The Snow is Falling, the Decorations Are Up, and I'm Feeling the Holiday Spirit!

The snow has finally started falling here in Provo - we've seen some pretty good snow around Northern Utah. I don't know that it will keep us drought-free, but at least it's falling like it should in December. (The picture below is looking at Collins Peak at Alta Ski Resort.)
I've also got my Christmas decorations up and I'm feeling the Christmas spirit - Yeah! I don't know why I've had such a hard time this year getting excited for the holidays, but for some reason, it's taken a lot to get here. It has been a long hard year - I don't know that I'll look back on 2008 with loads of fondness - and I know that it's affecting me and making it more difficult to feel happy and excited. I'm glad that it's coming to a close.

Christmas should be a great one this year. Mike and I have decided to stay home and celebrate ourselves and that's good. We'll be with family before the holidays, which will be fun. Mom and Dad are having a pre-Christmas celebration this coming weekend and Kristin, Heather, and Becky and their families will all be there (well, everyone except Jake since he had to work). So, it'll be fun. I'll miss Travis and Preston, but you take what you can get when you can get it.

Christmas Spirit - What Christmas Spirit?

I'm feeling a little Grinch-y. Christmas season is upon us but I'm having a bit of trouble getting into the proper Christmas mood. It's sunny and 40+ degrees here, there's not a speck of snow on the ground, and I've yet to drag my Christmas decorations out of the shed.

I'm watching the Provo High Track Team run by my office window right now and every single one of them is in shorts! Seriously, it is only 40 degrees outside, but I guess the lack of snow is confusing those poor young kids.

It's time to force myself to feel the joy of the season! Yep, it's time to decorate for Christmas and bring my little office tree into work and turn on the lights. I need it - I need the reminder of what this season is and trees, lights, pretty ornaments, and music will do that better than snow on the ground ever could.

Next time I post, I'll be happy and filled with the Christmas spirit. At least, I better!

Thanksgiving has come and gone - but what to do with all this turkey?!

Thanksgiving was a success - 9 people chowing down on tender and juicy turkey, mounds of mashed potatoes (see my post on my humangous potato to see what we mashed up), loads of gravy, rolls, veggies, cranberry sauce, yams and apples, and apple salad. I had purchased and thawed a 20-lb bird, thinking we'd need all that meat, but we didn't. We had enough bird left to fill 6-quart size bags - 6! (Yeah, I don't estimate all that well apparently.)


So, now, what do we do with all that turkey? Turkey sandwiches will only take you so far before you start craving something else, but you definitely cannot let all the meat go to waste.


I'm trying to figure out what to do with leftover turkey meat that would be tasty, filling and won't require huge amounts of effort. So far, I've come up with turkey quesadillas, turkey pot pie, a twist on Shepherd Pie, and... nothing else. Can I get some help, please?

Some days are better than others...

Some days really are better than others...

- some days start off really great;
- some days don't have stupid people to deal with;
- some days your legs don't ache from walking for hours;
- some days things simply work.

I voted... Did you?

It's incredibly interesting to watch the democratic process at work. Our nation is amazing - not perfect, but it's incredibly heartening to see something so important to the world take place without violence or craziness (well, too much craziness).

Yup, I grew that...

So, I don't really have a green thumb, more like a semi-black one. Everything that I have tried to grow indoors dies on me - I water them, I put them in sunlight, I've even tried talking to them, but nothing works. Every plant kicks the bucket and does it in rather quick and dramatic fashion.

That's indoors. Apparently, I am much luckier outdoors. I put in a garden this year and last with the help of my father-in-law. I grew green beans, lots of tomatoes, a whole load of cucumbers, potatoes, and strawberries this year. The strawberry plants looked really good, but I didn't get anything out of it - no big surprise this year.

Everything came up really well. I was drowning in cucumbers, had too many beans to count, the tomatoes popped up and my potatoes had beautiful leaves and flowers. I dug around the potato plants a few times earlier in the summer and found nothing so I figured that something bad had happened and I my plants had kicked the bucket. Imagine my surprise when Dean walks into the house and shows off this big red Pontiac potato from MY GARDEN!

That was a joyous day - my potatoes were growing.

Just a couple days ago, Mike walks down into our room and shows me this giant, mutant potato - 2 1/2 pounds! Yep, 2 1/2 pounds of glorious goodness. Well, we mashed it up that night and ate it with some meatballs. It was tasty.

We dug up the rest of the plants last night and found another few ginormous potatoes living underground. One was even bigger than my monster from Saturday - 2 3/4 pounds! Here's a picture next to a quart canning jar:


And, here's one on the scale - if you click on the picture, you can read how much it weighs:

Pretty nuts, eh? Yep, I grow big potatoes.

Yup, I Laughed... Hard...

I'll admit it - I enjoy a little "Take on me" by Ah-Ha now and then... But, I enjoy this more...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, POPS!

Yea, it's Dad's birthday today! I'm sure it's just "another day" for Dad, but it's not - it's Dad's birthday!

You know, I've got a pretty great dad. He's taught me a ton, he loves me a lot, and he makes me a better person simply because of his example. Thanks, Dad, I love you!

Can you imagine?

