Christmas Letter

We decided to do a Christmas letter on our blog. A whole lot easier and no paper.

Well this has been an exciting and eventful year. Last December we were moving from Greeley to Cheyenne in the mist of a blizzard. We lived with the hub's family for about 8 months. In that time the hub finished at LCCC with not one but two associate degrees in Chemistry and Biology. I finished with a BA in Elementary Education and Spanish from the University of Northern Colorado and had a job in Rock River, WY teaching kindergarten and preschool by the time graduation came. Over the summer, the hub got a job with CBS news as a camera man and loved the experience. I taught 1st grade summer school and tried to get my room ready for the next year. We didn't have much free time but when we did we took a trip to Disney Land with my family and went camping with some old friends.

Even though we loved living with the hub's family, it was time to move on. We moved "over the hill" and the hub and I started school the same day. The hub working on his degree in Chemistry and I in my own classroom. It has been a hard semester for both of us. The first year of teaching is tough, don't let anyone tell you differently. The hub had a good semester of school but lots of reading made it sometimes discouraging for him (he ended up getting his fifth semester of straight A's!). I have realized that I may have gotten some teaching genes from my mother and am gaining the respect of my co-workers.

This past year the hub found that he loved the game of bowling (thanks to our brother-in-law) and is actually pretty good. He is getting a bowling ball for Christmas. I, on the other hand, like the game of Wii bowling and have held the title of pro-bowler for about 2 months now. We found that Nintendo Wiis are very hard to come by so we bought a few (with the help of the father and brother-in-law) and sold them before Christmas. We made a good chunk of change on ebay. Sorry for those who were trying to get one at the store, we bought them all.

For the future:

The hub is still thinking about dental school and we will see what happens with that in the future. He plans on taking the DAT before this summer.

I will continue teaching until plans change (we have a baby :) ). I am liking my job more everyday and it gets easier all the time. I am pretty lucky to get to work with those kids.

We are thinking of taking a large vacation this summer with some friends. Anyone up for Hawaii in July?!

Well, that's about all for us. We are reminded during this time of year of the humble birth, the exemplar life, and the redeeming death and resurection of our Savior and Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. May we all keep His teachings in our hearts all year round and share His love with others.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Tree Fun

The tree in all its glory

We decided to get our first Christmas tree this year since we have room and are going to be home for most of the month. This was very exciting. Our first tree! Well, things fell through for a few weeks and the weather was suppose to be terrible (which it wasn't) so we decided to just buy a tree from a tree farm. We really didn't think things through very well because when we found the perfect tree, paid for and put it on top of our car, we had nothing to tie it down with. Ooops! the hubby ended up sitting in the back seat with the window rolled down, holding the trunk of the tree on top of the car. It was a cold ride.

After we got the tree home we had to cut the bottom of it off. We do not have a saw so the hub decided to use our NEW kitchen knives. He thought that because the man doing the demo on the knives cut through wood that he could too.(in my defense he also cut through a steel bar)

We started and got through about 1/2 a centimeter until the knife got too waxy. We then borrowed a saw from my uncle and got the tree inside to decorate with our seven ornaments. Looks good huh. Happy Holidays!

Right after we set up the tree we got a call from my bro, he and the fam were at the parents house and best of all they brought Lil'Mil it was a good time.

Lil'mil wants the camera and the hat.

We are getting to know each other.


You can't tell here but lil'mil is jumping. He likes to jump.

Tagged

Can't Believe it! Tagged already...thanks Jenn! Here are some interesting (maybe) facts about the Milmonsters. Discalmer... we co-wrote this so if it sounds like the person who wrote this is a skitzophrenic thats why. We took a few pictures to document our tag blog. Hope you like them!

1) Wii enjoy playing the Wii. We aren't huge gamers or anything. (Well I might be... deep down. -hub) We love bowling and tennis and are officially pro bowlers on the Wii (this just means you get a cool ball). But out in real life the hub is the only great bowler between us both. The most memorable time in Wii land was on day 2, we where going at it, Tennis style, when all of the sudden 'Wam Bamb Doie' a jolt of pain shot up my arm. The wife nailed me a good one. I'll get even though... I only need the ideal moment. (I think the most memorable time was when I beat our brother-in-law in bowling because he is suppose to be something great! -the wife).


