The adventures of Indiana John and his intrepid sidekick Carolyn

Alternate title: The day we took the train, trax, and a bus.

So yesterday we decided to go down to Salt Lake and do a dry run of John's commute, to be sure he makes all his connections and figure out just how long it will take so he won't be late on his first day. So we left around 9:15... ~~~dissolve from shot of narration to scene of parking the car~~~
The adventurers grabed their bag and headed out for the large building near the buses. "Hi we'd like to buy tickets to the Frontrunner (the commuter train), can we do that here?"
The woman, slightly overdressed for the occasion, looked up from her papers, "Tickets are purchased from the machine at the platform." She gestured slightly in the vauge direction we had come from.
The train pulled up just as we arrived at the ticket machine, "Hurry John, they only stay at each stop for a few minutes." Quickly navigating the touch screen the heros were briefly stalled by the credit card swipper machine, which lacked any instructions about which way to face the card in the slot. At last the tickets were printed out and they were on to the platform. Pushing the "open door" button, we made ready to board quickly, but nothing happened.
"Maybe they aren't letting anyone else on 'cuz they're about to leave," John hypothosized. That would mean a 30 minute wait until the next train! "Wait!" called Carolyn, "the button isn't green but the one on that door is." Zipping over to the next door, John pushed the button and the door opened. The explorers climbed aboard and quickly secured window seats at a table.
The train pulled smoothly from the station and our heros read and played DS all the way to SaltLake without interuption.
Disembarking at the end of the line, we made our way to the Trax platform. (The street car trains) "Which trax line do we want, Sandy or University?" John queried. Consulting her growing selection of maps, Carolyn replied, "We can take either and then transfer to the university line to get to our bus stop." Just then the Sandy line pulled up and we boarded.
We transfered lines and got to our stop without complications. "Our bus stop is just down this block," Carolyn said setting off. But on our arrival our route number was no where to be found on the sign. "Well lets go to the other stop," John suggested. Back tracking and proceeding North, the adventurers spotted thier stop just past a McDonalds, pausing to consider the rumbling in their stomachs they decided a brief detour was in order.
Following lunch (which aside from the uncarbonated soda, was quite good) we made our way to the stop. Unable to locate a schedule, Carolyn called the posted phone number. "Can you tell me when the next bus is for route ..." John looked over their maps while he waited. "... I see, thank you."
Carolyn explained that the 307 was an express bus that only runs for a few hours in the mornings and evenings. But only carried passengers one way, into SLC in the mornig and out of SLC in the evenings. The exact opposite of the way they needed to travel!
Thier spirits undampened, the intrepid travelers consulted thier maps. They soon discovered another bus that would take them close to their destination. Setting off at a brisk pace we were soon riding the Trax again. "Now we just transfer to the Sandy line and we'll be at our bus stop in no time," Carolyn said confidently.
Getting off the university line they didn't wait long before a South boundtrax came along. We climbed aboard settled in and began working a Sudoku puzzle, since it would be a bit of a ride. After several stops Carolyn looked up in confusion, what were they doing at the Stadium? The Stadium was on the University line. Realizing the error we quickly got off and took the next Trax downtown. Arriving at the stop to change lines our heros paid very close attention to the arrivng trax trains before boarding again.
Spirits slightly dampened and in need of a snack, we settled in to ride to our stop. John whipped out the DS saying, "I need to kill something."
Many stops later we disembarked only to discover a 20 minute wait for our bus. Taking advantage of the cold we snuggled together while getting an update from my Mom, on how Little John was doing. Advising her of our circumstances so far we let her know not to expect us any time soon.
Soon the bus arrived and an uneventful 25 minutes later we were walking away from our stop. As far as we could tell from the bus map we were 2 blocks up and 2 blocks over from our destination, so we set off on foot eager to conclude our journey. However, it was not to be.
After 45 minutes of steady treking up and down steep, snow covered sidewalks we straggled into an Artic Circle in desperate need of a bathroom break and a pick me up. Over a hot fudge sundae, some chicken nuggets, and a soda (carbonated this time), we reevaluated our prospects.
Deciding to take a differnt route to the bus stop we stopped into the Smith's for some provisions before setting out. While at the store Carolyn decided to return a phone call she had missed, from her brother Rick.
Finishing at the checkout John asked how the call went. "Great!" Carolyn replied, "He's racing us to the bus stop and will drop us off at the trax station!" With renewed hope and energy we set out on our new route. Looking at the very small and unlabeled bus map, we had selected a more circtous path to the bus stop in the hopes that it would be more level.
After trudging through the snow in a mostly northern direction we came across a friendly mail delivery person. He pointed out on our miniscule map were we were and which way we needed to go next. Follwing his directions west at the T-interesction were were able to navigate the rest of the way to Fort Union Blvd ourselves, without further incident.
Just as we got there Rick arrived and we were soon zooming along the freeway. Rick decided to use this excuse to drive into Salt Lake (he picked us up in Cottonwood Heights) as a chance to visit his favorite German deli. We tagged along since it was right by the Trax and he bought a kinder egg for Little John. Soon we were hugging him goodbye and on the Trax back to the Frontrunner station. Once on the train we broke out the supplies and relaxed for the ride home. John struck up an interesting conversation with a fellow passenger who turned out to be an industrial engineer for the government. Before long we were back at the car and driving the last little bit home. ~~~dissolve back to narrator~~~
So we decided that John will drive the car to work at least for the first couple days. And incase anyone was worried we don't have any blisters from all that walking in damp boots.

