December Post

I figured I'd better post since tomorrow we leave for our two week trip and I don't know if I will be making any posts then.
Chris finished exams on Thursday and I finished last Friday! Yay! No more school more me (of course that is what I said last time, but I am pretty sure no more for a long while). We are excited for our trip to Utah and to see family. Perhaps one of my new years resolutions will be to post more..we'll see. Happy Holidays to all and Merry Christmas!

What is going on?

No posting has been due to extreme busyness with my student teaching (which by the way is going great! i am tired all the time, but love it and have great students). Only two and a half weeks left though, and then I am done, done, done!!!

In other news, Chris and I have a new niece. Chris' sister, Jen, had a little baby girl yesterday. Her name is Ruth Helen Leishman. (They have two boys, so I think the girl is exciting). We are very excited to meet her on our way down to Utah for Christmas.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I got this recipe from the foods teacher at my junior high. Her grade 8's made them today and they were so delicious that I came home and made some of my own.

You substitute half the fat with applesauce. You can't taste a difference, and they are delicious and moist.

Happy Baking!

yield: 3 dozen cookies (I made more like 28)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

1/2 c. butter or margarine
1/2 c. applesauce
1 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 1/2 c. rolled oats
3/4 c. chocolate chips (can substitute with raisins, etc)

Cream butter or margarine with applesauce.
Add brown sugar, egg, and vanilla. Beat until smooth and light.
Stir in flour, baking soda, rolled oats, and chocolate chips.

Drop batter onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 12 minutes.

Enjoy!

On the Bandwagon

The bandwagon I have just recently jumped on, is the musical TV show 'Glee'. I think it is fabulous and love the music. Even though Chris doesn't watch the shows (a little too much for him) I show him all the clips of their musical numbers and even he agrees they are really good. If you've never watched, take a look at this video and find out for yourself!

Callings

I guess James and Jamie need to move to our ward because they give you callings right away and then even switch up your callings when you're still enjoying your current calling! I'm ok, I'm still a Primary teacher, but Chris got a new calling today, he is now a Deacon advisor in the Young Men's. He is sad to be leaving our little primary class (I don't know if I am more sad, I liked only preparing a lesson once everyother week and having another adult in the class) but the Young Men's is the only other calling he said he would really like to have. So have fun with that Chris!

High Score

Ever since I played electronic handheld Yahtzee at Jill and Taylor's years ago, I have always wanted my own. Finally, a couple of weeks ago we found a cheap one at Toy R Us for $5.00. Ever since we have been slightly obsessed with playing lots of Yahtzee (mostly in the bathroom). Today I got ultimate high score, 511, with three yahtzee's. Here is the proof!

Teacher Buy

I was at the Dollar store shopping for Halloween decorations when I saw these. As a science teacher I just had to buy them (only $1.00). The bones and organs pop out and then you have to put them back together. Pretty cool!

Slowly Growing

Before the snow came, this is how the yard looked. The grass is growin' but we'll definitly seed again in the spring.

First Day of School...As a Teacher

Me and my new teacher clothes and teacher bag.

I was trying to give Chris the teacher look, but he made me laugh instead!

Football!

Last Friday night we went to the Edmonton Eskimos football game. We try to do this once a year. We got general seating tickets in the 'Family Huddle' section and since it was so cold there were not very many people there and we got good seats. Despite bundling up (long johns, a couple shirts, touques, scarves, mitts, and blankets) we still froze!

Eating my yummy hot dog. A sporting event is not a sporting event without a hot dog!

The stadium. At the beginning it was snowing big fat flakes.

Chris bundled up.

They had the 'Timbits' league play during the half time. Watch out for those little boys, they can tackle!

Hot chocolate!

Back home and finally warm.

Turkey Time

Happy Thanksgiving!

It feels more like Christmas holidays than the Thanksgiving holiday since we still have snow! Aside from the fact that we have it for so long, it is actually kind of nice. It makes the house really bright in the day which I love.

Yesterday we did the turkey business. We went over to the Lamont's for a big family dinner. It was lots of fun and there was lots of food. I am excited for the left over turkey sandwiches!

