Time Flies

I realize it's been awhile since I've posted and now it seems pointless to try and play catch-up. But this much I will say: Christmas was terrific! We were fortunate that last minute changes allowed Skyler and Sarah to join us, and that meant a full house for the holidays. We had our usual big Christmas Eve dinner and the more intimate Christmas morning and when it was all done, we were tired but happy. New Year's Eve was a quiet evening with dinner and a movie and the first day of 2010 was spent taking Christmas down and just enjoying the day.

All too soon school started up again for me with a vengeance. I wish I could claim that the semesters are getting easier, but I find they are just more stress provoking. This semester should result in me producing my formal proposal for the capstone project which will consume the next year of my life. I have to take some type of elective over the summer, but the Fall and following Spring should be entirely devoted to the project. I try to remind myself there is light at the end of the tunnel. I would explain my proposed project to you, but it would probably bore any readers silly, so I won't. At least not at this post.

Martin and I decided that our Christmas gift to ourselves this year was to do a long wished for kitchen remodel. It's exciting but also anxiety producing, especially as the costs involved keep going up. It's always scary to do something like this without knowing for sure if you can trust the contractors, too. We've put money down on a new set of appliances - the GE Cafe line:



And the cabinets have been selected and kitchen designed by the Home Depot designer. We're keeping the same footprint of the kitchen since our floors were redone only about 4 years ago and since there really aren't a lot of options in our small kitchen anyway. The cabinets are from Kraft Maid. The wood is a rustic birch, color praline, and door design "Dillon":



Now that obviously isn't my kitchen, but it's a great photo of the cabinets. We won't be getting the five piece drawer faces though so my drawer style is a bit different that shown. I haven't picked out granite yet, but I'm thinking black with a lot of green in it or very, very dark green. Depends on what I can find. The backsplashes will be tiled and we will be adding under cabinet lights. I haven't quite pictured in my mind what kind of tile I want. I'm a "know it when I see it" kind of person anyway. The nice thing will be that the fridge we bought is cabinet depth and we will have end panels added to our kitchen so that the fridge will appear built in. We are also removing the soffit from the ceiling which will open up the room to make it feel a bit larger and allow for taller cabinets and some nice molding up around the top of the cabinets. Most of all, we are adding pull out shelves and things to help make the blind corner cabinets more accessible. I'm getting too old to keep having to get down on my knees and fish around in the cabinets to find things. Of course all of this is getting much pricier than we initially anticipated, especially when we saw the ridiculous estimate from the cabinet guys for some of the work. We're hoping to find someone who can do some of this work at a better rate.

Today I'm home from work babysitting for Andrew, which is such a pleasure. This will be the last trip out for Jamie and Andrew until the new baby is here. But they will be back out in May to spend the summer with us! Yeah! I hear Andrew stirring from his nap . . .

Andrew was sharing his cheese with Scooter: one for you and one for me, one for you and one for me:

Twas the week before Christmas . . .

And I have about 3/4ths of everything done and not sure when I'll get the rest . . .

The great news? Skyler and Sarah WILL be coming to spend Christmas with us, hooray! Sarah's parents and one of her brothers will also be with us. Invites are out to Piersons and Doolans for Christmas Eve but I don't have responses yet so I don't know how big (or small) our Christmas Eve dinner will be.

We are expecting S&S to show up either tomorrow or Monday at the latest. Then Nick should be flying in very late on Tuesday. I'm hoping we won't have to wait until Thursday to see him.

Today Martin and I had the great pleasure of babysitting Andrew. We took him to the mall today and had such a great time with him - he loved the little play area and the gelato we shared. I can never really get enough of him. I taught him "eskimo kisses" which he thought were highly amusing!

I'm trying to prepare my lesson for RS for tomorrow; it's hard to think about that when my mind is making lists of all the things I still need to do before Thursday. As much as I love my job and love working, I miss being a stay-at-home when this season rolls around. I miss hanging out in the house, baking, listening to carols, enjoying the tree. I think next year I will plan a few extra days off just to enjoy the season a bit more.

