The Real Life Experiment is on hold :(

Because of thesis needs, we're putting the Real Life Experiment on hold until I submit everything. This is because I can't do fun things with Chris when I'm trying to get my thesis done. LAME!

So anyway, to be continued...

The Real Life Experiment: Day 8

1) Taught our primary kids

2) Had home teachers over

3) Finished my thesis presentation

4) Chris cooked mac and cheese, which I didn't like at all

5) Watched some Modern Family

6) Chris cleaned and organized the front room, including organizing the bookshelves

7) While he was doing that I put up the Christmas tree and spread the branches for decorating

8) We decorated our first Chrismas tree together!

The Real Life Experiment: Days 3-7

These days were kinds of a whirlwind of packing, working on my thesis presentation (for my oral defense), and Thanksgiving in California with Chris' parents. Two of the days were almost entirely devoted to driving. But here are the highlights of these days:

1) Time with relatives. It was really nice to get to see both of Chris' grandmothers this trip. His mom's mom I've seen lots of times, and she's sweet as can be and likes me a lot, I think. Here's a great picture of Chris with her:

We also drove down with Chris' dad to see his dad's mom, and I'd never met her before. It may be the last time we see her alive. It didn't occur to me to take a picture, which is kind of sad. She's not doing well at all, and didn't open her eyes or make any sign to acknowledge that anyone was there. We also got to see his Aunt Roseanne (his dad's sister) because she's taking care of her mom. I like Roseanne. She's pretty chatty and funny.

It was of course good to spend time with Chris' immediate family too, although his brother Bryan and Bryan's wife Emily were stuck working in Idaho and couldn't make it. I particularly enjoy spending time with Lindsey, his sister. We went Black Friday shopping with Lindsey, but more on that later.

2) Good eats. Hey, it's Thanksgiving. There's good food. I made myself some onion-free gravy, because the other gravy was storebought and I couldn't eat it. I've never made gravy before, and I think maybe it would have been a good idea to have a little water in the broiling pan because the drippings mostly burnt and stuck to the pan, so the gravy was interesting, but I actually liked it. It really made the turkey and potatoes taste yummy. Also, Chris' mom made this delicious sweet potato casserole, which I ate a lot of despite having to pick off the top because it had nuts. I'd like the recipe for that so I can alter it and eat the topping. I made a French Cherry pie, which involved graham cracker crust, sweet cream, and cherries. I think I'd like to make it again though, because I messed it up a lot. And yet it was still everyone's favorite pie, probably because it was homemade. It's the only one that actually got completely eaten before we left. I also made waffles the morning we left, and they were pretty yummy despite being from a mix. Now that I have a waffle iron finally, we'll probably have delicious waffles here at home much more often!

3) Great deals. We did Black Friday. And oh boy, did we do it. We got a blu-ray player for $40 (it has wi-fi even) and some mega discounted DVDs and blu-rays (Modern Family season 2 for $9, for example). Chris got a 16 GB USB drive for $12. I got a car stereo to replace my broken one with a CD player and ipod input for $40. We really wanted to get a waffle iron at Walmart for $2.88, but they were all gone at both Walmart's we went to, so we got one at Kohl's for $10 after a rebate that I still need to send in. Chris got me a super nice winter coat, kind of peacoat style but longer, covers my butt for extra warmth. It was $50 at Macey's, marked down from $150. It really does look nice. I'll have to take a picture. And Chris got some dress slacks which he badly needed. Thanks to a gift card from his dad and a buy one get on free sale, he got two pairs of $80 slacks for a grand total of $30, and his dad even paid for them. And here's the crowning glory...a 40 inch LED 120 hertz 1080p Samsung TV! We only had $350 in the budget for a TV, but Chris' parents were insistent that we get a really good one, so they paid for the rest of the TV. Although it was a really good deal anyway, only $500 total (so they paid $150). They also ordered us a Blendtech, but that was kind of a leftover wedding present. I feel like we have too much fancy stuff now, but it was all such a good deal.

Yup, good stuff.

