Merry Christmas/Happy New Year.. ;-)

Well.. First I can start off by saying Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, hope this new year is going well for all of you.

The last few weeks has been pretty busy for us. First it was Christmas, we spent Christmas Eve at my Aunt and Uncles house, then Christmas morning we spent by ourselves opening up our presents to each other and just enjoying our First Christmas together, later that day we went back to my Aunt and Unlces house and spent Christmas with them. We had a great time and am glad to have family here away from “home”. A few days after Christmas we flew back to Wisconsin and spent some time with family, didn’t see much friends, but it was a busy time and hard to see everyone when time goes fast. We had Christmas with Gil’s Family, spent some time with them, some time with my family. Not only did we have our first Christmas together, but we also celebrated our first wedding Anniversary together on New Years Eve. I got a new Camera Lens for my Canon Camera that has been broken for a year (long story short) and am so excited about it just need to learn how to use it and my camera all over again. I plan on getting Gil and watch for his Anniversary gift we just don’t have the money for it right now, so as soon as we can he will get it. The morning started off a little slow with me trying to get ready then picking up Gil from his Brother’s house. We went to Olive Garden for a late lunch early dinner and just enjoyed each other’s company. After that we decided there wasn’t any movies playing unless we wanted to wait, but we decided to go back to my Mom’s and just chill, we took a short nap and then met up with my Mom, Frank, and Hallie at a friends house. Then we came back home and to cut our anniversary cake that our cake lady made a fresh one for us, and we watched the ball drop on tv, someday I might wanna go there just to say that I went there it might be fun besides all the crowds that would be there.. That was our day in a nutshell, it was all in all a good day and Anniversary. I am so blessed to have Gil in my life, and to be sharing this journey with him it's just amazing. Couldn't ask for a better Husband God knew excatlly what I needed and we are growing not only together, but with God as well.

We are trying a few new things this year, we wanna get back into the Dave Ramsey class we took last year to help us budget our money and help us save a little. And we are doing the Biggest Loser on the Kinect every day the past few days and doing a workout every morning, hope to get us in shape and me to lose some weight this next year. We need to start eating a little healthier and whatnot too. We are excited to see what God has in store for us this year, since God has blessed us so much last year. . IT’s gonna be a busy year, with planning my sister’s bridal shower, and her wedding in June, We are hoping for Gil to start some schooling this year. Then who knows what else is in store for us, we will have to move to a different apartment in July, cuz our lease is up the end of july we need a bigger place I know it’s just the 2 of us, but we have a small one bedroom apartment and it’s hard to keep things cleaned and put away cuz we have so much stuff and more in the garage we can’t put in our apartment.

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog. Hope you are enjoying it as much as I am getting into writing about our lives together. I’m not a good writer so hopefully it all makes sense.. ;-) Here is a few pictures of our Christmas together..

Christmas Card and Letter

Gil and I are celebrating our First Christmas together and we made our First Christmas Card we sent them out last week Friday. I'm sure there is are few people that we missed, so we wanted to post it on our blog so everyone can see it. We are sorry if you didn't get one, but we hope that you will check it out on our blog. I couldn't figure out how to upload it onto the blog, so I just had to take a picture of it and upload it that way, so hope you can see it and read it ok.. We hope that you all have a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!


It's kinda hard to read, but it says: Warmest thoughts and best wishes for a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year filled with joy and Happiness.


Also I posted a Picture of our Christmas letter that Gil wrote cuz it wouldn't let me upload it. incase you can't read it, it says:

~Merry Christmas~

WOW!!! What a year huh? Where do I even begin? Well, I could start with our wedding or maybe the fact I’ve worked in 3 different states this year. Or maybe the six 1,600 mile plus road trips it took to make Fort Collins Colorado our new home. All these things are great and have helped define this year so far. But there is something else I’d rather start this letter with and that is thankfulness. Thankfulness for all the family and friends who helped make everything else possible. Thankfulness for the Love and support that has been lavished upon us this year. I cannot even begin to imagine what this year would have looked like without all our family and friends having our backs. I didn’t want this letter to be about personal accomplishments or even how far Melanie and I have come this last year. I want it to be about everyone out there who has given of themselves out of love.
There isn’t much left in our society that speaks love during Christmas, so let us do it. Let us be the hand that holds. Let us be the voice that calms. Let us be the shoulder to cry on. Let us love.

From our hearts to yours with much Love,
Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!!
Gilman & Melanie Anthony



Love Gil and Melanie

Coming back to Wisconsin/ Anniversary Ideas

Well People it’s official we just bought our tickets to come back to Wisconsin last night. We will be back to Wisconsin Dec. 28-Jan 5. We are so excited to be back and see family and friends.. It’s gonna be different not being home for any of the Holidays, but we will be ok celebrating together. Thanks Giving day we are going over to my other family (friends I’ve known FOREVER that live here in Colorado)house for lunch then probably come home after so I can get some rest since I have to work 11:30pm Thanks Giving night until 9:30Am the next morning. Should be interesting. On Friday Gil and I are gonna be putting up our Christmas stuff, I’m so excited, also I think on Friday we are gonna try to make a small little Thanksgiving dinner just the two of us, unless my Sister and Luke wanna come over and eat with us, I invited them so we will see.

