A kind of Thanksgiving...

It is the day after Christmas and all through the house, our doggy is stirring and I’m eating a chocolate orange (you know, whack and unwrap)? I never made the time around Thanksgiving to do my "Things I am Thankful" List, so would anyone mind if I do it now? Thanks for the approval.
Right now I am grateful for socks and blankets because my dog ate my slippers and it is cold in my house today.
I am grateful for my dog Mahoney because he makes me laugh, despite the fact that he likes to eat my shoes. Not Charlie's, not Mark's, just mine. He is up to 4 pairs now...
I am grateful for my house because we have worked hard on making it pretty. I am grateful to live in STG because I can't drive in snow anymore and I don't have any excuse to not be the outdoorsy girl I once myself as anymore. (That was a poorly written sentence, sorry.)
I am grateful for work because I get restless and bored and ill-content if I have too much time to myself. I am grateful for my students who laugh at my dumb jokes, who ask me for books recommendations, who do crazy things like this for their projects, and who remind me why I chose to be a teacher in the first place. (The video is a band called With Fear We Fall made up of 5 of my sophomore students and someday they might be famous and I will have the Before They Were Stars video to blackmail them with...)

I am grateful for the freedom to work the way I want, to eat the way I want, to dress the way I want, to sing the way I want, to play the way I want, and to vote the way I want.
I am grateful for my parents who taught me to clean my house, to take walks, to check the oil in my car (or at least to pay someone to do it for me on a regular basis), to believe in myself and to vote for myself, to dance in the kitchen (or was that Louise Plummer?...), to keep it simple stupid, and to forgive.
I am grateful for brothers and sisters who show me how to be good parents, friends, neighbors, saints, and people. Will they never let me forget the "going to the bathroom to avoid doing the dishes" story so I remember that I really was a brat and they put up with me anyway.
I am grateful for my friends because they come visit me, give me good recipes (funny) and reading material, make me join silly sites like facebook that actually helps us keep in touch better, go the spa with me, give me treats, send me endless tags to write about, let me play with their kids, go on roadtrips with me, teach me to text on my cell phone, and put a smile on my face everyday.
I am grateful for good books, movies, tv shows, and music that inspire me and make me want to create something memorable one day.
I am grateful for scizzors. Really, can you imagine life without them?
I am grateful for hair dye because it allows to me change myself and try new things and to say "it's just hair, right? It will grow out".
I am grateful for my Primary kids, even though I have to bribe them to be reverent. They remind me why I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ-- It is simple and right and true.
What am I forgetting? Oh yeah... I am grateful for Charlie. For so many reasons, not least of which is because he cooks for me, fixs the computer when I break it, and generally makes my life better. What more can a girl ask for?

Reading Time...

It’s Christmas Eve Eve and Charlie and I just spent the day together, reading on the couch and occasionally talking and petting our dog. It was lovely.

I wonder if other couples have “reading time” like we do. There are established rules—like no asking annoying questions, no tickling, no TV or music (except for my Zune with earphones because I like reading to music..) Food is allowed and occasional bathroom breaks. Pretty much, it is quiet time, with us just lounging in bed or on the couch, our legs intertwining, until one or the both of us finish our book, falls asleep, or gets a huge surge of ADD. My favorite rule is the kissing rule. While we are reading, if one of the readers would like a kiss, all one has to say is “reading rule” and lean over. The other participant is obligated to then, stop wherever paragraph they are reading, and give the other person a kiss.

This doesn’t work so well with the puppy, but he is getting used to the reading rules too. He will sometimes jump on our laps and shove a toy in our faces like, “Um, hello, play with me!” But like I said, he is learning. He is finally content to sit on our laps, and have us absent-mindedly pet his fur while we are engrossed in the Sci-Fi (Jude Fisher's Sorcery Rising for Charlie) and YA (The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart for Jazzy) novels we are holding.

In case our nerdiness was not clearly established already, I think this little glimpse into our lives has sealed that up for us.

Just curious, what are some of the funny, little traditions (or whatever you want to call them) that you and significant others do when you spend the day together? And no, I don't want to know about that...

Mahoneykins...

Look how cute (and slightly evil) my puppy looks these days. Someone help me- I'm blogging about my dog again!

All About Lists...

I love lists. This one (tag) is from Leigh. Here ya go, girl.

What I was doing 10 years ago:
1. Going to BYU (Go cougars!!)
2. Working on the grounds crew at the football stadium
3. Living with Melena and making non-condusive forts
4. Running up the South Campus stairs 3 times a week
5. Driving to Logan and SLC alot

5 things on my to do list:
1. Update blog
2. Tie some hemp necklaces for Charlie's carvings
3. Write birthday cards for my dad, Holly, and Molly
4. Clean my car
5. Grade the 100 Personal Influence Essays I have had in my teaching bag for 2 weeks now.

5 favorite snacks:
1. My mom's cookies
2. Werther's Original carmels
3. Cheese
4. Carmel rice cakes
5. Orange flavored skittles, starbursts, fruit snacks, etc. Anything orange flavored pretty much

5 jobs I've had:
1. English Teacher
2. Camp Counselor
3. Quizno's sandwich maker
4. Grounds Crew at BYU
5. Research Assistant

5 things I would do with a million dollars:
1. Pay off all our debt
2. Buy a piece of land by Zion NP and build a sweet cabin/Bed and Breakfast on it
3. Take my entire family on vacation to Hawaii
4. Buy Charlie a Big Woody's Teardrop Camper (really, they are very cool- go look them up)
5. Create a collage scholarship fund for quirky high school kids like Charlie and I both were

5 things that made me laugh this week:
1. Mahoney being in fast bullet mode and running into the couch
2. A little girl at church making faces at her dad
3. A student explaining his A Dance for Three book project where he took his little brother around the mall and pretended to be a teen father. I can't remember what he said, but he had the whole class in stitches
4. Charlie trying to get fondant off his hands after kneeding it for 10 minutes
5. Kristin Chenowith on Ellen talking about how she can't order stuff on the phone because people think she is a little girl since her voice is so high.

Goin' a Splunkin'...

Last weekend, we finally adventured over to Snow Canyon (the actual park, not the school- I go there plenty...) Charlie wanted to show me the cave where he and his crazy high school friends would take girls on picnics. After the initial fear of "You want me to crawl through where?", it was actually pretty cool. These pictures don't do it justice and the self-portrait photos are never flattering, but enjoy all the same.

My Ace of Cakes...

So for Halloween this year, Charlie and I wanted to be all crafty and try our hand at making a cake. Let me tell you, it isnot as easy as it seems on T.V. I baked the cake part (which was pretty tasty if I do say so...) and Charlie made the fondant and carved the cake to look like a pumpkin. In the end, we created a slightly lumpy looking, shiny (thanks to a lot of crisco) pumpkin cake. We ended up taking it to Charlie's work party where people were afraid to cut into it. I think we might have shot a bit too high for our first cake, but it was an adventure anyway. Next year, maybe we'll just do a gravestone or something...

4 of 4 Tag...

My 4th picture in my 4th folder on my computer is this...

This is a baby gift I made for one of my multiple babyfied friends. But let's try another one. How about 8 of 8...

This is in St. Thomas on my pre-engaged Carribean cruise. The Baywatch picture. Nice.