12 days of Christmas

It is that crazy time of year again, everyone running around and trying to get everything perfect for the holidays. We are no exception with getting those final Christmas presents wrapped and preparing to go to Utah. We also have been going crazy with work and also at home. Trying to spend time with each other, and also being able to accomplish everything that needs to be done. Cataclysm came out on Tuesday and we have played it some, but seem to always have other things that are more important (even though Eric thinks playing is important). We babysat the Pollyea's on Saturday night while they went to a Christmas party and did almost all their shopping. They have 4 children, which were about as equal together as taking care of their dog. We made gram cracker houses with them and they loved it as well as watched a movie and put them to bed. It was lots of fun and helped us realize once again that we do not want 4 kids at once! We can hopefully just do one at a time. Our house should be starting sometime early January. We do not have very much to say about it, the decisions are all in and we now just wait for the build.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Already December!

It crazy how fast time goes...it's the end of the year already. This years ending is so different from the beginning. Starting off as a college student in Spokane and ending as a real world worker in Loveland. Eric is at least somewhat constant still doing tires, so there is still some sameness in life.

This week has been full of pallys. They aren't little any more. We've had fun leveling them.

Eric was sick for the first of the week and missed work. It was sad and there wasn't too much I could do for him but tell him to take medicine. He finally went to the doctor on Wednesday and was told to take ibuprofen for his awful sore throat. He did start feeling better which is good, but lots of sleep also helps.

Friday we went to dinner with the Pollyea's they won our babysitting off the auction that the ward set up for Kevin Dench. We will be watching their 4 kids this next week and are excited to be able to play.

Another busy week

Well buying a house and choosing everything takes a lot of time and energy. We have been super busy trying to get ideas for how we want everything to be without spending too much money. We got lucky and Eric got the first Saturday off he has ever had and we spent the day down in Denver. First, we went to cross country state. It was fun and makes us want to run again. Then we went to the design center and made a million hundred choices. Everything is pretty much finalized but the tile for the fireplace, so I'd say that we are doing good.

Anyways Eric says Happy Birthday! I not sure whose birthday it is but I hope they have a good day.

We bought a house!

Hi! So it's been super busy lately. This past week my Mom was here visiting and the week before I was in Mexico visiting our repair facilities there. The week before we went under contract on our house. And the week before that was so long ago I don't remember. And before that we remember to post on our blog.

So we are super excited! We are officially going to have a green Turner! We live be at 3818 Beechwood. We have the light pole over on the side of the house opposite the driveway! We have facebook pictures up so the model so you can check them out there. We have been super busy with house stuff. There are a lot of decisions to be made and we are super happy and excited! We plan to close end May/June so we are still a ways out but still very happy and enthused!

My trip down to Reynosa was good. I learned a lot and it was nice to meet people face to face. It was a long week full of information and I still haven't fully recovered from it at work.

The day I got back, my mom flew in as well so Eric wouldn't have to make another trip to the airport. It was a fun filled week very busy with signing loan papers, going to the sad design center, and preparing for the ward craft day by finishing up the ward cookbook. Wednesday was Eric's day off and I took it off too, so we went and spent the day in Denver. We went and toured the mint, wandered downtown, saw the capital, took pictures in the gardens there, went shopping, saw the temple, and were really tired and finally got home like 12 hours after we left.

It's going to still be busy as we work on finishing up house decisions, but that's how life works :)

Obsessed over houses

So we are obsessed with houses. We love looking and learning and watching.

We have picked out our next place to be. We love the Turner at Thompson River Ranch. It is the perfect floor plan for us. It gives us plenty of space to grow and enjoy living in. The only thing in the house we don't like is the size of the garage, which we are debatting whether to spend another 5k or so to expand 2 feet each way. We love telling people about our house so we'd love to talk with you about it. We still are a ways out from beginning construction. We have to save our pennies, but we have a plan and so far its working great to save money.

We have a new obsession with watching house and handy man shows. We like to see what other people do with their space and how they fix things up. We are very excited to have our own house and to work on projects together.

We also found out exciting news this week. We learned that our credit scores were 50 points higher than we thought they were and that we are in a good spot to get a great rate on a loan. Also real estate in Northern Colorado is a strong market and properties are gaining value so its a good time to get in while things are cheap but going up.

