We have the most amazing sister-in-law (you know who you are! Love you!) who always remembers to send us birthday cards for our birthdays. It makes us feel loved and special. Amazing what a little card can do, huh?
I love that she does this! And I've decided I want to be like her when I grow up. :)
I do... awful... at it. Not because I don't remember everyone's birthdays - 'cause I always know when they are. (I'm clever like that.) Or because I don't have the card. (Two years ago, I went out and got cards for everyone's birthdays in the next 4 months - there were I think 11, and mailed I think 3 of them...)
But because I always forget to put a card in the mailbox. How hard is that really? Well, apparently very difficult! At least for me! I always think "I'll mail it closer to their birthday" and then the day before, or of, I'm like "oh no! I haven't mailed that card yet!"
Anyways, I started the year off with a bang... as in, I was late for Hal's sister Mary's birthday, which is Jan 1st. But in all fairness, I did mail it when we got back from Christmas... on the 30th.
So at least I mailed it before her birthday, right? And I mailed something!
Tomorrow is my brother's birthday (happy 19th birthday Ben!) and the day after that is Hal's brother's birthday (happy 19th birthday Ryan!) and I have yet to mail either card. So, once again... FAIL!!!
*Sigh*
Maybe I'll do better next month for Holly's birthday?
I'm hoping I can successfully do at least half of the year's birthdays on time! We'll see how it goes! But now that I've told all of you what my plan is.. I'll have to send cards, right?
So, just for my own calculations, I've got:
1 in Jan: Mary
2 in Feb: Ben(19), Ryan(19)
1 in March: Holly(13)
3 in April: "A"(3), Dad A, Michelle
1 in May: Cindy
4 (5 if I count me) in June: Hal, Lacey, Mom A, David, Dani
2 in July: "C"(1), "S"(8)
3 in August: Dad B, Kelly, Skyler
4 in Sept: "L"(3), "I"(5), Zac(11), Jake(13)
2 in Oct: Nick, Blaine
3 in Nov: Mem, Nickie, Mom B
1 in Dec: "E"(2)
That's 26 cards to mail out this year! (I'm not mailing one to myself or Hal.) Plus the card I'll send when Cindy has her baby in June. Then that'll be 27! Holly crap! That's a lot of birthday cards! One month at a time...
If you'll excuse me, I need to go mail Ben & Ryan's cards! :)
Friday, February 12, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
I had an epiphany!
This morning I woke up super excited! And rushed to find Hal to tell him what I'd learned in my sleep. (Yes, I periodically learn in my sleep. Like this time!)
People bet (as in gamble money) on things like football games so they can say "Hurray! We won!" and cheer and be excited... for they truly have won something.
Ta Da!!!! Epiphany!
Apparently I was still pondering my question of why it is people say "we" won, when they had nothing to do with it.
I can grasp why people say "we" sometimes... almost.
Say the High School football team wins a game. Technically the players who played (and the coach, I guess) are the only ones who win. But all of the players on the side line are part of the team, so they can all say "we" won.
I can even grasp the whole student body saying "we" won, it was the school's team.
I can even grasp the city saying "we" won. The school is in the city. (Or in the case of small schools that encompass a lot of area, the whole area can win.)
But much bigger than that and you can not possibly think you had anything to do with the win, 0r loss as the case may be. It's just delusional! You had no influence, no connection, no nothing!
So I'm back to my epiphany. You bet on the team, so you can win, too. Makes sense, almost, huh? :) I'm so proud of myself! I figured it out!
And if any of you feel like bashing on my discovery, keep it to yourself! I'm hoping I won't have to dream about crazy neighbors anymore! Ugh!
People bet (as in gamble money) on things like football games so they can say "Hurray! We won!" and cheer and be excited... for they truly have won something.
Ta Da!!!! Epiphany!
Apparently I was still pondering my question of why it is people say "we" won, when they had nothing to do with it.
I can grasp why people say "we" sometimes... almost.
Say the High School football team wins a game. Technically the players who played (and the coach, I guess) are the only ones who win. But all of the players on the side line are part of the team, so they can all say "we" won.
I can even grasp the whole student body saying "we" won, it was the school's team.
I can even grasp the city saying "we" won. The school is in the city. (Or in the case of small schools that encompass a lot of area, the whole area can win.)
But much bigger than that and you can not possibly think you had anything to do with the win, 0r loss as the case may be. It's just delusional! You had no influence, no connection, no nothing!
So I'm back to my epiphany. You bet on the team, so you can win, too. Makes sense, almost, huh? :) I'm so proud of myself! I figured it out!
And if any of you feel like bashing on my discovery, keep it to yourself! I'm hoping I won't have to dream about crazy neighbors anymore! Ugh!
