It's Official!!

Well it's finally official! Nate and I are going to have a baby!! We are so so excited. We have wanted to tell everyone the moment we found out, but we somehow waited till our first appointment. So as you can see to the left, that is our little Kidney Bean! Its head is on the right, bottom on the left, and you can actually see its little nubbies for hands and feet. Officially I am 9 weeks and counting. Our due date is July 13, right in the middle of the Arizona Summer, but I don't care (yet ). Well We just wanted to let everyone know, so there you go. If you have any advice or suggestions just let me know!!

TAGGED!!

Our great friend Reagan, (who is finally back to blogging, so welcome back) tagged Nate and I.

8 T.V. Shows I Enjoy Watching:

1. The Office

2. One Tree Hill

3. Survivor

4. The Amazing Race

5. Biggest Loser ( I cry every episode)

6. ER

7.America's Next Top Model (don't judge me)

8.Hero's

8 Things that Happened Yesterday

1. Went through 8 hours of training

2. Went and coached gymnastics after 8 hours of training

3. Definately went to sleep!

4. Ate Spaghetti-o's ( I forgot how good those were)

5. Had McDonalds for lunch

6. Went to sleep

7. Watched One Tree Hill

8. Played with our puppy (still way too much energy)

8 Things that I am looking forward to:

1. Being done with training

2. Christmas in Utah (not the weather)

3. A Doctors Appointment (weird I know)

4. The new season of The Bachelor (Go Jason)

5. A trip to Hawaii in 2010 ( it will happen!)

6. Done with training (did I already say that?)

7. Going Christmas shopping for all of you!!

8. Seeing my family!! ( I Love you)

8 Things I Love About Fall

1. I'm going to steal my friend Noah's answer- "There is no Fall in Arizona" :)

8 Things on my Wish List:

1. All U.S. Americans can locate places such as The Iraq and umm like Africa on a map.

2. New Clothes!!

3. Special Furniture (It makes sense)

4. To be done with Training :)

5. To grow a Money Tree

6. Trip to Hawaii (oh it will happen)

7. For Michelle to win Biggest Loser (down with the Blue team, vicky= Evil)

8. I ran out of stuff so... A money tree :)

8 People I Tag:

Shantelle and Josh

Justin and Ali (you better do it Losers!)

Mom and Dad

Jana and Ryon

Rachelle and Sean.

Thanksgiving!!

We had a great Thanksgiving, even though it was our first Thanksgiving away from home. We were lucky enough to go to Utah for a short trip two weekends ago for Nate's brothers wedding. We loved seeing everyone and spending time with both families.

I had the entire week off from working at the gym so I decided to get a few Christmas decorations up while I had the time. Nate got Thursday and Friday off. We were invited to Nik and Anissa's house with Noah and Giselle. I actually made a green bean casserole, it may sound gross, but I was pleasantly suprised, if I may say so myself. I also brought a pumpkin pie. We had A LOT of food and it was all really good. That night we just hung around and talked and watched football. Friday morning the guys went golfing at a small course right by our house. In the afternoon the guys went shooting and then the girls met up with them at a pizza place. We ended the night by watching the movie "P.S. I Love You". It was a really fun night. On Saturday morning, the guys went and played soccer and kickball with the elders in Noah's spanish ward. Nate and I decided to spend the rest of the day together alone. We went to Subway for lunch, then went to the new James Bond movie (which was really good) then we went out to T.G.I. Fridays. We had a great night and to end it we watched "Fools Gold". It was such a great holiday break that we were able spend time with friends and think about all the things that we are grateful in our lives. We are already getting excited for Christmas and being able to come home for the holiday! Love you all!!

Slowly, But Surely

I know that it has taken me a long time to put up new pictures of our house, but it has been a little slow putting everything together. Finally I do have a few rooms completely decorated. It has been a lot of fun to put everything together and I really love trying to come up with creative ideas that don't cost money, or if it does, very little. One of my favorite places to buy decorations, Dollar Tree. :) I love that place! Anyway here are some pictures of what is finished so far.

