A really long time

I know, it has been FOREVER since I have updated our blog. I don't know what happened, it just got really busy in the last month of the semester. In the last week of school alone, I had, 7 papers due. Seriously way too many papers. Anyway, I have a ton to blog about, but I don't know that I will be able to fit it all in. I will start back and work forward, that will probably be the best.

First of all, I don't know if any of you notice, but my blog looks kinda boring compared to others in the family. Amanda tried to show me on Thanksgiving how to change my background, you know, spice it up, customize it, etc. Well, I thought I had it figured out, but because it was so long before I tried to change it, I guess I forgot what she showed me. I guess I will have to get her to help me at some point over the Christmas break.

Well, the first thing to talk about is our tree. Mike has grown up with an artificial tree. I did too, but for the last couple of years, a friend from work has cut me a tree from the mountains. Well, because of cost, we decided that this year we would get a real tree on our own. We went with Rosie and Mark, Nancy and Chase and all of Chase's family, to cut down our tree. It was a VERY long drive, but it was fun. Because I had left my camera at home, Rosie was kind enough to take pictures and send to us. We spent some time trying to find the perfect tree. We finally thought we had found it, cut it down, hauled it back to where everybody was and were met with, "You cut Charlie Brown's Christmas tree!" You can judge for yourself, it doesn't look so bad. It just has a lot of character!

Anyway, we brought our tree home and decorated it. It was a ton of fun. I am quite pleased with the way it turned out. It definitely has a lot of character, which Mike says is another way of saying it is ugly. Mike isn't a big fan of the tree, but I am pretty sure that it will grow on him and he will be so excited to go cut another tree next year! Here is what our tree looks like all decorated. With all the decorations that Mike and I already had on our own, combined, we have quite the rockin house! It really looks cool from outside. We have had our neighbors comment on how cute our house is. In fact, our neigbhor accross the street told us that her daughters love looking out their front window every night to see if our lights are on. This is what they see from across the street. I am excited about Mike and I sharing our first Christmas. While it is crazy sometimes learning how to blend the different ways that we both did things, it is fun to know that we can start our own traditions together.

The best part of the Christas holidays is the fact that school is out for the semester! It is exciting to look forward to how few end of semesters that I have left! If all goes according to my plans, I only have 4 more end of semesters left! I am so excited.

So, I love traveling. For anybody that knows me, this is not a big surprise. One of the things that I love to do when I travel is to find one souvenir that represents where I have visited and bring it home. So, in the year 2000, I went to Denmark. It was actually quite a trip with a lot of countries visited, but this is a story about the souvenir that I brought home from Denmark. Well, Denmark happens to be one of the countries that Vikings were from, so they are a big thing over there. I brought home a little viking man, he kinda looked like Hagar the Horrible, if any of you have read that comic. Well, I had this little viking man sitting on a shelf of my bookshelf. He was adorable. He was wooden with a little wooden shield and club and a horned hat. He had red rabbit fur as hair and white rabbit fur as his little outfit. Well, the other day, I got out of the shower and Jake was looking like he had done something he knew he was going to get into trouble for. I couldn't figure it out. So, after I got dressed, in comes Jake with some fur stuck to his mouth. It was driving him nuts, so I took it off, and then was very curious as to where it came from. I go out into the living room and there on my rug, I see that my little viking man has been murdered! He could not fend off the greatest foe of his life, the big old dog, who is intent on eating all of his clothes and hair off! I always knew that there was the possiblity of one day, having my things destroyed, I just thought it would be by kids and not a dog who is smart enough to get things off the bookshelf that he wants to chew! But, we still love him! He does some pretty funny things like sitting on MIke when Mike is on the floor etc. We'll keep him, but only because he is so stinking cute!

Well, I will try to make a blog post sooner, so that it is not another full month before I blog again!