The Christmas fun.

Well this week was spent between 2 states, 3 if you count layovers.
We had a nice Christmas with the Liddeke part of the family and all of the kids got some great presents from tea sets to new babies to high chairs for olde babies. Alisabeth made out major. She got bath toys, books, stuffed animals, and clothes. Our Christmas draw also went well, however it was interupted by poor Lisa getting a bad pain in her side and having to be taken to the hospital. She was fine, but we ended up doing the draw without her because there were several families that wouldn't be able to make it back for a rematch. I ended up with seashell earings. Jason got an etcher. We both also got chocolates and other goodies. On top of all of that dinner was absolutely wonderful.
Jason's mom's birthday party was also fun. She had burst the surprise and knew we'd be there, but oh well. We had steak dinner and lots of noise from more kids than adults!
We also got to see some friends and enjoy re-making aquaintances.

Then we had the infamous trip to Florida. Jason and my mom and Al left a day before me becuase they were driving. This meant I had the whole house to myself and Alisabeth. . . so what did I do? Cordend off most of the house and let her play while I slept! I'm such a great mother aren't I? I made sure she had plenty of food and water :)

Flying with her is great, if only she had enough room to move. That's what frustated her most. She wasn't bothered by pressure or height or people or anything. We took plenty of snack foods and she ate them all on the trip. She did amazing I think because she wasn't even willing to take a nap, so the whole trip was on only the night before. It was only when we got on the airplane that was smaller than my room that she became aggressively annoyed at the lack of movement. That trip was a bit long, but that was the final leg, so once I got off the plane Jason took her and I was able to just relax a bit.
Our time here has been nice. Teri (my aunt) came in the same day that Jason got here and so we all stayed at her house for the week. The whole time she was here her daughter lovingly brought over the twins (8 years old) and they spent the whole trip at grandma's. It was neat being able to spend that much time with them because I don't know them very well. They are sweaties, however I can already see the little defiant streak that will give their mother headaches galore when they hit their teenage years :)
Christmas here was also a blast. Every year seems to be different but none of the parents were directing anything so I just started handing out presents with names on them and everyone started opening all at the same time. I enjoyed it but about half-way through both my mom and Teri were protesting that we should have been opening one at a time because they were missing the kid's gifts. I told them "oh well." My aunt Willa was also able to make it down for a few days so we had a nice little gaggle of Gardner girls running around making trouble.
Finally yesterday everyone left, the twins went home and Jason and I were left alone in Teri's house until tomorrow. Jason and my mom and Al leave tomorrow evening and then I'll move over the my Nana's house until I leave Tuesday morning.
All in all Florida is wonderful. It's been slightly humid, but the weather was so nice that we haven't even needed a sweater. Jason and I raked up a pile of leaves and Alisabeth spent about an hour just sitting in it playing with everything. It was so cool.
We got lots of pictures, but I forgot to bring them with me so I'll add them sometime soon.

As a side note I also got a new digital camera from aunt Willa. I guess she's had it for like a year waiting to give it to me. I was supposed to keep it quiet and pretend like I had had it forever, but I was so excited about it that it didn't happen. I read all the manuals and started snapping pictures with a fervor I've never had before. . . then I found the color setting which allows you to black and white everything except one color. Oh that was so much fun I spent about 2 hours playing with it taking pictures of everything from Alisabeth and family to random shots of the kid's legos :)

I'll include some of the better ones there too :)

That was our week in a nutshell. It was a blast. I hear Rexburg was a little inundated, and I can't say I'm sorry I wasn't there. Back to Tucson . . . guess I'll have to dig out my sweater again :)

Tis the Season . . .

Well we had a great week. I really enjoyed cleaning for two days solid and moving all of the furniture in the house. I did, however, feel bad about not being able to help the neighbors. There were so many people moving!!! The whole face of the ward will be different by the time we get back.

