changes

this monday brings change in the soper household! nothing too drastic, but change none the less. today is zach's first day at the university. he's taking three classes this semester on top of his working full-time schedule and i really admire him for it. he already wakes up between 3:30-4am every morning for work and on top of that he'll have a monday/wednesday afternoon class, as well as tuesday and thursday classes from 6-9. i'm praying a lot for this transition as we still love hanging out with each other all the time, and this will definitely change that a bit. i hope school is easy for him and that it really pays off. i'm proud of him for going back to finish and i really hope he loves it. he's going in for finance and he has 2 years left. i hope it goes by fast and he can get into his career shortly after graduating. :) i am incredibly thankful for the job he has now that not only allows the schedule to go to school, but also pays well for us to be paying rent as well as paying off school as we go. both of us hate the thought of debt and are going to extreme measures to avoid it. :) so far, so good!

another change, not as big--but still going to be a challenge of my own is a diet/exercise plan i'm going on for a good month. today is day one. it's basically no carbs or sugars except you can have toast at breakfast and you can eat the sugars in fruit. i am going to be eating a lot of salads with protein as well as fruits and vegetables. i can have any seasonings i want as long as there are no sugars in them. i'm feeling a little nervous about it, but i've had about a week to prepare my mind for this, and have really tried to "motivate" myself to have the discipline to do it. the reason i want to do this is for many reasons. one, the obvious is that my relationship with zach has made me "comfortable" and i have gained a good 10 lbs that i want off. :) second, i do feel like food can be in many ways an idol even if it sounds weird. i will think about cooking, eating, or even watching the food channel which are all fine things, but i want to remember it's not EVERYTHING. and lastly, i have never had the discipline to do it. if i can be disciplined in this area of my life (which i always find a reason to give in...) then i know i can be more disciplined in my spiritual life as well. its something i need to do to prove that i have a handle of this area of my life, because i've never had to worry about it in the past and now the older i get, the slower my metabolism is becoming.

in addition to the diet, i have started an 8 week running plan that is supposed to build my endurance. for those of you who know me well, know i DESPISE running and can never keep it consistent in my life. well, i am proud to say this week i have accomplished week one which may sound easy but it's all about baby steps. week one i had to go out 3 times and walk 6 minutes and run 1 minute, repeated three times. so sherry and i have been going with her cutie dog amos this past week. this week, it's walk 5 minutes and run 2 and repeat it 3 times. :) anyways that is probably boring, but i figure if i say i publicly and announce it here, then i am held accountable to keep up with it. by the end of the eight weeks, i should be running 30 minutes straight. see, that still does NOT sound doable to me at all...we'll see how it goes. i'm just excited to live a healthy lifestyle, and get in the habit of it all. it's important to me.

this weekend was fun! we had dinner with the toppers and then went bowling friday night with some friends after, followed by catch phrase at the toppers again! saturday was running, grocery shopping, getting our bathtub drain fixed, and hanging with zach before church, then after we went to becki's for a bonfire in celebration of cute kristyn's birthday! sunday i went running again, then rushed home to get ready and clean our house because we had friends coming over for the fantasy football draft! after the draft we ran to chipotle with friends, then spent the night in watching none other than football. :) and now the new week begins, changes welcomed! if you have any no carb recipes please send them my way, and if you see zach please encourage him in his schooling journey! we are so thankful for God and all His blessings, and although we don't know what this semester will look like, we are excited for the challenge.

Tomorrow is our TWO MONTH anniversary of being married! I can't believe how fast time has flown by. :) Definitely my favorite time of life this far!

 

Let's see what to share...this weekend was busy, busy, busy! Friday was a birthday party for Heather and Paige and the theme was "southern" which was so much fun. I made a "spoon bread" which I had never heard of until my co-worker told me about it. What a success it was, considering the journey getting there. I looked at the recipe at work and then ran to the store just for cornmeal. I didn't realize that it called for baking powder which is NOT the same as baking soda. So as I'm in the middle of my recipe and had already been to the store once, I realize that I don't have any baking powder and baking soda cannot be used as a substitute, apparently.  So I looked online for another recipe that didn't call for baking powder and found it. As I was using this different recipe, it called for salt and we only had sea salt (in the bigger crystals) and so I was very worried about that, but I went for it. As it was finishing cooking I layered some cheese on there and it went alright! People enjoyed it at the party which was a BIG accomplishment for me, because people who know me well know that I am NOT good at baking. I think the curse is slowly ending, as I made nutella cupcakes from scratch a couple months ago as well. Plus, I'm starting to like baking since I get to wear my cute little apron! After the party, Zach and I left for some frozen yogurt and quality time together.

 

