A Young Married Couple's Christmas!

So Alexis and I finally got our Christmas decorations up this last week and they look stupendous, if I do say so myself.

The downside to that beautiful display of lights is that it is wrapped around the track for the blinds--so we can't actually close them!  Oh well.

It is hard to believe that we have almost been married for an entire year--we were married the 29 December 2010.  I just keep thinking how weird it will be when we look back 50 years from now to say, "Do you remember that first Christmas 50 years ago with the 2ft tree and window stickies?"  I can't wait!

It was trickier than you might think to decorate the Christmas tree--not because there was a lot of space to fill but because there were so many ornaments and so few places to put them.  We ultimately decided that 'less is more' and just put a few things on there.

We received a nice, early Christmas present from the Longs in order to continue their annual tradition of giving each child an ornament.

We decided that, since it is probably too heavy for the tree, we would combine it with each of our individual baby ornaments to form a little Traditionary Trifecta of Holiday Cheer.  That's right, that's what we're calling it.

Grow Some Hair, To Show You Care

I have always wanted to be like Santa Clause.  He really is an idol for me with his bowl full of jelly, long flowing beard and heart full of charity and Christmas spirit. 

Although I'm not too fond of the bowl full of jelly part, I am definitely excited about growing out my long flowing beard in order to help out those less fortunate this Christmas season! 

The Christmas Beard Foundation is trying to raise awareness (and donations) to help out orphans in the Ukraine that really need some help.

So why not be a little bit more like St. Nicholas this Christmas season by donating even a few dollars to help those in need and by growing out your beard to raise awareness for this worthy cause. 

Ask yourself this: What would Santa do?

http://www.christmasbeard.org/

Do you think that Alexis would go for this?

So, we don't have any kids yet and Christmas is coming up pretty soon, so I was thinking that maybe it is time that we make another addition to the family.  I know, it seems a little bit soon but I've thought a lot about this and I think it is the right decision.

Do you think that Alexis would go for this?

http://community.thenest.com/cs/ks/forums/59885796/ShowThread.aspx

The World as We Know It

Lawn eats old man in Florida!

(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45101955/ns/us_news-life/)

Fantasy land and Middle-earth aren't the only places that plants and trees come to life.  Hoping to wage war against his lawn, this man decided to walk into enemy territory to retrieve his paper. 

As you can see, he paid the price for his arrogance.

Robo-Dumbo walks again:
From 2010 to the present, approximately 1,000,000 people died of cancer in the United States, Haiti was devastated by the largest earthquake in 200 years, and the U.S. government almost 'shut-down'.

But wait, there is a shining ray of hope: Dumbo is walking again!

http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/04/8633536-wounded-elephant-walks-again-thanks-to-jumbo-sized-false-foot

After 4 years of scientific innovation with the express aim of realizing this elephant's dream of walking again--Robo-Dumbo was born.

It is good to know that our best and brightest are making headway in the noble, uphill battle for elephant prosthetics.

Oh, Ohio: The Jungle Book Gone Bad

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/04/exotic-animals-charged-deputies_n_1076476.htmls


Don't you just hate it when your neighbor lets their dog pepper your lawn with its "Christmas Gifts"?  Well, at least your neighbor doesn't own Lions and Tigers and Bears! Oh my!

There is an important lesson to be learned here.  If your neighbor is a recently released convict with 56 "exotic" animals on his property, you might want to look into relocating.

September in Hindsight

This "month in review" is not going to be nearly as extensive as the August edition but we'll do our best. 

I had my appendix out the first part of  September.  My stomach had been hurting for a few days and finally it was hurting so bad that I went to the Urgent Care and then the hospital.  One day later, I was out of surgery, out of the hospital and laying around at home.  It was kind of fun, in a "never had something like that happen before" kind of way but not so much in the "gee, I hope it happens again" kind of way. 

 Sasha had to get some blood drawn so we were both all bandaged up.

And...that was pretty much the most exciting thing that happened last month.  Hooray!

August in Hindsight

I apologize for being a bit behind with the blog posts but instead of skip the month of August, we will just do it in review:

 

Amy and Cory came over with Annie the Shih-Tzu so that Sasha could get more "dog socialized".  The ice-cream was quite scrumptious!

Cans at work before compactor foot...

Cans at work after compactor foot! (I was kind of looking for things to do that day)

Most of the time that we go over to the Long's now, we take Sasha with us because she and Tater have become pretty good friends.

Jason at NPT gave us two passes to a Diamondbacks' game as a birthday gift / going away present!  It was a lot of fun.

 

What a beautiful couple, right?

We started up school again and I found out that they've done some remodeling to the patio in front of the business building.  It's nice to not have to climb up and down the stairs in the fountain area anymore.

Bates Family get together / pool party--this might have been late July actually.  Alexis and I were in charge, so we delegated everything out, arranged with Aunt Sue and Uncle Mike to use their pool and had some delicious pulled pork for dinner.  Yum!

I finished up work for the summer a few days before school started and, it being my birthday, Alexis and I went up to a cabin in Eagar, AZ that the Johnsons (the amazing senior couple from my mission) let us use.  It was very nice to just get away from the heat, work and just relax a bit before school started. 

Here is Alexis prepping the cooler for the drive.

Here is the house / cabin with a very curious Sasha sniffing around.

 One interesting thing that we noticed about Eagar is that its residents are quite patriotic.  It was refreshing to see a flag on almost every porch or a bench painted red, white and blue.  I'm afraid that we are losing touch with the sense of patriotism that we should feel.  Even I forget to put up the flag on holidays and I'm the one mentioning it.

