Johnathan on the slopes for his first time skiing - what a champ! 

A fun day skiing

On Saturday Amber and I left Aliece and Alayna with some friends. We then took Aylee and Johnathan up to the Alta Ski Resort in Salt Lake. We had borrowed some skiis for Johnathan and I had bought some skis at the DI for 12 bucks. We just had to rent skiis for Amber and Aylee. Alta has a free bunny hill that is open all day long. They also have a bigger run that is free everyday from 3pm-4:30pm. During that time they rent their skiis out for $5.00 a person. So, we rented the skiis from there.

We had a GREAT time. The bunny hill only had a rope tow, so that was probably the hardest part on our bodies. It wore us out quickly. We skied for about an hour and a half. Aylee did great - she didn't use toe clips at all. It was Johnathan's first time skiing. Man, he was snowplowing in about 30 minutes. He is really getting it down - what a natural! It was fun to see that he was having an awesome time.

Amber did great and was able to ski with Aylee while I helped Johnathan.

By the time the resort closed in that hour and a half, we were all bushed. It took a lot to ride that rope tow.

Johnathan, Aylee and Amber all want to go again, so we are going to have to figure out another day to go.

As we were driving home from skiing, we talked about how good it felt to do that as a family. It will be a memorable experience for sure!

These Days

I will just write a quick update for everybody. In case you didn’t notice, I no longer live in Provo. Last Thursday, I moved back up to Idaho. I came up on Thursday and I stayed in Arbon with Mom and Dad. Then on Friday I came to Pocatello to pay for registration and tuiton. $2,250 later, I was all registered. That was only after waiting in lines and going from station to station. Earlier that morning I email the lawyer about the job and while I was registering, he called me and wanted to meet with me. So I went and me with him and we talked for a moment. He asked me if I was going to school and he asked what my schedule was. I told him I had MWF classes and then one class on Tuesdays. He said that it wouldn’t work because I would have to work Wednesday mornings. He said that if wasn’t for that, he would give me the job. So I told him I would see what I could do with my schedule and get back with him later. So I had to go back up to ISU and see what I could do to completely switch my schedule around. The advisor wasn’t too happy with me because most classes were full and it was the last day for registration but we found a schedule that would work. Work is going well. I started on Monday at the law firm. I will be mostly doing billing and filing which will keep me busy enough I believe. It has been going well. The 15th of ever month is when we send bills out so that is what I did today. But when I printed all of the bills out, I accidentally put the dates from Jan 15, 2004 instead of 2005 so I wasted all that paper and ink. But we got them all sent out. I went and played basketball last night with the guys that I used to play with before the mission. I got there an hour late and when I walked in, they were all excited to see me. It made me feel good. We played and then talked until about 12:30. It was a lot of fun. I found out yesterday that a guy that I went to high school with now has MS. He has had it for about 2 years now. I play basketball with his dad and his dad was telling me about it yesterday at basketball. He cant even get out of bed anymore. It is so weird to think about it. Last time I saw him, a couple of years ago, he was fine. It is crazy to think he wont live much longer. I learned a great lesson today. Don’t walk in a slick parking lot with your hands in your pockets.

The apartments that I moved into are right by the university so I can walk to my classes. That is really nice because I dont have to battle with finding a parking space. All of my classes are right by eachother so that is really nice too. It is a three bedroom apartment. The kitchen and living room are pretty big, but the bedrooms are kind of small, especially if you have to share a room. I had wanted my own room and that is what I had been looking for, but I didnt find anything that I liked with a good price. So because of necessity, I decided to move into this apartment complex. For a shared room, it costs $150/month and for your own room it is $250/month. I chose to be cheap and I got a shared room contract. Right now there are three of us that are living in this apartment. I moved in first, and then another moved in the day after and another a couple of days later. So we are all paying for a shared room contract, but because there are 3 of us in a 3 bedroom apartment, we all get our own room. Well, I had been looking to move in with a friend that just got back from his mission, but we didnt find anything that we both liked so I decided to do it alone. Well he now wants to move into the apartment with us which would mean that I would have to share a room. I tried to discourage him from doing it because I dont want to have to share a room, but last time I talked to him (yesterday) he was going to call the Collegiate Apartments to see if he could move in. So I guess we will see what happens.

Put not your faith in the arm of Missionaries

We had the missionaries over for dinner last night because Amber has been helping them teach a neighbor lady and her kids.  We were going to have dinner together and have a family home evening, but the lady canceled three minutes before she was supposed to come over.

