More Recordings

I have posted a couple more songs on yourldsneighborhood.com under the inspirational and show tunes categories. In the inspirational is called One Voice. The one under the Show tunes is called On my own. If you get a chance listen to them and let me know what you think.

Halloween 2008

Well, we had our first Halloween together as a married couple. Last Halloween, Jen and I were just dating (weird). The picture of me as a pumpkin was actually Jen's old costume she used to wear growing up. Jen is totally obsessed with Halloween! She was so cute in her Snow White outfit. I decided to save money and make my Dopey costume and I have to admit...it was pretty dang sweet! =) Jen and I bought Halloween decorations (per her request) to make sure our home was festive. She even bought a Halloween calendar where I consistently saw her changing the marker to the next day. She couldn't wait till Halloween!

Recordings

My sister and I have been to a recording studio in provo and have recorded a couple of songs. So far there are only two of us together singing and one of her. The two songs the we are both singing are called still believe and angel. The one of her is called when all is said and done. They have been posted on a site called www.yourldsneighborhood.com go to the music building then click on jukebox. go to the insperational section and look for melissa nielsen. The more you view and rate us we will be able to be on a cd at the end of the year. I will be going back in a couple of weeks to record some solo songs and post them under my name Jennifer Nichols. This is something my sister and I have been working towards forever it seems. We love to sing more than anything. So check it out and please tell me what you think. I would like to know if we are not that good, then maybe I should take down the songs and save us the embarassement :-) lol! I really would love to hear what you all think though for real. I hope you enjoy them.

An Unexpected Change

So I haven't really been liking my job. It has turned out to be just as stressful as the other. I took a major pay cut taking this job and so I needed to find something that would pay more since dave would be leaving his job soon to do an internship. I had planned to tell my supervisor this when she came to me and told me that she and steve(my boss)thought I was great and they really wanted me to think about taking the position of office manager. They would pay me three more dollars an hour. So I talked with dave about it and did some praying plus talking to the girl who already has the job about what type of things I would be doing. I already liked the sound of it because I wouldn't be at the front desk, except for helping out here and there when needed.
Dave and I thought it woul be best if I took the job. So now I have been promoted to office manager after only 2 months of working there. This couldn't have come at a better time. I'm so greatful that the Lord is mindful of us and knows what is best for us.

changes

Dave and I moved from Pleasant Grove to South Jordan at the end of July. Along with that I started a new job and Dave started school. Though I was rather excited to leave my last job I fear that this job may be more stressful than my last job. I have more and more things to learn everyday. I am a medical receptionist at comprehensive psychological services. Pretty much I went from being the boss to knowing nothing at all. I was nervous and feeling really inadequate. The time goes by so fast because I am always answering phones, doing things for the doctors, handeling issues with clients, solving problems, faxing, filing. Oh well I'd rather be busy being physically stressed than emotionally stressed. at least my headaches are gone....for now :-) but now I'm beginning to have back aches. Dave is so sweet to rub my back for me every night when I get home. I know he has his own worries. Dave started school last Friday and had to learn the Trax schedule so he could take it to school and he works in orem still. Dave is going to be working really hard these next couple of years I hope that I can help him out as much as he has helped me when I was going to school and working. I fear we will be seeing less of each other than we already do right now. When he comes home on the days he's not at school all day he waits for me to come home. I'm so tired when I come home I eat, kiss him, try to get in some good reading and then go to sleep. Then when he's at school all day he comes home and I'm already asleep. So that's what's been going on so far. I sound like I'm complaining but really I feel so blessed. I have a wonderful husband and we have a good place to live and we are both working. Life is good. Just busy most of the time.

Yellowstone Fun

This 4th of July we went to Yellowstone. I was really excited to go with Dave because Dave had never been. We got there early and as we were driving through the park we got out and took some pictures with a couple of buffalo. Dave got so excited....he really likes buffalo apparently. He ran around trying to get a closer look. Later we found out that we were to stay at least 25 yards away from the buffalo. Oh well at least we got a good picture.

Weekend Fun!

Dave and I went for a quick little hike over the weekend and loved every minute of it! We are going to try and do more stuff like this before the summer ends and he has to go to school. The hike was so much fun. It was a hot day but their were lots of trees to cover our trail and at the top was a beautiful waterfall. So of course Dave and I got in it. It was perfect because we were wet for the hike down and it kept us cool all the way down. Tomorrow we are leaving for Idaho to visit Jenny and Chris and then its off to yellowstone. Dave has never been so I am way excited about it.

After trials come the blessings.

