Break Time!

It's Christmas vacation! And... I forgot my camera.

Don't worry, I'll be kicking myself the whole time, you don't need to bother.

Snowmen

Remember how I said that I'd tell you about snowmen sometime? How about now? Great. Two years ago, the 15th of December was our one and only Reading Day (free study day before finals). Remember how I said I scheduled every moment of finals time? I wasn't kidding. This stems from a time during my Sophomore year when I was so utterly overwhelmed that I couldn't function. My mom suggested scheduling out all the things I needed to do... and somehow that made it possible to do everything. It was like magic. From that point on, I scheduled whenever life was crazy. Especially applicable during finals. And the accompanying reading day. Now, while I was studying like a nutter, I began to get a little frustrated with Sean because he had gone to lunch with a roommate (WITHOUT me) and then spent the evening playing Risk. And I studied. Not fair.

Then as Sean was walking me to my car that night (I had to go home to get to bed at the already scheduled time, after all!) it was snowing, and being the cutie-pie he is, he suggested we make a snowman. Too fun to pass up. Plus, I hadn't spent enough quality time with him that day. I should have scheduled that too, huh?

We made that little man right there in the parking lot.

At one point, Sean ran back to his apartment to grab some "adornments."

Don't you love those ears? He returned back with loot (including a banana for the nose and branches stolen off another snowman for arms). Then realizing he forgot his camera, he ran back again. I thought that was a little curious.

Upon returning, we finally stuck the branches in place and admired our work. Sean said, "He's missing something," and pulled off his CTR ring to place on the branch-hand.

He paused, then continued, "Oh, I can do better than that.."

And he knelt upon one knee, pulled out the most wonderful ring ever, and proposed! It was the most wonderful feeling in the entire world!

We never did get a final picture of the snowman. Go figure.

And it turns out, Sean had his roommate drive him to the jeweler to pick up the ring and the roommate treated him to lunch. There's never a real reason to be mad at that boy!

Blessed Freedom

Ah, after a little flute playing at church and then giving the relief society lesson, I'm done for the semester! For real! I don't have a SINGLE final! Grad school is a beautiful thing. Don't get mad, I did my time as an undergrad and became super ultra mega stressed out at finals time (as in planning every minute of every day of that last horrid week). I did have a nice meaty final paper to write but once that was done, I only had Sunday stuff to worry about. And by the way, I have the sweetest, most intelligent ladies in the ward. I had 8 million amazing comments and stories shared during the lesson and then they come up to me later and thank me for the lesson. Pshaw, it was all them!

So to celebrate, let me share with you some of our splendid Christmas decorations. The nice thing about having a small apartment, combined with only a few years of "decoration gathering," is that it only took us about 20 minutes to set everything up! Unlike my mom, who needs to set aside a whole day to transform the house into a festival of cheer. One day I'll be like my mom :)

Fake or real? Ha, fooled ya- it's a fake tree! You couldn't even tell, could you? I knew it. Best 20 bucks ever spent.

Do you remember making little snowmen ornaments out of marshmallows? Well, I've got an ornament made of of plastic that looks like marshmallow snowmen! Step up! Poor Mrs. Snowwoman, a rabbit must have chomped her orange sniffer.

We made these adorable plaques at Aunt Michelle's over thanksgiving break. She's a creative GENIUS.

These too were a Michelle Production knockoff of years past. I helped make the set for Sean's family. But then, you know what happened? They gave it to me for Christmas! Sneaky...
Hey look, there's that super fake looking tree again!

Last year we looked and looked for a tree topper to no avail. Are they out of vogue or something? We finally found one this year at.... Walmart! A bit whimsical, isn't it? Life needs a little whimsy.

O'er the fields we go, laughing all the way, HA HA HA!

Snowmen are important in our marriage. Perhaps one day I'll tell you why.

Aw, look at sean's wonderful wrapping job. Honestly, I learned a thing or two from him about wrapping on the ends of presents. He should go pro. He even uses bows!!



Alrighty tighty, off to enjoy... boredom!

Thanksgiving.... so it's a little late... so sue me

No, don't sue me, bad suggestion. I've just been in one of those lackadaisical moods, which means I haven't been in a bloggin' mood. Can I make it up to you? How about with lots of pictures. And funny stories. Or at least funny to me :)

Whilst cleaning our little apartment, I caught my shoelace in the vacuum. And it just tore that sucker right off! Sean's shoes came with spare laces, so I wove them into my shoes. So what if they're a little long? They did make for good bramble catchers on our walks through the desert.We decided to drive through Vegas to get to Arizona, my first venture to the sin city (that's what they call it, right?). After about 30 minutes of finding parking-- I am SO not a city driver-- and about 1.5 hrs of searching, we came upon our main purpose in traveling to Vegas...Godiva Chocolixers! Oh my they sure are heavenly. And so worth the 2 hours pit stop.Thanksgiving consited mainly of celebrating Sean's maternal grandparents' 50th anniversary. They have the neatest house, entitled Withering Hots. Clever, no?And we felt so welcome. And I may or may not have eaten 9 pieces of pie on Turkey day. My tummy's still thanking me. And hating me!

