And if it so be that ye should labor all your days

My brother Colton opened his mission call last night! We were hoping it would come yesterday so his friends that are up at school could be here, and so Derek could be here for the break. My mom had a big map for everyone to put a sticker on where they thought he would go. I thought about putting my sticker on New York, but ended up putting it on Ghana because I had no idea where he would get called to.

With a family room full of supportive friends and family he opened his call.

He asked if he had to read it out loud and we practically screamed, "Yes!"

"You are called to serve in the New Hampshire Manchester mission!" (Sorry the picture isn't centered, I was holding a video camera in the other hand.)

Yay! I'm so excited for him. I think it will be the perfect place for him and it's really close to my mission! It also covers most of the area of where my grandpa served a long time ago, when it was the Eastern States Mission. He leaves on March 4th to go to the MTC. Congratulations Colton, you'll do great!

Who was playing for who?

I, like many of you, watched the BYU/Utah game on Saturday. I always root for both teams until they play each other, then I cheer for BYU. But in the end, I could really care less who wins. However, it was a little heartwrenching to watch all the turnovers because BYU's quarterback kept passing to Utah players. Other than that, I'm very happy for Utah's win and that they now get to go to the BSC (is that what it's called?) and all the mountain west schools get like $500,000 for their athletic departments now. Some of us speculated on whether or not BYU lost on purpose so they could get that money. I don't think they would lose on purpose. They have too much pride.

My family and Derek's family got together at Derek's house to watch the game. It was a lot of fun, even though half of us were cheering for BYU and the other half for the U. But I think we were all pretty good sports about it, and we got to stuff ourselves with pizza and garlic bread, so maybe that helped tone things down a little.

At work, however, the battle is still raging. We have some pretty die-hard fans on both sides and the comment/email war usually starts about a week before the game, with my boss being the instigator. He's the biggest BYU fan I know, and the lady who works next to me is one of the biggest Utah fans I know. Besides the emails that went out to the whole office, these two kind of had their own little private battle. First, my boss decided to play a little prank on my coworker's car. It looked like this:

Notice the nice combination of blue and red.

Then my coworker sent out an email with a poem and a couple of these pictures w/ my boss's head Photoshopped in:


The poem:
The game is coming the Cougars will yield,
To the Powerful UTES on Utah's own field.

Worried the officials cannot be bought,
Old Curt has taken it to our parking lot.

So this is their "Quest" Hall and Collie believe,
Such self-righteousness makes you just want to heave.

Go ahead, take it out on my poor little car,
Guess that's what Bronco calls raising the bar.

Dumbing down your schedule is a BYU fit,
Come on Cougars, just rise and spit.

So this morning I got to work and the first thing I saw was my boss's door:

Decorated by none other than my coworker, of course.

This is done all in good fun. It doesn't get vicious at all, thank goodness, or I'd have some major babysitting on my hands.

I'm so tired.....

But Twilight was so worth it! Yeah, that's right. I'm crazy and I went to the midnight showing last night. I wasn't planning on going for a couple more weeks, but a few days ago one of my mission companions invited me to go with her because she had some extra tickets. It was at the theater in Sandy, which is really close to my work, but not so much to my apartment. So, since the movie ended after 2:00, I just slept at her house and then we carpooled to work this morning. We still only got about 4 1/2 hours of sleep, but I was willing to lose a few hours to have a good time. :)

We got to the theater at about 11:30 and it was INSANE. There were so many girls (and a few guys) there. It was busier than walking down a NYC street. And of course there were a few weird ones who dressed up, but not as vampires. They were wearing prom dresses and some even had corsages. I guess because Edward took Bella to the prom at the end of the book. I still thought it was kind of weird, but to each his (her) own.

Here are a few pictures of how many people were there before the movie started. All 16 or 17 screens were showing Twilight at midnight, and this isn't even a handful of the people that were there.


Me and Megan excited for the movie! We had the best seats a couple rows from the back smack dab in the middle. It was awesome!

Eating is my favorite thing!

Although it does make it hard when you're watching your weight so you can fit into a wedding dress.....

So there's a new Pizza Factory opening up in Syracuse and my boss's daughter was transferred there to be an assistant manager. He was able to get some VIP FREE meal tickets for this last weekend before they open and he gave one of them to me and Derek since we live close by. The catch? There wasn't one! You could get whatever you wanted and it was all free. We had a hard time deciding, so we ended up getting 4 mini pizzas, a calzone, some garlic cheese bread, a dessert, and drinks for the 2 of us. Yikes. I kind of felt bad for ordering so much but we decided we weren't the only ones when we looked around at everyone else.

