Cutler Etc.

Uruguay

2012-01-04T10:56:00.008-07:00

Chris and I talked months ago about taking a trip down to Uruguay where he went on his mission. At first we sort of joked around about it, but the more we talked about it, the more we wanted to do it. So we saved our pennies and went down there for Christmas this year. It was absolutely amazing! It was beautiful and warm and we were able to do so many fun things. We ended up spending Christmas eve and Christmas on the beach (after going to church of course) and we hiked up a mountain, took a day trip into Brazil, window shopped at many different little street fairs, and did so many other fun things that I can't enumerate them all here. Instead, I've just added a few pictures below.
Every city and town in Uruguay has at least one plaza and each contains some sort of statue or fountain and they're all beautiful. This fountain was in the middle of Montevideo.

Chris was still on his mission when they opened the temple in Montevideo so he got to work at the open house and go through it a couple of times.

This was a small town along the Atlantic coast that had beautiful beaches and very few people.

This is the largest plaza in Montevideo. It's called the Plaza De Independencia and the statue is of the great leader for independence in Uruguay.

We went to a few different zoos while we were down there. They were pretty funny because only a chain link fence separated us from most of the animals, so we could reach in and pet them if we wanted to. Chris wouldn't pet this nandu no matter how much I begged him.

Uruguay has so much coastline that they had to build many lighthouses. This was just too beautiful not to take a picture.

We were able to meet up with one person Chris knew on his mission. Pedro spent a lot of time with the missionaries while Chris was on his mission, so he got to know him really well. They kept up on facebook and we were able to contact him on our last day. This is him with his wife and daughter.

And finally, Chris and me. We were sitting on a bench outside the temple on a lovely warm day.

Marathon

2011-11-30T19:30:00.003-07:00

I'm a runner! On the 19th Chris and I went down to Mesquite Nevada to run a marathon we had been training for for months. We started off really fast, mostly because the first 13 miles were all down hill. Once we hit mile 13, though, there was plenty of up hill. Unfortunately, all the hills on the course really hurt Chris knee and he was only able to make it to mile 22 before he had to stop. I kept running and was able to finish the marathon in under 4 hours, which was the goal. I even came in second in my age group, which sounds really impressive, but it's not so impressive considering the fact that there were only 9 people in my age group.
This first picture is Chris and me at the beginning of the race. We're both looking pretty rested and happy to be running.

This next picture is around mile 17 when Chris' knee started to hurt him. The look of pain on his face is a pretty good indication that he wasn't doing well.

After a little stretching and rest, Chris' knee started to feel better. I wonder if he'll try another marathon.

Here's me at the end of the race, happy to be finished and holding up a 2 for second place. Go me!

A Few Events

2011-10-24T11:15:00.002-06:00

I've finally stopped procrastinating and uploaded my photos to my computer. We've had a fun last couple of months. The girls in my family and I went on our annual Shakespeare Festival trip. I had to miss one of the plays because of work this year, but the three I was able to see were great. This year, for the first time, Jason's wife Jennifer joined us, which was so fun. Pretty soon we're going to have to reserve a whole row of seats for all the Cutler women.

The other exciting event that happend recently was my little (I mean younger because there's not a whole lot littler than Joe who towers over us at 6'4") brother Joe returned from his mission in New Jersey. He's still the same gentle person he's always been, but with a new perspective. We're all so proud of him.

More Running

2011-10-24T11:05:00.004-06:00

We've been at it again. Actually, all the running we've been doing lately has been to train for the Las Vegas Ragnar Relay Race, which was this past weekend. Chris and I ran two half marathons to prepare for it, one in Spanish Fork and one in Layton, and we did well in both. We're not really concerned too much with time at this point, so the fact that our times were relatively quick is just an extra bonus. The Ragnar was 187 miles of adventure. Chris and I were in van 2 of the Freeloader team, the team that won the free entry because of Brett Dunham's sweet mustasch. It was a lot of fun with lots of running and very little sleep.

Team Mullet

2011-09-19T13:47:00.005-06:00

The majority of my family came up this past weekend to run the Dirty Dash. Last year was the first year I ran the dash, and it was a lot of fun. In fact, I told my family what a good time we had and they decided that they wanted to give it a shot. We came up with a team name, "Team Mullet: Business in the Front, Party in the Back" and we all bought fake mullets and leggings and shorts for the occasion, well all of us except Chris who had me shave his hair into a mullet just for the race. We encountered far more obstacles this year than last year, getting dirtier in the first mile than we did through nearly the whole race last year, but the essence of the race was the same, a lot of laughing, a lot of mud, a lot of people running around like crazy people. What Fun!

San Francisco

2011-08-08T08:12:00.005-06:00

Chris and I went to San Francisco a few weeks ago as we continued on with our efforts to see every baseball park in the country. We saw the Giants and the Athletics play in their respective parks and also got to tour the city, which was a lot of fun. One of the funnest things we did while we were there was run across the Golden Gate Bridge. We ran across it relatively early in the morning while the top was still shrouded in fog but you could still see the bay. It was idyllic. Unfortunately it's too hard to carry a camera with you when you run for 10 miles, so I don't have any pictures of that beautiful morning. However, below are pictures of us in front of the baseball parks.

Apart from our trip, we've been keeping busy training for some long races by running some shorter races. We recently ran the Legacy Parkway Midnight 10K, which was a lot of fun, and, of course, the Waffle Run, our annual 4th of July race. We're planning on a few half marathons in the near future before our two long ones.

When People Ask...

2011-06-30T14:55:00.003-06:00

...if I'm a runner, I always say no, but it's getting harder to say that. Chris and I have been in a few races over the past few months, and we're planning to enter more, all to get ready for the Las Vegas Ragnar Relay Race coming up in October. We ran in the Law Day 5K, the Midnight 5K in St. George, the Fight for Air Run (10K) and we're signed up for a few more races before Ragnar. I never wanted to start running, I sort of fell into it, but I've found that it's been a terrific distraction from certain things.

In other happenings, both my youngest brother and Chris' youngest brother graduated from high school earlier this month. We're really proud of both of them. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of Chris' brother graduating, so below is a picture of him winning state with his tennis doubles partner.

What We've Been Up To...

2011-05-02T07:35:00.000-06:00

I went to the Shakespeare Festival again with my sisters and mom.

We went to see Utah Play Notre Dame in Football.

We also went to see Utah Play Bosie State in the Vegas Bowl.

We went to see the Winter Classic in Pittsburgh.

My grandparents from New Zealand flew over for a week.

Chris and I saw another baseball game, this time in Seattle.

I ran my very first Half Marathon.

We celebrated the royal wedding at work by wearing our hats and having a tea party.

