Thankful

Oh, how I LOVE Thanksgiving! This year was my first time hosting, and it went just beautifully! My parents are here right now, they drove here from Houston and arrived on Monday night right after work. Yay! This was their first trip here since we got our new house and it's so much fun to have overnight company. I did my first turkey and several other sides, but that's not what I wanted to blog about... some other day I'll relay the events of Thanksgiving day.

I wanted to express how thankful I am for so many blessings in my life. God has truly blessed me with so many wonderful things and people, it's hard to write it all down! But I'll try:

-a sweet husband who I had to travel 1000 miles from home to meet

-amazing in-laws who treat me like their own, especially since my own family is so far away

-this incredible house

-my job (even though this is one of the most difficult and frustrating parts of my life)

-my family spread all over the country in Texas, Georgia, Colorado, and Indiana

-my health

-2 paid-off vehicles

-The Pampered Chef (the best job in the world that lets me forget about all my normal-job woes)

-God, for saving me and never giving up on me even when I whine like a child

-sewing machine

-Curel hand lotion for saving my hands in this dry Indiana winter.

Oh I could go on for days, God has been so faithful!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Give GOD the Glory!!!!

Trying

About 5 months ago, Mike and I started "trying" to get pregnant. Ever since then, babies are everywhere, and I mean everywhere. Every single day I get on facebook and find out that someone else is expecting! It's on TV all the time. Last night I was volunteering at Riley and watching the TV in the patient's room. King of Queens was on, and the couple had decided to start "trying." Then How I Met your Mother came on (really really funny episode), and one of the couples on there decided that they would start "trying." I'm like, "Stop! Enough already! We're 'trying'!" Everywhere we go, there are pregnant ladies (are they MOCKING me??) and so many of my friends are pregnant. I'm truly, genuinely happy for them, as I hope friends would be happy for me if the situation was reversed but....

...honestly I've struggled a lot with jealousy. Mike and I are in seemingly the most perfect time in our lives to start a family. We are debt-free. We have great jobs. We have a house. We are not getting any younger... sounds perfect ,right? This is something that I've desired since I was a little girl. Ah, how little I understand about the will of God. I know that God has this all in His hands and it will happen in His perfect time. I just keep having to tell myself that, month after month of disappointment. On the upside, this has taught me a lot about how my body works, which is so amazing! God thought of everything! I guess it just boils down to being content where I am? Yes, I think so.

Our pastor spoke a few weeks about how we often think we deserve something b/c of our accomplishments.... not always true in God's eyes.

So hopefully soon I will be able to announce a new blessing in our lives right here on this blog! Until then I'll keep praying and "trying."

Happy Halloween from Popeye and Olive Oyl!

What's up with us

Um, excuse me? Where did the summer go? That's right, we're in full FALL mode right now! This house has been so much fun to decorate, even if I'm going for the minimalist-we-just-bought-a-house-so-here's-a-cute-pumpkin-for-decoration-deal-with-it kind of style.

Mike has been working a lot of overtime at work which is nice for our wallets, but I really do miss him not being here immediately after I get off work. Then again he could be working a lot later, so I count my blessings with that.

I have been busy with Pampered Chef, and had a great month in September. I do about 3-4 shows each month which is perfect for my busy life... about $300-$500 extra a month is nice to have! Work has been absolutely crazy for me, pretty much the worst it's ever been. Pretty much when I can't think it can get any worse, oh it does. Makes me so thankful that I have my PC business to give me something positive to think about.

I've also been sewing a lot more recently... here are some of my recent creations:

I sit down to write a blog post and nothing comes to mind though... we have been so busy with a lot of nothing... I clean a lot and like to sew, and Mike likes to watch TV. TV!! That's it!! We have some shows that we enjoy together like NCIS (that's not new but we both like it) and our Thursday night shows The Office and Outsourced, and of course Project Runway (Mike watches it with me sometimes!) On Monday nights we like The Event and Chase. I like Chase the most b/c it takes place in my hometown of Houston, TX.

Gosh we're boring.

OH! We have been going to a "Young Married Couples" class at our church (finally after 3 years of marriage we have a class like this!) and we have made so many wonderful new friends there. It's great! We have new friends to go out with and learn about, and it's so refreshing to have other friends in our same stage of life... especially now that Ryan & Laurel are gone.

