Ending of January

As I re-evaluate my goals that I had for January, I realized it was mainly preparing for the upcoming months and establishing myself into a good pattern that is flexible and doable no matter where I am or what I am doing. I thoroughly cleaned my house I have been cooking dinner almost every night (what a money saver!). On top of that I have set a pattern of getting up taking my pills getting ready and packing a lunch, things that I had never really done before. I will be adding different things into the mix as the months go by such as; journaling at least once a week, reading at least 1 hour daily for fun, studying my scriptures more, yoga 3-4 times a week, listening to talk radio. Different things that I want to do to better myself. So in February I will add 4 things to my "self improvement plan":

1. No Soda Pop
2. Read scriptures at least 15 minutes per day.
3. Do Yoga 3x a week
4. Eat 5 servings of fruits and vegtables.

If anyone wants to hold me accountable please do, I welcome it. Douglas came home almost a week ago, oh how that makes me incredibly happy! He will be home for at least a few weeks before he has to go off to New Orleans for a while, and after being offered weekends of fishing at one my dearest friends lake house, he has become excited about leaving, it's been awhile since he has been fishing. I will miss him when he is gone. Last night he had a work party for his VP's birthday and we went to this beautiful little Mexican Restaurant that sat on the water at the Bay. As we were sitting there his old PM came up, she's this cute little Filipino lady, and mentioned that she was trying to rent out her house. And we asked her where it was and how much, and needless to say, I am very excited about this prospect, the thing is we would need to move in on the 1st of March and we are in a lease until the 30th of May, so we have to see how much it costs to cancel our lease and the process and see if it would even be worth it, or just staying where we are, I'm having mixed feelings on the whole thing right now, even though before I was very excited. So tonight Douglas and I will have to make a PRO/CON list and see what we come up with.

Spouse Survey

MY HUSBAND....

what is his name? Douglas Myron Barber
how long have you been together? 4 years
how long did you date? Dated 6 months, Mission 19 months, Married a little over a year
how old his he? 27
who eats more? Dougas
who said i love you first? Douglas although I can't remember when it was.
who is taller? Douglas
who can sing better? Douglas has a great voice
Who is smarter? Douglas
who does the laundry? Douglas
who pays the bills? I do.
who sleeps in the right side? Looking at the bed Douglas
who mows the lawn? We don't' have a lawn, but it would be Doug
who cooks dinner? Both of us off and on
who drives? when we are together, Douglas
who is more stubborn? Most defiantly me
who kissed who first? He did.
who asked who out first? Douglas did.
who proposed? Douglas
who has more friends? Me
who is more sensitive? Mostly me.
who has more siblings? Douglas - 6 Me - 2
who wears the pants? He does when he does the laundry... j/k we share.

My Husband

MY HUSBAND....

what is his name? Douglas Myron Barber
how long have you been together? 4 years
how long did you date? Dated 6 months, Mission 19 months, Married a little over a year
how old his he? 27
who eats more? Dougas
who said i love you first? Douglas although I can't remember when it was.
who is taller? Douglas
who can sing better? Douglas has a great voice
Who is smarter? Douglas
who does the laundry? Douglas
who pays the bills? I do.
who sleeps in the right side? Looking at the bed Douglas
who mows the lawn? We don't' have a lawn, but it would be Doug
who cooks dinner? Both of us off and on
who drives? when we are together, Douglas
who is more stubborn? Most defiantly me
who kissed who first? He did.
who asked who out first? Douglas did.
who proposed? Douglas
who has more friends? Me
who is more sensitive? Mostly me.
who has more siblings? Douglas - 6 Me - 2
who wears the pants? He does when he does the laundry... j/k we share.

Douglas Returns Home

♥ Dear Family and Friends♥

As a new year unfolds and the first month is almost over, where do we all stand in our convictions that we made to ourselves at the beginning of the year? As a family goal it is to say family prayer and read our scriptures daily, as well as to attend the temple at least once a month together as husband and wife and twice as individuals. I personally want to establish a "motto" for our family and a theme that will help us and our children (one day) grow closer to our Father in Heaven. Something we can teach in the home and have. I had some companions on my mission that gave me some pretty good ideas in this area and we will have to see what we come up with.

It is so nice having Douglas home again even if it is just for 3 weeks. He will then travel to New Orleans, Louisiana for at least 6 weeks. And hopefully as soon as the job at the San Pablo dam starts they will pull him off of the Louisiana job and bring him home. That job is supposed to last for quite some time, it will be nice to actually be a "family" again. He is happy to be home where it isn't so cold and he can grow face hair again. We are both enjoying our jobs and enjoying each other being home even more! I have my knee surgery in a couple of weeks so I'm even more glad that he will be home to help me out a little. It will be nice to have a little break from work though, although I hope I won't be that bored.

I am enjoying being in the young womens presidency we really have some great girls and I look forward to spending time with them. I need to really do my visiting teaching although I'm not quite sure how as I've never done it before. I am also without a companion so we will see how this will go. I will probably give them both a call tomorrow just to say hello and introduce myself and see if there is anything I can do for them. But I will not do my visiting teaching by the phone, I think that's cheating in my mind. I was also asked to sing a solo in church they really want me to but I am scarred out of my mind and don't think I'll do that good of a job. Douglas tells me that everyone disagrees with me so maybe I'll give a try, nothing better than getting over your fears except by just doing it. Douglas recieved his Home Teaching list yesterday and is excited about that.

