VEGAS...

READY OR NOT HERE WE COME!!!

Check this out...

I just found out about this blog thru my sister-in-law Cassie's blog and I am so happy I did. Right now "its the little things" is having great give aways until midnight tonight to celebrate their 1 year blogging anniversary. She has amazing crafts and ideas for the home and its so creative and inspiring. I cant wait to try a few out. Fair warning if you do check it out, you are going to want to spend some time on it. I had to go back and start from the beginning because I thought it was so great. Enjoy!

Oh Christmas Tree...

Last weekend Jim and I decided to break out the Christmas decorations for the house. There is still more I want to do, but with such a tiny house I don't want it to look too overdone, so for now this is all we have. Last year after buying a real tree and having it die before Christmas we broke down and bought a fake one. The compromise here was that we had to find good scented candles to make it at least smell like Christmas. So we got the tree out of the garage and went to town on rearranging the living room to make it fit. This is our 3rd Christmas in this house and you would think by now we would remember how we set it up the year before. But no, so far we have had a different arrangement every year. But I still like the final outcome. (sorry for the poor quality pics-computer is still broken so had to make due with cell phone pics)

Once we dug out all the stuff I figured I better keep going if I am going to decorate, so while Jim put the ornaments on the tree I did the mantle and everything else.

Jim is so funny, he loves all the decorations and the finished product he just hates doing any of it, except the tree. Last year I did the outside lights myself because he refused; when it was done he actually told me "I think we need more". Needless to say we have no outside lights yet this year :) If it warms up at all I may put some up, we'll see. That's it for now-Here is to celebrating your holidays in warm homes and with the even warmer hearts of your friends and families. Merry Christmas!

Best Husband Award...

My husband, Jim, has to be the best husband in the world. Hands down no competition. For those of you who know him, you know that he hates doctors and I mean with a passion. He will not make a Dr appointment unless he thinks he is physically dying. And to get him to walk into a hospital is like pulling teeth. So its a little funny that Jim actually married me; because for those of you who know me, you know that I tend to be slightly ok majorly accident/illness prone. We are not just talking simple things like a cold or a flu. I always get these crazy things where doctors are completely baffled by what is happening, and it usually takes months of doctors appointments and various ER visits to finally figure things out. I think I hid this fact from him until we were actually married. But in the past few weeks he has started to call me his lemon. As in he got a lemon when he married me. Cute huh, very loving :) But I will let it slide because no matter how much he hates these places he is always sitting by my side waiting patiently for the various tests to be run and the results to come in. I know he hates being there (as we have proven while playing around with the blood pressure machine while waiting) but no matter where he is, what he is doing or how tired he is, he will always come and take care of me and comfort me when I need him the most. Its an amazing feeling to know that someone loves you so much to put their own feelings aside to make sure you are ok. So for that I just wanted to say thank you and that...

Love your little lemon :)

So much to be thankful for...

Being that its that time of year and that I have some time on my hands I thought I would do a post on what I am most thankful for; so here goes:

My amazing husband, Jim. He is the most hard working man that I know as well as the best friend anyone could ask for. I am extremely lucky that he continues to put up with me and does whatever he can to provide for us.

My Family: This is a bunch from my Mom's side out at the lake this past summer. We dont get to see each other nearly enough but its always great when we do.

Also I have Jim's family which I dont have a picture of but am working on getting one. I am blessed to have the best in-laws imaginable. I dont know what I would do without them!

My Siblings: They don't get much better than this. My siblings constantly challenge me but I know no matter what I will always have their love and support.

My Parents: I could not ask for two more loving parents who constantly support and help me whenever I ask for it (and sometimes even when I don't). They are a great example of what a marriage should be .

My Dogs: I may complain about them but they do bring such love, laughter, and chaos into our home. Without them Jim and I would not know what to do with ourselves :)






My Friends: Jim and I are both so blessed to have such a wonderful group of friends. Some we have known since kindergarten and others we are just starting to build lasting friendships with, but either way they all mean the world to us and we would not know what to do without them.

