Missouri for Thanksgiving... again!

Things we did in Missouri:

-watch probably around 20 hours of football. Cried a little when Boise State lost. Cried even more when BYU barely lost the Utah game.

-Play tons of rounds of this awesome game of Time's up. It's like taboo and charades wrapped into one. My favorite moment:
(trying to guess who's on the card)
Ben: Um... oh, I don't know who this is... is he in Pretty Woman? No, I don't think he's in Pretty Woman...
Dad: Alec Baldwin!
Ben: Yes!

-Enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving feast! And Pie. Lots of pie.

-Showed off my beautiful baby girl.

-Talked and talked and talked. My sister-in-law Kelly, who has a baby girl three weeks younger than Clara, was in the basement with me, and even though we both knew we should sleep when our babies sleep, we couldn't help staying up way too late talking.

-Went Black Friday shopping with Jordan's mom! I wasn't going to go, but then as I was sitting around the house I realized I was a missing a great time, so I decided to go catch up with them!

-Played Dominion a ton.

-More talking.

-Eating DELICIOUS food.

But more important, we were able to spend quality time with our family. I enjoyed spending time with everyone, and I so hate it when I go. *sob*

Family Reunion in Missouri

What kept me going through all my classes, exams, and recitals was knowing that soon I would be lounging around lazily with family in wonderful Missouri. So... Missouri is kinda hot, which isn't my thing, but what IS my thing is tons of people to talk to, games to play, dinners to make and a good book to read. I enjoyed all of this and more for two weeks at Megan and Ben's!

We took our third drive there in our less than two years of marriage (what can I say, we love these people!). It's a good 18 hour drive, so we broke it up into two days. The worst part of the drive was the fact that I had horrible pain in my lower ribs/side area. I had exercised a few days before, and I think I did something to my back when I tried to do a really slow job... (I have this bad habit of forgetting there are things I PROBABLY shouldn't do pregnant...). So whenever I would breath deeply/yawn, it was pretty painful. By the time we got to the hotel the first night, I was in pretty major pain where I couldn't get comfortable and it was painful to just turn around in my bed. The pain went away by itself after a few days, so no worries, the baby and I are just fine!

Road trips with Jordan are the best. They really are just never boring. We can talk, and listen to music and overall just have a grand time.

The reunion itself was so great. There were a ton of kids (22, I think?), a bunch of adults, and lots of space. It was so nice getting to talk to all my in-laws, I really just lucked out in the family part when I married Jordan. We spent a fair amount of time talking about babies and different views and thoughts on childbirth and having an infant, which was so helpful. I have a great support system when I have this baby. We also guessed at what gender our baby will be... I was really tempted to take the ultrasound video with me to see if Ben could tell us what we were having (Ben's a doctor), but I was strong and just left it in Provo so I wouldn't be tempted.

When we weren't playing games or talking, I was usually reading a new book called the Hunger Games. AWESOME. I really liked reading it and then going and discussing my thoughts with Kelly. I can't wait for the next book (due in August). I highly recommend it.

The trip home was fun with no problems. We went through Colorado, which is so beautiful! It was really hard to leave Missouri, though. I kept telling people I was too pregnant to say goodbye, because I would just cry at night missing everyone. The good news is that I have high hopes that we'll see everyone before the reunion next year, and we hope move close to SOME family somewhere (I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for Connecticut, Kelly!). I like them all too much just see them once a year!

Big Accomplishments!

Jordan's graduated! I'm almost graduated! Jordan took the third actuarial exam today! I didn't cry through my last oral exam!

Yes, we've been quite busy trying to tie up loose ends with school. First up was my graduate recital, which I am very happy to announce is OVER! And I passed! I had a lot of really difficult, high powered music. I was happy with the first half of my performance, but I was quite fatigued by the 2nd half, so it didn't go as well as I hoped. There's always those things that you wish you could back and do differently... but it's finished and I can move on! I'm looking forward to singing with the Fairbanks Opera this summer. I think it'll be a great way to get out and try out my professional chops, and I certainly it leads to more opportunities in the future.

This last Tuesday was my last oral exam, which I manged not to cry through! It went... ok. Well, I made the mistake and totally forgot that I was allowed to ask my committee members what to study ahead of time, so there were some tense moments trying to define "Behaviorism" and "Constructivism" and remember what the bell curve for my supervised teaching meant. My committee was very understanding, and pleased with my responses that I eventually squeezed out of my memory. I walked away with a pass... as long as I corrected a couple of issues in my paper. I should be totally done by Friday!