And of course we're still loving our small group. We meet about every other Friday night and pray for each other and sometimes discuss the previous week's sermon. There are about 11 children between all the couples, and we have a blast. The kids really enjoy playing with "Mr. Couts" and he enjoys throwing them up in the air and hanging them upside down.

OK so that's all that's going on now.

Why do I have a blog again? :)

Arizona or BUST!

So last Sunday, September 5th, we said goodbye to my sister-in-law and brother-in-law and niece (Mike's brother Ryan, his wife Laurel and their 7 week-old baby Kaylee) as they drove off to begin their new life in Tuba City, Arizona.Laurel just finished her pediatric residency here in Indy. In med school she got a government grant that requires her to work in an "under-served" population to "pay back" the government after completing residency. She'll be working in a clinic on a Navajo reservation. It's pretty remote... the closest Wal-Mart is over an hour away! But she called the other day and said that they have a Sonic Drive-In! Ha!

Anyway, they left last Sunday, and the Sunday before that we hosted a going away party for them. It was the first party we've hosted in the new house and it was a success. We packed probably close to 40 people in our house! Wow! It was so much fun, and Mike's mom did an amazing job planning it and getting all the food together. Here are a few pictures from that day:

Look at all that food!

good friends, good fun

Laurel, Kaylee, and Aunt Dean (Mike's dad's aunt)

Kaylee and Aunt Rachel

And my favorite picture of the day: Mike holding Kaylee in church. He carried her from the parking lot and sat down in church, and she laid on his chest for almost the whole service! She loves her Uncle Mike!

So they packed up their Honda Civic and took a few days to drive out to AZ, stopping every 3 hours to feed the baby. Whew! We will truly miss Ryan & Laurel, for so many years they've been our go-to couple. If we were going somewhere and wanted to invite people, they were usually the first ones we would call. They are such precious people, and I'm jealous of the people in Tuba City! Even though we'll miss them terribly, we are so excited for this journey they've begun and look forward to visiting them!

The Emerson Sisters do INDY!

The 2nd week in August my sisters came to town! Holly came from Corpus on a jet plane and Melissa was kind enough to bring her sweet Jake, as they drove all the way from Savannah, GA! It was our first opportunity to host overnight guests in the new house and it worked out beautifully!

Friday we went to get groceries and cooked up a delicious meal for the men... while they cooked steaks on the grill. :) We ate dinner and had a great time taking pictures and swapping stories... I think we went out for a walk that night too... it all sort of runs together now!

Saturday we slept in (ahhhh...) and spent the afternoon at the Indianapolis Zoo. We felt like kids again as we saw the dolphin show, looked at the fish and other animals, and actually pet the little sharks in the pool! We even paid a dollar to feed a giraffe a slice of sweet potato.

After the zoo we went over to Riley Hospital, and I showed Holly (the Child Life Specialist) around. That night all of us went to the tennis courts and laughed a LOT as we just lobbed the ball over the net. Boys against girls wasn't as advantageous to us as we thought it would be.... after the tennis we came back to the house and opened up birthday presents for Melissa and Holly!

Sunday we went to church and then the Indians game. We happened to go on Souvenir Sunday and all walked away with our very own red Indians cereal bowls! Score! We had nice seats in the shade, which made it even more fun. AND Holly caught a soft baseball that gave her a FREE $5 footlong at a Subway restaurant all the way in Corpus! After the game we went to Ryan & Laurel's to see them and of course sweet baby Kaylee.

All in all, it was an amazing weekend. We had so much fun cooking together and just hanging out and talking. We hadn't seen Jake & Melissa since their wedding last September, and Holly since Christmas! And we had never even spent much time with Jake b/c the first time I met him was the weekend of their wedding when everyone was going in different directions. We all got along so well, and I was especially pleased to see Mike and Jake fitting in so well with us. It bodes well if he plans on spending Christmas with the Emersons too....

I love my sisters very much and hope this can be some sort of annual thing! We'd love to travel to Savannah or even meet up in Charleston, or Corpus on the beach!

Sorry there are no pictures on my computer to upload! However, if you want to look at ones that I took, you can visit my facebook page at www.facebook.com/rachelcouts and check them out!

Falling behind again....

I am finally catching up! Look out!

