December!

***I wrote this post over a month ago... and for some reason didn't post it at the time, so here it is!***

Parker and I had a wonderful December. Some of our activities included:

• Attending the Talbot Family Christmas Party- always a good time!


• Braving a storm to get to my cousin, Carrie's wedding in Twin Falls, ID. We ended up extending our trip thanks to a very generous family who let us stay at their place so we didn't have to drive on icy roads to get home.


• Celebrating our 2nd anniversary with a Doctor's appointment (check-up) for Parker's broken ankle, breakfast at Kneaders, a long nap at home, then dinner at Olive Garden and shopping at the Mall.


• Finishing Fall semester of school! One semester closer to graduation!


• Lots of football watching (for Parker mostly). I can't wait for these bowls to be over, I can only enjoy so much football before it just annoys me.

This Christmas we stayed at home and didn't travel to either of our immediate family's for the holidays. We missed them, but enjoyed our Christmas break here. I, Maren, worked extra hours at work since the other three student employees were out of town. Unfortunately, I got sick with some virus that kept me away from work for a few days. On the eve of Christmas eve, Parker and I took Grandma Hilton to see the lights at Temple Square. It was so fun to spend an evening with her! On Christmas eve we had a delightful dinner at our Aunt and Uncle's house with Grandma Hilton too. Thanks again for having us! Christmas day began with Parker waking me up so we could open presents. We must have been good because we were both blessed with thoughtful friends and family who gave us wonderful gifts! Parker gave me the biggest surprise of the year with a digital piano! I had no idea that was up his sleeve. :) After opening presents we went to Parker's Aunt's house for breakfast with the Matheson clan, then over to Gram and Papa's for visiting and an early dinner. That evening we went to Grandpa Bob and Grandma Carol's for even more food, football watching and laughing as we played "just dance" on the wii. We went home stuffed and happy, and I finally got to sit down and play my piano after being away from home all day!

We had a fun new years eve too. I really wanted to have all the tasty snack food we often have so I made a lot of it, including onion chip dip, 7-layer dip, caramel apple dip with sliced apples, lil smokies, a vegetable platter with dip, and a cheese ball with crackers. It was completely overboard for the two of us, and I loved it. :) We could have had people over, but I still wasn't feeling 100% after being so sick so we kept it to just us. When we were about 2 minutes away from the new year I was reminding Parker that we needed to get our Martinelli's ready. He was a little slow about it, thinking he had plenty of time, and then was struggling to get it open, so our countdown involved me laughing at Parker as he was frantically trying to get the top off the bottle while saying a few choice words as he struggled with it.

It was so nice to not have to worry about school for a couple weeks... and now we're back at it! Someday it will end, right?

Cruise post... sort of

Yes, we did go on a cruise, and someday I'll post (more than this) about it. Unfortunately, our camera broke on the second day, so we are very limited on pictures. :( That just makes it less fun to post about, ya know? We did have a wonderful time! We ate way too much, loved the clear blue water and hilly (mountainous ?) islands we visited, and enjoyed being with the great people from Living Scriptures!

Retraction

In my last post I made the comment that Sonic is a great place to eat and I recommend it. Unfortunately, that no longer rings true. I do still enjoy their cheddar peppers and mozzarella sticks, but the sandwich I had today, the Chicken Club Toaster, is not treating me or Parker very well, and we both have stomach aches. :( I no longer recommend Sonic for your daily meals. Thank you.

PS. Parker and I learned how to make sushi last Saturday, and we're in the process of making a sofa table. Pictures to come. :)

New Post

I know it's far past time for a new post, but I honestly feel there's nothing of interest to write about. So... here's what we do.

