Christmas Crafts

Here are a few things I made over the month of December to have at our house for Christmas. The last is just what I made Jessica for Christmas.

Enjoy.

New Blog

I started a new blog about being frugal.

It's called livingcheapandhappy.blogspot.com

check it out if you want.

Life Lessons on a Bike

At the beginning of June, my car (Jenny) broke down. It was a big enough break to cost a small fortune we didn’t have. The car was thus parked in the parking lot and left there until we had enough to fix it. In the meantime, we had to make due with what we had. Considering Nic had to be to work far earlier than the buses ran, we got bikes and they became our new mode of transportation.

In the four weeks without Jenny, I learned a lot.

1. If you just focus on the step in front of you, you’ll reach the end before you know it. While riding a bike, I often started out completely overwhelmed. I’d ride eight miles to work and would start out with a giant feeling of dread knowing the end goal was so far away. So I started working on making it to a particular landmark or street. The shorter goals made me feel accomplished and made moving onward a little easier. Before I knew it, I was at work.

2. No one is timing you up the hill. There was one particular hill I would hit everyday. The first day, I had to get off and walk. But it was ok. The end result was the same; I made it up the hill. The second day, I only walked half. The third day, I slowly made it up the hill and by the fourth day I rode like everyone else up the hill. No one was there telling me I needed to be up that hill at a particular time. I just needed to get up there. The first time was hard and took a long time, and even though it was never easy to make it up the hill, each time was a little faster and a little easier.

3. Making a wrong turn is easy and only hard work will get you back on course. I rode to the bank one day and took what I thought would be an easier route. However, I took a wrong turn. By the time I figured out that I was going the wrong way, I was at least a mile off-course. There was no one to tell me it was ok that I made the mistake and fix it for me. I had to turn around a work to get back to where I needed to be. It was a lot more work and was not fun at all, but I learned to pay attention to where I was going. I had made one simple mistake and ended up completely off-course.

4. There are two sides to every hill. Sometimes I would be heading up a hill and I would struggle. But when you get to the other side, you just let go a coast the whole way down!

Once again I am in a similar predicament. Jenny has proven that she will never be a reliable car for us, but sadly we owe far too much to get rid of her. She is our car now and until we can afford to pay her off, we must come up with solutions for all the problems she presents.

My plan is to be grateful for the things she has taught me. She has made me grateful for a family that will bend over backwards to make sure I get through this life ok. No one can solve the problem that I am in, but so far, everyone has been there to make sure we make it through and to support us the entire way.

Jenny may be the worst car EVER, but I have the best family EVER!

Long time, no blogs

So it has been a very long time since anyone has blogged and I thought I would try and get that going again. As y'all know, Meric is staying in the army and we are no longer moving home. After a fun, but very long 2 months in Spokane, I have finally come home to Fayetteville with Lissy, Kelli, and Kenna in tow. To save on money and time, we chose to sleep in our cars instead of getting hotels. The first night we stopped at a park in a little town. It was getting very late and we weren't sure when the next rest stop or town would be. It worked well because the bathrooms weren't locked and it was fairly secluded. (That stop would be the one where Kelli decided to let her phone swim in the toilet. It is not a very good swimmer.) Once we got breakfast we hit the road again. Just as we left town we saw the sign -Rest Stop 1 Mile. Yep one more mile and we would have reached the rest stop. That day after seeing signs for over 100 miles we decided to stop at Wall Drug and see what all the fuss was about. It was several shops that ran together and they had everything, including homemade ice cream which was yummy. Then we drove and drove and drove and drove. After 4 days and 10 states we made it home.

We have been having lots of fun. Kenna is going to seminary and I think she actually likes it. She seems to like the teacher and I will let her tell you about David. :) We also celebrated her birthday on Sunday. She likes cheesecake, so I made her the brownie one I had promised to make Kelli last year. It turned out well if i do say so myself. We have walked the street of downtown, gone to the airborne museum, gone to Raleigh, hiked, introduce Kenna to Blue Bell and eaten out a bit. One place we took them is the Cracker Barrel. For those who don't know it is good country cooking with a little store on the front. I love it. We also went to a Brazilian place and ate ourselves silly. Some really yummy meat, the best fruit salad ever, and some interesting soups. They were basically juice in a bowl, but very yummy as well. We are looking forward to Mom coming in a few days and plan on introducing her to Blue Bell and going to a BBQ place we like.

