March 31, 2009 by Marlene.

So Stephen and I aren’t really up with the anniversary thing but one day we realized that it had been almost 6 months since we first got together. We thought it’s a good first anniversary to celebrate.
That day I took(and most likely bombed) a Biology test and came home to find Stephen got me a beautiful bouquet. We went to the temple and spent quite a bit of time there since we had to wait for a couple wards to go through. It was a wonderful time to do baptisms together. Soon Stephen and I will be able to do endowment sessions and work much more.
After my roommates took me out to ice cream Stephen and I went to Olive Garden. We were talking away waiting for our food while the waiters kept apologizing for the wait. We didn’t realize why until they offered us free dessert- we calculated and realized it took about 45 min to get our food. Meh. We didn’t mind at all. Who am I to pass up free awesome fudge-brownie-cake-thing dessert? (Stephen got chocolate gelato p.s, mine was better)

To top off the evening we watched Twilight on the computer. It was…Twilighty.
All in all it was a wonderful day to celebrate 6 months together.

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March 31, 2009 by Mallory.

Last summer, I did a huge marathon of reading all the Harry Potter books. It was amazing and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Harry Potter books. Well, Wendell hadn’t read them, so I told him, “You HAVE to read them!!! They are so good!!!” So he read the first book and liked it. Then he started reading the second one and it was taking him quite a long time with being in school and all. By the time he got about half way through, it was Christmas break and we were going to drive to Connecticut. So we decided to get the books on tape from the library so that we could listen to them on our LONG drive. Then Wendell realized that he could get through them much faster when he listened to them versus reading them. (It’s easier to walk while listening to an iPod rather than reading a book.) So we ended up just listening to the rest on tape instead of reading them. I have actually enjoyed this very much because I have been able to listen to them again with him, and I still enjoy every second of it. These are by far my favorite books and I could read them over and over and over again. I believe that J.K. Rowling deserves every single penny of that millions and millions she got from these books. She is a genius. So, if you have never read them, and the length of the books intimidates you, get the books on tape! Jim Dale does the voice (the voice from Pushing Daisies) and he does an EXCELLENT job. He even won a Grammy for it. I highly recommend it! We just finished listening to the last book, and Wendell agrees that they are very excellent. Now that we’re done, we’re like, “Now what??” Maybe we’ll just have to listen to them again! No, just kidding. We’ll probably start listening to Chronicles of Narnia now (I just finished reading those as well.) We’ll see! If you have any recommendations of good books on tape that Wendell and I can listen to, just let me know!

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March 28, 2009 by Mallory.

So as many of you know, I’ve been trying to lose weight. Lately, I’ve gotten several different types of exercise equipment/videos so that I can have different choices and I won’t get too sick of exercising. I’ve been trying to get better at exercising, since just eating right isn’t cutting it anymore. I started a Zumba class and I go twice a week. I also try to exercise twice a week at home as well, so in total, I would exercise 4 times a week (and maybe eventually I can bring it up to 5 or 6 times). I increased my exercise video collection by 8 videos this past month. Since the heaviest I’ve been, I’ve lost 20 pounds, but I haven’t really been able to get past that number. (Except last week, I got up to 22 pounds, but then I got back to 20 pounds. I don’t really know how, because I’ve been doing things right). I’ve been getting quite frustrated because I STILL can’t get past that number, but I decided to measure myself again today (I measured myself a while ago to see how I am progressing), and I’ve lost 2 inches in each thigh, 1 inch in each arm, 3 inches on my hips, 1 inch in my chest (hopefully it’s actually in my BACK and not in my chest), and I can’t figure out my waist because every time I measure my waist, it’s a different number. (I can’t get it in the exact same spot every time). So it’s good to see that I’m losing some inches, even if I’m not losing much weight. Hopefully the weight will catch up though. I guess lately I’ve just been so caught up with the weight numbers that I’ve been getting so frustrated, but I need to get back to that mentality that it’s not all about the weight. I’ve actually been starting to notice me looking a little leaner (I’m not sure anyone else would notice), but as long as I keep working, I’ll meet my goal. I know I will. I’m still determined, and I will get there.

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March 27, 2009 by Mallory.

So we watched the Memphis game last night against Missouri….yeah…We were just on an off day or something and Missouri had a really good on day. We lost by 11 points. Oh…and I also learned that the 8 level is the elite 8. haha….yeah didn’t know that. Anyway, I guess now I can root for Uconn.

