Lecture

Bryan teaches a lot of computer classes. And don't ask me really what kind because I'm not entirely sure? Operating systems...linux, and you know...stuff. Lots of things, really. He's always writing courseware for new classes to teach. And he teaches all over the place. On-site for some client in another state, in his own local office which includes multiple classrooms to accommodate various class sizes and needs. Or often lately, on-line. Most of the time he teaches these on-line classes with students logging in from all over the country, (or even the world sometimes), at his office. But occasionally he'll have some very strange time zone he has to teach that has him lecturing from 8:00 PM-4:00 AM or something crazy like that. And in those cases, he'll teach from home. But then usually we're asleep during most of it. This week, he's been teaching central time zone. Which means he starts teaching at 7:00 AM our time. Early for sure, but not horribly so. And on Monday he did teach from the office. But then decided that evening, why not teach from home? Class finishes up around 3:00, right when our children are just coming home from school...so the house is pretty quiet.

So the past four days I've had Bryan lecturing from our front computer room/den...while I worked on my own computer, while I cooked, while I did laundry, while I watched The Bachelor finale. (Yes, I watched it. First time ever. Julianne sucked me in to the last few episodes of this season and so help me, I actually got curious enough to see who won. Don't judge...I'm embarrassed enough as it is.) 

While I type this Bryan is sitting next to me at our shared desk lecturing what sounds more or less like greek to me. I don't understand a bit of it. But I tell you what, it's been rather fun to have him home. I've had to be a bit more aware of noise so as to not disrupt his class. Headphones when I watch a video on my computer. Earbuds with my phone when wanting to listen to music while I do chores around the house. Mad dashes for the land line when it rings. Going into another room if I'm making a phone call. Worries about how loud the disposal, mixer, microwave, or vacuum might be. (Realistically, Bryan says none of those have been an issue. Well...I haven't actually tried the vacuum. My guess is that probably would be a bit of a noisy problem.) But overall, it's been a really good week.

I hope he decides to teach from home again soon....

A chicken in a haunted house

Let's just get this out of the way right now. I am a chicken. So it will probably not surprise you to learn that the last time I went to a haunted house was when I was a senior in high school. And if I'm being entirely truthful, it was the first and only time I visited a haunted house. And I wouldn't have even gone then, but I had incentive. It was the weekend leading up to Halloween and the high school group of friends I hung with decided that we should go scare ourselves silly in honor of the holiday. But that wasn't why I went. I had no qualms about begging off...but my incentive? The reason I went? Bryan was working at the haunted house. Inside the house. As some ninja warrior, jumping out and scaring people. Yes, this was the boy I was dating. I was a chicken girl who was in love with a boy who adored any and all things scary, freaky and horror. So I took a major leap out of my comfort zone and quaking in my shoes, I walked inside.

There were maybe ten of us in the group walking through together, wondering where we would find Bryan. We had laughed earlier while walking up towards the haunted house, when we overheard a group of kids coming out saying, "Holy crap, did you see that ninja guy drop down from the rafters like that? Scared me so bad!" Clearly Bryan was good at his job.

But once inside, I was ridiculously scared. Beyond terrified, even. We walked through single file all holding onto each other in a chain. Behind me, Shauna had her hands gripping my shoulders. I had my face completely buried in David's jacket in front of me...the two of them making a little Sarah sandwich. With my eyes screwed shut, my other senses were all the more terrifyingly in tune....I could hear every creepy noise and all the screams, the ones nearby and further ahead and behind. I could feel the cool, clammy air from the fog machines. I was ever more aware of every flinch and jump of my friends around me as we shuffled along, connected together as we were. But regardless of being so aware of my surroundings and really not wanting to see anything creepy, every now and again I would risk a peek to the side. At one point we slowed way down, coming nearly to a full stop. Curious as to what the hold up was, I carefully turned my head to the side and opened my eyes...only to find myself locking glances with some gory monster inches from my face, clearly trying to get a rise out of me. I screamed long and loud. Goal achieved!

Towards the middle of our haunted tour, we slowed down again and I felt someone pulling my arm. I tightened my grip on David's jacket, but then was comforted to hear Bryan's voice and realized that he was the one trying to get me to let go. I opened my eyes and though I was happy to see him, it became clear that his plan was to have me break off from our larger group and go off somewhere with him. I was hesitant to do so because, well...safety in numbers, right? Relative as that safety actually was. He practically had to pry my fingers from David's jacket, with me offering up pitiless concerns and protests.

