Finally!

Devon was hired onto his current job with a less than desirable schedule, but after months of looking we had no choice but to take it. We just held onto the hope that his schedule would change before basketball season. But after many months of rumors and quasi promises that he would be moved to an earlier shift we had just about given up hope. Until last week, when we gave up all hope as he was moved to another department. When they moved him they made it very clear that this department was open till 10pm and someone would need to be there. We were devastated, not only was he not being changed to an earlier schedule, he was getting forced into a later schedule. We both had it! After some less then desirable thoughts about his company, we decided if they were going to do this, he was going to start looking for another job, ASAP! Well, I'm happy to say, but a little embarrassed to admit that after all the trash talking, they told him they were putting him on the 7-3 schedule. WHAT A BLESSING! Now, he'll get to referee, as much as his little heart desires. Which is great for two reasons: 1. He LOVES it! 2. It's all extra cash in our pocket.

Now that Devon is working a earlier shift, it means that I get to go into work earlier. So, I decided to start working 4 ten hours days. That way Devon and I can get up at the same time and with his referring we'd get home about the same time and I have a whole extra day off during the week. This is only the first official day of our new schedule, but I'm already loving it!

Advantages of Marriage

There are lots of advantages to being married, never having to go home alone, someone to mow the lawn and waking up next to a very handsome man every morning. But one of my favorite advantages was FINALLY becoming an aunt. My family isn't really known for being very productive in the whole baby making business, so at the ripe old age of 26 I was still nephew-nieceless. But then I met Devon and on May 30th I become the aunt of 1 niece and 3 nephews. Only a few months later I had 2 more nieces. A big thank you to Devon for allowing me the opportunity to have some of the cutest nieces and nephews around! (And to their parents for making such cute kids)

Bringing Out the Big Guns

I just think this is super cute! (Ignore grumpy Devon at the end...)

Wanted - Dead or Alive!

Earlier this week we had a flyer taped to our front door by a neighbor neither of us really knows. Apparently this person canvassed the whole subdivision with the notices that were captioned by a large "$50 Reward" headline.

What is the reward for, you ask? Information leading to the identification of a dog owner.

The full-page flyer includes a grainy black-and-white photo of the dog suspected of decorating this person's yard, and an excerpt from a city ordinance proclaiming the illegality of allowing your dogs to crap on someone else's lawn.

This neighbor says that he has "tried everything" to keep the dogs off his yard (except the old fashion .22, I suppose), and it "was the last straw!" when he and his son found new deposits in his grass TWICE this week.

He leaves his name and phone number and promises to anonymously reward the person who tells him the owner of the dog(s) he describes.

Who knew that in these trying economic times, such a problem could be so consuming, that you would not only offer a fair amount of money to entice a snitch, but also spend the significant time it must have taken to distribute the flyers all around Hawks Landing?

I could definitely use the $50, but even if I did know the identity of the scandalous dog owner, I think it would be much more fun to keep the information to myself and see if this neighbor takes even more drastic measures to squash out such an apparently outrageous problem.

My Husband

This is a little late, but too good not to share. Here are a series of text messages between Devon and I on July 15th...

Devon: 9:47am Im running the dishwasher. If I don't have time to do the dished before I leave you are forbidden from touching them.

D: 9:50am And were all out of dishwasher detergent.

Annette: 10:01am I'll grab some on my way home, I have to go to Wal Mart anyway.

D: 11:31am Baby. Near disaster! It involved the dishwasher. A stupid mistake by me. And lots of paper towels. But don't worry. Everything is fine.

A: 11:34am What'd ya do?????

A:12:40pm So ur gonna leave me hanging and not tell me what happened??

D: 1:01pm Just a little water on the kitchen floor. Didn't have time to make the bed or do the dishes because I had to clean up. But I think Hamilton (our cat) was entertained.

A: 1:08pm How did water get on the floor??

D: 1:48pm Don't ask questions. Just accept the facts.

By this time I'm starting to put 2 and 2 together...

A: 2:10pm You put dish soap in the dishwasher, didn't you?

