Happy Birthday Erica!

My lovely sister turns 22 today! Erica and I have had the pleasure (or curse, take your pick) of looking similar throughout all of our growing up years. Even now, we have to say hi to people in public that think we are the other person (so as not to offend). Erica has even had five minute conversations with people that then emailed me and said that it was nice to chat. We are pretty good at letting each other know when this happens, so we don’t look like idiots in the future, but I have gotten completely off track.

Erica is studying to be an elementary teacher and it is the perfect profession for her. She is great with little kids and cares enough to put in extra time coloring and making things look exciting for her student teaching. She has a wonderful singing voice, and is constantly making me laugh. She is always up for any impromptu skit, and she probably should have done some acting, she really is talented. She is the basis for the M&M post that has been so popular (we love those “blonde” moments in our family).

I hope you have a great day! Love you!

Christmas Traditions

We just returned from a wonderful weekend away in sunny, California and are now about to embark on an adventure to the snowy tundra of Laramie, Wyoming. I have to admit I’m very excited to go home for Christmas this year and in anticipation of the events that will happen, I thought I would share a few of the Wyo family traditions.

Love Ornaments. When we decorate our tree (with white lights of course) we put all of the ornaments on except a tin with 20 heart-shaped ones. These are placed next to the tree and are our love ornaments. When you see someone do something kind for someone else such as making their bed, doing the dishes, cleaning up a mess that isn’t yours, etc, you take an ornament from the tin and place it on the tree. The goal is to get all of them up before Christmas.

Gifts to Jesus. Each year we write our gift to Jesus on a piece of paper and place it in a family box which is wrapped under the tree for Jesus. To be honest I can’t remember if we open this box at some point on Christmas or if we wait until the next year. I guess I will find out this week.

The Nativity Scene. On Christmas Eve we reenact the Christmas story. We have very specific costumes for each character. When I was younger, my sister and I would fight over who has Joseph and who was Mary, because Joseph had to wear a paper beard, which was embarrassing. Then there was the year that by brother Adam only wanted to be a dog, so we added one to the scene. As we have grown, we have not acted as willingly, but for the little ones, we trudge on.

Dinner like Jesus. This is a newer tradition, but one that I actually like. On Christmas Eve we eat as Jesus ate, with only candles for light, torn pieces of french bread, cheese slices, nuts, dates, grape juice and fish. When I was younger the “fish” was fish sticks, but now we have Halibut-delicious!

We have many others, but these are some of my favorites!

Happy Birthday Kari!

And again, another birthday! Kari is the youngest of the Cali clan and is just the sweetest thing. She is a wicked-sweet soccer player and loves to sit and watch chick flicks with me, which I appreciate (since Ronnie has to be tricked into that sort of thing.) Kari is very generous with her time and energy, always willing to help when needed.

Have a great day, we love you!

Happy Birthday Maggie!

Today is the special day for Maggie, Ronnie’s cousin who currently lives with his family. She doesn’t say a whole lot, but when you listen carefully, what she does say is usually really funny. Ronnie loves to spend time trying to get her to crack a smile.

Have a great day Maggie, we love you!

Happy Birthday Dan!

December is full of birthdays (6 of them) and I managed to get this one done on the actual day. Yea for me!

Dan was welcomed into the Wyo family two years ago and we sure do love him. He is always looking for an excuse to laugh and has even made up nicknames for the two youngest kids that I get a kick out of (J-dawg and S-kitty) His new love is the 1946 Willy’s Jeep that my dad is restoring and I think more time is spent talking about what they could do to the Jeep than actually doing anything. We hope you have a wonderful day (you old man)!

What did you just say?

Every family has some inside jokes, at least I assume so. My family has many but telling them to you here would be less than entertaining as most of them are of the youhadtobethere sort. Nevertheless, these experiences have caused us to evolve the English language a bit.

1. Yember. This word came about when my youngest brother was…well…young. He loved to talk about things we had done earlier in the year or even earlier that week. Instead of starting every sentence with “Do you remember…?” he shortened it to “Yember?” We laughed about it at first, but then realized the genius of it all. We always say it to each other, and occasionally I catch myself using it when talking to a friend. (I usually just move on quickly with the story, hoping they won’t realize I just used a made-up word.)

2. Snoofers. This is courtesy of my mother. She refuses to say “snot” or “booger” and as such combined the two to create a secret word that she could use in public and not be too embarrassed.

3. Fast as a pig. My other brother was about five at the time and my father asked him to do something quickly, he looked up, wide-eyed and asked “fast as a pig?” My dad tried to stifle a laugh and said “yes, please.” Ever since that time, if we want something done fast, we use this phrase.

4. Fair. This one actually came from my cousin Cole. When he was younger he didn’t understand the difference between fair and unfair, so when he felt he was being slighted he would yell, “THAT’S SO FAIR!” Ronnie and I would look at him and answer, “Why, yes it is!” Since that time, it is a constant battle to figure out whether something I make Ronnie do (as if I can make him do anything) is fair or unfair.

Happy Birthday Aubrey!

I always seem to be a day late and a dollar short on these, I really need to get better! Yesterday was the actual event.

Aubrey is the oldest of Ronnie's side. She is great to talk to and one of my favorite things about her is her ability to listen (no matter how long I go on). She is an extremely hard worker and has always made me feel a part of the family. I love her infectious laugh! The other day we were on the phone, and I scolded Ronnie in the background and called him 'Ronald!' She loved it! (Probably because Ronnie was getting scolded, but it was funny none the less.)

I hope she had a wonderful day and look forward to seeing her soon!

Free Stuff!

I thought that title might get your attention. As we are in the process of moving, we have come across a few things that we no longer need. The biggest of those being a desk with a hutch. Before you get too excited, I feel it necessary to tell you that Ronnie purchased it at DI several years ago. It is still very functional, but may not be the "looker" you desire. I have not taken a picture of said desk, and after searching on the internet have discovered that no one has a desk similar to it, so you will see my artistic rendition below. Let me know if you are interested.

Rockin' Out

Me: Hey! Do you want to go to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert on Saturday? I can get us free tickets.

Ronnie: Uh, I don’t go to anything with the word “orchestra” in the title.

Silent Pause

Me: Hey! Do you want to go to the Trans-Siberian ROCK concert on Saturday? I can get us free tickets.

Ronnie: Yeah, that should be fun.

Ahhh, the single life

I have recently had the pleasure of helping cover a night shift that was started at work to expand our customer service. We have hired four students; two girls and two boys. They are all single.

You can imagine the conversations.

As I supervised last night, I was able to sit back and just listen for a while. We were on our break and I pretended to be engrossed in my computer. Seeing as how everyone had just officially met for the first time, we are not experiencing full-out flirting, just subtle-feel-it-out flirting, but flirting none the less.

Watching this human mating process has caused me to reflect upon how I may have acted when I was single and working in a very similar office environment.

I have just one thing to say to all those who may have had to work around me, or listen to the conversations I know I had.

I’m sorry.

I hope you have been able to completely block out those memories and if you have, please let me know how so I can do the same.

Moving!

We didn’t think we would be doing this for another 8 months or so, but we are moving. My grandparents are heading off on their third mission to Phoenix, Arizona and we will be taking care of their house and whatnot in PG.

As much as I’ve thought that I just want to get OUT of Provo, I am sad to be leaving. I love our ward and little apartment, but look forward to two bathrooms and saving money!

If you are in the area (and yes, Provo is considered in the area) please stop by, we will still need our friends!