That Man Is Poking...

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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.