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5/27/2012

2 Year Anniversary

Though our actual anniversary isn't until Tuesday, we celebrated yesterday, and this year it was my turn to surprise!
I told Jared we were going to the gym (haha...lame-o) so we got dressed in work out clothes, and I drove him down towards my gym, but took a left instead, and pulled into "Serenity Retreat Spa". Jared laughed and said "But I'm not bathed enough for a spa!"
I had gotten us this Romantic package or something. So we got 60 minutes in the spa room. There was a hot tub and a sauna and a "cool bed" with this gel in it to lay on if you got too hot, and a rain shower. Then, after the spa room, we got a 60 minute couples massage! This was my first massage ever, and let me tell ya, it will now be a regular occurrence in the life of Shannon Thomas.
Then that night for dinner I made reservations at this place called Barbacoa.
Here are a few pictures from the internet that I found, because once again, when it comes to important life events, I forgot the camera at home.
They call this the "wine cave" The archway has wine around the whole thing!
The place was absolutely huge, outside there were all these torches, and it was right on the river. We were seated in a smaller room and the doors were like old castle door. These pictures don't even give it justice!
And here is a picture of Jared's entree. I know it's blurry. My free cell phone's camera is just super high quality.
He got the "Pigs can fly". A huge pork chop with apples and fig jelly, and on that black cast iron thing? His own quail.
I got a lamb and goat cheese enchilada that was one of the best things I have ever eaten in my whole life.
We ended with some Cheesecake fritters with an assortment of dipping sauces. Ahh...so delicious!
This will definitely be somewhere we go again. We loved it! That was the nicest place I have ever eaten!
I can't believe it has been two years. This past year has absolutely flown by, and our lives have changed so much. Still through it all, every night I get to have a sleepover with my best friend in the whole world. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful husband who is so supportive, and loving and sweet. I am so grateful we treat each other kindly and with so much respect. The best part is going through our life journey together, and seeing where life is taking us! It sure is a whirlwind! and I can't wait to see what the next year brings.  
In other news, both our jobs are going great. Since passing the series 65 exam (hallelujah!) Jared has been contacting potential clients and working super hard.
I just finished my 2nd week of work and I am loving it! It is great because every day I do something different. I get the perks of an 8-5 job, but it's always a new adventure!
I do so many cool things. A lot of times, Collin (my boss) will send me on what I like to call a coupon hunt. She sits me down with all these coupons, and tells me what to buy, and where to buy them. So I go to the stores and buy the things and use the coupons, and get amazing deals. Then we take pictures, and she puts them on her site.
That's right, I get paid to shop!
Plus, because the site has so many affiliates, Collin gets free stuff in the mail all. the. time. And since she already has more than she could ever need, guess who gets a ton of that free stuff? This guy.
Last week she sent me home with at least $400 in beauty supplies. Amazing. I've gotten bags of almond flour and other food, and what she does want, I am free to use whenever!
Oh and here's another "perk". Collin's current personal assistant, Erica, who I have been kind of training with for the past few weeks, leaves this Wednesday. Erica worked for Collin when they both lived back in North Carolina. Well when Collin and her family moved out to Boise, Erica's husband had just deployed for Afghanistan, so Collin asked Erica to move out to Boise with them until he got back. So they found a house for her out here to rent, and furnished the whole thing. Erica's husband gets back, and that's why she is moving back to North Carolina, where she has all of her own furniture, and is leaving her house full of brand new furniture here, with no owner. So who gets a house full of new furniture you ask? Me!! Once we get it all moved in and put up, I am going to do another video walk-through of the apartment and show off all our new stuff, but I am guessing it all is worth between $3000-4000. I'm talking new couch, new bedroom set, new bed, entertainment center. Towels, sheets, kitchen appliances, curtains, rugs, paintings I mean it really is a complete home makeover. This is a huge blessing, and we are still in shock that we get all of this stuff! We get it tomorrow, Jared rented a U-Haul to get everything, and I cannot wait to move it all in! It's like the best Christmas ever!
So that's what's exciting in our lives right now. SO I'll end with a picture of Lily. I moved her "bed" (an old pillow) on top of her crate while I swept the kitchen, well I guess she wanted to lay on it, and when I turned around I saw this. She was looking at me like "This is ok...right?" I love that puppy.

