Two-Thousand-Ten

 Steven-

I just thought I'd give my own little list for the end of the year. Mostly for journalistic purposes, I doubt anyone would really put any stock into what I say. But I'll try and come up with as many as I can.

Best New Place Discovered: Cathedral Gorge State Park, Nevada. (Awesome place, very unique landscape)
Longest Road Trip: Cedar City, UT to Lander, WY. (Very nifty trip, not recommended during winter)
Most Time On The Road During One Drive: Salt Lake to Cedar City in snowy Dec. (nearly 8 hours)
Best 1st Anniversary: Lodge at Jordanelle. (Park City, Heber, Provo Canyon, Midway)
Craziest Adventure: Coyote Gulch. (Flash floods, misplaced keys, ruined roads)
Coldest Adventure: Hidden Canyon, Zion
Hottest Adventure: Lake Powell (Awesome cove)
Work Experience: Managing apartment complexes and Gateway Prep Academy for Alycia
Wedding: Parker and Beth
Toy: Nikon D3100 for Christmas. (Honorable mention to Brett's D80, which I used throughout the year)
Best Course Taken: Communication Research. (Honorable mention to News Writing)
Most Disliked Course: 2D Design.
New Baby: Korver, born on Christmas Day to parents Sarah and Chip.
Off-Road Adventure Other Than Coyote Gulch: Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef NP
Homecoming: Katie Simons
Book: (I only read older books this year. Maybe someone has a good suggestion)
Best Camping Trip: Bryce Canyon in March.
Best Weather: Summer lightning storms and Christmas Eve fog.
Best New Eatery: Brad's Food Hut.
TV Show: Psych
Movie: Inception (Finally, an original idea for a movie. Although I have yet to see The Social Network and True Grit, which I'm sure would also be contenders)
Song: Only The Young by Brandon Flowers.
Game: The new NBA Jam. (Same game-play AND announcer from the Super Nintendo version! If I had an XBox, it'd be the only game I'd get)
Family Outing: Winter cabin trip for the Powell's and Goblin Valley for the Jackson's.


I'm sure I'll come up with more. If so I'll try and include them.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Only a few days left until Christmas! I'm getting really excited :) I just love this time of year and how everyone is more aware of the needs of others. I love the decorations, the lights, Christmas stories and movies and hot chocolate! I love getting gifts for others and wrapping them with all sorts of ribbons.  I love the little surprises throughout the season.  I love how no matter what happens, if you keep Christ at the center of your Christmas it will always be a great season.  I know that a lot of hard, sad, or even awful things can happen at this time of year.  Truth is, bad things happen throughout the year, but I think they are noticed more, or felt deeper when it happens around the time of year where everything is supposed to be merry and bright.  But I think that if we remember that Christ is with us throughout it all, and remember how much He loves us and all he suffered for us that we may be comforted throughout the whole year.  I love this time of year where more people openly focus on His miraculous birth, and of course His life and all he did for us.  So to all our friends and loved ones we hope you find all of the joys this Holiday season and get to enjoy every bit of it!

That said, here are a few pictures from our surprise trip to Salt Lake last weekend!

We walked around downtown looking at all the Christmas lights, it was a great night for it too.

 me and Weswee (I'm turning into the shrimp of the siblings)

Phone picture quality isn't the best, but oh well.  My parents and my brother Wesley came with us to see the lights after we had all had dinner with Steven's parents. I love walking around downtown at night with all the lights.  

  This is our Christmas tree this year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

Farwell

Well it has been a little while since I've been able to get to a computer, so here are a few updates. We've officially said farewell to our front door with the Manager sign on it and the mail slot that would freak me out when it opened.  We are no longer the managers of the apartment complex.  It was an awesome opportunity and came at the perfect time in our lives, but we were to the point where the draw-backs outweighed the benefits for us.  Steven is doing school full time and work part time, and with my job, we just didn't have the time to fully invest in it.  We also are at a spot where we can travel and get away quite a bit and we don't want to have to worry about the apartments every time we leave.  It really was a blessing and we learned so much.  Steven is still going to help the owner with advertising and things, and we don't have to move which is really nice because we love where we are.  

