Daddy works in Draper - so he took my laptop to the place in Salt Lake yesterday to get it fixed. In theory - they updated the bios so it won't ever happen again :) AND- they cleaned it up... it's shiny :)

While Daddy was over, he also was so kind as to hang the shelf Jason and Camile made us for Matt's llama rug from Peru. It gave us a spot to display a way cute clock we got for our wedding and has been in storage under our bed.

Close-up

I've wanted to write for a little while, but didn't know what I would talk about, so this is just to update everyone on our plans a little.

This summer, we intend to buy a house in Phoenix. I've found one I absolutely LOVE. I'm not posting identifying information on it because a) it has only been on the market for a few days and I don't want anyone to steal it, and b) I don't want to publicly claim it until it really is mine :). Now, the problems with my house (note use of the word "my"):
1- It's a bit on the expensive end of our range.
2- We won't be moving until May at the earliest.
3- Matt can't technically apply for other jobs within Wells Fargo until July.
4- Matt wants to have a job in AZ before buying a house.
5- My house is really new on the market and is a newer house - I'm afraid it will be snatched up before we're in a position to make an offer.

That said - I REALLY want it. I also feel really good about moving to Phoenix, and this has been the only house I've fallen absolutely in love with. Now to just watch and pray. On the plus side, if it DOES stay on the market, the price should drop by the time we want to buy it.

In other news, I've been off the pill since October. Can I tell you how obnoxious trying to get pregnant is? I've never actually charted my periods - so I've started doing that, and I've not been too regular. I've gone 35 days in a cycle - that was so annoying. I had tested like twice, and then bought more tests the same day my period started. I wasn't pleased. Not to mention, it seems like when you're trying, everyone either has kids or is pregnant. While I'm happy to hear friends and relatives are pregnant, I have jealousy over it. Superficial jealousy, but still.

Anyway, those are the biggest ongoing things in our lives right now.

I have embarked on the last leg of my undergraduate journey - it's about time! This is my last full semester ever (unless I feel the urge to spend 30k and get a master's). I still have one last class to take this summer, but that shouldn't be too bad since it will be the only one! Anyway, I want to do my synopsis like I did for fall.

MWF Family Financial Management with Ron Hammond
So far it's been a nice open forum to discuss how to be cheap. Savvy Shopper Deals is mentioned always. Ron and his wife are coupon clippers - to the extreme. Today he brough in some trophy receipts - amazing savings! However, I don't know if I could bring myself to be a clipper - it's a lot of work! We also have to keep track of our budget and anything we spend for the whole semester. It's at least a deterrent to spending money. At the store the other day, I even bought some cereal in a bag because it is cheaper. Baby steps I guess.

TR Anthropology of Mormonism with Ed Andrus
I love Ed! This is my third class from him. At least I know what to expect workload-wise. Unfortunately, I don't still own one of the books we're using (again)... but since I've read it once or twice, I'm not too worried.

TR Psychopharmacology with Dr. Yells
Also same setup as Physiological Psych, only this semester, it's all about the drugs! Should be a fun class. My goal is to at least pick a paper topic and start finding articles early.

TR Ancient Anthropology with Haagen Klaus
Or as Dr. Klaus would prefer - Archaeology thoery and method. The book is intense, but I'm getting used to it. This will be my most labor intensive class, I think. 10 page paper at the end and 3 essay tests - at least the final isn't comprehensive. My goal is to pick a topic for this paper pretty quickly too. However, he requires we use the American Antiquity style - I've used APA since high school! At least he provides a style guide, and it looks pretty easy. Man, do I hate papers.

So, as I mentioned, Matt got me tickets to the Rockapella concert on New Year's Eve at the McKay Events Center. I was way excited. I had dropped hints that it'd be fun to go to - but Matt already had the tickets before I said anything! (Not sure how he knew I would enjoy them...) So we went to UVU with Garth and Sarah, who also had tickets.

