The Meaning of Christmas

Everyone remembers Christmas's as a kid, when all we thought about was presents.  Seriously, I remember not wanting to have to get through the "boring" parts, so that we could open presents.  We would have to wait until a certain time, that my mom told us was acceptable, to wake her up.  Then Christmas would begin!  I couldn't sleep because of excitement.  But I can't lie, I still get probably just as excited, but now it's for somewhat different reasons.

I absolutely LOVE watching my loved ones open presents that I pick out just for them.  I love finding the perfect gift, and cannot wait for them to see my handiwork.  Sometimes creative, sometimes not.  I love seeing what other people get.  I love seeing what people pick out for me, not so that I can get something but because I love seeing what others think looks like me.  It's sweet.

I also love our Savior!  I love that I have a relationship with Jesus Christ and I love that I can talk to him whenever I want.  I love that he died for us so that we can have eternal life and live with him again.  I love that God was willing to give the most precious gift of his son for us.  I am grateful for the perfect example Jesus was, and the goal we can work towards.  He is my redeemer, my salvation, my comforter.

Sharing all of these wonderful things with family means everything to me, and that is why I love Christmas time soo much.  It is a magical time of year.

Merry Christmas to everyone!!!!!

Thanksgiving 2013

I had a feeling that this blog would slow down.  I think it's because I still haven't decided if I want to be a post all the time about anything person, or a rarely post, only for special events type of person.  Whatever tho.  I think it's becoming an only post about special events blog.

It was Thanksgiving last weekend.  Yay!  I really needed a break.  My mom, step-dad and sister drove up from Arlington and my brother and sister drove up from Rexburg.  So we all met in Pullman.  Easy for me.  My grandma is still here so we all chilled at her place.  

My grandma didn't want us to have to cook (and make a mess in her kitchen), so she decided it would be easier to all go out to eat somewhere.  We got reservations at the University Inn in Moscow.  I think we were the only people under 60 there.  It was good, but since I'm a relatively picky eater, it was not my style.  Actually I don't really like turkey...or ham...or stuffing...or yams.  Appetizers, yummy drinks and dessert is all I really want haha.  Plus, it was a little weird not spending the day cooking with your family.  It almost didn't feel like Thanksgiving.  But we were all together, and this gave us more time to spend with each other. 

We decided to take family pictures while everyone was here.  Sweet!  I've been telling my mom that we should all do photos for a while.  It's been 10 years!  The last professional photos we took (other than weddings) was when I was in 9th grade I think.  It was time.  So we spent a day scouting out locations.  I brought my camera and we got some ideas.  The photos we took actually turned out pretty good.  Jessica Damstedt agreed to take professional photos for us, even tho she is 38 weeks pregnant.  She did great!  She made us feel relaxed but still directed us.  I cannot wait to see them!  We didn't have long to take them because Glen worked on Friday and Saturday so we had to do them during his lunch break.  But it totally worked out.  :)  Below are just the pictures Glen too with my camera while we were looking for locations.

The rest of the weekend was spent watching The Middle, playing Bunco, and black friday shopping.  We are not crazy black friday people, but there's not much to do.  And black friday is not that crazy in Pullman, especially when you go at 1 in the afternoon.  Old Navy was 50% off everything in the store, but the line was an hour and a half!  Yikes.  We got a lot of good deals, and I'm about 85% done with my shopping.  Pretty dang nice weekend.  And only 3 weeks till I see them all again and have 2 weeks off work!

Nature

There is so much beauty in life,
Beauty in the human soul,
Beauty in the heart and in the mind
Of the good man and woman.
There is beauty in nature,
Beauty in the sky and in the clouds,
In the mountains and in the sea.
There is beauty in the creative work of man,
Beauty in true friendship.
And immeasurable beauty in love.
All God's blessings
To delight us in this world. 

Emmy Nielsen Reyes de Gaspar

The visiting teaching message this month is on beauty, the beauty of this great Earth.  It's amazing to behold this earth.  Fall my favorite, as it is many people's.  It is unreal how beautiful it is in Pullman right now.  We talk about it at work basically everyday.  The leaves are turning from green to yellow and red.  The air is crisp but the sun is shining!  Coat and boots weather.  Yes!  When I was on my run this morning a single leaf floated down and landed on my hand.  It was a simple reminder to me that God is watching me.  Not just the whole world, but ME.  He knows my pains, my happiness, my dreams.  And he wants the best for me at all times.  I am grateful for everything that Heavenly Father placed on this Earth for me to enjoy.  If only Glen and I could have a day off together to take pictures.  Someday I look forward to having regular days off together so we can do things like take pictures together in a beautiful location.  At least we are planning a date tonight when he gets off work.  

