I’m dreaming of a Great White North Christmas

So, I'm feeling a little guilty about not posting about Christmas or anything yet... especially since I blog-stalk people and get upset when they have nothing new. I love being hypocritcal.

I’ve officially had my first Christmas ever not in Oregon. We spent two weeks in Raymond, hanging out with friends and family and not going to school or work. Very nice. A few amusing anecdotes from our trip:

Kyler’s niece, Abby, got a flat iron straightener for Christmas. She has previously told Kyler he should straighten his hair, because she doesn’t like the curls. Because he’s a nice uncle, Kyler allowed Abby to straighten his hair, and because I’m a nice aunt, I got pictures.

Isn’t Kyler’s reaction to himself awesome?

Abby the also did my nails and made over Jarett. Fun times.

Kyler won Littlest Pet Shop, the board game. Brooklyn may have been a tad disappointed, but she survived. Plus, Kyler and I had let her and Paiger pretend we were jungle gyms all afternoon, so life can’t be too bad.

The Cougars won, and it broke my heart. We went to Sugar Bowl, the high school basketball tournament that takes place in Raymond every year. Over the course of two days, we watched at least part of every game that took place in the high school gym, ate popcorn and tacos in a bag, and hoped to win the raffle that included Olympic gear as its prize. Alas, we did not win. Raymond made it to the final game, and while they were playing Cardston, I realized that it was basically BYU vs Utah… but not quite. Raymond Comets play in red and white, Cardston Cougars in blue. And, for the first time ever, I watched the Cougars win and it broke my heart. However, there’s still this to look back on for the town:

Five teams won provincials in 2009, including basketball. Not too shabby.

Raymond was covered in snow. Some people thought we were crazy for actually walking sometimes, but we enjoyed it. Plus, it meant we got to take cool pictures of snow mounds, trees, and each other. See?

We also watched movies (Avatar and Sherlock Holmes in the theater), played on the computer, made and ate tasty food, and started Warcraft characters for nearly everyone. It started out with just showing Kyler’s mom, and quickly evolved to Brooklyn begging us to bring the laptop with us so she could play (or watch us play the character she designed, rather).

Aren’t the adorable? Characters were made for Maria, Kari, Jarett (x2), Abby (x2), Brooklyn, Paige, Katelyn, Kristina, and Russell (the last three were Brooklyn’s creations). The highest level achieved by any of the characters: level 4 by Jarett.

All in all, it was a good vacation.

Next time, on Kyler and Jeanette’s blog—“Forts and Grad School: Childhood and Adulthood Come to Blows.” Or something.

In Canada, but speaking of non-Canadian things

Ah, the Great White North. Kyler and I are here, and enjoying ourselves mightily. I kind of wish we never had to go home, because this whole hanging out with friends and family and relaxing thing is basically great. Ugh, and I can't stand to think of how many emails I probably have waiting for me at work. Let's not think about that, shall we?
This is my new skirt I bought with the gift card I got from Kyler for my birthday. Pretty, eh?

So, on to News You Can Use...
Kyler was approved for his greencard. In three years, he can apply to become a citizen. Apparently the fact that we've been married more than two years made the whole process much easier. Who knew? But I'm glad we waited... who needs more paperwork? That's the good news. The bad news related to it is that the guy who interviewed us suggested Kyler does NOT go to school in Canada, since he'd be living outside the country for longer than 6 months at a time and the government might think he's abandoning his citizenship application. Well, actually, the guy said if Kyler wants to do both (become a US citizen and go to school in Canada), he should wait until the three years is up and he is a citizen because then the government won't care how long he lives outside the country. But, for now, he's just not applying to Canadian grad schools. If things don't work out, maybe we'll try that Plan B.

Kyler graduated! Well, assuming he passed all of his classes this semester, he did. And we're going on this assumption. It doesn't really feel like much has changed, but maybe it will when he starts working instead of going to school. We'll see.

We went to Temple Square to see the lights the day after Thanksgiving, and I don't think I'll ever do it then again. It was way crowded, and felt like I was on a conveyor belt that couldn't stop or slow down, and yet couldn't actually even see the lights and nativities anyway!Mary, Joseph and Jesus. Aren't they pretty?



Shepherds watching their flocks.


There's a ton more we've done, but I think I might wait until after Canada to post on all the Christmas-like things. It'll give us time to get more pictures.Kyler and I were kind of frightened by the icicles outside our apartment complex. They could totally hurt someone!

Of Rocks and Hard Places

So, today was an interesting one, and upon request I have agreed to explicate it.