D: 3:03pm You'll never know unless you can get Hamilton to sing.

A: 3:10pm I bet I can make you sing...

Sure enough I was able to make him sing. We didn't have enough dish washing detergent to fill the whole tray, so he supplemented the difference with dish soap. Lo and behold suds began to flow from the dishwasher and covered the kitchen floor. Luckily he was home to advert catastrophe! The only sad thing: I wasn't there to see it!

My husband may not be perfect, but he sure tries and I LOVE him for it!!!

Lazy weekday mornings.

I spent two weeks in job training working from 10 a.m to 6 p.m. Once I finished training I was assigned a team and started working at 7:30 a.m. - not a bad schedule, really.

Well, after one week of that there were some personnel shakeups and I've gotten put on the noon to 8 p.m. shift. I'm not very excited about the change, especially since Annette leaves for work at around 7 in the morning. Now, here I am sitting at home a little after 8 a.m. wondering what I'm going to do for the next three hours.

There is some house cleaning and dish washing to be done after being away at the family reunion all weekend. I could read a chapter of two of the book I've been working on. I could do some long-overdue Japanese study I never seem to have time to fit in. It looks like I'll have to start going to the gym in the mornings instead of late afternoons like I'd planned.

I think working the afternoon/evening shift is a lot more fun when you're single and can stay up as late as you want...

0% Unemployment Rate

That's right, the Black household has hit an unemployment rate of 0%! After almost four months I've finally found a job!! And the best part, I'm actually excited about it. I'll be working for the state. This is a completely new field to me, so there's a lot to learn, but I'm sooooo up for the challenge. Besides just being excited for the job itself, I'm excited I'm working for the State. First of all we'll get GREAT benefits. Second, I'll get off EVERY state holiday. Third, two words....JOB SECURITY!

It's been pretty discouraging the last few months, getting rejected by job after job after job. Every time I'd find out I didn't get a job Devon would say, "you just weren't meant to get that one, there's another that's better for you." I tried to believe it, but it was hard. But, as much as I hate to say it, Devon was right. In terms of job responsibility, security, pay, benefits, work environment and long term career goals, this jobs is heads and tails above all the others I've interviewed for. I am very blessed I was not offered any of those other jobs, leaving me open and available for this opportunity.

Happy Day!

Since I know all of you have been worried sick about this, I'll put your minds at ease.... Devon and I FINALLY got to use our Seven Peaks passes. Since it looks like rain tomorrow, we decided to try late this afternoon and it was PERFECT!! We had a blast! Warm weather, short lines and fun rides, who could ask for more??? And to top it all off we were able to eat dinner out on the deck, on our new patio set. It's really beginning to fell a lot more like summer!

Employed, and armed with a new patio set.

So I have a job. A real, 40-hour-a-week one.

It's not a great one. In fact, I'm not all that excited about the job itself, but it is nice being numbered among the ranks of the employed again.

I got hired by P****** Security, one of those Utah County security system sales companies. I'm going to be a supervisor in their customer service call center. The starting wage is mediocre and I'll probably be working a crappy evening shift, but at least I'll have a full-time paycheck coming in again. I start training on Monday.

In other news, Annette and I used some of our wedding gift money to buy a nice seven-piece patio set. We found a great deal on one through Wal-Mart and went to buy it yesterday. Unfortunately we grossly overestimated the size of the car and realized soon after leaving the store that it was going to be a real trick getting the bigger of two boxes in.

In somewhat of an embarrassing but nice turn of events, a kind lady with a suburban was driving by at the time. She asked if we lived close and said she'd be happy to have us load the two big boxes into her car and drive them to our house for us. Rather than wrestle with the box for 45 minutes we swallowed our pride and accepted her offer.

A day later I have finished assembling the six chairs and one table and it looks great! Six-and-a-half foot sun umbrella included. Maybe we'll get a chance to break it in when the weather clears up this weekend.

A Little Bitter....

