Our new addition to the family!

Justin and I have decided that we needed to add a "little one" to our little family. However, since having babies hasn't seemed to work for us, we decided a puppy would satisfy us for the time being. Meet our new dog...(sorry she doesn't have a name yet). My parents were lucky enough to have 14 puppies so of course they were more than happy to get rid of a few, so we took one and Justin's parents took one that they named Roxy. There is the black one and ours is the VERY cute butterscotch one. They have been so much fun to play with!

We have had some trouble trying to figure out a name. Justin and I have went back and forth on SOOO many names. We finally decided to take our favorite 6 and put them in a hat and draw out the official name. We drew out the name Claire. However after calling the dog Claire a few times it just didn't sound right, so we are back to square one. Any suggestions?

Our House...FINALLY!!!

After a LONG process and a lot of work, Justin and I are finally in our house! We have been working on this since the end of March and the time has come for us to finally move in. There is still plenty more work to be done, however the downstairs is complete. We moved in on Tuesday of this past week and it feels wonderful! Here are a few pictures of the house.

Okay its been since March since I have posted anything...I swear I have wanted to but just haven't found the time. So I am going to cram about 3 months of life into on blog post. Justin and I are home from Hilton Head and now the construction work really begins! Justin and I have started working on our house. For those of you who dont know, we are turning an old barn into a 2 bedroom house. Sounds simple enough...right? WRONG!!!! It has been crazy! I originally predicted it would take 3-4 weeks to finish this and now we are into our 3rd month and it still has a ways to go! From the end of March till about middle of May we worked on it constantly because Justins work was slow and I was home because I was being a stay at home wife. However, thanks to my BF Desiree I got a job working at the bank with her. Also at about that same time Justins work started picking up again and now he is working everyday. So needless to say, not much has changed in the house since then. It makes me really sad because it seems like we are so close yet so far! And of course as some of you may know, Justin and I are living in his parents basement until this is done...(I do not recommend this for any couple at any time in you life!) Living with his parents hasnt been too bad, however I just dream of the day when it can go back to just being us. I mean this with absolutely no offense to his parents because they have been wonderful to let us stay with them but I just cant wait till we have our house done...if that ever happens! Maybe I am selfish but I just want my handsom husband all to myself again!
Anyhow, Did take some pictures of the progress of our house, however I do not have them with me right now but I will post them as soon as I get a chance!

The next big thing in our life together is that we had our 1 year anniversary!!!!! I cannot believe that I have been married to the most incredible husband ever for a whole year!!! This has been the best year of my life and I look forward to the eternity that we will be spending together.

As I mentioned before, I am now working. I work at Empire Bank in Springfield and I actually really enjoy the job. Dont get me wrong, I enjoyed staying home and working on my house and being a wife a lot better, but its not that bad. I am glad that I work with Desiree, however I am sure that the people we work with probably get tired of hearing us talk about the good ol' days in Sweet Springs. The reason for me going back to work is because Justin is starting school this summer. Because he went on a mission and came back and was engaged to me after 3 months...he did not have the opportunity to start school. We now feel that the time is right so he is working part time and taking classes part time. Its worked out pretty good so far, however I get a little jelous of his homework. I guess I should just be thankful he is a MUCH better student then I ever was and he actually does his homework!

Justin and I had an addition to our nieces and nephews count. Justin's sister Shanacy had a baby girl at the end of March. Her name is Rebecca Lynn Critchfield. I havent seen her in person but from the pictures I have seen of her, I am a pretty proud aunt...she is definately cute! Justin and I are experiencing our first time apart for more than a day...he left on Friday to fly out to Utah for Rebecca's blessing. He will get back on Monday. I wanted to go out there so bad but because I am an employed woman now, it was not possible. :( I told Justin to take pictures of everything so that I could feel like I was there...I really miss my nieces...they are so much fun!

Dont worry, I am almost done with all of the updates, however my next big event is that my sister moved :( I am really sad about this. My nephew Egan is starting to stand up and tries to take steps and Blake is at that really fun age where you never know what is going to come out of his mouth. The other day he was playing in the back of PaPa's truck and I climbed up there with him and he said "no A-YAY (thats aunt Linzi to Blake) go get in your white car" It was pretty funny. Anyhow they have moved to Arkansas so that Tony can do his externship. Hopefully they will only be there a year! Speaking of my sisters, my little sister Jodie came up here this weekend since Justin was gone. Her and I played in a softball tournament which was a lot of fun. I am definately feeling it today though...But I was very happy when someone asked me if we were twins...that means that I still look 17!!! Its funny how when you are younger you always want to look older and then when you start getting older you want to look younger! When I told the team how old I was they were saying that they thought I was 19 or so...made my day!

