15 in 2015 Update

It's been a while since I did an update on my 15 in 2015 goals for the year. I feel pretty good about my progress so far, especially considering that I forgot about these goals for a few months...oops! :)

1. Write at least 2 blog posts per month. 

Not exactly. BUT this is post #16 in 8 months, so it averages out, right?

2. Read 5 books.

Check!

1. American Sniper by Chris Kyle
2. So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore by Jake Colsen
3. His Needs, Her Needs by Willard F. Harley, Jr.
4. The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
5. Interrupted by Jen Hatmaker

3. Eat more whole foods.

We've done better than last year overall. My motivation comes in waves and largely depends on my energy and motivation to cook.

4. Spend less time on my phone.

This really depends on the day. Lately, I've made a "rule" that I can only be on my phone (specifically, social media) first thing in the morning when I wake up and then at night after Peter is in bed. It's going pretty well, but it's hard to break the habit of picking up my phone when I'm bored or avoiding work.


5. Find creative ways to save and/or earn money for our family.

A few months ago, I started watching a little girl one day a week while her mom (a dear friend) works at our church. She's 11 months older than Peter and it's given me a glimpse into how fun and completely exhausting it is to have two babies close together.

6. Keep up with my One Line A Day journal.

Success. I'm up-to-date on this one.

7. Purge our home of 300 unnecessary items. 

I quit counting at 500 items, but I've donated/sold 5 trash bags full of stuff since then. I'm on a purging binge right now and am getting rid of SO much unnecessary junk in our house. It's kind of addicting actually.

8. Spend time outside.

Well, we've had the hottest summer on record this year, so that hasn't helped much. I was running in the Spring/early Summer so that helped. We've definitely spent some time outside swimming, picking fruit, laying in the hammock, and going for walks, but we still spent more time indoors than I would like. Once I'm outside, I always enjoy it, but sometimes I have a hard time motivating myself to actually get out the door.

9. Learn how to use our new camera. 

I would say this is mostly a fail. I still haven't read the manual and I am not that much better than I was in January. I have practiced taking photos a fair amount this year, but I don't know much more about technique or lighting or anything to help me take better pictures. Thankfully I have a cute subject, so that makes up for my lack of knowledge/skill.

10. Run a 5k.

Check! I did the Run for Ohm in June. I haven't really run at all since then, but that's beside the point. I don't remember what my time was (slow! 38 minutes maybe?), but my goal was still met.

11. Complete 6 crafty/house/Pinterest projects.

I've made four projects so far. The first two were for my niece, Lucy.

I sewed a set of tea bags to use at a (pretend) tea party. This was, of course, a find on Pinterest that I made my own.

The Merenesses are really into drawing (and good at it! let's hope Peter got Kory's artistic skills and not mine). I made this little drawing pad/crayon roll for Lucy to use at church or in the car (or anywhere else she wants).

The next item I made was for my dad for Father's Day. He loved it and the message couldn't be more true!  

These twine-wrapped jars were pretty simple to make. I also wrapped a few in burlap. I'm using most of them to grew herbs in and the others are currently holding flowers left over from a baby shower I hosted a couple weeks ago.

12. Try 12 new recipes.

I should have kept track of this better. I know I've tried several new recipes, but I can't remember what they were. One that I do remember was Pork Carnitas from Alisa at Family Meal Blog. They are SO delicious and seriously easy. I'm talking "put salt on the meat and put it in the oven and then eat it" easy. You've gotta try it!

13. Lose 20 pounds.

So it would help if I actually remembered what I weighed when I made this goal. haha I'm pretty sure I am down 10 pounds since then, which means I have about 10 pounds left until I'm at my pre-baby weight.

14. Organize and file our stacks of paperwork.

Winning! This is one area where I'm succeeding big time. I've actually combined this goal and the one to get rid of 300 items and am organizing our entire house...and I do mean EVERYthing. The only paperwork I have left is keepsakes/greeting cards and that's going to take a while to sort through.

http://koryandmandymereness.blogspot.com/2015/03/junk-drawer.html

The bags on the right are papers I'm getting rid of and the file box contains the only papers we're keeping.

15. Plant a garden.

Check! This year I've grown zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers (lemon and regular), jalapeños, broccoli, and cauliflower.

