The Holidays

Oh man, Jordan and I had SUCH a wonderful Christmas weekend!

Saturday we both got off work early, came home and packed up our clothes, pillows, and Christmas presents and headed out to Mom and Dad's house for a well-deserved long weekend! Saturday night we all played games and hung out by the fire. We made Christmas cookies and enjoyed company. Grandma Shirley (Del's mom) flew down from Utah the day before so it was nice catching up with and spending some time with her. At the end of the night we pumped up the air mattress and settled in for the night.

Sunday we all slept in and then went to Church. Afterwards, Mike, Kylie, and Preston came over as well as cousins Sean and Becky! We had a big Christmas dinner, played some games, ate Christmas treats, took some family pictures, and called it a night. It was nice to see Sean and Becky, although we don't see them as often as we'd like we like spending time with them and catching up on their lives! Yet again, as the night ended we snuggled up on our air mattress and settled in for the night.

Christmas Eve was a very relaxed day. Everyone mostly did their own thing. Dad and Grandma made candy, Mom blogged, Jordan and I watched holiday movies, but at times we all came together and guess what.....played more games. At about 8:30 p.m. we got a call from Kylie and she and Mike said they were on their way over from Mike's family party and that they were going to stay the night! So, once everyone was in bed the house was FULL! Mom and Dad were in their room, Kathryn in her room, Grandma in the spare room, Jordan and I were on a blow-up mattress in the office, Preston was in his crib in the mini-office, and Kylie and Mike made a pallet in the living room out of the couch cushions! Whew!

Christmas morning was fun because everyone got to wake everyone else up! We had a traditional Christmas morning with wonderful presents and a huge breakfast! Jordan and I were able to video chat with my family while they were opening presents, which was super fun to get an update on everyone "in person" and see what everyone got. After the events of the morning were over we showered and then ended up taking naps. When I woke up from my nap the ground was covered in SNOW! North Texas and the ground was covered in snow! It was amazing! I was sure glad that Dad and Jordan had gotten a fire going so I could sit by it and stay nice and warm! Around 2:30 everyone got bundled up and got in the car to go see Les Miserables! Because of the weather it took us a little longer than expected to get to the theater, but we got a great seat on opening day nonetheless! Our last holiday hoorah as a family was sitting in the theater enjoying a musical, haha! After the movie we said our good-byes and all headed home.

Jordan and I had such a wonderful weekend and it was really hard to snap back into reality! Back to the grind of the dry cleaner, back to the grind of having to cook again, back to the grind of cleaning the house, ugh. Once all is said and done though, we made some really great memories and had SUCH a great time. This Christmas will be a hard one to beat next year!

My Favorites Vol. I

Hi guys! For a few weeks now I've been stewing over what to blog about, mostly because my life is pretty boring and if I just posted about events in my life I would lose my reading population very quickly, so with that being said I have to tell you about my inspiration for this mini-series. Last week I went to a GREAT Christmas party hosted by some fabulous girls I go to church with, it was called a "Favorite Things" party. What we were told to do was go out and purchase five our favorite thing (I brought 5 hazelnut cream candles) and bring them to the party. At the party we put our name on 5 strips of paper and threw it in a fishbowl with everyone else's 5 names and then pick a number 1-30. Once everyone was at the party we started the main event. The person that picked #1 drew 5 names out of the fishbowl and gave those 5 people her favorite thing, #2 did the same and so on. I had never been to a gift exchange party like that before, but I thought it was so neat, because a majority of the favorite things brought were things I have never heard of and yet I found myself cheering when my name was called because I was so excited to try some new things!

After the party I was lying in bed thinking about all my favorite things and I decided I was going to share my favorites with all of my beautiful readers! I'm not quite sure where to start, but I figure no one has more favorites than in their bathroom/makeup bag so...here we go with my favorite beautifying products.

Bathroom Products:

1. Vitamin C Facial Lotion/Cream

This stuff is a miracle worker!! I've never been big on putting lotion on my face, but this stuff changed my outlook on facial moisturizing! Once you get out of the shower, put a pea-size amount of lotion on and continue with your make-up routine. Why is it a miracle worker? Any blemish I have will almost disappear the next morning if I have put this on! Wow. You can get this stuff at Walmart for $8-$14.

2. E.L.F. Essential All Over Color Stick

Okay, now I don't use this the way I'm sure it is intended. I use this stuff as an eye shadow primer. When I was a sophomore in high school going to my very first formal dance I let my sister do my makeup. She told me to close my eyes and next thing I knew she was putting sticky goop on my eyelids! I freaked out and asked her what the heck she was doing to me, she taught me that in order to have powerful and bold color stick and stay on your eyelids for hours and hours you need to have a base on which the shadow can stay, hence the sticky stuff, aka lip gloss. I have since advanced from ultra sticky lip gloss to this stuff that is not nearly as sticky, more functional (in the sense that I don't have to force my eyelids closed), and long lasting. You can get this stuff at Target or KMart for $1. ONE BUCK! That is pretty good!

