I'm a little behind on the pictures I've been meaning to put up here forever. The first couple are from when we first got our Christmas tree (that adventure explained in an earlier post). You can see part 2 of that adventure here. The tree was huge and after getting it into our apartment we realized we needed to trim it. It was freezing outside and we had already carried the tree up the stairs and shoved it through the door, so we just trimmed it in our front room with the only tool we had - a large kitchen knife. It made a huge mess, but I loved the strong smell of fresh pine. These pictures are of before, during, and after trimming and decorating. We also had fun making Christmas sugar cookies that week. The first couple we decorated were cute and fancy, but then we got tired of decorating and just wanted to eat them so the rest were pretty simple.
This morning, a few minutes after Michelle said goodbye to me to go to work, she came back in to our room and said the car wouldn't start. This was not a complete shock because the car has been having a little bit of trouble starting for a few weeks, especially in the morning when it is really cold. In addition to this, the car battery has been dying if we have the lights or radio on for even just a couple minutes without the engine running. Despite these warning signs over the last few weeks or couple of months, Michelle and I had no idea that the battery might be just about out of juice. We called a family from our ward who lives in our apartment complex and they came and jump started the battery for us (thanks again Josh and Christina!). I dropped Michelle off at work and then went to an auto shop. They said they couldn't even start the car in the auto bay and that the battery was completely wasted, nothing left. So we got a new battery, everything is fine now. Hopefully there isn't anything else wrong with the car when we wake up tomorrow morning.
I get to sleep in till as late as i want these days, no school for the time being because of the Christmas break in between semesters. After I said goodbye to Michelle yesterday morning though before she went to work and had fallen back asleep, Michelle called me because she had a flat tire. I gave her Geiko's phone number (our insurance provider) and they arranged to have a tow truck come and get her. We are glad our insurance covers that. We kept thinking of better places though that the tow truck could take her. First we thought back home, then Michelle thought of a tire store. Since our tires are under warranty at Pep Boys, i got their address and Michelle called Geiko and we made the arrangements for her to be towed there. She didn't actually get towed to each of the places we thought of, she just had to keep calling and changing the plans. So she eventually got to Pep Boys and they will fix the tire for free if it can be fixed. This tire could not be fixed however. We needed a new tire. Luckilly for us, we only had to pay 15% of the cost of a new tire (i did not know this but the cost of a new tire is 85% covered under warranty if something like this happens). So it was not very expensive to get a new tire thankfully. Michelle got into work finally a few hours late. Michelle had called and told them what happened and stuff so its not like she just showed up three hours late without them knowing why. Still quite an adventure though. All things considered, the whole ordeal went pretty smoothly. Not that you enjoy getting a flat tire at 7:45 am or enjoy getting a ride in a tow truck to a tire store or like waiting inside a Pep Boy's for an hour or so. But all things considered it all went well. You know how when things like this happen it is usually just a horrible experience and there are all kinds of extra costs for repairs. Well not this time. It was more costly for her to have missed the hours at work than for the new tire. The towing is covered by Geiko as well. So...like i said, all things considered it wasn't that bad. Poor Michelle though, she had to be out in the cold and make all the phone calls and arrange it all by herself. I was at home in bed the whole time. Since we only have one car i had no way of going out there to where she was to help. I would have traded spots with her if i could have. So that was Michelle's adventure yesterday. PS-if anyone is looking for car insurance, Geiko really is surprisingly really inexpensive. Like the commercials all say. When i was shopping for car insurance Geiko was like a couple hundred dollars cheaper than the next best company's price, and it is working out great for us so far. I sound like a commercial for Geiko now, don't I?
