JIMMERSIGHTING!

Ahhhh! Just hours after I posted about Jimmer, we had our very own JIMMERSIGHTING!  He was just hanging out with Jackson Emery at the SAME Costa Vida in Provo as my dear Watson and me.  My dear Watson went up to them and said, "Jackson, sick dunk," and, "Jimmer, you're freakin amazing." He got their autographs and now it is framed in our house. They were really nice. They are just normal guys, and Jimmer's even kinda dorky :).  He was wearing ugly shoes.

Jimmered

Read this article about last night’s BYU vs. SDSU game on CBS Sports: (just scroll down to the bottom and look at the pregnant girl).

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/14606036/jimmer-show-a-big-hit-that-leaves-fans-wanting-more

The pregnant girl in the picture at the bottom of the article is my friend Chelsy from work. Her baby was due yesterday but she went to the game anyway….and still no baby. She’s at work today and we’re all amazed about how famous she is now. She even got her picture with JIMMER!!!!  AmAzing! Apparently there was a guy from NIKE who also took Chelsy’s picture. He’s trying to get the company to start printing Jimmer shirts for all the crazy BYU fans, so he was taking pictures all night long.  There were a lot of really funny signs at the game (my dear Watson went and reported). My favorite was the big one that says Jim-Jimmery-Jim-Jimmery- Jim-Jim-Ja Roo.  Or the big giant Jimmer head pictured in the Deseret News…or how about the one that says Jimmer Fredette University?  This Jimmer craze is sooo fun! All of these pictures are from KSL and the Deseret News!

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This one is awesome! 

http://college-basketball-blog.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/26283066/27270988

 

ADVENTURE IS OUT THERE!

I crave adventure. When I was in College my life was organized by  4  month semesters. With each semester came some kind of change – new apartment, new roommates, new ward, new classes, new schedule. A change every 4 months satisfied my craving for adventure. It also ingrained in my mind that every 4 months something should change. Now, approximately every 4 months my mind starts naturally aching for an adventure.  Let’s move out of state, better yet, let’s go visit a different country for 3 or 4 months.  The problem is, I’m no longer in college and my life is no longer organized by 4 month semesters. It’s organized by 8 hour days, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year.  I can’t go anywhere for longer than a week because I don’t have enough Vacation days, and we can’t pick up and move because of school and work.

Sometimes I need to do something different than our normal routine, and if I don’t… I might explode. That’s why this weekend I planned an adventure. Vegas was out because we needed to be back on Sunday to teach our Sunbeams. Next best thing: Kamas, UT.  I looked at a map of Utah and picked a few small towns I’ve never visited. Kamas was the winner. We drove to Kamas to find a small town diner where we could eat lunch. Gateway Grille is what we found and I had the most wonderful sandwich that was as tall as 3 of my mouth. On our way home we stopped at Park City and cruised Main Street. Our 1994 Corolla enjoyed the company of cars that were 2 years old or newer – just babies compared to our timeless moving terd (as my dear Watson likes to call it). We went into several fun shops and kept our eyes peeled for famous people. We missed the Sundance Film Festival by a week though so we didn’t see anyone famous, just a bunch of boring millionaires in mink coats instead. 

We went into a hot sauce store that sold all sorts of spicy sauces.  When I saw the name of the store I thought it was called Function Hot. As soon as I started reading the labels on the hot sauce bottles I realized that the name “Fn Hot” was not short for Function Hot.  Kick Butt Rib Rub, and other slightly naughtier names for the hot sauces gave it away. We didn’t spend very much time in that store but we had a good laugh at my initial naivete. 

We had a grand adventure!

Ice Fishers!

The chairs at the diner had cow-hide backs.

HUGE! And that's only 1/2 of it. 

The Gateway Grille in Kamas.

Park CITY!

Oh, and this is our New Year's celebration. I look like I have a mustache. 

Homemade with Love

My dear Watson and I hand made gifts for our moms for Christmas this year.  I wanted to make my mom some cute covers for her Ipad. So I did. My dear Watson helped me figure out the basic logistics of the design and then I just gave it a go.  I borrowed my mother-in-law's sewing machine and my mom's too. I just told her I needed her machine and she needed to leave.  It was really fun. I made 4 and each one is designed a little differently. I enjoyed sewing and now I have a big long list of sewing projects I'd like to do. I don't have a machine though so the other day I hand sewed one of the things on my list. Just a simple little make-up bag, it didn't take too long.  I guess part of the gift was that I actually sewed something. My mom loves to sew and now so do I!

All 4 Ipad covers

My favorite fabric (I LOVE owls).

For my mother-in-law we made a birthday board. We got the idea from my sister-in-law who made one for my parents a few years ago.  We had to adapt the design a bit because we couldn't find the exact materials my sister-in-law used, but trying to work out all the kinks was the best part about making the gift. We thought it turned out really great.

The letters stand for each month in the year. We screwed little hooks under each letter and then hung the little circles below from the hook according to the month of each persons birthday.

Girls were pink, boys green. I wrote the name and their birthday along with the year on the side. My sister-in-law used  wooden gingerbread boys so they looked like actual people, but we could find any that were the right size, so we went with circles.

My mom made all the kids calendars this year and she used a little vinyl rub-on kit. She had a lot of extra rub-on pictures for each month so we used those to add character to the board. 