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Guess what?
The Saints won the super bowl. Guess how I know?
My neighbors are screaming loudly in front of my house:
"We did it!"
"Wahoo! We f-ing did it!"
"The f-ing Saints won the f-ing Super Bowl!" (This is said with happiness, not displeasure...)
(Sorry, without the expletives it loses some of it's ... "charm." And I'm editing, not them.)
And then they dance to the music being played from the cars with all their doors wide open ...
The little kids all have balloons, running up and down the street...
There's a man (who's like 35 or something) strutting up and down the street in his tank top yelling "we did it! We did it!" over and over...
There's people calling others on their cell phones, shouting to be heard over the other people shouting...
We find it funny.
We just snuck to the window and video taped it. We'll try and post some of it tomorrow. It'll give you a taste of our neighborhood.
All I can think is... Wow... people sure get attached to their football team!
Is a team winning a game hundreds of miles away something "we" did? Or was it just "them" who did it?
Anyways, good night, ya'll!
My neighbors are screaming loudly in front of my house:
"We did it!"
"Wahoo! We f-ing did it!"
"The f-ing Saints won the f-ing Super Bowl!" (This is said with happiness, not displeasure...)
(Sorry, without the expletives it loses some of it's ... "charm." And I'm editing, not them.)
And then they dance to the music being played from the cars with all their doors wide open ...
The little kids all have balloons, running up and down the street...
There's a man (who's like 35 or something) strutting up and down the street in his tank top yelling "we did it! We did it!" over and over...
There's people calling others on their cell phones, shouting to be heard over the other people shouting...
We find it funny.
We just snuck to the window and video taped it. We'll try and post some of it tomorrow. It'll give you a taste of our neighborhood.
All I can think is... Wow... people sure get attached to their football team!
Is a team winning a game hundreds of miles away something "we" did? Or was it just "them" who did it?
Anyways, good night, ya'll!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
We fixed it!
Hal helped me dye my hair last night, in an effort to fix the missed spot... (isn't he a nice guy?! While he didn't want to help me, he did anyways! I sure do like him!)
It worked! Mostly. We used a brown dye I had, and the bright red is now a darker brownish red (more what I wanted in the first place), and the blond spot in the back of my head is just brown. Hmmm... well, at least it's harder to see brown in the middle of the red-ish brown, than blond in the middle of the bright red! Yay!
And so far, my hair hasn't started breaking off, or falling out. It does feel a bit... dead. (Think old ratty stuffed animal fur dead.) Not pleasant! But I'll just condition well, and we'll see if I can get it softer again.
So, now I know. I can dye my hair twice in one day without it all falling out, it just doesn't feel real great! And I probably shouldn't try dying my hair again all by myself, unless I'm really OK with my old color showing through! Hey! Now I know why they say "go within three shades of your old shade!" :)
I know, I've got a goofy grin... At least I wasn't yawning!
Which color is better? Can you actually see a difference?
It worked! Mostly. We used a brown dye I had, and the bright red is now a darker brownish red (more what I wanted in the first place), and the blond spot in the back of my head is just brown. Hmmm... well, at least it's harder to see brown in the middle of the red-ish brown, than blond in the middle of the bright red! Yay!And so far, my hair hasn't started breaking off, or falling out. It does feel a bit... dead. (Think old ratty stuffed animal fur dead.) Not pleasant! But I'll just condition well, and we'll see if I can get it softer again.
So, now I know. I can dye my hair twice in one day without it all falling out, it just doesn't feel real great! And I probably shouldn't try dying my hair again all by myself, unless I'm really OK with my old color showing through! Hey! Now I know why they say "go within three shades of your old shade!" :)
I know, I've got a goofy grin... At least I wasn't yawning!
Which color is better? Can you actually see a difference?
Monday, February 1, 2010
Hair pictures & oops!
When Hal got home, I had him help me take a picture of my hair.
Pretty color, huh?
Hal says it actually looks more natural looking in the picture than it does in real life. It's kind of... florescent...
So, after I dyed it, I was all excited! I was sitting here thinking about how good it looks, and remarking to myself (yes, I do talk to myself all the time) that I can dye it all by myself!
And then I heard a knock on my door. It was my friends - the missionaries! The elders stop by about once a week to chat with me for a while and share a message. They claim I'm a fun person to chat with in the middle of the day. I enjoy talking with them! Even if I do get cold sometimes! (Due to policy - either just this mission, or churchwide, I'm not sure - they can't come into my house unless there's a man here, like my husband. So we sit on my front porch to talk.)
Anyways, their first comment was that I'd dyed my hair! I was like "yup. Just barely. I did it myself." One of them (Elder Lewis, he's from Boise) paused... and then asked "what's the back look like?" I told him that I thought I did a good job, and asked him his opinion. And I turned around. And he laughed. And informed me it wasn't good. *sigh*
Well, at least he told me the truth! It's not good!
