Soooo it's been awhile...

WOW! Can't say I didn't see this coming, start a blog and then abandon it. It may have had something to do with where we moved to in California. That pretty apartment I was showing off in my last post was the most stressful thing that had ever happened in my life. Long story short- we paid over $1,675 a MONTH for a one bedroom, no internet, no cable, no utilities, and no furniture. Needless to say that summer was a little rough. We made some wonderful friends but we will NEVER try to do summer sales again.

I can't believe this is one of the only pictures I have of these ladies, so many fun memories. Love you Emily and Steph!

Carsen and I had never worked so hard in our lives. It was a challenging experience but we learned so much... so much about each other. We grew so close together, I guess that is what happens when you deal with hardships with one another. In a big way it was a blessing, because now we know how wonderful our life is!! HAHA!

Carsen and I were able to enjoy a few things about California. Carsen especially loved the sports games.

Carsen's best bud Landon

Carsen's best bud Bree

Some of the best times we had were when we just left to do something on our own. We didn't have to tell anyone, we just went, on our own little adventures.

We went to the aquarium, and then had the most wonderful seafood of all time!

Our favorite place- Balboa Island

And then... we left that place. Wrote a long vent entry in my journal and put that part of our lives in the past... and started our lives back in Idaho.

We moved back into our little apartment but now we have much more furniture and let me tell you... have "things" is actually AWESOME!

Carsen saved up to purchase his most prescious item... his TV. I have enjoyed decorating the house with pretty things (its cuter now, this is an older picture)

thanks mom for the couches

We got a little nephew! We fell in love with him! His name is Carter and he just lights up the room. We miss him terribly though because he moved away to Arkansas with his parents... :(

We spent lots of time with our friends having adventures like going to Mesa Falls...

Love him

so romantic

Lindsay girl

One of my fondest memories of this last summer was going to the park with my husband. Nothing is better than laying on a blanket, relaxing, no stress, no California, no summer sales, having a picnic, and just being content with life.

 Then things got cold again and we started going back to school. Thank goodness for those lazy summer days because we are more busy than ever. I work at the WalMart Pharmacy and Carsen is now working as a physical therapy tech at Rexburg Rehabilitation.

So there is your update for now... More coming soon... I hope

it ain't much... but it's home

playing at the beach (malibu)

welcome to our second home! it is a little sparse but we have all that we need and that is good enough for us.

the bed... or should i say mattress

 we didn't want to rent any furniture because...

1. we won't be in the apartment that much... especially carsen
2. it was super expensive and even if we buy a few things it would probably be less than one months rent in furniture
3. this summer is an adventure

the kitchen... so freaking nice

our family room and dinning room were completely bare up until two days ago when our extremely gracious neighbors (who are also selling/working with us) decided to lend us their extra couch and coffee table. now we actually have a place to sit and a place to eat... so glad to have now.

and the bathroom. much bigger than our last and much nicer... even though we don't have much in this apartment... i think i will miss it when we leave.

California- update

A few things first. i must introduce our new car.

Her name is Daisy Dodge and she is a sassy little thing. We rescued her from a terrible relationship. Her previous owner had a bad habit of picking her nose and wiping it all over poor little Daisy. i don't think i've seen a car in such a state. She was a bit bruised and battered but now she has a whole new glow about her.

we spent several hours cleaning her... no kidding... hours! we wore gloves, glasses, and face masks. we had to pick out all the nooks and crannies of all the crap. we didn't just have to vacuum, but we had to extract all the dog hair with brushes and duct tape. Then we had to wash the chairs with carpet cleaner... gross.


Once we got her all clean we packed  her as full as we could and headed south to california. we stopped in las vegas for the night at the Buffalo Bill Hotel. it smelt like a disney land ride but it was cheap and that was good enough for the two of us.

The next day we made our way down to California, Succesfully moved in, and then headed straight for the pool. we don't have much... no furniture, no tv, no internet, and hardly any service... but hey... it's just for 4 months and we can pretty much do anything for 4 months.

We Are Moving!

I have been packing away our things all day and i am no where close to being finished... probably because i keep organizing rather than packing. on top of that i am limited to what i can pack away, after all we still have 2 days left in this apartment. I'm getting anxious to be out of this home and into the next. Carsen and i are moving to Los Angeles for the summer. we are both working for a pest control company, Cars will be selling and i will working in their offices. it will be an exciting change to be living in California on our own. the company we are selling with set us up in some amazing apartments. in fact, we probably wont live in another place as nice as this for a very long time.

Here are some pictures of what our apartment looks like... realistically we are not gonna be able to make it look as fancy as they can but hey... we are not complaining.

like i said... not complaining.

