Buncha Randomness

There's some pictures I have that just don't deserve a post of their own..but still need to be remembered. With that being said, I decided I would just post them all together with little descriptions of each.

  Midnight snack run :) 

Can you say flash flood? Normally, I don't mind thunderstorms, but I must admit...the storms here scare me! Go ahead and call me a baby, I really don't care. But yes, the thunder and lightning, the wind and the pounding rain scares me. Especially in the middle of the night! Tyler, thankfully, puts up with my whimpiness and will even switch me sides in the middle of the night so I don't have to be closest to the window :) Yes folks, I know, I have a pretty good hubby!

 This was one Saturday morning I went for a run after one of those scary storms :) Talk about a maze of a run! Not to mention, a great work out! I had some good hurdles to go over as you can see.

I'm not normally a "selfie" picture taker..but this was one day when I rode with Tyler back to his area for some call backs. I went to the first two doors with him and waited in the car on the last one so we didn't have to find a place to park. As you can see, I got a little bored waiting :)

Now that's not why I posted this picture, it's to remind me and Tyler that we need to find me a hat that actually fits. I've gained this habit of safety pinning Ty's hats and wearing them the days I don't feel like doing my hair. He's always told me I should wear hats more often, so babe here ya go. Buy me a hat that actually fits me and I'll wear it :)

Sunday Fun-day

This years Father's day Sunday was quite the celebration for us here in Minnesota! It was our cute friend Caitlin's birthday the same day and Brandon (being the only father here) we decided we wanted to do something fun. The apartments we're at have a pool area that you can rent out that has a grill and island bar. We all pitched in a little, brought a bunch of food, grilled up some delicious meals, made smoothies, swam until it rained, and in all, had a blast of a day! Thanks friends for a great, fun-filled day :)

This One Day....

One day. One half day, I went out to sale with Tyler. I must admit, I could never go out and do what he does every day. Not just him, but anyone that does door to door sales of any kind. After just two hours of going out with him, I broke down into tears. I wasn't even the one doing the selling! It's definitely an emotionally demanding job. You can't let people get inside your head and forget whatever it is they say to you the 15 seconds you're on their doorstep. Yeah...not exactly easy for me.

I don't know how people do it, but I certainly tip my hat off to them. Especially my amazing husband! I know it's not his favorite thing in the world to be doing, he'd much rather be at home working on the family farm, that I know. But we knew this was a good opportunity for us and he has taken the responsibility on of pressing forward each day and giving it his all, even at a job that isn't exactly his favorite. He's doing all he can to provide for our little family and I couldn't be more proud of him and all his hard work!

This last weekend, the big boss was in town and took us all out to PF Changs for dinner. After we all got done eating, Josh handed out some awards. Now let me take just a minute to brag about my dear hubby :) They handed out one specific award that I'm sure glad Tyler received. It's called the Rudy Award. Now, if any of you have seen the movie Rudy you'll understand a little bit more about it.

Josh (this big boss) and Brandon (the manager of Tyler's team) chose one guy on the team to receive the Rudy Award. Tyler was the  lucky one on the Rubbish Rats to receive it. Why might you ask? Because they awarded it to the one guy that's always doing what he's supposed to, trying to be positive all the time, pushing through the tough days, and just giving it his all. I must say, Tyler has definitely worked hard to earn that. Even if he didn't know he was working for it, he sure did deserve it.

All the awards he got that night

 I'm one proud wife! I love you Tyler Ross. Keep up the good, hard work!!

That same night, we also got the joy of playing a little joke on our families. In the fortune cookie that Tyler opened that night, all it read on it was "boy." I took a picture of it and told Ty we had to see how this little joke would play out. We took a couple more pictures and sent them away to our families. Let's just say it definitely played out.We got lots of phone calls and texts that night and next morning! No, we definitely aren't really expecting nor are we ready to any time soon, but I'm excited for the day that we someday will be. We certainly never would tell our families over a text either! Someday friends, someday :)

Simple Sunday's

Sunday is our favorite day here. Simple as that. Whether we have some, exciting adventure planned or if it's just takin' it easy and enjoying the day together. We spend a lot of Sunday's going down to Parker's Lake (it's just a little walk away from our apartment). Our good friends, Branson and Susie Smith brought their slackline which we have definitely made some good usage out of.  Thanks friends for introducing us to the fun :)

 They have a park at the lake as well so I've also had the chance to do one of my favorite things, swinging! Just call me a little kid, but  for some reason it's something I've always loved doing. Tyler even puts up with my kiddish acts and joins in on the fun. Now if only we could find a snowcone shack to try out....

