Another Week at the Andersons'

            Due to the obligations that the Andersons face each week it seems that without a car crash, a purchase of a new fangled appliance (P.S. I thought that since Michelle got a Kitchenaid that there would be a fresh batch of cookies waiting for me when I got home from class each day. Sadly only one batch of cookies has been produced. I'm hoping my mom will send the sugar cookie recipe up soon for the next holiday), blood or fainting there is really nothing to report. But, like I said before we make our own adventures and fun.

         
               What I can say is that we are thankful for President's day, cause we got to play Ultimate Frisbee in 3-4 inches of crunchy snow at Kiwanis Park.  It was a great day to play.  Good sunshine great snow and even better company. Michelle and I actually "met" on a day like this last year.  After I had invited her and her sister Bekah to come play with us for Civil Rights day in January and they were brave enough to play Frisbee with a bunch of guys and girls that they didn't even know.  I'm glad they did. :-).  So it was a fun day to play around and feel sore for the next day or two.

            For another sentimental side note, it was one year to the day on the 23rd when this cute blonde returned sister missionary looked up at me and asked me "Are we official?" This was after 2 weeks of dating.  I was planning on avoiding the DTR, I thought we could be adults about it and just know that we were official and exclusive but she needed to get the verbal commitment from me.  Apparently she had been getting offers from "other guys" to go on dates and didn't know what to do....silly girl.  I told her she could go on dates with them only if they spent a lot of money on her, like a date to PF Changs, or Tucanos, lol.

           Marriage: It's been two months and Michelle's been training me to be a homemaker and a handy man.  Since we have been married I've had to install (with the help of my uncle Chad) a washer and a dryer, hang a mirror*, hand a whiteboard*, build a bookshelf* (it's amazing what a bookshelf can do to a home--we got rid of 3 full boxes of books), and undo a drain so I could fetch a lost earring.  The homemaker part comes with me doing the dishes after our evening meals (I feel it is only fair after she cooks it), cleaning the living room, vacuuming around the house, and sweeping the kitchen.  When I was vacuuming the other day I couldn't help but think about the movie "Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration" when Jesse comes up to Joseph to council him about the chores that he is participating in.

Go to 47:50 and watch to 49:21

            Though our lives seem to be consumed with homework day in and day out, we did take some time to go the last BYU Basketball home game this weekend.  It was great to be in the student section and cheer with some crazy true blue fans.  Sadly however we didn't get there in time to get a cool headband, but we did get to use my friend, Dan Lewis' handicap parking permit.

  When I had that pass hanging from my rear view mirror I felt as if I could run red lights and not worry about anything, or drive on the wrong side of the road just for fun.  Due to the frequent accidents in our short marriage I decided against those urges.  We did get a sweet parking spot though.

So I think I like adding pictures to this blog so I have to add two more.  I don't know if this was mentioned in the last post but when Michelle and I were driving up the Canyon with our recently detailed car (the crash) we were doing 50 up the canyon to go to my mission president's home, when the hood of the car flew up.  Other than making me almost pee my pants I could only think of "Tommy Boy" when the same thing happened to them.

Here is the car

Here is what we looked like when we were driving up the canyon

Just watch till 1:00  Don't watch much more or else it will counteract the good feeling from the first clip.
P.S. After I told my Uncle Barclay what had happened he first made sure that we were okay, he then laughed and then sent me the above picture from Tommy Boy....haha.....Shut up Richard.

I hope this blog keeps you informed and smiling.

Spiritual Note: " 2 Nevertheless, Jacob, my first-born in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain."  
I feel that this scripture, when you liken it to yourself, says that the trials and challenges that we go through will be consecrated for our benefit.  Joseph had a similar revelation in Liberty Jail (Doctrine and Covenants 121).  So what I want to say is that don't let your trials weigh you down, but be lifted up by the power of the Atonement.  It was this message I needed this week to help Michelle and I through this week. 
















*- Pretty easy to do, but sounds impressive

And we're back!

No, we didn't go on vacation or anywhere else. We don't really have any excuse for missing a week of blogging other than being too tired or not in the mood to blog last Sunday.

