Longmont, Colorado

Well we made it to Colorado! We arrived about 9 days ago after two days of driving. We had to drive separately so we could get both of our cars here on time, but it worked out really well. I ended up being really glad for the extra space to bring more things, as well as the freedom to listen to whatever I wanted the whole way! But I did miss the opportunity to chat with Aaron for two straight days, lol. Sugar and Sampson were really fantastic travelers! I was very proud of them. I wish I'd gotten a picture of the backseat of my car, they had the whole backseat to themselves and I made them quite the hangout area! They were pretty happy campers.

We arrived at our hotel in Longmont, Colorado around 6pm and were greeted by Grammy, Papa, Aunt Tanya, Wayne, Tara and Emma!! They took us out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse and we had a great time hanging out and chatting with them! It was so fun! Talk about a welcome committee! :)

The next morning we went to a nearby ward and then spent the afternoon at my Aunt Tanya's house having lunch and hanging out. Monday morning Aaron and I both started work! We celebrated our first day by going to Applebee's! We both think our jobs are kind of boring...but we're just happy to have jobs! (I transferred stores with Best Buy, in case anyone is wondering how I got a job so fast. The Fairview Heights Best Buy is WAAAAAY better than the Longmont Best Buy btw...I miss my amazing coworkers and I really wish there was more customer traffic, but I love that I'm finally getting a lot of hours $$!)

Aaron's company is putting us up in a hotel for 30 days so we've been living at a hotel! We have a little kitchenette which is really nice, so it's not so bad. I like being able to walk down the hall and use the treadmill or jacuzzi in the evenings! The dogs don't like not having a lot of room to run around, but I've been trying to take them on walks when I can. Just short walks though...it's too cold to be outside too long! I like that it's a dry cold here though. St Louis was so humid that the chill cut right through you! This weather is pretty easy to handle with a warm jacket and scarf. Although the dryness in general is taking some getting used to. We've had to go buy more chapstick and drink a lot more water! The first week we were here I was having a really hard time with dehydration... one night I woke up feeling like my insides were in flames and I felt unbearable nauseous - it was miserable! But nothing a few bottles of water couldn't fix :)

Anyway, we like Colorado. I'm really enjoying living near family! Last Wednesday I drove an hour south to Parker where my Grammy and Papa live. I went to lunch with Grammy and my cousin Emma, then Emma and I did a little shopping for some work clothes I needed (khaki pants - Best Buy style!), and Grammy and I went back to her house and watched Oprah and talked with Papa. Then I went and spent the evening with my Aunt Lisa, Lauren, Ryan and Eric. It was so fun to talk with them! It was weird to leave and know I'd see them again in only a week, rather than another year or so! I'm loving this!

Well....that's pretty much the update! Oh we also lined up an apartment this past Saturday, so we have a place to go when our 30 days is up in the hotel! We're really happy with what we found, so hopefully it turns out to be a good temporary situation for us until we can sell our house in Illinois.

Good-bye Illinois!

Okay I haven't blogged in a long time... mostly because I don't think anyone reads my blog, lol. So I guess this will be a fun little test to see if posting this results in anyone actually finding out that....

WE'RE MOVING!!

Aaron is transferring within his company to a new project at the Lockheed Martin site in Boulder, CO! The crazy part is that we have to be there on November 15... yah... Thank goodness Lockheed has amazing relocation benefits so I don't even have to pack this time around! My apologies for not detailing everything about the upcoming move right now, but everything became official today so there are still a lot of details to be ironed out in the next week or so. We first got word that we might be moving about a month ago, but between waiting for the official job offer and then waiting to accept it while we balanced another job offer...it took awhile to set things in stone. We almost ended up with a company in Appleton, Wisconsin, which would have been awesome for a number of reasons, but we decided that this job would be a better fit for our family's needs right now. We feel really good about our decision and we're excited (and admittedly nervous!) for this next chapter in our lives.

Well, that's latest news on Team Robinson. Colorado, here we come!

(Feel free to share moving tips... or Colorado tips if you're familiar with the area!)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day! Aaron and I had a wonderful day today! It was really nice to exchange simple gifts and spend some quality time together. Aaron got me my favorite flowers as one of my gifts!! I'm not sure why, but I just love receiving flowers so much! Especially, of course, when they're Oriental Stargazer Lilies!! They're just starting to bloom and they smell so amazing!

