A wonderful wonderful weekend.....

So this weekend my husband and I went to my grandma's house (my dad's mom) just to have some fun and hand out with them. Casey had only been there once to take engagement pictures and we didn't explore very much that time. This time we got there on Thursday and we went four wheeling and saw a bunch of deer, Casey was very proud of himself when he could spot them before I did.

On Friday my grandma had signed up for a quilting class and asked if I would like to come, so I did. It was funny because I was the youngest one there by quite a bit. We all but finished my grandmas project at the class, then we went back home and started one for me, I think it turned out really well. The teal and purple one is the one my grandma and I did at the class, and the blue and yellow one is the one I made when we got back. I am now making a Christmas one for a present, a fall one, and a red black and white one. I want to have several to put on my table for the different seasons and stuff.

Then we went to a St. Patricks day breakfast, it was really good there was a live band called "The oldtime fiddlers" Casey had never seen a guy play a bucket before as a bass, and there was a guy that way playing one there. We also took a few pictures that I wouldn't normally take, but my husband really wanted to. He is such a dork

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A tribute to marriage, and my husband....

    With trials and tribulations, come sucess and happiness. I haven't always thought that this was a true statement, I didn't think that with trials and everything that it always ended in happiness, but recently I have come to believe that it is a true statement and I am greatful for that.
     I don't know if this is a girl thing, or a romantic's way of thinking, or just what I was thinking but I thought that when I got married it would be a little hard but that for the most part it would be smooth sailing and that everything would be almost like a fairytale (not the birds singing and when people kiss a little heart floats above their head telling you they are in love) but in the aspect that since I had known Casey for 5 years and couldn't imagine my life without him, that it would be the perfect life once we were married. Little did I know that I was daydreaming about a fictional world, one of love and marriage where you never fight with each other, and where your spouse always knows what you are thinking (because they are a mind reader) and where you like each other all the time. (boy was I totally oblivious to what was real life) Let me tell you, real life hit when I got married and realized my daydream was just that, a day dream.
    I loved my husband dearly the day we got married, it was the perfect day, little did I know that my love would grow for him greatly and I would find out that I would do anything for him in the next coming months. I am sure women out there will be able to understand what I am talking about when I say men are men and I don't think I was the least bit prepared to live with one when I got married. My husband and I found out REAL fast that we come from way different backgrounds, that we had different thoughts and opinions about what marriage should be like and what the roles of a spouse should be. We have fought (we have never yelled at the other person though) I have cried, we have had to leave and cool off and then come back later, and we both have thought what have we gotten ourselves into, but we have come to realize we wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. Our marriage is by no means perfect and we are always going to be working on it but I think that we know that we picked the right person to marry and spend the rest of our lives with.
   I have to brag about my husband for just a minute, Casey is the King of smoothing things over. He knows exactly what to do if he makes me mad, or frustrates me, or make me sad. I have heard people complain about their husbands, and I have complained about mine too, but he knows what I like and dislike, he knows what I'm thinking sometimes without even having me have to tell him, and he loves me. Casey has studied me for the past little while I am sure because I have noticed that he does the things I like more and more because it is for his benifit that when he makes me mad he does theses things and I don't stay mad long, he has even found things that I didn't know I like.
Things Casey has found out:
1. I like my hair being played with, it is relaxing to me and puts me to sleep.
2. He can give me a hug and I melt in his arms
3. When I have had a long day he just agrees with whatever I say and lets me vent
4. I don't like to drive so he drives everywhere
5. I like the left side of the bed
6. I am a night owl unless I have to be up at quarter to 2am and then I need my sleep
7. If I get up at quater to 2am I am a grouchy person and he tells me to go take a nap and he will do laundry and I am much happier when I wake up.
8. I don't like chocolate but I love cheesecake
9. I have a short temper, I don't always get mad I usually get frustrated
10. If I am embaressed or he is doing something that I think shouldn't be done I give him and look and he knows exaclty what I am meaning and then he gives me this little pouty face and it makes me giggle inside. :)
 I am sure there are more but those are the ones coming to my head right now, I love my husband and wouldn't trade the past 5 months with him for anything. We both are still learning about each other and I don't know if that will ever stop, but I am glad he chose me to be his wife.

Looking back...

