Follow the Prophet

Happy New Fruit Trees!
We've started a garden!! Yeah for Gardens. Our pictures are a bit fuzzy (it so was humid!) but we have three trees--two apples (Gala and Anna--which is specially bred for down south and supposed to be a yummy dessert apple!) and a peach
(Elberta, same type as Dads!) --and we've started our little seeds in cute little plastic cups until we can get our garden spot ready! The soil here is, well...not really soil! More like rich, thick and hard to dig clay~! We're thinking of raising our garden and putting some yummy, rich, and healthful soil so that our plants can grow big and strong! I guess we'll see how our trees do! Yeah for following the prophet and planing our own garden!
This is in the car, bringing our trees home! Squishy!!

Our little starter garden! :)


Happy Gardening Everyone! Send any gardening in Texas tips that you may have--I'm guessing we're going to need them!

National Museum of Funeral History

Just a quick, quirky blog to make your day! Mike's sister, Meg is visiting us and we spent Saturday sight seeing--however, the best place we visited all day (even better then the Galleria, which is the 2nd largest mall in the US) was the National Funeral Museum! Sweet! Betcha didn't know that there was a National Funeral Museum--allow me to take you on the tour!

Here's some crazy caskets--apparently people in Ghana have caskets modeled after what they did in life, like their jobs, or things about their personality or class! Crazy!


Here's a creepy three person casket--a family in the early 1900's had a child die and decided that they would have the husband kill the wife and then commit suicide--and then all be buried together. They ordered this casket made, and then decided not to go through with their plan--so it is now housed in the National Funeral Museum.


Here's one that I like--a casket completely covered in money! Whoa! Apparently there is a custom in some cultures that you have to buy your way into heaven--pretty steep price to pay!


Hearse anyone?
Other exciting things about this museum? A civil war morgue, a turn of the century embalming room (see the video below), a book full of famous peoples' death certificates and funeral programs, and a history of the funerals of the US Presidents. And, tune in next summer for the special new display opening about the funeral customs of the pope! In the gift shop you can buy one of a kind wonders like a casket ring box (somehow, that seem truly symbolic!) t-shirts sporting phrases like, "It's better to be over then hill, then under it," and "I've used all my sick days, I'm calling in DEAD!" and "Cremation; It's the last thing to light your fire." Also look for miniature embalming boxes (perfect for your doll house!) and coffin shaped candy. This is certainly a must see for anyone visiting Houston (except, now you've seen it, so take it off your list!)



Hope you got a kick out of it like we did! Loves!!

Ode to Craigslist!

Ode to Craigslist, We love Craigslist! Craigslist is the best-est ever!
Ode to Craigslist, We love Craigslist! It will be our friend Forever!

So, saving up signing bonuses, graduation gifts, birthday gifts and our returned deposits we have been shopping--on Craigslist!! For those of you who don't know about it, it's the best thing ever! It's not so hot in Utah, where the Church becomes it's own type-of Craigslist, but outside of Utah is awesome! It's a free online classifieds website where people post things they want to get rid of and where you can search for things you want! I would estimate that we have saved ourselves, if we had purchased everything new, probably 2000ish$ buying things off of Craigslist instead of from a store or dealer! Here's the run-down of some of our great finds!

Mike got money from his family for graduation for a piano--check out the beautiful one that we found! It's hardly been played and sounds so great in our big, bare, empty room! :)



Mike also got money for a BBQ from Katelyn and I for graduation. This grill runs 4-500+ bucks in the store--we got way more for our money then could get getting this grill through Craigslist. (And it came with the cool rotisserie attachment! There goes my grand birthday present plan! :)



Our truck is great!! It looks just like my Dad's truck--with the addition of power steering. The perfect beater truck that we wanted--and now we can start hauling stuff and helping others--we even told the EQP today in church that we've got a truck and are so willing to help and give back a bit of the help people have given us!


We got some great lawn equipment--a great mower and weed-eater! Yeah for doing yard work in the hot, hot, Texas sun!


And a great little filing cabinet--perfect for our scary and totally disorganized office!

We've also gotten a cheap lamp and an ugly looking pack-n-play...functional, but totally not worthy of a picture!

So--we'll end with our song once more...(sung to the tune of Ode to Joy!)

Ode to Craigslist, We love Craigslist! Craigslist is the best-est ever!
Ode to Craigslist, We love Craigslist! It will be our friend FOREVER!

www.craigslist.com

Welcome Home!

Sorry it's been a while--we've been working, working, working! Here's the updates!!

We closed on our beautiful new home on Monday, May 12th. Everything went smoothly and wonderfully, which is always a good thing! Monday evening we picked up my mom from the airport--yeah! It was a great day! We had a party Monday evening--nothing says I Love You like power tools!! :) And, add to that Lasagna that takes 2 hours to cook--nothing better!
Thanks Mom!

Tuesday, May 13th, the moving company arrived and unpacked the truck! Funny how when you live in a 650 square foot apartment everything seems so small, and when you move to a big 'ol house it feels so huge! The move went pretty good, as far as we can tell thus-far. A few things got broken or torn, but we get to file some claims so hopefully everything will be repaired or received new!

We wasted no time lolly-gagging around--Wednesday we got right to work painting and decorating and putting stuff away! Only one room left to unpack as of today--and our downstairs looks awesome! Upstairs needs a lot of work, but you can't have it all at once, right? :) We worked and worked and worked all through the week and weekend and everything we accomplished is BEAUTIFUL! Here are some before and afters!

We refinished all of our bedroom furniture--this is the only before we have, unfortunately, but the end result is beautiful!


Our Family Room

And Kitchen

Here are the afters--unfortunately the lighting was bad in some of them (SAD!) so the Kitchen pictures are better then the Family pics! However, the two short movies capture it well enough...

