The Shuldberg Zoo: Wow...I am pathetic....

So...I really need to try harder at this whole "blogging" thing. I am obviously really bad at it. I suppose this post can act as a quick update to get us to the present and I can try to just keep up from there.

So Roy and I have moved out of our little dinky first apartment in the Big Green House (thus the change in the title of our blog). I decided it would be a good idea to get some pictures of it so Roy and I can look back and laugh at the sad, quarky, tininess of it someday. These are a few just before we started packing up.

We begin in the rather spacious living room.

This was Roy's corner :)

Then we pass through the hallway.

To the right a quaint bedroom.

This is Roy's office - a nook just off of our bedroom

To the left in the hall a tiny bathroom. (Every room is too small to actually get a picture of the whole room)

Finally, we come to the smallest kitchen ever to exist. Yes, I did cook in here. Cooking together in here brought us closer as a couple...literally...

We just bought a beautiful house in Highland, Utah. The house was built in the late 1970s and has been well cared for. Our favorite part is the HALF ACRE of land we can't wait to start working on. We have big plans for a garden that we are going to try to kind of start this weekend (we have to get the raspberries in because they are disappearing from all the stores and the weather is just to beautiful to resist!). As we don't have any other real use for all of the space, our garden plans consist of about half of the yard! It should be fun. :) It will keep us plenty busy.

Roy has already begun major renovations, in the name of his childhood icon: Tim the Toolman Taylor (we have had several successive holes in the walls - I feel your pain Jill Taylor!) - If you don't get it, shame on you.
We are putting a HUGE wood stove in downstairs and the bricking is proving to be time consuming. I'll take the blame for that because, of course I can't just have a simple basic brick pattern; "It has to be PRETTY honey!!"

Yay for the help of the Father-in-Law who knew how to lay bricks! (My dad, Roy's father-in-law)

Roy lays his first bricks. It is a big day in home improvement history.

Our neighborhood is really great. It is a cross between Utah-mansionville and Utah-farmville. We love it :) (If anyone is wondering, we live in the older, farmier part). The ward is great and we have already made some great friends. Roy is the secretary in the Elder's quorum. Sure didn't take them long to figure out that's where God needed him. For me however, God thought good and hard about where to send me. Just a few weeks ago I was called as primary chorister. It has been a lot of fun teaching and learning all of the primary songs I remember from primary and even some I have never heard before.

Roy works at IM Flash technologies (which is a 10 min drive from home by the way-jealous!!). I just got promoted to part lead in his department and is busier than ever. I am a science teacher at a junior high in Lindon (30 min away from I might add...). Technically I am an intern I won't graduate until April but I do just as much work as the other teaches--I say forget technicalities! I teach the 7th and 8th grade integrated science classes and it is a new adventure every day. You never know what new things junior high kids will surprise you with.

If you were wondering about the new title: we have two dogs (as you may have noticed in the above pictures as they "helped" Roy lay bricks...they "help" a lot...), Abigail and Tank. Abigail is mixture of lab, hound, and rottweiler. Tank is Shar pei mixed with lab. Why are they crazy? Silliest dogs ever. Abigail is the first dog I have known to hide and bury bones. She tried to bury her bone in a POTTED PLANT in the living room!!!! She also chases her tale and little red laser lights. Tank is allergic to everything! No exaggeration. We are pretty sure he reacts to chicken, which is in E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G!!!! Okay not everything, just the things don't cost a fortune and a half to buy. He itches non-stop which means he is nearly hairless at this point. :( Poor guy. We are working very hard to find out what we can do to fix it. I have an aquatic painted turtle in my classroom named Archimedes (named after the scientist who discovered buoyancy). The kids love him, especially when he hunts goldfish. :) We have a giant plecostomus (sucker fish) named Picasso. No kidding: GIANT! He is more than a foot long! So that is our big, happy, weird, misfit family. :)