Thanksgiving

For the first time in five years, I went down to enjoy Thanksgiving with my family. I must seem almost anti family, but I assure you, it's only been a few different circumstances that have been keeping me away. This was a great year to go back, though. My Grandpa asked all of his children to visit this year, he's been ill, and they all complied, along with a few of his grandchildren. There were 29 of us there, which is a nice solid number, and it was enough that we couldn't squeeze into their house and had to move our party to the gym of the church. It was great being able to see so much family together, some of whom I haven't seen since before Chris and I got married. Here are a few of us.


Not only were we able to celebrate Thanksgiving while we were visiting, but we were able to help my parents celebrate, albeit early, their 30th anniversary. Their anniversary was actually this week, but we couldn’t resist giving them their present since almost all of us were there. Only Jared and his wife and kids and Jason were missing. We gave them their present, a dvd of sorts, and watched it together while both my parents cried. That was fun.

Happy Alloween

I've never been terribly enthusiastic about Halloween. It's nice I suppose, but I haven't dressed up since I was a little girl. We used to have a little get together with some friends when we were in DC, but nothing too terribly exciting. This past weekend some of our friends hosted a real Halloween part, or Alloween party as Chris' friend Al was hosting it. It was really quite fun. Some of the costumes were quite creative, especially Al and his wife Ashley who were a sumo wrestler and a geisha. Chris and I dressed up as Mia Wallace and Vincent Vega from Pulp Fiction. We tied for the winners of the best couple with Al and Ashley. We played some games and were able to chat with some friends. It was a fun night.

Swearing In

Last week Chris was sworn in as an actual lawyer. I know I thought that passing the bar was the final step in his law school journey, but I was off by one. As much as Chris tried to escape ever going to graduation, he wasn't able to avoid going to his swearing in though it was much like a graduation ceremony. I've before stated that neither Chris nor I are fans of those types of ceremonies but it was nice to see Chris in the middle of the day. Chris' parents picked me up from work and we drove down together. They had all the inductees stand up as their names were read and they all promised to be honest. We were able to see some of our friends from DC that we hadn't seen for a while, which was nice. I suppose if we had to go to some sort of ceremony, this wasn't so bad.

Too Far Away

Hockey season has officially started. I love hockey, but this year, everything that we have been watching in connection with hockey has almost been torture. We have moved away from our team and have to watch everything on television and everything we see reminds me that we will not be watching live games this season. We have the center ice package with our cable package, so we do get to see all the games, but nothing matches a live experience. I can't help but wonder who is lucky enough to be sitting in the seats that Chris and I had exclusively to ourselves for two years, what free prizes we are not going to get by arriving at the rink a couple of hours early as we usually did, and other things of that nature. There were so many things that made being a hockey season ticket holder one of the best experiences that we had while we were living in the east and I can't help but be a little melancholy that we will not be having those experiences this year. Does anyone have any advice on how to get over these I'm-far-away-from-my-hockey-team blues?

Necessity Is The Mother Of Buying A Car

I suppose that it’s not technically necessity, but I really wanted one. For the three years of our marriage, Chris and I have shared a car (and had some bad luck with the one we shared. We went through three different cars our first three years). Sharing a car was fine because Chris would very happily take the bus, which went from right outside our building to a block or two away from the school, to school while I drove the car to work. That worked out fine and we never had a problem. Now that we’re back in Salt Lake, we’ve found that that won’t work. Chris works down town and I work in Sugar House. Chris is able to take me in to work on his way to work, but he gets off an hour and a half after I do, so there’s no way for him to come get me unless I want to spend a lot of extra time at the college. So I walk home. It’s only about 2 and a half miles, which is fine because the walking is about the only exercise I’m getting these days. However, I hate being cold, and I do mean Hate. Thus, we bought another car so that I could sit snugly in a warm dry place instead of trudging the long lonely road to our house. Right now, as it’s still warm, I still walk home three days a week, but come winter, I’ll be cruising home in style.

Growing Old In Style

This last week, we celebrated Chris' birthday. I won't say how old he is, I wouldn't want to embarrass him. To celebrate, we went bowling with most of his family and some friends. It was a good time. Bowling is pretty much self explanitory, so here are some pictures.
This is Chris' mom Mary, who has quickly become one of my favorite people.

This is Chris with one of his brothers, Jay, and two friends Dunham and Buddy. I'm a little sad that Dunham shaved off his beard before I was able to take a picture of it. It was full and bushy and kind of reminded me of the Dominoes commercial where the guy has oreo pizza all over his face which grows from a tiny mustache to a full beard in just a couple of shots. Dunham's beard kind of grows like that too.

This was taken after our two games. I suppose I should be a little ashamed of myself for beating Chris in both games on his birthday, but he wouldn't have wanted me to throw the games, right?

This is Chris and three of his brothers, Tyler, Jay, and Mark (who is proudly holding up a fry that he "borrowed" from me) and also his dad.

