Christmas Morning!

I posted a video of the days morning celebration in the Videos section. I didn't put it here because . . . it's just not a very flattering portrayal of me. But Audrey is so cute in it of course. :) She got some good loot. Her favorite present was her Barbie ("bobby") which she carries around EVERYWHERE. Dave surprised me with a KitchenAid mixer, which was awesome. Apparently he got it way back when we went to Connecticut and went shopping on Black Friday. He got some iPod speakers, some cool push-up things that he'd been asking for all year, and some books (one of which he's already finished reading). Stephen and Merissa sent us this cool toy (which we love just about as much as Audrey does)--it's a Gearation Toy/Game, you place brightly colored gears on a magnetic board and when you turn it on, the center gear turns your whole little "machine" that you put together. She loves it! We had a lovely traditional Groll breakfast casserole, my mom's recipe, and ate lots of candy. :) And later in the day the sister missionaries came and had Christmas dinner with us. Oh, I should mention that the night before, we just hung out and read Christmas stories (Dave's sister made a book of them for the whole family a year or two ago) and watched It's A Wonderful Life. Unfortunately, there was no white Christmas. Ithaca's snow melted completely a few days before and it was muddy and brown. Oh, well. We had a great day. Thank you to our loving family and friends who sent us presents and cards. We hope all of you had a great Christmas too. :)

Christmas in New York

Well, we decided to stick around Ithaca this holiday season, as most of you know. We wanted to find something to do that was unique to the area, so we trekked up to Skaneateles, NY (about an hour north) to see what the fuss was about there. Apparently, around Christmas, the townsfolk dress up in authentic Charles Dickens era gear and give the little town a fun holiday atomosphere. However, that day when I dressed Audrey, I was having a total pregnant moment and didn't dress her as warmly as I should have. (Completely uncharacteristic of me, since I always dress her a little too warmly for most days probably.) Anyway, we found ourselves rushing through downtown Skanteateles, avoiding the disapproving looks of other tourists and cringing against the bitter wind that blew off Lake Skanteateles (one of the Finger Lakes), to find a shop that sold something warmer for Audrey to wear--otherwise, we'd have to turn right back around and head home. We did see at first a little children's store with all sorts of cutsy things in it, but when we noticed that a pair of sweat pants was about 35 bucks there, we decided to look somewhere else. Luckly, Dave found a consignment shop a block down further and picked up a huge marshmallow-like snow suit, complete with attachable booties and gloves, for only 10 dollars. We were thrilled! And I'm sure Audrey was too, because she was warm and toasty the whole time we were there.

We did, indeed, see lots of people dressed up in Charles Dickens costume (as you can kinda see there in the background. The best people we saw were the ones acting completely normal, strolling around, saying "Merry Christmas!" (in a completely naturally cheerful voice). We noticed that the whole thing was basically a way to get people to come shop at their trendy, quaint, over-priced stores. Despite how I'm making it sound, we DID have a blast. :) We tried hot, roasted chestnuts (not bad, but not a tradition we'll continue) and had homemade doughnuts and delicious hot chocolate. We saw a cool art museum and listened to a little brass band playing christmas carols. We checked out the trendy little shops and heard a story by "Mother Goose." We had a great time just enjoying the fact that we didn't have any other plans for the day and that we could just hang out with each other (and Audrey was an angel the whole time). :)

These guys were supposed to be Millard Filmore and James K. Polk, here to welcome all the Dickensians to the village Christmas celebration (they sang carols here around this gazebo).

Jacob Marley's ghost, naturally. :)

This museum was in the library, and all these paintings were done by one guy. They were mostly of the surrounding area (the Finger Lakes) and we liked them all a lot. (I can't remember his name, but he made his living doing portraits mostly.) I snapped this picture before the lady yelled at me that I wasn't supposed to take any pictures. :S Oops.

