'Baby, It's Cold Outside'

Hello all!  The title of this blog says it all in those four words-Baby, it's cold Outside.  No joke-it is literally 7 degrees right now at our residence in Utah.  There is also, literally, a blizzard outside at this precise moment.  Again-no joke.  About an hour and a half ago this blizzard showed itself and it has continued Non-Stop-causing several inches of snow in that short amount of time.  So, baby, it's cold outside may not even do justice of what we're experiencing right now :).  I got let off of work about 45 minutes early...the school's let out early...and Utah State shut down for the rest of the day.  So, that all tells me this is an uncommon situation-and Seth and I are lucky enough to experience it with our first major snow here-LUCKY us :).  No, I'm just picking with that last comment.  We hear it snows from now until about the first of June-so I'm sure we will get super tired of all this snow--BUT it is so beautiful.  Just having everything topped with white icing :).  The mountains are gorgeous to just gaze out at (when it isn't so foggy that you can see them) and it just makes Seth and I giddy to wonder how 2100 miles away it is in the 70's and we have inches and inches of snow!?

Blizzard in action: 30 odd minutes.

Seth getting pelted in the blizzard :).

Seth-along with many people in Utah-have never made snow cream before--WHAT??  We made it every time it snowed at the Sineath residence.  Of course, we have HAD to make snow cream and have enjoyed it as our dessert on several occasions (which we will definitely do this evening-thanks to our blizzard).  If you don't know what/how to make snow cream it is simply snow caught in a bowl-milk-sugar-vanilla.  

So-let's recap this past week.  Seth has been a pretty busy fella trying to get everything done before the semester is over-its crunchtime-and it is WILD how quickly this semester has flown by. Now-think we only have about another year and a half 2100 miles away from our family/friends.  As I'm sure you all have noticed (and I've constantly said) we enjoy our marriage and are having an amazing time learning more about each other and living for someone else-worrying about each other-trying to make each other happy :).  Ahh, I could go on for days about it all but I won't.  I walked to his office yesterday to 'surprise' him and see where he gets all his work done.  Thought some of you may be interested in seeing where our natural resource genius works :).

Front of Natural Resource Building-with a Business Woman in Front.

Back of his NR building

Seth at his working area.

This use to be in front of the NR building-It was moved to accommodate the Business Woman-Now This is in Front of the Biology Area.

Walking home from work.

Started snowing while we were walking home.

Trying to hit me with a snowball.

The whole statues in front of Seth's NR building has been brought up on several occasions when talking with friends.  They were questioning how the Business Woman got put in place of this 'nature' guy?  The only explanation was the Business Woman gave more money to NR than this poor nature fellow :).  Anywho while walking around on campus I had to check out what our friends were talking about-and of course take pictures.  I wanted to walk around the whole campus and take pictures of Utah State and some of the known places here but it started snowing pretty hard so we couldn't do that.

The snow in Utah is similar to powdered milk-very different to snow in South Carolina.  You can actually catch snow in your hand and it won't melt.  You can pick up a handful of snow-blow-and it will float around like its falling again.  It doesn't melt fast at all.  Instead of snowflakes it almost looks like little balls.  Seth has realized that the scraper that is ever so useful in South Carolina-is trash here.  We had to go out and purchase a long handled brush with a scraper on the other side!  Life still goes on-even when it snows-children go to school-parents go to work.  People still run errands-without any second thoughts.  

