Our Other "Pet"

This is our other not-so-nice, not-so-cute, don't-want-to-pet-it-or-even-look-at-it, sorta pet. It has no name because it doesn't deserve one and no gender because I'm not getting close enough to check. This is A Hobo Spider. I say A instead of THE because just now I saw 4 in the yard. This is the only one I got on video. Scratch that...I just looked out the window and saw another one, I'm going to get in on video too.
Anyway....For those of you who have never heard of a Hobo Spider let me tell you a little bit about them, besides the fact that they are a spider....They are huge, ok maybe not like a triancula huge but still pretty big. I'd say the average size if you were to draw a circle around one would be like a quarter. They are either a brown or gray color and have a sort of stripe down their back. And the worst feature of all, in my opinion, is they have buggy eyes, or what look like eyes but really they say that hobo spiders can't see very well so they will often run towards you before they run away from you. VERY SCARY!!!
Also, it can be very bad if they bite you. They say that they only inject venem 50% of the time but I still don't want to be in that 50%. Most people have heard of Brown Recluse....Hobo Spider's bites are pretty close to that. You can get a big ugly blister like thing from it that I'd imagine hurts pretty bad and it can take anywhere from 1 month to 3 years to heal depending on how bad it is. If you want more info here is awebsite I would recommend looking at...http://hobospider.com/info/index.html.

And now the videos...

Our New Pet

As some of you may remember when we first moved into our house we found out we had a snake living in our back yard. This year we've seen at least 3 snakes (a mommy, daddy and a baby) and found out they live under the house. The other day we were fortunate enough to find one sun bathing and got some pictures before Jake scared it back under the house (he tried to pick it up). Because you can't really tell in the picture I thought I should let you know this snake is probably about 18 in. long and maybe an inch thick. The baby snake is only about 1/4 in. thick and maybe 6 in. long. You might be surprised to know I love snakes so I was very excited to see the ones I've seen and excited to now have a picture to share with you all. P.S. His (i hope this is the boy) name is George, Jake named him. I decided that the mommy snake will be Georgina and the baby is Georgie. Yes, that's right, George, Georgina, and Georgie. :)

Jake is now 28!!

Jake's Birthday was on Aug 24. For his birthday I took a teddy bear holding balloons and a card to his work that day. That evening we went with my family (my dad & cece and the kids and aunt suzette and her kids) to a very yummy restaurant in SLC called the Asian Star. If you haven't been there I recommend you go! You will love it! We had a really good time being with family and eating food :). On Tuesday we got together with some friends and family and went out to eat at the Olive Garden. Afterwards we went to Trafalga for a little mini golf, go carts, and arcade games. It was a blast. Afterward we were going to eat cake but everyone ended up leaving at different times and I guess we were having so much fun we just forgot about it. However, it was specially made for Jake by one of my good friends and I figured since no one got to see the cake but us I should post some pictures. I think she did an awesome job!

Piano

As most of you know, Jake bought me a piano for Christmas. A very old piano. He had to wait until the weather warmed up and then he stripped it and refinished it. It has been done for awhile but since we didn't have internet when it got finished I couldn't post about it and forgot until now. Here are some pictures of the beautiful job he did. I just love it. I'm not sure how old it is but our guess is that it was made in the early 1900's. It could be around 100 years old! And it plays beautifully. The seat still needs to be recovered but I just found the fabric I wanted and will be doing that this week. (You should have seen the 4 layers of fabric we pulled off...it was like looking back in time and you could tell exactly which time period each of the previous fabric's came from.) The top is glass so that you can see the strings and everything inside. It is very unique and it makes it look so antique. I love it. I also thought I should put up some pictures of our 100% finished fire place. I put pictures up from right when it got done but now it is all decorated and everything and looks even better.

Bear Lake

Recently Jake and I got to take a trip up to bear lake with Bobby and Emily and Emily's family. It was a blast! We spent a lot of time on the lake. Here are a few videos and pictures I thought I'd share...

Emily, Debbie, and Carly getting ready to take off on the banana.

Buddy enjoying the wave runner/water bike/sea doo/ whatever you want to call it.
Jake the boat driver.

The "oh, so wonderful BARREL ROLL!" (by Bobby)

I have a video of Emily, Debbie, and Carly going for a ride on the banana only it is really long and taking a long time to upload so I will have to put it on later.