I suppose it seems like a lot, but if I would just keep up, everything would be spread out and we'd look a lot more boring, like we really are. :)

The Dirty Dash

2010-09-26T18:36:00.006-06:00

This weekend some incredibly awesome girls and I participated in the Dirty Dash as a team. Chris and I have been running consistently for a long time now and I must say, all of that running did nothing to prepare me for this race. My teammates and I arrived at Soldier's Hollow on Saturday morning and signed in for our race. We started looking around and all of us were thinking the same thing. "What were we thinking?!" Actually, it turned out to be a lot of fun. The Dirty Dash is a 10K race through mud pits, over walls and down giant inflatable slip and slides. We laughed as we slipped to our knees and crawled around in the smelliest, dirtiest race of our lives. As you can see in the pictures, we're covered in mud, but still laughing.

Summer 2010

2010-08-08T19:16:00.004-06:00

Chris and I went on vacation with his family this year. We went to California and saw some baseball games and went to the San Diego zoo.

My little brother also got married. We're so happy for them.

July 4th

2010-07-08T07:33:00.005-06:00

We celebrated the 4th of July by running in the Waffle Run again this year (even though it was on the 3rd instead). It's always a fun tradition that we can enjoy on the weekend of the 4th, especially since Chris won't watch fireworks or parades. This year, the shirts had the face of last year's Waffle run who looks like a cross between a very patriotic Jerry Garcia and that guy from the Hangover, which made everyone who saw them laugh. Chris and I ran it in record time, for us, and my little brother who was up visiting from Nevada ran it with us too. We went to a movie at the dollar theater instead of watching the Sugarhouse fireworks but, unfortunately, the movie ended just as the fireworks ended, so we got the full experience of fireworks mania as we sat in the parking lot for over an hour trying to escape. On Sunday, my little brother and I were able to sneak a peak at the fireworks from the country club from my living room while Chris was away at his brother's house for a bit, which was nice and we didn't have to stew in the car to watch them, which was nicer.

Denver

2010-06-27T18:39:00.004-06:00

Though it's been a while since we've been able to continue our quest, Chris and I were able to check another baseball park off the list recently. We went to Denver to see the Rockies play. It rained on us the whole time, but we had a lot of fun.

Law Day Run II

2010-05-22T18:02:00.003-06:00

Last Saturday, Chris and I ran in our second Law Day Run. Last year it was kind of horrible, it rained on us so it was really cold, and I definitely wasn't prepared for the hills. This year we were more prepared. The weather was nice and the hills were not as daunting and we finished 2 minutes faster than we did last year, which was nice because I had been training for less time this year. So it went pretty well.

The Champions

2010-05-17T07:16:00.001-06:00

Chris’ youngest brother Tyler came out with his prediction at the dinner table months ago, much like the great Babe Ruth and his fabled home run prediction, bat pointing at the horizon. “I’m going to win state this year,” he informed us with no sign of doubt in his voice. There were a few eye rolls from the members of the audience, the skeptics remained skeptical, and not much else was said about it except a few updates on the tennis season as it went along. Not being one to trust to his luck in anything, he practiced for hours every day, buoying his teammates to the same goal as himself. This past Saturday, his hard work came to fruition. Chris and I were witnesses to triumphant victory as Tyler and his doubles teammate Preston defeated two teams to become champions of the world (okay, just Utah)! There was cause for concern after they lost the first set to hearty Timpview team, but they were able to pull themselves together and play like the champions they were, not losing another set the rest of the day. Their final victory not only propelled them to State Champions of the #2 doubles teams in Utah, but it was also integral in helping the entire team, the Highland Rams, become the State Tennis champions of Utah. So his prediction was correct. I wonder if he would be willing to predict a similar future for my bowling team?

My First Garden

2010-04-25T19:54:00.003-06:00

I've planted a garden! And look at my sweet hat!

To The Tailgaters Go The Spoils

2010-04-20T07:25:00.001-06:00

For those of you dying to know who won the first ever University of Utah Tailgate Contest, fear not, I have the results. Blowing the competition out of the water was “What Would Kyle Whittingham Do”! Headed up by Buck and his posse of faithful tailgate planning geniuses, this stunning design was developed. The banners stood out well over the other entries, being hoisted 20 or so feet in the air (thankfully making it easy for me to find them at 10:00 a.m. when I arrived 4 hours after they had begun setting up). The décor also boasted a live band, a video of past Utes glory and tailgate action, games including a cougar dart board and pin the tail on the Bronkey in honor (or dishonor) of the BYU head coach, all of us decked out in our best red, and some great food. Buck got the call that he was a finalist as we were all walking into the spring game and he was told he could bring anyone he wanted down to the field to accept any award he may have won. He graciously allowed those of us who had even the smallest part in the victory come down to the field with him and we cheered enthusiastically as they announced the winner during half time. And so this coming football season, Chris and his friends will be enjoying their traditional pregame tailgate in the prestigious and very official tailgate lot. Lets Go Utes!

That Man Is Poking...

2010-03-17T07:24:00.000-06:00

I was meant to be a junior primary teacher. Since Chris and I have been married, I’ve been put in the primary in all three of our wards, sunbeams twice and 5 and 6 year olds once, though maybe that wasn’t divine intervention, I was lobbying for the job shamelessly in our new ward. Luckily, there are 17 sunbeams in our ward, so they had to split them up into three classes and they were desperate for teachers. This is where I come in. Chris and I have 7 kids in our new class and they are, of course, adorable and full of surprises. We have one kid who can read already. That’s right, he’s reading at 3 years old. It’s amazing, but also a bit tricky. I’ve had to replan a few lessons because I was counting on the kids not being able to read captions on pictures or clues to the lesson. And teaching them the lessons is always an experience. There is a picture of Jesus in the temple when he is twelve years old, teaching. In the picture, there is a man holding a scroll standing close to Him, which inspired one of our kids to say “That man is poking Jesus!” We’ve had kids say that they need an extra treat so that they can share with their brother and then gobble everything up before the end of class, we’ve had a kid yelling the primary songs at the top of his lungs when we were asked to sing louder, and we’ve had a kid tell us that he feels good when he does bad things, just to be contrary, then laugh. And we can’t laugh when they do these hilarious things, it just encourages them to continue, which would make us laugh harder and we’d never get anything done. Any fears I had about moving into a new ward when we bought the house have been alleviated by this sweet calling.

Jason and Jen

2010-02-18T07:36:00.002-07:00

One of my littler brothers recently got engaged! His fiance is adorable, which is great, and a bit of a relief. Jason was always a bit of a ladies man and we were all just a little worried about who he would end up with. Luckily, he picked someone who has him wrapped around her little finger and will be able to make him do whatever she wants, in the kindest possible way, of course. Congrats Jason and Jen!

Sunny San Diego

2010-02-06T14:11:00.004-07:00

My mother in-law is brilliant. She decided that she needed to go stay in San Diego for a month during the bleakest time of the year to train for her triathlons. Her family has been great about it and have been doing what they can to survive while she is gone. She's had her family come out to visit her in shifts while she's been away and I definitely looked forward to going out to visit. Chris couldn’t get the time off work to go down, so I took Jeaneah, my fabulous sister, with me and we went to enjoy the sun for three beautiful days. It was wonderful getting away from the snow and 28º weather and enjoy palm trees and weather in the mid 60's. Plus, we got to have a great girls weekend with Chris mom. We did all kinds of girly things like walking up to a picturesque lighthouse overlooking the city, watching surfers surf while watching the sunset, and walking around Mission Bay. I have to say that I am so lucky in the in-law department. Chris' mom, (and yes the rest of his family) has been so fun to get to know and it's been great becoming a part of her family! Anyway, below are some pictures of our trip.

