Yesterday (all my troubles seemed so far away)

...and they were!!!

Yesterday was such a great day for me. I decided that I'd be 'off plan' meaning that I wasn't going to stick to the diet this weekend. What a relief. After two straight weeks of being religious to it, I needed a break. I was so happy, so so happy.

Jenny and I were going to spend the day doing homework and get caught up (finally) on our school work. We made it to about noon. Jenny was struggling (I love my wife) so we decided that we'd both take the rest of the day off. I went to the store (in the snow) and picked up some stuff for pizza and some other goodies. So we made pizza and watched a movie. It was great.

I was incredibly disappointed that the Oregon State game wasn't on TV. It was televised, but there isn't any way to get FSN Northwest here in Utah because Comcast is a gay faggoty company. You can get every other FSN channel, just not Northwest. I'm thinking of switching to direct TV next season, suck that comcast!!!! Anyways, the Beavers pulled up a great victory over Washington 48-21. And in other pac-10 victories, Stanford killed USC 55-21. Yeah, end the dynasty!

And last, but certainly not least, TCU crushed the U 55-28. Oh the joy, oh the rapture. It was a great day in college football. I would have liked the Ducks to lose, but I'm content with the results. I think I was more happy that the Utes were slaughtered than the Beavers winning. Don't get me wrong, the Beavs are my team, I want, nay, need them to win. But there is just such a good feeling that warms my heart when the Utah Utes lose; warm fuzzies. Go Beavs and whoever is playing the Utes!!!

Happy Sabbath.

A Tribute To Me

My name is Jeff
Some say I'm deaf
But I just have lots of wax in my ear
so not hearing people is something I fear.

I hate looking at people's blogs
and finding they are short on logs
(a log is a post)
and this I will boast:
the blog which is mine,
my wife and I update all the time.

So take heart
put down your tart,
please humor us
and hop on that blog-updating bus.

Please do me this favor
and write something to savor.
Don't be such a lard:
seriously, it's not that hard.

Peace out Hippies!

Terrible News

After 3 years of thinking that even as a glutard I could eat Rice Krispies (just not the generic brands that have barley malt) and eating more Rice Krispie treats than one ever thought possible, I have learned that I CANNOT actually have them. Apparently I'm not supposed to have anything with malt flavoring at all. Stupid gluten crap. Please share a moment of silence with me.

Shout Out to the Bros

Looking to buy or sell a home? Contact Spencer. Need a Santa for your Christmas party? Contact Joey.

These guys are awesome at what they do. Spread the word if you know anyone who could benefit from my cool brothers-in-law!

Little things that make me happy

Jeff. Living with him, being married to him, and getting to know everything about him. He's so great. We tell each other that all the time, but seriously, he's an amazing husband. He's so patient and funny and loves hanging out with kiddos. All the little boys in our court LOVE Jeff. Whenever they see me, they say, "Hey, where's Jeff?" He's way cooler than me for these cute little boys because he gives them random boxes to play with and writes notes about boogers. Total boy stuff. Something I'm sure I'll get used to some day.

Hanging out with Maddie and Sam every week. They're so fun. Sam gets super cuddly and is always thrilled with whatever is going on. He loves cleaning up and could spend the entire day Swiffering and be totally satisified. I love that when he hits or kicks and you tell him to be soft, he gives you a big hug and rubs your back with his little hand. It's just those tender little moments with this wild child that make me so excited to have kids of our own. Maddie is just a sassy, but tender-hearted little girl. We're little buddies and she loves Jeff too. We had some cute conversations today that went something like this:
Me: Mads, I love you so much.
Maddie: Hm. That's funny.
Me: Why is that funny?
Maddie: I just think you're wonderful.
A little later, we were just chatting about life and she looked at me and said, "Jenny, you're an amazing aunt." Then she gave me a huge hug and we chilled on the couch watching a movie while Sam took a nap. I feel so lucky to be so involved with these kiddos and spending each Wednesday with them is something I will miss when I have to get a grown up full time job again.

Nature. It's beautiful. I love the changes that come with each season. It's one reason I love living in Utah. 4 seasons...sometimes all in one day... but absolutely amazing and breathtaking on a regular basis. Love it.

Dreyer's Slow Churned Ice Cream. Lately it's the mint chocolate chip, but I also love the rocky road, vanilla bean, and peanut butter cup. It's so creamy and delicious.

Watching funny people at the gym.

