the Graham Cracker House

Top 11 of Christmas 2011

1. Moose hollow condo!  They just keep getting bigger and better every year!  Probably 'cause our family is exapanding.  My parents and 2 sibs drove down from Washington and the rest of us Utah folk met them in Eden, utah.  This location was chosen based on its proximity to all 3 ski resorts in ogden canyon. Which, as it turned out, was not that crucial this year due to our lack of snow.

2.  Snowbasin!  Still one of my favorite resorts. Even if the snow was a bit icy in places, and the snow-making machines were quite loud (when you skied right past them.  I love the gondolas and the super awesome needles lodge for even brown-baggers to lunch in.  We enjoyed the family runs together.

3. Teaching Maddie to do loop-de-loop!  A classic Murray ski trick. She was scared but I convinced I learned when I was 10 (she is older than 10). I'm 94% sure this is accurate.  Don't worry- she didn't fall,  I did.

4.  the FOOD!  My wonderful chef of a husband make "steak and taters" for our assigned dinner night.  Compliments all around. Good job honey!

5.  the GOODIES!   Everyone  brought their extra cupcakes, homemade marshmellows, chocoaltes, toffees, etc. to share.  We were swimming in goodness.

6.  Getting to know the SIL and BIL's.  I appreciated the time everyone took to play a game to get to know the in-laws.... and enjoyed learning new things about the ones I'm not married to.

7. Meeting Dad's crazy friends from High School.   This comment exemplifes the adequate depth of the misconceptions I have been led to believe my whole life.

DAD:  remember that Sunday my parents were away you had spent the night at my house and we were just waking up...
DAD's FRIEND: ... and then the Bishop knocked on the door with the whole priests quorum...
DAD:  and you were in the shower and I was telling you to hurry!
ME:  but you just slept in on accident right?  you meant to go to church... right?

8. playing tag with the whole family on wolf creek mountain ski resort

9. the hot tub! (okay, not really... more on this later)

10.  second  Christmas!   We opened all of our family presents once all of the family arrived, giving everyone another day of presents a couple days after Christmas

11.  Charades!  And Rollick.  playing games with my fun family.... and my supportive husband who shakes his head and puts up with us.

Around moving time, many thoughts, expectations, promises, and hopes arose. Here is an accounting of what I thought would happend, and which of these ideas actually did come true.  

There will be less dishes in the sink, dishes will get done a lot faster and sooner, now that we have a dishwasher.  FICTION

If anything goes wrong with the plumbing or elelctricty or other construction attributes of the house my amazing hubby will fix it.  FACT.

I will love sweeping our wood kitchen floor with my new Lysol super swiffer broom/mop and make them sparkling clean.  FICTION.  (it doens't work as well as I had hoped, but it is fun to use- light and airy)

I will finally get organize and condense my boxes of junk from college.  FACT (it was grand.  They are all nicely labeled in the garage, and the camping tubs are all nicely labeled in the shed. *sigh of happiness*)

I will be able to sleep better after a night shift in our new home, where the bedroom doesn't share a wall with the kitchen..... TO BE DETERMINED

I will get a wreath for our door just in time for Christmas and love it.  FACT

We will set up the tree in time for Christmas, and even get a few present under it.  FACT

We will get our mail key reasonably soon after moving in.  FICTION (the short saga is: we did finally get our mail key, but nobody told us what box # is ours.  Yes, I did try every box in the whole big metal thingy. None work with the key given to us)

I will be able to orgnaize and clean out the garage during the day while B is at work.  FICTION. 

We will have nice neighbors that come over and introduce themselves.  FACT

I will love making nice meals for our family in our newly-ish applianc-ed kitchen.  FICTION (Bjorn still does most all of the cooking)

We will make time for making holiday treats and cards to give, share, and send. FACT.  (I'm so proud of myself for getting this all done! It made me happy to do it too.)

the "kids room"  will stay reasonably empty until we actually have chidren.  FICTION (it's full of gun stuff currently) 

I won't have my share my desk anymore.  FACT

So far, we love owning a home.  It is spacious and roomy and somewhat decorated.... it is ours. 

