Just behold the beauty:
'Nuff said.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Everyday Betty Crocker
So, do you remember when you were little and you found out that Betty Crocker wasn't a real person? So, maybe I was just a little on the strange side...I also remember grieving for days when I was told that Karen Carpenter was not alive anymore (I was 7). But I digressed, I am writing this post to let everyone know that she is ALIVE and well...in me that is. That may sound a little proud (it is), but just wait until you know why. I baked a pie. Yes, a yummy yummy pie from scratch. Well, the filling was canned, but it was filling that Julie and I made from scratch and then canned...so it still counts.
Just behold the beauty:
'Nuff said.
Just behold the beauty:
'Nuff said.
January Recap
This has been an awesome month. Heidi and I have reworked our budget and
we are trying to run a cash budget this whole year. We had a good month last month
and we are so grateful that tax season has arrived. We are hoping to put most of our
return towards Heidi’s student loans and a few other amenities for our home.
The first week of the month Andrew helped run the sound system in the
Drama theatre for a touring group doing a show called “Forever Plaid” He got to
hear a lot of great barbershop music with piano and bass. He also learned bunches
about programming sound on a digital soundboard. He will also be helping out
backstage with two children’s shows later this semester.
Heidi has been attending her cake decorating class and although she was
anxious about it at first. She has already had 2 projects where she learned shells,
shell borders, writing tips, stars, twisting stars, trees, and use of piping gel. Both of
her cakes looked and tasted great! She has another project due this next week and is
excited to learn some more. Rose
s are her latest challenge.
We had a really great family dinner here at our house a few weeks ago. Ben
and Bob both came over with their families and after dinner we took a little tour
around campus in the newly dedicated buildings. We just loved watching Hyrum
and Caleb play together they were both quite content to sit on the floor and play
together for almost an hour with very little supervision. On that note Hyrum is
crawling around really well now. He crawls in short sections and stops to play or
observe, he isn’t quite up to full-fledged fleeing.
This last weekend while Jenn was at her gaming conference Andrew went
and played in a Magic: The Gathering Prerelease tournament he placed 4th out of
about 36 and was rewarded 6 pack additional to the ones he opened for the
tournament.
Heidi is really busy with work this month. We have had two difficult girls in
particular that have needed some personal attention. We have also met with the
Bishop and the dean of students to decide what needs to be done. Although both
situations seem to be improving – if they don’t improve faster we may be sending
one of the girls home. Overall that has been a challenging yet growing experience for
Heidi.
We started inviting over couples in our ward for FHE to get to know them better and to help us hold FHE. We have done really well this month and it has made a difference to how we interact in the ward. One of our ward friends invited Heidi to come walking during the week in the new BYUI Center and so three times a week she is walking with her friend Tara who has a little boy 2 days younger than Hyrum. She is very excited to have some time out of the house and is preparing to run in a 5K on the Fourth of July: One year from giving birth to Hyrum. Andrew will be running with her although he won’t be training much until school gets out in April.
Hyrum is getting so big! He is eating solid foods really well, crawling, starting to pull himself up to standing, and saying "baba" and "mama" and we're working on getting him to say dada. Below is a video of one of the first times he crawled...so that was his beginning stages--he's much quicker now!
we are trying to run a cash budget this whole year. We had a good month last month
and we are so grateful that tax season has arrived. We are hoping to put most of our
return towards Heidi’s student loans and a few other amenities for our home.
The first week of the month Andrew helped run the sound system in the
Drama theatre for a touring group doing a show called “Forever Plaid” He got to
hear a lot of great barbershop music with piano and bass. He also learned bunches
about programming sound on a digital soundboard. He will also be helping out
backstage with two children’s shows later this semester.
Heidi has been attending her cake decorating class and although she was
anxious about it at first. She has already had 2 projects where she learned shells,
shell borders, writing tips, stars, twisting stars, trees, and use of piping gel. Both of
her cakes looked and tasted great! She has another project due this next week and is
excited to learn some more. Rose
s are her latest challenge.We had a really great family dinner here at our house a few weeks ago. Ben
and Bob both came over with their families and after dinner we took a little tour
around campus in the newly dedicated buildings. We just loved watching Hyrum
and Caleb play together they were both quite content to sit on the floor and play
together for almost an hour with very little supervision. On that note Hyrum is
crawling around really well now. He crawls in short sections and stops to play or
observe, he isn’t quite up to full-fledged fleeing.
This last weekend while Jenn was at her gaming conference Andrew went
and played in a Magic: The Gathering Prerelease tournament he placed 4th out of
about 36 and was rewarded 6 pack additional to the ones he opened for the
tournament.
Heidi is really busy with work this month. We have had two difficult girls in
particular that have needed some personal attention. We have also met with the
Bishop and the dean of students to decide what needs to be done. Although both
situations seem to be improving – if they don’t improve faster we may be sending
one of the girls home. Overall that has been a challenging yet growing experience for
Heidi.
