2012 in Review

This past year was a wonderful one for our family! We were blessed in so many ways and made some amazing memories. Here's a look back at some of the highlights for the Mereness household last year.

In 2012, we...

Bought Our 1st House
After what seemed like a long search, we finally closed on our first home the end of March. It's very spacious, has a wonderful backyard, and has more storage space than we can use. We have had so much fun hosting out-of-town visitors, Ladies Nights, Monday Night Football watching parties, and lots of friends over for dinner and hanging out.

Got a puppy named Skywalker 
Skywalker, who we call Sky, is a Border Collie/mini-Australian Shepherd with more energy than any dog I've ever seen! He was about 5 months old when we got him and just turned a year old in November. We don't exercise him near as much as he would like, but he definitely helps keep us active.

Started a garden
I had my very first garden this Spring/Summer and I had so much fun with it! I'm looking forward to planting a little earlier this year and knowing a bit more about what I'm doing. My favorite garden produce included strawberries, zucchini, and green beans.

Went to Canada for our 1st Anniversary Trip
We celebrated one year of being married by traveling to Canada for the first time. It was one of the only times (besides our honeymoon) we have had a week off work to just enjoy each other; typically we're either traveling to see family or going on a youth group trip, so we really enjoyed a relaxing week with lots of sleeping in, eating, and naps every day.

Lost a total of 40+ pounds and kept it off!
All the jokes about gaining weight after marriage are no joke. Kory and I each lost about 20 pounds in 2012, which was weight we had put on over the past 2 years post-college. We used MyFitnessPal, which is a website and app that helps you track your food intake/calories and exercise to help you meet your weight-loss goals. It worked really well for us and we would highly recommend it to anyone interested in losing weight.

Climbed the highest mountain in Southern Oregon
In August, Kory and I climbed Mt. McLoughlin and it was really difficult!! It was still a great experience, though, and it's fun to know we accomplished such a great feat.

Spent a LOT of time with our Redeemer's high school youth group
We are so thankful to have such a great youth group! We truly do love hanging out with these teens. Some of our favorite activities this year included 30 Hour Famine, floating/rafting on the river, CIY summer camp, Fall Retreat, and leading small groups.

Super Bowl Party in February

The Amazing Spiderman in July

Floating the River in July

CIY Move in August

We welcomed quite a few visitors :)
My mom spent a quick weekend with me in our new house in April. (We didn't take a picture together...but she did buy and plant these beautiful flowers for me.)

Kory's parents came to see us in May.

Our college friends, Marty and Melissa brought their kiddos and spent some time with us in September.

My mom and dad spent 10 days in the Northwest in October. (We somehow didn't get a single picture with them again...but we did see this beautiful scenery while they were here.)

In November, my friend Lynsey and her two daughters came to see our house and visit Roseburg for the first time.

And, as I just blogged about, my parents- and grandparents-in-law were here just a few weeks ago in December.

As for my 2012 goals, here's how I did:

1.) Read 12 books

I didn't quite reach this goal, as I was still trying to finish in the final days of 2012. Initially, I thought I would have no problem completing this goal, but picking up several new hobbies (gardening, crocheting, sewing, dog-owning) took up a lot of my previously allotted reading time. Here is my reading list from the past year (at least the ones I remember):

1. Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne 

2. Message in a Bottle by Nicholas Sparks 
3. The Last Juror by John Grisham

4. Real Marriage by Mark & Grace Driscoll

5. 10 Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe by Larry Osborne

6. Crazy Love by Francis Chan

7. Duck Commander Family by Willie and Korie Robertson

8. Red Letter Christians by Tony Campolo

9. Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie

10. A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans

I am still reading these final two books, so they don't really count. I'm about 1/4 through the first one and 1/2 way through number 12.

11. Not Quite Adults by Richard Settersten and Barbara E. Ray

12. Too Busy Not to Pray by Bill Hybels

2.) Learn how to crochet (again)
I definitely met this goal by completing several crochet projects this year. I made a headband for my friend, Abby, some coffee cozies for my mother-in-law, Jackie, and some slippers for my one of our youth group girls, Jordan.

I'm also working on a blanket made in Roseburg High School colors (Artesia Bulldogs colors also!) for me to have at soccer/football games next Fall. It looks like it will take about a year to finish at this rate. It's a black, orange, and white chevron blanket...and last week I realized I had mis-read the pattern and done it all wrong and had to start ALL over! Man, that was really frustrating. You can see I had gotten fairly far with it.

I've started over and am about 13 rows into my new blanket, which is done correctly this time!

3.) Use my new sewing machine

I didn't do as much sewing this year as I had hoped, but I still met my goal of using my machine. I even helped my friend, Abby, learn how to thread the needle and load the bobbin on her machine too, so that was pretty exciting.

The three sewing projects I completed were: 1) I made these burp cloths for Jacinda's baby, Judah, 2) I hemmed a pair of my dress pants, and 3) I made this nursing cover for my college room-mate, Deonna. I've got a couple more friends expecting now, so I am excited to do a little more sewing for them.