5/15/2012

a weekend with Skyler

Last Thursday my brother came over to Boise to visit us. We were so excited to see him, we miss having him just up the road. He got here Thursday night, and we took him for scones at Merritt's just down the road. Friday Jared had work off so we headed to the mall (the boys' absolute favorite thing...)and went to Target to get a present for Ross and Chelsey's reception that night. The reception was so pretty, Ross' mom did such a good job making it pretty and delicious. After the Avengers, me, Skyler, and Shawn went to see the Avengers. Ok. I did not like Thor, Captain America, or the Hulk on their own. The Avengers was one of my all time favorite movies. I can't wait to see it again! Afterward we headed home, and Shawn stayed with us that night. Saturday morning we had French toast, then the boys went to Game Stop (a diversion...) and while they were gone I birthdayed up the house for Skyler. He was so surprised! Then we went to a field to let Lily run around and of course to toss around a frisbee. We came back and had a lunch of oreo cheesecake and IBC rootbeer (Skyler's favorite). Then we went to the old Idaho State Penitentiary. This place was featured on Ghost Adventures (yeah, that show I totally hate), but that episode is really cool, and supposedly it is totally haunted, and I believe it, some pretty gruesome stuff happened there! It was a really cool place, and our tour guide was this old guy that was a prison guard somewhere else, but he knew so many stories, it was so interesting! After the penitentiary we drove up to table rock to show Skyler all of Boise, then we drove around the 2 million dollar homes up on the hill. I found my dream home, so everyone look out, it's 1.2 million. =] Saturday night we took Skyler to the Piper pub and grill downtown for a birthday dinner. We ate way too much, and it was so delicious! Sadly Skyler had to leave Sunday morning, but for good reason, he met with his Stake president to finish getting his mission papers in!! We are so proud of him and all his hard work, and we are anxiously awaiting his mission call! I will post in the next few days about my first few days of my awesome job, and how crazy blessed we are, it is like blowing my mind right now how much Heavenly Father is helping us and hearing our prayers.

5/02/2012

Two Income Family

Basically we are crazy blessed.
Yesterday I found out I got the job I have been waiting 2 weeks to hear about.
But I will back up...this is a great story.
The secretary at Jared's work is named Moriah. When I met her and she found out I had a little cooking website she said that her sister-in-law and her sister-in-law's-sister ran this huge couponing site, and maybe she could mention my little website to them to get a little honorable mention. Later Moriah showed Jared the site, called Hip2save.com, seriously it is a huge website.
So Jared came home and showed me, and I totally loved it.
Fast forward 2 weeks, after lots of unproductive applications and sent resumes, I found an ad on Craigslist for a personal assistant. In the ad the woman said worked at home and I didn't know what she did, but it sounded promising so I sent my resume and a link to my website for her to get to know me better personally. Well I got an email back from her, and the address' domain was @hip2save.com
No. Way.
Come to find out, the lady, her name is Collin, is (wait for it...) Moriah's Sister-in-law's Sister. Bizarre right!?!
So last week I met Collin and her husband for an interview, and totally clicked. Then she emailed me and said after interviewing a ton of people, she narrowed it down to me and one other girl, and she wanted me to come in this week to work with her current personal assistant.
So I went in on Monday and had a great day, and the other girl went in yesterday. Well I got an email from Collin in the afternoon that said I got the job, and that I was a great fit!
I am so excited, this is such a huge blessing. Losing the other job was the best thing that could've happened, and I knew it was going to work out. I will be working twice the hours the other place was offering me, and making about twice as much. Jared and I will be doubling our income, which is just so awesome. We are so ready to work and save.
There was an article on Yahoo last week that said half of all 2012 college graduates will be unemployed or underemployed, and Jared and I both are fully employed, working full time, and making real life salaries.
So anyway, this is a great opportunity, working with one of the biggest couponing sites in the world, really. I do more personal things for Collin, and less with the website, but I might have the opportunity to work with the site as time goes on. This is just meant to be!
In other news Jared is doing great at work, and really enjoys it. Little Lily is just my little baby, I'll put on some pictures of her at the end of this post, of course.
Oh and Skyler is working on his mission papers!! He turns 19 next week, and is actually coming out to see us. I am so excited, I have missed my brother so much! So this Sunday he should have all of his papers in, and get his call in the next month. This is so wonderful I am so proud of him and how dedicated he has been.
So I have a week and a half of free life before working 45 hours a week. I'm going to enjoy it! But I am ready to get productive!
Thanks for everyone's support and love, and prayers! They worked!
And now for Lily...haha. This is my new favorite picture in the whole universe:





5/01/2012

Our date nights

Since we've moved to Boise Jared and I have been sticking to a pretty regular routine.
Jared gets home at 5:30 every night, and I have dinner waiting for him.
If it's Monday, we then have Family Home Evening. If it's Tues, Wed, or Thurs, we sit and talk, maybe watch a Supernatural or two, and then go on our long walks with little Lily.
If it's a Friday, we go on a date! Since we've been married we haven't been very good on going on scheduled, planned dates, but we really wanted to get into the habit. So Fridays (or Saturdays, depending on the week) we switch off on taking each other on dates. They aren't always dates that cost money, and it's whatever the planner wants to do.
SO I just added a button over here --------->
called "Dating our way through Boise" and if you click on it you can get a little summary of our dates. I wanted to do this to keep track of our fun dates, and maybe give others some ideas!
Other than that not much is going on. I am waiting to hear back on my personal assistant job. I went and spent a day working for her yesterday, and I should hear tonight or tomorrow. If I get it (which I am hopeful!!) I'll be working 45 hours a week and it would be an amazing opportunity.
Stay tuned!