Looking Forward + Embracing the Present

We knew when we moved into this apartment that it would most likely be temporary. We signed a year lease and that is almost up, can you believe it?! Thankfully we can remain on a month-to-month lease until Dan's transfer comes through sometime before the end of the year.

(This post is dedicated to the anticipation of our transfer and move....now if we only knew when and where exactly!)

Our apartment is spacious and cozy, however, certainly not perfect. As such, when our transfer comes, there are several things I won't miss...

Using stairs to enter and exit our home.

Not having a doorbell

Confusing neighbors with how to find us

Sharing a mailbox with the upstairs neighbors

No real windows on one whole wall!

Having a fireplace for looks only

Having to listen to the upstairs neighbors's parties, tv, fights, music, 11 pm vacuuming....

Not having the whole house to ourselves, our family, and our guests

It's great to have a washer and dryer, FINALLY, but we have to invade the upstairs neighbors to do our laundry

Our use of the garage limited to a little storage

Water gurgling up through the kitchen sinks and drain in the kitchen floor while the washer is draining

Being able to do laundry only on certain days

Our own personal pond in the middle of the kitchen floor when using the washer

Our dishwasher and disposal...

(nope, you're not missing anything, we don't have either!)

(Dan's nephew, Matt, came in the kitchen looking to put something in the dishwasher. I said he could, if he could find the dishwasher. He looked around and asked where it was and I answered that we didn't have one! He kept looking for the green dishwasher he was sure he'd seen here before...nope 9½ years without one!)

Limited room for guests

Staring longingly at the empty garage the girls upstairs get to use but don't

Sharing the backyard (we've both been told it's ours and yet, we rarely seem to be about to go out and enjoy it....)

Having to clear our use of the backyard with the upstairs residents

Having to watch where we step in our yard!

Listening to the dogs (yes, there's more than 1 upstairs) yap and bark at everything that moves, including us

The view (or lack thereof) from our kitchen window

Small master closet, currently without one door

No master bath/suite

Having to flip the fuses often when the space heater and microwave are on at the same time

Upstairs neighbors with control of the thermostat and not understanding how it works! (Hence the space heater being on)

Bundling up inside on hot summer afternoons

Freezing in the summer and winter

Using a space heater year round

Limited kitchen counter space

Our Pepto bathroom

One bathroom

No tub

and some things I will miss...

Sid living with us

Amanda's visits

A new fridge we didn't have to buy

A clothes line (retro, yes, but great to use...weather permitting of course)

Doors, doorknobs, and keys that remind me of Grandma and Grandpa Hafen's home

Lots of storage for a basement apartment

Being only a mile from work

Having a yard but not having to do the yardwork

Hearing Dan come down the stairs when he gets home, especially when he surprises me and gets a ride or comes home early.

A spacious living room area

Living half way between West Yellowstone and Salt Lake

Telling people we're a great place for a potty stop on the way from Salt Lake to Yellowstone

Sleeping in a pitch black bedroom

Living a couple blocks from the church

Being able to say we live on Colgate Street, "that's spelled just like the toothpaste"

The great people we've met here in Pocatello

Being no more than 15 minutes from any point in town (of course everyone in Pocatello can say the same thing)

Watching community parades and knowing, not just recognizing, several people in the parade

Easily parking 4 cars in the driveway

Driving or walking through town and getting Horrocks Family Stories at various locations

Our first place together as husband and wife

All the memories associated with our first place

I know, I know, I know...

I've been torturing myself for months now when I look at other's blogs (and Mom's given me at least 2 guilt trips) and remember mine has been so neglected for such a long time. It's like so many other things, I do really well for awhile and then life gets busy and I slack. Then I get so far behind that it seems overwhelming to ever catch up. I take pictures and funny things happen that I think, I need to blog this...the title would be...the pictures would have the following captions...then I just don't get it done. Between work, spending time with my cute hubby, church, facebook, emails, producing plays, preparing for a patriotic celebration, laundry, time with Amanda & Sid, and anything else that comes up, more time has gone by and my blog still sits there neglected. Not sure how exactly I'm going to solve this dilemma but I'll do my best to improve. I just have to figure out how I can keep up on this, and everything else, and not feel like I'm neglecting anyone, especially my husband.

So, even though I started this MONTHS ago, I'm going to move ahead with the story of Dan & I. It needs to be recorded somewhere so in years to come (who am I kidding, anytime in the next couple hours is very possible) I have proof enough to say, "I told you so, Honey." :)

One of the biggest things on our to do list was to find a place to live. We searched the paper for listings of places that were available. Based on what was in the classifieds, I was very hopeful we'd find something great with more space and pay as much or less than I paid for my 1-bedroom in Salt Lake. We narrowed down the options and set a few appointments, then headed out to look at the places...suddenly I felt very hopeless about our prospects.

