for our last few nights in our house there. I totally underestimated how hard it would be to leave my home and my life in Oregon!
The night we got back to Harper, the Harper School staff threw us a going away party. I was so touched by all the people that showed up to say goodbye. It reminded me how many wonderful people I got to know in my short three years in Harper, and just how great it is to live in a small town. Some of the best people I have ever known, I met in Harper, Oregon. The school has a tradition that they do with their seniors at graduation. They make shirts for each student that have something personal for them, usually an inside joke, or poking fun at them. They presented Tyler and I with shirts that they had made just for us. Mine said "Kelsey finally has class," referring to my first time having a full time teaching job! I love it! Years ago, Tyler made a bet with one of the students, and lost. He had to wear a dress to school because of it. The shirt he was given had a picture of a man in a dress and the words "I shouldn't have made that bet." My closest friend, Alicia Anderson, gave me a bag of ranch Doritos and cottage cheese! She knows that is my favorite snack! I was blown away by the thoughtfulness. I didn't think saying goodbye would be so difficult and so emotional. I cried myself to sleep that night...
The next six days were a whirlwind. We packed and cleaned, and cleaned and packed! I could not believe how much stuff we had. I felt like the packing would never end. We were able to squeeze in some family time for more goodbyes, though. Even though I am so excited to be close to my family again, it is going to be so hard not being by Tyler's family anymore. Saying goodbye was not easy.
Then came the big day. On August 17, we loaded up, left our home, and headed to American Falls, Idaho. On the morning of the 17th, my in-laws, Matt, Linda, Stephanie, Lane, and Trace came over and loaded us up. Matt and Linda borrowed a horse trailer from someone so we wouldn't have to rent a U-Haul. I am so grateful to them for everything they did for us! Linda sprayed and scrubbed all the horse crap out of the trailer so we could use it. Tyler, Matt, and Stephanie loaded up the trailer while Linda and I mopped, vacuumed, and cleaned the carpets. I really did not think all our stuff would fit in that trailer, but Stephanie was amazing! She found a way to fit everything in, with a little room to spare! It all took much longer than we expected, but went off much more smoothly than I expected. The biggest problem we had while loading up was with our desk. Tyler had a huge, really nice desk that we had in one of the spare rooms. We could not figure out how to get the thing out of the room! It got so beat up in attempts to move it out. We couldn't get it apart at first, but Matt finally got enough parts off to fit it out the door. We tried to put it back together in the trailer, because that would be the easiest way to fit it in, but then we couldn't figure that out. We never got it so the drawers fit back in. I don't know what we will do with it now. I wanted to post a couple of pictures to remember what the house looked like with almost all our belongings in one room. It doesn't seem like much in the pictures, but it sure seemed like a lot while packing and loading.

Before we left, we stopped off at the school in Harper so I could say my final goodbye to my dear friends Alicia and Janette. I should not have done that! I was an emotional wreck! I could not believe I was leaving the home Tyler and I began our lives together in, and I had to leave these people that mean so much to me.
The trip was very slow moving, but eventually we got to our rental in American Falls. Tyler had to leave for football practice as soon as we got there, so he didn't have to help us unload the trailer! Our good friend Blake came over to help, and we really appreciated that. Unfortunately, things did not go as smoothly with the move as it seemed... The first thing we saw when we opened the trailer was that my TV stand was completely crushed. It had snapped in half then buckled under all the weight that had been stacked on it. I was bummed, but I wasn't going to get to worked up about it. However, the next thing we pulled out was my big, brand new, beautiful bookshelf. It had huge dings in a couple of the shelves and a huge scratch down the side. I tried so hard to keep my cool, but tears just started coming. Then I noticed that one of the rails to our headboard had slid out of place. It had slid into another beautiful, short bookshelf we had, and the metal part of it had apparently been rubbing against it the whole ride. It rubbed off the finish on a big section and wore a hole into the wood. That really got me going. I was flat out crying at this point. I thought that was all the damage that had been done. All my decorations got there in one piece, and everything else looked fine. Me and Linda wanted to be done and leave the rest for Tyler when he got home from practice, so we left for a little drive and to buy some drinks. When we got back, Matt and Blake had unloaded everything else! It wasn't until the next day that I noticed my kitchen table also did not make it unscathed. It got a huge chunk taken out of the edge of it! All my furniture looks like crap!
That week was an emotional roller coaster for me. I hope to eventually, some time down the road, make it back to the Vale area, but I also never want to move again! I am so grateful to all the people that helped us get to where we are now. Moving sucked, but I am glad we had Matt and Linda there to help me through it. I don't know what we would have done without them. Now, once we get into our new home, my family will get to help us move again! Can't wait... NOT!

