Done with one and on to the next......

Well, things are going well for us. We're excited for the nice weather that we've been having and are looking forward to summer. April has been going by pretty quick, but we're not complaining.

This week I finished up my Financial Accounting class. I had a big project due, got that done, and got full credit on it. I then and a comprehensive final and felt pretty good about it. He still hasn't graded our finals, but we'll see. I actually start Managerial Accounting this Wednesday w/ the same teacher. Steve is getting ready to take all of his finals this week since we're leaving next week for the GRAND CANYON!!! We're getting pretty excited for that.

Friday, Steve picked me up after work and we headed out to Rose's. We showed up as a surprise to Jared for his birthday. We watched the 3 youngest girls while they went out to dinner. They were pretty easy. We just fed them dinner, which Rose had ready, then watched a movie and played games. We were only there for 3 hours or so, but we were happy to help at least for them to go out by themselves. Who knows, maybe one day Summer will be watching our kids. ;)

Saturday we got to sleep in, then did some serious cleaning of the condo. After we got done, I went and got some groceries, then we went over to Dave/Joann's to help rip out the carpet. We pulled out all the old carpet downstairs, almost in every room, and one upstairs. Of course we had to get the padding under the carpet and then sweep and vacuum the floors. It took us about 3 hours to do it, but we got a lot done. After we finished, we went home, ate some cereal, then went to the temple to some initiatories.

When we got home I decided since we had more of mom's great Rhubarb, I'd make a pie out of it. I haven't made a pie in a while, so I thought it'd be fun. I added some cinnamon on the top just because I love cinnamon and 2 small apples inside to sweeten it up a little. It turned out really well. Here's a picture and the recipe.



Fresh Rhubarb Pie

Ingredients

* 4 cups chopped rhubarb
* 1 1/3 cups white sugar
* 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 1 tablespoon butter
* 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
2. Combine sugar and flour. Sprinkle 1/4 of it over pastry in pie plate. Heap rhubarb over this mixture. Sprinkle with remaining sugar and flour. Dot with small pieces of butter. Cover with top crust.
3. Place pie on lowest rack in oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

Steve is officially the Branch Mission Leader, w/ me as his assistant per say. Today we got 2 more couples called as branch missionaries, which is going to be awesome. The more help the better. Since we're in a small branch, there's not as many people overall, but the turnover is HUGE since we are in condos/apartments. So probably our biggest issues is just keeping track of people moving in and out. We're going to work w/ the new missionaries called in our branch to try and figure out who is not coming to church and how we can best help them. I'm excited to get going finally and hopefully help either new members or help reactivate the less actives by finding their testimonies again. All 4 of the families we home/visit teach together are less active. 2 of them have been coming more regularly now though. I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK!!!!!

After church, we had the missionaries over for dinner. Elder Konstedaylo is heading to his "real mission" in the Ukraine. He was here for a month or so while he was waiting for his visa. He was actually born in the Ukraine, but moved to Australia when he was 9 so he has an accent. He's been in a 3 some w/ Elder Gates and Stokes this week until he leaves on Tuesday. We invited them over as a "goodbye party" and thought it would be fun w/ Rob too. I made 3 pizza's which seemed to be just enough. We then had brownies and ice cream and played games. They loved the game mom gave me a while back called "Pig Pile." Steve then talked then into playing the game where you pack flour down in a cup w/ a penny at the bottom, but we put a lifesaver instead. Elder Stokes was the lucky on that had to get it out. The Elders had a riot!

Quick Catch Up..........

I know I haven't been really updating much lately, so I figured I'd better do so.....if not for everyone else to know, than just for my own records.:)

So April is here, as we all know, and man is it flying by. Steve and I are pretty excited though because we're going rafting down the Grand Canyon for 6 days in May. Steve went once after graduating high school and has been begging to go back again. So, when a large group canceled a month or so ago, Steve talked me into signing up!

At the first of April we decided to go visit my parents up in Idaho. I took Friday and Monday off so we could enjoy our time up there, and so Steve could try going fishing w/ dad. We made it up there on Friday around 4 pm, got unpacked and had dinner shortly after. We bought the movie "Blind Side" and watched it that night. It's a great story, true story, so we figured mom and dad would like it. Mom actually sat through the whole thing, so that says a lot!!!

On Saturday, Steve went w/ dad to go fishing. They didn't have much luck so they came back and got the boat to try out. Dad has been fixing up this boat (Steve's dad Dave's old boat he gave to Dad) and was anxious to try it on the water. The good news was that it still floated and the engine ran, but the bad news was it would only go backwards. Though it didn't work as planned, I'm sure they had a good time. While they were gone, I eventually got up, ate, showered, and got ready. Barb, Rich and the kids showed up shortly after. We had General Conference on, but to say the least, not much was heard. Around noon, we all went down to Grandma Hegerhorst's place for lunch and Easter candy. It was fun to see everyone that was there and just visit. Kinda funny though, there were only 5 kids there (4 of which were Barbs...luckily they came).

The guys (Dad, Steve and Rich) took the boat out again in the afternoon. This time dad did something and it went forward now, not backwards. They made it back just in time to get the hot pizza coming out of the oven and head out the door for Priesthood session. While they were gone, we had Corinne come over to play games. When they came back, Jarom also came over and we played more games. It was a lot of fun; I love games!

