New Rockers in Town

Last night we played some Rockband. We left out all the stuff and when we woke up this morning this is what we found.



Looks like we've got some competition.

Yes, we are nerds. Rog will probably kill me for posting this. Oh well.

Countdown to Christmas Blocks

Our Relief Society has a blog, so I am posting the directions for our craft nights over there now. For November we made Countdown to Christmas Blocks. If you would like to see the tutorial click here.

Thankful

Last night for FHE we made thankful turkies and a Phillips Family Top 10 Thankful List. We have so much to be thankful for - our marriage, the gospel, our wonderful family and friends, our little apartment that has truly become our home for the 2 1/2 years we have been married, and so much more.

This morning I woke up and remembered this picture from quite a few Thanksgivings ago. I think it is from 2002, but it could be 2003.

Today I am thankful for my little sister. We have our disagreements like most sisters do, but I'm so glad that she is my little sister. I can't believe she won't be here to fall asleep on after Thanksgiving dinner this year! I'll miss you Smelly!

Football and New Moon

Yesterday we played Air Force and I did something that is very uncharacteristic of a Chief. I left at halftime. I know, gasp!



I left to go with Emily and all the girls in her family to see New Moon. I didn't have any plans to see New Moon, so when Emily asked if I wanted to go, I jumped at the chance. I figured it would save my cute Rog the agony of having to go with me to see it and I wasn't too worried about the outcome of the game (we beat them 38-21 and that was with 2 of our touchdowns being called back - BOO). Of course if it would have been the Utah game next week, it would have been a completely different story! - I could never miss the Utah game for ANYTHING!

I liked New Moon a lot better than Twilight. The quality was obviously better due to a much larger budget. New Moon was my favorite book because of how the writing made me completely feel Bella's pain. Although the movie tried, it just didn't bring me to tears like the book did. And it bugged me a lot that the werewolves were MUCH better looking than the vampires. I mean, come on. The vampires are supposed to be drop dead gorgeous, right?! So yeah, that's all I'm going to say about that. I didn't LOVE it, but I did like it.

After the movie we went to Sweet Tomatoes. Mmm, so good! Emily's dad and brother-in-law joined us with Emily's niece, Molly. Cutest little girl EVER! And if you met her, I'm sure you would agree.

It was fun to have a girl's night out! Thanks for letting me tag along Galbraiths!

Public Display of Christmas

I have always been a firm believer that you shouldn't decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. I'm not a scrooge, I just think that Thanksgiving deserves its turn too. I am totally fine with other people decorating whenever they feel like it as long as they keep it inside where I don't have to see it.

Two things bug me more than anything else.

1. Houses with Christmas lights on outside before Thanksgiving.

2. Radio stations playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving.

The other day I was driving home from work a different way than I normally do and I saw a house with its Christmas lights on. For a moment I had a small urge to go unscrew one of their lights, so that the whole string would turn off. I know, I'm pure evil.

Of the six radio presets in my car I really only listen to four of them most of the time. The other two are country which I used to like a lot, but not so much now. Two of my presets are 100.3 and 106.5. Call me a grandma, but they really do play good music sometimes. Well right now these two particular stations are proudly playing Christmas music ALL THE TIME which of course leaves me with only two stations to listen to. I wouldn't mind if they played an occasional Christmas song, but all the time, really?

In one week I will be ready for Christmas, but until then I will turn into a scrooge every time I see a public display of Christmas!

Disclaimer: Please don't hate me. I really do like Christmas, I promise! And I promise I don't hate people who decorate earlier than I think is appropriate. This is just my opinion on the matter.

My brother, the Eagle Scout

So I guess I've kind of been in a blogging funk lately, but I think I figured out why... I have been going swimming for my exercise lately (the cold deters me from running). You may wonder, how are running and blogging related? Well, I will tell you my friends. When I run I think of things I could blog about, but when I swim I don't. I figured this out this morning while I was running for the first time in a week and the whole time I was thinking about what I should blog about. Weird.

