A Christmas Carol

Another busy week! I had something for choir Tuesday-Thursday night this week. Wednesday and Thursday nights were the lighting ceremonies at the DC Temple. Every year they invite ambassadors and congressmen to attend the lighting of over 500,000 lights at the visitor's center and temple grounds. It was a really neat experience! The ambassador for Vietnam was the guess speaker as well as the Pres of the Seventy, Elder Hallstrom, and Elder Marriott of the Seventy. They were great speakers and talked about the similarities of man kind and how we all have the similar tradition of families.

This is a picture of my choir buddy, Holly! I'm soo glad she's in the choir; it just wouldn't be the same without her.

I just love the brethren. I just can’t help but get excited when I see them and how they live their life. They are just a great example of pure charity and love. I hope one day Jeremy and I can travel around the world on our mission to share the gospel of love and peace to God’s children. How neat that will be.

Jeremy and I usher at the Ford's Theater and this weekend was the play A Christmas Carol. IT WAS AWESOME! The set was crazy! They had 2 spiral stair cases on each side and a suspended bridge that connected them which could be raised and lowered. The customs were just beautiful with every little detail imaginable. The part where the ghost of Marley appeared was awesome! He was in the picture frame moving around then all of a sudden was down on stage and Scrooge’s bed would spin and fog and lights...it was soo cool! As you can tell, I'm a big theater fan! I also just love the story. It was a touching reminder of the peace that comes with we freely forgive and allow peace and freedom to come into our souls through the great gift of repentance. It also emphasized the importance of loving our neighbors and having charity towards all men!

Saturday we went to the Georgetown vs Utah State basketball game. Some buddies on our ward went to Utah State so they wanted to give their support. I guess it wasn't enough b/c they lost. Nonetheless, it was fun to go to the Verizon Center again.

We got some more updates from law schools this week. Jeremy has been waitlisted, again, at George Mason. I hate this answer b/c it doesn't really mean anything. He wasn't rejected but still can be in the future. I feel it just makes us more miserable b/c we start to make plans with schools that we have been accepted at but then a wait-list school and through a wrench into everything if they do offer an acceptance later on. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to be flexible. He also heard back from Mercer in Macon GA and was accepted. We're gonna go check it out over Christmas break b/c I've only been to Macon once or twice for wrestling tournaments back in the day. So, we'll see. We're still open to the idea but feel Tulsa might have better opportunities for jobs afterwards. Who knows

Law School Updates!

What a great week this has been! Monday morning started off with a new auditor showing up at work; fun! She was super nice and although we missed some points on the audit, we ended up with a 94% which I'm super happy with! We've recieved scores 94 or above since I've started working; before...they failed the last 3! Not bad!

Tuesday we found out that Jeremy made the waitlist at Univ of Oklahoma, received a scholarship from Tulsa, and was accepted at Indiana Univ-Indianapolis. Tuesday was a pretty sweet law school day! We've been doing our research on both Tulsa and Indiana and so far if we can get in-state tuition at Indiana after our first year, we'd pick Indiana. Kinda crazy, I never thought I'd ever been thinking about living in Indiana. I had to ask Jer for a map when he told me he got in :) He teases me that I'm gonna learn my geography based on our law school acceptance letters haha he's right. But both cities seem great and the best part about them...real estate is way cheep! Jer keeps emailing me links to 3-4 bedroom houses for $150,000 or so. It's nuts.

This law school news sparked a fun conversation with my boss. I pretty much told him even if we did stay in VA for law school, I'd have to get another job b/c I'd have to make as much money as Jer was currently making to maintain our lifestyle. He didn't like that, but it was good for him to finally come to the light about it lol. I've been throwing my resume out there just to see what happens but no interviews yet.