As one may guess, there are many ups and down to moving. Even if it is only 20 minutes accross town.   Change is not  always easy for me, and making lists helps. Lists are the cure for lots of things actually.  Let's see:

Things I will miss from our old apartment:

1. fireplace
2. built in display shelves
3. proxmity of washer and dryer to closets
4. the random cats wandering around the complex (okay, not really)
5. the closet of shelves in the bedroom (read: a place for Bjorn's clothes without us actually buying a dresser)
6. our ward

Things I will not miss from our old apartment:

1. tiny hot water heater (read: hot water available for very short amounts of time)
2. no grabage disposal
3. no dishwasher
4. the random cats jumping on and off my car as if they owned it
5. the bright light outside our bedroom window (in the back alley of the apartment complexes) 
6. our six foot square kitchen where my 2 people can't even cook together 

pre-feast sisters retreat

playing perudo with cousins.... oh wait. No we're actually just peeling potatoes in this picture

cheese!  A Christmas card in the making!

a fabulous foxtail shot- just had to add this.

moving day!

Bjorn and Dustin loading the U-haul

our (bare) new home!

the duckies have settled nicely into their new habitat

one of our three bedrooms

Bjorn's first breakfast in our new house (eating off a cooler because the table is full of junk)

happy home owners

Merry Christmas!

the semi-finished product

It's true. We're moving.  In exactly 5 hours from this blog post we (okay- Bjorn) will be setting foot inside a home of our own.  Saturday we officially have "possession" of the house, and Tuesday will be our big move day **shout out to anyone in Utah who wants to join the moving party Tuesday afternoon/evening!**

We found the perfect.... first time home.  I am told no home is perfect, and yes, this one does have faults, but for being our first home, it is perfect for us.  A bi-level house with 3 bedrooms, yard, garage, trees, garden,  and a white picket fence.  Need I say more?  I think the fence pretty much says it all.  Did I mention culdesac?  yes. Add that to the pros list. 

The house is in great condition, very livable, but there are still lots of opportunities for creativity and growth and making-it-nicer-ness.  I am tres excited for the variety of projects ahead of us, to get to decorate my own place, and to have room  to put all our stuff!  Neatly organized of course.  

Pictures to come! 

Confession:  we didn't really celebrate Halloween this year.  But give me some credit.  We don't have kids, we both work full time (scheduling conflicts prevented us from attending the ward trunk-r-treat), and we are getting ready to move and buy a house.... so, somehow carving pumpkins didn't get on the priority list this fall. It made me sad, honestly, this is probably the first year I haven't carved pumpkins since.... a long time.  But we resolved to do a go all out with celebrating next year. In a house. hopefully.

Our Holiday Happenings DID include a getaway in Park City to see the new Warren Miller film, hang out with friends, enjoy a nice hot tub, spend the night away from home, and get hyped for the ski season!  The movie was well done, I love how there is always at least some little part mentioning Utah.  We do have the greatest snow on earth here!

And in honor of Halloween we did see "Thriller" in October.   Okay, it wasn't so much to honor Halloween as it was to appease my 10 year desire to see the production.  I have been waiting, watching, wanting for years... Just hoping that someday, somebody would make it happen. Well this year, that somebody was me.  I owe some credit to my sister. She told me of a discount deal they used to buy tickets. I jumped right on the site and scored us seats at Kingsbury Hall.

The Zombies, actors, dancers, singers, choreographers, set deisgners were all amazing.  A couple of the dances were creepy, but most were just funny.  My hubby loved "Jason Jam"  (kind of like stomp, but with Jason masks, and an odd-ball that made us laugh). My favorites were the Frankenstein ballet (dancing like perfect ballerinas alive and dead) and the River of Blood Dance.

My column on our "family wish list" google doc has a line that reads: anything that organizes something.
I did put a lot of thought into this.  And I can't think of anything in this category, that I wouldn't appreciate as a present. (besides a pooper scopper... that's all I've come up with).
This will test my family's  creativity for years to come.  Stay tuned for future posts.

Going along with this theme, my Personal wishing well  (of things I want to buy myself because I want to pick the size, color, shape, etc.) included a purse organizer (for the inside of the purse, not a hanger for several purses.... but speaking of which I probably need that too) and some organizing drawers for my scrapbook supplies.
I finally bought them both for my birthday this year.  and I LOVE them. Why have I waited so long?  All scrapbook doo-dads are safely stowed in a small, white tower (saving space) and my purse organizer has 10 perfectly sized pockets that hold all my purse necessities right side up in easy to see locations. I am in love.  A place for everything and everything in it's place. Feeds the soul.

