100 posts!

Wow, three years, and finally post number 100! It has been a blast, and maybe in this next year with the baby, we might double that number.

Christmas 2011

Winter Storm 2010

Our crazy Cat

Graduation 2011

We lost our tree

Ashley visited Texas

Great memories with the Wagstaffs

Brody's long Hair

A homemade beard to stop the need for growing one

Stays at the Davenport

Ashley visited Florida

Ashley got braces

Winter storm 2011

Happy and Sad family memories

First baby clothes

Then there was three

Baby news

Semesters, The Good and Bad.

On Monday, Brody started another semester of school. (By the way, I am LOVING being out and done with school!) He is working hard going to school full time and working full time. So far he is enjoying his classes, his favorite being a class on the effects of music. Brody is officially a junior this year, and that means we should be out of Pullman by August of 2014!!!

Also, on Monday, I entered into my second trimester! Baby is doing fine, Tuesday we had an appointment, and everything is going great. Baby's heart beat is good and strong. We are very excited, and hoping that everything continues to go well.

Now, that Brody is in school, it seems like our summer is gone. Honestly, it couldn't be a better time to move on from summer.

It doesn't look like everything is going to peachy from fall, but it is definitely looking brighter!

As some 'housekeeping' I would like to say, if you want to know about the happening in our lives, FOLLOW our blog. I might be on facebook, but we don't like to post personal things there. Which is why, with our pregnancy we haven't gone "facebook official". That and I think it is tacky.

Summer Recap #1: Graduation!!

Well, my last few posts have NO pictures in them, but I have tons of pictures to post! So, I am going to start with the beginning of summer and work my way to now.

Graduation, was in May! I am so glad to be done with school! I graduated with a degree in Material Science and Engineering with a Minor in German and Mathematics! Man, when you put it like that the 6 years seems reasonable. I still haven't mailed out announcements... I probably should do that. Maybe that will be my goal Christmas cards and Graduations announcements.

Here are some pictures from graduation.

Engineering Arch with my parents.

Just a little bit of sisterly love...

My Best friend came to visit!

Summer is over...

And it is a very sad fact for us. Brody took the summer off from school, which was wonderful for me during the summer, not it is not! School started a few weeks ago, and he is taking two classes again. Honors Calculus two and Honors English. He hates being the oldest person in his classes of mostly freshmen.

Other than School starting nothing new has happened in our lives. Although we have been doing a little bit of "home improvements"!

We recently sold our hideous floral couches we have had (we got them for free so convincing B to sell them and purchase new ones has taken some time). We had a full set; seven-foot couch, love seat, and a winged back chair. They did not fit in our living room, and I was done with them. I had dreams of covering them, but the thought of actually doing it, overwhelmed me!

Isn't that floral print lovey....

After selling our couches we got brand new black faux leather with a white detail stitching on it. Since I now spend more time at home, I couldn't stand that the curtains did not match the couches. So then began the redecorating. We got new curtains and curtain rods and rearranged a bit. I am working on the last few details and when I am done pictures will be up!

I haven't been the only one with a little 'home improvement' project. B has been working on a bike shed! He got all the lumber free from work, it was a GIANT pallet. He broke it down to make a floor, and three walls. He now has plans to make a roof and a door. I am excited because we really do not have room in our house for bikes!

A New Year, A New Life!

Happy New Year!!! I can not believe it is 2011!!! I remember when it turn from 1999 to 2000 and everyone was concerned about Y2K and all of the computers and banks were going to crash... Ah the good olde days...

I was listening on NPR today and now the new worry for this year is information, Cyper warfare. OOOhhhh! I am so scared! Honestly, though people! Be smart! Don't post your address on Facebook, your vacation details, your phone number, mothers maiden name, last for of your social... The list goes on. WE have all heard of phishing, and know that WE are supposed to protect our personal information. So, then why put on the internet, all your personal information!!! Because we are 'social networking', LAME!! Have you heard of the telephone? Call your friends and tell them that you are going to be in the area and make plans. Your friends don't answer there phone? Send a PERSONAL email! Is your society really this daft?

NPR was also talking about mobile banking. I see how this is a great convenience, honestly if I could just snap a picture of a check and have it instantly in my back account, I could save a lot of time, money, and gas!! I have looked into for my business, but to have it I have to get a credit card for $50,000!!! That is the about amount I have paid for my B.S. in Material Science!! Which, is in loans, which means I already have that amount in debt, so why would I want a CARD worth the amount of my engineering degree?!?! Also NPR talked about how some phones store all of your information needed to hack your account... Lose you phone... Lose ALL you money, your identity, your life... I think I will stick to going to the bank, plus I like the tellers. Go to the same back often, and the teller knows you by name, and that is always nice.