God blessed us big time in 2012 and we are excited as we look forward to the adventures ahead in 2013! :)

Mid-August Update

It's about time for an update to cover what's been going on over the past few weeks.

1.) We had a Car Wash Fundraiser a couple weeks ago and it was incredibly successful! I had never heard of a car wash quite like this before, but it worked really well for us. We have 3 services on Sunday morning, and we did a valet service (with adults driving) so people could drop off their keys with us and we would wash their car while they were in the service and it was back in their parking spot squeaky clean when they got out. People could also drive their car through in-between services if they wanted. We ended up making over $1,000 in about 4.5 hours!

2.) My wedding ring saga continues...and my disgust for Samuels Jewelers continues to grow! So, as of May, I had lost 5 diamonds from my wedding ring in under 18 months. The last time I took it into the store, I was talking to the Store Supervisor about this and telling her how frustrated I was that I had to drive 2-3 hours to a store or pay to ship the ring to get it fixed. She said I could call the Customer Service Line and they would send me a postage-paid box or envelope and I could send the ring in for free and get it repaired and they'd send it back for free. I lost another diamond (#6!) while putting away laundry one night and promptly called the Customer Service Line the next morning. The lady I spoke to could not find any record of us purchasing any jewelry or insurance plans from Samuels and she spent about 10 minutes trying to convince me I must have bought it somewhere else and I was just confused.

I am 1,000% sure I have an insurance policy with them as I have already used it SO many times! She was finally able to locate some information in the system for Kory and asked me to mail in a copy of my receipts to prove we bought a ring and insurance from Samuels and then they will start the process of adding our records to their system. I found the business card for the District Manager in with the paperwork from when Kory purchased the ring, so I decided to give him a call. I left a voicemail for him, and in his message he promises to return all calls, yet I never heard back from him. So, now I don't really know where I stand. I'll probably try to call Customer Service again this week because I sent in the paperwork a couple weeks ago now. I wish it were something less important to me, but because it's my wedding ring, I will continue this fight.

3.) I'm doing pretty well on my New Years Goals...though they have changed a little bit throughout the year. My initial goals involved learning to sew, reading 12 books, and getting back into crocheting. I've sewn several things this year, am on book #6 (got a little behind on this one) and re-learned a few basic crochet stitches. After moving into our house, I kind of decided that instead of focusing on crocheting, I was going to learn how to garden. It's been really fun even though many of my flowers and veggies haven't survived. Here are a few pictures of what is growing in my garden right now:

Green Beans just came in this week.

Zucchini has been my best crop by far.

It will be a while longer before the cucumbers are ready.

The strawberries are just as delicious as they look!

New Years Goals Update

Since we are two months into 2012, I thought it was about time to give an update on my life and goals for this year.

I just finished book number 3, The Last Juror by John Grisham. I love all of Grisham's books that I have read so far and have another one I found recently that I will start in the next week or so. This means I have 10 months left in the year to read 9 books. I'm feeling pretty good about this one.

I made my first baby sewing project for Jacinda and her son, Judah. I saw the idea online to make burp rags out of cloth diapers since they are super absorbent already. When I found this great baseball material, I knew I could make these plain cloth diapers look cute. The lines aren't perfectly straight by any means, but I am really pleased with the way these turned out.

Last night, my friend Florence came over and taught me to crochet again. I am just practicing the stitches right now but it is going pretty well so far. She has a great book with pictures to teach you every single step, so I am hoping to find a copy of it for my own use. Here are a few practice rows I made last night.

I guess our big goal for 2012 was to buy a house and we are getting really close to finalizing that! The house is being appraised this week, we have given our 30 days notice to move out of our apt and hopefully we will be official homeowners in just a few weeks!

Book #2

I finished my second book of 2012 this afternoon. A friend gave me a bunch of Nicholas Sparks books last summer because she had read them all and wanted to pass them along, so I decided to read one of those. I picked it mainly because it was the first thing I saw on the bookshelf.

I have read enough of his books to know that someone is going to die at the end. Every time. Sorry if that ruins it for you but it's kind of getting old to me and I'm about done with him now. After reading The Last Song a few months back and bawling my eyes out, I had this great epiphany that someone dies at the end of every single book/movie and it's just not that creative to kill someone off and make everyone cry every stinking time.

So, I spent the majority of this book guessing who was going to die and how they would be killed. As you can imagine, that sort of took away a lot of the fun of reading the book. I did still get caught up in the story for a little bit in the middle, but it wasn't my favorite book by any means. I'd give it 2.5 out of 5 stars. 

I finished 2 books in 1 month, which makes me feel good about my goal of reading 12 books this year. However, I'm finally getting in the groove and starting to make more sewing projects so I think it will balance out perfectly and now I can devote more time in February to sewing.

I'm working on a sewing project I saw on Pinterest that's super cute, but I'm planning to give it to one of my friends for her baby and I don't want her to see it on here first...so pictures will come after I've mailed it and she's received it. 

Anybody else a big fan of Nicholas Sparks or are you, like me, tired of a sad ending every single time?

First Sewing Project

This will have to be short because I still need to finish washing dishes from lunch, but I wanted to share that I finished my 1st sewing project and it looks half-way decent.

