Too Many Things To Plug In

My parents' heater is on the fritz and we can't seem to program it anymore. It turns on at random times and is in sleep mode when we are all home and freezing our tooshies off. Well, one night last week it was particularly cold outside so, it was just about as equally cold in the basement.

Now to give you a little background...

Our bedroom is in the basement. We have four outlets in our room. We have installed six outlet expansion units on two of the jacks and one jack has a six outlet power strip. This makes a total of 20 electrical sockets in our room.

But, we have a lot of plug in!

TV
Dish Box
DVD Player
Nathan's Laptop
My Laptop
Alarm clock
Nathan's phone charger
My phone charger
My night stand lamp
Nathan's night lamp
Blow Dryer
Fan

Some of the plugs are bigger so it prevents us from using all 20...so, don't worry! And we are rarely using every single thing that is plugged in at the same time....wait! We are NEVER using everything that's plugged in at the same time. But, it's not easy to unplug things and it's very hard to add any appliance to the mix.

Remember it was cold in the basement!

I pulled the little space heater from the closet and I was so excited to plug it in, in our room and get nice and warm. Reality soon hit me though when I remembered that we have way too many things to plug in. I walked around the room looking at each outlet and just about to say, "Huh...we're kinda full." I remembered there is a socket right outside our bedroom door!!! I ran out with the heater and plugged it in, in the hall and brought it back in and threaded the cord to go under the door. As I did this, I sang, "I'm a genius!!!" (opera style) I was also giggling with glee. Then Nathan said, "Why don't you go blog about."

Turkey, Stuffing and Gravy

I have a confession to make. I don't like turkey and stuffing or gravy. Every year I try a little just to make sure I still don't like them...and though they are not totally repulsive (they used to be) I can only handle a very little bit. I do LOVE mashed potatoes, corn, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce and everything else at Thanksgiving dinner. But, because I don't like turkey, stuffing and gravy, some have called me unpatriotic! That is way harsh!

Nathan's Uncle smoked a whole turkey this year! I tried some of that and it was pretty good. I still couldn't have much.

The weird thing is...I love chicken. I feel like the textures are pretty similar but, the taste is TOTALLY different.

One of our home teachers suggested we cook our turkey with bacon. They tried basting their turkey with bacon grease a couple of years ago and it was SO GOOD! But, it was only skin deep. So, last year they decided to put bacon in the bottom of the pan AND baste the turkey with bacon grease. That helped to get the flavor deeper. This year they said they were wrapping their turkey in 5 lbs of bacon! I'm interested to find out how good it was...it was probably REALLY good! The funny thing is, that turkey is one of the more leaner meats...but, you add 5 lbs of bacon and that goes out the window. Kinda funny.

Peanuts: Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, guess who makes the gang's Thanksgiving dinner?

Snoopy! With the help of Woodstock.

They made toast with butter and popcorn. They served it with pretzel sticks and what looked to Nathan like Jelly beans and to me like Good and Plenty (pink and white candy coated licorice). Pepper Mint Patty was SO MAD! She yells (in her man voice), "Where's the turkey? Where's the stuffing? Where's the mashed potatoes?" Etc. It was hilarious especially because she had invited herself.

Last Night At Dinner

We are living in my parent's basement. It's not so bad and we are totally grateful! They have space for us and are willing to let us live with them, and we are able to save money and Nathan can go to school. But, I have to share one thing I DON'T LIKE about living with my parents. THIER DOG!!!!

This is a dog my mom inherited from my oldest sister (Liz) and her family. They moved and had to live in an apartment for awhile until they could find a house they wanted to buy. Well, they couldn't have pets at the apartment so they gave their dog to my mom. My mom instantly embraced it. We didn't have many pets growing up so it was weird to see my mom let this dog attach itself to her so quickly. And when Liz's family found a house, my mom wouldn't give the dog back. She loves it and none of us really understand why.

Toby is a shitsue. This dog is pretty dumb and blind, especially when the sun is out. He stinks too...all dogs do. My mom calls him her son! And when Peter (my real brother) says mean stuff to the dog (because it is so dumb), my mom says to Peter, "Be nice to your brother!" Super weird...and very very funny because she says it totally serious and then when we all look at her appauld she giggles.

Tonight at dinner my mom was feeding the dog from the table....with HER FORK!!!! I have seen her do this before, when she was DONE eating but, tonight she wasn't done and she used it after. I freaked out! I was like, "MOM!!! You CANNOT feed Toby with YOUR FORK!!! He's an ANIMAL!!!" I covered my face in horror and disbelief. She just laughed and said, "He doesn't put his lips on it and neither do I." Gross!

What's even weirder is that she will not, WILL NOT share a fork with anyone else...not even anyone in our family!!! She has always said, "I don't like germs." Apparently, she likes dog germs. Gross! (This is a case similar to "Love the sinner but hate the sin." Well I love my mom, but that is just gross!)

After a little time had passed and she was still feeding Toby from the fork she was eating with, I nonchalantly said, "Mom, do you know I have a blog?" She said, "Yes! I read it!" I said, "DO YOU WANT ME TO BLOG ABOUT THIS!?!?!?!" We all laughed but, I WAS NOT KIDDING!