It's A Snuggie!

2009-12-21T07:06:00.001-07:00

What started out as a joke has taken on a life of its own. A little over a year ago, Chris was sitting on the couch with one of his brothers, Mark, and a good friend, Brett Dunham, when the commercial for the Snuggie came on. Mark, having a great sense of humor, being part sarcasm, part whimsical, and part love of the ridiculous, immediately said that he would love to have one of those blankets with sleeves. Chris didn’t think too much about it until a couple of months later when we were walking through the Bed Bath and Beyond and we saw a whole stack of them. I had never heard of them, but Chris quickly filled me in on the absurdity of the idea and he said that it would be funny to get one for the brother who had mentioned wanting one. Unfortunately (or not), Chris couldn’t remember which brother he had discussed them with, but he did have a brother with a birthday coming up who may or may not have been the one. Chris decided that we had to get a Snuggie for his birthday. It wasn’t the correct brother who received the first one, so we had to keep trying. So started the Snuggie giveaway. We got Snuggies for all of Chris’ family members, mostly for birthdays although we did try to mix it up and gave Chris’ mom hers for mother’s day. We even got one for Dunham, who was in on the joke from the beginning. Chris has a large family, so by the time we gave out the last one, there were no surprises, just a lot of laughing. We even found a dog Snuggie. Chris and I didn’t get one for each other, we just sat back and laughed as everyone else opened theirs. I’m not sure who decided that it would be funny to take photos in our Snuggies, but the suggestion was made and one day after our usual family dinner on Sunday, Chris and I were presented with our very own. This last Saturday, we went down to the school, all of us armed with our Snuggies and props and we had our photos take as a family, plus Dunham. If you’ve ever seen a Snuggie box, you will know that there are all kinds of people in their blankets in ridiculous poses, with a book or remote or standing up cheering and things like that to show the versatility of the Snuggie, so we tried to replay images from the box. It was quite the adventure and a great way to cap off the Snuggie experience. Now the only question is, what do we get everyone next year?

Finding The Good

2009-11-13T16:03:00.004-07:00

I know people who are autumn people. They thrive in the cooler weather, the colors of the changing leaves and all that jazz. I am not one of those people. I love the hot weather, the long days, the relaxation of summer and always feel a little sad when we finally hit October and have to start wearing jackets and real shoes instead of short sleeves and flip flops. I hate daylight savings and how it’s dark when I leave work and also when I leave for work, and how everything starts to look dead or dying. And I absolutely hate, and I do mean hate, to be cold and autumn is the starting point of the cold weather. Fortunately there are some saving graces to this time of the year.
Football season is always fun. Chris is an avid University of Utah fan, as are all of our friends, and the longer I live in Utah, the bigger fan I become. We all get together to tailgate, which is a serious business. Chris’ highschool friends have a gathering before football season to decide what they’re going to eat at the tail gate and everyone who wants to participate in the cooking has to audition. They have to make their dish for this gathering and everyone votes on what is good enough to have at the tailgate. There are two criteria for judging, taste and presentation. Chris auditioned for the tailgates with a dip and he just barely squeaked in with taste because everyone thought that his presentation was terrible. So for the actual tailgate, he prettied up his dish and this is what came out.

Besides the tailgates, the games are a lot of fun. We sit in a section with Chris’ family, his crazy uncles and his parents and we eat peanut M&M’s and hot chocolate when it gets colder and cheer on the football team that has been really good since I started watching them.
The fall holidays are another reason why I don’t go into hiding when Fall comes around. Since we moved back from DC, we’ve been invited to the annual Aloween party hosted by Chris’ friends Al and Ashleigh. This year the theme was a murder mystery in a casino. Chris was a bookie and I was a cocktail waitress who was also a bit of a trollop. It was a lot of fun

I also love the start of school, especially now that I’m not attending. Working at the college has been a great experience. I love the whole higher education atmosphere and it’s definitely more interesting when classes are in session.
So overall, I suppose that the good outweighs the bad with autumn and that I’ll find enough to distract myself until summer comes back around.

Here Comes Your Father

2009-09-07T14:07:00.005-06:00

This summer, I did some major traveling with my mom and two sisters. We did our annual Shakespeare festival trip, which was really fun. We saw Henry V, The Comedy of Errors, As You Like It, and a play named Private Lives. They were all excellent except the non Shakespeare play wasn't really my style. The plays are not the only reason why this is such a fun annual trip. We always eat at least one meal at the venue, which includes turkey legs (myself and my nephew are each holding one in the pictures. He is so cute!) and we spend the days shopping, walking around Ceder City, and just hangning out with the girls.

We also went to New Zealand to visit my moms family. My uncle had passed away and my mom asked if my sisters and I could go out to visit with her as moral support. How could I possibly say no? So we went, and it was wonderful. It was wonderful to see family members that I haven't seen since I was 10 years old. We got to meet my Grandmothers new husband Bob, who we all just adored! We had dinner with my aunt, uncle, Grandfather, Grandmother, Bob, two great aunts, and a great uncle. It was so fun to spend time with all of them. You don't really realize what you're missing until you are around all of them, so the visit was a little bitter sweet. How great it would be if they didn't live an 18 hour plane ride away!

Business Time

2009-08-20T10:53:00.006-06:00

I am not an athletic person, I never have been, and that's okay. My skills come in different areas like, ignoring my husband while I read a book, and standing around awkardly trying not to embarrass myself in mixed company. However, I have been involved with a (quazi)sports team and was able to not only not hurt myself or anyone else, but I was able to do quite well. Our bowling team "Business Time" had a marvelous time this season. We bowled every Wednesday against 16 or 17 other teams. Our team came in third in points which was good, I thought. I also got prize money for having the highest handicap game of all the girls in the league. Chris had been waiting for years (law school) to rejoin the league and enjoyed every second of being back. We had team shirts with our names on them, team practices and team pictures, all of which Chris orchestrated. He talks of putting a big "C" on his shirt next year so that everyone will know that he's the capitan of our team. That's probably why he looks so intense in his picture. Thanks to Amber for putting together these awesome pictures, I feel almost professional.

