A Christmas Tree?

It has been pretty warm here the past week, as you can see from Matt's flip flops from our Christmas tree trip. About 70 degrees (like 20 celcius for all you Canadians) even though it doesn't ever get very cold here, it is usually down to the low 60's in December. The weather is an important part of our Christmas tree purchase. Because it never gets that cold here, we don't have the same type of foliage as other places...like we have the Leland Cypress tree. And people here, they use that as a Christmas tree. Ummm...NO. It is a very ugly bush-type tree. There are some places that sell the Virginia Pine, also a somewhat ugly tree, however, its biggest problem is that Matt is allergic to pine trees. Then they have the Douglas Fir. This is a fir tree, but it has very long needles, like 1 1/2 to 2 inches. These are the only "christmas type" trees that will grow here. But since they are ugly, they bring in trees from out of state. You can get Fraser Firs from NC, I guess they can grow them there because it actually gets fairly cold there. You CANNOT get a Noble Fir. Anywhere. Fraser Firs are only available at certain tree farms. SO we drove to a tree farm that carried Fraser Firs. And we found a pretty tree. And paid dearly for it. It was way overpriced. I don't know what we are going to do next year, probably get a fake one I guess. We really like our tree this year. It is really pretty and it smells really good. But it was quite the ordeal!

On Saturday night we went out with our friends, Kyle and Almira to dinner. Then we went and saw Casino Royale. The movie was good but I seriously thought it was over about 5 times before it actually ended. I guess we are all lame because all we could talk about it how tired we were after, it was the late show!!

Today I went to the Mart. What is the Mart, you may wonder. Let me tell you, the Mart is the largest wholesale mall in the US. It is a 13 story building with more stores then I have ever seen. Truly it was kind of overwhelming. You have to have a wholesale and a resale license to get in, and you have to prove that you have a legitimate business with a yellow page ad or URL. BUT, lucky for me I have a friend who got us passes to go. So since it is so hard to get in, the Mart isn't really that crowded. It was weird and seriously we couldn't look at everything there. They have all kinds of stuff. You could really make a killing buying stuff and selling it on eBay...which is basically what I guess online retailers do...buy stuff at the Mart and sell it for more online. So eveything is SOOOO cheap. It was really fun to go but kind of crazy. I will have to go again when I have more time and I am more familiar with the layout. They have maps and stuff that people study to get the most out of their trip to the Mart. Crazy!


I can't seem to get a good picture of our tree. If I take it with a flash you can't see the lights, if I take it on a different setting I can't hold the camera still enough and it looks blurry. I think I need to figure out how to use my camera....

Madness

Well I am kind of out of it on the blogging. It seems that the last thing I want to do is spend more time on the computer! I wanted to post some pictures from a while ago. These are from Halloween. The first one is from the night before, right after Sara gave me the idea to be Edward Scissorhands. Thanks for the idea sis! I made the hands in less than an hour and I won a hundred bucks the next day, as you can see from the other picture! Halloween was fun but it already feels like it was SOOO long ago.
This week was Thanksgiving. I don't know that I fully get the American's and their Thanksgiving, we get more days off for Thanksgiving than we do for Christmas, which seems odd, but I definately appreciate the time off. We went to Matt's mom's house for dinner, with John and Lindy. My mom wasn't cooking anything because she isn't American? (yeah, way to get into the spirit) so they came with us!

We had a really good dinner, but the fun began at midnight. I went up to the outlet malls with some of the girls from my work. They were having a midnight madness sale. When we left a 11:30 we couldn't believe how many cars were on the road and we were wondering where they were all going. Yeah, they we going to the outlet malls too!! It was SOOO crowded. They ran out of parking and we had to park across the street. Then they had lines just to get into the stores. And then ofcourse the lines to buy stuff were forever long. We actually had a really good time though. We were all laughing at all the people there. We worked out a system where as soon as we got into the store, someone would stand in line while other people shopped around, then we would take turns until everyone had looked around and usually by then we were at the front of the line. They had some amazing deals. Entire stores were 50% off everything. So we found cute stuff for REALLY cheap. I was surprised though because I thought it would be like boxing day. It was WAY more crazy.

On Saturday we got to see Rob and Haley because they were in town for the Thanksgiving break. They are so fun we wish would could find more friends like them, or that Rob would just drop out of medical school and they would move back here. We went to Ikea with them which was fun, but they were out of everything that we wanted to buy so that was kind of disappointing.

Here are some photos from Thanksgiving.

Nightmare

Well, we haven't posted in so long because let's be honest, I'm the only one that posts, Matt won't. I have been working 7 days a week beginning the day that I last posted. I finally had a day off this past Sunday but I was living in my own personal nightmare so it wasn't any fun.

If I have talked to you over the last few weeks, I have certainly mentioned the "go live". Our office went live on a new software system and through a series of unfortunate events this became my project event though it doesn't relate to my job one bit. The other thing is, I do freelance work for other docs, it seems like I am becoming more popular, which is good, but it keeps me WAY too busy. And since I can't say NO to people(which explains the nightmare we have been living), I end up working through the middle of the night trying to catch up with my many projects.