Looking at the situation from a guy's point of view: taking your girlfriend through a haunted house, a place in which she is likely to be scared at least to some varying degree and will probably snuggle in your shoulder while you protect her from the haunted scariness...well, slam dunk, right?

Bryan ushered me through a side door into some back tunnels meant to allow the haunted monster workers to make their way from room to room unseen by the regular patrons. In this I was somewhat comforted, thinking that though we were passing some truly creepy characters, they weren't trying to jump out at me. We made our way out of the back employee hallways and into a room with three witches. Bryan deposited me there and told me he'd be right back, that he needed to tell his supervisor he was leaving for the night. And there I was. Staring at three witches who were very curiously staring back at me. No words were spoken. Me very literally trembling from head to toe, wondering what gory creature would come walking around the corner at any moment only to find a prime target standing there very alone and very obviously terrified.

No monster came. But after a few minutes, Bryan did. He was off for the rest of the evening, he said. I was relieved thinking that this meant we could duck into some back hallway again and make our way out of the haunted house. That relief was short lived as Bryan obviously was now planning to enjoy the haunted house in the more normal way....a boy walking through with a girl, taking pleasure in the fun and laughter that many people get from being scared at Halloween time. Except Bryan wasn't with just any girl. He was with a chicken. An extremely frightened one. One that immediately started begging to be taken out of the haunted house. I don't think he took me seriously at first...thinking it was normal girly fear. But I kept up my requests to leave which became more and more hysterical the further we walked. Finally he stopped and looked at me and said with a bit of incredulity in his voice, "You really want to leave?" Maybe it was the terror in my eyes or the fact that I probably looked like I was about to pee my pants. When I answered "YES!!!" to his question, he pulled me into another side hallway and we made our way outside.

Bryan was good natured about it, even if a bit baffled as to why I was so terrified of a perfectly harmless haunted house. Luckily my chicken-ness did not put a damper on our relationship and he decided he loved me regardless. We got married a few years later and he has never suggested we go to a haunted house again. He does still tend to enjoy watching horror movies during the month of October. On those nights I try to find other things to occupy my time in another room. Because the one time I watched a scary horror movie with him when we were dating in high school I had nightmares for weeks. But that is another story....

A perfect marriage

I always used to think that I knew what the "perfect marriage" was. And I could point it out in various couples that I knew. Because somehow I guess I thought I was the best judge of who had it all together? I took cues from their behavior...little details to make my own marriage that much better. And while I will be forever thankful for those wonderful little hints that have indeed strengthened my own relationship, I've since come to learn that what shows on the outside is not what is always on the inside. And that actually, a "perfect marriage" is nothing like I thought it to be.

Last Valentines Day was emotionally tough. And before you jump to any conclusion that Bryan and I were struggling, let me assure you that as a couple, we were just fine and enjoyed a sweet holiday together. But at that same time, we were being rocked to our core as we watched many of our close friends struggling in their marriages. It seemed like every few weeks we'd hear another shocking story... many from those same couples who I had labeled as having that ideal "perfect marriage." I was stunned and I was heartbroken and I shed countless tears....tears for them, tears for myself. How could this be, I wondered over and over again.

And as I put in a lot of prayer and thought, I came to realize that a "perfect marriage" is not all flowers, butterflies and rainbows. And lest you think I was too idealistic or naive...I was fully aware that love and good marriages didn't always run smooth. But a perfect marriage also isn't always holding hands or flirty and sweet comments, romantic weekends without kids, sharing the same hobbies. While those are things that will certainly strengthen a relationship, a "perfect marriage" is more real and raw than that. It's the marriage that goes through serious ups and downs...the couple that comes out bruised and bloodied on the other side of a trial meant to break you up, still stubbornly determined to cling to each other. A "perfect marriage" is not shiny storybook. It's gritty real life.

I've never doubted in all our nearly 20 years of marriage that Bryan loves me. But when I look deep into his eyes and see just how much he truly adores me...I know it comes from a long life together of determinedly clinging together through not only the good times but also and especially during our fair share of the really hard.

