Fall 2011

I just discovered that I never published this post from last December, but better late then never, right?

The last few months have been crazy busy for Ashley and I.  At the beginning of the summer, Ashley was asked to do a photo directory for our ward, including taking all the pictures, and that has kept him quite busy.  He was finished for the most part weeks ago, but getting the template done and figuring out the formatting for the printing of it has been quite time consuming.  He has also been working hard at getting his photography business started. He has done quite a few sessions with friends and family to get is portfolio started and will soon be setting up a website and Facebook fan page.  He has gotten some fantastic photos already.  I'll post some of them here once he's gotten them ready for posting on his site and fan page.  I have been kept quite busy working at BPA (Business Psychology Associates).  At the beginning of the summer most of the staff in my department left, so things got quite insane for a while.  Over the last few months I've trained a new manager for the department and a new customer support specialist to take the place of two that left.  It was stressful and I almost didn't stick it out, but it was worth it to stay.  Now I'm in a pretty good position in my department and the company.  Things have settled down quite a bit with everyone trained for the most part, so I'm back to enjoying my job more often than not.  Also, a few months ago I was called to be the ward choir director, just in time to do the Christmas Program.  It excited me, of course, cause I love Christmas music and have always wanted to direct a great choir for Christmas, but it also scared and stressed me out.  Our ward has the reputation that we have the good choir and the good music, so I felt I had big shoes to fill.  The reputation is well deserved too.  Our ward is quite talented, and the choir is pretty awesome especially for a ward choir, so I want to make sure I don't disappoint them.

My 29th birthday was in October.  Ashley and our friends, Christina and Michael Hawkins, threw me a party at our place.  My favorite color is purple and Christina really went to town with purple balloons, purple streamers, and a purple cake.  We ended up with five couples - Ashley and I, Christina and Michael, Dusty and Amber Earl, Tyler and Janica Harris, and Shawn and Carmela Healy  We had so much fun!  We grilled burgers and hot dogs out on our balcony, had tons of other munchies and candy, played games, and just enjoyed the evening.

Christina made a mini cake for me & cupcakes for everyone else!

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Kristina, Happy Birthday to you."

The week of Thanksgiving this year was great!  We got to go down to Salt Lake for the first time this year, and most likely only time since this year is only two weeks or so from being over.  We rented a car and drove down the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and stayed through till Sunday afternoon.  Wednesday was sleeping in, shopping, and dinner with some great friends we hadn't seen for a while, Jenelle and Tim Waite.  I also spent some great one on one time with my sister Melanie that night after dinner.  Thursday, of course, was Thanksgiving Day.  My mom made a fabulous late breakfast and we watched the parade, then we went to my mom's parents house for Thanksgiving dinner with extended family.  It was so fun to see everyone and spend time together.  After dinner at my grandparents house, we went to Jessie and Sol's house to play games.  We played Taboo and I will admit, the boys beat the girls, but it was so fun!

Friday was craft day for the girls - my mom, my sisters, and me.  We did some fun wood crafts from the Wood Connection and made wreaths with stuff from Hobby Lobby.

My mom, Jessie, and I each did a "Joy".  This is a picture
of my finished product on my parents piano.

Melanie did this one - SO cute!

Jessie looking cute as always and
tying a bow on her wreath.

Melanie and her wreath - getting the
decorations to stay was harder than it looks.

The chaos of the table while
we were decorating.

My finished wreath.

It was so much fun to spend time with my mom and sisters.  The crafts were awesome and pretty easy to do for how good they turned out.  I didn't used to think I had the patience for crafty stuff like this, plus I'm such a perfectionist that I usually can't commit to any one design or color cause I'm afraid it won't be good enough, but this experience was so great I can't wait to do more crafts on my own and with the girls.

After craft day, the guys joined us for pizza and games.  We played Mad Gabs all night, and, if I remember right, the girls won that time.  It was a great Friday night!  The next day my mom, Ashley, and I went to the Jordan River temple.  It was so nice to go to the temple.  We hadn't been able to go since they closed the Boise Temple for renovations.  We do mean to go to the Twin Falls Temple as often as we can when the weather permits, but they don't have clothing rental so we need to get some of the items for ourselves before we can go since we've always been able to rent before.  Anyway, it was a great blessing to have the opportunity to attend a session while we were there.  After the session, we waited for my dad to get done with work and then went to dinner just the four of us.  It was nice to spend the evening with them.  Both Ashley and I miss them a lot, so we were grateful we were able to finally go down for a while.  We miss my whole family, honestly more than we expected to.  Not that we didn't expect to miss them a lot, but we spent so much time with them, especially the last couple years we were in Salt Lake, that sometimes it's hard to know we're missing out on all the stuff they are doing now.  We're just so grateful for the times we get to have and are sometimes sad we took the times before a little for granted.

