Christmas Past

I was going through some of my old pictures, and I found the ones from me and Trevor's first Christmas as a married couple in 2006. It made me feel so much better about what I was sure to be a trashy Christmas for eachother on Thursday. We've had worse; we can handle it.

And the more I think about it, the more I remember we found gifts this year that really mean something, so I'm feeling pretty good now.

Ugly Sweater Parties

I know, I'm so out of the loop. But I just read about this awesome thing called an Ugly Sweater Party :) I want to do one.

This girl I know has a pretty funky blog and she put up a picture from what I think was her Ugly Sweater Party. Look see http://thisismablogbrittany.blogspot.com/2008/12/happy-christmas.html. I sure hope it's okay to share her blog... Maybe if I shower her with compliments she won't mind. She is pretty good at photo taking and creating on her own. You will like her.

Ugly Sweater Parties
December 14, 2008 by clander
Over the course of a calendar year, white people have ample opportunities for themed parties and drinking: Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day, and Cinco De Mayo are the most popular officially sanctioned holidays. But that does not mean that white people shy away from creating their own impromptu themes for parties and evenings- mustache party! ’90s prom! Designing Women!
During the month of December, white people face an especially difficult challenge. This is the time of year when parties and drinking are most appropriate, but the most obvious theme of Christmas must be avoided. This is because Christmas forces Christianity upon others, and though their ancestors had no problem with this activity, modern white people are quite disgusted by the idea. Hanukkah parties are fun, but a bit too exclusive, and a Kwanzaa Party requires an enormous amount of physical, mental, and ironic labor that can only be done by the most elite of white people.
White people needed to find a party that was completely without religious affiliations, but still connected enough to the idea of Christmas that they could serve eggnog and hot toddies. The answer: ugly sweater parties.
These parties feature festive drinks, Christmas music by Sufjan Stevens, and most importantly, intentionally hideous sweaters. These ugly sweaters provide white people with an invisible shield that protects them from any criticism that might emerge if any Christianity accidentally slips into the evening.
“Hey man, I love that Burl Ives song, but um, you let Silent Night slip into the mix. That’s kind of awkward because, you know, the Crusades?”White person points to sweater and makes a funny face.Order is restored.
If you find yourself invited to one of these parties, you must begin your preparations immediately. Craftier white people have been searching used clothing stores since last Christmas, and so you should not expect to find anything of significant ironic value. Instead, your best hope is to see if any of your family members have an old sweater lying around.
“Hey man, nice sweater. It’s so ugly.”“Yeah, when my family first got to this country we had to shop at Goodwill, this is the first one my father bought to get him through his first winter here. Good thing they didn’t have these parties back then, right? He would have died.”“Geez, man, I’m sorry, you can cut in line for egg nog.”

To do

Chelsea inspired me to write down my goals. There's a lot of rather large happenings around me lately, and I want to take a minute to focus my brain on me and my priorities.

1. Pay off this one loan we have with a certain relative BEFORE summer comes. This seems like a long time when you think about it one way, but if thought of the other way, it seems short. Got it?


2. Find a way for either me or Trevor to start school again. I'm putting no time line on this because I have no idea--and I hate goals I can't accomplish.


3. This one's an addendum to goal #2. If it is me who goes back to school, I want to find a way for me to USE what I'm schooling for. See, I want to be a stay at home mom, and an occupation doesn't really fit into that too well. Besides Mary Kay. Goal #2 and goal #3 are very long term goals. Maybe I shouldn't put them on this list, as they will be on it too long for me to enjoy it.


4. Go 2 weekends in a row without spending over $20 total. (And then NOT spend more the next weekend to compensate for not spending a lot the other two weekends.)


5. Starting in January (haha) get to church 4 out of 4 weeks. INCLUDING Relief Society. It's a warzone there. (I'm already feeling a pinch here...)