Christmas times 3

The last couple weeks have been super exciting.  We celebrated Christmas, and then we celebrated Christmas again, and then we celebrated Christmas again.  That is a LOT of Christmas.  Here are some pictures of our celebrations and other stuff. I can’t believe we didn’t take a single picture of the actual Christmas day at the Watson’s. We’ll have to steal some pics from the Watson siblings some time. 

First we celebrated Christmas with my family one week early. We always draw parts for the Nativity and then act them out. I was the donkey this year and I think my dear Watson was a Shepherd. We also did the famous chimes, ate a LOT and played some really fun games. Sarah was in town so that was a special treat. 

You can see some of the nieces and nephews in their Nativity costumes.  

We celebrated our own family Christmas one day early. I wanted us to be able to open our presents as a family and kind of start some of our own traditions. For our Christmas Eve we had Christmas shaped pancakes which we ate by candlelight. 

Me looking at my presents!!

On the real Christmas Eve we went to lunch with the Watson's and on our way we saw Santa on a motorcycle. 

You can see my dear Watson's hand as he waves to Santa.

On Christmas Eve we went to my grandparents party in bountiful.  We also slept over at the Watson's and enjoyed watching some of the grandkids and siblings open presents on Christmas morning. We visited my family for an hour or so and then back to the Watson's to open more presents, play games, have a talent show and Eat EAt EAT! All of our Christmases were great!

Our Tree!

I love Christmas. I love decorating and setting up a Christmas Tree, putting lights on the house, candy canes, making sugar cookies and having Christmas smells for my Scentsy warmer. I love celebrating Christmas traditions and finding and giving gifts to my family members.

This year I’m spending my first Christmas married. I’m excited to set my own family traditions and enjoy them with my dear Watson. I really wanted to go to the dollar store to buy some Christmas decorations, and I wanted to buy a cheap tree from WalMart so that it could really feel like Christmas for both of us. I was really excited about it until we moved and then started spending a lot of money on things for our house (namely, a Washer and Dryer).  So I decided that I could wait for a tree and decorations until next year. I had a few dinky decorations, and acquired a couple awesome decorations- so I just did my best with what I had. Our presents were wrapped and put in the corner of our living room beneath our stockings which hung on the curtain rod.  It was cute and would do. I meant to buy a tiny tree to set on top of one of the presents but I never got around to it. 

Saturday night we stayed at my parent’s house pretty late hanging out with my family (we celebrated the Porter family Christmas Eve traditions this weekend while my sister was in town from New Mexico).  When we got  back to our apartment I noticed the living room was glowing a little bit. I wondered why the 2 strands of Christmas lights I put on our deck were glowing so brightly—in fact, I didn’t even think we turned them on?  I immediately went into the living room to see about the glow.  And there it was. The most beautiful Christmas tree I have ever seen.  It was glowing brightly with its multi-color pre-strung lights; small round ornaments hung from the branches and a beautiful white garland was wound throughout the entire tree. A Santa hat graced the tree as the tree topper.  Our presents were gently arranged at the foot of the tree and 4 chocolate candies led the way to the note. Merry Christmas, love Jenny. (My best friend who lives in Athens—Georgia, not Greece).

I just knelt at the bottom of the tree and tried to stare at its wonder through my tears.  I turned the lights off again and my dear Watson joined me on the couch where I cried some more as I continued to soak in our glowing tree and everything it meant to me.  

This is OUR first Christmas Tree. It embodies so much of what Christmas means to me and what I hope it will mean to my new family. Traditions, family, and love. Having a Christmas tree meant so much more to me than I was willing to admit.

Jenny is the most charitable person I’ve ever met. For her, charity just comes naturally. She doesn’t care about price, or how hard it might be. She is truly an example to me of the Savior. He knew the price He would have to pay and the personal sacrifice He would have to make to give us all the gift of eternal life and exaltation, but He just did it anyway because He loves us.  After this experience I feel like my focus has been re-centered on the true meaning of Christmas. Thank you Jenny!

Our Tree!

Yes, we saw David.

This is a picture the firemen pulled from the Provo Tabernacle that burned down. Isn't it cool that everything but Christ is burned?

Nephews

This was my conversation with my nephew Porter yesterday:

(I called Betsy and asked to talk to Porter to wish him a Happy Birthday. Porter comes on the phone and immediately says: )

Porter: Happy Birthday

Me: Hey! That’s what I was going to say!  How are you?

Porter: 5

Me: I know you’re 5, but how is your birthday going?

Porter: Grreat! (he said it just like Betsy would)

Me: What did you get?

Porter: A pirate costume and a movie and a puzzle.

Me: Cool! What movie did you get?

Porter: Um…Cat in the Hat, and I got a puzzle.

Me: Awesome! And are you….

Porter: I can’t say anything very long, so bye!

Apparently he was doing his puzzle when I called and was a little distracted. AND, Betsy told me he didn’t get a Cat in the Hat movie--not sure where that came from. He is hilarious and super cute.

My other nephew Jes got baptized on Saturday. We celebrated his birthday afterward and you should have seen him open presents.  He LOVED everything! He said thank you even before he opened each gift and was just literally in heaven.  One gift in particular he kept saying "I can't believe it!" in utter amazement.  My thought the next day was that he doesn't realize it yet and probably won't for a lot of years, but the greatest gift he got that day was the gift of the Holy Ghost. Learn more about the Holy Ghost HERE.

Coming soon: I'll tell you all about my new favorite things (no, I will NOT be giving all my readers my new favorite things, I'm not Oprah).