Firsts, Seconds and Lasts

Well what a week or so we have had. It all started with Fred's birthday on the 23rd. What a day it was!! I had it all planned, on the night before Fred's birthday I was going to go into the bathroom write "Happy Birthday" on the mirror and replace his towel with an "Iron Man" towel I bought him. Then Tuesday afternoon I was going surprise him at work with lunch and sweets that I had made. I was also going to give his 'big' gift to him then, (Iron Man on Blu-Ray), so he would think that was everything. After spending lunch with him I was going to return home and make dinner for Fred's surprise birthday party that everyone was coming too. Please note this was the plan!!! This is how it really worked...
I had to breakdown and give Fred his towel before I went to bed. I was simply too tired to stay awake, so I told Fred what my plan had been and I gave him the towel. He thought it was a fun idea and like the towel. I did write "Happy Birthday" on the mirror before I went to bed.
Tuesday morning I spent getting dressed and making final preparations to take sweets to Fred's work. I packed up the 200 mini-cheesecake bites, and cheesy chex mix that I made and headed down to Insight. Low and behold when I got to there I called Fred so he could let me in, and guess where he was. Yup that's right, out to lunch with some co-workers. It was 11:30!! I planed to be there so I would be him before he left for work at noon.









The little stinker. I joined him at the restaurant and we ate lunch with his co-workers. After we went back to Insight and delivered sweets and treats to everyone. I did give him the movie and he was pleased with that. Then I turned around and went home.
On the way home I picked up the balloons and cake. Once home I started hanging decorations and making dinner. All of the decorations were for a first birthday, because it was Fred's first birthday as a married man. Two hours later I was finished the kitchen was clean and I was ready for the party to begin. A couple of friends got to the house before Fred did. I didn't worry about people showing up before Fred because it would be a hassle to plan exactly when Fred would get home. So as soon as Fred got home he knew a party was happening, but the stinker had figured out that I had something planned for that night. The geek figured out everything I was doing. urggg. Oh well it was still fun. And I got to see "Iron Man". I had wanted to see it all summer but it just never worked out.

Moving on.. the next day was Christmas Eve. In the morning we had a meeting with the lawyer's office about my disability. It was an easy meeting, they just took more information and sent us on our way. It will take another 3-6 months before we hear anything, pray we get it. Next was a couple of quick errands and then off to my parents house. We helped my parents set up for their big Christmas Party. Then of course was the party. Which Fred has already written about so I won't re-write it. It was a late night for us, but eventually we got to sleep and had a good night.
Christmas morning came quickly and the kids were eager to get downstairs to open their packages. And boy where there plenty to open. All those packages where for 6 people. 6 PEOPLE!!!!!! Mom finally admitted that it wasn't a small Christmas. It was a blast having little ones to watch open their gifts. After morning of packages, food, and fun Fred and I headed home. A nice nap for me and some computer work for Fred then off to Fred's parents for dinner and a few more presents. It was a long and fun day. But I was glad to sleep in my own bed that night.
Monday the 29th was the 2nd Annual Kaestner Family Adult Dinner. Each year instead of buying gifts Rick and Vikki take their children and spouses out for a nice dinner without the little ones. This year we went to a wonderful restaurant called "Equus" where we had a wonderful 5 course meal. Don't ask me what exactly it all was but I remember it being very good.

Then comes December 31st. The last day of the year!!! I started a new series of Trigger Point Injections (TPIs) to help with my shoulder pain. This is a wonderful picture of my back after the shots. Under each band-aid is an injection site. If you look carefully you might see the red marks on my back. For those who may not know a TPI is when a medicine is injected directly into the tender area to help break up knotted muscle. In this case we use a homeopathic medication called Serapin. It does all of the breaking up that steroids would do without the side effects. It's not the funnest procedure in the world but I've been through worse and it's very effective.
That night we spent with friends at our house. Watching movies and playing games. It was a was a great way to ring in a New Year. And at the moment Fred's off with Stuart playing and I'm with two of our nieces, Katie and Rachel. We have spent most of the day watching girl movies, eating what we want and just enjoying time together.

Christmas, Birthdays and Wives

This is Fred again. I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Crys and I spent Christmas Eve with her parents. Every year they invite a whole bunch of friends over to celebrate the holiday which includes plenty of good food, playing Christmas carols on pipes and singing and recanting of the Christmas story. This year my parents and Stuart actually came to spend the evening with us too so Crys and I got to spend the evening with all 4 of our parents at once. It was great.