We like to have fun with the camera when we're bored sometimes....

I sure love my husband and his goofiness :)

We had some fun playing with the self timer on the camera at the lake....

We've made the trip to the Mall of America two times now and I can now say I've officially walked around all 4 floors of the entire mall. Let's just say, it is HUGE. I could spend lots of money there, but I don't think Tyler would be too happy :) Good thing he was with me to not let me splurge! The first time we went with the whole gang and got to explore and have a good time.

Then just this last Sunday, Tyler and I were able to go with just the two of us and spend the whole day there. I'm sad we didn't take any pictures besides the one when we got there in the car. We had such a fun day though!

We were able to walk around all the floors and see all different kinds of stuff, I even got to buy a few items for a good bargain! We grabbed a delicious lunch at Tony Roma's (which used to be one of my favorite restaurants but they no longer have any in Utah and they even have GF barbecue sauce!), and even hit up a movie in their theater there. It was definitely a good day, all spent with my wonderful husband. We definitely live up our Sundays!

Downtown Minneapolis

The very first Sunday I was here we had the lucky opportunity to go to an MLB game at the Target field in downtown Minneapolis. I had never been to a real MLB game before so it was a pretty neat experience for me. Although baseball isn't exactly my favorite sport to watch, there was plenty of people watching going on that kept me thoroughly entertained. We were able to go with the whole team as well as two others from MSI and afterward we were all meeting up at the owner of Garbage Man's house for a barbecue.

The stadium was quite large...Tyler's boss (Josh) insisted on taking a panorama of it all :)

  After eating expensive nachos and pizza at the game for lunch, we were beyond excited to be able to down some grilled burgers, baked beans, chips, etc. (the usual bbq food) for dinner. The owner also has a boat that we were able to take a joy ride on while some of the crazy other sales guys actually got in the cold water and did some wakeboarding.

Our Minnesota Life

Day to day life here is pretty routine for us now. We wake up in the mornings together and try to exercise for a half hour 5 times a week. This usually consists of running around the lake or different routes we've found, or running from the park to the dock at the lake and in-between doing some form of arm or ab work out. Tyler claims I learn too much from my Jillian Michaels workout DVD's...:) I have never really liked working out, mostly running, with anyone else besides myself, but I've come to realize I really enjoy running with my husband. It's something I look forward to each morning. Even if I'm the one pulling him out of bed in the morning, he's the one that pushes me to go faster. I may be able to run farther, but he can sure run faster.

Once we're back, Tyler heads in to shower and get ready while I make breakfast for him and Blake. He then manages to eat and read his scriptures and then it's out the door to head to morning meetings. While he's at his meeting, I clean up breakfast and pack the guys' their lunches for the day. Then once they're back, Tyler and I get about 10 more minutes to say our family prayer and it's back out the door to head out to sale. This is where my day begins. Of what you might ask? Well....lots of hanging out at the pool, cleaning, doing laundry, cooking, exercising, reading, watching shows on my laptop, painting my nails and toes..typical girl/wife duties, right? I would love to throw some crafting into the mix but I sent all my craft stuff back home realizing that if I made anything it wouldn't be able to come back home with me considering we wouldn't have any room in the car. I usually try and go finish working out once Ty is out the door. Then it's a toss up of what the rest of the day will bring.

Luckily, my good friend Camille has a car so she tends to be my taxi driver when I need to run to the store or when the both of us need to get out and about for something to do. Not gonna lie, I do get pretty bored sometimes. But I'm managing to find things to keep me busy :) The original plan for me was to get a Zumba job since there was a gym in Colorado Springs within walking distance, but now being here in Minnesota things changed. There's not a gym close enough to try and get a job or even a subbing job at and not to mention we don't exactly know how long we're going to be here.