6. Finish reading Robert Jordan's book 1 of The Wheel of Time by January 15th. Trevor asked me to read it. I agreed, with a slight assumption that I would be able to use it later to persuade him to read Twilight--if nothing else, Midnight Sun. This is a very very uneven exchange--The Wheel of Time is 12 intense novels long; Twilight is jr. high level reading and 4 books long.


7. Get Trevor to read Twilight. (Okay, I know that's not a realistic goal to put on MY list.)


8. Follow THE budget.


9. Make something crafty to give away. Soon.


10. And to make it an even 10...Read scriptures and pray every night for 2 weeks.
    

I think that gives me a good range of goals to accomplish. Some are very immediate and short term, others are more long term. I wish I had them split into two lists: long term and short term. Oh well.

Oh darn, I thought of another important one. Let's call this one 7.5 because #7 doesn't count

7.5. Dwell on reasons I love Trevor and think of ways to improve our relationship or be kinder to eachother every night before prayer. I think every one should do this with one person.

Woot!

Trevor's Early Present

These are the place settings Trevor got me.

Christmas Fixin's

Here's our tree this year.

We miraculously got some lights to go up around the dining room table.

I tried to cram as much stuff onto the lazy susan as possible.

We put these up every year and light them. They were Trevor's family's when he was younger and we inherited them (not sure if anyone else knows that :)...)

I got this advent calendar this year. It's the opposite of the other one we have. I like to see how many days UNTIL Christmas, not just how many days have passed since December started. I like the candy cane :)

We got some window cling things and put them on our mirror.

I love our tree way too much. It has pine cones!

We made gingerbread men. We gave all the ones away that were decorated nicely before taking pictures. They taste good no matter what though.

Way too long, and December thus far.

It's been way too long. So much has happened, but I don't really feel like recapping everything. As of today the holidays are equally good and bad. I'm sure all of the next few sentences are going to seem random to everyone, but .. .oh well. Money is a horrible notion and I'll forever hate it (because I know I'll never have enough of it to love it). I thought this holiday season was going to be one like we've never been able to experience yet... nope. We are very grateful we have enough to get things for our families though. I feel very blessed to have a family that we can celebrate Christmas with. I'm looking forward to the time on Christmas day when we can visit with everyone. Snow is scary and cold; but I hope it keeps snowing like this for Christmas. It'd be so entirely lame if it stopped snowing just in time for Christmas.

I've been delivering fresh French pastries to our clients for work for the last 2 days, and I still have 2 or 3 more days to go. I hope I can get it all done before Christmas Eve. They smell so good in the morning--and then I'm crammed into the car with them all day--very hard to resist :) Lucky for us though, yesterday we had some that I couldn't deliver...

I've missed Trevor a lot lately. He's been forced to work a rediculous amount the last few weeks. I guess with the holidays and all... He's supposed to be getting promoted to Assistant Manager, but who knows when that will actually happen. If you've never experienced inter-office politics, don't try. The Man only works in your favor if you don't deserve it. He's been working late almost every night. His band practice schedule has gotten all screwed up too because of it, but they still need to fit in 2 a week if possible. He's coming with me to deliver pastries today, and I'm SOOOOO looking forward to it. (The amount of "O"s in my "so" should tell you how excited I am; I haven't used multiple "O"s since, like, 8th grade.) We haven't been able to spend any quality time together--and the times we force it, we're both too tired because it's midnight. We have been eating lunch together as often as we can though--and it has really helped (although, it has NOT helped our budget... catch 22). You know, sometimes we don't get along, and we disagree on big things sometimes, but geeze, I love the man. A few weeks ago he brought home Christmas plates for my dining room table (I say MY dining room table because it IS mine. He knows it. I decorate it, and set it up nice. It makes me happy), with snowmen and penguins, and matching cups and placemats. He'd heard me mentioning that one day I wanted to be able to decorate my table for Christmas... such a sweetie. I bet none of you really knew Trevor has a soft spot. Sorry none of you get to see it as often as I do--but I don't feel that bad :) I get Trevor :) Ha ha! And a few days ago he started using extra smiley faces in his texts! Totally caught me off guard. He sometimes has used the regular smileys, like :) and frownies like :( But he's never gone beyond that. They always seemed just outside the bounds of normality for him. But then he sent me a :P ... HAHA! Did you seriously just stick your tongue out at me?! Before I got that text, I was always kind of annoyed at extravagant smileys. Somehow Trevor pulled it off and made it work though.

