Well, well, look who it is.... It's ME!

You blink and a month passes! (Warning: this was long when I typed it in word so I can only imagine how long it will be in blog land!)

I’m not sure where this last month has gone to, but I think it’s definitely time for an update!

First Off: CHRISTMAS!
Being married at Christmas sure makes things busy! But we had a great time. We started the holidays on Christmas Eve at my grandma’s house for dinner. Bryant has now met all the cousins on my mom’s side of the family. All of the family was there minus one cousin, so that totals 8 “adults”, 15 of their children, and 10 little ones… that’s a lot for us. We ate good food, chatted and opened presents. Bryant and I had to take off early to head to his family’s house. Maelie cried when we left, which made us feel super loved!

We then headed to Bryant’s parent’s house for scones and for their Christmas Eve stocking hanging tradition. We also opened our pajama presents from his parents. We then walked next door to his sister’s house for Christmas Eve sleepover. We had packed our air mattress but ended up going without so we could all be closer… If there is a sleepover next year, we’ll be using the air mattress! We woke up Christmas morning and walked back to the parent’s house to open our presents from each other. Bryant’s parents gave us a printer and a deep freeze freezer. We got some gift cards, tools, block letter decorations, a book and scarf and of course Bryant’s machete… that’s right, don’t mess with us! After presents we ate some breakfast and then headed to my parent’s house to open more presents. I love Christmas with the kids. Parker would open a present and be like this is what I’ve always wanted. We gave P a remote control car, which he thought was pretty cool. We gave Mae tickle and dance Elmo hands, I’m not sure what she thinks of them. We made out good again with gift cards and folding chairs, a new fantastic vacuum and broom. I love my new vacuum. No more vacuuming and then crawling on the floor to pick up the lint the vacuum missed! After the parent’s house, we loaded up and went home to open presents between the two of us. I got clothes and a movie and a curling iron. Bryant got clothes a video game and movie and a pedal for the keyboard. We got cleaned up and headed to my Aunt’s house. When getting into the car, Bryant fell on the ice in the condo parking lot. Being the good wife, I didn’t laugh at all, just got out of the car and helped pick him up. We visited with the extended family for about an hour and then headed to his grandparent’s house. We hung out and visited for a bit and then I took my sore husband home to lay on the heating pad and watch a movie. Mom and Dad came over to see our tree to wrap up the holiday.

The Tuesday after Christmas, was a bit of an eye opener for us. I got an email from Bryant that afternoon saying he had just lost his job. I know that we have a lesson to learn in all of this, but getting there was a little teary. I headed home after work to have dinner with him and then we both had to head to our own rehearsals, Fiddler for me, Singin’ in the Rain for Bryant (he did the lighting design for the show) A few minutes after Bryant left, he called me saying his car was dead and he needed me to come help push. REALLY? Job and car in the same day? Obviously December 29th is not our day! Again though we were blessed it died in the intersection close to our house, where there also happens to be a service station. The guy came out after seeing us push it with the help of some good Samaritans, and told us that they were just closing but that they would open at 7 the next day and they could look at it and see if they can figure the problem. Needless to say Bryant missed his rehearsal that evening. The next morning they ran the diagnostics on the car and found out that the EPM or something like that was fried. For all you car people like me… The EPM or whatever, is the computer in the car. So after some freaking out and crying and looking at our finances, we gave the ok to order the $900 part on Wednesday. The guy said it should take about four days to get it in and then we could go from there. More to come on that story as the updates continue.

For New Year’s Eve, we headed to the twinner’s house for a little Murder Mystery night. Bryant was a Johnny Depp character and I was a Brittney Spears character… although I wasn’t a very good one… A: the garments just didn’t go with any Brittney outfit and B I just was struggling. It was a fun night though, Whit’s dad and sister were HILARIOUS. There was a dance-off, which Dan, Sara and I won at with our amazing tap number to Animal Crackers in my soup. The night ended with the twin being killed by my dad. That’s family love right there! We rang in the new year, popped streamers and then headed home, after all it was way past my bedtime.

