We've done it.

Well, with this post we've done it.

For those of you that don't know Jamie and I have been participating in NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month, that's really fun to say). We've been trying our best to post every day and we did it! Yay!

Here are some things that we learned in doing so.

Blogging is hard.
We are boring.
Jamie is a talented writer (not that we didn't know that, but it was a good reminder).
Blogging helps us reflect on our lives.
Being able to prewrite posts is awesome for vacations and holidays.
It's not as hard as you'd think (Jamie).
When you force a post it ends up coming out poorly.
Talk about things that you are interested in like puppies or aardvarks.
When you ask for engagement people will typically engage.
Jamie is talented (again, not a new discovery, but a good fact none-the-less).
It is possible to maintain a blog and have a life.
We watch far too much Psych... I don't know if blogging taught us this, but it's true.
When you blog about something like Christmas gifts the people you are gifting to start talking about it.
Blogging is fun, really. Trust me. I just did it for a month.

I'm sure that there are more profound lessons in the world. I'm just setting into a food coma due to the copious amounts of noodles and flatbread that I just ate.

What is your favorite part about blogging?

Christmas Shopping

I have had an oddly hard time remembering to get Christmas stuff going at the beginning of December since I started college. I will finish finals, and realize that I have NO idea what to get anyone for Christmas. I just get distracted with finals. This year, with David's help, we have figured out what we are getting most everyone. (hooray!) The only problem with this is that the only ones we haven't figured it out for are really hard to pick/think of something for.
The more time I spend living not with my family, the harder it is to find gifts that I know that they will love. It is kind of hit or miss depending on the person and the year. Either way, they get a thoughtful gift or a way cool one that they will like, but isn't so "thoughtful".
And, I am totally stumped on what to get David. Eek!

Great Day

So, last night I turned a paper. I had another one due on Wednesday that was just as long. I went to class today and my teacher not only bumped the due date to Saturday, but cancelled class on Wednesday. Isn't that great?

Jamie and I planned the last few weeks of classes mapped out and (with the movement of that paper) the semester is fairly even with little pressure. Finals week will be interesting. I've got a few finals on Tuesday... like 3 in a row. I should clarify that I've got one final, a T.A. final (I just get to watch other's suffer), and a presentation.

To celebrate the season we're decorating a tree tonight. It should be a lot of fun.

Speaking of trees, let me tell you about one of Jamie's favorite things: vintage Shiny Bright ornaments.

She loves them. We have them all over our tree, in fact, I do believe that they will probably be the only kind of ornaments on our tree... that and her Fisher-Price nativity ornament.

Christmas Music

Well, it is after Thanksgiving, so I can't get away with being a grump about people playing Christmas music. I really do love it, but after a month of the same songs, I get tired of it. So, I wait until my month of loving it can fully cover Christmas.
The only acceptable way to have Christmas music before Thanksgiving is when it is a choir/piano/etc. recital/performance piece. You need more than just the month before to practice. So those who practice earlier, go for it. And good luck.
I love finding new Christmas music/artists, so I am going to share some of my favorites, and hope that you will comment with some of your favorites. (Please?)

Carpenters Christmas: I grew up listening to this, so nothing says Christmas time! like this does for me. I think that they are a classic.
Michele McLaughlin: I discovered her last year on Pandora and ended up creating a station there based on her music. Fantastic solo piano.
Trans-Siberian Orchestra: I got a couple of their albums a couple years ago and love both of them. The words are surprisingly tender and contrast a bit with the style of music. I have The Lost Christmas Eve and Christmas Eve and Other Stories. Both albums are great, and quite different from traditional Christmas music.
George Winston: Another pandora discovery
Mannheim steamroller: some strange stuff, but it is good and it is a classic.
Mormon Tabernacle Choir: Always good.
Michael Buble Christmas
These are just the ones that I can think of that I love. I will comment if I think of any more.
What are your favorite Christmas albums/artists?

Success

Thanksgiving is a success.

I personally declare it.

We ate stuffing and turkey until we waddled. We had a salad that was to die for. Potatoes and yams came out our nose. I think I ate an entire pie.