Being crafty. I'm not super good at it, but it's fun for me.

Going to the gym and having a kick-trash workout. It feels SO good.

Christmas music. I know it's too early, but I LOVE it. Christmas is my favorite time of year. I love everything about it and I'm so excited for the whole season to come.

Halloween

So, we've decided that Halloween really is a pretty lame holiday unless you have kids. I've never really been into it. Jeff's never really been into it. But, we decided it would be fun to carve pumpkins and pass out candy to the cute kids in our court. Here is Jeff hard at work on our normal looking pumpkin:

Here is his finished product:

Here is our reject pumpkin. We got it at WinCo for 6 cents per pound. We figured nobody else would want it because it's ugly, so we rescued the poor little guy.
Here is Maddie sitting on the giant Homer our neighbors brought over to our place. Apparently this Homer doll has been going around the 900 court in the University Village for about 3 years. It's huge and gross...in my opinion. Jeff liked it. My brother in law wanted to keep it. The kids couldn't get enough of it.
Our first trick-or-treaters, Maddie and Sam. Maddie was originally going to be a ghost, but then decided since Sam had a superman costume, she needed to be a supergirl. They're pretty much the cutest little superheroes I've ever seen.
Our pumpkins all lit up. The reject pumpkin was a little tricky to carve, so we put a JW because that seemed the easiest and conveniently displays both of our initials. I know...it's dumb, but it's all I could think of.

Best Ever

I remember it so clearly, it was Friday the 16th of October. It was a crisp cool fall day. The leaves had changed from their green to vibrant hues of red and yellow. I parked next to Crown Burger, the smell of greasy burgers and french fries permeated my lungs. I made my way south on 3rd West, crossing the street at the Triad Center. I thought to myself "Triad? How ironic." I quickened my pace. I was like a 6 year-old boy the night before Christmas. But I wouldn't have to wait that long.

The others making their way were clad in their excited faces; the mood was electric. The text I received from Kyle, my youngest brother, indicated they, too, had arrived. Then finally I saw them, Joey in his Beavers jacket (Go Beavs!) and Kyle in a pimp'n Ron Weasley sweater; the ladies would soon be all over this recently returned missionary. Then I heard it. I'm not sure if it was off in the distance or in my head; no matter, it was real to me anyways.

My countenance changed from anticipation to excitement as I handed to the ticket collector my admission for Star Wars in Concert. The air smelled more fresh as I entered the arena. The corridors were packed with fans all eager to meet the characters of the films. There was a Storm Trooper standing next to Boba Fett. Evil Anakin duelled Obi Wan Kenobi. The Royal Imperial Guards stood by Emperior Palpatine. Still standing was the unnamed Admiral who would later be killed by Darth Vader in Empire. The TIE fighter pilot who panicked in Episode 4 causing Vader to spin out of control allowing Luke to destroy the first dreaded Death Star. And finally, there was evil himself, the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader, greeting fans in all his glory. "These are the days... I told myself as I passed a Jawa making his usual cry "Utinni!"

The main event, however, was inside the corridor. We found our seats and awaited the festivities. The orchestra opened with the main Star Wars Theme and we all went wild. When James Earl Jones introduced Anthony Daniels the crowd went wild. "Star Wars nerds, Unite"

The concert was amazing. The music was superb. The video was mesmerizing. The atmosphere was electric as they went through the music of the 6 films. Never in my days would I expect a concert to give me goose bumps...


You were the chosen one!



Aren't you a little short for a Storm Trooper?

Death becomes us

The Dark Lord of the Sith


Forrest Scout



These aren't the droids you're looking for

Utinni!



Will someone get this walking carpet out of my way?

Rebel Scum


Don't make me destroy you


From the pen of John Williams: Entertainer, Artist... Visionary



The Imperial March

EEK

I've been struggling in chemistry lately. It's not a hard subject (it's the same as I took in High School and again at the community college back in Oregon). So we have online chapter tests that aren't due until December, so we can do them at our own pace. Me, being the procrastinator that I am, am about 4 chapters behind. So yesterday, I decided that I would do some studying and take the chapter 4 test. So I studied during work (um, on my lunch break) and was going to take the test when I was done at 5pm and be done by 5:20 or so. Well, I accidentally clicked on the chapter 5 test instead. I couldn't close out of it because you only get one shot at each test. So I scrambled to read over the chapter and take the test. I ended up getting an 80 on it which royally sucks. Then today, I decided to take the test for Chapter 4. I clicked on the correct test and started answering the questions and came to find that they were all from chapter 2. Boy was I annoyed. two screwed up tests in two days. I ended up getting a 96, so I was fine with that. I emailed the Prof and told him, but I haven't heard back. Ug, I hate school!