Somehow, I seem to have missed an entire section of my head! It's either that or for some reason this section didn't "take" the color, which I guess might be possible, but not likely.
Teach me to not go back and look at my hair again after it has dried! My hair - the blond part - is darker when wet. So it actually looked really good after I rinsed it, conditioned it, and combed it.
Total bummer! When Hal got home, after I showed him the front (that does look good, even if a little bright), I showed him the back. He tried really hard to not laugh. And suggested we dye it again.
So, that's the plan. We're going to dye it again. Tonight. He's going to help me make sure I get the back this time.
And before anyone says anything else: I know that I'm supposed to wait a while before dying again! I'm just not going to, OK? I'm going to dye it again now, so I'm not self concious when going out into the world. :)
This time, I'm going to use a brown dye (also purchased on clearance for 75¢), rather than the red. I'm a little afraid that it'll turn the section that I missed brown and the rest will be a different shade of red, but I guess we'll see! I think brown would blend in better than yellow... *sigh*
Here goes!
Pretty color, huh?
Hal says it actually looks more natural looking in the picture than it does in real life. It's kind of... florescent...So, after I dyed it, I was all excited! I was sitting here thinking about how good it looks, and remarking to myself (yes, I do talk to myself all the time) that I can dye it all by myself!
And then I heard a knock on my door. It was my friends - the missionaries! The elders stop by about once a week to chat with me for a while and share a message. They claim I'm a fun person to chat with in the middle of the day. I enjoy talking with them! Even if I do get cold sometimes! (Due to policy - either just this mission, or churchwide, I'm not sure - they can't come into my house unless there's a man here, like my husband. So we sit on my front porch to talk.)
Anyways, their first comment was that I'd dyed my hair! I was like "yup. Just barely. I did it myself." One of them (Elder Lewis, he's from Boise) paused... and then asked "what's the back look like?" I told him that I thought I did a good job, and asked him his opinion. And I turned around. And he laughed. And informed me it wasn't good. *sigh*
Well, at least he told me the truth! It's not good!
Somehow, I seem to have missed an entire section of my head! It's either that or for some reason this section didn't "take" the color, which I guess might be possible, but not likely.Teach me to not go back and look at my hair again after it has dried! My hair - the blond part - is darker when wet. So it actually looked really good after I rinsed it, conditioned it, and combed it.
Total bummer! When Hal got home, after I showed him the front (that does look good, even if a little bright), I showed him the back. He tried really hard to not laugh. And suggested we dye it again.
So, that's the plan. We're going to dye it again. Tonight. He's going to help me make sure I get the back this time.
And before anyone says anything else: I know that I'm supposed to wait a while before dying again! I'm just not going to, OK? I'm going to dye it again now, so I'm not self concious when going out into the world. :)
This time, I'm going to use a brown dye (also purchased on clearance for 75¢), rather than the red. I'm a little afraid that it'll turn the section that I missed brown and the rest will be a different shade of red, but I guess we'll see! I think brown would blend in better than yellow... *sigh*
Here goes!
I did it! All by myself!
Periodically I think back to before Hal and I got married, to when I was living with "the girls" as my roommates. I had roommates for 2 years of college before Hal and I got married. Whether I wanted things to change or not, they did.
I think the two biggest things I reflect back on and miss are:
Our middle of the night talks... occasionally, we'd feel the need to chatter late at night, while falling asleep... Hal's not such a big fan of me chattering away late at night. He thinks he needs his sleep or something. *Pish!* Surely not! ;)
(I'm just kidding, he really does need his sleep to be functional at work!)
And having someone who was willing to dye my hair... My first semester at college I had a roommate (April) who loved dying hair. I'd always thought about dying my hair, but never actually did it; I was too much of a chicken. She convinced me it would be OK... And made an addict of me!
We started out with just one color of streaks (blue, I think). Over time I got more adventurous in my streaking, until I had tons of colors to choose from: Pink, blue, purple, green, orange, red, another shade of red, a different green, etc.) It was so much fun! We'd put them in, and within a few weeks the colors would be faded enough that we'd put in a different color (or 2 or 3).
I don't remember the first time we dyed my whole hair, but it might have been the time we tried to dye it black, but didn't leave the temporary black dye in long enough. (We're not sure if it was the temporary dye, or the not long enough that did it...) My hair went purple. Grape juice purple. After the first day or so of being in complete shock, I LOVED it! It was so much fun! It slowly faded to silver, and then went away.