Sleepless in Ithaca

So, Audrey's sleep schedule has been so messed up lately. I'm not sure when it happened, but now she's been walking up at about 3:00 a.m. ready to play after having gone to bed at about 10:00. She usually refuses to go back to sleep, screaming and screaming for an hour or more if I let her (which I've tried and it's usually counter productive). Finally, when 5:00 or 6:00 rolls around she'll (though not seeming sleepy at all) will finally willingly go back to bed and eventually falls asleep after she quietly plays for a while (just like she always has done normally before at about 8:30). She's always been great at following her schedule and she does fine taking an hour or two nap (the length has decreased these past months considerably as she's gotten older). So, why all the sudden this late night fiasco? At first I thought it was because she was ready for her toddler bed. She can and has crawled out of her pack n' play (what she sleeps in), but when we try to get her to sleep in her toddler bed, she gets hysterical and tries to get back into her regular bed. (She's only gotten out twice so far, and the last time she took quite the tumble, and I think she's changed her mind about trying it again for a while.) Mel, I think you and I have talked about this a lot, but tell me what you think. And anyone else who might know what I should try. It's really frustrating because Dave has finals still and really needs to focus during the day, so it's hard for him to keep staying up with her so he can be productive the next day. And it's wearing on me to not get sleep--but I think it's mostly wearing on me because the whole situation is stressing me out. I've usually been able to, through trial and error, fix problems like these. But I just don't know what to try next. Waking her up earlier doesn't help. Putting her to bed earlier or later doesn't seem to have an effect on it. Depriving or limiting or not limiting her nap time doesn't change it either. She's never hungry or thirsty or has a dirty diaper in the night that's the problem . . . she just acts like she's done sleeping! She plays so well in those late night hours. She's incredibly cute and lovable and patient . . . but it makes me soooo crazy! Anyway, I'm going to bed now. Tonight I'm hoping that my latest strategy will work, but if it doesn't I want at least a few hours of sleep before I have to get up. :) Good night!

Dallas . . . here we come!

Dave accepted an offer to work in Dallas as a summer associate at Baker Botts. It was interesting how this all came about though. Dave happened to run into one of our old English professors at BYU-I when he was there between interviews visiting his family. Brother Samuelson mentioned that he had a friend who worked at this firm in Dallas and that Dave should give him a call. Dave did. Why not, right? Well, long story short, they offered him a job. This is a big step for us as some of you know because where you intern your second summer is often where you get your real offer after law school. In a way, we've chosen where we'll be living when he starts his "real job."

Dave's Uncle Brent lives in Plano (a suburb) and that will be nice to have family close by. And I think one or two other people we know will be there too. We're excited. Another advenutre!

The Golden Compass

(an email by Dave)

I am writing this email in response to the four emails that were forwarded to me warning me not to watch "The Golden Compass" because it was supposedly anti-religious and anti-Christian. First, the movie is excellent--I can't recommend it highly enough. Second, as Mark Twain noted, “censorship is like telling a man he can’t have a steak just because a baby can’t chew it.” Third, for me there is little more enticing than telling me that I can’t handle a movie, and I am sure I am not alone in this. Fourth and finally, I do believe in God and Jesus Christ, and the movie absolutely did not call those beliefs into question.

To anyone who chooses not to see a movie merely because they are told that it will challenge their beliefs, and to anyone who forwards email messages telling people not to see a movie because they have been told that it will cause them to question their beliefs, I invite you to please think for yourselves.

The movie advocates questioning. Questioning is an essential part of our natures and of our faith (I think everyone getting this message is LDS). Joseph Smith would not have seen God if he hadn't questioned. If he hadn't asked, he would not have received. Questioning is not easy, but it is essential. Every day, I go to law school and, admittedly, every day I hope that I am not called on. I go to my classes with what I think is a workable answer--a way that I have made the law make sense. I dread being called on because my teachers use the Socratic method, and I do not want my comfortable conclusions to be questioned, examined, or tested, because what if I am left with no answer? Even so, every day we question. And every day we get closer to the essential. And although it is terrifying and difficult, I have decided that no answer is better than the wrong answer. Because with no answer, at least there is room for the right answer.

"The Golden Compass" is definitely anti-manipulation an anti-control. If you equate religion with manipulation and control then the movie for you would be anti-religious. The author obviously sees religion as manipulative (it is hard to miss his blatant symbolism), and in large part he is probably right on the money. But how does that make this movie bad? The author disagrees with manipulative religions. Don't you? I do. But my faith was never threatened by this theme because I do not believe that my religion is manipulative. I saw nothing of my God in the movie's horrible antagonists. Of course, I am not naïve. I have no doubt that some individuals in every religion--even my own--have used faith to manipulate (think John C. Bennet, and other less egregious examples), but I have known very few of them. And the leaders of my religion, Christ himself being the chief cornerstone do not lead by control or compulsion.

My God is not a God of manipulation or control. He is a God of freedom. (D&C 121:34-46; see also Alma 42:27). Isn't that what we believe that the whole war is about?--don't we agree with the beautiful witch in the movie: "the war is about nothing less than free will." We are here to think and to act for ourselves. We are here to learn to think and make our own decisions, not just to learn to obey--I am sure that we could have done that without coming here. The author opposes any organization that stifles thought and freedom. So do I. And not to play the trump card lightly, but so does God, doesn't he? Isn't that what we so often refer to as "Satan's plan?"

Oscar Wilde said, “The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.” People worried that "The Catcher in the Rye" would have their kids cursing like sailors, the same kind of people worried that "Huck Finn" would make kids into lazy miscreants--both of those books were about looking past the superficial and seeing genuine goodness, but angry parents missed that message precisely because they were stuck on the superficial. And so I am not surprised that people have made such a fuss about this movie filling kids heads with all kinds of questions--the irony here, just like with those others, is that the people who tell you not to watch are playing right into the hand of the movie's author: those people are trying to control thought. They argue that the author misrepresents religion by portraying it as controlling, and then they send emails telling people to boycott a movie. Brilliant.

