Garrett family shtuff.

Most married women who blog make it a family blog. Although my blog is technically just "mine", it's basically a family blog. Jake is a fantastic creative writer so he made his own about a year ago. So when I decided to make one a few months ago I just created my own. But lets face it; all you women who have a joint blog with your husband basically write all the blogs themselves! Anyway, my point is that this is a Jake and Hannah Garrett family update on the past little while.

Jake and I bought a car almost 2 weeks ago. It is SO great to have a car we're not embarrassed of anymore! It wasn't just that... the upkeep was becoming too much. So we sold our car to Mallory and now she has a way to travel too. I don't have to pick her up every time we want to hang out! Buying a car is a lot harder than I thought. We spent a long time calculating our monthly payment, how many years we wanted the loan to last, and what we wanted our down payment to be. When it came down to it, we had to put $500 more down and our loan length was shorter than we wanted. BUT our monthly payment is about $20 cheaper than we thought and our loan interest is ridiculously low! So you win some, you lose some. The hardest part is that if you are self-employed, getting a loan is kinda difficult. The bank wanted proof of our employment in the form of a letter from our employers. I told the car accountant that I would have to get 15 different letters, because I have 15 paychecks every month! After a lot of stress we realized that we could bring in our tax information from last year and that would work too.  So now we have a blue 2006 Hyundai Elantra!

Around the same time, Jake and I realized that there was a strange $50 charge on his debit card. After looking into it more, we realized that it was a $50 donation to a bunny shelter in California! We never paid that, obviously. What a weird thing. I love bunnies, but if I am going to donate to a charity it would be for humans. So we called our bank, they cancelled his card and sent us a new one. During the time we were waiting for the new card, Jake borrowed my debit card. We just received the new card a couple days ago in the mail, but I forgot to put my debit card back in my wallet. So yesterday I went to Sam's Club to pick up a few groceries and when I got up to the checkout, I realized I didn't have my debit card. I pulled out my credit card and swiped it, but the cashier said: "Oh, we don't take VISA credit cards". All I could think was how DUMB that is! Visa is the most common card company, and a lot of people pay with credit cards. So I pulled out my old debit card (which only has about $15 on it; I don't use that bank account). I paid for the groceries with that (even though the Sam's Club total was about $40). I felt so dumb. Everyone behind me in line probably thought I was so pathetic. After I paid for the groceries, I rushed over to the university to pick Jake up from work, we headed over to our bank and pulled out $30 in cash, then ran to my old bank and put it in my account! Luckily we beat the clock and got the cash into my account in time. STRESSFUL!

As you can see, we've had some funny bad luck lately. These are only 2 examples of many. Jake and I have handled all these situations well though, I have to say. Last summer we had some really stressful stuff happen to us. It's funny how one more year of marriage together has made us closer. This time around we know each other even better, and we just work through it with ease (for the most part :) ). I wouldn't want to go through good and bad times with anyone else.

Yesterday Jake and I got our safety deposit in the mail from our old apartment. We weren't sure how much we would get back. We got the whole thing back except $50, way more than we hoped! So to celebrate, Jake and I went on a date. I know, it seems weird to make a big deal about a date when you're married. But we haven't gone out at all in a long time. So Jake said to me, while we were getting ready: "Oh hey, can I take you on a date tonight? Can I come pick you up around... right now?". I said yes, and so he walked out the front door, knocked on it, and when I opened the door he asked if my father was home so he could check what time to have me home. He is so cute!

On another note, my sister-in-law (and friend for 4 years!) Liz recently graduated. We are both pretty bored a lot of the time; graduating does that to you I guess. We've been talking about getting together so she can teach me how to get started on family history. Today we finally got together and I realized it is SO much fun! My dad's side of the family still has a lot of work to do. I'm glad I know how to kind of look around at death records and birth certificates and such.

Life is good. Exciting things are happening. My birthday is a week from today, we'll be heading down to Kaysville for Joe's graduation and then Jake's cousin is getting married the next day. I hope it will be a great summer.