The Last Little While (March, April Mayish)

Its been awhile; the New Years resolution of writing a blog post once a month died around March... classic. Anyways, we are doing well! Its been a little crazy, but I took photos during all the craziness, yay for a nice new camera!

In March we survived on Chimichangas, hot dogs, pizzas etc. and smoothies. The smoothies were the result of the guilt I got from the rest of our diet being overly processed. It was a long busy month, but we did enjoy a trip out to Boulder, CO to visit my sister over spring break.

A rooftop restaurant Nathan and I went to in Lousiville.

A fun store in boulder that had a lot of random awesome stuff.

A street performer on Pearl Street in Boulder.

The cool guys hanging out on some rocks.

Boyd got to hang out on a snail lucky guy, Ben looks tired.

Our fun night tending the boys. We got to walk up to the lake and play on the playground there, we saw lots of bunnies along the way. I want a bunny... help me persuade Nathan. If you see him be like Shirley wants a bunny then you can creepily walk away  if you want. Or shout it at him, or better yet sneak a bunny into his backpack then when he gets home and there's a bunny... actually I'm not sure what I would do with that situation, anyway enough about bunnies.

I think the boys liked having their pictures taken.

This is my favorite picture from the trip. I have cute nephews. :)

We had a good time on our trip and spent a lot of time driving around and checking out certain areas in hopes of finding a place that we could call home for the next few years. It was fun but also exhausting; Boulder, Denver and the surrounding areas were not what we expected. We had thought that Boulder would be a bigger city, and it wasn't which made us disappointed. Our resolve of Colorado being the perfect place for us was shaken. We kept thinking fondly about San Francisco and the time we had spent there. We spent a few weeks in prayer and pondering after our trip in deciding if we really wanted to move out to Boulder.

I don't remember a certain moment when Boulder felt right again, but eventually it did and I got excited as I perused padmapper and craigslist looking for an apartment. Everything became real and exciting for both Nathan and I when we signed our contract for our one bedroom Boulder apartment in April and solidified dates when we were leaving Provo. On July 1st we will be embarking on our next adventure and I can't wait!

Also in March I threw my first Easter dinner! Jared (Nathan's brother) and one of his friends came over and we all enjoyed the first roast I have ever cooked. It actually wasn't bad Nathan & Jared can be called on as witnesses to that fact. Then after dinner Nathan shared a spiritual message. It was a great. Here's a pic:

The rolls were supposed to be bunnies they were kind of a a fail, but oh well.

April was a busy month as we worked hard to get through the last stretch to the end of the semester. We both came out unscathed thankfully, and the big event this month was that Nathan my dear sweet husband graduated from BYU with a bachelors in Information Systems! I'm really proud of him and I am glad he is such a hard worker to accomplish that feat.

I love him so much!

Way to go Nathan!

We're grateful for our wonderful parents who came down to Provo to show their support, love and to feed us. You guys are great!  I'm grateful to have such amazing parents and in-laws. We love you. It was fun visiting with family and playing games with the Tates.

Then it was May. We went up to Logan to organize stuff we want to take with us on the move, and we scored on digging out a bunch of old camping gear from my parents storage unit that they gave to us. Then it was decided we were going camping in Moab and hiking arches for our first year anniversary. And we did just that...

We are in there we are just tiny :P

One of the few pictures we took together. Yay one year! :P

It was a really wonderful anniversary. We drove down on Friday and hunted for a campground (found one! wasn't easy), then we hiked up to the delicate arch. After that beautiful hike we went back to our campsite and made tinfoil dinners (super yummy), peach cobbler and roasted marshmallows and starburst. Saturday, the morning of our anniversary we made breakfast burritos. After we packed up camp we embarked on the long hike up to the double O arch talking about all our favorite memories from our first year of marriage while we did and finding a few nice spots to make out as well. After we were done we went out to eat in Moab then headed home where that evening we enjoyed our frozen cake that we cut from a year ago. I couldn't imagine a better way to celebrate the one year I have had with my amazing husband. And a wonderful year it has been.

That's all for now. Nathan is working full time and I am going to school and working as well. We are both doing odd and ends things as we get ready to move. Which is only about a month away. Crazy! We're happy. Love you all!

February 2013: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Sorry I'm not writing this at exactly the end of February, but March 5th? Not too Shabby. Anyways...

February was an interesting and fun month for Nathan and I. Mainly it was a month full of confusion as we tried to figure out the best course of action for us over the next year. Let me elaborate.

It all started when Nathan mentioned that maybe we should stay in Utah for longer than we had been planning; to work on Watercolor Wedding and get it up and running. It wasn't a for sure decision, but I took it that way as my mind began to think of the possibilities that an extra year or two in Utah could do. Mainly the possibility of getting my bachelors degree consumed my thoughts. It began to stress me out as I felt I had to get perfect grades, so I could get a scholarship to support me over the next couple years of schooling. I found myself thinking less about wanting a baby as I thought about my bachelors degree.

Well one night a week or so later Nathan asked what was stressing me out and I told him I just felt pressured now that I was working for a bachelors degree. Then he was confused because we hadn't officially made that decision to stay, or for me to get a bachelors. So then we talked about what we really wanted for us this next year, and a few things came to mind. The first was that we really didn't want to stay in Utah longer than we had originally been planning. We wanted to move to Denver and start the next leg of our journey, and we really wanted to start our family. We came up with two options for us which were staying till august like we had originally planned, or not worrying about my associates degree and leaving in May. The next week we kept flip flopping between those two decisions. With thoughts like isn't it worth it to stay and extra three months to get a degree, or do we really want to wait till August to try having a baby again?