Beautifulness, hooray!

So I finally figured out how to give my blog beautifulness! I have been trying for like a month to use this fabulous design I made in word, for my background. But with John's help (nad him having lots of patience with me) I finally have my beautifulness. John is a great IT guy! I just need to have more patience and then he wouldn't have such a hard time helping me.
So I did my background in jewel tones because I love the rich colors, but then I had to use light colors for all my fonts, so if you have trouble reading it please tell me and I will adjust the colors lighter or darker or change the font size. Because there is no point in giving my blog beautifulness if no reads it. I love making spiffy art type things on the computer so if you want your blog to have custom beautifulness, just tell me what kind of colors/layout/shapes you want. But if lots of people ask me at the same time it will take me a while to get them done, so first come first served. Hmmm... I have so much fun making them I wonder if I can sell them on my Etsy shop... hmmm...

John got a Job!

So we got the best present for Christmas! John got a job! He interviewed last week and they loved him. He says his knowledge of Revit (an engineering program) is what hooked their intrest. The company is in Salt Lake City (cottonwood heights really) so he is going to take the commuter train and then a bus for the last little bit. The train doesn't come all the way to Brigham yet but the nearest station is only 15-20 minutes away (depending on traffic and weather). (To all the Phonecians- the trains and street cars system here is way better done than the "PHART" and is a reasonable way to get around) The commute will take about an hour all together, but since he doesn't have to do any of the driving he's excited to read or stuff (the train has wi-fi but we Ebayed the laptop). The company that hired him is called River consulting http://www.riverconsulting.com/ and they do big industrial buildings mostly out of concrete. He is so excited because he gets to do plates and shells analysis (figuring out if concrete ceilings will crack (plates) or concrete domes will collapse (shells)), which he learned to do in collage but didn't get to use at his other job. He starts on Jan. 5th and we're going to do a dry run of the commute before then to be sure he won't be late. He says he'll be the bottom man on the totem pole (well they hired 6 bottom men), but he thinks thats good because then he has room to work up. Even though he's bottom ranked, he still gets his nice benifits: health, dental, and eyes. And this might be what I'm most excited about, because we haven't had any real health problems (colds, ear infections), but the worry that something could go wrong and we don't have health insurance (especially for Little John) has been eating away at me. But no more worries! So Merry Christmas to everybody and ours will deffinatly be a happy one!
PS. please pass this info on to anyone who knows us- that John now has a job and thank you everyone for your prayers.

Mamma Mia!

So we watched Mamma Mia today and this is the most hysterically funny movie I've ever seen. The sound track is all Abba songs, the plot is amazingly twisted. It sounded like it might be a chick flick but John loves it and my anti-musicals teenage brother loves it too! I am totally amazed about that. And even though the guys like it this is the perfect girls night in movie, where you all sing along (it has a sing along setting:D) at top volume while eatting chocolate ice cream!

I can't wait to see what Sarah thinks of it, I bet she goes nuts. Little John loves it, he "sings" and claps and laughs and dances around. It is so adorable!