I found some time this evening to get on our old wedding website and read the stories Aaron and I posted a year and a half ago about how we met and how we felt about starting a life together. (http://www.mywedding.com/aaronjanae/stories.html)
It was really nice to reflect on our journey and think about how much we were guided by the Lord to be together. It gives me motivation to make sure we continue to be guided by the Lord throughout our marriage - it makes such a difference! I have a wonderful Valentine and I'm so blessed to spend the rest of my Valentine's Days with him.

Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day too!

Oh one other thing I have to share... Sugar and Sampson got a Valentine's Day gift for Aaron this year! :) It was a heart shaped box of chocolates that said "We Wuff You!" on it! How cute is that?!?! :)

2009 Christmas Letter

Okay... we never actually sent this out, and I keep meaning to post it... so I finally am! :) Here's our *late* 2009 Christmas letter!

2009 was an exciting year for Team Robinson! The biggest highlight was that we became homeowners!!! We started off the year in our apartment, but in May we closed on a great little home in a lovely neighborhood. We’re really enjoying it!

In January we got a Pembroke Welsh Corgi named Quincy! He was a sweet little puppy and was soon joined by a sister in May when we got a Pomeranian named Sugar! Those two have been great friends and it’s been a blast to watch them enjoy one another and to play with them ourselves when they let us in on the fun :)

Janae began the year working for an inventory company called RGIS. She liked the job, but the odd hours were really tough. She also began attending school online through Troy University and is continuing to work toward her bachelor’s degree in Political Science. She thoroughly enjoyed the new world of being both a dog owner and home owner and spent most of her free time playing with Quincy and Sugar and organizing the house. One of Janae’s favorite things is teaching her CTR 5 Primary class on Sundays. Janae now continues to attend school and also works two part time jobs at Best Buy as a Digital Imaging Specialist and at David’s Bridal as a Wedding Consultant.

Aaron continues to do well in his job as a Software Engineer at Lockheed Martin. He was promoted to a Level 2 Engineer in March and has since transferred from research and development to a government contract. Aaron’s new world of being a dog owner and home owner would be better phrased as feeling like the owner of messes and a mortgage, but he loves it all just the same. Aaron is currently working toward his MBA through St Louis University and attends night classes once a week to accomplish that goal.

In June we got to travel out to Seattle for Janae’s dad’s promotion ceremony for his promotion to colonel! It was a special event and we’re very proud of his accomplishment. We were also able to be there for Kyle’s endowment at the Seattle Temple. It was wonderful to be there for that and support Kyle into the next stage of his life! We’re so excited for him! For the Fourth of July we kept up with tradition and went to Birchwood, WI with Aaron’s family to stay at their cottage on the lake for a few days! We enjoyed being out on the boat and spending time with family. In August we got a chance to see Janae’s family one last time before they moved to Germany and Kyle left to serve in the Argentina Rosario mission. See you in two years Elder Andrus! We love you!

Another highlight of 2009 was celebrating our first year anniversary! Aaron had a business trip in Chicago and Janae was able to accompany him on the trip and use the time to celebrate the special occasion. While we were there, we found ourselves right in the middle of Oprah’s 24^th Season Kick Off Party! If you’ve seen that video of the Black-Eyed Peas performance and the coordinated dance they did in the streets, we were standing right behind those people! So that’s our little claim to fame for the year :)

We were able to spend Thanksgiving with Janae’s Grammy and Papa in Colorado. Janae’s brother, Phil, was able to come as well and it meant a lot to Janae to be able to see him and spend time with him again. It was really nice to see family for the holiday and visit a few friends in the area as well. For Christmas we get to head up to Wisconsin and spend some time with Aaron’s family! We’re excited for the nativity puppet show, waffle breakfasts, Upwords competitions and lots of down time to talk and catch up!

This year we got our first real Christmas tree and we’re very excited about it! Fusing our old traditions together and starting new ones has been a wonderful experience to share. We hope you all enjoy your special traditions this holiday season and we send our best wishes to you all! Merry Christmas!

