Happy New Year!

Home Decorating

Last week my friend, Summer Griffin, and I went shopping for little things for the house. One of the main things I was looking for was this mirror key rack. I had seen it on PotteryBarn.com but never again since. We went everywhere searching for it or something similar, we checked Big Lots, Tuesday Morning, Home Goods, Pier 1, Walmart and the like. Then today I was at Target getting some prescriptions filled when I saw it! I was so thrilled!!! I ran home and had my brother Cameron help me put it up. It is the first decorative thing I have been able to put up since we moved in almost two weeks ago!

It's Official... we're home owners!

After lots of budgeting, saving, looking, offering, and waiting we are finally homeowners!!! Earlier this year Brian and I made the decision that we wanted to save money and buy a house. So immediately I went to work budgeting and planning to see if we would even be able to do it. We watched the housing market and became familiar with certain terminology, prices, areas etc. Then around the end of August early September we called up my Uncle Alan, who is a lender and real estate agent, to meet and discuss the process. Brian found a couple listings and our search began. We saw many condos, and town homes but nothing that jumped out at us. Then we saw a place in Rancho Santa Margarita that was great! We walked in and it was the first place that actually felt like a house, not a condo but a house. I was elated, so we made and offer and got rejected… but then the same day realized that there was another house we saw online that was the exact same floor plan and model just different area. We immediately checked it out and loved it, so we put an offer on it and about a week later received a counter offer… little did we know what we were getting into. It has taken us about 3 months to actually get this house because of so many issues with their real estate agent and all the work that comes with a short sale, but thanks to my awesome Uncle and his team we finally own the property. I must say that when Brian and I first started to budget and save I didn’t think we would be able to buy a house in less than a year but we did it! We can actually say that we bought this house completely on our own and I think that is the biggest most exciting part of this whole thing. It really goes to show that if you want something bad enough and you work hard, you can achieve it. Many people have questioned us buying a house during this huge recession that the country is going through and the continuous decline of housing prices and I would be lying if I said we hadn’t thought about it, but we fasted and prayed about each house we put an offer on and this is the house for us.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIAN!!!

I did it!

Most of you know that my mother is SUPER talented and can pretty much do anything... to me she is super mom! Every time I have a project I go to her, and fortunately for me she is always willing to lend a hand. Well this last week I was just surfing the web and came across this super easy, super cute project, a "Rag Quilt." Normally my first thought would be, I should call Mom, however this time it was, "You know, I bet I could do that... by myself." So that same day I went to Joann's and picked out some fabric, unfortunately the pickin's were slim in cute flannel material but I found a few that I thought might work. I went home and cut out a million squares, to be honest that was the part I was most worried about, figuring out how many squares I would need, what size and how to cut them out and not waste fabric. Fortunately it wasn't all that hard and it was probably the biggest accomplishment in this whole project.

Here are my nicely stacked squares, the fabrics were a little tricky when it came to figuring out which side was the "right" side, flannel is pretty tricky.

Then I layed them all out on the floor. The only tricky thing with rag quilts is that you have to remember to lay out the bottom as well as the top squares, so I had to make sure the pattern was the same on the front and back without seeing the bottom before sewing the squares together. Then, row by row I sewed the squares together, and finally I sewed the rows together to make the blanket.

Afer it was all sewn I had to cut slits in all the seems, oh I forgot, also with rag quilts you have to sew all the seams the same way so one side is flat and then front is "ragged." I must say, the cutting was my least favorite part, I got a bruise on my thumb. :-(After you're done cutting all the seams, you throw the blanket in the washer and the dryer. While in the dryer the seems shed and create a "rag" like edge.
And here is the finished project! It only took me two nights from start to finish! I think the best part is that I proved to myself that I could do it!

Happy Halloween!

Elder Sky

Hey Everyone,

I have created a blog for Skylar per his request and I have uploaded some pictures he sent us! Check it out www.skylarneilson.blogspot.com or you can click the link to the left titled Elder Neilson.

Enjoy!

Picture Tag

My cousin Abby had this great post, what you do is type items in google and use the google pictures to describe things about you. Here is what came up for me. It's actually a lot of fun!

My name:

My age:

Some place I want to visit: (Italy)

My favorite vacation spot:(Cabo San Lucas, Mexico)

My favorite item:(Got them at Payless!)

My favorite indulgence:

My favorite color:

My favorite food:

My favorite animal:

Past loves which I wish I got to enjoy more:(Country swing dancing)

Where I live:

Where I grew up:Guilty pleasure:

What I am doing right now:

My first job:

Tag...

*Your High School's full name: Mission Viejo High School
*School Colors: Red and Gold
*School Mascot: Diablo (Devil)
*Did you date anyone from your school? Nope, they were all too short.
*What kind of car did you drive: Club Wagon Van (12 seater) and Plymouth Voyager van and one other one that I can’t remember.
*It's Friday night, where were you: Working at In-N-Out or hanging out with my friends from there.
*Were you a party animal: No…they were never enticing to me.
*Were you considered a flirt: Umm… sometimes but I think people mistake flirting with being friendly.
*Were you in any clubs: Nope.
*Did you ever get expelled or suspended: Nope.
*Can you still sing the fight song: I don’t think anyone really knew the fight song…other than it was painted in the gym.
*Who were your favorite teachers: Mr. Tsang, he was my photography teacher.

*Where did you sit during lunch: I was done with all my classes at lunch so I just went home or to work.
*Who did you go to Homecoming with: Never went to Homecoming…ever…
*If you could go back and re-do high school would you: Never! It was the worst 4 years of my life!
*What do you remember about Graduation: Some people snuck in beach balls and played keep away with the faculty.
*Do you plan on going to your 10 year reunion: I think it would be fun, to see what happened to some of the crazy people.
I TAG: Missy and Abby

Pictures of the Romantic Dinner I wrote about a week ago.

Weekend Getaway

Brian called me at work around 2:00 PM and asked if I could get leave work now to go on a quick trip. I talked to my boss and within 10 minutes I was on my way home. We went to San Diego and stayed at an adorable hotel right on the water. At night we walked around some shops and watched the sunset in the bay.














Today we woke up early and went to see the National Monument Cabrillo. We walked around the cemetery of War veterans, a really cool lighthouse and walked down to the beach.

Afterwords we went to the Aerospace Museum and learned about the history of airplanes. It was really cool, they had lots of neat displays and they even had the actual Apollo 9 Command Module.

Lastly we went to the Maritime Museum of boats. We took a 40 minute boat tour of the bay, walked through a Russian submarine which was incredible and toured The Star of India.

The best part about this whole weekend was spending it with my wonderful husband who put it all together. It was so nice to get away and spend some time doing something educational and fun!

Thanks honey for an amazing weekend, it was absolutely perfect. I love you!