Keepin' up with the Jones'

Check out my new photography blog!!

2009-08-07T14:33:00.001-07:00

So I know I haven't written in awhile. But I do have a new blog! Check it out! It is a photography blog for me and my business partner/best friend/sister Nikee! So check out our pictures and let us know what you think! http://wsffphotography.blogspot.com/

One Year

2008-04-21T19:25:00.000-07:00

One year ago today Joshua and I stood infront of family, friends, and God and we were married!! It has been quite the year. I can't say that it has been an easy year because that is far from the truth! However, it has been a good year being together. I know I said this in an earlier post but I will say it again.... The best thing in our lives right now is our marriage! Val explained it to me once how no matter what kind of chaos, stress, or tragedy is going on around you, we should always be able to find peace and comfort in our spouse. Joshua and I are definately able to find peace and comfort in each other. We are able to talk, play, sing, laugh, and cry together. I love that we don't run out of things to talk about. I also love the fact that I can come home sweaty and grubby from my job and he still wants a kiss and a hug. Not many women work construction but he has accepted the fact that it is pretty much in my blood and he doesn't care that I look like a man all day. I appreciate that!!! It is hard enough to be the only woman on a construction site all day.... I'm glad he doesn't care what I do for a living and further more he supports me 100%!!

We have learned a lot this year. Our biggest lesson has been in privacy! We have learned how to cherish our privacy and we have unfortunately learned how much one can be hurt if they open up too much. As of now we are trying to draw some boundaries with certain people in our lives. It's hard!! We are desperately trying to make sure that we are alone as of the end of this year. We are wanting to be in a place of our own whether it is in Denver or somewhere else. We want to move and we want to start a family this fall. We are both so excited.... we are just trying to remember to put God first in all of our endeavors.

So, as I mentioned I am currently working in construction as an electrician. I am on my dad's crew. It feels really good to be a fourth generation electrician! The Hankins' are like freakin' legends with Creative Electric. It is pretty cool. I really enjoy getting to see my dad everyday and of course I enjoy being this active. I hope to lose a pound or two doing this!!

Joshua is still driving for Helena Chemicals. He loves his job. It is kind of a double edged sword because he really loves his job but we really are not liking Denver right now. We want to move so badly, but I feel bad for asking him to leave a job he loves!! I'm kind of hoping that it is just driving that he likes and that he will be able to find another good driving job where ever we go. And then of course we have hopes to open a small family business where ever we go and we are WAY excited for that! Joshua and I are hoping to open up a bakery! Of course he will be doing all the baking as I don't bake and he makes the world's best chocolate chip cookies! All in all, we are doing pretty good. We have things in our near future that we can look forward to and we are still madly in love! It feels great to have one year down and a life time ahead of us!

I have to brag for a moment....

2008-02-14T09:56:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know I haven't written in awhile and that will change. But not right now. Right now I have to brag a little bit... this beautiful young lady was my college roommate and remains a very good friend to this day. She was also in my wedding. Her name is Hannah Whitney and she has the coolest job ever!!! She is a professional skier! That's right! She gets paid to ski her heart out for about three months out of the year! The rest of the time she spends flipping houses with her boyfriend. What a life?!? Anyway, the reason I get to brag today about her is because of two things.... 1) She is doing GREAT at all of her comps! She just took first place in Telluride, CO!!! 2) I KNOW HER!!! I think it is like the coolest thing ever! Anyway, I just found out how well she is doing and I thought I would share it with everyone! If you want to check out more about her crazy world go to www.usfreeskiing.com

Ciao!

Mandie

Blessings

2007-12-23T11:02:00.000-08:00

I'm sure not keeping up with this very well -am I? I guess each time I am just going to wait until I have something really exciting to report. Right now I kind of have two rather exciting things to report....

Joshua and I are moving into an apartment in three weeks! For those of you that know the whole story you know that this is a really exciting thing for us!!! For those of you that don't know the whole story just find comfort in knowing that it is a very long and dramatic story that you are probably better off not knowing!! But what event with me is NOT long and dramatic -right?!? Anyway, we are moving back into a complex that we lived in before we were married. I lived there with Abby and Joshua lived there with Abby's brother Andrew. My dad still lives in the same complex. We are moving into a two bedroom two bath apartment for one year. After our lease term is up we will be in the position to buy. So this time next year we will hopefully be purchasing a home! And then we are going to lock ourselves in and focus on having a family!!!! That's the really fun part -right?!? It may not be as much fun for us as it may be stressful. We have decided on my fertility treatment though so that is a relief. Now we are just waiting to be able to start it. We are pinching pennies right now because we know that all this is going to be expensive! Like having children isn't expensive enough!!! Oh well. We know that God has a plan for us and our children. We know that He is going to decide when we can have His children!! We are excited because these first several months of marriage have been really hard because we have lived with other people and then finding out about my health problems didn't help either. And to all of those that are going to read this and say, "I told you!" Yes, yes, you told us.... and we learned our lesson the hard way!! I just remember early on in Val and Mark's marriage, them going through some hard times. I would ask her, "How's married life?" and her reply would be, "It's the best thing in our lives right now." That is how Joshua and I feel right now.... at least we have each other! So the moving date is January 15th!!! Just in time for Joshy's birthday!! But sshhhhh..... don't say anything to him about that!

The second piece of rather exciting news is that I am currently interviewing for a career at Coors!!! I am so excited about this! I was just a temp at Great West Life and on Thursday morning I was informed that my last day there is this next Friday. I have already tested with Coors and I did really well. On the 3rd of January I am taking a class with them called Action Interviewing and then I start my interviews!! This job will seriously turn things around for Joshua and I, and I am sooooo excited about it! The position that I applied for is the Fermenting Specialist. I know nothing about brewing beer but I am qualified to do the job and I tested really well! If I get the job I will be working four 12 hour shifts and then have four days off. I can see myself being with Coors for a very long time and I am really siked about it!

