Where does the time go?

I've been told by a few people that it is TIME to update the blog. This is going to be one of those posts that starts with the present day and moves backwards. I also haven't been very good about taking pictures for the last few months. I need to replace the batteries in my camera, and I just keep forgetting to buy some. So every picture you see here has been stolen from someone.

I'm still in Spokane, for now. I was all prepared to move away from here and get on with my life, but after some fasting and prayer (and then some more fasting and prayer, because I wasn't getting the answer I wanted to get) I decided I needed to be here for a while longer, for some reason. I have to admit that it's been nice to have some time off work, although I've had a hard time adjusting to having so much time on my hands. I moved into a terrific ward which provides lots of opportunities for service. Right now we have an assignment to clean the temple three days a week for two months, which I wouldn't have gotten to do if I had been working. I also found out that Yale University puts some of its courses online for free, so because I'm a nerd, I've been working my way through those. I'm enjoying the downtime. There are a couple of exciting opportunities I've been looking at, things I couldn't have pictured myself doing a few years ago, but I don't want to post about them just yet in case I jinx them. I'm sure you're all waiting impatiently to see what I do next. (So am I!) I'll keep you posted.

A few weeks ago, my friends Emily and Kenyon (we've been friends for a few years but now they live just down the street from me, so I see them constantly) wanted to go on a weekend trip, and they asked if I could watch their kids for the weekend. I adore their children, so of course I said yes. They have a 7-year-old girl, a 4-year-old boy, and an 18-month-old girl who are all wonderful, well-behaved, good-natured, and easy to handle. These are the types of kids who, when I said it was time for bed, had their teeth brushed, pajamas on, and were in bed in about four minutes. And they made their beds without any prompting. Enough said? I had a great time with them that weekend, and I think they had fun too. All the things that Emily and Kenyon do routinely, like picking up kids from school or going for a walk with the stroller, were novel to me, and it was fun to step outside my normal life and do something different. As a treat, we went to Dairy Queen and then went and played at the park for an hour on Saturday. (We've had a mild winter in Spokane this year--which we deserved after last winter--so playing in the park in January wasn't as weird as it sounds.)

At the beginning of January, I went to Idaho for my new niece Lilly's baby blessing. Isn't she adorable? I wasn't going to get to go, since plane tickets to Idaho Falls were so expensive around the New Year's holiday. But then my mom had a great idea: my brother Jared and his wife Courtney were up here in my neighborhood spending Christmas with her family (she grew up just north of Spokane). My mom suggested I could ride down to Idaho Falls with them when they went back home, and then I'd only have to buy a one-way plane ticket back to Spokane. Much cheaper. Good thinking outside the box, Mom! The 8-hour drive was virtually painless, since their three children (soon to be four) are well-behaved in the car. The drugs help, I'm sure. It was fun to see everyone and see how much bigger the little kids were. I was glad they all remembered me from last summer. It made it more fun to play with them, since I didn't have to spend three days waiting for them to warm up to me.

I celebrated New Years Eve with some friends from my ward. This picture was as we were nearing the end of our party. We played Rock Band for most of the night (I wasn't very good, but everyone put up with me). I think it was around 2:30 a.m. that somebody said, "Hey, let's play Apples to Apples!" So we did. I don't remember what time we got home, but I think the sun was coming up.

For Christmas Eve, my roommate, Liz, invited me over to her family's celebration. I already knew her dad (I used to work with him, and I met Liz through him) and had met her mom, so at the party I got to meet her brother and sister and nieces and nephews and aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc. It was a huge party. And it was a lot of fun: a white elephant gift exchange, too much food, and lots of happy people. On Christmas Day, Emily and Kenyon invited me over to their house. Like me, they don't have family in the area (besides their own kids, of course), so it was fun for all of us to spend time together on a holiday. We watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog, which Emily had gotten for Christmas. And then we had a Star Wars marathon (the old, good Star Wars movies--not the new ones). The reason for the marathon, or so we told ourselves, was that their 7-year-old hadn't seen the real Star Wars yet and we had to expose her to it. The real reason, of course, was that we like Star Wars and wanted to watch it. I love the fact that Emily and Kenyon are nerds too.

Thanksgiving at Wendy's was a blast. I ended up staying for six weeks, during which time we remodeled her master bathroom (with a minimum of injuries), fixed a gas leak (or tried to), made a thousand trips to Home Depot, participated in her crazy ward's activities like the Halloween party and Young Women in Excellence, and watched a lot of football. I'm not sure we accomplished much else, but we had fun and we were still friends when I left. Oh, and I missed all the bad Spokane weather (not that there was much, but there were a few storms) while in Oklahoma, and then I got back to Spokane before the storms started in Tulsa. That, in and of itself, was a major accomplishment. Wendy already blogged about our visit extensively, so if anyone wants more details, click here on WENDY'S BLOG.

And now I think I'm caught up! I didn't send out Christmas cards this year because I was lazy and, well, I didn't want to. But I still love and miss you all, and I hope you're having a happy 2010.