The Frustrations of Trying to Buy a House

2011-09-11T15:51:00.000-07:00

So, Tyler and I started looking for a house in American Falls in early July. We knew that we didn't have a whole lot of time to buy one before we had to be in American Falls for Tyler to start coaching, but school didn't start till September 6, so we thought we had enough time before then. Obviously, we had no idea how frustrating buying a house could be! We went to American Falls with our realtor and looked at about six houses. We looked at this little twin home and actually loved it. We weren't sure if it would be the smartest idea to buy a twin home, but the house came with all the appliances, including washer and dryer, a/c, and a fully fenced in yard; all things that we were hoping for. The owner of the twin home also offered to sell us her bedroom set in her guest room, and a couch and love seat for a really good deal. We have no couches and this room had a living room and a family room we would need to furnish, so that would really help us out a ton! We were so excited about this place. We took my parents to look at it, and they seemed to think it was a pretty good place for our first home, but that the price was a little too high. We gave the lady an offer, which was lower than her asking price, but still very reasonable. She came back with a counter offer $5,000 over her asking price! Who does that!?! We countered again, still not at her asking price, but what we thought was top dollar for what the place was worth. Well, she got really sick and decided to take her house off the market. So we moved on...
One day, Tyler and I decided to just drive around American Falls on our own, looking for For Sale signs. It is a small enough place that we saw just about every single house for sale in town. We called our realtor and gave him a list of ten or so houses we wanted to see. We did not like any of them! At this point, we were actually really happy that the twin home didn't work out, because we decided we would so much rather have our very own home, not a house attached to someone elses. The houses we looked at the second time around all had horrible basements that felt more like dungeons than living spaces. On the way out of town, I told the realtor about a house I had seen on line that I forgot to list for him to show us. He said we could just drive by it and see if we could take a look at it. The owners weren't home, and their realtor said we could just go on in. It was a really nice, new, big house, in the best neighborhood! We loved it. It was for sale for much cheaper than it was worth, but we found out that was because the owners were losing it. They were just hoping they could sell it for what they had left on the loan, before it got foreclosed on them. We hurried and put in an offer, and within minutes of them recieving the offer, they got the call that the house was being foreclosed on immediately. So, that didn't work out. I was really bummed about that one.
The searched started again. This time, I got on craigslist to see if there was anything on there that we hadn't seen yet, and we found two homes that looked very promising. One was a cute, blue, cottage-like-home right across from my school. Well, the outside was cute. The inside was awful with a dugeon basement. The other house was way out of town, out in the country. When we pulled up to it, we weren't too impressed at first. It sat on an acre lot, but the yard hadn't really been taken care of. The house itself looked good, but the yard was very unappealing. But then we walked inside. It was beautiful! It was a two story home, four bedrooms, and two bathrooms. It was a very old home, but had been completely remodeled, down to the studs. The owners told us all about the house and everything they had done with it in the remodel. We had found our house! It was a great price, especially for how big it and the lot was. They told us the house had appraised for $25,000 more than the asking price, but that they weren't really trying to make money off of it. So we put in an offer, they accepted, and we started getting everything ready. We could not have been more excited! The only down side was that the home had renters in it and the owners wanted to give them sixty days to move out. That put our closing date on October 1st. Since we had to be in American Falls by the middle of August, we did not know what we were going to do. We called around to every apartment complex between American Falls and Pocatello, but nobody would let us rent month to month, with a pet. I got on craigslist again, since it had helped us find our home, and looked up rentals. One of the houses we had looked at the first time around was now up for rent. We called the owners, and they hadn't had anybody interested in renting or buying the place at all. So he agreed to let us rent his house for a month and a half, with our pet, but for a steep price. We really didn't have any other choice though. But at least we had a place to stay and everything finally felt like it was working out!
We sort of drug our feet with moving the process of buying the home along, since we couldn't get in till October 1st. After a couple weeks, we finally got the inspection. That changed everything! I knew a man from my home ward growing up that did home inspections. I am so grateful to him! He did us the biggest favor of our lives! After he did the inspection, we went through the house with him and he showed us everything he had found. And boy, did he find a lot! He saw that the foundation was just stacked lava rock and would not have passed inspection for a loan. He found so many things that proved that the remodel was obviously not inspected or approved by the proper authorities. There is just too much to even mention that he found wrong with the place! The renters were there and they told us their power bills got up to $600 in the winter, and $300 in the summer and there isn't even a/c in the house! There was no access to the attic, so we couldn't even see if the house was insulated at all! They told us that in the winter they would catch about five mice a day, that the toilets were plumbed with hot water, and that one bedroom didn't have any heat. Then we learned that all the bathroom fixtures were the renters and they planned on taking all of them with them, so we would not have had mirrors, towel racks, or toilet paper holders in both bathrooms! We were so glad the renters were there to tell us these things!
As we were leaving the house after the inspection, we knew that we needed to get out of buying that house. It has not been an easy process. The owners, who seemed so honest and respectable, have turned out to be pretty shady characters! They are now fighting us for the earnest money. They are millionare farmers, with a million dollar home, and we are poor teachers barely able to scrape by, but they want our $300! I have never been more frustrated than I am with trying to buy a stupid house!
After all this, we checked back into the forecloser home that we liked, but it isn't going to be back on the market for quite a while. We found out that a house we had looked at was sold for $30,000 less than asking price, so it gave us hope and we expanded our search. Last week, we looked at a home that I saw online many times, but it was out of our price range so I never considered it. We decided to just walk through it, and it was our favorite house of all that we looked at, by far! We are currently in the process of negotiation with the owners, but I don't want to jinx our chances, so I'm not going to say any more about that now. All I can say is wwish us luck!!