Party in the USA

We really haven't been partying lately, just wearing ourselves out at work.

Eric had a new hire start two weeks ago. And another one started on Saturday. Since he's the lead tire tech he has to train both of them, which is sometimes harder than it sounds.

Stephanie keeps getting bloody noses and so gets to go to the doctor to figure that all out and hopefully get them all to stop. She really hates them.

We both are OCD over looking at houses. That's all we seem to do. We have a favorite.... the Turner at Thompson River Ranch, if any are interested in looking it up. We are excited to work on saving up our pennies as fast as we can. We can't wait to be building our house and watching it go up. We just wish that houses weren't so expenses.

That's all for now. Night.

Back at it

So life is back on. Kids are back to school. Stephanie and Eric are at work. Monday was Labor Day so it was so nice to have a day off. We went camping with Justin and Jen up at Mary's Lake at Estes Park. It was a different camping ground where you could see people's houses/cabins, but still it was fun. We went on some hikes and took some pics which I will try to post if I remembers. We haven't looked at them yet lol.

Then the week was super busy catching up on cleaning and putting camping stuff away along with multiple other activities. We were glad for the weekend, but our church switched to 9am so it was super early so we took a nap like all afternoon long. It was an okay switch from sleeping in I guess.

We switched this week from our normal pizza and breadsticks on Friday and only made a half pan of breadsticks and some cinnamon rolls instead. It was super yummy!

Yummy Sunday Dinners

We had the bestest dinner in the world tonight. Steak (a super huge one that was like 32 oz that had been marinated all day long and then grilled and was so good), homemade rolls fresh out of the oven warm with butter, a smoothie with bananas, strawberries, and peaches. SOOOOO GOOOODDDD!!!!!!

Anyways we have been having yummy dinners for a while now....like 3 weeks in a row with homemade rolls and past 2 weeks with homemade mashed tators. Its super yummy to have a day where the food is amazing and to have time to prepare it and not be starving hungry.

Anyways, this past week was Stephanie's second week of work. I'm getting used to waking up in the mornings, but it is still early and I'm tired by the end of the week. I have been absorbing a ton of information, but think I at least know enough acronyms now to understand what people are talking about. I think it will just get better and better with time as things make more sense and I learn more about how HDDs work so I can better understand what people are talking about.

Eric's end of week turned out to be super busy. His work put out an ad in the paper and mailed out coupons so he has been working nonstop from start to close. He's super tired and glad for a day to sleep in and take a nap.

Things are going good and we are looking forward to Labor Day and a short break.

What a long, strange trip it's been

Well the last time we wrote on our blog we were living in Spokane and Stephanie wasn't quite done with school yet. Currently, we are living in Loveland and Stephanie's first day of work will be tomorrow!

May- Stephanie sprained her ankle playing soccer the week before graduation. She was on crutches for 2 weeks (it seemed like forever and a half) and got to walk with them at graduation. She did graduate and only lost her hat once. Gaylene and Spencer and Alyson and Tawny and Clay and Greg and Tyler all came up to graduation to help move in be in Spokane for the last time in a long time. Ever since early April we had started packing all our stuff up so luckily a lot of it was already done before the sprained ankle. Packing was crazy and Scott and Nicole let us borrow their trailer. Clay drove the truck to haul it. The Calls and Alyson drove Eric's car down to Utah and Steph, Eric, and the boys drove home in Steph's car. We lived out of suitcases for two weeks down in Utah enjoying being on vacation and able to visit friends. We drove down to Colorado the next week to check out apartments and figure out where to live. While we were down we found the sweetest place to live and Eric got a job at Discount. We then flew back to Utah leaving Eric's car in Colorado.

June- We got into our apart on the 1st and moved everything in. It was so nice to take things out of boxes and to have plenty of space to organize everything. We eventually got to decorating and making things pretty. Eric didn't like working at Discount so he quit and got a job at Family Tire which is super close to our house so he walks to work everyday. He likes it much better there but is getting excited about starting school. He now also knows how to do oil changes and inspect more parts of a car which is valuable knowledge that he has gained. At the end of the month Tawny came to visit for Eric's birthday and we had fun having her over.