 

We still fed the missionaries.  They needed to run to another appointment, so they asked if they could leave a spiritual thought with us.  Of course we agreed.

 

Their message was on faith.  It was an object lesson.  The elder asked me if I trusted him (he noted that trust was an essential part of faith).  Of course, I said I did.  So, he asked me to give him my hand.  I did so.  He stood an unraveled tea bag on my hand and told me he was going to light it on fire.  He told me to have faith in him because the when the flame reached my hand it wouldn't burn me. 

 

He lit the top of the tea bag on fire and our kids excitedly watched as Dad held the flaming tea bag.  The missionaries didn't look nervous, so I let it burn down, down, down.  It was near the end and man, it was getting hot!  But, I figured I would see this through.  Well, the tea bag finally finished burning and my hand was hurting!  The missionaries were saying stuff like, "wow, that has never happened before...darn it didn't work"  All the while my hand was starting to kill me.  I wanted to run over to the sink and put my hand in cold water, but I didn't want to make a scene.  The missionaries wanted to try their object lesson again, but luckily they had the tact not to ask me to do it.

 

One of them did it to themselves and it worked right...when the flame "nearly" reached their hand, the remained of the burning tea bag floated in the air until the flames went out.

 

We congratulated them and let them prepare to leave, and I subtly went to the bathroom to soak my sore hand.

 

As they left the house, the one elder turned to the other and asked if he had the props for the object lesson at their next appointment.  The elder confirmed the question and asked him to make sure there were enough matches in their bag.  Man...I hope their next object lesson goes better than this one. 

 

I wonder if an investigator could sue the church when missionaries light their hands on fire?  I guess that could be a way to baptize them...Oh...your hand is on fire, hop in the water and we'll put it out! :-)

 

Call Me Pres

I just found out that John and Amber did not know that I was called to be the Elder's Quorum President a little while ago, so I decided to make it public here on the blog. I'd like to tell you how last Sunday went.....
Sunday School was coming to a close and Priesthood was about to begin. I asked a couple of our teachers who was in charge of teaching this week and no one seemed to know. One of the teachers told me that they never had a specific schedule; Luke would call them the beginning of the week he wanted them to teach. I about died. I had about 2 minutes until Priesthood started. I got one of my counselors (the one conducting) to have us sing "I Believe in Christ" because it is such a long song. Then I had another counselor get the VCR for me and the BofM video and cue it to when Christ appears to the American people. During the song and the announcements, I had enough time to mark the lesson manual and get it ready a little. It was an ok lesson and we ended with the movie. I don't want to make this a habit :).

My Wallet is Gone!

Yesterday I logged on to my Discover card account to see the message, "Call this number immediately regarding you account [phone number]." I called the number and spoke with a nice man. He asked me if I attempted to withdraw money from my account numerous times last night around 1 - 2 am. I told him no. We deactivated my account.

I decided that I had better call Wells Fargo to see about activity on my Debit card. Sure enough, someone had went to 3 gas stations in the middle of the night and then ate at Betos for breakfast. I cancelled those accounts as well.

Being a very angry person right now, I went to the establishments where my card was used and asked to see their security cameras. The gas stations told me that their cameras aren't actually hooked up to anything. They're just used to make people think they can't steal gas. I went to Betos and asked them. They said that the security camera repairman is coming today to repair the cameras (they were broken). Oh, just my luck. I asked to see the receipt and they found it....unsigned. I am unable to track them down.

Discover Card is putting some investigators on the case. My last chance of catching them is due to the fact that they attempted to use ATM machines which usually have security cameras in them. Since the transaction didn't go through (they didn't know my PIN) Discover does not know, as of yet, which ATM's they tried to use. However, if we figure that out, we might be able to see who it is through the security cameras. The detectives won't be on the case until tomorrow. I cancelled both the Wells and Discover cards before $100 was even used. I hope that they don't decide to just close the case and pay the money they lost because it was so little. I have their number and will do my best to make sure that this care is really investigated.

I also set up fraud protection on all three credit agencies so that no one can open an account or apply for credit without me personally authorizing it.

I, of course, lost a lot of info that is useless to the thieves but very valuable to me: Drivers License, Temple Recommend, Provo Rec, Moto and Pickup insurance, receipts from EQ activity that I need reimbursement for, receipts for different presents, Student ID card, as well as many other things I can't think of right now.

