Home Sweet Home... and a Merry Christmas!

Wow... I'm going on over a month since I've posted last. That's way too long... which means I have a lot to catch up on.

As most everyone knows, Jeff and I went home to Utah for the holidays. We had a nice 3 and a half week vacation spent with family and friends. We both had a great time in Utah and were sad to leave. Neither of us were quite ready to come back to reality....

Our flight to Utah wasn't too bad... minus the 8 inches that it snowed in Utah that day, leaving us stranded in Salt Lake for the night. Okay, not really stranded... we spent the night at my cousin’s in Centerville and they drove us up to Logan in the morning. Needless to say... I was very anxious to see my family! Here are a few pics of our time spent in Utah.

Beware.... There are a lot of pictures!

Annual Anderson Family Christmas Party
(This is just my fam)

My grandma is always so sweet to put this together every year... we've had to relocate from my grandma's cabin to the library since our family has gotten so big! As always, we had tons of good food and a program put on by many of the grandkids. (mainly the talented grandkids)... so not me.

The rest of the week we spent going back and forth between families... playing games... eating lots of food... checking off our list of our favorite restaurants we had to eat at while we were home.... christmas shopping... playing MORE games... and eating MORE food.

A few of my friends got together for dinner to celebrate the last night before our good friend Chelsea was to be Wed.


And here we are waiting for the new bride to come out… if you can't tell... it is snowing hard and we are freezing our butts off! .....Only for you Chelsea!! :) The pictures are small because I copied them off facebook, not sure how to change that.

And here she is.... the new bride! She was so pretty!

Me and Chelsea at the wedding dinner… it was absolutely gorgeous, one of the prettiest I've been to.

Two of our friends weren't able to make it... due to crappy weather and unexpected flight cancelelations. (That's what you get for going to New York without us!) They waited in the airport for 24 hours hoping to catch a flight. No such luck. We missed you Abby and Tosha!

We had Jeff’s friend annual Christmas party the following day. It was good to see everyone since only a few of his friends still live in Utah and the rest all live in various parts of the country!

The girls…


Christmas Eve at Angie’s house… We had a yummy ham dinner, played the chimes, and acted out the nativity... I got to be one of the shepherds.

Christmas morning with my fam… of course I only got a pic of my neice.


Christmas afternoon with Jeff’s fam…. he has a big family! That's not even half of them! Okay... maybe half.

I guess you could say we had a "White Christmas."

We got lucky... my brother in law who works at a car dealership hooked us up with a car with 4-wheel drive the whole time we were there. It was so nice not having to borrow someones car everywhere we went. Let's just say we very much appreciated it. Especially in all that snow!

Jeff and I went to the Jazz game with Ryan and Taryn. Jeff got tickets through Bubba’s Dental (they sell dental equipment). They fed us dinner up in the skybox and the rest of my time was spent watching Kyle Korver. :)

Not the best seats... but I'll take it!

We also attended a few USU basketball games… I think that’s what Jeff most looked forward to on our trip. (seriously) ... and I failed to get a picture. That's how we rang in the New Year! Go Aggies!! ..... followed by watching the ball drop at Time Square with Jeff's friends.

One last lunch with friends at Fredricos.


I planned and organized my cousin Jani’s wedding shower while I was home. It turned out super cute but I will have to post pictures of that later, I am waiting on my sister for the pics.

And finally.... Happy Birthday to me! My family celbrated my birthday before we left.

Birthday Dinner #1… with Western clan. We ordered out Firehouse… what more could I ask for? (Jeff even gave up going to a USU basketball game to be there) That’s true love people!

Tell me this just doesn't make your mouth water?? :)

While we were sitting down eating dinner my mom was telling everyone that instead of opening presents like usual, she was just going to give me money for my birthday because that's what I had asked for... my nephew who is 4 must have overheard... he went into the bedroom and came back with this.....

He found this box in my sisters room. He drew me a picture and put his name on it (you can kind of see it). He even found some ribbon that he had my dad tie around it.

He came up to me and said.... "Here Timi" (still struggles a little with his K's) "I got you a present too."

And inside was this....

Followed with, "remember, you just want money?"
It was the cutest thing ever! Kids are so dang cute!

I think I have the best neice and nephew ever!

Birthday Dinner #2… Lunch at Benihanas with Tony and Kathie before they took us to the airport.

Well that about raps up our time spent in Utah. It was so good to spend the holidays with family and friends. We were so spoiled while we were there… we couldn’t ask for better families! Thanks to all who made our Christmas and New Years one to remember!

Tagged

I've been tagged again...