3. Freeze-It Hairspray

Holy Crap! I will never use any other hairspray ever again. Now, I'm the kind of person that teases her hair and likes her bangs to stay in place once she leaves the bathroom....I don't do beach hair, I don't do loosey goosey hair, I just can't, my hair does not have the capability. My hair is very fine and has a hard time doing anything without a little product. This hairspray does just what it is named, FREEZE IT! It is a fine spray, but not as fine as Kenra or some of those other big names, but it DOES work! I think it smells like Diet Rockstar which is my energy drink of choice, so all in all I love the product. You can get this almost exclusively at Walmart for about $5 a can.

4. Three Row Comb

Okay, this is the bad boy of all combs! There are three rows of teeth on this comb. If you tease your hair or do any type of back-combing, YOU NEED THIS COMB! I'm not sure where you can get one of these because I somehow (cough cough) acquired this during my days of living with roommates! Haha! This comb will save you so much time and allows you to just power through your style session!

5. Mary Kay Eye Make-Up Remover
 

My mom got me hooked on this stuff. Just like I was never one to use a facial lotion, I was never one to use a special product just to get my excess mascara off after a shower, I just used some toilet paper, or my towel. Last winter while my mom came and visited us in Idaho she saw my "terrible habit of being rough on my precious soft eye skin." (Direct quote!) She told me she was going to get me some and I was really hesitant to accept because I'm not know for finishing a bottle of any type of product, but reluctantly I accepted. A couple of weeks later I got my pink bottle in the mail and I literally fell in love with my first use! This stuff isn't greasy, is very mild, gets everything extra off your eyes with one cotton ball, and quite honestly feels like silk. I would highly recommend this to anyone and everyone! You can get this through Mary Kay and is about $13-$15. With this stuff a little really does go a long way, it took me about 6 or 7 months to go through my first bottle, so worth the money!


That wraps up my favorites in the bathroom! Hope you enjoyed and if YOU have a favorite you'd like to recommend to me please please please do!!

My T-Shirt Quilt

I'm going to start off by saying that this is NOT a tutorial, but I will make links to all the tutorials I used to help me piece together this project.

After Jordan and I got married we didn't have all the furniture we'd hoped we have, so we had to go out and purchase those plastic drawer sets from Walmart. It turns out that you can't fit a whole lot in those things so I had to truly downsize my "collection" of shirts from high school. I could not bear to get rid of them or throw them out because of their sentimental value so I just put them in a plastic bag and hid them in the closet. There they sat for a year, then we moved down to Texas and again...there they sat.

After Jordan and I took over the business I was working at our drop location, which provided a lot of down time, so I finally made up my mind that I would FINALLY start working on my quilt with all that down time.

The first step was to cut out squares from my T-shirts. Once my squares were cut out I ironed on a fusible interfacing. 

The next step was to lay out my shirts and decide on how I wanted the top of my quilt to look.

It took me a few attempts to get it just right. Once the layout was what I wanted it to be I sewed each square together horizontally, ironed the seams, then sewed each row together, ironed the seams again and my top was complete. The next step was to sew my border, put on batting, and sew on my backing. The tutorial I used suggests cotton fabric for both the border and the backing, but I used flannel for my border and a minky/ furry fabric for my backing.

Once I had my border sewed on to my top I then used a basting spray (it is like a glue spray that holds the batting in place while you sew and then comes out once you wash your project) to temporarily hold my batting in place while I got my backing situated and sewed on. Hooray! My quilt was almost done! Once my quilt was turned right-side-out I sewed the turn hole shut. Next, I needed to make sure my back and my front wouldn't separate in the wash or while in use so I sewed along the border and also along the seam of each square just to secure the fabric and voila! I'm done!

This was my very first quilt I started and finished and I'm really proud of my work. Yes, there are a couple mistakes and a few things I would do a little different next time, but overall I'm so glad I saved my sentimental shirts and made them into something I can snuggle up in and share with my children in the future!!

This site is a REALLY great source of information. I followed this tutorial almost exclusively. If you have any questions on how to do something or want to do things a little different I would search for other tutorials, there are lots. I liked the one I linked because she did a really good job with all the details and pictures. There are so many variations to this quilt, so if you want to do a T-Shirt Quilt do a little brainstorming and figure out what you want your quilt to look like and search for a tutorial from there!

