Our New Car

The picture above is not our car, however it is the type of car we purchased. On Saturday Chris and I found and purchased a red 2006 Toyota Corolla with 31,000 miles. We got a great price, at just about $10,400! It is in great shape and retails for between $12 and $14,000. We even got it below Blue Book!
To top off our great deal we got a great interest rate of 5.25%!!
I'm not sure if all of that information is something that I should share but I am very proud of us for getting such a good deal on a great car.

On another not Chris got all A's winter quarter!! This past weekend was also great because my friend Julie from Utah was in Seattle and I got to see her for the first time in about three years. It was great to see her and to have her meet Chris for the first time. It went great and we had a good time catching up, even though we definitely didn't have enough time. A little time is better than nothing.

Oh and I got a new calling in church. I am no longer the valiant 12 teacher for primary, I am now the Beehive adviser. I have a whole new job to learn, but am very excited to serve these young women.

That's all for now I wish you all the best!

My Wonderful Husband

I had a very hard day today, I have caught yet another cold from my preschoolers, and then I spent the day fighting with Key Bank. I would advise no one to use Key Bank unless you like having your money stolen from you. Anyways, I was having a very hard and frustrating day and then I found out Chris was going to be home early today and was so excited that we could eat dinner together! Then he walked in the door with a dozen roses and a package of Double Stuff Oreo's. He is so sweet to me! He knew that I was having a hard day and wanted to surprise me with something special to help me feel better. After dinner he also gave me the Keith Urban CD that came out today! What a wonderful husband I have :)

It is the end....

We are going to retire the Hyundai, yes the 89 Hyundai has reached the end of it's time with the Appel family. We are going to get it put back together and drive it to the junk yard and sell it to them. We are hoping to get them to buy it from us for about $1,000 so that we can put that money towards it's replacement. We will see what happens. I wish I could say I was sad to see it go, but I can't. I am very excited to retire it. We now get to find a replacement car which I have figured out is not very much fun. Car dealers drive me crazy and I think I drive them crazy to. Hopefully we will figure it out soon, and be able to post pictures of our new car soon.

Memories...

I was looking through some pictures and found some that really make me smile. Don't get me wrong there are many other pictures in my collection that make me smile. These pictures are adventures and things that represent a time before I was married. I had great friends, all of which are not pictured here and a ton of fun. I still have great friends and a ton of fun. None the less it is fun to remember!

Melissa on her first Ferry Ride! We were on our way to Seattle to play.


This is a picture from graduation in May of 2007 a few months before Chris and I were married. In the picture is Tim and Liz Roe, Me, and Chris.



Good old Melissa up to no good as always. I love this picture!


That is Becky! She is awesome and has a style all her own, she was an amazing roommate and I miss being with her and Melissa all the time! I need to fix that...


This is Heather! We were in Utah and the car was breaking down, so we stopped at a rest stop (above) and were hoping that the car would magically fix itself... Didn't happen but we rode back to Provo with a nice German family.

I am so thankful for all of the experiences that I have had. They helped get me where I am today, and understanding that really helps me deal with life today. When I don't understand, or have a hard time I just remember that all things are working towards making me who God wants me to be. I know that Chris and I can get through anything, and that is a great blessing. I thank everyone who helped to make me who I am today!

Dan and Susie's Wedding Weekend!

Mr and Mrs Daniel Appel

Outside the Seattle Washington Temple

Cutting the cake (below)

At Dinner on Friday (below)

There is a new member of the Appel family, and her name is Susie. Their wedding was an adventure, there were many events that did not go as planned, however in the end everything turned out wonderful.

Just in case anyone was wondering, in Washington you need to have your marriage licence 3 full days before you plan on getting married, and you cannot be married without a valid marriage licence. You might be thinking "Oh No! What happened?" well they were a little late getting their marriage license and were not able to be married Saturday morning at the Temple. Not to worry because the Temple President was able to arrange for the Temple to be opened up just for them on Monday the 16th at 12:00am. That is right Dan and Susie were married just after midnight on Monday before they left for their Honeymoon at 6:00am.