Primary Lessons

So a couple of weeks ago I was released as a Primary teacher. I was so distraught! I cried for two days :( I'll miss my kids so much!! I had the 4 and 5 year olds. They taught me so many things. The most important thing they taught me was how to love. When I started in that calling, it drove me crazy! The kids would never sit still, they drooled and their noses ran and they were always touching me.... I was so fed up with it! Especially because I had been hoping to teach Sunday School or something that would help me study the scriptures deeper, and here I was saying "Jesus loves you, here's a lollipop, go color something" every week. Yah, here I'm thinking that I was dumbing myself down for this calling, but in reality I was about to learn one of the most important lessons I'd ever learn.

^Joseph, Jocelyn, Jaiden and me on the day I was released. Unfortunately you can totally tell I had been crying all morning!^

A few months into my calling, Jaiden, said to me, "Sister Robinson? Remember how last week you were talking about the Spirit and what it feels like? Remember when you told us about when you were sad and you thought Jesus was hugging you? Well I was thinking about it, and I think I felt the Spirit this week. I felt really happy and warm inside and I kind of felt like Jesus was with me. Did I feel the Spirit?" With tears in my eyes I told her that, yes, she had felt the Spirit. This girl was 4 yrs old and I suddenly realized she was actually absorbing the things I was teaching! That was a pivotal point for me. It was from that point on I started caring a lot more about preparing my lessons and teaching those kids well, and I learned a lot as a result.

A couple of months ago we had a lesson about not using the Lord's name in vain and it was one of the best experiences I've ever had. The point of the lesson was to teach the kids that names should be used properly, and it makes people sad when you call them by the wrong name or use their name wrong because names are important and they each mean something special (then you tie it into the Lord's name).

Funny story... While trying to make the point that each child's name meant something and that their mothers spent a lot of time choosing their name, I told a little "story" about a mom who got a really big belly (comment from Jocelyn, "Hey my dad has a really big belly too!" hmm... not quite the same! lol. Her dad is the bishop btw) and then out of the belly came a baby! And the mommy looked at the baby for a long time and finally said, "This will be... Carissa!" And I went through and did the story for each child in the class... "This will be Jocelyn!" "This will be Joseph!" "This will be Dominque!" "This will be Jaiden!" And when I finished, Joseph jumped in and finished it off with, "And when you were born, your mommy looked at you and said, 'This will be Sister Robinson!!'" hahaha, I about died laughing!!!!

Then I asked each child what they wanted people to think of when they thought of their name, and I got the most beautiful answers! Most of the kids said things like "Happy" or "Nice to people" or "Smiling" and that was sweet. Jocelyn said, "I want people to think that I love Jesus!" And I asked her what she could do so that people would think of that when they thought of her name. She looked really thoughtful for a minute, then she jumped up on her chair and shouted, "Everybody! I love Jesus!!!" It was so cute!!! Then I asked Joseph. He just looked at the floor and said, "I want them to think of my heart." That touched me. Later when the kids were coloring pictures to represent the answers they had given me, Joseph said, "Sister Robinson? How do you spell heart? Is it L-O-V-E?" I told him that actually spelled love, but I could tell him how to spell heart if he wanted me to. He said, "No I'll just put love, because when people think of my heart they will think of love." He was being so genuine and affecting me so much with every word that I hardly knew how to react. I just hugged him and told him I loved him and let him finish his picture.

These kids taught me that people aren't about their exteriors at all. We have to look past the snotty noses and temper tantrums and look at people's souls. What I learned to see in these kids was their capacity to love. What if I could learn to see everyone in that light? I think then I could truly know what it means to love as Christ loves. When the Lord thinks of us, he thinks of our hearts. When we think of others, what do we think of? It should be their hearts. And hopefully others see us the same way. Hopefully when they think of our hearts, they'll think of love. I'll miss teaching my kids, but even more, I'll miss being taught by them. Thankfully I still get to see them with my new calling as Primary Secretary. It's hard to see them every week and not go with them to class after sharing time, but, as Patty Gotsch said, now I have even more kids to learn to love! I know the Lord wants me in this new calling, and hopefully I learn something about coming closer to my Savior in this calling as well. But I'll always have a special place in my heart for Jocelyn, Jospeh, Jaiden, Carissa and Dominique. I really loved those children and they've changed my heart forever.

