Celebrate, Celebrate...

…dance to the music!

[Chant] Number 1, Number 1, the Utes aren’t Number one

Oh the wondrous joy in my heart; oh the rapture, oh the happiness. Thank you Utes, thanks for sucking it up so badly. Thanks for playing so horribly that Max Hall who completed just 12 of 32 passes, threw for a winning touchdown in overtime. Thanks also to all you Ute fans who cheered so hard and trash-talked so much. This one’s for you; how does that dirt feel on your face? Thanks to you Max Hall, who had the guts to say how you feel about the U. You knew that there would be so much scrutiny over what you said, but you said it anyways. I ditto your comments buddy: I hate the Utes, and the fans!

…ahh, justice is sweet!!!!

FYI: This is purely Jeff. Not Jenny. Jenny doesn't care about U football. Jeff is passionate. Just sayin'. Jenny doesn't care about football. Period. Sorry Grandpa Stoddard! Those genes skipped me.

From the Mouths of Babes

We have the great opportunity to teach the 6-year-old primary class. We have 3 kids who come on a regular basis and absolutely love it. They're a little rambunctious, but it's so much fun. Being in the primary has been a great learning experience for us. We love their innocence and sincerity. There is nothing better than listening to their prayers and comments. Mostly just for our own enjoyment, we decided to share some of our favorite comments made by the kids.

We have one little girl named Lizzie in our class who is always daydreaming and so spacey. It's seriously awesome. Whenever we ask how she can help her mom or what she can do to show her parents she loves them or anything like that, she gives a little smile and says,

"Um, I can do the dishes." Every time. And it's very sing song-y.

Today, she was saying the closing prayer and said,
"Please help us to use Heavenly Father's name correctfully."
Our lesson was on not taking the Lord's name in vain.

She also shared with us that
"The Holy Ghost can tell you in your brain so you know what to get your friend for their birthday."
Yes, Lizzie. He does help us when we have questions. And that response had absolutely nothing to do with what we were talking about at that moment. Totally Lizzie.

During sharing time, the Bishop and his wife were doing the lesson and talking about the birth of Jesus Christ and how Joseph and Mary were told there wasn't room for them inside. A little girl who has a sister named Josie yells out,
"But me and my mom have room for Josie in our house."
The Bishop handled it perfectly and said, "Yep. And we are talking about Joseph."

Our most energetic little boy says the best prayers. A few of our favorites:

"Bless the earth that it won't get too hot so we can still live here." - Can you say Indoctrination?

"Bless us that we can give our food to the Bishop to feed the homeless people."

The boys love Jeff and he has his hands full while I sit by Lizzie and stare off into space with her. It's pretty much the best calling ever.

Happy Thanksgiving

This picture is for Kyle, but I don't know why. We heart turkey.
The prep. Jeff made these wicked good sweet potatoes:

Here is the spread we made to take to dinner. Yes, that is a gluten-free pumpkin pie made by yours truly. It was SO GOOD. And my first time EVER making a pie in my life. We also made the sweet potatoes, some gooey yummy chex stuff, cranberry sauce, and my favorite: pumpkin cheesecake. We could pretty much just have a cookbook with our mad skills.

Here we are at dinner with the Nelson fam. Zac is on the left purposely not looking at the camera. I chopped off all his hair earlier in the week with some help from Maddie. She loves zizzors. Then Devin and Becca like to cheese it up.

Here are my parents. My mom is always thrilled about something. My dad is...well...not as much. This pretty much described his mood. Love ya, dad!

Yay! Jeff and me! Just in case you wanted to see what Jeff was eating right at that moment, you get to. Such an attractive picture.

The day would not have been complete without Mandy bringing Dave to dinner over webcam and reading her list of things she's thankful for. It was kind of a weird dinner. We're all ready for Dave to be back in Utah. They need to just get married already. Seriously.

Here is a kind of cute one of Jeff and me. It's a little blurry, but whatev.

We have so much to be thankful for and are especially grateful for each other and that we have been sealed in the temple for eternity. It has been such an amazing year for us and we are so blessed with so many things. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We're SO excited for Christmas with the Williams fam this year!

Side note: we also went shopping Friday morning, but only to one store. Got some awesome deals...as in we saved $473 and spent $236. Pretty sweet.

Little Miss Hotwheelz

These pictures are in no particular order. Mostly just because it's not working to move them around once they're on here, but here are a few pics from the cute pageant night.

This is Maddie, her cute firefighter escort (named Ty which was thrilling for her), her friend Alondra, and her escort. Yes, Maddie was playing with her cheeks, talking to the fireman, and waving to people the whole time she was up on stage.
This was at the very end of the pageant. Maddie was DONE and freaking out. She didn't want her little crown on, so Jeff put it on me. Precious, I know.

Here is Mads again at the end. Each little girl was crowned (Maddie was "Little Miss Thoughtful") and got a flower, a quillow, and a crocheted shawl or something. By this time, the girls had been at the Salt Palace for 9 hours. Poor little gals were exhausted and could barely even function.

Maddie and her BFF Ty getting ready for her video. She didn't want to explain it, so he explained that her platform was "Being brave even when it's scary."