I had a busy day yesterday at the Strathmore concert hall.
http://www.strathmore.org/
We had a quick practice in the morning, but didn't work out the small lagistics, ya know, like when to stand up and when to keep your music open or closed (may seem insignificant but it makes a difference during a performance). So, our matinee was pretty much...well no, it was our dress rehearsal and we had some hick ups. For example, none of the directors remembered to stand the choir up for any of the songs!! So, they'd put their arms up to get the orchestra ready to start the song when someone in the choir jumped up and got the rest of the choir to stand up too. I think it looked fine to the audience but we were all freaking out! Plus, during the morning practice we realized that a song that was supposed to be just the orchestra actually had a part that we sang. So, we "learned" the song that morning but during the performance...we bombed it! It was so embarrassing! Again, I don't think the audience noticed but we were freaking out. I asked Jeremy what he thought of that specific song and he said, "I couldn't hear the choir very well." I was like, "Yeah that's b/c we didn't know the song!" But, oh well. Nonetheless, the evening show went much better! Overall, it was a great experience and I'm grateful I can share my testimony through music!

We also had a great Thanksgiving weekend! We eat the most amazing food at Talia's brother's house in MD. It was a beautiful house and such a great cozy feeling. The best part about the weekend were the Black Friday sales! Everything at New York & Co and Mens Warehouse 1/2 off! Amazing! We got all our shopping done in these 2 great places. I did get up early, 5:45am, with my neighbor to hit up Target (even tho I didn't get anything) but it was kinda nice b/c no one was there; it was just like any other day at Target.

Ice Skating

First things first; the results for our 5K came out last week and much to Jeremy's dismay, his time was actually 27:23 coming in 25 our of 53. After reviewing the results he confirmed that "that can't be right," lol he's so funny! I was pretty happy with my 30:22 coming 38 out of 86 for my division. I think I've just awoken a sleeping giant within Jeremy who is now determined to beat his time. We'll see if I can convince him to run the 10K with me lol but who knows. I am still training; ran 5 miles yesterday and kept with my just under 10 min/mile goal so I'm pretty happy with myself. Only 5 weeks go to!



We had a fun time babysitting my coworkers daughter, Madison, yesterday. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with her for 4 hrs but it came to me last week as I was at DSW and saw a lovely ice skating rink in the middle of the outdoor shopping center. I really wanted to go and thought Madison would be the perfect excuse to get Jer on the ice. So we did! We played 'house' and pretended lil 5 yr old Madison was ours for those few hours on the ice and it was great! She had a lot of fun but it sure wore us out since she couldn't skate on her own. Afterwards, I yet again, realized how much work kids will be one day! Oh the joys to look forward to.

Jeremy was soo cute with her. He'll be a GREAT babies daddy :)

My volleyball team picked up our first W last week. Of course we were excited but I'm not really sure if it counts for anything seeing how we are in the lowest division and the lowest subdivision of the lowest division :) Hopefully that makes sense. But hey, the way I look at it, is that we have a better chance of winning the champ and taking the whole subdivision! Can't beat that!!

Jer is a great teach but man is it HARD!! He did a fun activity with his students a few weeks ago while teaching about Egypt. He taught them how mummys were made and the process they used to go through. He wanted it to be hands on so he cooked up some noodles for the guts and brought in some toilet paper and this was the result:

They loved it!

I was laying in bed yesterday and thought that I just might put up the Christmas tree today. Jeremy said no it was too early but I want to any ways. Thoughts? Is it too early?

PS: I added pictures to post below

We love Virginia

I have to start off by saying I'm not in the choir picture posted below. I believe the photo is a few years old. However, I agree that those in the photo are a little older than I and the choir dress is a hot find! Nonetheless, the experience I've had thus far in the choir has been amazing! There has been several practices which has brought me to tears by the beautiful sound and words of the music. I know the spirit can testify of truths through music almost more intimately that words alone. What a great blessing music is in my life.

We recently accomplished another item on the 'DC to do' list this weekend by attending a TC Williams HS football game. Some of you may recognize that name from the movie Remember the Titans. If you have not seen it please go get it! Not only was it filmed in GA :) but the original High School is right down the road from our church building. It was the first Friday night home game for the HS is some 30 odd years, or something like that, not sure exactly why, something to do with reconstruction and city laws about lights on late at night?? Not sure exactly but....we passed the game on the way home from the ward trunk or treat (no we didn't dress up, just wanted the chili) and decided we'd go home to get all bundled up only to find out the game was sold out. After waiting around for tickets to magically appear we finally decided to head home. However, on the way out the magic happened. We passed a lady that was trying to get rid of 2 tickets, conveniently, but not just any 2 tickets, VIP tickets!! Nice! They came with 2 free shirts and 2 free meals (hot dog, chips and drink) so we felt like we scored big time! It was fun to be in the HS environment although we both agreed that it was waay different than our own.

