O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Rich and I bought our first full-sized real Christmas tree this year. We got a real tree our first Christmas together, but it was a potted tree that died (sad). We went out to the tree farm that Rich went to as a kid and we picked out a nice one. We named him Tany-B (like tannenbaum). Sadly, he will only be with our family about a month, but we will enjoy every moment. Especially those moments that we are vacuuming up his pine needles. We're excited to decorate him sometime this week.

Here we are with the tree loaded on the car:


Richard with the tree:


Gretchen hugging the tree:

It's Christmas Time!!!

I went to the grocery store tonight and saw the holiday decorations and treats. But I knew that it's Christmas when I saw the Peppermint Ice Cream; it's The Sassy Lime's favorite! She could probably polish off a half gallon in a sitting. :)

The One Thing I Hate About New York...

BRIDGES!!! The other day, I went to the store pick up some stuff and I decided to take a different way home. I usually take the back-roads, but I took the freeway because I wanted to try a faster way. I've gone that way before, but on my way home I thought there were two exits and I needed to take the second, but that is on the other side of the freeway. I missed the last exit before the bridge. I screamed as I realized this, drove across the bridge, paid the toll (thankfully it was only $1), and drove back home a little embarrassed. Hopefully, I'll get the hang of it soon. :)

Fall Is Here...And It's Beautiful!

I got up this morning and went to church earlier than usual because I had a meeting and I was greeted by the following:

Since I've been living in Utah for so long I have been deprived of the beautiful fall colors; I could only see them from afar on the mountains. But to see them up close and personal this morning, I was so happy. I hope you guys are also having a wonderful fall season.

The Story of Richard's Foot (Continued)

Thanks for all of your concern about Richard's well-being; we really appreciate it. Rich returned to doctor and they have changed their diagnosis. His foot bone is bruised, not broken. It hurts for him to walk on it, so he has it up most of the time.

Richard's Boo-Boo

Richard was at work a couple weeks ago and he dropped a 55-gallon drum on his foot. He was wearing his steel-toed boots, but the drum missed the steel-toe by less than an inch and slammed down on his foot. After a couple visits to the doctor, they determined that he has 2 or 3 fractures in his foot. I would post pictures, but he's foot is kinda gross. ;) He's been taking it easy at home since it hurts to stand, walk, etc. The foot doctor, who found the fractures, wanted to put Rich in one of those ski-boot casts, but Rich was like, "Man, I've got my rep to think about." The doctor generously allowed him to just have a sandal-looking shoe instead; Rich calls it his "gimp shoe." Rich is doing well; a lot of pain, but he's in pretty good spirits.

Telemarketers

Richard was home sick yesterday and today. I called him on my lunch hour to see how he was feeling and he told me about the following experience that he had earlier in the day. While he was home, he got calls from several telemarketers and he ignored them. After these calls, he decided to answer one. Instead of informing the person on the other end of the phone that he wasn't interested in their product, service, or survey, he pretended like he didn't speak English. As the telemarketer said "Hello", Rich replied with an accent "Hello?" The man on the line repeated "Hello?" To which Rich said "Thank you. Hello?" They went back and forth a few times until the sales person hung up the phone with a polite "Have a nice day." I laughed so hard when he told me about this I almost peed my pants.