Boo yea!

Not to brag or anything, but I just wanted to document the current standings of the "Moeller-Adams-Alldredge" NCAA bracket. Oh, did I mention I won last year's family bracket:)

Group Results

RKENTRY, OWNERR64R32S16E8F4NCGCHAMPIONPPRTOTALPCT
1Rsbdentist 1Rsbdentist230240200000
Indiana
16067097.6
2lindseyj88lindseyj88190220160000Louisville64057075.1
3dallinmax 2dallinmax210180160000
Indiana
055064.0
4Pudgy Dude 1Pudgy Dude24022080000
Indiana
24054058.5
5brettimus1 1brettimus1210200120000
Indiana
16053052.9
6pammysue6 1pammysue6220180120000
Arizona
32052047.3
7ea_adamsea_moeller210180120000
Miami (FL)
32051041.9
7moellernumber9 1moellernumber921022080000
Indiana
24051041.9
9motherhoodroxs 1motherhoodroxs220140120000
Indiana
8048027.7
10natmoel 1natmoel21022040000
Miami (FL)
047023.8
11amalldredge 1amalldredge20018080000
Kansas
046020.2
12Ella "hoops" Adamsea_moeller11080808000
Davidson
03503.0
13Ethan's Picksbrettimus12201000000
Saint Louis
03201.9

1 year!

When you're moving across the country the items you take are limited.
Food was one thing we were not going to mess with rotting in a car for 4 days.
That being said, we still had the top tier of our wedding cake in the freezer!
So we celebrated our "1 year!" tradition a little early (7 months too early) and had some cake.


this face says it all...even after just 4 1/2 months it was not good!

We had fun reminiscing about our wedding anyway. And we tried some bites regardless. I do wonder where this tradition originated from? I don't thing many people do it these days.

Crepes crepes everywhere!

For a few weeks now I've been wanting to try my hand at crepe making and since we FINALLY got around to grocery shopping where I could buy my favorite crepe filling (strawberries!) I figured I would give it a shot!

It was surprisingly easier than I was expecting and they were delicious! This is the recipe I used:
1 c flour
1 T sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/3 c milk
1 T vanilla
3 eggs
3 T melted butter
Can someone please explain to me why this counter to the right doesn't just extend all the way to the wall? It makes no sense and is super inconvenient as this is ALL the counter space we have!

So simple and I didn't have any issues with them sticking or falling apart or anything! For the filling I mixed half a container of cool whip with 1 strawberry yogurt cup and then mixed in half a container of cottage cheese. I cut up fresh strawberries and then topped with powdered sugar and more cool whip! Easy!
They were SO delicious and simple that I will probably be making them again soon!


Abe Lincoln.

Driving through Wyoming there is a giant Abe Lincoln head right on the side of the freeway. Naturally, we stopped and took pictures but it was windy and freezing so we didn't stay long.


(One funny thing about stopping here, when we pulled up there was a guy bent over on the sidewalk in front of us with a little black poodle. We couldn't tell what he was doing until we walked by but he was wiping poop off his dogs bum with napkins. Hahaha. It was actually pretty hilarious.)

The Temple.