Is our marriage perfect? A few years ago my answer may have been no. Good and satisfying with a lot of love and happiness, yes. But "perfect"...according to my unrealistic criteria at the time, I'm not sure we completely measured up. "Perfect" was a pretty high level to attain. How ignorant I was. Marriage is hard. And unlike other goals, you don't really ever get to a place where you can lean back and say with pride, "There! I did it....mission accomplished!" A "perfect marriage" is always going to be a work in progress. Real and raw alongside of the butterflies and flowers, ups and downs working in tandem in our every day life. But with that criteria in mind...I would humbly say yes.

Nineteen

It's our 19th wedding anniversary today.
To celebrate we had dinner last night at The Roof restaurant in Salt Lake City.  It's on the 10th floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and has floor to ceiling, wall to wall windows that overlook the Salt Lake Temple.  The view is phenomenal.  We were witness to two separate marriage proposals while we were there.  Is it strange if I admit that I got a little teary?  The sweetness of it all, yes.  But watching it all while we were there to celebrate our own marriage of course brought back a flood of memories for me.  Of our own proposal and then the wedding a few months later.  But mostly just the overwhelming feeling of goodness and happiness of the 19 years that followed.  

San Diego

This San Diego trip, if you remember, was Rebekah's 16th birthday present.  The girl declared beach time to be her top priority so we booked a hotel right on Mission Bay and two blocks away from Mission Beach.  And boy, was that ever the perfect trip for her!  Because she was obsessed, fascinated, couldn't get enough of...those waves.  Wanted to play in them, run away from them, watch them, go on long walks past them.  We hunted for seashells, we dug for crabs, we clambered around a rock jetty, we explored the underside of the pier.  We dug our feet into the sand, we goggled at the weirdness of seaweed and we commentated (amateurishly) the skills of the scores of surfers we saw catching waves each morning.  I even went for a 4.5 mile run along the boardwalk.  And this was all just on Mission Beach.  This doesn't count all the time we spent on the bay....kayaking, stand up paddle board surfing, reading on the fabulous beach chairs at the waters edge.  Or the time spent warming back up again in the hotel hot tub!  As beautiful as San Diego is, no one informed me that this time of year is jokingly referred to as "June Gloom."  We never got rained on...but we didn't see the sun too often.  Which meant that the 68-70 degrees were decidedly chilly.  Not that it stopped us from doing everything we wanted to do.  But that hot tub was nice....just sayin'.

Ready for a picture-palooza?

 My little blue-eyed, blonde-haired California beach babe....

 

I have an awesome picture of Rebekah getting slammed by the wave that took her down.  Her hair is flying, she has a pretty intense look of shock on her face....it's hilarious!  But she refuses to let me post it.  So you get the aftermath shot...where she's looking at me with a face that says, "Holy wow...did you see that?!"

Seaweed....seriously alien looking stuff!  It would collect on the beach in big lumps.  Bryan found the stuff fascinating and spent a lot of time building those lumps into even bigger kind of forts that the incoming water wouldn't be able to breach.  Who needs sandcastles when you can build fortifications out of seaweed?? 

Our room had a private patio that opened up to a garden and duck pond.  The ducks, as you can imagine, were very used to people and waddled around and among us with ease.  This mama duck and her tiny newborns came to our patio each and every morning...often times knocking on the sliding glass door with their beaks when they realized that Rebekah would feed them the leftover rolls from her dinner the night before.

Our last morning in San Diego Rebekah and I got up extra early to walk down to Crystal Pier and back...all in all a 5 mile walk.  Not only was the walk along the beach glorious, but playing under the pier and watching the surfers from on top were also a lot of fun. 

Rebekah could be the poster girl for stand up paddle surfing.  She jumped onto that board with ease and made it look like she'd been doing it for years...rather than this being her first time.  Maybe it really is as easy as she says.  But it's been a long time since I've had that same skinny little 16 year old size body....and I'm guessing I'd be nowhere near as graceful and probably dump myself in the bay! 

Christmas letter 2011

25 November 2011

Merry Christmas!

