More Christmas Traditions!

So last year I mentioned how the Blumell children watch The Lord of the Rings every Christmas. This year is no exception; however, we haven't finished yet. But rest assured we will. What is Christmas without Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli & co?

However a tradition going way back almost as far as I can remember is Graham Cracker Houses. Every Christmas we would make Graham Cracker Houses complete with icing, and various forms of candy. The last few years I have passed on this tradition. My houses were always not that great. I don't have the patience. Probably the same reason why I am terrible at crafts. (At young women's and enrichment craft activities, I was always the first one done. And my crafts were not pretty to say the least!) So it is safe to say that I am not a crafty person. I have never scrap-booked in my life with no plans to start. The above pictures is Janine's and Elizabeth's graham cracker rendition of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. It is quite incredible don't you think? As much as I wish I could say that I helped with this feat, I merely watched as the artists in the family worked their magic. Every year they have gotten more and more ambitious. Last year Elizabeth made Notre Dame complete with flying buttress out of candy canes. I am excited to see what they will make next year.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of my Summer

Quite a few events happened during the months of July and August. I am going to start with the Good. My family minus Christine and Adam were able to go up to Shuswap Lake for almost two weeks. I love it up there. I love swimming in the lake, going water skiing and wake boarding, relaxing down at the dock, doing paint by numbers (even if mine are not as nearly as well done as my sisters), reading and just hanging out with family. We had some nice hot weather and some rainy days. During the rainy days we even got my dad to watch the entire second season of 24. That was a lot of 24. Overall Shuswap was just a relaxing good time.

The second Good thing was that I bought a car. I mentioned that in my previous post.

The third Good thing of the summer was the unofficial family reunion we had during Magrath days. This was during the July 24th weekend. A lot of my extended family from the Blumell side were able to come down. I got to see a lot of family I don't get to see very often. We had a great time catching up, going to the parade, watching the fireworks and everything else. I hadn't been to Magrath Days in years so it was fun for me.

Okay now for the Bad. I was trying to think of what was bad during the summer. I had to work but I guess it wasn't that bad. I like my job. I just don't like being inside all day when the weather is nice. Also the summer was a cooler than normal. That was bad.

The Ugly. I had surgery in August and for about 10 days I was miserable. I had my deviated septum fixed. Ask me in a couple of months if the surgery helped at all. It was only a day surgery, but I was pretty miserable. I had these drains in my nose for about 2 weeks. Although I think the worst thing was I got so many cankers in my mouth. I guess the stress of surgery make me break out in cankers. (Thanks a lot body!) That was by far the worst part. I counted over 40 in my mouth at one time. I had about five on my uvula so it made eating really difficult. I couldn't really chew and most things burned my throat (well it felt like burning.) So I ate a lot of tapioca pudding and watermelon slurpees. Finally I got some Ensure so I felt like an old person. But eventually the cankers healed and I got the drains out of my nose. And no there will be no pictures posted from my surgery.

Anyways, that was pretty much my summer in a nutshell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKh4AMReB9g&feature=related

New Car!

So a lot actually has happened since the last time I posted.  So I can't write about everything all at once because I really am not that talented.  I find keeping up with everything is a struggle.  So I can only do a little bit at a time.  

So to begin with, I bought a new car.  My little Kia Rio was doing fine, but I decided it was time for an upgrade.  I had him for over five years and even though it wasn't absolutely necessary to get a new car I thought now would be a good time to do it.  I was able to find a car I really love with lot's of features I liked for a good price.  So I bought my 2010 Ford Fusion Sport.  It really is a great car.  I got a lot of good bang for my buck and the safety ratings are impeccable.  Plus it is really a nice looking car.  I never thought I would buy a Ford, but they really have come a long way.  I guess  I can thank my sister Christine and my brother-in-law Adam for telling me to check them out.  I really am clueless about cars so I appreciated the help!  

