A Mesa Temple Christmas

Sunday night we drove to the MEsa Temple (uits only about 30-45 minutes away which is nice) to see the Christmas lights and to enjoy a free concert.

The Visitor's Center has a different group that performs every night for about a month and a half during the Christmas Season. They set up an outdoor stage and a bunch of chairs around hte reflecting pool that's in between the Visitor's Center and the back of the Temple.

Yes I brought a thermos full of Stephen's Hot Chocolate and yes I brought a baggie of mini marshmellows for said hot chocolate. And yes, I even brought real mugs becuase a) I dind't have any styrofoam cups and b) how lame, styrofoam cups? And, since I'm sure you were curious, yes, I DID bring an extra blanket in case my legs got cold (as they usually do in cold weather becuase its terribly easy to layer the top half of one's body, but the bottom half usually gets stuck with just one layer--two if you're lucky).



Tyler suggested that I might have exploded from happiness if I could have that evening. I assure you, if I could have, I would. It was so GREAT! It seems like its been forever since I've seen Temple Christmas lights (even though we went to DC last year). My hot chocolate was awesome, the blanket was perfect for my legs, I was comfortable on teh chair waiting for the performance to start and just enjoyed being on Temple grounds with Tyler. Plus it was free, so that was nice too. Its all set up and performed by volunteers.

The group (MC6--some group of 6 random guys, I'm pretty sure they were LDS, but I know lots of the groups they have are choirs and so forth from other churches) sang lots of songs, but not as many hymns as I wanted. Just "Away in a Manger" which they did beautifully. I want to go back again but I don't think we'll make it before they take the lights down.



Anwyas, it was a fabulous fabulous night and the lights were beautiful, as was the temple. . . my cup overfloweth (good thing its a cup and not a pressure cooker : ) I can feel the happiness welling up again just TALKING about it! It was just so great!)

The Nightmare that WAS the A/V box

So, we have this box. And it's been in our possession since we got married 2 1/2 years ago. It's called the A/V box, but it should really be called the "where to send people when you want to get rid of them for at least 2 hours" box.

The bottom of the box has a bunch of cables I brought to the marriage. You can't see them in the photo, btu they're wound neatly in circles and sometimes even labeled.

The top 90% of the box is Tyler's doing.

Only after 2 years, my neatly wound cables have become lost in the abyss of tangled cat5, USB, A/V cables and speaker wire (to name a few--there were quite a few headphones in there too).

Whenever I needed a cable for my digital camera or to hook up a scanner or printer or something, I'd just ask tyler where the cable was becuase I couldn't bring myself to go digging through the chaos. He wouldn't dig either--he'd dump the box out on the office floor and fish out the required cable. This "a/v box vomit" would stay on the office floor until one of us either got sick of it or one of us needed to get into the closet that the mound was blocking.

I will say though, it was pretty easy cleanup becuase they were so tangled. I guess that was one plus.

HOWEVER! The A/V box will never again vomit on my office floor! The other day tyler asked me for, "a couple hundred twist ties". He's asked for 'a couple hundred twist ties' before to close up our moving trash bags, so I asked what they were for, hoping to be able to provide a substitute becuase we never have had 'a couple hundred twist ties'.

"I was going to clean up the office a little and wanted them for some of hte cables"

Terribly excited, yet not getting my hopes up yet, I suggest zip ties--then rubber bands.

"Yeah! rubber bands will work", he says.

"OK!" I practically shout as I run to get one of the two bags I bought him when he was at Sheppard. "and there's different sizes and stuff so if you need bigger or smaller ones they're in there", I helpfully offer.

I can't remeber what I did inbetween getting him the rubber bands and the next time I walked in the office, but it was a good while, maybe an hour or two. Long enough so I had forgotton that he wanted the rubber bands.

The moment I walked in I see him winding up a cord and putting a rubberband on it and I preactically cried. He can attest to this if you require corroboration. I literally teared up becuase of the neat little pile of cables sitting on his office chair.

"are you crying?"


"yes! Baby I'm SO HAPPY you're fixing the box for me! Look at how much less SPACE it takes now! I'm so excited!! Will they fit in the plastic drawers?"

"They should--taht's where I was goign to put them"

>more tears<

I then got my camera to take the pictures you now see posted.

I supposse the take home moral of the story would be, it might take a few years, but eventually things get done and boy are they worth the wait!

