10/8/09

"We came home and sat in Shelbey's room and had the online dictionary say awkward words (the best were booby and breast). Then we thought we were getting ready for bed but we heard people talking outside of 44 so we kept spying on them and saying their names and being super weird and it was hilarious until Leslie was rude to us and accused us of needing attention

Shelbey: "Say 'Marshal'"
Mikaela: {whispers} "Maaarshall!!!"

10/10/09
Shelbey and I went to ballet club today. We tried to register beforehand but the slips weren't where they were supposed to be and when we tried to find the room to register, room 129 was definitely the men's faculty locker room.

10/11/09

After ward prayer there were guys in our hall from Young Hall looking for a cell phone. After they left, someone else found the found and brought it to our apartment. We called them and told them we had it and they came back for it but we wouldn't give it to them so they put another phone under the door to "trade" us, but we just kept both. They started banging on the door and being obnoxious so I called their RA, Matt, and asked him to come pretend to be mad at them. Before he got there, a girl next door got way mad that they were being so loud and somehow Brother Graves ended up in our lobby and came to our door and asked for the phones. Sad. Taylor was so mad at us.

10/15/09
Shelbey set the stove on fire.

10/16/09
Our cleaning check went well. Shelbey put on heels to clean so I put on heels, booty shorts, and a tanktop. In response, she took off her shirt and just wore her jeans, heels, and bra. So I took my shirt off too and just cleaned in my bra. I'm sure Taylor and Kim didn't approve.

10/21/09

Mikaela: "When you're an artist, it's not like, "Oh wow, he's hot." It's like, "Ooh, what an interesting shadow on your butt."

Home sweet home

Greg and I have been in Omaha for a little over a year now. I have mixed feelings about Omaha. There are things I love, there are things I am getting used to. I love the storms we get here and how friendly people are. Mostly, I love my job. UP makes all the things I don't necessarily love about Omaha totally worth it. I'm surprised by how much I miss Utah, but I spent five years there so I'm sure Omaha will come to hold a similar place in my heart with time.  Camping is a joke here, it's essentially sleeping in a big field. So is hiking or even going on any type of walk in nature (we went to this one 'nature walk' that was a sidewalk through a mowed field).  This winter was hellishly cold. In Georgia, lows in the 30s were my typical winter days. In provo, lows in the teens became more common. In Omaha, single digits with negative windchills was the norm. Hellish. Cold.

I realized I never shared pictures of our current apartment, but we're actually moving! We purchased a townhome close to downtown in a community where a lot of Mormons who are attending dental school/law school in Omaha live.  We don't necessarily love the idea of being around that many Mormons, but it made so much sense financially. The townhouse itself isn't too exciting, it's kind of in a sketchy area. But we're still very excited to have equity in something and stop throwing away rent payments.  

We'll be making some paint changes, but here are some pictures the seller sent us:

Living room - view from the door. That door in the back leads into a good size back room with a washer and dryer - no more coin operated laundry, holla! We will be painting these red walls a tan color

View from the other angle

The kitchen - The seller had a nautical theme in here which is really cute but doesn't match the stuff we have, so hopefully our decor will match with these walls. I love the tile backsplash!! The kitchen doesn't have much counter space, but we're kind of used to that. There isn't much cupboard space but there is a pantry and we can use the storage room.

Dining Area

Back storage room

 View from the outside. The left side is the living room, the right side is the kitchen, we'll have that little patio area, and there are two bedrooms and one bathroom upstairs.

It's nothing glamorous but we are really excited! Our friends Scott and Becky will be two doors down from us (cuz we're total stalkers and just follow them everywhere). I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to meet more people who are new to Omaha and are looking to make friends. We'll be five minutes away from the zoo!

The guy with the crazy intense beard

January 3, 2011
"I met a guy at family home evening* tonight. He's really cute, I've definitely noticed him before (except he used to have this crazy intense beard at the beginning of the semester) and he was fun to talk to. Ugh, I don't want to get my hopes up though"

*Mormon families are encouraged to have one night each week set aside for family time.  At BYU, we were split up into 'families', but would sometimes meet in big groups for games.

January 8, 2011
"So the guy I met at family home evening, his name is Greg. And when I checked my facebook on Tuesday, I saw that he had added me on facebook, which was a welcome surprise.

