Erik and Vanessa

It's almost Graduation!!!!

2009-12-13T10:55:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I graduate this Thursday!!! I'm so excited. :) Now, I just have to stop wasting time online and finish studying for my last final exam tomorrow. hehe.

98! 98! 98!

2009-11-11T09:53:00.001-08:00

Just had to post a quick brag that I got a 98 on my marketing consumer behavior test! :) hehe

Vanessa's Halloween night in

2009-11-01T11:21:00.000-08:00

So, I'm boring. haha. But I amuse myself well. :)

I really enjoyed my Halloween yesterday even though other people would have found it really boring. I worked in the morning, then my dad and Stepmom came over to the house. We talked for a while. Then I carved my pumpkin (I think dad still gets nervous when I use a knife, haha) into my attempt at a scary face. Erik said that even when I try to make things scary, I end up making them look happy, so I tried really hard to prove him wrong.

I think I was successful!

Then my roommate and I went to the store to make sure we had enough candy and also got some apple cider (well, we actually got apple juice and were going to get cinnamon sticks but forgot). So we had warm apple juice! Tasted good to me! We watched a scary show on TV about ghost hunting and then I watched Criminal Minds (I'd never seen it before, crazy stuff!). We passed out candy when the Trick-or-Treators came and loved seeing their cute costumes. We also set my jack-o-lantern in the window with other candles. I thought it looked pretty spooky!!

I throughly enjoyed my "boring" Halloween! :)

We're buying a house!!!!

2009-11-01T11:13:00.000-08:00

We are buying a house!!! This house!!! :)

We absolutely love it! It is a 3 bed/ 2.5 bath house in Clarksville, TN. It is a short 5 minute drive to base for Erik and it's in a cute mostly military neighborhood on a circle. It is a newer house (great for us!) and has vaulted ceilings in the living room. The master with walk-in closet (yes!) and bath are on the main floor with the other 2 bedrooms and full bath upstairs. We love that it has newer black appliances in the kitchen and lots of ceiling fans and of course a garage!!! Now we can keep Erik's motorcycle out of the rain (and soon to be snow). Erik's excited to be able to work on his bike without having to put it all together again before dark and the bugs start attacking. We're also excited that Max will have a bigger yard to run around in! :)

This house is perfect for us and everything went smoothly with the offer, inspection and appraisal, now we're just waiting to close in less than 2 weeks.

I will add more pictures once we get our stuff moved in and I get to decorate. hehe.

Vanessa finally got a hair cut!!!

2009-11-01T11:03:00.001-08:00

So, this is a little out of order, but oh well. When I got back to Arizona at the end of August I decided to get a major hair cut and donate the hair to Locks of Love. I have always had medium to long hair and was scared to death. But with Erik's encouraging and the thought that I was doing something good, I did it! Here's the results!

I really like it. :) Here's the 10 inches of hair I donated.

I would like to introduce the newest member of the Barraclough Family.....

2009-10-30T15:45:00.000-07:00

MAX!!!!! (Maximus)

Erik found him when he was in downtown Nashville and couldn't leave him on the street. He is a great dog and we've become quite attached. He is a brindle Pit Bull and is quite strong. When Erik found him he was really skinny.

But he's been feeding him good and taking care of him and now Max is really healthy and happy! :) Okay he doesn't look very happy in the pic but he is! haha. We also got him a house.

V comes home!

2009-10-30T15:38:00.000-07:00

I flew home to visit Erik the second weekend in October. We did a lot of things during the weekend and had an amazing time being together again! I arrived at 7:30am on Thursday, Erik had to go back to work, but my friend Lael and I went out with the realtor to look for houses. We saw a ton that day but still made it home before hubby! :) Our home teachers came to visit us that night and we went out to eat together.

The next day hubby had to work a half day, so I went running with Lael in the pouring rain in the morning! It was actually really fun!!! Then later that day hubby and I went to look at the best houses I had found and he picked his favorite (more about that to come!). That night we stayed in at home watching a movie and ordering pizza and just enjoying being together.

On Saturday we slept in, we also went to the Clarksville raceway. Its a dirt/mud racetrack in town. It was really... dare I say... redneck, but oh so fun!! :) We had a blast. Green green green!!!!!!! Goooooooooo!!!!

On Sunday we went to church, enjoyed a nice lunch together and took Max for a walk (more on Max to come!). Then I got on the flight to come back to AZ. :(

Summer 2009

2009-10-30T15:22:00.000-07:00

I know this is combining a lot of things into one post, but I really want to get caught up so I can start posting about things happening now in our lives without getting things out of order. So... here is the summer in a nutshell!

Erik reported to his first duty station- Fort Campbell, KY on May 5, 2009. Yes, just a couple days after our wedding. He drove across the country in his new truck that we bought while he was in basic.

