Airport Ordeal

Christmas was fabulous. I will write about that later this weekend because I'm only in the mood to do one post and the airport extravaganza we experienced coming home is taking priority in my mind right now and I want to be able to give my full attention to our awesome trip to Oregon and the Christmas festivities there.
Coming home was quite the experience. It all started with me turning my alarm off at 5 a.m. and falling back asleep. Oops. Story of my life though. Then, at 5:15, Jeff's alarm goes off and he turns really quickly to turn it off, but his phone was on the floor and he was on an air mattress on top of the regular mattress which resulted in him completely flipping out of the bed, against the wall, and onto the floor with the air mattress landing on top of him. Good news: he got to his phone to turn off the alarm. So, naturally, I bust up laughing while asking him if he's ok, then leave him wedged between the bed and wall so that I can get in the shower. I know, I'm a super supportive wife who doesn't function at ridiculous times in the morning.
Avery's room is right next to the guest room so the thud woke her up. She was totally freaked out and went into Andrea's room to see what it was...Andrea didn't hear anything. Sorry for the rude awakening! It was pretty funny though.
Jeff was being a big strong man and carrying our very full suitcase down the stairs by the handle that you pull out to wheel it along. Bad idea. The handle totally bent and wouldn't go back down. Joey and Amy drove us to the airport and about 10-15 minutes before getting there, Joey is practically falling asleep and wants Jeff to switch him places. The Chinese fire drill was a success and I don't know if we had anyone honk at us.
Once at the airport, we're trying as hard as we can to get the stupid handle back down, but it won't go down. So, our great idea was to just break it off because then at least the handle isn't sticking out so that the airport peeps don't get mad. This is the result:

If you look closely, you can see the sharp and deadly protruding metal shard sticking out of our suitcase. Jeff tries to hammer it back in, but we didn't have a hammer (next time we travel, I'll be packing one...) and the airport ladies tell us no dice. They can't check it because it's too dangerous and will hurt someone.
They inform us that "Southwest has some luggage you can buy for $45. Or we can put you on a later flight and you can ride the shuttle over to TJ Maxx or Marshalls and get some luggage." Not a chance, people. We will make this stupid suitcase work for us. So, I step off to the side and Jeff goes on the hunt for some sort of tool to remove or at least hammer down said shard. No luck again. In the meantime, the nice airport lady brings this bag to me and says she will sell it to us for only $25.
Tempting, but Jeff is determined to fix our luggage. After the use of a bunch of luggage tags and packing tape, followed by some more duct tape, this is the result:

The nice airport ladies wrote the "danger sharp" thing on it. Thanks, pals.

And, here is Jeff after weighing our suitcase again and realizing it's 10 lbs over weight so we can either remove 10 lbs or pay $50. Oye. the lady directly behind him with the long black hair is the one who assisted us through the ordeal. We remove 13 lbs of things and put them in my very large traveling purse. We get to the gate literally 1 minute before boarding. Sweet! We finally made it home. Jeff puts the busted, but fixed for now suitcase on our classy Ikea coffee table and this is the result:
A lovely hole and melted snow. We love traveling.

Irony

Wow, irony kills. Kills. I would like to tell everyone that I have joined a Beaver fan support group. It is based here in SLC and we will be meeting every thursday evening probably for the next couple of decades. Until then, I will be drowning my sorrows in Dryers Mint Choclate Cookie, frozen marshmellows and peanut M&Ms (thanks Curtis). I should be okay, Jenny is here and will be checking on me through the night. I am in the process of shopping for a new team, so if anyone has any suggestions outside of Boise State, Utah and of course BYU, I am open to them. Curtis, please have your order ready as I'd like to get this overwith as quickly as possible.

With love and humility...

Jeff and Maddie

These 2 are hilarious together. Maddie slept over at our house on Friday night. At 6:30 on Saturday morning, Maddie says,

"That was the best sleep over EVER!"