Rachel's Fab 4 (2010 edition)

I made a list like this last year and thought it was time to make a new one! These are 4 things that have given me joy or less stress, or just made me laugh in the past couple of months.

1. Pandora.com

Oh, Pandora, what would I do without you? After years of doing my job every single day, longing for some stress relief, I finally discovered Pandora about a year ago. If you're not familiar with it, it's like online radio... but you decide what type of music you want to hear. For example, one of my stations is the Steve Tyrell station. On this station I hear Steve Tyrell (obviously) plus a lot of Sinatra, Dean Martin, Michael Buble, Mel Torme, Tony Bennett, etc. I also have stations that play music from GLEE (actual Glee music along with lots of 80s classics), Wicked (more modern Broadway), Thoroughly Modern Millie (old Broadway), Selah (praise & worship) and of course I have a Christmas music station.

Listening to this music puts me in a better mood so that I can go about my day. Thank you, Pandora!!

2. E-mealz.com

I love to eat. I love to cook. I'm a Pampered Chef consultant, for crying out loud! But I still struggle with grocery shopping and not over-spending due to poor planning. This is where e-mealz.com comes in. You pay $15 for 3 mos worth of recipes, grocery shopping lists, and meals plans and it is WONDERFUL. I get online every Thursday to print out the meals for next week and make my grocery list. I usually cook at the most, 4 meals/week b/c I'm often times gone in the evenings for meetings or volunteering. Not all of the recipes are tasty, but for the most part they're good. I have to substitute a lot of times b/c the meals call for dried noodles in a bag (for exampe) which I will never make. I still make a ton of PC recipes and try to mix them in with the e-mealz recipes as well.

I have chosen the option to have "Low-Fat Wal-Mart meals for 2" as my weekly meal plan so I'm not throwing away lots of food. You can choose almost any store in your area, and any type of food like low-fat, low-sodium, vegetarian, etc. I love it! AND if you enter the coupon code "Dave" (Dave Ramsey) then you can get your 3 month subscription for just $12! Thanks, Kim, for recommending it to me!

3. LA Gear Walk & Tone shoes

Remember LA Gear? Remember HOW COOL it was to have a pair of LA Gear shoes and not the Target knock-off? I do. 4th grade, baby. Well for a while I've been wanting some of those toning shoes, with the balance-ball-inspired technology. I found some! Here's the irony... they are LA Gear and they hail from the shelves of Meijer... now LA Gear is the cheap knock-off! Either way, they are great. When I wear them, my legs get tired quicker so I know they're working. I wear them when I do ordinary tasks like housework or shopping. They work, y'all! My shoes look just like these:

4. Brother Label-Maker

Oh how I love thee! Mike bought this for me the week before we moved and I was PUMPED. Then it got packed away in a box and I actually forgot we had it! Since I found it, I have become a labeling maniac! I started with the binders on my bookshelf, and made it to my closet...oooo the possibilities! Can you tell I'm excited? I labeled all of my sewing stuff and my PC things. Plus, since it's almost back-to-school time, folders and binders and those plastic totes with lids are all on sale! Organizing makes me so happy in this house! Finally, everything has a place!

What is part of YOUR Fab 4?

The newest little Couts

Nooooo, not us...

This is our very first niece, born July 15, 2010 at 3:21am. We are so happy to have her in the family, our sweet little Kaylee Marie! Congratulations, Ryan & Laurel!

Dear Small Group,

I LOVE YOU! Thanks for having all these fun babies! Never a dull moment, right?

Pictured: Feiocks, Sanders, Bartels, Shaughnessys, Couts.

Not pictured (we missed you!!): Downeys, Henneys (except you were there via Skype!), Larisons, Heldmans

Recently

YES! We have finally closed on our house (a month ago this week, but whatever) and have been busy making it a home over the past month. We have learned a lot about ourselves and about our marriage in this time (LOL) because of all the home-improvement things we've done (OK just painting and a little decorating) but it is becoming more and more like home all the time.

Every time I walk in the door, I am overwhelmed by how faithful God has been to us, and how WORTH IT it was to stay in that apartment for 3 years.