He loaded his motorcycle in the back and took everything he could with him. When he got to Fort Campbell, he had to go through inprocessing and found a place for us to rent.

I finished my semester two weeks later and packed up all our stuff and furniture into a Uhaul and drove it across the country with my mom! (Thanks for helping us!) I then spent the next few weeks unpacking since Erik's unit went to New York for 3 weeks.

When he got home we finally got to live together as a married couple and it was great! We had a lot of fun times BBQing and meeting new people over the summer.

Unfortunately, the end of the summer came WAY too fast and I had to leave to go back to AZ for school. :(

Our Wedding (In pictures)

2009-10-30T14:58:00.000-07:00

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2496947&id=10049937&l=73848f7331

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2496956&id=10049937&l=3531b7fb51

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2496964&id=10049937&l=277ed740b1

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2496975&id=10049937&l=c873865c6d

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2496984&id=10049937&l=e760c209ee

Our wedding day!!!!

2009-10-30T14:36:00.000-07:00

Today's the day we've been looking forward to since we started dating 4 years ago! We are getting married!!!!!!

Here's how the day went! :)

4:30am- V wake up, shower (not that I slept much anyways!)

5:00am- Julie starts creating my awesome hairdo (thanks!!)

6:00am- My make-up is getting done. Erik woke up and came out to look at me. He laughed (I guess it looks weird when someone is airbrushing your makeup on haha) at me.

7:00am- Rushing to try to get everything ready to go to the temple. And I thought I had it all already the night before..... aparently not! :) Thank you so much Kristin for helping me to stay calm and helping me get packed.

8:15am- This is when we were supposed to leave.... haha

8:30am- This is when we actually left.....

Then we were sealed for all eternity in the Mesa Arizona LDS Temple!!!!! :)

10:30am- After the sealing we took a ton of pictures outside the temple.

12:00pm- We had a luncheon at my dad's house in Mesa for family and the bridal party. It was perfect! :) Not too hot outside, awesome food, and great friends. Thank you all!!!

Erik and I relaxed a little bit during the afternoon and then went over to our reception area to help set up.

The reception that evening was amazing!! I want to thank the Biggs family for letting us use their amazingly huge backyard! So many people helped to make this the best day of our lives!!

We danced, we giggled, we watched our video of us growing up and falling in love, we ate pasta and cake and we had a lot of fun with all our friends and family!!!

Pictures will be posted in the next posting!!! Theres a ton. haha.

Best day of our lives!!!!!!

Going to Fort Benning #2 for Graduation!

2009-10-30T14:15:00.000-07:00

Erik graduated from Army infantry basic training!!! :)

Erik's family and I all went down to Fort Benning, GA for the weekend.

His dad pinned his blue Infantryman's cord onto his Class A's during the graduation ceremony.

The next morning they had another ceremony that included a bunch of different company's graduating. We were freezing in the stands in the shade and the guys were staring right into the sun while standing on the field. But it was a really cool ceremony with smoke and demonstrations and the guys walking right in front of us at the end!! See if you can spot Erik in the pic below. :)

After this ceremony, Erik was soooo excited to be leaving Fort Benning. We stopped and ate lunch and then his family dropped us off at the airport. We flew back to Arizona and are super excited to get married in a week!!!!

Going to Fort Benning!

2009-10-30T13:38:00.000-07:00

So.... I haven't seen Erik since Christmas and it's now March, but I'm heading out to Fort Benning, Georgia for his weekend off! :)

On my way I flew to St. Louis and stayed with my friend Hannah. We had adventures of the freezing cold zoo, Walmart and driving from St. Louis all the way down to Columbus, GA.

We spend the weekend with our boys and loved it. It rained almost the whole time but nothing could take away from our joy.

It got interesting when I got to the airport to fly back to AZ tho. My reservation did not exist and I was forced to purchase a 450 ticket to get home that day! Of course I had a test that day too. And I was sad because I would not see Erik again for 5 weeks. It was not a good day. But I made it back to AZ and in time for the test. Whew!

Bridal Shower Fun

2009-08-13T11:47:00.000-07:00

My bridal shower was perfect! :) It was hosted at Joann Wood's house in Flagstaff. We ate yummy food, played games and I opened my presents!!! A big thank you to everyone who helped out!

Christmas 2008

2009-08-13T11:33:00.000-07:00

Erik's home!!!!!!!!!!

Erik came home from basic training for 2 weeks for Christmas. It was so great to finally see each other again. :) This is our Christmas tree down at the Mesa house. We got a free giftcard to Kmart for military families and bought decorations for our tree and house. It was really fun! I absolutely love Christmas decorations and now we have a bunch! :)

We went up to Flagstaff to visit my family and enjoyed our Christmas as an engaged couple.