• Parker and I go to school. It's hard.
• I still work 20 hours a week at the MTC. Parker's starting to recruit again and works a few hours each week as a TA for a construction class.
• Halloween is this weekend, and we have no plans for the holiday (but we're both really ok with that, neither of us love to dress up). We do have friends coming over tomorrow bringing homemade sushi! Love that! So festive, huh. We're not total scrooges though, we have candy to give away if someone knocks on our door. :)
• Parker won a Play Station 3 at work, and we traded it for a surround sound system (which I have mixed feelings about, but we don't need to get into that now) which is (SLOWLY) in the process of being hooked up as I type.
• We bought a new entertainment center. It's beautiful, and came with a matching CD case (that I don't really know what we'll do with, because we really have no need for it...). Pics to come someday, maybe when I finally post pictures of my living room.
• Speaking of living room, I decided it needed curtains, not just blinds, to make it more cozy. I found the perfect ones, and they were on clearance! Yay! Unfortunately, they are about 16 inches too short. Yes, I knew that before I bought them, and planned to find coordinating fabric to sew to the bottom. That's harder to do than I thought, but I finally bought the fabric today, so we're making progress. It's projects like this when I wish my mom lived closer. (Ok, I wish that a lot, but this time especially.)
• I have to find an internship asap! I'm supposed to graduate in April(!) but since all I have left to do is my internship and a 2 credit class, I don't really have another option for school next winter. Stress. Anyone have a friend in the public health business looking for an intern?
• Parker and I recently signed up for netflix. It's fun. We found out that we can watch Prison Break instantly, and have been addicted to it ever since. We're on already on the second season after about a week and a half. It's intense. We like it. I don't know how people actually waited a week between episodes, I'd go crazy.
• I had one of the craziest class periods ever this past Tuesday. It started when my teacher rolled a big cart of stuff into the classroom and pulled a couple packages of Depends out, opened them, and started handing them out saying "Ok, everyone go put your depends on." We all stared at her and didn't move in a sort of "Are you being serious right now?" sort of way. She wasn't kidding, and it got worse. If you want details you'll have to ask me personally, because I don't really want to type it all out. It would take a long time, and it's slightly embarrassing/crazy. Now you're all curious, huh. It's probably not as exciting as you're imagining.
• We've gone to the home BYU football games. I really like to go, and so far, we've had pretty good seats and decent weather.
• Parker's been duck hunting with his Grandpa in Corrine, UT at their duck club. Next weekend he's going pheasant hunting. I stay in the lovely trailer with his Grandma and admire the mountains, the marsh, and her cooking. I'm hoping next weekend she can help me with the above mentioned curtains.
• Sonic has been a daily stop for the last week. We have literally been there every single day (except Sunday, of course) and sometimes more than once. It's awful, and wonderful. They have these daily specials that are just hard to resist when you're super hungry and have half an hour between work and a 2 hour class. Fridays and Saturdays are my favorite, they have Cheddar peppers and mozzarella sticks for 75 cents. Delish. If you're in the Provo area, I highly recommend you check it out.

That's pretty much everything we do.

One more thing! We're going on a cruise over Thanksgiving to the Caribbean! I'm so excited. Bring on the SUN!

Daddy(Grandpa)/Daughter(Grandaughter) Activity :)

I know it's tiny, but the close up picture won't load right, it keeps rotating for some reason. :( Anyways, this is the picture I was referring to in my last post. Oh, and the picture I posted in my last picture was indeed my favorite picture of Grandpa that was discovered and sent to me by my lovely Aunt Cindy. I'm so glad I've got it now.

Grandpa

My dear Grandpa Talbot passed away on Wednesday. I sure will miss him, but I feel like I've been so blessed to have been able to say goodbye to him, to know that he's no longer sick, and most of all to know that I'll see him again someday. He was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer called glioblastoma cerebri just over two weeks ago, and was quite healthy and able to do what he needed and wanted to do until then.

I have so many fond memories with him. I don't think I'll ever be able to see a rodeo without thinking of him now. (When I was going to school in Idaho I spent one weekend with my grandparents, where Grandpa and I stayed up late every night to watch the National Finals rodeo together.) I loved to play games with him, like Polyanna and Hand and Foot. I remember when I was young, 10 I think, and our family (exept Dad) was living with Grandma and Grandpa, our Achievement Day activity one week was a Daddy/Daughter Activity. I remember being a little sad that my dad wouldn't be able to go with me, but Grandpa was willing to go and I treasure the memory of our little outing together. I've kept a little memento from that evening... that I will try to post later because it's not working right now and I've already wasted 20 minutes trying to make it work.

I love you, Grandpa.