A Public Service Announcement

When I go to see my sweet niece at her dance recital . . .


PLEASE TAKE OFF YOUR GINORMOUS HAT SO I CAN SEE HER!

Seriously.

New Year, New Sports

OK, so table tennis isn't actually a new sport for us, but we sure are enjoying having a ping pong table in our front room. It usually only gets put away when guests are coming over. It just stays out and we play nearly every day. It's been quite fun. I've gotten a lot better, but I still have a long way to go before I can compete with Kevin. One of the balls got broken and now is used as the honorary crown of the table champ: it goes on the side of the picture frame of the current winner. It's been like this for a while now (on Kevin's side):

Until last night.

How fortuitous to win on our last set on a Saturday night. That means I get bragging rights at least until Monday!!!

The other fun sport that I got introduced to is one that Kevin has loved since he was 13: cross country skiing. While up in Idaho for New Year's, we went with his sister Kristin. They were pros! I'm glad they were so patient with me. I had a really great time, even if I went down hills like this: (Kristin is in the red coat, I'm in the purple)

I did eventually conquer that hill. But I went down it more often on my rump than not. There's a park near Kevin's parents' house in Soda Springs that had trails that we could go on. We went out twice and had a great time!

Te astept diseara!

Is it possible to feel homesick for a place that wasn't your home that long? Maybe nostalgic is a better word. Whatever you want to call it, I miss Romania! Last night I was watching the most adorable little singer: Cleopatra. I hope I have a little red-headed girl someday so I can teach her this song and dress her up like this. Or you know, any color hair would do. But let's hope I get at least one girl right, because a son might have issues filling in.




Also, in case you haven't heard, Amazon is giving away one Christmas song per day until Christmas! Don't worry, you can still download the ones for the days that have already passed. I don't necessarily like all of these, but I'm really enjoying having at least some Christmas music to my name! I like Silent Night by House of Heroes; Kevin plays Mr. Heatmiser when we're in the car. Only one more week to enjoy them . . . how is it almost Christmas already?!

Christmas Cheer

Sometimes it's hard to think of not only what to write on here, but also how to write it. A few times I have been brave enough to comment on someone's blog who didn't know me or didn't know I was reading their blog just to say "hello, I'm reading and enjoying!" It's hard to put myself out there and delurk myself; but the transition to becoming online friends is worth it. After commenting on this blog, the author came and visited my blog and has commented a few times and it makes me so happy. I feel like she is my friend as she shares her life through her blog and I am glad she can put a face to anonymous readers and feel appreciated for writing. So if you're reading my blog and you don't think I know you or that you are reading, you should comment so I know and can say hello back!

In honor of this post, here are five things that are going on with us:

1) We enjoyed Thanksgiving in Colorado this year. Even though Frontier STINKS and charges for luggage. I'm a Southwest girl through and through. It was fun, however, to fly on a propeller plane: there was one on each wing. Fun, but probably not worth walking through the recesses of DIA to get to our gate or walking out on the cold tarmac. I shouldn't complain; I am thankful that we could fly and didn't have to drive the 8 hours. While in Colorado, my dad made sukiyaki for us and it was very tasty.


We also opened Christmas presents early and my mom made us this amazing quilt!

This is the top of it; we're patiently waiting for it to be machine quilted and personally delivered to us this spring. I am SO excited about this. The fabrics she chose are so perfect and I have been complaining that I wanted a new comforter set for the longest time, so I'm excited that this will come with shams too!

2) This is the first real tree I've ever had!

I watched a youtube video about how to make a bow and attempted to do it for the top of our tree. How did I EVER survive pre-internet? How did anyone ever do anything?!? We have an awesome home teacher that gave us a box of candy canes, which make for great ornaments. I also put some on there from my childhood, and we made some more out of applesauce and cinnamon. I am very diligent about watering her. (I named her Glinda much to Kevin's chagrin.)

