Being Married

Well, my wife just wrote about being newlyweds and praised me left and right. Turn about is fair play. I told her the other day that being single for so long was well worth the wait. I remember being single and attending church and feeling sad because I wasn't dating and nothing was happening. I hated spending weekends alone and everyone telling me it was my own fault. It is starting to fade away in to memory, because well being a newlywed tends to take away those awful memories of dating life. I always remember people telling me about how they had a relative or a friend who was like 35 and then got married and he is the happiest person in the world. It was supposed to be a picker-upper - like if he can do it you can - but it never really worked. Well I have to say I am very happy that I married Christine. She has been the best thing that ever happened to me. Those years of loniness have melted away. I barely remember them. Christine is always so sweet and I love laughing and playing together. We both can't wait for our first Christmas together - and the thing I like most is that we will just be together.

Newlyweds

Let me just say that I LOVE being a newlywed.
Married life is even better than I imagined. It is so much fun being married to your best friend. I love all of the time I get to spend with Jeff. I love sharing my thoughts with him, as well as laughter and good times.
We've both been pleasantly surprised by a few things. I love how much he helps me in the kithcen. He doesn't like being in charge of the cooking, but he's happy to help out by peeling or cutting things, or doing other odd jobs that I give him.
In return, Jeff has been pleasantly surprised by my being able to cook. Apparently, I didn't cook for him very much while we were dating or engaged - there just weren't many opportunities. I remember the first time I made a Sunday roast, carrots, and potato crockpot meal for him after we were married. I felt like I was watching that scene in What About Bob when Bob is sighing and groaning in pleasure after every bite. Not to say that I'm the world's greatest cook or anything - I'm certainly still learning - but I cook more and better than Jeff was expecting. I love his support and appreciation.
Jeff and I enjoy many of the same things, such as watching TV and playing games, which we get to do on a weekly basis. I LOVE spending so much time with my best friend!
Let me just say that Jeff is WONDERFUL. So patient, kind, loving, supportive, fun to be with, and just all around a wonderful man and husband.
We have decided that we'd like to enjoy this "Honeymoon period" for ... umm, the rest of our marriage. It's our goal to make it last. I know that kids will change our family and our relationship a bit, and we don't want to be obnoxiously lovey-dovey parents that embarress our kids, but we still want to maintain an element of being newleyweds for years to come.

Week Summary

I wasn't really sure what to blog about. This week has seemed a bit longer than usual. Most of the week went as usual. The routine where you drag yourself out of bed promising that you'll go to bed earlier and yet still you end up going to bed late. You manage to eat, shower, and get ready for work. Christine and I carpool to work because I sold my car. We take turns who has the car and who gets to ride. Work was a little stressful this week - full of work drama. I don't like to blog about work because you never know if your boss is secretly reading it - so I won't say anything negative of course. Suffice it to say that I enjoy what I do for work. We recently released a new product that we got a patent for. It is the first patent that I have ever had my name on. It is exciting.

The parties continue during the holidays too. Friday we went to a party for all the teachers where Christine works. It was fun, except I didn't really talk to anyone. We left early to go grocery shopping, because we hate driving in the snow and didn't want to go on Saturday during the storm. But, then we still had to run some errands on Saturday anyway.

Christine was tutoring my co-worker and I went shopping for Christmas presents for her. We saw that the snow was really coming down so we went home and relaxed most of the afternoon. After the snow let up, we were convinced that the snow would subside enough for us to go to the Utah Valley Bell Choir performance at the Cathedral of the Madeline downtown. This was my first time attending a bell choir that I can recall. It was really cool listening to the bells resonate off of the walls and ceilings of the Cathedral.

Today was one of those rejuvenating days. Every once in a while, the stresses of the world seem to wear you out and drag you along. You just want to get up and take control. Today, I just felt like I picked myself back up again and I am ready to conquer the world. Part of the reason I am feeling better, is that I can finally pound on the piano without pain. I had hurt my wrist playing volleyball and was sore for over two weeks. So today and yesterday I finally got to play without pain.

What's happening this week? Christmas shopping - we are way behind. I have purchased only 2 gifts so far. Another work Christmas party (my work). Tutoring, practicing for our ward Christmas program. Christine and I are singing in a quintet in Sacrament meeting as well as the choir and a women's group (Christine, not me). We are definitely looking forward to our first Christmas together and starting our family Christmas traditions.

A Weekend of Parties

So this weekend was a weekend of Christmas parties. We went to my work party on Friday night, and we had our Ward Christmas Party on Saturday night.

My work Christmas party consisted of a catered dinner followed by a white elephant gift exchange and raffle prizes. I used the white elephant as a way to get rid of a few wedding gifts we didn't need. I figured (or at least hoped) that someone could use them.

The evening ended well. I got a yummy box of truffles, and I won a raffle prize, too. Last year I got a portable DVD player, and this year I got a Magic Bullet. I hadn't heard of it before, but it's an "as seen on TV!" high speed blender/mixer. Looks like it will be fun for mixing smoothies. I also got a pretty generous Christmas bonus, which is always nice.