Then the next day he wrote on my wall inviting me to a movie night with his friends. It was really fun. I got really nervous beforehand and almost cancelled cuz I had a lot to do and was stressed and tired and starting to feel sick from the hot wings I ate.. but I went and I'm super glad I did. I felt very comfortable around him and he got my number so he 'wouldn't have to facebook me next time.' Next time :). So I invited him to the basketball game today and he came and it was good. I am intrigued by his personality. He said he's pretty mellow, which is nice, but he's also fun and funny. "

January 11, 2011
"Yesterday, Greg sent out a mass text about his hockey game. I didn't plan on going cuz I didn't want to go alone. But later Britlyn and Katie said they were going so Kristina and I tagged along. Greg was good! He actually let 4 points in, but he made some sweet blocks too. And he looked dang good. He texted me afterwards to thank me for coming and said it was nice having me there.

Then tonight I invited him over to watch the game cuz we had a few people over. He stayed after and we talked till like eleven. It was our first time really sitting and talking and it was nice. He's very different from me, much more mellow, but it doesn't seem like I annoy him."

January 11, 2011
"Today Greg texted me about going to the university forum and reinvited me to bad movie night. And bad movie night, his friend gave us this candy and Greg told me it turns your poop green. Soul mates? I think so haha"

Sophomore Year

I just found an old journal from my sophomore year of college - it wasn't even that long ago but I had forgotten some of the HILARIOUS things in it.

There was this one guy I went on a date with, let's call him K. He called me a few times after that date and I had legitimately been busy so we hadn't gone out again. One day he left me a voicemail basically asking me to clarify whether I was interested in him or not. I called him back and apologized for being so busy. He asked me what I was doing that night (going to the temple and an intramural game). "Hmm, sounds like you're busy...What about conference weekend" (going up to my grandparents). "OK, well, I'm just trying to gauge your level of interest... I might call you later. Do you have anything to say?" (Uhh...no).

Later that evening I got another voicemail from him
"Sorry to keep calling, I don't usually call this much, I'm not usually this.... interested.

Anyways, do you you want to go to the temple with me sometime? Umm.. actually, wait, that might be weird. Bye."

Sleep tight...

We had a bed bugs scare at the beginning of the year. Greg woke up with some red marks on his torso and initially thought it was a rash. After some internet research he started thinking maybe they were some kind of bite. I was out of town while all of this was going down, and when I got back, Greg was still on the fence about what they were. We had just gotten back from Christmas break so something might have gotten into our luggage on the plane. I had also been taking several work trips, so maybe I brought them back from a hotel? We never owned a bed frame, so our box springs and mattress were just down on the carpet, so they could have just come from the apartment and had easy access to our bed.  I came home and didn't get any bites after sleeping in our bed, but Greg kept getting more bites, so we went in to full panic mode. Bed bugs are awful creatures and it was so stressful thinking we might have them in our home.  We stripped the bed and threw away our mattress pad and washed the sheets and all of the clothes in our closet. But then we were dumb and put our clean clothes in the kitchen, thinking it would be safe.

Our apartment complex paid someone to come spray who told us our clothes were not safe in the kitchen so we had to dry all of our clothes on high heat for thirty minutes to kill any bugs/eggs and seal them in bags. Not just the clothes in our closet and dresser but also all of our summer clothes that were stored away. We had to vacuum EVERYTHING and throw away any loose papers or boxes. Then we had to put away all of our food and dishes so they wouldn't get pesticide on them.  We had to buy bedbug proof mattress and box springs covers and these little bed bug interceptors (easily $80 right there).  It was exhausting and so stressful because I felt like if we didn't do everything right, the bed bugs might just hang on. The guy came to spray and said he'd be back in a month to spray again, and in the meantime to keep everything sealed up.  Greg and I left out like 5 outfits in big ziploc bags to wear day to do... for a month.  The same five things every week. Luckily it was winter (aka hell) and all I wanted to wear was pants and sweaters anyways.

I would definitely recommend these mattress covers to anyone renting or frequently traveling. Mattresses are expensive and can't just be thrown in the dryer like the rest of your clothes! Plus, they're just a really high quality mattress cover, even if you never have to deal with bed bugs:

http://www.amazon.com/Hospitology-Defense-Waterproof-Mattress-Encasement/dp/B005OLK55A/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1397181052&sr=1-1&keywords=bed+bug+mattress+cover


Oddly enough, Greg didn't get a single bite after we threw our old mattress pad away, which is one of the first things we did. To this day, I'm not 100% convinced we actually had bed bugs.