Later, we tried black again. It worked this time! But we did permanent dye this time... After I had somewhere around 2 inches of my blond roots grown out (it looked so bizarre!), I asked a friend (she's a friend of my Mom's who has cosmetology experience, Deanne W.) to help me bleach it. She did a wonderful job! :)
Anyways, while I still lived in Pocatello, periodically I'd get together with the girls (Sheena and Maria) and we'd dye my hair. I've had brown hair, red, black, lots of streaks, all sorts of colors! It was super fun!
And then we moved to Texas. I haven't dyed my hair since. Hal hasn't wanted to help me! (Something about the smell or the responsibility or time it takes or something.) While I might have been able to ask one of my friends from relief society to help me dye my hair, I always changed my mind at the last minute...
But I had some dye (that I found on clearance at Wal-mart on day for 75 cents - I had to buy it!) just sitting in my closet, begging to be used! ...
Today, I dyed my hair. All by myself. It went remarkably well, I think. I'm not completely sure. I was aiming for a brown with a red tinge, but... well... maybe there's a brown tinge? I have bright copper colored hair! I seem to have some lighter patches and some darker patches. (Apparently I didn't shake up the dye good enough.) But I'm of the opinion that it looks more "natural" this way. I'll have to ask Hal when he gets home. :)
Anyways, today I dyed my hair. All by myself! :)
I'm so proud of me!
I think the two biggest things I reflect back on and miss are:
Our middle of the night talks... occasionally, we'd feel the need to chatter late at night, while falling asleep... Hal's not such a big fan of me chattering away late at night. He thinks he needs his sleep or something. *Pish!* Surely not! ;)
(I'm just kidding, he really does need his sleep to be functional at work!)
And having someone who was willing to dye my hair... My first semester at college I had a roommate (April) who loved dying hair. I'd always thought about dying my hair, but never actually did it; I was too much of a chicken. She convinced me it would be OK... And made an addict of me!
We started out with just one color of streaks (blue, I think). Over time I got more adventurous in my streaking, until I had tons of colors to choose from: Pink, blue, purple, green, orange, red, another shade of red, a different green, etc.) It was so much fun! We'd put them in, and within a few weeks the colors would be faded enough that we'd put in a different color (or 2 or 3).
I don't remember the first time we dyed my whole hair, but it might have been the time we tried to dye it black, but didn't leave the temporary black dye in long enough. (We're not sure if it was the temporary dye, or the not long enough that did it...) My hair went purple. Grape juice purple. After the first day or so of being in complete shock, I LOVED it! It was so much fun! It slowly faded to silver, and then went away.
Later, we tried black again. It worked this time! But we did permanent dye this time... After I had somewhere around 2 inches of my blond roots grown out (it looked so bizarre!), I asked a friend (she's a friend of my Mom's who has cosmetology experience, Deanne W.) to help me bleach it. She did a wonderful job! :)
Anyways, while I still lived in Pocatello, periodically I'd get together with the girls (Sheena and Maria) and we'd dye my hair. I've had brown hair, red, black, lots of streaks, all sorts of colors! It was super fun!
And then we moved to Texas. I haven't dyed my hair since. Hal hasn't wanted to help me! (Something about the smell or the responsibility or time it takes or something.) While I might have been able to ask one of my friends from relief society to help me dye my hair, I always changed my mind at the last minute...
But I had some dye (that I found on clearance at Wal-mart on day for 75 cents - I had to buy it!) just sitting in my closet, begging to be used! ...
Today, I dyed my hair. All by myself. It went remarkably well, I think. I'm not completely sure. I was aiming for a brown with a red tinge, but... well... maybe there's a brown tinge? I have bright copper colored hair! I seem to have some lighter patches and some darker patches. (Apparently I didn't shake up the dye good enough.) But I'm of the opinion that it looks more "natural" this way. I'll have to ask Hal when he gets home. :)
Anyways, today I dyed my hair. All by myself! :)
I'm so proud of me!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
I went home for Christmas...
Well, we went home... and it WAS AWESOME!!! We loved seeing everyone and hanging out! We miss everyone so much! But we're so glad we got to see everybody! (Well, everybody who lives in Idaho. Two of Hal's brothers (and wives/kids) don't live in Idaho, so we didn't get to see them...)
We showed up in Idaho (we flew from Houston to Idaho Falls) on Monday, the 21st, and were there until the next Tuesday. We got to spend time with both of our families: in Idaho Falls, Victor, Pocatello, Rexburg, and Blackfoot.
While hanging with the Allen family, we went to Pocatello (where Sky and Lacey live with their 2 girls) and had a family dinner with all of us: Dad, Mom, seven kids, 2 spouses, 1 girlfriend, and 3 small children (Sky and Lacey's 2 girls and a little boy Lacey tends during the day). Sadly, I don't have a picture of it... *cry* :( But there were lots of us! And it was super fun!
