Ohio Christmas

We had a really delightful Christmas with Jason's family this year. Jason's work schedule forced us to arrive on Christmas Eve, but we were able to get there by lunch time and spend the afternoon hanging out with his parents before heading to the Christmas Eve service at their church that evening. I like Christmas Eve services. Growing up, we always did the carol singing and Christmas story reading together at home, but it is nice to do it at church, as well--plus, we enjoyed the Christmas "readers' theater" in which George deftly played the dog that guarded the Baby Jesus in the manger. :)


After church, we had dinner together and then watched The Nativity Story. This is definitely on Jason's and my list of Family Christmas Traditions--I was skeptical until Jason practically made me watch it a few years ago, but oh, so good. It gives me a new appreciation for the Christmas story all over again.


We had a fun Christmas, complete with White Christmas, gift opening, a delicious dinner, Christmas crackers with silly crowns (Grandmom wore hers all day, and I don't think she realized it was still on when she went to go home that evening!), and a fun game of Christmas bingo during which $20 was at stake. Of course Jason won the money. And he wonders why I don't like to play games with him! We got to meet Justin's girlfriend, April, at dinner, too--she was the perfect addition to the meal, and it was so great to get to know her a bit!


We finished off our trip with more games and lunch at Hunan Garden (which I've heard about constantly but had never been). In light of all the crazy storms on the east coast, we made it home easily and without incident--and to absolutely no snow on the ground! I think DC must have had a weird bubble over it over the weekend... Such a nice weekend and such a fun Christmas!

Run-up to Christmas

We have been very bad bloggers. Apparently my subconscious now associates spending time at my computer with school (sadly, also, Christmas music, so v. good that Christmas season is almost over, as feel like some sort of grinch), and have therefore neglected not only blog but email, organizing photos, and spending the $10 Amazon gift card that was burning a hole in my pocket during the pre-Christmas ban on shopping for self.

Anyway. Christmas did come to our house--we got home from Thanksmus at about 3 am on a Sunday morning, and once we finally woke up and got unpacked, we got a tree, put it up, and hung the stockings, knowing that the next few weeks would offer no time to stop and decorate. Then we went into a holding pattern until school finished, when we could finally begin to celebrate.


We got to host our now-annual Christmas get together with the Kings and the Gambills--brunch this year, and I made my mom's cinnamon rolls, which (finally) turned out fantastic. Baby Carter was fantastic, too, in his adorable Santa outfit. What with the addition of two little ones, our brunch was much noisier than last year! We ate and ate, and then we just hung out and visited for a long time, and it was wonderful to have no where to be and nothing hanging over our heads! Wheee!


Jason did a bang-up job again this year of putting lights on our house (we are getting good enough at this that it does not threaten our marriage anymore--nary a fight this year!). So good to come home to after long nights at class!


And this year I listened to A Christmas Carol on my drives to and from class. I love A Christmas Carol, it puts me just in the Christmas spirit, and I have fallen in love with audiobooks this fall--am only disappointed in self for not having discovered them earlier as great distractions from long and painful drives to class. Which, happily, are now over.

It wasn't perfect this year (had to miss many Christmas parties, teas, gingerbread house constructions, etc., in order to write mediocre final papers), but we did a pretty good job, considering. And besides, as was discussing with my friend Deanna last week, not having everything just right at Christmas reminds me--sharply, sometimes--about the real point of Christmas: God coming to us, offering grace so that we can accept his invitation to be beautiful.

Grandma Cookies

Even though "Baking things, i.e. cookies" was near the top of my list of "Things to do when school is done," I'm really not much of a baker. Most people I know say they prefer to bake than cook, but, unless I'm in a crowded kitchen of sisters and moms and grandmas (and nephews, as Cole is a pretty awesome sous-chef), I get tired of baking. I get annoyed by having to interrupt whatever I'm doing every 12-15 minutes to take cookies out of the oven and put in a new batch, etc. It's not just that, since Jason is not a dessert lover, I end up personally eating at least 70% or whatever I bake (though that's a large part of it). It's just that I think baking--especially cookie making--is a social activity, and I get a bit lonely when I do it by myself for too long. I miss my mom's big counter and huge yellow canister of flour spilling out while we haggle over washing the mixer bowl, with too-loud Christmas music in the background and Grams sitting in one of the counter seats, tempting us with Rice Krispie Treats or Muddy Buddies and slicing anything that needs cut and laughing at my lame jokes.

