2012 Year In Review

This is a pretty big year to review, I don't know how I'm going to fit it all into one post! Get ready for lots of pictures, because I'm throwing in a few things I never blogged about.

We started out the year by celebrating in the Gulf of Thailand

My student won second place in our provincial spelling bee, which really relects nothing about my ability as a teacher, but I'm taking credit for it anyway.

This year I was evacuated from Cambodia to Thailand with a case of Dengue Fever. I then came back to practically sleep the month of March away and woke up to it being the hotest month of my life.

I was blocked by my POE from take my students to learn about the Khmer Rouge, so we hitch hiked and went with another volutneer's school.

We rode the Bamboo Train in Battambong, and proceeded to get soaking wet thanks to the rainy season.

We got to expereince really cool facets of Khmer culture. There is not just one way to show how many cool things about Khmer culture we were able to experience, but this was one very cool one when my host uncle/best khmer guy I've known got engaged.

I went on my dream vacation to Scotland. Seriously, a Dream vacation.

Followed later by a vacation to China and Vietnam. China was possibly the best vacation I've been on. I never blogged about Vietnam because I'm lazy and was busy, but we did a motorcycle trip through the mountains. Very cool.

We had Cambodian Wedding pictures taken. Please go look at them and be jealous.

We had the biggest and best project of our time in Peace Corps, CAMP GLOW! I can't say enough about how much I loved and enjoyed Camp GLOW, and watching the girls learn, and then teach other girls in my village what they learned. Best way to go out, ever.

We finally made it to really see Angkor Wat. If you ever get the chance to go see Angkor Wat, please go.

We celebrated my 25th birthday and a bunch of other PCV's birthdays by going to the island Koh Rong.

We said goodbye to our host family our students and our Peace Corps family and headed back to a new life in the US.

And we said hello to our US families for the first time in over a year. Being back in American definitely took some adjusting after living in third world conditions for a year.

We met a new niece for the first time and got to see cool cliff dwellings in Colorado.

We celebrated lots of events such as our 4 year anniversary, and birthdays, namely Hal turning 26.

We got to participate in holiday traditions and celelbrate Thanksgiving.

We finally got to experience cold and snow, and celerate the holidays with our families.

5 years ago today

Today is a special day. 5 years ago today Hal and I met. Pretty crazy to think it's already been 5 years and that we're done so much in those 5 years. You can read the story about the night we met here.

We went ice skating the night we met and Hal held my hand, so every December we try to go ice skating again.

Earlier this month we went to see the lights at Temple Square. Every year the whole block where the Mormon temple is, is decked out in lights. It's a beautiful display and defnitely work seeing if you're in Utah between Thanksgiving and New Years.

Hal hasn't quite adjusted to the cold Utah weather yet, so he wore his alpaca blanket over his millions of layers the entire night.

After seeing the lights our family left and we met up with Hal's best friend, also named Sam, and his date for some outdoor ice skating in the snow.

Even though it was freezing cold and snowing, it was the perfect time to go ice skating. It felt very Christmas-y. Oh, and I didn't fall one time, so props to my increasing ice skating skills.

I'm so glad Hal came and sat down next to me at that dinner 5 years ago, and that he was bold enough to hold my hand within hours of meeting me, because we've been together pretty much every day since then; and they've been some pretty amazing days.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!

I hope that you all are able to spend this wonderful time of year with those who matter most to you.

And with that, I'll leave you to your celebrating with this little nugget of goodness.

Wasn't he such a little stinker face?

Christmas Trees

It's Christmas Eve and I'm the only one working on my entire floor. It might be a little boring and lonely, but it gives me time to listen to Christmas music all day long and think about what Christmas means to me.

I have been so excited to be home for the holidays this year. To sing Christmas cheer, and play in the snow, decorate Christmas trees, and spend lots of time laughing with family.

We aren't allowed to have live trees at our apartment complex. BOO! I refused to have a fake tree, so we settled on using a tree we already had as our Christmas tree.

Look at our kitty in this picture. I wish I could have flipped it to video fast enough to catch her attacking one of the dangling ornaments.

Every year we get a new ornament, and this is the one we brought back from Cambodia.

This didn't quite make it feel like Christmas though, so it was nice to help decorate Hal's parents Charly Brown tree.

