church game

We've loved our ward so far. We moved in right as the bishopric was changing, so we've been waiting on a few things during the transition (our records haven't been read in and we don't have callings yet). That doesn't really bother us though. We've made up a new game: let's see how many auxiliaries we can get to fight over us before we actually get callings.

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The first Sunday in the ward, we filled out the paperwork to request our records. While in the office, I met the Relief Society President, who mentioned to the First Counselor that she needed some more Visiting Teaching Supervisors. I piped up, "I've had that calling before - I love it!"

The second Sunday, there wasn't a chorister in RS, so I volunteered to conduct. They asked me to do it again on our third Sunday.

At our recent RS meeting, I stayed a little late so I could help with clean-up. I'm not sure why, but that's usually my favorite part of activities. ;) The "Meeting Coordinator" (aka Enrichment Leader) thanked me afterward and told me it wasn't necessary, but it was definitely appreciated.

Relief Society - check

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One of our main goals since moving in has been to make friends. We got to go to the ward camp-out a couple weeks ago, and Brian suggested that that was a great time to make friends - by bribing them with homemade root beer. It was definitely a hit (especially with the kids - one of the teenagers warned Brian that he'll probably be called into the Primary now), and the Activities Committee Chair mentioned that they had been wanting to make it for the ward Halloween party. They hadn't figured out how and asked Brian to be in charge of it instead. Without even letting him respond, I happily told her that he would love to do it.

Activities Committee - check

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I went to a little craft night two weeks ago. It was put on by one of our neighbors, and she invited any interested sisters to come bring their crafts and work on them while chatting. I'm certainly not crafty, so I mostly went for the socializing. There weren't a lot of people there, but it was fun to make some new friends in a smaller group setting. One of those sisters came up to me on Sunday after Sacrament Meeting. She mentioned that they were one person short in the Nursery and asked if I might be willing to come help the other leader. Even though I had no idea what to do, I agreed. It turned out someone else had found a substitute, so I didn't need to after all. But during Sunday School, one of the sisters from the Primary Presidency came and asked if I could come sit in with a teacher in her Primary class during the third hour. I was happy to help and stayed the whole time even though it turned out there were only two little girls in the class that day. Brian told me not to enjoy it too much. ;)

Primary - check

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On Sunday, I came to get Brian after church and found him talking with another brother and the Elders. It turned out the Elders needed a ride to and from a lesson. The other brother was going to but had a wife and baby, so Brian and I volunteered to go instead. I was so excited to go to a lesson again! (I was laughing inwardly throughout it because the investigator reminded me of some people I taught.) We gave some input and helped bear testimony, etc. I had almost forgotten how much I love teaching the gospel in smaller settings like that. The Elders were grateful for our help and told us that was their best lesson with that woman. I was probably a little over-excited, but they seemed happy about how eager we are to share the gospel. We had them over for dinner on Monday, and they alluded that they might have suggested us as ward missionaries.

Ward Mission - check

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I think that covers most of our bases. We aren't sure about Elders' Quorum. Brian has said the prayer multiple times by now (once it was opening and closing for the same meeting!). He also went to an activity they had over the weekend. And the EQP lives one building over from us. Who knows if he has any plans for Brian.

I'm interested to see what our callings actually turn out to be. ;)

virtual tour

I finally got around to taking pictures of our place. Don't judge me on the less-than-clean rooms...we live here. ;)

This is our bedroom. It's slightly smaller than the office, but the closet has a lot more hanging space. It's also on the back of the townhouse, so there's not really road noise (I'm not sure there would be anyway). We got 2 of the dressers for free from Craig's List and the other for cheap at a garage sale. All of them are definitely used, but we like cheap. We'll get nicer furniture eventually. :) The white bookshelf came from my bedroom at my parents' house - I use it as a nightstand, just like Mom does. ;) And notice the hot air balloons on the box spring? What's even better is the dinosaurs on the actual mattress. (Don't worry, we got them brand new.) Maybe some day we'll get a bed skirt.

These are the bathrooms. The one on the left is upstairs in the hallway between the two bedrooms. I got really excited to decorate, and I especially wanted to have a cute shower curtain. (Everyone has their quirks, right?) I like how it turned out. We got pretty much everything at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, I think. And yes, that is a shampoo/conditioner/soap dispenser. ;) Brian tried the one at my parents' house and decided he liked it enough to get one himself. (Thanks for deciding Mom needed one all those years ago, Scott.) The bathroom is plenty big, but there's not much storage space, so we also got that cabinet to go over the toilet. There's not much to say about the half bath downstairs (main floor - right picture). It's a bathroom.

