Walt Disney World Race Weekend 2017

For the past 2 years my family has participated in the Walt Disney World Race weekend in January. The first year my family did it; I wasn't invited and they ran the half marathon. Last year I participated and did the half marathon while my dad and Rachel did the Dopey challenge. This year Guy and I are both participating.

Guy and my mom will be doing the half marathon (13.1 miles). This works out nicely for both of them because Guy will be able to spend a little more time seeing Disney World and riding the rides in the park with my mom. Also, this is the 20th year of the half marathon so it's bound to have a few extra things to it!

I decided to take the plunge and run the Dopey Challenge with my dad, Rachel and Keith. Basically this means that the four of us are running a 5k, 10k, half marathon and marathon in a weekend. This isn't counting any additional miles you walk in the park. 

Today officially begins my training for the run. Guy's calendar begins in September. Wish us luck as we start logging the big miles! If anyone wants to join us there are still spots open for the Dopey Challenge (48.6 miles) the Goofy Challenge (half marathong +marathon) or the regular marathon. Fair warning...it's a little pricey...


Disney here we come!

Rachel and Keith's Wedding-San Diego

On June 4th, my youngest sister got married. Guy and I love living by Dallas because we can get a flight anywhere! Especially at odd hours of the day! Guy's first day of work was May 31st and my sisters wedding was that weekend. Rachel and Keith got married in the San Diego, LDS Temple. It was a beautiful day and temple. Guy and I took a 10 pm flight from Dallas and arrive in San Diego at midnight. My dad was kind enough to pick us up from the airport. We went straight to bed (since our bodies that it was 2:30 am!) We woke up a few hours later ate breakfast and left for the temple.

This was our first time at the San Diego temple. It is however the most beautiful that I've been too. I was a little disappointed we couldn't spend more time in the temple; but Guy and I have added it to our vacation bucket list. After Rachel and Keith's wedding we all met for a big family lunch at a Mexican restaurant Keith's family knew and liked. After lunch we immediately left for the airport for our return flight. We were in San Diego for less than 24 hours! We're grateful that we were still able to be there though. Keith had 3/5 siblings there. We had 3/4. Katie and her family didn't come to the wedding.

Taylor Family 

Even though we weren't able to be there for very long I feel like I helped a little at least. I helped getting florist information to Rachel and Keith and I also picked the photographer! I think the pictures she took turned out amazing! I highly recommend her! I'm glad it was able to work out for her to come and take the pictures.

Congratulations Rachel and Keith! Welcome to the family Keith!


Rachel and Keith Photos

Our New House

Over springbreak we went to Paris to begin the house hunting process. We were hoping that if we spent the week down there then we would be able to find a house and hopefully do the inspection. We got to Paris late Saturday and then Sunday afternoon we went out to look at 3 different houses with our agent. The first house we looked at, still had the family at home. (They weren't aware that we were coming). The house wasn't too bad. We loved the entry way but there was tile through the whole house; the only exception being the master bedroom. Guy and I weren't super wild about that but it was alright. Our agent informed us that the house has flooded before and based on the paperwork the repairs that needed to be fixed hadn't yet been fixed. The house had also gone on and off the market several different times.

The second house we looked at was a little nicer. The fence in the back yard needed a little work. We really liked how they had updated several different features on the house. They had recently opened the kitchen up by making more of a great room. The neighborhood was nice as well. It was definitely on our short list.

The third house we looked at was in a neighborhood we had looked at online. We had looked at several houses by it as well. The house we looked at is in phase 3 of the area expansion project. When we looked at the house Guy and I both felt peaceful about the house. The property sits on about .5 acres so there's a little more room to it. The downside is that it was off of a busier road. I guess Reno busy is different than I was expecting because I didn't think it was too busy at all. (That's after the week I've spent in the house). After talking we decided to have our agent start the paperwork. Guy and I prayed about and slept on our decision and the next morning we decided to make an offer.

We made an offer Monday. Monday night the seller's countered. Tuesday we accepted the counter offer and officially entered "under contract." Since we were done early in the week with the hunting we were able to schedule the inspection as well. I'm really grateful I had checked out the book House Buying for Dummies  because it included questions that you should ask when interviewing inspectors. Between that and google we did great picking an inspector. The list we were given had 4 inspectors listed with a mixed bag of crap. The first inspector had terrible google reviews, the second inspector I called had only been in the business for about 6 months. The third inspector didn't really work in the area. The fourth inspector had 29 years of experience and gave a $50 discount for first time buyers! Ha! It worked out great.  The house passed inspection no problem. We have a few minor things we needed to work on but nothing bad.

