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!"
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
David's Pictures of Thanksgiving
I'll be the first to admit that this picture actually is not of Thanksgiving. However, it is one of the pictures that I am putting up. My amazing brother, David, not only sings, plays the piano, minors in Chemistry and speaks Portuguese, but...he also dances. In three different ways! (Okay, probably more). This is him in the costume that he wore for this year's International Folk Dance Ensemble's Christmas Around the World: The Gathering. He danced the Starovichchyna (Hutsul Dance) from Ukraine. He did a very good job, even with his injured knee (he pulled his quad during one of their rehearsals so danced the performance wearing a leg brace).
So I guess that just about sums up Thanksgiving. Of course, more people were there, they are just the people we usually can't capture on film: Grandma (although you may see her in the background of some of the gingerbread shots...working away in the kitchen, of course), Mom and Kelli and Dad and Patrick, all of whom are really quite good at avoiding the camera.
As fun as Thanksgiving was at Andrew's parent's house, I really did miss that good ol' southern cooking my grandma does for Thanksgiving. I mean, really, what's Thanksgiving without cornbread stuffing, okra, turnip greens, and ham? Thanksgiving dinner at the Heiss' was good, but I really did miss my grandma/dad's cornbread stuffing. I've had that for Thanksgiving every year I can remember, even when we lived in Canada. It's so good. Bread crumb stuffing is good, too...but just not the same as cornbread. Mmmmmmmmmm...
Oh, man! Now I'm hungry!
David in Christmas Around the World
Now we'll move on to Thanksgiving. Andrew and I didn't spend Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa Layton's house so I'm not the best person to write about this. From what I've gathered there was food, gingerbread house decorating, and baby teasing. I'm not sure what else happened but I'm sure that it was a fun occasion.
Sabrina (white shirt) and Olivia (purple) all ready for dinner
So I guess that just about sums up Thanksgiving. Of course, more people were there, they are just the people we usually can't capture on film: Grandma (although you may see her in the background of some of the gingerbread shots...working away in the kitchen, of course), Mom and Kelli and Dad and Patrick, all of whom are really quite good at avoiding the camera.
As fun as Thanksgiving was at Andrew's parent's house, I really did miss that good ol' southern cooking my grandma does for Thanksgiving. I mean, really, what's Thanksgiving without cornbread stuffing, okra, turnip greens, and ham? Thanksgiving dinner at the Heiss' was good, but I really did miss my grandma/dad's cornbread stuffing. I've had that for Thanksgiving every year I can remember, even when we lived in Canada. It's so good. Bread crumb stuffing is good, too...but just not the same as cornbread. Mmmmmmmmmm...
Oh, man! Now I'm hungry!
Friday, December 08, 2006
Layton Family Christmas Party
I don't know what it is about living back in the States, but I'm just not as attached to my camera anymore. I just don't think to take it with me anywhere. Ever.
Well, I do think about it, but only after we've already left the house and/or arrived at our destination and/or see something really cool and/or cute.
Last night was our Layton Family Christmas party. It's an annual party where we all get together and do Christmas-y things. This year, however, it wasn't on an ideal date. See, finals week is approaching so things are kind of stressful and I just am switching jobs so am working like 4 jobs at once here and am slightly losing my mind...but...
I really wanted to go so after deliberating it all day, at 5:30 I said to Andrew, "Let's go!" I had already kind of gotten ready to go, in case I decided to go, but I wasn't sure if I would feel like I had the time. I probably didn't, but it was good to spend some time with my family.
So Andrew and I got up there and I said, "We forgot the camera." So, no pictures. Sorry, folks.
We have our Christmas party at the "Elk Lodge." It's some Lion's club hangout place and is easier to clean up at than if the party is held at someone's house (we used to do it at Uncle Ken and Aunt Bev's place). They already had it all decorated for Christmas, with a Christmas tree and pretty little decorations all around, and when Andrew and I got there all the tables were set up already.
While we were sitting around waiting for people to get there, some random people walked in...Aunt Bev's eyes were bulging as they explained that they wanted to set up for their Christmas party, which was the following evening. We comprimised with them: we'd leave the tables and chairs up so that they wouldn't have to set up as much after we left. Hard deal for us, we didn't have to take down the tables and chairs...
Anyway, as more people got there, it started to liven up a bit. Aunt Bev had set up some chimes in the front of the room so we were all playing around on them, trying to plink out some Christmas carols.
After everyone was well past starving to death we blessed the food and ate. It was pretty funny because Uncle Bob (who welcomed us all there) said, referring to Grandpa, "Dad, will you bless the food?" Uncle Ken said, "You have to say Grandpa. There are too many dads here." Then a few of the grandkids, who have their own kids, said, "There are too many grandpas here."
Anyway, we had a delicious pot luck meal.
I ate with one of the twins on my lap, while Kelli wrestled with the other. Quite frankly, I don't remember who had who. All I know is that whoever I had spit up all over the front of me so I was nice and...wet the rest of the evening. I thought they were past that stage!
After dinner we played "Name that Tune" with the chimes. Two people went up to play the chimes while everyone tried to guess what they were trying to play. The first person to guess the carol got to choose a white elephant gift. Andrew won a DVD of cartoons (PopEye, Superman, etc).