New Year’s day we slept in and I’m sure we did something productive during the day…. Oh yeah, we took down the Christmas decorations. Bryant re-did the shelving in the laundry room and storage area since we had put our new freezer in the storage space. After the house was nice and clean, super clean after using my new vacuum, we babysat little Mae while the fam went to Alvin and the Chimpmunks squeakal. She is funny. I love her so much. And the best part about it, is she love B and I just as much. We fed her a lot of animal crackers, one mini twix and some rootbeer… yes, she may have thrown up a little but nothing major. We headed to grandma’s house after, as we have done for years. It would have been Grandpa’s birthday, so we still like to get together. Bryant had to go up to Centerville for rehearsal so I hung out a little longer before we all head to the condo… Unfortunately, my house key was IN the condo. So most went home, and my parents drove me up to Centerville to get Bryant’s house key. Once we got in, the boys came over for another PS3 all nighter. My parents bought me a slurpee and hung out for a while, then they left, Bryant came home, I left him in charge of noise control and headed to sleep. 7:30 came early the next morning, as we had to get up for rehearsals again. Bryant dropped me off at my parent’s house and they were kind to let me use their car for the day, since Bryant was going to be up in Centerville most of the day for the last rehearsal. I rehearsed, then headed home to clean up and then met Bryant at my parents for a night of Italian Village, family and the Wii.

Last week was fairly low key. Sunday we made Charlene some cupcakes for her birthday, maybe next we’ll have the funds and time to find a Marvin the Martian cake pan to make for her. We dropped them off and headed to my sister’s house for delicious dinner. Monday, Bryant headed up to Centerville for Opening Night and to collect his paycheck. Tuesday was a short rehearsal for me. Wednesday, we went to dinner and to see The Importance of Being Ernest. It’s a cute show, but it always weirds me out a bit that no one seems to mind that they are cousin’s and in love… Thursday, was grandma’s birthday, so we headed there for some cake and ice-cream. Thursday was also the new part for the car came in! Hooray, the end of being a one car family was in sight… Friday we did a little food shopping and started working on the lasagna sauce for the meal at Hale on Saturday night. We got out our fancy food processor too to use for the first time to grate the cheese, unfortunately it was broken, so we had to take it back. We got a different model. It’s not as pretty but it does the job and that’s what’s important, especially since it lives in the cupboard. Friday came and went and still no car for us, although there was a call made saying the programming of the new part didn’t work. Which meant one of a few things: the new part was bad, the programming guy didn’t know what he was doing, or there was a bigger problem. They would keep us updated. That meant Saturday morning we woke up at the sickening time of 6:45 to get ready. I drove Bryant down to UVU for his 8:00am class and then drove to West Valley for my rehearsal. After class B had to chill for a bit until I was done with rehearsal and could drive back down to Orem to pick him up. We got a call from the car place saying that they just need some information from the old EPM and they were 99% sure that we would have the car on Monday. We headed home to assemble the lasagna’s and off to the theatre to do some cooking. I like cooking at the theatre. People are usually very grateful. The first lasagna was a little warm and therefore didn’t set as pretty as I’d prefer, but to other’s thankfully, it can look like a pile on your plate and they forgive when it tastes just as good. After all were served, we headed to Bryant’s parent’s house to chat and to pick up Bryant’s last paycheck that was mailed there. We used a wedding gift card to grab some ice-cream on the way home.

And now this brings us to this week! Sunday we made it to all three meetings at church. Although I should think about becoming inactive because now I have to sing in church on the 24th, which let’s be honest, I don’t mind doing, but then we have to speak on the 31st, which I DO mind doing. I hate speaking in church. I told B he better prepare a few extra minutes… We headed to the Brown’s for Sunday dinner and an evening of playing Nerts. Charlene was surprised to find out that she had new competition in the game. We took a few turns in the lead, but at the end of the night, I clutched first place! Monday came and I was getting pretty excited to hear about the car, of course every hour that passed my excitement would dwindle and I would think we’re really going to make that 1% odds of not getting the car. Around 2 or 3 I made Bryant call the place. Come to find out there’s a short in a wire or something, so they are just tracing things, or something. All I know for sure, is no car on Monday, and they’ve stopped giving us a new day to hope for. Monday night we had dinner with both sets of parents and headed up to see Singin in the Rain. Bryant’s lighting was great. It’s a fun show. There were some really great parts, and while not all people in the show are as talented as I’m sure the production team had hoped they would have gotten, they were having fun and we had a good evening. Tuesday meant back to rehearsal, and now I’m back pretty much every night until we open in a month.

The show is really coming along. I’m starting to get comfortable and have gotten past the I can’t talk to them, they’re actors and I’m a tech. I still don’t know everyone’s name, but I’m going to try really hard to know them all by the end of the week. Today, I have a costume fitting, any guesses on what color my dress will be? I’m almost positive I’m not purple, since Golde is in purple. Bryant is still job searching, but in the mean time is helping out during the day at Hale, which we are thankful for the opportunity to have.

And there you have it. I’ll try to blog sooner so it doesn’t take you an hour to read next time. But at least now you are pretty much caught up in the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Brown.