My Parents' New Calling

Yesterday, we found out that my mother has been called as a Temple Worker and my father has been called as a Temple Sealer for the Palmyra, New York Temple! Our whole family is so excited about this; I can't imagine a more perfect calling for my parents. I can tell my dad is very humbled by the experience, but we all know he will do such an amazing job magnifying this calling. He has so much energy and such a love for the gospel, as does my mom. All the brides and grooms will be blessed to have him perform their sealings. I didn't know this until now, but when a person is called as a Temple Sealer, it is a calling that lasts for life AND eternity. You also have to be at least 55 years old, have never been divorced, and your wife must be a worthy temple recommend holder. To have been sealed by him when we got married a year and a half ago would have been so cool, my nieces and nephews are so lucky because they will have the opportunity to be sealed by their Grandfather! We're so proud of their wonderful lives of service and we hope we can follow their examples.

Christmas in Portland

Tyson and I visited my brother Tim's family in Portland, Oregon for Christmas. It was SO FUN and provided a much needed break from our hectic work/school schedules. My parents flew in from New York to be there as well. There is nothing greater to be around during the holidays than family.

Danny and Tyson showed off their exceptional piano skills for everyone . . . by playing the one song they knew over and over and over and over . . . . yes, very inspirational.

Mom, Jill and I made the Christmas dinner- Jill and Mom did most of the work; my biggest contribution were the rolls I'm holding up . . . some of which were rather small since I had to cut off the parts that got burned!!! We could all use a little less carbs anyway, right?




Derek was ordained a Priest while we were there. It was neat that Tyson and my Dad could be there for it. Derek has gotten quite good at basketball. We got to watch two of his games while we were there.


Tim surprised Tyson and I with some tickets to the Blazers game. Neither of us had ever been on the club level before. We definitely took advantage of the free buffet that comes with these seats. It was a fun game to watch-- plus the Blazers won. In the picture of just me, we were trying to get a shot of all the food behind us, but apparently my camera flash was dying that night . . .

Our First Home

Tyson and I bought our first home this past August- We LOVE it! It's perfect for us- it's just the right size, located in a safe, beautiful area, (minutes away from the Bountiful Temple where we were married) two stories with a large loft, and best of all, it fits in our budget. We got an amazing deal on it. Tyson is so handy around the house with all the renovations we decided to embark on. He and his brothers installed a beautiful lamenent wood flooring in place of the worn-out carpet, and put in all kinds of shelving to maximize our storage space. I've been focusing on choosing the wall colors and painting them. I love the vaulted ceilings, except when it comes to climbing a ladder and attempting to paint 26 feet above the floor. I actually about lost my balance when I was rushing too much one day, and in the process, spilled the paint all over the side of my face and body. Wow- pretty funny from Tyson's perspective, not so funny from mine. It actually stained all the way through to every layer of my underwear! Nice- gotta love that. Anyway, inspite of the mishaps, we feel greatly blessed.

A Bench to Himself

This is obviously not an actual picture of the event I'm describing . . .but you get the idea.

If I could write a book about the things my students say to me, I think Saturday Night Live would buy the rights. I'll give just one example of a recent incident. At the high school I teach at, there are a few benches outside the locker rooms where my students will sit while they wait for everyone to finish changing. Because of budget cuts this year, my class sizes have almost doubled, resulting with far more students in a PE class than what the benches can accommodate for. Therefore, a lot of my students will try to change into their PE clothes as quickly as possible, just so they can get a bench to sit on while they wait, (as if they will be sitting for very long!! It's a PE class, but whatever . . . . )

Anyway, a few days ago, one of my more confident athletic and I guess you could say, 'popular' students came up to me and said, "Miss JJ (they still call me that even though I'm married now), I can guarantee you that I will get a bench all to myself today." I raised my eyebrows and laughed, "Oh really? Show me." I knew this would be impossible unless he took some kind of drastic action that would get him sent to the principal's office.

With that, this boy (his name is Ethan) walked over to a bench that already had some girls sitting on it. They skooted over to allow him room. After Ethan had placed himself down, he looked over at the girls and said with a totally serious face and no sign of sarcasm in his voice, "I really feel like I have to let out a huge fart." (My mom hates that word-- sorry Mom). I wish I had a camera to record the girls' disgusted reactions. Within seconds they were all sitting on each others' laps in an attempt to get as far away as they could from Ethan . I was dying! Really, you had to be there to see their faces. It was classic!

A few seconds later, another unassuming student walked out and sat next to the now vacant place next to Ethan. Ethan looked over at him and said, "Hey William, have you ever had to fart so bad, you felt like you'd explode?" A little confused, William said, "Uhhh . . yeah . .. why?" Ethan then responded, "That's how I feel right now." Not a second later, William was up and Ethan was left alone on the bench. With a huge and satisfied grin, Ethan looked up at me and said, "See Miss JJ . . . I told you I could." LOL! I still laugh when I think about it. Seriously, if I had a camera, I could have made a popular You-tube video . . . . Crazy kids. . . .

U of U Halloween Game

For Halloween, instead of answering the door all night, Tyson asked me out on a date. He first surprised me with dinner at the restaurant we went to on our first date, (Applebees) and then we headed over to the University of Utah's Halloween Black-out game. Everyone had to wear black and/or a costume. In spite of my loyalty to BYU, I have to admit the U played a whole lot better than the last BYU game I watched.

In this picture . . .I got distracted by the U fans that had just caused one of the benches to collapse, (they were pretty proud of themselves since they were trying to do it all during the last half).

Northern Lights

I've always been so fascinated by the Northern Lights-- I can be kind of a science geek sometimes. I even tried to recreate the Northern Lights in my 8th grade science fair project, (not exactly successful- apparently you need to have some kind of a license in order to purchase concentrated forms of Neon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, and Carbon Dioxide; and13-year-olds don't qualify for that license- crazy huh?) Anyway, recently the Northern Lights were spotted in Yellow Knife, Canada. Here's two pictures taken of it:



Last week, on the Idaho/Washington border, an even greater phenomena was spotted. It's called a Fire Rainbow- one of the most rare forms of Northern Lights. The event lasted for one hour. In order for a Fire Rainbow to form, the clouds must be cirrus, at least 20K above the earth and have just the right amount of ice crystals. If all these factors are in place, the sun then must hit the clouds at precisely a 58 degree angle. It really amazes me how miraculously detailed and beautiful the works of God are. It humbles me even more when I think that He says His greatest works though, are His children- creating them to become beautiful and miraculous like He is.

Carving Pumpkins

Jim and Tyson at Work

This is Jim and Christi's daughter, Tori

Christi, Tori, and Jim

So, most of my life, I have thought pumpkin carving was limited to cutting triangles and squares with a steak knife. This past week, Tyson and I took our jack-o-lantern creating to a whole new level. Yep, that's right . . .the pumpkin you see in these pictures is the pumpkin Tyson and I carved, all by ourselves! We got together with some good friends of ours: Jim and Christi and after we fueled up with some dinner, Christi and Jim showed us the higher way of pumpkin carving--- they are old pros at this Halloween art. Good times- now we just need to get out the Charlie Brown Great Pumpkin movie.