Merry Christmas

Let's Compare Shall We

I went for another little walk this morning and took some comparison pictures of today and yesterday. The pictures on the top are yesterday and the pictures on the bottom are of today. If you look closely there are some differences. I measured the snow today and it measured 15 inches!! Crazy!

So far it looks like we may still be able to make it out of Seattle tomorrow night on our flight to LA. Barring anymore major dumping of snow it looks promising. I am expecting we will be delayed somewhat but as long as we still make it to LA before Christmas I will be happy. We are suppose to depart at 8pm tomorrow and arrive at 10:30pm. Ruh is just going to take us to the airport before he goes to work. We will be there about 7 hours early but with the crowds and back-ups its probably best that way. I am going to check our flight status before we leave for the airport. Please pray we are able to make it out of here and our flight does not get canceled!

Snowed In: A Winter Wonderland

Well, Daisy and I are hunkered down here at my parents' house. My parents are nice and warm down in LA right now. Ruh and I decided it would be best for us to come over here in case of power outages. We only have electric heat and my parents have a wood stove. The forecast called for high winds and lots of snow. We didn't want to risk being stuck in the house with no power or heat while Ruh was off at work. My brother is here as well. Ruh ended up spending the night at work. Well, the high winds never struck here, just mainly in the foothills of the Cascades and along the Strait. But we did get LOTS of snow! It started snowing around 3pm and continued to snow until 11:30pm. We could literally watch it piling up. Ben and I ran to the store when Daisy and I first got here and grabbed some food that could easily be made with water that had been boiled on the woodstove. I also brought supplies over to make spaghetti which can be easily made on a woodstove. I was kind of looking forward to cooking the old-fashioned way but there was no need as the power never went out. But we stayed nice and toasty all night.

This morning was beautiful, a winter wonderland. I woke up first and started a fire. After I ate breakfast I bundled myself up. I left all of my snow gear back at our house so I had to borrow some. Everyone here has much bigger feet than me. I found my mom's snow boots and strapped them on anyway. My feet were swimming in them. Then I grabbed a coat off the coat rack which must have been two sizes to big. But I was nice and toasty. I stumbled my way outside and into the foot deep snow. I walked around the property taking pictures as I went. Since then it has started snowing big fluffy flakes. Now I want to sit down enjoy a hot cup of cocoa and watch A Christmas Carol. And maybe a little later go a roll up a good snowman.

Living Frugally

Ruh left this article open on the computer for me to read this morning. It is about a family of seven who live off $44,000 a year! The part I found so interesting was their food budget for an entire month is $350! Right now our food budget for a family of three is almost $600!!! Wow! If I can change that I want to know how because we are going to have to buy more and more food as our family grows. If I could trim our food budget down by $250 a month we could afford for me to only work 16 hours (which is all the hours I am getting right now anyway)! I was getting 20 hours a week which allowed me to give Ruh $600 dollars a month towards our new mortgage. Now I am getting between 15 and 16 hours which only allows me to give Ruh about $400. This was going to make things pretty tight. It HAS been really nice not working as much, especially being pregnant. So maybe if I am more frugal things won't be so tight. The article says they plan a weekly menu, something I do as well. But they plan the menu around weekly specials and deals. I just plan my menu and if something I buy happens to be on sale then great. This may require me to go to more than one grocery store but if it saves that much money it is totally worth it. They have written a book called "America's Cheapest Family" and I plan on buying it. They also have a website and a blog. You can read the article here.

Snow, Snow, and More Snow!!

Snow has continued to fall all day. I am feeling much better about not going to work today because road conditions have gotten worse as the day has gone on and now part of Highway 16 is closed! Who knows if I could have gotten home! Ruh just put the chains on the car and he is braving the conditions to get to work. He comes home in the middle of the night and I really hope he makes it home! He has a bunch of survival stuff in the car but that doesn't make me feel any better.

School was closed today and Daisy went outside to play in the snow. There is a little boy about 8 or 9 who lives across the street. He was outside all by himself playing in his yard and eventually he sauntered over to our yard and started talking to Daisy. Daisy grabbed our two sleds and they went over to his house and he has a big hill in his backyard and they sledded for a while. Daisy said his name is Tristan and he told Daisy the boy who lived here before us wasn't very nice. I think he was glad to find Daisy was a very nice girl. :)



I went outside and took some pictures and video. It is coming down fast and heavy! I am listening to Christmas music and I am going to bake gingerbread cookies. I wish my mom was here right now to bake Christmas cookies with me in my new big kitchen. She and my dad are already down in LA and we will be heading down this coming Tuesday. The weather forecast says it's suppose to snow on Tuesday! I am praying for no flight delays since we are suppose to arrive in LA at 10pm. That would stink if it ended up being in the middle of the night. Until then I am going to stay warm and cozy inside and enjoy the beautiful snow.