Now a quick note about this mirror. The West's (the people we are renting from) had several vinyle letter sayings around the house and she asked if she could keep them there. Most of them are ok and I can live with, but the one in the entry way (seen here) is a scripture. Don't get me wrong it is a great scripture, but it is all about children. Since we don't have any I wanted to cover it with this mirror, but the only way to do that was to hang it a little higher than what we would have liked. So if your like Nate and think it is way too high, you are just going to have to accept it because I like it. :)

One last thing. I'm sure you noticed that our Master bedroom was not pictured. That is because I am giving it a make-over. I am really excited about it. Nate gave me a new comforter set for our birthday and it is awesome. I have most of the room finished but there are a few details that I want finished before I post a picture.

Pine Top

As the bill comes every month for our time share, I often wonder if we really needed it, and if it is worth it. But everytime we use it, we have so much fun that I can't think about not having it. This past weekend Nate and I decided to plan a small getaway for our birthdays and go to Pine Top. And since we have the best friends ever, Noah and Giselle, we invited them and wanted to share this weekend with them. Pine Top is about three hours North East of Mesa. It is a small little town that is in the middle of a forest (not a huge dense forest, but a forest). We left Friday at 4 and got in around seven. Our cabin was really nice and had plenty of room for all of us. That night we made dinner, and watched Iron Man, then went to bed. In the morning we woke up had breakfast, watched French Kiss and then went on a hike. There were a lot of great things to see while hiking and we all just had so much fun being outdoors in the forest. As for the picture, can you say "Dirty Dancing".

After hiking, we headed to the club house, Nate had to stay in the cabin to finish some homework :( While Giselle took a nap, Noah and I played ping pong (which I won, twice) and then played arcade games. Also inside they had two pool tables and air hockey. Once finished we tore Nate away from his depressing homework and all went swimming!! Because it is a lot colder in Pine Top the pool and hot tub were heated and very nice. That night we found out that the local Fire station puts on a Haunted House. We decided to go because it was not very expensive and sounded fun. Although the haunted house was somewhat short, I have to say that we all got extremely scared! (Even though Nate will deni it, I think he jumped a few times). In most haunted houses they have a rule that the " Fictitional characters" (Yes I know that Fictitional is not a word, but Giselle used it at least twice on our trip so that was a shout out to her!) are not allowed to touch you, only jump out and reach for you, but in this haunted house these rules did not apply. Everywhere you went things were jumping out at you and grabbing your shoulders, grabbing your feet, cornering you and getting right in your face. Plus they had at least 3 chainsaw guys not only chasing you out of the maze, but in the maze as well. Giselle may have fallen down exiting the haunted house while trying to karate kick the chainsaw man, maybe you just had to be there. After getting home we grilled hamburgers and watched Disturbia, then went to bed. Sunday morning we all woke up and chilled for a little bit, not wanting to go home. We had to be out by noon, so we made breakfast, packed, then left. On the way home you drive from the top of the canyon to the very bottom, so we stopped and took pictures at both sites. The views were truly breath taking and as you can tell with these pictures we had a lot of fun. Arriving home was bitter sweet. It was great to be out of the car, but that meant that our vacation was over!! We had such a great time and can't wait to plan our next getaway. Thanks to Noah and Giselle for coming and making our trip a blast!! Also a big thanks to Nate for thinking of this trip and always spoiling me! All I have to say is bring on the monthly bills, this time share is Awesome!!

Happy Birthday!!!

Many of you may know that Nate and I share our birthdays. It was yesterday and we had a great day, and thank you to all who wished us well. But this post is all about Nate! I wanted to let him know how much I love him. He is such a great husband and takes such good care of me. He is stuck at a job right now that he does not enjoy, but does it because he knows this is what he needs to do right now. It's amazing how strong of feelings you can have for one person, and I have them for Nate. He is someone who makes me want to be a better person, and is helping me accomplish that everyday. He has a great sense of humor and reminds me to not live life so seriously. I have the best time joking around with him and being immature. There are so many things that I have learned from him, and I am always learning more. He never seizes to amaze me with the things that he says, or does. He has always been determined in whatever he is doing and once he starts he will always finish. I look back at some of the things that we have done and places we have been to and can't imagine going to those places with anyone but Nate. I hate to even think what my life would be like without him. I am so lucky to have shared three years and three months as his wife. How blessed I am to spend the rest of my life and all of eternity with the man that I love.