Chad writing here. I finished the third HP book last night. I stayed up till 3 in the morning reading. I thought i was really close to the end but i still had like 50 pages to go when i decided I would stay up and go for it. After i realized how long it was going to take, I sort of regretted making up my mid to finish it, but i went for it anyways because I don't have school or anything right now. Around 2 or so in the morning my head starting to hurt and i felt sick. I just wanted to finish the book though because I more or less knew everything that was going to happen i just needed to get the book over with. That's the way i like to do things...just kind of do it all at once. I thought the book was alright. I liked the ending overall but then didn't like the every end. I thought Harry should have been able to live with Sirius Black instead of having to go back to the Dursely's. I guess Black's name is still not cleared up, I suppose that that is something that will happen in the future. I am sure they will bring more closure to this thing with Black (I mean, it is already pretty much closed they just need to clear up his name). Dumbledore told Harry before he sent them back in time that they would need more time is all to clear up Black's name. Anyway, I'm not really "hooked" on these books yet. I am moving ahead though quickly with the hope that they will get really good and i will get hooked. I have plenty of time for the next couple of weeks and we might go on a long road trip so we could listen to the books on tape too (we have them all unabridged on my ipod). So the next book is The Goblet of Fire, it is a real lenghty book, over 700 pages. I hope it is really good, or else i don't know if i will have enough steam left in me to tackle a few more 700 page books after this. I need it to get really good so that I feel like I really want to keep going.
Lately Chad and I have been playing guitar hero on the Wii more often. Chad beats me at just about everything we do and every game we play (except Big Brain Academy), so I told him that I was going to practice hard and beat him at a song on Guitar Hero. He said, "No offense, but I don't think that will ever happen. If you were going to beat me at something I don't think it would be guitar hero." He didn't think I had the natural skills for it. lol. So last night I turned on guitar hero (I hadn't even practiced yet since our discussion) and started playing a few songs. Then Chad and I decided to have a competition to see who could get the most points on the song "My Name is Jonas" by Weezer (on medium). I beat Chad on my first try!! In fact, I slaugthered his score!! Of course he couldn't let it stay that win so he continued to try over and over again to beat me. After two tries he did beat my score, but then I tried again and beat his score. We went back and forth a few times and my score was always higher. We played for about two hours last night. Then today we played again and I played it 100% perfectly. Chad kept trying until he played it perfectly as well, but to his dismay my score was still higher. lol. He has yet to beat it. I have to admit, it's been a lot of fun to gloat that I actually beat him despite his complete lack of confidence in my guitar hero skills! :) It's been a lot of fun to play and compete against each other. In fact, as we speak Chad is still trying to beat me. We have been playing for the last 3 hours (in between doing laundry so we're still being productive)! Here's a video and some pictures of Chad trying to beat me. The last picture is of my high score - the Wallace record so far.
My friend Kristi "tagged" me so it's my turn to post these answers to her questions. It's been fun remembering all of the fun times Chad and I have had and all of the millions of reasons I love him so much!!
His full name: Chad Tyler Wallace
Who eats more? Chad definitely eats more at each sitting than I do, but sometimes I can get pretty close to him. In one day though I might actually eat more than him because I am always hungry! I can eat a meal and be hungry again 30 minutes to an hour later, so I snack a lot.
Who said "I love you" first? I did. I had been waiting forever (ok only a few weeks) for Chad to tell me he loved me once I realized I was in love with him, but no luck. Finally we were sitting on the couch talking one night and I asked him how strong his feelings were for me. I really wanted him to say I love you first for some reason - kinda stupid now that I look back on it. He said "really strong" and I asked how strong? He didn't answer that time but instead asked me the same question. I told him that I was in love with him and then he said he loved me too. It was so good to hear! I think that was the happiest day of my life up to that point. I was pretty sure that he felt the same way, but it was good to finally here it.
Who's Taller? Chad - he's 5'11"
Who's smarter? There are some areas where I'm probably smarter, but overall Chad. He definitely has a "wider range" of knowledge than I do. Chad really likes to learn so he is always reading online about lots of different things from politics to history to inventions...Today he was learning about Inca Cola (a soda in South America) on wikipedia. He always does really well in school too and he definitely has more common sense than me. One of the things I love about him is how intelligent he is and how hard he works at everything he does. That's why he is at the #1 school in the nation for his program and doing great!!