It was getting late too quickly, so we passed out the Bingo cards and played Bingo until everyone had won a white elephant gift. It was pretty fun. Even Patrick had fun, although he didn't even get a Bingo until some people had called "Blackout." He was the very last person to choose a present.
What was more fun though, was to watch the great-grandkids. They were just so funny. Tabitha's little girl, Lexi (1), was just fascinated with the twins. She kept looking back and forth and desperately trying to share her toys with them (multiple time-outs didn't make her a happy girl. Sharing is such a hard thing to learn)! The twins were really tormenting the older great-grandchildren...
Jaden's birthday was yesterday. He just turned 2. He brought with him his brand new remote control car. Sabrina, who has gotten to be quite swift on her four little limbs, thouroughly enjoyed chasing it. Jaden didn't enjoy this so much. In fact, a few times when he saw her coming he would run past her and sit on the car just so that she couldn't get it. It was quite comical.
Kelli kept telling Josie (12) and Rosie (9) to go play with the "other" kids. This, I'm sure was awkward for them 1, because Josie is a grandchild, not a great-grandchild (Rosie is a great one); and 2, because the next oldest child there was Jaden, and he's two. But, I think that Josie and Rosie did a pretty good job of entertaining themselves anyway.
At this point we all started cleaning up, and Andrew and I escaped to do, what else? More homework, work on my poor book, edit some things...we stayed up much too late in order to recover from the time we took to go to the party, but I think it was worth it.
Well, I do think about it, but only after we've already left the house and/or arrived at our destination and/or see something really cool and/or cute.
Last night was our Layton Family Christmas party. It's an annual party where we all get together and do Christmas-y things. This year, however, it wasn't on an ideal date. See, finals week is approaching so things are kind of stressful and I just am switching jobs so am working like 4 jobs at once here and am slightly losing my mind...but...
I really wanted to go so after deliberating it all day, at 5:30 I said to Andrew, "Let's go!" I had already kind of gotten ready to go, in case I decided to go, but I wasn't sure if I would feel like I had the time. I probably didn't, but it was good to spend some time with my family.
So Andrew and I got up there and I said, "We forgot the camera." So, no pictures. Sorry, folks.
We have our Christmas party at the "Elk Lodge." It's some Lion's club hangout place and is easier to clean up at than if the party is held at someone's house (we used to do it at Uncle Ken and Aunt Bev's place). They already had it all decorated for Christmas, with a Christmas tree and pretty little decorations all around, and when Andrew and I got there all the tables were set up already.
While we were sitting around waiting for people to get there, some random people walked in...Aunt Bev's eyes were bulging as they explained that they wanted to set up for their Christmas party, which was the following evening. We comprimised with them: we'd leave the tables and chairs up so that they wouldn't have to set up as much after we left. Hard deal for us, we didn't have to take down the tables and chairs...
Anyway, as more people got there, it started to liven up a bit. Aunt Bev had set up some chimes in the front of the room so we were all playing around on them, trying to plink out some Christmas carols.
After everyone was well past starving to death we blessed the food and ate. It was pretty funny because Uncle Bob (who welcomed us all there) said, referring to Grandpa, "Dad, will you bless the food?" Uncle Ken said, "You have to say Grandpa. There are too many dads here." Then a few of the grandkids, who have their own kids, said, "There are too many grandpas here."
Anyway, we had a delicious pot luck meal.
I ate with one of the twins on my lap, while Kelli wrestled with the other. Quite frankly, I don't remember who had who. All I know is that whoever I had spit up all over the front of me so I was nice and...wet the rest of the evening. I thought they were past that stage!
After dinner we played "Name that Tune" with the chimes. Two people went up to play the chimes while everyone tried to guess what they were trying to play. The first person to guess the carol got to choose a white elephant gift. Andrew won a DVD of cartoons (PopEye, Superman, etc).
It was getting late too quickly, so we passed out the Bingo cards and played Bingo until everyone had won a white elephant gift. It was pretty fun. Even Patrick had fun, although he didn't even get a Bingo until some people had called "Blackout." He was the very last person to choose a present.
What was more fun though, was to watch the great-grandkids. They were just so funny. Tabitha's little girl, Lexi (1), was just fascinated with the twins. She kept looking back and forth and desperately trying to share her toys with them (multiple time-outs didn't make her a happy girl. Sharing is such a hard thing to learn)! The twins were really tormenting the older great-grandchildren...
Jaden's birthday was yesterday. He just turned 2. He brought with him his brand new remote control car. Sabrina, who has gotten to be quite swift on her four little limbs, thouroughly enjoyed chasing it. Jaden didn't enjoy this so much. In fact, a few times when he saw her coming he would run past her and sit on the car just so that she couldn't get it. It was quite comical.
Kelli kept telling Josie (12) and Rosie (9) to go play with the "other" kids. This, I'm sure was awkward for them 1, because Josie is a grandchild, not a great-grandchild (Rosie is a great one); and 2, because the next oldest child there was Jaden, and he's two. But, I think that Josie and Rosie did a pretty good job of entertaining themselves anyway.
At this point we all started cleaning up, and Andrew and I escaped to do, what else? More homework, work on my poor book, edit some things...we stayed up much too late in order to recover from the time we took to go to the party, but I think it was worth it.
