0 Congratulations Ellen - this is the first time I've played tag!

Here is another "Survey" with a Christmas Twist

1. Wrapping paper or gift bag? Wrapping paper with bows and ribbons

2. Real tree or artificial? I love the smell of a real tree, but I like to have mine up for a long time, so mine is artificial. It is a one piece, pre-lite with while twinkle lights AND fiber optic lights that can shimmer white or rainbow. It is beautiful!

3. When do you put up your tree? My birthday, which usually falls a few days before Thanksgiving. In fact, when I was away for my first year of college my mother asked me what I wanted for my birthday. When she refused, but wonderful sisters pitched in and bought my dream gift: my first artificial Christmas tree. Thanks girls!

4. When do you take down your tree? Dido Ellen: "I hate when it has to come down, usually after new years." Nate really gets on me about this. He wants it gone the day after Christmas.

5. Do you like eggnog? I'm anti-milk (lactose really), so I've never wanted to try it.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? There is NO way I can possibly answer this one. Too many to choose from.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Two: one is a delicate cute ceramic one with a home on a high shelf. The other might not count, since it is a set of felt puppets I made with my sisters a few years back. They are Allie's favs right now. I've tried to tell her the story, but didn't think she was listening...till she started telling Nate all about each puppet when he came home from work yesterday. It was amazing!

8. Hardest person to buy for? I agree with Ellen that fathers (& father-in-laws) are HARD, but not nearly as hard as my husband. I always struggle. But this year, surprisingly, Kylie has been pretty tough, too.

9. Easiest person to buy for? Allie! I'm having to restrain myself. She is in such a fun stage.

10. Worst Christmas gift you've ever received? Can't think of anything right now. I'll try to come back. Hum, still nothing.

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Neither. I'm just not that formal I guess. or rude?

12. Favorite Christmas movie? The Christmas Story & Christmas Vacation are 'classics', but I do enjoy the Charlie Brown special.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I actually bought a few things BEFORE Thanksgiving this year, but usually it is Black Friday.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes, but I refrain from dispensing the details. Ya never know who's reading this.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Everything. But eat up, because the day after Christmas it's all 'tumble weeds' - LOL

16. White or colored lights? White and lots of them, everywhere.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Sleigh Ride - from playing it so much in orchestra, but I'm LOVING Josh Groban's new holiday album 'Noel'. If you don't have it - GO GET IT!

18. Traveling for Christmas or stay home? Historically we alternate in-laws, but I think thoes days are in the past as our families are just getting to big. Logistics ya know. This year we will be at home. I'm kind of excited to have our little family traditions started.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? Only since I just read what Ellen wrote.

20. Angel or Star on top of tree? Star. It is hard to find just the right one, but I like the one I have now.

21. Open presents Christmas Eve or Morning? I quote Ellen again: "The tradition is that we open one on Christmas Eve, the rest in the morning as soon as everyone will let me wake them up." The Christmas Eve gift was usually new PJs, which is a great idea 'cause then everyone is wearing new Jammies for all the pictures the next morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Having to keep working. I just want to make gifts, bake, ect.

23. What I love most about Christmas? Being together with family.

24. What is your family's favorite tradition over the Christmas holiday? SO many to choose from. There is the advent calender, drawing names, doing the 12-days of Christmas as a kid...the list goes on, but mostly just being together more as a family.

25. What do you want to do different next year? Start making home-made-gifts earlier. I feel rushed right now to get all my wish-list projects done.

2 I'm still here

Yes, I am still alive. Life has been getting in the way of blogging lately. I've got fun Thanksgiving & snow pics to share, so stay tuned!

9 I'm sick about this!

Allie has been getting into my pantry for quite a while now. Sometimes it is handy; she gets her own snacks. But most of the time it is not so good. She has played in the flour & sugar several times & dumped more things than I can count. So, today I bought & installed a latch to keep her out. Everything was going great until I screwed the last part to the molding. CRACK! Oh, I wanted to cry. Someone tell me what to do! To make matters worse, the latch doesn't line up very well since the moulding isn't flush/flat with the door.

