Projects

Because it's the last week of the semester my mind is wondering and FAR GONE from anything school related. And it doesn't help that I've been in school for over a year-and-a-half. (Just sayin....)

SO... consequently I have been day-dreaming over all of the many projects I am going to attempt to do/start over my break. FYI and for me as well, I'm making a list:

• Make 100 pairs of baby-leggings for this awesome family. (Let me know if you wanna help!)
• Start a quiet book for my future little ones. [Thanks for your crafty blog Sam, I get ideas from it (: ]
• Finish sewing a couple of bags I have been neglecting.
• ORGANIZE MY RECIPES! (Any ideas for this one?)
• Recruit my BFF to come help me organize my kitchen cabinets/closet. (Yes Liz, that means YOU!)
• Have a sewing day with my sissy's and mamma to make some pillow dresses for all the little princess's in my life. (And possibly to re-stock the baby-shower gift storage.)
• Organize "my room". It's bad people...real bad. I'm talkin' sewing, scrapping, schooling, crafting, decorating CRAP EVERYWHERE!!!!! (Excuse my language.)
• AND....I really want to make one (or two...or three...) of these and maybe a few of these (I might make a bunch of the tutu's for this charity...later this fall though). So cute! I can always use them for gifts for all my babies (AKA my nieces & nephews)!

I'm sure my list will grow and only a fraction will get done, but a girl can dream right?

Anywhoo...I'm off to attempt to study for a final or two...wish me luck.

P.S. Two posts 7 days apart...come on now, that deserves some props! ;-)

Shocked?

Hello world...Yes, I'm blogging. Shocked? Me too.

I started feeling guilty that I still check everyone else's blog...but I never blog . So, here's a bit of an update on our happenings...

• I'm almost done with the semester...YAY! But, I will NOT be posting my grades this time...I've been...ummmm...well....a bit of a slacker! :)
• I registered for my last semester of course work before I students teach...WAHOOOO!
• Matt got nationally trained as a rock climbing/rappelling instructor through BSA and coordinated the Cedar Badge rappelling in June.
• Matt is gearing up for grain season... :-/
• I have had 2 more miscarriages (march & june) which brings the grand total of little ones we may get to raise someday to 5.
• We found out why I am miscarrying (we think)...most likely my thyroid (hypothyroidism) and just a crappy malfunctioning immune system.
• We have gone fishing a few times this summer...I love just being outside and NOT doing homework!
• We have hung out with family pretty much all summer [Nephews being ordained to the priesthood and baptized, playing cards, riding the 3 wheeler (may she rest in peace...long/funny story), playing at the dunes, shooting squirrels (and any other creature that moves), watching fireworks...etc...etc...]

Kacy, Yandie, Me, Krys....YES, the wind was blowing.

After a long, cold day of riding on the dunes...so fun!

Yandie & Me cruising around the farm...Doesn't her beauty put any ounce of mine to shame?!

Spring on the Henry's Fork

Here fishie fishie...
Daren, Me, Matt in St. George (February...I know...forever ago!) Me and Matt riding on the rocks!
We are going on our 3rd year of marriage...and we couldn't be more in love :)
We have been working at the Rexburg Temple as ordinance workers for almost 1 year...and it has been the biggest, best blessing in our lives!
Matt is busy as the Elder's Quorum Pres. in our ward...it's so neat to see him serve and fulfill his priesthood duties!
I'm the 2nd counselor in the R.S. Pres. and love the girls I work with and love getting to be trained and learn so much from our stake R.S. Presidency! It's definitely a learning/growing experience for me!

Anywhoo.... I hope everyone is doing awesome!

Christmas!

Can you BELIEVE that Christmas is OVER???!!!! I can't. In fact, my decorations just don't seem to want to come down. I think that i'll pretend it's Christmas until at least February. :)

Anyway....

We started our Christmas celebrations on Christmas Eve at my parents house. This lovely little picture below is of my handsome husband helping out in the kitchen. Yes, he is wearing my mom's apron. What a man! :)

We had fun helping my parents get ready for company and cooking some yummy food! My dad showed Matt his famous clam chowder making skills and I got to do the grunt work (such as grating and chopping miscellaneous things...)

