It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...sort of.

Oh how I love Christmas time. The leaves are all green. Average temperature on "cold" days is 55-60 degrees. Bright sunshine and cloudless skies. Sounds like Christmas to me! Wait a minute... What is wrong with this place. Everyone is wearing sweaters and buying coats and warm clothes at the store because it's getting "cold" out. Crazy Texans. This isn't cold. I just got back from Boston where I legitimately needed my pea coat and hat for just a few days and now they're telling me how cold it is here in Austin, Texas. Sorry folks. It may be December, but this is not real winter weather.

I was watching the news last week and the news lady was announcing a parade downtown. It was 58 degrees at the time and the high for the day was expected to be 75. She was wearing a full length wool coat, gloves, scarf, and beanie and telling people that if they were going to attend the parade they had better come bundled up because it was quite cold out. Um, what? I'm not a huge fan of cold weather. I don't love being cold. But now that it's Christmas time I really miss a little frost on my windshield and a bit of chill in the air. It would be nice to see some snow. It just feels more like the holidays when you get to bundle up in fun winter accessories, when your car slips a little on the way out of the drive way and when you drink a mug of hot cocoa because you're truly cold, not just because you like hot cocoa.

Oh well, I am still excited for Christmas. It helps to work in a store because the retail world starts celebrating Christmas much earlier than the rest of the world and I, personally, love it! This is what our store has looked like since the day after Halloween.

These window displays are so much fun. The sledders sled down the hill and the little ice skaters skate around the pond all day long. We have to clean off the windows every morning because of all of the little finger and face prints that appear on the glass. We used to have a little train that circled one of the trees. It was just too tempting for little fingers and it lasted just two days before it was broken.


I also love the Christmas music in our store. We usually have really fun old music from Julie Andrews in Cinderella to Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra so I knew the Christmas music was going to be right up my alley. I was correct. The Christmas music is so fun and classy. We have lots of Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, a little Carpenters and other such goodies. When it's slow I just walk around and sing along with all of the Christmas music.

Glenn and I put up our Christmas tree right after we got back from Thanksgiving. I love Christmas time! It just makes me happy to see the decorations and lights and fun festive things. Even if it is technically summer weather outside.

Thanksgiving back East!

We had a wonderful holiday/ vacation with Glenn's family in Boston, MA and Andover, NH. Everyone was so sweet to feed us and put us up for the week and we had a GREAT time. We've put together a top ten list of our trip. It's rather lengthy. Enjoy!

1. Glenn's family being sealed together in the Boston, Massachusettes temple. Glenn's dad recently received his endowments and the boys and parents were able to be sealed together in the temple on Tuesday, November 25th. It was one of the most spiritual experiences I've ever had to see all of those grown up boys around their parents being sealed together forever. It was absolutely beautiful. I'm also glad that our little boy was able to be there...sort of.

2. The after-sealing luncheon. We went to the Weston, MA chapel and had a nice lunch with lots of family and friends. A few of whom I hadn't previously met. Arthur presented the haggis in true Scottish tradition. Little Nelson carried it with pride to its' place on the table and Arthur's brother Norm made the first cut.

Then there was the Mother and Father of the family shoving haggis in each other's faces. Personally, it made me a little queasy just thinking about the contents of the beast.

The grandkids sang "I love to see the temple" and "Families can be together forever" and Brendaen put together a beautiful film of Arthur, Heather, and the family throughout the years. I want a copy!

3. Thanksgiving day...sort of. I had to be back to work for "Black Friday" so Glenn and I had to fly out on Thursday. The whole family moved Thanksgiving dinner to Wednesday so we could all be there together. Wasn't that sweet of them? Gregor and Amy hosted and their house was stuffed with amazing food (as usual) and lots of family, again some who I had not previously met. It was wonderful to see and spend a little time with all of the family that we don't see nearly often enough. 4. Spending time at Brendaen and Jill's house. They were kind enough to let us crash there for the majority of our trip. It was so much fun to be with them and their little girls. They have four little ones and we had a blast together! We even got to babysit for just a little bit while they went out on a date night. So much fun!
This is my new little neice Grace. She's such a happy baby. She's in a little outfit I made for her when she was born. Isn't she precious?

5. Spending time with these amazing ladies. I have amazing sisters-in-law. They are full of great advice on how to be a mommy and how to deal with our Makechnie men, which I really appreciate. They are absolutely fabulous mothers. They've raised, or are in the process of raising 8 little kids among them and they are all very smart, creative, and well-mannered. Plus, these ladies are just plain fun to be around!