The Worst Part Of Changing Wards

2009-07-17T07:47:00.002-06:00

Chris and I are getting ready to move again. We decided to buy a home and we close very soon, so this Sunday will be our last Sunday in our ward. There are many many things that make moving from our ward a harrowing experience, having to meet new people, not having the sweet seats by the clock in sacrament meeting behind the cute babies, knowing that we're going to be asked to speak in our new ward etc. For me, though, the worst part about changing wards would have to be getting released from my calling as primary teacher (although that whole speaking thing is really bad. I'm more afraid of death than speaking in public. I hate when groups of people look at me.). I bawled the last time we moved and I had to leave my sunbeams. I doubt this time will be any different. I've been teaching the 5 and 6 year olds and they have been wonderful. The seven of them have kept me on my toes, even more so than the sunbeams from the Virgina ward. Believe it or not, but I've had more trouble keeping them in their seats and reverent than my sunbeams, and while that's usually a bad thing, I've loved every minute of it. They are the funniest things and we've had a really good time. For example, last week, my co teacher brought treats for the kids to enjoy at the end of class. One of the kids was chewing gum and he took it out of his mouth and put it on his nose, presumably to continue chewing it when he was done with his treat. It turned out that this was the really really sticky, messy kind of gum that isn't going to let go without a fight. The kid couldn't get it off his nose and the more he tried, the more it went everywhere. It was all over his face, on his hands, little bits of it ended up in his hair. We sent him to the bathroom to wash himself off before singing time, but apparently it didn't do as much good as we had hoped. While you couldn't see the gum by the time we went down to singing time, there was still some gum residue on his face and he kept pushing his lip up to touch his nose, where the gum residue would grab hold and hold his lip to his nose for a few seconds before the kid would push it up again. Neither I nor my co teacher were sitting next to him, so we couldn't stop him from doing this without attracting everyone's attention (which the kid would have loved. He's always trying to make the other kids laugh). I could hardly keep myself from laughing out loud. They are such a fun group of kids and I'm going to miss my calling horribly, especailly when I get a new calling in our new ward that is not going to be nearly as fun and may even be tortuous, like sunday school teacher.

Waffle Run 2009

2009-07-08T07:53:00.005-06:00

My sweet little mother in-law loves running and she loves her family. This is what inspired her to create an annual 4th of July race called the Waffle Run. She started it last year. The Waffle Run is a 5K race followed by some delicious waffles with a lot of friends and family. Chris and I ran in it last year and had a good time even though it was quite hard. We hadn't been running for very long and the elevation difference from DC to Utah was hard to get over. This year, we've been running the course 3 or 4 times a week and we beat last years time by a minute and a half! It was great.

Eternal Marraige Again

2009-06-08T08:40:00.002-06:00

This weekned, I was able to attend the wedding of one of my favorite people. Megan and I were friends at college and she is one of the most fabulous people I've ever met! Even though I was away for three years and we still live rather far apart, whenever we get together it's like we were just talking yesterday. Of course I was thrilled to be invited to the Temple ceremony. And after all that has been happening over the last month or so, it was very touching to see the beginning of a marriage, to reaffirm all that I had been feeling in regards to eternal marriage. Congrats Meg!

Eternal Families

2009-05-06T09:15:00.002-06:00

On Sunday, my appreciation for eternal families grew more deeply than I ever imagined possible.

Law Day 5K

2009-05-02T21:08:00.001-06:00

Today Chris and I ran the Law Day 5K. We've been running together for some time and ran together in the 1st annual Waffle Run, which my darling mother in law put together, but this was the first race that we have run with people other than family and friends. It was very official. There were a ton of people there, including Chris' uncle and cousins, members of Chris' firm, and a good friend who moved back to Salt Lake from DC about the same time as we did. They gave us numbers to wear, and some official looking timing chips to strap to our ankles to keep track of how fast we were able to finish the race. I would love to say that we destroyed the competition, but I'm not going to lie, we were pretty slow. I don't mind that we were slow, though. I didn't really start running until about a year and a half ago, so I was just glad that we didn't come in last. It was a little hard running the race, it started early in the morning, it rained on us the whole time, and there were quite a few hills. However, I feel good that we were able to do it without embarrassing ourselves. Below is a picture of us after the race. The hat I was wearing was one of Chris'. It was a little big, which I didn't think would be a problem, but as it rained on us, the heavier the hat got and it started to slip down over my eyes while we were running. I almost had to hold on to it as we were running the last stretch.

What Chris And I Do In Our Free Time

2009-04-29T14:44:00.003-06:00

Silence has been golden in regards to the Caps for the last few months. My hockey team has been playing play-off hockey and my superstitions have kept me from writing about the team until they had won a series. Not that I really believe that any thing that I can do is going to have the least effect on how my team plays, but better safe than sorry, right? Anyway, the Caps have been facing off against the New York Rangers and had an eerily similar series against them as they had last year against the Flyers. They were down three games to one, and came back to force a game seven on home ice. Chris and I have been watching on the edge of our seats through the series, hoping that this season would end better than last season, wishing that we were there in the Verizon Center. Last night we watched a nail-biting game seven. As the game progressed from the first goal (the Rangers! Despair!) to a tied game (Hope!) and into the third period, Chris and I were on edge. The game remained tied until 4:59 left in the game when Sergei Fedorov scored. It was amazing. If it had been an 80’s movie, some cheesy song would have been playing, like “I Need a Hero” from Footloose (you know you love it). But instead, in manly hockey fashion, the team rushed Fedorov and fell on him dog-pile style while the crowd rose to their feet in unison, cheering the goal that would take the team to the second round. Chris and I cheered too, though from our couch, watching the game an hour later from our DVR. Alas, watching the game on a couch is not the same as watching from the arena, but we were happy to see the win and are looking forward to watching the Caps crush the Penguins to dust and humiliate their star Mr. X, especially on their home ice (fingers crossed).

Will Work For...

2009-04-03T16:37:00.002-06:00

I am a firm believer in the saying, “work to live, not live to work”. I would never have believed that there would be aspects of my job that would make me more happy to be at work than to be sitting on my couch reading a good book. Last week, though, something happened that opened my eyes to the possibility that, no work is not always fun and there are definitely things that I would rather be doing, but there are times when there’s nowhere I’d rather been than at my job. That something was getting free chocolate! I was sitting at my desk when my coworker came in and told me that our bookstore was trying to give away some Godiva Chocolate! They had overstocked during the holidays and now they wanted to get it out of the store to make room for other things. So the other girl in the office and I took off to the book store to behold that miracle of free chocolate. There were two huge boxes filled with hot chocolate, chocolate covered raspberries and strawberries, truffles, chocolate drops, fancy gold wrapped chocolate boxes, chocolate domes, chocolate biscuits, and many other delectables that make the mouth water. The bookstore manager told us to take as much as we could carry because if they were not able to get rid of it, they would be throwing it away! I couldn’t bring myself to think of the monumental waste that would be, so I grabbed a bag and filled it to overflowing and hightailed it out of there before they changed their minds. So, for the last week or so, I have been sitting at my desk at work, snacking on some of the best chocolate ever, thanking my lucky stars that I have job that I enjoy going to.

9 Of Us

2009-03-22T18:40:00.002-06:00

With a brother in New York, a sister in St. George, a brother on a mission in Baltimore, a sister in Washington DC (that’s me), a sister in Salt Lake, a brother in Elko, and two parents and a brother in Round Mountain, it's nearly impossible to get a whole family together. Recently, though, some moves have been made that made it possible for our family to get together for a few brief hours. Chris and I moved back to Salt Lake a little while ago and Jason just returned from his mission. My whole family was able to meet Jason at the airport as he returned. My siblings and I had been planning for a few months to surprise my mother by all showing up at the airport. It's been four years since we all were together. So Jared flew in from New York and the rest of us gathered in from our various locations. The results of months of planning are in the pictures below. Aren't we a good looking group?