Our Nieces and Nephews

2011-09-10T17:37:00.000-07:00

I love love love being an aunt! I am a very proud one! Since Tyler and I don't have any children of our own, we love to be with our nieces and nephews. We have 14 of them, with another one on the way, and are pretty sure we have the cutest ones in the world! Even the big teenage boys are stinkin cute! I just wanted to show them off...

We had a family dinner with Tyler's family our last Sunday in Oregon and we were so glad we were able to see everyone (well, almost everyone)! We missed having Braxton there with us!

Summer 2011

2011-09-03T22:37:00.000-07:00

Every year since Tyler graduated from ISU, he has been teaching summer school in Pocatello for Upward Bound. It is a great job and he loves it! It is sort of a pain in the butt, though, because that means we have to look for a place to live for two months every summer. Thanks to our good friend Dan (again), we had a little pink trailer in the Pink Flamingo trailer park that we were able to stay in this summer. Moving into that pink trailer was the start of a crazy summer!

We came to Pocatello on Wednesday, June 8th. The next day, at 10:00 a.m. Tyler had an interview at William Thomas Middle School in American Falls, Idaho. Two hours later, I recieved a phone call from the man that interviewed him saying that he would like me to go to Idaho State University at 1:30 to meet with the principals of the American Falls Intermediate School and Elementary School for an interview. Tyler got home right after that and told me he had been offered a job as the 8th grade english teacher, and they wanted him so badly that the principal called the other principals and told them to find me a job! So I went and interviewed (well, mostly just sat and listened while the two principals discussed where they could place me) and walked out a half hour later with a job. The only thing I knew about the job was that it would only be part time teacher in the morning, and part time aide in the afternoon. So Tyler and I had a big decision to make... To leave our home in Harper, Oregon to move to American Falls, Idaho, or not. After weeks of thinking, and praying, making up our minds, then changing them, and knowing what we should do, then having no idea what we sould do, we accepted the jobs and made plans to move. Deciding to move was the hardest decision I have ever had to make! But I finally get to have my own classroom!

This summer was really difficult for us. Living in the trailer was not the most fun thing in the world. We appreciate the owners for letting us stay in their house, but it was rough living quarters. We went from wide open spaces at our home in Harper, to neighbors so close that it seemed like they were in our house! The swamp cooler made everything feel damp, and it even gave our poor Charlie yeast infections in his ears! This wasn't the best summer for Tyler at work, either. He just had such wonderful classes last summer that it was a little dissappointing this year. The best part of the summer was having my sister and her two kids here from Arizona! We spent a lot of time playing with Easton and Piper, and loved every minute of it! We also spent a lot of time and money at Kiwi Loco, the new frozen yogurt shop here in town! Our first night in Pocatello, my mom asked us if we wanted to go get frozen yogurt. We went reluctantly. Tyler even called it the most unnecessary thing he had ever heard of, but our first bite completely changed our minds! Every time we went, Tyler would say his yogurt cup was the best thing he has ever made! I did feel really bad for Tyler because while he was at work every day, I spent almost all of those days playing with my mom, sister, and Easton and Piper. Lots of time shopping at the mall, eating frozen yogurt, and just sitting around at my moms house. We even went to Lagoon without him. How rude of me! Thank you, Tyler, for making money so I could spend it!

Another fun part of the summer was Tyler's reunions. He had his ten year reunion and the Musgrove family reunion in Vale, so we got to go home two weekends in a row for that. They were both so much fun! I learned a lot more about my husband than I wanted to from his old high school friends. One friend in particular had a very difficult time with Tyler's lifestyle changes in the past ten years! It was so great to see all of Tyler's family. I married into a wonderful family and I think I was more sad to see that reunion weekend come to end than Tyler was!

The end of the summer has been the most difficult for us. I was so sad when Heather, Easton, and Piper went home. I loved having them around every day. My mom and I drove to Arizona with Heather so she wouldn't have to do it alone. We broke the trip into two days to make the trip easier on Piper. We had a lot of fun. Then we spent two nights in Arizona before flying home. Heather and Jason went to a hotel for the night so my mom and I got to have the kids for one night. It was nice to have a lot of alone time with them before we had to say goodbye. Piper is the sweetest little girl ever, and Easton is just so much fun! I miss them! Then Tyler and I headed back to Harper to say goodbye, pack up, and move away. I'll give the details of that crazy adventure later...

November

2009-12-05T13:18:00.000-08:00

November was such a fun month! We had so much going on and it was all great! Tyler and I are huge Boise State football fans and we got to watch them live on the blue turf! We had awesome south endzone seats. I got hit in the head by a football during warmups and it was so freezing that I could hardly stand it, but it was all so worth it to see them kill the Idaho Vandals!