The year is almost over so we are also saying farewell to fall semester! Steven finished his finals and got a 4.0 this semester! I knew he could, he is so smart and talented and I am really proud of him and all his hard work this year.  He's had many compliments from his teachers and I am so excited to see where all his talents and hard work takes him.  The school I work for has officially ended 2nd term and is now on it's two week holiday break! which means two weeks of sleeping in for both of us :) Our jobs are both still going great and we are happy to have them.  Our apartment is Christmased out and we can't wait to head up to Salt Lake and see family again! We love this time of year and continue to fully enjoy it!

Pause

Steven-

Today is the anniversary of the events at Pearl Harbor that hurled the United States into war with Japan and eventually the Axis powers of Germany. I can't believe that next year it will be 70 years since the day that "will live in infamy." I hope to take time and reflect on it (despite my in-class writing final in a few minutes). 
There were some very heroic soldiers who answered the call and saved lives. Growing up, I think I may have glorified war a little bit with the stories of allied victories and movies portraying soldiers at their best during miraculous moments. Not to mention imaginary games I'd play or books I would read. Truth is, war is a travesty of the human race. For those who don't know how Pearl Harbor unfolded, read the account. Make sure to find out how some of the American sailors were killed, trapped inside their ships. I praise the military for their courage, I cannot imagine what they must go through.

War is not glory. It's a shame that it has been a necessary evil throughout the years. Yet conflicts are not always solved by words, and I understand that. All I know is that would never wish to be in the boots of someone caught in a battle. Dieing alone would be awful, I cannot imagine killing other people.
When I reflect on Pearl Harbor today, it will be in memory of those who so horribly lost their lives so I can sleep comfortably tonight.

Don't Fret Over Christmas

Steven-

I received a lot of inspiration from the Christmas Devotional last night.
I've never had an occasion in which I disliked Christmas, to the best of my knowledge anyway. I guess I like the season too much to let the possible stress of it get in the way. But during the devotional, I got a new appreciation for this holiday, and all that it can mean when you serve other people. I also feel that we shouldn't fret so much over the world not focusing on Christ during the season. The fact is, the world has a LOT bigger and worse problems than being too commercial and not acknowledging the true meaning of Christmas. In the past, it has bothered me that in schools you can't promote "Merry Christmas" and that you rarely see nativities on television and movies. But you know, even worldly people tend to be at their best during the holidays. I've seen so many acts of generosity and kindness from people I did not expect. So while they may not know it, the world is behaving more Christlike during Christmas. Obviously this isn't always the case, but I think it's worthy of note. So I think I'm not going to fret anymore about the loss of Christ in Christmas in the world. It would be like trying to stop a river with my bare hands. But I CAN live Christmas by helping others and thanking God for blessing the world with His Son. I can pass on good deeds to my friends, family, neighbors, strangers, and, eventually, my children.

One final note - Everyone who has not heard it must listen to the Wexford Carol. It is Ireland's most famous Christmas carol, and my personal favorite. (it might be the fact that I not only served in Ireland, but I served a few months in Wexford). Plus it's an awesome song. 

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Last Sunday it snowed a lot in Cedar, our car couldn't make it up the hill to church so we got a ride with neighbors; when we came home this is what we found. Apparently someone was nice enough to plow the parking lot... why they decided the best place to put all the snow was around our car I have no idea. Especially because our apartment faces north so the sun doesn't melt it as fast as the other side of the parking lot, which had NO cars parked over there at that time.  It's nice they plowed, but a little smart thinking would be nice.

No Betty Crocker...

