End of 2012

It has been quite the year for us!  2012 definitely was full of lots of ups and downs. 

Here are a few highlights:

• We planted our own garden and it was huge!!  It took up over 1/2 an acre.  We were able to preserve hundreds of quarts of food and stocked our freezer full.  Especially now that times are getting difficult, it is awesome to have food when we need it.  Basically it has cut our grocery budget to almost nothing!!
• We have been working non stop on our house.  The basement is almost complete.  As of today, we have all the first coats of mud done and sanded for the second coat of mud.  Soon we will be priming and painting.  We can't wait to have space to unpack things we haven't seen in over 3 years.  We also can't wait to set up Jeremy's business stuff again.  He is anxious to start using his laser engraver and vinyl machines again.
• I went from part-time to full-time at my job.  I teach six full classes of World Civilization, AP Government, Honors Government, and Regular Government.  I also got my own classroom and it is fantastic.  I have spent time getting it all set up, organized, and decorated.  I have grown to love my department and have made more friends with coworkers around the school.
• Due to an accident in the summer, Jeremy quit his job and started at school Full-Time.  He did so well this semester and recieved a 3.85 GPA!  He worked so hard.  He is excited to keep at it and graduate in the years to come.
• We enjoyed our first vacation since our honeymoon!  We went to Park City for a night and rode the Alpine Slide and Extreme Zipline at the Olympic Park.  It was a blast!
• Jeremy was released from Young Men's and called to Primary with me.  We taught the 5 year olds and have had such a fun time.  Starting in 2013 we are moved to the 4 year olds.  This will be an adventure!
• We have thoroughly enjoyed all of our family time we have had this year.  We were able to welcome new members of the family and celebrate lots of birthdays, anniversaries, and special events.  We had one family member come home from a mission and another member get a mission call.  We also said goodbye to Grandma Lowe after 92 full years in November.  We love and miss her so much.

Although we had such a great year, we cannot wait for what 2013 will bring us.  We have been so blessed by Heavenly Father in our time of need and trials, we can't imagine what to expect.

 

Happy New Year! 

 

Love ya!

 

Thanksgiving 2012

We had such a great week! 

After the viewing and funeral on Monday and Tuesday, we relaxed a bit on wednesday.  I was still pretty sick, so I slept most of the day.  It was heavenly. 

On Thanksgiving, we got up and I was feeling much better.  Still sort of stuffed up, but no longer with the flu symptoms.  We visited Vern and Vickie for a bit, then headed over to my parents.  Paul and Susan, Adam and Nichole, Brian, Steffanie, Brian and Alyssa and Royce, and all of my family were there.  It was fun!  Congratulations to Adam and Nichole for their little one coming in February.  I can't wait!  We had fantastic food and played lots of fun games.  The family time was so enjoyable.

By Saturday, I was no longer sick and we headed to Thanksgiving dinner at Vern and Vickie's.  Everyone was able to show up and it was so fun to relax after the last two weeks.  Due to the way Vickie had arranged the living room, everyone was able to eat and converse together.  It was fun afterwards to sit and chat and enjoy each other's company; and I have such cute nieces and nephews! 

We definitely gained a few pounds after all the good food from the week, but it was so worth it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love ya!

Grandma Lowe

Well....its been a rough couple of days.  On wednesday afternoon, we recieved a call from Jeremy's mom that Grandma Lowe wasn't doing so well and we better go to the hospital and visit her.  She had pneumonia and her lungs were filling up with fluid.  We traveled up there and realized there wasn't much time.  Everybody in the family came by to say goodbye.  At one time, it seemed that there were 50+ people there.  As the night wore on, people came and left.  Jeremy decided he wanted to stay the night, I packed up around 12:30 in the morning and headed home.  Our dogs were there and they hadn't eaten or been outside in hours. 

In the morning, I called Jeremy for an update.  Grandma had made it through the night and nothing in her condition had changed in a while.  I left for the hospital.  When I arrived, everybody was crying.  Grandma had died about 15 minutes before I arrived.  Jeremy says she quickly went downhill after my phone call.  She was only getting about 70% oxygen and her body couldn't handle it anymore.  With her family surrounding her, she passed on to the next life.

We loved her so much.  She was a great lady and had lived a long full life.  We will miss her.

We had the viewing at the mortuary on Monday Evening and the Funeral on Tuesday.  She was buried in Logan next to her husband. 

Throughout this whole experience and in the last several days, I have had my testimony tested and strengthened.  In life, there are trials we go through to test us and to see how we react.  Heavenly Father loves us and will only test us with what we can handle.  While at the hospital and by ourselves, Jeremy and I have felt the spirit of Heavenly Father.  We have felt peace throughout this experience and joy in the plan of salvation.  I know that we will see Grandma Lowe again.  I know that she is safe, healthy, and happy.  Her death was not the end, it was only the beginning of a new chapter. 

Love ya!

Sometimes...

Sometimes I get tired of life.  Sometimes I get tired of going through the same motions everyday.  Day in and day out.  It is hard to constantly be doing the same things without a break. 

As I have looked back on our life the last 2 years, I have noticed that things seem to be that way.  We have constantly been working on the house or yard without an end in sight.  Sometimes I love it, but a lot of times it is really hard. 

Jeremy has the best work attitude of anyone I know.  He constantly just does things because they need to be done.  Usually without any asking he has things finished by the time I roll of the couch and get ready to help him.  This makes me feel guilty for not wanting to do anything in the first place and embarrassed he did it all on his own, but he does it without complaints and never says anything about my lack of help or excitement. 

