House!

We moved into our First house at the end of May. What an experience! I am so loving having our own house. Especially the garden. it has become my new hobby, and man do gardens take up time! i have a small vegetable garden i planted this year with beans, cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, and peppers. but the previous owner has spent many years planting a low water/xeriscaped front and back yard. i have walked into a virtual low-water jungle so to speak and i love it! there are flowers everywhere, it seems every day something new is blooming. my challenge so far has been figuring out what needs more water or less. it is so hot and dry here in salt lake that i can't even fathom the amount of water needed to keep even the 'low-water' plants alive. it has been time consuming but very worth it. and eric has enjoyed taking pictures of all the plants.

Eric has more pictures of the inside of the house posted on his blog if you care to see it. I am 6.5 miles from work, mostly flat-ish/uphill so i've been riding my road bike. i've enjoyed the time it takes to slow down and plan out that time, and have been listening to sermons and good music on the ole ipod. Eric has been carpooling with a co worker just down the street so most days our lil subaru just sits in the driveway. i am very excited about that!

we are starting to feel that this little house is home now. we've had several neighbors come by to introduce themsevles, and have even gotten a couple desserts out of the deal. we don't have a lot of furniture just yet, and we are trying to be very careful about what we purchase. we have decided that sustainable and local made is the way to go. however, that is always the much more expensive route as well. so we are taking longer to fill the house, but filling it with things that will be much loved and used, with multiple functions and long lasting. currently the only furniture we have is a bed, dresser, and table. so the living room may not be cozy, but our hearts are always open! oh, and the bed the previous owner left us. it's great to have a guest bedroom! it was already used for the first month and a half of our life in the new house by sam higby. he recently moved to salt lake and just moved into a new rental with a few friends.

summer seems to be off and swinging. eric and i have a couple more trips/vacations planned. we are headed to rocky mountain national park in a couple weeks for another week of alpine climbing. then to the wind river range of wyoming for some climbing/backpacking in august. and finally to montana for a wedding in september. my newest addition to our family will be born (to my sister! of course!) at the end of september in boise so i'll be journeying up there for that too. and by then it will be fall and climbing season down south will start.... and we all know how that will go from my other blog posts :)

we've had a lot of turn over at work recently, and many night nurses have left or have gone to day shifts. so me, being low on the totem pole, have had to suck up the night shifts. i've been doing quite a few over the summer, and still have more to come. it's more than a little rough, but eric has put some of the moving boxes cardboard in the windows of our bed room (which is in the basement so it's actually cool and dark during the day!) and i have been sleeping quite well. i never feel refreshed after sleeping after a night shift, but at least i'm not waking up every 2 hours from that weird feeling of "this isn't right". it's got me a little wacked though. in fact, i am at a night shift right now and it's actually not too terribly busy. work is going wonderfully. i am fitting in, and learning amazing things and becoming more proficient at being a nurse every day. it is a good feeling to go to work excited about your job and what you do for the world and people in general. i am still trying to understand what love is, and how to show that to some of the most unloved and unlovable people. my work challenges me on almost every level. i try to leave my emotions out of it and not take it home.

this post is too long. next time i'll do more pictures, less talking.