Busy, busy

It has been a while since I have blogged, but I think I have some pretty good excuses. This is a little bit of what has been happening.

1) Graduation!!!!!

My parents, sister and nephew came up for the weekend. It was a quick trip for them, but I am so thankful that they came to celebrate this accomplishment with me.

2) Watched fencing tournaments!!!?!

3) Froze at a Christmas lights parade!!
4) Hiked through the mountains to see a frozen waterfall!!!
5) Raced in a Pinewood Derby!!!
And yes I won a prize! The "Most Economical" take the meaning as you wish.

6) Had my toes painted!!!At our Relief Society dinner, we auctioned off different items. I bought a Toe Nail Manicure! Lucky! I never paint my toes this well. If you can't tell I have pink French tips.

7) Posed as wise men.
The family stake presented a beautiful display of over 400 Nativities. Paul and I enjoyed looking at all of the craftsmanship of each of the Nativities and then being part of a Nativity.

8) Got a bad hair cut. There are no pictures of this. I couldn't take any.

As you can tell, our life has been pretty busy. Besides all of this we celebrated Christmas! I hope you and your family enjoyed the day as much as we did.

In One Week

Kudos to my incredibly awesome friend who took my Senior pictures and designed this for me.

Check out her other work at StewArt Studio.

Something's Missing

And yes, we put the Christmas tree up-two weeks ago. It helped me feel better.

Car drive

Over the break we took a quick trip to Idaho Falls. After thirteen hours in the car and a very sore bottom and back we saw this being hauled behind a U-haul. Hmmm...I think the conversation went something like this- Person A, "We are moving and need to put the cat somewhere while we travel." Person B, "Ah-ha! I know, how about the car that is pulled behind the U-haul. We can put it in there without a cage and let it have free range of the car." That cat did not look very happy. I am pretty sure it was hissing at us as we passed.

Did you know there is an Emily Summit somewhere in Oregon?

I am pretty sure it was named after me.

Thanksgiving Break

We spent Thanksgiving at Paul's parents house. It was a very relaxing weekend. On Wednesday night we went to a hockey game. Hockey games are very interesting to me. I don't really know the rules and I am not sure that many people do. My favorite part of the game is watching and listening to the die hard fans. You hear many of them yelling at the players to do this and that (as if the players can hear them through the glass) as if they know hockey like they played it for fifteen years of their life. Do they really know what they are saying? It isn't like football or basketball where everyone knows all of the rules and can help the players along by yelling at them. I guess I will never understand.

Thurday we ate turkey and all of the trimmings. I made some cute, single serving pumpkin pies, no picture, I forgot. There are many things I am thankful for this year. Number one is the Gospel and number two, Paul. He is super great! You may notice that my pictures are clearer and better than ever. That would be Paul. he gave me an awesome camera for my birthday.

Friday morning I went out to brave the crowds. I went to JCPenney for some pants and that was it. It wasn't that bad. I left the house at 7:30 so I guess I wasn't that into the shopping thing this year. There just wasn't anything that I couldn't live without.

Wheel of Fortune

How fun is this to have? For one of my classes we are doing a table in the Commons presenting information on finances, like living frugally, spending plans, and savings. My classmate and I went to the banks in Moscow receiving some awesome donations. We got a ton of to-go mugs, ipod speakers, clocks, piggy banks and so much more. In order to distribute our loot fairly, we thought a wheel of fortune wheel would be fun. I didn't think it was going to happen, but I told my dad about it and in less than an hour I had the wheel in my hands. After a few coats of paint and some nails, this is what I have. I am very excited to use the wheel of fortune for many things!

I can't help myself, I love Christmas!

Last week I walked into Michael's to buy some poster board and it happened. I was overcome with the joy of Christmas. Music, cinnamon scents, lights, trees. I love Christmas! I feel giddy inside when I see a sparkly Christmas card. My eyes light up when I hear "I'll be home for Christmas." I get so excited when I think about setting out our Christmas decorations.