Brothers don't shake hands, brothers gotta hug.

Chris' dad bowled his best game ever that night. 129!

Cheers!

Happy Birthday Chris.

My Education Continues

I don’t know if it’s too late to write about the first Utes’ game of the season, but it was so much fun that I thought I’d go ahead and do it anyway. Back in a previous life (college) I obviously didn’t learn the lessons I was supposed to about college football, so I’ve been brought back to try again and hopefully get it right this time. With the help of my trusty football Guru, Chris, I’m learning all the essentials of:
Tailgating – a portable satellite and flat screen television set up under a tent to watch and boo on BYU are a must have. The czar of tailgates must arrive a good six hours before kickoff to begin preparing the smorgasbord of ribs, potatoes, rolls, salad, crumb cake etc. Of course the smorgasbord can vary from game to game to include elements of mascots of rival teams (such as Frog Legs when we play TCU). Manly chanting (Buck, Buck, Buck, Buck, Buck) is encouraged, though not requisite. Wives are allowed to come a mere 2 hours early, but any man arriving so close to game time will be teased unmercifully.
At The Game – The Utes are awesome.
After the Game – Results may vary, but according to my Guru (who is definitely biased against), staying for the fireworks is definitely not acceptable even though we will be walking right under them on the way to the car. A quick stop over at Maverick for more talk about the game and how the Utes are awesome and how BYU sucks is a good idea. Then one can go home and revel in the after-a-great-win euphoria. Here is a picture of my Guru and myself reveling in our after-a-great-win euphoria.

Congradulations!

Chris has officially passed the bar! He opened the letter last night and no sweeter words were ever printed than "Mr. Glauser, We are pleased to inform you...". We were at some friends' house watching a football game when Chris got a call from one of his law school friends (Jamie, no relation) asking if he had gotten the news yet. Jamie had opened his letter and found out the good news for himself and wanted to know if Chris had passed. Of course we hadn't been home all day to check the mail and wouldn't be home for a few more hours, so we had the fun of enjoying not knowing as we watched the rest of the game, which had almost lost its appeal (but not quite since our team won by quite a large margin), and enjoying a long drive home from an area that is so close to being BYU territory that it's almost wrong to be a Utes fan living out there. But we finally made it home and now we know that Chris can almost officially practice law legally (after another payment to the bar, who always seems to be ripping us off, and another ceremony where all the brand new lawyers swear to be honest, ha ha). I'm so proud of him. I wanted to somehow document how much smarter Chris had become since passing the bar and the best I could come up with was pictures before and after passing the bar. Does he look smarter to you?
Before & After

It's Finally Here...Football Season

I’ve written about this on another blog at another time, but I had to put something about it here on my own. Chris loves football. He loves everything about it and I almost never see him as excited as when he talks about Fantasy Football. Last year he was the proud owner of three fantasy teams. He swore that he would only have one this year, and thus far has been able to control himself and is a member of only one league. Today is the first game of the season, for the football players as well as the fantasy players. Things will be a little different this year. I’m a little sad that both Chris and I are at work and I won’t get to see him skip merrily to the computer like a kid on Christmas morning to check on the status of his players, scores of the games, yards gained, touchdowns, field goals and whatever else is included in that favorite of all games. Also, now that we’re back in Salt Lake, the games will have already started by the time we get home from church, so there will be no time for the traditional Sunday nap before sitting down in front of the television for a good 8 hours of football watching. He’s actually going to miss a bit of the first games that are on, which I know irks him to no end, but, contrary to what he would like, he will not be skipping parts of Priesthood to watch kickoff. And I don’t care what his friend Eric says, there were no compromises made on how many days of church Chris is allowed to skip every year.

And Then There Was One

This last weekend, another one of my brothers moved out and went to college. He's going to Great Bason community college, which is located in exciting Elko Nevada. Chris and I went down there over night on Friday to visit with my family (who Chris hadn't seen in 2 years) and we had a great time. The thing that surprised me the most about the entire trip was the lack of tears from my mother. Since there are seven kids in our family, I'm sure my parents never thought they would have us all out of the house, but we're all getting older and with Joe moving out, there is only one left, the baby, Jordan. My mother usually starts to get all weepy when she realizes that she's going to have fewer of us around, but I have to say that she did very well this weekend. I think that part of the reason she was able to keep herself from crying was the fact that so many of us were there to help with the moving process, and when we all get together, it's like some kind of crazy, hyped up dinner party where the guests are loud and boisterous and do back flips in the parking lot of the Wendys (Jordan). My mother didn't have time to remember that she was only going to have one child left at home until we had gone, and I'm willing to bet that the tears started flowing once she got home and just had Jordan to look at.