Even with the slight time change, the day on Saturday was still very wonderful. Dan and Susie took the schedule changes very well and were very positive and the day was as special as it should have been. I guess I will start with dinner on Friday with the families and wedding party. We had the dinner in Seattle at a Mexican restaurant, it was a full room and was nice to spend time with everyone there and Chris enjoyed catching up with people that he had not seen in years. After dinner a few people went out and did karaoke and then went back to the hotel between two and three in the morning. We all woke up early and and were getting ready for pictures, unfortunately it was raining pretty steadily and they decided that taking pictures wouldn't work. So then we headed over to Wenatchee where they had pictures taken at a photography studio and then went to the reception and ring ceremony. Bishop Cammak was there and he did a wonderful job with their ring ceremony. It was very special and really cute. Dan had so many wonderful things to say about Susie. Susie of course had many wonderful things to say about Dan (hence why they were getting married - they kinda like each other...). I especially like how Susie ended her turn with "Go Cougs" that is school spirit right there. The reception was a lot of fun and people really enjoyed themselves. They had a beautiful cake and lots of great Mexican food.

On Sunday we had a nice day, we had lunch with the family and then headed back to Seattle. It had snowed a lot over the previous 24 hours and so traveling over Blewitt and Snoqualmie took a very long time. Chris and I hung out in Dan and Susie's hotel room until they arrived to Bellevue and then we all got ready to go take some pictures in front of the Temple before their sealing. It was dark and cold, but it wasn't raining. I am very sad because not all the pictures turned out, I think the camera might have been too cold because there are many of them where we look like ghosts. It was neat being on Temple grounds at 10:00pm. While we were taking pictures one of the security guards came over and was very excited to meet Dan and Susie because being married at midnight on Monday in the Seattle temple has never happened before that anyone there could recall. However the wonderful people there did everything that they could to make sure they could get married and that it would be special. It was a wonderful event to be a part of. I don't know if there is anything more beautiful than a Temple marriage, it was wonderful. I learned a lot and was touched by the spirit of the Lord. Eternal Marriage is such a wonderful gift and I am just so happy for Dan and Susie! I wish them all the best, and I hope they do not mind that I told their story, it was a very memorable weekend for me, but I am sure that they have much more to add and many different parts that were their favorite times.

The Appel's are in town!

Some pictures from Christmas! I know it is almost the middle of March but here are some pictures from Christmas! Soon I will have pictures from the Appel's visit and the upcoming wedding!

He was really excited to have some notebooks :)

Joy to the World!

The digital picture frame from Chris's Dad and Diana
*************************

Well I have been really slacking on this blogging stuff. I have been busy doing other activities. Chris and I had fun visiting with his Dad and Diana, and his sister Mandy and her kids. They are up in Washington visiting us before Dan and Susie's wedding. Sunday we had them all over to our house for dinner, it was the first time any of them have seen where we lived and the first time I have cooked dinner for any of them. It was fun and I am glad that we were able to spend some time together. Luckily we will see more of them throughout the week and then of course at the wedding.

If you would like an update.. here it is

Well life has been busy the last few months. We got a very bad virus on my computer and then Chris's computer broke so I have not had free roam of the internet for awhile. We have both computers back, thanks to my brother Jason! Chris has been super busy with school and work, but he is doing awesome in his classes and is registering for next quarter today or tomorrow. I am still kicking around or rather being kicked around at Kindercare. Hopefully I will be able to make a change soon. My parents and younger brother are on a nice trip in Washington DC this week and I have been dog sitting Polar and visiting with the kitty's this week. It has been lots of fun and my family is having a great time on their trip. Other than that we are looking forward to Dan and Susie's wedding and all the family that will be visiting in a few weeks. Seems like time is flying by so fast now days, it is crazy that it is almost March. Anyways I will try to get some current pictures up soon.