After my initial emotions calmed down a little, Paul reinforced my feelings when we went to the grocery store. He needed a tin of popcorn. You know the ones with Frosty the Snowman or a beautiful winter scene on the side of it. The winter scene spoke to me. I immediately felt the need to listen to Christmas music, so when we got home, I did it! The record has been on ever since. You may not hear it, but it is definately playing in my head.

I suppose I get caught up in some of the commercialism of Christmas, but when I found out that two coworkers don't really like Christmas, I was a little distraut. They feel overwhelmed with satisfying everyones needs during the season. I don't think that is what Christmas is about though. It is about the Savior's birth. A joyous occasion that should be celebrated. And celebrate I will for the rest of the year. Not by being overly commercial, they help get things started, but that is not what it is all about. So, don't be surprised if you hear me humming a Christmas tune or see me walk with a hop in my step. I am in celebration mode, I just can't help myself!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Wishing everyone a marvelous and spooky halloween.

Yeah, I'm Cool

I am on Second Life. I know everyone wishes they could be as cool as me. As if I don't already have enough to keep myself busy in my real life, I can now spend it in Second Life flying my avatar around trying to find the virtual University of Idaho campus. I didn't do this to myself. I was forced into it by my FCS 223 teacher. Why should I be taking Textile Business anyway? Good question! At any rate, if you want to be my friend my name is Spider Xenga. You can try to chat with me, but I will only be on four times during discussions for FCS 223. After that I am going delete my account.

On to my real life:

Go Vandals! They are now 6-1. Vandals are making history and are eligible for a bowl game.

My children are home again. They are so beautiful!

Here Fishy, Fishy

This is what happens when you skip school and go fishing on the Columbia.

Things I Like

Flowers are so beautiful! For my internship this semester I am working for the Latah County Extension Office with the FCS Leader. This week has been the fair so I helped with a few things like decorating, receiving 4-H projects, pressure guage canner testing, and Buyers Lunch. At the Buyers Lunch these beautiful flowers were sitting in a big bucket. They said I could have them, so now my home is decorated in fresh flowers!


















A cheese grater and dish soap? Maybe I have gone crazy but these are two items in my kitchen that I really like. The soap is great. I don't know if it really makes my hands softer, but the pomegranate smell makes doing dishes heavenly. The awesome cheese graters are the best. I got them at IKEA for $6.99. They are so great because the grater fits on the bowl that has a sticky ring on the bottom to keep it from sliding around and when you are finished with the cheese, you can put the lid on the bowl. No more extra dishes and little baggies to hold the extra cheese. Everyone needs these. Plus it is red, which happens to be the theme in my kitchen!

I just found this picture of brownies made in small muffin tins and it reminded me of how much I like brownies. Mmm.

Last but not least, I like camping with Paul. We went to Little Boulder Creek a few weeks ago and enjoyed kayaking in the little creek and camping. The outdoors are the best.

We are still alive!

What an exciting and eventful summer we have had. I haven't been posting anything, not because there isn't anything worth posting, but there is something wonderful about sitting on your own couch with your own laptop, and your own internet that makes it much more enjoyable. Since July we have had a few more adventures. Here are some pictures for you, not in any particular order.

Paul's brother decided to get married the end of July, so we quickly made arrangements to go to Idaho Falls for the weekend. I stayed and partied with my sisters, mom, aunts and cousins for our annual Girl's Week (someday I will have some pictures, but I left the camera with Paul). Paul went back to Chicago and drove back a few weeks later.



The Cubs game was awesome. We had great seats (in front of a pillar), ate hot dogs and nachos, watched all 13 innings, and cheered really loud when Soriano hit a grand slam. It was really eventful because a few rows ahead of us a person got knocked out from a foul ball. And can I just say "Go Cubs Go, Hey Chicago What Do You Say The CUBS Are Gonna Win Today!" They did win.

You might be wondering what I did all summer, well I spent a good portion of it working on this beautiful quilt top. It will be finished at a later, undetermined date.

And yes, we did go to the Jelly Belly Warehouse again. They give you free samples and I had the camera this time.

Enjoying nature. It was surprisingly hard to find a good nature spot. You have to go to nature preserves and that feels sort of fake. This was a nice place to have a picnic though.

