Tennessee

I'm not sure how many posts I have titled Tennessee or how many I'll have over the span of my blogging life, but here is another. 

I was able to visit my family for Christmas this year. It's only fair to trade holidays, we had Wamplers for Thanksgiving, so it's Roney time! Michael got the time off he needed, a little last minute, so he came too! Yay for being a family! This was the first time we had taken Ivan on a plane and we were a little anxious to see how it would go. Luckily we have breed an immaculate little man and he was perfect on every flight. We got to the airport a little early, thinking it would be super busy, and it was. We didn't wait for long and were able to board our flight. One of our friends gave us the advice to board the plane as late as possible, that way Ivan would spend very little time on the plane waiting for take off and building anxiety. We listened and that is some of the best advice I've ever received. We sat pretty far back on the plane and got some interesting looks as we boarded with an infant. But Ivan ate a bottle as we were taking off and slept the entire time. Our next flight was delayed by about 40 minutes and Ivan was awake the whole layover and repeated his first flight experience. The flights going home to Idaho were the same. Since we had a baby, and we didn't buy our tickets at the same time, we requested seats beside each other. We were assigned seats just prior to boarding. On one of our flights, we got on the plane and someone was in Michael's seat. We asked if he was assigned that seat and he said yes. So Michael had the flight attendant come and figure things out. Then she noticed that the guy in our seat was not assigned to that seat, he just sat there. Now his reasoning was that his wife and 2 kids were in the row in front of us and his other kid was in the seat beside him. So he needed to sit by his minor son and help with the other kids. The kid that was in our row was at least 12 if not older, so it's not like it was a 3 year old unattended. AND, his wife was just in the row in front of him. So he got sent to his original seat, only 2 more rows back (not super far away) and all we heard the rest of the flight was his wife complain about the hassle and ordeal she had been put through. The boy in our row was named Michael, now how's that for irony. But that lady turned around at one point and said to her son, well I'm going to make them give you free TV for the inconvenience they have put us through. She was really mad. I didn't think it was a big deal. Plus, it's harder to take care of a baby by yourself than a 12 year old. Grow up people. 

Once we got to TN, it was a little crazy. I was getting all these home sick feelings and didn't ever want to leave. Well, until we walked outside. It was raining and about 40 degrees. So it was way, way humid. I forgot! And it just hits you like you've never felt humidity before, especially when it's raining and especially when you fly. I sure do like the weather here. 

While we were in Tennessee, my niece and nephews were able to meet their cousin, my siblings were able to meet their nephew, and I was able to catch up with all my family. I really miss them. Especially my dad. He's such a cool guy and I really wish Ivan could get to know his Papa better. His Nana and aunts and uncles too, but if my dad is my favorite, I'm sure Ivan will just love him. We played tons of games from poker to nertz to rock band. We had family pictures professionally done. We hadn't taken family pictures since I was 2, so about 20 years had gone by without an updated photo. And now we have wives, husbands, grandbabies and all that to show off too. It's always a little crazy going back to a place I knew and still know so well and realizing I don't live there. It's so easy to fall back into sort of a routine, especially with seeing so many people you know. We had a get together with all the single adults from when we used to live there. Everybody is married now and half of us have babies. It's so crazy! And it's amazing how quickly things can change and people can change when you move away. We had Christmas too, we opened some presents, even though most of our stuff got mailed out here. Packing everything back up was fun. I took a scale and put just enough stuff in our suitcase to make it weigh 50 lbs. (50 lbs is the weight limit for a checked bag before they charge you an extra 50 bucks for it) And we still had to have my parents mail stuff to us! It was a fun trip though. 

This is Emma, she was just so excited to see Ivan.

This is Emma, Paul Jr., and Ryan.

Paul Jr.

My brother Erich and his little doggie Buddy. 