Saturday was busy from the get-go. I slept in a little bit, and then had to get ready for my pedicure appointment with Sierra and Sherry for Sherry's "birthday" pedicure! Man, my feet needed that and it was pretty cheap too so that was fun! Then we headed to the Gateway so they could get their rings cleaned and I could get my Forever 21 fix. Lucky for my wallet, there wasn't anything I really wanted to try on. After pedi's and shopping, Zach and I had a nice lunch at Squatters where we split a burger and fries. Then we ran to Target and I used the rest of our gift card...we bought yahtzee (we're becoming obsessed, thanks tot he Whitney's!) little 3 lb. weights for my Jillian Michael's DVD, some clothes, and little things around the house. That was fun to get my shopping fix on, because I really was craving some shopping...AND we didn't even have to spend money! That was nice. We then headed home, only for a brief little bit before I had to leave again for a wedding coordinating meeting with Amy and her mom. Raychel and I are having fun with this and we have two weddings in October that we're coordinating. Our dream is to find some money (a LOT of money) and some partners to open up a venue with and Raychel and I will run it and all the other vendors will be a part of it. We know some amazing photographers, bakers, caterers, musicians, pastors, florists, and hair stylists! It really could be a one-stop shop to make things easy...and cheap too! :) So we had fun meeting with Amy and her mom and I feel like things are going to run really smooth for that. I headed home, freshened up and it was time to leave for church. We're serving in children's ministry this month, so we make little lesson plans for the kids 8-12 and it's been fun. It is really intimidating since we don't have any kids and really don't know what we're doing with this age group, but it's a good stretch for us and it's good to serve the church. After church we went to a cute little farm/house that Ten is house-sitting for and we sat outside in a very picture-esque table under a tree where we drank some beer and talked. It was a lot of fun but we got onto the subject of spiders which makes my skin crawl...and this is why...

 

When we got home we were laying in bed talking when all of a sudden Zach stands up and starts touching the ceiling a bunch. "What are you doing?" I ask, and he says there are baby spiders all over the ceiling. I am SOOO freaked out and started pointing out little ones I noticed that I needed him to kill. He evenutally gets all the ones we see, but of course I couldn't sleep well that night! I still look every night when I'm laying in bed to make sure they're gone. Yikes!

 

Sunday we had a football draft for one of our fantasy football leagues. We're each doing two. I am so excited for them I can't even wait! SOO glad football is here! After the draft I had a relaxing afternoon and night at home, while Zach had his other draft with some church friends. I stayed home, watched the CMA concert and Yes Man, and skyped with my long lost lovely friend Allison. It was so nice to feel reconnected, and I'm thankful for Skype! Well, this entry got very long all of a sudden so I am going to end this now. :)

My oh my, we're realizing that married life really isn't slowing us down! We've kept busy with work, friends, and church that's for sure. :) This past week has been pretty crazy. Everything from filling cavities (yuck) to spontaneous date nights to surprise parties to children's church. Yes, last Monday I had to get some cavities filled (don't ask how many) and today I have to finish the other side. Lesson? Don't wait 4 years to get a check up at the dentist. My mistake! On Wednesday, I was planning on cooking dinner but as Zach and I were laying there watching Shark week I just didn't want to cook anymore so we used some gift cards to get dinner and go to a movie which made for a wonderful night. I am so blessed that Zach is up for anything. :) Thursday was our good friend Alex's birthday party so we went to Sugarhouse Park, grilled out, played some volleyball and got to catch up with friends! Friday was another birthday celebration for Kassie, and BOY did we surprise her! We hosted the party at our house and as nervous as I was for all of that, it really turned out well! We started out hanging inside playing our fave game Catch Phrase, and then the party headed outdoor for some more volleyball. I love it! Then we played more catch phrase once it got dark before headed to Willie's bar for Karaoke!! My favorite part had to be watching my husband sing (almost perfectly!) White Wedding by Billy Idol...that's my man.

My cooking adventures have been fun. Not sure if I mentioned this in previous posts but I did cook a rotisserie chicken for my first time. It was so gross cleaning out the, for lack of better words, butt. I was seriously considering becoming a vegetarian as I was doing this, but I made it through and seasoned it and check out the end result! I still have a long way to go with my cooking skills, and I LOVE new recipes so please send them my way. :) Zach pretty much eats anything, but he really appreciates yummy meals. I really love cooking and my schedule at work has been nice because it allows me time to cook not in a rush, and have dinner ready by 5:30 or so. I'm trying to find some ways to cut carbs in dinner because I'm a carboholic and my hips don't love it :) so last night I made black bean soup and that was good! If you have low-carb recipes, please send them my way too. :)

dinner.

Our budget is going pretty well, and we recently found out that Walmart does price matching (where have I been!?). We work on creating a grocery list once a week and going for all the dinners that one time. I've learned so much from being surrounded by such amazing women and families my whole life, so I've had lots of ideas of what I want to do. :) We started buying our groceries in cash with a 50 dollar limit a week. It's been a blessing so far and we've watched God make it happen even with random household items we need.

It's just funny to see how much of my mother really is in me now that I have my own home. I'm pretty anal about cleanliness, and we follow a chore chart so we don't spend all Saturday deep cleaning like the first couple weeks of marriage. Our house is slowly coming together, and every weekend we get a little bit more done. We're having the most trouble with our desk/office nook and it seems like every weekend we're getting a little organized there. We have a lot of important documents coming together so I want to keep them extremely organized.

Finances have been pretty nice for us! We have a 300 payment left to make on the first two months of Zach's tuition loan. And we have all of August to make that payment, so we are treading along! That is a huge relief and God and Zach are both showing me that we CAN, in fact, do this. We're joining our cell phones on the same plan this weekend, and this week I WILL get my Utah license with my Mrs. Name! :) We've discussed plans for things like saving up for a car, and a house someday and I like to hear what Zach has to say. :) He's so smart and I'm glad he's leading our family. And we're getting pretty hungry for a dog...however, our living situation doesn't allow for a puppy. Maybe Zach can talk our landlord into it.

There are other things in the works for us, but we're kind of waiting on God to make things clear...so stay tuned for that. :) You can always be praying that God's will be done in our marriage and lives together and that He continues to lead us and make his will clear so we never step in the wrong direction. We love you guys, and thanks for reading on our happy, struggling lives as newlyweds. :)