Working with the Youth and Our First Anniversary

Dave and I recently got new callings in our ward. Dave is the 1st counselor in the Young Men's presidency (working with the teachers) and I am the 2nd counselor in the Young Women's presidency (working with the beehives). When we first got the callings, I was pretty shocked. I have to admit that I began the calling with some doubts as to how I could really help these girls. However, I have to say that this calling is BY FAR the best calling I have had in my life so far (ok... being a missionary was probably first.... but you get what I mean!) It is a lot of work (lots of phone calls, rides, activities to plan, meetings to attend) but really a blast so far (now don't quote me on that this summer when I am sweating my brains out in a tent!)

Partly due to these new callings, and partly due to the very cold snowy weather that has set in, Dave and I caved in and bought a new car (ok, it's not new... but new to us!) At first I thought it would be a pretty big process since Dave wanted a "boy" car and I typically do not like cars that are geared towards men. However we went car shopping with my parents and my Dad pointed out a very well taken care of 2001 Ford Explorer. We both thought it was a good buy for the price and that night we went home with the first car we've bought together. We are actually going to pay for it through payments, only to establish credit. We have very good credit, but only through credit cards (neither of us have student loans) and we wanted to establish greater credit just in case we ever want to make a big purchase someday.

Our very first anniversary was on Sunday. Since it landed on a Sunday we did most of our celebrating on Saturday (although we did go over to my parent's place on Sunday and they had a cake for us). We went out to one of my favorite restaurants in the world! Snuffy's! It's only in the Twin Cities and there are only 4 of them. They are really old Malt Shops. Just with your typical burgers and fries and old style shakes. Boy is it good. I didn't realize we lived so close to one now, so Dave and I went and he had his first Snuffy's experience (It was always a really big deal to go when I was younger, and a special treat) We also saw a movie that my co-worker reccommended, Precious. Honestly, I can appreciate why she reccommended it, but I did not like it... Definately not a "feel-good" movie. Then Dave and I exchanged Anniversary/Christmas gifts.... I know I know, its not Christmas yet. However, Dave and I are very practical people, and it's just silly to spend money on two different gifts 5 days apart, so I think this will be our tradition the rest of our lives... combining Christmas and Anniversary gifts. I got a cookbook that I wanted from Dave and also new garment! Woohoo! Oh and since my computer crashed and had to get a new hard drive, I needed the new Windows 7 to install on my computer, so he got me that as well. I got Dave a radar detector. I swear, he was like a kid in the candy shop! He has never had one (since they are illegal in Virginia) but in Minnesota they are legal, and since Dave has been so good about his driving for the past year, I caved and got him one. He LOVED it.... When Dave REALLY loves something he goes into what I call "little kid" mode... he acts like a little kid, he gets this little grin and looks like he did in his childhood pictures... Anyway, he immediately opened it and asked for permission to go "try it out" I laughed and out the door he went.... I waited for him for a while, but little did I know he was joy riding around the city with his new toy.... Ahhhh boys.... So I went to sleep :) hehehehe I am just glad he liked it so much. A new toy to go with his new car. Don't worry about him starting to speed or start driving recklessly.... If he starts that again, the toy is gone... Those are the rules :)

So that is just a little update about us... sorry I have not had a chance to write... But like I said, it has just been very busy lately! We are excited for Christmas and hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

A night at BodyWorks

So Dave and I met my brother Mark and his wife Danielle at the Mall of America to see their new exhibit "Body Works". Strange date night, I know, but ever since they have been advertising it, I've wanted to go see it. Basically they have preserved corpses and disected them to show the different parts of the body. There was much to learn. They showed what different organs do and gave lots of interesting facts (For example: Did you know that women have more tastebuds than men? Maybe that's why most guys will eat anything....) The picture in this blogpost is an example of the type of things we saw in the exhibit. All in all I really enjoyed myself. At times I had to tell myself that it was just a body... and to not freak out. After this exhibit though I became very grateful for this gift we have been given: our bodies! What an amazing piece of machinery!