2) We are on a Harry Potter-a-thon. We have listened to the first five books in almost three months. It seems like any chance we get we will turn it on...doing dishes, driving, cooking dinner, or just hanging out. Just about any time except sleeping and taking a shower (the noise of the water or being unconcious doesn't help). The wife sometimes has to turn it off so we can have a desent conversation. We always watch the movie after we are done and are dreading having to wait for the last two.
3) Coco crispies is about the best cereal out there. I like the general mills cheep kind in the big bag, it has a space man with a big drill gun on the cover... its pretty cool. The only thing better than coco crispies is coco crispies smoothered in cold vit-D milk, you know the kind that sticks to the sides of the glass. However, whole milk dosent often make it from the grosher's refridgerator to the cart. So life is hard. Also I had to make a special deal that I won't eat it for a main meal. So I have to eat flavorless fiber cubes first and then i'll wash it down with coco crispies. (We are all hoping this is a silly phase the hub is going through and soon he will realize that the fiber cubes are much better for him. I think they are quite delicious. -the wife).


4) We are trying to go green in our house. We have a green table, green cups, green plates and bowls...no, we are really trying to help out our environment. We changed all our light bulbs to energy saving ones. We recycle as much as the city of Laramie will let us. We traded in our SUV for an economical scooter. A very cool economical scooter. The wife takes the bus to work. We keep our house at an almost freezing point of 64 degrees. And we have some great cloth bags which we always manage to forget when we go shopping. (And we make our own shoes. j/j -the hub.)



5) For most people the alarm clock rings at 6:30 or 7:00 am. But, not in this house. But mine goes off at an early 4:45am. The hub never hears it though and I get to watch him sleep another 2 hours while I get ready for the day. He sometimes makes noble attempts to wake up at an early hour (around 6am) but mostly is still asleep as I walk out the door. Why do you get up so early? you ask. Well, I have about a 40 minute commute and everyone knows that preparation is the key to being a successful teacher (so is getting to sleep an extra 40 minutes on a dark bus). I don't mind it though. The hub lovingly refers to me as his sugar mama. I'll get him back some day.


6) Holidays, unlike most people I realized that thanksgiving dinners come in three's and four's when I got married. Its great, night before thanks giving, thanksgiving dinner, the morning of, thanksgiving dinner, the afternoon... thanksgiving dinner, and some times if I'm really lucky the day after, o yes thanksgiving dinner. At the end of the holiday I need another couple days just to hibernate. Life is good when family lives close and blueberry pies are plentiful. (This the the exact reason we decided to switch holidays with the families this year. -the wife). Which means one Thanksgiving dinner, but, at least two Christmas dinners.



7) Saturdays..."Saturday is a special day. Its a day we get ready for (the rest of the week)." Saturdays are really hectic around these parts. Since I am gone pretty much all week and the hub has school, Saturday becomes the day we do all the things we were meaning to do all week long. This is a typical Saturday....Sleep in until 7 or 8, get up and start cleaning (listening to Harry Potter of course), take a shower, get a shopping list in order, go shopping, hit the laundary mat, do some unfinished homework, squeeze a lunch in there somewhere, and then its already 5pm. We then prepare our Sunday school lesson for the next day, maybe watch a movie, eat dinner, and then go to bed. Sometimes our routine is complicated by UWYO football games or emergency Primary program practices but we always fit everything in and feel cheated out of our relaxing Saturday at the end of the day. Sundays then become lazy couch fests after church gets out.


Tradicionaly you are post to tag seven more people, however we are new to the blogging buiznezz and the few bloggers we know have all just recently been tagged. we feel kindof bad like we broke a chain letter or glass pitcher or somehting... not really


Our Wii characters got a little bored while waiting to take a picture. They are not very photogenic. This is mine, hitting the hub in the arm. He seems surprised but this is a regular occurance.

Pumpkin Carving

Happy Halloween

Ever since I was a little tike I have been a big fan of Halloween. Pumpkin carving is possibly the best part of Halloween. When I lived in Argentina I even went so far as to carve a watermelon, (they don't do Halloween down there).

I put it up out side and waited for the little Argentinos to come knocking. I even got some class A candies to hand out..... my comp ate them...
No one came. I think a glowing face was a bit to much for the little town of Barradero....(superstitious perhaps). So in the spirit of keeping good times alive we invited some friends over on friday night to carve some pumpkins. It was a good time.
The wife had a hard time trying to think of the perfect face, but nailed it with her goofy face. I opted for the scary beyond belief option.Good Timez