Trent & Mandy's Blog

2011-08-20T12:33:00.002-06:00

Wow it has been FOREVER since I last posted. Our lives have been so busy that sometimes it feels like our life is a blur.

Trent has started working a new position at his job. He is now working as a manager at an audio and video install company. This is a huge change for him.

Twiggy is growing up so fast and visiting the vet lots. Just in the last month she has been in 3x. Somedays I think she actually likes going to the vet.

Christmas Spirit

2010-12-14T10:37:00.003-07:00

This Christmas has been one of the hardest for me to find the Christmas Spirit. Last Saturday changed that all. While at a work party for Trent they showed a movie of the work the Wade Family Foundation has done in Haiti. It was so hard to watch all those children and the condition that they have to live in. And to think of all the orphaned kids that they helped bring to safety and new families is amazing. Then came the best part of the whole night. They gave two cars away. One to a lady that has served our country and and just needed a way to help get her to work. The other was a single mom of 4 kids who was in an accident and totaled her van. The crews worked to get it back to mint condition and filled it with toys for her kids. The gratitude you could see in their eyes reminded me of what the season is all about! Stephen Wade said it best when he said, It's a much better feeling to give than receive.

2010 in a nutshell

2010-11-28T16:41:00.007-07:00

Ok so because I have been so bad at updating the blog, (its been almost a year) I am starting fresh!! So big things that have happened in the last year are as follows:

James and Jackie had a cute little boy making us an

Aunt and Uncle again!!

We got a boxer puppy named Twiggy. She is truly an Iwanski.

Trent was laid off from his job at the Verizon store. After a few months he found a new job that he really enjoys.

I finally broke down and bought a new Trailblazer. The Bravada just wasn't cutting it anymore.

We took quite a few trips this summer. We went to Nebraska for Trent's cousins wedding. We then went to Flaming Gorge for a Savage Family Reunion. We spent a week with family boating and rafting down the river. We then took a trip for just the two of us to Lake Powell and stayed on Trent's boss's house boat.

This year for Thanksgiving we spent the day in airports. We traveled to Nebraska to see the final Big 12 Nebraska vs Colorado game. What an amazing experience. Not only was it my first collage football game it was both of our first time in Memorial Stadium. I can't even explain the feeling you get being in a stadium with 83,000+ people all in red!! And while we all froze our butts off it was so worth it to spend that time with family and see the game.

Getting ready for the game

Trent and Shila Tailgating

The front of Memorial Stadium... Its HUGE!!!!!

The saying over the entrance

Our view of the field and stadium.. we were only 10 rows up from the end zone

All the people behind us...

The team right before the game

2009-12-30T21:57:00.002-07:00

Its so true what they say about family.. that they will always be there when you need them most. We love and appreciate all of our family and all that they do for us. We also just want to thank you all for the support that you give us.

2009-12-22T19:35:00.002-07:00

WOO HOOO!! We finally made it into the house. We have now been in the house for almost a week. (we still have only spent 2 nights here though.) What an adventure it was getting here. I'm not sure what is worse at this point.. packing everything up and trying to stay organized or trying to unpack and find a new home for everything. We haven't finished unpacking a single room 100%. We have 3 rooms that are about 90% done. I have to hope that maybe January brings the time to finish at least one room!!

2009-12-09T18:25:00.002-07:00

Wow.. Had we known that buying a house was going to be this bad I'm not sure we would have gone on this venture. They have now said that we cant close this week because there have been problems with the loan. So now they are saying next Monday. This means if we close monday we will be moving on Mon-Thur nights after work and leaving Friday to go see the parents for two days. Im just ready to be done and not deal with this stress anymore. I feel like I'm going to have a major breakdown!!!

2009-12-06T13:02:00.002-07:00

Well its been a while since we have posted any updates. Most of what we have been doing during the last few weeks is working endless on the house. We started with a deep cleaning. We had my sister Bre come over and help scrub walls, cabinets and anything else we asked of her.. what a great help she was.. I will be forever grateful for the help she gave. We also had our friends Aaron and Ambree come over and help one Saturday. Again I don't know how we can ever thank them enough for the help. Over Thanksgiving we got a lot of help from my parents, Grandparents and little brother. They brought down our new stove, microwave and mini fridge. They also helped get the floor ready for carpeting while fixing the hot water heater and dishwasher. It was so great to receive their help and just to see them again. We don't get to visit as much as we would like. We also had a great Thanksgiving. It was so cool to have 3 generations cooking one Thanksgiving meal.

Over all I feel that buying a house has been the most trying experience for me and Trent. There has been a lot of emotion (mostly on my part). But for every dark tunnel there is a light at the end. It is finally looking like we will actually be closing on the house within the next week. We did everything the appraiser told us we needed to fix.We painted outside and had carpet installed upstairs (which looks fabulous), we replaced the stove, microwave and fridge and fixed the dishwasher and hot water heater.

I am just so ready to finally move, this whole living out of boxes is just not working anymore. While we have packed a lot of our apartment somedays it feels like we haven't even began to pack. But Hopefully once we pull the pictures off the wall it will kick in that we actually get to move into a place that we can call our own.

The only downfall to moving so close to Christmas means that I probably will not be pulling out any christmas decorations this year. This just means I get to go overboard next year:)

House Update

2009-10-08T15:53:00.003-06:00

Ok I know that its been awhile so here is an update on the house. There were some problems with the house. We have been waiting to see what the bank is going to do. As of right now they are getting a second estimate on how much it will take to fix the problem. Apparently they don't really want to spend an extra $10k to fix it. We keep praying that everything works out for us though.. we are so in love with the house.

2009-09-23T21:01:00.004-06:00

Ok so for those of you who don't know our offer got accepted on the house. If everything goes well we should close on the house Oct 23rd. We are so excited to finally have a place to call our own. It will be nice to know that we will have space to grow and I can finally be in a place that doesn't have white walls.. Im convinced that people at the loony bin stay loony because its all white walls! Well enough about being crazy.. the house has 5 bedroom (one will become the office), 2 bathrooms, a living room upstairs , family room downstairs (aka Trent's Man Cave) and a nice big kitchen (the room I am most excited about). Below is pictures of the house. There are some things that will need some fixing like the carpet being replaced and rooms being repainted but over all it will be a fun project that is all ours!

Front of House

Backyard

The "Man Cave"

Living Room
Kitchen

Master Bedroom

Spare Bedroom

Laundry Room

2009-08-02T19:59:00.006-06:00

I thought that I should post some pictures of our last trip up north. It was so good to have everyone together again!!

This is the day after we got there. Had to have a good pic with the little man

Trent, Shila and I at the zoo

This was right as we got to the zoo. Brenden looks a little worried..

but he warmed up right after he saw the monkeys

Trent was really good at showing him were to look for the elk

After the zoo we went to the park.. every kid loves the swings

He got up bright and early one morning to take Uncle Trent outside to see the rock.....

soon after he went right back to bed!

Later that day we practiced our wave... he really has the hang of it.

2009-08-02T14:14:00.002-06:00

So for those of you who don't know we put an offer in on a house the beginning of July and here we are a still waiting to here something back. They keep telling us "one more week", I'm beginning to wonder if we will ever hear anything back!! We looked have been looking at other houses just in case we don't get this one but nothing compares to the space and huge yard. We are still holding out faith that everything will work out and we will have a house before our lease is up the end of this month.