Wenzel Family Update

I have been postponing writing a blog post thinking I would wait until we heard from John Deere about Ben's start date/where we would be moving to. Obviously that wasn't such a great idea, because we just barely found out and now I haven't posted in a long time! How is it the end of the semester? We just barely moved back and now we are moving again! Time flies these days. As I mentioned before, Ben got a job offer from John Deere.  His start date will be January 6, 2014 and we will be moving to Davenport, IA (which is where we were this past summer). We are so excited for us to both be graduated and to settle down somewhere for more than 3 months (and to be making real money).

A little update on the past few months:

When we moved back to Utah, I got a full time job but didn't like it (people, environment, work ethic, etc) so I quit! Since then, I have been working through a temp agency doing lots of different things. I have worked in a warehouse packaging, but mostly I have been doing secretarial jobs.  I have been a secretary at a morgue, credit card processing company, law office, and a mortgage company.  I wasn't sure how I would like doing temporary work, but I really love it.  No commitment, you get whatever days off that you want, and you learn lots of new things!

While I have been doing temporary jobs, Ben has been working for BYU and finishing up his last semester.  He is so smart, straight A's every semester. I didn't marry him for his brains, but that should have been my #1 reason (I'm not a fan of blogs that go on and on about how wonderful their spouses are, so that's the end of that).

In October we discovered our love for carving pumpkins! We carved pumpkins with friends one night and loved it so much that we did it again the next week. My nephew was also born in October and we love having a new baby in the family! He is so chubby and snuggly. We will definitely miss living close to all of my family when we move.

November is almost gone and I don't know where it went. Ben has been pretty busy with school, which has led me to find new hobbies.  We don't have kids and I'm allergic to cats, so I have taken up crocheting! I like to crochet while watching the 9 or so TV shows that I currently follow. It's an exciting life (I really do love it).

Ben and I are both looking forward to all that December will bring.  Ben will be turning 25, graduating from college, we are celebrating Christmas with my family this year and we are moving.  Lots of fun and new things for us!

I'm currently working (another good thing about temporary jobs is that they are usually low maintenance), so I can't post any pictures, but I will post my favorite Christmas commercial.  Also, click here for a delicious Chicken Pot Pie recipe that I got from my mother! We had this pot pie for dinner last night and Ben said he always forgets how good it tastes and that it's worth the wait.

Kristen 

You Can Call Me Queen Bee

Have you heard the new song Royals by Lorde? Such a catchy song. Instead of calling me Queen Bee you can call me Queen of Food. These days I'll eat anything and everything and still be hungry. We went out to eat the other night and the waiter made the following comment, "You pounded that! I expected that from the big guy but not from you." To which I responded, "I just said that! I don't know where my food went!" Unfortunately I can't blame this on pregnancy, because I'm not pregnant, such is life. One of my favorite food bloggers is The Girl Who Ate Everything who I mentioned in a post a while back.  She always has the most delicious recipes for everything. Recently I tried her Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe and I just took a batch of her Orange Creamsicle Cookies out of the oven. Both of these are delicious to eat just as a dough and to eat once you actually bake them. The Orange Creamsicle Cookies remind me of Orange Rolls, but tons less work and just as good. I haven't had a chance to try this Oreo Pudding Cookie Recipe but I have all the ingredients, so it's next on my list.

Besides my large appetite, things haven't changed much in the Wenzel home. I go to work, Ben goes to work and school, and we look forward to the little time that we actually get to spend together. Fall is becoming more and more evident and I'm really looking forward to cool weather and even snow. The thought of apple cider, pumpkins, and Fall scented candles is so enticing, and I love seeing everyones' Fall decorations on Facebook and Instagram. I'm not much of a decorator these days. We don't really have people over and we don't have kids, so there isn't anyone to see decorations but us, which is not enough incentive for me. Maybe once we move and have a more permanent home, maybe. Football is well under way, which has given me more time for leisure reading. I love to read. Did anyone ever do AR (Accelerated Reading) back in Elementary and Middle School? I did. So much that I had the most AR points (points you get for reading books and taking tests) in my whole 7th grade. Those were the glory days. Just kidding. When I think about having kids I dread the pubescent stage...acne, braces, changing voices. I don't know how I survived those years (probably by holing up in my room and reading books). My mother and sister recommended a book called The Language of Flowers. It was so good that I read it in one night! I'm on a waiting list at the Provo Library for some other highly recommended books, so I picked up 5 or 6 random books to pass the time while I wait.