This morning we got up at the good old hour of 7 am and spent a wonderful few hours opening presents with Crys' Mom, Dad, Eli and Brandon. It was great and I'm sure Crys will post some pictures soon from the day. The highlight for Crys and I, I believe she will agree with me, was Crys got me a new Blackberry phone and I got us tickets to go see Wicked in January!

Also, Crys LOVES to make a big deal of birthdays, and I haven't had a big hubbub about my birthday in the past 5-9 years so I don't. Well, my wonderful wife, planned a very wonderful surprise birthday party for me on Tuesday complete with friends and family members in attendance and it was so much fun.

I must say that I have the best wife in the world. I know a lot of people think that their wife is the best and may even say so, but in my case it is true! Crys is the most wonderful woman I have ever met and I can't even imagine my life without her. We are approaching our 1 year anniversary mark in 2 Sundays and it feels like I have spent my entire life with this wonderful woman that God has put into my care. My greatest happiness in this life is making her smile and giving her everything I can afford to give her. She really won't let me spoil her very often and has this absurd notion that I should spend my money on me instead of her, so I have to keep a lot of my surprises completely secret and not even tell her when I have a little extra. :) I want the world to know that I love my wife and that getting married is the best thing I have ever done! I love you, Honey! - Fred

Just For Fun

I have put a few new songs on our play list.
1)"The Maine Christmas Song" This song really describes how a lot of my Christmases went up there. And every time I hear that song a flood of memories come back to me. It is really a sweet song.
2)"Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" I know this is slightly irreverent as a Christmas song, but oh so funny. Sometimes you just need to laugh at it all and this song helps.
3)"Da Turdy Point Buck" For those who don't know, a 30 Point (Turdy Point) buck is a male deer with 30 notches in his antler rack. Which makes it one HUGE deer. Now this song has nothing to do with Christmas, it's about hunting. But they overlap for a lot of people so I put it on here. This song is just pure insanity and fun in my opinion. If you haven't heard it before it is worth listening to at least once.
4)"My Car Won't Go" This song is the ultimate northern winter song. If you have ever lived in a major snow state you have most likely have had a day like this. I remember one morning of having to dig out my car, drive to work on un-plowed roads, tromp through 18 inches of snow to get to my building and when I walked into the store this song was on the radio. Talk about ironic.
All of this songs are at the bottom of the list so feel free to skip ahead to them and take a listen. Enjoy!!!

Christmas Cards

I couldn't afford to send a Christmas card to everyone on my list. So I found an adorable card to post so that everyone can see that I really do care and Fred and I wish everyone a Merry Christmas!


Send this eCard

Becoming My Mother

How many women have said "I don't want to me my Mother?" How many husbands say, "Please don't become like your Mother?" And in some cases it is very valid where those people are not good examples and should not be followed. I was very blessed with a great Mother who has also been a great role model. And can you believe it, at the tender age of 24 I am not turning into my Mother. I'm already there!!!! Don't believe me just ask my husband. He was actually the one that noticed it.
Now I'm NOT exactly like my Mother. There are some difference in our attitudes and how we deal with things. And there are some things I'm not happy when I react like my Mother would. But the really important things, like how I view service, giving unto others, my joy in simple things and my eye for interior decorating (Thank goodness for that one)I gained from my Mother. She has been a wonderful role model to me and I'm glad that she has been my Mom. And if I have to grow up to be like someone then I'd choose her. I LOVE YOU MOM!!!!

Plastic, Curtains, and Twizzlers

In and effort to keep the house warm this winter. Mom and Dad bought some window plastic and curtains for our windows. Boy oh boy what a difference it has made. Whats fun too is that when the sun shines through the window in the living room it adds a 'Rosie Red Glow' to the room.















In other news... I am really excited. I have a reason to eat Twizzlers. And it is a really good one too. It will help with my stress. This is an excerpt for the article

"Sweet tooth: You can grab a handful of candy, as long as it's low in fat, such as a pack of Twizzlers. A sweet treat works just as well as a starchy one; both will spur serotonin production. But fruit sugar doesn't do it, so eat your banana later when you've decompressed."

The full article is here: http://www.psychologytoday.com/rss/pto-20081006-000003.html

I'm excited about this. Especially since I love eating them and I am content with only eating four or five in a sitting. Life is good.

