The Year

We had such a great Christmas and New Year. The best part was all the time off from work. I actually got down on my hands and knees and scrubbed my kitchen, bathroom and laundry room floors.  I cleaned my refrigerator and organized some of my closets and corners.  We relaxed, watched movies (Les Mis is amazing. Like really amazing. And Lincoln was the coolest president ever), played games and spent a lot of time with family.

**Side note: it was New Years day (12:05 am) 2006 at the Woolley's house that my dear Watson first told me he loves me.

2012 was a fun year. We had some fun vacations, I got a new job; my dear Watson got a CNA and made the dean's list two semesters in a row; we made new friends, paid a lot of tuition, finished the Book of Mormon, and strengthened our faith, our relationship, and our muscles.

In 2013 we will go on more dates, finish the Doctrine and Covenants, go on more vacations, be healthier and WORRY less (that one's for me).

Everyone needs to go to Farr's Fresh in SLC and try their hot ice cream. It's the creamiest most delicious tasting basically-hot-chocolate you'll ever taste. But don't waste your money on a cookie - no bueno.  We rode Frontrunner (utah's new cross-county train!) to SLC with some friends. It was super fun and cold.

Here are some pictures of a few of my favorite things during Christmas and New Years.

These are so light! I feel like i'm flying with every stride.  

We crammed into trax so we didn't have to wait 15 min. for the next one to come. It was so funny and I'm glad we did it.  

So I guess we didn't get pictures of FrontRunner...this and me and Alisa on Trax. 

My dear watson and I are in this picture....it's just hard to see us. I love the Salt Lake Temple

My favorite corner of the house. Isn't it beautiful?  Peg board made by my sister in law, quilt made by my mom, shelf mad by my dear watson.  Soon I will make a decoration to go on top :). 

At Worlds End

I’m glad the world didn’t end today.

There are a lot of things I want to do before the world ends.

In fact, there are a lot of things I’d like to do before this day ends, but I probably won’t be able to do them all. Working full-time is kind of time suck. Oh but don’t worry, I have a GIANT list of projects to do…someday…when I have more….time.   (You’re all probably laughing right now: when the heck does she think she’s ever going to have more time?) 

Back to the things I want to do before the world ends.  Some of them are awesome and some much less so.  Many of them have to do with travel. I’ve got travel fever (I’m saying that like the ‘I’ve got cabin fever’ quote on Muppet Treasure Island. Because I’m weird).

Christmas is coming. This is our 3^rd Christmas together and the first Christmas since we’ve been married that I haven’t been in tears trying to arrange schedules between two families while trying to squeeze some of our own family traditions in there somewhere too.  I think part of the reason is because I haven’t really had time to think much about our own family traditions and I guess by now I know what to expect as far as other family stuff.  It’s relaxing not to be stressed about it but sad that I haven’t had a chance to really carry out our own family stuff. I think that’s why I’m having a hard time feeling like it’s really Christmas.  There’s snow now, so that will help.

I get to sing on Sunday with a harp as my accompaniment. This will be a first for me. It’s super cool.

Peace, love and harmony to you all this Christmas season. 

Here are some kind of ugly pictures of us. Funny, in both instances we're eating food. Neighhhhhh, i'm only here for the food. (name that movie)

My work Christmas dinner.

Eating at Gloria's Little Italy.

 

Miracle and Halloween

We had a real life miracle happen in our family this last week.  My sister is pregnant with twins and got an ultrasound last week that showed that baby B (or the one that will come out last) had VSD (ventricular septal defect); basically, a hole in her heart. The hole was so large that the Dr. said there wasn't really a chance that it would close on its own like some VSD's do.  It was also at greater risk of having Down Syndrome or Trisomy 18 because she also had cysts on her brain last month.

My sister would probably need to get amniocentesis (which has a small risk associated with it for the babies) to know for sure whether the baby had a chromosomal disorder, and she'd need to visit a cardiologist to learn what this hole meant for the baby now and once she's born.

We had a family fast (learn more about fasting here) for baby B and for my sister's family as they learned more and made decisions. We prayed for them and I know I at least prayed that if possible, the Lord would close up that hole.  Some of my nieces and nephews even participated in the fast with such great faith and determination it was so inspiring.

My sister visited the cardiologist about a week after the ultrasound where they found the hole. When the cardiologist did another ultrasound he searched and searched and couldn't find a hole. He said if there is a hole, it's so small that it's not really something to be concerned about. And the heart definitely did NOT look like a down syndrome heart or as if it had any other abnormalities.  The cardiologist will do an echo cardiogram when the baby is born just to make sure, but he was really positive about the situation.

We all know that this wasn't coincidence or a mistake on the part of the first Dr. Mom and my sister saw that hole and now it's pretty much gone.  That's a real life miracle and a sweet blessing that came in part because of the combined prayers and fasting of many faithful people. I can't wait to tell my children about this and teach them the blessings that can come from prayer and fasting.

I was Merida for Halloween (from Brave) and my dear Watson was originally just one of the Brave guys...but it kind of morphed into Bravehart as more and more people thought that's what he was :).