Anyway, on to the reason for this post... my cute little monkey brother Jared! (I guess he's really not that little anymore seeing as how he is now taller than Rog, but he'll always be my little brother.) This last weekend Jared became an Eagle Scout!! He's been done with most of his stuff for awhile now, but he finally finished up his paperwork and met with whoever you have to meet with and this last Friday he had his Eagle Scout Court of Honor. We couldn't go down for it because Roger's family was here in Provo planning his sister's wedding, but I am sooooooooooo proud of him!

Camping and all that scouting stuff really isn't his thing. He's more into computers. So in my mind that makes this achievement even more impressive. Way to go Monkey!

Here are some pictures my mom sent me from the Court of Honor.

Congratulations Jared! I love you!

Technical Difficulties

I don't know why my other picture wouldn't let you click on it to enlarge it. So here it is again. Enjoy.

A GREAT Saturday

Sleep in until 9:00
Go for a nice run in the autumn leaves
Go with my SIL McKae to pick up her wedding dress
Watch BYU squash WYO 52-0
Watch You've Got Mail while crafting this beauty



Try Domino's Pasta Bowls for the first time (They were absolutely amazing!)



Go to the SYTYCD Tour with Ashleigh



Yeah, it was a pretty great Saturday! Well for me anyway. Rog had to study ALL day, so it wasn't so great for him!

It finally came!

I've been waiting very impatiently for this to arrive.

So glad it's finally here!

(I'm not the insanely spiritual type, but I've got a goal to accomplish.)

Proud to be an American

Yesterday was Election Day. And yes, I absolutely voted! I love voting.... It just makes me so proud to be an American.

Election Day is even better when the candidate you voted for wins. Someday I hope to be an educated voter. This year I would say I was semi-educated, but only on the Provo Mayor race. I voted for John Curtis and he won!! I am confident that he will be a good mayor.

Yearly Reviews

At work we just had our yearly reviews. I think this quote from our payroll manager sums it all up. "On a scale of 1-5 you're a 3. But don't worry, on my scale, a 3 is a really good score." We were told that 60-70% of all employees would be 3s. Only the really really amazing employees would get 4s or 5s. In accounting they were really strict about this. I don't think anyone got above a 3 on the overall rating. I ended up getting one 4 and five 3s with an overall rating of a 3, so I really felt pretty good about it.

Roger didn't get a formal review because he was leaving, but his manager told him that if he would have had a formal review, he would have got a high 4 or a 5 overall. Clearly it's a good thing that he is the one that will be providing for our family soon. We wouldn't want a 3 taking care of that! But I do have to wonder if the people he worked with had anything to do with his rating. I'm not saying he isn't an amazing employee because I'm sure he is, but could it be that he looks amazing compared to the other warehouse workers? And I just look normal compared to the other accountants? Well, I'm sure that the comparison didn't hurt him.

In other APX news, I got a new 22-inch monitor for my computer! When we got a new staff accountant 3 months ago, they set him up with the 22-inch monitor right away. While they were doing it they told us that they would be upgrading us soon. Well, on Monday we were talking about how Bryce has been here 3 months and we were still using our tiny monitors. So I emailed desktop support and after some kicking and screaming (our IT department tends to be Nazis) they gave in and got us the bigger monitors. Clearly they just had the bigger monitors sitting around because they were covered in dust, so why not let us use them? I know I'm a nerd, but it really made my day! Now I can see so much more of my spreadsheets without having to scroll over. Booyah!

Roger is liking his new job. Obviously as with any job there is a learning curve, so I'm sure he'll only be liking it more as time goes on. His search for a full-time job when he graduates is going, but slowly. The companies he has been interviewing with aren't in any rush to get back to him because he doesn't graduate until April. He has a second interview with 3M this week. Yeah, 3M. You know the company that makes post-it notes and about a million other things we use everyday. Hopefully that will go well!

A Ghoulish Halloween!

To celebrate Halloween we had a party with the Pughs. Rog was a scarecrow and I was a ladybug.



We had a ghoulish dinner complete with blood and worm punch, spiderweb dip, spiderweb pizza, and spider beadsticks. We also decorated sugar cookies and watched Garfield's Halloween Adventure and Clue.



We even had a few trick-or-treaters stop by! It was a great night! Thanks Pughs!!