If Jason ever had to watch Oprah...

Finally...A House!

So we finally found our first house! Though we thought it was impossible, we found a great house in Holladay for under $22o,000. We put an offer in last Saturday, it was accepted on Monday and we had an inspection done on Friday. We will close on September 26, though we will not receive keys until September 29. Ironically enough, that is my birthday, so I guess I can say that I got a house as a birthday present. We won't move in until the first weekend in October, since both of us will be in school and have classes at night. The house is a really good deal, considering the location and the great shape it is in. It is an older home, but has been completely updated inside, has a new roof, furnace, kitchen and bath remodel, etc. Compared to what were looking at before (ie shag carpeting, wood paneling, layers of dirt and grime) this house is almost brand new!

Here are the stats:
1300 square feet
.19 lot
3 bedrooms
1 full bath, 1/2 bath off master
Brand new eat in kitchen
Nice living room with fireplace and mountain view
Laundry/mud room
1 car garage with opener
Scary crawlspace (Jason will be the only one going down there)
Full fencing and sprinkler system
Neighbors do not park their cars on the lawn and seem relatively normal
Hopefully not haunted
Property taxes: sure to skyrocket!
Better than your house (yeah, that's right)

I would put up pictures, but I am lazy and don't want to try and find the MLS listing. By the way, if you are looking for a good real estate agent or a house inspector, we stumbled upon two great ones and could give you their information.

But the best part about buying a new house? No, not the fact that we will not be financially bound to Transwest Credit Union for the next 30 years. We will finally get to sleep on a queen sized bed again! Can't wait!

All because two people fell in love.

24 Things About Stuff

24 things about the guy I married
1. What is his name? Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
2. How long have you been married? Many moons
3. How long did you date? For eternity
4. How old is he? Of legal age
5.Who eats more? Godzilla!
6. Who said "i love you" first? I think Adam...maybe Eve
7. Who is taller? Andre the Giant
8. Who sings better? David Archuleta
10.Whose temper is worse? Jason
11. Who does the laundry? My sister wife
12. Who does the dishes? Someone who loves the dishes very much
13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Is there a wrong side of the bed?
14. Who pays the bills? The one who has the skills
15. Who mows the lawn? Jason should, but he is worried about his delicate parts
16. Who cooks dinner? Cafe Rio...sometimes Wendy's
17. Who drives when you are together? I don't know the bus driver's name. We'll call him Frank. So to answer the question, Frank drives.
18. Who is more stubborn? Germans
19. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? I think this one was Eve
20. Whose parents do you see most? Bart, Lisa and Maggie's
21. Who proposed? Who proposed what? Who have you been talking to?
22. Who has more friends? The person with the most money/candy.
23. Who has more siblings? Definetly polygamists.
24.Who wears the pants in the family? The person who has to answer the door.

Bad News...and a lesson learned

So last night, Jason's car was broken into. He found out this morning, when he noticed that his school bag was not in the trunk. He came inside to look for it, but it was not in the house. Luckily, they did not break any windows to get in, but used a "Slim Jim" (a thin piece of metal that be used to jimmy a lock) to break in. Jason had his school bag (with all of his notes, books, calculator) and his gym bag (with clothes, his Zune, and an expensive pair of shoes) in the trunk, and that is all they took. You could tell they had rifled through everything else, but didn't find anything that looked valuable. We called the sheriff, and an officer came to take an inventory of what was stolen. Overall, the value was about $400, so not really enough to take out an insurance claim and justify the higher rates, so we will just have to take the loss. Jason was most upset about his school bag, since it had his notes and assignments from the past semester. However, we had some good luck when somebody turned his school bag into the police station, and everything was intact! The person found the bag a few streets away (it had obviously been dumped) and the officer indicated that there had been more robberies in the neighborhood. We are so lucky to have gotten that stuff back! Otherwise, Jason would have had a really hard time with finals.

In light of what happened to us: don't leave stuff in your car! Even things like school bags can be attractive, since textbooks are super expensive and many people know that you can sell them on online or to bookstores. We definately learned our lesson.

As random note, when we told the officer they had stolen a Zune, he told us that his aunt was selling brand new one for 120 dollars, so we are actually going to buy it (since they are normally 200 dollars) and we figure we can probably trust a cop (especially since he gave us his cell number). Guess we have some luck.