Moving day was an adventure and we decided that we will NEVER move again. Famous last words, right? Here's a little synopsis of our moving day....
1. We started at Mike's parents' house to load boxes that we had been keeping there for a few months, and put them into the 26-foot Penske truck. We took them to our new house and unloaded them into the garage.
2. The next step was to go to the apartment and load the truck with all our boxes and furniture. When I arrived at the apartment, I noticed that the Penske truck wasn't there, and I just figured it was because Mike had to drive really slow in it. As it turns out, on his way to the apartment, he got it stuck under a 100+year-old railroad bridge. SO that left me to supervise the whole move from then on.
3. GOD IS SO GRACIOUS, let's not forget that! He sent so many people to come help us move, many of whom we didn't even expect. They brought their flatbed trailers, enclosed trailers, pickup trucks, etc and (are you ready for it?) it turns out that we never actually needed the 26-foot truck. With everyone's help, we emptied the entire apartment (minus a few odds and ends) with just those trailers and trucks and LOTS of muscle. Thanks to all who helped out:
Jay
Rick
Tom
Ryan & Laurel
Anne Marie & Jeff
John
Stephen
Mom & Dad
Josh & Patrick
Mike R
Bruce
Ken & Theresa
Rob
The Other Mike R

I'm probably forgetting someone... but there were so many people to help us!

Since we moved in, we have done the following:
-painted the great room Cottonseed (very light yellow)
-painted the kitchen Cracked Wheat (little darker, with a brownish tone)
-painted the hallway, dining room, and living room Informal Ivory (just a tad darker than stark white)
-painted Mike's office Smurf Blue (OK it isn't the name of the color, but that's what I think when I see it)
-painted my office a color I can't remember... but it's almost the same as the great room, a very light yellow.
-painted the guest room Liberty Gray (which looks more like a darker periwinkle)

The whole painting thing was the biggest challenge for us, but we learned a lot along the way. Since purchasing the house and moving in, we have made the typicall 5,774 trips to Lowe's and Home Depot. Oh and BB&B. Yeah, my favorite.

Well, that's pretty much all we've been up to recently. Thanks for reading all the way to the end. I actually don't have pictures of the rooms, but that would be nice for you to see them, huh? You can visit my facebook page at www.facebook.com/rachelcouts for more pictures.

Just give us the keys, already!

So Mike and I are just 4 measley days away from owning our first home! We are beyond excited. Wednesday we had the new home orientation where our builder took us thru the house and taught us how everything works, from all the breaker boxes to the water hoses. It was exciting. It was also the last time we had to critique any part of the house like niks in the drywall, paint drips, etc. Mike has an incredible eye for detail.

Here's our schedule, and it's a crazy one!!!

Friday 6/18 work, pack some more

Saturday, 6/19 work, bridal shower, cooking show (unrelated to moving, so I guess that Mike will shoulder all the work tomorrow!)

Sunday 6/20 PACK PACK PACK

Monday 6/21 work, final packing

Tuesday 6/22 CLOSE ON HOUSE! After closing, we'll go over to the house and tape off everything to start painting

Wednesday 6/23-Friday 6/25 PAINT, PAINT, PAINT!! We are painting all but 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms of this giant house. We will be thankful to have Mike's mom with a brush in her hand.

Friday 6/25 All appliances will be delivered and we're crossing our fingers for the couch and loveseat on that day too... this day will feel like Christmas to me

Saturday 6/26 MOVING DAY!

We are pretty busy, obviously, and I'm looking forward to every bit of it. Mostly because I only have 3.5 hours of work today, 3 hours of work tomorrow, and 8 hours on Monday until we close. Yippy! And I"m taking the rest of next week off. That will feel GREAT.
Here are some more recent pictures. They are of us in the kitchen of our home, and also Mike wanted a picture with Brian, our builder. He did a great job.
Enjoy!

Such wonderful blessings

As I've said before, this has been a year of waiting. Well, a life of waiting, but you get the idea. We are continuing to see progress on our house, pretty much all that's left to do right now is put in the carpet, get the water running (which will be good b/c it seems like every time we go over to look at the house, I have to pee), and do the landscaping.

We close on the house on 6/22, and move in on 6/26. It seems like in the past year or two, the beginning to most sentences is "when we get a house, _______" (fill in the blank). I have been waiting...

waiting to have an organized and more spacious place to live

waiting to have a more fulfilling job

waiting to start a family that I've wanted since I was a little girl

waiting to actually run a clean and efficient home

...you get the picture.

