Date Night

Friday night Jeremy and I decided to really have a date night. I mean REALLY.
After a nice dinner (of course we used a coupon), we headed to Maxx Putt Fun Zone (we used yet another coupon). It's located right by our house and we've always wondered about it. The mini-golf is glow-in-the-dark and themed "Around the world in 18 holes." Each hole was a different famous landmark. We got glowing wristbands, putters, and balls all of the same color (I picked green, Jeremy was orange). It was dark, but we tried to take pictures of our fun adventure.

These are where the landmarks' facts are shown.

Egypt

Big Ben!

At the last hole, The Golden Gate Bridge, where Jeremy got a hole-in-one!

In Antarctica.

I'm proud to say I only lost by 2. The mini-golf was fun and educational. What an awesome date night!

'Tis the Season

I can't believe how fast the end of the year is approaching! After my birthday, Halloween and Thanksgiving came and went so quickly.

There's not much to tell about Halloween. We went to the ward party (dressed as nerds) then went home and ran out of candy (our neighborhood is popular apparently). I guess we ate too much of our own candy!

Thanksgiving morning we went to the movie A Christmas Carol in 3D. Although it was a very dark movie (not recommended for kids!), the 3D was absolutely awesome! It really made the movie! I can't wait to go and see more movies in 3D.

For Thanksgiving lunch, we met with the Short side of the family at the Amerjan's. We ate lots of yummy traditional food. My favorite was the mashed potatoes and Lindsey's home-made bread!

After a nice nap, we went to the Brown Thanksgiving festivities at Black Angus. My grandpa wanted to treat us to a nice meal where no one had to stress about cooking. It sure was yummy!

Jeremy and I had the opportunity to go to the Nutcracker on Thanksgiving weekend. Fresno Unified employees got a special ticket price so I jumped on that opportunity. Luckily I have a wonderful husband who is willing to try new things, like going to the ballet!

Here is a picture of us after the show:
Last Friday, Jeremy's company (Decipher) had their Christmas party at Erna's Elderberry House. I believe it is the only 5 Diamond restaurant in the valley. Everyone met at Decipher to load charter buses and we traveled to Oakhurst. We started out with questionable appetizers (Jeremy tried everything of course) and had an interesting 3-course meal. Everything was new to me, but it was all very good. Quite the once-in-a-lifetime-experience!

Here is a picture of us at our table:
We got home very late, so our Saturday was spent lounging around. I can't imagine what kind of Saturday morning was had by the people drinking at the party!

The inside of our house is decorated for Christmas, so hopefully the outside will follow soon. Here is a picture of our Christmas tree:
We hope everyone has a great holiday season!

A Great Brithday Weekend

My 23rd birthday was one week ago. I decided to NOT get a substitute since I heard from other teachers that our principal specifically mentioned not taking birthdays off....I didn't want to get on her bad side my first year teaching....So instead I took Thursday morning off (I teach the PM class) and all day Friday (no students- only home visits).

After a decent work day Wednesday, my family took me out to a yummy Me-N-Ed's birthday dinner. The Shorts had a yummy Sunday birthday dinner a few days before. All in all, I felt very special! But it got even better.

Jeremy and I both got Friday off to make our way to the Bay area. We drove to the Oakland temple (after getting stuck in Atwater trying to find a Subway), and missed the 2:00 session. So we did initiatories instead. It was awesome! It was also my first "first" time. We bought some under things from the Distribution Center, too.

We then made our way across the ridiculously priced toll bridge to San Francisco. As we took in the awesome freeway-view of the city, we were excited about our next few days in a new place.

Our first hotel was near the airport...far from anything downtown. The good news was that the online booking site had a typo and we got the very clean and new hotel room for a whopping $5.50 (including tax). Yeah. And free breakfast. I know.

We were exhausted from all the driving so we napped and then walked down the road to Benihana, a Japanese teppanyaki restaurant. It was my first time experiencing such an event, and I was quite hesitant. Jeremy was great about my negative attitude and helped me order. It was...decent. And very expensive! Jeremy will have to find a friend to go with next time since I'm not much of a fan.

Saturday morning I had to drive 30 minutes to a seminar in Redwood City. It was an informative meeting regarding cochlear implants, free resources online, and a tour of the school where it was located. Afterward I drove back to our hotel to pick up Jeremy (he lounged around) and we headed to downtown.

