Happy New Year!

The holidays have finally come to an end. I say finally, because I feel as if we have been WAY too busy. Home? Where is that again? As much as I love the holiday season, I am truly looking forward to life settling back down again. Having said that, the holidays treated us very well this year.

On Christmas Eve we went over to Josh's parents' house for fondue. There is always lots of yummy food involved, and Josh usually stuffs himself until he gets sick. (Deep fried cheese balls, anyone?) After food we played "Imagine If" and then watched a movie. After that, it was time to go home. Santa stopped by our house pretty early in the evening. Here is our beautiful tree!

Santa did spoil us this year (and of course we spoiled each other!) Here are just a few of our gifts. (My camera died pretty quickly - and it had trouble adjusting to the lighting, so sorry for the blur!)

A new ninjitsu video for Josh...

New sparring gloves for me...

And a model F-22 for Josh! The dogs opened their own presents. It took Lance a long time to figure it out, but Toby is an old pro, and Shena finally got the hang of it last year. Of course, Toby loves to play with the wrapping paper when we are done opening as well, and the usual mess was made:

After opening our gifts, we headed back to Josh's parents' for breakfast and more gifts. Then it was on to my family, where we spent the rest of the evening opening gifts, playing games, eating dinner, and watching movies. (The movie of choice for the evening was Despicable Me, which I highly recommend.) 

New Years was spent with my family. There was food, football, and poker (with chips of course). I was quite pleased with myself for winning our game of Texas Hold'em. My sister and I were the only ones left in when we quit, and it was pretty close but in the end I had more than she did. Since my luck is usually...well...nonexistent, I thought it was pretty cool. We rang in the new year with a sparkling cider toast and lots of yelling, but skipped our traditional confetti and noise-making this year. 

The Refugee

I really am a softy when it comes to dogs. There's no way for me to plausibly deny that. So yesterday when I went to Petsmart and found that the shelter was looking for holiday foster homes for some puppies, I couldn't say no to this guy:

Meet Lance, a 4 month old black labrador puppy. He's cute as cute, and playful but rather mellow for a puppy. Unfortunately he isn't house trained yet and his bladder seems to be the size of Rhode Island (he pees A LOT) but so far he isn't doing too bad. He is very patient and loves to play. In fact, he's quite the goofball:

The other dogs aren't sure what to think of him yet. They question my sanity, bringing a puppy into the house. But so far they are all getting along just fine. The trick is keeping Josh from getting too attached (and me, I'll admit). Josh loves labs. He's cute, but he isn't ours to keep. We have to take him back to the shelter after the holidays (in about 3 weeks), where, hopefully he will get adopted into a nice permanent family! I don't think he will have too hard a time. He is such a suck-up!

Semester's End

Well, another semester is at an end, and I must say I am enjoying having my husband all to myself. Am I jealous of all the time he spends with his homework? Maybe just a little. The end of this semester brings with it a lot of relief, however, because Josh passed his math class with a B+. This class has been a royal pain in the backside, so we are both glad to see it go (Josh more than me, I am sure). Josh also completed his first ever engineering class with an A- and has decided to add that as a minor. It adds a few more semesters, but I am glad he has a plan.

As for me, I just work work work! (Or pretend to anyway...*wink*) Work actually hasn't been very busy, so there is a lot of down time here at the office, and I'm not complaining. Okay sometimes I complain, since it makes for very boring days. Writing is slow - I think the competition has increased in light of the impending holidays. Everyone is trying to find new ways to earn extra cash. I would love some of that extra cash, but in the meantime I'll just wait it out and keep an eye out for new assignments...

Our preparations for Christmas are well under way. Our tree is up, and presents are wrapped beneath it. Well, they were wrapped beneath it until Toby decided to open (and eat) my mom's gift. Now the gifts are wrapped and up away from curious teeth...

Piggy's Day Out

Meet Piggy, the Hey Song-singing football pig. When I bought this for Josh I honestly thought that he would hate it. As it turns out, he actually loves it quite a lot.

Piggy went on his first adventure a few weeks ago, to the Utah/TCU football game. That's right, the game where we got completely and utterly and maddeningly crushed. Oh well, it was still fun to get out to a game, and Piggy even got all decked out in a University of Utah scarf for the occasion. It's a good thing it was warm, or EJ might have missed his scarf! Here are some more pictures:

We were depressed by the outcome of the game, of course, but at least we (Piggy especially) had a good time! And we're standing by and cheering for our Utes. Go Utes! Beat those Cougars on Saturday and this season will have been worth it!

