V-day Tag

I stole this from my friend Emily's blog....

How long have you been together?
Since we started dating - a little over ten years. Married for 8 and a half!!!

How long did you know each other before you started dating?
3 months.

Who asked who out?
Matt asked me after I told him I liked him... I said I would go out with him but that I was bringing my sister Becky along with us.... What was I thinking?! We went to Chili's.

How old are each of you?
Matt is 31 and I'm still 30 for one more month.

Whose siblings do/ did you see the most?
It's probably about equal now that Becky lives in NE.

Do you have any children together?
One boy and six angels.

What about pets?
We ave a beta fish that we have managed to keep alive for ONE YEAR! Amazing.

Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
Halitosis.

Did you go to the same school?
No, never.

Are you from the same home town?
Yes. Though it wasn't always my hometown.

Who is the smartest?
We are pretty evenly matched, but don't tell Matt I said that. I like him to think I'm smarter.

Who is the most sensitive?
Matt is way more considerate of other's feelings, but I cry more often... I guess that doesn't mean I'm sensitive, just emotionally unstable. So, yeah, Matt.

Where do you eat out most as a couple?
We love Chili's and Tucanos but with our budget, mostly fast food.

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
Disneyland.

Who has the craziest ex’s?
Definitely Matt, since I don't have any and one of his was CRYING at our reception.

Who has the worst temper?
Me.

Who hogs the bed?
I'd have to say him because I am very territorial and he is constantly getting on my side... But he'd probably say me because of my territory issues.

Who is more stubborn?
Matt says it's me. We argued about it for 30 minutes and I still don't agree.

Who is more jealous?
That's easy, me.

Who does the cooking?
Me. But Matt does too once in a while.

Who is more social?
Me, by FAR.

Who is the neat Freak?
Matt, and it freaks me out.

Who wakes up earlier?
Matt, I hate waking up in the morning.

Where was your first date?
Without Becky? We went to Christmas In The Park in downtown San Jose. He was on crutches because of a broken foot he acquired during church ball, and I had a broken shoulder I acquired in an auto accident. We gimped around for a while and then went to Taco Bell, then over to his families house to play Nintendo. Did I mention he farted?

Who has the bigger family?
He has a bigger immediate family. I have a bigger extended family.


Do you get flowers often?
More often than I expect them.

How do you spend the holidays?
With one side of the fam or the other, sometimes both.

How long did it take to get serious?
For him or me? and what is the definition of serious? I was serious about him before we started dating.

Who does the laundry?
I do mostly. But he helps a LOT when he can.

Who drives when you are together?
He does, until I freak out too much and then he pulls over and we switch.

Is your family still growing?
We'll see.

I tag: Everyone Who Wants to do it even though Valentine's Day has passed.

The start of a new posting habit...

I used to do book reviews on my blog, but I haven't done one since last September. I don't like to give away anything about the stories I read. I have found that it diminishes the experience for me. The books I have enjoyed the most have been the ones I picked up not knowing or expecting anything. It has gotten so important to me not to know that I have even stopped reading jacket covers, because for me they reveal too much.

I have made the decision to go from book reviews to posting a book list once a month or every other month to give a list of what I've read and weather or not I recommend the book. I may add my thoughts about the author or something, but I won't say much about the stories if I think it gives too much away. But who am I to judge what is too much to say? I may not say anything...

If you find you have read one of the books on my list please leave a comment for me as I love to hear and read opinions of books after I have read them. Or if you have read a good book feel free to give me recommendations, but please no plot.

This first one will be longer than others because it is several months worth. Here we go:

The Giver by Lois Lowry - I really liked this book even though it was a bit weird. It gave me some interesting insights and freaked me out at parts.

Fablehaven and Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star by Brandon Mull - I was reluctant to pick these up because I knew they were fantasy and I from what I had heard I felt like the author was riding on the coat tales of Harry Potter, who, you all know, is VERY near and dear to my heart. Then I found that the author is local and I like to support local artists (unless they write romance) so I gave them a try. I fell in love during the first book. They have a completely different tone than the books about Harry. So far, I have found them very enjoyable. I've just started the third book.