We ended up flying out on time and had a great trip. I was nervous because of all the snow that was dumping onto Rexburg at the time, but the plane just waited 45 minutes to be de-iced and everything was fine :)

Alisabeth did great on the trip. She loved looking out the window and flirting with the stewardess and other passengers. We were in the Salt Lake airport for an hour and it was just enough time to take her up and down the escalators about 15 times and replace all of the magazines in the racks 3 times. We also got a jamba juice type thing and spent the next flight hiding it from Alisabeth who would go insane until she got some if she saw it. She had quite a fun time throwing tantrums :)

We used the monkey harness which is basically a baby leash. That was great because she kept wanting to go up the down escalator and that just wouldn't have been fun for anyone.

Once we got to Tucson it was a blast too. She was naked by that time, having played with ice cubes and being soking wet. So I had to change her while we waited for the bags to come, then it was off to lunch with my mom and Al and we've been zooming around since. We were even able to go to Jason's mom's "surprise" party. That's the only thing we've taken pictures of, so those are below.

For those of you stuck in Rexburg or other snowy areas. . . hahahahaha.

The average temp seems to be around 65 degrees and it's mighty cold here. I keep forgetting to bring my jacket with me :)

The roads are perfectly clear of snow, and it's a good thing because the drivers and a bunch of not so nice people. If they had ice on the road, I think 1/2 the city would be dead right now.

We're excited for our first of several Christmas' tomorrow night and who knows what else.

Oh, and the carmel turned our alright, but a bit dark because of the old brown sugar for those who wanted to know.

Love you all. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

3 Days until Christmas starts!!

Wow what a week!

I thought I was the bomb when I got all of my finals done by Wednesday morning. Seriously, how could life get any better than just being able to kick back the rest of finals week and chill out? HA! Our neighbor went into labor Friday night and 1/2 of our apartment complex had to move out Friday and Saturday!

We spent almost all of Friday helping one family or another either with babysitting or packing or moving. It was a full day of service and at the end of it I was exhausted. We repeated this on Saturday with a little less helping because I was beginning to feel sick from not having a jacket the day before while the door kept getting opened and closed.

It got much better on Saturday night, we were able to go to the Galusha Christmas party which was a blast. The getting there was not so fun because of the snowstorm that had come into town, but Jason had purchased chains and we put them to good use getting in and out of Rexburg and Shelley. this year's event was at Fred's house and it was huge and beautiful! We played games and ate lots of food and just basically enjoyed ourselves. Alisabeth spent the entire 50 minute trip there screaming at the top of her lungs for some reason and then was great during the party. After we got in the car and started driving she started up again, but by this point she was so exhausted that she conked out after about 10 minutes. She's getting molars in and her canines at the same time. I have a feeling that this is the cause of much of her discomfort, but I think the rest is that she hates being restrained in her carseat especially when she's tired. Saturday she refused to take a nap because we were doing so much stuff that she was too wired.

Today most everyone is gone so church is going to be empty. Alisabeth has a runny nose anyway so I am probably going to come home with her since I'm not feeling too hot either and we don't want to get all the little kiddies sick. Luckily the other teachers who never show up are actually going to be there and have agreed to do the lesson so it really can't be a more perfect day to be out of commission.

I am quite excited for this upcoming week. We only have three days and here's a rough list of what we have to accomplish:

Dismantle every carpeted room and get everything off the floor

which entails cleaning everything as we go and finally getting a bunch of stuff organized.

Clean my kitchen which has been ignored hopelessly for the second 1/2 of the semester

Get the laundry done and pick out the trip clothes and get them packed

Did I mention that one of our large suitcases is already filled with the presents and

things we're bringing home? I also have to seperate immediately the stuff I want to take to

Florida so that I don't have to repack.

Sort through my stuff and give 1/2 of it away to DI.

Go through Alisa's stuff and figure out if anything still fits her.

Organize the old baby clothes that don't fit her to prepare for the next one.

Finish a couple of Christmas presents

and . . .

get ready for Jury duty in Tucson because they found out that I'd be home for Christmas and decided to make sure I served my country during that time :)

All that plus make sure my 1 year old feels loved and wanted and gets her naps.

I can't wait to begin!

I am really excited for this trip though to be in Florida for Christmas and then to be able to spend New Years in Tucson is going to be a blast. I can't wait for everyone to see Alisabeth, and for her to see everyone, especially her little cousins. She's really into babies her own age right now. She be-lines for them and cares nothing for parents if they're around :)

The week before finals!

