All You Need Is Love

Our stake put on a Valentine's Day dance last weekend, and Travis and I decided to go to it. Here are a couple pictures from that evening. Enjoy!

Yes, that is Travis standing behind me.

 

The dance was a lot of fun, and there was lots of people there! I felt like I was back in high school- everyone was showing off their moves. It was a lot of fun, I'm glad we went.

First Place in Bake-Off!

Travis really wants me to post this additional entry, so here it goes:

A couple weeks ago, the faculty/staff at my school had our annual bake-off. The desserts are numbered and put on a table for everyone to try and the judges pick the top three. Last year, when I entered the bake-off, my dessert was a big flop. The people next to me were pushing it around on their plates, saying, "What's this? I'm done with this..." as they pushed it to the far corner of their plate. Yeah, a BIG blow to my self-esteem, as you can imagine. I'm just glad no one knew I made it!

But I was determined to do better, so all year I've been working on my recipe for cinnamon rolls, and I entered them into the bake-off. I was in complete shock when they announced I won first place! The judges all wrote down their comments about it, and one said, "I'm nine years old, and it's Christmas morning!"

The prize was a gift certificate to Cafe Rio, which was great! If anyone has a recipe they think is a winner, let me know! I'm going to start working hard now for next year!

Goodbye Mushu

I'm sorry to say that we lost our dear cat, "Mushu" last week. I got Mushu when I was a senior in high school from a friend- he was just a kitten then, and we've had many good years together. He had been sick for a few days, and when I took him to the vet, he said Mushu had two serious problems, and it would take surgery to fix (with some probability that it wouldn't work). I knew that Mushu had already been in so much pain, and that he'd had these same problems in the past, so I decided the best thing to do was to put him down. :( I went out to the lobby and cried a lot- the vet's assistants kept bringing me tissues. When I got home, Travis was waiting outside for me, and gave me a huge hug. I sure needed it! He ordered pizza (my favorite), and picked up my favorite ice cream on the way home. Wonderful food for depression. It's been hard not having Mushu around, but I know he's now happy in heaven chasing mice, and having claws again!

Mushu (with the collar) playing with a neighbor's cat

Carnival Weekend!

For those of you who don't know, we have some of the cutest nephews in the whole world! This weekend we were invited to a special carnival put on by the Wendel boys, put together in their own bedroom. It was so much fun! They really spent a lot of time and effort putting it together. They were so excited to show us everything they had made! They set up various games in different areas of the room, and gave us each 10 tokens to use at the stations. If we won a game, we got tickets, which could be traded in for a prize from the prize table! My favorite game was the ring-toss. If a ring landed over a 2 liter, we'd get to keep it! I finally got it the second time I played- it's harder than it looks!

Travis's favorite was the shooting range. He did pretty well!

We were advised to save at least 4 tokens for a slice of pizza at the end, which was scrumptious!

And as if the games, food, and prizes weren't enough, there was also a show in which each of our nephews performed a circus act. Cache was so much fun as "Strong-Man"- we busted up laughing the second he came out on stage!

Gaige was next with his balancing act, followed by Stetson clowning around a bit... 

 

We were so glad we spent the evening with the Wendels, it was truly an unforgettable, sweet, comical evening! Thanks to Kami, Brad, and the boys for showing us a good time!

Riding Out the Winter!

It's only been a month since the holidays, yet it seems even longer! We've been so busy with school and work, we haven't even had time to take down our Christmas decorations! Crazy, huh? It's been a while since we posted to our blog, so here's what this past month was like...

My students and I dived right into the second semester, focusing on conjugating regular verbs in the present tense. For those of you who don't know what that's like in Spanish, it's a lot of fun, and it's really easy. I have grown to LOVE teaching so much, even more than I thought I would (and I always knew I was going to love it!). This year has been absolutely amazing- the students are so bright, and quick to catch on. And the part I love most about them, is that they're not afraid to ask questions! We're all enjoying it- to the point that I can't wait to get back to school tomorrow! This week I'm planning on making home-made tortillas with them, with the tortilla press and everything. It should be fun!

In addition to my chess club on Tuesdays, I'm also coaching this year's Knowledge Bowl team. This year's theme is geography, and though it's been a while since I taught geography, it's been fun to teach it again! My friend, Danielle (the French teacher), is also doing it. Our team is going to do very well at the competition! Next year the theme is history, and I'm definitely looking forward to that!

