Little House on the Prairie

Front of the house
back
kitchen, nice color huh!
upstairs loft
Family room with artwork, very tasteful-were keeping that!

Looky, looky, we got a HOUSE! I didn't want to post till it was official and well, now it is! Now anyone who has seem me with money knows I have financial commitment issues. I cried when we bought our cheap, old car and yes I BAWLED at closing. Everyone kept asking if I was ok, I couldnt even talk, so Brett just laughed and told them I was fine. Man, I hate being in debt and so this just about ruined me. It still bothers me sometimes just thinking about it but Im getting used to it. Plus, I am excited to have a house!

Its way more house than we thought we could get, especially cause houses here are PRICEY! But this is a foreclosure and we bought it for $100,000 LESS than what it sold for brand new four years ago. Plus, its a little out it the country so the houses in this town are a bit cheaper to start with. ( ok, Ive never lived in the country but Target is 10 minutes away, I'll survive, right?). So basically all these things combine made this the cheapest house we could find, seriously. Unfortunetly Brett has a 30 minute commute, but because he works near downtown, we couldnt live closer than 20 minutes without fearing for our lives. We actually considered living near the hospital but once Brett started working, all the gun shot wounds, stabbings, and gang fights happen within a 20 minute radius of the hospital. Brett has already heard of three robbings in front of the hospital that happened in the middle of the DAY! Geez, I'll take the suburbs thank you very much, oh wait, we cant afford that. Ok, we'll take the country thank you very much! And the last thing that talked me into buying a house is the fact that renting is super expensive here and all your neighbors are shady (no more Wymount), so for about $200 extra a month we could own.

We need to do some work on it, all new siding due to hail damage, refrigerator and range needed, painting throughout the whole house, carpet cleaning, new dry wall going up the stairs, and fix top panel of garage door. We already started cleaning, taping and priming the walls. We are also getting quotes on the siding and garage door.

The Election

I had heard some Republicans consider voting Democratic this year because they are upset over certain issues or candidates. Some say that pro life and defining marriage between a man and a woman are no longer enough to keep them voting Republican. This makes me so sad. Of course there are other VERY important issues, but these two issues are what will make or break our constitution (in my opinion of course). I dont have the exact quote, but Jospeh Smith said that during the last days, the constitution will "hang by a thread". To me, these two issue may very well change our constitution. My faith does NOT tell me which way to vote. However, the way I interpret my faith will leave me no moral choice but to vote Republican. I hope everyone will weigh the consequences before they vote. Although I am not Catholic, I have close family members who are. I respect thier religion and found this video thought provoking. I hope you all will watch it. http://www.catholicvote.com/

Father/Daughter Campout

The three of us
This is me, Pochahontas style
We stopped at this sand bar- the sand was AMAZING! so soft!
Everyone cliff jumping and me taking pics because I forgot my swimsuit! If this was a mother/daughter campout-I may have just jumped in, but I was not about to start a wet t-shirt contest with all the men from the ward there!
This is the group of girls, I totally had a blast hanging out with them. I was by far the oldest daughter there. At the end, one girl was like, "your the oldest daughter here, youre like 20 years old, whoa!" and I said, "yes. thats right" hehe

In August, I went camping (shocker!) with my lil sister and dad. It was a great opportunity to do something like that with all three of us. Seeing as I am 10 years older than my sister, we didnt have many chances where we were both the right age to do things together like this. We camped on the St. Croix river and canoed the next day. The river was beautiful, but the canoe was rock hard- my butt hurt so bad I couldnt sit comfortably for 4 days! At night, around the campfire, Courtney and I stategically placed Dad's remote control fart machine (which he brought home from work-just for this occasion) and let them rip in true Hanberg style. Of course we pranked the Bishopric first and then worked our way down to the innocent unsuspecting Achievement Day girls. Funny thing is, that the next day, after canoeing, we all rode a bus back with another group that was on the river. This old man in line in front of me totally ripped one, but I think everyone suspected I had used the machine and they looked at me! I take credit where credit is due, but that was definetly not me!

Fourth of July

Music in Plymouth- lots of vendors, The MN orchestra and fireworks!



ok, I know its late, but Im trying to catch up, somewhat. My Uncle Mark and his two kids were able to join us for the holiday. We had the most amazing food for about 4 days in a row, watched fireworks, and rented a boat on Lake Minnetonka! Fun, fun, fun!

Summer fun

There are two things that my family is obsessed with; hamburgers and chinese food. The search for the best hamburger and chinese food has extended into every state in which we have lived, all 10 of them. This picture is of Matt's Bar- voted one of the best hamburgers in MN. The burger is two patties seamed together with molten liquid cheese in the middle. Very good, very rich, very hot (the cheese that is).

The other picture is of my sister Courtney and I. We saw these cool coconut cups at Target and when they went on sale, we had to try them! This is us enjoying margaritas(virgin of course!) on the porch. Yes, my world revolves around food.

Brett's party

My Grandma planned a graduation party for Brett in June. Both sides of our families were there, it was fun! This is Brett's Grandma with Bryson (Brett's cousin's son)
My Aunt Annie gave Brett a male nurse action figure. It said "Doctors prescribe, nurses provide!"

Miscarriage

I dont really know how to begin this post. I tend to skip blogging about the hard things altogether because I never have the right words to show how I really feel. I dont want people to make assumptions on my feelings due to my inability to convey them.
I may regret posting this but it seems that one by one people are finding out and due to the nature of our lives people think themselves privledged to ask what they may. (more to come on that later)
On Saturday night I miscarried our baby at 8 weeks. We were due in February. I decided on a natural miscarriage (ironically I dont believe in natural births...but thats another story). I saw the placenta and umbilical cord which was very long and took me by surprise. I decided not to look in the sac to see my baby.
Yes we are heartbroken, yes this was a medical miracle and yes we found out we were pregnant the day before we paid our adoption fee. Thus everything with our adoption process is on hold.
This is all we want to share, hint hint, which brings me to my point. I hope this doesnt come out rash and please do not take this too personal if you fall into this category (which is most people). When you have been told information by us about our infertility, treatments, adoption or none of the above this does not give you the right to keep asking questions. Ever. For example, we shared with family and close friends our decision to try IVF. When it didnt work, we informed everyone about that. But for some reason, people couldnt stop asking questions like, why didnt it work? what will you do now? when will you use your frozen embryos? my co-workers friend did IVF 3 times and it worked...you get my point. We will tell you things when there are things to be told. End of story. And we do not want to hear your friends uncles daughters story about infertility or adoption. For this reason we have stopped sharing so much. Everyone was shocked to find out we used our frozen embryos without telling anyone, well frankly, we told you about IVF and you blew it so we decided to keep this one private. I might also add that none of you inform us when you are trying to get pregnant, but I wish you would so I could call you every month and ask if it worked and drive you crazy!
So let me say this one more time in regards to the adoption process, we will tell you when there is something for us to tell you! Now you all are laughing thinking that other people are doing this, but really, its probably you too, because everyone asks us if weve finished the adoption papers everytime they talk to us. Seriously.
Now, with that said, I know that you all do this because you care about us, and we are grateful for you. Really we are. We realize people dont always know what to say or do, and that is why I finally wrote this post. Now you all know what to say-nothing, unless we bring it up. Now I dont want everyone to stop talking to us due to fear of upsetting us. We would love to hear from you, and you are welcome to talk to us about things we have already shared with you, but please dont bug us about what we will do next. We know that this is in the Lords hands and we are thrilled with that. We know He will bring children to us somehow, someday. But as you can imagine, most people dont have to share the intimate details of thier family with everyone and yet we feel we are expected to.