What Andrew does
I've been hearing some complaints that I'm the only one who ever writes on this blog. No one knows what is happening in Andrew's life. He's such a mystery.
Well, since I'm stuck on campus for a few hours with virtually nothing to do (not that I have nothing to do. I have a whole lot to do, but none of it is with me here and now) I figured that I would try to fill the world in on what Andrew does all day.
Andrew has been teaching Arabic all semester--and he loves it. Perhaps the only downside to him teaching Arabic is that he teaches at 8:00 am everyday and sometimes it is hard to motivate him/myself to get out of the bed, especially now that it is dark and cold and snowy. But, the upside of that is that no one else wants to teach the 8:00 am section so he gets to teach next semester as well (yay)!
This semester has been particularly fun for him. Sami, Layla's little brother, is in Andrew's class, as well as someone who served in Italy with Andrew, as well as one of my cousin's roommates.
Andrew is taking both Italian and Arabic classes this semester (about a 50/50 split). It was kind of hard for him at first to switch between the two (three, technically since some of his classes are in English) languages all day, everyday. He seems to be a pro at it now. Let's see...what classes is he taking?
So, that's what Andrew's doing.
From what I hear from him (not that he complains or anything), but he doesn't really like Ital 322 or Arab 531R--the one with Feryal, who also was one of his teachers in Jordan. He likes the class with Dil just fine. He finds his Geography class too easy. He really enjoys Dante and History. He finally found out that his two majors, Italian and MESA (Middle Eastern Studies--Arabic) really do work well together. While reading in Dante's Divine Comedy, he came across Mohammed and a lot of his teachings. In fact, it seems that Dante really studied up on Islam and used a lot of Islamic principles in his works.
Andrew has been working with President Sowell (he was Andrew's MTC branch president) on getting a paper ready to publish about Islamic ideologies in Dante. It should be a fun little project. And Andrew was thrilled to find a correlation between his two majors other than that they are simply languages.
So, between teaching and going to class, Andrew also is working at the Harold B. Lee Library. If you are in our family and go to BYU, it is kind of imperative that you work at the library. I mean, I work there, my mom works there, my cousin Craig works there, Andrew's dad worked there, and I believe his Uncle Matt did, too, so it is altogether fitting and proper that Andrew should work at the library, too.
He works in the "Info Commons" giving tech support and all the fun stuff that goes with it (projects, teaching the occasional class, angry patrons, etc).
When he's not working at the library or doing homework, he's usually doing speaking appointments with his Arabic students. His students are required to speak with Andrew for like 15 minutes a week or something, which doesn't sound too bad until you realize that he has 21 students, so the time really adds up.
In addition to that, he's been helping me keep up with Harman work (since I've been massively stressed out recently), and has been an absolute dear, coming to my every whimper after our computer ate my 150 page book that I had been working on all semester (well, one of the two that I'm currently working on). I'm sure that I've been absolutely dreadful to live with since my book died (we're in the process of resurrecting it. It's a painful process). My mom offers Andrew her sincere apologies for my being unable to handle stress well.
Well, since I'm stuck on campus for a few hours with virtually nothing to do (not that I have nothing to do. I have a whole lot to do, but none of it is with me here and now) I figured that I would try to fill the world in on what Andrew does all day.
Andrew has been teaching Arabic all semester--and he loves it. Perhaps the only downside to him teaching Arabic is that he teaches at 8:00 am everyday and sometimes it is hard to motivate him/myself to get out of the bed, especially now that it is dark and cold and snowy. But, the upside of that is that no one else wants to teach the 8:00 am section so he gets to teach next semester as well (yay)!
This semester has been particularly fun for him. Sami, Layla's little brother, is in Andrew's class, as well as someone who served in Italy with Andrew, as well as one of my cousin's roommates.
Andrew is taking both Italian and Arabic classes this semester (about a 50/50 split). It was kind of hard for him at first to switch between the two (three, technically since some of his classes are in English) languages all day, everyday. He seems to be a pro at it now. Let's see...what classes is he taking?
| ARAB 531R | TBA | TBA | Adv Study Arab | Hijazi, Feryal | |
| ARAB 531R | 3:00p - 3:50p | TTh | Adv Study Arab | Parkinson, Dilworth | |
| GEOG 271 | 12:00p - 12:50p | MWF | Middle East | Emmett, Chad F | |
| HIST 240 | 5:00p - 6:15p | TTh | M E Hist to 1800 | Davis, D Morgan | |
| ITAL 322 | 11:00a - 11:50a | MWF | Adv Composition | Arcidiacono, Maria | |
| ITAL 460 | 9:00a - 9:50a | MWF | Dante's Divine Comedy | Sowell, Madison U |
So, that's what Andrew's doing.
From what I hear from him (not that he complains or anything), but he doesn't really like Ital 322 or Arab 531R--the one with Feryal, who also was one of his teachers in Jordan. He likes the class with Dil just fine. He finds his Geography class too easy. He really enjoys Dante and History. He finally found out that his two majors, Italian and MESA (Middle Eastern Studies--Arabic) really do work well together. While reading in Dante's Divine Comedy, he came across Mohammed and a lot of his teachings. In fact, it seems that Dante really studied up on Islam and used a lot of Islamic principles in his works.
