Merry Christmas!

Well, the Holidays are well under way...

For Thanksgiving, Steve and I were invited to feast with Jon and Keriann. Another couple in our ward, the Hansens, joined us along with Keriann's mom who was in town awaiting the arrival of the new baby! Though Keriann was uncomfortable all day on Thanksgiving, the babe waited until late the next night (actually just after midnight Saturday) to make his appearance.

Hooray for baby James!

What a cutie he is.... and I love just going over to their house and holding him for hours on end!

We are so grateful for our wonderful friends Jon and Keriann and are so happy for them!

I started putting up my Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving. It takes me a while to get things done, so I figured I'd start early. Oh, and before that, I painted the other two walls in the living room a tannish color. No more yellow! Hooray!

This morning we got our first taste of Ohio frozen rain.....

While that may just look like a wet car.... it is actually all frozen water! Lots of "fun" to scrape those windows! (by the way, that is actually our neighbors' car.... we had already scraped ours off before I took the pictures)

Right now, as I sit here blogging, Steve is taking his Anatomy exam. It is scheduled from 10 am to 5 pm. Sheesh.... amazing how much there is to know about the human body. He has been studying like a mad man all week, so hopefully all his hard work pays off. I'm sure he'll do great.

So, we fly out on Sunday to head to Utah for Christmas. We will be there until January 4th. It will be so fun to see our families and be with everyone during Christmas and the new year.

Well, until next time..... MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Say Cheese!

I saw this squirrel up in a tree and as I put up my camera to take a picture, he looked right at the camera and gave me a nice "grin"!

A quick look at the past few weeks....

Steve started trying to grow a beard a couple weeks ago. He only let it grow for close to two weeks, then he couldn't stand it any more and shaved it off. It was a bit patchy, but I bet it would look good if he gave it more time. Maybe in a few years he'll try again...

My Dad had this package delivered to us last week. It is from Harry and David. If you haven't ever had stuff from there... you are missing out. They have gourmet foods.... delicious. Our gift tower consisted of perfect pears, yummy apples, jams, cheese, smoked salmon, chocolate covered bing cherries (mmmmm...), nuts, chocolates, baklava, some sort of fudgy chocolate stuff, shortbread cookies with raspberry filling...... mmmmm...... tasty treats! Thanks Dad!

My good friend Keriann had a baby shower last Saturday and I helped with the food. I made Caramel Apples.....

They turned out good, and I thought they looked pretty awesome all lined up on the tray! So, I thought I'd share some pictures for your viewing pleasure.... sorry I don't have the technology to allow you to taste them on here....

Yesterday, November 19th, was Steve's Birthday! I got him a racquet ball racquet, some new clothes, "The Sword in the Stone" on DVD (he says it's his favorite disney movie), and a new watch.

It was kind of funny because I bought Steve a watch for his birthday 4 years ago.... and yesterday, on his birthday, that watch was close to dead. We were waiting to see if it would break all the way through by the end of the day.....
Now he has a new watch. He likes digital ones...that have the date and everything on the face. I thought this new blackish one looked nice for a digital watch.

(I caught Steve practicing racquet ball... in the house..... not like he could really keep it a secret... the sound of the ball bouncing against the wall kind of gave him away....)

For dinner we had Steve's favorite--Thai Curry. We even got to use my cool dishes I bought at Pier 1 Imports. (I found a gift card that we had gotten for our wedding over 3 years ago.... figured I'd put it to use!).

Oh and in case you were wondering.... my dining room is now themed around those dishes.... notice the color of the walls.... and I hung dark brown curtains....

Anyway, Happy Birthday Steve! He is now 27 years old and smells like formaldehyde! Not because he's old, but because he now disects cadavers in anatomy lab......

Last Minute Road Trip

So, on November 8th, I picked up and took a last minute road trip. Just me. Steve had to be to school on Monday so he couldn't come with me unfortunately.

My final destination being about 475 miles away from Toledo, I first was planning on getting a plane ticket. But, with gas prices soooo low right now, I figured, heck I might as well drive! And, I was up for an adventure.

So I hopped in the car Saturday morning and hit the road!

Goodbye house!.....

Goodbye street where we live!

(I cheated, that picture wasn't actually taken that day....there weren't that many leaves left at that point...)