Things are going well with us, Gil is still enjoying his job and the short drive to work and back home. My job is going well too, learning my job pretty quick and enjoying it so much more then fast food. I have been working by myself in the intimates, purses, and accessories area, can get a little boring working by yourself, but it’s nice at the same time. We are both staying busy with both of our jobs, I don’t work as much as he does, so he works harder than I do. We are both so very thankful for all the Blessing God has given to us over this past almost 1 Year of being married.. Crazy to think it’s already been this long sometimes it seems like forever. ;-)

So with our 1 year anniversary coming up I’ve been doing some thinking about it and our anniversary and what to do for gifts. I was talking to Gil and asked him if he would be interested in doing the Traditional Gifts I told him I think it would be fun. I asked my Sister and her future Husband if they would like to do it and I think they said No. Luke told me that not only do they have a Traditional one, but there is a Modern list as well, so my Sister looked up both of them and we read through it. Here is the list for the Traditional one.

Wedding Anniversary Gifts by Year

First: Paper Second: Cotton Third: Leather Fourth: Fruit or Flowers Fifth: Wood Sixth: Candy or Iron Seventh: Wool or Copper Eighth: bronze/pottery Ninth: Pottery/willow Tenth: aluminum/Tin Eleventh: Steel Twelfth: Silk or Linen Thirteenth: Lace Fourteenth: Ivory Fifteenth: Crystal Twentieth: China Twenty-Fifth: Silver Thirtieth: Pearls Thirty-Fifth: Coral Fortieth: Ruby Forty-Fifth: Sapphire Fiftieth: Gold Fifty-Fifth: Emerald Sixtieth: Diamond

This is the Modern list:

First-Clock Second-China Third- crystal/glass Fourth- linen/silk, Appliances Fifth- silverware Sixth- wood Seventh- desk set Eighth: lace/linen Ninth: leather Tenth: diamond jewelry Eleventh: fashion jewelry Twelfth: color gems/pearls Thirteen: furs/textiles Fourteenth: gold jewelry Fifteenth: Watches Sixteen: Silver Seventeen: Porcelain Eighteenth: Furniture/porcelain Nineteenth: Bronze Twentieth: Platinum Twenty-first: bronze/nickel Twenty-Second: Copper Twenty-Third: silver plate Twenty Fourth: musical instruments Twenty-Fifth: Silver Thirtieth: diamond jewelry Thirty-Fifth: Jade Fortieth: Ruby Forty-Fifth: Sapphire Fiftieth: Gold Fifty-Fifth: emerald Sixtieth: diamond Seventy: platinum Seventy-Fifth: diamond

What do you think? Do you think you would do this if you could go back and start all over for those who are already married, would you think this would be fun to do or not? Which one would you do the Traditional or Modern or mix both into the mixture?

wedding2010

Click here to view this photo book larger

Click here to create your own Shutterfly photo book.

Back Again...

So I know I didn't do a good job at updating this during the wedding process, I guess I just didn't want to give out too much information on what we were doing for the wedding, so people could be surprised about it.. Now that it's been almost a year, I guess I am going to try this blogging thing again, see how well it works.. I will post some pictures up from the wedding later, but for now it's time to update everyone on what's been going on over these past months..
Well for starters I can't believe that it's almost a year already, times gone by so quick.. We’ve accomplished a lot over the past 10 months.. We moved to Fort Collins Colorado in August, Gil was able to transfer his job in Wisconsin to Cheyenne Wyoming, which was about an hour drive one way, so he was commuting 2 hours each day for a total of 10 hours of driving in a week, crazy I know, but it was helping us with money besides the crazy amount spent on gas filling up about 2 times a week. Well after praying and applications put it, Gil was able to score a job at a blood donation center that is 10 mins away, we were excited with winter coming and the long commute, it was definitely a answer to prayers, and he will be getting paid a few dollars more which will be nice. Gil started his job last week with orientation and training it was a long week for him..

I was able to work at a McDonalds that is right across the street from us, so I would walk everyday to work and home it was nice.. It was a hard transition into it, didn't feel like I belonged there and was in the way most of the time and people didn't like me.. Not only did he get a new job, but I was called about a job at Kohls, so we both got a new job which was really nice, God has opened up so many doors for us being here. I haven't started my job yet, just was able to get to orientation, and hopefully start the first week in Nov. we will see..
During Gil's training he was over at the hospital and was getting a tour of it, and they were at a certain part of the tour and he saw some lady playing a Harp to some guy in a wheelchair, he later found that it was the Music Therapy clinic, he had lunch with one of his managers and was talking to her about how he is interested in it and whatnot, and she told him that once he gets settled in, she might be able to pull some stings and get him to job shadow, so he has excited about that, and if somehow he's interested in the job at the hospital they might be able to help pay for his schooling, so that will be nice..

