Our usual apology, update, and disappearance.

I seem to have a pretty good pattern going of getting on my blog after too long, apologizing for not writing more frequently (though to be honest...what's it to you?), a lengthy update of our life sans pictures, and then I disappear for at least a week.

Not that it's a problem, because there really isn't a whole lot going on in our lives. That's not true, actually. There is a lot. But I guess I just don't find it exciting enough to think that other people would want to read about it? Anyways...I'm adding another portion to the outline and adding "rambling" as a sub-category to each part.

Now on to the update.

Honestly, there's not much else on my mind except this: being with almost my entire family in Texas in just a few days. The opportunity to go to Texas is a miracle, and as time went on the party grew. Now all of my siblings (minus Elder Andersen, who will be dearly missed) and their families will be there (except Kenny, who will also be dearly missed). Last time that happened? August 14, 2013. AKA the day I was wed to my love. Next time we thought that would happen again? The next time a child got married. It is thrilling to be all together, and boy do we have things planned! I'll  do my best to document this very well and do re-caps of each day, because every day is going to be so fun!

But other than the anticipation and preparation of leaving for Texas, life is pretty normal! I have been reading a LOT lately. I finished Pres. Hinckley's biography and was deeply touched by what I read. Changed, is the better word. Then on Monday I picked up Stephanie Nielson's "Heaven is Here", which I had been waiting and waiting to check out from the library. I finished it last night, and today I checked out "Joseph Smith History by his mother Lucy Mack Smith". I have a goal to read biographies/books on all the prophets.

Also, am I the only one who checks books out from the library anymore? Don't answer that. I just can't see a good reason to pass up free books. And a whole lot of them too.

Unfortunately, we did not land the position as managers for our complex. We had a wonderful interview, but felt that it was already decided when they came over to interview us. Come to find out, we had some STEEP competition. But we are happy with the people that were chosen, we love the Silva's!

Tom is still doing amazing in school. He stays busy between homework, classes, work, volunteering, and class projects, but he still finds time to be with me.

In fact, last Friday was date night and I knew he had a lot going on, so I wasn't expecting him to stop school stuff for the whole night. But he did. We started at 5:30, beginning with a trip to this quaint used book store owned by a man with a British accent. We stopped at Broulim's for humus and a treat, then dropped in to Great Harvest for a free slice of pumpkin chocolate chip bread. When we came home, the chili in the crock pot was done, filling our apartment and the hallway with the smell that just makes you feel cozy! Then we watched a movie on Netflix. But wait, it doesn't stop there. When the movie was over, it was still only 8:30, so Tom says "Let's go to the Craze!" If you'll remember, we live above the Craze. But I've never been inside it! So we went with a plan to spend a dollar on "Deal or No Deal" game. Yeah, that didn't happen. 6 dollars and an hour later, we left with a few hundred ticket's worth of candy, and very happy.

I love my husband. I love that he loves me and that we have so much stinkin' fun together! From the beginning what attracted me to Tom (other than his incredible eyes and big muscles and nice hair and great smile and...sorry I'll stop) was how much fun we had, and so easily! We had the same sense of weird humor, and I immediately felt very comfortable around him. Marriage has only amplified that for us, and I am grateful every day for how he makes me laugh and smile all the time.

Saturday, after a productive day, we decided to build a fort in the living room, complete with our bedroom mattress. And no good fort is complete without delicious food, so I whipped up chocolate chip pancakes and we ate them in our fort while we watched 13 Going On 30.

Yeah, I've got it real good.

Oh so blessed.

Since we've been married, I've thought a lot about all the opportunities that are here in Rexburg for us. And just in all areas life, at this point in time. We have so much ahead of us - moving, grad school, children, different jobs along the way, big tests, and unexpected things. Probably.

And it's kind of overwhelming to look at all the opportunities and think which ones are for us? We've prayed for that every day - for the Lord to help us know which ones we should go for, which ones we're qualified for...etc.

It's been an interesting experience. We've had several opportunities come our way, some which we took, others which we didn't. For example, I had the chance to be the coach of the competitive swim team. Almost took it. Got it. Then turned it down.

But here's what's going down in the Cook home lately:

Tom applied and had an interview for an internship on campus next semester. I do get jealous sometimes, hearing about people going cool places for a summer for their internship, but I'm really grateful that we have this chance. It's a paid internship with the school's Biggest Winner program (much like Biggest Loser, but we're more optimistic), and it is Tom's absolute dream job. Watching him get so excited about it just makes me happy. I got to help Tom build his resume, write a cover letter, and work through potential interview situations. It was super fun cause I'm a nerd and love that kind of stuff. And he NAILED his interview. We should hear if we got it or not next week, so pray for us!

Today we had our interview to be the apartment managers. It would be SWEET. Free rent and utilities, a bigger apartment WITH REAL WINDOWS, Y'ALL. Plus it would be a really awesome to get to know the people in our ward better, and to learn lots of really great skills that would be super useful for our future. We'll find out tomorrow if we got it or not....we're not feeling super strongly about this one because of our limited time in Rexburg, but we are confident that the Lord has a plan! And if this doesn't work out, there will be some other way to help us save/earn money.

We've been looking at grad schools and have it narrowed down to 3, essentially. 2 in Texas, 1 in Utah. Our families are rooting for their respective states, and we are torn ourselves. Except for that we don't want to go to the University of Utah. Time will tell!

