Our House!!!

We have a home!!!

We just began the process of house hunting last week and we quickly learned that Travis and I have different expectations and needs. But after some weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth... we walked into this house and knew it was OUR home. Apparently so did three other couples. So we did the dance. We engaged in a bidding war and just found out WE WON!

http://www.zingding.com/6227170

So we are getting our inspections done this week and should hopefully close by September 22nd! Pray for us.

Erin Go Bragh!

I have avoided wading through our vacation pictures long enough. I am going to try and post pictures that everyone can find interesting or that I look good in, let's be honest.

We began what we have fondly named the "You're Welcome Europe" tour (more explanation on the name later) in Dingle, Ireland. Dingle is the western most point of Europe and is fairly rural and very authentic. As witnessed by what we saw out of window from our B&B.

We rented a car because it's the best way to get around. TINY streets. Not wide.

Odd feeling driving on the wrong side of the road. It definitely takes conscious thought to stay there. Luckily, the rental car was nice enough to post this sign in the driver's side window. Obviously this must be an issue for others also.

I would definitely move to Dingle. It had an adorable harbor and was near the beach. It also has an albino dolphin named Fungii. Just a fun fact.

We drove the Slea Head Loop which has some amazing views. This picture was taken at 11:00 pm at night. The sun finally set about 20 minutes later. That was crazy to me.

Token animal picture: Just in case you were wondering how you would tell your sheep from your neighbors the answer is paint. You color code your livestock. Fabulous idea. We should do that with children.

If I could have remained on this cliff the rest of my life, I would have been happy. It was absolutely gorgeous. Ireland has the best grass I have ever! I could have made a small bed of grass and dried twigs and been very satisfied.

After Dingle we headed to....

Al-lo!

We're two weeks in and I don't have pictures to post, but it feels like it going fast. I have found my true calling in life. I was meant to be Euro trash. I am so good at being a vagabond. Kinda scary.

We loved Ireland, London, Rome, Florence was ok, the Cinque Terre is amazing, Nice is a lot of fun if they didn speak that dirty pig latin aka french, and Barcelona is turning out to be great. We're going to watch the Tour de France tomorrow and check out some flamenco dancing and tapas.

Will post pictures when I can. Feeling just a little to old to be staying in a hostel, even if it for the night. I'll explain later.

Chao!

"Summering"

It all started with a promise made 4 1/2 years ago. When we became engaged I asked two things of Travis. 1) He would get me a baby dog and 2) He would take me to Europe. Fast forward til March of this year...

We received an invitation from some of our favorite people, the Flowers.

Laura, Brice, Megan, and Jackson

are in our ward because Laura is going to law school here. She is doing a summer internship in France where she served her mission and invited us to spend some time over there with them.

Things began to snowball from there. Travis is making good on his promise. Our travels will take us to:

Ireland, the UK, Italy, France, Spain, and the Netherlands.

We've are blessed to be able to stay with friends in the UK, France, and the Netherlands. We'll be staying in hostels or sleeping in parks the rest of the time. I am so excited to sit at the beach in the south of France and run with the bulls in Pamplona! We'll be gone for a whole month. Does it get better? I feel like a person who is rich enough to verb the word summer as in, "we are summering in Europe."

In order to be able to make this adventure a reality these gracious people, aka Mom and Dad are letting us move back in for a few months so we're not paying bills when we're gone. They just look like good people don't they?

And once we're back even bigger things are happening.
Travis will be performing his first wedding for none other than Anders and Nikki, also known as my brother and his girlfriend. Anders will be joining the Coast Guard soon and they're finally making things official. Brocky is excited. Everyone will be coming into town so it will be fun. Everyone including Brie and Russell. I'm pretty sure they are family.

So last part of this plan includes becoming home owners. When we get back from Europe we are beginning our search for a place to call our own. I guess we can admit we'll be here for at least 4 more years. Maybe more if we end up getting our Doctorate's out here. We'll see.

So that's our life right now. I'm really excited to be us. Thank You to all those people who have helped make this happen. We heart you!

La Bo Bina

This is a little PSA to one special reader

Dear Gina Bo Bina,

NOSY!

Mind your business.

Love,

Ms. Reed

Groundhog Day

Sorry I have not updated the blog in a while. Bet you been wondering what we've been up to... so pretty much the same. Do you ever feel like you are in the movie Groundhog Day? I have felt trapped in that movie for a few months now. Seriously, routine get's unbearable for me. Everyday goes something like this...

I get to work and have mountains of paperwork to catch up on that I didn't get to the day before.


Then I'm off to grad school or a professional development workshop for a few hours.



Throw in a church meeting or two or something church related.


And you've got my life. Ta-da!

I am so happy tomorrow is the first day of spring. Hopefully I can get over being bored with my life by getting outside. If not, Travis is going to get a phone call from me stating I have decided to run away to Greece and I am never coming back. If anyone would like to join me that would be great, just let me know.

Meet the Press

So now that we have a new President I am trying to take more of an interest in politics. I'm hopeful that we will see positive change in America. In order to keep up with everything going on I have decided to become a fan of Meet the Press now hosted by David Gregory. I don't know if I can take my man that seriously though after seeing this. I do respect that he has good taste in music, but the dancing...suspect.