The Oven

Why do we have two ovens?

Let me tell you the story...
A long time ago... (ok maybe not so long ago) we moved in to an apartment in far away Provo....

So we moved in to this great little basement apartment here in Provo a little over a year ago. Well, see the black oven in the picture above? Well the poor thing has had issues.
It has never worked for us quite right. I tried to cook pizza, muffins and other such things and it always burnt the bottom or took way longer than called for.
We finally figured it out when we cooked lasagna for the first time.
THE TOP ELEMENT NEVER WORKED.
We reported it to our land lord the next time we saw them.

A little while latter, Matt decided he was going to fix this problem. He took the oven apart and made sure it was the element (which looked fine and dandy by the way). So we took it to Lowes, they don't carry it anymore... the Mending Shed, they don't either... Online... close to $200 dollars. So we decided to leave it up to the owner to fix.

In the mean time, this fatastic toaster oven has become our new best friend over the last several months.
I cooked everything we ate in this little oven or on top of the stove that only partially worked.
Anyways, time passed and we decided to remind the owner that it still didn't work.
So here's the story....

One Saturday morning we get a knock on the door. I had just gotten out of the shower, so I lock myself in the bedroom to get ready while Matt gets the door. From the bedroom I hear them getting our tools and such and it sounded like they were taking apart the oven. By the time I am all ready I come out of the room to find them cleaning up all the tools and closing up the oven.

The power was on, the old element was in the guys hand, and matt was putting away his tools. So, I figured they had just replaced the element. I was pretty excited about it!
I said something like "Oh we should make sure it works before you leave!"
So I went and pushed the 'Bake' Button ......
POOOOOFFF
Their went the power and electrical. OH NO!
Matt comes back in the room and says "NAT!!!....."
We open the oven door and a little puf of smock comes out.
I just blew up our oven.

They really hadn't replaced the element, but had just taken the old one out.
But now we had an even bigger problem.
THE ENTIRE OVEN DID NOT WORK! Thanks to me!

So a week later after some microwave meals, we get an offer from our sweet neighbors in Alpine who just happen to be remodeling their house and were in need of dumping an old oven.
Matt jumped at the offer and we went to go fetch our new oven.

We (well Matt and my brother) haul it into our apartment (which mind you is not an easy task. We have narrow steep stairs just before entering our door and the kitchen is in the back.) Anyways, we go to plug it in and ......who knew that oven's have different plugs. It was a 3 prong instead of the 4 prong outlet we had. So now we have two useless ovens in our little kitchen. :)

To end the story, the owner sent a nice little repair man to fix the black oven. He diagnosed the problem to be the electrical board the whole time. The top element is in fantastic shape. He came back the next day to replace the electrical board and we were SO HAPPY!

Well the truth about the story is, we were extremely blessed. Matt told the guy the whole story about how I blew up the electrical by pushing a button.... The guy acted surprised and said that shouldn't have happened. And quite frankly, we were pretty lucky it hadn't started a fire!
I think someone in Heaven is watching over us!

We couldn't be happier to have a working oven!
I'm not sure if I am more happy to cook again, or if Matt is more excited to Eat again!

:)

Winter Wonderland!!!

The other morning we woke up to this! It looked absolutely beautiful! There is just something cozy and wonderful about waking up from a warm sleep to a fresh white Winter-land of snow like this!

Would have loved to be skiing with Ange, Em, and Nate!
(I was a bit jealous... I admit)




Good Morning!


Yes, we live in the basement of this quaint little house! We love it!

Matt is a fantastic snow shoveler!
I think shorts and cold must be a Vegas thing. ;)
Do they still wear shorts with Ugg boots down there?

A precious gem

A few days ago, I found this little gem!

"An intelligent being, in the image of God, possesses every organ, attribute, sense, sympathy, affection, of will, wisdom, love, power and gift, which is possessed by God himself. But these are possessed by man in his rudimental state in a subordinate sense of the word. Or, in other words, these attributes are in embryo, and are to be gradually developed. They resemble a bud, a germ, which gradually develops into bloom, and then, by progress, produces the mature fruit after its own kind."

– Parley P. Pratt

For some reason this just clicked in my mind. I have had several church lessons on individual worth, not to mention all the young women lessons growing up, but for some reason, this sank into my heart and made it all the more clear.

Man was made in the image of God.

Since I have been married, I have noticed that I am very similar to my parents in their characteristics and attributes etc. while my husband is very similar to his parents. So WE are similar to our Father in Heaven.

That means that I have all the same attributes as my Heavenly Father, I just need to develop them.

A quick little update...

We started school-both Matt and I are going full time.
We both work part time.
We miss the Dixon family. (luckily we see the Dennis fam often!)
We want to go to Vegas.
We bought a car this summer.
Matt translated for General Conference.

My brother came home!

My Birthday!

My surprise b-day present from Matt!

Built by Matt.
BYU Games! Go Cougs!

My closet fell apart!
It was a lovely mess, but my handy husband fixed it.

We took a quick trip to Powell for my brother since he has missed out for the past 2 years.
Our apartment has a phantom puddle of water that appears in the middle of the kitchen floor.
Come to find out, that phantom puddle is also in our bedroom and closet.
We are sleeping on a mattress in living room while our carpet is torn up and drying.

So there you have it, a quick update from the Dixon's!

