Merry Christmas (Eve)

Andrew and I spent Christmas Eve at my parent's house. It was really fun to be with my brothers and sisters, including Kelli and her kids. We only had the three oldest (Rosie, Matthew, and Andrew) for about an hour before they went to their dad's house so we had to be quick!

Andrew and I got there about an hour before Kelli and her children arrived so we all headed downstairs to tryout Patrick's new Dance Dance Revolution pads. Now that there are four pads, four of us can play at a time. The only problem is that our TV is really old so only two sets of arrows show up when there should be four. Oh well. It was really fun anyway.

Patrick and Andrew battle it out on DDR

When Kelli's kids arrived, we decided to take a family picture of them while they were all in their nice new Christmas clothes. The twins were dressed up in these ridiculously flouncy dresses. They are already wearing clothes sized for 18 months so we figured if they were walking they might not be considered ridiculously flouncy but since they are only crawling...they were simply infuriating the twins. By the time we got around to taking the family photo Matthew had already changed out of his Sunday clothes.

David & Sabrina, Mom & Olivia

The Boel Family

Kelli and Rosie
David and Olivia
Josie and Olivia

After getting a few decent pictures, we decided we should open presents with Rosie, Matthew, and Andrew before their dad came to pick them up.

Rosie excited to get her presents

Some fast moving boys!

Sabrina inspects her present

We also opened presents from them. Patrick was super excited about his new Vancouver, BC shirt, while David busied himself passing out presents.

Patrick modeling his new shirt

David passing out presents

Josie also opened up her present from Andrew and I. We gave her a CD holder, which she wasn't too excited about except that we had wrapped a CD and taped it to the front of the CD holder as a card. That saved her Christmas. She had a list on Amazon.com of all these CDs and DVDs that she wanted and although she got most of them, they were all wrapped in disguise so that she couldn't tell that they were CDs and DVDs. When she saw our present she was like, "Christmas won't be so bad after all."

Dad woke up from his Christmas Eve nap shortly before the boys and Rose left. I'm surprised he slept through all the noise we made.

Dad and Sabrina

While Matthew was holding Sabrina, she peed through her diaper and dress and tights and onto his foot. He was not too happy about it, but the twins were. They got put into some much more sensible outfits!

Me and the twins in their Christmas outfits

The rest of the evening was spent trying to get the twins to fall asleep so that we could have some more grown-up fun. Did I say twins? I meant Sabrina. It was really just Sabrina who wouldn't fall asleep. Olivia didn't last past 6:00--she had too much fun by dinner time.

Olivia in her high chair, sleeping

Sabrina was a little more difficult. We put her in the walker to tire her out, but to no avail.

Sabrina in the walker

Josie blew bubbles with her--not a yawn.

Josie blowing bubbles for Sabrina

We gave her a bottle but she refused to lay down. Instead she crawled all around the house, drinking away.

Crawling with her bottle

We cuddled and coddled her but she didn't even doze off.

Kelli and Sabrina

Finally we put her and the playpen in a dark room and let her cry herself to sleep. Just when she settled in for the night, guess who woke up? Olivia.

It was okay though becuase she was happy enough to be held for a few minutes before she fell asleep and could be laid down again. We then told funny stories about each other until late into the evening.

When Josie was getting a little too cooky...

Orange you glad she's not really a pirate?

...Andrew and I decided to head home and get ready for Santa to come.

Merry Christmas!

Robby at work

That is what Robby does. You just turn him on, put him in a room, close the door (if there is one) and he does his thing. When he's all finished cleaning he puts himself back on his charger.

The goose is getting fat

Today Andrew and I actually got the time to relax that we were looking for. I took the time to make another stocking. Andrew used Robbie to clean our floors. We ran some errands, delivered some Christmas goodies, and overall had a very relaxing day.

Here is Andrew in his brilliant outfit. The red stocking is mine (the one that I made today) and the green one is Andrew's (the one that I made on Thanksgiving). If you're wondering what he's doing, he's pointing to the date on the advent calendar.


And here they are hanging on our fireplace. Oh, wait...that's right. We don't have a fireplace so we hung them on our wall. I don't know how Santa is going to get into our house this year, not having a fireplace and all!