At Last

My Chris was offered a job yesterday! After years of law school, then months of preparation for the Bar exam and then weeks of sitting around watching movies, Chris’ hard work has been rewarded. He’ll be working at a firm down town so he won’t have a bad commute, he’ll be doing litigation work which will be similar to work that he’s already done, and he’ll be making money instead of accruing more loans, which is a huge relief. Of course I’ll miss being his sugar momma, what with the great jokes and all, but I suppose it will be nice to have Chris be making more than I do. All joking aside, I’m so proud and happy for Chris. Congratulations, love.

Thanks to Chris' Dad

I don’t usually read non fiction. I’ve been sticking with the classics since my high school days with a few exceptions (Harry Potter, Twilight, etc.). But normally when I deviate from the classics, I stick with fiction. I’ve been reading quite a bit of non fiction lately (thanks to my in-laws who have quite a different array of books than me. My father in-law especially has inspired me to read many of the non-fiction books that he enjoys) and I wanted to write a bit about them here because I’ve been pleasantly surprised.
Founding Brothers – Joseph Ellis
I found this book to be really interesting. Just as it sounds, this was about the men who had a hand in shaping the country during the revolutionary period. Just like everyone else, I read 1776 and I also read a book called Founding Mothers which were both set in the same time period, and the amount of insight you can gain into the lives of these great people by reading these books is enormous. I did have to laugh a little bit because Joseph Ellis was blatantly bias against Thomas Jefferson. He couldn’t write a sentence about the late president without inserting some sort of slur against Jefferson’s character. I couldn’t tell if Ellis did this because he disliked Jefferson for himself or because he was so obviously enamored with John Adams, America’s new favorite dead president. Either way, I did have a bit of a giggle every time Ellis couldn’t put aside his prejudices long enough to write his book in an unbiased way.
The Devil in the White City – Erik Larson
This book was fascinating. It was about the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893 to commemorate Christopher Columbus's discovery of America. It talked about all the problems that were had during the construction, the arrival of new inventions including the zipper and the Farris Wheel, and the impact the fair had on the people and economy at the time. It also talked about one of the most horrific murderers America has ever seen. The man was murdering women left and right completely unsuspected for years before finally being caught.
The Glass Castle – Jeannette Walls
This was a memoir. It described events in the life of the author that would have brought a lesser person down. She endured near crippling poverty, a drunken father, an irresponsible mother and numerous other hardships. One of the more interesting aspects of this book, for me, was the fact that the author never shows any self pity. She seems almost detached at times, looking back at what sort of life she led objectively, able to accept things the way they were without complaining about the circumstances that she was placed. Not only did she have a very interesting and difficult childhood, but she was able to rise above where she began to become a health happy adult.
All in all, I think that I may read more non-fiction in the future if my father in-law feels inspired to suggest any more to me.

A Man Walked Into A Bar...

Chris has been studying so hard all summer. After our baseball trip, he remained at home faithfully studying and reading for the Bar. He didn’t get to go on any of the fun trips that I did, and he’s been plagued with hours and hours or questions, examples, and rules. Poor guy. Well, yesterday and today it finally paid off (we hope). He’s taking the bar. As he walked through the door last night, his family applauded him, but he wasn’t as pleased as he could have been since he knew that he was just going to have to go back the next day. I think that he’ll be much more pleased with himself and his efforts tonight. It will be such a relief for him to be finished, probably forever, with the test. Also, I think that he’ll be glad to be finished and come home tonight because it’s our anniversary. Yes, Chris had to take the Bar on our anniversary. It’s not that we had some huge production planned for the day, after all, I have to be at work today, but it would have been nice if he could have woken up and thought, “Oh good, I’ve been married to my wonderful wife for three years today” (I hope that’s what he was thinking) instead of waking up and thinking, “Crap, I have to take another test today”. At least when he’s finished he’ll be able to concentrate on having a fun evening instead of the Bar.

I Say She Shall

While Chris and I lived in DC, we missed all kinds of activities that our familys participated in. We missed out on the bowling league, the Glauser family cruise, and other things. One thing that I was sad to miss was the first annual trip down to the Shakespeare festival with my mother and sisters. I didn't have to miss out this year, which was great. We went down on Monday and saw four plays. We saw The Taming of the Shrew, Cyrano De Bergerac, Fiddler on the Roof, and Othello. It was great! My mother and I both studied English in college and both have a love of great literature including Shakespeare. There is nothing quite like seeing a great play performed live. My favorite play that we saw was Cyrano De Bergerac. It was so well performed and the story was wonderfully written. All the other plays were wonderful, although I was the tiniest bit disappointed at how the actor chose to play Iago in Othello. I was hoping that the character would be a bit sneakier, a bit craftier. I know that it's hard to emote sneakiness on stage, since most actions have to be exaggerated so that the entire audience can understand what's going on, so I wasn't too disappointed, just a bit. All in all it was a great week. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures.

