the Chatterbox Pub

Pedro and I enjoyed a fun date night at a local restaurant popular for its family-friendly atmosphere, good food and creative entertainment. Before asking us if we wanted anything to drink, the host asked us what we wanted to play. They have dozens of board games you can choose from to play right at your table as you eat. So, with a strawberry lemonade, a rootbeer, a quesadilla and berry berry crepes, we began an exciting game of Battleship.

It was the luckiest and most intense game of Battleship I've ever played. I hit a ship every random guess until I sunk four of Pedro's five ships. Then, he started catching up. There were only three or four places left where his ship could have been when he found my last ship of two hits. But, then I found his last ship of three. YES! I still had hope if he didn't guess the direction right off . He didn't. One more to go on his . . . Then E8 sunk my last ship. With a grin, he said, "You win." At my confused look, he said, "Actually, you won a long time ago."

This husband of mine is such a tease. Every time I had hit his last ship, he moved it to a different place so the game would last longer.

A jolly holiday to rival Mary Poppins

We enjoyed real treat yesterday: a lovely 36* sunny afternoon. It was so beautiful and so warm, it would have been a crime not to take advantage of the blessing. So, we ditched the idea of deep cleaning our apartment or doing homework, threw on jackets and went for a walk in the park.

Como Park, about a mile away from our place, boasts a free zoo and conservatory, a lake and lots of walking/biking paths. The park was probably the most crowded it has been since the summer time. Everyone took advantage of the nice weather.

We had a jolly good time walking around the lake, breathing in the fresh air and getting a little exercise. We decided to check out the zoo, where we saw monkeys, lions, a tiger, a snow leopard, zebras, giraffes and sea lions. Nostalgia swept over me when I smelled the wax animal models I remember from Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake when I was a kid.

So, our apartment still needs a little cleaning and Pedro still has some homework to get done before class tomorrow, but we had a jolly little holiday in the park - one to rival Mary Poppins.

Hmmm, maybe she could come tidy up a bit - her style.

What do you do when -13* is the low and 2* is the high?

Go see ice sculptures at the St. Paul Winter Carnival, of course. Make sure you go for the marshmallow-look with at least four or five layers of warmth.

Pandora's Box

The Last Supper

A BIG Little Act of Kindness!!!

It's no secret; Minnesota can get cold, really cold. I'm talking about a coldness that you can't even really describe. It would be like trying to describe how the Holy Ghost feels to someone who hasn't recognized or defined those feelings before - except sort of the opposite because the Holy Ghost is warm and comforting and this cold is, well, cold and miserable.

Anyway, the point of this post is not to focus on the miserableness of how awful it was to walk 1/2 mile to the bus stop in -20 degree weather, miss the bus by 5 seconds, walk home, and then finally catch a few different buses to get to work when my car didn't start on a really cold day.

The point of this post is to share my gratitude for several blessings we enjoy that we often take for granted because of their abundance.

My biggest blessing that day was my friend, Sue, from work. When she heard of my bus adventure in the arctic temperatures, she urged me to accept a ride home (even though she risked being late for a dinner with her husband) so I wouldn't have to brave the cold again. Though I'm a pretty independent person, that was an offer I couldn't refuse. She saved me an hour of arctic winds and chill getting home and an hour of thawing out once I did. I am so grateful for her kindness!!!

So, join with me in making a list of blessings to remember during really cold winters. I'll read your comments, and add them to this list.

The Grateful Even During Winter List:

good friends
kind strangers
cars that have heaters that work sometimes
cars that get us around quickly even when the heater doesn't work
warm socks
blue fleece pants that fit under my work slacks
green house plants that bring vibrancy to a grayish winter world
fuzzy warm socks
heated apartment - and it's included in the rent :)
only fond memories of spring, summer and autumn
our Christmas tree is still up
online yoga class
the wind-proof mittens Pedro made me (yes, he actually sewed me polartec fleece mittens)
Hot Chocolate (Ki)
cuddling with my husband (Ki)
hot soup and bread bowls (Bla)
snuggling up to your personal space heater aka your husband (Bla)
electric can openers (Brit)

I would love to know what you are grateful for during the winter; please send your comments.

the end and the beginning

We enjoyed the end of 2008 in Utah with family and friends. It was so good to see so many of you. You have no idea how good. Yes, the roads were a bit crazy at times, but it was definitely worth it.

We began 2009 playing volleyball with family (and Dallin). What a great way to start the new year. Now, I'm back at work and Pedro is enjoying his free days before his second semester of law school starts in two weeks.

