Pictures and Pumpkin Pie

Hey all. Just wanted to do a little update of what we've been up to lately. Not too much different. Mostly school and work for Ben and I respectively. This last week, I had the fun experience of pulling a 21 hour shift at work. A girl at one of the houses wasn't feeling well so I took her to the ER here in Logan for the third time in three days. At this point, they decided to transport her down to Primary Children's in Salt Lake. Guess who got to go with. Me... and another staff thank goodness. We didn't leave Logan to head down until after midnight that night. (Keep in mind I had been at work since 3:30 that afternoon.) We arrived at Primary Children's around 2:30 where the nurses there proceeded to tell us she would be staying overnight. Awesome I thought. So my co-worker and I traded off sleeping and staying up to make sure our girl was doing okay. Needless to say we each only got about 2 hours of sleep that night. We ended up getting back to Logan and finally got off work around 12:30 PM the next day. Kind of a crazy little adventure. The hospital bed was surprisingly comfy but I guess anything would feel good when you're as tired as we were.

Anyway, that really wasn't the point of this post. I just remembered it as I was catching up. The real point of this was to talk about the good time Ben and I had with our friends Garrett and Vauna last night. A few days ago, I went to work in a long sleeved red shirt with a brown short sleeved shirt over it. Needless to say, I felt very fall like. I decided I wanted to take pictures of Ben and I up the canyon with all the leaves changing colors. "How can I get pictures of us together without anyone else around?" I thought. So my conclusion was that we invite Garrett and Vauna with us and we'd take their pictures and they could take ours. We decided Sunday night it was and planned to do dinner as well. Garrett and Vauna found a pumpkin in our garden that we long ago abandoned because pretty much everything got eaten by deer through the course of the summer. But we managed to get one pumpkin. And they turned it into a delicious pumpkin pie for us to share after we did pictures.

Here's some of my favorite results of our time well spent up the canyon.

I will take a minute to be vain. I like my hair in these.

These are our friends Garrett and Vauna. In case anyone was wondering.

They've appeared on this blog before. And will continue to do so I'm sure.

Yay for family pictures!

Do It Yourself: Dining Room Table

So... when Ben and I got married we lived in this tiny attic apartment. This apartment didn't have tons of space so we decided to get a card table/folding chairs set to put in our kitchen and then if we wanted more space we could just break it down. It worked really well upstairs and it actually isn't too bad of a kitchen table. However, last Tuesday, Ben and I went to the University Surplus Store with some friends to look at a bike rack to put at our house since we have about 7-10 bikes just chilling outside. Unfortunately, the bike rack was gone but we saw an ad they had about dining room tables for 20 bucks. So we asked about it. We figured, "Hey, new table for 20 bucks no big deal." So we bought one. And I immediately decided that I wanted to refinish it. So for my days off, that's exactly what we did. Our neighbors Garrett and Vauna also decided to redo their table as well with us. It was a lot of fun to do together. Here's what our table started as.

Simple white legs with light stain on top.

So we began to sand it all down. I wanted to make our table look rustic so I insisted that we sand everything down for what I had in mind, which meant all the white paint had to come off. It drove Ben crazy ha ha but we managed to get it. (I think I should get some brownie points or something for not just leaving Ben to do it but actually getting down and dirty myself on our "To Do" list.)

Here's Ben working on sanding.

All ready to go on to the painting and staining.

After we had it all down we painted the legs a nice black color. We then let that dry and what did I want to do? Make it look all rustic by sanding it down some more in places to give it a worn look and add stain on top of those places. So we sanded some more ha ha.

Here are the legs all nice and black.

After we finished the legs, we went on to staining. We got this nice dark mahogany reddish brownish color for the top and the scuffs on the legs. We used brushes instead of rags to put on the stain and it went on really thick and dark. It was totally covered.

Here's the red stain on top.

