What's happenin?

So what's happenin in the life of us? Not much, to be honest. We got our Christmas tree set up, Mr. Barcenas is almost done with his finals, and I'm trying to go gluten free. Let me just tell ya, it is NOT very much fun. Why am I going gluten free? I'm trying to see if my migraines are due to a gluten intolerance. I decided that the drug I was taking for my migraines wasn't very healthy, so I got off of it. My neurologist suggested a few years ago that I try a GF diet but I decided it was unrealistic at the time, because I'm from a family of seven. Eating something different then everybody else all the time would suuuuuck. So now that it's just me and Mr. Barcenas, I've finally decided to try it. It's actually not as hard as I thought it was going to be in the beginning. Sure I can't eat out, but there are LOADS of foods that I can eat. I already make a lot of my food at home, so it's not really a big lifestyle change. I just can't eat bread or crackers or brownies, which is probably for the best :P Mr. Barcenas has had to make a change to his cooking habits, though. When he cooks, he almost always has a gravy, and gravies are made with flour. So, he cooks my food first, then makes his gravy :P I've been finding all of this a fun learning experience. In mt first semester at school, I had a roommate who was GF, and she made it sound/look like she couldn't eat aaaaaaaanything. I always felt super bad for her. You just have to know where to look for foods. 
Oh! I also FINALLY got my wedding pictures from my photographer. It's taken 4 1/2 MONTHS! That's a really long time. I kinda got totally peeved at her. There are some pretty cute pics in there though :) I'm going to send them off to my sister, so she can play with them.

New Record!

I have a new record! I have kept the apartment clean for a total of one week and five days! Yay! I'm actually quite proud of myself. Just thought I should inform ya'all about this :)

Fruit Cups Anyone?

Got a tip and trick for those of you who love fruit cups, but hate the price! It's so much easier to buy a can of fruit, instead of the fruit cups, right? But then you open the can and realize that there is just too much fruit for one person! So what do you do? Get tupperware! 

Mr. Barcenas goes through mandarin oranges like CRAZY! We buy the great value brand, because it's like a dollar per can. Down side is that you need a can opener to open it, and the Mr. doesn't want to take a can opener to school, which is completely understandable. So we just transfer the fruit into our little tupperware cups! Smart, right? I thought so!

Our Apartment

So, this post is mainly for my dad, who hasn't seen the apartment, and for my mom, who hasn't seen it since we started decorating! So, here we go. Here is the floor plan. It's really nice for just the two of us. Lots of room, and LOTS of storage, which is nice. 
Here's what you see when you walk in

The closet you see on the right is a jacket/shoe closet 

Do you like where I hang my purse??? It works really well! Gotta love my tiny vacuum :)
Here's the living room

Look mom! We're putting the dresser to good use right now :)

Can't forget about my giraffes, I LOVE THEM!

Our little computer area

Here's the kitchen. Lots of cabinets, and I love it

Everybody, meet Frank! He's our fish :)

This is the dining area

Our pantry, where we keep all our food storage. 

Here's the balcony. On the left is my brother's freezer, and on the right is a large closet that we keep everything that 1) wont freeze and 2) we don't use.

On to the bathroom! This is what you see when you walk in

 Laundry is in the closet to the right, and on the left is more closet space that holds all our linens. 

Bathtub

So now you've seen most of the apartment! The only pics I didn't post are of the bedroom, because that's still a mess at this point. I've got some boxes in there from when we moved in. I've got them unpacked though! I just need to put them in our balcony storage area. We also don't have any matching bedding yet :P We will eventually though! 

To Be Honest...

Okay, time to be totally honest: I'm FAT! Like, HUGE. I've finally decided that... again... So! It's time to do something about it. I'm guessing it's from being married and being able to eat what ever I want, when ever I want it. Today, I start eating healthier and I'm starting to exercise again. Here are my before pics

Even my face agrees! I'm disguuuuuusting! But it's all good, because I'm on my way to fixing that! I'll make sure to update ya'all every now and then on how my weight loss is going.

COLD Feet

This isn't a reference to how I think my marriage was a horrible decision. My feet really are cold! But you know what? My husband lets me put my cold feet on him! Isn't that great?!? I think so :) Anywhos - for those who don't know, my feet get really, and I mean REALLY cold. I'm not alone, though. My mom's feet get cold, my older sister's feet get cold, and I don't know about the rest of my sib's. Wanna see my solution to cold feet?
Behold! Warm feet!

