The First One

Early this morning, Ronnie was awakened by a phone call. We are happy to announce that he is accepted to University of Akron Law School! I don’t think we will end up going there, unless we get a wicked-sweet scholarship, but it’s nice to know that we have at least one option.

Happy Birthday Ray!

I know it is incredibly late, but I needed to get this posted before the day was over. Happy Birthday to my wonderful father-in-law! Whenever I see Ray he always has a humongous hug ready to engulf me! I love that! He is very thoughtful and always makes sure I have a cold Dr. Pepper when I am in the house. He is very generous and I love to see him tease Ronnie. I hope you had a wonderful day! Enjoy a night filled with EnemyMine!

Happy Birthday Grammy!

Tomorrow is my wonderful Grammy’s birthday! I won’t have the internet and wanted to get this up ahead of time. The picture is one I stole from my cousin’s blog so you also get to see Amber!

Grammy is the sweetest grandma anyone could ask for and is a true friend. A fanatic Jazz fan, she has been known to cancel other plans to stay home with “her” Jazz. I love going to her house to watch the games, mainly so I can hear her swear at the television! Grammy always has a million projects going on; she does porcelain work, crochets and knits, dips chocolates and makes delicious cookies! She also creates beautiful dolls—especially my wedding doll (if I do say so myself) which I will always cherish. She may have a small frame, but she is a ball of fire.

I love you Grammy! Have a wonderful day!

I'm Anne of Green Gables

You're Anne of Green Gables!

by L.M. Montgomery

Bright, chipper, vivid, but with the emotional fortitude of cottage
cheese, you make quite an impression on everyone you meet. You're impulsive, rash,
honest, and probably don't have a great relationship with your parents. People hurt
your feelings constantly, but your brazen honestly doesn't exactly treat others with
kid gloves. Ultimately, though, you win the hearts and minds of everyone that matters.
You spell your name with an E and you want everyone to know about it.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Who Paints the Floor?

Warning: this post contains LDS-specific words and references—if you don’t understand, I apologize.

Seminary. It all starts with Seminary. Most LDS youth attend an early-morning class during their high school years where they learn more about the scriptures (except those lucky dogs in Utah who do it during school). I loved seminary. Except for the 30 minutes right after my alarm went off. I also loved the catchy slogans and pictures that would be hung up to remind us to CTR (Choose the Right). In my day they were called MormonAds. They are now called New Era Posters.

There is a comedy group at BYU called Divine Comedy. They do shows several times a semester and most of their material is based off of LDS and BYU-specific situations. On their website they have redone quite a few of the old MormonAds and I find them HILARIOUS. I have included a few of them below, but encourage you to check out their website (there does seem to be some errors, so you can’t make the pictures bigger). Enjoy!

In my spare time...

Since I have graduated from college, I have found that I am a little antsy. I am not running around trying to get everything done, and as such my down time is not as treasured as it once was. I have several activities that I like to do to release some of my energy.

Sewing. This one is not done as often as I would like, but with my new machine and new space, I believe I will be able to get a little more done. Here you can see my efforts at making a Halloween costume for Cheryl.

Crocheting. Another that may seem a surprise to some. I am not hard core, in that I can make you a sweater, but I like crocheting around the edge of baby blankets for friends. This is actually a great hobby for people traveling, etc since you can take the blanket, yarn and hook anywhere (a sewing machine is significantly harder to tote).

Stamping. Most of this hobby is evidenced in cards. I have a hard time creating an entire scrapbook page, but a small 4”x5” card is easy for me to handle. I post most of my cards in a gallery at Splitcoast Stampers, which you can view here. I’ll put a shameless plug here—I do sell my cards for $1.50 to $2 each depending on the level of work involved. Email me if you ever need anything.

Ronnie also enjoys these crafts. (I wish I could say it is because he joins in because that would be a pretty entertaining post in and of itself.) But, it is actually mostly due to the fact that they allow him to watch whatever his heart desires, since I do not do as much watching and we don’t have to negotiate.

Wherein he WILL become a lawyer

Ronnie finished the LSAT in December and since that time we have been working on applications. As with most things, the actual application is relatively easy, fill out personal information over and over and hit submit, but the additional essays that you have to write are another story.

Ronnie worked on five completely different essays before he finally came up with one that he was satisfied with. Then we sent that out to seven people to proofread and edit. When all was said and done, we had written ten drafts over a period of four weeks to finally come to THE “personal statement.”

Now that all of that is out of the way, we have finally completed applications. Many people have asked where we are applying, so I will provide a list.

Places we originally planned on applying to: (in no particular order)

• BYU
• Utah
• UNLV
• Whittier (CA)
• Wyoming
• Texas Tech.
• Buffalo
• George Mason (VA)
• Tennessee
• ASU
• Ol’ Miss

Places that we have now applied to because we received fee waivers and figured what the heck?

• University of Akron (OH)
• Campbell University (NC)
• Yeshiva University (NY)
• University of Houston (TX)
• Marquette University (WI)
• University of the Pacific (CA)
• Santa Clara (CA)
• Temple University (PA)
• Washington and Lee (VA)
• University of Connecticut (CT)

As you can see, we really could be headed anywhere. A scary thought, but I’m starting to get more used to it. There are so many pros and cons to each school that I try not to think about it (at least until we start getting in places.) We will probably start receiving letters the end of February through the end of March, so stay tuned!

Michelle's Adventures

Some of you will remember, or know my friend Michelle. Earlier this month, she and her husband, Matthew, set out on an eight month (or possibly longer) adventure. They start with Hawaii for a month or so and then fly to Mexico. They will then spend the next six months backpacking across Central America. You can follow their journey here, although I hope that they do some more updates soon.