The best part of the night was right after we arrived we immediately went on a search for the free shirts before they ran out (most important obviously). After getting the run around for a while, we found this nice lady, Linda, who looked everywhere and asked everyone where the shirts were. She said she has just seen them and now doesn't know where they are. She offered to take off her shirt and give it to us b/c it didn't mean that much to her since she went to TC Williams and has lots of shirts. We of course said no don't worry about it but she said to come by after the game and she'll try and find us a shirt. We didn't think much about it b/c we actually found a table with shirts on it where we got 2. But on the way out of the game, she found me and said she had found a shirt for us and she had been looking all over for us. She even went out of her way to have Petey Jones from the original TC Williams football team sign the shirt!! We got to meet him real quick and found out Linda herself was apart of the cheer leading squad. So cool! It was a great confirmation about how nice the VA community is! Overall, a great night!


The next morning was Jeremy's first 5K race at Wolf Trap! In case you don't know, a 5K is 3.1 miles. I ran the race last year with ward buddies and so Jeremy decided that it would be his 2010 goal to run it too. I went to take pictures but last minute ended up running too b/c a girl in the ward didn't show up; nice surprise for me! Jeremy didn't train for this other then running about 3 miles like 3 weeks ago but he still did great! We were all telling him how hard the course is b/c of all the hills so I think he was expecting the worse, but he pulled out just fine. He can't remember if he finished in 24 or 25 minutes but nonetheless I was proud! I'm still training for my first 10K (6.2 miles), my 2010 goal, which is Dec 18! Lets hope I make it, so far the furthest I've ran is 4.3 miles.


So we still haven't heard back from any other Law Schools yet, but we got some really good info about Tulsa Law from an alumni in our ward who LOVED his Tulsa Law experience! It sounds like a great place to live and go to school. So that's exciting! We just feel such mixed feelings b/c we really love Virginia. But who knows, I'm getting way ahead of ourselves, something Jeremy and I do often lately. Lets just say we're super excited about the future!

My Dad told me about this TV show called School Pride that's pretty much like extreme home make over but for schools. One episode has alot of Teach for America teachers in it. If you get a minute check out the episode, it's really neat and a bit emotional! It shows the difference Teach for America is having all over the country. It just made me feel so proud of Jeremy! It sure is alot of work but it is making a great difference in the rising generation.
http://www.nbc.com/school-pride/video/follow-the-teachers/1255798/

Monticello

Well we tested our new sleeping bags over the weekend and they were GREAT! We brought our air mattress and a couple extra blankets just in case but we were nice and toasty! We had a fun time camping out and enjoying a nice camp fire. I've decided camping is fun; it takes alot of work but its nice to get out of the city and enjoy nature. Plus, you just never know the kinds of conversations that a created over a camp fire!

After our night under the tent which was under the starts and a full moon, we went to Waffle House!! Delicious as always, plus it made me feel oh so at home when hearing ppl behind me say, "Yes sir and no ma'ma." Gotta love it!

Next, we were off to Thomas Jefferson's house in Monticello! It was the perfect time to go too b/c of all the beautiful colors in the trees. I think his house was much more interesting than Mr. Washington's but Washington had the water view which I love. Nonetheless, it was a very nice trip and a great lil get-a-way.

Monday night was an interesting one at the Hard Rock with our breast cancer fundraising concert from The Ready Set. You've probably never heard of them b/c I hadn't but Google them, you've probably heard their song "love like woe." It was a fun concert hanging out with all the 13 yrs olds. Jeremy invited some of his students and about 13-15 of them actually came and a few parents too.

Last night was my first game with my new volleyball team! It was super fun to play on a team again. We had an interesting time adjusting to play together but we've got potential!

