I got released from being "Primary President" today. People kept asking me if I was sad about it, but the truth is that I wasn't really sad at all. In fact, I was a little relieved. It's been a great calling, but I'm ready for a change and my favorite child just moved away, so it's good timing.
I don't know that I really have that much to write about, but we'll see what I come up with. Friday night I didn't feel like cooking and since I have a birthday coming up, I found birthday coupons. We ate burgers at Red Robin. Jason doesn't like eating at restaurants, but he does it just for me. I ate more french fries in that one night than I did in all of 2009 I think. They were YUMMY! And not surprisingly I took home half of my burger.
We were actually social this weekend. We went over to some neighbors on Friday night for a birthday party, were invited over for dinner and games at another neighbors house on Saturday night, and we invited another couple over for dinner at our apartment tonight for curry. We usually aren't that social, so I guess it's feast or famine with us.
My new job is going well. It's kind of fun, exciting, and stressful at the same time. The part I like most about it is that my work informs fairly big decisions made by the administration and Deans of colleges at BYU and will affect thousands of students and hundreds of faculty. It's kind of fun having a job that is so directly influential. It's for that very same reason that it can be stressful though, not to mention that I work for people that have a lot more clout and are very accomplished. Who am I to give my opinion in meetings full of people like that?
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
A New Semester
Well, this new semester has brought a few new changes. Jason started several new classes this semester including a History of Civilization class, a Seminary teaching class, Media in the Family, Korean Conversation, and Hebrew 101. It’s an interesting mix that keeping him really busy. He’s cut back on the hours he works in the coding lab, but he still pokes his head in every few days to see if they need anything. Jason was also released as the ward clerk this past Sunday. He has really enjoyed working with our Bishop and the whole bishopric are amazed how on top of things he always is. He says he’ll miss being in the “know,” but not the early morning Sunday meetings.
I didn’t really know how this semester would turn out, but it flipped very quickly from not knowing what to do with all my time, to not knowing how to get everything done in my time. I was offered a job at the Center for Teaching and Learning at BYU as a Research Assistant/Evaluator. I am hired to work on two pretty big projects, a significant but quick project with the American Heritage course, and a technology research project to find out the technology needs/wants of the faculty in connection with Course Management Systems such as Blackboard. I didn’t really realize how big these projects were when I took the job, but the last few days have been both exciting and stressful!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
The End of Another Year
For New Year’s Eve we all went over to Jeff and Sally’s new home. We all enjoyed hanging out, sledding down their hill in the front yard, watching Night at the Museum 2 on their home theatre system, having a family dance, and playing games before celebrating the new year. It’s hard to believe it already 2010. I still distinctly remember being in 6th grade and having people refer to us as the class of 2000 and thinking that the year 2000 seemed so far away. It has been a good year, but it will be interesting to see what happens in 2010. I could be in very different circumstances a year from now.As we were gathering things up to go, we realized that one of the brothers that had driven our car to Jeff and Sally’s had left the lights on and killed the battery. All the guys went out to help jump the battery while the rest of us enjoyed watching someone’s illegal but very pretty fireworks display out the back windows. Fortunately they were able to get the battery going again and we made it back to Alpine around 1:00 in the morning.
Jason and I enjoyed sleeping in until 9:00am the next morning. I must say that sleeping in has been one of the advantages of not having kids yet. Most everyone else is up early in the morning with the kids, but Jason and I have slept in most mornings—even though that meant missing breakfast at times.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Skiing
We left at almost 7:30am for Powder Mountain to go skiing. Jason and I were in the van with Andy, Chelsey, Mom and Dad.