Our Ward Christmas Party went well, too. A lot of our Saturday was taken up with getting ready for it, since we're the Activities Committee co-chairs. We ended up being able to have it catered, and we had just the right amount of food. About 150 came, which is how many we planned for. We ended up having extra dessert, which we took home (oh, darn!). There are definately some perks to this job.

After the dinner, we had a short musical program. Members of the ward sang or played Christmas songs on the flute or piano (including Jeff, who played his arrangement of Angels we Have Heard on High). We decided to keep it short and simple, and the ward members seemed to enjoy it. We received many compliments, which was nice. And a lot of people pitched in to help clean up, which we greatly appreciated.

So overall, we had a fun and busy weekend of Christmas parties. And I know there are more to come: Jeff's work party and a Teacher dinner. Plus, getting together with family on the actual holiday. I love Christmas!

New Cell Phones!

I feel like a little kid who just got a new toy. Well, I guess cell phones today are toys for grown-ups.

Jeff and I have been on two separate phone plans for the past few months, and we decided it was time to consolidate. We shopped around, and Sprint ended up giving us the best deal. Sorry to those of you that are still with Verizon that are sad they can no longer call Jeff for free. FYI: both of our phone numbers have stayed the same.

The phones that we got are Muziq by LG. They have been discontinued, but we got two of the last phones in stock. We actually had to go to two different Radio Shacks, because each store only had one left.

One of our favorite things about our new phone is all of the options it has for recording and playing music. It has a memory card slot, so you can download music onto your phone. You can then transmit the music from your phone to a radio if you want to hear it on your stereo.

It also has three options for composing music. You can hum a song and it will convert it into a score, push numbers on your phone that correspond to notes, or put a melody directly into a score. Once you have composed a song, you can play around with several features such as changing the style (which adds a pre-recorded background, such as pop, rock, or jazz), instrument (with choices from piano to xylophone to trumpet), and tempo.

Jeff and I have spent the past two days writing songs on our phone. We've done some of Jeff's songs as well as Christmas carols. My ringer is currently set on "Angel's We Have Heard On High." I know - we have too much time on our hands. But hey - it was a 4-day weekend (which we much enjoyed).

And speaking of ring tones, we also discovered that you can set a video that you've recorded on your phone as a ringer. We've joked around that Jeff should make a video on my phone (and vice versa) that goes something like this "Christine, it's your husband, Jeff. Pick up the phone, honey. Come on, pick up the phone. I need to talk to you. (etc)" So not only would I hear his voice when he called me, but I'd also see the video playing on the outer screen on my phone. Cool, huh?

You can do the same thing with a voice memo that you record on the phone. Jeff set his text message alert so that it's him saying over and over "Text message, text message." It's kinda funny.

Well, I hope you haven't been too bored with our excitement over our new phones. And I'm sure there are some of you out there who have really high-tech phones and don't think our features are much to brag about, but I don't care - we like them.

Horray for new toys!

Tutoring

So I just realized this afternoon that I neglected to mention that I started a tutoring job a week or two ago. I'm tutoring a co-worker of Jeff's in a college math course. We meet for 1-3 hours a week.
I love tutoring again. Teaching is fun, but tutoring in math one-on-one is my first love. I love helping them to grasp concepts and watching those "lightbulb moments" when they get it. If it's not making sense one way, I just attack it from another angle. Each student is a new challenge that I love taking on.
And I'll admit - it's also fun making a little money on the side doing something that I love. I hope to continue being a math tutor after we start having kids. I get to set my own hours and rate, and there never seems to be a shortage of people who need a math tutor. Plus, I could arrange to do it out of my home. It reminds me of how my mom taught piano lessons growing up. I like the idea of doing something on the side to keep me mentally sharp and help bring in some additional income.
So there you go - there's a tentative plan for the future. Oh, and somewhere along the way I'll write and publish a book, too (that's been a goal of mine since I was about 6). I guess we'll just wait and see what actually happens.

Whispering Wisdom

So Jeff and I have been sick this past week. Fortunately, we've only had colds, with symptoms ranging from runny noses, coughing, minor sore throats, and losing our voice.
That last one only happened to me. I'd been fighting off a cold last weekend, and I lost it when I taught my class on Monday morning. Let me share some interesting observations I made when I didn't have a voice:
1) When you whisper, people around you are more likely to whisper too. They seem to feel like it's rude to talk when you're not able to. I had to reassure my students that it was ok for them to talk when they were asking a question or giving an answer in class.
2) It is difficult to participate in a staff meeting when you can't be heard. I had to kind of wave my arms to get my co-workers' attention so they could quiet down enough for me to share my thoughts. Needless to say, I listened for most of the meeting.
3) It is very inconvenient to not be able to communicate with your husband when you're in different rooms of the house. He would call out a question to me, and I couldn't even let him know that I was coming to answer his question, so sometimes he would call out several times before I could get to him.