Amy Makechnie (Gregor's wife and Cope, Nelson, Brynne, and Paige's mom), Me, Jill Makechnie (Brendaen's wife and Hailey, Chloe, Ella, and Grace's mom)

6. Seeing Glenn's friends. Glenn has some great buddies and we were lucky enough to have time to get together. We went out to a nice restaurant, visited Loren and Emily's house, saw Dan's bachelor pad in downtown Boston and the enormous ship that he works on in the Coast Guard. Good times! Glenn already posted fun pictures of this get-together.

7. The air hockey tournament. Little air hockey table in the basement + Glenn, his brothers, and awesome nephew Nelson = good times.

8. Card games. We played pounce around the table after dinner for a little while. I always knew Glenn was competitive but I guess I never really understood where it all came from. His family are all so sweet. Then we add a table, some cards, and an objective and look out! At one point I beat Heather to a card that we both needed to play and she threatened, jokingly of course, to throw her card and slit my neck. I just looked at my sweet neice Cope who was my partner for the game and she said, "I don't think Grandma would really do that."

9. The following conversation with my little neice Ella, age 3 1/2:

Ella: (looking and pointing at my tummy) Are you going to have a baby?

Me: Yes I am.

Ella: Are you going to have a boy baby or a girl baby?

Me: A boy baby.

Ella: (With a distressed look on her face) Please have a girl baby Kim. Please PLEASE!

Me: I'll try honey. I'm not sure if I know how to do that at this point.

Ella: How about two. One boy and one girl baby.

Me: That might be a little trickier.

Ella: Please have two Kim. Please PLEASE!

10. First class seats on the way home. Our seats weren't together so Glenn asked the lady at the desk if there were two seats together that we could switch to. She just said yes and handed us two first class tickets. I've never sat in first class before. Super comfy chairs with tons of room, unlimited refills on drinks in real glasses (Glenn's favorite I think), tomato basil soup, paninis and warm cookies, free headphones to watch "Mamma Mia" which we had yet to see...what's not to love?
Thanks again all for a wonderful trip!

Glenn Speaking...

Hey, all. It's me! Surprised? Well, this is my blog too! Kim is really excited to return and report on this last week's events with the "Clan Makechnie", so I will refrain from divulging any of the goodies on the Big Event, but I have some fun (not nerdy) 

stuff to share with you! That's right, folks... GEOLOGY!!! Woooohoooo!

For all those of you who just shut off your brains, there will be pictures! Everybody loves pictures. And there will not be a quiz at the end. (I know you were scarred for life in your last geology class, so we will keep it simple and fun)

I know I have been having a lot of fun at football games and recruiting dinners, but I have also done a lot of geology in the last few months. I didn't want you to think I was slacking off, so.... here goes!

My "Dynamics of Sedimentary Systems" class spent a few days on the Gulf Coast looking at washover deposits from Hurricane Ike. We went out on Matagorda Peninsula south of Houston. There, the storm surge toped the barrier island system, spilling sand from the beach and dune system on the island into the lagoon. The deposits left behind after the hurricane storm surge subsided look a little like lobes of a delta like the Mississippi. They are attached to the barrier island, and build outward into the lagoon. We went and trenched one of these deposits to study the sedimentary structures. The crux: using sedimentary structures (three dimensional patterns made by the moving sand), grain size, and other such geology type things we can say something about the flow conditions of the water spilling over the barrier island during the storm. This information is useful for identifying other such deposits in the sedimentary (rock) record (old rocks) and to understand paleoclimate (old weather) conditions. Here I am trenching.

I spent the week after the Matagorda trip in the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico and Texas.  Those mountains are a large reef system.  You can go into the desert and stand on an ancient carbonate reef.  It's pretty cool.  Since I don't have any spectacular (to you) photos, I'll spare you the details.

As we were flying from Houston to Boston, I looked out the window and saw a pattern in the clouds that reminded me a lot of the types of sedimentary patterns I study in many of my classes.  Take a look.  The first two are my pictures, the third is a picture of sand ripples.  My professor says the cloud pattern occurs due to wind shear.  The pattern in sediment occurs due to sediment transport conditions and grain size.

