Weekend Update

Ok, so anyone who has been paying attention to our housing situation knows that our house is a fixer-upper. This weekend, we decided to buy the major pieces to put our front bathroom together. I put down new linoleum and installed the new toilet last week, so technically it was usable, but there was no vanity, sink, or bathtub. So Friday night, Kelsea and I went to Lowe's to look at vanities, sinks, tubs, showers, and other things. We were lucky enough to find a new vanity on clearance for $165, which saved us $250 (or more) on the spot. Unfortunately, it had drawers in different places and wasn't as wide as the prior vanity, so I had to move pipes and patch in another piece of linoleum. Then I had to put up the drywall and start patching it. I'm not so good at extensive drywall work, mostly from lack of experience, but Kelsea had called her mom to help out. She spent about 3 hours sanding and re-applying joint compound on Saturday. It looks way better than I ever would have gotten it. I was pretty beat, but my father-in-law was kind of bummed to be just standing around, so we started on the tub. Unfortunately, we didn't get the right drain pipes, so we couldn't put it in, but we got close. I just have to find the right size pipes, or the right kit, then it will slide into place, and get hammered to the studs. As it stands right now, there is a vanity full of tools and a tub standing on its end in our bathroom. Hopefully by next Monday everything will be installed and operational.

The scariest day of the year

This is about Halloween, not politics.

On Halloween, we went to a trunk or treat at the church. Despite the fact that our ward had been discontinued the week before, most of the Hazelcrest Ward was there. Well, a lot anyway. Holly dressed up as a princess, Mia dressed up as a flapper, Kelsea wore the wings and halo she bought for Mia and was an angel, and I went as a zombie. I realize that my makeup was not very well done, but it was last minute, and pretty good for the amount of time it took me.


Holly and Mia got excited about scaring people. They like to yell "boo," and hear the appropriate response: "AAAA!" Mia did this to Kelsea when she woke up grumpy from a nap on Sunday. I do it if they come looking for me. To them, it is just as fun to be scared as it is to scare. Go figure. They got lots of candy, and I love that they don't claim it. We just call it the Halloween candy, and we let them have some pretty often, as long as they ate dinner or lunch, but they don't throw fits about needing more, or claim that it's theirs. Which is really pretty great.


Finally, Kelsea modified Mia's costume especially for her. My mom bought a few clearance costumes (as is her custom shortly before or after Halloween and other major holidays), and one was an adult Flapper costume. Mia was excited about it and wore it around for a while, even though it was about a foot too long for her. So Kelsea decided to alter it to her size, and she did a great job!

Business

Two weeks ago, I went to South Carolina for a deposition. The travel time was about 9 times longer than the deposition. Honestly. But I took advantage of the opportunity to see new places, and was able to wander around downtown Charleston for an hour or so and see the Atlantic Ocean. I don't want this to be a long post, but a picture or two makes it nicer, right?

The Charleston airport was tiny. I think there were ten gates total. My layovers in Charlotte, NC were kind of crazy, since that is a major hub, and lots of people were there for connecting flights. I did get to see a colonial church or two, one with a humorous sign in the graveyard. And by the way, since when have graveyards been the entire grounds of the church? Seriously, to walk into the catholic church in downtown Charleston, you have to walk past graves, headstones, even those above ground monuments that look like stone caskets. If it hadn't been a bright sunny day, it would have been really creepy. It was only slightly creepy.

Otherwise, I got to see two movies new to me. On the way, I saw Get Smart, and on the way home, I saw Cinderella Man. They both made the flight much more enjoyable. As an added bonus, they were even slightly edited for viewing by general audiences on the airplane. I probably wouldn't have ever seen Cinderella Man, because Kelsea wouldn't want to see it, but I liked it. Not very violent for a movie about a boxer, and much more emotional than I expected, as it is set in the Great Depression. Get Smart was about as good as I expected it to be: entertaining on a superficial level, slightly raunchy only once or twice, and Steve Carrell played Maxwell Smart pretty well. I got a lot more familiar with airplanes on my trip and will be happy to not fly again for a while. $2 for a water, and airport security is so annoying.

