Thankful

Thanksgiving is in just 2 days.   It has snuck right up on us.
I'm not going to lie, this year I have had a hard time being grateful.  I've only been letting myself see the "bad" in our lives rather than focusing on the "good" that surrounds us.  Because of this, I really haven't let myself be truly happy.  It's much easier to wallow in self pity and feel sorry for myself over all that we don't have.  Yesterday for FHE my amazingly wonderfully awesome husband suggested that we finally sit and write a few things we are thankful for on our thankful tree.  Then he pulled up President Uchtdorf's talk from the October General Conference, "Of Regrets and Resolutions."  It is an amazing talk!  

Here are some of my favorite parts.....

"So often we get caught up in the illusion that there is something just beyond our reach that would bring us happiness: a better family situation, a better financial situation, or the end of a challenging trial.

The older we get, the more we look back and realize that external circumstances don’t really matter or determine our happiness.

We do matter. We determine our happiness.

You and I are ultimately in charge of our own happiness."

"My wife, Harriet, and I love riding our bicycles. It is wonderful to get out and enjoy the beauties of nature. We have certain routes we like to bike, but we don’t pay too much attention to how far we go or how fast we travel in comparison with other riders.

However, occasionally I think we should be a bit more competitive. I even think we could get a better time or ride at a higher speed if only we pushed ourselves a little more. And then sometimes I even make the big mistake of mentioning this idea to my wonderful wife.

Her typical reaction to my suggestions of this nature is always very kind, very clear, and very direct. She smiles and says, “Dieter, it’s not a race; it’s a journey. Enjoy the moment.”

How right she is!

Sometimes in life we become so focused on the finish line that we fail to find joy in the journey."

"Brothers and sisters, no matter our circumstances, no matter our challenges or trials, there is something in each day to embrace and cherish. There is something in each day that can bring gratitude and joy if only we will see and appreciate it."

"Perhaps we should be looking less with our eyes and more with our hearts. I love the quote: “One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.”

We are commanded “to give thanks in all things.” So isn’t it better to see with our eyes and hearts even the small things we can be thankful for, rather than magnifying the negative in our current condition?"

Really...Dillon and I have so much to be thankful for despite the "bad" or "not ideal" situations we find ourselves in at this stage of our life together.  I may want some things to change (school to be over, more financial stability and to have a family) but I can and I will be happy with where we are in this moment.   
"It's not a race, it's a journey.  Enjoy the moment."

So, some of the things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving season:

-Dillon.  His love for me.  His patience with me.  His hard work and the sacrifices he makes everyday in order to get a good education.

-My job.  I LOVE working in preschool and I LOVE working with the preschoolers with special needs and VERY special spirits.  Yesterday our little deaf girl signed "I. Love. You." to me; I am thankful for that moment.

-The house we live in.  The location.  The rent.  The space.  The warmth.

-My family and Dillon's family.  The love and support they show us.  The fun that we have together.

-Skeeter. :) He loves me no matter what and he's right there waiting with tail wagging when I need someone to hug and love on when I'm feeling down on life.

-Modern medicine.  Doctors that care and educate themselves  in order to help us that need it.

-The gospel.  The peace, the love, the comfort it provides me in my life.

-My health and my life.

Today I got a phone call that reminded me just how fragile life can be.  Sometimes I forget and I hate the things that have to remind me.
I am blessed.  I am SO lucky to live the life I live.  It's not always perfect and it's not always fun.  But it is my life and the memories I make and the lessons I learn are worth every hard time and every heartache.  

Fall

I'm pretty sure I say this every year but, I love fall.  I love the changing of the leaves, the harvest trucks, the hunting stories, the first snow, pumpkin yumminess.  Everything.  I love it!  This year I'm even excited for Halloween.  Normally I am not much of a fan, but this year I have actually had fun decorating for Halloween, not just fall but Halloween.  Now I just need to figure out a costume to wear to work....

This weekend the Bastow's came over and we had a yummy dinner of some delicious beef stew, pumpkin chocolate chip bars for dessert and then entertained ourselves by carving pumpkins.  Now really, it doesn't get any more "Fall" than that.  It was so much fun!  Luke kept saying that he wanted a Lightning McQueen pumpkin.  So, being the awesome Aunt I am, I found a little pattern online so he could have his Lightning McQueen pumpkin.  In the process we found a Cinderella pattern that Sofia just loved.  Their parents may or may not have been cussing me not even half way through the process but they turned out SO cute!

Such silly kids :)

Dillon and I went simple with traditional scary face for Dillon and a, slightly more creative than usual, ghost for me.