5 We love our park!

Yesterday we walked up to our new neighborhood park. The play equipment is in, but the landscaping isn't. But we love it!!!! It is so nice to have it only a block away. On this day Allie walked the entire way...pushing her little stroller and 'Baby Jane' next to me pushing Kylie in a full size stroller.

1 A bit more from Bear Lake retreat

Scrapbooking is a high-tech crafting! We had a laptop, color printer, sewing machine, & TWO cricuts (they are the best!).

Martha - Maren - Abby - Sarah

We each were in charge of one meal...and we ended up with duplicates of a lot of things. You would like we were related or something!

4 Bear Lake Scrappers!

I think I failed to explain properly about where I was last weekend. I was at the "Second Annual Mommy Scrapbooking Retreat"! My sisters, Maren & Abby (Ellen couldn't come this year), my Mother, & I spent Thursday night through Sunday morning getting away from our normal life at a condo in Bear Lake. If was a great weekend full of relaxation, silliness, & of course scrapbooking.

QUOTED FROM ABBY'S BLOG:

Driving home from our wonderful retreat, Sarah and I realized we'd better jot down some notes to remind us about all the highlights of the weekend. Because I happened to have the notebook and was in the passenger seat I have the detailed, if a bit unreadable, notes. Here is a pretty good picture of our weekend:

The quote: "HEY!!! HELP MEEE!!!!" (must be said as if the parrot lady)

Highlights:

• Dollar scrapbook 'Happy Bear-lake' Gift exchange
  
• The only men allowed: Josh and Michael B
  
• Perfect weather, all sunshine and crisp fall air
  
• Scrapbook construction zone, watch out for stray scissors
  
• The amazingly blue color of the lake, seen from rocks on the shore
  
• 2 momma and 2 curious yearling deer right outside our car window
  
• 24 cans of soda, 4 spray butters, 2 vidalia salad dressing bottles, at least 24 packs of cider mix, hot chocolate, cookies, popcorn, and half of our children's halloween candy
  
• Pasta, Pasta, Pasta!
  
• Going to the convenience store because there obviously wasn't enough food
  
• Downloading Josh Groban's 'Noel' CD, thanks Sarah!
  
• Abby is apparently the only one who can skip rocks
  
• the absolute stupidest movie ever made, and yet we still quote it. and no, it was not Napoleon Dynamite (Sons of Provo)
  
• Pill-popping (Ibuprofren) due to Mom's sciatic nerve pain, Maren's headache, Sarah's feet, and Abby's dratted head cold
  
• The never ending Phase 10 game of all time
  
• We were so 'coo' in the 'poo' (interpretation: so cool in the pool)
  
• The sprinkler splash, abby's backflop, Mom canonballs, and of course the dolphin dive
• 'Kick your trash'
  
• $2.50 to die for deserts at the Motor Cafe
  
• "Chirp-Chirp" cricket swarm!
  
• 3, 259,451 tiny bits of paper all over the floor
  
• 'Hey, it's daylight savings time, that means it's really only 2 in morning!'
  
• 20 extra pounds to bring home to the treadmills
• 4 anxious husbands, 7 wild girls, and 4 messy houses waiting
• And of course: 59 layouts and a mini book completed in one weekend!

"In"s of this year:

• Joshie Poo and Buble' baby
• scallops, scallops, scallops
  
• funky photo corners
  
• big fuzzy jammies
  
• blog excerpts and lots more journaling
  
• 30 sharpie markers
  

"Out" from last year:

• Snow, no blizzard this year
  
• Ellen we missed you!
  
• Sarah working
  
• Complicated meals, hello frozen lasagna
  
• Olive garden on the way, we had quite enough pasta
  
• Titles on every page
  
• Babies, everyone was weaned this year

Improvements for next year:

• All photos in hand at least 1 week before the trip to avoid last minute developing disasters!
  
• A photo/layout swap
  
• Playing tennis at the local courts
  
• Walk the Nature Trail
  
• Everyone healthy, watch out Sarah, next year's your year to be sick.
  
• More CD variety
  
• Yellowstone?!
  

2 Do you wonder what it is that I "do"?

I have many hats and a few of them are "OUTSIDE THE HOME" jobs. For one I teach at Utah State University. For another I am a statistician. How did I get to USU you ask? Well....