The Real Life Experiment: Day 2

It didn't feel quite as productive as day 1, but it was still rather nice. I think Chris is going through withdrawals from video games. I still find myself thinking about them too.

Here's what I did on day 2:

1. Went to the doctor
2. Picked up prescriptions
3. Tutored two people
4. Called some friends
5. Watched Thor (movie) with Chris
6. Changed the sheets on the bed
7. Read a few chapters in the New Testament, but not as many as I was supposed to

The Real Life Experiment: Day 1

We (okay, pretty much I) decided that it was time to experience real life. Basically, Chris has mostly grown up living a virtual life - that is, his life is video games, which he occasionally interrupts to do boring things, like work. Living with him has also gotten me somewhat into this virtual life thing, which I don't particularly like, even though video games are fun. For three weeks, we're going to play NO video games, and do real life things instead. This is an experiment, I say, because I want to see what Chris and I decide about how to spend our time when we've spent three weeks without the video games absorbing 1-6 hours of every single day.

So, since I finished my thesis (except for defending and final revisions), we started the Real Life Experiment today!

I really enjoyed it. I felt so productive. Here's what I did:

1. Went to church and taught primary with Chris
2. Had a really great talk with Chris
3. Went on a walk with Chris to my mom's house
4. Played with my cockatoo Samantha who is currently living at my mom's house since I can't have pets (Chris did a lot of the playing with her, because she likes him better, and he loves her. I played too, though.)
5. Walked back home with Chris
6. Made three pizzas from scratch
7. Watched some Big Bang Theory with Chris while eating pizza
8. Gave Chris a haircut. Sadly, I messed it up, but it's not too bad. Just shorter than I'd like.
9. Read 11 chapters in the New Testament.
10. Blogged.

Random photo shoot

There was an ad in KSL for a free photo shoot... basically this person just wanted to practice photography. So anyway, I agreed to model. I got some fun shots out of it :) Here they are.

Another Williams Wedding (Bryan and Emily)

So not long after Chris and I got married, Bryan announced his engagement. We were all surprised, especially his parents because they had not budgeted for two weddings in one year! Somehow it worked out though and we all went to Idaho for the wedding. Here's the wedding party (minus parents).

L to R: Lindsey (Chris' sister), 2 of Emily's people (sister and sister in law or something like that), Emily, Bryan (Chris' brother), Adam (Bryan's best friend), and Chris.

Just a pic of E&B
And here's me and Chris.

Birthday cake

A few years ago my friend Mary Beth made this divine cake. It has lemon curd in between each layer, cream of coconut in the actual cake, and boiled frosting (which is really interesting and yummy!)

I decided I wanted this cake for my birthday this year. The only problem is that it takes so long to make that I didn't want anyone to have to make it for me. So I asked my friend Jenny to help me. I made the lemon curd, she made the cake, I made the frosting, and she frosted and decorated it. It was so delicious! It's so rich and dense though, not like cake mixes. A little sliver of it goes a long way. We didn't finish the cake off for at least a week - and I even fed it to people at my miniature party! We also had cheesecake at the party though, or people might have eaten a bit more of it.

Here's Jenny decorating the cake and also talking on the phone, hah! By the way, the cake was 4 layers.

And here's what it looked like in the end!

Ambler Family Campout

This August we had a little family campout for a "reunion" even though we all live close. It was really fun. I got plenty of pictures of the kids, especially Jonah who was being super silly, but none of the adults except one of Chris. Hahaha.

Elly and Jonah being silly in their tent

Jonah is obsessed with shoes and found one of Elly's

Jake was cool and trying to lasso

This next series of pictures is really funny.... Peter was really liking the cobbler Amy made... didn't like it so much when you stopped feeding it to him!

Jonah got really into the dog cages.

Cute pic of Erica with Peter asleep

Jonah... got tired.

Justin didn't.

Chris came after work so he got there really late and mostly hung out with us in the morning until we left.

Anyway it was super fun! Hope we can do it again next year!

