A Ginormous Catch Up

Okay I suck...I know. A lot has happened since...October?!?! Geez, I do suck! Let's do a rundown and figure out why I've been a slacker...

In September, we moved to Clint's parents property and spent 6 months there. As much as I enjoy being around family, it was a VERY trying time for Clint and I. We were in such a teensy place and we spent much of our time arguing about how much of a mess we would make for being in such a small area. There were times when I just felt like giving up, to be honest. It was so hard to deal with. That and we were just getting nowhere in saving or anything. With the gas and food prices just SKYROCKETING (or at least I felt like they were), we just couldn't take it anymore. Finally, in March, I broke down and asked my mom if we could move into her house for just a couple months to really get on top of things. Clint and I were both working in SLO and driving 2 cars up and over the grade EVERY day was ridiculous. So we moved into Mom's guest bedroom and stopped filling up our gas tanks every couple days - it now is every couple WEEKS. SO MUCH DIFFERENCE!! We lived there for about 3.5 months until we finally found our cutie little place...but more about that in a bit!

We celebrated Christmas pretty quietly this year. I love Christmas time! It's such a great time to reflect on all that the Lord has given to us and all that we can give back. It makes me want to serve others! My mom, sister Becca, and I decided we wanted to do the 12 Days of Christmas to one of our favorite family's, the Kiahas because they have the CUTEST little girls and most adorable baby boy. They are a super great family! We had so much fun doorbell ditching some fun treats for them for that almost 2 weeks. There was one night near the end where as I was walking it up to the door, I saw one of the girls coming down the stairs in the window on their door and I just hit the pavement! I had to jump up (or halfway up, really!) and race back to the car and we had to circle the block a couple times to make sure the kids didn't know we were there. They are sneaky kids though!

We spent Christmas day with my family and had a blast. It was just a quiet, fun day. My big gift was a Nook, which I LOVE SO MUCH!!!! And Clint got a bunch of fun, little things - the new game he wanted for his Xbox (which he had just gotten a new Xbox - a sleek black one - on Black Friday, so that was his other big gift) and, of course, Chase was spoiled like he always is. Tons of treats and and fun new stuffed animals to tear apart. But if you know Chase at all, all he REALLY wants is a new tennis ball to throw around. He's a sucker for a pretty, new tennis ball. What a cheap date :)

We started the new year out quietly and got back into work full force. Then in March, I got some great news: I was promoted to a department manager! That came with longer work days, but a substantial raise! I now work 10 hours (minimum) per day. Not too much different from what I WAS doing! I also started doing a (fairly) intensive training program to get me "up to speed" on what a manager at Bed Bath and Beyond does. Unfortunately for me, since I've been with the company for 7 years, they decided I could do it all on my own instead of going to Pasadena to BE trained. In some ways it was good, because I could go at my own pace and I got a lot accomplished in a short amount of time. But I didn't get to go to a different store and get away from the people in my own store, so that was kind of lame. In the training program, we have to pick a room (normally, new managers are given an actual department on the floor, so its easy for them - they just pick a room on their side of the store. However, for me as the Customer Service Manager, I don't have a side, so I had to pick just a random room that I would only get to work in about 2 days a week). That room would be the room that is MINE, mine to plan, mine to order, mine to make moves, etc. At the end of the training, the DM and any other district staff come to test the new manager in what they call a "Big Walk." They test to make sure the manager has an understanding of the ins and outs of the company and how to do "manager things." Its a big undertaking, and unfortunately for me, since I had no idea what room to pick, 2 of my senior managers "helped" me to pick one of the hardest rooms in the store. I picked Tabletop - dinnerware, flatware, glassware and serveware. Our store is set up different than pretty much any other store, so any of the maps that Corporate sends out won't match our layout. UGH it was so frustrating sometimes to try to map that dang room! But my big walk was June 7th, and I'm still here today so clearly I didn't die. Or fail. :)

On July 1st, we officially became renters again! We found a super cute little apartment/cottage house or whatever you want to call it. Its actually an old barn workspace that has been converted into a little house. We live in the downstairs area and our friend (who's aunt and uncle own the property) lives in the upstairs studio apartment. His place has its own entrance and everything, so we hardly ever see him, if at all. We got the keys on the first and slowly started moving things in. We got our new (to us) couch and loveseat on the 3rd and spent our first night in the house on the 4th. Our place is great - its technically one bedroom with a weird room to make it a two bedroom...I dunno, you'd have to see it to understand it. I don't have my camera working at the moment (can't find my dang charger!) or else I'd take tons of pictures of the place. The one bedroom is teeny, right now its kind of like a giant closet (we keep the door shut mostly). And the second bedroom that's not really a bedroom is OUR bedroom. It's not really a bedroom because it doesn't have a door. Weird, huh? We haven't yet, but I want to hang a curtain so that its closed off from the rest of the house to give us privacy. And also to hide it when it's dirty :) But I finally have my own kitchen, even if it is small. And my own laundry area, even if it is small. I love my house, even if it is small!!! :)