Today Jordan took the MLC Actuarial Exam! On all sides, we've heard this is the toughest actuarial exam there is. He had some very tense moments yesterday when he was feeling a lot of anxiety and frustration, but we were able to call the home-teachers for a priesthood blessing. We both felt much better after that, and Jordan feels calm about the exam. The bad news is that we probably won't hear the results for another 8-10 weeks. LAME.

So the next few days are all about preparing to leave for Missouri! I'm SO excited to get out of Provo for a bit! I love spending time with the family, and I plan on spending the whole time sleeping, reading and talking to my sisters-in-law. Who can ask for a better vacation? Plus, road-trips with Jordan are ALWAYS tons of fun. They really do go by so quickly, it's kinda weird how easily we pass the time together.

Still no job news, but we remain vigilant and hopeful. For sure getting out of Provo a bit I think will renew our spirits. We're in a really awkward phrase where Jordan doesn't have quite enough work, but has got some, and we've very hesitant to leave Provo and the help of Dr. Tolley. It's a strange balancing act in trying to figure out when we cut our loses and run back to Alaska, and when to just stick it out and stay here for another month. Basically, any month from now we could scamper back to Alaska. I know for myself, it's really frustrating not knowing what's going to happen next month! But it's a great faith-building experience at the same time. We really have to rely on the spirit to figure out our best choices.

Anywho, we're ready to get out of Provo for a bit! Missouri, ho!

Missouri, Thanksgiving, and Football Games...

What a week! We've traveled over 2500 miles, been to two football games (wins!) and missed way too much school. But, despite it all, it sure was fun!

The one rule in our Missouri trip was that it had to happen BETWEEN the two BYU home games. This might seem rather harsh (you're skimping on family time for a football game?), but these games are actually really important to us. It's ou r last year at BYU, and we'll probably never be to another homegame.

After our solid win against Airforce, it was off to Missouri! We didn't leave Provo until 6:40pm, and then we hit traffic from the game, so we were really worried that we wouldn't make it to Cheyanne in time, but we pulled into our hotel by 1am. We finally made it to Missouri at 10pm on Sunday. It was SO nice to see all the Leavitts! We spent most of our time hanging around at Megan and Ben's (ah, wonderful vacation!), watching movies, reading and eating.

On Wednesday, we went to Silver Dollar City, an amusement park fashioned after old-time Missouri. It was like a little town will little shops and games and rides! All the Christmas lights were up, which was absolutely gorgeous! We went on some really fun rides too; Jordan said that the "Wildfire" was the most intense rollercoaster he had ever been on. We had a crazy good time.

Overall, our trip was wonderful. We had such a great time, and it was awful to leave! I really enjoy spending time with all the Leavitts, and I appreciate their willingness to let us crash their Thanksgiving festivities!

We decided to drive home in one day in order to be sure that we'd be back in time for the Utah game. It was a good 18 hour drive: I do not suggest it! It was just a super long time to be in a car, and we all got into Provo feeling a little queasy. After last years unpleasantness, we at least made it back in one piece, a completely sucessful road trip! Woohoo!

The BYU-Utah game was AMAZING. I had never attended one of these big rivalry games live, and let me tell you, they are intense! Here's a list crazy things that happened:

1. The marching bands! They decided they were in a dueling contest. One of the most notable things was Utah scored a touchdown, so their band played their fight song, so just before their fight song ended, BYU started playing our fight song... etc. Also, after a BYU player got hurt the Utah band starting playing their fight song... classy, people, classy.

2. What was with all the red in the BYU sections? Traitors!

3. There was a guy sitting a couple rows behind us who everytime BYU missed a play would yell, "You gotta be kidding me!" Actually, they're not kidding because clearly they are playing a game. Please, please be quiet. Also, there was a lady next to us who kept whimpering, "Come on Max, you gotta believe in yourself! You gotta believe in yourself! You can do it! Just believe in yourself." (If your not a BYU person, Max Hall is our really great quarterback who sometimes gets jitters during big games). Finally, my favorite was the guy behind us who wore a football helmet... I won't go into details, but I'm fairly certain he was autistic.

4. I ate my last Cougar Tail! These are giant maple donuts... mmmmm...

5. OVERTIME! I'd NEVER seen that before, and when George caught the winning touchdown, it was the most amazing climax to a game ever! Everyone was cheering and jumping, Jordan turned and gave me the most violent kiss of my life, and then fans started storming the field! Usually they have nets to keep that from happening, but clearly someone wasn't doing their job that night and soon the whole field was covered in fans, crowd-surfing Andrew George...

I have some pictures of the awesome night, but I'm having difficulty getting them on the blog, so you'll just have to go to facebook to check them out. Anywho, back to the real world tomorrow (I really don't want to talk about it, actaully...).