Merry Christmas Eve to you all!

Christmas Card 2012

Guys, I know, I know I've been a really bad blogger lately. In my defense, I left my camera at my in-laws after we made a gingerbread house neighborhood on Saturday. Until I get that back, I'll share with you our Christmas card.

Haha, ok that's not really our card. We were just sitting in front of the couch watching Gossip Girl last night when all the sudden we felt like someone was watching us over our shoulders, breathing down our necks.

I'll show you our real Christmas card. Have you ever eard of Cardstore.com? Back in October they had a deal where you could get one card free, so I got a card for Hal's birthday. I was super impressed with the card and the wrapping it came with. Then to my luck again, they were giving away 10 Christmas cards for free at the beginning of December, so I jumped on that.

Seriously guys, you should check out this website. You can customize any card, and they'll even mail it to the person for you, for free! I liked my card so much, I bought a few more and had them sent to all of the out of town folks for free.
And now you can laugh at the inside of our card. We had to throw in a little more Cambodian spice in there.

*I was not compensated for this post, I just liked their product enough to post about it.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

You'd think this week was finals week for me too with my lack of feeling like blogging. (Can I get a hallelujah for Hal taking his last two finals today?!)

Well now it's friday and I'm needing to keep active to stay awake.

Why do I need to stay awake? Oh, I was a little crazy last night.

I put on my hobbit feet, and my costume that my mommy made me, oh...are you ready for this? 10 years ago for the premire fo the Two Towers.

I really debated wearing my costume. Cuz you know, I'm so much older and wiser, and adult like, right?

Except that I'm glad I did. A lot of people complimented me. A lot of people didn't know they made hobbit feet like mine. They're vintage...as in the original trilogy vintage. (does that sound snobby enough for you? haha) Thanks mom for finding them way back when.

And then I went to bed at 3:30...well, I was in bed a little too wired on sugar and hobbits to sleep.

And then I got up at 7:50 for work. And so I type to keep myself awake.

The movie was good. They added in some things that were in other books and not in the hobbit, and they added a few bits that were just made up, but overall? It was really good. I really liked that the feel of the movie was lighter than the others. The book was lighter, so I was glad that was reflected in the movie. I was surprised, because really, it was funny.

The best part? Martin Freeman. He plays Bilbo. He was fabulous. His facial expressions and his timing is impeccable. He did Bilbo Baggins justice, and that's important to those of us who read The Hobbit as kids and fell in love with this story.

So go see it. I'm seeing it again next weekend with Hal. He had a final this morning at 7, and couldn't do it on like 3 hours of sleep.

Let me know what you think of the movie. Have you seen it yet?

Do They Know It's Christmas Time?

Ok guys, I have a bone to pick with this Christmas song.

The song was written and performed originally for the 1983-1985 famine in Ethiopia. Now that, that is great and fabulous. That is not my problem with this song at all.

Have you guys listened to the lyrics of this song?


Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you
Thank God it's them and not you? Do they think that is inspiring? I think that is a horrible thing to think. I understand the sentiment they're trying to get across here, but is comes across like praying to God, thanks for letting them starve, so I don't have to....




And there won't be snow in Africa this christmas time
Why would they have snow for Christmas? December is summertime in Africa. I remember once reading about Nicole Kidman saying she hangs out in her bikini on Christmas because it's summer time there, it's not winter. Having snow for Christmas is totally a northern westernized idea of Christmas. It's a little bit of an ethnocentric idea.


Do they know it's christmas time at all?
Ah, my biggest bone to pick with this song. I never thought about this before living in a non Christian country...The largest religion in Africa is Islam...therefore they aren't Christian. Christmas in Cambodia was not a big deal to Cambodians, because they're Buddhist, they don't celebrate Christmas, it's not part of their religion. It's the same for Islamists. So why would they care if it's Christmas time if they don't celebrate Christmas or believe in Christ?
And if they are Christian, as a growing number of African are, just because there's hard times going on, why would they forget that it's Christmas?
Again, ethnocentrism.


And guys, there are lots more I could go on about. I think it's great that they want to help out those experiencing calamtities all over the world, but I really hope next time they'll think about the lyrics a little more, especially if they want us to get behind their message.