My time home alone has not been unproductive though. I used my time ever so wisely and read the Twilight series a few weeks ago. Highly important. I've said this before, but I can't believe how much I got sucked in. I'm a fan now. I know it's sort of a shallow silly story, but I really felt empowered and uplifted by it. It made me want to be a better spouse for Trevor and a much more selfless in all my interactions with people. Made me realize the importance of being with the one you love forever.

A'right. Happy Christmas everyone! Off to do more deliveries.

ugh

I can't believe I'm saying this, but HOLY CRAP. I'm like 3 chapters into New Moon and I think MY heart is getting ripped out. I hate this story.

Charleston

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Country

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Second Trip to Cedar

I had a spontaneous trip to Cedar to see the baby again with my mom last weekend. We got some pretty good pictures of her sleeping. She wasn't awake too much.

Trying to wake her up.

She has the longest fingers and feet!

Worm in your brain, anyone?

I think this speaks for itself... But just in case, wash your hands :)

Sweet 16

Directions:Once you've been tagged, you have to write a note with 16 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end choose 16 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you.

1. I have Bugles (nacho cheese flavor) on my car floor because I secretly purchased them during my training for work without Trevor knowing, and in my haste to hide them, the bag ripped open and spilled every where. Guilty conscience?


2. I can hear the lady upstairs at my work when she burps after lunch, and when she curses after she hangs up the phone. I don't have the heart to tell her :)


3. I have to put my dishes in the cupboards just so, or I will freak out. They all have their own place. Including the silverware.


4. I like to watch Two and a Half Men on TV and I'm sad when I find out I've missed it. I even choose to watch it over the Simpsons sometimes...


5. I have to wash my feet every day when I get home from work because they are stinky :( I do it for you. (Darn genetics.)


6. I wake up 20 minutes later than I should every morning.


7. I have a hard time choosing favorite anythings.


8. Yesterday I found a new reason why I love Trevor, and a new way to explain it out loud.


9. I have way too much credit card debt, and this morning while I was in the shower, I was trying to think of ways I could rationalize it compared to our car debt. I couldn't even convince myself.


10. I've been to St. George once, I've been skiing once, and I've only been to see like 1 arch. Oh, and I live in Utah.


11. I use bar soap even though everyone tells me I need to use "something better" and find a fancy facewash.


12. I like history.


13. My handwriting is best when I write with Sharpie Ultra Fine Point markers or mechanical pencils. Not really sure why.


14. Sometimes I forget my multiplication tables--or I mix them up. This really aggravates me.


15. I love to scrapbook but I rarely get to it because of the mess it makes. I want a room for it with a huge table.


16. I like grammar.

Wow. That was harder than I thought it would be. And it ended up being sort of a secret telling session. Oh well. It was fun.

I'm going to tag different people for my blog and for Facebook, so...For my blog, I tag: My mom, Heidi, Joe, Amanda Edwards, Marye Eby, Cammi Ferr...uh... Olsen :), Jamie Dahl, Heather BUTT (I like your name), Megan Lindblom, Kyle Mantas, Chelsea DiFrancesco, Brittany Morrill, Travis Green, Holli Glover, Krista Eger, and Liz Green. And for the margin of people who won't do it even though I tagged you, I tag anyone else who reads this and wants to do it.

I didn't get anything spectacular done this weekend. I kept the apartment clean though.

I feel my purpose was fulfilled.