Google maps can only be so reliable. We got lost in the city and couldn't find our hotel. We charged up our GPS (the tall buildings block the signal a lot) and eventually found the hotel, only to be informed that our room had issues. Turns out there was some sort of woodstock-like event happening and the hotel double booked. They sent us (with a map!) to a motel closer to the warf. AND the hotel paid for the motel! I know! What luck!

We walked to Nick's Crispy Tacos. Yum! Getting lost can be tiring so we relaxed a bit after filling up.

Saturday night we walked down towards Ghirardelli Square and Fisherman's Warf. We browsed the touristy shops and I bought a pearl ring. It was fun and interesting and a lot like other coastal towns. The walk back up to our hotel was tiring and we slept well.

Sunday morning we wanted to go to the Exploratorium but ended up just finishing the rest of the walk from the warf to Pier 39. We decided to drive this time and got lost, yet again, with all the weird one-way-streets. I guess city life just isn't for us, because after a great lunch at Boudin, we were so ready to leave.

Instead of heading back over the ridiculously priced toll bridge, we went south toward San Jose and went to none other than IKEA!!! It was huge and overwhelming but so exciting! We bought some cheap odds and ends, but my favorite purchases were an art easel for my classroom and a rolling laundry rack to hang and dry clothes! Oh, and the chocolate!

We made it home by 5pm and started laundry. It was a great weekend -- full of traffic, food, free hotels, and fun! It sure was hard having to get up for work Monday morning!

Thanks, Jeremy, for such a great birthday weekend! Even though we had stressful situations where we became frustrated with each other, I still knew that you loved and cared for me. You're my best friend and I love you!!!

Flower

For being the first post in many months this sure is boring, I know! This is a flower from my "Hardy Blue Passionflower" plant that I've been growing for about 6 months. It's a beautiful vine with such an interesting flower I thought I would share. Most of my vegetables in the garden have died and are gone but this guy is blooming away! Enjoy

Janice's new blog

I'm creating a new blog for myself. It will be a private blog so please email me or leave a comment with your email address so I can add you. Thanks.

Piano Lessons

Check it out and please help spread the word!
http://pianojan.blogspot.com/

Chicken Fried Rice

It was simple. It was good. It was gone in a matter of minutes.

We used Kikkoman's Gourmet Sauce on the chicken and a fried rice packet, an egg, and some frozen veggies for the rice. Nothing authentic but mighty tasty.
Mmmmm...new recipes are good.

Hangman

Some of the students I subbed for played hangman, and luckily I had my camera. Hilarious.
It says: The *student name* is good for you. I blurred the name, but you get the gist. Kids in Deaf Ed aren't known for their grammar skills. What's with the commas?
I asked him to have another go:
We finally figured out that he was talking about me (THE Jan, not just any Jan) and my "friend" Jeremy (boy)! He wasn't very good at writing down our wrong guesses or remembering to draw the hangman either.
Man, I miss those guys!

Jeremy's Speciality

Jeremy can fix pretty much anything. He is very handy -- computers, coat racks, toilets, you name it, he has the tools and the drive to fix it. He also likes to tweak things, but that's another story.

Jeremy's favorite "tool" to use is the computer. He uses it (mainly the internet) when he needs tips on growing plants, recipes for cooking meals, advice for doing our taxes, etc. So when Christmas time came around, Jeremy used the computer to help him hang up lights.
LITERALLY!
No matter the situation, Jeremy knows a computer can help him out!

Just one of those days...

Did I close the garage door this morning? Did I lock my car when I got to work? What else did I foget to do? Who forgets these things right after they may (or may not) have happened? Apparently, I do! This short-term memory loss was not a good start to my day! I must need to take my vitamins.

Baby Lincoln!

Lindsey Davis, my sister 2 years older than me finally had her baby! Lincoln Wayne Davis born around 9:15pm last night, 9lbs 4oz and 19". He is sooooo adorable!

This is Jared and Lindsey's second child. Lily, the first was born while I was on my mission in Orlando so I didn't get to see my big sister pregnant, in the hospital, or be there right after Lily was born. So this felt like the first for me and boy was I excited. She went in yesterday around 2:30pm to be induced, and it wasn't until around 5 that she got a room and received some patosum (i have no idea what that is or if that's how it's spelled). Lindsey was worried about giving birth this time because the last time was not a pleasant or short experience, she was in labor with Lily (I'm told) for around 14 hours, but Lily was worth it! Lindsey was not excited to have it go so long or so painful again, but luckily it wasn't a repeat at all! Janice and I went to the hospital around 8:30 prepared to wait it out until at least 11-12. We wanted to see that baby! But after waiting only 1 hour Jared came out with amazing news, "HE'S BORN!" He also came out with some stunning video of "Lincoln" soon after birth, being weighed and crying as every newborn out of the womb should! We couldn't wait to go and see him and Lindsey.
After less than an hour of waiting we all got to go in and see them. What surprised me most as we walked into the room wasn't how adorable Lincoln was, I expected that, but how amazing Lindsey looked! When you see people in movies and scrapbooks after giving birth they are normally covered in sweat, their hair strewn about in a greaseball of mess and an anguished loving look on their face. But of all those the only one Lindsey had was the loving look on her face. Her hair was perfect, she was smiling away and looked like she had gone in for a normal doctor's appointment and come out with a baby! What a relief from what she was expecting, I'm sure!

