Christmas with the Chris Glausers

Chris and I celebrated Christmas in Washington DC this year, without any family near. This was a first for us, the first two years of our marriage we spent the holiday with either Chris’ or my family. This year, I didn’t have quite enough time off to make it possible to fly back to Salt Lake and still retain some semblance of sanity. It was a lovely little Christmas anyway. It would have been nice to be around family, without a doubt, but it was nice to relax and not have to worry about flights and packing and rides to and from the airport. Chris and I went to a movie on Christmas Eve (National Treasure II. I thought it was pretty good even though the acting and the writing were hardly Oscar worthy. It gave us a chance to see Chris’ evil twin again. I was supposed to have had to work on Christmas Eve, but at our Christmas Party, they announced that we were all getting it off. Had I known a little earlier, we could have made it back to Salt Lake after all. Oh well). We also had some good food and watched It’s a Wonderful Life which is one of my favorite Christmas movies. On Christmas morning, we opened presents, of course, but we also called both our families and wished them a merry Christmas. I then proceeded to make some New Zealand dessert while Chris expressed his violent outrage that there were no football games on our basic cable channels (just kidding, can anyone out there imagine Chris with violent outrage? Ha ha ha. It was more like mild irritation). Then we went to some friend’s house for dinner. It was a nice evening with our friends, some old and some new, and their children (thank you Reddingtons). All in all, it was a nice Christmas, but I definitely look forward to next year when we will be with family.

The Way You Wear Your Hat

When Chris and I were planning our wedding, we agreed that low key was the best idea. I’m not good at being the center of attention and Chris doesn’t like worrying about things that aren’t going to matter in the long run. Thus, we decided to forgo most of the traditional wedding things. I don’t want to outrage any cute little brides out there, so I won’t say much about what we thought was unnecessary or what we did only because our parents really wanted us too, but I will say something about Our Song. Chris doesn’t dance. He knows what his limitations are and he considers dancing to be one of them. I’m sure “it’s stupid” also falls into category of why he doesn’t dance (I used to love to go dancing with my sisters, but haven’t done it in ages). Thus, when we were planning the wedding, I tentatively asked Chris if he wanted to have a song, Our Song. I’m sure that he doesn’t remember, but he said that he liked the song “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” by Frank Sinatra. We had listened to some Frank on the way to visit my parents the weekend we got engaged and I guess that had stuck with him more than any other song. In the end, it didn’t matter, because we didn’t have to dance, but I was pleasantly surprised. I am a big Sinatra fan and that song is one of my favorites. For those of you who haven’t heard it, it’s about the little things that make someone special. Why am I writing about this now? I was exercising the other day and that song came up on my ipod, and I realized that I thought of it as Chris and my song. Ah, memories!

Ode To The Sunbeams

Just kidding, I can’t write an ode. But I do want to write a little bit about the wonderful calling we have at church. Chris and I teach the sunbeams, the three and four year olds. At the moment we teach five little boys, which is great because at one point we had eight little boys, which is just a bit much. They are wonderful! Hardly a Sunday goes by that I don’t have to turn my face away from the kids so that they don’t see me laughing. We’ve had bathroom disasters (ask Chris), and kids falling asleep during singing time, and one kid catapulted himself from the bouncy choir chairs during the annual primary program, plus countless other small things that are hilarious. Also, the kids are so sweet and so sincere. We have to have four opening prayers every Sunday to open class because almost all the boys are excited to say it. Holding up pictures in class is a great privilege, and they know that being reverent is important because the most reverent child in class gets to be the leader when we walk back in to singing time. After a year with them, we’ve finally got the hang of keeping them reverent and listening in class, and in a couple of weeks, we are going to have to let them go up to another class and begin teaching a whole new set of kids. I’m sure the next group will be great, especially since we’ll have the son of some friends in class, but I’ll definitely miss our boys when they move on.

I'll Take Books For 1600, Alex

Chris and I love trivia shows. When we were dating, sometimes we would just sit and watch the game show network when The Weakest Link or Who Wants to be a Millionaire would come on. These days, we watch Jeopardy to get our trivia fix. There’s nothing like knowing one of two of the 60 some odd answers to the questions that can make you feel a little smarter for the next two or three days. That’s why when Chris mentioned that he was thinking about checking out Ken Jennings’ book Brainiac I decided to read it, too. Chris was busy reading something else, so I read it first, and it was great! I didn’t realize that Ken Jennings was so funny. (As a side note, in his book, Ken said that he has googled himself, so if he stumbles upon this page during a google session, I’m honored.) I thought that his book would just be a long narrative of his experience, but it was much more than that. He did write about that, but he also wrote about the history of trivia and wrote about his experiences meeting other people who love trivia as much as he does. There’s even a town in Wisconsin that devotes an entire weekend to trivia, and the whole town comes to a stand still as people listen to music and answer trivia. Also, each chapter has a few trivia questions mixed in with the writing. It was a great read and I recommend it to anyone who even has a passing interest in trivia. It also made me realize that I myself could never appear on Jeopardy and will have to be content sitting on my couch shouting out the wrong answers to the questions as Chris sits quietly by me mumbling the correct ones.