 The Bastow's had a third very large pumpkin but Jake cut the top off only to find it rotten.  Oh well, the kids still had a great time coloring it.

And Sof of course had to taste the marker too :)

 Now some pictures of the whole process ...

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Fishing and a beard

I love spud harvest.  I really do.  It makes living in Idaho and working for the School District totally worth it.  Not that I hate either, but you know. 

 It is seriously the best. 2 weeks off of work, who wouldn't love it?

  Well usually I am quite bored during harvest and am ok with returning to work.  But this year, it has been the most relaxing AND productive break ever.  Seriously. 

 How is this possible?  Well let me tell you.  

I get to sleep in, find my way to the couch, cuddle up in a blanket and eat breakfast/watch 'Price is Right'/browse Facebook/browse Pinterest/browse Blogs (yes this takes a little while :), finally go shower and half get ready for the day.  

Then comes the productivity.  

Make the bed (I know right? I told you I have been productive!), wash whatever dishes are in the sink, straighten things around the house, deep clean or organize something, and then depending on the day and if I'm staying home or going to Lacie's I paint something here (if I have the paint I need) or spend time playing with those cute little twins/painting at the Bastow's.  

Seriously, it has been great.  

As my spud harvest began Dillon asked me what fun things I had planned for my break and what I wanted to go.  I told him clean and organize.  He rolled his eyes.  So I added go fishing, since we have been so lame and/or busy and haven't gone hardly at all this year.  

So yesterday was the day.  Dillon took me fishing.  

We debated where to go but decided to take our chances and stay a little closer to home.  It was so much fun.  The river was low enough that we were able to wander upstream to a new place, which proved to be a wise decision and a success.  And the sunshine and beautiful day made it that much better. 

The fish we caught right at the same moment.  Yeah, not the best picture ever but you try taking a picture of 2 people holding 2 very alive flip-flopping fish by yourselves.  It's quite comical :)

One of my fishes

One of Dillon's fishes

Now lets discuss that beard.  

I know.  

When he started growing it and I kept asking him when he was going to shave, every time his answer was the same.  

"When I get my deer."  

I just laughed at him and said he wouldn't last another week.  Well that was much more than a week ago.  He still maintains that it is not coming off until he gets his deer.  I'm starting to believe him.  That is why he is allowed to go hunting as often as he would like :)

But, beard or no beard...I still like him.  A lot.

:)

And while we're on the topic of Dillon...let's have a little kitten update shall we?

As of Sunday afternoon we are down to one.

Doomp may or may not have gotten his head run over by Dillon.

Now, I don't like cats, but that was sad.

But Boggy is dealing with the loss of her sister quite well and now thinks she is a dog.

These 2 are always together.  Cuddling.  Eating out of the same bowl.  In the dog house.  

They love each other.

We do plan on getting another little kitten and from the same batch as Boggy and Doomp, but not quite yet.  We are going to let them stay with their mommy a little longer and get a little bigger.  I think we pulled these little girls away a little too soon.  Oh well.

Mouse adventures

Oh dear!  I am beyond lacking in my blogging skills lately.  I don't even know how to begin getting all caught up.  We have been and continue to stay sufficiently busy.  And it's not even all boring busy. YAY! But it certainly hasn't all been fun.  Dillon is fully immersed in his last, and I repeat, his LAST, semester of classes!  YAHOO!! (Not sure who's more excited about this).  And while I am out for 2 weeks for spud harvest (YAY) I am working hard on deep cleaning and organizing our house, and getting things done for Little Yellow Door Design. 

 But....

 Our latest adventure?  Mice....and now kittens.  

