Holiday candy

In the Jergensen family, a holiday tradition is homemade English Toffee. Anyone who has had it understands why it is tradition and why a diet is necessary after the holidays. :) Being away from home I knew if I wanted the toffee goodness I would have to make it myself. After a few calls to my mom, success!


And I have to mention how much I loved making this in my amazing wedding pot from my Dad's siblings. They are the best pots and pans ever!! I also loved doing this in my new kitchen. Our builder was weary of building our kitchen to our request, but I wouldn't want it any other way. It was the main thing we changed from his original plan.

{disclaimer: though it appears I am the only one who worked to make the toffee, Colby helped a ton. You have to stir the toffee for about an hour and he did the majority of that! Thanks, babe!}

Deck the Halls

Thanksgiving has past (and we loved it) so we can now bust out the Christmas decorations. While I had Colby home I coaxed him into putting Christmas lights up on the new house! It was much more of an endeavor than we initially thought, and we had to keep laughing at ourselves. In my dad's terminology they are a little redneck-ish (meaning not perfectly straight) but we can live with that for now. I think just having lights up after being in the house for 2 weeks is quite an accomplishment. Our boxes may still need to be unpacked, but we have lights :)

We are officially home owners!!

...and have been for two weeks now. With moving, blogging has moved down a bit on my to do list. Once I locate to camera with the new house pics we took moving in I will get a few up.

costumes

I have some great past times of dressing up for high school dances, football games, "super cute sunday", 80's roller skating at BYU and many nights in the dorms. I am glad I can force Colby into having fun dressing up as well.

He actually is the one who protested against being costume repeater. And of course I couldn't say no (also couldn't commit to having a new costume ready in 20 minutes to be on time to the party, so we were fashionably late). And, if it wasn't for Colby and his brilliant ideas, I would have been swimming in a size 14 pirate dress, but instead I wore it with staples down the inside so it wouldn't hang off me. Pretty ingenious idea. He probably just saw me heading for the sewing box and knew that would take waaaayyyy toooo long so had to come up with an idea to stop me quick!

{disco dancers at the church trunk-or-treat}

{pirates for a halloween party}

{had to throw this pirate picture in to show Colby's classy earing. I had to remove it before he fell asleep...he had forgotten about it}




the best part---each of these 4 costumes were found at the Wal-Mart Associate/sample store for 50 cents each!!

jack-o-lanterns

I love carving pumpkins, possibly more so for the pumpkin seeds I get from it more than anything (really, last year we carved pumpkins after halloween just so I could bake the pumpkin seeds...), and this year we tried to get fancy with our carvings. We were happy with the outcome.






unfortunately, we learned the hard way the impact Arkansas humidity has on the life span of Jack...



this nastiness was growing out of the witch 4 days later. yuck!!

progression

It has been so fun to watch our house be built. We go out there almost every day. You could say we are a little bit obsessed--we are.

Here are WAY TOO MANY pictures of the progression of the house from Aug 21st through now. Most of you probably don't want to look at all of this, but I wanted it on here for my records.

We can't believe how fast this house has gone up. We could be closing as early as this Wednesday--yes, in 3 days!! CRAZY!





















The only things left to complete are the carpet, paint/stain touch-ups, and the yard! Wowsers...

craziness

This is what my bed looks like right now.



But, considering everything going on right now, I am just glad that we had dinner tonight (lunch however, did not happen.)

I took a full time job and we are building this beaut. I think this may explain the mess on my bed. Sadly, it will probably all be thrown back in the laundry bin so we can get a little shut eye tonight.

first day of work, 6:40 am, uck!

We are so grateful for these exciting changes happening in our life. Yes, life is busy and chaotic, but we really are loving it.

sidenote: we had a lovely trip to California last month that I have some great pictures I need to post. Sorry that was kind of pushed to the back burner. Thanks Mom and Dad for a great trip!

visitors!!!

We had the greatest time having Mom and Dad Heiner in town over the weekend. It was quite low-key, but we loved just being together. Because they live on a dairy farm, it is difficult for them to get away, but thankfully Kellen manned the farm so they could leave.

We spent Friday afternoon visiting with Aunt Linda in Oklahoma, then headed to Arkansas to spend Saturday and Sunday.

Mom and Dad Heiner-- We LOVED having you here! Thanks for a great weekend. Come back SOON!!

I guess it's official

I think this is proof enough that we are actually enjoying Arkansas. I exchanged my California license and plates for this:



It was a little saddening (especially since I didn't get to keep my license for memories sake! Sad.) and I can't use my out of state plates as an excuse for driving like an out-of-towner, but I now feel like I fit in a little better.

As I have been at work today I keep thinking about my two youngest siblings, each having just started back to school at new schools, and two other brothers starting up at BYU today. I have had a weird feeling and finally realized that it must be because this is the first fall in 17 years that I have not been heading back to school as well. It is kind of a strange realization. I guess without school though I am experiencing even bigger and better things.

Good luck to everyone who is heading back to school!

22

My birthday was a week ago and it was fabulous.

Colby took me to Johnny Carino's, my favorite restaurant and had a small surprise party for me at a local ice cream place. My friend Courtney did most of the planning and it was just great. Thanks Courtney! My friends all pitched in to get me a gift certificate for a pedicure (much needed) and Colby gave me a gift card for a massage (also much needed/wanted). Haven't had the pedicure yet, but I had my hour long massage this week and it was fantastic. Too bad it was the fastest hour of my life. If only work could go by that quickly.

Thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate with flowers, cards, phone calls, hugs, and facebook messages! It all meant the world to me!