Alyssa's First Time Wake Boarding

That's right, after 2 years of being married to someone who loves the water and most of all wake boarding in it I finally had by big debute. I'm surprised it didn't come sooner with the amount of times we go to the lake. I do have a fear of water and Jake is very good not to push me to do things until I'm ready. He was very patient with me. I was very nervous and my ride didn't last long but I did manage to get up on my first try! Here is the video...watch carefully- it's over in about 2 seconds. Maybe next time we go out I can have a longer ride.

2 years - already!

Well, believe it or not it has been 2 years since that wonderful day when Jake and I got married. 2 years! I can hardly believe it. Time really does fly when you're havin' fun! And it's been a blast! I can't wait to see what the future brings and I hope that they are just as great as the past two years, if not better! I feel SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooo super duper lucky to have Jake. I couldn't have dreamed up a better man. Cohoon's-thank you soo much for not only raising this wonderful guy but also letting me have him and be a part of your family. I'm happier than I have ever been, and that's the truth.

It's amazing to think that after two years I'm still telling people that "we have yet to have our 'big fight'". (and let's hope it never does happen). Jake is so patient and understanding and never does anything to upset me if he can help it. (besides tickling me until i want to cry-grr) We have already made so many memories together- vacations, time with family, our date nights, just hanging out, fixing up our house, getting sealed, etc. I just love it, every minute of it!

I think one of the biggest things I am thankful for when it comes to being married to Jake is how much he has strengthened my testimony. (I know that the past two fast sunday's I've had that nagging 'get up and bear your testimony' feelings...and yet, I just can't do it. Too much stage fright I guess. So maybe I'll post it on here, no stage fright and knowing that my family and friends will be the ones that hear it is comforting.)

I grew up going in the church, going to church, all that fun stuff...but I never really thought about my testimony a lot. I just always knew the church was true. And I thought that's all a testimony was about, knowing the church was true. Well, in the past few months I've realized that sometimes having a testimony about something in the church helps you to realize why you know the church is true. For me that something is the priesthood. I grew up a little different than most people that grow up in the church. I didn't always have someone in my house to give me priesthood blessings and use the priesthood power like they teach in church. So although I had been giving priesthood blessings I never really had that much of a testimony about it.

I love love LOVE that Jake is a priesthood holder. As many of you may recall I had an allergic reaction (we think) to the birth control I was on only a week after Jake and I got married. In that situation the first thing Jake did was get his mom (a nurse), as soon as she said I should be taken to the ER I started freaking out even more (I am VERY afraid of hospitals, needles, etc.)

Next thing I knew Jake and his dad were getting ready to give me a blessing. While I was screaming in pain (or so I was told, I don't remember) Dave and Jake gave me the blessing. We got to the ER and I don't remember the needle hurting when they put it in my arm, I wasn't scared of whatever the doctors were going to do to me or anything.

After running the blood tests we found out that I had pancreasitis (spell check). And the weird thing...I wasn't in any more pain, at all. And when you have pancreasitis protocol is that they put you in the hospital with an IV because of the pain and you aren't allowed to eat or drink for like 3 days. And I was fine. The doctor didn't know what to do, and didn't know why I wasn't in anymore pain. Jake just smiled and whispered "priesthood blessing" in my ear. It was such a comforting thought.

After that we spent a lot of time in the hospital my mom and his dad who were in and out for awhile. During that time my testimony grew even more, every time he or his brothers gave his dad a blessing or he and my step dad gave my mom a blessing. It grows every time Jake says something that I would expect a priesthood holder to say. A priesthood holder that I know will be there to bless my children and keep the church as an important part of our household. Seeing Bobby bless Landon recently was amazing and sort of gave me a preview of what it will be like, and the spirit I'll be able to feel when we have children.

Not only has my testimony about priesthood grown but also my testimony about temples. Growing up not being sealed to anyone brought a lot of mixed feelings for my testimony. At first it was "I have to marry in the temple because I'm not sealed to anyone and i need to be" and then later "i don't know what the importance of being sealed is because I'm not sealed to anyone, so does it really matter?" And the closer Jake and I got to being sealed in the temple the more I realized how important it really is and how important temples are. The greatest feeling in the world is being sealed to Jake. Not only to know that he is there, forever, no matter what, but also to know that I get to be sealed to his wonderful, my wonderful family as well.

I thank Jake all the time for "saving" me. For finding me when I needed him the most. Because I know that if Heavenly Father wouldn't have put him right in front of me at that very moment and if Jake wouldn't have been so persistent in being with me, I would be in a very dark place in life. No one but me can or will ever understand how important Jake really is to me and how thankful I am for every little thing he does for me. I am so thankful that I got to marry a return missionary who holds the priesthood, would do anything in the world for me, and most of all loves me soo much!