Thanksgiving Break and Our Snowshoeing Adventure Redux

This Thanksgiving didn't include the traditional football in Georgia or all of the usual fixins made by the Lunt/Meyer/Barber/Webb clan, but it did entail a yummy turkey feast at Mimi's Cafe with Trent's dad's side and lots of Wii tournaments, card games, and Body Worlds with Trent's mom's side. Overall we had a delightful Thanksgiving.
Afterwards, Trent and I took a little trip up to Brighton to visit our friends, Jake and Alisha, at their cabin. Highlights from the trip include: close games of foosball, delicious food (mmmm, Navajo tacos), several 15 minute intervals spent in their sauna, and of course the snowshoeing adventure.
This so called ‘Snowshoeing Adventure Redux’ of ours began with the layering on of warm clothes- no swimsuits and warm weather this time. We strapped on our snowshoes and started to hike up the side of the ski resort that wasn't open yet for the season- it just so happened to be the exact same starting point as last time. We hiked and hiked, chatting and occasionally falling down along the way, until we eventually reached Lake Mary. We stopped there and took a couple pictures with Trent's snazzy new camera phone, then decided it was time to head back, as it was starting to get a teensy bit dark. On the way down we tried to make our sleds work in the fresh, thick, powdery snow, but the wimpy things weren't in the least bit cooperative.
It was starting to get pretty dark and Trent was determined to get in a good ride before we reached the bottom. So once the cabins were in sight, Trent jumped on one of the sleds and cruised down the last slope. Towards the end of his ride he rolled off the sled in attempts to avoid collision with a big mound of packed snow. He got up, dusted the snow off, then noticed that the pocket where he thought his phone was neatly packed away was actually unzipped, and his phone was not inside. Hmmm, sound familiar*? At least it wasn't his keys.
Trent and Jake immediately took off up the mountain following the trail in the snow that we had made, while Alisha and I ran back to the cabin to get some flash lights. Alisha's brother recommended calling Trent's phone (what an amazing idea, why didn't we think of that?) and he came along with us to help find the lost phone in the thick snow. As Alisha and I shined the flash lights against the powdery snow we decided that the chances of finding the cell phone alone were too low and that we needed to pray. Shortly thereafter we hear a loud roaring noise come from up the mountain. Sure enough after the 15th call made by Alisha, they had seen the little light from his phone peaking though the snow that covered it. What an adventure.*go ahead and follow the link to our previous snowshoeing adventure post if you don't get the parallels.

It's been way to long...

since I've posted about some sort of food. So it is only appropriate for me to share the exquisit experience that occured this afternoon. A while back I signed up to get all these free samples and today my first one rolled in- Orville Redenbacher's Caramel Mini Smart Cakes! They were A-MA-ZING! And I've never been a huge fan of those big popcorn pressed cakes that I was first introduced to in the 90's. But these are... wow. AND only 100 calories!? A very filling 100 calories I might add.
As a cautionary note- despite the fact that the "nutrition facts" on the back of the bag listed 0 grams of trans fat, the ingredient list did contain soy lecithin*, partially hydrogenated soybean oil*, and corn oil*. The stared items are explained further with the following: "* Adds a trivial amount of trans fat." I wonder how many Mini Smart Cakes I would have to eat for that "trivial amount" of trans fat to really amount to something?

Introducing Trent's Side

This weekend we had family pictures up in Salt Lake with Trent's family. We were pleasantly surprised to find the weather to be fairly moderate (as it has been thus far this winter, knock on wood) and our clothing to be pretty well coordinated.

Here are the boys:
Wes is Trent's step dad and Brett is Trent's brother-in-law. Ben is his step-brother-in-law and James, Braden and Bryson are his good-looking sons. Rob is Trent's step-brother and his handsome children are Cameron and Austin.

Here are the girls:Debbie is Trent's step sister and her adorable two girls are Cami and Kaitlyn. Sabrina is Trent's sister and Adie is her daughter. Tyssie is the mother of the handsome boys, Cameron and Austin, pictured above. Although sometimes confused to be another sister of Trents, Judy is actually his mom. And then there is me, with the new brown do.

There you go. Trent's family in a nutshell.

Graduation Application

Having known that the "deadline" to apply for graduation is tomorrow, I made a point this afternoon to go over to my advisement center and fill out the three-layer-carbon-copy application. During my three years of explaining, filling out, signing, and dating the exact same form for engineering students at my job in the advisement center, it never once occurred to me that one day I would get to fill one out on behalf of myself. Reality set in today. Five and a half months left.

