A Lack of Focus

It's true, our car is DEAD. Really it only cost us a dollar to buy from my mother, but it has cost us over 1500 to fix it on numerous occasions. It exploded the day before we left for Seattle. I walked down the stairs of our apartment to see Daniel back up the car while it made this atrocious noise. He pulled the car back in and it started shaking and died. Then with a noise much like a running faucet, oil spilled on to the pavement. So dead. Really the stress of having one day to purchase a new car has been killing me, but off we go. By four o'clock we need to have a car and be at the grocery and back to Rexburg. Talk about crunch time. Farewell Ford Focus....

When I Grow Up...

The more I plan our trip to Seattle, the more I become infected with the travel bug. There is something intoxicating about planning and sight-seeing and whisking off to an exotic land. (Well, exotic in perhaps a different way). As graduation creeps closer, the ever present question "What will you do?" grows louder and louder inside my head. If I could only make a career out of my love of travel books and overly meticulous planning. Sure, I could be a travel agent, but I very much need a different job market for anything like that (Idaho Falls I think has one travel agency). The joke back in high school was that I was going to be a tour guide at the White House-heck that still sounds good to me!! Or be a photographer for National Geographic!! :) Write for a travel magasine? Work for the Church Historical Society? Museum Curator? (I did try that whole Museum of Idaho thing and that went poorly...) Work for the State Department? (Maybe actually use my French?) Book Publishing? (Pull some strings at Deseret Book?) Who knows, mostly this is me procrastinating my last final exam. Constitutional History and Law--not favorite. I'll probably end up being a librarian or secretary at a dentist office. (Not that those are awful careers, just not exactly what I want to do with my degree) We are excited to leave for Washington on Sunday and my little brother gets back from Equador that same day. Whoohoo.

Jazz Mania

As of late, we have had the fortune to attend three, yes three, Jazz games. For having never been to a NBA game myself, this was nearly overwhelming. Game one came as a complete shock. One day, Daniel called me at four o'clock while I was on my way to work and he said, "You don't have to work tomorrow right?" and I replied that I did not and he said, "Good, because we are going to a Jazz game." Fun Wednesday afternoon activity. It was indeed exhausting driving there and back in one day (I even attended all my classes the following morning). Anyways, Daniel had won the tickets from work for being the highest on the score card for the month--pretty dang good incentive if you ask me. And after working full-time at that awful place, Daniel really did deserve such a treat. It was exciting to be so spontaneous. We had great seats too (my pictures are out of order so I will label them accordingly) and exceptional free parking. Melalueca can spoil their employees well. This game was against San Antonio and turned out to be a really great game. (Jazz lost unfortunately)

The above and below picture are from the 2nd game we went to: Jazz v. Thunder. We went with our friends Jonathan and Celeste and again did the drive there and back in one day. We were all a little puffy eyed for church the next day. For the first time Daniel and I ate at PF Changs-which we thoroughly enjoyed. Our seats were the exacted opposite as the previous game, we were three rows from the very top of the arena. Although we had a splendid time, those seats were not worth the exhaustion felt afterwards.

Pictures from Game 1.

And the 3rd game. This one we had been planning for a while. My dearest best friend Kelsey bought tickets for her fiance for Christmas so we volunteered to tag along. This one was Kings v. Jazz. Our seats were the perfect combo between the other two games and the Jazz WON-in a most exciting overtime where were screamed ourselves hoarse.

Before the game we went to Provo to pick up Kelsey's wedding dress and visit with our cousins Jason and Kayli-who are always fun to hang out with. :)

The soon-to-be weds. Kelsey and Eric.