Fun Fall Plans

Ok, so we didn't end up carving our pumpkin after all, sad I know, but we did make the donuts and although Jeremy said they weren't Crispy Creme...he ate them, so I take that as a good sign! We were also supposed to go to a corn maze this weekend, however, that fell through last minute, bummer again! BUT, we are planning to go camping in Charlottesville, VA this weekend to test out our new sleeping bags (super exciting) REI Siesta +30/+40 Sleeping Bag - Regular at REI.com and see Monticello. For those of you not up on your US History b/c I sure wasn't, Monticello was Thomas Jefferson's house. Should be fun!

We've pretty much confirmed our Thanksgiving plans this year to be the exact same as last year. We had so much fun last year spending Thanksgiving in Knoxville, TN with my Dad that we decided to go back! Jeremy loved TN and who can blame him? Its got all the trees you want with the mountains and snow..perfect! It will be a short trip sadly as I have to make it back for the Mormon Choir's big concert at the Strathmore!! Check it out

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27 at 2 & 8PM Begin your holiday season with soaring arrangements of such traditional carols as “The First Noel,” “O Holy Night,” “See Amid the Winter’s Snow” and many more. Tickets $21–$25 (Stars Price $18.90–$22.50) Strathmore Ticket Office M/T/Th/F 10AM–5PM, W 10AM–9PM, SA 10AM–2PM www.strathmore.org | (301) 581-5100 Groups Save! Call (301) 581-5199 COMPLIMENTARY PARKING! NO FEES FOR TICKET PURCHASES! Become a Strathmore Star and Save! www.strathmore.org/stars or (301) 581-5145

I also have some fun news from this weekend...I bought my first pair of skinny jeans :) I was super proud of myself for taking a risk since I was confident that I would NOT look good in them. But, I really needed another pair of jeans (I only own one, sad I know, and they were getting a whole in them) and pretty much the only kinds of jeans in the store were skinny jeans, so I had no choice. Plus, they were only $10! Thank you Forever 21! But, I received my much needed confirmation that I too could look good in skinny jeans just yesterday when I was walking out of Marshall's and back to my car. This kind African American male stopped me and said, "Mama, could I ask you a question. Would you ever date a black man?" I was a bit caught off guard but quickly and kindly replied, with a smile, that I was married! He responded, "Oh, cause you just look so purdy." See, ladies, it's all cause of the skinny jeans! :)

Well, that's my post. See, I'm getting better! kiss kiss!

ok ok ok

So I think I've finally come to realize that Blogging is nice. I'll be honest, I don't read many people's blogs but I think I'd like it if I actually sat down to read. So, I think one of my new years resolutions will be to become a better blogger. What do you think?

Bowen Updates:
1. Jeremy started his finally year of Teach for America. How exciting and boy does time fly! He's much more prepared this year and has enjoyed the return of his crazy students. His principle quit the 2nd week of school, great, but we didn't like him much :) so hopefully only good things will come of this!
2. Jeremy received his first Law School acceptance letter from Tulsa in Oklahoma. Pretty darn exciting to know we're actually going to Law School! Hopefully, many more to come...
3. Darcee got into the Mormon Choir of DC. I'm super excited to start singing again to try and keep that talent going. Never realized I'd loose that talent if I don't practice so this will be a great blessing.
4. Darcee also joined a local volleyball team with same ward buddies. Should be fun!
5. Doug was in town 2 weeks ago to visit the good old DC town. How lovely it was to enjoy playing tourist with him.
6. Darcee was in AZ last week with her family for her Grandmother's funeral. Beautiful service and very nice to see my long lost cousins! I also got to see 2 of Jeremy's sister. Overall, great trip!
7. Fall is here!!! Jeremy and I will be carving out pumpkin and making donuts tomorrow to kick off the season.

I guess that's it for now!

Identity Crisis

Hello All,

I just got back from our stake girls camp on Friday and boy was it fun! It really wasn't that bad but I sure am enjoying the AC and no bugs in my house. Not to mention, I'm now a pro at cooking on hot coals. But the week was interesting for me personally b/c I felt a bit of an identity crisis.