December already

How does it happen? December is upon us already, ho ho humbug.

Good news? I finished the last of my school work and while the official end of school isn't for another week, I personally am done, done, done. Group project turned in, class evaluations done - I'm on to bigger and better things until January.

Chelsea, Trenton, Natalie and one of her friends came over on Sunday and we got the tree up and the house decorated. I haven't even thought about Christmas shopping, or the Christmas letter. I guess it's time to get it started. I'm still very sad that Skyler and Sarah won't be here for Christmas. This is officially "our" year, and I'm concerned that we will never get Sarah on track with the rest of the family. I think there's a learning curve . . .

At least I can look forward to Jamie and Andrew getting out here next week and then Nick the week after that. And of course I can always count on Chelsea and Trenton for cheering me up :)

News: Martin has been called onto the High Council, and best of all, his responsibility is over the Young Single Adults' Ward which means both of us will get to visit our favorite ward on a regular basis!

Well, that's about all I have to say at the moment. I'm trying to change gears from school work to home-work. I have a quilt top I should work on and all that Christmas shopping to do. If I could, I would do all my shopping on line!

Black Friday

I tried to get Martin to blog, but no such luck. So I will have to tell this story.

On Thanksgiving day Martin announces that he is very interested in this "Black Friday" thing and wants to go see for himself what it is all about. He spends much of Thursday combing through the newspaper ads, drawing up shopping lists and noting stores and their opening times. I think he's kidding. He's not.

Friday morning he is out of bed and kissing me goodbye and all I know is it's dark outside. I have only one eye open. He's nuts. Before I know it, it's daylight and he's climbing back into bed and I think "oh, he decided not to go." I couldn't have been more wrong. Here's what he did and some video to prove it.

3:00 AM gets up, gets dressed and is out of the house by 3:30. First stop J.C. Penney's. He has a list: pots and pans sets for the business, on sale for $19.95, down from $59.95; a projector for the computer $60, down from $179; digital photo frames $9.99, down from something he doesn't remember. The projector appears to be sold out. He encounters a crazed female shopper who comes up where he is standing looking for the projector. He tells her they are sold out. She says that can't be and calls a manager to go look in the back. She also says that since she was first in the store, she has dibs on the first one the manager finds in the back. But she acknowledges that he was in line first for the projector, so if there is more than one, he gets second (interesting rationale, that!) Fortunately, the manager shows up with the last two projectors. Martin goes back to the pots and pans and witnesses a woman finding a ladder, climbing the ladder up to the top and reaching to dangerous heights in order to retrieve a $12.99 crockpot. What idiot left that ladder where crazed shoppers could get it? Martin says he thinks she would have climbed those shelves ladder or not. He only gets two of the kitchen sets because he simply can't carry any more.

Second stop: Walmart. It's 10 minutes until 5 in the morning and still dark out. Driving down Fallbrook Ave., he sees the giant glow in the distance - MECCA! What he finds there is incredible. You'll have to see the videos below. In the end, he doesn't even bother to go in. Especially since it turns out they are only letting people in 10 at a time with several minutes in between groups. It could take all day to get in!

Third stop: Best Buy. The crowds in the store are so thick, that like cattle in a herd, you simple must go whichever way the crowd is moving or risk being trampled. It's a mob scene. He gets a Wii and tries to get into line to pay. The line snakes to the back of the store. A security person takes pity on him and just puts him in line.

By 6:30 he's back home with a trunk full of stuff. He didn't make it to Kohl's because that wasn't opening until 9 AM.

In the end he reports that the anxiety is thick in the air and very contagious. I don't know if he'll be trying it again next year. As for me, I have never stepped into a store on the biggest shopping day of the year and never intend to.

Friday night we went with the Hansons and others from the old ward to see Cirque Du Soleil's Kooza! It was loads of fun. A good ending to Black Friday.