Whew, I can FINALLY check that project off of my list!

I'm thankful for...

As I have a moment to scroll through Facebook this morning it is quite obvious yesterday was Thanksgiving. There are a lot of things people are thankful for and it makes me happy to see everyone declaring so boldly their thanks.

In honor of the holiday I will publicly share a few things I'm thankful for this year.

I am thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. My faith has taken me to new heights and because of His love and grace I am a much better person than I could have become on my own.

I am thankful for my family. My family is Washington probably doesn't know how much I miss them and love them, I miss them and love them a whole lot! My family in Texas has turned out to be a huge blessing to me. I am very close to almost all of Jordan's immediate family and I am so thankful to know each and every single one of them.

I am thankful for my friends. I have very few close friends, but for that I am also grateful. The people that have stuck with me even though we live 1000 miles apart, the people that make an effort to check up on me, the people I can pick up a conversation and it feels like no time has passed, THOSE are my true and lasting friends and I'm so grateful to have the privilege of calling them MY friends.

I'm grateful for our business. As many of you know this is the hardest thing Jordan and I have ever done. We work all day everyday at the business and when we aren't at work, we are thinking about the business. This is the hardest and most stressful thing I've ever done, and yet I know this is one of the reasons we were supposed to come to Texas. We had no idea what we were going to do when we moved down here and in retrospect everything has worked out just perfect.

And lastly, but certainly leastly, I'm so grateful for my husband, Jordan. We are so very different and yet he is my best friend, my equal, my partner in crime, my fellow adventurer. Of all the things we disagree on or argue about, none of them really matter in the whole scheme of things, and for that I'm thankful for. As I watched him play with the little ones yesterday it reminded me of what a GREAT father he is going to be and I'm SO thankful for the privilege to be his wife and the mother to his children.

Although I may have a few bad days and sometimes forget how thankful I am for all that I am and all that I have, I hope those around me and the Lord know that I know I am blessed.

Sewing Projects

I have taken a liking to sewing, finally. Let me be a little more specific....I like sewing rectangles and squares!

A few weeks ago I caught the "motivation bug" to finally start on my T-shirt quilt that I have been waiting/wanting to do for about a year now. I started the tedious task of cutting my squares, sewing them together, sewing my strips together, and now I'm at a standstill. I have to go get material for my border AND my backing. I'm at a standstill because I have to sit down and figure out how I'm going to measure my backing (because my quilt is HUGE and keeping the material in one piece is not an option) and, quite honestly, I have not had the time or desire to do that. I will though, I will!

Since the progress on my quilt stopped I decided to pick up material for my soon-to-be-here niece and make her a couple baby blankets. Those I finished and they look SO cute if I do say so myself!! I can't say anything more about those until after they are given as gifts. ;)

Now that I'm done with baby blankets I've offered to help my pregnant sister-in-law with some of her sewing projects. First in line of that list is a nursing cover. No, I have never made one and no, it is not a rectangle or a square. I'm a little apprehensive, but I think it will actually turn out great! I've decided that I need to be more patient with myself and take the time to let my projects take shape and not rush through them, so with that being said I'm excited to try my hand at something a little different than what I normally sew. Normally as in the last three projects I've done. After the nursing cover I'll be making baby headbands, also for my soon-to-be-niece.

After all that is done, I'd really like to make myself a tree skirt. I think I'm being a little ambitious at wanting a Christmas tree, but I'd at least like to have a skirt prepared for when we DO have room for a big ol fir tree!

Whew. That is quite the list! Wow. I amaze myself sometimes...not at my enthusiasm, but my straight stupidity at thinking all this is going to happen. Haha, at least I'm going to give it a really really good effort! When I have a little bit of time I'll make sure to post pictures of my many sewing adventures!

Whew!

Oh. My. Gosh.

I have not posted in weeks because we have been SO busy with the dry cleaners! Every day all day I eat, breathe, sleep dry cleaning.

I don't really have any new news because we have just been working our hineys off trying to finding our stride with the business, but I'll go into detail with that a little more.

The first three weeks we took over we were training with the previous owner. This kind of training was not spending an hour with him watching what he did and then off we went, this was intense training. He was there with us, and when I say us I really mean Jordan, 13 hours a day, 6 days a week, for 3 weeks. He taught Jordan the labor side of a dry cleaner for 3 weeks straight. The labor side consists of: what chemicals take out what kinds of stains, what fabrics you can wet clean or dry clean, how to properly press clothing, and how to organize clothing, just to name a few. It tires me out just thinking about it. You wouldn't think it would be that hard....until you stepped into the back and saw all the machinery and presses and everything that goes into cleaning clothes on a mass level and then you would probably want to turn around and walk right back out the way you came! Jordan, though, has tackled every obstacle and has picked up on everything so well. He really is so smart and can do anything that helps him on his way to success!

