February

This past week was very busy for me and Andrew. Every evening held a new responsibility and or/meeting and I was in the throes of production week for The Bach Chorale's performance of Haydn's "The Seasons." One of my commitments was attending a Leadership meeting as part of my position working on an archival and history project for Windsor Halls. As part of that I won Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University kit and Andrew and I are so excited! We have been working on a budget system and a plan to get out of debt and are excited to see what we can incorporate from Dave's program. Our goal is to get all of our medical bills, credit cards, etc. paid off so that a year from now we can take a trip to Disneyworld with our friends Kristen and Ross. I will try to keep the blog updated with progress that we have made!

How do you pronounce your last name?

"How do you pronounce your last name?" is a question that Andrew and I get on a regular basis. This is usually followed by us pronouncing it, and then the person who posed the question repeating it back incorrectly. We have heard Gardner (there IS NO "N" in our name!), Gooder, Garhder, and Goider, the last being my favorite [insert sarcasm here.] This week though, an impossibly difficult name came in handy.

I had a very busy Saturday and when I returned home from my various master classes and choir rehearsals, Andrew told me a little story. 

No matter what direction you are coming from, you have to drive down Brady Lane to access our cul-de-sac. The road goes from two lanes to one and the speed limit is 30. One of Andrew's favorite things to do is play with the drivers in the left lane. He will freak them out by leading them to believe that we are going to cut in front of them to merge, until we turn right onto Portsmouth Drive at the last moment. 

Apparently, Andrew was doing this and speeding while passing a police officer. [This is the man I married...] The police officer pulled him over basically right in front of our house. (It was so close that he is sure that the neighbors could see the whole thing unfold.) Apparently, the officer took Andrew's license and registration and was taking a while. He comes back and says something to the effect of "With a last name like that, I'm guessing no one ever pronounces it right." To which Andrew answers, "yes." The officer then replies, "That's tough. No one should have to go through that. I am going to let you go with a warning." Andrew then drove 100 feet into our garage and lived to tell the tale. (He may not have if we had to pay a ticket.)

The moral of the story: DON'T speed and mess with other drivers. Also, the next time someone mispronounces my name I will smile and remember that, at times, it can come in handy. ;)

We need new sheets...

This post is coming a little later than Sunday, but we went to a Superbowl shin-dig at our friend's house so I couldn't post. I wasn't really invested in the game, I just wanted to spend time with my "other-other half" Kristen. 

Today, Andrew and I both had to work later than usual and Moses wasn't able to go out for his "afternoon widdle" at his usual time. I find that he tends to "wallow" in the sheets of our bed (especially if we were lazy and just pulled the sheets over instead of fully making the bed) when we are gone for too long. We think that he wants to be close to our scent, but who really knows. We need the dog whisperer for that. ;) 

Today we came home to the bed torn up and the fitted sheet with a large hole in it. So, we followed the internet trend and snapped a "shame" photo. I think he looks a little too happy for it to be a true "dog shame" picture though. 

Luckily, the sheets were pretty old and we were planning on retiring them soon anyway. 

It has been over a year since I have last posted and I feel like I need to get things going on the blog again. Here is what has happened to us since our last post:

Andrew got a job as an engineer with Caterpillar so we moved to Lafayette, Indiana. 

We bought our first home this summer and Moses (our fur baby) is SO happy to have his own fenced in yard. :)

We love our ward, the Lafayette 3rd Ward, where Andrew and I teach lessons on the 4th Sunday to Elders Quorum and the Relief Society, respectively. Basically that entails me planning the lesson and Andrew stealing my hard work! ;) I am also the Music Director for the ward. Our Christmas program went great and I am putting together the Easter program at the moment. 

I decided that to make myself more marketable (and in case things went horribly wrong at BYU) that I would enroll in ANOTHER MA program. I am currently working toward an MA in History focusing on the cultural aspects of music. This semester will tell whether or not I turn this into working toward a PhD...

I FINALLY finished my degree at BYU. I was awarded my MA in Musicology December 14, 2012. It feels so nice to have it done. Now I just have to finish up at Purdue.

We have met some amazing people and have developed some deep and meaningful friendships. 

As I get more proficient I will be posting pictures and actually adding to the blog. My goal is to update on Sundays, and hopefully not wait years between posts. 

In Limbo

Well, I have submitted my revised thesis to my committee and now it is the waiting game for a week or so to see what they say. Andrew has been offered a temporary job with Merit Medical in SLC and also has interviews with Caterpillar and Ford later this month. I really think he has a great shot at all of them, but for now we are in limbo and can't really make plans too far in advance since we don't know where we will be! On another, more exciting note, I have just started selling Avon. I am really excited about it and I have always been a mark representative so now I am beefing up the business so to speak. In the future, I will be starting a "product of the week" category which will feature one of the products that I have tried and my review of it! I am really excited to wrap up all of our loose ends here in Utah and start out on the next chapter of our lives together. :)

Thesis

I am currently working like a madwoman to get my thesis revised and sent to my committee so that I can actually graduate in August. Andrew has had quite a few interviews and we have two really promising ones. Of course, they are across the country. I am also really bad at figuring out how all this blogging works. How do I get a cute design on my page? How do I add blogs to the list I am following? This newbie blogger needs help! :)

First Post

This blog is going to be all about the Gaarder family. Right now Andrew is done with school and we are looking for a job that uses his degree in Mechanical Engineering. I am just finishing up my thesis and will hopefully be done in August. It is an important transition in our lives and we can't wait to see where we will end up!