Since Michael served his mission there, we were especially motivated to see some people we knew from the ward. We saw 3 families in particular and I just miss them so much. I'm always impressed by their example and the influence they have over me in just the 30 minutes we were able to spend with them. It's so fun seeing people I used to see all the time and showing them my baby. I can't help but be super proud of him! 

Family dinner. 

Me and my Momma!

Another fun part of visiting Clarksville is seeing all the doggies. My brother recently got a pomeranian from craigslist. His name is Buddy and he is reddish brown. My mom still has Shadow, Blondie, and Paulie. Paulie just had puppies, fathered by Buddy. They are so cute, and don't tell Michael, but I've already called dibs on the party colored male! Then there is Mina, pronounced mean-ah. She is a purebred German Shepherd of all German lines. She is a beautiful red and black female. Her full name is something like Natasha Wilhelmina. Yep, that's a mouthful, so we say Mina. She's still a puppy, about 8 months, but she's huge. With my vet tech mind, all I could think about was the health of those animals. Shadow has seen better days, Mina had a yeast infection in her ears and Paulie needs a nail trim. But since she just had puppies, I spared her the torture. There's nothing I can do for Shadow. But Mina, oh Mina was in for it. I bought some ear cleaner, not the brand I prefer, but good enough, and cleaned her ears out daily. They were looking pretty good by the time I left, but my dad was supposed to keep cleaning them and I'm not sure if he's up for that. 

Rock Band, can you count all 4 band members?

Mina

Wamplers with Buddy, for the record, this is the most comfortable couch I've ever laid my tush on!

We, of course, ate at some of my favorite places, like Casablanca, oh how I miss the Pollo Ranchero, and a couple other places. We did some shopping, and I found an awesome pair of hiking shoes. I've been looking for a long time, but haven't wanted to spend much money. And I searched for some Sperry knock-offs, but to my dismay, they either didn't have my size or were a little more than I wanted to pay. Oh well. Maybe next time. Well, here's some pictures of our adventures. 

Papa and his grandbaby.

Playing Nertz, it never gets old, well until you have 8 people playing and it's too hard to see!

My older sister Heidi

My little sister Marisa

My sister-in-law Jen, my brother's wife

Party!

I have a tendency to go overboard with things that I really like. It happens. I would like to take this opportunity to associate the responsibility for these tendencies with my mother. She is a fantastic woman that made me love to cook and love to cook a lot.
I like my friends here and since I like to cook so much, what better excuse could I have than to cook things for my friends? So I planned a party for December 22 and began the baking. I started baking things on Monday, did some more on Tuesday and Wednesday, finished on Thursday and did all the cooking of real food then too. Michael helped.

The Menu

Rice Krispie treats

Strawberry topped Brownies

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Gingerbread Cookies

Sugar Cookies

Fudge

Creme Drops

Muddy Buddies

Snickerdoodles

Pepperoni Monkey Bread

Bacon wrapped Lil' Smokies

Bacon Poppers

Veggie Tray

Summer Sausage,CZ, & Crackers

Activities

Nintendo 64

Eat

Decorate cookies

Eat

build Gingerbread houses

Eat

conversate

Having fun

Play Bohnanza & other games

I think everything went well. At least there was plenty of food. We invited about 14 adults and 7 children and 8 adults and 3 children attended. I have to say that was just the right turnout. Had anymore showed up, it would have been a little crowded, had any less, it might not have been as entertaining. We had loads of fun though. We ate a bunch, talked a lot, decorated home made gingerbread houses (which made for interesting creations) and played games. Since we had just received Bohnanza! (thanks Chris and Laura) we played that game. We also played Fluxx. The attendees were: Kristen & Nathaniel Sellers, Sydney & Patrick Kelly, Katy & Taylor Wilson with their wee ones Ava and Sterling, Ben & Natalie Millett with Emma. Oh and we were there with Ivan. Here's some pictures & proof of the fun!

Aw, we're a little plaid family!