T'was the fall semester and all through the class
Not a creature was stirring not even for gas
The grades all were placed on the gradebook with care
In hopes that the students still would be there.

The students were nestles all full of dread,
With visions of planerides and trips in their head.
And me in my jacket, and my group in their place,
Had just settled in to finish this race.

When out of the agendas arose such a clatter,
I dropped my jamba juice making a splatter.
I rushed through my days, it was gone in a flash,
Tore through the homework, closed books with a smash.

The sunsets and days I completely ignored,
Assuming that I could be nothing but bored.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But the week before finals, and holidays dear.

Looking back through the weeks so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
This year the holidays wouldn't be lame.

The excitement for travel and family to see,
Crowded out tests and places to be.
Replacing the void with things most important,
my husband, my God and my most tiny infant.

The spirit of Christ arose in my heart,
and I knew in a moment I couldn't be tart.
My giving increased and my heart knew no bounds,
I felt joy and peace in ever increasing mounds.

I hope that you've seen from the story I've written,
The importance of life that isn't too distant.
Take time every moment and of every day,
"I love you, I need you" is not hard to say.

Our week has been a good one. Too many of our friends are beginning to pack up. Everyone who is leaving needs to be out of their apartment by the end of next week, so they've got to pack and plan while studying and stressing for finals. If it were up to me I'd give them at least a week to get out, but that's just me. As it is we're losing our friends the Jimenez who have stood by us in thick and thin. We're losing the Edens who have become a part of our lives. (Though they aren't moving far). We're also losing the Wadels and the Sielers, both of which have been here since before us. It's a hard thing each semester to watch people we know and love move away. I can't say I'm not excited for the day when we graduate and leave, but it's hard to watch people go. Especially the Jimenez. They've been watching Alisabeth since she was two months old. She loves them, and though she's not going to really understand why she never sees them anymore I'm sad for her.
Other than that it was a great week. Jason and I were able to take a ride on the last night of the IBC group's horse-drawn wagon rides. It was a neat experience. Alisabeth enjoyed watching the world pass by. It was one of the nicer nights, so despite the 20 degree weather we were able to sip our hot chocolate and enjoy the trip with some neat people.
We also made caramels . . . again. But this time was a disaster. We wasted A LOT of money. One batch got cooked too much, one didn't get mixed right, another was taken off the heat too soon and the last batch somehow wasn't right either, but I can't figure out why on that one. All in all it was frustrating. I want to do it again, but it takes time to do it right, and it needs to be done without 2 and 1 year olds running around without naps at lunch-time. It's sad to say, but every time we tried to do it one of the 5 children was screaming about something or other. I am usually one to say a few kids never hurt a cooking experience, but this time I think the distraction was a leading cause of not-workage.
Jason went back to the doctor this week and was told that he's still on the brink of needing physical therapy, so we're still waiting for that to pan out. The insurance paid us for his glasses and the car though so we've been able to get our savings back where it needs to be.
Jason has also started his own business, it's a wrecked computer misfits and car fixing shop. He runs it out of our pantry using the schools internet and phone system and his old uniforms to get discounts. So far it's been working well :) He's fixed brakes, an XP computer and done some troubleshooting for the neighbors. Plus he has a few positive leads for the future. :)
Alisabeth has been growing like a weed. She lost her belly this week, shot up a few inches and sprouted a few new teeth. It was an exciting couple of nights as you can imagine. She has also begun repeating words. She has been identified saying "Theresa," "Alena," "glasses," "uh-oh" and "no." She also sucessfully identified a mommy, daddy and baby in a photograph and could point to each one in turn as we asked her to. Needless to say I was almost overcome with joy at my little girl :)
My classes are wrapping up nicely. I am almost finished with my on-line class, done with all the homework that needs to be turned in in any given class. . . taking one final each day of the week next week. Then it's FREEDOM!!!!!! I can't wait to see Tucson again. Hopefully we'll even have time to fit in a trip to the zoo for Alisabeth's sake.

Naughty or Nice Quiz

Check out this quiz! I laughed hard when we took it! What a thing to say...

You Were Nice This Year!