So I really REALLY don't like mice.  I know they are not going to hurt me.  That's not why I am scared of them.  They are fast and creepy and sly and dirty and carry diseases.  And they just pop up out of nowhere without warning.  And that scares me.  And I HATE being scared! Like, so much so that if Dillon plans on standing in the dark and saying "boo" he knows he better be prepared to get slugged.  But anywho, I know we have mice in our house, we catch them in our traps frequently.  But I have never seen them alive, running freely about my house.  Until last week.  Last Friday evening Dillon left for a few hours to go hunting.  While he was gone I was lazy and watched TV and then started dinner not long before I expected him to get home.  As I was making dinner (chicken enchiladas) I was standing at the island, minding my own business, when a disgusting, filthy mouse scurried out from under the pantry door (on the other side of the island) and hurried into the living room and under the couch.  Naturally I screamed, 3 times, and jumped onto the island.  Once my heart stopped pounding and I regained composure and realized my phone was in the living room with the awful creature I wasn't left with many options.  Luckily everything I needed to finish dinner was there on the island with me.  So, I finished putting the enchiladas together, (did not cover them with foil since that was in the pantry and going near there was out of the question) put one leg on the ground as I reached over and stuck the enchiladas in the oven, and resumed my position on top of the island.  Dillon had said he would be home between 8 and 8:30, it was now only 7:55.  I was left with no choice but to watch whatever show came on the TV and wait for Dillon to get home.  At 8:30 my phone went off.  Oh boy.  What if it was Dillon letting me know he actually got a deer and would be late?  What would I do then?  So I told myself if Dillon was not home in 10 mins I would have to suck it up and make a mad dash for my phone.  EXACTLY 10 mins later I was greeted by the sound of Dillon pulling into the driveway!  SAVED AT LAST!!  He walked in and as he was taking off his boots asked what the heck I was doing on the island.  I filled him in on the events of the last 45 mins and told him to hurry up and get the filthy bugger.  Of course, he couldn't go at it empty handed so he grabbed his blow gun and got to work.  He flipped over one side of the sectional where I saw him run.  Nothing.  He flipped over the other side.  Nothing but poop, lots of poop.  EWWWW!

The site of him hunting the mouse, with his blow gun, in his camo was just too good to let pass by without pictures.  Luckily my purse, with my camera in it, was only a hop, skip, and a jump away (all the while on counter tops of course).  In the meantime he started investigating inside the hide-a-bed.  And there the little bugger was.  He took a shot at it, and missed.  Then he lost it. 

A few mins later it came running back into the kitchen.  Luckily I was still very high, out of reach.  I screamed and pointed to the fridge.  Before Dillon could make it to the kitchen it popped out from under the fridge and made it's way under the stove. 

 Dillon made me buck it up at this point and help him pull the stove out.  Which I half agreed to, I helped from on top of the counter next to the stove (yeah, not really much help).  But the little bugger had DISAPPEARED.  There is a tiny little opening behind the stove leading behind the counter where a hose runs, which has to be where he went.  Filthy, disgusting, slimy creatures.  Since he was gone and there was nothing to be done, I had to buck it up and go on with our evening.  The next day we did some deep cleaning, re-set some traps, got new sticky traps and these two little fellas.... 

Doomp

Boggy

Right now they are both so tiny that they are pretty worthless.  They better hurry up and grow and stop pooping on my front porch or they might not live at this house long enough to help with our mouse problem.  But I think Skeeter likes having them around to keep him company.

Just not sure they share his enthusiasm to be friends :)

But, since that awful night almost a week ago, we have caught 2 mice in our newly set traps and have thankfully not seen any more frolicking about the house at their leisure.  Let's hope it stays that way.

Summer

I go back to work tomorrow. TOMORROW. Summer is over. I have no idea where it went. I have no idea where to even begin updating all of our summer travels and fun times. We have definitely managed to keep ourselves nice and busy despite Dillon being tied down with his 40 hours a week, 12 week internship. We filled any and all free time right up by going to Lava, swimming in the river, going to the Play Mill in West Yellowstone, preping for and going to Girls Camp, doing fertility treatments, going to weddings, celebrating 4 years of wedded bliss, camping, shopping and painting and selling for Little Yellow Door Design, visiting SV, fishing (a little bit), going to Priest Lake, visiting grandparents in WA, and much more! This has honestly been the busiest and fastest summer I can remember in a LONG time or maybe even ever. I'm definitely not ready to be back to work already. Oh well.

Well, once I get all the pics on the computer and organized I'll try to do a full post of all our fun.
So for now, here are a few pics of our good times this summer.

Yes, it was basically a 'no makeup' and 'messy hair' kinda summer.
Thus, all the sexy pictures. Sorry :)

Little Yellow Door Design

As I have said before, my sister Lacie and her little family have recently moved to Eastern Idaho. Let me tell you, I have LOVED having them only 20 short mins away!!! Since they have moved here we have gotten together and decided to start our own little business. Both of us have toyed with the idea in the past but never did anything with it. I can't speak for her, but I didn't feel like I was good enough to sell my stuff and not creative enough to make it look amazing. Well, with both of our brains together....I think we have been finding and refurbishing some stinkin' cute stuff! We are just getting started but have a few pieces done and are working on lots more. You can check out our website HERE. We will have our more official site up and running soon with lots more items, so keep checking back. Be sure to tell all your friends and family to come take a peek and help us spread the word. And don't worry, we will have a little bit of everything, both furniture and home decor items.