This Thanksgiving was pretty good, very different though.  Steven's family was going to come down and spend Thanksgiving with us, but thanks to "the blizzard" (Psh, it was hardly a blizzard) and other things, they weren't able to come down.  This was last minute notice and we weren't in a great position to come up, so we spent Thanksgiving just the two of us.  I've never been away from family for Thanksgiving so this was very different, and upsetting/disappointing for me at first.  But luckily I have an amazing husband who made me feel a lot better.  We went and bought some things to make our own Thanksgiving feast.  That night (Wednesday) we made ourselves a fort to make us feel better

Fort of loneliness/Pit of Despair/Fuerte de la Muerte

aka, our awesome fort!

Playing playstation inside the fort

A lot goes in to building a fort, I wish we had more stuff to make it bigger, but this one was awesome! I miss forts, we made them all the time as kids.  We slept in the fort and watched the Thanksgiving day parade and the dog show in the morning, played playstation, and just lounged.  Then sadly we had to take it down :( But there will be more!

It was time to prepare our Thanksgiving feast! Um...I'm thankful for the many many turkey's I've never had to prepare/make, and for my mom or aunts for always doing it. We just got a small chicken, and I've never cooked a whole bird before, or prepared it

 Can you see the look of disgust??? I think all the organs were still in there, I don't know, but I hated it.  Washing and holding it felt like a baby with no head, sorry I know that's gross but that's seriously what it felt like.  I know I sound like the biggest girl/wimp/whatever but that was not a pleasant experience for me.  However, it was easy to cooked and came out really yummy.  Thank you gross dead bird for making a delicious meal.  

We cooked other random favorite Thanksgiving foods like stuffing, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese (thanks auntie ReNae!), and got rolls and sparkling cider! 

We had quite the feast!

Steven carving the beast!
 After sufficiently stuffing ourselves we took a nice long walk in the snow.  It wasn't too cold and everything was so quiet and pretty from the snow.  Then we came back and had pumpkin pie and the classic blueberry tort (my first attempt ever to make it).  We thought about going bowling or to a movie, but felt like just lounging instead.  All in all it was a very nice Thanksgiving day.  We really have so much to be thankful for!
Friday my parents drove down to visit and brought our car back from getting the windshield fixed.  We went to lunch, dropped Steven off at work, then headed to Parowan for this little craft fair thing.  It was kind of small, but had some neat things.  We prepared another little feast; mummy brought us mince pies and sausage rolls, yum! After dinner we went and saw the new Harry potter which I thought was pretty good.  I've read the book but forgot all about it.  Other than the stupid 'vision' Ron has, the movie was intense and entertaining.  Saturday we went shopping in St. George, got some lunch, and drove out to the Joshua tree national landmark; a Joshua tree preserve type place right on the border with Arizona.  I guess it is the only place those trees grow naturally in Utah; they are really neat looking and there were millions.  On our way back we got some delicious Neilson's frozen custard.  My parents were going to stay until Sunday, but because of the predicted storm they left Saturday night, which is good because the snow was crazy.  Our wimpy car couldn't make it up the steep hill to church, but luckily our awesome neighbors were able to give us a ride! I'm glad we got to spend time with some family over the holiday weekend, and we're really grateful they came down.  We also broke our the Christmas decorations and almost have our tree finished, Yay!  

Of power outages and other things...

Ok I guess it wasn't a power outage, but a disconnect...I came home thinking we had a power outage until I realized our neighbor's power was on, so I called.  Turns out that when we moved apartments (to across the street) and switched the power bill to our new place, we only switched the mailing address.  I was wondering why our power bill was the same amount every month; turns out that we'd been paying for our old (empty) place and not our new one.  Why on earth would someone assume that when we said we were moving and needed to change our apartment power and address that we wanted to pay for the place we don't live in and not the place we do????? Apparently this is a common mistake!? If it's a common mistake shouldn't they clarify over the phone when someone calls in to change information? So now we owe for the last 6 months of power in our current place.  Thank you Rocky Mountain Power! So for those moving to a new place any time soon or recently, make sure you clarify.  They were very helpful in getting it switched, but it seriously shouldn't have happened in the first place. It's ok, we were without power for a few hours, and being slow Cedar City it was turned on quickly, unlike all those unfortunate people up north who have been without power for days, so in this sense we were blessed.