After a few hours of letting it dry, we came out to look at it and maybe do some finishing touches. We tried sanding it down, but the stain was just too thick and goopy. So Ben decided to take a putty knife to it to get rid of all the excess stain that was more in the way. As we got going, we weren't sure if that had been a good idea, but we kept with it to get the whole table taken care of. We were planning that whole time to redo the stain and try to make it more even and smooth but the result of the putty knife kind of surprised us. What we ended up with was a beautiful antique, farmhouse style looking table. It looked like the stain had been well worn from good use. So after some debating (Ben wasn't sure if he liked it at first), some extra sanding to even it out, Ben and I decided it was fantastic. Here's what we ended up with.

I love it. I am now planning how to decorate my kitchen to make it look like an old farmhouse kitchen. I am really excited. I am also glad that we now have a good table that should be able to last us for quite some time. And we got it all done for a really cheap price plus a little work of our own that really only meant we were making some good memories and having a good time. I'm really excited that slowly, but surely, our house is turning more and more into a home. We are getting things we want and like and having some fun along the way. I'm glad we spent the time to do it even if we had some sore muscles after. Anyway, that's our new table and some more of what we've been up to. I still plan and posting about my birthday adventures and a few other things, but I've been busy at work. So have a good day!

Good Summer Good Life

I find myself with some down time tonight and I figured that I'd take the time to share some of my experiences from the summer so far. I have had the chance to do some fun things with my family this summer. A few weeks ago, my dad and I did a 75 mile bike ride for MS research. It was great! I enjoyed the time I was able to spend with my dad even if it got hot, windy, and we were drop dead tired at the end. Ben, Grandma Mo, Grandpa Glen, Braden, and Stacey and her boys came to support us throughout the ride. I'm grateful that I have a family that enjoys doing activities like that with each other, whether it is in participating or watching. I was proud of myself for being able to accomplish something of that nature. Something cool to cross off of my bucket list. (I realized after finishing the ride, though, that I am the type of person who puts things on a bucket list after I have already done them. Ha ha!) I think I'll be doing this ride again. It was a lot of fun. I don't have pictures of the ride since I was kind of on a bike for the whole thing but this is me after finishing the race. 

This past weekend Ben and I were able to have Hannah and CJ come up to our house to visit and stay the night. I was super happy to have them come and I think we had a lot of fun. I know I did. My mom was kind enough to bring them up to play. Thursday we had lunch up at First Dam with Stacey, Isaac, Zac, and Wyatt. We had a bunch of fun and the kids got a chance to feed the ducks there as well. Ben tried to teach the kids how to skip rocks and we had a good time. We then came back to our house and played games and watched movies. The next day we made crepes for breakfast. Hannah's one request that would get her to come is if we made those. They were really good. It was my first time trying gluten free crepes and they really weren't too bad. Hannah and CJ loved them. After hanging out and playing a few more games we then made Muddy Buddies and went to the pool. We had a lot of fun playing in the water, going off the diving boards, and sliding down the slides. We had a great time playing together and it was so fun to spend time with them.

Enjoying the delicious crepes.

Making Muddy Buddies with Ben

The other exciting highlight of last weekend was Stacey had her baby! I'm so excited to have another new baby cousin. I've had two this year. Curt and Michelle had a cute baby girl Amelia in March and now we welcome baby Mason. He sure is a cutie. I'm glad I live close enough that I've already had a chance to hold him and meet him. If I had my way I think all I would do all day is just hold him and play with him. I have to remind myself that other people want to spend time with him too ha ha. I've enjoyed the time I've been able to spend with all of Stacey's family the past few days. Ben and I have enjoyed playing with Isaac, Zac, and Wyatt as well while Stacey has been busy. We just love all of our family.

So far, this summer has been great. I have a good life. That's all there really is to it. I started thinking about that today and I am so grateful for all that I have been blessed with. I have a wonderful family. I have a wonderful husband. I have the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. Things just seem good. I know they won't always be and there will be hard times and trials to come, but really, I am blessed.

