Burnt Toast.

The fire alarm went off at the Marriott Library today due to burnt toast, we're assuming up in the staff breakroom. Me being security was in charge of doing roll-call for library staff and making sure everyone gets out of the building. I was dumbfounded by the sheer number of people that, even though the building was potentially on fire, felt that it was okay to lean against the building or just not leave at all. Me and the others in my department had to put ourselves at risk to heard out all the people that feel they're important enough they deserve a personal escort out of the building. After I did roll call for the staff, I came back and found that everyone was huddled up against the building and then just decided to go back in even though the alarms were going off. So I had to run in after them and inform them that they can't enter the building until the fire marshal releases it back to us. Then they all go upset and moaned and whined their way back out. I had to go and round up people that didn't leave and found people that had never left at all! They were still at the computer, listening to their ipods, and sleeping.

I hope I never get to the point where I put other people's lives at risk because my own life is "inconvenienced."

Thanksgiving Day.

We all went up to Grandma and Grandpa Hodson's for dinner. I was surprised that no one choked or lit anything on fire this year. And Jed once again won the family eating contest with a whopping 6 pounds. Yuck I'm not sure what mom's laughing at. And I'm never quite sure what Chris's doing.

Four generations on dad's side.

Four generations on mom's side....and grandpa's hat.

Katrina in "These aren't Thanksgiving decorations."

Aayye. They love Thanksgiving.

I'm working at actually being in pictures occasionally. Plus I need more pictures with Katrina.

The little kids decorating dreamcatchers that Grandpa Hodson carved.

Breann always hides, but I actually got a picture of her.

Some of the fam.

Matty playing soccer. He's pretty good for having such tiny little legs!

This one's just adorable.


I was sad when it was over. But now we have Christmas to look forward to. We're going to be spending it with Chris's family this year. I love the holidays!

Our super awesome weekend!

The weekend after Thanksgiving we did a ton of stuff. Katrina, Brian, and Matthew came in from Colorado. Seeing the lights at Temple Square.

Playing Apples to Apples. Our family's favorite game!

Dad/grandpa and Matty.

I told you it's our favorite.

One day we went to the church to play basketball. It was going well until it broke out into madness and we had a theraputic game of dodgeball!

Dodgeball is all fun and games until Brent broke his shoe.

Mom even joined in on the fun.

Brian had a little too much fun.

I think Dad hit the most people.

We also set up Mom and Dad's Christmas tree. Thanksgiving and Christmas are my favorite holidays so I had a blast!

The finished product. This tree is so easy to put up. We spent more time decorating than we did assembling.

We have to get creative in my family.

Brent let us use the decorations he brought back from his mission to the Czech Republic.

Football party. Go Utes!

We went up to Jed and Breann's for a football party. We had a blast. Especially when we won. Go Utes! Annie loves the cookies I made. And they're so easy to make!

Jed calling Brian during half time.

Becky's been enjoying the game just a little too much.

I don't even know what's going on here.

We like to pretend that Breann drinks beer while she's preganant.

Still having too much fun.

Pumpkin carving.

I've got a bit of catching up to do. And I always forget to upload the pictures in backward order of how I take them. This is mine. It's supposed to be a mouse holding a candy corn.

Chris was more creative, as always, and did Charlie Brown.

I tried to get a picture of his "concentrating face" but he actually attempted to smile in a picture for once.

Amazing invite.

I went to my parent's house over the weekend and there was a big official looking envelope on their counter for me. It was from ISLP (International Scholar Laureate Program) to do an overseas study with a bunch of different places and topics to chose from. The one I want to do goes to China and would be alongside Chinese specialists doing an archeological dig on the tomb of some ancient emperor. I'd also be interacting with Chinese professors, students, and delegates. I would kill to go! But I'm sad that I can't, unless someone wants to give me $5,500. Eh?

Who would've thought I'd get an invite like this?!

Metallica Concert!

Chris and I went to Metallica last night! We were way up in the nose-bleeds but it was still awesome. They snuck in a 2nd opening band though, so everyone was disappointed when the lights came on and we thought it was Matallica and then it wasn't. I thought the 2nd band sounded better, but every other word out of their mouths was a cussword so I still didn't like them much. Plus I'm not a huge fan of heavy-metal or whatever it was.