Waffle Run 2008

Chris' mom is a healthy althletic woman. She's also a lot of fun. For the fourth of July, she wanted to do something for her sons and all their friends, so she organized a 5k run and a waffle breakfast and called it the Waffle Run. She had tee-shirts and a banner and hats and the waffles were excellent. We started at 9 in the morning with the run. There were about 30 people there. Chris and I have been training for it for quite a while, yes training for a 5k. I'm totally out of shape and it took me a long time to work up to a 5k. Anyway, we ran it in pretty good time and I was the second girl to cross the finish line, which I'm completely proud of. After the run, everyone went into the house to enjoy breakfast and we all sat around and talked for a while. It was so fun! Chris and I had a few friends there, we were able to get a picture with all of us proud in our shirts.

New Beginnings

It's official, I got a job! I am so excited about being done with the job search. I am going to be working as an assistant to the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Westminster College. It's exciting for me because the Dean is over the English department, which is what I studied in college which means that I'm almost going to be working in my field...almost. It's also exciting because it means that I don't have to go to any more interviews. I've been to three interviews since I started applying for jobs and found them to be the most harrowing experiences. An interview is the only social occasion where it's acceptable for people to sit and judge you, which is horrible. But it's over, and I couldn't be happier.

Too Many Shoes?

One of the great things about being back in Salt Lake for good is that Chris and I can visit with friends and famiy back here and not feel like we have to soak up everything all at once. We can go get frosty floats with family members, or play bottchi with friends and it doesn't feel like we're waisting the precious minutes until we have to leave again. Chris and I have done a lot of really fun things since we've been back. We go bowling every Wednesday night when games are only a dollar (Misa's cousin is part of the group that we go with), we watch Chris' highschool friends play softball every week, I get together with my sister to watch our favorite television show, and many other things. Another great thing about being back is that I can call up my sister any time I want, or she can call me, and we can meet up for something fun anytime we want without having to plan a plane trip and hotel rooms. On Saturday, Old Navy was having a big sale so Jeaneah called me up and we went on the spur of the moment. And low and behold, what was on sale? Flip flops! I have to admit that I have a serious flip flop addiction and if I had the funds, there would be no limit to the amount that I would own. At the sale on Saturday, the flip flops were on sale for a dollar a pair. It was very exciting. I bought a couple of pairs and am very happy about it, though I did have to endure a little gentle teasing from Chris who doesn't completely understand my addiction. So not only was I shopping for flip flops, but I got to go with Jeaneah, which has to rank up there as one of the highlights of my week.

Lacrosse Player, Thy Name Is Chris

Chris has emarked on his quest to risk life and limb by playing summer lacrosse. There are a few sports that he played in high school and really enjoyed, and every time he sees one of those sports being played, either live or on tv, he decides that he should be playing that sport. Lacrosse is one of those sports. Living out in DC over the past three years, we had the opportunity to see some high quality Lacrosse being played by some of the best in the country, and every time we would watch a game, Chris would say something about playing in a league. Now that we're back in Salt Lake, he has been able to sign up for a summer league, and he had his first game last night. It's always a delight for me to be able to watch Chris doing something that he really enjoys and I get a little thrill out of seeing him do well. Last night was no exception. Though his team all wore yellow shirts and all looked pretty similar, I had no problem picking out which one Chris was. He has a very distinctive way of moving that made it quite easy for me to fix my eye on him and watch every move that he made. It was so fun. Our law school friends were also there to watch him. A picnic had been planned for yesterday evening and the group kindly decided to move the location of the picnic to the park where Chris was playing so that we could all hang out. It was great to see them all again and they all got to see Chris in action, which was fun.

Sisters Don't Shake Hands

I just got back from a great week of visiting with my sisters at the happiest place on Earth. That's right, I took another vacation. I couldn't help myself, I had to enjoy one more week of freedom before starting work again. It was wonderful. I hadn't see my younger sister or the friend who went with us for such a long time and it was even more exciting since Jenn just announced that she's having a baby. She has a house and is definitely the most grown up out of the four of us who went on this trip. We stayed at her house in St. George on our way to and from California, which was nice. My sisters had planned all kinds of fun little activities for the trip. My older sister bought us all matching necklaces and my younger sister bought us all matching shoes. We listened to Disney songs all the way to California. The first day that we went to the park, we got off our second ride and there were a couple of people wating for us to get off the ride. They handed us some badges that allowed us to fast pass all the rides in the park, so we didn't have to wait in line for a ride all day! The other days at the park were great as well, but not quite as exciting as that first day. Since my younger sister is pregnant, she couldn't go on many of the rides, so we had to split into couples, but we were able to meet up for some of the rides and to each and other things, so it was great all around. The last day we were there, we didn't go back to the park, just sat by the pool most of the day, which was good because by that last day, our feet hurt pretty bad and we were glad to relax. We finished up by driving back to Jenn's house and then driving home. It was wonderful.

