Getting to Know You - Christmas Style

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? GIFT BAGS!! They're so much easier!
2. Real tree or artificial? Real, Real, Real!!!
3. When do you put up the tree? Whenever we get around to it, but after Thanksgiving!
4. When do you take the tree down? When it becomes a fire hazard!
5. Do you like eggnog? Nope! I don't see anything tasty about drinking raw eggs!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? My ice skates!! I have such fond memories of gliding around Merlin Olsen Park aspiring to become the next big thing!!
7. Do you have a nativity scene? Every year for Christmas we receive a piece of the Willow Tree Nativity! Until that is complete, we have a small one!!
8. Hardest person to buy for? Nate! He never gives me any hints!!
9. Easiest person to buy for? My sisters.
10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I'm not sure! Answering this question will require too much thinking!!
11. Mail or email Christmas cards? You can e-mail Christmas Cards? When did this become socially acceptable?
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? The Elf! It never fails to make me laugh!
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? A week after Thanksgiving! I'm a big procrastinator!
14. have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Probably, but I can't remember specifics!
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? I love homemade Christmas Candy! Caramels, Fudge, Divinity, it's all so good!
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? We tend to gravitate towards clear lights.
17. Favorite Christmas songs? What Child is This? Feliz Navidad!
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? It has been customary for us to stay at home!! Someday we'll go somewhere exotic!!
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Probably!!
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? We have a really cool star that sits on top of our tree!
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? We open our stockings on Christmas Eve and save the rest for Christmas Morning!!
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? I hate that the meaning of Christmas gets pushed aside for good deals and stressful schedules.
23. What I love most about Christmas? I love driving around and looking at Christmas Lights while listening to Christmas Music!!

So Much to be Grateful For

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!! We hope that you were all able to have a great Thanksgiving Day and to spend it in the company of those you love. We have so much to be grateful for, we have been so blessed. Sometimes, in the midst of trials, it is hard to remember how much we are loved by the Lord... when those times come upon us, all we have to do is to take a look at our lives and see the obvious and not so obvious blessings that we have received. Some of the things that we are grateful for include, hopefully obviously, each other! We don't know where we would be without our Rascal! She is our something small to snuggle when our arms get lonely! We are so grateful for our families. We are so blessed to have such a close relationship with our parents and our siblings. We are extremely grateful for our nephews and nieces - we love being Uncle Nate & Auntie Clar so much!! We are blessed to have so many wonderful, caring friends who might as well be our siblings!! We are grateful for the Gospel. Without the Gospel in our lives none of the above blessings would be nearly as important to us. I feel so blessed to be able to go through school and to have found a field that I absolutely love. We are grateful for our good jobs, for the freedom that we have that so many are defending, for those who are defending that freedom, for the modern conveniences which we have, and of course, for blogging! How else would we share our random thoughts? Our list is much, much longer but it consists of the little every day things. Once again, we hope you all have had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Recovery

Hey all, I just wanted to take a minute and thank you all for your prayers and concern! My surgery went well and I am slowly getting back to normal. It was a long week full of lots of sleep, lots of FRIENDS and The Office, and painkillers! We stayed at my mom's house for 5 days so that I could avoid stairs and noise, and it was a great choice to make. I haven't yet gone back to work - I'm still struggling with a little bit of pain and nausea , but my bosses and co-worker have been very understanding, and I am so grateful to have such a great job. Anyway, I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving tomorrow and spending time with family. I'll be back soon!!

Random Musings

Why is it that whenever I sit at the computer to do homework I am drawn to blogspot? I love to read all your blogs (well, those of you who have them and keep them updated), and to see what is going on in all of your lives!! Maybe your creativity draws out my intelligence so that I can then go on to complete my homework and get good grades... I'm going to say that's it and it will be my justification for being a slacker this fine Saturday afternoon and blogging instead of doing homework! Lately, I have felt that that's all I do! Homework, work, homework, work, homework, The Office, homework, Scrubs, and more homework! I have been apologizing to Nate this week because it seems like I have been a studious student more than a loving wife. As always, he is supportive and helpful and willing to do whatever is necessary to get me through the week to Friday's so we can relax a bit!! We are in the middle of a wonderful long weekend, and next week is going to be a bit longer for us! Well, longer for Nate, a little spacey for me! For those of you who don't know, I am having a small surgery done on Tuesday. It's nothing big, but I don't want to get into it online! I would, however, like to request some extra prayers for good findings, a speedy recovery, and baby arriving outcomes!! I have scheduled the whole week off so I am looking forward to some down time where I don't have to worry about school for a whole week! (Thus the studying today, which I've really got a lot of!!) Last night we met up with my mom for dinner at Angie's! We rarely eat at Angie's, it seems to slip out of our memories when we are deciding where to go, but it is so good! I can understand why people become regulars there! After dinner we came home and decorated Thanksgiving Dinosaur and Football cookies with Ollie and Sam! As always, the boys were adorable and so much fun! (For the record, I just killed my second hairy spider for the day!!) We were then fortunate enough to hang out with our friends for the evening and have interesting conversation and dazzling entertainment!! I now feel my time for blogging has come to an end and must return to my scholarly activities!! (Or maybe I'll go upstairs and see what Nate is up to... only time will tell!!) We'll be back soon!!

Fall 2007

We have had a terrific fall this year!! My sister and her family came home for a few weeks with our new little niece, Jacie!! The changing of the leaves has been absolutely gorgeous, once again!! It's hard for me to restrain myself from taking pictures of random things when it is so beautiful outside!! Our Halloween was spent playing with Sam & Jack! We had a great time and they looked adorable in their costumes! I am excited to see pics of the rest of our nephews and nieces as they start rolling in!! This picture of Nate & I was taken in October at Jacie's blessing, so it's pretty recent!! School is going well! It is keeping me busy but I am loving every minute of it! Nate has been staying pretty busy at work! He is pretty happy at his job which is such a great thing! It's always easier to work at a job that you enjoy! We are going to run and get some pictures printed, so I'm going to say ta ta for now!!