{I can now officially wish you holiday greetings because Thanksgiving is over...}

It's Black Friday. The day that many Americans are working off the calories from all that turkey and pumpkin pie by running from store to store in frantic hopes of getting killer deals on the items detailed on their Christmas gift list. I think they're crazy. {No offense intended...} I am wrapped in my bathrobe and still sitting in bed {at noon, no less} typing my Christmas letter rather than face the hordes of holiday shoppers...pumpkin pie calories and killer deals be damned. {Besides...I made a preemptive strike against those calories by going on a 3 mile run BEFORE turkey time. So I'm good, right?}

I feel I should start off with an apology. Many of you know that I write a blog. And if you've checked out that blog, you know that I am rather prolific. Which means that anything I detail in this Christmas letter will most likely be repeat. For those who find news of my blog writing, well...news, I could just direct you to my blog address

{www.sarah-thebeststuff.blogspot.com} and then leave you with a generic “Merry Christmas!” But even if you did venture on over there...I think the 195 blog posts I have written thus far for 2011 would likely be more than just a little overwhelming. Which is why I am using my Black Friday to summarize and hit the high points of my year in this letter.

I'm finding myself feeling a little bit old this year. Not so much in a bad way, necessarily...yes, I've been fighting those pesky gray hairs for quite a few years now despite the fact that 38 years old still seems way too early to be dealing with that sort of thing. No, this is in more of a “Holy wow...time is really passing!” sort of way. We've had quite a few markers this year that force us to acknowledge our age, even if we don't necessarily feel it.

*Bryan and I went to my 20 year high school reunion this year. And though I feel like I look better now than I did then, more than one person had to look at my name tag before exclaiming, “Sarah! I never would've recognized you!” because the changes were, apparently, extreme. {It's the whole hair color thing. Oh, and probably the fact that I'm not a scrawny 95 lb, 5'1”, 17 year old anymore.}

*But even more than a 20 year reunion for making one feel older, how about your oldest daughter entering high school and learning to drive? Yes, Rebekah is 15 and a sophomore at ----- High School. She challenges us frequently with requests that leave us floundering as we try to decide how to respond...seeing as she is our oldest and we've not come up with a parenting plan for everything yet. She's with friends more than she is home but she's a good, sweet girl and still somehow finds time to get enough of her homework done to pull a 3.8 GPA. Now, how to deal with those ever-present boys who are constantly texting and wanting to hold her hand at parties??

*Oh, oh! How about this? Bryan turns 40 in a couple of weeks. 40! FORTY! The big four-oh! This is a black balloon-worthy birthday coming up. How is it that even though he is two years older than me he still doesn't have any gray hair?

*I've also realized this year that when I sing Lex de Azevedo's “Gloria” tomorrow, it will have been 13 years since I first started singing with the Millennium Choir. Julianne was a 5-month old newborn when we started.

*And unlike when I played a young teenage “Mabel” falling in love with equally young “Frederic” in Pirates of Penzance a couple of summers ago, this year I played the part of “Ms. Susan” a wealthy, southern plantation owner that is the mother of a teenage daughter in the musical Harriet. Times are a'changing.

Maybe the reasons Bryan and I don't necessarily feel our age, despite all evidence to the contrary staring us in the face, is because of these things:

*I continue to run and bike in an attempt to ward of the results of my lack of willpower in the fight with my sweet tooth and my ever slowing metabolism. Numerous weekends this year were spent adding race numbers to my growing collection. Sleeping in vans and gym floors were not uncommon. Endurance races like Ragnar and LOTOJA, among others, tend to swing you pendulum-like from miserably brutal lows to the highest of adrenaline highs, all within one race. Which, amazingly enough, translates to exhausted awesomeness in my book. {Did I mention that I am the captain of my Ragnar team for 2012?}

*I also tried skiing this year for the first time. Ever. Worries that I wouldn't make it off that mountain without some sort of injury were unfounded. {Julianne came home with a sprained wrist a few weeks earlier after attempting snowboarding.} Apparently I bounce well...something that was repeatedly proven to me seeing as I fell on my backside 7 times!

*Bryan keeps himself active and young in mind and spirit by target shooting as much as humanly possible. The man gets practically giddy when packing all his gear. A week trip to Front Sight in Nevada, a day trip to the desert with his brothers or just a few hours up the side of the mountain...it matters not. He's just happy to be shooting. Have I mentioned his up and coming “man cave” in the backyard? Not yet? Oh. Well! This detached garage-type building will house not only all his power tools and weight equipment but also...wait for it...a shooting range. With a main floor that drops 6 feet down into the ground, the building is within -------- code for personal shooting on your own property within city limits. He can now shoot more or less whenever he wants to. Giddy, I tell you.

