Puppies!

School is my life. Mostly. I am actually kind of sad that I will be done next semester. But I can still enjoy it while it lasts. These pictures are our puppies! We love them! Maggy is not really a puppy (she just turned 13). We got her this cute bat girl costume for Halloween and I thought it was so funny how much she hated it. She figured out how to take it off when we weren't looking. Eventually she gave up.
This is Pongo. We got him last week. He is six months old and is a lab boxer mix (just like Mags). He is so much fun. We love watching him discover new things. He is terrified of other dogs right now. We took him for a walk the other day and a dog started barking at him and he got so scared that he jumped up and fell on his back. Poor Pongo. He is getting used to meeting new people. He barks at everyone that comes through our front door. He loves to play! He likes to pretend to eat my toes. He loves his frisbee and playing soccer with Jake. He also loves to snuggle.
It is so fun to have two dogs. It is a lot of work but I love it when they both run up to me with their tails wagging and they just want loves! It makes me so happy!
Jake has been super busy with work right now, so it is good that I have such cute dogs to keep me company. We are super excited to take them both with us to summer camp. Pongo will love it. Maggy will just deal with it. I am actually looking forward to camp this next summer. It is nice that I don't have to wait til April to find out Jake's camp assignment (we found out in August). I am really looking forward to helping Jake put together a program that he wants to have. Plus when camp is over we are going on a real vacation! Yay!

Scout Camp (Again)...

This summer officially marks the fifth summer of scout camping. When I started spending my summers doing this it was really a way to not spend the summer between semesters living at home. And because of that I met my husband...And now five years later he works for the scouts. So it appears that there will never be an end to me working at summer camp. I mean, sure its nice to have the extra money, but its really hard to do this job when my heart isn't in it. I am tired of camp. And it is really sad to go home on Saturday and see our poor yard looking awful. The grass is green and the flowers are growing, but neither Jake or myself have the energy to weed or prune. Its so sad because we worked so hard to get it looking better. But now it has almost gone to waste. I miss our house and everything about being at home. It is making camp extremely difficult.
Even though it is hard for me to be here, I am learning a ton. Jake and I got assigned to this camp kind of late in the game, and neither of us had really been here or knew very many of the staffers. So we are kind of letting them do things their way this summer. Which has been interesting. I am learning a lot about which management tactics are the most successful. Mainly listening to suggestions and following up on promises. I am trying to focus on the boys that come each week so I don't kill anyone up here. Its kind of funny to hang out with 12 year old boys. I am thinking I should probably write down all of the great pickup lines I hear and sell it in a book or something. At any rate, at least they entertain me :)

Moving and such

So its been a long time since my last blogging update. Lots to catch up on. Between the last update and the time we moved, I finished yet another semester of my career. I have officially decided that I fall into the catagory of "career student" because I feel like I have been going to college FOREVER. The semester ended really crazily. I took 18 credits of all upper divison classes this past semester. It was really overwhelming. I was reading close to 500 pages of homework a week and wrote something like 37 papers. But seeing as my worst grade was a B I think I picked the right major for me. And as a reward I only have one final history class to take! I met with my advisor a few weeks ago only to learn that in order to graduate I needed to take STATS 1040 and two science classes and three classes to finish my minor. That means that I have to go to school until next May :( Which is really sad. But I am getting used to the idea. And I really need something to keep me busy.
Since the semester ended, Jacob and I have purchased our first home. It is beautiful and I love it so much. It amazings me that we moved from an apartment was so small to a 2000 sq ft house and its almost all full. I do not know how that worked. But I love it. We are now the proud owners of a washer and dryer, a piano, and a DISHWASHER (that isn't named Jacob). It is funny how to a lot of people this wouldn't be a big deal, but to me...Oh man...Living in luxury. Right after we moved in we had to finish the basement. That was stressful, but its so nice now. So now we have a beautiful 4 bedroom 3 bath home. We don't really use that part of our house, so its just that weird empty part for now, but one day we will find a use for it.
Yard work has been an interesting experience for me. I was fine when Jacob wasn't around to watch me, but the more that he helps the more I realize that I don't have the slightest clue on what to do. I guess that comes from having a dad who loves yard work and wouldn't let me help. But its coming together rather nicely now. The flowers are so pretty and the grass is starting to grow. I pruned all our rose bushes and now they are sitting in a huge six foot-ish by six foot-ish pile until I figure out what to do with them.
In other news Jacob and I just bought a car. We thought that with all our driving we would be doing for work this summer it might be a good idea to invest in something that isn't twenty years old and can take big canyons fairly well. So now we have a Toyota Yarus. Its pretty awesome. I love driving it!
We are getting ready to leave for camp on Sunday. I am pretty torn because we are going to a new camp this summer and both of us have different assignments than ever before. It should be a good adventure and I get to spend so much time with Jacob, but I still think where we are going is nowhere near as cool as where we have been. Its been a pretty stressful week trying to tie up loose ends. Poor Jacob is leaving the office for two months and I cant imagine that is going to be very easy for him to keep up with. I am about to lose my mind praying all of our orders come in on time. And I dont really want to leave my brand new pretty house and my cute dog...Oh well...At least I am making bank this summer. New job title equals a big raise :D.