In Boston, I got to meet up briefly with Dan, Loren and Emily.  It was great to see them, and to see that they are doing so well for themselves.  It is amazing to me that I can be away from my friends for so long, but we can see each other again and it's like we've never left.  I am so glad to have friends like them. (those are Ginger Beers)

On the way home, we flew over a classic example of an eroded mountain system... the Appalachians.  I have never flown this rout, and have never been above this area when I could see the ground.  It was great to see the textbook example of eroded anticlines and synclines this area of the world is so famous for.  (and you thought it was famous for the Amish and soft pretzels...)  Basically, the rock layers in the eastern United States experienced severe folding and faulting during the Taconic Orogeny (the creation of the Appalachian Mountians).  These mountains used to be as tall if not taller than the Rocky Mountains of the western United States.  Water erosion and time have taken their toll, and all you see now is the roots of the ancient mountain belt. Well, the patterns you see from the air show the ancient folding.... with the tops of the folds cut off by erosion. (excuse the fuzzyness... it was hazy and the window also had a really pretty fracture pattern that made it hard to get good pictures)  The first image is a "block diagram" showing what is happening in three dimensions.  Sorry the subtitles are not in English, but I think you can get the idea.

That's today's lesson in Geology!  We had a great time in New England.  Hope it happens again before next Thanksgiving!

Eight

Aubry tagged me a while ago and I haven't made time to respond in a bit. Thanks Aub for keeping me involved in the blogging world!
8 Shows I watch...
1- The Office
2- Lost
3 - John and Kate Plus Eight
4- House
5- Gilmore Girls
6- The Today Show
7- What Not to Wear
8- Home Make-over shows
8 Favorite restaurants...
1- Olive Garden
2- Macaoni Grill
3- California Pizza Kitchen
4- Bombay House
5- Tepanyaki
6- Carrabas
7- Cheesecake Factory
8- Los Hermanos
8 Things that Happened Yesterday...
1- Went to work.
2- Folded laundry
3- Cleaned the bathroom
4- Went out to eat with my sweetheart
5- Talked to mom and dad on the phone
6- Filled the car up with gas for just 24 dollars!
7- Took the plastic drop cloth out of the nursery. We just finished most of the painting.
8- Bought some cute little gingerbread house kits for my nieces and nephew in New Hampshire!
8 Things I'm looking forward to...
1- Christmas!!! Christmas music, Christmas trees, Christmas lights, Christmas treats, seeing my family, drinking hot chocolate at my parents house because I'm actually cold, Christmas trip to Hawaii, the fact that Christmas is closer to February 15th than today is! Basically everything about Christmas!
2- Thanksgiving trip to New Hampshire/Boston.
3- Shopping for Christmas presents!
4- Getting my hair cut sometime soon.
5- Sleeping and snuggling tonight after we both get home from school and work.
6- My little boy getting here.
7- New round people clothes coming in the mail from Gap friends and family day!
8- Seeing the Twilight movie.
8 Things on my Wish List...
1- A trip to Disneyland with my honey.
2- A trip to Europe with my honey.
3- To be done with school some day.
4- Little surprises from my honey for Christmas.
5- To find a cute hairstyle that is different. I'm bored with my hair.
6- For my little boy to be healthy...and weigh less than 9 pounds at birth!
7- Learn to speak Italian.
8- Take a photography and videography class so I can make pretty pictures and family videos.
8 Things I LOVE!
1- Glenn
2- Mini Glenn
3- My awesome Family!
4- The Gospel
5- Vacations
6- Snuggling
7- Art, theatre, music, things that make life pretty.
8- The little material things that make my life easier and more comfortable. My car, our adorable house, comfy furniture, the internet, warm showers, etc.
8 Things I don't like...
1- Nuts in yummy treats. I think nuts just don't belong in cookies or brownies.
2- Big bugs...and some little bugs.
3- Taking care of the finances. It stresses me out, but then again, what doesn't?
4- Cleaning bathrooms. Not my favorite chore.
5- When my house is a mess.
6- When I'm really hungry and I can't decide what I want to eat.
7- When people are upset and I can't help.
8- Being bored.
People I tag...
1 - Stephanie Thomas
2 - Krista Saltmarsh
3 - Aunt Jane

Who does this?