Ben and Natalie's House

Patrick & Sydney's Cabin

Nathaniel & Kristen's Mansion

Another view of the Mansion

My Cottage

I didn't get a chance to take a picture of Katy & Taylor's gingerbread house, but it was awesome too. When I made the gingerbread, I didn't really leave any room for error on the cutting. I did print out some templates and followed those, so some styles of the houses were different. But I didn't even think about the fact that the bread would rise in the oven. Well it did, and I left it all out to make it stronger to build with. So then we had really hard gingerbread that wasn't even on any of the sides. Yay! Ben filed down a couple, if not all, of the edges of his house to make it even. Nathaniel used extra pieces to make everything fit and Patrick used cookies to hold the roof up. I let the roof rest on the ground, like an A-line house that would get lots of snow. It all worked out in the end and definitely made us step up our creativity.

Photogenicity

Photogenicity - (fo-to-jen-is-it-y)- to present one's self as beautiful in any picture taken of him or her due to his or her genetics.

Our entire family has this. Michael, his parents, his siblings, their spouses, his nephew and nieces, his wife, and yes, his baby too. My side of the family has the same problem, picture proof soon to come.

Christmas is just a little spread out this year. We've had quite a few parties, but our biggest ones have quite a few pictures to go with. We celebrated with Michael's family on the weekend of the 17th. During the holidays, mainly Christmas and Thanksgiving, Marriott associates enjoy the opportunity to stay at a participating Marriott hotel for half the associate discount rate. Normally it's $40, which means it's cut down to 20 bucks during these couple months. So we stayed at a hotel close to Cabela's on Friday night. Brenda came too, mainly for the hot tub and pool, but she had fun at Cabela's too. Michael's cousin's wife, Janneke, is a photographer. I really like her taste and think she does an excellent job. So we paid her to take a few pictures of our cute little Ivan and the three of us for some family pictures. Not really Christmas pictures, we're not in to that. We got to take them at BYU in Provo and had a lot of fun with it. Then we went to Burger King. I only mention this because they changed the absolute best thing they had going for them... their fries. They used to be so good, the batter was different than any other place. Now they just plain suck. Boo. Saturday we all met at Chris and Laura's house to take family pictures. One of Michael's aunts, the same one that took our wedding pictures, was there to photograph all of us. We all got to choose what to wear, but the choices were limited to blue jeans and a white, red, or black shirt. We took pictures outside in front of some beautifully trimmed bushes. I have to say that Ivan is wearing the absolute cutest outfit ever. I love it! After all that, we played games and had the family gift exchange. Everybody rotates between who they get presents for each year. I like it; this way we can get something nice for one person rather than feeling obligated to spend a lot of money and buy for everyone. After gifts, we ate and played more games. Michael and I stayed at a hotel again that night. Lately Ivan has been sleeping through the night. I am always so impressed when he does. What a good little boy. But when we get around a lot of people he kinda goes into panic mode. He sleeps and sleeps all day, and is up all night. So Friday and Saturday night I didn't get much sleep. Is it bad that it irritates me when Ivan is wide awake at 3 am and all sorts of smiley and cute? Probably, but I was just so tired. Sunday we hung out some more, went to church, played games and were planning on being home by 10... Well, you know how it goes. We got to playing games and couldn't stop. Michael could, I couldn't. It was just so fun, I couldn't help myself! So we got home around 1. And I had to work at 8 the next morning.

That's my cute little Ivan.

I just love pictures of crying babies. 

