Random Late Night Thoughts

• I am now missing 3 tiny diamonds from my wedding ring. Ugh! Samuels refuses to fix it for me until I bring them the paperwork showing we bought the insurance. Shouldn't they have that on records somewhere? Yes, that's my question also. Not very happy with them right now. Oh, and I can't find the paperwork because it got misplaced somewhere in the move and it must be in storage because I've turned our apartment upside down looking for it. 
• We've made offers on 2 houses now and are still waiting to hear back on the 2nd one. The 1st one didn't work out because the family still owed too much on the house and wasn't willing to drop the price at all and we weren't willing to go that high. We're really hoping this 2nd one works out because it's an awesome house and we both love it! I think we'll hear back on it tomorrow...which will be great because this waiting business is pretty tough. 
• I am now 26 and I don't feel that old. Recently someone said something about a group of college students and I automatically put myself in that group. Well, no, I haven't been in college in almost 4 years now, but my brain didn't get that memo apparently. Whoa, as I typed that I realized I've almost been out of college as long as I was in it. That might seem silly to you but I kind of just had a freakout moment as I typed this blog post. That was fun.
• This should be a pretty busy week for us: I am hanging out with a friend on Tuesday night, we're hosting small group for High School boys at our apartment Wednesday, Thursday we have a potluck/worship/service project at our friends house, Friday we're having a couple over for dinner and games and then Saturday night we're attending a night of worship, followed by church services Sunday morning and a Superbowl party Sunday afternoon/evening. 
• Kory and I have been watching what we eat and exercising more for the past few weeks and it's really paying off. Kory has lost 10 lbs and I have lost about 7 or 8. We're not really dieting, per se, we're just using moderation and limiting our calorie intake. More fruits and vegetables, less loaded mashed potatoes and fried cheese sticks. Dang, I shouldn't have typed those last two foods as they both sound really good right now. This is the first time either of us have ever really tried to lose weight...but 6 months into marriage and we were both needing it. We either had to lose weight or buy all new (bigger) pants, and as the budget keeper in this household, I vetoed brand new wardrobes. 
• More of my friends are having babies!! In the next 3 months, I'll have 3 more babies to make things for and love from a distance. (Hi Deonna, Jacinda, and Lynsey!) I can't wait to meet Cole and Judah and a sweet baby girl who is yet to be named :)

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.

Catch Up

Recent events from the Mereness household:

1. We celebrated Thanksgiving in Portland with our awesome friends, Robby and Lynsey Wells. I failed our TX friends and family and forgot to take a picture of pregnant Lynsey...though I do have a couple cute ones from my phone of Anna Kate.

I asked her to say "cheese" and this is what I got

She looks so much like Lynsey in this one!

2. We were going to buy a house. Then we were going to build a house. Now we're back to buying a house. The best part of it all is that we have an amazing realtor who doesn't pressure us at all (even though we were going to be buying a lot for the house from him!) and always prays with us after each meeting. It's exciting to think about having a house sometime soon, but we're also really happy in our apartment now.

3. Speaking of apartments, we have great couple friends who live a couple doors down from us and have quickly become our best friends. They have been married about a year and a half and don't have kids, so we're in the same life stages as they are and get along great. We're so thankful for friends our age in our town!! It's a big deal once you have gone without any for a couple years.  

4. We're going South for Christmas which means we get to meet our niece, Lucy!! I can hardly wait. I'm SO excited!! Look at her precious face and you'll see why.

5. This post has turned into pictures of other people's kids. Weird. Guess that is what happens when you don't have any of your own to brag about.

Lately...

We've been pretty busy around here with a lot of Fall things going on!

1. We're looking at houses to buy/build, so that's very fun and exciting (and a little scary)!

2. Kory is preaching at all 3 services at church this week (his first time preaching at Redeemer's) and also filmed a sweet video that goes along with the lesson, so that's been very time intensive.

3. We had a (stinking cool!) Halloween party for the youth group last week, which I hope to blog about soon. It was amazing!

4. I'm doing the lesson at youth group this week since Kory's preaching and been busy with that preparation.

5. Next weekend is our Fall Retreat and with everything else going on, it's kind of hit the back burner so it all has to be planned next week in about 4 days.

6. Youth group kids have athletic events we have been attending, Kory does a Bible Study for the boys every week, oh and I have this full-time job I also do 40 hours a week. And that job sent me to Salem for a couple days this week.

7. Good problem...but we have a lot of friends here and it's kind of hard trying to figure out when we'll have time to hang out with all of them. I am not complaining at all because I'm SO happy to finally have friends our age :) BUT, I feel kind of bad when a girl from church asks me to hang out and I have to tell her tonight that I'm scheduled two weeks out and we should be able to get together after Thanksgiving. That sounds kind of arrogant like I'm SO cool and popular. That's not really it...I'm just the new girl in town and so I'm trying really hard to build relationships and get to know people. With no family here, friendships are uber important.

8. We got our membership at the YMCA yesterday in an attempt to start working out again and get back into shape. It is not a myth that you gain weight after getting married. Sheesh! It happened far too quickly so we're going to work out instead of buying new, bigger pants! Though I do wonder when we think we're going to fit all these workouts into our schedule? Ideally we'd get up at 5:30 and go work out but that's insane in the membrane. Not happening in this household!

So yeah, that's our recent life. I know everyone is busy, (especially you who have kids!) but thankfully our busyness is FUN and we're loving life in Roseburg :)