A Few Christmas Highlights

Here are a few of the highlights from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day:

Talking to and getting this pic of Elder Tony. I miss that kid!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas morning with the fam and the fun that ensued.

Having Tom home for Christmas :)

Thomas Family Christmas party.

Janelle, Sara and Patty showing off their amazing lip-syncing talent.

Lots of time with my amazing hubby!! He has this whole week off and we're loving it! (And probably the best present we both could get - he passed calculus!!!

My first attempt at apple pies turned out fairly good.

We bought our first Christmas tree and we love it!

Another highlight that I sadly didn't have my camera for, was my nephew Brian's farewell. He did an amazing job speaking and even more amazing job singing (I cried and cried!) He leaves on Jan. 6th for Carlsbad, California (Spanish Speaking) Mission. I'm going to miss him!

Christmas was wonderful!

A Grocery Store Experience

I had an interesting experience at the grocery store this week. There I was with list in hand, standing in front of the bread rather miffed because they were out of the bread I normally buy. As I was standing there deciding which kind to buy, a stock dude came out with a cart full of bread. Before stocking the shelves, he picked up several loaves of bread, looked, presumably at the dates, and then tossed them onto his cart. I stood there for a minute and started to wonder: "Where is he going with all that bread? The sell by date doesn't mean the bread is bad. Is he going to throw all of that bread away??? Madness!!! There are people starving all over the world and here I am upset because MY brand of bread is gone. I grabbed a loaf and moved on.
Next I came to the meat section and was scouting for the extra lean ground beef when I stopped and looked around. Look at all this meat!!! That's insane! And in a couple of days half of it is going to be thrown away from people not buying it. Didn't I just hear something on the news about the amount of beef cattle being in short supply?
I continued around the store with a scowl on my face, ignoring my list. Maybe it was because it's the Christmas season, or that I really am that self absorbed that these things never occurred to me before. Then I realized something else: there's all this food in this store, and there are 6 more grocery stores within a 5 mile radius of me right now, full of more stuff. That's a lot of cows. That's a lot bread, milk, etc.
I unloaded all of this on Scott that evening when he got home and he kind of started to laugh and said, "and what would you like to do about it?"
I don't have a clue!!!!! I suppose there isn't much I can do. And I suppose my overall question is, why can't all of that food be donated?
I guess that's meant as a rhetorical question as I'm feeling like a very spoiled and ungrateful American.

Christmas Card Pics 09

Mel and Ryan took our pictures this year. Next year I need to me more creative and go somewhere besides Sundance. I haven't decided which one I'm going to use yet, but here are our favorites.

Tom Home cont.

Found a few more pics from the airport when Tom came home. Grandma Thomas and Grandma Shoell

Shoell kids (minus Tony )

Mom and Dad Shoell :)

Tom is home!!!

Dad Shoell put up all his Christmas lights early so that they would be on when Tom came home.

Tom and Scott at the airport. Scott was SO excited to have his "little" brother home! (Tom is 4 and a 1/2 inches taller than Scott)

Mel and Ryan..eating ham....

Shoell boys doing what they do best...being goofy!

Shoell girls (I don't ever think about my lack of height until I see a picture of me with my in-laws)

Star Wars In Concert

For Scott's birthday we bought tickets to the most NERD-tacular event of the year! Star Wars in Concert. It was even more cool than we thought it would be!

Various kinds of blaster guns.

Queen Amidala costume.

Vader Costume

Original Score by John Williams.

We didn't know this up front, but Anthony Daniels (C3PO) travels with the show as the narrator. He was really funny. This was him on the big screen that showed scenes from the films while the orchestra played.

Us (NERDS)

Bobba Fett was around letting people get pictures with him.

The Emperor and guards also posing for pictures.

Happy Birthday to Scott!

Happy Birthday (yesterday) to my wonderful, amazing, handsome, funny, smart, caring, loving husband!!!

We went up to Park City for Melanie's birthday September 9th. We went down the slide (Scott ate it...again...but thankfully didn't rip any clothes this time!) Pretty fun stuff!! Then dinner at Baja Cantina.

And this is just a random pic of me and little Taft.

"Joseph" pics

We went to see "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" last month at the Scera with Scott's family. It's one of my favorite shows! It POURED rain that night right up until the show started so it was a wee bit chilly. Good show and good company!

Spoiled

Scott's job does have its perks. One would be that he gets screamin' deals on cars! I LOVE IT!

Too. Much. Info.

So me and one of my co-workers almost cried. There is this crazy old woman that comes in to the salon more often than we would like and never shuts up! I think she's scared off a couple of other clients because she'll end up hanging around and trying to start conversations with them. I'm pretty good at tuning people out (I got a lot of practice growing up tuning out my dad) but I overheard her tell my co-worker that she didn't get married until she was almost 40 but then divorced the guy only a few years later. Sadly, my co-worker asked what happened with the marriage, and this is what she said: "Honey, I was a virgin for 40 years and when suddenly he had problems and couldn't have sex anymore, I dropped him faster than you could blink!"
GUUUUUUUUUH!
Things that make you go : What the *&%$!

Hopefully not a bitter diatribe

Just some random thoughts and feelings; hopefully it doesn't turn out to be a bitter diatribe.

