Christmas

I know this is a tad late... but life has been a whirlwind!

First, our decorations this year.

Kitchen:




Office:


Hall:

Living room:






We didn't do the bathrooms or bedrooms this year:(

My company had its Christmas party at Sycamore Mineral Springs in Avilla Beach. We got to stay 2 nights, have fancy food, and the last night we had a band, dancing, open bar, and a gift exchange.

Room:





Par-tay:


Since Jerad and I hadn't had time to celebrate our 3 yr. anniversary, we did it while we were there. He got me a gorgeous aquamarine topaz ring and I got him a watch and cologne.

We went to the beach and the weather was AMAZING! Ahhh, Christmas on the Central Coast!





The day we got back Jerad's aunt Pam and uncle Mark had a gift exchange at their house:



We spent Christmas eve with my family and Jerad's dad and brother Joey and Larry's whole family came over. We had all sorts of food and drinks and played Wii. It was a ton of fun. Christmas eve was one of my families biggest traditions at my grandma's house before she died so it was nice to get people together again!

Christmas morning we spent with my family:



And then the afternoon and night with Jerad's:
After we opened presents and his sister and her family went home, Joey, Jerad and his dad played a bunch of songs. Jerad on guitar, Joey on drums, and Rusty on the trumpet:


Joey also graced us with his mad dancing skills. All the pics of THAT came out blurry:)
So much to do in so little time!

All in all we only made like 11 pies this year between Thanksgiving and Christmas instead of the usual 18. But I tweaked a few recipes to perfection and am working on a few more. I want a pie shop.

The day after Christmas we were planning on going to Disneyland, but Jerad *wanted* to take down our Christmas decorations and get the house cleaned up and some yard work done before our New Years trip instead. I love that motivated man!!! He also painted our hall bathroom and bedroom. I'm in heaven!

Jan 1st we whisked off to Arizona for a 5 day trip to see a friend get married and spend time with friends. So far it has been a blast!

Lucky Ducky

Jerad spends a lot of his time at work drawing up plans, revising them, redrawing... you get the picture. He decided that it would be easier on him if he had a laptop and Auto Cad. So... he asked his company to buy them for him.

He doesn't really even have a desk job so I figured no way.

Imagine my surprise when I walked in yesterday and there is a shiny silver laptop on the kitchen table... the worst part is I think its nicer than mine! Then again mine is pink so I win right? Say yes people.

Really, a pink Inspiron (ooh, sounds like 'inspiration')


Or a Gray "Latitude" (I totally typed "latiturd" on accident. I crack myself up) Latitude just sounds so.... flat!

Anyways, all joking aside, Jerad is super stoked, I'm super proud of him, its really nice having 2 laptops around the house so one of is isn't confined to the office to use the desktop. AND, he actually might start responding to those emails you've given up sending him!

Also, tonight is his last softball game of the season... so cross your fingers that they win!

If you are feeling really ambitious, you can join us. Have a case beer and cheer them on! We don't actually know what time the game is, but whenever it is we'll be there haha.

You can text me if you're interested in going or feel sorry for me being basically the entire fan club.

Un-resigning...

... sort of.

Remember how Jerad just resigned and had all sorts of other jobs he was starting? Well, today he accepted an offer to stay through the end of August or until they can hire a replacement, whichever comes first in exchange for a $4/hr raise and more flexible schedule.

This is actually a good thing because they had told him if he ever needed any extra money or weekend work he could pink up hours there and now it will be at a higher rate. And he will be leaving on super good terms and if he ever DID go back he would have already been getting a raise for having a welding certification and all of the union certs., and now it will be a raise on top of the new pay instead of the old pay... and he will have full benifits for awhile longer because after he quit he will just have health until he joins the Union.

So at first I was sort of like "eh..." cause we had planned on having all this extra time to you know, see each other before school started and be able to finish all the house projects, but in the long run it will be really really good so I'm happy. And the end of August is worst case scenario. They could find someone sooner. Lets cross our fingers for that one!

Tearing things down

Last weekend Jerad and our neighbor Tom tore down the old fence that was between our lot (and rental lot) and theirs. It was a loooooong fence. That ditch you see was just a little part of it:

They also took out all the posts. That were in a massive amount of concrete. Those are in the front of the pic above.

Next to the rental house is a tree that was cut down 4 years ago, then grew back as a bunch of little trees. It is right where the ditch for the concrete retaining wall will need to be, so jerad cut it down.




The plan was to rent a stump grinder to remove the stump... then it turns out every stump grinder in the county is broken, so Jerad and Tom had to do it the old fashioned way. With axes, shovels, and a truck. You know, cause we were fresh out of oxen and all.
I supervised:

Okay, no I did not stand there and micromanage. Tom just thought it would be a really funny picture.I didn't get a pic of them actually pulling it out because for most of the time I was covering my eyes. The truck would swing towards the house and I was 99.762% positive that it was going to hit the house. Good thing it was the rental house and not ours! (ha, jk Melinda)

Anyways, it was a grueling allll day project but they were pretty proud when they were finished. And pretty sore when they woke up. Well, Jerad was, I didn't go knock on Tom's door at 6 in the morning and ask, I'm not a creeper like that.