Happy Thanksgiving :)  We will have a Winter Wonderland for Thanksgiving as well as our first Thanksgiving on our own!  Unfortunately, I have to work Thanksgiving evening-but we are having a big lunch with Gina and Joe before I head off to work.  I think we are all pretty sad about not celebrating with our families back South-but we are very excited about being able to celebrate on our own together also.  Our menu consists of:

Turkey

Macaroni and Cheese

Mashed Potatoes

GreenBean Casserole

Sweet Potato Pie

Dressing

Pineapple Casserole

Cranberry  Sauce

Bread

Ahh--Doesn't that sound great.  We actually went to Bed Bath and Beyond earlier today to purchase more storage containers so that we could bring half of the leftovers home :).  Seth is planning to come to meet me at work and have Thanksgiving dinner with me-so leftovers will be PERFECT!  I'm so pumped about being able to use/take my nice bakeware from our wedding.  We use it constantly in our home-but it is nice to be able to take it and show it off to others :).  We received so many wonderful kitchen items and have loved using them.  Seth and I (at different times) will remark about how nice our kitchen things are-we are very proud of them-and agaiin I am very excited to be able to use them all for Thanksgiving (as well as daily living!)

We now are at 28 days until Seth and I are home in South Carolina :)-we are both very excited about seeing both of our families-we miss them oh so much.  We get to skype often with them-and I'm getting where I want to do that daily because we miss them so-but it isn't the same as being able to hug their necks and touch them!  I will be so thankful to get off that plane in Charlotte and see my lovely parents :).  Seth and I both are soooo looking forward to sitting by the fire in Greenwood with a cup of joe and being with his family too :).  Then after Christmas we can count down the days to when my cousin-Olivia and her boyfriend come visit us at the beginning of Febraruy!  We are supppppper excited about that and then a week or so later Seth's sister Emily and her husband Trevor will be coming to spend a few days with us!  We can't wait to have you all out here and hope we can persuade more visitors to come!!  This is what you will be in for---

French Bread-Or Bread of Some Kind....

Pretty trees with Icing on them :).

More Snow...

Snow Covered Cars....

Beautiful Mountains...

Yummy snow cream-and Maybe with to much Sugar :).

More beautiful Views of the Rockies :)-Yea We live in the rockies!

More icing on more trees.

Lots of pictures-and Pictures with me in them....

And Maybe even a Blizzard or two :).

But we will make it worth your trip!  

I'll let you know next blog how yummy our Thanksgiving is-and how many days are left until we see our loved ones!  (28 days today!)

The Cook's :).

I'm Not Good with Titles-So Enjoy :).

November 14, 2010.  Our friends Brent and Bridget are tying the knot today and we are so pumped for them-but we hate we couldn't be there to celebrate with them as they attended our tying the knot celebration.  Congratulations guys :).  Also, today is my friend Beth's birthday-so also hate that we aren't home to celebrate that-but now that we are getting older-I guess it isn't that big of a deal-but Happy Birthday Beth.  Today my sis-in-law Emily ran like a 13 mile marathon-which I think is wild-so Seth and I were excited for her to accomplish that (I don't think I could even run 1 mile-plus it is super cold here).  Another fun time is that today is the day before mine and Seth's three month anni :).  I get into the monthly celebrations (not that I buy gifts-but I like to acknowledge the fact that we were married three months ago tomorrow)-Seth on the other hand doesn't even want to think about it.  He is only about the annual celebrations-which is understandable for a guy.  One more thing to get excited about on this fourteenth day of November-Seth and I will be in South Carolina in 38 days-YES!!  I have started an official countdown and WILL remind our families daily about it-I'm sure they are already aware of this though :).

I find it fun how addicting this blogging thing could be-maybe not the actual part of sitting down and typing on the computer for like an hour-but the fact that anything that happens in our lives-Things I think of, things Seth may mention about his school/work/life, or even fun things that we are doing here I want to immediately get on here and let everyone know.  I am constantly wanting to let everyone know about everything that we see/do/think.  (So sorry family/friends who already know this aspect of me and get tired of).  I get so excited and want our families/friends to be so included in every part of our lives-that I constantly interrupt/overtalk them-even with the smallest things.  So-all I can say is it probably won't change and the only thing I can suggest is just try to overlook it if it gets annoying :).

