Christmas Fun

We had a wonderful Christmas in St. George and Pine Valley with both of our families. I can't believe the holiday season is already over, it went by way too fast. Here are a few pictures of some of our fun.The view out of my parents cabin in Pine Valley, we love being up there it's beautiful!

Zak attempting the sledding hill the boys made

Zak rolling the snowman
Zak, Christian and I and our cool snowmanChristmas Eve dinner with the JohnsonsOur cute niece BreeAllie and her Christmas present Lucky. He was so cute!
Zak was pretty jealous, he's wanted a lab ever since
their family dog Domino died...maybe someday.Arden playing with some fun toys on Christmas Day,
we have such adorable nieces!Arden and I at Bree's blessingAllie, Bree and I on Christmas Day. I loved their cute Christmas outfits.
We had so much fun with our families and can't wait to see them again. Thanks for the fun Christmas everyone!

I should be studying...

I've still got 3 finals to study for, but a break was in order. Just to solidify my geek status in everyone's mind I thought I would share a few comics from one of my favorite websites, xkcd.
If any of these are hard to read just click on them and it should show a larger version.

Christmas Tree

We finally got our Christmas tree last weekend. It snowed a lot the night we got it, but we were determined to bring something home. The tree had to dry off in the kitchen for a day before we could light it. We go to this little tree lot a few blocks from our house and they usually have a nice selection.

Mounting the catch on top of the trusty Intrigue.

Sorry the picture is blurry, I really don't know how to use a camera.

Each year our Christmas tree selection sparks an interesting debate. I grew up mostly with fake trees, Kate grew up with real ones. I have to admit that the real ones smell good, but they take a lot more work. I have yet to convince her to sell out to the dark side.

Here is our attempt at a gingerbread house. It's pretty amazing.

Burnout

I kinda feel like this bus. On Wednesday I finished a major project and presentation for one of my classes and I just finished another major project for another one of my classes... and I still have homework to do. Tis the season I guess. With this week out of the way, I am looking down the barrel of next week's loaded shotgun. They (teachers and former students) call next week INTEX, for Integrated Exercise. Sadly, it is not a fitness program; It's a week where we have no class, no teachers, no help, and enough work to fill the semester. Oh, and we have no idea what we are doing until it starts on Monday. It should be fun. This is a project that I do with my group, as have been the aforementioned projects, so I should be thoroughly sick of them before Friday. Work is on notice that I might not be around, and Kate is preparing for a week without her husband. I should mention that compared to my little sister and brother-in-law, I really can't complain. They are seasoned veterans at dealing with this kind of stuff. Still, for me it's new territory.

Chickens are funny

I've been TAGGED!

Tracy, sorry it took me so long to do this. I'm pretty boring so I had to think long and hard about facts/habits. Thanks for tagging me!

RULES:

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.

B. Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.

C. At the end of the post, the player then tags other people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

#1 Zak thinks I'm like a cat and here are the reasons why: He calls me a curious cat all the time, I just like to know things about everyone and I'm always asking him questions "what else?"- but hey what woman isn't curious? We like to msn messenger each other during the day and if I ever ask him random questions he sends the little cat emoticon to me. I'm also a scaredy cat, yes I'm afraid of the dark at times and hate having to go downstairs in our house late at night by myself. It freaks me out when Zak is out of town, I think every little sound is a robber and I'm always watching my back. I'll run from one light to the other before I turn off the previous one as I make my way back upstairs. I think my fear has increased the last year or two...since we've been watching 24- good thing it's postponed this year :) And last of all Zak says I'm like a cat because I have hairballs, my hair is naturally curly and so to untangle it I comb it out in the shower while the conditioner is still in it. Needless to say there is usually a good size hairball after I'm done, he doesn't understand how I still have any hair left. So there you go, I guess I'm like a cat. But the ironic thing about this is that I'm known as the "Cat Hater" in Zak's family.

#2 I love my minkee blanket that Barb made for me, and I always sleep with it at night! But I don't just lay it over the top of me, it has to be a certain way. I basically wrap myself up in it like a mummy or a caterpillar so no cold air gets in.