For starters it was a bit hard b/c I didn't know any of the girls, sadly, not even the ones in my ward (Hey, I'm in nursery, what can I say). So that was hard b/c I'm so used to knowing everyone from my girls camp days at home. But once I met my 3rd year girls who are 13-14 yrs old and about to be freshman in HS, I felt another worry....I'm not old enough to be their leader! But I'm also not at all in their stage of life so I'm not young enough to relate...AHH! Who am I? Not to mention, they're all spiritual and big eyed when learning about the gospel and I was sad thinking, "I used to be like that! What's wrong with me now? I guess I don't soak up the gospel like I used to?" I dunno. It was kinda weird.

However, as the week went on, I quickly became the "coolest leader ever" since I let them pretty much do whatever they wanted, including use their cell phones :) The other leaders were coming up to me and saying, "You're girls keep telling the other girls that they have the best leader b/c you let them do whatever they want." Great, I thought. I wish I could teach them something spiritual or something! But no. That didn't happen. Instead, the YCL who came to camp on a EFY spiritual high taught them everything spiritual. The girls even included her lessons in their testimonies. So even though "I'm cool," I'm not spiritual. Awesome.

Ok, ok, I know I'm exaggerating and I'm not as depressed as it sounds but it was still hard. One thing that helped was during testimony meeting. Just like I remembered from my own girl’s camp testimony meetings, pretty much everyone went up there and just cried. It got me thinking, this is basically the first and sometimes only place that these girls feel the spirit in such a concentrated setting. So b/c it’s new, they really don't know how to 'deal with it' so of course they just cry. It helped me realize that there are different spiritual levels, if you will. Those who are encircled with the spirit for the first time are overwhelmed and simple cry. As we grow spiritually and become more familiar with how the spirit feels, we may not cry but rather just enjoy the peace. So, for me, I realized I am just as spiritual, since I do feel the spirit often, but I'm just more spiritually mature :) this thought helps me anyways.

One last thought, this week also made me realize how truly blessed I am for my childhood! I had the best friends and soo may fun memories with them. I loved my experiences at girl’s camp, youth conferences and everything else! I wouldn't change a thing! So for all of you who shared these memories with me, thank you! You've helped shape who I am today. And for those of you who didn’t enter my life until later, thank you, b/c we all know I still need the shaping now.

Surprise!

Lindsay said she gets sick of scrolling down my blog to see "John Mayer anyone?" So I figured I'd surprise her and anywho else who scrolls down!

Let’s see, where to start? Well, for starters Jeremy and I finally purchased our tickets to fly to Salt Lake for the 4th of July! (Even though it cost an arm and a leg!!!!!) I'm VERY excited to spend time with my FAVORITE in-laws/Bowen family in Idaho. Although I am pretty darn sad I'll be missing the IF fireworks, yet again. I hope the Playmill show makes up for it! Not to mention, this year we get a real bed in the cabin! (At least for a few days anyway!) But hey, anything is better than that tent they threw us in from 2 yrs ago.

I am a recently new bike owner thanks to craigslist, amazing! My coworker and I bought twin bikes for $50 each and they're pretty much brand new! I love it! I've only been on a few bike rides, one to the airport and another to the library. It kinda gets lonely w/o Jer tho. We're still trying to find him one. But I have to tell you, there’s nothing that takes you back to the good old days of childhood quicker than a bike ride! Even though my childhood did not consist of me ever going to a library, I still felt young at heart! Ya know what really helped this feeling? The middle schoolers across the street that were hollering at me as I returned my book. Man, nothing feels better then that!!

Speaking of youth, so the other day, actually two Sundays ago, this random lady from my ward (I've never seen her before, but she’s real cute and probably late 20s early 30s) tapped me on the shoulder after sacrament meeting and said something along the following lines, "My husband and I have been watching you and you're just the cutest thing! I can't help to think that you look so young! How old are you?" After being called after Cabbage Patch Dolls and Cindy Lou Who, I'm pretty used to these kinda of comments and I told her I was used to them too. I told her my age (I'll let you guess) yet to everyone else I just can't get past the age of 12.

