learning and living

To my mountains that I miss:
see you in 2 weeks!

I've been slacking on my blogging
(and so have many of you by the way! What to you expect me to do with so many hours of free time?)

Not much is going on.
I've been pushing myself to finish reading The Count of Monte Cristo
*which I started reading in February*
And trying to get my Christmas shopping done- fail

So, here are 10 things I've learned in the last 3 months

1. I went to buy a drain cover, but I couldn't find any so I asked someone...
"Is it for he-a?" she replied
"Uhh...for what??"
"For he-a."
"OH! Yes, for HAIR"
It's possible to live in the same country and speak the same language,
and still not understand each other

2. My car has a horn and I know how to use it

3. The phrase "I'm going to run to the store really quick"...
what is that like a joke?

4. Every month I go to the bank and get 3 rolls of quarters

5. Whoopie pies are yum, and everywhere

6. Many hard core New Englanders think they are real deal Americans because their ancestors like faught in the Civil War and stuff, and people in Texas are mostly stupid
(which is incurable ya know)

7. Book group just read "Common Ground" by J. Anthony Lukas
and is going to read "Confessions" by Saint Augustine
ya know... just some light reading

8. Nothing about Harvard is cheap...nothing
*Can't I just get a cool sweatshirt for less then $85?*

9. Old man winter knows I'm here from Santa Barbara and is trying to trick me with such lovely December weather...

10. Nothing is pronounced as it is spelled
(i.e. Worcestor = wooster)

Thank you, Boston

Giving Thanks

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

"The Game": Harvard vs Yale

I made a 2.5 hour pilgrimage down to New Haven Connecticut this weekend to see the country's oldest college football rivalry. The T-shirts were hilarious. Harvard shirts to mock yale included "FALE", "nobody ever says they want to go to Yale when they grow up, harvard, my anti-yale. a message from a yale free society", "Safety school" and other funny ones. The yale shirts were funny too like "Yale, almost the same prestige; half the work", "harvard, almost as much fun as abstinence", "you'd have to be crazy to go to harvard" (with a picture of the unibomber class of '67 or something.
from what I could tell by the tiny size of the football players and the cheerleaders... both were definitely held to the same academic standards that only accepts 9% of its applicants.
The game was hilarious. My high school team could have beaten either one. (on the field and in attendance.)We won in the last 5 minutes when the Yale coach took what could only be described as a bold move by deciding to go for it and fake a punt on his own 20 yard line 4th and 22 when he's up 10-0 with 5 minutes left. Two hail mary bomber passes later (Harvard's only offense) and we won the game and stormed the field.

the coolest part, sadly, of the whole game was the super theatrical half time performances by both marching bands. (they insulted eachother by acting out ridiculous skits while the band accompanied)Jodi and Anna went into Boston for the lighting of the tallest tree in New England and other festivities.

Top 15 Finalist!

Out of the 5 dresses I submitted to the Shabby Apple design contest, this one was chosen as one of the 15 finalist!! It probably wasn't my favorite, but I'm happy all the same! So here is what you MUST do for me-
Go to this website

http://www.shabbyapple.com/blog/2009/11/final-15.html

And vote for # 11

I guess I can't force you if you like another one better...
but I will know what you voted for so watch out! jk
Don't forget, you can only vote once, but you can cast a vote for every individual in your family!
The more votes the better,
wish me luck!

My hair misses the California sun...

And here's an old pic of Taylor's California hair

(But we don't miss that so much because I like it better black)

We neglected to mention

There's two new babies in the family.

Both of Taylor's sisters had girls- one in August, the other last week-
and they are both so beautiful.
Taylor is finally a "real" uncle.

weekend spectacular

This weekend we had stake conference. It was seriously the best I've ever been to. On Friday night, we had the adult session in the Trinity church in Copley Square downtown. Our stake center burned down earlier this year,
so it was very nice of them to let us use the church.
It was beautiful and the music sounded incredible.The Sunday session was at the Marriott hotel (Trinity isn't big enough for everyone). We were so lucky to have Elder M. Russell Ballard, one of the apostles, preside and speak at the conference. The counsel he gave was so good and the spirit filled the meeting. We were even able to shake his hand.
I know that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ!

There was another celebrity there,
Mitt Romney and his wife Ann (because they are in our stake).
When we were leaving the conference, we ended up walking right behind him for several blocks to the same parking garage
(where he drove off in his candy apple red mustang convertible).
We even shared an elevator with him- there were only like 2 other people in there and he was kind of the pink elephant in the room,
-so you ran for President and we all know who you are,
but nobody is going to say anything-

We decided not to be creepy fans, so we didn't talk to him or shake his hand,
but I did snag a picture on my phone.
It was all I could to to keep Taylor from melting into a puddle on the sidewalk.