For the 4th, we decided to take Chase with us to the beach - bad move. He's such a scaredy cat and a nervous nelly! He was so anxious sitting with us while we were waiting for the fireworks to start, just watching all the people! Then when the fireworks actually started, oh geez! He was so scared! So we took him back to the car (which was only about 2 blocks away) and watched the fireworks from there. Well, Clint and I watched and enjoyed them - Chase sat huddled in the back slightly shaking and definitely cursing his mean, mean parents. Enjoy these little pictures:

Clint and I :)
Clint and the scaredy cat, I mean Chase

The next day was my birthday. Blah. I don't even really want to talk about it...I turned old. Just kidding! I turned 25 and thank goodness there wasn't a whole lot of hoopla! The only thing was that the kids sang to me in Primary the Sunday before and made me wear a crown with my name on it. And Becca sat in the back snapping pictures of me...thanks, sister :) She did get this super cute one on the way home:

And next up is Clint's big birthday...his big day is one week from today and he will be 30! Any ideas on fun things you did for a big milestone birthday? I need ideas! I'm going to get some yummy cupcakes from Brooke's cupcake shoppe (check out her website here, she's AMAZING!)

So we have been busy, too busy to blog? You be the judge (I'm gonna say NO, just that I'm kinda lazy...)

See you next time!

New obsession

I found a new website I'm obsessed with...maybe a tad too much, but who's to say? :)

I discovered it while at the Bridal Show at the Madonna Inn a couple weeks ago (so much fun by the way...delicious cakes/food, fun vendors with freebies - I even got a toothbrush and toothpaste!! SCORE!!!). She's a local jewelry designer and she makes the CUTEST jewelry. I've already started dropping hints to Clint for Christmas, so we'll see. I think I'll make a wishlist and then send it to him...

Anyway, here's the site. Poke around and tell me what you think! Great gift ideas for family/friends (ahem...me...ahem) and great jewelry for yourself too!

Pretty Jealous

I'm pretty jealous of this girl and her craftiness...I'm pretty jealous of anyone who is crafty because I'm the farthest from crafty there is. Just check her out HERE...you'll get jealous too!

My life is now complete!

I just got back (well, a few days ago) from the most amazing trip of my life! As previously mentioned, my best friend's boyfriend got us tickets for MICHAEL BUBLE! I have never seen a more amazing concert in my entire life.We left Atascadero around 8:30 am on Tuesday and started our trek to Sacramento. Well, after a few stops, we arrived between about 1:15 and 1:30 and we went to check into our hotel room. It was an Extended Stay type of hotel, so it actually had a mini kitchen and ginormous bathroom in it. SO AWESOME! The sucky part, though, was we were about an hour and a half early to check in and our room wasn't ready, so we had to go play around for a bit before we could actually check in. So we went to Taco Bell and then over to the Starbucks next door to it to get on the internet and figure out exactly where the arena was (we were literally 5 minutes away...and our hotel was cheap...and awesome...and we're awesome). Then we decided to drive to find it, so we wouldn't be the crazy tourists that night like everyone else seemed to be. After we drove around it (I tried to convince Michelle to go into the parking lot in hopes that maybe we could sneak inside and possibly hear him rehearsing...but no), we realized that the street next to the back entrance was actually a street that ran parallel to our hotel's street (I think the hotel was pretty much backed up to the arena). WE FOUND A BACK ENTRANCE! The mapquest directions were taking us off the freeway so we figured everyone would take that way, and since we're smart, we took the back way! So we go back to the hotel, check in and just chill for a little bit. Then we got ready and went to BJ's for dinner. The wait wasn't horrible, it just sucked because since it was so close to the arena, everyone and their mother (literally) came there, so it was packed. And as we were waiting, I (stupidly) stood by the door, so that every time it opened, I was greeted with a gust of HOT air. Yes, it was late afternoon and still in the 90's. Michelle and I (mostly me though, since I am SO not used to hot weather) were DYING.After dinner, we ran to the car and drove as fast as we could to the arena. We finally got to the arena and parked and ran to the door. Upon entering, we noticed a giant poster of Michael Buble, set up by Nordstrom, where you could take your picture with it. So we did.The concert was at the Arco Arena, where the Sacramento Kings play. Our seats were in the upper balcony, and this is the view from our seats. The opening act was a band called Naturally 7, who are AMAZING! They are completely a capella, but the coolest thing is that they make the sounds of the instruments with their voices! It is completely brilliant! One of them can sound exactly like a drum, one was a bass, one sounded like a DJ mixing beats. Ahhh, it was awesome!

After they finished it was intermission and we went out to buy some merchandise (I got a shirt and key chain, and we also bought the CD/DVD for Naturally 7). As we were running back to our seats, we saw another poster of Michael, so I did this: Then we ran back to our seats, with only about five minutes to spare until the most amazing man in the world (besides my husband, of course) came out and graced me with his presence! :) He is an amazing performer, very personable and friendly! He was interactive and funny and just all around so good! I can't even put into words how great of a concert it was.
My life is officially complete.