A Taste Of The East Here In The West

2009-02-23T14:31:00.001-07:00

Jeaneah and I were enjoying an afternoon out on the town recently when we happened to notice that we were in the neighborhood of the brand new Five Guys, the first I’ve seen here in the west. We decided to go in and grab a burger. Jeaneah, of course, thought the burger was great and finally saw what Chris and I had been talking about when we spoke of the burger joints where we liked to eat while we were living in DC. For me, it was like a trip back east. They had the articles from the Washington Post and the Washingtonian and other eastern Magazines up on the walls, and the shop was decorated as the shops back east had been. For a moment there, I was a little homesick for Washington DC. I felt like we could have finished up our burgers and walked to the next Caps game or walked to the new Nationals Park to watch a baseball game. I wanted to ride the metro in to see Chris, to go to another hockey game, to walk down the mall. Instead we walked out into the cold Salt Lake City February Day. Not that my new home city is bad, I just haven’t learned to love Salt Lake like I loved DC. But now, every time I need an eastern fix, I know where to go.

I've Got The Old Thing Down

2009-02-09T10:00:00.000-07:00

I’ve seen my future, and it’s full of matinees and early bird specials. On Saturday, Chris and I went to a play at the Hale Theater. It was a very funny play, a British Farce and was well acted and well produced. While we were there, I couldn’t help but notice that the majority of the audience was over 50 years of age (probably over 60). This was not something that I had given any thought to when I had called in to reserve tickets for the six plays I would be seeing this year. But now, after thinking things over, I see that my actions have been extremely old lady-ish in this matter. I did ask for all matinees for my season tickets, thinking to leave my evenings free. Now while this made perfect young person sense at the time (I want to leave my evenings free for our Saturday Night dinner group), when we had discovered the age group of most of our fellow play goers, I couldn’t help but visualize myself in a Seinfeld episode, walking with his parents into a restaurant at 4:30 in the afternoon so that we can get the early bird special. Pretty soon, I’ll be happy that we reserved mostly matinee tickets to the plays, not because I want to be able to do other things at night, but because I want to be able to get home to bed. I’ll be that mean old lady who arrives 45 minutes late to the production with seats in the exact center of the row, expecting people to get up and out of my way because I need to sit down regardless of anyone around me (this happened to us on Saturday), telling all those youngsters that their music is too darn loud and that they should have more respect for their elders, and driving 35 miles per hour in a 50 mph zone (I shudder to think).

New Babies For My Siblings

2009-01-27T19:00:00.002-07:00

It has been such an exciting month for my family. One of my brothers and his wife had their fifth child, and my little sister had her first. Jared has three little boys and now two little girls. Baby Alexandra was born on January 6th and she is adorable! It's such a shame that they live all the way across the country and we have moved back to Salt Lake where it's a lot harder to visit. Jared did send me some pictures of the new little tike. Jenn had her first baby, Boston on January 8th. Chris and I were able to drive down to St. George and visit him when he was just a couple of weeks old. He's such a good little boy. He doesn't really cry, he sort of squeeks if he's unhappy, which isn't often. I only heard his sad little squeeking once while we were visiting and it was so cute that I had to laugh. While we were there, Chris did hold the baby, which is sort of a feat in itself. I have never seen him hold any babies and it was so fun to see him hold Boston. Below are two pictures of baby Lexie, one with her brother Dominic, two pictures of Baby Boston, with his favorite aunt and uncle, and one of my little brother Jason who had his 21st birthday January 7th. I thought since they were all birthday children, I would include them all.

A Vacation From My Vacation

2009-01-06T09:42:00.001-07:00

I was thrilled when I found out a few weeks before Christmas that the college was going to be closing for a couple of weeks and that I would be getting a nice long paid vacation. I was going to have very little to do but sit in my cozy little house and read for two blissful weeks. How silly it was for me to think that things would be so simple. There wasn’t one day when I was allowed to sit quietly and do nothing. Part of that is my own fault, I did invite my little brother to come and stay with me for a week. My list of activities included:
The annual Glauser Family Christmas Eve Party
Chris’ dear little grandpa has a party every Christmas Eve, which is quite involved. There is a dinner, a genuine Christmas pageant with family actors and costumes and singing, and a visit from a dirty little Santa who had a penchant for having married women kiss him on the cheek and slapping his wife on the behind. Chris cousins are a riot and I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time.
Christmas Day
Much of this day had been planned out by Chris’ sweet mother who loves an excuse to have all her family around her. We had brunch together and then went bowling before going home to open presents. We waited to open presents until one of Chris’ brothers got off work. Chris’ mom had gotten us all Utes Sugar Bowl tee-shirts to wear during the game. Every time one of us opened our shirt, there would be a chorus of Utah Man before someone else was allowed to open their next present. We all then went to see a movie before going home to bed.
Boxing Day
Okay, this is not an American holiday, for me, it’s just a nice way of saying the day after Christmas. My mother taught me the term (being from New Zealand, she knows all about Boxing Day). Anyway, the day after Christmas we went with some friends to the Red Iguana, which was featured on one of the Food Network shows that we like. It was excellent and then we went bowling once again (I know there seems to be a theme of bowling among my holiday activities what can I say).
The Week After Christmas
Now some of these days do run together. We, of course, went to church two of these days. Jordan came up with Jeaneah when she came back from visiting the family. We went to a couple of movies (yet another activity theme. I think I saw more movies over the break than I’ve seen in the past six months). We went out to eat several times, one of those times visiting Chris’ new office down town and taking him to lunch. His office is very nice with a great view, which is better than his previous office which was always freezing and had a great view of a brick wall. We watched the Sugar Bowl with a group of friends, of course wearing our Christmas Sugar Bowl shirts, and cheering the Utes on to a fantastic victory over a much too cocky team who thought that playing the Utes would be a cake walk. My dad came up to visit for a couple of days as well. We went out to eat with him a few times as well.
Before I knew it, it was Monday and I had to go back to work, and while the vacation was great, I’m glad to be back at work so that I can finally get some rest.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-14T17:57:00.004-07:00

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

2008-10-26T18:59:00.003-06:00

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

2008-10-26T18:51:00.001-06:00

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

2008-10-12T18:38:00.003-06:00

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

2008-10-02T08:25:00.000-06:00

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

2008-09-26T20:11:00.009-06:00

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

2008-09-16T07:05:00.000-06:00

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!

2008-09-14T16:10:00.007-06:00

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

2008-09-04T07:45:00.000-06:00

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

2008-08-26T07:53:00.002-06:00

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

2008-08-22T07:44:00.000-06:00

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

2008-08-12T15:39:00.000-06:00

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...

2008-07-30T08:01:00.000-06:00

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

2008-07-11T10:57:00.002-06:00

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

2008-07-05T10:59:00.002-06:00

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

2008-07-02T13:55:00.002-06:00

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?