Sean had his fill of all sorts of outdoor sports. He sure was proud of his "ringers." He especially enjoyed playing basketball with his brother, someone at about his same skill level. After about 30 minutes of play, Sean won! The score was 4-1. I kid, I kid. It was actually 3-2. These kids couldn't decide what to name their "pet turkey." I think the name Jane was just suggested. Absurd! (at least Gracie thinks so). It got so heated that one of them threatened divorce! Should I be concerned about that?

We played with Brady for a nice long while. We found a drain pipe that was a perfect fit for a golf ball. He'd put the ball in the pipe by the house, it'd go about 4 feet down a little hill, I'd retrieve it for him, and repeat!
I liked to walk around the desert and take pictures like the above photos. And then my battery ran out. And I didn't bring the charger. So many photo ops were missed. But it's okay, because Rachel took glamour shots of us to make up for it! Great photos Rachel! (ugh, Sean looks so good in this picture and I look so goofy. Me the Goof)

For instance, I ate a butterfinger on the drive home and a big chunk fell on my shirt. But did I notice? Noooo. Until I went to the bathroom later and thought something threw up on me. Gross!

Last week, as I was turning out the light after completing a session of late-night reading, I slightly awoke Sean from is gentle slumber. He began mumbling odd sounds, so being the kind wife I am, I decided to take full advantage of the situation. I kept asking him questions but I couldn't quite make out anything he was saying. I finally asked something like, "Are you sure?" and he responded...

"... Tuuuuuuurrrrrrrdy turdy turdy tuuurdy turd turd turdy." HA HA HA HA HA! This continued for at least 30 seconds and I proceeded to laugh for ten minutes. Oh my goodness, it was too funny. At one point Sean started laughing too and said "I love you turd."

None of this he remembered when I recounted the story to him in the morning. This is the best part of being married.

HAPPY TURDY DAY EVERYONE!

Neal Shusterman review

I wonder how many books I've finished at about 3am... Probably a majority. I guess I'm just incapable of putting a book down when I'm anywhere near the end of a story. Is the next-day-grogginess worth it? Absolutely.

My most recent reads were recommended by Orson Scott Card. Sean and I are religous readers of his weekly column. And thus we began reading Shusterman.

His books are considered young adult books, but heck, they're usually the best genre. I've read three of his books so far.

Everlost

The trouble with reviewing his books is that there's not much I can say without giving away surprises. Everlost is essentially about death. And the adventures of kids in a world in-between life and death. I think it's really a study of the bravery of kids and growing to find peace within yourself in hard situations. But it's fun and creative too. I found it thought-provoking.

Antsy Does Time

This book is SO ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLY SUPER FUNNY! Very different from Everlost, though it's actually about death too. Everything the main character says/thinks just causes me to chortle up a storm. Honestly, one night I was reading in bed after Sean had fallen asleep, Antsy told the funniest story about a school play and I laughed for about 10 minutes, waking Sean up about 3 times in the process. It's a great story about friendship and service and it's just so fun to read. Sean says it has great "voice." Read this one, it's my favorite of the three.

The Dark Side of Nowhere

This was a fun little sci-fi book about teenagery kids and humanity. I don't think there was anything too remarkable about this book, I just so enjoyed the way Shusterman tells stories that I had to get my hands on more.

In thinking about it, the main theme about all these books is in valuing life. They make you think but have fun in the process. Neal Shusterman is simply an entertaining author. All the books are quick reads. As a sidenote, the covers are weird (well, Everlost's is ok), if I was judging a book by it's cover, I wouldn't read these. But I judged it by the author, so I did read them. Hope you like them!

BRRRING!

Yesterday, the egg timer and microwave timer went off at the same time, totally unplanned. It was wicked cool.

Also, LOST season 5 starts on my birthday. Best present ever.

The Centennial State

Thanks to the generosity of Sean's family, both Sean and I were able to spend the weekend in Colorado! The best part was just getting away from the everyday. Other fun things:

BYU vs Air Force- Even though our team wasn't consistantly playing well, it made for a fun, thrilling game. Though if that had caused us to lose, I might not have found it so thrilling... And there was an awesome fighter plane flyover at the beginning, the sudden woosh of sound and tension in the air, it's an experience. Of course I forgot to bring my camera to the game, so none of you can experience it. Boo.

Bond- saw it, liked it, recommend it. Definitely action-packed.

PUPPIES!- The Bradleys just got a new puppy and have his brother for a little bit as well. It was sooooooooOOOO fun to play with them and try to avoid being caught in the middle of their "rough housing." Got pictures this time!


Interview- Sean completed yet another interview, this time at the University of Colorado (the excuse for our excursion to CO in the first place). It went super great and he had fun talking with a professor who's from St. Paul. And he knew a couple students there, too. Bonus!