I cheered for "Lyra" the whole time. I despised the mission of "the magisterium" the whole time. And I never once wondered whether I could reconcile the movies powerful and important theme with my faith. I didn't have to. If the message of our faith is that we are essentially free and that we must fight to protect that essential freedom from those who seek to control us, then "The Golden Compass" is not anti-religious at all. It is inspiring.

Trailer:
http://movies.aol.com/movie/the-golden-compass/23389/video/trailer-no-2/2001800

Thanksgiving!

So, I'm finally prepared to share with everyone our wonderful and eventful Thanksgiving!

(I totally just sat at the computer for 5 minutes because I didn't know where to start after I wrote that first sentence!)

Our weekend began on Wednesday after Dave was finished with classes. We were able to give our friend Alex a ride to the airport on the way, which helped us get things ready and get on the road and out of town at a decent hour. And we got to know Alex a little better which was fantastic.

We headed to North Windham, Connecticut where Dave's cousin Afton lives with her family--Jonathan (her husband), Nate, Annalynn (who looks a heck of a lot like Audrey, just older), and little baby Evan. Jonathan teaches high school math and Afton runs the local library. It's cool because Afton knows TONS of the history of North Windham, a fairly small town, but knowing so much about it makes me always feel so much more at home there. I have mentioned this place before. Shannah and I stayed with them when we went to Time Out for Women a few months ago. I blogged about it a while ago. Anyway, the point I'm getting at is, it's a fun place to be with very fun people.

We got to their house at about 8 or 9 p.m., braving the thick fog almost the entire 5 hour drive. Thankfully, Audrey was a good girl the whole way there.

The next morning was Thanksgiving of course and everyone cooked and cooked all day so we could be ready to eat at about 2:00. There were all the traditional Hunt favorites including saurkraut and rumaki. There were several versions of pumpkin pie and all the traditional things like stuffing and cranberries and mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, of course. The turkey was SO GOOD--Jonathan made it. Here we all are smiling around the dinner table.

(This is the only real picture I got of Audrey enjoying the feast.)

OH, how could I forget!? Afton's sister Becca and her husband Brad were there also. They are expecting their first baby about the same time as we're expecting our next one. Brad is going to medical school in Rochester.

It was all very good, obviously. After we ate we all sat around and played games like "two truths and a lie" and "have you ever." Then we cleaned up (actually I'm ashamed to admit that everyone let me help very little in the clean up and I got to take a nap, which was WONDERFUL, but I did feel bad for not helping as much).

I love this picture. All the mom's are feeding the babies a late night after-thanksgiving snack. It's me, Audrey, Becca, Afton, and Evan.

The next morning, Black Friday (as you all know, the day famous for big, crazy shopping), Afton, Becca, and I set out at about 7:00 to hit the stores. I'll admit, I've never actually participated in the Black Friday madness before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Everywhere was packed with people, women mostly, looking very serious and hauling around a lot of stuff. We did most of our shopping at Kohls. We all got some great stuff. I was shopping for a portable DVD player and a GPS system for all of our big travels coming up (to Dallas, which I'll explain in another post). I did find both of those things for a great price. I was totally exhausted when we got home at about 10:00 and took a nice long nap. Oh, I also forgot that I had a bad cold/sinus infection the whole time I was there, which was annoying, but I could still enjoy all the fun. I did feel bad though that I used up every box of kleenex they had in their house.

That night we all drove to Springfield, MA to see a huge Christmas lights display called Bright Nights. It was in this park and you drive through. It was probably the biggest lights display I'd ever seen. Very cool. Too bad I didn't get any pictures.

On Saturday we hung out and we all went duck pin bowling (which is like regular bowling but with little balls instead of regular bowling balls). It looked super fun, but alas, Dave, Audrey, and I didn't get to do it because Audrey was having a major melt down. We took her home and put her right to bed. When everyone got back, the adults all got ready for their big night out. Yay! It was probably my favorite part of the weekend. My favorite part of the year probably! We left the kids with John-Mark, a kid in Afton and Jonathan's ward whom the kids loved and who did a great job.