I'm glad we remember to bring earplugs though. It was so loud in there I could feel my clothes vibrating. I was surprised to see that people were bringing little kids with them. Chris saw a kid that was about 5. The concert didn't get out until about 11:30. It just amazes me where people will take their kids.

They had cool lasers and pyrotechnics with the music. There were flamethrowers under the stage and it was so big and hot when they went off that we could feel the blasts of heat way up at the top. They all changed guitars after every song, there were some neat looking ones. On a random note, they all wear very tight pants for being such old men. They played an unreleased, so that was cool and came back and did about three encore songs. They played Sandman though and that's by far my favorite song of theirs.

I ended up sitting by a man that could've eaten me if he wanted. He was huge! I swear his thigh was as big as my entire upper body. It was just awkward because he was spilling out of his chair into mine and brushing against me. I felt bad for bumping into him so much, but I was practically sitting on the other armrest to get away from him. And the guy behind me kept hitting me in the head. I'm not sure why I decided to take a shower before we left because by the time it was over you couldn't tell anyways. The joys of concert going.

I was bummed that my camera didn't work though. I tried taking some on my phone but I doubt they'll turn out. This is a lot of ramblings, but it was the first concert I've been too and I'm still stoked about it! Plus, it was something new and exciting that spiced up my otherwise monotonous routine. Hooray!

Anniversary numero Uno!

Our first anniversary was on the 13th. We were going to go camping that weekend but then it decided to snow so we had to come up with other plans. We spent most of the weekend just hanging out and watching movies. One day we went to the Draper outlets (all five of them) and I got some really cute Halloween decorations, after which we went to Ikea to buy some shelves. I found something online about doing glass blowing, so on the actual day we went out to Thanksgiving Point and walked around a bit and then went to the Art Institute gallery and did glass blowing. It was so much fun! When we left we of course had to go walk through Cabela's. Romantic, no? Then we went down to my parent's and picked up the top of our wedding cake. Later that night Chris took me to dinner at Biagge's. I'd never heard of it before but it was really good. Thankfully we got a table by a fireplace, so I was nice and warm. When we got home we decided to actually try the cake. I really wasn't too bad. We both had a slice, but we decided to just throw the rest away. Then we finally gave each other the gifts we'd gotten for one another. Chris bought us Metallica tickets! I'm so excited! We'd both taken Tuesday off too so that we could go do a temple session at the Jordan River temple. Plus we had to go out there to pick up the flowers we made glass blowing.




Both of our flowers. Mine's on the right and Chris's is on the left, it's hard to see but his is black and red. (P.S. Delynn, I love those Halloween towels and the pumpkin!)

The remnants of our wedding cake....and our dirty counter.

Me attempting to make the start of the flower.

The Art Institute guy finishing the end of Chris's flower.

Chris decided to do a video of me. I forgot my camera could take videos. The sound isn't very exciting, all you can hear are a bunch of fire ovens right behind Chris. We used basically huge tweezer/tongs to pull the glass out, they get really sticky with the glass if you don't get them wet.

The whole weekend was so much fun. I was bummed out that we couldn't go camping, but we had a blast anyway. I can't believe we've been married for a year! It's just flown by.

Reminiscing... one year later

Our first anniversary is tomorrow! Time has flown by so quickly, it doesn't feel like it has been a year at all. I've been thinking about our wedding a lot the last few days and realized that I don't have a written down account of the day anywhere, so I'm going to at least type one up. I'm going to omit a few details though for the sake of it not getting back to some people. Anyways...

So I woke up early and went down to get my hair done at Valerie's (a lady that lives up the street that I've known since I was a baby). I think it took about an hour and a half to get my hair done and then I headed back home. I'd made sure to pack all my bags the night before so I wasn't stressing. My mom told me to change my clothes that I was wearing to the temple though because she thought the outfit I wore to our dinner (we did that instead of a lunch) the day before was cuter. So I changed my clothes and then mom, dad, and I were off to the Salt Lake temple around 8:00ish.

