Washington DC and Baltimore

My family flew in from Utah a few weeks ago and we were able to spend some time with them seeing the sights. Rick and I have lived here for almost a year now and we have never been to DC to see the monuments so I think it was good motivation for us to finally go when they came to visit. We spent 2 very long and hot days in DC but we were able to see pretty much everything. And then my parent's and Jodie went to see Mt Vernon while Rick and I took the other sisters to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. It was so much fun to be able to get that much in all in the same week. By the end of it I was so tired and needed a vacation from the vacation just to catch up on some sleep and to rest my sore muscles from all the walking. But it was a lot of fun!


Rick showing off my baby bump at the Washington Monument

Us in front of the White House. And the President was home at the time too. You can tell by the flag; if there is a flag up that means he is home. (At least that is what they said)

The traditional picture that I am sure everyone takes at the Smithsonian's Natural History Measeum

The bubble tubes at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. I could not pry myself away from them. They were so much fun to take silly pictures by and when you are with your sisters...you get very creative.


One of the many fish tanks at the Baltimore Aquarium

The news you have all been waiting for......

Rick and I were able to celebrate our first Mother's and Father's Day this year because we now have a little one on the way! We are so excited! It is definately a new experience being pregnant and it has been a really rocky road but we are making it. We found out at the end of April that we were expecting...and to be honest we were a little surprised. But it was a good surprise. The baby is due around Christmas time. I will have to say that this is going to be the best Christmas present we will ever get. We find out the beginning or August whether it is a girl or a boy so we will keep you posted...

Can you tell the Rick is already a very proud father?!

Jon Schmidt...

He is amazing! His music gives me goose bumps everytime I listen to it. I just can't get enough of it. And I just listened to my new favorite songs from him. It is called Love Story (Taylor Swift) meets Viva La Vida (Coldplay). Here is a link so you can watch it on YouTube. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v3d6SFcDys

Rick's Very Successful Fishing Trip

Rick went fishing this Monday while I was at work since it was his day off. He went to a place near Fredericksburg, VA which is about an hour away from where we live. Ever since we have moved here from Utah, he hasn't had very much luck fishing. He has caught a few fish here and there but he has never had a "great fishing day". Monday, however, there was finally a break in the fishing storm. I called him on my lunch break around 2:00 to see how the day was going and to see if he was having any luck. He told me that he had already caught 23 fish that morning! He was so excited! He had also caught 2 turtles on his line as well. Which was a first for him. He said that he had only kept one so far since the other ones were a little small but he was going to keep fishing to see if he could catch some bigger ones to bring home for dinner. By the end of the night he had caught 28 fish and brought 6 of them home to eat and also a surprise. He had also caught 4 baby turtles and put them in his tackle box. He wants to keep two and give the other two to our niece and nephew. The turtles are about 2-6 inches across their shell and they are so cute. Right now they are taking up residency in our bathroom in a plastic tub until we can get an aquarium to put them in and give the other two away. It is always fun to see how happy and excited Rick gets when he has a good day fishing. I am glad that he was finally able to convince those sneeky fish to bite!

Spring Pictures

Over Conference Weekend Rick and I went up to visit his family. We enjoyed spend time with them as well as being able to watch conference with them. This is the first time we have been able to go up there since Christmas because of Rick's work schedule. While we were up there we were able to get up early and get a few hours of fishing in before conference. His sister Becky also took some spring pictures of us too. It was so nice to get away from the city for awhile and get into the mountains and spend some time with the family. Here are some of our favorite pictures we took.

Small apartments are the best when it comes to furniture!

Ok, so as far as the space goes, no, small apartments are not the best. But as far as small apartments for your neighbors go, yes that is good. The reason why is this: you get the furniture that doesn't fit in their apartment, and usually for free or for a big discount. And it is usually pretty nice furniture. And if you are like us you don't have a whole lot of furniture to begin with or most of it consists of handme downs from old roommates, family or friends. So when your neighbor buys nice new furniture that comes in a set but doesn't have room for the rest, it is so nice to receive some of the benefits. Last night our neighbor got a set of tables for his living room that had two end tables and a coffee table. He didn't have room for the coffee table so he asked Rick if he wanted it, otherwise he was just going to throw it away. We were so excited because we had been looking for a table or something to put our TV on since we moved to Virginia, so we gladly took it off his hands. It is our second peice of new furniture we have got since we have been married other then the ones we got from family or from our wedding. So that is why small apartments are the best when it comes to furniture.

