Happy Birthday Baby Brudder!

Remember that time we went to the zoo?  It was just me and you?  You were little and still a little shaky using the bathroom.  It was winter.  You had to go.  We found one quick.  Everything was going fine until you threw my favorite bob-the-dog-brown-mittens in the toilet.  I fished them out and threw them in the garbage.  I still love you, though!!

I can't believe you are 14.  I was 14 when you were born.  Weird, huh?  If mom and dad call a family meeting when you are 14, you're welcome to come live with me.  

Have a great #14!!!

And p.s. . . . . just because you THINK you're taller than me doesn't mean I can't take you!  Ha!  

And p.p.s . . . just because I dropped a bottle of lotion on your head when you were a day old and ran your head into the wall on your blessing day, doesn't mean that you will have lifelong brain damage.  I promise.  It will go away eventually.

The neglected green room.

Our green room is the most used, yet most neglected room in our house. It serves many purposes, including office, tv room, movie theater, extra bedroom, library, closet, utility room, etc. One of my Christmas break projects was to clean it up and reorganize.  Here are some before and after pictures:

Before: 

After:

Before:

After:

(Notice how even my ironing is done and my closet door closed :) !!  )

Pictures of Christmas

Christmas Eve:

Christmas Eve

Christmas Day:

Christmas Day

Day after Christmas:

Day After Christmas

This shall be . . . . the longest day . . .

Disclaimer: This post is very long. Pictures will be posted later.

There was this one time when my sister was collecting and watching a lot of old WWII movies. I remember one night I watched "the Longest Day." Have you ever seen it? There is this scene in the movie where a German officer says, "This shall be . . . the longest day." It's very dramatic. It's also the best way to describe our Christmas.

I love Christmas. It is my favorite holiday. This year's was just very long. It started out at around 8:00 a.m. Christmas morning and finally ended around 9:00 p.m. on Friday.

Neither of us slept well Christmas Eve night. Perhaps it was the anticipation of Santa Clause or perhaps it was the wind that we thought was going to blow our house down. I don't know. There was an approaching storm. We got up and opened some gifts. A little after 9:00, we headed to my mom and dad's to open some gifts with them and Willie. Then, we ate breakfast. It was tasty!
Next, we headed to Grandma Huber's. For the first time in my life, we were the first people to arrive at Grandma Huber's. It was great! I helped get the day's snacks set up while James shoveled the walks. We exchanged gifts and visited with the GP's and the Stoker's for a little while. I gave Grandma some chocolate covered raisins and she made me hide them under the dining room table.

Next, we made a pit stop at home to unload and reload, then head north to have Christmas dinner with the Binggelis. The storm was coming. The wind was whipping. We discussed the possibility of the storm being bad enough that we should take an overnight bag. We discussed it again. James assured me that the storm was not going to be worse than what he has driven in before and we would be fine. We were prepared for the journey. We had coats and gloves in the car, a large umbrella, tools, chains for the tires, and snacks. We headed on our way!

The drive was very calm. Wind, yes, but no snow. We got to the Binggeli's and had a delicious dinner thanks to Alicia and we had lots of fun playing the Wii. James was sweating profusely as he beat everyone in Wii boxing. He also was ecstatic to the be the top scorer in Wii bowling (why bowling? well, that's a story for another day).

Meanwhile, the snow was raging outside. Around 8:00 p.m., we decided we better head for home. We did. We got on the freeway without too much sweat, but then it got really, really, really scary. We made it one whole freeway exit and then turned around and headed back. The snow was coming at warp speed to Endor . . . sideways. There was no apparent road. We could barely see the posts on the side of the road to mark where it was. There was only snow. Deep snow. Slippery snow. Scary snow. I think we were smart to turn around. I think we were dumb to not have prepared personal items to take with us.

We went back to the Binggeli's and everyone was of course very hospitable. There were pajama bottoms and t-shirts waiting for us. Mary had put clean sheets on the extra bed. She even washed our clothes for us. It was great. We played the Wii. We drank hot chocolate. We worked on a puzzle. In the morning, Mary even had brand new toothbrushes for us to use. Things were going dandy.