Anyway, as I have begun to catch up with all of the work that I have to do, sitting at the computer ends up being the last thing I want to do for fun. But this story is SOOOOO good it cannot go untold.

SO - on Thursday, I am at work and I get a call from a guy in our ward. We have babysat for them before and we SWORE we would never do it again. Well, his wife's grandma died and they need to go to Seattle. They are leaving Saturday and will be back Tuesday. Can we watch their kids because she is 7 months pregnant and doesn't want to fly alone. Well, it all comes back to the part about me not being able to say NO. I tried, I said that I would be working everyday but Sunday so they should really find someone else. But they found other people for the times when I was at work and we ended up babysitting.

First of all, RESPECT to ALL of you who have three kids. HA! And anyone who has more than 3. I cannot imagine. It was a nightmare. Part of the problem is that our lifestyle is not very condusive to kids. We both work - ALOT and we aren't home alot, which makes it hard. Anyway, besides all that, these kids are terrors. They flushed a whole roll of toilet paper down the toilet, well I guess they tried because it didn't go down and then Matt had to fish it out. They also left the lights on in the car, which meant that the battery was dead when we went to go to church. They wet the bed. They were sick. They were crying, fighting and throwing up.

They also have a dog, who is NOT housebroken, not even a little bit. Lets see, we cleaned up feces and pee no less than 50 times. This dog is defiant. He will look at you and pee on the floor. And according the parents the kids are supposed to clean it up because it is their dog. Yeah- riiiiight. And for anyone who knows me I have a very strong gag reflex, picking up poo, puppy poo that is all squishy is not something that I look forward too. Matt and I have solidified our NO DOG policy. Our poor children will NEVER have a dog.

But YEA! The nightmare is OVER. We are back home. I need to tell some of the good stories. Like I won $100 on Halloween and I have awesome pictures. Hopefully I won't be as busy and I can post again soon. If not - I get three days off at Thanksgiving so I should be able to catch up with more posts then.

Blaszczyks - so good to hear from you. I always loved babysitting your kids. They weren't crazy!! You guys need a blog or at least send me an email address to get in touch. And the winter and summer bedding thing. Yeah, I didn't really notice until I moved here but we have distinct winter and summer bedding, we also have distinct winter and summer clothing, like you could pack away you winter clothes and actually not need them until winter!! In Calgary it doesn't get as hot and it can snow at anytime so I guess no one would go to the same effort, you will always need blankets and sweaters even in July. Here people don't wear sweaters except between October and March because it is WAY to hot. People here are weird...but I guess that makes me weird too!!!

Fall is Here

Friday was the ward Trunk or Treat. It was cute to see our nursery kids all dressed up. Even though they couldn't recognize me under a cowboy hat (okay they are only 3). It was at a tree farm and they had hay rides and food and a fire. And then everyone trick or treated to all the cars. It was pretty fun and there were some good costumes.
On Saturday we went to the movie The Prestige. I love going to movies on opening weekend because there is always a chance that you will get to be in the test audience. I have gotten it three times. Lucky us! We were a test audience. I love that! The movie was AWESOME. No seriously, I can't explain how awesome because if I talk about the plot, at all, it will give it away. I will confess that I am a HUGE Christian Bale fan but I don't think I am bias because Matt thought it was really good too. Go see it. It was SO good. The director cuts alot (same guy who did Batman Begins) so there are a lot of flash backs but it was still easy to follow and there was such a huge twist at the end! Seriously go see it today.

Fall is here. We switched our blankets (I know you were all dying to know). And today I saw all the landscapers in all the neighborhoods switching to the winter flowers. It is getting cold, but I am getting excited for the holidays. Mostly Black Friday!! Nothing else too exciting is going on.

Brian

Fall is here in Georgia. We can tell because it is finally beginning to cool off. Unfortunately it is that odd time where it is hot in the day and cold at night. This is a problem for us because we can decide if we need to switch to our winter bedding. So far, we haven't but I think we might by next weekend. The thing is we go to bed warm but when we wake up we are not so warm....this may sound like a trivial issue but sleep is a hugely important part of my life and optimum comfort is a massive priority.

The story that we have to tell is from Saturday. We went to On The Border (I know that there are some OTB fans out there). We had been craving it. Seriously. So we get to OTB and we get this waiter. Brian. Ahhh....Brian. BEST WAITER EVER. Dude was like a mind reader. Maybe he is one of the folk from the show heroes and he can hear peoples thoughts. I'm not kidding. It was really like he was reading our minds. I eat salsa like crazy, it is really more like I am drinking it (please have you had the salsa there? it's awesome). Brian NEVER once let me run out of salsa. I always had an extra bowl waiting in the wings. And everyone knows Matt is OBESSED with white cheese dip. Well Brian brough him a little container to take his extra cheese dip home, and a bag WITH EXTRA CHIPS. Ohhhh Brian. We tipped Brian 50%. It was worth it. There is no picture to go with this post, but since Brian was such a life changing experience we had to share. We have been talking about him since Saturday. :)

Home At Last!