VS

Come on, you be the judge!


The Short, Davis, and Reed families all got a chance to hold little "dewbie" as was his nickname in the womb and it was so great! He was a very solid little baby, pretty heavy for his height it seems. He had dark hair and quite a bit. I couldn't really tell who's facial features he had, some said he looked a lot like Lily, but others weren't really sure.



Janice and I were SOOOOO happy we went to the hospital to be there for the experience, we both decided that it was the best way we could have ever spent the night. It was definitely one of the coolest experiences I've ever had and I'm so happy for them.

The January Update

Apparently our blog has turned into monthly updates. Where did all the free time go? I guess that's what happens when you grow up and get a full-time job. Who knew?

So the last blog was a video of our wedding to celebrate our first anniversary. The one before that was an end of November / beginning of December update. I bet everyone is dying to know what happened to us over Christmas and New Years. I shall oblige...somewhat. It's been a while.

We had our first Christmas this year. On Christmas Eve we went to Jeremy's grandparent's house (the Reeds) in Sanger. We enjoyed some great soup, yummy Swedish snowballs, and an awesome game of turkey leg dominoes (of course, I won!). We opened presents. The Reeds got us a food storage starter kit and a 72-hour emergency backpack kit. Awesome! We then went to the Shorts' home to spend the night. Christmas morning we got some cool presents from the Shorts -- Jeremy got lots of tools and fun things that he's been hoping for. I got a cute sweater and a black giraffe purse! Our stockings had great stuff, too!

Then we were at the Brown home on Christmas morning. Breakfast included muffins and danishes at around 10am. But right after that my half siblings came over for lunch at 11am! So we had both breakfast and lunch within 2 hours. Now that's a feast! Now to the presents. I love presents. I got a brown giraffe purse, wallet, blanket, plate, and pillow (my new obsession, I guess), brown Sketcher boots, footsie pj's, a watch, some clothes, a Disneyland sweatshirt (we're going in the spring!), and season passes to Magic Mountain! Jeremy got some shirts, slippers, a Grumpy sweatshirt (for our Disneyland trip), and goodies in his stocking.

We then went home to exchange our own gifts for each other. Jeremy got me a new car stereo so now I can play MP3's! I gave Jeremy a new Fossil watch, snowboarding boots, and shoes. We're kinda boring but that's what we wanted! After a nap we caught a movie with my family. Bedtime Stories was a cute one.

Christmas night all my extended family gathered at Retired Teachers for our holiday party. Rob, Danno, and I met early to practice our "band." I think it turned out well. Rob played bass, Danno played mandolin, and I played piano. The party included the music, some good Mexican food, a white-elephant type game, and a gift exchange. It was a blast to have all of the family together again!

On New Years Eve (and to "celebrate" our anniversary), Rob, Cody, Jeremy and I went to Magic Mountain! The lines were long at first but by the evening, everyone else in the park was ready to party instead of go on the rides. The weather was great and we got to go on pretty much everything. We were all exhausted and some of us felt pretty sick but we still had a great time! Of course, X2 broke down right when we were about to get on it the second time, but it turns out that Tatsu is an awesome ride with a lot smaller line. I think we went on it 3 times or so! Then we rang in the New Year with a few fireworks and tons of strangers. Thankfully we got a cheap but very nice hotel room so we could sleep and leave the next day (we also went back after dinnertime to take a nap before going on 6 more hours of rides). What a long and tiring day! We love spending time with Rob and Cody and we can't wait to go again soon! Hopefully Dan and Kham can come with us next time (they got season passes, too).

After the New Year we just enjoyed what was left of our vacation. Going back to work was pretty hard, and still is, but that's how it goes! Jeremy has moved to a different team in his company so he works with a new group of people focusing on a specific client. I am back at Garfield till February 10th. I will miss my students and will really miss having a steady subbing job.