December

What a month.

As it draws to a close, I decided it was about time I got my own blog.

Thanks to all of you for following our blog for so long- so if you are interested in keeping up come on over to my new blog and keep up with all the happenings.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas.

Lots of Love,

Lanie

the socks

First I need to say, I love my dilly's. I treat them pretty much like my children. Yes, on an occasion I have dressed them up but never regularly and always as a joke. Zira has a coat for when its really cold outside and she wears it outside, only when its cold out. I can honestly say I never thought there would be a day I would actually consider buying boots for my dog.

Let me explain, Nico likes to be outside. She likes sitting by the fence, in the dirt, ALL DAY. For what you ask? For the 19 seconds every few hours when the wiener dogs that live next door come out into their yard and go to the bathroom. When those wiener dogs do come outside, she goes CRAZY. Like in some sort of trance and its impossible to get her out of. I can occasionally lure her in with an abandoned from breakfast leftover waffle but its still tough. Once those dogs go back in, she waits, until they come out again. Yes, it's obsessive and frankly we don't know what to do. But what I do know is when she is barking at those dogs she runs up and down the fence, in the dirt, which usually contains mud. Every time we bring her inside we have to wash her feet of and I am tired of it. Enter boots.

I decided rather than washing her feet every time she comes in we get her some boots. I initially was hesitant that she would immediately rip them off so we did a trial run with some of my nieces socks and well it went pretty good. They eventually fell off and she was happy about it but really did good and I think after Christmas I am going to buy her some boots.

Oh Nico and your tube socks....

The other day Chris and I came down to our bedroom to find Nico snuggled in bed. It was quite hilarious- she is snuggled up with Chris' body pillow.

Here is Brownie. She is the Jensen's dog but she loves to hang out with us down stairs everyday while we are looking for jobs. She likes to sit on top of the couch cushion its so funny.

Tis the season

The tree is up.

Its not feeling as Christmas-y here as I would have thought.

We don't get a whole lot of snow just little skiffs.

Its just ridiculously cold and windy.

I think I'd rather have the snow....

All I really want for Christmas at this point is a job.

Although all my laundry is done and everything is clean

my OCD is feeling satisfied- so now I need to get a job!

The Re-do

In all the hustle and bustle of moving to Colorado I completely forgot to post about our

"Re-do Cruise".

Or "The Splendor Round 2- This time it's personal."

First off- we had T-shirts made. What started as a joke became reality thanks to my boss' husband who is a graphic designer. After hearing a little bit about our story this is what he came up with:

Which we of course all loved. We got them printed up and they looked so good! Little would be know that MANY other people would be on their re-do the same week as us.

I still have a hard time imagining this- we got a FREE cruise, go anywhere within 2 years and we got a dollar for dollar match of what was spent. And so many of us chose the SAME BOAT and the SAME WEEK as last year?!?! Are you all crazy???

Yes I believe so.

So for those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about right now .....

Google Carnival Splendor November 2010 for some light reading to catch up....

Anyway... everything turned out fine. It was really strange that first day walking back onto the boat and just walking around the boat again... in the light.

All and all it was a good time and we had a lot of fun. Once we woke up that next morning and we weren't being run out of our rooms by smoke a lot of the nervousness went away.

Here we are in the airport getting ready to fly to Long Beach so we can get on the boat. Don't we look so thrilled to be going on a free vacation???

So last year we spent oh.... 90% of the cruise sitting at this table. There is one emergency light that worked right above the table so we all huddled around it and played endless amounts of card games and just sitting.....

Our first day off the boat we spent in Cabo. We got to go to a really nice resort and spend the day on their private beach and eat lunch there. It was really fun and the food was great. (WAY better than eating the lunch buffet on the cruise)

Chris was not wanting to sit by me because I wanted to be in the shade and he wanted to get tan or something.... I don't know.

After 2 days in Cabo we went to Puerto Vallarta. This was where Chris and I went on our Honeymoon so it was fun to be back there and see it again. The water isn't nearly as clear as Cabo but I liked it more. We went to a private beach for the day. It was really fun. They had kayaking and paddle boarding, we all had a lot of fun. Oh and, mom was a little slow with the picture on this one so we had all turned around besides Telden.

