2014?!? What?

A very happy new year!!!!

It is so hard for me to believe that it's a new year already! How crazy is that? I was journaling the other night about things that happened in 2013 and there were a few big things, like selling my very first home, which was sad and exciting both at the same time. Buying a beautiful and quite large new home, which I am in love with! We were able to have thanksgiving at our house which was so much fun and Christmas dinner as well! 

I went to Peru and that was one of my most favorite trips that I have been on. I would love to go back! It's also strange because at first I did not want to go to Peru at all, but I know that God wanted me to go and so I did!! And I am so glad that I did as I was on an amazing team and got to spend time with one of my most dear friends from Texas, Shiane.

 I have some pretty sweet farm animals that I love, and love going out to take care of them everyday. They really bring me joy.

And what's really a bit weird to me as it's now 2014, is that this year in May it'll be 10 years since I was in high school! How in the world did it go that fast? It just seems crazy to me! Oh my word!! And since I graduated with a whopping 11 people in my class, I think I will be going to the reunion. But I'm still kind of in disbelief that it's been 10 years. 

Oh, and Jared and I celebrated one year of marriage! Which makes me so happy! God knew what he was doing when he brought us together, yes there might be days where I wonder what I was thinking as Jared can sometimes be quite hard to take but I love him anyway, and here's to many more anniversaries :-) 

I am praying now 4 days into 2014, that God will continue to draw me closer to him and that I would serve him better this year. I pray that I would be more Christ-like in my actions, words(especially), and in my overall life that others on the outside would see Christ in me. I'm excited to see where I will be next year at this time! I think there could be some fun surprises along the way! :-) 

Christmas gatherings and the like

We had a most wonderful Christmas season. I always feel so darn blessed after it's over and I once again felt that way. 

So now I'll give you a rundown on how things went and what I received because I got some pretty exciting things! 

Christmas Eve was open house style at my mommas! It was really fun! We had our gift exchange with my mom, drew and Catie and my grandma. I got some money which is always a plus :) I got some new shirts, we got replacement brush heads for our sonicare toothbrushes. And while I know that might not seem exciting, that's one of those things I don't want to buy for myself. I got a really fun orange phone case and some super cute sock monkey pjs(kind of a tradition from my mom). After we left there, we went home and Jared got to open his presents from me. I think I did a pretty good job as he was excited about the tool things I got it! I felt excited about that! 

Onto Christmas Day! Merry Christmas! We woke up leisurely and headed over to my dads where we had the traditional cinnamon rolls and coffee. Then we chatted for a bit, decided that we didn't want to wait for Andrew and Catie and opened our gift from my Dad and Becky(his wife), we got new shampoo and conditioner which is an every year gift that I absolutely love! I got a cute sweater from banana republic and some money. So that was definitely a nice time. Andrew and Catie did finally arrive and we watched them open gifts and chatted with them but then it was back to our house for Christmas dinner. Cheesy potatoes were already in the crockpot before we left and I made mashed potatoes when we got home, my mom brought ham and it was a super tasty meal! We gave the twins their presents that day and they were super excited to have new socks and new purses from their island trip on Friday! So Christmas Day was very relaxing! No stress needed or wanted!

The day after Christmas was with the Wendzel side, not everyone as Jason and Corie were waiting until the following Thursday to come to Michigan. I always much prefer when everyone is there but since some people can't wait we got to do Christmas twice. Which ended up being fun! I got some amazing presents from Dave and Dawn, which included pink carhartt overalls and a pink carhartt coat to match and those have already been wonderful with the frigid temps! I got an amazing new lens for my camera! It's sooo nice!!! I'm excited that I currently have it with me to Honduras:-) I got new sheets which are always fabulous! 

Later on on the 26th, I had oh so much trying to get the twins all their last minute items for Panama and the San Blas islands. *that is being said with lots of sarcasm, as by the time we were done I was ready to either kill them or put them on a plane right then!*

The twins got on their Merry little way, and will return in a few days. I'm a little bummed that I won't be there to pick them up as I am so excited to hear how much fun they had, and hopefully to see pictures! They were pretty much staying on the beach in a grass hut for 10 days so I'm guessing it was pretty amazing ;-)

I only worked 2 days over the holidays which was amazing!! I could easily get used to that schedule, hehe. 

So the last Christmas happened on the 2nd, which was very fun! But I always enjoy seeing Corie and Jason and their three adorable girls. I guess being an aunt is pretty fun ;-) So we had some more presents, I got a Marshall's gift card  which I love and am so excited to use, a super cute scarf that I'm looking forward to wearing once I'm back home in the cold weather. And I got the hunger games on blu-Ray and even catching fire when it comes out too, yay!! I got a couple gift cards one to Ulta so now I can get some new good makeup! And a Qdoba giftcard which is quite nice as well! 

And my one last present that I used Christmas money for is an amazon kindle which I am LOVING! It's so nice and already proving to be great on my trip! I just ordered a fun purple giraffe case for it. So hopefully that'll be waiting for me when I return! 

I just feel so blessed and that I received way more than I needed but am so grateful that I was able to use all the stuff that I got! Thank you Jesus for being the ultimate and best Christmas gift ever! Happy birthday Jesus!

It's the holiday season!

That song title is definitely one of my most favorites, thank you Andy Williams :-)

Well I am currently all by my lonesome downstairs because Jared has already gone to bed so that he can get up early to plow. I'm also watching treehouse masters, which I just love and I kind of really love the idea of an amazing tree house! And I just looked on demand and there are quite a few episodes that I can now watch!!