Seth is still going on with this Bread Kick-which I can't complain about because I definitely have benefited from this passion of his.  I wish some of you could see how 'into' making bread he is-especially Mrs. Cynthia.  Seth is a very simple individual.  He gets satisfied by the most basic things and appreciates everything in life (which I LOVE about him).  He was so excited from our last purchase of bread flour and a container to store this flour-I felt like I had just given a little boy a Christmas present :).  So, to top it off this past weekend we did our weekly shopping and we found rye bread flour-Seth was like a little school boy again.  I didn't realize he loved darker bread so much.  We got the rye flour as well as molasses-so in our near future we will be trying out rye bread and pumpernickel bread. 

Seth's first run at Sourdough bread

First run at French bread

So here are two types of bread that we have tried so far.  Both were good tasting bread-but the Sourdough didn't taste like sourdough-it tasted like normal bread.  The french bread was a hard/crunchy.  Not moist-we later found out that we should put a pan of water in the oven while cooking the French bread.  But-I will have to start a 'brag moment' now.  We ate one loaf and made the other loaf into French toast Saturday morning.  YUMMMMMMMMMMMMM.....The end.  We had homemade french toast-with homemade maple syrup.  Our Saturday morning started off GREAT!

Had to take a picture of the syrup

Frying French Bread-Ready French Bread :)

Delicious.  

Maple Syrup:

1 cup water

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 tbsp maple flavoring

Put water and sugars together in pan-bring to boil.  Add maple-stir-let simmer for few minutes.

Hope you guys can enjoy that as much as we did.  

I will again confirm how great of a church family Seth and I have made.  Everyone we have met we LOVE-so caring and generous.  Very hospitable and welcoming of Seth and I.  We've met a Great couple from North Carolina that have easily become lifelong friends (or I hope they feel the same :)-ha).  We have been invited to several homes for dinners and fellowship.  We are actually going to a couples house this evening for dinner and are looking forward to it.  With holidays rolling in-we were worried about what we would do for Thanksgiving-no worries anymore :).  We have planned a thanksgiving feast with Joe and Gina (our NC friends)-and have also been invited to several homes to join there Thanksgiving festivities.  So, no fears families-Seth and I will miss celebrating with you all of course-but we have wonderful friends here that have taken us in :).  I will also admit I had my first 'homesick' meltdown.  This past Friday-I just broke down and cried like a baby-poor Seth-he didn't know what hit him-hahahahahaha.  He thought he had done something wrong-so he just held me and apologized over and over-finally he realized what was going on with his emotional crazy wife.  He was super sweet and caring and eventually started joking to make me laugh-commenting that he could handle this ONLY about every three months!  We then went to our friends Jordan and Cari's apt and played games with them and another couple and all is well in the Cook household now :). 

I want to comment that I may complain about some things in Utah or say how much I miss home--but I don't want anyone to think that Utah isn't wonderful.  Utah is GREAT!  It is a beautiful place-Seth and I are loving our life here.  We are meeting so many wonderful people-growing daily in our faith (which we know wouldn't have happened at home)-seeing amazing/wonderful/beautiful sites that aren't back South-and LOVING married life :).

One thing I've come to realize-hopefully it doesn't sound bad-if so please overlook it and take it as a compliment-good thing :).  Being married and having to share the holidays and time with families was very difficult for me to think about.  I've never had to share my holiday time and I've NEVER been away from my family for this long-so I've been extremely spoiled in both of those aspects.  When we first started thinking of who to see when-I thought it was going to be the toughest thing to come to a compromise on.  I wanted to be with my family and Seth wanted to be with his-simple as that.  I began to plan which days to spend with the Sineaths and which to spend with the Cooks plus making everyone happy with the result-and then adding in a little friend seeing time.  It didn't take us very long to come up with a compromise that both of our families agreed to (or at least I hope they both really did).  So-the closer time gets for us to come home the more excited I get to be able to see my parents and Eason as well as celebrate Christmas with my hubs and his family :).  I get to wake up on Christmas morning and experience celebrating Christmas as a Cook and also go to my family and celebrate as a Sineath-I get both sides and am really getting pumped about this idea.  It almost is starting to feel as if I am getting two times as much celebrating as normal :)-I just wanted to throw all that out there because the whole thought process of this has been popping into my mind so much lately.  The end of that spill.