It snowed most of the night and snowed all the way through the afternoon. The roads hadn’t been plowed so it was a slow and scary drive up the mountain. It was so foggy, that we couldn’t even really see where we were going or if we were going the right direction at times. The roads up the mountain were especially bad. We passed a police officer coming down and asked her how the roads were. She replied, “The roads are horrible.” We attempted going up them anyway though after a plow and road salter truck drove past us. Twice I thought we were going to run into cars as we tried to pass them on the road. We had to pass them because they had gotten stopped in the middle of the road, but if we had stopped behind them, we would have never had the momentum to make it up the steep hills. We were still sliding all over the road even with the salt, but without the salt laid down we would have never made it. At the very last hill Andy and Mike had to jump out of the car and push the van up a part of the hill to help us not get stuck. There were a few moments that I really didn’t think we were going to make it up, but I’m very grateful we did. Because of the bad weather and bad roads, it took us three and a half hours to get there.
We went to Powder Mountain because Jeff’s business, Peak Capital, owns a lot of the surrounding lands of the ski resort. Because of that, we received royal treatment. We had several pairs of skis rented for free, plus all of our day/night passes for free, a catered pizza lunch, and access to a Yurt (a tent the size of a front room with couches and a fire going), basically the equivalent of thousands of dollars.
It was snowy and foggy, but it wasn’t extremely cold or windy which was nice. Because of all the recent snow, we were skiing in about 12 inches of fresh powder, which is awesome for experienced skiers and a little unnerving for inexperienced skiers like me. Jason skied most of the afternoon with his brothers and mom while I happily stayed back with two of the sisters-in-law and eight-year-old Dallin.
One time up the ski lift, we had the four of us on one chair. As we were getting off, somehow one of the sisters-in-law bumped the rest of us and the other three of us got carried a little two far past the drop-off point and then fell off into the snow. Now that I think back on it, it must have looked really funny. They had to stop the chair lift and people came down to see if we were okay. I think Dallin got it the worst because one of his skis had come off, but we were all okay.
A little later we went down a path that led us to a tow rope lift. We didn’t know that we were going to that particular tow rope and the only other way down, we were told, was a black diamond. Well, the tow rope was kind of tricky. We waited in a long line and then Dallin was the first to try to get up the hill. He fell flat on his face three times in a row, meanwhile the people behind us were getting ancy. Next Sally went up, but she fell off half-way up the hill and had to come back down. Lisa tried it and fell off and then I tried it and fell off. Finally we let other people go ahead of us in line while we tried to figure out what to do. Sally made it up, Lisa tried again but then had a hard, painful fall. Lisa and I were about to take off our skis and walk up the dumb hill when the attendant convinced us to try one more time. Lisa finally got on and then the attendant helped me get on as well. As soon as I was somewhat situated I looked up ahead of me only to see that Lisa had fallen down but hadn’t let go and was being dragged up the hill backwards and holding on for dear life. It felt like a long trip even though it only lasted about 8 min. but I kept expecting Lisa to fall off. She stuck it out until she was almost to the top and heard someone yell to let go. She finally let go and then furiously tried to roll over in the snow with her skis on to avoid being hit by me coming behind her. Fortunately she wasn’t hurt, but it was a pretty exhausting trip to the top for her. I wished I could have taken a picture of her, but both of my hands were busy holding the tow pole and my ski poles.
I didn’t really fall down much, and when I did, it was a really soft landing into a bunch of powder. It was a lot of fun! We left about 4:30pm and had much better roads going down the mountain, but we still didn’t get home until around 8:00pm.
It snowed most of the night and snowed all the way through the afternoon. The roads hadn’t been plowed so it was a slow and scary drive up the mountain. It was so foggy, that we couldn’t even really see where we were going or if we were going the right direction at times. The roads up the mountain were especially bad. We passed a police officer coming down and asked her how the roads were. She replied, “The roads are horrible.” We attempted going up them anyway though after a plow and road salter truck drove past us. Twice I thought we were going to run into cars as we tried to pass them on the road. We had to pass them because they had gotten stopped in the middle of the road, but if we had stopped behind them, we would have never had the momentum to make it up the steep hills. We were still sliding all over the road even with the salt, but without the salt laid down we would have never made it. At the very last hill Andy and Mike had to jump out of the car and push the van up a part of the hill to help us not get stuck. There were a few moments that I really didn’t think we were going to make it up, but I’m very grateful we did. Because of the bad weather and bad roads, it took us three and a half hours to get there.