2008-06-30T13:28:00.003-06:00

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

2008-06-24T08:53:00.003-06:00

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

2008-06-17T11:55:00.004-06:00

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

2008-06-04T09:03:00.005-06:00

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

2008-05-22T13:15:00.003-06:00

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

2008-05-21T09:46:00.002-06:00

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

2008-05-16T13:43:00.009-06:00

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

2008-05-09T21:13:00.002-06:00

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

2008-05-08T06:18:00.002-06:00

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

2008-05-04T19:03:00.000-06:00

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

2008-04-27T07:37:00.003-06:00

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

2008-04-23T08:26:00.000-06:00

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

2008-04-15T16:47:00.004-06:00

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

2008-04-14T19:37:00.002-06:00

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

2008-04-07T11:46:00.000-06:00

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

2008-04-02T13:47:00.000-06:00

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

2008-03-31T20:39:00.006-06:00

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.

Keeping Chris Entertained Entertains Me

2008-03-25T08:18:00.000-06:00

There are many things that I love about my husband. I would like to enumerate them all here on the blog, but I don’t know if he would appreciate that so I’ll keep my enthusiasm about him down to a minimum; but I would like to write just a little bit about him. My Chris is one funny man especially when he’s not trying to be funny. We started talking about our move back to Salt Lake, and we decided that we are going to take our time driving across the country. On our way here to DC, we tried to make the trip as short as possible and were able to make it in just a couple of days. When we drive back to Salt Lake, we are going to take our time and see things that we haven’t seen before, specifically baseball games. The other day Chris planned out our entire route home by the baseball games that he wanted to see. At the moment, he has planned 4 baseball games (the tickets are already paid for) and would probably have added one or two more if I hadn’t put my foot down. He’s funny because he is more excited about our baseball tour than about being finished with law school and moving back close to his family and close friends. Fortunately his enthusiasm is contagious so I’m starting to get excited about seeing the games as well even though baseball is my least favorite sport to watch. I don’t mind watching a game or two, but I would much rather be watching Hockey or Football or even basketball. So instead of leaving on the 10th of May and making it home by the 12th or 13th, we are going to be extending our trip three, maybe four days. Luckily we don’t have to be home for Chris’ bar classes until the 19th, so if he should decide to add another game, we’ll still be back in time for him to attend. The trip should be a good time.

Our Car Part III

2008-03-23T20:29:00.000-06:00

To conclude the series about our car, I am pleased to announce that we finally got a new car. We decided to buy another Elantra because we really liked the one we had. For just a little bit more than the insurance check, we were able to buy a brand new 2008 Elantra, and I have to say, I'm not a big fan of the new car smell. I know, that's crazy talk, right? Some people will do an awful lot to get that smell, even buy a sent they can spray in their car that will smell the same. I am not a fan, though. What I am a fan of is all the new little compartments and new features of the car. I'm a sucker for gizmos. We can hide things all over our car, and who knows if we'll ever find them again. We'll have to do some real searching if we need to find something in there. It's a relief to finally have that all taken care of. I've been driving around in an awful rental car that was big and bulky and had huge blind spot because the car was attempting to look sleek while in reality, it was just making it hard to see. The windows were all slanted at odd angles making it hard to see. But now we have a nice car that I feel comfortable driving. The end.

Thanks For The Recommendation, Mummie

2008-03-21T18:44:00.003-06:00

My mother has been telling me for ages to read Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. She told me that it's a really funny book and that I would get a kick out of it. Of course she was right. You should always listen to your mother. I'm a big Steinbeck fan. I've read a number of his books while we've been here in Virginia, mostly because there always seems to be one that I haven't read when I'm perusing used books. I with the exception of one or two, I've found that his books are funny and enlightening and insightful. Cannery Row was not one of the exceptions. It was very entertaining of course, but what I liked best about it were the characters. Steinbeck is able to portray his characters in such a way that one is able to empathize with them in almost anything that they do. He is able to make vagrants, prostitutes, and philanderers almost lovable. The main characters of Cannery Row scam a store owner out of giving them a free place to live, they end up practically destroying a laboratory, they lie, they cheat people out of money and other goods, they drink too much and they do other things that would normally make them objects of derision. But Steinbeck is able to show these characters as well meaning. Nothing they do is malicious and as we follow their thought processes we find that they are really kind and want to do good, though things they try to do end up going wrong most of the time which is what makes the book so funny. I would definitely recommend this book.

Why Don't We Just Buy A New Car Every Year. Oh Wait...

2008-03-14T13:45:00.002-06:00

I had written a post regarding our car the other day, but it was just too bitter and angry to post, so I’ve given myself some cooling off time, revised it and here it is. Chris and I get to shop for a new car, woo whoo. Last month I was rear ended as you might remember from a previous post. The damage to the car was considerably more than either I or the insurance people had originally thought, enough that fixing it would cost more than the car is worth (so they’re not going to). Thus, as soon as we hear how much the insurance company is going to give us to replace the car, Chris and I will once again be shopping for a new one. Luckily for us, we’re old pros at shopping for cars as we had just bought our freshly damaged Elantra only a year ago. I’ve been trying to talk Chris into buying us a car that has seat warmers for those long cold winter days in Salt Lake which we will be experiencing next year, but he doesn’t seem too enthusiastic, so it’s probably just a pipe dream. Alas!

Oh Canada

2008-03-10T20:12:00.005-06:00

Chris and I got back from Toronto on Saturday. We had a great time. A lot happened, so instead of writing a post that would be much too long, I've decided to just post the pictures instead. Enjoy!

This is Chris with the holy grail of hockey stuff. Now he can never win it!

There was no way I was going to kiss that thing. I don't know who's lips have been there. I told Chris if he gets cold sores, I'm never kissing him again!

This is where the Maple Leafs played for almost 75 years! Canada has so much hockey history. I know what your thinking...what are leafs?

This was at the new Maple Leaf stadium. Those crazy Canadians.

These are our seats at the game we went to. What seats? We got there and found out that we paid for standing room only!

In keeping with the hockey theme, we went ice skating. Look at Chris showing his stuff.

Chris was even able to get me onto the ice.

This was the biggest piece of pizza that I've ever eaten. It was really yummie!

Movies For One And All

2008-02-29T06:17:00.001-07:00

Last night the JRCLSSA had their monthly girls night, and it was my turn to host with a good friend. I am not a good host, to say the very least. I get really nervous when a lot of people listen to me at one time and I hate being the center of attention. So of course when I was talking, I was babbling like and idiot and making asinine comments when I would be talking like a normal human being if I was talking to just one person. Anyway, everything seemed to go fine. Sarah and I decided to do our night on Movies, so we picked out some of our favorites and had everyone email their favorite movie quotes and it worked out pretty well. We had a nice mix of some fun contemporary movies and old favorites. My contribution was a mix of old stuff. I love old movies, old musicals and whatnot. The dialogue in old movies seem to me so much better because they couldn’t rely on special movie effects and people were always breaking out into spontaneous dance routines (yes I know “spontaneous dance routines” is contradictory which is why it’s usually pretty funny). I got a chance to talk a little bit about some of my favorite movies last night, and while I’m sure people just thought I was a little crazy, they had the chance to humor me for a little while and I would be thrilled if someone sat down and watched one of those movies on my recommendation. It was a fun night.