I guess I'll step off my soap box now. That song has just been driving me nuts on the radio this year.

6 years to goodbye

Today is the 6 year anniversary of my mother's death.

I think the hardest thing about losing someone you love so dearly is having to get used to the fact that they are gone.

I think a tender mercy of losing someone you love dearly is recalling memories you haven't thought of in a long time, so you get to have them with you, even just for a moment again.

 My mother was a beautiful person. I love this picture of her. When we found it in the garage after her death I was honored to have my niece think it was me with dark hair. I love the fact that I look a lot like my mother, and to see myself in pictures of her when she was young. To know that she's always a part of me.

At the killers concert this weekend Brandon Flowers played a song as a tribute to his mother and he talked about how your parents both give you a little spice, a little flavor of life, and how you get to keep that spice inside of you, even after their gone. I really liked that, that your parents each give a little flavor that help make up who you are.

And just as a special treat, here's a picture I had never seen of my parents until I came home from Cambodia.

I just love this picture. I think it perfectly shows that feeling of exictement a couple has on their wedding day.

Thanks for my spice, mama.

The Killers Concert

Remember when Is said I got Hal tickets to see his favorite band for his birthday? Well, The Killers' concert was this weekend at the UCCU events center  in Orem. I had never been down there for a concert before, it was smaller than I was expecting it to be, but that was alright by me. We had a great view of the stage.

Of course it started to rain as we were waiting in line for what seemed like forever. I don't think I've ever been excited for the amount of body heat concerts bring to a room. Ok, that sounds totally nasty...

Tegan and Sara were the opening band. I had never heard of them before, but they were good and had a lot of energy.

Then The Killers came out. Guys, they killed it. Haha, ok I had to say that. But really, it was one of the best concerts I've been to.

I was kind of grumpy before they went on stage and by the end I was singing along to every word and dancing around. Hal wanted to hear 'Don't Shoot Me Santa', but sadly they didn't play it. Also, you should go watch the music video for that song, like asap.

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and I'm pretty sure Brandon Flowers solidified his man crush status in Hal's mind.

Cupping

Cupping is something that I wanted to have done in Cambodia, but somehow never got around to. My host father was a nurse/x-ray technician, so they were much more into western medicine than traditional medicine.

Cupping is where they take little plastic shaped cups and create suction either with the use of fire or a mechanical device. They put the cups on your back and they suck up some of the skin. You leave them on there for say maybe 15 minutes....and then you release them from your back and you have nice purple poka dots on your back for a week or so.

It's traditional medicine that comes from China. They use it most often when someone has a cold. They believe, and there is some stuff to back it up, and it increases the circulation and releases toxins and gets your lymph nodes going. You can read more of the scientific stuff here.

Hal's mom is really into natural medicine and before she even knew that we were sad we never got cupped in Cambodia, she had bought a cupping set to try out. So what did they do after filling our bellies with pie on Thanksgiving? They decided to cup Hal.

I guess he did have a cold at the time and now he's all better, so perhaps it did help. Hal says he felt a lot better after this. Either way, it was a very cool thing to try.

There's been more talk recently of people using cupping for pain relief and to obtain relief for a number of problems. Such as this article from the Wall Street Journal says. So hey, maybe it's worth trying after all, and not just for the experience.

P.s. I linked up here

Turkey Shoot

Do y'all know what a turkey shoot is?

I had no idea what this was before I married Hal. I was really confused when he told me he was in a turkey shoot contest when he was 16, but didn't do too well because he had a broken leg at the time.

I was picturing horrible things done to turkeys.

It all made sense when he expalined it's a contest where you shoot clay pidgeons with shot guns, and whomever hits the most clays wins a turkey, and whomever hits the least gets a tiny baby game hen.

oooohhh, that made a lot more sense.

Last weekend Hal hosted a turkey shoot. He had big time prep for this. He made muffins from scratch for all the people who came.

I set out the camera for him so he could take lots of pictures. He didn't take a single one.

Good thing his dad took this one, because he sure looks handsome, doesn't he?

Well after doing all their boy stuff shooting clays a winner winner turkey dinner and a loser game hen were declared. Neither of which were Hal.

But Hal forgot both the turkey and the game hen in the freezer, so i guess we're the real winners in the end.

P.S. Happy December.