Jon Schmidt Christmas Concert

For as long as I can remember, I have loved the music of Jon Schmidt. He does new age piano music, and he's hillarious to watch! I've seen him in concert probably 8 times now, and loved it every time. We found out in Early November that he was coming to Rexburg this weekend for his annual Christmas concert, but tickets were $10 a piece, and we decided that it was too much money to spend. But yesterday as we were working on our house, we got a phone call from our friend Logan Owen, who knows that I like Jon Schmidt. He had tickets to the show but was unable to attend, so he offered the tickets to us for free! What a blessing! We were able to go to the show and laugh all night long as we were entertained with wonderful music, crazy antics, and yes, he really does play songs while on his back....and with his feet....and with his arms.....and he even did a back flip off the stage. If you ever get the chance to see him perform, I'd encourage you to jump at the chance. Check out his website (www.jonschmidt.com) to watch video of his concerts, listen to songs, etc. You'll be glad you did.

Black Friday....

I realize it's not really friday anymore, but I've finally caught up on my sleep enough to write again! We spent Thanksgiving up in Mackay with my grandpa Lambert and my Aunt LaRue and Uncle John and family. It was a wonderful day, full of laughter, surprises, and all kinds of games (including trivial Pursuit, Bunco, Apples to Apples, and the Wii). We got back to mom and dad's about 7 pm and started making our "battle plan." We are die hard Black Friday shoppers, and it's our tradition thanksgiving night to decide who's going where, for what, and when. We finally got to bed around 11 pm, just in time to catch a few hours of sleep before getting up at 2:45 am to go shopping. William and I were at Shopko by 3:30 and waited in line until 5 when they opened. We were finished there by 5:15 and head to Target, where we waited in line at Target until they opened at 6. It only took us until 6:12 to be finished there. Then it was on to Walgreens (which was already open but the sale didn't start until 7, so I took the opportunity to sit back in the pharmacy in one of their shiatzu massage chairs until 7 - what a blessing!) Then it was on to hastings and finally on to breakfast. Every year as I'm standing in line, freezing and tired, I wonder why I go shopping and I tell William that "next year we're sleeping in". But every year finds me standing in line at unlawful hours just to save a little money. I need to work on my long term memory! It was fun, though, and I'm sure I'll be there again next year!

Happy Plants

I love plants, but plants didn't like our last apartment. I had an african Violet for 2 years and it never bloomed. Grandma Danielson kept telling me "more food, more light." But it still didn't bloom. But since we moved back in September, all of my plants are much happier. Like my african violet, pictured above, that has gone crazy with blooms, and my shamrock that has at least quadrupled in size. I guess that you could say "happy plants make a happy kylie."

learning the hard way

We learned an interesting lesson yesterday while building our house. Our group has always prided itself on how fast we work and how quickly we are getting our houses done. We learned yesterday that just because something is done fast doesn't mean it is done right. We spent ALL DAY yesterday fixing mistakes that had been made on our houses because we did things the fast way, not the right way. Our foreman had told us from the begining that when we are doing walls, we need to put in the studs, make sure it's "square" and then sheet it so that it stays square when we stand it. We did that on the first house, but on the next several, they decided to stand the walls without sheeting because it was "faster to put the sheeting on afterwards." So we resquared walls all day yesterday. It would have taken mere moments longer, perhaps, to sheet the walls before we stood them, and maybe it would have taken a little more muscle to stand the walls. but it wouldn't have taken the hours and effort that it took us yesterday to fix our mistakes.
On a lighter note, We ate dinner last night with William's mom and dad and family, and the missionaries were there as well. I was touched by the comment of one of the missionaries as he gave the lesson. He shared the scripture in 3 Nephi 5:12-13 where it says,

" 12 And behold, I am called Mormon, being called after the ^bland of Mormon, the land in which Alma did establish the church among the people, yea, the first church which was established among them after their transgression.

13 Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been ^acalled of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life."

The Elder then asked us to think about how we would leave our introduction for people to remember us by. Would I say, "I am Kylie, being called by my grandmother, and I am a nurse and have been blessed by the best husband in the world?" or would I say "I am Kylie, and I am a disciple of Jesus Christ." I would hope for the latter. It inspired me to think more about who I am and the kind of person I want people to remember me as.

raising the bar...i mean the garage

I finally got a video of work being done on our house instead of still pictures afterwards. So I thought I'd include it. I told William that I had a video and his only comment was, "you mean you let me do all the work and didn't help?" I thought my purpose was best served with the camera. I wouldn't want William to feel wimpy or anything.

We have walls!!!

Our house finally has walls! Ok, so it's had walls for a few days, but it's still exciting. It's great to see such rapid progress on something that took FOREVER to get started. We have to finish the garage still, then we'll be ready for trusses and roofing. I just hope it doesn't snow before we get everything closed in. William and I didn't get to help with exterior walls because we were out of town at a funeral the saturday they were done, but we did the layout for the interior walls by ourselves. It's amazing how much faster the work goes now that we have power at our jobsite (verses a generator) and since we can use nail guns instead of hammers and muscle. We're always looking for volunteers (as long as they're at least 16 years old) to help us....we work every saturday from 8-4 and several times througout the week. (gotta get our 30 hours in somehow!) So if you're ever interested, let us know - i'll let you borrow my tool belt.