Reality

I recently have been exposed to one of the nastier sides of being an adult...

PROFESSIONAL MANIPULATION AND HOOP JUMPING

I know that every job has its own challenges, I guess I never realized how every business is political. Especially education. I never expected to have to "play games" in order to "problem solve."

Basically, it sucks.

On the bright side, I have been exposed to one of the happier moments of adulthood...

WHEN YOUR HUSBAND TAKES CHARGE OF HIS EDUCATION!

Yay for Matt, I am so proud of how hard he is working. He is taking 24 credits at SLCC and I never see him anymore. Well that's not entirely true, I see him as he is getting into bed at night and as I am kissing him goodbye in the morning. It is so fun to see him actually enjoy being at school. He comes home telling me all the stuff he did at school (I learned how to hang a door, put baseboard on rounded corners, trim a windowsill, build a closet.... etc, etc, etc). It is so cute.

You Need To Read These

Ok so my mom introduced me to a new series that I am loving. But mostly, I love the whole story about the author and how he started writing these books, so I'll give you the short version to get you intrigued...
The author's name is Ben Behunin and his books are "Remembering Isaac," "Discovering Isaac," and "Becoming Isaac." Never heard of them? Probably not, because they are not for sale anywhere except for his house. Yeah. I know. So this guy is a potter, like making pots on a wheel, potter. He said he never had any interest in writing books until these stories were told to him, in his head. He said the voices telling him these stories kept coming until he finally gave in and started writing. He had a dream about what the books are supposed to look like, inside and out, and had to publish them his own way, he didn't want a publisher to ruin his vision of these books, since they were in fact not his books, but Isaac's, who "told" Ben the stories. These books are about a young potter trying to decide if he should settle in this little small town as the village potter, and about the lessons that the old potter, who has passed away, has taught all the people of the town. It's inspiring. I've been reminded of the little things we can do to remain Christ-like. It's not a self-help book, or in any way centered on a certain religion or preachy, but more about how this old potter taught people life lessons by relating everything to the life of Christ. Holy cow. Love it.
So my mom and I go to his house to get these books. His house. And you walk into his studio and it's a pottery studio, sooooo cool. He sells his pottery there too and most of it is beautiful. I have a little obsession with these tiles with quotes on them, he calls them "mudpies." You can check them out at his website below. I bought Matt one... I bet anyone can figure out which one... hahaha.

So seriously just take a look. Help out the local artists. I am seriously inspired by this guy. I asked him to come talk to my class about writing and he was totally up for it. Way cool.

Check out Ben's blog: http://rememberingisaac.blogspot.com/
Take a look at Ben's pottery site: http://www.potterboy.com/

YAY! YAY! YAY!

MAY 3, 2011!!!
(You can read the first chapter online... www.rickriordan.blogspot.com)

I'm THIS CLOSE to punching someone in the face...

Christmas

Matt and I are so lucky to have such wonderful family. We both get along really well with our in-laws and family functions are something we really look forward to. Needless to say, Christmas was fantastic. Matt's family celebrates on Christmas eve, and we all go bowling together and have dinner and presents later. Bowling was a lot of fun with the kids this year because they were both actually into the bowling part.
Remember when you didn't care about how many pins you knocked down, all that you care about was watching that ball roll down the lane? Claire was so funny. She did this every time it was her turn.






After bowling, we had dinner, opened presents, and watched the Fischer 2010 video that Randy made. That is probably my favorite part of the night because it is so fun to go over everything we did during the year. Then the kids played with their new toys, meaning all the boys played with Brad's new nerf guns. We ended up leaving around 11:00, only to go home and do Christmas just the two of us. I like doing this because we usually are already in the present-opening spirit and it is fun to be together.

On Christmas morning, we slept in until 10:00! Then we headed out to my mom's house and spent the whole day there, eating, sleeping, opening presents, playing games, watching basketball and just messing around. The Decker family came over for dinner and we all got into some games together. It was so fun to have everyone there... well Jeff was only partly there because he had to get up at 3:30 in the morning to go to work. It was such a great day.

Merry Christmas!

Christmastime

This December has been super busy for us, Matt has been finishing his semester and had to take almost a full week off for finals so he could "study," which basically means so he could sleep in and have me help him finish his take-home final and copy old tests into his notes... Anyways... It was crazy for me to finish off the month and get my students all set for the break, and finally get caught up on that stack of stuff on my desk that I can never seem to find time for.
Luckily, through all the craziness, Matt and I have been able to do some of the things on my mental "Christmas To-Do List," including:
1. Attend the "Forgotten Carols" (Easily one of my favorite traditions)
2. See the lights downtown with Tim, Kamie, Kendra, Lance, Jenna and Jake
3. Attend the Christmas performance of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir featuring David Archuletta
4. Shop, shop, shop (which I HATE, HATE, HATE!!!!)
5. Eat lots of Myrna's sweet rolls
6. Have my family over for dinner to celebrate Alex's 21st birthday
7. Go with my mom, Jeff, Alex, and Cassie to get my mom's Christmas tree and have dinner to celebrate my mom's birthday
8. Listen to SOME Christmas music

I really do love this time of year.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!