Jeanette, dearest wife of mine that she is, bought me a laptop for Christmas/Graduation. It is a fine laptop. Unfortunately these things don't materialize out of nowhere, however, so it had to be delivered. The problem with that is neither of us are home during the day, thus making it hard for us to be here when it might arrive. I thought perhaps they might leave it with a neighbor or the apartment manager, but no. It basically came down to a choice: either let it sit out in the open in our apartment complex all day, risking a rather effortless theft from just about anybody, or I skip the morning shift at work.

Now, I'm not one to miss work lightly. Until this semester, where I've had to take quite a bit of work off for immigration reasons, you could have counted the number of my absences or tardies on half of one hand. The people at work are also rather reasonable folk. I figured I could count on them to be understanding of my situation. Upon lengthy deliberation I decided to call in and tell them I would not be in until my later shift that afternoon.

It would have been almost ridiculously easy to lie at this point, and say that I was not feeling well. There would have been no repercussions whatsoever had I gone that route. Unfortunately I often try to be honest with the beings around me, I was rather straightforward about my situation. The morning passed, I got homework done, my laptop came safely, and I was even able to be around to receive a call from Les Schwab, letting me know my tire (see previous post) was ready for me to have put on. I even felt rather charmed about the whole thing.

My boss didn't see things that way, however. When I got to work, he pulled me aside and informed me that I should have been fired. If I'd had more than two weeks left of work, he probably would have fired me. He himself had Fed-Ex packages sitting on his porch, but it was no excuse for missing work, and my actions were grounds for termination. If I'd been in the real world outside of BYU, no boss would have hesitated in immediately giving me the axe. I was apologetic and went back to work pretty depressed about it.

Then I talked to one of the full timers, the one who I would've worked for that morning, in fact. He seemed shocked at my boss's reaction, and said that me being gone for that reason was no problem at all. My coworkers also expressed that they weren't sure what the big deal was about. I don't blame my boss, really. He's just doing his job. A job that involves enforcing rules. I'm not sure I regret my decision, though. I certainly don't regret being honest about it. I was faced with a rock on one hand and a hard place on the other, and I've come out of it with a new tire, a safe laptop, and a few worldly lessons learned. Hard to see how the day could have been more productive.

Oooh, the incident!

Thanksgiving is fast approaching, for which there is much rejoicing in the Rasmussen World. Days off of school and work, lots of food, and time to relax. Hallelujah.

For my birthday, I got a couple of fun things:From my mother, the new pie plate. I think she noticed my comments here, and decided to fix it. Isn't it pretty? She got me a scarf, too, but it didn't look good on my fancy-schmancy table. I can't wait to try out Thanksgiving pie in it, too!

From Kyler, I received a gift card... for Dress Barn. Included in this gift was the offer of him coming with me, helping me shop as long as I wanted, and not complaining. He did a great job! Here is a picture of one thing I bought, and maybe someday I'll get the skirt I bought up here, too.
In case you were wondering, the dress in navy blue. I might be hard to tell in this picture.

And, now, we will discuss "The Incident." Last night, Kyler called me at about the time I was expecting him home and informed me he was stuck on the freeway. He's done this before, and always said there's an accident or really bad traffic or something. This time, though, his voice is shaking a little, and he goes on to tell me, "I lost a tire. Can you call AAA?" I'm freaking out a little, but I ask him all the good stuff, like which exit he's near and stuff. However, my freaking out is probably nothing to his freaking out, since he's still sitting in the middle of the freeway, and can't really move because a) there are cars driving fast around him and b) his tire is a hundred feet in front of him, not firmly attached to the wheel as it should be. Exciting.
AAA was really nice and got him a tow to our apartment (since I have the AAA membership, not him), and then I got to hear the whole story from Kyler. He's driving at, like, 70 MPH when suddenly the car starts to want to turn (like the front tire is flat and it's trying to pull that direction). He's trying to get over to the right side and off the freeway when he starts hearing weird/bad noises, and then he sees his tire rolling away in front of him. This all happened in, like, a minute. Now the boy is stuck in the left lane, and doesn't make it over to the side until a cop comes and helps him. There he stays until the tow truck gets there. The tire is still on the side of the freeway (the opposite side Kyler ended up on, he decided not to try to get it). And now, a picture or two of the carnage:There is no tire there! Just a little bit of rubber. The prognosis appears mostly good, though: Kyler didn't die. The car is completely fine. The rims appear undamaged. The tires are under warranty, though discontinued, so they gave us a used one to use until they order another one for us from some special place. All in all, things are well. Scary, though. Definitely scary.

Ooooh, the incident!

Zoo: applications, primary and the Zoo all qualify for the word.

So, Jeanettie's getting sick, so she decided to stay home from work. After all, we wouldn't want to get my co-workers (or the cancer patients) sick, and I want to not be ill anymore myself. Since I'm relaxing and drinking lots of water, dozing a little, and watching Gilmore Girls, it's a decent enough time to attempt to update the blog.