But what really keeps us feeling young is trying to keep up with our children and their schedules. {A contradiction, really, because their rapid growth also makes our own years all the more obvious.} I mentioned already that Rebekah is in high school now. What is unique about our children's schooling, however, is that we have four children in four different schools. Julianne is 13 and in 8^th grade at the Jr. High, Brandon is 10 and in 5^th grade at the elementary school, and 4 year old Lilian is our caboose attending her 2^nd year of preschool. My brain gets a workout trying to keep all those start and end times straight...not to mention early out Fridays and late start Tuesdays. I drive 6 carpools! Because beyond getting the kids to and from school there is also gymnastics, ballet and drama. I'm starting to feel like I run a taxi service.

*Brandon's gymnastics is the most time consuming, certainly. He is at the gym 5 days for a total of 12 hours weekly. Factor into that meet season in the winter where one meet can take up a full day....you get the idea. But the determination, discipline, strength, confidence, friendship and pure joy it brings to Brandon makes it all very worth it. This year, beyond the various local meets, we had 2 out of state meets in Boise and Las Vegas and then the state meet in St. George. All good excuses for mini-vacations, yes?

*Rebekah and Julianne are involved in --------- Theatre...a youth acting troupe here in -------. They put on a rousing rendition of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat {try saying that 5 times fast} in the spring and are now in rehearsals for Beauty and the Beast. They also performed in the stake play Receive These Things in March...a show that I was heavily involved with also, as a ward director. Whereas Rebekah has embraced singing and performed often with the Choraliers {the 9^th grade show choir} and has now fully embraced the music program at the high school, Julianne is kind of rebelling against type. Though she still loves the acting, I think she is tired of people pigeon-holing her with singing...and has branched out into other interests. She refused to take choir this year...something that made my jaw drop Sebastian style {from Little Mermaid} and instead, took acting, French and art. However, she claims one of her favorite classes is history...I don't fully know yet if she truly does love it, or if she's trying to make peace about the choir thing by buttering up her mother who has a BA in history...hmm.

*Besides preschool, Lilian also takes classes at a local ballet school...a more beautiful ballerina you've never seen. She is growing in both stature and personality. {My favorite Lilian quote this year? When handed an apple at Disneyland she looked up with equal parts innocence and suspicion...and asked, “Is it poisoned?”} Lilian seems to think that life is not complete without a playmate and has developed some serious wanderlust in her quest to find friends available for play. Luckily for her, we live in a neighborhood where there is an abundance of little friends her age.

Another thing that made me feel a little less than my years? Disneyland. The land where the child inside reigns...often with a crown of Mickey ears {or in my case, a Mad Hatters hat.} While the other kids had a summer full of camps ranging from gymnastics and science, to AFY at BYU Idaho and Retreat for Girls at Utah State University...with girls camp and a couple of trips with the grandparents thrown in for good measure, Lilian stayed home. She'd help them pack, wave goodbye and help them unpack again when the week was up. In August it was her turn. She packed her own bag this time, waved goodbye to her siblings and, with Mom and Grandma in tow, boarded her very first airplane. It being a Lilian paced trip, we spent four days doing exactly what a 4-year old desired. And if that meant we went on the Little Mermaid ride four times in a row, so be it. We had a joyously child-like time.

Funny enough, mine and Bryan's trip to NYC also made me feel young. Seasoned enough to feel only slight trepidation walking around the city on my own while Bryan worked...notwithstanding, I still turned circles in child-like awe when I found myself in Times Square for the first time. I pinched myself, literally pinched myself, when I sat down to watch Anything Goes on Broadway to make sure I wasn't dreaming. And received the ultimate compliment proving that I don't look anywhere near as old as I sometimes feel when a native NYC businessman struck up a conversation with me on the street and eventually asked me out for drinks...fully admitting to hitting on me only after I confessed that I was married.

