Civic Duty

Well, it took an hour and half, but Zac and I (with Abby, of course) early voted today. Even though she's only two, I think it's important for kids to see their parents vote. My parents always took us with them and would talk to us about how important voting is. My dad served four years in the Air Force, is a government employee and one of the most patriotic people I know. He's definitely made it a point to instill patriotic values in all four of us kids. I hope to do the same for mine.

So...I'm not watching the news anymore until November 5. I can't do any more about it - except pray that everyone else makes the right decision. :o)

the TRAIN!!!

Last Saturday night, we rode the Trax to Salt Lake. The Trax is basically an above ground subway - a train. Abby loooooved the train! She wants to take the train to Wal-Mart, to church, home and she wants to take everybody on the train - Hope, Nana and Megan should all make plans to ride the train. :o)

Our reason for going to SLC was to visit The Gateway. Here's the description from the website:

The Gateway is Salt Lake City's only open-air contemporary destination that delivers the ultimate in shopping, dining, and entertainment. Shop and dine at over 130 stores and restaurants.

Visit the beautifully restored 1908 Union Pacific Depot featuring early French Renaissance architecture and original artwork. Also, enjoy the Olympic Legacy Plaza featuring the "dancing waters" of the Olympic Snowflake Fountain that is overlooked by a classic clock tower.

It's pretty cool. Going on our neighbor's recommendation, we ate dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. It was yummy. Very fresh tasting. We had Avocado Club Egg Rolls and the Buffalo Chicken and California Club pizzas. Abby ate chicken and broccoli - two of her favorite things! It took us longer than we'd planned to get to the Trax depot, so we were late getting there. By the time we got there, a lot of the stores were closing. So we just walked around and looked. It's a reeeaaallly cool shopping center and it's so HUGE! We got cookies for dessert at Ben's Cookies. Abby thought it was pretty cool to have a big cookie all to herself.

That was pretty much our evening. Just hanging out and seeing some more of our surroundings. I figure we'll pretty much be tourists for the next year or so. But that's ok - we're having fun. :o)

Cooking...

Don't get me wrong, I REALLY love our apartment. It's very nice. But I have one complaint.


I HATE ELECTRIC STOVES!!!!!!


Especially the ones with the coil tops. GRRRRR. I miss my wonderful gas stove that was in my house. :o(

Weird...

I finished posting the Apartment Tour post. But (I guess) because I saved it and then went back to it, it posted in its original spot. So scroll down, please...

Upcoming plans

Ok, this weekend I got griped at more than a few times for not updating the blog. By e-mail, on Skype, on the phone.....so I figured I'd better get on it. I was waiting until I'd posted about our whole trip before I posted current stuff - but I'll just do regular updates and post the whole story once I get it written out. I'm working on typing it in my journal (ldsjournal.com - it's awesome!!) and then I can post it here with pictures. I typed up a Tour the Apartment post, but my computer is being retarded and won't upload pics. So I'll have to do that one later.

For now, I will tell you how EXCITED I am to be going home to visit next month. I'll be 'teenager sitting' for Zac's little sisters while his parents go to Baltimore. Not the whole time, just the last half of my visit. But so far, I've got a lot of plans coming up. I'll be gone Tues, Nov 11 - Sat Nov 22. Here's what I've got going so far:

Thurs, Nov 13
The kids are out of school - I think Kirsten and Michelle may have plans for me :o)
A baby shower for Natalie and baby Tyler!

Fri, Nov 14
Sherry is off work and Hope is taking off - spending the day with my sisters!
Scrapbook night at church (unless Christine comes in...)

Sat, Nov 15
Hopefully Christine can make it to Little Rock...

Tues, Nov 18
If I can make it, it's Relief Society Night at Church - also the day my in laws leave for Baltimore

Friday, Nov 21
TWILIGHT MOVIE!!!! I can't believe I forgot this one - thanks for the reminder, Jennifer!!

And of course there are all the visits to see the grandmas and all that good stuff. A busy trip! Abby and I will miss Daddy while we're gone, but we're excited to see all the family!

