What's going on with the Rasmussen's

Well we are a little overdue on an update with what we are up to these days. Addison is now 15 months old. I remember a short time ago bringing her home from the hospital wondering what in the world we are going to do with this little tiny pooping machine. Its amazing how much changes in just 1 year and 3 months. She's walking, talking, winking, roaring, laughing, running, playing, and smiling now. She's burrowed into our hearts in a way I can't even put into words. Honestly, its hard sometimes for me to even enjoy being away from home because I might miss something funny or amusing. I remember the first time she "winked" at us. I put it in quotes because we call it winking but really its blinking. We were at the mall in Coon Rapids and we let her down from the table we were eating at. She wandered over to a table with a couple kids and one of the girls was smiling at her and winked. Addison laughed and blinked at her. It was such a precious little moment that I cherish so much. You can see some videos of our little girl here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/trevorrasmussen

She's getting ready to visit her FOURTH country (not counting the one she lives in) in less than a month and it makes me think what a charmed life she's been able to have so far. I never left the country until I was old enough to vote and she's seen France, Grand Cayman, Britain, and now soon Mexico before she can even go to the bathroom on her own!! I can't help but be thankful for how fortunate we've been with all the traveling we've done in the past year...it won't always be like this so we are enjoying it while it lasts (and while Addison can fly for basically free). God has blessed us amazingly...I can't lie there...we live a charmed life. Sure others have more, do more, its easy to focus on what we DON'T have...but what we DO have is pretty amazing.

Valentines Day is coming up, this year we are keeping it low-key again...following our past traditions. While its a fun day to remember how much we love each other, we try to not get too caught up in the whole thing. I usually buy Meghan a little something and we'll have dinner and then maybe relax by watching a movie together or something. This year, the Roelofs are coming by and we're having pizza (heart shaped of course) and renting a movie. Honestly I look forward to that as much as I do some extravagant dinner. I've learned to really enjoy the little things like that.

Our eBay business has expanded. We are no longer just a place to buy covers for your Wii Remotes. Our focus has moved more into selling clothes, books, movies, collectibles, etc. Anything around the house that we no longer use. Amazon and Craigslist have also been great places for us to unload stuff we no longer need! It started with our garage sale last summer. Our friend Rachel had a TON of nice stuff that just wasn't selling so we made an arrangement to sell it for them for a fee. Its worked out so well and we've both made a lot of money in the process. Then we moved onto our own stuff and even stuff from both of our parents. I actually enjoy it more than the our Wii Remote covers because every item that sells means a little more room in our basement and garage! We are finally getting close to fitting both cars in the garage which has truly been my goal. Once this is done, we hope to use some of this money to finish our basement and add some more value to our house. While eBay takes some time, its proven to be a great venture for us and we are thankful to our God for providing the extra revenue stream!

Update on whats going on in our life

My friend Kristy did a post like this and I thought it was a nice way to get everyone in the loop on whats going on since I don't have any BIG topics to write about. Here's what we've been up to lately:

• Spend Thanksgiving here in MN with Meghan's side of the family. Its always fun to experience Thanksgiving with different people and see what their traditions are. Last time I spent Thanksgiving with Meghan's family we ended up spending the night at Best Buy and buying a new plasma TV. No major expenditures this year.
• We braved the craziness this year and did our Christmas shopping on the afternoon of Black Friday. I was amazed how many of the super special deals were still at Best Buy...certainly a sign of the tough times our fellow Americans are going through! I praise God for our good fortune and for providing me with a great job that meets our needs!
• Meghan took Addison up to Cloquet to meet her grandparents up there for the first time. I wasn't able to come because of work so it was my first night away from my girls since Addison came into our life. It was a little sad after I got home and no one was here.
  
• Our eBay business is ROCKING right now...its hard to even keep up with at times (with a newborn in the house). Christmastime on eBay is WONDERFUL!!
• I am working on our second annual Christmas newpaper newsletter. If you were on the list last year I am sure you'll get another...if you didn't get one in the past I probably missed ya. Let me know!!
• We are spending Christmas in Appleton this year with my side of the family...most of my relatives haven't met Addison yet so it should be a LOT of fun!! We can't wait.
• Everyone should get Skype on their computers if you have family or friends far away...nothing like getting to see your loved ones on video!
  

Well that's all I have for now...keep your eyes open for the Rasmussen Times in the next week or so.

We had a really nice week

I can't put my finger on anything one thing in particular but I feel like this was just a good week for us. We had a showing today at the house...with how infrequent they have been, any time we have a showing it makes us pretty happy (even if it does mean FRANTICALLY cleaning for a few hours). We probably won't hear anything about the showing until Monday but keep it in your prayers...it sure would be nice to move on our own terms, not leaving a house behind in IL. While the people were at the house, our friends the Fredrickson's joined us for lunch where we watched an amazing 9 run inning from the to knock down the cross town rival . It was a moment of sheer joy for us fans. We got back and had a nice afternoon at home...those seem to be SO infrequent these days.

We found a solution to Meghan's issues with missing the ...her department opened up for OT this weekend because things are backed up so she took them up on their offer. The money she earned is going toward MLB Extra Innings. I talked them into an AMAZING deal (even better than my Sunday Ticket deal from last fall) and we ended up with DTV paying for our first month AND getting Superfan thrown in for free! I felt great about that. So now she can watch her whenever she wants and it didn't even really come out of our normal budget...thank you God for providing for us!

Our eBay business (store.auctiva.com/wiiskins) took an unexpected leap for us this week too. Our biggest competitor was suspended by eBay for something shady which left us selling a completely unique product with little to no competition. I also changed my pricing strategy which worked AMAZINGLY!! We've been making a pretty steady income this week from our sales and its been really exciting. The nice thing is it allows us to build up some savings for our little baby...did I mention that we get to find out the sex on FRIDAY!?!?!?! I'd be lying if I said we weren't excited.

Last weekend was a blast too...we had our friends the Bristols and Sheldons in town and spent a wonderful day in Chicago. I think I'll save that for another blog from Meghan or me.