WHO NEEDS A CABLE?! : )

PETER PETRELLI!!

So. . . . for those of you who may not know, I thuroughly enjoy the TV Show "Heros". I"m a little sick of Claire and her pansy boyfried West (who, incedentally, played 'Hunter', Jan's assistant on "The Office"-yet another TV show I enjoy), and Dr. Suresh is turning out to be a moron, but there ARE some excellent characters on the show. Characters such as Hiro Nakamura, Matt Parkman (his power is pretty cool) that new young girl from New Oreleans who mimics, and, of course, Peter Petrelli.

I mention Peter Petrelli yet again becuase he is, apparently, a pretty cool guy in person. And pretty cool guys who are also actors on hit TV shows apparently get F-16 rides. Some guy in Tyler's squadron happened to be a fan of hte show when the announcement came that a "DV" (a 'distinguished visitor', but really they announced it as 'some actor from that show heros') needed a ride--so he voluntered.

FORTUNATLEY Tyler's first solo ride was canceled on the orignical date and he ended up flying the same day as Peter PEtrelli. Yes I was much more giggly than I thought I would be. Tyler was close to kicking me out--but it was Peter Petrelli! At least I didn't ask if he could really shoot electricity from his hand (I think we all know how bad the situation COULD have been : )

So even though I had my video camera, I didn't get any video of him except when TYler's solo was taking too long (I'd pan over to Peter's jet : ) Fortunately "Fat" Albert had his camera and Tyler asked Peter if we could get a picture.

I'm not sure who swapped my mouth for Julia Roberts', or why I decided to pop the wrong leg--I must have been so wrapped up in getting the picture I just spaced proper picture taking form.

I asked Tyler afterwards if Peter Petrelli though I was fat--for some reason this seemed important at the moment--and he said "You're PREGNANT!" I said "I know! but you can't really tell, and I don't want him to just think I was fat!"

All in all, he was a really nice guy. Talked to Tyler a little bit about being a pilot and how he liked it and what sort of training he's had and stuff. I'm pretty sure I just stood there with my Julia Roberts' smile. . . . . ehhhh

In conclusion, no one knew if his name was pronnounced "Mee-loh" or "My-loh" and FAT chance on his last name--so I just call him Peter. Becuase I'm one of those retarded fans who might get upset at an actor becuase their character did somethign stupid. Its probably for the best I don't have many celebrity run-ins : )

Pregnancy update

I know its been awhile since I've updated on the pregnancy, so here goes.

Some interesting things, acutally. It turns out her umbilical cord only has one artery and one vein instead of two arteries and one vein. The technical term is 'two vessel baby'. My doctor sent me to a perinatologist after my first ultra sound becuase the first one didn't show the third vessel. The perinatologist couldn't find it either, so she's jsut a two vessel baby.

He (the speicalist) said that about 85% of the time, two vessel babies are absolutely fine. They might have a slightly lower birth weight, but they develop just fine. About 10-15% have some sort of abnormality, but he checked her thuroughly and nothing showed up (kidneys work, there are two, hte bladder works, her brain is fine, the spinal cord is covered, she's the exact size she should be) so she appears to be in teh 85% 'just fine' category, which is nice.

I'll have another unltrasound around 30-32 weeks to make sure she's still growing properly, but my stomach seems to be growing by the day judging from me increasing level of discomfort when I bend over or try to get comfortable to sleep.

My hearts being goign a little funny lately though, so I have an appointment with a cardiologist tomorrow just to make sure everythign is fine. Sometimes my heart will just beat really hard, sometiems my pulse will take off, but I've only had one bout of dizzyness/loss of vision/almost pass out. That was at the post office right before I saw the perinatologist. BUt like I said, never had anythign remotely close to that ever again, or anythign that even interferred really with daily life, just weird random heart poundings and racings.

I still don't care for my doctor's staff at all, but I like that he sends me to get things checked out just in case. It never hurts I guess and makes me feel better that if there's somethign I can do to help her grow and develop properly then I"ll know what/how to do it by takign care of myself properly.

I'll have to take some more pictures though, becuase I'm 26 weeks now and I NEED maternity shirts (thanks be to moms for footing the maternity wadrobe bill! : ) Pants too, acutally, but I just wear the same two pairs--nothign new on that front : )

The In-laws Visit

The phrase 'in-laws' steroetypically might drive fear into the hearts of those who hear it, however I have to say that mine are quite enjoyable. The whole lot of them.

