Its Official!

We are pretty excited at our home!  After a grueling 4 months of filling out mountains of paperwork, having a background check completed, and a walk through of our home, we are HAPPY to announce that our home study is complete and we are eligible to ADOPT! We can’t wait to ADD a BABY to our FAMILY! Below is the link to our adoption profile. Help us get the word out by sharing our profile link with your family and friends. 

https://itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/30894566/ourMessage.jsf

Valentine’s Day

This year, I want to make the holidays a little more fun.  Maybe decorate a little for them, have a fun dinner centered around the holiday, etc.  So far, I’ve failed.  I came down with a terrible cold the end of January and it is still with me!!  some days going to work is about all the energy I have. 

 

We spent Valentine’s Day differently than we normally would have.  Most of the time, it is a low key day.  We may go out to eat or give gifts and then watch a movie together at home.  However, this year Jared accepted the assignment for us to be committee chairs for the refreshment portion of the Stake Valentine’s dance.  Neither Jared nor I are much into dancing, so we were hoping for some great company and good food to graze on during the night. 

 

Halfway through the dance, Jared offered to go out on the dance floor with me and give me my ONE dance!  Haha  As we left the table to go out on the dance floor, I turned around and discovered that the tablecloth with all the decorations (some glass) and water cups (still filled with water) were now on the floor!!  How embarrassing!!  Needless to say, we spent the rest of that dance cleaning up the mess and redecorating the table.  Another embarrassing moment to add to my list…

 

Jared has been craving chocolate dipped strawberries.  So I decided that a fun post Valentine’s day date would be to dip strawberries and bananas!  YUM YUM!

 

 

I love spending time with Jared.  We seem to always have fun no matter what we end up doing.  I'm so glad that he has the opportunity to finish his education and begin a career in something that makes him happy.  He LOVES helping people, and I know that he will succeed.  He is so excited to start our own family!  I know our children will be spoiled rotten with love by their daddy.  I hope that once we get our adoption profile active that our wait time won't be too long.  We're ready to share the next holidays with a new bundle of JOY!

 

Happy Valentine's Day Love!

 

 

Tammy

HATS, HATS, and more HATS!

My mom is the humanitarian specialist in her home ward.   One of the projects she and her ward have taken on is to provide 10 baby gift bags for the local hospital every month.  The bags include a receiving blanket and burp rag, a package of diapers, wipes, trial size shampoo, powder, lotion, destine, etc.  During the winter months, she includes also includes hand-made baby hats.  Aren’t they cute?  Over the holidays, I had my mom teach me how to make them so I could help her.  They were so easy to make that I jokingly told Jared that he should join in the fun.  He actually agreed on one condition—the first two hats would be for him to keep for our own children.  Since we don't know if we will first adopt a boy or a girl, he did one of each.  Didn’t he do a great job?

 

 

We thought about making to sell as a fundraiser for our upcoming adoption.  But I wasn’t sure how to get the word out or where to put them for sell.  So, for the time being, we just enjoy helping my mom make them for her care packages.

 

 

Tammy

Jared’s Surgery

Earlier this summer, Jared was working out at the gym and heard a big “POP” in his knee.  He tried to ignore it and continue to run, but the pain kept getting worse.  So he decided to take several weeks off and see if it would heal on its own.  But it didn’t.  It hurt every time he worked out.  He also started babying the knee and limping on it.  So I finally made him go to the doctor to get it checked out.  The first doctor said it was due to getting old and normal wear and tear.  I wasn’t satisfied with this opinion.  You don’t go from running a marathon with no pain to just getting old.  So I made him go to another doctor.  This doctor immediately ordered an MRI and told him that he had a torn meniscus and needed to have surgery to take care of his problem. 

So here he sits getting his knee prepped for surgery.  Jared was sad to see all his knee hair gone. 

 

 

I saw the doctor after surgery.  He said that everything went well.  The meniscus was torn more than he thought it was, but that his knee is in great shape for a speedy recovery! 

I have never been around Jared after coming off of anesthesia.  He was quite the site.  As he was being rolled down the hall, he started chanting, “Go Adrian!”  The staff worker and I looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders.  Then Jared said, “Do you know what I’m talking about? “  I said no.  Apparently, that was something that Rocky chanted to his wife…Goofball.  When we got to the room, he proceeded to say many more things that left me laughing and rolling my eyes,  but Jared said I can’t share them with the world. 