John Adams

I almost forgot, I was going to mention that we've been watching the HBO mini-series called "John Adams" for the last few weeks. It's not on TV, but we've rented the DVDs. It has been refreshing to remember why I love our country's history, and to remember the men who laid the foundation. They were just men. But they were able to do such incredible things. So many of them gave up what we consider necessity for the idea of liberty. I can't remember the line exactly, but one line in the movie that John Adams said really struck home for me. It was while he was in France as an ambassador, and he was having quite a culture shock. This French lady asked him why he's so obsessed with politics and war, and why he knows nothing about musique. His response was something like, I have to study war and politics so that my sons will have the freedom to study mathematics and physics, so that their sons will have the liberty to study culture and musique. It was inspiring to hear what could have been the thought process of someone so involved. I know John Adams may not have said those words exactly, but I know from reading of him and his works that he really was focused on getting his country to that ultimate place of freedom for his descendents. He knew it was a long road, and that he would have to give up a lot so that, not his sons, but their sons could have the freedom he wanted. It made me grateful for him and for all the founding fathers.

I've really enjoyed watching this series because it DOES show the mistakes and faults that each one of them had. It shows Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington--all doing great things, but struggling with being human along the way. Great stuff. I'd recommend watching it to everyone.

I usually never feel inspired by stories of women who are supposed to be inspirational. But the way that they've captured Abigail Adams' role as wife to John Adams through each of his different responsibilities, really is simply an inspiration. I love that they write eachother and tell eachother they need one another. I love that John trusts Abigail to keep him in his place, and that she trusts him to do what they believe in. I loved hearing about her trials while John was away establishing our country. She had children and a farm, as well as a husband far away. I know it sounds pretty typical as far as stories of revolutionary women go, but I've really felt that this series does a much better job at showing all sides of history. Much like a good book would, only this is visual :)

So go rent it. Paul Giamatti plays John Adams, and Laura Linney plays Abigail Adams. Co-produced by Tom Hanks, and based on David McCullough's book. Great stuff.

This week, and the visit.

Oh boy, this week has been crazy irregular. My boss went on a spontaneous trip to Europe for 10 days, so that left me here at the office with a bunch of boring time-filling tasks. But since Nate and Sarah had their baby, I decided to take advantage of the no-pressure week to go visit them in Cedar. Trevor's day off is Wednesday, so we just decided to go for the day and drive back Thursday morning in time for Trevor's shift to start at 1. Oi. That was a combination of really fun and really exhausting.

But we saw the baby, and she's everything a baby should be: perfect and cuddly, great-smelling and warm :) I was able to finish the present I've been working on for the baby just in the knick of time. It's a bib that I've cross-stiched a picture on to. Very cute...Not sure how practical it is, but still cute :) Isabella was adorable and eating like crazy the whole day. Sarah is still recovering, but it seems like they're all just so happy; which is great!

They have a really awesome dog name Lou/Jazz (they call her both). She made Trevor want a dog so bad :) We've wanted a dog for a really long time... one day. Hopefully sooner rather than later. Lou is really smart, and plays awesome games.

We decided it's time to sell our cell phones and get the ones we actually want. For some reason last time we went to get new ones, we got talked into buying our second choices because of the rebates... We've regretted it a bit ever since. Trevor traded with some kid who had a Palm Treo 750--so neat! It has a touch screen and is incredibly more high tech than any phone we've ever had. He's really happy with it. I haven't sold my old phone yet, but it seems like it will sell (if anyone's interested in a red LG Shine...). I was a little anxious to have the phone I wanted, and I found a really good deal so I just went for it...hoping my old phone will sell quickly. I got a red Blackjack II and I'm so loving it! Although, I'm sad I don't have Tetris anymore :(

Now we're heading into another weekend of Trevor working and me sitting at home waiting for him to get off. Joy. I need to finish up some stuff so hopefully I'll get around to that...

Isabella Susanne

Her name is Isabella Susanne Brooks. I finally found out the full name. We're going to visit them tomorrow!

Statement from the Church on Prop 8

After reading the Church's response to the outcome of proposition 8 in California, I felt very relieved and revitalized. Some of you may not hold the same beliefs as me, but I believe that marriage should be between a man and woman only, and I believe that the sanctity of marriage is more important than individual rights. I understand that others don't feel the same way, but that doesn't change my mind, and it doesn't mean I won't stand up for the things I believe in.