I Love You Nate!!

It's a Game!

Well as you guessed, (hopefully my drawings are not that bad) Nate and I received new callings in our ward. We are now primary teachers!! On top of that, I am also in charge of activity days for the younger girls, twice a month. We are really excited about our callings although they are very different than what we had in our last ward, (Young Womens President and Ward Mission Leader). As bad as this may sound we are very excited because we get to teach our little class and then go to sharing time where we get to sit and just make sure that our kids are quiet. I am thrilled about this because I do have a hard time sitting through Sunday School (lets be honest many of us have a hard time, it's not just me). I myself will probably learn more in sharing time so I am excited.

Cooking Adventure!

So Nate and I were thinking of something to eat. He suggested omlets. It sounded great and he said that he had a better way of cooking them instead of a frying pan. Reluctantly I said ok. He said that all you have to do is put your ingredients in a ziploc bag and then put it in bowling water. It cooks them perfectly. Still a little skeptical, I started making my omlet. We realized after cracking our eggs that we didn't have enough. So I had to run to the store and I just thought to get 18 eggs instead of 12, which actually will come in handy (keep reading to find why). So I come back and we finish cracking our eggs. We each put 6 eggs in our bags (which proved to be way to many). As Nate was so nicely mixing his he accidentally dropped his bag, that was not closed, so 6 eggs ended up on the floor. We cleaned that up, cracked 6 more eggs and started to boil our omlets. After about ten minutes we checked our omlets and noticed that Nates bag was leaking and he lost just about half his omlet in the boiling water. After bagging the omlets in a second bag, mine seemed to take forever to cook, but finally was finished. To my surprise they actually tasted really good. Thanks Nate for giving me a great cooking adventure. So the moral of the story is buy 18 eggs instead of 12.

Back to school!

Well it's official. I am once again a college student. Today was my first day of class at the University of Phoenix. As you all probably know, I started working there at the end of July. Let me just say that this is a major adjustment for me. I'm used to being outside on the go every day, not stuck in a big room with a bunch of cubicles. It's been really challenging to just sit in the same chair all day long. Honestly, I really don't like it. Darn this bad housing market right now. I've realized how much I really do miss being a superintendent. It was such an awesome job. I think I would've done that forever if it just wasn't so unstable. Oh well, moving on. This job has it's perks. One of them, and probably the biggest one, is that I get free tuition for school. Obviously since I haven't finished yet, this is huge for me. All the classes are online, I do one class at a time, and each class lasts five weeks long. I'm working on my criminal justice degree to help me in my police officer job pursuit. The plan is to hit it as hard as I can as long as I'm working there. After a couple of classes, I can double up and take two at a time and finish at a much faster pace. Meanwhile, I will continue to apply to different PD jobs and if I get one, then I'll take it. Most departments give tuition reimbursement so if I do get a job somewhere, I'll continue to take classes. A little further in the future I hope to get a job with the FBI/CIA, there's jobs at either agency that I think I would enjoy. I was on their websites today to see what their requirements are. I started to get really excited just knowing that I'm actually starting in the right direction with beginning classes today. It's going to be a long road, but I'm up for it. Class today wasn't bad. They start us off pretty easy. I'll keep you updated as classes go on. Wish me luck!