All of my siblings came except for Joe. We took pics of each family and of all the grandkids! (Minus Dannette) Looking at this pic I can't believe how big they are all getting! Especially Austin and Justin! They are turning in to handsome young men! Who would have thought!? I feel old... Here are my parents and some of the coolest kids around:

After we ate, sang, played, and opened presents we sent everyone home and made our way to Matt's parents house. We stayed the night there and helped Santa do his thing at the Bitter house.

The next morning we opened presents with the whole fam. It's always so fun Christmas morning at the Bitter house! And I can always count on getting a sugar coma after making my way through my stocking!

Matt got a bunch of reloading stuff and a few calls (technical boy/hunter terms...don't worry nothing exciting). I got an awesome jewelry box thing, some clothes, books, and...dum da da dum....AN IPOD TOUCH! I had no idea Matt was going to buy me one! I sort of lost my iPod that he bought me last Christmas (anyone seen a Pink Nano anywhere?). So, after that I didn't think he'd get me another one...but HE DID! And, IT ROCKS....seriously, everyone should have one.

Another highlight was the gift exchange we did this year with the Bitter's. I had our niece Brynlee's name this time. I made her a dress up chest and bought some clothes for it. When she opened it she proceeded to put on every outfit in it! It was so stinkin' cute! It made my painting effort worth it! So here she is...the cowgirl/cheerleader/fairy!

The rest of the holidays we pretty much crashed at the Bitter's and bummed around eating food, playing the Wii, playing other games (hearts, sequence)..... It was wonderful!

Matt had fun hanging out with Mitch and practicing with the new calls. They spent some time calling coyotes too. It's amazing how Matt will wake up at 5 in the morning to fish or hunt but yet when it's time for work or errands with me it takes a blow-horn to get him up!!!

Now it's back to reality this week. We spent today helping Ayanda (our new friend from Zimbabwe) getting registered and what not for classes. Tomorrow will be the same and I'll have to take care of odds and ends for this semester. Then on Wednesday I start another semester of 20 credits! At least this time I won't be working on top of it!

I am so excited for 2010 and I'm sure it's going to be a fabulous year! 2009 was great and so much happened in such a short time! I can't help but be excited for what lies ahead!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and is enjoying the new year!

Halloween to Now! (Picture CRAZY!)

Sorry for my slacking...I'm really not THAT busy anymore. Just lazy I guess! Funny that as busy as I am with finals- today is the day I pick to blog! Ha...it's the procrastinator in me coming through! Anyway...

In October we carved pumpkins with our neighbors Mark and Ashley. They're awesome :)

Mark gets pretty crafty when he carves and prints patterns off the internet. So, we thought we'd be crafty too...this is what we came up with....

John Deere logo and G Loomis fish...Beautiful eh? I thought they fit us well! Too bad we never put candles in them :-(
I got an itch and made two batches of sugar cookies. Well, actually the first batch I made because I had a bunch of frosting left over from making sugar cookies with my after school group- and the second batch was because I wanted to try my mom's frosting recipe! They were delicious....and i'm pretty sure that's where these 5 extra pounds i'm packing around came from!

Matt ran up to the dam a few times this fall. Here is his best catch...
So, Matt's fam all went to Africa (Back to Marshall's mission in Zimbabwe). They left a few days before Thanksgiving. They couldn't take all of the things that Krystal got for her service project, so we gathered more and took a bunch down to SLC and help load it on the crates that were being shipped to Zimbabwe.

Here is the start of the book/pen collection Matt and I headed up...
Here is the result of our pen/book collection + more school kits we finished for Krys...
I think total we ended up with about 2500 pens and around 300 books!

We left for SLC on Thanksgiving (afternoon). On Friday morning we met Reeve Nield and her friends Cici and Lolly (all from Africa except Cici is from the netherlands I think...) at the loading dock to drop off our stuff and help them load what we could. They put us to work when we got there! The warehouse was huge and there was a TON of supplies they were packing the crates with. They had so much stuff that Reeve and her friends paid for another crate to be filled and shipped! Here is Matt (on top in the red) and a few players from the BYU baseball team loading a crate.
We packed everything from pens to clothes to medical supplies! Deseret book (Sheri Dew) donated a bunch of books for adults, a pharmacy gave them all of their barely expired medications, and the BYU baseball team gave them brand new cleats to take over and use for bargaining with the rich kids in order to get them to bring 10 or so pairs of clothes in exchange for the new cleats. Here is a picture of two of the crates. They are really HUGE when you are inside them filling them up!
It was so much fun to be able to help and meet awesome people who are so kind and giving (like Reeve, Cici and Lolly)! I'm so glad Krys let us help her out and be a part of such a cool project!

