House Hunters

This past month, I have never felt so stressed out in my life.  Seriously, I cannot think of a previous time where I have been as stressed out as this.  Even planning my wedding was not this stressful.  I have been on such an emotional roller coaster and Scott is definitely learning some things about me that I'm sure he didn't know before.  Good thing marriage is all about the positive and negative things about a person, right?  Anyways, this thing that is always on my mind and stressing me out is buying a home.  Yes, Scott and I are looking into purchasing our first home.

The thought of buying a home was actually very random and surprising.  I will say that Scott was the sole reason for this thought coming into our heads.  He just started looking up homes one day for fun and it suddenly turned into calling a real estate agent to go looking for homes.  I'm not going to lie, I don't think we did all our research on buying a home before we started looking.  When Scott gets a thought into his head, it is all he thinks about.  He gets very excited and sometimes doesn't think realistically about certain aspects of what he's excited about.  So, that can be a problem, but it's also great that he is not afraid to go for things that might be a little scary or out of the comfort zone.

Obviously, buying a home is way outside of the comfort zone.  "It's the biggest investment and most money you'll spend in your life" is what we keep hearing from everyone we've talked to.  That is scary stuff to hear!  It was fun at first to look at houses with Scott and figure out what we liked and didn't like in a home.  What was a deal breaker and what we could be fine living with. It was fun to think about being able to decorate my home how I wish.  No one telling me what I can and can't do with the place I was living in.  It was fun to think that we could now get another cat without worry.  Whenever we would start a family, we knew that we would have space.  Scott could finally do what he wanted with the yard and plant a garden and his fruit cocktail tree.  It was great to think about being somewhere permanent, without worry of where we would be living from year to year.  I think because of all these fun things about a home, we forgot to do our research.

We went out and started looking at homes and found one that seemed very nice that we liked a lot.  Our real estate agent called the next day saying that an offer got put on the house, but no back up offer.  We started to get worried and decided to be the back up offer.  Say what?!  I know, I know.  Probably not the smartest thing to do considering we knew nothing about how much things would really cost. We have not heard back about the house we put an offer on.

Putting in the back up offer really set things off with me.  I started freaking out...a lot.  And I'm still freaking out....a lot.  The main thing that is scaring me the most is all the financial burdens of buying a home.  It really is the most expensive thing you will ever buy and own in your life.  I have to keep being constantly comforted and reminded by Scott that we will be okay and things will work out fine.

I had a little break down last night and was just crying and crying over how worried I am that we won't have enough money, we're going to buy the wrong house, etc.  After I was finished, I realized that I need to have more faith and trust.  It sounds so easy, but it is hard for me to have faith in something so huge, which is probably why I need to have it.  I think that now that I have discovered this, I hopefully won't break down as much. (Really crossing fingers here on this one...I HATE being stressed out.)

Scott and I have researched so much more into buying a home, which has helped in making me feel better.  We have gotten so much advice and support from family.  It still seems a little crazy to me that we would be buying a home after only a year and a half of marriage, but it does feel like it should be the next step in our married life (despite my frequent break downs).

So, here's to faith and trust that there will be no problems with money, that we will find a home in the time period we have, that we will get a home in the right area and that we will buy a home that suits who we are...Scott & Emily Fletcher.

Good luck to us!

Porter's Place

When Scott's brother Andrew comes into town, it is a tradition for him, Lane, Brita and kids to go to this restaurant called Porter's Place.  It is located in Lehi, Utah and it is a restaurant that pays homage to Orrin Porter Rockwell. 

• Joseph Smith promised Porter that if he never cut his hair his enemies would never harm him and that prophecy was fulfilled.

• Porter Rockwell served as Joseph Smith’s and Brigham Young’s bodyguard and was one of the first converts to the LDS Church.

• Porter Rockwell was ordained a seventy of the Church, a position he held throughout his life.

• Porter Rockwell was accused and jailed (later acquitted) for the attempted assassination of Missouri Lt. Gov. Boggs. Boggs issued the infamous “extermination order” to the Mormons. (Joseph Smith said he knew Porter didn’t shoot Boggs because Porter wouldn’t have missed.)

• At Porter Rockwell’s funeral, Apostle and future Church President Joseph F. Smith spoke and said the following about Porter –“They say he was a murderer; if he was he was the friend of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, and he was faithful to them, and to his covenants, and he has gone to Heaven and apostates can go to Hell… Porter Rockwell was yesterday afternoon ushered into Heaven clothed with immortality and eternal life, and crowned with all glory which belongs to a departed saint. He has his little faults but Porter’s life on earth, taken altogether, was one worthy of example, and reflected honor upon the church. Through all his trials he had never once forgotten his obligations to his brethren and his God."