The original plan was to go back to CO this weekend actually, but plans changed and it looks like we're gonna be here a bit longer. But with the way things have been going, who knows how long that'll be. So, instead, I'm left with being a house wife :) I don't mind, I find little things to do every day that make it fun. Like leaving notes in Tyler's lunches (every day), making yummy treats to try, and having dinner hot and ready by the time the guys come in after dark. For now, I'm keeping myself busy and I just ordered 2 new books that I'm looking forward to reading and with catching up on all this blogging, I have a couple days to keep me busy. Then it'll be onto something new to find!

Once Tyler gets home it's anywhere from 9-10 at night and there's only so little time before bedtime again. We eat dinner, I put his sales into the company website while he showers, and then we somehow manage to find time to keep caught up on our Bachelorette every week. We always look forward to the weekend! Once Saturday night rolls around that means dinner out on the town (the one night I don't have to cook, yuppy!) and all of Sunday to spend together. The team usually always goes out to eat on Saturday night at some yummy place and then it's church and just relaxing most Sundays.

With Sunday being Tyler's only day off, it's the only time we have to fit anything fun or big into the schedule. Including the Mall of America, visiting Uptown, swimming at the pool, slack-lining with the gang, watching movies, and much more. With not really belonging to a ward, we ward hop..a lot..depending on what we have planned for the day we either go to 9 o'clock church or 11. We're known as the couple in the team that will always try to make it to some sort of meeting on Sunday. Not gonna lie though, it can be pretty hard when it's the ONE day a week that we only have together. However, it makes our weeks much better when we are able to start it off the right way and keep our testimonies strong.

After all, the Lord is the one who made it possible for us to be here this summer. I'm definitely grateful for the gospel in our lives and the guidance it provides us with. Not to mention, it surrounds us no matter where we go. There's been some harder days than others and I'm sure there's more to come, but with the Lord on our side, I know He'll make it possible to see through to the brighter side and keep pressing forward.

Tyler has been my rock out here! When I've had a long, hard day whether it's from being bored and going crazy with nothing to do, missing our families, or simply just because life is hard, he comes home to a grumpy or sad wife after selling in the streets all day long, and somehow he still manages to turn things around and put a smile upon my face and make me realize why we're out here doing this. He has an optimistic mind and it's something I try to strive for more each day to be like him. Don't worry, he's also had his share of hard days as well. I'll get random phone calls throughout the day when he feels like he can't sale another door or walk another street without getting yelled at and making it through. There's been mornings when he really just doesn't want to go out and sale another day, but I'm trying my best to be his rock as well. I mean, we are in this together so we both have to be strong when the other is struggling.

We've both lived away from home, away from our families..him on his mission, me while I nannied...and they were both growing experiences for both of us in similar and different aspects. But nothing is like being married and living away from your families. You learn that all you have is each other to really come home to and rely on for support. Only the 2 of you are close enough to depend upon in times of trial and heartache, as well as in joy and happy times.

Summer sales has definitely made me and Tyler grow and strengthen our marriage in ways we never would have experienced otherwise. I'm grateful for the trials and the obstacles we've been able to face and come out of together. I know we only have more ahead of us, but that also means many more good ones and adventures ahead of us as well. We are really close to both of our families and miss them like crazy but we know we're out here for a reason and having the experience of a lifetime. I can say we're both extremely grateful for the love and support of our families and we hope they know how much we love and miss them this summer!

We're also incredibly grateful for the group of people we're out here with. Being all married couples (or soon to be married like our roommate) we're all sort of going through this together and being each others "temporary, summer-sales family." We've had a bunch of laughs and good times and look forward to the next half of the summer to go!

Now, since I've covered the basics and our day to day life (making a not intended long journal entry), it's time to get into the fun stuff that we've done and actually show some pictures! So stay tuned.......

Making the Move

After packing up most of our stuff in our town home, moving it all into boxes and fitting it between both our parents house, we were left homeless before Tyler set out to leave to Colorado. Luckily, my parents were kind enough to let us stay with them, even with our boxes of stuff lying around in their basement until we were able to pack the car up. Since I work at the elementary school, I had to stay behind and finish up the school year before I could head off to join Tyler for the summer. This meant we had to make it one month apart before being together again. Yup, that's right, one WHOLE month. I thought I about died when I had to make it a week apart over spring break, let alone a whole month. I knew it was gonna be tough! On May 4th, Ty set off bright and early that Saturday morning to make the drive to Colorado caravanning with some of the other guys from the sales team. Off he went and there I stayed. One whole month...apart.

