Black Friday

Wow...my husband is a GREAT holiday shopper. To begin our crusade we got home on Thursday night (technically Friday early morning) at 1:30am and set our alarm to go off at 3:30am. We had to make it to Kohl's for when they opened at 4:00am.

Well, our alarm did go off at 3:30, but our bodies didn't really register that it was going off until 4:00. WE WERE LATE FOR KOHL'S!! We threw on our clothes and ran out the door. We were off for our big adventure. This is our first Christmas as a married couple and so we wanted to start it off right. Black Friday.

As soon as we pulled into Kohl's we knew that our poor, tired bodies should have shaken awake at 3:30. That place was packed! We followed a couple of girls to their car so that we could have a parking spot. As soon as we parked we skipped our way into Kohl's to get our first official Christmas decoration...a Christmas tree! We had been shopping all over for the last two weeks to see if we could find a good deal on a tree. We finally found our deal at Kohl's. We purchased a seven foot pre-lit tree for $69.99. Wahoo! The seventy dollar Christmas tree was definitely worth the 30 minute line that we waited in to purchase our new treasure.

After Kohl's we dashed over to Target to get our fill of cartoon movies that were on sale from $3.00 to $13.00. As I have said in a previous post, Stephen and I love cartoons. I won't tell you how many movies that we purchased, or how much money we spent, but I am content. Oh, by the way, for those of you who read this that live in the Boise area, the Target on Eagle and Fairview is very disorganized on Black Friday.

Finishing our second feat, we raced to Fred Meyer for their famous sock and slipper sale. After going to Fred Meyer on Black Friday, I decided that that place is where I will go first. At least I will be there when it first opens. They had the best sales. You really wouldn't think so because normally they are so expensive, but that is not the case on Black Friday. We are now stocked up on socks and have fun slippers for both of us.

All in all I think that Black Friday was a lot of fun. We talked to quiet a few people who also had dark circles under their eyes and were sleep deprived. Yeah for people who have the Christmas spirit on Black Friday!

When we walked in the door after our excursion, Stephen said, "I want to wear my new slippers." I immediately told him, that it was for Christmas and would have to wait until then to wear them. He wasn't too happy with that, but it's for Christmas! Boys...I have decided that it is VERY difficult being married and keeping presents secret. We both kind of ruined a few secrets just because we couldn't really get away from each other. We'll see how it goes for the rest of the presents.

To finish up where I left off, Stephen is a GREAT holiday shopper. Last night we went out to eat at one of Stephen's favorite places, Taco Del Mar. The entire time we were there, I was just gabbing on about this and that. I stopped after a bit and realized that Stephen wasn't participating in the conversation and had a dazed look in his eye. I said, "Stephen, what are you thinking about?"

He said, "Oh I was just thinking about Black Friday and hoping that we hit all of the sales that we wanted."

Again I say, my hubby is a great shopper.

Thanksgiving!

I LOVE the holidays. I love the feeling, the fun, and basically everything that comes with it. In celebration of this holiday I just wanted to list ten things that I am grateful for.

1. My AMAZING husband. He is so patient and kind. Stephen has a huge heart that is always keenly aware of those around him.
2. The gospel. I am so grateful that I have a knowledge and a testimony that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me and has a plan for me.
3. My parents. They have worked very hard to raise me the way that I am. They gave me so much love and just enough discipline that somehow, I turned out alright.
4. My siblings. My brother and sisters are my best friends. They are always there for me whenever I need them.
5. Stephen's family. I think that Stephen's family is finally beginning to understand who I really am and they still seem to like me! They took me in as one of their own and have loved my like a daughter/sister.
6. Our home. We have been blessed with the opportunity to have something that is finally ours to take care of and we are SO grateful. I love having a place to call my own.
7. Our ward. We have such a welcoming ward that has been so much fun. They really are turning out to be a real ward family.
8. My primary class. There really is something special about a group of little kids who know your name and always want to say "hi" when they see you. It gives you those warm fuzzies.
9. Friends. I have really been blessed with people all over that I can call my friends. They are all such good people and are really fun to be around.
10. Grandma Donna. Even though she sometimes drives me crazy, I love her. I am grateful to have been born as her granddaughter.

The Feeding Frenzy

Stephen's brother, Brandon and his wife, Mitzi (who also happens to be my cousin) came up to visit this week. They got here on Saturday and will be here the rest of the week. In order to help out and be a part of everything, Stephen offered to have dinner at our house last Tuesday. "Kami can make her famous chicken cordon bleu!"

My niece, Samantha, when asked if she wanted to come to Uncle Stephen and Aunt Kami's, said: "Absolutely not! They don't have any fun toys." For those of you who know Sam, you can just hear here say it. When previously coming to our house, Sam couldn't find any dolls or frilly dress up clothes. Sorry Sam! Stephen and I don't have any little ones running around to entertain.

In preparing for this event we made sure that we had SSOOOO much food...just in case. What if someone just happened to invite thirty more people? Well we definitely had the food to feed them.

It was so much fun just preparing for the dinner. I worked on the chicken while Stephen made the jello salad, made to rice, AND made the honey mustard sauce for the chicken. MY HUBBY IS AMAZING!!! We worked together in the kitchen and made our masterpiece.

Thanks everyone for visiting our home and eating our food! It was TONS of fun!

Primary Fun-ness-ship

Just to let everyone know. I'm not a huge fan of doing sharing time. It is WAY more difficult to get 40+ kids to listen to you than 6. I will never complain about my class again...maybe.

Jess's Tag

I have actually been really excited to do this tag because I will help you (my reader) understand how weird Stephen and I are. We are supposed to tell you seven random things about us.