* * * * This post is very long. Take an intermission if you would like. * * * *

In the morning, the rest of the Binggeli's were headed to Rigby to see Annie and her family. James was feeling a little down that he didn't get to see his nieces and nephew, so we piled up and continued north. Now, I've always thought of myself as pretty low maintenance, but this was going a little too far. No clean underwear? No hair gunk? No make-up? No deodorant? No new clothes to put on? I know I had pajamas and clean sheets and a new toothbrush, but I still felt a little bit like I was camping. And on Christmas? Grrrrr . . . .

I don't blame James at all for wanting to see his family. I am spoiled and get to see more of mine that he does of his, so of course I said "Sure, let's go if you want to." So . . . we got in the car, got stuck in the driveway (we had also gotten stuck on the corner the night before), and after a small meltdown on my part, were well on our way.

We made it to Idaho Falls and visited the Idaho Falls Wal-mart for alcohol to put in the washer fluid so it wouldn't freeze (not in our car, but the Binggeli's). I also took advantage of the Wal-mart opportunity (I LOVE Wal-mart by the way) to buy some makeup and some Skittles.

We made it to Annie's house, ate turkey dinner, played with the kids for a while and then around 4:00 p.m. decided it was time to head for home. The roads were pretty good from Idaho Falls to about Malad. From Malad we literally slid all the way home. It was nowhere near as scary as the night before, but still very slippery. There were several slid off cars and some crazy drivers, but we finally made it home safe and sound.

I unloaded the car. I showered. James shoveled the walks at our house. He showered. We watched the news to tell us how much snow everyone got. James took out the garbage. It was still snowing. It didn't even look like he had shoveled. I unpacked and organized our Christmas gifts so they weren't all over the place. We ate toast. I wrote this blog.

Lessons learned in the longest day:
- I have great in-laws!
- My husband is a good driver!
- I love my little Honda. 159,000 miles and still going strong. Good car. Needs a bath, though.
- Never travel to Garland with and approaching storm without taking a change of clothes and necessary toiletries.

Good night and Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas Eve from my house . . . .

Everybody Wants to Par-Tay

Ho Ho Ho! It's Christmas. It's time to party! Party hardy! La la la!

Saturday morning . . . .  
Sardine Canyon . . . . very Scary!!! Took chains. Almost used them.
Good little Honda. I think I can. I think I can.

Party . . .
Good food. Dutch oven stew in a bread bowl. Aunt Susan's Sugar Cookies. Fun white elephant game. Christian and Parker speak of elves in their Christmas tree who come out at night and eat candy canes. Very funny. Wrapped up can of tuna fish in napkin. Secret. 

Board games? Bingo cards handwritten and laminated (and numbered on the back)? Told we either had gold coins or lumps of coal? People with gold coins rewarded with extra candy bars?

Saturday afternoon . . .
Sardine Canyon . . . . very Scary!!! Took chains. Almost used them.
Good little Honda. I think I can. I think I can.
Bad accidents in canyon. Lots of ambulences. Freeway closed. Loooong trip home.

Party . . .
Good food. Italian food. Biscuits and gravy. Sugar cookies. Ice cream sundies. Gift exchange. Singing songs.

Crazy children. A little loud. A little out of control. Johnny ate ice cream like the little piggies. Geneil frosted R-rated cookies. Geneil yelled, "this music is GAY." Not sure what that meant. Puppies in the oven. Pregnant women everywhere. Crowded. Grandparents don't feel well.  Forgot to bring in the camera.

All in all . . . a great holiday weekend! I really like them!  Family is good no matter how odd!!
(no sarcasm intended, I do like these crazy holly-days.)

Service Project

Tonight I squeezed into my Wednesday schedule, a trip to the Rocky Mountain Care Center. The care center is in our stake. Each ward takes turns doing FHE, sacrament meetings, and HFPE for a month. The last time I did the FHE, these two old ladies got in a fight because I told them they should sing along and one of the ladies wasn't. It was scary.

Tonight was the "primary's" night for FHE at the care center. The lady who was going to actually take primary children came down with the flu, so she asked me to go. I said sure. The FHE consisted of me saying the opening prayer and playing the piano for about 20-25 minutes. I took my Reader's Digest Christmas book and just turned the pages.

Only one lady screamed. Some sang along.

