We got back today from spending the weekend at the cabin and it was a nice relaxing time. Not any snow up there yet, Just us and the kids and Ann and Bob, really nice actually. And now I have stayed up all night working on Christmas gifts, I decided why not add my favorite people's pictures to the family blog, right? Thanks Jenn for being such a great photographer!My babies; Beck 3 years and Paisley 19 monthsAnd these two handsome devils are Beck and Ashton, Best friends/cousins.

Does anyone else have a thing? Like a thing that just makes everything go away? Like if you are having a bad day, not too bad, but bad enough for you to think, man, when is it gonna end? Like it just seems like you can't catch up or catch a break. Not like terrible, like getting in a car wreck, or sleeping through a class or something, but just behind??? Like being 2 minutes late to teach a class, or jamming your finger on the counter and then running out of chocolate milk and almost hitting a deer on the way into town, just little things but they all seem to land in one day? Those days where it seems like the whole day is just one little mishap after another and it seems as though the whole thing is just going to blow up in your face at any minute, so just try and hang on? What is that things that gets you through it?
If I am late, behind, keep saying the wrong thing, feel rushed, I can crack open an ice cold mountain dew, and it seems as though, I may just make it. It seems so frivolous, and so silly and just plain weird at the same time. To depend on a caffeinated beverage that really is not any good for you? To just start salivating when I hear a can open, it's ridiculous, but man, it sure is true. What is your pick me up? What is your "I can make it?"

If I died...

If I died:

Our house would be a disaster, food crumbs all over the floor, Paisley may have to walk around in a poopy diaper for quite a while until Stephen finally broke down and changed it. The laundry would pile up sky high, the kids would never learn how to pick up after themselves, and the refrigerator would just someday be empty and never get filled back up with food or milk, the canned applesauce that Beck loves so much would never be there, the dishes would grow mold, the gabage would pile up, the bed would never get made, the broom would be lost forever, garbage would litter the table from packages that had been opened, the toilet paper roll would remain empty, and our walls would be bare.

If Stephen died:

All of our bills would go to collections, my house would get taken away, the litter box would stay dirtier longer because there would be no one to remind me to change it, I wouldn't be able to call the cable guy to tell them what needs to be done, all mail sent to our house would be paid or replied to, even if it was junk mail because I wouldn't realize that I didn't really have to write a check out to the comedy orphange of Kalestan off the coast of Italy, the internet and dryer would forever be broken, or I would end up paying a fortune in Sears bills, without realizing that all I needed to do was move the plate that was blocking the dishwasher door from closing. We would never have any company over because there would be no one to invite them, no one would fix my iphone, Beck would never learn how to throw a football.

Just so I realize who does what around here and appreciate it.

Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th was a fun day; we had our first snow. I noticed out the window some slushy flurries coming down from the sky and then I turned around again and there it was coming down all these fat white snowflakes. Beck was excited, but Paisley was a little confused and nervous...

This is us getting ready to go to Aunt Kortni's house. We took turns watching kids to run errands. I got so much done and then I got to pick Hanna up from her art class at the public school and her and I had a nice long chat about what Friday the 13th was. Think I have turned her into a superstitious little girl....Friday the 13th was also the day that we got our check from the sale of our old house and I was the lucky one that got to deposit it! Also was Jessica's Twilight party. We met with a bunch of girls at her house at 7 PM and I don't think we started trickling out until midnight.... It was a lot of fun; crafting (which I have missed immensely! Thanks Jess for getting me my crafty time in since I have moved), watching Twilight, getting ready for New Moon to come out next week, and playing trivia games. (I won the poster in the background, you think Stephen will mind if I hang it up in our room?)

The Twilighters.... back row: Jessica, Bethany, Jade, Amber, Jenica, Kathy, Aubree, Janet. Front: Korbi, Chris, Bree, Bekah, and Remina. We are all wearing these vampire teeth I picked up at Wal-Mart. Pretty silly, I know. :)

And now I am sick, I had the sniffles at the party (hope I didn't pass it around, I was good at the washing of the hands and stuff!) but man, when I got up the next morning, I felt like I had been hit by a bus. I pretty much haven't moved since. The house is a disaster, but I appreciate Stephen taking care of the kids for me, thank goodness it is the weekend!