A New Year

Well, I am a little behind and do not have any pictures to post for Christmas yet. We did have a very good Christmas. There was a Lot of snow in Gig Harbor for Christmas this year and the whole week before! Everything slows or even stops when we get snow in this area. I ended up with half days at work if I was lucky from the first day of Snow until the this past Monday. It was a nice break, unfourtunatly loosing more than half my income for 3 and 1/2 weeks is a little stressful and we have been holding our breath and hoping to make all our bills this month. We had fun in the snow, I think it is very beautiful. This was my 2nd white Christmas in a row, which is really cool because last year was my first white Christmas.

Anyways enough about the snow for now. Christmas Eve we spent at my parents house and had a nice family dinner. It was a very nice evening and my mom made some really yummy ham with raisin sauce. On Christmas Eve Chris and I each opened one gift, I got him the Christmas movie set that has Rudolf, Frosty and all the other classics. I got a pair of really warm socks (I like to get new socks... it may seem silly but it is true). We watched a Christmas movie (I fell asleep) and then went to bed. Christmas we got up and opened presents from Chris' side of the family and greatly enjoyed everything which was so thoughtfully given to us. Thank you to everyone! I finally got to give chris his present which was a nice new Hiking Pack, so that we can go hiking this summer. Chris got me a wonderful gift and what I REALLY wanted, A Membership to the YMCA so that I (we) can go swim and work out.

The holidays were great we had a lot of fun and were able to spend time with eachother. I had a lot of time off of work between the snow and the holidays so I got a nice little vacation. Now it is on with the new year to see where it leads us. Our schedule so far has been full of weddings and baby showers. With many more coming up in the near future. Chris is doing well in school, but is very busy between school and work. I now have to find ways to keep myself busy when he is doing homework. Hope all is well with everyone!

Snow Day on the Peninsula

Well this has been a very interesting week. Full of stormy weather and snow, not as much as Spokane ended up with, but enough to cause quite a mess. The roads became very slick with the snow pack and on Thursday it took me 5 hours to make my 25 minute drive home because of all the traffic, accidents, and ice. I thought I would put up a few pictures of our yard for everyone to see.

Our Thanksiving Trip 2008

We had a wonderful trip to see Chris' family for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately we forgot our camera and had to resort to disposable camera's for our trip. We have a few good pictures and are still waiting for more to be developed.

This is a picture of Chris and Riley (his niece) on Thanksgiving Day. This was after he returned from the fishing trip with the guys at Eagle Lake, CA. Where out of 9 men who went fishing the only person to catch a fish was the 6 year old with the Spiderman fishing pole. Below is a picture of Bryson with his catch.

Robbie and CJ came and visited us for the holiday since we were in town. Robbie was Chris's best man for our wedding and we had not seen him since the wedding. It was fun to have them in town and to get to know them better. They had some very big news because they are now engaged to be married! Yay for Robbie and CJ!

This is a picture of Linda's (mom) new home in Silver Springs, NV. We made it over to see her on Friday to have another Thanksgiving dinner. It was a very nice weekend.


This was taken after we finished eating dinner on Friday. On another exciting note from our trip, Dan and Suzy announced their engagement to the family on Thursday. I tried to get pictures of that announcement but I don't think they turned out... They are planning on getting married mid march of 2009. I will have pictures to follow from our trip to Virginia City, NV on Saturday. It was a great trip and we are excited to see the family again in March and then we hope to make it down to California again. Hopefully it will not take another 1 and 1/2 years to make it down there.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

T’was the night of Thanksgiving,
But I just couldn’t sleep.
I tried counting backwards,
I tried counting sheep.
The leftovers beckoned,
The dark meat and white.
But I fought the temptation,
With all of my might.
Tossing and turning,with anticipation.
The thought of a snackbecame infatuation.
So I raced to the kitchen,
Flung open the door,
And gazed at the fridge,
Full of goodies galore.
I gobbled up turkey,
And buttered potatoes,
Pickles and carrots,
Beans and tomatoes.
I felt myself swelling,
So plump and so round.
‘til all of a sudden,
I rose off the ground.
I crashed through the ceiling,
Floating into the sky,
With a mouthful of pudding,
And a handful of pie.
But I managed to yell
As I soared past the trees
Happy eating to all,
Pass the cranberries, please!!
May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey be plump.
May your potatoes and gravy
Have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious,
May your pies take the prize
And May your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off of your thighs!
by Lauren

Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Promises To Keep Live

Starting the season off right!!