We played with cousins and talked with grandparents. We saw Christmas lights and braved stores on Friday morning. We didn't get annoyed at the Christmas music playing in stores. It is Christmas time.

We are putting up our tree next week. The semester is winding down. Christmas classics are on t.v. again and you can bet I'll be watching Rudolf.

For me, Christmas is about tradition. It's about gathering with family and thinking outside yourself. It's about lights and trees and nativity scenes.

Now if we can just get through finals it will really be Christmas time!

Strong Girl, Raised

My parents had only daughters, 2 of us. Their motto and reference for thinking in raising us girls was "Raise Strong Girls". They taught me to be smart, capable, and about what matters. 

Be Smart: My parents placed me in an environment, culture, and society where knowledge really is power. Learn, simply for the sake of learning. Read poetry simply because it invigorates your mind. The Church values knowledge and learning. Through this, also introduced to me and taught by my parents, I learned to value knowledge. Love to learn. I was taught that I have been blessed with a brain, and with that I have a responsibility to fill and use it. Their parents taught them the same lesson, and it was passed down to me. My poetry book is the same as one my grandpa has. His is heavily worn, all the pages read, spine held together by duct tape. I watch him slowly turn through the pages, reciting the poems printed on the pages, but not reading them. He pulls them deep from memory, from a place deeper than he seems to be able to access for other information. This, these familiar, learned, beautiful words are what he remembers. What you know is a solace, a comfort, a friend when all other things leave you. 

Be Capable: I learned to be capable, be independent. My place in the world is wherever I want to be. I have chosen to become a teacher, but eventually to stay home with my family. I was taught that what I can do is important. I need to have the potential to be completely independent. Should I need to support my family, and myself; I need to have the skills to do so. Throughout college I have taken classes in electronics, robotics, woodworking, sewing, cooking, finance, parenting, nutrition, interior design, among others. I am learning skills that I can use to take care of my family, if the need arises.

Know what matters: I learned that friends may come and go, but family is where time matters. I will always have my family and those relationships are more important than anything. I was taught to stay close to family members, help them, even when it means sacrificing something that I want, or time that I want to use elsewhere. The gospel matters. It also is more important than anything. Whatever happens, I will always have my family, and the Church.

Here I am, as a strong daughter, Raised.

Things I (David) am thankful for

It's a few days before Thanksgiving and since we are not going to have internet access over Thanksgiving I thought I'd schedule a post to go out.

I'm thankful for Jamie. She is so good to me. She keeps me organized and on top of things. Many days she is the reason that I put up with the projects and papers and drama at work. She makes me believe in myself. She helps me to laugh and let loose. I love her, I could write a whole book about that, but I'm going to move on.

I'm grateful for parents and in-laws. My parents are so fantastic. I love hearing from them. I'm excited that soon I will see them again. They support us in so many ways; it is great. I also am grateful for Jamie's family. It has been really nice to have family close while I'm at school. We have fun together. Don teaches me all sorts of things that I'd never know (like how to thread a fishhook and how to drive a boat). Karen makes me think about the community that I live in. She inspires me to be more involved.

I'm grateful for siblings.

I'm grateful for a good job where Jamie and I can work together.

I'm grateful for school, even though right now I am probably more grateful that it is almost over.

I'm grateful that I know where I'm going. I may not know the details specifically, but I'm grateful that I constantly receive confirmation that I'm going into a fascinating, increasingly important field.

I'm grateful for goldfish.

I'm grateful for friends who we have fun with, who we can talk to about troubles that we, as newly married BYU students, face on a daily basis. It's great to know that someone else feels the same way.

I'm grateful for my mission and all of the friends I made there. I miss you guys.

I'm grateful for warm beds on cold nights.

I'm grateful for life.

Pies 2: the aftermath

This is our kitchen this morning. Last night we made 2 pumpkin, 2 apple, and pudding for banana and peanut butter. This morning we baked two pie shells, made a cherry pie, and filling for chocolate cream. We still have a lot of assembly to do, but that can (and should) wait until closer to eating time. 

Crust central. (Yes, we cheated on a couple pies and bought crust) And that is the smoke detector that was having fits during the baking of the cherry and apple pies. 