After all the troubles of a new year, comes all the goals and resolutions people make. I have made a few, some of the classic ones, lose weight, get out of debt, etc... I have also made some resolutions to better life! I have read a few books during this vacation (no traveling = time to relax = time read non-text books!). They all had underlying messages about how to get a hold of your life, finances, health, weight, whatever. And so I decided, one day I want to own a house, have no debts, and go on long vacations, so why can't I?! This year we are working to achieve that. And we are starting will our waistlines and wallets. I never really ever correlated the two, but oh my are they!

Christmas!!

This is our second Christmas together! We can not believe that we have been married for one and a half years!!!  So much has happened! Lets see, we have gone skiing, had a few trips to the hospital and one emergency room visit, Brody started school, I am about to graduate, we started a business, and have been having tons of fun enjoying life!

This year we had to get another Christmas tree... It was very said when the potted tree we got last year died. If any of you have been to our house you know that I have many many plants. Most of which I have nursed back to health, but for some reason I killed an EVERGREEN!!! This year we saw a Newfolk potted Christmas tree and decided that we would try again. He is a small little guy but, is just the tree for us! It took us a while to decorate it (we actually had gifts under it before I was able to decorate!). Here he is, with his red and gold decorations!

This year we will be doing Christmas in Palouse!! Which translates to, NO TRAVELING!! I am done with traveling across the state for a while! We wish you all a very Merry Christmas!!

Paying it Forward

In light of my last post I decided this one should start out with a story about the good in the world!
Today, I went to print and bind a final report for one of my classes (the report was actually due a week ago, I just have not had time to go to the campus printers...) I had to print this 24 page color document and get it bound. The guy at the shop let me look though it before it was bound, and good thing!! Some how during save the word document as a PDF document it messed up the table of contents for the appendix. The guy let me fix it on the shop computer, and then after printing out the wrong page twice, only charged me for the 4 pages with color on then and the rest as black and whites, and NOT for the wrong pages!!! The guy was so nice, I had left my thumb drive there too on accident and he run me down in the CUB to return it! I am so glad he did because my senior thesis is on there along with all my research!!!

A while ago I heard about paying it forward, and thought it was a weird saying that did no make much since. More recently, I have been thinking of ways to help those around me. I started a business selling jewelry and have meet some absolutely wonderful people. This group of women that I have joined are the most caring and selfless people I have ever met. Most of them are way older than me, and I sometimes feel like a the teenage daughter a mom brought to girls night out. One of the women I have become close to, is trying to adopt, and another women, who has recently adopted, started an organization, to help this first woman and others trying to adopt. What kind of people, just start organizations to help one family and others because they found so much joy in adopting?! These women are so amazing! I do not feel like I am giving them the proper dues here.

I do not have a lot of means right now in my life, and monetarily helping someone is out of the question, but I have decided that we should donate the random food he get to try and never do, or volunteer  at the food bank, help someone when their car gets stuck in the mud/snow. These little acts of kindness those are the ways Brody and I can help those in need around us. How can you Pay it Forward and help some one around you?

Complaints

I just want to complain for a moment about the stupid crap people do. It first starts with people who invite themselves over a day early.

Seriously! I know you are family and all, but Brody and I have a life too! We both go to school, we both work, and the little time we do have, we like to spend it alone or with close friends. Not with my brother who told me he will never like Brody or his new wife, whom I have yet to have a longer that 5 minute conversation with. It is ok, I can forgive you wanting to come over earlier in case the roads get bad, but ANNOUNCING that you are going to take a shower TOGETHER in MY SHOWER in MY HOUSE is not! To top it off, you made me so disgusted and aggravated that I forgot to get you towels so instead of saying anything you just used our towels that we had hanging up in our bathroom.

Maybe you just hate me, but since you were staying in my home I tried to give you comforts. I invited you to eat our food, and enjoy meals with us, but you just wanted to eat out and spend as much time as possible away. This was insulting, and I called you on it. What did you do? Nothing. I guess this is what Husky fans are like. Lesson learn, never invite a husky to your home.

The next is Group Project. Now I have experienced multiple kind of group projects: The kinds where one person does all the work, and kind where everything is done last minute, the kind where one person drops off the face of the planet, and the kind where you are working with a giant corporation and 5 guys...

I have always disliked group projects, and so I will admit to it, I have been that person who drops off the face of the planet, just because I hate them so much. Well with this project, I knew I couldn't do that because if I do not participate I do not graduate. So I chose the group where I know people would do the work, and not wait last minute. This is why I am in Seattle Sunday before dead week, because we have a presentation with a large company on Monday! (I signed some discloser form so I can't say what we did, who we did it for, or why, but think about it, you can guess which large company in Seattle would need engineers to work for them...)

I thought that engineers do not have lives which means that those welders in the group would be able have finished this project so we could have been done right before Thanksgiving. Nope. We actually finished the prototype this morning before we left for Seattle. To top it all off we a presentation in front of managers and possible a CEO tomorrow at 2 PM and the presentation is not done! And I do not care. I have my reasons why, but that would take another super long post. Mainly it is that I have another presentation I need to work on for my personal Senior thesis and paper to write, and three finals to prepare for.

Ah, the life of an Engineer. Good thing I graduate in May!!