Basketball John

John called me about a week ago and said this: "So, I got an interesting call from the credit union today..." My immediate reaction was to think the worst, that someone had stolen all of the money out of our accounts and we wouldn't be able to get it back and then we'd be left penniless and would lose our house and then both somehow lose our jobs and it would just be AWFUL.

What they ACTUALLY were calling about was to inform John that his name had been drawn to "Shoot for Loot" at the next Utah basketball game (last Friday night). A little backstory. We have season tickets to Utah basketball, and they do the Shoot for Loot thing at every game. Whoever is Shooting for Loot (I'm just going to keep saying that because it's fun) has 30 seconds to make a layup, free-throw and three-pointer for $300 and then a chance to make $300 more if they make a half-court shot. Not a bad deal, eh?

John was pretty nervous because he's never played basketball in front of that many people before (the Huntsman Center had more than its usual 2,000 fans, oh miracle of miracles), but he came through like a champ. Good thing, too, because my brothers would never have let him live it down if he would have missed everything. Ha. All except for the elusive half-court shot. But that's OK, we'll take the $300. And he just looked so darn cute down there. Hooray for free money!

Things I've learned this week

1. DVRs can overheat. And do so at the most inopportune times, like right when they’re about to announce the winner of The Biggest Loser.

2. DVRs do not, in fact, continue to magically record all of your precious shows when they are UNPLUGGED FROM THE WALL on account of their annoying tendency to overheat.*

3. I could never live in L.A. Driving home from work on the freeway yesterday, something I normally avoid like the Plague, made me all kinds of angry. (And as a side note, people that do not know how to properly merge should have their licenses revoked. Or never receive them at all.) Speaking of bad drivers…four words. The mall parking lot. Wow. Also, I need to remind myself to never, ever, EVER attempt to go the mall a week before Christmas again. Or maybe ever again for the rest of eternity, lest my rage boil over and I make the evening news.

4. If I am ever to in actuality have a baby, I need to refrain from reading blog posts from new mothers about the wonders of labor/delivery and breastfeeding. The horror.

5. The escalator scene from Elf is never not funny.

*Yes, friends, this sadly enough had to be brought to my attention. I am not blonde, I swear…although technically my hair color is ‘strawberry blonde,’ so do with that what you will. Lucky that John married me for my looks rather than my brain, huh?

Christmas, Christmas time is near

As hard as it is for me to believe, Christmas is less than 2 weeks away. Holy cannoli. It has totally sneaked up on me this year. But at least I have a cute, festive house to come home to after a long day sitting in front of a computer with a right hand that’s permanently frozen because my space heater was on the fritz back in August and I had to throw it away. Curse me and my bad circulation.

But now, back to our cute festive house. Neither of us are fans of house fires, so we invested in a nice pre-lit artificial tree this year and love it (now that John, being the superhero he is, found the one light bulb that was only halfway in and therefore causing an entire section to turn itself off and on randomly). I also got all crazy and bought a new tree skirt that matches our Christmas stockings, even though there was NOTHING WRONG with the one we already had. Eesh. Spending money so frivolously these days, I tell you what.

And to add to the festiveness and excitement of the countdown to Christmas, my cute mom gave us these puppies in time for December 1st, continuing a Christmas tradition that has been ongoing since I was a wee little girl.

A daily dose of chocolate does a body good, right? Or, if you’re my nephew Jake, sometimes it’s more fun to eat all 24 pieces in one sitting. I like the way he thinks.

Last week was the Week of Parties. We had John's work party on Tuesday, my work party on Thursday and a family party with my mom's side on Saturday. Whew. (We didn't have anything on Friday night, and I was more than content to just stay at home. I may even have put my pajamas on at 6 p.m. Don't judge me.) This year, we bucked tradition by actually winning prizes at our work parties! It was a thing of miracles, I tell you. Although technically, we didn't in actuality win anything at John's party...it was given to us by default after a guy at our table's raffle ticket was drawn twice for the same gift and he didn't want it. So we came home with a cute apron, a mixing bowl, some cookie sheets and a cake and brownie mix...and I had flashbacks to my bridal showers. But hooray for coming home with something. The win at my work party, however, was too legit to quit. I've worked at my company for a little over five years and have never won anything...so hip hip hooray when they read my name and handed me a $50 gift certificate to Market Street. Aww yeah. Free date night for us!

This year for the Austin Family Christmas Party, besides the mainstay White Elephant gift exchange, we had ourselves a pinewood derby, Christmas-style. Sounds a bit weird, eh? Good thing everybody on the Austin side is RIDICULOUSLY competitive so we all got really into it. There were some great cars...the infamous leg lamp from A Christmas Story, the Grinch's sleigh and the Griswold family Christmas tree strapped to the top of the car were a few of my favorites.

John and I stretched the theme a little bit and decorated our car in honor of my very favorite Jazz player (and pretend boyfriend) Paul Millsap. Because sometimes all a girl wants is Paul Millsap wrapped up under her Christmas tree. Unfortunately, we learned that Paul does better on the basketball court than he does in a derby race, but he still gave a valiant effort and for that he has my eternal devotion. Love you, Millie.

Thankful

This year, I'm thankful for...

• Spending my first Thanksgiving with the Morrey family. It was such a nice, long, relaxing weekend. We slept in every day, ate good food (oh, the turkey! And the mashed potatoes! And the cocoa-flavored roasted almonds!), went to see Tangled as a family (which made me tear up three times...definitely the sign of a good Disney movie), watched two Harry Potter movies in an effort to get me caught up to see the new one while it's still in theaters (because I am oh so blasphemous and until a couple of weeks ago had not seen any of the movies), and just generally had good times. Also, John and Michael (John's youngest brother) had a dance-off. Without any music. I sincerely wish I had taken a video, because words cannot describe the joy it brought to all who were lucky enough to witness it.