Tammy

Jazz Game

I have always been a Jazz fan, but I’ve never been to a live game.  I told Jared that now we are back in the Salt Lake area I would like to go to a game.   Someone from work promised me lower bowl tickets to a playoff game last year, but it fell through at the last minute.  I was bummed!  A few nights ago, my brother-in-law, Adam called to see if we’d like to go to a Jazz game next weekend.  Someone in his ward had extra tickets and didn’t want them to go unused!  AWESOME!  

There is just something fun about being “THERE IN THE MOMENT” instead of just watching it from home.  Although the Jazz lost the game, we had a great time with the nieces and nephews and will look forward to more games in the future.

Tammy, Rachel, Joseph, Adam, Anna, and Jared!
Now let's go get a treat at McDonald's!

Tammy

Canning Applesauce

This year mom and dad’s apple trees produced lots and lots of fruit.  So instead of Teresa, mom, and me canning our own apples, we all got together to can.  What an experience!! 

Jared and Anna                                                                                                                            

We started cleaning, cooking, and smooshing apples at 8 a.m. and didn’t finish sealing and washing dishes until 11:30 p.m.   In fact, we finally had to quit cooking the apples because we ran out of pans and bowls to put them into.  It was quite a site and required everyone’s help.

Cindy                                                Tammy

We had cooked so many apples that Jared even had to make a late night run to Walmart, Keslers, and Ridleys to find more canning jars.  When it was all said and done, we ended up with over than 150 jars of apple sauce (50 jars per family).  Jared said that he doesn’t plan on doing this again for quite a while.  While he’s grateful to have this for his food storage, he’s not sure it was worth all the extra work.  I’m sure that once he has rested, he will look back at it as a fun time and might even consider doing it again! Lol

                                                                                                              Teresa, Mom, Cindy, and Tammy

Tammy

OUR ADOPTION APPLICATION

Today, our adoption application arrived in the mail!  We are so excited to get this process going that we immediately filled it out and went to put it in the mail.  We have set a goal for ourselves to have everything done by December 31, 2014. 

The decision regarding how to start our family has been a topic of discussion in our home for quite some time.  We have been to lots of doctor appointments and done many tests (both in Germany and the US).  We are at the IVF Adoption cross road with money being a factor.  Do we pay the money and try a round of In vitro fertilization with 50% chance that it may work or do we skip it and start filling out paperwork for adoption??  This is not a question that I thought I would ever have to face.  I just always assumed that we would conceive and have biological children.  On the other hand, Jared has a brother who has adopted three beautiful children and has known for quite a while that this could also be the way that we gain our family.  Thus, he was ahead of me in the decision making process.

Then one day, I received a note from a friend asking me, “Do you want a pregnancy/baby or do you want a family?  An eternal family.  In the end, we are all related by blood thanks to our Father in Heaven.”  This was something that I had never really thought about.  When I read this, I had an overwhelming feeling of peace come over me.  Yes, I wanted an eternal family, but I just never thought that it would come to me in this way.  Jared has been very loving and patient with me as I have “grieved” the thought of not having my “own.”  I KNOW that there are children waiting to come to our home.  I have turned my will over to Heavenly Father, trusting that HE is in control and will lead us to the children that are meant to be in OUR family. 

 

 

 

So, here we are.  Excited and ready to move forward!

JARED’S BIRTHDAY

Jared has been looking forward to this day for quite some time!  Not only was it his BIRTHDAY, but it was the day that I had promised him an answer to our future. 

Jared loves birthdays and everything that goes with it…the decorations, gifts, food, family, friends, and celebrations.  Yes, he is a kid at heart.

He left for school and received many phone calls from family and friends wishing him a happy day.  Then he came home from school to a home decorated with streamers, balloons, and gifts.  There has one gift that he was particularly excited about…a letter determining our future.  He was so excited to read his card and discover that our family was going to grow through adoption!  WHOOHOO   (this discussion is for a different post).  After opening his gifts (money, voice recorder, video game, Mt. Dew, and Reese’s Crunch bar), we went to Sizzler for a celebration/birthday dinner.   

 

After dinner, our friends, the Stoddart’s, were waiting for us to come and have cake and ice cream with them.  They were so nice.  Even though it was getting late, they let their little kids stay up on a school night and eat sugar right before bed!!