This is from our family pics at Thanksgiving, I love it 'cuz he's laughing :D

Wow its cold here!

So yesterday at church Little John had one heck of a poopy diaper durring sacrament meeting. So I fish all through the diaper bag and find a diaper but no wipes, then I remember seeing them in the car. So I ask Sarah to run out to the car and grab them and I'll meet her at the bathroom with Little John (it takes 2 people if we have to use the cold fold out of the wall changing thing). So she hurries in and I strip off the diaper and she's over there struggling to get out a wipe. I'm like his tush is hanging out here hurry it up a bit and she tells me the wipes are frozen! I try to get one and she's right- its a solid block of frozen wipes. So she makes me some "wipes" with warm water and paper towels (not the first time I've had to resort to that sadly) and we get the whole thing taken care of. We opened the wipes again after church and found that at least some of them had thawed out. Man , I thought they were made with rubbing alcohol. I didn't think that stuff could freeze. This would never happen in Arizona. In AZ I would have opened the box and probably found that they were all dry from the heat LOL.

Cause for hysteria LOL

So my youngest brother joined the army national guard months ago and since he's a senior this year he hasn't been to basic yet but he still does his "one weekend a month". So today they were supposed to do first aid stuff but instead they did "how to clear a room like SWAT". They were given a five minute shpeel about if you stand in this order these people check this part of the room and be sure to crouch down . Then they were sent on training scenarios. Usually they have 4 man squads but the numbers didn't workout so Ben was in a six man squad. So they do their thing and five minutes later everybody was killed by the "terrorists". Reset: it takes longer but the "terrorists" win again.
Take three: They do much better checking things and find 2 of the 3 "terrorists" so they split up and most of the squad takes in the prisoners leaving Ben and a guy to keep watch I guess (he was vague on these details). So they hear a noise and go in to check it out and see a very skinny cabinet is open so they check it out- empty. So Ben turns around and sees that his buddy (who is tall) is a hostage to the last "terrorist" Cadet Mowers (who is short and has the hostage bent over backwards into a headlock threatening him with a cardboard knife, the squads use unloaded m-16's and shout "bang!" to fire them). Mowers backs away using the guy as a shield all the way down the stairs (the guys feet thump down every step) while shouting in Arabic (made up gibberish really). And then the two of them disappear into the bathroom. Ben (who is also really tall) crouches down and follows them hoping for a chance to fire but hesitates outside the bathroom because the door opens into the hall and he worries about being ambushed. He finally goes in and sees no one. He checks under the stalls and sees only one pair of feet- hmm his buddy's or the "terrorist's"? So he sneaks over and gently pushes the door with the gun- locked. So he sneaks into the stall next door, climbs up on the seat, pops up over the top and...
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The poor Staff Sargent (who is not part of the maneuvers at all) has the poop scared right out of him. He yells all sorts of things and Ben ducks back down. He leaves his stall and is "killed" by the laughing "terrorist" who had "killed" his buddy (who is also laughing) before Ben came in. The staff Sargent gives Ben a cussing out and a bunch of push ups, but Mowers (the "terrorist") defends him, so Ben only has to do 50. Poor kid, he will never live this down.
When he told us we all laughed so hard we were crying and I could barely breathe. Little John thought that was great so he starts laughing and shrieking and waving his arms all over which only makes us laugh harder. In Ben's defense: they really shouldn't let people wander into active scenarios if they aren't involved.

Tempe Friends

Dear Tempe friends,
So recently John's cousin (and her husband) moved to Texas from Washington. And they drove all the way. They have been staying with family all the way down because most hotels don't take cats even if they'll take dogs (they tell me its because people don't usually travel with a filled cat box for obvious reasons). When they got to Phoenix the plan was to stay with family again but after the fighting between their cat and John's parents cats they weren't sure they wanted to risk that again, so I looked online for a hotel that wasn't too far from the freeway that would take cats. And I found one (just south of the baesline and priest intersection), luckily. But I told them that if we couldn't find one that I knew lots of very nice people in the area that could probably take a cat overnight. So I just wanted to let you know that you all have a wonderful rep with some people you haven't even met :D
And since they came down with the fluas they got there I totally planned on calling anyone of you if they decided they needed a blessing or anything, 'cuz I know you guys would come through for them.
Missing you tons,
Carol

