Christmas, Callings, and Poor Health

I've been meaning to write about a bunch of stuff for a while and the list keeps piling up. Lets start from the beginning. We had our first Christmas as a married couple and it was a lot of fun. We were able to spend Christmas Eve with his family for a bit and then with my family as well. On Christmas Eve my mom had my family sing "Away In A Manger" for the Christmas service for the Clients at work. When my mom worked at Provo Canyon School every year we would do one of my favorite Christmas Traditions. My mom would tell the kids the story of the birth of Jesus. When she got to the part about the Wise Men bringing baby Jesus gifts, she would pull out this very pretty wooden box. She gave everyone a piece of paper and a pencil and we would write down our gift to baby Jesus and put it in the box. My mom still has all the "gifts" from the past 20 years. Before we would write down our gift, my mom would pull out some of the papers and read what past Clients had put as their gift. For example, someone wrote that their gift to baby Jesus is that they would stop smoking. Another person's gift was that they would forgive others. I love this tradition. We haven't done it for a few years but I still try to think of a "gift" for baby Jesus every year. Whether it's to forgive easily, to help others, or to be friendlier, it's a good reminder to me of what Christmas is really all about.

I was going to get Rick a new cell phone for Christmas. It was one that he really wanted and had his eye on forever. It was going to be a surprise until about 2 weeks before Christmas when he ruined the surprise, which I was mad about, but then we thought we might as well go to the store and get his phone then so he could have it. And then I ended up getting a phone too. Impulse buy? I'm still not sure how it happened. But either way I'm not mad anymore and we both have sweet touch phones. We also got ourselves DVR for Christmas. My mom thinks that vaccinations are the greatest invention ever, but I think they come close second to DVR. The best gift we got was Rick's parents letting us live in the house. Which brings me to my next subject - paint. Did you know that paint could rot? I recently found this out. When Rick and I moved into the house in November Rick's parents said that we could use the upstairs guest bathroom. The first night here I got in the shower. A few minutes into my shower something smelled weird. By the end of my shower I was almost dead. Seriously. You know the smell of vomit? You know how things smell worse if you leave them out in the sun for 10 years? And then you put the sun-vomit in a bathroom quickly filling up with steam? That's how it smelled. We could not figure out what that smell was, but you could only smell it when the shower was turned on. We called Rick's Dad and asked him about it. He forgot to mention that he recently painted our bathroom and after he was done painting he realized the paint was rotten. And the shower head squirts water onto the walls when you turn it on which really brings out the vomit smell. On top of moving in, school, work, and Thanksgiving, we also repainted the bathroom. I am proud to say that the vomit smell is gone.

The week of Christmas we spent a lot of time packing up Rick's parents. The day after Christmas was the day they moved down to Arizona. It was also the day that we were able to clean the house and decorate it however we wanted. We are sleeping in the master bedroom, and it's huge. We were so used to having our bed and dresser barely fit in our bedroom at the apartment that we don't know what to do with all this space. The best thing about this is that I have my own bathroom. MY OWN BATHROOM. I'm so happy about that I could cry. The house is on the market still but we will be living here (a whole house just to ourselves, how spoiled are we?) until it sells. Rick's parents have been nothing but good to us.

On Sunday we had our tithing settlement. Our Bishop asked us if he thought we would be in the ward a while and if we would be willing to have a calling. We said we will probably be here for the majority of 2010 and we would love a calling. "Great. We would like to extend a calling to you two. We want you to be Primary Teachers." YES! I taught the sunbeams for a year and I loved it. I was so excited. Until he said "We want you to teach the oldest class. The 11 year olds. I'll be honest, we don't have a huge primary, and you won't have a lot of kids in your class, but the ones that are in your class are pretty tough to handle." Um, are you kidding? I can't teach 11 year olds. I don't know anything about 11 year olds. My expertise goes from newborns to 5 year olds. And now you're telling me they're hard to handle? We are supposed to teach our first lesson on Sunday and I keep thinking over and over - "how the hell am I supposed to teach 11 year olds?" That's the spirit, right? Pray for us.

Rick has been feeling sick this week and so he went to the doctor. He went in concerned that he had a cold or the flu, and came out knowing that if he didn't change his diet he would get diabetes. Awesome. Rick's doctor took some blood tests and then proceeded to tell him that if he gets fat he will get diabetes, which he is already prone to (high five for being Native American). He also told Rick that his liver is turning everything he eats into fat. I wasn't aware livers did that. In return his pancreas is working double time. Also, did you know that 15 minutes after you eat potatoes it turns into sugar in your body? Rick can no longer eat red meats, just fish and chicken. He can't have any form of potatoes, and if he wants to eat breads, pastas, rice, etc. they need to be wheat. Truthfully, Rick only eats wheat bread, and he loves wheat rice and pasta. The meat will be hard to adjust to as will potatoes, but he's not the one I'm concerned about. I know, Wife of the Year Award, right? If Rick changes his diet that means I need to change my diet. Either I cook 2 separate meals for 2 separate people (HA!) or I eat what he eats. I can deal with the meat, but wheat bread, seriously? I know that in the end it will be good for me, especially since in the next few years I'll be having babies, but seriously, wheat rice? It's a good thing I love my husband. We are going to Goodwood tomorrow to feast on red meat before his diet officially starts. Rick's doctor did also tell him that he doesn't quite have bronchitis but he almost does, and he gave him an antibiotic. The days leading up to him going to the doctor were full of sniffles, fake sounding coughs, and Rick buying all the medicine he can handle. What is it about guys and being sick that turns them into the biggest babies ever? Rick can break his back moving dressers/couches/beds and he won't stop until the job is done but he gets the sniffles and it's like I'm up in the middle of the night with an infant. It's not just Rick, I think it's every guy. That is so funny to me. I was talking to Lacey about it and she told me about THIS youtube clip. So funny and so true.

Last but not least, 2009 is coming to an end. It's been a good year, but I am so excited for 2010. I'll finish school and start work as an MA. Rick will start school if he doesn't get called back to the railroad. One week before we celebrate our 1 year anniversary Marc and Megann will get married, and we are so excited for them. I'm also very excited for all the babies to be born in 2010. Ricky and Elliot are basically brothers, which means that Elliot and Jessica's baby is basically my niece. And I love being an Aunt.

Goodbye 2009. Goodbye potatoes. Goodbye red meat. Goodbye poor health.