our Memorial Day Weekend

I have had such a good Memorial Day weekend and it's not even Memorial Day yet.

Friday night after work I went out to dinner with a great friend. Much needed girl time! Then John and I tried to watch a movie together but both ended up falling asleep in the middle of it. Ooops.

Saturday we woke up, lounged for a little bit, I skyped Lizzie Doll, took Duke to the dog park for a while, brought him back home then John and I went out to lunch, then it was off to a mini golf date. Mini golf brought back so many memories of when we started dating. I was working at a mini golf course at the time, John would come visit me at work and I'd let him have free games.....sometimes I'd get off work and we'd play a round together. We used to go mini golfing quite a bit but haven't been since we moved out here. I loved it! I had a blast :) We made a bet on who would win....if I won I got a massage (a legit massage) and if he won he got...well, something else. Let's just say we both won in the end hahaha

Today we did some house work, I worked out, we went and looked at a daycare (that's not going to work out), then went out to lunch, came home and went on a walk with Duke, and then we went to a dinner at Tina's with the boys and our cousin Chelsea who is in town from New York.

I feel like I've been so busy this weekend and so active, I love that feeling!

We'll see what tomorrow has in store! :)

Happy Memorial Day everyone! And thank you troops for all of your sacrifices!! <3

Figuring Out Maternity Leave

My friend Alicia hit the nail on the head when she talked about how great October due dates are. John and I have been talking about how long I'm going to take for maternity leave, and my bosses have been asking me about it as well because they need to find a substitute teacher for my classroom, and I think October is the perfect time to take off the rest of the year.

I'm due sometime in October so I would naturally take at least 6 weeks which would put me into November, and in November we have Thanksgiving and then a month later we have Christmas and New Years Eve. Instead of worrying about getting time off for family to be here or whatever will be happening, we've decided that I will be home with the baby, get a routine going, and I won't go back to work until the beginning of the New Year. And then the amazing part happens (the amazing, yet expensive part)....baby gets to come to work with me and be in my classroom :) :)

It's going to take a lot of sacrifices to make it work financially, but one of the bonuses of my job is that my children can attend our center. Our center is a private child development center for the university professors and students, but because I work there, my baby can also come. I've already talked to my bosses and there is no conflict of interest if my baby is in my classroom. I can't think of a more perfect situation. I will get to be with my baby ALL day and still bring in a paycheck. I am so thankful that I don't have to quit my job or sacrifice time with my baby. We simply couldn't afford for me not to work, and the thought of leaving my baby with someone else after a few weeks is depressing. Even though we will be paying for baby to be at the center 5 days a week, because John has Fridays off I think baby will stay home on Fridays and get some one on one daddy time.

I know I was baby hungry a while ago, but seriously, the timing is too perfect now. I've said it before and I'll say it again, God's timing is always better than our own. Had I gotten pregnant a year ago when I wanted to, we would be struggling financially and I don't know what I would have done about work or childcare. And what better month to give birth than October because October gets the holiday roll started and I am lucky enough to get to spend all of them at home with my little family :)

Now all I have to do is figure out how maternity leave works and the whole FMLA thing works. I don't know how getting paid while on maternity leave works, but at least I have a few more months to figure it out :)

Just Call Me Santa

Black Friday shopping was a complete success this year!

Normally I go Black Friday shopping with every intent to knock out most if not all of my Christmas list, but somehow it always turns into "Oh, I need new shoes!" "Oh, that's a cute sweater and it's in my size!" "Oh, I love that purse!" and by the end of the day I have lots of pretty new things, but my Christmas list is still in perfect, non-crossed out condition.

This year though I rocked Black Friday!

Tina and I started shopping around 7pm (I am actually against shopping on Thanksgiving, but we celebrated Wednesday night because not all of our family could come on Thursday) and we didn't finish until 7am. Twelve hours of crazy shopping and amazing deals.

