Christmas Eve

This year Christmas Eve was with my family. We had planned to go sledding during the day, but it was too dang cold outside, so we opted to just hang out in the warm house instead. I taught my brother Zac how to wrap his presents, tried my hand at Halo (I'm still terrible), watched a little "Monk", etc. Nothing too exciting, but it was a good day! My mom always has the prettiest tree; she spends days and days decorating and getting everything ready and her house always looks great. This year she got her tree flocked with a blue-tinted flock to go with her blue decorations. It looked pretty cool.


My mom and Bryan made a yummy Christmas Eve dinner: salad, ham, potatoes, pie...YUM! Afterwards we got to open presents!


This year for gifts, we got my mom a couple of Richard Paul Evan's books for her collection and My Redeemer Lives, a really good book about the Savior's last days paired with pictures from various artists. I read it before I wrapped it up and now I want a copy for myself (birthday coming up, hint hint ;) We got Bryan a box of goodies from Hickory Farms.


Brandt and I were definitely spoiled this year. Everyone got a pair of PJ's and then all the married kids got portable DVD players. Every year we draw names amongst the kids and this year Brandt and I had Fran and Liz. We got them Have a little Faith and "Miss Congeniality" on DVD (that movie never gets old!). Sydney had Brandt this year and she got him "Remember the Titans" which he's been wanting for awhile now. Kim had me and I got Bath and Body Works lotion and shower gel.


The big family gift from Mom and Bryan this year was a new flat screen for the living room, which considering that the other TV was as old as the hills and couldn't pick up any stations anymore, it was a great gift! Bryan got the "Planet Earth" DVD set so we watched part of that after we got done with presents and Brandt had a great time imitating the British narrator and making everyone laugh.


All in all it was a great day. We enjoyed being with the fam, eating lots of good food, and opening presents!!! Can't wait for next year :)

Book Review: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel Series

The Alchemyst, The Magician, and The Sorceress
By Michael Scott

I decided to do a review of all three books at once, because my feelings about each of them was about the same. I love getting recommendations from others on what books I should read - thanks Jill for suggesting this series to me!

A little background for those of you who haven't heard about these books. These three books are the first in a 6-book series about twins Sophie and Josh Newman and there adventures with the immortal Nicholas Flamel. If you click on the picture of the books above, it will take you to Shelfari's summary of the first book, which explains it a lot better than I can.

I have mixed feelings on this series. I liked that Scott uses all real people (with the exception of Sophie and Josh), places, events, etc. to build his fictitious story (similar to Dan Brown with The da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons). You can look up all of Scott's characters on Wikipedia and learn more about them, and the same is true for the locations that they travel. I thought it was fun reading about things I had never heard of before or at least had never studied (i.e.The Catacombs of Paris, Stonehenge, Nicholas Flamel, Alcatraz Island, Billy the Kid). Scott uses these real people and places and twists them a bit to fit into his story which was really cool how he made it all fit together. However, towards the middle of the third book, it started to get a little rediculous to me. I'm not a huge fan of fantasy, so consider that when I say that it all was a little much for me - a little too far-fetched (yes, granted Harry Potter is completely out there and I love that series - I'm not sure what makes that series special).

All in all, the storyline is great, but I was never drawn in completely - they were a bit predictable and it wasn't a series that I just couldn't put down - like Harry Potter, Twilight, and Dan Brown's books. The suspense just wasn't there for me I guess. However, they are good enough that I plan to read the other three books when they come out (The Necromancer comes out in May) so I can see what happens to everyone. That is, if Jill will let me borrow her books again ;)

Next Projects:
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (one of my Christmas presents!!)
AND
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (audiobook on my new iPod! - another suggestion from Jill - thanks Jill!)

Happy Holidays!

I thought I'd do a post to catch up with what Brandt and I have been up to before the holidays come and I get behind again. We haven't been up to a whole lot so far this month, at least nothing too exciting. Just hanging out and getting ready for Christmas, which is a lot of work in itself!

My temporary job in Idaho Falls ended a few weeks ago. The girl I was filling in for decided to come back a couple of weeks early, which was a little disappointing for me, but what do ya do? It has been an awesome experience and I have learned so much. I was sad to leave all of the great people I worked with; they were so sweet to me - my last week there they surprised me with a HUGE bouquet of flowers to say goodbye. I'll miss them, but maybe in the future if they are in need of another hygienist I'll get to work with them again.

