Merry Christmas

We hope that everyone had a Christmas full of joy and wonder. We had a great Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve with the Hennings. We played Wii, ate, and opened presents.

Christmas morning was spent at home opening presents from the big guy and each other. Ryder got to spend the rest of the morning playing with his new toys and even got a nap in.

My parents and sister came over for Christmas dinner where we ate even more and opened more presents. Ryder has a lot of new trains to add to his collection.

Here are pictures from our holiday festivities.

Christmas 2009

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

It's the Most Wonderful Time . . .

I'm having a bit of a hard time getting into the holiday spirit. Maybe it is because the weather didn't get wintery until yesterday (it was cold and there was rain!). Or maybe because I am so tired of packing/unpacking that I don't want to unpack Christmas decorations too? Because we don't have a Christmas tree yet (I'm almost starting to lean towards a fake one so I can put it out right after Thanksgiving, but then that would be more stuff to store and we have plenty!). Because I'm still in test hangover from my NASM test (which I passed and am offically a personal trainer now. If only I knew what I am going to do with it). Because I have been sick with a cold and doped up?

Lots of excuses. I think I will get over myself today and decorate with some holiday music! And I won't even think about the fact that I haven't even started any present shopping . . . . oh my!

Move 'em on out

So we are moving AGAIN. I've been spending my days at home packing up boxes and preparing for yet another move. I am more excited about this move than the last one. We are moving into a really nice, newer house. And the rent is cheaper, which combined with the fact that we will have a garage at the new house and won't need to rent a storage space, we will be saving money. The one "bad" thing about the house (which this is bad in Jeremy's terms mind you) is that it is in a subdivision. I'm looking forward to using my jogging stroller I bought in the spring on sidewalks instead of a washboard dirt road, and not giving my son shaken baby syndrome. I am also looking forward to taking him to one of the nearby parks in this nice "cool" weather we are having (I am using cool very loosely here). And we are going to see if our mutual desire for a house with stairs is going to play out well with a busy almost 3 year old running around.

We do the walk through on Monday and then we can start moving things in after that. Can't wait - to get this done!

Happy Halloween!

Update

So there has been a lack of posts lately, but not a lack of happenings.

First, Lisa left her job at the gym. I won't go into details, it just wasn't a good fit any longer. Since leaving the gym I have been busy with some side jobs. The first is working at the Community Center again with the rest of the family. They put on an annual haunted house and hayride, which I am helping set up for the second year in a row.

I am also getting my personal training certification soon. As a part of this new venture I have started teaching a weight loss class. The class is once a week and so far we have a class of 11 people. It is run like the "Biggest Loser", where whoever loses the largest percentage of body weight at the end of 12 weeks wins a cash prize, as well as 2nd and 3rd place too. So far I have had one class, but I can already tell I am going to love it. It gives me an opportunity to teach and help people get healthy.

I have also joined a boot camp taught by my personal trainer that I met at the gym I worked at. So far it has been going on for 2 weeks and it is a great workout. I won our competitive challenge this past Saturday, which was pretty awesome.

Ryder is growing like crazy. He has been spending the middle of the day at a babysitter's in town and loves it there. He gets a couple of hours of playing time in with other kids around his age and then has lunch, a nap and then I pick him up. A pretty good schedule for a little guy. He has entered what I like to call the parrot stage. He immediately repeats everything you say, especially what Daddy says. His favorite things right now are Cars and Thomas the Train.

Jeremy is still working in the concrete business, which isn't quite picking up yet. They are trying to ride out this construction slump though.

In our free time (what little there is) Jeremy and I joined the gym out here and have been working out "together" almost everyday. We are really working on getting healthier and bigger/smaller (Jeremy/Lisa).

Sorry

The lack of posts is due to a lack of a life.
Sleep, eat, work, and repeat.
More to come soon, hopefully.

Family Reunion

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Make a Smilebox postcard

Enjoying the hot . . .

. . . water that is. We have hot water, a working stove, and can dry our clothes again. YEAH! We are still unpacking, but my pile of flat boxes is increasing and the stacks of full boxes are getting fewer!

