Married Christmas

Since we are in the process of moving back to Napa, Christmas has been very crazy! Last week we drove to Idaho to get our stuff and clean out our place. It was a 14 hour drive because on the way there Justin's car instrument panel stopped working and we ran out of gas in Truckee. We while we waited for the tow truck driver, we had the emergency flashers on so when we got the gas & tried to start the car, we realized that we had ran the battery out! After we got going, it was pretty much smooth sailing from there. We stayed in Idaho for a couple days and then turned around and drove back. We had to leave in the middle of the night to beat the snow storm in Oregon. Once we got through that we stopped in Winnemucca, NV and slept in the car for about an hour just to get a second wind. It worked and we made it home with no troubles.

Now that we are here, we are staying with my parents for a couple of weeks until our place is ready on the first. I love our parents for being so supportive, but it will be nice to have our own space again!

Christmas day was so much fun just hanging out with the family, opening all the homemade gifts and playing Catch Phrase! I can't wait to start Family Game Night now that we are home.

We will post pictures soon!

Merry Christmas to everyone, and Happy 21st Birthday to me!

Brenda's Trip to Napa

A good friend of mine, Holli, has been waiting patiently for 9 and a half long months for the best gift she could get and guess what! He's finally here!







Meet Steven William Johnson!


Holli was such a tropper. She went into the hospital on Thursday, November 20th and Steven decided he wasn't ready to come out until 4:22pm on Saturday, November 22nd!!

Congratulations Holli & Steve!

Who you gonna call?!

The exterminator. That's exactly who we called today when a small, furry, lightning fast mouse scurried across the living room floor this afternoon!

It all started when we came home this afternoon. We were both relaxing, me on the computer and Justin watching TV. All of the sudden Justin yells, "What the hell was that!" It wasn't until he said those words that I saw it, but as soon as he did, I saw it clear as day: a tiny, gray mouse! It had run out from under our gas fireplace, around the corner in the living room, across the kitchen floor and under the vacuum (which happened to be in the kitchen for some unknown reason). Justin got up and ran into the kitchen.

Once we realized that the little fur ball had run up inside the vacuum, he tried to get the vacuum outside through the sliding glass door which was only about 4 feet away. Unfortunately the movement of the vacuum scarred the mouse and he promptly ran out of the vacuum and back the same route he took to get there, only backwards. It was across the kitchen, around the corner in the living room and back into the gas fireplace!

After much ado we finally looked in the fireplace only to see the makings of a nest! This was not reassuring. So we called the exterminator. It was tough to find one who would be able to make it out today since we live in an area that is considered "rural" by most "city-folk". We finally got the great people at Barrier Lawn & Pest to come out and rid us of our fuzzy little friend. The great guy who came to our rescue took apart the fireplace and cleaned out the nest that we found. Not surprisingly, the nest was comprised mostly of dog hair and carpet fuzz which the mouse had gotten out of... wait for it.... wait for it... you guessed it: the vacuum!

So once the exterminator cleaned it all out, he had determined that the nest was not active and that the mouse we had seen was likely the only one there was. Apparently because of our location, directly across from an open field, we are a prime destination for field mice when the weather gets cold. After all was said and done, he set a couple traps, but said that we had most likely scared the mouse away when we chased him across the house!

Whew!! It was only a half day for work, but I think I'm more tired tonight than I have been the last few weeks!

Napa Register Wedding Announcement!

Copyright: Beyond Images (2008)

Sunday, October 12, 2008
Mitchell-Nunley Wedding Announcement

Brenda Mitchell and Justin Nunley, of Kuna, Idaho, were married Aug. 1, 2008, at the Chardonnay Golf Club, in Napa. The bride’s younger brother, Jake Gumina, walked her down the aisle to the intro of AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells,” the groom’s favorite song. The groom’s uncle, Brian Nunley, officiated the wedding.