"Life is to be ENJOYED not endured"

I love the man in this picture (President Hinckley), and I also love his counsel:

"Life is to be enjoyed

not endured." 

When life gets hard, I get frustrated and tend to complain and endure through it. However, I need to take this counsel and ENJOY the journey. Not everything is meant to be easy, which is okay.  I just want to know that I'm doing what the Lord wants me to do.  I'm coming to learn that sometimes this means that I must have the faith that the Lord won't let me go astray if I'm doing my part.  However, it may require that I, first, make the decision and put it into action before I receive my confirmation.

For those of you who know me just a little, you know how I hate making decisions. I can be very indecisive especially when it comes to major life changing decisions.

• Should we stay in the ARMY or get out?
• If we get out, which college should we attend?
• Where will we live?
• How do we find safe neighborhood to live in when you've never lived there?
• Will we buy or rent a home?
• Where will I work?
• How long will it take me to find employment?
• Will we continue to purchase Tri-Care insurance at the COBRA rate?
• Etc., etc., etc.

I used to feel like I could complain a little bit about different events in my life because the ARMY always dictates where we will live, how far we can travel without prior approval, which doctors we can see, etc. However, now that we have decided to get out of the ARMY, all of life's decisions are being given back to us.  It is kind of scary, but I'm excited to make some initial decisions so I can relax and quit worrying. Instead, I can ENJOY each phase of life and begin making plans for our next adventure!


Tammy

A Lost Hereo-Grandpa Wren

Claude Theron Wren

May 27, 1916 - March 4, 2012

 

About I week ago, I received a sad phone call from my parents that my grandpa Wren had passed away in his sleep about 4:30 a.m. I LOVED this man! He lived 95 GREAT years and only quit driving the last 3 years. Although I know he is in a better place where he can walk, think clearly, eat normal foods again, etc., it still does NOT take away the sting of pain for those he left behind. On the other hand, It does provide comfort knowing that Families Can Be Together Forever.

 

.  

I’m so thankful that I lived only a few minutes away from my grandpa for most of my life. Although he wasn’t one for attending our school events, I know he did love me! I have many memories with him:

 

90th birthday!

·    Grandpa always said, “The way your life starts does not have to dictate the way your life ends.”  Grandpa began his life in poverty.  His father was an alcoholic and rarely came home.  As a child, he remembers his mother pulling a wagon (with all of the children in it) into to a bar to beg for $10 for feed them.  Since he was the 2^nd child of 12 children, he always felt the pressure to help provide for his family.  Thus, he left home when he was about 12 years old to go make money to send home to his mom. 

 He went on to own his own bus business, 18 in total.  He drove students back and forth to school, sporting events, and even to the ski hill.  Forty years later, he finally sold the bus company and then went to work part-time for the City of Blackfoot until he was forced to retire at the age of 89.  During this time, he also began his salvage business.  He quickly became one of Pacific’s preferred customers as he always made sure his metal was in tip top shape.  During the month of his 90^th birthday, they gave him $90 a ton for his loads.  He was so happy about this price that I swear he had a load to take down to them almost every day!  So it goes to show that you can definitely change the way your life began.  And he did it well.

·    Grandpa always said, “Anybody can make money, but it takes a better man to save it.”  All of his friends and family like to joke about how Grandpa paid his help.  It didn’t matter how hard or long you helped him, you always came home with a $5 dollar bill.  We came to learn that  the $5 bill was grandpa’s way of saying, “I Love You” because those were words he seldom said.  We also knew that if we were in dire need of money that grandpa would help us.  However, he felt that we should all struggle and learn to take care of ourselves.  I did think about flying home for grandpa’s funeral.  But every time I thought about it, all I could think of was grandpa turning over in his grave over the price of my flightJ

·    Education was always important to Grandpa.  He always felt bad that he didn’t have the opportunity to finish high school.  However, he made sure that his children did.  He paid for each daughter’s tuition in full.  They only had to pay for their living expenses.  From this came three school teachers and one bus driver.  I always knew that grandpa was proud of me completing my education because he has told me over and over again.

·    Grandma and grandpa came to our house for Sunday dinner every week.  During that time, we would get to hear about his week driving bus, working for City Hall, about all the money he would make hauling junk (or precious metal as he would call it) to Pacific, etc.  Sometime during our conversation, grandpa would let out a swear word or two.  Growing up, if we swore, we would be disciplined.  So when we would hear it come out of our grandpa’s mouth, it would make us giggle.  Grandpa could never understand what was so funny!