This is what we originally called the guest room/library/study/office. I think we finally settled on "office" (or I did, anyway). But then Mom came to visit and graciously made curtains for us out of sheets. :) (Window treatments are expensive - the people we're renting from don't provide blinds - so we decided on homemade curtains. Mom did a great job!) When we realized the natural light coming in the window cast a red glow on the room, we jokingly began calling it "the red light district." Of course, as often happens, the name stuck.

Here's the front door and living room. The door is brand new because it was apparently dented, as if someone had tried to bust it down. (And since they were replacing our door, they decided to replace all the doors in this building.) It opens right onto the staircase, which is fine until you have to move a couch or washer or dryer into the house. We had some fun maneuvering. :) The living room is currently a little sparse, and it will probably stay that way for a while. We have a leather couch (courtesy of Craig's List), an end table, a tv stand (both from a garage sale we raided - we also got the computer desk, filing cabinet, and computer chair there...and fit it all in my Camry in one trip), and 2 Walmart lamps. We might get around to hanging pictures eventually. ;) (We haven't even printed wedding photos yet.) By the way, leather does pick up smells - I had convinced myself that it doesn't - so we're still working on getting the dog smell out of the couch. It's slightly better than it was. At least it wasn't smoke.

Here's the kitchen and hallway back to it. Plenty of counter and cupboard space, just the way I like it. :) We aren't even sure what to do with all the cupboards right now. I'm sure that will change once we start having little Casadays. You may or may not be able to see them, but the bar/hooks on the cupboards above the sinks came from Ben and Laura. I didn't know we had them but was ecstatic when I found them in a box of other stuff because I'd been coveting the ones that some of our friends have. Check out that brand new stove too! We were without one for the first week or so after moving in, but I think it was worth it to get a new one. I didn't take a picture of the dining area/table because there were papers all over and I was too lazy to move them. ;) The hallway has 2 nice big closets - one with all shelves and one huge coat closet. Oh yeah...did you notice the dishwasher? We haven't used it in the month we've been here, except as a glorified drying rack.

Last but not least, the basement. Neither room is finished, but we don't care - we're just happy to have the extra room. We got the shelves at a garage sale and the washer and dryer from Craig's List. Brian rigged up a hanging rack for me (he loves me!!) out of PVC so I can hang stuff as I'm pulling it out of the dryer. Not much else to say about the basement, other than that I love being able to do laundry at home, whenever I need to, instead of having to run to the laundromat. :)

So that was probably longer and more boring than it needed to be. Thanks for coming on the virtual tour of our house! And there's plenty of room here for friends/family who want to come take a real tour. :)

The Perfect Pizza

For the christening of our new rolling pin and pizza peel, and rechristening of our pizza stone, we made the perfect pepperoni pizza for dinner tonight. Complete with flour and cornmeal for non-stickyness, we had all the perfect ingredients, except for a few substitutions:
Instead of pepperoni, we used grilled chicken,
Instead of tomato-based pizza sauce, we used ranch,
and then supplemented our pizza with slightly sauteed onions, crumbled bacon, garlic, some herbs, and a delicious blend of cheese (approx 65% mozzarella, 34% mild cheddar, and some ground parmesan), and some BBQ sauce on the side for dipping.

We would show pictures, but we ate it.

Presents for Ourselves

We received a number of gift cards from our wedding (convenient due to our cross-country move) and we have now redeemed them ALL! We took a trip to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Target, and some other places, so allow us to gloat over our new stuff.

tent, sleeping bags, an air mattress, and camping chairs, which we have used the past two weekends
heated blanket
cordless drill
bathroom space saver
a new grill (for my birthday)
OSU paraphernalia
vacuum (OSU scarlet in color)
shower dispenser
shoe racks
lap desk

In forming this list we realized that most of the items were actually very practical, such as cleaning items, kitchenware, etc., so the list could be a lot longer, but more boring.

our first OSU game

On our way to get a kitchen table on Thursday, Brian and I decided to listen to the OSU football game on the radio. They lost the coin toss and didn't get to receive the ball. However, when they kicked it off, they managed to force a fumble and got possession after all. Soon after that, they were able to score their first touchdown.

I was driving, and Brian got really excited as they scored. The problem was that he forgot we were in the car. He threw up his arms in a "touchdown!!" sign and promptly smashed his hands against the roof of the car. After laughing hysterically for a minute, I checked to make sure he was ok and hadn't injured himself, then continued laughing for another 5 minutes.

We finished listening to the game when we got home, and it was pretty good (a little boring because they killed the other team). As it turns out, I really prefer watching football to listening to it. Maybe we'll have to make friends with people who have a tv. ;)