July- We went on a vacation of driving. We drove to Utah, then got to switch and ride in the van up to Montana for Demetra and Chris's wedding. We then drove back to Utah, stayed one day, then drove back on down to Colorado. It was fun and Eric got to play Fire Emblem which my brothers were nice enough to let us borrow. Stephanie started getting interviews this month.

August- Stephanie got a job! And a super, good one at that. She will be working at Seagate doing project management. She starts on the 16th and is excited and a little nervous, but glad to have something to do. Eric is sad and wil miss seeing her at lunch time, but things will work out. This month Stephanie also finished two end tables and a coffee table. It was a ton of sanding and lots of hours staining and sealing, but they are very nice to have now that they are done. (And they aren't super ugly like all of the ones of Craigslist) Tawny, Clay, and the boys came to visit for a week after the boys finished their missions to get tires for the truck (they also fixed some other problems) and we had fun exploring and playing with them. The boys gave their talks today and we were told that they did a great job. We are happy that they are done and glad that they served.

Anyways, thats a summer update and hopefully now that things will be a little more scheduled around here we will get back into the habit of writing every week.

Well this week has been a crazy one. Stephanie has not been feeling the best and sick with a non-breathing type sickness, which means she has difficulty sleeping. Last night while we were trying to fall asleep she decided around 11 pm that she wanted to have a pillow fight. I dont know why she needed a pillow fight but we did it anyways. It was really funny and we were laughing really hard especially when we didnt know whose pillows were hitting each other.
We are getting more excited to move and are looking more intently at apartments and where we will be living. It is crazy to think about, it is almost here! only 28 more till graduation! and only 18 days of Eric work left! that is super exciting for me! :) We both are somewhat sad to leave Spokane and will miss some things, such as the chance to climb into a giant wagon at a walks convenience, come on! who wouldnt miss that, or the fact that you can let go of your steering wheel and your car will automatically turn for you because of the ruts! ok that last part was a lie, but we will miss being at Gonzaga, seeing all the pretty flowers, and I am sad somewhere deep down inside of me going to miss working at the Schwab. We have become close friends to people in our ward and will miss playing soccer, and having random comments about me and toast. The ward is having a multi-cultural potluck and they wanted to know if I would be making french toast for the occasion.
We are ready to attack this week, Stephanie takes the FE this Saturday, Eric has tomorrow off, and works 5 days in a row. We are looking forward to having more time to spend with each other in the weeks to come, and are ready for our mini vacation while in Utah.

One last March post

So for March we weren't the greatest at remember to write, but hey some is better than none.

This month both me and Eric had to give talks at church, but not the same week, one after the other. I got lucky and knew a month in advance that I would be speaking which is good cause I'm super busy. I also got lucky in having my Sunday to speak be the one right after Spring Break so I had time to prepare. Eric on the other hand got called late Tuesday night to speak the following Sunday. He had to work all week and didn't have the luxury to take his time to prepare. But it all worked out and we gave our talks, so we're good until we move.

Besides all our everyday business, we took some time this weekend to go on a date. We went out to Wonderland which is way north on Division, up by Whitworth's campus. We were just planning on playing a round of minigolf, but this week is Spring Break for the Spokane School District so they were having a Spring Break Special, where for the price of two attractions, you could have unlimited. So we decided to do that. We started off by playing minigolf, but a crazy silly version. The second time we golfed regularly, but wrote down all the funny things that they suggested to do. I'll add them in at the bottom of the post. Then we went outside and went go karting. We had a lot of fun doing this and probably went a total of almost 10 times. We also played lasertag while we were there along with a game of guitar hero. So we had a lot of fun. We finished the night off picking up some icecream to eat at home.

It had been a while since we just sporadically went out and did silly things together so it was a lot of fun. My thesis is due this week, so I have been working a lot on that and Eric is super tired after work with trying to play soccer two nights a week on top of that. We have fun though and are getting super excited to move!