Andrew has been working with President Sowell (he was Andrew's MTC branch president) on getting a paper ready to publish about Islamic ideologies in Dante. It should be a fun little project. And Andrew was thrilled to find a correlation between his two majors other than that they are simply languages.
So, between teaching and going to class, Andrew also is working at the Harold B. Lee Library. If you are in our family and go to BYU, it is kind of imperative that you work at the library. I mean, I work there, my mom works there, my cousin Craig works there, Andrew's dad worked there, and I believe his Uncle Matt did, too, so it is altogether fitting and proper that Andrew should work at the library, too.
He works in the "Info Commons" giving tech support and all the fun stuff that goes with it (projects, teaching the occasional class, angry patrons, etc).
When he's not working at the library or doing homework, he's usually doing speaking appointments with his Arabic students. His students are required to speak with Andrew for like 15 minutes a week or something, which doesn't sound too bad until you realize that he has 21 students, so the time really adds up.
In addition to that, he's been helping me keep up with Harman work (since I've been massively stressed out recently), and has been an absolute dear, coming to my every whimper after our computer ate my 150 page book that I had been working on all semester (well, one of the two that I'm currently working on). I'm sure that I've been absolutely dreadful to live with since my book died (we're in the process of resurrecting it. It's a painful process). My mom offers Andrew her sincere apologies for my being unable to handle stress well.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
It's a Small World Afterall
We met our new neighbours today. They are pretty cool. We brought them cookies so they decided to be our friends.
Technically we took Jeff the cookies. His wife, Brittany, and daughter weren't home yet.
They came over a bit later this evening to meet us. Brittany was like, "So, what high school did you guys go to?"
"Timpanogos." We say.
"What year did you graduate?" I asked.
Turning to her husband, "What year did you graduate?"
"2000." Said Jeff...I'm not positive that he went to our high school, but I'll check on that later.
"Oh," said Brittany, "2001."
"2002." Said Andrew.
"2003." I chimed in.
"Do you know Casey Greenland?" asked Brittany.
"Yes," Andrew and I replied, and right before I was about to tell her that he's on a mission she said,
"Oh, he's my brother."
Okay, well, Andrew and Casey were like best buddies in high school. Jeff and Brittany turned to each other and were like, "That's why you looked so familiar."
Did I mention that Ryan Alder's sister lived in our condo before us and his grandparents live in our ward?
It gets better though. Our downstairs neighbours are also connected to us. I went to school with a girl named Sarah Wald, and she has a sister named Becca, who Sarah is really good friends with. Their sister, Emi, lives downstairs with her husband and boys.
Yeah, it's a small world.
Technically we took Jeff the cookies. His wife, Brittany, and daughter weren't home yet.
They came over a bit later this evening to meet us. Brittany was like, "So, what high school did you guys go to?"
"Timpanogos." We say.
"What year did you graduate?" I asked.
Turning to her husband, "What year did you graduate?"
"2000." Said Jeff...I'm not positive that he went to our high school, but I'll check on that later.
"Oh," said Brittany, "2001."
"2002." Said Andrew.
"2003." I chimed in.
"Do you know Casey Greenland?" asked Brittany.
"Yes," Andrew and I replied, and right before I was about to tell her that he's on a mission she said,
"Oh, he's my brother."
Okay, well, Andrew and Casey were like best buddies in high school. Jeff and Brittany turned to each other and were like, "That's why you looked so familiar."
Did I mention that Ryan Alder's sister lived in our condo before us and his grandparents live in our ward?
It gets better though. Our downstairs neighbours are also connected to us. I went to school with a girl named Sarah Wald, and she has a sister named Becca, who Sarah is really good friends with. Their sister, Emi, lives downstairs with her husband and boys.
Yeah, it's a small world.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Moon Boots
In Andrew's family there is an inside joke about moon boots. The funniest part is that no one can really remember how the joke starts. It ends, however, when his dad said, "Moon boots?!?" and everyone turned to look at him with puzzled looks on their faces. He then clarified, "I thought you were talking about moon boots and that just didn't make sense." Or something like that. No one can remember what he originally misheard and interpreted as "moon boots" but it still survives as a family joke. Now when anyone mishears they get "moon booted."
Andrew had one such experience today. We were driving home from school and I was starving because I had forgotten to eat lunch. While Andrew was pondering whatever it was he was pondering, I was pondering what I was going to eat. I'm really not good for conversation when I'm starving to death. Finally I figured out the fastest and best meal to have as soon as we got home. I broke into Andrew's thoughts with, "I want to have a taco when we get home."
He looked at me, smiled, and said, "Okay."
A few minutes later he turned to me and said, "Ummm...did you say taco?"
I was like, "Yeah...what did you think I said?"
He went on to explain how he thought I said, "I want to have a talk when we get home."
At first he was fine with it but then he started to get a little nervous. We had never had a talk before and why on earth would I want to wait to talk to him when we got home since I already had his captivated audience in the car. Was something horribly wrong? Did he upset me so badly that I had to have a serious sit-down chat with him? Did I lose my job?
After getting really tense about the situation he kind of removed himself from his thoughts and had an epiphany of sorts. He realized that before saying, "I want to have a taco when we get home." that I had said, "I'm really hungry!" Logically, if I'm really hungry I wouldn't want a talk but at talk...tak...tac...taco!
Moon boots!
