Catching up

So I haven't blogged for a while. It seems like it's turning into a monthly thing. Yes, I am lame. Sorry!

Right now things are just peachy for us. We only have about 1 more month of classes and then we'll get to take a little breather for a couple of weeks until summer classes start up. I've got one more class to take this summer and I'll finally be graduated! I'm so excited to be done with my undergrad I can hardly stand it! After graduation I'm going to get my Speech Language Technician License and hopefully I'll be able to find a job working in a school before I apply to grad school next December so I can get some experience.

Mike and I are planning on moving to Brigham City in August... yes the ghetto of Utah (besides ChicOgden) It's going to be a party! It is there that our children will grow up and go to Box Elder High in all of its glory... I AM excited about all of the fruit stands though. Hello canning!

Mike has decided he wants to keep doing Insurance for his career which is pretty awesome! We absolutely love the people he works with and he likes his job so why not? :) We know it's the right place for us to be and we're both happy about it. I don't know if I'm extremely happy about the location of this job, but I will survive and hopefully with the temple being built, the city will get bigger and there will be more things to do besides go to Maddox and Wal-Mart. I'm just grateful that Mike knows what he wants to do with the rest of his life and that we kind of have a plan. We've definitely been blessed and I'm excited to see what's ahead of us!

Here is a website (http://www.kingofforwards.com/hilarious-funny-forwards/limited-edition-utah-barbies/) that made barbies for different cities in Utah. This is what Brigham City got.


Hum....

Once of the BEST weekends!

Last weekend was one of THE best weekends of my life. I was able to eat Sunday dinner with an apostle and every single one of my brothers and sisters. It was so awesome.

Two Sundays ago, Mike and I went to my parents for Sunday dinner and my mom started assigning out jobs for everyone for the next Sunday (stake conference) to make different things for dinner. When I asked my mom how many people she said were coming, she said 17. I asked her who was coming to make it 17, because that was A LOT of people. Her eyes got all watery and she said, "People your dad loves." She wouldn't tell me who because she said it was a surprise for my dad and she didn't want us all gawking at him when he got home from a meeting. That night when Mike and I got home, we were talking about it and wondering who it was, and Mike said, "Could your whole family be flying in?" I started counting everyone in my family and it added up to 17... Hum..

The next morning I called my mom and told her our idea and she said we were right! She was flying in Trent, who brought Erin and their boys, Justin and Angie, and Brooke. She bought all of my siblings tickets in December to come home to see my dad be released. The last time we were all together was when my sister Andrea got married, 3 1/2 years ago so I was SO excited.

Friday rolled around and everyone flew in. My mom wanted everyone to stay low until the Saturday adult session of conference. She asked all of us to be sitting on our families bench (which is where we always sat in church growing up) before my dad came in. Before the meeting started my dad came in with Elder Perry and sat on the stand and was looking around. He looked at me and winked and then I saw him wink at Andrea and the rest of us were smiling like dorks. I was right next to Justin and my dad didn't even notice him. Then, my dad saw him and he definitely was surprised. The rest of my siblings (Brooke and Trent) weren't there yet, but when they walked in, my dad was even more surprised and broke down crying. It was a very special night. After the meeting we all went home and spent the rest of the night talking and staying up late together. It was so fun!!

The next morning we all got dinner ready, went to an amazing meeting together, and had Sunday dinner with Elder Perry and Elder Fischer of the Quorum of the seventy. Elder Perry is such an amazing person. He was so genuine and so sweet. He gave the blessing on the food and you could feel the spirit radiating from him. Elder Fischer and his wife were also so nice and fun to talk to. It was such an amazing experience.



After he left, my whole family spent the rest of the night playing games and talking. It was honestly one of the best weekends of my life. I love my family so much and I was so grateful that my mom had the idea to get all of us together.

All of the girls getting dinner ready



All of my siblings

December/January

These last couple of months have just whizzed by! Christmas break was really fun for us and gave us a lot of time to spend together which was SO nice. In December I started working and so far it has been awesome. I really like all of the people I work with and our managers are awesome. The company really cares for its employees and I think that in itself is awesome. I'm still learning a lot, but I finally feel like I'm getting the hang of things.

When it got closer to Christmas we were able to go to the David Archuletta concert with our friends the Drydens. We got there a little late so we couldn't get into the conference center which was kind of a bumber, but we were able to get into the conference center theater to see the performance. It was SO good. That kids voice is like butter!

For Christmas this year, we spent Christmas Eve and morning with my family. It was fun to have my sister Chelsie's little kids this year so there was a little magic. After lunch, we headed over to Mike's parents house and opened presents, had Christmas dinner, and watched a movie. It was a really fun day.

Eating my dads traditional Christmas morning Green Eggs and Ham.