We get to the temple and we get the marriage certificate and our witnesses (Chris's dad and my dad) in order and finalized. After we got all of that done we went our separate ways to get ready. I took my temple dress in case they said my wedding dress was too ornate, but they said it was fine (minus needing a little jacket since it was short-sleeved) and I was so excited! The temple worker kept getting upset with me though because I handed the key to my locker to my mom; I guess she thought we'd get separated and never see each other again. By this time I was so giddy and excited. I'd been getting so tired of people asking me "are you nervous?" and "are you sure?", seriously, isn't it bad if I'm as nervous as they expected me to be?

The walk to the celestial room was the longest walk of my life but at the same time it barely took any time at all. The temple worker left we at the door and I walked in and Chris was already there. I could see his eyes light up and he told me how beautiful I looked and then we sat on one of the couches. There was another couple on a couch opposite from us and I guess Chris had been kind of grouped with him because Chris kept giving him a silent countdown until it was to be our turn. It was adorable how excited he was.

They finally came to get us and took us down the hall to our sealing room and had us wait outside so that Elder Jack Goaslind (the man to do the sealing) could give us a few instructions. We finally got to walk in and I was so happy to see almost all of the people we love most in the world (minus a few that were in the waiting room due to age, not being endowed yet, etc) there to support us. I was so excited that I don't really remember much of the ceremony, and because I was crying so hard. I'm really glad I had thought to bring some tissues and that my mom was smart and gave me some waterproof mascara! When the ceremony was over we exchanged rings and then Elder Goaslind handed me the marriage license and said "Here's the deed to your property." After that we hugged and talked to everyone and then we headed down to get ready for pictures.

After we filtered out of the sealing room we went back to our dressing rooms to get ready to out to do pictures. I somehow got done before Chris and was waiting by the doors. A male temple worker went off to find him for me and came back with the wrong guy, but then Chris walked around the corner. Picture taking was good at first, but then it got colder and rainier. I think I managed to not get the veil too dirty though, which is good since I borrowed it from Katrina. When we got done with the pictures we went back to change into our regular clothes to get ready for setting up for the reception. An interesting turn of events though is that Chris went with his family who then decided to go get something to eat (which I didn't find out until later) and I went with my parents and went home and took a nap. So right after we got married I had no idea where Chris was for hours.

I had to run and get my hair touched up while everyone was eating lunch because Chris kept pulling on my ringlets during the pictures. I got back home and we were setting up for the reception and then the photographer showed up. She wandered around taking pictures while I got my dress and veil back on and while the rest of the family showed up. We decided to do all the pictures before the reception so we wouldn't have to deal with it when we were trying to talk to all the people coming through. We had Brian take less formal pictures throughout the reception. We got so caught up that we cut the cake and did the garter/bouquet toss in the last 20 minutes before we left. I thought Chris was going to mash cake in my face so I did it first and then he was nice...he still brings that up from time to time.

Some of the guys from my side of the family decorated the car, I guess Chris's brother's didn't remember/want to; we especially liked the balloon structure attached to the antana and were sad when it flew off on the freeway. We finally escaped to go change our clothes. My friends Beth and Bri were up there helping me to track everything down. It was nice having a few minutes with them alone. I also took a few minutes to run around and give out my bride's maid presents and the gift I got for my parents. We finally got all our stuff in the car and then went back in so that we could re-exit with everyone blowing bubbles (instead of rice throwing). And then we were off!

Wow, that was long. Mainly for my own records so if you actually read it all the way through you're awesome!

100 books - stolen from Tiffany

I stole this from Tiffany. It's a list of 100 classics and apparently the average adult has only read 7. I always knew I was above average; I've read 23. *humble* I just bolded what I've read.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien -- I've read half of them.
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible --I've read bits of it but I haven't read it all the way through yet. :(
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte -- I have this one checked out right now
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare -- I've read a lot, but not all of them.
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

President Monson!

Our stake had stake conference yesterday. They announced in church that it would be at the conference center. However, they failed to announce that 75 stakes were invited and that we could show up as early as 8:30. So as Chris and I drove down there around 9:45 there were no parking spots, traffic jams everywhere, road construction (as is the Utah way). We ended up parking in a residential neighborhood that was a 10-15 minute walk away. When we finally made it back and walked in the doors they started searching us like at the airport! Do they always do that? I've never been there before. We had to walk through metal detectors and everything. We ended up getting to our seats about 40 minutes late.