We went to Powder Mountain because Jeff’s business, Peak Capital, owns a lot of the surrounding lands of the ski resort. Because of that, we received royal treatment. We had several pairs of skis rented for free, plus all of our day/night passes for free, a catered pizza lunch, and access to a Yurt (a tent the size of a front room with couches and a fire going), basically the equivalent of thousands of dollars.
It was snowy and foggy, but it wasn’t extremely cold or windy which was nice. Because of all the recent snow, we were skiing in about 12 inches of fresh powder, which is awesome for experienced skiers and a little unnerving for inexperienced skiers like me. Jason skied most of the afternoon with his brothers and mom while I happily stayed back with two of the sisters-in-law and eight-year-old Dallin.
One time up the ski lift, we had the four of us on one chair. As we were getting off, somehow one of the sisters-in-law bumped the rest of us and the other three of us got carried a little two far past the drop-off point and then fell off into the snow. Now that I think back on it, it must have looked really funny. They had to stop the chair lift and people came down to see if we were okay. I think Dallin got it the worst because one of his skis had come off, but we were all okay.
A little later we went down a path that led us to a tow rope lift. We didn’t know that we were going to that particular tow rope and the only other way down, we were told, was a black diamond. Well, the tow rope was kind of tricky. We waited in a long line and then Dallin was the first to try to get up the hill. He fell flat on his face three times in a row, meanwhile the people behind us were getting ancy. Next Sally went up, but she fell off half-way up the hill and had to come back down. Lisa tried it and fell off and then I tried it and fell off. Finally we let other people go ahead of us in line while we tried to figure out what to do. Sally made it up, Lisa tried again but then had a hard, painful fall. Lisa and I were about to take off our skis and walk up the dumb hill when the attendant convinced us to try one more time. Lisa finally got on and then the attendant helped me get on as well. As soon as I was somewhat situated I looked up ahead of me only to see that Lisa had fallen down but hadn’t let go and was being dragged up the hill backwards and holding on for dear life. It felt like a long trip even though it only lasted about 8 min. but I kept expecting Lisa to fall off. She stuck it out until she was almost to the top and heard someone yell to let go. She finally let go and then furiously tried to roll over in the snow with her skis on to avoid being hit by me coming behind her. Fortunately she wasn’t hurt, but it was a pretty exhausting trip to the top for her. I wished I could have taken a picture of her, but both of my hands were busy holding the tow pole and my ski poles.
I didn’t really fall down much, and when I did, it was a really soft landing into a bunch of powder. It was a lot of fun! We left about 4:30pm and had much better roads going down the mountain, but we still didn’t get home until around 8:00pm.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Burningham Fun
Dec. 26
Today we had the Winter Olympics organized by Andy and Kimra. We were divided into three teams and competing in bobsledding, snowball throwing, discus throw, ball balancing, and trivia. It was very clever and well-thought out to involve both the kids and the adults. Jason and I made a trip to the grocery store with Chels and Lisa. That night Gr. And Gr. Richards came over to have their life history taped.
Dec. 27
Today was Sunday. Tim and Lisa and their family spent the day with Lisa’s mom, but the rest of us went to church in Alpine. Mom B. was all too happy to introduce all of her sons and their family to show off what a great family she has. The meetings were good, but I especially enjoyed Relief Society.
Jason and I were in charge of dinner and we made the Café Rio Pork Burrito Salad. It was kind of a lot of work, but they tasted DELICIOUS! That night we watched home videos, and I was reminded again about what a cute little boy Jason was when he was little.
Mon. Dec. 28
Jason and I were in charge of breakfast this morning. We made breakfast casserole. Jason helped me make them last night. He had fallen asleep but I woke him up to help me. I had forgotten that I needed to make them until 10:30pm but Jason woke up and helped me grate cheese, cut sausage, etc. What a good husband!