Lucky for me though, another office in Burley needed a fill-in so I've been able to pick up a few extra days that I wasn't expecting, so that's been nice. Maybe I'll just be a permanent fill-in girl?! Whatever - I won't complain and just take what I can get. I've decided that I need to work, because without it I am quite lazy. I can't even remember what I've been doing the last couple of weeks to stay busy. I need to find myself a hobby.

As for Brandt, he is working hard at Lowe's and keeping up with his millions of different hobbies. He's been considering going back to school to get his master's degree in natural resources - that way he could work for the BLM or National Park Service or something along those lines. I can't believe he didn't think of this sooner - it's right up his alley and sounds perfect for him. So we'll see how it goes.

Other than that, we've just been getting ready for Christmas: decorating, baking, shopping, wrapping, and avoiding Wal Mart at all costs. It's been great fun. Usually sometime Thanksgiving weekend we go up in the mountains with Brandt's family and cut down a Christmas tree. They are always really scrawny, Charlie Brown trees, but we lovingly decorate them - being careful not to decorate them too much for fear the weight will knock the tree over. But they have always been tough little guys - and every year, they have grown while sitting in our warm apartment and sprout new, bright green needles on the ends of the branches. It's pretty cool to see.

Well this year was quite a different experience. We didn't have time to go up and get a tree, so we used Brandt's excellent employee discount and purchased a beautiful, full, thick, luscious Douglas Fir from Almighty Lowe's. So we lovingly wrapped it up and placed it in the Blazer to take home and decorate. Brandt, of course, thought the occasion warranted the use of his Dremel tool that he got for Christmas last year. So he pulled that baby out (along with his nifty safety glasses) and started going to town - as you can see from the sparks in the picture on the left. He thought our star needed some tweeking, and then he thought he would just drill a little hole in the top of the tree so the star would sit better. Needless to say, he had a great time!

And it was a beautiful tree, and other than all of the spiders that came out of it, I was happy with our purchase (see, I guess we'd never experienced spiders in our tree before, because when you get your tree from the mountains, they're all hibernating? Or frozen and dead - who knows?) However, a couple of weeks later, the tree just shriveled up and died. Just like that - no warning that it was sick or dehydrated. One minute it was fine, and the next it was gone. I should have taken a picture of it before I had Brandt return it, but believe me it was a crispy critter! You could just snap the branches off they were so dry. Anyway, come to find out, they shipped the wrong "breed" of trees and this particular type of tree does not do well in our climate (weird, cuz I thought Idaho was the fir capitol of the world - obviously not). It was fun while it lasted, although next year I think we will revert back to our Charlie Brown tree - either that or go fake and get a pine -scented candle and trick ourselves into believing it's real...

Nonetheless, we are not completely treeless - thanks to Brandt's "I can build that - we don't need to buy it" attitude, we still have this little guy in our kitchen:
He's a humble little tree, and every year we have to glue different parts of him back together, but it's fun. That's it for now...tomorrow we will head to Bur-town for all the festivities. We hope all of our readers have a Merry Christmas and a great New Year!

Book Review: Have a Little Faith

Have a Little Faith

By Mitch Albom

I've never read a Mitch Albom book before, though he has some pretty popular ones out there (i.e. Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven). But I saw this at Wal-Mart a couple of weeks ago and thought it looked like a fun, easy read so I picked it up.

It's a true story about the author and two very different, but also very similar, men: one is an elderly rabbi (Jewish) that has asked Albom to deliver his eulogy when he dies and the other is an inner-city drug-dealer-turned-pastor (Christian) with a broken-down church with a hole in the roof to preach in. This book is about Albom's interactions with these two "men of the cloth" and the life lessons that he learns from them.

At first I was skeptical. I didn't like the fact that Albom was profiting from these life stories, like he was taking advantage of their friendships, and I didn't like the light in which he painted them sometimes. But the more I read, the more I enjoyed it, and the more I came to understand Albom's writing style - yes, sometimes he writes things that aren't the nicest way you could word something about an individual - but he is being honest about the way he personally felt at that time, and I think you need to be honest in your writing if you want it to be believable.

