Overdue Update

Okay, so I haven't updated the blog in quite awhile. Sorry about that. I can't even use the excuse that I've been busy, because honestly, I haven't.

We are down to just our three dogs in our house again. I'm glad that Charlie is finally gone. I liked him, but it was just too much having four dogs running around, especially when the two oldest dogs were being kind of moody about sharing their people. Tali is still very possessive when it come to Saya being around me. She was laying on my bed with me the other day and refused to let Saya on. She knows I'm her person and she's not in the mood to share me. You have to admire the loyalty that dogs have for their people.

I'm not usually one to set New Year's Resolutions, but I decided that I needed to this year. My list is longer than I thought it would be, and I'm honestly a little scared to accomplish some of the things on it. I'm going to try and overcome some of my fears this year, and it's a little nerve-racking. I won't list all of my goals, but one of them is to meet new people. This may not sound hard or scary, but I had forgotten just how shy I really am. I had thought that I had come out of my shell in the last eight or nine years, but apparently I haven't had as much progress as I had thought. Once I know someone, I have no problem being myself, but it's getting to that point that I have always had a hard time with. I always try to be too professional when I meet someone and worry too much that I might say something that will offend them.

I got moved up to teaching Senior Primary this year! I am absolutely loving teaching the ten and eleven year olds. For one, they can read! They are also very good at posing questions that will help them understand the lessons more. They challenge me. This class is also special to me because they are the same kids I taught 5 1/2 years ago when I first moved up to Idaho City. I already have a great love for them, and that makes teaching them easier and more fun.

A not so great start to the New Year

New Years Day. I woke up and was told by my sister that the pipes were frozen. We had no running water. The temperature had gotten down to -15 degrees fahrenheit. It was absolutely freezing outside. The heaters got plugged in and the wood burning stove was stocked. It is now Wednesday, January 5th. We still don't have running water. We have a salamander heater under the house trying to warm the pipes up. On Monday, we had to go to our parents house so that we could take showers and do some minimal laundry. We've been melting snow by the stove in our dog's water bucket just so we can flush the toilets. Hopefully the pipes unfreeze soon, because this is not my idea of comfortable living.

If having frozen pipes wasn't enough, I have car problems. Money has been tight in our house, as I'm sure it is in most of yours, and I just can't afford to fix too much. There could be a couple different outcomes with my car and I hope that when they call, it will be the least expensive problems that are wrong with it. I'm usually not that lucky, but I can still hope.

I'm hoping that this year starts to improve.

Auld Lang Syne

I have often wondered why we sing Auld Lang Syne to ring in the new year and what the history behind the song was. So, as I often do when I am curious, I turned to the trusty internet. Here is what I found:

"Auld Lang Syne" (Scots pronunciation: [ˈɔːld lɑŋˈsəin]: note "s" rather than "z")^[1] is a Scots poem written by Robert Burns in 1788^[2] and set to the tune of a traditional folk song (Roud # 6294). It is well known in many English-speaking (and other) countries and is often sung to celebrate the start of the New Year at the stroke of midnight. By extension, its use has also become common at funerals, graduations, and as a farewell or ending to other occasions.
The song's Scots title may be translated into English literally as "old long since", or more idiomatically, "long long ago",^[3] "days gone by" or "old times". Consequently "For auld lang syne", as it appears in the first line of the chorus, is loosely translated as "for old times sake".
The phrase "Auld Lang Syne" is also used in similar poems by Robert Ayton (1570–1638), Allan Ramsay (1686–1757), and James Watson (1711) as well as older folk songs predating Burns.^[4] Matthew Fitt uses the phrase "In the days of auld lang syne" as the equivalent of "Once upon a time..." in his retelling of fairy tales in the Scots language.

Hmm, interesting. I have often wondered what all the words to the song are. I never hear the whole song in movies and TV shows and only know the first few lines myself. So, here are the lyrics:

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old lang syne ?
    CHORUS:
    For auld lang syne, my dear,
    for auld lang syne,
    we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
    for auld lang syne.
And surely you’ll buy your pint cup!
and surely I’ll buy mine!
And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

Now, this is the version sung here in America. There are many versions out there. The original poem written by Robert Burns is as follows:


Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne* ?

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my jo, for auld lang syne, we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne.

And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp !
and surely I’ll be mine !
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We twa hae run about the braes,
and pu’d the gowans fine ;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fit,
sin auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We twa hae paidl’d i' the burn,
frae morning sun till dine ;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
sin auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere !
and gie's a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll tak a right gude-willy waught,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

 

Happy New Year! Stay safe tonight and enjoy the last few hours of 2010!

Christmas weekend update

We've been getting quite a bit of snow in the Idaho City area the last couple of days. Unfortunately it is a wet, heavy snow instead of a nice light powder. I feel bad for the teen who just shoveled off our roof for us just to have it snow enough so you can't tell he did anything. We actually came home Monday night to find him shoveling the roof off in the dark. Crazy kid! Carma and I are very grateful for him and his parents who have helped us with this time consuming project the last few years. They really look out for us and we appreciate their concern and generosity.