One More To Go

Chris finished his last final of the semister today! That knocks off one more milestone in my endless countdown. I'm not sure what I'm counting down to. I'd like to say that I'm counting down to when we move back to Salt Lake, but I know if I say that, something cosmic will happen to keep us in DC (not that there's anything wrong with that). I could say the countdown until the end of law school, but after law school, Chris has to take the bar, and the bar is not part of of my countdown. Anyway, back on subject. Chris, my very very smart husband has finished his finals, but he has also finished the MPRE which is another test that every law student has to take in order to pass law school. He found out yesterday that he passed with flying colors! So that leaves one more semister of classes to finish. It's amazing to think that he's finished 5/6 of law school. Here's to you, Chris.

Sports But Mostly Hockey

Since being married, I've watched almost 100% more sports. I went to a few football games in college, but the Idaho State Bangels haven't enjoyed the successes of other schools so the enthusiasim for sporting events didn't translate too well with me. When Chris and I were dating, I worked a lot and usually got off after most sporting events were over. Once we got married, though, I felt the full effect of a true sports enthuisist. We didn't have cable for the first year of our marriage, but Chris still managed to find some sort of sport to watch all day all weekend. That's fine most of the time. I like watching him get worked up about something and I like to tease him about belonging to 3 fantasy football leagues. I also like the fact that he likes hockey and that he was able to recruit me for his favorite team, the Washington Capitals. He liked the Caps long before we moved to DC, so he was extra excited when we moved close enough to go to their games just after the year long strike. I watched my very first game with Chris at opening day in October of 2005 and have loved it ever since. There are so many things that I like about the game, that I'm not going to go too deeply into them here. What I would like to say is that as most of you soon to graduate law students have done, Chris and I have made plans for when we move back to Salt Lake, a few of which involve my sisters. We're all very excited to be reunited after three years of law school. However, I told Jeaneah and Jennifer that if the Caps do well, we may be home a little bit later than we had anticipated because we would have to stay in DC until after the playoffs. I told them this after the first few games when we had won our first three games in a row. After that, we've lost so many that now the Caps are in last place. So what I would like to say is, Jeaneah and Jennifer, stop praying for my team to lose! You've done enough! (of course this is just a joke)

Thanksgiving with the Jared Cutlers

So, I know that it took me a little while to get this set up, but I couldn't figure out how to do a slide show. I had to get on to Erica's blog to find out how. Thanks Erica! Anyway, Thanksgiving was great. Chris and I drove up to their house on Thursday morning and took our first look at baby Angela. Wow, Jared's kids are cute! We had such a good time playing with Darion, Drizzten, Dominic, and Angela or "The Babies" as they'll always be known, just as Jason Joseph and Jordan will always be known as "the boys". Idella was on top of things with some great Thanksgiving food, including rolls just like mom makes them. Chris and I were also able to go to a sports stake house to watch the Utah BYU football game (so sad, those crazy Utes). The stake house had individual tvs for each table, so we didn't have to bother the other customers with our game. Notice that I wasn't in any of those pictures. I wish I could say that I was behind the camera most of the time, but I only took a few of the pictures. Drizzten and Darion got a hold of the camera and went crazy. I guess they don't think I'm pretty because they didn't take any pictures of me.

I Like A Good Short Story

I recently finished reading a collection of short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald called Flappers and Philosophers and I found that I really enjoyed it. I find that the more I read short stories, the more I like the format. You can sit down and read one in an hour or less, and feel like you’ve gotten somewhere and usually there isn’t a lot of superfluous writing put in for filling. If it’s going to be a short story, it usually has to be concise and full of action or ideas to work. Chris and I were talking about this the other day, and he likes the short story format as well.
As for Flappers and Philosophers, I really enjoyed these stories. I’ve read a few Fitzgerald books, and found that most of them are rather melancholy, and they don’t usually end very well for the characters. Flappers and Philosophers, however, has a few happy endings. I love a good happy ending. I love knowing that people can end up as happy as I am. I know that not everything ends happy and there are wonderful books that must end tragically, and they do so in a way that leaves you thinking “wow” after you’ve finished reading them, and that’s great. But I love reading about people who get their true love in the end, or strike it rich and do wise things with the money, or are able to save lives. I think that all of my romance has been sunk into books that I’ve read because in my real life, I have never been one who likes someone to put on a show for me. However, in books, I like the flamboyant and sometimes over the top declarations of love and romantic gestures and the very very contrived coincidences. Flappers and Philosophers has a few of those and of course those things are written from Fitzgerald’s unique point of view during an interesting time period. Also, there is a story that has the element of revenge, but is just so funny because it involves cutting off some braids and flinging them at someone’s door. Anyway, this post is already too long, so read the book. It’s good.

