Adios Amigos!

Yep, you heard the rumors right, we are moving to California for the summer! We had a very difficult time deciding whether or not we wanted to go out for another summer, but we finally decided, what the heck, we're young we might as well go take a vacation and have some fun even if we don't end up making a lot of money. It was hard for me to decide if I wanted to go or not because I feel like we have established ourselves so well in our current apartment. It feels like it is our home, and it feels weird to be leaving it. I don't know if we will be able to get back in the same apartment when we get back.
Originally we weren't planning on going out again for the summer because Gabe thought that he would need to take some spring/summer classes at BYU, but turns out he is right on track (yay Gabe!) and he doesn't have to. We then started thinking about maybe going to Oklahoma to try and sell instead or even going back to Kenai Alaska where we were last year. We thought it would be cool to go back to Alaska, and we would be able to "do it right" this time and take more pictures and go explore more, but Im pretty sure that our car wouldn't make it up there and we would be moving around all the time again. It just wasn't the best environment.
A couple weeks ago Gabes boss called him to let him know that they were opening an office in California that they wanted him to be lead tech over and we jumped at the opportunity. He will get a salary, I can relax by the pool, its less then half a day away, and we will be in permanent housing the whole summer. Or so they say! The city we were first called to was Modesto. And then they changed their mind and told us we were going to Manteca. And then they changed it again yesterday and said we're going to Stockton. I think that Stockton is the place we really should be going, because we were told thats where they found housing. But who really knows if its final?! But really, its about a week before we leave, they SHOULD know by now.. The apartments they were looking into in Manteca were really really nice, and I was looking foward to it A LOT because of the pool and the all around luxury of it all, but I heard it was a hick town and there wasn't much to do there. Now that I know, or think, we are going to Stockton, Ive been looking into what the town is like and I think we will like it. It sounds like there is a lot to do there. AND... its right by 2 large shopping malls :) Right down the street. I think I will do just fine!
It will be super interesting to see what this summer brings us, its always a huge surprise. I expect that Gabe will be pretty busy at first getting everything organized and then hopefully we'll have a bit more down time to go see the sites and spend time with each other. While Gabe is out working during the day I plan on working more on my etsy shop. I haven't added anything new lately because I have been super stressed out about getting everything ready for the summer. But that is my main focus for the summer is to get my etsy shop a 'rockin. I really enjoy painting and wish I had more time for it. We leave in about a week from now. Gabe is finishing up the school year with finals all this week and we will be making our rounds to say adios to as many people as we can. Stress is high, believe me. But I try and get rid of it by daydreaming about days on the beach. It works pretty well, I hope this will be worth it!

I'm a winner!!!

I have been very excited, I won two things on facebook within a week of each other! In all honesty, I have been putting off blogging about it because I was hoping I would win something else…. cause three would be so much cooler than 2. The first thing I won was a hair treatment at my favorite salon. Every month on their facebook page they have giveaways for services and products. The giveaway was actually something different than I ended up getting. It was for a Brazilian blowout, which I thought was a morrocan oil treatment. I would assume it’s a common mistake to mix the two up..? They sound similar, right? As the end of the giveaway was nearing, there was only 3 other people that had entered so I thought I had a pretty good chance. I got a facebook message saying that I had won and I was stoked. Then I realized I didn’t want it, because it was for $50 off the Brazilian blowout. (Its normally several hundred dollars.) It wasn’t something I would use, so with some convincing, my wonderful stylist got me a free morrocan oil treatment instead. And it was so wonderful! On a side note, I would highly recommend morrocan oil if your hair needs some TLC. I definitely noticed a huge difference in my hair.

The second thing I won on facebook was a workout DVD. Its called Physique 57 Volume 1 Arm and Ab Booster. I check their facebook page everyday for workout motivation and one day saw that they were having a trivia giveaway. I looked up the answer and later got a message saying I had won. Yippee for giveaways! I have been entering quite a few giveaways lately and am hoping maybe Ill win some more soon. But once you start entering so many it gets really really easy to lose track of what ones have been entered. 

I have recently started coupon clipping as well and am loving it. There are a few blogs that I check every day that tell me what sites have what coupons and where I can find good deals. Have you seen the previews for the show starting on TLC called “Extreme Couponing?” It looks insane. There was a lady that went to the grocery store and got $650 worth of food for only $6. Insane right? I highly doubt I will ever get to that point. In fact I KNOW I won’t. There is not enough time in the day. I was pretty excited about a deal I got a couple days ago though. Walgreens was selling my favorite bronzer for buy one get one free and I used 2 manufactures coupons for $5 off each product. It would have been $28 before coupons, and I paid $3 after coupons. Woot Woot! Gabe was super proud of his wife’s newfound coupon clipping hobby. Coupons are a blessing to this budget living girl!