 When I would take Sasha for her walk in the morning, she was usually quite "excited" to see that almost every house in Eagar has a dog or two as well.  Honestly, we could hardly pass more than 1 house before a dog would start yapping at Sasha or a horse would come running over to take a closer look.  I think she liked the attention though.  This little dog was more friendly and Sasha reciprocated that kindness--too bad there was a fence or they could have been fast friends.

We hung out inside most of the time because we didn't want to leave Sasha alone (we had forgotten her crate) and because we just wanted to relax a bit. We had a lot of fun putting some puzzles together--I can't remember the last time I did that and Lexie enjoys them. That is one thing, among many, that I love about her: that she is incredibly bright and creative but doesn't need a complex computer game or movie to entertain her--a puzzle or a game is just fine.

 I liked the soccer one best--I might be a bit biased though.

I colored Hercules (one of the best Disney characters of all time) while we watched a movie.  I think it is a pretty good likeness of him if I do say so myself.

 Scrabble is, well, kind of boring.  I thought that it would be fun like Word Feud on the Droid, but apparently not.  We did finish one round though! 

Oh, and there was the car accident.  We weren't in the accident but it happened about 25 yards behind us at an intersection.  We were just walking Sasha in quiet, peaceful little Eagar when a car passed us by on the road, ran the stop sign (or at least that is what we suppose happened since we didn't turn around until we heard the collision) and slammed into the front of a van which proceeded to crash into this power line pole.  Lexie took care of Sasha while I ran over to check on the people in the van (an elderly woman and her senile husband--who for some reason hadn't been wearing a seat belt and ended up stuck between the two front seats with a bleeding hand) and all the old lady could say was, "You saw that it wasn't my fault right?  Oh my goodness!" as I frantically tried to dial 911. 

I had actually never dialed 911 before so that was fun, I guess.  I was worried for a bit because the airbag had launched and the dashboard was smoking (which concerned me since I did not know if it was something in the recently smashed engine or just the airbag).  Fortunately, the police, paramedics and firemen arrived in short order to help the old man out of the van (he was not in a pleasant mood at that point) and into an ambulance.  They seemed like they were going to be okay but the van was totaled.

 

The lady that likely ran the stop sign slid off into the grass next to the van after the collision and, fortunately, didn't go in the neighbor's yard (which you can see was only a few feet away).  She seemed okay but was also taken in an ambulance.  

The police had us wait around for about 25 minutes because we were the only "witnesses" but since we didn't actually 'see' anything, they let us go.  It was quite an adventurous walk, that's for sure.

Later on, I opened my gifts from Lexie.  

 

I opened "The Music Man" soundtrack first--Hooray!  I love the Music Man.

 And then....

 "The Big Book of Answers"!!  Because I am always asking so many questions (weird, insightful and otherwise).  It is actually a pretty interesting read.

Sasha relaxing with Justin.

 Alexis decided that she was "finally" going to get her hair cut this month (and believe me, that was a Big decision).

Before...

After!!  I think she looks super cute--the shortest that I've ever been around to see it, in fact.

My blood pressure has gone down significantly since my month of unemployment at the beginning of the summer!  I was quite excited and I'm sure you are too.

The good husband making pizza dough for dinner--under his wife's watchful eye.  I love Pizza!  Thanks for the dough recipe Kim!

And that's all she wrote!

On the Road Again

As I have been going through my internship at National Pool Tile this summer, I have had a number of opportunities to drive to different places in one of the company vehicles to either pick up or drop off product.  I have driven three different vehicles including two different trucks and a 4-door Jeep kind of car.  Work took me as far North as Surprise and as far South as Casa Grande on some days, but nothing could have prepared me for what came next...

 The BIG ONE

I got to go out with Paul, the in-house truck driver, to go deliver product on a couple of different days.  I had never been in a semi-truck before so it was exciting.  

 For the few days while the Sales manager was gone on vacation last week, I was in charge of Paul's deliveries (with the Branch Manager's help, of course).  

I had to make sure the deliveries were pulled, checked, wrapped and loaded onto the truck everyday as well as help divide them up geographically so that he wasn't driving all over town on each load. 

Paul is really fast with the "Donkey" (forklift made for delivery trucks) but still very careful.

 

We went to a truck stop to fill up so I got to see what a "Truck Stop" was like--did you know they have showers?

I also learned a little bit about driving the truck itself, that "Lot Lizards" are bad and that the truck's 160 gallon capacity for gas costs the company almost $500/week!  I couldn't believe how much the gas bill was when he paid it at the truck stop. 

 

This is not a truck.  It's a dog that was on one of the job sites and took quite a liking to me actually.  So, in short, it was fun to actually see the delivery end as opposed to just the prep work.

The Wedding Singer

Alexis recently made her premiere on the Wedding Singer's circuit at a church up in Scottsdale.  Ironically, she sang at a funeral in that same church a few months ago.

We even got to go to the dress rehearsal the night before--neither one of us had ever been to a dress rehearsal but I can see why they have them because there is a lot to remember.  I'm kind of glad that our wedding wasn't so complicated or I probably would have fumbled around a bit.

The groom did a great job.

Alexis did a great job singing "The Lord's Prayer" and "For the Beauty of the Earth".  It was kind of interesting though because they had her sing the latter during Communion--so there was quite a bit going on at the time with people standing up and coming to the front.  She told me that after a while, she just gave up trying to sing to them and just focused on singing.

Overall, it was a really good experience and there was a good spirit there.  The bride's family flew in all the way from Korea and the groom's from New York so it was quite a gathering.