Christmas blues

Long time, no blog! The rush of Christmas is over I suppose. It's really very sad. So much excitement and then it's over in just a few short days. I was sitting with my family two days ago and a thought came to my mind: I don't really remember what my normal life is like! But I'm remembering now. We have had such a wonderful break so far (despite a minor car accident), and this week will be great as well! I want to do a full post with lots of pictures, which I don't have right now. So this is basically a check-in post. We're here, we're alive. Kind of wishing all of our friends would come back into town! Hurry home!

Things I'm looking for:
-A new smell. Out of perfume!
-Some good goals for 2011
-Good book recommendations
-A JOB

Over and out.

Now, since that's out of the way...

We can move on from finals to better things, like Christmas!! I finished my last final around noon today, and it's been a celebration ever since (well, for me). Tyler and I got Panda on the way home from campus, then I let him continue studying. Poor guy still has one test left. While he worked, I went to the store and got some fabric and other things. I just completed my first sewing project in a long time! Credit for this goes to Gretchen, my generous mother-in-law, for letting me borrow her sewing machine. Also, to makeit-loveit.com, for providing the idea for this project: stockings! Finally, we have something to hang by the _________ with care (still haven't figured out where to put them)!

Something masculine for him

And a little ruffle for me


These are made out of burlap on bottom, cotton on top. I really like the texture of the burlap. Well, not to feel, but to look at! There are just way too many Christmas crafts that I could use to decorate... trying really hard to control myself! Doesn't seem to be working, huh?

Memories

This is still one of my favorite pictures. I just love him.

Preparing

*Yes, those flash cards are all written on. All for one stinkin' class. Guess which one??

A guide for preparing for final exams at BYU:

-Keep your Pandora station on "Holiday Instrumental." Helps to keep me calm, collected, and focused on the end goal (which is, finishing so I can get on with Christmas!!)

-Have the Testing Center website open. They update the site with a picture of the current line to take tests- optimal for taking advantage of rare short lines

-Wash all of your sweats and comfy clothes the weekend before, so you don't have to worry about deciding what to wear when you're focusing on things like subtractive synthesis of sound and striations of skeletal and smooth muscle.

-Stock your freezer and fridge with quick and easy meals for the week. Let the holiday weight-gain begin a little early this year! :)

This week is so exciting! Mostly because it will happen, and then it will be done. And then my life will be all about family, food, and fun. Bring it!

Winding down and gearing up

Last day of classes for the semester! I can't believe how quickly these last few months have passed. We are having a strange warm spell, and there's no snow on the ground! Which I guess is helping me not get so distracted with Christmas excitement- but it better start dumping after next week! :) Snow gets me in the holiday spirit. We're getting ready to take finals- I love it! It gives me such a sense of completion and accomplishment to study all the information I've been cramming into my brain and then spit it all out on a scantron. I'm still trying to decide which strategy I'm going to use- take all the hard ones first, get the easy ones out of the way, do multiple finals a day, or spread them out over the whole week. I know anatomy will be one of the first ones I take, if not the first, but the rest are a mystery.

Anyway- enough about school. On to the only other thing I've been doing with my life lately- crocheting! I feel like it is dominating my spare time. This wouldn't be a problem if my projects would turn out right! Every headband I make lately is either too long or too wide. That's a ton of time lost re-doing stuff. No bueno. However, I'm a little obsessed with baby-wear (see below)... seems to be all I can successfully crochet these days!

Also, I've discovered something awesome about my laptop. My friend recently showed me how to change the display so that my background picture changes every 5 minutes and it's amazing! Brings up so many great memories. You should try it.

Sugar, spice, and everything nice

That's what my new little niece is made of! Little Madison Lynn was born early Sunday morning. My theory is: she saw me crocheting from heaven on Saturday night and had to come down so she could wear these:





Congratulations, Kenny and Lindsay!

Another Christmas craft project

Christmas decorating can be, well, super-expensive. I saw a wreath like this and decided I could probably make it... so I did! Thanks to the dollar store for supplying the ornaments for this wreath for less than $10. Awesome.


There's lots of ways to make this wreath, but I chose hot-gluing. I used a 12" foam wreath, then wrapped it with gold tinsel garland, gluing periodically. Then you don't see the nasty barf-green color when there's random space in the wreath. Make sure you tie a wire around for hanging before you start gluing on ornament balls, it would be tough after that. I used 4 different sizes of balls- some glittery, one striped, some solid. Now our front door is merry and bright too!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Yup, just kneeling to reach the top.
Laura and I made this Christmas craft over the weekend. I probably should paint the rest of the wood black, eh??

Our tree may not be tall and elaborate- but it's perfect for us.