You're an uber-perfect person who is on the top of Santa's list. You probably didn't even *think* any naughty thoughts this year. Unless you're a Mormon, you've probably been a little too good. Is that extra candy cane worth being a sweetheart for 365 days straight?

Were You Naughty or Nice This Year?

Theresa's Pilgrim Name Is...

Remember Hopkins

Jason's Pilgrim Name Is...

Jasper Hopkins

What's Your Pilgrim Name?

I thought this was a pretty accurate description of me from a few simple questions:

What Theresa's Thanksgiving Meal Says About Her

When it comes to the holidays, you are traditional with a twist. You do things a bit differently, and you've established your own traditions. You see the holidays as a time to think about what's important to you. It's a good time to reflect and regroup. You like the aspects of the holiday that remind you of your childhood - opening presents, treats, and old favorite foods. During the holidays, you are likely to feel energetic. At your worst, you feel bored. You consider yourself a real red blooded American, and you're proud of it. You tend to spend your holidays sharing and pitching in. You'll do whatever needs to be done.

What Jason's Thanksgiving Meal Says About Him

When it comes to the holidays, you are traditional with a twist. You do things a bit differently, and you've established your own traditions. You see the holidays as a time to think about what's important to you. It's a good time to reflect and regroup. You like the aspects of the holiday that remind you of your childhood - opening presents, treats, and old favorite foods. During the holidays, you are likely to feel comforted. At your worst, you feel a bit over-indulgent. You consider yourself a real red blooded American, and you're proud of it. You tend to spend your holidays relaxing. Holidays are your down time.

What Does Your Thanksgiving Meal Say About You?

Ah the memories

So today was the last day of classes before Thanksgiving break, woo hoo! Most of my teachers actually called it an optional day. I think a lot of teachers did because when Jason passed by the bus depot for outbound trips it was packed with little college brats headed home. After this week of freedom we have only 1.5 weeks left in the semester. Then it's home, Florida, home, back home. :) Well this week has just been full of surprises. I actually got caught up on my grading for the most part. I also got an A on two more tests this week and drove my Business 301 teacher crazy . . . again. He's hilarious. he yelled at me the other day for making it sounds so easy because a few of the students are really struggling and it doesn't help to hear "That was easy" or "it only took me 10 minutes." :) Today I was a little punchy so when he asked questions I just said "Si senor" in a Mexican jalapeño voice. After the second time you could see the smile and that he was trying to ignore me. :) I love college.

Jason also had some revelations this week. He was able to finish some Christmas presents and spend a lot of time with Alisabeth. He also did an amazing amount of stuff around the house in helping me get everything ready for my Pampered Chef party. The party was a blast. We had just enough chairs for everyone, and I made almost the perfect amount of food. Can't beat that! Jason wasn't there because we found out on Sunday that we had a Nursery training meeting at the same time. He went to it and had a great time. They talked about a few ideas for disciplining the little babies when they hit each other, or are just acting out without having to go find the parents. (In case you aren't following, Jason and I are in charge of 14 babies ages 18 months to 2.2 years. We provide a nursery for 2 hours during church while their parents are in classes). It was really neat, and he told me that most of the things they talked about were already being done by us and the other nursery.

The other exciting thing this week just happened tonight at about 6:15. We were driving to Idaho Falls for a Mary Kay party. It was a one time event because of a special guest from Utah who was coming up tonight. We were excited to go. As we drove down the road a poor young guy didn't see us and took over our lane. Jason honked and finally swerved to avoid him. I watched for a second more than just covered my head and closed my eyes. When we stopped moving I immediately looked at Jason who was now below me and called out to him hoping he was fine. I noticed a nice smash in the windshield and was hoping it wasn't from him. Luckily he was okay except for his shoulder. He had landed on it when the car came to a stop and it ended up that it was "separated" (dislocated). So he'll be in pain for a bit.

As I hung above him taking stock I noticed that my window, which was up was surrounded by branches, as was the windshield in front of me. I couldn't see anything else because the room had been crushed in a bit but I repositioned myself so that my feet were touching the dashboard next to the steering wheel and then let myself loose from the seatbelt.

