Birthday- Im getting old

So this week I turned the big 2-8. I cant believe that I am almost 30. This is too weird. I think I may have a pre-midlife crisis at 30. But since I am not quite there I will take a few deep breaths, harness my chi, and enjoy what is remaining of my 20's. The King family is infamous for having a "birthday week" instead of just one day. I like this tradition. So since on my official birthday we were at my grandpas funeral, I really did get to have a birthday week. Last night Ty and I dropped Lucy off at the Hurricane Kings for the night and we were foot loose and fancy free! Ty suprised me and took me to Springdale for dinner. It was AWESOME! First off, where the heck is springdale? Well it is basically Zion. The national park not Missouri. GORGEOUS drive. The weirdest thing too is once you hit Rockville (again, never even heard of it) the road turns red. Weird huh. The actual pavement is a red color. We went to an awesome restaurant called Whiptale Grill and it looks like a hole-in-the-wall but it was REALLY really good. The whole town (especially this restaurant) is kind of "granola-y" (which I strangely really enjoy) and it was just cool. We ate outside with the view of Zion all around us.  Ok the chips and salsa, HOLY COW, I honestly dont know if I have had better salsa, ever. It was that good. Then we walked around. There are strangely a lot of rock/gem shops around. Too. There is like 4 and the town is TINY. But this also made me happy because when I was little I used to go outside and look for hours and hours to find "cool" rocks and I would collect them. I think my little fascination still in there buried deep down. Then we came back to St George and went SHOPPING! I need summer clothes BAD and i spent all of my birthday money at target. Ty hates shopping so this was awesome that he willingly (instead of by force by me) indulged my indecisiveness and going back and forth from the changing room and modeling my choices one by one. P.s. there is no where to find modest shorts! Seriously it is annoying, what do people wear here! Then this morning we went and stood in line for 45 min at Kneaders for the french toast.

What an awesome birthday week. I am so grateful for the people who made me feel special, especially my Ty. Thanks my love!

(Ill have to add pictures later. They are having problems loading)

St George findings

We have officially been residents of St George for exactly one month. CRAZY! I feel like we just moved in yesterday. We really love it here. The second week we were here Lucy turned into this crazy alien-monster-creature person and I was losing my mind. Hands down this was probably the worst week I have had in my mothering career. I had a nervous breakdown one night and swore I was never having another child and cried hysterically for like an hour to Ty about it. But this week I think she has turned a corner. It could be because last Sunday I made it a goal to not yell at Lucy and be more patient and to make a conscience effort in focusing on the good things she does. Either that made a huge difference in her behavior or she has adjusted to the fact that we have a new house because she has been SO good this week. Not only that, but she has had 1 accident for a solid week! WHAT!! I was starting to be worried that her stubbornness for being potty trained was going to keep her from ever going to school and I would have to home school her forever (kids have to be potty trained to go to preschool). Not to mention how embarrassing would it be for her date to the junior prom to find diapers in her purse or have to remind her to "go potty".  I hope this isnt just a fluke.

Things we have discovered about our new place of residence:
1. People drive like maniacs here. Worse than in provo.
2. Its very WINDY! Every. Single. Day. It just blows and blows
3. Even though there are quite a few people here and it is a relatively large city in Utah but it still has such a small town feel. For example, nothing is online. People do not use internet marketing here at all. You have to basically use the phone book to find places.
4. Even though people drive like maniacs there is no traffic! This is great. The only street that gets really bad is the blvd but that is it.
5. Everyone has a golf cart they drive around.
6. The LDS population is a lot smaller than I thought. Well for Utah that is. I appreciate this. I like diversity. I like going to the store and seeing people of all walks of life. Its interesting to me.