We started inviting over couples in our ward for FHE to get to know them better and to help us hold FHE. We have done really well this month and it has made a difference to how we interact in the ward. One of our ward friends invited Heidi to come walking during the week in the new BYUI Center and so three times a week she is walking with her friend Tara who has a little boy 2 days younger than Hyrum. She is very excited to have some time out of the house and is preparing to run in a 5K on the Fourth of July: One year from giving birth to Hyrum. Andrew will be running with her although he won’t be training much until school gets out in April.
Hyrum is getting so big! He is eating solid foods really well, crawling, starting to pull himself up to standing, and saying "baba" and "mama" and we're working on getting him to say dada. Below is a video of one of the first times he crawled...so that was his beginning stages--he's much quicker now!
Saturday, January 8, 2011
December Recap
December brings my favorite holiday (Christmas, of course) but other than that--not a fan of December.
Because of our job as Head Residents, it adds a lot of responsibility to that month. There is 1) the end of semester mandatory meeting 2)Pre-white glove cleaning 3)check-outs 4)apartment cleaning & 5)check-in set up. I was so incredibly grateful for my 4 wonderful employees for those last couple weeks--they made white glove and check-outs so much easier for me! I also loved the new system that we came up with this semester for our cleaning!
For Christmas, we had decided to drive to Washington to spend through Christmas morning with Andrew's family, and then Christmas afternoon on with my family. Check-outs were on Sat. December 18th, and then we had planned to leave either the next Monday night or early Tuesday morning. Come Monday afternoon it was really looking like I wasn't even going to have a cleaning crew until Tuesday morning...but alas at 2:30 my cleaning crew pulled through!! I had started going through the apartments and cleaning them, but then I got a crew of 5 people and we zoomed through the rest. (Many thanks to Lauren for watching Hyrum the entire time!!)
We had the car packed by Monday night, and we ended up pulling out of Rexburg a little before 6 am. Hyrum was an awesome traveler! He woke up the two times we stopped for gas/bathroom breaks, I fed him, and he went back to sleep! We made the drive in just under 10 hours, and he only fussed the last 30 minutes--everyone has their breaking point. :)
We had a ton of fun while staying with Andrew's family. Funny story time! A few days before Christmas, we went to WalMart to finish our shopping, with Andrew's Mom. We each grabbed a separate carts, and did our shopping. At one point, Andrew and his mom spotted eachother, and then started on a "crash c
ourse" towards each other. After they slammed carts, his mom loudly stated "Sir, you just rammed my cart!" I guess that many people were quite shocked at what had just occurred...until Andrew said something like "Okay, Mom, let's go." I just laughed and laughed about it--I love the Potters!!
Christmas eve we got together with all of the "Washington Potters" and ate chili, cookies, snacks, and watched some Ch
ristmas movies. It 
was a really fun new tradition for me! :) We gave Hyrum his Christmas jammies--and he loved them (or at least I did)!
Christmas morning came bright and early, with even more new experiences! We spent it with Andrew's parents and one of his brother's family. They were "Secret Santa-ed" and so it was really fun to watch their kids open their gifts and be super excited for all the new toys! Hyrum spent more time eating the wrapping paper than he did unwrapping the gifts, but it was still fun. We also had pie for breakfast! There was a super delicious apple cranberry pie that Grammy made--oh, just thinking about it makes me salivate! :)
We were able to spend Christmas afternoon with my family, and it was quite fun to watch Hyrum interact with his two cousins on that side (ages 2 and 1). The day after Christmas, my youngest brother, Kyle, was baptized--and I was extremely excited to be able to witness him make such a great decision!
THE DRIVE HOME
The drive home was much more eventful than the drive to Washington. We had my sister, Emily, on the drive down with us, which helped to keep Hyrum happy (thanks again, Em!).
We didn't leave Selah until about 11ish, which put us leaving Prosser after noon...which was a little bit later than the ideal. Because we only needed to go to Caldwell (about 6 hours from Selah) so we thought it would be okay leaving late...but oh were we wrong!! About 20 miles north of Pendleton, Oregon we passed a sign that said "Road closed 78 miles ahead" uuhh...blue skies, no clouds, no snow...so why would it be closed? After making a few calls to family members back home to check news reports we found out that a train had derailed next to the freeway. Because there was some concern that there was hazardous materials aboard they closed the freeway to assess/clean it. They had JUST closed it...so basically it could be closed for hours...through the night even. So, what did we do? We did what anyone else would do...we waited in Pendleton...hanging out a the local WalMart! :)
After pulling up in Pendleton, we were driving around trying to find something to do when we came upon this place: "Rodeo Lanes" Not sure of why we though it was so funny, but I pronounced it "Ro-day-o Lanes" and we just had to stop to get a picture...but anyways. Hyrum was such an angel for this entire experience, he was a trooper!!
