A visit to The Burg

I'm pretty excited because I'm about to do something for the first time in my blogging career: post about something right after it happened! It would be awesome if I could start to make this a habit, but I'm not holding my breath.

This past week my brother has been at EFY. My parents drove to Utah to drop him off, and since they were already more than halfway here, they decided to drive 4 more hours up to Rexburg and spend some time with us! And boy are we glad they did. My sister and I get really homesick; spending a few days with our parents was exactly what we needed. And they even brought our dog so we could see him!

Ty and Andrea still had to go to class while my parents were here (suckers), but we tried to find time in between to do some fun things all together. On Tuesday night we went to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the NBA Finals. This was the first time my parents had been there, and I think it's safe to say it was a hit!

my dad is so focused right here

sticky fingers

We also took my parents to devotional which they LOVED, and spent some time walking around campus. This place is beautiful in the spring/summer! 

all of these pictures were taken in the gardens on campus

the Rexburg temple, right across the street from campus

One night my sister and I took my mom to Zumba with us and we had so much fun! I wish I would've inherited some of her salsa dancing skills. I definitely did not. 

I love this last picture. We were all cracking up!

My mom was so awesome and cooked for us quite a bit, even  though she was supposed to be the guest! How could I say no though? She is such a great cook! 

and we were also spoiled with lots of treats

Thanks for coming to visit, Mom and Dad! We love you guys!

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Things have really started to come together for us within the last couple of weeks and we couldn't be more grateful/excited/happy/relieved. Long story short, we're moving back to Rexburg on Friday so Ty can finish his LAST semester of school, and then coming back to Boise where he will be working as the Media and Public Relations Coordinator for the Idaho Stampede!

This last move has been such a good experience for us. I feel like I have learned so much about myself and Ty and just life in general, and have grown up quite a bit. The past few months have been full of ups and downs, trials and blessings and lots of tears (on my end). I seriously cried pretty much everyday for the first couple of months we were in Boise. I don't know why. I think it had a lot to do with the uncertainty of our situation and that so many aspects of our life changed at once. Moving to a new city where you don't know a soul is scary, not having a job when you get there is scary, (not being home for the holidays is just sad, so I feel like those tears were justified) things not going the way you planned is scary. Everything was just up in the air, so I cried. Thank goodness Ty is so patient and kind. I'm sure it was not fun for him to be going through all those same things and deal with a hysterical wife at the same time, but he would just hold me and tell me that everything would be fine. And that made me feel so much better.

After a while I started to feel comfortable and happy at my job (I work at a Montessori school. I love it) and Ty was working full time for the basketball team. Things were going well and we were making plans for the future. We prayed and fasted and went to the temple and really felt like we were making the right decisions for our family. Ty was interviewing for an internship with ESPN and we both felt really good about moving out there, and his interviews were going very well. Then Ty got a call and was told that they had decided to go with someone else for the internship. We were both sad and disappointed, and just confused because we had felt so good about it. I was frustrated that we went through so much effort to make plans and try to organize our future, and then not have things work out the way we had planned. But then a few weeks later, a position opened up with the Stampede. Ty interviewed for it and was offered the job. He is now the Media and Public Relations Coordinator for the team and couldn't be happier. This is exactly what we wanted without even knowing it. Ty is now able to go back to Rexburg and finish school with the assurance that he has a job waiting for him when he graduates, and it's a job that can only lead to bigger and better things (i.e. the NBA...!!). Plus, my sister will be in Rexburg this semester too, which will be so fun! And I will also be able to come back to my school in the fall, which is a huge blessing!

This whole experience has been such a huge reminder to me that the Lord knows us and is so aware of us and our needs. His plans for us are so much better than anything we can plan for ourselves. I'm thankful for trials and opportunities to put our faith in God.

We are so excited to be finishing up our time in Rexburg, and can't wait to see what the next chapter of our life brings!

We Moved

Life has been crazy. In November, Ty was offered an internship with the Idaho Stampede (a basketball team in the NBA D-League) in Boise. The internship started on December 7th, and the semester ended for him on the 14th. So basically, in a month we had to pack our apartment in Rexburg, find an apartment in Boise, leave half our things in storage, move to Boise, and go back to Rexburg for 2 days twice so Ty could finish his finals. Life won't always be like this, right?

Now that we have settled down (at least for a little while) we are happy and loving our most recent adventure. I started working at a preschool and am so happy there. The kids are cute and the work is fun. Kids really do say the funniest things. They also eat Play-Doh and get boogers and yogurt all over your pants.

Ty is loving his internship. When we first got married he was majoring in psychology and then decided that he  didn't love it and was really interested in working in pro sports. Now that he's working with a basketball team it is so obvious that he's doing what he loves. He's happy to go to work everyday and is enjoying every minute of this internship.

so official with his name tag

Ty was put in charge of  ticketing and the will call office. He prints the tickets during the week and then organizes them for game day and is in the office before the game so that people can pick them up. 

this is a snapshot from the team website. we were so excited when we saw his name on there. so cool! 

I've been able to go to all the games which has been awesome. It's fun to get to know the players and keep track of how the team is doing and watch them play every weekend. It's also nice to have a hook up for free tickets and the occasional court side seat! 