Improvements

How do people work full time and still do everything else??  I know I still have hours after work to do things but it just seems to go by in an instant.  Between working out, dinner, errands and cleaning, it takes up all my time.  To counter that, I also feel like all I do when I'm home anyways is watch TV.  Here are some of my goals to accomplish outside of work:

• Keep the house clean, not uncluttered, but actually clean.... at least never let it get gross, haha.
• Apply to grad school
• No TV 2 days a week
• Read more
• Laundry once a week, even if it doesn't look full
• Go to more social activities
• Not get caught up in "my plans"
• Lighten Glen's burden
• Make homemade dinner once a week. lol  (Glen's the cook, not me)

Please say that other people have these basic items on their to-do list.  I really want to stop saying that I will be better when I have more time, when I'm a stay at home mom.  Ha!  I realize that this might be totally unrealistic.  So, I've decided to start working on these things before I'm done working outside the home.  

Besides, I have finally realized what people mean when they say good job to me, for being a wife of a student.  What's the big deal?  I'm not the one doing the work, it has nothing to do with me.  But now I see that all his stress and work rubs off on me.  His hard weeks become my hard weeks.  Therefore, I need to step things up when work gets hard for Glen.  That's how I can lighten his burden.  :)  Someday both of us will have less to worry about.  

Rexburg Trip

I have been hoping to get back to Rexburg for a while now.  I went there in 2007 and 2008.  I got my AA in general science, then transfered to WSU.  I really enjoyed my time at BYU-I.  When I left, it was being remodeled, so I knew it would look a lot different.  My brother will be graduating from BYU-I this spring and my sister just started her first year there.  We'll all get to experience it.

If you went to BYU-I, you should seriously think about taking another trip out there.  It is AMAZING now!  The MC does not look anything like it used to!  It's wild.  There's a ton of new apartments and new shopping strips.  It's way cool.  Those lucky kids.  And it was soooo good to see my brother and sister!  I did a 5K with my sister the day I got there and the next day we just looked around and goofed off.

Why am I the short one??

Glow in the dark paint.  Not a great pic.

After hanging out with my family I went over to Michelle's.  Michelle was my roommate my freshman year!  6 and a half years ago!  We were both babies.  But I'm sooo glad we stayed friends.  It was a little crazy how we became roommates because I was dating one of her friends, so we went to high school prom together.  And I really wanted to be better friends with her.  Then when I went off to college, I peeked into my roommates room and there were pictures of her!  We happened to be roommates.  It was fate that we were supposed to be friends.

2007 at BYUI

She invited me to a halloween party.  Everyone was to dress as witches.  :)  I took the easy route and justwore a black dress with a hat.  Simple.  But Michelle went all out!  She even won best dressed!  It was so fun!  Always good to have some girl time, even if you don't know the other girls, haha.  Thanks for the fun time and for letting me stay at your place!  

It was a great weekend.  Even tho it was an 8.5 hour drive, without Glen.  

P.S. Michelle, where's your blog?  I wanted to get some of the pictures you took with your nice camera.  :)

Fitting in

I've been meaning to write this post for a while now.  I guess now is as good of time as any.  This post is mainly about friends and change.  Ever since my husband and I got married and joined the married ward at church, we started noticing that no one really invites people over to watch a game or have dinner or get ready for an event together.  And while some of that is obvious, I mean you're not going to get ready for a dance with a girlfriend when you're married.  But people seem to just mind their own business.  They have their spouse and what else is needed?  I even felt this way when I first got married.  I didn't see the need for having best friends now that I'm married but there is a need.  A very BIG need!  And now I feel like I've been in the same ward for over 2 years and I still don't have really good friends.

But I can't blame anyone, I am in the "full-time working wives without kids" group.  Which means, I get home at 6 or 7, eat dinner, and spend a couple hours with my spouse or doing my own thing before bed. And on the days I do have time to hang out during the week, I am drained from work.  Some days I don't mind at all, some days are friend-lonely.  Weekends are packed up with all the things I don't have time to do over the week.

What I'm saying is that if you don't make an effort to make friends, you won't get any real friends.  I could make more of an effort myself, too.

At work I am so young and inexperienced (how could I even be married already?).  At church I am so old without kids and working all the time.  It's a strange dynamic.  But this is a college town that is driven on academic achievement, and mormons are ... mormons.  :)  I cannot WAIT to start a family, but it just hasn't been our time yet.