8 Shows I Watch:

1. The Office

2. Prison Break

3. The Unit

4. Friends

5. One Tree Hill

6. Everybody Loves Raymond

7. Grey's Anatomy

8. The Hills



8 Restaurants I Love:

1. FIREHOUSE... LOVE it!

2. Fredricos

3. Formosa

4. El Sol

5. Olive Garden

6. Texas Roadhouse

7. Johnny Carino's

8. Red Lobster

(I pretty much love anything Italian... and anything that serves bread as an appetizer!)



8 Things I Did Yesterday:

1. Did the laundry and unloaded the dishwasher

2. Read the book, "My Name is Asher Lev"

3. Went to the grocery store

4. Ate at Subway

5. Watched Phantom of the Opera with Carlee

6. Picked up Jeff from school

7. Talked to Laci on the phone

8. Made dinner... stuffed pasta with mozarella sauce on top



8 Things I Look Forward to:

1. Going home to Utah

2. Christmas

3. New Years

4. Jeff finishing dental school

5. Having kids

6. Having money

7. Living in Utah... or somewhere really close.

8. SLEEP



8 Wishes:

1. That I have lots of kids someday

2. That we end up living close to family

3. That we didn't have to be in debt with school loans

4. That I could buy all the clothes I wanted

5. That it wasn't cold outside

6. That Jeff didn't have to study so much

7. That my family will always be healthy and happy

8. That I could get a freakin job!!!!... hopefully when I come back from our 3 week vacation!



8 People I tag:

1. Laci Buttars

2. Heather Ashcroft

3. Taryn Palmer

4. Danika Humphrey's

5. Carlee Richins

6. Nicole Gneiting

7. Missy Wegener

8. Angie Falslev

Thanksgiving Break...

I know... it's been forever!! You'd think with all the time I have in one day that I'd have plenty of time for blogging... which I do... it just takes a whole lot of effort for me to finally sit down at the computer and BLOG. I don't know what it is, sometimes it's like homework for me... I put it off and put it off until people bug me enough about how I'm at the bottom of their blogging list because it's been weeks since I've blogged! So here you go everyone... let me catch you all up...

Twilight!

Since every other mormon girl has posted on their blog about seeing Twilight, I figured I might as well try and fit in with the rest of the LDS world... and post about it as well. Carlee, Nicole, Jessica, and I went and saw Twilight last Saturday while our husbands all went to the Bond movie. (It was the second day it had come out and the theater wasn't even half full!) From what I hear, the theaters in Utah were quite the opposite. My mom and sisters waited in line for an hour and a half! Crazy! I'm not sure what I was expecting... from the previews I guess I wasn't expecting a whole lot, plus nothing ever lives up to the book. I agree with most people, I think they did the best they could at following the story line. I just felt like there was SOO much detail that they weren't able to relay in the movie... basically half the book is what Bella is thinking and you can't exactly put that part into a movie. So the parts where I felt like were very climatic in the book... weren't so climatic in the movie. Not to mention it was a little cheesy at times, but I guess that's to be expected. I'm guessing/hoping the next three movies will continue to get better... assuming they'll continue to have more money to put towards making the movie. That's kind of how it was with Harry Potter if I remember correctly. Anywho, I still enjoyed it and would certainly watch it again... maybe with Jeff next time. :) Ha, yeah right!

Scone Party at the Richins!

Last Tuesday was the last day of school for our husbands before the Thanksgiving break.... so we decided to all get together and have a scone party. I think we went through about 60 scones! (and I would know because Carlee and I were the ones making them!) That's a lot of bread for 16 people! We also had some delicious homeade apple cider and hot chocolate! Mmm!

Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving we decided to get all the first years together and have a big Thanksgiving dinner. It made being homesick not quite so bad... Jeff and I and two other couples went Wednesday night to the church to get things set up. We did it on the stage and put up a whole bunch of lights... I was quite impressed with our efforts. :) And then we showed up the next day and every one of them had fallen down! Darn tape! We had about 20 adults and 7 kids... it was quite the feast! This is the first year I have ever had to cook for Thanksgiving. I realized it's not quite as fun when you actually have to cook. I like just showing up with it all ready for me to eat! It actually wasn't that bad, I learned how to make Jeff's mom's amazing stuffing and my aunt Sheryl's to-die-for sweet potatoes. I also made the green bean casserole.... which I love. All the food was delicious and we were lucky enough to come home with two days worth of leftovers... we got a little bit of everything! That doesn't usually happen! I'm so glad we are able to have "family" away from family. I can't be grateful enough for all the friends we've made since we've been out here. It has honestly been such a blessing.