Highlights from our two weeks in Utah:

• talking to my missionary brother - Brycen, uh, Elder Mills - on the phone
• shopping with my sisters
• bowling with Pedro's family
• eating breakfast and chatting with Grandma and Grandpa Miles - they are so nice
• going to Relief Society with Grandma, Alma, Gabby and Darla (i love my nursery kids, now Sunbeams, but RS was nice)
  
• getting special fabric scissors in my stocking (Pedro - he is sewing a light-weight backpacking quilt)
• chatting with golden friends at a Christmas Eve brunch
• seeing Kiley's adorable little Jake
  
• finding out Nate and Darcy are going to be a papa and a mama
• snowshoeing with my dad and Pedro
• babysitting for a good friend - the one who taught me how to make Dutch Apple Pie
• winning hands-down in a game of Rook
  
• eating my mom's food
  
• watching my family open their Christmas presents and get so excited
• hiking/snowshoeing Big Baldy mountain with Pedro in 40-degree weather - it was like a summer holiday
• watching movies and lots of football (Pedro)
  
• playing volleyball with my family
• Getting beat by my Dad in a 2-on-1 (Dev & I vs. Dad) basketball game (still has his amazing outside shot)
• barely beating Devan and Brette in a game of pool, once (Devan won pretty much every other time)
• Around-the-world ping pong
• chatting with Mom
  
• snowboarding at Little Beav (Pedro)
• being the recipient of such generosity
  
• tying Brette's amazing patch-work quilt while watching Pride and Prejudice
• Shoveling snow with my dad (it was sort of nostalgic, okay, give me a break)
• lots of other things I just can't remember right now
  

The dangers of NOT wearing contacts

So you've all heard crazy stories regarding contact lenses, right? Maybe some of you have experienced the irritation of awaking to the realization that you slept with your contacts in. Your eyelids were somewhat sticky and reluctantly to open and your contacts seemed suctioned to your eyeballs. Or maybe you've dealt with the pain only true contact-wearers know of having a contact somehow crawl up your eye ball, under your eye lid to the tip-top corner of your eyeball, like it's trying to see what's on the other side. And, then there is the occasional eye infection due to lack of oxygen - no I'm serious. My eye doctor told me I had to stop wearing my contacts all day long because my eyes needed oxygen. So, on to the point of this post which has very little to do with contacts and very much to do with how inconceivably freezing cold it is in Minnesota. (I know. I know. We were warned.)

So, I've been wearing my glasses at least 3 or 4 times a week to give my eyes all the oxygen those little pupils can eat up. Today I discovered the dangers of wearing glasses. It was SO cold my breath froze on my glasses creating a thin layer of ice - not just fog - ICE. I thought it was bad enough that my defroster/heater decided not to turn on as I drove to work this morning and my breath created hundreds of ice droplets on the INSIDE of my windshield. But, no, I had to scrap, not just rub, SCRAP the ice off my glasses. Imagine me looking like this guy in the picture, except add a coat, a scarf, a hat, some hair and ditch the beard and mustache.

I found a quick solution of lowering my scarf to only cover my chin so it didn't detour any breath up toward my glasses. So, in the end, yes, my nose hairs froze together (quite an awkward sensation), but I could see past my glasses through the mostly iced-over window to the wind-blown, snow-covered streets of St. Paul, Minnesota. And, I arrived at work alive.

The lessons of the day:

1. Wear contact lenses on really cold days when you have to drive to work - NOT Glasses

2. Be grateful, once again, that I'm not a pioneer

3. Southern California, Baby!

Real People - Our Family

Today Pedro's great grandparents, Baldomero and Jovita, were sealed in marriage for eternity when Pedro and I performed the vicarious sealing in the St. Paul temple. It is so neat to know that this is our family being connected together, joined forever. I am so grateful for the knowledge of eternal families. I know that through temple work we can be with our families forever.

What it's all about

I am really enjoying my work at Goodwill-EasterSeals. Goodwill is like the DI of Utah, but it's Mission Services Division has several programs to help people overcome barriers to employment. Mostly, they help people with disabilities or people in poverty. The main value is to strengthen the family - a value I really identify with. One of the programs, the FATHER Project - helps non-married dads build relationships with their children and learn to support them financially and emotionally.

I love being able to use my skills to help an organization with such great programs. I work with the Director of Quality and Evaluation as a project assistant. Though lots of my work is tedious administrative organizing of spreadsheet data and editing policies, my supervisor, Andrew, is great at letting me take on more interesting projects. I recognize how I could use my public administration education to benefit this organization, even though as a lowly project assistant I don't always have the opportunity to do so extensively.

I edited the strategic plan for Mission Services. While the content had already been approved by the board, I was able to make some minor changes to differentiate between outputs and outcomes and how they should be measured differently. Though most of the things needing changed weren't going to happen that day because of certain deadlines, at least my supervisor knows I understand and can help with the strategic plan details in the future.

I am also the point person for our AmeriCorps program. I interview candidates - which is way more fun than being interviewed. I resolve their concerns. And, I anticipate designing and delivering some training materials and working on measuring certain outputs for the grant requirements.

What else . . . I get to organize a special event in December. Oh, and I added a couple of pictures with animation to a PPT for a staff meeting, and several people commented on how great it was. If they were so excited with a simple PPT I put together in 20 minutes, they would flip to see one of my Baker PPT with a running agenda and professional application of the so-fun animation.

Though my job is technically a temp position, today, Andrew, asked me to be on a committee for the annual company banquet that takes place next spring. So, they may have me stick around for a while. I am working with managers in several divisions, so, hopefully, I'll get hired full-time for something or other soon.

Anyway, mostly, I'm just happy to be using my skills working with happy people for a happy good cause.