So one day we are sitting in Bingo and I see this older couple a few rows away and I can just barely make out their T-shirts and I was dying of laughter. They were obviously on the boat last year as well and so my mom went and asked if she could take a picture of their shirt... It's kind of hard to read but this is what it says:

Top 10 Things that should never happen on a cruise ship:

1. Opening your cabin door to and seeing crew members running down the hall in life jackets and they were "300% sure it's not an emergency"

2. Using an ice bucket for a toilet

3. Taking a cold shower in the dark (I can relate, it was SO cold it sent you into shivers for an hour)

4. SPAM for breakfast, lunch and dinner

5. Cocktail hour is a mini-bar scavenger hunt

6. Blackhawk helicopter food drops

7. Entertainment is squeezing 20 friends into a cabin

8. Hear the words "Fireless Smoke" (that one really made me laugh)

9. Also "There has been a delay, the rescue tug boat has broken down."

10. Oh and "Your cruise has officially been terminated" on day 2 of 7

Of all the T-shirts we saw theirs really cracked us up. It was so funny because there were literally times we would be walking around the boat and one of us would say hey I recognize them.

Gotta love the towel animals. The elephant was my favorite.

This was the last formal night, Friday. We had gone to the lounge afterwards to see comedians. Overall the entertainment was Meh, one night there was a prop comic and he was hilarious other than that pretty lame.

But all in all is was a good re-do and it was nice to be with the family and see everyone before I went off to Colorado to be with Chris.

Honestly, I would be just fine to not go on another cruise ever again.

Just sayin.

freako

Just had to share I finally successfully lured Nico (or Freako) into the house during a barking frenzy in the back yard with a chip.

Pretty excited right now.

Colorado

Well its been... 4 days since I arrived here in Colorado. I actually really like it here. Only downfall- its getting cold! No snow yet since I've got here (I guess they don't get a whole lot???) But I like it. I've managed to get lost driving....every time I go anywhere. Multiple bloody noses... apparently coming from the Utah desert didn't prepare me for how dry it is here... and probably the higher altitude. But other than that all settled in!

A few pictures to see our new little apartment.....

Family Room

Hallway between family room and bathroom
Bedroom- good old humidifier trying to prevent more bloody nose incidents....

Between my clothes and Chris' clothes the built in closet was NOT enough room. So I required my own stand alone from IKEA. Not a bad price and with a little pairing down I was able to fit all my clothes... my shoes on the other hand... are shoved everywhere!

That's all really going on now. Just looking for jobs and getting ready for Thanksgiving. Can't believe the holidays are coming already!

that face

too bad she has grown up to be a JERK.

But Nico I forgive you, look at how CUTE you were. Your first day home with us.

6 days

I can't believe in 6 days we will be back on the Splendor. I know, I have that same feeling too. That's just asking for trouble is what I say. But either way, it will be nice to get back together with all the family again. And even better it will be good to see Chris again, finally. We are getting some awesome shirts printed up that my boss' husband designed for us which I will post once they are done, they are too funny! We are all going to wear them when we get on the boat!

I promise to bring back lots of pictures, hopefully none involving the coast guard or helicopters.

Bon Voyage!

neglect

Poor little neglected blog... Doesn't get a whole lot of lovin' these days. I'm finding it a little challenging to be writing a blog about "the egberts" when 3/4 of "the egberts" live 10 hours away, and my life consists of an hour drive to work 9 hours at work and an hour home.

Well good news Chris finished the basement- talented that boy is- from the few little pictures he sent everything looks really good. Can't wait to get out there next week to help organize and make it nice!

I know you can really tell the superb-ness from this shot... but it was all I really had...

Also- for the 3 of you that look at our little neglected blog- thank you. I'm not always the best at getting around to everyone's and posting comments and staying caught up with everyone.

But I know you are there- looking, judging...... Kristina.....

55 days

I must admit.. Anxiety has started to get the best of me a little as I printed out the boarding passes for our cruise That is coming in a short 55 days. Those of you who may not have read back in the archives of our lovely blog may have missed our cruise we went on last November.

Even if you missed it here, I'm sure you heard about it on the news, but if you need a refresher here is a story from USA today and some little video Chris took on his phone

USA TODAY November 10, 2010

sure miss them

Chris has been gone now for 2 months... its still very strange that our only contact is on the phone. Chris HATES talking on the phone but has definitely made additional effort because that is pretty much our only contact we get in a day sometimes only a few minutes. It feels so quiet at my parents house without the dilly's too. When they were here I was able to bring them to work with me so its a little quiet there too. I found some pictures of the dilly-capades at work on my phone today they are pretty funny....

Nico didn't particularly like coming to work, it was confusing for her. But whenever the chew sticks came our she was fine. I was only able to bring her a few times to work before her and Chris moved.

This was her expression at me most of the time...

She hated being out in the open where people could see her so she would always hide under my desk. Luckily its a fairly large desk so I still had some feet space.

Zira also liked hiding under the desk. She would go under the section where the drawers were where there was no space and sit in my "paper to be shredded box"

Zira came with me to work everyday after Chris and Nico left and she did such a good job. She only was bad when the Fed Ex truck pulled in the parking lot- she would bark and go crazy and run up to the front door to wait for them to come in, once they came in she loved them. Something about the truck...