A Cutler Graduation

This past week, I was able to go down to Nevada to see my family and watch one of my brothers graduate from High School. It was great. I haven't seen my family in quite a while, over a year, so going down to see them was fun. Chris had bar classes and then had a wedding to go to in Atlanta, so he didn't come with me, which was a little strange. We've only been apart for days at a time once before in our marriage and it's not something that I want to repeat too often. Anyway, I drove down to see my family with my older sister, jeaneah. This is a picture of her and me getting ready to go to the graduation.

She's one of the most beautiful people I've ever seen up close and when we were younger, I was continually wishing that I could be her. We've been pretty close our entire lives, we lived togeather in college and after college and it was hard living so far away from her for two and a half years. But now we're back and it's like I never left.

I was pretty excited about this next picture. I finally figured out how to work the black and white feature on my camera and was able to take a few like that. This is a picture of Jeaneah and me with the graduate, Joseph. He's a very tall young man, reaching up to over 6'4". We were able to go to an awards ceremony and watch him receive quite a few awards and scolarships, which was nice and then we were there to see him graduate with the other 14 members of his class. Yes, there were only 15 people in his graduating class. And I thought that my class was small.

This next picture is of Jeaneah and me with my grandparents. I had been told that they were going to be at a different graduation that night and that they wouldn't be there for me to visit with, so imagine my surprise when they showed up at the house a couple of hours before the graduation! It was great to see them and I think that they're one of the cutest couples I've ever seen. I hope that Chris and I are that cute when we're older.

This last picture is one of me and my youngest brother, Jordan. He's the baby of the family, and pretty soon will be the last child at home, which is quite a feat for my parents who had seven at home at one point. He's a very funny guy and is now taller than me, which is a little depressing. He's getting to be quite a charismatic fellow.
It was so great to see everyone and am already looking forward to going back for Jordan's graduation, although of course I'll be going back before then just to visit.
Revised
Due to a comment who I'm sure was my mother, I need to add a little to this post. My mother spoke at the graduation. She did a wonderful job. She was able to get to know all of the students individually and was able to talk about each one of them. She was funny and inspirational and I want to be just like her when I grow up. Thank you.

Midnight Madness, No Sports Involved

Last night, Chris and I went to a midnight movie. It was the first time that I had done so since college when I, Jeaneah, Megan, Rachel, and sometime Angela would see the midnight movie once or twice a month. The theater back then only charged a dollar to see a slightly older movie at midnight, and it was the perfect way to wrap up a busy Friday night. Going to the midnight movie last night brought up some fond memories. I wish that I could say that it was worth it. I'm sad to say that the movie we went to was a huge disappointment. We went to the see the new Indiana Jones movie for a friend's birthday and we were very excited to see it, being big fans of the previous three. However, the movie was poorly done and seemed to rely more on the reputation of the Indiana Jones series rather than plot or dialogue. There were plenty of inconsistencies within the movie, plenty of sad and overused clichés, and the plot was thin and clearly a nod to the directors fetish for aliens. It made me sad for the actors who definitely should have known better, and for the institution of Indiana Jones which would defintely have been better off if no such project had ever been considered, and for Chris and me who lost out on some much needed sleep.

Back In Salt Lake

It's everything I hoped it would be, and more! It's so nice being back in Salt Lake close to family and having no job to go to. We got back into the city sometime after 9:00 in the evening, and we were able to see most of Chris' family that night. I saw my sister the next day. We had a barbaque to go to and we've been to softball games and family dinners. It's like we never left except we have boxes and boxes of things to unpack. The only thing putting a damper on our return is that Chris has to take the bar in a couple of months and he is taking a class to help him prepare for his test and since I don't have a job, I've been getting a little bored with nothing to do most of the day while he's studying. As we were driving home after our last baseball game in Kansas City, Chris said that it would be nice to just keep driving and see baseball games in California instead of coming back for his class. If it hadn't been that we were coming back to a family who loves us, I might have taken him up on the offer.

Chris And Jaime's Excellent Adventure

We, Chris M. Glauser esquire and (James) Jaime Glauser have offically completed our excellent baseball adventure! We had planned to visit three ball parks on our way back to Utah, but couldn't resist the draw of the competition, the smell of the hotdog, or the roar of the crowd and extended our trip to 6 ball parks. We stopped first at Nationals Park in Washington DC the night before we left. It was a little cold, but really fun.

Our next stop was Pittsburg and the Pirates. This stadium was really cool. We saw the Roberto Clemente bridge and got free hats.

We then went on to Cleveland to see the Indians play. We got to the stadium pretty early and went inside hoping that the game would still take place even though it had been raining most of the morning and was continuing to rain. We sat at in our seats for a couple of hours until the stadium announced that the game would be postponed until the following day. It was a disapointment but we did get a picture in front of the field.

We then went on to the city that was to be the pinnical of our trip, Chicago. We went to this really cute bed and breakfast call the Old Chicago Inn. The owners of the in were really excited about our baseball trip and gave us five or six large books to read while we were there all about the Cubs. The baseball field was really historical and interesting. It had a scoreboard that had to be changed manually and the consessions were all really traditional. It was an amazing field and the home team won, which was very exciting.