Stephen:

1. I like to eat ice cubes
2. I have to have everything straight and organized at my work desk or I get distracted.
3. I break dance at random times.
4. I love to watch Japanese cartoons...or just cartoons.

Kami:

1. When I am taking a shower, the shower head has to be spraying directly in the center of the tub.
2. I love to tear perforated paper.
3. I love to write the letters 'E' and 'R'...I don't know why.
4. I love to squeeze egg yolks and feel it break and ooze between my fingers.
5. I do not like driving in the dark.
6. I also love to watch cartoons.
7. When I am really fidgety I always tap my fingers or my feet. When I do this I always have to do it in some sort of pattern. AND I always have to let my right foot tap just as many times as my left OR I have to let all five fingers tap the same amount of times. I know, it's really weird.

I tag Emily, Brigitte, and Nicole!

YEAH!!

"Happy days are here again
dooo do dooo do dooo do dooo do dooo"

The sun is shining and it is almost Thanksgiving!

Testimonial

I received an email recently from my mother entitled "Vick's vapor rub". According to the author of the named email, you can cure any cough by rubbing vapor rub on the bottoms of your feet rather than your chest. They say that it is that much more potent. Considering that Stephen has had a cough for the last few days, I decided that I had a guinea pig to try this little project on...

Stephen was laying on couch, dying, the other night. I sat next to him with socks and the Vick's in hand. I pulled up his feet and started to massage them. To this, he had no contrary remark. Of course!

After a few minutes of rubbing his feet, I pulled out the Vick's and began rubbing it all over the bottoms of his feet. He looked at me and stated, "What are you doing?!"

To which I replied, "I just want to try something."

Stephen is quite a mellow, easy going character, so he complied. I finished putting on the Vick's and then the completing my work of art with socks tightly squeezed on his feet.

I went to the kitchen to finish making dinner. Five minutes later Stephen said, "Kami! What did you do to me? I can...taste it."

Woohoo! It works! As a side note, it didn't completely take his cough away, but it helped to soothe his cough and helped to get rid of the congestion.

The Secret Service Club

When you are a primary teacher, you have good days, and you have bad days. Today was definitely a good day. I have been working on today's lesson for primary FOREVER! I really wanted to get the kids excited and get them to actually listen. After racking my brain, I came up with some pretty good ideas.

The lesson started out a little rocky. Service isn't something that 6 year old's think is that cool. When we started to talk about Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, they calmed down a bit.

I had all of the kids show me their shoes. I got on the floor and told them the story while pretending to clean their shoes. They were all a little disconcerted that their teacher was kneeling on the floor, in a dress, and pretending to wash their shoes. I then got to my little boy I have named Billy. As soon as I got to him with my pretend shoe scrubbers, he pulled his feet away. Immediately my eyes lit up as I told them about Jesus's apostle, Peter, and his refusal to let Jesus wash his feet.

After the feet washing story I jumped up and asked if anyone wanted to join a secret club. Immediately all of my kids raised their hands. I told them that I was starting a club called The Secret Service Club. In order to be a member they had to have their official "bags". They all lined up behind me and I handed them little Ziploc bags that said, "I am a member of the secret service club". Inside the bags were five pink paper hearts. My little Billy sat back down in his chair as soon as he saw that they were pink. He would have nothing to do with pink. I ignored him.

"Everyone take out their hearts! I need all of you to write down five names of people that you are going to do a secret service for. After you do your secret service, leave the heart with their name on it."

As I was explaining the rules, Billy crawled to my backpack and pulled out another Ziploc bag to begin the secret service work.

The kids were very excited about the club. When the bell rang to leave, the kids hurried to put away their hearts. Most of them had siblings in sharing time and didn't want them to see their secret.

At choir practice, one of my boy's moms came up to me and said, "Kami, right when we got home from church, my son ran into our room and made our bed and put two hearts on the comforter with our names on it."

I love teaching primary.

Everyone...lets pay attention

I feel really retarded.

When Stephen and I purchased our home in July we also bought a washer and dryer. We were really excited about them because they were the new uprights. We decided to get them without the pedestals. (Stephen said that it wasn't necessary anyway because I was the one who did all the laundry. Thanks honey, I love you too!)

Every time I did a load of towels this last month, they would come out smelling like mildew. Not a pleasant smell to put around your freshly showered body. Bleah.

Last night I had had enough! I pulled out all of the information that we were given when we bought the dang things to look for a number to call. I was going to bawl out some unsuspecting worker with my complaints of their product. Luckily, before I did so, I found this precious laminated paper that said: "Maintenance: Clean the pump filter twice a month to prevent lint buildup and odor. Clean around door seal and door glass to prevent odor or mildew."

Good thing I never found that phone number.

Oh, and I fixed the mildew problem.

Trunk-OR-Treating

I know that it is a little belated, but I wanted to show you our clever halloween costumes. I really wanted to go trunk-or-treating at our ward building for Halloween, but didn't have costumes or anything to decorate our trunk.

After much soul searching I finally decided on a costume. The picture says it all. My only regret was that I didn't think of the idea early enough to wear it to work.

The only thing that we had to purchase for both of our costumes was black lipstick. Yep, black lipstick. 1.99 at Fred Meyer. Just to clear up any confusion, Stephen was supposed to be night. Yeah, like the dark. You know, we should have drawn stars on his cheeks. Oh well, there's always next year!

Rather than use our trunk to hand out candy, we carried around our easter buckets and gave candy to the kids. They were a little confused that someone was giving them candy from a person carrying around a bucket. After all, who in their right mind would give up hallowen candy! There were quiet a few times that I was mistaken for a little kid. In my defense, we were trunk or treating in the dark.