Jason couldn't get free from his, so I began moving around trying to get a feel for how we were going to get out of the car. I tried kicking the windshield and would have eventually broken through (since it was already cracked) but it wouldn't have done much good because of all the branches from the tree we were resting against. My next goal was to help Jason get out of the seat so I moved to where I was underneath him to try to support his weight and hopefully take it off of the seatbelt until he could release it. Unfortunately because of his shoulder he couldn't get to it so that didn't help much. By this time some of the passer-bys had stopped and a few lights were shinning in at us. Jason kept honking the horn accidentally whenever he shifted his weight so they assured us that they knew we were there and we assured them that we weren't doing it on purpose.

The only other option for getting out was the back window so that's what I headed for next. I couldn't quite get there and it wouldn't have mattered if I did because it hadn't yet been broken so I wouldn't have been able to break it with almost no leverage to work with. By this time the police had arrived and we saw a few people from the fire department. The back window was broken and I was given a seatbelt cutter to get my husband out. Finally they cut through the tree and eventually through the windshield and helped us escape. I was sure to grab Jason's temple bag . . . the only thing I cared about, and he was sure to grab the baby's stroller . . . the only thing he cared about :) The guy who had run us off the road took full responsibility for the accident and strangely his boss showed up (I guess it was a company vehicle on a bank run).

The other driver felt so bad he was in tears. I just wanted to give him a hug and tell him "it's okay." He personally approached me to apologize. I told him not to worry. We were all okay and it was an accident. I tried to help him see that not only did I completely forgive him, but that there was no need for him to replay this incident over and over in his mind. I know for me I take things like this so personally that I replay them for years after the event which is so bad! We're praying for him to have peace and I hope there are no lasting problems with his job. His boss seemed pretty ticked when he got there but he only stayed a few minutes to make sure that everything was okay and then he was off again.

Needless to say we are down to one car again (thank heavens we weren't in my car at the time : p) Luckily we have a week off from school with no plans to leave the city anyway so we'll be fine (even if it is 50 degrees in the middle of the day and I'm going to freeze to death walking everywhere). Did I mention that our other car is in getting the paint re-done . . . again . . . from the last accident . . . last year?

Yeah anyway, we called a friend instead of paying the ambulance $500 to drive us to the hospital and they happened to be driving right behind us and had just passed us when we got into the accident (they didn't realize it was us though) so they flipped around and were there in a few minutes. They took us to the hospital, waited and then took us to fill our pain meds and then took us to Dairy Queen?!! However I feel bad because we weren't able to make it to the Mary Kay party.

Needless to say the rest of the holiday should be quite boring. . . Although we do have a giant thanksgiving dinner scheduled!! I am quite excited about that. See next week for lots of photos, and maybe some of the sideways car!! the cops kept snapping pictures and we're going to try to get some copies!! The ones you see in this blog were taken by Jason the next day when they went to salvage the brand new battery and to see if the alternator would work for a friends vehicle. Ain't it pretty?

Shared Memories

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I (any of us) had together! It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

So, is it winter or summer?

As temperatures skyrocketed to a high of 50 this week I began to wonder what winter thought it was doing and why it decided to play a game of cat and mouse with summer. Every day is a unique surprise here in Rexburg. One day you better have earmuffs or you will be hurting by the time you get where you're going, the next you shed all the extra layers and curse the ones you can't politely get off in public. However, what do I have to complain about, I can still drive without the cold fear gripping my stomach as I come over the hill and hope I can stop in time for my turn. Plus I don't have any cute winter clothes :)

Jason was home all week with Alisa this week and I pretty much wasn't. Between tests and projects and everything else I haven't been able to be home half of my normal time. I guess it was a real blessing that he got laid off because I don't know what I would have done without him here. Alisabeth on the other hand is angry when I leave and takes a while to be comforted by dad.
Here is one of his newest tactics for combatting the tears. She was really tired here, but it shows her sweet nature really well. He has also gone out in the mudfields a lot with Alisabeth and watched her enjoy the quiet and nature. He said she just sits and watchs that world.
She has also begun to really enjoy books. Whenever we go for a carride we hand her her baby einstein colors and shapes book and she'll spend the whole trip flipping through the pages and looking at the pictures. She has also gotten to the point where she understands us, and it able to communicate finally. I've been trying to teach her hungry since she was born and she just recently started pointing to her mouth when she wants to eat or drink. She also mimics the sing-song "All done" or "Thank you" that we use with her all the time. It's amazing to watch her growth.