Joseph, Dominique, Jocelyn, Jaiden, Carissa and Sister Robinson :)

Chicago, IL (Anniversary!)

For some reason all the pictures uploaded as html so I can't tell where to put the captions... so the format of this entry will be all text, and then all pictures. Sorry if it's less interesting!

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Aaron had a business trip out to Chicago, so he took me with him and we celebrated our anniversary there!! It was so much fun!! Aaron was LOVING it because they filmed a lot of the Dark Knight there, so he kept recognizing all the parts of the city where they made the movie. And while we were there, we ran into Oprah's 24th Season Kick Off Party, so we went! It was pretty much a big concert on Michigan Avenue. There was Black-eyed Peas, James Taylor, Jennifer Hudson, and Rascal Flats! It was my first concert!!! We had so much fun!!

We also went to Navy Pier and went on the Swings, rode the Ferris Wheel, and played Mini Golf. Aaron beat me at mini golf by ONE POINT! So lame... :) It was a lot of fun!! We got ice cream cones and walked around, it was really cute. We also saw a funny sign that said that McDonald's was the future. Aaron was cracking up over it, lol.

For our anniversary Aaron took me out to a nice Italian restaurant and we went to the Hancock Observatory. It was REALLY nice!! Then we went back to the hotel to eat our wedding cake... that's a sad/funny story... we transported the cake topper all the way from where we were married in Seattle to O'Fallon, IL. I carried the cake on my lap on for the entire two flights back home. Then when we moved from our apartment to our new house, I made a separate trip in my car just to get the cake topper from freezer to freezer as quickly as possible. So after all of that... we had to transport the cake topper once again to Chicago. So we went and bought a cooler and some ice and put the ice and the cake in the cooler and drove to Chicago! The ice was in a bag and the cake was in a bag. Stupid me.. both bags were porous! Anyway... the ice melted and the cake ended up soaking in water for three days. So when we went to get the cake from the cooler... it was a soaking wet mess! I tried to dry it out...but it was beyond repair. We still each had a bite of it, just to keep up tradition! But it tasted like dirty water :( It was pretty funny though!

So Chicago was fantastic! We also went to Madison on our way home to meet up with Aaron's parents for a football game! I don't have those pictures right now though, so I'll post on that later. Of course when we got home, we rented the Dark Knight and we had a lot of fun recognizing all the places we had just been!

Enjoy the pictures. :) There's a video at the end of me trying to show how gross and wet our cake was... it didn't turn out too well, but oh well!

Parker, CO

In August Aaron and I went to Parker, CO to see my family before they moved to Germany. It was kind of a mini-reunion because almost everyone came! We were missing Courtney and her kids, Amber, Stacia, Kaisha, Austin and Aunt Debbie. I did get to see Stacia later though! It was really fun to see everyone and be reminded that I still have family around even though my parents went to Germany. It was supposed to be a weekend thing, but my mom ended up in the hospital while we were there! Some complications with her previous surgery. She was having a really hard time. Things have finally all straightened out and she's doing very well now, but we were all concerned for her! And the vacation definitely got an unexpected extension!!
Here are a couple pictures...

The DeLaMare family! Greg, Lisa, Tanya, Kym, Grammy, Mom, Papa

Me and my Dad :)

Me and my baby sister, Macy! (she's in her PJs)

Also, when my parents drove out to Colorado, they brought a few of my things with them!! So I got some childhood items back :) I took some pictures, just for fun...

My dollhouse!! The furniture is pictured below. When I was about six, I was at a garage sale with my mom and we were looking for fanny packs, but I saw the dollhouse! I asked for it, but she said I had to choose between the furniture or the house because of the price. So I picked the furniture and we bought it and left. The next day, the family who had the garage sale showed up at our house with the dollhouse and just gave it to me! I remember opening the door to see two little girls holding the dollhouse with huge smiles on their faces. It was amazing! I spent HOURS with that dollhouse over the years. I love it! So it's really fun to have it back. Maybe my daughters will play with it some day :)My mom found this book and some old baby blankets of mine. So she gave them to me for my kids! (Do I sense some hints?? haha jk) Isn't the signature adorable?? lol :)

When we lived in Germany when I was about 12, I went on a dish run with my mom and a bunch of women and my mom bought me some dishes for my hope chest! I wasn't allowed to have them until I got married, so I hadn't seen them since we bought them and it was so much fun to finally get them!! I love the little fruit and flower border. They're so "country kitchen" :) This is a picture of the first meal I served on my dishes!! (Ignore the fork...)