Andrew had one such experience today. We were driving home from school and I was starving because I had forgotten to eat lunch. While Andrew was pondering whatever it was he was pondering, I was pondering what I was going to eat. I'm really not good for conversation when I'm starving to death. Finally I figured out the fastest and best meal to have as soon as we got home. I broke into Andrew's thoughts with, "I want to have a taco when we get home."
He looked at me, smiled, and said, "Okay."
A few minutes later he turned to me and said, "Ummm...did you say taco?"
I was like, "Yeah...what did you think I said?"
He went on to explain how he thought I said, "I want to have a talk when we get home."
At first he was fine with it but then he started to get a little nervous. We had never had a talk before and why on earth would I want to wait to talk to him when we got home since I already had his captivated audience in the car. Was something horribly wrong? Did he upset me so badly that I had to have a serious sit-down chat with him? Did I lose my job?
After getting really tense about the situation he kind of removed himself from his thoughts and had an epiphany of sorts. He realized that before saying, "I want to have a taco when we get home." that I had said, "I'm really hungry!" Logically, if I'm really hungry I wouldn't want a talk but at talk...tak...tac...taco!
Moon boots!
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Thanksgiving Beef
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Or rather, Black Friday. I never had any idea that the "Friday After Thanksgiving" had a name. I always thought it was the "Friday After Thanksgiving." It's the biggest shopping day of the year, parallel to Canada's Boxing Day, which makes much more sense to me than "Black Friday." That just makes me think of Red Tuesday, or something like that. Anyway...
We had a pretty good Thanksgiving weekend this far, what with getting a new couch and everything...just kidding.
On Wednesday we worked and did homework. On Thursday morning we went and played football. I believe we call that a "Turkey Bowl?"
Correction: Andrew played football. Nancy wondered around the field while people tried to tell her how to play football, and I quote "Just catch the ball and run so that the people on the other side of the field don't get you." I see...now I get it. Football has never made any sense to me. I went back to the car and knitted.
After football we went over to my parent's house to spend some time with them. We played a little DDR (Dance, Dance Revolution). It was pretty fun. We definitely worked up a sweat. Especially when the pad I was dancing on accidentally got switched to advanced. Yeah...I'm still on light, or even beginner.
Then Andrew and I headed off to his parent's house (to avoid the turkey) and my family headed off to my grandmother's house (to have ham). No one in my family really likes turkey. I married well. Andrew doesn't like it either.
We had a fun day of eating and game playing. We played "Catch Phrase." The point of the game is to describe a word without using the word...it's not Gestures, but you couldn't have guessed that with the way we were playing:
Jacob (waving arms wildly in the air and making strange high-pitched noises): What am I? What am I? What am I?
Everyone on Jacob's team: Ummmmmmmmmmm...crazy? Annoying? Insane?
Jacob (blowing his cheeks out): I live in the ocean! What am I? Look at my arms!
Sarah: A whale?
Jacob (as the buzzer goes off): A starfish! Hello, look at my arms!
Yeah, we had a few struggles with that game. But it was still really fun.
Andrew and I eventually decided to call it a night. He had homework to do and I also had a million things on my to-do list (still do, really). So, we went home, decorated, and went to work.
I'm not sure why I like decorating our house so much. Perhaps it is because it feels so empty all the time. Andrew and I came from fairly large families: 5 and 6 kids, respectively. So, although our households are often quiet, they are rarely empty. Without decorations it just feels...non-seasonal. I don't know why.
I had wanted to put up something to make it a little more Thanksgiving-ish in our house but by the time we went shopping for Thanksgiving decorations (and this is my beef), all the stores were stocked with Christmas decorations. This was the very beginning of November, people! There is still a holiday before Christmas called Thanksgiving--and it does not involve a man in a red suit. We can't really put him up and pretend he's a turkey, can we? No.
We tried multiple stores, too. Target, no. Wal-Mart, no. Dollarstore, no. Macey's, no. Everything was completely over-laden with Christmas decorations.
I love Christmas, I really do. I just wish that I could have found a nice cornucopia or something to put on my table. Maybe next year...
We had a pretty good Thanksgiving weekend this far, what with getting a new couch and everything...just kidding.
On Wednesday we worked and did homework. On Thursday morning we went and played football. I believe we call that a "Turkey Bowl?"
Correction: Andrew played football. Nancy wondered around the field while people tried to tell her how to play football, and I quote "Just catch the ball and run so that the people on the other side of the field don't get you." I see...now I get it. Football has never made any sense to me. I went back to the car and knitted.
After football we went over to my parent's house to spend some time with them. We played a little DDR (Dance, Dance Revolution). It was pretty fun. We definitely worked up a sweat. Especially when the pad I was dancing on accidentally got switched to advanced. Yeah...I'm still on light, or even beginner.
Then Andrew and I headed off to his parent's house (to avoid the turkey) and my family headed off to my grandmother's house (to have ham). No one in my family really likes turkey. I married well. Andrew doesn't like it either.
We had a fun day of eating and game playing. We played "Catch Phrase." The point of the game is to describe a word without using the word...it's not Gestures, but you couldn't have guessed that with the way we were playing:
Jacob (waving arms wildly in the air and making strange high-pitched noises): What am I? What am I? What am I?
Everyone on Jacob's team: Ummmmmmmmmmm...crazy? Annoying? Insane?