Tyler and I got all decked out in game day Bleed Blue t-shirts and beenies but it was so cold that you couldn't see how cute we looked!
This is me being so freezing that I can't move. I had thermals on, jeans, long socks, two t-shirts, a long sleeve shirt, sweatshirt, coat, scarf, beanie, and a blanket and I was still cold!

That same weekend, Tyler's dad took us to Tucanos to treat Tyler to a birthday dinner (even though his birthday was in September). Yum Yum!

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, we drove over 16 hours to get to Surprise, Arizona to spend the Holiday with my family and my sisters house. The drive was a ride from hell but it was worth it. We had so much fun. It didn't exactly feel like Thanksgiving because of the 80 degree weather, but it was great! When we got to Heather and Jason's house, Easton was up waiting for us and he greated my by taking a pretend bite out of my leg and fake burping in my face. So sweet, huh? This literally did not end the entire visit. Every time I tried to talk to him or play with him he would fake burp at me. This is one of the many times he did that...

Our dinner was so delicious! My mom and dad did an awesome job preparing everything and I loved eating it. Thanksgiving was very different than what I am used to but it was a very nice change. I helped with dinner! I cut celery and put easy cheese on it. I hate that stuff but Heather loves it. After dinner we went outside to enjoy the warm weather and get out of the house, and we were so hyper! Heather has some flower bushes and a lemon tree in her backyard and had way too much fun playing in them. I want to post pictures but Heather would kill me...

We woke up at 3:30 am to do some Black Friday shopping. We hit Kohls first and got a car full of stuff. We had to drop it off before hitting the next store because there wouldn't have been any room in the car for anything else. Then we went to Target, with much less success there, and then Walmart where we once again found way too much stuff that we all wanted. I was so surprised how not crowded the stores were. We had to wait in a very long line at Target, but I still felt like it was dead compared to what I have seen on past Black Fridays.

When we got home, I was trying to rest and Easton didn't want me to. He told me to wake up and was crawling all over me. It's ok though, I love that kid.

After shopping all morning, we went to the mall that evening and shopped some more! It was such a fun trip! I did not want to leave. I loved being able to spend so much time with my family, espcially little Easton! Tyler and I planned on coming home on Sunday but decided to take the longer trip home and leave a day early. The drive through Nevada was so boring that we wanted to go through Utah, and possibly stay at my Grandpas and break the trip up. That was a terrible idea. We were loving the drive and excited that we decided to go that way, until we hit the scariest snow storm ever! It was as we were driving over passes and over mountains and I was so scared I was crying! Then we hit Salt Lake just as the Utah, BYU game was getting out and got stuck in horrible traffic. We decided to just go all the way home but got slowed down, again, by thick, nasty fog! We had such bad luck! But we got home at about 5:00 am and got some sleep. I made Tyler help me put the Christmas tree up that day!

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T20:03:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I will be posting pictures and a more detailed review of the week soon, but right now I just wanted to comment on this Thanksgiving day. We traveled over 16 hours to be in Arizona with my family. It was a long, boring, miserable drive but we are glad we made it here. I am grateful for the time I am getting to spend with my family. I am thankful that I had the opportunity to come to Arizona to see Heather and her family and thier new home. I am thankful for the yummy food that we got to eat today and to my parents for all of it. There are so many other things that I am so thankful for but most of all, I am thankful for my husband! I sure love him! I really missed the rest of my family that I didn't get to spend the day with. I love you guys! I hope everyone else had a fantastic Thanksgiving!

Shafer Update

2009-11-11T17:51:00.000-08:00

I have had a few requests lately for a blog update so here it is. I tried to take some pictures with my camera that doesn't really work, but here we are...

Tyler is grading papers. This is his very favorite part about teaching... NOT! He puts it off a little too much, then has to bring it home with him to catch up on it for grade checks. The elementary part of Harper has a wonderful lady, Evelyn Winslow, that comes and does grading for the teachers, so I rarely have grading to do.

This is me on a day off of work. It is Veterans Day and we had no school so I did not get dressed up. I am also in the process of growing out my bangs (because there is not anyone I trust to cut them the way I want out here), so they are really long and I look a little hideous right now.

And this is Charlie dancing around on his hind legs. It's a little blurry because of the quality of my camera, but he jumps up like this everytime I come home from work and we high-five, so I wanted to share it.

I don't know!?!

