New Year's in Needles

For New Year's, our friend Mike and his fiance, Delany invited us to go with them to Mike's parent's vacation home in Needles (just up the river from Lake Havasu). We initially were going to take our trailer, but there were no spots left available. So, we ended up staying in Mike's parent's house. It was a super nice home in a really adorable little park. Everyone had Rhinos (we brought ours), Razors and golf carts. Right across the street was the desert and we had direct access with the Rhino.

It was so dusty when we were driving the Rhino, but we had an absolute blast!

The mobile home park was right on the river.

We saw a plane landing on the water.

Little Miss Layla on her little quad.

Going on a little ride around the park.

Helping install a new baby gate.

Can you tell it's Mitch?

We stopped to watch the train.

A desert storm off in the distance.

An abandoned turtle shell.

Mitch and I had such a relaxing weekend and it was so much fun to hang out with Mike and Delany and their daughter all weekend. Also, Mike's mom was the cutest hostess ever and was so welcoming to us. We plan to go back with our trailer sometime!

Our First Hosted Christmas

Since Mitch and I got engaged we have rotated holidays between my family and his. This year was our year to have Christmas down here with Mitch's family. We got together with Mitch's brothers and decided that we would try something new and host Christmas at our home this year! I was so ecstatic. I absolutely LOVE hosting parties and things. Plus, we have been extremely blessed with what we have and I feel like we should share it with others.

Here are some photos of the day (with my new camera I got for Christmas!):

The weekend before Christmas. Opening gifts with my family.

Our tree this year.

Christmas morning!

Setting the table

Another table

One our our friends and his kids came over so we could deep fry their turkey before we did our own. Super tasty!

All the tasty food!

Logan made homemade pies for dessert.

Annual Christmas Celebration

Sorry for the lag in posts. I just, quite frankly, haven't felt like it lately. As awesome as it would be to do a daily or even weekly post, I don't like to write unless I feel inspired or have something to write about.

That being said, I have a little catching up to do!

Every year, Mitch and I host an annual Christmas Celebration party. This was our third or fourth year doing it. I can't remember. Pathetic. Anyways, life gets so ridiculously busy that I truly enjoy hosting this party because it is one time a year that we can try to have all of our friends over to catch up and enjoy each others company.

Many of our friends are having kids or, like us, are just so crazy busy that it makes it very difficult to plan get-togethers. We were so appreciative of all of our friends/family that were able to come and hang out for a bit!

Stay tuned for a recap of our first Christmas day that we've hosted!

Be Careful What You Pray For

My prayer practices are definitely not always the best. I'm ashamed to admit that life gets in the way at times and with all the hustle and bustle, I am not diligent with praying.

That being said, I've been struggling for a long time with my husband's business paperwork. He absolutely LOVES what he does, but on the paperwork end of it, he'd rather run away screaming (at least that's the impression I get at times).

I do nothing but paperwork day in and day out at work and I LOVE it. I have my desk extremely organized (borderline OCD status) and I have an entire system implemented into my daily activities that keeps me organized. I like to think of it as a domino effect. I cannot do something without doing the step that comes before that and so on. I love structure in this regard.

Well, when it comes to the business paperwork, I don't know what it is, but I have never been super motivated to do it and I would almost go as far as saying I loathe it (this is going on like a year). We got Quickbooks a year or two ago to help, but even then, I would rather run away screaming than do it. Part of the problem is, there is just not a functional system in place (functional in my mind anyway) and I have not had any motivation to put real effort into implementing one.

Well, yesterday was different. For whatever reason, all day yesterday, my brain was going crazy thinking of systems we could put in place that would actually make me enjoy the paperwork, similar to how I enjoy it at work. Then, when I got home, I was actually super motivated to clean up our Quickbooks accounts and record payments and clean up the invoices. I could not fathom why I had this sudden change of attitude and motivation.

Then I remembered late last night....

Last week, my college (Azusa Pacific University) called me to ask for donations for scholarships, as they do yearly. After that conversation, the student I was speaking with asked if I had any prayer requests (as they usually do). I threw our business out there. I told the student that we were trying to still streamline our internal systems for my husbands business and that it has been a stuggle every step of the way. I specifically asked her to pray for God's peace and guidance for us through this whole process.

Such a simple, split second request.