We moved - again

So the move is thisclose to done. Now there is just the fun task of unpack all those boxes. You really realize how much junk you have when you move. I'm quickly making a large give away pile.
So what is the new house like? Well, I'll tell you. It's on 1.6 acres of horse property and it has a big kitchen and open space. 4 bedrooms, 2 baths and it's closer to work for me, about the same for Jeremy.
We have been able to move our chicken "barn" over and my favorite room of all, the tack shed, to the new place. We need to put up some fence for the horses and then they will join us on our new cozy home.
Want to know the down side to all this? OK, right now we have no gas, which means no hot water, no stove/oven, no dryer. We have no internet, not too bad I guess. I mostly miss warm showers. It's temporary and in case anyone forgot, MOVING STINKS! But we've had a lot of great help and are grateful for all of our family/friends who helped us out. We are beyond blessed to have you guys.
And now if you want to visit, we are only a 1/2 hour from the Valley.

I got tagged - and 8 things is hard!

8 TV Shows I watch
The Office
Dancing with the Stars
Project Runway
What Not To Wear
America's Next Top Model
Grey's Anatomy
Extreme Makeover Home Edition
Sesame Street (Ryder's choice)

8 Things I Did Yesterday
Went to Church
Ate yummy food
Helped Ryder hunt for Easter eggs(note: he does NOT like the oranges ones)
Took pictures(but now can't find my camera)
Ate candy
Spent time with family
Took a nap
Rode in the car for a really LONG time(home from Young)

8 Favorite Restaurants
Texas Roadhouse
Red Robin
Olive Garden
Chili's
Macayos
Old Chicago
Nico's (only their burritos)
T&M Pizza (only the pizza)

8 Things I Am Looking Forward to
Getting my baby fix tomorrow(Cousin's baby in town)
A week off of work(who knows when that will be though)
Making money
Losing this "baby weight" only to . . .
. . .Have more babies(later Erin, later)
Going away for a vacation (again don't know when, but it looks good)
Getting my personal trainer's certification
Personal training people
Teaching horseback riding lessons again

8 Things on My Wish List
Peace of mind
More Happiness
Stability
A garden
Horse fencing done
More Chickens
A pug(what, Buck needs a friend)
A horse trailer with camper front

8 Things on My To Do List
Pack
Find a house
Make Dinner
Finish Breaking Dawn
Prepare presentation for supplements at work
Clean
Read a whole bunch of other books I've bought but not yet started
Update blog(DONE!!)

8 People I Tag
Wendy
Donna
Erin
Diane
Betty
Lisa
Kelly
Mom

I'm so Proud

So True

A friend had this on her blog and I had to post it. For all of those who have not read Twilight, highly recommend it. I was the biggest skeptic of a vampire love story and, well let's say I'm hooked.

A bit slow

Working is definitely getting in the way of my blogging. That's my excuse anyways.
Well, since I last posted we've celebrated two birthdays (Ryder's and mine) and have had a lot of days of work, playing and running around. Everything is going alright and everyone is hanging on for the ride. I promise pictures of our birthday celebrations are around the corner.

No pictures because the camera's battery is dead and I keep forgetting to recharge it.
No posts because my batteries are dead and I have to recharge them.
I'm Tired.

You know the saying "things can only go up from here"?
When are they going to go up?!

My Schedule Lately

Wake up
Shower
Eat
Work
Home
Eat
Back to work
Work out (at work)
Home
Eat
Read Twilight series(on #3 now) like a love crazed teenager
Sleep

Repeat

Ryder is included in everything but working out and reading Twilight. He's just not that into the book. And working at a gym has some good perks - like free day care and getting myself in back in shape soon (I hope)!

Holiday Greetings!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Happy New Year!

So 2008 is gone and time for the new year and resolutions. I'm still thinking of mine and need to write them down and have some good goals to be working on for this year. Our New Year's Eve was very tame, after a day of work for Jeremy and me(at the jewelry store) we went out to dinner with John and Chantel and then I was dropped off at my parents' house and Jeremy headed home. We did watch some of some program of animal attacks and now I'm afraid of all of them. They even had some cute little bird attacking. I did manage to stay up to see 2009 in and then the neighbors were shooting off fireworks (and not those little firecrackers - real fireworks which had the residue hitting the roof like bebes) for the next hour and then I stayed up until about 1:00am because some people (Kelly and Heather!) got me to read Twilight and now I can't go to bed at a decent time because I can't stop reading. Speaking of, Ryder is napping and I need to know what is going on in the lives of Edward and Bella and need to get to where he isn't being mean to her - this is supposed to be a romance guys, right?