We also had a neat experience this week. As we were in the kitchen preparing dinner or something then all of a sudden our kitchen lit up with this pure orange light. It was so neat. We ran outside almost too late and snapped a few shots, but they don't do justice to the sunset.
You can't really tell from these photos, but the day was beyond overcast. It was dark all day and then just at sunset the sun broke through as you can see here and just lit up everything in it's path. Against the DARK blue/grey sky it was quite a sight. Everything was clear and crisp. I thought it was breathtakingly beautiful.

Jason has been spending a lot of his time on a new hobby/project which I can't mention here because of some Christmas presents that might result, but which is beyond cool. For those of you that know what he's been up to you'll be interested to know that he's completed his first piece and has almost completed his second. He's even invented a few modifications which have helped him go faster and more accurate. I'm pretty proud of him, even if it is just a hobby he's really enjoying it and he's working hard on it to learn and do well with the skill.

On a completely seperate note I just got back from a Relay for Life University training down in Pocatello. I am going to be the Data committee chairperson (and was originally supposed to be the accounting chairperson). We got there thinking accounting only to realize about 3/4 of the way through that the person above us in the chain of command didn't exist, and the other branch that we are supposed to work with doesn't exist either. Thus the three of us diversified and each took on another position. :) I got the data entry position because of my level of excel skills. The spreadsheet they use to keep track of their info is pretty intense ranging about twelve pages with lots of built in macros. It's crazy complicated.
For those of you that don't know what the Relay for Life is, it is the American Cancer Society's major fundraising event. Companies who want to participate (and individuals or families or groups) sign up and get sponsered and then do a 24 hour walk in rememberance of those who have died from cancer and to raise money for cancer research and development. Rexburg hit an alltime high last year of 20,000 gross income so we're looking forward to trying to meet or beat that number this year.
I am really excited. This is the 25th anniversary of the Relay for Life and so it's a pretty big year for them. They have invited us to do things on the 25th of each month so that we can keep it in our minds and invite others to keep it in theirs too. There was a lot of rah-rah at the meeting, and for those of you that know me, it doesn't usually effect me like they want it to, but I definitely have a more invested mentality than I did going into it. I am excited to participate and do my best to control the funds and spend wisely so that we can make this year a sucess.

So it begins . . . again.

So if you've been following my posts you know that I said winter was here. Well I was wrong back then because it didn't really get here until this week. The temperature dropped to a nice 40 degree average and it's gorgeous outside. My light coat is enough for most trips outside and my closed shoes are nice and cosy. I wouldn't however, recommend open toed sandals. Especially when you will have to walk home (because the baby finally fell asleep and your husband doesn't think it's a good idea to leave her and come and get you so you won't freeze to death. :p)

Like she would really mind?!! This week she's made much progress. She now tells you when she has run out of food on her tray, and she calls mama for Jason and dada for me. . . we're still working on that part :p.

She has discovered sheppard's pie and loves it. She also enjoys peas. However she really doesn't appreciate green beans. When given one she simply takes it out of her mouth, throws it behind her and opens her mouth again for more. The picture to the left is after she ran out of raviolli. She enjoys that too, but her favorite things in the world right now are hotdogs, manderine oranges and bananas. So I start her out every morning with a banana and some healthy cereal (of which she eats only a little) and a cup of milk and then for lunch she starts with a corndog while I fix what she's really going to eat. The appetite on this little tike is amazing! I was told that her appetite was supposed to decrease when she turned one, but I found that as I began to feed her real food she went to town. You can't feed her enough. The only time she stops is when she's gotten sick of the taste of whatever it is you've given her.

She also re-discovered her baby swing. It's only supposed to hold 20 lbs, but she doesn't really care about that. It doesn't have batteries either, but she'll grab a stuffed animal and maybe a blanket and head right over to it when she gets a chance. . . not to sleep mind, just because she wants to sit in it. And heaven forbid it doesn't allow her to get in right away for some reason because then we all hear about it! Did I even mention that she has developed quite a set of lungs? I can't imagine how you could look at this little girl and not love her though. It's crazy how that happens.