Nutrition Facts

Kosher Status OU

Serving Size 4 pieces (45 g)

Amount Per Serving	%DV *
Total Calories 160
Calories from Fat 10
Total Fat 1 g	2%
Sodium 95 mg	4%
Total Carbohydrate 36 g	12%
Sugars 19 g
Protein 1 g	2%

Amount Per Serving	%DV *
Vitamin C	0%
Calcium	0%
Iron	0%

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs:
	Calories:	2,000	2,500
Total Fat	Less than	65g	80g
Sat Fat	Less than	20g	25g
Cholesterol	Less than	300mg	300mg
Sodium	Less than	2,400mg	2,400mg
Total Carbohydrate		300g	375g
Dietary Fiber		25g	30g
Hershey's goal is to keep each product's nutrition information up-to-date and accurate but please consult the label on the product's packaging before using. If you notice that something is different on a product's label than appears on our website, please call us for more information at (800) 468-1714.

A Weekend To Remember

Thanksgiving in and of itself has never been a holiday I really enjoyed. It always seemed like a big "holabalo" for nothing. Of course growing up what family was near by was within a few streets of each other. And the family that was far way wouldn't come in for Thanksgiving, so I never really saw the point. And no I still don't really see the point but this was by far the best Thanksgiving I ever remember having. There was a HUGE downside!!!! Shawn and Stephanie weren't there. They were the only members that couldn't make it to the our celebration.
First off we had family come in. Josh, Bre, Dave, Erin, Ben, Janelle and all the kids attached came in for the Holiday. Normal this would be our Christmas routine but we bumped it up to Thanksgiving because of my brother's deployment. He won't be here for Christmas.
Wednesday everyone came in. Mom and Dad left Eli and Brandon with me on their way to the Manhiem Steamrollers Concert. After Fred got home the four of us went to Mom and Dad's house. We got there just and Josh and Bre were. So we took everything in started cooking a spaghetti dinner and setting up sleeping spots. Within a few hours everyone else made it in. Poor Ben, Janelle and Julie had a 10 hour drive due to construction. They were all very happy to be out of the car. After a good deal of catching up and chatting we finally all went to be around midnight. The kids were in bed long before that. It was fun having everyone at Mom and Dad's. There were 17 of us there and room for more! It was wonderful having everyone under one roof.
Thursday was full of fun as well. The was a 'Turkey Bowl' pickup football game in Charlestown.Several of us went down to watch and play. It was fun to be out. The sun was shining and it was pretty warm out there. Upon returning mom announced that the turkey was done a whole 2 hours early. So we scrambled to put the rest of the fixin's together. Then we all ate our little hearts out. It was a great meal, with was followed by a movie and a nap. Later that evening we had cheese, crackers, pie, and veggies. The kids played in the basement while the adults had board games to play. Bedtime came much earlier because the Black Friday Shopping train rolled out at 3:30am.
I was up at 3:15 and went on the Shopping trip. After several great scores at the stores we arrived in time for a pumpkin pie breakfast at 8 am. I spent most of the day sleeping I guess all sorts of other things were going on but what do I know. We took a family picture and a few rides on the Harley. Then just about all of us left for home. Josh and Bre followed us to a couple of store by our place, and had dinner with us.
Alright that was our weekend. I'm still recovering from it but it was certainly worth it. I hope everyone else's weekend was just as wonderful.

Fred's Musings

Crys is always asking me to contribute to our blog so this is my first post!