So-I'm getting tired of being on the computer and typing so I'm going to end with this.

-Again-Listening to Christmas music and loving it-listening more to Tran-Siberian Orchestra because thats the only Christmas music Seth is okay listening to right now.

-I am currently reading MiddleSex by Jeffrey Eugenides-interesting but strange-it was on a book club list that I read about so trying it out :).  Let you know later if I recommend it or not

-Our menu for this week consists of--Mexican Meatball Soup (sounds weird but it is quite yummy), Tacos, and Lemon Rosemary Chicken.  We are going to eat at a friends home tonight and another evening this week-so that should complete the menu.

-The final Harry Potter movie comes out next week-I was into the Harry Potter books-seen all the movies-so have to watch it to complete it all.  Seth and I are going to Salt Lake next weekend to see it and Seth is thoroughly pumped about it (NOT-haha I'm making him go).

-Last but not least-I will say again 38 days until we are seeing our families :).

Seth thinks it is crazy how much information I put on here-he just said,, "you are telling them what all we are going to eat this week?" So, hope it isn't to much for you guys :)-I'll hold back a little more next time-but again its the whole fact of wanting to include our familiies in every part of our lives :).

The Cook's :)

PS-I enjoy smiley faces-I would use the at the end of every sentence if I could.  

Snow in Utah :).

Hello all :).  Yesterday I didn't feel like blogging and today I don't feel like doing the Cook vs Sineath deal-so sorry we aren't doing that until I get in the mood.  Most of you guys may know this about me, but I am definitely a 'mood' person.  In the mornings I choose my coffee mugs based on my mood-maybe a little strange to comprehend but it is true-I have different coffee mugs based on how I feel when I wake up-Seth is starting to understand this.  He use to try to pick out my coffee mug and fill it up (shouldn't I just suck it up if I have a sweet husband who will get up and pour my coffee-as well as fix it with creamer-sometimes this sickens me that I can't deal with it)-but I honestly can't help it.  He now will ask before he begins to pour my coffee. But anywho----let me talk about what we've been up to lately-and how sweet of a husband I have :)--This may end up having a few gushy stories-so I will warn you now.


Well I actually can go into one of the Cook vs Sineath that I've come to realize while being married to Seth.  I am content with waking up around 8-laying around in my pj's until the afternoon-and then being lazy for the rest of the day.  Doesn't bother me in the least-Us Sineaths can do that you see.  After a long week we like to recooperate on the weekends-and we are comfortable in our pjs (thats another deal with us Sineaths-we like comfy).  We are also that family that just enjoys being together-just us hanging around our home.  Those Cooks (haha I shouldn't say it like that-I should just say Seth-but I think it pertains to majority of my Cook family) want to set an alarm on weekends around 6:30am or so (yes I said alarm-and 6:30am).  My husband also has to jump in the shower first thing in the morning to get clean and ready for the day-no laying around in pjs for him..  He also has to be busy doing something.  He says he feels lazy or useless if he is doing nothing-and he is always wanting to see if someone else will join us for anything we are doing (which is actually fun-I will have to say that).  So-anywho that was one Cook vs Sineath scenario and I can't choose a winner because now I am both-Erika SINEATH COOK :).  It is nice and I enjoy that name.


So, I've previously said that we like to do this weekly menu system-and we go shopping every Saturday for our food for the next week.  Usually Saturday morning we make a grocery list and figure out what we want to eat and head out and pick it all up-it's a good system and works for us for the time being.  Our menu for this next week is Homemade Pizza-which we made for Saturday and lunch Sunday, Pot Roast, and Sweet and Sour Chicken.  I understand that is not 7 meals-but we are still technically college students so we eat a lot of leftovers :).  We got into the 'I want to hang out with another couple mood' and invited our friends that we've met from North Carolina to come over for homemade pizza.  Great idea-we had a wonderful time!  We had to clean our apartment (plus), had amazingly yummy homemade pizza, salad, and crockpot apple cider, and great company.

