Happy Earth Day

Lets all get out and do something green like spring cleaning, clean out your closet (there could be plenty of stuff in there you don't need, so why not donate it?), planting a tree, recycle, carpool to where ever you are going, replace your regular light bulbs for energy efficient ones, is the weather nice? open a window and enjoy the breeze, go outside and enjoy the Earth we have to live on.

Michael and I will be continuing our tradition of going to see Disney's Earth Day Movie. This year the movie is African Cats. If you buy a ticket during opening week part of you ticket payment helps to Save the Savanna!

Because I'm a Phoenix

At the end of Michael's Spring 2009 classes for school, he decided that he needed to take a break because his job was becoming very demanding. We are talking demanding as in working 50-55 hours a week if not more. It was great pay but he was having trouble making it to his classes that were in the early evening. So he decided that until he could put the effort into school he needed to take a break.

Eventually 2010 was starting to past us by and still Michael had not started back at school. I was worried because school is extremely important especially in todays society and in the church's standings as well. Both of our patriarchal blessings say to "get a good education". In April we took a trip out to see my parents in Pennsylvania for Easter and to see Chase before he left on his mission. I swear as soon as we landed the first words out of Michael's mouth were, "okay Brandee when are we moving out here?" Of course at this time we didn't know that he would be unemployed within a few short months. But the seed was planted and Michael could not get enough of the beautiful country.

To him it was unlike anything he has ever seen. Born and raised in California doesn't give you a lot of visual pleasure (unless of course you live on beach front property, then life is good). He kept pointing out houses for rent and how beautiful everything was.

(NOTE: It was the end of March early April and everything was still brown. So I was pretty amazed that he was "ooing" and "ahing" over the beautiful brown scenery? I must admit, I was a little confused.)

When we got back to California Michael immediately began applying online to jobs in the area of Hanover and York, PA. He actually got a few hits but nothing too promising. We didn't really think anything of it until ... At the end of May/beginning of June we found out that Michael was going to be unemployed within a couple weeks. So of course.. School was out of the question for now. But we seriously started talking about what was happening next in our lives. Well we had been praying about where we needed to go because we knew CA wasn't for us at this time in our lives. We felt very strongly about PA. So we started making our plans.

Part of our plans for moving was, of course, Michael's schooling. We wanted him to start at the beginning of the new year and we knew we had a great opportunity out there with the University of Phoenix. It was close and they have strictly online programs which is what Michael really wanted.

All or most of our move went according to plan. Once we got settled in a bit, oh I'd say maybe a week, I was telling Michael go talk to Uncle Tim about school and get in contact with someone who can get you started.

....

Well, here we were 3 months later and guess what?! Michael still hadn't talked to anyone about school. At this point I was getting tired of asking Michael to do something about it. I knew it had to be his decision to go back because it was his school work and he needed to be focused and motivated to do it. So finally I just told him I was tired of asking him to do it every single week, so I said I am going to stop asking but please don't forget and just get it done. Then about a week or two ago I was going over to have my Aunt Melinda cut my hair (We are neighbors you see) and so Michael had this wonderful idea that he would go over at the same time and talk to Uncle Tim about school while I was having my hair cut. what a brilliant idea if I do say so myself!

So this past week Michael has been completing online paperwork and school loan information to start school at the University of Phoenix!! We are so excited and hopefully if all goes to plan he will be starting his first class on or around March 8th. After that it will only be two years until he will have his Bachelor of Science in Information Technology with a concentration in Information Systems Security.

I am extremely grateful for Michael and one him putting up with me getting on his case about school, and two for doing what he needs to do even though it may be tough to follow through with it right now. I am grateful that he took the time to figure out exactly what he wants to do and major in. He is a good hard working man and I love him very much!

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope we all have a wonderful Valentine's Day with the people that have taken a piece of our hearts for time and all eternity.

SNOW DAY

Well, I don't know about everyone else here but I'm excited for the snow! This is our first really big snow storm and I've been waiting for it!!

And because of the bad weather and 25 miles of side roads I take to get to work being in a bad condition, I took the day off. MY FIRST SNOW DAY EVER!!!!

And what else can you do on a snow day but make a snow man!!!!!

Carrot and all!

And of course Brandee and Sage were there to help.

Sage never misses a chance to be in the snow. She loves it. She enjoys spending the whole day prancing and rolling around in it!!!

CAN'T WAIT FOR MORE!!!!!!!