Some more blessings over the weekend! We were able to go up north for (my brother)Parker and Beth's wedding, which turned out really really nice.  Steven's mom did an awesome job with the flowers/center pieces, and my mom worked so hard and it all came together so nicely (despite some super selfish people who need to get a clue who will remain nameless. Sorry you have to deal with that Beth!).  Steven took the photos, but I haven't seen them yet so maybe we'll post them later. It was great and Parker and Beth looked amazing and i hope they have a long and happy marriage!

The morning after the wedding our neighbor's tree decided that it didn't like my car, aka Chipeta, and dropped a big branch on it...the windshield was completely busted.  But, had we stayed parked on the street (where it was originally) it would have smashed the body of the car, and if Steven hadn't backed Chipeta in, it would've smashed the back window; both alternatives would've been much more expensive to replace than the windshield so we were blessed in that aspect.  

This lead us to borrowing my grandma's car to go back to Cedar in, (so Chipeta could be fixed up north) another blessing because her car is heavier and handled better in the snowy patches.  Also, an hour away from Cedar, traffic came to a complete stop for 2 hours and moved at the rate of a dying slug for another half hour to an hour after.  We still aren't sure why.  We're thinking with all the accidents that occurred, they decided to shut I-15 down in both directions to clear debris and snow/ice. 7 and 1/2 hours after we left, we finally made it home (normally a 3 and 1/2 hour drive).  But another blessing is that we weren't one of the reasons for the traffic delay and we made it home safe.  So it's been a fun couple of days.  We definitely have a lot to be thankful for!  

Rivalry Week = Suck

Steven -

It's come to the point where I cannot stand the stupid rivalry anymore, mostly thanks to the fans. Oh how I wish we had a rivalry like Texas/Oklahoma or Michigan/Ohio State where the rivals are at least separated by a state. But no, BYU and Utah are at most 45 minutes apart. Some say this makes it a better competition, but at this point I beg to differ. I am SO glad that these two are being separated out of the MWC.
I can't stand Utah fans pretending like they're rebels for disliking BYU. Their actions are tasteless and downright awful in many cases.
I hate BYU fans for pretending like they're higher-class than Utah fans when in reality they are just as bad, the only thing they're missing is the beer.
I hate the build up to the game when fans on both sides criticize the other team REGARDLESS of what faults their own side is having. It's as if the fans are trying to dictate how the outcome will be WEEKS before the game is even played!! How ridiculous is that?! You cannot say who will win until the game is over!
I hate how fans for one school will even mock the other university as an institution. Honestly, what is wrong with you people?!! BYU is a world-class private institution with exceptional business and law programs. Utah is a fantastic public university with the highest quality medical school  and political centers.
The problem is the more one hates the other, the more attached to their own team they become. So here's a shout out to all you die-hard Utah and BYU fans. Thanks for continuing to ruin the rivalry and make it shameful on so many levels!!

27

November 18,1983. 27 years ago my parents were married.  Sealed in the Salt Lake Temple.  Two years later Jameson showed up, two more years came me, then two years out popped Parker, and finally three years after that Wesley joined us.  I just wanted to acknowledge their amazing relationship for the past 27 years and to say thank you to them for being such an amazing example to me in my life.  I'm grateful for the way they raised my brothers and I and for all of the things they taught us.  I appreciate the example they gave me of a working relationship full of love, trust, and hard work.  My life and my marriage would not be what it is today if it weren't for their example and the lessons they taught me. Not to mention all the love, help, and countless things that they have done for me that I can never repay them, or fully thank them for.  Here's to 27+ years that will be just as great, if not better, than the first 27. Thank you Mom and Dad! I love you both more than I could ever tell you!