As for January, we both decided to take all of our classes online so we could both work whatever schedules we needed to and not have to work around our school schedules. We'll see how that works out since I'm a huge procrastinator. I've taken online classes before and wasn't very good at staying on top of things so that is a pretty big goal for me. :)

Last night we were able to go with my parents and Christian up to Beaver Mt. for their ward ski night. It was FABULOUS! I didn't realize how much I missed skiing. It was so fun! Mike and I really want to go a lot more this winter because we both had a lot of fun. It has been a great couple of months! Just can't wait for warmer weather!

What to do when you're unemployed

I'm sort of obsessed with craft blogs and I have a whole list of things that I have wanted to make for a LONG time :)I saw this blog with a great wreath idea (http://www.dana-made-it.com/2008/07/tutorial-acorn-wreath.html) and automatically thought, since we are trying to stay on a tight budget, something like this would make a fabulous Christmas gift for my mom and mother-in-law. I couldn't find acorns like she used so I decided to go with the lima bean idea. It was probably a little cheaper anyway. It was really easy and cheap. Don't worry, they don't even know I have a blog so no surprises ruined :)


What you need: 1 straw wreath (I would recommend a styrofoam wreath. The straw bunched up in some places so the beans wouldn't sit flat, not to mention the MESS), a glue gun, 2 bags of large lima bean, a lot of hot gun glue, and a can of spray paint.

Please ignore the nasty carpet

Glue on the beans in whatever pattern you would like







Spray paint it




And add a ribbon



Easy as that!

Found a job!

It's been awhile! Just to get it out there now, I did find a job! I'll start this coming Monday at Conservice (a utility billing company) doing data entry. I was offered the job toward the end of November and they told me I wouldn't start till December 20th. Even thought we knew we had to go a whole other month without me working, it was still such a relief to know we only needed to stick it out a little longer. It has definitely been a long two months, but I am so grateful that I have a job! After many hours on the computer looking for jobs and after a lot of interviews, I know that Conservice is where I'm supposed to be so I'm pretty happy about it. God has truly watched over us the last couple of months. We were worried we would have to use all of our savings to pay for our bills and to pay for all of the Christmas gifts we would need to buy, but Mike's paychecks doubled and everything worked out perfectly. We are so blessed!

Throwing Curves

Sometimes life can throw you curves that you never saw coming. They can sweep your feet out from under you and it may even be a little difficult to get up and to look at the positive side of things. Last Monday I went to work with a job and left with a 5 days notice that I would no longer be employed at my job because of their financial difficulties. This whole week has been very bitter sweet. Some days it was a little more bitter than sweet.. :)

I have worked for Murdock for 2 1/2 years. I was planning on staying there until I graduated because it had been such a great job. It was extremely flexible, they worked with my school schedule, and the pay was pretty darn decent. On Monday I was a little bummed, but surprisingly okay with everything. The next morning I decided I wasn't okay with everything and spend the whole day SO SO ANGRY! I couldn't understand how someone could just go ahead and lay off their employees to save money. Just the week before, the dealership was having a promo and giving $25 gift cards to different customers who came in. Maybe since they were going to fire 7 people throughout the week they figured they could afford it? My poor husband has had to deal with me having these lame emotional break downs because I am so worried about finding a job and being able to make ends meet and pay the bills if I can't find anything before Christmas. I know I shouldn't worry about it because things will work out, but worrying is part of my nature. It'll be an adventure that's for sure! I have to keep reminding myself that God stretches us to make us stronger and that he'll take care of us if we keep paying our tithing and doing the right things. I know everything will work out, so for now I will keep looking for jobs and I will learn to be patient and grateful for everything I do have in my life.

"Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake."
-Victor Hugo

Blogs

Blogs are a funny thing. Mike likes to make fun of all of us bloggers who put our husbands names in the URL or in the name of our blog. He's never posted anything on here, but I think Mike and Carlee sounds so much better than just plain Carlee. I'm also not creative enough to come up with anything better so he'll just have to deal :) Anyway, he thinks it's really weird that I post things that are personal for the world to see and that I don't mind. I've told him it's my lazy way of keeping a journal for myself, but he's right! Why would I allow everyone to look at my life or read my journal? :) I figure I read other peoples blogs for entertainment so I need to pay them back with a little entertainment of their own. :)

I was talking to my friend Lauren the other night about blogs and how much we love them. Both she and I really blog so we can stalk other people. I check my blog everyday to see updates for other people, which may classify me as a bit creepy or lame.

I think facebook has ruined any sense of privacy for everyone and no one cares about being private about their lives. Those kids on facebook who tell me what they had for lunch on their status or who leave a status saying that they are feeling really down need to cool it. To me they're only fishing for the 28 comments that say I love you. I'll pray for you. You are the best! Don't let the haters get you down! What's wrong honey?? and so on... That is why I love blogs. You can see what is going in the lives of the people you really care about and it isn't nonsense (most of the time :)) Some blogs make me so happy and I laugh my head off at a lot of stories such as the time my friend Suzanne peed her pants on a carnival ride in Mexico (funniest story I've ever heard!) Anyway, is this post weird? I think it's weird so I'll be done. Have a good one!