On Sunday, Daron, Kristi and the kids showed up. Again, Conference was on....but
I'd have to say not much listening was going on. We ended up talking about when/where we wanted our family reunion this year. We decided to have it the same weekend of Grandma's birthday, since we were all planning on going up anyway and it would be easiest to do. Grandma came over for lunch, ham dinner, yumm. We then finally watched most of the afternoon session of conference. Afterwords, we had our Easter sack hunt hid in the machinery. We all ended up w/ sacks, but didn't find the Easter bunny this time (ironically we found it dead last year....). We all then went over to Daron/Kristi's to look at the new puppies then Barb and her family headed home. That night we played games w/ mom and dad....we just love that!

Monday morning, Dad and Steve tried to go fishing again, but had no luck w/ the weather. Since the weather wasn't too favorable, we decided to pack up and get going. We left before noon and made it home it good time. It rained most of the way, but luckily it didn't start snowing until later that night. We had a good trip to Idaho and always enjoy our time on "the farm" w/ mom and dad and everyone. We are trying to visit more often this year.

So, besides our trip to Idaho, Steve and I have been still going to school. This is my last week of lecture, so next week is my final. I'll then start another class. Steve is also getting close to being done. He has a couple more weeks of class then finals before we go to the Grand Canyon.

I just finished up a campaign (Feb-March) at work. I finished well enough to qualify for a $500 gift card, which I'm pretty excited about. I also had to take my Continuing Education test on the 6th, and passed it luckily. I can't believe it's been 2 years since I took the 7. Thanks goodness the Continuing Education test is NOT nearly as hard as the real one.

Last Thursday we went to the temple and did initiatories, which was great. On Friday we went w/ Steve and Abby Bonney to a movie for his birthday. And Saturday we cleaned our condo and helped Dave/Joann w/ their house "decluttering" that I already wrote about. We also went over our budget on Sunday, and though things are still tight, we're making it work. It's crazy how far we've come over this past year being married, especially when it comes to finances. There definitely is a lot more trust and understanding to say the least.

One more thing.....yesterday night we went and met w/ the Bishop. Steve has been called as the branch mission leader. We kinda figured it would be coming since our leader was called as the executive secretary. It should be a really good thing for Steve, and of course I'll be helping him along the way. Our home teaching is also going really well, especially since Steve and I are partners. ;)

Spring Cleaning......

On Thursday, Steve helped his dad dig a hole in order to fix the water main in their front yard. Steve ended up digging the hole, along w/ some help from his friend Rob. Dave helped by supervising, and Jeff also stopped by for a bit. The hole ended up being 5 feet deep. They had a neighbor/friend come fix the leak, then Steve and Rob filled it in on Saturday.


Working hard.....putting the dirt back in.


Posing for the picture


All done


While they were filling it in, I packed up all Steve's stuff from the house and loaded it up. Dave and Joann are trying to "declutter" so we figured we'd better do our part. Phil, Stacie, Jeff, us and Rob all came to help to move things. It took a lot of us to get things done, so luckily we had a lot of help....though I'm pretty sure we'll be doing it again soon. After that, we helped moved other furniture from inside the house to the garage, clean, move some boxes and stuff to the trailer, then unloading the stuff in the trailer into Jeff's garage. That morning we also cleaned our condo and got it organized. So, let's just say that by the time we got done w/ everything, we were pretty tired and sore.


All the cars in the driveway.


Taking a mattress to the trailer


All the furniture in the garage



Steve found a bunny lollipop somewhere and decided to eat it

Pretty much done.....

So Steve has been working hard getting our fireplace mantle done. It looks GREAT!!! Rob and Steve put the crown molding on it (it took them a couple times but they did it), along w/ the other molding, and Steve painted it a couple times. He also painted the wall behind it again (there was a mirror there). We'll probably put up a smaller mirror in it's place. I'm sooooo proud of Steve. He did such a great job, especially for his first ever mantle!!! Check it out, our condo looks so much better!

Work in progress......

I've been wanting a mantle for our fireplace pretty much since we moved in. So....finally we're putting one in. Steve has been on spring break this week, but since he hasn't been feeling well, it was delayed a bit. Towards the end of the week though, we got a plan made up and went to work. Steve and Rob started Saturday afternoon and worked until the evening. We're not quite done, but it's looking great. We still need to put the molding on and then we'll paint it black. Here are some pics so far.

Fishing and Hiking

On Saturday, since the weather was sunny, we decided to go on a hike....and Steve wanted to do some fishing as well. He called Zach and Rob and they decided to come also. The hike was fun, though there was a good amount of snow on the path and at the lake. It was beautiful up there and the exercise was an additional benefit!



The guys trying to be tough ;)



Beautiful!



Getting all set up



Working hard!

For fun

So since it was such a nice day, after a good nap, we decided to take a walk to a close elementary school. Once we got there, we played around on the playground. It was a lot of fun, just being a kid again. The slides were a little tight but still fun. Here are some pics of our fun (taken on Steve's phone)!