We drove first to dinner:

Yes, we went to Hooters. We were going to go to Texas Roadhouse, but there was such a long line and we'd even called ahead. Anyway, let me tell you about it. We all agreed that the girls weren't really dressed "shockingly" sexy--it was just an ambiance restaurant. The ambiance just happened to be "a man's paradise." The waitresses were all pretty, but they were just wearing the usual white take tops and little short shorts with tights and big scrunch socks with tennis shoes. None of them had out-of-control cleavage, and they weren't annoyingly flirty with the people at the other tables. We were surprised at how many couples and even families there were. Not as many as at a normal restaurant of course, but more than I thought there would be. There were lots of TVs with football blaring. Dave and I had burgers and they were SO GOOD. At least mine was, but maybe that was because I was starving. Everyone else said their food was ok. While we were there a lady came in and got an order for carry out. Weird. Dave asked the manager a bunch of questions about their hiring practices and whether there had been any legal issues. The manager basically told him that all the questions had already been asked and answered. Whatever that means. Anyway, we all had a good time.

Next . . . WICKED! Yay! We were all so excited to go see it. The touring company was playing in Hartford and Becca got us all tickets (partly as a surprise for Brad's birthday).

This is the view of the theatre from our seats. They were kinda far back, but still not too shabby. The view you see is of the stage, and there is a big map of OZ. The Emerald City is shining in the center there (for those who haven't seen the show). The theatre itself was sooo nice--the architecture was amazing.

We seriously had a blast. It was the first time either David or I had ever been to anything like it--and we're even "theatre people." I'm looking forward to having season passes or something to whatever big theatre there is in whatever city we end up living in (probably Dallas). It was just so great. So great. We were thrilled. :)

We headed home the next day. We got to use our new GPS on the way back, which was fun. It's really nice and will help us a lot navigating through Dallas this summer. I wish I'd had more pictures to share. I've never been a picture taker. At least that's one good thing that's come out of this blog. :) But still, I'd like to take more. Most of these pictures were from Becca or Afton because we kept forgetting to bring our camera with us all the time. Anyway, it was a good time. We really got to know the Seals and the Reids much better and had a few adventures we never would have had otherwise. Hope everyone else had a great thanksgiving!

What I'm thankful for:
I'm thankful for David and Audrey, of course. My family and Dave's family. All of our wonderful friends, both old and new, close and . . . new. :) I'm thankful for our opportunities--going to school, building talents, serving, working, enjoying life--all these things aren't given to everyone. I wish I could be more grateful for them. We have the basic necessities--a home, clothes, food--and things like a car and a computer that just make life easier. We're blessed with good physical and metal health and many talents. I'm thankful that we generally feel safe in our lives--I don't feel threatened really. Maybe that will change some day, but for now, I'm incredibly thankful that I have lived in a basically safe place and around kind and good people. I'm thankful that this pregnancy is going well, that this baby is so far healthy. I'm thankful that I got an education. I'm thankful for my ability to learn and for all those people who have put forth the effort to teach me, directly and indirectly. I'm thankful also that I can stay home with Audrey. I'd be missing out on TONS if I wasn't with her so much. I'm thankful for holidays and gathering with friends, games, books, trees, my senses, sunshine, little special moments that you somehow get to remember for a long long time, music, and chocolate. :) And last but not least (among tons of other things I'm probably forgetting) my religion. Most of you know what I'm talking about. In a big way, it's made my life as good as it is. I am thankful that I have a Father in Heaven, and a Savior--for the Atonement especially. I could go on an on, but as a blanket of thankfulness, I just love the Gospel. It's message of peace and hope and that we have a plan and a purpose, it just makes me happy.

Our Christmas Tree

Our beautiful gold Christmas tree! I'll be honest. It's been up for quite some time now. My friend Dana gave me the stars and I painted them gold. The rest of the decorations are just cheap whatevers from Wal-Mart. Nice, huh. :) Yay for Christmas!

Audrey being silly

She of course insisted on holding the popcorn bowl . . . even though it is twice her size.

This is Audrey in her little Schroeder pose. She loves that keyboard so much and plays it ALL THE TIME. In this picture we'd just barely walked in the door and she went right to it and started playing away.

Dave had a huge stack of old papers from school that he let Audrey play with. She LOVED that.

I found her in her bed like this when she woke up from her nap. :)

Dave Tagged

(dictated by Dave, written by Crystal)
A few things most people don't know about me (Dave).

1. I tried nearly every school sport. I wrestled for 2 years. I wasn't bad, I won about half of my matches (which means I wasn't good either). I won my first match in 6 seconds, I was very pleased with myself. I found out afterward that my opponent had down syndrome, and although now I am mature enough to wish that I had let him win, I remember when I found out. My only thought was, why did it take me 6 whole seconds? I played football for a year. My job was to run across the field and slam into the kicker after he had kicked the ball (I don't know what the point of this was, but this usually made me fall down). I was actually a pretty good pole vaulter, topping out at about 14 feet. I also ran hurdles and distance (cross-country). And finally, drum roll please, I was the only boy on my 7th grade gymnastics team . . . in the whole district actually. I won first place in every meet (boy's division). I can still do a standing back tuck and a hand stand longer than anybody I know. But I rarely wear a leotard anymore.

