R.I.P., Camry

For those who have not yet heard, I had a little “incident” the Friday before last, in which I slid into the back of a truck with my car. I am totally fine, and was probably only going 15-20 miles per hour at the time—just fast enough to completely derail the rest of my (and Jason’s) afternoon. The truck I hit was virtually undamaged. I spent the next hour or so chatting with a 16-year-old gas station attendant, and using the store’s phone as my personal office (of all the days to forget my cell!). The 16-year-old gas station attendant was pretty good company, as he regaled me with stories of his “huge/sweet/awesome Chevy truck” and all the tickets he’s gotten for reckless driving. I think he was trying to make me feel better?

Anyways, long story short, the damage was just enough to total my Camry. Being that it’s a 1998 model, the cost of the parts to fix it exceeded the value of the car itself. And so, on Friday afternoon, I said goodbye to my wonderful car. It’s going to the salvage yard in the sky. I’ll miss that car...tear....

On a brighter note, I was able to get a much better deal with the insurance company than originally offered, and we’re pretty satisfied with the outcome. And so, we will be shopping for a new (used) car in the very new future. Woo! We may simply get a newer Camry, or we might branch out. Some other options we’ve thought about are the Toyota Matrix, Pontiac Vibe, Hyundai Sonata, and Honda Accord. Any recommendations?

The Greatest Clock Ever

My birthday was this week, and my very sweet husband got me the ultimate in wake-up experiences: The Peaceful Progression Wake-Up Clock. If you know me very well, you know that I am not a morning person (some might say that’s putting it mildly.) My morning thought process goes something like, “Dangit, it’s time to get up? Maybe I can press snooze one more time… do I really need to shower before work?”


So I’ve always thought it would be nice to have an alarm clock that wakes you up peacefully, slowly, gradually… kind of like when you’re camping. “Light, and the sound of the outdoors…ahhh, I think I’ll get up! What a lovely day! It’s only 5 am? No matter!” This is how I pictured myself waking up with such a clock. Probably with flowers and birds and happy music.


The wonderful, fancy, spaceship-shaped clock that Jason gave me wakes you up gradually over 30 minutes, using light, sound, and aromatherapy. At the end of the 30 minutes, a buzzer goes off. We’ve had three days to try it out so far, and this clock is obviously smarter than we are. I hope for much smoother wake up experiences in the future, but this is how it’s gone so far:


Morning 1: After much debate about whether the “alarm time” meant “actual time we get up” or “time that the 30-minute cycle beings,” we chose wrong, and were awakened at 6:30 instead of 7 am. Jason immediately woke up to our chosen combination of light, “birds chirping,” and “Stress Relief” (scent). I however, didn’t wake up until the buzzer. I stumbled out of bed, reset our trusty old alarm clock (sitting next to the new one) and went back to be for half an hour. Fail.


Morning 2: The clock was set correctly this time, and we both woke up more or less peacefully, and laid in bed listening to our digitized chirping birds, as the smell of Stress Relief wafted through the room. However, we had accidentally set our old alarm clock as well, which has a much more piercing sound. All of our peaceful progressions were ruined by the sound of the old alarm. Fail.


Morning 3: Clock set correctly: check. Old alarm turned off: check. I woke up peacefully to light, sound, and aroma, and merrily hopped out of bed at 7. (Or, stumbled less angrily.) Success! This clock is fabulous, once we got past the learning curve.

Holiday Recap, Part I

Well, I’ve been terrible about updating our blog lately, but that just means that we’ve had a full past few weeks. Now that Christmas and New Year’s are over and done (except for our upcoming Christmas visit to Newtown!) I hope to share some photos and highlights of our holidays.


Christmas was fantastic! We celebrated a record-breaking four times in four days (in four different locations). It was tiring, but fun. Here are the highlights of our Christmases so far:


Christmas Eve: We celebrated at Mom’s house, with Swedish meatballs and our favorite Christmas cookies. The food was delicious, as always. We also played the traditional game of Scrabble…. How I love Scrabble! It's a good thing my sisters are as obsessed with it as I am.


Christmas Day: It was a new experience for Jason and I to wake up in our own house on Christmas morning! We enjoyed cinnamon rolls and coffee, and watched the cat get high on his Christmas catnip. Later, Mom and the girls came over, and we had a relaxing afternoon. We crocheted several hats to send to newborns in developing countries, as part of the Knit One, Save One campaign. It was a cozy afternoon by the fire, and Theresa and Emily spent the night at our place.


Day After Christmas: Jason, Theresa, Emily, and I drove up to celebrate with Dad’s side of the family. We ate lots of food, saw lots of relatives, and sang “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” among other things. We also had a visit from Santa, who is kind enough to visit our family in person every year!


