2014 Year in Review

Happy New Year to everyone! 2014 was a pretty fantastic year. Kelly and I made a lot of progress on our now six year journey of being debt free. After we pay our December Snowball we are on track to finish paying his school loan in January. We are so close to the end of baby step two it is crazy! Being super thrifty has paid off (literally), we are well ahead of the planned pay off date of April 2015.

As I look back at other highlights of our family's year the top for me was probably our vacation to Utah this year. We had no idea how the boys would handle a 16 hour road trip but they did fantastic. After a busy summer Bear Lake and our friends the Johnsons were just what we needed to recharge!

A personal accomplishment for me was running a sub 2 hour half marathon. I set a goal and I stuck to my training and eating plan. I put in the work and got the result I was after. It was the first time I teared up crossing a race finish line. I hope to recreate all that in 2015 as I have signed up for THREE half marathons. It will be a challenge, but I like challenges!

Daryl had a big milestone in 2014, he started Kindergarten. It was a day I never want to forget. I watched him enter a new school with kids he had never met with no fear. I was biting my lip to hold back the tears as he walked in. I later broke down in the car and at work. I have no idea how my baby boy is now in school.

Alex continues to grow and learn and it is fun to watch his personality come out. He is ornery! Don't let his laugh and grin fool you, he will cause trouble if you let him. His new game is running away from us when we are ready to leave the house, Claudia's or church. He crawls under tables or behind furniture and just laughs and laughs. Still not the best sleeper he makes up for that because he has started singing. To quote Daryl, "He sounds like a Minon when he sings." I still need to catch it on video. It's adorable!

Kelly continues to be the rock of our family. When I get crazy ideas or am really tired he is always there for me and the boys. There was a quote from the TV show Taxi I heard last week that reminded me of him. "Happiness is hard to come by in this life and you've given me more than my share." Thank you for a great year Kelly, I think 2015 will be even better!

The Christmas Card Picture

I realized that I was very early sending out our family Christmas Card picture this year. Alas, I never shared it on the blog. So here is your post Christmas seasons greetings from The Manor!

The text below our picture read, "Merry Christmas from The Meerpohls! PS-If you don't wear your hand knit sweater you don't get to be in the Christmas card picture!"
I thought it was pretty clever! ;-)
I had two favorite reactions to our card.
First, from my friend Brooke who when she got the card did not see Kelly at all! She wondered what was going on that we would take a family picture without him. It was like a where's Waldo card for her, she did finally spot him. :-)
Second, when my oldest nephew was in Topeka I asked him if he got their card. He said in a very cool middle school fashion, "Ya."
Me-"Did you think it was funny?"
Canyon-"Ya, I got the joke, if you don't wear your ugly sweater you don't get to be in the picture."
Me-"No, You do not get it! If you don't wear your HAND KNIT sweater you don't get to be in the picture."
Canyon-"Oh."

For everyone that said "Poor Kelly", he liked the idea. He is a good sport and liked the fact that we could laugh about his dislike for hand knit sweater instead of being mad about it. Who can stay mad at Kelly? :-)
Thank you to Jaime who took the picture for us! It was perfect timing as just days later she had her baby. I love it when things just work out!

Merry Christmas from The Manor!

I hope everyone had a happy and successful Christmas! We sure did! Asa and his family and Mom came in Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day we spent time with the Meerpohls.

Daryl was really into Christmas and Santa this year. A couple of nights before the big day he was very upset because he had a bad dream that he got coal from Santa. So the first thing he said when he woke up Kelly and I was that he didn't get coal!
This was the first year that we put out cookies and milk and we also set out a cookie sheet of flour. That way we could catch Santa and if he came down the chimney he would leave footprints. Glad to report that we caught him!











I think Alex's favorite toy was his box of Duplos and Daryl loved his Easy Bake oven. We have already had cookies and whoopie pies from his oven. He also loved his WWE pjs from The Browns. He put them on right away and wore them all day!

















When I last wrote I was doing pretty good on the knitting front. I just had to make up Carter's vest and Christmas was done. Then I saw a pattern for a stuffed monster that was just too cute not to make. So on Saturday I started another Christmas present. I finished that one at 10 pm on  Christmas Eve, so still better than normal! I will take it!

Visitors!

Last weekend we had a surprise visit from the Browns! The boys were as excited as I was. We haven't seen them since the summer so I had a wonderful time catching up with them. It sounds like they are all doing good in their new school and Canyon is really enjoying basketball. He even made a three pointer in his last game. He was the one rushed to the hospital a few months back and was very sick. I couldn't be more proud of him getting along so well!
This morning I blocked the front and back of the last knit Christmas present. I have five days left to sew it together and knit the arm holes and neck. I need to stay super focused! Not stressed right now as all the other presents have been purchased and Kelly has been wrapping them! Yay!
This week Daryl had his Christmas party at school. He is officially on Christmas break. His last day of school he took a present for his teacher and the three ladies that run the after school program. When I asked him how the gifts were received he said, "I told them not to open them they are for Christmas, but they opened them anyway, no one listens to a little kid."
Life is hard when you are six!
Now for the official count down to Christmas!!

Happy Blogiversary!!

This is the 6th anniversary of Meerpohl Manor! Who knew I would actually keep this up for six years! I'm just the queen of over-sharing! 

 Over Thanksgiving break I finished my Christmas gifts for the office. I used the yarn that I had leftover from other projects and made winter headbands! I love how they turned out and they were well received. This Christmas might be one for the books. I am almost done with everything but the wrapping and the baking. That is made easier by the facts I don't bake and I'll make Kelly wrap the presents. So I'm pretty much done!!

Lastly, tonight while brushing his teeth Daryl lost his other front tooth. We need to get him gigs singing "All I want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth." 

I'm just glad it finally fell out because since he lost the other one while we were playing WWE he had been asking me to just knock the second one out like I did the first one. I wasn't on board with that plan!

PS-Happy Birthday Kelly, you make 38 look good!

PPS-Shout out to Dusty who commented on my first post. I hope you thought this one was funny and that you are feeling better!! 

New Hard Ware and Soft Wear

Our first week of December was filled with dental work and knitting work. I was away for work for a couple of days and while I was gone Daryl got a silver cap on one of his teeth. He doesn't like getting cavities filled at all but he thinks having this silver tooth makes him a pirate. So he is good with it.
He told Kelly when they were leaving the dentist that he thought he could stretch his cheek to the sun! He was still pretty numb at that point.

While I was away from home I took the opportunity to knit some finger less mitts. I spun the yarn, it is Hello Yarn fiber in the Heirloom Tomatoes colorway. I wasn't sure who I was making them for but I think I'm going to keep them. I made the second one a little smaller so it wouldn't be right to give away two mitts that don't match, right?

Lastly, this week we made our November debt snowball payment. After spending our snowball on baseball in October we got back on track in November. Our payment ended up being $200 more than we budgeted. We could seriously have Kelly's loan paid off with our January snowball. I'm starting to get really excited and am questioning every purchase! I forgot my pillow on my work trip and some ladies were heading to Wal-Mart. I asked them if they could pick me up a pillow and then before they left I changed my mind. I slept horrible with a towel for a pillow for two nights but I wasn't going to do it when we still have one last loan to pay! Beware, the gazelle intensity is starting to rear its ugly head. LOL

Getting up in the morning is hard!