Recap of 2009

I have been neglectful when it comes to posting the experiences and stories of my life.  Over the past few months I started a few entries but they never seemed to get off the ground.  Which brings me to this point where I realized that a new year is upon me and I had not finished out the 2009 year on my blog.  So the point of this post is to share the last few months worth of adventures with a little back story.

One year ago about a week before Christmas 2008 we moved to in my opinion the best and newest apartment that we had ever lived in to date after M and I were married.  With the move happening so close to the holidays I did not have time to properly decorate our new home.  This was a problem I was going to rectify for the 2009 season. 

When it comes to decorating with lights I try and emulate Clark Griswold from the Christmas Vacation movie.  My only limiters this year was the amount of lights I could put up and the limited space on my 8 foot by 8 foot patio.  I started putting up lights out side over my Thanksgiving break yes before Thanksgiving Christmas lights were going up over at my house.  I am pleased that I was able to put up 835 lights on my patio I know what your saying "835 that's nothing".  Well to that I would remind you that my story is not done yet there is still more to come.  We also this year revived a new Christmas tree from my sister (thank you), and for the first time picked out an entire matching set of ornaments (the non-breakable ones) and a complete set of clear lights specifically for the tree. What is truly amazing is the fact that it took 950 lights to completely cover the tree which we set up in our front room window.  So my 2009 total lights count with the tree and outside lights combined is 1775 . 

For New Year's eve I spent it taking down 1775 lights and putting away all of our Christmas decorations.  With all the decorations down and in there place we can now start seating up the baby stuff before the next semester begins.

Whirl wind

First off I want to say sorry for not posting lately. However, these last few weeks have turned out to be very busy. It all started with the week of finals I had one critical class that I needed to pass. Meaning that I was studying every chance the I could get. I did not find out what my grades were until Christmas eve. Which only increased my stress levels to the point of my pre test levels. I did pass all on my classes in case anyone was wondering. Also during finals week we needed to pack up our house and move. When we just barly finished moving into our new apartment the promised snow storm hit dumping about a foot of snow. Then it has been a struggle to maintain our health and unpack. For our hoidays we spent christmas at home thanks to the dangrous driving conditions. Our new year's eve we visited M's family and had butterfinger milkshakes. This break before school starts again has not felt like a break, it was more like a whirl wind of activity. To top it off just yesterday we paid our fees for the next semester that starts this coming Monday. Our goal is to be finished unpacking before school starts again.

Blessings

For our anniversary M and I gave each other the books that we have been wanting for awhile.  M's book is "Inside every woman" and mine is "Brisingr" along with the preceding two books.  Latter that evening we went to a trunk or treat in our old ward.  All of our neighbors are in that ward while M and I are in a different ward of our choosing.  The event was enjoyable and entertaining.  Plus the girls were having a ball playing games and receiving candy.  The girls, M, and I had a great time.  For our family costume we decided to go as a set of Lego's.  We used cardboard boxes and plastic cups that we spray painted.  To attach the cups we cut out holes, in the front of the box, that were just smaller than the cup so we could insert the cups snugly.  I was the blue Lego M was the red Lego J was the purple Lego and A was the pink Lego.

When we came home we decided to use our circular cutouts to "spot" our neighbors door.  Before we had a chance to take a snapshot of our handy work we were interrupted by a car screeching to a halt right out front of our house.  For about ten seconds all I could see was clouds of blue smoke wafting into the head light beams of the car.  M on the other hand saw the whole thing happen the little girl wanting her mommy then running out into the street after her only to be hit by the car.  I have never been so close to an accident like that before M took off running to the girl almost instantly while I stood in unbelief not completely knowing what had just happened.  Luckily the little girls was not injured even though she was knocked down. Needless to say we ended our anniversary on a very sobering note.  We did get a picture of the door though and had a little fun with our neighbors before the day was over.  The note says "You've been spotted!"