I would recommend this book to anyone. It's not that long - if you have three hours or so to just sit and read you could probably read the whole thing in one sitting. I like books that inadvertently make me think about my own life, my values, etc. This was one of those books. It is interesting to me that though I belong to a different church than the two discussed in the book and the specifics of our religions are very different, our belief in how to treat others, the importance of service, and the worth of souls, is the same.

Because of this book and The Hole in the Roof foundation that Albom started, donations from around the world came in and they have finally been able to repair the roof. Construction began on November 23 of this year and a celebration of its completion took place just a few days ago on December 9th. There is a short video on the church's website of the occasion that you can view by clicking on the picture of the famous church at the right.

Next Project: The Sorceress (third book in the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series)

Turkey Trot and Thanksgiving Feast

Ahh the joys of blogging.

To some it may seem insanity to run 3.1 miles on an early Thursday morning at the end of November, not only run mind you, but pay hard earned American dollars to do so. But, for the 700 or so participants of this year's annual Mini-Cassia Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot it is about more than that. What that more is I am sure varies by the person. For some it is the thrill of competition, for others it is about the good cause and money raised, for others it is about simply finishing. I believe Dani and I fall somewhere between simply finishing and the thrill of competition, but a good cause is nice. But, we must start with the beginning...

So, about a month and a half ago, the wifey found out about this 5K race held every Thanksgiving Day. A fun run I believe they call it. Now there is an oxymoron. Fun-Run? When is running ever fun? Running is a fight-or-flight mechanism programmed deep into our brains to protect us from things that could hurt us, things like bears, police, raging bulls, and Richard Simmons. Anyway, Dani and I decided this would be a good event and motivation to get in shape. So the training began. The going was slow but eventually we were able to get up to a point that we could run the distance without having to walk. We often had to run in the cold frigidness of night because that was when we could run together after work. But that was OK, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, or perhaps weaker, oh well. The looming day grew ever nearer and we gathered more and more excited. Eventually the time was upon us and we headed to Burley the night before Thanksgiving. You were encouraged to pick up your racing number, free t-shirt, etc. the night before in order to ease congestion on the busy morning of. Thus was our plan. However the address they provided was rather obscure. We tried Google and we tried Mapquest. We tried the globe and we tried GPS. None provided the solid directions we sought, but undaunted we thought we could "figure it out". Bad idea. we ended up going way too far to the east, and then way too far to the west. Eventually we wound up on some old dirt road driving out into the unknown wilderness with a boding feeling of fear and what may become of us. Was this Turkey Trot some myth devised to get unsuspecting travelers to journey this old dirt road only to have their cars found abandoned up on cinder blocks and never to be heard from again? We should have suspected so, after all it was called a "fun-run". Ridiculous. Well after some phone calls we realized that we had passed the place a long time ago and thus headed back towards the civilization from whence we had come.

All was well after that and after a good night's rest the big morning was upon us. The time was close and so everyone lined up at the start. The countdown began and Bang! we were off. Well sort of, because of the massive crowd it took awhile to finally get out to a decent pace. Eventually we got going and things went well. Dani and I separated and each tried to make our own best time. I kept a steady pace and thanks to some "motivational" music (aka Eminem "Till I Collapse" - I found it rather fitting as that is what I wanted to do) I was able to do well considering it being my first distance run ever. As for Dani she had a nice run as well; she thought there was a lot more to go when she came around the last turn and thus was pleased to know the finish was close but didn't quite pace it as she had hoped. At the finish line we were happy to enjoy the sweet taste of victory and knowing that we had completed our task. Overall it ended up being quite the fun-run!

Here's Dani chugging along coming up to the finish!

Here we are after the race along with Dani's cousin Amy.

And here we are with Lucky the Turkey

Now we just need to find another race to keep us motivated and in shape. Dani's time ended up being 34:16 and mine was somewhere around 28:30 (not sure as I forgot to look at the clock while crossing the finish line). Not bad for our first race. We stuck around to watch everyone else come in and see the presentation of awards. They also had a drawing and gave away a brand new mountain bike and a pair of running shoes. We weren't the winners of anything cool, but we did get free vitamin water and fruit just for participating!

After a good run we enjoyed the Thanksgiving Holiday...