Thankfully, my parents are the best and my staying with them was of course far better than having to stay home alone. I worked...a lot, went to zumba...a lot, caught up on all my TV shows (it was a nice change actually having TV instead of just Netflix)...a lot, and exercised...a lot. That's basically what my days consisted of in between spending time with my parents, my sister and her cute family, my brother and his newly cute wife, and the other lonely wife left alone for the month, my good friend Camille Griffin and her cute little girl. You can see I really didn't have much excitement, but I will admit it was nice spending time with my family, it was just hard missing my husband.

On the other hand, after getting to Colorado and realizing the apartments we were supposed to stay in were not quite what we had expected...talk about drug land, unsafe, and dirty. Tyler and Brandon (Camille's husband) along with Brandon's dad spent the whole next day searching for a new place for us to live only to realize that night that in fact, we weren't even going to end up staying in Colorado. Talk about change of plans? Um, just slightly...huge change. Apparently Colorado Springs wasn't ready for the team to sale in and Garbage Man (the company MSI is selling for) convinced our team of married couples to make the journey all the way to Minnesota to start selling for the summer. Plymouth, Minnesota was now going to become our new home.

Handling this news while being apart from Tyler wasn't exactly the easiest thing for me. Especially considering the fact that we were going to have to share an apartment with someone else... This was not settling news for me, but after many late night phone calls and tears, I came to peace with idea knowing that the Lord would not have made it so easy for us to go away this summer if it wasn't where we were meant to be. That sure didn't make it easy, but I knew it was the right thing.

After lots of changing around, it was decided that Tyler and I would live with the only single guy on the team. Single being a temporary word for him because he is now engaged to be married at the end of August :) Blake Kelley was actually one of my really good friends in high school so I had no problem accepting him as a roommate other than the fact that it would be slightly weird being a newlywed.  Guess I didn't have a choice but to accept it and knowing Blake pretty well and being the awesome friend that he is, it made it a lot easier.

Finally settled into our apartments while adjusting to being alone, Tyler did pretty well the first month of his summer selling career. But we both struggled near the end of being apart for so long. You never realize just how much you depend on one another until you're apart and don't have someone to just hold your hand or sit by you on the couch at night after a long day. We did however make it and finally it was May 30th and it was time for me to fly out and join Tyler in our temporary home!

Being grumps and not wanting a picture!

Brookie was at her last day of school

 My sister and her two kids took me to the airport that afternoon and as sad as I was to leave my family for the summer, I could not wait to see my husband! (Thanks sister for the ride!)

I was so excited to FINALLY see them open the gate!

Of course just because the wait had already been long enough, it had to be dragged out just a little bit more though. After checking in through security and making it to my gate, I get the lovely news that my flight had been delayed. I was supposed to fly out of SLC at 4:40, make a quick layover in Denver at 6, hop on another plane that was set to depart from there at 6:40, and arrive in Minneapolis at 9:50. Things sure did take a lot longer than that! I didn't leave SLC until 6, making me miss my connecting flight in Denver. Luckily, they had another plane leaving Denver flying into Minneapolis that night. After eating expensive airport food for dinner and a long wait, I finally made it on the plane and into Minneapolis at 1:30 that morning.

Even though Tyler had his morning meetings and I expected him to be in a big hurry to get home and to bed, being the gentleman he is, there he was waiting for me by the baggage claim with a rose in his hand, welcoming me with open arms! We had to wait about another half hour before we were able to actually get my luggage since it was raining so hard outside it was hard for them to get the bags off the plane, but we got them and back to our apartment we went. Finally together again, not caring that it was finally 3 in the morning when we walked through the door.

SO happy to be together again. Ty took me out to Applebee's the next night since we  couldn't really go when I got in  so late

Thanks to both our families for helping us move and especially to my parents for letting me invade the empty nest again :) Love you all!!