The first place we looked at Dan was really excited about but I wasn't super thrilled. The landlady lived across the street from us. Not a big deal except that during our tour she commented on how we'd need to sweep the porch weekly to keep to free of debris. Well, I'm not exactly the most obsessively clean person, but I'm also not some teenager who needs mom to hang over my shoulder telling me how to clean and I suspected that's exactly what would happen. No way in my opinion.

We went to a couple more places and suddenly the first place wasn't looking so bad and the picky landlady seemed livable. The other places were trashed, small, dark, low ceilings (a 6'6" husband requires high ceilings in the whole apartment), smelly and way overpriced for what we were seeing and what they were asking for.

I was beginning to get a little nervous since I only had 1 day in Pocatello and it was looking like we weren't going to find much success on our trip with time ticking away very quickly.

We looked at the place we later chose but left still somewhat unsure. We headed back to Dan's sister's place so Dan could go back to work in West Yellowstone. I visited a bit with his sister and nieces before I returned to Salt Lake. Before Dan was far on the road and I left, we both called each other saying we needed to take this place:

The kitchen

Living Room

Extra bedroom

(All of these pictures were taken the day we looked at it. Not our things.)

Now began the process of packing up 8½ years of stuff in my 1-bedroom unit to sort, give away, toss, keep, pack and move to my new place in Idaho...

My old kitchen; mid-move

Living room; mid-move

Bedroom; mid-move

Current/Temporary bedroom, yes, it's in the living room.

(I gave way my bed and the bedding so I had to use what was still available.)

My stuff in our new place, safe and sound (living room).

More of my stuff (living room).

Yes, even more of my stuff (extra bedroom). Now which box to begin unpacking...

Well, time for FHE, guess that's it for right now....

Can I please have a do-over today!

This has not really been my morning. We'll be heading to Logan shortly for the USU/LSU game (Amanda & Sid gave us tickets for Christmas). I thought I'd make some Rice Krispy Treats. We don't have any Rice Krispies so I thought I'd use Cheerios instead. I start to get things together and realize the only butter I have is still in the freezer. Oh, well it has to be melted anyway, it should be fine. I turn on the burner and keep gathering things together...well the burner on my electric stove starts to sound funny and I realize that I turned on the rear and not front burner. Not a huge deal except the marshmallow packages were on the burner. Whoops. I try to quickly clean up part of the mess and get the right burner going. I add marshmallows, those not fried to the now open package, and since they are a little old, they just keep lumping together. It never really melted quite right. As if that wasn't enough. I think I had way too many marshmallows and not quite enough Cheerios. Oh well, it's the thought that counts, right?

Now, had I had a gas stove, which is my personal preference, this problem never would have happened! What's with everyone thinking electric ones are so great. I have never liked them and continue to find reasons why my dream house will have a gas range!

P.S. anyone know how to clean burned plastic bag off of a flat electric burner????

Way past update time...I know...Part 3

Ok, so the talk is over and went well, thanks to those who have asked. Plus, Dan's having a "man date" (Gilmore Girls reference here) with his son which means that I have a little time to try and get more of an update posted....so here goes...

After a few weeks and a visit or two, Dan and I were able to shop for my ring. He'd suggested I go look at settings and then narrow down the selection. I had it down to 4 then went back a couple weeks later with to look at them. I altered my selection by eliminating a couple and adding one or two more. When Dan and I talked on the phone I mentioned that one setting kept coming to mind for me. Even though he'd not seen it yet, he said to go ahead and set that one aside. When we went into the store together, we settled on the one I'd kept thinking about. I'd always wanted my wedding band to look ok by itself and we looked at those together. I wanted Dan to help me choose part and so he helped with the final selection of my wedding band. Now that the selection is complete and I've had them both on my finger for a few months now (3 since yesterday to be exact) I find that I'm often looking at both as I'm working. I still admire them so I suspect that means I've picked the right rings.

We spent several visits, after everything was official, getting to meet and know each other's families. We were able to attend a family reunion for my mom's family and one for his siblings.

Picnic with Kevin, Nathan and Cameron to meet Dan.

Singing the Horrocks Family Song at the family reunion. Broadbents, we CAN NOT be outdone!

The Chicken Song performed by Dan, Mark and Andy Horrocks

with Sid Horrocks on the guitar.

We even celebrated our first Christmas together in August!

Sid and Dan after opening their Christmas gifts for Playmill Christmas.