Justin and I have been playing a TON of softball this year. Justin and I play on a coed team and then Justin plays on a men's team. It is a blast...when we win! Our teams are actually pretty good! I have also been picked up by a few other teams. Just this last week I played on Thursday, Friday and a tournament on Saturday so I was exhausted! I played a total of 6 games in 3 days and I hit my first tripple of the year (probably my only one to)! Anyhow, its been a great few months and hopefully in a few more weeks I will be able to get on here and write about how much I love our new house! Until then I will just work on doing better just writing something!

Visit these sites!!!!!

I am trying to post this link to my blog I hope you will all watch them and feel the spirit that they bring.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySyv1I2e9RE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVNYhcYEwIE

I especially love the "Come what may, & love it. How awesome is it to remember these things when we are going through hard times. There are plenty more of these on YouTube and they are all so uplifting!

HELP!

Okay, so I am trying to figure out how to add music to my blog and I cant do it! (I guess you could call me blogger stupid) Anyhow, if anyone has any advice that will help me out, let me know! Thanks!

On a different note to update you on Justin and I, well we are still here in Hilton Head, South Carolina. This has been a crazy week I originally thought we were going to be finished and head home on Tuesday...that didnt happen. Then we thought Wednesday, then Thursday, then Friday and now it is Saturday and we are STILL HERE! I love it here but I have had it in my head for the past 4 days that we are going home, so now I am ready to head home! I guess I shouldnt be too upset that we arent home yet because from what it sounds, Missouri is having some pretty nasty weather...dont worry its still in the 70's here! Anyhow, Justin and I have had such a great time here, this place truly is beautiful and the weather here just makes a person happy! But I am still ready to get home because that means that we get to start working on our apartment!!!! I am so excited for us to have a little place to call home that is NOT in his parents basement! Anyhow, I will update you on our progress of getting home and fixing up our place! Have a good day!

Lost and Found!

So I was looking through some old pictures and found some pictures of my bachelorette party! I know these pictures are almost a year old, however I couldn't help but want to post them! I am so excited that I found these pictures. It was such a FUN night. It consisted of my girl cousins, my little sister, and one of my best friends! We went to Chucky Cheese's and it was AWESOME!!!! Who would have thought that 7 grown girls would have so much fun at a kids place. It was definately one of the best times of my life! We probably spent $50 dollars and walked out of there with a $2 Chucky Cheese shirt just for me! We even danced in front of the big blue screen however we had to sit on our knees because it was not tall enough for us! Now that I have found the pictures, I will never forget what a great night that was! If you click on the photos in the collage they will get bigger so you can see the pictures better.

Sunday fun!

On Sundays after going to church and of course taking our Sunday nap, Justin and I always try to go outside and do something together. This normally involves either going on a bike ride or throwing the softball around on the beach or just going on a walk. This Sunday Justin and I decided we would find a park and go throw the softball around. We went to this park about 5 miles down the road and threw the softball around (we are playing in a coed league when we get back to Missouri so we are trying to throw it around every now and then so we dont totally blow at it!) After throwing the softball around we went for a walk around the park and of course we found the playground. Even though we are clearly too big for the playground we still played anyways. I mean seriously, who doesn't like to play on play grounds? So here are some pictures of our fun time together! If you look at the pictures you have to promise not to laugh at my orange hair! As I mentioned in a previous note, the orange was NOT PLANNED!!!! I am waiting to redo my hair professionally when I get back to Missouri! Also, the quality of these picutres is not very good. Justin was using the camera for some work things and turned the resolution down so the lowest so that he could upload the work pictures faster. I didnt realize what was wrong until AFTER I took all the pictures! OOPS!

On our way to the park...the shadow in this picture is really bad!

Justin catching a pop fly

Is it just me or does Justin look scared or something in this picture? He is probably already tired of me taking pictures!

I am not sure why he has the ball next to my head like that!

This is probably my favorite face...the first picture I took of him going across the monkey bars came out blurry so I told him he had to do it again and this is the face he gave me!