There were two opening acts, Noteworthy and The Osmonds 2nd Generation. Noteworthy was okay - the dumb sound people had serious issues though. On their last song, they didn't find the lead mic until like the last 2 notes. It was unfortunate. I wasn't excited about the Osmonds 2nd Generation either. In fact, I have tried to avoid them for awhile. BUT - I was most pleasantly surprised! They put on an amazing show, and with a medley of oldies, how can you go wrong? Sadly, my entourage sat there unenthused. Though, Matt and Garth had this dire need to clap not on the beat - literally anywhere but the beat. Boys are so annoying sometimes.

After an amazing show by 2ndG, there was an intermission while they prepped for Rockapella. It has been many moons since I've seen them, and I was quite thrown when there were 2 black guys in the group. (Not racist, I just really didn't recall any the last two times I had seen them.) Naturally, it was a little different, but it was still amazing. Scott, who produces, writes, and arranges, has been there forever. He has a very distinctive voice and style which, of course, is associated with Rockapella. George, the bass, has an AMAZING range, which he got to exhibit in a solo. It was nice to see all the parts getting more equal spotlight time now. Once again, I was dancing and having a good time - and hitting Matt and Garth for clapping like idiots :)

We didn't stay and pay to go to the dance party after (though it would have been sweet to see David Archuleta). Instead, we dropped the Collins's off and headed to Grandma Wilson's for games and food. Matt wasn't feeling well, so we actually left a little after 11pm. It was the first year in a VERY long time that I didn't stay up until midnight to ring in the new year. I must be getting old when sleep wins over a chance to party and make a lot of noise. We went to bed between 11:30 and 11:45, so it's not like staying up until midnight would have been a hard thing to accomplish. Once we were home though, there wasn't really much point. The new year will come whether or not I decide to make a big hullabaloo about it.

Allow me to vent my frustrations about my place of employment. Some of you will probably know that I have been working at Western Wats for... ever. Well, for almost the last 2 years, I have been working as an editor with the company, cleaning the open ended responses in the banking surveys we do. This has been a sweet setup since I had no set schedule and wasn't dialing. Granted, the hours were very variable, and some weeks there wasn't enough work, but I still liked it.

So my issue (one of many total, but about the only issue at the moment) is the fact that Tuesday before New Year's, Sam (our manager) pulls me aside to tell me they are moving banking up to corporate at the beginning of the year. The first thought that goes through my mind is - fine, I'll have to work there with Jan, I'll get over it. Then she says that they've been letting editors go up there, so I won't be able to edit anymore. She also says that she doesn't have any supervisory positions open since we assimilated people from Boutique when it closed. She kindly says that when she has something come available, she'll definitely use me, but right now, my only option is to dial.

Dialing hasn't been as bad as I would think, but it is NOT my favorite thing in the world. Unfortunately, with my school schedule and the fact that we probably won't be here through the end of the year, I don't have much choice but to suffer through for the time being. Sam was kind enough to say she'd keep my wage the same. That's nice, at least.

However, it was an annoyance that my first day back on the phones, they ask me to either stay until 4 or come back at 4 to do a client monitoring on a non-banking project. I'm not feeling very loyal to the company at the moment, booting me like that. This came on the tail of being the only one in the editing office who did get to remotely access in from home. So I'm not particularly in the mood to extend myself to be overly helpful. Yes, I'm an amazing dialer, and I try to do quality work, but I don't need to do more than necessary at the moment.

Sigh, if I could quit, or work somewhere else. Too bad Wats is still flexible and paying me the same wage. Maybe we'll get to move in like May.... (wishful thinking)

This year, I actually let Matt sleep in to a decent hour. (Last year, I think I was excited about our first Christmas, cuz we were up early...) However, we were awakened a few minutes before my alarm (set for 8am) by Matt's sister Jennifer, wanting to know if we could come down then (the plan was for 10am). I guess mom said they had to wait to exchange sibling gifts until everyone was there lol. So we got up and openned our presents. We actually got to Payson like 10:15 or so.