3) We taught Gospel Principles last Sunday. Any ideas as to how to make more people want to attend our class when we are practically inundated with Sunday School options (2 classes of Gospel Doctrine, Marriage and Family Relations, Teacher Development, Personal Finance, and Family History) would be greatly appreciated. It's fun to prepare them; I liked how the topic of Work and Personal Responsibility fit in so nicely with President Uchtdorf's last conference talk Two Principles for Any Economy.

4) My company had our Christmas Dinner at Chef's Table. It was very fancy; I was so excited I accidentally used the wrong fork! We've driven by this place a number of times and always wanted to try it, so we were glad to have a chance to try it for free! I actually have no idea how much it costs, but maybe someday we'll go back. It even had a nice view of the Provo Temple, which made me happy.



5) Finally, our place is rather chilly, so we tried to put plastic on our windows. We'll see if it makes a difference or not. We did 3 windows, and with each one we got progressively better with our method. Thanks to Melissa for the idea! I don't even know if you can tell in this picture or not, it is clear after all. I had never even heard of such a thing. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that with this and the space heater we have on a 50-foot extension cord we use to tote it around with us from room to room, we'll survive the winter.


So, what are five things going on in your life?

Never a dull moment

Good news: Orem has an In-N-Out! We are fans, for sure, but probably not as die hard as they come. We've been eyeing the joint as it's been built, just waiting for the doors to open. It was quite fortuitous that I found out it had been opened (a coworker had it for lunch one day this week) and Kevin still didn't know. So, I sneakily thought that I would ask Kevin on a date for Friday night and take him there. Perfect, right? Well, we happened to be in a waiting room with a television on Thursday evening and the news was on. Of course, in the five minutes of us being there, they talk about all the people sleeping outside waiting for it to open. This was our conversation when we saw that on the tv:

Kev: Wow, cool, In-N-Out is open!

Me: Yeah. Look at that. (scowls)


My plan was foiled! We decide to go there anyways, but unfortunately the line was way too long and we were way too hungry. So we shall go another day that's not opening weekend. Instead, we decided to try this place in Provo:


This is a cute little place with the most amazing fry sauce I've ever had. The fries were perfect, too! Kevin's burger had guacamole . . . yum! It was fun to try something new. They have you order and pay when you walk in and then you sit around a bar. The workers come out when your burger is cooked and put the toppings on it right in front of you. They have polaroids all over the walls with people that have been there. They even took our picture. We wanted to put it next to Benton Paul, one of our favorite singers, but there wasn't room. This place did not disappoint. (And I'm sure they won't mind that I borrowed their picture with such a glowing review.)

When we got home, we decided to watch Kung Fu Panda. The plot was definitely lacking, but there were some really funny parts and the animation was quite impressive, so it was well worth it.




I feel like this is the fight Kevin and I have for the last bite of ice cream when we finally do break down and buy it.

Sometimes I feel domestic

Last night Kevin's jeans ripped in the knee. He begged me to fix them, but I refused since they are quite old and ragged anyway, not to mention the ever growing hole in the back pocket that was sure to rip wide enough so his wallet would eventually fall out. So we went to Kohl's since we had a $10 coupon (domestic point +1: coupon collecting; domestic point -1: refusal to patch pants).

We hadn't eaten dinner yet since we were out of cheese (dp -2 for not having cheese and for not thinking of something to make without cheese). So after successful jean acquisition, we ate at The Grill Mex, famous for their $1 tacos. This food was quite good and we're pleased with the find. We stopped at Albertson's and got 10 lbs of chicken for 1.29 per pound (dp +1 for stocking up). Then we came home and I divided up the chicken in freezer bags, even cutting some up in strips and adding a marinade, and boiled the rest and shredded it, also to go in the freezer (dp +2 for bagging and shredding). I also went to bed with a clean kitchen after all that (dp +1).

