Wednesday, December 30, 2009

China City

In my family, it is tradition that if you earn a 4.0 in a semester, you get a dinner at any restaurant of your choice. Chris's choice for his FIFTH college 4.0: China City in American Falls, ID.

We invited everyone around to join, and they did.

Chris, David, and Heather


Jane and Laura
stupid brace


Charyl (David's wife--and that's pronounced CH-aryl...like Charlie and Sheryl combined), Craig, and Janet


Megan


and the fried rice that didn't fit on the table.

You may have guessed that China City is a Chinese restaurant. I do not like Chinese food, other than fried rice. So, I had a chicken sandwich instead. If you go to China City, I suggest you get the Chinese food instead...they are better at making that. Although, I will admit that I was pleasantly surprised by the fries.


That's the new digital camera I got for Christmas. If I'm intentionally headed out to take pictures, I certainly want to use our fancy Canon camera. But for those spur of the moment, that will make a funny blog post, adventures, Chris gave me this camera to carry in purse. That way, I'll always have it handy.

So, of course, the first time I pull it out, the memory card is in the bag of the other camera. Lame. Meaning all these pictures were once again taken by my cell phone camera.

We spent about six days with my family in Salt Lake and three-ish days in Idaho with Chris's family. Of that visit, I only have one picture, taken at Mr. Libby's house.


We had a good time chillin' in Aberdeen, but it's really really REALLY nice to be home again!

Sunday, December 27, 2009

written one word at a time by six people

Thrice cooked eggs are green and fragrant. The necessary steps for opening the flamethrower are written on a scroll in Madagascar. These eggs and flamethrower were preserved by nameless French Indians who walked on fire and sang endlessly. These implements were spinning in liquid nitrogen which was think and precarious and yellow. Some natives of Marysville discovered how cereal mixed in these potatoes caused a flamethrower to ignite Chicago. The conflagration flickered magnificently which resulted in thrice cooked green fragrant broccoli and eggs. Construction crews saw aboriginal artwork at the site of the reconstruction. Flamethrowers permeated the gemstone conference hall causing bloody noses. The bloody scene sketched spectacular sunrises upon the ceiling!

as usual, you had to be there

Saturday, December 26, 2009

in mostly chronological order


The Phillips Party

Christmas Eve

My dad's family all gathered at my parents' house for our annual Christmas Eve party.



We spent a chunk of the evening discussing the fact that we never do anything at this particular party except eat. And yet, we managed to...

let the kids open presents,


try on some new footwear,



...it was a little big

create some art,


watch some dog wrestling,


and get in a nap or two.


We also donned our new pajamas from the Pajama Fairy. (notice my stupid brace?)


I think Megan's were the cutest.


They even matched Lisa's.



The Booty
Christmas Morning

Before



After


can you find the hidden surprise?

Highlights

Christopher
air compressor, table saw (not pictured), frying pan,


and a piece of paper


Upon checking his email, Chris learned that I had given him a one year membership to the website Digital Blasphemy. They have really cool desktop backgrounds. Check it out. A few of them are free.

Laura

full M*A*S*H series on dvd


Jane
Barbie cd player with 8 cds of kid songs, two new dolls, dishes for her kitchen (holy cow, she loves those dishes, and we aren't even home to use them in her kitchen yet)

(and I don't have a picture of them either)

Megan
purple cabbage patch doll


Megan is the one in the middle, in case you couldn't tell.

Question:
What's wrong with this picture?



Answer:


Did you notice the hidden image above?


And a shout-out to those who received our special holiday phone carol.



The Pyper Party

Christmas Day


playing some games


singing some songs


and lookin' cute in red



Miscellaneous
today


Jane felt it was important that Megan hears her share of stories.