Jacob (blowing his cheeks out): I live in the ocean! What am I? Look at my arms!
Sarah: A whale?
Jacob (as the buzzer goes off): A starfish! Hello, look at my arms!
Yeah, we had a few struggles with that game. But it was still really fun.
Andrew and I eventually decided to call it a night. He had homework to do and I also had a million things on my to-do list (still do, really). So, we went home, decorated, and went to work.
I'm not sure why I like decorating our house so much. Perhaps it is because it feels so empty all the time. Andrew and I came from fairly large families: 5 and 6 kids, respectively. So, although our households are often quiet, they are rarely empty. Without decorations it just feels...non-seasonal. I don't know why.
I had wanted to put up something to make it a little more Thanksgiving-ish in our house but by the time we went shopping for Thanksgiving decorations (and this is my beef), all the stores were stocked with Christmas decorations. This was the very beginning of November, people! There is still a holiday before Christmas called Thanksgiving--and it does not involve a man in a red suit. We can't really put him up and pretend he's a turkey, can we? No.
We tried multiple stores, too. Target, no. Wal-Mart, no. Dollarstore, no. Macey's, no. Everything was completely over-laden with Christmas decorations.
I love Christmas, I really do. I just wish that I could have found a nice cornucopia or something to put on my table. Maybe next year...
Venus Fly Love Seat/Trap
Let's face it. Our couch is a Venus fly trap. It's a little blue love seat--very comfortable, but it's called a love seat, er, trap, for a very good reason. Any two (or more, as the case may be) people who sit on it have to be very comfortable getting cozy with each other. It just kind of sucks you in and never wants to let you go.
We had the Bishopric over once. Brother Astorga sat down next to Andrew on the couch and...well, it was rather embarrassing for both of them, involving some leg touching and full body contact before they could get all upright again.
Our poor home teacher's wife is 7 months pregnant. Once she sits down in that thing there is no hope for her to ever get back up unassisted.
Let's just say that our couch has caused us some embarrassment in the past. Not that we don't appreciate the folks who gave it to us. We do! We just now understand why they got rid of it.
So, our living room is beautiful now and provides ample seating for our booming social life. (And, yes, that is a Christmas tree. So sue me!)
We went to Aunt Nicki's place and picked up the couch, a bed (for Richard and Diana), a dresser and a dish washer (technically that was from Grandma Pat, who just remodeled her kitchen). The couch happens to match our venus fly seat/trap rather nicely and she gave us some throw pillows to tie them all together. It's odd how big our living room looks now that we have two couches in there instead of a love trap and a chair.
I arranged all the furniture by myself. Well, almost all by myself. I had a little help from Andrew but he had to work this afternoon, so it was up to me to put our house together before David, Brandon and Josie came over to watch Hoodwinked, a rather interesting little movie.
I decided to move the chair into our spare room since African animals are no longer our theme...it's now a flowery pattern themed room. The chair just doesn't go. So, I first got it this far:
But then I got stuck inside the room and had to slither under the chair to get into the hallway so that I could look at things from this end. Things weren't going well, so I took the chair out of the door way, tried another angle and got this far:
I gave up on my third attempt and decided to wait until Andrew got home. Somehow he got that chair through the doorway. I don't know how. He must be amazing because by all accounts it doesn't add up.
Speaking of accounts adding up, Andrew and I tried to give Josie a lesson in applied mathematics today. She wasn't really interested, but we thought it would be good to prove to her that math is useful.
Yesterday we decorated our house for Christmas. We were putting lights up in our window and playing with the flashers to make them blink and do all sorts of things. Okay, they don't do all sorts of things. They just blink or don't blink. Well, we had put lights up as a border to our window but had about half the string left. I thought it would be kind of cool if we made a star in the middle of our window with the border blinking. So, we set about to make a star. When we were finished, we went outside to admire our work.
It was awful. Lop-sided, uneven, and let's just be honest here: it didn't look like a star. Being the nerds that we are, we went inside, pulled out our tape measure and measured the length of remaining lights. We then divided that by five, marked off on our string of lights (5 times) and made a perfect star in our window.
So, you see, Josie, math is helpful whether you like it or not! Oh, and we have the most symmetrical star in the neighborhood.
We had the Bishopric over once. Brother Astorga sat down next to Andrew on the couch and...well, it was rather embarrassing for both of them, involving some leg touching and full body contact before they could get all upright again.
Our poor home teacher's wife is 7 months pregnant. Once she sits down in that thing there is no hope for her to ever get back up unassisted.
Let's just say that our couch has caused us some embarrassment in the past. Not that we don't appreciate the folks who gave it to us. We do! We just now understand why they got rid of it.
So, our living room is beautiful now and provides ample seating for our booming social life. (And, yes, that is a Christmas tree. So sue me!)
We went to Aunt Nicki's place and picked up the couch, a bed (for Richard and Diana), a dresser and a dish washer (technically that was from Grandma Pat, who just remodeled her kitchen). The couch happens to match our venus fly seat/trap rather nicely and she gave us some throw pillows to tie them all together. It's odd how big our living room looks now that we have two couches in there instead of a love trap and a chair.
I arranged all the furniture by myself. Well, almost all by myself. I had a little help from Andrew but he had to work this afternoon, so it was up to me to put our house together before David, Brandon and Josie came over to watch Hoodwinked, a rather interesting little movie.
