So we closed on our house last week and it has been an exhausting time trying to get moved out of Scott's moms and storage. It is so nice to have a home again. You can't even imagine. My favorite part is having a kitchen again. We literally ate out ever single day for the last year. We tried buying food and eating in, but Scott's mom would flip out that we put something in the refrigerator. "What's this?!? It's taking up too much space in MY refrigerator!!" We started eating out to just keep the peace.
We made a crazy Walmart and Costco run to get our kitchen up and running. It has been so nice to eat at home.
It still hasn't sunk in that we are homeowners again. I feel like I am staying in someone elses house. The fact that there is granny wallpaper and lace curtains in every room doesn't help either. I have been instructed I am not to dig into any home improvement project until the RV is ready to sell, so I guess I get to live with grandma for a while longer.
Things have been so crazy I haven't had time to take any pictures...as soon as I do I will get them posted.
It is so perfect out here. We have huge mature trees that are starting to bloom all over the backyard...phenominal mountain views...and abundant wildlife. I am not a fan of the rabbits that are eating all the landscaping though. There are tons of birds though. I am going to have to get a guide as I have seen a lot of unique birds.
Our little dog isn't living with us yet...the house just isn't dog ready. Scary thing too, we saw a HUGE hawk in the tree out back. Makes me worry it might see our little Bandit as a good snack. I have a coworker who had his 10 pound cat carried off by a hawk.
Any how, hope all is well with everyone!! We miss you all.
Heather
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
The end is nearing...
So I'm about two weeks away from the end of the semester...and yes I'm slightly freaking out. Finals, papers, projects, studying...it's an overwhelming time! But that's how every end of semester goes, right? Yeah, but that doesn't make it any less stressful! But I'm definitely ready for this semester to FINALLY be over. The weather is DRIVING ME INSANE!! Here was today's forecast: cloudy and windy, snowed overnight 3 inches. 5 minutes later, sun is out clouds are gone, no wind. 10 minutes later, RAINING. 5 minutes later, sun is OUT! 5 minutes later, snowing/slushing (that's rain and snow mixed in one...it sucks.) 5 minutes later, sun is out. 5 minutes later SNOWING. and i kid you not! No joke guys, the weather literally changed every 5 minutes...okay maybe not every 5 minutes but DEFINITELY every hour. I'd come home from a class, walk in my apt with the sun shining, and get ready to leave again and open the door to hard core snow. UGH! SICK!!
There's this program on campus, called the Heber J. Grant Scholarship Program...it gives scholarships to students with "disadvantaged backgrounds", but it's WAY more than just the scholarship. They have implemented a mentoring program and offer a class to teach basic life skills. AND all of this is student led. Amazing, yeah? There is only ONE paid faculty adviser, and the rest is volunteer work. Basically it helps those students become better, and improve their lives. Basically it's an amazing program.
So I took the class in the fall, got introduced to the program, then was a mentor this semester. Then I applied to be in the leadership council, had an interview, the whole she-bang and actually got something! Cool huh?! I'm sooooo stinking excited. I am a coordinator under the mentors area. Ok, so I know this probably makes NO sense to you, but it's difficult to explain and I don't feel like going into that much detail. So we went on a retreat last weekend, (which was INCREDIBLE!) and had all sorts of awesome training and games and LOTS of good food, snow ball fights, and yeah, it was definitely one of the highlights of my experience here.
Tonight we had a training meeting for all of the volunteer mentors and I had to present the program to them then do the actual training. It was a little intimidating I'm not gonna lie. It was a great learning experience though because I've never ever done anything like that. Sure I've given presentations in class, and I've taught dances in drill team, but I have never taught 20 people about a program and trained them on what they need to do. NOR have I EVER talked for that long in front of a bunch of people either. It was a 50 minutes meeting and I was in front of everyone talking for at least 40 of the minutes. Granted I wasn't talking the entire time, but getting other people involved is somewhat difficult sometimes...people are very reluctant to give their opinions and thoughts; I had to drag it out of them. But I have to admit, it was an awesome experience!
So basically that's all that's been going on with me lately. I'm dang excited for this summer. It's going to be amazing! I'm gonna take a couple of classes, work at Gandolfo's (Hopefully!) and do the whole leadership thing..OH and play frisbee! It's going to be fantastic! Then taking a trip in August...which is seriously going to be the highlight of my life! :D
Sorry if this bored you to tears...I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!