So, there we are, enjoying a day off of work. I thought I would just catch you all up on what's been going on since I last made a post. Tyler's football season took a huge hit and made a downward spiral since my last post about how great the season was going. Somehow, the team sort of fell apart. There were very few days that all the boys showed up to practice and it's hard to work on plays when there is not enough people to fill all the positions. There was a huge wave of sickness that spread through Harper School and it seemed like half the team got it at the same time. Tyler still kept his spirits up about it but after the third game, they ended up playing all the rest of the games with only eight guys. The boy I bragged about earlier decided not to show up to a game once, and they totally would have won but it's hard when the other team has twice as many guys and we have no subs. The next week there was a death in the family of another boy, so we don't balme him for not being there then, but that was another win we had to give up. The rest of the season was plagued with injuries and they had to run many plays with only seven guys. Harper is by far the smallest team in the league but they still played so hard and didn't let that get them down. Even with all the crap, we are still proud of the boys. Tyler praises them because they never got discouraged and never gave up even though it seemed everything was against them. He had a great support group of parents this year and he is still happy with the season. It would have been nice to have a few more wins though. Tyler is now getting ready to start the basketball season. He is only coaching the high school girls team this year and we are really hoping for a good season. The girls have a ton of potential.

There is not much new going on with me. I am still teaching and loving it. I had my first Parent Teacher Conferences! I was so nervous but I thought they went pretty well. It's nice only having eight students, because that means only eight conferences. It is not very much fun telling parents their student isn't doing well in any subject, so I am so glad I have such a smart class (with exceptions here or there). If there is one thing I have learned about parent-teacher relations it is that too many parents think their kids can do no wrong and don't like being told they aren't always perfect in school. Again, I was so glad I have such a good group of students and too much talking is the only problem I have in my class. Parents usually agree that their child talks too much! Any other tiny behavioral issues I may have had seemed to be brushed off by every parent as cute or funny or something! So frustrating! Anyway... I am halfway done with my full time substitute job and it makes me very sad. It is definitely not going to be easy leaving my class in the January.

I wish there was more to report, but we pretty much do the same thing every day. Our lives are going to get a little more exciting for a while, though. On Friday, Tyler and I are going to visit the Boise temple to do an Endowment session. It will be the first time back since we were sealed and I am so excited. We planned to go once a month, but man, the time flew by. Football consumed every weekend and pretty soon basketball will. We are going to try to make a more conscious effort to get there monthly. On Saturday, we are going to the Boise State football game against Idaho! We are so pumped for that. We have awesome seats and can't wait to see the Broncos up close!! We will be making a long trip to Heather and Jason's house in Arizona for Thanksgiving. We are really excited for that, but not the sixteen hour drive! I will give updates on those events after they pass!

What's New?

2009-10-01T20:13:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I updated this thing. I don't think anybody but myself even looks at it, but I will just keep myself posted then. :) I wish I had new pictures, but my broken camera makes it difficult to take pictures.

September was an exciting, frustrating, and satisfying month. In August, I started working as the 3rd and 4th grade teacher at Harper School. I am working as a full time teacher, but for only part of the school year. I get to fill in for the teacher I did my student teaching with while she stays home with her precious new baby girl. I am lucky because my first time as a teacher is in a classroom I already new, full of resources I wouldn't have had in any other first time job. My second year of teaching is going to be the rough one, but at least I will have this much experience to work from! I am loving teaching. I had to jump through many hoops to get my teaching degree but it is so worth it. My diploma was mailed to my mom's house today. I can't wait to see it because I think once I see my diploma, and hold it in my hand, I will actually feel like I am graduated. Being at Harper sort of feels exactly the same as my student teaching, and I missed the graduation ceremony, so I am really excited about that diploma. Six year, thousands of dollars, and much stress later, I finally graduated!! Getting my Oregon teaching license was a huge pain in the butt, a lot of stress, and my wallet took a huge hit, but I finally got that too!!

Tyler started his first year as athletic director and first season as the solo head football coach for Harper High School. He was the assistant coach for a couple years, and had a great man to learn from, so he is doing great! He wishes he had an assistant coach, but school budgets were cut so much that he has to do it alone. He has such a good group of boys this year. Last year, the boys had really bad attitudes, and he didn't think coaching was something he wanted to do anymore. This year the guys are so coachable and have great attitudes (of course there is drama here and there, they are high schoolers) and Tyler likes coaching again. Which is great because he is so good at it. Now the athletic director thing... not so worth it. Very little pay and tons of work. It will look great on his resume though! Harper plays in an eight man league. Tyler has nine guys. There is only one sub, but thanks to the new boy in town, Brad, Harper is definitely holding there own. So far, Harper has won two of their three games. That's a pretty good start for Harper. We are hoping for a good season and a great rest of the year.

We are hoping for a lot this year. We are trying to enjoy the sometimes draining presence that is Harper. We are spoiling Charlie way too much lately because we feel bad that he is home alone so much. We are all doing pretty darn good!

August 15, 2009

2009-08-28T11:52:00.000-07:00

Tyler and I celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary on August 9! We had already celebrated the week before, since the 9th was on a Sunday. Tyler's mom saved our wedding cake for us and we got to eat it! It was so delicious! It tasted exactly as it did on the day we were married! From what I hear, that doesn't happen very often. Thank you Linda for wrapping it up so tight, keeping it fresh and yummy! The best part of our anniversary was that it marked the day that we could go through the temple and be sealed as an eternal family. On Saturday, August 15, 6 days after our anniversary, Tyler and I were endowed and sealed in the Bountiful Temple in Bountiful Utah. It was the most important day of our lives and we are so glad we set and achieved that goal.