Apartment tour

The story of finding our apartment....this will jump you ahead of what I've posted so far, but that's ok...

We got into Draper on Friday, Oct 3. We spent that evening and Saturday looking at apartments. We looked at a basement apt on Friday, but decided against it. The older man who was renting it was super nice, but it was sooo small and didn't have a bathtub, just a shower.

Saturday morning we called TONS of places. Zac and I went to look at a few while Mom stayed with Abby in the hotel. We looked at the Adagio apartments first - it's right across the freeway from Zac's store. The price was higher than we wanted, but so was every other place!

We drove to Riverton, the next town over, and looked at another apt that was about 10 miles from the store. It was a 3 bed/2 ba for what we're paying for a 2 bed/2 ba; we figured an extra room would be great for scrapbooking stuff and possibly a future Elliott addition. (NO I'm NOT pregnant - we're just planning ahead.) But, when we got there, we just weren't terribly impressed. We asked if there were any 2 bedrooms available and the lady said, "Actually, I just had one open up. The stove caught on fire, so the people are moving out and it'll be open after we do the repairs." Hmmm. At this point, my father-in-law (who works in fire/water restoration) probably would have had a small stroke. We managed to hide how appalled we were. But then, while we were standing in the 3 bedroom model she was showing us, her knee bumped the bar and the edging fell off!!! "Oh, I'll get that fixed," she said. Oh, we'll find another place, we thought.

We went back to the van, said a prayer and felt really good about living at the Adagio. We love it. The apartment is slightly bigger than our house was (1052 sq ft) and we are reeeaallly loving having a second bathroom!! So, please excuse the mess and allow me to show you around....


That's our front door on the right. It's a very open floor plan, which we love. I'm standing in the hallway taking this - the living room is to the right with the dining space there on the left.





Standing at the front door, taking a picture of the living room. We have Abby's slide on the porch and there's a storage closet out there. It's packed. :o)





Walk down the hall and look left. Abby's bathroom to the left, her bedroom straight ahead, the master suite (I love the sound of that!) to the right.





Abby's disaster, also known as her room. This child has too much stuff. I'm in the process of weeding through it.





Abby's bathroom. We are so excited about having two bathrooms! Mom and I picked out the bright shower curtain and got a matching purple bathmat and towels.





Part of our 'suite.' hehe I'm not going to show you our bedroom - it's a disaster. But our walk-in closet (!!) is to the left, the sink/mirror on the right, and the toilet and bathtub straight ahead. We're not used to all this room, but we LOVE IT!!





Down the hall, turn right and you'll find our (indoor!) laundry room. For those of you who didn't know, the laundry room at our house in Arkansas was an attachment that had been built off the back porch. So I had to go outside to get to it. Granted, I was grateful to have it....but I'm currently grateful for my indoor laundry room. :o)




I hope you enjoyed your stay! If you're ever near Salt Lake, we'd love to let you come in and visit. We really are excited about being here, although we do miss our families. Now that I've got the computer running, I should be updating more frequently. Love you all!!!

Videos

Here is a video of the girl. (My first video uploads - hope they work!) Don't worry, I'll finish posting about our trip - it just takes forever to write it all out!

This video is when Mom and I were going to Salt Lake City on Friday. They were predicting storms for Saturday and we wanted to make sure Mom saw some things. In this video, Abby will tell you where we're going and that she wants to talk to Hope and the Elliott family.






There are two others I want to post, but the computer is being retarded...be on the look out! :o)

Our move to Utah - Part One

In an effort to document our move to Draper, here is part one of the story. I will add pics soon and the remaining installments. :o) My apologies if it is kind of jumbled...I did my best! Love you all!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It all started on Friday, September 26. Zac was off work and had spent some time with Abby, picked up Kendyl from a field trip and was at home (Meemaw's house) with Abby and Kendyl. Zac got an unrecognized phone call and answered it - Ray Marshman, new district manager, was calling to talk to him about the Furniture Row (Denver Mattress) opening in Draper, Utah. While he was on the phone, Sheila and Kirsten came by to pick up Kendyl. When I got home, he told me that he had interviewed for the asst mgr position in Draper and thought the interview went well. We were running late to meet the Calls and Tualas for dinner, so we headed out to meet them. We had dinner at Macaroni Grill (YUM) and filled them in on Zac's interview.