It truly still amazes me so much when a prayer (that I didn't even pray!) is so obviously and so quickly answered. I'm telling you, my attitude toward the paperwork was COMPLETE night and day yesterday from previous endeavors. I was not frustrated. I was motivated and had complete peace about it. There was nothing holding me back. I actually am looking forward to trying to get a system in place and organized everything completely.

I am so grateful and blessed by this. It is a humbling reminder to me of the power of prayer and that I need to make it a part of my life in every aspect.

A Beautiful Treat

I received a beautiful treat this morning when I arrived at work! My view as I parked:

Isn't the beauty that God creates so amazing?

Stay tuned...... I will be doing my first-ever giveaway tomorrow!!!

And She's Out!

Last Thursday and Friday were rather tramatic for me.

If you've read read my blog at all, you may be familiar with how strongly adverse I am to needles. Well, it has been six years since I've last had labwork done because I always pass out or come close to passing out and I just don't like that feeling. (It's been even longer since I've had a full blown physcial). Well, Mitch and I would eventually like to start a family, and I know needles are a fact of life with that. Therefore, I forced myself to get a headstart and force myself to go get a physical.

I had high hopes that after six years, things would be different. I now think that it made things that much worse. I had built it up in my mind over that time period and from the point I received my labwork order on Thursday, all the way until Friday morning, I was a complete basket case. Major anxiety.

I wanted with every fiber of my being to just disregard the lab order or to put it off indefinitely.
But I made myself go. Mitch went with me. This was his first experience with me getting labwork done.

We got up at 6:30 a.m. on Friday and went in right away. If I stalled to took time to shower and get ready, my anxiety would just worsen. As it is, I was up every hour that previous night because of how anxious I was. When we got there, I was already crying. Mitch was really good about trying to help me regulate my breathing. When I was trying to explain my situation to the receptionist, I just was too emotional so Mitch took over. They took me in right away even though I didn't have an appointment. There was an appointment before me, but she wasn't a basket case, so they took me first.

I was completely fine when the lab technician initially started. I had my headphones in and plugged into Jeremy Camp on my iPhone. I had my water bottle. I had Mitch trying to distract me and reminding me to breath. However, about 30 seconds in, thats when my mind started to think about what was going on. I felt myself start to go. I tried to lean my head back against the wall. I started to take a drink out of my water bottle to prevent myself from going. And then I went. Passed out cold.

When I come to, the lab technician is done and I am soaking wet. Mitch informed me that when I went, I had my water bottle in my hand and squeezed it, dumping it all over myself. Also, I was clammy and had obviously broken out in a sweat right before passing out. As I was coming to, I thought I still had my headphones on because my hearing was only at 50%, but Mitch had removed them.

In the end, they got their blood. I just hate the feeling of passing out and the way that it makes me feel the rest of the day. This happened at 7:15 a.m. I didn't start to feel "normal" again until around 2:00 p.m. I get so disappointed in myself because I should be over this. Maybe if I don't wait six years again, things will be better next time. It didn't even really hurt! It's just my stupid mind that chooses to think of what it happening.....

Ultimate in Relaxation

That's what this past weekend was. Mitch and I took off in our trailer and went to Pismo. It was this trailer's maiden sand voyage! In all honestly, this weekend was the first one that I can remember in a very long time that was stress-free. We've taken other recent vacations or weekend trips, but there were obligations or we were on some sort of a schedule. None of that this time. What made it so much more fun was that we had a bunch of friends we went and had a group of about 8 trailers. Mitch and I LOVE doing that so much. We haven't gone camping in the sand like that in about 3 1/2 years and truly realized how much we missed it. Here are some photos from the trip!

We got there super late and were pulling into pretty deep sand. We got stuck. Had to dig ourselves out.

Right after we pulled in, our friend Rocky pulled in and  got stuck so Mitch had to tow him a little bit.

Lots of tension on that tow strap and the sands flyin'!

Picture one morning right outside our door.

Thanks to the lousy quality control at Giant RV in Pomona, we sprung a major leak. They didn't connect a tube correctly. Thanks for that extra fun on our vacation!



When our friend Rocky left, he got so stuck that Mitch and our friend Brad both had to hook up their trucks to yank him out. That is a lot of power right there! I LOVE to watch when they all have to hook up to each other to get each other out. I love big, powerful trucks! :)