(This weeked we worked hard on clearing our garden to till it under for next year.  I actually went out and helped him as much as I could.  I worked so hard that I pulled a muscle in my back :) and I haven't stopped complaining since!)

I am so grateful for my husband and the love he shows me all the time.  I am so blessed to have him in my life to be the example of what I need to work on.  Thank you sweetheart, I love you.

Love ya!

Exciting News!!

We have reached a milestone in our marriage and relationship.  We have some really exciting news....

We are........

THE PROUD OWNERS OF A 200,000 MILE OLD CAR!!!  YAY!!!

We are so proud of ourselves!!  This little black honda has made it through quite a bit and we hope to keep it for quite a bit longer.  Happy Birthday old guy!

Love ya!

Summer of 2012....

Oh my goodness!  It has been quite the eventful summer for us. 

First, on this General Conference weekend, I just want to express my love and faith in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I have never enjoyed the talks more than I have this weekend.  Every talk seems to hit me right in the heart.  I absolutely have felt the spirit and I know that I have a stronger testimony now than before. 

Also, I love our family.  Jeremy and I are so blessed to have people around us who would do anything for us and who are so strong.  All week, we have had my Mother-in-Law helping us can our beautiful peaches and we were "blessed" with the opportunity to help Jason and Bonny debone, grind, and package 250 pounds of elk.  (So blessed....)  To top things off, Jeremy and I showed up on Saturday night for him to attend the Priesthood session with my father and me to go to dinner with the girls, just to find out that my little sister Jaynanne is going on a mission.  It was fantastic news and we are so excited for her!  Plus, just found out tonight at Skylee Marie's Bday party that what I suspected about Shanna and Jon turned out to be true!

(My cute little sisters in Park City meeting Derek Hough!)

Second, to start the summer off we worked our butts off for 3 weeks in order to get a bathroom into our house. We had a bathroom before, but it was disgusting.  We also had to rip out all the old galvinized piping under the house and replace it with ABS piping.  This was something we were dreading.  We cut out all the cement and finally got it taken care of.  We now have brand new drains and a bathroom.  It is AMAZING!!

(Our bathroom in progress, I will take more pictures in a bit)

 

(Part of the process was hooking onto our existing septic tank line.  The trench below is the work of Jeremy and my dad shoveling for hours.  It was about 6 1/2 feet deep.)

 

Third, we decided (really stupid) to plant a gigantic garden.  We live on 3/4 of an acre and 1/2 that was our garden.  We had 25 pea plants, 48 tomato plants, 48 pepper (jalapeno, bell, anaheim) plants, 50 bean plants, 25 carrots, 25 onions, 25 potatoes, 4 watermelons, 25 black raspberries, 12 grape plants, 35 fruit trees (cherry, peach, apricot, apples, nectarine, plum), an 80x30 plot of corn, and 10 huge pumpkin plants.  Needless to say, I have been a canning fool for a month now.  I like it but at the same time I get frustrated with the amount of time it takes.

(Part of our Apricot loot)

(Half of our garden plot.  The tomato plants got around 6 feet tall!)

 

(Part of our row of Peach Trees)

(Our grapes peas in the front and barn and corn in the back)

(This is our pumpkin patch.  It was my favorite part!  Behind me is the corn.  It grew sort of sporadically but we got 8 foot stalks in some parts!)

 
There was a lot more to our summer but I will post those in things to come.  Just some pictures to end the post!

(Jeremy helped Ryan to finish his house before their little Presley arrived)

(We hiked Ben Lomond peak with my Uncle and his kids.  It was way fun and Jeremy loved seeing all the mountain goats, but not so much the height (below))

 

 

 (On Peach Days, we got to go to a Voice Male concert.  It was the best night in a long time!)

(Jeremy got into a bad accident in July that has affected his back ever since)

(Finally, I know Jeremy doesn't seem very pleased here, but we went to a night away in Park City and had a fantastic time.  We cruised the cable TV channels all night eating Little Caesar's and Moutain Dew.  We got to ride the Park City Olympic Alpine Slide and Xtreme Zipline.  It was so much fun!!  Jeremy and I loved every minute of it!  It was nice to get away after such a busy summer!)

 

 Love ya!

Hi!

It has been such a great last couple of months!  Our house is coming along perfectly.  After a long (still going) battle with the furnace contractor, we have moved on to putting our drains into the basement.  We can't wait to get the house done so that we can enjoy it fully (and start working on the yard)! 

This is our tile in our kitchen:

It looks amazing!  These pictures were taken in November but the cabinets are all in with plywood counters!  Gotta love being poor.

We finally got a kitchen sink in November as well.  I know that some people might think its weird, but we had been doing our dishes and things in the tub!  Gross and now I have an almost done kitchen.  I love it!!

My husband is so talented!  He installed the entire system himself.  The only thing we have hired out in our house was the furnace (and that was a huge mistake!).  I can't believe I married someone so awesome!

And so stylish and sexy (Camo and Dew, can't get any better)!

Anyways....just wanted to let you all know that we are still alive.  We are doing great and working hard on our house.  We can't wait to be done and have everybody over.  We feel so blessed to be in this beautiful home and to have all of the blessings from above we have recieved.  I just recieved news of a long term sub job at my high school that would make me full time.  This news has come right in the time we need it the most money wise.  Of course, just as Jeremy said, everything would work out, but sometimes it is just hard to remember. 

Love ya!