it's the most wonderful time...

Get excited...we are.

This is our little merry Christmas house. Aaron and I had spent all night driving around trying to figure out what kind of tree to do...fake or real, big or small, expensive or cheap...so many decisions. After, what? five different stores, we gave up and headed home. It had been a long day, and we were in two different cars (I had been working all day and met him at the stores). He got home a minute or two before me, and as I pulled into the driveway this is what I saw. I had been so sad that Christmas trees were so expensive and we had gone to this craft store that had literally sucked the Christmas spirit out of us, and was just exhausted...and then when I saw this sight, I burst into tears! Aaron had put up all the lights that day and kept it all a secret!

Here is our beautiful little Red Oak. Trees here in Texas don't really change to fall colors...but luckily ours did! Just like it's description, it turned RED! Just in time for Christmas * ha * Really, and truly, it just started changing colors and it is, what? december 1st? We'll take it though! Above is a little close up of how beautiful it is with all of the lights! Aaron and I sometimes go outside and just stare at it.

Oh, did I mention this was in our living room too? Just the box, fortunately. * Ha! Aaron and I have always joked that one day we would have a huge front yard FULL of these little...I mean BIG blowup delights. It was on sale for $30 at Walmart. 8 feet full of fun, is what I say. But, we're not going to keep it. That money can buy a really good Christmas gift instead. Oh, and can we take a time out and look at the little girl on the box? Is that creepy to anyone else? I am taking it too far, but it looks like she is a Nazi youth. Can I write that on my sweet Christmas blog? Probably not, but I just did.

It's a good thing we're returning it. *

To bring you into the Christmas cheer, I am going to show you this wonderful website. I happened upon this singer SUFJAN STEVENS...well, Aaron happened upon him, and then I found this site of his Christmas Wonderment---let me prepare you, it is AMAZING. He has 5 CD's FULL of Christmas music (old time favorites AND new goodies). Just, just listen to it! You can listen to all of the cds by clicking on the icons at the bottom. My favorite one is the HARK! cd. You'll see why. I have the webpage marked as a "favorite" and I just click on it and have it playing, well, pretty much ALL of the time. http://www.asthmatickitty.com/suf_xmas/suf_xmas.php

Click on this. You won't regret it.

Here is a little preview into what I have been doing for a few weeks now. Aaron and I don't have too many ornaments, so I decided to make some to match our stockings. I'll post those later. Felt is my new fabric. It is fantastic and I love it. Love love love it. FYI. Well, I am so excited for Christmas, I even pulled out my jingle bell that Sarah gave me years ago, and put it on my necklace. Feeling good. Merry merry merry to you.

thanksgiving...

Lots of pictures to post. Thanksgiving with the Jessop family. Isn't their little boy, Dylan, a doll? He just turned one and is such a cutie. Here's some photos from the day we spent over there. It was fun and relaxing...our favorite kind of holidays. Oh, and we had WAY too much food.

Anyway...there are more pictures coming your way...get excited.

first timer here...

I heard blogging is awesome and so here I am blogging. Ok ok... really I'm just looking for an excuse to be doing something other than schoolwork! And I thought this was a good picture of me.

Well, I'm hoping the whole world starts blogging and we can link to each other's pages and we can see everyone having so much fun and the world will just be a great place. Melissa and I have more fun than anyone should, we are always going out to eat at Rudy's http://rudysbbq.com - It is so finger lickin' good.

Melissa works all the time and brings home the bacon while I go to school and play with wax (building teeth). Hopefully this post was a shorty but a goody for everyone, love you all!

the end of the day...

well, here we are...aaron on his laptop and I'm on his old one...both on the world wide web...both wasting time. (just for a little bit). Aaron is having a hard time finding motivation to study when a new version of Google Earth is available. Apparently our house is now visible and it isn't just a dirt mound now. Really great. (yawn). So, I thought, hey, it would be a good time to update our friends and family. So, this is me...updating.

Aaron only has one more month (exactly 30 days) till the end of his first semester at dental school. Is that strange to anyone else but me? I mean, he is pretty much half way done with his first year. At this rate, the four years are going to fly by. Right? Yes, say right.

