2012 in Review

What a year!

It was so good, I just had to live it, instead of blogging about it. (That is my story, and I'm sticking to it!)

Over the spring, I worked 2 jobs. 3 days a week I was a nanny and the other 2 work days, I worked at a fabric store. I loved every minute. I have discovered that I enjoy customer service type jobs, anything that lets me relate to, and interact with, the public. I guess that shouldn't be much of a surprise since I am such a people person. :) I loved it, and my boss was happy with my work, so I guess we were all happy. Oh! And I made some awesome friends there, too.

In June, we found out the happy, and long anticipated fact that we were headed toward becoming a family. Needless to say, life has never been the same since. And, something tells me it only gets crazier.

Over summer break, I nannied, up to 6 kids, several days a week. That would've been fine and dandy, except I was in the throes of morning sickness. Thankfully, my boss was very understanding and managed to let me come in late several mornings.

In August we had to move out of the place we had been living. Because we were planning to move to Texas, we couldn't rent another place that had a minimum stay lease agreement. The title: the traveling bride, once again, is/was very fitting. We stayed with friends and family while Caleb fulfilled a work commitment in Grand Junction.

Thanksgiving weekend, we moved to Texas. Some amazing friends are letting us crash at their place. It started out to be just for a few weeks, until we found a place. Well, we found a place, but it needs quite a bit of TLC. As I type this, Caleb is out there working in the dark on it. The goal was to be able to move in by the 1st of the year. It looks like it might be another week or 2 before that is possible.

Right now, most of our stuff is packed in a trailer. I can't wait until we are moved in and can unpack it and pull out all baby clothes and wash them. That will be so much fun and one more step to being closer to being ready for the baby. The 1st room we are wanting to remodel is the baby's room. Yay!! :)

This fall, Caleb lost both of his grandparents on his mom's side and I lost my great-grandpa. His grandpa passed while we were still in Grand Junction. My great-grandpa passed while we were there as well, but we were able to drive out to California for that. Caleb's grandma passed after we were down here, actually shortly after we got here. I had just driven the car down from Colorado and did not feel up to another road trip so soon, so Caleb ended up just flying up by himself. He also got to work another week at his old job, which was nice.

We spent the holidays with my family and enjoyed every minute of it.

This year, there have been many people who have blessed us in numerous ways. Thank you, to each of you. You know who you are! We couldn't have made it through this year as well as we did, if it wasn't for you.

Today marks week 33. This is only the second time my whole pregnancy that I lost track and had to go back and count. I think I told several people over the weekend that i was gonna be 32 weeks. Lol! About 7 more weeks to go. Yes!! 

 

I was gonna do a letter to send with our new year cards, but I ran out of time. So instead, I got them in the mail and did a blog post. :)

 

Hope y'all had a wonderful holiday season. Here's to 2013! Happy New Year!!

 

 

Happy New Year!

Hope you had a happy and healthy, merry Christmas!

This year, for our first Christmas letter, I basically took excerpts from my blog and journal to tell about our year. So if you've read my blog, you pretty much read our letter :)

If you haven't, then you are most welcome to!

Here's a few snapshot highlights from our year!

The wedding!

The honeymoon ;-)

<3 And the honeymoon continues <3

We were blessed to be able to spend our first Christmas with both of our families, my folks came to Colorado for Christmas. Now we are in California visiting some of Dad's family.

We hope this holiday season finds each of you blessed with happiness and health, enjoying the company of family and friends.

National Men Make Dinner Day

First of all, who ever heard of such a thing? National Men Make Dinner Day.
Well...apparently Caleb did yesterday on Klove.
So I get home from work last night and he is in the kitchen making dinner. Awesome!

He made Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo and accompanied it with artisan bread and sparkling apple cider. Check it out!

I would just like to clarify that this not the first time he has made dinner. Its not like he does it all the time or anything, but he has on occasion :)

If you would like to check out this awesome "national" day, you can do so here :)

Following are the rules I found on the above linked website.