Jeff and I had to both speak in church last Sunday on Being Grateful for Our Blessings. And like everyone says... the one preparing the talk gets way more out of it than the people listening to the talk. I truly have so much to be grateful for. I can't even begin to express my gratitude to the Lord for all He has given me. To name just a few.... I have such a wonderful husband who tries so hard to always make me happy. He is such an example to me of a someone who works his butt off to get what he wants. And although I feel like he is always studying, he somehow always makes time for me. He puts up with me and all of my shortcomings as a wife. I consider myself lucky to be married to him..... I have an amazing family who has always been supportive of me my whole life. Living out here in Pittsburgh I have come to realize how important family really is. I've noticed more and more out here how family tends to get put on the back burner and people become too involved in their busy lives that they forget to make time for family. It amazes me how peoples jobs and busy lifestyles take priority over their own families. I really don't know what I'd do without my family. I know they are always there when I need them! I am so grateful for all the people we've met and the experiences we've had living out here in Pittsburgh. I am grateful that the adjustment wasn't near as hard as I was expecting. And I am even more grateful that we get to come home and spend Christmas with family!

I couldn't back up enough to get everyone in... I would have fallen off the stage!




After dinner we played a bunch of games... catch phrase, ticket to ride, pounce, and a few games of lightning to work off all that food!

Downtown Pittsburgh!

Jeff and I met up with Devin and Nicole downtown at the Strip District on Saturday. It's kind of like going to a farmer's market. It's about 5 or 6 blocks full of tons of little shops and street vendors selling all different kinds of ethnic foods... from Italian meats and cheeses, to seafood, Mexican, Greek, Chinese, Asian, American... you name it, it's there. We basically tried a little bit of everything... spinich egg roll thing, dried apples, pizza on french bread, all different kinds of breads and cheeses... they have a store with a million different kinds of cheese from all over the world, and they let you try any of them, who knew there was so many different kinds of cheese! We tried a bunch of different kinds of salsa, barbecued chicken and pineapple on a stick, fried rice, donuts... yep, we pretty much tried it all! :) With a little help from our friends! They also have a bunch of shops full of jewelry, fresh flowers, t-shirts, photos, sunglasses, hats, toys, etc... We went to a really cool kitchen shop, they had the coolest little kitchen tools!

Then we went downtown and saw the Ginormous Pittsburgh Christmas Tree all lit up.... it was so awesome! I was expecting a dinky litte tree in the middle of town with some lights and that was it. But I was suprisingly impressed! The tree was in the middle of a whole bunch of tall glass buildings.... definitely adding to the effect. And then they had ice skating, horse buggy rides, a band playing christmas music, and tons of gingerbread houses lined up inside one of the buildings. I told Jeff we are definitely going back to ice skate sometime, I have always seen this type of thing in movies... never in real life!







On our way home we stopped at the lookout spot on Washington point and took some really pretty pictures.... I love how the sun is just right, making the buildings reflect off of the water.... so pretty!







Afterwards we went over to Brett and Carlee's and taught them how to play spades! Jeff and I are so happy we now have someone to play spades with... we love that game!

Now it's back to school for Jeff.... booo.... he is going to have an intense couple of weeks full of finals and then it's off to Utah! Wahoo! I can't wait.... I am counting down the hours... I mean days.... haha.

Happy late Thanksgiving everyone!

Tagged!

My friend Laci tagged me and since it requires hardly any work... I will do it. :)

Rules:

1. Go to your pictures

2. Go to your 4th folder and upoload your 4th picture

3. Post

Ohh how cute. Jeff and I with my neice and nephew... maybe this is a sign that we need to start having kids... haha, yeah right!

I tag... Carlee, Nicole, Jessica, and Angie

Nothing too exciting is going on with Jeff and I. Jeff has had another one of those weeks where he has been studying non-stop. He did really well on a few of his tests this last week... he even got a 100% on one of them. I was so proud of him! He deserves it... especially with all the studying he's been doing. He has another test tomorrow and has basically only taken a break to eat all weekend! And even then he sometimes takes it and eats at the computer. I am amazed at his ongoing determination and motivation to do good, I would have burned out weeks ago and it's only the first semester! I don't know how he does it but he does... and he rarely complains. I keep telling him, you can stop trying to impress me, I'm already impressed!! :) I'm so happy I have a husband who I know will do whatever it takes to support me... even if it requires a little more work than he'd like. Thanks babe!