Last but not least (and the only thing I will say about yesterday's BYU vs. Utah football game) at 11:11 this morning, Ben says to me "It's 11:11 make a wish" followed by "I wish that BYU won last night." A boy can wish, can't he?

Throw back to BYU football last Fall

Until next time, make some cookies, read a book, make a wish.

Kristen

California Dreamin'

Confession time.  I gained 6 pounds in the 2.5 weeks that we spent with Ben's parents and mine.  Since moving into our apartment I have lost those pounds, but all the pictures from our CA trip show that weight gain.  I apologize in advance (and obviously I don't regret that weight gain enough to hold back from eating ice cream while I'm blogging, c'est la vie).

California was so much fun! I hadn't been for more than a couple days since after Ben and I got married, and Ben hadn't been since we got married! We got there on a Saturday, and that next Monday, my parents, youngest sister, and Ben and I went white water rafting on the American River, just northeast of Sacramento.  It was our first time and we really enjoyed it! Here are a few pictures from that.

We also went to Ben's first MLB game. The SF Giants played the Pittsburgh Pirates.  The Pirates did really well and the Giants did not so well, luckily we had garlic fries to make everything better. 

The day before we left for Utah, my mom, Ben, and I went to the Jelly Belly Factory, which is in the next town (city?), to go on their tour.  Not exactly a trip to Disneyland, but one of those "have to do touristy things for new comers" aka Ben. 

A few of my favorite things about going home include, the pool, yellow pear tomatoes from the garden, popcorn from the ancient air popper, and this year they had an amazing basil plant! Lots of pesto in my family's future.

Such a fun trip! We got to do lots of things, and it was nice to be able to spend time at my parents house. We have been back in Utah for a couple weeks now and since then, Ben has started school, I have started a full time job as a receptionist at a dance studio in Orem, and Ben got a FULL TIME JOB OFFER FROM JOHN DEERE! We are super excited, and Ben officially accepted the job on Friday afternoon! As of now we don't know exactly when the job will start (hopefully in January) or where we will be living, but we should find out in the next couple months.

Until next time...enjoy this weird new music video that is consuming my Facebook news feed.

Kristen 

Last Week In Iowa

After Ben's last day of work, we packed up our cars and headed off to Ben's parents' home for our last week in Iowa. The week was filled with food, croquet, and family bonding. We had loads of fun!  As mentioned in the last blog post, I made sure to take some pictures of us with our croquet mallets/balls. The competition was pretty stiff.  Kristin and Gary (Ben's parents) put up a good fight and Ben's brother, Jared, joined in on a few games too.  We haven't even been gone a week and we miss playing with them!

Another of our favorite things to do while at the Wenzel home is eat sweet corn.  It wasn't quite ready when we were there for the 4th of July, so we were happy to see the local farmer's sign out saying it was ready to buy.  Sweet corn combined with home grown tomatoes and cucumbers and bbq pulled pork made for the perfect meal! I regret not eating more corn or bringing some with us when we moved.  Live and learn, live and learn.

One of the highlights of this trip was taking family pictures (I say that with sincerity and a bit of sarcasm, is that possible?)  I was more than happy to take pictures but the Wenzel boys were not as enthusiastic.  Luckily the session was quick and painless and it will be fun to see them once they are done.  I'll try to post a few contingent on how good I look, just kidding, I'll try and post them once we get them.

After spending a week with Ben's family, we headed off into the darkness on Thursday (literally, we left by 5:45am) and started our journey to Utah.  If you are interested in what the road trip looks like, please refer to one of the previous travel posts.  It is nothing exciting.  We drove for 13.5 hours the first day and 4.5 hours the second.  We brought 2 cars with us, which meant that neither of us got breaks from driving, but we made it safely and exhausted.  We got to Provo, UT on Friday, moved into our apartment, and crazily unpacked our cars.  Then, with the help of our wonderful cousins, we unpacked our storage unit.  Afterwards, we drove to visit my sister and her family and then headed back to our apartment to straighten up our belongings so our furniture could be delivered on Monday.  The next morning we loaded one of our cars again and headed to CA where we currently are visiting my parents. 29 hours in 3 days...I don't recommend that to anyone, but I do recommend visiting family! The drives have been well worth it. 