The bride’s sister, Amanda Threat, was the maid of honor. Bridesmaids included Holli Cardwell, Patricia Pagliuso and the groom’s sister, Stacy Nunley. The groom’s niece, Kayla Nunley, was the flower girl. The groom’s best friend since childhood, Anthony Hernandez, was the best man. Groomsmen included childhood friend Matt Knight and the groom’s brothers, Trevor Nunley and Jay Nunley.

Brenda is the daughter and step-daughter of Mari Matthews-Threat and Joe Threat, of Napa, and of Don Mitchell and Kim Mitchell, of Modesto. She is the granddaughter of Diane and Lou Inlay, of Sequim, Wash., and of Bill Mitchell, of Simi Valley. Brenda is a 2006 graduate of Vintage High School. Brenda attended Napa Valley College and will be attending Boise State University. She works as a nanny.

Justin is the son of Jim and Denise Nunley of Napa. He is the grandson of Delbert and (the late) Agnes Nunley, and of Raymond and Selma Gasner. Justin is a 2001 graduate of Vintage High School and a 2008 graduate of Ashford University, where he obtained his bachelor of arts degree in organizational management. He is currently pursuing a master’s in education at the University of Phoenix.

Snow in October

Apparently Justin and I were not fully prepared for the difference in weather when we moved to Idaho. We always heard that the weather in the Midwest changed every five minutes, but I don't think we really believed it until today!

Last week it was so hot I was wearing a tank top and shorts and today... well I guess you'll just have to see the picture to understand.

<--Yep, that's exactly right... it's SNOWING!














That picture is a little blurry but the one of our house clearly shows the snow coming down!

2 Month Anniversary.

So October 1st was our 2 month anniversary and we are officially settled here in Idaho! Justin finally made it and most of our things have been put away in our new home! Its so cute & I love it. It's a two level, two bedroom, two bath townhouse with a little patio, but we love it just the same! I have taken some pictures of what we have already and I will post more when we are ALL done. (Although, I'm not sure anyone is ever really done decorating.)

<--Here is the front door to our humble abode. It's one of the units in a 4 unit building & our building is one of 6. (Each building is painted a different color but I like our blue the best.)

My favorite part of our new home is the living room. We have enough room in our new place for both of our couches, we have a fireplace and a built in nook for the TV directly above it. The best part of it all is that none of the walls are white! It really does feel like home even if it's not our own. As you can see, Justin is laying on the couch watching what else? ESPN of course.

Normally I would be in the kitchen (my territory) cooking or coloring with Kayla (Justin's niece), but I thought I would post this blog so I also took a picture of it. It's not very clean right now since Justin hasn't finished the dishes yet since the show came back on :-). As you can see here, there is plenty of room to make yummy meals so feel free to come and visit and I'll whip you up something delicious!!!!

-The Nunleys

Back to Normal

Justin arrived in Kuna on September 9th around 5:00pm. I had hidden a key for him under a basket on the porch, but then I got a call around 5:15. Apparently the other key the landlord had given us was not for the front door, but for the water heater/storage closet on the porch and I since I had locked the sliding door, he had no way to get in our new house. I couldn't very well leave him there sitting on our patio with Lola, the U-haul still attached to his car and no way to get in, so I had to leave work to come home from Boise all the way to Kuna (which is actually only about 15 miles).

When I got to our house I was so excited to see him and Lola that I just ran up to Lola, picked her up, and I carried her over and we had one big family hug! Since then we have been just unpacking, putting things away, and rearranging. It's been fun. The satellite man came and hooked up our satellite, I finally got the wireless internet working and we have a new land line phone number: 208-922-2811

Move To Idaho: Part 1

Since moving to Idaho was going to be such a long drive and we had so much stuff, I asked my mom if she would come up and help. Since she already had the time off, she happily obliged my request. (Okay, maybe not happily) So on Sept. 2nd we set off from Medford, Oregon at about 8:00 am. The drive was said to take roughly 9 hours driving straight through. We thought surely we can do it faster than that....

The beginning of the drive was absolutely gorgeous. The latter stretch of Highway 62 takes you through Crater National Park and almost around the rim of Crater Lake.