In the past 2 years, especially, I have struggled with an incredible amount of discontent. Now sometimes I'm so perfectly happy and content, and then one thing will send me back into the pit. I've gone thru times when I wouldn't allow myself to read other peoples' blogs because I was jealous of them and what they were doing. It would actually cause my heart to sin. Who knew?

But last June, Mike and I joined a small group through our church, College Park Church. When Mike went to England last year, it hit me that we spend so much time working and sleeping and working that we don't really have a lot of friends who we meet with regularly to share the ups and downs of life. We have friends, but we usually only see them every few weeks, and only take a few minutes to talk and ask how the other is doing.

We have been SO blessed by our small group. We love them so much and always look forward to our meetings. The group consists of 9 couples (18 adults) and 18 children (including 4 Henney babies and 1 Sanders baby who live overseas) so it's a wild and fun bunch. We get together about every other Sunday and talk about the morning's sermon and we also have an opportunity to pray for each other. This is so sweet.

Almost all of the women in our group are stay-at-home moms, and to be honest, I find myself extremely jealous of them at times. They probably think I'm crazy, but being in their state of life, being a wife and a mom, taking care of the home... that's my dream. And they're living it right in front of me. Although, I have discovered that these women have so much knowledge and experience in what I hope to experience myself in the near future, and I look to them as incredible resources and kindred spirits. I know that when the day comes and we start a family, if I have concerns about something, I know that I'll be able to call them and be encouraged. I find myself in conversations at the table about potty-training and breastfeeding, etc and I used to tune it out... but now I listen. There is no baby on the way right now, just to be clear, but it's something that I hope will eventually change. I'm just so blessed to have these women in my life, and know that I'm not the only one who struggles with certain things. Thanks so much for your transparency, ladies!!

AND it's also a nice time to hold and play with precious little ones, and of course see Mike engage with them as well. THAT is downright comical at times.

As I'm sure many of you understand, it's hard to see the blessings in the midst of discontent. Hard to see the big picture... hard to see the forest for the trees, if you will. There are times that I feel (as silly as this sounds) that God has forgotten about me... I pray for a good day at work, and I'm met with more challenges than ever. I find myself in a pile of tears at the end of the day from being exhausted and burned out. The exact opposite of what I prayed for... it is discouraging. But I'm working on looking at the big picture and thank God for the little things in life

like holding off the rain until I get home with my truck full of groceries...

like holding my sweet babies at Riley...

like a fun, swingin' song on my Pandora station...

like giving me a great verse right when I need it...

like having a precious friend write something sweet on my facebook wall...

I'll never understand God and WHY he does things, but I think the idea is that we're not supposed to understand it all. Like Pastor Mark says, "Don't think about the WHY, but the WHO."

Thank you God for such wonderful blessings!

What's going on with us?

Waiting! That's all we seem to do these days! 2010 has been the most boring year ever so far, but in comparison to 2009, I'm totally OK with that! It has allowed Mike and I to spend more time together before the house is completely finished and our weekends are gone.

I'm not one of those bloggers who daily showers her readers with cute anecdotes of what her kids said or pictures of kids or pets or anything.... that's because we are SO busy with a lot of nothing! Pretty much all we do is eat, sleep, and work. Oh and I try to clean. :) We rarely go anywhere or do anything anymore because we're still saving up money for our house.... but these days of boredom will soon be over! Sewing has been my recent "anti-work" and is one of my favorite things to do. Maybe I'll post pictures of some of my products... they can be my "babies."

We close on our house on June 22, and after that it will be full steam ahead! Since this is a brand-new house, we have to get everything to fill it up, and there will be a lot of work in that. I'm excited! Finally a place to call our own! I can finally put everything in it's place! Our apartment has been overtaken by STUFF, so much I can hardly stand it anymore. In our new house I will have my own office, and Mike will have his own office, which will be a nice change. We'll have a yard, so Mike will have to shoulder a little more work around here, which will be nice. The past year or two I've been counting the days, rather than making the days count, which I know isn't a good thing. I'm working on it.

AND on top of getting the house in June, I have a packed Pampered Chef show schedule (praise the Lord)!

AND we will be welcoming our first niece or nephew into the world the first week of July! Ryan & Laurel will have their first child and we are so excited to meet him or her!

