New Beginnings

New Year. New Family. New Goals.
On Monday we had our first Family Home Evening because last week we were going to Bed Bath & Beyond and Target almost every night of the week. We wrote down new personal and family goals and ended with making our family mission plan.

Here are our goals and mission plan hanging on our refrigerator. Please feel free to follow up with us as we would appreciate the opportunity to be accountable.

Speaking of NEW things, look what came today:

We hate to admit this, but we may have been showering without a shower curtain for the last week. Mrs. Bluth has mastered the half bath and shower routine while Mr. Bluth still seems to fall asleep in the shower every morning. Needless to say, we have created another memory together.

Mrs. Bluth has struggled with a lot of things that are needed in the home, such as dishes, but when eyes fell on this beauty, there was no doubt in the mind of Mrs. Bluth that it needed to be in the home. Mrs. Bluth loves color, but can never decide on just one or two colors so choosing this color combination was an easy decision. Now Mr. & Mrs. Bluth purchased the liner and brought it home only to remember that another bonus to the new curtain was that it came with the curtain hangers. Mr. & Mrs. Bluth were stuck with a shower liner sitting in the package on the bathroom for the last week.

Just look at the shower curtain and we are sure you will agree that it was worth the wait and showering without a curtain for a week.

One last New item to discuss.

Has anyone heard of the spice called Coriander?

Well thanks to the World Wide Web, we have discovered that Coriander is the dried seed of cilantro. We received a spice rack for a wedding present that has many spices that we have never heard of, but we have already used coriander in two recipes.

If the Book of Mormon does not prove to you that there is a God and that miracles exist then this will...Mrs. Bluth has made edible, healthy, and almost delicious meals and she has actually enjoyed the art of cooking. Now there is no comparison to the late Julia Childs, but some crazy things are happening in the Bluth kitchen and Coriander has helped in the creation.

Slow and Steady.

After staying two nights at Mr. Bluth's old bachelor's pad, we finally were able to move our stuff into our new home. We were given a strict two-hour move in slot and started the process by unloading the car. The ingenious individuals that packed the car figured out the best way to to pack more stuff was to put most of Mrs. Bluth's clothes into normal plastic grocery bags and then pack them into every nook and cranny. It worked well for the drive, but unloading the car ended up being a bit more tedious. It mostly led to our living room looking like this:

And now, it is a week later and our living room looks like this:

Until the time comes when we will purchase a couch or any furniture for the living room, all the open space has been wonderful at providing a dance floor.

The Bluth Trail

January 16:
The day Mr. and Mrs. Bluth began their journey. The morning consisted of saying goodbye to family, packing the car, and leaving Idaho.

We traveled as far as Little America, Wyoming where we rested in Little America. If any of you have ever driven through Wyoming then you have heard of this waterhole in the Sahara Dessert. Not only is this hotel/truck stop famous for their 50 cent ice cream cones, but also for having the most billboards to advertise their accommodations. Next time we travel this trail, I will be tallying up how many billboards are in the state. It truly made me excited to stay and even though we never did see the granite showers in the truck stop area, the hotel provided a good night's rest.

One of the most exciting things we saw in Wyoming was just outside Cheyenne where the price of gas was $2.39. After seeing the price of gas in Chicago, Mrs. Bluth might actually consider living in Wyoming. Maybe.

January 17
Arrived in Kearney Nebraska.

Now this was exciting for Mrs. Bluth because before she was known as Mrs. Bluth, she was Sister Lee who served a mission at the Mormon Battalion Historic Site in San Diego. General Kearny is remembered for his contributions to the Mexican-American War and that includes having an army of 500 Mormon men that was known as the Mormon Battalion. Kearney, Nebraska provided a hotel, but also a chance to remember 18 months that changed the life of Mrs. Bluth.

January 17
News that we woud not be able to move into our new apartment until Monday allowed us to enjoy the trail and gave us an opportunity to visit Winter Quarters in Omaha, Nebraska.

We were given a wonderful tour from a beautiful Sister Missionary and Mrs. Bluth got her picture taken with the part of the tour that talked about the wonderful men from the Mormon Battalion. Mrs. Bluth had a hard time not taking over at this part of the tour, but gladly added a few additional insights. The picture is of poor quality and you can't fully see the joy that is felt by Mrs. Bluth.

The Winter Quarters Temple is across the street and it was a beautiful day that allowed us to walk around the grounds.

We continued on the trail by crossing the Mississippi River and entering Iowa.

Another Mormon Battalion flashback was seeing Council Bluffs.

Council Bluffs is where many saints were camping on Indian territory after their exodus from Nauvoo. It was here that about 500 men followed the counsel from their Prophet Brigham Young and enlisted in the army. This act of faith had great impact on the church as the church received funds to help all the Saints move West, but most importantly it reminded the Saints that obedience of following a Prophet of God brings forth blessings.
The Council Bluffs that Mrs. Bluth is familiar with looks a little more like this

Feeling the need to sleep in every State along the way inspired us to stay the night in Davenport, Iowa.

The hotel was a great bargain for a newlywed couple and it even had a swimming pool that provided great entertainment and allowed us to move our muscles after sitting for too long in the car. There was no diving board which was the only disappointment and another time we will have to have a diving/belly flop competition.

January 19
We only had a few hours on the trail which meant we could sing the entire time without our throats getting sore. In the few hours we admired more water towers, farms, and the increase in gas prices. Finally we could see the city and for the first time it all became real for Mrs. Bluth that she was moving to Chicago.

Because I love my Mother

Wikipedia's definition of the word blog:

A blog (a portmanteau of the term web log) is a discussion or informational site published on the World Wide Web and consisting of discrete entries ("posts") typically displayed in reverse chronological order (the most recent post appears first).

I am an avid blog reader and there are a few blogs such as marisajay and Awesome Blossom that I routinely read and enjoy. During my college years I excused myself from the blog mania because I was living in Provo Utah and I assumed that you could only compose so many posts on Family Home Evenings, game nights, and other spontaneous shenanigans. I attempted at being creative when I went to the Dominican Republic and had a blog that lasted the six weeks I was in paradise. And so here I go again at another attempt to blog.

Are you wondering if I am fully embracing the social media world that we live in because I just got married 10 days ago and moved to Chicago? Well the answer to my attempt of joining the blog craze is because I love my mother.

The distance between

and

is only about 1,713 miles.

My parents spoiled me right before I got married and bought me an iphone that allows me to email her pictures, but that is not enough for our relationship. At least once a day I see or experience something that I want my mom to see so this blog will allow me to not only show her parts of my new life, but can give a fairly adequate description.

Cheers to surrendering once again to social media!