Too early for Christmas music? Some may think so, I once refused to listen to any Christmas music until Thanksgiving. Things have changed, and we are very excited for Christmas and Thanksgiving. Only a few weeks left until we go down and see Chris' family for Thanksgiving. We had a special treat to start off the Christmas music this year. We went with my parents to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. They really didn't know what they were getting into when we invited them to come with us, I think that they had fun though. It was an amazing show. I have never been to a show with so many lights and fire. It was very neat and they sound great live. I was sad that we were not able to take any pictures of the show, they do not allow it. However I posted a sample of their music below. They have many great songs that I enjoy. One of my favorite song is Promises to Keep, and part of that is for the following phrase that is in the song:

If our kindness this day is just pretending
If we pretend long enough
Never giving up
It just might be who we are

I will have to post that song also. We had a great time and highly recommend the show to anyone who has the chance to see it.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra - This Christmas Day

BYOP Party- The Big Night

Well, on Saturday we finally had our big party. We spent Friday night in the Emergency room waiting to hear about my grandpa. It turned out to be a minor stroke, he seems fine, but we are waiting on some more tests. We were sad that him and my grandma could not make it to our party, however we were very happy that he is doing very well. Saturday was a very busy day, we went to the Seattle Temple in the morning and then we came home and cleaned and got everything ready for the party. My parents were a very big help, and everything came together well. Many people showed up, carved/painted pumpkins, decorated sugar cookies and cupcakes, and visited. Below are some pictures from the party. We are thinking of making this an annual party.

This is the pumpkin I carved, it took a really long time. I think it turned out very well though.

Here is Chris watching "It's a Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown"

The decorating table

Ammon and Heather with their pumpkin masterpieces

It is a party

Richard and Becky with their pumpkin

Kayla and her painted pumpkin

I like this picture... pumpkin heads!

It was such a fun night. Thanks to everyone who came and had fun with us. To those who missed it hopefully you will have another chance next year.

BYOP Party!

You may wonder, "What is a BYOP party?" Well, I will tell you it is a Bring Your Own Pumpkin party. Chris and I are excited to be throwing a pre-Halloween party for friends and family. We will be doing pumpkin carving, or painting. Eating pumpkin bread and yummy treats. We are going make sugar cookies and maybe even award prizes to those who deserve them. We went to Wal-Mart yesterday before our dinner with Father Jim and got some fun decorations and supplies for the party. We will take lots of pictures and I'm sure we will have some fun stories to tell!

The dinner went well last night. I am sorry to report that he is feeling like he is a nuisance at our ward because he cannot get his questions answered. It makes me sad that we as church member can make others feel badly like that. He knows a lot about the bible which makes sense since he was a Catholic Minister for many years and went through Eight Years of schooling to do so. One of the problems that he is having is that we as members are not always the best speakers. To which my response is that it is just members who get up and talk, most are not trained public speakers. His next question was "well then why doesn't your church offer a class to help the members improve their speaking skills?" What a good idea! We talked a lot about the differences in beliefs between Mormon Doctrine and Catholic Doctrine. It was good conversation, no arguments, no bashing or unkind picking apart of doctrine. I learned a lot and was able to share some of what I believe, it was a wonderful opportunity. I am very thankful for it.

October Update

So it is October 1st 2008... We are still having lots of fun, waiting to see what life will bring. In the near future we have the following items to look forward to:
1. Making a trip to the dump
2. Laundry/dishes ect..
3. General Conference on Saturday and Sunday!
4. We are going to dinner at Father Jim's house on Saturday. He is an investigator at our church and was a catholic preacher for a very long time. It should be an interesting dinner, I hope it goes well.
5. Finishing/Starting Christmas presents.
6. Finishing my Halloween projects
7. Teaching the Valient 12 class at church
8. Cleaning the house (it is never-ending)
9. Fixing and selling the Jetta
10. Trying to get out of our cell phone contract
11. Waiting for some new babies.. (Baby Maverick due to come soon! Congrats to Tim and Liz)
12. Work, Work, Work...
13. Getting pictures taken for Christmas cards

That is a little list of how we keep busy. We also are watching the Band of Brothers series (Chris got it for his birthday), and Back to the Future (Chris bought the box set for his birthday). Cooper has a few new toys that my mom bought for him, he is a spoiled grandpuppy. We hope all is well with everyone else.