Golf the fun way

1. Use the alternate hand to putt (Right to left, left to right)

2. Do not use club first shot

3. Use club as a pool cue

4. Exchange shots of each others' balls (p1 to p2, p2 to p3, next round p1 to p3, p2 to p1, etc)

5. Putt on knees entire hole

6. Sing a Christmas song or 2 strokes

7. Putt through your legs backwards the entire hole

8. Use 2 putters to putt the entire hole

9. Use club upsidedown and hit with handle

10. Putt one-handed, one stroke each time both hands are on the club

11. Use your foot as a club

12. Keep one eye closed entire time

13. Make bird noises while you putt

14. Toss a token, start your ball there

15. Use your hands as a club

16. Stand over hole roll ball down your nose

17. First putt eyes closed, rest use tip of club to putt

18. Finish as normal

March Madness

Eric is working full time again. He is really tired because it is a big change from being laid off for the past few months, but enjoys the work and being around people. I started working the Saturday before Stephanie's spring break, and had to work through all of her vacation which was sad. We celebrated our one year anniversary on the 13th. We went to a hockey game and enjoyed watching a movie and having time together. I also participated in the ward talent show. I played a toaster for my talent, and no that is not an error, I really played a toaster! we will try to get our video posted shortly. were tired so i am done writing tonight.

Happy End of February

Well, we did something funny and we were going to write about it in our blog, but we forgot it.

We have a star chart and are good at getting stars and treats :) We are supa silly and we bought a toaster. Eric is going to use it for the Ward talent show and sing the Toast song. I really like it! Yeah toast!

Stephanie worked lots of thesis and Craziz got 9 pieces of new gear.

We don't know what else to say so farewell for now!

February at the Sabin's

Well, we didn't write last week because it was Valentine's Day and we had a nice romantic weekend all to ourselves. It was fun to relax and try to eat in the dimly light candlelight :). We were busy peoples and got some time to catch up with everything with Monday off from President's Day weekend.

The week seemed really long even with a day off. It's hard to remember that far back. Stephanie started tutoring on Tuesday nights, along with her normal Saturday morning ones. Eric doesn't remember what he did this week.

This weekend we went on a cleaning spree. We supa cleaned up our front room and have a long list to finish up the rest of the house. We are so ready move and counting down the days. We are excited and looking up where we want to live in Fort Collins, CO, our next destination.

Anyways just wanted to update.

Snow on Guadeloupe??

No, that’s just ash from the Volcano on Montserrat. The island, more than 50 miles away, experienced an eruption yesterday and ash fell for most of the evening. According to news reports the volcano shot ash more than 9 miles into the air.This morning everything was covered in a layer of dust and many took to washing down their streets, porches and cars. Schools on Guadeloupe are closed and many people are wearing masks to protect themselves from the dust that is being stirred up by everyday traffic. It remains to be seen whether Mas will take place place. “On va voir,” or we’ll see, as they say.

A busy week

This week Stephanie's mom came to visit. Stephanie has been very busy with school work and classes and homework and meetings and everything else. So its a little crazy. Luckily, Eric is still not working so he and Mom have had lots of time to play and get things done at our house. It has been fun making yummy foods for Mom and being able to have her here.

Pictures!

The Christmas Tree

Eric at our before Christmas

Stephanie at our before Christmas

Blue funness

OH Canada!

We went to Canada this weekend for Eric's old mission companions wedding. We left on Friday morning and drove and drove and drove and drove with our GPS (named lola) leading the way. We stopped in Seattle to eat lunch at Qdoba's, a great meal for two including drinks all for under $4 because we played MASH on their web-site. Stephanie ended up living her dream life, marrying Eric, living in a mansion in Antartica, and was an Engineer. Her end words were "Watch this!" so pretty much is a true and believable story, especially her final words. I on the other hand ended up happily unemployed, married to a pizza delivery driver, and playing WoW in my spare time. I ended up driving...er...going places on a pogo stick and Stephanie ended up with a super fast speedy car. I was very jealous.
Anyways, we went to Canada, they asked us many many questions at the border and wanted to know why we wanted to visit, after we told them we were allowed to continue and made it to Eric Jeannotte's appartment. We met his family and friends and drove in heavy traffic to watch them get married. They had a beautiful wedding and afterwards had a dinner reception where many toasts were given to the bride and groom, embarrassing both of them with their past. After being in the same chair for over 2 hours we wanted to see a little bit of the city so we drove around without having any specific goal in mind and enjoyed looking at the suburbs of Vancouver. That night we slept on our air mattress in Jeannotte's old appartment and had a restful sleep.
The next day we awoke and set out to see the town. We drove through and walked around Stanley park, a very large park on the peninsula of Vancouver. There was many things to see and enjoyed a long walk on the short beach. We went to Lighthouse park, and Lola(our GPS) sent us through some small residential roads and we finally made it to the park. We apparently missed the memo of having to bring a dog on the hike because everyone else had at least one if not two dogs. We were quite hungry after that so we went to subway and got us some lunch. We headed back downtown to another park to eat lunch and looked at the pretty but cold ocean. We decided that if we wanted to make it home that night we better get moving, so we left for a long, wet, dark drive. It was funny at the border when they asked what province our plates were from. When we told them Utah he quickly apologized and asked us the normal questions and let us through. We arrived home completely tired and worn out eleven and were out like a light. We had lots of fun, and were glad to be able to see Eric and Kim get married. We now have Canadian money and seashells and dont really know what were going to do with them, but I guess we have souvenirs of our adventures.