And our poor, poor lights that Andrew finally fixed today...The poor things. We had put them up with electrical tape when we first did them and everyday when we came home we would take turns putting them back up. They just didn't want to stick to the window. This week has been so crazy! We didn't ever fix them so this morning when I looked at them they were completely fallen down.

Patrick and Mom came over to pick up some presents they were hiding at our house and Patrick said, "Why don't you just use a glue gun?" Brilliant! It didn't melt the wires and sticks to the glass but comes right off if you stick your fingernail under it and jab a little. No sticky residue and it holds up a lot better.



And since our star flashes (we did a lot of work to figure out where to put those bulbs to make part of the string flash and part of it not), we took a video of it, too!

Toilet paper

Christmas is certainly coming, that's for sure. Finals are finally over and we have the whole weekend to relish the holidays.

I actually worked pretty hard and got all my hours in at work on Thursday so that Andrew and I could spend Friday together. He had been working such awful hours that we hardly saw each other this past week. Who works from 7 am to 2 pm, then 5 pm to 2 am, and then 7 am to 2 pm again? That is not a cool schedule.

However, Andrew had Arabic exams to grade, so that kind of took up our morning...well, it kind of took up his morning. I slept in, read a book, and basically just lazed around until he got home. Oh, and did the laundry and cleaned the kitchen and bathroom, too. And made lunch.

As I'm sitting down to eat lunch without him--because I'm starving, Emily calls and frantically asks, "Where's Andrew?" "He's on his way home. Why?" "Because mom's at the Emergency Room and he's not answering his phone." "Why is she at the ER?" "I don't know. She just is. Okay? Dad wants him there right now!" "Alright, I'll tell him to phone as soon as he gets home."

So, we spent the afternoon in the hospital with Karen and her injured arm. She fell in a parking lot and landed on her shoulder. (Sound familiar, dad?) We went and did some errands for her, including the shopping. She had made a list of things that they needed before they put her on medicine...but while she was telling us things to do, she kept saying, "And the toilet paper. We need toilet paper." She must have mentioned it 4 or 5 times. So, although it wasn't on the list, I made a mental note of it.

Andrew and I were at the store getting the things that I hope might be turned into Christmas dinner and I said, "Oh, well, toilet paper isn't on the list, but do you think we should get it anyway?" So, we decided that we would get toilet paper.

Karen came home from the hospital and looked at the groceries on the floor and said, "Why'd they get toilet paper?"

It turns out that was part of a medically induced stupor. Oh, well. You can never have enough toilet paper, right?

Circle of Joy Party

Thursday was the BYU/Oregon "bowl" game. We had a party at BYU in one of their cool language labs. I'll admit that I don't really understand football very well, but Andrew taught me about the "yellow line" so it was a whole lot more interesting. In fact, this is the only football game that I watched all the way through. I still didn't get very much out of it, nor can I understand why anyone would "follow" it, but our team won (go team!) so I guess it was good.

What was fun for me, though, was all the people who came! Joy and Joe were here from North Carolina and they brought their baby, Karen. We hadn't met Karen yet, so that was fun! Joe's brother got married this past week so Joy and Joe were here for the wedding. We just caught them they day before they left.

Marquita and Daniel and their baby Maya were there. Marquita was a big help in planning the party--she booked the room and made spaghetti. Yum!

Shaille and Casey and their baby Matthew are here from Oregon where Casey is going to optometry school. We were happy to see them, too. We haven't seen them since last Christmas!

Kristi and Ryan and their baby Rachel, Matt (and a girl whose name I can't remember because she didn't go to high school with us and wasn't in the Circle of Joy), Christina, Amber and Chris, Helen, Cynthia, and Shaun all showed up. I may have missed a few, but I think that's all that came.

It was a lot of fun. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Circle of Joy...it was our "hang out" group in high school. We chose names for each other...I bypassed this somehow, which is okay because Kristi's COJ name was Kristi. David was CD (Carpool Deity or Canadian Dave), Matt was Hobbs, Becky was Suzie, Christina was Scooter, yeah...we had a little ceremony that we did with a carton of chocolate milk in order to be inducted into the Circle of Joy and then ever after that we were fast friends. We'd hang out together, eat lunch together, set up chairs for morningsides at like 5 am, have graduation parties...we did a lot.

Man, high school was kind of strange, wasn't it?