It has been a busy two weeks with tests, work, accidents, car repairs, etc. Wait what? Accidents? Car repairs?   Yep. Jason likes to explain it saying "For our two month anniversary, Michelle and I got each other matching dents in the car." So, yes, you heard about mine (yes, it was me) a few weeks ago and even saw a picture of the ghastly thing, but Jason, to help me feel better (he says), got in an accident as well. This occurred last Sunday when we were on our way back from a farewell of a friend of ours from our old ward in the Colony. It had been snowing a lot that day and maybe it was a combination of other things as well, but somehow we didn't see the cars stopped in front of us in time and even though Jason slammed on the brakes, we weren't able to stop before hitting the car in front of us. We pulled over to the side to talk the guy and he said not to worry about it because his older car barely had a scratch. I think there was a little paint from our car on the back of his, but nothing more. Unlike his sturdy old car, ours took the beating. The front grate was smashed along with some other things that I don't know the name for. The hood was even bent a little. After taking a look under the hood to make sure the engine and everything else in there was alright, we drove on our way and made it to our ward in time for Jason to teach Elder's Quorum. Needless to say, it was not the best day. 

That night we had an invitation to come to dinner at Jason's mission president's home along with some other former missionaries and their wives. We braved the snow and started on our drive up the canyon. On our way there, we were just coming up a hill and picking up speed when all of the sudden this thing flies up and blocks the view out of our front windshield. Apparently after checking to make sure everything was fine with the engine, we forgot to latch the hood back down and with the wind coming up that hill, it came out of its place and flew up and hit the windshield. We made it over to the side of the road safely and stopped to assess the damage. A nice man stopped to make sure we were okay and helped Jason push the hood down to latch it. It was able to latch even though it was even more bent than before. This second adventure of the day was much scarier than the original wreck because we were going much faster, it was darker and we lost almost all vision when the hood flew up. We were very blessed that the windshield didn't break and that there wasn't anyone very close around us when it happened so we were able to make it safely to the side of the road. Anyway, we are very grateful for that. We did eventually make it up to the mission president's house and had a very enjoyable time despite the mishaps of the day. We did get the rear view mirror repaired this week, but we're still going to have to work on the rest of the car sometime.

Other than that we did have a good week. We didn't do anything spectacular for Valentine's Day, but we had a nice dinner at home (I guess that could be considered spectacular since Jason is rarely home for dinner) and had fun watching a movie together. Another movie we watched this week was "The Help." It is about black women in the early 50s who worked in white women's houses in Jackson, Mississippi. It was very well made, I thought, and really helped you understand what things were like during that time. We were talking about it and were both struck by how crazy it is that people thought and acted like that just 60 years ago. It's kind of hard to believe that those terrible things actually happened. Anyway, we both really enjoyed watching it. 

I also have an announcement to make. I finally decided on a bread mixer and the winner is...the Professional 6-quart KitchenAid mixer! Jason has been nagging me for weeks now to make up my mind and get one and has even threatened that he would use the money and go buy an iPad. Anyway, I told him yesterday that I was going to get a mixer that day and he just laughed and said, "yeah right," so he was very surprised when I picked him up from work and he saw the box in the back seat. I think he was almost more excited about it than I was: he even washed all the parts and set it up on the counter for me this morning. :) Maybe I'll make some cookies tomorrow.

This is the beautiful new appliance in the Blue Steel color I chose. 

Well, life is good despite the crazy things that happen. Have a great week and don't get into any accidents! Happy Presidents Day! 

....Caution there is Blood in this Tale

Well we have been at this for about a month now (writing a blog that is) and we are getting into a fun groove of life.  Sadly a part of that groove means that I am out studying till late on campus, but it's something we are coping with.

For the new recipe of the week, Michelle chose to go with a Chicken Alfredo sauce.  It was very good and I'm not one who likes Alfredo sauce either.  It smelled good from the get go.  She had to put in 2 or 3 cloves of garlic and used a 3 oz. serving of cream cheese.  It was great.  I am really enjoying this idea.  Now I don't want you to get the idea that we are eating like kings, 'cause we are not.  We are eating like Emperors who rule with an iron fist.  Truth be told, we still have the occasional PB&J, or a hot dog or two, or even leftovers from 3 days ago.  It is nice to start the week off with a good home-cooked meal.