I haven't decided if or what I am going to name her.  It's a her because the navigation system has a female voice.  I don't know if you can change that or not.  Not that I really care that much.  Sometimes when I went to Krogers (a grocery store)  I would use the self-check out but I would do it in Spanish even though I don't know Spanish at all.  (Sometimes I got a few funny looks.)  It had a male voice, while the English voice was female.  A culture thing I guess?  I learned how to say "Thank-you for shopping at Krogers!"  "Gracias por comprar en Krogers!"  (I think that is right.)  Anyways back to the car.  I named the Kia Rio when I got it Erik the Red.  The car is red and I thought naming it after a Viking was kind of cool at the time.  I even had a name for the jeep when I was driving it.  I called him Bucephalus (which was the name of Alexander the Great's horse.)  Again I thought it was cool at the time.  The first car I named was the ill-fated Bridgitte!  (R.I.P.!)  But anyways I guess if something comes to me I will name her, but if nothing really strikes me she will remain nameless.  

Weekend in Washington (State that is...)

Last month I got to visit my good friend and former BYU roommate Ashley and her wonderful family.  Ashley, her husband John, and their two little kids Megan and Ben treated me like family while I was there.  I hadn't seen Ashley for four years and needless to say a lot had happened in that time period.  Ashley had two kids and I graduated from dental school!  Anyways we were roommates for the entire four years while I was there.  I guess whoever assigned us to the same dorm room our freshman year must have been inspired!  Long Live 3109 Hinkley Hall.  

  

Ashley and I in Monticello 2004.  (That was actually in John's apartment for my surprise 22nd birthday party.  Good times. 

Roomie Reunion Puyallup WA April 2009

I had a great time visiting and seeing some sights while I was there.  Technically I have been in the Seattle area twice before but each time was for less than five hours.  We went to the Seattle Aquarium right on the Puget Sound,went to Pike's Market (although it was closing when we got there), drove past the Space Needle (I didn't have a huge desire to go up, it seems once you've been in one tower you've been in them all), and got in some outlet shopping!   And that's a whole lot with two little kids!  They were good sports.  More importantly I got to spend a lot of time with Ashley and her family which was a lot of fun.  We reminisced a great deal about our BYU days.  Lot's of good stories there.  It seemed we could remember a whole lot more once we put our brains together.  

Ben at the Aquarium                                Megan ready to scuba dive.

  The Watts Family 

Going to Vancouver for a dental conference

Well yesterday I had my first day of work in Airdrie.  Overall I think it went very well.  I will be excited to start full-time in May.  No more life of leisure for me anymore!  

In the meantime I have gotten quite a bit of continuing education credit.  Last week I was in Vancouver for the Pacific Dental Conference.  I didn't want to go by myself so I dragged my mother along so I wouldn't be bored in the evenings.  Well I think she had more fun than I did because she was sightseeing throughout the day while I was at the conference.  We stayed at the Hyatt downtown Vancouver which was pretty fancy and it was only a couple minutes walk to the convention center.  I also got a nice conference rate to stay there.  I have only stayed in really really nice hotels a couple of times and although they are really nice I do have some beefs with them.  Like why do they charge for local calls?  And why do you have to pay to use their wireless?  And most importantly they do not have a continental breakfast!  At slightly less nice hotels these are all courtesy.  Of course at the Hyatt we could get room service.  But really could I justify $15 for French Toast with a $3.50 service charge?  (Although I never have gotten room service before, I should try it out sometime.)  So instead of getting room service for breakfast, or going to their restaurants/cafe, we went next door to McDonalds for a Egg McMuffin.  I actually am not a big fan of McDonalds, (although I like them much better than Burger King) but I do like an Egg McMuffin.  I guess that seemed like a no-brainer to me.  Also in the room they had water bottles for $4.95 a pop.  That is real expensive for Atlanta tap water.  So I am really cheap?  Actually I like to think of myself as frugal, not cheap.  Cheap has a worse connotation I think.  And I do not consider myself excessively frugal.  I am just right frugal.  (I guess that is debatable.)  

There were definitely some highlights to our Vancouver trip.  I went to some good courses and got a lot of free toothpaste.  There were tons of exhibitors at the conference.  It was a little overwhelming at first. There were booths for anything and everything dental related.  There was a booth where you could try out Wii Golf.  (You know because dentists like golf so much.) I got a hole in one!  I am terrible at real golf, but apparently I am quite the natural at Wii Golf.  Because I got a hole in one, my name went into a drawing for a $500 gift card, but sadly I did not win. Oh well.