Christmas 2013 (The Reactions & Following Week)

So the BIG moment had finally arrived and we were sneaking into Kory's grandparents house to surprise everyone on Christmas morning. One minor problem: the door was locked! I had to trim the video so it would post on here, but all you're missing is me trying the door, finding it was locked, having a minor freak out and then Kory deciding we should ring the door bell. So, Kory rings the door bell and this is what happens next...

I love so many things about this video. First, that it was Grandpa who answered the door as he was the perfect one to not make too big of a fuss so we could still sneak in. Secondly, seeing Kory's older brother, Kent, fist-pumping as we walk in the door reminds me how genuinely excited everyone was that we had arrived. And finally, as predicted, as soon as we hit the dining room where Mom/Grandma/Aunt was, the tears started flowing immediately. 

We spent so long planning this trip and every little detail related to it and this was the perfect way to see it all come together! Our 2 year old niece, Lucy, was pretty scared by all the commotion, but she came around before long when she realized that "Manny and Tory" actually came, just like she'd been telling everyone for weeks! 

All of our presents had been mailed to us previously, and we actually opened them all on the Saturday before (this is now Wednesday), but we had to keep that a secret also. We'd told Kory's family that it looked like their presents wouldn't arrive before Christmas, and so they finally understood when we explained that our plane tickets were our gifts to everyone. When we arrived, we found out that they had only opened stockings and hadn't even got to the actual Christmas presents yet. This turned out to be perfect timing, because it meant that I got to help Lucy open all of her gifts while everyone else opened their own. 

The toughest part of it was that she opened a baby doll about 2 or 3 presents in and then all she wanted to do was play with that doll. I had to bribe/force her to keep opening presents because all she wanted to do was play with her baby. She was so funny because she would open a present and toss it to the side immediately and go for the doll. Looking back, I kind of wonder why I didn't just let her play with the doll, but I think it was because everyone got her all these fun presents and wanted her to enjoy them too. You can see her with the doll below, amidst all the wreckage. 

Speaking of wreckage, let me take this moment to say that a Christmas with the Mereness' is truly unlike any Christmas I've had before. To say there were a TON of presents would be the understatement of the year. The picture below was taken by Kory's oldest brother, Kevin, and I love that you can see the after-math of all the presents. 

We finally got a chance to meet the twins, Molly and Jude, and it was just as wonderful as we had imagined. They were much smaller than I anticipated, but it only made them that much cuddlier! 

Christmas day was filled with delicious food, relaxing, playing with presents and family time, which is exactly how I think it should be spent. After lunch, most people took naps, but I felt sure that a nap for me would mean I wouldn't sleep well that night. So, I pushed through and stayed awake all day after getting just a couple hours of sleep the night before. Adrenaline and excitement can really take you far!

Aunt Johnette asked me to decorate a gingerbread house with her while everyone else napped, so I agreed and it was a great, although trying experience. The icing/glue was not very sticky, so it was pretty difficult, but it was fun getting to spend some one-on-one time with Johnette as I don't get that very often.

The next week was just one of those dream weeks where we didn't set alarm clocks, stayed in our pajamas most of the day, enjoyed the Texas food we miss the most, and spent lots of time with family that we only see a couple times a year. Here are a few highlights:

Sunshine!! It's a big deal when you live in the rainy NW.

Lots of Lucy time! This girl and I were attached at the hip and it was awesome!

Coloring with Lucy and doing the other "everyday" things we don't usually get to do with family.

Lots of baby holding bliss.

Palo Duro Canyon with my parents and little brother, Andy.

We got to do a little hiking and enjoy warmer weather. 

It's been so fun to work on these posts and remember the magic of Christmas 2013. It was better than I could have ever imagined.

The trip home, however, was not quite so perfect. Part 4 of this never-ending saga will detail our long and difficult journey back to Oregon.

Christmas 2013 (The Surprise)

If you missed Part 1 of the story of planning our Christmas surprise, check it out here!

I'll let the pictures do most of the talking for this part of the story. We started our journey on Christmas Eve, but first we attended the 2:00 service at Redeemer's. I love that we got the best of both worlds this year as we attended a Christmas Eve service here and then got to be with family for Christmas Day.

When the service was over, we drove to Eugene to catch the first of our 3 flights. We have always flown out of Portland, but decided to fly out of Eugene this time since we were on a time crunch with me working part of the day on Christmas Eve. Plus, this was the only way we would be able to catch a red-eye and arrive in TX on Christmas morning. 

