Hello!

All right everyone, I finally decided to get back into the blogging sphere, since we've had a lot going on! First of all, I had an AWESOME 26th birthday; Tracy and Dan had said they wanted to take us out, so we should just come over at 7-ish. So we did, and we just walk in (since we're on very casual terms) and there's my MOM!!! I was so excited that she flew in to surprise me! So we hung out that night and had a St. Patty's inspired dinner of corned beef, cabbage, etc.

On Friday I only had to work a half day, so we all met up at Ginza for lunch, which was delicious. Of course, it was kind of disturbing to see SNOW flying around outside since it was, technically, now spring, but what can ya do? After lunch, we went shopping for things to fill each other's easter baskets; I got Dan some magazines on VW Bugs and Home Entertainment systems (his two favorite things in the world). He got me some awesome historical fiction novels.

The rest of the weekend we just hung out; Saturday we went shopping again and then went to Pedros, since my mom loves that place. Easter Sunday we went to church, of course, and Dan and I were surprised that we actually enjoyed the service. We are not religious at all, but this church (a Methodist one) seemed to really emphasize doing good toward your fellow man, and how Easter should bring with it the hope that we have the power to help others. It was really quite interesting, and we liked it much better than "normal" church services.

Of course, when we got home, it was time to look for baskets, which was fun. Rori and Kirsti were SO excited, especially Rori, since she got a princess bike! She literally screamed when she found it; it was so cute! The adults had fun, too; my mom put together an AWESOME Easter basket for me, which was fun; it was like being a kid again! :)

Here are some pictures from our weekend:



Me, just reading about one of the books I got; big surprise! :)









My mom and me both finding our baskets


Dan and me at church; Rori resting after a hard day :)




Dan finding his Easter basket in the princess bathroom, how appropriate! (Just kidding)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Well, yesterday, that is :)

Hope everyone had a great day! My mom sent me flowers and chocolates at work, because she's sweet like that :) Then Dan took me to The Icon, this new tapas bar on State Street. They had a five-course special for Valentine's Day, and it was delicious!

Our first course was Spanish cheeses, different types of olives, smoked salmon on a cracker, and some sort of Spanish sausage.

Our second course was a roasted red pepper filled with something (I don't know; I didn't eat it!), a garlic shrimp, more Spanish sausages, and something else I can't remember.

Our third course was a citrus salad (for me) and mushroom soup (for Dan). Then our main course arrived, and oh my gosh, it was delicious! We had steak and lobster, and the lobster was amazing. Completely drenched in butter (healthy, right?), it was the most delicious lobster I've ever had. And the steak was great, too.

Then for dessert we had chocolate truffle cake and complimentary champagne. It was an absolutely perfect Valentine's Day celebration!

Sorry I've been away so long!

*Sigh*. You know how it gets; life is so hectic! But I've wanted to update you all on our lives, so here goes!!

Rori is now FIVE. Yes, my little goddaughter, who I swear was a tiny little thing just yesterday, is now five years old. She is learning her letters and numbers, and can write almost everyone's name. I can't believe how smart she is! She had her fifth birthday party at Imperial Garden, since it was a Mulan theme (Mulan seems to be her favorite princess, at least for now, although she was also Mulan for Halloween!). She had so much fun, and Dan and I are so glad that we get to be such a part of her life!

Umm, let's see, what else. Oh! How could I forget?!? (Ok, I didn't really forget!) DAN GOT A JOB! Yes, I am so proud of my husband; he got a job already! He interviewed last Monday, the 4th, and they wanted him to come back for a second interview on the 8th (Friday). So he did, and they offered him the job on the spot! We are so excited! And best of all, it's not something that he just figures he will do until he finds something better. No, he came home from the first interview very excited, saying, "This would be my ideal job!" So needless to say, we're thrilled! (And a huge financial worry has been lifted!)

Other than that, we've just been dealing with life. Our heater went out on Sunday, when it was -4 degrees! I was home alone, watching Wait Until Dark with Audrey Hepburn (great classic, by the way), and all of a sudden I hear this loud CRASH right above our stairway, like something fell. So Maxine and I race upstairs (she always has to investigate, LOL), but there was nothing out of place. I then hear this terrible grinding sound, like "Ch-chink, ch-chink," etc., and it was incredibly noisy. If someone had been in the house with me, we would have had to shout to hear each other. That went on for 2 or 3 minutes, and then stopped with another loud crash.