Ivan and his great grandparents on his grandma Wampler's side

Confessions

Seems lately that I haven't had the inspiration to blog... I've been trying to figure just why this is. The conclusion I have come to conclude is Pinterest. Shame on that website! Ok, so it's not just that. December has turned into quite the busy month. I guess it all started with Thanksgiving. We had Turkey Day with the Wampler's in Salt Lake City, Utah. When we came back, we went right back to work. Michael filled in for a couple days on the night audit shift, the one from 11 pm to 7 am, gross, I know, but that was just practice for when he takes over that shift full time in January. Yay. We had our ward Christmas party on the 8th. It was pretty awesome. Ham, cheesy potatoes, salad, rolls, and of course dessert. A sign up sheet went through the girls meeting group at church, but by the time the list reached me, the dessert slots were all taken. Well that's just nuts. So I volunteered to bring a salad with one stipulation... I could bring a cake too! I'm really glad I brought both, most of the food went really fast and there wasn't anything left by the end of the night. The cake I made was amazing! You'll never guess where I found the recipe... Pinterest! It was a chocolate cake with chocolate icing and a cream cheese, whip cream, oreo filling. Amazing. I swear it's like heaven on a plate. Here's the recipe if you want it. http://realmomkitchen.com/6917/chocolate-oreo-cream-cake/
In other news, we had a Christmas party for Michael's work. It was at the hotel, catered by da Pineapple Grill. We had a white elephant gift exchange and the Hairy Fairy returned! Last year, Libby, a Marriott employee, brought this gift to the party. Originally, the little barbie was a regular doll that you could play in the bath with. Libby turned this doll into a hairy monster by taping hair to her legs. She included a razor and changed the barbies name to the Hairy Fairy, a Shave with me Barbie. So funny! Nate, another worker at the Marriott, received this gift last year and got stuck with it. As you know, you can "steal" any gift from anyone when it's your turn. That gift never got stolen.... This year, the Hairy Fairy returned. Nate had kept this special doll in his closet, or so he says, all year just to bring it to this party. I forget who got it this year though, sorry. And I didn't take a single picture. Michael had to work that night, so he came and hung out for a few minutes and I got to stay at the party. There was a caramel apple bar and a hot chocolate bar. It was pretty cool.
I had a Christmas party for my work as well. According to tradition, the employees at Cedar Ridge Animal Hospital got treated to dinner at Stockman's. If you have never been there, I highly suggest you do. That was the best steak I've ever had. Of course I was nervous about what I was allowed to get, ya know, don't want to be rude or anything. So I asked the other girls ahead of time and they said they all get the prime rib or something super awesome and they always get dessert. So I got the filet mignon and Michael got the 16 oz ribeye, or maybe the prime rib, I'm not really sure. We both had asparagus on the side and rolls and salad and my boss ordered nachos as appetizers. We got the white chocolate raspberry cheesecake for dessert. It was amazing. Best steak I've ever had in my entire life. I don't ever want to eat any other steak ever again. Dang, now I'm ruined, I can't go back after that! There was a bit of conversation, mostly just eating though. And that was it.
We are currently dogsitting for one of my teachers. Dr Dredge has 2 shih tzus that are just adorable. Scamper, the bigger one and the boy, is kind of afraid of Michael. He barks at him every time he sees him when he hasn't seen him in a while. I don't blame him, just as Scamper was getting used to Michael, Michael scared him. Figures. Snowflake is the tiny one, the girl, and the most lovable dog ever. She is so sweet and really just wants to sit in your lap and be loved all day. I've really enjoyed having them in the house. And they've done really well with Ivan. I think it's really good for Ivan to be exposed to dogs early on, that way he can kind of get used to seeing them and not be afraid when we get a dog, however soon or not soon that may be. I have contemplated asking Dr Dredge how much money it would take to buy these dogs, they are so good. Then I think about the fact that he has 6 kids that all love these guys so much and I just couldn't do that to them. Darn kids. It just gives me hope that someday I'll be able to find a dog that fits well with our family and I can love and spoil him all I want. One day...