And I felt it was important that Megan receive the patented cold rag fix-all first aid when I accidentally scratched the top of her head with my wedding ring. I guess my ring isn't entirely child-friendly. Thanks for the help, Morgan.


~~~~~


it was a good Christmas

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Emergency Christmas Graduation

We have had a lot of adventures in the last week--some planned, some definitely UNplanned--that have all been occupying or tiring enough that I haven't gotten them posted. I generally don't like posting too many events all at once, but I want to get this all out there before Christmas or they will end up lost in the shuffle.

~

Brenda's Graduation
Saturday, December 19


Brenda graduated from BYU-Idaho, and the four of us made the trek up to Rexburg and back on Saturday to take part in the festivities. We went to Chris's graduation only a week before Brenda's, and I noticed a few distinct differences between USU and BYU-I commencement ceremonies...

Graduation started with an opening hymn and prayer.

The speeches given were about paying tithing and listening to the Spirit.

An organist played Christmas hymns while the diplomas were being awarded.

And, my favorite, there was a mother's lounge in the auditorium's restroom.

Congratulations, Brenda, on finishing college!

~

Petty Christmas Party
Sunday, December 20

We drove to Draper on Sunday (and back, after driving to Rexburg on Saturday...) for my mom's family's Christmas party. Oddly enough, we have all grown a bit since we were kids, and all the cousins, spouses, and extra children no longer fit as well in Grandma's house as we used to.


In addition to the regular relatives, there were five great-grandkids in attendance:


Luke (in the camouflage--this was the only picture I managed to get of him)




Jane




Trey




Dalton





Blade




and Megan

And, of course, the progenetors of this large group:


Grandma Petty


and Grandpa Petty

It was the first time Grandma and Grandpa had met Megan, so we had to take the chance to get a four-generation picture with Grandma, me, my mom, and the girls.


On our way to Salt Lake, we saw a cool-looking shadow. I'm not sure how this worked out, but it grabbed our attention enough to take a picture. You can see the white line of smoke from a plane, and to the left is the gray shadow of that line of smoke.


I'm going to miss this drive when we don't live in Logan anymore.


I'm also going to miss pajama parties with the Datwylers!

random picture, I know, but it was just too cute to leave out

~

Megan in the Emergency Room
Sunday, December 20-Monday, December 21

When we got home from Salt Lake on Sunday night, Megan felt really warm when I got her out of the carseat and was holding her. The thermometer revealed her temperature to be 103.8.

For those of you who may not know, the recommendation for children under 3 months is a temperature over 100.4 warrants an immediate trip to the doctor. 103.8 is significantly higher than 100.4. So, after talking to the pediatrician on call, we headed across town to the emergency room at 10:30 at night.

The initial examination did not reveal any likely cause for the fever, so they had to draw blood and take a urine sample (via catheter) to run some tests.


Yes, my infant daughter is lying on a table with a needle sticking out of her arm and two strange men leaning over her--and I stopped to take a picture. They wouldn't let me touch her while they were drawing blood. I had to do something.

We didn't leave the hospital until after 1:00 that morning. We were kind of tired while we were waiting for the test results.


In the end, it turned out that Megan has a urinary tract infection (sound familiar? like mother, like daughter). The nice thing was that the test was very obviously positive, so the doctors were very confident that it was that infection causing the fever. It was also nice because it is easily treatable with antibiotics. And, I confess, it was also nice to have a good reason for having to go to the emergency room. It's nice to know you've spent lots of money for a real purpose.

Megan is doing fine now. She had one large shot of antibiotics in the emergency room and another at the pediatrician's office the next morning. Now we have some oral antibiotics we give her morning and evening. We'll go back to the doctor next week to go over the cultures and determine if we have to take any preventive measures so this doesn't happen again.

Jane, while all of this was happening, was home with a friend and neighbor from our ward. He came over and slept on the couch while she was in bed. She did wake up once, and he went and ending up reading her a story. I have to imagine that it was pretty bizarre for Jane to wake up to find some guy she didn't know. She never woke up again--it was probably easier to just ignore it and go to sleep than try to figure out what was going on.

~

Laura in the Instacare
Wednesday, December 23

When I first became a teacher, I bought a pair of slip-on Born shoes. I bought Born because I had heard that they last a long time and are good if you're on your feet all day. (I bought slip-ons because I was pregnant at the time and it was too hard to bend over to tie my shoes.) The shoes have served me quite well for the last two and a half years, with one large exception.


Notice the traction? Oh, wait, THERE ISN'T ANY.

During the majority of the year, this doesn't matter. During the winter, however, this has slip on the ice and die written all over it. So, I bought these.


Basically just studs sticking out, they work quite well for gripping ice and snow. When I have these on, I am much more confident--and safe--in slick walking conditions.

But if I'm in a hurry to get into the car because we're late for an appointment with a mortgage broker and I have them in my hands instead of on my shoes with the idea that I'll put them on in the car on the way to the appointment...I'll end up here instead.


Thank goodness, my arm isn't broken. But it is severely sprained. I have a large brace to wear night and day and a full compliment of ibuprofen. It certainly makes life more complicated to have only limited use of my right hand. And picking up a baby shouldn't be painful, but it is now.

The really lame thing is that I slipped and fell on a wet floor at school early last week, so I had already been wearing a smaller brace on my right hand. That injury, though, was such that if I had the brace on to somewhat restrict movement, I could pretty much do anything I would have anyway and it didn't hurt. Now, I have a much larger brace on that restricts movement to a much greater extent, and it HURTS way more. But because I have already been wearing a brace (which I didn't have on when I fell this time, ironically), it doesn't appear that I'm hurt any more than I was. Lame.

~

We are back in Salt Lake again for Christmas and house-hunting. Exciting updates on those coming soon. Be excited.