Happy Birthday Mom

Happy birthday Mom!
You are such a wonderful generous person. You are a great example of what family is and how they should treat each other. I'm sorry you didn't have the best day, but I hope you enjoyed as much as you could.
Love,
Carolyn

Elder Hizer arises from the internet

So I experienced a small miracle today. (If I had been checking my email daily I would have had this miracle on Monday. I get emailed when anyone comments on my blog.) I got a comment from a guy in Wamego, KS, where Elder Hizer is serving right now. This guy's family have a dinner apointment with Nathan tonight! And they wanted to make him feel at home, so they googled for him and found my blog. They asked what his favorite foods were. (You can read the comment on my post "Ode to Elder Hizer" in Oct)
I am so excited. I told the guy what Nathan likes to eat and asked him to email me a pic of him and his companion. How awesome is all of this?! Next time I feed missionaries I'm going to have to google them, who knows what can happen. I knew God worked in mysterious ways, but I never realized that could mean google.

Ward Christmas Party

So I don't know if I ever mentioned it but John and I were called to be on the ward activities commitee. So we had the Christmas party breakfast yesteday. We do a beakfast early in the month to keep from interfering with people's holiday plans (for the most part). John helped flip pancakes and I ran the skit. The plan was that I'd do the "voice from off stage" but people had things come up and/or got sick so I did a part and sound effects, John did a part, and Ben did lights. And I rounded up a guy from the audience for the "voice". It went well though.
If you've been to Seagull book lately you might have seen the book "A stranger for Christmas" well there is a skit version online(http://www.theideadoor.com/Skits/a_stranger_for_christmas%20skit.htm).
Of course I picked a few characters to do parts and the version we did isn't the same one that's scripted. Our version turned out to be a little more of a comedy when "Florence" decided she was a bitter old scrooge complete with insertions of "humbug!". The original script (and book) was a bit more pionant and heartwarming when "Florence" was just a sad lonely lady. But we got a lot of compliments about it and it was never expected to be a Broadway preformance anyway since we only had one rehersal with an incomplete cast.
And everyone had a good time, even the sweethearts who filled in at the last minute.

What goes around, and around, and around...

So the flu has gone all around our house. John came down with it just before Thanksgiving and since then everyone has gotten it. And sadly recovering seems to be complicated by a nasty cold, but maybe its part of the flu too. Fortunatly I got it mild, you couldn't take me too far from a nap or a bathroom, but at least I never threw-up. Everyone is mostly better but Little John seems to be lingering on forever. I might take him in to the doctor tomarrow. Aside from the germs, laundry, and dishes that pile up when people are sick- I am way behind on Christmas! So for everyone who reads this your Christmas cards are coming but they'll probably get there on Christmas Eve 'cuz I'm so behind.

Coming soon to a computer near you!

Coming soon to a computer near you: my Etsy shop!
This is the other reason I'm behind in my blogging, I'm opening an Etsy shop. For those with no idea what I'm talking about, don't feel bad I'd never heard of it either. An Etsy shop is like amazon.com crossed with ebay, but for homemade stuff. My mom and I are going to do it together. She makes quilts (and some other things) as her stress relief, and as a 3rd grade teacher she has a lot of stress. And I make tons of stuff. There is something I'm on a big kick of making right now but since at least one person who reads this blog is getting that for Christmas I can't tell you any more about it. But since I'm busy making Christmas right now it will probably be after Christmas that I get my shop really up and running. So when I do I will blog it with a link and everybody can check it out. We had a bussness lunch and voted John as our accountant and ceo/bussiness manager, but we may have to rethink that since he got an email today asking him to set up a time for a job interview :D We are so excited, but don't want to get our hopes up. So pray for John! Thank you!

Thanksgiving part 2

So this is my abreviated list of things I'm Thankful for. It's abreviated because it would be so long otherwise that no one would want to read it.

