Holiday Greetings

We sure hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! We sure had a great one, full of lots of gifts and many blessings!

We spent our Christmas Day this year in Sandy with Tony's parents. It was a really great, relaxing day. We woke up and I was introduced to a new Christmas tradition. "The Rope". Apparently when Tony and his sisters were all little, his mom tied a ribbon around the top of the staircase to show that they couldn't go down and peek at what Santa had left for them in their stockings. (Tony and I slept in the basement, so we had to kind of run up there really fast for a picture) It was really cute and it seems to have worked! After the ribbon cutting ceremony, we looked through our stockings and had a simple but magnificant breakfast of cinnamon rolls, fruit, breakfast casserole, and hasbrowns. After breakfast we moved on to the good stuff--opening presents! It was so funny to watch Candace and Caity open their gifts, and I got a lot of really great things from Carmie (thank you!). The present opening lasted from probably 10:30 to 1:30.

Now we head off to my homeland this Sunday to have Christmas the Second with my parents and extended family. I am really excited to spend some time with my mom. You know, go shopping, get polar pops, all the usual things. I don't get to see her very often, my mom is a wonderful support and friend and I am very excited to be able to hang out with her. Of coure I'm excited to hang out with my dad and sisters, too! :)

P90X is still going wonderfully. We get to switch up our diet in a week so now week can eat three servings of carbs instead of just one! Hooray! I don't think either of us have shed anymore inches, but Tony did get some dumbells for Christmas so maybe that will help!

Happy Holidays!

Changes

There have been a few changes in our lives recently. The one I'm most excited about is the change in weight I'm experiencing! Because of our P90X workouts, I've lost a total of 2.5 inches on my torso, and an inch and some off of my thighs! YAY! Tony's also slimmed up a bit, but he's not as obsessed with measuring it as I am :). He is getting some pretty little abs, I'll admit.

Another change--one we're not as happy about as we are about losing weight--is that we were released from being Sunbeam teachers. I'm grateful to have been in primary as long as I have, and don't get me wrong, there are no hard feelings from us about getting released :). We are sad, but a little relieved as well. It was a perfect time to get released--the last day of primary.

So, with all of that, we wish everyone Happy Holidays!! Hope everyone did well on their finals :).

Taking a Break from Stress

I thought I'd take a little break from all of the worrying, writing, studying, presenting, grading, and homework I have to do to post a little blog.

We have finally started our P90X workout, and it is tough. They have us on a bascially no carb-all protein diet. (Low fruit, too!) It's very hard to follow but I just keep telling myself that in 25ish days I get 3 servings of carbs and fruits instead of just one. The workouts are hard, but they are really working. I feel so much healthier and I really feel like I'm losing weight. I would recommend it..so far.

Finally, to end my short blog...I'm sick of school. If Thursday weren't my last day I would totally run away and hide in the mountains or something. Ick, school is just getting annoying.

Group Projects -- Group Schmojects

For the most part I'd say that I enjoy college, but one thing I hate more than anything about it is GROUP PROJECTS. This may just be my independent/loner side coming out, but I am sure that most of you feel the same about this group project thing. You get a bunch of fairly intelligent humans together, all who wish to share their insights and opinions (which are usually good), and even though you have four or five smart people working at it, everyone's grade is lower because you all had to work together. Stupid. However, group projects are nowhere near as horrible as group papers. I want to meet the individual who decided, "Hey, let's make four people write a paper together instead of just one". I'm sure it was some researcher somewhere, probably in my field. (we're all about the unity in the MFHD world)

Other than stressing myself to the point of nausea over this group project I have, life's good. We're anxiously awaiting our infomercial-ordered P90X workout system, guaranteed to have us ripped in 90 days! (Lame, I know) Don't worry, though, I did my research and many claim that it is a good thing. I'm quite excited to see the results. Tony and I are doing the whole before & after thing too, complete with pictures and measurements. I think I'll spare the blogging world an upset stomach by not posting our pictures up, though. We'll see what this P90X thing can do, and whether or not it will royally kick my butt.

Two Sundays ago we put up our Christmas decorations. It was really fun! We put on some Christmas tunes, decorated the tree, and put some lights out on our porch railings. It was fun to open our own box of Christmas decorations and not have to go out and buy a bunch of stuff! Our tree looks lovely, complete with blue and silver BYU/Utah Jazz colored ornaments. It even has a present underneath!

Last thought: the semester is almost over! Yay! I think semesters are the perfect length. Right as soon as I begin to hate my life and school, it's over! Then I rest for a couple of weeks and I'm ready to go back for more learnin'. Needless to say, I hate school right now and Christmas break is so close I can almost taste it. I NEED Christmas break to come!

I hope all is well for everyone out there!