Birthday Freebies

This month is a month of Birthday Freebies. Since, it was my birthday three weeks ago, I received many coupons/freebies in the mail to celebrate my birthday all month long.

I received a $10.00 gift certificate to Papa's Pizza! Of course, us Studenny's go for their Taco Pizza. I also treated my husband to his pepperoni and pineapple too. We look forward to our birthday months which there are so many of us, we have at least one birthday every month. We all look forward to the day of receiving these cards in the mail and go indulge on Taco Pizza or whatever other choice pizza (of course, those are the ones that are not Studenny-blood, ahem Andrew/Trent/Terri).

I received a $10.00 gift certificate to Cost Plus World Market. Andrew and I went a couple weeks ago and I did not know what to get. I went to look at clearance, went to look at candy (by the way I am off of sweets), and I came across two mugs. One was giraffe print with a giraffe inside the mug and a zebra mug with a zebra in it. The funny thing is the total came to $9.98 for two....I had to spend the $10 or more....a Lindt Lindor chocolate which came to $.56 for three items.

I received my Birthday Burger from Red Robin. We did not use this burger since we are trying not to spend money on going out to eat unless we have a gift card. I do want to say that I did print it, but didn't want to eat the calories either.

I received a $5.00 gift certificate from DSW Shoes. Andrew and I went yesterday and I found a wallet for 70% and the total came to $5.98. Well with the $5.00 off....only $.98!!!!!! I saved over $30.00 on that wallet.

I believe that is it. What do you get free for your birthday? Can't beat FREE!!!! =)

Made to Crave

Tonight I finished a book called Made to Crave by Lysa Terkeurst. This book is about controlling your cravings by reaching out to God in prayer and allowing Him to work in my life in the area of struggling with food. I have struggled with food and my intake of food. I read a blog that talked about a review of this book and I decided to check out Lysa's blog and also to see how much this book was on Amazon.com. Let me tell you this is the book I needed to read and I will read it much slower this time around. I have enjoyed reading this book and if you struggle with eating in some form, I encourage you to pick up a copy of this book. I received this book Wednesday and finished it by tonight with a day of work in there. I am so thankful that God brought this book into my life, where a godly woman can encourage me through God's own words to persevere and not let food hinder my life.

Encouraging Words

Nothing beats receiving an email from a lifelong friend and the encouraging words she wrote to lift my spirit. I am so thankful that I have this friend whom I have stayed in contact with since college and either it be email, Facebook, this blog, their blog, a handwritten letter, Skype, or what other form of communication, I know that I have a friendship that spans across country and many prayers are being said for Andrew and me. I am so thankful that we can share our passions, our faults, our hearts with each other and know that God continues to guide each of us as we grow in our families as godly women and in our friendship with one another. Who knew "Freshman" year of college, same dorm, same short hallway, same soccer team, we would be linked forever and learn from each other and most importantly be seeking the Lord together to know His will for each of our lives! God is GOOD!

The Other Day

The other day (only 9 days ago) I turned the glorious 27 years old. We didn't do much for my birthday except my mom made a delicious taco salad/taco meal. The day consisted of me waking up to start back up with P90, go to church, come home and take a nap, have a family dinner time with dessert of mangoes and vanilla ice cream. I skipped out on the ice cream, but the mangoes were good. Ahh the life of a 27 year old....so far....life has been okay. Getting the flu a few days after my birthday...not okay.

Blah

I-N-F-L-U-E-N-Z-A

has gotten a hold of Andrew and me. I received this lovely bug on Tuesday morningish until Wednesday morning. The bug got a hold of Andrew Wednesday afternoonish and is still sticking around. This bug has also been passed to other members of the family and has treated us not so kind. =( Hope we are on the mend....

Christmas Letter 2010

The Finch Nest

December 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

Writing to you from rainy, cold, and almost ready to snow Oregon. We are here to share the many events that we have been busy with this past year.

January- Andrew moved up to Oregon and joined Kathleen who was already living and working up here. January was a time where we moved all our stuff into storage officially and we moved in with Kathleen’s parents. Kathleen celebrates turning 26 years old.

February-April- Kathleen had a maternity leave substitute teaching position for her sister Saundra, who works as an English Language Development teacher. Also, celebrated the birth of our second nephew, Alistair at the same time.

April- Andrew graduated with his Master’s of Arts in Biblical Theological Studies (MABTS). Andrew celebrates turning 27 years old.

May- Started P90 together….still working on it.

January/June- Andrew starts work on his second master’s degree. This time he is working towards a Master’s of Theology.

