Newest Life Changes

UPDATE:  For those of you who don't know I've got some exciting news about Matt and I. . . No we are NOT having a baby, nice try though.   Actually, we are going to be leaving the frozen North-land of Alaska towards the end of December and are heading to HAWAII!!  

Why Hawaii?  Well it's pretty simple, I am in need of finishing my Degree and it takes 2 years to become an Alaska resident in regards to in-state tuition.  I have been out of Arizona for about a year now, so I am pretty sure I have lost my in-state tuition there as well.  The next logical thing to do was to look into the church schools - ie: BYU.  We did, and after talking about it Matt and I decided that we never wanted to live in Utah.  Ever.  Idaho is not much of a change from the frozen land in which we currently live; Hawaii has something unique to offer, warm sunshine, white sandy beaches, flip-flop weather, not to mention my degree program :) 

I went ahead and applied.  The thing about BYU-H is that not a whole lot of people from the United States usually get in, it is mainly for people from other counties and the pacific islands, so my chances at getting in were slightly less than I would have preferred.  I was nervous to get too excited until I knew for sure we would be able to go.  Next thing I know I received an email and then a letter in the mail saying that I had been ACCEPTED!  

Long story Short:  We are moving very soon and I am so excited to start school again in January!  

I decided that since not many people have had the opportunity to visit our apartment, and we are about to leave here pretty soon, I would bring a few of the highlights to you!  We currently live in a one bedroom apartment that has many quirks that we have had to adjust to, but it has become our home and I'm sure we will look back and laugh about the fact that every few minutes in the shower the water turns scalding hot :)

This is one of the walls in our living room.  Matt really liked the idea of putting a bunch of decorative shelves, so we have quite a few.  The two longer shelves just have candles on them; the upper left has the "magic lamp" from when Matt proposed and a salt and pepper shaker set that one of Matt's friends brought us from India. 

I wasn't lying when I said we have a lot of shelves!  We found these really neat corner shelves and installed them everywhere!  Our apartment really needed something to make it feel more like home and theses definitely helped a lot.  We had decided that we wanted Red, Black, and White to be the color scheme and it just so happened that when we went shopping the after Christmas sales had tons of Red decorations!

Matt and I got this framed picture as a Wedding gift from my singles ward Branch Presidency.  I was set on bring it up to Alaska with us and I have enjoyed it very much.

One thing that I have grown accustom to is having mirrors hanging all over the house.  They help make rooms feel bigger as well as helping to bring a little more light in.  For our reception we had a HUGE mirror, it was probably about 10-12 feet high and 6-8 feet wide, I would totally have that in my house if it could have been transported at all.  Obviously we had to do something that was a little smaller scale.  

I have decided that I want a whole library in my house eventually and this is the start of it :)  We haven't gotten much of a chance to collect many books yet but I think they look so great all lined up on a bookshelf.  

Flowers are something that grace our home often.  Matt has a thing about buying me flowers just because.  I love it, I love that there never has to be a reason and it's not to make up for when he is "in trouble," it is just because he wants to :) 

Our cute dishes.  I love them.  End of story.  

Our Bed spread.  :)  

These are shelves in our bedroom. . . Don't judge me, we didn't have enough room in our closet and I had to put my shoes somewhere!

This is the Bathroom.  Strangest color in the world, and when we asked if we could repaint our landlords could not seem to understand why we thought it should get a fresh look.  Luckily we found towels and a shower curtain that happen to match perfectly.  We have decided that when we leave we will go ahead and leave the shower curtain for the next tenant to save them from the "Tooth Paste Green" color. 

This apartment has served us well.  But it is now time to move on to see what else is in store for us.  We will be in Hawaii soon, working on getting settled.  Our current apartment is now suffering from bare walls and boxes slowly filling throughout the house.  The official flying out day is December 21st.  Wish us luck!