We started at Wal-Mart (another rule of mine that I broke this year and won't ever make the mistake of doing again...crazy Wal-Mart people ruin the fun of it!). We got there a little before 8pm and didn't even get what we were going for, that was kind of a bust, but it ended up okay in the end. Next we went to Kmart and I got my sister Bailey knocked off the list, along with part of my own Christmas list. I got SUPER adorable boots (BOGO sale!) and told John to wrap them up for me and have them be part of my Christmas gift. Then it was off to Sears where I got John a bluray player that I was originally going for at Wal-Mart. It was a little more expensive, but I think I got a better one than Wal-Mart had anyway so I'm okay with it. I also got Tina's gift (we decided to pick out our own gifts so we made sure we got what the other person wanted) so that was another person crossed off my list. After that we had a weird break in between openings so we went back to my house for half an hour before deciding to go back to Sears and get a jacket for our sister in law. After sears it was close to midnight so we headed to Kohl's for a present for my mom, the line was extremely long but we were in and out within 30 minutes. Score! And then the fatal mistake....Old Navy. We were doing so well up until that point- in and out within 40 minutes of each store, getting amazing deals- we were pumped. My sister in law wanted a couple things from Old Navy so we went there expecting it to not be extremely terrible. Two very long hours later we finally walked out of the store. It was ridiculous. Black Friday shopping rule #3: never go to Old Navy early on Black Friday (in case you lost count: Rule #1: no shopping on Thanksgiving, rule #2: no Wal-Mart on Black Friday...I'm 0 for 3).

After that exhausting line we needed a pick me up so we headed to Starbucks and sat in their comfy leather couches for a little over an hour until heading to Bi-Mart. There I got John a really nice fishing reel that he has absolutely NO idea he's getting! I love those types of gifts, don't you? After Bi-Mart we headed to Home Depot where I got 3 poinsettias for under $3.00! Um, hella good deal! They're usually $6-$8 for one! I currently have two red poinsettias on my fireplace and one pink one as my kitchen table centerpiece. And then the last stop of the day, Fred Meyer. John had just gotten off work (it was now a little after 6am) so he met up with us. He got himself some Xbox accessory (not Christmas gift related), we got our brother in law part of his gift, and John bought me part of my gift (a beautiful picture frame gallery set for the living room. Oh, I also hopped online during our little break earlier and bought my brother a DVD box set of his favorite 90's cartoon haha.

So in total I crossed off John, Tina, Bailey, Matt, my mom, my sister in law, my niece,I already had my mom's boyfriend's gift, and John finished up my presents.We still have a couple to go, but we're waiting on those couple people to give us ideas for their gifts. So overall, extremely successful shopping day!

 I also ordered our Christmas cards after my very deep, after Black Friday shopping nap. They're super cute!

Total Recall Photos

I don't post in my blog for weeks and now it's 3 in one night?

I apparently have a problem with moderation. That, and procrastination. Mostly procrastination.

Here's pictures of what we've been up to lately....

 here's a picture of our guest bathroom. I actually REALLY love how it turned out

our bathroom still needs work. We'll eventually paint the walls a beige color and definitely update that hideous mirror

 These were at our party. thank you pinterest. everyone thought these were so cute

 sour patch kid cupcakes AND cookies and cream cupcakes. SO good!

 waiving my great grandpa's old flag :o)

some of our delicious dinner

 Happy 4th Everyone!

and drum roll please.....

 The newest addition to our family, my beautiful niece Kennedy

From 2011 to 2012

2011 was a truly fantastic year...most of the time; however, the times that weren't so great were really hard.We've survived our first year here in Oregon, and it's from our move that the best times and toughest challenges came.

We visited the coast more than ever. We went camping and crabbing in the same month, sometimes in the same week. We visited a couple lighthouses, made new friends, lost some too. We got our baby Duke and learned the challenges of owning a Husky. We had people from back home come visit us and hotel Merrigan was full for 2 months straight. We went to and were in multiple weddings. We were able to go back home twice this year. John started out in a job he hated and found the Lowe's job which has been a blessing. We searched for a home church and finally found one we feel welcome in. I finally found a job in my career field and got out of the worst job on my resume' to date. I flew out to NC to reunite with Lizzie who I hadn't seen in 11 months. My brother moved to Oregon and announced his move to LA all  in an 11 month time period. My great grandma passed away and I couldn't go out for the funeral. Kevin & Jaici announced their pregnancy. My little sister got a boyfriend. Tina, Dave, Karen and Mike all moved out of Utah to Oregon.

I'm sure that's not all of the major events that happened in our lives this year, but those are the ones that stand out and had the most influence. The best part of this year to me was Duke. He's made our lives so much better, maybe a little harder too, but the good definitely outweigh the bad. The worst thing that happened was the passing of my great grandma. There was nothing good about that. I'd do anything to have her back.

Who knew one year could bring so much change. Our first year as a married couple and as Oregonians has passed and I'm ready to see what this next year brings. I know for certain I'll start school again; I know I'll become an aunt, and I hope maybe a mother as well.