Yep. Up every couple of hours because of monsters, worrying about Jeff, moving her closer to us in bed, having Maddie take over the bed (she and her brother both have a tendency to do this), and then wide awake and ready to go at 6:30. I'd say that's definitely a successful sleep over experience.
On Saturday, Maddie and Jeff were just chit-chatting again after their pillow talk in the morning. Here is the result:

Maddie named each of these characters. Not quite sure where the name Elledge came from. Elledge was quite popular and Jeff spent the majority of the conversation using a Southern old lady-ish voice. Sometimes she decided he needed to be Bug (the pointer finger) and the rest were there just to listen and observe, I guess.
She was pretty thrilled about the whole thing. If you look close, you can see her cute little missing tooth on the bottom.
Here's the play time in process. They spent a good 1/2 hour to 45 minutes talking with Jeff's hand characters.
Here's just a random picture of Sam because he's funny and cute.
BFF. That's all I can say about this picture.

OSU vs BYU

The Vegas bowl game is tonight. Jeff, Spencer, and Joey will be enjoying it together. Let's hope their Beavs pull through so our flight to Oregon tomorrow morning can be a little more pleasant.Go Beavs! Please!

Things that are funny to me...

Jeff ate something really cold. The roof of his mouth was freezing. This was his solution to the problem.

Anniversary Fun

We had a fabulous first anniversary. Since it was on Sunday, we decided we could spread it out over 2 days which is pretty much the best ever for any celebration. Here we are before going on our big date on Saturday night. I LOVE our Christmas tree. Not that we're amazing decorators or anything, but I think it turned out pretty cute.

We went to see the lights at Temple Square and then had dinner at P.F. Chang's. Delish as always and gluten free which makes me and my innards happy.

My cute Jeff gave me gerber daisies and made me a scrapbook of our first year. I cried before I even opened the book. Yup...I am my mother's daughter. It was the cutest thing and I was more than impressed. Thank you, Andrea, for walking him through the process.
Jeff was super proud of his wrapping job and found a matching ribbon (after asking an older lady at the craft store if it matched). Isn't this guy the cutest ever? Seriously. He's definitely a keeper.
Happy anniversary babe. I love you! Thanks for an amazing first year! And for exceeding my expectations for our anniversary celebration.

1 Year Strong

Happy 1 year anniversary to us! Jeff and I were talking last night about how the year went by so fast, but then it also seems like we've been together forever so it seems so much longer than 1 year. For those of you who have been married 5 or 10 or 50 years, I know you're thinking that we have a lot to learn and 1 year is nothing...and we do have a lot to learn. But we're so excited for it and for all the unknowns we have in our lives right now (even though it'd be nice to at least have an idea of where we'll be next year or 5 years down the road) and to live this life together.

I am so blessed to be married to such a wonderful man who
holds the priesthood worthily;
is patient, kind, loving, compassionate, funny, a great example, gentlemanly;
doesn't get mad when i start toaster ovens on fire;
doesn't roll his eyes when i cry for no reason;
always wants to serve me;
is absolutely amazing with kids and will be the cutest dad in the entire world;
loves me so much.

This list could go on and on. Marrying Jeff is the best thing that has happened for me. He is so perfect for me and I love spending every day of my life with him.

I love this man and am super excited that we get to hang out together for eternity.

The Christmas Sweater

This book came out more than a year ago and I’ve been meaning to read it for a very long time. I borrowed it from my grandma and got started. It’s not a long book, and it’s not a difficult read, therefore, it is pretty quick. I had heard that it was really good, but I was greatly surprised at how good it was. It’s a feel good book of loss and despair leading to redemption and joy. I highly recommend this book for everyone, EVERYONE. So, go to your local store, or check it out from the library and prepare to enjoy.

*disclaimer – I know some of you who read this blog voted for Obama which is unfortunate. This book contains no political rhetoric whatsoever except for a very small jab at lazy people. This book was written by Glenn Beck. Please don’t judge this book by its author; you will be the unfortunate one.

http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Sweater-Glenn-Beck/dp/141659485X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261162289&sr=8-1

Finally

Jeff and I are officially finished with the semester. I just submitted my final paper. Jeff finished his finals yesterday morning. We thought it would never come. I would be lying if I said we're not completely ecstatic about this. Next great event: 1 year anniversary and then OREGON!

Kaitlyn

Oh, how we love this little girl. She's absolutely adorable. We babysat her a while ago and Jeff was (of course) SO cute with her. She was crawling all over the place. We gave her a bath and her hair was seriously awesome after that.
She's such a doll. Look at her! This was the only picture we got that wasn't blurry. We took about 100. 1/100...those are good odds, right?