Over Thanksgiving, Crys and I stayed at her parents house. While there, I took some time to work on my car. While I was working, I happened to step in a big mud hole and got one of my shoes dirty. I then spent the next 5 minutes or so trying to clean my shoe and it got me thinking. Have you ever noticed that once something is dirty, it takes considerable effort to get it clean again?
The same goes for water. Once something gets wet, it takes a lot of time and energy to get it completely dry, and for things like paper, the object is never the same again. It's the same with mud and dirt. It completely ruins certain objects and they never get completely clean again. It's odd how we can spend all of our time, effort an energies trying to keep something dry and clean, and one little mistake, one moment of carelessness when we are not paying attention where we are laying a precious book, or photo or not watching where we step, and instantly, the mud seeps up or the water permeates the entire page/book and we are stuck with a ruined book or at the very least, a book that every time we look at it, it will remind us of our carelessness.
I have often wondered why water/mud was so persistent. Why is it that water will instantly, in a matter of a second, 2 at the most, seep into anything that's dry, our clothes, paper, even our own skin! And yet, for as easy as it is to get muddy or wet, it can be ridiculously hard to get those stains out.
While I was cleaning my shoe off on Thursday, it hit me. This is just like the gospel! We go months, years even a lifetime taking every precaution, doing our absolute best and then one moment of carelessness or not watching where we step, and instantly we are changed forever. All it takes is one instant on the wrong TV show, or movie or hearing the wrong conversation at work, and we are stuck with that "dirty" spot on our souls. And it is SO hard to get them out of our minds once it is there. It is only with the help of the Atonement that we can remove those spots and get rid of the stain.
Fortunately for us, unlike water spots/stains, the Atonement, if used properly leaves no spot and it's like the incident never happened! How lucky are we to have an elder brother in Jesus Christ, who loves us so much that he came down and took upon him all of our pains, sorrows and sins. I don't know how he did it. I'm absolutely disgusted with the world we live in at times to the point of tears.
As Crys will tell you, I am very sensitive to other people's spirits, even if they are not around me. I won't watch certain shows like CSI because they have such an awful spirit around them. All that horrible evil in the world. I don't like to be reminded of it. In that way, Crys and I are a lot alike, she can sense falseness in people and if they are having an emotion strong enough, it will bleed over into her, but she has to be near them. Not so with me. It will even come through books or TV as I mentioned above. I am SO grateful to Jesus for doing what he did for us. I'm not sure I could have done it. I think I would have been willing to try, but I don't think I could stand all that evil. Crys will also tease me because I won't watch certain movies. I love scary movies, but only ones that could never happen. Ghost stories and such. It is possible it could happen, I don't like watching them because again, I can feel the evil of those people. I don't like to be reminded that there are evil people in the world who kill for the enjoyment of it, or who quite literally worship the devil. I much prefer the good things in life.
Sorry, I've gotten quite off topic and seem to be rambling. I will end with my testimony so that all of you may know my love of the Savior and know that I know he is the Christ. I know that Jesus lives. I know he performed the atonement and that through his sacrifice we can overcome our natural man inside each of us. I know that Thomas S. Monson is his prophet here on the earth. I know God loves us and is reaching out to us and all we need to do is accept His help. I leave that testimony with you in His name, amen.

Sorry if this is disjointed and hard to follow, but then again, it is my musings so deal with it! :) - Fred

Early Christmas

I am usually the first to complain about people playing Christmas music too early but with Thanksgiving being so late in the month I've decided to conform. Also since I had to fix the base code of the page I decided to go ahead and put up a Christmas page. So enjoy!!!

Stever and Shawna's Wedding

This is why my life has been super nuts lately. With a little less than two weeks notice I helped put together a wedding and reception. Which took place at our house, and I was Matron of Honor and Fred was Best Man.
Steven (Who we call Stever) used to live here at the house with Fred and they have been friends for a few years now. Stever started dating Shawna since early this year and Shawna and I became good friends. In July they became engaged and shortly after found out they were expecting twins (which we now know are boys). So they pushed the wedding up to this Fall so they would be married before the boys were born.
So this past week was spent putting together this wedding. I made Shawna's and my dresses, a full Thanksgiving type dinner (with help from the mothers), cleaned house and setup a formal dinner for 16 people. Oh yeah and I made a wedding cake. Yeah I think that covers the major points.
Between, Brandon moving up, Time Out for Women and the wedding I'm wiped. This week is going to be my down week with only doing my bare minimums. So if you don't hear from me that's why.
PS: I did not take the pictures, so don't blame me for that 'iffy' quality.

Time Out For Women

Well, Lacy beat me to posting about Time Out For Women but I have had a lot on my plate. But that is another blog. But this will be a special blog. Normally I write my blogs and then paste them into my journal for a hard copy to pass on. This time around I'm typing out the journal entry I've already written. So it's a little more personal and probably contains more grammar errors. But sit back and enjoy.
Saturday, November 15th,2008 So at this moment I have decided that this entry needs to be written by hand before I put it on the blog. Hopefully I won't fall asleep while I'm writing, which I've done before. Anyway I just got home from "Time Out For Women" in Nashville, TN. What a wonderful experience to have. It is an event put together by Deseret Book so it is very spiritual but very fun. Mom, Kara (a sister in Mom's ward) and I went down yesterday afternoon. After a three hour drive we arrived at the conference center just as things were starting. Last night was two musical performers- Hilary Weeks and Kenneth Cope. The wonderful thing I have found to LDS artists is they don't just sing song after song without pausing like a lot of artists. They take time and tell you stories behind the inspiration of the song. And the meaning it has taken since it's writting. Hilary Weeks is a great writer and a good singer but she has a bit of country twang to her voice that I'm not found of. It was nice to hear her there but I'm not willing to get her CD. Kenneth Cop on the other hand, I did come home with one of this CDs. But he also wrote and preforms the song that got me through my mission. Anytime us sisters were down, discouraged, sick, or tired we played this song and we would all feel better instantly. (Thanks Janelle for finding it for my blog) Here are the words:

More steady, more sure

More trusted, more pure

Some say doesn’t matter

More trained and more aware

More aim to get me there

I climbed this far

You raised the bar

You want my heart

Chorus:

More fierce desire

To stand against the wind

More blazing fire

When dark is closing in

More love-inspired change within

So there’s more and more of me to give

More words to learn and know

More etched upon my soul

Some say it doesn’t matter

More tired, more true

Less me and much more You

I stretched this tall

You sound the call

You want my all

Chorus:

More fierce desire

To stand against the wind

More blazing fire

When dark is closing in

More love-inspired change within

So there’s more and more of me to give

You keep reaching out- Your calling out to me

More strengthened shoulders

To face the war with sin

More wise and bolder

To save the souls of men

A more faithful soldier to the end

You want more and more of me to give

More and more of me to give

More love, more purpose, more serve with all my might

I need more hope, more faith, more patience each day I pray for more

More and more of me to give

More fire, more zeal, more spirit to know what’s real

More courage, more joy, more and more of me to give

More grateful, more true, more humble to trust and do

You call, I hear

I’ll walk the path that’s set in stone

My heart is fixed on getting home

And what on earth could ever matter more?

More and more of me to give

More

And now that I'm having problems with my health again it was wonderful to have that song reintroduced into my life. So Kenneth Cope is kind of my musical hero. What was really cool was I got to meet him, take a picture with him, and he signed my CD.

We spent the at a hotel and went back this morning for the rest of the conference. Honestly I don't remember much of the morning session. It was a rough week, and night, and sitting on hard chairs. So I found a row of empty chairs and laid down. Of course I found asleep. I did hear a few good points that I wrote down but my notebook is over on the other side of the room.
First thing after lunch was a Q&A with the speakers. Earlier in the day people submitted for this part. What they (the presenters) did was they picked one question that all five of them answered and then each presenter picked a second question they wanted to answer personally. And would you believe it my question was picked for all of them to answer. It was "Besides the obvious of marriage and children what was the most joyous moment in your life?" The two that really stuck with me were Chris Stuart's and Emily Watts' answers. Emily Watts said it was a moment where she found peace with something and joy just rushed in. Chris Stuart's answer was about how every time he got back to the ground after flying with a certain Captain he was joyous he was alive.
There were a couple more speakers and we hall headed home. It was a good weekend.

Sorry it wasn't better but as you will read in the next blog there was something else on my mind.

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween. We didn't really have anything planned until we called a friend randomly. Our friend (Dan) told us that he was building a Haunted House in his backyard. So we went over to be a part of it. I dressed up in my orange scrubs that I used for a jail costume a few years ago. With that on I played the mad scientist. In my room we had a fog machine, black lights, and a screaming patient in there. Fred as you can see was dress up as a nightmare clown. He was at the very end with a chain saw in the dark and ran the people out of the yard. We probably had a couple of dozen of kids come through before we had to leave. What was annoying was that it was actually cold out. The last cold night that we had in two weeks. Oh well. It was worth it. We'll probably be back there next year.

What a Hick!

It is official, I am a hick. I tried to get away from it by moving to a metropolitan area, learning to give directions by street signs not by "that big tree". But there was one thing I had not anticipated, having to duct tape my car. The ultimate sign of a hick, using duct tape to hold your car together. It happened to me yesterday.
I was going to my sister-in-laws house to babysit for her. I pulled out of the drive way and I was driving down road when I hit it, my next door neighbor's mail box. Not head on, just with my passenger side mirror. It's nearly happened several times in the months that I have been here. I tend to drive too close to the edge of our road. Anyway, I stopped and got out to check out the damage. The mail box looked fine, nothing cracked or broken. But I went up to door and rang the door bell. (See Dad those lectures about admitting to things when they happen did stick in my head.) I told them who I was and what happened and I didn't see anything but if they noticed something let me know. Then I went back to my car to check it out. Yeah my car took the brunt of the damage.
My passenger side mirror was broken. The glass wasn't broken and the mirror until was still attached by the wires. The arm the holds the mirror to the car was intact. The mirror until just needed to be reattached to the arm. So I went and bought some black duct tape and put it back together. And it is holding just fine, but it makes be me officially a hick.

My Say

If you don't want to read the ravings of a frustrated 24 year old female stop now.

Well since you haven't stopped reading here goes.....

I'M SICK OF PEOPLE LIVING IN THE PAST!!! How many times a day do you think, oh I remember when gas was such and such, or milk used to cost, or the government used to. Now after you think that do you say to yourself, oh well and move on or do you get frustrated and whine and then move on. It's okay to think about the past to get frustrated with the present because it's not the past. Now I have to admit that I'm not perfect at this I wish I could do that things I use to before I was sick. But my rant is more about people complaining about the situation of the USA. Go figure I'm ranting about people ranting...