I've decided not to make a new year's resolution. But I've decided to pick one word that I want to describe this new year. I've thought about this word a lot, and I want my word for 2012 to be: productive. I feel like during the day while I'm at home I'll do some laundry...I'll clean a little....and but I sit online and I browse pinterest far more than I should; I "have" to watch my tv shows; I "have" to check my facebook, but none of that results in me having a productive day. So, 2012 will be a very productive year. I want to be productive in my daily routines. I want to be productive in my marriage. I want to be productive as a pet owner. I want to be productive in my schooling and in my job. I want to look back on this year and think, "Wow, look how much I did". I guess that is kind of a resolution huh? Either way...2012, let's get to work!

Cheers

I'm so excited for this weekend you guys. It's going to be jam packed with lots of celebrating! Here's the scoop:

Tomorrow (which will be like my Friday for the week since it's my last day of work) I get to have some girl time with Chelsea (who just got back from NY) as we get our nails done in preparation for her wedding, then Friday I'll get to watch her & Phil finally say "I do". On Saturday John and I are heading up to Portland to party with my brother (who's birthday is also on Friday) and a bunch of his and John's friends that are going to be in town. And then Sunday we will be celebrating John's grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. 60th people. That's a big deal! On top of all of this, Stephen (John's brother) and Amy (sister-in-law) will be here tomorrow to celebrate all of this with us.

Cheers to finishing the year off right! Woohoo!

Merry Christmas To All & To All A Goodnight

We had an amazing Christmas. Here's how it went:

Let's start off with the night before Christmas. On Christmas Eve John and I hung around the house, just enjoyed the day together, and then that night we went to the Christmas Eve service at our church with John's parents Mike & Karen. After the service we went on over to Mike & Karen's house and had a delicious dinner with them, John's sister, brother in-law, and his Oma. After dinner we watched "It's a Wonderful Life", but John and I had to ditch in the middle of it because we had to come home and let Duke out. When we got home we got cozy in our pajamas, snuggled up, watched "A Muppet Christmas Carol", and then we each opened one present.

Christmas morning we woke up; I put some bacon in the oven and then John started making cheesy eggs (Mmmmmm!), we ate breakfast while watching "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" and then the present openings started. We were spoiled! John got me a really nice coat (I didn't have a waterproof coat [I know right, I mean I live in Oregon]) that will keep me warm and dry during all the rain; he got me new scentsy stuff (for those of you who know me you know I'm super weird about smells so scented things are the way to my heart) he got me an Irish scentsy AND a policeman scentsy for the house (cute, right?!) and he got me a lot of new scents too. He also got me an iTunes gift card and a couple books! From my family I received a lot of new clothes (which were so badly needed),  and perfume. John and I also got a nice pendulum clock (I've always wanted one of those), and a gift card. John's main present was his computer & game that he got a month ago, but on top of that he got a lot of new clothes too (also badly needed) and a nice camping lantern. Duke got lots of new toys: a rope, a frisbee, two squeaky toys (that he's already torn apart), kong stuffing, two bones, and Christmas dog biscuits that look like Christmas cookies- they're pretty cute.

After we were done with presents we got ready for the day and I Skyped my family. It was good to see them! It sucks that I couldn't be there, or they couldn't be here...but Skyping always makes me feel better, it makes them feel less far away. So I Skyped Bailey and got to see her, Matt, my grandparents, my mom & her boyfriend. Then I Skyped my dad and I got to see him, my step-mom, my sister Maddi, my sister Kendal, my brother Zack, his wife Audry and their cute little girl Kallie, I also got to see my sister Meghan and her baby boy Lukas. It was so good to see everybody!!

Later in the afternoon John and I headed over to his parent's house where we finished celebrating. We started out with a huge dinner. We had so much food: smoked turkey, smoked salmon, grilled salmon, biscuits, veggies, stuffing, salads...and then for dessert we had ice cream and pumpkin and/or blueberry pie. I'm getting full again just thinking about all that food. Then we opened gifts. From his family we got a couple Christmas ornaments, gift cards, Christmas blocks that his sister Tina made, a really cute frame/dry erase board thing that Tina also made us...it's adorable but I don't quite know how to describe it, cupcake coasters, homemade Irish cream, travel mugs, John got (or is getting) a new crab ring, and I got a big container of cream puffs (Hello, my name is Piper and I'm an addict).

After all that we came back home, put all of our awesome new things away and relaxed. John played his computer game and I got a little caught up in the excitement of my gift cards to Barnes & Noble and ordered as many books as I possibly could for as much money as my gift cards allowed. And now, here I am telling you all about my day- my amazing, Christmas day.

