The Best Christmas Present

Seth and I had a lovely Christmas.
We celebrated with Seth's family on Christmas day, and with my own family yesterday. (We're in Richmond at the moment.)
Our families are very generous and we got a lot of nice things, but I think my favorite moment was not getting a gift, it was giving one:



A new grandchild for all the parents.

Coming July 6.

I should mention this will be the Winsor's third grandchild, and the first in my family.
Everyone is very, very excited.
Especially Seth and me.

Happy Birthday to Dad and Isaac

I guess both Isaac and Dad get ripped off a little having their birthdays so close to Christmas.  In addition to that, they're also both getting ripped off by me for having birthdays that are so close together.  Sorry, only one post congratulating both of you on growing older.  At least this one is better than last year's, right?

Janette asked me to tell a good story about Isaac misbehaving as a kid.  To all of our readers' disappointment, however, I couldn't actually think of any.  Isaac has always been and still is a great guy.  I hope his children turn out like he did.

As seen above, my dad is in his natural environment when he is in the woods.  I'm really glad that he took me camping so much when I was a kid.  He really does live up to his nickname of "Happy Pappy."

Happy Birthdays!

Say what?

The impossible has happened!





Our ice cream has freezer burn.

Does this mean my ice cream addiction created from two years of working at Cold Stone Creamery is finally, finally abating?

Judging by the amount I ate tonight, I'm thinking not quite yet.

Christmas Glasses

These are my Christmas Glasses.

I am in love with them.

I was given a set as a teenager to put in my hope chest for when I was married.

Yes, I have a hope chest. No, my family is not super old-fashioned.

It just doesn't feel like Christmas to me without them.

Each glass is a present from The 12 Days of Christmas.

They were made by Indiana Glass, and they are no longer in production.

A fact which makes them even more precious to me.

I love my Christmas glasses. I love them with a pure, Christmas-y love. And I hope you do too.

Amen.

Deal-Breaker

I just asked Seth how I was supposed to pronounce Muppet. (I swear I've heard it pronounced like Muffet before and I just wanted to clarify.)
It took him SEVERAL minutes to get over the shock and sadness of me even having to ask a question like that before he would finally answer me.
So I decided now would be a good time to finally admit to him that I don't like the Muppets.

Ok, there, I said it. I don't like the Muppets. They're ugly, and weird, and not funny, and they make stupid jokes.
They're just not my thing.
Seth was horrified of course. He can't even comprehend what he's hearing.
I'm glad I waited until after we got married before I revealed this bit of news to him.
I think it would have been a deal breaker.

Stuck In My Head

For the entirety of the winter season I will have two lines stuck in my head, thanks to Seth.
They're from a song in Muppet Christmas Carol.
Of course.
See the first 10 seconds of this song.

"When the cold wind blows it chills you....chills you to the bone!"
He sings it constantly.
And therefore, so do I.

Our Christmas Tree

Last Saturday we had a visit from my Dad and company, and he insisted on going Christmas tree shopping.
Apparently there are no more Cut-Your-Own Christmas Tree Farms close to where he lives, so he decided to do it with us in Raleigh.
Much to his dismay, they are also becoming a thing of the past here too. We did find a Pick-Your-Own Christmas Tree Farm, but they did not give you a saw to cut it down yourself. They did it themselves with a high-powered chain saw.
And would you be surprised if I told you that Seth and I immediately picked the ugliest tree to take home with us, simply because it was free?

You probably don't know us well enough if you said yes. You can't tell in the pictures, but the trunk looks like this: S.
And if you are doubting how truthful I'm being, here is a direct quote from an employee there: "Yeah when we were doing the pricing we came upon this one and we thought, man! that's an ugly tree, but we figured some family's bound to want it..."
Just call us Charlie Brown and Linus.
So they cleaned the tree out for us and we it took home and set it up so that you can't really tell the trunk is crooked, and then we decorated it.

And I am very much in love with our imperfect perfect little tree.

So to all those people who laughed at us for taking the ugliest tree on the lot home, I say, "Boo Yeah."

And, of course, Merry Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving

We spent the day at the Winsor household with lots of people and lots of food.

It was delicious.

We're grateful that we can live so close to family, that I have a job, that Seth can get his Master's Degree, and that we have a great marriage, as well as all those thousands of other little things we normally take for granted.

Happy Thanksgiving.

The Scout Leader

I love a man in uniform.
Just one of the perks of having a husband in the Young Mens organization.

Happy Birthday Michelle

Dear Michelle,

Today is your birthday. You are turning 25. That is a quarter of a century old.