When boredom attacks.

well, the other night carsen and i were overcome with intense boredom. it was the kind of boredom is incurable. no idea had any sort of appeal to us. "wanna go on a walk?" NO. "wanna go to campus?" no. "wanna watch a movie?" no. and so on.

after about an hour of staring at the ceiling we had finally come up with something. there was only one thing that could keep us entertained in our very small apartment... puzzles. we also ended up getting coloring books as well.

 as you can see we were very thrilled. 

it is surprising how much time passes when you are doing a puzzle. we hardly even talked for hours because we were engrossed in our work. i am telling you right now... puzzles will heal your boredom!

 the next day... sunday. we got home from church and immediately started working again.
for several more hours.

 the final product. 

moral of the story... when boredom attacks... break out the puzzle.

Valentine's Day Goodness.

Finally Carsen and I get to spend Valentine's Day together! It's been 3 years since our last V-day date... and that didn't go down as well as I would have like it to. I won't go into much detail but I will say that Carsen learned from his mistakes and today was much better. I just wanted to share a few things about this love filled holiday.

First off, I made the best dang cookies I have ever made in my life and I just had to share them with the world. I got the recipe from a Crisco can and I don't think I will use another recipe again. I have been searching for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe for years... and here it is.

 

DANG DANG DANG DANG DANG GOOD COOKIES

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

3/4 cup Crisco (any kind)

2 Tbls milk

1 Tbls vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 3/4 cup flour

1 tsp salt 

3/4 tsp baking soda

1 1/4 cup chocolate chips

HEAT oven to 375. Combine brown sugar, shortening, milk and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat at medium speed with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat egg into creamed mixture.

COMBINE flour, salt and baking soda. Mix into creamed mixture until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips. 

BAKE for 8-10 minutes for chewy cookies (the best) or 11-13 minutes for crispy cookies

Makes 3 dozen cookies

Well this morning Carsen woke me up to breakfast in bed, he made delicious omelet styled scrambled eggs with toast and orange juice. It was very sweet, and I had never had that happen to me before.

After his classes he surprised me with a few gifts...

First of all, Pudder surprised me with a letter from Carsen inviting me to dinner. We ended up going to Applebees because it is one of the 3 restaurants in town... but always good.

I was also surprised with some of my favorite treats. And a new little surprise...

Please meet Pinker Bear (kinda sounds like Tinker Bell... haha cute right???). Carsen won her from the claw machine at Walmart for 25 cents... just like he did with Pudder. He won her on his first try, so of course we feel as if she was meant to be part of this family. I had to patch up a few holes because her previous home didn't show much tender love and care with her.

 

I started and completed my first Pinterest project. It took me a month in all... but that's because I had to keep it a secret from Carsen.

I was pretty proud of the final product... and so was Carsen.

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day. Love you all.

The Newest Dumas Family

Our 1st Home.

I am starting a blog. I figure there are certain things I want to share with my friends and family that Facebook doesn't care to know about. So... here we go.

Probably the most exciting thing that has happened since Carsen and I got married is that we were able to move into our own apartment in Rexburg. Although we may not have much, being able to decorate our first home was a BLAST! And after several hours of cleaning I have taken several pictures... mostly to update my family, but also to keep a record of how awesome being a newlywed is. 

This is in our front room. The TV was donated to us by Carsen's older brother Cameron and his wife Krystal... Thank you! Our lovely bookshelf is also a gift from a one of Carsen's friends/converts from the mission (pretty much everything in our house is a gift from a friend or family member... we are seriously so thankful for you guys). The "DUMAS" license plate is from Carsen's mission in Germany. Carsen put together the book shelf with his "man tools" and then decorated it all by himself with his "womanly touch".

This is our chair. No... we do not have a couch, just this one chair which Carsen and I share. We have become pros at fitting in this chair together. We can't sit side by side so we have to be a little creative... back to back, spooning, one in front of the other. For now, I can live with just a chair but I can see myself getting pretty sick of it pretty soon.

Our first family portrait displayed on the wall. 

The kitchen. Now that I think about it I probably should have turned on some lights to take these pictures, but to save energy the lights are never on during the day and I pretty much live in my electric blanket to stay warm.

Adorable... right?

I am very much still learning how to cook like a real wife... I think Carsen is still losing weight despite my efforts. After almost every meal I have to ask is he is full... and sometimes he is... sometimes.

Our lovely kitchen table. 

This is the bonus room/study/storage room. Carsen usually studies at the desk and I built myself a make-shift bed/chair so that I can be next to Carsen when he is studying. Also this is the only room in which we can have internet.

And this is everything we can't decide what to do with. We are moving in just two months so we wanted to keep some boxes and this is my best attempt at organizing them.

Our bathroom.

... with our awesome shower curtain. 

Carsen's side of the bed (our Christmas gift from my parents... thank you Mom and Dad). And that would be our newest addition to the family (the mousy looking elephant in the middle of the bed) Pudder. Carsen won him from a claw machine on the first try and now believes he was meant to be in our family... and that he deserve a spot on the bed.

 

My side of the bed. We didn't have another bedside table so I took one of then many boxes we had lying around and got creative. Do you like my table cloth made out of a towel??? Me too.

And our closet... those plastic drawers would be our dresser. 

I hope you enjoyed the tour. Hopefully there will be more blogs to come. Love you all.

The Newest Dumas Family