Merry Christmas to you from us

Since I can't send these to everyone we know and love, here's our card for the year.  I didn't bother with a letter.  This blog says it all!  We have been blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family members who have helped us during a complicated year.  Thank you all.  We are going forward into 2011 with hope.  Love you all!

Mama Fail.

 Last night wast he much awaited night. Kate and I had tickets to go hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert with David Archuletta.  She was super excited, and I was looking forward to it also.  We were starting to get ready when Michael (via his sister who travels that way often) pointed out that we needed to leave about 5 minutes ago.  So we pulled on our clothes and ran out the door.  Traffic in Utah County was awful.  It took us over an hour to get to 10000 S. in Sandy to the end of the Trax lightrail line!  (Instead of maybe 45 minutes).  Just as we were headed out the door I noticed Kate was wearing her fanciest shoes (peep toe kid-pumps) and no tights.  She couldn't find tights.  Mine had a run in them, so I wasn't wearing any either.  As I yanked on my high heeled boots one of the zippers broke.  I managed to get it put back together, but throughout the evening it kept slipping down.  Obnoxious.

So we got to the Trax station and parked in the middle of nowhere, because that's the only available place. 

 We RAN to the ticket machine, purchased two round-trip tickets, and jumped on the train.  It left within just a few minutes. 

 The two of us on the train:

We had a nice ride up to Salt Lake.

  Unfortunately we second guessed ourselves, believed someone else, and got off a stop early.  Long run to the conference center.   Zip back up my boots, and find the right line.  By this time it was about 15 minutes before the concert was supposed to start.  They start filling in seating, though, 30 minutes before start time so we knew we had to keep out fingers crossed.

A sweet lady standing in line by us loaned Kate a pair of gloves.  We shivered and talked and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Finally they told us the conference center was full and that there may be room in the theater or tabernacle for the simulcast.  We waited in line for a while by the theater with Kate wrapped with me in my coat.  Finally we decided we weren't going to make it, it was just too full :(

We were going to go walk in a nearby mall for a bit, get some hot chocolate, then catch the train back to where the car was parked.  Easy enough right?

Nope.  The malls are all closed since downtown is being revamped.  By the time we figured this out we were even COLDER and standing by the trax stop.  We hopped back on the train.

See how red Kate's poor feet were?

 Okay, you can't really, but trust me -- it was bad.  

Here is Kate saying "COLD!"

 I looked on the maps on my phone and determined that the train had a stop at Fashion Place West which appeared to be right by Fashion Place mall.  Perfect!  So we got off the train there.

The train left.

It was very dark.

No mall in sight.

I checked the schedule: despite the fact a train goes by every 15 minutes there was only one that stops every hour!  Oh shoot.

Check the cell phone map again.  Curse you, Google Maps!!!!!

We were in a dark, unfamiliar, kinda creepy residential area.  And my cell phone was getting low on battery.  

We couldn't sit there for an hour in the cold (temperature was in the teens).so we started walking.  It was a full mile to the mall with nothing closer really to stop in.  We went as fast as we could... which wasn't always super fast since we had to cross over the freeway on a sidewalk that was coated with ice.  It was not the most graceful crossing.

We ran the last bit (yes, in heels!) into Sears.  We asked at customer service where the restroom was (the farthest away corner, of course), then stopped to get Kate a hat, gloves, and the warmest tights we could find.  Alas, the ladies wear was super spendy, so I just made do.  At least Kate was going to be more comfortable.

We grabbed the items then hurried to check out -- we still had to hurry back to the train station before the 10:04 train came by (we were dropped off at 9:04).  The mall closed at 10:00 so if we missed the 10:04 train we'd be sitting outside in the cold until 11:04!  

We slipped and slid back across above the freeway and practically ran to make sure we didn't miss our ride.  We got to the stop at least 90 seconds before the train did.

 Cute hat at least!

We had no hot chocolate.  No cinnamon almonds.  No concert.  No relaxation.  When we got on the train: no sitting room.  We stood holding on to a pole trying not to fall into the stairwell.  

Hallelujah, we got back to the Sandy station!  But oh, it felt like so far to get to the far corner where the car was.  My feet were swelling, blistered, and frozen.  Not a comfy combination!  (I nearly bought some hard soled slippers at Sears to wear instead, but they didn't have "Bigfoot" sizes.)