My list:

John, Little John, Mom, Sarah, Ben, Heather, Rick, the rest of my family (this is part of the abreviating), my in-laws, my friends, the church, the military, my savior, lots of good food, laughing, a warm dry house, books, crafts, email, blogging, relief society, that John got over the flu in time for Thanksgiving, and lots, lots more things I won't try to fit here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving part 1

Well its all over now and most of the leftovers have been eaten. Yesterday I disected the rest of the turkeys (we had 3) and froze a lot of it. And tonight I will use up pretty much everything else to make Thanksgiving pizza (recipe at bottom).
But our Thanksgiving was great! We had 22 people (hence the 3 turkeys) and we managed to fit them all in the living room to eat together. We hauled the piano out to the garage and fit 2 long folding tables in the length of the living room. (By the way if anyone knows some one in the Brigham area who wants to buy a piano message me!)
We ate and then took down a table and people broke up in little groups to visit and play games. And of course there were leftovers and plenty of pie and other desserts for munching. We all had a great time.
John's parents, brother and his wife came since Nathan's on his mission and their usual plans were disrupted. Heather came and announced her engagement to Evan Smith (who came and his familly too). I was nice to meet everyone, we like them all, and he is really nice and sweet to her. And of course Sarah came up from school. And Rick came. And my uncle Mike. And Grandma Earl (my great-grandma).
It was great to have every one and it was so nice just hanging out talking and playing games and things.
And before you freak out about the cooking involved, we did: pies, turkeys, rolls, stuffing, taters, and veggie tray. Everyone else brought potluck drinks, side dises, and desserts. So we didn't do all the cooking (thank goodness!)

Thanksgiving pizza
1 Grease a cookie sheet and cover it with a thin layer of roll dough. This can be leftover frozen dough or comes in a can dough or make your favorite rolls dough. I usually use canned cresent rolls dough.
2 Pre-heat the oven to whatever you cook the rolls at.
3 Cover the dough with leftover mashed potatos or if those are all gone whip up some instant.
4 Cover that with the leftover gravy
5 Sprinkle generously with leftover stuffing or whip up some stovetop
6 Top with little bits of leftover turkey.
If you'd rather you can put the gravey on last. And you can add anything else you'd like or skip anything your kids won't eat. (But I wouldn't skip the gravy 'cuz things dry out in the oven)
7 Now bake the whole thing for as long as you would bake the rolls. Check if the potatoes and turkey are warm. If not pop it back in the oven for another 5 or so minutes. Serve and enjoy. And even though its called pizza it eats better with a fork.

Is there a Santa Claus?

So this is Little John's first Christmas that he'll remember (he was only 2 and 1/2 months old last year) and I've started thinking about the whole Santa Claus thing. I really want to teach him the nativity story and go from there with something along the lines of "and just like the kings gave baby Jesus presents we give each other presents, because we love each other and to remember his birth" and then I want to go farther with the story of St. Nicholas- the nice old guy who gave kids toys to play with and coal to keep warm. And then to go on from there with thats why there's all the nice stories/movies about santa, but he's just a nice make belive name we use to give present with out saying who gave them like a secret suprise. And then to bring it back to love and family and Christ.
But... I don't want to squash the magic of the suprises from santa, and I don't want to be the mom of the kid who goes around crushing other kids dreams by saying there is no Santa.
But... I don't want him to get all into the "Santa will get me anything I ask for" and thus get caught up in the "gimmes" at Christmas and miss the truth of it all.
Maybe its too soon to worry about this, but you set patterns early on and whatever we do with Little John we'll have to do with the rest of them. Any ideas from the other parents out there?

Christmas is coming!

So I've gotten behind again. But its for a great reason. Santa's workshop has reopened in our basement. I believe in a homemade Christmas. I have lots of reasons and since my blog can be my soap box, I'm going to share them with you.
1 It's often more bugdet friendly (which really matters right now!)
2 If you're going to spend that much time/effort you're going to make something that person really wants, instead of getting just "something"
3 While you're working on the gift you're generally thinking about the person it's for and how much they'll like it
4 There's a lot less going out in the crazed crowds of shoppers
5 You're usually working in your comfy home where you can play Christmas music/movies and really get into the feeling of the season
6 Everybody can work together on same/different projects (providing it doesn't spoil any suprises) and get in some extra family togetherness
7 Kids rarely have money to go shopping and grandma really would rather have the fingerpaint picture than whatever they can get at the dollar store with thier small allowance or the thing you picked and put the kids name on
8 I love getting homemade things,
9 I just love having a project to work on!
10 It get us away from all the comercialism and back to the real meaning of Christmas.
11 It spares other people from the obnoxious talking/beeping/musical toys I could have bought