I finally hemmed a pair of my dress pants, which is probably about 2 years overdue. Here you can see my set-up: YouTube video tutorial, ghetto safety pin hem currently in place and my fancy new sewing machine.

The tutorial was only about 3 minutes and that's actually about how long it took me to do the hem. Well, actually, about 3 minutes per leg, so 6 minutes total. I was pleasantly surprised with how quickly it went.

This isn't a great picture, but you can at least get the idea. (The two pants legs are laying on top of each other.) The seams aren't perfectly straight, but I'm sure I'll get better at that with time. Now I just need to try to get that crease out and I'll be set.

I think my next project will be to make a sewing machine cover. I put my machine on the living room floor when we had dinner at the table two nights ago, and when I picked it up today, it had quite a bit of cat hair all over it...just like most other things in our apt. I really do love our cats but I'm SO ready for us to live in a house so they can be outside cats. 

P.S. I am SO glad I had today off work and was able to get a few things like this done!

New Year, New Motivation

I know it's only the second week of the year, but I've had a crazy amount of motivation since the New Year started. I can't really explain it, but I'm so excited about it and trying to take advantage of it because I'm afraid it will leave me at any moment.

Our apartment is crazy clean...all the laundry is done, toilets are sparkling, floors are swept, carpet is vacuumed, beds are made and sheets are clean. I'm talking, like genuinely clean...something has gotten into me that resembles nesting, only I'm not pregnant, so I don't know what to call it.

I haven't watched much TV, except for when my back was hurt and I could barely get off the couch for 2 days. I did watch a lot of TV then, but I've also done a pretty good job of reading my Bible and journaling. Speaking of reading, I finished my first of 12 books for this year.

I just finished The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. I know I said this in my last post, but I REALLY mean it. If you have not read this book, please read it. I promise you won't regret it.

I hope this post isn't coming across as bragging. I am just genuinely so impressed that I actually feel motivated to do these things. Let me say loud and clear, this is not typical of me. 

On an altogether different note, we had a multi-cultural dinner tonight on accident. We started with a Greek salad, had Asian edamame as an appetizer and then finished with homemade Italian pizza. I also had a Coca-Cola, so I guess that was my American representation.

Our friends Jeremy and Abby joined us for dinner tonight and afterwards we played a card game called Rook. I had never played before, but I definitely had a case of beginner's luck. It is a lot like Spades, in that you bid before you start playing and there are trump cards, etc. Well the ultimate trump card is the Rook card, pictured below. I am not sure how many hands we played exactly, but if it was 10, I had the Rook card 9 times. The only time I didn't get it, my partner Abby did. It was CRAZY! I couldn't believe I got it so many times. Needless to say, the boys were pretty mad at me and hated this game because we smoked them! 

                             

This has really turned into a random post now. However, if I'm being honest, I think almost all of my blog posts are like this.

 I got a new sewing machine from my parents for Christmas and I'm really excited to start using it! I got it out today and spent forever reading the manual, threading the machine, loading and getting the bobbin all set up, etc. I had to cook dinner before I got to do any actual sewing, but I have Monday off work (Woohoo!) so I plan to hit the fabric store and do a project or two. I am so thankful my mom taught me to sew when I was younger. I can't imagine working this machine if it was the first time I'd ever tried...it is computerized and awesome, but also kind of complicated. 

Hopefully I'll finish at least one thing on Monday and I can show you a picture of my first solo sewing project. I'm thinking either an oven mitt or a tissue holder. 

Goals for 2012

I am trying to keep these simple so that I have a better chance of success. There are several other things I'm working on and hope to get better at this year (cooking, Bible reading, healthy living), but these 3 are my official goals.

1) Read 12 books. I wrestled with this and almost went for more, but I decided to leave it at one per month so I'll have time to work on the rest of this list. I'm on my first book now, which I've read probably 4 times before, but I still love it just the same. The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne is a book that has considerably changed my life, and I am inspired and motivated by it every single time I read it. If you haven't read it already, please do it this year!

2) Learn to crochet, again. I learned how to do some basic stitches when I was a church camp counselor the summer after my freshman year of college, but I don't remember how to do any of it now. When I was looking at home-made gifts to make for Christmas, several of my favorites were crocheted so I'm hoping to be able to make a few of those this year.

3) Use my sewing machine that my parents got me for Christmas. My first project will be to repair a pair of dress pants that is currently hemmed using 8 safety pins. It's quite ghetto. I'm also pretty excited to make some things for my awesome niece, Lucy, who I got to meet for the first time last week.

We just got back from an awesome 10 day trip to TX/NM to visit family for the holidays. It was beyond great to be back there again. My attempt to be more productive lately will probably mean less blogging for me, but you can see pictures from our trip on FB. I love reading other people's blogs, but it takes far more time for me to write a blog post than to do a quick FB status or tweet, so I've been posting less on here lately. I'm not giving up on blogging by any means, but it's probably a good idea for all of us to step away from the computer/smart phone a little more and instead do some cleaning or go for a walk or spend time with an actual human.