We are now members of the Washington D.C. temple district and I have to say it's a little bit different than living in Utah!
In Layton, we were half an hour from at least 3 temples and had the opportunity to go to multiple while we lived there. The sessions were always long because they were so packed with people.
Here, it takes at least an hour and a half (without traffic) to get to the D.C. temple. And the nest closest is Philadelphia temple which is 3+ hours away.
I was lucky enough to get to go to the temple with a couple of sister from my new ward this week. I very much enjoyed going and was glad to have them there to show me around. We went on a Thursday morning and on the way they both commented on how it's a very underutilized temple and if you go on a weekday, especially in the morning, it goes quick because there is never many people there.
One of the sisters is a convert and very big into family history and has been very on top of getting all her family's temple work done, so she had some names for us to do which I was very grateful that she let us (and here's the side story of why I was so grateful).
She has 2 grown children who both have families, one lives in Utah and the other is in the air force and right now his family is stationed in Korea. As she does more family history and finds more relatives, she sends the family names to her grandchildren and lets them do the baptisms and confimations, and then trades off with her children and their spouse or her and her husband to do the rest of the work. So the names she gave us had been baptized and confirmed by her grandchildren in Seoul, South Korea (I thought that was pretty cool). But the fact the she let someone, other than family, do some names I thought was an honor (not that she is against letting other people do it, I think it's just very powerful and spiritual to have their family do it all including the grandkids).
We had the intention of doing a few names and then doing just one endowment session, but we only had time to get through one before the endowment so I only had one name the whole time and I thought it was neat.
The D.C. temple is gorgeous on the outside, and reminded me of the Boise temple just from the stone. It looks white from far away but up close it was similar to the old grey look the Boise one had. It is secluded a bit up on a little hill surrounded by trees. In each corner it has this amazing stained glass that is really just chunks there's no pattern or picture to it, and they go from the ground up to the very top of the 7 stories. But they look 100 times more amazing from the inside. They'rs just pieces of blues and pinks that start dark at the bottom and get lighter as they get to the top. When the sun was shining through they looked amazing inside and each corner had a staircase that just wrapped its way up following the stained glass and of course at the bottom was a fountain. Pretty spectacular.
I was warned that it was a very "plain" temple. I love the Salt Lake temple for its over-the-top beauty and immaculate designs and just the little details everywhere. I don't love the Bountiful temple for the exact opposite reason, its so plain and simple, not a lot of details or artwork.
But I thought the D.C. temple was right in the middle. Nothing over the top, but it wasn't super plain either. The celestial room might actually be one of my favorites.
The thing that stood out to me was that the men and women weren't segregated (at least not with an aisle separating you, they do still have men sit together on one side and women on the other) and both the sisters I went with told me that one of the best things about that temple is if you get their early enough, you can sit right next to your husband so that is cool and I can't wait to go with Nate.
The funny thing about this session though was that I was expecting it to be empty since they both warned me. But it wasn't even close! I think there were 5 total empty seat? But there were two missionaries going through for themselves so I think that is what filled it up, it was just ironic since I had been warned twice that it would be empty.
It was really great to go, and it is a gorgeous temple. I took a picture I took per my mother's request.

I didn't love the drive...that will take some getting used to. Half of it was winding through a "mountainous" road and the backseat made me a little carsick, but I survived and can't wait to go with Nate soon!


Intercourse (Pennsylvania of course!)

Yes, it's a real place.
Yes, we made tons of jokes about it.
Yes, I have the sense of humor of a 15 year old so I think its hilarious.
Why anyone would name a place that is beyond me, especially when it was formerly known as "Cross Keys".
And why people want to live there, probably because they laugh every time they write their return mailing address.
But it's actually a really cute little touristy part of an Amish community and we went and visited on Saturday!
We had a great time even though the weather was dreary and rainy. 
We saw a few Amish horses pulling buggies (none of them were eating McDonalds this time). They have updated them from what I remember. They are completely enclosed with doors and have brake lights and turn signals, might as well by a car if you ask me;)
We walked through all the little shops and looked at all the decorations, fabrics, and other trinkets. But I think our favorite part was all the food shops! They all had free samples of everything and it was awesome!
We went into the "Smokehouse" which is comparable to Hickory Farms, and tried so many meats and cheeses! They were delicious! There we ended up getting a brick of smoked cheddar cheese (the best cheese I've ever had) and a snack bag of assorted cheeses and some delicious sweet smoked sausage bologna. Mmmm!
Then we of course HAD to go in the fudge shop and taste all the fudge. We ended up buying a slice of peanut butter fudge and it might have been my favorite.
But we REALLY hit the jackpot when we went into Kitchen Kettle Village. There they had every possible kind of salsa, butter, jelly/jam, pickles, tart, and treat imaginable. There were so many delicious things we wanted to buy but limited ourselves to; pineapple salsa (if you've ever had mango salsa this is 100 times better!), whoopie pies, and cheese bread.
We also bought a key holder to hang on the wall in one of the last shops we visited. The lady there was great and apologetic that we came on a rainy day and told us about the "onion snow" and the farming in the area. It was interesting to hear and she was by far my favorite shop owner.
We had a good trip and slacked on the taking pictures part. We drove home the back way through Baltimore which ended up taking WAY longer than planned but decided to stop in at a Goodwill since we were still in need of a couch, coffee table, and kitchen table (we've been stopping at every thrift store we see and have had 0 luck). This time it paid off and we got a table and 3 chairs for $25. Hopefully once the weather gets a little nicer I can sand and paint them.
We really enjoyed our trip to Intercourse (haha) Pennsylvania, and it's definitely a place we will be going back to!

Ward date night (game night).