The other great and exciting adventure came when we were invited over for FHE at our neighbor's house. She's a Mary Kay rep and wanted the guy's help practicing because she'd never done a guy's show before. Dutifully they all came over, mostly clean shaven because of the school dress-code which requires clean faces, and lathered up and shaved their 5 o'clock shadows :)

Don't we have some great guys? It was a fun party and I got lots of pictures to use as blackmail. . . strangly most of them were gone when I went to search the camera. . .

That's about all of the exciting adventures for the week. Alisabeth got to play in the mud, I passed all of my tests with A's for the week and I actually began to understand cash flow statements and balance sheet accounts. Ah, it's getting scary, I feel like I'm beginning to comprehend accounting?!!!

Galusha (my accounting job here) is hiring their last intern for tax season this week. I have a friend up for the vote. I hope she gets it because she really wants it. She's been in several groups with me since I've been up here and each time I am really impressed at her level of understanding and preparation. I think they would be really impressed.

Oh, and for those of you who haven't yet received an invitation. I'm throwing a Pampered Chef party on the 20th of this month right before Thanksgiving. It's the perfect time to get your stoneware 20% off for your holiday baking! (I'm getting one of the large stone baking pans for $11 for hosting a show, so I couldn't pass it up!). If you want to see what they've got for the holidays I can send you an E-invitation so let me know.

Well, that's about the extend of our crazy week. Jason was able to help me out so much that I was almost completely stress free this week and it felt great. (Is it bad that I'm glad he got laid off?) Well, thanks for sharing this week with me. I love you all!

The Halloween Scene

This week's main event was Halloween. The ward did a trunk-or-treat right outside the apartments. Usually by now everything is covered with snow and the temperatures are in the twenties. This year is different. The school/church leaders have been praying for no snow because the auditorium still isn't closed to the elements and a lot of damage would happen if they weren't able to get it closed in.

Needless to say I was excited because no snow meant we could actually go trick-or-treating! We dressed up as Lois Lane, Clark Kent and a large and loud piece of Kryptonite (wearing her monkey leash).

A great time was had by all. We ended up decorating the Raybon's SUV and decked it out for the kids to climb into, but they were all too little so they didn't appreciate our blacklight and cobwebs :)

The rest of the week was a bit of a bore. School passed quickly and the work-load is getting up there, but it's nothing we can't handle.

Jason has been amazing at taking Alisabeth for long spurts so that I can get solid chunks of homework done.

He had a hard experience on Saturday. Just as he was packing up for the day (it was his Saturday to work). They pulled him aside and told him he'd been doing a great job, but they were going to have to let him go. Poor guy!

We haven't quite decided what the next step will be. It's an odd time because he starts up in January with school so he wasn't going to be working anyway, so that really only gives him 2 months, but not many people are hiring for that short of a time period. He's going to head back to the staffing service he was at before and see what they have available. If he can't find anything useful I'll probably pick up a few shifts of tutoring if there are any available. We both felt so blessed that we had followed the counsel re-given recently to save what we could because now we don't have to stress so much. We have enough for the necessities for a few months. God is good.

This week wasn't as exciting as some. We're still trying to decide about Thanksgiving. Now that Jason isn't working for them we may be able to hitch a ride with some friends to Boise and spend Thanksgiving with his aunt and uncle again. . . time will tell. Please vote and let us know what you think. . . :)

Continuing the Holiday traditions. . .

Continuing in the holiday tradition we prepared for next week's All-Hallow's Eve by carving a pumpkin. The original desire was to get a tiny one for Alisa, and two for Jason and I, we would each carve one (or bite one . . . whatever), and display them for all the world to see.
Unfortunately the grocery store only had 21 lb pumpkins when I went and we could only afford 1. Jason started the carving process today and is having a blast. Alisabeth is helping occassionally too. Then Jason took it outside to smoke out the inside and left Alisabeth alone in the kitchen with all of the guts. . .

It's so much fun exploring the holidays now that she is old enough to get messy with Jason.