Kaitlyn was a little hungry. She just needed a little snack. Again, sorry for the blurriness. She's a busy little girl. I don't know how Joey and Amy get such good pictures of her!

All Played Out

I'm sitting here at the computer on Saturday night. My bum hurts. Sounds like a personal problem right? Well it's not, Jenny has the same problem. It seems like we've spent the last 3 days sitting in theatres and conference halls. We had the opportunity to attend the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. It was fun. I have a problem with the MoTab because unless I already know the song, I can't understand a word they are singing. Natalie Cole was there also, and I like some of her stuff. David McCullough was also there and did a very nice narative about a WW2 story and the writing of a couple of Christmas songs. That was Thursday night. On Friday, we went to the Forgotten Carrols. Jenny absolutely loves them, and I like them too. I love the music and the story behind the songs. What I have a problem with is all the extra stuff. I guess I just hate everything about Constance. She is annoying and the whole thing about her mother is lame. Saturday afternoon, we went and saw "The Wedding Singer" It is an adaptation of the Adam Sandler movie all with original songs. It was pretty cool. But i'm glad we're done with our 3 events, and my bum is glad too.

So close...

Jeff has one final left. Studying all weekend.
I have one paper left. Just have to suck it up and do it.
Then, we are FINISHED until the second week of January.
It'll be nice to hang out with each other again.

Fighting a good fight

I have some shocking news for most of you (well, it's shocking if you've ever met me). I am a Sarah Palin fan. Here are a few reasons why:

• She and I agree that a small government is better for this country than a larger government. The less power the government has, the more freedom the individual has.
• She and I agree that lower taxes promotes individual freedom. It also increases revenue for the government. The country is more prosperous when the people get to choose what we do with our money and property. Additionally, she and I agree that people can spend their money more efficiently than the government can ever dream. The way out of a recession is for the government to allow people who work for their money to keep as much of it as possible so that they can spend it themselves. (gosh, wouldn't it be great if the government would allow us to keep our own money?)
• She and I agree that abortion is wrong and that a person's right to live supersedes a persons right to choose to not have a child; abortion is immoral.
• She and I have similar morals and values regarding the family.
• She and I agree that global warming is not man made and that regulations and taxes such as Cap and Trade are about nothing more than additional money and power for the government.
• She and I agree that the best fix for the health care system is for the free market to fix the problems and that over-regulation of the system is what has caused most of the problems we have today. (I'm not 100% sure that she believes this, but I’m pretty sure)
• She and I agree that this economic crisis was a result of overregulation, by the government sticking their nose where it doesn't belong: the free market. I'm specifically referring to the housing bubble (which was created by government programs) and subsequent collapse. (again, I'm not 100% sure that she believes this, but I’m pretty sure)
• She and I believe that the best thing about this country is it's people. Fostering individual freedom should be the prime responsibility of our government as was intended upon its founding.

So with that being said, yesterday I had the opportunity to go to Costco and meet Sarah Palin and get a signed book. It was pretty exciting. There were some people who camped out over night for the noon-3 book signing. I arrived at 1230 and stood in line for about 1 hour before meeting her. It wasn't as cool as I thought it would be because I only had about 3 seconds in front of her, but that's okay. There were tons of people who wanted to meet her and get the book signed. Had I had more time, I would have said the following: "Mrs. P. Thanks for being there for us. We're behind you, keep on fighting." Now that I look at it, I totally had enough time to tell her that. What can I say, I froze up. But I walked away with two signed books, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the other one, and I got to meet Sarah Palin. So all in all, it was a good trip and I'm glad i took the time.

Santa Phobia Revealed

Yes, this is a random child with Santa that I found on the internet. I'm not creepy and stalkerish though. I just thought it was funny.

I was talking with my practicum supervisor (Jacci) today and she made what I thought was a very insightful (and hilarious) comment. We were discussing how so many kids are terrified of Santa and were laughing a little about it and she said,

"Well, it's no wonder. We sit here and teach our kids about stranger danger, then expect them to happily sit on a strange man's lap and be excited about the fact that he sneaks into their homes during the night."

She said it never occurred to her until her grandson wanted his parents to board up the fireplace so Santa couldn't sneak in. He thought Santa should knock on the door if he wanted to get into the house.