We then went on to St. Louis to see the Cardinals. We were there pretty early and were able to watch batting practice. While we were watching, Xavier Nady, #22 from the visiting Pirates hit a home run into the stands which bounced pretty close to where we were standing. Chris ran over to it before anyone else and we got to keep it! Oh yeah, and the game was fun too.

Our final stop was Kansas City. This field was having renovations done and was a little messed up, but was still pretty nice. There were fountains in the outfield which was really pretty. We sat next to a Royals fan who had been all over the world and still loved his Royals. It was a good time.

And now we're back in Salt Lake. Our trip was really fun, but we're glad to be back.

Nearning The End

We've said our goodbyes, we've packed our things. Tomorrow morning, we leave. We've had a good last few days here visiting with friends and getting ready to go. We went out to dinner with the Hopkins. We were going to go bowling, but the bowling alley was having a league night, so we couldn't get in. We ended up driving around for quite a while looking for somewhere to eat, driving to the bowling alley and driving back, but eventually we were able to have a good time visiting and eating. The day before that, we had the chance to visit with the Pattons. We went to their house to eat pizza and play games. We hadn't seen them for a little while, and they're going to be moving to New York, so it may be a while before we see them again, so it was nice to visit. A few days before that, we went to a barbeque with many of our friends from the law school. We were part of an incredible group of law students and their wives and children. We've been friends with most of them from the week that we moved out to the area. We met one couple the first week we were in church, it was their first week too. We met a few of the others just a little while later. It has been wonderful becoming friends with all of them and we are very excited that some of them are going to be moving to Salt Lake where we can see them once in a while. We loved living in DC.

Bittersweet

I finished my final day of work yesterday. It was a bittersweet day for me; I was, of course, excited all day because the end of the day meant that I was officially starting a new part of my life, a part that includes being closer to family and settling down in a house that we'll be in for quite a while instead of knowing that it's temporary, and eventually starting a family. I felt that I had done the best I could at my job and felt good about the way I had left things there. However, it was sad that I had to leave so many great people behind. I made some great friends at work and it's always hard saying goodbye. They were so sweet and took me out for lunch and icecream, and gave me a card which they had all signed along with a couple of gift certificates and they all said nice things to me, and everyone knows what a sucker I am for a compliment. It was wonderful getting to know them all and I hope that they don't forget me.

Learning From The Sunbeams

Today Chris and I taught our last lesson to the Sunbeams. As I was sitting in the primary room listening to the children sing, I was thinking about all the things that the Sunbeams taught me while I thought I was doing the teaching. Here are a few examples. No does not mean no, it means count to five and then ask again, because there's no way that the teacher is going to remember that she said no. Five prayers to start class are never too many. Sharing crayons is great, except for the light blue one that is someone's favorite. Shoes in class are optional. When a sunbeam has hidden a ball for another sunbeam to find, he needs to tell her where he hid it right away so that she doesn't get confused. Jesus loves everyone. If one student has to go to the bathroom, everyone has to go to the bathroom, especially if they just went. The CTR 5's are way more interesting than the primary president, or whoever happens to be speaking at the front of the room. And there were many more things that we learned from the sweet children. I have to say that teaching the sunbeams is my favorite calling in the church and I'm going to miss it so much when Chris and I are in a new ward next week.

The Weekend

In our endless quest to get as many things done before we leave as we can, Chris and I are having to pick up the pace. Amazing though it may seem, Chris and I have put some things off until the last minute. I know what you're thinking, "Chris and Jaime procrastinate? Impossible!" But it's true. Over the past couple of days, we've been trying to do and see some things here in the area that we've wanted to see, but just haven't gotten around to. On Friday, we finally went to a National's Baseball game in the new stadium. It was great. The team won the game with a walk off home run, the new stadium was beautiful and we weren't even accosted as we walked back to our car through a rather sketchy neighborhood. On Saturday, we went with the Woodburys to Gettysburg. We rented a van so that we could all drive there together and spent the day driving to all the interesting civil war spots. Having studied some about the civil war, it was very interesting. There were some incongruities between what I had pictured the site to be and what they were in reality. For example, I had imagined Little Round Top too be a large hill, but it was much smaller. Also at Devil's Den, I would never have imagined that one day it would be a hang out for teenagers. It was a little disappointing to see people with blankets spread out along the boulders, boys walking around without their shirts on, and teens with guitars loitering at a spot where men died fighting for their rights and freedoms. I expected a little more respect for the area, but what do I know. Beside those things, it was a nice trip. The little Woodburys were really cute and extremely well behaved, and the weather was beautiful all day until the drive home when it started raining. Having visited Gettysburg and the new Nationals Park, Chris and I are paring down of list of things to do before we leave and we hope that we can finish before we start our move back on the 10th.

