Year in Review #2

Welcome to the second installment of Years in Review.  This year's review will focus on 2011.  Here are our eventful happenings in 2011.

Jan.--  Shanna turned 21 and fulfilled a lifelong dream of seeing Donny Osmond.  Well done, Erik.  We had a wonderful time in Vegas (and are looking forward to heading back this week).



February-- We celebrated our first married Valentines Day by choking down some undercooked salmon.  Erik had his last month working at the airport for Enterprise, and we were thrilled to return to a normal (indoor) schedule.  Shanna discovered Shellac manicures.



March--  Shanna finishes her practicum hours as an intern with the Box Elder School District and my family came to visit us in two shifts, Dad and Jack, and then Mom and Nina, in the Layton Ghettos.   Shanna took the GRE in an unsuccessful attempt to earn a graduate school scholarship.  Erik won another prize for selling like a zillion rental car upgrades.



April--  Erik started his new job at the family business.  He moved to his hometown while Shanna hung around to graduate, pack up the house, and become scuba-diving certified.  He came home a weekend, Shanna visited him one weekend, and we spent Easter in Idaho. Shanna officially graduates from Utah State University with a major in social work and a minor in sociology.  The royal wedding happened in April.  This was a big deal to Shanna and less of a big deal to Erik.


May-- We moved!  Erik drove the moving van, Shanna drove the Subaru.  It was a little tense but we made it with our marriage still intact.  We spent ten wonderful days soaking up rays in Hawaii with Erik's family before settling in to our new lives.



June--  Shanna started her summer job as a camp counselor at the Golf Club, capitalizing on her great love of the outdoors and all things icky.  Erik got called as assistant scout master in our ward.  Kyle came and visited and fixed our garbage disposal.  Thanks for that.


July--  Zach and Emily and cute little Toby came to visit for 4th of July.  We finished season 3 of Chuck.  At the end of the month Shanna went to Idaho for the wedding of two of her best friends, Chris and Beez, where she tried hard not to scare off Alex's new girlfriend, Emily.   We celebrated our first anniversary and Erik's 27th birthday.

 
August-- Shanna and Erik spent every spare second on the lake.  My family came to visit and we rented jet skis, which was awesome.  They really should come to visit more often.  Erik dressed up like a cowboy for the Rodeo, and Shanna developed a new cowboy fetish (TMI?  get over it).  Shanna started coaching cheerleading for the local high school.



September-- Shanna started work at Headstart and also started graduate school.  Alex and his less-new girlfriend Emily came to visit.  Erik and Shanna went ziplining with the and did some hiking.  Shanna lost Erik to football for the remainder of the year.




October-- Pretty much nothing happened.  Sorry.

November--  Erik went on a business trip to Detroit.  We spent Thanksgiving with Erik's family which was good because if Shanna had been in charge of Thanksgiving dinner we would have had tacquitos and poptarts.  We welcomed a new car to our family. 


December--  Shanna had her first piano recital.  It went surprisingly well. She also finished up her first semester of grad school.  We saw Blaine and Mel when we went to Seattle for a Seahawks game.  We had a wonderful time in Idaho for Christmas, where we were spoiled rotten.  We celebrated New Years in typical Erik/Shanna style, at home in our slippers.

Overall a great year.  Moving forward we're (well, mostly I'm) starting to consider some big changes like house-buying and baby-making, but we'll have to see how things go.  Come visit us and maybe you'll make next year's Year in Review.

Christmas

We had two wonderful Christmases.  We left on Wednesday for Idaho , after being up all night sick, and the weather was a little rough so it was a long drive, but we made it.  Alex 

was home too, so it was the first time my whole family had been together since last Christmas.  My friend Heather made me the cutest crafty gifts, and I had fun seeing friends I haven't seen in a while.   My family has big Christmas Eve traditions that are really important to me, and I love sharing them with Erik.  On Sunday morning we woke up and opened presents and went to church.  The little girl in front of us, probably about 2, walked right over and sat on my Dad's lap and started showing him all her necklaces.  It was so cute to watch him with that little blonde girl on his lap, he's gonna be the best grandpa (but not yet, no one get excited).  

Matching purple Christmas ties

We came home on Monday and had Christmas with Erik's family on Tuesday.  Between the two Christmases and my wonderful husband (who knows to cheat when I put a spending limit on gifts) I was so spoiled it's embarrassing.  I'm excited to be blogging on our brand new laptop, which will really help facilitate my next semester of school.  It was a gadget Christmas for my family; they all got iphones, my brothers got kindles, we got a laptop, and Erik got me a GPS.  We got stockings full of cough drops and Emergen-C from Erik's mom, which was definitely much needed, we've had a hard time staying healthy this winter.  Erik's parents got him a new Iphone, and I got wedding China and super cute earrings.  We are too spoiled.  

