Downsizing...

Okay, so I mentioned that we are in the midst of downsizing at the Quinby home. So, I thought I would do a quick post about what exactly that entails for us. This has become our New Years Resolution because 2009 was so stressful for us and we needed to take back some control over our lives (or over what we CAN control in our lives).

Step 1: Cars. We traded in our Tacoma (finally!) and actually made money on the deal which was AWESOME! Jeremy and Eric make a great team and basically ran circles around the car salesman...haha! Then, we purchased a '98 Honda Accord for me to drive. It's a nice car and I'm glad to be back in a Honda. The plan is for this car to last three or four years and then I will get some sort of SUV. Finally, we sold our Hyundai privately and again got quite a bit of $ out of what we (and everyone who has ever seen it) described as a piece of junk car. YAY! Now, we no longer have three vehicles, but instead, two reliable ones. :)Here's a picture of the new car. You will notice that it is impossibly close to our freezer. Which leads me to step 2.

Step 2: Clean out the unnecessary junk in our lives. Exhibit A:Our garage is scary. This is what happens when your husband has a construction business and no shop to keep all of his tools in. On Sunday, we plan on re-organizing (yet again) this space. The freezer needs to move so that the car can easily fit in the garage. We also need to go through the tools and extra materials and figure out a better plan for housing everything. Wish us luck cause we're gonna need it!

This cleaning out the junk thing can be seen in nearly every inch of our home. We got a new desk for Christmas, and as a result, my first inside project of the year has been our office. I'm going to be brave and post the most outrageous "before" picture on here simply to provide me with the motivation to finish this task this weekend so that I can post the "after" picture by Sunday night.Oh my word! That's a lot of JUNK! I do have to say that the current state of the office is not nearly as bad, but I'm glad I took a picture at the worst moment so that when it's done, I will be relieved and thankful for my newly organized and CLEAN space!

Alright, so there you have it. The first two steps to our downsizing resolution. I hope to be back Sunday night with some awesome "after" shots. I hope everyone has a fun and/or productive weekend ahead of them!

much needed update

Hey All,

Sorry for the lack of blogging over the last (two?) months. Since I started my second job in November, I have been more than busy! I can't believe Christmas has come and gone already! What a crazy whirlwind this year has been. Even though I was not at all prepared for the holiday (presents were wrapped xmas morning right before they were unwrapped, and while we got a tree, it was never decorated!), we still had a fantastic holiday with all our family.

Christmas Eve (which is also Jeremy's birthday) was crazy busy. I worked that night until 8:30. Jer went to his aunt and uncle's house for his family's celebration and we both met at the Housgard/Hanset house later in the evening.

Christmas day was much more relaxing though! Jeremy surprised me with a Cannon dslr camera and I am really looking forward to learning how to use it along with editing my photos! We spent the morning/early afternoon with my family. Mom made brunch, we opened presents, played around with my new camera's self timer, and watched "Christmas Vacation." Next, we hit up Allison and Ben's house where we celebrated with Jeremy's family. We ate an amazing dinner, visited, and opened presents. I'll include some of the pictures that I took and messed around with on the editing.

Proof of the fun we had with the self-timer:


I can't believe that 2010 is already here! 2009 was a good, but stressful year for the Quinby family.

-We built and moved in to our first house.

-The economy tanked and we lost a significant amount of money that the house was worth between when we started and finished the building process.

-I unsuccessfully searched for a teaching job.

-I continued subbing and took another graduate course on teaching with technology.

-Jeremy decided that he wanted to become a fireman and started volunteering with the Newberg Fire Dept.

-Jer started school to get his EMT Basic (and is half-way through the program...while earning 100% on his final!).

-My friend, Kristina, from PLU moved in and is renting our basement bedroom/bathroom.

-Jer got his construction company off the ground and we have a good friend, Eric, working with him.

-I have taken over the finances...both personal and with the company.

-And finally, we have started taking the steps necessary to down size. (Look for a post about this in the near future!)

We are really looking forward to 2010 and all of the positive changes that are in store! I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!!