This year we did our little tradition of going to get a tree, feeding the fish, and eating at Big Jud's. This year our neighbors Mark and Ashley came with us (along with Ashley's parents). It was a blast to hang out with them! First we fed the fish...it was so cold, but we had a good time working our way through a loaf of bread! (Feeding it to the fish I mean...)

Matt was picky about the tree we got. He made me hike around for a whole 10 minutes :). I wanted one of the ones right by the pickup....but NOOOOOOooooOOOOOoo! It's okay though...it was worth the short hike and my whole body going numb from the cold.
We were a little late putting up decorations (i'm a day after Thanksgiving person...but it didn't happen this year!) But better late than never! The garland around the banister is my fav. That's pretty much why we bought this house :-). (So I could put garland on the banister.)
My wreath I threw together. I've always wanted to make one, or just have one, but I didn't fee like being super creative (finals kind of make me that way!) so I just threw this little pretty together! I didn't get a good pic of our tree, but it's cute...just in case you wondered. I also wrapped our cabinets. Yes, you read that right. Our neighbors wrap their pictures and it is so cute! So, I wrapped a few cabinet doors and threw bows on them...so fun!
Matt and Mitch hae been doing quite a bit of goose hunting. Matt even found a goose jerkey recipe that they like so he has been stinking up our garage while he makes it from all the birds he shoots. (Bird feathers and blood and meat all over my garage, counters, house...I'm a nice wife right? He really is clean about it all...just kinda gross.)
I went with them once. It was pretty cold. And no birds came in. I had fun though. The decoy's kept me entertained...as you can see...
Well, I hope this was somewhat exciting to read/look at. I need to be better about taking good pictures. I need a personal photographer to come with me everywhere I go...that'd be nice.

I hope everyone is surviving finals/last minute Christmas shopping/wrapping/decorating!

Books for Kids in Africa!!!

I need your children's books! Any and all will be very much appreciated!

Here's why:

Dear Friends,

I am writing to inform you of a wonderful service project that my sister-in-law, Krystal, has put together for the children of Zimbabwe, Africa. I am also writing to ask you for your help in making her project a success.

From 2006-2008 my brother-in-law, Marshall, served in the Zimbabwe mission. This Thanksgiving him and some of our family will travel to Zimbabwe and visit those who he taught. The planning of this trip inspired Krystal to do something to help the children in Africa that are in need of various things.

While on his mission Marshall met a professional golfer named Reeve Nield who is from Africa and is very proactive in giving various aide to the people of her nation. Krystal was able to contact Reeve and found out that on Thanksgiving day they will be filling a crate with various things to ship to Zimbabwe. This crate is being shipped by one of Reeves sponsors (a $30,000+ shipping fee) and is being housed in an LDS humanitarian warehouse in Salt Lake City, Utah. Krystal decided to raise money and put together various aids to take to the crate that will be shipped to Africa.

So far Krystal has raised $1,000 and has used that money to put together 100+ school bags full of supplies and entertainment for the children in Zimbabwe. Most of the bags she put together will be put in the crate, but some will be handed out directly to the children when they take their trip.

In talking with Reeve, Krystal also found out that many of the children do not have the privilege of owning books. When I heard this, I volunteered to help her gather books for her to take to the crate and to deliver to the kids.

If you can help Krystal and me by giving any books (new or lightly used), it would be very much appreciated! My husband and I will be making a trip down to Salt Lake City on Thanksgiving day to deliver the school bags and children’s books to the crate. I would like to have all of the books collected by this Sunday.

Please tell everyone you know! Even one book will help!
I will be happy to pick up the books that you are willing to donate.
Let me know if you can help!
Thank you!

Breezie Bitter
Cell: 208-201-2742
E-mail: mbbitter@gmail.com