I am not sure why he wanted to try to get on the roof here. He climbed up there and then realized that the roof probably wasn't strong enough to hold him up!

I married a California boy...what can I say? Yes, my husband is surfing on the back of a plastic alligator!

We didnt have a basketball so he is dunking the camera case...good job Justin!

Yeah, thats right...I bet you didnt know that my name is high school was Linzi "air" Harris! Okay so maybe thats a lie, I might have just had Justin put me on his shoulders so that I could hang there till he took the pictures! I tried to look like I had just done an amazing dunk, however I look more like I am holding on for dear life and just about to fall!

Photo's on the GO!!!!

Running the 5K has made me realize that I can do it. So now I have a new goal, I want to run a 10K. So this week I have started training for this so that I can hopefully do it when we get back to Missouri. I like to run outside because I find it more interesting then running on a treadmill. So everyday I get to run outside and see all the of the beauties that this world has to offer so I thought I would share them with you as well. I decided to take my camera with me on my run and take pictures of anything that I found interesting or pretty and here is how it turned out.

This is from the balcony in my room (I know, its not on the run but its where I begin the journey!)

I saw this bird at the pond. he was perched up right in front of me. I snapped the picture right as he was leaving to swoop down and catch a fish and he caught it! The picture below is where he ended up.

This is the hammack I plan to lounge in when I get back!

This is a fountain in one of the ponds and those are real birds!

I thought of my dear friend Kelli Holman when I took this picture. She always takes pictures of flowers!

This is just a little river the runs under the path


Hilton Head, South Carolina is ALL about golfing. There are probably 50 golf courses just on the island! This is the one that I pass everyday here is the Shipyard Plantation.
This is pretty much what the whole trail looks like. There are trees everywhere which is great for running because you dont have the sun beaming down on you!

Another Kelli picture!

This is the round-about. Its seems like they have a lot of these instead of 4-way stops...its still pretty though!

What kind of run would this be if I didnt see the turtle family? I just love those little guys!

Every time I pass this pond, it makes me want to jump and and go swimming. It totally reminds me of the lake, the smell, the sun reflecting off the water, and the fish jumping! However, with the fear of aligators in there, I think I will just stick to running by it!

If I would have known about this bridge when I was taking my engagement pictures or my senior pictures, I SOOO would have taken them there. Its such a pretty and old looking bridge. I love it!

And last but not least, my absolute favorite part of the run is seeing the aligators. This is the pond next to where I turn around and I swer this alligator is the biggest one here! He is HUGE! I think he head is bigger then 1/2 of my body! I wish you could see him from the front. Sometimes he is facing the road but today he wasn't so this will have to do!

This is the point where I turn around in my run so everything I see from then on is the same as before. I just love the beauty of this place. I hope you enjoyed your tour of my run!

5K and alligators!!!!!!

So yesterday Justin and I ran our first 5K together. I was worried about running this because I hadn't trained hard enough and I hadnt ever ran 3.1 miles straight through without stopping. I wasnt going to run but changed my mind at the last minute. Of course, I didnt want to run all by myself so I asked Justin to do it with me. Being the good husband that he is, he agreed. So we woke up at 7:15 on Saturday morning and got ready to run! I set one goal for myself...I was NOT going to stop or walk till I crossed the finish line. I am proud to say that I accomplished this goal! Justin ran with me the whole way! We were so exhausted at the end but we did it! I am not going to lie, I was pretty upset that Justin could run it without stopping and not having any training! I work my butt of in the gym to work up to this and he can do it without any effort...its not fair----men!!!! Anyhow, it was awesome to cross the finish line with him. He helped me so much! He kept pushing me to go harder and faster and we ran it in 30 minutes and 20 seconds! I know that is not great because it means we averaged about 10 minutes per mile, but we still did it and we had so much fun doing it!

Being here in South Carolina has been such a great experience. While being here, I have learned that I have a facination for alligators! I love them (and stay far away from them)! On the road to get to the hotel, there are a few ponds and there are always alligators out sun bathing. I always forget my camera when I go on a walk but on the way home from church today I realized I had my camera in my purse! I was so excited when we passed the alligators and I FINALLY got a picture of one! I am posting the picture of the alligator and one of us after the 5K. Dont ask me why you can see people so close the alligator in the back ground. I was watching the alligator as the people got closer and closer and he kept slowly turning his head toward them and he was perched in the attack position. I was ready to flip my camera to the video recorder when he decided to attack! (just joking). I see the alligator every day and they are normally all calm and relaxed and just laying there with there head on the ground but not today! I dont know if people think that because they are in a pond close to the road that they are tamed or something? I dont get it...anyhow here are the pictures...enjoy!