Ahhhh. The beauty of two pianos and sunglasses.

Medieval Times was also incredible. We had a fun time acting like we were royalty while eating food with our hands. I was named the Queen of Love and Beauty from the blue knight. I think it was only because I was on the front row and really, do people want a huge lance hanging over their chicken? Definately something we should do again, on a birthday, so you get in for free.

We're still here

I am sure that everyone is extremely worried about us. DON'T WORRY! We have been having so much fun there isn't time to post all that we've been doing. (hahaha) Actually, I have a lot of great pictures that I am going to post as soon as I have my own high speed internet hooked up to our laptop. That is approximately in one month. So in the mean time I will let you know that we have been having fun. I visited my sister in New York, we went to Medieval Times, watched fireworks over Lake Michigan, and went to the Billy Joel and Elton John concert at Wrigley Field. Yes, it was wonderful. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer as much as we are!

What we've been up to

I have been neglecting putting up pictures because our internet connection is lousy. It takes over five minutes for each picture to load, if it does. Since I am feeling a little more patience today I am going to give it a try!


Paul and I have been having some good times this summer. We recently found out that we are Scottish, will probably never buy a watermelon again, and have enjoyed eating a lot of Jelly Belly's. Also, we are season pass holders to Six Flags!!!!!!


I was really excited to try out our first watermelon of the season and cut it open to find this! I don't know if a rodent was living inside of this or what. I cut it open and was so disgusted when I saw the inside, it was oozing watermelon.

We took a tour of the Jelly Belly Factory in Pleasant Prarie, Wisconsin. They take you on a train ride around the factory telling you about the history of and how Jelly Belly's are made. It was complete with a free bag of Jelly Belly's. Oh yeah! We got to wear these cool hats on the train ride.


Last weekend we went to the Scottish Highland Festival. We had a good time listening to bag-pipes, seeing lots of kilts, and being called a wench!
I saw these two guys and couldn't stop laughing. We decided they were hired actors, but if they weren't I am afraid that some people take their heritage a little bit too seriously!
I definately choose Paul over the drunk guy. The best part of the Festival was watching the Caber toss. These huge guys threw 19 foot posts end over end. It was really awesome to see.

That is a little bit of our life for now. This week I am headed to my sister's house in New York and am very excited to enjoy the beautiful Adirondacks.

The Field Museum

Last Saturday we went to The Field Museum. This is where the two lions from Ghost and the Darkness are located (hence the picture, they used to be larger but before the museum owned them they were used as rugs and then had to be fitted for display). We took the train in to Chicago and walked over to the Museum from Union Station. At the Museum we saw two gigantic taxidermied elephants, Sue the T-Rex fossils that were dug up in South Dakota, mummies from Eqypt, and a lot of other really awesome things. They had a special display on pirates that was neat to look through too. A little bit about the Field Museum: It opened in the late 1800s mostly displaying taxidermied animals from all over the world in their natural habitat. This was before there were a lot of zoos and television shows to show us what kind of animals roamed the earth. These animals are all still on display (kind of gross). We spent a few hours cruising the Museum reading all of the little signs. Next we had grand intentions of eating Chicago style pizza in Chicago. However, after walking up and down street after street we realized that the Loop completely shuts down on the weekend, including McDonalds and Subway, so we settled for some delicious Thai food, the best I have ever had. So be warned, if you are traveling in Chicago near the Loop on a Saturday, eat before you get there! Don't worry, we will eat our Chicago style pizza yet.

This is Paul in front of the elephants. As you can tell they are huge. I couldn't get all of them in the picture. The elephants were Paul's favorite part of the museum.

I just wanted to brag

Sometimes I feel like bragging.

You know you would brag too if you made something this beautiful and delicious.

It's really easy too!

All you do is layer:

One circle chocolate cake

1/2 package of prepared pudding (vanilla or cheesecake)

1/2 container of coolwhip

Cut strawberries

Repeat!

A Brief Bit about our Excursions

I have been excited to tell everyone about our car drive to Illinois. It was very fascinating and wonderful! This is how it went! (Disclaimer on some of the pictures: We need someone to travel with us so they can take our pictures, often the timer doesn't really do justice.)