This time we made the decision to stay in a hotel. Was this a better idea than driving home until two in the morning? Possibly not. We made the last minute choice to use Priceline's "name your own price" option and it landed us a night at the Red Lion just seven blocks from the arena. Sounds good right? Well, the hotel seemed kinda old and smelled odd. But the staff was friendly and they gave us a free ride to the game. We wandered around downtown afterwards and ended up at PF Changs again for lettuce wraps and the Great Wall of Chocolate cake. Then we made our way back. First red flag should have been the bar connected to our hotel, second: the largest, dirtiest lingerie store with which we shared a parking lot and third: the bar/movie theater next to the dirty shop. Around one o'clock I woke up with a very frustrated spouse. Once I was awake I had no idea how I slept through the enormous amount of noise coming from below us and out in the parking lot. The "gentlemen" below us were hollering out their window at girls. Fortunately they even used their room number, while calling out said girls. After a half hour of incessant noise I got to call security. And I called them again. And again. And again. Until three in the morning. Apparently they have an inadequate security crew because nothing seemed to stop that party. And when the bar closed every drunk was left on the curb outside. Even though we were on the fifth floor, it was as if they were yelling directly at our window. Rough rough night. Daniel may have chucked pillows at anyone who snored that night. (Sorry Eric)

That morning as I checked us all out (Daniel prefers to not talk to people he is raging mad at), I got to chatting with the desk clerks and mentioned how awful a night we had, etc etc. And they offered us free breakfast! :) I have such persuasive skills sometimes. Still probably not worth it. But we all had fun in the process.

Lately, Daniel has just been working full-time and I've been a horrible senior student. I just want to be done. In three weeks we are driving out to Portland/Vancouver for Kelsey's wedding and then spending three days in Seattle just for kicks. We are very excited for an opportunity to escape responsibility. More then.

One Step Closer

I am almost there. After much deliberation and careful planning, I have organized myself and my classes so that I might successfully graduate this July. This July?! I'm estatic. After years and years of study I will depart the academic probation of my life and step out into the workplace. [That adventure is a whole other story]. For now, I am content with the fact that I am going to actually succeed in finishing a Bachelor of Arts in History with a minor in International Studies. The original plan was minoring in French, then International Studies, then it was French again. Ultimately that resulted in my being only one class away from a minor in French & International Studies--unfortunately the class I need to complete the French minor will not be offered until Fall. Too bad, guess I'm sticking with the International Studies. Which is just peachy for me.

Next semester is all planned out-lots of classes. I even threw tennis into the mix. I figure I might as well learn how, since I am certain that there is some athleticism in my body somewhere, but it is lost along with my dedication-to-learn-how-to-play-sports gene. And perhaps if I yeild that talent now, our posterity will gravitate towards being active in a way that never transfixed me. If they are all going to be freakishly tall, they best do something with it. :)

I'm taking French again. I love that language. Nothing beats it. I just need someone to talk to.

Daniel and I hardly see each other. This semester is always worse than others. He works full time late into the evening and I am bouncing back and forth from school and work which results in exhaustion. Daniel said just the other day, the majority of time he spends with me, I am asleep. Kinda lame.

That's really all for now. We are trying to make it to some Jazz games this season. We've got one in March and probably another one in a few weeks. Ciao everyone.

Happy Holidays!

Starting with Thanksgiving, here are our holiday happenings. Thanksgiving week hosted an enormous blizzard that Daniel and I were crazy enough to drive to Idaho Falls in. It took us over an hour when that drive usually takes thirty minutes. It was rather scary. We had Thanksgiving at my parents house with Daniel's parents, my grandma, and our friends Mike and Lara who didn't dare brave the storm for their drive to Boise. We had a great time with everyone (I'm so happy we have families that get along well).

On to Christmas: My super talented mother made me this tree skirt that I absolutely love. It says "To the top of the porch, to the top of the wall, now dash away, dash away, dash away all!" Momma got some serious skills-some of those fabric pieces are teeny tiny.

I made this wreath for our door. Nothing too fantastic, but it was fun.

The last week of school we had the opportunity of attending the Melaleuca Christmas Concert. Usually it is just a fun little concert, but this year was our favorite yet. First we heard from Ali and Christina who were on America's Got Talent- two very talented, darling girls. They both have cystic fibrosis so at times it was an emotional performance. Next, a group called the Mozart Group performed. Holy cow- they were hilarious. If you need something to watch on YouTube check them out. They play several classical songs with an entertaining twist. They did things with string instruments I didn't know were even possible. They are from Poland- everything is more entertaining when its European. They were extremely talented. We also went out to dinner right before which is always delicious and delightful.