This is gross - can you imagine seeing a boatload of spiders climbing up some pole outside your house? Yuck! I don't mind little spiders cuz I can kill those pretty easily, but these look like nightmare-sized spiders. It's just disgusting.

Apparently, this happened in Belarus on October 9th (but I bet it's happened more than just that one time.) I found this pictures on MSNBC in their Pictures of the Week slideshow.

The other day, my husband surprised me with some great hair pulls - you know, those great little pulls on your hair when your head aches just a bit and the little pulls are just the right amount of pressure? It got me thinking - How much do I love my husband? Well, let me list just a few of the many, many wonderful things that he does for me...

1) He'll call me up in the middle of the afternoon when he knows that I'm having a rough day at work and sing me a silly little love song
2) My husband makes me laugh - I'm too serious too much of the time and he helps me to lighten up
3) He'll rub my neck and my shoulders when he knows that I'm stressed out
4) He teases me, a little too much sometimes, but he always does it with love
5) He's made me excited to have children & he's going to be a great father
6) He doesn't make too much fun of my music
7) He'll visit me while I'm having a bath just to give me a kiss
8) If I'm having a long day at work, he'll bring me lunch at the office
9) He tells me I'm beautiful
10) We've got these little traditions and he makes sure that we keep them year after year

This is just a small sampling of the wonderfulness that is my husband. I know I sound all sappy, but hey, I just can't help it.

Am I Part of the Stereotype?

My sister sent me this list of 9 things that women say. Generally I laugh and enjoy these types of lists, but this time I could hear conversations that I've had with my husband where I said these things! So, thanks Heather, for helping to make me part of the stereotype.

9 Words Women Use

1. Fine = This is the word women use to end an argument, when they are right and you need to shut up.


2. Five Minutes = If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.


3. Nothing = This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with "Nothing" usually end in "Fine".


4. Go Ahead = This is a dare, not permission. Don't Do It !


5. Loud Sigh = This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to # 3 for the meaning of nothing.)


6. That's Okay = This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. "That's okay" means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.


7. Thanks = A woman is thanking you, do not question, or faint. Just say you're welcome. (I want to add - this is true, unless she says 'Thanks a lot' - then it is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say 'You're welcome'... that will bring on a "whatever").


8. Whatever = This is a woman's way of saying SCREW YOU!


9. Don't worry about it, I got it = Another dangerous statement; this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking 'What's wrong?' For the woman's response to that question, refer to # 3.

Not so big on Sarah Palin

I was hopeful when John McCain introduced Sarah Palin as his running mate (of course, there was that cynical side of me that thought he was doing it solely for the female vote). She is young, up-and-coming, probably the new face of the Republican Party.

Now, however, I'm incredibly turned off by her. I felt her acceptance speech at the RNP Convention was a high point - even though it was sarcastic and somewhat mean-spirited, and it's been downhill from there.

She comes off as dense, uncurious (is that a word?), and incredibly unprepared for the potential of being the most powerful leader in the world. She came off incredibly poorly in the few interviews she's had with Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric. And the claim of "gotcha" reporting is crap - these types of questions are asked of and expected to be answered by people running for public office. If she can't answer a question directly, succinctly and clearly, what hope is there for us in the future if she's across the negotiating table wiht world leaders?

I watched the VP debate this past Thursday and felt that she undid some of the damage she had caused herself over the past couple of weeks. She had answers, she knew some facts, but she had this snarky little attitude and she was a little bit rote. "John McCain and I are mavericks; under John McCain and I we will bring change." Say it with me - maverick, change, middle class, maverick, change, maverick, maverick...

I really felt that she came off as "I'm going to insult you to your face, but I'm going to do it saying 'Darn it' and 'You betcha' with a smile and a wink and it'll be okay cuz I'm female and I have a little accent." That doesn't fly with me. She's asking to be trusted with a lot of power, but she's not asking us to do it based upon her readiness or intellect - just based upon her ability to connect with persona Joe Six-Pack. Who is that? Does this person really exist? I doubt he's the person that she thinks he is.

She's pushing me towards Barack Obama's camp. I'm concerned about some things with Obama, but at this point, I feel better about him and Joe Biden than I do about John McCain and Sarah Palin. This really is the election of choosing between the lesser of two evils, unfortunately for the citizenry of the United States of America.

Welcome to my world!

Hi there - welcome to Amy's world. Not too much happening here, but full of great people, good times, and maybe some good thoughts. I wanted a place where I could post about things that catch my eye and my mind.

First, let me introduce myself: I'm Amy (obviously), 31 years old, wife, and employee of an online personals company. My husband and I met over six years ago during the 2002 Winter Olympics. We were both in Park City at a club called Harry O's and we've been together ever since. We were married July 2005 and sealed in the Salt Lake Temple in September of 2007.

My husband is attending school, working towards getting into a School of Pharmacy and becoming a pharmacist. He's got about two years left of undergrad work and then four years of pharmacy school.

I love reading - pretty much anything (you can see some of my books in my LibraryThing feed to the right); history - especially medieval and early American; watching movies with my husband; and listening to great music. I don't really get Facebook, I'm not super interested in being an early adopter of technology, but I do want to know about the latest and greatest authors and books.

So, there you have it - me at a glance. Stick around - hopefully, I'll post something that will strike a note with you!