And in other news...

We had a "blizzard" last night! I dropped quite a bit of snow, but nothing unmanageable. But boy was the wind strong! Essentially the entire state shut down. It was quite exciting, and nice to go home early. The dogs (Toby in particular) were excited to see the snow and spent some time out bouncing around in it. Of course, eventually they did want back in...

Toby just loves being dried off with his towel, so I think it was a good night all around for him. We're just glad that the roads were (mostly) clear this morning! And tomorrow is Thanksgiving, so...HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Dip (For Ginger Snaps & Nilla Wafers!)

Well first let me apologize for not having a tantalizing picture to go with this yummy recipe. I wanted to take a picture, and charged my camera and everything, and then promptly forgot. Josh's mom had a Halloween dinner on Sunday, and asked us each to bring an orange food. This dip was recommended to me, and I decided to try it. I was pleased with the outcome. It was easy and tasty! Here it is:


Pumpkin Cheesecake Dip


2 C. Pumpkin Puree
1 C. Dark Brown Sugar
2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Ground Ginger (I only used 1/4 tsp)
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1 (8 oz) Package Cream Cheese, softened
1 box of Ginger Snaps and/or Nilla Wafers Cookies

1. Using a mixer, whip cream cheese and pumpkin until creamy
2. Mix in sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger until well blended
3. Refridgerate Overnight


Serving Option (I did this, and it was fun and festive!):

Cut off the top of a small pumpkin and hollow out the inside. Pour dip into pumpkin and replace top. Refridgerate. When you are ready to serve, just pull out the pumpkin and place it on the serving tray with the cookies!

I'm still trying to recover...

...from the black belt test on Saturday! Josh and I both tested for our 2nd degree black belts, and two students tested for their 1st. We started off the morning bright and early with forms. There were a few mistakes, but in general those all went well. Once we were good and tired from forms, we started on our 5 mile run. I hate running, but it's a necessary evil once in awhile! It was raining too, so we were all pretty soggy by the time we were done with that. After the run and the pushups/situps, Josh and I were lucky enough to have a break while the others tested on their strikes, blocks, and kicks.

The rest of the test went by pretty quickly, and was a lot of fun. We did our defenses, during which time we were attacked randomly by other people. Sparring was fun as well. My parents and my cousin had all come to help out, so they all got to fight against us. Mom knocked the wind out of me. It just goes to show you never do reach a point where mom can't beat you! Here are a few pictures from the day:

Here I am, trying to defend myself from my mother!

Now Glenn has me in a headlock...uh-oh!

Josh beating up on EJ...

But this doesn't look so good for Josh!

Sterling attacking Josh

Uh-oh...Bye Peel! (Jacob or Porter? Can't tell from this angle! They're identical twins...)

Defenses turned out kinda funny...

I'm actually quite proud of this kick, except I wish my hands were up so it'd look better!

Here is Josh doing his breaking - 5 boards at one time! Way to go Josh!

Here we are performing our Tai Chi Sword form together

More of the sword form

It was a lot of fun, but very tiring, and we have been sore for the past few days! More pictures to come later!

The New Door

Finally! This is the moment we've all been waiting for. Well, it's a moment that I've been waiting for for quite some time now. We have a new back door! That's right! No more lifting up a giant slab of glass and metal just to access the backyard. No more ugly, old, and warped frame. Though this new door cost us a bit more than we wanted to spend, we are sure glad to have it. The installer came yesterday. I was able to watch the demo on the old door, which was a lot of fun! (Although Toby was a bit nervous about a stranger coming and destroying our house!) I didn't get to stay to see the final product, however...because I had to go to work! It was like having a bunch of Christmas presents you aren't allowed to open. I think work was longer than ever. Josh even covered my eyes while he walked me toward the kitchen so that I couldn't see until he "unveiled" it. And I am so happy with the results! And now for the unveiling...

We'll start with a "before" picture of the old door...

And then...(drumroll please!)...TA DA!

Both sides actually do open wide, but for the pictures I only opened one door. Isn't it beautiful?!