So about 3 hours into our trip, somewhere in Eastern Oregon we came to a town called Christmas Valley. No, I am not kidding you. Every street in this town was a Christmas related word. One was Snowman Way and another was Candy Cane Lane; seriously. We even saw real live horses with stripes. They were not painted on either. This was their natural fur. It was the most bizarre place I have ever seen. Needless to say we decided to stop in the next town.

So on we drove; and drove, and drove and drove even more. After seeing lots empty fields and 138 miles of desolate rural highway(yes, one hundred and thirty eight miles) we finally came to the next town. We stopped for lunch because by now it was roughly 2:00 in the afternoon. A quick fill up at their local gas station (which sadly would be my last full service fill up since you aren't allowed to pump your own gas in Oregon) and we hit the road yet again.

After driving 2 more hours or so, we began to get sleepy. Mom pulled over and said she needed to sleep a bit. So us girls decided to lean back the seats (as far as they'd go which wasn't that far), pull out our pillows and set an alarm. And that's exactly what we did. We rolled up the windows closest to the road and down the ones facing each other and took a nap on the side of the road in the middle of absolutely no where.

Once my alarm went off 30 minutes later, we were off and running again. It wouldn't be for another 115 miles that we would see civilization again. This would come in the form of onion pickers. To get to Ontario, Oregon you cross over into mountain time. It was so funny to see the sign on the side of the road. So we set the clocks forward an our and we continued on. It was only about 45 minutes after we saw the time zone sign that we started to smell it. Yes. It was the unmistakably strong odor of onions. At first I thought I may have left my sandwich in the car, but the I realized that I hadn't brought it with me. Then I looked out the window and to my left and right were fields as far as the eye could see: full of onions.

Once through Onion-ville, we crossed into Idaho and I knew we must be close. By this time the sun was setting and it was getting late. I wanted to get to my new home and just go to sleep. I looked at the clock and it said 7:25. Yes, even with the time difference we had been in the car 10 hours!

Especially since we weren't successful in making the trip in a faster time than the GPS system told us we would, I was incredibly relieved when I saw the first sign with the name of our new town on it. It said "Kuna 26 miles" and I knew we were home free! I started to relax knowing I'd be home in a little bit and I could stretch my legs and check out the new digs. I took this picture that I though was so appropriate to signify the end of our trip. The beautiful sunset is the same one we've seen every night we've been here.

Now most everything we brought is unpacked and put away. All I am waiting on is the rest of my family. It is hard being so far away from Justin. He has been the most wonderful husband so far and in the 4 years we've been together we haven't been apart for more than 4 days at most. Tomorrow will be day number three. We'll see how well I'm doing this time next week.

If you'd like to send us any mail our address is:

1187 W. Art Ct.

Kuna, ID 83634

Signed,

The New Nunley's (now in Idaho)

Pictures Galore!!

I almost forgot to post it but the photos from our wedding are up on the photographer's website. To see them go to www.beyondimages.com, and click on "View Your Photos". A new window will pop up. Scroll down and find our wedding (Nunley Wedding). The password is Nunley.

Also, if you want you can view our engagement pictures too. They are further up the list and are called "Nunley Engagement" the password for that is also Nunley.

Thanks Joe and Steph! They're amazing!

On The Road Again....

Yes, you've got it right! We are on the move! Once the dust settled from the wedding Justin and I realized we just aren't ready to be finished with the chaos! We decided we are going to uproot our lives once again and move... to Idaho. HA!

As of September 12, 2008 we will officially be Idahoans. We are moving to Kuna, ID which is a very small town of about 12,500 roughly 15 minutes from Boise. Justin's brother Jj and Jj's wife Carrie and their daughter Kayla live in Kuna and we will be less than 3 minutes from them! (not that anything in Kuna is more than 3 minutes away from anything else anyways, but nonetheless...).

We are very excited to make this move and hope that it will be the last big move we make until we buy a house. (hopefully in about a year). Whats more is Carrie just found out that she and Jj are expecting baby #2 and Kayla started kindergarten today! Oh what thrill lie ahead!