                                     Some of the ingredients-The dough rising

                                            Seth throwing the dough around.

                                                  Look at that Intensity.

                                        Our Final Product-Boy was it Yummy.


So, that was Saturday night.  Sunday we went to church-which has recently been 'adopted' by a Alpine Church.  So, Maranatha will become an Alpine Church-Logan Campus.  We aren't sure what all that entails, but seems to be okay with us.  After church we ate more of that yummy pizza and went out on a hike to Tony Grove-Naomi's Peak with our North Carolina folks (Gina and Joe-to give them a name).  I will be honest-if Seth and I were to go out on an afternoon hike and saw snow-I would probably be a loser and say, "hon let's not go out in that-I don't want to get wet or cold-blah blah blah".  But we went and it was soooo Much Fun :).  Who would have thought that in 'fall'  we would have several inches of snow-some areas would go to my mid-calf.  We hiked around a little and enjoyed how beautiful the scenery was.  We actually even hiked up the sides of hills and went 'off' trail to get different views.  Gina and Joe brought some coffee for us to share and we brought some oranges.  We stopped and enjoyed those while looking out at a beautiful sight.

Tony Grove Lake

Having Fun in the Snow.

Had to do Self Portrait-Getting Started.

Doesn't this Look Fun Guys?

He always has to check on me when I'm taking pictures of the group :).

A beautiful view.

This is real life for us :)>

It got dark fast-Making our Way Back.

End of our Snow hike :).

Pot Roast that we ate after our hike (10 hours in this thing-YummmY.)

So that was just a little preview of our weekend.  We stayed pretty busy-but we had such a great weekend.  Now it is on to a handful of gushy stuff :).

So, I will have to throw out there that married life is great!  I will highly recommend it to anyone :).  Most of you guys know I grew up with a father who is very protective of his family and worries often (Now that I'm older I respect that aspect of him so much more-he's actually given some of his worrisome ways to me).  Seth must have taken on some of those aspects also.  Seth will tell me some of the same things my dad did-Drive slow-Drive safe.  He is so much more worried about me and making sure I have everything I want/need and will then think about himself (if he even does that).  When we are out hiking-Seth has to make sure he is always behind me when we are hiking up and has to ALWAYS be in front of me when we are going down.  He wakes up at 5am every morning with me and will make our coffee, cook me breakfast, and then go and start my car for me so I drive to work in a warm car :).  And I will stop at this last gushy thing-I wore a normal jacket to work this morning-it started snowing and had been constantly snowing all day.  Seth came to my work (in the snow) to bring me my 'winter/snow' jacket because he wanted me to have it when I left work.  How sweet is that :).  I married a wonderful man and I will not feel bad for bragging on him (even though he may not like it very much). To end this section-Seth has gotten into this 'bread baking' mode and is starting our very own sourdough starter for sourdough bread.  He is very into it and has told me that we HAVE to start buying the bread flour-even though it may be more expensive he has to have it-as well as starting to buy this bread flour in 10 lb bags-it is a MUST-our household has to have this :).

                                             Our SourDough Starter : Day 2

I'll end with this:

-It is snowing right now-Sticking to the ground-Hardcore

-I am definitely listening to Christmas music and Loving it

-Finally got my birthday present from my husband-furry slippers from Cabellas-sporting them now and loving them.

-I have 44 Days until I am flying to South Carolina to be with Seth's and My Family for Christmas and am getting more excited to see them all :)!

Peace out-

South Carolina Vs. Utah

What Up??!!


So, this blog is mainly going to display VS-which for some reason I've been contemplating a lot of lately-and hopefully you may be wondering the same things.  If not-it should be interesting stuff either way :) (or at least I thought so).