It was nice, we journeyed to the land of the in-laws, mine that is. We went to Dani's home and had a good time. The morning and afternoon were spent making preparations. The kitchen was all a hubbub. Trying to let in some holiday cheer, I decided to turn on the glorious event that is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Alright, it's not that glorious but it was nice to have some holiday tunes in the background. While the women cooked, the men headed downstairs to pay homage to the mighty X-Box and celebrate this day of thanks by condemning alien foes to a bountiful butt whooping! At least Dani's brothers did. I made a measly attempt with my pink controller (thanks again guys), but always seemed to end up in the negative. That is my kill-to-death ratio (I believe the gaming world calls it) was always heavy on the death side, and not the good kind in that I died more than I dealt death. In other words it would have been better for my team had I and my pink controller coward and hid from others rather than go out and get shot. Oh well. What's the fun in that?

Anyway, eventually the feast was ready and we emerged from the darkness of the basement with bloodshot eyes and cramped thumbs eager for sustenance. We were not disappointed. The food was grand and delicious, many thanks to the cooks. Here are some pics:

Here is half the table...

here is the other half....

here is the cheesiest half of the table...

and here is the most important part of the table. I LOVE pumpkin-ish things: pies, breads, cookies, cakes and shakes. Dani made this specially for me, the picture doesn't even do it justice, it was delicious!

That was the gist of our Thanksgiving Holiday. The rest of the day was spent napping and playing with family until we had to journey back home in order for me to work bright and early on Black Friday.

New Moon!

Of course I had to go see New Moon as soon as I could. As I've said before, I was disappointed by the first movie, but the trailer for this one looked pretty intense so I was pretty excited for it to come out. So on one of my weekend trips to Burley, a bunch of my family got together to go see it. It was interesting that out of the eight of us in our group, only two or three had actually read the book, so it was fun watching the movie with them and seeing what they thought.

And now for my movie review:

WOW!! This movie was AMAZING! Sooo Sooo SOOO much better than the first one. I was nervous about how the animation would be with the wolves and how they would do it without making it look cheesy, but I thought they did a great job. And I don't know what it was about the characters, but even their acting seemed better and more believable. I liked Kristen Steward and Rob Pattinson a lot more in this film compared to Twilight. And Taylor Lautner!...enough said.

I also liked the screenplay to New Moon better than Twilight; it seemed to stay truer to the book. However there were a couple of parts they changed and a couple of cheesy parts that I didn't like - but not enough for me to not enjoy it. I couldn't believe how fast the time went by - I easily could have sat there for another hour and not have noticed. I've heard that the next movie should be coming out next June so that will be exciting - not too long to wait!

So now I have a dilemna: Team Edward or Team Jacob? I've ALWAYS been Team Edward before, but now I'm just undecided. Good thing it's not a make it or break it decision right? :) Here's a pic of some of us in attendance that blessed night: Jill, Me, Syd, Jamie, Kelsi and not pictured: Linds, Tysi, and my momma (she sure got a kick out of it!)

(Photo courtesy of Jill - thanks Jill!)

Good Ol' Family Bonding

November has been a busy month for us. My sister, Lindsay, and her daughter, Katelyn, were here visiting from Chicago for three weeks. Sadly, I had to work (actually I shouldn't say sadly, because I feel very blessed to have a job at the moment), but I drove to Bur-town every weekend that they were here so I could spend as much time as possible with them. We had lots of fun! We went out to eat, played TONS of games, went shopping, watched movies, went to the movies (NEW MOON!!! Don't worry, this event will have its own special post), taught Kate some of Michael Jackson's "signature" moves (Linds wasn't too thrilled about that part of her visit), and all in all had a great time. I miss them already. Here are some pics from our activities.

Me and Brandt with the little stinker at Syd's basketball game. Kate likes
to put her arms around two people and say "Cheeeeeeese!"

Linds, Kate, and Brandt playing "Ticket to Ride"

Kate and Grandma singing "Popcorn Popping"

Aunt Nada, Brandt, me, Jill, and Linds playing "Five Crowns"
(photo courtesy of Jill) This was my first time playing this
game and it is tons of fun.

The Girls

The whole family; this is a terrible pic, but due to the fact that my
brothers are retarded and like to screw up photos, this is the
best-looking one of about 20 that we took.

Me, Kate, and Grandma at Cafe Rio. YUM!

Me and Kate sharing a popsicle and playing Phase 10
(I wasn't kidding when I said we played LOTS of games!)

And Rex - All of our playing was a little too much excitement for him!