Katelyn has been having such a great time exploring our new house--she took to the stairs like I take to candy! And we invested in a pool for the back yard--so huge and luxurious!
(At least for Katelyn! :)


It was so great to have my mom here to help us get organized and celebrate our new home! Meg, Mike's sister, comes to visit this weekend and then I'm going to try and convince anyone else who wants to come, to come! Come visit!!

And, here's one of my favorite moments from all week! Grandma's are the best!!



And last, but certainly not least, here's a shout-out to my dad and the kids at home (lets be honest though, mostly my dad...) Thanks for being so selfless and keeping up with all the mega-crisis that happened this week! I was so grateful that mom got to stay, even when she was really, really, really needed at home! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

And Aunt Suzanne,
you're the absolute best for cleaning up gunk and crud all night, over and over again...
You're my hero!

A Shout Out To Moms!

Happy Mothers Day everybody! And Happy Anniversary to me! Our day of celebration was overshadowed by the excitement of closing on our house tomorrow and attending our new ward today, but we did at least give say the token lines, 'Happy Mothers Day, Happy Anniversary!" And actually, Mike and Katelyn got me a fun little set to make a hand print of Katelyn. Cuteness! :)

Our new ward was great---it felt just like a Utah ward! Actually, it felt a lot like my home ward...a HUGE-mongous primary and lots of youngish families. I think we're going to feel right at home! It's such a blessing that the church is everywhere, and that they become your family! We didn't have any worries about where to go today, what to do, and if we would find friendly faces. I am so grateful to be a member of this church--no matter what building you attend church in, you can always know that you will feel the spirit and be welcomed! And that means a lot living so far from home!

We met lots of nice people today and found that several families live in our neighborhood. One of them even invited us over for lunch! It was so nice, seeing how it's Mothers Day and all. I'm so glad that we are going to love it here!

Wish us luck tomorrow! We close on our house--wahoo!

Love you all!

Master Mike!!

Wahoo! We made it!! He has that all important piece of paper!! (And it's the actual one--A&M hands out the actual diploma at graduation.) CONGRATULATIONS MIKE!!

We had a great time with all the graduation festivities. The morning of graduation was moving central and then we spent the evening celebrating Mike! It was so great to have his parents in town, even if their sleeping accommodations were, shall I say, Boxy... :) Thanks for coming Mom and Dad! We went to this great little mom and pop Italian place for dinner and then suffered through 3 hours of name calling! But it was great to see Mike walk across the stage and think of all that he has accomplished! I'm so proud of him--way to go Babe!

And thanks to everyone that sent a graduation gift--or pitched in to get him great things! His family was generous and put together enough money to allow Mike to get a nice used piano and he got a money tree (Mike said that now that he's graduated, I think that money grows on trees!) to put towards a BBQ from Katelyn and I! We are certainly blessed!

These pictures are for Meg--the brainchild of great gift giving! He was SO surprised!

A Moved Up Move!!

So--Thursday morning we got a phone call; "Just confirming our arrival time with you, tomorrow, for us to come and pack up your stuff. Is that still going to work for you?" Still going to work for me??? I didn't know they were coming in the first place! They were scheduled to arrive next Tuesday! Ah! But...what the heck...if it's going to get us in our house faster, we'll go for it! So, the movers arrived Friday morning and spent 2 1/2 hours packing up our whole apartment (does that give you an idea of how little we have! :) and my super amazing friend is going to show up at my apartment on Monday and be there to oversee the packing of the truck (we'll be in Houston closing on our house! Thanks Amanda!!), and I'm now writing this from a Houston Hotel! New house here we come! Wahoo!! I'm not as organized as I would like to be and I feel a bit frazzled about what exactly got packed and what didn't, but we'll just see how it all ends up! Right?! :)

Happy Birthday...

In true Williams Fashion ...

Happy Birthday; Happy Birthday! People dying everywhere, now it's you that's almost there! Happy Birthday; Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Me!
My Birthday was yesterday and we had such a grand time! Here's the highlights!

First off, I got my ring back!! I haven't worn my wedding ring since I was about 5 months pregnant--yeah for the ability to size rings! We finally decided that we would get it done; all my high hopes of my fingers miraculously shrinking back to normal (as well as my feet, and my hips and my stomach, and my...:) have been ended--and a birthday seemed like a great time! Isn't it pretty?!? (Like the dorky picture? My try at being creative and cute! :)
It's back!! Yeah!!

Last night Mike threw me a HUGE party!! 30+ of our best friends showed up and partied like it was 1999! :) We used it also as a chance to say good-bye to all of our great friends that we have made here, :( and it was such a great night--at least I think so! And don't worry, all of you whom we love so much, there is always the chance of a hurricane bringing us back!! :)

Mike BBQ'd his famous Texas Rub, (he's the BBQ master!)
and we had salads and treats and desserts and children running around eating dirt (that was my goobster, not the running part, but the eating dirt part) and throwing sand! It was great! Thanks to everyone who came and made it such a great night!
Here's some of our friends...
And some more *children eating dirt and throwing sand not pictured* :)

To finish off the festivities we headed out for Cold Stone today!
Here's a plug for Cold Stone--everyone sign up for their birthday club! You get a free 'love it' size on your birthday (a coupon good for a week afterwards) and the 'love it' size is the perfect size to share! And to stay with the birthday theme, they even have a birthday cake remix ice cream selection! Yum!!

I'm serious--it's awesome--FREE ICE CREAM! Here's the link...
www.coldstonecreamery.com/birthday

Sorry about the background noise on this one, but it's cute!! Start 'em young!!


So--thanks to everyone! And here's the start to a great month of May Birthdays!