Cromwell Basement Apartment

Already Jake and I have moved waaay too much for my liking haha. First we lived in this closet apartment in Rexburg. Then we lived in the beyond amazing and perfect townhouse in Idaho Falls. And now, to be able to save our money, we moved into the Cromwell's basement. We've lived here since like February 7-ish. We feel very lucky because we have the basement to ourselves, our room is nice, we have two separate closets, a kitchenette, and a pantry. They have a kitchenette in their basement and it needed some repairs but Dad Cromwell worked like crazy and it's so nice now! The Cromwell's even cleaned out a locker for me (they have a big room by their garage door and back door that is like a mud room, and each wall is just a row of floor to ceiling lockers for all their riding stuff, sports stuff, winter activities stuff, etc. Growing up, each kid had one.), which made my day!

I can't wait until I'm done with school, Jake has a career, and we are settled in our own home with Lia in our own backyard. Oh, and I have lots of adorable babies. Have you seen the Cromwell grandkids?? The odds are in our favor for cute kiddos! :)

We miss our primary kiddos (as I'm SURE they miss us! ;) ) but this is a nice ward, too. On the Sunday that they welcomed us into the ward they called us Jake and RACHELLE Cromwell. As if my name is spelled weird... It's spelled the bible way. R.A.C.H.E.L. Oh well, just funny. :)

So here are some pictures of where we're living!

Our room (we have the footboard on our bed now! I love it, a lot!!)

My favorite pictures still hung up in my favorite order

That big mirror is finally where it belongs, on our dresser!

My closet

Jake's closet

The desk between the two closets

Closet in the extra bedroom where we put our coats

Hall closet that was cleaned out for our use... but right now we don't use it.

The bathroom

I love these shelves in the shower... SO MUCH.

The infamous bathroom intercom ;)

These shelves/nooks in the laundry are pretty genius, too


TV room. There are so many couches. Plus the big blue bean bag. It's pretty much awesome for movies with the family.

Yes this came with us, love it!

Kitchen. Notice where they (Dad C.) is putting a pull out drawer thing for our sponges. I'm excited!

Our table is between the fireplace (I. LOVE. THE. FIREPLACE.) and racquetball court

See the secret door?

It holds all the firewood! Cool! That bucket holds fire starters.

They make building fires fun and easy! They are cut up egg boxes filled with dust and wood pieces from Dad C's shop and then covered in wax. Genius!

Pantry. It's huge we just use a tiny bit of it. The light automatically turns on/off when you open/close the door. Again, GENIUS!

My locker

P.S. Jake ADORES his job. I'm so glad. He loves what he does all day, loves his boss, his co-workers, feels like it's fair pay, everything. Phew!

Lia and Diamond on Leap Day

Lia got her first owie! I am overly upset about it. I really want her hair to grow back, and it's just two spots on her leg! But Dad C. said that she fell. He went out to feed the horses and she was outside of the corral. Which is super strange because she is such a nervous horse and even when their shelter was blown down and there was a big opening she stayed where she felt safe. Today is just as windy outside and there are no gaps or loose parts or any way for her to get out at all... But Dad C. said she was out. He said he opened the gate for her and she went back in but slipped on the way in and fell and hurt her leg. It's so sad to me!

Here's her owie

Here's how dirty she is! I can't wait to wash her down in the spring when it's warm outside!

Here's the nasty temporary shelter wall so that they don't get out.

Happy Belated Valentines Day, Honey

As I mentioned in my Valentines post about what Jake did for me, I did nothing for him for Vday, Nada. So I did a late mini valentines day for him, because that kind of thing is important to him and means a lot. I didn't do anything big, I made him a card.

Here's how it turned out-
I tied it with ribbon.

To cross stitch the heart I poked the holes first. That thimble was a finger saver!

The back was not a pretty sight...

I stole the whale idea and the matches idea from this cute blog. Check it out.

True Friends

The crazy non-stop winds blew down more of Lia and Diamond's shelter last night. Jake and I woke up to Lia crying and whinnying and freaking out. It was SO sad she was jumping around and screaming high pitched. It was super cloudy and dark and it was snowing and the wind was blowing like crazy. We ran out and Diamond was missing. We said, "Lia calm down" and as soon as she saw us she ran right over and her eyes were huge and her legs were all spread out and she started whinnying some more, like telling us her story. Then Jake said, "Where's Diamond huh?" Just talking to her to calm her down and as soon as Diamond's name was said she stopped whinnying and just looked at us, like, "YES that's the problem, Diamond is gone. Go find him!" I'm just glad Lia didn't try to get out!! When we found Diamond he was a little hurt and it was sad. He'll be okay though.