We had breakfast with the fam and went around and opened gifts. Then we hung out and played their new game, Curses. Laws that was funny. I recommend videotaping any session of that game. It's definitely worth putting on YouTube at least. During our game was our call with Matt's brother Curtis, on an LDS mission in Florida, spanish speaking. That was the most talkative I think I've ever seen (not litterally seen, obviously) him. We had a good little conversation. It was good to talk to him, since I haven't written him at all and Matt doesn't let me know what is going on with him anymore.

After that and we finished our game, we just hung out for awhile. Matt ended up taking a nap for a bit too. This is awful, but I don't really recall what happened after that. At some point, we got Devan to carry most our gifts to our car, in exchange for him coming over and playing Halo 3 with Matt for hours on end. He also stayed the night and got to play Halo in the morning too. (And this is how Devan was able to eat all our Christmas candy before I even saw it ;). )

And that was the extent of our festivities on Christmas day.

So initially, I wrote a HUGE Christmas blog. However, I lost internet connection not very far into it, so it was all lost. Then I got the brilliant idea to break it up. So this particular post is dedicated to what we got, so as to not distract from the posts about the festivities. I know, I know. I'm slow in finishing up Christmas. Deal.

Grandma and Granpa Covalt gave us a little basket with oranges and lollipops (they were nummy :)), along with a pic from the nativity we did last year. We did a white elephant this year, and I scored Hip Hop Abs! I was way excited. Now if only I used it... I don't remember what Matt got though.

From Grandma and Grandpa Erdmann, we got the usual Christmas letter and updated Pertinent Information sheet, along with universal gift cards (aka cash).

Grandma and Grandpa Christiansen gave us a tower box with truffels. Grandma also made beanies and pot holders - we picked two beanies :). At the same party, Randy and Janelle had us, and we got a HUGE bag full of edible goodies - and some adorable novelty chapsticks.

Grandma and Grandpa Wilson also opted for cash this year instead of gift cards. Steven gave us $15 worth of gift cards to Deseret Book. Even though David and Edna weren't there, they had dropped off their gifts, and Benjamin gave me a cute set of porceline dolls :) Megan had Matt and gave him a Wal-mart gift card.

On Christmas, we did our presents and went to Matt's parents'. Matt got me David Archuleta's and Akon's cds. He also got me a Happy Bunny calendar with tickets to Rockapella New Year's Eve taped to it :) I also got myself Gilmore Girls season 7, a cute figurine thing that says, "Families are Forever," and new gloves.

I got Matt a new shaver (as per his request). He also got The Office (US version) seasons 1 and 2. In his stocking was a new water bottle (since he always drinks out of mine!), some microfiber cloths to clean his glasses with (once again, so he doesn't steal mine...), and a last minute Guitar Hero toy - courtesy of the cereal box. He enjoyed it, lol.

Bhuvan also had a stocking, in which was a new toy and a snack thing.

The "family" (yes, Matt and I do make a family, but it's still kinda weird to call them family gifts when there's only two of us) got V for Vendetta and House MD seasons 1, 2, and 3.

My parents also got us toilet paper and tissues (apparently this is some tradition - would anyone like to fill me in on it?), and HUGE bath sheets with our names embroidered on them.

This year at Matt's house, Jason and Camile had us. They got us Oreos (which I think I got like 5... Matt and Devan ate most of them... actually, probably mostly Devan...) and made us an ADORABLE shelf to hang Matt's llama rug from Peru on. Now if I could get Matt to put it up...

His parents got us The Princess Bride, Mind Errand from the Lord by Elder Packer, hot chocolate mix :D, a Chile's gift card, and a food storage starter kit. In his stocking was a box of chocolates. His aunt Lynell gave us a cute Christmas book along with an Olive Garden gift card. Matt also got a flying monkey... that's right, a flying monkey.

I think that is all. Sorry if I've forgotten anything. We also received various Christmas cards and letters, and treats in Heather's case (so I ate all those oreos myself :)). Thanks everyone for your thoughtfulness :)