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March 26, 2009 by Mallory.

Last month, there was a really bad ice storm that hit the midsouth. One thing about living here in the Midsouth is that we get a lot of opportunities to serve and to help out with disaster reliefs. With this ice storm, there were tons of trees that fell down and people were out of power for 2 weeks because of this. (This was in Arkansas. It didn’t hit us nearly as badly.) Last weekend, we had the opportunity to go to Jonesboro, AR and help get trees and big limbs that fell down. It was a good experience. We were all exhausted and tired, but we could see how much we really helped these people. Many of them said that they didn’t know what they were going to do, but then we came and helped them. It is great to be in an area where we have so many opportunities to help out. Hopefully we will be able to serve others more when we leave Mjemphis instead of just when something serious happens.

A little update: Wendell just barely took the boards. He felt ok about it, but being the little worry-wart that he is, he constantly thinks that maybe he didn’t pass. I’m sure that he did fine though. He studied very hard and worked very hard as well. He says that studying didn’t help as much as he thought it would, but I’m still sure (and hoping) he did fine. I am still teaching 3rd grade, but I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel (for the school year at least). Only 45 school days left. It still seems like a long time, but there’s only 15 school days until TCAP (the big state No Child Left Behind test). Hopefully my kids will do alright. I always get nervous. Hopefully they’ll be alright. I really don’t know though because I have several low children. It’ll be alright though. I have faith in them. Things are going great here in Memphis. With March Madness, the Memphis Tigers are doing great and they play again tonight to reach the next level after sweet 16 (why don’t they have a name for the 8? They have sweet 16 and final 4…what about 8?) Anyway, we’re cheering them on! Our hearts really lie with BYU, but they never get past the first round, so we might as well cheer for a team that actually has a chance! Memphis reached the championship game last year, but totally messed up in the free-throws and lost it. Hopefully they’ll take it home this time! GOOOO TIGERS!!!! So things are good! Until next time!

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March 13, 2009 by Marlene.

So many of you know that I am kinda way into plants. The beginning of Fall semester I discovered a tomato had gone bad and the seeds were germinating inside- so do I throw it out? Not yet no sir. I picked out all the germinated seeds out of one and planted them in plastic cups I drilled holes in. They grew like crazy but over time I weeded out the smaller ones as others got bigger and stronger. I only had so much room on the windowsill after all. They got between 1-2feet tall and I started getting flowers so I pollinated the flowers between my plants and basically took quite good care of them.
After a long period of waiting I got tomatoes and one ripened to a beautiful red. I waited for the opportune time to finally eat my first tomato. I shared with Stephen but he doesn’t really like tomatoes so I just gave him a sliver while I indulged in the best tomato I’ve had since I worked on the organic farm in CT.
OH MY GOSH it was so good. Unfortunately it was closer to the size of a cherry tomato but you can’t expect much more when you grow it out of a plastic cup. My second tomato is finally ripening so now I only have to wait for the last two tomatoes to be done before I can retire the plants.
I’m kinda proud of myself, not going to lie.
My roommates joke that I can grow anything that photosynthesizes. I wish.

Anyone want some retired plants? they’d do fantastic in a garden….

~Marlene

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March 12, 2009 by Melanee.

I traveled to New Jersey to see Leah, Ed, Anya and Kevin last weekend. Saturday morning at 7:30 am-bright and early to beat all the New York and New Jersey traffic. The drive went smoothly-hardly any traffic. My confidence is up now that I have had to do lots of things that I thought I would never do like drive myself on Saw Mill River Parkway then over the Tappen Zee- all the tolls-and cars that zip past you. I tried to stay at 65-75 miles per hour. Yeah okay sometimes I went 80. My car rides really well and I didn’t notice as I was keeping up with the traffic.
Leah moved into a house they plan on buying in a few months. So cute. It has lots of room for their family and really good floor plan. The only thing they lack is an extra room for grandma. I slept in Kevin’s room. I loved being with Anya and Kevin. We played outside and in the screened in porch. It was 70 degrees out. We cuddled on the couch and had a short nap. That evening I helped Leah move about 10-12 boxes to the basement and put things away. Their living room is filled with boxes. Sunday morning I made Mickey Mouse pancakes. They were devoured. Leah was coming down with a cold, so I let her rest while I took care of the kids and cleaned up as much as I could. That’s what grandmas are for.
I had to leave at 4 pm to make the 3 1/2 hour trip home.
The trip? Really not that bad. I am so glad I went. I miss them already.