After the initial 3 weeks of training, this week was our first week without the previous owner there to guide us. Man, I gotta tell you, it has been a looong week. It has been a very emotional and stressful week. This week has been emotional in the sense that we worry everyday all day about the business. We are constantly thinking up ideas that could potentially make the business better, worrying about how we are doing from the customer's perspective, ugh, and all kinds of other things. It has been very emotional for me, personally, because I now know it is a fact that I cannot work side-by-side with Jordan. He is a chief and I am chief and that is too many chiefs in one place. I wanted so bad to work with him, but it ain't gonna happen. We've decided that I'm going to manage the drop-off location we have in the next town over, and I am thrilled about that. I'll be able to work with Jordan, but not work with him, if you know what I mean. This week has also been very stressful because we have to stick to a schedule and we have to make sure that the clothing is taken care of so everything is ready for the customer when they come to get their clothes. Whew!

I know that things will get better with time and that eventually things won't be quite so stressful, but for now I'm so thankful for these precious moments I have to just relax for a few minutes. Time really is a special gift.

Job Update!

Good Mornin' Ya'll!

So I just thought I would give everyone an update as to the status of the dry cleaning operation I posted about a few weeks ago.

Drum roll please! After all the waiting and anticipation, we have FINALLY taken over and are now working at the dry cleaners!

This past week Jordan and I started training with the previous owner, Song. He is a Korean guy that has been in the business for ten years, so he know his stuff! He has been training Jordan and me quite intensely for the past week making sure we understand all the steps and all the details that go into making a dry cleaner successful.

The process at a dry cleaner is pretty easy to remember, it is all the little details that get me caught up. The basic process is as follows: go through the clothes and create an invoice for the order, tag the clothes with the customers info and invoice number, sort the clothes into their respective bins for cleaning, clean/wash the clothes, dry/press the clothes, inspect for perfection, sort clothing and match to their invoice number, place on conveyer belt, wait for customer to pick up their clothing.

Within each step of the process there are TONS of details you have to remember, for example, what the difference between a sweater, a sweater top, a sweater jacket, and a heavy sweater are because they are all different and have different prices in the system. The the most important step that Jordan is learning is what cleaning product takes out what stain and making sure the correct clothing (rayon, wool, cotton, polyester) goes into the proper machine for cleaning. Like I said, lots to learn.

I don't know if many of you know this (I didn't) but in the dry cleaning business there are two different kinds of dry cleaning places. First, there is just a normal drop-off location. This where customers bring in there clothing to have cleaned. Second, there is a store called a "plant." This is where the actual cleaning gets done. We have one of each, a drop-off location and a plant. This past week I've been training at the plant, but this week I'm going over to the drop-off location to train/take over. After last week I think it might be best if Jordan and I work in separate places...for our marriage's sake! ;)

There are many really great existing characteristics about the business as-is, but Jordan and I are excited to change some things we think might make the business even better! There will be some ideas, I'm sure, that will flop, but I know there will be some really really great ideas that will inspire growth.

Overall, the experience has been exhausting yet so rewarding. We are so so grateful to finally be working and I'm so elated that Jordan can finally be doing what he has wanted to do his whole life, be his own boss, but only while he is as work. ;) I'm so thankful for those surrounding us that have supported us and cheered us on from the beginning. Over the past few months I have, again, realized that the Lord has His hand in my life. His timing is perfect, His will is perfect. I'm so thankful for the struggles Jordan and I have gone through the last little while, for without those, this time in our life could not have been so sweet.

Happy Birthday To ME!

I always get excited for fall 1) because it is fall and 2) because it means my birthday season!! Yes people...season....my birthday lasts all of October because it is my favorite month AND my birth month!

Anyways...to the good stuff. My birthday was on a Friday this year (which is seriously the BEST day to have a birthday) and so the entire week before my birthday there was a dilemma, "what are we doing for Lexi's birthday?!" There were all types of plans and heres and theres and everywheres and so honestly I had no idea what in the heck was going on until about 11:00 a.m. Friday morning.

Jordan and I slept in late and watched a little TV and mostly just relaxed. Then we got ready and met Ma for lunch at a little modern Mexican place.

Oh man! It was so stinkin good!

 

Mom and Me

 (I got that shirt for my birthday from Jordan!)