Who's more sensitive? Me probably. Chad doesn't really let things get to him too often. I don't think I do either, but I have my days. On the other hand though, Chad is always very sensitive about my feelings and what makes me happy. That is one of the many things that first attracted me to him. He is a lot more sensitive than most guys in that sense. I still remember a couple months after we had met when I had to stay home from work sick. He bought me a card and some treats and told me that he hoped I got feeling better soon and that he wished he could be sick instead of me. He is such a sweet and caring guy! Man, I love him!
Who does the laundry? We both do. Chad helps me every single time and I appreciate it so much!! He helps me carry it all to the basement, load it, comes back down with me to move it to the dryer, take it out of the dryer, etc. Even when I don't technically need help, he helps me. It's just one of the many things he is always doing to help around the house and make things easier for me. I do usually fold the laundry though, but I don't mind.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Chad
Who pays the bills? Chad usually, but I do sometimes and we both work together to make sure everything is payed on time.
Who does the cooking? & What meals do we cook together? I do almost always. Chad doesn't like to cook very much. He will help me sometimes though, which is nice. He helps with desserts probably more often than actual meals. He is good about helping with dishes and setting the table. There are a couple meals that we make together like chicken quesadillas, bagel sandwiches, and grilled cheese.
Who is more stubborn? Neither one of us is very stubborn, but probably me.
Who wears the pants? We have a pretty equal role in the decision making.
What do you like to do together? We like to do just about anything together. We always have so much fun when we do anything, even grocery shopping. We like to hang out with our friends and play games and talk, play the Wii (especially guitar hero and Big Brain Academy), read (right now we're reading Harry Potter), work out, play sports, watch movies, and watch The Office.
Who eats more sweets? Definitely Chad. I've always really liked sweets, but CHad LOVES any sweets, especially candy. I've made homemade peanut butter cups a few times recently and all 24 are usually gone in a day - mostly eaten by Chad. Whenever we have candy around the house, even pretty big bags, it doesn't last long.
Guilty Pleasures? Well, considering we played guitar hero for 2 hours last night and have been playing it almost non-stop since noon today (it's almost 4), I wou ld say that's one of them. And then sweets...
How did you meet? Chad and I both did an internship through BYU in Washington, D.C. a couple of years ago so we met in our prep class to go there. We talked very briefly 2 or 3 times before D.C., but didn't get to know each other until we got there. We went to dinner with a group of people our first night there and we were pretty much inseperable after that.
Who asked who out? Chad asked me out our 3rd night in D.C. We went with his roommate and his roommate's girlfriend to an Ethiopian restaurant. It was a fun atmosphere, but Chad and I were basically apalled by the food. There's a picture of it below. Then we went to look at a lot of the monuments in D.C. and took pictures. We also went ice-skating at an outdoor rink. It was a lot of fun! When Chad's roommate and his girlfriend left we walked to the White House and took more pictures. That was also the first night Chad held my hand.
Who kissed who? Chad tried to kiss me once a couple days after we started dating (he will say it wasn't that quick, but I promise it was) and I turned away. I told him I wasn't ready for that yet and wanted to go slower. Then a month or so later he kissed me again and I let him that time.
Who proposed? Chad - twice, and I said yes both times. When we were on our way home from a trip to Cali right after he graduated and he told me that he wanted to turn off the book on tape and just talk. Then he said that he had been thinking and praying about it for a while and he wanted to marry me and felt like it was right. He said he felt that God had led us to each other and we were supposed to be together. I was sooo happy! I had been waiting forever for him to propose, so of course I said yes right away (it was about time!) and we started planning the whole way home. We picked out a ring together and then about a week and a half later he "officially proposed" at the Salt Lake City Temple by the reflection pool. He had set roses on the side ahead of time and when we walked by he stopped, handed me the roses, and got on his knee to ask me to marry him. Of course I said yes! It was really sweet and totally unexpected. I knew it was coming soon of course, but he had made walking around temple square seem like a completely unplanned and last minute decision. His friends had been hiding there waiting and they took pictures. Best features: I love his thick curly/wavy hair and his gorgeous blue eyes and his muscles...:)
Best quality: He is so completely caring and unselfish. He is always looking for ways to make me happy and will give up what he wants in a second to do so. He is constantly doing nice things for me to show me how much he loves me. He also has a really strong testimony of the gospel and is always trying to do what's right. He honors his priesthood and is a great example to me. I also love his sense of humor. He always makes me laugh and makes me happy with all of the silly things he says and does. It's so much fun to be married to him. I could keep going about all his great qualities, but this blog is already soooo long...