2. I used to sing . . . a lot. When I was a kid, I was in a group called Sunshine Generation. I had a nice falsetto voice. I got lots of solos. And I didn't realize until much later that people were laughing at me.

3. I had braces and head gear for 2 years. At one point during these 2 years I also buzzed the front half of my hair . . . just because I figured I had nothing to lose (true story).

4. I was my elementary school's sit-up champion. I could do 84 in a minute. Which, now that I think about it, must have just looked like a blur. There was a time when I was sure that my stomach muscles were my only marketable asset. During 6th and 7th grade, I let people punch me in the stomach for anywhere between 50 cents to $1 depending on how big they were. Needless to say, as the only boy on the gymnastics team, I was never short on customers. But I can honestly say that I never remember it hurting. I don't do sit-ups anymore. But on good days, when the light is right, I still have the stomach of a chiselled roman god . . . with head gear.

5. For over a year I actually thought I was Peter Pan. This is true. This is not an exaggeration. I believed that I was, in fact, immortal and that I could fly. I've found that telling people my secret was a good way to earn more stomach punching money.

So basically, in summary, for about a year of my life--when these all over-lapped--I was a singing boy gymnist, sit-up champ, with head gear and a half shaved head, who thought he could fly, and who solicited services to the school sadists. I was cool. Not popular, but cool.

Tagged

I've been tagged by Mel. I think this is how it works: I tell ten things about me that people probably don't know. Then I tag a few more people to do the same.

1. I am a pro frog gigger (frog hunter). Back home in Missouri, the frogs get really huge, and they're legs are delicious deep fried. So, I take my cool frog gigging pole (a long pole with three very sharp prongs on the bottom) and during the gigging season I treck out to our pond in the dark with a flashlight and an old pillow case and hunt frogs. You shine the light along the bank where you can hear them croaking, when the light catches their eyes, they don't move. You sneak up to them and spear them with the gigging pole, stick them live in your bag and find another one. I'll admit, I'm pretty good. As morbid as that sounds, it seems to me just like fishing, only much more adventurous.

2. I really love to play pool. I have my own titanum pool cue named Alice. When I take it anywhere I look like a total shark. But I'm not really. I just really love to play.

3. I've never been to Disneyland. David thinks this is a horrible sin and that as soon as Audrey gets a little bit older, we're going.

4. I used to live in Hawaii. I lived on Maui (Lahaina) for a few months when I was about in 3rd grade. I remember that I went to King Kamahamaha Elementary and my teacher's name was Mrs. Iwataki. My best friend while I was there was Ryan Morgan. I guess you could say he was my little boyfriend. But we've kept in touch faithfully until I got married--that's a pretty long time! Oh, and I ate a ton of rice.

5. I minored in Theatre Arts and after David and I were first married we worked a summer at a dinner theatre up in the mountains of Idaho. I was Ado Annie in Oklahoma! that summer and had to kiss two other men who weren't Dave, not to mention a fake stage kiss with my brother-in-law. Of course it was all done very professionally and none of us thought it was weird.

6. I'm a complete scardy cat. I have bad dreams a lot. I'm totally afraid of the dark. I can't even think about scary things or watch scary movies (even movie previews) without having really bad dreams for several nights. Haunted houses are out of the question.

7. I don't like cats. Once I saw my sister's cat walking around the edge of our swimming pool and couldn't resist pushing it in. I'm ashamed to admit that. I was young and foolish then. But I still don't really like cats.

8. I know how to talk in all sorts of accents thanks to my extensive theatre training. ;) I think dialects are fascinating. Among the few that I can do are cockney, british, brooklynese, southern, french, irish, and of course, plain old "Texas southern" which also happens to be a lot like how Missourians talk. I don't think I've ever been in a play where I didn't have to have some sort of accent.

9. Somewhere within my family history I'm related to Shakespeare. I like to think that gave me some advantage in my study of literature and theatre arts. :)

10. I'm really really really really embarrassingly bad at math. Really. I barely passed my college Math class--Dave helped me a ton to get through that one (he's really good at it). In fact, that class may have had a lot to do with us getting married. We were broken up during a lot of that time, but I still needed him to tutor me so I didn't fail.

Halloween Party

What's All This About the Weather??