Ben will start his last semester at BYU in a couple weeks, and we are excited for what the future holds. Hopefully it holds a full time job for him and babies for me...just kidding on the babies.  Hopefully it holds jobs for both of us and an apartment with air conditioning! (We lack air conditioning in Provo and it's a little depressing.) Make sure to check our blog in about a week! I'll be posting about our adventures with my family, including but not limited to, white water rafting, El Tejaban, and pool side lounging.  I love California!

XOXO, Kristen

Goodbye My Lover

Goodbye My Lover. Can anyone name who sings that song? For those of you who can't, it's James Blunt.  Remember: You're beautiful, you're beautiful, you're beautiful to me... That guy. Sadly, I'm a fan of his.  I'm not sure what I like about him or his songs, but I'll admit I'm listening to him on YouTube as I write this little blog post.  (Disclaimer, I have never actually watched the music videos so if they are inappropriate I'm sorry...and if the lyrics are inappropriate, I'm sorry again...maybe I should listen to something else...)  I was trying to think about what to title this blog post and was thinking about saying goodbye to our wonderful friends in Iowa as we get ready to move this week. Then I thought of this song.  Poor Ben has to put up with my ramblings, which have increased recently, along with my poor memory. OKAY, on to the post.  I'll post a few things from each month in hopes of making up for not blogging since May.


JUNE

Ben golfed a lot this summer.  I'm not a huge fan of golfing, but I enjoy being outside and watching him have fun.

We also spent time exploring the area and went to the John Deere Pavilion where you can learn about the history of John Deere.  

We went to eat at a place called The Machine Shed, pretty good, but mostly I loved the atmosphere. Very farm-esque.

We also checked out the local farmers market, which I absolutely loved.  There were even samples of fruit with chili powder and salt, it took me back to spending time at our neighbors house when I was in elementary school and junior high. 

JULY

We spent the 4th of July at Ben's parents' house and it was so much fun.  We spent our days outside, doing yard work and enjoying the weather, we made s'mores, caught lightening bugs, and enjoyed spending time together. (We also played croquet, which we loved! I didn't get any pictures though, maybe this next week we will play again)

We also decided to buy a mattress! We currently don't own one, so we were excited to start looking for one.  We slept on a full sized bed for the first 8 months of our marriage and a queen sized bed for the past 4 months.  After testing tons of beds, we finally decided on a super comfy king sized bed.  We are thrilled to be sleeping with more room and hopefully we will both sleep a little better.

At the end of July, we decided to go to Nauvoo, IL, to see the Nauvoo temple and pageant.  We drove down on a Friday and stayed the night so we could walk around on Saturday.  It was lots of fun to go away for a day and learn more about the history of the early Latter Day Saints.  We stopped at a yummy fudge shop and a nice man in the pageant gave us 2nd row seats for the pageant! One of the souvenirs we brought home from Nauvoo was The Family A Proclamation To The World, carved on a huge piece of wood!

Click here to read the Proclamation

AUGUST

We are moving this Friday and can't believe how quickly the summer has gone by.  Ben will finish his internship on Friday and we will leave that same day to spend a few days with his parents before we go visit my parents and then head back to BYU.  Ben has one more semester until he graduates and we are hopeful that he will get a full time job with John Deere, in which case we will be headed back to Iowa in January.  Lots of moving for this family.  I have decided to not unpack when we get back to Provo in order to make the moving process in January a little easier.  Who needs decorations on their Wymount Terrace cinder block walls anyway? We have really loved Iowa and it has been so fun for us to grow closer in a new place.  A little less than 2 weeks until we celebrate being marred for a year and we are so excited for what the future has in store.  

Until next time!