It is so true that you don't appreciate something until you don't have it anymore.

Six Quirks

I was "tagged" to do this by my sister-in-law Linda (Linda, I loved this pic you posted so much that I just had to put it on my blog, too). I consider myself to be a quirky person, so it was hard to choose the six quirks I wanted to share. Enjoy!

1. I am VERY OCD when it comes to eating my food. I have a method for eating everything, and I mean everything. I could do an entire blog about just my food quirks. But let me list a few to give you an idea. I am obsessed with finding the "optimum bite" in whatever food I'm eating. I'm always analyzing my food and calculating what the best bite will be, and then I save it for last. If a meal has carrots, potatoes, and meat, I want every bite to have one of each because I like how they taste together. So first I cut up the item that I have the least of (which is usually the meat), count the number of pieces I have, and cut up the remaining two ingredients to match. I then find the largest (and least fatty) piece of meat, a large piece of carrot, and a relatively small piece of potato (because this the perfect balance), and set them aside for my last bite. I then usually select a second and third "best bite" before proceeding to actually eat anything.

Because this first example was so long, I'll just give one more. You will never see me just grab a handful of colored candy and pop them into my mouth. First of all, I usually like to eat candy one piece at a time and savor it. Secondly, when I eat candy that has different colors, like M'n'Ms, I always count out how many of each color I have, then eat the ones I have more of first, systematically of course. I do this even when I know that the colors don't make them taste any different.

As you may have guessed, my quirkiness causes me to be a very slow eater. I always had a secret fear that my food habits would become a source of annoyance to my future husband. I am SO grateful that Jeff is so loving and understanding about my food habits. In fact, they amuse him and he understands the logic behind them (though this doesn't stop him from eating normally).

2. I LOVE to floss my teeth. I'd rather floss than brush. The dentist always comments on what healthy gums I have. Hardly a day goes by when I don't floss. I carry floss in my purse, because I can't stand it when I have the urge to floss and can't. I'm very thorough and love the feeling of my mouth after a good flossing session.

3. I can't talk about serious things when I'm driving a car. I've found that I need to focus on the road, and it stresses me out to try to focus on more than one thing. I don't have any problem conversing about little things or listening to the radio, but I can't talk about something serious that needs my undivided attention. My brain just can't multi-task that way. So Jeff and I have discovered that, if we want to have a serious discussion in the car, he needs to be the one who's driving.

4. I don't like to be touched repeatedly in the same spot - anywhere. If someone comes up and pats my shoulder a few times, I shrug them off. It's nothing personal - it just gets to a point where I can't stand it. I have a higher tolerance with Jeff than I do with most people, but I sometimes have to let him know that he's patted my arm one too many times.

5. I never got over the "simple joys in life," as I like to call them. These include kicking icicles off of the bottom of cars (even when it's not my car - Jeff is always afraid I'm gonna rip some paint off or set off a car alarm), sliding down banisters, climbing trees barefoot, running and sliding on patches of ice, crunching leaves, and throwing helicopters (maple tree seeds) up into the air by the handful just to watch them spin to the ground. I hope I never outgrow these things. :)

6. When I'm focusing on doing something, I stick my tongue out slightly. I often don't know I'm doing it - someone usually has to tell me. I actually did it several times while typing this blog, and Jeff caught me doing it, so that's how it became #6 on my list.

So there you go. I hope you enjoyed reading about a few of my quirks. For my family members that are reading this and thought of some I should have added but didn't, I'd love for you to post a note telling me what they are. And feel free to do this in your own blogs if you'd like. I won't bother "tagging" specific people - just do it if you want to.

Kitchen and Dining Room

We now enter the next portion of the condo: the kitchen and dining room.

As you walk into the center of the condo from the living room, the kitchen is on your right. I love our large marble countertops - they are wonderful for cooking. The door next to the fridge opens up into a small laundry room.

This is a shot of the kitchen from the other side.

The kitchen and dining room are adjoining rooms. It makes getting food on the table nice and easy. The middle door leads to what we call the "third bedroom," a.k.a. the storage room. It may become a study one day - we haven't decided.

The set of double doors, which is next to the "third bedroom" door, conceal the pantry. I thought that our pantry was pretty full until my sister Suzanne came over a few days ago and remarked on how empty it was. She has inspired me to invest more seriously in food storage and make it a well-stocked pantry.

The door to the right of the corner leads to the "second bedroom," a.k.a. the guest room and current computer room. This is the room that Kelly (Jeff's brother) used when he lived with Jeff. The door on the left leads to the guest bathroom.

Now, as we wind down with the last shot of the dining room, we find the door that leads to our bedroom (or, as I like to think of it, the "master suite," but Jeff thinks that's too grand) on the right. The door on the left is a small broom closet.

So there you go. You have now seen the central hub of the condo. In the weeks to come I will take you behind those closed doors and show you the remainder of our home.

Short sojourn in Primary.

