Weirdo: a person who is extraordinarily strange or eccentric

 

Recently I had a realization about my little family up here in Providence. After talking with a couple girls about their "weird" sister, I got in the car with my sister, Keli.  We were driving away and I just jokingly mentioned "I'm glad they have a "weird one" of the family too!"  Then I thought to myself for a minute... I had always assumed it was one of my brothers (sorry boys!) simply because I'M not weird, and my sister and I are best friends, so SHE can't be the weird one either.  My brothers and I aren't as close as my sister and I, so I don't know everything about them, which makes them the perfect candidate for being the weird one- but I had never actually thought "So and so is the weird one of us".  After trying to decide which one it was, it hit me... I'M THE WEIRD ONE! I said it just like that to my sister, as though it hit me like a ton of bricks!  Of course, we all have our quirks, and quite honestly I'm okay with being weird. Plus, maybe someone else sees our family "placement" (Drama Queen, Weird One, Comic Relief, Foody, Fitness Buff, Health Nut, the one everyone just likes,... etc.) differently (maybe I'm still the dumb blonde, or the one everybody likes??)

( I decided to find a family pic of the 4 of us, and when I found this one, it occurred to me that maybe my mom knew all along that I was the weird one too, so I got  had to wear a different color?! Whatever the case, I'm still the cutest! :-)

Anyway, now that I've realized that I'm the weird one, I thought I'd share some of my weirdness for all of you to see!  I'm sure you've all heard of Dave Ramsey, if not, he teaches people how to get out of debt. That's almost all I know about him because I've never actually read any of his stuff, but a lot of the blogs I've read are big fans of his, so I get a little here and there about him.  His famous saying is
This is the first weird thing I learned from Adam after we were married. If you ask my family, they might blame my weirdness on Adam, simply because I wasn't this weird before we were married. I think I'd have learned these things either way, so I only partly credit Adam for making me who I am :-)  When we got married, Adam and I joked that he brought the money to the marriage and I brought the means to spend it (He had a savings account and I had good credit)... And spend it I did! BUT, I quickly learned that credit cards and loans aren't very fun when you have to pay them back and can't afford to very easily.  So, we have made a LOT of changes since our first year of marriage and have gotten rid of all our credit cards, school loans and soon our car loan! We will be buying a new minivan soon, and plan to have it completely paid off in about a year or less. My ultimate goal is to have our house paid off too and have NO debt, but for now, I'll  be happy to only have a mortgage.

As part of the debt-free lifestyle we are trying to live, we are also learning to be more self sufficient.  This one came after moving to Providence.  I had never really lived where people kept farm animals in their backyards (at least not that I was aware of), so even moving to Utah the first time was WEIRD to me. Goats next to your house in a tiny little backyard? Chickens? What kind of weird people live in this state?!?! :-) 
 Well, as you may have seen on our old Blog, it wasn't long after we moved here that we had our neighbor's chickens walking our front porch and hanging out in our windows and deer living in the back yard. I have slowly grown comfortable with the idea of eating fresh chicken eggs (although I haven't tried them yet- I'm willing), growing a garden and even raising a few animals of our own.  We are planning on building a chicken coop soon (if not really soon, then at least by next spring), and may get a goat or 2 to help keep down the weeds on the back half of our lot.  Again, our ultimate goal is bigger, but we'll start with where we are. We'd like to move to a bigger house that sits on a few acres so that we can raise a couple cows, chickens, and whatever else we feel inclined to at that point.  We're slowly learning how to garden, although, not nearly as well as I would like.  We bought a half of a cow last fall, and we get a lot of comments about how weird or unnecessary it is, but we like it.

 I LOVE not having to stop in the meat department when I'm grocery shopping, and buy sub-par meat that I know is below my standards (we are also stocked up on Chicken).  I also love knowing that I have food. Lots of it.

The last weird thing (well, I know there are plenty more, but the last noteworthy one) is that I'm considering homeschooling my kids. I'm still on the fence, so don't try and tell me it's a bad idea and that I'm going to screw up my kids. After working in the public education system, and working toward an elementary education degree, I've almost seen enough to deter me. In my opinion, it's a little like working at a fast food place... it kind of turns you off when you see the WHOLE picture, rather than just the final product. I'm still deciding if I'll give the public school system the benefit of the doubt first or not, but the more I research homeschooling, the more inclined I am to just go with it!  We'll see, but for now, I'll just accept that I'm weird and go with it!

Five

This year has started out in a whirlwind, and doesn't seem to be slowing down! The first part of January we found THIS out!

 We will soon be 5! Of course we more or less knew it anyway since my body was apparently made to be pregnant when ever I say it's okay :-) We are super excited to add another little monster (or maybe princess, but not getting our hopes up!) to our day to day chaos! Deegan has been so excited as well, and prays every night saying "thankful that there's a baby in my mom's tummy". I managed to stay morning-sickness-free until 7 weeks and then it hit me hard! This time around it's mostly Afternoon/Evening sickness though, so poor Adam never gets to see me feeling good during the week while he's at work. He's been SUPER helpful with the kids and the house when he gets home from work and I really appreciate it.

Adam was finally able to take his Journey Man's test and is now DONE with schooling! I'm super excited and so proud of him for finishing up school and doing so well. He is constantly getting compliments from co-workers and his bosses on how well he does his work, and how hard he works. I couldn't ask for a better example of work ethic for my kids!  (I don't have any current pics of him working on my computer, so here's a picture of him relaxing after work :-)

I spent all of January making plans for a fundraiser boutique for the Kailing family in our ward. Brother Kailing was diagnosed with Carcinoma 2 years ago, and has been fighting hard for his life ever since. Last fall it was determined that the Carcinoma could not be stopped and he only had 6-12 months to live. While he has made great progress with the recent treatments, the prognosis is still essentially the same, and he's living week to week. He and his family are a very strong example of faith and love for the Gospel. While they have their down days, they are usually out celebrating the lives they have and serving those around them in need of love. The fundraiser was a much bigger success than I ever imagined and we were able to raise over $3000 for them!

On the 14th of February, Valentine's day, my boss from Call Assistants called and asked if I'd be willing to come back to work part time like I had been before (After "quitting" I told him I'd work from home part-time on an "as needed" basis, and the work load died off around the end of October, so I didn't work through Nov., Dec., and Jan.- good timing to not work and just focus on the crazy life!) I have to admit, I have secretly missed working with them and doing the work I did. It was fun, and it was nice to have something to change up the monotony of being home all day. So, I agreed, on the condition that I set my own hours, I only work a maximum of 3 hours/day and I work strictly from home. It feels good to be able to make those kinds of demands because you know they need you more than you need them! Of course, they accepted my terms and wanted to me start work immediately! I had a conference call that day, then told them I wasn't working the rest of the day. It was Valentine's Day! You can't call me on a holiday and just expect me to start working that day! That was okay with them, and I started the next day. So, now I am a part-time working mom again, but I enjoy it, and I don't miss out on much because 3 hours/day can be done while kids nap or play alone for a little bit!

March should be relatively uneventful (besides the masses of birthday parties for all of our siblings and their kids), but April will be good! We just booked flights and hotels for Adam, myself and the boys to go to Texas for a week for my birthday! Adam served his LDS mission in the San Antonio and Austin areas of Texas about 8 years ago, and we've wanted to go back ever since. We're super excited to finally have the time to do it!

Last but not least, here are a few random pictures of what we've been doing during the days.