Zira ALWAYS wanted to sit in my lap. Sometimes while I was making phone calls I would let her sit in my lap. It was SO uncomfortable for both of us but she was just happy to be in my lap.

Sure do miss those Dillys. Can't wait to visit for my birthday to see them and Chris!

thinking back

I was just laughing about this the other day while I was working on cleaning out a filing cabinet we had in our office. I realized it would not be practical for us to take the cabinet to Colorado so I needed to go through and clean it out as much as possible. While cleaning it I came across an unlabeled hanging folder with several envelopes in it. I pulled them all out and quickly realized what they were.

Chris and I did not have a long engagement. Right after we got engaged we decided on a date August 16th (I don't really know what that day and originally I don't know why it didn't work out) After one reason or another (I think some one in the Egbert family wasn't going to be able to make it) We changed the date but only after we had already made the date with the Temple and received our "confirmation of the date and time letter" in the mail. After the 16th wasn't going to work we changed it to the August 11th. We changed the date with the Temple without consulting anyone in thinking "It's our day they will make it for us". Soon after we had made this decision we brought up the date with my family. My dad (who is always easy going about everything) immediately said no to the date because it was the Mulligan (translation- 3 day golf tournament EVERY year at the country club- big deal. If you miss a year you get put down at the bottom of the waiting list and sometimes end up waiting several years to get back in the rotation to play again) My dad was not going to budge about missing the Mulligan but finally offered that it would be ok, he would just have to wait a few years. Of course knowing how much it meant to my dad we changed the date again. (My dad lives for summer golf especially the Mulligan how could I take that away from him? And when that certain someone is paying you are kind of obligated to please them at least a little right?) August 4th.... nope that didn't work either. July 31st... nope someone was on vacation. July 28th... finally we came across a day that worked for everyone and everyone was happy... Until we were thrown through a loop when our reception center told us we could get a substantial discount if we opted for a weekday- specifically Wednesday July 26th. So once again we called the Temple and changed our date.

I was laughing while cleaning out that folder and looking at each of the letters we had received and for some odd reason why after 5 years I had kept them all. It gave me quite a good laugh because I had completely forgotten the mayhem of all the date changing and rearranging that was being done clear up until the first of June it was only a matter of days that we had finalized the date before invitations were sent.

It made me laugh especially since this week was the Mulligan and my dad of course played and had a great time. So thanks to Dad, every year during the Mulligan we all have a little laugh about when life stands still for everyone because Dad is at the Mulligan.

what is done is done

Today was a crazy day. We spent all day yesterday packing up the truck getting ready for Chris to leave. I felt like we were running from the beginning of the day all the way to the end. This morning Chris and Zira got in the moving truck and left on their journey to Colorado Springs. The sad thing is at this point they have still not got to Colorado, poor things!

I have the amazing opportunity of moving in with my parents. It was quite comical to bring a truck load of stuff and move into my old bedroom... pretty funny. For now this is how things will stay. Chris and the Dillys in Colorado and me here back in Utah. Right now its just what is going to have to work.

I am already anxious to plan my next trip out to visit.

Weekend Update

First I apologize for the huge lack of updates.

Ok, so we are moving. Next Friday. Unfortunately we are going in opposite directions from each other. I have been working on packing up everything while Chris has been living in Colorado with his sister and her family {soon we will all just be one big happy family :) get ready!} finishing their basement that they have so generously made into an apartment for us. He's been gone for about a month and a half and flew in yesterday it was exciting to be able to see him again after our longest time apart... ever.

Friday Chris will be heading out with little Dilly {aka Zira, big Dilly- aka Nico is already a resident of Colorado. Thank you Jensen's for taking care of her while Chris is here, we know how she gets sometimes} and officially making the move to Colorado with all of our stuff.

What will I be doing? Well I am moving back into the Wiseman house (my parents are secretly very excited about this, I know it), into my old room in fact (feels kind of weird after 5 years) I am working and things are good on that front. Yes I will eventually be moving to the Springs (Colorado Springs) to join the family just not quite yet. I just got my new job in May and I really like it and it pays the bills so it seemed to make sense to continue for a while.

Things have been a little crazy trying to get it all figured out what is going where and what is all happening. A little hectic when your life is moving a state away and you are not. But in the end this will be a great thing.

Chris is preparing to start school in the spring and we are very excited for that. It was definitely a good move to do this option even though it wasn't always the easiest decision. Life has been quite crazy the last few years but this feels like a reboot. Its unfortunate it took 5 years to get to this point but we sure have learned a lot along the way and we have SO many people to thank for where we are. So many family and friends who have given so much for us to be where we are and for that we are ever so grateful to each and everyone.