Old Job, New Job

Moving down here has been a lot of fun, but there are things that I do miss. My family, friends, school, and my job. I had the best job at Allyse's Bridal. It was so much fun, I worked with the best girls, and I had the best manager EVER! Before I left I took pictures with everyone because I knew that I was going to miss them. So to all of them I Love ya!! I have started a new job and it is completely different than what I have done in the past. I now work at U.S.A Youth Fitness Center coaching gymnastics. I am really having a lot of fun working here. As you can see in the picture, I get to go to work in a t-shirt, basketball shorts, and bare feet!! It has been really great not to have to worry so much about what to wear. But I am missing getting ready for the day and dressing in professional clothes. The girls that I coach are really fun to be around even though sometimes their attention span is non-exsistent. Although I love coaching, I am looking for another job because I work Mon-Thur nights and rarely get to see Nate. I will let you know how it goes. :)

Finally in Arizona

We are both, finally here in Arizona. We were able to find someone to rent our place so I packed up everything and Nate came home on Aug. 29 and we packed the truck then left. We got to our new place on the 31st. So now we are here living in Mesa, Arizona and are so excited. Nate is working at the Universtiy of Phoenix, and I am working part time at U.S.A gymnastics. I get to teach levels one, two, and three. And the ages are from 5-12. I'm really excited! If I can't get as many hours at the gym then I want, then I will be looking for another job. Our house is so cute and I am so excited to be living here. It is in a great area and we are a couple of houses down from Nik and Annessa, (Noah's Twin brother and family). We are also only fifteen minutes away from Noah and Giselle. We are excited to see what opportunities this move will bring. And we also want to thank everyone who helped us move, we really appreciate it. As a New September Resolution, or whatever, I, Celeste Fisher, promise to blog so much more than our lame every couple of month blogs. We Love You ALL!!

P.S. I will post more pictures once we have decorated and unpacked everything. Also, just in case you were wondering, those are real Palm trees right in our backyard. just FYI :)

Done With Day 2

Day 2 is over and things are looking good. Today was the physical fitness test at 6:30 this morning. It went really well. I even did better then I thought I would. The minimum standards to pass are 17 push-ups in a minute, 27 sit-ups in a minute, and a 1.5 mile run in 15 minutes and 35 seconds. We started with the push-ups. I paired up with another guy from Utah. I was able to get 59 push-ups done. I figured I'd get somewhere near 40 at the most, but I was shocked that I was able to keep going. It must have been the adrenaline. I had the highest number of push-ups so that was good. I was able to get 41 sit-ups. I thought I would struggle the most with this and would have liked to have done better, but come to find out I was the third highest out of the group. By the way, there was probably 20 guys who were trying. The run was last. This is what I thought I would do best on. To my surprise, it was the hardest thing for me. It could have possibly been the heat, or an all asphalt track, and the fact that we did all three right in a row and I put a lot of effort into the push-ups and sit-ups. I ended up finishing the run in 12 minutes and 6 seconds, so I did really well, but I was in the middle of the group. I was just hoping to one of the leaders, but I guess I shouldn't complain.
An hour after the fitness test I met with Detective France for my background interview. It was about a two and half hour interview where he asked me all kinds of questions about my background. Drug usage, alcohol usage, employment history, criminal history, and all kinds of random questions. It was a little tense because you pretty much have to tell him all the bad things you've done in your life, big and small. Luckily I don't have too much to tell, but it's hard because you're nervous that you might forget about something you did and then remember on the polygraph. They use these notes for the polygraph. It went well and I'm scheduled for the polygraph tomorrow morning at 8. I'm a little nervous but it should be no big deal. This is my last step for this trip. Once this is done, I wait for a couple weeks and they will send me a letter telling me if they are going to continue with the background check, or if they are going to pass. So I'll be on pins and needles waiting for a couple weeks, but hopefully it will all go well.
Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who is supporting me. It really helps a lot to know that all the people I love and care about are pulling for me. Thank you so much for the encouragement. It has given me the extra boost of confidence that I needed. Thank you all so much and I love you all.