Michelle and I were both wrong, Andrew was called to serve in the Washiongton DC South Mission. I am proud of you, Andrew. Michelle and I were on the phone with my parents and Andrew through a conference call as he opened and read his call. It was really neat. Congratulations again!
My little brother got his mission call today. He has not opened the envelope yet to find out where he is going. He will open it tonight sometime. I am documenting here though that my prediction is Tennessee. Just in case I happen to somehow have guessed it right, I don't want it to be one of those situation where its like, "Oh I totally called it," but nobody believes you or it doesn't seem as cool becase you didn't tell anybody. And Michelle saw me typing this and she added that she predicts Missouri.
Michelle found a guy selling live Christmas Trees for 10$ a couple days ago on Craig's List. We arranged to go to is house and he cut a tree down for us. We drove home with a HUGE tree tied to the roof of our small car. It was quite an ordeal to get the tree to where it is now, in its base and trimmed to a nice size in our living room. We tied the tree to our car by putting a rope through the car and then over the tree, so we actually had to climb in through the windows (the doors were roped shut). We drove home on back roads and everyone looked at us as they passed us. The family that sold us the tree was really nice. It felt really good to get to know some perfect strangers that had the Christmas spirit and were so friendly. This tree, by the way, was hard to get into the apartment. Michelle and I had to drag it through the parking lot and up the stairs to our second floor apartment and then literally force it through our door frame. We did it though, it is here and our apartment smells like Christmas. I will post pictures of the tree as it is now later. These pictures are just of the ordeal getting onto the car and then getting into the car.
I am so thankful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I am thankful for a Heavenly Father who knows our thoughts and our needs and is always there for us. I know that He knows each of us individually and loves us more than we could imagine. I know that as we sacrifice to serve those around us, especially during this Christmas season, that we will be greatly blessed in return. I am thankful that Jesus Christ was born on this earth to set an example for us and then to suffer and die for us so that we could live with Him again. I know that He is our Savior and that He lives. I hope that we can all remember Him during this time of year and strive to follow His great example of service to others. Merry Christmas!
Michelle and I finished the second Harry Potter book last night. It was pretty good. It was definitely better than the first. We finished the first book last Saturday, so that means we read the second book in 5 days. The first 2 are pretty short. I started the third one last night and I looked to see how long it was -- it is longer than the first two. We are pretty into it you could say. I wouldn't say we are totally hooked quite yet. Mostly I am reading really fast with the hope that the books will get so good that i WILL get hooked. Sounds funny, but i have high expectations for these books. Many people have said they are great books so I am expecting a lot. Its nice to have someone to talk to about the books as we read them. Michelle and I do most of the reading together, but occasionally i will read more after she gets too tired and then she will catch up the next day before we read together. She reads almost twice as fast as me so it doesn't take her very long to catch up. I'm not exaggerating by the way about how much faster she reads than me. It is due to the combination of her being a really quick reader and be being a really slow reader. I wish i could read as fast as her. She could probably have read the first two books in an evening if we didn't read them out loud with each other. So far we both like the books. We both have ideas of things that might happen concerning Vo-- I mean he-who-must-be-named. They ahve alluded to some possible things that i beleive might end up happening.
