Good Riddance 2010.... Hello 2011!!!!!

Even though New Years gets downplayed with all the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, it is still one of my favorite holidays! Not because my exciting social life has me buzzing all around town (most years I'm asleep before the ball even drops!!!) But because of the sense of hope and new beginnings come with a new year!!!

This past year for me will not be missed. Although in 2010 we moved into our new home and welcomed Baby AJ into our lives, we also had a lot of heartache. Still with all of our struggles, I am hopeful that 2011 will be our year. I have so many goals and dreams for this new year. This year on my 2011 wishlist is......

+ I hope to be enrolled in at least one class to work towards my BSN-I have been saying this for the past year though :)
+ To have 2 debts paid off!!!! Yay for debt snowball
+ New jobs for my husband and my dad!!
+ a Baby - I'm still hoping for this and praying for answers everyday
+ Running a 2nd Half Marathon
+ Vacation .... I'm thinking either Punta Cana or Cabo!

I'm hoping by writing these goals down it will make me more accountable to achieve some of them! Although my two biggest goals for this year are completely out of my control, I'm going to keep praying for answers!!!

October

Well we started the fall season off with a bang. Ev and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary this year! I can't believe everything we have gone through together. All the ups and downs of this past year have definately brought us so much closer together. If we weren't sure before how strong we were as a couple or how unconditionally we love each other, we for sure do now.

Here is a list of the other October events that filled our schedules!!!

( I will let you find the overall trend in our lives right now)

Hockey, Laura's off orientation in the Neuro ICU (and loving it), Hockey, Hockey, Laura's first Half Marathon, Hockey, Hockey, Hockey, Ev sick with pneuomonia, Hockey, Hockey, Hockey, Hockey, Decorated our new house for Fall, Hockey, Hockey, Hockey, Hockey, Hockey!!!

Stuart Summer Happenings

I know this is very, very late. But better late than never right?!? But finally I've come out of my blog blues and have decided to update the site. I orginally started this site to help keep people updated on our Vegas Adventure. But as many of you know that dream among others fell through :( Instead of being down about everything I've finally decided to at least keep up on the events and changes in Ev and my life. So in a nutshell here are just a few of the lastest of the Stuart Happenings!

Very slowly we are working on making our new house a HOME. We are absolutely in love with our new house because for the first time it feels like home! Our first project was a front landcape facelift. After 20 bags of mulch, 2 cans of spray paint, 2 flats of flowers, 1 quart of paint, and countless loads of rock we came out with a front yard that makes me smile everytime I look at it.

Also this year we decided to forgo a big summer vacation, Dave Ramsey would be proud! Instead we wanted to do a few stay-cations and save our money for a big vacation this winter when the cold weather has us begging for sunshine and margaritas. So far we have enjoyed nights on the patio with a bottle or two of wine, Put-Put Golf, and a trip to Binder Park Zoo. Neither Ev or I could remember being to Binder since we were in grade school. Yikes! The best part of the zoo was the feed the giraffe exhibit. I hate to admit had it not been for that experience it would have been a bust.

Ev and I have love, love, loved to be able to spend a lot of time this summer with our munchkins!!!! Watching Bres and Lou Lou last weekend was so much fun. The kids spent the night with us and both days we watched them were filled with smiles and laughter. Some of my favorite things from the weekend were watching Bres and Lou chase Mason thru "the Tunnel" aka our entryway hallway, taking them to the playground near our house, and watching the nakey babes run thru the sprinkler in the backyard. It was a fun and exhausting weekend. I am so glad we did it and was grateful yet sad when we passed them off to Memo and Bop-Bop for the rest of the weekend.

I absolutely LOVE this picture!!!!

Pound Puppy

So since I have known my husband he has CONSTANTLY asked me for another dog! I was able to put off the subject by using the excuse that we should wait until we were in a house......but I don't have that excuse anymore.

It seemed like since before we even closed on the house, Evan started asking me about getting a dog. I kept coming up with excuses why not to get a dog such as the shedding, potty - training, and overall I just didn't want one. Eventually he wore me down.

After Ev got the green light he threw himself into the task of finding his perfect dog. He toyed with the idea of puppy vs. older dog and breed. Finally he had it narrowed down to 3 dogs. His top 2 picks were out of town, and there was one locally. He agreed to see the Jackson dog first, but had you asked him he would have told you he didn't think it was going to work out......he was wrong! Ev took one visit and fell in LOVE!!! Over the course of the next couple days he saw this puppy twice a day. On Monday I went to see the dog as well. She was gorgeous. The first day I met her she was very calm and I secretly liked how she followed me around so much and wouldn't even budge when Ev tried to take her outside on the leash!

The big test came on Thursday afternoon. Cascades Humae Society has a policy that if you already have a dog you must do a "Meet 'n Greet" to make sure neither dog is aggressive towards each other. We didn't think Mason would have a problem with this since he's Mason, but we were a little concerned about Sugar (that's what Cascades called her). It didn't go great. All Mason wanted to do was hide and all Sugar did was bark......alot. We took some time to rethink if this was something we really wanted, but in the end it was Sugar that helped us decide to take her home!!!

Sugar, now renamed Saige (mix of Gage and Sarge) is doing great! Ev and her are attached at the hip. Wherever Ev is, Saige is close at his heels. We have only had her for 4 days now and already she knows how to sit and lay on command. Ev is soooo happy he finally has his puppy and I am surprisingly happy too. Mason on the other hand is less than thrilled.

Home Sweet Home

We are officially homeowners again!! Truthfully we have been since February I've just been a little delayed with the posting, but better late than never right?! We are already settling into the new house. We've hosted some family get togethers and are very slowly starting to unpack all our our crap, I mean stuff!!! This weekend Ev and our our going to tackle the front landscaping. My mom is letting us split some of her hostas and we will lay some mulch done in front as well. Right now there's just a gray retaining wall with gray stone as ground cover. It's nice but with the house being gray and the hardscape gray..it's a little too much as you can tell from the picture!

In other news, Ev is still training for his marathon which is just over a month away. Last Saturday he went for an 18 mile run!!! Until this week he has been injury free with his training. Nothing major thank goodness. Just an old sports injury flare-up. So for the rest of the week he's taking it easy. Hopefully a weeks rest and a new pair of running shoes will do the trick. He put over 400 miles on his old ones and the recommended max is about 300!!!

House Hunting

Well we are officially house hunting again! We began looking for our new home last week. The process began in Spring Arbor, where we looked at 4-5 homes. Unfortunately, we weren't in love with anything we saw and the houses that are available in that area are either too expensive or too small :(

Then I came across a hopeful in the Stonegate Farms subdivision of Jackson. Ev was a little hesitant at first, only because he really wanted to be in the Spring Arbor area in a more country setting. The more I told him about the house, the more he kept joking that he was in trouble! It was perfect!!! Ev and I both loved the house. It is a two story home with 3 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths. Full size kitchen with an island, large dining room, and living room with a gas fireplace. It even has an unfinished basement and large backyard with a deck and a hottub!!! After going home and thinking about it, we put in an offer the next day. We haven't heard back yet, but were told from our realtor that she was able to speak to the seller's agent and they assured us we would have an answer back by tomorrow!!! Wish us luck and keep us in your prayers!!!