2013 in Review

This past year has been eventful for the Shelton fam :) and since we don't/didn't do a holiday card this is what happened :)

The year started out with the knowledge that Matt's current job in Scottsdale, AZ would be coming to the end in a few months (ended up being longer).  So we began the hunt for new employment played around with the idea of moving back to Utah.  We didn't want to get too serious because of our plans to take a family trip to Walt Disney World in May.

Lynlee and I enjoyed taking daily walks to the neighborhood park for play dates.  We went to the Phoenix zoo where Lynlee loved seeing all of the animals.  We would follow up those visits with going with Dad to lunch :)

After turning down a great offer for a company in Tempe we made the official decision that moving back to Utah was the path we are supposed to follow.  Matt applied to many jobs on ksl and through some contacts that he had.  We met with a recruiter and things were set in motion.

We went to Disney World in May to celebrate Mitch's graduation from Medical school and moving on to their next step of residency.  This trip was fantastic and we loved every moment of it.  We were there a day early and went to a natural spring followed by meeting everyone at the vacation home.  It was awesome this giant house included a pool and spa where we spent some fun quality time :)  We had a blast at all of the parks.  Sad that is had to come to an end, but left with awesome memories :)

Upon returning Matt had set up some interviews in the 'tah and we came up hoping for the best.  At that same time we put our house up on the market :) Being back in Arizona from our trip to Utah for one day Matt got an offer from a job that would push him in the direction he wanted his career to go. Two days later we got an offer on our house and it was all meant to be :) The Lord truly works in our lives.  

We moved within the next couple weeks into my Aunt and Uncle's house in Canyon Rim (Salt Lake).   Incredibly grateful for awesome family for letting us live with them while we found a place of our own.  The new job is in Park City, UT and the commute was best from their house. Since living in Park City was out of the question because I didn't want to work we started looking in Murray, Salt Lake, and surrounding communities to live.  We found a house and fell in love with it in Murray (even though our windows started leaking this past month).   Matt's commute is still about a half hour, but we live in Salt Lake because Matt is going to go get his Masters in Finance :) Let's hope he gets into the program with the U of U.

We had the Shelton reunion at Bear Lake this year and we put our anniversary together with it spending the night before in Logan at Anniversary Inn (we has a discount coupon yay!) We had a blast and met up with the family for a fun time.  We also had the opportunity to go to the Mendenhall Family cabin which we hadn't been too in three years.  This was such an awesome summer.

Our beautiful miss Lynlee turned two and she has embraced the terrible twos throwing horrible tantrums and crying every time she doesn't get her way. Potty training is actually going better than I thought it would (knock on wood).  She transitioned to a big girl bed without any problems.  We love her to pieces.

Our new ward is amazing and has opened us with open arms.  Matt and I both have callings (something that took six months living in Mesa to get).  We fill like we are part of the ward.

The holidays were crazy busy with family parties and trying to get everything ready.  We enjoyed seeing our families and are excited to see what the next year has in store for us :)  Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!

Joys of owning a home

So Matt and I LOVE our new home.  Our favorite of the three we have owned.  This house though when we started having winter conditions problems started appearing :/ really frustrating I tell ya.  The first sign was a frozen pipe to just the basement toilet thankfully Matt has found the remedy for that :) Then there was a leaking window upstairs, but after drying up the mess the leaking stopped.  This happened right after the first snowstorm of the season.  So we didn't think much of it (I checked it periodically to see if there was a leak, but there wasn't).

This last storm that came with freezing rain followed by 4-5 inches of fluffy stuff resurfaced the problem.  The night the storm hit I was awoken by dripping water and yes the window was leaking once again and hasn't stopped.  I have found where the water is dripping (from the roof under the gutter) and understand why it is dripping through the window (bad seal/installation of the window) into the house (not to excited about how much it will cost when we see the full damage).  Then today the basement window below the second story window started leaking and since that window is more accessible I found it is the same as the upper window.

Now we just need to figure why the roof is leaking: do we need a new roof, is there some air thing happening in the attic caused by vents like the internet suggests, or is is just ice building up between the gutter and roof and melting down the house and causing ice to form on the window and melting and ruining the seal.

Is it bad that I stress about things like this? I feel that I should because if I don't when will it be fixed.  It is hard to fix things in the winter too ugh and the official day of winter starts tomorrow.

I am hoping by venting here that I will be able to level my emotions out and have a rational head on. I am frugal and when problems occur I get stressed on the money side of things.  I know that we are still safe and that we will survive, but how much is it going to cost to fix.  The older I get I am surprised more and more by how the level of our finances affects me.

Sorry for another vent post, but I really want to fix this problem, but I only have the resource of the internet and the prayer for patience to wait for help.  

Feelings lately

Ok so this might be a downer post, but I need to get how I feel right now out into the world without offending anyone or just feel like I am offending them.

So last January I had this strong feeling like we should have another child and ever since then we have been trying to conceive really pushing for it after our trip to Disney World in May.  Month after month I have been disappointed I wanted my children to be close to two years apart.  I know that I have had some really early miscarriages because I never cramp with my periods and when one comes a week or so late with cramping (along with symptoms a pregnancy preceding) and heavy bleeding I just know that is what is happening.  I take a long time to show the hcg hormone just fyi. It is difficult to get onto facebook and see all of these people declaring there pregnancy of their second or third child.  Announcing their gender and so forth.  I am sure God has a different plan for us, but it is so hard when people ask how old Lynlee is and then proceed to ask have you thought about another?  It is also always the worst when someone says they got pregnant on accident (it bothers me sooooo bad). I know I am related (in matt's family) to people that have had this issue and used other methods for conceiving.  I know there is nothing wrong with me unless something changed when Lynlee was born.

I know this is just me feeling insecure, but I know we can conceive or else we wouldn't have our beautiful daughter Lynlee. What about that feeling I had about having another child was that just smoke and I was completely conjuring that up? Ugh I am just frustrated.  I was sure this month would be the one I had symptoms, but aunt flow made an early appearance this month just to say nope not this time.

On a brighter note we went to a Chinese restaurant Saturday and my fortune said that I would get some good news in three months haha.  Matt and I joked that was when we would find out the gender of our child (not the case anymore).  Maybe that is when we will find out that we are expecting.  Also if anyone knows me knows that I hate talking about this topic to anyone besides my husband I feel awkward when I do.  When things are really personal to me it is hard to trust them with my emotions.

Sorry for this blabber post, but i had to get this out of my system.