FIRE!!!

I had a bit of excitement at work today. I had some students start a grease fire in the kitchen. They were trying to make fried ice cream but as you can tell, they used the smallest pan in the lab and filled in full of oil. They then put the ice cream in the oil and it overflowed all over and started on fire. Fortunately I was near by and was able to put it out before it did too much damage. I smothered it at first, but it just sent the flames down through the bottom of the stove and out the back so I had to call for the fire extinguisher. It is the first time in my whole life I have had to use a fire extinguisher. Because of all the smoke in the room after I put the fire out the fire alarm went off so then the whole school new about it. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie it was a scary experience for me. I was shaking pretty badly when it was all over. But I handled it pretty well. My principal came in several times throughout the day to check on me to make sure I was okay and to tell me how amazed she was at how well I handled the situation. That made me feel good.

After we were allowed into the room I wouldn't let anyone clean up until after I had a picture. I was really happy I had my camera with me today. :)


The stove still works too.

My Christmas present

For Christmas I'm getting a new kitchen!! I'm really excited. It will be nice to have a kitchen with some counter space. This last week we have been doing demolition work every day. and I think we are all done now, and ready to rebuild the kitchen. first we have to re-wire the kitchen and move the plumbing for the sink to under the window. Jeff has done most of the work. I just do clean-up.


Before


Before


Jeff ripping up the floor


The other day we were downstairs and I felt a drop of water on my head. We camp upstairs to find that our fridge had been leaking water and it had leaked all the way through the floor. Good thing we were tearing up the floor. I'm glad we found it before we laid the new floor.


Jeff putting the first hole into the wall


Busting out the closet


Jeff hard at work - the top cabinets and the side walls gone .


The mess - we had to go buy a shop vac as well


A current view from the entry


The current state of my kitchen - We still have water, but no stove or microwave. Just the little toaster oven we got for our wedding. Thanks Lila!!

Happy birthday Grandma C!!

On Saturday we all got together again at IHOP for breakfast to celebrate Grandma's birthday! It was good to see some of my cousins and extended family.

Family Christmas Party

The day after Christmas we drove down to Utah for my family Christmas party. It was fun too!! Here are some random shots of the event.

I love this picture - Jenna, Michelle, and Brooklyn
The kids doing their gift exchange
The adults watching the kids gift exchange
Darren trying to eat Susan
Rose and Dave
Dad
LaCee and Ryan
Brianna and Kaitlin
Jacob the donkey
The stars of the Nativity Play. Heather - Mary Ethan, Kevin and Jared - the three wisemen Luke - Joseph Brianna and Kaitlin - Angels Jacob - a donkey

Christmas

Christmas was pretty fun this year. Different for me as it was the first one as a married person. We had to split up the time between the two families. We spent Christmas eve with Jeff's dad and brother. We ate yummy pizza and then open gifts.

Jeff and his brother, Jeremy
Marley and her new penguin.
Brody with her new puppy
Jeff's dad and Debbie
Jeff's bro and his wife Michelle and baby Brody


Then we drove up to Rexburg just in time for the kids to go to bed so that Santa could come. We stayed the night there and got up to see what Santa had brought them. It was fun!! We had planned on going back to Idaho falls to have breakfast with Jeff's mom and brother, but the snow didn't allow for that to happen. Instead we spent most of the day with the Clarks playing the Wii and doing a puzzle.
Kevin with his loot
Ethan and the new Wii they got for Christmas
Jacob with SOME of the animals he got for Christmas. He played with them ALL DAY LONG!!!
Ethan got a bunch of army dudes for Christmas so Jeff helped set up a battle between the animals and the army dudes.
After the battle - Ethan claims his army dudes won because all the animals were knocked over before the army guys.
Hookin' up the Wii
My version of Ethan the Spy

Ward Christmas Party

Most wards just do dinner and a visit from Santa for their Christmas parties. Not our ward. They had a huge production. Jeff and I were called to be on the activities committee so we got to help pull it off. Lucky for us, we didn't get called until after all the meetings were done. We just got told what to do without having to sit through the meetings. Jeff's job was making the banana trees. My job was sewing costumes for the people in the play and stage manager for the play.

It was a pretty neat party. All the ward members came dressed in costumes representing the time period of Zarahemla. We ate dinner (pulled pork in a pita) , and then had a play. The play consisted of each of the different prophets coming to testify to the people of Zarahemla of Christ's birth, and then at the end we saw the star in the sky to show that the Christ child had been born.

Here are some shots of the night.


Some of the decorations and the "townspeople's" blankets for a picnic. (Notice Jeff's trees)


My costume....you can't really see it. it's just a piece of fabric wrapped around me.
One of our neighbors.
Jeff's costume (His shirt says - Be nice to me or I'll sic my ninja monkeys on you) - He's kind of a party pooper when it comes time to dress up.

Lost Chord

I can't find my chord to upload pictures from my camera. I have so much to blog about. GRRR!!!

Thanksgiving in Nebraska

This year we spent Thanksgiving in Nebraska with some of Jeff's family. Here is a brief overview of our trip... not necessarily in order


On our way to Nebraska we had a really long layover in Denver. This is how I spent a lot of my time. :)
We finally made it!! Us standing outside the NE Airport
A Panoramic view of the Winter Quarters Temple. It is nestled in a really quiet residential area.
A closer look at the temple

Right next to the left of the temple is the Winter Quarters cemetery. The gravestones are so weathered it was really hard to see the names on them. You can see how this one was broken and pasted back together.

A memorial for people who died at Winter Quarters. Richard Lyman - 9 months and Don Carlos Lyman - 5 months were the only names I found that I might be related to.

We went to the Omaha downtown lighting ceremony. This is a before shot

This is us waiting for the lights. It was pretty chilly that night.

After the lights came on.

In Idaho you can find firewood and icemelt stacked outside convenience stores....in NE you find sandbags.


After the lighting ceremony we went to a Christmas symphony concert. It was really good. When we first walked in, we sat in these seats....But then we realized we could move to the balcony and have tons of leg room and a much better view.

The symphony

Jeff and his nephews playing video games.

Entering "Mormon Bridge" - It's right on the border of Nebraska and Iowa

Inside "Mormon Bridge"
Shelly and I getting Pedicures - It was the first time I've ever had one.
The stage where we saw "A Christmas Carol" produced. It was really good. The guy that did Scrooge did a fabulous job.
The Mario Kart Tournament - It is a pretty fun game.