See, Mom and I made some corn bag things last winter, and I use them for EVERYthing. Sore muscles? CORN BAG! Cramps? CORN BAG! Cold feet? CORN BAG! These things are amazing! I just put on some socks, grab some stretchy headbands, and BAM! Warm feet :) Oh, and don't forget to pop em in the microwave for a bit, that's an important part :P

I Love My Job

Have I ever talked about how much I love my job? Because I do! I love it so much :) I get to work with some awesome people, not only my co-workers, but also those who I care for. For those of you who don't know, I work for a company based out of Idaho Falls called H.A.S. It stands for Habitation Assisted Services, or something like that. I would totally give you a link to their homepage, but they are still a relatively new company and don't have one yet. But oh well! All I know is that it's a lot of fun! I get to help handicapped adults learn how to be on their own and become more independent! You're assigned one or two clients, depending on the scope of their disability, and you just work with them all day. It's 24 hour care, so there are three shifts, 7-3, 3-11, and 11-7. I always work the morning shifts, that way I have time with the Mr. when he gets off work at 7, and so I can make sure the apartment is clean when he gets home :) I work with two girls normally, who I have totally became friends with. I wonder if I'm allowed to become friends with my clients? Nooo idea.
Work is about the only place where I get to have some sort of social interaction. I may not be interacting with people who are able to understand me, or who are mentally over the age of twelve, but it's better than staying at home all day. It gets me out of the house, and it's easy. Sometimes it's like babysitting a really tall three year old. Sure they throw temper-tantrums (which can get really big), but I love seeing the smiles on their faces when they get really excited about something. 
Disabled people are some of the sweetest souls you will ever meet. They are simple, pretty darn easy to understand, and it's like the world can't get to them. It's great! We have a young gentleman who is mentally at about age three or four (his papers say he's five, but the rest of the staff and I believe he is a bit younger) and he never really wants to do anything with anyone. His roommate, on the other hand, is maybe a young teenager? I don't know exactly, I haven't worked with him that much. Annnnnywaaaaays, one day I was trying to get the first guy to take a bath, and he absolutely REFUSED. I tried everything I could to get him to (other than physically forcing him to)! Then, the second guy realizes that I need some help, so he goes up to the first one and asks "______, don't you think you need to take a bath? Please? For me?" Welp, that did it! My client then decided to take a bath :) I thought it was pretty great. 

Another Date Night

Had another wonderful date night last night! We went to the Pineapple Grill for the first time, and let my just say this: IT WAS GOOD! It's also the only place in Rexburg to get sushi :P I forgot to take a picture of my before, so here is my after

Please notice, that the wasabi and the ginger are NOT touched :P Mr. Barcenas had some salmon with crushed mango, and a pineapple sauce. It was different - good, but different. We then went back to FatCats, because we didn't finish off all of out tokens from the other night. We ended up getting a total of 449 tickets! A new record for us :)

Date Night

We went to the Straw Maze again! It was so much fun, and soooo much better in the dark than it is in the day light. It's also a lot more fun with more people! Who would have thought? Our night started with a Chinese dinner (Mr. Barcenas was a total sweetie and let me choose, even though he hates Chinese food), some games at Fat Cats, and then we met up with the group at a friends house around eight. It was my friend and her husband, her sister and brother-in-law, and then that brother-in-laws cousin with his girlfriend. It's not as confusing as it sounds, promise. Anyways! We went to the maze, got lost, us girls screamed a few times, the Mr. almost punched a guy off his stilts, and I almost wet my pants. That's what I get for not going before we left! We finally left at about ten because Mr. Barcenas had homework, of course. It was fine with me though, because I was starting to get cold and I wanted some hot chocolate. I love how it's only a buck at Maverick right now! Go and get it while you can!
Lots of fun tonight, met some cool people, and actually socialized. I don't normally like to get out much, but the Mr. and I have been going out with other couples quite a bit lately. I kinda like it! Gets us out of the house, and some things are just more fun with more people.

Hello Blogspot

So I've finally decided to make a blog, just like the rest of the world! But that's all good :) I plan for this to be just a little something that my husband and I can use to keep family updated if they are interested in what's going on day-to-day in our little family. I also plan to post my Pinterest fails and successes on here, with pictures of course. I do a lot of Pinterest experiments.