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Update: Home Sweet Home

Well, we are all moved in and everything is slowly but surely coming together. It started snowing the night we moved in and it has been COLD ever since! This morning it dumped snow and I couldn't even get out of the driveway. There is a little incline getting out of the driveway and it was enough to get me sliding! There was about 2-3inches of snow on the road and I walked up to the main road to check it out and it was the same there. I figured if a little tiny incline was making me slide I probably shouldn't risk the huge hills on the main road. My shift supervisor Brandy was very understanding and wanted me to be safe. It is frustrating because I know there is not nearly as much snow in Gig Harbor where I work and I am not sick so I feel like I should be at work right now. I really hope she was able to find someone who lives closer to come in and cover for me. I know what it is like to be a person short at a drive-thru Starbucks in the busiest part of the morning!

I took some pictures the night we were moving in and the morning after.


This is not a very good picture but you can see the snow falling from the flash of the camera and you can see a little dusting of snow on the fence. Taraz is the one standing in the doorway. Needless to say it was COLD. This was about the time I ran up to Albertson's to get everyone dinner. On my way home the snow was falling a lot more steadily.



This was the next morning. Daisy had spent the night at my parents so it was just Ruh and I. Since there was no food in the house we decided to go to our favorite place for breakfast, the Family Pancake House in Port Orchard. It is not a fancy place but their pancakes are the best we have ever tasted. Then we ran some errands and bought a few things for the house. There were no shower curtain rods so that was the first thing we bought, then of course some new shower curtains.

Here was Ruh scraping the snow off of the U-Haul. We had to return it that morning.

Since then I have been working my tail off. Everything is starting to look and feel more comfortable. You would not believe the dirt I have found! It's disgusting. I have pretty much had to scrub everything twice to get it clean. I actually had fun scrubbing the kitchen sink! It was so orange with grime (it's a white porcelain sink). I scrubbed it with comet, let the comet sit then added more and scrubbed again. I got that sink looking brand new. Ruh was very impressed when he saw it. He said it looked like I had gone and bought a brand new sink. I took apart the inside of the dishwasher to clean all the little parts. How do you think dog hair got caked onto those parts?! I couldn't figure that one out! I could feel my gag reflex starting a couple times.

On to some more cleaning and unpacking! :)

Tomorrow I get my next ultrasound! I will be 14 weeks along! I don't have a scanner to put the picture on the computer but I might be able to go over to my parents house and use theirs. Be watching for those pictures. :)

It's Official!

The house is officially ours!!! Ruh is picking up the keys right now! He is heading over to do some cleaning and I am finishing up packing here at the apartment! I was going to have to work 5:30am until 2pm tomorrow and I was not looking forward to it. One of my wonderful co-workers said she would take the first half of my shift and now I am only working 10am-2pm which means I get to SLEEP! This preggo girl really needs it! :) Thank you to everyone who prayed! Once I get the chance I will post lots of pictures and video!

We signed for the house!

There it is! It has 4 bedrooms and 2 baths.

This morning at 9:30am we signed the papers for our new house! I can't believe it's finally over! The realtor and notary were pretty sure we will be receiving the keys sometime tomorrow. I have to work an 8 hour shift tomorrow. Ruh is hoping they will give him the keys early in the day. He wants to pick up my mother-in-law Bonita so they can go to the house and do some MAJOR cleaning. They both don't want me around any chemicals and I know I am going to be beyond exhausted when I get home from work. Bonita was so excited when she heard about some deep cleaning that needs to be done. Her eyes lit up and she immediately offered to help. I am very grateful for that. So we are praying we get the keys nice and early tomorrow.

I am busy packing today. I should get the majority done today and anything leftover I can do tomorrow. So far I have gotten all the books packed and about half of my knick-knacks. After I get all the little things done then I am going to move to our bedroom closet (high pitched scream!). We figured we would just grab the clothes on their hangers and throw them in the back of the car and transfer them right to our closet in the new house. We will probably do the same thing with Daisy. Saturday is the big moving day! We are renting a U-haul so we can get it all done in one trip. I am still trying to figure out how to tackle packing the kitchen. I am going to need to keep a few things out for the next couple of days.