This is Fab Melo. He is 7'1" and will probably play for the Celtics soon.

After about a month of interning for the team and getting more responsibility, a position opened up in the front office and instead of hiring an outsider, the team was kind enough to offer Ty the position. He is now a full time employee of the Idaho Stampede and is doing some sales and marketing things for the team, as well as the ticketing and will call stuff. He is having a lot of fun with his new responsibilities and is learning lots of new things. Not a bad first "real" job. We feel so blessed and are grateful that Ty's been able to have such a great experience!

moving up in the world :) 

No Place Like Home

At the beginning of the month I was able to spend a week and a half in Reno with my family. It was so nice to be home. It's so funny how no matter what's going on in my life or how long I've been gone for, it's always the best when I get to go home. There's something comforting about being able to just be a daughter and a sister for a few days and ignore all my other responsibilities.

My brother started high school this year and is playing football for his school. I had never gotten to watch him play because he started after I had moved out, so I was excited that I would be in town for a couple of his games. And to make things even better, my dad is coaching him! It was seriously the cutest thing ever to watch them interact on the sidelines. I definitely choked up a little bit. It's so weird to me to see my brother all grown up and teenager-like, but it's been fun to watch it happen too.

my dad and Danny talking before the game

For as long as I can remember, football has been a big deal in my family. It's something I look forward to every fall, and actually being at games, especially when family members are playing, makes it so much more fun! My mom and I went to the game extra prepared to show my dad and brother that we support them

this isn't embarrassing to a 14 year old, right? :) 

It was so awesome to watch my brother play! He played wide receiver, cornerback, and kicked the extra points, field goals, and kickoffs. I don't remember what the final score was, but Danny's team won by a lot! 

Danny is on the very end closest to the ref

this is a picture of Danny running off the field after he'd made the extra point with his best friend, who happens to hold the ball for him when he kicks. How cute is that? 

(I'm sure he would kill me if he knew I was calling it cute haha) 

saying hi to my dad at halftime!

after a win the team comes over to the stands and sings the school fight song. GO HUSKIES!

The next night we went to the varsity game. I didn't take very many pictures at that game, but I love this one I took with downtown in the background. Did I mention I love going home? 

The varsity team also won, so all in all it was a happy weekend at the Jimenez household.

The rest of the week was pretty low key. My sister graduated from high school early (she's a little smarty pants) and is taking some time off before she starts college. This was awesome because we got to hang out all day long while I was in town. There was some serious sister bonding going on :) We took the dog out for a run (almost) every morning, wandered around town, and stayed up way too late talking and watching chick flicks. It was so much fun. She recently got her senior pictures taken and they're way too good not to share with everyone, so excuse me while I show my sister off (Thanks to Lindsey Waite Photography for all the photos! They are amazing!).

and just one more...

Thanks family for letting me hang out with you!  I love you guys so much! 

A Day at the Zoo

On Friday we both had the day off and decided to go to the zoo. It was so fun! I hadn't been to the zoo in a really long time. The weather was perfect and I always think it's fun to explore your own city and see what there is to see

Here are pictures of some of our favorite animals. It's fun to see animals you don't really see everyday. We especially loved the brightly colored frogs, the flamingos, and the giraffes.

Here is Ty checking his wingspan and looking tough

and shooting "threes" with the orangutan

I would say it was a very successful day at the zoo :) 

The Best Two Years

Last Tuesday was our 2 year anniversary. I cannot believe how the time has flown by! It seems like these two years have gone by so fast, but at the same time it feels like Ty and I have been together forever. We celebrated our anniversary a few weeks back by going to San Francisco. We started our day with lunch at Pier 39 and then headed over to the Orpheum Theatre to see Les Miserables. I was so excited. We bought the soundtrack a while ago so that I could listen to the music and get more familiar with it. I'm so glad we did this because when it was finally time to go see it I could not wait!

The show was amazing. I loved everything about it and I'm so glad we got the opportunity to go!

After Les Mis we headed over to AT&T Park and went to a Giants game. Is anyone surprised? No? I didn't think so. I wasn't very surprised either when Ty suggested it. It was actually really fun. I love going to baseball games (thank goodness, I have a feeling life would be a little rough if I didn't like sports). 

 The Dugout Store. It's nuts in there.

A few innings into the game, Lou Seal came around in here little golf carts and was throwing whole pizzas into the stands. Ty stood up to try and catch one and he did! Hooray for free dinner! 

All in all, we had a great time in San Francisco. I'm glad we got to go because we went there on our honeymoon and last year for our anniversary, so it's kind of become our little tradition. I really hope we can keep it going!

We both had to work on our actual anniversary which was a bummer, but we decided to go to Old Sacramento later that day and just walk around. It is so cute. We went into a candy store and bought some taffy. The mango taffy was to die for!

We spent the rest of the night going into all of the little stores and just walking around. We had a great time!

This last year of marriage has been an absolute blast. I think the first year was all about adjusting to married life and learning about compromise and sacrifice and decision making together and just trying to figure things out (at least for me). But this year I feel like we had gotten the hang of things and could really just enjoy each other and experience lots of fun, new, and different things together. I am so thankful for the relationship that Ty and I have. He is the best husband ever and I'm so glad we found each other. Happy Anniversary Ty, here's to many many more!