That last bit motivated my pre-Christmas cookie extravaganza this week. Another thing I've learned about myself as a baker is that, while I love to try new cooking recipes, I like to bake the same things over and over--my recipe box (circa 1987) has three very used dessert recipes at the front (Grams' peach cobbler, Grandma's rhubarb crunch, and Mom's brownies, mmm), and then a bunch of totally clean recipes I've never tried.

My cookie recipe collection is similarly organized--Grandma Bunn's sugar and spice molasses cookies and Mom's oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (best. ever.) constantly stay at the front of the stack. But for the past few years I've missed the carrot cookies Grandma Johnson made every Christmas. I guess carrot cookies make about as much sense as carrot cake, but I distinctly remember trying them for the first time one Christmas when Grams and Gramps lived in central Washington being amazed at how tasty they were--all orange scented and cakey and so light you could put down a whole stack before noticing.

All this to say, I've decided to make a holiday tradition of baking my favorite cookie recipes from my grandmas (acknowledging that Rice Krispie treats don't count as cookies and to this day eating them makes me miss my Grams each time). So by the time Jason got home on Tuesday I had dozens of carrot and sugar and spice cookies littering the counter...and he, who only likes plain chocolate chip cookies (which I had made on Sunday), hasn't eaten a single one. Of course, these cookies were for me, a way for me to remember grandmothers who loved Christmas so much and for whom I ache a bit when this time of year comes around. Oh!

I don't really remember Grandma Bunn making the molasses cookies as much as I remember my mom making them, but when I tasted the first carrot cookie to see if it turned out, I found that I had to swallow it around the lump in my throat that it evoked. It was to cookies what Grandma Bunn's piano music is to carols--perfect and just a little bittersweet.

I'll pass on the recipes as my Christmas gift to you.

Grandma Bunn's Sugar and Spice (Molasses) Cookies: These are like gingerbread, but soft and thick instead of crunchy and crumbling. I'll let you guess how I prefer my gingerbread.

(Warning--this recipe makes about a million cookies (by which I mean 5-6 dozen). Expect a v. full KitchenAid bowl.)

Mix together:
1 c. soft shortening
2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1/2 c. molasses

Sift and stir in:
4 c. flour
4 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. ginger
2 t. cloves
2 t. cinnamon

Roll into balls the size of walnuts and bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

Grams' Carrot Cookies
3/4 c shortening
1 c sugar
1 egg
1 c mashed cooked carrots (canned carrots work fine)
2 c sifted flour
2 t baking powder
1 grated orange rind
1/2 t lemon extract
1/2 t vanilla
1/4 c nuts (optional)

1. Cream shortening and sugar add egg and beat.
2. Add rest of ingredients and mix.
3. Bake 12 minutes in 400 degree oven.

Frost with a powdered sugar frosting using lemon or orange extract (I like orange). 1 c powdered sugar, 3 T milk (1% gives a nice thin glaze, but use cream if you want it thicker), and 1/2 t orange extract.

...1!

Done! This morning I sent my 90 page bibliography and my 17 page research paper to my professor and officially finished my career as a student (assuming I pass, of course--my paper on Kim was really sub-par). A silly grin comes to my face every time I think about it...which, of course, is quite often!

Between the end of term and the beautiful snow we got today, it's been a really delightful day--even though I thought we were going to be celebrating by writing constituent mail (me) and trying to quell violence in the Ivory Coast (Jason). We ended up leaving work in time to go to the Carlyle for dinner, where the snow set off the twinkle lights perfectly...just like we have been planning for about six weeks. So many things to do now--take a bath, watch the Northanger Abbey I DVR'd in February, make cookies, read the backed up pile of magazines, get Jason something for Christmas besides having his wife back...

...2...

Things are getting exciting around here. The paper chain my friend Missy (I think I will always have to call her "my friend Missy" so that you all don't think I'm talking about myself in the third person) made me in August is seriously sooooooo short (seven links left!), and I can actually see the end of the semester looming before me.

That is due, in large part, to the fact that yesterday, at approximately 3:29 p.m., I turned my 123 page thesis over to the GMU library. WOO-HOO!!! Even typing those words makes me want to laugh out loud! I went to bed last night at least a thousand pounds lighter. Yes, I still have two major projects (including research project I have barely started) due in less than a week, but oh, to have that thesis done, to know that it is approved and signed and out the door... Glorious feeling.