I''m excited to have a baby someday and finally be "in the club."  I understand tho, that being a stay-at-home mom means more time to get out and do things with other moms.  All the project groups and recipe groups that I have gone to have been a blast.   So thanks to everyone.

I guess the real point is for myself to be the change.  

I need to be the one to make the effort.  I need to make the time to have girl time.  I need to call my friends from far away up and take the time to see them.  I may not have a lot of time available but girl time is worth it!!  Kids or not, it shouldn't matter.

Glen Update

I thought I would devote a tiny bit of space to my husband, Glen.  Hahaha.  I assume this blog will be mostly all about me/us, but not much about Glen.  So he deserves a post about what he's up to.  Glen is getting his doctorate of pharmacy (Pharm.D.) and has started his 3rd year.  It's a 4 year program, after you finish your bachelor degree.  Glen was able to cram all his prereques into 3 years so he didn't ever get a bachelor degree.  Therefore, his program will be 7 years total instead of 8.  But still, wow!  He's amazing!  He works so hard.  

So he's in his 3rd year of the pharmacy program... which is in Spokane.  Dumb.  We decided to stay living in Pullman because I have a good job, and didn't want to risk not finding one in Spokane.  And it's only for 9 months, minus Christmas break and all the other breaks students get.  Plus, Glen has a job here in Pullman too.  Plus it's cheaper here and all our friends are here.  And Glen's program is 4 days a week not 5.  So ya...

He is enjoying school as much as you can anyways.  But what I keep reminding him is that this is his last year of school work.  His 4th year is rotations on the job.  No class!  And no homework!  So we basically just have to get through this year of school and then it will be just like he's working, only he won't be getting paid.  He will actually have to pay tuition and so he'll be free labor.  Not great, but no hw or tests is a plus.  

Right now, he commutes to Spokane two or three nights a week. His brother-in-law's mom lives there so he has a place to stay when he doesn't want to drive home.  And I actually don't mind too much.  He's actually here a lot more than I thought.  He misses me, what can I say.  :)  

Glen and his sister Lucy.  He worked with her this summer.  

Only 2 more years living the college life!!!

Family in town

My dad and stepmom, Dorinda, came to Pullman this past weekend.  I was surprised to hear that they are coming, mostly because it's not a home game weekend.  But Dori's daughter, Jordan, goes to WSU now so it was a visit for both of us.  It was very fun to see them here.  They are true coug fans!!  We went to Old European for breakfast and then saw Jordan's dorm room and toured campus.   It was really fun!

Serious Coug fans!!!

Dori and Jordan

Dad and I!

After spending the morning with them, my sister Nina, and brother, Kevin came into town.  They all randomly happened to be in Pullman the same weekend.  Sweet deal for me.  We ate dinner with my grandma and grandpa and then watched the game.  Half with my grandma and half with friends.

That game was awesome!!  WSU vs. USC.  Both teams played hard but the cougs won 10-7!!!  How awesome!?  They are highly ranked and we played hard, especially our defense.  A fun game to watch.  Yay!!!  Super great Saturday, then a lazy Sunday.  :)

 

Labor Day weekend

I was so excited when we decided to go to Seattle for the weekend!  We realized that this is probably the last 3 day weekend that Glen and I will both have off work.  He should be working at the Safeway pharmacy starting this weekend.

I am always reminded of how amazing Seattle is!  We both LOVE it there.  It was especially nice to drive through Seattle at night and see all the lights.  I'll always be a city girl.  We stayed at my mom's house because Glen's parents are in the middle of a move.  They are moving about a half hour away from my mom's.  It will be great having them so close to my parents.  How perfect!

During our weekend we ate ice cream, went shopping, rode a ferry to Friday Harbor, ate at restaurants, and enjoyed time with family.  We are excited for Glen's parent's to move into their new house!  Today my littlest sister started high school!  Such a big event!  Freshman year was my favorite.  She's so cute!  My other sister starts college next week!  Wow!  We're all growing up.  Her and my brother Kevin are going to BYU-I together.  His senior year; her freshman year.  An exciting time for everyone.

As far as coming back to work goes, it's been great!  Honestly!  The first 3 weeks back after my summer off has been the best yet!  Summers off are definitely a must.  Things are starting to feel more "back to the grind" though.  But it feels good to be back to the routine of work and school.

New Apartment

Before I got married, I actually enjoyed moving.  I have always been one to throw something away if I didn't think I was going to use it.  So I never kept TOO much junk around.  And moving was just another way to clean things out even more.  Less is more ya know.