Greg, Patrice and Brittnie came out for Thanksgiving the tuesday before. Greg and Patrice left Monday and Brittnie stayed until the next friday. Gifford lives out here so it was nice that he was so close. We mostly hung out at the house and went shopping. I had to work most mornings which stunk, but we still managed to do some things. Patrice hemmed a bunch of my pants, we went shopping at Arrowhead Mall and spent a good 2.5 hours in MOtherhood Maternity (fortunately Brittnie found a good shoe store down the way so she didn't have to sit through all that--I felt bad until I saw the cute shoes she purchased).

I finally bought a pair of brown dress shoes (with a 10% military discount from PAyless). Its an item I've been keeping my eye out for but haven't really found a cute pair or cheap enough pair. AND patrice bought me the house slippers I've been searchign for! They're soft and fuzzy but more importantly they have a heel! So frankie can't bite at them while I walk (which is how my last slip on slippers turned into her toys). Theyr'e grey and soft and fabulous AND! they were on sale! The best purchase of the year I'd say. And it was at the beginning of the day too!

Patrice also came with me to register at Babies R Us. I got a little carried away. . . . and I'll just leave it at that. I still haven't put a car seat on there, but she did help me solve my crib debate. And the more I think about my cute bedding set and matching baskets the more excited I get! So that's fun. Although. . . . I still don't know if I"m acutally having a shower, but I don't care, registering was fun in and of itself : )

We played a lot of Wii and Mario Kart, Patrice did a lot of sewing, I didn't do too much cooking, and I"m not sure what Greg did, but I'd like to think he enjoyed himself just hanging out with his family. After Greg and Patrice left Brittnie and I hung out after work for the next few days.

WE seemed to do a lot of shopping, which was fine, becuase I seemed to make all sorts of purcahses that I've been waiting to make until I'm happy with the product (fuzzy heeled slippers, brown shoes, front door bench thing). Speaking of the bench, I've been wanting somethign for by my front door for a long time now, but never found the right item for the right price. Well now that we have windows facing the front of hte house, Frankie likes to 'stand guard' but she had to be on her hind legs the whole time. So she'd 'take breaks' and lie down on the living room floor, then go back to standing at the window with ehr front paws on the ledge.

So while not the main driving factor to make my purcahse, it was definitely another factor (that and I'd seen it at target a bunch of times before and I still like it after a few months of eyeing it--plus it was on sale this week).

I think its super cute but tyler has to move the little metal magnent strips on the inside of the doros so they acutally match up with the latches (the REST of it fit together fine! one minor detail. . . and yes, I know that means its somewhat cheap, but I still don't have buyers remorse! So I count this as a purchase victory.)

Thanksgiving

Tyler's family came to AZ for thanksgiving this year. It was really nice to have them all here (well, Carly adn Golden stayed back east to celebrate with his family, but 3 out of 5 ain't bad).


I put greg on our only 'real' bed and I set Patrice and Brittnie up on "cots" from Outdoor Rec, which aren't so much cots as metal frames with blue mesh between them that wreak of campfire smoke. I need to purchase more febreeze.


And even though they call them 'cots' they sleep more like hammocks, so I had to fashion a soft 'spine support' from a folded up blanket that I laid down the middle of the cots. Then the green foutons on top of that, sheets, blankets and pillows later and viola! PAtrice and Brittnie are too nice to tell me their beds sucked! : )


TG was at Aunt Julie's house this year, and while I didn't so much 'commandere' the dinner, I pretty much just brough 'second thanksgiving'. Julie's such a sweetheart about it though (I can do no wrong in their house. . . as far as I can tell : )


So she did the turkey (it was huge), potatoes (well done Brad), gravy (awesome), stuffing (and she thought I didn't like Stovetop! Who doesn't like stovetop!? : ), rolls and greenbean casserole (acutally Alice made that, but as per my request) and dessert (homemade and marie calendar's pies--which I knew were from marie calendars just from seeing the side of the pie box in teh fridge for 5 seconds)


I brought Grandma Kay's Jello Salad (which is called Cherris Supreme, apparenlty), a ham, martenelli's, yams/sweet potatoes (which patrice made thankfully becuase I still didn't know what I was going to do with them even after I talked to my mom), a veggie platter with dip, celeray sticks with 2 kinds of cheese and peanut butter--with a bowl of olives in teh middle (and three cans of back up olives : ), cherry cheescake tarts and a thing of fudge.