Let's See How Much He Really Wants To Be A Lawyer

2008-02-20T09:26:00.005-07:00

As Chris is getting ready to finish his law school experience, he’s finding that getting out of law school seems to be a lot harder than getting in. Sure, in order to get into law school he had to take the LSAT exam and send in applications to good schools and maybe write an essay or two for those applications. But in order to call himself a lawyer, to use those three little letters at the end of his name, Esq. (not that he cares about that sort of thing, I’m just using that as an example of the little he receives after all the work he’s put in), he has to do everything but sign away the rights to our first born son. Of course he has to finish his final semester and get the diploma (he doesn’t want to attend graduation). After he’s finished with finals and graduation, however, he has to take another class to learn how to pass the Bar Exam, a grueling 2 or 3 day mind numbing horror of a test that over half the people who take in California fail (okay, so the Utah Bar pass rate is higher, but I’m going for effect here, experience the horror with me people). For the price of the class that Chris is taking before the bar, we could have taken a nice vacation, or put a nice down payment on a car, or paid our rent for a couple of months. After he’s finished the class, of course comes the Bar itself. But you can't just walk into the examination room and say “hey, can I take this test?”. Oh no, you have to send in an application that needs a background check, fingerprints, a passport type photo, driving records for the last three years, lawyer recommendations, peer recommendations, a urine sample, a blood sample, a lock of hair, the location of your childhood baseball card collection, and your signature to a paper stating that you haven’t sold your soul to the devil yet but he can have it for the right price after the test, and it all has to be notarized. Okay, okay, some of that is made up, but you get my point. The background check alone was enough to disturb the peace of our little family. Chris looked at the Bar application a month and a half before it was due, which should have been enough time, right? Wrong. Chris looked into it and apparently the background check can take up to 20 weeks to get back. 20 weeks! That means that an applicant would have to look at the application 5 months before turning in the application! Also, the application has to be turned in four or five months before you can take the exam, so really, you have to be getting ready to take the bar a good 9 months before you can take it. When Chris read that, he panicked a little bit because without the background check, they will not allow you to take the test, period. No excuses, no exceptions. Luckily the FBI is having a bit of a slow month because Chris got his background check back in a mere three weeks after doing everything he could to get it expedited. Chris is waiting on just one more letter of recommendation and his driving record and then after paying somewhere around $500 for the actual test, he can hold his head high as he walks into the test that everyone dreads for three years of law school. Hopefully he passes the first time because he has to wait 6 months before he can take it again, but if he does pass it, what a relief. Then he’s a lawyer.

The Smallest Things Can Lead To Thoughts On Religion

2008-02-15T08:27:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while, I’ll read a book that causes me to think seriously over my own thoughts on religion, though the book is not something that I picked up for spiritual education purposes. I’m a little ashamed to say that I haven’t read many books just for the edification of my spiritual well being. My reading has been focused in another direction and I’m not ashamed of the books I have read, just the lack of time I’ve spent on books that should demand some of my attention. However, I don’t feel that my time has been wasted or that my testimony has been neglected because I’ve been reading classics. On the contrary, I’ve found that I’ve spent a lot of time pondering over what the gospel teaches and what I believe in due to some of these books. Some of the books have been pretty religious in and of themselves, though not LDS books, like Siddhartha and The Screw Tape Letters. It would have been very hard for me to read the story of Siddhartha, the story of the man trying to find his own religious path, and not think about the things that I’ve believed and done in my own life to have the peace of mind and the knowledge of God that I do; and of course The Screw Tape Letters has so many ideas that correspond with the LDS religion that it’s hard to believe that C. S. Lewis wasn’t a Mormon. There are also books that are not overtly religious that lead me to the realization that I am truly blessed to have the gospel in my life. At the moment, I’m reading The Razors Edge by Somerset Maugham. The religious aspects of this book are fluttering around the edges of the story at the moment, and may take a bigger role in the story later, but up to where I am in the book the author has made one or two small comments that have stopped my reading short and have brought me to the contemplation of how grateful I am that I have a knowledge of the gospel and the truth of things that many people are searching for.

But Baby It's Cold Outside

2008-02-14T08:00:00.001-07:00

Chris and I have been pondering what to do with the week off school he gets for Spring Break. I have enough time off to take the week off work so we decided to go somewhere. Some friends of ours are going to Orlando and we had the option of going with them. Chris has a brother doing an internship in the Virgin Islands, so we could have decided to go there. Both those options were fine by me, I’m always up for going somewhere warm and sunny. After all, his spring break is the first week in March, a time where it’s still pretty cold and a time when we’re trying to recover from the effects of the bleakest month of the year. I hate February, it’s cold, usually overcast and if not the days are still pretty short so you don’t see the sun as much, and there’s nothing to look forward to in February. It’s only redeeming quality is that it’s short. But all this is beside the point. The point is that Chris and I, instead of deciding to go somewhere where we could shake off the effects of the cold, decided to go to Toronto. That’s right, we’re leaving for a week to go somewhere even colder! I hate being cold, and everyone who knows me knows I hate being cold, including Chris, so this should be an interesting trip. Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited to be going to Canada. It will be a first for both of us and I’m sure we’ll have a great time. Chris’ dad went on his mission to Toronto, so it holds more interest for us than it might have otherwise. I just wanted to point out the irony of leaving for spring break to go to Canada where spring probably won't arrive for another three months. Also, a little later in March, we are going to the Virgin Islands, so I suppose everything evens out.

The Curse Of The Rear-Ender

2008-02-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

So I think that I must be cursed. I got rear-ended today on the way to work. This in and of itself is nothing to panic about, I wasn’t hurt, just a little shaken up, and the damage to the car was minimal compared to the three other cars involved. This can hardly constitute as a curse, right? I would agree if this was the first time, but this is the third time that I’ve been rear ended, the second time in our car that we bought just over a year ago! I was rear-ended three days before I met Chris (actually, I think that that accident was a part of the reason Chris and I got together in a weird sort of way). Then we were hit from behind on our way home from Church a month after we bought the car. It was snowy and the roads were slippery. Finally, I was hit today. I think that there must be magnets attached to me somewhere or a sign that says “Hit this car! Hit it hard, hit it often!” None of the accidents were my fault, but I think that there must be some sort of reason why accidents are following me around looking for the opportune moment. I think the only explanation is a curse. Someone hexed me, probably for cutting them off in traffic.