After spending about four or five hours of killing time we finally got the call telling us that the freeway had opened back up...so then the decision: did we go on and get to Caldwell super super later, or do we take the more expensive (but much more fun) option of getting a hotel, RedBox, pizza, and ring in the new year crazy-style?? We decided to drive on through, arriving in Caldwell around 11ish, and promptly falling asleep! For the second year in a row, Andrew and I have not made it to midnight! :)
Once we made it to Rexburg we started full swing for check-ins! Now that they are done we are just resting and relaxing...just as it should be...
Because of our job as Head Residents, it adds a lot of responsibility to that month. There is 1) the end of semester mandatory meeting 2)Pre-white glove cleaning 3)check-outs 4)apartment cleaning & 5)check-in set up. I was so incredibly grateful for my 4 wonderful employees for those last couple weeks--they made white glove and check-outs so much easier for me! I also loved the new system that we came up with this semester for our cleaning!
For Christmas, we had decided to drive to Washington to spend through Christmas morning with Andrew's family, and then Christmas afternoon on with my family. Check-outs were on Sat. December 18th, and then we had planned to leave either the next Monday night or early Tuesday morning. Come Monday afternoon it was really looking like I wasn't even going to have a cleaning crew until Tuesday morning...but alas at 2:30 my cleaning crew pulled through!! I had started going through the apartments and cleaning them, but then I got a crew of 5 people and we zoomed through the rest. (Many thanks to Lauren for watching Hyrum the entire time!!)
We had the car packed by Monday night, and we ended up pulling out of Rexburg a little before 6 am. Hyrum was an awesome traveler! He woke up the two times we stopped for gas/bathroom breaks, I fed him, and he went back to sleep! We made the drive in just under 10 hours, and he only fussed the last 30 minutes--everyone has their breaking point. :)
We had a ton of fun while staying with Andrew's family. Funny story time! A few days before Christmas, we went to WalMart to finish our shopping, with Andrew's Mom. We each grabbed a separate carts, and did our shopping. At one point, Andrew and his mom spotted eachother, and then started on a "crash c
ourse" towards each other. After they slammed carts, his mom loudly stated "Sir, you just rammed my cart!" I guess that many people were quite shocked at what had just occurred...until Andrew said something like "Okay, Mom, let's go." I just laughed and laughed about it--I love the Potters!!
Christmas eve we got together with all of the "Washington Potters" and ate chili, cookies, snacks, and watched some Ch
ristmas movies. It 
was a really fun new tradition for me! :) We gave Hyrum his Christmas jammies--and he loved them (or at least I did)!Christmas morning came bright and early, with even more new experiences! We spent it with Andrew's parents and one of his brother's family. They were "Secret Santa-ed" and so it was really fun to watch their kids open their gifts and be super excited for all the new toys! Hyrum spent more time eating the wrapping paper than he did unwrapping the gifts, but it was still fun. We also had pie for breakfast! There was a super delicious apple cranberry pie that Grammy made--oh, just thinking about it makes me salivate! :)
We were able to spend Christmas afternoon with my family, and it was quite fun to watch Hyrum interact with his two cousins on that side (ages 2 and 1). The day after Christmas, my youngest brother, Kyle, was baptized--and I was extremely excited to be able to witness him make such a great decision!
THE DRIVE HOME
The drive home was much more eventful than the drive to Washington. We had my sister, Emily, on the drive down with us, which helped to keep Hyrum happy (thanks again, Em!).
We didn't leave Selah until about 11ish, which put us leaving Prosser after noon...which was a little bit later than the ideal. Because we only needed to go to Caldwell (about 6 hours from Selah) so we thought it would be okay leaving late...but oh were we wrong!! About 20 miles north of Pendleton, Oregon we passed a sign that said "Road closed 78 miles ahead" uuhh...blue skies, no clouds, no snow...so why would it be closed? After making a few calls to family members back home to check news reports we found out that a train had derailed next to the freeway. Because there was some concern that there was hazardous materials aboard they closed the freeway to assess/clean it. They had JUST closed it...so basically it could be closed for hours...through the night even. So, what did we do? We did what anyone else would do...we waited in Pendleton...hanging out a the local WalMart! :)
After pulling up in Pendleton, we were driving around trying to find something to do when we came upon this place: "Rodeo Lanes" Not sure of why we though it was so funny, but I pronounced it "Ro-day-o Lanes" and we just had to stop to get a picture...but anyways. Hyrum was such an angel for this entire experience, he was a trooper!!
After spending about four or five hours of killing time we finally got the call telling us that the freeway had opened back up...so then the decision: did we go on and get to Caldwell super super later, or do we take the more expensive (but much more fun) option of getting a hotel, RedBox, pizza, and ring in the new year crazy-style?? We decided to drive on through, arriving in Caldwell around 11ish, and promptly falling asleep! For the second year in a row, Andrew and I have not made it to midnight! :)
Once we made it to Rexburg we started full swing for check-ins! Now that they are done we are just resting and relaxing...just as it should be...
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