Saturday After Christmas: We spent the day celebrating with Dad and family. Jason and I went snowmobiling, which was a lot of fun… except the part where Jason ran out of gas and spent an hour stranded in the middle of a corn field! He was a little bit scarred from the experience, but made the most of it by singing and attempting to build a snowman.


That’s the latest on us. More to come soon!

It's Snowing!

In the grand tradition of this blog, I have to note that today is the first REAL snowfall in Minnesota for the winter! (I'm not counting the slushy stuff from a few weeks back.) Yay! Let winter begin!*





* Guess who wrote this post, Becky or Jason.... ;-)

I'm Way Behind

So, I just noticed that in 2006 and 2007, I posted on this blog 27 times each year. Not much for a year, but this year, 2008, I am only up to five. I need to catch up (just in case anyone still reads this thing... i don't know....)!!

So, here's a couple pictures of BJ, the biggest NASCAR fan I know, hanging out with her favorite racer, Darrell Waltrip (as well as everybody's favorite country music star). Way to go, Beej!

Color Me America

Yes, I am a cowgirl, but ten points for you if you can guess more specifically what I am for Halloween! Hint: our Missouri friends and family might have the edge on this one... especially if they vacation in one of the state's most popular spots.....

Any guesses??

The Olympic Spirit

I heard a joke last week about how they should put "normal people" into each event of the Olympics, to give everyone watching at home an accurate comparison to the real athletes. I've been giggling all week, imagining some random guy pulled from the crowd, participating in synchronized diving, gymnastics, or track.

Well, we have the next best thing right here! Check out Jason and I as we tear it up in Rhythmic Gymnastics! I think we do a pretty good job. :-)

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Hey, look, an update!

So, I know we (meaning I, Becky) haven't updated our blog in FOREVER. But at this very moment, I am uploading all kinds of photos documenting the last month or so of our lives. It's taking a while, but soon you will see some of the fun things we've done so far this summer! It's been a busy one, full of house-ness, traveling, and get-togethers, and there's still plenty of it left!

Here are some photos of just some of the great stuff that's happened this summer:

Jason's birthday weekend at the cabin

Our weekend in Newtown

Mom, Theresa, Emily and spent a weekend together in Chicago

Enjoy!

Planes, Trains, and Snowmobiles

Last weekend we went up to Wadena to visit Dad, Loni, Eliah, and Danny, and what an exciting weekend we had! It was full of new experiences, and fun times with family. Here are the highlights:
• We flew in a 4-person airplane, and even got to fly it ourselves for a bit! Dad is working on his pilot's license, and the three of us and the flight instructor spent over an hour in the air on Saturday. Although I was terrified at first, it was fun! And if we are are ever on a plane and someone comes running out of the cockpit yelling "Can anyone fly a plane!?!?" we can say yes! Well, sort of... if it has a propeller in the front....
• Another new transportational experience: our first trip on snowmobiles! I am a bad Minnesotan for never having ridden one before, but I can finally say I have done it. Snowmobiles are great! I'm trying to convince Jason that we should get one, and I can ride it to work.
• This was a new one for Jason: watching a live hockey game. Danny's team creamed their opponents on Saturday, and Danny even scored two goals. We both really enjoyed watching 2nd and 3rd-graders on the ice!

Yes, We're Still Around...

I know, I know, we haven't posted in FOREVER. There's been a lot going on, and we are just enjoying our very full lives! I (Becky) have been swamped at work—the only reason I have time to post right now is that I'm waiting on Quark to finish an operation (surprise, surprise).

So what's new? Too much to mention in the span of 5 minutes, but here are a few things, in no particular order:

• Our church small group recently finished the book "Questioning Evangelism" by Randy Newman. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to know how to share their faith with others in a respectful, conversational way. A few weekends ago some of us had the opportunity to attend an apologetics conference at the U of M, where Randy himself was one of the speakers! The conference was very informative and thought-provoking.

• Jason and I are taking a trip to London in March! We will be traveling with my dad and sister Emily, and seeing my cousin while we are there. We are SO excited!

• We recently traveled to Des Moines for a weekend to reunite with some of our closest college friends. It was a very relaxing weekend, and great to reconnect with everyone.

Hmm... that's all I can think of for the moment. Back to work—and we'll try to post more often!

b

Ay Carumba!

I originally intended to make something with a Christmas theme... but I couldn't pass this one up. Enjoy!

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It's snowing (again)!!

Joy

This weekend was great— we spent a lot of time working on the house, which was wonderful. The kitchen is officially unpacked! Jason put all the cabinet doors back on, and it is almost to the point where I can post some before/after pictures. Stay tuned.