Better bust out the walking cane. 

You old woman.

Love,

Janette

p.s. Here is a picture to help you remember your youth. It won't be long before the Alzheimer's takes over...

Happy Halloween

Yes. I know it's November 9 and Halloween was over a week ago.
Does this mean Seth and I were rather apathetic about celebrating Halloween this year?
Let's look at the facts.

Fact #1: I am writing this post over a week late. Not because I haven't had time, or I didn't think of it until just now. I just didn't care to until this moment. It also could be that I am avoiding doing other, more productive activities...

Fact#2: Text conversation I had with my sister Katie on October 30.
K: What did you dress up as?
J: What?
K: For halloween....
J: I'm not dressing up. We're not going anywhere that I'd need to.
K: What about to hand out candy
J: We're going over to seth's parents house.
K: Why wouldn't you just dress up then?
J: Because it's not a costume party, it's just his family and I don't want to
K: You can still dress up...
J: Dude, let it go. I'm not dressing up. Now quit texting me I'm trying to go to sleep.
Sorry for being so snappy Katie.

Fact#3: Zero decorations. Unless you count the candy corn bowl of stale candy corn that sat on our coffee table for the month of October. (which you can kind of see on the right of the picture below)

Fact#4: I did not help carve the pumpkin. The pumpkin we bought at the very last possible minute. As in on the 30th. At night. From the Food Lion. I just watched Seth do it.

Fact#5 He carved it to look like this:

An apathetic face if I've ever seen one.

Conclusion: I was slightly more apathetic than Seth about celebrating Halloween, but neither of us were very celebratory.

Let's hope we can rouse our spirits in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The House Tonight

Seth is going to be teaching a Merit Badge workshop on Electricity on Friday and Saturday.
He decided to prepare for it today.
When I came home from work I took a nap and when I woke up the table looked like this:

Electronics barfed all over my table.
Seth likes to keep things like this. He tinkers with them. When my hair dryer broke his eyes got real big and he asked me excitedly if he could please take it apart instead of me just throwing it away. He likes to go to Goodwill and buy old outdated electronic things so he can take them apart. His latest find was a joystick from the 90s. He keeps it all in a cardboard box in our bedroom and when he gets bored, he'll take the box out and start tinkering.
Usually when he does this, electronics barf all over my table. Like tonight.

I didn't complain though. I think because for the past 3 days I've been telling him I will do the dishes, no, no, you don't have to do them, I WILL do them, don't worry, don't worry.

And as of tonight the sink still looks like this:

Just keepin' it real here, folks.

Now maybe I'd better go do the dishes.

Maybe.

5 Years Later

As part of my High School Senior English Project I had to ask people a series of questions about myself and record their responses. (This was probably my favorite project because it centered around my favorite subject - me.) One of my questions was, "What do you see me doing in 5 years?"

It has now been 5 years since I asked the question and I thought you might find it amusing what my family and friends thought I would be up to at this moment in time. Although I guess technically it would be May of this year, not October. Close enough.
Also, I just have to say that I remember working on this assignment and thinking 5 years was such a long way off. My, how the years have flown by.

What do you see me doing in 5 years?
Mom: Finishing college or beginning masters, married, pregnant with first child
Step-Dad: Graduated from college
Dad: Probably your last year of college; you've changed degrees a couple of times, but you're finally excited about what you're majoring in and you're now thinking of graduate school. You have a serious boyfriend and are thinking about getting married after you graduate.
Sister Michelle: At college working your butt off, but with a Mr. Hunk boyfriend on the side.
Sister Amanda: A famous artist who has just has some art piece put in the Met, with a hottie RM who will ask you to marry him
Friend Laura: Makin' babies. Just kidding. Seriously...taking over the world.
Friend Janell: Probably a newlywed (married within the past 2ish years) working a part time job with your little starter house
Friend Katie: Married with 3 kids. Ha!

Hmm...both my parents said I'd be going to graduate school. Sorry to disappoint, parents.
Also, I definitely lucked out and got a hottie Mr. Hunk RM to marry.
Also, no babies.
Yet.

Babysitting

Today Seth and I had the privilege of babysitting our niece and nephew while their parents were out of town. We picked them up at 8:30 this morning and spent the whole day watching them.
It was quite the adventure.
I can't say what the first couple of hours looked like, since I actually had an interpreting assignment this morning and had to leave as soon as we got to our place with them. But when I came back the apartment was a lot messier than it was when I left.
But look how cute!