The Beast has been tamed

I finally got the gas/propane guy to come out on Thursday morning. He checked for leaks and filled our tank. He said that the smell was coming from the tank being so low and that is one reason you can see if your tank is low because it is smelling stronger. So as he was getting ready to leave I asked him if I could just run the oven for him, just to make sure and ease my mind. So I cranked it up to 400 degrees and watched it ignite and start to heat up. We chatted while it was heating about how I will be excited to use the stove once I get used to it and then all of a sudden he looks down (after the smell just keeps getting stronger and stronger) and he sees the flames in the oven reaching up the sides and he throws off the switches and pulls the oven out and switches off the emergency gas valve. He looks back at me and says, "your are right, that is not normal." As my headache is getting worse and worse from the stove and my eyes are watering from the odor, I smiled. I smiled because I knew something was wrong, I knew that no way could a brand new stove be setting off carbon monoxide detectors and my smoke alarms, there had to be a reason. Turns out the oven had not been "collaborated" correctly, meaning that they didn't hook it up how they were supposed to and it had been burning way too hot and leaking carbon monoxide into our air. Ha! Lady at Sears! take that! I had been calling over there over and over again trying to get someone out here and she kept telling me that they don't deal with gas ovens and I was saying then why did YOU sell it to the builder? She was saying that she couldn't get someone out there until the next next Thursday. And before I had the gas guy come out I was saying that I was nervous because it was setting off the detectors and she said that wasn't her problem.... even told her that the gas/propane guy had "red tagged" my oven and that means that he shut it all down and I couldn't even use the burners until it has been fixed and I got all these signatures and such. She said, sorry, no luck. So then I told Stephen what happened and he called the builder while I was teaching and the builder had someone there within 20 minutes because of the dire situation and by 5 PM that night my stove was in tip top shape.

Needless to say, I am still terrified to turn it on.

New House

Like I said before, we were able to get in on Wednesday and I brought over the first load in my car. It is always so chaotic on moving day. No horns blowing announcing your presence into the new home. Just me, walking in with a box and trying to hurry to lay down rugs, so the men who move ya in don't get mud on the new carpet, and rushing to put up signs labeling what room is what. The men that moved us were so great. They worked hard and did an awesome job putting the right boxes into the right rooms. Thank you!!! They made my life over the next couple of days a lot easier. This is the view from our back patio/balcony. The morning after we woke up a buck was walking around in our backyard, then when we were eating lunch there was a doe. I haven't seen either since, so hopefully no one shot them! I did almost hit a buck on the way home from the gym one night. It sounds like I live in the wild or at least the country, but I have neighbors on all sides and that buck I almost hit was in town! Beck and Pais's play room. Lucky little buggers, it's the biggest room in the house practically.I put Beck and Paisley in the same room and it is working out rather nicely. It's a big room and they tend to stay in their room longer at night now.

One of my favorite parts of the house; the pantry. I LOVE IT!

My other favorite part. The little study/nook, off the kitchen and dining area. One day I am gonna read a book in there in a nice big fancy chair....The other night we made a "blue" cake for Family Night. Which brings me to me least favorite part of the house....The beast.....It's a gas stove and I have never had one before. Well, when I was in Guatemala there was a gas oven, but I never cooked in it a whole lot anyways. Especially after someone left the gas on and a girl, Rachel, went to lite it and singed her eyebrows and the tin roof on our little house popped up. Never really cared for the things since. But now I have one. And supposedly they work really nice and people love them. I will admit that it heats up fast, but the thing scares me to death. It smells really bad and it always is setting our detectors off. I keep calling Sears to make sure it is working correctly and they say that they don't know much about gas stoves, so now what I am I supposed to do? They can't come out and look at it til next Thursday, so if it blows my house up before then, well, I guess that's that and I pray that we aren't home.

So that's my new house and we love it. :)