Takin' a Break

It was so nice for us to take a break this weekend and have some us time. Here are the dets: (deats?)

Day #1
Stayed in Park City at a cute little condo I found for way cheap (under $60)

Ate dinner at El Chubasco's.

We are weird.

Their salsa bar was amazing. I got adventurous and tried the black salsa of death.  It tasted like mud and dirt someone scraped off a tire after a rain storm.

Day #2
Drove to and stayed at Beaver Creek Lodge, just 12 miles south of Bear Lake. On the way we stopped at Smith and Edwards outside of Brigham City. That store is amazing. The sign on their building says "we've got everything you need.....if we can find it" and that was the truth. It's huge and filled with all sorts of cool stuff.

The lodge we stayed at was awesome. They had a lounge where we played foosball (my dear Watson won), and the manager said we might hear some Elk bugleing at night (is that what Elk's do? Bugle?)  We didn't hear any though.

Ate dinner at La Beau's in Garden city - chicken cordon bleu sandwich: AMAZING!

The next morning we went Horseback Riding across from the lodge.

Our guide took pictures of us while she was bouncing around on her horse...so some of them ended up blurry :).

Day #3
Drove to and stayed at The Blue Heron Inn in Rigby, Idaho. On the way we stopped at Pepperidge Farm and got some Gold Fish!

The Blue Heron is a cute little bed and breakfast that some friends of ours own: a couple that my dear Watson lived with while he was a missionary.  This place is so beautiful and I think you ALL should go stay there for a night or two.

The backyard. 

The front yard.

We dug rocks out of a hill and built them into a fire pit, we learned how to make a bed - hotel style and fold bath towels and rags into cool shapes. We also learned how to make eggs Benedict and actually really enjoyed eating it.  We ate dinner at a cool golf shack along the river, and looked at the stars through a big telescope.We saw a bald eagle, lots of cows and cute little kittens!

I drove in to Rexburg and saw the temple and a little of BYU-Idaho...and Walmart.

We watched the BYU game and then drove home!

It was so fun for us to spend time together without the stress of our every day lives.  I love my dear Watson and I loved this vacation!

We're in love.

You'll Never Guess...

They're baaaaacckkkkkk!

Caught 2 mice yesterday in the pantry :(. Running total is 25.

Meanwhile, I'm back to this:

I don't look like that when I run.
I'm just doing 1- 2 miles three or four times a week.  I'm building up slowly so I don't do anything bad.  It feels great to run again.

We're heading here this weekend:

and a few other places too. 

We'll do a little bit of this:

Only we won't wear that silly hat.

And a whole lot of this:

Eating in general, not just eating pasta.

Can't wait!!!

Cheerio

The worst  part of my day is when I eat the last bite of my late night bowl of yogurt burst cheerios. The only thing worse than that is the last bite of my late night bowl of apple cinnamon cheerios. mmmmm.

I have a great idea what I want to do for our Christmas card this year but it's going to require a lot of snow. So....I need it to snow.

No ideas ticking about our Halloween costumes yet though. Its gotta be GREAT.

We went to the Brigham City temple open house with my sister and her family. The whole experience took 3 1/2 hours. We went on Labor Day and apparently so did everyone else in the state.  It was beautiful though and when it was all over my nephew said, "Thanks for letting us come here!"  He had such a good attitude even though we were standing around for EVER.

I think I have a fear of all natural disasters. What's that called? I found myself cuddled up right next to my dear Watson during a thunderstorm last week. I got up to go to the bathroom and when lightning struck right in my front yard (I swear it was) I turned around and ran back in to bed and got under the covers.  I was preparing my mental list of items I would grab if our house caught on fire, or where I would go for safety if there was a tornado.  Neither happened though and I made it to the bathroom before anything bad happened.

I've got to go brush my teeth now so I don't eat another bowl of cereal.

Allergic to Air

My dear Watson went to the allergist last week.

This is what he's allergic to:

Corn. (This happens to be corn straight from our garden!) 

Peanuts

Eggs

Peas (but we already knew that)

Oats

Almonds (we already knew this too)

Chicken

Seriously?  Sheesh. He might as well starve to death.  It turns out he's the MOST allergic to almonds, then peas.  Everything else  scored low on the allergic-to test, so the doc said he could go on a diet totally clean of all those foods if he wants, then slowly introduce them back into his diet one at a time. This would just help him see if he can pinpoint one that bothers him more than the others. His allergies to these foods might be linked to his eosinophilic esophagitis and the esophageal spasms he has had for much of his life.

He already decided what kind of diet he wants to go on: no rye.  He thought that should be easy enough.

The doc is pretty sure the crazy allergic episode my dear Watson had last month was due to the infection from strep throat. It won't happen every time he gets strep, his body just reacted weird to it this time.  We probably don't even need an epi pen.

Good news: beans are grouped with peas since they are all legumes, but the doc said he could slowly start introducing beans back into his diet if he wants to!  I don't know if he does because beans, beans are good for you heart, the more you eat em the more you.....you know.