Harley Quinn

We adopted an adorable Pomeranian from the Humane Society last November and she's definitely become a member of our family.  We named her Harley Quinn. (did you catch the Batman reference?)  She is the perfect fit for us and we spoil her often.  It took 9 years of convincing Ashley to agree to get a dog and now she's his little shadow.  It's so fun to watch them together.  You can see a YouTube video of Ashley and Harley playing on the right sidebar as well as a video of Harley playing with her raccoon toy.  This may seem like a lot of pictures, but it's only a fraction of the pictures we have taken of her.  We just adore her!

This is the first picture I took of Harley right after we left the shelter with her.   We were waiting in the car for Ashley to get stuff for her at Walmart.  Ash and I had been looking for so long, we weren't expecting to find her that day.

Just got home from the shelter and loves her new bed!

Harley bundled up after her first bath.  She looks so little when she's all wet, except her ears. 

Been home a week or two and just loving chilling on the couch with us.

We went to Salt Lake to be with my family for Christmas and took Harley with us.   She really liked their couch.  My family thought her "Grinch" feet were perfect for the season.  

Again at my parents house, perched up on the soft pillows.  She loves pillows and soft blankets.

Harley sitting on my lap, trying to figure me out while listening to me laugh at the tv.

She loves sleeping curled up next to Ashley.

This was the first time we had her groomed.  She looked so different and lost the "Grinch" feet.  Her "Grinch" feet were cute, but she can walk on hard floors a little easier without all that fur in the way.

For some reason, she loves being between my side of the bed and the wall.   This is what I see most mornings when I look down.

She got all curled up on my sweatshirt one night.  Super cute!

She loves being on the couch and is pretty good about staying on her blanket.  Although, if you sit down next to her, you better be ready for her to jump in your lap and settle there for as long as you'll let her.

This is her "why are you over there and not calling me over for attention" stare.

The last time we had her groomed we asked them to go shorter around her head and ears and they definitely did.  She doesn't even look like herself but she sure stays cleaner this way.

Again by my side of the bed, this time snuggled into the pillow against the wall.  I love that her paws are crossed - she does that all the time.  She's such a lady.

Loving her bed in the music room/office.  Really, she's happy wherever we are.

One of her favorite spots, right on top of Ashley.

Staring contest - pretty sure Harley won.

For once, when I woke up she was sleeping in her bed instead of by my side of the bed.  She looked so comfortable and peaceful I couldn't resist taking a picture.  I wish I could sleep that comfortably and deeply.

Renewed Faith

Wow, life has been crazy the past few years and I honestly completely forgot about this blog with all that's happened.  Ash and I have been living in the Boise, Idaho area for a little over two years.  The area we're in now is definitely why we were directed to move up here from Salt Lake.  It took us years of struggles and making mistakes, but looking back I can see how everything that happened lead us to where we are now.  I've always been someone that seems to only learn things when I do it the hard way and I've learned a lot the past few years.  Ashley and I have been through so many things in the almost nine years we've been married, and although a lot of it was discouraging, frustrating, and heartbreaking; I'm learning to be grateful, as it's made our relationship amazingly strong.  There are some things we continue to cope with; the pain of not being able to have children, the frustration of financial instability, the roller coaster of health problems that plague Ashley, and many other things, but these burdens have been made so much lighter now that we've honestly and wholeheartedly started to follow Christ and have begun to allow the Atonement to work in our lives.  We have been to the temple a couple times in the past few weeks and have really felt a difference.  We attended the temple many times during our previous times of activity in the church, but after having been completely inactive for a couple years and now finding our way back in the way that we have, it's a totally different experience.  It was, of course, awe inspiring before, and was absolutely beautiful when I went through for my own endowments and to be sealed to Ashley, but the last couple times have been so touching and too amazing for words to express.  We're so grateful that we were lead here.  The ward here is a large part of the reason we were open to returning to activity in the church.  So many people from the ward reached out to us, not to pressure us to come back to church, but just because they genuinely wanted to get to know us and be there for us.  We got visits from many different people and some weren't even aware of the previous visits from others.  This ward is such an amazing group of people.  They continue to make us feel wanted and loved each week.  A few of them have helped us get through some of our more recent struggles and many have offered to help in any way they can.  All of them are wonderful examples of living a Christ-like life.  Through their examples and love, as well as the wonderful family and friends who have been praying for us and loving us, our faith has been renewed and continues to grow.  We can feel our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ's love for us.  Each Sunday when we attend our meetings, and especially during Sacrament meeting, I can feel an outpouring of love and I know that my Heavenly Father is so happy to have us there.  I come away each Sunday ready to get through the week.  Ashley and I are both so grateful for all that we have been blessed with and are so looking forward to the future.  I know it won't necessarily be easier, but I know things are much better and life is so much more fulfilling when following Jesus Christ.