The gas light had come on in the van on our way up, so we needed a gas station ASAP.  I was so focused on finding a gas station I missed the right turn.  So I executed a u-turn and got to the right place.  We found a gas station (yeah!!!) and got the car happier.  We were going to run in for some hot chocolate and a cookie or something, but just as I parked the car in front of the convenience store they shut off the lights!  Apparently they close at 10:28pm.  :(  So I pulled back on the road and discovered that once again, we'd gone too far.  One more u-turn and we finally found our way back to the freeway.

With the heater on (oh, blessed heater!) and some music playing we made our way back home.  We stopped once in Lehi at a gas station that deigned to stay open and got hot chocolate and a pack of Hostess cupcakes.

 We got home very late, very tired, still chilly, and ready for bed.  I have agreed to never again travel further than 1 mile away from Michael.  Or at least be with a responsible adult.  I'm apparently not worthy of the title.

I hear the concert was wonderful, and I look forward to hearing it next year, perhaps, when it comes out on CD.  In the mean time, we'll stick with the radio.

I'd like to point out one little twist to last night: it was Michael's and my 10th wedding anniversary.  He was at home babysitting the other girls so Kate and I could go to the concert.  >sigh<  At least we got home alive and in one piece.  I was a little nervous wandering around Sandy in the dark with my little girl.

This morning Michael and I went out on our hot anniversary date: we went to see Tron.  Since it's the big "One Decade" anniversary we sprung for the 3D glasses even.  We enjoyed the movie (okay, I was having a hard time staying awake at one point, but I blame that on hypothermia, and the residue of the anti-anxiety pill Michael dosed me with when I went to bed last night) and it was actually really cool in 3D.

Kate and Lizzie were at school, and Sabrina got to go play with Grandma.  When we got there to pick her up she was doing shape races with Grandma.  Here's a picture of Sabrina vs. Daddy.  It was a close game.

Here is the obligatory 17th of December 2010 photo of the burning Provo Tabernacle.  We were still a few blocks south of it, but saw this view on our way to Grandma's house to pick up Sabrina.  They're hoping to be able to enter it by tomorrow morning to determine what they can do with the building, but from the sound of it, the building is likely a total loss.  It was a beautiful pioneer structure and will be missed.

Tonight the girls played with Grandpa and Grandma while Michael and I went out to dinner.  We couldn't think of anything else to do, so we weren't gone for a very long time, but it was a nice break.  It's also a good thing because it started snowing pretty thoroughly on our way home.  It's still coming down decently well.  We may have a few inches by morning.  At least Kate and I aren't trying to slog through the snow tonight!

10 Things I LOVE About You

Today is the 10th anniversary of the day Michael and I were married.  That's a whole decade!  Yup, I'm still glad I married him :)

Here we are on our wedding day:

And here were are a month ago:

Yeah, I wouldn't mind being that thin again.  Heck, I'd even take 20 lbs more than I was then!  But I digress.  Here are 10 things I love about you, babe:

1 You hold my hand when we go out on dates.

2. You know where I want to go out to eat even when I don't.

3. You watch superhero and VegiTales movies with our girls.

4. You remember things I say I want at random times (like my dish of bacon when I was recovering from my appendectomy).

5. You like to get nice things for other people (including me).

6. You appreciate well done crafty projects.

7. You deal with and manage my emotional meltdown, often before I know I'm having one.

8. You don't mind when I wear high heels, even though it makes me three miles taller than you.

9. You protect me from myself.  (Such as keeping me from taking too many things on at once.)

10. You're still here!  And I'm pretty sure since you've dealt with me these last 10 years, I've got you for good.

I love you, Michael!

I'm Dreaming...

On Monday for Family Home Evening we watched "White Christmas" and ate popcorn, hot chocolate, and candy canes.  Kate watched the whole thing and really enjoyed it.  Lizzie didn't really watch the whole thing, but that's not unusual for them.  We watched "Movie Theater" style -- with all the lights off.

I love the reflection of the tree lights on the harmonium on this one--

My oldest brother's family gave each family an advent candle to burn each night leading up to Christmas.  There are dots down the candle.  We burn down to the next dot each night.  There is a list of scripture verses to read each time we burn the candle.  Each passage talks about one of the attributes of Christ.  It has created a great discussion point each night, and the candle is really pretty too.  I can't decide which of these candle pictures is my favorite!