Official Rules
Rule #1: National men make dinner day is always celebrated on the first Thursday of each November.
Rule #2: Man agrees to participate in national men make dinner day. Bonus points if he does so without seeking promise of night out with boys in return.
Rule #3: Man, completely un-aided, chooses a 'published' recipe from any source, or Internet. Getting the recipe from 'her' cookbooks is allowed, but man gets bonus points if the recipe isn't already somewhere in the house.
Rule #4: Main meal must include minimum of 4 ingredients and require at least one cooking utensil other than a fork
Rule #5: Man goes shopping for 'all' necessary ingredients. Bonus points if he takes inventory of cupboards and fridge first, before shopping trip. So you don't end up with two 64 ounce jars of pickled pimentos.
Rule #6: Man organizes all necessary ingredients in order of importance on kitchen counter. At this point, he may need to make a phone call or shout out the word 'honey'! Followed by a question. This is not allowed.
Rule #7: Man may, if desired, turn on radio or his favourite CD. Man agrees not to be within 30 feet of TV remote during cooking process. At this point, spouse and any other family members should not be anywhere near kitchen. (unless smoke detector goes off!)
Rule #8: Following recipe carefully, man starts to cook dinner! Apron is optional, (bonus points if recipe includes one of the following : capers, saffron, or the word 'scallopini').
Rule #9: Man must use the 'clean as he goes along' rule! Following each completed use of utensils, cookware, half-used jars of anything, spice bottles, etc., everything is rinsed, cleaned and put away
Rule #10: Man sets table, candles are lit, beverages are poured, no ketchup bottles, sour cream containers, or big boxes of salt on table.
Rule #11: Spouse and/or family members are served! This is an opportune time for a photo. Man is 'allowed' to gloat no more than three times during the meal. Family is encouraged to congratulate man on job well done. Family dog is not allowed to be secretly fed man's cooking.
Rule #12: After meal, table is cleared by man, dishwasher is loaded. Man returns to table for stimulating after-dinner conversation. At this point, man is told how much his meal was appreciated. He, in turn, describes the joys and challenges of the experience. He is given a hug, and his TV remote is returned to him.

My evening and deep thoughts

Tonight, after an awesome evening of fellowship, good food and games at our pastor's house, Caleb and I went to a job he wanted to finish this week and sprayed primer. I got to help! A first for me. I've never sprayed paint or anything. It was a totally cool experience! Right now its all over me. Lol!

Now on to deeper things.
Lately I've been doing some thinking. I am in a very unique stage in life. I am not a young single woman, nor am I an experienced wife and mother. Sometimes it feels like I'm suspended between those two. Most of my friends are single. The ones that aren't, like me, are too busy adjusting to this new life to connect much. Then there are my married friends, that are already moms. I've always tried to relate to everyone, but lately it seems like its gotten harder.
Right now, I am changing and evolving. Its something that happens to every newly married person. You change. It happens. You adopt some of their habits and they adopt some of yours. You come from two different cultures created by your parents. They know what to expect from their culture and you know what to expect from yours. Then the two come together in your home and the two of you have to search and figure out what from each culture will work in your home. This is the stage of life I'm in. Its a good stage. I love it. It means change and accepting that.
Sometimes I have a hard time being comfortable around my old friends. I still love them all dearly and miss them more than words can express, but wonder if when I'm around them they think I'm strange. I am not the single girl they knew. I am now a married woman, but am still an adventuresome girl on the inside. Can they understand this?
I want to connect with people and have friends. I am very much a social person, I thrive around others. I am content with where I am at in life, where God has me. But sometimes I wonder, "Have all the changes been for the better? Is God still the most important thing to me? Do I really serve my husband the way God wants me to? Would my parents be proud of the home we are creating for their grandchildren? Have I loosened my standards or is my relationship with God stronger?" So many things, and so much more. These things are important to me. I love the person God is making me to be with Caleb. But am I truly allowing Him to shape me or do I unconsciously rebel and do things my way? I want to serve Him and my husband with all my heart. But sometimes I feel like I don't know how to without myself getting in the way.
I know this is a very long, rambling, confusing post and probably boring, especially if you have never been in this stage of life. I must be way over tired because I cried a lot writing this post. Maybe that what you get when you stay up with your husband at work because you hate to go home by yourself. It is now almost 5 am so I will say adieu and I hope y'all have a great rest of your weekend :)

Back-packing & Tx trips + B-day stuff

We went back-packing with Caleb's family. We tried to bring our camera, but it didn't quite work out :/

So while we were up at the campsite, I used one of his sisters cameras. Long story short, all the pictures got erased off her memory card...

We did manage to get some with Caleb's cell. Not really very good, but anyway...