I know I am forgetting some things, but I will let everyone else fill in the rest. (hint hint) It is nice to be home but weird to be so far away again. We are still waiting on the house to close, but it seems like it is wrapping up soon. I will let Dany blog about that when it is all done. (not so much a hint)

Love you all and miss the ones who are not with me. (When are the ones with me leaving again? :)

Fun times in Fayetteville...

So as you all know Meric and I are moving home! YAY! We are so excited. The military requires 6 months notice, so it will still be a while but the process is started! We are trying to get a waiver for Meric to get out when his commitment is up, which is in September, but it looks like we will still have to wait the full 6 months which is November. Of course Meric has also accumulated 47 day of leave so far, so we might be home by October. Isn't it fun knowing for sure? :) At any rate we are moving home and are excited.

So Meric posted his resume online a few weeks ago and has been flooded with calls and emails ever since. He has been offered jobs all over the US in a few different fields. YAY for the internet. There is one lady who works for a company the finds people jobs who has been really helpful though. she set up a phone interview with St. Luke's in Spokane. It seemed to go well and they might coordinate to fly him up there to tour St. Luke's and talk with them in person. YAY for possible employment! And I am hoping they will let me have my old job back working for Dr. Ranson at the Eye Clinic.

Meric and I bought a nice new truck which we love. A couple of days after we bought it the little black car died. We hope it is just the battery but with the truck and the blazer we haven't worried too much about it just yet. Yesterday I drove the blazer to the commisary to get a bunch of groceries. When I came out the blazer wouldn't start. All I could think about was the frozen vegetables and chicken I just bought. After 3-4 times of being told my call could not be completed, I finally got a hold of Meric so he could come and jump the blazer. After several times of trying the blazer still would not start. Finally I took Meric back to work and drove my groceries home in the truck. I picked Meric up from work and we tried the blazer again. Still nothing. We then went bought a new battery, came home, ate dinner (my wonderful VT surprised us by bringing dinner) Meric did his phone interview, and then went back to the blazer. Meric changed the battery and it started right up. I can't believe both of our other cars died on us right after getting the truck. I guess they are jealous. :) With all the craziness though I feel very blessed. I broke down in a location and time that Meric could come get me fairly easy and all the was wrong was the battery. Also YAY for wonderful VTs who know just when you needed dinner brought to you. We are very blessed.

That is it for now. I will keep you updated!

Grateful for all I have

Thank you all for all you have done! I have to say, that after this weekend, I have never felt so blessed. This weekend was filled with chaos and lots and lots of money spent on things that mostly got tossed at the end. It was stressful and crazy. But at the end, I have never felt so blessed. I originally told Nic that I had no interest in a reception. I am from Spokane and only know so many people in Portland. I knew I wouldn’t get a very large turn out for the amount of work that would go into it. While he agreed, his family did not. They pushed and pushed and finally we caved and said we’d do it. After all, after Nic’s last wedding, people were very upset he never had a reception in Portland.

After sending out about 200 invitations, mostly to Nic side, we began planning. Everyone sounded so excited. Then the day of the reception came. Nic’s mom, younger sister and five friends were all that came on his side. After all that he had been told, even the people that begged us to do it didn’t show. The majority of the gifts came from my two receptions, doctors who had gifts mailed to us, and my co-workers who not only gave us gifts at the reception, but gifts the day we got married.

After the reception, we hung out and played a very spirited game of keep away. While I walked away with more bruises then I can count and am so sore that every movement seems to be strained, it was a lot of fun. Then we all stayed up far too late laughing and joking.

After everyone left, I got a text message from Josh thanking me for letting him stay and hang out with the family. He doesn’t have a close or typical family situation and he said he doesn’t get to do that very often. I told him we didn’t mind at all and we would be more then happy to drag him to Spokane with us on our next visit. He told me I was very lucky to have such a family (which just shows you how bad his family must be).

I also had a long talk with a very sad Nic on Sunday. He was bummed his family never showed and that most of his friends bailed. Especially since no one had an even good excuse or even an excuse at all. I told him not to worry, that he now has a whole new family and we will obnoxiously be there whether he wants us or not.

But I look back on the weekend and I can’t help but be grateful. With people like Nic and Josh around, they help keep things in perspective. As dysfunctional as we are, we have always been there for each other. And together we have fun and stick together. That’s something I take for granted. It’s something that is rare in life these days.

I am grateful for you all.