 Christmas morning at the Merrigan household

 Merry Christmas! From our family to yours

Our smorgasbord of food (there was actually a lot more than this picture shows)

 Look at all those stockings :o)

Mike & Karen's Christmas tree

 

New bone or new toy? New toy or new bone? Such tough decisions

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Reader Input: Christmas Dinner Traditions

I was listening to the radio today and the radio host was talking about Christmas dinner traditions. On Thanksgiving, people (for the most part) are pretty traditional in the sense that everyone has turkey, stuffing, green beans, etc., but she was talking about how nontraditional we are when it comes to Christmas dinner. I haven't really thought of that before but it's true, I mean, there's a Christmas ham but how many people actually do that? I know we don't. I don't know anyone who actually goes that route.

Ok, well...back home my grandma would do a ham, but she'd also do a turkey...no one ever ate the ham (except for my grandma because she's the one who cooked it), but everyone went for the turkey even though a month prior everyone got stuffed on it. John's family though is different which has made my new Christmas traditions different. Since being with John Christmas dinner has always meant smoked salmon and smoked salmon dip. It's one of the things I really look forward to when it comes to Christmas dinner. Smelling the smoked salmon makes it feel like the holidays in our home. Even though I've celebrated 5 (almost 6) Christmases with John and his family, no food stands out as much as the salmon. So that's our tradition.

But I'm curious. What is your Christmas dinner family tradition? Do you have a Christmas ham? Do you have seafood like we do? Are you Italian and have an Italian dinner? I'm intrigued, so please hit me up and share your family traditions :o)

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Today John and I had a very Christmas-y filled day.

My family has a tradition when it comes to our Christmas trees, we do themed trees. One year we did a slinkie tree (one of the coolest we've done), a teddy bear tree, a train tree, my dad did a diet coke tree one year...it rivals the slinkie, I honestly don't know which one was more impressive. This is one tradition I wanted to bring into our marriage, and one that John has willingly let me indulge in as much as financially possible. 

We shopped all day for our Christmas decorations- the tree, the lights, the decorations, and lights for outside....who knew getting everything for a Christmas tree would be so expensive! This year I decided I wanted to do a peppermint themed tree, the inspiration of course being candy canes. I had so much fun shopping for the decorations that we would use. With the exception of trying to find  plain white ornaments....they just don't exist apparently. Everyone has silver, no one has white (they have individual white ornaments that are around $4 an ornament...who wants to pay that??). Really, I tried 4 different stores, no white ones existed in the packs. Dumb. So I had to make due with what I could find. But actually, I think it turned out pretty darn well.

Here's the finished product!

 

 Our peppermint Christmas tree

 It's all in the details

 Have a Holly Jolly Christmas :o)

Which Emotion Will Take Over Next

Basically, I feel like an emotional roller coaster right now.

I went from being super happy today, to being incredibly pissed off...and I mean like, blood boiling pissed off, then after the anger wore off I got sad, and now I have a little hope which makes me happy.

Here's how my day went.


John and I spent the day together and I was totally feeling the Christmas spirit. We went shopping and bought some Christmas stuff, and we decided that tomorrow we're getting our Christmas tree and decorating it. Then we went to the store and got pumpkin pie and eggnog (which we were going to save until tomorrow when we decorate the tree/house but we just couldn't wait so we dug in), and I was having a holly, jolly ole' time.

Then I went to work. And that's when it all went downhill. Literally less that one minute after walking in the door I went from :D to >:O. Why the sourpuss face you ask? Two of our kids got taken away from their mother tonight and put into foster care. I have no sympathy for her, I would have taken them away too. But I feel heartbroken over those kids. I've never been so angry at a client before but I was irate when I heard why the kids got taken away. Mad because she fooled everyone so well; mad because she chose a guy over her kids; mad over her selfishness; mad over her irresponsible and dangerous decisions; mad that those two beautiful babies will now be torn apart; mad because she had chances to change; mad because she's giving up, and mad because I kept thinking of how I would do anything to have a child while there are people out there who don't value their children enough and then situations like these happen.

I was mad for my entire shift. Then I got in my car to head home and I started thinking more of the kids and focusing less on my anger towards the mom. I feel heartbroken that they will be taken away from their mom because they adore her. I feel bad that they will be torn apart. And I'm sad that I won't get to see their cheery little faces anymore.

And here's where the hope comes in.

