The honeymoon was over.

We arrived at my parent's house. Sure enough, my mom had printed out a sign on my bedroom door that read "Welcome home Mr. and Mrs. Cassani"

Nate relaxes on the bed

As it turned out the very weekend Nate ans I were honeymooning, my parents had gotten a contract of sale on their town-home. The new buyers would not be taking possession for a month and my parents were packing off to California. We would be allowed to stay in the house while we found an apartment.
That first month before we found the apartment was one of the happiest and hardest. Nate and I were so happy to be together...
Most of the time....

 I get the vacuum

I had started wearing a birth control patch after the engagement back in November, so that when we finally did get married, I would not need to worry too much... 

I had been warned that the horomones might effect my mood...

I had become a monster. Seriously, I knew I was overreacting to everything but the knowledge didn't stop me from feeling out of control. 

Nate and I were both commuting north for work with the temp agency so all we had time for was traveling, apartment hunting, cooking, eating, sleeping... Finally one day I couldn't take it anymore. We had missed the bus to work. I decided we should call in sick and we needed a day just to find an apartment. The one month was quickly running out.

That day we found it. It was smaller than anything we looked at but it had laundry in the unit, it was close to the bus and the utilities were included in the rent. 

The Landlord said we could move in that day if we wanted.

Home Sweet Apartment

Pretent entry table/kitchen storage

Tiny Bedroom/livingroom

Tiny Dining

Tiny Kitchen

Improvised Shelving

Pretend Living room

Soon after I quit using the birth control patch a sense of normalcy settled in. Nate and I enjoyed our next 6 months of marriage in a basement apartment. Since either of us owned a car we rode our bikes all-around on city of Orem. It was exciting and sometimes tiring. Shopping with the most interesting experience. We liked to shop at Costco because you buy things in bulk. It was interesting trying to carry everything home on our bikes. Occasionally we would outdo ourselves and have to call neighbor or friend for a ride.

The bed all-a-mess and our dog (the stuffed animal)

Me watching a movie

We worked for express personnel in places like Meadow Gold, Peczuh Printing, Young Living. It was interesting because we worked with several people who thought that they could never work together with their spouse, it would drive them crazy, but Nate and I loved it. It gave us time to talk together and to know what was going on in each others day the time. Nate and I still laugh as we look back on some of the interesting people we worked with...
The comedian named José, who found out he really was a nerd as he talked with Nate about Power Rangers and Dungeons and Dragons.

The crazy woman who thought that Nate had thrown a box at her, and when she tried to throw a box back at him he happened to be bent over and didn't realize how upset she was with him.

The manager on my shift at Meadow Gold, who was wearing rubber boots but I still fooled him into thinking that his shoe was untied...

One of the advantages of being a temporary worker was meeting all of those interesting people and working in competitive environments where time is everything. I loved creating more fun by competing with coworkers to see who could load it fastest...

By this time in my life I still had not come to enjoy the Utah way of life. So many members of the wards seemed too busy with their own lives to really get close. With tensions between Nate's parents still high, we decided that it was time to move. I was mostly excited for Nate, I wanted him to have the experience of the family ward where the members were close and where he could have opportunities for callings that often don't exist in Utah.

I thought of all the places I never been to... One of places that I really loved to visit was Oregon. It was always so beautiful, the trees were green and the mountains were just gorgeous. We did our research, Nate and I even made a trip all the way out there and we located a great condo but as we returned to Utah and prayed, we felt it wasn't quite the right decision. My family living nearby in Oregon was currently in disarray they were going through divorce and I think that the Lord, at that time, didn't want us to get wrapped up in those things.

At this time my parents called. My mother knew that we had been searching for a home and that we were looking for any place outside of Utah. Their house that I thought they had sold in Florida, the buyers had defaulted on their payments and were looking at being evicted. My parents didn't think the buys would come up with the money and asked if Nate and I wanted to take over the place. It sounded like a great opportunity. I knew and loved the area and still had family there.

Not even having seen the place for many years, Nate and I prayed about it and felt that it was a good decision. We bought a car, packed up our things, and off we went.