june: in review

summer is here! I love summer & the happiness it brings. despite the hot hot hot weather & humidity we have here in missouri, it is so nice to be outdoors...however we do have our weekly thunderstorms of course. so, what have the terry's been up to lately?

1. HOUSE
We've been very very busy with the home buying process! at the beginning of the month, we put down two offers on two really great houses.

house one:
-brand new construction
-split level
3 bed, 2 bath
-vacant
-in O'Fallon
-great location
-nice backyard with shed
-awesome kitchen with nice floors
-awesome living space
-unfinished (small) walk-out basement
-small rooms, small closet space
-small master bath
-2 car garage
-no deck
-potential for kitchen additions

house two:
-29 years old
-split level
-3 bed, 2.5 bath
-vacant, bank owned
-sold "as is"
-awesome location
-AMAZING backyard (fenced in, shady trees, leveled, shed)
-all new kitchen (except nasty fridge)
-awesome planters on the deck & in the front yard
-awesome deck with stairs to yard
-big finished basement with half bath, laundry room, fireplace
-2 car garage with work counters
-good sized rooms
-gross bathrooms but we will renovate
-bigger master bath (nasty shower, awesome counter space, walk in closet)
-2 hallway closets (one of them is really big)
-great space for our big kitchen table
-potential for kitchen additions

so, we heard back from the seller of house one but he was stingy & was asking for way too much. we felt hopeful about house two because it was more promising & we knew we could stay there for several years because of the size. we continued on with house two & as of now, we are in contract to buy it & we are scheduled to close on August 1st! we just had inspections done this past week & we have been busy figuring our our expenses to buy the house & to do the necessary renovations (the roof needs work, the showers need to be updated).

we cannot wait to own a house! we are so excited to have a two car garage & a basement to protect us from the crazy weather here. We are also excited to do DIY home improvement. The yard is to die for!

I don't want to post too many pictures of the house just yet. I guess you will just have to wait & see!

we will have a house just in time for our first anniversary! originally we had wanted to wait till our lease was over in January but we wanted to jump in on the low mortgage rates before they went up! everything is looking good so far & july will be our last month in this apartment. we've loved living here & have had a great experience so far though.

so, anyone wanna help us move? :) august 6th!

2. Gateway Arch
We went to the gateway arch this month! it was austin's first time. the first time I went was 3 years ago when my mom, sisters, cousins & aunts took a girls trip to st. louis to head up to nauvoo for the pageant.

anyways, it was a beautiful day. we had just finished helping our friends move into their house & we decided to visit the arch afterwards. it took us awhile to find parking but after we finally go there, we got our tickets, looked around the museum & then watched a movie about how the arch was made. it was a really interesting documentary & we enjoyed it. it was finally time to head up to the top of the arch afterwards. i love the cool pods that you get to ride up in even though they are cramped & you usually have to share it with some random strangers.

the arch

 austin touching the arch

 austin was checking out the welds...typical engineer :)

mini model

awesome picture of when the last piece was installed

the door to our pod

inside the pod

view from the top

busch stadium

looking down from the top

mississippi river with a view of illinois

a series of awkward pictures of the arch. its impossible to get it all in one picture when you're right by it

the grand staircase

got this from the website :) lol

3. St. Louis Temple
we make at least one temple trip a month but this june, we got to go twice. the temple is wonderful here! it is pretty close by & I can always plan on seeing someone I know from our ward there. it is a special feeling seeing familiar faces in the temple. I imagine that that feeling will be quite like what heaven will be. I always enjoy our trips to the temple & getting to participate in such an important work & service.

4. Father's Day

my first father's day away from my family. I am a true daddy's girl. I am so grateful for his influence in my life & all that he has done for me. he is the ultimate example of hard work, sacrifice, love, & care. he has always looked out for me & taken care of me whenever I needed help. ever since I was a kid, he would always make sure I had a jacket & would make me soup & take care of me when I was sick. when I was at BYU-I he would call & leave me messages just because he wanted to say hi & tell me that he missed me. I am so grateful for such a wonderful father.

my dad is so awesome! working at southwest airlines...got to transport some Sea World penguins

made this cute card for my dad

daddy's girl

5. Operation

austin had a minor operation this month & all went well! he loved being drugged up & it was pretty funny to watch him wake up & come out of it.

my cute husband!

well, by the time I reflect upon this next month, austin & I will just about be moving into our new home  as long as everything goes as planned! can't wait to be homeowners & can't wait for the coming adventures ahead!

may: in review

Can't believe we've been living in Missouri for 5 months now! Its been great so far and we really enjoy living here. As we start a new month today, I want to reflect on some fun things Austin & I have been up to in the month of May.

This month has actually seemed very long! Remembering some things we did at the beginning of the month feels like forever ago but May has been a month of awesome things.

1. oatmeal squares

We are in love with this cereal! We have tried all of the different kinds & have not been afraid to pick up 3 boxes at a time when we go to the grocery store because we eat it up real fast. Funny thing is that we haven't had this cereal for a two weeks or so because we are slowing phasing out of grains & sugar so we can try the paleo diet for a few weeks. And I mean reeeeally slow...as you can tell by below...

2. thai food...actually, all kinds of food.

pad thai

chicken fajitas

 homemade mac & cheese

 DELICIOUS carmel ice cream from Walmart

 coconut lime ice cream

 homemade vanilla ice cream made with almond milk & coconut sugar

As I have said before, we love cooking together. We love trying new recipes. We are slowly but surely getting ride of our grains & sugars but we cannot resist certain food like ice cream & pasta. These are just a few dishes we've enjoyed this month. We have also enjoyed sharing our favorite dishes with friends. We went over to Austin's co-workers' home to teach him & his wife how we make thai chicken curry. Also, we have found a new favorite food...spaghetti squash! It is so yummy & so easy to cook with.