The Wedding

Well, as you can guess, I’m married. Just to up date you all on the last few weeks, here is the whole story:

As many of you know, I have been very concerned over the fact that Nic was sealed to his ex-wife in the temple. While I know that men can be sealed to more than one woman, I wasn’t sure if we needed to take steps to make sure he could be sealed to me as well. We asked around and received conflicting opinions. We finally asked our bishop who called the stake president and we were assured that it only needed to state on his records that he was divorced. We then went to meet with the stake president two weeks before the scheduled wedding in Spokane when I made Nic ask again, just to be sure. Apparently there was a misunderstanding. Yes, it needed to state on his records that he was divorced. But we also needed a letter of “sealing clearance” from the first presidency. This involves a formal letter written by Nic to the first presidency, a formal request from the stake president, and a letter written from our bishop to Nic’s ex and her in turn writing a letter to the first presidency. All of these letters need to be received by Salt Lake and reviewed by the first presidency. Our stake president said he had seen these done in 7 days expedited. So we kept our date. Nine days before the wedding we got the bad news. Even if Annie was cooperative and did as we asked (which we anticipate she won’t), it’ll take a minimum of 4-6 weeks after Salt Lake receives the paperwork, and with the added stress of General Conference, we had no chance to get the letter in time. We were in quite a pickle. Either we could wait until we received the letter and be sealed then, or get married civilly and be sealed in a year. If we waited, we could not set a date until we had the letter in hand. Both of our jobs would require two weeks notice to reschedule our honeymoon and arrangements would have to be redone. Nic would have to continue searching for couches to sleep on as he was basically homeless. We’d most likely celebrate the reception before the wedding and last but not least, we could NOT receive clearance at all and have to wait anyway. So we chose to be wed civilly and rearranged everything to be married in Portland. Sadly our bishop and stake president were out of town so they transferred my records to the home ward so that bishop could perform the ceremony. He will be our new bishop.

We met with the new bishop and he told us he understood. He had been active his whole life, as had his wife. They tried to use their wedding to reactivate their inactive parents, but they didn’t go for it. After a discussion with their bishop, they chose to be married civilly in Portland and then drive to Salt Lake and be sealed the next day. After making all the arrangements, announcement out and everything, the bishop talked to the stake president and discovered they were not allowed to do this. In a difficult situation, they chose as we did and were married and then sealed a year later. I was comforted to know that we were not alone. I know it will be difficult, as we will be judged for the choices me made and assumptions will be made by many. But our bishop explained, the world is not perfect, the gospel is. Heavenly Father knows what is in our hearts and he has arranged back ups in case something should happen before we are sealed.

Anyhow, Nic and were married in a very small intimate ceremony on Saturday, March 27^th. We then went to lunch and headed to the coast. We were blessed with a beach house to stay in for free and we were there until Tuesday. Although the weather was awful, the coast is filled with plenty to keep us occupied including the wonderful Tillamook Cheese Factory. It was here that Nic first introduced me as his wife.

I almost forgot...

I forgot to mention something that I find funny. The Colonel that Meric works with is getting ready to PCS to Korea. He sold his car and has been driving his daughter's car. At one point he said that he makes sure he has his cell phone with him because the car is so old and he is afraid it will break down. The car he is driving... a 2002 Honda Civic. The cars we drive are both 1997. I just had to laugh.

So here are some new things since I last blogged: Meric and I went to dinner on Saturday with a group of people he kind of works with. He knows them a little and I don't know them at all. We went to a BBQ place about an hour away. They actually did a little story on the place in the news and this is the link http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/6056117/ Anyway, we get there and find out it is a cash only place and we usually don't carry cash. We only had $10 and therefore could only order one entree. So pretty much I sat in the corner bored, texting and starving as we split our entree. After we left there we headed to another restaurant and ordered another entree to split and dessert. So that is how Meric and I ate out at two restaurants for one meal.

Also on Sunday I received another calling. I am still in the nursery but now I am also the assistant Activity day girl person. There are two other people in front of me but they both apparently aren't there a lot so we will see how much I have to do. I think this is the first time I have had two callings.

The End and the Beginning

Last Thursday Meric and I finished our foster care classes. YAY! I was getting a little tired of having every Thursday night blocked, doing the potluck (you can only eat so much fried chicken) and having homework. The homework wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't the same questions over and over and having to come up with new answers every time. We got our certificate for finishing the class but the end is only the beginning. We have a ton of paperwork to be filled out, we need to be approved by the board before our paperwork is sent to the main office for us to be licensed. We also have to have a fire safety inspection and physicals. We still have a long way to go and it will never be easy.