I'm thankful that they will be taken out of a dangerous/unstable situation and placed with foster parents who care and love them. I know the foster system is screwed up, but one of them has already been taken once and has a foster mom who really does love this child and takes care of them. Maybe that's this will be their saving grace. Then when I got home I started telling John about my awful night and he talked me through my emotions and even though I was doubting my ability to work in a career like this permanently, he encouraged me and listed reasons of why I can do this job. That obviously led to a discussion about our careers and our future, and in this topic of our future, John mentioned babies. I didn't say anything, though I wanted to, but he said that we need to get on top of making our lives better "so we can start having babies". Yes. Those words came out of his mouth. That led to us talking about our careers, him applying to police jobs this weekend, and me finishing my degree. So, then I hopped online and started looking at some more information about my degree and then I started looking up police positions that are open. There are two police departments that are hiring in our dream spot...the coast. This makes me super excited. As soon as I told John he got really excited too. He's applying first thing tomorrow. So please, please, please, say a prayer that John will get one of these positions! I cannot accurately describe how happy the thought of living on the Oregon coast makes me.


 So there's the inside scoop on my highly emotional day.

Gotta love it.

It's Gonna Be A Good Life

I’m very excited for the next few months. Here’s a list of what’s going to be happening:

1. This month I get to go home.  John’s brother is getting married so we’re flying out for that. Weddings are always exciting. I’m a total sap and cry at every one of them (except my own haha) yes, I’m that person.

2. My great grandma wanted me to have her car after she passed away (super thoughtful right?? that’s how she was though, always looking out for everyone), so we’ll be driving my new car home from Utah. That car will help sooo much. It’s hard being a one-car family. Major kudos to those of you who have done it for years!!

3. My great grandma also left me some money (see? she was always thinking about others), it’s to be used either to finish paying for my education or to use it as a down payment on a house. After some discussion John and I have decided to use it towards a house. I can finish school with grants & loans, but with mine & John’s career paths we’re not going to ever make a lot of money. So we’re going to buy a house while we have the money to do so. I’m so excited to get out of the house we’re in now. The house itself isn’t bad, but I don’t like that we’re renting. I’d rather invest my money in something I can get money back from, rather than continuing to put money into something that I’ll never own. And, I hate Jefferson. I really hate Jefferson. So I’m thrilled to get out of this little town.

4. My best friend gets married in less than two months! Yay! More weddings! I have the honor of being in her wedding which I am ecstatic for. I’m excited that I get to see her beautiful face; I’m excited to go to a state that I’ve never been to before (North Carolina), and I’m excited to see my other superamazinglyclose friend Sara who just so happened to move to NC a month ago. Two best friend dates knocked out in one trip across the country?! Can’t beat that!

5. I’ve officially applied for OSU and sent in for my transcripts from Weber State. I’m not too worried about getting admitted; I meet all of the requirements so I’m hoping nothing goes wrong and that I can start in January like planned. I’m excited to go back to school, and I”m way excited to go to a school like OSU. I didn’t like Weber, I never felt connected and didn’t get that college experience. I’m going to get a little of that at OSU and I’m very happy. John and I can go to OSU football games  together (which are huge, nothing like Weber’s games), who doesn’t like being part of a school rivalry? I mean really, they’re funtastic. I’m a little worried about which credits will transfer over though. I was 85% done with my degree at Weber, and now I’m worried I’ll have to start all over. I don’t want to be there for 2+ years when I was so close to finishing back home. But we’ll see how that all goes. I guess I shoudn’t jump the gun, I need to be admitted first….but like I said, I’m not too worried about that.

6. In not very long at all the holiday season will be here. It’s my favorite time of year- holiday, after holiday, after holiday. Ah, love. I love Halloween, I work on it this year which kinda sucks, but at the same time it doesn’t because I’ll be around a lot of kids at work and since we don’t have kids yet it’s kind of like the next best thing. Then Thanksgiving, I always feel bad for Thanksgiving because people mull over it and want to jump right to Christmas, but I personally really like Thanksgiving. Then Christmas, there’s not enough good things to say about Christmas. Then New Years, also an extremely fun holiday….and all this is right around the corner.

7. Now that all of that is right around the corner, that means our first anniversary is right around the corner! I can’t believe John and I have been married for almost a year already! It seems like only 3 months ago we were moving to Albany and into our first apartment. I’m almost in disbelief that it’s been nearly 12 months!
8. Oh! I almost forgot one more thing, silly me. John’s parents sold their house in Utah and have found a new house here in Oregon. That all happened this past weekend, very exciting to have more family here.
So as you can see, there are LOTS of changes and happy events going on in the next 4 months. I can’t wait to see just how everything plays out.

Ah, it’s gonna be a good life