That bag is full of tubs of cool whip. The sticky notes are on pie fillings.

Break.

Thanksgiving break started today.

The munchkin came over tonight. We made a few pies. We're making a few more tomorrow.

By the way, here were the winners of the poll.

Pumpkin, Peanut Butter, Banana Cream, Chocolate Cream, Apple, Cherry, and a possible Chocolate chip cookie and Lemon Fluff. We have everything for those, but probably no way to transport them... we'll see.

Anyway, it's break. My break is going to be consumed with three things: food, football and term papers... I'm excited for two of the three. Take a guess.

It's been a long day. I think we're going to bed soon.

Tuesday Misc.

So, I got a haircut today. I don't have my camera with me, but I will post a picture later tonight. We are off to the Lights On! celebration in a couple minutes. I had a really good sandwich today. It was with cookies, chips, and a peppermint patty. Tasty. I turned in the shirt today. Yay! And I  cut out the dress for my next project. Clothes for 3 year olds are a lot smaller than David's shirt. The pieces are SO tiny and SO cute!

As Promised, my hair.

Pies, pies, and more pies.

So, Jamie's making a bunch of pies for Thanksgiving. We can't decide which ones to make. Please vote and spare us the decision. You can vote for as many pies as you want so vote away! Please?

What pies should Jamie make for Thanksgiving? (Choose all that sound good)
	Apple
	Pumpkin
	Lemon Fluff (Lemon Cream)
	Chocolate Chip Cookie
	Chocolate Cream
	Peanut Butter Cream
	Cherry
	Mixed Berry
	Strawberry
	Banana Cream
	Pear Custard
	Apple Cider
	Key Lime
	Other (Leave a comment to tell us what you like)

Saturday Favorites

Some of my favorite things lately:

Draw A Stickman
Cinnamon Roll pie crust
This song.
Pinterest. Follow me! I am Irishchick, so search and follow me!
This video from work. We are starting to post every week so be sure to check our  youtube channel out!

I have been really busy trying to finish the shirt I am making for David in my sewing class, so I haven't done much else.

A week in passing

Today's blog will be short. We almost forgot! Yeep!

Here are some highlights from this week.

David took a Film Theory test, he thinks he did well.

After a very frustrating night in the sewing lab Jamie is almost done making a yellow dress shirt for David. He's excited because the sleeves on this shirt will fit... unlike all of the other long sleeve shirts he has.

Jamie went to HOLY COW (or the Pious Bovine as David calls it).

David started 3 of his final papers. One on Facebook, one on the Wii, and one on Firefly. It's going to be great!

We went five days without sweets! Yay!

Hiccup (our fish) is healed! He previously had a small red sore on his back fin.

Oh, did I mention that it's Thanksgiving next week? In honor of that I'll pose a question,

What's your favorite kind of pie?

Awkward & Awesome

Awkward
1. The lady who honked at me to hurry up when I was walking home. She was trying to turn her big truck into a driveway about 30 ft. ahead of me. I was walking and she honked and waved me to hurry up and go ahead of her. So I had to speed walk while she waited with the big fat end of her truck blocking traffic.
2. That moment when somehow your body knows you are the farthest point from a bathroom and it decides that you have to go, NOW. For example, you get all the way into the back corner of the basement, start looking for what you need, then have to run back upstairs to go to the bathroom. Or, you get to the bottom of the 1/4 mile long hill headed home from school, and you realize Dang! I either have to go up the hill again, or just hurry the 1 1/4 miles home. Then of course your keys are lost in your backpack. Etc.
3. Getting caught steaming your front door by a neighbor who snuck up the stairs. (It was GROSS!!!)
4. Squeezing a lime wedge and having it backfire onto your shirt. 3 wedges in a row..
5. Having the dead water heater pee on your pants as you are carrying it up the stairs. (David says it brought back unpleasant memories from his childhood...)
6. Being told in Stake Conference that we need to be willing to kill for the scriptures, like Nephi did. Also, we need to keep said scriptures on a cookie sheet on top of our refrigerator. (?!)