I decided to move the chair into our spare room since African animals are no longer our theme...it's now a flowery pattern themed room. The chair just doesn't go. So, I first got it this far:
But then I got stuck inside the room and had to slither under the chair to get into the hallway so that I could look at things from this end. Things weren't going well, so I took the chair out of the door way, tried another angle and got this far:
I gave up on my third attempt and decided to wait until Andrew got home. Somehow he got that chair through the doorway. I don't know how. He must be amazing because by all accounts it doesn't add up.
Speaking of accounts adding up, Andrew and I tried to give Josie a lesson in applied mathematics today. She wasn't really interested, but we thought it would be good to prove to her that math is useful.
Yesterday we decorated our house for Christmas. We were putting lights up in our window and playing with the flashers to make them blink and do all sorts of things. Okay, they don't do all sorts of things. They just blink or don't blink. Well, we had put lights up as a border to our window but had about half the string left. I thought it would be kind of cool if we made a star in the middle of our window with the border blinking. So, we set about to make a star. When we were finished, we went outside to admire our work.
It was awful. Lop-sided, uneven, and let's just be honest here: it didn't look like a star. Being the nerds that we are, we went inside, pulled out our tape measure and measured the length of remaining lights. We then divided that by five, marked off on our string of lights (5 times) and made a perfect star in our window.
So, you see, Josie, math is helpful whether you like it or not! Oh, and we have the most symmetrical star in the neighborhood.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
A day of rest
Sunday, as we all know, is a day of rest. In our house though, Sunday naps are a thing of the past. Yesterday morning our alarm clock went off at 6:00 am. It was time for Andrew to get up and get ready for priesthood meeting. I (luckily) got to sleep in for a little longer. After forcing Andrew out of bed (on the third snooze or something like that) I let myself fall back asleep.
I got up at 7:30 so that I could be ready to leave for church at 8:00 to print the programs before choir practice. I had remembered to print the original the night before, so luckily I didn't have to do that.
Andrew arrived home shortly after 8:00 am and we had family prayer before running out the door. We got to the church and headed straight for the library. Our copy machine has serious issues so you really need at least half and hour to print the programs and since we had choir practice at 8:30, we really had to get a move on it.
The door was locked. We went around the building trying to find someone with a key. After disturbing the organist and the RS president, we broke up the branch presidency meeting that was going on (we have 2 branches in our stake) to borrow one of their keys.
We got into the library and fought with the machine until we had about 80 decent copies of the program. We cut them in half and gave them to the door greeters. Then it was up to the stands for choir practice. We sang "For the Beauty of the Earth." Luckily I only sing alto and soprano in this piece. Our choir is severely lacking in numbers so we often end up doubling up on parts and since I am one of the few who can read music, I get to help out in multiple parts.
We sat up in the stands. Sometimes Andrew plays the organ and I conduct the music, but this week Sister Moss played the organ while Brother Lundquist (who sang in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir) conducted the music. So we just sat this week. Until I got sustained. And then I stood. But that was all.
Then we went to Sunday School, which was nice and uninvolved, except that we had to cancel our Home Teaching appointments for this week. Andrew and I are home teaching companions since there are over 60 widows in our ward and only 3 High Preists. So, the Elder's Quarum gets to step up, with their wives, to fill in the gaps. We home teach three women.
I also visit teach 3 other women...and still need to get around to doing that. Perhaps next week in between our home teaching appointments...
Then I headed to RS, where I gave the opening prayer and was asked to help with Enrichment night while Andrew went to play the piano in Elder's Quarum.
After church was over, we rushed home to eat lunch before the Stake Primary President came to pick me up so that we could go to the 1st ward's primary presentation. That's why we had to cancel our home teaching appointments--because I was called as the Stake Primary Secretary. So, I went to that sacrament meeting (which was very good, by the way. The children did a wonderful job), and then we met together as a presidency.
Meanwhile, back on the homefront, Andrew was squeezing in a nap when Emily rang the doorbell. And then phoned his cell phone... Let's be honest she probably rang the doorbell like a mad-woman, but in Andrew's stupor of sleep he was able to ignore it. Finally he woke up and let Emily in so that they could practice some music for our ward Christmas program.
I returned home to them practicing and finished up my lunch. Then we all headed to choir practice early so that we could copy off the music that Andrew had transcribed in Finale, a music program. I was the only soprano so that's all I sang this week, except for when I chimed in to help our 3 altos. We have one tenor so usually Emi, our downstairs neighbour, and I help him out. That usually gives us about 3 of each SATB.
Andrew played the clarient and Emily played the flute to accompany "Away in a Manger" (the one arranged by Mack Wilburg--he hit me on the head once...). The piano at Sis. Moss's house is tuned funny though so no matter what Emily and Andrew did with their instruments they were terribly flat (or sharp. I dont' remember which). So, although the piano sounded really nice and Emily and Andrew sounded very nice, they didn't sound quite so nice together.
By now it is 4:00 pm. Where did the day go? Our home teachers were supposed to be coming over right after choir but Valerie, our home teacher...who, yes, is a girl. She's in the same boat I am...suggested that we have dinner on Tuesday night instead. I said that that was a wonderful idea since I wanted to have a nap after choir anyway.