Grandpa Pickett

A few months ago my sister-in-law went to her very first funeral. Ever. I was shocked when she mentioned this fact. I on the other hand have been to roughly 20 or more. I feel like that is a lot. My husband has been to 6. 5 of them since we have been married. Am I bad luck? Some times I feel like I am. Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because last Saturday my lovely Grandpa Pickett passed away and Wed was his funeral.  He was 84 and it is a huge blessing that he passed away because he had a disease in his liver that has been horribly painful and has made him very sick for a long time. It was sad, but such a blessing. Its mostly sad because he left behind his sweetheart, my grandma. He wasnt a man of many words but he was/is such an incredible example. He was such a hard-working, honest, and loving person.

this funeral has got me thinking. I don't know hardly anything about my grandparents. My other grandparents (my mom's parents) died when I was 9 and 12 so I was too young to really care about know much about their past or just about them personally in general. But now that I am older it kinda makes me sad. I wish i knew about their childhoods and cool stories and things they went through. Stories about things they accomplished. Gosh I dont even think I really know the simple things like their likes and dislikes, or favorite things. You know, the stories and things in life that have made them who they are. Kinda sad. Does this make me a horrible grandchild? I feel bad I was never close to my grandparents. I guess the good thing is we have eternity for me to get to know them.

One last thing. My grandpa served on the front lines of the Korean war (which I actually did know) and so during the burial we had a 21 gun salute and the folding and presentation of the flag with someone playing the bugle. It was such a special thing. It makes me so grateful for people who are or have served for our country. I am so proud of both of my grandpa's (and other many members of our family) who left their young families to fight for our freedom.

Family photo time!

We have been needing to get family pics done for forever and we decided to wait til Lucy turned 3 and then get hers and ours done at the same time. We were lucky enough to find out that a friend of ours from P-town was coming here a few weekends ago and she was nice enough to do our photos for us. She is the one who took our last ones. She does such a good job. I was so worried we wouldnt get any because Lucy was being... well... Lucy, it was pretty windy, and it was during the sunset and I was worried it was too dark. But alas we received WAY more than I expected and they are ADORABLE! Here is just a tiny sample of some of my favs. Thanks Janneke Marquez for giving us pictures we will love forever!

Easter mix-up

After we moved into our place we received an invitation on our door for an Easter egg hunt that was taking place on a saturday at our church that our new ward was putting on. Sweet! Lucy has never been to an actual easter egg hunt, other than at grandmas house, so we were excited to go and eat a good breakfast, hunt down some good treats, and maybe make some new friends. We went, and sat next to our neighbors and just like i imagined had a good breakfast, and met tons of new people who were so welcoming and lucy had a blast picking up the million eggs that were spread out. Sunday, the next day, we were at church and Ty leans over to me and says, do you recognize anyone from that easter egg hunt here? And i didnt really notice, and I thought, well we are brand new, we just met people once maybe we just dont remember. As we were sitting there were a few families that i distinctly remember and I couldnt find them anywhere in the chapel. Hmmm... The longer we sat, we came to the realization that we went to the wrong wards easter egg hunt, ate their food, stole their eggs, and met people who we may never see again posing as their newest ward members. Nice... But we got some cute pictures of Lucy out of it!

Then we colored easter eggs. Lucy LOVED this.

 And here is our cute little princess on Easter Sunday all dolled up in a dress from Grandma King and with her loot from the bunny.

Tender mercies

Well we are finally in our cute little townhome here in St George. After some craziness and major frustration of getting packed up, moving, unpacked, and most of all getting our new place official, we can finally (well almost, after we get all decorated and settled) call this place home. I am so excited. Already I feel like a new person. I like change for the most part. I feel it is so refreshing. Like starting new. Just the warmer weather, blossoms and leaves on trees, fresh air, and blue skies really makes a huge difference in my attitude. Monday was a trying day, with a trying 3 year old. But yesterday was such a good day the I have to document it. Yesterday was the first day in a long time that I said "Man, I am having such a good day today!" 

It started off like any other day. But we went to run some errands and I smelt the awesomeness of fresh cut grass for the first time this year. That is one of my favorite smells! I would have to wait for another month at least in Provo for this to happen. While we were out Lucy was actually a really good girl, despite Monday when I almost put her up for adoption. In fact she was really, really cute. Ill talk more about her cuteness in a minute. But as we came home a little lizard was on our porch to greet us home. But at least I got to show Lucy before it ran away and for the rest of the day Lucy kept yelling "Wizard where are you?!" and "Hey, where the wizard go?" We ate lunch and took a nap and Lucy actually slept in her "big girl bed" like a CHAMP!!! Man talk about a solid from Heavenly Father! I was unpacking more of the kitchen and Lucy kept going out the front door by herself, I couldnt make her stay in. I walked to the open door and found Lucy sitting on our little stool in the middle of the sidewalk looking down the sidewalk at the little kids playing. It broke my heart. She just wants some friends SO badly. She gets so sick of hanging out with me all day. I could just see her longing for them to come over and talk to her and being to nervous to go over to them. So of course I couldnt make her go inside with me while I unpacked so I stayed out with her. This. made. my. day.