So I finish watching my movie, and when it was done, I noticed it was chilly in our place. I went over to look at the thermostat, and even though we had it set on 66, it was only 61. I thought that was strange, but didn't really give it anymore thought. So when Dan comes home, I explain to him about the noise, but he couldn't figure it out either. That is, until he went into our garage, and noticed that our water heater (which is tied to our heat somehow; don't ask me, I'm not the engineer!) had EXPLODED with such force that it blew the door of the water heater closet wide open. Hmm, that explains why it was so cold in there!

So we called maintenance, and he came over with space heaters, since they wouldn't be able to fix it until morning! By now, it was 50 degrees in our house, and the -4 degrees outside and the ferocious wind chill weren't helping matters! When we woke up on Monday morning, it was 39 degrees in our living room! (We had had both space heaters upstairs; one in our room, and one in our guest room, since that's where we keep our parakeets). Luckily, it's all fixed now. I tell ya, though, as much as I want to own a home, it's situations like this that make me glad we rent. I can just call up maintenance and they fix it, at no cost to us. (Of course, I still have house envy, but eh, that's life, right? :))

Hope everyone else is doing ok!

Happy Christmas Eve!

Dan and I have been having so much fun here in Utah. Yesterday, Dan and I went to lunch with Nancy at Rooster's on 25th street, and that was a lot of fun. It's so hard, b/c when I'm in Utah, I think I want to live here, and then when I'm in Madison, I want to live there! So coming home always sends me into somewhat of a quandry :) Oh well. Anyway, we then went to Nancy's house and saw all her wedding pictures, which were gorgeous. (And, her Rottweiler, Buster, is soooo cute!)

Then we went to a live nativity scene with my mom, Jason and Nancy. It was really cool; it was just put on bya family in West Haven, but it was really involved! There were real livestock (horses, sheep, llamas, etc.), excellent costumes, and it was really fun to see. Then we just came out and hung out here for awhile, and I wrapped presents while Dan helped my mom iron her tablecloth. I know, I know, isn't he domestic??? :)

This morning (Christmas Eve day; yay!) I just helped my mom clean up, and I made Chex Mix, which my family says is my specialty :) Dan and Austin went snowshoeing and took Shila with them, and they said it was a lot of fun. However, now it is snowing like crazy; visibility is sooo bad. It's cozy when we're in our own home, safe and sound, but it's kind of scary to think we have to brave that to go to church! Maybe they'll cancel it, haha, and we can just stay here and hang out. Tonight we're having prime rib for dinner like we always do; Dan and I always love Christmas Eve dinner.

I hope that everyone is having a very merry Christmas Eve, and I look forward to seeing you all in the New Year!

Merry Christmas! (and finally, the pictures I promised you!)

Hello everyone! Sorry that I've been away for awhile; you know how hectic the last couple of days before Christmas can be! On the bright side, we're home in Utah with my family, and Christmas is just the same as it was when I was a kid. I love it (and I love that my mom goes to such an effort to make Christmas such an enjoyable time for her family). So it's definitely a blessed time of year! Of course, we miss Dan's mom, who lives in Washington (she always came over for Christmas dinner when she lived in Utah, and it was a blast), and it doesn't seem the same without her here. Hopefully next year she'll be here with us!

Of course, there are the little issues that always pop up (such as when my parents' dog, Shila, tried to kill my cat, Maxine... ok, maybe I'm being a little melodramatic, but I can tell you that these two definitely don't like each other!) Then there was the issue trying to print out the pictures for our Christmas cards; we couldn't really find a good one, and then when we did, we couldn't get the red eye out. Combine that with the relentless traffic and the people who act like their world will end if they don't grab the last item off the shelf, and I ended up feeling pretty crabby.