But realistically, feeling older is a good thing. Because it means Bryan and I have been happily married for 18 years now. We've been rocked this year, watching some very close friends struggle in their marriages and contemplate divorce. Through our tears and despair we've also found ourselves clinging to each other and our little family ever more fiercely and thanking Heavenly Father for our ability to plow through when we've had problems of our own over the years and come out stronger.

We are incredibly thankful for the relationships we have with all of you! What a treasure family and good friends are! We hope you are all having a glorious Christmas season!

Love,

Bryan, Sarah, Rebekah, Julianne, Brandon and Lilian

Bryan turns 40!

Bryan turned 40 this past Friday.  The big four-oh.  It's a little...well, disturbing.  Because 40 always seemed so...well, OLD!  I still remember having a minor identity crisis when turning 30...and now here is Bryan boldly paving the way into our 40's.  He doesn't look anywhere near old enough to be 40.  I'm pretty sure he doesn't feel anywhere near old enough to be 40.  Clearly it's a mental thing.  And clearly it's freaking me out more than it is him.  Realistically, if I hadn't reminded him, he might not have even remembered it was his birthday, let alone the age he had achieved.  I think the fact that he has been on this earth for 40 years is more of a bizarre thought for him than anything else.  But I have known this man since he was 18 years old...and the calender clearly show that 18 was a long time ago.

So we had a party to celebrate.  Nothing huge and major...just a little gathering with his siblings and their families.  A mexi-feast seemed the way to go for 3 reasons.  One:  It feeds 26 people easily.  Two:  It is Carolyn-family friendly...no gluten, egg, or nuts.  And three:  Bryan adores tacos.

Steven came bearing two gifts of similar size for his big brother.  Bryan opened the first one and we all laughed uproariously when out of the box came an armadillo!  Ever read Far Side comics?  If so, remember the one with the homeless guy holding a sign saying "Spare armadillo...spare armadillo?"  And then then we see a guy carrying several armadillos under his arms approaching him and thinking, "Oh great, how am I going to get past this?"  That particular comic became somewhat of an inside joke with Bryan and his brothers.  With them coming up to each other at random times, leaning in close and muttering..."Spare armadillo?" to the other.  Although my sister's in law, Kari and Sara, didn't really get it, I've been with the family for long enough that I laughed good and long when I saw Bryan open up his armadillo gift.  "Wait!"  Steven said..."that's only part of the gift.  It gets better!"  When Bryan opened up the "spare" armadillo in the second gift, we about fell out of our chairs laughing.

So Bryan rang in 40.  We had black balloons flying from the lamp post, the UPS guys sang a rousing rendition of the Happy Birthday song to him when they stopped by with a delivery, he got to eat tacos, and as well as enjoying the company of his siblings...he got a spare armadillo!!!  Is there any better way to spend your birthday??

Date Night at the Movies

 Tonight was date night.  We had dinner at Thaifoon where I ordered the Evil Jungle Princess Shrimp.  Though the description on the menu had not just one, but two chili pepper symbols indicating some serious heat, I was less than impressed with the spiciness of my dish.  It was still really yummy though.

But the real noteworthy event of date night was the near miracle that allowed us to find a movie Bryan and I BOTH were interested in seeing.  This so very rarely happens.  Realistically, neither one of us tends to see movies in the theater very often.  But maybe that is because we have such different tastes in film that it usually necessitates seeing movies individually or not at all.

Bryan likes action flicks, science fiction and sometimes even horror.  And if there are aliens or superheros thrown in the mix, all the better.  Usually the movies he wants to see I can't handle.  Lack of interest, yes...but mostly, it's about being a first class chicken.  I WILL have nightmares.  No maybes about it.  Remember "The Sixth Sense?"  I didn't watch it when it came out, despite the rave reviews.  Bryan, even, loved it because it so took him by surprise which is rare.  People told me I should see the movie.  It wasn't scary, just intense, they said.  But I had two little toddlers at the time who frequently cried in the night and needed Mama.  There was absolutely no doubt in my mind that I would "see dead people" as I wandered down the hall at night to comfort my children.  Because my mind just works that way.  I didn't see "The Sixth Sense" until just a few months ago...and even then I didn't see the whole thing.  But I had nightmares all the same.  See?  First class chicken.