Monday: Paul and I took off from Moscow. We headed toward my sister's house in Parma and made it just in time for dinner. My little nephew is so cute. He said we couldn't leave until he had an Otter Pop. Of course he shared with us too. Then we went to Twin Falls to stay the night at my parent's house. They just got back from Hawaii so it was fun to see their pictures. We traded cars with my sister which was wonderful. I don't think I was going to make it between Boise and Twin Falls only going sixty-five. Thank you Sara!

Tuesday: We headed for Fort Collins, Colorado. On the way we had to stop and eat an ice cream cone at Little America. They tempt you for 100 miles. It was delicious. My unltimate goal for the day was to make it to Rawlins to see the Pioneer Frontier Prison Museum. It is one of my favorite places to stop along the way to Colorado. They give tours of the old prison and tell stories about the people. It really creeps you out and then you can't sleep at night. Paul hasn't been there, so we needed to go. Unfortunately, when we got there, it was CLOSED! I was very sad, and angry. The last part of our trek to Fort Collins was also eventful. Paul and I were jokingly talking about how cattle and antelope were hanging out in the pasture when we realized a cop had passed us and Paul was going around eighty in a sixty-five zone. The cop was nice and bumbed off some of the ticket, but ouch. Speed control is our friend now. When we got to Fort Collins, we stayed at my aunt Louise's house. It happened to be my cousins birthday and they were singing Karaoke. It was fun to join in after the day of traveling.

Wednesday: I think the longer you sit in the car, the more looney you get. I am sure that if you listened to some of our conversations, you might think we had lost our minds! This is the jist of a conversation near Gothenburg, Nebraska. E: "Who would eat at a place called Runza?" P: "I don't know, someone with the runza?" This took place when we passed a sign for "Runza." In my mind I read it run-za. We were planning on stopping in Gothenburg to see a Pony Express drop off station. We went and saw and it was pretty neat. We asked the old ladies sitting there where a good place is to eat in Gothenburg. She suggested a steak house or roonsis. ROONSIS! It came to me. Runza is the proper spelling for roonsis. If you have never had a roons before, I suggest you might. It is hamburger, onions, and cabbage baked inside of a roll. My mom and grandma would make them for us when we were little. They are great. We decided to go eat at Runza. After the exciting adventures in Gothenburg we continued on to St. Joseph, Missouri, but not without driving under the coolest archway in all of the United States (don't mind the dead bugs).
Thursday: We continued our journey east, but were now able to slow down a little bit and see some more things. We started the morning driving to Adam-Ondi-Ahman. Then to Jamesport an Amish community. I think I want to live in Jamesport. It is a cute little town with cute little shops and diners. I would open a cute little bed and breakfast and live there forever. We then headed to Hannibal the home of Mark Twain. Hannibal is also the town that Mark Twain based Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn off of. We rode the Mark Twain Riverboat on the Mississippi which was beautiful and huge! We also went to the Mark Twain Caves and saw Jesse James name carved in the wall. It was his hideout back in the day. The tour guide was very kind and took us back to see the carving, it is usually off limits for tours. That night we stayed at the Dubach Inn Bed and Breakfast. It was so cozy and homey (in a good way).

Friday: In the morning we headed to see a few of the important church historical sites in the midwest. We started at Carthage Jail and then made our way to Nauvoo. The buildings and structures were recreated perfectly. You could feel the history that took place in Nauvoo and Carthage. We took a wagon ride around Historic Nauvoo and a carriage ride through the woods. We were able to go through the blacksmith shop, tinsmith, post office, and bakery. Thanks to my incredible aunt Melinda for letting us use a book with all of the places to see in the midwest and for giving us the family history papers of our ancestors that were buried in Nauvoo. It was fun to see My Great-Great-Great-Great Grandparents burial spots in the Old Nauvoo Burial Ground. We ended the evening by watching "Sunset on the Mississippi" a variety show put on by the missionaries in Nauvoo.

James and Hannah Webb

Saturday: We made it! We got to Mundelein in the afternoon, unpacked our car (which only took fifteen minutes), and went to Target!!