A little thing called CIDP

When … holding on with two hands clenched in a tight squeeze around the rope handle, straight elbows, wrists in place, fingers interlocking, gloves, jaw clenched, life jacket, no shorts, legs bent in a sitting position, back straight, everybody in the Front of the boat, and my father pulling me as gently as he could over and over again with no success … when all of that wasn’t enough to do what I loved, I KNEW SOMETHING WAS WRONG. It was at Lake Powell when I realized that IT wasn’t just weakness or Carpel Tunnel. (Yes it was the same Lake Powell trip that I opened my Mission Call.) Something was wrong and I needed to find out quickly before I left for Russia on September 12^th.

One MRI, a few ECGs, a few Nerve Conduction studies, lots of blood, some urine, a Spinal Tap, several phone calls, many doctors, plus visits, and many tears later I found out that I had CIDP. Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy.

Well needless to say, I didn’t end up going to Russia. I’ll spare you the details. It’s a whole other story. But I will say this. The whole thing ended up being one of the greatest blessings in my life.

The next couple of months were very interesting. There were many experiences that I will never forget. At one point I could barely walk without support. Walking up the stairs hunched over like an 80 year old man was all I could do to reach the top. I began to realize that I had taken for granted the every day things I use to do with my hands and feet.

I didn’t dare go visit my friends. I could barely turn the key to the car with both hands. The few times I did venture to Provo, I was sore and shaky by the time I got there. And worst of all I couldn’t even do up the button on my pants. What if I had to go to the Bathroom? Thanks to ever persistent friendships of the ones who cared to get me out of the hole I was in and get me out to be social again. Those were the ones who helped a poor friend button up her pants.

I was a scared, nervous 16 year old girl again when it came to going on dates. I felt like I’d forgotten how to talk to a boy. I had little confidence. I walked like Ronald McDonald because I could not hold my toes up; they just flopped on the ground. No wonder I rarely if ever went on anything but first dates during that first 6 months. One date in particular consisted of going to Salt Lake for a concert at the Conference Center. Afterwords the group wanted to WALK to Olive Garden for dinner. Mind you, this was in the middle of December and I do not do so well in the extreme cold. It was all I could do to keep my shoes on (they weren’t even heal, they were flats!). My poor date offered to give me a piggy back ride the few blocks left, I refused. Number 1. because I was in a skirt and number 2. my pride would not let me. I was determined. With numb feet, legs, and hands, we reached Olive Garden just in time to follow the group to our table. ...Luckily my date was sensible enough to ask the driver to go get the car 10 blocks or so away while the rest of the group stayed warm in Olive Garden, because HE was cold. Bless that boy.

I eventually moved back to Provo and went back to school at BYU. I lived just south of campus. I walked up the hill to class every day. I remember the first time I passed someone up while walking up the hill. I was thrilled! I called my mother to tell her about it. lol

Anyways, a lot has happened since and I have been very extremely blessed. I am now married to a wonderful husband who has so much love and patience for me. I have been blessed with wonderful friends. I have the most superb family, and married into the most amazing family. All of which have offered many prayers in my behalf. It is truly humbling. (I can not express my thanks enough to all of you for your many thoughtful prayers)

Nearly 50 IV treatments, over 100 needles, a few sharps containers, a few BOTTLES of Advil Tylenol and Benadryl, a few months of Methotrexate (a chemo drug), lots of sleep, some FABULOUS nurses and many Dr. visits, probably 100,000 if not over a million Prayers later … I feel stronger & better now than I have felt in the last two years!!!! Progress!!

I am so excited that I can jog with my husband! Even if it’s more like half jogging, mostly walking. I have been able to jog EIGHT days in the last two weeks! And the week before that, I was able to WATERSKI at Lake Powell FOUR days in a row!!! (I didn't even get sore that week at Lake Powell, Kinda nice! lol --- because I was numb. )

You know, over the past two years I have grown so much as a person that I would never trade this for anything else in the world. I have grown so close to my husband, my family, my Heavenly Father, and my Savior. Nothing can replace that.

CIDP has been the greatest blessing! If I have learned anything from this experience, it is that Heavenly Father lives and His Son Jesus Christ lives. They know me. Heavenly Father has His hand in my life. Prayer is real. The Priesthood is real. The Holy Ghost is real. And my Testimony is real.

Thank you for all your continued prayers and support! They are felt and deeply appreciated. We love you!

Summer!!!

We have had the most glorious summer.
A Bailey family reunion up at Bridger Lake.
A weekend at the cabin near Panguitch with the Dixon family.
A weekend with the Dennis family up at the Grand Tetons in Wyoming.
A whole week at Lake Powell!

And SO MUCH FUN!!!!!

It was a bit cold and rainy, but hopefully I did not ruin my Husband's will to go camping with me.

Angela, Maurielle, Mom, & Me @ Bridger Lake

Uncle Matt and Baby Drew

More baby Drew


The cutest Nephews!
Jordan, Jackson, Matthew, Kaden, and Max.


Here are a few pics of us shooting Steve's guns.
Thanks Steve!

We hiked up to Stewart Falls! :)




While camping near the Grand Teton Mountains, we took a little trip to
Jackson Hole, Wyoming!

My cute husband and his tired wife. (I apologize)

We saw some beautiful waterfalls because it rained. :)

I absolutely LOVE to Water ski and I am SO EXCITED that I have enough strength to do so!!!
I haven't skied like that in 2 or 3 years!!!!

Relaxing on top of the house boat waiting for the storm to end.

Anyways, we love summer!!!