I don't know if anyone else has realized (probably not because it doesn't affect any of you) but if I would have gotten to stay out on my mission, I would have came home this past week. One of the Sisters I was in the MTC with emailed me telling me that she was home from her mission. It makes me think of what I have done since I have been back. So here is my list:
1. Had knee surgery and was on crutches for 6 weeks
2. Went back to my job at West Valley for the 4th time (they must really love me)
3. Got to be here when my grandma died
4.Got engaged
5. Went to my first family reunion (which was for Casey's family)
6. Got married
7. Moved to Arizona
8. Moved back to Idaho
9. Got my job back at West Valley for the 5th time.

10. Enjoying my life

Even though I really do wish that I had gotten to stay out on my mission, and even though it was a devastating thing to be sent home and told they don't want you to come back. I wouldn't change it, I probably wouldn't be married to my husband right now if I would have stayed out, and I love my husband so obviously God knows what he is doing even when we don't. I am glad for the challenges and the trials I have been faced with in the past 1 1/2 years I think they have made me a stronger person for going through them.

For Everything there is a time and a Season....

Well it's been awhile since I last blogged about anything. We are still living at my parents house, there are now 8 of us that live there so it is a little cramped quaters but it seems to be working out okay. Wendi moved in until she moves to Spokane, she has been there for the past 15 days or so interviewing for jobs, she got a call back on one and had to do a skills interview she will find out if she gets the job on Mon the 8th. If she does, then she will be moving down there the next weekend instead of May like she thought.


    Bo is doing well, he finished basketball which is his favorite sport to play, and had about a week off or so and is now doing track. He is a runner, and I think he also does the long jump or something like that. He gets to swim every Friday for track practice because his coach lives across the street from the track and he has an indoor pool.


    Shandi is pretty much the same, just working and looking after Tage. Tage however is growing, and boy is he a character! He is such a smart kid, sometimes he is to smart for his own good. He is eating more things, we went to Costco the other day and he tried all the samples they had there and he asked for more of a lot of them so that is a good thing. When we all get ready to go somewhere Tage asks " we going to walmart? we going to Caries (Carie is one of his daycare people), we going to Costco?" Tage loves to go places, when we are going and leaving him behind he will run to the door and say " I ready, I ready" and when we leave him he cries. It is kinda cute!


   As for my parents, there isn't to much going on with them. My dad turn 50 on the 3rd of March so now he is "an old man." Both my parents are pretty much just working and running Bo around to scouts, and mutual, and school. Bo did get his drivers license, but he still can't drive by himself.


   Casey and I are just chugging along, I have been working full time at the hospital  because one of the girls had surgery so I am covering her shift. Then there is another girl that is having sugery after the one I'm covering for so I am covering her shift so I will be full time for atleast til the end of May. Right now I am working a 4am to 230pm shift and in the middle of April I will switch to a 8pm to 6am shift. Casey is still working for the Temp agency, he has been working quite a few days at Coke, running their machines on the graveyard shift because one of their guys hurt his back so he might have atleast part time work until when he leaves in August. Casey and I are planning a trip to my Grandma Mahurin's house this next Thursday 3/11/10, we are going to help her with stuff around the house and I am going to a quilting thing with her, it should be fun to get away for a few days.


    I have a few exciting things going on with me though, I have been selling burp rags at a store, I sell 4 burp cloths for 12.00 I have made about 180.00 so far and I am sewing more because she is all out of my boy ones. Casey is trying to get me to go online and sell them, with some of my apliqued onesies and stuff like that, that I make. The other really exciting thing that happened is we got our tax return back, and it paid off all of our bills, we only owe a little money to my grandpa and we will be debt free! YAY!! Well that is all I have for now, sorry it is so long and there are no pictures. There will be pictures next time I promise. Love to all!