So, we got a bit of news that kind of took us by surprise this morning. The bishopric had asked us last week to meet with them. So we set up an appointment for this morning. We were surprised when they asked us if we would accept a new calling. We were called to the primary about 2 months ago. We have really enjoyed teaching. I think the regular attending kids were really starting to warm up to us. So, we are a little bummed that we were released from the primary. Our class members were a little saddened too. So, you're probably wanting me to tell you what our new calling it is. Apparently, it is one of the most feared callings in the ward... other than being the bishop. Have you guessed yet? Okay, okay, we've been called as the Ward Activities Co-chairs. It will be a little stretch of our abilities. Christine has confessed that this is one of her most feared callings. Being called as a couple has alleviated some of that fear. I have been a ward activities co-chair in a singles ward, but I am getting a feeling that it is a bigger calling in a family ward. But I feel confident that working together and having good committee members will help a lot and a little faith of course too. It will also give us a new challenge of trying to learn peoples names and get to know people better. I confess I know very few ward members.

Virtual Tour of Our Condo: The Living Room

My parents came to visit us today. Their visit motivated me to do some of the cleaning and picture-hanging that I've been meaning to do for the past several weeks but never got around to doing.

Knowing that many of you have never been to our condo, or that those who visited when Jeff lived here with his brother may be curious as to how things have changed, I have decided to give you all a virtual tour of our home.

I'm planning to show you one or two rooms a week. Doing this in our blog will provide the motivation I need to keep working on finishing up our other rooms (for most of them, they're just lacking pictures on the walls).

(These pictures are going from right to left.) When you walk into our condo, you enter in the living room. To your right (behind the door) there is a short wall with a coat rack, then a short hallway leading to the rest of the condo, and the fireplace.

We decided to make the decor of the fireplace family-centered.

Next to the fireplace is the TV. This is actually what you see straight in front of you as you open the door to the condo.

Next to the TV there are some vertical blinds concealing the sliding door that leads to a small private porch (I didn't include a picture - it's small and rectangular and not very interesting to photograph). Occasionally we'll set up our hammock out there when the weather is pleasant. Unfortunately, the smoking of our neighbors prevents us from enjoying it most of the time.

On the short wall next to the porch doors there's a bookcase which holds our games, music, and Ensign magazines, the old AC wall unit that we don't use (we have central air), and Jeff's really nice digital piano.

Next to the piano, on the wall that has the door leading into the condo, is our couch (which faces the TV).

So there you go. Welcome to the beginning of the virtual tour of our condo. Tune in next week for: The Dining Room and The Kitchen (at least, that's the plan).

Stupid Human (Mouth)Tricks

Have you ever watched those tv shows where they have people that can do stupid human tricks? Well, Christine blogged about the crazy mouth talents that I have. I have always had a huge mouth and mine is really stretchy. So I thought I would share some of my stupid human mouth tricks with you. DON'T try these at home. I always wanted to say that.


This first one is what has been termed "the fangs". I haven't met anyone else who can do this trick.

The second trick I can do is a little more common. I can fit my lips around our drinking glasses. It looks kinda freaky so if you are squeemish - be prepared.

The third trick I can do is to turn my lips inside out. - WARNING: This one is worse than the previous one.
The other day Christine took my picture when I had 13 grapes stuffed under my lips and some when I had only a few. It kind of makes me look like I am from Whoville or Planet of the Apes. And for my final trick. I can fit most of my fist into my mouth. Especially don't try this one at home. :)

We were tagged.

We got this from Jeff’s sister Rachel and thought we’d try it. My responses are in regular font, and Jeff's are in bold.
Four random things about my husband/wife:
1. He has crazy mouth talents, like fitting his mouth around a glass and his “fangs” (keep your eyes open for a future blog post w/ pictures).
She can crack just about every joint in her body. I can crack her back just by hugging her.
2. He is an AMAZING musician. He composes pieces for the piano and is VERY good at it. He’s made and sold some CDs and is currently looking into a way to better promote his music.
I have to be careful when I make her laugh really hard because it makes her hyperventilate.
3. He helps in the kitchen, which has been a WONDERFUL blessing.
She is really good at card/board games and consistently wins more than I do.
4. He’s really good at fixing things and figuring out how they work. I guess that’s the engineer in him.
She has a lot of blue shirts (they match her eyes)

Four Movies I could watch more than once:
1. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers /Sneakers
2. The Court Jester/Bill Cosby’s skit about the dentist
3. Lord of the Rings/same here
4. Ever After/some of the Star Trek movies

Four TV shows I watch
1. Numb3rs / same goes for me
2. Monk / House M.D.3. Stargate Atlantis / ditto
4. Avonlea (I recently discovered this childhood favorite is posted on YouTube and sometimes watch it while grading papers.)
College football – I used to watch 12 hours each Saturday, now it is about 6-7.

