Category: Life

In December I felt fortunate to survive the first blizzard of my lifetime. You may also remember my post from the other day entitled “Spring Will Spring“. Today I am less hopeful about the end of winter.

The snow began falling yesterday morning around 9:30 am. We left at 10:30 for church and already a few inches were on the ground. I was extremely nervous about whiteout conditions after my graduation experience, but we made it safely to church and back. We decided to stay home the rest of the day.

We woke up Monday morning, and it had stopped snowing. We made plans to meet some friends to sled. While Jesse was shoveling the 12″ on the ground, he talked to a few neighbors and realized no one had been able to get out of our neighborhood. The street had only been plowed once around 3 pm the day before. After shoveling half of the driveway, Jesse was ready for breakfast and a break. Around this time, the snow began falling again.

We live at the bottom of a U. To leave the U, you must travel uphill in each direction. We called our friends and rescheduled sledding until after the plow came. At about noon, the plow came and got stuck in one corner of the U. It took about an hour with an entire team of neighbors to get the plow back up the hill, but the bottom of the U (us) had still not been plowed. He promised someone else would come through later. At 3 pm, 24 hours after the first plow truck plowed the road, another plow finally showed up…we never did get to go sledding and it has been snowing ever since.

PS The plow guy remembered me from when he helped me back in November. Read about it here!

We still have probably a month of winter left in Minnesota, but after an entire week of inside recess last week because of the below zero temperatures, we rejoiced to see 48 degrees on our car display yesterday. We finally felt the hope that comes with the end of wearing a coat, running from the car to your destination, and shoveling…

I would be remiss to move into spring without showing the true impact of this winter. After unusual snowfalls and one blizzard, our snow piles have reached excessive heights. The award-winning Snow-thrower Extraordinaire is…Jesse Sutherland!

Jesse’s first Apple purchase was an iPod. Jesse bought the original iPod even though his parents didn’t even know what an mp3 was. His next Apple purchase was the hotly contested Mac mini (hotly contested by me because I wanted him to be saving for something shiny instead of buying a second computer). Since being married, we have bought a new iPod (with more space for Jesse’s impressive music collection), Jesse’s MacBook Pro, and my MacBook Pro. I have realized the need for a technology line item in our budget. On a side note, my husband has saved for months and sometimes even years for some of these purchases. For Christmas from Jesse’s company (www.morsekode.com), we got an iPad.

Our Apple hearts were very content…but then Jesse’s dreams finally came true. Jesse has ALWAYS wanted an iPhone…ALWAYS. Since January 9, 2007, Jesse has followed all of the news about the iPhone, developed apps for the iPhone, and watched as friend after friend purchased iPhones. He and I always teased about the iPhone, but we never wanted to switch over to AT&T when both of our families use Verizon. On January 11 Verizon announced the coming of the iPhone and on February 7, 2011 Jesse’s iPhone arrived.

Sent from my iPhone

I enjoy cooking and also enjoy cooking magazines. I often find recipes that I want to try. For the longest time, I didn’t know how to organize my recipes. I began a binder entitled “Andrea’s Recipes”. In this binder, I typed in all of my favorite recipes, printed them, and divided them by section (Breakfast, Dinner, Sides, Desserts, etc.).

When I found a new recipe from a magazine, I would tear it out and stick it in the front of my binder. Pretty soon, the front of the binder was full. Then I decided to begin file folders for new recipes (using the same sections as my binder). Only once I have tried a recipe and like it, do I stick it in the front of the binder to be entered onto the computer, printed, and added to the correct section.

Usually, I try new recipes and don’t like them. I am a relatively picky eater. Today, though, I tried a new recipe and liked it. The recipe is Rachel Ray’s 30 Minute Meal of Red and Green Pesto with Pasta and Lemon Shrimp. I was so proud that my meal even looked like the picture! The meal was the perfect blend of flavors with just a bit of a kick, plus I learned how to char red peppers and scrape off the skin.