Bad idea...and other random stuff

So I am writing this blog to discuss a serious issue with my hair. I decided to be a little "crazy" and dye my hair black. Well actually I picked a color that said "Brown/Black." I had heard that black hair was hard to get rid of so I was smart and made sure I didnt get a pure black color...at least I thought I was being smart! Anyhow, I loved my black hair for about the first two or three weeks but then my blondish/brown roots started growing in. So, naturally I did not want to have hair that was two toned so I decided that I had my fun with black hair and wanted to go back to my normal color. My first action was to dye it a dark brown and slowly work my way up getting lighter and lighter each time. I tried to color it a dark brown and absolutely nothing happened! The thought crossed my mind to go get it done professionally but I thought, "No, I want to save some money." So I went to the store and looked throught the bottles and found one that said "made for black hair." I was sure this time it was going to work. So I had Justin color it for me and guess what, it didnt work again!!!! I am a very determined person when it comes to things likes my hair, it has to be just right. So of course I thought I would try something else. I went to the store this time and decided to get a hair stripper. So I had Justin try this. This time it really did get rid of my black hair, however it left it ORANGE!!!!! So now that I had orange hair I was NOT going to give up. So I went to the store and picked out the most expensive kind of hair dye I could find and I bought a dark blonde color. So I had Terriann color it for me. She did a great job, but my hair is now blonde with a big hint of orange! On top of all of this, my hair is not looking very healthy anymore. So, moral of this store....DO NOT DIE YOUR HAIR BLACK! Also, my advice is that if you do something crazy to your hair, just go get it taken care of professionally. I am pretty sure I have spent about $50 on hair stuff over the past month and now I am going to have to spend at least another $50 to get it fixed.

On a happier note things here in Hilton Head are going great! Yesterday, Justin and I attended Stake Conference in Savannah, Georgia. After conference we were able to go to downtown Savannah and look at all the beautiful sites. It was SO PRETTY! Since it was Sunday all we were able to do was look but that was enough for us! We hope to make it back down there before we leave here. When we got home from church, we went on a bike ride down the trails, played softball on the beach, and cuddled on the hammack. It was an amazing day. If I could describe the perfect day, it would be yesterday! Also, I think I am going to be running my first 5K this weekend. I am really excited/nervous about it. My goal is to run the whole way and finish the race. I know I will not win it or anything but accomplishing my goal will be good enough for me! When I get my hair completely fixed, I will post some new pictures of us. I have been avoiding the camera for about the past month so that is why there arent any new pictures!

Homeless :(

Our First Place Together

About 2 weeks ago on a Wednesday, Justin and I found out that we needed to leave for Hilton Head, South Carolina. We were told that we needed to leave by Saturday. We were both excited until it hit us that we would have to pack up our beloved apartment and move out. Our lease for this apartment is up as of March 1st, and to save a little money so that we can buy our own house, Justin's parents have agreed to let us turn a barn that they have on their property into an apartment where we will be able to live for pretty cheap. This works out perfectly for us because we are hardly home anyways and it was pointless to pay rent to a place that we are hardly living at.

It was extremely hard to leave our apartment. We loved that place! Justin and I had painted it all cute and really made it a home. Packing in two days wasn't easy either. Thanks to the help of Terriann and Justin's parents we got it all done. Here is where it all gets hard...the barn has yet to be converted, so we packed all of our stuff up and now it is in storage at his parents. I dont even know where half of it is!

I am going to make it very clear that I am SOOOO thankful for Justin's parents for letting us live in their basement till the apartment is finished and even more grateful that they are providing us with the apartment, however I am so sad to be leaving our "home." After Justin and I set up our bed in their basement I cried for a few minutes because I am really going to miss our apartment. It was the first place Justin and I lived in as a married couple. I am even going to miss the old lady below us that would pound on the ceiling if we were walking to heavy. Anyhow, I cant wait for apartment to be finished and hopefully we will be able to make it home for us and create many new memories, but for now, we are homeless.