Four places I have been
1. Indianapolis (where I was born – go Hoosiers!) / France (Belgium & Luxembourg too)
2. West Point, NY / California
3. Washington D.C. / likewise
4. Kansas / Niagara Falls

Four people who email me regularly
1. Jeff / Sweet Pea – that’s Christine by the way.
2. my brother Kenneth (who’s on a mission in Fiji) / I get his emails too.
3. my boss / junk mail
4. my sisters / my family… sometimes irregularly… but I don’t write much either.

Four foods I like to eat
1. Ice cream/ I scream, we scream, we both scream ice cream.
2. Chicken tetrazzini / Pizza – only meat toppings and pineapple – no veggies.
3. Mashed Potatoes / Lasagna
4. Chocolate / Sun Chips – Cheddar flavor

Four places I'd like to visit
1. The West Coast / New Zealand
2. Washington, D.C. (to have time to go sight-seeing with Jeff) / same if I get to go with Christine
3. The Grand Canyon / I’ll definitely have to take her to the Grand Canyon. (It’s too close not to.)
4. any theme park with good roller coasters/
Alaska – cruise – summertime only.

Four things I am looking forward to this year (Now till October 2009)
1. Getting the use of my right pinkie back / My first Christmas with Christine.
2. My first Christmas with Jeff / I said it first.
3. I am already looking forward to the end of winter. / She got me there. She said it first, but I wholeheartedly agree.
4. Thanksgiving with my parents / Lots of fun times with nieces and nephews.

Four people who are “tagged” (and should now do this in their own blog)
1. Suzanne
2. Marie
3. Kat and Travis
4. Linda
(These are the only other four blogs we read.) We look forward to reading them and have fun :)!

Monday Morning

I missed school on Thursday and Friday following my surgery a week and a half ago. When I came into my classroom on Monday morning, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my students had decorated my board.

It was so nice to feel appreciated! I was so happy, I took my camera with me to work and took a picture to share with all of you.

My First Cast

At my follow-up appointment this past Thursday, they took off my splint. It was really weird seeing my hand all shriveled up like that. I felt like an old woman. It was also the first time that I had seen my pinkie since the surgery, and it was a bit of a shock. There were three stitches along one side of the finger, and the pin was sticking out of the other side (it's in my finger at an angle). It was just a little disconcerting seeing my pinkie look like that, so I just avoided looking at it.

I was a real wimp when the nurse came to take out my stitches. I didn't really know what to expect, since I'd never had stitches before. I thought it would hurt a lot, and that they might give me some kind of painkiller. So when the nurse just sat down next to me and announced that she was going to pull them out, I got really nervous. I hated the idea of her just snipping them and yanking them out, and I was certain that it would hurt more than she said it would (she compared it to the sting of a bug bite). But of course, the nurse was right, and it really didn't hurt too much.

After the stitches were taken out, I had a cast put on. Since it's my first (and hopefully last), I decided to get a fun blue one instead of boring white. I didn't know, however, that the white bandages underneath would show, or I would have gone with white on top.

But the cast has grown on me. Jeff and my girls (my students) have decorated it. And it is definitely better than the large and bulky splints that I've had on for the past few weeks. I have more mobility and am even able to write with my right hand again - it's awkward, but doable.

I will have the cast on until the end of October: only 3 weeks, which isn't bad. Then they'll take the pin out and I'll slowly begin using my pinkie again.

Finger Update

Well, it turned out that I did need surgery.
I had surgery this past Wednesday. They knocked me out completely, which I was grateful for - I get a bit squeamish. Everything went fine. I'm not sure what all happened, because I didn't get to see the doctor afterwards, and he only talked to Jeff briefly. But the doctor put a pin in my pinky. I'm not sure if it's staying in or if it's only temporary. I'll find out more on Thursday at my follow-up appointment, when they may be putting a cast on (I have another big splint on for now).
Things went better after my surgery than I was expecting. The numbness that they put in my hand lasted for longer than 24 hours - at least partially - and this really helped with managing the pain.
They sent me home with Percocet, which I had heard could make you loopy and dizzy. I didn't have a very strong reaction to it - I just felt kind of foggy and tired - but I didn't like it. Fortunately, the pain was low enough by Friday night that I stopped taking it, and I haven't taken any since.
I don't like taking drugs, and I avoid taking them when possible. I don't like feeling out of control of my faculties. And I'm especially grateful that I was able to watch General Conference with a clear head.
I took Thursday and Friday off of work, but I'll be back on Monday.
Throughout all of this, Jeff has been a wonderful help and support. I'm so grateful for his love and patience.
So overall, my first surgery (I don't really count getting my wisdom teeth taken out as a surgery) went well.

Broken finger ouch.

So now I can finally say that I have broken a bone. This past Thursday night I was playing volleyball as usual. A low serve was coming towards me and I instinctively put up my hand to stop it from hitting me. All the force of the ball landed on the tip of my right pinkie finger. It hurt immediately and I ran off the court to put it under cold water.