The Church's one statement, "...the Church does not object to rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights, so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the traditional family or the constitutional rights of churches," really clarified what I've been feeling when I read it. My protection of marriage has nothing to do with the people, but it is about protecting the integrity of family.

I just feel glad that the Church issued this statement. Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the negative things that are said about the church. It's easy to get caught up in the logic or emotion of the opposite side. But this statement has helped me remember that the Church loves everyone, member and non-member, and that they are not out to persecute, they are not out to deprive people of happiness. They are out to make true happiness easier to obtain and more holy.

Anyways, hope you enjoy the statement as much as I did.

November 5th, 2008 @ 1:03pm

Statement from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

Since Proposition 8 was placed on the ballot in June of this year, the citizens of California have considered the arguments for and against same-sex marriage. After extensive debate between those of different persuasions, voters have chosen to amend the California State Constitution to state that marriage should be between a man and a woman.
Voters in Arizona and Florida took the same course and amended their constitutions to establish that marriage will continue to be between a man and a woman.
Such an emotionally charged issue concerning the most personal and cherished aspects of life — family, identity, intimacy and equality — stirs fervent and deep feelings.
Most likely, the election results for these constitutional amendments will not mean an end to the debate over same-sex marriage in this country.
We hope that now and in the future all parties involved in this issue will be well informed and act in a spirit of mutual respect and civility toward those with a different position. No one on any side of the question should be vilified, intimidated, harassed or subject to erroneous information.
It is important to understand that this issue for the Church has always been about the sacred and divine institution of marriage — a union between a man and a woman.
Allegations of bigotry or persecution made against the Church were and are simply wrong. The Church's opposition to same-sex marriage neither constitutes nor condones any kind of hostility toward gays and lesbians. Even more, the Church does not object to rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights, so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the traditional family or the constitutional rights of churches.
Some, however, have mistakenly asserted that churches should not ever be involved in politics when moral issues are involved. In fact, churches and religious organizations are well within their constitutional rights to speak out and be engaged in the many moral and ethical problems facing society. While the Church does not endorse candidates or platforms, it does reserve the right to speak out on important issues.
Before it accepted the invitation to join broad-based coalitions for the amendments, the Church knew that some of its members would choose not to support its position. Voting choices by Latter-day Saints, like all other people, are influenced by their own unique experiences and circumstances. As we move forward from the election, Church members need to be understanding and accepting of each other and work together for a better society.
Even though the democratic process can be demanding and difficult, Latter-day Saints are profoundly grateful for and respect the ideals of a true democracy.
The Church expresses deep appreciation for the hard work and dedication of the many Latter-day Saints and others who supported the coalitions in efforts regarding these amendments.

The Business of Being Born

So...I finally watched the movie that my brother and mom had been asking me to watch for like 6 months. It's called "The Business of Being Born" and it's about having your baby at home with a midwife instead of in the hospital. I have to say to my mom and brother, go ahead and get your "I told you so" s out of your system now :) It was amazing; I'll admit it.

I've heard a lot of stories and information over the years about women's experiences in the hospital while giving birth. Some have been horror stories about complications they've had and how the doctor saved their lives. Some have been, well, plain stories about going to the hospital, getting induced and getting the epidural as planned and going home with the baby two days later. Some have been positive--the woman went to the hospital and 2 hours of labor later the baby slipped out with no help at all. Some stories have been a little more negative about the doctor's response to doing things the natural way. I've always wondered why it's so rare to hear about completely natural births. I would hear about women who were in labor for "too long" and got drugs to quicken the process--which in turn made them need to get more drugs for the increased pain, or which led to needing to get a c-section. I've heard about tearing that can occur and about the controversy over cutting before hand... I've heard about nurses and doctors who pressure women in to having drugs given to them even though they don't want them. I've heard about women planning c-sections on specific days so that they're vacations don't get messed up.