Valentines Day

I ended up working Valentine's Day and it was Sunday, so we went out the night before. Casey and I had saved our money so that we could go out to dinner and spend the night in a hotel. We started the day out, with going to my little brother's basketball game. Then we made our way over to Boise, we went to the mall, looked around, had lunch and then went and checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Double Tree Riverside which was across the parking lot from the place we were going to have dinner at. We then went shopping at a used book store, and then went to Deseret Book and we each picked out a book (our valentines gift to ourselves.) We then went to dinner at Joe's Crab Shack, Casey had never been there and it was a fun place to go. The waitress took our picture which is the one at the bottom of this post. We had a really good time, Casey wore a bib, I chose not to but I should have Casey was flinging stuff at me and dropping stuff in my butter, it was hilarious. Then we drove and picked up some Cheesecake at the Cheesecake factory and took it back to our hotel. We then ate our cheesecake, and decided to go to the hot tub. (Casey had worked at the coca cola plant the day before and was sore) We got back up to our hotel and there was 4 inches of gross water that had backed up in our bathtub. (it was grey and brown, Casey tried to stop it from coming up by plugging the drain but it ended up pouring out of the over flow. So we called the front desk and asked to be moved so we could shower and that we wanted a discount on our room and they told us that since I have bought it third party off the internet they couldn't but that they could give us free breakfast. So we got upgraded and finally got to take a shower. We had breakfast in the morning, it was like a continental type breakfast that they charged 10 bucks for, and it was awful. The manager of the hotel happened to be there and Casey told him about all of our problems, and stuff and the guy just said, "we'll make it up to you the next time you come" It was the worst hotel I have ever stayed at, like we will ever go back there again. Besides the problems with the hotel, we had a really good time. It was nice to not be in a hurry and just do whatever we wanted. Hope all of your Valentine Days were good.

Making it through...

Just to catch you up on what has been going on lately, Casey still doesn't have a job he has turned in applications galore but not a single person has called him for an interview. We did however get lucky, my grandpa Brogan is getting some freight in, and we are going to help go through it and inventory it and price it. We have also been moving some stuff around and making room for the new shipment that is coming Monday. Then he has some furniture that Casey is going to put together for him and I think were gonna paint some too. So that will atleast get Casey out of the house and doing something physical, (I'm sure he gets bored being in the house all the time.)


Well I am still working at the hospital, I work one or two days a week most weeks, in March I'll be covering a shift for a gal while she has surgery so I will get 75 hours a pay period for three pay periods which will be great and then I am also covering some vacations in July, and Feb. I don't know if you all remember but I sell burp rags at a local store, (I did a posting on them a while back) Well I have sold quite a few lately, so I am making more. I am so glad I went the day after Thanksgiving to Joann's and I picked up a bunch of flannel it has saved me so much money!


So now that we know Casey is deploying in September we are talking about what I should do, should I stay here, and rent a house in Nampa and work PRN (as needed) at the hospital. (we get a housing allowance while he is gone, plus his pay. And I plan on working cause I would be bored stiff if I didn't work since I don't have kids or anything) Or we were talking about me going back to school while he is gone, I don't know what I would go for though. Or should we move before he gets deployed somewhere else in Idaho, or should we stay have him get deployed, and then I would move somewhere. I am taking suggestions if you think one of these ideas is good let me know, or if you have an idea of your own I'm open to suggestions.


Other than that we are doing pretty good, just taking things as they come. I am gonna do something kind of different with this post, I have a recipe that I would like to share it is my favorite soup and I thought I would share it so here ya go. Love to you all!

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

½ cup chopped celery


½ cup shredded carrots


1 can of cream of chicken soup


1 can of cream of celery


16 cubes of chicken bullion


1 small carton of heavy whipping cream


3 chicken breasts


3 cups of wild rice


Garlic pepper


3 Tbs of flour


Put chopped celery and shredded carrots in sauce pan with a little butter and sautee until soft.


Cook chicken either in pan, or in crock pot and cut into little pieces.


I cook my rice in a rice cooker but whatever way you want cook your rice.


In big pot put 8 cups of water, and the 16 cubes of chicken bullion, bring to boil. Add the cream of celery, cream of chicken, heavy whipping cream let boil for a few minutes. Then add the sautéed celery and carrots and then add the cooked chicken and rice in, stir and add garlic pepper to taste. (you can really put any seasoning you want I just really like garlic pepper) then put some water in a bowl add the flour and mix together, then pour into soup this will thicken it.


When this is all done it makes a big pot of soup, I feed 5 of us and most have two bowls the night I make it and it still feeds us the next couple of days for lunch and stuff. It is a good leftover, I just put it in a bowl and warm it up.

Just an Update...

I can't remember if I have said in previous postings that Casey is going to be deployed in September. Well when he went to drill this past weekend they gave him tentative dates for his training and deployment, he will go for training on August 16th, and he will leave for a year long deployment on September 11th. If the dates change, I will let everyone know but for right now that is what we know. Love to all!