I have changed positions at work recently (I may have mentioned that before), and am loving my new responsibilities SO much. That's not sarcasm, I really do love it. But I am getting the feeling that it's time to leave that office. I've been in the Online Learning department for over 3 years now, and all but 8 months of that in the same place, my beloved Online Support Center. Since I graduate in 2 semesters anyway, I've been looking for potential new jobs. I don't have a reason to leave the OSC that I would talk about on a public blog, but it's just that time, you know? So lots of potential jobs I'm looking at right now, and it's really exciting, but uncomfortable too.

Tom wishes for me to mention that we could be in the market for a new hamster, see the last post.

Ha, good one Tom.

We are so blessed, and oh so happy. La vie a Chez Cook est magnifique!

Visiting Another Cage

When pets of small children die, some parents tell the children that their pet went to another farm, or something like that, in order to avoid delivering the bad but true news that their beloved pet died.

Well, there are no children in this household, but we're still saying that our Mrs. Choice is "visiting another cage". Yes, Mrs. Choice is dead. It was actually pretty awful! I walked into our room after our date night to the temple, and I see our hamster laying in an unusual position. "Choice, are you dead?" I ask joking, because I always say that to our hamster if he's not moving. When I realized he very well could be, I called to Tom "Hun, I think Choice is dead..."

Tom came running in and looked at Choice, then opened the lid and Choice still hadn't moved...then he nudged him with the wooden tunnel he was laying under, and sure enough....rigamortis.

It was kind of a shocking moment. I mean, I can't say I was heart broken, but just really confused! But because we like to be funny, we dramatized the situation. We placed little Choice in my old phone box and kept him there for the night until we could give him a proper burial.

On Sunday, Kenna joined us and we brought Choice up to a potato field past the temple. It was literally freezing and the wind was being typical of itself, so we didn't want to take a long time. Tom used one of our crappy old pots we're giving to D.I. to bury a hole, and laid the casket inside. We stood around the circle and each tried not to laugh as we 'said a few words'. Then we each dramatically threw a handful of dirt on the casket. Then we completely buried it, though I'm not sure how effective that will be once they begin tilling the ground for post-harvest...don't think about it.

We're sad to have lost Choice after such a short time, but we will not be finding a replacement hamster. We have too much on our plates right now to worry about buying another hamster, and would rather save 'second pet' for a puppy or something. One day...when we get out of here.

But we would like to express public sarcastic thanks to those who expressed sarcastic condolences, and dramatically mourned with us.

R.I.P., Mrs. Choice.

Oh yeah, this thing.

Sometimes I just enjoy reading other people's blogs so much that I forget to write on my own! Things around here have been busy and wonderful, and it's hard for me to find those times to step back and record it! I know that recording is super important though, which is one reason I have this blog. So, here's what's been happening at the Cook house!

Two weeks ago, I spoke in church. This past Sunday, it was Tom's turn! He did a wonderful job speaking on how to love God more than we love the world. It's been mulling around in my mind all week, and I am so grateful for Tom's insight and wisdom! As my family would say whenever they hear that word..."HE IS SOOO WISE!"

I was moved to a new position in my same office, and I am now the Training Specialist. This has been interesting thus far, as I haven't quite left my old position but still have to do my new one. It's stressful, and completely impossible to do all the work that needs to be done in the 20 hours a week. So I do a lot of work at home as a "volunteer". I strangely enjoy this though! This position is right up my ally, and I am loving it.


As of late, Tom and I have been making a lot of sweets. Not for ourselves. Usually. One of our favorite things is making whatever baked goods we have available in the house and then giving them away so we can't eat them. Sneaky, right? We've loved meeting new people and catching up with old friends with this new Sunday tradition.

Except for that one week where there was leftover chocolate cake batter from the cupcakes. And anyone who knows me doesn't even need an explanation when they hear the word chocolate cake; they already know. We made our own mini cake and...ate the whole thing together. Whoops. Now maybe you can see why we bake to deliver?

One of the best parts about being up here is having Kenna with us! I love having at least one sister near by :) We enjoy Sunday dinners, devotionals, and occasional other visits from Nursekinz. But last weekend was her 21st birthday! We had SO much fun at the South Fremont Elementary Halloween Carnival we volunteered at, and then we met up with more of Kenna's friends to eat at Gringo's, followed by Score cake and ice cream at our house. I could kick myself for not getting real pictures of real people on the fun night, but here is a picture of the decorations I put up (at least, part of them), and it will represent the evening.

 Since Halloween was yesterday, we had been in prep-mode for a few weeks before. Halloween is not my favorite holiday...I really don't like anything haunted, bloody, or slightly scary. Our first date was to a Haunted Mill, but that was only because I wanted him to hold my hand. So...Halloween is not my thing, but Tom LOVES it. We balance each other out. This year there was no haunted anything, but you can bet that we celebrated!

Naturally, we carved pumpkins. This is a dearly beloved tradition of the Cook's, and it was so great to watch Tom get so excited! We carefully selected a pattern - Bowser! I poked out the holes with a pin, and Tom followed with the knife. We roasted the pumpkin seed - another first for me! But boy they were good!

For our Ward party, we wanted to go dressed up, but didn't have any money to spend on costumes. So what did we do? We went as couch potatoes. We just went in our sweats, with couch cushions tied to our behinds, and it was terribly comfortable. And guess what, we won the costume contest! 

For Halloween itself, we kept it real simple - we got some candy and a loaf of berry Great Harvest bread, and watched Monster  House with Kenna and Skyler. It was a perfect holiday :)

Consider yourself caught up!