I wasn't too worried at first, because I had injured my right thumb a few weeks ago playing volleyball, but it had only hurt the joint. I thought this injury was similar, but didn't realize the injury was serious until one of my friends asked me if the tip of my pinkie was normally bent like that. She predicted that it was dislocated, and I immediately started crying harder. (Have you ever noticed that it is more painful only after you know how bad you're hurt?)

At this point, there were several people gathered around me discussing whether I should go to the doctor or try to pop the joint back into place. By telling me it would hurt more the longer I waited to pop it back in, they had almost convinced me to let one of the girls try it. At the last moment another friend suggested that it may be broken, so Jeff and I decided to let a doctor look at it.

When we were checking in at the ER, they asked me to rate my pain on a scale from 1 to 10. Well, I have never been seriously ill or injured before, so I didn't really have anything to compare it to. The poor guy at the desk kept trying to come up with painful experiences to compare it to, but I hadn't had any of them. I finally settled on a 5 or 6, cuz I really didn't know.

After waiting (in pain) for what seemed like hours, we learned that the middle bone in my pinkie was broken. They put my hand in a splint that goes halfway to my elbow, because my hand was slightly swollen, and they wanted to protect it until I was able to see a hand surgeon. I am kind of amused that I have this huge splint just for my pinkie.

I have an appointment to see the hand surgeon on Monday afternoon, and he will determine whether I need to keep a splint on for a few weeks, or if I need pins put in my finger. Either way, I hope they give me a smaller splint/cast.

It's been interesting trying to do everything with my left hand. Of course, it HAD to be my dominant hand that was injured. For example, I took a few notes at the Relief Society broadcast last night (see picture), and I felt like I was 5 years old again, painfully and painstakingly working on each letter. I was worried about General Conference next week, since I can't live through it without taking notes, but Jeff has offered to take them for me as I dictate them to him.

He has been really sweet these past few days. He's always willing and ready to help me, and I'm really grateful. In fact, the night that I was injured, he said that this was an opportunity for him to serve me.

I will keep you updated on my one-handed adventures these next few weeks. One thing is for sure - teaching is going to be interesting.

Fun (and Cheap!) Date Night

If any of you are looking for ideas for a fun and fairly inexpensive date night, you might want to try your local Nickel Arcade.
Jeff and I went to one recently, and we really enjoyed it. For under $10 (which included the few dollars it costs to get in, plus several dollars worth of nickels), we enjoyed a nostalgic evening.
We played a few different racing games, skeeball, pinball, and shot some hoops. But we also discovered some of our favorite old games, like Frogger, Burger Time, Qbert, and a classic flying shooting aliens game (that I played in Young Women's a BUNCH because my Beehive leader had the arcade game at her house). Jeff also discovered a game - we think it's called Moon Crawler - that he used to play on his family's first-generation computer (TI-94A).
There were a lot of other things there, too, like air hockey, DDR, and a photo booth, but we didn't get around to doing any of those. It was a really fun evening, and we're planning on going again sometime.
We were also amused to discover a large number of apparently single guys (who weren't teenagers) hanging out there on a Friday night. They appeared to be the type that specialize in certain games and probably hold the high scores on a number of machines. So, if you're a single girl who's feeling desparate, check out your local Nickel Arcade...

Volleyball

Jeff and I both love to play volleyball. We actually brought it up in our first conversation, and it was part of the reason Jeff asked for my phone number that first night we met.

Jeff is certainly better than I am. He played in high school and can jump CRAZY high. I took a class at BYU and am not half bad, either.

We play volleyball every Thursday night for about two hours with a group of singles from Jeff's previous ward. It's a ton a fun.

This past week we got to play volleyball on both Thursday and Saturday. The latter was a ward activity, and it was sand volleyball, which we'd never played together before. Our feet were sore and Jeff's shorts got filled with sand after diving several times, but it was a blast. I'm sad that the weather is starting to cool down and there won't be many more opportunities to play in the sand, but hopefully we'll be able to next summer...

In the meantime, we'll continue to play on Thursdays. Yay volleyball!