Last week:

1. Kyler took the GRE psych subject test. He thinks it went all right, but we'll have to see.
2. I ran the primary kids through a relay race for the primary activity. Surprisingly, most of the chitlins were afraid to pick up the baby dolls and sing a lullaby to them. Too bad for them.
3. Kyler, Liz, and I went to the zoo! Kyler took about a million pictures of everything, and sometimes even included people in said pictures.
4. It was the primary program on Sunday. Everything went well. The first counselor and I got to chase after a particularly fun 6-year-old during rehearsal... in heels. Everything else went great though, I passed out and collected sunbeams successfully, so what else do we need?
   

Coming attractions include:

1. Kyler is finishing his grad school applications. We will hear about interviews in January.
2. Kyler got travel and work permissions! Yay! We can officially head to Canada for Christmas.
3. The Olympics are still coming up, though we have no place to stay (we've contacted the Bishop of the Vancouver 1st Ward, so here's hoping) and we realized Kyler may or may not have grad school interviews. They may be over a long weekend in February... hopefully not that weekend in February. If it is, anyone want to come with me?
   

And now, for the pictures!
The first things we saw when we got to the zoo were the tiger cubs... triplet boy babies! They were adorable!
Here's one of them! Fuzzy and cute, all sleeping together.



And here is their pretty mommy. Not fuzzy, but sleek and shiny. And she could totally knock me out with a whap of her paw if she wanted to.



While we're talking about kittens, here's the snow leopard and her kitten. Cute, cute, cute.



Kyler took this picture. That is all I will say.



Baby giraffe! She's, like, 7 feet tall. I'm a midget.



We decided we couldn't not get a picture of the cougar! The mascot of Kyler's "alma mater," he said. Not yet, kid. Not for another month.



Do you live in Cougar Country?



Kyler and a zebra!



The zebra was kind of scruffy. That's against the Honor Code...



The baby elephant!



Look how little she is compared to mommy! And mommy wasn't that big of an elephant, honestly.



The penguin is preaching to his followers. The one in front does not agree with the him, apparently.



I'm kissing the camel. Thankfully, he didn't spit at me.



And, another baby! A white, adorable, hilarious as it was bouncing around trying to get in trouble, baby monkey!

The Jeanette-geek-out section:
Giraffe anatomy! This is an explanation of why all the blood doesn't rush to their heads, causing them to pass out, when they change their altitude drastically. Cool, huh?



With an elephant femur! It's the size of, like, my entire leg.



And an elephant skull! I love anatomy.

The playing with statues/signs section:
Hear no evil



See no evil



Speak no evil



Riding the rhino. Do not try this at home. We are experts, with years of experience that keep us safe.



Secrets, secrets. It's not very nice to keep secrets.



I think Kyler is going to lose this fight, but don't tell him that!


Kyler wishing he had the wingspan of an adult male orangutan.



I actually was pretty close to an adult female orangutan, though I am on my knees to make it work.



Liz, the adult female gorilla.



With the elephant! It made weird trumpet-y noises, and occasionally played "Baby Elephant Walk."

And, that is all the photographic pain I shall subject you to at this time. Consider yourself lucky.

Life=Good, as simple equation

A little more than a week ago, I went to the doctor's office. No, I am not sick or pregnant; I was given a clean bill of health, actually, and I was there to make sure I stay that way. The doctor asked me some about Kyler and if he was nice to me, how work was, if there are any huge stresses in my life... basically, he just wanted to know if I was okay. I told him, "Life is good." I realized just how true that sentence is. I am loved by family and friends, I have a job that allows me to sustain myself and Kyler, and the world is generally a happy place for me. Life is good.

In other news, I got my passport! I am now free to move about the world. I have to wonder, though, why I was required to send in two identical pictures with the application. They sent the second one back to me with my birth certificate, so why not just send in one picture in the first place? What in the world do I want with a second photo that is not terribly attractive? Eh.
So, Canada is officially an option for Christmas for me! Yay! We'll see if it's an option for Kyler, though...

Kyler took me to the opera yesterday, The Tales of Hoffman, performed at BYU. Strange opera, quite entertaining, but strange. Kyler's had to go to a few things for a humanities class he's taking, and he's brought me along. I can't say I've minded so far, and the one thing left for him to go to is the Utah Symphony... fun!

There's more going on, but it's all the same: I work, Kyler works and goes to school, application deadlines for grad schools are fast approaching, and we enjoy eating tasty food. Yum.A homemade pot pie. That's right, folks, I made this, crust and all. The crust recipe has been handed down in my family for generations......Doesn't it look tasty? Kyler ate half of it for dinner. And, yes, it's in a round cake pan instead of a pie pan. I don't own a pie pan, but this does deep dish very well.

Like I said, life is good.