Right after lunch Mom took me shopping at this CUTE little clothing shop. Now, I'm from the Northwest and I had never heard of this shop, Charming Charlie's, and the first time I went to one I fell absolutely in love! They color coordinate their stores with jewelry, shoes, purses, tops, scarves, and TONS of other accessories in each color category. Oh man, it is heaven! Jordan left us women to our business while he wandered around the shopping area. It was so fun doing a little shopping/spending one-on-one time with mom for my birthday and she, so generously, got me a couple tops and a couple necklaces for my birthday! (Thank you thank you!!)

Once we were done shopping Mom dropped Jordan and me back off at our car and we went to see the movie Pitch Perfect which turned out to be fricken' hilarious! I would  pay money to go see it again...yes, yes I would. 

After the movie Jordan and I went back home and cleaned up the house a little and kept on relaxing until it was dinner time. At about 6:30 we headed over to The Cheesecake Factory for some delicious dinner with his parents and sister and bro-in-law.

 From left to right: 

Marlys, Del, Jordan, Me, Kylie, Mike

 What a huge pile of crunchy noodle thingies!

Kylie and me with our delicious meals!

Once we were all stuffed to the brim with food we loaded up into our cars and went back to our apartment. While there Dad surprised me with a birthday gift:

This is a really terrible picture and it does not do the table justice, but he gave me this! Now a little background on this table. Last year when Jordan and I were living in Idaho we had NO furniture...we did not own a single piece of furniture, we were borrowing everything. So one day we are pulling into our parking lot and we notice a little coffee table and a papasaun chair sitting next to the dumpster. They looked like they were is fairly decent condition so we grabbed them and brought them home. Upon further inspection the table legs were glued together lengthwise (you could see the glue barely holding each side together), the screws and such that connect the legs to the top were busted and needed to be replaced, the whole thing needed to be sanded and stained/painted; it was a mess. The papasaun chair was the same, the cushion was nasty and needed a cover, the frame the cushion sat is was busted as was the base. For some reason we kept both pieces of furniture and thought they would be good "projects". Yeah....projects that required equipment/money we didn't have. Since we didn't have exactly what we needed what did we do? We committed the ultimate no-no, we bought a few cans of black spray paint and went at 'em. We did the whole chair frame and half of the table and then gave up. When we moved down to Texas, for some stupid reason, we brought both the table and the chair...ended up throwing the chair away and gave the table to dad. I told dad when I gave it to him that he could do anything he wanted with it...throw it out, use the pieces for something else, light it on fire, whatever. After that what did Dad do to it? He sands it down, repairs the problems, stains it, and gives it back as a stunning piece of furniture. Dad is a miracle maker, thank you Dad!!!

After he surprised me we all sat down and played games and topped off the night with a big fat slice of pecan pie and an heaping scoop of vanilla ice cream. 

Once everyone left for the night Jordan gave me a few gifts I had been needing, clothes and such. I also enjoyed opening the gifts from my mom and sister, kitchen supplies I desperately needed. 

I also enjoyed the birthday present I bought myself. New makeup! Can't get better than that!

It was such a wonderful, low maintenance, relaxed evening. I couldn't have asked for anything more.

A Muddy Adventure

This past Saturday was our nephew's birthday and we celebrated by going out to his house to eat lunch and watch him rip open presents. Now I'd first like to note that they live about 20 minutes out into the "boonies" well it is considered "boonies" for the area that we live in, but not by my standards. We live in Frisco, which I have mentioned in previous posts is a hugely populated and developed area, but the father north you head the less developed it becomes, it is not uncommon for a gravel road to just pop up.

Anyways....back to the story. Jordan and I went for the small birthday gathering. We were supposed to meet at a local petting zoo, but that plan changed due to unstoppable, so we just did lunch and presents. We ended up staying out there for the rest of the afternoon so Kylie, Marlys, and I could go to a Church meeting later in the evening. The meeting got over around 8:30 p.m. and we got back to Ky's house at 9:30 or so. Jordan and I stayed and chatted for a few minutes longer and left about 9:45 p.m. and it was still raining. We got on the road and planned on taking our normal route home, which included a short drive on the highway and then the rest of the way home on a part-paved-part-gravel road.