And finally.... the surgery that my mom had that gave her complications was her hysterectomy and in some kind of celebration of freedom, she handed over ALL her old feminine products to me. And the best part is the bag that she put them all in for me... haha!! My dad got it at some kind of conference, and never thought to read it, so he brought it home and suggested my mom use it as a church bag. Good thing my mom read it first!!

Sugar update with cute pictures

Sugar has been in heat this last week and hasn't been feeling well... ^^This picture from Sunday is so sad for me to look at because you can just tell from how her face looks that she's feeling awful. Also, that brown thing by her chest is a treat that I tried to give her, and she didn't even have the energy to eat it. She didn't move from Quincy's bed all day either. :(
I feel bad for her, but she's been really timid which has been a nice change of pace. She's also been really photogenic and so I have to post some new pictures!


We had her in a diaper for the first few days, and she looked really cute in it!





^This was on her toughest day. ^ She was getting herself into some really adorable positions trying to get comfortable!





Here are my two little babies relaxing... I finally got the hint that I was taking too many pictures when Sugar started to just look away every time I pulled out the camera! (see below)







I caught them both taking a nap together... I thought it was cute! (Even though they kinda look dead...lol)



Anyway, Sugar is feeling better now, but it was a rough few days for her.


Look at how adorable our baby girl is... :)

Some Team Robinson Adventures! :)

On July 23 we celebrated 11 months of marriage! Okay we didn't really celebrate...but it was technically the day that marked our 11th month-- haha! Anyway, something else noteworthy happened that day... Lightening struck our tree! The tree in our front yard was hit by lightening during a very random storm that whipped through the area in only about 20 minutes. It was a really intense storm with buckets of water coming down and tons of thunder and lightening. After it passed I went outside to check on our flag, and this is what I saw:
How crazy is that?! Here are some more pictures of our tree...
^^This is the hole from where the tree had been.^^ See the burn marks from the lightening??

So sad...

There was some additional damage as well. Our flag pole was bent to a right angle! Also, our neighbor's fence was blown down. We were admittedly happy about that one because their fence is actually built two feet onto our property and we've been trying to figure out how to approach them on that...so we figured the storm created the perfect opportunity! Except that they went outside and nailed it back up within the hour... LAME! The day after the storm we also noticed that some fascia had blown off the sides of the house... so we have some things to work on! Here are the pictures of those damages...(FYI, the white flags in our yard are for training our dogs with our electric fence.)


Crazy stuff! One more little adventure to share...

A couple of weeks ago we came home from church to find Sugar in the kitchen looking very proud of herself! We figured she was just excited because she had escaped from the pen and that she had probably escaped by realizing she can jump over it. We were wrong on both counts. She actually chewed off the zip ties that attach the rest of the pen to Quincy's crate to get out! Quincy was in his crate, so he didn't get to escape with her. (She's actually been messing with the latch on his crate lately...one of these days she'll figure that out too!). Here's a picture of the replacement zip tie so you can see what I'm talking about...
Anyway, now for the reasons why she was so proud of herself...

1. she dug in my fern and left dirt and leaves all over my freshly vacuumed carpet,

2. she completely tore up the corner of my runner,

3. --this one is our favorite-- she took a chunk out of our desk!


Check out these pictures...




We really couldn't figure out if we should be angry or laugh!! I was getting progressively more and more mad as I kept finding things, and then Aaron took a look at the desk and just laughed!! We put Sugar back in the pen, fixed the zip ties, and now we keep a close eye on her chewing progress! (I have to replace zip ties about once a week! Bitter Barrier doesn't work...at least now we know to check!)



Well, I have a 15 page paper due today and I only have one page written... So now that I've exhausted all of my procrastination techniques (Facebook, Solitaire, Craigslist, blogging, ...), I'm going to get back to that paper! :)