Also... the weather this past week has been sooo nice! I would love it if it was like this all winter! I think it was the type of weather people in Utah experienced a couple weeks ago. Apparently we swapped temperatures because I heard it's been pretty dang cold in Utah this past week. Jeff and I walked to the gas station at 10:00 Friday night to get some orange juice to make smoothies and we didn't even need a jacket... man I would die for a few more weeks like that... Too bad the next day we woke up to an overcast, rainy, cold day. Welcome to Winter... I guess I will just appreciate the week of warm weather that we did get. That's pretty good for the second week in November... I'll take it!

Carlee, Brett, and I went to the park the other day... Jeff was taking a much needed nap, and I wanted any excuse to be outside!

These trees were so pretty I couldn't resist not taking a picture... I am sad I didn't take pictures earlier when all the trees were different colors and not already dying.

And this is a nice shot of Pittsburgh.

Oh the Joys of Owning a Home....

About a month after Jeff and I moved into our home we started noticing a water leak running along the bottom of our steps and down the sidewalk . I really didn't think too much about it until a week or so later when our neighbor knocked on our door to inform us that he thought our sewer pipe might be leaking... because it was starting to stink! Awesome. That explains why it stunk so bad the night before while we were standing at the bottom of our steps talking to some friends... instead I falsely accused Jeff of lettin one loose! Sorry Jeff! Our neighbor wasn't sure whether the leak was coming from his pipes or ours so we both ran our water at different times... only to come to the conclusion that it WAS in fact coming from OUR pipes. GREAT! Now what??

Well we actually didn't do anything for a while hoping that maybe the problem would fix itself. Or more like, we weren't prepared to find out how much it was going to cost to fix the problem. We are after all poor dental school students! And when our neighbor told us we would more than likely have to tear out our steps (that were just redone a few years ago) in order to get to the pipes, we REALLY weren't prepared to find out how much it was going to cost us. So... of course... it continued to leak... and leak... and leak... until we decided we should probably get this fixed before winter and it becomes more of pain to fix... On top of that, the 90 year old lady who lives next door to us kindly informed us that she stays awake all night worrying that the water from the leak might freeze... causing someone to slip and fall on the sidewalk... which would result with a knock at her door in the middle of the night... and someone demanding to sue her. Wow! I'm gonna be honest and say, that was the last thing we were concerned about! We then KINDLY informed her that we are poor students and we will get the problem fixed and IF someone so happened to knock on her door in the middle of the night demanding to sew her to send them our way! I then realized that the water pretty much stopped running on the sidewalk in front of her house forming a large puddle at the bottom of her steps. So then I felt bad for the poor old lady and realized that we probably SHOULD get this taken care of ASAP, so we don't have HER knocking on our door wanting to sue us because SHE has slipped and fell!

So... we called the plumber. Keep in mind that we tried everything else first to see if there was some way our homeowners insurance might cover this or maybe the previous owners would be responsible for paying half, seeing as though it happened just a month after we moved in. But we got nowhere with that... Hence the fact we put it off for so long. Anyway, to make an already long story short... the plumber came and put a snake down our pipes from our basement and discovered that our pipe was broken. (He also discovered "other stuff" that was clogging the pipes, but I'll spare you the details on that.) I will tell you that Jeff was the lucky guy who got to clean it all up! What a man! :) The plumber told us there was a good chance they may have to rip out some of the steps to fix the pipe but they would would avoid having to do that if at all possible. He told us to go easy on our water until they could come back and fix it. (They dug a hole in the dirt to the side of our steps to see if they could get to the pipes, which opened up the leak even more) So for the past week and a half I haven't been able to use my washer or dishwasher, and Jeff and I have been trying to take short showers (which I discovered, am not very good at). And let me just tell you how much you learn to appreciate things when you have to go without! Luckily Carlee and Brett were kind enough to let us use their washer. Thanks guys! Finally yesterday they came and fixed our pipe, and were luckily able to avoid tearing out our steps. The good news is we can now use our water to our liking... the bad news is we have a fat bill of $2700! Like I said... the joys of owning a home!

I took pictures while they worked.. I'm sure they loved it!

Sick! I really don't want to know what that all consists of....

They ended up finding roots that were completely wrapped around and clogging the pipes... that's what that black stuff is... so they had to completely take out the old pipe and replace it.

And here is the new pipe. To the right of the stair railing is where the leak was initially coming out, running out in front of our steps and down the sidewalk... there was a huge hole in the pipe right underneath the steps, but they said that wasn't even the root of the problem. They said it was probably a good thing there was a hole because if not the water would have had nowhere to escape because the roots had completely clogged up the pipe (right where he is standing) and it would have eventually backed up into our basement. Thank heavens for the hole I guess.