Kristen

Summer Lovin'

Since the weather has gotten nicer and Summer is here, I have been trying to figure out what to do at night, other than watch tv.  It's hard to find something to do when you are new to a town, but almost equally as difficult when you have lived somewhere for a long time and feel like nothing new is ever going on.  Davenport, Iowa (our current home) is very well populated and near the Mississippi River which provides plenty of tourist-y sites for us to visit.  I even have a couple of magazines about Chicago that I picked up at a hotel.  I'm definitely excited to start going out and doing things, but starting this week we are trying to save money.  What can you do when you are trying not to spend money? One of the easiest places to find events that are relatively cheap and in your town is the city's website.  In order to cut down on some of the searching you might have to do, I did it for you. Click one of the cities to see what's going on near you: Davenport, Provo, Vacaville.  These websites aren't all inclusive, but definitely a good way to start your search.  Our city has its own baseball team called the Quad City River Bandits.  We didn't know that they had a game on Saturday until they were already in their 4th inning, but decided to head over to the game.  We got their by the 6th inning and spent 2 hours cheering for our new found team.  It was lots of fun and cheaper than going to the movies.  Some nights they even have fireworks, so I'm excited to take a blanket and sit on the berm (the grassy area near the outfield for those of you not familiar, I had to ask Ben what it meant).  Click here for the Quad City River Bandits schedule, click here for the Salt Lake City Bees schedule ,and here for the San Francisco Giants schedule.  In Utah, up Provo Canyon, there is tons of hiking and sites for making s'mores.  Bridal Veil Falls even has a dispenser where you can buy fish food for $0.25.  Here in Davenport, Vander Veer Botanical Park has plenty to see and vending machines to buy corn to feed the ducks.  Below are a couple pictures of the baseball game we went to on Saturday.  I forgot to bring my camera, so it's not the best quality, sorry. Hope everyone can find something fun to do this summer that gets you out of the house!

Kristen

The field is right on the Mississippi River! So fun!

Grocery Shopping

I enjoy grocery shopping, I enjoy walking around the store and looking for good deals.  Once a week I make a dinner list and then a grocery list depending on what we already have.  I tend not to stray from my list (I'm so cheap) and I especially don't stray for things like cookies, chips, soda, ice cream, etc.  While your first thought is probably something like "wow, good for her, I don't have that sort of self control", think again.  Usually by the time we finish dinner I am complaining that I didn't buy anything to make dessert.  Once the complaining has settled down, I have three options, 1. scrounge for anything that has sugar 2. have extreme self control and eat an orange 3. go to the store and buy something.  Tonight I chose option 3.  I had done a fairly large shopping trip earlier today and had told myself I didn't need ice cream, but I caved within 5 hours and Ben and I ran to the store.  Fail.  My only comfort is that I will stick to "one serving" (not according to the package but according to the size of my mug). With that being said, let's get back to grocery shopping.  I'm not sure how other people shop and I wish I could get into couponing but below is a sample of my grocery list.  I find it much easier to have a list in front of me, with all my meals planned out, in order to save money and not buy things that are unnecessary.  

Now check out what we had for dessert under the Recipes tab!

Kristen

Wenzel Family Travelling Tips

Oh Mexico, there is so much to say!  The first thing is THANK YOU to Ben’s parents for such a wonderful wedding gift! It was so much fun.  I’m going to post all about the trip under the Our Travels tab and in this post I will focus mainly on some “out of the country, all-inclusive resort, beach travel tips”.  We were able to buy anything that we needed more of or make do with what we brought, but here are a few things that we made note of for our next vacation.

Wenzel Family Travelling Tips:

-bring more sunscreen (we prefer the liquid, non-spray type and bring 2-3 bottles depending on skin type)
-bring aloe vera
-bring bug spray and itch cream
-bring dollar bills for tipping (plan for at least $1.00 for every meal and more for maids and bus drivers)
-bring more money than you think you will spend because the ATM’s are expensive ($15.00 to pull out $80.00 at our resort, ouch)
-bring extra batteries or chargers for electronics (I used quite a few batteries for my camera)
-plan one tour/trip and the rest spend at your resort or do small things around the resort i.e. snorkeling, kayak tours, etc
-don’t forget tennis shoes for trips that may include a lot of walking
-don’t forget sunglasses or some sort of hat (Who forgets sunglasses? Us! Because we never wear them!)
-bring DVDs if you want something quiet to do at night and bring magazines or books for the beach

I’m sure you are all thinking that these are obvious things, but they weren’t for us.  We obviously need to travel more so that we can be more experienced, good excuse to go again, right?  Now for the long post that probably only our parents have been waiting for….head to the Our Travels tab for more insight on our vacation!