The next day, Ray called Zac at work to tell him that, while he couldn't officially say anything, he was sending Zac's name through the HR dept and would get back to him on Monday. We spent the weekend telling family and friends that we might possibly be moving to Utah. When I got to work Monday morning, I told my manager about the possibility. I told him that IF Zac got the promotion, it would be a quick move but that I would keep him updated as well as I could.

Monday afternoon, Zac went to Sonic to get drinks for him, Shawn and Carl. He was gone for awhile because the slush machine at the Sonic close to Denver Mattress wasn't working (as usual). When he got back, Shawn told him that Ray had called. Zac called him back and got the official job offer as the asst mgr in Draper.

Meantime, back at US Bank, I was out balancing the ATM with Tracy. When I got back in (around 4pm), Nic told me that Zac called and told me to call him at work asap. My heart started beating fast as I called up my hubby. When he answered and knew it was me, he said, "Hey. Quit your job." While this was, to some degree, music to my ears, I started to cry. I was supposed to have a farewell party, not just walk out! He said he would be stopping by later. I went in to Nic's office and told him. Then I told Willie, my mgr, and then made my rounds across the teller line (lots of shocked reactions - "You're *@#%*@# kidding me" courtesy of Bryant) and back to my desk to tell Will. I was crying, laughing and in a general state of shock the whole time. Will told me to stop crying, because this is what I wanted. (He's pretty good at just laying it out there). I was scheduled off at 4, but ended up being there till 6, trying to get all of my stuff together. Will earned a couple of loans and lots of maintenance! ;o) Zac made a brief stop in and I told him to go ahead and go, because I would be awhile. He said we were meeting family (both sides) at Casa Mexicana at 7.

Once I finally left the bank, I called my friend Leigh to ask if I could drop the Church nursery keys off to her. I stopped by and talked to her for about 30 minutes. She helped me be excited about the move and was a great help to me, as she always is! Then I headed off to meet the family at Casa. On my way I called Sherry ( who didn't know yet!) and she called Mom & Dad so she could ride with them to Casa. Hope wouldn't come because she didn't want to cry at the restaurant!

Here's who came to dinner: Meemaw, Pa, Rick, Sheila, Kirsten, Kendyl, Mom, Dad, Sherry, and of course, Zac, Abby and me. Kendyl had two friends with her. I had my favorite dish as Casa, the Grande Chicken Quesadilla. We also got queso and sodas - no low cal dieting that night! Kendyl bought us some candy and bubbles and a ball for Abby. (Those came in handy for our stops!) After dinner, Zac went to Meemaw's to start packing and Abby and I went to my parents house to get some pics of Abby and Megan (Jeff brought her over). Then we went home, too. I wasn't much help in packing - I told Zac that my brain was exhausted and I went to bed pretty early.

The next morning (Tuesday), Mom and Dad were our saving graces as they helped us pack and run errands. I HAD to get to the doctor to get some refills on my meds. Mom packed a little and watched Abby while Zac and Dad picked up the U-Haul (thanks to Steve G. for getting us the hook up!) and loaded our storage unit into it. After my dr appt, Juanita stopped by to say hi. Mom and I got locked out of Meemaw's because I'd given her my key the night before. So we waited on Dad and Zac. Then we spent the afternoon packing up Meemaw's house. (It kind of made me sick to see how much ridiculous crap we have. Insane. We're working on a huge donation to Deseret Industries out here.) I found out that U-Haul wouldn't let Zac pull his truck on the trailer and that we would pull the van and drive the truck. So I told Zac we had to get the brakes fixed and Dad and I took care of that at Sears.

That evening, I went with Mom to pick up Mamaw and take her to Mom & Dad's for dinner and a final hangout with my siblings. When Zac got there, we ran over to Annie's to say bye to her. Zac had a hard time telling her bye - she is so special to him and I know he feels bad that we didn't spend enough time with our grandmas.