One of the frequent conversations in marriage is money. Both spouses come into a marriage with their own saving and spending habits. For the two of us, we began marriage with Jesse’s first job and added the income of my first job. We felt rich!

Then we bought a house…we love our house, but it was the first hurdle in our financial decision-making. We tightened our budget and continued on.

Then I began graduate school…when we took on paying for my Master’s degree, Jesse and I decided to move to an envelope system. At the beginning of each month, we take enough cash out of the bank to pay for our daily expenses. This system helps us better track our spending in different areas and truly stick to a budget.

Then we started thinking about a family. We have always valued saving for the future, but this year our goal is to live as much as possible off of one income in order to save the other income. This conversation involves sacrifice and saving money in small ways: energy efficiency, the most effective insurance plan, and cutting back in ALL areas even the fun ones!

Then whatever comes our way, Jesse and I are able to have the important conversations about how we save and spend money.

Proverbs 24:3-4 “By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; and by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.”

I came out of this fall tired and weary. As my mom will quickly inform you, I have struggled my whole life with overcommitment. I always think I can do it all and do it all well. Plus, it it all sounds like so much fun!

Jesse and I have had many conversations about sharing our household load (he is so helpful!) and cutting back on our commitments. Even with these changes, I was still feeling overwhelmed with life. It may seem silly, but my New Year’s Resolution is actually to accomplish less…or better stated, to plan to accomplish only a few tasks each day.

In the past, I always tried to do as much as I could every minute of every day. I was feeling like all I did was work with no breaks and no downtime. My mind was constantly spinning.

Now I begin each day thinking about one to three things I want to accomplish and what fun thing I am going to do when I am done. I can always accomplish more things if I want, but I don’t feel the pressure of having to do everything all in one day. I have started a to do list to keep track of the big things that need done, so I can free my mind to relax when I have finished my daily tasks.

So far, I feel much better…and I have even finished a book…just for fun!

When I lived at home, my mom and I started watching Survivor. I have continued watching Survivor for the last 11 years. It has gone as far as having Survivor friends…a group of people getting together the evening of Survivor to share dinner and watch the show. Sadly, CBS changed the day of the week of Survivor and Jesse and I had a previous commitment on that night. I continued to watch the show the next evening. I also read Jeff Probst’s blog and the Ponderosa clips from the jury.

I enjoy the challenges, but the most interesting part to me is watching the social game. When you put people at the minimum of their basic needs, it is crazy what they will do for a million dollars.

I am of the opinion that Survivor is a game and the way people act on the show is not what they are like in real life, but I know others disagree with me.

I’m already excited for Season 22: Redemption Island!

In marriage one of the greatest blessings is joining two pasts into one…including two sets of holiday traditions. Jesse’s family celebrated Christmas Eve with the whole family and opened presents and then stockings. My family traveled to Indiana each year and ate specific Christmas cookies.

Together we have begun a new set of Christmas traditions. It all begins by cutting down the largest Christmas tree we can find. We go Christmas tree hunting the day after a snowstorm and when it is well below zero degrees.

Another tradition is taking a day off of work for Christmas shopping. When you live in a big city, you are always trying to shop when everyone else is not shopping.

Lastly, we always spend Christmas with crazy travel plans.

This year we will drive to Chicago for Christmas Eve with the Smiths. We will then drive up to Northern Wisconsin for the Sutherland family Christmas. On Tuesday we will return to Minneapolis to fly to Phoenix, AZ for Christmas with the Lashbrooks. We love our crazy plans and our amazing families.

After working for two and a half years on my master’s degree in Library Media Education, I will be graduating from graduate school on December 11. Because I worked so hard, I decided I wanted to walk in the graduation ceremony. Plus, you get to wear those fun hoods, right?

Well, this week my graduation apparel came in the mail. I opened it up and started putting it on. To my dismay, I could not figure out how to put the hood on. I did what any child of the technology age would do and googled it. I read articles, watched videos, and STILL can’t figure out how to wear it. And they are going to give me a master’s degree???