Holiday Season 2008

Well, the holidays have come and gone. They always go by too fast. This year had lots of family activities. My husband and I were lucky enough to be able to take a week off and spend the week of Thanksgiving up in Idaho with Ashley's family. We don't get to spend much time with them, so it was great to get a whole week up there. We also got to spend some time with friends of ours that live in Boise. They have a great growing family and are always fun to spend time with.

One thing I really enjoyed that week was spending time with our brand new niece, Lucy, and her older brother, Benjamin. We don't get to see our nieces and nephews as often as I would like. It was a real treat to spend time with a couple of them.

That week went by in a blur, as all vacations do. December was here in the blink of an eye. My sister and her husband came over a couple weeks before Christmas and we decorated gingerbread trains. They did the first one; my mom and I did the second. It was a lot of fun. We did houses last year. Maybe next year we'll be ambitious enough to actually make our own gingerbread instead of buying the kits.

This year was unique in that Ash and I are still living with my parents. It was fun to be in a place that could be totally decorated for Christmas. My parents have boxes and boxes of Christmas stuff. And it's so cozy to curl up by the fireplace with your family and just enjoy being together. My dad has a fire going quite often during the winter, and especially at Christmas time.

I did miss having my own Christmas decorations a little, especially my village. I've got quite the village collected after six years of marriage. Ashley always tries to get me something new for my village each Christmas.

I did not miss setting up our tree. It's a major pain to put up and it's not pre-lit. I don't mind decorating it once it's up and has the lights and tinsel done, but putting the tree together and"fluffing" the branches isn't my idea of fun. My family always does a beautiful tree. You can sort of see it behind me here. Ash and I spend a lot of time in the family room, so we really enjoyed the tree. My mom was always accusing me of not being festive because I kept forgetting to turn the lights on, but I thought it looked beautiful even without the lights.

Hello All!

Well, I finally did it. I signed up for a blog. Ashley and I are both so bad at keeping in touch with people, hopefully this will help people keep tabs on us.

I love this picture. It's one of our engagement pictures, so it's about six years old, but that's part of why I love it so much. Life was just starting and ignorance was bliss. Not that life hasn't been grand since then, but; you know, all young people have this picture in their head of what life will be like as a "grown up" and very few have a real clue. We definitely learned some things the hard way, but we are closer for it. I feel blessed to have someone like Ashley who, even after six years of real life, can still make me feel butterflies. (Aww...I know; cheesy, but true.)

Anyway, Ashley is still finding his footings in the insurance business but he has done well so far. I think we both underestimated the amount of paperwork and organization that goes into being an insurance agent. He seems to really like the people he works with and gets satisfaction from knowing that part of his job is helping people that need it. His focus is Senior Benefits, so he helps Seniors with Medicare understand their coverage options, as well as helping them look at ways to make some of their investments safe and helping them determine what other kinds of insurance they would qualify for and benefit from. It's been an educational process for both of us, as far as understanding insurance. He's working hard and I'm very proud of him. I know we are both overjoyed that he was able to get out of Dollar-Rent-A-Car. The situation was getting worse by the day and he was miserable there.

Speaking of no longer being miserable, I have now been out of Skool Lunch for six months! I have been working at Myriad Genetic Laboratories since mid June and like it more every day. I also work with insurance, but it's the other end of things. I am more like a patient advocate, working with insurance companies and health care providers to get patients coverage for genetic cancer susceptibility testing. It's quite rewarding, and the company is a really good company to work for, especially in these lovely economic times. They really know how to treat their employees, it's no wonder they have people that stay with them for years. It's a totally new and wonderful world to me. It was an quite an adjustment to go from literally running my butt off all day, maybe getting to eat half a muffin, to sitting in a cubical at a computer with designated breaks. For the first month or so I didn't know what to do with myself. There are things about Skool Lunch that I still really miss, but I'm pretty sure all those things are no longer a part of Skool Lunch anyway. Someday, maybe, I'll have my own restaurant that will have some of the things that made Skool Lunch such a part of my heart. Melissa, if you're available in that distant future, I'll hire you to be my right hand man again in a heart beat.

Other than work, we are both busy trying to get things in motion for our performing arts group we're putting together as well as trying to decide where to move when we finally move out of my parents house. It's been nice to stay with them for so long, but we are ready to be on our own again. I have loved being in the ward I grew up in. It's fun to get to know them all again. My parents, my little brother, Ashley, and I are actually singing with a small group from our ward at church on Sunday. It's going to be great. That's one other blessing I've been given through living at my parents house the last eight months. I've had so many awesome opportunities to sing or perform in some way. It's really been amazing and my voice is in such better shape. It's a new goal of mine to keep it there whether I'm performing or not.