It's been forever

2009-08-12T13:56:00.000-07:00

And I promise that I will update this within the next week! :)

Private Erik of the US Army

2008-11-27T12:15:00.000-08:00

For those of you that don't already know, Erik is currently US Army soldier. He has been at Ft. Benning, GA since the beginning of October doing Infantry training. I will post more info on here later, but here are a few pics of the day he left and then when we got to see each other right before Thanksgiving at the Phoenix airport for 10 min. :)

Engagement pics continued

2008-11-27T12:05:00.001-08:00

Our engagement photos!!!

2008-11-27T11:59:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since we've posted on here. sorry all!! Here are a few of our favorite engagment photos. :)

We're engaged!!! :)

2008-09-30T21:45:00.000-07:00

We are officially engaged! As of Saturday September 27, 2008.
We spent the weekend in Flagstaff (where V's parents live). We went camping in the rain. lol. Very fun actually. We visited our high school- where we first met. We talked with our former teachers. On Saturday morning Erik bought me a dozen roses- kinda funny... he woke me up and was talking to me.. in the middle of talking to him I just stopped and said, "Roses!" cuz I spotted them. Lol. It was funny. He also made breakfast! :) French toast, eggs, and bacon. Very yummy. Then we went to Snowbowl (Humphrey's Peak). We rode the ski lift to the very top of the mountain and then hiked up from there. It was beautiful, we sat enjoying the scenery for quite some time. Once there was no one around but us, Erik popped the question and I of course said YES! :) Now I have a gorgeous ring and an even more handsome fiancee!! :)

This is the House!!

2008-09-25T19:35:00.000-07:00

Wanted to post some pictures of the house!! :)

This is the house!! :)

This is the front room....

Next... This is the kitchen....

This is the family room....

That's all we have for now!! :)

The joy of working on a saturday

2008-09-07T22:50:00.000-07:00

Completely random but...
I worked this Saturday for.... 12 hours. While most people slept in and had a leisurely day, I worked my butt off. I coached 3 gymnastics classes in the morning, then coached a private lesson, had a short break and then headed to Buffalo Wild Wings where I worked the dinner shift 4-11. Although this was a completely exhausting day, it was totally worth it!! I made a ton of money in tips as well as 40/hr for a private lesson. Overall it was a very positive day.... and when I think about it... what else would I have done instead... not made any money.... slept in til noon.... ate food... watched tv.... did a little homework... tried to stay out of the heat... lol. Working was an excellent choice!!! :)
-Vanessa

First week of School- Vanessa

2008-08-30T12:43:00.000-07:00

So, it's been one week of my Junior year at ASU, and I already have homework. :( It's ok though. I really think I'm going to enjoy my classes this semester. I am in the Professional Business program (W.P. Carey) majoring in Marketing. I'm not exactly sure what I want to do with it so far- I'm thinking either sports, or music marketing/advertising. We'll see though. My classes are....
MUS 355- Survey of American Music- easy online course to satisfy my last non-business credit
MGT 300- Management- my first management class, aimed to make me the best manager/employee I can be. haha.
FIN 300- Finance- actually really interesting already, talking about loans, banks, buying cars, houses, the housing market, I love it!
WPC 301- Welcome to W. P. Carey- teaching us how to plan our future and be ready for it
SCM 303- Honors Supply Chain Management- teacher is awesome! Seems like I could learn a lot from him
MKT 303- Honors Marketing- my first real marketing class! yay! Already have homework, but I love it, so much cool stuff in marketing.
I also have three institute classes- Book of Revelation, Business Forum, and Doctrines of the Church.
The semester will be a lot of work, but I'm gonna learn a lot more about the business world which makes me happy.

Trip to Cali!!

2008-08-30T12:21:00.000-07:00

To finish our summer on an awesome high note, we went to the coast in Cali this past weekend.
I, Vanessa, drove out to Cali with my closest girl friend, Kristin, and her boyfriend Cameron. Erik drove from Fresno to meet us.
We went the the beach at Santa Monica all day Friday. It was so fun, we went swimming in the waves (got taken out a few times lol), went to the Pier (looked at the ferris wheel, but decided not to ride it), and went to a fancy restaurant at Venice beach for dinner. We rode around the beach area on Erik's new motorcycle- It's a yellow 2008 R6.

We love it!! :)
All day Saturday we went to Six Flags in Valencia. It was so fun. Kristin, Erik and I have gone every year for the last 4 years. We're obsessed, it's ok. lol.
Even though this weekend involved a lot of driving for the both of us, it was totally worth it!! We had so much fun, we'll post more pics soon. :)