Sky and Lacey (mostly Lacey, but Sky helped pick fabric and provided encouragement) made Hal and I the most awesome-est blanket EVER for our bed! It's all pretty and WOW and has my favorite colors: hot pink, lime green, and yellow! And it made me want to cry (happy tears) when I saw it. Thanks Lacey!!! You're the bestest! I love it! It's the most gorgeous blanket ever! :)
I copied this picture from Lacey's blog. She took this of us when we opened it. (I'm the girl in the middle of the couch... just in case you didn't know! Hal's sitting on my left. Seated on my other side is my brother Zac, he's 10. Standing on the right side of the picture is Ben, he's 18, and my 2 year old niece.)
It is a huge blanket! We have a California King size bed, and it totally drowns it! (That's how blankets should be, but still!) Anyways, pictures doesn't do the quilt justice... it's way prettier in person! And for some reason we can't get the cameras to show what I think looks like the real red, hot pink, orange, and lime green in the same shot! It's frustrating! But such is life! At least I can take pictures of it! :)
At the Allen house, in Victor, we did lots of stuffs! First off we got to talk and talk and talk. That's the best part about going home to see family: just talking! But we also played games: Kings in the Corner, Phase 10, Five Crowns, and Buzzword... I think that was it, maybe? Who knows! I get all mixed up!
Unfortunately my oldest brothers seem to have "stolen" their copies of Risk from my parents house, so we couldn't play Risk with my 'little' brother, Jake (he's 12) - total bummer! It's the only game he really wanted to play!
We also got to go for a snow machine ride up Pole Canyon. (It's a road that's right by my parents house, it runs right up into Targhee National Forest. Hal took lots of pictures. It was gorgeous!
I picked a lovely "flower bouquet" for my mother from the woods. (Shh!!! Don't tell on me! Although, I don't think they'd actually mind, since everything was dead!...) It consisted of frozen weeds. It actually was quite pretty!
Here's me, picking my flowers. Sadly enough, this expression (or one similar) is fairly common in our pictures of me... *sigh*... Apparently I walk around with weird-o looks all day...
One of my flowers... it's pretty, huh?
Because Hal is always behind the camera, we have very few pictures of him. However, we did take this one of him, while up there...
And this next picture...
Anyone know what we're looking at here? Right in the center of the picture... Guesses?
I'll tell you at the end of the post! :)
We also went for a sleigh ride. On this:
My parents, if you don't know, live (and own jointly with my Dad's brother) on a dairy farm. The farm has a sleigh which is pulled by horses, 
that they use to haul hay to the cattle that winter in the field behind the farm.
Jake, riding on a sled pulled behind the sleigh.
My Dad, and brothers David, Ben, Jake, and Zac "accompanied" us on our cold outing. They worked, I played!
Ben, David, and Zac. Dad is in the background.
That's me! Playing! One of my favorite things to do as a kid, was ride behind the sleigh.
Hal took this from inside the house, after we went back inside and they had to do another run...
We also got to help make a Christmas present for ourselves, from my mom... it's something that apparently she's been wanting to make for the last couple of years, and hasn't gotten to it. Mom had my Dad and brother cut some blocks that were like 4 inches square.
There was some uneven edges, so Dad got out his hacksaw to cut them off... it was kind of funny. I love how my Mom is holding the block so my Dad can saw one edge off. Sounds safe, doesn't it? Then Mom and Mem sanded them smooth with the electric sander (after Mom, Mem, Hal, and I had spent over an hour sanding by hand - and not getting very much sanded, one of my brothers came in and said "why aren't you using the electric sander?" Hmmm... So Mem used that for a while. It was a lot faster!)
After they were all smooth, Hal and I got to paint them!
I actually love painting so this was no hardship for me. Except the stencils. I had my first run-in with stencils. It went awful! Ugh! Stencils!
So, you take your blocks, sand them smooth, paint them red, and then stencil on letters to spell things like
and 
We made it so that one side said one, and the other side said the other, so you can put it in the window and read one word from the outside and another word from the inside.
Cute, huh? We had fun making them!
My mom had to work on Christmas Day, so they did Christmas presents and stuff on Christmas Eve. It was fun to be there for that! Good times, good times! I love how excited everyone gets, and how happy everyone is! It was hilarious to watch the antics of my family! Zac (he's 10) had David (he's 26) for Christmas this year, and he made David Chex mix. (Well, to be fair Mom helped... a lot...) And then Memorie (she's 22) "helped" Zac make up a treasure hunt for David to find his Chex mix. It was hilarious! David was finding notes, and Zac's trying to help him find the container of Chex mix, but he doesn't actually know where the clues are pointing to, since Mem made up the clues. It was really funny!