After it was over, Brother Smith (the only other non-care center person there) said the closing prayer and then told me I needed to shake hands with all of the people there and tell them Merry Christmas. I did. They told me I did a "bee-u-tiful job" and that the music was "very relaxing."

It's always a good experience to serve others. I'm just glad I didn't cause a fight this time.


Finals update:
3 Down, 3 to go! 2 tomorrow and and internet one due Friday.


Other updates:
**Did you see this . . . . I'm going to be an aunt again! Yippy!! I just wish she hadn't put up pictures of the pee sticks.

** Tomorrow we are going to the Body Worlds Exhibit. I'm a little worried.

** Saturday will be James' first experience with the Huber Family Progressive Party. In the 3 Christmases I have known him, he hasn't made it to one yet. He's worried. I told him not to be.

Finals Week!!! AHHHHHHH!!!

It's finals week at the U. James has 2 down and 3 to go, plus an internet one due Friday! Wish him luck! James, it will all be finished soon and your first semester of nursing school will be over and done. Hip Hip Hooray.

Also this week and last, I've been wrapping gifts at Grandma's house. She has lots of gifts. It is really fun! I think we just about finished tonight except for a few odds and ends.

Christmas is in 10 days. I still need to get a couple of gifts and I am waiting for two more packages to come in the mail. I hope they get here.

I don't have much else to blog about.

* * *

Later on . . .

It's about 11:00 p.m. now. I wrote this post earlier while sitting downstairs. James was upstairs studying. I decided it was time for me to go to bed, so I went upstairs to see how the studying was going . . .

Apparently it was going juszzzzzzzzzt finezzzzzzzzzzz!

Favorite Christmas Songs

My sister posted some of her favorite Christmas songs. She picked some good ones, but I decided to add to the list.





This isn't necessarily the best version, but Mel Torme did write the song and gets a little help here from Dorothy and toto.



This is THE best version of this particular song.



And my favorite Christmas song about bacon . . .

Army Weekend

James is in the Utah National Guard. Once a month he has an army weekend. He's tried to "shelter" me (in his words) from the guard and the strangeness of it, I guess. Yesterday, though, was a family day with spouse briefings. He said I didn't need to go, but I wanted to go and see what it was all about. We learned about the variety of benefits offered to veterans, family readiness, and financial planning. Here are some tidbits of the briefings.

James is "disabled." I knew that. He has a knee injury that happened in Iraq when he jumped down from a truck. He has filed the proper "medical" paperwork for this injury so that in the event (years down the road) that his knee needs more medical attention, the VA will cover it. He's on a medical "profile" which basically means he doesn't have to do the running portion of the his PT tests because it hurts really bad and makes his knee worse. That we knew. What didn't we know?

There are a variety of services reserved for veterans who are actually disabled in the sense that they cannot work or care for themselves and they need government assisstance. However, there are also a lot of benefits for any veterans who are "disabled" like James is, whether it be from a bullet wound or a messed up ankle from an army softball game. If we fill out a couple more forms, James is eligible to receive 20% off our on our home and vehicle property taxes. He can get a free lifetime national park pass as well as a free lifetime state park pass. He and I both can be buried for free at Camp Williams with a free brass headstone. Cool, huh!

Okay that's all I have to report.

Christmas a little early

As an early Christmas gift, James stole my rings and had them cleaned. They look pretty and very shiny! I like them!

Thanksgiving Weekend!

Wednesday
Amber's wedding party at Maddox's in Brigham City

Thursday - Gobble Gobble! Turkey Day!

--Stopped by Aunt Leeann's to briefly visit the Petersen clan and see her newly remodeled, beautiful kitchen!

--Contintued north to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Binggeli's.

Friday

--4:00 a.m. wake up call and off to the races for black friday. We headed to Sears and loaded up on some door buster tools that James wanted and then continued to drive around and watch all the crazy people stand in LOOOOOOnnng lines everywhere. The only other thing we bought besides tools at Sears was yarn at Michaels and breakfast at McDonalds. Pretty exciting! I have never done this before and don't know that I will ever do it again. I like to sleep in!

--Put up lights and Christmas decorations around our house.

--Went with Willie to see Madagascar 2.