·    When grandma was still alive, she would like to stay after dinner and play games with me and mom.  Somehow, we would convince grandpa to go take a nap for a while so we could play.  One day, this is where we found himJ

      ·    Grandpa had lots of funny phrases.  Instead of saying Idaho Falls, he always said
           Ideeoo Falls.”  Instead of saying aluminum, he’d say, “aloom-neee-um.” 

·    Another phrase that he always told my younger sister, Cindy, was, "You keep praying, and I’ll keep paying," or "Now don’t spend it all in one place and be sure to save a litte."

I’m so glad that I was able to go home for Christmas and create a few more memories with him.  He didn't feel well, but I know he appreciated the company.  He also was still very aware of what was going on because one day I came out to see him with my mom and all grandpa said was, "Where's Jared?"  

A couple of days before his death, he fell out of his chair and broke his hip.  His health was not good enough to perform surgery, so he would no longer be able to have a very good quality of life. 

Thanks to the Hawker Funeral Home, I was able to view the funeral via the internet! 

Our wedding 2008

Tammy

Accomplishments

I’m so proud of my husband.  Ever since he got back from deployment last year, he has been working very hard!  Not only is he working full-time, but he is the Scout Master at church, taking on-line college courses through the UMUC, and being a great husband.  He is exhausted, but keeps on trucking.  Since we have decided to get out of the ARMY, he is trying so hard to finish his associate’s degree so he can transfer it to his new college.  He is SOOOOO close.  He only has two classes left—Biology and Math!  It’s going to be close, but I know he can do it…Love you Jared!

Tammy

Christmas 2012

This year Jared and I decided to go home for Christmas. We had such a great time visiting family and friends. Oh, and don’t forget how much we BOTH enjoyed shopping and going out to eat! Until you’ve lived here in Germany, you wouldn’t understand why we would say that. First of all, German food is very blah. None of it has much flavor. For example, one of my co workers went to dinner at a Germans house and took brownies for dessert. Her neighbors were quite blunt and told her not to bring brownies back to them again because they were way too rich. Second of all, there main food is schnitzel (pork) and bratwursts. We are not big pork fans, so we don’t enjoy eating out much. Lastly, good quality clothes and shoes are very expensive, especially when you’re dealing in Euros!

The famous 1/2 meter bratwurst at a Christmas Market

The Friday before Christmas, we had a Christmas party with Jared’s family. Jody and Kip graciously invited everyone to their house. Jared was so excited because he actually got to see all of his brothers. Mike was supposed to be driving a truck to California but was able to get off work at the last minute. We had yummy pulled pork sandwiches, salads, and pumpkin rolls. Afterwards, we did a small gift exchange.

Gabe, Mike, Jard, and Steve Jackson

The Jackson brothers and mom (Clara)

The Jackson brothers, John, and Clara

This year, since Christmas fell on a Sunday, mom switched things up a little bit, which was fun. On Saturday, Teresa, Adam and family came for Christmas and a short visit. We had our big Christmas dinner for lunch. Then while the kids were outside playing, all of the family gifts were brought out. We brought everyone back together and had CHRISTMAS! The kids were ecstatic that they could open gifts before Christmas day!

Thomas was so excited to get a Nintendo DS

 I have to tell you about this shirt.  Grandpa LOVES to play the "IT" game, especially with Rachel and Anna.  For Christmas he had grandma embroidery on shirts, "Anna/Rachel, You are IT forever~Love Grandpa.

Thomas sporting grandpa's socks!

Then on Christmas day, we opened the sock gifts that Santa Claus dropped off during the night. Needless to say, the grandkids were in heaven having two Christmases in a row. They kept saying, “Wow, this is the best Christmas ever!” Afterwards, we attended the Christmas program at church, which was wonderful. Then we came home, ate leftovers, relaxed, and enjoyed one another’s company. The way my mom and sister chose to do Christmas so was nice. It wasn’t full of the hustle and bustle that usually happens. I just may make this my new Christmas tradition.

Jared and his buddy~Benjamin

The remainder of the week was filled with shopping, eating out, visiting friends and old coworkers, playing games, and visiting grandpa Wren. 