Nothing much to say except my husband is home, and for that I am very grateful!

♥Douglas & Amber♥

Scattergories

SCATTERGORIES. . .It's harder than it looks! Copy and paste as a comment or on your own blog. Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following... they have to be real places, names, things...nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

What is your name.............................. Amber
4 Letter Word...................................... Area
Vehicle...................................................Audi
State....................................................... Arkansas
Boy Name.............................................. Alex
Girl Name.............................................. Adrianne
Drink.......................................................Ale (Ginger...duh)
Occupation............................................. Accountant
Something you wear............................. Ankle Bracelet
Celebrity................................................. Anne Hathaway
Food........................................................ Apple Pie
Something found in a bathroom.......... Air Freshner
Reason for Being Late........................... Alarm didn't go off
Cartoon Character................................. Aladian
Something You Shout............................ Avalanche!
Animal..................................................... Aardvark
Body part................................................ Apendix
Word to describe you............................ Amusing

Welcome To 2008

I've thought a lot about this new year these first week. There are so many things I want to do and change that I feel a bit overwhelmed at times. Those of you that read The Family Blog know that this year I am doing monthly-year resolutions. I have never been one for Resolutions, sure I would write down a couple of things that everyone in the world writes down to work on and then never look at it again, never changing who I am or helping myself get better. This year I have really began to feel like an adult, a real live adult who needs to start making changes and becoming that adult. As I was reading many different entries on various blogs at the beginning of this great year, one really struck my eye, as her blogs tend to do. She wrote a great entry on how she goes about setting and accomplishing yearly changes (I substitute the word change for Resolution as in my eye, that is truly what they are). In quoting her she said, "Then I find my self making lists (both in my head and on paper) which I then check with the Lord before applying to my life. If I don't clean house spiritually as well as temporally on a regular basis I find that I loose sight of what is really important, and I drift." How insightful is that? I have never thought to take those so-called Resolutions to the Lord in order to change my life and see what direction He would have me go in. I am in the process of doing my self-inventory and I am quickly seeing many areas I want to improve, not only improve but also things I want to accomplish or begin this year. Hence the feeling overwhelmed with things that I need to download to my life. Some of them are very personal goals and others are not. I am taking the month of January to evaluate and prioritize all that I want to accomplish and start with the first couple in February.

On to other random updates to my life, I have my MRI on my knee this afternoon, I hope it isn't anything seriously wrong with it. While we are on the topic of medical situations. On Saturday I dropped off a prescription for an anti-inflammatory. I went back to this particular drug store 2 hours later and they lost the prescription, they found it approx 30 mins later while I waited and said that it hadn't been filled because the doctor didn't put an amount of pills on the prescription, they said they would have to wait until Monday to call him because his office was closed, which I understand and that was fine, they said they would call me when it was ready to be picked up I then gave them my new phone number and left. It is now Wednesday and I hadn't heard anything back so I called them this morning and they looked up the prescription and said it had been ready since Monday... hmmm should I change Pharmacy's? I'm thinking so.

Today has already been filled with drama - one of our buildings was broken into and vandalized. So I've been on the phone with insurance companies and things all morning and trying to find someone up in that area to go take pictures and file a police report, you would think that it wouldn't be that difficult, well it is. I'm thinking I should go up and take care of it myself, hopefully not as it is about an hours drive up the bay to the city where the building is located.

I wish everyone a wonderful New Year and I promise I'll begin regular blogging at some point in my life.

Brand New Year

Dear Family & Friends,

It is time for a brand new year to start, new goals to make, new things to accomplish. I love this time of year to really sit and evaluate where I/We are and where we want to go and how to go about getting there. This past year has held many wonderful events for us; moving into our first apartment, visiting loved ones, the Sealing of Douglas and myself, surpassing the one year of marriage mark, new jobs, new friends, and new life experiences. In this upcoming year we hope to purchase a house and go back to school. We hope to take a cruise towards the latter part of the year as well as go to Disney and some other things. We are very much looking forward to 2008!

Douglas is still currently in Colorado freezing his tail off but loving every minute of it. He believes that job will be done before February. And who knows where he will go from there. (Hopefully home). My Christmas dinner turned out pretty good if I do say so myself, just as a funny story I took the ham out and was so excited that I didn't overcook it and that it wasn't burnt or anything, and Douglas was bummed that it wasn't burnt! He likes the crispy outsides. So I finally think I did a great thing by not burning the dinner and I should have! He had a very great Christmas as did I.

I am doing well loving every minute of my job as well, even though it makes me want to scream sometimes. But I love everyone that I work with and I love what I do. I don't have much to say about myself other than that because basically I don't do anything. I have a few personal resolutions which I will be doing, but this year I believe that I will be doing a yearly "month at a time" type of resolution, commit to a month, do it, evaluate it at the end, and revamp or whatnot and commit the the next month and so on. I think that this break down will be a lot easier to keep up with.

We hope everyone had a great and wonderful holiday season and a wonderful start of the New Year! I will be posting a couple of pictures this evening when I get home from work, so be sure to check back.

♥ All Our Love - Douglas & Amber ♥