My Little Bro

My Little Brother is officially a Marine now. Congratulations Zacky! We're so proud of you!

English??

As many of you know, i have graduated. People keep asking me what i am doing now that i'm done with school and my response is "I'm taking more classes." I just can't seem to be able to let go! So, i am taking classes at SLCC (salt lake community college for my non-UTard family). I have joined the ASL fast track program to get my interpreting skills up to par... and I LOVE it! The only downside to this, is that i have to drive to Salt Lake twice a week, which for me is quite a bit of driving considering i used to take the bus everywhere.

But, Mark and I have found a way to turn my boring drive time into my productive time! I am learning Mandarin! We got a CD set from the library and I'm getting pretty good if i do say so myself!I can already say "I am an American," "I speak English," "I speak a little Mandarin," "Do you speak English?," "Excuse me, can i ask?," I know how to make a phrase a question, say two different types of "yes" and "no," and all kinds of variations and mix-and-match's of all those! Considering I've only done it for about a day and a half i'm feeling pretty good. So good in fact that I had my first dream in Mandarin! It was SOO weird. In my dream i kept trying to talk to Chinese people saying all of my new phrases, but towards the end i just kept running around shouting English?!!! English?!!! I felt like i was stuck saying just my few phrases and i was desperate to find someone who I could really talk to! I thought it was pretty funny!

Arizona

So after Christmas Mark and I went to see my familia in AZ. here are a few pictures from the trip. i tried to put them in order, but it didn't exactly turn out. so here we go.

here is most of us before dinner on some night.

Now that Mark has been in the family for some time now, I thought it would be safe to introduce him to St. David. that is the town i was raised in until i was 13. very small.

Mark met my Grandpa (papa) for the first time. pretty sad, but true.

we paid my dad a visit

A grand event occurred during this trip. Mark tried sushi for the first time.

it was also my sister Tara's first time as well. here they are with their first bite! can you see the fear in Mark's face? He didnt really care for it, but i figure it takes a couple times to convince him right?

We took several trips to the movie theater. i'm not sure why because we actually only saw one movie while we were there. (we had bad luck, it was sold it so we went early the next day to buy tickets in advance) Anyway, we kept seeing these stupid speed limit signs that were ridiculous speeds. in this same little complex there was this one as well as one that was 13 mph.

and, you can't see it in this picture, but directly above the speed limit sign there is a no parking sign. and yes, we are in a parking lot.

The grandest event that took place this trip was decorating my mom's bedroom as a surprise for her. we did the ENTIRE thing in about 8 hours while she was at work. And it was a lot of work. My mom has lived in her house for 10 years and has never done anything to her bedroom.

I'm really upset that we didnt get a good before picture with her previous furniture in there, but its not all that much different without the furniture. just picture very outdated things lying around.

Anyway, this picture was taken right after we had removed the nasty wall paper border that was going along the ceiling. when we took it down it revealed the previous color of the wall, that hideous pink.

Sanya, getting exciting to see some color on these walls!

Tamra, painting away

Mark and my brother-in-law Calvin spent the entire day spray painting (not in this picture obviously). but they spray painted a dresser, an armoir, a table, a mirror, and a frame. very busy boys.

The finished product. needless to say my mom was stunned!

right before we had to leave for the airport we all met at 5 guys for lunch. Mark and I love it and try to go there often, but none of my AZ family had been there before, so we introduced them. 5 guys didnt disappoint!

Me and TK

Mark me and Dally Pally

Me and Tama-lama

The girls minus one: mom, sany, tk, and me

all of us

It was a great trip! It was so fun to see and hand out with everyone! and we got to be out of the cold for a while!

Christmas

Christmas was great! we had a little Christmas morning at our apartment with just the two of us. Here are the pics. I was pretty disappointed we didn't get one with both of us. we were just too excited to open presents. And, as you can see, we went back to my family tradition of getting ready for the day before presents!

Mark got me several new earrings

Mark got a new game!

i am very fierce when i open presents!

Mark got me some booties to keep me warm!

I got Mark some Dutch oven accessories. I didn't know how to wrap this lid lifter, so i thought i would add some humor.

Mark's mom got him this apron along with a Dutch oven for Christmas. so here he is showing it off. yes, those are chaps!

Showing off my new booties!

The back to Mark's apron

Mark with all his new Dutch oven gear. the oven, the case, the liners, the lid lifter, the lid stand, and some tongs!

After presents Wendy came and picked us up and we went up to Sandy to Mark's parents house. We made a glorious breakfast!

Wendy slicing the quiche!

i made these delicious lemon poppy seed pyramid muffins!

The Quiche

Melinda and Alex

Ian playing with his train!

Strauss trying to catch the chickens that got loose

we had a great great day!

Marshmallows

This year Mark and I started a new tradition: making marshmallows. We adopted it from Mark's Grandpa Johnson who used to make them all the time. When the time came for us to make ours we really wanted to make them together, which we did. however, they didn't turn out so well. actually they looked and tasted a bit like Jello Jigglers. gross. (we found out that we did everything right except we used the wrong attachment on my kitchen aid. picky picky picky!)

so for the next attempt Mark had to go solo since i was at work. But, in order to make me feel more involved in our new tradition he recorded it for me! so cute! here it it is.