I have merged my blogs.
If you want to keep up with us you can find us at theoldhopechest.wordpress.com

is this thing still on?

honestly, i completely forgot about this little blog.
here's the scoop:

we've been to idaho A LOT lately. (the photo above was taken by a friend the last time we were up there)
i got a new job. i now work for head start. i am so happy with this switch in jobs thus far.
and BONUS: i get summers off. boom. how could i not take the job?
i also had other good news, but im going to be vague and leave it at that.
garrett starts grad school on friday!!
deep love has 10 days left on their kickstarter. give them your money. please?
jared, jessica and baby james moved to provo!!!!!!!
mom, dad, and matt came for a visit.
and then mom and matt came for another visit.
ive been reading lots of good books lately: A Walk In the Woods, Off the Road, Z: A Story of Zelda Fitzgerald, im currently reading Lady Sings the Blues, an autobiography by Billie Holiday that is spectacular and heart breaking in every way.
weve been binge watching the tv show the killing. so good.
and garrett keeps laughing at me for this (though im not sure why) but i cleaned out my closet. and by cleaned out my closet i mean i got rid of 90% of the clothes i own. i want a simpler life and a simpler lifestyle. with that comes owning less things so that less things own me.
woof. now that it is 9:00pm i will proceed to my bed with my book and a bowl of cantaloupe.

Well, its that time of the year again. DEEP LOVE SEASON!!!!
This year there are only TWO shows, one in Salt Lake and one in Idaho Falls.
BUT the Deep Love team is hitting the road and heading to Eugene Oregon to be apart of the North West Arts Festival where they will have a chance to perform in front of booking agents.
THIS IS HUGE!
So, in order to get the team there, they have a kickstarter to raise money. BUT the cool thing about kickstarter is that you get something for the money. CD, DVD, song book, t-shirt, ghost hunt in SLC with Ryan Hayes,  pep talk from Ford Erickson, a 15 minute opera written on any topic by Ryan and Garrett, etc, etc. With this, you get what you pay for AND you help Deep Love get to bigger places.

So, watch the video above and then click HERE and give them your money.
k. thanx.

oh, and here is one of my new favorite songs from the show (it was added last season.)

i have been so bad at the internet lately.

so in case you didnt know, WE HAVE A NEW BLOG!
dont worry (or do) this here personal blog will still be live.
this is where i post things for me.
but thesaltybeatnik.com is a collaboration project between Garrett, Mal, Josh and I as well as a guest contributor once a week. (and we have some pretty good guests lined up!)
This blog is a place for everything; food, fashion, music, words, art, lifestyle etc.
Mal, Josh, and Garrett all are writers, so you can read there words there.
I am not a writer so you can mainly look at things that Ive been looking at lately.
This started in conjunction with my Etsy shop, The Salty Beatnik.
It is a fun project and I am so glad it has been so successful in just a week!

So, here is some shameless self promotion:
Etsy
Facebook
Blog
Twiter
Instagram 

the first time i rode in garretts car we were just acquaintances.
we had the same group of friends and had said a few words to each other, but that was it.
i was riding in his car to flier for deep love.
he had a disposable camera in his center console, so the other twos girls i was with and i took a selfie with it.   little did we know garrett and i would get married ( garrett and i didnt even start "talking" until 5 months after this car ride) and find this photo 3 years after it was taken.

why is it that you can put cat powers "sea of love" to almost anything and it will make me tear up and feel all sentimental?

life lately has been full of ups and downs. (when is it not though, right?)
it feels like a lot of downs, so when the ups happen, they feel really great.
ive been crazy emotional and having hope and staying positive is a lot of work.
but an up that happened today is garrett heard back from Westminster and he got into grad school!
this is huge for him and i am so happy and excited for this new adventure.
also,were moving this week.
so thats cool i guess.
but heres to trying to be patient, positive, and hopeful!

so i opened up an etsy shop.
The Salty Beatnik.
in my mind its not offically "open" yet.
I havent really shared it on facebook and things like that yet.
Im still working on research, collecting, and inbound links (instagram, pinterest, etc).

besides finding the dresses, my favorite part is doing the photo shoots.
two of my best friends are a huge part of this process with the modeling and photography.
Im thinking that July will be my official open because were working on another fun project right now
but until then, its fun to see random sales come in and people "following" the shop.

here are a few if my favorites in the shop right now.

This is one of my favorite songs garrett does.
recording by sharon at the birthday bash.

garrett found this wonderful prayer the other day.
you can find it here

i fell like we are in this weird limbo state.

we both have jobs that treat us well and are pleasant on most days.
we are still madly in love.
we enjoy our current church callings.
we have a nice apartment.
etc etc etc.

but i cant stop thinking about the "what could be's"
like getting jobs we can do from the road.
and buying an rv.
and a house on some land near water and mountains.
and visiting all of the states in our rv, but returning to our land when weve had too much of the road.
and having little sherwood babies.
and garrett being able to make a living from playing music and writing.
and i to be able to stay at home at sell dresses online for fun.

our lease is up soon so we are apartment hunting right now.
and job hunting.
and trying to make things line up.

but to be real about it,
it all comes down to faith.
which i am learning a lot about lately.

So the big birthday bash happened.
It seems like it was so long ago now.
but here are some of the photos from that day taken from lots of other peoples facbook pages
The party was planned to be outside, but due to the crazy idaho weather we had to do it inside.
which worked out perfectly.
we had tons of friends come and go through out the night.
amazing music by BadLands (Mal and Garrett) Ryan Hayes, Jon Lewis, Ford, Jeff Smith, and one of my favorite performances of the night Leif Raker.