Back in the good ole' days when Devon and I both had jobs we decided to purchase 7 Peaks season passes. When we lost our jobs, we thought we'd lucked out, we may not have any money this summer, but we'd at least have one good date activity that wouldn't cost us anything more than what we've already paid out. All and well and good, except it won't stop raining!!! And the days it's not raining, it's certainly not warm enough to go walking around in nothing but our swimming suits. We're still holding out hope that Utah might show a few symptoms of summer before the end of August!

My First Post

Devon's being bugging me all day to post something....Since he's gone to all the work of making this our blog instead of just his, I'd better oblige. Besides that these last few months (especially the last few weeks) have been pretty eventful.

It all began a few months ago....Devon and I decided that we were going to get married. I've been married previously, so I knew I needed to start working on the process for my temple sealing cancelation. I contacted my ex and met with the bishop before we were officially engaged. We felt good setting a date, as we would have 4 1/2 months to get everything done. Things went smoothly, we got letters from everyone in less than a month. Everything was then turned into my Stake President. This is where the fun began. I contacted the stake executive secretary multiple times to get an appointment. Each time I was informed the Stake President was busy, but would try to get me 'next week.' After a few weeks of this, the stake split and my ward became part of a newly organized stake. Apparently my former Stake President wanted my new Stake President to handle this, hence why the executive secretary kept putting me off. Finally after a month of trying I had an appointment with the Stake President! At the meeting he told me he was going out of town and would write the letter and submit the paperwork as soon as he got home. With a month and a half to go I was notified, by my bishop, that the paperwork had been submitted. Everyday I was out checking the mail. With about 3 weeks to go till we were getting married, I still had nothing. Worry turned to fear when Devon and I were hiking down from the Y on May 6th. We ran into my Bishop, who informed us that my Stake President hadn't actually sent in the paperwork because he was waiting for his official church stationary. We were assured that someone would be contacting Salt Lake.

Just two weeks before the wedding we received official notification that the paper work had been received by the First Presidency and that we could call on Friday (just one week before the wedding) to see if it had been reviewed yet. On Friday I received a call that there was no word on my paperwork, but we could check back Tuesday. On Tuesday, we were told that a decision was possible on Thursday. My hopes of heading off to California worry free were shattered. But I still had hope for something to come through Thursday.

About half way to California on Wednesday I received a call from my Bishop that he had just spoken to the First Presidency's office and my sealing had been canceled!!!! They had even agreed to call the Newport Beach Temple and verbally give permission for us to be sealed, since there wouldn't be time to mail a letter to me. We were ecstatic!!!!!!!! Then after about 2 hours worth of phone calls to the temple, sealers, stake presidents, our family and friends, everything was set!

I heard it said, and even experienced it, that every wedding has a wedding day disaster. Ours was a wedding week disaster that had a very happy ending. After that everything else went perfectly. Minus some June Gloom, our wedding day we wonderful. I was able to marry the man that I love, in a place that would allow us to be sealed forever. I never realized how much I took getting married in the temple for granted. It's just something that you do. It wasn't until there was a chance of it not happening that I really realized how much it meant to me.

I'm not really sure how to judge the actual length of this post, but I'm thinking it's pretty long. So, I'll have to give more details about the wedding, receptions and honeymoon later. :)

Real life...

The honeymoon is over. We're back at a normal Utah County elevation near a more normal sized lake. I've got a few scattered items I still have to get from my parents' house, but other than that I'm moved in and will start the slow process of unpacking.

Over too is the ice cream reception, though if you need any chocolate syrup let us know... we've got enough to last us through the millenium.

So I'm back to picking up whatever part-time money I can scorekeeping softball or refereeing or whatever. I have two referee evaluation camps coming up in the next couple of weeks. If I do well at those I'll hopefully get a few more varsity games this next basketball season.

And... back applying for jobs. Yes, we'd almost forgotten we were unemployed but were reminded when we realized we didn't have to get up and go to work this morning.

Let the real fun begin!

Suitable...

My how time flies. Two-and-a-half months later and we're down to just 12 days before the wedding.

After putting it off for a few weeks Annette and I finally got out and did some suit shopping. I haven't worn a suit since my mission and we figured my own wedding was an appropriate occasion to make a new purchase.