I am investing in a wooden baseball bat. I'm anxious to see what the ATM cameras show.

Wedding Bells are in the Air

Well, the Reed family is one step closer to getting more grandkids in the family :-). Reed announced this past weekend that he is engaged. He is engaged to Michelle Johnson. She currently lives in Philadelphia, but her family lives in Washington - they are in Verne and Ann's ward. She is the fourth of 11 children...so maybe we can expect great things :-).

She is a nice girl. We are excited for them. They expect to get married sometime in May - probably having the wedding in Washington State.

Not a creature was stirring...except for a mouse

Hi there everyone!

Can you believe the holidays are over and we're back to the grind again? The holidays were perfect for me. I got to spend some time traveling and being with all of the people I love, had some lazy, lazy laid back days, and had some busy, busy productive days at home. It is so fun to have the kids getting a little older and really getting into the spirit of things. They are also getting to be quite fun to play games with. Our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day festivities were so enjoyable. On Christmas Eve we had a family home evening and acted out the Christmas Story, sang a bunch of carols, ate some yummy treats and set out stockings and cookies and chocolate milk for Santa, then tucked the kids into bed. John and I played some games, then got all of our things taken care of and got ourselves into bed. About 3:00 am we became aware of a very loud rucous in the bathroom. Was it the kids? No. They were asleep in their beds. Was it Santa? No. We could hear it very loudly in both bathrooms, coming from inside the walls. A few days earlier we had become suspicious of a mouse in the house because of curious black droppings we had seen in various locatations around the house. (Especially the kitchen). The tramplings within the walls heightened our suspicions, but since we had set traps out for several days, with no success, and had no confirmed sightings I continued to HOPE that maybe it was a fluke. Well, Last night John was standing in the kitchen when he heard loud stirrings from the plastic bags in the pantry. At first he thought it might be one of the kids, but upon opening the door the elusive mouse sprinted for the coat closet. Bad choice. My experienced husband squealed with glee as he ran for the traps. He baited and set the traps, and then we waited. A few minutes later we heard the trap snap closed. Excitedly we opened the door to find....an empty trap. That tricky mouse had managed to escape after it had eaten some peanut butter and set off the trap. Well now John got serious. He set the traps again, and this time shoved a blanket under the door, so there was no escaping, and then we went to bed. As John had nightmares all night long about battling the mouse, the mouse was apparently having a little battle of its own. When we checked the traps this morning, there was a mouse allright (disgusting!), but there were also 2 holes in the towel, and a huge pile of towel shavings. I am hoping and am very near to praying that that is the end of our mouse saga. John is humoring me by letting me believe that there was only one, but in the meantime continues to check the bread board for more mouse droppings. I am nominating him for the heroic husband of the year award.

Christmas a Little Early

Joe and Jen went to Idaho this past weekend to go to the Call Christmas party. I had plans with Shantell so I was unable to attend. My time with Shan went really well and we had a lot of fun.

On Friday, I was helping Brother Liddle and his family move from 5:45 to about 11:00 pm. Shantell and I wanted to be together for the weekend, so she came around 11:30 Friday night and we were able to see each other a little. On Saturday, I had to work at Novell for a couple of hours. I needed to install an operating system on one of the computers. When I do that, there is not a lot of work to do. I click a button and then wait 10 minutes and click another one. Shantell came with me and with her by my side, it hardly seemed like work. We went around 3pm and no one else was there at that time. I'd click on a button and then we'd kiss for 10 minutes.........and I got paid for it ;).

After work, we went to John and Amber's place. John had never met Shantell and I wanted him to know who she was. They fed us and we chatted for a little while. We then went to the BYU vs Utah State basketball game in the Marriott Center. BYU doesn't have a very good team this year and USU has an excellent one. However, BYU hasn't lost to USU in the Marriott Center in 25 years. Well, we lost on Saturday. Shantell was cheering for USU and I was cheering for BYU. In the second half of the game, my team was down by 20 points and I was pretty quiet. I get a little depressed when my team plays bad and I wasn't really into the game at that point. However, I did notice that during that time, it seemed like Shan was rooting for BYU a little bit just so that I could enjoy the game a little more. I don't think she'd ever admit it, though :).

That night we sat by my Christmas tree and I gave her some presents. I gave her some pictures of us in some nice frames, a Christmas CD that I made for her, and a raquetball racket. She then gave me a stocking full of little things that remind her of me. She also gave me some bball shorts. We then just cuddled and talked while we sat by the tree. It was the last time we'd see each other before Christmas.