After we did the present thing at my parents house, we packed up and headed to Rexburg to Hal's parents house for Christmas with them.
Bradbury family adventures will be its own post.
While we were at the Bradbury house, I took a morning and went down to Pocatello again to see Lacey and the girls. It was super to see them again and spend a few hours with them. I got to see the 1 year old walk! She wasn't walking when we were down there on the 21st, but the next week she was walking all over the place! It was super fun! Boy kids do grow up fast! :)
Anyways, that's half of Christmas vacation! Wow! More on the other half later... after I get it written...
Back to this picture:
What are we looking at here?
It's my parents house! Right in the middle! This was taken when we went up into the forest (Targhee National Forest) while at my parents house.
We showed up in Idaho (we flew from Houston to Idaho Falls) on Monday, the 21st, and were there until the next Tuesday. We got to spend time with both of our families: in Idaho Falls, Victor, Pocatello, Rexburg, and Blackfoot.
While hanging with the Allen family, we went to Pocatello (where Sky and Lacey live with their 2 girls) and had a family dinner with all of us: Dad, Mom, seven kids, 2 spouses, 1 girlfriend, and 3 small children (Sky and Lacey's 2 girls and a little boy Lacey tends during the day). Sadly, I don't have a picture of it... *cry* :( But there were lots of us! And it was super fun!
Sky and Lacey (mostly Lacey, but Sky helped pick fabric and provided encouragement) made Hal and I the most awesome-est blanket EVER for our bed! It's all pretty and WOW and has my favorite colors: hot pink, lime green, and yellow! And it made me want to cry (happy tears) when I saw it. Thanks Lacey!!! You're the bestest! I love it! It's the most gorgeous blanket ever! :)
I copied this picture from Lacey's blog. She took this of us when we opened it. (I'm the girl in the middle of the couch... just in case you didn't know! Hal's sitting on my left. Seated on my other side is my brother Zac, he's 10. Standing on the right side of the picture is Ben, he's 18, and my 2 year old niece.)
It is a huge blanket! We have a California King size bed, and it totally drowns it! (That's how blankets should be, but still!) Anyways, pictures doesn't do the quilt justice... it's way prettier in person! And for some reason we can't get the cameras to show what I think looks like the real red, hot pink, orange, and lime green in the same shot! It's frustrating! But such is life! At least I can take pictures of it! :)At the Allen house, in Victor, we did lots of stuffs! First off we got to talk and talk and talk. That's the best part about going home to see family: just talking! But we also played games: Kings in the Corner, Phase 10, Five Crowns, and Buzzword... I think that was it, maybe? Who knows! I get all mixed up!
Unfortunately my oldest brothers seem to have "stolen" their copies of Risk from my parents house, so we couldn't play Risk with my 'little' brother, Jake (he's 12) - total bummer! It's the only game he really wanted to play!
We also got to go for a snow machine ride up Pole Canyon. (It's a road that's right by my parents house, it runs right up into Targhee National Forest. Hal took lots of pictures. It was gorgeous!
I picked a lovely "flower bouquet" for my mother from the woods. (Shh!!! Don't tell on me! Although, I don't think they'd actually mind, since everything was dead!...) It consisted of frozen weeds. It actually was quite pretty!
Here's me, picking my flowers. Sadly enough, this expression (or one similar) is fairly common in our pictures of me... *sigh*... Apparently I walk around with weird-o looks all day...
One of my flowers... it's pretty, huh?
Because Hal is always behind the camera, we have very few pictures of him. However, we did take this one of him, while up there...And this next picture...
Anyone know what we're looking at here? Right in the center of the picture... Guesses?I'll tell you at the end of the post! :)
We also went for a sleigh ride. On this:
My parents, if you don't know, live (and own jointly with my Dad's brother) on a dairy farm. The farm has a sleigh which is pulled by horses, 
that they use to haul hay to the cattle that winter in the field behind the farm.
Jake, riding on a sled pulled behind the sleigh.My Dad, and brothers David, Ben, Jake, and Zac "accompanied" us on our cold outing. They worked, I played!
Ben, David, and Zac. Dad is in the background.
That's me! Playing! One of my favorite things to do as a kid, was ride behind the sleigh.
Hal took this from inside the house, after we went back inside and they had to do another run...We also got to help make a Christmas present for ourselves, from my mom... it's something that apparently she's been wanting to make for the last couple of years, and hasn't gotten to it. Mom had my Dad and brother cut some blocks that were like 4 inches square.