My aunt is a pro 4-square player and we prevent forest fires

So, today has been a good day. Good enough that I said to myself, "I want to blog about today." So I am. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of today, but it's okay. Today has really been just a long series of good events. It starts like this. A) I didn't have to work today, or yesterday, or tomorrow... pretty great. Which leads to B) I could sleep in a little. And C) We had time to make a good breakfast. Well, Ben actually made it whilst I was busy writing cover letters to take to some jobs I have applied for*. He made waffles that we then ate with our homemade strawberry jam and non-homemade syrup. Very tasty. D) I delivered cover letters and it went well. E) I got to spend a lot of time with Ben today. F) While spending time with Ben, we got to babysit my cousins Zachary and Wyatt while Stacey was in a meeting. G) While babysitting, we made Kisses Cookies. Yummy. Zac and Wyatt helped and we made messes which I then cleaned up later. H) We built some pretty awesome block towers and bridges. I do actually have pictures of those so I guess my above statement was a lie.

Tower to the ceiling... well almost.

Bridge from the table to the computer desk.

I) When Stacey and Isaac got home, we played four-square. J) Stacey is a great four-square player even when she is 7 months pregnant. She has a mean cherry bomb shot. K) We then played some baseball with the boys. L) We helped Wyatt hit a baseball several times and just had a great time at their house today. M) We went to Gossner's cheese factory and bought a lot of delicious cheese which we are very excited to have again. N) We ate leftover poppyseed chicken and squeaky cheese for dinner which is one of Ben's favorites. O) We watched Star Trek while eating dinner. P) Ben has told me repeatedly how much he likes my hair today. He did it... in braids last night so it would be wavy today, but it's nice to hear that he likes it. Q) We saw some of our friends today and talked to them for a bit. R) We share a garden with those friends on some neighbor's property (we have really nice neighbors) and we decided to go check on it together tonight. S) Our garden is growing great! We planted tomatoes, peas, corn, onions, peppers, pumpkins, cantaloupe, watermelon, and strawberries. The corn, peas, pumpkins and strawberries are all growing nicely and we're excited to see the rest of it start coming up as well. T) We saw some people start a very large bonfire in a not very smart location... under a large area of half dead trees... and it looked pretty dangerous, so we told our neighbor to call authorities and she did... No more bonfires. We were glad to help out. We were mostly worried about it spreading around the whole block if it didn't stay controlled. So yeah, we made sure there wasn't a forest fire. U) I am actually blogging again. I'm excited to be doing this because I would rather spend time on the computer doing this than wasting it on other websites. V) Ben was able to give a priesthood blessing to a friend. I am so grateful that he is worthy to use his priesthood whenever he is needed to, even on spur of the moment calls. W) Today is Wednesday. That means milk is on sale at Lee's for $1.98. Pretty awesome deal that we are going to take up. X) Our friends said they would teach our primary class on Sunday so Ben and I could attend my cousin Colton's homecoming. So excited to see him again! Y) Ben and I are going to read scriptures and say prayers. I like that we do that together. Z) I made it to Z! Ha ha, I thought it would be neat to come up with this many good things about a day. I'm sure there are more, but this is a good documentary of the day. Today I've been happy. I enjoy days like today where it's simple things that make it the best. I hope Ben and I continue to have days like this and I'm pretty sure we will. It's our choice to be happy and I think that's what I'll choose. I hope you all have good days too. See ya later!
* I'm not really looking for new jobs, but I found one that would be a good opportunity so I'm going for it. If I get it, great, if not, that's great too.

What we've been up to.

So, I really do want to blog and be better at sharing what's up with us. Sometimes it just gets tricky trying to make the time. But today I decided to do just that. We've been busy busy busy. I'm working full time still and on the side try to make time to take care of my home and have some fun too. Ben has been working very hard in school. The first half of the semester Ben was doing the play The Pirates of Penzance. He enjoyed the chance to do it but was very glad for it to be over so he could start focusing on school again. He had to grow a very fantastic beard as well for the play. It drove him crazy for a little while but overall it wasn't bad. Maybe he'll even do it again someday. We'll see. It was really fun to see Ben perform again. I went to the show 3 times between my family coming up and his. It was a lot of fun to spend time with both of our families and I'm grateful I got the time off from work to do it. Here are some pictures of the show.

Ben in his fake wig and real beard.

Ben's character was Samuel, basically the first mate.

Morgan did the show as well. In the first act, he was a pirate

In the second act, he was the police sergeant.