My mom and I did a lot of walking around.  We walked to Stanley Park and down Robson Street (where there is a lot of shopping).  We found this quaint little Italian restaurant called Ciao Bella which was really cute.  I love Italian food.  They also had a piano player which I thought added to the whole ambiance of the place.  I even tipped him!  (See not cheap.)  We also went to Capilano Bridge which was very beautiful.  Vancouver is a beautiful city, and luckily it did not rain while we were there, even if it was a little chilly.  I also got the opportunity to reconnect with an old childhood friend, Zahra.  We were best friends while were we in kindergarten to grade 3 and then she moved.  So it had been a very long time since we last saw each other.  It was wonderful to see her again and reminisce about the good ol' days. Life sure was simpler then.

I also got to introduce my mother to Coach bags.  She had never heard of them before.   She must live yes in Magrath!  I myself never got into the craze but I've known plenty of people who are in love with them.  We also went to Holt Renfrew and got to look at Prada, Gucci etc.  It was amazing.  I found this beautiful pair of shoes but they were $800!  I also found this 

gorgeous dress but it was a whopping $2900!  I guess there are some people out there that pay that much for clothing/accessories.  As for me I can only look and dream.  Sigh...

A Trip to the Vet...

Since I am no longer working in Lethbridge,  I've been having some down time.  I am a woman of leisure, again.  Which is fine and dandy and all, however it doesn't pay well.  Money is such a pesky thing at times.  The good news is that I will start working again in March.  The job is in Airdrie and I am actually really excited for it.  It also means I have to move, but that is a story for another time.  

Anyways since I am a woman of leisure, I helped my mother take the two cats and the dog to the vet.  They were all overdue for their shots.  That was quite the adventure.  So we put Penny the dog in the back of the truck.  That was not a problem, she loves going places.  The cats however, were a different story.  We were able to put them in their carrier cases, but the the whole way there and back they wouldn't stop crying.  It was a kitty chorus.  If you have ever heard the Jingle Cats, it was something like that.  Wilma was so upset that she, well I won't go into it.  Once we get to the vet it wasn't that bad.  Penny was a little upset in the waiting room.  (It probably brought back bad memories of when she was spayed.)  But they didn't feel the shots at all.  They didn't make a peep.  Penny is a big baby, (if you look at her the wrong way she will cry) so if it had hurt her we would have known.   I guess vets just have the magic touch.

Once we got home, if was time for the worm medicine.  If we had known what an ordeal it was going to be, we probably would have just let the vet do it.  Giving it to Penny was no problem.  We just rolled it processed cheese and that was it.  Wilma and Sophie was a little trickier. We wrapped them up in towels so we wouldn't get scratched, but it still took the two of us to hold them down.  Sophie needed 2 pills because she is so fat.  A whopping 14 pounds!  While Wilma just needed one and a half.  (These pills were actually pretty big.)  The first pill seemed to go down all right, but the second was a lot trickier.  Wilma kept spitting it out every chance she got.  She simply refused to swallow.  I think eventually it just dissolved in her mouth.  Sophie chewed it all up, and that couldn't have tasted good.   I remember when I was a little girl and had a hard time swallowing pills, I would chew them up.  Yuck!  I still remember what tylenol tastes like and it isn't pleasant.  Sophie and Wilma were in a bad mood for the rest of the day.  They couldn't understand why we had done that to them.     Next time I will consult my vet tech friends.  They probably have a better way of doing this.  

Penny at Waterton

Sophie in her lighter days

Wilma

Afternoon at the Opera

Yesterday Janine and I went to the Opera.  Well kind of.  The Metropolitan Opera in New York broadcasts some of their shows live to movie theaters across the world.  Well north america at least.  So Janine and I headed to Galaxy Theaters and saw La Rondine by Giacomo Puccini.  It was my idea.  I love Puccini.  I think his arias are simply to die for.  In fact he is by far my favourite operatic composer.  The most famous aria from La Rondine (and one of my personal favourites) is "Chi il bel sogno di Doretta." Opera is definitely an acquired taste.  Maybe that is why it seemed that Janine and I were the only non-senior citizens there.  It's a shame really.  I was actually thinking they should have the child ticket price for those 30 and under to encourage younger people to go.   Even with the ticket price, I was happy to be infused with culture.  I haven't had too many opportunities lately, and it was Janine's first time seeing an opera.  And she enjoyed it.  So that made me happy.