There was some uneven edges, so Dad got out his hacksaw to cut them off... it was kind of funny. I love how my Mom is holding the block so my Dad can saw one edge off. Sounds safe, doesn't it? Then Mom and Mem sanded them smooth with the electric sander (after Mom, Mem, Hal, and I had spent over an hour sanding by hand - and not getting very much sanded, one of my brothers came in and said "why aren't you using the electric sander?" Hmmm... So Mem used that for a while. It was a lot faster!)After they were all smooth, Hal and I got to paint them!
I actually love painting so this was no hardship for me. Except the stencils. I had my first run-in with stencils. It went awful! Ugh! Stencils!So, you take your blocks, sand them smooth, paint them red, and then stencil on letters to spell things like
and 
We made it so that one side said one, and the other side said the other, so you can put it in the window and read one word from the outside and another word from the inside.Cute, huh? We had fun making them!
My mom had to work on Christmas Day, so they did Christmas presents and stuff on Christmas Eve. It was fun to be there for that! Good times, good times! I love how excited everyone gets, and how happy everyone is! It was hilarious to watch the antics of my family! Zac (he's 10) had David (he's 26) for Christmas this year, and he made David Chex mix. (Well, to be fair Mom helped... a lot...) And then Memorie (she's 22) "helped" Zac make up a treasure hunt for David to find his Chex mix. It was hilarious! David was finding notes, and Zac's trying to help him find the container of Chex mix, but he doesn't actually know where the clues are pointing to, since Mem made up the clues. It was really funny!
After we did the present thing at my parents house, we packed up and headed to Rexburg to Hal's parents house for Christmas with them.
Bradbury family adventures will be its own post.
While we were at the Bradbury house, I took a morning and went down to Pocatello again to see Lacey and the girls. It was super to see them again and spend a few hours with them. I got to see the 1 year old walk! She wasn't walking when we were down there on the 21st, but the next week she was walking all over the place! It was super fun! Boy kids do grow up fast! :)
Anyways, that's half of Christmas vacation! Wow! More on the other half later... after I get it written...
Back to this picture:
What are we looking at here?
It's my parents house! Right in the middle! This was taken when we went up into the forest (Targhee National Forest) while at my parents house.
Grrr!!!!
I am sooo mad!
A few weeks ago, our car started making a noise while we were driving it. It a thudding noise. So, we took it in to get it fixed. They decided that the noise was coming from a bearing. So they replaced the bearing. And once the got the bearing out, they decided they needed to replace the hub. So they did that too. A few days later, we had a car back.
And it still made noise. So, we took it back in. They claim two things: First that they could hear something, but couldn't figure out what it was. (Okay, is it coming from the wheel you just messed around with? Yes? Please fix it!) Second: That even though they couldn't hear anything, they replaced the bearing they'd just replaced again. (Does that even make any sense? If you can't hear the noise we're talking about, why just re-do what you just did? Obviously you suspected something!) So, we got the car back again.
Yesterday, Hal came home from work (it's a fairly long drive, somewhere just over 20 miles, or about 30 minutes) and announced our car now sounds like a podracer. From Star Wars. You know, the ones Anakin drives. They go whub whub whub-whub-whub faster and faster and change pitch...
It was bad. And kind of scary! It sounded and FELT like the wheels were just going to jump off the car! Talk about frightening!
So, I took it in to try to get it fixed today. I took it to a different shop, 'cause obviously the first guys are morons. Side note: I do understand that sometimes you do get a fluky part, but do you have to come up with multiple stories to explain what happened? Just tell me the truth! Either you hear something, or you don't. Either you can fix it, or you just can't and I'll take it somewhere else!
The guy I took it to (who was a very nice man) asked me to explain what's going on, so I started at the beginning. And told him how it was making a noise, we took it in to some place (yes, I told him which place) and they replaced the bearings, then it was making noise again, and they replaced the bearings again "just in case we got a bad one", and now it's making the noise again - worse than last time. So, we went for a little drive and he told me that noise... is a bearing noise. He doesn't think our bearings are installed correctly.
He recommended that I take our car back to the place that did the bearings before, and have them hear the noise. And give them 2 choices: Either they can actually fix it this time, or they give us our money back. While he would love to fix it for us, he doesn't want me to have to pay both places for our bearings to be fixed. (Nice guy, huh?)
So, I did that. The moron guy says "Well, I'll be able to fix it this time, I can actually hear the noise." I was like "did you not hear it the first time? This is the same noise, just maybe a little louder." He's like "nyump." Not sure what that means, but I'll give the moron one more chance. I doubt I'll get my money back without a huge fight, and while I am mad, I don't relish the thought of fighting with these fellows.
However, next week, when it's making this noise again... I may just go a bit nutty on these guys.
A few weeks ago, our car started making a noise while we were driving it. It a thudding noise. So, we took it in to get it fixed. They decided that the noise was coming from a bearing. So they replaced the bearing. And once the got the bearing out, they decided they needed to replace the hub. So they did that too. A few days later, we had a car back.