When we got back to my parents' house, Hope had cooked some of the casseroles I'd made for our freezer. We had lasagna and my famous green chile chicken enchiladas. YUM. The whole crew was there, except Jeff, Matthew and Jennifer's family. I cried, talked to everybody about how excited/scared I was and just hung out. We took lots of fun pictures. Matt and Natalie B. stopped by, too, to bring us some yummy homemade cookies and a bag of our favorite trail mix, the Sam's Choice Indulgent Trail Mix. Yummy. I cried when Todd and his crew left. Zac and I walked Sherry and Megan to their car, on our way across the street to see the Elliotts. I bawled while I hugged/kissed Megan and Sherry. Abby and Megan hugged (too cute!) and Megan gave Uncle Zac hugs and kisses. Sherry said, "Is this payback for when I left for California?" I told her it was and that it sucked. I hate crying - my faces swells and I look like such a freak.

And so we headed to the Elliott house. It was probably one the best nights Abby has had over there. She was quite a ham while she played with Kendyl. Kendyl taught her to say, "Heeey!" and "What?!?" It was hilarious because she would say them together and get really loud..."Heeey. what?? What?? WHAT? WHAT?? WHAT???" We were laughing our butts off. She loved on everybody, which was great. Lots of tears and hugs when we left there. More swollen face and freakness for me.

By the time we got back to my parents' most everyone was asleep. We laid Abby down and Zac and I tried to get a few last things together before we snoozed in their living room. Wednesday morning came waaaaaay too soon.

We're heeeeere!

We arrived yesterday around 3:30pm in "Papers, Oootah." (That's how Abby says it - too cute!) We are staying at the Ramada Inn and Zac and I are getting ready to go look at a few apts this morning. Yesterday we looked at a basement-type apt that I think used to be this older couple's garage....the price is right, but it is SO small and they don't have a bathtub, just a standup shower...not good for a toddler that is scared to death of a shower spray. Mom picked out our dinner location, Noodles & Company. It was YUMMY!

Well, I better get back to the room. I'm using the hotel's Business Room computer - thank goodness for those! Hope to hear from you all soon!

Love,
Sarah, Zac & Abby (and Sandra, temporarily!)

Moving...

Draper, Utah - here come the Elliotts! EIK!!! Zac got the call this afternoon and called me at work. I finished up my stuff, handed it to the other banker and left. Tonight we went to dinner with our parents and tomorrow we're going to hang out with some more family and leave WEDNESDAY MORNING. EIK!!!! I'm soooo freaking out. I'm thrilled that the Lord has given us this opportunity - I'll be able to stay home and Zac is getting promoted. It's exactly what we wanted....and so I feel like a selfish, spoiled brat because I'm upset that it's far away.

More updates to come. I think I'm going to go ball myself up in a corner and rock back and forth for awhile....

StReSsEd!!!!

Zac interviewed (by phone) on Friday for a sales position in Draper, Utah. UTAH!?!?!? I knew that moving was a potential in this job, but I was so hoping for Texas or Missourri or something. I need to stay in the SEC. lol

He is 'supposed' to be finding out tomorrow whether or not he got the job. And then we'll be moving....quickly. Like, way faster than I would like.

I'm trying not to stress out too much until I know something for sure. Trying....

Allergy update

So the update is....I'm not really sure.

Christy called to give me the info on the note Dr. Miers left (Dr. Miers is off on Wednesday afternoon). She said, "Cholesterol and triglycerides (sp?) look great and as far as allergies, egg whites and milk are high, with a moderate allergy to wheat."

HUH?!?!?!

First - checking cholesterol and all that on a 2 yr old? Really?

Second - Abby eats toast and scrambled eggs almost everyday; this was the first I've EVER heard about wheat or egg allergies.

Third - She's tolerating some cheese and stuff ok, so Zac and I figured that the milk allergy would be much better if not gone. We definitely didn't expect the allergy rating or whatever to triple like she told me it did.

