It's SOLD!!!

What an amazing Christmas present Paul & I got yesterday... Our house is sold. Closed yesterday and we could not be happier. We have gone threw so much with this house that pure excitement came over us when we realized we are no longer home owners. Kind of a bittersweet moment. So Goodbye Ga house, hello financial freedom!!!

Beautiful Sites!!!

There are some wonderful things that I do Love about "home" Family for one and watching my kids have a good time and also the wonderful sites of home!!! Man how I do miss Cali...

snow

I was sitting here going over old posts and realized that I never posted about our first snow. We had our first snow right before Thanksgiving. Can you imagine the excitment that went through our house when we saw it? After spending the last 7 years where it didn't snow, it was nice to see it actually snowing at our house. We got to enjoy it only for a short time as it melted by the next afternoon, but we got to take some pictures while it was here. Hoping it snows again soon, since it is cold enough. High for today is 32* low is 17*. Yikes!!!

Happy Turkey Day!

Just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours...

Wondering why time flys by so fast?!?!

I was cleaning a little in my oldest child's room and found a photo book of when he was younger. I was overwhelmed a little with emotions that I began to shed some soft tears. It amazes me at just how much he has grown. We are staring at 10 years old just around the corner. Can you believe it? 10 wow. He is sometimes challenging and sometimes a bit of a headache but he also has an amazing spirit and an incredible heart. He is so smart that sometimes it gets him into trouble and even through it all I can't wait to watch what adventures he is going to have and experience. He is stubborn and very strong willed and sad to say he didn't stand a chance in that department! In the past 9 years I have watched this little boy grow into a young man and I am amazed at how he has taken everything he has been through and came out of it stronger than before. I'll admit we have faced somethings with him that I don't wish anyone to have to grow through and yet he seems to take it like a grain of salt, accept it and move on from it with a greater understanding of how to handle hard times. What a great example of a child's strength. So today I am greatful for God allowing me to be a mom to such an amazing young man and I pray that I am able to show him what kind of person he needs to be and that I continue to show him love and grace. I love you always little man!

Thanking Past, Present and Future

Today we honor our Veterans for all they have done for our country. So from our Military family to yours Thank you to all who have served, are serving and all those who will follow. You are truly Heroes and we can't thank you enough for defending our rights and protecting our freedom. May God bless you always.

Flashlight Please...

Have you ever thought everything was going great and that you could see the light at the end of the tunnel and man was it bright? Well we thought everything was going 100% in the right direction with the sale of our house in Ga and then BAM. We got hit with a double rock to the head. I am not going to go into to much detail but our mortgage company hadn't sent paperwork about the payoff and when we called to ask about it they said they were not aware of said paperwork. AHHHHHH really I mean we close in a week how do you not know about paperwork. So now we are forced to start a new packet and get it approved all by next week. Really? Oh Lord how are we going to pull this off? Faith and prayers??? I had a tough time remembering that God is always there and always in control and that he will not give us something we can not handle, somehow, someway he is going to make this work. So for now we are praying hard for the light at the end of the tunnel again and that our mortgage company gets their act in gear and accepts our offer and now. Please Lord make this work and fast. Amen!!!

Cleaning, visitors & more cleaning!!!

I have found that I LOVE family and or friends coming over for visits, however I have to admit that I am a little to sad when they leave. I love my "alone" time with my husband and my children I do, but to have lived on the other side of the country for over 6 years it is nice having family around. Bailie and Jeff came for a visit and it was such a great time with them. We went and saw sights of Seattle. We all had fun, we also learned that um maybe 2 days in a row of walking all over Seattle might be a little to much, as we all paid for sore bodies the next day, but it was an amazing time. Saturday we went to the Pacific Science Center. Truely one of our families favorite places to go. A HUGE place filled with robots, science experiments and Butterflys! We ended the day with a trip to the Space Needle. What an amazing building. Although a little bit crowded and a big nauseating, still a must see! Sunday was the aquarium and tons of shopping! What a blast. Love you guys!!!

COLD weather... Burrrrrrr

Today we are starting to experince Fall weather. Now the locals up here are loving it and they say it feels about right, a little on the cold side, but right for this time of the year and well the 4 from S.E. Georgia say ummm it is down right freezing. Currently the temp is 48°F. Today's high is 51°F. I think shopping for warm clothes and putting away the tank tops and flip flops and making soup with the fire going. is in order for this holiday. Trying to stay warm!!!

My new kitchen toy

During the move my bread machine broke, so I really had to think about getting a new one. On ebay I found a great deal on a wolfgang puck bread machine, so I bought it and I can't tell you how many loafs of bread I have made. The smell of homemade bread, awww you can't beat that smell. I have made 2 coffee cakes for breakfast, 2 cakes and a dozen loafs of bread and the best part... my favorite part it has saved us so much money and has already paid for itself. Oh yeah!!! I Love new kitchen toys!