Goodbye Toledo Zoo bridge..... and hello RAIN! (The Zoo is very close to our neighborhood. Within walking distance. That bridge you see is the path connecting the two different sections of the zoo. Pretty cool.)

After a short 3 1/2 hour drive.......

In Kentucky, the sun was out and the scenery was beautiful.

Nice to see some hills and a bit of dimension to the land.

Nothing compared to Utah's mountains, but a change of scenery from flat Toledo, Ohio.

Another 3 1/2 hours on the road (which, by the way, REALLY didn't seem long at all).......

.......and I was in Tennessee! Wow, drove across two entire states in 7 hours! Very cool.

Only a short 1/2 hour left to my final destination.

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE!

Home of the Grand Ole Opry. That's right folks I went to the heart of Country to see the Country Music Awards.... Okay thats a lie. I actually went to the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville where they were holding a convetion for NextGen-- electronical medical records or something like that..... Obviously the convention wasn't for me. I was there to visit someone else that was traveling there for the convention......

MY DAD!

Yippee! And my mom of course came on the trip with him. So, it was my job to entertain my mom while my dad was at the convention during the day.

And it wasn't hard! At a place like the Gaylord Opryland Resort, you can stay occupied for hours without even leaving the hotel! I mean, check this place out! Inside the hotel, under glass roofs are "nine acres of indoor gardens, cascading waterfalls and an indoor "river" with its own Delta flatboats." Seriously people.... very cool.






We had a great time just exploring the hotel and stuff. We ate at one of the six restauarants in the hotel and ordered fancy room service and watched movies and just... had fun!

One night we went to Jack's Bar-b-que, a little barbeque joint downtown in Nashville. I found it online, and figured we'd try it and get a taste of the streets of downtown. There were bars and stuff with bands playing country music all over the place. There were boot shops and hat shops on every corner. As we were walking we asked some random guy sitting on a bench if he could tell us where Jack's Bar-b-que was. He said "Yeah... other side of the street.... flying pigs." I thought that was funny. And sure enough.....

....check out those flying pigs! (that's my dad in the blue coat walking under the sign)

On Monday my mom and I went and toured the Belle Meade Plantation. Kind of interesting to get a feel for life back in those days.... with the slaves and everything.... It was a neat historical site.

And here are my mom and I just being silly.


I had a great time with my parents. It will hold me over until I get to see them again at Christmas! We fly out the 21st of December. I can't believe the holidays are that close!

If You Just Smile....

(These are the words to a song that may be familiar to some. You can listen to it on my playlist if you want.... The words are great words of comfort during times of discouragment)

Smile tho' your heart is aching,

Smile even though it's breaking,

When there are clouds in the sky-

You'll get by,

If you Smile through your fear and sorrow,

Smile and maybe tomorrow

You'll see the sun come shining through-

For you.

Light up your face with gladness,

Hide ev'ry trace of sadness,

Altho' a tear may be ever so near,

That's the time you must keep on trying,

Smile- What's the use of crying,

You'll find that life is still worthwhile,

If you just smile.

Quirky Jenni

I was tagged by both Julie and Stephanie to tell 6 Quirks I have. I am finally going to finish up my list.... but just because I was tagged twice doesn't mean I have to do 12... right??


1) When I heat something up in the microwave, the time I set almost always ends in a 7. Instead of a minute, I usually do 77 seconds (which is probably most often used...). Never 30 seconds... it's 37..... or 57......... you get the idea. I have a slight obsessive compulsive behavior there....

2) Often when I'm listening to music, I find myself "leading" the music.... whether it be all out conducting, just a slight swing of the hand, or just a little wave of a few fingers. Often I even find that I am leading the beat with my foot. ........down, in, out, up, down, in, out, up......

3) I..... can NOT dance..... But, I have a little "jig" I do randomly..... its more just a little shuffle of the feet. Sometimes its like a victory dance, or an "I'm happy" dance. Very NOT cute.... you'll probably never see me do it.... unless you are Steve.... maybe my mom or sister.