So, while I was at this meditation class I was talking about in the last post (I barely talked about it, so if you missed that . . . I went to a class about meditation), we did this exercise where we were to relax and close our eyes and picture a time when we were completely content with our life, when we were most happy. I pictured myself as a young girl, on a summer day, at my grandparent's old ranch in Missouri. I was standing in a field, and it was very sunny, and I was warm and completely content with everything. It was so powerful! I was instantly warmed up and I was instantly calm. I could focus on my life with a perspective that was happy and optimistic. I noticed that I had the power in my head to change so many things, not only my mindset, but actually how my physical body felt. It was freezing in that room, and I got so warm. I realized that the sun played a huge part in my life then. I always wanted to be in it. I always took advantage of the days it gave me. I appreciated it. And now, all I do is worry about bad weather. I think I'm crazy because I think about the weather so much, and probably even crazier because I write about it all the time for the public to see. I realized during this exercise that now the sun makes me uncomfortable. It's probably because I'm pregnant, but it just makes me too hot and uncomfortable, even on those days that aren't really hot, just sunny! Weird! So, I thought to myself, what did I do differently then, that I'm not doing now. Right away it popped into my head--I was so much more active. I ran around, I was always moving, I was fit and energetic. I'm not completely out of shape now, and I realize that my body isn't quite itself right now, but it became clear to me that I needed to be more active again. So, that's my insight on meditation, happy reflection, and the sun. :)

OH, speaking of the sun. I was reading a book the other day about the old testament--it wasn't actually the old testament, but a book about it. And it talked about the time the children of Israel blew the horns to make the walls of Jericho fall. A pretty incredible story. And also how the sun was stopped in the sky to lengthen the day for one of their battles. It mentioned how there is so much speculation on how that happened, whether it was a scientific thing or that God simply made it happen by the faith of the children of Israel. It then pointed out that during the Second Coming of Christ there will be many miraculous things happening--the sun darkening, the moon turning red and darkening, the stars falling, the earth shaking. Scary. But if God is going to make those things happen when the time comes, it seems like nothing for him to keep it day for a little bit longer or knock down some walls. Of course they put it much better than that, but it got me to thinking about the signs of the Second Coming. It all goes back to the sun! What would happen if the sun stopped shining? In that instant, what would happen? Obviously the moon wouldn't shine anymore, the stars would probably be moved because of the forces reacting out from whatever happened to the sun (I watched a history channel special on the sun recently too so this has been on my mind.), the earth would definately feel the impact, because even now it feels the impact of small bursts of radiation from storms on the sun. So, my speculative conclusion is that God will do something to the sun when the Son comes again. How very symbolic! The glory of the Son will overshadow the glory of the sun! Or more like the Light of the World will overpower the light of the world. Now all we have to concentrate on is not freaking out about that and having faith that this is all a good thing, and that the righteous have nothing to fear, but something to look forward too. :) I guess I better stop thinking about the weather and start thinking about more important things like being a better person.

(I hope I don't sound like some crazy religious zealot to some of you. I talk about church stuff all the time, I go to all these meetings and conferences . . . it's just something that's important to me and that I like to do. I'm not weird, I promise.)

The Rest of October

We have a whole slew of things that happened this month that are blog worthy; and if it'd been on top of things and kept up to date with them, I'd probably be able to tell about them in much better detail than how I'm about to tell them.

While my mom and Grandma were here visiting at the beginning of the month we did all sorts of things. This picture shows us at Niagara Falls. I could kick myself for not getting pictures of my grandma and mom! I'm so lame! And vain, apparently. It was cool to see Niagara, but not THAT cool. My grandma really loved the trip. She hadn't seen very many things because Grandpa was so sick and couldn't really travel. So, since his death, she's really branched out. It was exciting to see how happy she was to be out and about. While we were there we took a trolly around the falls and did a lot of walking otherwise. If we'd had passports we could have seen more cool stuff, but besides that we just didn't have the time. Oh, well. It's a big huge waterfall, what more can I say?

On that same day, on our way to Niagara Falls, we stopped at the Hill Cumorah and Palmyra. Audrey was very tired about this time and slept in the car while Dave, mom, and Gram walked around all the tours at Palmyra. It wasn't so bad because Dave and I had been there before. Again, Gram really loved seeing the church sites. For the other parts of their trip, to and from Missouri, they stopped at several other church sites. That sounded fun.

I don't have pictures from this other stuff, but while they were here we went to the Ithaca Book Sale--an event not to be missed. Of course I spent too much money as usual. But I did not get any books this time. I bought a ton of movies, mostly disney and classics that we love. It was nice to have something besides the same old 4 movies to watch over and over. Mom got a lot of books for Dad. It was a good sample of Ithaca for them.

One highlight for Dave and I in particular was going to the Brian Regan show. He's a comedian, for those who don't know. Very very funny. Audrey stayed home with Gram and Mom while we went on our date. We had SO much fun. The tickets were fairly inexpensive and our seats were good. Dave said it was probably one of the funnest things we've ever done. :) I'm so glad he had such a great time.

Conference was going on while they were here. We watched that at home online. Mom sewed Audrey's Halloween costume during it (which I'll talk more about later) and I cross-stiched a project I'd been working on for years. (Speaking of projects I've been working on, I finally finished scrapbooking our wedding album! Yay!) Unfortunately I wasn't really paying much attention to what I was doing and cross-stitched totally the wrong thing. So now I'm turned off to the project again because I'll just have to fix that one big mistake before I can start making progress again . . .

