Where Did the Time Go?

This week has flown by. I was last at work on Friday and got off at 11am, so I nearly had 6 days off and I don't know what I have to show for it. It always seems to go that way. When I feel like I have all the time in the world and hope to get a lot done, I get absolutely nothing accomplished. Yet, when I'm running around crazy with a full plate, I always manage to get it all done, and then some.

I didn't completely waste away my week. Here look:

• I vacuumed and dusted
• I did the laundry
• I researched recipes to add to my limited collection of dinner ideas
• I cooked a dinner every night, except Sunday, when we were at my Dad's
• I did ALL the dishes so Marcel could focus on his final
• I started couponing--and saved 33% on our first trip--not as good as it could be, I realize, but I'm still proud of it!
• I got food stamps--without much work, it is going to be a saving grace for us!
• I FINALLY ordered wedding pictures; here's to hoping another 8 months don't go by before I get around to the honeymoon pictures
• I reconciled our bank account--I just had an account with a case of ID fraud, so I'm going to try really hard to be more on top of this

It seemed like forever ago that I had actually posted something of importance, but this was honestly about all that was going on around the Bailey's house this week. Well, Marcel has been really busy with his final. He's already done with 1 class and for their final, they had to create a Life Map. Marcel chose to compose a song that shows why he chose to become a teacher through his life events. It turned out really good! I'm so proud of him and all the work he has been dedicating to doing really well at this whole grad school thing. He even turned in a resume to be a substitute teacher for Vallivue, and now has a whole packet to complete over the weekend. Here's to hoping it turns up a good source of employment!

My Side of the Bed...or yours?

This week we reached a conclusion about something in our house:

MaryBeth sleeps on the left and Marcel sleeps on the right side of the bed

When we were dating and engaged, there were plenty of sleepovers and we were so excited to say that we could sleep on either side of the bed.

Then we got married, and I said that I didn't want to become one of those married couples that has sides of the bed. But, how we slept in our bed in Oregon is the same as it is here in Idaho.

Something else you should know--MaryBeth does NOT share the bed or the blankets fairly, but we seem to make it work :)

The cause for our discovery:

A few days ago I was pretty sick. After doing absolutely nothing (which is quite a bit less than my normal amount of nothing!) all day, I made Marcel trade me sides of the bed so that I could be closer to our bathroom. I did that for 2 nights because of sickness and last night sort of just out of a new-found habit. Well, after the 2nd night, when I woke up for work (and yes the thought had crossed my mind to call in sick, but that's not quite in the budget), I asked Marcel if he head-butted me in the head in his sleep. He said, "no, but I did hit you with my elbow. It woke me up but you slept through it." Well I knew he did head-butt me as well because that woke me up, but not him! When I returned from work, Marcel said in a more awake state of mind that he had hit me because he is used to being able to roll in that specific direction, since it is in the quarter of the bed that I share!

Today, after 3 nights of being on the wrong-side of the bed, I woke up and found a bump on my forehead, where I was head-butted. I have yet to find any evidence of being elbowed and I'm quite okay with that :)

Through all of this we have learned that MaryBeth must sleep on the left, and Marcel on the right, and in cases of future illnesses, we may CONSIDER switching it up for the night!

PS--And in case you were wondering, those sleep-overs we had before being married, well upon further reflection, turns out we did have sides of the bed then too!

He's Back!

Yesterday I got to pick up Marcel at the airport! I got there quite a bit early because I was too excited to just sit on my couch waiting. I'd rather be waiting at the airport :)

It is wonderful to have him home! But he has had a few projects already since being home. One of his friends he saw while in Oregon had purchased us a device to make our back surround sound speakers wireless. He set that up last night, but the bigger project has been

He was finally able to get the Mac he's always wanted, thanks to the excessive financial aid package he was awarded. I'm pretty excited for him, but do think it is quite ridiculous for both of us to be sitting on the couch, each on our own computer!

Now, I'm off to find something else to do besides spend more time on the internet!