I guess it's good that I ended up in the positive last night. Because today both Kevin and I have peanut butter and honey sandwiches for lunch. Pretty sure that starts me out with -5 dp's. I might even end the week with a bang if we can win Kevin's Elder's Quorum Bake Off. I think I should practice tonight . . .

On my mind tonight...

Scanning slides has led to some interesting discoveries; some that I am proud of:

Mamma's girl

...and some that I'm not so proud of:

why was I crying?

Summing up my thoughts of today: Should I be mad at the woman that came into my office to pay her bill only told me after I took the check from her hand that she has the swine flu? How long should I have to write the forwarding address on the previous occupants' mail before I just start throwing it away? How is it that my visiting teacher knew exactly what I needed to hear today when she came over?

In other updates, we got a calling at church! We're gospel essentials teachers and will be teaching every other week. Ask and ye shall receive! Also, after being 220th in line at the library to read Catching Fire, the sequel to The Hunger Games, my sister-in-law sent me a copy so I can read it now. I don't even know how I have the patience to write this blog post because I really just want to be reading it. Another good book I just finished was The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt. There is an absolutely beautiful brother-sister relationship in that book that brought tears to my eyes. Please recommend good books to me!

the ABC’S of me

I saw this on another blog and thought it would be fun to do.

A – ADVOCATE FOR: children! Helping them learn but also protecting their innocence. A difficult balance.

B – BEST FEATURE: my hair. I think it's also my nemesis. But it has the potential to look really good if I try.

C – COULD DO WITHOUT: unclean bathrooms. Yuck. I would rather do laundry or dishes any day than clean the bathroom.

D – DREAMS & DESIRES: to be a good mom, to grow old with Kevin, to travel, to see my family happy.

E – ESSENTIAL ITEMS: cherry chapstick. can't live without it!

F – FAVORITE PAST TIME: hiking, reading, blogging, and more recently, running.

G – GOOD AT: multitasking, talking to strangers, being an aunt

H – HAVE NEVER TRIED: sushi. I know, how could this be possible? It's not that I won't try it, I've just never had the opportunity.

I – IF I HAD A MILLION DOLLARS: I'd keep dying my hair red. :) No, really I would love to go on a big family vacation with everyone. I would also save it for retirement so Kevin and I could serve missions. I'd get a personal trainer. And a house. And cars. Not fancy cars or a fancy house, but good ones that will last.

J – JUNKIE FOR: Peanut Butter M&Ms.

K – KINDRED SPIRIT: Too many to list! My best friend, confidant, and love of my life Kevin. He understands me in a way that no one else can. I've also been truly blessed with great friends that have come into my life right when I need them: Meghan, who always let me wear the pink dress when we played dress up; Tawnya, who made high school not only bearable, but fun; Aubrey, who helped me transition from home life to mission life and then back again; Marcy, my dear friend and long lost sister who could listen to me talk about Kevin forever (I'm not even kidding: she knew almost everything from our first date to our wedding day); my mom, who always thinks the world of me even when I really don't deserve it.

L – LITTLE-KNOWN FACT: In fifth grade I was Simba in our elementary school play The Lion King. I try not to tell people that might have access to my parents' old home videos because my nickname from then on was "Stephanie Spielburg." I'm not going to elaborate on why. (Kevin hasn't even seen the video yet...and I'm pretty sure that if he had seen it pre-marriage, I'd be single. Or mercilessly teased.)

M – MEMORABLE MOMENT: Kevin surprising me; I had no idea that a person could be so thoughtful. When we were dating, he brought me soup and Reece's Pieces when I was sick, brought me flowers on my birthday, left notes for me on my car. Such happy memories.

N – NEVER AGAIN WILL I: not ask doctors more questions before doing what they say. I was so naive when I had a kidney stone. That lesson cost me $250, but I'll pass it along free of charge.

O – OCCASIONAL INDULGENCE: Seinfeld. That show is hilarious.