Isn't this a beautiful picture? We had planned on borrowing Daniel's parent Wii for the Christmas break to keep us entertained, but in a shocking twist Daniel was told we could open our present from his parents as soon as we finished school. So late that Friday night, after work, we opened our brand new red Wii with Super Mario and Donkey Kong. Since then, Daniel and I have spent hours conquering the world of DK and it has been fun. Then we took the Wii to my parents house while we were there for Christmas.

That led to some interesting gaming experiences.

After one heck of a week working retail, Christmas Eve finally came to a close. We all opened up new PJs. My little bro was sporting black silk jammies. Daniel got B-Sox pjs.

Christmas Day we slept in more than I ever have on Christmas morning. It was glorious. Spencer got a T-Swift calendar. His not so secret love.

We all were spoiled that morning. Daniel got new clothes, a banana chair, an Xbox game, Grisham's new book, games, and other miscellaneous wonderful gifts. I got clothes, a indoor dutch oven, picture frames, Epic Mickey, and other stuff. We got new towels and the Discovery Channel series "Life". It is great fun to watch. We also got the A-Team which we loved.

My dad really got into Wii golf- although he did say that real golf was still better.

And since then we've been taking it easy and I have to start school this week. :( But that's okay. It is FREEZING in Rexburg. I am dying for warmth. It has been a great holiday and we've had more time to spend together than we have in a long time.

Last night we had our friends Mike and Lara over for some New Year's fun. We played two of our new games: Funglish and Match Mate (Thanks, Lara [Daniel's sis]). They were both super fun, it was a hysterical evening. That's all for now, folks.

FA 100 Synopsis

Finally, the chaos of school and working retail during Christmas has subsided. I now get two weeks of relaxed schedule before another semester begins and Daniel starts working full time. Before I post all our fun Christmas happenings I wanted to write on our exciting FA 100 adventures this semester for posterity's sake (in case they care). :) For all out there who have not attended BYU-Idaho and do not what FA 100 is: It is a one credit class that requires you to attend six varying types of events (dance performance, concerts, plays, etc). Really it's an odd concept, but we had some interesting experiences.

We first attended an art exhibit. The gallery was hosting a NY exhibit of Illustrators. We expected to see pictures from books that we recognized, but it turned out to be a collection of random paintings. It was kinda interesting- I thought since this was a class we would have to walk by every painting and hear everything about it, but they just set us loose for 15 minutes and let us go. Not sure how I was really supposed to glean anything from that minimal interaction.

Then we went to see Nosferatu (I've mentioned this one already). We saw the 70s version--based on the 20s original. Creepy vampire, but pretty interesting plot. Unfortunately, the majority of the audience found everything about the movie hilarious (Let me remind you this is a vampire movie, they are usually funny, excepting perhaps parts of Twilight, ha). They were all in such an uproar that the art movie director had to pause the movie and tell everyone to step outside their uncultured bubble, and try the movie again in another perspective. The laughing reduced to a minimum. We liked the movie. We enjoyed watching something a little bit different, and it made us think about the impact culture has on cinema.

Next up was the Halloween concert (I might have blogged on this previously, too). We expected creepy, goth style garb and music only to walk in on overly Western muscial. Not our favorite forte, but the orchestra did well- 60% of it all was violins. We were entertained, but could've gone without the banjos and horrible accents.

Along came Extravadance. The one dance concert the school puts on a semester. Having done dance for some time gives me a critical eye for these things, so I would have given the whole performance a B. There was definite talent on that stage- African theme dances were extra popular and I absolutely loved some numbers. But on occasion I found it to be slightly mediocre, nothing too fascinating or exciting. Still good though.

The thorn in our side of the entire semester: The Marriage of Figaro- A three hour long opera written by Mozart. Now I thought most theatrical performances wrapped up in 3 Acts, so naturally I assumed it would end at Act 3, but then Act 4 gave us an extra 40 minutes of musical pleasure. Thankfully they had subtitles playing on the screens next to the stage or Daniel and I would have been more confused. At its conclusion we decided the production would have been half as long if they would have stopped repeating themselves. It was not our favorite. Historically, I do have to give props to Mozart for his gaul in producing such a forward thinking, audacious opera for his time. He was quite the Enlightenment man.