Meric just got back from Philly. He went to a conference there for 5 days. Our friend from San Antonio, Carrie (Lissy and Kelli met her at Thanksgiving), was there too. Carrie and Meric were good friends so he was excited to see her again. Carrie is a few months pregnant and I like to refer to her as Meric's pregnant girlfriend. I wanted to post my status on facebook as "my husband left me to be with his pregnant girlfriend in Philly" but I was afraid some people might not know I was joking and think badly of Meric so I didn't. Still it would have been funny. Anyways (the "s" is just for you Dad) Meric had a lot of fun and learned a lot. I also am starting an online course in Personal Training.

Anywho I will keep you updated with our foster care situation. Miss you all and can't wait to see you next month. Love you!

NEED SUGGESTIONS!!!

Nic and I would like to go out to eat with the family and friends after the wedding March 27th for lunch before we take off. Nic would like to eat somewhere unique. I'm thinking cheaper is best for all and also finding something everyone can enjoy at least a little bit.

Any suggestions????

Speak now or forever hold your peace!

The Clutters

It's been a while since someone blogged, especially me, so I thought I would throw out some updates for everyone.

Let's start with Ella. She is loving being a Sunbeam. She brings her Book of Mormon in her scripture tote every Sunday so she can be counted among the Primary kids that brought their scriptures. She's very proud. Also, Ella's latest obsession is a movie called "Aliens in the Attic." It's a cute live action movie with a lot of slap stick/physical comedy. Ella can pretty much quote you the whole movie and if you're anywhere near her, she'll tell you all her favorite parts and the plot of the movie. She's also getting pretty good at the "who sings this song" game. She impressed me the other day by getting 3 songs in a row right, the last one she named before they had even started singing. Yes, my baby's brilliant!

And then there's Dora. She has been busy being back at school. She won an award for the character attribute of the month, for the month of February, which was Honesty. It was a nice little deal with a slide show of the kids and a goody bag from Yoke's. Dora's also been learning to cook and make some of the recipes from the Steen Sty Cookbook, with the help of grandma. She has made us a casserole for dinner, some orange jello salad, and the George Washington pudding (yummy). She is also perfecting her brownie making abilities. I think we're all going to be gaining more weight! She's been doing a lot of the usual, reading, writing, you know Dora.

At the beginning of the month, both girls took an art class at the Corbin Art Center (which Dora finds a little creepy, and I have to admit at her age I did too). It was a Valentine class so they made all sorts of Valentine's. They were in separate classes since it was divided by age. It was Ella's first class. In her class she was the youngest, while Dora was the oldest in her class. Ella was so funny because she wouldn't let me leave. I could understand that, since it was something new and she wasn't quite sure of it. the other mom's stayed with their little ones too. Of course those moms got to help their little people with their little arts and crafts. Ella said I could watch, but I wasn't allowed to raise a finger to help her. I just had to laugh because she wanted me there, but she wanted her independence. That's Ella!

I have been pretty busy myself. I have been busy and active with my book group. It's nice to have a resource of so many women with the same values who read so many different books! Every book club, we select a book for the next month, but then also discuss so many other good books, my wish list is a mountain right now. I love it! We just read the Goose Girl by Shannon Hale, if anyone is interested. She's an LDS author and writes adaptations of lesser known Grimm fairytales. They are considered youth books, but it's a good read for adults too.

Anyway, I am also now teaching one of the two Sunbeam classes, Ella's of course. it was a little rocky at first being her teacher, but I think we're both getting used to it. I really love that age group! They are cute and funny and it's great to see how they will respond to things. I was just talking last night that I think the only Primary class I have ever taught is Sunbeams. The first time being with little Kelli Brianne in my Sunbeam class! Memories! :-)

Some other excitement this last month. We got our cats spayed, which was nice. Sammy had a hernia which they fixed too. They both healed really nicely, so now we don't have to worry about them going into heat anymore. Thank goodness!!!

Jason has been perfecting his ability to make Dad's spinach balls and the girls and I are not complaining. He makes them very well and they are so yummy. The nice thing is, since you have to freeze them, you can cook a few here and there and it makes a quick and yummy snack. Have I mentioned how fat we are getting? :-)

The weather in Spokane has been pretty darn nice this winter. The girls and I have been able to take lots of walks around the neighborhood. The nice thing about our neighborhood is that there are so many options about where you can walk and walk to. It's been a lot of fun! With all the yummy food we've been eating, it's a good thing we've been able to keep ourselves somewhat active! :-)

Well, I think you are all now caught up on our household. I would love to see more blogs from everyone else! Hint hint!