P – PROFESSION: wife, daughter, sister, aunt, friend, visiting teacher. I also answer phones and send faxes for a bi-monthly paycheck.

Q – QUOTE: Never suppress a generous thought!

R – REASON TO SMILE: I get to see Harry Potter 6 tonight with Kevin! Been waiting forever!!!

S – SORRY ABOUT: I love my brothers, I just wish I could've had a sister too.

T - THINGS THAT ARE WORRYING YOU RIGHT NOW: Why don't I have a calling in church yet?

U – UNINTERESTED IN: science-fiction stuff...Star Wars, Star Trek, etc.

V – VERY SCARED OF: spiders. I have nightmares about them.

W – WORST HABITS: road rage. This has softened quite a bit since getting married, but I still could be more patient on the road.

X – X MARKS MY IDEAL VACATION SPOT: Cancun, Europe, New York, Toronto, China, Montana.

Y – YUMMIEST DESSERT: Mississippi Mud. Kevin and I have decided that dessert is our only hope of drawing people to come to our house, and have subsequently made it a secret family recipe. But I might give it to you if persuaded.

Z – ZODIAC SIGN: Pisces.

Mysteries Revealed!

**Warning: Dad, if you happen to look at our blog, don't read this post. I know you might be tempted, but it'll be better if you don't.**

Thanks for participating in my little guessing game!

The correct answers are:

A) Antelope Island

B) The Bean Museum

C) Teton National Park

D) Point of the Mountain

E) Slide Canyon and Rock Canyon (overlooking Provo; this is where the trail to the Y goes if you continue past the Y on the mountain and loop around the back to come out at Rock Canyon)

The winners were our moms and Amy! They emailed me their answers. Some of you were really close! And just so you know, Amanda, Kevin has been oogling pictures of Banff since you guessed that--he wants to go up there next summer!

We've been a bit delayed in posting answers for the following reason:

Well, I was actually working on it alone. And I gave up before finishing because we were missing so many pieces. I guess you get what you pay for: we bought that puzzle at DI for $1.50.

Kevin, on the other hand, has been busy building a Web site: ScanMySlides. We bought a 35mm slide scanner and have been scanning my dad's mission slides (unbeknown to him--it's a Christmas gift, so don't tell). Additionally, we want to do this as a side business. So check out the site and if you know anyone that might be interested, refer them on over! The site also has a picture of little Kevin.

Hoopes clan circa 1986 or 1987; Kevin's the baby

Guessing Game

The past few weekends have been fun adventures for us. In honor of this post, I will post pictures of five places we went and then you can guess where we were. I will send some sort of prize to the winner . . . be VERY excited. ;) Let the game begin!

Location A:



this guy was about 3 feet from our car. no, I didn't touch it.




Location B:


yes that is a real snake. no, I didn't touch it.



Location C:


yes that is a real moose. no I didn't touch it.




Location D:



Location E:









You can only imagine the miles we've added to our car . . .



DISCLAIMER: Kevin will be the ultimate judge as to the most correct answers. The more accurate you are, the greater chance you have at winning!

How to Win at Cragslist 101

I definitely wouldn't call myself an expert, but after using Craigslist a few times successfully (and unsuccessfully), I thought I would share my two cents on how to get what you really want out of Craigslist. Warning: do not follow my advice unless you really want the item. All of these treasures are a result of Craigslist: (cue oooohs and ahhhs)

microwave

couch

piano

computer chair (not my husband)

LoveSac

1. Be patient. Don't shop for things on Craigslist that you need right away . . . you might end up paying too much for it.

2. When you are in the market to buy or sell, look at the other ads for that same product to make sure you know what to expect to pay for or sell the item. You'll be able to recognize a good deal better if you now the average price for the item.

