Music

Lindzie is usually ahead of me on the music scene, but, I tend to be ahead of some of you, so I wanted to suggest that you guys try listening to my new absolutely favorite song: "Hero/Heroine" by Boys Like Girls. It makes my little romantic, married heart melt :)

Soooo good!

Rexburg

It is colder than heck here! And there is like, a foot (at least) of snow on the ground. Todd should be happy, the bad roads are keeping me from hitting the mall in I.F.

I hope you all are keeping warm! (I miss Boise).

Christmas

Okay, a much cooler Christmas update is pending complete with pictures and everything, but I didn't bring the camera and I got like, THREE hours of sleep last night and I'm a little brain dead. I just wanted to wish everyone a merry Christmas (late I know, but I tried to send most of you cards! Except for Lindzie...I threw away your address thinking I had it, but I didn't...I still have the card if you want to get me your address again!)

Anyway, I just wanted to say it was a wonderful Christmas...Todd and I had our first Christmas alone together, and we really enjoyed our day. It was fun to have our FHE and read the Christmas story, open presents together, and enjoy a Christmas dinner together (we did steak, so simple, the way I like it!) We also took the customary "I just ate a ton of food" nap, which caused my lack of sleep last night...but I won't gripe too much more because I am looking forward to sleeping much better tonight! Anyway, we are going to Rexburg tomorrow to see Todd's parents and brothers who are in town all together, and then we will take off next week for skiing in Logan, and then I will take off again after that for Delaware!

In The Christmas Spirit

Seeing as Christmas is quickly creeping up on us this year, Todd and I took some time this weekend to be festive. First we attended our ward Christmas party on Saturday night and enjoyed gobbling down the sugar cookies. Then Sunday night, on a suggestion from a friend, we drove out to a neighborhood in Boise famous for its Christmas lights. I guess they have a competition every year, and it was really fun to see almost every house decorated for Christmas. It was definitely a Ross tradition to go driving and see the lights, and I'm hoping we'll make it a Thomason tradition as well! Here are some pictures we got from the drive:

Monday night we made sugar cookies for FHE. They turned out wonderfully delicious, thanks to Sandra for the great recipe!

So anyway, hopefully all that got us properly geared up for Christmas. It will be nice to have a few days completely free of school and work.

School is totally over, and so thats pretty exciting. It was a quiet end to the semester, with only one final. I also got to meet my cooperating teacher at Christine Donnell School and she seems really nice, and I'm also excited to be at a school that places a lot of emphasis on the arts during everyday subjects. My teacher is also LDS, so it will be nice to speak the same language :) This school caps K-3 classes at 20 students so the small environment will be great to learn in (although I'll be pretty lucky to EVER have a class that small!).

I knew I probably shouldn't have mentioned this in one of the last few blogs, because it happened...Todd and I both got callings! Todd has just been called as ward clerk, so that will take him away from me a little bit more on Sundays :( but other than that, I think he'll enjoy it. I have been called as the Athletic Coordinator for the Relief Society, this also being a fairly simple calling, but we'll see! I also really liked that Elder Ballard recently encouraged us to use our blogs to educate others about the Church. I am a TERRIBLE missionary (I was FERVENTLY praying that we would NOT get called as ward missionaries), and I know that almost everyone, if not everyone, that reads this blog is LDS. However, I hope that somehow I am setting an example and that I won't be afraid to share the gospel through my blog. We'll see...no promises!

Mail

One of my favorite things in the WHOLE WORLD is getting the mail. Cheesy as it sounds, I love getting to the mailbox first and grabbing everything out of it. One of my biggest disappointments is when the mailbox is empty (which is often because we move so much we hardly even get junk mail!) Even when we were staying with Todd's parents, I became the designated "mail-gettter."

Imagine my happiness yesterday when I got my family's Christmas package. My mom sends one every year, and this year she sent along our presents, along with some cute, crafty Christmas things she made a while back, that i requested she send along because I love them! I also got a card from my Granny, so it was a double good day! So I immediately ripped open the letter and package, and had everything spread all over the floor. Eventually it was organized so that it now looks like this:

There is also a stocking stand en route, and I'm excited to get things as well. It's nice to have a creative mom to stock your home because when you first get married you start with none of that holiday stuff!

