Goodbye 2008

It's officially 2009! That is exciting to me for some reason. I just feel good about 2009, I think good things are coming. Joseph will finish up grad school in 2009! That is already something we are anxiously excited for... and with that graduation will come a lot of changes... and I am hoping and anticipating that they will be good changes.

It has been a while since we have posted on here and I have quite a bit to catch up on. So I will go back a little.

First of all...Thanksgiving. For Thanksgiving this year, we had so much fun because Mandy, Cristi, Brooks and my mom can out to visit us! We got to celebrate Mandy's birthday together as well as Thanksgiving in Williamsburg. I had never been to Williamsburg before, so I was a little worried that it might not be as fun and interesting as everyone had told me it was. But we had a really good time. As you can tell by the pictures, we really tried to experience Williamsburg to the fullest.


After they left, it was hard to go back to work and get back into the routine of things. I have to admit, I had so much fun with them that it was really hard for me to see them leave. I was able to get back into the swing of things after about a week, and the fact that Christmas and New Years was approaching made it that much easier to continue forward.

We had a really nice Christmas and New Years break with a good amount of time off to chill out. We also went all over the place it seemed. Joseph and I went up to Wilton, CT where he grew up and spent time with friends family for a few days. We met up with Sarah in New York and went to see the train they have at the botanical gardens. They have created an entire town out of all natural products from plants and trees, and it is pretty unreal! The detail was amazing.


We also had a chance to do some ginger bread house making with our friends, the Pratts, one night. Ours for some reason turned out to be an LA house. We have a half pipe and a pool in the back yard. (Clearly Joe's idea)


We also had a chance to play in the snow up there with the Francia family. It snowed quite a bit when we were up there. I miss the snow, but I'm not so sure I miss the cold.

Look at how cute this little girl is. You gotta love the suit.


Finally...to end out trip and vacation, we spend Christmas and a few days after the new year at the Merkley's farm in C-ville. It was much warmer than NY and we got to spend days by the fire and take walks out in the beautful woods. It was very relaxing and we had a great Christmas. It was different this year because there were no kids around, so we woke up late, ate late and opened our gifts around noon. It was a nice way to end the Holidays.

Possible Christmas Gifts

I have finally gotten around to posting some of the jewelry I've made on Etsy.com. If you want to check it out you can find it at: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6081982

Happy Halloween!

This year was similar to last year in that we hadn't decided on a costume until literally right before the Halloween party we went to. I had gone to the dollar store and to Target in search of something cheep and yet amusing. Nothing was to be found except $50 costumes on the shelf that were quite ridiculous for the price. And the dollar store- there are no costumes for a dollar even though I had hoped I might find some awesome make-shift costume for a buck or two. They did have fake leaves for sale at Kroger however, so I thought I'd create something...I thought I could pin those leaves to me and I'd dress in all brown and be...you guessed it....a tree. So I bought my leaves and safety pins and headed home. Little to my surprise, Joe was not impressed with my creative contraption- and he decided to look on line for something better.

5 minutes before our party he found something that was better than my tree idea- hard to believe, I know- but we ended up being "Mavericks" for the night.


And his school buddies especially loved it being that only 3 out of 200 students are republican. :)


Before the Brand School party, we went to a dinner party with some friends from church. We had delicious soups and bread, watched some old school scary movies and had the "best costume" competition. I can't believe we didn't win. Just kidding, we only spent 10 minutes on our costume, so we definitely don't deserve best costume. But none the less, it was still a good time. We did have a happy Halloween!

Just us girls and the new job-

So, just about a week ago, I got to go to visit my family in Utah. My sister Cristi was going to be in town, as well and my grandma, so it was really fun to have time to hang out with just us girls. It was a pretty last minute decision to go out west, but it all just seemed to fall into place- so I couldn't turn down the offer when my mom found one spot left on the flight to Utah using her flight miles.

We had such a great time together. Here is one of the things we did which was give our cute and very old dog, Patch, a bath. I got Patch when I was in 3rd grade which makes her 16 years old now! How crazy is that? She is the cutest little thing, but sadly has a harder time these days with running or going up the steps. She also has some really nasty breath, and there is some kind of growth that has appeared on her upper lip- it makes us laugh.