Also this weekend, I took a 4-1/2-hour trip to IKEA with Theresa. It was so fun! She got all kinds of things to furnish her future apartment, and I practiced great restraint, but still managed to get some necessary and fun items for the house.

We also had dinner with friends on Friday night, at a great restaurant called Doolittle's. If you come to visit us, there is a 90% chance that we will take you there (unless you are a vegetarian). Their rotisserie chicken is amazing.

It was so nice to relax at home this weekend (in between projects) and spend time with friends! Things are really starting to come together at the house—and Jason is turning into quite the handyman!

I'm starting to feel like I need to do some Christmasy things to get ready for the holidays! Blame it on the stores having their Christmas stuff up BEFORE HALLOWEEN, but I am ready! Ready for lights, decorating, trees, parties, etc. Does anyone have any fun holiday ideas/plans in the works?

b

Happy Halloween!

So, I saw this costume at Target, and I had to have it. But of course, I didn't buy it the first time I saw it, so after much searching I am happy to say that it was found once again, and Mocha dressed up as a rooster for Halloween. The first time I put his costume on him, I just laughed at him for a good five minutes. SO funny!

I'd also like to make the disclaimer that as ticked off as he looks in these photos, the cat actually didn't mind dressing up! He was more angry at having to sit on our laps and pose. After the photo shoot, he happily wore his costume for another 10 minutes before I took it off.

Progress

Here's some what we've been doing for the last three weeks...

Our colors


The cat thinks we're building him a playground....


Cupboards are painted, walls are next!


Theresa is happy to spend her entire weekend painting things green


Kitchen drawers


Yay, the living room is painted! Color: Water Fowl (ave aquatica)


Jason paints the entryway green


The lovely view from our living room window

Happy Anniversary to Us!

2 years today!

One Year

"I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go..." Genesis 28:15

This week marks our one-year anniversary of moving to Minnesota. The year has gone by so quickly, with so much newness and change. New jobs, new apartment, new church, new cat, new friends, new climate, and now a new house.... We have been so blessed in our first year here. We love our church and are forming deeper relationships with our friends there. We are growing into our jobs, and learning to thrive at work each day. God has provided for us in more ways than we could have imagined.

I remember all the pre-Minnesota talks, wondering where we would live and work, how we would make friends, would we be happy here? It's amazing how much energy we spent on worrying, and trying NOT to worry. Once again, hindsight shows that we never need to worry about anything, because God is always faithful.

Our new house has been taking up most of our time lately—painting, cleaning, repairing, etc. This weekend we will be doing some more painting, in the kitchen and entryway. It's so exciting to see how different the house already looks from when we first bought it! I hope to post some pictures of our progress very soon. Next weekend is the big move, and then we are excited to curl up in front of the fireplace at our new place, and NOT move for a while!

HOUSE: Part 2

We are home owners!! The closing last Friday went smoothly, and we are so excited to own our very first home. I really can't mention enough how much my aunt, and our agent (Melissa's mom) helped us through the process. We couldn't have done it without them. We are so thankful that we were able to work with people we know and trust, and they both worked really hard to help us out. And we are just so grateful to God for providing us with a great place to live, and to share with others. We are truly blessed.

Here are a few pictures of the house—these are just the ones the seller took, but I know our Missouri relatives have been itching to see what it looks like! I will try to get some of the photos WE have been taking up here soon. Also, we have several projects lined up before we move in, so expect this blog to start sounding like an episode of Trading Spaces....

HOUSE

Most of you have probably heard by now, but in case you haven't—we're buying a house! We looked at house for about 3 weeks, and made an offer on one that we loved, and a few nail-biting paperwork-filled weeks later, we are about to close on it. Next Friday, by the end of the day, we will be home owners! I have been holding back from getting TOO excited, because it seems like every time we move forward, something else STILL has to be done before we can really feel like we ARE GETTING the house. But the closing was scheduled today, so we're feeling pretty good about it!

The house is 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, split level, with a great yard in a great neighborhood. It has 2 fireplaces, hardwood floors upstairs, and basically is more than we ever expected to find. I'll try and get a few pictures up here very soon.

We have been so blessed, and have felt so protected and guided during this whole time. Everything has gone very smoothly so far (knock on wood) and we have had wonderful people helping us through the process. We are so thankful for that! And so excited to own our first home!

At Last - Vacation Photos!

Jason and I at the Branson Landing - we ate at a GREAT Mexican restaurant and watched the fountains!



Trying to get a picture of ourselves in front of the Dixie Stampede building. That show was one of my favorite parts of the trip!



Beautiful Branson at sunset



The Titanic museum at night - this museum was pretty cool, and featured a lot of rare artifacts and photos.