School is starting again soon. My schedule is dumb. I'll be taking 14 credits, 6 on campus (aka the livestock center) and 8 online. Yay.  Monday and Wednesday I go from 1030 -1230, Tuesday 745-845 & 315-615, and Friday from 130-330. So my current work schedule of Monday and Friday mornings and all day Wednesday no longer works. I talked to my boss a while ago and tried to convince him that I could still work while I'm not in class, but there is another tech there that is also in school. She goes every morning until 1230. So she is going to work every afternoon. That leaves Monday and Wednesday short one person. There's no way to fill those spots with anyone else that works there, so we have to hire someone else. Today I overheard a conversation about seniority, since Brianna, the other girl going to school, has been there longer she gets first pick at schedule. I'm cool with that. It makes sense. However, when I spoke with my boss about working Thursday, Friday, and Saturday mornings his reply went something like... well the girl I want to hire needs at least 20 hours a week, so if she needs one of those days you want, I'm giving it to her. Where's the seniority there? I've been there since August and I think I'm pretty darn good at my job. Plus is the new girl works Monday & Tuesday mornings and all day Wednesday, she'll be getting 20 hours right there. And I've even talked to the groomer about helping her bathe dogs on Monday and Wednesday mornings before I go to class just to get a few more hours in. I don't know if I really need or want all those hours, but the more experience I get, the better I'm going to be at my job in the long run. Plus, if I can keep my foot in the door at this place, I'll more than likely have a job there when I graduate. And in a place like this, that is the only way I'm going to get a job within 20 miles of where I live. There are only 2 vet clinics in Rexburg, one small animal, one mixed and I really don't want to work in a mixed practice. And there are 20 students graduating 3 months ahead of me with the same degree I have. Sure, only 5 or so will stay here, but when there's one job opening and 5 people want it... who's gonna get it? Plus there will be about 7 or so more staying here that are graduating with me. So if 13 people, including me are all going for the same job, what chances do I have of actually getting it? If I already work there, then I'm set. So I'll do what it takes to make it work. Michael is taking 15 credits and will be working full time with night audit. He can do all his homework at work, even his online stuff. I figure this way he is forced to do some reading and maybe he'll get worse at procrastinating and maybe he'll just get his stuff done on time without the stress of turning it in close to deadline. Who knows, maybe he'll just get a Netflix membership and watch movies all night. It's a very real reality. Can I say that? Real reality? Here's to dedication, determination, and no sleep. We've got a few friends in town that are willing to watch Ivan when our schedules overlap, which I think is mostly Tuesday and Friday afternoons, depending on work stuff. I have to say, with both of us going to school full time, Michael working full time, and me working part time, we'll only have about 7 hours a week that we'll need someone other than us watch Ivan. Glad we could work that out, well, except for the fact that Michael and I won't really see each other. We'll have to see what we can do about that one.
December just keeps getting busier. We're headed to Utah this weekend for family pictures, baby pictures and extended family pictures. Plus a Wampler gift exchange/ party, meeting with old friends and the long drive there and back. Did I mention exploring Cabela's and 2 hotel stays and different hotels? Yay hot tubs! I'm so excited to not be in Rexburg for a bit. After that, we're throwing a Christmas party at our house. I've invited all our local friends and we'll be decorating home made gingerbread houses & cookies, watching Christmas movies, eating lots of party foods, and hanging out. I'm so excited! Then we head out for Tennessee. My mom, who is very convincing, decided for me that I was going to Tennessee for Christmas. Oh, and I wasn't allowed to come unless I brought Ivan. Sweet little boy that he is, I'm so excited for him to meet all his aunts and uncles out there. It'll be nice for some warmer weather too, I heard it was in the 60s there today. And it snowed a bunch here... Interesting. But, we'll be there for a week. We've got lots of friends to see, family to hang out with, gifts to be exchanged and people to introduce to Ivan!
Oh, this post was originally just going to be about my lack of motivation to blog and how Pinterest has ruined me. I want to look at that website all the time. I'm always finding great new recipes and fun new crafts. That is what my confession is. Oh and that I might be keeping Dr Dredge's dogs. Oh, but the kids... I can't make up my mind.