Men at Work

I have been told that I work too hard. It might be true. With that said and done, I do think I work harder than some people. Today we have a classic example, my husband and all the guys he works with. This video was taken by my husband, at work, with his phone. Countless hours have been spent at Orange Soda "throwing cards." I must say they are getting pretty good at it. The video is impressive. I wish I had time during the work day to throw cards around at objects as hard as I could. Could you imagine..."Hang on kids, I know it's math time, but I want to see if I can throw this card hard enough to stick into the eraser on Bobby's pencil. It's ok Bobby, hold it up high, teacher isn't going to hurt you." I guess I've got the wrong job if that is what I want to do all day long. In all honesty, I'd rather read stories to kids than throw cards any day.

Christmas Music

Tis the season to be jolly! This is a great time of the year for really good music. I am one that feels very strongly that it is an abomination to listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving, unless it is snowing. But once Thanksgiving is over I am ok with listening to Christmas music 24 hours a day. There are SO many good Christmas CDs out there. I try and fill my day with lots of good Christmas music so that I don't have all the cheesy Elementary School Christmas songs stuck in my head. You know classic songs like Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and Must Be Santa. (It's ok to sing along, it's stuck in my head right now....Must be Santa. Must be Santa. Must be Santa, Santa Claus.) Each year there are new Christmas CDs that I fall in love with. This year it's Josh Groban's Noel CD. Who wouldn't want to listen to him sing all day long? All I have to say is it's about time he put out a Christmas CD. He even sings with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Way to go Josh! Other favorite CDs include: Jim Brickman, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Jewel, Lonestar, The Osmonds, Frank Sinatra (SOOO GOOD!), and Barbra Streisand. Oh, and don't forget BNL. What are some of all of your favorite Christmas CDs?

We're Famous!

We proudly announce that we are famous. And what better thing to be famous for, but complete insanity. What? You don't understand. One of my favorite traditions is going shopping the day after Thanksgiving. We strategically planned out our shopping this year. We woke up at 3:45am and by 10am we had been everywhere we had planned to go. The most excited part of our shopping trip of insanity was that as we were standing in line at Kohl's for our $1.99 deal, a reporter took some pictures of us. She took a ton of pictures and talked with us for a while. Then later, she brought over another reporter who talked with us for bit more. We laughed about how funny it would be if we actually "made the paper." Surprisingly enough, we made the front page! Fortunately for those of us who looked like we woke up at 3:45am our picture didn't make the paper. I would attribute this to the fact that we were reading the Book of Mormon while waiting in line and they wouldn't want to . . . well you know. For whatever it is worth we were quoted twice for being completely insane. It was SOOO much fun. No doubt we'll be there again next year.

Thanksgiving Fun

I think everyone knows that I HATE staying inside all day long. I love being outside. I've never made a good couch potato. Anyway, Thanksgiving day is a day that is typically one of those days that you spend a lot of time inside. We went to Idaho for Thanksgiving and it was lots of fun. We slept in Thanksgiving morning. We spent a fair amount of time looking through the adds for the after Thanksgiving Day sales. We helped make food. And of course, we ate, and ate. By the time we were done eating though, I was done being inside. We decided to take a walk around the Green Belt. For those of you who are not native Idahoans the Green Belt is this park with about a 2 1/2 mile trail that loops around the Snake River. It also goes right by the Idaho Falls temple. We spent about hour, freezing, walking around. It was SOOOOO nice to get out. And Mahon, Devin's brother, got some great pictures.

What an Example!

I'd like to dedicate this blog entry to my little brother Peter. He has always been an incredible example to me. He is one of those guys who not only knows what is right, but he does what is right too. I remember when we were younger, someone somewhere talked about music and how we shouldn't listen to any music that was inappropriate in any way. He went right to his CDs and got rid of any CD that had even one song that was inappropriate in any way. I will never forget watching my brother break the CDs out by the garbage can in the driveway. He could have sold them or traded them in, but he knew that if he shouldn't be listening to them, that no one else should be either.

That was a long time ago. Once again Peter did something that I am so proud of. Peter is one of those manly men, with his manly man toys. He use to have a bullet bike and a dirt bike. He has sold those over the past few years to help pay for college. This last Wednesday he sold his last manly toy. His truck. All so that they wouldn't have to take out a loan to pay for next semester. Wow! Way to sacrifice! Way to have your priorities straight! We were passing through Logan just as the sale was being made so we were able to take one last picture of the family with the truck. I am so proud of my brother! Not many guys would be willing to make that kind of sacrifice. I know someday he'll have another truck, bigger and better....and I bet he'll pay cash for it. :)

Check Another One Off

Devin and I have set a goal to go to all the temples in the United States. Yes, it is a lofty goal, seeing as they keep building more and more (which is a good thing). We decided that we would stop and go to the Logan Temple on our way to Idaho for Thanksgiving. It was fun to go to this temple together. Devin's parents were married in the Logan temple. We also had the chance to stop in and visit Peter, Emily, and Zach. It will be great to mark off another temple on our list when we get home.