We just got back from a weekend in Chicago. We had lots of fun, we stayed at a cute little hotel, called the Hotel Felix. We ate some seriously good food including my favorite Chicago style pizza! We got the city pass so we went to the museum of science and industry, Shedd, the field museum, and even the planetarium. We did some shopping, but saved most of the shopping for Saturday at the outlet mall! Oh yeah! And my wonderful husband, gave me my Christmas present which was a little shopping spree. I got almost a whole new wardrobe! :-) it was really fun and now I seriously can't wait to start wearing all my new stuff. 

So all in all I'm feeling so blessed! I feel that way really often when I think about our gigantic house and all that I/we get to do. Example being able to be going to Honduras in about 2 weeks! And that Lauren and I are going to Chicago a day early. So fun! 

Well that's all for now, I'm also very excited that next week and the following I only have to work on Monday! Woot woot!! :-D 

Can't think of a good title

Currently I'm sitting at work wishing that I didn't have to sit here for another hour...

I am excited to hopefully have time this week to attempt an apple pie :-) after I went to the super fun pie class last week and I bought a rolling pin (how I didn't have one previously I'm not sure, lol) and some cute mini pie pans, I need to make pies!!

I might have a husband free weekend :-D  as Jared might go to NC with my stepdad and then that means it would be a total girls weekend!! Eeee!!!  one of my most favorite things :-) Now don't get me wrong I love my husband, but I love time with just my mom and the twins and having my bed to myself is pretty amazing as well ;-) And that was some serious overuse of smileys, sorry folks!

Today is Veterans Day and I'm just so very thankful for all that have served this great nation!! I am so thankful for the freedoms that I have because of our military's willingness to serve! Thank you!! 

I decided to eat gluten full today and started my morning with an egg mcmuffin and it was soooooo tasty :-D then I had a giant chocolate chip cookie for lunch and pizza for dinner. Yum yum!!

This weekend, I found some of my most favorite Christmas treats, ghiradelli peppermint bark!! It's so tasty and I've been eating quite a lot of it :-)

I think I need a snack and am trying to decide what I could have that would be really good....hmmm

Well I think I need to find a snack and am going to check the barfateria (as we so fondly call it here at work. Adios blog (see I'm practicing my Spanish already, hehe) 

Lazy Tuesday

Currently I am laying in bed because I think a nap would be fabulous but instead I'm blogging and thinking of all the things I should/could be doing...

Such as:* vacuuming but that sounds terribly un-fun (not sure if that's a word, but oh well)

*Seeing if there are boxes that I could unpack, also not exciting.

*Cleaning water buckets for my farm animals, it's kind of cold outside so I think not.

*Bringing our small white bed upstairs and putting it in one of the bedrooms, but I'm not sure I want to attempt that on my own.

So, since none of those sound exciting, I will  blog. I'm trying to think what's new and exciting but I can't seem to think of anything. I am looking forward to the latest Hunger Games movie - Catching Fire coming out in a few weeks!!! Yay! I kind of want to re-read the book, maybe I should go to the library in a few minutes...

I'm super excited that I bought my plane ticket for Honduras today!!!! And my friend Lauren is going with me, so we are flying out of Chicago and going shopping on Friday and then getting a hotel for the night for our super early 5am flight. But I'm so super excited!! :-) January 4th come fast!! (But not really because there are many fun things to do before that.)

I'm pretty excited for Halloween to be done this week, because can you believe this, I'm kind of tired of my decorations. I know I'm even shocked! Hehe! Maybe it's because I'm ready to do some non -holiday decorating, just house decorating. 

Ok, well now I can't think of anything else to write but I am wishing I had a Kindle so that I could read that and not go to the library. (Yes, I am that lazy today and I don't even care.)

:-D  

The new house etc.

Well once again I've been a super fail at keeping up with the blog, but oh well. 

Well..... We moved and I LOVE our new house! It is so nice to have so much space and to be able to figure out how to decorate, ahh I'm in love ;-)

I have been having lots of fun working at the farm with my animal friends and I'm actually sad that there are only a few weekends left. At least I will still my animal friends! It's been quite comical to see how the animals respond, the first weekend I had a charging Zebu, so there is now a double fence. One weekend Shaggy decided he wanted to knock down gates and go where he wanted to get grass or be with the Zebus. Last weekend, Posh our pony was nipping at people, I think he had a few to many treats and assumed that everyone would have one for him! I think that if I was one of the animals I might not act perfect either. But even so it's been fun! I'm looking forward to this weekend it's looking like it will be super nice! :-)

Well for now that's about all.... Happy Fall  y'all!! 

Thoughts from months ago....lol

I've been sitting here at work tonight and have been quite bored and have been thinking. What have I been thinking about, you might ask? 

Well just life in general, I was reading one of my dear friends blogs (side note-wow can she write! I really wish she and her family lived closer, as I miss being able to stop over and hang out and just talk) and was thinking about how my life has changed in the 8 years that I have lived in my house. I'm sure that part of my thought process is because we are moving this weekend! Ahh!! But it's crazy to think how far I've come and the many changes that have taken place. God has truly proven himself to be faithful to me his child. I can't decide if I want to write it all currently, but I just feel blessed. 

I thought I knew a few years ago that I was going to go to medical school and become a doctor but now I'm not so sure and I think I'm thankful that God didn't call me to that. 

Currently I'm very content with where I am, taking care of my home (soon to be a large home), learning to be a better wife, taking care of my dogs and the fun farm animals, and I'm hoping that I will get to be a mom soon, I love being involved with the high school youth group and seeing the teens grow in their faith. I am blessed and feel content. Most of the time I like my job and even lately have been LOVING working part-time!