So Happy Together

Andrew and I celebrated our one year anniversary on Saturday. To be honest, we eventually celebrated our anniversary on Saturday. I suppose if it had been a weekday we would have had to have celebrated later in the day as well, but this was Saturday and he is usually home on Saturdays so I was kind of sad about his schedule.

Believe me, he was, too.

At 7:00 am he had to give his Arabic 101 class their final which meant that he had to leave the house before 7:00. I didn't exactly wake up for that, but I did kick him out of bed when the alarm went off (aren't I considerate?). He went and got donuts and juice for his class (isn't he just a nice teacher?).

After he finally finished doing the oral section with everyone it was 10:45 and he had to run off to take his geography final. He breezed through that in an hour and a half and then headed off to work.

Meanwhile, back on the home front, Josie and Mom stopped by to see if I wanted to help them shop for a little girl they are "subbing" for Santa for. So I said yes and off we went to the BYU bookstore to take advantage of their 20% off sale and their free gift wrapping.

While we were there I got a present for Diana Gillespie. Her bridal shower was at 1:00 on Saturday.

After the shower I came home and...Andrew had left a gift for me. There was an instant message on my computer saying that I could open it before he got home, so I did. Inside was a book that he had put together of all the emails and letters we wrote each other during his mission and through the course of our engagement (no, you can't read it, thank you very much)!

It's called "Hypothetically Speaking..."


I opened it and I was like, "Wow! Where did he find a book with that title?" And then I read on and was like, "That's exactly what he said when he proposed to me!" And then I read a little further and was like, "Oh..." He made it...that explains a lot!

So I read that until he came home (just after 7:30 pm). It was fun to remember all the things we wrote to each other.

For dinner we went out to Quizno's...I know it isn't the most romantic place in the world. We were planning on going to either Olive Garden or Bombay House but at 8:00 pm I was starving and didn't feel like waiting for my food. Plus, we went to Quizno's in Cairo and it was really good. (Note to self: Quizno's is a lot better in Cairo than it is in Orem!)

We then went and rented a movie to watch together. We got 50 First Dates. I thought it was a very touching movie. I cried. Andrew laughed at me.

We found out yesterday that it played on TV last night...so we didn't actually have to rent it. Oh, well.

All in all it was a good day. A little bit lonely, but not as lonely as today. Andrew had to be to work at 7:00 am again today. He worked from 7-2, and then had a final, and now he's working from 5:00 pm until 2:00 am. Lonely night for me. And him.

Robbie the Robot

We got a new pet. His name is Robbie and he's a robot and he vacuums our floors. Andrew is definitely a fan (and the catalyst for the naming of the machine). I don't mind having it since I don't like vacuuming anyway.

Robbie the Robot

We got it from the Sister Dusara who has been downsizing...a lot.

It's pretty cool because you just turn it on and it vacuums your house. It gets all the corners (places I don't clean too thoroughly).

Andrew just got through playing with it. He walked into the room and said, "That's amazing! I just vacuumed the whole house and I didn't do anything but watch it for 45 minutes!"

I explained to him that the idea behind such a device, I mean Robbie, is that you can do something else while it, I mean he, vacuums for you.

So, while I write my last paper of the semester and Andrew studies for his finals, Robbie is quietly charging his batteries so that he can clean house tomorrow.

InBio's over!

As some of you know, I got a new job in the Harold B. Lee Library. I'm now the stacks manager for Special Collections. That has been an interesting transition. I gave my 2 weeks notice 2 weeks before I was planning on leaving...InBio asked for 3. When that three weeks came, they had barely decided on who to hire and asked if I wouldn't mind staying just a little bit longer. I was like, "No, I actually would not be willing to do that."

Working there has been kind of nightmarish the past semester. We got a new department chair and let's just say that he and I don't get along royally. He calls himself "hard nosed" and wanted for me to be hard nosed as well. I'm not very good at that and I'm also not very good at handling being treated in a hard nosed manner. So, I kind of haven't been having a lot of fun. Add that change to the fact that all the office staff quit after the former department chair quit (which I might have taken as a hint to also vacate!), I picked up quite a bit of extra duties yet stayed at the same pay level and still was only part time. It was very frustrating.