--Went for burgers with mom and dad.

Saturday

-- Decorated Grandma's house for Christmas.

-- Went to see the lights with Annie & family, Melinda & family, and "Team Yellow Ninja Purple Penguins!" Go TEAM!

PG-13 Post Ahead

Today we went to Amber's wedding celebration. I needed a new pair of white stockings (nylons, pantyhose, tights, long socks, whatever you call them) to wear that didn't have a run in them. I stopped at Walgreens and picked up the $1.49 pair. When I got home and got ready to go, I put them on and thought they'd work just dandy.

Well I know I shouldn't talk about mormon underwear on my blog, but today I wore silky bottoms. I don't care for the silkies as much as other fabrics, but that's what was next in my drawer, in the dark this morning. Apparently there are no warning labels on either the stockings or the mormon underwears that the two shalt never meet. There was not enough friction between the two to hold up the socks. Long story short . . . the stupid socks would not stay up!!

I'm not just talking about a little stretching and sagging over the course of the night. I'm talking about I-can-feel-them-slide-down-as-I-am-standing-here kind of sliding. I think at one point the "crotch" of the socks was just above my knees. (Good thing my dress was long.) I had to go into the bathroom several times to adjust, but the problem just kept getting worse. Aggggghhhhhh!! Moral of he story: Next time, don't wear the silkies or don't buy the Walgreen's $1.49's.

Time for a new post!

I gave up on NaBloPoMo a while ago, but it is still time for a new post. Here are some thoughts on today.

• We have a new little cousin, Hyrum, in our family. He looks really cute here and here. I'm looking forward to meeting him.
• Sharing time today is on being thankful, but what I would really like to do is teach them how to behave in primary. We had an out of control primary activity yesterday. Grrrrr . . . . The kids are bad. The parents send their nursury-aged kids and thinks its free babysittng for an hour. The kids want to take the gifts home that we were making for their teachers. Plus, the only time they lined up quietly and neatly was when it was time for the treat. Grrrrr . . .
• This week: Monday we are going to see our cousin Travis perform in "Joseph" at Hunter High. Wednesday is the celebration dinner for Amber's wedding. I'm looking forward to some good food at Maddox's. Thursday is Thanksgiving. I don't really care for turkey much at all, but holidays are always good.
• Oh . . . and did you see that football game? When Willie got home, he said, "It was beautiful!." . . . whatever that means. I just thought it was lovely that the Tabernacle Choir was wearing RED and WHITE this morning for their broadcast! YES! GO UTES!

My brother sings

I called my brother this afternoon on my way home from work. I do this almost every day and I generally wait for one of several responses on the other end. The most "normal" response occurs if there are friends over. If that is the case, I get short, one syllable responses in an exceptionally deep voice. "Hey." "Sure." "Yeah." I can generally tell if someone is there and I can ask if they are behaving themselves.

Sometimes I call and all I get is "Meow."

"How was school today?"

"Meow."

"Do you have a lot of homework tonight?"

"Meow. Meow."

Today I called and I got another fairly normal response.

. . . ring . . . . ring

"Bring me a snack!"

"Hello. How are you today? No, I am not bringing you a snack."

"Please bring me a snack?"

"Hi Willie. No, I am not bringing you a snack."

"Pleeeeeeaaaase?"

. . . this conversation continued for a while until it changed into something I haven't heard before. He started singing the Bonanza theme song. "Ba ba da ba ba da ba ba buh!" After a minute or so, it changed to Godspell. "Pre-e-e-pare ye the way of the Lord."

He wouldn't shut up. He continued forever. I listened for quite some time until I finally just said, "Willie, I'm hanging up now."

"Pre-e-e-pare ye the way of the Lord."

"Bye Willie. I'm really hanging up now."

"Pre-e-e-pare ye."

"Ok. I'm hanging up now."

"Pre-e-e"

Click.

I guess he was okay. He never did say. At one point he stopped singing to tell me that he got suspended for "play fighting" at school. Yeah right. He wouldn't dare. And if he did, the last thing he'd be doing would be singing to me on the phone. He'd probably be sitting in a corner somewhere with his behind black and blue. He is definitely a crazy boy, but we like him. We'll keep him!