Kristen

Birthday Bash Round 22

Tomorrow is my birthday! I will be 22 years old and Ben and I have been celebrating for quite some time now.  Last week we celebrated with my family, tonight we celebrated with Ben's dad (his mother is out of town), and tomorrow is my actual birthday. He has been such a good birthday supporter and spoiled me much more than I spoiled him.  He was even kind enough to make my favorite birthday cake, the same cake that I request every year, Pillsbury Strawberry cake and frosting.  I tell myself that I'll grow out of it, but I don't, and I'm grateful for my family in honoring that request every year.   For those of you that think birthday cakes have to be made from scratch or that they need to be store bought, I urge you to submit to box cakes.  So delicious.  We went to HuHot for my pre-birthday lunch and I was so excited.  We also went out for delicious pizza tonight and I'll post a picture of those.  For my birthday tomorrow Ben and I are both getting treated to a mini vacation before our actual vacation starts on Friday.  The Chicago Bulls play game 6 of the NBA playoffs in Chicago tomorrow, we fly out of Chicago on Friday, do you see where this is going? We are driving to Chicago tomorrow afternoon to go to the Bull's game, staying in a hotel and then flying to Mexico on Friday morning.  We are dang lucky kids.  As we have spent the last few days at Ben's parents house, we have commented on how amazing parents are in all that they provide for us.  It's so nice to have stamps and envelopes in the cupboard, snacks, washer/dryer downstairs, etc. Ben referred to his parents' house as the "Wenzel All Inclusive Resort", because it has been such a treat to stay here.  

In preparation for Mexico I may have done a little tanning in order to reduce the chance of burning as much.  I packed a brand new bottle of sunscreen but I'm not convinced that will be enough.  Ben will be lathering up with sunscreen as well seeing as we just came from a winter in snowy Utah.  The place I went tanning at had a space ship for a tanning bed.  The level is called "Instant" because it is supposed to make you tan instantly...obviously.  Well it scared me.  I laid in there worried that I was going to explode or something of that sort. I took a couple pictures of the bed..not me..because I was so frightened/amazed.  I probably wont be posting much this next week, but expect a great post all about our adventures in Mexico when we get back (May 10).  I may even give you a little peek of our new apartment once we move in. Seeing as I wont have a job, it will be a lot of unpacking, cooking, blogging, and laying by the pool until I find something.

Until next time....

Kristen

View of Ben's parents'
house from my run

Birthday lunch at HuHot

Pizza at Tony's in Cedar Falls, I'm such a mess, Ben is so hot. 

My crazy tanning bed!

Blowing out the candles with my family

Cake and presents from my family!

This Week In

Quick review of this past week:

Finals ended.
Parents came into town.
I graduated college.
Moved out of our apartment.
Drove 19 hours to Iowa.

I'll spare everyone every detail and just focus on the highlights of each of those things. Finals ended on April 24th, with Ben standing in a line for about 2 hours to take his test and then taking his test for 4 hours.  After that, my parents and Ben's mom were in town and we all had dinner together.  On Thursday, April 25th, we went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, Utah.  When I came out to BYU in April 2009, the Tulip Festival was going on and my mother said that she wanted to go.  Four years later, she was finally able to go!  Here are some pictures from that...

Graduation was on Friday at 8:00am. It was so early, but I was grateful that we had the rest of the day to pack after that.  Here are some pictures from that!

Amy (sister), Carson (nephew), Ben, Me, Kelsey (sister), Mom, Dad

Check out Our Travels tab to read about our 2 day drive from Utah to Iowa. Currently, Ben and I are sitting on the couch watching The Voice and enjoying our time out of the car and with family.  For dinner tonight we had Papa Murphy's take and bake pizza. Ben's favorite pizza is from there and is called Gourmet Chicken Garlic Pizza.  It has a creamy garlic sauce, chicken, green onions, tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese.  I make my own version of this using a family favorite pizza dough recipe.  That recipe is up under the Recipe tab.

Sorry for the length of this post! Hope you enjoyed reading about our busy and fun week! Don't forget to go to the Recipe and Our Travels tabs.

Kristen