Random Tidbits

 For some reason I wanted to share with the blogging world what I do with my spare time.  My phone is wonderful and I love all the "douchey" things that are available to me.  Here is an example of one time waster I enjoyed just the other evening.  These frames are generic, but when applied to pictures of my family I can't stop laughing!

Chris acts silly on so many different occasions that I figured someone might actually mistake him for a "Bandit Monkey."

 This picture now adorns my facebook profile because I find it to be HILARIOUS. City's personality is so adorable I'm sure he would actually wear glasses to make us laugh.

This image is from facebook.  I took this picture while packing in Houston because Chris was wrapping fragile items while laying on the floor.  After posting it on facebook, a LOT of individuals commented on it.  I still laugh because he actually has boxers on underneath the table... everyone who commented on facebook doubted that fact. :)

Christmas and such...

Christmas break was a lot of fun for both of us this year.  We were able to open our home to family.  It truly meant so much that they would drive all the way to Blanding and see our home.  We stayed up all night playing games and slept until past noon.  It was a lot of fun!  I hope each Christmas live up to 2010!

At the Edge of the Cedars museum, visiting an Anasazi Kiva.  It was pretty cool inside!

 Liz, Cathy, and Dan who spent Christmas with us in Blanding!

 My mom spent Christmas with us as well.  It was so great to have her spend Christmas in Blanding with us.

 My mom went ALL OUT on her gingerbread house.  

 Liz's two small home, my "toilet-papered" home, and my mom's designer home.

 We were also able to spend a few days in Logan with Larry and Roxy. The 7 of us snuggled up in their apartment.  I felt bad for turning their routine upside down, but I enjoyed the game playing too much :) 

 Liz blowing up her air mattress.  I almost lost it from giggling too much.  

 When we got back to Blanding, we came home to way too much snow!  Our driveway was blocked in by 3 feet of ice blocks :( We spent an hour of our New Year's Eve shoveling out.  We also took down Christmas in a non-traditional way.  We parked our tree in front of the back door so that we could simply push it out the door.  It worked pretty well.  Our Christmas tree is now enjoying the sun in our back yard.  I don't know when we will truly get rid of it.

 Chris announced that he had a treat for me when I got home from work one day.  He led me to the counter and pointed to this beauty.  Apparently the extremely old pool was home to this phone for years.  When Chris and his boss were cleaning out the office, Chris picked this up from the garbage can... apparently his boss has a little more home decor sense.  We plugged it in and, thank the lord above, its too loud from the static.

 City has taken to digging through our sofa cushions while we step out of the room.  I laugh a little too long before I step in and discipline him.  I love our puppy so much!

Favorite Christmas Tradition

My favorite Christmas tradition involved reading of course!  My mother started reading to me when I was VERY young.  I owe a lot to her for my current love of literature.  One of the most memorable books I can recall from the Christmas season was Trouble with Trolls.  Even though it doesn't sound very Christmassy it makes me think of home and cuddling with my mom.  I love her so much!  If you are looking for a book to add to your collection you can take my word that everyone will love this one!

Christmas Time!

It's almost Christmas and we are so excited to share our first Christmas in Blanding with the Merkets!  They will be here before we know it.  In preparation for their arrival we have hung the lights, decorated the tree, and unpacked some necessities like pictures!  

Chris was kind enough to brave the weather November 28th to get these bad boys up!

My entry way table displaying both of our wonderful families! 

 Some hand-me-down decorations my mother willingly parted with.  Our first Christmas in our home would not have been as wonderful without her help.

A slightly blurry picture of our adorable home.  We wanted to keep it simple for our first year and we are both a fans of the gold/white Christmas lights.  Chris hung the lights while it was snowing and they turned out wonderfully.  There is even a star above our door.  It's the perfect touch to finish the job. 

 Our Christmas tree that we picked up in Moab.  We weren't sure if we would be able to buy one in Blanding.  I'm glad we were able to pick it up so early in the season because we've enjoyed Christmas for a while now already!

 My FAVORITE wreath in the world.  I actually bought this for my mother while I was in Logan and couldn't part with it.  We have taken this bad boy to Idaho Falls, Salt Lake, Houston, and Blanding.  It has survived the many boxes and now adorns our door.

