Words of Wisdom

Now that we have everything done on our end for the house, I've had quite a bit of free time. So I decided to go out exploring and actually stop places! I'd just been driving around looking for places to check out later, so today I actually checked them out!

I picked a road and just started driving. Pretty soon I was leaving the city, and headed towards the open desert. I was surprised to see a lot of traffic on this 2 lane highway, so I decided to keep driving until I found out what was on the other side of the hills. After driving and driving and driving (swerving to miss more roadkill than I thought was normal) I finally found an area to pull off without the possibility of being side swiped. Out here, it was just hill after hill, all covered in desert brush, nothing else to see. I got out of the car and wham! The smell of the desert, real desert, not like in the city, hit me and I was in awe. I didn't realize how much I had missed that smell. Sure, Cedar is kind of high desert-y, but this was like home. I just sat there for a few minutes and soaked it in. I shot this picture with my phone to commemorate the moment :) I was pretty happy.

Then my stomach started grumbling, I didn't have the stamina to find out what was 10 miles down the road, I'll check on Google maps ha! So I headed back into town for some eats. I'd seen a little shop that looked like it would be a cute lunch place one night when we were at Machi's (the restaurant next door). But I thought it was abandoned because it looked like half of the sign was missing and there are a lot of abandoned businesses around there. But I still wanted to check it out. So, here is my new favorite lunch place: Donuts N More. See? only half the sign haha but they had an open sign and I saw some people milling about inside so I decided to check it out.

And I'm so glad I did! They have AMAZING donuts, AMAZING homemade bread on AMAZING sandwhiches :) Just goes to show that some of the best places to eat look like abandoned buildings! So I took my lunch and headed to the park. Here is my picnic gear: My trusty jean blanket that my wonderful Mother made for my husband and I (which I always keep in my car so I can have spur of the moment picnics any time I want); my camera for people watching, and moment capturing; my sketchbook and pencils, for all those crazy thoughts going through my head; a delectable glazed coconut covered cake donut, and a homemade sourdough club sandwich. The only thing missing from this perfect picnic was Jared but I can't help it if I make spontaneous picnic plans with my blanket in the middle of the day.

The thing about parks in Elko- there are a lot of bums here. I mean, a lot. Apparently there are always bums at the Railroad Park- it has an engine and car off of an old train and a bunch of grass around it. I have yet to photograph this park because there are always creepy homeless guys there and although I don't mean to be judgmental, a lot of muggings happen there so I won't go near it alone. But anyways, when I went for my picnic there was only one bum hanging around and it's a really open park surrounded by busy streets so I felt alright. Although at one point, this kid came from out of nowhere and started walking toward me, seriously out of a huge park he walked past me with about a 2 foot distance. When he got closer though, I realized he couldn't have been older than 12 and was smoking. Really though. It was sad. I think I'm a little over paranoid here because it's new haha it should wear off right?

Here I am with my sandwich. I know I know, enough about the sandwich, but it was amazing. Look at how thick that bread is? And it was so soft and yummy! And the bacon was just crispy enough for crunch but not burnt and charcoal tasting. Ya I think I fell in love with a sandwich. "I feel like I just found out my favorite love song was written about a sandwich" Ha, isn't that how the quote goes?

This is turning into a long post but today was actually very eventful so I have a lot to say. After my awesome picnic I went driving and decided to stop at the dollar store to see if they had cheap wooden pencils so I wasn't using my sketching pencils for writing- I've begun writing in my sketchbook as a journal and writing in pencil, not pen. For anyone who knows me very well, this is odd that I am preferring pencils over pen. I guess I just want to erase my mistakes :) In the parking lot outside of the store I saw a Romney Ryan bus! I didn't know who was going to be speaking so I went into the store to ask the cashier. She said it was one of Mitt's sons, so I decided to stay and listen. Here is a picture of Josh Romney:

It was a great speech! He had two of his sons with him, and he talked a lot about family and more about the personality of his Dad than the politics. Other people spoke about the politics though, but we were all just cheering like crazy. I can't wait to see how this election turns out!

After today, I remembered some words of wisdom a lady told me when I was out wandering the city, and I really think it's true, not just about Elko, but about anywhere. I can either love it or hate it here, but it's my choice. I won't forget this lady's advice:

And yes, those are my moccasins again, sorry for the all the shoe pictures but my face always takes up a whole picture and I don't need that many pictures with my face in it. I have a mirror.

Have any of you ever had interesting experiences moving to a new town? Learning how people work there? Learning what parts of the city to avoid, and where's the best to eat? I'd love to hear about them!

We Bought A House!

This is our, "We just signed an offer on a house!" look. We celebrated at Winger's afterwards. Haha I know, signing an offer isn't much cause for celebration but it was a big step for us first time home buyers! It said that we finally found the house we want and we are dedicated to it now. Eek! Nervous and exciting feelings all around, but it was a happy night!

And this is us in our house! Well, we have signed an accepted offer and the house is ours as long as everything checks out well in the house. Which it should because it looks like it's been taken really good care of. We're sooooo excited! We still have to wait for the loan to all get sorted out, but soon we will a place of our very own!

Here is our beauty! Isn't it amazing? Sorry, my care kind of obstructs the view of the house but we think it's gorgeous! We couldn't be happier! It's a 5 bed 3 bath so we can definitely grow into it. We seriously can't contain our excitement! Yay! And we're finally starting to feel grown up haha it's about time! Thanks for sharing in our joy!!