Christy could tell I was thoroughly confused at her information and she put me on hold a few times to clarify with Debbie, Dr. Mier's main nurse. (Note: Hope and I went to school with Debbie's kids, so she knows our family.) Apparently, the clinic is using a new lab now and they automatically run the cholesterol and stuff. They also run the entire gamut of allergy tests. And here's where I should probably give some background.

After our long, AWFUL, terrible, horrible, insanely ridiculous trip to Children's Hospital when Abby was about 2 mos old and puking incessantly (can you tell I hate that place?), they ran her blood and it showed very high allergies to soy and milk. In fact, at her follow up with Dr. Miers, she said they was some of the highest ratings she'd ever seen and not to expect them to go away. And so, after I finally gave up on trying to nurse, we went to $25/can Nutramigen. At Abby's 1 yr checkup, Dr. Miers tested her blood again and it showed that the soy allergy was gone but the milk allergy was still hanging around. And so, we've stayed away from milk. When we've given her milk products the last few months, she's not having reactions to it. So I am very, very, very confused about the test results I got today.

Christy is leaving a note for Dr. Miers to examine the file again and I'm hoping that the Dr. will call me tomorrow. I'll let you know when I know.

Hope you like the Fall colors!

Trying something different for Sarah----Zac.
Hey Nikki, if you need some help just let me know.

Just a quick note...

Abby's 2 yr checkup is this afternoon. They'll be drawing blood (oh boy...) to test her food allergies. From our unscientific mini trials, Zac and I think her allergies are getting better. If you could insert a little line for our baby girl into your prayers today, we would really appreciate it! I'll let you know how it goes!

This week's schedule

So we'll try posting a week's schedule on Sunday and see how Zac does with it. lol

Sunday, Sept 14
*My nephew, Christopher, turns 17. Eik!
*FHE with the Call and Backus families at our house

Monday, Sept 15
*Sarah works 7am-4pm
*Zac works 9am-9pm
*Pick up Rhea Lana check and unsold merchandise

Tuesday, Sept 16
*Sarah works 9:15am-6:15pm
*Zac works 9am-9pm

Wednesday, Sept 17
*Sarah works 9:15am-6:15pm
*Zac works 9am-3:30pm
*Zac to church with Young Men

Thursday, Sept 18
*Sarah works 7:30am-11:30am
*Zac off work
*Abby's 2 yr checkup at 2pm
*Two consignment sales start: Duck Duck Goose in Little Rock and Jack & Jill in Cabot

Friday, Sept 19
*Sarah works 7:30am-4:30pm
*Zac off work
*Jack & Jill 1/2 price sale
*NLRHS v SHHS football game - gotta support Joey!

Saturday, Sept 20
*Sarah works 8:30am-12:30pm
*Zac works 9am-9pm
*Duck Duck Goose 1/2 price sale

Playing catch up

Ok, so I need to play a little bit of catch up here. So here we go....

These first two pictures were taken on the morning of Aug 29, after Abby's second night in her toddler bed. She's done so well in it! (I hope saying that doesn't jinx us!) When we were in our house, we had her bed in a corner, with the spare crib mattress coming out from under it as kind of a landing pad because Abby moves A LOT in her sleep. When I checked on her after putting her down her first night in the bed, she was kneeling on the lower mattress onto the bed, almost like she was praying, so I lifted her back in and laid her out. Too cute. Now that we're at Meemaw's house, we've sort of land-locked her between the twin bed and the dresser in 'her' room.

Sleeping beauty....

What a big girl!!



On Friday, Sept 5, we officially closed on (sold) our house! As excited and anxious as we'd been for that day, I was kind of sad when it finally came. We closed on (bought) the house two days before our wedding and it's been the place for all of our big events so far. Our first Christmas, first anniversary, first child's birth. When we backed out of the driveway after handing the keys over, I cried. And so did Zac. We're such sentimental boobs.

We got our buyers to take a picture of us in front of the house that's no longer ours...



And I took a picture of Wade and Mandy in front of their new house.



And then we went to celebrate! lol For those of you who don't know, Zac and I are huge sushi fans. When we started dating, I pretty much didn't eat anything except chicken and cheese. Since then, I've started eating LOTS of different things that I would never have eaten before - my Mamaw gets a big kick out of pointing this out.