#3 I've always wanted to go to Africa. Before I met Zak my plan was to finish my AS Degree at DSC and then that summer go to Africa and work in an orphanage. But don't get me wrong, I'm SO glad that I met Zak, he is the best husband in the world! I love him and he treats me like a queen. I think black kids are SO cute and I love doing service. So I've always thought it would be cool to spend a few months in Africa helping out in an orphanage. Going on a safari would be neat too. I don't know if the summer orphanage thing will ever happen, but hopefully someday we can visit Africa. Hey maybe when Zak and I are old we can serve a humanitarian mission in Africa- that would be so neat!


#4 I fall asleep very easily, I wouldn't say quite as easy as Kerry does- but maybe someday :) When we drive anywhere the second we get on the freeway I'm out (even if it's only like an hour drive and even during the day). Poor Zak, I'm not very supportive when we drive, I need to work on that. I'm usually ok if I'm the one driving, although Zak doesn't like me to. Most of my family has a hard time falling asleep on airplanes, but I'm asleep before we've even taken off most of the time.

#5 I have a weird memory. I can remember phone #'s really easily and I know this is crazy, but I have everyone's cell/home # in my office memorized(and there are 40 employees) . If they've called a few times it just sticks with me. So instead of answering, "Good Morning Northwestern Mutual" I say "Good Morning Cory etc." I even have some of our clients #'s memorized. There's a rep that has a hard time remembering his clients names, I know their names and faces better than he does. If he can't remember he'll just come and ask me, and I'll remind him of their names. Everyone always asks me how I remember such random things, and I'm not quite sure how. I just tell them I'm weird like that, I think it's partially because I'm a "curious cat" and pay attention to detail. Too bad my memory doesn't always work that way for Tests!

#6 I LOVE to travel with my family! My dad works for SkyWest and before I got married I could fly for free. We would go many places throughout the world together, we loved meeting other people and getting to know other cultures. We have so many fun memories from traveling together. One of my favorite things was going to church in the different places we visited and getting to know members all around the world and realizing that the church is the same everywhere. It gave me a greater appreciation for the gospel and how blessed we are to be living in Utah and not to take it for granted. I still love traveling with Zak and my family, I just miss the 'free' part now.

Well, if you actually made it through all six, I'm sorry for boring you.
I tag Melanie, Krystal, Julie, Jennie & Val.

San Antonio

I got back from a fly-out interview for an internship with USAA in San Antonio yesterday and thought I would share a picture of these beautiful boots first. I actually saw these as I gazed out the window of the speeding hotel shuttle. They are right in front of a big mall, I guess they attract people to the stores. Even if I hadn't seen the boots, the trip was pretty good. I spent most of Monday in airports and on airplanes, but they did take me and the group of about 20 other candidates out to dinner at the tower of the americas. Since the restaurant was of the revolving variety, I got a good view of the entire city. It is surprisingly green, I thought San Antonio was more of a desert landscape.


Tuesday I spent interviewing, asking questions, eating Texas barbecue, and walking around their ginormous headquarters. That building is seriously huge. I think it's about a mile long. They have their own zipcode if that helps put it in perspective. I was really impressed with pretty much everything I saw during my visit. I never once met an employee or even a resident of the city that wasn't pleasant and smiling. Everyone I talked to was very open so I asked a lot of questions and they happily answered them.


I had never heard of USAA before the career fair a couple months ago, so I am guessing that at least some of you have never heard of them either, unless you or someone in your family is in the military. USAA is an insurance and financial services provider exclusively for military servicemen and women and their families. They have an amazing reputation with their customers, so if you ask someone who is a member (member = customer) chances are you will hear very positive things. That kind of reputation impressed me, as well as their attitude and the overall culture of the company. I guess they have been recruiting at BYU-Idaho for a couple years now and they just started coming to the Provo campus this year.

As far as the purpose for my visit, I think the interview went very well. I got the impression that they were just bringing me down to make sure I would fit in the company from a behavior standpoint before they offered me the internship this summer, maybe that's a little optimistic, but hey. I guess I will see just how well it really went in a couple of weeks when I hear back from them.