I admire them for starting out on this journey. I would love to not work for almost a year, but my “planner” nature doesn’t lend itself to this kind of travel.

Good luck Michelle and Matthew! I hope you have a great time!

Blind Dates

I am going to assume that most of us have been on a blind date. I’m even going to assume that some of those blind dates have worked out for the best. (i.e. my aunt and uncle). While I was not blessed with good blind date experiences, I also haven’t had the worst.

As I have mentioned before, I grew up in Wyoming. I really enjoyed living there, and would even like to go back—someday—for a predetermined amount of time. Both of my parents grew up in Pleasant Grove and came from largish families. Most of their siblings (read: all of my dad’s and half of my mom’s) have stayed in the vicinity.

Naturally when I decided to come to BYU for school, they all began to scope out boys that would be “acceptable” for me to date. I’m still not convinced that there wasn’t a contest between my mom’s sisters on who could get me married the fastest. This resulted in a blind date every weekend for the first two months of my freshman year.

Most of them were run of the mill, not too horrible, but definitely not people I would care to spend any more time with. There is one that exceeded my every expectation, and not in a good way.

Blind date #1 (BD1): This particular aunt was extra excited and set this date up before school had even started. My mom was in town to help me move all my stuff in, but we couldn’t get into the dorms until the next morning. He picked me up at my Grammy’s house and when I opened the door I was nearly floored by the strength of his cologne. I’m pretty sure my head even did that backwards-movement-with-a-slight-eyes-closing thing. We said our pleasantries and were on our way.

He opened the car door for me (point BD1) and made his way around the car. I took this opportunity to take a look at my surroundings. I was in a lime-green Honda Civic with leather seats, lime metal interior accents, manual transmission and what I could only assume were speakers taking up the entire back seat. BD1 got in the car and turned on the radio, causing me to jump from the sheer force of the sound.

We drove to a restaurant, ate, and then he decided that the best thing we could possibly do to get to know each other would be to drag State Street. Every red light was a race, and every race resulted in my head slamming into the leather seat. After an hour or so of this, he answered the tenth call that had come through on his cell phone to talk to his mother. We met the whole fam-damily for shakes and awkwardly talked about me. The night ended with a drive back to my Grammy’s that consisted of talking about his recent ex-girlfriend and music too loud to even think. I finally got out of the car and feebly waved as my head and ears continued to pound. He gave me a peace-sign (no—really!) and drove off in a cloud of music-filled smoke.

I invite you all to share an experience that may have helped you to love/hate blind dates. I’m sure mine pales in comparison with some.

Our New Ward (Church congregation)

Ronnie and I attended church with my grandparents yesterday. This is our first experience with a family ward. (We have been spoiled and going to BYU Student Wards for our entire marriage, so everyone was our age and in basically the same situation.) I thought church went really well, I met a lot of new people, and now have to remember all of those people’s names. AHHHH!

Two things happened of note:

1. An elderly woman told me I was beautiful. I LOVE when they do that. Especially when this is the first time they have met you and you have a larger-than-normal zit on your face.

2. Ronnie was told that he has an accent.

Not just any accent, but a Southern UTAH accent.

I laughed for several minutes when he told me the story. I thought that his family might enjoy that, since they have claimed that he has a Utah accent for over six months and he always denies it. Proof girls! You have proof!

Moving....and Sharing

Ronnie and I are officially moved into the basement of my Grandparent’s house. I learned a lot of things…things that can only be learned when you move.

Things like:
1. The sound of packing tape can be grating to the ears after several hours.
2. No matter how organized you pack in the beginning, you will always have boxes at the end that can’t be categorized simply (I have one with a list of 8 different things on the side).
3. Everyone should move every two years in order to clean out all of the crap you accumulate.
4. The very last thing that should be carried out the door as you are doing your final lock-up is a bottle of lotion. My hands were so dry that Ronnie would not touch them, and I was in serious pain as we quickly drove to their rescue.

Now that we are “settled,” we are also learning a few things about living in the same house as someone else for longer than a vacation.

1. We are constantly whispering to each other, not about important things, but for some reason it just feels appropriate.
2. I find myself literally tip-toeing around, something I am pretty sure I haven’t done since I was about seven.
3. Each morning I dig for instead of select clothes appropriate for work.
4. Food is hard to share, especially when you have double the condiments available.

The hardest thing about all of this is not that we have to share a space, because my grandparents are pretty much the coolest people ever and have bent over backwards to ensure that we feel at home, but that I can’t truly unpack anything since we are moving into a different bed, bedroom, closet, and even floor of the house once they leave on their mission and I don’t have the energy to organize everything twice. If anyone has any quick-fix suggestions for me to keep my sanity, let me know.

What I have learned from living with a MAN

It is sometimes necessary to drive in complete silence so that you can listen to each and every creak, bump and rattle the car might be making.

Complete happiness = warm food and clean laundry.

People playing sports on the television really can hear your cheers. (If you believe hard enough).

Anytime is a good time to talk about guns.

The estimated time of completion on any car project should be multiplied by 2.5 for accuracy.

SportsCenter is on 10-11 times DAILY and needs to be watched at least twice.

Silence is golden.

Making the bed has no purpose….in 16 hours you will just be getting in it again. (This is the argument I hear, most of the time my upbringing wins and the bed does get made).

Paper cups and plates should be used as often as possible.

Pepsi is a food group.

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.