Awesome
1. Nearly having the shirt I am making for David be finished.
2. 7/11 Double Gulps.
3. Our new steamer. Its great. Super sale at Home Depot.
4. My sister shaving seconds off her time at every swim meet.
5.  It still hasn't snowed big yet!
6. Several classes being cancelled next week in anticipation for Thanksgiving
7. THANKSGIVING!!! My favorite holiday!!!

Dear Pedestrians, Cyclists, and Motorist,

I have a simple request, don't be stupid. That's right, another complaint about driving, walking, or biking around BYU. I'll start with the pedestrians. Remember when your parents taught you how to cross the street? Stop. Look both ways. Listen. Note the order on that, when you come to a road stop first. Then look to see if any cars are coming, then listen for anything that might be coming that you didn't notice at first. I don't know how many times I've seen pedestrian come to a crosswalk and without hesitation blow through the street on their phone or listening to their iPod. I know you have the right of way, but if a car hits you it'll still hurt.

            

Cyclists, two things. First, you know those things in front of you when you ride, they're called handlebars, use them. I don't care if your hands are cold, they should not be in your pockets. You wouldn't drive without a steering wheel, don't ride without using your handlebars. Second, when riding after dark use lights. Not only is it stupid if you don't, you're breaking the law.

            

Finally motorists, you know those red octagons that you keep seeing in the streets? They're called stop signs; you're supposed to stop at them, even if you think there is no one coming. By stop, I mean really stop, none of this rolling stop action. Also, when turning right at a red light stop, look for pedestrians and oncoming traffic then, and only then, go. Just last week I saw a car hit someone crossing the street because the driver didn't stop when turning right on red.

            
I've seen far too many accidents around campus this semester. Cyclists hitting pedestrians, cars hitting pedestrians, pedestrians running in front of cars and bikes. It needs to stop. So please, I beg of you, don't be stupid.

Goddess of Cloth

So we finally bought something to store my fabric in. For the last few months all my fabric has been crammed in a huge pile of plastic grocery bags, which all had to be dug through to find ANYTHING. They also fell out of my closet every time I pulled my sewing machine ou. Problem solved.  Hooray!

Extra fabric awaiting assignment

Projects in the works

All my fabric

Wow... I have a lot of sewing ahead of me...

Stress

Lately Jamie and I have been stressed lately.

We've got the second bout of midterms, papers coming up, work is moving faster than ever, life's really hitting us in the face at 100 mph.

But we're good. Really.

Somehow we're staying on top of everything. We've got a lot of stuff to do this week, but we're doing really well. We went shopping tonight and picked up an artichoke. It was delicious. We're doing homework, multi-tasking watching Vocal Point rock The Sing Off (We're also falling in love with Pentatonics, they're better and better every week). I also killed a midterm this morning. I went into it knowing everything that was on the test.

It just takes effort, granted we were up until 1 last night (this morning?) doing homework, we're riding on 5 hours of sleep, and we didn't have time for breakfast or to make sandwiches for lunch.

Life is good. It really is.

Interior Design and other such time consuming practices

As a participant in a 'design in the home' class, I am suddenly responsible for a (fake, unfortunately) condo and it's layout/design. Because of what I am learning, I have tackled the task of convincing my parents to update their basement. (original design: 1970s) It is harder to make someone that is not me agree with what I like. They have their own ideas (how dare they) on what they want in their house. I do enjoy the process and love researching ideas and looking at how other people have designed their spaces.

All that being said, I do think that interior design can be a bit of a... joke? It is more personal taste and new ideas than anything else.
The practice I am getting through this project and the condo design is great. I guess I am just loving the design/architecture aspect of it all. That is what I wanted to study at school, but BYU doesn't have a program. Oh well. Maybe someday I will be able to learn the drafting/architecture that I really want to do.

(P.S. my sister just asked: Did it ever occur to you how strange elephants are?)

Dear World

Dear World,

How about we not have to run up to Orem to help replace a hot water tank at Jamie's parents next week? How about you not make me (David) do homework all day for a midterm? How about we not have a refrigerator water line break and flood Jamie's parents' kitchen? How about we have BYU win (not that I'm worried... we're up 21 before the half)?