So then we decided to take them on a walk around the lake by our house. We'd take them to feed the ducks. It would be so cute!

Only, the walk was a lot longer than Seth and I were expecting, and the ducks turned out to be 30 or 40 food-crazy geese that almost made me a widow when Seth decided to do a "trial run" before handing the bread over to the children. 

As Seth said, "I've never experienced an adrenaline rush while feeding the ducks before."

Needless to say, the long walk we forced the children to go on was not rewarded with getting to feed the ducks, a fact none of us were very happy about.

But look how cute!

We had lunch and headed over to Seth's parent's house since we needed a place for T to take his nap and they would be staying there overnight anyway.
And even though we only had one child to look after for most of the afternoon, by the end of the night Seth and I were like this:

Yikes.
I can't decide whether babysitting your niece and nephew for a whole day is the BEST or WORST birth control ever.
Because, look how cute!

Graceful: Part 2

Seth just knocked over his entire cup of ice water onto our carpet.

We were meant to be!

(And let's just ignore all that water on the kitchen floor from when I dropped the newly filled ice cube trays earlier tonight...)

David Visits

Sometimes I write down things people have said in an unpublished blog post so that I can revise it later and publish something funny with word-for-word quotes. (Seth sent me this comic after I did this to him for practically one entire night.) I know, it's an odd habit. I can't help it.
Apparently I forgot about this one and I have just discovered it again tonight.
They are quotes from my younger brother David when he came to visit Seth and I back in June. (or was it July?)
I thought they were good enough to deserve an actual published blog post.
I miss you David.

Me: Where's your beach towel?
David: *blank stare*
Me: Remember how I told you to bring one since we don't have an extra?
David: Yeah. . . . . No no, it's ok. I'm so hot, I'll just dry off.

Right after hugging me goodnight - tenderly - he suddenly remarks, "Hey. You know I can manhandle you?"
Then he puts up his fists and gives me a head nod.
"Bring it."

Graceful.

When I was younger I used to think I was rather graceful.
In fact I was so sure of this that whenever I did do something clumsy (which, in retrospect, was quite often), I'd think to myself that it was a fluke. A one-time occurrence. A blip on my otherwise graceful existence.
I am not exaggerating here. I even imagined that in the biographies that would be written about me (I had quite a vivid imagination, if you couldn't tell) they would make special note of how graceful I was. That's how much I believed it.
But tonight I decided that if they do write autobiographies about me (And hey, it could happen. Leave me some dreams intact, please.) there will be no mention of my gracefulness. Tonight I realized that I am not just not graceful, I am actually very clumsy.
This is because tonight I kicked over my open water bottle and dumped water all over the carpet.
But Janette, you say, That's not so bad. That's a one-time fluke.


It's not.
It's the third night in a row that I've done it.
The first AND SECOND time, the water poured right onto the computer. (Don't worry, I didn't ruin it.)

*Sigh*
Goodbye, dreams of gracefulness.
Here's to hoping I don't do it again tomorrow night.

Zac's Weird Nicknames

Thackerus.

Ziggy-Zeusky.

Hoobens Bueno.

Sachmo Eskimo.

Zach (rhymes with hatch).

Pugsley.

These are just a few of the strange names that my brother Zac has acquired over the years. 

(no need to mention who came up with these names for him)

I've suggested many of these names and others to Janette as possibilities for our future children, 

but she doesn't seem to like the idea very much...

Happy Birthday Zac!

Grateful

I have been coveting other stuff too much. I want a job and a house and a baby and a blender. And maybe some new couches.

It makes me think I don't have a very good life.

But in reality, I have a phenomenal life. And I hope I can remind myself of this when I start coveting.

So here is a little reminder to self:

I have a wonderful husband that puts up with my crazy and I get to see him almost all day every day.

And we are really really happy together. 

Life is good.

Arizona Trip

Seth told me I needed to write a blog post about my recent 10-day trip to Arizona.

The purpose of my trip was to see my mom and help her out with her new crazy job as a 1st grade teacher.

I swear, teachers should be paid millions. Millions.

It went a little something like this:

Work on school stuff

Call Seth

Work on school stuff

Celebrate my Mom's birthday:

Eat Cake:

Call Seth.

Work on school stuff.

Call Seth.

Work on school stuff.

Call Seth.

Work on school stuff...

Do you get the picture here?

I had a fabulous visit, but the majority of my time spent there wasn't thrilling enough to merit blog posts about it.

Instead let's talk about something else.

Like, why do people think Arizona is ugly and brown?