This was yet again confirmed the following week, as I was walking past the Ford's Theater on my way to work. A kind man was pulling some wires out of the theater in preparation for Mr. Obama's big visit and stopped me saying, "You must work around here cause I've seen you a lot! You and you're little face, you must be nothing older than 12!" Yep there it was again, TWELVE!! Man, I guess it's confirmed...I am the fountain of YOUTH and I'll be 12 forever!!

I hope you liked this entry Lindsay. You should be proud of me, no pictures :)

John Mayer anyone?

Ok, so I finally pulled myself back to the old blog, as you can see I don't do so often. But much to my suprise, people actually read it and even better comment on it as well! This new discovery is the soul reason for this posting, you people requested it :) What did you request? Pictures! Pictures of the snow number one but I thought I'd also throw in some more recent photos too! (Especially since the most recent photos have been from AMAZING moments!)

So, the first few as promised are from a few weeks ago during the big snow storm also known as "Snowpocalypse," not even kidding!

Literally, to my knee!

These are from a while ago, but our friend works on capital hill and gave us a tour of the Capital; very cool! Heres a few pics:

The above has GW in the middle surrounded by angels. I've was told this is very symbolic of him 'becoming a god.' Interesting....

This is me and my sweet heart at 0,0 cordinance for the DC mapping quadrents, or something like that! :)

Look who we found in the Capital of the USA? Brigham Young, Saweeet!

The same friend, AWESOME, also hooked us up with a tour of the White House! We couldn't take pics inside but here’s one at Obama's front door!

The best part about the tour was the "White House Prayer." John Adams, first Pres to live here, wrote a letter to his wife the first night he was there and said something along the lines of asking God to watch over and protect the house. He also said something about only wise and honorable men will live within the walls. The letter was found and liked so much that it was inscribed in marble and is now hanging over the fireplace in the dining hall. Sounds a lot like a dedicatory prayer of the White House to me. Pretty neat!

And finally, what you've all been waiting for...JOHN MAYER concert!

So Hard Rock Cafe has a suite at the Verizon center to ya know entertain clients and such. Well Saturday Feb 20th was nothing different. However, some very kind clients canceled leaving a few available tickets! My amazing boss thought of lil ol' me and Jer and asked the day before if we had plans that weekend. I didn't tell him we were going to tour the White House Saturday morning but simply stated, "no." So, just like that I was invited to attend the John Mayer concert in the company suite with my special someone! AMAZING!

And it was just that, AMAZING!

It wasn't the most showy concert but simply full of talent!! He was just jamming up there and sounded exactly the same as he does on the radio. I swear half the show, which was 2 hours, was improved b/c hes just that good!

Lastly, Shakira will bring this posting to an end! Yep thats right, after at weekend with John and Obama, Shakira showed up at the cafe Monday afternoon (1/5 hours late actually). She came to the cafe to launch her charity shirt thing and donate some dresses. Pretty neat. She is VERY pretty! As mentioned above, she was 1/5 hours late (she was visiting with Obama. Doesn't he have anything better to do?) Anyways, she was only on stage for maybe 20 minutes to explain her charity then up stairs she went for media interviews. That's all we saw of her.

Cute lil thing.

Snow Snow Snow

When I first moved here, I asked all my coworkers if it snowed here much. Their response, "NO! Maybe 2-4 inches at best." Kind of a disappointment as I really learned to enjoy the snow from Utah.

However, much to my surprise, we currently have about 2 feet of snow on the ground! That makes it even more surprising is that we're expecting another 10 inches or so tonight. Wow!

Now the sad part about all of this is twofold. 1. I'm not snowboarding! I really miss that time away from everything, surrounded by beautiful nature and spending time with Jeremy; just us two! Boy do I miss it terrible! 2. I'm still at work!! Agh! Nothing is ever canceled in Utah due to snow so I was a bit excited to be here where everything does get canceled. So how am I at work then?

None the less, I am glad Jeremy has been getting a much needed break! And at best, we've been able to spend alot of time with our fabulous neighbors! I don't know what we would have been doing the last 3-4 days without them. So thanks Eaton Sq amigos!