A whirlwind of holiday celebrations

On Thursday, Todd and I cooked our own Thanksgiving dinner for the first time. The past two years we've potlucked with friends in California, and all we've had to make were the rolls. This year, we did it all:

Turkey.
Mashed potatoes.
Stuffing.
Rolls.
Pumpkin pie.

It was a feast, and we were thrilled that it all turned out well. I told my sister Emily over the phone that none of it was really that hard by itself, but it was super tricky to have it all finish at the same time. It was nice for the two of us to spend the afternoon talking about all the things we have been blessed with.

On Friday, we bought a Christmas tree. When we were newlyweds, we were at an Army Christmas dinner and they gave out free Christmas trees to everyone who was there. That was cool. We bought a couple strings of lights to decorate it with. It overtook the teeny living room in our Provo apartment. But the past two years in California, we didn't get a tree because we would be spending the holidays in Utah with our families.

When we moved into the townhouse here, and it actually felt like a home, one of the first things I envisioned for our living room was the perfect place to put a Christmas tree. I have known we would have one this year since July. ;)

So Friday we picked out the perfect tree. Douglas fir. Seven feet tall. Smells heavenly. Perfect cone shape. After we brought it home and set it up, we went out and bought decorations. Real Christmas tree decorations. Married three years and still didn't have any!


We are so delighted with our tree. We love to turn off the living room light and bask in the tree glow. It is so romantic and classy. It makes me very happy. I love to smell the pine and vacuum up the needles that fall off. I love to just stare at it. Christmas is here!

November 19, 2004

Today marks mine and Todd's three-year wedding anniversary. It's been an awesome ride every step of the way, and I can't wait to see what comes next.

Every single day when I say my prayers, I thank Heavenly Father for giving me Todd. He has made my life better in every way, and he has done so with incredible love, patience, good humor, and energy.

I could never begin to encapsulate my feelings into a few short words, but I do want to shout out a little brainstorming list:


Ten Things I Love About Todd

1. The gorgeous dimple that shows up when you smile.

2. Your amazing energy. The other night, we had friends over for a movie. You got cold and ran upstairs to get some socks. Steven said, "It seems like Todd does everything quickly. He's really quick about everything." And I replied, "Todd likes to say, 'Why walk when you can run?'"
You apply that same energy to everything you do - studying, cooking, taking care of me, whatever it may be.

3. You make me laugh every day. Sometimes it's your monkey imitations. Every once in a while, it's when you trap me in the bathroom, turn off the light, and when you turn it back on, your face is half and inch away from mine. Often it's just the way you tell about your day.

4. How you plan surprises for me. You make every occasion exciting.

5. Your wonderful hugs.

6. Your ambition. You're always working to be better tomorrow. You are such a hard worker.

7. The way you smell.

8. How you cuddle me at night. When we first got married, you didn't like it. Now you sleep better with your arm around me.

9. When you've had a great day at work, you come home, slam the door, drop your bags, and swoop over to me so you can tell me all about the exciting things you did that day.

10. The way you have not let one of our 1,095 days of marriage go by without telling me you loved me, and making sure I knew it was true.


Todd Bonner, I am so glad I'm your woman!

New York, New York

Last weekend, Todd and I made a trip up to New York City to celebrate our anniversary (which is tomorrow). We were so excited to go! I'm going to post a little travel-log, along with some of the pictures we took, for anyone who is interested in seeing what we did out there.

We got into town Friday night, just in time to grab a TAXI and head to our hotel for the night. Saturday, we hit the town hard. We started off with a tour of the Empire State Building.

We rode an elevator up to the 86th floor, where they have a panoramic observation deck. From there, we could see all of New York. It really is a concrete jungle out there! Check out one of the awesome views we saw. It is like that all the way around the Empire State Building - endless buildings surrounded by water.

Then we headed over to Broadway Street, to pick up some tickets to "Phantom of the Opera." It has been one of my life's goals to see "Phantom" in New York City, so I was pretty excited! On the way, we couldn't help but notice dozens of police cars lined up along the road, with their lights flashing. We headed over to see what was going on, but couldn't tell. "Cool," we thought, as Todd snapped a photo or two.