3. When contacting the seller, pay attention to how they want to be contacted. Some use their personal email, some put their phone number on there, some want you to respond to the ad itself with email. If you email the person, include a phone number so they can contact you either way. If possible, include a number that can receive text messages. (My phone does not, so I put Kevin's number on my request for the LoveSac. Had I not done this, we wouldn't have gotten it. We arrived minutes before another couple that wanted it and the early bird got the worm. Kevin offered to sell it to them for five times the price we bought it, but they didn't go for it. Hmmm. Wonder why?)

4. Be on time when you go to look at the item. See Number 3.

5. Have manners. Unless there is a valid reason for you to suggest a lower price, don't plan on paying less than what was asked for the item. 6. Free things are awesome! Have an open mind. We went to look at a free couch and ended up not liking the couch. The guy was also giving away a microwave for free. We had no idea if it worked and it was very dirty, but we took our chances and it worked out! We also got a free printer once that didn't work, so we threw it away, but we did keep the USB cable, which we currently use.

7. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again! We originally found our duplex on Craigslist, but "weren't selected" to be the new tenants. We were frantically searching for a different place for a week or so when the duplex was put back on Craigslist because the other people backed out!

8. Use heycraigapp.com to sort through the postings for you. You just enter in what you're looking for in whichever city, and you will get an email with every new and relevant post.

9. Some items are sold right away, but if you browse in past postings, you might find something that you want that hasn't been sold. The only way to know for sure is if you contact the seller. That's how we found our computer chair.

10. When selling something, include a picture. I rarely look at ads without pictures.

There you have it. If you feel so inclined to help me on my list, any and all Craigslist triumphs (and failures) would be most appreciated!

Island Park, Idaho

Contrary to what the name implies, Island Park is not island. It is a beautiful spot in Idaho that turned out to bit a bit longer of a drive from Provo than we realized. It was well worth the trip though because we got to see these people!

John and Myrna


David and Megan and kids


Amy and Rick and kids


Kevin with his brother Jeff. Kevin got some exposure to wearing the baby carrier.
(I love this picture.)


Stacey and Rebecca
(wish I could hike and nap at the same time, lucky girl!)


Some of the girls

And us at Mesa Falls

It was quite beautiful!!! Not only the scenery, of course, but the people too. Can these cute genes PLEASE be genetic?!?! I couldn't get over how cute all of our nieces and nephews are!

Zion

For some reason, I grew up with a bias against camping. I had this idea that it was such a hassle--after taking hours to get ready and drive to the middle of nowhere, you just sit around and do nothing for days, and then you had to break camp and even after you where home, it took an entire afternoon to get everything unpacked again and back to its place in the garage so that you where ready to go camping again, and waste even more time in the godforsaken wilderness. Well, that bias is baseless. Camping is actually easy and really fun. It’s great to get away from the city, from school and work, and enjoy being together.

A few weeks ago, Tess and I went to Zion National Park in southern Utah. We have taken quite a liking to hiking recently, and so we decided for our summer vacation that we needed to go somewhere with exciting hiking attractions. This was our first real vacation as a couple that wasn’t to visit family. Granted, it was short, we left Friday afternoon and came back Saturday evening, but it was still really fun.

Apart from the amazing scenery which you can see in the pictures, the one thing that really amazed me was the people that we met riding the busses to the various trail heads. I would say that over half of the people that we met were foreigners, coming from Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany (and those are just the ones that we talked to). Their stories were all really similar, they were on a vacation for anywhere from 20 to 30 days and were driving from national park to national park spending a few days at each one. The Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, Yosemite. Anyway, I just thought that it was interesting they would fly all the way from Europe to go see places that are in my backyard. I guess you never really appreciate things until you don’t have them or they seem weird. For example, I lived in Arizona for 8 years, one of which was on the Colorado river, just a few hours from the Grand Canyon, but I have never been.

In any event, below you will find a link to our photo album (just click on the following picture). I have made some comments on some the pictures to try to explain a little better what they are of if you have never been.

Zion

Oh, and contrary to popular belief, it's ZION National Park. Not ZION'S National Park.