Some sneak peeks...

Well we finally moved in.... and since I do not start my new job for another week and a half I have been unpacking lots of boxes and trying to get everything in its place. (Sorry about the glare on the first picture.. It's a sign that my sister KJ made for us in her ceramics class... if you can't tell it says "The Pachecos") Now... don't you worry.... every big event in our married life so far has stories behind it and this move was no different..... When we moved in it was POURING rain.... there were lulls here and there, which is when we were able to unpack the cars. My parents and I did the first two loads. Dave took work off early to help with the third load, and the last few loads were handled by my parents and Dave. It was a crazy day and we were sooooo tired. Our brand new bed (King size of course... Dave didn't want it any other way) was so inviting and at around 9pm we turned in. Around 9:30 I got hot and put my leg outside the covers. A couple seconds later I felt water hit my leg. It was then I realized that our ceiling was dripping water. We got out of bed and called the emergency maintenance guy. He was there until a little after midnight but wasn't able to fix the leak.. So for the next few days we had bowls catching the dripping water. Eventually it got fixed, but here are some pictures of the damage!

And

Here are some pictures of our new apartment... It is brand new and has never been lived in, so it is pretty nice :) Other than the leak we haven't had any problems and love living here! It's great to finally have a place to call home.

This is our kitchen... sorry about the glare, there was something on the camera lens. There is an island in the middle of the kitchen with storage. We bought the black storage cabinet for more food storage space.

A better view of our kitchen!

My piano! Ok... so it's not a REAL piano... just a small digital one.... but I love it and it has its own space :)

This space is lovingly called "Dave's Den" It's actually just a large second closet that was big enough to put a desk in. When I took this picture we hadn't set the computer up yet, but now Dave can have a small space all to himself to do homework :) I also store things I don't use all the time in here as well.

Our new kitchen table. When this move came, I became really obsessed with finding good deals on already used stuff (like craigslist.org) I found this table and 4 chairs on there for only $100!  They are practically brand new... the girl who previously owned them was moving and didn't want the hassle of moving them with her! Just one chair would have been that much at a store (since it is real wood) I also found our swivling bar stools and the desk and chair for Dave's Den and our couch on craigslist. I also took and old beat up dresser, nightstand, and bookshelf from my parents place and sanded and painted the first two black and spruced up the third with cool fabric boxes to make them look nice again. It's been fun, and I've saved us a lot of money in the process!

 

Our shower

Our Vanity. Off to the left in this picture is more storage.

Our walk-in closet. I gave Dave the dresser that I fixed up (can't tell that my little brother carved a cartoon of little men fighting in it, can you? hehehe) and I have plastic bins for my stuff. It is plenty big!

Our utility closet. We keep our cleaning stuff and tools in here. Since we are the only apartment in our whole complex with central heat and air (since it's new) we also get a utility closet for the furnace!

 

We have two huge windows in our living area... this is the view from one... the other is pretty similar so we are pretty secluded (since on the other side of the trees is a lake) which is nice.

Our new bed... We decided against getting a new bedset and instead used the money for other things like a couch, table, etc. For now, this will do (but I did make Dave promise to get me a nice headboard someday :)

Again, sorry about the white smudge on the picture (must have been on the lens) but this is our new couch (well.. new to us!) Our apartment IS a studio apartment.. and even though it is quite big, there is no real separation between the living room and bedroom.... But we don't mind.... We aren't exactly part animals and don't host parties.... so it's just us and it suits us just fine.

Another view of the main area

This last picture is basically taken from the couch... We just put the TV on the nightstand that I revamped.....

That is our new home. Sorry it's a little messy in some of the pictures... but we are still settling in! If you are ever in Little Canada, Minnesota, feel free to stop by!!