But this move was harder.  We have way more stuff!  Plus we were gone for over 3 months so everything was dusty... and I'm not gonna lie, I haven't been the best at keeping the house sparkling since we've been married anyways.  My new goal is to keep this house much cleaner, and not just the occasional vacuum.  Plus, I did 85% of it all by myself without Glen.  Seriously, ask him.  He was driving home from Alaska when our new lease started.  So I moved multiple boxes a day and unpacked, while working full time.  'Pat myself on the back.'  Then called some friends to help with the big furniture.  In a small way tho, I liked the fact that I could put everything where I wanted it.  I promise I'm not too controlling.

We moved from a small basement in Pullman to another small basement in Pullman.  Meh.  But we did the math and realized just how much money can be saved by lowering your rent.  So we're baring through it.  I really like our new place but these photos don't make it look very great.  Then again it's only 600 sq feet. Which is still more than our old place.

What you see when you first walk in the door.  Living room on the right and kitchen/hall on the left.  Plus the broken picture on ground.  Our only casualty. 

Living room.  I do not like our picture arrangement.  It's so hard to judge those!  Should I just add a bunch more pictures of different sizes or I could put up 3 huge wedding canvas photos?

Glen's DJ equipment.  Ya, they're big.  And heavy.  And from a girl's perspective, ugly.  But Glen loves them and he can make good money with them.

Quaint.  And a full size oven!

The hallway to our bedroom.

The pantry.  HA!  It's about a 14 inches wide.  

Bedroom!!  We still need wall art.  Can you believe I still haven't printed any wedding photos!?  Gotta get on that.

The only normal sized window and Glen's desk.

Walk-in closet!!!

I think this is my favorite part of the house.  Room for our clothes!  

Feels good to be in a new, clean home.  Even if it's just for 9 months.  Now back to eating ice cream and watching Desperate House Wives.  Lol.  What I do when Glen's out of town.  :)

Crow Pass Hike

Let me tell you that I promise never to take a 20+ mile hike again!!!  This hike was 24 miles or so and it was death.  There were beautiful views and it was a great experience in all, but once is enough.  From now on, 15 miles is my max.

This hike went up and over a mountain pass and then went up and down through the mountain valley's.  It was amazing and there were beautiful waterfalls.  Plus it was such a great workout, I think I'm good for a few days.  :)

The Cons:

• There were a million fly's all around us, the WHOLE time!  Plus a million mosquito's!  My arms look like I have hives because of all the bites.  No joke, I probably have 200 bites.  (The fact that some of them are from fly bites grosses me out!)  Stopping for food breaks was unpleasant.  
• We had to cross a river that was at LEAST 50 feet wide.  It was melting from a glacier that we could see on the side of the mountain, and it was flowing so fast there were white caps.  We seriously almost decided to turn around because it was unsafe.  But we split into 2 groups of 4 people and held on to each other while we crossed it.  And at every step I thought I was going to get rushed downstream.  And when we got to the other side, the pain of our ice cold feet was horrible!  Yeah, it was crazy.  I was crying.
• Sunburn!  I put sunscreen on my face but forgot about my chest and back of my neck.  Ouch!  
• The pure aches and pains of walking that far over uneasy ground was really hard on my ankles and knees.  I was actually afraid that I would break my knee going down the steep banks. 

So the nearly frozen water, bugs everywhere, and steep climbs over rocks made for one memorable trip.  (That I will not be doing again)  Lucy said that it made her want to run it next year.  That hike is also a famous infamous marathon in Alaska.  I don't know how people could run that race.  I would be falling and breaking my legs over all the rocks.  But more power to her!  Here are some pics!

Lucy and I

The before picture.

This was all in the first 5 miles.  I didn't get any pictures after that because it was so intense, I just didn't think of it.  And we didn't do an after picture because I could barely walk.  Seriously, I was in bad shape the last few miles.  Luckily, I am hardly sore at all today.  :)

Downton Abby

I know I'm way behind on the times but we are watching Downton Abby season 3 right now.  We watched season 1 and 2 a while ago but something happened and we weren't able to watch season 3... without having cable anyways.  I know how to do netflix but that's about it.  If it's not on there, I can't watch it.  But Glen is the one who can find any show on some crazy website.

*Warning- I'm giving away things on the show.  So if you're like me and way behind on your shows, don't read on.  But anyways, Glen and I just watched the episode where Lady Cybil dies during child birth.  OMG.  Couldn't believe it!  But I was shocked at how emotional I was.  Seriously, I was crying the whole episode and the episode after that.  I just kept thinking about how awful it would be to die and leave a newborn baby with Glen.  He would NOT know what to do.  I just can't bare thinking of that.  It's amazing how times have made childbirth so much easier.  I don't even consider the fact that I might die having a baby.  They did a great job portraying a father who lost his wife but gained a baby girl.  So sad.