Giving thanks

We had the greatest Thanksgiving! Tomorrow is coming way too soon-- this break has been amazing. The partying started Monday with some mini-golf with Giselle and Audie and then movie night with the bros and Cari and Ryan. Tuesday we spent the afternoon window-shopping and spent the evening holed up in the house, waiting for the "blizzard." Laura and I did a Christmas craft and we were just glad to not be doing homework!

Wednesday the fam arrived! We met for lunch at Zupa's and then hung around for a while. The whole family gathered at Aunt Sheila's for dinner since we couldn't all be together for Thanksgiving. I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for dessert, and Tyler was not sad about it at all.

Thursday morning Tyler and I went to the store to get fixins for my assignment (mashed potatoes), and we spent the morning hangin' out until Tyler went to play basketball with the boys. We met for dinner at Aunt Dana's house and had a great meal! It was so fun to be with family. After eating, we all napped and then continued eating, and then ate some more- this time dessert. We brought Laura over for a bit (she stayed with us for a few days this week but spent most of her time with our family on Thanksgiving) and left straight from there to go to Park City for BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING! Thank goodness Gabby called early to find out when stores opened- I thought no one opened until midnight, but a lot of the stores opened earlier, so we went up at about 10:30. Can I tell you about the amazing deals we found?? Wow. I found a dress at Banana Republic for $3.16. Yes, you read that right. Then I found a pair of jeans for $6! We found lots of great deals, but those were the most impressive. The whole crew (Tyler, Laura, Kurt, Garrett, Mitch, AJ, Brady, Gabby, and I) was outta there by 12:30, BEFORE all the crowds came in. We were pretty proud of ourselves! I was pretty wired after our success though- e came home and ate and Laura, Tyler, and I watched an episode of Gilmore Girls before going to sleep.

Friday I woke up pretty early, despite going to bed really late. I wanted to hit up Target, and Tyler was sweet to join me, even though he was really tired. We both agree that it was so worth getting up for- we found 3 DVDs for under $4 each, some wrapping paper, and a nice pair of jeans for Tyler for pretty cheap too. We met the fam at Magleby's Fresh for a yummy breakfast (yes, I gained 27 pounds in one week). Feeling a little large, we decided we needed to Jump On It! We had SO much fun bouncing around- we made up lots of fun games and tricks and took tons of funny videos. After bouncing our buns off we relaxed in the lobby of G&M's dorm, and read a great letter from Heidi. It felt weird not having her around! We sure missed her this week. After showering and prettying up, everyone met at the movies to see "Unstoppable." Can you say intense?? We enjoyed the movie, and now Garrett wants to be a train conductor. The movie was followed by dinner at 5 Guys (way better than In 'n' Out, don't even try to fight me) and a way fun game of Signs at Aunt Dana's. The party moved to the Runia's for movie night- Quantum of Solace. I'm embarrassed to say that I fell asleep, but, in my defense, I had seen the movie pretty recently.

Saturday started with Anatomy lab- the first sign of reality creeping back in- nnooooooooo! But it was actually very productive. I'm feelin' so ready to tackle the final on Tuesday. We watched the BYU game with lots of the family and were very sad about the outcome. That night everyone made the trek up to Salt Lake for "Savior of the World!" We loved the play and loved being together. What a way to kick off the Christmas season! Please enjoy the following pictures- taken by our early Christmas present, a new camera! I need to learn how to work this baby, so excuse the not-as-impressive-as-they-should-be-with-this-camera pictures.

As of late

-I have at least one cup of hot chocolate a day. a) because it's delicious, b) because it helps me practice talking through the digestive system as I feel the heat travel through. How's that for nerdy?? and c) because I am perpetually cold, and it warms me from the inside out.

-I've been warding off sickness for over a week. You know when you feel like you're about to get sick? That's been me for days. It better not hit full-force over the break.

-Tyler took 2nd place in the Deloitte competition last week. Pretty sure my husband rocks the MAcc program!

-Christmas music plays non-stop in our apartment. I never get sick of it!

-We are gearing up to say goodbye to our current Primary class and storing energy for the new, more rowdy class.

-We've loved being with family- that makes this the best time of the year! We're spending Thanksgiving with the Juergens side and could not be more excited to be with everyone.

-Our main topic of conversation is "Inception." We finally saw it on Saturday night with Randall and Crystal, and it was great! Our plan was to go to their place after and play games or something, but we just ended up talking about the movie for 2 hours. It was a mind-boggler for sure. Good news was, I didn't have any weird dreams afterwards!

-No classes last Thursday, so I spent all day cleaning out my closet, taking loads to DI, etc. Found an old workout swimsuit-- score! Can't wait to use it.

-Taught Aubrey to crochet (your gift will live on, Barb!!) on Friday while we watched a chick flick. I'm finally getting brave enough to experiment with patterns instead of just using others!

-We are running low on toothpaste. AND mascara. AND food. But don't worry- all will be remedied by 5 this afternoon.

That is our life, as of late.