Family Fun

Over the Holidays we got together with Family and played many games. Which was so much fun, I love playing games of any kind! Here are some of the pictures that were taken throughout the evening.

CRANIUM: Oh one of my favorite games! There is drawing (sometimes with your eyes closed)

Sculpting

This sculpture was a "kilt"

Acting, done very well by Michael! He was bra shopping, he he.

And then just some playing around which we can always count on Uncle Tim for!!

Overall it was a great evening. It is so nice to be close to family and to have the friendships to sit down play games and spend countless hours with each other.

Merry Chirstmas

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas. As we open our gifts and spend time with family, let us remember the greatest gift that we can not find in a store or wrapped in pretty paper. The gift our Heavenly Father gave, his Only Begotten Son, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

State to State

Here is our journey across the United States.

We started in California, of course. The first state we crossed into was Arizona. We were just traveling through; we ended up stopping at several rest areas because it was the first time for Sage in a car for 13 hours so she was just a little restless. The only challenge was finding a rest area that was open. Due to the economy a lot of Arizona's rest areas are closed because there is no money to up keep them.

New Mexico is next and this is where we finally stopped for the first night. Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was such a long day hauling through two states with a total of a 14 hour day. We will not be doing that again for a long, long time.

With a nice night’s sleep we started on day two of our journey, we traveled through the rest ofNew Mexico, which went by pretty quick. We then entered into Texas. We watched people get pulled over one after another right in front of us, and who stepped out of the police car? Of course it was police men wearing cow boy hats and cow boy boots. I mean I know they “say” that’s what they wear; I just didn't realize it was a reality.

Through Texas to one of my favorite states… O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A Oklahoma!! It is so green and beautiful, compared to the desert we had been traveling through for the past day and a half.

We stopped at the Oklahoma City temple. Unfortunately it was Monday so it was closed but we got to see the outside and the grounds. It was really beautiful and it was a nice break from the highway we had been on all day.

We decided to take Sage out so she could stretch her legs as well. We were worried about her because she had not gone to the bathroom since the night before we left. It had been two days so we were hoping she would calm down enough to concentrate and go to the bathroom.

This is one of my favorite parts of the temple. I love the saying and meaning Holiness to the Lord!

A gorgeous fountain on the back side of the temple over looking the temple grounds.

After Oklahoma City we were so close to the city I used to live in, so we had to stop. Our next destination was Edmond, Oklahoma. We stopped for dinner at CiCi’s Pizza buffet, which I hadn’t eaten since living in Oklahoma since I was a kid. The pizza was so yummy! After dinner we went and looked at the house we used to live in so I could show Michael. It looked so different and small. It is so funny how things like that change from when you are kid and you remember things being so big.

That night we had to travel an hour and a half to Tulsa, Oklahoma where we were staying. We got in at about 10 to our hotel and they were not being kind to us, they made us wait for our room to be prepared for a half hour out in the cold with no where else to go. Then once we got into the room it was filthy and disgusting. So at almost midnight we changed hotels throwing all of out stuff into the car as fast as we could and drove across town to a wonderful La Quinta Inn. We had been having issues with the moving company that was moving us and they were threatening not to move our stuff. At this point it was still sitting in a storage unit in California and we were worried about it. So once we got to our nice comfy hotel I was feeling so sick. I ended up throwing up all night. It turned out to be a long night. It was a relief to wake up and pack to get ready to see some family in Missouri.

Once in Missouri we made our way to my Uncle Scott’s. He is my dad’s oldest brother and he lives just a little outside St. Louis. We had so much fun at their house. Sage got to play with their dogs and all the neighbor dogs. It was a blast. He has a Koi pond and we got to see them and feed them. It had been a while since I had seen him, and Michael had never met him so it was exciting for both of us.

We stayed the night with Uncle Scott and the next day we headed out passing by the St. Louis temple and the gateway arch.

Passing through Illinois

And Indiana

Finally into Ohio where we would be staying with my Grandpa, we spent a really nice evening relaxing and watching TV. It may sound boring but after you are sitting in the car tense and driving just sitting and not having to think about anything is wonderful!

We were so excited because the next day we knew we would be entering into Pennsylvania, our final destination, and end of day 5! We were excited to find that when we woke up the next morning we were expecting rain. Now you have to understand that Michael being a California native was ecstatic about this. To his greatest desire it rained all the way up until we got about 30 miles from my parents house, It was a really nice change. In the end we arrived safely and extremely stressed to the max, but it was a great feeling to know that we would be starting a new chapter of our lives with family and friends close by.