 In other news my piano recital went well, I wanted to take lots of pictures and print them out for the parents, but my camera ran out of batteries and I walked away with just this one. 

My cute little student Jace.  He brought me flowers, how sweet was that?

I've been enjoying aweek of pre-child-stay-at-home-wifehood (PCSHW), but will be ready to go back to work next week. It's been nice to have a break from school, but I'm looking forward to my classes this semester.   Come visit us.  After a whole week of PCSHW, my house will probably even be clean. 

It's been a busy month or so.  We had Thanksgiving with Erik's family, I finished my first round of graduate school finals, and we went to Seattle to see a Seahawks game.  My Christmas piano recital is tomorrow, and we're heading to idaho in a few days for Christmas.

1) Thanksgiving

I am not a good cook.   Most nights Erik's dinner choices are leftovers from last time we ate at his parents' house, taquitos, cereal, or a baked potato.  But I really tried for Thanksgiving.  Erik and I volunteered to bring cinnamon rolls, orange sherbert salad, and fudge.  I woke up and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and got cooking.  Toward the end I got Erik to join in, and everything turned out decent. 

 We had Thanksgiving at Erik's parents' house with his immediate family, both grandmas, and an aunt and uncle.  Both Debbie and Aunt Karole and amazing cooks, so it was pretty dang yummy. 

 After dinner Debbie really wanted pictures of her three boys together.  They're 27, 26, and 24 respectively, but watching that photo shoot they were closer to 7, 6, and 4.  They all insisted they were too full and sleepy to take pictures, but I thought this one was kinda cute .

The day after Thanksgiving we decorated our Christmas tree.  I love Christmas so much and couldn't wait to get our tree up.

The next two weeks were all about studying for finals and final papers.  I'm embarrassed to admit that I did not handle the stress well and was a tiny bit grumpy. Erik was patient with me though and we got through it. Grades aren't posted yet, but I'm more than a little nervous about my health care policy class.

Just this last weekend we went to Seattle to go to a Seahawks game.  Erik was able to get really good tickets through a customer at the dealership, and he was so excited.  It was cute.  We had fun having a little weekend away together.  We saw our friends Blaine and Mel, went shopping, and went to the game.  It was freezing, but a lot of fun.

Photo courtesy of Blaine.  Turns out he's a super photographer

Shopping.  I heart H&M.

In the hotel lobby right before the game.  Look at that big smile.  I clearly did not know how cold I was going to get.

The Sea Gals were so stinking cute.  I love them.  I want to be them.

We had a great time.  It was a great kickoff to Christmas.  We'll be in
idaho next week.  Call me to do something so Erik will think I have friends.  Awesome, thanks.

Christmas Card

My mom emailed me a copy of this year's family Christmas card.  It looks like this:

The dog is like four times larger than anyone else.  Erik is on it three times as much as me despite me reminding my mother that he is the one who dragged me away from her loving arms.

In case my mom changes her mind last minute, I'd like to propose an alternate Christmas card.

During the summer Erik and I do lots of fun things.  During the fall and winter all we really do is hibernate.  I like blogging though, so the following paragraphs are a summary of our hibernation.

Social Update:

Ummm nothing.

Just kidding.  We had a pretty fun Halloween, and celebrated our two year anniversary of being together.  We had some of our friends over for food, games, and Ghostbusters.  It was mellow, but nice.

Work Update:

Erik is a busy little bee at the business.  Not to brag or anything, but he got a big reward or something.  I'm not entirely sure what he actually does at work despite his repeatedly telling me, all I know is that he works super hard and it maintains my standard of living.  He's off on a business trip this month to Detroit, and I'm having a Twilight marathon while he's gone.

Headstart is going well.  Those kids crack me up every day.  The weather was finally good enough for the cheerleaders to perform their homecoming routine on the football field, and it was pretty cool for me to see my routine performed in a space that big.  They did great. Piano is going well too, I'm up to 12 students, which is right where I want to be.

School Update:

I'm in the homestretch of my first semester in the MPA program.  I've learned a lot, mostly about how to write papers that sound like I know what I'm talking about when I super don't.  My "L" button on my computer is sticking and sometimes doesn't work so when I try to type public I actually type....you know what, nevermind. 

Anyways, nothing exciting here.  We'd love to see you though!

Baby Bears

So I've been a bad blogger lately.  Partly because we're boring and there's nothing new to blog about ("and in other ground breaking news, Erik found a long dark hair in his dinner tonight, breaking our two day streak of hair-free meals"), and partly because I have to write so much for school that I've been a little burned out.  I will post a legitimate post sometime in the near future, I promise, but I just had to share these pictures Erik sent me from his drive home from work.

We live in a place where you see bears on your commute home.  Crazy, huh?  Good thing I love animals.