In other news, my sister said I could make the announcement on Blogger, so here it is: (drumroll, please)...Jess is pregnant! We are so excited for her, she is due in June, and so it will be a birthday/anniversary baby as well! It is weird to think that I will be an aunt, but I'm excited to have a little McCabe boy or girl to spoil until I get one of my own!Also, I'm excited for our post-Christmas plans as well because Todd and I are going on a ski trip! It's nowhere glamorous, just outside of lovely Logan, UT, but we will be staying in a really nice place and enjoying the slopes for three days...Well, Todd will enjoy them for three days. I usually last about 3 or 4 hours before I feel so cold I start to have seizures. But it will be fun to relax and hang out with Todd and get away from Boise for a while.

I'll be away from Boise even more, because I am visiting Delaware in January. I am taking advantage of our wonderful, ridiculously long Christmas break to visit! I am excited to see my parents and brothers, although the break in between hasn't been quite as long since I flew out last June for Jess' wedding. My brothers are always hilarious to be around, and being in Delaware can be quite relaxing! I'll have to sneak down to Ocean City sometime and grab some of Dolle's yummy caramel popcorn!
So now that I've poured out my whole life, I would like to see an update from a few freshman friends who have been slacking (a-HEM SACHI EM STEPH!)

Random Thoughts

*Cigarette smoke is disgusting. It is a filthy habit, and its unpleasant for those who have to sit next to people who have this habit in the library.

*It is freezing cold. However, it is probably better to be in Boise at this point, than in Tulsa.

*Thursday is my last day of school. Yay! With only one final during finals week, life is looking pretty good. However, I just have to start thinking about how busy next semester will be...and then I feel sad.

*I woke up this morning with a cheesy 80's song in my head, and I don't know how it got there. Wish I could remember what it was...

I guess that's all I can come up with for now. I had all these witty ideas for blog posts...and I've lost them all. Oh well, chalk it up to the 20-degree weather! What are your guys' Christmas plans?

Weird

So I noticed (it's hard to not miss) that my Blogger template somehow managed to change itself to a Santa template from the snowflakes that I had there before. Has anyone else had this happen? I'm too lazy right now to change it.

And while I'm on a blogging trip, and ignoring the fact that my first ICLA is in one hour, here are some overdue pictures:

Todd and I at the BSU/Fresno State game. Boise played better versus these guys than Hawaii. Look at all that blue and orange!

The puzzle. I am such a nerd.
These next few pictures are from our hike to the cave and the cave at Craters of the Moon. We look real tough, right? I especially would like to point out the headlamp I am wearing. It doesn't get more outdoorsy than that!

Old lava spills. It was cool. I'm usually not much for old rocks, but I thought this was neat.

This is a picture of our apartment right after we got the LoveSac and brought a whole bunch of stuff home from my in-laws. It should make you feel better about your domestic skills.

Todd enjoying the LoveSac. Someday it will fit nicely into a bigger apartment. SO comfortable!

Our Christmas-y picture. Slightly cheesy, but thats okay. Notice our tree is about two feet tall. That's all that will fit into our apartment right now. This was also after we were too lazy to make it to 9 o'clock church, so we went to the 1 o'clock instead. We can do that because we DON"T HAVE CALLINGS YET! We have managed to yet again slip through the cracks for several months now (knock on wood).

My New Hero

Maybe this is a little bit too early to call, because I don't really know anything about her "real" life, but Hayley Williams from Paramore is my new hero.

I think there is a little part of me that wants to be a girl rocker with an amazing voice and mostly pink hair.

Rock on, my friends.

Coming Soon...

Reasons I like Boise. Which I will write as soon as my list of things to do is reduced by a million.

Also, can someone please explain to me how I feel I HAVE to blog even when I have finals, standardized tests, work, family drama, etc.?

Whew.