Our first Year…

We lived in an apartment house (second floor) off of Tropicana. It had two bedrooms and was really a perfect size for us. We owned one couch that Ryan purchased at a garage sale (it was brown and it folded out into a bed), a TV that worked if you didn’t move while it was on, a mattress that was on the floor for the first little while, dresser drawers that Ryan bought from a all wood furniture store, and a card table (used as our dinning table) that belonged to mom and dad Spelts. We were very simple. Not fancy at all but we were so happy. It was home to us. We had one car so Ryan drove me to work everyday for the first little while. It was great. He would drop me off. Pick me up for lunch and come get me after work. When we would get home we would race to our front door. I don’t think I ever won. If I did, Ryan was sick or I cheated. Our lunches were awesome. We would go sit at a park and eat tacos or whatever. Some days we even played a little tennis. We really got into tennis for a while there. We made some good friends that would come with us in the evening and weekends. The Bury’s (Cindy and Phillip) became our really good newly married friends. We did everything together. We had Sunday dinners, went to the movies, went to the Temple once a week at 5am, camped, went to the ocean, they came to Honeyville to meet my family. It was so much fun. Ryan and I had our camping gear in a closet for a quick get a way if we needed. We were very spontaneous. One night it was late and we were getting into bed and Ryan said lets go see a movie. I said, but we have work tomorrow. We will be so tired. He said, “We are only young once”. That became our saying for a long time. I loved it. We got on our joggins (my word for sweets) and went to the midnight movie (Remember the Titans). Our first ward was the Tropicana Ward. They were the best. We feel in love with the members of that ward. Ryan was Priest advisor and I became camp director and then Beehive advisor. We had lots of fun in our callings. Ryan and Phillip were home teaching companions and Cindy and I were visiting teaching companions. It was a different world living in Vegas. I came from a town that had a few stop signs. No big traffic signals. No roads with 3 sometimes 4 lanes heading in the same direction. I was definitely honked at a lot. I became tough and would honk back at the rude people.

I got lost and had to call Ryan for directions. Everyone at his work looked over a map to help me find this place I was supposed to go for a job interview. They asked me where I was and I told them that I just passed Gass St. Everyone laughed including me. That was so funny. They told me that I went too far and that I needed to turn around. It took me a while to get turned around and again they asked me where I was and I had to tell them Gass St again. I eventually found the place with lots of assistance from Ryan and his co-workers. Thank goodness for cell phones!

I found a job, after a month of being unemployed, with Republic Mortgage as their receptionist. I was 20 years old. I was married and really I didn’t quite fit in with the group that worked there. They were living the Vegas life. They made fun of my simple and good choices. I worked there for a year until they moved into another building and replaced me with someone else. To tell you the truth I was grateful for the boot. Ryan was adamant that I didn’t quit that job but I was very unhappy there.