Bear Lake

Well, it wasn't quite how I'd hoped our weekend would look...but nonetheless, we still had a GREAT time at Bear Lake

Back in February I was at work and was talking with the ladies I work with about planning and taking trips and whatnot. I mentioned something about Dillon and I wanting to plan a fun trip for after he graduates to celebrate FREEDOM (and hopefully a job) :) One of the ladies mentioned that she has a condo, that she owns, at Bear Lake. She told me that Dillon and I were welcome to go and stay whenever we wanted...for free! :) I did some thinking and checked the calendars and told her to pencil us in for Memorial Day Weekend, thinking that by then we would have nice, warm, sunny weather to enjoy playing in the lake. (Ha Ha)

So, for almost 4 months, I kept this little secret to myself and planned and plotted how/when to tell Dillon. I knew I needed to let him know a little bit in advance to make sure he didn't need to work or had other plans or something, but I still wanted it to be as much as a surprise as I could. So I came up with the ticket idea. Oh boy, once I gave them to him it was one question right after another....right up until we were packing the few last minute items before we left. And that's when he guessed it. He knew we were going to Bear Lake but still had no idea where we were staying :)

Despite the windy/rainy/snowy/cold weather we managed to have a GREAT time! It was SO SO nice to have our only concerns be, "what movie should we watch?" or "how many people do you think are in the hot tub?" It was great!The weather finally cleared up for us on Monday and warmed all the way up to a whopping 60 degrees!!! So, we spent the day in the hot tub, in the pool, sitting on the beach and building a sandcastle.Although it wasn't anything fancy or exotic or tropical or even very far away, it really was an awesome (and much needed) step away from reality with just me and my hubby!
Thanks Connie SOOOOO much for letting us stay at your condo! And thanks Dilly for putting up with my surprise and going with me, I LOVE YOU!! :)

A weekend away in......

I gave these to Dillon the end of last week...
...I have had this planned since February.

We leave tomorrow morning...
....And he still has no idea where we are going!

He is driving himself CRAZY trying to figure it out :)

the Bastow's

Last week we had the privilege of having my sister and her family stay with us for most of the week. Although I'm not so sure it was a privilege for my sister and her husband.....

On Saturday the 5th we helped them move into their new house in American Falls. (My brother-in-law got a job working in Aberdeen and had been staying with us for a few days while he started his new job and Lacie and the kids finished packing up their house in Logan for the big move.) After a long day we finally got them all moved in and started the unpacking process. On Sunday I got a text asking when we had church and if they could come over and shower. Their new house (rental, thankfully) did not have a draining shower or a non-leaking, working plumbing for that matter. So, they came over for a shower and some dinner. Monday I got another text wondering if they could come over yet again for a shower and to eat dinner with us since their stove/oven was not working. Of course we said YES and we met in town for some dinner and they came and showered/bathed and stayed the night with us. Tuesday they headed back to American Falls to see what the plumber and electrician had fixed or were working on. Wednesday afternoon I got another text, there was an awful smell (mold? old drug house?) that was making the kids grumpy and sick; could they come stay for a few days until they found new place to live. They were moving out. Of course we said YES again and they stayed the rest of the week! :)

It was a stressful situation for them and not a very pleasant one but we sure LOVED having them here and had so much fun playing together. They were luckily able to find a townhouse they could move into immediately in Chubbuck so we spent the day Friday packing the few things she had unpacked and Sat moving them yet again into their next new house.

We loved having you here Bastow family and would have loved to have you stay forever, but for your sake I'm glad you guys found a place of your own that has working plumbing, good electrical work and smells good :)

A few pictures from our fun times........

We played lots and lots of basketball (with a volleyball, but don't tell Luke that) :)

Sitting and laughing with Uncle Dillon

Watching "sing" (as Luke called it)

Dancing to "sing"

Wearing Uncle Dillon's funny reading glasses

Playing Uncle Dillon's guitar

Basically they just LOVE Uncle Dillon

Sofia not so sure she liked the swings

She really did NOT like it

Brother LOVED it

Petting the horses (it was a process :)

Finally.
He thought he was pretty cool

What a mean mom, feeding her to the horse. Sheesh!

What a nice dad, keeping her at a distance :)

Playing with Skeeter
Luke thought Skeeter was hilarious when he got close

Sofia thought Skeeter was hilarious when she was WAY out of reach!

We also drew on the sidewalk with chalk and did LOTS of dancing to "Pump it" "Dynomite" and "Forget you" (over and over and over again. slightly obsessed!). It really was SO much fun having them here and we are SO excited to have them only 20 mins away! :)