a little re-arranging!

This is our living room...newly arranged! Ben was gone all morning for work and then went out in the evening with his friends. So I decided that since I didn't like how it was arranged before that I would move everything until I liked it! I'm learning to love my house for what it is and it helps that we have plans now that will allow for it to feel way more like a home!

We are going to take all the tile out in our house and stain the concrete so we can save the money we would have put in the flooring into other projects. We are going to redo the shower in the master and get new toilets and vanities. That will probably all take place in the next 6 months so I will post about those as they happen. So...this is the living room for now but when Ben got home he said he hated it so we'll see how long it lasts!

Birthday in Disneyland!

A little over a month ago Ben and I got annual passes to Disneyland! We were so excited to make 2009 be a year of playing together and taking trips to Disneyland :) We got the idea to take our sisters to Disneyland on their birthdays as it worked out for each one. The first sister to have a birthday is Hailey so we thought it would be fun to plan a trip and surprise her with it! We decided to wake her up at midnight on her birthday and tell her we are taking her to Disneyland so pack and let's go! The few people that I told...the ones that needed to know Ben or I or Hailey would be gone...all were so excited for her and said how much fun it would be. Ben I just took that as affirmation that we were doing a great thing. We set everything up with her parents and were really excited to go wake her up.

Ben and I snuck into her room, turned her light on and slowly nudged her awake. She was NOT happy at all to be woken up and did not want to talk to us at all. Ben and I kinda looked at each other not knowing what to do and he started to tell her that she was going to Disneyland...that we were there to take her Disneyland right then. She tells us that she does not remember any of this but when she finally sat up she just kept shaking her head like "no, I'm not going to Disneyland." We were like.."Actually you are...that is our birthday present to you."

Then she kinda woke the rest of the way up and realized that this meant she wasn't going to school to get the balloons and a cake from her friends, she wasn't going to see Sean, her boyfriend, and that she wouldn't be with her mom and dad. She started crying and saying...but I was going to go to school!

What Ben and I did not think through was that Hailey does not like it when the plan changes, she does not like change at all. If the furniture is rearranged she gets upset! We didn't think through that she had planned what her 16th birthday was going to look like and although we were taking her to her favorite theme park we were changing her plan. And that was really upsetting to 16 year old Hailey who was woken up from her sleep.

We were kinda holding our breath as Brenda talked to her about how change is ok and that she will have a good time...Hailey slowly packed and we were on our way soon enough. We decided to pick up Hannah Kleven, her best friend, so that she would at least see one friend on her birthday. Hannah was excited to get a call at 1am inviting her to come...and 20 minutes later we were at her house to take her with us.

We...actually Ben drove through the night (he had slept from about 1pm-8pm) and I who normally can sleep in a car did not sleep hardly at all! I think I slept for about 20 minutes at a time but only a few times. Man was I tired!

We got to Anaheim around 6:30am and went straight to IHOP, Hailey's favorite breakfast place, where I had about 5 cups of coffee and we had a delicious breakfast! After that we went to our hotel (they let us check in at 8:30am!) We were able to set all of our stuff up instead of leaving it in the car! We decided to head over to the park eventhough it didn't open until 10am. After getting the girls' tickets we went to the gate and they let us in for the Magic Hour! We got in early! That allowed us to see the characters and get pictures with the ones we wanted and we were able to walk around such empty streets of Disneyland! So cool!

Here is Hailey infront of Sleeping Beauty's Castle...
Hailey and Hannah :)
Hailey decided this would be her new car!
Yummy yummy Disneyland Ice cream!
On Thunder Mountain...they screamed at the top of their lungs and at the top of their range for the whole ride! I got a video of it and will try to post it at the end of the blog if you care to hear their ear piercing screams!
On the monarail taking us to dinner at the Rainforst Cafe!

The trip was a great one and I think Hailey did enjoy her birthday afterall! We just will never wake anyone up and surprise them with anything ever again!

I can't figure out the video but if I do I will post it!

Christmas & married

This Christmas was our first as a married couple. It was very fun to start traditions with Ben and think about what we want our holidays to look like for us. We thought it would be fun to have a "candle night" which we decided is when you do everything by candle light. So obviously it makes for a simple night of game playing or talking. Cooking was too difficult to do by candle light - I wound up turning on the kitchen light - so I think next year we will have to prepare ahead of time or get take out...But that was our Christmas Eve Eve. We really liked it, it was fun to have a change of pace right before Christmas to hang out together, laugh, and play.