So this issue with my wrist has become more of an ordeal than I thought/planned. I had to cut my hours way back at work, which is good and bad at the same time. Good because, well, I'm lazy and totally proud of it :) But bad because my checks are going straight to two different savings accounts, one of which was for a trip to Disneyland for Christmas. Not sure that that is going to happen now. Not to mention it is VERY difficult to cut hair with the cast on.
The first day I had my cast thing on and only worked a couple of hours, I was kind of excited when I got home thinking: "Sweet! I can just work on my hobbies and be useless!" I flopped on the couch and pulled out my cross stitch then realized, oh wait. Can't cross stitch. Oh well, I have my friend Stefs' unfinished afghan to work on. Oh wait. Can't crochet. So then I thought, ok. Nice excuse to sit and play Star Wars Legos. Oh wait, can't hold or use the remote. ARRRG! Didn't really feel like reading, so I cleaned for a while until it started to hurt and then I realized I probably shouldn't be cleaning. So there was just one thing left to do.... "Lord of the Rings" marathon!!!!! :) I'm fairly certain I've watched poor Boromir die 100 times; not to mention I have most of his lines memorized....Nerd.

When I went to the Doctor for my wrist they wanted to do some x-rays. The doctor asked, "any chance you could be pregnant?" I had to laugh. "Um, no, I'm not" And thinking thanks for the reminder. Then a nurse walked me into the x-ray room and asked the same question. Trying not to get angry because, you know, how is she supposed to know my situation? Then the x-ray tech came in and asked "any chance you could be pregnant?" Me: "Nope. Not a chance in hell."

Which brings me to my next rant: My doctor decided to have me try 3 months of a newer fertility drug. It basically does the same thing as clomid but without the emotional side effects. I haven't noticed anything horrible these past two months; my stomach turns over on occassion but nothing like the-devil-clomid. After that, my Doc tells me they have to get more "aggressive" and go to a fertility specialist. The next step in the process is usually IVF (In-vitro). But from what I've read about it, it is not sounding too fun. One has to take all these hormones to help your body do in 3 days what it does in 3 weeks naturally. I'll have Scott lock me up in a padded cell.

Today in Relief Society we had a lesson on adversity. I needed it. I really don't want to get bitter and have been successful thus far. I know that 18 months is nothing compared to some couples, but sorry. That still doesn't make me feel better. I suppose I'm extremely self-centered. It's difficult to deal with an unanswered prayer that seems like a righteous desire. I know that if/when it does happen, we'll look back and say, "Oh yeah. This or that was the reason we needed to wait. But again, that doesn't fill the hole. The baby thing isn't constantly on my mind; I make sure of that. But every now and then I get subtle or not-so-subtle reminders of it and then I get sad.

Probably the hardest thing to deal with right now is the PCOS. According to the barrage of tests, the endometriosis isn't even an issue right now. Endo usually clogs things and gets in the way. I'm totally clear. It's the PCOS that is keeping me from it. I mean, seriously. This stupid thing has taken my thick hair away from me, my clear skin, and my figure, and has the potential to keep me from having biological children. It's a right nasty piece of work!!!

Anyway, all really is well. After purging my mind of thoughts and feelings (which I think is essential) I have to stop and count my many blessings. I also had a wonderful blessing from my dear father-in-law that filled me with renewed hope.

Back to LOTR now....

More Random Updates

My mom and Scott singing.
One of my very favorite Sunday evening activities growing up was sitting with my mom at the piano and singing. For the past several years I've taken to skipping the singing and just flopping on the couch and listening to Mom play. I remember about a month before I left on my mission I was listening to my Mom playing the piano and I teared up. I realized that would be one thing I'd miss most while gone. I love hearing her play her own arrangments of "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" and "Can't Help Lovin' That Man".


Thursday: Lunch with the girls. Annika and her daughter Keila, Breanne, Courtney and her daughter Ava, Me, Erin and her daughter Ellie. Good food, good company!

2 Years

Today is our 2 year anniversary. We celebrated last week by going to the temple, going to "Joseph" at the Scera, and then going golfing Saturday. (why celebrate just one day?) Scott is thrilled that I've decided to take up golf and he is very entertained with me.

There's a new Brad Paisley song called "I thought I loved you then" and we love it. I definitely share the sentiment. The above picture was taken 2 years ago today, and I didn't think it was possible for me to love Scott any more than I did then. Boy was I wrong! I find myself loving him more and more all the time. He is a wonderful friend and hubby. Here's to more and more years together!

The Rest of our Yellowstone Pics

Scott out golfing one morning. My parent's condo was right on the golf course. I decided not to go because a) I'm not at all good yet and b) it would have taken us all day to play 9 holes.

Lower Falls and the Canyon of the Yellowstone.

Upper Falls

Mom and Scott

Us at a little pond in Norris Geyser Basin

Firehole River Falls (are you noticing a pattern??? Lots of waterfalls!!!)

These pics are in reverse order...oops. Anyway, this buffalo was walking smack in the middle of the lane, not allowing anyone to pass him. We laughed so hard at the line of cars there was behind him. I guess he wanted everyone to know that it was HIS road.

Old Faithful: Which actually isn't so faithful anymore. With all the plates shifting all the time and a recent earthquake it goes off every 90 minutes now and sometimes it doesn't go very high.

Standing in the Firehole river.

Loved the little flowers growing between the pines.

various bacteria and little organisms that make cool colors.

My cute hubby.

Took this at a wonderful little Mom and Pop type diner. To the side of my mother was a table of rough, drinking men. Somehow, they (INCLUDING my Mom) got into a conversation about football. I turned to Scott and said, "Only my mother could sit and talk football with a bunch of redneck, complete strangers."