Anyway, their stay was so nice and so fun. We tried to get them to stay longer, but we only succeeded in getting them to stay one more night. I'm excited for Mom to come out when the baby is due in March.

Before and after their visit, Dave was doing a lot of traveling. He went to St. Louis for an interview before they came. He got to hang out with my cousin Brian who lives there. They went into the Arch, and Dave said it was cool. I just remember when I went freaking out in that little teeny elevator cage they put you in to get to the top. Very scary. But still something worth doing once in your life. Brian took him to a few St. Louis sites, a few nice neighborhoods to get the feel of things if we were to live there. The firm seemed great that he interviewed with. But I don't think we're going to go there anyway.
He also went to Dallas the following week. That trip was something special. He got off the plane to find a nice car and driver waiting for him. He said the man treated him like a hotshot, and it was very cool. He stayed at this really nice hotel in the city and whenever I'd call him, all he could talk about was how comfortable the bed was. It's a month later and he still talks about the bed he slept in there. :) One thing I remember, even though I wasn't actually there, was once when I called him, and we were talking and he said he had to go to the bathroom, and I said, ok I'll wait. Well, a few seconds later he picks up the phone and tells me, lucky for us, there was a phone in the bathroom too. :) How very convenient. Anyway, that firm turned out to be very awesome and presently we have an offer from them, which we are almost certain we are going to take. Dallas, here we come.

Oh, and on the plane from Dallas David is almost certain he saw Dustin Hoffman. He was sitting in first class doing a crossword puzzel. So that's pretty exciting.

The weekend after that, Shannah and I went to Connecticut for a girls' weekend. We got to go to the Time Out For Women conference in Hartford with Dave's cousins. We just stayed the night. The conference was pretty fun, but it in itself probably wasn't worth the 40 bucks I paid to get in I don't think. We did see Hilary Weeks and Pres. Hinckley's daughter (virginia pearce) spoke, as well as Jane Clayson Johnson (my favorite one, a famous anchor woman who worked at ABC, but left to raise her family), and a few others that were pretty good. It was mostly just fun to hang out with Shannah and Dave's cousins. THAT part was totally worth it. They live in this beautiful old house that was built before the civil war. To me it was a teeny bit creepy, but I'm a chicken. It really wasn't though. It was so pretty, and they're such a fun family. We'll be going there for thanksgiving too and I'm very excited. (I keep saying things like "it was nice" and "it was very exciting" and lame things like that because they were, and it was, and I'm just doing the best I can! Ok!? :))

Me with Hilary Weeks--she's a really great singer/ songwriter. And she turned out to actually be a really funny girl. My little claim to fame is that she used my pen to autograph something . . . for someone else. She came up to us while we were sitting and waiting for the thing to start and introduced herself. I didn't realize who she was at first. But she was very sweet and nice. :) And of course, very talented. She sang this song I really liked about believing in who you are and in what you do because your Heavenly Father does. It was nice!

This is all of us during our lunch break. It goes me, one of Afton's friends from her ward (a nice lady who just went through radiation treatments, she's their bishop's wife actually), that lady's mom, Afton, Becca (Afton's sister who came down from Rochester for the conference), and Shannah. I was so proud that I got these two pictures for my blog. :) So . . . be proud of me.

Anyway, on our way home we had some sorta car trouble. Dave called and said that Afton's husband had called him to warn us that there had been some antifreeze leaked onto his driveway and wanted to make sure we weren't leaking. Sure enough, when we checked the tank it was empty. We would have never known! So we refilled it, kept driving, checked it again after a while, and it showed no signs of a problem. It was totally fishy. It was clear to me that Heavenly Father was watching out for us. We would have ended up stranded or with a ruined engine. Also, I had originally just planned on taking Audrey on the trip by myself. We would have had no cell phone and no way to get help when things would have started going wrong. I'm thankful that Shannah was with me (with her trusty cell phone and calm) and that Audrey wasn't! And that we caught the problem before anything bad happened. Well, the car is fine, the mechanics say, so it is totally random that Jonathan even saw a leak in his driveway!

It was a busy weekend. The next morning I had to teach both Sunday school and Relief Society in church. And I hadn't really planned my lessons before I left. I did some during the breaks at the conference thing, and in the morning before church, but that's it. Both went well and was very glad it was over.

The next Friday we had our Branch Halloween party. Audrey finally got to wear her cute costume! She was the little mermaid. :) Mom did a GREAT job and she looked just so cute.

This is a picture of it on Halloween because I don't have pictures from the party yet, but I'll post those when I get them.