The waitress brought out our food and we started eating and then I noticed that all of the food was on Derek's side of the table. Not on purpose, but it looked funny. So here's a pic:

By the way, Derek's drink was a strawberry Italian ice and it was amazing. Mine was a strawberry lemonade and was really good as well.

The food was really good and we did have leftovers. I think we took about half of it home with us and ate some yesterday and I have the rest today for my lunch. I didn't notice any of the prices on the menu since we were getting it all for free, but I think they're pretty decent and the food is GOOD! I think it opens this Wednesday to the public, so go try it if you're interested.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Derek has been talking about going to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert for a long time. We got tickets a couple of months ago and he's been so excited! Our friends Nick & Lynette got tickets too, and their friends (I can't remember their names...) did also. Before the concert we decided to go to Red Robin for dinner. Yum! Here we all are (Nick in the back is trying to drink the fry sauce):

They have the best fries. And they had something new that I decided to try. The Bruschetta Chicken Burger. Oh my goodness, it was so good. And it had pesto on it, and I love pesto.

Then we went to the concert, which was AMAZING. There was a sign that said no pictures so I didn't take any, but I think I could have gotten away with it. Let's just say there was a lot of fire, and that was Derek's favorite part. My favorite part was probably just the whole thing. And it totally got us in the Christmas spirit!

Last weekend

I know, it's almost the weekend again and I'm just barely getting to what we did last weekend. Oh well. It's been a pretty busy week. On Saturday we met with our wedding cake lady in the morning and got that all picked out. Then we went up to Logan so Derek ccould show me the apartment that he had looked at the day before (pics on our other blog). We ended up getting it and it worked out so fast! Then we went to the Logan temple since we were up there and ended up being put in a Spanish session! Derek speaks Korean so he had to wear the headphones, but I went in without them and understood everything, thanks to the mish. It was the first Spanish session I had ever done and I was so excited.

Afterwards we drove back down to Ogden to I could do my monthly piano playing at the hospital. I asked Derek to take a picture of me because I don't have any pictures of my there yet and I've been doing it for a year and a half, and who knows how much longer I'll be able to.

Then we met our friends Steve and Vanessa at Firehouse Pizza in Centerville. Yum, that is definitely my favorite restaurant. Derek and I split a chicken cordon bleu pizza, some focaccia bread, and of course a ph'zookie.


Then we all went to the Gateway so I could scout out some places for my bridals this Saturday. Vanessa was really helpful and found lots of good spots and even took our picture in all of them.


We followed our ritual and got a chocolate at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and then played a racing game at the arcade, which Derek won....usually I win the arcade racing games and he wins the Xbox racing games.

We finished off the night with hot chocolate and cider at Vanessa's condo. It was a really fun night and SO good to meet her finally. Steve has been telling Derek all about her and we finally got to do something with them. Thanks guys!

On Sunday we had dinner with our friends Nick and Lynette. They're the ones whose wedding we met at. So we just wanted to say thanks guys! Anyways, dinner was really yummy and afterwards we played a game called Mate something. It was so much fun and really hilarious. I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard. Thanks you guys for inviting us over!

Eww

I had a dream last night, and I can't remember most of it enough to be able to tell the story, but I do remember the last part that happened before my alarm went off. A black spider bit me in the middle of the bottom of my foot and I was afraid it was poisonous, so I started to squeeze the venom/blood out. In about 2 seconds I had like a 1/4 cup of blood pooled on the bottom of my foot. Gross. I thought that would have probably worked to get the venom out, but then my foot started feeling numb. Then I woke up.

5 things about me

Another tag! By Amy.

5 Fears:
1. Not succeeding in what I do - I like to win!
2. Financial ruin
3. Spiders
4. Sometimes the dark. Like when I come home at night and I don't know who might be out there.
5. Letting others down

5 Joys:
1. Counting down the days until the wedding!
2. Eating
3. Playing the piano
4. Watching my nephews (and soon to be niece) grow and learn
5. Knowing that whatever happens in our world or country, I'll be ok

5 obsessions/collections:
1. Books books books!
2. Food
3. Getting the best gas mileage possible
4. Whenever I go somewhere I usually buy postcards and/or a magnet
5. My Derek

5 surprising facts:
1. Ummmm.....I don't like seafood. At all. (I guess some people know that and some don't.)
2. Like Amy I can't stand messes, but I'm not the cleanest person in the world.
3. I don't think there's really much about me that's surprising. I like to travel a lot...
4. I really like to do "domestic" stuff, but I never do it. Recently I posted that I made jam and that was the first big thing. The next project is a quilt that I want to finish before I'm married. ...wish me luck...
5. I don't really like to watch too much TV. I haven't had television access for almost 2 years and it's been really nice, although I do miss watching The Office and the news.