And finally The Cougs: I know its weird to be thankful for the college you attended but I am. Without going to school there I would have missed out on so many great things but most importantly so many great people (most of whom were all pictured above). Also our passion for the wazzu is one of the many things that keeps Jim and I connected, he totally understands what I feel like after an overtime win or a devastating loss which makes things a little easier in our house. I think Jim Walden said it best:I can't define it, I can't tell somebody who isn't a Cougar what it's like. There's something that happens at Washington State; you quietly and subtly become infected... Washington State is a passion. Being a Cougar is a passion."



So those are just some of the things that I am thankful for. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and was able to spend time with both family and friends. I am looking forward to the upcoming holidays and I am sure I will have plenty more to post about in the upcoming weeks! Happy Thanksgiving! Love Jim and Theresa

Meet Magdalene...

Just a quick post to introduce to you the newest member of our family...Meet Magdalene Therese Clausen. Born 9/11/09 to my sister, Sheila and her husband, Louis.

Isn't she gorgeous!?!

Here she is with her mom, her grandma, and her 98 year old GREAT-grandma. Gotta love having a picture with 4 generations.

Here is my grandma inspecting her newest great grandchild. That makes 5 great grandkids for her!
And what kind of Aunt would I be if I did not get her brainwashed early. Here she is sporting her WSU onesie for the Apple Cup:)

Cougar Football Saturdays...

Well I am going to have to go back on my word from my previous post. I cannot do a full recap of everything since August because my computer at home is broken and I cannot upload my pictures . Eventually I will, however thanks to Facebook and blogs I can do some posting of some of my fun football outings in the past few months. If you already follow my friend Megan on either of those I am going to apologize in advance because these will pretty much be duplicates, and if you don't, well you should and you can by clicking here. I am also going to go ahead and apologize now because this is going to take awhile and because these pics are not in order :) This is not all of the games we went to. I am going to break this up into two posts because there are just too many pics for one so check back for post #2.

As you probably know by now Jim and I are obsessed with anything WSU, so clearly we try to go to as many of their sporting events as possible. As it turned out this year, Jim was unable to attend the majority of the football games because of coaching. He did make it to a few, but I was lucky enough to attend most of the games with the Snyder family. Megan and Chris's nephew starts as a true freshman and he was the one of the few redeeming qualities on this years team. The season may not have turned out like we had wanted but we sure had a lot of fun tailgating before and after and making a few trips all in the name of the crimson and gray! Thanks to all the Snyders for welcoming me into your motor home and for all the great memories. PS: Go Travis!!!

For Homecoming this year we decided to go big and rent an RV. It worked out well because Kathy was not going to be bringing hers down that game so we were still able to have a home base for everyone to meet up. Dawn and her Fiance Dave were coming into town for the game as was our friend Landis, who flew in from NYC. Jim, Chris, Megan, Jeremy and I were all going from Spokane so we had quite the crew. We headed out of town around 5:30 am to make sure to get a spot. We were able to toast the morning sunrise on the way down.

Here are us girls enjoying the brisk morning air and getting ready for the game with a few beverages.

This might be the greatest thing we discovered all season...the PAINTSTICK!!! You have to experience it in person to get the full joy of it-but lets just say it does the body good :)
I had to throw this picture in because its such a classic. Especially if you knew how Dave's evening would end.
Jim and I enjoying life at the game


Dawn and Megan were excited to beat the over/under on putting together ladder golf.
Taking a break from ladder golf to pose in front of our rented RV
Landis and Dawn catching up on life during the game

The End (of homecoming weekend)

These next pics are from the Coug game vs Stanford and from the home opener. You can tell which is which by the clothing we have on. The Stanford game we have a few more articles of clothing than we do at the Stanford Game. sorry they are not in any order:

Here is Travis after the game with his Mom, Kathy.

Travis with the portion of the family that made it down to the game. What a great looking family they have!

Travis with his Uncle Chris

Now starting for the Cougs, #89 Travis Long...you will be hearing that name a lot for the next 3 years! Megs and I at the first game of the season!

Megs and I at the Stanford game...not sure whats going on with the awkward prom pose but whatever :)

Chris Travis and Megan after the game

Me, Chris and Jim during the game in our AMAZING SEATS! seriously I don't think they get ANY better than that!

The Snyder kids...we teach 'em early who to root for :)

It does not ANY better than Cougar Football Saturday in Pullman Washington with great friends~thanks for a great football season...cant wait to do it again next year (with a few more wins thrown in the mix)!

Go Cougs!