They came back today and layed cement so hopefully in a day or two it will be good as new. Let's hope anyway!

Besides having to stress about getting our sewer fixed, we have also been having some fun! We had another Office party at Devin and Nicole's last week and had some yummy mexican food that everyone brought to share! We also went to a pie party on Sunday at Joseph and Lisa Westover's house. I even made my first ever banana cream pie, okay really it was my first ever pie... sad to admit I know. Thank heavens it was a hit and Jeff couldn't have been more impressed! He was hoping no one would eat it so he could take it home and eat it all himself! Too bad I forgot to take a picture of my pie! Not to mention all the other delicious pies everyone brought!

All the couples at the pie party... most of them anwyay!

And the girls....

Jeff and I stopped by a halloween party Saturday night that one of the dental school students had for all the people with kids. I know, we don't have kids, but we thought it would be fun to see them all. Anyway, this was Brett's wig. I had Jeff put it on so I could get a picture... Doesn't he make that wig look good?? hahaha

Life at the Wegeners

I haven't posted in a while because to be honest there hasn't been anything exciting to post about... (shocker, I know!) Jeff finally hit the reality of school and has cracked down on studying. And I... well I am still looking for employment. So while Jeff is at school all day, I sit home feeling like a lazy peice of you know what. We were joking the other night after dinner... I told him to leave all the dishes in the sink so it would give me something to do the next day. Pathetic I know. As much as I'd like to feel sorry for myself because I sit home all day cooped up in our house with not a whole lot to do... I really can't complain. I think my husband would switch places with me in a heartbeat. Jeff has literally been studying his head off. Literally. He comes home at night with his eyes all red and glazed over... poor guy. I really don't know how he does it. I've certainly not seen anyone study as much as he has the past couple of weeks. Let me enlighten you with a typical day in the life of Jeff.... wake up at 5:30 (barf)... catch the bus at 6:15... study until class at 8 or 10 (depending on the day)... class from 10-12... lunch... class from 1-3... study, study, study... home by 9:30. Okay so sometimes he is home by 6 or so but when he comes home and studies more, it might as well be 9:30. And by that time I am bursting with excitement for someone to hang out with... and all he really wants to do is go to bed because he is mentally and physically exhausted, not to mention he has to get up and start the same day all over again. Of course, I don't blame him, but I do have to remind myself often that he is doing this for us. We both signed up for this knowing it was going to be tough. And I can't lie, it really hasn't been bad until just recently. He had a test Friday, Monday, Tuesday and another one this Friday. Talk about overload! I am so proud of him and the fact that he has gotten this far, I know he is going to do great! And once I get a job... if I ever get a job... things will hopefully be better.

On top of that I hurt my back/neck Friday night due to stupidity on both mine and Jeff's part (that's as much as I'll try and explain it...) which left me immobile for a good three days. Not fun. That may have been good for Jeff because he could study without feeling the guilt of having to hang out with me. Although I did have to boss him around quite a bit considering I couldn't move other than to get up and go to the bathroom. Even that was an experience... Thank heavens it happened on a weekend so Jeff was able to stay home and take care of me. He was an excellent help. Seriously... who needs a doctor?? I have Jeff! :) I think he may have been a little worried that I might take advantage of the fact that I couldn't move, I should have drug it out for a few more days!! Luckily I am feeling much better and will hopefully avoid having to see a chiropractor... we'll see.

On a lighter note... my friend Carlee had her baby a little over a week ago. He is so adorable... and has so much hair! Last week when all of our husbands went to priesthood, me and Nicole went and hung out at the hospital with Carlee and baby Hayden. Nicole cut (talk about a true friend) and painted Carlee's toenails while I.... held the baby. :) I'm so glad to have made so many nice friends out here, they really have been a great support and have made it so much easier to be out here away from family.

They also have so many girls nights here which has been a nice way for me to get to know so many awesome girls and to get out of the house for a while. I went to a craft night Wednesday and we made magnets. Here is the extent of my craftiness...

I've also joined a book club which I thought I'd never do but I really like it. Our last book we read was called, "Live To Tell," by Immaculee Ilabagiza. This is a sad but great inspirational book. It's about a story of a lady who survived the Rwandan Holocaust. I highly recommend it. I just finished reading October's book, "The Secret Life of Bees," by Sue Monk Kidd, which is also an excellent book if anyone is looking for a good read.

And last but not least I finally took a few pictures of our house...

So there you go. I didn't post pictures of our bedroom because I haven't made the bed yet... so that will have to come later.