It's 1:30 in the morning and I can't sleep

I am tired and exhausted in every way possible right now and all I want to do is sleep. Not happening though so I guess I'll post something.

I'll just go through a few pictures on my camera and see what I've been up to.

Starting off, a couple weekends ago I went to Utah to visit Chelsea and we went shopping for wedding accessories. Poor Ky always has to go on these girly trips with us and we might have tried a few things on him while we were at Claire's.

He looks a little concerned in this picture....

Moving on-

One of the most amazing people I have ever met came to Rexburg to see me recently and it was just what I needed in the midst of all the wedding stress.

The one and only MARY HILL!!!

She really is just what I needed. Sometimes I still feel out of place and alone in Rexburg which is weird because I've lived here for 2 1/2 years, but being able to hang out with a close friend from home was like a breath of fresh air. We shot skeet, she tried to learn how to dirtbike, and we ended the night by watching a movie in a hot tub. It was a pretty fun night. It was nice to talk to her and catch up on our lives. She gets me... and that's hard to come by.

I also had a bridal shower last week hosted by Jake's Mom, sisters, and Nadia. I got a lot of nice things from neighbors and other relatives like cleaning supplies and just other necessities for around the house. It was really nice of everyone to come especially because I don't really know anyone that came.

I got to go to KC's and Nadia's bridal showers last Saturday which was fun and I am excited to have friends that are getting married around the same time as me. I like being able to share this new chapter of our lives together.

It was a busy day on Saturday because in between showers, I went to see Jake at a fire training. The fire dept burnt down an abandoned building and they let me take pictures. I took over 100 pictures, but I'm not loading them all on here... I put them on facebook instead. Here are just a few from that day:

I am proud of Jake for everything he has accomplished and what he continues to accomplish.  I'm glad that he loves his job and I feel like I'm pretty supportive of it, but sometimes I guess I'm too selfish and I want him to spend time with me instead of picking up every extra shift he can take. Is that really such a bad thing? I love Jake with all my heart, but I think the stress of planning and moving and feeling like I am alone in all this is coming back up which creates a lot of craziness for us.

Dating was easy, but being engaged can be a little bit of a nightmare sometimes. I just have to make it 22 more days... then I will never have to make wedding plans again.

I'm ready for my family to get to Idaho already.

August 13th-please get here soon.

6 weeks to go and we're getting things done!

I'll start the description of my adventures with last weekend when Jake and I went to his family's cabin in Island Park. I was very excited to go because Jake and I had our first date there this time last year. It's beautiful up there and we went with his whole family and some of their friends. 

Before we got there though, we went to Mack's Inn which is a dinner theater and watched a funny play called Pirates of the Car-rib-EEE-an. We decided that would be our double birthday present since we both have birthdays the first two weeks of June. We didn't make reservations, so when we got there we had to buy tickets. The guy behind the register asked us our last name and when we got the tickets, this is what they looked like:

 

Seriously?

I laughed pretty hard about that one. After the play, we went to the cabin and this was our welcome:

 We weren't the only ones trying to get in the door.... 

The weekend was really fun. Jake and I went on a bike ride around the island Saturday morning before everyone woke up and we saw a fox playing in the woods.

 

We went swimming and Jake tried out his new snorkel.

  

He really did use the snorkel too... he fished out all the golf balls we were hitting off the dock. 

 

We went on a paddle boat ride and a boat ride with Shaunie and Garren (Jake's sister & bro in law)

 

Sadie liked the boat ride and I think she liked our tree-tipping experience. 

Yes, tree tipping. 

     

 I had a video of Jake and Garren tipping over a tree, but my blog is acting up and I can't post it :(

Oh well, here's a view from where we were tipping over trees:

 

At the top of that mountain there is a golf ball looking tower.. 

 

You can barely see it in this picture, but that is Sawtelle. From the top of that mountain you can see Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. Kinda cool, so we took a drive up there and these are the views:

 

Here's the whole gang:

It was fun to get away for a few days and spend time with my family to be! 

On the way up to the top of Sawtelle we saw a momma moose and her twin babies cross the road... that was pretty sweet too!

Yes- I still get excited when I see a moose because you just don't see those in Virginia! 

This is a long post, but I'll some up the rest. Jake and I are almost done with our bed frame! We worked on it this week and it is coming along quite nicely!

 

 

 

All we have left is the middle piece and a paint job. We'll eventually make a headboard and maybe way down the road some sliding drawers for the cubbies, but we won't try to tackle that until we are in our next apartment a year from now. 

And now for the grand finale! Yesterday Jake and I went to Alpine, Wyoming to get some fireworks. On the way up to Alpine we passed Palisades and the spot where Jake proposed to me. It was beautiful up there and it was really sweet of Jake to stop and point it out. 

 

I love you Jake! 6 weeks until we get to start our new life together :)

The Real Deal

I took these pictures on my phone so ignore the horrible quality...you get the idea.

Here's the finished product:

It might not be the prettiest thing in the world, but I made it and I think it looks better than it did when it started!

Reupholster Trial ONE

So I bought 2 chairs from D.I. a few weeks ago and thought to myself  "I'll have some free time this summer...I should try to learn how to do something new". I wanted some chairs for the Study room I'm going to make for Jake when we move into our apartment because he will be studying like crazy when he's taking the Paramedic classes and I don't want him to have to go to the library every night. Now I admit- I do not know anything about reupholstering furniture, but I watched a youtube video and it looked pretty simple.   As you can tell, these chairs needed a little TLC. They have been reupholster once before, and they were dirty as could be! 

 

So I went to work..... 
 

