Thanksgiving and 28th Birthday

We decided to spend head to Cleveland to spend Thanksgiving with my Oma this year. We had a really fun time! Oma is the best and took care of us all weekend, and it was fun for Jared to be able to meet some more of my family out there. We had a delicious turkey dinner on Thursday and then just hung out the rest of the weekend. We did a little Black Friday shopping with my cousins and then celebrated Jared's 28th birthday on Saturday. I told him on the way over that he was going to get the best birthday cake he's ever had, and I wasn't lying! My aunt and uncle own a bakery out there, and they seriously make the BEST cakes hands down, and Jared's was way good.

I don't want to get too mushy, but I'm lucky to be married to such a great guy! I hope you enjoyed your birthday, love you!

 Thanksgiving

On Friday night we went saw a show at a club with my aunts, uncles, 

my cousin Jess and her husband Mike, it was pretty interesting. . . 

A"Mardi Gras" theme and I'll leave it at that! :)

Jared's face in this picture cracks me up!

We went out for lunch on his birthday

Delicious cake!

When we got home we had a sweet package in the mail from 

our nieces and nephews, they are the best!

We decided to put the Christmas Tree up yesterday. 

New Year's "Resolutions" Revisited

Today has been an interesting day. President Obama got re-elected last night, and a lot of talk on social media has been about how much doom and gloom we can expect in the next four years. You'd seriously think it was the end of the world, which is a little dramatic if you ask me. I will admit that I voted for the other guy and I wasn't particularly happy to see that Obama won, but  all this pessimism me thinking today of the good things that Jared and I have that we can focus on. This got me thinking about this past year and how much has changed for us, so I decided to take a look at the New Year's "Resolutions" that I listed back in January and give updates about each one, which are listed in blue if you care to read any further :)

Things we will do. . . 

1. We will pay off our student loans, only 4 more months to go baby (We are so close. When I wrote this in January, I was only considering Jared loans, which we did pay off, but we still have a little ways to go with mine that kicked in after I finished Grad School.)
2. I will finish writing my thesis-of-doom and graduate with a Master's Degree! (Speaking of Grad School, I kicked the crap out of my thesis-of-doom and I officially graduated back in August.)
3. Jared will get a roof rack for the Subi. . . already has half of it now (Yeah he got the rest of the rack, I will admit that it looks pretty cool.)
4. We will pay off my car loan (Paid in full!) 
5. I will continue to make dinner most nights (Most is the key word here people, and I can say that I have done well to keep trying new recipes.) 
6. Jared will continue to go on lots of bike rides (This is the biggest understatement of the year.)
7. We will be moving up toward the SLC area, not sure where exactly, but somewhere north of Provo! (Bahaha, not so much, we are currently 2000 east of that destination.)
8. I will turn 25, the big quarter century year! (It's a perfect square year too, 5 x 5 = 25, there's really only 9 realistic perfect square years one could reach, so I thought it was a pretty cool, math geek here!)
9. Jared will turn 28 this year. . . nothing special about 28, other than it sounds old haha  (Yep, his b-day is Nov 24th and we will celebrate with some delicious cake from my Uncle's bakery.)
10. We will watch the rest of the second season of The Walking Dead (We finished watching the 2nd season and starting watching the 3rd season a few weeks ago. This past episode really pissed me off though, so I'm boycotting the rest of it!)
11. I will exercise only when I feel like it, which is not often haha! (Perfectly true statement here, I definitely have not exercised very often this year, although I did try out a Zumba class with a friend of mine, it's actually pretty fun!)
12. Jared will continue to curse the crappy Utah drivers on his commute to work. (Now he curses the crappy Wisconsin drivers. . . I don't think the location really makes a difference, everybody is a crappy driver in his eyes :) ha) 
13. We will be watching alot of basketball in the next four months and then alot of summer Olympics after that! (I watched the Olympics all day, every day. It was the best part of not having a real job over the summer!) 
14. I will continue to watch our budget like a hawk because I'm a little OCD when it comes to finances (Guilty, we just had a little budgeting pow wow last night before bed, it's amazing how fast you can blow through money if you aren't careful.)
15. Jared will design some sweet stuff at work and will likely pick up some free lance projects on the side (The verdict is still out on whether or not Trek will actually implement some of Jared's good designs. . . )
16. We will spend alot of evenings hanging out and relaxing together, we just aren't the most social people on the planet! (This is even more true now that we are living in Wisconsin)

Things we want to do. . .

1. We want to get some new couches, we are thinking a sectional (Haven't made this purchase yet, we are still making due with my parents 15 year old hand-me-down couches.)
2. I want to fly back to Cleveland sometime over the summer so that Jared can meet the rest of my extended family back there (One perk of living in Wisconsin is that we are close enough to drive to Cleveland. Jared has been able to meet alot of family back there, and he will get to meet even more when we go for Thanksgiving.)
3. Jared wants to get fog lights for the Subi (No luck there yet, it's further down the list now that he has access to discounted Trek merchandise) 
4. We want to see the Hunger Games movie (Good show)
5. I want to find a new apartment that is big enough to fit my piano (Done, just in a different state then originally planned when writing this list!) 
6. Jared wants to find a new apartment that is big enough for all of our biking and camping junk! (See above)
7. We want to go on a fun road trip somewhere with friends (Hmm. . . if we count each other as friends, road-tripped to Cleveland, and we plan to road trip to Lambeau Field this weekend haha)
8. I want to get a job as an adjunct professor at BYU teaching math (this is a freakin long shot but it would be cool!) (Well I did get offered that job at BYU, but we moved to Wisconsin, which still counts for something I'd say! At least I'm still working at the college level out here, much better fit for me than public school teaching)
9. Jared wants to get a job at REI Headquarters (another long shot, but this is a list of "wants" people!) (I'd say Trek is a pretty good deal for him)
10. We want to go to see a Jazz game when they play Jimmer's team (Never ended up getting tickets to watch the Jazz when they played Jimmer's team, not that it mattered because Jimmer is not a very good NBA player as of yet.)
11. I want to learn how to cook some good German food like schnitzel and spaetzle (I'm going to have my Oma teach me over Thanksgiving if there is time)
12. Jared wants to design a christmas card for us this year (I don't know if he really wants to, but I'm going to make him!) (Considering it's still just the two of us, I figured a legitimate Christmas card from us would really be underwhelming for friends and family. . .)
13. We want to do something cool for our anniversary this year as we've always been too busy with school and family stuff the past couple of years (Yes! We stayed at an awesome place in downtown Madison and spent a great weekend together, it was great!) 

And last but not least

14. I want to get pregnant. . . totally depends on where we are at toward the end of the year and what I feel like I should be doing with my career at that point in time, but we aren't gettin any younger folks and we want to start having kids sometime in the next couple of years. (Working on it, and that's all I will say about that)


 A lot has happened this past year and we still have almost two months to go! I would say it's been one of the best although bittersweet years of my life. Best because we've really been blessed with good jobs, a nice place to live etc. but also bittersweet because we are now so far away from our families. But overall, it has been a great year so far and I look forward to many more great years, regardless of who the dang President is!