BEST HUSBAND IN 2009!

So I have been deeming Nicholas with "Husband of the Year" points for quite some time...a meaningless gesture to let him know he is doing something nice, funny, etc.  Well, I decided that he needed to receive an award for earning so many points this year.  On New Years, at dinner, I announced that he had in fact won Husband of the Year and we toasted to him with some sparkling grape juice. Then he got to open his present...season 5 of The Office!  We have already started watching it :)  I am super grateful for such a wonderful husband and such a great best friend...he makes my life easier and happier and I love him mucho!  Congrats Nicholas!

A Holly Jolly Christmas

It seems I did not take many pictures this Christmas so you will just have to believe me when I tell you it was great!

I had fun decorating our little apartment- we borrowed this fake tree from my parents again this year and Koshka loved it...a little too much most times.  It only officially tipped over once, but she liked to chew on the branches any time she could get her paws on them.  It didn't take long before I engineered a contraption out of cardboard and packing tape to put at the bottom of the branches to hinder her chewing fun.

This was a Grand Christmas year which means we all come to my parents for the holiday- easy enough for us!  We knew that we were going sleep there on Christmas Eve and so the night before (the 23rd) we pulled out our sleeping bags and slept in our living room...right under the Christmas tree.  It was fun and surprisingly comfortable (we highly recommend air matresses with pumps) and really got us in the holiday spirit.

While Nicholas still worked a lot, we had fun going to movies, opening presents, playing games, puzzling, ice skating, going bowling, exercising each morning, and eating a ton with the family.  I was off of work for the entire two weeks which was heavenly.  We love the holidays!

Koshka got a jungle gym type thing from "Santa" as well as a new collar and food bowl from us.  Our hopes were realized and she indeed loves playing on her new toy...which gets us out of running around with her all of the time.  Her new collar is black and white polka dots but has a little pink on it and so I am hopeful that now my family will not call her a "he" all of the time (her previous collar was light blue- it was the only one I could find that was small enough).

Anywho, we had a very lovely Christmas and are very, very lucky!  We can't wait until next year!

A New Hairdo!

I had to get all dolled up a week or two ago for work- it was a formal party for the end of our festival.  Anywho, I had come home to put on a dress and put my hair up.  Standard ballroomprotocol is some sort of low bun; I began the process.  

I first made a little poof in the front with my "bangs"...no, I did not use a bump it I just went to school in Utah and learned how to make a poof with the best of them.  I was planning to take the tails that had made a poof and do something with them and then pull the rest into a bun.  Figuring that it would be easiest to pull the hair into a bun and then figure out what to do with the tails, I pulled the tails in front and pinned them so they would stay out of my way long enough to make the bun.  After I made the bun I looked in the mirror and realized that the tails kind of looked cool.  I wrapped them all the way around the poof and pinned them in place.  There was a mass of bobby-pins, thus I covered them with a flower.

I think it turned out pretty cool and am excited to try and replicate this hairdo sometime.  I got that it looked like Audrey Hepburn, french, like a little hat, and 40's-esque.  (And yes, I am wearing false eyelashes...again, standard ballroom protocol!)

A Christmasy Weekend

Nicholas had asked me for a date last Friday.  I cooked dinner and then we went to Handel's Messiah at some church on I-10.  I had never heard The Messiah all the way through and it was fun to attend that kind of concert again...Nick and I used to go to concerts and symphonies and such all the time when they were super convenient at BYU but now they are a little harder to come by (at least affordable ones!).  After the concert there were refreshments served, so Nick didn't even have to buy me a treat afterwards!  

We rode around uptown to see some Christmas lights.  We found this one little spot and got out and walked around a bit.  There were these big candles in the center of a pointsettia wreath, and we couldn't help but have some fun with them.  I tried to blow them out and Nick thought they set him on fire :)

The next evening was The Marvelous Dancers Christmas party; The Marvelous Dancers is a student organized group of members of the studio.  They had invited Nicholas and me and so we decided to crash the party.  It was fun to attend a dancing event where I wasn't working and thus could actually dance with Nick instead of only students. (Don't worry, I still got a few dances with students in!)  The students had really gone all out and the party was really well done.  We managed to remember to get one picture at the party!