AND I have Pampered Chef conference the 2nd week of July in Chicago

AND we're having weekend visitors (Melissa, Jake, Holly) in September and Bethany in October

AND we're hosting Thanksgiving this year, and hopefully my parents will come to see us!

We have a LOT to look forward to, which is nice after all the boredom we've been having!

Since we've been spending more time at home, it has allowed me to pursue things and give more time to things I've wanted to for a long time... my Pampered chef business has been so great this year so far and I'm absolutely loving it.

I am also becoming quite the seamstress, as sewing has become my favorite new thing. I still love to cook more than anything else, but it's more expensive and the things I make aren't always used. I've loved making gifts for all my millions of friends having babies and my new thing is making purses. SO much fun. I love finding blogs online with tutorials, and I can't wait to make curtains and drapes for the new house.

I'm also becoming better at saving money on groceries. I've been a pretty devoted coupon-clipper since we got married, but I've been more serious about it lately, and it's paying off big time. I love www.couponmom.com and even got her book. I joined www.e-mealz.com for the meal planning tips... I always prided myself in being a good meal planner, but this has helped even more. The meals on e-mealz are only OK, and I tweak them a little bit but still save $$. Try these sites!

Mike has spent most of his spare time on the house... going over there every day and taking pictures and talking to the neighbors and workers. He has caught a few mistakes that they've made and mentioned it to the supervisor so our house is gonna be the best! It's cool... our neighbors are so nice, and we are really blessed to live near such helpful and kind people.

OK that's all I got now. I would upload another house picture, but not much on the outside has changed! Later!

Rachel <><

Our house, as of 4/5/10

YIPPY SKIPPY!

Finally

After more than 2 years of living in our apartment, saving as much money as possible (close to my salary), and driving me pretty much out of my ever-loving mind, I am proud to say that we have BOUGHT A HOUSE!!

What? What just happened?

That's right!! We have been saving so much pretty much since we got married so that we could have a home that we really wanted, and wanted to stay in for a long time. Neither one of us were interested in the small "starter home," so we decided to save and go BIG. We have sacrificed date nights, vacations, shopping (seriously- I haven't been shopping in over a year) and many other fun things for a 20% down payment on a house and it looks like it's finally becoming a reality.

Our plan was to save until February, then get a mortgage, realtor, and start looking for a house. Back in August I was out shopping at Metropolis (outdoor mall in Plainfield) and saw this cute little community and decided to pop in. It's a Centex community, building custom homes at a price. A BIG price, mind you. I went in, talked to the salesman, and brought Mike back the next day. The guy spent several hours with us, walking through the various options, what they would cost, etc.... and the total came to WAY more than we expected to pay. We left a little deflated, and tossed the idea of building a house out the window....

... until the first week of January. Mike felt that the Lord was leading him to reopen the discussion about building a house. He looked online and found that because Pulte Homes acquired Centex, then the base price of the homes had dropped $20K! Wow! It's within our reach now! So in a matter of about 8 days we picked out the options again, found the lot, looked at an existing home, and signed the contract! Whew!

The home we will be building is a Sizemore model. You can check it out on the Centex site... we are going to be in The Settlement subdivision in Avon/Plainfield. I say "Avon/Plainfield" because we will have a Plainfield address, but we will be in Avon schools and pay Avon taxes. Silly postmaster. The neighborhood is really quiet, and it's far enough away from all the city lights so that we can see the stars on a clear night. Yay!

So Lord willing, at the end of June, we will be moving out of our apartment into our very own house! I will try to post pictures here and on facebook of the building process, as this will be very exciting for us. I am extremely pumped about this.... we have so much stuffed packed to the walls in this apartment. Partially due to my packrat husband, and also due to the fact that we just don't have enough room for everything. Just to give you an idea, we'll be able to fit pretty much our entire apartment in the basement of our new house. OMG. I have surrendered to the fact that our apartment will never truly be clean until we move out, because there just isn't room to get around. It's bad, people.

AND when we got married, we didn't get anything new (big stuff like furniture, bed, etc) so we'll finally be able to have some nice things!

Below are some pictures of our lot and a home that is similar to what ours will look like. Ours will have the garage on the other side of the house, and be a different color siding, brick and shutters. Enjoy!!

our muddy lot...