Caleb and his brother built a little underground storage area while we were up there. They have always stored things up there in the trees, but they wanted something better.

Since the pictures were taken with Caleb's phone, they are all of me, and not very flattering. Lol!

I helped dig a little.

Me, on the way back out. You can definitely tell I'm tired.

Last weekend Caleb and I drove down to Texas with a load of peaches. We left early Friday morning and after stopping in Oklahoma for about 6 hours to drop 70 boxes with one of Caleb's former students. We arrived at my folks place 36 hours later.

We celebrated Ez and my birthdays.

Mom and Grandma Lana (her mom) made this awesome cake for us. It's layers of chocolate with mint chocolate ice cream. Delicious!!

Some random pix from our brief visit...

 



 Sunday, while we were at church, my parents' freezer door blew off in the strong winds from the cold front that blew through. Mom is browning some of the ground meat. (A lot of it was thawed by the time they found it.)

Here is some of the peaches we brought down, with some of the thawed fruit from the freezer.

When we got back from visiting relatives, this is how we found Dad :)

 Friday night I had my own little birthday party here at Starbucks :)

Yummm...

Sunday, Caleb's mom made lasagna and had the grandparents over for my birthday. My nieces are crawling and sitting up!!!!!!! Aren't they cute?! (Poor things, they were so tired.)

Speaking of the twins...on the way to the place to park when we back-packed, we all met at a park. Even Justin and Natanyah, because they weren't going with us.

I managed to get this adorable picture of Hannah laughing. (That's Anna holding her.)

I know, it's poor quality. Thank my phone. Lol!

Until next time...

Peace!



Many Changes...

So a lot has happened lately. Which isn't much different than what's happening with the rest of y'all with school starting and everything :)

We have some friends that have a stand at the local Farmers' Market. So we try to go down there Thursday nights for dinner. Last time we went, the city had set out some official vehicles for show. They even had a cop there that would put hand cuffs on you if you wanted!

This is Caleb with the SWAT van-a totally impressive machine!

Then we had the Palisade Peach Festival this last weekend.

Caleb's family had a booth in the fiber expo and I made a set of 6 little girls jumpers sizes 3-8. I was quite happy with how they turned out and thought they were pretty cute. *pats self on back* Apparently I wasn't the only one, because I sold all but one of them!

Another exciting thing that happened is that Caleb and I got to be witnesses to the first food that our nieces, Grace and Hannah, ate. It was fresh peach puree. Yum, yum! Grace went first...she ate the first bite then was like, "WHAT!" It was pretty cute :)

 Then Hannah got to try it. She totally loved it, and ate it all up!

Annnd... Last but not least, we have moved.

That's right, you read correctly.

I have this new job babysitting for a family that has six kids. As pay, Caleb and I live in their guest house. We are very happy. Its in a good part of town and they live on 2 acres. For a while I've been Caleb for something to do and this is perfect!

We are less than 10 miles from his folks.

Our new kitchen, love all the cabiet space!

 The livingroom...

And our bedroom...the bedding set was a wedding gift and it matches perfectly. Yay! I finally get to use it :)

That's all I have time for now. Gotta go get ready for church and I have a BIG day tomorrow babysitting :)

My Week in Pictures :)

Thursday evening, we went up to Wyoming to pick up a car that Caleb is going to rebuild.

That night, we got pulled over twice, within 30 minutes of each other. First in Meeker, CO. Then in Craig, CO-just up the road. The truck we were driving had a temporary plate that kept falling out of the back window because the tape had melted.

Both of them are little towns, desperate for money in this economy. So any excuse to pull someone over is welcome.

In Meeker, the cop told Caleb he had been going about 7 mph over the speed limit. (You know how little towns are, jumping from 65 to 35 mph with little, or no, warning.) He asked Caleb when the last time he had gotten a speeding ticket (which was once, right after he got his licence) and told him, after he answered that he was gonna check, and if he had lied that he was gonna give him a ticket. Well, he hadn't so the cop grudgingly let us go with a warning. 

However, the cop in Craig was very nervous approaching the vehicle, and said that they were on the look out for some stolen vehicles, and I guess we looked like prime suspects with no visible licence plate.

I've been to the East Coast and the West Coast and Europe, but I've never been north of CO in the middle.

This is the beautiful sunrise we saw the next morning over Wyoming.