I am so grateful to all of the people who have been a part of my life. I am who I am today because of each of the people I have met. Can't wait to live this next year of life and see what surprises it brings!!

Enjoy some pics from the day.

One year

I can hardly believe it has already been a year.

I have loved all 31,556,926 seconds of it.

Not one of those seconds goes by that I don't feel like the luckiest girl in the world, married to such an amazing, let alone good lookin' man.

I love you Colby!

xoxo

now I believe it

I thought our handy-dandy weather forecaster fx had to be out of whack this morning when I saw this same symbol on the screen at 8:00 am predicting "Strong PM t-storms." The beautiful, blue, not-a-cloud-in-the-sky could not turn to storms--so I thought.


Now I believe it. After a quick run into wal-mart to print some photos and grab a few goods I believed it. I stood at the exit to wal-mart trying to see my car through the sheets of rain, parked only 10 stalls back. I ran as fast as I could and only had to stop once to pick up the canned tomatoes that broke through my bag.

I was SOAKED.

We are talking jumped-into-the-pool-with-clothes-on soaked (which I almost did 3 hours ago after work because it was so beautiful out...in my bathing suit though...). Now here I am--a true believer in my trusty weather forecaster fx.

couponing

--that word that has become so common these days. I had a friend get me started on this and now I understand why everyone is talking about "couponing."

Check out my great buy!

The checkout lady rang everything up and the total read "$18.22."

But then I gave her my stack of coupons (combo of target coupons and manufactures') and the total dropped to $2.69

cha-ching!!!


(when I came home and showed Colby he thought is was great, but teased me saying he had to get a picture of all this and post it on the blog. well I thought it was a grand idea and did so myself. thanks for the idea babe.)

birthday photo journal

check out all those candles!


birthday nap after church

presents :)

fire hazard


mmm . . .

notice half of the back piece of cookie dough is missing . . .

the culprit. but hey, i guess it was his cake so I couldn't get mad.

pedicure! Yes, this can be a manly thing. he LOVED it.

not pictured...our sunday afternoon bikeride!

celebration!

Today is the day I am celebrating the birth of my wonderful husband Colby. I could not have married anyone more perfect for me. We spent a weekend away in Branson with some friends and I was reminded once again how much I love forgetting about everything and just being with him. He seems to always know just the right things to say and do. I know he loves me because of how he treats me. I am so blessed to have him in my life.

Happy birthday Colby!

Hope your 26th birthday and following year brings all you hoped for and more.

I love you!

good ol' craigslist

Lately I have been spending a lot of time on craigslist looking for a decent used piano. I took lessons growing up, but haven't had the chance to seriously play in several years. I think it was after hearing Jon Schmidt's "Love Story meets Viva la Vida" that I became determined to relearn how to play. I have found several free ones--but they are usually free for a reason--a few outrageously priced grand pianos, and a few great deals that go too quickly. But while searching for pianos I have found the craziest ads. This was today's highlight:

"Are you torn with guilt over your shortcomings, but unable to relieve the torment? St. Charon is here to help. We operate a free-to-use, online confessional that puts you just minutes away from priests across the United States, and lets you submit your confessional through the internet and receive forgiveness and comfort from a local priest - without having to leave your home. Visit stcharon.org today, and see how we can help you."

Yes. We live in the Bible belt.

Let's just say I won't be using this free service.

Happy Wednesday!

arkansas friends...

As our rainy season was coming to an end (actually, I don't think it really ever ends...) we found this fun friend. We call him "Jorge," named after the frog I dissected in my 8th grade science class (kinda gruesome, i know, but it is all in love) . This time Jorge is still alive. He comes out of our bushes and greets us on our doorstep nightly.




We have both read children's books with fireflys and heard of them, but never seen them until Arkansas. They are magical! As we drive around at night or dusk we see them dancing in fields. Often it looks like someone has strung a line of twinkling christmas lights. We were determined to catch them and even stayed out until midnight one night to do so. I know, we are really boring. The sad part is we never caught one! They light up for like a second, the go black for 10 or so before they light up again. We could see the light, then they would dissappear into the darkness. The next day we were smarter about this and went out at dusk so we could still see them after the glow went out. We both sucessfully caught one! I swear, we are like little kids. People driving by must think we are crazy.




Our other outdoor friends reside in the pond in the back of our complex. We have about 20 small turtles that we will visit on walks. We really enjoy all the friendly creatures of Arkansas. We haven't met the chiggers yet, and are very grateful for that.

Yes, we are still alive, I just haven't been in that bloggin' mood, you know. My friend M.C. said it best when she said if blogging were a sport, it would have to be a winter sport. I guess I am just so distracted by the great weather and other things to want to sit down on my couch and blog.

Our latest adventures included a trip to Memphis to visit Darren, Brittany and cute Jefferson (Colby' brother and family) which was just wonderful. It was so fun to see you guys and spend the fourth with you. I left from Memphis and flew to California to spend the week with my family at Lake Havasu. The vacation was fabulous, but I missed my other half who was staying home being a grown-up and working. It was one of the few vacations in life where I was just as excited (if not more so) to return home as I was to get to my vacation destination! The biggest reason I haven't posted abotu this yet besides the "not being into blogging right now" issue, is that I don't have a single picture from Havasu. That is so unlike me and it is killing me. Ha. I took TONS of pics, but they were all on my parent's nice camera. They haven't had a chance to send them.

Well, there you have it. I know you were all worried. We are still alive and well.

the claytons

Today one of my best friends, Jessica, is getting mariied in Utah and I am sitting here in Arkansas. I wish so badly that I could be there! I love you Jess and hope this is such a special day for you and Adam; I know it will be. You will look gorgeous, I am sure. Love you!!