This is my temporary home....

Admit it. Did you just sing that line?
K- so the week after Vanie got married, our lease was up (yup. It was planned that way.) But did I really have a new place to live? Nope. Not really. I was still waiting to see if my offer was approved on my house. And I couldn't exactly sign a lease on an apt until I knew what was happening.

I appreciate when people don't just assume
 they know how to spell my name. :-)

Luckily, my co-worker Stephanie (she's a phlebotomist) just bought  4 bedroom house herself. Now, she is a single mom of two kids, but one of those kids is living with his grandpa for the summer. So she had a extra bedroom. And, by God's good grace, she offered it to me.
Now, this is a win-win for both of us. I make some dinners, buy some groceries, and pay a little rent. And I get to live super-cheap about 5 minutes away from work.
Vanie, John Vizzard, Brad, and Peter all helped me move. I moved a few loads a couple days before work. I freaking loved my truck for that. And I loved my friends for helping me move (thank you!)
Even Alicia and her daughter were there at midnight waiting for me to show up.
And I got these cute little notes from Hailey (Stephanie's 10 year old) and Serenity (Alicia's 5 year old).
They were so cute.
It's been so amazing being here. Stephanie and I and Hailey all go to church together and her ward is just so sweet. It's a very Utah ward (meaning pretty much everyone hails from there. Like everyone.), but so sweet.
We've done fun roommate things. Stephanie says living with me makes her feel like she's in college everyday which makes me smile. We were up until midnight every night for at least the first 2 or 3 weeks I lived here. So much for those morning workouts I was planning on now that I didn't have my commute.
The first thing I did was buy groceries, which was a surprise to no one. Hailey has been good to tolerate some crazy dinners including chicken and artichoke heart pizza (a hit) and roasted figs on arugula (she tried, she really did.)

Tone it Up pancakes 

Stephanie rocked this.

Hailey and I are totally friends. Like aunt:niece kind of friends.  :-) She went with me last week to go pick out flooring. While we were waiting, we were starving to death. Luckily, Jonmark and I's taquito place was just down the street. So I introduced her to the glories of horchata and taquitoes. mmmm.

We didn't really have the rest of the day planned out, but she noticed an antique store across the street and asked if we could go. I honestly had kind of wanted to last time I went so we did :-) Luckily she only had $3 with her or we would have ended up with about 30 dog figurines. I fell in love with this crazy awesome fridge. But I don't know what to do with it or how much it was so it's still there. But I might still get this hair dryer for my mom. So coool.
Afterwards, I dragged Hailey to The Container Store and Whole Foods. She was a super good sport and even said I was fun to shop with, which is always nice to hear. :-) So I bought her this dragon fruit. Because the time to buy a ridiculously expensive piece of fruit is when you have a 10 year old around so she can think it's cool. (I had almost bought one myself about 5 times, but didn't- they are like $8!- this was a one time thing. ) Luckily, they are also just not that delicious. But so so pretty.

And then one night we were craving chocolate, I had my random bag of roasted cacao beans from Costa Rica, and after some chewing, slicing, and pounding, we finally decided to peel them, put them in a coffee grinder to make cocoa powder, And then made brownies. It was midnight. It felt like the good old days. It was quite exciting for all of us. Such a fun "memory-maker", and such yummy brownies.