Day One Is Over

Just an update on what's happened so far on my police officer journey. Today I took the multiple choice part of the Mesa police exam. It started at 8:30 this morning. It was 2 hours long and 100 questions. The minimum passing score is 70%. It doesn't sound that hard. I thought I would be able to get through it pretty easily. Well, the test was a lot harder than I thought. I was really nervous while taking the test because I wasn't real sure that I was going to pass. It took me one hour and fifty minutes to finish. Luckily, I scored an 81 so I did pass. I was hoping for a higher score but I was just glad I passed it. It was a really hard and intimidating test but now it's over and I'm on to step two.
The second part of the process was an oral board interview test. I met with two officers on the hiring board for the police department. The interview started at 1:30. They asked me 8 questions. Most of them were just like a job interview; Why do you want to be a police officer, what makes you qualified, why are you better then the other candidates, etc. The other two questions were situational questions where they gave me two scenarios and asked how I would respond to each one. I really felt like a did a good job during the interview. I felt like it was easy and I breezed through it. I could be wrong but when I walked out of the interview I knew that I had passed. The two officers met for about ten minutes to discuss my answers then called me back in. They told me that I had passed and would be moving on to the next step. I asked if they could tell me what I scored on the interview but they could not tell me. Hopefully I got a high score. I really felt like I did.
So the next step is tomorrow morning at 6:30. It's the physical fitness portion of the test. I'm not really worried because I can do the minimum pretty easily. I'm just going to push myself to try and get a really good score that will look better to the hiring board. I'll let you know what happens. So far so good though.

Mesa Police Exam here I come!

The time has finally come. I leave for Mesa on Friday to finally take the police exam. I've been waiting for what seems like forever, but it's finally here. I'm starting to get nervous now because I've been planning for the future as if I passed the test so it would be quite a disappointment if I don't pass.

Just thought I'd go through the process of what's going to happen over the next week and a half. I'll try to be brief so this doesn't turn into a book. Here's what each day looks like.

Saturday July 12th--Test workshop. A three hour class to go over the testing process and strategies to pass.

The actual testing process begins on Monday. The first test I take is a written multiple choice and reading and writing test. This will test my short term memory, reasoning, common sense and observasional skills. This is the test I'm most nervous about. It's not something you can really study for. I have a prep guide but it just goes over strategies and test taking techniques. With this test it's almost like either you got it, or you don't. Right after I finish this test, it will be scored and if I pass I will be scheduled for an interview test with two or three hiring officers.

In the interview test I'll be asked situational questions, what would you do if... They will also ask about my personal character. Basically just like a job interview. It's a chance for me to convince them I'm a qualified candidate. The officers will also score this right away. If I pass, I move on.

The next step is the physical fitness test. This will be the day after the written and interview test, Tuesday morning most likely. I'm pretty comfortable with this test. I have to do 17 push-ups in a minute, 27 sit-ups in a minute, and 1.5 mile run in 15 minutes. Doesn't sound too difficult does it? I've been working out the past couple of weeks and should be able to get through this done with no problems.

After the fitness test I will be scheduled for a psychological exam and a polygraph test during the following few days. Once those are done and they will begin an extensive background check. This is when the waiting game begins. The background check can take anywhere from 2 to 4 months. They'll be contacting old neighbors, teachers, employers, co-workers, family, friends, anyone who I may have had contact with. So if someone calls you and asks questions about me, be sure to talk me up. I could use the help.

Once that is all done and they determine I am a qualified candidate, I will be placed on an "acceptable list". The hiring detectives will refer to this list as they are filling spots for the upcoming academy classes. Hopefully everything will go well and I will be in the next academy class that starts in January.

That's it. No big deal right? It's a pretty quick and easy process. I'm excited to get started with it at least. If at any point I don't pass one of the steps then the process stops. I can retest but there is a waiting period of either 3 or 6 months. Not sure. Hopefully all will go well and I'll be starting my lawenforcement career in January. Just wanted to let everyone know what i'll be doing the next week and a half. Wish me luck!!

Girls Camp!!

As many of you may know I was released as the Young Women's President a couple of weeks ago. It truly has been tougher than I thought. I miss all of my girls and the leaders that I have worked with. Well this past week it was girls camp!! It was held at Heber Valley Girls Camp and it was so AMAZING!! I was only able to go up for the last day, but I had so much fun. When I first got there we went on a two mile hike, which is where I realized that I am out of shape, (I tried not to show it though). After the hike we were able to eat lunch and have some free time, where we could talk and hang out. I had so much fun hanging out with all the girls and doing crafts. Later that evening we had some awesome dutch oven dinner before testimony meeting. Testimony meeting was and has always been an incredible thing. I was so proud of my girls and the things that they shared. They have such strong spirits and are great examples to me and other girls. I am really sad that I was not able to go up for the whole week, but that one day was so much fun!!! I have loved this ward, calling, and the girls and leaders that I have had so many great experiences with.