Well Michelle and I are enjoying life together and I tell people this all the time but marriage for me just keeps getting better and better.  I think it is fun to learn about some "odd" quirks that you have or your spouse has. Just the other night Michelle and I were sharing a spoon eating ice cream and she commented on the odd way I was eating it off my spoon.  Later I learned that she was annoyed that I had the spoon too long and wanted it back so she could eat some :-). I was glad to know she didn't think it was weird how I ate the ice cream.

A funny thing happened to me on my road to med school.  In my Physiology Lab, I volunteered to have my finger pricked in order to see some blood under a microscope in different solutions.  So I figured that I could handle seeing other people bleed and I was used to seeing myself bleed so I thought it would be the cool and manly thing to prick my finger for the cause.  Well it took some words of encouragement from my inner self to prick my darn finger, but I got it done.  And I was able to squeeze out enough blood to run our experiment.  The problem came as I was squeezing the blood out of my finger.  I started to get light headed, dizzy, and a bit sweaty.  So I did the manly thing and took care of myself and sat down with my head in between my legs, hoping that no one would pay any attention.  Well when I looked up to see how my group was doing, their eyes got big and said "You look so white! Are you ok?" "Your lips are blue! I've never seen someone's lips get that blue before!"  Fortunately  a member of my group worked at a plasma center and helped me out a lot and was fanning me as he told me his stories of almost passing out and how he got over this problem, there was also a kind soul who offered her chips for me to eat as I drank some water.  Gratefully I never passed out or threw up, though both were considered.  

I was only concerned for my future in medicine, during the very long 5 minutes that I was pale and blue at the lips.  I guess it runs in the family cause my mom had the same problem when she took the class, back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth, but she actually fainted.  I just now know that it isn't best for me to cause myself to bleed, even though I have done it before.

One quick movie review, then it is time for bed.  Michelle and I got to watch Moneyball this week, starring Brad Pitt.  Great movie about baseball...well it wasn't so much about baseball as it was about a guy who took a different view of the game and it almost paid off for manager Billy Beane in the end.  It was a fun dramatic movie in the end.  A little bit of swearing, no big action scenes, but a  very enjoyable movie. I think the best quote is at the end of the movie when Jonah Hill and Brad Pitt are talking and Brad says, "How could you not be romantic about baseball?".  I think that sums up my experience about being at a ballpark watching a game, at any skill level.  I have tried to explain to Michelle about why I love being at a baseball game but I think that is why.  Previously I told her that being at the game is a spiritual experience but it is more of a romantic existential feeling that I get.  So " How could you not be romantic about baseball?"

Saturday is the only day that we can do any shopping or at least get away from BYU campus together, so on this trip we went to Bed Bath & Beyond.  The reason, to get a mixer,  but not just any mixer but a KitchenAid.  The problem was Michelle has been thinking about a KitchenAid vs. a Bosch and now it's between those two and a Cuisinart.  So when we finally had time to go to B B& B, I had thought that she had he mind made up already....I was wrong.  I said "let's go; we have 40 minutes," Michelle responds with "Do you think we will have enough time to decide what we want?" I thought, "you really haven't decided yet?" My facial expression matched my thoughts. It was even more clear when we got to the store and she spent the entire 40 minutes trying to analyze the differences, advantages and disadvantages of the KitchenAid and Cuisinart. Needless to say, we ended up leaving the store without a mixing appliance with her saying, "I think we'd better do some more research on the two before we decide." Oh well. Maybe next Saturday we'll get one. (Editor aka Michelle's note: Jason just wants a mixer so I will make cookies more often. In my defense, it is a big decision! You've gotta do your research. And hey, we did get a mirror there, so we didn't leave empty-handed at least.) So let us know which mixer you would go with.  But keep in mind there were a lot of generous people that gave us money to B B &B from our wedding. So it will make some sense to get either the Kitchenaid or the Cuisinart from there.

Thanks for following our "Adventures", we hope to have real ones some day, but each day for us is a different adventure that brings on new challenges, new opportunities and new ways to have fun.  Like today walking to church, Michelle and I mimicked the people on crossing signs.  Someone who saw us do this for fun sake actually said we looked like them -----------------------> 

One last spiritual note, then bed time "Be thankful that sometimes God lets you struggle for a long time before that answer comes. That causes your faith to increase and your character to grow."-Richard G. Scott 

• OCTOBER 2010 SESSION
• THE TRANSFORMING POWER OF FAITH AND CHARACTER