I had to go out of town on Thursday for work. So Matt and I didn't really do anything fun seeing as I just got back tonight. I had to go to a conference in Las Vegas. Ofcourse it takes the ENTIRE day to get home. I got up at 8 am and got home and 9 pm, the time change is killer. It was interesting because I haven't been to Vegas in a long time. I went with 2 co-workers and we arrived on Thursday night at 10 which was 1 in the morning our time, so we were basically zombies. The trip was for work so it wasn't like it was a barrel of laughs but there were some funny things.

Highlights
1. Celine - since I have the coolest boss, she bought tickets for us to go to Celine Dion on Saturday night before we flew home on Sunday. She thinks that people shouldn't go to Vegas and not see Celine. I think she is right. It was awesome!! The show was AMAZING. It totally gave me chills. If you haven't been you need to go. The coolest thing about the coliseum is that you feel really close (okay we had really good tickets) but she seems like she is just right there. And she talks to the audience in the middle of the show and stuff, it was way more of a show than a concert.
2. The Buffet - anyone who knows me knows that I love buffets. This one was awesome OFCOURSE. The dessert portion had mini everything, mini pies, mini creme brulee. Basically I gained like 5 pounds courtesy the buffet, but it was TOTALLY worth it.
3. The shopping - we were staying at Treasure Island which is across from Fashion Show Mall, the Wynn and the Venetian we also went down to the Forum shops. They all have awesome shopping. The layout of all the stores is so different and so cool. Not like anything else.

Lowlights
1. Cleavage - okay do people in Vegas not like to wear clothes. I have never seen so much clevage in my life. Everywhere that you look. Really people, put on some clothes.
2. Vegas Uniform - okay more funny than a lowlight, but the next time anyone goes there, please notice what the men are wearing. WAIT, you don't need to go there, I can tell you what they will be wearing, THEIR VEGAS UNIFORM. Dark straight leg jeans and a long sleeved button down shirt (probably from J. Crew), and the shirt will not be tucked in. I swear we would see groups of guys and they were all wearing the SAME THING. In fact the shirts were usually blue and striped. Do they all know something I don't know?!
3. THE SMOKE - SO BAD SO SO BAD. I guess we are spoiled because you can't smoke inside ANY buildings in our entire state, but I had a perma headache from the smoke. When we would step out of the meeting rooms there would be so much smoke INSIDE the hotel. Everywhere SO much smoke. Do they not have those Truth tobacco commercials in Nevada?

So basically I am glad to be back to reality. I guess that's an okay place to visit but I could NEVER live there. It is some alternate universe, at least the strip is. I know that you all hate this post because there are no pictures but I didn't take any. Sorry!

Apple Jubilation

On Saturday we went apple picking in Ellijay, Ga. It was a part of the Apple Jubilee! There is a farm where you go in, and they have all of these avtivities and then they have all of these rows and rows of apple trees, at the beginning of each row, they have a sign telling you what kind of apple is growing in the row. They have about 13 different kinds of apples. As you can see the rows were really long, this picture is from about halfway down looking back at the main store. That little white speck is the store where you can also buy apples, so that you don't have to pick them. You can also buy apple jam, jelly, pie, butter whatever else can be made from apples. The other activities that they had were fun but they would have been really fun for someone who was about 3 years old. They had these "John Deere" tricycles that the little kids raced around the track. They had a petting farm, which we could have gone in but we probably would have looked stupid being that only kids were inside the farm. They had wagon rides through the farm, which we tried out. They take you through the orchard, but only a tiny part, and they have all of these weird displays like fairytale paintings to make it seem like it is a fairytale forest...I think that one is for the kids too. The little black things in this picture are pigs. They had pigs races, which we enjoyed, but they were nothing compared to the pig races at the Stampede.

We decided to pick only Granny Smith apples because I am going to make some desserts and those are the best ones for pie and stuff. All of the trees were some kind of drawf tree so there were apple branches low enough to the ground so that little kids would be able to pick them. However, since Matt is tall he could reach the ones at the top of the trees that hadn't been picked over. We collected PLENTY but as we were leaving the guy was trying to tell us to take more. I guess he is the guy that works for the farm and has to pick the rest of the apples after the Apple Jubilee is over and there isn't pick-your-own anymore.
After we got back Matt went to conference with Dad, Nathan and John. Lindy, Mom and I watched a movie at Mom and Dad's. Priesthood doesn't start until 8 o'clock so when it was over they went to Sonic and then we all just went home.

Today we went to conference at noon. Then we ate "lunch" in between. It was really dinner but since it was at lunchtime I guess it qualifies as lunch. We had to make it and eat it with enough time to drive back to the church. Let's just say we were eating really fast. After the second session we all went back and had some pie and played some games. We were going to play apples to apples but Dad doesn't like that game. So then we played Take Two which is a variation of Speed Scrabble. I love speed scrabble, we used to play it with the Egberts. In Take Two you take two tiles instead of one each time someone completes their puzzle. I almost won but John took it in the last round but about 20 points....sad.