Later that day we all went to the Seven Peaks Ice Arena and went ice skating. It was a lot of fun. We had enough adults to help Cali, Dallin, and Truman learn how to skate. We helped them around the ice most of the time, but Jason likes to go fast, so he sped around the rink a few times with his brothers as well.
After ice skating we went to McDonald’s in Springville so all the grandkids could play on the playland. We gave Andy and Kimra a quick tour of our apartment and then headed back to Alpine and played “Trump” which we call “Mormon Bridge” in our family.
That night Jason and I drove to Sandy and went to the Rasband cousin Christmas get-together. We ate lots of good treats and I talked with Debbie, John, Sarah, Aunt Karen, and Aunt Edie. We took Melody and Brandon and back to Mom and Dad’s and played games and talked with them until after midnight. We played a really long game of Parcheezi that had kind of a funny ending. It was fun hanging out with them before they go back to Missouri.
Tues. Dec. 29
This morning all of the married Burninghams went to a session at the Mount Timp Temple. The temple was more busy than I’ve ever seen it, but after waiting awhile, we barely made the end of the 10:30 session. It was really neat to be together with everyone in the Celestial Room together. Chelsey stayed home to take care of all the grandkids, but we talked about how much we hoped she would be with us too some day.
Later in the day we all went over to the church to play kid games like Red Light, Green Light, tag, Duck, Duck Goose, Musical Chairs, etc. It started snowing in the morning and it was pretty slippery getting to and from the church.
After dinner we had a girls night out where all the guys put the kids to bed and all the girls went out to Cold Stone for ice cream. It was still snowing a lot, but that didn’t stop us from eating ice cream. Chelsey had gone out with Mike that night, but the rest of us enjoyed talking together, laughing together, and eating ice cream together.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Christmas in Alpine
We spent Christmas Eve morning and part of the afternoon with Mom and Dad, Melody and Brandon. Melody and Brandon flew in early that morning. We talked for a little while and then played a game of Five Crowns which I ended up winning for once. Jason left to go Christmas shopping and pick up Andy and Kimra from the airport while I stayed with my family a little longer. The Eliasons and Riverton Rogers came over and we had fun playing. Andy took family pictures for us before, Jason and I left again to be with the Burninghams.
We ate a yummy dinner and played Dominion a couple of times, Catch Phrase, and talked with Andy and Kimra, Steve and Kirsten, and Mom and Dad B.
Friday Dec. 25, 2009 Christmas
We were woken up at 7:30am for to open Christmas presents. It would have been earlier, but 3-year-old Drew got sick with stomach flu during the night and slept until 8:30am. It was a little more anti-climatic opening presents since Drew wasn’t there and the two toddlers didn’t care as much. I gave Jason some jeans, cargo pants, basketball shoes, basketball shorts, and a bag of vanilla tootsie rolls. I got some jeans, a sweater, a rice cooker, couch cover, and two couch pillows. I looked for a Korean translator, but didn’t get one in time for Christmas. Mom and Dad Burningham gave Jason a heating pad, football, and two games. They gave me a really nice ceramic space heater.
We ate the traditional Burningham breakfast of Swedish Saffron bread, scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage, and orange juice. It was really yummy! After breakfast we played a game of Carcassonne, Jason and I showered, and then we went to Grandpa B’s to visit for awhile. They had treats and sandwiches and we visited. They gave us a calendar for Christmas. Grandma and Grandpa Richards gave us $70, which will definitely help our Christmas.
Next we stopped by my Mom and Dad’s to have a turkey dinner with the Eliasons, Riverton Rogers(Keith, Kim, Talisa, and Kira), and Melody and Brandon. It was nice to see them on Christmas. Afterwards we exchanged sibling gifts. The Eliasons gave us a nice car emergency preparedness kit, and we gave the Carters a cordless, hands free phone thing for their phone. I enjoy being with my family.
By 6:30pm we were out the door again and back to the Burninghams. Tim’s family came in that day so we visited with his and Jeff’s family. We opened more gifts. Jeff and Sally gave Jason and I Christmas CDs and ski lift passes to powder mountain. We gave Lisa two shirts that she really liked and Kimra new Sunday shoes that she liked too. Mom and Dad Burningham gave us Book of Mormon Who?, Rivers and Rods, and Hit the Deck (games), The Secret DVD, a jar of M&Ms and a dishcloth with spatula. We really appreciate their generosity.