3. hot weather, humidity, thunderstorms, tornadoes, craziness...

The midwest is ridiculous! We've all sorts of crazy weather this past month. Once nice thing is that we have been getting some nice hot weather with no exception to humidity. We've been able to wear shorts now!! Its great. I have officially moved my jeans to the upper shelf in my closet for the summer. We are appreciating the warmer weather so we can actually do fun activities outside! Despite all that, we still get thunderstorms at least once a week. Austin & I like to watch the lightning from our living room.

I went to a fred pryor customer service seminar in downtown st. louis for work. on our lunch break, I walked down to the closest st. louis bread co. (aka panera). I got lost on the way but I ended up at this beautiful sight!

one saturday, austin & I went to downtown st. charles & we came across this lewis & clark festival at the katy trail park. It was pretty neat! we walked around & looked at some of the booths that had cool stuff.

like this eagle head slingshot

you can see some wooden bows on the right

a group of men were playing time period music under this little tent in the back

the same day as my seminar downtown, we also went to our first st. louis cardinals game! it was a lot of fun staying downtown all day. I parked and walked to the stadium to wait for austin & his co-worker, glynn, to meet me for the game.

it was super sunny & hot! can't complain about our seats though because we got them for $12!

we got our cardinals shirts from plato's closet for real low cheap.

the cardinals played the new york mets & obviously won :) it was a great game! cardinals fans are dedicated! the stadium was packed.

 while we were driving just two days ago, i took a picture of the clouds. the sky look pretty cool that day!

To top of the month of May's crazy weather, we ended on May 31st with a dangerous thunderstorm & possible tornado. See all the details here: http://fox2now.com/2013/06/01/storm-damage-promps-st-charles-to-declare-state-of-emergency/

Honestly, I had no idea how CLOSE we were to the damaged area. We are literally right on the northern borderline of that red area on the map in the link. Most of the area affected included our ward boundaries so hopefully everyone is ok! When the tornado sirens started going off, I got scared. Its happened before but this time, we could actually see how crazy the wind was going outside. Austin & I turned off the lights, put on our headlamps & waited in the bathroom...our most "safe" room in our second story apartment. We were busy making ice cream when we had to take cover but luckily, the storm died down a little to where we felt it was safe to move about in our living room & kitchen. Living in the midwest definitely has its risks!

Another wonderful perk about living in Missouri is the awesome allergies you most likely will develop. And of course I am being sarcastic about this. It is horrible! I, for example, got hit hard as soon as the flowers started blooming & the dandelions took over. I was really sick for at least 2 weeks & I am still recovering from it all. I was miserable on Memorial Day at the ward picnic at the park. 

The allergies are fierce & I just hope I can remedy them by next year with some local honey we bought today! We found it at Shop & Save. It was our first time going there & we were pleased with their low prices on groceries! We might have to try it our next time we need to refill our fridge.

4. We celebrated Star Wars Day! May the 4th be with you...

Star Wars Day is obviously an important holiday for the Terry's. Austin & I are obsessed! We started off the day with Episode 4 & a couple of episodes from the Clone Wars animated series. And of course, we wore appropriate attire for the occasion...

5. Thrifting!

I have been a huge thrifter since high school. I loved the thrift stores back home in poway that were oh so convenient in their own little shopping center. I was determined to find some good ones here. little did I know that we could thrift with our furniture! we got an amazing deal on kitchen chairs for our kitchen table. The story behind it is that we got the table for free from Austin's aunt while we lived in Washington. There were no chairs to the table which we were fine with. We brought it with us to Missouri & have just been borrowing chairs from friends & using metal fold up chairs we bought. super ghetto I know. We even used camping chairs! Anyways, we happened upon Value City Furniture one day & found a great deal on 2 nice oak chairs for $25 each!

A week later, we returned to the store to see if we could find any other chairs that could potentially match. We ended up finding 4 more chairs of the exact same make & we bought them for $30 a piece.

the table looks so much better now that it is complete! oh and we don't care that they are a different stain than the table. its whatevs.

6. Mother's Day!

On mother's day, I got to take a break from primary & join the relief society at church. It was pretty nice! The elders all substituted in the various primary classes & nursery so the women could attend RS. Austin & I made sure to send our mothers a card & we sent along this picture with it:

We also got a special call from our missionary Elder Dallin Terry! We got to skype with him for a bit & it was awesome hearing how he is enjoying it so far in Reno, NV.

7. Austin's haircuts

I've been doing this for a while but Austin likes it when I help him cut his hair! I love that he is able to do it on his own since it is free I am glad he is not afraid to let me do it too. Its good practice for when we have some boys of our own :)

handsome husband!

8. BUYING A HOUSE!

This is the biggest thing that Austin & I have been up to this month. We have started the home buying process! It is a definite perk to working for a land surveying company because my boss knows nearly every Realtor in the Greater St. Louis area! She definitely wanted to recommend her top pick to us so we are working with a wonderful agent, Tammy Hanson of RE/MAX Edge. She is very experienced & we are very grateful for her knowledge! We've been looking at houses online & in person. We went on our first trip to look at homes last Saturday & we went again on Thursday this week & today. We are so excited to get into a house later this year! We will let you know as soon as we get an offer accepted!

Looking at homes is a lot of fun. It is a unique experience in each house. We get really excited when we walk into a home & our expectations (by only looking at the pictures online) are exceeded! I am really grateful for a husband who is an engineer & looks at all the specs in a different perspective. He's excellent with numbers & I feel confident we will find the right one for us & our future family.

Well, its a new month which means new adventures. I love being married to my wonderful husband & we love being here in Missouri! We have great friends, good times & exciting things coming for us. Can't wait to see what June will bring :)