Another road trip...

And NO MORE for a very very long time. We are a little sick of road trips. Anyway, we made it to Monticello on Friday October 23rd. I was feeling super emotional all day and so poor Jeff had to deal with that, plus a long drive. We made awesome time getting down there and stopped only once I think. We stayed at the Canyonlands Motor Inn. $48 and super classy as you can see from the decor. If you look closely beyond the neon lights, you'll notice they advertise that they have a fax machine. Best motel ever. And totally updated. The lobby smelled like cigarettes and incense. Our room was clean though. We were pleasantly surprised.


This would be the sweet "do not disturb" sign. There was a latch on the door that you turned for do not disturb and maid service. It's not working so well. The maid service didn't come up at all. So, I guess we wanted them to disturb us?

Soap dispensers. With no soap. There was one in the shower too. Weird.

The plug in the wall. Don't know why, but it was really funny to us.

Here is Jeff sitting in the awesome chair with the amazingly stylish lamp which had no where to be plugged in.

A few more pics of our awesome room

This was by far my favorite part of the room. Seriously awesome. I can't even describe all the thoughts I had when I saw this:

Alas, the beautiful painting above the 2 beds we ended up with. Doesn't get any better than this...

Cute little mini fridge next to the cute little mini tv.

We drove to every restaurant in town for dinner. We finally ended up at a western-decorated one that was cute and fun. We had yummy food for pretty cheap. The whole town shuts down really early...like if you need anything after 9 p.m., you have to drive an hour-ish to Moab. Pretty awesome.

Monticello Temple

We reached our goal! We made it to all the Utah temples before our first anniversary. The Monticello temple was super packed and small, but very pretty. It was a fun experience to go to all the Utah temples, but we will never do it again. Just sayin'...

Drive home

The waiter at the restaurant we ate at Friday night told us about the canyon drive to get back home. We decided to take it. Here is the view from the top of the drive:

This is called Newspaper Rock. It has a bunch of whatever those things are called. It's super cool.

Here is a very friendly cowboy who was herding his cows across the street:

The drive was absolutely beautiful!


We ended up at the Canyonlands visitors center only to learn that we had to go back the way we came in in order to get to the highway to head home. The whole thing probably took us a good 2 hours to add to our 5 hour drive. Needless to say, Jeff and I seem to have a knack for making the ride home longer than it needs to be. We got home with only one little meltdown from me because I was hungry and annoyed that I couldn't eat food full of gluten. I was pretty much just being dumb about the whole thing and Jeff was, once again, SO patient with me. I sure am a lucky girl! We made it through a rain/hail/snow storm and were SOOO happy to finally be home.

Pillow Talk

The following conversation took place at 3 a.m. in the Canyonlands Motor Inn in Monticello, UT.

Jeff doesn't remember this part-
Jeff: Are you really shivering? Where's the blanket?
Me: Yeah. I'm freezing. It fell on the floor.
Jeff: Well, pick it up.
Me: Got it.

Jeff then proceeded to tell me about a random dream he was currently having, but I can't remember the details. Jeff has no idea that this even happened.

A little background on the next part: Jeff went to the doctor to get a physical a while ago and the doctor told him he was really good at pushing the earwax into his ear. Apparently it was compacted against his ear drum.

Jeff: I felt the earwax coming out of my ear.
Me: What?! (remember...it's 3 a.m.)
Jeff: I need to get it out, but it's not coming out.
Me: Sorry babe. It's 3 in the morning though. I'm really tired.
Jeff: How far do you put the Q-Tip in your ear?
Me: I don't know. Just barely.
Jeff: Well, like 1/4 or 1/2 or how far?
Me: I dunno. I'm really tired. You can watch me clean my ears in the morning.
Jeff: Do you want me to stop talking or something?
Me: You don't have to, but I probably will stop responding. So, if you don't care if I respond or not, then keep talking. It's the middle of the night. I want to go back to sleep.
Jeff: But...

And this is where I'm pretty sure I went back to sleep. I'm so glad that we can discuss such important issues any time of the day. Reason number 783 why I love my husband.

