New Job!

So after six month of a not so steady job I finally have something! Welcome to Simple Cure Massage Therapy. Let me tell you some perks, yah?

-Hourly pay...seems kinda lame but since I was only getting one massage a month basically this will be a nice pay bump.
-Great hours! most days I work 1pm-6pm. cant beat that. and even on my later days I only work until 8pm.
-I'm kind of the unofficial marketer. when I dont have a schedule massage, I'll be hitting up businesses doin chair massage.. you know, gettin the name out there
-I'll only work five days a week. no Sundays....EVER!! this is huge for me!
-I'm pretty sure the owner is mormon.
-the other therapist are kinda of in the same boat as me. same schooling and modality focus
-Drew wont hound me about getting a job anymore!!!

We're pretty stoked. This new job of mine will really help fill up our savings account... which was the biggest reason why drew wanted me to get a job. so maybe....I'll get my wish of a baby this year after all. ha! we'll see how it works out.

I'm workin through it

so lately ive been feelin kind of weird.. not like sick or anything like that. but my emotions have been a little sensitive I guess you can say. I think satan is really just tryin to get at me! that dirty.

I've kind of been comparing my self to others lately. bad idea I know. but just stuff like.. "oh they've only been married this long and are buying a house." or "they're pregnant" stuff like that. you know, people really starting their lives together. and then I feel like I'm missing out. ha! I laugh because I shouldnt feel that way and I'm not missing out. just my situation is different. thats all.

its hard to get settled when we'll be leaving for dental school next year. so it'd be silly to buy a house. and as far as the baby... i still kinda want one. I have for awhile. but I understand drew's concerns, so we're tryin to save a little more so we dont have to choose baby or dental school. we want both. so we're tryin to better prepare. but I still hope its when I was originally planning and getting pregnant this summer.

then ive been starting to feel a little depressed about silly things too. only having one sided friendships (most effort from me), not really having a job, missing out on the previously stated, and feeling like im not even noticed in my ward. silly things right? well I dont let myself get depressed. if I need a little "i feel sorry for myself" moment, I take it and move on. you're only depressed as long as you want to be depressed. or atleast thats how I see it... so i dont let myself be that way for very long.

tryin to stay positive...

some POSITIVE things going on right now:
-drew is starting his last spring semester of under-grad
-we're both healthy
-drew has a rockin job that is keepin us a float without problems
-we have the cutest little dog that keeps me company
-we get spoiled by the binghams (my relatives) every other sunday with dinner
-our pantry is full
-we're stocked with good movies
-we have family in arizona
-monthly packages from my mom
-i can make some bomb oatmeal choc. chip cookies
-theres a temple down the road from our apt
-clint (drew's brother) comes home in six months
-drew has amazing grades which will greatly help getting into dental school
-drew and i love eachother

and other things too. my mind is blanking. but see, there is stuff goin for us. I just gotta keep those negative thoughts away. and you just wait... in like ten years, we'll finally be caught up with everyone else on this whole thing people call life. haha.

A Rasmussen Christmas

so these are a little out of order but it gives you a glimpse of christmas at dave and debs in good 'ole tennessee. i did forget to take a picture of their new plantation style home and didnt get any pictures of us playin games... that something my family really likes to do

two of our attempted family photos

the girls. I actually look like my sisters. i guess there is a first time for everything

Merry Christmas from the Rasmussens. I dont know which picture is better ^

showin off our matching christmas socks

watchin jayden open presents

we each got a square of a painting and we had to recreate it

christmas day with the elders

my favorites: Abi, Jayden, and Keaton

Christmas Preview

so my camera died while I was in Tennessee over christmas break. so here are some of the pictures i did take. I'm still in the process of getting other ones from my momma. so these will just have to do for now.

some of the folks at our christmas eve dinner. deb and leandra look a lil silly..our version of the nativity. its kind of dark but the better lite one no one was lookin.
Shai was a wiseman, keaton a shepard, Abi was mary, Drew was joseph, and Paige the angel.

the grandkids on christmas eve. look at all those darn presents!

my family has a tradition of nerf gun wars with the missionaries on christmas. here are two of the contendors. haha. they were upstairs with my brother and sis-n-law and the elders and my dad were downstairs. it got pretty intense.