So I figured it was about time I updated our blog, since I have been pretty lax in posting. Here is the life of Jason and Verity thus far:

Austin:
This last weekend, we were in Austin, Texas. I went to Austin for a user's conference for the computer system we use in my office, and I took Jason with me so that I could have someone to get me company in the evening. We had to take separate flights, since Jason can't miss any classes this summer, but we both ended up getting there on time and in one piece. Austin is the capitol of Texas (a fact that neither of us realized until we were at the actual capitol building) and is a pretty nice city. It is known for its nightlife, especially the live music venues, but we didn't really partake in much of that. We did have really good food (real Texas BBQ, homemade ice cream) and it was nice to have a laid back, mini vacation. Of course, Texas is really humid and hot, so walking around in the 90 degree heat and 90 percent humidity=instant sweatsoak, but we made the best of it. We had planned on going kayaking on the Town Lake (a big river that run through the center of the city, why they call it a lake I will never know), but decided at the last minute not to. Since Batman came out last weekend, we decided at the last minute to find a movie theater in downtown Austin. Bad idea-the only one close enough to walk to was an IMAX theater, and it was crazy crowded, so we nixed those plans and went swimming instead. Coming home, we barely made our connecting flight (thanks, failing air transport system!) but we finally made it back to Salt Lake, land of 100 degree dry heat (I will never complain about it again...well, not really, but I least I know now that it could be worse).

Primary:
So, we have been in our new ward (my old home ward) for about 4 months, and a few weeks ago (yes, we skip a lot of church) the bishopric finally gave us a calling. Now, what kind of calling would they give a young, married couple in a ward where the average age is 65? You guessed it: primary! I actually like primary, and I was lucky to be paired with my mom, who has been teaching the 9 year olds for about a year and has them pretty well trained. Jason, on the other hand, likes the kids but not sharing time (too much "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam puts him on edge, I guess). He was originally assigned to teach the 7-8 year olds, but it was changed to the 10 year olds the next week. He is part of a teaching pair, so he will only have to teach every other Sunday (same with me). This Sunday, since only 2 kids showed up to my class, we decided to combine them. Since we didn't know what lesson we were supposed to teach, Jason pulled out the old plan of salvation diagram. Actually, it was really cool to see how much the kids already knew and understood. I hope this works out. Jason is a little disappointment to be in the primary again, but I think it works well for us because we don't have a lot of time to devote to a larger calling, and primary lets us still be involved but not overextended.

Obligatory Batman post
Due to the aforementioned problems in Austin, we did not see Batman until Tuesday night. We made a mistake when ordering our tickets and wound up all the way at Jordan Landing (which is not incredibly close to our house in Holladay), but at least it was a nice theater. We were very happy to see the new James Bond preview, "The Quantum of Solace" (bad title, kick ass preview). They filmed part of the movie in Bregenz, Austria, on a lake called the Borden See, and we visited there last May, so it was cool to see in the movie. As far as Batman, I really liked it. I don't necessarily think it was better than "Batman Begins" (I would say they are equal in awesomeness), but I did think Heath Ledger's performance was impeccable. He made the Joker such a intriguing and engaging (not to mention crazy) character, and I am very sad he will not be in the next one. I am so glad they replaced Katie Holmes with Maggie Gyllanhael (since she can, you know, act) and liked that Christian Bale was as hot as ever. That was probably the most important part of all, actually.

Houses:
Of course, our house search continues. The more I look at houses, the more I think to myself "WTF are people thinking"? Pink carpet? Purple tile? I know everyone has their individual taste, but really-1970 was 40 years ago, time to change, or drop your over inflated price, because no one want your wood paneling-no one.
On a happy note, we did find a house that:
-Is in Holladay
-Is under 250000 (not common in Holladay)
-Does not feature pink carpet, purple tile or wood paneling
-Fulfills most of needs (since we are, as real estate agents like to say "picky buyers", this is rare indeed)
We'll keep you updated if we become closer to moving out of my parent's basement and into the grown up world of home ownership.

Next on the Jason/Verity Agenda of fun:
-On Thursday, Verity is going to see Mamma Mia, a musical based solely from ABBA songs. Jason will instead opt to stay at work, because he has never listened to an ABBA song all the way through, and would like to keep it that way.
-On Friday, we will spend time with our friends, something that happens rarely in our life. We are not antisocial, we just have friends who have lives and therefore, no time.
-On Saturday, Verity will go to bridal shower, and then come home and remember how nice it is to already be married. We might also go see Step Brothers, or if Jason loves me, the X-Files

Seriously, so funny...

This is why Mormons scare me sometimes....
http://seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com/
Granted, it is not real, but whoever made it didn't have to try very hard to fake it.