Brrr

Today I woke up to the first snow fall, it's not even close to Halloween yet! Sheesh. Good thing Chris pulled out the winter gear a couple days ago!

Goal!

The indoor soccer season has started and last night was our second game. First of all, I love indoor! There is so much more play going on and contact with the ball, I'm glad we decided to stay on the team. And secondly, I scored my first goal! Yay! So...it was a little more fluke than me actually aiming and shooting, let's just say I was in the right place at the right time!

Cool Science

Today at school we made ice cream! And I'm talking at University school, not in my junior high school. The lab technician did some cool lab demos and explosions for us with solid CO2, alkeseltzers (spelling?) and water, and ethanol and fire. Then we made ice cream out of liquid nitrogen. We used:
2 cups milk
1 cup cream
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
All you do is mix everything together, and then add some liquid nitrogen, stir, and add more nitrogen until you get the consistency of ice cream. We had mix-ins of oreo cookies and rainbow chocolate chip cookies. We had the ice cream on a cone and it tasted great.

Science = Cool

Into the Classroom

As most of you know I am in my last semester of my Education degree and am doing my practicum. I just got my placement last night and I am going to Ottewell Junior High teaching grade 7-9 science and grade 9 health. I am very excited to be in a Jr. High, and have heard excellent things about the mentor teacher I will be having (which is such a relief since my last mentor teacher was not quite mentor quality).

School has been so busy for me this semester. Only two more weeks at the University and then I will start teaching. We have had some fun activities, like yesterday we went to the Telus World of Science Museum. It was great. I wish I could have had more time and that there wasn't an assignment attached to the trip. Among the many cool exhibitions they had a 'dognapping' crime scene room that was really cool and set up really nice, and a Body Works room. In the Body Works room they had all kinds of interesting facts about the body and a place were they had jars of all kinds of bodily fluids, like urine, spit, blood, poop, and more. I thought it was pretty cool. I also got to be a weather person and sit behind the green screen reading you the weather report. It was a good time, but now I better get back to my mountains of work I need to finish...

World Domination and Style Comebacks

On Saturday we went to Ikea and saw this chair, priced at $450.00, which totally reminds me of Grandma Cutts' old green swivel chairs, fads and styles definitly repeat themselves and apparently this style is on a comeback!



On the world domination side, Doug came over yesterday for Hawiian Heystacks, brownies, and a game of Risk, in which he not only completed his three missions on his second turn, but proceeded to successfully take over the world. Serves us right for playing with someone who is a member of the armed forces!!

Updates

Life has been busy, busy since day one of school starting. I feel like I have already been at school for months, and really, I only have 3 more weeks at the University and then I start teaching. I still don't know what school I will teach at, I will find out next Friday. Chris has been busy with school too. We have been driving to school together which is working out nice, albeit we have to leave pretty early.
Other than school, not too much is up with us. We finally saw Transformers 2 last weekend, it was alright, but I liked the first one much better. We have also rented 17 Again (so funny) and Paul Blart: Mall Cop (probably the worst movie we've even seen!). Out backyard grass is a growin', but it still has a lot to come. We have had really hot weather lately and little rain, not good for our water bill!
Doug is in Edmonton until Christmas and just got here last week. We are looking forward to seeing him often. He is here prepping for the security he will be providing at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Very cool! Maybe we will have to visit him while he is there....I wish!

End of the Season

In our fancy dancy soccer jerseys.

Outdoor soccer ended tonight, good thing cause it was cold!

First Day of School

Wednesday was our first day of school, and tradition calls for a photo before you leave the house....

Summer Project Part 2

A finished fence. It is so great to have that done.

Chris' rock garden he worked on all summer. We plan to put plants and flowers in the middle.

Our plant garden right behind the deck.

We seeded last weekend and are anxiously waiting for some grass to come in.

Richard's Wedding Extravaganza

We had a great holiday visiting family and celebrating Richard and Jacquie's wedding. Here are some pictures to prove it!

Richard and Jacquie - so happy!

All of us squinting, it was soooo bright.

Apparently I have become infamous for telling Richard that marriage is hard, but look at us, we can take it!!

Sarah and I, such good buddies.

Me and my 'little' brother.

The Wedding Party in Belgrade, MT at the Law's - it was so beautiful there.

