We get Taco Plop tonight!!

I am so thankful that I have continual reminders of how great my husband is, especially to me!!

I am taking a math class this semester, because my major requires me to take one more math class in order to graduate. I'm taking pre-calculus, which shouldn't be that hard, because I took pre-calculus in high school and I even took calculus my freshman year of college. However, I haven't retained a lot of the knowledge, or at least I'm slow to remember it, and my instructor doesn't speak English very well. He has his lesson written out on paper, with examples and all, and doesn't do well if he has to stray from that, such as when someone asks a question.

This is where the wonderful husband comes in... Aaron was a Math and Business major in college, so he's super-great at math!! I have homework due every few days online and he totally helps me out with it. We also have a quiz every Friday in my class, and after last Friday I told Aaron that I didn't know how to do one of the questions on the quiz. He proceeded to apologize for not explaining it better to me when we were doing my homework, even though it's obviously not his responsibility to teach me. (I think that falls under the instructor's job description...)

Congratulations Ambre and Erik!!

We do a lot of talking about Nick and Steve and post all kinds of cute pictures of them. But Mark and Amy should not be forgotten!! They have their own quirks that totally set them apart from the dogs.

As soon as we walk out of the bedroom in the morning, the two of them follow us around until they're fed. Then, whenever we arrive home for the day, whether it's 2 hours after we left or 10 hours, they are ready to be fed again and they sit next to their dish and meow until they're fed. This is especially true for Mark, who's just a bit overweight. We may or may not talk like Cartman from South Park when Mark hobbles through the living room...

Amy is a little skittish and will hide out in the ceiling of the basement if there are any strangers in the house. When my dad and Roarke have stayed with us before, she's been MIA for days, hiding out. However, she's not all nerves. If either of the dogs try to give her any troubles, she just "punches" them in the face until they leave her alone. She also has super-cat hearing for the sound of a can being opened, always in hopes that it's tuna.

4 pounds of M&M's

There's a chili supper in Slater on Saturday night to raise money for the "Free Lee" campaign. You can click on the link to read all about Lee. The chili will be served from 5-7 in the cafeteria at Ballard West (the elementary school) with an auction to follow in the gym. There's over 125 items being auctioned off!!

My dogs have MySpace accounts

• I know that there are a few people in my family that watch Grey's Anatomy and we now call or email eachother about it. But, in case there's anyone out there in blog-land that watches it, but hasn't talked to me about it, I LOVE THAT SHOW!! Last week's episode was so great!! I don't know if it's because there hadn't been a new episode in a while or what, but it seemed like it was more like Grey's Anatomy used to be, instead of what it was becoming...if that makes sense. And they left us with so many questions for next week, who wouldn't be excited?? Addison and Alex, Addison and McSteamy, George's dad, George and Callie, Meredith's snoring problem... Well, the last one probably isn't meant to keep us on the edge of our seats, but it is still unresolved.
• Steve and Nick know that they're not allowed on the couch unless they're invited, but their definition of "invited" has become very loose. If we're adjusting our blanket and we pat it down, they think that's there invitiation and they both jump right up, usually on top of me. The patting of the blanket can wake them up from a deep sleep across the room and they'll still be up on the couch in 2 seconds.
• One of my instructors from last semester personally emailed me and asked me to work in her lab this semester. I think it would be fun, but it's a big time commitment, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet.
• Aaron and I are trying to eat healthier. We're not dieting, because we wouldn't be successful (I love chocolate too much!!), but instead we're just trying to incorporate more healthy items into our meals. We had salmon on Monday night, strawberry and peach smoothies yesterday morning, chicken with brown rice and green beans last night, we're having peaches with dinner tonight and plan on having tilapia for dinner tomorrow night. Fruits and vegetables and fish weren't really a regular part of our diet before, so this is a big step for us!!
• I have class at 10 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I got up early today so that I could get some homework or housework done before I had to go to class. So far, all I've done is write this blog entry though!!

I like Ambre's style...

(For those of you who aren't familiar, Ambre's blog titles never relate to the actual blog post.)

Feminine You scored 36 masculinity and 50 femininity!