Anyway, so we wanted to go eat at Mt. Fuji, the greatest Japanese restaurant in Little Rock. (Oh, I crave the sushi just talking about...) Zac discovered earlier that week that Nathan, who manages the store next door, is a sushi fan. And Shawn, Zac's mgr, had finally tried it for the second time and decided he would try more. Kelli (Shawn's wife) and Emilee (Nathan's wife) were also new to the sushi experience. And so, we had a triple date night to Mt. Fuji - YEA!!!

Nathan, Zac and I instructed everyone on what to order so that everyone could try the best stuff. Zac and I were being money-spending fatties, since we had a little bit of house money to spend, and ordered appetizers to share. Everyone liked the tempura, gyoza and fried tofu that we ordered. Then we got a few different types of rolls - the King Crab roll is Zac's fave and mine is the Mt Fuji roll. YUMMY!!! And I am proud to say that everyone enjoyed their sushi!! I loved introducing people to new foods, especially since I'm usually the one being introduced....it's kinda nice to be the so-called expert on something every once in awhile.


The boys - Shawn, Zac and Nathan


Us girls - Emilee, me, and Kelli

Buffalo Slideshow

Buffalo River MMM-K!!!

I haven't been able to upload anything for awhile, but here are a few pictures of me and the boys on the Buffalo River trip August 15th. The picture on the left.... Matt, Sam, Tanu, Shawn and Joey. Below... Taua'I left, (top to bottom), Lance, Matt, Joey and Mr. T, Shawn right. The trip to the Buffalo was a blast. We camped at South Maumee, 7 miles north down a dirt road from Morning Star, Arkansas. Shawn, Sam, and I got there on Wednesday at about noon. We set up camp and then went swimming all day except for the occassional grilled burgers and brats back at camp.

That night the rest of the guys got there. We sat around talking for quite a while, some of the young men stayed up the entire night. We woke up about 5am to get started on breakfast burritoes and so we could get ready to meet the bus with canoes by 8 am. The pictures are from the trip.... North Maumee (just the other side of the river) to Highway 14 bridge. We stopped for lunch (ham & turkey sandwiches, Nacho cheese Doritoes and Sunchips for Tanu) and that is where these pictures are from. The tower is pretty cool huh? We sure had a lot of fun!

The night we got back, we made hobo dinners and fresh strawberry/banana cobbler before the storm came.---Zac.

Our family calendar

I keep a four week calendar on our fridge so that we (I) will know what's going on. From the time we got together, Zac has referred to me as his 'day planner.' I love the man, but he rarely (I won't say never because it sounds mean) remembers what we have going and when. Tonight he joked "You should put our calendar on here...then I'd actually look at it." Since the blog is our home page, I figured it might be worth a shot. So, here's our schedule for the rest of the week!

Wednesday, Sept 10
*Sarah works 8:00am-5:00pm (Going to try to hit the gym after that)
*Zac works 9:00am-3:30pm
*Zac goes to Mutual with the Young Men

Thursday, Sept 11
*Sarah works 7:30am-4:30pm (Again, may be hitting the gym)
*Zac off work - empty out/rearrange storage buildings
*Sarah shopping at Rhea Lana 1/2 price sale at 7:00pm

Friday, Sept 12
*Sarah works 9:15am-6:15pm
*Zac off work - probably working in the storage building/house again
*Sarah goes to Scrapbook/Craft Night 7:00pm-midnight (WOOO HOOO!!!)

Saturday, Sept 13
*Sarah off work at bank - working Rhea Lana sale 3:30pm-8:30pm
*Zac works 9:00am-9:00pm (STINK!)

Sunday, Sept 14
*I think it's our turn to do FHE with the Backus and Call families....Natalie, Kelli - are you reading this?

Stay tuned for next week's update....lol. I'll let you know how Zac did on keeping up this week!

Quick update

Ok, I have to get to packing, but I wanted to let everybody know that we close on the house THURSDAY! Now we just have to figure out what the job situation holds....eik!