The highway was fine, and the first few miles of the paved part of the last stretch home was fine and then we got to the "gravel" road. Red flags and bells should have been going off in my head when there was a small lake at the end of the pavement. There should have been bells going off...but there weren't. We plowed right through puddle with no problems and then we got to the mud. Twenty-five feet in I'm thinking, "Okay, Jordan is a good driver when it comes to weird circumstances like this, but it looks like we are going to need to go to the car wash on Monday." Right as this thought came into my mind I realized we were slowing down. Fifty feet in I'm thinking, "Man, this mud is kinda thick, we sure are slipping around." Mud had accumulated on our tires so much we had zero traction and we weren't going anywhere fast. One hundred feet in I'm thinking, "Why is Jordan steering the car into the ditch? This was a bad idea." On the right-hand side of the road there was a small shallow ditch and on the other side of that a hay field. Jordan's idea was to get up on the field and go as far as we could before getting down on the mud road again....well that idea was almost a disaster. It turned out that the ditch was more of a rut the perfect size of our tire. So we are sitting in the car and I'm convinced that our left front and rear tires were off the ground while the right front and rear tires were snuggly in the rut. There was a definite angle shift to my view out the windshield. At this point in time, if I would have rolled down the window I would have been able to touch the ground...

At this point I'm just laughing. I can't help it...Jordan and I get into these weird situations all the time and I just have to laugh. Of course, Jordan is sitting next to me trying to figure out how in the heck we are going to get out of this mess, so he throws it in reverse and then in drive, and then reverse, drive, reverse, drive, and then finally he magically get us up onto the field. I say magically because I literally don't know how he did it. So we are up on this hay field driving parallel to the muddy road and we go probably a quarter mile and then Jordan's shouts "we're goin down!" and before I know it we are down the small hill, over the ditch, and back into the mud. We went maybe twenty-five more feet and then a terrible metal on metal sound. Bad, bad idea. We just sat there and looked at each other and then I said "welllll, should we call someone?"

We made a couple quick phone calls to his cousin, Sean, who had just bought a new truck. No more than five minutes after we made the call a kid with a huge truck pulled up and asked if we needed some help. We told him that we had someone coming and he asked what kind of truck he had, we told him a Toyota Tacoma, and he suggested that we let him help because a Tacoma might not have been able to do the job (sorry Sean!). Of course we said yes and after a couple minutes we were all hooked up and off to the races we went. The mud was so thick that the guy towing us was almost having trouble pulling us, but after gathering a little speed we seemed to be okay. As we gained speed all sorts of mud was goin' everywhere! After a quarter mile this was our view from the inside of the car...pure mud.

 

Since Jordan couldn't see out the windshield the next logical option was the head out the window choice...

 Resulting in....

Finally we got to the end of the "gravel" road. We were towed maybe a mile and a half and we had to deal with this:

 

That is three inches of mud...

Sean and his wife, Becky, met us at the end of the muddy road and escorted us back to their house for a little spray down.

 

 

After ten minutes of scrubbing...

Only partial view out of our windshield and headlights. Our poor car!

When we pulled out of our parking spot in the morning there was a pretty good amount of mud on the ground. We had no other option but to drive to church with our car all muddy. We got so many looks and laughs, it was funny. I don't think many people had ever seen a car so stinking muddy!

After all is said and done our car is fine and our marriage is still intact. Being married to Jordan is a huge adventure. I used to fight it and get upset at the crazy things he gets me into, but I've learned to just enjoy the fun of it. Sure one day we may get pulled over for popping a curb and driving where there is no road, sure we may break our car and have to pay thousands of dollars, sure we may get caught sneaking in an 'employees only' door...but that day is not today. I've learned to enjoy the crazy, embrace it even. I love my crazy, unconventional, adventurous husband.

Be Prepared

Happy Sunday Y'all!

Today in church we had a lesson on food storage. Just a little background for those of you that are not familiar with the term "food storage."

Some of you may know that the Boy Scouts of America's motto is "Be Prepared." Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints like to take unto themselves that same charge to be prepared. Be prepared for an emergency,  a natural disaster, a break in, even a house full of people on Sunday afternoon! The most crucial elements of survival in any situation are food, water, and shelter. Now many of you will probably still have a house even if the power goes out, so that is basically a gim'me of the three elements of survival. The other two elements, water and food, can be a little more tricky, especially if the survival situation turns long-term. That is the reason for food storage, to gather food and water for that just-in-case situation. There is so much information on food storage I'm not going to even begin, but I will provide a website I found at the end for those interested in reading further information.

Anyways...after church I was thinking about the lesson and  the different components of being prepared. One very small, but important component to me is having any and all information I need to take care of business. As soon and I had that thought I remembered I found a really neat tutorial on how to create an Emergency Document Folder. As soon as I finished lunch I began working on creating my folder. The above link has templates you can use for creating/compiling important information from an evacuation plan to individual profiles for each family member, from important phone numbers to financial info. This step-by-step guide allows you to create a folder where ALL of your most valuable information can be accessed quickly and efficiently by you and your loved ones.

Please take a look at this and if you haven't already, work on compiling information that would be beneficial in an emergency situation.

This website is a fabulous website for ideas on how to be self-reliant, how to create/maintain food storage, how to create an emergency kit, and much much more!