We were set to close on the house April 26th. All I'm going to say about the time before when we signed the contract and when we actually closed was a NIGHTMARE! About every step of the process that could go wrong went wrong. We had issues getting the mortgage approved with needing new tax forms, and information about Guy's company, and my company. We had issues with the appraisal. The house was appraised correctly but the maps were wrong. Then we had them come back and say we needed flood insurance (we don't) because they were looking at the wrong county. We had the title company person preparing the documents quit (or get fired) 3 days before we were suppose to close. (Grateful the lawyer's office called us the day of to inform us of the problem!) Like I said, NIGHTMARE...especially for first time buyers! On the bright side, we know what to do when things go wrong.

We finally closed on the house May 3rd. Guy got to the house May 22 and was able to get the the utilities set up (had to apply in person). On May 25 we officially moved in. I was able to come down a few days later and help Guy unload the boxes, clean (wasn't cleaned before the sellers left) and organize. I had Guy take a few pictures of the house with our stuff in it....Enjoy!

Master bedroom; to the right is our bathroom and walk in closet

Living Room

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my kitchen!

Our dining room

The house...We've had a lot of rain!

Left corner of the back yard

Right corner of the back yard (with shed)

Master bathroom

We have two additional bathrooms and another full bathroom as well. They're basically empty so we didn't take a picture of them.

May's Adventure

Terrible of me..but this is Pax and Zeus 

May was a whirlwind of a month. We literally had something going on every week that month. To start with, Guy and I officially signed the paperwork to close on our first house on May 3rd. It was pretty crazy! The drama was pretty intense up until the signing of the paperwork. I was really grateful that Guy's final schedule wasn't too difficult and that he was able to field and answer and put out the fires as they came along. We we're blessed along the way and it was nice to still feel comforted even with all of the craziness. We will have a separate blog post about the house. Moving on....

First time graduation has been in Jack Trice

President Leath (ISU president)

The first weekend of May (7th) was also Guy's graduation. We can now officially report that he has graduated with his Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering. The diploma came in the mail last week. We also found out that in Guy's last semester of college he got all A's! I know he was really excited for straight A's in the last semester. (Side note: each semester since we've been married his GPA has increased). Originally Guy didn't want to do the University wide graduation but the department of Mechanical Engineering doesn't do a department specific graduation. The department does do a send off type of breakfast however, each graduate is only allowed 6 guests. Since that wasn't going to work with our guest list we decided the university one it was! To celebrate his graduation Guy wanted to have a BBQ with family and then open it up and have Rootbeer Floats with friends as a graduation party. The weather wasn't super cooperative though. It rained off and on throughout the morning and sprinkled during the graduation. However it was still a nice day. My parents were able to come in from Colorado to spend the weekend with us celebrating the graduation and visiting. We also had Jim, Shari and Ginny come for the graduation ceremony. 2 of Guy's brothers and their families were also able to come for the BBQ dinner afterwards. It was kind of nice since this was the last experience really that Guy would get with his family before heading off for Texas. It was also nice to be able to say goodbye to a lot of the people we've gotten to know in Ames over the last few years.

Hard to see...but Guy is the person just outside of the tent. 

Guy graduating!!

Yay, empty diploma case!

It was also nice to be able to spend time with both of our mothers since Sunday was Mother's Day.

The following weekend we spent getting the last of the stuff ready to move. We did have a moving company move us, but we still needed to go through and make sure we had some of the stuff pulled that the company wouldn't move. We also needed to figure out what Guy would be using (in terms of cookware) before the moving truck came, as well as items that to stay with me since I was staying in Ames for the summer. That night we did our last official date for a while due to the pending time off. We went and saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens on the jumbotron in Jack Trice Stadium. I enjoyed being able to sit on the field and reminisce about all of our adventures at Iowa State. The movie was a good way to say goodbye.

We bought a lawn mower

3 days later (17th) we were back to Chillicothe to do one last sweep of the Lasley home and make sure we had all of Guy's stuff as well as attend Ginny's graduation from Indian Hills. The ceremony was nice and I think Ginny mentioned it was one of the largest classes to graduate from Indian Hills. No trip to Chillicothe is complete without a stop at Graham's for ice cream! Graham's is one of the places Guy and I are going to miss most about Iowa. We both got crunch cones. We left late that night since I needed to be back in Ames Wednesday for work.