OFFER!!!!!!!!!!!!

After 2 months of praying, crossing our fingers, stress, praying, crying, praying and more stress we finally got an offer on our house in GA. Yipee. Now the offer is not the best and it is definitely going to take some work on our part, saving as much as we can and begging with our mortgage company to short sale so we can make this offer work, it is an offer non the less. So now we wait and pray some more that God will step in and take care of it all. All prayers accepted and very much appricated.

Gum + 5 year old boy = shaved head

We had a little mishap in our house... Apparently Patrick decided he wanted a piece of gum at some point and well it got stuck in his hair. So stuck that it would not come out with oils, peanut butter or even ice, so what is a mom to do when you got 15 mins till it is time to catch the bus??? Yup you got it shave it all off & the result...

FOOTBALL

Today starts the regular season of FOOTBALL... Go SEAHAWKS!!!

Remembering today

Today is September 11, 2009 and 8 years ago today our great nation was overwhelmed with fear, sadness, prayers and tons of tears. I can't even imagine what those poor people had to endure as they saw their lives flash before their eyes, both on the planes and also inside the towers. My thoughts go back to where I was. I remember watching the Today show as I was getting ready to head to work and watching footage of the 2nd plane hit and sat down on my bed in complete shock. I wasn't sure if it was clips from an upcoming movie or if it was real. When they reassured everyone that the footage was real my thoughts immediately went to Paul who was in boot camp. Not sure what was going to happen to him, if he was okay, if he was preparing to ship out. Overwhelmed with fear and tears I began to pray for his safety. I will never forget that day.

May we never, ever forget the sacrifice of those that fought and are still fighting for America and our freedoms...and may we continue to oppose those that challenge them.

The latest happenings

So I have decided to update. We have had a pretty busy couple of weeks.

1st. Isaiah came to Washington from visiting with his grandma. He really had a good time riding on the train for the first time, playing video games in the arcade most of the time! Boys!!!

2nd. Paul is really getting into a grove with the new job. He seems to be learning a lot and making some new friends in the office. Can't wait until he gets a class of his own, but excited that he gets his own desk. It's the little things in life!!!

3rd. The boys had their first day of school. Can't believe they are in 4th and Kindergarten. Where does time go? They love their new school and are even excited to go in the morning. We learned that we have to walk to and from school, but the view on the way is so beautiful that we don't mind to much. Wonder if we are going to feel the same way in the snow!!!

4th. We finally got our washer fixed. Yipee. Never thought I would be so happy to be able to do laundry but there I was happy when we tried the new part and it didn't leak. Now to tackle the mound O' laundry that piled up while our washer was making an indoor swimming pool.

Wow the adventures we are having, makes things interesting and exciting. Can't wait to see what else is in store. So here is to fun adventures, promise to keep you all posted on the happenings in the Stricker house!

I think it is bye bye washer

With this move we are having to go through what seems like unending boxes we have to record anything that is broken or missing and sad to say I think our washer is well broken. When plugged in it continues to leak water, everywhere. There is water all over the floor including the carpet. I have to write a full writeup and call the moving company and property management company. Here's hoping the come to inspect the washer soon so I can either have it fixed or get a new one. Fingers crossed...

Going Nuts...

So with faith in God and in my husband I picked up and moved 4,000 miles with well let's be honest no place to go. We got orders to Washington State which is where we wanted to go don't get me wrong, however I wanted to have everything figured out before the big move... Apparently God had different plans for us. We are currently still homeowners. Yes you read that correctly. We are still trying to sell our house in Georgia and we have officially checked into Bangor, Washington. Yikes. We have no idea what is going to happen with our house other than we are walking on faith on this one.

Washington is a bit different that we had pictured. The base is bigger, the towns are set up differently and there are unending hills here. Now the views are to die for. You see mountains and the sound pretty much everywhere you look. Who could ask for more that after a stressful day to look out and see a beautiful view to take your breathe away? The weather on the other hand has apparently made the trip from Ga to Wa as it has been in the 90's here. What happened to that nice cold air we were expecting? Yesterday was the official record breaker day with hitting 105. Really? I mean come on we were looking forward to the low 70's. People are praying it goes back down soon. I mean coming from Ga this "heat" is nothing. We would hit highs of 105 plus humidity which would make it feel more like 110+ so we are not "dying" like some other people, but it would be nice to have cooler weather soon.

