Our First Christmas

This song explains my feelings on Christmas this year!

"Where Are You Christmas" by Faith Hill

It's different. "My world is changing. I'm rearranging!"

This will be my first Christmas in Oregon, my first Christmas married to Nate, one of my very few quite possibly without snow, the first one away from my old home of 23 years,  and the first one I get to set up my own tree for!

It will be okay! It will be Christmas. Just a different one with different memories! One to help me appreciate Christmas in Idaho with snow!

It is "Our First Christmas" together and it is here, in Woodburn, OR, in our little apartment and our ever-changing, grateful hearts!

A Pain in My Back

Yesterday was really a pain in my back! LITERALLY!

I worked yesterday from 6 am to 3:30 pm for Black Friday. It was really crazy busy at the outlet malls but it wasn't horrible. The bad part came after I got off work! We had decided that Nate would just drop me off at the Overflow parking on his way to work and I would ride the shuttle over to the mall so we didn't have to fight the crowds or anything. It was perfect that it dropped me off right at work. My plan was to ride the shuttle back when I was off work and walk home from there. However, I was not aware for some reason that the shuttle stopped that morning and I would not have a ride after work. Nate was working until 6 pm in Lake Oswego and so I decided it was time to start walking!

I know, you are probably all thinking I'm a wimp! I think it's only 2-3 miles from the Outlet mall to our apartment. On a normal day I wouldn't mind. But, the fact that I stand and walk all day at work is definitely not good for my back. Even if I only work the five hour shift at work I always come home with my hips and back in pain. It's not just simple pain but it really hurts!

(If you don't know I was in a car accident which herniated a disc in my back about a year and a half ago. I went to a chiropractor regularly for seven months, sometimes twice a week, until he told me there wasn't much more he could do for me. I am usually okay if I'm not sitting or standing for more than two hours but after that two hour mark it usually starts to be an issue and it doesn't help that I haven't been to a chiropractor for four months!)

When I found out at about 4 pm that the shuttles weren't coming anymore, I called Nate and told him that if he didn't promise to give me a massage when he got home I might start crying right there and now on that overpass. He promised so I let him get back to work and I continued on my walk home. I got a couple blocks closer to our apartment and had a thought; a very disturbing thought! I did NOT have my keys to the apartment and it would still be two hours at least until Nate got home. So, here I am standing there, wanting to collapse from the pain in my back and hips, calling my husband in complete discomfort and I had an idea. I was right across the street from the apartment building that our friends Kristen and Chase Montague live in and so I decided to go ahead and call Kristen, pray she was home, tell her my sob story, beg for her to let me in to her apartment, and crash their Friday night! Guess what!!! IT WORKED! That was the best news I had heard all day! I really didn't want to walk any further and I really didn't want to continue freezing outside!

THANK YOU! THANK YOU KRISTEN AND CHASE! I seriously might have considered having a breakdown, tears and all, right in the middle of town if she had not answered her phone!

Anyways, the point of this story is not to complain forever (even though it kind of helps a little) about my bad streak of luck yesterday! The point is more to say what I am so very grateful for yesterday!

1. Good friends to rescue me from possible humiliation caused by a mental breakdown in the middle of our neighborhood!

2. Nate's promise and follow through to give me a massage when he got home!

3. Deep Relief and the fact that it helped immensly! I think I might have used half the tube!

4. We ordered pizza and I didn't cook dinner last night!

5. I fell asleep around 8:45 pm last night!

I might get the motivation to be somewhat productive today! I have plenty I need to get done before tomorrow! Wish me luck!!!

Thanksgiving in Oregon

It doesn't quite feel like Thanksgiving is tomorrow! I'm not at my parent's house helping my mom prepare pies, make rolls, a cheese ball, fudge, and more! It's different this year! I am home alone tonight. I need to make a pumpkin roll but it's hard to get the motivation tonight when I have to do it alone. I will find it here in a second! I have to!

 Anyways, about a week ago Nate's old mission companion and his family invited us over to their house in Washougal, Washington. We will be going there this year to enjoy our Thanksgiving! It won't be the same but we are grateful to spend it with friends at least! Nate is excited to see Paul and catch up!

Although, we are very dissapointed we can't be with family this Thanksgiving we are extremely grateful for the many people who have checked up on us to see if we had somewhere to go! We have had at least six different families make sure we had a place to go! A few of you read my blog and please know that we truly appreciate you thinking of us! It means so much more than you know!

To all our family and friends:

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!! We love you and are grateful for you above all else!

Uuuurrrrccchhhh...

I don't know that Nate's car would have made that sound but it definitely wasn't making nice sounds...the breaks were grinding or whatever that sound was! Let's just say it wasn't good! It wasn't safe! Nate figured that it would cost about $500.00 to change the brakes...it was so bad he had to change front and back brakes (everything)!

The poor Subaru is tired and it has a hard time! It hasn't given out on us yet but it has a good 240,000 miles on it! I don't know that Nate ever particularly wants to part with it. He really REALLY likes his bumpers!

Some day, I'm sure it's going to happen though! Either way, today we are grateful that the Subaru has new brakes on it for about half of what we expected them to cost!

For some reason I can't get blogger to upload photos tonight so until that works here is a link to a picture of his subaru!

Claire, You Made My Day

Little Miss Claire Lulich made my night!

This adorable little girl is in my primary class and her amazing mom, who is the greatest Primary President ever, had the cutest idea ever! While my husband and I were sitting home tonight we had a knock at the door. I didn't want to answer the door because I had not yet done the dishes and I did not look my best! I made Nate get the door but then I saw who it was and so I reluctantly went to the door!

That is when Claire and Raina just made my night!!! In her hands she carried an adorable little bag of goodies and in her shy little voice she said, "Thank you for being my primary teacher!" 

I didn't quite know how to react and what to say because I'm terrible when the words have to come out of my mouth! If I can write them on paper they flow better but I don't always have that luxury and so I just hugged her, told her (and her mom) Thank you, and that was about it! After I closed the door I realized I should have invited them in even if my counter was full of dishes and I had folded laundry all over my living room. I should have told her Thank you for being in my class and being so reverent all the time! She really is an incredibly reverent little girl and she is always willing to say prayers or answer my questions! I should have asked her (and her mom) how there Thanksgiving plans were going and if she was excited for the holidays this year!

However, I didn't say any of that! I just gave her a hug and said Thank you. I hope she realized in her little mind how much I appreciated her little gift! It made my night! I so appreciate the pure, innocent little hearts I get to teach every Sunday! Even though they like to run around, jump off and on the chairs, and talk about random things beside the lesson they know the basic, most important beliefs that we adults sometimes overlook! And, they say the cutest things some days!

Mosiah 3:19

For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit and puteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the Atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

So, tonight I am grateful for my cute primary kids! I love each one of them A LOT!

P.S. What do you say to a boy who told you he can't sit in his chair during class because his mom told him if he sits, he gets fat?  Haha...I just wanted to laugh! This kid takes things very seriously!