And now I have this lovely Friday stretching before me. My boss unexpectedly gave us the day off today. Lo and behold, it is snowing (first snow!) and for some reason the Christmas lights outside came on again this morning, so I'm sitting wrapped up in blankets and drinking tea and reading. Granted, I'm reading academic journal articles about seances in Victorian England so that I can write a credible research paper about Kim, but I'm not complaining. A week from now I will be reading Bridget Jones' Diary with a sense of complete freedom....

3...

The countdown until the end of school (forever) is finally on. (As if it hasn't been on since this.) Tuesday night I attended my last lit class for the semester. One down, two big things left to go... Am v. happy to be done with this class--as you can see, we read a lot a lot a lot of books. That's 5,267 pages since Labor Day. My final paper was a shining example of mediocrity, but I read every single one of those pages--a graduate literature class at its finest.

Actually, apart from the fact that I've done absolutely nothing but work and read in the past four months, this was a class full of good books. I loved The Young Lions. And Mary Lee Settle's WWII memoirs. And, oh, East of Eden. And I will never look at World War II the same way again--on Monday our office got a special tour of the Norman Rockwell exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, and the painting "Back to Civvies" actually made me tear up. And don't get me started on the first 28 minutes of Saving Private Ryan.

But seriously, I have a stack of books this high that I've been saving to read.

Thanksmus 2010

It is so almost midnight, and I have soooo much homework to do tomorrow, but I just logged onto our blog and realized that I haven't posted in almost a month. And that the last post was about October. And I felt suddenly compelled to prove to you that we had a November.

I love Mom and Auntie Fay's "silly" faces.

I mean, we sort of had a November. Every time I thought about posting, the only thing I could think to write about was what book I was reading for class (Andrea, let me know if you want an annotated bibliography...). Otherwise, only three things really happened in November--our friend Carter Gambill made his long-awaited appearance, the Harry Potter movie came out, and we went to Idaho for Thanksmus.

Everyone (but photographer Auntie Fay) at the Thanksgiving table.

Cole made everyone beautiful place tags for the table.

We have a nice schedule in place for the holidays, switching Christmas and Thanksgiving so that each family is together for the one holiday each year. Somewhere along the way, my family decided that, since we were all together anyway (and we would all spend Christmas with other sides of the family), we might as well exchange gifts in person on Thanksgiving years. This year we took it to a whole new level, pulling out most of our annual Christmas traditions--reading The Littlest Angel and the Christmas story, ornament giving, and the fabulous seafood feast--a few weeks early. We even threw in some Beatles Rock Band (best.game.ever.) and a foot or so of snow to make it extra Christmassy. Gramps and Auntie Fay, Uncle Charley, Katie, and David joined us, of course.

We got Troy his own tools set for Christmas.

Cole with the feast of clams (Shaanti got a label maker for Christmas and promptly labeled her eldest).

Mason likes to share Troy's toys. He put the goggles on and just walked around beaming at everyone.

I can't believe that we didn't get a picture of Cooper smiling. He smiles ALL THE TIME.

So fun. Troy and Mason are now old enough to be best buds, and it's hilarious to watch them chasing each other around the cabin and laughing hysterically. Cole is getting so grown up, and we watched Cars together at least twice. And Cooper is seriously the most adorable little guy, always just waiting for someone to look at him so that he can beam a smile at them. We can't wait to meet the newest Bucher boy in a couple of months! It was a fabulous time together, perfect if it hadn't been so short.

The Tail of October

Last weekend was full of fall festivities.

First,



We got up reeeally early on Saturday so that I could run the Wolf Trap Howl-oween 5K with Kaylyn in the frigid cold (um, 38 degrees when we left the house) and Jason could hold everyone's camera and keys and take pictures. We missed Tilly, who inexplicably decided to decline this year. We also shaved seven minutes off of our time last year. I think it was the cold.

Second,


We bundled up again for the now-annual hayride and bonfire at Krops Crops with our Sunday school class. Jason made chili (I didn't marry him for his chili, but oh, I could have), and I made s'mores. Actually I made s'more, singular. I left everyone else to fend for themselves. I used to think paying for a hayride and bonfire was oh-so-east coast--Dad use to give a killer hayride and make a mean bonfire upon request--but, according to this and this, the trend has spread west.

Third,


We answered the door to a little lion and his safari parents (Steven made it very clear that they were dressed up as photographers, not hunters). Hudson was our first trick-or-treater of the night, and definitely the cutest.