So, we went home and I napped while Andrew was the answering-phone boy. I'm not sure how many times it rang in the hour I was sleeping, but it was quite a few times. I woke up at 5:00 and phoned my family (returning a message that Andrew took) to tell them that we wouldn't be able to attend the Baroque Ensamble concert because we had already told the his parents that we'd have dinner there. We were supposed to meet with someone in their ward about family history but he ended up being sick so didn't show for dinner.
And that was our Sunday...next week looks just as good. Busy is good. I suppose I should just get used to it because it doesn't look like life is going to slow down anytime soon!
I got up at 7:30 so that I could be ready to leave for church at 8:00 to print the programs before choir practice. I had remembered to print the original the night before, so luckily I didn't have to do that.
Andrew arrived home shortly after 8:00 am and we had family prayer before running out the door. We got to the church and headed straight for the library. Our copy machine has serious issues so you really need at least half and hour to print the programs and since we had choir practice at 8:30, we really had to get a move on it.
The door was locked. We went around the building trying to find someone with a key. After disturbing the organist and the RS president, we broke up the branch presidency meeting that was going on (we have 2 branches in our stake) to borrow one of their keys.
We got into the library and fought with the machine until we had about 80 decent copies of the program. We cut them in half and gave them to the door greeters. Then it was up to the stands for choir practice. We sang "For the Beauty of the Earth." Luckily I only sing alto and soprano in this piece. Our choir is severely lacking in numbers so we often end up doubling up on parts and since I am one of the few who can read music, I get to help out in multiple parts.
We sat up in the stands. Sometimes Andrew plays the organ and I conduct the music, but this week Sister Moss played the organ while Brother Lundquist (who sang in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir) conducted the music. So we just sat this week. Until I got sustained. And then I stood. But that was all.
Then we went to Sunday School, which was nice and uninvolved, except that we had to cancel our Home Teaching appointments for this week. Andrew and I are home teaching companions since there are over 60 widows in our ward and only 3 High Preists. So, the Elder's Quarum gets to step up, with their wives, to fill in the gaps. We home teach three women.
I also visit teach 3 other women...and still need to get around to doing that. Perhaps next week in between our home teaching appointments...
Then I headed to RS, where I gave the opening prayer and was asked to help with Enrichment night while Andrew went to play the piano in Elder's Quarum.
After church was over, we rushed home to eat lunch before the Stake Primary President came to pick me up so that we could go to the 1st ward's primary presentation. That's why we had to cancel our home teaching appointments--because I was called as the Stake Primary Secretary. So, I went to that sacrament meeting (which was very good, by the way. The children did a wonderful job), and then we met together as a presidency.
Meanwhile, back on the homefront, Andrew was squeezing in a nap when Emily rang the doorbell. And then phoned his cell phone... Let's be honest she probably rang the doorbell like a mad-woman, but in Andrew's stupor of sleep he was able to ignore it. Finally he woke up and let Emily in so that they could practice some music for our ward Christmas program.
I returned home to them practicing and finished up my lunch. Then we all headed to choir practice early so that we could copy off the music that Andrew had transcribed in Finale, a music program. I was the only soprano so that's all I sang this week, except for when I chimed in to help our 3 altos. We have one tenor so usually Emi, our downstairs neighbour, and I help him out. That usually gives us about 3 of each SATB.
Andrew played the clarient and Emily played the flute to accompany "Away in a Manger" (the one arranged by Mack Wilburg--he hit me on the head once...). The piano at Sis. Moss's house is tuned funny though so no matter what Emily and Andrew did with their instruments they were terribly flat (or sharp. I dont' remember which). So, although the piano sounded really nice and Emily and Andrew sounded very nice, they didn't sound quite so nice together.
By now it is 4:00 pm. Where did the day go? Our home teachers were supposed to be coming over right after choir but Valerie, our home teacher...who, yes, is a girl. She's in the same boat I am...suggested that we have dinner on Tuesday night instead. I said that that was a wonderful idea since I wanted to have a nap after choir anyway.
So, we went home and I napped while Andrew was the answering-phone boy. I'm not sure how many times it rang in the hour I was sleeping, but it was quite a few times. I woke up at 5:00 and phoned my family (returning a message that Andrew took) to tell them that we wouldn't be able to attend the Baroque Ensamble concert because we had already told the his parents that we'd have dinner there. We were supposed to meet with someone in their ward about family history but he ended up being sick so didn't show for dinner.
And that was our Sunday...next week looks just as good. Busy is good. I suppose I should just get used to it because it doesn't look like life is going to slow down anytime soon!
Picture this...
I'm at work and I'm taking papers off of the bulletin board with a stapler remover (like the one to the left, only blue instead of black). Things were going great. I was just working on removing a particularly hard piece of paper. For some reason I could not get it to come off the board--I just couldn't get that staple out. I tried multiple times to coax the staple out, to no avail.So, I put my left hand on the paper and forced the staple remover under the staple with my right hand. Alas, the staple would not budge. When I relaxed my hand, blood started trickling down my right middle finger.
Somehow I had managed to give myself a papercut under my fingernail. I must have been using so much force that I pulled my skin away from my nail just enough to let the paper slip under there and slice me a good one.
Who gets paper cuts under their finger nails?
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