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Complete side-note: WATCH PUSHING DAISIES TONIGHT! It's such a fun show, witty, hilarious, snappy dialogue, great characters. Plus it's filled with stunning colors and cute quirkiness, despite essentially revolving around death, ha ha! And for some reason it's teetering on the edge of being canceled. This cannot happen. So all of you, watch it! You'll love it, I always come away thinking and smiling. Check this out if you want some background.

Old Television Memories

Do any of you remember the good ol' days of ER, with Dr. Green and Dr. Ross and Nurse Hathaway? I sure did love that show. But then it got dumb and I stopped watching. Such a shame, there was so much good about ER.

But I've started up again this season. Probably because they advertised they were bringing old characters back. Even Dr. Green! I was a little curious how they'd accomplish that since they killed him off a couple years ago. I mean, this isn't Pushing Daisies. Ugh, it was so sad. He was the best character and so many bad things happened to him. Anyway, he came back in a flashback today. LOST style. I'm not even kidding, watching him on the show again was magical. I'm embarassed I was so happy. Am I weird or is anyone else like this, either with ER or other characters? I don't care if it's weird, it makes me happy :)

Now where can I watch the first few seasons again....

Wonderful Oddities

Perhaps some of you don't know my husband as well as you should, so I thought I'd tell you a few things that make him so unique...

1. He remembers the oddest things in surplus. Things like odd places, old rulers, the details of the Krebs Cycle, the history of skyscrapers, etc. For instance, a show on television just began a description of the show's subject matter, a 100 year old explosion in Siberia, and within 5 seconds, he matter-of-factly says, "Tunguska." And wouldn't you know it, the next thing that flashed on the screen was a map highlighting a funny town called Tunguska. Sometimes I ask him, "how in the world did you know that?!" (to which he replies "... I don't know...") but usually I just smile and revel in the knowledge that my hubby such a smartie.

2. Despite that incredible memory, it's darn near impossible to keep a schedule in his head. I don't know how often I remind him what time certain classes start or when I'll be doing TA work. It doesn't really make him miss anything because he compensates. I asked him once how he processes schedules in his head and his explanation went something like this: "well, I know I have some days when I have class at 9 and other days where I can sleep later, which means I have class at 10. And I know I have class right after that 10 oclock class. But if you asked me if I had an 11 oclock class, I'd have no idea." I think Sean's memory needs to get less finicky.

3. Often unbeknownst to him, Sean emits little thoat tones. He could be quietly reading a book and I'll begin to hear "hmm.........mm.........mmmm..." and he doesn't notice the sound at all. I LOVE it, so uber adorable.

4. Most of the time when he looks in the mirror, he makes a funny face at himself. And I don't think it's a conscious action. It's really fun to watch, since it's so automatic. He's such an adorably funny man.

5. Sean is the most wonderful, thoughtful, gentle, caring, handsome, intelligent, and faithful person I've ever met. And we just celebrated a year and half of being married to our best friend. My goodness, I love that boy!

Civic Duty

We voted! Well, Sean mailed his ballot to Colorado a couple weeks ago, but I voted today! My first time voting in person (ack, it's weird being a utah resident). I had a brief scare thinking that I lost my drivers license, but realized that I had left it in the scanner at home (which I had to scan to send a fax to IL to prove that I'm not a resident there anymore and thus cannot serve on a jury). And turns out I didn't even need to show them my license. Which seems like an invitation for voter fraud...

I stole an "I Voted" sticker for Sean. Shh, don't tell.

Don't try this at home. EVER!

Sean and I decided to dress up for the ward Halloween party and sean came up with the most brilliant costume idea!
Yes, ladies and gents, we're the Mythbusters. Ignore the few letters missing from my shirt, heh heh. I think Sean completely captured the essence of Jamie Hyneman, so you ought to see a full body shot:
He just needs to get a belly and you couldn't tell one from the other.
We held on our beards with double sided tape and, sheesh, any sort of talking would wiggle it right off! Lots of adjusting necessary.



The Ward Party was really quite fun- it was a giant clue game. Although it seemed we were just the duo to solve the mystery, we were never quite the winners. Came close, but always bested.



MYTH: Jamie and Adam are unbeatable.



B U S T E D

Prospectus?

Whew doggie, it's been quite the week! I finished writing up my prospectus (essentially, my proposal for my thesis project) on Tuesday and presented it to my committee on Thursday. So what what with writing, powerpoint making, and doing a bunch of TA work (including reading until 2 am so I could be prepared to help a student at 8am... need more sleep...), I've been a little preoccupied. The presentation went pretty well and I just have a few things I need to tweak. But when I finally finished the presentation (one hour of presenting and another of being questioned. Intense) I felt EXHAUSTED. And I have since then. I admit, sleeping in today helped the lethargy quite a bit, but I still feel like I need a vacation. Since that's not feasible, I'll just remember our Hawaii vacation from May. Pictorially. On this trip, you can join us!