As we were out there the little boys on their scooters that she wanted to play with noticed her and came riding up the sidewalk in front of our house over and over. Lucy kept yelling "Hey boys!", "Boys, Im Wucy King!" and "Woohoo boys, a wizard over here". It was hilarious! So then I could here them plotting something and I heard "...the girl in the pink shirt" then they came riding back up. As they passed the first one did a little tiny jump on his scooter as he passed. The next one tried his hardest to do a wheely and the last (the best one) as he passed he winked really big at Lucy. It was HILARIOUS!!! Then when they came back they did the same tricks and the last one instead of winking, raised his eyebrows up and down at Lucy. I think we are in trouble! Then they stopped and we chatted and Lucy found some little buddies to show off too. It turns out that so far, Lucy is the only girl (that isnt a baby) that is in our direct neighbor area. 7 boys (that we know of) and Lucy. Yep, we are in trouble. But the best news is the dad of 2 of these boys came over and introduced himself and his kids. One of the boys is 4 and the dad said that he doesnt get along with boys his age very well but REALLY gets along with little girls, esp girls younger than him. That he gets really protective and big brotherly. So Lucy may have a new best friend already! Also everyone is so nice here. WAY nicer than in Provo. We have only been here a few days and feel more welcome then maybe the whole time we were in provo! 

Yesterday was a great day. A tender mercy that is for sure. I think the Lord knows I really needed those little moments to really give me a boost. 

Provo ~ St. George

Well, the post I have been ready to post for the last 3 years is finally here!! I am going to allow myself one gooshy and sentimental post about P-town and the craziness going through my mind. Feel free to skip this post as it will be super wordy, long, and like I said gooshy and sentimental. Without further ado, I am so excited to announce that we have found a job and are moving to the sunny St George! Out of the HUNDREDS of applications and jobs my darling applied to, who would have thought that we would end up right in Utah. We were pretty sure that we were leaving since out of the hundreds of jobs we only applied to a handful in Utah. In fact, we almost had a job in NC, but we turned it down and decided St George was where the Lord wanted us to be.

So the job is for Voxxy Networks. Its an SEO company that one of our close family friends owns with his buddy and they decided that they want to integrate social media into what they do, so they contacted Tyler. We didnt even have to apply, how awesome is that! Its kind of funny that again, out of the hundreds of jobs (literally, I'm not exaggerating) we found someone who came to us. Its funny because that is basically what happened with grad school. Ty was told that he wasnt even qualified for BYU grad program, but we applied anyway. He didnt even completely have the application complete before they accepted him, weird. It just goes to show that the Lord has a plan, and His will be done. For some crazy reason the Lord blesses us beyond our deserving or understanding.

We decided that next wed is the day of days. That is the day we bid farewell to our first home. Its getting really weird. We have taken down pretty much all of our decor and have a bunch of stuff packed and boxes lying all over the house. As anxious as I am to get going on the next chapter of our lives, i have to admit, i certainly am going to miss Utah county. I may even shed a tear. How I said the Lord has a plan for us, for me moving to Provo was nothing short of just that. I moved here by myself, no friends or family. While all my friends moved away together, i seperated myself because i knew provo was the place for me. I have experienced SO much while living here. I found myself here actually. I found who the REAL Jody was. I met people who will forever stay in my heart and experienced things that helped shape and mold me that couldnt have been done elsewhere. I fell in love here, I got married here, I had a baby here, and created a home here. Im definately going to miss a lot of things like provo canyon in the summer/fall, byu grounds in the spring, the mall (st goerge mall is sub-par), Maceys, our condo, friends and family, BYU, and our favorite local restaurants and a bunch more things i cant think of at the moment.

Last but not least I need to say just how proud of Ty I am. He works/has worked SO hard for us. The stress of school, work, applying for hundreds of jobs (have i mentioned that already?), plus dealing with everything at home has been really hard on him. I truly lucked out on him. I dont think anyone else could handle me. He is just SO layed back and easy going! He deserves the world, thats for sure. Im so excited to start this new chapter with this guy. Thank you buddy, I love you and am so proud of you!