In an ever changing world take charge and know that the security and stability of your family is in your own hands.

Happy Birthday Jordan!

We celebrated Jordan's birthday from Friday until Tuesday this past week, and boy howdy was it fun!!

Friday afternoon we went out to his parent's house, which is in Aubrey, Texas. They just bought a beautiful new home out there that is sitting on a few acres of land. We absolutely LOVE going out there because of the warm family atmosphere as well as the escape from the busy hub bub of the city.

We mostly just hung around waiting for dinner because we were having a REAL barbeque feast. Dad (Del, Jordan's dad) made a friend that has a heavy duty smoker and had been out with him the previous day smoking meat and we were about to enjoy the bounty of a hard day's work of smoking.

Jordan got the "You are special" plate for dinner, as per birthday tradition and he also got his ABSOLUTE favorite meal....ribs! He said they were the best ribs he has ever eaten...which is saying something because he eats ribs often. We all finished dinner and then played games for the rest of the night...well actually only one...it is called Cover Your Assets and it has become our favorite game as of late.

The only one not pictured here is Ma (Marlys, Jordan's mom), but she was behind the camera. We played boys vs. girls and it was a pretty fun night!!

Jordan and I stayed the night at Mom and Dad's house and then woke up the next morning to a TV with more than eight channels, we're poor so we only get basic cable. We watched a little bit of TV and ate breakfast and then decided it was time to go out shooting.

 Here is Jordan trying to be a sharp shooter.

That right there is the next Annie Oakley!

After all the trash talking, competition shots, and exploded targets this is what we have folks! A 1 inch thick piece of wood. The hole on the left is Jordan's shot and the hole on the right is MY shot! We were probably 40-50 ft away from the target. I guess being a good shot runs in our family.

After target practice I headed over to Kylie's (Jordan's sister) house. We made some super cute flower clips for her baby girl, due in December, and had a ton of fun together, like usual! Once we were finished crafting we headed back over to Mom and Dad's house and all of us (Mom, Dad, Mike (Kylie's husband), Kylie, Jordan and myself) got ready to head out for Happy Birthday Dinner. 

 Isn't he a darn good lookin' man?!

We went to a little Italian place that Mom and Dad found in a nearby town. We ate dinner, which was pretty good, and opened presents. He is a business man now so I got him some well needed and well deserved dress shirts and some new business shoes. 

After dinner we had homemade molten lava chocolate cake and ice cream, played some more games, and hung out as a family. It was so nice to laugh and joke around and just enjoy the night. 

Sunday and Monday were fairly uneventful birthday celebration wise. Tuesday, his REAL birthday, I took Jordan out to his favorite restaurant for lunch, Chili's. Again he had ribs and another molten lava chocolate cake with ice cream. We did a little window shopping after that and then came home and had a relaxing yet romantic evening. 

 

Jordan turned 25 on September 25th. I'm told this is his "prime" year. I have had so much fun with Jordan the past couple of years and I'm excited for the next who knows how many. We have been together for a couple of years and it has just flown by, before I know it we will be old and wrinkly with our great grandchildren running around. I'm so glad to have such a wonderful husband...even if he is getting to be an old man! ;)

Conspiring Against our Children

I think there is a moment in everyone's life that they hear someone's name and they either think to themselves or say out loud "man, their parents must have hated them" or some variation of that. Most often this is because the boy has a girl name or the girl has a boy name or, in the case of many celebrities, the names are just plain weird. It is as if parent's conspire against their children when they aren't even born yet! As they sit and talk they come up with some diabolical plan to make their kid the most made fun of or unique or special or whatever kid in the whole nation!

For example:
- Jan Jorgensen. He is a super manly man. Used to be a UFC fighter, now plays professional football, graduated from BYU.....WHY DID HIS PARENTS NAME HIM JAN?!
- Apple. I think we've ALL rolled our eyes at this one. Gweneth Paltrow and Chris Martin...what were you thinking?!
- Coco. Child of Courteney Cox and David Arquette. I love Monica just as much as the next person...but c'mon!
- Oh but my very favorite is....SAGE MOONBLOOD. Who in their right mind would name a child that?! Sage Moonblood. That would be Sylvester Stallone.

What about those weird spellings of names? Oh man, everyone wants to be creative.

For example:
- Mysheelle (Michelle)
- Bryone (Bryan)
- Lien (Lynn)
- Haddon (Hayden)
- Linzy (Lindsey)

You get the point, but parents are on this kick to make sure their kids have what many would think the weirdest spelling possible.