Cruising the High CEs

Kaiser decided to organize a cruise for one of the Nurse Practitioner Educational Symposia. I signed up for it along with a few of my friends of work. It was a cruise to Cabo San Lucas and it was for 5 days. Never having been on a cruise before, I was not at all sure what to expect. We left San Diego on Thursday, the 12th of November on Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas. Friday was a "sail" day and thus a day spent in classes, Saturday was spent at port in Mexico, then Sunday we sailed back, docking in San Diego Monday morning.



Our Stateroom - very small for 4 grown women, one bed came down out of the ceiling, and another (the one I slept on) was a fold out arm chair.



This display welcomed us in the Windjammer, where we had our lunch.



San Diego skyline as we set sail.





First dinner on board: Me, Velda, Li-Chym and Judy



Formal Night



Velda and I only "partook" of some of the entertainment one night - it was wild, and very funny, but I won't even try and explain it. A photo is worth a thousand words (and yes, those are passengers):



Rounding "Land's End" as we sail around the point into the Bay. Note our escort.



After a bit of shopping, Velda and I spent most of the day relaxing on the beach and being pestered by vendors.












Our attendant was a whiz at "towel folding" One night he left a swan, and one night, a towel monkey:



In the end I would say that the food was just okay - not bad, not memorable - and there was (unfortunately) too much of it. If you like hanging around a fancy hotel or hanging out in Vegas, this is your kind of vacation. I've had more luxury without being constantly nickle and dimed for stuff (paid $27 for "unlimited" soda pop, still cheaper than $2.25 plus tip per drink). Still I might consider a cruise again if it was to Alaska. And I did enjoy feeling the sway of the ship, and sitting in the solarium watching the ocean, seeing flying fish and a whale blow (from a distance.) And I enjoyed my massage in the spa! Mostly I enjoyed spending time with my friends. The CE classes were just okay, but it's hard to complain about CEs you earn while practically on vacation!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I definitely have the best birthday date: November 1st - All Saints Day, and the day after Halloween (which is really All's Hallowed Eve!) I had to work that day, but it was only call, meaning I get to stay home and get paged all day by the various skilled nursing facilities when any of our patients gets sick (or sicker) or when labs come in, or whatever. I don't actually see patients, just order whatever labs or tests I think necessary, or medications, or treatments, or sometimes send patients back to the hospital. This Sunday was pretty busy, but by 5:00 pm it was over and the fun began. Chelsea made dinner for me: chili dogs (that's what I asked for, good Fall fun food), onion rings from Hungrygirl.com, grilled corn on the cob, and salad (provided by Liz Shelley). For dessert Chelsea made delicious low calorie pumpkin caramel pudding cupcakes (also Hungrygirl). Delicious!

In addition to Chelsea, Trenton, Natalie and Martin, our friends Brian and Liz Shelley and their adorable little boy Porter came to celebrate with us. I had an opportunity to iChat with Nick, Jamie and Andrew earlier in the day and got to play video peek-a-boo with Andrew. Skyler & Sarah called later that evening as did the Dubrows. Lots of love!

I was also spoiled rotten with amazing gifts - the kids bought me this (don't be jealous):


I don't actually have it yet, but it will be mine by the end of the month!

And Martin gave me this:



This is a Tiffany necklace I wanted to match a bracelet I already have. Actually, there is a funny story about the bracelet:

When Chelsea and I went to NY 4 or 5 years ago, we went street shopping down on Canal street. I was looking at some little sterling silver bracelets one of the shops had. The woman says to me "I have something you like better" and brought out this really pretty thick mesh sterling silver bracelet.


It was $25.00. I loved it and bought it immediately and wore it quite a lot. Then about a year later, I happened to see a Tiffany's display, and there was that bracelet!

Of course my bracelet isn't really a Tiffany's, it is just a knock off. But since I'm not much of a shopper, nor a fashion plate, I didn't know that the one I bought was supposed to be a knock off and I never bothered to try and read the tiny little hallmark on the inside. I just thought I got a really pretty bracelet for not much money.

