Dear o Dear

I have failed in the "at least weekly" posting thing. Funny thing is, I keep taking pictures of things so I can post it all... but then I never get around to doing it! For that reason, this one may be a long post.

November 29-Dec 2 I worked in St. George with a BYU TV show. We interviewed a very interesting man. His name was Floyd and he was 87 years old - he served in WWII and was in France the day after D-day. He told several war stories and then what he did when he got back to the states: became a barber, went to beauty school, and then became a full-on hair dresser/beautician. Weirdest combo ever! His story was funny, though - because he talked about how he just wanted to take one haircut class on women's hair and they recommended that he do the whole 'school' or whatever and he said no way... but they convinced him to come for a tour the next week and when he got there, there were 5 other guys so he decided "okay... I guess I will." He opened his own shop in St. George and was apparently THE place to go for a few decades. But he said he got tired of all of the crazy women and eventually retired. Now, after convincing from a friend to try it out, he crochets while watching football. Haha!! PS this guy is totally straight. Married for 62 years with 6 kids. And completely 100% lucid, too. (His wife was a different story - batty as can be, but hilarious).

Anyway, the only picture worth showing from that trip was this random toilet we found outside a shop... it made me laugh. So here it is:

The sign says "please put your butts here." hehe.

Alright, next on the list of pictures that I took - our Christmas tree!!  We didn't realize how expensive those darn things are, so we went for quite some time (in December) without one. Then, Eric's mom was kind enough to get us this cute little white tree that was about a foot tall with mini ornaments to put on it. We finally had a tree! We decorated it and stuck it on our coffee table. But then Eric surprised me about a week later with roughly a 3-foot tree (fake) that a buddy of his gave him for $10. It totally made my day! I got so excited that I took pictures of it after we hung our ornaments. Here it is:

And the next is our first ornament - we bought it in Williamsburg (on our honeymoon). We plan to make it a tradition to get a new one each year. :P

And this one was one of Eric's as a kid and I thought it was so cute that I had to post a picture of it, too.

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I forgot to mention that Rachel and I met Joanne (my grandpa's cousin) at my grandpa's grave (Brown) on the anniversary of his death. It was probably the foggiest day I have ever seen... or worst inversion ever. It was ridiculous!! And I kid you not, it was a good 20+ degrees colder in Bountiful than in Orem! We got there, look at the grave, set flowers down, took a couple pictures, hugged, and said goodbye. It was a pretty fast visit because we were all freezing! But here's a picture or two from that:

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Okay...  now, fast-forward to Christmas. Well, Christmas Eve. This was my first year away from family on Christmas and I had a pretty rough time with it on Christmas Eve. I was trying so hard to be in a good mood, but I wasn't succeeding very well. However, luckily, Christmas day was loads better. Not sure why. Maybe I had finally come to terms with it. haha.

I was so excited to give Eric his gift and was really glad that he liked it as much as I thought he would - a camouflage bathrobe! I have a bathrobe that I use a lot and he has said multiple times "I wish I had a robe!" He even used mine once or twice before Christmas. I already had the intention of getting him one, but when I went to the store to get one, I saw that camouflage one and knew that was the winner. His parents cracked up when they saw it. He has worn it every day since. :P Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of it. 
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What else... I'm pretty sure that this house we're currently in has the WORST dust (and whatever else) that I have ever experienced. To my knowledge, I have never been allergic to *anything*.... yet, I have pretty much had a stuffy nose since we moved in... all day, every day. A month or so ago, I got some over-the-counter daily allergy medicine and have been taking that every day along with a good amount of vitamins once - or twice - daily (echinacea, garlic, zinc, vitamin c, etc). I don't think I even realized that it really has been EVERY day until this past week. I guess I was in the house more than often and it just got to the point where it was practically unbearable - not even nose spray would clear my nose. :(

Eric brought up the idea of getting an air purifier but we were pretty tight on money (isn't that the case with everyone during December? haha) so we knew we couldn't afford one right now. However, I love KSL classifieds more and more every day. We found one on there for $40! (new it's about $175). I went and picked it up today and it is currently on full speed in our bedroom. Eric said that after 5 minutes he could tell a difference in air quality, but I'm still thinking that for him it was more of a placebo effect vs actually being that effective that quickly. My nose is still 100% stuffy, so the jury is still out as to the effectiveness of our cool new gadget. I sure as heck hope that it works though, because I would REALLY like to be able to breathe normally again!!

Well... I think that's long enough for now. Sorry it took me so long to catch everyone up. I never realize how many people actually follow it until I stop writing! Then, suddenly, I get a ton of people asking "why aren't you writing on your blog!?" Whoops. Okay, I promise to do at least once a week. Deal? :)