 We also celebrated our first anniversary back in March. It is amazing to think that now Ben and I have been married for over a year! I am so grateful Heavenly Father placed him in my life and how we both took a chance with each other and how it has paid off. I love Ben so much and I know he loves me too. We grow closer together each and every day and we strive to grow closer to Heavenly Father as well. We love being married. We love all the adventures that come with it and boy are they coming.

One year ago I married a wonderful young man in the temple and it is the best choice I ever made.

That brings me to some other things we've been doing. We are moving up and forward in life... by moving down the stairs. Yes, next week, Ben and I will be moving from our cute little attic apartment into the main level of our house. We are going to be the house managers for our landlord and we are so excited. We are going to have more space and Ben will be able to raise his arms above his head because the ceilings will be tall enough. I was so excited to see downstairs. I have been making plans of all the things we can do there to decorate and organize it. We'll miss our good little first apartment, but really, it will be a great change. We even celebrated and bought some new furniture since we'll have room for it. Yay! After we'll get all settled, I'll try to get some pictures and post about that too.

One last thing that is a little update about us. I finally decided to stop being stubborn and get tested for Celiac's disease about a month ago. Well, my blood work came back positive and I was told I had 2 months to enjoy gluten because I would most likely need to change my diet. So at the end of May I am going to get a scope done to get definitive results as to if I have it or not. Chances are I do. I can still hope though right? Ha ha. A lot of people on my dad's side are also testing positive for it and I'm glad I found out now because when my grandpa and dad got diagnosed, there was nothing good out there. Now, I can benefit from my earlier family members' experience as well as knowing that a lot more places have become gluten free savvy.

So yeah, lots of stuff going on. Ben's finals are next week and then it's Summertime!!! I'm really excited for summer even if I still will be working. It's just a great time of year.

Catching Up

So, it's been a while since I posted. Sorry about that. But I figured I'd catch you up on the goings on in the Ben and Talor Hall home. We thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas and New Years holidays. We spent Christmas in Hurricane with Ben's family and my family came to Logan a few days later to celebrate with us. We also had some fun parties with extended family. One of my favorite traditions that I brought to our house was my family's tradition to make sugar cookies for Christmas. I absolutely love it!!! So this year, that's what Ben and I made. We got pretty detailed with some of them, but it was a lot of fun. The recipe my family uses is also one of my favorites so they were delicious!

We invited Morgan over to decorate cookies with us as well.

Here's the fist half.

And here's the second half.

It was fun to spend Christmas with Ben's family. It was fun to see the traditions they have and be a part of their family for it. I was lame and didn't take very many pictures while we were down there. Although our trip down was short, it was good to be able to see his whole family. Ben got me one of my favorite books "Counting Stars" and a fun game called "Dominion." I got him his own racquetball gear and a book called "Janitors." Santa brought us "Mancala" and "Boom Blox." We really had a fun Christmas. A few days later my family came up and we made pizzas, salad, and had our traditional sibling gift exchange. Ben got a game called "Ticket to Ride" and I got the movie "The Lion King!" Yay! What a great first Christmas we had. Oh, and beyond the gifts and everything, we were able to focus on our Savior's birth. The true meaning of the holiday.
I had to work the evening of New Years Eve so we really didn't get to do much for that holiday. I don't know if I've said much about my new job, but I am now working full-time at a residential treatment center here in Cache Valley. I am really loving it. I get to use my degree and work with some pretty cool people, but it definitely is not easy. Not easy, but rewarding. Anyway, so I worked New Years Eve, but had the next day off so we went down to Payson for my cousin Kyler's homecoming! I can't believe he's already back from his mission. He served in the Osorno, Chile mission. He and our other cousin Colton will be coming to Utah State in the fall. I'm actually really excited about that. I have found that the older I have gotten, the more valuable my family has become to me. I grow closer to them each and every day and I am so grateful for the knowledge we have that families are forever.
Anyway, that's all that has really happened to us the past little while. Ben started school again and is doing a play, "The Pirates of Penzance." We are looking forward to a fun, but busy next few months. Hope everyone else is too!