About two years ago, I asked Martin for a Tiffany's mesh ring, similar to the bracelet although not exactly.


He bought it for me for an anniversary gift. I guess he got the idea to buy me more Tiffany's stuff so last Christmas he bought me . . . the same mesh bracelet only this time the real thing! But he didn't know he had done it until he saw me wearing my original bracelet to a Christmas party before he had managed to give me my gift. He said "where did you get that?" I told him I had it for a few years and that I had worn it often and where had he been? LOL! It's no wonder he thought I would like it since he had seen me wearing it so often. Anyway, I told him that since I already had the bracelet, he could trade it in on the necklace sometime. And that's what he did.

Now I'm tempted to buy earrings to match - I see a pair on eBay - but is it weird to buy them for myself? I suppose I could wait for Christmas . . .

Anyway you look at it, I'm a lucky woman.

Road Trip!

I was bummed recently to discover that I was scheduled to work two weekends in October, including my birthday. When I work a weekend I am required to take a work day off the week before (in exchange for Saturday) and the week after (in exchange for Sunday.) As I was planning my weekdays off, I realized that I would be able to make a four day weekend for myself. Martin and I thought about a weekend getaway first, but then when Martin said he had to fly to Billings Montana and drive a motorhome back, I was excited: "ROAD TRIP!!" I love road trips.

We had originally planned to drive from Billings, through Yellowstone, and then out the west entrance to Rexburg to see Skyler and Sarah. We discovered right before we left that Yellowstone had a major road closure that was going to make that impossible to do in the time frame we needed. So we made a last minute plan change to drive straight to Rexburg, then backtrack through the west entrance into Yellowstone and drive it straight down through the southern entrance and through Jackson, Wyoming. The serendipitous discovery was that this would take us right down into Cache Valley and into Logan Utah where we would be able to visit the Arnells!

So last Friday we flew Allegiant Airlines to Billings ($50 one way ticket) and picked up the RV. It was about a 5 hour drive to Rexburg (after a stop at Walmart to pick up snacks, drinks, pillows and blankies). We rolled into Rexburg a little on the late side and Skyler and Sarah drove us to their favorite burger joint where they serve these humongous 1 lb. hamburgers the size of your head. I did not have one of those, but I did have a quite tasty burger. We spent the night in the local Comfort Inn and then Saturday morning Sarah fed us a very delicious french toast and eggs breakfast. Skyler and Sarah took us on a tour of BYU-I campus before we had to head out on the road again. It was too short but very sweet.

The drive through Yosemite was lovely and we made a few quick stops to look at mudpots, fumaroles and geysers but didn't really have the time to see Old Faithful in action. We did see a group of Elk (they have very cute butts) and Martin saw a bison from the distance, but I missed that. We drove back and forth across the continental divide three times while driving through the park. We had an opportunity to drive through the town of Jackson, Wyoming (Jackson Hole is not the actual name of the city) and then drove through the beautiful Star Valley area. We hit the Bear Lake area of Idaho as it began to get dark and took the last of our scenic route through Logan Canyon in the dark. We arrived late at the Arnell's home to find a warm welcome and a waiting meal.

Sunday morning we attended a regional stake conference with the Arnells which was broadcast from USU Spectrum. It was a nice feeling sitting in church with the Arnells again. Back to the Arnell homestead for a wonderful multigenerational lunch - it truly wasn't long enough and I wish I had more time to visit with each of my Arnell kids and I'm sorry we didn't get to see Doug and his family.

Our next stop was Ogden and my opportunity to see my beloved friend Carolyn - a 3 hours visit flew by and again, was over too soon before we needed to hit the road again. This time we made it as far as Beaver, Utah (no we didn't need new tires) where we stayed the night. The next day was the long press home.

All in all a great trip and I even took a few photos!

Montana

The Newlyweds at Home

Yosemite

Star Valley in Wyoming

Sunset over Idaho

At home in Providence, UT

Carolyn!

Southern Utah