Well, like a lot of you out there, Santa visited our house this last weekend. Our main family gift that we got was a Nintendo Wii. Wow, lots of fun! We have played on this thing every day since we got it. It's hard to believe what a great workout you can get playing a video game! I think I've clocked at least eleven hours on it and let me tell you, my arms are seriously sore. This is such a fun way to exercise! It's been great for increasing our family time, too. Normally Carma and I are out in the living room after work with Ryder being anti-social in his room. With the Wii, we are all in the living room together playing games. The dogs, which we still have four of at our house right now, didn't quite know what to think of us swinging our arms around. I think they thought we were going to throw toys for them.

We held Christmas Eve dinner at our house again this year. We had a lot of fun playing games, talking, and laughing with each other.

It was a little crazy when Joyce brought Blew for Christmas. I think that dog of hers has finally met her match. Blew normally plays with Tali and Suri, mine and Carma's dogs, to the point where they are almost hiding from her just to find some peace and quiet. This time was a little different. Charlie, Ryder's friend's dog, loved Blew and played with her to the point where she was the one trying to hide! What a change for her!

Unfortunately, all of our dogs started to get this horrible sounding cough. We think they have kennel cough from when Charlie spent some time in the pound just before we brought him home. It's only supposed to last a couple of weeks and we are already seeing some improvement.


I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Until next time!

Are you done with Christmas prep?

I'm almost done with my Christmas stuff! I have a few more things to make. I've been making all of my gifts, as I, like a good deal of people out there, am short on cash this year. I'm usually done way before now and with only a week left, I'm starting to worry a bit about finishing. I'm wishing I was already done so that I could just sit back and enjoy the holiday spirit. Carma took a couple days off to get stuff done and I'm starting to think I should have done the same. I guess it's a little late for that now!

Our house continues to be a crazy mess of animals. Suri, Carma's dog, is a cookie lover and got on the kitchen counter and ate five or six sugar cookies that had been frosted. At the same time she was doing that, Charlie, the dog my nephew is taking care of for a friend, jumped the baby gate we had set up to keep the dogs out of certain areas of the house. He got into my bathroom and ate all of the cat food that was out for Ringo. This is the second time he has done this. All of this happened in the few minutes it took Ryder to go out and get the mail. There are still dog toys all over the house, or rather pieces of dog toys as they are ripping them apart like crazy! Oh, I can't wait to see what the house is like once Joyce gets here with her dog, Blew.

Crazy House of Animals

We now have a fourth dog living at our house for a couple of months! Craziness! My nephew is taking care of Charlie (the dog) for a friend of his. Our house is nuts! Carma and I have had our dogs, Tali and Suri, for 3 1/2 years now and my nephew just got a dog, Saya, a couple of weeks ago. Our dogs were still trying to get used to little Saya when we brought Charlie home to take care of. We have a couple of grouchy, sad, feeling neglected because their people have two puppies to keep an eye on, dogs at home. The floor is covered with toys. I pick them up and within ten minutes the two puppies, well mostly Saya, have gotten all of them out again! Ringo, our cat, hides all day long because neither of the puppies are used to cats. Then he practically attacks us to give him loves because, like our two oldest dogs, he's feeling a little neglected. There is hair on every surface of our home. Yuck! The fun is only going to increase come Christmas when Joyce comes with her dog, Blew. We had to put our Christmas tree on a table because the ornaments were getting broken. To top it off, because the two new dogs are still puppies, we get to deal with teething. I think this is why we're called Crazy Mountain Women!

Harry Potter Crazy Mountain Women Style

On November 26th Carma and I hosted a Harry Potter Movie Marathon for the Young Women in our ward. We decorated the house and made most of the food and take home goodies.

Sirius Black wanted poster:

Gryffindor and Hogwarts wall crests:

History and Spell books:

Carma made these Marauder's maps for all the girls. They open up to reveal the main floor of Hogwarts Castle and the surrounding grounds.

I made up my own Harry Potter Pictionary game. I cut index cards in half, wrote different people, places, and things from the movies and books on them. I then carved out a stamp to make them more like real game cards. We then laminated them so we will be able to use them again.

We had a bit of a Wizarding Treat Feast

We didn't have time to make pumpkin juice, although we did find a recipe that looked good. Instead we just used apple juice.

We made pretzel wands which turned out to be a big hit with the girls.

We made chocolate frog boxes...

...and they had chocolate frogs in them!

We also had Harry's birthday cake that Hagrid made for him. It's a little hard to read due to the fact that Hagrid might have sat on it a bit.

We also had Bertie Botts Everyflavor Beans. We couldn't find any of the gross flavored ones in the Boise area in the little time we had to get ready, so we made due with Jelly Bellies.


No wizard house would be complete without a few potions lying around.

In case of any unexpected petrification, we made sure we had some Mandrake Elixir ready.

And in case we needed to sneek into the ministry to find a horcrux, we had plenty of Polyjuice potion on hand.

We had our meager collection of Wizard Cards on display. I may not have hundreds like Ron Weasley, but I have some good ones.

We had a blast watching the movies and playing pictionary and doing trivia in between each movie. We started watching the movies at 4:30 pm on Friday. We all fell asleep around 5:30 am Saturday with only one more movie to watch. We were up by 7:30 am to watch the sixth movie and then came down to Boise to watch part one of movie seven.
We had so much fun, that next year in July when the last one comes out, we are going to go a little crazy!