The most interesting part of the suit shopping experience for me is seeing the different personalities and the varied effectiveness of the salesmen.

Our first stop was Mr. Mac where we found the sales staff to be nice, but underwhelming. After showing us two suits, the salesmen concluded that they just didn't have what we were looking for and recommended that we come back some other time when they had more inventory.

We made a brief foray into Missionary Mall and actually found a workable suit, but decided the durability-to-style ratio was not favorable. And, the salesman there looked completely lost when faced with a prospective buyer that was not 19-years-old singing "Armies of Helaman" as he walked in the door. The most excited he got was when the topic of where I served my own mission came up.

We ended up making a purchase from Men's Warehouse, where the salesman was very good and got us what we wanted. We got a two-for-one deal on some very nice, high quality suits which will set me up for the wedding and other formal occasions down the road.

Hopefully this marks our last major expense.

The Recession Hits Saratoga Springs

Eight-six days till the wedding and Annette and I just found out - less than four days apart - that we are both now unemployed.

I got told on Monday that I had two more weeks left to work before being laid off. This morning she was told her entire department was shutting down. Ouch.

I suppose it's not all bad. It will be a good story to tell our kids when they start grumbling about having to go to work when they're teenagers.

94 days...

Who knew this could be so complicated?

No, I'm not talking about the dress, the colors, or pictures.

It has nothing to do with the reception or the cake.

No, none of that. The issue at hand now causing so much complication is honeymoon related - more specifically, hotels.

Annette and I went to dinner last night and then back to her house where I was eager to watch the BYU game. After BYU fell way behind in the first half I switched the game off and we started looking at room rates online. We already know where and when we're going, but the issue of where exactly to stay became the subject tedious research and comparison.

I turned the game back on midway through the second half to find that BYU was making a comeback. All the while Annette was pecking away on the keyboard visiting this website and that analyzing locations and amenities.

I tried to get her to turn the computer off and watch the end game with me, but it was to no avail. Maybe this is one of those things that a man is just not going to understand, but I never would have guessed that this would become such a serious issue in the wedding planning process.

Mercifully, she thinks she has found what she is looking for and I'm hopeful that a final resolution and reservation will be forthcoming soon.

I can only imagine what other facets of wedding planning will be like if this alone requires so much time and attention.

106 days...

I've decided I don't like being engaged.

I love my beautiful fiance, and I'm very excited about moving into this new stage of life. But, the intermediate period is no fun at all. I wish we could just skip right to marriage.

Engagement just seems to bring the expected increase in responsibility, but with ever-limited benefits. I suppose I should take President Monson's advice to just live in the present and enjoy the moment.

But, I will be very happy when I don't have to drive back home to Orem every night.

Engaged

Yes, after many months of dating/courtship, Annette and I are finally engaged - officially.

The truth is we had been talking about marriage for some time, and at one point even had tentative ideas of getting married in March. But, around December we settled on a late spring wedding and started getting serious about it.

We first went ring shopping in November, and Annette found what she thought she wanted. But, as the weeks passed those ideas changed, and we went shopping a couple more times through the holidays and into January.

The ring was finally purchased about a week ago at Sierra West with the help of the famous Bro. Bowen, John and Michelle's former bishop, a current counselor in my bishopric, and VP of the company.

I officially proposed on Thursday, and we made requisite announcements throughout the weekend.

Originally we had planned on June 6, but that has now been bumped back a week to May 30. We will be getting married in California, either in the LA Temple or the Newport Beach Temple. After a honeymoon to Lake Tahoe, we will return to Utah, hold an open-house on June 6, and be done with it.

Of course I will be moving to Saratoga Springs, which will increase general commute times, but is overall something I'm looking forward to.

The Big Call...

I got home late on Wednesday, which is OK because Thursdays are the one work day I can sleep in a bit and not feel too guilty.

I got up at 7 a.m. for breakfast and then went back downstairs to sleep for another hour and a half. At 8 I was interrupted by my ringing cell phone. I quickly looked down and didn't recognize the number. Being half asleep I let it go to voice mail. When I got back up 45 minutes later I found a message from the sub-varsity assignor. He said he had spoken with THE big wig. He had gotten the state supervisor of officials to give me a varsity game.