A Bit Of This, A Bit Of That

Our Capitals lost last night. It was an exciting game and our players were in it until the final goal. Chris says that there is no more exciting sports event than game 7 overtime playoff hockey, and I might agree with him (though I haven’t been much of a sports watcher except for hockey and might be a bit biased). After the Flyers had scored the final goal in sudden death hockey, Chris and I stood and cheered for our hockey team who had done so well the last half of the year, I was very sad knowing that that game could have been the last hockey game we’ll see in that building, and we had such a good time going to the games. Hockey has been our thing, we’ve been going to games since we first moved to DC and have been season ticket holders for two years and have enjoyed every minute of it. Now we’re going to have to find something else to do with our time. We are going to be season ticket holders for the Utes, but it isn’t going to be quite the same.
Today I officially turned in my two weeks notice. They all knew I was leaving before this because a friend at work who knew ratted me out, but I officially turned in my letter of resignation today. It was a nice feeling. It’s also a little strange because they are interviewing people today and I’m greeting and announcing the people who are going to be doing my job. I suppose I would be meeting them eventually anyway since I’ll need to show whoever is hired the basics of my job, but seeing everyone who comes in for an interview and then hearing who’s qualified and who isn’t and who wouldn’t fit in the position is kind of weird.
Chris is taking one of his last finals today. He doesn’t usually study too hard while I’m at home, which is nice for me and he said that he feels relatively well prepared for this first test, so I’m sure that he’ll do fine. He only has two more after that, one that is only for a pass/fail grade, so he’s feeling good about the end of his law school experience. This are wrapping up around here and we’re getting ready to start fresh in Salt Lake.

Business In The Front Party In The Back

Oh yes, I have been known to eat my words. I have the tendency to say things without thinking them through all the way and later regretting them. This time, I did think through the situation a little and thought that I would be okay, but I was definitely wrong. Just look at these pictures and you will of course realize that I’m talking about the deal Chris and I made about his hair. I agreed to let him cut his hair in that most despicable of all hairstyles, the mullet, if the Caps made it into the playoffs. I don’t know how the world in general feels about this abominable hairstyle, but I am definitely against and Chris is definitely on the “got to support the team” side of the question. When I agreed to let him do this to himself, the Caps were in dead last place in the NHL and I didn’t think there was going to be any chance for them to come back. Little did I know then that a change in coaching would make all the difference. I also didn’t know that I was going to be the unlucky one who was going to have to make my husband mildly less attractive. But, I am a girl of my word, so on Thursday night, in front of a high school buddy of Chris’ who was visiting, I pulled out the clippers and committed that atrocity. Not knowing much about how to cut a mullet, I had to improvise and what came out was not a classy (for the mullet) understated mullet. Oh no, it was a dirty dirty mullet. And, we didn’t just snap a few pictures and fix it right away. He walked around all weekend like that. We walked all over DC, going to museums and Arlington Cemetery and Chris was stared at every step of the way, especially by his high school buddy who would break out into a laugh every time he looked at Chris’ hair. Going to the game in his mullet was probably the highlight of his weekend, although he did have to make a very difficult decision about whether he should proudly display his loyalty to the team or wear the hat that he had worn to all of the past games that the Caps had won, keeping up the streak. In the end, I think hat won out, but I’m sure that going to the game with the epitome of the hockey haircut was a proud moment for him. Thankfully, Chris has a job where he has to look somewhat professional, so the mullet had to go, which is good, because that thing had definitely worn out its welcome (if it was ever welcome in the first place).

Visitors

Over the weekend, we had some Salt Lake visitors. Kurt and Kim came out to visit us for a few days and for the most part, we had an interesting time. I got off work for a day and a half, which was great, especially since the weather was so nice and we spent most of our time walking around outside. Previously on this blog I’ve said that I am not a good host, which is true, but I do think it’s pretty fun to take people around to the monuments and the local places that we love to show them what Chris and I like to do, probably because I don’t like the responsibility of making sure someone has a good time at my house and when we go out, it’s the responsibility of the restaurant or monument to make sure we all have a good time. We did have a couple of events at our house, like the official mullet cutting (this will be the next blog post, so stay tuned), so being at home wasn’t quite as stressful as usual.
Anyway, to move on from my tangent of responsibility, we were able to take Kurt and Kim to the usual DC stuff. We went to the monuments at night, which I think is a little better than seeing them during the day because everything is all lit up and beautiful and it was a very pleasant night. We also went to the portrait gallery by the Verizon center, which is my favorite Smithsonian museum. There are so many amazing pictures and relics there that you could spend almost all day there and not get bored. After the portrait gallery, we did desert our friend to go to the Caps game which they couldn’t get tickets too. They went to the Nationals game instead and we hope that they had a good time at that (but I still feel a little guilty about leaving them alone so that we could go to a game, even if they do say they had a good time). The last day they were here, we went to the zoo, which was all great except that there are some evil slushies by the zoo. Both of our friends started feeling ill after having a slushy from the 7 11 across the street from the zoo, which probably put a horrible slant on their entire visit (the slushy was mango something, the wild cherry seemed to be okay). Also, they missed their flight the next morning and had to wait a few hours until they could get on another flight. So, what with the bad hosting, abandoning them to go to the Caps game, the getting sick and the missing of the flight, I would have to say that we are the worst hosts ever and we’re probably lucky that we’re almost ready to go back to Salt Lake so that we can’t torture anyone else.