Tonight our ward here in PA had a game night for all the couples. We figured we should make an appearance and try to get to know some more people in the ward.
There was only 5 couples there (including us) and a few ladies without their husbands. All being at least 20 if not 30 years our senior.
We walked in as they were beginning "The Newly and Oldly Wed Game". There was 2 empty seats on stage that must have been waiting for us so we joined right in.
Nate and I came in 4th out of 5 but were tied for 3rd until the tiebreaker question which was "guess what  number I'm thinking of".
It was a really fun game and I'm glad we played even though like I said, everyone else there had been married 10 times longer!
The questions were things like:
- where did we first meet (which somehow I got wrong! What?!)
- what is [his] favorite meal that I cook
- what did [he] first notice about me
- where do we go to eat on a romantic evening
- what did we do on our first date
- what percent of housework would [he] say he does
- when I'm away does [Nate]
A. party
B. nap
C. clean

Like I said, we really enjoyed playing  and the generation gap never was an issue.
We have the best ward!
After that we snacked and talked with some of the other couples, and then all the ladies started playing Catch Phrase, which is probably my most favorite game!
2 funny stories happened here:
- whoever brought it had never opened it and it was the electronic version. NONE of these women could figure out how to get it to work! It was hilarious! They kept pushing the 'pause' button instead of the 'next' button and would then have to start the round all over! We were all dying of laughter! The women next to me who I really like kept asking me every time it came to her "now is this the button I push?" EVERY time! The relief society pres. was sitting across from me and every time that happened she would look and me and we would both laugh.
- the 2nd funny thing was one of the sisters who had the word "cookie sheet" and gave the clue "you put it in the oven, or sleep on it". When we finally figured it out I was like "this must be a generation thing, I have no idea why you would sleep on a cookie sheet". Then one of the ladies said "you sleep on a cookie sheet?!?!" And we realized she was just describing the word 'sheet' and didn't really mean you sleep on a cookie sheet. We all had a pretty good laugh about that one.

It was a really fun night and I'm really glad we went (even though Nate had to drag me out of the car). We played until 10pm! That is later than I have EVER stayed at ANY ward activity and especially with a bunch of "old" people! It was so much fun, I cannot believe how lucky we got to be in such an awesome ward!

On a side note, for the first time in my life I was asked how long I had been a member of the church, I thought that was cool. And I also think part of the reason I like this ward so well is because most of them are converts and have lived a "wordly" life so there is absolutely no judgment from anyone for anything and they are all open about it and are really great at teaching from their mistakes.

In other news, I made a curtain today. Just one, I didn't plan as well as I thought and didn't get enough fabric to finish the other. They aren't going to match exactly, but are the same idea and same color scheme. I'm excited to get the rest of the fabric I'll need to finish them tomorrow.
Here's a picture of the finished one.
I have learned that I like to sew, but don't really like to follow a pattern so ta-da!
(Maybe this is why my curtains aren't going to be exactly the same? Oh well).


Waynesboro, Pennsylvania!

We made it to Pennsylvania!! It took 4 days, 9 states, $692.80 in gas (averaging about $3.60/gallon), 1 night in Park City, 1 night in Sidney, Nebraska (thanks to Trevor, Alicia and Tucker for putting us up for the night), 1 night in Champaign, Illinois, and driving till 1am Friday morning to actually get here.
We've been staying at a Travelodge motel in Chambersburg, but tomorrow we get to move into our apartment! We will be living in "downtown" Waynesboro, Pennsylvania (don't let the downtown part trick you, there is only 1 street in and out of town and 2 or 3 stoplights and that is "downtown"). We feel like we got a great deal on our apartment. Rent is $395/month and the only utility we pay is electric. It has brand new carpet and is freshly painted. Much nicer than all the other gross, nasty places we looked at.
(here's a map to put into perspective where we are exactly).
Nate is especially excited to be rid of our uhaul trailer tomorrow. We have been pulling it with us everywhere and it is getting old! On Friday, when we went apartment shopping we naturally pulled the trailer all over. we drove it up and down Main street at least 6 times. Nate commented "I bet everyone thinks we're morons just driving up and down the street, like we don't know what we're doing." We laughed pretty hard about that but it was probably only funny to us. We sure stick our like a sore thumb though, a bright orange truck with 2 bikes on top pulling a uhaul? Probably not a sight they see everyday in a town of 10,000.
What's even better is that at church today a lady asked me, "oh, so did you move in this week?" When I told her no she said, "oh I thought maybe I had seen you, I saw a truck pulling a uhaul all around." I didn't tell her that she probably had in fact seen us. So embarrassing. We even tried to leave church later in hope that no one would see us, but to no avail, everyone pointed and waved, and laughed as we pulled out of the parking lot. We just hid our faces and laughed and thought 'thank goodness tomorrow is the last day of this!'
In other news, we went to our new ward today. It was fantastic. Hands down the best, most gracious, welcoming ward I have ever been to! We were a couple of minutes late and felt really bad for walking in late so we sat in what we thought at the time was the very back of the chapel, but turns out its normal. By the time sacrament was over we were almost in the middle!
This is what the main street looks like, but I took it off google, it doesn't have any snow right now in real life.