Shocking

Yesterday while I was at my practicum/internship, we were doing some measuring to see if some shelves would fit in a certain spot. There has been a lot of remodeling so the whole place is a mess. Since I like to use tools and pretend that I even know what I'm doing with them, I thought I'd be the great one to do the measuring. Using a tape measure is very easy, especially when you don't have to be exact.
So, in the room we were measuring, there was a light switch hanging down that wasn't attached in the wall yet. I held the tape measure and, not even thinking about anything, went right over the switch.
There was a big spark and then everything went dark. The lady that was with me almost had a heart attack because she thought I got shocked. I didn't even feel it and starting laughing so hard. I don't know why things like that are so funny to me, but they are.
Everyone heard about the story and the best part: It burned a hole in the tape measure. Cool, huh! I thought it was great. Everyone else was freaking out.

Random things for today

Jeff and I went to Smith's today to get a few things. Jeff picked the BEST checkout line ever. This checker was A-MA-ZING. I've never seen anyone scan groceries so fast. He was a speed demon. We exchanged pleasantries in the 30.8 seconds it took him to check our stuff and then we were off. I wish we were friends with this guy. He was just that cool.

On a totally unrelated, but I just gotta throw these things out there note...
Here are a few things that I find completely unnecessary:

1- Homework.
This is a constant struggle for me. I do not now, never have, nor will I ever have a desire to tackle this monster. I really just don't think I learn as much from it as I'm supposed to. It could be because I don't do it like I should, but seriously. Is it really necessary to write 15 page papers on social policies and analyze the best alternative to the problem? I don't think so. It makes way more work for the professor. He has to read all these 15 page papers and grade them and actually pay attention to what is being written in all of them.
That right there is reason number 437 that I will not go on for my PhD to become a professor.

2- Suspenders and belts being worn at the same time.
I don't get it either, but I know a man who wore a brown belt + suspenders every single day. I'm pretty sure one or the other is sufficient.

3- Having at least 30 episodes of Malcolm in the Middle recorded on our DVR. It's a great show and I love my husband dearly. I wonder, however, do we need to have that many episodes recorded?

5th Time's a Charm

In our efforts to visit all the Utah temples, we have planned to go to Draper 4 other times. At last, on our 5th planned visit, we made it! Barely. It was kind of early this morning and we both dozed off a little, but we made it. We forgot the camera, but this is a way better picture anyway.
Next and last Utah temple: Monticello. Wish us luck with that trip!

Oregon Trip

So we learned in June that Kyle (Elder Williams) was returning from his mission in Chiahuahua Mexico on Monday September 28th. The plan was for me to fly to Portland that morning and spend some time with the fam. We didn't get Jenny a ticket because she had her practicum and school and couldn't get away.

In September, I took a couple of trips without my wife, which was extremely painful for the both of us. Also since I started school again, I'm out of the house 3 evenings a week. So at the last minute, we decided to go together, and drive, eek!!!!

So we left on Saturday afternoon after the Hydrocephalus Walk. We had great plans to get out of the house and on the road by 1ish. Which really means 3ish. But it's all good. We encountered a traffic jam just trying to get on the freeway.
So, we decided to go a different way to the freeway and I say, "I could go for some Cafe Rio before we get on the road." And that is where our second detour happened. We heart the Rio.
And now the road trip has finally begun...

On the Road. Finally.

Stop #1: Somewhere just outside Idaho. Jeff needed some sunflower seeds for the drive.

Jeff's just jammin' out. Singing a little James Blunt.

Southern Idaho bugs on the windshield. SO NASTY!

Attention everyone. Do NOT stay at the Super 8 in Pendleton, Oregon. They will put you in a room that reaks of urine where you will tell your amazingly patient husband that you absolutely cannot stay in there. So, he will then return to the front desk after lugging your huge suitcase up and then down the stairs and get another room which will be similarly ghetto, but not reak of urine. If you have experiences similar to this, don't say I didn't warn you.

YAY! We're leaving the Super 8. And will be in Corvallis soon! So excited!

A few pictures taken out the sun roof while driving 70ish miles per hour. Pretty impressed with the skills we have.

One of the dams we passed. Not sure which one. Again, this picture was taken out the sunroof.

Before even going to the Williams home, we stopped to visit Gene and Donna. They absolutely LOVE Jeff so it's definitely a must to stop in when we're in town. They're fabulous and the nicest people you will EVER meet.