2 days after that (19th) our moving company came; boxed all of the stuff; and loaded the truck. I took the day off of work to be able to help supervise. Having moved a lot when I was younger I knew the gist of the drill. We've helped a lot of people move from Ames and Guy's moved a few times in his life. His response after the movers left was, "so nice! You don't have to really do anything it's laid back and easy!" I think we've decided that if we move a lot with IP we will definitely opt for the movers versus moving ourselves and getting reimbursed. The loader of our goods said they have a bet about how much the household goods weigh and whoever is the closest gets lunch for the day from the crew. Guy and I entered the bet and we lost miserably. Turns out we had over 5,000 pounds of stuff!!  That night we ate dinner in Des Moines with my mom's mom. She threw me a belated graduation party since I didn't have one when I graduated two years ago. It was very thoughtful of her for all the time and work she put into it. I enjoyed the cards and sentimental gifts.

Getting ready to load the truck

Goodbye stuff! See you in TX!

We spent the rest of the weekend attending graduation parties and saying goodbye to friends. Guy really wanted to try Fong's pizza before we moved so we had Crab Ragoon pizza with Kirsten on Friday.

Guy left Sunday for our new adventure in Paris. He spent Sunday night with his brother Pete in Trenton, MO. It was sad to see him go but we're both excited for all of the new adventures in Texas. He got to Texas Monday morning and was able to pick up the house keys, get the electricity turned on, and get water in the house all on the same day! Which was really nice since Texas isn't cool. It also turned out that the seller's had taken the fridge with them when they moved so we had to go buy one (which didn't come until May 31). Guy was also able to buy a washer and dryer right away for the house!

Jenni, Allison, Guy and Thad 5/25/13

On May 25, Guy and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary. Except....we didn't really celebrate it because he was in Texas and I was in Iowa. We're hoping to celebrate it for real later this summer once I get to Texas down in Dallas. Hard to believe it's been 3 years already. We joked about it and I said I gave him the best anniversary gift....our household goods! Guy was grateful to be able to sleep in our bed that night instead of the cot he had been sleeping on.

I joined Guy a few days later down in Texas. It was nice because Guy had left all of the boxes mostly packed so that together we could go through everything and set the house up together. That was nice so we both roughly know where everything is in the house. The house wasn't super clean when we got there so even though it was a pain, it was nice to know that the house is now "clean" with all of our stuff in it.

On Memorial Day, we biked the Trail de Paris with a 2 families from church. We enjoyed talking and getting to know the families a little better. One of the families had us over for dinner that night. We were both super grateful because the whole no fridge thing was getting tiring. We had bought a lot of ice for our "makeshift" fridge/cooler. The fridge came the following day and boy we're we grateful.

Guy had his first day at work on May 31st. He loves it! The people are friendly and the company is fantastic. He said there were 9 other trainees in his group starting. A good mix of interns and maybe 2 or 3 full time hires. They get paid on the last day of the month. So he got paid for the one day of work. Kind of nice that he got that and we don't have to wait until July before we essentially see anything.


Alright...that basically sums up May. Like I said it was a crazy month....

April Adventures

We spent most of April working on the paper work for the house. A few highlights from the month.

At the beginning of the month I made homemade cinnamon rolls for the first time. I thought it would be a nice treat to enjoy as we watched General Conference. Guy informed me that he loves cinnamon rolls and that they're one of his favorite foods. In the 3 years we've been married he had never shared that fact or asked me to make them.... My first attempt at them didn't look as pretty. The rolls didn't rise like I was hoping they would. However they were pretty good!

A few days later we found out that our bikes had been stolen! Guy's single speed and my mountain bike were locked out by our car. We found the locks cut and the bikes gone. We contacted the police but first of all we hadn't registered them so the police weren't too optimistic. We have renters insurance so we contemplated filing a claim but everything I read on line said that if you file a claim with USAA they can use that against you when you try to get a homeowners policy. Since we were trying to get a homeowners policy and figured the bikes were a good decade old we just cut our losses. I still look around town in case they happen to turn up. They're both pretty rare bikes. Mine is the only one in the city and the only other one like Guy's is in red and owned by someone in Gilbert.

I finished my woodbadge in the middle of April. I was hoping that Guy would finish his woodbadge shortly after so we could do our beading ceremony about the same time. We're still waiting for Guy to get the rest of his stuff but supposedly everything is already done for it. I also got the den leader of the year award. I wasn't at the district dinner to receive it but I picked it up at the following roundtable. It was pretty exciting to get it. I didn't know it was coming.

One of the things I wanted to do while living in Iowa was go back to Tulip time. We didn't get a chance to since tulip time was the same weekend of Guy's college graduation. So we compromised and went to Reiman Gardens to see the tulips. It was pretty great because they also have the lego exhibit going on so we go to check out the new creations. We enjoyed guessing how many legs were used in each piece. Here are a few of the ones we really liked.