Travis has also been very busy this past month. He's currently enrolled in two of his three final classes of his undergrad. Along with staying on top of those classes, he's been plenty busy at work! Spring is one of the busiest times of the year for his office, and he's been working so hard on several different projects, meeting several different deadlines! He'll be presenting at a conference in San Diego this March- I'm sure he'll just captivate the audience with the things he's accomplished!

Travis also applied to grad school this month- which has been a big weight lifted off his shoulders! In order to apply for BYU's joint program (Masters in Mechanical Engineering + MBA), he had to apply to both the M.E. dept, along with the Business School. He's been talking to his professors and getting an idea of what he'd like to do his research on. Now we just have to hear back from both schools to see if he gets in!

It's been a busy month- but we've still been able to spend time together. Last week, we were invited to a birthday party for a good friend in our ward. It was so much fun! We played games, ate yummy food (Travis wants the recipe for your cheese ball, Carmen...), and enjoyed each others' company. And last night, we went to Rob and Kim's house for a Nintendo Wii night. Travis's arms are still sore from canoeing!

One of the biggest highlights of this month has been adding to our food storage. Macey's had their case lot sale, and we stocked up on bag after bag of brown rice and wheat. Travis's parents gave us a wheat grinder for Christmas- we can't wait to use it! Now we have stuff other than pasta and spaghetti sauce in our pantry! ;) (Don't worry, we have other things too...)

Another highlight was getting a new microwave! Our last one died, and we went a whole month without a microwave! I'm telling you, that's not an easy thing to do! We decided to get a space-saver (one that goes above the stove), but we had to wait for a good deal to come along. We finally found one on KSL in our price-range, and installed it (thanks to Google). It's been great!

It's been quite the busy month for us, but a fun one! We can't wait till February...maybe then we'll have enough time to take down our Christmas decorations!!

Feliz Navidad, todos!

This year, we spent most of our Christmas with the Anderson family. All of Travis's siblings came home for the holidays; it was a lot of fun to catch up with them and see how they're doing, and especially see all our adorable nieces and nephews again.

We spent a couple of days at a cabin where we were able to go sledding. It was so much fun, especially to see those nieces and nephews who have never sledded before! Some of them are from Texas or Arizona, so it was fun to see them playing in the snow, and try to catch snowflakes on their tongue.

I'm afraid the picture above is the only one we currently have from the week. We temporarily lost our camera, and still have to download pictures that other people took of us. Though our faces show thrill and excitement, it wasn't long before they turned to terror as Travis steered us into a pole. CRASH! The good news is that we found our camera a couple days later!  :)

We spent the rest of our time relaxing in the Anderson's home. We had a talent show, in which Travis and I performed a rendition of "Silent Night" that we played in Sacrament Meeting a couple weeks ago. Travis wrote the piano part a few years ago, and I wrote the flute part to go along with it. Later that day, the kids and I formed a "pack" where we planned to capture Santa Clause when he came down the chimney that night. Unfortunately, it didn't work out because everyone was sound asleep when he came! Maybe next time, Santa won't be so lucky...

Christmas morning, we woke up bright and early at 6:00 to eat a yummy breakfast and open our presents. I have to admit, growing up, my siblings and I never opened presents earlier than 9:00. Last year, when Travis and I had our first Christmas together (married), he still insisted that we get up early, even though we don't have any kids! So we did. I guess I better get used to it!

This week, we're just enjoying our time out of school. Travis will be starting winter semester soon, and then register for one more class after that. He'll be graduating with his Bachelors in August- we're so excited! He's applying for grad school in the next couple of weeks here, so wish him luck! I'm also excited for this second semester of school. We're going to be learning about conjugating verbs! Yay! This is one of my favorite units. It should be so much fun- I'm really excited! :)

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and have a Happy New Year!

Tetris

For my C++ programming class this semester (Me En 570), I made a Tetris game. It has both a one-player and a two-player mode, music, sounds effects, and even a Google-O-Meter that indicates who's winning! After about level 17, though, it starts to get really, really fast...

Click here to download and start playing the game. It's been a lot of fun to create. I've really enjoyed it, even if Lacee doesn't like playing it with me...