We also had to find a house to live in. Yup that is right we are homeless right now. Did I mention Yikes? My nerves have been on the roller coaster of all roller coaster rides lately. We finally found one that we are in love with and are hoping and praying that we get it. Now that the application is in we are waiting on the credit check (which is freaking me out to no end since our credit is well not the best) and hoping that the renter approves us is nerve racking in itself. This house was the first one that Paul and I both loved. The boys would have so much room to run and play, plus it is in a great area. A full 2500 sq ft of room to play in to be exact, plus an amazing yard for them to go out and play in. We loved it and can't wait to share pictures of it with all of you. Praying hard on this one. I know that God has a master plan for us and that to be honest has kept me going in good faith he will take care of us, but this time it would be amazing if his plan works with our plan. So until we hear back we will continue to pray.

Thank you for all your patience with our blog (or lack there of) for our break and I promise to try to get better about keeping you all updated on our busy lives and we try our best to get settled in this new adventure up north.

Happy 4th Of July

This 4th of July was great in our house. We not only had a great day but we got to spend it with Paul home as well. We started off the morning with a quick stop at a local doughnut shop to surprise the boys (since we don't eat doughnuts in our house) followed by a day adventure at the Aquatic Center. The boys love it there and they were really excited to take Daddy so he could see how well they swim! We came home and took a "rest period" and finished the day with a nice dinner out and fireworks. I am thankful for family time, great food and fireworks! Happy 4th Of July Everyone!

Amazing quote from a friend!

Today I was having a pretty crummy day, full of tons of challenges with the house, kids and dealing with Paul being gone. Then I came across this amazing quote from a friend and couldn't help but want to share it with all of you...

At the finish of 1 crisis, brace yourself for the next!! I thank God that he is bigger than ANY trial we may experience and that he is by our sides continuously!!!

So have any of you come across any amazing quotes lately? Please share!!!

Waiting for mail stinks

So Paul has been gone for awhile now and my patience on this whole waiting for email thing has really worn thin. One way conversations are not easy and it gets rather boring I must say. So many questions go unanswered, so many things that I wish for feedback and nothing. I know this is part of the job, but it still stinks some times. So for now I guess we wait...

It's way to hot here!!!

So you ever have those duh moments? You know those moments in life I am talking about, where you ask God to make it warmer outside so you can take the kids out of the house for some activities since they had been locked inside while it rained for a week. Well I have experienced the duh moments of you asked for it, so here it is. It had been raining here for what seemed like forever, even though it wasn't even a full week and since we are getting ready to move to Washington State where it yup rains all the time, I prayed for just some sunshine and warmer weather so we could enjoy it before we moved to the bitter cold winters! Once again God said "Here you go, enjoy." Now it is um a little to hot to enjoy anything outside. When the burn factor is 15-30 minutes that is just crazy. Well I guess we thank God for the sunshine and the birds singing no matter how hot is it!!!

It's offical. Kindergarten here we come!

Patrick had his preschool graduation the other day. He stood up there and said "Goodbye" to preschool and then sang a song titled "Kindergarten here we come." So sweet and yet it made me see just how big he really was. Hard to believe that he is going into a big school next year and that he is learning, growing and experiencing so many things. I think the best part is that he is so excited about riding the big kid bus! It makes me laugh that he is excited about a bus and yet I am having a hard time saying "goodbye" to my baby and "hello" to my big boy. So along with moving to a new house, a new state, we are also moving to a new adventure... Kindergarten. Ready or not here we come!!!

My baby is not such a baby anymore :-(

Patrick went to visit a kindergarten class today. He was so proud of himself, he got up and got himself dressed and said "Mommy I am a big boy today because I am going to Kindergarten." My eyes welled up and as I looked at my 5 year old who was so excited my couldn't help but grab him and give him a big hug. I can't believe how fast he has grown up. My baby boy is not such a baby anymore.

Our home sweet home...

Our home finally got listed and it is bittersweet to see it with a for sale sign in our yard. This has been our home since May of 2005, full of changes, happiness, sadness and tons of memories. I am going to be sad the day we say goodbye to our first home, but I am also going to be excited to see where God takes us in life now. Please pray that we have a quick and very easy sale. Here is a link to our listing... http://www.georgiamls.com/agentsite/search/propertyDetail.cfm?SiteID=PMAG01&LN=2664718#

Happy Bunny Day

From our family to yours

Soccer, Soccer & more Soccer!!!

Here in the Stricker house we have been in soccer mode. Both boys are playing this season and it has been well a little crazy. We have soccer every day except Friday and Sunday. Practices for Patrick were Mondays & Wednesdays. Isaiah had practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays and now that games have started 2 less practices a week but they are replaced by Games. Ahhh the season has just begun. Isaiah has had 2 games so far and they lost both of them. Patrick has only had 1 game so far but they won. Hopefully the game tomorrow goes well, provided the weather plays nice but that is another story... Go Soccer!!!