We met a TON of people, I wish we could remember all of their names but they were all so nice and wanted to get to know us. We got invited to dinner at at least 4 different households. Everybody wanted to shake our hands and hear out story and convince us to stay forever (they were all sad we hadn't actually bought a house but told us where to look when we get to that point). And funny side note, the bishop is from Idaho Falls...small world! Any way, I met two sisters in the ward who were really awesome and showed me to relief society and sat by me and explained all the signup sheets and handouts that went around so that was nice. The ward seems really fun too. They are the only ward in their building just like my parents, and they take full advantage! They have a "date night" coming up this Friday that they told me we just HAD to go to. This time it's just a little game night at the church. I guess they try to do something like this monthly for all the adults. Then they had a dinner, and some other celebration coming up that just sound like excuses to get together and have a party which is fine by us! We think we're really going to enjoy this ward. They also said 3/4 of the ward is related so watch what you say;) (Sounded a lot like the whole Blaser clan in Boise, only bigger).
The best part of church happened in relief society. The secretary, who was an older woman ended up conducting the opening exercises because the presidency was in a meeting with the bishop that was running late. She had no program or handouts to follow so she was flying blind, just going off the seat of her pants. She was so sweet and did such a great job but it was really funny and everyone kept laughing (luckily she was a good sport and was laughing at herself too). Well right at the end the presidency came in and just sat down without making a scene. As the secretary was going to sit down the president reminded her of a few more things so naturally more laughs and commotion, this time with the president watching. Finally, I was asked to introduce myself and then the meeting continued as usual. Well after relief society the president came up and introduced herself and apologized for the lack of preparation on the secretary's part. I didn't mind one bit and actually enjoyed it. She got all my information and asked where I had come from and when I said Utah her eyes got really big and she opened her mouth and laughed so hard. Then she proceeded to tell me that during the opening when I introduced myself she leaned over to her counselor and whispered "I sure hope she's not from Utah" referring to the disorganization of the opening exercises. She couldn't believe that really was where I had come from! It was pretty funny and I definitely felt more at home without the formal-ness of relief society and with the ease and laughter the secretary brought.
The town itself is very old and cute. There isn't a whole lot going on. There is a Wal-Mart, a McDonalds, and a YMCA but that's all I can think of right off. There is 1 high school. Lots of little old privately owned shops that I am excited to check out. There's also a couple of "Meat Markets", not sure what exactly those entail, but I'm sure we'll experience them soon enough!
The houses here are all pretty awesome. They are all HUGE and (mostly) OLD! Most look like old plantation houses and the ones that have been updated/remodeled are gorgeous. Even the old run down ones are cool looking, just not as cool. And they are everywhere! there isn't a lot of people close together, but even when you think you are in back country, these old plantation houses are out there.
Here's one of my favorites that's in town and been renovated. It is currently for sale.



We are about 40 minutes from Gettysburg and this July happens to be the 150th anniversary which means there is going to be all kinds of celebrations so we are excited to experience that and the 4 day battle reenactment! We have also driven passed a sign for the home of James Buchanan a few times so we will have to check that out, we are 2 miles north of the Mason-Dixon line, and close to many other historical sites. We've also been told we really need to check out the Hill Cumorah pageant.
Needless to say, we are now even more excited about this new experience and the opportunities it will bring for us to grow individually, as a couple, and as members of the church.
Welcome home to the Moellers!

Moving for Pennsylvania.

Tomorrow is the day!
 Nate and I are embarking on our cross country move.
30 hours.
2,012 miles.
8 states.
1 uhaul trailer.
too many boxes.
I think we're ready!