So, anyway, I started my new job, which is still part time, but I think that it will be a bit funner than working at InBio has been for the last little while. However, the person I am replacing hasn't come in yet. Apparently she comes back on Friday, but by then I'll have been working in the library for three weeks and I'm not sure how much training I'll need at that point since I've learned a lot already. There are some questions that I've had but I've been able to find some pretty good answers by asking the students I manage as well as some of the full time people in Special Collections.

Speaking of asking questions. I went through my email the other day just to see how many questions I've fielded from InBio since I left them. We are averaging four questions a day for the last three weeks. This does not include phone calls, nor the multiple times I have gone into the office to help out. My replacement does not seem to be very self sufficient yet. She wants to know all kinds of things that I swear I told her at least three times previously...

I've stopped answering her directly and instead point her in a direction, give her a smile and tell her to fetch. "Nancy, I have a question about this student's contract. I don't really understand and was hoping you could explain..." The answer to that is easy. Talk to student employment.

"Nancy, I have a question about tuition awards..." Call Connie in the Scholarship Office.

"Nancy, I have a student's record here that is kind of confusing..." Right, talk to the Office of Graduate Studies.

Seriously, I have all these numbers posted on the wall right above her phone anyway so I don't know why she doesn't call them instead of asking me.

"Nancy, I have a question about travel..." Call the travel office.

Yeah, I've found that is a lot less time consuming for me instead of listening to her whole concern and then walking her through step by step. I've done that before. She took copious notes. I wrote a handbook for her. I mean, I started at "Turn on the computer." Her first question was, "How do I do that?" My first answer was, "That big power button there, yeah? You push it."

Emotionally I smacked my forehead in an exasperated fashion.

Thus has been our relationship since, my replacement's and mine.

This evening was the InBio Christmas Party, which I helped to plan. I thought I had every single detail worked out when, after arriving home this afternoon, I realized that I had forgotten to tell my replacement about the camera. So, I quickly emailed her and reminded her to bring the camera. I mean, it says in the handbook that the graduate secretary takes pictures at all social functions, so the fact that I didn't tell her is mute since I know she read the handbook and took copious notes from it.

So, Andrew and I arrive at the party and my replacement rushes up to me. "Oh, Nancy, I'm so glad you're here! I have a question for you." I'm surprised. Not. "Why do we take pictures?"

Okay, I can be honest. I like answering questions. I like researching and finding answers. That is why I like working in a library where I can do that all day long. But, when someone asks the question, "Why do we take pictures?" my brain starts to wonder about the timeless phrase, "There are no stupid questions." I mean, are there really no stupid questions? And how do you answer that?

After staring at her, I'm sure with my mouth open, I said, "Remember those scrap books you have in your office?" She's like, "Oh, the department ones with all the pictures and newspaper clippings in them?" "Yes, that scrap book. We take the pictures and we put them in there to keep a record of the happenings in our department."

Her eyes got big, "Oh!" She said and I could tell she was wishing for a paper and pen so she could write that down.

Have fun, InBio!

Speedy Delivery

Andrew and I went Christmas shopping this evening. We figured that if we didn't go today we wouldn't find time to at all. This is the week before finals...finals start on Saturday and run until the 22nd of December. That would leave us only Saturday to shop since Sunday is Christmas Eve and then *bam!* Christmas is here. This month has gone by too fast, really.

So, we're sitting at a traffic light, waiting for our green light so that we can continue on our way. We watch it go from green to yellow to red...and back to green. We were like, "Hey! What about our turn!" We sat for a while longer and wondered if perhaps the traffic light was broken. Three lanes of traffic weren't moving.

Then we heard the sirens. Then we saw the flashing lights. "Of course," we exclaimed, "A firetruck." The firetruck had used its magical powers to change the light so that it could go through. I think that is a lot safer than having to run a light in order to get to an accident although it does cause some confusion for a lot of drivers. We were all giving each other puzzled looks.

Of course, what may have caused the look on our faces could have been what came through the green light after the firetruck: a postal service truck.

That's right. A fire engine zooms by and you expect it to really be zooming with flashing lights and a siren. Nothing too odd there, but when you see a post man seemingly driving as fast as the firetruck, you begin to wonder.

I can just see the postal worker now, "Hey, wait! I've got a package for them! Wait for me!"