Monday, December 29, 2008

My Favorite Time of Year!

I've been having way too much fun to blog! For Christmas this year we're in Las Vegas visiting Calder's family and it's been busy busy busy since we flew in last Saturday. Warning: REALLY long post to follow.

Sunday night was the big Christmas party. Tons of family and close friends came over for some delicious food. It was really fun to see everyone and get to know some people a bit better. I discovered Calder is really bad at introducing me to people - several times I was standing next to him when he started a conversation with someone I had never met before - and just left me standing there! He has gotten better. Unfortunately I didn't pull my camera out for this event :(

Christmas Eve we went over to Calder's aunt and uncle's house for Christmas dinner. We had the traditional turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry deliciousness. After dinner we played a fun game of Christmas Bingo (I love anything 10x more if it has the word Christmas in front of it) and Aunt Catherine read us all a cute Christmas story. Again with the no pictures - sorry!

Christmas day is a day that I'm used to spending hanging out and relaxing - this year it was busy and fun filled all day long!

Christmas morning - we slept until 9ish and got up to open presents. It was so nice to not have any kids around to wake up super early. We got lots of great presents including a beautiful nativity set from Calder's parent's recent trip to Israel, Turkey, etc. Also I can say that being in a jewelry family pays off and we're anxiously awaiting going home and playing with our Playstation 3 (a combined gift from my parents and his). I did get some fun pictues here. We were going to a brunch and Calder's grandmas house right after so we didn't have any gross Christmas morning pictures.


An Obama book for the family liberal


Zoe in the cute "Santa's Little Helper shirt" we got her


The fam


The pre-opening

Next was breakfast at grandma's house! More delicious food. We also watched a really nice slideshow of family pictures throughout the years. I really like things like that - I'll have to get a copy. It was fun to watch Calder evolve from a cute happy kid, to a big grump, to happy again.




After brunch we went over to Calder's Aunt Linda's house for Christmas dinner with the Huntington side of the family. More delicious food (are you seeing a theme here?) Highlights included a super cute reenactment of the nativity story and some pretty Christmas music. I also got to meet a few family members that I hadn't met yet, so that was nice.



Saturday we woke up and took a family trip to the temple and had dinner at a yummy mexican restaurant.

Sunday was Coulson's mission farwell. He's preparing to serve in the Lima Peru mission. He goes into the MTC late January but was kind enough to have his farewell a few weeks early so that we could all be there! He gave a great talk and we enjoyed more hanging out with family and friends.

And that brings us up to today! We're here until January 6 and have lots more fun things planned!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Math 2374 - Multivariable Calculus (Calculus 3)

Wednesday Dec. 3 - 3rd Midterm Exam
Friday Dec. 5 - Homework Due
Tuesday Dec. 9 - Lab Report Due
Wednesday Dec. 10 - Homework Due
Wednesday Dec. 10 - Pre-lecture quiz
Friday Dec. 12 - Final

GIVE. ME. A. BREAK.
I'm supposed to study for this final when?

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

1. I like to study in the law school - it's more serious.

2. Calder studied at school Sunday and I stayed home and cleaned and watched Lifetime Christmas movies. I loved it.

3. I really like the Atkins Advantage vanilla shakes.

4. I'm not putting up Christmas decorations at all this year. I won't notice them at all during finals and we're leaving right after.

5. I didn't go to work today so that I could study for my two tests today. Now I'm blogging.

6. We bought a TV on Black Friday.

7. We got massages last night - found a massage school about 20 minutes away - $20 for a one hour massage.

8. Also got pizza last night. I bought a coupon book for $20 a few months ago with buy one get one deals for places all over the twin cities. We use it all the time and are trying to find where to buy one for next year.

9. We eat out a lot, but always have coupons. Love this website.

10. So excited for finals to be finished - a break and a vacation.

11. I'll have a double commute next semester. School in the morning (15 minutes from home), work (30 minutes away from school), then school at night. I'll do this at least two days a week, maybe three. I'm happy that I have a job and that I can go to school.
Before:


After:


Side View:


I LOVE it! The pictures don't do it justice - and it looks a little crazy since my bangs are still 'learning' to go to the side and to stay flat. Now if I didn't have to put on a hat to walk up to school everyday I'd look awesome.

(Do you like my Halloween decorations still up in the background?)