We chose to go through the Bountiful temple because all of my family had to travel to Oregon for our civil marriage and I thought it was only fair that Tyler's side travel this time. Unfortunately, that made it so very few of Tyler's immediate and Oregon residing family were able to be with us. We are so greatful for those that did make that trip to Utah to be there: Linda, Grandma Jean, and Sean and Krista! Our good friends Steve and Allyson came from pocatello to go through with us and we were so happy to have them there! Tyler's Uncle Tom, Suzzette, Aunt Lee and Gary, and his cousin Eric and his wife all came, and we were so glad they could be there! Unfortunately, everyone but Sean and Krista stayed in Draper, UT the night before and got stuck in traffic on the way to the temple. Lee and Gary made it but Tyler's mom and Grandma Jean missed our endowment session. Stupid Utah traffic!! Of my family, my mom and dad, Heather and Jason, my aunt Becky, Grandma, Grandpa and Patsy, and cousin Hillarie and Jeremy were there. It was nice to have them there with me! My aunt Lynette, and all of Becky's kids were outside waiting for us after the sealing and I loved to walk out and see my family there. I love my family so much! I was pretty sad that my brother and sister weren't there, but at least Emilee was at the house waiting for us with little Easton when we got back to Grandpas. After our sealing, we had a lunch at Grandpa and Patsy's house. It was good eating! Unfortunately, none of the pictures that we took outside the temple were very flattering for either of us, so I don't have any to share. I didn't wear a wedding dress or anything, and since it wasn't really our "wedding day" we didn't worry too much about the pictures. It makes me sad, but I guess we should have done it right the first time and I would have the pictures I want, right.

Thank you Grandpa and Patsy for letting us use your house, and to everyone that helped with the food. And most importantly, thank you to everyone that was there to share in the most important day of our lives. Tyler and I can't wait to go back to the temple!

More Summer Fun

2009-08-13T21:19:00.000-07:00

Tyler's summer school job ended on August 31, so we finally get to have a few weeks of vacation and together time. It started off with a bang! Our Anniversary was August 9, but since there is nothing to do in Harper, we decided to celebrate it in Pocatello before we moved home. Tyler got us a room at the Black Swan Inn, and we stayed in the beautiful Garden Suit. It was extremely expensive, so we decided not to get each other gifts, but the room was worth it. We had a jet tub and a dry sauna in our room and a huge tv! We loved it. After that, we got to go to Utah with my family and go to the Hogle Zoo and Lagoon! We had such a good time. The best part was watching Easton experience these places for the first time! He was so funny and so much fun! I am still convinced he is the cutest boy ever! He loved the rides at Lagoon! Tyler did better this year at Lagoon than the first summer we dated. He was terrified of the rides the first time, but he actually enjoyed himself and went on rides this time! It was so fun. My cousin Hillary and her husband Jeremy came too and I am so glad they did! It was fun spending time with them, and me and Hillary have many memories of Lagoon together! We got to go to Lagoona Beach and my dad rented tubes for us to share and we had such a blast sliding and swimming. I felt like I was 10 years old again at the water park! I don't have any pictures of us at Lagoon, but here are some from the Zoo! Enjoy!

This weekend, the 15, Tyler and I are going to be sealed in the Bountiful temple and we cannot wait! It will also be my goodbye to Heather, Jason, and Easton. It is going to be such a bitter-sweet weekend. I will tell you more about it when it's all done!

Summer Lovin'

2009-07-20T21:29:00.000-07:00

Isn't it weird how you can want summer to never end, but at the same time be excited for summer to be over? That is how I am feeling right now. I usually love heat, but this summer has challenged that! Tyler and I had to leave our big, clean, air conditioned home in Harper and move to Pocatello so Tyler could work for Upward Bound again. It was actually a double bonus for this summer job. It gives us another paycheck on top of his salary for two months of the year, and I got to spend the summer with my sister, Heather and the rest of my family. I am pretty sure I have mentioned some of this in a previous post, but just recapping the summer. Heather's husband, Jason is starting dental school in Arizona in the fall, so they are moving to Surprise, AZ in August. They won't be able to make it back to Pocatello often, so I wanted to be able to spend the summer with them before they leave. I have had a lot of fun spending time with her and the rest of my family. Easton is growing up so fast and it makes me sad that he will be completely different every time I see him once they move. Easton is my first nephew, and the only one on my side of the family. Therefore, he is my favorite!! He just started talking and it makes me so happy to hear him say my name! But he seems to like Tyler more than me and that makes me sad (or jealous, whichever word you want to use). The downside to this summer is that we are renting a home, and I hate it. It is an A frame house and the ceilings and walls are wood beams. It is so dark and makes me feel like I am in a cave! I like bright rooms and lots of sunshine, which I definitely get in my Harper home. In this house, the walls are all different shades of purple, with black cabinets. Both rooms and both bathrooms are downstairs, but it is spider-ville down there, and extra cave-like so I set up the bed and everything upstairs in the living room. Worst part, there is no air conditioning! I don't think I have had a good night of sleep since we got here. When it rained for the first couple days here, we had about 15 leaks in the roof, so the whole house felt muggy. I am glad we only have a couple weeks left.