I've never considered that having a baby at home could be a safe alternative to all the confusion and pressure that can happen at the hospital. Especially with my own "woman" problems and my family history. Actually, I've never really even considered that having a home birth could be safe for ANYONE really. I've always felt a little weirded out by all the drugs, scheduling, surgery, and separation of the mother and child that cam sometimes happen at the hospital, but never thought that there was any other way. I never really even let myself think question whether there was another way--I just felt weird and scared about having a baby and mostly about the question about using drugs. Whenever I've thought about actually having a baby, the question that always arises is whether or not I'll have drugs and get an epidural. Why is that the first question? And why do people always assume that I'll end up having them anyways, even if I plan on not? I've always felt like I'd leave that decision for when I'm actually pregnant, seeing as I have no idea what it will be like or how I'll feel at the time...but you know, I think I DO know. After watching that movie, I think it might be okay for me to think about all my options even though I'm not pregnant--even if people think I'm stupid and know nothing about being pregnant. Every time I've talked about not using drugs during labor with women who DID get an epidural by choice, they always seem to look down on me or treat me like I don't know what I'm talking about since I've never been there. ... I guess that's true... But I still don't feel like it's completely right for me to PLAN on doing things I'm not comfortable with.

Do women not have the ability to birth babies anymore? How come my great grandma was strong enough to have her baby without being numb from the waist down, but I'm not?

So after watching this movie, I really gained a lot of respect for women who seek out and learn all of their options before just doing what the doctor says and having a c-section with their first baby, or getting an epidural before they feel any pain. Even if a woman ends up deciding a hospital is the place for her, I would hope that she would at least consider her option to feel the birth. I've gained a lot of respect for Sarah, my sister-in-law, and my brother for making the decision they thought was right for them and having their baby at home.

I can feel myself wanting to learn more about all this natural birth stuff. It's funny thinking about just those words together--natural birth. Before yesterday I still considered natural birth to be in a hospital with my legs in stirrups with the doctor and his salad tongs at the ready...Now those words have a much broader meaning to me. I'm glad I have the chance to learn about all my options long before we have a baby. Who knows when we'll have one, but I intend to get a lot of answers on all this in the meantime.

You should watch the movie. Or go to their wesbite. Or look them up on Facebook. You'll most likely learn something new.

http://www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com

Baby Izzy!

They both look beautiful and healthy! I'm so happy everything went well!

That's Sarah and Isabella in the tub where the baby was born, right there in their living room! Amazing... 8 pounds, 15 ounces, 21 inches long.

Baby!

It's official! My brother Nate and his wife Sarah are having their first baby right now! Her name, last I heard, is going to be Isabella. Sarah is going the el natural route and having the baby at home; I'm very proud of them!

I'll be praying for them that everything goes well and that everyone is safe. All prayers for them will be accepted :)

So if I'm suddenly gone and you dont' know where to find me, I'm probably on my way to Cedar City!

The rest of the new stuff in the house pictures.

Lamo cell phone pictures, but I wanted to show the new red stuff.

Kitchen

Towel, not for using :) We've done pretty good so far.

Canisters--not new. But the red thingy under them is.


Canisters and my fruit bowl :) I like it, Trevor doesn't.

Sign above my stove--not new, but I like the red and green contrast.

The rug. Too bad it already has dirty kitchen stuff on it.

Close up of the curtain. I love the top!

The sewing job Robyn did for me :) I need my own sewing machine; I always forget how to load the thread since I use them so rarely.

New shot of the table with the red placemats. Woot! I think they're my favorite part.

Um, another angle because I like it.

Fuzzy closeup of the plate deal.

Close up of the centerpiece.

These are the squash inside. I'll be sad when it's not fall anymore and I have to find something more season appropriate.

Ribbon and straw stuff. What's it called?

And randomly, my living room curtain rod and curtain color. I'm in love with it so I thought I'd share it with you. (Besides, if I put it on my blog, it will stay forever and I'll never lose the picture...my excuse for not scrapbooking .)