Glenn is out of town this whole week on a school field trip. It bites. I'm lonely. And that will be the end of my whining on that subject.
There's really nothing new in my life this week. I'm just running a lot of errands and working a lot and trying to get some things done around the house when I get home.
Since my life is pretty boring, I thought I would share a funny retail story. I was working in the store last week when I had a run-in with an interesting little girl and her interesting mother. The mother had just purchased some things for her little girl who was probably around 3 years old. They were leaving the store and the mom noticed that her little girl was walking kind of funny. Her mom said, "Oh no! What do you have?" The girl proceeded to lift up her dress and pull some hair clips that were still on the little plastic hang tag from the crotch of her underwear. The mom got really upset and told the girl that it was very naughty to take things without asking or paying for them. She put the "crotch clips" on the register and went to leave the store again. (What am I going to do with the hair clips that were in her little girls underwear? Gross!) On their way out the little girl started to bawl and scream at the top of her lungs and make a real scene. Several other customers were watching by now and the mother, frantic that her little girl wouldn't calm down said, "Well, if you would like to show me what you would like I would be happy to buy them for you, but you just can't take them." So the little girl takes her mom to where the hair clips are in the store and the mom picks up some clean clips, that presumably hadn't previously been in anyone's underwear. Then she asks her daughter if she wants anything else and they pick out some socks and a purse. The mom came up to the register to pay for her little thief's items and when she wasn't looking I switched the clean hair clips for the ones that had been in her little girls underwear because, seriously, that's disgusting. The mom paid for the things and handed the little girl her bag and they happily left the store.
Several questions come to mind when I think of these two ladies:

• How many times must the little girl have attempted to steal or actually stolen merchandise in the crotch of her underpants for her mother to recognize the signs as they left the store on that day?
• How did this little girl who couldn't have been any older than 3 come up with this idea?
• Why would the mother not buy the very hair clips that had been in her little daughter's underwear? Not only did she not buy them, she attempted to buy another, clean pair of hair clips. What?

I'm learning so much about parenting from working at a baby and kids store. Most of the lessons are sort of common sense, but entertaining none the less.

The Quirkiness of me!

Aubry thought it would be a good idea for me to share 6 of my quirks with the world. I'm not so sure but here they are anyway:
1. I'm a little OCD about a few things. One of the things that bothers me is the radio volume in the car. I have to have it at specific volume levels. The volume number has to be an even number or multiples of 5. It doesn't totally drive me nuts, but if Glenn just turns up the volume and it lands on number 33 I change it to 32 because 33 is a wierd number and I don't like it. Pretty scary huh?
2. I'm weird about chicken too. Glenn used to think I was totally nuts for throwing away so many little pieces of chicken as I was preparing it. To me, if a piece has a little red vein through it, it's contaminated. I also can't stand biting into meat and feeling the little tendon bits. If I hit some sort of odd texture in my bit of meat it's all bad. It makes me gag and I'm done with meat for the day. It's been even worse the last 6 months. Meat is very dangerous territory for me at the moment.
3. I always read in bed before I go to sleep. It doesn't matter if we've been driving all night and I fell asleep in the car. When I get into bed I have to read just a page or two before I get to sleep.
4. I'm nervous about speaking in public but I can teach a class of a hundred students and perform in a play in front of a thousand people without feeling the least bit scared. I especially don't like to speak in church.
5. I am not very brave about trying new foods. Less because they make me nervous and I am afraid I'll hate them, and more because I know what foods I like and I don't really care to try something new, and spend money on it, if there's a chance I won't like it. I just prefer to stick with the dishes that I've tried and I always like. That way I'm always happy!
6. Whenever I have a treat that has different colors I divide them up into piles of each color. Then I eat them in order of color. The ones I like the most or maybe just the colors I like the most are saved til last. I know it's silly, but I have this thing about saving the best for last. It gets on my nerves just a little when Glenn eats the "best" ones of whatever or the "best" part of the dessert when I'm purposely eating around it to save it for last. Then I realize that I'm the one who's being silly and I get over it really quickly.

Wow, I'm a freak. Thanks Aub for this frightening journey into my quirkiness.
I tag Katelyn and Jennie Woodard. We haven't heard from Jennie in way too long. I'm not sure if either of you will see this but there it is.

Halloween fun!

Glenn and I had an enjoyable Halloween. We were invited to a party at a fun couple's house in our ward and decided we needed to dress up for Halloween for the first time in years. We tossed around a couple of ideas and ended up with cereal killers. I thought we could just carry around plastic knives and slashed boxes of cereal. Then Glenn said, "Why don't we just dress up as giant cereal boxes and carry knives around?" So we became the cereal killers. We think we're pretty funny. And yes, we are huge dorks. No question.

Some of the little kids at the party were kind of confused. One little girl asked us, "Why are you carrying swords?" Yeah, didn't really think about how to explain that to kids. Hope none of them have nightmares about enormous scary cereal boxes coming to get them with swords!

Some funny details on our boxes.