Wish us luck!

First things first...

So it was just a normal Saturday when I was returning home I decided to check the mail. Then it happened! I got the greatest thing of all! My first piece of mail as Mrs. Brenda Nunley!!

It is such a great feeling! It was one of my credit cards sending me my new card in my new name! So now every time I use it, I will be reminded what a wonderful man I married. These last few weeks have been pure bliss.

I love my new husband. XOXO

5 weeks!

So the last few weeks have been quite crazy! We have been getting ready for the wedding and its only 5 weeks away! Justin finally decided on what to wear and everything is coming together!! We cannot wait to see everyone and share our special day with you all! I personally cannot wait to become Mrs. Justin Nunley!!!

Settled

So we are finally all moved. Well, for the most part. Justin's parents probably do not appreciate our dining room chairs and patio furniture sitting in their livingroom, but other than that we made the long 6 hour drive it with Lola and the rest of our stuff! It only took 6 hours because Justin was towning a trailer behind his car and could only go so fast, especially uphill!!

Medford is amazing; it's blazing hot too (it was 105 degrees today!). I will say that it is weird to be standing in 105 degree weather and see snow on the mountains around us! Its a change from Napa where the elevation is around 17 feet and we are at around 1380 feet in the valley!! We love that we don't know where things are for the most part. It's been an adventure finding things and seeing all there is to do (for when we actually have money).

So we have an extra bedroom for visitors whenever anyone feels the urge to take a break!! Here is our new address:
1836 W. 8th St. #8
Medford, OR 97501

Moving!

Hello all!
I know it's been a while... a long while in fact, but there has been so much going on it's hard to find time to stop and blog. So here's what's new:

1. We are moving!
2. I found my wedding dress!
3. We are still looking for a photographer.

Now for details:
1. We are moving!
Yes, that is right; we're moving. To Medford, Oregon to be exact. We decided that we wanted to buy a house and living here in Napa that was just not an option even with the housing market as it is. So we crunched the numbers and decided that it was time for an adventure!

We chose Medford because it is a city similar in size to Napa, close enough to our families that we could still come visit frequently, and very near our friends Matt & Jessica who live in Grants Pass which is one exit further on I5. We will officially be Oregonians on May 1st! Go us!

2. I found my wedding dress!
I know, isn't it amazing! I found it only the second time looking and I love it. I would say more but I'm afraid Justin will read this and it will spoil the surprise! You will all just have to wait and see.

3. We are looking for a photographer.
I know, it's getting close; but I have not been able to find anyone whose style I like that is within our budget. So if you know anyone, please let me know!

I think that is all for now. I will post new pictures of our lovely new abode once we arrive! Wish us luck and see you all soon!

Brenda, Justin & Lola

Wedding Update!

Hey everyone!
Here's an UPDATE!

The date is officially set for August 1, 2008. The time has not been decided but since it is a Friday, it will be later in the evening, around 6:30 or 7. We will have quite a bit of sunlight left as the sun doesn't set until around 8:30 in August.

My mom and I went shopping yesterday. I finally picked out my wedding dress. It is amazing. I won't describe it here for fear Justin will be snooping around. If you would like to see it, just e-mail me and I will send you a picture.

The account for our wedding expenses will be set up this afternoon! I have an appointment with the accounts people at Washington Mutual here in Napa. I will hopefully have a new post tomorrow with all of that information. Any help would mean so much to both Justin and me as well as our parents. :-)

In January, Justin and I went to Oregon on a hunt for a new home. We looked in the Eugene area at a lot of houses and found a couple that we like. We are going back to Oregon but to the Grants Pass area President's Dayweekend which is February 15-18. Justin has a job interview for Varsity Head Coach of Football while we are there at the same school that his friend Matt teaches & coaches basketball. Wish us luck!

Lola will be one on February 3rd!

Love you all and we can't wait to see everyone on August 1st!

Justin and Brenda