I think this theory makes COMPLETE sense. Seriously. Insightful? Um, yes.

To redeem myself from posting a picture of a random child and to see Maddie and Sam with their Santa issues, click Here or Here or Here.
Shout out to Emily for doing awesome with her blog and with raising stranger-danger-aware children.

Christmas Miracle

We had a little Christmas miracle this morning. The entire time we've lived here (just about a year), we have had issues with our hot water. You would get in the shower and it would be scalding hot for about 30 seconds and then go ice cold. Every so often it would be lukewarm. But we've NEVER been able to control the water temperature and it's been beyond maddening.
So, finally, this past week, our water has been fixed. There is a lot to the story, but it's not exciting. The only important thing is that we have a great neighbor who stayed on the maintenance people's cases all week until it was fixed.
Thank you, Melanie!
We were all giddy this morning from being able to control the water during our showers. And...it stayed warm the entire time.
Thank you maintenance man who finally fixed it.

Tax Dollars Hard at Work

We took a trip to WinCo this afternoon. It took about 1 1/2 hours. We chose a checkout line. There was ONE person ahead of us. We were in line for TWENTY, yes 20, minutes. This is why:

Jeff was enraged and this little poster describes his feelings to a T.

Here's the story. I'll try to make it short, but it was a nightmare.
The couple in front of us was a typical "baby daddy-baby mama" livin' off the government type. African-American man with a beanie, baggy pants, too cool for everyone, treats the lady like a slave, etc. with a Caucasian fake-baked just nasty lady wearing a green velour tracksuit with no shirt underneath and the zipper down to the bra. NOT pleasant.

They had 3 carts full of stuff. Frozen dinners, dog food, Tampico juice, at least 6 cases of soda, refrigerated biscuits, pizza, more frozen dinners, Jiffy muffin mixes, chips, and all sorts of other preservative-filled microwave meals. Not a whole lot of actual food. There was also some laundry detergent.
They are putting all their stuff up on the belt thing and the checker keeps giving them a running total. 2 1/2 carts later, they have gone over their budget and are starting to "just get the necessities" which means soda and Tampico juice and frozen pizzas. So then they're way over their limit with a bunch of stuff not even scanned so it goes back into the cart and a worker was sent to put it all away.
Still over the limit, they start going through their bags and picking things to put back. Laundry detergent (who needs clean clothes?), fresh fruits and vegetables, chocolate, etc. We FINALLY get to the point where they have put enough stuff back. We thought. The cashier starts ringing up our stuff and then the baby daddy comes back over and gets all up in his baby mama's grill saying that she was supposed to be keeping track of it all. So the cashier has to go back to dealing with them and getting them to pay and put yet MORE stuff back from their already bagged groceries. Baby mama says,
"We got everything except cigarettes and diapers."
Awesome. So, they use their food stamps and then have to come up with some cash to cover the difference. They're $1.75 short. Random worker at WinCo knows baby daddy and covers the difference. We also find out that there are 8 people in the household. Jeff figured it was prostitutes. I figured it was lots of children. I really tried hard to find pictures that would describe them, but this is all I could come up with:

Now, there are a few things we need to discuss about this situation. Generally, I don't care at all what people buy. The fact that I'm getting my degree in social work says that I support helping people who really truly need it. There are a lot of people out there who are having a hard time and can't make things work which is great that there is TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) to help them through the tough times.
My thoughts are that if you are in need of food stamps, you should use them for NECESSITIES. Like bread, milk, vegetables, fruits, etc. Not frozen meals, pizza, refrigerated biscuits, soda, fake juice, and all that kind of stuff. Drink water. It's good for you AND you can get it from the tap. Pretty cool, huh.
Plus, if you know you have a definite limit of what you can spend, you should probably have a calculator with you and keep track of how much you're spending before filling 3 carts of stuff.
Common sense. Logical. But not for these people. Or for many of the people that social workers work with. It's definitely an interesting population and there are a lot of frustrations that come along with it.
It is frustrating to have a husband who works so hard (thanks, Jeff) and we make things work with the little bit of money we have and we don't qualify for food stamps, but then there are people who spend their extra money on cigarettes and velour tracksuits and get $400 from the government (our taxes) for groceries.
I know times are tough. People are having a hard time everywhere. I really do think people who genuinely need the assistance should get it.
I also think that people who spend their extra money on cigarettes and not necessities for the children should look into something called birth control. It works wonders.