It's official

My background check went through with flying colors... so I am now set to start my new job at Wells Fargo on October 19th! Dave and I were also approved for our new apartment! We sign the lease on Saturday and move in October 1st..... So lots of changes in the next few weeks.... Plus, Dave is working on school everyday.... It will be great to finally be in our own place and get settled :) New city, new job, new apartment, new school for Dave, new ward.... new new new! Should be fun to start a new adventure! It will be great to carpool everyday to work together. We were thinking about getting a new car, but for the time being, we don't need a second car (which is great! Less expenses!)

Home Sweet Home!

Well, Dave and I went on an adventure on Saturday to look for apartments. I got a job offer from Wells Fargo working in the collection department, helping people restructure their spending habits and payment plans. So basically, just helping people to be wiser with their money! I am really excited about it. Just waiting for all the paperwork to go through and to receive the final offer..... which I should hear by the end of the week! It's at the same Wells Fargo campus that Dave works at right now, so we decided that it is time to move closer to work and out of my parents (woohoo! Not that we don't love them, but we are just excited to finally get a place of our own)

So I researched some of the towns in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. I wanted to be closer to our work, a Gold's Gym, closer to the temple, and relatively close to a chapel. The city of Little Canada stuck out and I made a few appointments to tour apartment complexes on Saturday. We liked the first one we visited, however it was the second one we were sold on. It's called Cedars Lakeside. We looked at 4 different layouts of apartments and we ended up liking one of their studio apartments. It's around 600 sq feet (PLENTY big for us), has an island in the kitchen, a walk-in closet, it is brand new (they converted a large community room into this apartment) so new appliances, carpet, tile, EVERYTHING!! It has central heat and air, all utilities except for cable and internet are included (BIG plus in our opinion), and we have underground heated parking for our car for those cold Minnesota winters! It has a brand new community room (we might host Thanksgiving there for our family in November), brand new work out room (if we decide we want to stay close and not go to Gold's that day), and an outdoor pool for use in the summer. All in all, it's a great deal, and something we just didn't want to pass up. We sign the lease later this week and move in October 1st!!! Once we get in and get settled I'll take some pictures and show you what it looks like!

Giving the Blog a new look

Just a quick note about the new look. I decided I was tired of the old look and revamped our blog! And even though it is pink.... Dave said he likes it! (I think pink is his secret favorite color... He denies it.... But I know the truth!) Hehehehehe! Anyway, enjoy! Lots of new changes in the works for Dave and I, so I'm sure I'll have lots of fun stuff to post in the next little while!

Family.... Isn't it about... time?

Well lately while Dave has been doing his homework, I have gotten on a kick of doing Family History research and indexing. Every week we've been taking names that I've found to do their work for them. However, it seems now that I find more names than I can take to the temple!! So much work to be done!! I love it though. It's my new (righteous) addiction :) I've found names on my mom's side and also on Dave's mother's side. It's really great that I've finally caught the family history bug :) I've learned a lot about our families histories. There are some great stories on both sides. I even found out that some of my mother's ancestors came from Denmark... I had no idea (and neither did she) that I was a tiny part Danish!

I have also been doing some indexing. The Church has asked us to start digitizing records. They have some pretty lofty goals and I thought I could help out. Our ward alone wants the members to index 50,000 names by the end of the year! My personal goal is 1,000. I'm a 1/4 the way there. Right now I've been indexing the 1920 Wisconsin Census data. I always hope that I might run into my ancestors on there (my Dad's whole side was in Wisconsin at that time) I hope they put out some romanian records someday that I could help digitze. They have lots of other languages (Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian, etc.) but I'm not brave enough to do those yet!!

I am just so grateful I found a new hobby and that I won't be a distraction for Dave so he can do his homework :) My testimony of family history work and temple work has been strengthened a great deal in the past few weeks, and being able to go with Dave to the temple every week has really strengthened our relationship. Just great things all around!! If you have some time, I'd encourage you to try it! Let me know if you want any help getting started (I've already taught my mom and my sister!)

Imaginiff Victory for the Pachecos!