Decorating was very very fun! I bought a few things to make the house feel warm and cozy but left most of what I wanted to buy for after Christmas to get 50% off...But even with the few decorations I had the house looked like Christmas. We got a tree and put white lights on it. We have somewhere around 30 ornaments and then I bought a box of 50 cheap red ones from IKEA to give some color and coordination to the tree. I hung the Christmas Cards we got on ribbon in the dining room. I think the dining room was our most decorated room :) We were pleased with how our house was decorated. We were very happy to have a house for our first Christmas :) After Christmas sales were awesome! I got reindeer stocking holders, lighted garland, ornaments, snowflakes, bowls, tons and tons of lights to decorate the outside next year, a very pretty tree skirt, and a pretty red table cloth. After thinking about the table cloth (which was only $5) I thought that it might be good as curtains in my living room. I have some tan ones up now and I thought that it I made those panels and the red table cloth into equal widths I could have tan and red curtains. I am trying to find someone with a sewing machine so I can borrow it and try my hand at making the curtains!

Back to actual Christmas: We spent Christmas Eve with my family at my parents' house. I made enchiladas for our Mexican feast. We ate dinner, laughed, opened a present which is always fun to get a taste of what the next morning will be like. I opened coffee cups from my sister Joanna (matching ones for me and Ben), and I don't remember what Ben opened that night. It was nice to be with my family, we watched A Christmas Story and I fell asleep...I didn't even feel that tired but apparently I was! But we went home and I loved thinking that I would be waking up on Christmas with my husband!

We had decided to open our presents to each other (except for one which was already at his parents' house) He gave me a set of camel color flannel sheets and a set of cream color 1,000 thread count sheets. He also gave me a plum color, warm and pretty throw :) I gave him the movie A Christmas Story, a crock pot cook book, and with his parents bought him a 32 G ipod touch. He really wanted it but didn't think he was going to get it because it was out of everyones' price range. But we were able to split the cost and give Ben what he really wanted. And it has proved to be worth the cost and really is the "funnest ipod."

We went to his parents house at 7am Christmas morning to be with them. It was fun but different to be with them rather than my family. I was struggling with being sad but at the same thoroughly enjoying our time with them. I am so thankful that his family and I all get along well and can have fun together. They have Christmas music playing and try to make it as dark as possible to make it feel like early morning through the whole present opening.

We went to my parents' at 9 to have another Christmas morning :) My family does it later in the morning because we like to sleep in and we wait for my dad's mom, our Nana, comes over. 2 of my cousins live here now so they were over as well. 10 people made for a busy Christmas morning! We always make sure to have a fire going and coffee cups handed out before we start. We had a great time with my family but left shortly after noon to go to Ben's grandparent's.


I am so out of time...I will write about the afternoon later but need to go hang out with my sisters right now. I have like 1 more week with them living in phx before they move to tucson again :(

Arabelle

I was making chocolate white chocolate chip cookies Sunday night for a cookie party Monday night which was super fun! We had family things that evening so I didn't start making them until almost midnight. I had taken the 4th batch out of the oven and they were cooling on the cookie sheet when I totally feel asleep on my couch. My dog had never ever eaten anything she wasn't supposed to but decided that this was her night! She ate 2 dozen of the cookies i had cooling on my table! I didn't even think about them being in her reach when I put them there! So I woke up about 3am and freaked out! She seemed just fine but I know chocolate isn't good for dogs so I woke Ben up and we decided to call the animal hospital. I was ready to load her up and take her there but we decided to call first. Thankfully the vet said that she didn't have enough to be fatal because of her size :) and told me to watch her and expect vomiting or diarrhea. She slept in our room that night so that if she started making weird noises we would hear. She didn't do anything at all that night...she just slept. I had to go to work the next morning so I put her outside and prayed she'd be ok. I stopped by home mid afternoon to check on her and she was completely fine! She seemed happy! I don't think the chocolate affected her in a bad way at all. She liked it which just makes me a little nervous about anything in the kitchen she could get in to! But oh well...at least we know that she is resilient to people food and chocolate!