The candle is getting short; Christmas is coming!

My strings of oranges, lemons, and ginger are finally dry enough.  I packaged up simmering potpourri for some of our friends and neighbors.  Kate got a chance to take these pictures.  She does good work!

This is my favorite picture Kate took:

Sabrina came home from school today with a strawberry candy cane because she was so good at school.  It turned her tongue DARK red!  That's some hefty dye.

Finally, to finish the line from the song (the subject line of this post)

... of a White Christmas.

 

Don't know if we'll actually have snow on Christmas, but this feels more normal for December than last week's 50 degree weather.  Lovely, but strange.

Yay! My new card reader came!

The computer I've been using doesn't have a memory card slot and the card reader I had couldn't manage my high capacity memory card.  Finally I have a new card reader so I can catch up what we've been doing.

Up first: We finally got a proper large tank for the hermit crabs.  We got it all arranged for them... and they looked lonely.  So we got two more.  Now we have Happy, Shelly, Lindana, and Spike.  These pictures are a bit funky cause they were all taken in very low light so as not to startle the aptly name shy creatures.  That's our kind of low-maintenance pet!

 Sabrina.  Oh, Sabrina.  She did look super cute this day, her outfit was quite adorable.  Then she ordered asked me to take pictures of her.  I actually took all these pictures through the front window while doing 5 other things.  She struck poses all over the front yard.

Kate's 3rd grade (with the 4th grade) Christmas program was last week.  It was a "Christmas Around the World" program.  Her class represented Mexico.  She got to pretend to hit a pinata during their song.  Alas, I didn't get it videoed cause I was having issues (mostly with Lizzie trying to run up front because she thought it was a real pinata and wanted the goodies).  Two of the girls' friends got to come with us.  We had 5 kids between 8 and 5 years old!  Fortunately they're all awesome kids and we had no problems at all.  We couldn't see Kate at all from our seats, though, so I had to sneak up to a closer door for a minute to get some closer pictures.

One day I looked out the front window and there was a cop car parked across the street turning away traffic.  After puzzling over it for some time I saw a few Questar Gas vehicles waved through the blockade.  Finally, to put my mind at ease, I called the police station to ask what was going on.  Turns out there was a gas leak in the area!  A couple of families in our ward were evacuated for several hours until it could be taken care of.  Thankfully everything ended in a wonderfully boring fashion.

 A week ago we went for Family Home Evening on Monday to the Spanish Fork "Festival of Lights".  It's a drive-through light show.  It was tons of fun!  Last year we went also, but I had a hiccup with my memory card and LOST all my pictures.  I have never lived down that shock.  So I took tons of pictures this time to make up for it, of course.  We listened to Christmas carols and watched all the amazing lights and moving figures.  We'll certainly go back before it closes, it was wonderful.

Here are some of my favorite pictures closer up:

A friend shared a link that was lots of fun for my girls.  Go to PortableNorthPole.tv and make a free personalized video for your own child.  This picture is of the girls watching Lizzie's video.  Santa says the kids names, opens a book which has pictures of them in it, talks about what they do during the day (You should have seen Kate's jaw drop when he mentioned her being in 3rd grade), etc.  Even through Kate and Lizzie both really know the "truth" about the game we call Santa, they like to continue playing along.  They loved these.

For some friends and neighbors (I know I am not going to hit everyone, and if we don't get you this year, that doesn't mean we don't love you!) I'm making simmering potpourri mixes.  It's a bag with cinnamon sticks, allspice berries, whole cloves, then I hung slices of fresh ginger root, oranges, and lemons.  They were so pretty in my front window.  Now that I have taken them down I really miss them!  The bags are all sitting filled and open by my chair right now, though, and it smells amazing.  Can't wait to simmer up our own pot of potpourri!

See this pretty panda bear ornament?  One of my brothers brought these back from China a year or so ago and it's really lovely.  Sabrina was looking at this ornament the other day and said "Mom, is this a Chinese polar bear?"  Why yes, I believe it is.  Pandas will forever be Chinese polar bears to me now :)

>>Big Sigh<<  So we're looking at houses.  We put in another offer.  Four words: short sale, long shot.  But we'd love to get this house.  It is gorgeous!  It's barely outside of Springville in Mapleton.  Like I said: long shot, but a girl can dream, right?  Oh, I'm dreaming big!

