Updates like Crazy

We have almost been in our home for a year. We have done some yard work: dug lots of ditches to find water pipes, flattened out all the sand in our yard, killed weeds over and over again, built a new fence between one of our three neighbors, put up a retaining wall for our soon-to-be garden, and have planted some flowers in the front yard. That's a lot of work...and only a smidglet of things that need to be done.

We have organized most of our "crap"! and have things ready to go for a garage sale....how on earth have we attained so much items/clothes/etc in our 4+ years of marriage?! We don't even have kids! lol.

I have been playing the piano a lot more. I'm always amazed when my fingers start dancing around on the keys...after practicing for an hour or so..it's surreal. They just know what to do. 

I have been baking/cooking up a storm. I have acquired a handful of tastey new recipes. And have also developed some of my own baking/cooking habits! 

I've apparently turned into little miss crafty...I didn't realize until recently that I love figuring out how to make things by looking at them...when did this happen?! lol. It's totally fun and sometimes frustrating...and I've discovered an apparent desire for sewing...(ME?! and sewing?! When did that happen?!)..Yeah...in the near future, I'll probably be looking to buy that contraption that you call a sewing machine. (When I say near...I mean like in the next year, not anytime real soon).


Kevin has passed 1 CPA exam and is taking 2 more before Christmas. He's a trooper...poor guy had the computer he was testing on last week crash when he was 90 questions in...he had 7 left...now he has to retake the dang thing...how horrible!


We have also started up our food storage. We have tons of macaroni, and also macaroni and cheese, flour, wheat, freeze dried goods (sooo yummy! believe it or not!), and an assortment of other canned items...still more and more to come. We are using THRIVE (shelf reliance) and are also buying cheap food when it is on super sale at the store.


We dont have cable....but it's been good! I have been doing all of those other things I've mentioned up above! We do, however, have NETFLIX. It's awesome. And also not so awesome at the same time. Awesome because you can watch things without commercials, but not so awesome because then you can watch shows back-to-back without stopping...it's rather addictive. 


Oh! And something rather important...Kevin is the YM President, and I'm the 1st counselor in Primary. We are TOTALLY busy all the time!! 


I feel tired all the time from working and working....and then coming home to a house that is often messy...it is sooo hard to keep the house clean, cook meals from scratch (which I often do), work 8+ hours a day (both of us) monday through friday (and saturdays for kevin during tax season), do our callings, keep the yard up (next to impossible lol), pick up after each other, do my hobbies, stay organized...etc etc etc...I am NOT wonderwoman! I cannot do everything! As much as it bugs me, I've tried and tried and tried..I just cannot do everything! It's impossible. (I think that's because I'm not perfect :) Saturdays are our only read day to get things done, aside from week-nights when we aren't so exhausted. I can only imagine what it will be like when we throw kids in the mix..only, I won't be working..so perhaps it'll be a little easier since I'll be at home and can get at least some of these things done? Please tell me it will!


...Well, that's us in a squeeze! I'm living in the present as much as possible, learning from the past, and hoping the best for the future..

 

Lack of posts?

I don't really have this urge to blog...maybe it's because I feel weird that people read my thoughts. Who really knows..It is fun for me to read my friend's thoughts when they blog. It's some kind of irony.

Seaside is the new Home

We are all moved in now.  We moved in January 5th.  It was a long haul dealing with drastic measures trying to get into this place, but we made it!   We have views of the bay; it's just beautiful...and it's on a .20 acre lot; pretty huge for these parts.  There is nothing better than coming home to a house that is ours.. and being able to park in a garage!

Patience Is a Virtue?

We were supposed to get the keys to our brand new home on December 15th...but it may not be till the end of the year! Oh no! I guess an extra week and a couple more holidays won't hurt to keep us busy...And sadly enough, I will be waiting yet one more year to decorate for Christmas..We will have been married for almost 5 years by the time we have our very own/first Christmas tree! Sad day! haha...At least we will have a house by then..right? Ugh.... :/

I Love....

I LOVE Monterey!!!!!


It's so pretty...and sunny...and cool...and wonderful this month.

Love Love Love it!

Houses or Bust

Right now, finding a house here in Monterey is pretty skimpy. Houses we have seen so far, we were told by our realtor, used to be nice looking...until the most recent tenants bought them.... Broken down interior walls, cruddy re-modeling, poor care for the yards, bright pink colored brick walls, unsanitary,...why?!?! 

And the answer is......CULTURE!!!! haha! The houses are in such bad condition...they won't even pass for an FHA loan! Awesome...Thank you my fellow Monterey'ins...We don't have enough money to live in Carmel or Pebble Beach!! Don't you understand?! 

hahaha...... life is crazy ain't it?

Anyone moving out of Monterey? or moving out of Hollister? Who has cared for their house enough not to destroy it? 

We would be most grateful...

New Idea

I recently did some research on 'sandboarding'. It is apparently a pretty big sport during the off-season for snowboarders. I am going to try and get us into the cheap version of it since there is lots of sand here and it could turn out to be a lot of recreational fun.  

NO:
-cardboard
-plastic sleds
-bodyboards or snowboards (you can if you're ok with trashing your boards)
-plastic tarps
-skimboards
-wakeboards
-surfboards

Using a site that experimented with all of these and more, they highly recommended the use of "FOR SALE" signs. Imagine that! Cheap and Easy to prepare. All you need is some laundry rope and the sign (and some surfboard wax, which is optional). I won't go into too much detail, but it would basically be like a toboggan, until it gets too many dents and bends in it...then it slows down..and time to get a new sign! Holy Awesomeness!

If this becomes a big hit. We may (and I say may loosely) buy some cool and real sandboards someday...but they are $199 and up. They look like snowboards (I don't know alot about snowboards), but they have different straps for your feet. Ocean Culture (located in Australia) sells some boards and the ones that we would probably buy if we wanted would be the 'freeride' or the 'sandsled' which are more for beginners and are 'all-around-fun-boards'. The picture below is the 'freeride':

Basically, if you have snowboarded, surfed, wakeboarded, skateboarded, etc this will be an easy go for you. But if you have not, this is the easiest of them all to do...and if you fall, you fall on sand, which depending on the sand, it can be very soft! YouTube it! :) You can go here to learn more about it: http://www.duneboarder.com/dboarder/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.welcome    AND here to look at boards: http://www.oceanculture.com/index1.html