The Dating Years

I have FINALLY finished scrapbooking "Marcel & MaryBeth: The Dating Years" It had been my goal to have it finished and available for viewing at our wedding, nearly 8 months ago, but the wedding planning kept me a bit busier than I would have expected :)

I am very happy with how it turned out. I was always proud of the work I was putting into it, but now that it is complete, I think it came together very well.

I love "The Dating Years" because it is the only scrapbook that I will ever make for us that has such a definite start and end. Plus, it was those 3 years (and 8 days, for anyone who is counting!) that brought us to where we are today and made our relationship what it is now. I am eternally grateful for the time we spent dating and building such a strong foundation!

PS: For those scrapbookers out there...I am not one to use very fancy materials. I have always scrapbooked on colored 8.5x11 inch paper and put each page in a plastic page protector. It is the only materials I have found that have fit into my tiny crafty budget. Emily did get me a really nice photo album for Christmas last year in my wedding colors that is a 12x12 so my next challeges are to start using a different size paper and to allow my Cricut machine and the cartridges I have for it to enhance the creativity of my scrapbooks!

All Alone

This morning, Marcel woke me up at 4:30am so that I could take him to the airport. He is flying to Portland to attend the Oregon Music Educators Conference with the group from Pacific and we're both very grateful for the opportunity. I've heard from lots of people that MAT programs are not very good at preparing music teachers, so any chance he has to learn about teaching music, I'm going to make sure he can take it.

That, however, has left me all alone for the weekend, for the first time since moving here. It is weird being in a new place (nevermind that I have lived here before!) hearing weird sounds due to a crazy wind storm and being alone. Over the last 2 days I have been compiling a very long to-do list for myself so that I wouldn't go crazy just watching tv and surfing the internet 4 days straight, waiting for Monday at 5:20pm so I can go pick him up. Well, that list has already served it's purpose. The only thing I didn't cross off today was "scrapbook". I did do a lot of scrapbooking but I know that I'll be doing more of it over the next few days. Guess it wasn't that long afterall!

Marcel reminded me that for all the time we've had together since moving here it will be good for us to spend sometime apart (we both really do believe that distance makes the heart grow fonder), but I think he has the better end of the deal :) I really do like having MaryBeth time, but I like it a lot more when it is just for a few hours, not a few days!

Here's to spending a few more nights trying to fall asleep in a giant bed without someone right beside me...

Life in Idaho

As of now, life in Idaho is very casual.

I am barely working at Banana Republic...similar to the hours I had at the last store, but without my other much busier job, 10 hours is just nothing.

Marcel is still looking for employment and has gotten through one week of class. For being a part-time program, he is being kept extremely busy with reading and graphic organizers, his weekly homework assignment to organize his thoughts of the reading. He does just one class at a time, so it will be finals week for this class at the end of the month, after just 4 class sessions!

This leaves us with way too much time on our hands, so we spend WAY too much time on the internet, more specifically on facebook, blog-stalking, king.com (awesome computer games), reading the news on msn.com, and checking e-mail. Oh, and I shouldn't forget all the TV & movies we are watching. For example, yesterday one of Marcel's facebook friends posted a promo code for a free redbox rental. Once we got to our local redbox, we thought might as well see if it can be used more than once. Turned out it could be used more than once, so we ended up with 3 movies. We watched 2 last night and got up and watched the 3rd this morning. We viewed it this way: we have no budget for entertainment so even though it only saved us $3.18, we needed to take advantage of the free rentals! I sort of feel like I should do something intellectual soon or my brain is going to be completely rotten soon!

We are going stir-crazy in our house. We know hardly anyone here, besides my family. It is weird being where I grew up and having no one that I knew before still here. We have tried one church twice while being here and our search is still going to continue. We know that once we get our church home established we'll feel more connected to others.

But on the good side:

We are so completely enjoying having so much time to spend together. Our last month or so in Oregon we spent so much time apart. School was busy for Marcel because of finals and just school in general, and work was very busy with me in preparations for the holiday craziness. Even with all the internet, TV and movies, we are learning all sort of new things about each other. We are spending more time enjoying our personal hobbies. Marcel has played his drumset more since being here than during our 3.5 years together in Oregon. I have started scrapbooking again. I had gotten very behind and with my actual craft station, I am finally able to use the Cricut machine I got for my birthday.