After earning my bachelor's degree in math/chemistry eduction from USU, I taught high school for about 5 years. Most of that time I was half of the math & science departments at a private boarding school for troubled youth. I taught EVERYTHING from pre-algebra to trigonometry to chemistry to geometry to earth systems... You name it, I taught it. In fact, I occasionally taught TWO different subjects, at the same time, in the same room, to two different groups of students. Granted my classes were small (6-12 students), I had to be very ORGANIZED. It was a fabulous experience. One I wouldn't trade for the world! BUT... since we completed 1 & 1/2 school years each calender year in an effort to help the students catch-up, it was tiring. I loved working with the students, but that was draining as well. After teaching the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and the entire summers, ect., I was BURNT OUT. So, I took another teaching job at SkyView High School, the high school just a block from my new home & where I had done my student teaching. Although very different from the Logan River Academy, I ENJOYED teaching just as much.

It was a hard decision, but after only one year teaching at SkyView, I applied for graduate school. This time for a MASTERS in statistics. We had been married for nearly five years & decided that teaching high school wasn't what we wanted once we started raising children. A masters would open more employment opportunities; ones more conducive to being a mostly-stay-at-home mommy. So, back to school I went...only to find out I was PREGNANT 2 weeks into the two year program! The first year I taught Math 1050, Math 1010, & Stat 2000 as part of an internship. At the end of the school year,Nate graduated on Saturday & Allie was born (a month early) the following Monday. [He always said he wanted to be done with school before we had kids! ] I'm so glad Allie came early, because that gave us the entire summer to bond. But come fall, I went back to finish up my degree. Grandma JoAnne tended Allie 3 days a week so I could attend classes, but I traded in my teaching internship for another one doing research.

After I graduated I picked up teaching again, this time as a 'TEMPORARY LECTURER' for the math & statistics department of USU. People always ask if I want to be a professor. The answer is not right now. That road requires a doctorate degree, international competition, & a life commitment to getting published as much as possible. No, I like teaching too much to become a professor. I'll just take the STUDENTS! So for the past 2 years I've been teaching Stat 1040...the night section. I don't think I have much competition for the class since it is taught 7-10pm on Wednesday nights, but it is perfect for us, since Nate is able to be with the girls when I'm gone. So, getting my master's degree did open more DOORS! I teach one night a week & do research from home. No sitters, no daycare, but it is a STRUGGLE to keep up.

So most people understand teaching at the university, but the research thing gets me lots of puzzled looks. I work half time (20 hours a week) for USU's Center for Epidemiological Studies. We say the 'EPI CENTER' for short, but we don't do anything with earthquakes ;). All of my time with them has been spent on "the MEMORYproject". I got this clip from the campus paper:

"One of the largest studies of its kind, the Cache County Study on Memory, Health and Aging is a collaborative effort between researchers at Utah State, Duke University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Washington. Started in 1995, the study has followed a large group of Cache County senior citizens, investigating a wide range of health, lifestyle and environmental factors that may influence aging and memory."

More specifically, I spend most of my time on the "Dementia Progression Study", a study within the larger study. This sub-study follows participants who have been identified with some form of dementia, most notably, ALZHEIMER's. I started working with the study for my master's paper, but was luckily enough to be hired on after graduation. So what do I "do"? Mostly I write programing CODE in the statistically programs SPSS (also SAS & R). I do the dirty work of data cleaning, prep & manipulation. Manipulation is the good sense, as in getting it ready to run analysis on, not in the context of tinkering with it. My laptop is set up so that it is as if I am sitting in my office (the Epi Center one, not the Math department one) even though I am at home. Once every week or so I go up to campus for MEETINGS, but for the most part I put in my hours at home, during nap time or after bedtime. Click HERE to see a publication that is brand new! Dr Michelle Mielke, who is quoted, is one of the researchers I work with! It is amazing to me that so few people here in CACHE VALLEY are completely unaware of the amazing research that is going on right under their noses. Click HERE for more details on the study! JoAnn & Maria are the professors I work with/for everyday.

Anyway, if you've made it to the end of this, my LONGEST post ever, you have probably found several type-os and hopefully have a little better idea of what it is I "do" for my "jobs". I use quotes because taking care of my husband & girls is my REAL JOB!

4 A Productive, Relaxing Vaccation