This week was fast. I took three tests and am quite hopeful about the outcome. I also hit the 1/2 way mark in my New Testament class, it has been a great experience because not only does it talk about Christ and His teachings, but it also goes in depth in the history surrounding His ministry so that the letters and teachings can be better understood.

Jason has been having a blast with his work. He's got his plans almost set for next semester so that I can work tax season while he's in school. We also mapped his last three semesters so that he's on the right path to make sure he can graduate on time.

Alisabeth has begun really copying sounds. She can howl with us like a wolf, and she can say uh-oh and ma,da,nana. She's been doing all of these sounds for a while now, but it's only recently that we can get her to do them on command. It's so cool to watch her grow. She also transitioned from the bottle completely this last week. (After three nights of waking up at 3am screaming). We're much better at making sure she gets a full dinner before bed :) Another new first for her was the dentist. She got a completely clean bill of health and the destist praised us to the stars for bringing her in so young (I figured she already has 8 teeth, we had better figure out what to do about them). He did a mini cleaning and sealed them and gave us a new toothbrush and toothpaste for her. It's neat. She loves her teeth being brushed and I am trying to remember to do it right after breakfast. Hopefully she'll have a mouthful of teeth for a good long time.

She also received a package this week from her grandparents containing some more birthday presents. For them I'll include this video, it represents the essences of Alisa:

The first first!

Today we celebrated Alisa's first birthday. She was completely oblivious as to why people were coming over, but seeing as our house is often crazy with families and people she wasn't put out. Then we brought out the cupcake tower with her one candle and she could see that this was no ordinary
day. . . Needless to say she is a pyromaniac just like her parents. Even the smell of chocolate didn't distract her from the little flame.

She received several nice gifts from grandparents and a few from neighbors, but she was so fascinated by each gift that it was a struggle to get her to let that one go for a second so she could open another one! She got two books, a bath toy boat, letters for her floor, a dancing tower, and giant legos. . . all in all, this kid made out like a bandit!

She even got to play in her own personal cake, which was the most important part of the day. . . thank heavens for carpet cleaning solutions.





Then later in the evening she had another great first, her first Halloween Party. Jason dressed up as Clark Kent with a blue shirt under a red and yellow tie and his hair dyed black, I was Lois Lane, intreped reporter, and Alisa was Cryptonite. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, even though she was extremely tired toward the end.

And so it begins. . .

I'm making it my goal to update our blog weekly if possible. . . course, if we're not interesting that week we probably won't :)

We had our first snow of the season midweek this week, luckily it didn't stick, and so we all rejoiced, even though the temperature was low enough to feel your ears burn after 15 minutes of walking outdoors.

Unfortunately yesterday it began again. Jason thinks it will go away, but I think different. It's already later in the season than last year's first snow and we've had beautiful weather up to this point, so I figure we're in for it.

Other than that the week has been pretty quiet. Alisa is trying to decide what she wants to do now. She is refusing to take her morning naps and is exhausted until Jason finally "forces" the issue in the afternoon. It's been hard for me as I try to balance being a good mother with being a good student, but we'll survive!

Jason also had a great adventure this week. He was pulling a manual car forward just a few feet to work on it in his stall and froze mentally when it kept rolling and he saw a slow motion picture of his tool chest lifting up and over the hood of the car. Needless to say he's gained the nickname Crash at work and everyone had a good laugh at his expense. No damage happened to the car except a few small dents, and there were a few dents in his toolbox which were easily undone. Poor guy.

We also went on a great date this week. We decided to try a new restaurant and choose a place called the "Fantastic Bagel" which has an amazing assortment of styles and choices. It was pretty good! Afterward we went over to Florence Chocolates and got a free turtle with our starving student card (similar to Entertainment Book). Afterwards we went to Walmart, and spent way too much money outfitting Alisabeth for her first real winter (last one doesn't count because she couldn't interact with the snow).

Alisabeth loves the winter weather, she got so mad at us when we brought her in last night. It's going to be a fun season!

Love you all!

We've finally done it

We got a couple of people asking us about a blog so I finally decided to take the time to make one. I hope you enjoy what we supply. :)