P.S. Wouldn't that front door look amazing in bright yellow? Or a classic red? Or keep the wood? I'm conflicted, any thoughts?

A Few Pictures

Took some time out today to relax in the park and take pictures. It's cooling down quite a bit but still nice enough for wandering around! Jared got off work early today so we got to spend extra time together! The week is starting out great and I feel like it's all going to keep getting better! Hope you're all having a great day!

Wandering Elko

I went exploring Elko today! I thought I'd share some photos of some of the places we've been so far.

Biltoki is a Basque restaurant that we ate at with some friends last week. Basque dining is interesting. It's 'family style' but each person picks their entree. So it begins with bread and butter, then they bring out a salad with what tastes like mayonnaise dressing :/ it's weird haha. Next they fill the table with bowls of spaghetti, beans, french fries, canned peas and carrots, and mashed potatoes. Maybe it was just this restaurant but it was all pretty tasteless and mushy... Then came the entree that we all ordered. Jared and I order lamb (I'd never had it and don't like the idea of eating a baby anything... but heck, I'll try it once). It was supposed to be well done and it was bloody mushy haha so Jared ate it. It was kind of the most hilarious meal I'd ever eaten! Fun times with friends though :)

This is our post office. Gorgeous building right?! I love walking in here, so I go at least every other day, even though we don't get that much mail haha It's just so pretty!

 I found this building today and am so glad I did! Apparently this is the #1 place to go in America for cowboy poetry and therefore, they get thousands of poets, writers, and artists through here sharing their work and having shows. I'm so excited! I was so nervous about moving here because I would miss the artsy feel of Cedar City. But luckily there is a lot of it here too! Yay! I talked to Deb there and she gave me a tour of the place. There are a lot of awesome products in their gift shop! It's a really neat place!

This is the theatre we go to most. There are two movie theatres here and this one is the older one but ironically it shows all the newer movies. It's a cute little theatre and we got to see a couple movies where we were the only ones there! <Yes, we saw Pitch Perfect. And yes, we were alone. And yes, we laughed so loud the people in the next theatre could probably hear us! Such a good movie.>

My walk was really fun, and I only covered 2 city blocks! It's going to take me awhile to get acquainted with the whole town but we'll be here for a while so I'm looking forward to it!

Busy Busy!

I feel like I've been so busy lately, but when I look back on my day, I didn't really accomplish anything huge... I do get all the things done that need to be taken care of so at least I have that!

We are putting an offer down on a house today!! Or tomorrow... depending on schedules. We are soooo excited! In some ways, we feel like we haven't been looking very long (only a month or so), but we have walked through at least 25 houses! And we absolutely adore this one! You want to know the greatest part? We could move in and not have to do anything! There are no absolute renovations or things to be fixed. Yes, we want to remodel the kitchen and change the downstairs ceiling. But other than that, it's perfect. We're so stoked!

It is kind of scary though. It's a huge commitment to a house, a neighborhood, a lifestyle, and there's no going back. Well, I guess in like 10 years we could sell it and move somewhere else but you know what I mean. We really love this house though, and the neighborhood. Aw it's just so exciting!

We've been waiting for things to come together in our life before we even started thinking about kids, but that dream is slowly becoming a reality and 2013 might just be our year :) We'll see though haha it's just so exciting to finally feel our age and get to move on with our lives, away from college life! It is snowing already here! gasp! I know! But that's ok, once we have a cozy home it'll feel just wonderful :)

Here are some pictures I've taken over the last week or so. It's been fun exploring this new city and eating at new places. I haven't taken many food pictures because 1) most of the restaurants we've been to have really dim lighting, why is that? and 2) I've only liked a couple things I've eaten! I have decided that Basque food is just not for me. It is so bland! But I'll talk on that more in another post.

My super warm snowy day outfit :) 

Yes, I am an Elko County Library card holder, big whoop, wanna fight about it?

Walking in the crunchiness of our possible future back yard

I'll post one of the house when it's more final, because there are all sorts of things that go on when buying a house apparently. I'm so green to this it's ridiculous! But fun at the same time! Well, that's my update! I'd love to hear from anyone who reads this. I'll be posting more now that I have something exciting to write about! Yay! Have a splendid day!

Fall has hit Elko!

I love the fall season! The air starts getting crisp, the sweaters come out of storage, everything is made of pumpkins and I get to snuggle my hubby more and more! It's such a happy time for me! Especially since we met in October (5 years ago) so it always brings up those happy memories :) Anyways, we have officially moved to Elko! It's exciting, liberating, weird and scary all at the same time! The hubs is loving his new job and it couldn't make me happier! 

We are looking at buying a house so we are currently living in a hotel room. Right? I was pretty nervous about it before we got here but it's actually bigger than the first apartment Mr. Tanner and I had! It's only been a few days but I am beginning to get used to hearing cars revving up outside our window at all hours of the day, and night. It's great to have a place to stay while we find a house though, so we're grateful.

I've been having grand dreams of designing my own stationary, writing a children's book, doing fine art photography, basically just stretching the 'ole creativity muscle. But I've been in school so long, doing projects where I had an assignment to fill, that I am having a hard time creating whatever I want. I'm waiting for someone to tell me what to draw, design, photograph, write etc. It's frustrating! Has anyone else encountered this after graduating from college?

This post is a little random, I'm still getting in Elko's groove so it should be interesting!I'll post soon with my explorations of my new city! And I'm sure it will be filled with Basque food, apparently there is a whole Basque culture here, who knew?!

Have a splendid day!