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!