So I guess that is our update. Of course through the holidays we are super busy with family. Ash was supposed to get home two days ago but of course she is stuck in Boston just like every other year!!! Her chances of getting home today look pretty good though so we are hopeful! I hope where ever this Christmas season finds you this year that you have a wonderful holiday season!! We think of all of you often and are always praying for you! Merry Christmas!! Take care!

Lukasz

2007-10-24T19:32:00.000-07:00

I decided tonight to share a special friend with you guys... His name is Lukasz. (pronounced woo caash in Polish) I have been thinking about Lukasz a lot lately because I truly miss him! I met him in the summer of 2004 when I was in Poland for an internship. Lukasz immediately embraced me and for once in my life I understood the term "Brother in Christ". He is very special to me. I haven't seen him or spoken to him since I left Poland in August of '04. I miss him terribly and a lot has changed since we last saw each other. We are both married. I would have liked to have him at my wedding and I would have liked to have been at his. I know that life goes on and God continues to bless us even when our closest friends are thousands of miles away. Can I just say though, that I am really sick of making such special friends and then losing them?!? I know I have not "lost" Lukasz, but sometimes it really feels like I have. I don't think I will ever go back to Poland. As much as I would love to something is telling me that I have to stop thinking about it. Sometimes I even wonder if I truly belonged there in the first place. When I was there I really felt that God was calling me to it, but I got the impression from a few people that I did not do a good enough job while I was out there. Now I live with that guilt of why being a "real" person is so wrong! How do you be vulnerable and share yourself with others and keep from getting hurt all the time? I would like to know! I get hurt constantly for opening up to people and I believe that is what happened in Poland. I was not hurt by Lukasz... quite the contrary in fact. He was one that made me feel comfortable being there and made me feel like I belonged. Anyway, I just thought that I would share how much I miss my very special friend! And Alice, if you read this, please tell Luky I said hello and I miss him dearly... and Jola too!!! Thanks for listening guys!

Ciao

Catch up

2007-10-22T17:12:00.000-07:00

This post is intended to catch us up on everything since our wedding in April. Joshua and I came home to a lot of changes after our honeymoon. Justin and Dwan (Josh's brother and wife) had bought a house and asked us if we would live in it while they were away in Texas for two years. They are leaving in early November for Justin to go through officer training. He is in the Air National Guard and has gotten a C-130 pilot slot. We agreed to watch the house for them and we moved in with them in July. We moved in then because at that time we didn't know exactly when they would be leaving and we wanted to be settled before we had to help them pack up and leave. All was well for a little while. Then all of us grown-ups started having our differences. We were all newly weds and Justin and Dwan have custody of a 7 & 9 year old so there were 6 total in the house! By the end of August Joshua and I were feeling like our differences were just causing too much stress on everyone. There was a lot of disrespect and resentment flying around so we decided it would be best if we moved out and helped from a distance. Because of how quickly this all happened Joshua and I have ended up in the basement of his grandparents house. We love Ma and Pa to death and we are all getting along sooo well. I don't know why this situation is different, but it is.

Joshua and I have been looking for a house to move into over the last month or so and we have finally found one!! It is in Littleton, which is about 13 miles west from us. We are moving in February and we are going to rent it for a year and then more then likely we will buy it. The people that own it now are so great! They are renting it out right now and when the people move out at the end of January the owners are going in with new carpet and new paint. They have allowed us to choose the paint. They are also replacing the dryer and the refridgerator! We are so excited we can hardly wait, but being with Ma and Pa has really helped us save some money.

Joshua is still working for Helena with my Uncle David. They brought him on full time this year where as previous years he has just been seasonal. I have started a new job at Great-West Life that I love! We got a puppy almost a year ago! His name is Chopper and we will get him a brother or a sister when we move into the house in February.

Other stuff on our plates... I have returned to school in hopes of attaining my K-12 PE teaching license. I just go two nights a week right now and I am doing better then I have ever done before! It is kind of exciting! Joshua and I were going to try for a baby this upcoming Spring, but we are finding that we may have some problems with that. I recently found out that I may not be able to have babies or it may just be really dangerous. We are struggling with this because we both want children so bad!! We will adopt regardless, but it would be nice to be able to have biological children as well. We will see. Right now I am going through lots of blood work and even ultrasounds to see what is up. So please pray for us regarding that because I am not taking it very well and I don't think Joshua really knows how to handle it all! Plus, it seems like everything around me right now is 'baby'. I see pregnant women around constantly and the temporary cubicle that I was in at work had all these pictures of this girl's baby! And she was gone on maternity leave having her second! So I got to sit there and stare at those all day! Thank God I have finally moved desks! Maybe I am just more sensetive to it now. I am probably just noticing it all around me more then normal, but it still hurts! Needless to say Katie and Aaron...we will be coming your way with lots of adoption questions!!!

Anyway, I guess that is it in a nut shell! Hope I didn't bore you all too much! I'll try to keep up with this now and they won't be this long!

We're Here!!!

2007-10-17T12:29:00.000-07:00

Hey hey hey!! So Joshua and I decided to jump on the blogger bandwagon here! We realized how much of our family is on here that we never get to see or talk to so we decided this was a good way to kind of keep track of what was going on with everyone. Hopefully, I will be able to do as good a job of keeping up with this as some of my family! So read up and leave us comments! We would love to hear from all of you!!

Ciao!

Mandie