I need a shopping spree. stat.

I am drooling.

I love Anthropologie.

If you fail to plan, then plan to fail

So after more than one year of marriage, I think I am finally starting to get a hang of all these “wifely duties.” And it feels gooood. I keep thinking back to what professionals say about children and schedules. It is said that children actually like structure and schedule and that they need it in order to build healthy habits. The same goes for me. I have come to the realization that I LOVE having weekly time schedules. I like to know what to look forward to and what to plan for.

When Gabe and I first got married we lived in a basement apartment, which we lovingly referred to as “our cave.” We didn’t have much, especially in the furniture category, so we didn’t have people over very much. We weren’t too proud of our cave because it wasn’t very homely and frankly, we didn’t like people using our bed as a couch. Consequently, we didn’t worry much about keeping the place tidy. But it was hard to get excited about it when you have a sink just 12 inches wide, which fills up with dishes pretty quick, and only a dustbuster to vacuum. Needless to say, those first several months did not help me form good wifely habits.

Then we moved away for the summer. And stayed in different hotels the whole entire time. Sure, maid service was great, but only for the free shampoo and makeup wipes. Since we went to bed in the wee hours of the morning, we would wake up in the afternoon. But maid service always came in the morning, so we’d almost always have our “do not disturb” sign stuck on the door knob. Which meant we were in charge of keeping our room spic ‘n span.  Yeah… right. Once again, not a good time to form good wifely habits. Did I mention we cooked all our food in the microwave? Didn’t get much practice making meals either. I owe my weight gain and cellulite to boxed cereal, hotel biscuits, and candy and chips from the vending machines. Still haven’t gotten over that, obviously.

So here we are today, livin it up in Utah. We love our apartment. After some decorating it has now become the place we proudly call home. We have become comfortable with where we are and I think it is about time that I get some things in order. I think it first started when I was planning out meals for the week to prepare for grocery shopping. Consistently cooking meals has been a habit that comes and goes around our home, but I think I have got it down now. I started thinking about my mom, and about how organized and scheduled she was when I was growing up. She would sit down at the table and write out a schedule for the week of things that needed to be done. Then she would do the same thing for weekly meals. She also had schedules for cleaning. I owe a lot of my newfound realization to my mom. She has been a good example.

Slowly but surely, I have found my groove of things. With consistent weekly scheduling I have found it much easier to plan weekly meals, find time to do the dishes and clean the house, and I even have a new “schedule” for my eating. Every day after I got home at 4 o’clock from work, I would eat 3 more meals. 3 more meals! But I never had an appetite for dinner. Imagine that. Now I do, and I love it! I feel so much better having a schedule… and I feel more wifey!

I opened an etsy shop!

Hey all. Life has taken priority over blogging, as you can see. But I have news... I opened an etsy shop! I am extremely excited about it. I put on my first listing a couple days ago and I think you should take a look. My etsy web address is: www.etsy.com/shop/adickes  I know, I only have one listing on there, not too interesting right now, but I plan on putting lots more on ASAP. And please, if you have any suggestions or want me to paint something for you let me know! Because I am just starting out I am loving new ideas for images. Here is a picture of my first listing:

My second painting

So here it is, my second painting. I am very happy with how it turned out. I wanted to make a couple paintings to hang in our room on each side of the window and so I decided to use the pattern on our comforter as inspiration. I have one down and one more to go. Enjoy!

10 Things I Loved About The Weekend

1. Eating garlic breadsticks for breakfast. Twice.

2. Waking up early to work out. Exhausted. Then crawling back in to bed with husband.

3. Doing dishes together, and actually enjoying it.

4. The smell of homemade brownies in the oven.

5. Staying in pajamas til the late afternoon.

6. Getting the news that our friends are pregnant :D

7. Playing checkers late at night with hubby and watching him try to put off obliterating me. He ended up with half his checkers still on the board when I died off.

8. Holding sweet baby Eli and playing with his tiny fingers and toes.

9. Watching only the last 15 minutes of "The Guardian" and trying not to bawl my eyes out.

10. Finishing my second painting.