As we waited in the Eugene airport, I began documenting our trip. Kory was already tired of photos, which I knew wasn't going to work since we had many hours ahead of us. I couldn't text any family about the progress of our trip, so pictures were my main entertainment throughout the night.

Who needs Kory to be looking to take a picture together? I can do this on my own!

Much better! This was on our flight from Eugene to Seattle. The flight attendants did an awesome "Night Before Christmas" poem/safety demonstration and then passed out chocolate to all the passengers. We were so excited at this point that it was hard to believe we had to wait over 13 hours before we got to complete the surprise. 

I was really glad Kory gave me this book for Christmas so I had something to read on this trip. I spent about 3 hours in the Seattle airport with Dan Brown and my Reese's pieces. 

There is something that really bonds people together when you're waiting in an airport for hours, especially on a holiday. We watched a lot of little kids play with and admire these Christmas trees while we waited for our next flight. 

Hey, I got a picture with the Super Bowl champions lounge! I didn't know what good luck I was :)

Our flight from Seattle to Dallas arrived about 3:00 a.m. Oregon time, and this picture was as we were landing in Dallas. The plane was SO cold (and the lights were so bright) that I barely slept at all, and I was feeling pretty miserable at this point. This was the one and only time I started to regret this plan and I just wanted to be back in my own bed where it was warm and dark.

The next 3 hours of the trip were spent in the DFW airport. It was pretty deserted, so I thought we might actually get some rest while we waited. 

I think the nerves/adrenaline kicked in for me at this point though, because I wasn't tired at all and was just anxious to get our next flight over with and be in Amarillo. 

Just as Kory started to get comfortable and fall asleep, a woman came up to us and began to vent/complain about United Airlines for the next hour and a half. Granted, she had been stranded in Dallas for the past two days and wasn't getting to be with her son for Christmas like she had planned, but she went on and on and on and we got to hear ALL about it. The only redeeming quality of the conversation was that we got to tell her about our surprise and she was so excited with and for us, that she got us even more pumped for what was about to happen.

We finally got on our flight from Dallas to Amarillo and there were a total of 7 of us on the whole flight! It was a small plane, but that was still a lot of empty seats! We arrived in Amarillo and only had checked luggage, so we went straight to the Enterprise rental counter to pick up our car. The lady at another of the rental car companies let us know there had been a change and Enterprise wouldn't be open until noon. It was now about 10:00 a.m. and there was no way we were going to wait two hours to get a car. We stepped over to the Avis counter and they helped us right away. I asked for the cheapest car they had, which was our only requirement. The result: a convertible Mustang! :) Kory was quite pleased as he had been joking earlier that we needed a really fast sports car to get us to family quicker. It worked!

Even as I type these words, I can feel butterflies in my stomach and can remember so clearly the excitement we felt as we drove to Kory's grandparents house in Panhandle. Kory's mom and dad had each texted us during our flights and we were just flat out ignoring them at this point so we didn't have to lie about where we were or what we were doing. I was so excited to finally have the truth out and no longer hide our plans. 

We arrived in Panhandle and Kory drove through the alley to the back side of the house. We talked quite a bit about the best way to surprise them, and we decided walking into the house would be the best way so we could see their reactions. I'll let the videos walk you through what happened next:

For some reason, Blogger will not upload my second video. Bummer! Maybe it's just adding to the suspense! I'll try to upload it in the final installment of this 3 part series where I detail the reactions to the surprise as well as our week spent in Texas. Oh, and we get to meet our twin niece and nephew for the first time!

Christmas 2013 (The Planning)

I know that we're over a month past Christmas now, but I really want to document this holiday as it was just one of the best ever! It's a fairly long story, so I understand if you don't want to read all the details, but I just want to keep a record of how this great memory came to be.

Kory and I were not planning to go back to TX or NM for the holidays this year. We made a trip in February for our 5 year college reunion and then did a family trip with Kory's family in July. We just couldn't do 3 trips in one year.