What Do You Do When Your Husband Is Gone?

I am grateful that my husband is a hard worker. Not only does he work full time for Orange Soda, but he also works with his aunt Pam doing photography for horse shows. This has become the root of many jokes. If Devin isn't gone camping with the scouts, the he's working at a horse show. He actually hasn't done as many shows this year. The reason why I mention this is the fact that yesterday we celebrated with much enthusiasm the final horse show of 2007! YEAH!!!!!! It wasn't even a real horse show. It was the awards banquet. Devin got all dressed up (He looks good doesn't he?) and went up to the show at about 2pm on Saturday. This left me with most of the day to do???????? I was done with the wash, my lesson was ready for church, and I wasn't in the mood to do anything for school. So what was there to do?

Well, I ended up working on my quilt blocks and our Christmas stockings. The best part was not only could I spread all my sewing stuff all over, I could also listen to Anne of Green Gables all day. I did end up getting out of the house later to run a few errands, just to get a break and get out of the house for a while. I worked until about 11:30pm when Devin got done, and when my book was finished. As many times as I have heard the story of Anne of Green Gables I love it more each time. It's definitely a classic. Even though I enjoyed having time to get things done and to listen to a good book, I'd rather have my husband home. I just glad it's the last show for the season.

Hey Everybody! It's Family Night!

Family Home Evening is really important. Let's face it though, sometimes doing FHE just the two of us isn't as much fun. We usually do the same thing each week. We sing a hymn, read a talk from Conference or the Ensign, and that's it. We find that it is great fun to get together with our friends and do FHE together. That way we spice up the FHE experience. This last week I wanted to go up the the Church History Museum to see all their new stuff. We called up Megan and Ben who live minutes away from the museum, because we miss hanging out with them since they live SO far away (40 minutes, I know, it's not that far).

We had a great time. I LOVE church history. I never get sick of learning about the pioneers and the history of the church in general. If you haven't been lately you should go. They have stuff on the tabernacle. They have some really cool new displays on the prophets. (Benson, Hunter, and Hinckley) Ben had lots of fun practicing what it must be like to give a talk in the Conference Center. We also loved the new children's area. We spent quite a bit of time at the "Build Your Own Temple" table. Which one do you think is the best?

New Additions to the Family

We have had two new recent additions to the family because we have been saving up our "fun" money. I'm sure Devin has been going through withdrawals because he hasn't bought a new computer for a while. He REALLY wanted to buy a new computer. I'm just glad he's been converted to the wonderful world of Mac. Our other new addition, I guess is two things. Our old washer was ok, but the dryer made Saturday wash into a all day extravaganza. (2 hours to dry a load of wash was just....too much). So we when to "look" at washer and dryers, just to get thinking about it, and well, we came home with a new set to be delivered on Tuesday. I must say they are not perfect. How often to you have a washer that washes slower than a dryer drys. But they are super quite and, it took us half as long to get our wash done today. I still don't know how to work all the nifty buttons, but at least the wash is done, and my husband has a cool new computer for him to use...if I'll give it up so he can use it.

Ward Chili Cook Off

I would say that my confidence in cooking is not that high. Now that I am an old married woman, I am trying to branch out and try new recipes. So when the sign up sheet came around Sunday School for the ward Chili Cook Off, I thought I'd at least try. (There is always the back up of Nallys Chili in a can.) But as luck would have it, the good old internet led me to a chili chicken recipe that had the two most important ingredents that make any recipe good. #1 It had chicken. #2 It was a WAY easy crock-pot throw all the stuff in you don't even have to pre-cook anything kind of recipe. So, with the help of my husband who took a flying 15 minute break from work to come and chop up the chicken and turn the crock-pot on, I had my chili that I thought would at least be acceptable to bring for a food assignment for a ward function. I don't where I missed the important factor that this was a "Cook Off." This means that there would be votes and judging going on. Well, it turns out that my easy-cheesy internet recipe won! (Though I think my Young Women had something to do with me getting so many votes) The best part of it all was that the cute little German man in our ward came up to me after and said, in his German accent, "I just want you to know, that I wanted to vote for your chili, but my wife made me vote for hers." When I told him that it was my first time making chili, he laughed and said his wife has been working for years to perfect her chili recipe and it just isn't fair that a first timer could make such good chili. I attribute it to luck...and a wonderful thing called Google that let me to such a good recipe.

Happy Halloween!

Anyone who has ever been a teacher, would agree that Halloween is the most "exciting" day of the school year. If you can live through Halloween, the rest of the school year is down hill. This year was really not bad at all. We had fun doing "Halloweeney" things all day long, and yes we even got a lot of learning done (without the kids knowing it..I'm so sneaky). I dressed up as Pippi Longstocking. Unfortunately, most kids these days don't have a clue of who she is. They asked, "Teacher are you suppose to be a reindeer?" HONESTLY!!!!!