                                        South Carolina vs Utah


--When Seth and I first arrived in Utah we, of course, had our SC mindsets.  We are currently living in a completely different culture/environment versus what we grew up in.  Overall living in Utah has been a nice experience-pssssh don't tell anyone-but I like the way the South do things :).  So here I go with SC vs. UT.


a.  So, Utah has what they call a 'grid' system.  The roads are basically laid out in a grid like manner, which when we first arrived thought was very neat.  It would be easy to get around-all you had to do was go North, East, South, West from Main Street and you would arrive at your destination.  Huh-like I said easy right?  WRONG!  Whoever arrived at this 'grid' road method didn't plan it out to well-for example.  200 E will randomly stop and only allow a right or left turn and then 200 E will resurface at another random road.  We went to a couples house and they live on 200 E-well 200 E stopped and we didn't know where it resurfaced. Well needless to say we had to call around and finally figured it out.  Second example-we were going to another couples house and they lived in a different area-so we were following this 'easy' simple grid system and were confused when the North or East streets vanished and street names began to appear.  We were like what-How does that happen.  So not only do we have to know where the numbered streets are we also have to know which street numbers apply to the named streets.  Also, the house we were looking for was 1110-but these house numbers went from 1096 to 1112.  Where was house 1110?  We made it-just a little late-but that's okay we are Cooks :).  South Carolina VS Utah--South Carolina wins.


b.  As most of you from the South know-churches are pretty much on every street corner-and these are the churches with crosses on their steeples-representing Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterians, Catholics, etc.  I will have to say it is like that in Utah-with the exception that every street corner here houses an LDS/Mormon church which just has a plain steeple.  In the South the different denominations are majority-In Utah our faith is the minority.  There are a handful of churches in Utah that we could choose to attend-thankfully we found the right one for us.  Actually the whole Utah/LDS culture is so different from ours.  We have also met a few people of different religions-nonbelievers and a few other beliefs.  We are common as a young married couple here.  A lot of couples are married and both still attending school to obtain there undergrads-and there are also a lot of couples that are our same age with 1-2 children (don't worry-we won't be following the crowd with that one!).  I won't go into detail about the differences between LDS vs Christian-to much information, complex, and we would be here awhile-but if you are interested go look it up and I can just simply say we DON'T believe in the same things-no matter how much they try to tell us that we have most of the same beliefs.  Again I'm going to have to side with the South on this one :).


c. Southern food-ahhhhh.  I will just say that Utah residents do not eat the same things that we do back South.  Most people I've talked to have never heard of Fried Okra-and half of the time the grocery store doesn't carry it.  Chicken and dumplings is a rarity-as well as grits (most of you know that though I think).  BBQ isn't the same here-a lot of times Utah folks will say lets do a bbq tonight-but its more of just hamburgers and hotdogs-so the first time I heard "lets do a bbq"  I was highly disappointed.  They don't fry as must stuff either-so no fried squash-tomatoes-pickles-hushpuppies.  Seth and I try to keep to our southern roots :)-I will have to give this win to South Carolina again-so we are at 3-0 SC!  One small comment though-less obese people in Utah-don't see many at all.


d.  Our next vs will be drinks.  Folks here aren't that into coffee/hot drinks-so Seth and I are outcast in that category.  We still brew our 12 cups of coffee every morning and are good to go for the day :).  Many folks here also don't partake in hot tea and the like (this is part of their LDS beliefs)-but they will drink caffeine drinks ?-don't ask I don't understand either-I constantly inquire about this and get different answers so there you go.   Alcohol-they don't drink this either.  I went into WalMart looking for a bottle of wine-and they don't have it.  You have to go to the liquor store to get good wine/beer-which is where they also have the alcohol percentage that we are use too from the South.  The beer in the grocery stores water everything down-so the percentage is lower.  There is also no happy hour here-so don't expect to go grab a cheaper beer at happy hour :). We do miss Clemson very much-and going downtown just to hang out with college kids and friends. So, again I will have to give the win to South Carolina.

