Viva Las Vegas

To live in Las Vegas means...

You lock your front door even when you are home.

There is a plethora of vanity license plates on cars.

You have to remember your alarm code and disarm it when you walk in or out the door.

Being outside in the afternoon usually means you will feel warm and sweaty no matter what activity you are doing.

You can drive 45 minutes and never leave the city or repeat a route.

There are palm trees!

For the most part everything is colored in shades of red, brown, and tan. (Until you are on The Strip, that is.)

There are too many choices for grocery shopping: Walmart, Fresh & Easy, Trader Joes, Vons, Winco, Costco, Albertsons, Smiths, Target Greatland... And there are usually five or six of each choice within 5 miles of your location at any given moment!

In-N-Out!!

Fans and AC are blasting almost 24/7.

You have to pack away the brand new Oaklie winter jackets that you got for Christmas and you love.

Four way stops are overused, and so are stop signs.

Starbucks runs the coffee market.

Two-thirds of the grass you find is artificial.

You can't leave butter out on your counter to be perfectly room-temperature spreadable. You have to refrigerate your butter...

HARD water = Brita water pitchers + hard water stains....

Your apartment complex has three pools and you swim almost every day.

Most roads are at least 3 lanes.

You have to have a sense of humor.

Your car is always steaming hot when you get in it.

Feeling cold is rare.

Sheets, blankets, and comforters are for decoration only.

There is so much to do...from shows, plays or concerts, to festivals, shopping, markets or events. As well as disc golf, hiking, running, and attractions such as Lake Meade, Grand Canyon, Red Rock Canyon, Boulder City, Mount Charleston...

There are sooo many places to eat out at that you could pick a different place every day and not repeat! There's the familiar: Tropical Smoothie, Little Caesars, Dominoes, Sweet Tomato, Beni Hana, Olive Garden, Buffalo Wild Wings, Panda Express, Denny's, Chipotle, In-N-Out, Famous Daves, Panera, Great Harvest, Five Guys, Sonic, Johnny Carinos... And the new: Rubios, Cafe Rio, Chilies, Macaroni Grill, Joe's, Jason's Deli, China-a-go-go, Hard Rock Cafe, Ranch House, On the Border, Rasing Cane's, Chuckecheeses, Weinerschnitzel, P.F. Changs... Practically every restaurant you've ever wanted to go to is here in Las Vegas.

Keep Falling In Love

In this new phase of our lives, I want to intentionally build habits that will strengthen our marriage and keep the passion alive. I've found some great ideas at the following links, and I'm going to be implementing them immediately.

25 ways to communicate respect to your husband / 25 ways to show your wife you love her

100 ways to make your marriage rock

30 day husband encouragement challenge

Memory Bank #2 - Overwhelmed With God's Blessings

Although I still wrestle with not worrying about our financial situation and not having jobs, God has been soo good (of course!) and I know that He will be faithful to provide, because He has been faithful in the past. I have been overwhelmed this summer with an overflow of God's blessing, and I don't ever want to forget that! Plus I want to proclaim God's goodness.

We saw God provide in incredible ways this summer. At the beginning of August we had car trouble with both Jason's Honda and my Ford. Using local, trusted mechanics that my family had gone to for years, we got both taken care of and God provided all the money to cover the $700 of repairs. Then only a week before we moved to Vegas my car was having more issues - it was leaking antifreeze. Our local family mechanics were unavailable, but a family friend in the auto-shop repair business referred me to Dave at Reynold's Radiator. Come to find out, Dave was an old family friend on Jason's side of the family and I received several more very positive referrals to him after my car was already there. He went above and beyond to get the repair taken care of for a very affordable price. He even changed the oil (although they do not normally do that) and while my car was there noticed another problem with the AC but was able to refer that to a mechanic to fix that too. My car was well taken care of by a web of trustworthy mechanics God put in our life and God provided extra money to cover the repairs again.

I love getting an iced americano or iced coffee drink. Since we were trying to spend as little as possible this summer I tried to limit my indulging in coffee drinks. But I had awesome friends like Kylie who would make me a latte after morning Oula workouts and like Mel  and Heidi (also my sister) who would surprise me with coffee at work or take me on a coffee date! They have no clue how much that blessed me! Plus I was able to get several free drinks through coupons, etc.

Our familes, both Cross & Moseley,always go above and beyond to bless us with encouragement, financial assistance, love, and support. They are the best!

Through the generous blessings of our support team, the amount of our rent is covered in monthly donations!

We got the exact apartment we were hoping for at an affordable rate! Our apartment is such a blessing!

The Florence Carlton Community Church blessed Jason with an internship opportunity and really opened their arms to welcome us in to their church. They people of that church are so giving! And Jason's internship was a valuable learning experience.

I was blessed by working for my dad again at Missoula Vet Clinic all summer. Jason was able to get a lot of odd jobs and caddy at the Stockfarm plus be paid for his internship. God really provided opportunities for us to get money.

Once we moved to Las Vegas God kept blowing us away with blessings! Upon move in the Reichert family and Dan was here to help unload and Bethanie and Daryl came with snacks and drinks to unpack. The Reicherts and Thompsons also gave us small, handy things that were very necessary for starting up such as toilet paper, paper towels, dishwasher detergent, hand soap, a frozen casserole, banana bread, water bottles, etc. We felt so blessed by their thoughtfulness!

God is so good and He is so faithful. We are eagerly waiting to see Him continue to provide financially and with jobs!