HOwever, there was ample food and people and Thanks were felt all around. I didn't acutally take any pictures, but Alice did, so here is the turkey and some of the carving process. (I also only managed to get about 30 seconds of video before we all started eating)

Julie even let me have a seperate bowl for my jello salad (fortunately vanessa needed one too--we have food-touching issues)

While on the topic of GK's Jello Salad, it was quite the hit! I had to finish it at 2:30 am becuase the jello took so long to set (I fell asleep at about midnight and woke up thinking "SHOOT! It said just until it's thickened!", but it still turned out just fine : ) There were no leftovers to take home and Cammi and her husband complimented me on that and the cheescake tarts. Also, I'd like to mention that I happened to purchase the exact same casserole dish that GK uses to make the pink stuff in. I guess Correll "French White" is a classic for a reason! Pretty, versatile, and comes in a variety of sets! (which I now have two of becuase I bought the wrong size at first).

Then a large group of us went on a walk. We brought Frankie and Brand a Julie's dog Jada (a super sweet rotweiler) had fun together, and Jeff brough over his dog Jordan too. So we took them o na walk and just got some fresh air.


Then we came back and watched "Live Free or Die Hard". Brand and Julie have a theater in their upstairs, but there were some technical difficulties, so we moved the crowd (and the seemingly endless supply of blankets, pillows and quilts) down to the main living room and finished it there. It was nice until I had to get up half way through for some leftovers already (eeeesh).

It was a really nice thanksgiving!

Candy Making

I drove to St. Geroge and got to hang out with erika, nate and the kids on teh 9-11 of November. The drive down there wasn't bad at all, about 6-7 hours I think? But it would have been alot fast if not for all the Dam Traffic (HAAHAhahahahahahaaha!!! No seirsouly though, the Beaver Dam or Hoover or whatever it is between Arizona and Nevada had construction all along the road for about 60 miles)

It was so slow crossing the dam that I acutally got out my video camera and was able to take a little video of how low the lake was. I would have taken a picture but my digital camera battery has been dead for a while and I couldn't find my charger. TYler was placed in charge of finding/buying me a charger before his family got here for Thanksgiving.

ANyways, ERika's was nice. I went to Jake's soccer game, Lucy brought me handfulls of sand/mud and Kyle wanted to do everything Jake did. It was pretty cute. For her birthday on the 10th we went out with ehr friend Jill to Ruby's (I think, we got steaks). We couldn't really think of anything else to do after that though, so we went to target to peruse becuase we couldn't go back home after an hour and a half!

Erika and I also made fudge and buttermints which turned out AWESOME--but unfortuantly I have yet been able to replicate the results. I think erika's on batch 20 or so by now with varied results--but its SO worth the trial and error! That first batch was SO GOOD!!

Halloween

To back track a little, because I realize it is now officially december, our halloween was nice. We stayed at home and tried to rent a movie, but my coupon didn't work. Gifford ended up renting a movie for us anyways (which I felt bad about becuase the whole thing was my idea, then I basically bailed becuase of lack of coupon--I know, I'm cheap.)

Then I had candy duty again, but I was doing it wrong again and the trick or treaters were bothering me becuase it was a bunch of high schoolers wearing jeans and sweatshirts. One kid jsut stuck out his hand! Not even a mask or anything. So Giff ended up taking over for me (I talked to my sister the rest of the time--rude, I know! Strike two for me against gifford!)

I turned off the light at maybe 7 or 8pm, it was a pretty light smattering of kids to begin with, then we watched a movie, but I can't reember what.

I DID, however, manage to put frankie in her Frankenstine costume for 60 seconds.

I don't know why she insists on looking like I'm killing her when I put something on her, but as soon as she sees a toy or something to take her mind off her 'hat' she's fine (picture two).

Her ears wouldn't fit through the little ear slits on the frankenstein hat, so as soon as she moved she would paw at it and shake it off, but still, well worth the 3 dollars. (I tried the 'witch' costume I bought for her after season last year for a dollar, but she didn't like that one either, so I put it on the stuffed animal dog that looks like frankie that's sitting on our entertainment center. I'll have to control myself and not buy another dog costume next year. . . or just buy more stuffed animal 'look alikes' : )

I also carved pumpkins (by myself) and they turned out ok despite accidentally performing a toothectomy on my 'nightmare before christmas-esq' one.