Merry Christmas! 2007

It has been a long while since I have graced the pages of my blog, but I feel it is time to give the year-end review of Joe and my life together for the year 2007. This is taking the place of a Christmas card letter, for those of you who care.

2007 started out pretty rough for Joe and me. Joe started out the year working for Jerry Seiner collision and was racking in a whopping 30 hours for every two weeks. Even to people who don't understand the collision biz, it sounds small. Just to give you the idea of how hard this was on us financially, Joe is used to flagging 150+ hours every two weeks. So, needless to say, we were hurting. But a lot can happen in a year. Joe finally quit Seiner's in January or February and began working for Larry H Miller Collision out on 2100 south. It was a welcome change. The people there loved him! He was getting so much work, and flagging up towards 200 hrs! It was a huge blessing. Then, in July, his first shop, AutoMenders, called and practically begged him to come back, but this time under a new owner, and a promise of a promotion in the office writing estimates. So, we went back to AutoMenders. Now Joe is working part-time in the shop doing collision, and part time in the office writing estimates and handling all the work from Progressive Insurance (who are a bunch of cheapskates and buy crappy parts for their customers, if you wanted to know). He is now looking for someone to replace him in the shop because the owner wants him to move full-time in the office, which is a relief to me, because the phrase "part-time in the shop" and "part-time in the office" has translated to be "full-time in the office and you better plan on working 12 hour days to get your work done in the shop." Eventually this office position will become shop manager when the current boss retires next year. We have really hit a turn around and finally feel a little stable.

In the midst of all this job-hopping (can you imagine having to explain all those job changes to a lender when we were refinancing our house?! It took some fancy vocabulary to confuse them so they would stop asking questions), I stayed at good old reliable Lehi High teaching Creative Writing and Sophomore English. I finished out my third year in May (which means I have tenure and can't be fired now!) and began my fourth in August. We are currently slogging through a very long, very treacherous, research paper. The research paper is my least favorite unit to teach, although this year I feel that the students have actually learned a little about the world. I had them research the candidates for the upcoming presidential primary. The students had to write mini papers, on background, 2 issues the candidates face, and personal opinion. It has been surprising to see so many Republican offspring become intrigued by Democrat, Barrack Obama. When Christmas break is over, I will be greeted with final papers and spend around 24 hours total grading them. I'll let you know what the class' consensus is.

Well, that's us in a nutshell. Now, Christmas! We had the most wonderful Christmas ever! I have to admit, Joe spoils me shamelessly. I got an eBook, which is this cool little hand-held device that downloads books from a site and you can read, like on a page. I am really excited to take this bad-boy to the gym and read without worrying about pages, and it will be great to finally pick out a purse without worrying how many books it can hold.

Joe got a Kitchen Aide Mixer, which he is very excited about. A lot of people have chided me, saying it was more of a gift for me than for him, but he was the one who asked for it, and he's the one who makes the cookies. See? Look how excited he is.

I made out with several Cd's, a DIGITAL CAMERA (hence all the uncharacteristic pictures), a camera bag for my film SLR, and a zoom lens for my film SLR, which I hear Joe got for a killer deal on ebay. Along with the Kitchen Aide, Joe got a cordless drill, a Magnum PI shirt (pictured above), an iPod cord for his truck, and some movies. I know. I am really really spoiled. But I assure everyone that Joe will get his turn on his birthday in three months.

We spent a few hours at my parent's house, where my niece, Taylor, just had to show off her new princess dress, hair, shoes, and makeup. Then, my brother, Rory, felt that he was too distinguished for the rest of us .

We spend some time sledding with Joe's niece (Alexias) and nephew (Hunter). Isn't Joe cute when he's cold? And then we played a little Guitar Hero. We were thoroughly out-classed by Alexias's James-Tayloresque skill and Hunter's Jimmi-Hendrixion style. It was a wonderful Christmas with lots of friends, lots of family, and LOTS of food (side note: anyone every been to Rib City on 94th south and 2oth east? That's some goo-ood eating!), and more blessings than we deserve. We hope this year has been good to everyone. Merry Christmas, and we Love Everyone...who reads this blog.

Just kidding. We love EVERYONE, even if they don't read this blog.

Buy we love those who do read it better.