Guy and I have been trying to branch out on our recipes and try a few different things. We're hoping to spend more time grilling once we get to Texas. For dinner I picked up one of those Weber seasoning packets. We didn't go over and grill since we were low on propane instead I just roasted it in the oven. It was lemon chicken with roasted asparagus and potatoes. It tasted REALLY good. We added it to our collection of quick and easy recipes. I learned about roasting more vegetables at a RS activity the previous month so we've been trying to eat more veggies and try them roasted. So far we've enjoyed it. 

The other big and exciting adventure we had in April was my nephews birth. Calvin Brian Sheahan was born on April 25. This is my sister and her husband who've been married almost a year. We're glad things went smoothly and some day Guy and I hope to meet him. 

March Adventures

We got busy starting in March so now that life has settled down a little it's time to start updating the blog.

Gru the Subaru!

In March, Guy and I started to start making grown up decisions. The first thing we did was retire the 95 Saturn. Saty was getting tired of keeping up with us. We had been looking at replacing her for a while and in the middle of March we purchased a 2014 Subaru Legacy. We've named him Gru. Guy was sad to be getting rid of the Saturn since we had her for so long. However, we were both ready to be in a car that was more comfortable to ride in, that had AC and where you could have a conversation with someone. We put Gru to the test and about 5 days after getting him we drove to Texas and started the house hunting
adventure.

Saying goodbye to the Saturn

It's about 10 hours of driving time to get to Texas. We left the Saturday of Spring Break to spend a week looking for houses and to get to know the area. When we got to Texas we found out that city of Paris was under a boil order for the next 48 hours. The hotel we were staying in didn't have any complementary bottles of water. After checking in we immediately went to dinner and to Walmart to try and get some bottled water. We got sparkling water because they were all out of regular bottled water. (go figure). Luckily we had a little left over regular water with us from Ames so we used that for teeth brushing and made due with the sparkling water for the next few days. We were grateful when the hotel finally had bottled water and really grateful when the boil order was lifted.

On Sunday we were able to go to church in what would be our new Ward (congregation). All of the people were super friendly! Guy and I are one of the few younger families in the ward. Luckily the company he is working for has a lot of younger engineers in it so we still have people in our age group and demographic. That afternoon we went out with our agent Karen Marsh, to go and look at houses. We saw 3 houses. The first one we looked at, the owners didn't know that we were coming so they were still home at the time. It needed a little work but the house was cute. It has tile in all of the bedrooms which Guy and I weren't way wild about. We also found out from our agent that house has has flood damage in the past. It was a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom. The second house we looked at was 4 bedroom, 2 bath. It had a really open look to the house. There was a lot of natural light in it. They had also removed one of the walls to open the kitchen up and make it similar to an "Arizona Great room". We were really impressed with the house. The yard also had a lot of landscaping around the front of the house. We were pretty impressed. The 3rd house we looked at was just outside of Paris in a town called Reno. Square footage wise, I think it was probably smaller than the 2nd one we looked at. It was however a newer home (built in 2007). It was a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom. We pretty much fell in love with it immediately. It was a little smaller but nicer than the other houses we had looked at. The house was just down the road from a different house we had liked online. The inside of the house didn't need too much work since it was newer. It does however need to have some landscaping done to it. There isn't really a lawn to speak of. And we would probably plant a few more flowers around the front and the back. We also would need to put in a patio or something because once the foundation ends that's all there is. We loved it though. We immediately felt like it was the house for us! There were 4 other couples that looked at the house the same day we did. We had our agent begin the paperwork that night. Guy and I went back to our hotel to talk about it and pray about it. We decided that if we still felt right about it in the morning then we would go and talk to our agent and see what all we needed to do to start the process.

The house we bought :)

The following morning we went and told our agent we were interested in the house and that we would like to make an offer. She started the paperwork and Guy and I paid the first initial payment. That afternoon we got a call from the agent that the sellers countered on our offer. Knowing that if we waited much longer we could face a bidding war we decided to accept the counter offer. By Tuesday of that week we had officially begun the "sale pending." We're grateful to have found the house at the beginning of the week because we were able to schedule the inspection and be there in person for it.

We spent the rest of the week doing different things in Paris. We hiked a different part of the Trail de Paris each night. We went hiking around the Lake one day. We saw the movie Zootopia. We are at different restaurants in the city. I think my favorite place was a place called 107. The hours are kind of odd but the place is pretty cool. It's located in an old burned down building. So there's no roof in the place but the food was amazing! We also tried a pretty good BBQ place. We did learn though not to eat the sausage from the place. It sits pretty heavy...

We're looking forward to living in the area. We'll post pictures of the house a little later this summer.