Lyddie by Katherine Paterson - LOVED IT!!!

Hot Lunch by Alex Bradley - This was a Utah Beehive nomination so I picked it up and found it a pleasant read. Very entertaining.

Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson - I liked this book.

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson - LOVED IT!!!

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier - This was the October Book Club Pick. I liked this book, and I really liked discussing it.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - This was a good book, but it's one that someone recommended to me and gave away a key element or two, so I don't feel like I got the full experience of figuring things out for myself.

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Relin - November Book Club Pick. I enjoyed reading this book. It's non fiction which is not really my thing but I really loved this book.

What Became of Her by M.E. Kerr - This book was okay. I feel like it was missing something.

The Sister by Poppy Adams - I loved this book, though it was really, really weird.

Hallelujah by J. Scott Featherstone - December book Club Pick. This was a good book because of the subject matter. I enjoyed reading it though I didn't really care for the authors writing style or his repetition.

Goose Girl by Shannon Hale - LOVED IT! There has been a lot of buzz about this local author in the circles I travel in. I gave her a try and I have been really impressed. Her writing is refreshing and very entertaining. I have been reading a lot of her books lately. All of her books are in demand here, I have to get on the library's waiting list for each of them. If I had daughters I would be purchasing them.

Enna Burning by Shannon Hale - LOVED IT! This is a companion book to the Goose Girl so read the Goose Girl first.

The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho - This book was strange and I'm still not sure if I liked it or not.... I'm leaning toward not.

The Tales of Beedle The Bard by J.K. Rowling - Of course I liked this book. It's a fun little companion to the Harry Potter series and I especially like the format and "contributors". And it was a fund raiser for a charity - it can't get much better than that. I also have two little pamphlet type books that J.K. did about eight years ago for another charity fundraiser, Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them. They are fun little reads that, like The Tales of Beedle, give a little extra insight into Harry's wizarding world.

Ralph S. Mouse by Beverly Cleary - I read this to Sam at night one chapter at a time. It was fun and we both enjoyed it.

The Ladies Auxiliary by Tova Mirvis - January Book Club Pick. I really like this book. I recommend it to all women. I liked our book club discussion as well, though I don't feel like we had the time we needed to cover it all (we went on a lot of tangents).

Book of A Thousand Days by Shannon Hale - LOVE, LOVE, LOVED IT! So far this has been my favorite Shannon Hale book. It was wonderful!!!

In the last 5 months I have also re-read the Harry Potter 4-7 books and if you haven't read them WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!!!!

Yesterday?

There is a Community Presbyterian Church on 100 East in American Fork. See the above photo. It's cute, and pretty at the same time and I like it because it adds to our small town feel. It's also semi-famous. It's the church used in the filming of Footloose starring Kevin Bacon. I'm surprised you didn't recognize it.

One of my favorite things about this building is that it has a bell tower and it chimes the hour. So if I'm lucky enough to be in the general vicinity on the hour or half hour I get to hear it chime. One quiet, summer day I even heard it from my house five or so blocks away. Also at certain times of day it chimes out whole hymns. I love this. I have always felt that music is the path of least resistance for the spirit and have been lucky enough to hear a hymn or two chime through the neighborhood bearing peaceful feelings and stirring thoughts of Christ. I have yet to figure out when or why it plays whole songs. But when I hear it, it's always a nice surprise.

Yesterday, while I was strapping the kids into the car after a quick trip to the post office I heard the bells chiming away. It was sometime between noon and 1pm so I was confused until I realized it was a song coming from the church and not the time. So I listened for a few seconds to try to catch the tune... To my surprise it was the tune of Yesterday by the Beatles. What? I'm a fan of the Beatles, and have been since I was about 13, but come on.

I know the Beatles sometimes hid secret messages in their music. Does this one have some hidden gospel message I never noticed? Since when does a church bear testimony through music of the truthfulness of John, Paul, George and Ringo? I know there were apostles named John and Paul. I think there is a Saint George. Do Presbyterians believe in Saints? Ringo?-- I got nothin'.

I've been thinking about it since I heard the bells toll and I am at a loss. Has anyone heard of this before? Am I over reacting?