Then we got to the ticket booth and found out what all the commotion was about. That morning, the Broadway stagehands went on strike. No Broadway plays would be running until the strike was over! We were so disappointed! Bummer.

Well, we thought we'd cheer ourselves up by grabbing some lunch from the Soup Nazi, made famous on "Seinfeld." But when we got to the address, we saw bars across the restaurant front. They had changed locations. Bummer again! At least I got a photo of it!

We were in a funk for about an hour, but there was so much to do, it was too hard to stay sad about our double misfortune. After grabbing sandwiches from a local deli, we headed over to Central Park and spent an hour or so walking through it. It was gorgeous, and seriously one of my favorite parts of the trip.

I could see the appeal of having that spot of nature preserved in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the city. It was really nice. There were lots of people jogging or riding bikes, walking, or just hanging out. Todd and I imagined ourselves as locals, coming to Central Park to have a picnic, throw a frisbee, or just lay out on the lawn and read books for hours.

From Central Park, we walked through the world-famous Metropolitan Museum of Art (very cool) and then spent an hour or so people watching at Grand Central Station. Very cool!

On Sunday, we went to church at the stake center that shares a building with the new Manhattan LDS Temple. It turned out to be Stake Conference, and the meeting was awesome! We heard from Elder Kikuchi of the Quorum of the Seventy. Also, the Stake President bore his testimony in all the main languages of the stake - English, Spanish, Chinese, and then American Sign Language. It was so above and beyond the requirements of his calling, and it was really touching. The love he had for the members of his stake was almost tangible.

The stake choir blew us away - Todd kept saying it was better than MoTab. It really was phenomenal. They sang "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing," and they were accompanied by a piano, two or three violins, and a cello. Let me tell you, it makes a difference to be in an area concentrated with artists and musicians!

After church, we toured a couple of other churches. The Trinity Church is the oldest church built in the United States of America. It was pretty ornate. It was cool to see gravestones in their cemetery from the 1700's. We also walked into a Catholic church called St. Patrick's and found ourselves at evening mass. Both buildings were extremely great and spacious!

We walked by Ground Zero, and I was surprised and sad to see that there is no semblance of a memorial put up yet. The area is fenced off, and there are bulldozers and things on the grounds, but it's all just a mess. Apparently, there have been a lot of arguments over who is going to fund the memorial, so nothing is happening. Pretty sad.

Then of course we had to watch ice skating at Rockefeller Center. The enormous tree was up, but not decorated yet. I couldn't believe how HUGE it is! I think it's about four stories tall. Seriously. The ice skating looked like so much fun - it was classic holiday New York City. I was flabbergasted to see the prices, though. It would have cost Todd and me $50 to skate! We contented ourselves with just stepping on the ice when the guard wasn't looking!

Monday morning we took a ferry out to see the Statue of Liberty. That was touching. I will admit, as I stood on the ferry and we got closer and closer to her, I cried a little bit. She was beautiful. I am so thankful to be an American citizen. What a great place to live!

We got a lot of pictures of her, but I wanted to post this one so you can see a scale of how big she is. Take a look at the ferry in the water below her. I hadn't realized the statue was so large. It was incredibly impressive.


After that, we grabbed a New York style pizza (seriously, the best pizza I have ever eaten!) and we munched on it while we rode the subway back to our place for our bags. Then we hailed a taxi to head to the airport, and flew home. And that was our trip. It was awesome to be there!

Unbelievable

I am feeling so agitated right now.

I'm long-term substitute teaching a Kindergarten class until Christmas. This was my first week. Until today, my biggest challenge was that the kids are not trained to behave the way I teach my own classes. I've been instituting new rules and procedures each day, and things have been getting better and better.

But today something happened that just completely rocked my world.

All the kindergarten classes were coming down the hall, returning from recess. One of my students (we'll call him John) was running down the hall. Another teacher asked him to stop and go back to the end of the hall and walk to class. John froze, but did not turn around. The teacher asked him three times to go back and walk, but still he did not move. (He's stubborn, this one.) Then, the teacher came over to him and said she was going to have to walk with him since he wouldn't do it on his own. Then John rolled his eyes at her and started yelling that he didn't want to go. (Temper as well.) Finally, the teacher went to the office to get the Vice Principal. John ran into the classroom and hid behind the door.