Then again, I am sad that we only have a couple weeks left here. I have really enjoyed Sunday dinners with my family, playing with Easton, and spending time over at my parents house. It has also been nice to have stores within minutes of our house! On the flip side of that, we have eaten out way too much! As summer seems to be flying by, I am getting more and more nervous to start teaching as a full time teacher! I am already having nightmares about it and wonder if I can do it. The thing is, I know I can do it, I am just so nervous to be completely in charge of a classroom, with students learning in my hands. I don't want to let anyone down! However, I am also very excited about my first year as a full time teacher. I am constantly filled with mixed emotions, and that is part of what keeps me up all night (or maybe that is still just the smoldering heat).

And for the big news... On August 9, Tyler and I will be celebrating our 1 year anniversary, and on August 15, we will be sealed for time and all eternity in the Boutiful, Utah LDS temple. I am so excited to become a forever family with my sweetheart! Then we can start expanding our family! Sadly, the next day I have to say goodbye to Heather, Jason, and Easton and that will make me a blubbering mess! What is it about getting older that makes you want your family more and more? Or is that just me? Until then, I will continue taking advantage of family time while we are in Pocatello.

Speaking of Pocatello... While we were living in Harper, with me getting ready to graduate form ISU, Tyler and I started discussing where we want to live and where we might want to end up some day. We starting thinking that Pocatello might be a place we could live. We know we want to be around family, and there just isn't anything in the Vale area for us after this upcoming school year. Unforunately, being in Pocatello this summer has made us realize we don't want to live in Pocatello. It will always be a comfortable, familiar place, but it is not home anymore. Harper is not really home either. This summer has really made me excited to find our home and for the next stages in life!

Background Issues

2009-07-16T21:10:00.001-07:00

As I explore my family and friends blogs, I keep finding pages that offer free backgrounds. This is not good for me! I have become obsessed with backgrounds! I am hoping this goes away, but I just can't find one that I want to be set on. It is driving me crazy. So, you will probably see different backgrounds and headers often! I think it all depends on my mood though, which background I want for the moment. Has anyone else had this problem while getting started with this whole blogging thing?!

From the Beginning Until Now...

2009-07-14T12:40:00.000-07:00

Since I just started this journal about our lives together, I thought I would do a quick recap of what we have been up to until this point. Well, after our honeymoon Tyler had to get right back to work. He works at Harper School as the English teacher for grades 7 through 12. We actually live in the school parking lot in a house that was placed there for the superintendent because Harper is in the middle of nowhere and most people commute. The current superintendent doesn't want to live in Harper, so we get to rent it for very cheap! It is a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house and we actually love it!

Our first FaLL together was very busy. I began my online classes, and they were the most time consuming, difficult things I have ever done! If it wasn't for Tyler's help, I never would have finished them. He felt obligated to help because I would have been able to have an easy 12 credit semester if I hadn't gotten married, which moved me to Oregon. It was worth it though! Aside from the constant homework frenzy, our weekends were filled with football. Tyler coached the junior high football team, and was the assistant/defensive line coach for the high school team. I was their number 1 fan!

The Holidays were so fun, but quite different than what I am used to. I had my first Thanksgiving away from my family and it was hard, but I really enjoyed my time with Tyler's side. We had a family member get hurt playing football that morning, so we had to step in and help get the dinner ready. It was the most either of us had ever helped for a big dinner before. I was fun! We spent Christmas in Pocatello/Utah with my family. It was the worst weather I have ever seen on Christmas and the men of the fam spent a good portion of the morning trying to get Jason's car unstuck in the snow that had accumulated over night. My dads truck got stuck when he went to help! Luckily a snow plow came and got them both out! We braved the snowstorm and drove to Utah to be with the rest of my family. That was a dumb idea! It was so ScArY over the Malad pass! It took twice as long to get there! Although we weren't going to be in our home for the Holiday, we still wanted a Christmas Tree for our house. We bought a huge, fake tree and had very few decorations, but I loved it!

After the New Year, I started student teaching at the same school Tyler works at. I was so nervous! I had nightmares about it for months! I started on January 12, 2009 in Mrs. Anderson's 3rd and 4th grade combined class. It was such a great experience! It made me even more sure that teaching is what I want to do with my life. I got the best experience I could have had out of that semester. I had to have a University Supervisor come and evaluate my teaching on six different occasion, and I did not like him! He was a little pompous, and a little hypocritical, but I passed! I will always remember those students as my first students ever! The teacher I worked with is having a baby and asked me to take over her class for the first half of the school year this fall! I am so excited to be back with half of them (the ones in the 3rd, moving up to the 4th grade).
SpRiNg was also filled with more than my student teaching. Tyler coached the boys AND girls high school basketball teams and it was a time consuming task! I loved it all though! His teams didn't do so well, but definitely improved from the previous year, and from the beginning to the end. He is a great coach! He decided that next year he is only going to coach the girls because it is a young team that shows lots of promise. This picture is of his boys team at the district tournament in John Day, Oregon.