My husband, going with the birthday trend bought me something to organize my feet it: dansko's ! I have been wanting new shoes for work for quite some time.  I am impressed he remembered!  100 points to hubby.

In the midst of our Fall activities we made a trip to the Pacific Northwest to visit our families.

Hubby and I appreciated the much needed break to relax.  It was great to sleep in every morning and spend the rest of the day hanging out with family. We made desserts, watched movies, went on hikes, played croquet, read, and caught up with Aunts and Uncles.

The trip happened to coincide with my birthday- what better way to celebrate then kayaking on serene lakes, warming up with white hot chocolate, and having both families present for a dinner celebration. I loved it.  Thanks to my parents and in-laws for making the day fabulous!

Sorry this post is sans pictures, just believe me when I say Washington is gorgeous!

Fall is NOT the best time of the year.  I hear and read a lot of posts regarding all the great attributes of Fall and numerous expressions of love with the great season of Fall.  I can't say I share the same sentiments. 

I have always felt I SHOULD love Fall, as it contains my birthday month.  For a long time growing up most kids's favorite month was their birthday month, so I said I love Fall/October for a while.  But I was lying.  I love summer.  I love long days. I love the sun. I love warm weather.  I love the beach. I love beach houses.  I love waves and water and boats and vacations.  I love camping and gardens and swimming.  These things don't happen much in the Fall. Fall means school starts. [blech].  All the pools in Utah shut down after Labor Day.  Fall means cold weather. (minor side note, I do get cold easily).  It snowed in Utah this week!  For goodness sake. Pretty much, Fall is OVER.   Move over  crispy, red, falling leaves- winter is on it's way.  Which means ski season is almost here....

Again, here is my anecdotal tribute to the true nature of the Graham family.

I locked us out of our apartment last week.  The funny thing is, this has happened two or three times before, all within our first six months of marriage.   The firs time, Bjorn was on his own.  He called the Landlord, who was quite annoyed and was very unimpressed and unhappy but did unlock it.  The next time it happened  the Landlord was "off-duty"  she is out of the office by 2 pm every day and didn't return our phone calls.  I sat on the grass and cried as Bjorn figured out a way to break into our shed (with a hairclip, if I remember right), then use his tools from the shed to pry open our bedroom window.  I was exuberantly grateful at his mad "man skills" and he said he was a little tricky, we probably wouldn't be able to break in that way again.
Imagine my disdain when a month a later we locked ourselves AGAIN, on the way to church. I was fumingly upset but we decided to just go to our meetings and worry about it when church was over.  My sweet husband knew how stressed the whole situation made me, so he left Priesthood early to come home and fix it, using the same techniques as before (luckily).  I came  home to our unlocked apartment.
I vowed, after this adventure, to get a spare key (no matter the cost!) and keep it hidden in Bjorn's truck.  I coughed up the $2 at home depot later that week and wondered why I didn't do this earlier.  The key stayed safely hidden in the truck, only being used to help surprise party guests be a surprise.  After that party it somehow must have gotten lost, because when I went to look for it after realizing our dilema last week, the key was no where to be found.  This time it was completely my fault we were locked out, it was getting late, and I felt bad.  Luckily I had just gone inside to get Bjorn's phone (we were trying to do some home teaching) so with that he called a friend and just asked to borrow butter knives.  Once again, Bjorn was able to break into the shed (with the knives), then slowly pry open the window.  He had forgotten which tools worked in the past (it's been almost 2 years!)  so it took a while, but we made it.  Lucky for us, Bjorn's 22 year old truck now starts without the key (don't share this info. please).  We maneuvered it around the back of the house to give us some light while breaking in to our apartment.
*sigh*  The stress was short-lived, ANOTHER replica key was made, and we hope next time this happens we will be in a home of our own!

Our goliath this month is named Calculus.  Calculus has been around for quite some time.  (As has Goliath- see the similarities).  In fact, I had my encounter with calculus over 8 years ago.  I somehow survived, but just barely.  Now, it's Bjorn's turn.  This is his very last class to take his very last semester at LDSBC.  We are almost  to the next step in our journey for higher education.  Only one thing stands in the way- calculus.  Bjorn has been dreading this class FOREVER.  He had some sort of mental block caused by little gremlins telling him he can't pass- and he believed them!! pfhswah!  Bjorn and I (and the gremlins) had quite a few stern talks about Bjorn's amazing abilities to learn and do anything.   We had family night lessons on Goliaths and how they were conquered.  We likened the scriptures to ourselves and discussed tactics we can use to beat our own Goliath.  Slowly but surely, Bjorn came around.  The positive attitude has started to shine.  He has so many talents and can, without a doubt, pass this class, it just took him a little while to come to that realization.  Now that we are a week into the semester, the possible is looking even more do-able.   He knows (as I have known for a while now) that he can DO this!  