Winter

I really didn't feel like I was ready for winter and for snow yet, until today.  It snowed about an inch or two here and driving to and from work the landscape was beautiful.  I'm not ready for fall to be over, or ready for cold just yet, but I do love snow and the way it makes everything look.  It also makes me excited for Christmas (But Thanksgiving is first!!), snowmen, sledding, winter clothes, and winter trips (just not driving in snow), and other fun winter things.  And of Course for hot chocolate!! I'm addicted to the stuff; if there is a chilly enough summer night I'll whip some up :) It is so nice to curl up on the couch with a blanket, my warm Steven, and hot chocolate!

But one of my favorite things about winter this year....

One of 4 black widows I found while cleaning an apartment

Spiders go away or they die!!!!! 

Nothing!

Aaaaahhh, This Weekend was so nice. We had nothing to do! It feels like the past couple weekends we've either had a ton of things to get done, people over so we go do a lot (which we do love), or Steven has had to work. This Saturday we got up around 8:00 and picked up our bountiful basket, came home and just vegged and relaxed. We watched nothing important on TV, and just got to spend some quality time.  We got a few things done that weren't pressing but had been delayed due to other things.  We went shopping for nothing important, got some quick dinner and came home and relaxed some more.  I ended up taking an hour and a half nap around 7:00pm; I've been battling another nasty sinus infection and the medication makes me dizzy, but even that didn't damper the relaxing day at all.  Steven spent a good part of my nap working on a Powell/Jackson coat of arms for us

Powell is red, Jackson is blue

The picture just needs the names, but I think he did an awesome job.  He's had the idea for a while and finished drawing and coloring it last night.  I can't wait to get a nice frame for it.  I got to spend the whole day with my incredible husband doing nothing and it was perfect.  It's awesome how simple days like that can be just what you need sometimes.
As for everything else, all is going pretty well.  I really like my job, I get to work with some really fun people.  Steven still enjoys his job, and he is actually going to do some photography for a co-worker's wedding this weekend.  A neat opportunity for him.  I get to tag along and be awkward in a room full of people I don't know.  Maybe I'll get a disposable camera (they still make those right?) and follow him around pretending to be his assistant or something :) Steven is enjoying his classes and learning a lot of interesting things.  It is really cool to see him so involved and enjoying his major.  Our ward nursery class is getting slightly bigger. Today as one of the boys left, one little girl yelled, "Stay strong again!" I'm not sure what it meant but it was so cute!  A lot of the leaves are still changing into amazing colors and a lot are falling, so some streets are covered in orange leaves and I love it.  That about sums it up, Stay strong again! :D   

Halloween Weekend with the Guys

This picture could almost sum up our Halloween weekend but there's always more... 

Halloween is the best! I started decorating for it in September, not that we have many decorations, but I love what we do have! This year Steven and I dressed up as 20's ganster-ish, Bonnie and Clyde ish type people. I found my costume at DI :) and Steven's was really simple.

We had two very fun Halloween parties we went to.

Then Friday Aaron and Brett came down to visit!  We got dinner and painted our pumpkins and Gourds.

 This is my cute little, not gross and creepy, spider :)

Saturday we went to the livestock/sheep parade that Cedar has every year; yeah what's not to love about donut-driving tractors and a billion sheep running down the road!? 

Then we drove to Zion NP and did the overlook trail

 Typical picture sequence :)

 That is the little railing at the edge of the cliff.

The boys

From Zion we took a while and finally found the ghost town of Grafton; an old church, building, and shack, plus a neat old cemetary. Then we headed into St. George and climbed around the red rocks and the crack (this narrow opening of rock you can squeeze through among the cliffs). This is one way they found to get out of the crack.

Peek-a-boo!

 No help for Aaron

Steven Jumping the crack (Brett was below, wedged in the crack, taking the picture)

That night we got dessert and watched the best worst monster movie in the world!

 

If you haven't seen it, well you just have to, you can borrow it from us :)

Sunday, Halloween! Steven and I went to church while Brett and Aaron decided to buy Nerf guns and shoot our TV. They watched the Office and came up with a game where they had to shoot certain characters in certain orders, hours of entertainment!
Then of course we had to bring out the Gummy Eyes:

Gotta love Halloween!