You scored high on femininity and low on masculinity. You have a traditionally feminine personality.

I get class credit for taking this survey!! This is an actual, scientifically based survey developed to determine how feminine, masculine or androgynous (combination of both) you are. Kinda cool...

It's my last first day!!

My amazing husband had flowers delivered to me at work this afternoon to celebrate my last first day of school!! He is so wonderful!!

I found a website that will calculate the number of days, hours, minues and even seconds until I become a college graduate. 116 days from now and I'll be officially done with school!! (I think if you click on "116" it will give you an up to the second countdown, since I'm sure you're dying to know!!)

At the end of my 3 week break, and during our wonderful real weekend together, Aaron and I were talking about how happy we will both be when I am done with school. Right now it feels like so many things in our life are being put on hold until I am done with school and it will be so great to move on!! So for that reason, I can't wait until I'm done!! However, this should be an interesting last semester. I'm taking a first-aid class, pre-calculus, and 3 psych classes - Psychology of Gender, Psychology of Small Group Behavior, and Psychology of Religion.

We gave it a try...

We had a real weekend!! Neither Aaron nor I had to work on Saturday or Sunday. We slept in, we made breakfast (waffles on Saturday and a sausage skillet on Sunday...yum!!) and we even bought the Sunday paper this morning!!

Saturday we spent most of the day at my mom's for my extended family Christmas. We ate lots of good food and goodies and then came home and watched Nacho Libre.

Today we enjoyed breakfast over the paper, went grocery shopping, cleaned and organized our office (it's about 5 times bigger than I remember it when it's all cleaned up!!), had a scrumptious pot roast dinner and watched The Devil Wears Prada.

It was utterly normal. And wonderful!!

They've decided they're lap dogs!!

Weighing in at 83 pounds, Steve is probably the heaviest blanket I've ever had.

He prefers just to gaze out the window though.

Nick is definitely the bigger snuggler. He's always hoping it'll earn him some good petting.

Our new favorite pasttime...

We survived!!

Aaron and I crammed more in 2 days than I think I ever have before.

1.) We started off on Christmas Eve with Aaron's extended family. It was a lot of fun to be with everyone and participate in the gift exchange (although Aaron's family needs to learn how to steal presents!!). We got to play with kids, one of my favorite things to do, and sample everyone's Christmas cookies.

2.) Then we headed up to my mom's house. We made it there right after Santa, so we ate goodies and discovered what was in our stockings. Then we opened all of our great presents and had the annual "present hunt." We have a Santa ornament that opens up and my mom always hides a clue in it. The clue leads us to several other clues around the house until we arrive at our big present of the year. Aaron and I got a Kitchen Aid mixer this year!!

3.) We got home just after midnight on Christmas Eve and were up early the next morning to have our own Christmas. Aaron created a chocolate relaxation themed stocking for me. He made a chocolate milk bath and a chocolage facial and gave me chocolate lotion, soap, pedicure soaks and a bath soak. I had said I wanted to go to Hershey, Pennyslvania sometime so I could bathe in chocolate, but we didn't see that trip in our near future, so he brought it to me!!

4.) We went over to Aaron's parents mid-morning and ate more Christmas goodies before we even had breakfast!! This is the first year that Emma has been excited about Christmas, so it was fun to watch her open her presents. Our big present from Aaron's parents was a video camera!! We've had a ton of fun playing with it already!!

5.) On Christmas afternoon we headed over to Cedar Rapids to have celebrate with my dad and Roarke. My dad had lots of good munchy food and we had more cookies (can you tell that I love Christmas cookies?!?) Roarke opened his presents in record time. If there are any career opportunities in present-un-wrapping I think Roarke's perfect for the job!! I had the pleasure of playing Old Maid and Hungry, Hungry Hippos when the un-wrapping was over.

It was a long couple of days.... We got up at 5:30 am on Sunday and worked for 9 hours before starting the 5 Christmas celebrations, but we were lucky enough not to have to be up early this morning, so we slept super late!! (at least in our world...until 9!!) and are well on our way to being "fully recuperated".... but it was a great couple of days, not only because of the presents :-D, but because we were able to spend so much time with our families!!