If We Were Any More Antisocial, We'd Be Invisible!

A few weeks ago, Chris and I had another couple over to our place for dinner, and it was the first time in months that anyone other than ourselves and our home teacher and visiting teacher had stepped foot in our apartment! I know that this is my fault. As the wife, I should be outgoing and forthcoming with dinner invitations to all of our couple friends and that our aparment should ring with the sound of friendly voices. However, I am not an outgoing person. All of my family members reading this are now scratching their heads in confusion because of course I'm loud and obnoxious when I'm around them. However, out here in DC, I'm quiet and reserved and keep my thoughts to myself most of the time. This makes it a little hard to extend invitations to our friends for dinner and a good time. I think that part of the problem is that I don't really like extending invitations to dinner. They feel too formal and that sort of makes people feel like they have to be a little more formal when they come over to dinner. I like a good pop in. It's nice to have people just come over to your house to see what you are up to and maybe share some cookies and chat and that sort of thing, but it's hard when you live in a building where you have buzz people in. Also, most of our friends live rather far away and have kids, so spontanaity is a little bit harder. That's okay, though. We just seem a little more rude for never having anyone over. I guess until we move or decide to be a little more social, our aparment will remain our inviolate tower. Hmm...I wonder if that's what we should call it(the apartment). The Inviolate Tower. That has a nice ring to it.

My Man

I'm so lucky to have Chris. He is literally the only person in the world who could put up with me for as long as he has and he doesn't even seemed fazed! I've been pretty sick for the last week and and a half and Chris was so helpful and so kind to me the whole time. He went out and bought me four different kinds of medicine because he didn't know which kind I would like. One day after class, he stopped and bought me some soup. He did all the work around the house while I slept or lay on the couch watching tv. He tought our sunbeams all by himself (which is no small feat) last Sunday when I was too sick to go. And he did innumerable other small things for me that made me feel loved and not completely useless as I did feel. Those of you who know me know that I almost never get sick and am quite unpleasent to be around, but Chris was completely patient with me, even through a minor breakdown. I already knew that I was the luckiest girl in the world to have Chris, and now I'm a little scared because I know that he could do a lot better. I love you Chris.

Lazy as Can Be

Chris and I have been exersizing for a few months now. After being perfectly happy watching tv every night without moving for hours and eating whatever we want and expecting no consequences whatsoever, we decided to ruin our good time and get healthy. In all seriousness, it's good to be a little more active than we have been, so we've started utilizing the free gym in our building and the trails outside. When we started, I could barely run a half a mile on the treadmill at a little more than a slow jog and running outside was even worse. Now Chris and I run a little over two miles around four days a week. How did they do it, you might ask yourself. Well, it's all due to what some in the family might call, the ghetto bootie, or fear thereof.
Actually, it's nice exersizing with Chris. We motivate each other and we don't let the other person wimp out just because they feel like it. We spend most of our time together already, but it's nice to have another excuse to monoplize him.

These are some pictures of the trail that we run on sometimes.

Bobbles, Bobbles Everywhere

This is the story of two very determined people who had a plan and stuck to it until the end. Oh yes, Chris and I knew that it would be tough, that it would be painful (that would be the standing in line!) and that it would take time, but we knew we couldn't quit, that the reward would be worth the agony, and it was. We got every one of the presidential bobbleheads and our collection is complete. Isn't it beautiful!

Howdy!

Here is some odds and end pics from New Zealand, Joe (football) and others

Walk For Autism

So to get the ball rolling, here is something that Chris and I did last weekend. We went down to the National Mall and participated in a walk for autism. There were quite a few people there. Our friends started up a team and we all walked together and as a team were able to donate $400. Not bad for law students. Of course half that money was donated by someones mom. Oh well. Chris and I are at the center of the photo.

Hello Cutlers

This is the first post of what I hope will be a great way to keep in touch. Feel free to post pictures, funny stories, news and anything else that strikes your fancy.