4) I guess I am what my sibblings like to call a "food monitor." Ever since I was little, I was always keeping track of what everyone ate... "No, you can't eat another popsicle, you already had one!" "Didn't mom just buy these fruit snacks.... and they are already gone???" "Hey, I had 217 Skittles in this bag.... now there are only 216! Who ate one????" "Are you sure you want to take that much mashed potatoes? You're not going to eat it all...." Then as I got older, it evolved into not being able to stand seeing food get wasted.... When my family would go out to restaurants, I wouldn't order anything, because I knew without at doubt that everyone would order too much food, so I would just eat everyone else's "leftovers" or the stuff they didn't want on their plate (the vegetables off of Daniel's plate, the other half of the giant steak on Jordan's plate.....etc.) and, heck, by the end, I would get a sampler platter of all the meals and we wouldn't waste any food!!! My sibblings think I'm a "food monitor" and find it irritating I'm sure. My grandma is proud of my ways and applauds me for being so frugal and non-wasteful. :)

5) If food is intended to be hot, I would rather it be so hot that it burns my tongue than have it just luke warm. I also like my drinks very cold.

6) I love the windshield wipers.... but only if they work really well. There is just something so wonderful about having a splotchy dirty window... and then squirting that washer fluid and watching those wipers wipe it squeaky clean!!! I probably use my wipers way more often than is needed. Sometimes I even reach over while Steve is driving and squirt the fluid and wipe the window!! hahaha.... I'm sure it drives him crazy. But, it's not just windshield wipers.... I find the same joy in taking a paint roller and watching as my strokes change the wall from one color to another! Or how about when you have a dark carpet that is dirty, and you vacuum it..... ooohhh. ...yeah... love that..... watching as each stride makes a path of clean carpet! Wow... I am quite strange.....

7) Just kidding, not really doing any more. I just like the number 7......

Ward Trunk-or-Treat and Chili Cook-off

Our ward had a Halloween shindig on Saturday night.

These were our last minute costumes. I'm all about the cheap costumes for now.... my ears are formed from my own hair, and I just used eyeliner for the makeup.

And for Steve... I bought a stellar mullet wig for a few bucks. hahahaha....

Steve hates getting his hair cut... I pretty much have to force him (and his mom says he's been like that his whole life). He always says he wants long flowing hair.

So, although the wig is hideous, I reminded Steve that he always says he wants long hair...
".....yeah... but not a mullet....." said Steve. But, he wore it none-the-less. Mostly I think it was as a tribute to my younger brother Daniel who came up with a Mullet Equation that Steve thought was absolutely hillarious and genius.

Good Times

Last Saturday, we took a trip to Kirtland, Ohio (about 2 1/2 hours away). The missionaries in our area were taking a trip there and taking investigators with them. Steve is a ward missionary, so we were invited as well. (I'm sure anyone was invited... but.. yeah... we went.) Anyway, it was a neat experience.
Kirtland was the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1831-1838. The Saints gathered there one year after the church was organized by Joseph Smith in Palmyra, New York. Anyway, it is a neat little historic place where many things from church history took place. The first temple was built here.

And it still stands today. It is now owned by the "Community of Christ" Church. But, we were able to take a tour inside and learn a bit about it.

There is a Historic Kirtland little town where there are some replicated buildings and also some originals still there. Newel K. Whitney's original store is still standing, and they have it restored to its 1830's condition.

It was so neat to go into this building-- to walk through the same exact door Joseph Smith walked through... to walk on the same floor board that Joseph Smith and several other well known early church members walked on........ to go upstairs and sit in the room where Joseph received several of the revelations now found in the Doctrine and Covenants...... to walk through rooms where Joseph and Emma lived for a while.... very cool.

It was also very beautiful there and all the fall leaves were amazing.

Speaking of cool leaves... this is a tree out in front of our house, right across the street....

Wow.... Quite red/orange! I love it.

Other events of the week.... hmm..... OH! I am still working at Shoe Carnival, but as of this week, I am now only working part-time! Hooray! So much nicer to not work 40 hours a week... I now only work Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, from 8:30 t0 5. So, no more nights (YAY! I used to work Monday and Wenesday until 9:30...yuck...) I am less stressed now and so much happier. Not that you'd think working at a shoe store would really be that stressful....but I dunno... some how I manage to stress myself out a bit too much. And right now, I am trying to eliminate added stress that seems to result in such side-effects as poor health and depression..... ANYWAY! Moving on.