I think it's gorgeous.

See?

Too bad you couldn't have been there. Pictures pale in comparison to the real thing.

Happy Birthday Mom

My mom's birthday was yesterday but the internet was out so this is a day late.

Yes, my parents do have birthdays 4 days apart. Yes, it was confusing for me as a child.

Lucky for me, I actually get to spend my mom's birthday with her since I am currently in Arizona.

So we partied. Went clubbing. Got a little tipsy.

........

Actually we just went out to lunch and got pedicures.

It was still pretty good.

And I have a newfound respect for my mother and for all elementary school teachers everywhere.

I am exhausted just watching her.

Basically my mom is the best. Ever.

Times infinity.

And beyond.

Happy Birthday Mom. I love you.

Happy Birthday Dad

This is my Dad.

Today he turns 50.

I'll tell you a little bit about him.

When I was growing up he took pride in the fact that he scared all of the boys in my ward.

In reality it is all a front. He is a big softie.

Trust me.

He likes to drive me bonkers with his political incorrectness. It's very entertaining for him.

He can be pretty hilarious in spite of this.

He is also very smart. He's the person I call with questions about computers, money, college, jobs, and all those little responsibilities you have to take care of when you live on your own. He knows all.

And he hates talking on the phone. Typical conversations last about 5 minutes, 10 on a good day.

Happy Birthday Pops. I love you.

Happy Birthday Tiffany

This is my SIL Tiffany.

Today is her birthday.

I love this picture. We get along well.

Tiffany is currently getting a PhD and is very smart. 

I asked her once what her research was on. Since I am not so smart, it was not a very good idea on my part.

But she is also funny and talkative and a great cook.

And we like hanging out with her.

I asked Seth if he'd like to contribute something and he said

"She da bomb diggity."

I think that sums it up nicely.

Topsail Beach

Last week in celebration of Seth's brother Bryce and our friend Angelica being here, a bunch of the family drove out to Topsail Beach.

And I actually went in the ocean. And it was really nice. And I was really enjoying myself.

And then a huge wave came and knocked me over and I got sea water all up my nose and down my throat and in my eyeballs. 

Then I became blind and started coughing my lungs out and blowing snot from my nose.

And I remembered why I never swam in the ocean.

After that episode I promptly retired back to the beach, where I stayed for the rest of the trip.

Happy Anniversary

Dear Seth, 

Remember this day? 

It was exactly a year ago.

Remember that crazy old house we rented in Provo?

Let's not remember all the stories we got out of it, shall we?

Remember how after we got married all my OCD tendencies I'd been suppressing while we dated came out?

Yeah. I'm still mad at you for eating my only red M&M that one time.

And do you remember lying in bed at night making puking noises to make me laugh?

(Probably everyone else would think that is so weird. But I love it.)

And letting me mess up your hair all the time so I could laugh about it?

And a thousand other memories that make our first year of marriage so great?

Yeah. Me too.

I am a genius.

Your thoughts upon seeing the title:

What?

A post that's not about a trip Seth and Janette have taken?

But.......but I thought this was slowly turning into a travelogue...

I'm so confused.

Yes, that's right. 

There aren't even any pictures in this post!!!

Well. 

Except for this one.

Because this is to publicly announce that I am a genius for deciding that blogs are better with big pictures and thereby implementing my newfound discovery on my own blog so that you get to see me and Seth's smiling faces covering your ENTIRE COMPUTER SCREEN!

I even coded html.

WHAT!?!?!

Yes. I did. 

Wait ... you probably just googled "how to make your blog bigger" didn't you?

Uhh... noooo. I am a genius. A genius I say!

Uh huh. I see those shifty eyes.

Fine. I googled it.

But my blog is still awesome.

Washington D.C.

Poor, poor little blog. 

So neglected. 

So unkempt.

Unloved.

Forgotten by your creator, your caretaker. Your one and only friend. 

And all three of your readers.

Hmm.

I see now that my writing skills have severely declined since I have not written in so long.

I'd better just post pictures.

BIG pictures.

Trip to Washington D.C. - on the Metro.

Library of Congress

We have decided our next house will be an exact replica of this building.

Museum of Natural History

The ecstatic glee you see on my face is a result of the 3 hours I just spent in an air conditioned building and not walking the streets of excessively hot and humid D.C.

This is the only thing I really wanted to do and we got there too late for the tour!

Curse you, summer hours and ill-planned scheduling.

This is the VERY FIRST STOP on our next trip.

But at least I can now say I have been to Gallaudet.

And Union Station.