Kelsea in High School

1. Did you date someone from your school? Not really. I dated lots but I never got to the official boyfriend/girlfriend stage.
2. What kind of car did you drive? I didn't have a car in high school or through college. When Dee and I got married neither one of had a car. For the first year of our marriage we drove Dee's brother's truck (Matt's) while he was on his mission.
3. Did you pass your driver's license test on the first try? Yes. I got my license a few weeks before I turned 18 so I could say I got my license before I turned 18.
4. Were you a party animal? Yes, I was at the same tame parties with Dee.
5. Were you considered a flirt? I thought I was a flirt but since Dee was in high school with me I asked him if I was a flirt and he said "No, you always glared at people".
6. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? I was in choir for half of a year. All my friends were in choir so I was a choir wannabe.
7. Were you a nerd? I was a nerd. But I thought I was less of a nerd than Dee. All those hard subjects like Calculus came so easy to Dee.
8. Were you on any varsity teams? No
9. Did you get suspended/expelled? No, I was a goody goody.
10. Can you still sing the fight song? Nope
11. Who were your favorite teachers? Ms. Poe, we called her mama Poe. There were 10 kids in our class so everyday we ordered pizza or sent someone to bring back tacobell. That was a good class. I also liked Mr. Masterson. He was cute and the last day of calculus he played his electric guitar for us.
12. Where did you sit during lunch? I went to the choir room for lunch which was slightly weird because I wasn't even in choir. Then we had a section of the courtyard where we hung out. We called it Mormonville.
13. What is your schools full name? Chaparral High School.
14. School mascot and colors? Cowboys, orange and black.
15. Did you go to Homecoming and who with? When I was a junior I went to Homecoming with Dee. I don't know why he thinks it was such a bad date. I had a lot of fun.
16. If you could go back and do it again, would you? No.
17. What do you remember most about graduation? The weekend before graduation Tom Peterson had a big graduation party. At his party I hurt my hand on the trampoline and so for graduation I had my hand all bandaged up in a sling. So in all the graduation snapshots I posed with my thumbs up to show off my poor bandaged thumb.

This is where Kelsea stopped about two weeks ago. I decided this needed to be posted before I could post anything else, so I kept waiting, but now I'm taking matters into my own hands and finishing this post on her behalf.

18. Where did you go senior ditch day? She probably went the same place I went.
19. Were you in any clubs? Kelsea was on tall flags. I'm not sure this counts as a club, but it's also not a sport, and I don't know if she lettered in tall flags. Granted, it was more athletic than anything I did in high school.
20. Have you gained some weight since then? Yes, during each pregnancy, and then she lost it all, except that she is currently pregnant.
21. Who was your prom date? I don't obsess over my wife's past dates, so these might be wrong. I think she went with Tom Peterson junior year and then Chris Daly senior year.
22. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? already did.
23. Did you have a job while in high school? Yes, she worked as a file clerk at my dad's office. I know she had other jobs, but I'm not sure which ones were during high school. She worked at the quilted bear for a while. I think that might have been just after high school.

Ok, so I'll give this a day or two, then post some pictures from my boring trip to South Carolina, and we'll also have some Halloween pictures (hopefully) before long.

If you thought this was amusing, or think your answers would be entertaining, feel free to fill it out for yourself. Happy Nevada Day!

High School thingy.

In honor of our ten year reunion, I'm doing this high school questionnaire, since I haven't posted in a while. I will try to get Kelsea to do it too.

1. Did you date someone from your school? Not really. I went on a few dates, but only for special occasions, and mostly because the situation required pairing up.

2. What kind of car did you drive? I didn't drive in high school. I didn't even get my license until after graduation. Then I drove a 1981 Subaru 2 door hatchback with AM radio only, and no A/C. I called it Old Yellow.

3. Did you pass your driver's license test on the first try? Yes. But not until after graduation.

4. Were you a party animal? Yes, but only at very tame parties.

5. Were you considered a flirt? I highly doubt it.

6. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? I was in choir for four years.

7. Were you a nerd? Absolutely I was. Past tense.

8. Were you on any varsity teams? Varsity quiz, Varsity choir... wow, I was a huge nerd, wasn't I?

9. Did you get suspended/expelled? Not in high school.

10. Can you still sing the fight song? Naturally.

11. Who were your favorite teachers? Ms. Ginger, Ms. Victor, Mr. Ching, Mr. Fullman, Ms. Moses. I liked most of my teachers.

12. Where did you sit during lunch? When we still had a lunch break, I think I would go to the choir room. When lunch was abolished for "nutrition breaks" I would sit in the courtyard.

13. What is your schools full name? Chaparral High School.

14. School mascot and colors? Cowboys, orange and black.

15. Did you go to Homecoming and who with? Kelsea - junior year, Lena Wilcox - senior year. Neither turned out so well.

16. If you could go back and do it again, would you? No.

17. What do you remember most about graduation? Taking pictures of the valedictorians, oddly. I think Josh Johanson gave me his camera specifically to take pictures of him.

18. Where did you go senior ditch day? I think I went to visit Tom, but I'm not sure that was senior ditch day.

19. Were you in any clubs? Not really. But I would have to check the yearbook. (I'm counting Varsity Quiz as a sport, not a club. So there.)

20. Have you gained some weight since then? Yeah. I don't remember how much I weighed at the end of high school, but I've put on somewhere between 10 and 35 pounds. Some of it was height.

21. Who was your prom date? Never went to prom.

22. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? Yep. It's tomorrow.

23. Did you have a job while in high school? I worked at homework hotline during the school years, and I had a few manual labor jobs during the summers.