Anyway, first off is the gas prices. I hear constantly about this, okay the cost is higher than it used to be and it's jumped up a lot in the last few years, but guess what it is still available to us. It's not rationed, it's not gone, we just have to pay more for it. This one also bugs me because I used to work with pricing gasoline. People say that the people owning the pumps are the ones making that money. Yeah right! They make jack squat, and anywhere from 50 cents to 1 dollar (depending on what state your in) per gallon goes to state taxes. The feds also take out another 20 cents. Yes that can make life a little hard, especially for those on tight budgets. My husband and I have certainly felt it. But with a little planning we've managed to make it work.

Secondly, the government. With the up coming elections we are watching closely to who stands where and what may happen. But why do we complain that we are no longer the country we once were. If we were I would be really worried. Change is essential to life. I'm not saying that we as a country or the government is the best but once again it is better than other places. If we weren't a good country then why would people be dying to get in, illegally and legally. I don't agree with some of the policies that the government has made about dealing with immigrants. Such as giving social security to illegal immigrants. That's a bad business move because there is no way to track it properly. I mean they do pay into it. If you have a job, and the employer does taxes withdrawals you pay them whether your legal or not. But if your not legal you can't file for a tax return. Which is fair in business but governments are not business. I'm not saying to take everything laying down, we still need to be active in understanding what is happening. But you are not the US of 1940 it's 2008 life is very different and so is our government.

Alright I'm not with ranting for now. I'm going to leave you with a quote about perspective. It's out of the book "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers". Gimli was speaking to Legolas after the battles of Helms Deep.
"Strange are the ways of men, Legolas! Here they have one of the marvels of the Northern World, and what do they say of it? Caves, they say! Caves! holes to fly to in time of war, to store fodder in! My good Legolas, do you see that the caverns of the Helm's Deep are vast and beautiful? There would be an endless pilgrimage of Dawrves, merely to gaze at them, if such things were known to be. Aye indeed, they would pay pure gold for a brief glance!"

Harley Davidson Dad

Janelle took some pictures of Dad all dressed up on his motorcycle. Then dad sent me some copies asking me to edit them. This the picture I was given to start with.

What he said in his e-mail, "I think the first picture (looking at me from my left side) is the best. But I thought you might want to play with the first 2 and do some editing out of the background before I decided which one to send out – whenever I do send it out." So I did what I thought what he looking for and I sent Dad these pictures.

And then Dad e-mails me, "I was thinking just about cutting out the car and mailbox in the background – bring the eye’s focus onto the scary guy on the bike." I roll my eyes and start to work on the following picture

As you may or may not notice the car and mail box are gone. You just have to love what you can do with a computer and a digital picture. Once again I send an e-mail to Dad, with this picture attached. His response was, "Well I was thinking just cropping it out but this looks even better." My first thought was "Gee Dad. If you just wanted it cropped why didn't you say so??" Then I realized he was please with the work. So I created a couple more variations and called it quits for the day. The credit for great photos, like I said, goes to Janelle. She was able to get a wonderful shot that I was able to work with. It was much easier than some pictures I've had to do.