Oh, if you haven't noticed... Jamie redesigned our blog! Isn't it beautiful? We're trying to put social media buttons so you can talk about us and stuff... but we're still working on it.

today we also went to Jamie's sister's swim meet. She did way good, took a couple seconds off her time. Good work kiddo!

Jamie and I got a new toy today... a steamer. It's pretty much magical. Jamie has been using it all afternoon.

A few days ago I asked Facebook what would happen if you could eat yourself: Would you double in size or disappear? What do you think?

11-11-11

At 11:11 I was in my sewing class, working on the hem for a shirt for David. Everyone in class had spent the previous 15 minutes discussing 11:11 and what they were going to do at that time. 11:11 came and went, and nobody did anything. They looked at the clock at 11:15, disappointed they had missed it. Luckily, there is an 11:11 PM, so they have one more chance. (sidenote: we were married at 11:11, but not on 11/11/11 (obviously). Not intentional, but cool anyway.)
People are talking about the 'ultimate wish making time' with all the ones. I can't think of what my wish(es) would be. I guess most of mine are just hopes.
I hope that everything goes as planned and David can go to grad school where he wants and do exactly what he wants to do.
I hope that we can have a happy, successful family.
I hope that I can student teach (in a year) without having a nervous breakdown. (the thought of doing it terrifies me, even a year in advance.)
I hope David can find a job he loves while he waits for me to graduate.
The list goes on and on. Is hoping just another way of worrying? It feels the same sometimes.

What are your wishes on 11/11/11?

Awkward and Awesome

That's right, It's back. Awkward and awesome. Are you excited? Good, we are too.

Awkward:

Getting into a debate in the grocery store with a random lady about the usefulness of the 1.25 liter bottles of Coke.

Trying to set up your best friend with someone. Lets just say it involved a random pizza and breadsticks in the HFAC and 5 minutes... pure awkwardness.

Realizing a total lack of any gender clues on my other blog made people think I was a woman.

Taking a 15 minute nap before class only to wake up almost 2 hours later.

Work... enough said.

Awesome!

We're LIVE!

Getting the passwords at work we've been trying to get for a year.

Discovering the show Psych... its a great one.

Interiors teacher did not hate Jamie's floor plan... like he does pretty much everyones.

Crazybread. YUM!

Cookbook cleanup

So, I was planning to do a cool post about cookbooks. So I opened up my cookbook cupboard and saw Uh oh, its a mess. So I started organizing them. And somehow that organizing turned into 3 hours of typing up recipes to put into a better format in my binder of family recipes. So here I am, writing a post about a post that was going to happen.

Looking Forward

It's been a long day.

I want it to be Thanksgiving and Christmas already. I want turkey, stuffing, and pie. Oh, and yams. Yum.

Most of all I want a break from school. I love school, I really do. I'm just burnt out. And I like pie.

Oh, and we've got a couple of trips planned for Christmas break. I'm excited for those.

I should probably pay more attention in class instead of writing this blog post. I miss Jamie.

You can make my day much better by clicking on the button on this blog post.

Missing Florida

Maybe it is just the weather turning cold, or the fact that school is getting stressful, but all I have wanted to do for the last couple weeks was go back to Florida.
I guess we didn't blog about our trip; but we did go. We were able to spend a week in August in Clearwater, Florida in a condo on the beach. It was fantastic, of course. (as was the view)

I miss the rainstorms, where the puddles are weirdly warm and you can't help but enjoy yourself even if you are soaking wet. 

Sunshine Skyway in the rain

 I miss the big clouds, big sky, green everywhere.

I miss having adventures all the time, trying to figure out what we were doing. I miss hearing David suddenly remember the names of the people who live on whatever street and have strange stories about these people.
I miss the wonderful people that have made such an impact on David and through him, my own life. Hearing their stories and meeting them. I never realized I could miss people I only knew for a few hours.

I miss swimming for the first time in the ocean. Feeling the sand rush away with the waves under my feet. 

Watching the beach tractor come out and comb the sand in the morning, clearing away the seaweed and trash, keeping things beautiful. 

I miss being alone in a crowd, just one of many, but totally content watching everyone who is so different than I am. 