The end to this winding road we have been driving for the past year came to an end yesterday with one small piece of paper in the mail. I could hardly contain my excitement when I opened our mailbox and saw it siting right on top screaming at me, I ran across the parking lot to our apartment to open the letter dragging Zira behind me the whole way. It really does feel like we get a fresh start which is exciting and kind of exhausting but all in all we are so grateful and thankful even despite the upheaval we have had the last year. Its good to be past this. {I have contemplated a large bon fire containing all the papers I never want to look at again- it would be a pretty great fire. I have several file boxes of them}My hope is that one day all of this may make more sense.

We can't wait to start a new life in Colorado with the Jensen's we will miss our family and friends in Utah but its good to know we will always come and visit.

*moving update*

I guess I can finally say the moving plans, seems like it is official enough now.

Our lease on our place here in South Jordan is up end of July so we have been thinking for quite some time what we wanted to do. Chris decided that he would like to go to Colorado to go to school at UCCS and for the time being I will stay here in Utah and work. We are so lucky to be able to have Chris' sister and her family in Colorado be willing to take us in for the next while and help while Chris is in school. We are really excited for Chris to be starting school there and it will be quite the adventure!

moving

Yes... moving again. Our lease is up end of July so thus we must begin packing again. SUPER!

lets go to the amazon...

I think I may have a teensy obsession with

amazon.com

I love love love it

my most recent purchase

a stellar deal on a pair of these great jeans

love them!

{I am pretty sure the people that work in the office at my complex (fedex delivers to the office rather than leaving packages on any of the apartments doorsteps) think I am constantly online shopping. I don't really go shopping except for online and when you can buy things 60% off wouldn't you?}

Whole lot of nothin.....

That's what we've been up to

whole lot of nothin....

karma chameleon

When I think of changing I think of chameleons.

When I think of chameleons I think of the song "Karma Chameleon"

Why? I don't know....

I guess I've just always really wanted a chameleon....

Lots of changes and decisions for us this month.

Chris has made the decision to go back to school. I am very happy for him and he is also getting excited for that next chapter. He will start back up at UVU for the summer semester. Not sure what he wants to study yet... but there is still plenty of time for that! We are excited to start a new chapter in our lives. Lots of things are wrapping up for us and we are finally able to be rid of the past and all the great fun that has been for us.

Can't wait for the new exciting things to happen

and the challenges it will bring for us.

Ok I realize what that might sound like to some of you...

NO I am NOT pregnant... sorry :)

terrarium

I saw this tutorial...last year....

on how to make a DIY terrarium

I have been wanting to attempt to make one but

need to go price out the supplies

Isn't that so cute?

Head over to Poppytalk to check out the tutorial

Anyone want to make one with me?

DIY Lamp

We bought this lamp several months ago at Ikea

At first I LOVED the orange, but after a while I need some pattern.

So I made the 1 minute drive to Hobby Lobby to pick up some fabric and a poster board

Fabric was on sale so I spent less than $5

After a few minutes I now have a totally new lamp and I love it

And! I can easily switch out the fabric later since I used

removable glue dots to hold the fabric on the poster board

Honey the Horticulturist

I decided I wanted to grow an herb garden.

I found a great herb garden kit

it came with everything you need.

I was worried that they would not grow.

I checked on them everyday while they germinated.....

But after only 3 weeks look at our progress!

I chose to grow Basil, Cilantro and Oregano.

Hopefully we continue to have success!

Oh and Chris calls me "The Honey"

so therefore I am now

Honey the Horticulturist.....

Check us out!

We love our new custom picture we got painted.

Its our engagement picture from our wedding announcements

and one of the ONLY pictures of us that is.... well, good.

A huge thank you to Morgan she did an awesome job and we really love it.

You can get your own custom picture

at her Etsy store here

We're still here!

Nico loves the Pillow Pet my Aunt Cheryl gave us

My mom bought this stuffed snake for the Dilly's and they love they can run around and chew on it together

We adopted a Pot Belly Pig

Oh wait... thats Zira with her haircut

Shaggy Dilly

Nico thought she was so sneaky sleeping on the bed

Nico on her favorite chair

Ok it's been a while but we're still here

Booked

I'm starting to prepare

Splendor

Round 2

November 6th

Bring it...

Really?

Wow- I can't believe it's 2011!

I can't believe 2010 is over! (Not that I wish it wasn't or anything)

2010 wasn't the greatest year of our lives but I must say that we did probably learn/ "experience" the most of any other year that we have been married!

2011 brings a lot of landmarks for us this year

Chris will be turning 30 this month

In July we will be celebrating 5 years together

(little Dilly will also be turning 5 in July)

and I will be turning 25 in October.

Look at us all growing up!

Here is to a (better) new year

in hopes that maybe we can find a little piece of what we've been looking for.