Game?.... What game?

We had what Matt would call a Super Bowl Party on Sunday... I call it a food party. We had such yummy food and so I took pictures. I was seriously ill (throwing up, and pooping black water. Too much info?) on Saturday, and I had to postpone my book club, which I was hosting, and postpone dinner plans we had with friends. So I am so thankful that I was able to partake on Sunday of the delicious football food. My mom, Sam, my cousin Andrea, and I went up and watched Mama Mia sing along version instead of watching the game. It was so fun! And we had to put the leaf in the table to hold all the goods. On the menu:

7 layer dip, and bacon wrapped water chestnuts

I made a cheese ball (rolled it in sunflower seeds) and the beautiful green stuff is jalapeno jelly, made by a friend. So delicious together!

Spicy Chicken wings.

Ruffles and onion dip.

Egg rolls with some scrumdilecient homemade sweet and sour sauce.

I had to invite my drug dealer, Dr. Pepper.

Here are some pics of the Party Animals. Luckily they didn't get too unruly.

Looking to the Future...

Sam recently had his 100th day of 2nd grade. They spent a lot of time talking about the number 100. First I have a picture he drew of himself at 100 years old. We think it's funny, especially the walker and the squinty eyes, and the rickety legs.


For some reason I can't get this one to rotate properly. It's a little booklet the shape of the number 100 and there are all kinds of things to do with one hundred. I had to show the front page for Uncle Peter. If he had $100 he would buy.....

Validation

One of my friends posted this video on Facebook and it put a smile on my face. It's a bit long (16 minutes) but worth it.




I thought of it again today while doing laundry. As I was loading the washer, Emmy (the little girl I babysit) said, "Julie, you are really great at putting clothes in the washer." I said thanks, and chuckled to myself and then thought, Yea, I finally have something to blog about.

Christmas Post

We started our festivities with Sam's Christmas Program at School. His class sang I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas. It sure was cute and they had adorable hip hats, as you can see. Unfortunately they also look like they have evil eyes.

Later that day, one of our favorite people came into town. We also had a visit from her mom and dad and our other cousins from Reno. It was so fun to see them all and we miss them already. We took a family picture that was very memorable. Tune back in later to see those.

We helped Grandpa Alger clean out his train room and found our Hogwarts Express in the process. Our family received this from Grandpa and Grandma Alger back in 2001. It was Sam's first Christmas. I'm going to dedicate a future post to this train in the near future. I took a picture of Sam with his arms up (just like above) back then and as soon as I learn how to scan photos I'll put them up together and we can compare.

Of course it came with a platform 9 and 3/4.

It was so fun.

On Christmas Eve we were blessed with a free KING size bed. One of Matt's co-workers got a new bed and was kind enough to give us this one. It's like new. And it's 16 inches wider than the queen bed we had (yes, we measured). We don't have to touch while we sleep and there aren't any springs poking our backs while we sleep. It has been an adjustment to look over at Matt and see him sleeping on the other side of the room. This bed is seriously huge. Parley pants got to be the first to try it out. She kept trying to sit up but it was just too comfy, so she just layed there.Then Matt tried it out and the same thing happened to him.

Then, on the night of Christmas Eve we went up to Matt's mom and dad's house. Grandma Bea was there feeling festive. It was fun to visit and spend time with cousins.

We read the Nativity from the scriptures and sang Christmas Hymns. Sam was really not having a good time. (As you can see below.) Things weren't going the way he thought they should. He really wanted to open presents.

We were blessed with a nice Christmas morning. Here are some of the favorite gifts. Sam got Transformer footy pajamas and a 49ers hat from his dad. And Sam gave Matt a 49ers blanket. It's so cozy.

We opened gifts and then busted over to Grandma Alger's house for her Christmas Brunch, which was yummy as always.
A few days after Christmas there was a momentous meeting of cuties. Our cousin brought his sweet little Lois over and we put her and Parlayna together for a little photo shoot.
Lois was super friendly. Parsley wasn't so sure.

It was a fun time. I wish I had taken more pictures. I always wish that and I still always forget to bring the camera.