Me, on the other hand?  I love rom-coms and chick flicks that make me laugh and my heart go pitter-pat.  I am a sucker for Jane Austen, Henry James or any other classic book made into a movie (what would you call those, Period Classics?) and also historical films like "The Kings Speech."  I love musicals...although I have to admit, my neighbors and I mocked "Mamma Mia" mercilessly when we went as a big group to see it.  But Bryan has no interest, really, in any of these types of films.  So what does that leave us with?

Well...in the past couple of years we have found commonality in movies like "Star Trek," "Knight and Day," "Inception" and "Harry Potter."  But one genre of movie can usually always satisfy us both and that is your traditional thief caper.  You know...stuff like "Oceans 11," "The Italian Job"...even "National Treasure."  Bryan will complain about probability and I'll give a little spiel on suspending disbelief...but we usually both come out smiling.  Tonight we found ourselves all wrapped up in "Tower Heist."  (Side note:  Alan Alda and Mathew Broderick in the same movie = awesome in my book!)  Maybe because it's a rare and special treat, I find myself so completely happy and content when sitting with Bryan in a theater.  Leaning up against each other, fingers laced together or resting on each other's leg, laughing or gasping in the same places.  Okay...maybe it's more me that laughs out loud and audibly gasps during movies.  All the same, we had a great time.  How long will it be this time, do you suppose, before we find another movie we can both agree on?

Day 26: Something Old

These are the letters that Bryan and I exchanged while he was on his LDS mission and I was in college between 1991-1993.  Julianne was flabbergasted this evening, to realize that we "hand wrote" all our letters.  On stationary.  Missionaries didn't use email back then.  Email and internet didn't really become mainstream until the mid-90's. (I got my first email account through Utah State University shortly after Bryan and I got married.)  She couldn't wrap her mind around it.  Email, internet, texting...it's all such a permanent and normal part of her daily life.  Of mine as well, now.  I can't imagine going back.  And yet, what a treasure these old letters are!!  Their hand written addresses, beat up envelopes, colorful stationary and upside down stamps (which meant "I love you" in super, secret stamp code...), let alone the actual letter inside with the news of ups and downs,  mission companions and college roommates, spiritual experiences and funny stories, and of course, the heartfelt I miss you's and I love you's and I'm thinking of you's...   

Day 8: Technology

 I'm married to a computer geek...so yeah, we've got pretty high end "technology" at our house.  More gadgets than you can shake a stick at.  And have you seen Bryan's computer monitor??  I'm not exaggerating when I say it's as large as a TV screen.

 A few years ago Bryan asked if I wanted a laptop.  Funny enough, I told him no.  I didn't think I needed one.  Being home most days while he was at work and the kids were at school more or less meant that I had the home computer to myself.  So you can imagine my surprise when I opened a Christmas present containing....a MacBook.  Double surprise, actually, because up to that point we owned nothing Apple.  Not even an ipod.  Bryan's a Linux guy and has always claimed that "Apple doesn't play well with others."
Flash forward a few years.  I LOVE having my own laptop.  It's been upgraded just recently to a MacBook Air.  We have multiple ipods, hundreds of songs on itunes, an ipad, and I'm anxiously awaiting the purchase of a new iphone.

 This is my cozy work area where I spend much of my time.  Isn't it amazing how much we rely on our computers and internet service?  I feel like I'm missing my right arm when my computer is down.

More technology....
If you want to see my take on Bryan's digital piano vs. my baby grand and my slight rant about Kindle vs. real books go here.  :)


*Ironically enough, as I worked on this post this afternoon, I heard the news that Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, died today.  Talk about your ultimate technology guru!  

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Day 5: Someone I Love

I love this man.
He rubs my back in church.
He brings me eclairs from Dicks Market.
He fixes my computer when it is broken.
He goes grocery shopping with me.
He makes fun of my shoes but lets me buy them anyway.
He doesn't complain when he wants to sleep but I keep my lamp on to read a little longer.
He picks up Rebekah from her friends houses late at night when I don't want to.
He holds down the fort willingly when I leave to run a race or sing a concert.
He helps the kids with their math so I don't have to re-learn it all.
He wraps his arms around me and consoles me when I am sad.
He patiently lets me chatter and prattle...even when he wishes I'd get to the point already.
He makes sure the kids have no doubt how much he loves their mother.