Have a garbage-free day!

This is a short story that I found today while randomly stumbling on the Internet. I think we all have experiences, but sometimes we just need to forget them

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us.

My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really very friendly. So I asked, ‘Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!’ This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, ‘The Law of the Garbage Truck.’

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they’ll dump it on you.

Don’t take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don’t take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets. The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life’s too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so… Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don’t.

Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!

Have a blessed, garbage-free day!

Home again home again

We are back in Spokane after spending 15 days in Utah having lots of fun and enjoying time with family. We drove home on December 22nd and made it home after 15 hours of driving thru mostly clear weather except for a few strong wind storms in Idaho. We spend Christmas eve at Eric's brothers house with his family, and Christmas day at Stephanie's home. It was lots of fun, and we got many new toys like a GPS and ice cream maker. :) We will get the most out of these considering how we have already gotten lost using our GPS and who can say no to ice cream? We spent a week snowmobiling at Eric's family cabin with most of his family, and Steph's family came up for a day. We also enjoyed relaxing, shopping, and played many games. We sadly had to return to Spokane, and did so on the 7th. Stephanie is preparing for her last semester at Gonzaga which starts this upcoming Tuesday. We are looking forward to being "done" with Spokane and able to move to wherever Eric gets accepted to school.

What a year!

Well it is the start of a new year! We are excited for the things that 2010 will bring us and enjoyed looking at things that happened in this past year as well. Here is our update from 2009.

January- We arrived back in Spokane, WA after making a trip down to Utah for the holidays. Spokane received record snowfall and we were drowning in it for forever until it finally melted away.

February- We took a trip down to Utah over President's Day weekend. Stephanie had bridal showers and we made sure everything was going to be good for the wedding.

March- Finally the big day arrived! Stephanie and Eric were married during Gonzaga's spring break with the event actually taking place on Friday the 13th. We then had a brief honeymoon in Salt Lake, before heading back up to Spokane so Stephanie could get back to school. There we had an open house and Stephanie's parents came up.

April- A busy month trying to keep up with school and enjoying being newlyweds. Eric started working for American Nursery Services wiggling plants at Home Depot.

May- School finally ends! Well at least for the summer. Stephanie's mom came up to visit. Stephanie started working at Home Depot in the Hardware department. We took a trip out to Round Lake State Park in Idaho for some camping.

June- Enjoying the summer weather, we rode bikes and starting playing tennis together. Stephanie's family came up to visit.

July- Another summer month full of work, play, and BBQ’s.

August- We took a trip down to Pullman, WA to check out WSU and also went out to see a waterfall to make it a camping trip. We headed home for a trip back to Utah to see family and friends.

September- School started up again for Stephanie. It was the beginning of a very busy semester, but also her last fall semester. She is looking forward to being all finished up. This year she is working on a senior design project with Goodrich. She and a team of three other mechanical engineers are designing a machine to help Goodrich manufacture various components out of carbon fiber. Eric's job with ANS ends.

October- Eric gets hired on with Les Schwab. He enjoys learning about tires and cars. Stephanie's parents come up to visit. We also took a trip to Seattle to check out University of Washington.

November- As the end of the semester nears, Thanksgiving break was very welcome. We made up our own Thanksgiving in Washington since Eric had to work the day before and after.

December- As the year came to a close, Stephanie was glad to get finals over with. We were both excited to be able to go back home to Utah for Christmas.