And it still made noise. So, we took it back in. They claim two things: First that they could hear something, but couldn't figure out what it was. (Okay, is it coming from the wheel you just messed around with? Yes? Please fix it!) Second: That even though they couldn't hear anything, they replaced the bearing they'd just replaced again. (Does that even make any sense? If you can't hear the noise we're talking about, why just re-do what you just did? Obviously you suspected something!) So, we got the car back again.
Yesterday, Hal came home from work (it's a fairly long drive, somewhere just over 20 miles, or about 30 minutes) and announced our car now sounds like a podracer. From Star Wars. You know, the ones Anakin drives. They go whub whub whub-whub-whub faster and faster and change pitch...
It was bad. And kind of scary! It sounded and FELT like the wheels were just going to jump off the car! Talk about frightening!
So, I took it in to try to get it fixed today. I took it to a different shop, 'cause obviously the first guys are morons. Side note: I do understand that sometimes you do get a fluky part, but do you have to come up with multiple stories to explain what happened? Just tell me the truth! Either you hear something, or you don't. Either you can fix it, or you just can't and I'll take it somewhere else!
The guy I took it to (who was a very nice man) asked me to explain what's going on, so I started at the beginning. And told him how it was making a noise, we took it in to some place (yes, I told him which place) and they replaced the bearings, then it was making noise again, and they replaced the bearings again "just in case we got a bad one", and now it's making the noise again - worse than last time. So, we went for a little drive and he told me that noise... is a bearing noise. He doesn't think our bearings are installed correctly.
He recommended that I take our car back to the place that did the bearings before, and have them hear the noise. And give them 2 choices: Either they can actually fix it this time, or they give us our money back. While he would love to fix it for us, he doesn't want me to have to pay both places for our bearings to be fixed. (Nice guy, huh?)
So, I did that. The moron guy says "Well, I'll be able to fix it this time, I can actually hear the noise." I was like "did you not hear it the first time? This is the same noise, just maybe a little louder." He's like "nyump." Not sure what that means, but I'll give the moron one more chance. I doubt I'll get my money back without a huge fight, and while I am mad, I don't relish the thought of fighting with these fellows.
However, next week, when it's making this noise again... I may just go a bit nutty on these guys.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Now I want ice cream!
I was just sitting here working on my blog (about Christmas in Idaho) and the ice cream truck drove up my street playing his music. It always makes me want ice cream when he comes by! Yummy! And then there's that song: Ta-da ta-da ta-da ta ta ta da-ta-da-ta ta-da daaaa... it gets stuck in my head!
Monday, January 11, 2010
Brrr...
It's been cold here for like the last week. Really cold! As in 24 degrees outside when Hal went to work this morning at 7 am. This might not seem really cold to some of you, but for Houston? BRRR!!!
So, this morning, as I was scraping Hal's car windows... no, unfortunately for him, I don't usually do this, but I took out the trash this morning, and thought, "today's the day I do something helpful!" So, I scraped the ice off. And it was cold.
Anyways, as I was scraping Hal's car windows, I noticed my neighbor come out of his house with a pail of water, and fling the water onto the side of his car. And it made me think... I bet that works! No scraper needed! Genius!
But... wouldn't the water run down below the seals on the windows, and as cold as it is, freeze again, inside the car door? That seems slightly unsmart! You don't want inside the car door to freeze! Right? Or would it run down? I know when it rains a lot, water will go down in the door, but just a little water? Would that go down? Hmmm...
Dousing your icy windows in water to get the ice off... Good idea? Bad idea? I've been thinking about it all day, and have yet to come up my answer. Anybody?
Hopefully it'll warm up again soon. I really thought I was done with this freezing weather when we got back from Idaho! Brrrr!
So, this morning, as I was scraping Hal's car windows... no, unfortunately for him, I don't usually do this, but I took out the trash this morning, and thought, "today's the day I do something helpful!" So, I scraped the ice off. And it was cold.
Anyways, as I was scraping Hal's car windows, I noticed my neighbor come out of his house with a pail of water, and fling the water onto the side of his car. And it made me think... I bet that works! No scraper needed! Genius!
But... wouldn't the water run down below the seals on the windows, and as cold as it is, freeze again, inside the car door? That seems slightly unsmart! You don't want inside the car door to freeze! Right? Or would it run down? I know when it rains a lot, water will go down in the door, but just a little water? Would that go down? Hmmm...
Dousing your icy windows in water to get the ice off... Good idea? Bad idea? I've been thinking about it all day, and have yet to come up my answer. Anybody?
Hopefully it'll warm up again soon. I really thought I was done with this freezing weather when we got back from Idaho! Brrrr!
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