After the kids went to bed, the adults stayed up until after midnight talking about politics and religion. What a different Christmas day compared to my family, but it was a good one and nice to be with a lot of family.
We ate a yummy dinner and played Dominion a couple of times, Catch Phrase, and talked with Andy and Kimra, Steve and Kirsten, and Mom and Dad B.
Friday Dec. 25, 2009 Christmas
We were woken up at 7:30am for to open Christmas presents. It would have been earlier, but 3-year-old Drew got sick with stomach flu during the night and slept until 8:30am. It was a little more anti-climatic opening presents since Drew wasn’t there and the two toddlers didn’t care as much. I gave Jason some jeans, cargo pants, basketball shoes, basketball shorts, and a bag of vanilla tootsie rolls. I got some jeans, a sweater, a rice cooker, couch cover, and two couch pillows. I looked for a Korean translator, but didn’t get one in time for Christmas. Mom and Dad Burningham gave Jason a heating pad, football, and two games. They gave me a really nice ceramic space heater.
We ate the traditional Burningham breakfast of Swedish Saffron bread, scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage, and orange juice. It was really yummy! After breakfast we played a game of Carcassonne, Jason and I showered, and then we went to Grandpa B’s to visit for awhile. They had treats and sandwiches and we visited. They gave us a calendar for Christmas. Grandma and Grandpa Richards gave us $70, which will definitely help our Christmas.
Next we stopped by my Mom and Dad’s to have a turkey dinner with the Eliasons, Riverton Rogers(Keith, Kim, Talisa, and Kira), and Melody and Brandon. It was nice to see them on Christmas. Afterwards we exchanged sibling gifts. The Eliasons gave us a nice car emergency preparedness kit, and we gave the Carters a cordless, hands free phone thing for their phone. I enjoy being with my family.
By 6:30pm we were out the door again and back to the Burninghams. Tim’s family came in that day so we visited with his and Jeff’s family. We opened more gifts. Jeff and Sally gave Jason and I Christmas CDs and ski lift passes to powder mountain. We gave Lisa two shirts that she really liked and Kimra new Sunday shoes that she liked too. Mom and Dad Burningham gave us Book of Mormon Who?, Rivers and Rods, and Hit the Deck (games), The Secret DVD, a jar of M&Ms and a dishcloth with spatula. We really appreciate their generosity.
After the kids went to bed, the adults stayed up until after midnight talking about politics and religion. What a different Christmas day compared to my family, but it was a good one and nice to be with a lot of family.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Our Little Getaway
This morning Jason tried to finish some of his school projects and I got my grades mostly taken care of for the semester. That afternoon we packed up and drove to Logan. Jason’s dad had an extra night’s hotel stay at a Holiday Inn that was about to expire, so we ended up taking it so we could see Doug and Tracy Smith sealed in the Logan temple. We made it to the Hotel at about 5:30pm and then went out to eat at Chilie’s Restaurant. We did a little Christmas shopping at the nearby stores and then went back to our hotel and watched a movie called Amazing Grace about the end of the slave trade in England. It was a really inspiring movie and Jason especially liked it.
The next day we ate a yummy continental breakfast and then headed over to the Logan Temple for the 10:00 session where Doug and Tracy received their endowments. Tracy’s grandparents, sister, and aunt were there, as well as Kathie, Dennis, and Marilee. Right after the session they ushered us into a sealing room for their sealing and then brought in their three daughters to be sealed to them. The spirit was so strong in the sealing room and it was a neat experience to be there for that. After the sealing we all went down to the cafeteria for lunch and then took a few pictures afterwards. It was at least 2:00 by the time we left and the snow had just started coming down. It snowed most of the way home to Provo that afternoon, but fortunately it didn’t get too slippery or dangerous.
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