A moment later, the teacher and the Vice Principal returned. They went into the classroom and shut the door. I was in the hall, trying to keep the other 16 five-year-olds in line and hold them at bay (this was Bathroom Time in the schedule, and some of them work like clockwork!)

I was fine with all of this until the classroom door opened and the adults walked out. I was shocked to see a two-foot long paddle stick in the Vice Principal's hand. I turned to one of the other kindergarten teachers who was also in the hall and asked, "Did I really see a STICK in his hand?!" Yep. She told me that when kids get sent to the principal's office, they get paddled.

Spanked.

Hit.

With a stick.

By a strong, adult male.

Alabama is one of 23 states in America where Corporal Punishment at school is legal.

I am horrified. I had no idea Corporal Punishment was still legal ANYWHERE in America.

I was spanked as a child, and I learned NOTHING good from it. I have memories of looking at my bum in the mirror afterward and checking to see how red the hand mark was. Spanking did not teach me to make good choices. It taught me to fear my dad.

I cannot believe this is happening in the schools of America.

I am NEVER going to send an Alabama student to the principal's office, no matter what they do. There is NOTHING that a five-year-old child will do that will merit being hit with a stick by an adult.


For more information on Corporal Punishment in schools, check out these links:

Teaching Violence Through Violence

Mom for ban on corporal punishment in schools

A Nice Abode

I mumbled and grumbled for months before our move out to Southern Alabama, and have found out that it was for good reason: it is grossly humid in the summer, there are enormous bugs, the people are different, and I still really miss everything from my life in California (my job, sob).

However, from day one there has been something that has brought me joy, even delight, and to express my gratitude to it, I dedicate today's blog to our townhouse.

Every time I walk in the front door, I breathe a sigh of contentment. We have an ENTRYWAY. Sometimes I stand at the top of the stairs and lean over the banister, and I just soak up the beautiful feeling that I get staring at all that space! It makes it feel like a real house.

Even though this is a two-bedroom place just like our apartment in California, we have much more space thanks to several actual closets and a garage. Todd even constructed shelves in one closet to make it into our very first linen closet!

We also have CENTRAL AIR (ooh la la), as well as
a heater that actually works! I am so grateful for genuine temperature control!


After six years of quarter-driven communal laundry rooms, I am pleased to announce that we have finally bought our own washer and dryer. We'll see how long it lasts, but for now, doing laundry is actually exciting. We've only hit one day where we had to say, "I'm wearing my last set of underwear - we'd better do laundry today." It actually gets done before that point now!


When Todd and I first got married, a neighbor gave us their old table (complete with wobbly leg and stained top). Since we didn't have any chairs, we got used to eating on the floor in the living room. Eventually, we bought folding chairs, but it always bothered me that we didn't have a nice table and chairs.

Here in Alabama, we've got a true-blue dining room with tile floor and everything. We finally bought a dinette set to grace our dining room - I love it! Now we actually eat at the table sometimes.


Our living room is big enough that we turned a section of it into the office - I love having the computer in the main area! I do miss the sage green wall we had in our living room in California, but I think I've found a good color synchrony here, too.

One whole wall is windows, and French doors leading to our backyard (ie. Todd's barbeque grill). There are a bunch of trees around here, and our backyard is sloped on a hill, so when we look out the window, all we see is nature - it's wonderful to look out and not look into the neighbor's window!


Check out our master bedroom. First of all, don't you love that duvet cover? I just got it, and now when I walk in the room, everything feels so soothing. Aah.

But there are additional features about our room that I love.
1. We have a walk-in closet!
2. There's a double-sink vanity right in the room, and a little room off to the side with the shower and toilet.
3. Do you see those French doors? They lead out to a DECK!

Todd and I love to take our camping chairs out onto the deck. We have picnics and read books out there. It's awesome!

So even when everything else about Alabama is discouraging, and I get really homesick for California, all I have to do is look around our townhouse and I come up with tons of reasons to be grateful. It is really nice to have a great place to come home to!

The Nickel Ride

2Nov 2007
Todd finally got a chance to go up in a helicopter and try out a little flying; it was his "Nickel ride" - ie first time up. It is a military tradition for a new pilot to give their instructor a nickel that is from their birth year to mark this milestone; hence the name.
We took a little video to document the experience.