Fast forward to November of 2013 and the twins, Molly and Jude, were born. I create and manage the schedule at our office and I was talking with my manager about the holidays and who was taking what days off, etc. She asked what days I was taking off and I told her I didn't need any time off since we didn't have family here and I could work so other people could be with their families. (I'm not trying to sound like a saint here--it just makes sense for me to do that so that when I do want to go home for the holidays, I can show that I've made sacrifices other years to make this possible.) She reminded me that we all get and have to take one day off during the holiday season, our Governor's Day, so I elected to take that the day after Christmas, since Kory would also have that day off. Christmas was on a Wednesday, so that would mean I would be off Wednesday and Thursday, and be back to work Friday. I was truly ok with that, but when my manager suggested I take Friday off too and enjoy an extra long weekend, the wheels started turning. She was giving me 5 days off work. We've made trips to both TX and NM quicker than that.

When she found out we wouldn't meet the twins for several months (I was hoping we could go meet them in Feb or March maybe?) she insisted that we try to make this work. In fact, she even said, why don't you go ahead and take the following Monday and Tuesday off, since you'll have Wednesday (New Years Day) off as a holiday, and you can be gone a full week. I was so excited at the thought of being able to go home, but didn't want to get anyone's hopes up, so we didn't tell anyone for the first week or so as we tried to work out Kory's time off work, plane tickets. etc.

Things kept falling into place and we decided to book the flights without telling family. At this point, we were just about 6 weeks away from Christmas and the idea of surprising family was just too fun to not consider. Our plane tickets were far too expensive since we waited so long to book them, but we hadn't started our Christmas shopping yet and decided this would be our present to Kory's family--our literal presence.

While we were still in the "working things out" stage, I contacted my parents to see if they could possibly come to Oregon for Thanksgiving. I thought it would be perfect to have Thanksgiving with my family and then fly to Texas to see Kory's family for Christmas. After all, the twins were a huge reason we were considering going back for the holiday. My dad was afraid the harvest time for his pecans would interfere with Thanksgiving, so they just couldn't make that trip. However, he did decide on a whim that they could come up the next weekend! So, with very little notice, my parents flew to Portland and I drove up there to spend a long weekend (Veteran's Day) with my parents and brother, Ty, who lives in Portland. I told them about our Christmas plans and they agreed to try to come see us while we were in Amarillo. Without a car, these trips become much longer when we have to drive the 5 hours (one way) from one parents house to the other, after driving 3 hours to an airport and then flying most of the day already.

I had no idea that this little surprise would mean so much "truth dodging" and "strategic question answering". We decided from the beginning that we would be honest and if that meant our surprise was ruined, that would be ok. After all, there were plenty of concerns with getting all the details worked out, and it really seemed, at times, like it would just be better to tell them we were coming. The day we bought our tickets, I got a text from my sister-in-law, Brynn, (mom of 2 year old Lucy) saying that Lucy, out of the blue, told her "Tory and Many toming", which of course means "Kory and Mandy are coming". I was pretty blown away because I knew Lucy couldn't really know we were coming, but the timing was incredible.

I asked Kory's mom, Jackie, to keep me in the loop with their family Christmas plans because it helps us feel like we're involved and not so far away. This wasn't out of the ordinary, because I like for our families to do this anyway, but this time I needed to know who would be where and when everyone arrived, etc. She is a details-oriented woman like me, so she did a great job of letting me know exactly how their time together would go. I even checked to make sure the family that lives in Dallas would be staying long enough for us to get quality time with them. They didn't know it, but they helped us plan our trip.

You never realize how many questions people ask until you are trying to avoid answering them! Jackie texted me asking what our plans were, Kent (Kory's brother) called Kory to ask the same, Brynn texted me asking how long I had off work, and Ben (Kory's dad) tried to FaceTime us. We were very strategic in our answers: "We will spend Christmas together." "Our friends from church invited us to join them." "My office is only closed Christmas Day." It's exhausting to keep a secret--good lesson learned right there!

We told several of our friends and people from church what our plans were, but with strict instructions not to post anything on Facebook or social media about the trip. I was afraid we would have done all this work to keep it a secret and then the last day someone would write, "Have a great Christmas with your family!" and ruin it all. Everyone we told was just so excited for us though, and that made us get even more pumped for what was to come. I can't tell you how many ladies teared up when we told them about our plans. Even my dental assistant in the orthodontist office was getting choked up as I told her about our plans. The preparation was almost as fun as the real thing!

*This turned into a MUCH longer story than I had planned, so I'm going to have to break it up into a few parts. Remember when I mentioned I'm a details gal? Yeah. It's true. The next part will be the fun part, where we actually surprised and got to spend a week with family!*