Then I stopped to put it all in perspective. I'm here, in my childhood home (which is full of the Christmas spirit, if I do say so myself), with my beloved husband and soulmate, my wonderful parents and brother, and Dan's sister and brother-in-law right down the road. We're all healthy, we DEFINITELY have enough to eat (have you seen the dinners my dad makes?), and most importantly, we're all together, enjoying each other's company. Do the little things like crowds and red eye in a photo truly matter? I think not. I'm so blessed, and I hope that we all remember how lucky we truly are.

And, if you have a chance to bless another family who is in need, I hope you can. I can't tell you the joy we felt when we delivered our angel tree presents for the little boy we "adopted." I loved buying gifts for my family, of course, but the joy of buying for a two year old child who lacks even the most basic things in life was overwhelming. We ended up getting him two ADORABLE outfits, a coloring book, two books--because I believe reading is one of the most important things you can do for a child--and a dump truck, because Dan assured me that dump trucks are THE ultimate toy for a two year old boy. Of course, there are other ways to bless those in need; we just need to be on the lookout for them!

Once again, merry Christmas and a happy 2008! I hope to be on here sometime in the coming week, but we all know how Christmas celebrations can take up a lot of one's time :) So, if I don't "see" you all before then, I'll see you once again in 2008! But before I go.... here are some pictures for you all to enjoy (or tolerate! :) just kidding!)
Here is a our townhouse; it's the first time we can actually put up outdoor lights, and I was so glad!







Here is a picture from our front door in early December. We couldn't even get out of our driveway; the weather was so bad! But it was kinda cozy! :)







Here is a view of our tree.







Here's our tree with lights








Here's Dan playing with the helicopter Nancy gave him a couple Christmases ago. Maxine is watching it intently, waiting for a chance to pounce on it!






Dan, Rori and me hanging out at Tracy's after making gingerbread houses.







Here's a tree we made from a gingerbread kit. somehow, it didn't turn out so well, but we still had fun! :)







Kirsti with her gingerbread house








Rori and me with our house








Here is Dan's Tudor gingerbread house. Yeah, the engineer in him has to make this perfect house ;)







Relaxing by our hard work








Hanging out with my 3 favorite girls :) Notice Maxine's pink jacket; we think she looks adorable, but she doesn't like it much!!!!

Whoa, been away for awhile!

Yes, I haven't been updating as regularly as I used to! But let's see, I'm almost finished with my Christmas shopping, which is obviously a HUGE thing! And Dan and I are just packing up to go to Utah; yay! I'm so excited to be able to spend the holidays with my family!!

This weekend was a fun one. On Friday, my friends from work and I got together for a little pre-Christmas celebration at Meghan's apartment. That was a lot of fun; good hors d'ouerves, good wine, and lots of fun conversation.

Then on Saturday, we went to Greg's (Tracy's brother in law) house for another little Christmas celebration. They have one of the coolest victorian houses I've ever seen; it's awesome! And they always have it decorated so cute. We watched a bunch of Christmas movies, including Santa Claus is Coming to Town, The Grinch, and Miracle on 34th Street (the old one). So, all in all, it was a lot of fun!

Maybe tonight I'll FINALLY get around to posting pictures of our tree and our outside lights!

Well, Dan and I decided last night that we were too tired to get all dressed up and drive downtown for the formal. Yes, we really are an old married couple. :) But we did go out to eat at Imperial Garden and then watched a movie, called Conversations with Other Women (with Helena Bonham Carter and Aaron Eckhart) here. It was a really interesting movie; very innovative in the way it was shot. I really enjoyed it, and the soundtrack was amazing.

Today we are going to just clean up around here, finish decorating our Christmas tree, and finish putting up Christmas lights. It's snowing here, which I LOVE. I love doing Christmas things when it's all wintry outside. We have to go grocery shopping too,which isn't that much fun. Oh well. I'll post pictures of both our Thanksgiving celebration and our Christmas tree and Christmas lights when we're done with them.

Today, I was sitting on the couch doing a crossword puzzle, and Maxine started to go crazy, so I looked outside the window to see what she was freaking out about, and I saw a gorgeous red cardinal sitting on the tree outside our window. It was so beautiful to see this bright splash of red against pure white. I grabbed our camera to take a picture, but by the time I opened the door, he had flown away. Oh well.

Hope everyone is having a beautiful first day of December! And Happy Birthday Uncle Alan!