Furniture and RCWilley

So we recently got a new bed. We had a little wedding money and after a few weeks of a sore back, Christine and I decided to use some wedding money on a new bed. We got a bed when we were married from Christines's sister which was very nice, but realized it was getting old and starting to sag.
Getting new stuff is nice but then there is getting rid of the old stuff. Have you ever noticed that buying furniture can sometimes be the easiest part?
So last weekend we went shopping for a new bed at RCWilley because we wanted to take advantage of the labor day sales they have. So we went and spent a few hours shopping for a new bed and a new dryer. We seemed to find the things that we wanted fairly quickly and overall we were excited for our new bed and dryer to come. Due to the business of RCWilley on Labor Day weekend they couldn't deliver our new things till Friday.
We also realized as we went shopping that we have all this extra stuff that we still need to get rid of. Sometimes getting rid of stuff can be difficult. We asked RCWilley if they take away the old bed. They said it was up to the driver. So we thought we would post it on Craigslist. So far I have had one person email about the bed and I guess they gave up because they didn't have a truck to move it.
Also, Wednesday we got a phone call from RCWilley telling us that we still owed a few hundred dollars for the bed and dryer when we were certain we paid in full. We looked over our bill and somehow the person had put in the computer that we purchased two dryers and no bed, so the RCWilley computers or manager thought we had been overcharged so they refunded a couple of hundred dollars. Well, the salesperson that called us was not aware of the snafu and figured out after a few phone calls that we needed to pay back the money that they refunded us. Oh, and they told us that we had to pay it 48 hours before our delivery or they would cancel our delivery. So in other words, RCWilley made a mistake on our billing and was ready to cancel our delivery for a mistake they made. I wasn't too happy about it. But I had no idea if this was some scam and I didn't want to pay with a credit card over the phone so we went back to the store Wednesday to refund a refund.
I don't know if any of you have purchased things at RCWilley and looked over the shoulder of the salesperson as they put in the sale, but their computer system is very archaic software. It looks as if it runs off of DOS I think their monitor was monochrome. I would think that a store that deals with millions of purchases and that much money could afford to update their computer software and hardware. So, I don't blame the sales people or the customer service people at RCWilley, I blame the computer system that is stuck in the 1980's. I was casually looking around the store to see if there was a suggestion box so that I could tell RCWilley to update their computers.
However, I am very pleased with our new bed and dryer. The dryer actually drys clothes a little faster than our old one and buzzes when it is done ( our other one didn't) and doesn't leave lint all over our clothes. And my back is now starting to feel much better. Last weekend I could barely move.

New Callings

Well, this is my first post on our blog. I usually let Christine write the blog and then I look over it and give additional comments, maybe. But here it goes.
So, everytime you move to a new ward you wait for a few weeks to see what calling you're going to receive. My sister Rachel has often told me that many of the new wards that she has moved into - she and her husband were called into the primary. Well, true to form, we've been asked to serve in the primary teaching the CTR A class; 4-7 year olds. We of course accepted the call. I am not sure what to think of this calling. I haven't worked with kids ever. I mean I play with my nieces and nephews, but sometimes it is easier to play with family, because they get to know you over a period of multiple visits. I guess primary might be the same way. I definately didn't think that I would also get called to the primary, because I am the sole male piano player in the ward. I thought for sure that they would ask me to play the piano in priesthood meeting. I guess they just needed primary workers more. Well, I am sure it will be an adventure/learning experience/good practice for our future kids. It does seem like a lot of the newlywed couples are in the primary so maybe I can make friends in the primary. I am open to advice about serving in the primary. I am sure I will probably have to rely on Christine's experience on this calling. She is so great with kids and I love that very much about her.

Buckeyes

For those of you who may not know, Jeff grew up in Ohio and is a fan of Ohio State. Their mascott is a buckeye. Ohio State played the first game of the season yesterday, so I decided to make the candy buckeyes in celebration.
It was the first time I'd made them, and I'm happy to report that they turned out well - though they took a lot longer to make than I originally thought they would. The only problem now is that Jeff and I are both so fond of them that we have to be careful we don't eat them too fast and make ourselves sick. :P
We watched the game here at home, and Jeff's brother Kelly came and joined us. It was fun having him over. And Ohio State creamed Youngstown State 43-0. Go Bucks!

First Week of School

Well, my school year is off to a good start. For those of you who may not be aware, I work at La Europa Academy, which is a residential treatment center for troubled teenage girls. I just started my second year of teaching here.
I have discovered that my Mondays and Wednesdays are going to be my easier days, at least prep wise. I don't have any lessons to prepare, because I have three periods of students who are working independently. The first two periods are both Pre-Calculus, which they do independently online. I'm there to monitor their progress and answer any questions that come up (my favorite part - I'd be happy to do that all period), but there are usually lulls when I can work on other things. The last period, which I have every day, is made up of four students working independently on Algebra, Geometry, Pre-Calculus, and Consumer Math.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I teach Algebra 2 and Geometry (so basically, it's a normal teaching day). I'm looking forward to teaching these classes for the second time. But I'm going to change a few things. I'm planning on doing more games and projects, as well as play around with some of the content (the order I teach it in, the amount of time I spend on different subjects, etc.). So I'll still need lots of prep time, but definately less than last year.
I got to ease into the school year by only teaching Mon-Wed. This is because we had a Parent Weekend the past week. This means that parents fly in from all over the country to visit their girls. I had parent-teacher conferences on Thursday morning (which were a lot slower than normal; I had 20 min breaks at times, so I watched episodes of Avonlea on You Tube - who remembers that show?), and then I didn't have to work Thursday afternoon or Friday. It was very nice. So instead of having a three day weekend, I kind of had a four-and-a-half day weekend. :)
I started out Algebra 2 with a game to help them review Algebra 1 concepts. I wanted to get a good idea of where the class was as a whole, to see how much time I needed to spend reviewing before moving on to new concepts. I discovered that the majority of the class needs a good week or two of review.
My Geometry class started out with a mini research project. They could choose to research plants, animals, or something cultural in or out of the United States. They had to do a short write-up about the history of the object, the symmetries within it, and the geometric shapes it contained. I hope it was something fun that helped them to see the big picture of how geometry is all around us, before we get down to the nitty gritty of learning a bajillion terms (which is what the majority of the first term is).
So, in short, the school year is off to a good start.