From mom- mom asked me to post

not to tromp on tiffany's parade but brad and i are getting married and having our reception on april 17th as well. it'll be a huge wedding with elephants, bridesmaids, flowergirls, groomsmen, food, music, elephants, lights, fireworks, a band or two (the beatles), elephants, and me of course. Its going to be in spokane tho so the family has to decide with one is better to attend. (the one with elephants)
chow! =)

Wedding, April 17, 2010...plan now

Nic and I have officially chosen April 17, 2010 for our wedding reception. Yippee!

After much deliberation, we finally chose to just go through with a wedding date. This is mostly for his tight nit extended family who all want to come celebrate with us...and well for the presents.

Nic and I will still be getting married earlier than that in a simple ceremony (most likely to take place in Spokane). Being married will take away a lot of stress and hardship and make April 17th mush less of a panic day. Most people don't know about this plan, and as far as they are concerned we will be married on April 17th. The day will be a simple ceremony, maybe with dinner afterward. It'll essentially be an elopement (so Mandy, don't stress about trying to make it here). We will decide when for sure once I am endowed.

Anyhow, back to the fun. Reception in Portland on April 17, 2010. This will be the day for celebration and fun that everyone is invited to. I'm sure I'll be asking for advice as we now have less than 3 months to pull it all off. And Nic will most likely be starting a new job soon that will leave us with three hours a day (6-8 am and 5-6 pm) in which we will have together and the weekends to plan. SO I'm kinda on my own.

But as intended, it'll be simple. No bridesmaids, no groomsmen, and no line! We will have simple decorations and food taken care of already. Dress and tux are essentially done. All we have now is invitations and cake!

Girls: Evoni will be throwing me a bridal shower here in Portland. You will all be invited. If you can make it, awesome. If not, don't stress.

More details to come. Questions? Call me!

News from the NC

First story I want to tell actually happened a while ago, but I think it is funny. A couple weeks ago Meric came home from work and told me that Fort Bragg was starting a couple hours late the next day so we could sleep in a little. Actually the entire area was on a two hour delay for the next day. The reason: it might snow that next morning. Thats right it hadn't snowed yet, but it might. And it was a blizzard we were expecting it was "a light dusting" of snow. Seriously everything was put on hold for a little bit of snow we didn't even get. I just have to laugh sometimes.

Anyway I told you all I would blog about our foster care classes but I keep putting it off. Meric and I have been to two classes so far and I still don't quite know what to think of them. The first class I actually hated and kinda wanted to quit after it. We did a get to know you thing and then the instructors did a little role play which I really didn't get much from. They also really pushed the need for us to participate and made me feel like if you are a quiter person then that is bad. i don't all the reasons, but the class really left a bad taste in my mouth. Our second class was a bit better (I even participated in a role play which I really hate doing), but I still am not sure how I feel about the whole thing. The next class is Thursday so we will see how it goes. Of course if Meric and I don't finish our thick packets by then we will be out of the class anyway. The packet is all about us and our families, our childhood and now. Some of the questions are really dumb like "describe your sibling's personalities". Seriously how do I describe 9 different personalities in one paragraph?

Other than the classes, things have been same old same old. We are trying to do the body for life program again. The hardest part is getting started and developing the good habits again. I have tried a couple new "healthy" recipes. The pumpkin pie turned out pretty good and I made Greek wraps that were pretty good too. I went to the library and checked out a couple of books. One I liked enough to go buy and one I really hated. It was the Skinny B*tch cookbook. YUCK! It turns out it was a vegan cookbook with swearing and no pictures. Also they had a little anti drininking milk section which I really didn't agree with. Actually at Meric's work they have had a few anti milk discussions. Apparently since we are the only mammals who drink another animals milk in adulthood, we must be doing something wrong. So I guess if humans are the only animals to do something, it is unnatural and wrong and we should stop doing it cuz none of the other animals do it. Thats right stop cooking your meat before you eat it and why are we cleaning our drinking water? And if animals know what is best for them then we should all start eating cat poop cuz Lucy loves the stuff and obviously her natural instincts know what is best for us all! Sorry, as you can tell that philosophy kinda bugs me.

I guess that is all for now. I miss you all!

P. S. Dad, the joke in this last Hillyard Herald has to be one of your worst yet. Congratulations!

Wedding madness

For those of you who don't know or haven't figured it out, I'm getting married. I don't know when or how, but I am. After the fun-filled weekend of watching AJ stress over his wedding, I've chosen to basically skip all that. I'm picking out a dress this weekend and then just going to keep it until the weekend I decide I'm done being single and just going to get hitched.

I'll keep you all updated on the details as they come.