Uncle Chris and Eden at the Law's.

The extremely talented violenist who played while we dined and visited.

Cutting the cake. The reception at the Law's was great. There was good food and good company and we were glad we were able to make it.

Summer Project

As most of you know we have been very busy with our back yard this summer. But it has been fun. Chris has been bugging me to post some pictures, so here is some of our progress. More is to come...

The beginning and our piles of top soil.

Some spreading occurs.

Putting up the posts and rails. Don't worry about the one that is out of line on the right..we've fixed that.

And then it is just over

I'm referring to summer of course. I can't believe it is already September and school starts for Chris and I on Wednesday. We lived up our last weekend of freedom and enjoyed the very nice and hot weather we got. On Saturday we went swimming for free at one of the city pools that was re-opening. It wasn't very busy so it was fun. They had the Tarzan swing we both went on and another rope you could climb to the top, ring the bell, and then hang from the rafters before jumping in. Chris did that and I watched. Yesterday we had a nice relaxing Sunday playing games and had a delicious BBQ of steak, with baked potatoes, corn on the cob, ceaser salad, and garlic toast. It was great. Tonight we played in our soccer playoffs. It was a very close game. We were in 4th and played the 1st place team who have never lost. The score was 4-3 for them. Chris had some great saves. We play for third place next Monday, and after that are excited to start the indoor league.

The Big Day

It was a beautiful day. We were lucky and even had a breeze to try and keep us cool. Good thing we could wait in the air-conditioned Temple.

I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Mr. and Mrs. Chase Treanor coming out of them Dallas Texas Temple.

What a fine lookin' couple.

Me and Mom, I really like this one, and I think Mom got an even better one on her camera.

Sammy!

The wedding party and parents.

The bride and her girls.

Pretty Ladies.

At the Luncheon.

Joel and Doug.

Megan, Gloria, and Me.

Cutting the Cake ($35. from Wal-Mart, cupcakes made by yours truly..and I just realized these are the only pictures I got with Alicia's supercute cupcake toppers..so sorry Alicia).

Yummy.

The Happy Couple.

So there you have it! I am so glad I could make it and so happy for Amy!

Getting Ready

On Thursday Amy's flowers came. She orders all her flowers online and then arranged the center pieces and bouqets. I was thoroughly impressed. At first we had more flowers than we could handle. While waiting for additional containers, we made do by filling the bathroom sink with hydrangias. It gave a nice added touch to her apartment.

Later that day we got our nails done, lounged by the pool and swam, and picked up her other bridesmaids. One flew in from Edmonton also, and the other from Washington state. I knew neither of them, but we all clicked right away and I had a lot of fun with them.

After decorating the cultural hall all day on Friday we had a big family dinner with all of Chase's family and all of Amy's family at the Treanors (It was mexican food, burritos, enchiladas, chips and salsa). By then Angela, Joel, Lincoln, Tim, and Doug had arrived and it was fun to see them. We then stole Amy away for a girls night. We did face masks and our nails and watched You've Got Mail celebrating Amy's last night of singledom.

WARNING: The following pictures may be frightning to some.

The Grassy Knoll

Wednesday evening we explored a bit of downtown Dallas. We made a particular stop at the Sixth Floor Museum, dedicated to the JFK assassination. The museum is the Texas School Book Depository, where it is believed that Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed President Kennedy. We went on the walking tour which was very interesting. It detailed President Kennedy's life and then did a play by play of the events of November 22nd, 1963 when he was shot. They had a glassed off area where Lee Harvey Oswald shot through a window on the sixth floor as JFK drove by in the motorcade. You could lookout the window and they have 'X's marked off where the shots hit JFK. They also talked about how some people believe the shooter actually came from the grassy knoll, and area to the north of Elm Street where he was shot.


Me infront of the grassy knoll.


Chase in I infront of Elm Street.


Amy no-longer-Cutts Treanor.

A close up, the van is probably exactly where JFK was shot in the head.

It was very interesting to read and watch the videos about the event. They also talked about some of the conspiricy theories, which I always like to indulge in, so I don't know exactly what I believe happened, but I guess that's what makes the whole thing as exciting and interesting as it is.