Jared, cousin Buddy, and Tammy

Friends~Anja, Alison, and Tammy

Stephanie and Tammy

Tammy, Grandpa Wren, and Jared

It was difficult to come back but was reminded that this was my last year being so far away from home. Don’t get me wrong, I have enjoyed living in Europe and being able to travel the world, but there is no place like home!

Tammy

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's been a long time since I've posted to my blog.  I love to read what is going on in everyone else's lives, but I have neglected to share any of the happenings in ours.  Many things have happened since March!  Easter came and went; Jared came home from deployment; we went on a cruise up and down the coast of Norway; visited Normandy and Paris France; we enjoyed a fun visit from my parents and Cindy where we went to Switzerland, Berlin, and many other places; we filled up our quarter jar, we just finished celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversay in London, England; and we have mourned the death of Jared's grandfather.  I will try to document each of these events in future posts as many people have been asking for pictures.

This year we started our Thanksgiving celebrations at  the Beck's house for the Night before Thanksgiving = Adults PIE NIGHT event.  Here's how it works: Most people get so stuffed from their Thanksgiving Feast, that the pies don't get the amount of attention and appreciation that they deserve. SO, one of our friends put together pie night the night BEFORE Thanksgiving so we can fully appreciate the PIE!   Here are the rules: 

1.  Each couple brings ONE pie to share.  I brought a Layered Pumpkin Pie Toffee Cheesecake (it is one of my new favorite pies)! 

Layered Pumpkin Pie Toffee Cheesecake from Our Best Bites!
http://www.ourbestbites.com/2011/11/layered-pumpkin-pie-toffee-cheesecake/

2. If you have any leftover pie at the end of the evening, you MUST take it home with you.  Jared was worried that we would come home with half the pie, but it was actually gone before everyone had shown up to try it.
3. If you are not here to celebrate pie night with them next year, you must host your own, wherever you are!  I don't know if we will be faithful in keeping up this new tradition, but we had  a great time being a part of theirs.  Jared and I left there having eaten so much pie that we didn't care if we had any on Thanksgiving.

For Thanksgiving, we went to one of Jared's coworker's house.   We ate some good food, played some fun games, let out a few laughs, and came home stuffed.  However, it just wasn't the same as being home with our family and  living in America where you can watch an afternoon/evening game of football.  We are looking forward to going home to Idaho to be with family for Christmas this year.

This past year, we have had our share of trials, but we have also been very blessed!  I could write a long list of things that I am grateful for, but I will just name a few.  It has been wonderful to be back together as a family again, to have good health to provide for our needs, to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives, and to have such great family and friends who continually support us.

Tammy

The Final Coke Jar Posting

I've had several people ask me if I ever got our Coke jar filled up, and the answer is YES!  It took longer than expected, but it did happen by the end of September 2011.  We were quite happy with the results too.  However, it was a tedious process to complete.  First, we had to stack the quarters into dollars, then into stacks to $10, and lastly put them into the paper wraps and take them to the bank to trade for dollars.  I was so excited to put all this money into a heavy duty back pack and haul it up three floors to turn in until I started working with the cranky teller.  Once I told her what I needed, she started getting mad at me--telling me they were about ready to close (there was 20 minutes), that I should be bringing this money in each month so it could earn interest (a whopping $0.50), etc.  By the time I left the bank, I drove home in tears.  I couldn't understand why the lady couldn't just be happy that someone was actually saving money.  I was glad that I did it, but it really dampered my spirit on wanting to start saving again.

Month 1 and 2

Month 3 and 4

Month 5 and 6

Month 7 and 8

Month 9 and Final product!

Any idea how many quarters this jar can hold? To our surprise, we came home with $2,000 and some change!! We decided to save half of it and went to London, England, with the half of it for our anniversary.

Tammy

Trunk or Treat 2011

Halloween is one of my least favorite holidays to celebrate.  Dressing up is not something that I really enjoy doing, especially just to get some candy.  However, I didn't dare go trunk or treating at the church parking lot without dressing up because last year we attended the event and never heard the end of it.  Jared was gone with some friends to the gun range in the Chec Republic.  So I went to the Internet to look for easy dress up ideas and found something like this:

And believe it or not, I won the most creative award! But take a look at this little guy.  He and his twin brother won the overall award.  You wouldn't know it by this picture, but they were so excited over the flowers, it was hilarious!

Take a look at some of the best decorated trunks!

It ended up being a great evening because the company was terrific! 

Tammy