Follow the Prophet!

Disclaimer: My husband James does not see the humor in the following post and feels that it is a bit inappropriate on my part. I disagree and am posting it anyway. However, if you agree with his opinion, please take this post with a grain of salt. It is intended to be funny, not offensive.


Today we were at my cousin Chloe's missionary farewell after party. I was outside when she and three of her friends were attempting to take a picture of themselves as a group. I offered to help and they said that would be appreciated.

There was so much obnoxious, gleeful giggling that I asked, "Are you ALL BYU coeds?"
They pointed to one girl in a striped sweater vest and quickly chided her, "She's not."
I reached over I gave her a high five, but the others were not pleased at my action.

As I started to so kindly take their group picture, one of the other members of the group felt impelled to say to me, "Some of us find the light and others do not."

I was a little irritated, wondering why I said I would take the picture in the first place. I responded.
"Some of us follow the prophet and others do not!"

Take that you little twinkie eater!!


Here are just a very mere few of my fellow alums!

... on a side note . . . Did you see my mama's post the other day! Pretty cool!

GO UTES!!

I gave up on NaBloPoMo

I just haven't made it. I can't post every day. It is physically and mentally impossible. I FAIL! Oh well. I think I'll survive . . .

Spirit = Puke

I've got spirit! Yes I do! I've got spirit! Watch me PUKE!

Today was the Spirit Bowl Assembly at Murray High School. Cyprus never really got into this much during my days there, although I often heard of things like it from my parentals. Basically, it is a rigged assembly full of strange and mostly disgusting contests, lots of who-can-scream-the-loudest, and a point scoring system which awards sophomores, juniors, and senior points for each contest, resulting in only seniors having any points at the end of the assembly.

I was not on "assembly duty," but I decide to drop by for 15-20 minutes to see what was going on and to get a taste of Murray culture. In that short time, here is what I saw.

• 3 students duct-taped to the bleachers, hanging about a foot off the ground
• 3 couples, each standing barefoot in adjacent storage tubs filled with ice, while biting one side of an orange, supporting it between two people
• teacher trivia challenge (yeah, that was really exciting)
• egg launching
• 3 students chugging a gallon of food coloring dyed milk. Of course, puking was grossly involved here and no one even finished the whole gallon.
• Fear factor. Spin a wheel to pick five things to blend up in soy milk and drink. The items on the spinner included sardines, pig's feet, mustard, peanut butter, onions, chile peppers, mushrooms . . . I don't know what else. One poor kid had to chew his. Yes, this also involved puking.

Overall, the assembly was well-behaved, well-organized, and moved quickly. I will NEVER understand, however, why anyone would voluntarily vomit to show your school pride. Can you explain this?

Happy Veterans Day

Today I celebrated Veteran's Day by going to get the mail . . . twice!

When there was still nothing in the mailbox the second time, I remembered that it was indeed Veteran's Day. I do appreciate the veterans and think that it is important to remember this day. I'm sorry I didn't do a very good job of that this year.

I don't think my own veteran did much, either. I guess I should tell him thanks. THANKS! And, thank you to the other two veterans I am related to, also!

Today

Today was Grandma Petersen's funeral. It was a very nice, peaceful service and a beautiful day. All who participated in the program did a nice job. I'm sure my Grandma would have been proud of all of us!

We love you and will miss you dearly, but we're happy to have the knowledge that we will see you again.

My Mom and Dad at the Cemetery.

LeeAnn, Karen, and Aunt Deloris at the Cemetery.

Pallbearers

Best looking Pallbearers

Uncle Bob, Aunt Deloris, and Paul


Many of my family members wrote great tributes to Grandma on their blogs this last week. I started to do that Monday night, but I just couldn't get any words out. I have tried to go visit Grandma at Highland Care once a week since she's been there, but I felt really bad that I did not make it that one more time before she left. I don't feel bad that I didn't see her the weekend she was going, but I feel bad I didn't see her in the days before. I can't worry about that now. I just need to focus on all of the times I did visit. Oh well.