Answers to an age old question

I saw this on my friend Sheryl's blog and thought it was hilarious! Enjoy!

Why did the chicken cross the road?

SARAH PALIN: Before it got to the other side, I shot the chicken, cleaned and dressed it, and had chicken burgers for lunch.

BARACK OBAMA: The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a change! The chicken wanted change!


JOHN MC CAIN: My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.

HILLARY CLINTON: When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure right from Day One that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn’t about me.

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don’t really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

DICK CHENEY: Where’s my gun?

COLIN POWELL: Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road.

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with that chicken. What is your definition of chicken?

AL GORE: I invented the chicken.

JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken’s intentions. I am not for it now and will remain against it.

AL SHARPTON: Why are all the chickens white? We need some black chickens.

DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken doesn’t realize that he must first deal with the problem on this side of the road before it goes after the problem on the other side of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he’s acting by not taking on his current problems before adding new problems.

OPRAH: Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I’m going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed access to the other side of the road.

NANCY GRACE: That chicken crossed the road because he’s guilty! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN: To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

MARTHA STEWART: No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer’s Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I’ve not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain, alone.

GRANDPA: In my day we didn’t ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

BARBARA WALTERS: Isn’t that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart-warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its lifelong dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

JOHN LENNON: Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.

BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken 2008, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook. Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken 2008. This new platform is much more stable and will never crash or need to be rebooted.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?

Another quirk of mine

I guess this could be in addition to the quirks tag I did a little while ago. So here it is.

I HATE buying gas, and with my commute I have to fill up every few days. It has been wonderful watching the gas prices fall so quickly and being able to fill up a completely empty tank for $30. Anyways, so my quirk is that I kind of have a contest with myself to see how long I can make a tank last, or how many miles I can get out of a full tank. To do this I do the following:

1. Use cruise control all the time
2. Accelerate slowly
3. I have a manual, so I usually shift gears when the RPMs are between 2 and 3
4. I put it in neutral when I'm going downhill
5. Slow down when approaching a red/yellow light, even if I'm far away
6. This applied more in the summer, by I fill my tank in the morning on the way to work because (or so I've heard) gas expands when it heats - so the later in the day you fill up, the less gas you will actually get for the same expensive price.
7. One thing that I should be better at - making sure my tire air pressure is as high as is recommended. This helps with gas mileage.

There are a ton more things that can be done to save gas, but these are the main ones that I do all the time. If you drive with me you may comment on my granny style of driving, but I can get 480 miles from 12 tanks of gas! Ha!

Halloween after work

After work on Friday I drove to Derek's house, where he was all ready and in his costume. I did his makeup for him and we took some pictures. He was pretty creepy looking. A neighbor kid came to the door trick-or-treating and he was scared to death of him. Then Derek wouldn't leave the poor guy alone and he almost fell off the porch. I think it was the fangs that really got to him.

Here we are in all our creepiness



Then we went to Burger King to get something to eat (I know, it's not the most Halloween-ish place to eat, but we had coupons that expired that day!) and then went to my parents' to show off our costumes. There were a few trick-or-treaters that came by while we were there, but none of them were scared by us because they were too enamored by Maggie the dog. She thought everyone was coming over to see her, of course, and all the kids in the neighborhood lover her so she got a lot of attention. I didn't take any pictures, but she wasn't dressed up this year anyway, even though she does have a lobster costume and a Santa outfit.

Then Derek and I went to the Institute Halloween dance/activity. There were a TON of people there - more than I have ever seen at an Institute activity in Ogden. We only ended up staying for about 1/2 an hour, because out of all the people there we couldn't seem to find anyone we knew. And they weren't playing any slow songs. In the past I wouldn't have minded that, but now that I'm actually with someone, a slow song or two would have been nice. So we left and watched The Office instead.

Oh, and today I found out the results of the costume contest at work. I tied for first in the Prettiest/Handsomest costume category!