Finally,


We dressed up (yes, Jason DRESSED UP for Halloween) and headed to the church's Trunk or Treat event. Jason went as a hockey player, and I went as a college student, complete with glasses, fake Uggs, and GMU sweatshirt. Okay, so we dressed up as ourselves for Halloween. But still.

One thing we did not do was homework. Or, at least, very much homework. I had a deliciously light week of homework, which came at just the right time, since I briefly hit the end of my rope. We had split pea soup for dinner and I watched You've Got Mail and all was right with the world.

The Tiger, the Race Car Driver, and a Couple of Pirates--Argh!

I'm hoping that by the end of November I will have finished blogging about October, but in the meantime, I just wanted to share my favorite (long-distance) trick-or-treaters with you. They are pretty awesome. Thanks for sending the pics, Mom!

Mini-Coop is looking grrrreat!

Speedy Troy

Argh, me matey Cole!

I think Mason is wondering why he's wearing this hat...

Fall Catch Up

Things are so delightfully fall-ish around here, in spite of our lack of anything to talk about on the blog. It's been a bit difficult to post here, what with all the homework (blah, blech), but tonight I'm cranking out the fourth of five 100+ citation bibliographies for my research class, and the only way I know how to get my citation program to work is to give ten minutes between each upload. So, wha-lah. Blog time.

Here's what we've been doing:
* Readers: The big news of the week is that my thesis is now in the hands of my readers--approved by my committee chairperson, who was very complementary (of the FOURTH draft, for the love), and one giant step further down the road to being finished. My gracious boss has let me take a day off each week while Congress is out of session to work on it and I have needed every minute. I don't have to think about it (much) for two weeks now while they read it, and that makes me v. happy.

* Nigella: I miss cooking, which I've given up for all but Friday as we push through to the finish. I think Jason misses me cooking, too, but he's such a good sport. He's more than a good sport--he is awesome. Anyway, I recently discovered the charms of Nigella Lawson, who now has a show on Food Network, and found one of her cookbooks used. I read it cover to cover, hearing her British accent on each page, last weekend. Glee got me through the spring, Nigella is getting me through the fall.

* Apples: Although cooking has generally been sacrificed to the homework dragon, I will make applesauce this year. I will. Which is why my friend Missy and I got up early Saturday morning for our now-annual apple picking trip to Maryland. Kevin, her husband, was craving the delicious Jonagolds from Rock Hill Orchards, so what can you do? And now, of course, the apples are rotting in a bag in my kitchen... Oh, another note--we did not go pear picking, but I grabbed some at the farmer's market a couple of weeks ago and made this. Unbelievable on toast with goat cheese...

* Nephews...s...s...s...s: That's five nephews, for those who find counting hard. We are getting all set to welcome Bucher Boy #3 into the family in February. Dresses are nice and everything, but we really like boys in our family! Shaanti and Adam are such awesome parents, and we can't wait to meet this new little guy! (And see how Mason likes being a big brother...we already know that Cole is ready to be, as he says, "another brother.)

* Graciousness: Another thing I've neglected to mention is how grateful we are that God took good care of Andrea and Baby Jane, who are finally, finally home in Olympia. This makes me so very happy.

* Coffee: It's official: I am a coffee drinker. For some reason this disappoints my mom, who thought that we were the lone holdouts on the no-coffee team (and yet Mom doesn't drink tea, so we're not really on the same team). I have been toying with the idea of learning to like coffee since college, but it wasn't until I started to have classes until 10 pm after a full day of work that I decided the caffeine outweighed the cost, calories, and addiction. And then. Oh, and then I discovered marshmallow mocha creamer. So amazing. Like my favorite hot chocolate from Moxie Java at home, but with a jittery kick. I honestly have to limit myself to mochas on the weekends or I would go through a container of creamer a week.

I am mildly concerned that most of these things revolve around food. And me. Clearly this list should have been entitled "What I'VE been doing." Whatev, he can write his own blog entry (when he gets home from Alabama, where he is doing some training for work). And now I have no excuse to not go back to the creative writing piece I'm doing for class tomorrow. It is awful and not getting better. Oh, what is that? There's an episode of Friends on TV? Just a few minutes is okay, right?

The Season for Hockey!

Irregardless of the fact that the temperature has stretched back into the 80s today, October signals the start of another exciting NHL season. Last weekend, a friend from my hockey team gave us his two tickets to one of the Washington Capitals pre-season games. Despite the disappointing loss, it was fun to go to Verizon center and watch the Caps in action!