The last time I talked with Grandma was two weeks before she passed. Our conversation, for the most part, was pretty typical. I asked her for advice on what refreshments I should plan for my sister-in-law's bridal shower. We agreed that just simple cookies or brownies would be the best. She asked how James was doing in school. She asked how Murray was. She was concerned with some decisions James and I had recently made concerning his job and she was worried whether we would be okay or not. We talked about her house. I told her James' sister had taken her old, gold couch and was much appreciative. Grandma told me that the old gold couch was a very nice couch that she had custom built. It wasn't just any couch from any furniture store. It was hand built on a sturdy frame and was made to last a long time.

I also worked out the plans for a "special project" that Grandma and I were going to do. She was a little overwhelmed with the task and didn't know whether or not she could do it, but she thought that it was a good idea, was glad I had come up with it, and said she was willing to try. She asked me to put it in her closet so that if any other visitors came, it would be put away. As it turns out, she didn't quite get to the project in the two short weeks she had left. I had my dad bring it home from the care center. I'm not sure what to do now with it, but I'll try to come up with something.

As we talked, I hadn't even noticed the time. When I finally looked at the clock, it was 4:25. Grandma went to dinner promptly at 4:15, so I felt bad we hadn't been watching the clock. I walked her into the dining room and told her goodbye and gave her a hug. As I left I told her I would see her later. I heard her ask the woman across the table from her what was for dinner. The woman shouted, "Split pea soup." Grandma said, "Not again! We just had that yesterday."

Grandma, I guess you don't need to worry about the soup anymore.

Go Utes!

I generally don't post about football unless it's little league, but . . .

way to go UTES!

I can't believe they pulled that off. Way to go Louie Sakoda! Way to got TCU kicker who missed two short-range field goals! Way to go last minute touch down! Way to go Utah defense!

In other news . . I'm not sure what I think about the black uniforms. I kind of like red!

From the Associated Press:

No. 10 Utah rallies to beat No. 11 TCU
By DOUG ALDEN – 17 minutes ago
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Brian Johnson threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to Freddie Brown with 47 seconds left to cap an 80-yard drive that kept No. 10 Utah's BCS hopes alive with a 13-10 victory over No. 11 TCU on Thursday night.
The Utes, who improved to 10-0 for the second time in school history, were swarmed at midfield by the fans who made Rice-Eccles Stadium shake when Johnson rallied Utah to its first touchdown and saved the Utes' postseason hopes.
Johnson threw for 230 yards for the Utes (10-0, 6-0 Mountain West), who recovered on defense after allowing TCU to gain 202 yards in the first quarter.
The Horned Frogs (9-2, 6-1) missed two field goal attempts in the fourth quarter either of which would have put TCU up by seven.

Orpah Follow Up

Here is the video of Orpah. If you don't want to watch the whole acceptance speech, wait until the whole movie loads, then fast forward to around 4:35.

Yes, I am doing this at school. I know I shouldn't. My students are taking a quiz. I sat down to do my attendance, but the program is down at the moment.)

7, 5, then a lot more

I went to vote at around 6:50 a.m. I was worried that with all I needed to do today, I wouldn't make it to the polls after school. I was #7 in line. Of course, we couldn't vote until 7:00 a..m., but they let us all verify that we were on the list. Two people in front of me were ousted. One man was at the wrong precinct, but I don't know what happened to the others. By the time 7:00 a.m. came, there were at least 30-40 people behind me. Wow! I think that's pretty cool that regardless of who they voted for, there were that many people excited about their civic duty . . . at 7:00 a.m.

YES WE CAN!

As I'm watching Obama's acceptance speech, the camera keeps flashing Orpah. Who in the world is that strange, ugly white man she is hanging on?

Sad Day

My Grandma passed away this morning.
She was a good Grandma.
I love her and will miss her very much.

November, but not much to say.

Here is another Elliott video.

From Elliott Video

NaBloPoMo #1

It is Halloween Night, but it is now after midnight, so NaBloPoMo has begun. Happy Halloween!
I've been making cookies for a wedding shower tomorrow. I still need to frost them, but they are done baking. I was going to watch the Alfred Hitchcock movie, "Vertigo," but it looked to serious for me (as a Hitchcock should be) and I didn't think I'd be able to follow it at this hour.

I'm a little behind on blogging, but I got to tend Elliott on Wednesday. Here is a video.

From Elliott Video