The heater guy came out over the weekend and said we needed this new power board....so he is bringing it today! I really really hope that it lets us have heat!

Disneyland :)

We loved going to Disneyland this year! First time back since Ben proposed. It was the one year anniversary! So I made the shirts we are wearing :) We got so many comments and then a Disneyland employee gave us "Happy Anniversary" pins. Disneyland is one of my favorite places because you can wear cheesy shirts like this and people notice and appreciate them!

I got to spend the weekend with friends that I love and have missed terribly! And I got to meet a few new people and get to know others that I really wanted to get to know!
These were the 2 roommates that I loved getting to know better! They are fun women that I could talk to for hours!
These girls Miranda and Ashley are friends that I was so happy to hang out with because I missed them! Ashley is living in PHX again finally but Miranda is leaving to go far far away soon :( But they are life friends...we'll still be there after England.

One of the most fun things about the trip was that my sister Cathy came!
This was right after Splash Mountain where we got pretty wet!

But my favorite thing about the whole day was talking to Ben about how we were each feeling last year on the trip. He was trying not to think about proposing so he wouldn't get nervous and I was trying not to think of the possibility of Ben proposing because I didn't think he was going to. And then we got to watch the fireworks show from Main Street again and it snowed and it was beautiful. It was the exact moment that Ben proposed last year and I just kept thinking how awesome it is that we always have that memory together and it is something we can share with our kids some day and can experience again every year if we want to! If you haven't gone to Disneyland at Christmas....GO! It's so magical and beautiful and special. Here are some more pictures...enjoy!
































We ended the trip the best way possible! We got ANNUAL PASSES! We can go pretty much any time of the year! So if you are going to Disneyland let us know...we may meet you there! Can't wait to use them!
We are loving married life but totally had a fun argument the other day about the christmas tree lights. We both wanted to put them on. I thought that I could make it look good and I wanted to try but Ben had been thinking he was going to do them. So we yelled a bit and then finally he put them on while I put Disneyland pictures on our christmas card. First major time that I just didn't want to talk to him about the situation! But we got through it :) and he did a great job on the lights. I love married life.

my house

Our heater is not working...which is a bummer because 3 months ago the inspector said it was fine. We have been bundling up while at home and snuggling under the blankets at night. We have a super warm blanket so at least we can sleep in peace. The heater guy is coming out Saturday to tell us what we need to do and to show Ben how to fix it in the future...oh the things you learn!

I'm home early from work so I am going to take this afternoon and clean! I don't like cleaning at night when I usually get home from work but the afternoon is fine by me! So in a couple hours my house will be perfectly spotless! Can't wait!

work and dreams

These are the amazing ladies that I get to work with every day! From left to right standing it's Jenny, Laura K, Tia (our supervisor), Me sitting it is Kortney on the left and Faith on the right. The 5 of us share an office...Tia of course has her own. We have fun together, laugh and talk about life and the clients we each have. I would not love my job if I did not love the people I work with.

I work at Southwest Human Development. It was recently voted the best non-profit organization to work for! I feel so blessed to have landed this job right out of college! It really is a GREAT place to work. The supervisors care about the team members and make sure that we are doing well and feel supported in dealing with the hard issues we have to face with our families that we serve.

Lately I've been thinking about my career and what I want it to look like. Do I want to start a family now? Do I want to keep working at my current job for a long term thing (I've been there 6 months so far)...Do I want to go back to school? What would my degree be in? Do I want to invest more in my work outside of the home or do I want to stay home with my kids?

Of course I don't have all the answers to these questions but I am starting to lean towards going back to school to get my masters in occupational therapy. I think I did that link right but if not it's just wikipedia's definition of occupational therapy. I really hope this next link works because it is the American Occupational Therapy Association site. Check it out...I think it is such a need with children and I would love to work with kids birth to 5 years old as an occupational therapist. So, this is my dream for now. I of course want my own children but I feel like this degree will help me be a better parent and will help me teach my kids well and I can facilitate play and love through this therapy. That would make my heart so very happy! I feel like OT is a way that God helps us, his children, cope with life when that is all we can do and also to enjoy the sweet moments and realize the beauty that surrounds us.