(If anyone leaves a comment saying anything remotely close to "Dog's mouths are actually very clean, much cleaner than humans." I will puke!)

Jell-o Slide (you know like a mud slide)

I don't talk to many people at work. There's always work to be done and "they" don't really like us to socialize because they like us to at least look like we are working every second. Aside from the fact that I don't talk much at work....from what I can tell my desk mate is a pretty quiet person. We rarely talk. We usually just joke about pretending we are sick so we can go home...or just walking out for lunch and not coming back...or pretending like we thought it was Friday (even though it's a Wednesday) and taking a four day weekend. We are all talk though. A lot of the work this time of year is pretty tedious so we just have to amuse ourselves with vain discussions about fleeing.

A few times, my desk mate and I, have had little discussions about The Office (TV show). One time we giggled about putting one of our co-worker's stapler in jell-o. Again, just vain discussion...something to giggle about for a few seconds.

Well, I sent my desk mate the following email on Monday afternoon......true story.

"Dang! I totally had a wonderful surprise for you today….but, it totally didn't work.

I put your stapler in jell-o, along with some other random items from your desk. Ok, it wasn't YOUR stapler…it's an old stapler that I had at home…but symbolically it was YOUR stapler because I didn't want to ruin your stapler.

Here's the story: I got this idea, of course, from The Office. But, I got the idea to do it to YOU when I sat at your desk, to get away from sick girl, while you were out of town. I swiped a cool round tac and a yellow binder clip and last night I found this old stapler at my house and added that to the mix. However, I made many mistakes along the way…and they are kind of comical so, I thought I would share them with you….

First, I made a smaller sized box of jell-o and it barely covered 1/3 of the stapler. I thought this would be easily remedied by making another box or two and it would be pretty cool because there would be layers of jell-o. The first box was orange, the second box was lime, and the third box was cherry!

I waited until the first batch of jell-o was set and then made the second batch. With each layer I added the tac, binder clip and some large paper clips. All seemed well until I waited too long to make the third batch last night and ended up having to make it this morning. Jell-o is not a fast thing you can just throw together but, I had started this project and I was determined to follow through. I made the last batch using ice cubes instead of cold water…that did help it set but, it wasn't fully set when I came to work. I figured I'd put it in the work fridge to give it a chance to better solidify and then leave it on your desk, when you went to lunch. I tried.

The stapler still wasn't fully covered by jell-o so, when I flipped it over onto a small plate, to get it out of the cool whip container I had made it in…I think the stapler was forced to shift in the jell-o and caused it to instantly start falling apart....jell-o slide!!! (like a mud slide)

I quickly shoved the mold (cool whip container) back onto the jell-o so it wouldn't fall off the plate on all sides. A lot of the cherry jell-o ended up on your desk. I think I did a good job of cleaning it up so I don't think there are any sticky spots…but, if there are, let me know, I'll come clean them up.

Well, that's the story. I hope you had a nice lunch.

Your desk mate,
Becky

PS – In the future I think I would only do the stapler…I think the other office supplies made the jell-o weaker. Also, the layers make a stapler/jell-o prank very vulnerable…no layers next time. And I think they used extra gelatin on The Office to keep the jell-o form. Or, I'm just an amateur." (end of the email)

Pretty fun experiment...I don't know if I'll try it agian....we'll see.

This was my desk mate's response.

"Oh my gosh. You are hilarious! You spilled jell-o all over my desk while I was at lunch? HAhahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!

That is funny. We should do that to Katie sometime."

Happy First Anniversary!

Yesterday (Sunday) was our first wedding anniversary! I can’t believe it’s already been a year. Nathan said, “One great year down and 49 more to go.” I’m pretty sure he is just referring to how, making it to your 50th anniversary is a major accomplishment…I don’t think he meant that after that…we’re through.

We pretty much celebrated on Saturday night. We decided to go out to dinner and decided on Ruby River. I’ve been there before, but man! I forgot how expensive it is! We ended up getting two appetizers and sharing them…which was a great idea. We got the sampler platter and the smoked trout. It was lots of food and a great variety! And we were able to avoid busting our budget. We haven’t been out on a date to an actual restaurant in a long time. It was really nice! It was fun to reflect on the past year and the things we have experienced and accomplished, and “where” we want to be next year.

After dinner Nathan took me to Gardner Village. We had heard about this place but, we had never been there. I thought it was just an outdoor mall with some eating places and such. It was very different from what I was expecting. All of the shops are in old buildings, houses, and cabins so in that sense it IS an outdoor shopping plaza. All of the stores seem to be specialty shops. There are a few furniture shops, quite a few boutiques, a candy shop, an ice cream shop, a bakery, a bookstore and art gallery/store and a number of Christmas shops. All together I think there are at least 10 to 12 building/shops.