Honeymoon

Jeff and I stayed at the Johnson Mill in Midway. If anyone is looking for a great romantic getaway, we highly recommend it. When we were looking for a place to stay for our honeymoon, a lot of places were really cheesy with their room decorations. The rooms at the Johnson Mill are tastefully decorated. We also enjoyed that it was family owned. Some of my favorite things were: delicious breakfasts outside by a waterfall every morning, a pond with swans and paddle boats, spotting deer on the property when we went for walks, and a HUGE movie selection in the basement.
While we were at Midway, we went and did something fun every day. On Wednesday we swam in a crater at the Homestead. If you'd like to know more about that (it's kinda hard to explain), you can check out the Homestead's website. On Thursday we rode down the Alpine Slide and the Alpine Coaster in Park City. My favorite was the slide - I had done it once before and had always wanted to do it again. The coaster was a lot faster than we were expecting. At times it felt like we were about to go flying off of the track! On Friday we rode on the Heber Creeper Train. Creeper is the right word. It was ... kind of cool to say that we've ridden on an old-fashioned train, but it's definately something we're not dying to do again. But one thing that was cool was that it wasn't very crowded, so we ended up with an entire car to ourselves (except for when a few kids would run up and down the aisle, but they didn't stay for long).
We had a special visitor at the Johnson Mill that we certainly weren't expecting. That visitor was a bat ... in our room. We came back to our room on Thursday night after getting some ice cream only to find a bat flying around the ceiling. It wasn't completely unexpected, because they had a sign in the room reminding guests that they were sleeping in a renovated mill, and it wasn't uncommon for bats to come in if you left your doors or windows open. Only thing is, we never left our doors or windows open, so we were really puzzled how it got in (and we also wondered if it had been with us the past two nights as well and we just never noticed). Well, we called the manager and he came over with some nets, but there was no sign of the bat. We discovered a small opening in the ceiling in one part of the room where we thought it got in (from the attic, most likely). Since the bat hadn't been caught, and there was no way to guarantee it wouldn't come back and visit us while we were sleeping, the manager let us stay in another room that was empty that night.
This turned out to be a blessing in multiple ways. First of all, it was the most expensive room at the Johnson Mill, so it was REALLY nice. That was fun in and of itself. Then we found out the next morning that the couple that was in the room next to our original room had brought their 5 month old baby with them and she kept them up most of the night (and probably would have kept us up, too).
Overall, we had a lot of fun this past week. We had fun relaxing, watching the Olympics and movies, playing games (we brought a whole backpack full of games), and eating out. It was definately a fun, memorable week.

Dancing at Reception

For those of you that may not know, I was not one of those girls that planned everything for her wedding years in advance. But one thing that I always wanted at my wedding was dancing. I've been to several wedding receptions where there was music and a dance floor, but no one danced except for the one or two formal dances at the beginning done by the bride and her father, then the bride and groom. But I had been to one reception where a lot of people got up and danced - old and young alike got out on the dance floor and had a lot of fun. Since going to that reception, it's what I've always wanted to have happen at mine. And my dream came true at our reception.
First, I would like to thank Jeff for being such a good sport about dancing. I LOVE dancing with him, slow and fast - just being close, and sometimes being goofy. It was a lot of fun.
Next, I would like to thank my dad for the wonderful dance he gave me. For those of you that weren't there, my parents cut a mean rug on the dance floor.
My dad and I started out with the first dance, and I chose to dance to Butterfly Kisses. It's a really sweet song about a father watching his little girl grow up and then get married, and I really like it. The only drawback is that it's REALLY long - I think about 4 1/2 minutes. But my dad was a good sport, even though the song was so long. It was a lot of fun to dance with him.
Lastly, I would like to thank all of you that got up and danced. You really helped make my dream come true. The dancing at the reception was a real highlight for me. I especially loved seeing parents dancing with their kids, and cousins dancing together. I hope you had as much fun as we did!

Wedding Pics

We got our wedding photos from our photographer yesterday. It was a lot of fun looking through them. We have a TON, and there's no way to post them all, but I thought I'd post a few.

We would like to thank all of those who contributed to the lovely decorating of our car. We are grateful that it was tastefully done.

Joining the Bloggers

So yes, we've finally joined the blogging world. I was inspired to do so by my sister Marie beginning a blog in her last month of pregnancy. Jeff and I had thought about doing a blog, since several of our siblings have one, but at first we thought that we wouldn't have much to write, since we don't have any kids. But I figured - what the heck!
So I hope you enjoy our blog. I'll try to write something every week, and maybe this will make me want to take more pictures.