When we got Diamond back in the corral Lia ran right to his side and has not left it since. I was watching them a little later and they were standing together eating and then Diamond walked over to where he got out (Jake put up a blockage to stop them from getting out until we fix the shelter) and Lia popped her head up and ran over to block him! It was so cute and funny.

After work I went back out to check on them and Lia trusts me so much more now! I love it!

Call Me The Red Tomato! (Shaun White)

Jake took me snowboarding today! We did the night skiing (but snowboarding.... not skiing). I had never gone before! That's like a sin if you grew up in Washington.

For the record, the bunny hill SUCKS. BAD. Even after we had gone up to bigger hills I was bad on the bunny hill.

For the record again, the lifts are scary.

Also for the record, my knees, butt, wrists, and elbows will never be the same. The snow was pretty hard. No powder.


I was so sick of falling.....

Jake took most of the pictures but here's a couple of him!

I'm glad that Jake is so good at so many different skills because each of our kids are bound to have a passion for at least one of his many talents and I think it's a confidence booster to be able to snowmobile really well or skii or snowboard or ride horses or play tennis or racketball or volleyball or basketball or wake boarding, water skiing, airchairing, surfing, etc.

OH! When we were leaving, we saw all the ski patrolmen circled around a little boy. Jake thinks he was like 8. I think he was 6 or 7. He was unconscious and even after they brought the stretcher to him they didn't move him for the longest time. They kept working on him right there in the snow. Then they finally strapped him to the sled/stretcher thing and RACED him to the first aid cabin. It was SO SAD! I hope he is okay.

This is who the red tomato is, btw. Jake says he's super good at snowboarding.

I'll Admit, I Didn't Know Horses Laid Down!

I thought if a horse was laying down it was either giving birth or dead. Seriously. So Jake and I were driving and we saw horses laying down and I was so sad! And Jake was like what, they're fine? Horses lay down sometimes! I was so confused! I always look at the horses and go say hi to them and see them in the mornings and night when I get home from work but I never ever see them laying down. So I was determined to stay up until they laid down tonight. But then we got home and Lia was laying down!!! I could not believe it!

Lia is ADORABLE. UH.DOOR.BELL I TELL YOU! And I'M her favorite! It's so fun. Jake and I had literally just been talking about how I never ever saw the horses lay down. He promised me that they do, how else would they be so dirty?? I hadn't thought of that... Anyways I was overly excited, she's just so cute, and so I started taking pictures of her and walking closer and closer. I didn't want her to stand up because she saw me coming. I got so close and then she stood up and I was SO disappointed. But then she WALKED TO ME! She got up and walked over to me. She didn't stand up to get away from me or because she was scared that I was so close. No, she wanted to come to me. It made my day. Then she didn't flinch at anything I did and she was just so cute and fun. I LOVE HER!







She was so cute and she looked so little it was like she was a baby again!

By the way, her hair is getting less and less soft :( but it's still velvety in some places.

We had such crazy winds the other day that Lia and Diamond's shelter was blown down! The roof is nowhere to be found!


P.S. Isn't it weird that that house in the top two pictures, behind the Cromwell's property, has a round roof??

S'mores!

I have been craving these for a long time....



Mmmmm I do love that fireplace!