An Update at Last!!!!

Wow! It has been forever since I updated this, hasn’t it?!?!? Sorry! Life has been so crazy that I haven’t even had time to think about it let alone anything else. I actually forgot that I even had it until my cousin asked me when I was going to update it. Then I was like, oh yeah! So, even though it has been a while I am going to try and get everyone up to speed with what Rick and I have been up to and where we are in life. But I am going to warn you in advance, this is going to be a long post, so if you need to take a break and get a snack and come back and finish reading this later it’s ok. I’ll understand. J So I think the best way to do this and the easiest is to make a list. (I am good at that) Plus Rick says that I am a list maker and I live by my lists. So why not live up to that. So here we go:

-So, Rick and I packed up and moved to Virginia the middle of August. I know a great way to spend our first anniversary. But life doesn’t slow down for things like that. But that’s ok. We had plenty of time in the car together. After 2,300 miles of road we have decided that we never, ever want to make a trip like that again. That was a long way to drive in just three days. But we made it and that was the important thing.

-So we actually had never been to Virginia before we rolled into town with the moving van. So we had to unload everything into a storage unit and then drive two hours back up to Rick’s parent’s house for the night. Then we spend a week going back and forth between their house and Manassas Park, VA until we found a place to live. But we weren’t able to move in for a few weeks so it was nice to take a break from life and stay with his family for a little while.

-Rick started his new City Planning job on Sep 2nd. We were really excited until we found out that same day he started that the city was having financial problems and there was a chance of lay-offs. Which we had just gone through in Utah in Saratoga Springs and that is why we ended up having to move in the first place. So we were pretty worried about everything. Then things started getting pretty bad with the situation at work and we didn’t know how much longer he would have a job. And in the mean time I was having a really hard time finding a job. I was applying for jobs like crazy but I wasn’t getting any response at all from any of them. So we were both pretty frustrated and worried.

-Around Thanksgiving I finally had my first interview and I got the job so that was a huge relief. But we were still worried about Rick’s job. Things had dramatically worsened and we were started to considering other alternatives and looking into moving again even though that would put us into debt and then we would have to start over at square one again with my job and with his job. But we knew that things weren’t going to work out where he was and that if he stayed he would loose his job.

-Right before Christmas, the City Manager came to Rick and told him that he really liked him and he wanted to keep him but he wouldn’t be able to stay in the position that he was in now because of complications within the city and with the budget crisis. But they didn’t want to loose him. So they were going to move him to the police department in their communications department. He would get them same pay and benefits and he would be guaranteed a job through all the layoffs. And then the City Manager said that after the economy settles down he wants to bring him back as the City’s Planner. So that was a huge relief! And we actually ended up making more with the new position that Rick is in now so it ended up being a blessing. And if the economy doesn’t turn around soon then he has certifications in this job for the future that he can use as well as his degree in planning. The Lord does work in mysterious ways, we just have to be patient and wait for him to show us his plan.

-So after everything with work settled down we were able to focus on life outside of work. Rick is the 1st counselor in the Young Mens and I am the Beehive Advisor. We really enjoy our callings! We don’t have time during the week to do all the activities because Rick is on shift work but we enjoy teaching on Sunday. We have a lot to keep us busy but we enjoy living here. There are a few things we would change, like the traffic. If you think Utah is bad you should move here. Utah during rush hour is a walk in the park compared to here. You think I’m kidding. It takes me 30 minutes during normal time to go the same distance that it used to take 5-10 minutes in Utah during rush hour in Utah. Yeah it’s pretty bad. But overall, it is a good experience, but we don’t want to live in the city, especially 45 minutes from DC, the rest of our life. But it is always nice to have a change.

I will try and get some pictures up on here for you and try and keep you all a little more informed about what is going on in our life. Sorry it has taken so long. I hope everyone is doing well! Let us know.