So, we picked up the car in the far North Eastern corner, just about 15 miles from the SD border. We have friends that live about 20 miles into SD from where we were. So we decided to drive over.

 Entering South Dakota for the first time on Friday.

  It rained pretty heavily in SD.

We drove through Sturgis, SD. A town natorious for its motorcycle gangings, gambling and dangerousness.

 We went to Mount Rushmore.

  

 

We visited the museum that showed how they made the monument.

 Saturday, on our way to Denver to visit Brian and Rebekah, we stopped at Heaven Fest out in Loveland. The only band we really got to see was Sanctus Real. That was cool because it was the last day of a fund raising drive, that Matt, the lead singer, was having for a foundation that him and his wife started to help support families of children with heart defects.

(Just to clarify, I did not take this picture, I got it from here.)

We spent the night at Brian and Rebekah's, then we drove back to GJ in time to meet some new friends for dinner Sunday evening.

Monday, we went to out to the Miller's to see Joel and Noelle Paul and their kids. Caleb knew them and helped at their wedding, but since they live in Canada, I hadn't met them yet but knew the rest of the family.

This is Megan with her nephew, Joseph.

 The beautiful sunset Monday night.



All these pictures, except the one mentioned, were taken on my phone :)

Now, two days later, we are back in Denver. Caleb is out parts shopping and I am hanging out with Rebekah.

Until next time...

My life...

So, you're wondering whats going on in my life? Well...a lot...and then again...not much. Do you know the feeling? I'm sure you do.

Caleb and his brother-in-law, Justin, are renting an airplane hanger out at the local airport. They are trying to get it set up as an auto body shop. This involves many hours. Yesterday, Caleb had me drawing up contracts for people that want to rent space in there to paint their own stuff. Yikes! I assure you, I have never done the like. I guess it didn't turn out too bad, because there are other contracts Caleb wants me to do.

If you've been on facebook than you know that we have gotten some of our formals back. Plenty to include in thank you cards.

Speaking of which... Is there a way to write a thank you card to someone you've never met, or met once on your wedding day, without it sounding impersonal and monotone? I have to do them! I want to do them! Its just slightly intimidating the number of them that I have to do. I sooo am individually hand-writing them. Ugh! I usually am very prompt with thank yous, but I've never had this many to do before. My only fear is that people will think that we are ungrateful for their gift, which is sooo NOT the case. Every time I use something given to us for our wedding, I am humbled and remember that looooooong gift list waiting, and the guilt grows. Enough! I'm sure that most of y'all by now are thinking, "Just DO it!"

So. I've been in Colorado with my husband. Right now we are renting the place next-door to his folks. We are still planning, eventually, to go to Minnesota to finish the house up there.

Lately, I've been spending some time with his sisters sewing. Towards the end of August, there is a peach harvest fiber festival here in the valley, and his family has been invited as guests of honor. You may be thinking, "What is a fiber festival?" It is a festival showcasing fiber crafts. Now you're probably thinking, "What's a fiber craft?" Anything that has to do with cotton, wool, etc. Spinning, weaving, sewing, knitting, crocheting, whatever. They are setting up a booth with spinning and weaving displays. They totally take it a step further than I do. Yes, I have spun, and I have woven, and may again, but WOW! They can do some pretty awesome things, although quite time consuming :) They also are setting up handmade products from their country store, and us girls are making some clothes to sell. Super excited! Found some cute jumper patterns for little girls and nice patterns for ladies' skirts.

I know that is more related to my clothing blog, (and for those of you that follow it, I'm sorry if you're bored by the occasional repeats between the two) but this is what is going on in my life!

Something I've been playing around with...

I.need.something.to.do.while.my.husband.is.at.work! But us not knowing, where we are going be, when, its hard to come up with something to do. However, as soon as we know, I want to start a home-based business arranging flowers for weddings. That's right, you read it. I love doing it and most florists charge the most outrageous prices. I already have a wholesale account with a local florist supplier and I want to be able to create beautiful, custom flowers for brides, within their budget. Sooo can't wait to be able to start!

Just for discussion...

How much did you pay for your wedding flowers? Was it worth it? Who did them? Where they what you envisioned? Where they better or other than what you had envisioned? How much would be willing to pay for flowers at your wedding?

My flowers cost less than $250 and me and my girls did them. I loved them!

That's all for now. Gotta save some for next time!

Have an awesome week!