It's been a while...I know. But there hasn't been too much going on with us. Our lives are pretty boring during a school semester. We wake up. I go to work, Shem going to school and work and then 11 hours later we are back home where we eat dinner and Shem goes off to do school work and I watch a few episodes of Cheers or The Cosby Show on Netflix. It is quite the excited life. But now the semester is over!!! So instead of going to school Shem goes to work all day just like me. And instead of coming home and doing school work we have committed ourselves to going to the gym every day after work. We started last week and we made it every day. Now we just have to keep that tradition going...Speaking of school, Shem got his grades all back. This was another semester of him saying that he wasn't going to pass his classes and that he would have to re-take some of his classes. But I had faith in him. Not only did he pass all of his classes but he also raised his overall GPA again and made the Deans List with honors again! I am so proud of him. All of his hard work and late nights paid off yet again. I am still planning on him graduating next May but he tells me that since he had to change his catalog year that graduation may be pushed back another year because of 2 classes, I believe, that he has to take. So I strongly encouraged him to email his advise and see if they can't work something out. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

We celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary this month. I cannot believe how fast time flies. It seems like the other day we were counting down to our wedding day and here we are 2 years later. We both took the day off of work and it was so nice to have a 4 day weekend! We went and got new cell phones, went and show the movie Thor and then had an excellent meal at Lock Stock and Barrel. Very yummy. Shem got prime rib and I got filet minon. I would highly recommend that place. So a few months ago we were very seriously thinking about going on a cruise for our anniversary weekend to the western Caribbean. Well after we researched everything and added the cost up for everything we decided that it was probably best we didn't spend a lot of money that we didn't have and put what we make this summer in our savings account instead of the credit card bill! It was a tough decision but we are both so happy that we made that choice. So instead of a week long tropical paradise anniversary, we had a nights stay at the Anniversary Inn in the South Pacific room! We had our own little tropical paradise island all to ourselves. We didn't get our cruise this year but it will defiantly come some year!

This summer we are also trying to grow a little garden. It is hard when you are renting and do not have a lot space but I think that we have come up with a pretty good plan; let's just hope it works! I was at Michael's the other day and they had those plastic sand buckets for $1. Well I bought 5 of them and had Shem drill holes in the bottom. We bought some top soil from Costco and some plants and planted a little garden. We have a red and green bell pepper, a jalapeno, rosemary and basil. We have 2 little flower beds and in one of them we did carrots and onions and in the other we are trying for tomatoes and cucumber. I hope they turn out. I am so excited about what we were able to plant with how little space we have.

Well that is about it for us. I have attached some pictures for your enjoyment. Part of my family did the Race for the Cure at the beginning of this month in honor of my Aunt Collette who was diagnosed with breast cancer last fall. It was a lot of fun and now I have a picture of Shem with a pink shirt on! :)

My niece Mackenzie posing for the camera.

The whole group, minus my dad.

Lily and Brycen ready for the 1 mile walk.

Our beach bucket garden! Rosemary, Red Pepper, Green Pepper, Jalapeno, Basil.

We have carrots planted on the side that looks empty and onions are the little green bushes.

Our tomato plant and cucumber.

December Happenings

Well we hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas! I am a little behind on posting updates with our family but what else is new! We had another great Christmas season. Santa found us and spoiled both us very much. I got Shem a new watch (trying to break his habit of always checking his cell phone for the time before he graduates and has to get a "real" job) which is a little too big for him since he has small wrists. So we are now trying to find a jeweler who can re-size it for us so he can actually wear it. I also got him a pair of jeans and the dvd Kicking and Screaming. Santa brought Shem some Marie Sharps hot sauce all the way from Belize. It is his favorite hot sauce from his mission. He brought 2 levels of hot, No Wimps Allowed and Beware. I tried the No Wimps Allowed (the lesser of 2 evils) and I about died! Shem was very surprised by his gift from Santa and so it was fun to watch him open those.

Both Santa and Shem were very good to me this year. Santa brought me a foam Bronco head. Last October we went to the Anniversary Inn and stayed in the Bronco Nights room. It was so much fun! They used the foam head as the cover for the shower head/rod and cut the nose out of the head and had the shower head coming out of there. Well anyways, it was just so funny that Santa brought me that to remind me our night there and Shem is really excited to use it as our shower head cover. Unfortunately we can't use it right now because our shower head is removable and it won't work. But Shem is excited about being able to use it at our next house! I was very spoiled by my dear husband this year. For those who do not know, I had a miscarriage at 7 weeks on November 15th. When we found out we were pregnant one of the first things I absolutely knew that I wanted was a rocker/glider. And I didn't want a cheap one. So I went to Craigslist and thought I would start looking since we had a few months to prepare. Well I think it only took a day for me to find one and so I sent the link to Shem and told him this is what I want for Christmas. It was within our budget we set for ourselves for Christmas and it was exactly what I wanted. Well I didn't know if he had actually gotten it for me until Christmas morning. With the miscarriage I wasn't sure if he felt he should or not but he did. And I am so happy he did! I love my chair! I have some pictures below of it. You'll have to excuse my red puffy eyes. I started crying when I opened it. It was difficult as Christmas was when we were going to tell our families we were expecting and all those emotions came flooding back. We know that we will get plenty of use out of it whenever we are blessed to have children.

My parents spoiled us yet again this year. We asked for Wii and we got one! We also got a canner as our Christmas Eve present. I am so excited! I canned apple pie filling and homemade spaghetti sauce with my mom this fall and it was really fun and really easy. So now I am already to do more canning this fall! We are having lots of fun playing the Wii together and watching movies on our tv with our Netflicks. A lot easier then watching on our lap top!

Shem and I were able to celebrate our first New Years Eve together without me being sick! That was a miracle. 2 years ago when we were dating we had just gotten back from Canada and I have a very very very bad cold and sore throat and so we stayed at my house and had a very low key ringing in of 2009. Last year I got strep throat on the 30th and so yet again we stayed home and I slept and had Shem wake me up right before midnight so he could give me a kiss on the check and I could attempt to try to toast in 2010 with some sparkling cider. I told myself that I was going to do whatever it took to be healthy to ring in 2011! We took a chance and booked a suite at the Anniversary Inn because they had this amazing offer going on and crossed our fingers. And luckily I did not get sick. I was even able to stay up until midnight, with a little help from the fizziness of a Root Beer! But sure enough I went right to sleep right after. My night owl of a husband was up until 4:44 and that is only because I woke up and saw that he was still awake and told him to go to bed. We are total opposites when it comes to that! I can hardly stay awake and night and he loves to stay up way late.

We still do not have a definite answer on whether or not Joe (our horse) is pregnant. We could spend the money to have someone come and and preg check her but what is the point? They don't breed in the winter and so even if she isn't, it's not like we can take her back to her "boyfriends" and try again! Shem and I both think that she is getting bigger but Shem assures me that in a few months we will definitely be able to tell. We are both trying to be patient but are just excited to know if we will have a colt at the end of the summer! I took a picture of them today. Now that Shem is on break from school he has some extra time to spend with her and went for a ride around the pasture today.

Enjoy the pictures!