It's all in the Genes

Oh the joys of family. This past week has been filled with family fun. Last Sunday Fred and I went to my Mom and Dad's house to enjoy the afternoon and a great meal with them. Oh did I mention that Benjamin and Janelle came down with adorable Julie. Ben had a conference in Indy, since his work was paying for the trip down and the hotel room in Indy, why not take the family. So they swung through and spent some time with us. Cousins Ryan and Ashley also came over to hang out so it was a pretty fun day. I of course ended up getting tired and sleeping through our movie of choice (Lilo and Stitch) but apparently I needed the rest. The most of the week days past without too much incident. Wednesday Fred and I went to his parents to help them with some projects. Fred was in charge of trying to fix a computer with Rick and I was busy ripping wallpaper with Viki. Thursday was Temple night and some new move-ins to our ward were in our session. It's a nice young couple who have only been married for 6 months. Fred has know the husband (Jared) for several years and Jenny in from Arizona and just moved here right before the wedding. So she is as lost and knows less people than I do. We ended up talking in the locker room for a good 20 minutes and we hit it off. It was great to talk to a person in a very similar situation. We both appreciate that stories people tell us about when they first moved here 5 years ago, or when they got married 8 years and three kids ago. And the sisters in our ward are wonderful but to have someone your age, newlywed, no kids, and understands the hardships of teaching your husband that dinner isn't always red meat and potatoes... Well it's just comforting. Not to mention Jenny and I have similar senses of humor, and Fred and Jared get along well too. Hopefully we will start enjoying time together, and having more friends in the church.
Oh my how I have rambled. Friday night was a special treat. My Aunt Sheri and Uncle Bill came into Louisville to see Ryan and Ashley. Since neither my parents or me had seen them in a while and poor Fred never met them we decided to have a big ole dinner together. The restaurant of choice was Joe's Crab Shack. What a fun little place, a little too loud, but fun all the same. Before Fred and I could go to dinner we had to pick up my Dad at the airport because his flight has just come in and the battery was dead in his car. Poor Dad :( After everyone got there, and introductions were made and hugs all around we of course put in our orders, and then the lights went out. When all of a sudden YMCA by the village people came on. And there were two of the waitresses starting to dance. And by the chorus so was Sheri. As shown below:
I knew Sheri was capable of being crazy but any outside would be astonished. She is Graduate Journalism Professor for BYU. She dresses in suits and is always well put together. So it must be in the genes. Something genetically strange...as there is with my entire family. And those who marry in are not safe from this deformity, just look at Ashley. Of course her's could be coming from the baby she is carrying.
Saturday and Sunday was spent with the Kaestners. It was Stake Conference this weekend so it easy to plan a get together. After Saturday night session Fred's parents took all the "Adults" who came to the session out for dinner at O'Charleys. No little ones, just the siblings and spouses. It was rather nice and fun to spend time with them. I really feel that I'm starting to fit in, and contribute to their stories and conversations. Sunday was the 2nd Annual Kaestner Family Chili Cookoff. We all brought in different chilis and had a set of missionaries be our judges. I won the most original recipe. I think mine was the only one that didn't use canned chili beans which I personally had never heard of until this week. It was also October Birthday, day. If that makes sense.... Adam, Rick and I were the guest of honor this month. Our birthdays are 19,20, and 22. If we can get someone born on the 21 we'll have a small straight. :) It was a fun day of family and food. I spent family game time asleep in one of the bedrooms but it had been a really rough day for me. Not just pain wise but some other dumb stuff I did. Like burning my hands on chili and getting onion juice in my eye. Oh well I'm doing better now.
I believe that is all from our "Krew" I'm going to go spend some time with my wonderful husband who make my life amazing, and full of love each and everyday.

Life As We Know It

Well things are certainly changing around here. As you may have seen our house is changing for the better. Fred is working on changing his physical shape for the better. Josh and Bre were sealed together for time and all eternity along with 2 of their children. So that is most certainly a good change. And as for me... well my change hasn't been so great, yet. In my strive to work with my Fibro and improve that part of my life I have managed to do enough dumb things that I have actually aggravated it. I made my body really, really mad. Not only has the frequency of flares increased but the places as well. Before my pain would be localized to my chest, ribs, back, shoulder and neck. Okay that that is a big area but I've been dealing with it long enough in those places that I can deal. Well now I have flares in my legs, hips and waist. So when I flare I hurt from chin to knees. And that has been my life for three weeks now. It has severely impacted my abilities in all areas of life except lying down, and being still. Once I'm in a comfortable spot laying down I tend to be good for a while. On the up side, there is hope, always hope. After seeing my doctor and updating him on my situation he didn't have much for me except to try a new medicine. Once I arrived home I started researching chiropractors in the area. I found one close to home, who excepts my insurance, and was taking new patients. Over the last week I have been there several times met with the chiropractor, the massage therapist, and the nurse practitioner. And as a team we are going to come up with a comprehensive treatment program that incorporates, trigger point injections, massage, adjustments, and physical therapy. So hopefully within a year I will be drug free, and minimal 'bad days'. It's going to take work on every body's part. I'm pretty screwed up (like we didn't all know that) and I have the x-rays to prove it! So I'm still on the road to recovery but the dismal forest doesn't seem quite to bad.
On a good note, I have a clean house. With help from Fred, a little motivation, and some CLR I managed to clean two bathrooms, and help with the garage. Fred, vacuumed the whole house, and did most of the work in the garage. We also celebrated Fred's Grandmother's birthday today. We had her and Fred's parents over for dinner. It was a very pleasant evening. We had homemade chicken pesto pasta with fresh basil from my dad's garden. Fred's parents brought a delectable salad, and Grandmother brought garlic bread. It was wonderful to let them see what we had done to the house so far. Especially Grandmother, she hasn't seen any of the changes and she was the one that helped Fred acquire the house. Grandmother is a fun older lady that just hasn't given up on life. :) After dinner there was dessert, a yummy strawberry cheesecake that I made from my mom's recipe. It is such a simple cheesecake, and Grandmother simply loves it. I made an extra one for her to take home as a birthday present. All in all it was really nice evening. We really need to have Grandmother over more often.