Here we are a couple hours into the pageant. It was SO long. Maddie did awesome and she and her little friends were absolutely adoreable. They should have done the Little Miss Hotwheelz stuff first so they could go home and go to bed, but it went on for 3 hours. It was super cute and totally worth it. We just felt bad that they were so tired!

Here is Maddie in her sparkly dress before the actual pageant started. They got their hair and makeup done and were totally pampered.

Sam hung out with us for a few hours before the pageant. He's just so funny. And so cute. And SO wild. He loved looking out our window. And licking it. Gross.

It was a fun night. Lots of cute things. Love hanging out with the kiddos.

Ring-Back

< rant > I used to do lots of reminder calls for the counselors where I work. Over the last year, I've called a lot of people and listened to more voicemails than I care to admit. I've also had the unique pleasure of listening to people's ring-back tones. (For those of you over 35, a ring-back tone is replaces the ringing that people here when they call you with the music of your choice) Unfortunately for me, most of the people who make these purchases, are young and "hip". This means that I have listened to over a hundred or so of these ring-back tones, and guess how many I've liked... One! One single song. That's not an exaggeration, I remember it distinctly, it was "Living on a Prayer" by Jon Bon Jovi. Every single song besides this one is crap. They are all rap, or hip hop or R&B. They are totally retarded. I wish that these people wouldn't make me listen to their favorite songs. So, for all of you who have a ring-back tone, please turn it off: its way more annoying that you realize. And for those of you thinking to get one: DON'T. Please don't force your crap on me. < /rant >

I HATE Turkey Day!

Those of you who know me know that I'm a very passionate person, and it bugs most of you because you think I'm sometimes over the top. I also have what I call an Original-Intent philosophy on many of life's aspects. I like to celebrate holidays with that in mind. I believe that the reason we celebrate Thanksgiving is to commemorate the day of thanks given to God by some of the first groups of Europeans to come to this great country. That is how I celebrate this day. I have been so blessed by God in all aspects of my life and for that, I am grateful and eternally indebted to Him. So when I hear people call this holy day "turkey day" I cringe inside. How ungrateful are we to the creator the universe and who grants us everything, that we can't even give thanks to him on the one day set aside as a holiday. I just find it a little bit disrespectful to those struggled to come here, to this land of freedom and more importantly, more disrespectful to our God. So please, have some class and have some gratitude.

And don't even get me started on that other word for Christmas.

Cute

Click here to watch a super cute little video of Maddie telling her story about being brave even when it's scary. It was her platform for the Little Miss Hotwheelz pageant. Absolutely adoreable. We'll post pictures soon.

Jeff: If you don't watch this, you're not my friend.

Annoyance

I need food. When I don't eat, I get wicked sick. Wicked grumpy. Not pleasant. Pretty much I just don't do well.
I have a physical scheduled for tomorrow at 11:10. I asked if I need to be fasting. The nurse called me back today and said,

"Oh. You didn't come in already to get your labs drawn? Dr. Shepherd usually has you do that a couple of days before the appointment. So, yes. You will need to be fasting."

Information that would have been useful earlier this week. I appreciate when people let me know these things ahead of time. Like even when I made the appointment over a month ago. Is that too much to ask?

For some, this is not a big deal and may be thinking, "don't be such a wuss." I need to eat. That's all there is to it. Just ask Jeff or anyone in my family.

Never in a million years

We absolutely are addicted to this show. It's fabulous. But...Rebecca? and Daniel? Dating?
Seriously?

We love love love Rudy and Alan and Danny. Hoping for Rudy to win, but any of them would be awesome.

Perfect

This is cheesey. So if you don't like cheesey, don't read it.
Also, there will be no pictures. We put them all on the external hard drive to clear up some space and I don't feel like going to that much effort. That said, I make no guarantees of this being funny, entertaining, or even interesting. I just wanted to post.

Jeff is so perfect for me. I know every girl says their husband is the best and I think it's great that there are so many of the best husbands out there. I'm so happy I have Jeff as mine though. For me, he's the best. And I think he would be the best to anyone, but I'm so blessed that he chose me and said yes on our wedding day. So I get to call him mine and perfect and the number one husband and all of those things. It's cheesey and fun.

As you can see from the last post, I had some struggles over the weekend. I don't know what the deal is, but since we've been married and probably before that, I've become such a wuss! I just randomly cry and get emotional for unknown reasons. Jeff is so patient. He just holds me and lets me get all my yucky crying juices on him and he's fine with it. He's learned that when I'm having a hard time, he just says, "Here's what we're going to do..." because I don't make decisions well when I'm emotional. Or hungry. Or tired. Or trying to please others... He decided that even though he wanted to watch football and get caught up in school, that I was way more important. He did the laundry. He went out in the freezing cold snow. We had home made pizza and hot brownies with vanilla ice cream.
(Emotional eaters? Yup.)

Then we watched The Proposal. Twice. And he actually liked it.
Today I get home from practicum (which is basically a job, but I pay to work there instead of the other way around. Lame, but I like where I'm working this year so it's good) and Jeff says, "Wait. Can you just stop right there and turn around and not come in any farther?" So, I stopped right inside and waited. When I had permission to come all the way in, there were flowers (Gerbera Daisies which are my favorite) on the table with a cute card. Just because. I almost got emotional over that too. But a good emotional.
I pretty much just love this guy. I may be a little biased, but Jeff is the best.

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.