We Made Cookies!

Chris and I are getting very excited for another holiday season. We have started plans for many of our Christmas presents for family. Today we even made the yummy cookies Chris remembers having at home during the holidays. They are really good!

We are excited to go down to Nevada/California for Thanksgiving to see and stay with family. We have not seen many of them since our wedding. So it will be very nice, and will only be my second time at Chris' Dad's Home. Two of our friends, Robbie and CJ, are planning to come see us while we are in the area! For Christmas we will stay at home and spend the day with my family. It will be fun this year because we are going to go and cut down our own Christmas Tree! It will be the first Christmas tree we will have together, besides the small 32inch fiber optic tree we had last year. We even have a fireplace with a mantle for our stockings! It will be so nice, and I am excited to decorate our house. Below are some pictures of the yummy cookies we made :P

Happy Birthday Chris!

Chris turned 24 today! We had a very fun weekend. We spent Saturday at our stake picnic, Chris and I even got to spend time out in a pedal boat. That night we went and celebrated his birthday with my family, and had yummy cake. Sunday we went to church and met many of the kids we are going to be teaching starting next Sunday. I made him a special birthday dinner of french dip sandwiches (homemade), and roasted potatoes. It was a very fun weekend! Happy Birthday Chris, I LOVE You!!!

Thankgiving Plans! Take 2

We are flying! Yup we jst booked tickets from Seattle to Reno, NV today. We will be arriving in Reno Wednesday November 26th at 11:10am and we will fly out of Reno on Sunday November 30th at 5:10pm, to arrive back at Sea-Tac at 7:05pm. We are excited to have more time to spend with family during the weekend by cutting out A LOT of Travel time. We also thank Mom (Linda) for her help with our tickets! So we will see all of you in California and Nevada soon.

Looking Forward to Thanksgiving

I turned in my request for time off at work today. We were going to leave after I got off work and drive down to Carson City, NV which is about a 12 and a half hour drive. We decided that we should try to leave earlier to maximize our time to see family and friends who live in the area. It should be a fun trip!

September Already!

It is hard to believe that we are already in the month of September! This year has gone by very fast, and a lot has happened. We are doing very well currently, we are both working hard, and trying to figure out what is next. My little brother Zachary just started High School today! I can't believe that he is that old, I missed a lot while I was away at shool. We were able to see Mandy, Bryson, and Riley during their layover at the Sea-tac Airport. It was fun to see them again. I am teaching a preschool class at Kindercare currently, I have applied to a few other jobs so we will see what happens. Chris is working on a few different projects at work, and getting lots of hours in currently. He has been given 2 raises in the last month which is really exciting.
For our 1 year anniversary we went on a road trip/camping trip around Olympic National Park. We visited the Hoh Rain Forest, and the ocean. We camped at a Forest Service Campground that was $5.00 a night and nice because we had a site off all by ourselves. Unfortunatly it started raining pretty hard in the morning and our tent started leaking. We packed up our site in the rain and then headed off to the rain forest. We had a great wet hike through the Hall of Mosses trail at the Hoh Rain Forest. After that we drove over to the ocean, stopping to see a few sites on the way, and trying to find some food to eat, because it was raining and we didn't feel like cooking in the rain. The ocean was lots of fun because it stopped raining and we got to play on the beach with Cooper. He loves the Ocean! All in all it was a great trip, we were tired when we got home, but have some good stories and some great memories.
On August 25th we ate our wedding cake that had been in the freezer for a whole year, and it was actually still very good. For Labor Day weekend we went shoe shopping on Saturday, to my friend Ali's wedding reception on Saturday night, and then we headed out to my families lake house for the rest of the weekend. We spent some time in the kayaks, and went swimming a couple times. We had fun relaxing the rest of the time with my family that was there.
This was a somewhat random recap of what we have been doing. We miss everyone who we don't get to see often enough. I hope everyone is well.