It's been a while I know but now we are finally catching up. It's been an interesting month. Dave and I have been wanting to have a little puppy since we got married but Dave is allergic so we had to look for small ones that were hypo-allergenic. We found out a friend had a litter of shih tzu/poodle/yorkies that had hair instead of fur. We chose the smallest,cutest one of the litter and called her Ellie. We had her for 3 weeks and had lots of fun with the carpet cleaner! After a week we found out she started having seizures so we took her into the vet to get her checked out. We found out that she had an abnormally large soft spot on her head. Her skull was not completely formed and the vet said that it may never close up over the brain. She said our puppy had special needs and we needed to be careful with her so she didn't hit her head on everything. A week after that she started screaming through the night and having neck spasms making it so she could not move her neck at all. She cried throughout the night making it hard for Dave or I to get any sleep. We took her into the vet the first thing in the morning and she was treated for half the day. After x-rays and tests there were no conclusions found. After Dave asked the vet if she would be in pain most of her life the vet finally admitted that she would always be in pain because of the amount of water in her brain due to her condition known as hydrocephalus. We made the difficult decision to put her down to stop her from experiencing anymore pain. Even though we only had her for 3 weeks she became a part of our family quickly and we loved her for as long as we had her.

We were sad for a week but luckily some good news came shortly thereafter. We have been searching for places to live to be closer to salt lake so Dave can go to the University of Utah. After much searching and praying we were offered to stay in my grandmother's basement apartment almost for free while dave attended school. We will be helping with the utilities. We feel really blessed to be able to have this opportunity to save more money and pay off some of our debt while attending school. We are both grateful to have such wonderful support from both sides of our family. We will always be grateful for you and everything you have done for us. Thank you and we love you.

Dang Jobs

So I decided to finally write for the first time on our blog. Jen is better about writing. Things have been so hectic lately. Jen and I work practically all day sometimes and it seems like we barely see each other until the weekend. She can't wait to quit her job so she can just focus on school and be able to see her husband more. Unfortunately, we both are in the field of social work so quiting her job doesn't seem like even an option at this point. Why the heck don't we get paid jack-squat for doing the most important work there is? Oh well, luckily dad showed me how to work two or three jobs to support a family. Hopefully it won't come to that but we'll survive! =) Life is actually really great right now. I was accepted to the University of Denver and given a really good scholarship. Now I'm just waiting to hear back from the University of Utah before I make a decision where I'm going to attend. The Lord has blessed us a lot and it seems like the blessings keep coming even though the trials are always there to compete!

getting worn out.

Dave has been sick for the past few days and as I woke up this morning...running late for work :-( I discovered that I may be getting sick as well. You know I discovered something. I don't know what is going on but before I got married I never use to get sick but since I've been married I've been sick a couple times. I ache all over and I feel a sore throat coming on. I'm so tired because it's hard to sleep when your husband is coughing all night and I'm going to the bathroom every hour. I plan on going to the doctor soon and find out why I've been getting so many headaches. I get one every evening it seems. Maybe my body is just trying to tell me to slow down. I've been working and going to school so maybe that's taking it's toll but oh well. Dave is meeting me at work this morning to help me get my car fixed.
I went to go fill it up with gas yesterday, because it is completely empty, and the gas door thing wouldn't open. So I had to drive the company car home last night. It's beginning to be a great week so far. But I'm optimistic and I know that things will turn around.

Back to school

So I took some time off of school for my honeymoon. I started my first class back last night. Legal and Ethical issues in Professional Counseling. Oh my gosh! This class is going to be a lot of work. Next week I have a 5-10 page paper due on comparing and contrasting the ACA code of counseling with another code. I take a new class every six weeks so my classes are pretty intense anyway but at least there is some breathing room. But this class doesn't really leave me any room to breath. Week 3 I have a role play presentation, and a mid term, There are many other things due throughout my six weeks of this class. Lots and lots of reading, research and time spent with my group outside of class. As we were going through the syllabus last night my teacher said to the class. I know it's a lot of work but you're in grad school, that's what you paid for right? I hate it when they say that to us because the reason we are all at the university of phoenix is because we all have at least one full time job, kids...well not me but the majority of my class, and other stuff going on. So yes we are all busy. So don't say to me hey you're in grad school you can handle it. I might sock you in the stomach.

wedding pictures...how long does it take?

As I was scrolling through my friends on facebook I ran across a couple of my friends that just got married february 16th. They already have their pictures posted. Dave and I are anxiously waiting to see what ours even look like. I mean come on it's taking forever. I have an appointment to go and look at them tomorrow and pic out the ones that we want in our wedding book. Then putting them in the book will probably take another week. How long is this going to take? I just want my wedding pictures. Am I being to overdramatic about this? maybe but I just want to see them for crying out loud. Hopefully I will have some to post on here soon. I would also like to announce that Dave got accepted to BYU for the Masters of Social Work program. We are both very excited but nothing final has been decided yet. We are still waiting to hear from the other schools that Dave has applied to.

Hello

Dave has been telling me for a while that we should have a blog. I finally started to get my butt in gear and start one. I just hope that I have enough time keep it up. Dave and I have been married for almost a month now. Man how time flies. We are loving every second of it. We both decided that being single sucked and that we are never going to break up. I guess it's a good thing we were sealed for time and all eternity then huh? So here is our little blog I guess only time will tell how good we are at this. I'll try my best to keep you all posted.
love
Jen