Update

Obviously we're not the best bloggers ever seeing that it's been over a month since my last post, so I'll have to update things a bit. Not even sure where to start. Celeste and I are playing a waiting game right now. We're kind of in between a few different things right now. I'm still planning on going to Mesa, AZ and applying with the police department. They just posted their next test date which is June 28. I'll be heading down for a week or so to go through the whole testing process. There is five or six different steps in the whole process. I'm trying to prepare myself now by getting in better shape and learning as much as I can. If everything goes well and I get accepted into the POST program, I'll start the academy in January. Celeste and I have been trying to decide what to do until then. I had a phone interview the University of Phoenix to work for them as an enrollment counselor and we are waiting to hear back from them. I've heard that they are going to offer me a job, but they have to do a background check and they are still in the process of doing that. If it all goes through, we'll be moving down there as soon as possible. In the mean time, I just started a new job here a couple weeks ago working for a company called North American Services Group. They are an industrial cleaning company. Right now I'm working out at the smelter for Kennicot copper mine. It's pretty crazy out there. I have to wear a facemask with a respirator pretty much all day. I work a pretty crazy schedule too. I wake up at 4 am so I can be up there by 5. I'm supposed to get off at 2 pm but most days I'm there until 5 pm. Twice I've had to work until 10 pm and don't get home until 11:30, but the overtime pay is great. It's a pretty crazy job that I didn't think I'd ever do, but I can deal with it because it's a temporary thing. If I don't get the job at University of Phoenix, then we'll stay here and I'll find something a little less crazy. My biggest hope is that everything goes well with the police officer testing. That would be a dream come true for me. I've always pictured myself doing that. I have what I like to call a hero complex. I've always wanted to be a "hero" and help people. I'm excited and nervous about it all at the same time. As I said with all of this going on right now, we're playing a waiting game. I think we'd both like to have a baby but we feel like we need to wait until we know what's going to happen in the next year or so. I was told it's best not to have a baby while I'm in the academy because I can't miss very many days. So once I know if I get accepted or not we can know if we should wait or not. That's the latest and greatest with us. We'll keep things updated a little better as things come up. Wish us luck!

Mesa Arizona

As many of you know I was in Mesa this last weekend to check out the police department about getting a job. I went down on Thursday night and stayed with Nik and Anissa Rasheta. Nik is Noah's twin brother in case you didn't know that. That night we just spent the night talking and I asked a bunch of questions about being a police officer. Friday morning Nik and I went to the police station and he gave me a tour. I also was able to talk to a recruiting officer. She told me it's a good time to be applying. The city needs to hire 100 new officers this year so she said as long as I'm not a dough head, things look good for me. Good news. That night we picked Noah up at the airport and spent the rest of the night at home. Saturday we went and played sand volleyball for Anissa's birthday. It was a lot of fun. Afterwards we went to Anissa's sisters house and jumped in her pool. Nik and I changed there and went to the station for Nik's shift. I did a ride along with him for his entire shift, 3 pm to 1 am, that night. It was a lot of fun. It was a busy night and we kept getting call after call. We didn't really get to do anything too crazy though. We did bust a girl for possession of cocaine though. All in all it was a good night for me and it pretty much just sealed the deal for me. I'll probably go down around August/Sept to go through the testing and application process. Then I'll hopefully start the academy down there in March. I could start the academy as early as Dec. but for Celeste's sake we'll hope that I can start a few months later. In the end it was a lot of fun. I loved the city and the area down there and think it's the perfect place to live for Celeste and I. Big thanks to Nik and Anissa for letting me come and stay with them and for taking care of me for the weekend.