Me? I am working, I don't come home as exhausted as I used to, but, I have to say, I am usually wiped out by the end of the day...not a lot of motivation to do things, except for things like creating blogs and new websites. Luckily, I have been able to use the time after work for LOTS of projects for my little company. I have lots of things to now put ON the website, but the problem is creating the website itself. Ha! Details, right? I didn't realize the time involved--I mean, I had an idea, but didn't really know. If you want to check it out, my website is http://melimba.com/test3.html. Hopefully it just created a link to it. I worked on it for the past few days, but it isn't loading correctly. If you just went to it, it probably said something like "website coming soon"...which is true! It is coming soon! Get excited.



Aaron and I took a day and went to Austin a little bit ago. We went for a exhibition of the Gees Bend Quilters http://www.amoa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ex_past that is a link to that show. It was really fun to go play with Aaron. It is great having your best friend ALL of the time. I mean, we have so much fun, even when we are just both sitting at the kitchen table gmail chatting with each other. He's a good one, that boy. I'm glad he's here. No, I'm really glad he's here.

Here is the lovely state capital that aaron and I took a "sort-a-kind-a-tour"...we started with the real tour guide and then decided to leave and discover the capital in our own way. It was fun, a little scary, but fine. I was worried that we weren't supposed to go to certain "wings" and Aaron was charging along, lookin' like he owned the place. It was a good day in our lives.

Anyway, that is all I feel like writing right now. Lots of love to you. Oh, and in case you were curious...I don't think we were breaking any rules going into this press room. The lights were on and the door was open? We are good kids. Law abiding kids who can't vote because I forgot to mail back in our voter registration here. Oops.

remembering...

Oh dear... aaron and I are remembering about the stress of worrying about if we'd be accepted to dental school...or where we would end up...it was all a HUGE QUESTION MARK! AGH! It was awful. The reason I am reminded, is because Michelle's hubby, Marc, is in that same waiting game. Rachy's husband is too! Sheesh! It is awful. For you two, my heart goes out to you!

Well, in a few minutes we are going to head over to some of our new ward friend's house to go eat some REAL Italian food. I visit teach with Christine, who has lived in Italy for the past 25ish years. So, she wanted to show us how to cook pasta and sauce the "right" way. Man, depending on how good it is, we might have to stop buying the premade $1 a can sauce. We love the sauce that we usually have, so, I say, bring on the competition! * ha!

FYI...instead of me making these little smiley faces :) as shown, I will use the star key. As shown above. Just so you know, okay?

FAST FORWARD...a few hours...almost four hours-----zip! Now here we are in the present. We just got back from our friends' house, Kemy and Chris Bates (he is finishing up a Dental residency here in San Antonio, they came here from Boston, where he just finished dental school) and it was SOooooOOOooooOOOooo much fun. I told Aaron that I really liked this Kemy a few weeks ago, and that I knew that he'd like Chris, and tonight we ate over there. Two of her sisters and one of her brothers were in town en route from Philidelphia to Utah. They were so much fun. I haven't laughed that hard for such a long time. It was great.

We're finally starting to settle in here. I am making good friends and feeling like we're kind of a part of life here. It is good. It has taken how many months to get "here"? oh, yeah, almost 5 months--but it is finally coming. I am not super home sick EVERY single day of life anymore, which is probably a positive. * Right? yes.

Anyway, we have full bellies, both of us have a computer in our laps, and I am in the La-z-boy...livin' la vida loca. That is right. Feeling good here in Texas.


oh, i just remembered how much I loved these peonies that I got from Costco last year. Aren't they such a wonderful flower? I think they are my most favorite right now...you know, of all the flowers in the world? these are great.

big planes overhead...

As I live and breathe, there is a plane flying over head or very near by. Yes, in San Antonio, there are many HUGE planes that frequent the area. I am told there are three military bases in this town...who knew?! Not to mention that the regular airport around...not too close to us, but it is around. I thought you might enjoy this picture.

Today I am off of work, so I decided to take this opportunity (before I get going on that mountain of laundry and cluttering of "important" papers) to create a new blog for the viewing pleasure of our friends and family...yes, those ones we hold near and dear, but miss greatly.

The plan of this blog is as follows...we will update it "whenever" and post pictures "whenever" and the authors (aaron and I) will change "whenever" (however, I think, by the way we talk/write, you will easily be able to tell who is who). But, in case you are wondering who we owe credit for this blog...that would be Michelle {Martin} Rasmussen. http://www.marcmichelle.blogspot.com She has inspired me. She is great at updating her blog and I love viewing it, so...alas, here we are.

Get excited for your little preview into our lives. Be prepared, you might get extremely bored.

But, you can't say I didn't warn you.