Still Alive

We're still here and alive. I've just been too lazy lately to post and I don't have any good pics. Christmas was good. Lots of time with both families. Matthew LOVED all the snow. Me, not so much. I was glad to see it melt and the roads clear up. Well, time to get ready for church. We are teaching one of 3 sunbeams classes today. Should be fun! Their first day out of nursery--could be a little scary. Matthew will keep them entertained!!!

LOTS OF CHRISTMAS PARTIES!!!

I've had some scheduled event every night starting Friday through this Wednesday. December is always way to busy! Friday night was my work party for treasure Valley Pediatrics. It was at the Botanical Gardens. It was really pretty but rainy and cold! We didn't spend much time walking around because Matthew didn't take my advice and ended up leaving his coat at home. My parents catered so of course the food was good. They ran out of potatoes and got pretty close on most everything else due to inaccurate RSVP's. It was kinda scary. We always bring extra food just in case but it wasn't enough this time. I forgot my camera so I stole this pic off a co-workers blog.

Oh, Friday was also my mom's b-day. I told a few poeple at work and by the end of the night most everyone at my work party had told her Happy Birthday. That was kinda fun!

Saturday, I spent most of the day at the church. It took a long time to set up for our Ward Christmas party. Some volunteers didn't end up showing up so that meant extra work for those of us that did. It turned out pretty good though. We served breakfast for dinner. It worked well because our ward has so any kids and it was a lot less expensive too!! I was a little disappointed, however, because I found out at the last minute that my Three Wisemen that were supposed to take the place of Santa in handing out the gifts had a different plan in mind. Someone decided they could just hand the bags out in regular clothes. How fun is that? So much for my long thought out ideas :( Oh well, what could I do at that point??

Sunday was church, lunch at my mother-in-laws, take back deocrations to Melba for the next ward to use, stop at my parents to celebrate mom's b-day with the family, then the company party for Vic's Family Pharmacy. It was at the Rodeo Club and the Idaho Center. We had a pretty good time. We always have dinner and a gift exchage. This year Vic decided to do a relay game. It was pretty fun.

Monday was work then I was invited to Jenna and Quinn's school Christmas program. I skipped out though and went grocery shopping instead.

Tuesday will be work, running errands, making cookies for visiting teaching, then Jenna's dance recital.

Wednesday is work and a visiting teaching get together with my old companion and our new sisters an old sisters we visit. We thought we would just combine it all for Christmas. It should be fun! Hopefully I will still have energy and a desire to socialize!

Oh wait, Thursday, my visiting teachers will probabkly come over. Friday is my dad's b-day. Then Saturday is Matthew's family Christmas party. I will be so glad when December is over. This is way too crazy for me. Too much to keep track of. I come home every night and tell Matthew the plans for the evening. If I tell him too far in advance he gets anxiety and doesn't want to go. Poor guy--He likes to stay at home where it's quiet. He will be very glad when all the holidays are over!

Wanted--Photoshop tutor!

I'm wondering if anyone out there knows how to use photoshop--even the basics--and is willing to teach me a few things. I currently use picasa but have photoshop on my laptop and would like to learn how to use it. There are so many more possibilities. I'm willing to pay for your time.

TAG!!

This one is kinda fun. It's interesting to see what other people have done. I have done everything that is in bold.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (school)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity (tithing)
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child (Not me personally but I have several adopted family members)
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch-hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse (i think)
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (didn't last too long)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo's David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted (sort of...Matthew & I got a chalk drawing on our honeymoon)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie ( Not exactly, but I've been in several commercials)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma (Tried, they didn't want my blood. I take steroids--albuterol inhaler)
65. Gone sky diving (It was awesome!! Especially because it was free. Some crazy guy paid for me to go with him. It was our first and only date. I was kinda mean to the guys in my singles ward!)
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy (I still have my favorite blanket)
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle (with no helmet--scary! Another crazy date from my singles ward)
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible (for seminary)
86. Visited the White House (I've stood outside the fence)
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chicken pox
89. Saved someone's life (Kinda--I'm a nurse--that's my job! I've helped with some codes in the hospital)
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous (Thanks to our catering business, I've meet a lot of Country singers--Clay Walker, Jo Dee Messina, Martina McBride, Trent Tomlinson, Emerson Drive. I can't think of all of them. Also we've catered for Butch Otter's fundraisers and his wedding.)
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby (Hope to some day)
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake (Possibly, when I was younger)
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
I tag anyone else who wants to share...
Just paste this list into your blog and bold the ones that you HAVE done, and unbold any I have done that you have NOT... (I changed the font size also on the ones I bolded.)

