Happy Birthday Jeremy!

It's my big brother's birthday!!! (yes another birthday, we had lots of cake this week in our family!)

Jeremy and I went to pharmacy school together, it was absolutely awesome!! I can't imagine pharmacy school any other way, I had a built in study buddy who HAD to like me no matter what. It was also fun to get to know him as a friend (and let me tell you, you get to know someone REALLY well when you sit next to them 6 hours as day, 5 days a week and study with them for hours on end nights and weekends), not as my uber cool 9 year older brother who did no wrong. I really do count him as one of my closest friends now and am greatful for his example to me growing up.

Love ya Jer!!!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Happy Birthday to my Mom!!! She's the most wonderful woman ever and has been an inspiration to me in so many ways. So I thought I'd list a few ways in which I am like my mother:

Obviously we don't look ANYTHING like each other... oh wait... we look a lot alike! And she's a pretty, pretty lady (not to brag) ;)

She's a pharmacist, just like me! She went back to school when she was 38 with 4 children and had a 5th while she was in pharmacy school. She managed to graduate with honors, which I did NOT do. AMAZING!!!

She and I sound alike, talking voice and lauging. I LOVE her laugh!! I used to use her laugh to locate her at gatherings!

She is an excellent home decorator... I LOVE decorating and am so glad that I inherited that from her.

She was an amazing Primary Chorister, the kids loved her and she loved teaching them. While I don't do the singing thing, I also love teaching.

She makes amazing pies, especially cherry pies.... I spent one summer making a pie a week till I could almost equal her pies. Now I can make a pretty mean pie!

Her rolls are also amazing... they are still the only roll recipe I make to date. Not only the only recipe I make, but I roll them the way she always did too, although she frequently likes to tell me that "there ARE other ways to make rolls"

She LOVES a good bargain! Her weekly therapy has long been "yard-sale-ing". While I am too lazy to wake up to get good deals at yard sales, I can rarely force myself to pay full price for ANYTHING.

She has a beautiful yard... I don't have a yard yet, but I really want a beautiful one!

She has a funny habit of not correctly hearing what people say... what she thinks she hears are frequently hilarious! I don't necesarily hear things wrong, but I have fun thinking what could be mis-interpretted.

She did a wonderful job making holidays amazing for us as children. I love all of the traditions she and my dad established for us... I can't imagine the holidays any other way... I'm so excited to have a family and carry on those same traditions!

I love my Mom so much!!! Happy Birthday, MOM!!!

Simple Things

Simple things make me laugh. Like today I discovered that I can vacuum my ENTIRE house (our rental house) from one centrally located outlet. And it's not an amazingly long vacuum chord nor does it have long hose, it's just one TINY house! Can't wait to move!

Oh yeah... we bought a house!

Don't ever let anyone tell you that patience doesn't pay off... granted I hate being patient, but it worked this time. We got the house we made an offer on last week!!! He reconsidered and realized that our offer really was more amazing than he originally thought it was... and now we have a house! We close, hopefully pending inspections etc, on April 20th. Hooray!!!
I meant to have a cute picture of paul and I in front of our future house... but I forgot to take one. BLAST! I'll get one when we have the inspection on Thursday... maybe.

Is it bad that...

- For our 1st (our one and only 1st anniversary) on the real day I worked 8 hours so we delayed it, then when we "celebrated" it all our "plans" fell through and we ended up eating dinner at Chic-Fil-A and renting a movie (actually a TV show on DVD) and watching it at home?

- I stepped on my magical weighing machine, the Wii Fit, and I was genuinely suprised that I had gained 2.2 pounds over the weekend after skipping a work-out, eating at Red Robin one night,Chick-Fil-A the next and eating many of the lovely chocolates my hubby got me for our anniversary?

- I'm trying to justify putting my bald tires back on my car? Apparently WalMart refuses to put tires back on your car if they are too bald... silly tire nazi's!!

(p.s. NOT my actual tires! They're not THAT bald AND I don't own a BMW... yet)

Disappointment....

So we made an offer on a house this past week, it wasn't exactly our DREAM home, but knowing that we're only going to be here 3&1/2 years, sticking to our house budget, and trying to get the TV/man room for Paul, this was the best one we found. Don't get me wrong... I liked it and knew that with my sweet design skills and my bowstaff skills (oh wait don't need those for home ownership... or do I?) I could make it mine. Yes it's a ranch, not my typical style (I like traditional older houses typically), but the location is amazing, it has beautiful hardwood floors, and a man room (OH did I mention sweet purple countertops?)



So we made an offer... and a counter-offer... and a counter-offer. And we still don't have a house, he wouldn't lower his price to one we wanted. Sad story. The saddest part is that Paul and I still drive by it almost daily. We have a home-designing sort of program on our computer and have designed and decorated the whole house... we're hoping he wakes up someday soon and realizes what an amazing offer we gave him and that he really wants to sell to us. Really.

1 year down... forever to go.

One year ago today Paul and I got married in the Spokane, WA temple. It was a chilly, WONDERFUL day! Paul is a wonderful man, he's the most patient, caring and considerate man I know. I love my hubby a ton and am so happy that we get to be married forever.

My Baby Brother is Going To...

My baby brother got his mission call!!! He's going to Milwaukee, WI....

Just a mere 3 1/2 hours from me here in Iowa... interesting!



Congrats Elder Jesse Kissell!!!

P.S. Found this out AFTER I first posted this. One of his best friends from our hometown that he has known since he was 4 is going to the VERY SAME MISSION!!! Leaving on the VERY SAME DAY!!! What are the odds of that?!

So congrats Elder Jesse and Elder Blake! Watch out Wisconsin!

Faith in technology

Hi everyone,

This is Paul by the way. I just thought I'd share a little story. I don't know if any of you use a sonicare toothbrush, but they're pretty awesome, and they turn off automatically after two minutes! Well, the other day I was brushing my teeth, and for some reason my toothbrush forgot to turn off. I think I brushed for about five minutes before I realized what was going on. As a result, my teeth got really really clean. I just think its hilarious how much we trust technology sometimes. I've let myself become too lazy to tell my brain to pay attention to how long I brush my teeth... yeah... that's pretty lazy.

Then I got to thinking about my cell phone. I'm pretty sure I have two phone numbers memorized out of all the numbers programmed in my phone. That's ridiculous. I hardly even know how to drive anywhere besides school and church, because all I do when I need to go somewhere new, is follow the instructions on my phone. And so... if I lose my phone, I won't be able to call anyone I know, or be able to get to any of their homes... luckily though, it does work, so maybe I can use the stop watch function on my phone as a back up to the faulty timer on my toothbrush. That way I won't have to use my brain... because its sooo difficult! lol