Michelle and I spent a few days with my cousins Abbie, Claire, and Alysson. We got to their place in Brooklyn on Wednesday night. We spent the day with all of them and a few of their good friends on Thanksgiving. Michelle and I took the subway to Times Square and walked around Manhattan on Thursday night. On Friday, we slept in and went to the Museum of Modern Art. To our surprise, Friday is "Free Night" at that museum. We had to wait in a long line, but we got to go for free. As a bonus, there was a Van Gogh exhibit that we got to see. We got to see a several of Van Gogh's paintings, some of them famous and some of them not so well-known probably. To be honest, the only Van Gogh painting I recognized was Starry Night. There is a picture of Michelle next to a Picasso painting and me in front of a bunch of Campbell's soup paintings. I am not sure who drew the soup cans, but I thought it was interesting. There were some interesting pieces of art at this museum. We also walked around Rockefeller Center and went inside the NBC store. We left to drive home late on Friday night and arrived a few hours later. We had a great time. It was nice to see my cousins. I hadn't seen them in over a year i think. Michelle and I had a great time just spending the time together.
Michelle and I are going to drive to New York City tomorrow to spend Thanksgiving with the family we have out here on the East Coast. There are not a lot of us, but we are going to be together. I have cousins who live right in NYC, and another cousin who goes to school in Virginia. So we will all be together. We have family a little but further west in Ohio as well but unfortunately that is just a little too far for us to travel this year. I haven't been to NYC for a while. It should be a lot of fun. Michelle and I are excited to spend the long weekend together. She is planning on "sleeping in" because she doesn't have to work. I hope she does get to sleep at least a little but I am afraid there might be so much going on that she might not get to. It should be a lot of fun. Last time Michelle and I were in NYC was just for a day while we were interns in DC. That is where this picture is from. I just looked a little closer at that picture of us from the Statue of Liberty and I realized that i need to lose some weight. I have put on a few pounds since the time that picture was taken, hehe.
The Syracuse winter we have heard so much about is finally here. A lot of people have told us about how miserable and awful it is with freezing temperatures, winds, and more snow than most cities in the U.S. Others have told us it's really not that bad. We are about to find out and I hope it's really not that bad (although my instinct tells me that compared to the mild Boise and Provo winters I'm going to freeze). It started snowing a few days ago and it has snowed every day since then. The city changed from fall to a winter wonderland overnight. There is about 6 inches of snow on the ground and everywhere you look trees, cars, lawns, etc. are covered. I'm guessing this is how Syracuse will look for the next four to five months. So far it's just pretty and I haven't minded scraping the snow off the car and the cold too much. The good news is there are supposed to be lots of fun places to sled around here, so that will be fun!
Ouch. Anyone who watched the BYU Utah football game knows what I am talking about. It was fun watching it with our friends at least. There are a surprisingly (a pleasant surprise that is) lot of BYU alumni out here. A bunch of us got together at one of our friends house to watch the game on a projector. We had a god time. There is always next year I suppose.
We checked out the first book of the Harry Potter series from the library and last night we started reading it. Well...I started reading it...out loud to Michelle...until she fell asleep :) Michelle works very hard and wakes up early to go to work so I had a feeling she might not stay awake very long. I got about half way through the first chapter and to where Dumbledore was walking down the Dursely's street and then I could just tell she had fallen asleep. It was kind of cute. We will just have to resume reading a little bit earlier in the evening or afternoon when we read again. I would like to get really into the Harry Potter series because so many people have said they are so good. Even though they wouldn't probably be my first choice otherwise (i am not really into that genre of books generally). Again though, so many people have recommended them that i think i would like them.