Alert! Baby Jesus is Missing!

Houston, we have a problem.  We have a little nativity set up by our christmas tree.  We bought the nativity a couple of years ago while in Nogales, Mexico.  We go it specifically for the kids to play with during the christmas holiday.  Well, amazingly, it survives each year with only a few more broken robes, bent halos, etc. 

 

Well, yesterday, Amber noticed that baby Jesus is missing from the nativity.  Knowing only one person that would be the most likely candidate, Amber asked Aliece yesterday, "Aliece where is the baby Jesus from right here?".  Aliece resonded in her mimicked-motherly reply, "Hmmmm, let's see if we can go and find it." 

 

Of course, Aliece always has good intentions, but her searches only last a matter of minutes (if not seconds).

So, if you are our way during the holidays, please watch where you step or sit because there is a little baby Jesus creche ornament stashed away somewhere. 

Alayna's First Solids

Well, it has happened. As of December 14, 2004, Alayna has started eating solids. She is not sure about the texture, but she still eats them. I can't believe that she is big enough to eat solids. She is growing up way to fast.

For all those that want to see one of her reactions upon trying some food, you can click here:
http://home.comcast.net/~jjandersen/alayna_eat.mpg

Warning, this is a 1.7MB file, so those of you on modems, it will take about 40 minutes. Those of you lucky ones to have fast internet, less than a minute.

Twins are funny things

Most of us probably remember Mom's crazy stories about the wierd things that would happen to her and Jim even when they were apart. Well, I heard about this news article on my way to work today....I would like to see Mom and Jim pull this one off!

Twin moms have quadrupled joy; each delivers 2 baby boys

December 15, 2004

ATLANTA -- Twin sisters are seeing double -- or make that quadruple -- after delivering two sets of twin boys Tuesday.

Twenty-one-year-olds Ashlee Spinks of Indianapolis and Andrea Springer of Conyers, Ga., delivered their boys by scheduled cesarean sections Tuesday about an hour apart at Northside Hospital.

The women were six months pregnant when they found out they were both going to have twin boys due on the same date -- Jan. 1.

Spinks came to Georgia several weeks ago to be with her sister, and Spinks' husband, Bert Means, flew into town Monday to join the birthing party.

The two couples said twins run in the families of all their parents, and that they did not use fertility drugs to conceive the babies.

Dr. Larry Matsumoto, a physician who specializes in high-risk pregnancies, said the chances of twin sisters being pregnant with twin boys due on the same date are probably one in a million.

By the Associated Press

Control Control C

As you all know, I have three computers hooked up to each other in the family room.  One is for Amber and I, the other is for Work, and the last one is for the kids.  Well, with the three computers, I have them all share the same monitor and keyboard/mouse.  In order to get to the computer you want, you have to type, Control-Control-A,B,or C depending on the computer you want to work on.  Anyway....

 

Today, I got home from work and Johnathan and Aliece were on the kids computer playing a game.  I had some work I still needed to do from home, so I asked them if they would scoot over for a minute while I did something really quickly on my work computer.  They agreed.  They remained in the computer chair as I kneeled in front of the computer and began typing.  I obviously took longer than they had expected, for Johnathan started to ask if it wasn't time that I be done so that they could get back on.  I kept putting him off for a few more minutes.  Then Aliece starting telling me, "Dad, Press Control-Control-C-Enter, Ok?"  She kept saying it over and over again.  I didn't catch on until I realized that Control-Control-C-Enter switches back to their computer.  Aliece has no idea how to do it, but she sure knew how to say it! After that request, I couldn't turn them down - I hit control-control-C-enter and let them continue their game while I stood back and laughed to myself.  What a bunch of geeks my kids are! :-)

...and rugs!

John didn't mention that because of the number of times Aliece has caused the toilet to overflow in the last few weeks, we no longer keep rugs in there. So, in addition to toilet paper, you'll also have to BYOR!

Future Visitors Beware: BYOTP!

For those of you who know, we have been blessed with our little Aliece being potty trained in the last month. She has been consistent with it and is now considered day-trained (we are still working on the night time stuff...that usually takes quite a while though).

Anyway, we do have a nasty side-effect with the potty training thing and Aliece. I have discovered, much to my dismay, that Aliece is fanatical about wiping. Yes, you heard it right. However she does it, I have noticed that we are going through at least one roll of toilet paper in that bathroom PER DAY!