Ah, Christmas. We were most excited to go to the Christmas in the Snow choir concert. It was festive and cheerful. Too bad the choir didn't have the opportunity to perform in the new BYU-I auditorium (seats 15,000), because they looked a little cramped all up on the stage.

Just for fun, I went to see Handel's Messiah with my friend, Brittany. I loved it. I had never heard all of the Messiah and it was very well done. Music like that- that has survived over so many years, and it so powerful, just isn't as common today. I love taking the opportunity to enjoy such grand accomplishments.

And there we have our FA 100 experience. We are glad it is over, but somewhat appreciative we were coerced into attending some of these events. Oh- we did have to attend a lecture basically chastising our generation for not appreciating the arts. Although I partially agreed with them, I felt as though he was preaching to the choir. I'm only slightly obsessed with those types of things. It's alright though, more people do need to appreciate the value of live performances, arts, and music. If we allow for them to go by unnoticed, we will never see another grand musician or skilled artist rise, and we may lose the grandeur of past masterpieces.

What we are REALLY grateful for

It is the season of gratitude, counting your blessings, and thanking those you love. In the spirit of thanks we compiled the following list of the less conspicuous things we are grateful for-- of course we are deeply grateful for our fantastic families, the church, school, our jobs, etc. We are truly blessed- in more ways that one would probably think.

• We are grateful that Daniel won that stinkin' iPad. At first it seemed just like a toy, but then Ashley's laptop wasted away to the equivalent of a typewriter, and now it is an essential when both need to be doing homework.
• The apartment BUILDING we are in, not just our apartment. Nearly all of our neighbors are hardly ever home--we practically own the place.
• Free Melaleuca cleaning products--every time we clean our apartment it smells like a forest of eucalyptus.
• The crock-pot- food goes in before we leave for work and then we come home to a finished meal. Without it, we eat at 10 o'clock or later.
• The return of Ashley's iPod--It was lost for over a week and a half. We almost lost hope-then it was found under Daniel's parent's bed.
• The fact that our parents live one mile from each other--we were all able to have a happy Thanksgiving together (Something impossible for a lot of other in-laws out there) :)
• Macy's- Our favorite bed sheets of all time randomly started falling apart. We took them back praying for some sort of compensation for our year-old sheets---they gave us brand new ones!! ($200 sheets!)
• Rexburg during the school breaks- This town is so much better when there aren't 15,000 crazy students running around. It turns into the small little community it was meant to be. And in light of recent blizzards, it is better they aren't all here driving like maniacs.
• Our TV (Sad, but true)- It is our favorite form of entertainment (What else are we supposed to do when it is minus 10 degrees outside?!)
• One of my favorites: the invention of contacts- we are both so incredibly blind that contacts are a daily miracle for us. Love those little guys.
• Deseret Book Platinum Program--Ashley has to try to sell as many as humanly possible, but they sure to pay you back. After purchasing everyone's Christmas presents we were able to get a $90 Jim Shore nativity for free--using the points we earned and incentives Ashley received for selling Platinums. :)
• Being tall- We look forward to our freakishly tall posterity.
• Snow? Wait, no, nevermind.
• Poptarts- Ashley's breakfast necessity.
• FSN- Daniel never has to miss a Jazz game.
• Christmas Tree scented candles- Believe it or not, we have a fake tree. (A Christmas sin in Daniel's book)
• Daniel's parent's old broken recliner they gave us. There is much less fighting over couch space now.
• That we don't live in China-- long story, but Ashley is in a Modern China class, and swears China is the most bizarre place on Earth.
• The Office- without it we would have nothing to watch, nothing to quote, and would miss out on our several laughing spells over Office humor. We have seen most episodes 2-5 times.
• Netflix- Most convenient thing ever.

Well, that's all we came up with tonight. Of course there is always more. We love and miss all our family, and wish all of you this best this holiday season. We are grateful for all our friends and family. And whether we care to admit it, we are grateful for school ( I think ) and all the opportunities we are granted. This is a great time in life. Happy Holidays everyone!!