So for Family Home Evening this week, we played this new game called Imaginiff. It was really quite fun. It's a game that basically has you imagine that the people you were playing against were certain things, which would they be. Example: "Imaginiff Dave were a color.... What color would he be? 1.Teal 2.Pink 3.Brown 4.Yellow 5.White 6.Burgundy  And the object is to guess the same thing everyone else guesses. Everyone shows their guess and the majority wins. Guess right and you get a point. Well... there is this part where you can challenge someone.... If you challenge them and both of you pick the same answer, you go up two spaces.... If you pick different answers, you go back four. So right as I was about to get to the end, it was Dave's turn and he challenged me!! So the question was suppose to be about me. The question was: Imaginiff Jess was an animal noise.... Which would she be? Lucky for us, the animal noise I ALWAYS make (a meow) was the first choice!! We didn't even have to read the other answers.... two points for the both of us and I reached the finish line! My Dad thought it was rigged....And I thought it was awesome! David got a big kiss after that win :)

Always Better Together

Dave and I have decided to make this OUR blog instead of just my blog, so we can keep family and friends updated about our life here in Minnesota (or wherever else we end up!)

Last weekend we went to the great Minnesota get-together! Unfortunately my camera died at the fair... so I can't post any pictures of us because I could not take any :( Oh well!! The Minnesota state fair is one of the biggest state fairs in the country... and boy was that proven this year. It was a record-breaking year for the fair and over 1.8 million Minnesotans participated in the yearly ritual that is the Minnesota State Fair! We saw lots of animals, including cows, pigs, sheep, horses, and dogs. We had some good food. Dave tried the infamous "Deep Fried Twinkie" (ewww!) but he said it was good! We only we on one ride... it's called the SkyGlider. It's these bucket seats that hover over the entire fairgrounds so you can get an aerial view of everything. Dave loved it, however I am slightly afraid of heights. Dave convinced me to go and I thought I would enjoy it.... no such luck.... dangling my feet into open air 20 to 50 feet off the ground is not exactly my idea of fun. Let's just say I was a little wobbly afterwards!! hehehe

Applications

Well this post is more just going to be some venting.... I HATE FILLING OUT APPLICATIONS!!!! Ok.... now that is out of my system, I feel slightly better. Seriously though, they are incredibly annoying. Same information over and over, same dumb questions (Q: "So do you feel like you are able to handle the tasks that you are applying for?" A: "Uhhh... duhh! Would I be applying if I didn't?") So that has been my life for the past few weeks. I've had a bunch of interviews, but nothing has worked out thus far. I know it will eventually (I'm sure it's just God getting me into the place I'm suppose to be) but the process is rather frustrating. Oh well :) Wish me luck!!!

Ok.... I'm turning over a new leaf...

Well, it's been another year since I've written on this blog; and yes, Kristine is right, I need to be better. So now is better than never to start :) Let's see.... changes since I last wrote.... well.... if you are reading this, then you probably know me already and you know what is going on in my life. However, if you want a recap:

1. I got married to the most wonderful man in the world! So I am now Jessica Pacheco :)

2. I finished at BYU and am now in the big scary world trying to find a job in this horrible economy.... nothing like a challenge to start out "adult" life with.

3. Dave and I are the new nursery workers in our ward, and although I love kids, Nursery is the best form of birth control out there :)

4. Right now we are living with my parents while I find a job (Dave is already working) and then we can get an apartment between our jobs. Living with the family again is QUITE the experience... and actually fun for the summer.... but we are excited to get an apartment of our own soon.

5. Not only did I get married, but my brother Mark got married in June to Danielle. Dave's brother also got married in June... so I gained two sister-in-laws in June :) Also, with the marriage came NEPHEWS!!! SO COOL!!! And then in March came our first niece Josephine, followed closely by our second niece Francesca, in July. So there have been many additions to both our families!

6. Dave's brother James became Elder Pacheco in July, as he left for a 2 year mission to the Dominican Republic.

7. All in all, life is good.... and I promise I will update this weekly from now on (not that anything will be exciting... )