A Year Later!

While in Portland we visited the Temple again. This was the first time we had been back to the Portland temple since we were married last August, almost 1 year later. It was wonderful to be back. It is a beautiful temple, and holds such wonderful memories, for it is the place where I was sealed to my eternal companion.

August 25th, 2007

August 10th, 2008

This has been a wonderful year, and I feel so blessed to have been given such a wonderful husband who cares for me so well. Who always makes sure that I know how much he loves me, and who believes in me when I don't believe in myself. It has been so wonderful to experience being married, and growing together as a couple. I am just so happy and blessed!

Wow it has been a long time...

Sorry I have not posted for a LONG time. It has been a very crazy few months. We moved again and are now living in Gig Harbor, close to my family. However we both have jobs and will be able to build up some savings, and well it is where Heavenly Father wants us. He made that clear. Everything worked out for this move, we had jobs over here and a place to live within 2 days of talking about moving. It was really amazing. My Aunt and Uncle are renting to us, and are really helping us out. We have to find out a way to let them know how much we appreciate it. I think we can start by paying rent.. haha :). Lets see. Last weekend was fun, Chris and I went to Portland and we got to see his brother Dan. I also took Chris to the Portland Zoo. It was his first time EVER going to the zoo, I think it is crazy. However it was fun to be there on his first Zoo visit. After the zoo we went and met up with Dan. Went to dinner, then we went swimming which was lots of fun also. Following are a few pictures from our summer 2008.

Bumping Lake, WA

On the hike to Boulder Cave, WA
My family after the boulder cave hike
Tim and Liz came and stayed with us on the 4th of July! We had lots of fun.
Outside the Portland Zoo! Chris' first trip to a zoo.

Cool Desert Nights

Today Chris and I went to a pancake feed and then walked around and looked at alot of classic cars. There were a few that I really liked so I thought I would put the pictures in of the cars that I enjoyed seeing most and then he can highlight all of his for everyone. Since my list will be much shorter probably.

This is a picture of my ring in front of a 41 Coupe.

This is an old VW and I really like it.

1911 Maxwell, one of only 86 known remaining.

I like the stain glass windows, a very nice touch.

I think this one won "Best of Show" I mean why wouldn't it??

I haven't written on the blog for a little while, so I thought I would bring everyone up to date. Last Saturday Steph and I went shopping at every yard sale and church rummage sale that we could find... several hours and $75 later this is what we ended up with: Graco carseat and stroller set, 2 dresses, child's coat rack, unopened "no room at the inn" 1000 piece puzzle, 2+ bags of children's clothing, 40-50 children's books, 10 LDS books, miscellaneous other children's toys and puzzles, 2 travel sized pillows, a few rolls of fabric, and a bag of cotton stuffing. What did we buy all of this junk for? There are many reasons, the first of which is to help us to get our home daycare idea rolling. The other reasons range from because it was a good deal, to it looked interesting, to we needed it for ourselves. Later that same week we went to the local bike shop which just happened to be having a going out of business sale. Once again we bought a few things that we were in need of to get our exercise routine started and spent next to nothing doing it. We were feeling very thrifty and tried to get the most "bang for our buck".

We are both still working at Kindercare and I am becoming more comfortable around children. I, at times, really enjoy my new line of work (it's great to get paid to play Foosball!). Of course the other end of the spectrum exists regularly as well, some days I just want to pull my hair out and relish thoughts of changing tires for a living, but those thoughts usually vanish by the end of the day.

Lastly, I am attending a new student orientation at CBC (the local community college) Tuesday of next week. I am anxious to get the whole college experience started. Similarly, I performed an oral interview with the local electrical apprenticeship committee and just wanted to brag about my score... A 91%!