Better Late than Never

So here are some of the Christmas-time pictures.

This is part of Kathryn's Christmas present. She wanted a few furniture pieces repainted so this is part of the process. It is still lacking white trim pieces.







So these are the pictures from Christmas at the in-laws. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!

It's Finally Time for Christmas!

Well we have the tree up and decorated with presents underneath it, so, it finally feels like Christmas

The week has flown by and with finishing my finals and starting on the long list of household tasks that have been put off while I was too busy with school. It was strange going to bed on Wednesday night and realizing that I didn't have any papers or projects due from now on. Well....at least until school starts back up at the end of January.
Christmas seems like it has come very quickly and leave all to soon. We will be over at Kathryn's parents for Christmas and will see most all of her family between Christmas and New Year's. Christina is going to be spending some time in Utah with the Halls so she may have a white Christmas. I am sure there are other things happening, but I have Sunday afternoon brain where I just want to nap. I hope everyone has a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
Even Porkchop was forced to be festive.

And a random picture of Christina and her cat Merddryn who will find a lap to sit on no matter what.

Christmas Tree

We braved the weather and made it up to a Christmas tree farm over near Lexington reservoir. The weather wasn't as cold as last year when we had snow falling on us as we were sawing, but this time was wet and cold. Here are some of the pictures of the event. Kathryn is avoiding the camera these days. I think that she is trying to avoid having pictures of when she is pregnant. Or, it could be the fact that she was soaking wet and didn't want to shock anyone with her crazy hair.




Hopefully we will work on decorating it soon. Well, as soon as it dries I guess. I pulled out all of the Christmas ornaments from the attic after we got the behemoth home.
Last night was the ward Christmas party. The primary kids sang a few songs, there was a musical number by a few of the musically talented members, obviously not me, and we had a dinner which included a potluck of appetizers and deserts with the main course--pot roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, and some vegetables. The appetizers were delicious. The main course was reminiscent of my time in Iraq. Enough said.
Well I hope everyone is doing well, and I want to apologize for the lack of photos from the Creche exhibit. They have a policy now of now photographs. Oh well, I guess you can try and picture what it looked like.

And one last picture of the standoff between the two animals who think they are in charge of the house.

LSAT...Again

Well, yesterday was another fun-filled day of sitting in a cramped chair with the desk the size of a sheet of paper taking a 3-hour test that somehow manages to take 6-hours to complete.
Kathryn and I had planned to go cut down a Christmas tree after I got home, but it just didn't happen. Kathryn has been busy helping set up the Creche Exhibit this week and is fighting a little cold that she thinks has something to do with the communal bowl of m&ms they have out for the volunteers to snack on. We will end up going to it sometime this week and I will post pictures when we do.
Finals start this week, and part of me is looking forward to just being done with school. At least for the next month or so.
I'll post up some pictures later this week of the Christmas preparations and the Creche exhibit.

Wood Drive

The Boy Scouts do an annual wood drive as a fund raiser to supply the money which the three troops use throughout the year. We have a unique setup now, originally there were two wards that combined their scout troops to create an older troop (16+) and a younger troop (12-15). Well, now there are 3 wards together with an 11 year old troop (this is what used to be blazers), a 12-13 year troop, and a 14 and up troop. For the past couple of decades the troops have bought oak firewood wholesale and resold it the local area. We end up selling about 50 cords of wood. For those who don't know how much that is: a quarter cord will fill up the back of a small pickup. A big pickup might be able to get half a cord if it is piled up pretty high. We had about 40-50 adults and scouts working for 8 hours to deliver all the wood yesterday. I am a little tired today because most of the scouts either leave in the early afternoon or their energy level dies down to the point that they aren't useful for doing the last few loads. The general idea is to rent a bunch of trailers from uhaul and put plywood sides up on them, then a member who has a landscaping company brings a bobcat (those little scooper/tractor things) and loads up the trailers. 11 scoops equals one cord of wood. Then a couple of adults and a couple of scouts pile into the truck to either dump or stack the firewood. The worst is when you find the customer lives up in the hills and has their woodpile 100 yards away and wants the wood stacked, and they ordered a full cord. The best order is when the customer ordered a full cord and wants it dumped on their driveway. Makes me feel bad for the teenage kids in the family that get to stack it later, but, better them than me. No pictures though. Sorry. It was a very impressive amount of wood.

Kathryn is doing great. She is a little uncomfortable when the little guy decides to start tap-dancing on her groin, but she is a trooper and hanging in there. We are sitting in front of a lovely fire as I am writing this. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a very Happy Thanksgiving!!

Pinnacles

This weekend I went to the Pinnacles with the Boy Scouts. We draw from 3 wards so you would think that we should have a decent turnout--considering we have 20+ boys in just our ward. Well, we only had 5 boys. They all had a great time. Except for the part where they froze on friday night. But, besides that it was a good time. I didn't realize that the Pinnacles was so close to here. Only 2 hours or so. Anyways, I just thought I should post something up. Enjoy the pictures!

Rats!!

I know a picture is worth a thousand words, but I didn't have a chance to grab the camera. I was working away on the laptop--like the diligent student that I am--when lo and behold I see Porkchop trying to eat a roofrat on the patio! I think that he caught it in the woodpile area and it was desperately trying to escape his maw by running for a stack of firewood that we keep on the rear patio to keep it dry.
I was able to rescue the rat, not for the rat's sake but for the dog's digestive happiness, and threw it over the fence to the neighbors. (They are gone for the fall/winter) So, I am sure it will live happily over there until another animal eats it. Or Porkchop gets it again. I just thought that I would share this experience because it was hilarious watching the dog play with his "food." He resembles a pig in some regards so I don't know how he was quick enough to catch the rat, but he was really excited about it. He has now caught more rats than our cats.