Backpack Mishap

When my parents showed Trent and I all the things they had brought home from China it felt like Christmas. We pulled each item out of a big, plastic, Chinese-looking bag one by one, inspected it, tried it on, laughed at it, etc. The process was very entertaining. Although it seemed to never end, it eventually did, at which point we found ourselves adorned with all sorts of crazy items:Trent love love loves the bronze gator. Which is funny because I still remember the day my mom called and complained about how my dad had found a little bronze shop in one of the markets and brought home a few figurines for himself along with the gator for Trent, which of course is now one of his most prized possessions. Trent also loves the pink Burberry tie that my mom picked out and the golden hammock and the Michael Jordan basketball shorts.

As for me, my favorite gift has to be the pink shoes adorned with several "jibbitz." Unfortunately I think I left one of the shoes in Florida. All kidding aside, my true favorite gift is the faux Prada backpack and matching laptop bag (both of which are pictured above, its just hard to see them). But now, after 12 Wonderful Weeks of wearing my faux Prada, I do believe it is time to switch back to the old green one that I had been using previously, before the black one came along. Here's why:

At first I noticed some obscure scrapes on my left arm (sometimes accompanied with blood) which I later discovered to be the result of both removing my backpack and putting it back on. Then, a couple days ago, I noticed a weird, burn-like mark on my shoulder by my neck. Kinda like one of those burns you see on the feet of people who wore flip-flops made in China with lead paint (yes, I do have pictures if your interested, and yes, I did toss around the idea that possibly my precious faux bag had been made with lead paint). Now the bag has started to fall apart, first by the zipper, then by the handle, and just now by the straps! As I walked home from school today I was certain that one of the straps was going to pop since it was hanging by only a couple of threads.

Don't worry, I am sure she can be fixed, but for now I think I am going to switch back to the green one. Just thought both of us could take a little brake. And when she does get fixed I will have to remember to lighten my load, because surely that is the reason for my above mishaps.

My dreams predict the future, heres the short story made long

I met with my group this morning at 7:00. We ran though our presentation a few times, yada, yada, yada. Oh but this is where the story gets good...
Here we are, its 7:50 in the morning and we are all standing around the conference table packing up our stuff and getting ready to make our way out the door. It was at this moment that one of my group members (who's wife is three months pregnant) said something about how he had had a dream last night that his baby was going to be a boy. While we were on the subject of dreams I thought I would pipe in and just mention the fact that I had had a dream that the answer for the two question T/F quiz that we have at the beginning of class everyday would be 1. True 2. True for today's quiz. An hour and a half later we go to class, take our quiz and sure enough the answers were True, True. Crazyyyy.... and now yall brilliant type are thinking- well... your chances were one in four to begin with.

Tagged

I'd like to preface this list by saying, "wow that was hard". And I'm not gonna lie and say I didn't go on a mad search though journals, resumes, and planners desperately seeking answers to the following questions...

10 years ago I . . .

1. was 12 years old (yikes that sounds so young)

2. was in my second quarter (isn't that what they called them?) of my first year at Deerlake Middle School

3. had a mad crush on a secret someone, okay so maybe it wasn't exactly a secret

4. was dreaming of living in Orlando with hopes of working at Disney World as the water skiing Pinocchio

5. was busy using sparkly gel pens to write notes to Aubry in our secret code

5 things on my "to do list" today . . .

1. mail in the absentee ballots (yes that means you can stop calling, my vote is already in)

2. meet with my group at 3 to prepare for our presentation

3. fix the trash can, ah yes how I love to ghetto rig things around the house

4. make dinner: (not so) yummy orange chicken, Trent of course thought it was amazing

5. add another econ class to my schedule for next semester

5 snacks I like . . .

1. 0% plus vanilla yogurt

2. ice cream

3. ice

4. gala apples

5. carrots

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire . . .

1. save, save, save. sounds boring, I know

2. invest in property

3. have my brother build us a home to live in

4. decorate my little home

5. work, because we all know how much I like to work

5 places I have lived . . .

1. Northshire, Tallahassee, FL

2. Helamen Halls, Provo, UT

3. Branbury Park, Provo, UT

4. Remington Place, Orem, UT

5. Our current basement apartment, Provo, UT (so there are lots of Utahs on this list, and hence I feel compelled to mention that most of my life was spent in Florida)

5 jobs that I have had . . .

1. hostess and cashier at Chuck E Cheese

2. accounting clerk at the State of Florida Disbursement Unit

3. deli hostess and cashier at Mana Restaurant

4. accounting intern at Xango

5. t-shirt creator at Amillion Tees

Wait, I'm pretty sure this is the one I was supposed to do. whoops.