Stop and smell the roses

George Adam Yellow...
And thus ends the season of the Oregon State Beavers. 'Expected' is the only word I can think of to describe the Beavers this season. We beat a few teams, lost to some others. What I didn't expect is that the score of the civil war game against Oregon would be so close. Really, for only loosing by 4 points, you'd think the Beavers played well against the Ducks.

But no, we didn't play very well. Sure there were some good plays and yes Canfield didn't throw any interceptions or fumble, and sure we recovered a couple of turnovers for some points, sure there were good drives, and yes we did score 33 points to their 37, but really? Wow, we sure didn't play very well. I would almost say we sucked it up, but really, we didn't suck it up. We were close to sucking it up, but we didn't suck it up. We played suckily, yea, suckily, I'll go with that.

Maybe if the Beavers could convert on some 3rd downs; maybe if it didn't take 6 guys to tackle someone; maybe if we could score a touchdown instead of settling for 4, four, fier, quatro, yes 4 freaking field goals we may have actually have won the game.

But alas, as expected, we didn't win the civil war, we didn't win the Pac-10, we won't go to the Rose Bowl and we'll probably go to the most suckiest bowl of all, the Las Vegas Bowl, where we will play against either BYU or Utah, both of whom we can definitely loose to. Eek. It's hard to be a Beaver's fan.

Dad, why did we have to move to Corvallis? Why couldn't we have stayed in New Jersey? Why couldn't we have moved to Southern California or Ohio or Flordia or Texas? I wonder what it's like to stand behind a winning team? Someone day I'd like to know.

Help from a 5-year old

I thought I might get a little something done with my papers today while I was hanging out with the kiddos. Sam fell asleep so I thought it would be a perfect time to pull out the computer and start typing.
I have a bit of a problem, however, with being able to fall asleep anytime, anywhere...especially when I'm sitting. Homework, TV, movies, class, etc. I just need to be moving around or I get super tired. I kept nodding off and was having a rough time staying awake, but Maddie was a great helper. Here's how it went down:

Me: Mads, is it cool if I work on my homework while you finish watching Ice Age?
Mads: Yeah, sure. What homework do you have?
Me: Just a couple of papers. I'll just sit over here and type.
Mads: Can I help you?
Me: Sure. (I sit her on the couch next to me)
Mads: Can I just see your phone for a second?
Me: Yep.
Mads: Is it ok if I call someone?
Me: Sure. Who do you want to call?
Mads: Um, just Nonnie and Sir (my parents)
Me: Ok.
So she pushes the speed dial and when my mom answers, Maddie says,
Mads: Hi, Nonnie! I'm just doing Jenny's homework for her because she's super tired and she can't do it on her own. My homework is dumb and boring so I'm just doing Jenny's instead.

Really? Coloring and tracing letters and numbers is boring, but writing 15 pages on the Adam Walsh Act, its implementation and the context and content and a bunch of other stuff isn't? I'll totally switch and go back to doing Kindergarten homework.

8 new documents and 60+ pages later, my homework is finished with rows and rows of letters. So I say, "Good job Mads. I bet my teachers will love it."

Maddie: Yeah. They're gonna be so proud of me. Make sure you tell them I did it.

Done deal.

Common Courtesty

I think everyone should use it a little more often. Like when I have successfully procrastinated 30 pages worth of paper writing (due on Thursday) and I'm at my practicum waiting around after I finish my work because I have an appointment to therapize a kid at 3:30 and they don't show up. Or even call. I will not be offended if the kid doesn't want to come to therapy with me. I mean, I pretty much just make stuff up anyway and hope I don't screw the kid up even more than they already are. But a simple phone call would really help me out. I don't expect a kid to call. But I do expect the parent/caregiver to let me know that they won't be bringing the kid in to meet with me.
It would take a total of 23 seconds. Just dial the number and say,

"Hey, Jenny. We're not going to make it in today."

Bam. Done. That's all it takes. No explanation needed. Then I can leave a couple of hours earlier because my work is all finished so that I can get my ridiculously procrastinated homework done.

I don't think it's too much to ask.