Happy Holidays!  

Darwin Awards

This was forwarded to me by my sister-in-law Erin and I thought it was too funny not to share it with someone...so enjoy it knowing that you are not the dumbest one out there!

Yes, it's again that magical time of the year when the Darwin Awards are bestowed, honoring the least evolved among us.

Here are the glorious winners: 

1. When his 38 - caliber revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during a hold-up inLong Beach, California, would-be robber James Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again. This time it worked. 

And now, the Honorable Mentions: 

2. The chef at a hotel in Switzerland lost a finger in a meat-cutting machine and submitted a claim to his insurance company. The company expecting negligence sent out one of its men to have a look for himself. He tried the machine and he also lost a finger. The chef's claim was approved.
 
3. A man who shoveled snow for an hour to clear a space for his car during a blizzard inChicago returned with his vehicle to find a woman had taken the space...understandably, he shot her.

4. After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from  Harare to Bulawayohad escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies. The deception wasn't discovered for 3 days.

5. An American teenager was in the hospital recovering from serious head wounds received from an oncoming train. When asked how he received the injuries, the lad told police that he was simply trying to see how close he could get his head to a moving train before he was hit.

6. A man walked into a Louisiana Circle-K, put a $20 bill on the counter, and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer: $15.  (If someone points a gun at you and gives you money, is a crime committed?)

7. Seems an  Arkansas guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that he'd just throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his head at the window. The cinder block bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the head, knocking him unconscious. The liquor store window was made of Plexiglas. The whole event was caught on videotape.

8. As a female shopper exited a  New York convenience store, a man grabbed her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately, and the woman was able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher. Within minutes, the police apprehended the purse-snatcher. They put him in the car and drove back to the store. The thief was then taken out of the car and told to stand there for a positive ID. To which he replied, "Yes, officer, that's her. That's the lady I stole the purse from."

9. The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked into a Burger King inYipsilanti, Michigan , at 5 a.m, flashed a gun, and demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn't open the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk said they weren't available for breakfast. The man, frustrated, walked away.

** **** A 5-STAR STUPIDITY AWARD WINNER*****

10. When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a Seattle street, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find a very sick man curled up next to a motor home near spilled sewage. A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline and plugged his siphon hose into the motor home's sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges, saying that it was the best laugh he'd ever had.

Going "Home"

Another thing Nicholas and I did while we were in Utah for Thanksgiving was take a trip down memory lane...I showed him the "house" my dad built with his own hands where I lived until I was 4 years old.  The house isn't there anymore since we sold the land to a developer, but they have built a church now where it used to sit.  It is kind of sad, but at least it is a church that is there are not a Wendys or something. 

The pump house is still standing though and I managed to get a picture of the new church with the pump house so you can see where the church sits (which really only makes since if you knew where our old house sat).  

It was fun to show Nick a little bit about my roots, even if I don't remember them all that well.  The other photo is just of Maple Mountain and the moon...it was far too beautiful that day and I couldn't help but snap a bunch of pictures! 

Skiing in Park City

When Nicholas and I were in Utah for Thanksgiving, we took one afternoon to go skiing.  Skiing is something Nick is very passionate about and I feel terrible that I dragged him down to Texas where he can not go anymore.  Thus I made sure that we made a little skiing trip happen.

(Please notice the full moon in the picture above!) I have been skiing enough times you can count them on one hand, however Nicholas has been a great teacher and I have even gone down a black run already (we won't comment if it was on my feet or not!)  We were looking forward to me getting a proper lesson from a real pro, Nick's dad Paul, however he had caught a cold and stayed warm at home.

There wasn't too much snow yet and so there were only a few runs open, but we rented some skis and bundled up and headed out to Park City Mountain Resort.  It came back faster than I was anticipating!  I only lost my ski once!  We really enjoyed skiing together and it was a beautiful, albeit chilly, day for it.  I hope there are many more ski trips in our future!

*One interesting side note- when we were putting our ski boots on in the parking lot a car was coming down and aisle and it slowed down and then stopped right by us.  The driver immediately got out and started running towards us...it was our friend Schmidtty! (Megan)  We hadn't seen her since before we were engaged and it was so fun- and random- to run in to her there!*