Here is the before picture...


...And here is the after. She looked and smelled so much better!


Since I've been back from Utah last week, I have taken my certification exam (which I passed!) and I have also started my job at Central State Hospital. I've got my keys and ID here to prove it. So far things have been going pretty good. I met the other MT's there which was great- and I've just been observing groups so far because I am still in training. I am looking forward to starting my own groups there- but for now I am just trying to learn everyones names. It has been hard because I meet new faces every day! But, I'm hoping I'll get it straight soon.

Anyhow, Joseph has been really busy with school, but is enjoying it! We have been very blessed so far this school year and things seem to be really coming together. Sorry it has been a little while since I posted last- now that we have a new camera, I promise we will work on posting more often!

Back in the swing of things...

I am sorry that we have not posted anything cool as of late. Joe has seemed to misplace our camera I'm afraid, and so we haven't been able to post the great pictures we have from our anniversary/birthday trip to the outer banks. But, I'm hopeful that we will find it, and we will post those pictures as soon as possible.

As for now, we have not been really living the exciting life. Joseph's school schedule is really starting to kick in, and I am still on the job hunt but had an interview today, so that is good. I have have been babysitting on the side, making jewelry to sell at the local farmers market, and I have also been doing my music stuff as well. I actually wrote a new song just this week! So, although I don't have a "real" job, I've been keeping myself pretty busy. This week I will also be substituting for a teacher at where I did my internship, so we'll see how that goes. I've kind of always dreaded the thought of being a substitute teacher only because I remember how we used to feel about them when I was in middle school and high school...but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes.

Anyhow, that is where we are at right now. Here is a picture of some of the jewelry I've made using natural beads that we brought back from South America.

There's no place like home...

Well, we're back now. And although the trip to Colombia was so amazing, it feels great to be back. Even just arriving to the airport, I found myself suddenly so excited about once perceived common luxuries such as drinking fountains and endless supplies of toilet paper in the bathroom (that is free mind you)! It was quite wonderful. We had "American" Chinese food in the airport on our layover and it was delicious! It will be a little while before I bust out the beans and rice I think. :)

Now Joseph has started school and we are just getting back into the swing of things. We're almost all the way moved back into our apartment. And I am currently studying for my certification exam and looking for jobs. Finding a "real" job is kind of hard. But, I am continuing the search and I know something will work out the way it needs to.

Saying Goodbye

Well, I'm sad to say that our time here is coming to an end. We recently said goodbye to our 31 children at the foundation. I made little cards for each of them with a little note that I put on their beds before we left. I wanted them to feel like they were important as an individual. It took me quite a while to finish, and some of them will toss it into the trash right away I'm sure, but I hope it will mean something to someone.


It was hard to leave- we were sad to go and hope that they know that we love them and are not leaving out of rejection to them but because we have to. We are hoping to keep in touch and told them that we would call when we got back to our home in the States.

This last week we were busy at the foundation building a garden. As you can tell from this picture, I had to really hold them back at first from not all working at the same time (just kidding). They were actually not as excited about it at first as I was, but they still enjoyed it and when it was finished, I think they were proud of what it had become.


We plated carrots, lettuce, cilantro and beets. I am hoping that the vegi's will grow that that they'll be able to make salads with it. Here's kind of a cute picture that Joseph took. It looks like he's thinking to himself, "Please God, make this garden grow- it will take a miracle." That was pretty much my thought as we were doing it. I really didn't know what I was doing. But thank goodness we had one of the workers there help us out.



And here it is after we planted the seeds...


Anyway, Joseph and I are going to go to the LDS temple in Bogota tomorrow. We're looking forward to that. And then on Wednesday morning, we head back to the good old USA. We're getting pretty "trunky" as missionaries call it. We have already decided where we want to eat when we get there- Thai food. I think we've probably had enough beans and rice here in Colombia to last us the year. :) We are glad that we've been able to have the experiences we've had this summer. It has been amazing really.