Remodeling Part III

This is the last one for now. It is our living room, there wasn't much to do here. Again, cleaning... to tell you the truth I left things out to make the pictures worse, I couldn't help myself. This picture was also taken before we picked up the piano. So we had to find a place for that too. Which messed with how our pictures were set up. So all the pictures had to be taken down. All the of them reset to fit around the piano. Which wasn't too hard. Once I had them all in there new spots I left in the nails. Put mud in all the old wholes and painted. Yes I painted over the nails, another trick I used. Re-hung pictures moved the piano and took a new picture. Here is the finished product! It's amazing what some elbow grease, paint and a little time you can accomplish. Keep watching for the updates on the rest of our house. We still have a ways to go!!!

Remodeling Part II

Look at this mess. This is the dinning room. For starters we had to clean, and organize. That was pretty easy we had to just find homes for everything on the floor. Then we moved the bookshelves to our office room, and more than happily Mom and I ripped down the stripped wallpaper. Also we took all the extra dangles off the chandelier, and trashed the roll up blind. And then the really fun part of painting, but look at the wonderful finished product. Because there is no wall to this room I decided to do something to tie in the walls with the accent color. So I painted my outlet covers. You may think it's dorky but it with these colors it looks really nice.

Remodeling Part I

Fred and I, with a lot of help from my parents, have started remodeling the house. The first project that we completed was the front of the house. When I moved in this is what the house looked like. The picture is a little fuzzy because I had to copy it off of Google Maps. As you can see there are two overgrown trees in the front. The one on the left is a holly tree that attacks anyone trying to come in or out of our door. It was especially hard during the winter, the ice was always falling off the tree making the stars very slippery. So of course the trees had to go. With a little help from Eli, Mom and Dad we managed to get the trees cut down. Then Fred and our friend Ryan helped take the brush down to Fred's parents house and dumped them in the woods out there. Next was to clean out the planter of all the weeds and dead plants. And this is how it looks......I know it doesn't look like much because nothing is really in bloom, but it is clean. Fred even took the time to reset all the bricks to edge the garden. And Dad helped me pick all sorts or flowers with lots of color. We even picked things so that all summer long something would be in bloom. I'm excited for next spring :)

Our New Addition

We'd Like To Welcome Our New Addition

This is our new Piano!!!!! I'm on a group called FreeCycle, which is a national organization that people can use to get rid of things and find new things all for free. You can post things you are looking for or things you want to get rid of. Then people let you know if they want them. Well I have been missing having a piano in the house. It just doesn't feel quite like home. So I posted on FreeCycle to see if anyone had a piano they wanted to get rid of. And sure enough I found one. It is a full upright piano and quite the beast. We enlisted the help of our friends to help us move it. Getting that sucker up the stoop and up the stairs was very difficult. But they managed :) Fred says that the piano either stays with the house or some else has to come pick it up. But he refuses to move it again. I'm thinking maybe I should start giving piano lessons to save up for the next piano. Or maybe the people to move it if we ever more. Who knows? What I do know is that it does need some refinishing. They people I took it from already started the sanding, so someday I'll finish that. But for right now I'm happy that I have a piano of my very own, that I can play whenever I want. Oh this is so great :)

The Good, The Bad, and The Not So Ugly

Well it has been a crazy couple of weeks around here. I'm going to just sum it up so here goes:
The Bad- I lost my job as an Executive Assistant. There just wasn't enough work
The Good- Two days later I was offered a job by one of Fred's other brothers to watch there one year old son two days a week. At there house so the mother could work from home. It's a great gig. :)
The Not So Ugly- Erin Crowley came to stay with us while working a Fair here in Louisville. It was wonderful to have her here.
The Good- I'm sick. Really this is a good thing, in a strange twisted sort of way. For the first time in years being sick hasn't caused a Fibromyalgia flare. I'm just sick.
The Bad- I'm sick with a sinus infection. Although I'm happy not to be in a flare sinus infections are still not fun.
The Not So Ugly- We've started the redecorating of our house. The Kitchen now longer has blue stripes and cows. The Dinning room doesn't have yellow and brown stripes and the hallways are almost free of wallpaper too. Currently that is as far as we have gotten. There is mud on the walls but it hasn't been painted yet. Oh well one thing at a time.

Well that is most of it for the last month or so. :)