Anyways....the reason I go through all of that is to tell you.....Jordan and I are the above mentioned future parents. It all started a few weeks ago. It was late and we were making the 30 minute drive from his parents house to our house, and it was laaate. I don't know how we got onto the subject of weird names, but somehow we were coming up with genius "genius" names for our kids. I posted a status on Facebook and got a few funny comments and then forgot about it.

Skip forward to yesterday. Jordan and I were sitting in Chili's having Happy Birthday lunch and the subject came up again and I realized that we were creating a diabolical plan for our children!! Some of the names we came up with were:

- Cameron Elliot Lott ---------- Cam E. Lott
- Ender Albus Lott ------------- Ender from Ender's Game, Albus from Harry Potter
- Olivia Willow Lott ------------ her initials would be O.W.L.

Those are the only one's I'll share because I don't want anyone stealing my name ideas! But, some other names we came up with and decided we really liked were:

- Hermonie
- Saphira
- Katniss
- Rue
- Arwen
- Peeta
- Sam-Wise
- Ender
- Albus
- Aragorn
- Sherlock
- Clark or Kent

There were a few others, but I think I got the majority. As I was laughing yesterday I realized that I probably resembled Mr. Burns from the Simpsons......
 

Our Home

Well well...we have lived in our apartment for a little over two months and I have yet to post any pictures, but not to fear, pictures are HERE!!

I looked at probably 12 or 15 different apartments and when I saw this one I fell in love! It is open and it is an almost comfortable size for a one-bedroom apartment. Okay...ready for the tour? Here we gooo!

 Apartment 1822 is where is it at! Also, I love wreaths! My goal is to have one for every month of the year as well as every holiday...sounds like a good goal to me! (p.s. I made that wreath!)

This is the stairway leading up to our apartment. The complex we live in is only has two-story buildings and our floor plan is only available upstairs. The bad thing about our second floor apartment...it gets hot! The good thing about our second floor apartment is that we live over garages so we can really be as loud as we want without having grumpy neighbors!! :)

Once you get to the top of the stairs it opens into our lovely living room.

This is the other side of the living room. Behind the half-wall is the stairwell, so technically you would enter the room to the right of this picture.

 This is also what you see straight ahead of you when you reach the top of the stairs...the Jordan and Lexi shrine!

This is our dining room, located behind the small couch. 

 You are correct..this is our small patio, just outside the dining room!

There is a little storage area outside as well! It has been super nice to have a little extra storage space for our camping junk and other miscellaneous stuff. It is warm and dry here in Texas so we don't really have to worry about moisture damage to our stuff...we mostly just have to worry about bugs and geckos.

This is the view from our patio. Luxurious huh? Like a Hawaiian beach sunset....or not.

Okay, going back inside....

This is our kitchen. This would be on the left hand side of the top of the stairs. On the right hand side of this picture you can see a little sliver of our pantry door...yeah...we have a pantry.

Aren't you all jealous of how big our kitchen is?! ;) It really isn't that big, but it suits our needs for now. That door in the picture leads down into the dungeon.....okay, it is just the laundry room, but we don't have any washers or dryers in there, just stuff that won't fit anywhere else so I opted out of showing ya'll a "we have lots of junk that we don't know what to do with" shot.

Okay, now from the kitchen picture turn around and there is this, a small hallway. The door on the left is the bathroom (with a garden tub). The first door on the right is a coat closet, the second door on the right is the linen closet, and the door straight back is our bedroom. 

This is the bathroom. Yes, there is a fake flower arrangement in the corner and yes, I did it myself. 

Enough of the bathroom...off to the bedroom. 

This is the view from the door. So when we moved we invested in a new mattress....a KING mattress. It is so nice! Man, I don't think we could ever go back to a queen.

That is Jordan's side of the room. 

That is MY side of the room. Riiiight next to the closet. :) Our closet is a small walk-in closet. Even though it is considered small it is the biggest one I have ever had! I won't show you a picture because it is kind of messy, so you can just take my word for it. 

I just have to take a moment to appreciate my handi-work. I made ALL of these pillows. 

 

This ruffly one I'm especially proud of. It took me like, oh 6 hours, and it turned out EXACTLY how I wanted it to. I'm so so so happy!

Well folks, that's all she wrote! Our apartment is small, but I really like what we have going on here. We are extremely blessed to have found such a great apartment. I'm extremely pleased with what we found and especially the area. We live in Frisco, Texas and in the last 10-15 years this area has just boomed and has expanded and grown so much (from what I'm told). Everything is relatively close, Target and Walmart are 5 minutes away, we live 20 minutes from the DFW airport, 30 minutes from Dallas, and 30 minutes from family. We love where we are and feel like the Lord has truly had a hand in our lives, for what we have is good!