Back to school

Well I am NOT going to Idaho but I am doing their online courses! Its a new program called The Pathway program and the best part is that the credits are onle $65 a piece and I can go all the way up to a bachelor's for half the cost if I went to a university. I am excited and nervous but I have been puting this off for tooooo long and when the opportunity came up there was no way I could pass up. Go here if you want to read more into it.

My sister Rebecca and I are doing this together and its going to be a great learning experience! One of the requirements is that you have to attend Institute one night a week and take a Religous course. I am excited for that because I didn't really attend Institute when I was younger and when I did go I didn't have my whole heart into it. I am happy that I get this chance to grow both spiritually (which I NEED) and mentally!

Homemade

This year for Christmas I decided I was going to try my hand at being crafty and make most of our gifts this year for family members. For my 2 nieces that are around the same age I found a cute idea on a blog for ABC blocks. Bear already had the wood I needed for it and I already had the paint and paper and mod podge. They were WAY easy to make and I think they turned out so cute!

I used 6 different patterned papers and painted the blocks with the coordinating colors.

The one other gift I made was an apron. I found a cute tutorial on this website and decided to try it out! I have never sewn in my life so I knew this was not going to be an easy project but with the help of my mom I was able to do it! I made one for our girl gift exchange with my dad's side of the family and made one for my SIL.

I had a lot of fun making these gifts and think they turned out good for being my first. I am sure I will be doing homemade in the future so if you get a homemade gift I hope you don't mind :]

Rebecca-The Artist

My sister Rebecca has been drawing since her freshman year of high school. I think going in to it she didn't know much about but as you can tell from this she is pretty dang good! She sure did find her hidden talent! She does painting, pencil drawing, oil painting, etc. and does them on the side. I will post more of her drawings soon...

Moving in

My sister Rebecca is moving in with us in a couple of weeks! I couldn't be more excited! Its going to be a good thing for the both us, and it helps that Bear is being so supportive of it! I am looking forward to spending a lot of time with her and helping her through the changes she is going through! GOOD changes and I couldn't be more happy and proud of her! My little sister is growing up :] It will also be good for me to have her here since Bear is gone working nights and I am still not used to it!

Good Deals

Since we have been married I have been on the search for a display table for an entry way and two end tables for the couch. This weekend we were out and decided to go and look at a couple of furniture stores and see what they had. Our first stop was at Ashley's and that is where I found everything I have been searching for! We went back into their clearance section and we found these beauties! Being in the clearance section also meant that there were a little misperfections but nothing Bear couldn't fix :)

This is just missing the glass piece up top..easy fix! It was originally $375 and we got it for $140

These 4 came in a set! The 2 end tables, coffee table, and a back table for the couch. All of them just need glass added to them. Originally $750 for the set and we got it for $200!

I feel like my living room is complete now! Now its time to decorate.

Holding On

I read this quote from a conference talk from April 2010 and it came at the perfect timing. At times right now I just feel like giving up on trying to have children and ask why why why. I always hear about people having babies that don't even deserve them (druggies, abusers, neglecters, ect) and ask why can they have babies when they don't even care and there are so many couples out there that would do anything to have children and give them a loving home. Why?? I know I shouldn't question Him but at times I do. At times I think I am just not good enough and that I don't deserve children. I know I just need to have more faith in Him and I just need the strength to handle whatever it is the may come our way.

Happy Halloween

Halloween's are pretty low key around here. We usually just hang out with family and play games and hand out Halloween candy to the neighbors, which is the way I like it. But I can't wait till we have kids and we get to dress them up and take them trick or treating. I think it will make holidays like these more enjoyable. But until that happens we will continue our little tradition of hanging out with family, eating chili, and playing games; which I am sure we will do even when we do have kids!

Bear bought this mask this year and I am not fan of it at all! But he insisted on wearing it so here he is cooking the chili..he only put the mask on for picture purposes for me. I wanted that thing out of sight. He did scare my mom with it. She was in the bathroom and he waited for her by the door and went BOO and she jumped and screamed. She did chase him up the stairs but couldn't catch him...

We pulled out good old Jenga and played it about three times. Me, dad, and mom were the ones who ended the games. Bear never let it fall..whatever. He is a bit on the competitive side

I was the first one to let it fall...

Then my dad

Then my mom

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Workin Man

With the economy on the crapper, Bear's company has kinda slowed down. He is still getting work which has been a HUGE blessing but not what he was used to getting. One of his good friends that is the Chief Firefigther out in Buckeye, told him about a company that was hiring for Fire/EMT. Chief knew the guy that was doing the hiring for the position and put in a good word for Bear. Well it worked and after about 7 months he was "officially" offered the position. He had to wait on his background check, his physical, his stress test, etc results to come back normal and thank goodness they did :] Who knew it would take sooooo long!

He has been working at the job for about a month and a half and its going alright...I wish I could say he loved it but I can't. The one good thing about working here is that most of the guys that are working there part time are full time firefighters for the surrounding cities, so he has been able to become friends with them. But I do know why he is doing it..he is doing it for us. He is doing it because he slowed down in his work so he found something else for the time being to make up for lost jobs. So he works Wed-Fri the 6pm-6am shift and I am NOT a fan of it at all! I have a really hard time sleeping and every little noise I hear I freak out. Hopefully I will get used to it soon! So on his days off his has been doing side jobs during the day, and at night is an assistant instructor at GCC with his friend doing the Fire Fitness class.

So on the weekends he is catching up on his sleep! We do go out once in a while but I try not to complain much about being bored because I know how tired he is and he does deserve a good rest! And sometimes I feel like I never get to see him which has been hard but it has opened my eyes and has made me realize how much I really do need him! I am very grateful for Bear and for all his hard work. I am so very blessed.