I unscrewed everything, wiped off all the dirt, sprayed the cushions with Lysol and added a cushion to the butt part of the seat. I didn't remove the old fabric for the bottom part because I wanted as much cushion as I could get.
 

Then I started to staple....
 

This is where things started to get a little tricky. I didn't want anyone to be able to feel that I had put in a square cushion, so I added Poly-fil to the end of the seat to smooth everything out. This really was hard to keep everything together and where I wanted it while I stapled it down because I only have 2 hands and I didn't have any help. 

 

Oh snap-What's up?! I have successfully reupholstered the bottomhalf of a chair. It's kinda comfy too! The back looks a little lumpy because I didn't add poly-fil to that part, but when the top is put back on it will be fine. I was really proud at my first attempt, and it looks a lot better now then it did when I started! Jake was getting back from work, so I ended with removing the first layer of fabric from the top half of the chair. The staples wouldn't have gone through all the layers if I didn't, so check out this old fabric that was underneath...
 

You can't tell from the picture, but that is lime green and purple squiggly lines. Ew. I'm really glad I took off that top layer because when I did a ton of dirt and dust was flying out of that thing. So I soaked the top again in Lysol and left it to air out overnight. I'm hoping to finish the rest of the chair tonight! 

I'm so proud of myself :)

Nothing Like Spending The Weekend Together

What an eventful day :)  I picked out flowers for the reception centerpieces and ordered them all online today which is what I have been working on all week! Then I got ready for the day and Jake took me out to lunch in Idaho Falls. After we were done at Chili's we took a walk around the Idaho Falls Temple (where we are getting married) and we got to see a Hubble Telescope exhibit in the Visitor's Center which was amazing! 

After we left the temple, I asked Jake to take me to D.I. (which is Goodwill to my east coasters) and we found vases for the centerpieces for super cheap. We bought 7 of them $6.36!! 

 They turned out to be perfect for what we want to use them for! And might I add... I'm marrying a very funny man. Jake had to work tonight, but we had a few hours to play this afternoon, so we went to Home Depot and bought $90 worth of wood to start building our bed frame... it should look like this when we are completely done with it-

 Storage drawers will be put in underneath inside of those cubby holes and we will make an upholstered headboard like the second picture. I'm really excited to build this all; we will have really nice furniture for cheap! Just need to put in a lot of time and a little sweat and it will turn out perfect! We're still debating whether or not we will paint it or stain it, but we'll worry about that once the thing is actually made. Once we got done with our adventures in Idaho Falls, we went back to Jake's house and found some baby birds. I have never seen baby birds this young before and I was kind of grossed out by them... They look freaky when they are newly hatched. 

They look like aliens. Ew....but look how big their beaks are! haha... Let's give them a few weeks to get a little cuter.

Jake and I have been exercising together more lately, which has been really fun. We usually do P90x, but today we tried out the exercise balls. We did a 25 minute workout but it wasn't really worth our time. It was more of a warm up then a workout, but we had some good laughs during it. While we were "working out", Carlie (Jake's youngest sister) went up to the school and rented a canoe til Monday for $15. The river behind his house is high which will be perfect for canoeing. I think Jake and I will take it out tomorrow and go for a little birthday canoeing trip! I'll have to take some pictures because it is beautiful down there, and who knows... maybe we'll see a moose that isn't dead this time. 

Other note worthy pictures taken today include the one below addressing tourists. On our way home from I.F. we went to an antique store and this sign is posted down the street from it:

We also took a few pictures out on the trampoline...

 My hair looks crazy in the sunlight...it really doesn't look white trash in person, but either way I will be coloring it this week!

Tomorrow, June 13th, will be my birthday which will also be our 2 month mark until we get married!!! 

My life is blessed.

68 days to go! It's coming too quick and not fast enough.

Good news- I got a job at an elementary school here in Rexburg. I interviewed and received a phone call about 4 hours later saying they wanted to offer me a job. I took it since 30 people applied for the job and I couldn't ask them to wait 2 weeks for my other interview. I canceled the interview for the 7th because I didn't want to risk not taking the one I have for sure. The job I accepted gives me a few more hours a week anyways and I need to take all I can get! So there's one more stress crossed off the list!

We're still picking out the pictures we want to order for our announcements, and it's hard because there are so many cute ones. Still need my mom's input (cough cough) and anyone else's who would care to comment. 

Next week I do not have to work, so the Idaho reception should start getting details set. I'm excited to get some more things planned and out of the way. My to-do list doesn't seem to get much smaller, but I know I've been getting things done! Jake and I decided on a mattress, I bought a couple chairs to reupholster for his study room (yes a couple-so I can bug him when he's in there too long), and....crap... that was all I really got done this week. I worked extra hours this week and it was Jake's birthday on Tuesday-don't judge me. Oh wait, I did pick out some wedding favors too, so now I just need to buy them.

It's still cold and rainy in Rexburg, and maybe that's why my blogs are so boring lately. I need some sunshine! I heard next week is supposed to be beautiful, but we'll see. It's June for crying out loud...come on universe, cut me a break. I did get a good laugh yesterday when I was driving to work-some man had attached a regular flatbead trailer to 2 horses and was cracking a whip at them. He was taking up a full lane of traffic and it was probably the most ridiculous thing I saw all day. Thank you Rexburg...you never cease to amaze me.

PICTURES ARE UP!

Engagement pictures are finally up!!


http://amybennion.instaproofs.com/category.php?id=591449&event=232556&pageSize=40&pageNumber=1


If that doesn't work, go to www.amybennion.com, online ordering, Jake and Darcie Wilcox Engagement, and my email is Naldergirl@aol.com


Tell us which ones you like best! We're going to be making our wedding announcement soon :)