Just to spice this blog up a lil...here's a pic of me and my roommates (minus one).
Three of us are in a clogging class together, so for our ward talent show we did a little dance and wore our tutus that Lisa's (the one in the middle) mom made. SWEET!!!
There's this program on campus, called the Heber J. Grant Scholarship Program...it gives scholarships to students with "disadvantaged backgrounds", but it's WAY more than just the scholarship. They have implemented a mentoring program and offer a class to teach basic life skills. AND all of this is student led. Amazing, yeah? There is only ONE paid faculty adviser, and the rest is volunteer work. Basically it helps those students become better, and improve their lives. Basically it's an amazing program.
So I took the class in the fall, got introduced to the program, then was a mentor this semester. Then I applied to be in the leadership council, had an interview, the whole she-bang and actually got something! Cool huh?! I'm sooooo stinking excited. I am a coordinator under the mentors area. Ok, so I know this probably makes NO sense to you, but it's difficult to explain and I don't feel like going into that much detail. So we went on a retreat last weekend, (which was INCREDIBLE!) and had all sorts of awesome training and games and LOTS of good food, snow ball fights, and yeah, it was definitely one of the highlights of my experience here.
Tonight we had a training meeting for all of the volunteer mentors and I had to present the program to them then do the actual training. It was a little intimidating I'm not gonna lie. It was a great learning experience though because I've never ever done anything like that. Sure I've given presentations in class, and I've taught dances in drill team, but I have never taught 20 people about a program and trained them on what they need to do. NOR have I EVER talked for that long in front of a bunch of people either. It was a 50 minutes meeting and I was in front of everyone talking for at least 40 of the minutes. Granted I wasn't talking the entire time, but getting other people involved is somewhat difficult sometimes...people are very reluctant to give their opinions and thoughts; I had to drag it out of them. But I have to admit, it was an awesome experience!
So basically that's all that's been going on with me lately. I'm dang excited for this summer. It's going to be amazing! I'm gonna take a couple of classes, work at Gandolfo's (Hopefully!) and do the whole leadership thing..OH and play frisbee! It's going to be fantastic! Then taking a trip in August...which is seriously going to be the highlight of my life! :D
Sorry if this bored you to tears...I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!
Just to spice this blog up a lil...here's a pic of me and my roommates (minus one).
Three of us are in a clogging class together, so for our ward talent show we did a little dance and wore our tutus that Lisa's (the one in the middle) mom made. SWEET!!!
more pictures
OK, since I don't have kids of my own, I have to show off my beautiful nieces and nephews. Here are some pics I took last week. Enjoy! :)
Owen getting ready to chuck a water balloon at Ash
Here's Ash wrapping Liam up as a baby.He thought it was hilarious. :)
Can you believe Austin turned 1 last week?!He looks like such a big boy in this picture.
Austin loves playing with the faucet
Sarah striking a pose!!!
Callie and Austin licking up the lemonade spill. Ha ha!
Precious!!!
Owen loved the water fight
This is how Austin eats cake :)
Owen turned 3 this week. Can you believe it?!Wednesday, March 26, 2008
update x-mas exchange
thank you #8 the gifts were very nice it smells good in my bathroom and i am going to hord all the candy too.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Guinn Family update!
Hi Everyone! I just wanted to say hello and send some cute photos of the kiddos (minus Ash- sorry) for you all to see. We are staying busy- Ash is counting down the days until she leaves for college. She has decided to go to a school that is about 30 minutes from home. One of her friends' sisters is going to be her roomate. She is very excited to be on her own, but I am sure she will miss us the first week! (At least that is what I am telling myself!)
The boys are having fun with each other. Liam tells me that he loves his baby brother every day and he loves to give Austin hugs and kisses. The only problem is that he likes to hug him around the neck (!!) and he is a little too enthusiastic about his demonstrations of love. Austin turned one this month and he is trying to walk. I don't want him to be a "big boy" and walk yet, but the rest of the family is determined to teach him to walk. He learned to clap this week, so whenever we say "Yay Austin" he smiles really big and claps his little hands. It is so cute.
