Andy and Kim Yerka

Over the past week, some events have happened that I didn't anticipate. The Saturday before Christmas, one of my best friend's mom passed away unexpectedly. Her funeral was the day before Christmas Eve. Then the night of the funeral, Andy received a call from his mom saying she had Lymphoma. To my dear friends, if you are reading this, can you please keep them in your prayers? Thanks. I know that the support and love from friends through prayer is a powerful network. Anyways, I'm so incredibly grateful for eternal families and for my testimony of the gospel. I hope you have a fantastic day!

I had the BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!!! It was mine and Andy's first Christmas together and it has been so much fun. We were able to spend it at my parent's house in SoJo. We both had to work on Christmas Eve, but we were able to make it in time for a party at my Aunt Chris' house. Every Christmas Eve we get together with them and I love it. Before we went down, I prepped Andy on what our Christmas festivities would be. At my Aunt's house, we would eat good food, exchange our $5 presents, sing Christmas hymns, and a visit from Santa. One of our former bishops in SoJo goes house to house every Christmas Eve and gives everyone candy canes. But he doesn't knock...he comes right in, jingling his bells and saying "Ho, Ho, Ho". It scares my Aunt every time. I love it. This year for our gift exchange, Andy got a gift certificate for In-N-Out...he picked it for me, cuz I LOVE that place and I got hot chocolate and a teapot that has a mechanical mixer. Pretty cool. One of my favorite things is to be surrounded by my amazing family...especially now that my grandparents live in UT. After our family party, we went to my parents' house and watched "Small One". For those of you who haven't seen/heard about it, it's a Disney classic that tells the story about the donkey that carried Mary to Bethlehem. We watch it every Christmas Eve. It was especially fun this year to share my family's traditions with Andy, but also to come up with our own traditions. I can't wait to see what's in store for us this coming year...Come what may and love it, right? Anyways, these are my favorite memories of this Christmas...
1. Going shopping with Andy on Black Friday and spending our Target gift card on presents...we got some AMAZING deals!
2. Putting up our tree and decorating it
3. The Yerka family Christmas party at our house. It was chaotic, but it was so fun to see family
4. Our weekend excursion to Park City
5. Playing Domino's with my family on Christmas Eve til 12:30am.
6. Being surrounded by loved ones and especially being with Andy.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! And we got a new camera for Christmas so hopefully I will be able to put up some pics soon...

After a lot of tinkering with my car...Andy got it to work! It's a Christmas miracle!

So...my car broke down 2 Saturdays ago just outside of "the canyon" (for those of you not familiar with Logan phraseology, the canyon is a mountain pass to get into Logan). Just to refresh your memory, 2 Saturdays ago is when there was a huge snowstorm in the Northern part of UT. My battery light was on for the whole drive from SoJo to Logan and in the canyon, my exterior and dashboard lights stopped working(which is never good in a snowstorm ha). Just outside of the canyon, my car made a loud buzzing sound and I knew I would need to pull over. Good thing I did, because right after that my poor car died. Luckily, Andy didn't have to work that day so he was able to come rescue me. But I felt kinda homeless, freezing in my car, in the middle of a snowstorm, waiting for him to come get me. To make a long story short, a couple days later we were able to bring my car back to our house and that's where it's been for the past week. We thought the problem was the alternator, but we got that tested today and it's running fine apparently. So, my question is...is there anyone familiar with cars that may know a solution? My car is a '94 Ford Taurus. Thanks in advance for your advice!

So...Andy and I don't have a ton of extra money for a real Christmas tree. In the house that we are staying in, we found a fake tree that is like 2-3 feet. Pretty small. But, since it was all we had, we decorated it with tinsel, lights, and "bells" (Andy is from MN and apparently that's what you call the ornaments that I call "balls"). It looked nice and we set it on a table that is secretly a record player so it looked a lot bigger if looking from the outside. Yesterday, we decided it wasn't good enough since our presents couldn't fit under it. So...we went to D.I. and found some treasures! I didn't think there would be trees there since it's almost Christmas, but there were and we found a 6-footer, pre-lit tree for $10!!! And we found a box of "bells" for $2 and they looked brand new! I am so excited about it and I'm kinda nerdy, because I like to brag about the good deals I find. Anyways, we now have a lovely tree and it's made our place so much Christmas-ier. I love it. And now all our presents fit nicely under it. And did I mention I love it? Ha. Maybe after Christmas...when I open my new camera...I'll put up pics of how great it looks....

Andy got the job he wanted! After about a week and a half of interviews and waiting, he got it! He's going to start working at Allstate Insurance on the 21st which means he can quit the job he despises! I'm so happy for him and it's good to see him excited about this new job. Last night he came home from work looking so sad and said, "I need a hug." This made me think he didn't get it, but then the little trickster started jumping up and down screaming, "I got it!" I'm really excited for him and excited to see what will happen with this job.

...for me to put up wedding pics? Hopefully I'll be able to figure this out...
So, Andy and I got married on September 26 in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, which is super close to my parent's house in South Jordan. It was a beautiful day and I feel we were so blessed considering it was the end of September and you never know what to expect with UT weather. We had the reception in my backyard and it was just beautiful. It was the perfect day.


I love this pic with me and 3 of my best friends, Janae, Becky, and Jackie. These girls are amazing!


Next is my parents, Andy and Me, and Andy's parents before our reception.


I just really like this pic of my sisters and cousins.


My family-Andy


Andy's family-me


And this is the last one for now because this post is going to be forever long, but aren't we cute together? ha

So, I work at Old Navy. Black Friday is a NIGHTMARE for people like me who work in retail. Last year I was one of the lucky workers who opened at 4am and I saw exactly how crazy people are. I saw mothers screaming at their children to wait in line and others fighting over an item. Geez, why does this day give people a reason to act this way? Anyways, this year my shift was 11:30 to 7, which I was thought would be fantastic. I thought the crowds would be gone by the time I came in, but no...it was out of control(and we didn't even have good deals this year!). It was so busy I stayed until 1 in the morning only to come back in at 9 the next morning. I ended up working over 20 hours the past 2 days and I am so worn out. Luckily, I have a wonderful husband who rubbed my aching feet and brought me food when I was starving. Even though my Thanksgiving holiday wasn't ideal, I have so much to be grateful for. I hope everyone has had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

So, last night..sometime in the middle of it...I woke up to hear gushing water. I was terrified! I woke Andy up and made him go check it out (which he was thrilled to do by the way ha). It turns out the water softener in a nearby room was freaking out. Luckily in the room where the water softener is, there is also a drain. Apparently, this a natural reaction for old water softeners, but it was new to me. I spent the next probably 1/2 hour(which seemed like forever) freaking out, thinking the house was going to fall apart. On top of that, we've had some leakage problems in the room we sleep in. Sometimes water will seep in from our light fixture. Crazy, right? So, while I was thinking the house was going to fall apart, I also had illusions of the light leaking water, which I also woke Andy up to tell him about. Finally, I was able to fall asleep and now I can laugh about it.

Ok. So remember how I'm not computer savvy? Well...I cannot upload pics on here. How do you do that? Any help would be appreciated.

I did it! I set up a blog! It's kinda funny that so many people have blogs these days. It will take me a bit to figure this out...I'm not very good with technology. For example, I have an ipod, but do I use it? No. Ha. Anyways, this is "the start of something new" and I'm excited to see how it goes!