Hence, I am going to have to do take some drastic measures. It is that time of the month when we do our grocery shopping. I am going to start buying the CHEAPEST gawl-dern toilet paper that I can find at the store - and I am stocking up. What the heck, it may even be 1-PLY!

So, although we will try to keep some nicer stuff in our bathroom and possibly break it out when company comes, there is no guarantee.

Hence, the warning....If you come to visit and you plan on using our "Facilities" you may want to BYOTP - Bring Your Own Toilet Paper :-)

Jokes on me! (revised)

Okay, so last week mom came down to visit me on Wednesday. She spent the night and went home on Thursday morning. Well at 2:30 in the morning on Thursday my roommate came and woke me up and told me that I was wanted on the phone. Half awake I talked to the person for about ten minutes and then hung up. Seeing how I was not completely coherent I could only remember a few things about our conversation.
This boy, Boe Fisher, said we had been in a class together and was wondering if it would be alright for him and his parents to come and spend Christmas with my family. So I told him I would have to talk to my family about it. He then gave me his name and number. So the next morning when I remembered all of this I decided that I would look him up on stoker net and get his information, like, where he is from and where he is staying up here. Figuring this whole thing was a joke I decided I would turn the joke around on him.
A few days after the phone call I went to his apartment and knocked on his door. His roommate politely answered the door and told him I was there. The moment I saw him I got up to him and was like BOE FISHER!!! I haven’t seen you a long time! How are you!?!??! Then acted like I knew him pretty good. I even threw in things like oh, you are from South Jordan Utah right? Stuff like that. (that is really where he is from). After carrying this on for a while I thought I would confess and tell him that I am the girl that he called at 2:30 in the morning and that I was just getting him back. Well, after my confession, Boe, stared blankly at me and asked what phone call? I didn’t call you? Feeling complexly retarded I apologized and explained myself. Boe found this funny and thought I should place this joke on his Identical Twin brother. So we walked over to his brother’s apartment and played the same joke. His brother’s response was even better than boes. I even got his brother to believe that he had been out to our house. I had him pretty much suckered into coming to Arbon either the day of Christmas or on Christmas Eve and stay through Christmas day. It was really funny, yet, it was highly embarrassing.

Aylee's award-winning song

I guess I never did send out Aylee's song that won the trophy.

If you are interested, you can find it here:
http://home.comcast.net/~jjandersen/AyleeMyMommy.wav

Aylee with her trophy and two ribbons. 

Aylee wins awards

Last Friday, Aylee had a Reflections assembly. Reflections is a program where children in school can submit pieces of art, music, literature, etc in conjunction with a corresponding theme. The Assembly was an awards assembly where families are invited.

Aylee wanted to compete in Reflections this year in several areas. She chose to paint a watercolor picture, write a short essay, do a photographic collage, and compose a song. Reflections is a nation wide program. The children have to do the project(s) on their own. They are then judged according to age and art medium.

Of the four submissions that Aylee made, She got Outstanding Acheivement (3rd place) for literature. She then got an Honorable Mention (2nd place) for the photography. Finally, got a first place trophy for her piano music and song that she composed about Amber. (I think I sent it out a month or so ago).

Aylee's Music submission now goes to the City of Provo where it will compete against all the other schools in Provo.

Good Job Aylee!

Give me Five

Can you believe its already Christmas time? As John mentioned I've already had my Christmas recital for my students, Friday night is our ward Christmas party, and we are getting our first snow storm as I am typing this. Last night for FHE Aylee gave a fantastic lesson that she had prepared entirely on her own, then we put together bags of goodies and delivered them to ove 40 families in our ward and neighborhood. (Yes, you read that number right -- I baked over 400 cookies yesterday!) It is so nice to have the kids getting older. We formed an assembly line with John and Aliece putting 3 of each of their cookies in the bag, then Aylee put two of each of her two cookies in, then Johnathan put 5 candies in, then I tied the bags up pretty. As we delivered them, John drove the van while Aliece and I handed out supplies, and Aylee and Johnathan took turns running the gifts up to each door. Alayna either cried or slept through most of it. What a team! At one point in our assembling process Aylee was a little ahead, and Johnathan was falling a little behind. so Aylee offered to put the candies in the bags after Johnathan had counted them. She was telling him "Give me 5" and holding out her hand for him to give the cadies to her. He slapped her hand 5 several times before he realized she was talking about the candy! We all had a good laugh about it!