My hockey season is also in full swing (since mid-September). We are on quite a run (we have a 3-1 record) -- having beat a formidable adversary last night 8-0!

Work Bench!

Having a designated corner of the house as a place for home repair and improvement projects is to be coveted. We had long envisioned this corner of our renovated utility room to serve just that purpose. After successive weekends of installing and painting pegboard, we finally finished the work nook. We might even find a bench stool at Ikea today to round out the work space! We have many to share the credit with, notably Dad Small for the utility room overhaul and Dad Johnson for his advice and assistance installing the pegboard. I suppose I now have no excuse for finishing those lingering home improvement projects!

A Celebration for Baby Gambill

My friend Tilly is about the most joyful pregnant woman I have ever met. Brent says that she's extra fun to be around because she laughs at everything, as if her joy is just bubbling over, even when the joke isn't that funny. I love that. Tilly is one of my favorite people, and swollen feet and all, it has been an outright delight to watch her get ready for the arrival of Baby Gambill.

Andrea, Megan, Tilly, and Layton

Maria and Destin made a beautiful fondant cake and cupcakes.

So when it was time to throw Tilly a baby shower, we felt like it needed to be a real celebration. Tilly's pregnancy, which came after a long, long wait and lots of prayer, was a reminder of how faithful God is, how perfect his timing is. We needed to celebrate this baby with fireworks and a big brass band!

Each guest wrote a blessing for Baby Gambill on a quilt square so that
we can stitch them together for Tilly.

Okay, so we didn't do fireworks or a band. But we did all get dressed up, pull out the twinkle lights, and put on a wonderful black-tie affair of a baby shower. Maria and Destin did an absolutely amazing job of decorating--the yard looked like a fairy land--and the food was delicious. And joyful Tilly, looking fabulous at eight months pregnant, had a wonderful time.

Tilly with all the shower hosts!

Amy and I, taking a picture time out!

I feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends here, friends who encourage and pray for and celebrate with each other as if it is a joy and a privilege, not a chore. There is a Sara Groves song that talks about how life is "Twice as Good" with the people in her life, and that is how I feel about these girls. There is a line in the song that says, "At my good news, you're dancing on the table--baby's born, a celebration." That is exactly what it was like last Saturday...although no one dared to get up on a table in their high heels, the sentiment was everywhere.

Along the Sahel

I just completed a visit to three countries in West Africa: Niger, Mali, and Mauritania. This was my first visit to these countries since taking up my responsibilities for U.S. policy in West Africa in January. The countries have many similarities, such as large swaths of the Sahara desert and high poverty (example: Niger rates dead last on the UN human development index). I spent much of my time learning the dimensions of the challenges the U.S. Embassies in those countries face in advancing U.S. policy in the region: goals as diverse as counter-terrorism, humanitarian disasters brought about by regular droughts and floods, and political instability. My ten-day trip (all in one carry-on suitcase) included flights on such well known airlines as Air Mali and Mauritanian Airways. My flights were virtually all on-time, a rare occurrence I am told. My biggest complaint was when they served fish curry on an Air France flight (who thought the smell of spicy fish was a good decision for a cramped coach cabin?).

I didn't have much chance to get out into the country-side as I had hoped, since I was detoured unexpectedly to Mauritania about half-way through my trip to assist our U.S. Embassy in Nouakchott. Nevertheless, I did take one afternoon to check out the pristine Mauritanian beach front. The water of the Atlantic was incredibly warm -- likely due to currents from the Gulf of Mexico. If only I had had room in my carry-on to pack my swimsuit!

I also ran in to some camels!

The Library and Other Exciting Things

If you are actually expecting exciting things in this blog entry, I would suggest that you close your browser or move on to someone else's blog. But there is only one thing going on in our lives right now (well, Jason's been in Africa for ten days, so that's something), and we could go many moons without an entry if I wait until something exciting happens before I write.

And that one thing? School. I find it fitting that, ten years after I holed up for a semester in this intimidating library-version Wonder of the World, I am again drowning in books and library lingo. Last time I had Oxford's Bodleian Library at my disposal. This time, I am even more grateful than usual that the Library of Congress delivers practically to my desk.