That's all the exciting the news in the Graham household at the moment.  Thoughts and prayers for Bjorn to pass Calculus are appreciated.


House hunting has been slow recently.   We did put an offer on a short-sale house a couple weeks ago. It could take up to a year for us to hear back about it, so we're not holding a breath.


We're slowly getting ready to say good-bye to summer.  Our apartment pool has closed, we spent our first and last day at the lake on Labor Day with a friends boat and family members jet ski.  We're fitting in our last mountain biking escapades, and shopping the ski sales to prepare for winter.
Life is Good.

Our biennial Clawson reunion was held at Topsail Island, near the southern tip of North Carolina.  We've never had one on the East Coast before, it was a treat! I'll start with pictures, then explain what I love about this family, and what I love about this location.

the whole family got theses hats for behaving so well during pictures

our beach houses!  These 5 story, 9 bedrooms homes housed all 60 of us. somehow.

my brother skim boarding

brother trying to teach me how to skim board

my brother surfing! This is the first time he's ever tried it. I'm impressed

Bjorn loves to dig in the sand and build sand creations.  The whole family was very impressed with his skills.

chillaxin'.  This is pretty much what we did all day, every day

Grandma with the computer for little ones to skype with the cousins who couldn't come. Notice the light houses on the mantle? That was my craft for the week.  A couple hours, a few supplies, creative kids and voila- 20 lighthouses

one of my fav. cousins. refusing to smile.

a sample of "Bu's Boutique"  Grandma gets a bunch of goodies from Oriental Trading and the grandkids come in to the store and "buy" merchandise with seashells.  It is a tradition all the kids look forward too.

girl cousins with Grandma

the best family picture

Mom, me, and sisters

some of my "clients" from beauty parlor night

8 kids (and parents) dancing in unison to a choreographed version of "Friday" . The most talent we've had at our "untalent show" in years!

my siblings acting out "firebolt" while I sang

a glimpse at the gathering during Sunday's music time

we spent HOURS in this pool- daily!

"pirates wear pants!!"

amazing sunrise seen on the way home from taking Bjorn to the airport early morning mid-week Clawson's:  I love being one of the oldest cousins.   I remember when each of my cousins was born, and have loved watching them all grow up through the years.  I love chit-chatting with my Aunts and hearing about their many adventures in motherhood.  I love the variety of ages- funny teens to talk to, silly pre-teen girls, energetic toddlers, and opinionated elementry-schoolers.   I love our attempts to bring order to this chaos.  (we've actually improved leaps and bounds, but Bjorn doesn't believe it). I especially enjoy our traditions: beauty parlor night (I'll admit this one isn't my favorite, but the little girls are so intent on it!  They don't remember a reunion without it.   One told me "I remember every hair-do I've had at every beauty parol night"!), BU's 'Butique" (explained above), family history moments (the cousins are getting old enough to actually sit and listen to real information)  and our "un-talent show"  Everyone enjoys music and singing and dancing, and we all have a VARIETY of actual talents in that area.  It's great.  And lastly- glow-sticks.  We haven't done this every reunion, but we should.  30 kids with glow sticks/bracelets/necklaces purchased from Bu's Butique all playing in the tide pools in the sand after the sun's gone down- it was an incredible sight. TopSail:  I loved being in North Carolina!  The 3 hour drive from Raleigh to the island was full of large and lush green trees, everywhere.  All of a sudden we crossed a bridge that seemed to lead to the horizon, and ended up on an island.  The houses were right next to the beach, and the combination of warm ocean water, pool. and hot tub every day just spoiled us.  We did play volleyball and tennis a couple times, but it really was too hot and humid to enjoy those activities for too long. Hence, we stayed in the water.  Following various kidlins from here to there.... wandering inside to grab a bite to eat from the half a costco we purchased.  The inside of the houses were incredible.  nice furniture and beach decor everywhere, everything about this beach is beautiful!  I could vacation here EVERY summer.