When we start unpacking at the house on Saturday the first thing I am going to put together are the beds! Someone once told me you always want to get the beds set up first thing that way when you are tired and exhausted that night you don't have to worry about putting the beds together then. The next room will be the kitchen. I am very excited about the kitchen! It is much bigger than the tiny one I have now. I can't wait for everything to find its place. There is a special shelf for the microwave so it is up off the counter leaving extra counter space. There is a perfect corner of the counter my beautiful Kitchen Aid stand mixer is going to live in.

Packing is the hard part, unpacking is the VERY fun part! I will love making the house a home and putting everything in its place. As of Saturday I will no longer have internet for a little while so I am not sure when my next update will be. I am planning on taking pictures and video of all the moving. I am not sure when I will be able to post it but I will have it up eventually. I will go to my parent's to check my e-mail and post some updates when I can!

A Good Giggle

This picture was taken at Gabriel's 3rd birthday party! He is my friend Hannah's son. I had a good giggle when I saw it! It was titled, "Been waitin' all year for this moment!". He is too funny! :) You can click on the picture to enlarge it.

My "new to me" Dehydrator

I am so excited! Ruh and I went to visit my mother-in-law yesterday. When we arrived she surprised me with a food dehydrator that she found at the Goodwill. It looks to be in excellent condition. I am going to try it out today with some apples I have that really need to be used up. I am going to look up recipes and ideas on the internet. When spring comes again, and we are all ready to go hiking, it will come in really handy to make my own trail mix and dried fruit that will be light to carry in a pack. This is going to be so much fun! Thank you sooooo much Bonita! :)

Three Year Blogging Anniversary

Wow, I can't believe it has been three years since I started this blog. So much has happened in the past three years. I said goodbye to little Isaac and Gabe Schniedler when they no longer needed a nanny after two years. Ruth and Chris were married. My Grampa passed away and that same summer we all grieved as Gabe DeRoo was killed in Iraq leaving Hannah and little Gabriel behind. Gabriel had his first birthday and we were all there to celebrate. I mourned as I lost my first pregnancy. I was hired on at Starbucks. The blogging community and many many more mourned with Rach when she lost her little girl Hannah. My brother moved to Alaska and back again (a couple times). Little Leo Rogers was born to Ruth and Chris. We celebrated when Hannah met Willie and they were married this past summer and are now expecting a little one to be Gabriel's little brother Billy. And now I am expecting a little one. There have been many camping trips and countless hiking adventures. I could go on and on. But in the middle of all the changes, happy and sad, God always remains the same. I don't know what the next year will hold, sorrow, joy or even both, but I know God will remain constant and be there through it all.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, and comes from the Father of lights, with Whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." James 1:17

The holidays (and moving and a wedding) are upon us!

Thanksgiving is upon us and I am very excited! I can't wait for the holidays to start! This holiday season is going to be a very busy one for us. We are in the last stages of buying a house and it looks like we will be moving the beginning of December. There is one more tiny hurtle that needs to be jumped so I am praying. Even if the house (for some strange reason) doesn't work out we will still have to move to another apartment. So either way, we are moving soon! I am tempted to start packing up all our books and knick-knacks into boxes just to get that part done.

Since I've been married I have always decorated the house for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. This year I won't be. I don't want to pull out all the Christmas decorations and the tree to just have to pack them all back up a week later. I think the first thing I am going to unpack in the new house, after all the bedding of course, is the Christmas tree and a stereo to listen to Christmas music! It will be nice to have the tree up even in the middle of all the chaos. My hubby is going to be putting in new floors when we first move in so we will be moving the boxes from one room to the next while he works.

And on top of all of that my cousin Eva-Karin is getting married December 27th! I will be flying down with Daisy on the 23rd and Ruh will be flying down on Christmas Eve. We will be spending Christmas at my Gramma's. You haven't experienced Christmas until you have spent it at my Gramma's! The whole family is going to be there, I can't wait! I am a bridesmaid in her wedding. So far I have not gained any weight from being pregnant and I am hoping it will stay that way until at least five minutes after the wedding and I don't have to worry about fitting into a dress anymore! :) It's all so exciting!

I will keep everyone posted on what's happening! I might have to head to my mom's and borrow her computer to post updates while we are moving since we won't have internet right away.