Information taken from this website: http://www.porterrockwellutah.com/

Here's also a song about him as well:

Scott's other brother David and his wife Kristene drove up for a surprise visit for the weekend, so everybody gathered together and we went to eat there.  It is a western style restaurant with the serving portions being large, but good.  They have these fun specialty drinks also that was fun to try.  One that we tried was a mixture of  Ironport, cherry and milk.  It was actually pretty delicious and much better than the drink that I thought would taste like pina colada, but didn't.

This is the lame pina colada drink.  Scott was nice enough to trade drinks with me.

It was fun night out with the Fletcher family!!

Utah Grizzlies

When I married Scott, I knew he was into sports.  ESPN is his channel to watch and he'll flip between all the other sports channels.  I had no idea though of how much he was into hockey!  I think we went to one hockey game while we dated and since then, we've gone to at least 1-2 games per season.  Scott definitely enjoys it more than I do, but I am slowly enjoying it more each time I go to a game.  It's even more fun when Scott tells me things about the game of hockey, so I can actually watch and know what is going on!

Scott's younger brother Andrew is in town and he calls Scott all the time about hockey, so of course, we had to go to a hockey game while he is here!  Here are some pictures from the event.

It was pretty empty that night, so we got to sit up close.

Me and my hockey lover.

Face off! Go Grizzlies!

Made it on the big screen! Just barely got the picture taken in time, so that's why it's blurry.

  Brooke was eating goldfish.

Cute.

This game that we went to was a play-off game, so the season is pretty much over.  Until next time, hockey!  It's been fun.

Next up...baseball games this summer?!

Festival of Colors

The Festival of Colors is a celebration of winter leaving and spring coming.  It is associated with the Hare Krishna religion and is done at the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork, Utah.  This festival also promotes unity and diversity with all the colored chalk that are being thrown on each person.  It is a lot of fun and is becoming more popular each year.  This article gives more information about it.

I have gone to this festival for 4 years now.  I didn't think I would go more than twice, but this year is the first year I was finally able to go with Scott, so I just had to take advantage of that.  Here are some pictures from past experiences going.

This was my first year going to the festival.  I went with three past room-mates Ruth, Janora and Amanda.  We had no idea how huge it would be and showed up late (because of traffic), but we did our best to get some sort of chalk on us.

This was my second year going and as you can tell, we definitely got a lot more colored chalk on us.  I went with the same old room-mates again and my sister came along also.  I saw some other friends from my singles ward there also (in the second picture).  It was fun and we had a blast, however, it took twice as long to get the color off of us.  I think it even dyed Brianna's hair for a couple of days.

This was my third year going.  I went with Ruth and another past room-mate, Elissa.  The first picture really shows how many people attend this festival and it seems to keep getting bigger and bigger each year. 

All white and ready to get some color!

Look at that sexy butt.

Boo...Scott's eyes are closed.  Note to self: ALWAYS get two pictures taken.

This happened just this past weekend, on Saturday the 24th.  There was traffic on the way down and just as crowded, probably even more.  We were supposed to meet up with friends, but it really is hard to find people in that crowd.  It was a short trip, but I'm glad that Scott could finally go and experience it.  I went and bought $5 shirts at Wal-Mart since the shirts are pretty much unsalvageable afterwards.

I've seen people write and say how they can't believe their Mormon friends worship Pagan Gods by attending this festival of colors.  I honestly think that this celebration isn't about worship or religion, but more about celebration of springtime and unity.  It's an activity put on by the Hare Krishna religion for people to gather together and enjoy some fun.  Don't us Mormons put on activities and invite people not of our religion to join and participate?  I feel that this is what this festival is and I do not feel guilty about attending.  I've seen this picture going around the internet and it made me laugh. :)  It is held in Utah after all and the LDS population is higher in this state than others.

Hockey Time

 I'll just let the pictures do the talking on this post.  Enjoy!

Snack Time

Costco can be a terrible place to shop sometimes.  Terrible in the fact that you almost always come home with something that wasn't on your list.  This happened to me.  I am usually pretty good about sticking to my list and not buying extra things, however I just couldn't resist on buying this little treat for Scott and I. 

 Yes, these are chocolate covered frozen banana slices.  Don't they look delicious?!  I know that it is probably cheaper to make these on your own, but it was like they were calling to me and I had no other choice but to buy them. 

 They come in these individual packages, which I think is awesome.

Inside the package is a tray with the chocolate covered banana slices.  Scott and I really like that they are sliced and in their own individual serving trays.  These are such a nice little snack that I am going to say is also semi-healthy.

I am sad to say though that at our most recent trip to Costco, we did not find these at all!!  I don't know if they were a special item, but we are sad.  I have started saving the trays, so that we can start making these on our own, which will probably be cheaper in the end anyway.

Let us know if you find these anywhere else! We love these frozen chocolate banana slices!

New Haircut

About 2 weeks ago, my hair went from this (long and boring):

to this:

Shorter, healthier and layered.

Yes, that is the exact same shirt in both pictures.  The bangs are something I'm still getting used to, but I really love it!  It's amazing what a new haircut can do for you.  Tell me what you think!