Handi Dandi Intercoms

So my in-laws have an intercom system in their house. There's a base one in the upstairs kitchen and there's one in every room (and bathroom) in the house. There's a speak button, a listen button, and thankfully, a privacy button. Which means we can hear them if they push speak and then say something but if they push listen they can't hear us, we have to go push speak and then they can hear us. But if we push listen we can hear them even if they don't push speak.... because theirs is not on privacy... but ours is, so they can't just push listen... get it? Anyways, I am not used to having these handi-dandi intercoms. They really are awesome and nice to have. But, for example, this weekend Kayla, Tyson, and Memrie (Tyson's girlfriend) were home from college for the long weekend. So it's Sunday morning, my one day a week to sleep in and wake up when my body wants to all on it's own, and I'm fast asleep when all of a sudden Mom C's voice comes through the intercom saying breakfast is in 20 minutes (btw, we have a kitchen downstairs but since everyone was home we all ate together). That woke me up so I was a little annoyed (not with Mom C. just with the fact that I was awake haha) So then right away they somehow hooked up an ipod to the base intercom and it played church music through the intercom in every room of the house! Which, again, is great! Way cool! But I was tired and, again, NOT used to such a thing. So in my not-a-moring-person-at-all-frustration, I pretended to shoot the intercom thingy in our room. Jake BUSTED UP LAUGHING at me and made me get out of bed and reenact it (even though the first time I was still asleep and laying down). Here's the reenactment.... It was funnier the first time.


Then we went around the basement trying to turn them all down because the ones outside our room were turned up and blasting as loud as they get and we found a bunch that we didn't even know were there!!! It's just cracking me up. It was like we went into the next bedroom and turned it halfway down then went to the hall and turned that one halfway down then went to the bathroom (hahahahahahahaha!!!) and turned that one halfway down. Then found one in the laundry room and the other hall and the tv room and it was just funny somehow... So you will be happy to know that now they are all identified and turned down a bit so that they don't STARTLE us awake like we're firefighters or something. Phew. Hahaha this is one of those things that I put up here so that one day I can look back and laugh. And, Jake and I think it's funny, so it's just up here for us.

February 14, 2012

This and this are my posts of Valentine's Day last year. This year Jake went all out again. But I haven't done anything yet. I started his gift but never finished it! I'm too busy and he is always home when I am so I never got a chance. But here's what he did for me.

I got home form work and my parents-in-law made me stay upstairs while Jake finished up downstairs. When I got to go down he had made dinner and had rose petal trails all around the basement leading to different surprises. It was so cute and romantic. Dinner was delicious and then we danced to his favorite song and then I got to go around to all my surprises. During dinner his mom and dad came down to give us a dessert that they made (it was seriously sinfully delicious!). Here's some pics!




That's just a few pictures of a few of the trails and gifts he had for me! It was so fun.

I forgot to mention that earlier in the day, before I had to go to work, we had pink heart shaped pancakes and bacon! My favorite meal ever these days! Some more pictures for ya-

Changes

Life is full of changes. I'm bad at change but I think I'm getting better.

So I think in my last life update post Jake was going to Itech to finish his automotive degree and he was working at Oswald Industries and I was majoring in social work at BYUI. Well, now everything has changed! Jake has dropped out of Itech and he has decided to try to become a seminary teacher. As a back up to that plan, since it's super competitive, he is going to school at BYUI to get a bachelors degree in business management with an emphasis in finances. He lost his job at Oswald Industries which was sad and scary but was actually a really good thing because he was so unhappy there and he is the kind of guy who won't quit something just because he doesn't like it. After working at two different mechanic shops he has decided that is definitely NOT what he wants to do for the rest of his life. Bad atmosphere, bad language, stressful, mean bosses, etc. Now I can admit that I am SO RELIEVED! If he had decided to stick with mechanics I, of course, would have kept supporting him 100%. But I like the idea of a seminary teacher so much better.

So, the sad news is that we sold our contract to our townhome that we have loved SO MUCH and we moved in with Jake's parents. Which I know everyone automatically cringes at the thought of living with parents but it could be way worse! His parents are nice about it and we have the basement to ourselves pretty much. So that's nice. And there's a door that goes in straight to the basement and there's a kitchenette that they have bent over backwards to get all nice and fixed up and new for us. And we love being able to see Lia so much more and Jake is able to make more toys and things for Jake's Toy Chest because his dad's shop is right in the backyard. We just really felt like it was important for us to save the money each month.

He also got a job at a place called On the Spot Cleaning and Restoration. HE LOVES IT. Thank heavens.

As for me and my schooling, I am now in the Home and Family major, emphasis on Marriage and family. I know I get lamer and lamer as I go but this major actually interests me and I'm learning stuff I actually care about and it will help me in every part of my life for the rest of my future. The best part is that all of the credits I have taken so far go towards this so I didn't waste any of my time. I will graduate March or April 2014. I still work at Carlisle Beauty. Life is good. :)