Family Pictures

so on thursday we had some family pictures taken in hopes of sending out christmas cards. here are a few of them. We're totally hyped about them. Our friend Scott took them. If you like what you see, which im sure you do... check him out!
www.ssbphoto.com

Ten days 'til...

... I get to see these cutie pies! I'm super excited to see my family. oh yes, meet Abi, Keaton, and little Jayden. They are my brothers kids and super cute dont you agree? Hopefully I can have kids this cute!

stay tuned for future pictures from our holiday adventures!

my new obsession

So last week at church we had a combined 3rd block. In that class they talked of the new Family History search website. And for most of you my age youre probably thinking the same thing right now as I did when I heard it......"Family history..(eye roll)... I'm sure my families is done. And if its not, I wont have access to any information past 4 generation. Theres nothing I can do with it..(eye roll).." or something along those lines. It's like pioneer stories.. you appreciate the pioneers and what they did, you just dont want to hear about it every other second. Well.... LISTEN UP!!!

Family History work is AMAZING!!! And I'm gunna tell you why!

So in the class they kind of gave an over view of what can be done. I was like the above mentioned and figured mine was done. I seriously thought we'd only have info like 4 maybe 5 generations back. But the website looked easy so I atleast wanted to go look. And oh my lanta!! TONS AND TONS!!! I have some records that date back to the 1700s! Drew's goes back even further!

After I looked through and realized there was so much I could do I just turned into a green arrow junkie (green arrows mean work needs to be done). I became so excited when I submitted the information to be done. I'm not kidding. I was skipping around the house!!! I would get so into it.. I'd be up past midnight going through the information still. Drew would tell me to come to bed, and I would say.."I cant yet. they are waiting for me. They've been waiting so long for this"

It truly is amazing. I went to the temple early this week to do some work for some of the names I had submitted and what an experience! I helped seal 7 kids to their parents, 6 couples together, 2 inititories, 1 baptism, and 1 confirmation! I didnt have any super out of the ordinary experiences like some do when they take through family names, but it did just seem to mean more to me even though I had never even heard of the people I did work for. Just knowing they were my family made all the difference.

So, I challenge those of you who have not done so already... check out the new family history site. Even if its just to make sure your 4 generation chart is up to date. But we're the "clean up generation" and we need to make sure our family work has been done. It's blessed my life so much and I've only been doing it for a week! Try it out.

Below is kind of a sample starter. There is tons you can do on the site. If you have any questions let me know. you can email me at nikki.r.solomon@gmail.com

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Let me tell ya how to get started. Well first off the website is new.familysearch.org
The website will have to register. For this you well need you member number (temple recommend holders.. you can find that number on your recommend) and also you confirmation number. They will have you set a user name and password to use each time you log on. Then it should take you to your information. The way I started my family predigree chart was to enter my parents names (if it doesnt come up already with your name)

On the welcome page go to add information. On the next page youre giving different choices.. for now select add family or individual that is connected to my family tree. The bottom portion of the screen will have the person you have selected and all their info. If your marriage was performed in the temple, your spouse should come up. Add parents names and birthdates. My whole ancestor line came up after entering my parents info. But for drews family I did have to add up to 3 generations. But it should all come up.. unless you are the only person in your family that is LDS then you might need to do a little more work.

But from there you should be able to see all of your relatives. There are a few symbols that lets you know the status of their temple work. If the relatives are still living there will be no box in the up right hand corner of their name. If a relative has died and all work as been completed there will be a temple picture with a check mark. If there is a temple with a yellow icon, temple work needs to be done, but someone has the information reserved. If there is a flashing green arrow, the work is available to do.

So select that green arrow and it might have you look over some possible dulpicates. Just look of the info and follow the prompts. Once that is complete (if the work does still need to be done) It will take you to the temple ordiances page. On that page any work you submit will automatically be assigned to you. You can chage it to the temple in the far right colum. Then you print off the page and take it to the temple for the to print the cards.
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