Tomorrow I will officiate a 1A boys varsity game. Now, in honesty, some of the bigger JV games I've done are probably better games in terms of skill, speed, etc. But, I'm in. I've got a varsity game which a lot of other referees would love to get. I never expected to get one this early on. I was thinking I'd be extremely pleased if I got a couple next year.

Obviously I'm very happy, very much looking forward to it, and very hopeful that it's just one of many more to come.

Haircut...

As you know, for the last several years I've sported the short, closely-trimmed haircut that I do myself every other week or so. It's been great because it only takes about five or 10 minutes to do, and completely takes away any daily hair maintenance other than the standard washing. It also fits thinning hair a bit better.

Well, the time has come to take more drastic experimental measures. On Monday I had Annette shave my head.

The object is to look more athletic (for refereeing) and also just to see how it looks in general. So far I kind of like it, and Annette says she does as well. It will require more of a semi-weekly trim than a bi-weekly trim, but overall time shouldn't be a big issue. Here are some pictures so you can make your own judgements.

A year on...

I still very much remember a 5A JV boys game I did last year. It was the first really "big" game I had done and it also happened to be between two county rivals. It wasn't a bad game necessarily, but I left fairly humbled with a lot of things in mind I knew I had to improve.

I remember being a little too tentative on some big calls, and then being really eager to make some others that I should have been more patient on. I remember my partner and I lost track of the foul count and ended up with an eight-to-one foul ratio in the fourth quarter in favor of the winning team (not good).

I remember not being exactly sure how to deal with the coaches in a couple of situations and being a little flustered when I got yelled at.

Yesterday I did another 5A JV boys game, and I'm happy to say that I think I've improved quite a bit. I always hope to leave with some things in mind to work on, and I had a couple of those. But, just in terms of managing the game, coaches, calls, etc. I felt good.

The biggest thing was that I felt very comfortable. I wasn't flustered when a coach had a complaint. I didn't feel tentative, and I definitely felt like the game was at my level of competency, whereas last year it was maybe half a step above it.

It so happened that a varsity referee was there evaluating us. Based on his post-game comments in the dressing room I think I probably did well. Either way I'm trying not to worry too much about evaluation scores right now. I have all the time in the world to work my way up. I think the best way to do that is just do my best in every game and learn from whatever constructive criticism I get.

Yesterday was definitely a positive step for me, and I think it's a sign that I really have improved over the last year.

Christmas in the LBC (...and Las Vegas)

Pre-game of the Las Vegas Bowl on December 20

We were sitting on the top row. To my left was a group of about four English gentlemen. I doubt they knew much about American football, but they did put down several beers.

The car ride home. Bummer of a game, but we drank it off.

And then the much-anticipated, highly-touted trip to Long Beach. We flew in the evening of December 23rd and the fun started...

Day 1: Christmas Eve morning. I was forced under threat of physical violence to get a pedicure. At least they had some sports magazines...

That night I met some of Annette's cousins...

...and participated in a high-stakes game of UNO.

Annette and her dad posing by the Christmas tree.

After going to a movie on Christmas Day, we headed over to the Hexbergs where we watched Thor open is numerous presents...

...and spent some quality time with the 50 percent of the Black family that was down there.

The next day we went to lunch with some of Annette's old college friends.

I was sporting my new Arsenal sweatshirt while fighting off the rabid dogs.

That night we went for sea food with her high school friend Michelle and her boyfriend.

Of course I couldn't go to the Marengos' without becoming acquainted with the famous Bob...

...and Myrtle.

On Monday we ventured North to see Hollywood.

We went by Grauman's Chinese Theatre...

...and the walk of fame.

I soaked in as much of the warm blue skies as I could.

We made a quick stop here...

...before I talked them into a stop here.

Then it was back to the cozy Long Beach Airport where a kind security guard snapped a farewell photo. I boarded the plane for my trip back to the frozen tundra.