YOUgene!

Every time someone says the word, "Eugene," I want to shout "YOUgene!" Like from the movie Tangled, ya know? Cracks me up. Wish I had time to watch that movie.

And I wish I had time to write a really long and sappy blog post.

Or that I had time to do the dishes.

I also wish I had time to think about going potty before I felt like I was going to die of a bladder explosion.

But. I. Don't. Have. Time.

Welcome to the new chapter in my life. I call this chapter "Grad School Time." And I'm loving every single second of it. Wow, it feels so phenomenal to be studying exactly what I want to study without the bother of general education requirements. Every assignment, every reading, every class is focused on a topic that I want to be studying. Needless to say, it has been crazy trying to adjust to being back in school and having a heavy workload, but luckily I have the Blue Ribbon Husband for support.

Ok, a quick tour of our apartment. It's not pretty yet because - everyone say it with me - I don't have time. But we are really happy with it, especially since my awesome aunt, uncle, and cousin provided us with some amazing furniture (see below).

This is my cave...bad picture, but I love this room. It's where I spend most of my waking hours studying and studying...

Just in case anyone cares what our toilet looks like...

Our beloved king-size bed. It's enormous. The picture doesn't do it justice. After coming from a very small Japanese double to this, James and I don't know what to do with ourselves. 

From the front door looking in. Kitchen on the right.

Kitchen. I blurred this picture intentionally so you couldn't see the mess :) Please take note of that large black object I like to call an oven. Wow, I have missed that. We just had a tiny toaster oven in Japan, but I have gone crazy with a real oven and cooked brownies, meatloaf, lasagna, and so much more.

The view from the back porch. 

Pretty much, it's everything we could ask for. Clean, simple, open space that doesn't smell weird :) More on life in YOUgene to come in the following weeks. Tomorrow is our two-year anniversary, so we are going to head out to the coast after my class for a couple hour get-away before I hit the books and James hits the job hunt again. Until next week!

The Adventures Continue in Eugene!

So, things got a little hectic leaving Japan, but we have safely arrived in Eugene! Emily started classes today and I'm still looking for work. We haven't been able to go off on any hikes yet, but we have gone running a few of the mornings and it is really nice here. We are amazed that the weather can change so much throughout the day though. It was around 73 degrees when we went to be bed last night around 10:30 and when we work up it was like 52 degrees at 5:30AM. Crazy! We didn't get to take too many pictures during our month of visiting with family, but we have a few to show some of the fun we had, mostly in Utah.

When we got back to the States we stayed with Emily's family. We had blast going to the pool, shopping, Jump on It, and of course just spending time with family. This is Emily's brother Kelley, who is now Elder Judson, and I. He is still in the MTC but flies out to Jacksonville, Florida pretty soon.

We also got to spend one week with my side of the family up in Park City in a 6.5 million dollar home. It was pretty awesome as well. This is one of my nieces, Kate. Altogether, I think there were 25 of us at the beginning of the week including nine little ones running around. Unfortunately, some people had to leave early because of work. The fortunate ones got to play shuffleboard, pool, arcade games, fuse-ball, air hockey, Legos, a bunch of different board games, and jump on the trampoline (and those are just the things we got to do at the house). 

We also got to go to Alpine Slides which was a lot of fun as well. Here is Emily getting ready to head down the slides.

Here's one picture of the house from the second floor looking down into one of the main family rooms.  Emily's down there on the couch playing with one of the babies.

We decided to stay in Portland with Emily's Aunt and Uncle our first night. It was fun to see them and all the cousins. They have been sooo good to us! When we first got to Eugene, we had nothing but clothes practically. Over the past few days, we have managed to acquire a lot of fun furniture and appliances (mostly thanks to Aunt Tricia, Uncle Jeff, and Brady... Thank you guys so much!). However, this is us eating our first night with no chairs, table, or bed. We'll make sure to post up some more pictures next week of the apartment.

All in all, we are both very happy with the move. Emily finished her orientation last week and said that she's glad we came here. It is also nice to live close to family for a change (Tricia and Jeff are only 2 hours away in Portland). We hope to start writing weekly posts again, so stay tuned as our adventures continue on in Eugene, Oregon! We love you all lots and hope you have a great week!