Sarah is loving first grade still. She told me the other day how much she likes her teacher. She said "no offense to my other teachers, but I like Mr. Straube the best of any of my teachers". She says some of the funniest things. She has always picked up the meaning for words easily and she uses adult words properly in conversation. I think she waits and waits for an opportunity to use each new word and then she uses it- much to our delight. She is a funny kid. As you can see from her photo, she is getting her permanent teeth. They are so much larger than her baby teeth- she suddenly looks grown up!
Well, I hope you are all doing well. I hope to hear from all of you soon! I miss seeing everyone and I hope we can keep in touch somehow. I love you all.
Steph
Sunday, March 23, 2008
heres my post i am still in susanville i am not working as the workforce sucks here. brianna has scoliosis and neeeds to get braces cause her mouth is overcrowded and her teeth are not straight. she wears a boston brace 23 hours a day for her scoliosis her rating or whatever they use to measure the bad for scoliosis is 28 degrees. her doctor here had never seen one that bad. i haven't had any seizures for years. thats all for now and happy easter. and the one thing that our family was still doing as a family to keep us together was the gift exchange at christmas. thanks guys for pushing me away as i no longer want to participate in this because for the last 3 years i have did my part in this family and sent a gift to another family member and have not received the same in return. the way i look at it is if my siblings don't want to take the time out of their lives, 1/2 hour to go to the post office on one day of their lives out of 8760 hours for the year, to keep our family doin things together than why should i. i love you all and if the reason you didn't send my gift in the last three years, #1 #4 #8, my address is 1095 shadow mtn. dr. susanville ca 96130. you should have this address it is your moms old address.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Update On Me
Hello Everyone,
If you have not heard I am now living in Keaau on the Big Island of Hawaii. I have a new "pseudo" govt. job processing enrollments for a new security program at the ports. I love Hawaii it is truly beautiful. Jacob is growing up fast and making some good progress in school. That is about it for now. Everyone shoudl come and visit you will all love it here.
Jared
If you have not heard I am now living in Keaau on the Big Island of Hawaii. I have a new "pseudo" govt. job processing enrollments for a new security program at the ports. I love Hawaii it is truly beautiful. Jacob is growing up fast and making some good progress in school. That is about it for now. Everyone shoudl come and visit you will all love it here.
Jared
I ranked 134 out of 1,195,679
Wow, I thought this would be a real typing test, but clearly it is not. Ha ha! I bet mom would type about 1,000 wpm and rank #1. Go try it out! Maybe I can print this screen and attach it to my resume.
239 words
239 words
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Where is everyone???
Sweet family! Oh, how I've missed you all. Let's not give up on this blog just yet...or ever, for that matter. How is everyone? Updates, updates! We need them.
This past month has been kind of a blur. I am now tutoring for three different families, and it's starting to wear me out. I mean, it's a huge blessing, but by the time I finally get home, I just don't have the energy to do anything else (i.e., homework). School is definitely getting pushed aside, which kills me. It looks like I'll be losing my 4.0 average after this semester. Boo hoo! I pride myself on doing my best, but there just hasn't been time...mostly, though, I lack the motivation. I sure hate algebra! Oh well. A few Bs here and there aren't going to kill me or make that much of a difference in the long run.
Not much else has been going on with me. I've been sick for the past week or so and am just now getting better. The weather here really does a number on your body. One day it's cloudy and raining and the next it's 95 degrees out. Today it's muggy and rainy again. They say if you get sick of the weather in Texas, just wait a few hours. Funny, but so incredibly true!
I love you all and hope to hear from you soon!
Becca
This past month has been kind of a blur. I am now tutoring for three different families, and it's starting to wear me out. I mean, it's a huge blessing, but by the time I finally get home, I just don't have the energy to do anything else (i.e., homework). School is definitely getting pushed aside, which kills me. It looks like I'll be losing my 4.0 average after this semester. Boo hoo! I pride myself on doing my best, but there just hasn't been time...mostly, though, I lack the motivation. I sure hate algebra! Oh well. A few Bs here and there aren't going to kill me or make that much of a difference in the long run.
Not much else has been going on with me. I've been sick for the past week or so and am just now getting better. The weather here really does a number on your body. One day it's cloudy and raining and the next it's 95 degrees out. Today it's muggy and rainy again. They say if you get sick of the weather in Texas, just wait a few hours. Funny, but so incredibly true!
I love you all and hope to hear from you soon!
Becca
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)