Skip to main content

Shiveley's 1st Summer

Well friends and family, I know it has been a while since I have last blogged. I say that every time. But I felt that now would be a good time to blog because the summer is coming to a close. As our first summer together, we did so many things. I sure am going to miss spending so much time with my handsome man, but school right now is the number one priority to finish.

Where do I even begin? This summer was amazing, seriously! I hope you don't mind me reverting back to my old bullet point list, but I am. Enjoy!

This summer Spencer and I have been able to get to know each other on a whole new level. We have spent all of our free time with each other and took advantage of having so much time to do what we wanted. Yes Spencer still was taking classes, but both were online classes. I had fun listening to the videos he had to watch (most of the time it was during breakfast or preparing dinner).

We got to experience what it is like to literally be cooked in our apartment. During the few weeks it reached over 100 degrees, our ceiling fan, standing fan, and window just didn't cut it. It was miserable. Sweating while sleeping, is the worst feeling ever. I mean come on, you can only take so much off before there is nothing left. We received a wonderful gift from some wonderful people who will remain nameless but the standing air conditioner was pretty awesome. We then figured out how to strategically place our standing fan in our kitchen (facing our bedroom) with our air conditioner going full blast actually cooled down our room significantly. The few weeks of restless, sweaty nights were defeated by my brilliant husband's brain!

Weddings. We are at that point in life where all of our friends are getting married. I love weddings and wish I could get married over and over. Three of our close friends were married and there were a few in between. What a wonderful way to get together and celebrate such a wonderful time in life. We have great friends and are so happy for all of them to finally join the club. We now are not the only one to be married and it's awesome!

Vacations. We didn't do much this summer but what we did do was just what we needed. We were able to go to California and spend time at the beach, the one and only Disneyland, and of course our favorite stadium for baseball (so far), The Angels! We also had the opportunity to go four wheeling down in SandHollow and up at Whitney Reservoir. Both trips were amazing and adventurous! Each time we slept in a tent with an air mattress. Good thing we love each other because we ended up sleeping in a taco the whole time. It was funny. I didn't mind especially when one night the wind freaked us out and we both thought our tent was being attacked by an animal. It rained both of these trips, but it didn't stop us from having fun and getting bruised tail bones from the ATV's. We also had the opportunity to go to my Kevern Family reunion. This was up at the Spruces in Big Cottonwood Canyon. We loved hanging out with my family and even had time to go on an almost 6 mile hike up to Mary, Martha, and Catherine. This was such a beautiful hike and sure made us sore for the next day or so. We also had an epic volleyball game with the adult cousins. Needless to say, we should all be pros. The next day we were all walking around like old people. Spencer had the opportunity to go to Minnesota for his senior project. Such a neat experience he had at 3M and what a great company to do a project for.

We tried a ton of new recipes in the kitchen. I am very proud of us for trying different things and actually being good at them. It has been fun watching us fail and do it again and make it better the more we make it. Having someone who likes food just as much as me has been such a blessing. Luckily we have also been cooking ten times healthier and that has helped us in many ways.

We tried new things. We challenged ourselves physically, mentally, and spiritually; because of that we have grown substantially. We were pretty good at going to the gym together at least 3-4 times a week. Even though at times it was short, I could tell the difference in our attitudes and energy when we did work out together. We also bought a sound bar for our TV and experienced what is was like to be in a movie theater at home. We bought a book shelf. It was such an awful color and definitely not what was on the box. We did the round about thing to make it work and bought primer and paint to cover up the bad color. It's not quite done as of yet, but buying things to make our apartment feel like home is always fun. We won tickets to meet the band Death Cab, and we actually got to meet the band! It was neat! Something that happened quick, but something that I'll remember for quite sometime. Spencer took it upon himself to take an additional online class to help him with optics (something for his senior project) I was amazed by how much he taught himself. He bought new circuit boards and a screen and programed it himself. He is amazingly smart! He also found out a way to stream movies for free (thanks to his Raspberry Pi). He programed it so that now we don't even have to rent movies from Redbox or watch them on Netflix. Score! I read the Book of Mormon again, and it even better than the last time I read it. I haven't really taught myself anything like my husband has, but I made a good list of things I want to accomplish. One more thing. Spencer removed Dota for a while. For a few reasons, but I won't mention them here. I know it was a hard sacrifice for him to give up, but he has done so well. He has become more dedicated to school and studying. I am very proud of who he has become this summer.

Our crazy apartment life. There have been nights when our entertainment was the screaming of our neighbors. It was kind of ridiculous how much it happened. We learned how to love each other more and made sure we didn't scream at each other for little things because we knew how much could be heard. We also had a battle with our shower with the water temperature. Some days it was ice cold (when it was turned all the way to the hot side) or when the water scalded our bums when it was turned all the way cold. It was always a guessing game to how it would be. We did get really good at taking fast showers because of it though. Our door is covered in nats or mosquitos every morning, it's quite gross.

Well... I am sure I am forgetting things but at this moment, that is all I can think of. I am sad it's coming to an end, but this one we made so many memories. Here's to summer 2015 and all that it has in store for us in the next few weeks. I think I am ready for cooler weather now!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What being in college has taught me

I know I have been terrible at writing on my blog the past couple of months. School has engulfed my attention and honestly blogging has been the last on my priority list. I wanted to write blog about my college experience... since I graduate in 53 days. I am thrilled beyond words to be this close to being done. I had know idea it would feel like this nor that it would come so soon. In just a few short months I will be able to call myself a graduate of Health Promotion and Education with an emphasis in Community, also being eligible to become CHES (Certified Health Education Specialist) certified. Wow what a mouthful! Being in college was not like I expected, it was much more. I have been through the worst of worst and the best of best experiences. I would like to share with you what I have learned in the past four years (From beginning to end), I hope you can get a good laugh about it. To those who have yet to start college, I strongly encourage you to start thinking about going. You w...

Staying Organized with a Baby and a Budget

Happy 2019 everyone! I hope your year has started off great and I hope it continues to be wonderful! I would like to consider myself to be pretty organized. Some people may find it weird that I love to keep things tidy and have a spot for everything. I hate clutter and huge messes. Yes I know I have a baby who loves to get into everything, literally. So I have had to learn to let her be little and let there be messes. Like most people I know, I binge watched Netflix show "Tidying Up" with Marie Kondo and her KonMari Style. Although fairly organized before the show, I felt inspired to get rid of more and organize deeper. I feel SO much better when my house is clean and things are put away. Spencer always makes fun of me for this slightly OCD quality I have. As I have been taking night classes and not getting home until 9 pm I have found it easier to not want to clean up the kitchen before bed. I do it anyway. Does anyone else have to have a clean kitchen before they go to b...

Potty Training and tips

I know most of you won't care about this post, but I know my future self will be grateful for it. Potty training is so tricky and it really tested my patience. I know everyone experiences it differently and each kid is different. I did a bunch of research on tricks and tips. I didn't just stick to one, I tried a few different ones and even combined some. Let's start from the beginning. Spencer and I wanted to have Evie potty trained before our new little one arrives. I can't even begin to tell you how many people told me I should wait until the new baby came. A good chunk of these same people told me Evie was too young (she is 22 months) and it wasn't worth my time to even try. Here's the thing; I kind of get why people told me these things, but it really made me doubt my abilities to teach Evie a hard task. Let's all be kind and not mom shame those who try things differently and earlier than others. I am with her all day, every day and paid attention to a...