8 favorite TV shows I love to watch . . . love is probably a bit too strong of a word

1. College game day

2. football games. Yes I am married to Trent

8 things I did yesterday . . . don't judge
1. woke up at 7 in the morning and scrubbed the tub for an hour. sometimes I'm just in the mood for some old fashioned tub scrubbing, but I will save this story for another post

2. taught our 12 year old Sunday school class about the importance of home and families

3. took my traditional Sunday nap
4. beat Trent in Wii baseball AND tennis

5. started to loose to Trent in Wii golf so I pouted like a 5 year old and had him finish the game with out me.
6. cooked up some sheppards pie

7. stayed up till 12:30 registering for Winter semester classes. You would think it is unnecessary when you have "graduate priority" scheduling status but I learned my lesson the hard way last semester when I waited until 8 o'clock the next morning and BAM, just like, that 0 seats available

8. stood up in my bed and hit my head on the ceiling light, but I guess at this point it was no longer "yesterday"

8 favorite places to eat . . .

1. Home, not because I am a good cook, just because it is cheaper

2. Moe's

3. Firehouse

4. Leaning Tower

5. Papa Johns

6. Sweet Tomatoes

7. Gurus

8. Red Robin

8 things I am looking forward to . . .

1. figuring out what city we will be living in next year. Hopefully it doesn't start with a P and end with an O

2. figuring out where I am going to work

3. graduating, although I must admit I am already getting a little sentimental about being done with school

4. going to bed tonight. oh how I love to sleep

5. getting this thing posted

6. having children in the distant future

7. meeting my new nephew Stevie

8. flip flop weather

8 things on my wish list . . .

1. for Trent to get into dental school

2. to be neighbors with Jill. And Amanda on the other side.

3. a new game for the Wii balance board

4. a warm winter

5. straight As this semester

6. a new flavor of ice cream that makes you loose weight

7. more than 24 hours in a day 

8. for life to stay as simple as it is now

8 people I tag . . .

1. Amanda

2. Brittany 

3. Cousins- every single one of you

4. Dana

5. Jill

6. Kim

7. Laurel and Kelly

8. Ali- did you already do this one?

The Savage Household

Trent left town which leaves me home alone. He is interviewing and I'm working.

My regular work schedule is already heavily weighted towards the end of the week, as I only work Thursday nights and Fridays. But since Trent will be gone until Saturday I'm picking up some extra shifts so that I can work even more while he is out of town. I've always loved to work, one of my little quirks I guess. But my job in the accounting lab is on a whole (n)other level. It is one of my favorite things to do, second only to being somewhere or doing something with Trent. Since the later is not an option this weekend, I'm working. In the lab. Helping people understand their debits and credits. Or doing my own homework. Or blogging.

And Trent is out of the state, interviewing it up at dental schools. He only has two left, and after today he will have eight behind him. We will be glad when we get word on his acceptance, contingent, of course, on one of them being positive. And the earliest we can find out is on December 1st (a concept I explain to others often when they ask if he has been accepted). And until then, I won't know where I am going to work. That's just the way it is for the Savage household.

Mac Attack

My Mac has made me angry.
Angry that I can't check my email.
Angry that I am not mac-savvy enough to figure it out.
And angry that I have wasted 3 weeks trying to do so.

During peaks of frustration I have even made threats to take my old laptop back and give this piece of white trash to Trent. It only takes him point three seconds to take me up on my offers/threats. But when it really came down to it, I just didn't have the heart to do that to him. I made the horrible assumption that if I couldn't figure it out, then neither could he.

I also knew Trent needed the same capabilities in the computer he uses as do I, namely yahoo mail, byu.edu, and blackboard. We were basically limited to google searches; better than nothing, yet still not the functions we are looking for in a computer.

So what sort of creative things have I done in attempts to fix this "lucky prize" of mine? For sake of making this already-too-long-of-a-post post any longer I will cut to the chase and tell you the one hundred, fifty-seventh operation (which just so happened to be the correct option) made on the 13 inch Macintosh.

apple. restart. Thats right, the entire time I owned the thing I never once shut it down. And that's precisely what did the trick.

If it ain't broke don't fix it?

That's the motto I usually follow. That is, at least, this past month when our car's battery died twice but I opted to wait until it was 100% broken before getting it replaced. Of course the second Trent goes out of town it dies again. Not once. But twice. For a grand total of four times in one month.

After having a whole parking lot full of people try to jump my car (at least I am certain it is 100% dead now), 50 minutes later I am at Auto Zone with my new battery. I went straight there, didn't want to run the risk of having to get my car jumped 3 times in one day. Being the over-the-top thrifter (new word, but it works) that I am, I decided to call around before going though with the transaction. Checkers. Pep Boys. Ray's Campus. All the same price, give or take 2 bucks, but Auto Zone's warranty was the best. Plus I was already there. 

And just when I thought I had found a great deal, they told me they were out of the particular battery they had quoted me on, so they gave me the next best one for the same price. Thats right ladies and gentlemen-- a three year warranty for the price of two!

Call me crazy but that just about made my day.