Throughout the summer I would periodically send Dan cards or notes in the mail. Sometimes I would leave them at his place so he'd find them after I'd left for home. Going to the post office for Dan was often a surprise throughout the whole summer.


At least one of us got some mail this summer! :)

The Playmill Theater in West Yellowstone, Montana, Dan's place of employment the summer we met and got engaged. Many hours were spent here during our visits. We were able to watch all three shows they put on, See How They Run, Oklahoma!, and Hello, Dolly!

This is where Dan was the first time I walked into the Playmill, and many visits after. In fact, we could often both be found in the box office when I was up visiting.



Dan and Sid were roommates for the summer while they both worked at the Playmill. They resided in an older hotel which all of the Playmill cast lived in. Not much but they had a good time.

Well, Dan's back home and the hour is quickly getting late. Guess I'll have to sign off here. So...To be continued....

A Dilema

To blog or not to blog, that is the question for tonight. I really want to do an update but have a talk to prepare for Sunday....What to do, what to do? I guess this will have to be it for now. Maybe I can get a post added later after I work on my talk, though avoiding it longer and posting to my blog would be more fun, but I'll be good.

Way past update time...I know...Part 2

The laundry's going...Dan's on his computer and so I thought I'd jump on mine and try to get more of an update completed.

I was able to add another state to the list I've visited!

A couple weeks after I went to Yellowstone (well, West Yellowstone to be exact) Dan came to Salt Lake to visit me. Amanda came too and I was able to meet his daughter. (I'd met is son, Sid, on my first trip to Yellowstone.) That's the weekend we unofficially got engaged! Amazingly enough, we were able to keep it a secret from most everyone for 2 weeks before we announced it.

For the 2 weeks between our visits, Dan would call me every night after he got off work at the Playmill Theater in West Yellowstone. We would talk for an hour or more, usually more, each night learning more and more about each other. The nightly calls continued, with the exception of when we were together, until I moved to Pocatello the beginning of October.

The trip after Dan's came to see me in SLC was me up to Pocatello. I met 2 of his siblings, we attended Anthems of America, and made time to go do some Temple work together at the Rexburg Idaho Temple.

The two of us in front of the Rexburg Idaho Temple.

My next visit was July 4th weekend. I was getting spoiled, this made for two weekends in a row! I liked that idea and concept a lot. On July 4th we went into Yellowstone Park for a couple hours. There while sitting on the banks of the Madison River, Dan officially asked me to marry him, and I said YES! (I think we'll be spending many future July 4th weekends in Yellowstone Park!!!) We didn't have a ring yet, we'd not been able to shop for one together yet, so for the first several weeks I wore a simple 2mm gold band I'd purchased as "protection" years ago.

That night we met up with my former college roommate (Chris Barkdull) and her family to watch the West Yellowstone fireworks show.

Dan watching the fireworks show.

The rest of the weekend was spent calling family to let them know we were getting married. There was much rejoicing from all who heard the news then and as we kept spreading the word for the next few weeks. After the announcing the fun began...meeting the rest of our families (he'd still not met my dad yet)...setting dates...coordinating schedules...making wedding plans...all the stuff that needed to be done for our next phase of life together!

Ok, blogger's being weird (sorry about the lack of paragraphs, I hit enter but Blogger just keeps smushing everything together), guess I'll stop the post here so I don't lose it or anything...

Way past update time...I know...

Dan's due home momentarily but I thought, maybe, just maybe if I start a post, I'll get it finished sooner rather than later and then it'll give me the bug to keep posting...we'll see how that works out.

I do have to admit, blogging has been on my mind. I even mentioned it to Dan recently. I just don't seem to find the time to get it done. 95% of my job is on the computer and when I get home, I'd rather visit with my husband, read a book (about half way through Breaking Dawn for the first time!), spend time with family, etc. Despite all that, I have some time off and am determined to get some things updated here. Let's hope this isn't like so many other New Year's Resolutions...only lasting a few hours.

Since picutres get me going...pictures I'll post and now...back in time I go...I'll make stops here & there so it's not just one huge post...

The last weekend in May I took my first trip, and what would become my first of many trips, to Yellowstone. Here are a few highlight pictures from that trip:

The gas station,/grocery store in Ashton, Idaho. I would call Dan when I was here and he'd know only 55 miles left for me to go.

A bull elk just grazing on the side of the road.

One of many buffalo we saw just strolling along the roadside.

One must be very careful here, there are killer chipmunks lurking everywhere!

It's not everyday you see a momma grizzly and her cub. A first for me and a first for Dan as well.

Sunset behind one of the many gysers in Yellowstone Park.

I'll stop here or else I might not ever get this posted. More later...