In addition to wrapping up the thesis, this semester I am taking two classes:

1. The Last Generation: My Tuesday class is a lit class focusing on great writers of the WWII era...and for the past five weeks, that has meant reading war novels. And not just any war novels, but novels anywhere from 600-850 pages. A week. Please feel sorry for me. Actually, after weeks of literally sitting in the chair in our living room with cup after cup of tea, I am going to be able to come up for air this weekend--the next novel is only 153 pages. (Ha! It's like an article in the New Yorker!) And, anyway, the thing is that the books have been really good--especially the most recent, The Young Lions, by Irwin Shaw. It lacks the guts-spilling-on-the-battlefield of The Thin Red Line and The Naked and the Dead, sure, but it's got a good story to make up for that. And only 661 pages.

2. Literary Research: Originally this class was supposed to be "How to Write a Thesis," which you'll note would be a complete waste of time for me at this point. Instead it is really "How to Write a Literature Paper." Also a skill I will never use again (please tell me why NNU didn't offer this class in 1998), but, surprisingly, I don't hate this class. In fact, in some ways it allows me to indulge briefly in a decade-old fantasy of being a literary scholar, ala the characters in Possession. For example, I get to read Kipling's Kim for the class, and reading something by Kipling was on my to-do list. And I'm doing a comprehensive bibliography of Margaret Atwood, one of my favorite authors in college, which is surprisingly fun. Don't get me wrong, this project is going to be the death of me, but at least I get to go out in style.

Meanwhile, starting at 10 pm tonight, Week Five of the Sprint to the Finish will be over. I'm feeling pretty good about that. As of 1 o'clock this morning, Congress is adjourned until after the election, and I'm feeling pretty good about that, too. It's absolutely pouring outside my Thursday-morning work window, and I'm sitting here with a lovely cup of huckleberry tea, and, to top it all off, Jason is en route from Paris as we speak. Really, I couldn't be happier.

Middle Earth under the Stars

The reward for a day of studying on Saturday was a trip to Wolf Trap, the National Park for the Performing Arts, that evening with our friends Jeff and Deanna to watch Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. We sat on the lawn eating picnicky goodies while the movie played on the big screen and a live orchestra played the score from the stage.

Soooo good. The music was phenomenal, the weather was perfect (you could even see a few stars, something I don't remember ever seeing in DC), and the movie (of course!) was as wonderful as ever. I loved it when the crowd spontaneously burst into applause when Aragorn came onto the screen the first time. My only disappointment is that we waited until the third and final movie to go to this event!

Bronco Nation

Dad started planning a trip to DC over Labor Day 2010 over a year ago, about the time he heard that Boise State would be playing its season opener at the Redskins' stadium against Virginia Tech. So on Monday afternoon, Mom, Dad, Jason, and I all donned our blue and orange and headed to FedEx Field in Maryland for the big game.

Ready for action!

With my friend SolaraJason, me, Mom, and Dad at the game.

I tried to warn my parents that there would be a lot a lot a lot of Hokies at the game--considering Virginia Tech is about three hours away and lots of alum live in the DC area. And, seriously, the stadium was rocking with maroon and orange on Monday night. But Boise made a pretty good showing, considering how far the fans had to travel. Hopefully the last person out of Boise turned out the lights--there were probably 8,000 to 10,000 BSU fans there, which made it a blast.

Blue tail-gating madness

We still like Brian, even if he's a Hokie!

We started off the afternoon with a tailgating party, attended by both Mike and the Governor, my former boss, which was fun. Then we climbed to the top of the stadium for a bird's eye view of the game. Dawn and Brian, who sported blue and maroon, respectively, and decided to call it a truce for the night, hiked up to say hi (they had way better seats!).

Mom and Dad with questionable BSU spud hats

Old office pic with the boss (Nate, me, the Governor, Brandon, Solara)

The game was a blast. The stadium was roaring, and the Broncos pulled out a win with a minute and nine seconds to go--my throat is still feeling tender from screaming so loudly! Such a good time, and so fun to watch with my parents and all my Idaho friends out here. I foresee a lot more letters, resolutions, and bills on the BCS in my future here.

Kaylyn, Ryan, Jeni, and Nate

Lots of blue!

While the game was the highlight, the other five days we had with Mom and Dad were great, too. We basically took a trip down our to-do lists, which was probably only marginally fun for them but made my life 1000 times better. Mom got projects done here that I wouldn't have dreamed of touching until January, and Dad helped Jason prune our out-of-control rose bushes and fix the trellis that had completely fallen over in, oh, June (it made us look like the neighbors with the couch on the front porch). I am so grateful! What a fun weekend!