Harry Potter...the last movie

Being a fanatical Harry Potter fan, of course I went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter. Chris and I went to the Scera to see it. I like midnight showings there because everybody's so crazy and excited. Chris didn't get there till almost 11pm because of work but I was there at 9 or so. I made butterbeer for us and we snuck it into the theater. We drank it in our butterbeer mugs from Harry Potter World (in Florida) with dry ice so it was "smoking." Some random girl across the aisle pointed at Chris (who was on the end of our row and highly visible) and said "Look! He's drinking something glorious!" which made me happy inside. The theater workers definitely saw us drinking it and didn't stop us. I think they're a bit lax on Harry Potter midnight showing nights. They probably don't usually let people run around casting spells at each other prior to the movie either. Or have costume contests. Or a countdown. Man, I love Harry Potter and I love Harry Potter fans.

This is the only picture we got that night, and unfortunately it's blurry and you can't even see my Hufflepuff badge. Oh well, I'm sure I'll dress up like this again in my life.

Erica's Endowment

Well, this is from way back in June, but I had the awesome opportunity to escort my sister Erica (my mom also escorted... you can have two!) through the temple for her to receive her endowment. It was a really, really happy day!

Tutoring

So I'm planning to tutor a lot more this year. As part of my plan to get more students, I decided to make a web site. I thought I would share with you my extremely well conceived and excellently drawn page layout concept. Here it is, for your enjoyment.

Update: The web site is up and running!

http://www.heatheramblerwilliams.net/tutor

Chaos

My life is very chaotic at the moment. My kitchen looks like this, kind of, but way more cluttered:

The reason is that our apartment flooded last week and everything got kind of stacked on everything else and as much as possible was moved into the kitchen while the carpets dried. And now it doesn't even matter because we are MOVING!

You see, our apartment has some lovely black mold in the bathroom and we think it is making us sick. I was in the hospital last week... not fun, and Chris gets headaches and stuff. So we're moving out some time within the next week probably. Which is exciting, because I'm pretty sick and I don't think I have the energy to pack boxes or anything. Yay.

Lookin' like Auntie Heather

Everyone in my family knows Elly looks a fair amount like I did as a child... I decided to post some pictures of us looking alike! In case you can't tell, I am on the left in both pictures.

Finally... Bridals

Well, I have been horrible about updating my blog. But finally, here are some of my favorite shots from our bridal/formal session that Amy did for us! We love them :)

Oh yeah, if you want to print any of these let me know, I do have copies without Amy's watermark.

Yard sales

We just wanted to catalogue and remember the great deals we got this weekend at yard sales! We got most of the things we had wanted for our wedding, but didn't get.

Food processor with changeable gladware 5-cup bowls - $20

Shoe rack that we're going to use as a bookshelf - $3, but about $5 after necessary modifications

2 fairly large framed paintings and a smaller duck painting - $8 all together

Bowling shoes for Heather - $3

Paper shredder (works!) - $2

Kitchen trash can with swing top lid - $1

Staple remover and a few cans of food - free

56 servings of food storage good until the year 2034 - $20

Folding card table - $5

2 folding chairs - $1 for both

Castle Grayskull - $3

Pictureka flipper game (new in box) - $1

Outburst - 50 cents

Camping chair with side table and side picket - $3

Germany playing cards - 25 cents

Tupperware cereal dispenser - $1

Super Smash Brothers Melee for gamecube (plays on Wii also) - $5

2 bread pans - 50 cents for both

File keeper with labels for things like rent, bank, bills, medical, etc. - 25 cents

How awesome is that?

In the mean time...milk.

Ok, first of all, I am going to post pictures of the wedding and everything, but right now I drew this cartoon. So here it is.

My husband is lactose intolerant.

Therefore, we have two types of milk in our fridge. For him we have this delicious almond milk, and for me we have regular, boring milk.

I am supposed to drink the regular, boring milk. So most of the time I do.
But...sometimes I rebel and drink his milk. This is, of course, unapproved behavior.
Which is why I can only do it when he isn't around. Muahaha.
Anyway, I'm starting to think I should buy him some more. Or maybe just don't buy regular milk anymore.

The end.