Babies are really on my mind lately.  All my friends are having babies.  I know of 4 women who have had babies, just in the past 4 days!  Not to mention all my friends who have had babies just this summer.  I can't wait to see some of the babies born when I get back to Pullman!  It's really baby season.  Plus, aren't we all excited about the royal baby.  :)  

Career Decisions

Last week I had the opportunity to go to achievement days camp.  I learned that this is a thing that only this ward does.  An older lady with all her kids moved out, has invited the 8-11 year old girls at our church to come to her house for 4 days for a day camp.  She runs the whole thing and simply because she loves it and wants to!  Apparently she thinks that it's not fair that boys have cub scouts but girls don't have anything haha.  She's awesome!  And I wish I had a picture of her house!  OMG, it is huge and beautiful and at the very top of a mountain.  One side of her house is completely window, 2 stories high!  It looks out to the city, the ocean and Anchorage.  It is a spectacular sight!  Plus, she has a ton of land for the girls to roam around on.  I had a blast hanging out with these girls!  I'm used to toddler/preschool age so it was fun to hang out with some older kids.  And man are they funny!  Each day I came home tired but I really had fun!  We did crafts and hiking and songs and lessons and more.  It was a good way to spend my week. 

This got me thinking tho...  I am currently starting the process of applying to grad school.  I got my bachelors in Speech and Hearing Science and want my masters in Speech Pathology.  (speech therapy)  My ultimate goal is to work as a speech therapist 2-3 days a week.  But a lot of my friends are having a hard time getting into grad school for speech pathology and I've already applied once and didn't get in.  I was an average student, I didn't do anything above and beyond, but I got mostly A's and B's.  I don't have anything that stands out.

But after having so much fun at that day camp, I started to wonder if I should get my teaching certificate.  I had the opportunity to be the leader of a group for a couple hours and it was fun organizing the kids and seeing the things that they came up with.  I'm still applying to speech schools but maybe I should apply to get my teaching cert. if that doesn't work out...  Idk.

I don't plan on going back to work full-time until my kids are in school full-time, if ever.  So it might be silly to get my teaching certificate ten or so years before I want to use it.  Is it hard to get your teaching certificate in your late 30's?

I just hope I get into grad school for speech pathology so I don't have for go to plan B.  We will see what happens.  Does anyone have any good online schools they liked?  Pro's and Con's to getting your teaching cert. before you plan on using it?

Salmon Fishing

*Warning: Don't continue reading if you don't like blood

We went salmon fishing and it was a success!!  Yay!  (I honestly thought we wouldn't catch any)  Glen's gone fishing before but we have never been very serious about it and therefore, we have never caught anything.  I didn't have high hopes.  But this time we were successful!  We were on Klutina river, which is just a couple miles from the famous Copper River.  And we knew -almost- nothing about fishing when we left.

Is it weird that sometimes I feel like having low expectations about something makes it more enjoyable?  I feel like having too high of expectations is what makes us frustrated about events.

Glen was not happy because we only caught one fish in the first 4 hours and we were thinking it was time to go home.  When suddenly we started catching them.  And when I say "we" I mean Glen.  I was not able to catch one fish!  Bummer.  But surprisingly, I had a great time!

The best story of the day ended with both of us covered in blood splatters.  So.... after you catch a fish, you have to really smack it on the head to knock it out.  I thought that 1 or 2 hits on the head would do the trick. NOPE.  After loosing one fish that wiggled back into the water, we realized that you have to really wack them.  So after we caught our 2nd or 3rd fish, I wacked it a few times and thought I was good.  Then I saw it wiggle again.  So I gave it one more good hit... right on the gills.  This is not a good idea.  Blood splashed us all over our face and clothes.  :(  I didn't get a picture because we were in a rush to wash off.  It was pretty funny tho.  

Glen caught 6 fish, which is the limit that one person is allowed to catch.  Amazing!  I didn't catch any but my job was making lunch and dinner.  Plus, I was the allocated wacker.  Every time Glen caught one, he would pull it to shore and I would go at it.  I was pretty vicious.

First fish!!

We filleted a couple there but then decided to take them home to fillet.

Apparently you have to cut their gills so they bleed out.

Our loot!  

Ready to freeze.

We are SO excited to take these back to Pullman.  We had so much fun that we might try to go again before we leave.  We might need to buy another freezer.

YUM!!!