THis is me as a witch in all my pregnant glory doing dishes in our teeny little kitchen before the party. Dave was a pirate, obviously. :) We had so much fun that night. Audrey ran around the church with the other little kids to her heart's content, Dave got soup spilled all over his lap and got voted to be "sponged" (you stand against a wall behind a big plastic sheet with your face poking out and people get to try and throw soaking wet sponges at your face. I'm happy to report that I had really great aim that night. He and a few other guys did it and it was way fun.) I got to have some of Shannah's awesome potato soup and got to catch up with all my girlfriends.

Unfortunatley, the next night Audrey woke up sick. She threw up a few times, but other than that acted pretty good, not like she was sick at all. Dave had to clean up all of the messes though because my stomach couldn't handle it. Bad turned to worse the next day when I woke up throwing my guts up in the middle of the night and didn't stop for the next 24 hours. I couldn't keep anything down. We almost went to the hospital so I could get an IV with some fluids, but it turned out ok by morning. It took me a while to recover from that one. Dave didn't get sick at all which is so lucky for us. He was so great. He took such good care of us. It was bad though. I couldn't take care of Audrey at all. But we're all ok now.

We also got to go out with some friends the next weekend while my friend Mirinda watched Audrey. We just had dinner and played games. I wish I had pictures from that. Dave and I were feeling extra tired that night though because of the rough week, but it was really nice to get out.

Speaking of Dave, he's been really busy with his Law Reivew "note"--that's what they call it, but it's like 40 pages or something. I have no doubt it will be completely interesting. I'll post a comment from him later about that for those who are interested. He's also been going through all The Office episodes on our netflix. I like The Office too, but Dave always goes crazy when he finds a series he likes; he just watches them constantly for a few weeks until he's done. :) Oh well.



This is Audrey on Halloween with our friend Nicole (she's wearing a great wig. She really has very very curly brown hair). Dave took Audrey out trick-or-treating. He said that at each door he'd say, "Ok, say 'trick-or-treat'." And Audrey would inevitabley yell, "NO!" And Dave would tell her, "Say 'thank you'." And of course she'd yell, "NOOO!" After a few houses like that he decided she wasn't cut out for trick-or-treating quite yet. But she did look cute, and she did get a little bit of candy . . . that mommy and daddy didn't let her eat. After that we went to a Halloween party at our friends' house (Gary and Melanie Adamson, the link to their blog is on the side). There were lots of little kids in costume and scones and cider, halloween movies, all the essentials. Audrey was being kinda ornery though, so we left a little early. All-in-all though, I think her first offical participating Halloween went pretty well.

This is a picture of Audrey in her new chair that Gram got her. She LOVES it and sits in it to watch her Baby Einstein videos. :)

As far as our plans for the next few months, we are going to Connecticut for Thanksgiving to stay with Dave's cousins. It should be SO fun. We're all going to see the play Wicked, which is playing in Hartford then. It's something we've always wanted to do, and it is the best way for us to do it because we'd have a babysitter and good company. We're planning on staying in Ithaca over Christmas this year to save money. We havne't done that yet and hear that there are some pretty fun Christmas activities going on that we'd like to see. Dave will be working a lot on his note then. We bought a christmas tree (before halloween, and I got tons of weird looks at the store) and a few decorations for way cheap. I was very pleased. It will be all gold. We'll definately take a picture when the big day comes, which Dave keeps insisting will be after we get back from Thanksgiving. :p I painted some wooden stars with my friend Dana to put on it for that homey touch. I'm very excited.

Oh, last night we went and watched the CES fireside at the church. It was Elder Oakes speaking. He talked a lot to the single people, but also said some good things about keeping the Sabbath holy and things, and Sister Oakes even spoke a little. She is incredibly cute. Audrey ran around to her heart's content again. She was the only baby there, so she got a lot of attention. That girl is definately going to be a track star, no doubt about it.

Yesterday I taught a Sunday school lesson on chastity. I was so nervous. And of course it was the one day when SO many people came to MY class instead of the other one . . . and all single kids! I was like, well, I guess this lesson is sorta for you guys, so what the heck. Dave was in there and was very supportive, so that helped.

I also forgot to tell you about the Stake Women's conference I went to. Sarah, Angela, and I drove to Owego and spent the day going to classes on different things--meditation, decorating and using color in your house, how to save money be reusing things (that one was hoot! Like i'm really going to make lightbulb maraccas for my baby to play with!), and how to exercise and get motivated, that sort of thing. It was a nice little break. (I've been getting a lot of those lately.) My favorite part was lunch actually. It tasted so good and looks so pretty and I didn't have to cook at all! :)

The ends of my blogs are always so jumbled because I remember things I forget and just tack them on. I hope this updates you pretty well. I'll do some follow ups with more pictures and videos, because I know those are the funnest to see. Until next time . . . we send our love.