We finally got our Cars registered to Colorado license plates yesterday and got our Colorado divers license, just gotta wait for them to come in the mail, weird I know. So I guess we are officially Colorado residents, well sorta, I think we have to wait a year, before it comes official..

With my Job at Kohls, we are ,unfortunately, unable to come home for Thanksgiving or Christmas, which stinks, because we were going to meet up with my Dad for Thanksgiving in Utah, and go home for Christmas. But Kohls have from the Middle of Nov- Jan all blocked off, so they won’t let anyone take off, cuz it’s there busiest time of the year, which is understandable I guess.. ;-) So we will be here celebrating together. She did tell me that I might be able to get off a day or two, so I’m gonna see if we can’t go home for a weekend in December, we will see what happens, But like I was telling my Mom obviously God has a reason for me getting this job and us not being able to come home, so it’s all in God’s hands whatever happens. If we can ‘t come home in December we will for sure do it in January sometime, and do Christmas with both of our families.

Well thanks for taking the time to read about our new life here in Colorado, keep us in your prayers as we are trying to follow Gods plan for our lives. I will try to keep updating this blog as much as possible..

With Much Love,

Gilman and Melanie Anthony

Bridal Shower

Here is just a few photos of the Shower, the rest are on my Facebook page if you haven't seen them already..
















I FINALLY got all the Thank You’s done for my Bridal Shower that was Nov. 13th be on the lookout for them this week.. Thanks to all that came and supported me.. I hope you all had a great time I know I did, you all made it special.. Also that’s to My Bridesmaids, Maid/Matron of Honor and My Mom’s friend Lori. You all did a GREAT job putting it together and I enjoyed every bit of it.. Those of you that didn’t come just know that you were missed, I will upload some pictures and share what we did..

I WON Again!! HA

Well.. Can you believe it I did it again, I won!! Cuz I can’t believe it.. Here’s the story I was at work the other day and after work I noticed I had a missed call from some random number and they left me a message, so I listened to the message and she told me that I won some Bridal Package, by this time I’m thinking this is stupid I won twice and I never win anything in my life, so I went to my car and listened to the message again and decided to call her back.. so she starts talking to me then asked if I had a paper and pen to write things down, so I looked in my purse and grabbed a receipt that I had in there and wrote it all down..
She told me that in this Bridal package I won

Hotel 3 days 3 nights All Inclusive Resort to either the Bahamas, Mexico, or the Dominican Republic, which includes meals, Drinks, entertainment, and some sort of water sports. She said there is no time share required, doesn’t include airfare, and has no expiration date..

Next thing I won was 2 wedding bands (all you have to pay for is shipping) at some website JVLjewerly.com. I look online at the website and they aren’t that exciting. Ha.. we already ordered our rings anyway.. But yeah..

Gift certificate for 2 pro knives

Coupon card- to get coupons for a year (I think) for your everyday stuff
And last but not least 2 entries to win a Harley Davidson..

Then she tells me that I have to go to the Fairfield Inn in schofield at 7:30 Friday and listen to them talk about what my impression was just knives.. She asked if I wanted my name to be put down.. I was like I’m not sure we’re gonna be able to cuz didn’t think Gil would be off work by then, so I asked if I could call her back she said yeah..

So by this time I’m like is this real, sounds kinda fishy to me.. so I think about it on the way home.. I then called Gil left him a message told him I won a Bridal Package and to call me back on his break.., get home tell my mom she thought we should go check it out, so he did and I told him and we talked about it I was like we might as well go we aren’t doing anything else.. so I called the lady back told her we’d go, she told me she was gonna send me a e-mail about it..

So yesterday I meet Gil at his work and we left from there, I typed in the address in my sister’s GPS luckily it was in my car, cuz I forgot to print it off before I left.. I type in the address and we are on our way, so we take this exit and it starts leading us I don’t even know where I was getting kinda scared. Ha.. the GPS is telling us to turn left and right and whatnot some where I’ve never been, we started going by all these houses, I was thinking why would there be a hotel by a bunch of houses, finally the GPS tells us to turn left to destination.. sure enough it was at someone’s house.. I was like this isn’t right what the heck did I type in the wrong address.. so we looked at it and I typed in wausau and not Schofield.. apparently Wausau and Schofield have the same address .. weird.. Ha.. so I was like what the heck how did I manage to do that.. I felt like a dork.. we turned around and we basically drove 20 mins out of the way.. Ha. Hum.. so we got there and there was like 20-30 couples there.. this guy is telling us all this stuff we won, and he was telling us about the cookware he sales, made some chicken, and potatoes, and carrots and broccoli, then he told us about the knives, dinnerware and bunch of stuff for about an hourish.. Then he tells us the deals he’s given us for the night.. They were expensive, but apparently good sutff. I looked at Gil and I was like you wanna buy it don’t you.. Ha.. he’s like yeah maybe if we had money..

But yeah that’s the story about my second winning.. Ha.. We got all our stuff for the things we won, but gotta send it in to to receive it when we want it..