Lots to catch up on...

I'm so bad at blogging lately...I feel like I am always going, going, going with no end in sight. And I also feel like I have nothing to blog about that's interesting. :) So let's catch up on life with the Erdmans:

In June, Clint's sister Karina had a beautiful baby girl, Isabella Rose. She is such a cutie and I love her so much!I stole this picture from my brother-in-law's Facebook. She's such a doll!

Then in July it was my birthday at the beginning and Clint's at the end...we don't really do too much for it, especially because we both don't really like the fact that we are getting old. Not older, OLD. At least that's how we feel! I turned 24 and Clint turned 29. I think next year I might plan something fun because I'll be 25 (a quarter century...ahhhh!) and Clint will turn the big 3-0! CRAZY! We did have some sad times in July though; Clint's grandfather (mom's dad) died on July 16th. The memorial was on Clint's birthday and in Nevada, so unfortunately we spent the weekend apart because I (of course) had to work.

Then came the fun part of our lives. It started on July 21st or something right around then...we dropped Clint's car off to get some maintenance work done before his warranty ran out (which was basically 10 miles later!). Come to find out that it was a much bigger job because more things were wrong than we thought and it was more than just mechanical or electric errors, it was "wear and tear" which is not covered under the warranty. So after much fighting with insurance and policy people, we finally got his car back last Friday...August 13th. Almost a full month after dropping it off. Because Clint works in Paso and I work in SLO and we live in Atascadero, we had to borrow my mom's car for awhile (THANKS MOM!!! You are such a lifesaver!). We had her car until August 9th, and then we figured it would only be a few more days, so we were just going to use my car and he would drop me off at work and pick me up at the end of the day. So that worked for Monday. Then Tuesday comes. I get a bad head cold, but still go to work (dedication, I tell ya!). Then I get a call from Clint. "Your car died." I literally wanted to shoot myself in the face when I heard that. We find out that my timing belt has gone bad and broken or whatever happens to the timing belt. Also, because my car is SO SPECIAL (sure) the timing belt breaking has the potential to break more things in my car. Cool. Our friend recommended a mobile mechanic (who has been a GODSEND) to take a look at it. Long story short (too late!), my car is going to basically be brand new by the time he is done with it! Yahoo!

It's been a full week and my car is not done yet. That's the other dilemma. We still only have one car. It's been a VERY trying week, let me tell you.

We did make a decision that I finally feel comfortable about. We are moving out of our teeny tiny apartment to an even teenier, tinier 5th wheel on my in-law's property. BUT we have full access to their house, kitchen, bigger bathrooms, living room with ginormous TV, etc. And I love my in-laws dearly; they are such good people to help us out like this. We are giving them $200 a month to live with them so we can get our finances in order, pay off bills and such. But it'll be good for all of us, even Chase. He'll finally have more room to play and more dogs to socialize with. Maybe he won't be such a baby when we leave for work now...just kidding :)

My job is still going pretty good - it's super stressful because of Back to College season...a word to the wise, STAY AWAY from BBB during the 2nd weekend and the first few days of the 3rd week (basically September 10th through the 14th)...Poly freshman are moving in and it'll be a ZOO there! But I have officially been in my position for 5 months now. Still learning new things everyday and new ways to cut corners to hopefully make my job easier...hopefully.

Clint and I also hit the 18 month mark in our marriage! Yay for us! :) We are still a happy little family, and I can't wait for what the future holds for us together.

It's the little things...

...that make me so grateful for my sweet husband. I left this morning to go to SLO to get my haircut. As I was leaving, I gave Clint a hug and kiss and said, "Okay, I'm going to get my hair cut now. The next time you see me, I'll have pretty hair." And he said, "You always have pretty hair." *Melt my heart*

As I am sitting here writing this, Chase came up next to me, sits down and looks up with his cute eyes. I turned to look at him and what does he do? He puts his paws up on my lap and lays his head across my lap so I would scratch his head.

Can I get a better life? I think not.

Greatest news EVER

I got the best news in the whole world earlier this week...

I was getting ready for work when my best friend's boyfriend called me. He says, "Hey Gillian, I was wondering if you'd be able to get August 24th and 25th off." I asked him why, and he told me that he had gotten Michelle her birthday present, but he wasn't going to tell me what it was because he was afraid I'd tell her too early and he wanted to actually surprise her with it. He actually said, "I don't trust you to not tell her." WOW! However, he is right...but that's besides the point. Anyway, I coerced him into telling me what it was and here's how THIS part of the conversation went:
Him: "I got her Michael Buble tickets for the 24th up in Sacramento. I think she's really going to like it, don't you?"
Me: "And I need to get the days off because...?"
Him: "Oh because the only stipulation I'm giving her with this present is that she has to take you."

I screamed.

I'M GOING TO SEE MICHAEL BUBLE IN CONCERT!!!!!!!! Be jealous everyone, be jealous!