July- We celebrated our second year of marriage. Kathleen celebrated our anniversary for us by taking a two-week intensive course in Linguistics. Her hard work paid off by working in the mornings, driving to Salem for a 3 hour class, drive home to get up to work the next morning, it paid off….she got an A. We actually celebrated our anniversary by seeing Toy Story 3 in 3D, Claim Jumpers for dinner, and buying a Canon point and shoot camera.

August- Kathleen officially quit the Portland Spirit (the dinner boat on the Willamette River) after 7 years of off and on work and after many, many long hours by working here and substitute teaching. We visited Sacramento, California to visit Andrew’s parents and friends that we had not seen in awhile. Kathleen also played in her alumni soccer game at Corban University.

September- Andrew and Kathleen take courses for their master’s degrees. Kathleen starts substitute teaching again.

October- Kathleen receives a phone call to finish out a maternity leave for 6 weeks in a second grade classroom.

November- We celebrated her ending of this substitute teaching stint by attending the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert. We spent Thanksgiving in Elkton, Oregon with Andrew’s parents and grandparents. Andrew spends the following week in Elk Grove to celebrate his mom’s significant birthday.

December- Kathleen will do a 5K run with her best friend Sarah. We are heading to Jacksonville, Oregon (which is Southern Oregon) to attend our best friend Katie’s wedding in which Kathleen is a bridesmaid. We will be spending all of Christmas break with Kathleen’s mom’s side of the family in Phoenix, Arizona. Andrew will celebrate finishing two- 5,000 word papers.

Looking forward to 2011…

Andrew turning 28 and Kathleen turning 27.

Kathleen starts and will finish her last semester of her Master’s Degree in Education.

Andrew will have one more year left of his Master’s Degree in Theology.

Celebrating 3 years of marriage.

There is plenty to be thankful for. We are thankful that we have been able to visit different places, see people, and most of all hang out with both of our families. We are realizing this year that we are in a wonderful place in which we are able to see family and friends and not be too far away from our family in California. God has continued to provide and we continue to trust in Him to lead and direct the path that He has for us. We pray that God will continue to provide a more permanent job for Kathleen, a job for Andrew, and a place for us to live.

Love in Christ,

Andrew and Kathleen Finch

**We have had this letter done for awhile now (ahem...before Thanksgiving), just finally getting around to posting it.***

Adorable

Muscles

Saundra showing her son how to show his muscles in Arizona!

Picture

This picture represents the lifesaver of the Matron of Honor Danae! Danae fixed Katie's hair on the wedding day about 4 hours before the wedding was about to begin. Katie's giving a thumbs up because she loves her hair after Danae fixed it.

Arizona Sunset

Arizona December 2010

The "Original" Studenny Family

Christmas Eve Football Game

Augustine and Papa

Uncle Andrew and Jasmine Marie

Andrew and Kathleen at the Arizona State University Men's and Women's Basketball games.

Guacamole dip.

Sangria drink to go along with the chips, guacamole, and tacos.

Trent, Saundra, Kathleen, and Andrew on the rooftop of the hotel after swimming outdoors with the entire family.

The "original" Studenny family minus one.

Kathleen and Andrew at the Arizona Cardinals vs. Dallas Cowboys football game on Christmas day.

Kathleen's parents with their grandchildren.

Andrew opening a present and receiving NFL tickets for later that night.

Josh, Doug, Kathleen, and Andrew hike the mountain behind their aunt and uncle's house.

Goofy golfing on Jacob's (K's second cousin) 11th birthday.

Andrew and Kathleen mid-course of goofy golfing.

Refreshed....

Katie's wedding has come and gone without a hitch. We had an amazing four days in Katie's hometown of Jacksonville. It is such a quaint town with many features to it such as the Casebeer clan. The wedding turned out gorgeous, beautiful, fun, and lots of yogurt pretzels.

We traveled back early on Sunday morning, to arrive home to get our boarding passes for our flight the next day to Phoenix, Arizona. After we unpacked, repacked, we had to Chevy's for Dave's 30th birthday party. That was a lot of fun to see old friends, make new friends, and plenty of chips and salsa.

Monday morning we drove to my sister's house so she and our nephews (who would be making the trip a few days later) could take us to the airport. After arriving in Oakland (layover) and realizing we were delayed....we embarked upon Chili's. Yes, more chips and salsa and of course Boneless Buffalo Wings. Yumm. Around 8:30pm we finally arrived in Phoenix, with miles to go to first head to my aunt and uncle's house and pick up the granny mobile and head to Surprise, Arizona.

Many events later.....11 days later....we arrived back to Portland, Oregon New Year's Eve. Lots of fun that will be shown in pictures. This past weekend we just laid low in which Kathleen has a minor cold and just resting our bodies for the coming year. Both started our school semesters (Kathleen's last one)!!!!

Now off to make Andrew his dinner after being in class 3+ hours for one seminary class.