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March 8, 2009 by Ashley.

This past Valentine’s Day Pat and I were invited by a couple (Eliza and Bryan) in our ward to their house for a Fondue dinner. Pat and I are both not very social and usually keep to ourselves. I always thought it’d be fun to have friends, but we didn’t want to put a lot of effort in to making friends and I’ve always thought friendship should be something that comes naturally and not have to take a ton of effort. So anyways, we were excited to have them make the first move and invite us over.

It was a 3 course dinner: first being bread and/or apples we’d dip in a cheese fondue. I really like this course because I LOVE cheese :). Then came the main course where we had raw chicken and beef and a variety of veggies that we’d dip in a boiling broth to cook and then there were various dips to eat with them. Our contribution was the dessert fondue. You melt chocolate in the fondue pot. We brought different things that we thought would be good dipped in chocolate: pretzels, mini marshmallows, pineapple, bananas, and strawberries. Usually I’m not the most creative person, but I thought of something else I could bring for dessert. What I did was make tiny chocolate chip cookies, but without the chocolate chips. And then when you dip it in the chocolate fondue… you have your complete chocolate chip cookie! They were a big success and I’m quite proud of myself for thinking of the idea

Since then we’ve spent pretty much every weekend hanging with Eliza and Bryan. It’s great because they’re about our age and have a 2 year old and a 6 month old. So the babies play together and we swap stories about kids. It’s so nice to have friends that we feel comfortable with. It’s been hard for Pat because he’s not a big sports fan at all which alienates him from pretty much every guy he knows (he never wants to “watch the game” or talk about who he’s rooting for for March madness). And it just so happens Bryan isn’t big into sports either. Just last weekend Bryan showed off his remote control airplane that Pat enjoyed maneuvering around the livingroom. Now Bryan has some good competition at Mario Cart on the Wii and Pat likes getting the opportunity to play the Wii.

Here’s Pat at Bryan and Eliza’s house around the fondue pot. This one is the broth that you cook meat and veggies in with various dips around it.

Lydia playing with their little boy, Weston. He’s 2 months younger yet they’re both the same size!

This is the park right by our house. We took a walk there one day and had Lydia ride the swings for the first time. She loved it.

Taking turns pushing Lydia on the swing.
Click here for movie–> dscn2398_small.MOV
Click here for movie –> dscn2399_small.MOV
Lydia in the high chair we got for her off craigslist. (I’m a giant craigslist fan)

On other news, we had stake conference today. And this year we actually got to sit the in the pews which was wonderful! (Not a fan of the metal folding chairs for 2 hrs). This was mostly to do with Bryan and Eliza. They’re such a good influence on us. Bryan is the choir director in our ward and was a participant in the stake choir. Our choirs needed people more people to join and for stake conference it was only 3 practices in the afternoon which was doable and Pat and I can carry a tune so I felt we should help out. Then I found out the choir had to sit on the stand for the entire meeting. I didn’t feel comfortable making Eliza sit with 2 babies for 2 hrs Pat and Bryan sang in the choir while Eliza and I watched the babies. (It turns out they sang really early in the meeting an then got to sit with the congregation afterwords so I probably could’ve sang too, but we didn’t know that at the time). We had to go 45 min early for practice (which is why we got the pews). And I’m so proud that Pat sang in the choir - and for his first performance to be at Stake Conference. Apparently he can only participate in choir with Bryan because he just sings with whoever is around him, whether it be bass, alto, or soprano and so he needs Bryan there so he can follow his singing.

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March 7, 2009 by Mallory.

So today is Wendell’s birthday. We got him a suit since the last one he has is from his mission (and he turned 29 today)….so yeah, he was in desperate need of a suit. Anyway, we had a good day. I got up early (which is BIG for me on a Saturday) and made him breakfast (bbq chicken omelet with hashbrowns, bacon, and toast). Then I had to go and help clean someone house where her daughter has cancer. Then I came back and we cleaned like crazy to have some people over. At 6:00 we had people come over for hot dogs, cookies, brownies, and ice cream. Then we played a very fun game of Taboo. It’s been a good day, and now he’s talking to his family. Birthdays are such a joyous time of year! (No matter how old you are!) I love birthdays. Happy birthday Wendell!!!

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