• John's car passing its safety inspection. Old Greenie rides again...at least for another year.

• Going to the Spectrum to watch the Utah State/Utah basketball game, accompanied by my mom, brother Jason, bestest friend Jessica and John's dad. Games between these two teams always pose a bit of a problem for me, as I grew up a die-hard Ute fan but graduated from USU. My solution was to cheer for both teams. And even though I was glad to see Utah State win, my little heart was sad for my Utes. Such dilemmas I face in life. Although I do have to say that there is no comparison to the atmosphere in the Spectrum. The Aggie student section was truly amazing, as always.
  

• The heroic and miraculous efforts of Brandon Burton to block BYU's field goal with 4 seconds left and win the game for the Utes on Saturday afternoon. John and I were at the game, along with my mom and brother Jason. This was my first time seeing a BYU/Utah football game in person, and what a classic it turned out to be. Sitting for four hours in below freezing temperatures was worth it once the game was over. Final score: 17-16. Aww yeah.

• The purchase of my new winter coat and boots. Logan was FRIGIDLY cold, as was the aforementioned football game, so they definitely came in handy. What also would have come in handy is if somehow the crew at Rice-Eccles Stadium could have removed the BLOCKS OF ICE from underneath the seats before the game started. Even with wool socks and boots, my feet were pretty much frozen solid by the time the game ended. Oh, the things I do for sports.

Things I'm NOT thankful for at the moment? Living on a huge corner lot, with mountains and mountains of snow piled on top of the sidewalks and driveway. With a layer of ice underneath. BOO.

Snowmageddon. Or Snowpocalypse. Whichever you prefer.

John and I have had to change our Thanksgiving travel plans due to The Great Blizzard of 2010 (dun dun DUNNNNNN), so what better way to while away the hours than by updating our fantabulous blog. I figured I better be quick since who knows how long it will be until the power goes out...or the world ends...

We had our first big snowstorm over the weekend and got a foot of snow. (Here is Johnny digging us out so we could drive to church.)

I THOUGHT that storm was bad enough considering what a mild November we were having, but apparently Mother Nature had other ideas and wanted to one-up herself by providing us with this fun blizzard gift tonight (pictures to come. It hasn't quite reached us yet). If Mother Nature would have just been humble and content with the storm she gave us on Saturday night rather than being greedy and prideful, John and I would at this point in time be in Logan. Wonderful, wonderful Logan. Hanging out with our wonderful, wonderful family and maybe even eating some Aggie ice cream. Thanks a lot, Mother Nature. And I tell you what, you will rue the day if you decide to extend the storm into tomorrow and put the playing of the Utah State versus Utah basketball game in jeopardy. I have not been to an Aggie game in TWO YEARS and so help me, I am going to this one.

That is all.

Reason #96 in which we discover that it doesn't take much to make my day.

This morning I was fortunate enough to hear the two most glorious words in the English language:

"No cavities."

Best. Day. Ever.

With a hip hip and a clippity-clop...

Well, I guess I’ll start off by saying happy November. I am extremely proud of myself in the fact that I have already taken down my Halloween decorations and replaced them with my Thanksgiving ones. Granted, the amount of Halloween/Thanksgiving decorations I own in no way rivals the boxes and boxes of Christmas decorations I possess that are not so easily put up or taken down, but still…an accomplishment is an accomplishment.

Now, for the re-telling of our Halloween fun (up until I got food poisoning late Saturday night…but I will spare you the details other than to say that the times I truly know my husband loves me are when I’m sick). I am nothing if not a fan of traditions, so my celebrations throughout the year are largely tradition-based. Hence the following.

My friends and I watch The Watcher in the Woods every year. I don’t even remember for sure how, when or why this tradition started, but suffice it to say that it has been going on for almost 10 years. If you have not seen this movie, wow. FOR SHAME. Early-80s Disney horror at its finest. We’ve gotten to the point where we can quote our favorite parts word-for-word and are even able to bring them up in non-Halloween settings. (Also, the alternate endings for this movie are CLASSIC. Seriously. Look them up on YouTube.) We have progressed over the years to include potluck meals to go along with such fine cinema, because grownups have potlucks, dang it! And usually we treat ourselves to dessert in the form of pumpkin empanadas from the very classy Taco Time. We did not grow up on the West side for nothing, people.

We spent Friday night with Darth Vader, Spiderman and Yoda (AKA my cute, cute nephews) at the annual Stapley/Shegrud Halloween party with my dad’s side of the family, at which we went through a “scary” spook alley, watched the animated version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and had a rollicking eat-the-donut-off-of-the-string competition. We have been enjoying all of these activities every year since I was a little girl, courtesy of my Grandma and Grandpa Stapley (who have both passed away). This was the third viewing of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow this October for me and John, but oh how I love it. We all sing along with Bing Crosby as he tells the tale of Ichabod Crane (kind of odd, but nice just the same). It's kind of funny listening to how upbeat and lighthearted the title song is...and then you hear the line "With a hip-hip and a clippity-clop, he's out lookin' for a top to chop." Yeah. Little morbid. But SO fun. That is the magic of Disney, I guess.

Truthfully, I spent most of the night trying to convince myself that it would not be OK to steal this little one and take him home with me...