House Hunting!

We started house hunting last week because it was my spring break, and it was really the only time i would have for awhile to do some hunting. We were kind of in a rush because our contract in Logan ends on May 15, and knowing how long closing can take we knew we needed to find a house quickly. I swear we looked at dozens of houses, but none of them could compare to the third one we looked at. When we pulled up to that house, I instantly saw potential. Then I went inside, prepared for disappointment like every other house was. But no! I fell in love! It was so bright and sunny and beautiful! Plus the backyard was massive. Jake and I decided to keep looking, but since we really felt like that was the house for us, we called for backup. Jake's parents and my parents came to see the house with us. Needless to say we put in offer in that day. The people that owned the house before us had done one of those government loan things, and when they could no longer make the payments (a really long sad story that I wish I didn't know), the government repossessed the house. Something called HUD. Not sure what that stands for, but basically what happens is the house goes on the market for ten days, and at the end of ten days whoever has the highest offer gets the house. FHA loans can only bid the asking price, but since we are getting a rural housing loan, we could bid higher, so after much discussion, we put in our bid and waited for the bidding to end Monday night.
Tuesday came, I could not focus on anything. I knew that our Realtor would call me sometime in the afternoon, which led to me not being able to focus on anything. When she called I nearly passed out. After she told me we won the bid I nearly tackled my poor brother (who was over for lunch) and started jumping around and calling my husband, parents, and basically any one that wanted to listen to me freak out.
So now we wait to close. We have all our loan stuff processing, and we hope to close at the end of April. Sadly, I have school til the seventh of May (stupid Friday finals). Then we can move in to our beautiful home.
Its so nice and bright. Really spacious. And once upon a time it was a model home, which means the house has lots of extras like a tray ceiling in the master bedroom. I am so excited to move in. I have just about had it with our little 400 square ft apartment. I need more room! But at the same time I love Logan and will miss it forever. But yay! A house. We are so excited to be moving on with our lives!
The front of the house!

Time for an update

Wow! It has been an incredibly busy last little while! Between the holidays, finals, Jacob graduating, school starting up again and sorts of other crazy stuff our lives have been jammed packed. I guess I should start with clear back at Thanksgiving.
This year we spent Thanksgiving with the Bangerters. Wow. Talk about completely different when compared to how my family does Thanksgiving. First of all there was what felt like a hundred people and it is an all day party. Way different from the Bullough Thanksgivings I grew up with having maybe thirty people. So that was way strange.
Next came finals, which for some reason stressed me out more than I can ever remember. Lots of papers and tests. Ehh. And Jacob had one test. Oh well, I guess he deserves it since it was his last semester. Then Jacob graduated. Without walking. The university decided that there isn't a need to do commencement ceremonies in both December and May (which they neglected to tell us until less than a month before we thought he would be walking). So if Jacob really wants to walk, he has the option to in May.
Once the semester ended Jacob started the looonnnggg interview process with the Boy Scouts. We originally started to consider the job back in September or October, but because he wasn't graduated yet we couldn't start the process. Once he called back in early December he was told there were no longer any job openings. But....The old adage it isn't what you know, but who you know was really proven. Our boss from summer camp really pushed for council to hire Jacob. And three interviews and about a month later we found out Jacob won himself a job. Yay! I am so excited for Jacob, and Jacob cant believe he is 23 years old and starting a job he can see himself doing for a very long time.
We owe a huge thank you to our camp director, Doug, and all the strings he pulled to help us get this job. Seriously! I just cant believe we are moving on with our lives! What a huge blessing!
School started up again last week, and I am taking 18 credits of upper division classes. Hopefully with Jacob being gone so much for work, I will really be able to focus and pound out some awesome grades. Hopefully. And if all goes well we will be moving out of Logan in May. And I can get a cat. And it looks like Jacob will be running a scout camp, so I really cant escape this whole spending my summer in the mountains. And yet every summer I say that I won't be back the following year. Oh well. There are worse things.
All in all its been a pretty great last little while and its hard not be optimistic about the future of this Bangerter family :)