I love America. Oh, and pictures of an awesome storm.

For the Fourth of July, Provo has a balloon festival. We got up early and walked over to it and it was quite exciting seeing the balloons inflate. Sadly the weather was too sketchy for any of the balloons to launch higher than a few feet. But I loved seeing an enormous Tony the Tiger! Kevin looked up what it would take to own a balloon and charge people for rides. He can tell you all about it, but I think my reaction was, "Let's get through our scone venture first."

Me with Miss Anna. You might remember her better as Miss Entrepreneur.

On the morning of the Fourth of July, we ran a 5K in Soda Springs with Myrna, Amy, and Rick. It was a lot of fun. I felt so good after it was over. We ran it in under 40 minutes. The run was in the memory of a good friend of the Hoopeses that passed away in an avalanche in February. They do this run every year and last year Kevin and I opted out since we hadn't trained for it at all. I was glad to participate this time around. We don't have any pictures of Amy and Rick finishing the race since they smoked us to the finish line!

Oh, sweet victory!

Can you see us? Kevin's in the orange t-shirt. I think I'm looking at the kid next to us in jeans with disdain because the whole race he would run ahead of us and then walk for a while and then run ahead again. I was determined to beat him in the end . . . slow and steady wins the race, right? Well, I can report that we did outrun him on that last stretch!

About an hour before we were going to watch fireworks, these ominous clouds started rolling in:

We waited out the crazy storm with lots of hail, thundering, lightning, and rain. Luckily it didn't last too long, and we enjoyed a nice firework show.

The calm after the storm.

Fragile

* Main Entry: frag·ile
* Function: adjective
* Etymology: Middle French, from Latin fragilis — more at frail
* Date: 1521

a : easily broken or destroyed (a fragile vase)
b : constitutionally delicate : lacking in vigor (a fragile child)

Today as I was delivering a box that needed to be shipped, I heard an ambulance siren. Before I walked back to my office, the ambulance arrived at the building next to mine and an older gentleman in a wheelchair was being talked two by the EMTs. I am glad that such an organization exists to help people in moments of emergency. I felt bad that I hadn't even really given a second thought to hearing those sirens until I saw the ambulance right in front of me and saw the man they were attending to. Then I wanted to go over and give him a hug to comfort him. Life is so fragile and I think that especially within the last few days I've been caught up in little details that really don't matter in the large scheme of things.

Speaking of which, in Harry Potter 2, Dumbledore tells Harry something like, "It is not our abilities that show what we truly are. It is our choices." I need to be better about choosing. Even one of the lessons that Kevin and I taught at church emphasized that no one "makes" you mad. You are choosing it. If I can have more perspective, and more faith, then having things not work out as I want them to maybe won't be so frustrating.

Speaking of which, I am sad to see a lot of my friends leaving Provo. I know their time has come to move on and I'm happy for them and their opportunities. As hard as it is to see them go, one thing that really comforts me is knowing that I will always have my best friend right at my side. Wherever Kevin goes, I go. And vice versa. Having the constancy amidst the change really helps a lot.

Speaking of which, we have been married for a year as of Saturday! What a fun year it has been! Last Thursday night, I asked him what he would do different last year. And he thought about it for a minute. Then he said, "Let's see, August 6th. I wish you could've come up and camped with us before the wedding." The answer made me laugh because I meant what would he change over the course of the last year, not just a year ago that day. When I clarified, his response was, "I think we've done pretty good." I wholeheartedly agree. There were some rough patches (specifically with my employment or lack thereof), but the rough spots weren't in our relationship. Rather, I survived the rough spots precisely because of our relationship.

Speaking of which, our big move from an apartment to a duplex went very well, thanks to Kevin's parents and sister. We are finally all unpacked and have even hung a few things on the walls. It feels more like home every day. And I would sleep next to our washer/dryer if Kevin would let me...I love it THAT much.