This week, I got to babysit Madison twice (the baby from upstairs).
I brought out some "friends" for her to play with. It was good to see them getting some use, and Madison seems to enjoy them.

I am glad that Jenny and Jake let me play with her and watch her. It is so fun for me and lets me get a little taste of having a little one and being able to stay home with them.

Changing Seasons

Well, the leaves are changing colors....

Fall is definitely in the air.

Speaking of different colors....

This is a house we passed as we were walking around the park the other day.

Doesn't that house look like a great haunted house??? I mean really... a purple house...? wow. I can't wait to see how they deck it out for Halloween... it has got some definite potential!

We also saw TONS of giant squirrels everywhere while on our walk. They were gathering acorns. One certain squirrel ran part way up a tree to get away from us, but then turned back toward us and was doing some weird dance.... I thought for sure he was getting ready to pounce on one of us...

...so I kept my camera up and ready just in case.... ya know... to catch the action.... it would be funny to have a picture of a squirrel flying through the air towards Steve....

Anyway, yesterday we went to an Apple Butter Festival at McQueens Orchard. Our neighbors the Snows informed us about this event and invited us to go with them.

They make apple butter in these big bubbling cauldrons.... looks like a witches brew to me....

But it sure tastes yummy! We did buy a jar to bring home with us.

There were different booths there with food such as fresh apple fritters.... and fresh cut big huge french fries! Tasty. There was also this booth for National City (a bank) where you had a chance to win stuff-- money, gift cards, etc.

Jake, Jenny, Steve, and I all tried it.....

Unfortunately, we all got the same thing....

A keychain.

Oh well, better luck next time.

It was a fun morning. We had some good food. And it is fun getting to know Jake, Jenny and Madison better. They live just upstairs, so, you'd think we'd get together more often than we do.

They did come over for dinner the other Sunday. I was happy to have someone to play with my toys. I have this horse that I bought about a year ago.... I thought it was really cute and figured I'd buy it and just keep it around until I have a kid to play with it.

Until then, little visitors like Madison can enjoy it.

Madison also liked sitting in the middle of our giant Love Sac. What a cute little girl! I need to get me one of them....

My Family

We got this family picture taken back in June before my sister flew back out to Switzerland and before Steve and I moved out here to Ohio. My good friend Scott Sumner took the pictures for us. He is the one that did my wedding pictures (see the one on the left?), and he's the one that taught me all I know about photography! Thanks, Scott. Check out more of his stuff at www.scottstudio.com. He is amazing. He also has a lot of BEAUTIFUL fine art photography of Christ and such. Definitely check it out......

Okay, now back to my family.....

Awww.... aren't they cute? Here they are, from left to right (excluding me and Steve... you know who we are). Jordan, my 11 year old brother-- we call him Jordy a lot. Cassidy, my cute lil' sis in law. Chris, my 26 year old brother-- the oldest of the bunch.... he's a goofy goober. Then there's my good ol' dad, Mike. And my beautiful mother, Denise. That little white dressed chub, that is my niece Kahri, whom you've probably read about on my blog before : ) She is sitting on the lap of my gorgeous sister, Megan (23 yrs old). She's my hero. Her husband Brady is standing behind her-- we won't mention his age......33. ...... Awww.... there's my nephew Kyler... he's 4... and I miss him... And last of all, my brother Daniel who is 13, going on 14 and I CAN'T BELIEVE how large and old he is..... it kind of freaks me out....
And there you have it, the whole Fam.....
The End

I miss sewing....

I made this dress back in April for my little niece Kahri right after she was born. I made it a 6 month size so she could wear it in the fall. Well, fall is here and she finally fits in it! Yay!

I wish I could actually see her in it (in person). But, I don't think I'll be making another trip to Switzerland any time soon, unfortunately....

Oh, and here is a dress I made for my little niece Emery who is 2. I made it for her back in June before we moved. I never heard if she ever wore it or not....mabye it didn't fit. Oh, well. I thought it turned out cute.
This was before it was completely finished (not hemmed yet, and no zipper).

Then, this was when it was finished (except I hadn't trimmed the ribbon tie yet...)

I like how it flares at the bottom.

Anyway, I miss sewing. Haven't been able to do any since I got here. Maybe some day....