e. The scenery.  Utah-and the west in general is absolutely breathtaking.  I've posted pictures, but they simply do not do this place justice.  It is amazing to walk out of our apartment everyday and look at the huge mountains and breath in the fresh dry air.  Seth and I have never left our home without commenting on how gorgeous the views of the mountains and vibrant colors are.  This is a picture of the mountains we get to see everyday-this day it had a little cloud around it.  Don't get me wrong the South is has breathtaking views as well as nice scenery-but it is NATTA compared to where we are right now.  Seth and I can drive 10 minutes and do a nice/intense hike and be up on top of something looking over the valley or Logan or out throughout the canyon.  Back South-most of the time we would have to drive 2 hours or so to get to a nice hiking environment.  Utah wins on this one. :).


So..........................................





South Carolina hands down wins our SC vs UT debate :).  I was going to go into another VS with this blog post-the Cooks vs Sineaths :)-I'm sure that would be interesting for some of you-I'll do that one tomorrow after church.  This post is already super long-and I'm sure you guys may be tired of reading.  Plus, Seth and I are hosting guests tonight and we have to get started on supper.  I will have to shoutout to Jaybird-Will-Chase-Stevo.  Seth and I went to our first Utah 'bar' last night with some friends and when we got home we both said- Not the same as In Clemson with those guys.  We miss yall very much and can't wait for yall to come visit! :).


Another thing-we went into Walmart today and it smelled like Christmas time :)  So excited we will be coming home to celebrate with our families and friends.


The Cook's :).

Catching Up

What up??!!

So, after weeks of contemplating whether to start this blog or not-I finally gave in and decided Why Not?

--With Seth's and my family in South Carolina (about 2100 miles away)-I figured we could try to keep them updated through this blog about what our lives are consisting of while we are in northern Utah!  I can promise there will be misspelled words, bad grammar/grammatical errors, unimportant ideas, and gushy stories because 1. My contact with the female world has declined 2. My husband has showed very sweet tendencies 3. Simply to brag about my wonderful life :).  With all that said I can now start catching you up on our lives over the past two months.

South Carolina to Utah-about 4 days for us to drive (granted we did have to haul our lives in a Penske truck).  Beautiful scenery!  Why Utah you may ask-I know my parents asked this often :).  Seth is attending Utah State University-getting his Masters in essentially Natural Resources/Policy.  Very difficult for me to explain to others-so I shorten it for everyone's benefit.  If you would like to know more about it-Ask Seth. :).  I can tell you that he works on the computer a lot-reading environmental policies from every state, going to classes, reading papers for these classes, writing summaries for these classes, starting projects/papers for these classes, as well as working on a thesis/project (or something like that) for his Masters paper?  Not sure if I correctly said all that-but just bare with me.  Some days he enjoys it so much and others he can get overwhelmed with all the work he has to do.  I am currently working at an Assisted Living as a CNA-enjoy the people and work-plus it is a little extra income for us.

We have been in Utah for about 2 months and have actually done a lot of things so far.  National parks (Thanks to some wonderful friends who got us a park pass as a wedding gift! Very useful!), lots of hiking, celebrated my birthday, and a trip to Southern Utah with our neighbors.  We have been attending a church called Maranatha Baptist-and met so many wonderful people there.  It is a wonderful support for Seth and I-especially living in this culture.  We are both enjoying cooking-and have come up with a wonderful weekly menu method (I'm sure others have this also).  We plan out our meals for the next week and every Saturday morning go grocery shopping-useful!  Brag moment:  We have started making our own flour tortillas (will swear by them)-hibachi chicken, veggies, rice-with the shrimp sauce, and many other delicious random meals.  Maybe I will even write it up on here-so you guys can see what yumminess we will be eating for a week :). Brag moment end. 

Now, that we are sort of caught up-I'll try to make sure and keep this updated.

The Cook's :)