We have this game on the Nintendo Wii called Big Brain Academy. Its one of those games where you have to solve puzzles, memorize things, visualize things, calculate things, etc. It is a lot of fun and you have to think had while playing. I bought the game for Michelle almost a year ago now actually, I ave it to her for a Christmas present last year. We have periodically gotten really into it for a couple weeks or maybe a month and then just kind of stopped playing it altogether. Right now i would say is a time where we are really into it. There are all kinds of games and competitions. I don't think it would be possible to ever master the whole game...there are so many different activities on it. There are a couple head to head competitions though that Michelle and I really enjoy the most. One is like a race to see who can solve all the problems (or beat all the games) the quickest. Michelle and I have a fun time trying to beat each other. Of course it is all in good fun though and we both laugh a lot and whatnot. Here is a picture of me focusing really hard while playing a couple nights ago. I will put some video footage up of us playing so you can all get the real effect of what this game is like.
After going to the pumpkin farm, Chad and I carved our big pumpkin for Halloween. It was a lot of fun. I forgot how much gunk is inside pumpkins. It took so long to get it out! We decided to make it a happy pumpkin and I think it turned out well. We also made gourmet caramel apples on Sunday. My family made them and sold them at the farmer's market one year, so I wanted to share them with Chad. We decorated them with white and milk chocolate and nuts. Chad didn't think it was going to work when I started to melt the caramel. He does have too much confidence in my candy making skills due to some earlier mistakes. He was very happily surprised though that they turned out great. They were a lot of fun to make and so yummy! They are so hard to eat though! Chad demonstrates in the video below. We loved them so much we made more the next day.
I am currently a primary teacher in our ward. I teach the five year olds. There are usually around eight in my class. Today was our primary program. It went pretty well. The kids had a hard time sitting still and didn't always want to sing the songs, but everyone still enjoyed it I think. Today was my second day of teaching my class. It went a lot better this time. Last time they were out of control and it was really hard to get them to listen and participate. I came home pretty discouraged. This time they were better in singing time. They sang almost all the songs and weren't quite as wild. They also walked quietly to class. When we first got to our classroom they were out of control again and were running around screaming. For a second I couldn't get them to stop. They were just completely ignoring me, but then we played Simon Says and that got all of their attention. Then Simon told them to sit down, fold their arms, and listen quietly, so they calmed down. Then before starting the lesson we talked about the rules for the class and why it was important to follow them and be reverent. For the most part, my class was relatively reverent and they listened to the stories, answered the questions, and participated in the activities. I felt much better about teaching after today. I think the big difference is that I relied a lot more on God this week. After the first time teaching I knew that I was really going to need His help and that I needed to do more than just pray for the spirit. I needed to humble myself so that I could be teachable and realize that I could not teach this class on my own. I then continued to pray that the Lord would teach me how to teach these children so that they could understand how much God loves them and how to choose the right. He truly answered my prayers and I am so thankful. I know that if we pray in faith and trust in the Lord that He will help us and lead and guide us in everything we do. Even though it is still a challenge and takes a lot of work, I am really enjoying this calling.
On Saturday after I got back from my retreat Chad and I went to a pumpkin farm to pick pumpkins. It was a little different than I expected because there weren't actually any pumpkins growing. There were just a bunch put out in a field of weeds. It was still cool though. We found the perfect pumpkin! There was also a petting zoo there and a corn maze that we did when it was dark. It was fun. It is always so much fun to be together no matter what we are doing.
I'm a little behind on the pictures I've been meaning to put up here forever. The first couple are from when we first got our Christmas tree (that adventure explained in an earlier post). You can see part 2 of that adventure here. The tree was huge and after getting it into our apartment we realized we needed to trim it. It was freezing outside and we had already carried the tree up the stairs and shoved it through the door, so we just trimmed it in our front room with the only tool we had - a large kitchen knife. It made a huge mess, but I loved the strong smell of fresh pine. These pictures are of before, during, and after trimming and decorating. We also had fun making Christmas sugar cookies that week. The first couple we decorated were cute and fancy, but then we got tired of decorating and just wanted to eat them so the rest were pretty simple.
Michelle and I were both wrong, Andrew was called to serve in the Washiongton DC South Mission. I am proud of you, Andrew. Michelle and I were on the phone with my parents and Andrew through a conference call as he opened and read his call. It was really neat. Congratulations again!