We know that being here was out of our hands, and that the decision was made for us by God who has more reasons for it than we can even imagine!

First Day

Counting that it is almost 9am, Marcel is just 9 hours away from his first day of grad school!

He has class Thursday nights and about 1 Saturday a month until November, when the schedule picks up and he starts student teaching.

Here's to hoping everything goes great over the next 16 months so that he can become a certified and licensed teacher!

All Settled In

We are FINALLY out of boxes! It seems like it took forever, but with the busyness of the holidays I think we did really good. There is still a few small projects to get done, but our house is very liveable as of now. We are loving our new place!

Living room (from the dining room)


Dining room (from the living room)

Speaking of small projects, all the stuff on the back wall needs to be returned to my mom, put in her storage unit, or figured out how to be recycled!

Kitchen (from living room)

No dishwasher at this house which I miss dearly, but we are slowly becoming dishwashing champions. I don't think there has been a night yet when we go to bed with dirty dishes in the sink!

Study nook (from kitchen)

Laundry (from study nook)

MaryBeth's side of the Hobby Room

I'm about a year behind in my scrapbooking, which makes starting up again a little overwhelming, but once I start again I know I'll get very into it and will get pages whipped up super fast.

Marcel's side of the Hobby Room

His "diploma" isn't actually his diploma. We haven't received that in the mail yet. We are currently displaying the notice he received in the cover in May when he participated in the graduation ceremony. Soon enough we'll have 2 Pacific diplomas on our wall!


Hallway (from living room)

Our hobby room is the door on the left and our bedroom is straight ahead. Marcel was in there with our bed full of clean laundry that needs to be put away so a picture of that room will have to come later, as well as pictures of our 2 bathrooms. The picture frames on the left wall are indeed EMPTY! We bought the frames after our honeymoon and still have yet to print any wedding pictures to fill them, yet another small project for us!

Fiesta Bowl 2010

Last night Marcel and I watched the Fiesta Bowl. These were my thoughts before the game:

• I can't wait for it to be over so the news can cover something else. Even though it is 99% depressing most nights, I actually like watching the news. Helps keep me informed on the events of the country and world, something Marcel keeps telling me I don't know enough about!
• I didn't know even 1 player on the team and don't remember watching a BSU game since before the last Fiesta Bowl in 2007
• I wanted BSU to win because they were the under-dogs and because now that I'm in Idaho I didn't have much other choice ;)

The game was actually very fun to watch. I did take a little nap at the end of the 2nd quarter and through half-time (I had worked at 6am, meaning wake-up at 4:30!) and missed TCU's only touchdown.

We've been saying since moving here that Marcel needed a BSU sweatshirt because he doesn't have one, but here we are rocking what little gear we have!

Happy to be in Idaho and happy about the win!

PS: And now that the game is over, the coverage has still yet to stop! Can't wait for the news reporters to be back from Arizona and to realize there are other things going on in the world.

Susie

The morning of New Years Eve, Marcel and I decided to enjoy the snow and build a snowman. It was something we'd yet to do as a couple. I had to borrow snow pants, boots, and gloves, so I didn't get wet or cold, and my mom's stuff came through for me. Now I'll just have to get some stuff of my own! And like always, Marcel was the photographer!

Making the base, turned out to be lopsided, but it worked!


our snowman turned into a girl when I made hair out of twigs!


MaryBeth, Susie, Marcel


MB & MB


Marcel's snow angel & MaryBeth's snow angel, in the backyard!

For the evening, we saw It's Complicated with my mom and Don and then hung out at their house for snacky food (who really eats a real meal during the holidays) and watching the ball drop. Marcel was confused with the time zone how it would work since when it was 9:30pm our time all the NYE coverage had a clock that read 10:30pm, but at 10pm we saw an hour of news before starting the coverage up again. Marcel and I can't remember what we did last year so I'm glad that our first married couple new year was spent in a memorable way!