Happy 1.1.11!

I can't believe that it is 2011. Time has flown by and so much has happened since January 1, 2010. David and I were still living in Logan, still going to Utah State, still working at our on campus jobs, still living basically the same life that we had been living for the past four years.  Two-thousand-eleven is already full of changes for us. A new town, a new apartment, a new car,  new jobs.
All that and it's only the first day of 2011. Whew! 

We will start out 2011 at our new apartment in Lehi, UT. After searching and searching for a decent apartment at an affordable price, we finally found the perfect place for us. It is about the same size as our last apartment, it has a little balcony, radiant-heated floors, and a jetted bath tub. We absolutely love it. We haven't been able to decide exactly where we want to hang things - so there is still nothing on the walls, but we have unpacked our bedroom, the bathroom, the living room and the kitchen. (The second bedroom/office is still fairly untouched.) Everything is organized for the most part. As soon as we get things on the walls it will really start feeling like home. 

David will be starting work at Hansen, Barnett, and Maxwell on Monday January 3rd. They are a public accounting firm and David will be working in their auditing department. He is really excited. HBM is an awesome firm and they are such a perfect fit for us. We went to the HBM Christmas dinner and I was overwhelmed with what a great company they are. We are definitely where we are supposed to be.

I will be teaching at Westlake High School in their Family and Consumer Science department. I will be starting as a long-term substitute but there is the possibility that it will turn into a permanent position. My friend Emily was the teacher, but she just had a beautiful baby girl and will be resigning her position after her maternity leave is over. I would love to be hired on for the permanent position, but I am excited for anything that may come my way. I will either keep teaching at Westlake, stay home and really focus on Red Ladder Design, or find another really great job somewhere else. I really can't wait to find out what the future holds. It's going to be great. 

Because we both got new jobs - we needed a new car. Unfortunately, It was something that kept getting pushed to the back burner. Our complete focus was on getting David graduated, surviving packing/moving, and celebrating Christmas. There was no way we could look for cars and do all of those things, so it just didn't happen. That is, it didn't happen until the Monday after Christmas when we decided we needed to bring that to the center of our focus. It was either get a car this week or borrow David's parents car and try to car shop in the evenings and on the weekends. We really wanted to get a car this week so that we didn't have to worry about it during our free time on evenings and weekends. We started looking on Monday morning, looked as loads of cars all day and finally found one that we really liked. By 2:00 pm the next day (Tuesday) we we the proud new owners of a 2007 Hyundai Accent. We love it and we got a great deal on it. (When I post pictures of the car, I will post the story. Just know that there was some pretty intense bargaining going on.) 

I am sure that there will be more changes that come our way throughout this year. We only hope that 2011 is as good to us as 2010 was. 

We are thankful for all of your love and support and we wish you a very Happy New Year!