And then school ended! Tyler had a rough year, with terrible students (and parents) so we were so happy to say good ridance to this school year! We had the summer to look forward to. Tyler teaches summer school on the ISU campus for the Upward Bound program. This is his fourth summer doing it. So, we packed up and moved to Pocatello. We are renting a house near campus, Tyler is working, and I am finishing my last class. I can't wait to be done with Idaho State University forever! (Not done with school though. Grad school is next... just don't know where yet.) We feel so bad for Charlie because he is used to open land and freedom to roam about, and he can't do that in the big city. Coming back to Pocatello made us realize we love small towns. Wierd, huh! This summer has been fun. I have been spending as much time as possible with Heather, Jason, and Easton because they are moving to Arizona for dental school in August. I am sad they are leaving, but excited for them to experience this next phase in life. This summer I celebrated my 24th birthday! We spent the 4th of July with my family, and I went to a family reunion in Feron Utah (don't ever go there!). It has been fun. Here are some pictures that depict our summer experience!

The Beginning

2009-07-13T12:42:00.000-07:00

Tyler and I are about to complete our first year of marriage. We got married on August 9, 2008 in Ontario Oregon, at the Holiday Inn. It was the best day of our lives. We had almost all of our loved ones there, even with it being so far away from all of my family and friends. We celebrated our marriage with a reception at Tyler's moms house in Vale, Oregon. It was in her front yard, and it was beautiful. Tyler's old band, Spondee, played a few of their song for us. Tyler sang "I've Just Seen a Face" by the Beatles and it was great! Then we had a dance, and it was a blast. Everybody was up dancing and having a great time. The decorations were perfect thanks to Tami at Holiday Inn, my wonderful mother-in-law Linda, Stephanie who did my cake, and The Lowders, Tylers family from Aberdeen.

After our wedding, we went to Annie Creek Bed and Breakfast in Ontario, Oregon and stayed in a very fancy room with a jet tub. Unfortuately, the tub went a little crazy and we weren't able to use it! The next day, we drove to Crater Lake and stayed in the Crate Lake Lodge. It was amazing. The lodge is extremely old and is right on the edge of the crater. The lake lies in the mouth of a dormant volcanoe. The water is crystal clear blue and fascinating. We ate at the very expensive restaurant in the lodge that night. The next day we drove out of Crate Lake National Park and staying in this adorable little cabin at Union Creek. We stayed there for a couple nights and explored all the trails and waterfalls. We saw the natural bridge, the water that comes out of the rocks, and everything else there was to see there. It is right along the Rogue River, which is huge! After that, we went to Ashland, Oregon and stayed in a suite at the Holiday Inn. It had a hot tub in the room and it was so fun! We went to the Shakespeare festival and saw Othello. It was so good. We were shocked at all the performers putting on shows right on the streets and sidewalks. We saw a lady, completely naked, riding her bike down the street! On our way home, we stopped in Bend and stayed at the Holiday Inn there and watched the Olympics. It was a great way to relax after our fun-filled honeymoon!

The Other Member of Our Family

2009-07-13T12:09:00.000-07:00

Since Tyler and I got married, we talked about getting a puppy. Growing up, we had fish, hamsters, and one dog, but none of which I had to take care of much. My mom and dad always did. I never knew how much work a pet could be! If I knew, I wouldn't have encouraged the idea of getting a puppy with Tyler as much as I did. Anyways... We couldn't agree on the type of dog we would want to get, if we ever did. Tyler wanted a big, outside dog. I wanted a little puppy that could be inside with me, but loved to be outside too. On Thanksgiving, we were at his moms house watching the annual dog show. The winning dog was the most adorable thing I have ever seen! He was a beagle and so precious! We both talked for a few days about how cute he was, and jokingly one day I told Tyler to buy me a beagle puppy for Christmas. Apparently, Tyler thought I was serious, and he started looking for beagles for sale. I had no idea, until he started dropping hints. I might need to clarify, Tyler's hints are like anvils! I guessed it and started panicking. I went back and forth between being excited and completely dreading having a dog. I even tried dropping hints to get him to change his mind. Later he told me that my hints made him struggle with what to do and went back and forth with the idea himself. He decided it was what he wanted and on December 7, 2008 Tyler drove to Nampa to pick out a beagle puppy. He "surprised" me with Charlie Pace Shafer that night. We named him after our favorite character on LOST! My reaction made him sad, because I didn't jump for joy. For the next week, I cried all day everyday because I couldn't stand cleaning up potty messes in my house, and the whining all night long! I wanted to get rid of him! That is until we left him for a week with Tylers parents while we went to Pocatello for Christmas. I missed him so much and was so excited to see him when we picked him up. Now, he is part of our family and we baby him way too much! Charlie is our best friend, so adorable, and the mosy hyper-active dog I have ever seen.