It's The Best Game You Can Name

Chris and I had a great Saturday. We went to the National Geographic Museum and saw an awesome display all about frogs and they have live frogs good for viewing. It would be a great activity for kids, but was great for adults too as I enjoyed it quite a bit. We then walked down to the Verizon Center for the best Capitals Hockey game of the season. We got our Ovechkin bobble heads by showing up an hour early and were there to watch as the Caps took down the Florida Panthers. It was amazing to see so many people in red cheering for the Caps since the building has felt pretty empty at times this season, but it was full on Saturday. There were so many great things to watch. At one point, one of our players made a goal. It was the first goal that Ovechkin was on the ice for and he jumped up on his fellow goal scorer and knocked everyone to the ground in celebration of a goal he didn’t even score. He was just happy that his teammate had scored. After the game had ended, the most of the crowd stayed in their seats to cheer on the players and coach as they spoke about their amazing season and playoff chances. When the coach (who had spent years and years coaching in the minor leagues and finally got his chance to coach in the NHL) had the chance to speak, there were tears in his eyes as he talked about what a great team they were. He didn’t take any credit for the amazing comeback the Caps had made since he took over the coaching job the day after Thanksgiving. The best thing about the win, though, was the fact that it put the Caps in the playoffs. They were in a “win and they’re in” situation and were able to pull it off. So Chris and I will be going to playoff games starting on Friday and if we suddenly have to cancel plans with anyone who may be reading this blog, you’ll know that it was a playoff emergency.

Put Your Shoulder To The Wheel

Okay, so I just realized that I have been writing this blog for almost 7 months and have not once written about my job. I’ve sort of side skirted the topic once or twice talking about driving to work, or getting off work early, but haven’t really said anything about the actual job. I would have thought I would have written something about the place where I go for almost half my waking life, but I haven’t. So here goes. I like my work as much as most people like work. It’s definitely not what I had planned doing with my degree (answering phones doesn’t really fit the English category unless you count speaking English to the people who call in and that’s a bit of a stretch) and I would never have guessed that at one point in my career I would be doing work for the accounting department seeing as how I am completely numerically illiterate. But it is so. I’ve been a jack of many trades for my office and have done work for just about every department including customer service, accounting, purchasing and of course the administrative work for the main office. It’s actually been interesting having the opportunity to learn how to do things that I wouldn’t have before and I feel pretty useful since I can help out in so many areas. Knowing so many aspects of what goes on in our office definitely comes in useful when I have people calling in with questions, and since I do have to answer all kinds of crazy calls since (at least in title) I’m just the receptionist, I can be everyone’s happy little helper. I have to admit, it is a little demoralizing being called a receptionist since I do so many other things, but I suppose that every job has its down side. I’m not going to say that’s the only down side, I’ve definitely had a few issues with the company, but deep down I think that the up sides to the job have outweighed the down sides. So all in all, I would have to say that my job has been a more positive experience than a negative one which is more than I can say for other jobs that I’ve had.

Another Day In Paradise

Chris and I went to the Virgin Islands this past weekend with Chris' family. It was wonderful! Beside a wicked and somewhat patchy sunburn from insufficient application of sun screen, it couldn't have been nicer. On our first full day there, we all went sailing. We don't have any pictures of the sailing, but it was quite an experience. At one point we were sitting on the front of the catamaran and a huge wave crashed over us and Chris and his mom almost went floating off the boat! We were out in the ocean and ended up sailing right through the path of a regatta race that was going on. The many, many sailboats that were racing were quite a ways away, so we didn't cause any trouble, which was good. We also had fish tacos made by the captain of the boat, who used to work in restaurants. They were Chris' favorite meal while we were down there. The next day we went over to St. Johns and went to Cinnamon Bay, a beautiful beach that wasn't too crowded. We played Frisbee and some of the other family members went snorkeling and this was Chris and my favorite part of the vacation. All in all, it was wonderful. Now I've never been on who likes to write out a log of everything that I've done, so I hope that this will suffice. Here are a few pictures.

These top two pictures are a view from the balcony of our room. We were right over the water, a little way up. It was beautiful.
These bottom two pictures were taken from the top of the hill on St. John. We hiked up to the top and the view was phenomenal. In the picture below is most of Chris' family, his parents and three of his brothers, Jay, Tyler and Eric. We missed his other brother Mark.