We ended up sitting behind two families with a bunch of rowdy kids. They made it really hard to concentrate. And sitting next to me was a teenage girl that kept getting down on the ground and kicking/scratching me with the bottom of her snow boots searing for parts of her cell phone that she exploded everywhere. I'm surprised I heard any of the speakers.

I thought they were just going to have a couple higher up people speak to us. We had the primary president, M. Russel Ballard, (we missed the first speaker), and then at the very end President Monson! I've never heard a prophet speak in person before, it was so awesome. Chris kept asking me why I was crying because he couldn't figure it out, being there like that was just the most unique experience.

We'd thought about just going back home when we saw how long it would take us to get in, but I'm so glad we decided to walk all the way down there. It was completely worth it.

Back to school I go.

Well the semester just started up again. It's bound to be a couple of interesting months. I'm kind of excited about it though because I finally got a major declared so I know where I'm going, what I have left, and don't have to waste time taking random classes deciding what I want to do. I decided on a major in Sociology and getting my criminology certificate. Hopefully I'll be done in two years. That'd be super.

I'm working two jobs though as well as being a full time student. I'm hoping it all works out okay. My current plan is to try and keep my campus security job the entire time I'm here and then move up to full time after I graduate. That what Chris might be able to start at the U and it'll be cheaper.

That's about all the exciting updates from me. I'm still trying to find my camera cable to put pictures up from the Declaration though.

Quick catch-up

I went to a work party last night for my new job (doing security at the library on campus) with a bunch of the people in my department.  Chris said he wouldn't come with me so that I'd be forced to talk to people and be social.  I ended up having a lot of fun.  We spent most of the time having wii tournaments and getting to know each other better.  I'm hoping this'll make being one of the newbies a lot easier.  This job is so much cooler than my other job.

In other news I finally got a major declared.  I'm doing sociology and going to get a certificate in criminology.  I'm hoping that I can get all of the classes when I need them and be done in no more than two and a half years.

Besides that I'm just trying to get ready for school to start and trying to keep the apartment relatively clean.  I'm trying to find new places to put things after Chris randomly rearranged all the furniture in the front room when I was taking a nap one day.

Well, I'm out.  I need to get some more done before I have to head to work.  I'll try to get on in a few days and post pictures from when we went with the fam to see the Declaration at the state capitol.

ABCs

A: Attached or Single? Attached
B: Best Friend? Chris, Brianna, and Beth
C: Cake or Pie? Limited flavors of each.
D: Day of the week? Thursday.
E: Essential Item? Chap stick.  I can't go an hour without it.
F: Favorite Color? Black and silver.
G: Gummy Bears or Worms? Worms.
H: Hometown? Born in Magna, UT, but I'd consider Murray my hometown.
I: Indulgence? French fries.
J: January or July? July, its so much warmer.
K: Kids? Someday.  They'll probably come right after I work out a system to keep the house clean.
L: Life isn't complete without? My family and Christopher.
M: Marriage Date? October 13, 2007.
N: Number of Brothers and Sisters? 2 brothers, 4 sisters
O: Oranges or Apples? Neither.  Unless they're juice in which case apple.
P: Phobias or Fears? Dogs, the dark, and strangers.
Q: Quote? I can't think of a specific one right now.
R: Reasons to smile? A clean house, a day off, time spent with family and friends
S: Superman or Wonderwoman? I vote batman or ironman.
T: Tag five people: I would, but I think all four or five people I know on here have done this already.
U: Unknown fact about me? I can't whistle.
V: Vegetables? Corn's my favorite.
W: Worst Habit? Procrastinating.
X: X-ray or Ultrasound? I've had my mouth x-rayed before.
Y: Your favorite food? Pasta.
Z: Zodiac sign? Pisces.

Weekend get-away

I'm a little late getting this up, but its better than never.  We went away for the weekend with Chris' family out in Heber and stayed at the Zermatt.  It was an interesting weekend but it helped me feel more a part of the family.

Chess time.

The Zermatt

Sadie five seconds after telling us she wasn't tired

Chris playing with Nicole

Late night tennis

The Alpine Slide