Our new floors

As most of you know we have been getting the house ready to put on the market so we can prepare for our big move to Washington State this July. With all of this house preparation comes redoing the floors. Our carpet was in bad shape and we decided it was time... Time for hardwood! Now every room in our house, minus the bathrooms and kitchen have hardwood flooring. Finally after hard, tiresome work we are happy to say they are in and look amazing. To bad we didn't do this 2 years ago when we could have had time to enjoy it. So without further hesitation here are some pictures.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

With today being St. Patrick's Day & being Irish I thought it would be fun to have an Irish themed dinner tonight. On the menu is Corned beef & cabbage with potatoes & carrots, Irish soda bread & lime (green) Irish soda malts for desert. What are you doing to celebrate the holiday? Until next time May your troubles be less, your blessings be more and may nothing but happiness come through your door. From our family to yours Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Mom & Boys movie night

Paul & I started this tradition a while back that Friday night was going to be pizza and a movie night and life got in the way, so the tradition was put on hold. Well tonight Paul had duty, so I decided it was time to start it up again.

Pizza and Madagascar 2 was on the menu. Let me just say if you are looking for a good movie to watch with your kids for a family movie night, it is funny. The funniest song is "I like them big, I like them chunky, I like them big, I like them plumply." Believe me when you see the movie you will understand.

Overall it was a great night with the boys!

Monkey Munch

I got this recipe from Jon & Kate Plus 8. I love that show. I thought I would make it and my boys love it (all 3 of them) so I thought I would share it with all of you. ENJOY!





Monkey Munch


9 cups Chex cereal (any variety)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 Put chex in a large bowl and put aside.
2 Place chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter into a quart-sized microwavable bowl.
3 Stir the ingredients together.
4 Microwave the mixture uncovered for a minute on "high." Stir the mix again and continue to
zap in thirty second intervals until it mixes smoothly.
5 Add the vanilla and stir.
6 Pour over the cereal while stirring.
7 Put combination into a 2-gallon, Ziploc freezer bag.
8 Add powdered sugar, seal the bag and shake until distributed.
9 Spread Monkey Munch out on wax paper to cool and dry.
10 Keep refrigerated in an airtight container for storage. (Like Tupperware. I can get you some, ask me how... Lol)

Boy's Birthday

I can't believe it is that time again already. Isaiah turned 9 today and Patrick will turn 5 on Tuesday. I know where does time go? Yesterday Paul and I decided to have a birthday celebration since we don't know exactly what his work days are going to be like. It started off the morning with presents. By the way they were super excited about and we all want to say a HUGE thank you for all your birthday wishes. After presents we went to Chuck E Cheese and played our hearts out. As if that wasn't enough we went to Toys R Us to spend the birthday money! Legos and Star Wars toys were on the list of must haves. The day ended with dinner at Chick Fil A and ice cream from Cold Stone! Oh I also was told to show the football player cupcakes that Iah requested for school tomorrow. Patrick's are going to be airplanes, school buses & boats. Ahh birthdays. So here is Hello 9 & 5 and moving on to 10 & 6. Man we are getting old!!! The Before Soccer Balls New Swim Stuff Thank You Nana & Papa Dave!!!$50 Bucks Thank You Papa & Grandma Sherry!!!My Sad Attempt of Football Player Cupcakes :-(

My new Job!!!

I am now a Tupperware Consultant. I love it. I have wanted to do this for a while and just haven't had the nerve I guess to actually do it. I can't wait to share with everyone our new products and host parties for all my friends and family. Check out my website when you get a chance.

http://my2.tupperware.com/tiffanystricker

Let me know what you think... Thanks for all the support. Love you guys!!!

Stolen Stuff

So I am sad and actually really upset to say that last night our car was broken into and our GPS a Garmin Nuvi' 260W aka: Samantha and 2 dvd players (plus whatever dvd's were in there) were stolen out of our car. As of this moment we have filed a report with the local police department, insurance company and Garmin USA, however all 3 places have simply done just that... Filed a claim and said aw we are so sorry. The police department did give some great advice of checking the local pawn shops on occasion and if we happen to find said items to give them a call so they can and I quote "check into it." So for now we cry a little and say $400 down the drain. RIP Sam RIP. :-(

The Dentist

Today I went to the dentist to get a cleaning and it turned into a "Gum cleaning." Normally I don't have a problem going to the dentist, but lately all it seems to be is one pain after another and tons of money... AHHHH the frustrations of visiting the dentist.