HELP!!

I just realized on Sunday in my 7:00 AM meeting, that Christmas is approaching very fast! I am still the Ward Activities Director and once again my committee has been taken away from me. I have a few people that are going to be called but I don't have anything planned. I lost my old committee members before we planned Christmas. I was thinking about doing a breakfast for our ward party. I have the building reserved for Saturday the 13th. (Unless it too gets taken. I originally had it for the 6th but found out at my stake meeting that someone else also thought they had it and already had things planned). Oh well, it gives me another week to plan. What do you think about a breakfast? I have a bag of pancake mix that never got opened from our ward campout. It's already payed for and my budget is pretty low. I was also thinking of maybe having a toys for tots drive, a table to write notes to missionaries, and instead of Santa have the Bishopric dressed as the Three Wisemen and they hand out the treat bags. I'm hoping to find a Large Nativity scene with a manger if anyone has one of those. Any ideas are greatly appreciated!!!! Thanks in advance!

Another long update!!!

Where should I even start?? It's been too long. I'm sure I'll miss a few events but here is a little about what we've been up to. We finally got Matthew's turbo fixed in his SRT-4 so he wanted to take a test drive to Banks a couple Sundays ago. The drive was very enjoyable. The colors were beautiful! I didn't get any pics of the really neat places because the car was movng too fast. We did stop to stretch for a few minutes, however, and these are a few of the pics we took.

Matthew sure loves his car. Especially now that it can go FAST again!!

Next, I think, was Halloween. I was in charge of the Ward party of course. We had a carnival in the gym on the Wed before Halloween. It was a lot of fun. I was pretty busy keeping candy and prizes stocked so I didn't get very many pictures of the different booths. I did get Santa though. I thought that was pretty creative. Also, I had the Bishop get a cotton candy machine--the kids LOVED that! The witches brew was a little interesting with a bloody hand, spiders, and who knows what else in it. I had Matthew and Braden pay me for their hair cuts by blowing up balloons. What great help!

Matthew's family party was Halloween night. We had fun taking the neices and nephews trick-or-treating. Jayden had a broken leg so he rode in his wagon. We had a baked potato and chili dinner and played games afterwards. Matthew and I were Thing 1 and Thing 2. We were a little nervous and embarassed but it turned out pretty good. Here are some pics of the family. Some of them are during the lifesaver game. We are passing a lifesaver down the row of teammates from one toothpick to the next. No hands allowed. Also we passed an orange in our neck. That was really funny to watch!!

Here are some random pictures of different times when we had Jenna, Quinn, Micah, Haylee, Braden, and Zach at our house. Matthew has WAY to much energy. He pulled us around with his bike because the battery is dead in the toy jeep. Way to go!! It was actually pretty fun. I might try and post a video later. The pictures of Braden and Zach are after the ward Halloween party. I made them try out my games to see how fun they were. Braden was a good sport. Zach decided to try and hit me with the nerf gun instead!

And last picture for the night is our new truck!! On Saturday we traded in the 4-runner for this Dakota. The 4-runner was getting too old. It leaked oil, the clutch needed replaced, it wasn't very powerful (took forever to get up Horseshoebend hill), and if you haven't forgotten, it had a HUGE dent on the passenger side from my wreck last year! We are a lot happier with this newer vehicle. Now we need to take it for a test drive to Banks!!

In Remembrance

After arriving home tonight, Matthew and I found a very unfortunate event when we checked on the dogs. If everyone would please take a moment of silence for Bessy's beloved elephant. Unfortunately Touille lives up to her nick name "Chewy Touille". She too loved the stuffed elephant but we believe she is the murderer. The cotton innards were spread all over the patio. Unfortunately it ended up in the garbage can. There was no way to save it. The duck was also destroyed a few weeks ago. Now both of Bessy's favorite toys are gone. I'm actually quite sad about the recent happenings. All of you who have seen Bessy most likely know the story behind her extremely messed up leg. She often slept on the elephant . We think it was for comfort. I only paid $1 for it at the DI and don't think I will find another good deal. At the present time I don't think it would be a good decision to buy an expensive stuffed animal. Touille will only rip it to shreds. What a sad night. Maybe Bessy will get to sleep inside tonight on her pillow and Touille will sleep alone outside. I don't know how Touille would handle that though. She's never slept without Bessy since we brought her home. I bet Bessy will forgive her.