 This is the beautiful decorating my advisory did at school.  We only had 25 minutes to pull this masterpiece off.  Even if we didn't win the Spirit Stang, I believe we did an amazing job!  Half the work was to get everyone involved.  The Christmas tree on the blue paper is the product of one difficult to motivate 8th grader.  I don't think I have made an impression on him at all... but I did get him to cut out a Christmas tree and fringe a fleece blanket this holiday season.  I find that to be a success!

We hope you and yours our doing well this Christmas season!  If we get to see you over the break, our holidays will be even better!

Thanksgiving in Salt Lake

We were able to drive up to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving.  I'm VERY thankful that we were able to see my mom and Larry and Roxy.  We enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving feast (that I somehow did not get any pictures of). We were also able to go to a USU men's basketball game.  Overall it was a fun mini-vacation!

My mom is also redecorating her bathroom.  My favorite aspect of the re-do is her luxurious shower...

... and her tall cabinets.  She chose an amazing granite to finish it off as well.  Her bathroom is beautiful.

City got fixed over the break as well.  He had to wear this silly cone for 2 weeks.  He became one stinky dog.  

I'm in a funk called Blanding

I am in a little bit of a funk when it comes to living in Blanding these days.  I wish, wish, wish that we lived by family.  We haven't lived by family for awhile now and when it comes to the weekends I feel the isolation.  Everyone in Blanding has family around them.  And I'm talking about a LOT of family around them.  That's why if you are from Blanding you can't date anyone in Blanding :)

City is growing up pretty darn quickly.  He is such a sweet puppy.  He hasn't mastered "off" yet and loves to jump up on everyone.  It's not much of a problem now, but when he is full grown I can see how it could be a major 40 lbs. problem.  It is amazing to see how happy he is when we get home.  The love of a dog is something I've been craving for awhile!

We tried out Hovenweep National Monument today to get out of Blanding.  It's located in Colorado and includes Pueblo ancestral ruins from the 1200's.  It's amazing to see how long these structures have lasted in the desert.  We were also able to take City on the trail with us.  He had  BLAST!!!   

We finally got our side yard weeded today!  I have been waiting to see what has been hiding underneath those weeds.  We found chunks of concrete, rebar, a water meter, garbage, and lots of holes.  Its disheartening to see what a mess the CEU builders left in our yard.  I wish we had found a house that came with a yard, but we have the endless options to think about!!

 This is an image of the end product!  It doesn't seem much, but its an amazing difference overall.  Now we have the task of burning all of those weeds.  

Randi came down last weekend to visit!  It was a lot of fun to go to Arches with her and go on a few great hikes.  This picture is probably the most random picture we have of the two of us, but its my favorite!  

Funny things in our lives...

I have been wanting to blog for a few weeks now, but the time seems to escape me somehow!  I have also wanted to take pictures of the house (inside) to show everyone, but once again time seems to escape me somehow.  Instead I thought I'd take a few minutes to tell about some funny happenings at the Merket household.

1.  The other day in my honors class a student told me she wanted to knock on our door on Sunday and make us go to church.  Only in Blanding would this happen.

2.  On accident I pronounced "sex" while slowly pronouncing successor in class today.  (The funny kind of stops here.)

3.  City continues to make us laugh every other minute.  He is such a funny puppy.

4.  We are trying to get used to having our new roomie.  The lack of privacy isn't bad because he is rarely home. I get a little irritated when the window is open 24/7 and we are paying to heat the house.  Malia is awesome and its fun to go on weekend getaways around Blanding.  They share a lot of the same attitudes towards Blanding.  I'm thankful we have them.

5.  Malia found this video on youtube.  On our honeymoon Chris and I took a foods tour.  At the end they asked us for a video.  We had completely forgotten about this video until Malia brought it to our attention.  Apparently she searched for "Utah Luaus" and this was on the results page.  I laughed when I saw it.



6.  I have rearranged my seating chart in 5th period about 15 times to accommodate the students who cannot manage to keep on task.  I even got 2 extra desks from the basement of ARL to put in my classroom.  I have one student sitting right in front of my desk and a student in the very back of the room.  I also have a student who sits by the pencil sharpener in the front of the room.  It's very similar to babysitting... BUT IT WORKS!  Now I am rearranging a few students so the races are mixed a little more evenly.  Its sad to say that some students will stop talking when they are placed next to a Native American or a Caucasion.

7.  We are excited to decorate our house for Christmas.  I'm going to really try to get into the Christmas spirit.  Its been a few years since I've really tried...