I miss the sunsets, walking on the beach, watching the sky change colors, the lights come on, and the birds settle down. 

 All I can say is that I hope we are able to go back to Florida again. (soon)

Root Beer Floats

Jamie is doing a rendering on her dream basement (and by that I mean her parents' basement redone)... it may not be her dream, but she's enjoying it.

She told me I need to blog. I'm blogging. There is a root beer float waiting for me when I finish.

We had stake conference today. We learned that you need to be willing to kill for the scriptures. AND that we need to keep them (Scriptures, not the dead guy) on a cookie sheet in the kitchen... why in the kitchen? I don't know. Why a cookie sheet? Ummm... probably so we can feast upon the word... right?

I helped Kellbert design and fix a 3D model of an animal cell and a plant cell. It's a lot better than the one I did on bread (teacher's idea) for Biology 1 class in High School. It's pretty epic.

I'm going to get a root beer float now.

Youtube Favorites

Halloween Candy- My favorite part starts at about 3 minutes in. The rest is pretty funny as well.

On a Buffalo- The first episode is the best, but the others are really funny too.

 We are awaiting the promised snowfall, but I'm okay that it hasn't come yet. Enjoy and have a great weekend.

How I got free cookies

So, last night after a long and tedious work meeting, I went to the class that I T.A. for. Upon sitting down, my professor said, "David! I tried to make those cookies that Jamie made for C. Jane and I couldn't find a spice cake mix!"

I was puzzled. I've been to the store twice this week and have seen spice cake mix in both stores. One of them was the BYU creamery. That store has nothing but cheese and ice cream... not then again,  I'm complaining; I like those things. When I told her that I had seen them at the creamery, my professor was shocked.

"If I gave you money would you get me some?"

Umm... yes?

So she hands me some money. I finish up a quick email and I start to leave.

"Wait!"

Umm... yes?

"If I gave you more money would you get something for the class too? I figure since you're a T.A. and not a personal assistant, if you're going to get something for me that you should get something for the class too, to make it legitimate."

Umm... yes?

Mmmm... Goooooood cooooookies!

Thursday. Not quite the weekend

Well, it has been a long day. I didn't have class (professor out of town) so I got to spend the day playing catch up on other classes. We had a long work meeting, then I had to spend 3 hours in the sewing lab on campus working on the shirt I am making for David for my sewing class.
After I finally got done for the night, David suggested that we go out for dinner. Last month (ish) one of our favorite places from Florida came to us! Firehouse Subs! Yay! So of course we went there. It was great, as usual. It is late now, and we are both tired and want to watch Psych (Yes, we are just starting Psych. We have both seen episodes here and there, but we just started from the beginning.) Maybe we will scrounge up some Awesome/awkward moments for tomorrow.

Update from David

Hello again!

It's been a long while since I've posted to this blog. If you don't already know I started another one for scholarly stuff in January and have focused some attention to that one lately.

Speaking of that blog I had a cool experience where I got a ton of traffic on it in one day because the blogger C Jane Kendrick mentioned a post I wrote on her blog. Since then I've had people contact me for questions, criticisms, and all sorts of other things about the post. C Jane even wrote a response in the Deseret News to my post. It was awesome!

Other than that my world has been consumed with writing and submissions. I'm done with school in one semester and am scrambling to get some scholarly recognition for my work. I've submitted stuff to ORCA and Weber States' NCUR symposium. I'm also planning on redoing one article for BYU's religious studies symposium. Wish me luck!

I also entered a contest to win a Kindle! You can help me by clicking the badge on this post. Thanks!

That's really my life, teaching, writing, playing, being awesome. It's great!

Here We Are: Again!

Well here we are again, nearly 4 months since our last post. It is November again, meaning it is time for NaBloPoMo which we are trying again. Because it would be impossible to catch up since July, (and, honestly, anyone who reads this talks to us anyway) I am going to just jump into November and not worry about playing catch up.
For halloween, we dressed up as a couple from the movie The Stepford Wives.

We had a great time at a couple different parties. 

We also carved pumpkins with my family. David's is the Cyclops and mine is the simple smiley one. 

David also carved a couple other pumpkins that turned out great. Even our goldfish got in on the action.