Another one bites the dust

and there goes another plate

I've often heard people say that if you have an expensive pair of sunglasses you will lose them, but you will hold on to cheap pair for years and years. I have a feeling that goes for dinnerware too.

For the last 6 years Jared and I have dined off of hand-me-down dishes my parents gave us. The design looked much like the couch on "That 70s Show" but by golly they were sturdy pieces of stone. Never once did we break or chip any piece of this dinnerware. Some of it was already chipped, however we never broke one ourselves.

As a wedding gift, several members of our family bought us new dinnerware. Beautiful stone red plates and bowls, just like I wanted. I take a lot of pride in this new set, placing it ever-so-gently in the dishwasher and buffing all the spots off the dish before placing it in the cabinet.

Within the last month, we have lost one bowl and chipped a plate. One of them was Jada's fault for knocking a vase off the top of the cabinets that fell into the sink and busted a bowl. The other one was my fault for dropping a knife and butter tub on a plate and chipping a corner off.

I guess that just goes to show that sometimes the cheap stuff is better!

A busy weekend

what a crazy, busy weekend

Jared and I got a lot done this weekend. Friday night we headed over to Pittsburg for our friend Eric's birthday party. It was a lot of fun, especially since we hadn't been out in a while. I got to see a lot of people that I hardly get to hang out with anymore, like my best gal Chesney! Here are some pictures from our evening. The first one is Jared Hicks... we will be rooming with him for a little bit in Indiana. He is a lot of fun and it will be nice that Jared and I have at least 1 friend when we move up there, haha.


On Saturday my dad came to town to help Jared re-frame a few doors and fill a few cracks in the walls before we put the house on the market. It didn't take them too long at all and I think Jared learned a little from my dad, which is always good. This man has so much knowledge and Jared and I need to learn as much from him as we possibly can.

That was about it, besides packing, packing packing.... which I did a lot of that! We are slowly, but surely getting the house ready. I hope to have it listed in a week, but we'll see how that goes.

Playin' around

trashbags make great toys, apparently

So, here's a few pictures of Jada getting in way. I was clearing out some clothes and putting together a bag of clothes for Amanda (or Aunt Amanda as Jada refers to her). Well, I guess she wanted to go home to Amanda's house with the clothes cause once I told her where they were going... she hopped right in and started playing. She just loves her Aunt Amanda and she will miss her a lot! :(

Because everyone needs a laugh once in a while

it has been a horrible week

Jared and I have had a horrible week filled with worry, doubt and questions about our financial future.

They say laughter is the best medicine and this video has always made me laugh. I thought I would share with all of you.

So much to do, so little time

i don't even know where to begin

I have prided myself in the past for my supreme moving skills. Since moving from my hometown of El Dorado I have moved 5 times, although not a single one of these moves was over 20 miles. Jared and I had the perfected the art of "Moving on the cheap and on the quick". Armed with Wal-Mart sacks, trash bags and old boxes, we were the "American Gladiators" of moving. Give us a half day, some good music on the radio and a few borrowed trucks and we out of there in a flash.

I have quickly learned, however, that packing up everything to move 5 miles is a little different than packing everything to move 687 miles. I can no longer throw my clothes in the car on their hangers and pack dinner plates in bags and just say "be careful" to whoever puts it in the car.

It took me a while to figure out where to begin, but now, newspaper and bubble wrap are quickly becoming my best pals! With every box I pack I feel a weight of stress disappear from my neck and shoulders. It will be a long process and I am not even close to having the house ready for sale, but I'll get there! The house is a flippin' mess though and it is driving me crazy! And it doesn't help that Jada likes to play in every box I open. But, I know it will be like that until we can get the clutter packed away and into storage.

Everyone please keep us and our little house in your thoughts.... we need all the luck we can get to sell the house and come out on top. Hopefully I'll get some pictures on here once I get it ready to sell. Or, if I can get some cute ones of Jada playing in the boxes, haha.

Changes are a comin'

our life is about to get real interesting

Ok everyone... I'm sorry if you haven't heard from us yet about this but we just made our decision yesterday.

Jared and I are moving to Elkhart, Indiana! Jared was offered the Warehouse Manager position earlier this week and after much discussion and some bargaining with Jake's we have made the decision to move our little family up there.

For those of you not familiar with Indiana, Elkhart is just minutes from South Bend, Indiana (home to Notre Dame and the College Football Hall of Fame), less than 2 hours from Chicago and about an hour from Lake Michigan. We will be right on the border of Indiana and Michigan (they like to call it Michiana apparently... haha). So, there is a lot to see up there and it appears that there are a lot of opportunities for my career.

I hate to leave Greenbush, but this will give me an opportunity to get out there, try a few new things and find a position that I can grow with. I am excited about this opportunity, but also frightened.

Selling our house in Girard is the part that scares me the most! I have already started de-cluttering the house but it will be a large task considering all the crap we have managed to cram into this place, haha.

Anyway, I will update you all more later and Jared and I have been making calls to everyone.... so, again, sorry that some of you have to hear about it this way but I've been itching to blog about it for a while! Talk to you all later and we love you all.