The shops and grounds are decorated with Christmas lights and there are random elf scenes throughout the grounds that include elves doing various things to get ready for Christmas. No animatronics but it did kind of remind me of Christmas in the Park; in downtown San Jose (I miss that!). Some of the workers throughout Gardner Village were dressed as elves. One lady had braided pig tails that stuck straight out of the sides of her head. It was cute.

After we were there awhile I became curious about the houses and buildings. I asked Nathan if they just moved a bunch of old houses and buildings to this spot and put little shops in them? I often think Nathan knows everything and in the midst of asking him something, I realize, he probably doesn’t know that, why/how would he?….and then HE DOES!!!! He told me all about it. I think he read it on the internet! He reads everything, that’s pretty much why I always THINK he knows everything and then it turns out he DOES.

This is from the Gardner Village website and this is basically what Nathan told me, but if you want the whole history here’s the link: http://www.gardnervillage.com/history.php

“Archibald Gardner was one of the original settlers of Utah in 1847, when the first wave of pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley.

In 1849, Archibald Gardner entered into the doctrine of plural marriage. He took two new wives: Abigail and Mary Ann Bradford. He eventually married 8 other women, for a total of 11 wives, fathered 48 children, and saw his family swell to 270 grandchildren. Archibald provided separate homes for his wives. The children were all taught to be industrious at a very young age. Farms were worked by each mother and her young children. In the 1800's, basic needs were food and clothing. The farm provided food for the family, and the Gardner's mills provided clothing, and the needed items for the homes…”

One very large store is the old saw mill. It’s huge and very cool to walk around…I think there are 3 or 4 stories! Archibald’s Restaurant is in the mill as well. We had discussed eating at Archibald’s before we decided on Ruby River but, Archibald’s was SO busy, that I was glad we had already eaten.

I failed to mention that it was all pretty busy. Saturday was their annual Moonlight Madness Sale. All the stores were going to be open until midnight and they all had coupon drawings as you walked in their shops with amazing deals. Everything is pretty expensive there so they may have been amazing deals but, still way pricey.

It was so fun! I highly recommend it. We didn’t even buy anything. Just enjoyed looking at everything!

Earlier that day we took the top of our wedding cake out of the freezer. When we returned from our anniversary date Nathan cut us each a slice of cake. It was white cake with raspberry filling and butter crème frosting. I must admit, I thought it was going to be nasty and taste like the freezer but it was DELICIOUS!!! We took the rest of it to church and fed it to our Sunday school class of 12 & 13 year olds. They loved it! And they didn’t believe us when we told them it was a year old. They are so funny!

I know they are all probably going to be very different but, I think I’m going to like anniversaries! I definitely love being married!

What do you think it's going to be?

Well, we went to our second baby doctor appointment today! It was good and pretty fast. The coolest part was hearing the baby’s heart beat again. The first time we heard it, about four weeks ago, it was REALLY fast. They said that was normal. The nurse found my heart beat too and it was much slower.

This time the baby’s heart beat was slower then last time and the nurse said it is normal for the heart beat to get slower and more regulated throughout the pregnancy. She also said that her prediction is that it’s a boy. She told us there is an old wives’ tale that if the heart beat is a slower beat, which she said it was today that it is going to be a boy. Then she said, “But, people disprove that all the time. I still predict it’s a boy!”

It was exciting! But, next time, December 14th (Nathan’s birthday), we’re going to try to find out with an ultra-sound! As long as we can see the baby’s “area” and it’s not blocked by a foot or something we should be able to find out!!!

If you think you know what the baby is, cast your vote/prediction at the poll to the right!!! ---->

My Own Blog ~ How Exciting!

Believe it or not! I started this blog at the beginning of August! No joke! I just haven't posted anything until today. I must admit my sister Julie inspired me with her new blog "The Orange Oracle." She's pretty hilarious and I'm looking forward to her future posts. I, on the other hand, am neither hilarious nor nearly as wise as her…but, I hope to add a little to the wide world of blogging.

My husby and I are expecting our first child April 26th. I must admit I'm so scared for labor and delivery. Before we got preggers I was scared to be pregnant and granted I'm only 4 months along...so far, it hasn't been nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I've even come up with a list of the exciting parts of pregnancy.

1. Excited when you find out you are pregnant.

2. Excited when you aren't so sick anymore.

3. Excited to finally get to know what you are having (boy, girl)

4.Excited to finally show (little belly).

5. Excited to finally be in labor and get that big boy or girl out!

6. Excited to finally have the baby.

The only thing exciting in between those exciting times is when you tell someone that you are expecting and THEY are so excited too! Of course, I haven't experienced it all yet so, PLEASE tell me if there is more I should be excited about!

My friend Lindsey has filled in somemore blanks for me. I would have to agree with her, I'm looking forward to those exciting times she clued me in on, too!

"...you are definitely correct about all those moments! I think the only ones I'd add would be feeling the baby move & have hiccups, and then the feeling of the first time you can bend normally & sleep without your bladder waking you up 39 times a night after the baby is born! Then, of course, there's all the exciting moments of watching every new thing the baby does... aawwww.... babies!"

I figure if I focus on the exciting parts of pregnancy & life in general, I won't worry too much about how scared I am for labor and delivery.