Goals, update 2

1- Sew at least one new item of clothing for me. -- I found a pattern I'm willing to try!  That's progress.  Now I just have to buy the pattern.  And fabric.  And buttons.  I bought the pattern, and even cut it out!  Now to sort through my fabric stash to choose some to try this out before spending money on some "favorite" fabric.

2- Make living room curtains (hopefully for our own home) -- I'm putting this off for a while.  We're hoping to own a home within the next year, and I'd much rather make curtains for my own living room.

3- Go one mile (run/walk) in 12 minutes or less -- I know I need to get started on this one to be able to accomplish it at all.  My ankle is doing much better most days.  I still am very cautious about running, jumping, or anything else that might result in a re-injury (which is sadly common with what I did).

4- Clean out and sort jewelry boxes -- I did it!  I got rid of some old / worn out things and added worn out / broken items to my jewelry working things instead of my jewelry wearing things. 

5- Catch up one year of scrapbooks -- I really am hoping to get the latest update of my scrapbooking program before I dive into this one.  I get a major discount since I use their last edition, but it's one more thing to add to the list.  I did finally find the disk for my most recent version at least.  So I'm working on this.
 
6- Read the entire Book of Mormon
 
7- Get a new family picture taken -- Done!  And I love them.  They are even printed, picked up, and are going out for Christmas. 
 
8- Clean out my bedroom closet
 
9- Sort my craft type items (including sewing)
 
10- Make a new temple dress (does not fulfill goal #1)
 
11- Be involved in at least one PTA project at the elementary school
 
12- Get last year's blog book printed and bound
 
13- Make some nice hair pretties for MY daughters  I did make a new one for each for picture day, but I really should make some basics for them still.
 
14- Read some classic literature -- I just read "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley.  We picked it up once at a book store and it's just been sitting on one of our many book shelves.  It took me a while for me to get into the language again.  I've been reading modern / juvenile literature too much! Fascinating story.  It wasn't as creepy / dark / scary as I thought it might be.  Sad, yes.  But it has a lot to think about regarding friendship, aspirations and treatment of fellow-men (or monsters).
 
15- Plant something and keep it alive
 
16- Improve dysphonia to be able to sing again with less pain -- I have been placing my fingers on my throat to feel for tension when singing and sometimes when reading to the girls.  I can recognize the tension and usually correct it.  It's obnoxious, but necessary.  Seems to ease some of the pain too.
 
17- Learn two new hymns on the piano
 
18- Plan and enjoy a family vacation (even if it has to be in Utah County)
 
19- Back up all digital photos on new DVDs (or other storage device) and store safely
 
20- Participate in fruit and vegetable co-op when possible and learn new ways to enjoy produce
 
21- Create a 7 generation pedigree chart -- I did it!  Okay, so it didn't end up being very hard... but I also have an idea for a fantastic dynamic family tree mural.  I just have to own the walls first O.o

22- Finish quilts for the girls' beds
 
23- Take a class through the community programs
 
24- Follow FlyLady principles to get/keep the house in a happy state.  -- I'm taking baby steps.  I've been wearing tie shoes most days (though they gave me a blister on the bottom of my right foot.  Grrr.)  Michael even helped me shine a sink last night :)  (If you have no idea what I'm talking about you really should check out flylady.net.  She has some great ideas!)
 
25- Read a book by a church leader
 
26- Spend $1,000 to improve financial outlook (pay off debt faster, put in savings, etc.) -- This might end up being earnest money on a home.  I'd consider that money well spent.
 
27- Look at the stars more
 
28- Clean the Sharpie "artwork" off the playroom walls 

29- Update our family's emergency preparedness 

30- Learn to use the lenses and settings on my camera
 
31- Return and report progress on my goals -- Report number two.  Gotta keep focused!

New Family Pictures!

A couple of weeks ago we had some new family pictures taken by a friend in our ward.  She posted some on her photo blog here.  I love how they turned out!  The family picture we printed out (the first one) I did a little tweaking on... Michael, Sabrina and I each are heads from one of the other photos (same pose, different shot).  That took the glare off Michael's glasses, make Sabrina smile, and made me happier with my face :P  Ahh the magic of digital photography! Thanks for the photography, Tami!