A Return To A Past Subject

2008-02-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have noticed the glaring absence of posts about my hockey team on this blog. For all my claiming to be a hockey fan, perhaps more of this blog should have been devoted to the play of that sport. Not So! Some of you may remember my impassioned plea to my sisters to stop praying for my team to lose because they were in dead last place. Well, things have improved dramatically since then, so dramatically, in fact, that I was afraid of them redoubling their efforts when they heard how well our team has been doing since then. They are now in contention for first place in their division and are steadily moving up the ranks in the rest of the conference! Let me tell you a little bit about what has been happening with out team. On Thanksgiving Day, they fired their coach (I’m sure that the chants of “fire Hanlon!” from the crowd had something to do with that). Since then our team has been on fire! Their young superstar has the most goals out of everyone in the entire NHL. Their rookie was named the NHL rookie of the month for December and was the first rookie ever to post 4 points in consecutive games. Another player who has been playing on the minor league team but came to the NHL recently is one of the top 40 players in number of shots blocked and he’s only played in half the games that the other top 40 have. One of our young defensemen has the most goals out of all defensemen. They swept the number one team in the east, winning all four games. And last, but not least, the Caps have won us free wings! (one of the sponsors of the caps, a restaurant, have a promotion where if the Caps score 6 or more points in a home game, anyone who has a ticket can take it in and get some free buffalo wings. The caps did it once before the turnaround of the team, but it was a Saturday night, and Sunday isn’t the day for us to be getting buffalo wings. The second time they did it, however, was a Wednesday and those Thursday wings were good!) Also, Chris and I were able to go to the Caps meet the team party which is held every year for season ticket holders. It’s kind of neat to see all the players close up (they’re much bigger in person than they appear from our seats and on tv) and get autographs and everything, plus this year they gave us free tee-shirts and snacks and it was at the party that they announced that they had signed their superstar for 13 years. But don’t worry Jeaneah and Jenn, the playoffs (should we happen to make it that far) will be over in time for our trip!

I'm Not Writing About Anything Inparticular

2008-01-23T12:13:00.000-07:00

The other day I was writing to my brother on his mission. I realized that the letter was pretty short. I wanted to write more about what Chris and I were doing, but then it hit me, Chris and I don’t really do anything but go to hockey games or stay home and read and watch tv. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the way things are going for us. You might think that we would get on each others’ nerves since we really only have one room in our apartment and we spend almost every waking moment together from the time I get home from work, but we haven’t. However, this makes for some boring reading. What should I write to my brother? Chris says I should make stuff up, he’ll never know the difference anyway. Missionaries will believe anything like “sure I’m interested in your message”. (This is what Chris said during our conversation last night. It took me a minute to figure out what he was talking about. Missionaries, Message? Oh, Right.) I know that Chris was joking, but wouldn’t it be awful to write a bunch of lies to a missionary? That would be like telling a dirty joke to the bishop. It’s not going to get you excommunicated, but there may be some uncomfortable questions about your spiritual wellbeing. I suppose Jason, the missionary, will have to be content with my vague and somewhat abstract ramblings, much as the people who read this blog are.

Talk About The Weather And Everybody's Health

2008-01-17T12:14:00.000-07:00

Normally, I wouldn’t write a post about the weather. It’s boring and what can I use for small talk if I have already written about it? However, Virginia is such an odd place in the winter that I have to make mention of it. It’s snowing right now. For the family and friends from out west, I’m sure the general consensus is “snow? Who cares.” For the area in which we live, however, the mind set is, “It’s snowing? I had better go stock up on toilet paper and bottled water before I’m stranded!” Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but seriously, people tend to go a little crazy when the weather turns bad. I was driving in to work this morning, it was a bit cold, but not a drop of moisture to be seen. Then on the radio, the dj announces that the schools in such and such counties have been closed due to an impending storm expected to drop one to two inches of snow. An Impending Storm! That’s right, it hadn’t even started snowing yet and the panic had already set in. And, apparently, whenever it’s about to snow, people rush to the supermarket and stock up on supplies as if they’re preparing for some sort of natural disaster. I would almost like to go to the local supermarket and sit and watch people prepare for the worst before a storm. I'm sure the scene would be kind of novel and a little funny, like a talking dog. Also, may I just say that if they cancelled school every time it snowed one or two inches in Idaho, school would only be two months long. At Bear Lake High, they only cancelled school if the temperature was -20º or colder, and that was only because the busses wouldn’t start when it was that cold. They didn’t care how much it snowed or if there were two inches of pure ice on the roads, as there sometimes were for weeks on end. Not that I’m complaining. I’ve gotten a few days off work due to snow, and it’s always entertaining to watch people out here react to bad weather. Speaking of getting days off work, due to snow, our office closed early today!

A Few Games

2008-01-09T05:56:00.000-07:00

The other night, Chris and I were invited to play some games with some friends. It was a really fun evening for a few reasons. 1) Getting to know better some great people. There were four couples there and having the chance to chat with everyone was fun even if I spend most of my time just laughing and listening and slipping in a comment when it had the least chance of being heard. 2) We watched the premier of the show American Gladiator. The show is a remake of a show that was on ages ago and they have now brought back in high style. I don’t know how many people watched it when it was on years and years ago, but in the small group we were with on Sunday, the majority had seen it and liked it and one person who was there amazed us with his American Gladiator savvy as he recalled the most famous of contestants, “Two Scoops”. Actually, the show is really entertaining, more funny than anything. We laughed most of the way through it. And it’s always more fun to laugh about something with a group. 3) There were some really good treats. I don’t make many treats anymore because I usually only eat them when they’re fresh from the oven and Chris has to eat the rest. I stopped making them too often so that Chris doesn’t gain 500 pounds. This was a fun chance to catch up on some good dessert. 4) We played some fun card games. My side of the family has always played cards as a family activity, as you can tell from the picture in Jeaneah’s blog post. I miss playing cards with them. As it’s not as much fun playing with just two people, Chris and I don’t usually play so this was like being home. Thanks Hopkins’!

2008-01-01T17:01:00.000-07:00

Hi, this is Jeaneah. First person to guess who got a digital camera for christmas wins a prize.....yup, it's me. This is a picture of the card playing that went on at Mom and Dad's this christmas.....super fun! Gotta love that Lucky Duck. Jen and I were able to spend chrismas with the fam this year, and Char came along later in the day. We all played a lot of Mario Party on the WII, and I don't want to make Jaime jealous but there might have been some guitar hero involved as well. Then for Dad's birthday Mom, Jordan, Joe, Dad and I all headed for Reno where we watched National Treasure II (we all loved it!) and then we went to Claime Jumpers where we had an I Declair!!! My Favorite. We ran into the Hyde's at Claime Jumpers and we told them it was Dad's birthday and then they bought our dinner for us. They are so nice! So it was a great holiday in good ol' Hadley!

Christmas with the Chris Glausers

2007-12-31T05:51:00.001-07:00

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

2007-12-20T05:50:00.000-07:00

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

2007-12-18T05:45:00.000-07:00

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

2007-12-13T06:11:00.000-07:00

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

2007-12-06T19:08:00.001-07:00

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

2007-12-03T12:07:00.000-07:00

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

2007-11-29T19:41:00.001-07:00

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

2007-11-29T05:45:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-11-16T17:49:00.000-07:00

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

2007-11-11T13:12:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-30T20:13:00.000-06:00

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

2007-10-25T20:10:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-10-25T17:59:00.001-06:00

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

Walk For Autism

2007-10-23T10:40:00.000-06:00

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

2007-10-23T06:12:00.000-06:00

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.