We flip flopped like crazy and then it felt like we had finally made our minds up to leave in May. I would sacrifice my associates so we could be settled and starting our family sooner. It felt right for about three days. Then being in class I was like, "I don't like this I want my associates degree." Then I told Nathan how I was feeling then we began flipping back to August. Then finally we said we couldn't keep flip flopping like this and we had to make a final decision by the end of tomorrow. I wasn't sure what I wanted, but then I remembered something about UVU having online courses you could take. So I looked into it and discovered half of the classes I needed to take were offered online! Then the perfect solution came to mind. I would take the classes I needed to be in class for block A of Summer semester, then take the online classes in Denver for fall and get my associates in December, but be able to move to Denver at the end of June! It finally felt right and a good compromise between the two earlier options.

It was a hectic month trying to know what to do, but it was and interesting learning experience too. We had been waiting the whole time for the Lord to tell us what path we should take, but we didn't get a for sure feeling of comfort in our hearts until we did our own research to find the best option for us.
Well along with the decision to move in June we also had a few other decisions to make. One that we aren't going to try and have a baby until we are in Denver. And that Nathan is planning on employing himself out in Denver like he is doing here. I think that catches us up on our plans. Sorry if that was long and boring to read.

Anyways also in February we had a few fun dates. We got to go see BYU's production of Phantom of the Opera as shown here in the picture below.

We also decided to celebrate Valentines a few days early and skipped class and saw Wreck it Ralph in the dollar theater, went and had dinner at Olive Garden, and then went to the temple. Nathan surprised me with flowers even though we decided to celebrate Valentines last minute that day. What a stud.

It was a fun month even with its confusion, but we're are just happy that we have a plan ahead of us and many fun things to look forward to.

January 2013: School, Work and maybe baby

So this blog is going to be similar to a family newsletter. Essentially I'm going to try and post once a month about whats going on with our little Tate family. It is essentially a way that family can check up on us and see how we are doing if they so desire. I really want to keep in contact with family and this seems like a small way I can.

Anyways lets talk about January!  We started the New Year with a crazy awesome New Years Eve party that was wild! Yeah I'm kidding. We invited over some neighbors to play board games with us and watch the ball drop. They all ended up saying they couldn't come so it ended up being just Nathan and I eating root beer floats out of martini glasses talking about our goals for the year, and sadly we couldn't find where to watch the ball drop on our lap tops... oh well. It was nice in its own way.

Well not long after that we got started into school again. Nathan is embarking on his last semester at BYU. He graduates with a degree in Information Systems in April. I started to go back to school this semester, but this time I'm going to UVU in order to get my associates in Arts and Visual Communications. I made the switch to UVU because BYU doesn't have associate degrees and its likely we wont be staying Utah long enough for me to get my Bachelors. I'm liking it at UVU though, and I think it will be fun studying there till August when I graduate.

On a fun note I finally got a DSLR camera which I have been wanting forever. Turned out the photography class I'm taking this semester requires us to have our own camera that can manually adjust shutter speed, aperture, and ISO... so rolls in a good enough excuse to buy my camera! Speaking of my classes they have been a lot of fun; I'm loving my art classes. I started out the semester thinking I was super woman taking eighteen credits, but as the apartment got progressively filthier, and my food in take less frequent and less healthy, I thought it best to drop my Spanish class and take fourteen credits instead. Nathan is working hard in his classes and he is really enjoying learning about business law, but he is struggling because most of his classes take place in a classroom that doesn't have internet connection. Poor guy not being able to work on other things while he is in class, but really I feel bad for him.

Work has also been something interesting this month. I got hired on as a part-time sales associate at Michael's Craft Store. I was working there as a seasonal worker but I got hired on to work there as a full employee! I really like working at Michael's so I am really happy about this. Nathan has gone a different direction about how to earn money this year, drum roll please, he started his own software development business! It's called Red Rabbit Development (here's the webpage he created http://yourdeveloperfriend.com/) basically he is a freelance software developer. He's already started working for a few clients on their projects. It was kind of scary not have him getting any work for a couple weeks, but he's a hard worker and got clients quickly. I think the anxiety and the success will prepare us both for the entrepreneur adventures he will have in the future. He is also working with his friend Jeremy on a project called Watercolor Wedding; the basics of it is a way to search for dresses by color, so a way to make bridesmaid dress shopping easier. It's still not quite ready for the public so I will share a link for that when it is!

That's about it for us other then... wait, and I guess this is a biggie, we are trying to have a baby! We will let everyone know when we actually get pregnant, but for now mentally prepare yourselves for a maybe baby in the future. Its been kind of hard because we keep convincing ourselves we're pregnant by analyzing the smallest things I feel and being like, "that's an early pregnancy symptom! You must be pregnant." Then of course I'm not. I've always been a bit of a hypochondriac so I probably pay more attention to the random small occurrences in my body then most people, but now I'm attributing those things I feel to pregnancy.

We are also thinking of moving in April out of Provo and into a surrounding city, pet friendly apartment so we can have a puppy and get out of Provo. That's still in the works we'll see what happens. Well that's it for January its been a fun month, and cold, yes very cold. Love you all and hope you are doing well!

And because pictures are fun here is the painting I finished in January for my dad for his Christmas gift.

 And the painting I did for my mom for her birthday. Which I finished in November but I'm posting it now because I feel like they go together kind of like my mom and dad.