Merry Christmas to All!!

I am currently reading A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. As Scrooge learned from the spirits the true meaning of Christmas- that being in remembrance of Christ, honoring him by treating others as He would, I became extremely thankful for the family and friends I have around me and have had around me throughout my life. As I was reading the post about my birthday and thought of all the nice things people have done for me throughout my life I was even more thankful. I hope you all have a truly wonderful Christmas. Thank you. May God bless you in whatever you are doing. Merry Christmas!

The Fowers Family Elf

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The Roberts Family Elf

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1st Annual Beard Competition

So the first year medical students decided to have a beard growing competition (I think this stems from the fact that there are a lot of BYU graduates getting back at having to shave all the time). So the terms were you had to be clean shaven on December 1st and the night after finals each wife would get to vote for one beard (excluding their husbands). I think it was more fun for the guys just to have an excuse not to shave. Brad's beard is the longest it has ever been right now, and his hair too. For the competition we went to Bigg's Steakhouse (the winner got a steak dinner). Though it was the ultimate man night (facial hair and steak), it was pretty fun to get together with everyone and start off our holiday break. I really like this picture of Brad's beard (he is such a logger). And here is a picture of almost everyone at the dinner, I couldn't back up enough to get all the guys.

Elf Family

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The Roberts Family Pics

So I have to admit that I loved Rachels family pictures so we went out and took some of our own when Brad's family was here for Thanksgiving. Correction Marrisa a girls in our ward took them, and she did a wonderful job. Check us out.

Special Birthday for Brad

So if anyone knows us they know how much Brad loves his birthday day. I just want to take the time to thank everyone this year that helped to make this the "best birthday of my life, really"-quote from Brad. Not only did Brad get calls and texts thoughout the day of people reamembering to wish him a happy birthday (he loves when people remember) but we had a great surprise for him. The guys had a practice anatomy exam last night, so I had him drop me off at the Kagie house to "hang out with the girls" and he was supposed to pick me up after his test. Well instead of just picking me up we had lots of people over there to yell surprise and wish him a happy birthday. And of course lots of cake and ice cream to go with it. And our friends Robyn and Mike made him a special birthday crown. I am really thankful for such good friends that will take the time out of their busy days to help show that they care. I didn't snap as many picture of everyone at the party, but I did get some of the cake with all 25 candles.

Brad got some dumbells for his birthday too which he wanted

becasue it is too cold outside to run anymore.

Free Zoo Day

Saturday was free zoo day so a couple of us girls with studying husbands decided to brave the cold and head to the zoo. We decided that we knew why it was free, because it was freezing cold and no one else was going to be at the zoo anyways. All in all though we had a good time actually breaking away from our warm ca coons and going to see what other animals could brave the cold Wisconsin winter. We though that we would be able to see polar bears and penguins for sure, well we did see penguins but their water was kept at 70 degrees and no polar bears to be found. We did see some other animal that we didn't expect like camels, a tiger, and huddling peacocks next to the building. We ended our day by sharing a nice cup of hot chocolate and a large cookie. Here is a slide show of our day.

A Jazzy Little Rodolph

So we have been a part of the MCW A Capella choir during this semester and finally got to perform the songs that we have been working on. Before our concert we went Christmas carolling around the hospital, first at the Cancer Center and then at the Veterans Hospital. The Center Center is a brand new building and pretty much state of the art as far as it looks to me. The veterans Hospital was pretty much the complete opposite. Though I will have to when we sang at the veterans hospital we went and sang in the cafeteria as long staying patience were getting their dinner, and they loved us. It was so fun to sing with them and they just wanted us to stay and sing more. We ended with an a Capella version of the National Anthem which I think was perfect for the occasion.

So I am going to try as attach the clip of one of our songs from the concert, you can try and find Brad and I but we are in the back so good luck.

Thanksgiving!

So we were blessed to be able to have Brad's family come visit us in Wisconsin. Since we are poor medical students there was no way that we would be able to make it back west for thanksgiving, but luckily Jenny decided she wanted to come out here. I am so grateful that we got to spend this holiday with family. I don't know how I would have cooked such a good turkey without Brad's parents. It was so fun to host them in our humble abode, they didn't even complain about sharing one bathroom even when we had to get everyone showered for an early day. I had a good experience cooking thanksgiving dinner, I am almost surprised how we got everything cooked in one day with only three pans, well the eggs did get boiled in the wok. Mostly props to the girls for a wonderful dinner. The rest of the time we had fun touring Wisconsin which included stops at Holy Hill, Cedarburg, the oldest used covered bridge, and of course stopping for real Wisconsin Cheese. We also took a trip down to Chicago and had a ride on the Red Line with some amusing Chicago folk (no pictures of that sorry too scared to take that opportunity), we walked around Chicago and hit places like Grant Park, the Navy Pier, and Magnificent Mile and we had world famous Chicago Pizza (it was good!!!). Here are lots of pictures from our weekend.

Here is our fabulous thanksgiving dinner.

Here are pictures of us in front of the cathedral on Holy Hill. We went inside and the church is beautifully decorated with flying buttresses and stained glass. They have an area where crutches are left behind as people have come with them and left without needing them.

Here are some pictures at the covered bridge. It was the last covered bridge to be used, and has been converted to a pedestrian bridge. There is a cute little park around it too which should be beautiful to go visit in the spring.

Here we are at the Bean in Chicago, the sculpture really has a different name, but everyone knows it as the Bean. It is really fun to walk around and see the different reflections you can get.

This picture is from the Navy Pier. This area would have been funner if is wasn't so cold, they have all these amusement rides there and you can also go on boat tours.

Brad found us this place to get some real famous Chicago Pizza, the wait for a table was like an hour long when we got there at 4:30 pm, but the wait was worth it!

It was fun to go walk around Magnificent mile because they had Christmas lights all in the trees.

And there was a really big Christmas tree outside the Hancock building with a million lights on it.

X-mas List

So for convienience I am going to post my Christmas list for my family to look at, and any other friends that may be compeled to buy me something too.

CDs

Michael Buble (Call Me Responsible)

Chantal Kreviazuk (What If It All Means Something)

Julie Moffit (The Stolen)

Jason Maraz (We Sing, We Dance....)

BOM on CD

DVDs

Any new Chick Flicks

Any season of Mad About You

Misc.

Scrapbooking paper, letters, stickers, etc.

Gift card to Joanns

Big Items

Electric Hand Held Power Sander

Running Shoes Asics size 8 1/2 (GEL-Kinsei® or GEL-Kinetic™)(little to no pronation)

Long Wool Pea Coat (this is an example Mom so you know what I am talking about)

And if Santa thinks that I have been a super good girl this year a Digital SLR is always on the list.

Dancing Queen?

So Brad asked me the other day why in the world we had ABBA playing on our blog. For those of you who don't know that I play the lookalike for Agnetha Fältskog, most notable for being a member of the popular Swedish pop group ABBA. It is probably from eating too much Swedish Fish or my love for IKEA that makes me look so much like her.

Okay, so it might just be the Scandinavian heritage and the blond hair that we match on, but still close enough to play their song right?

Got Postcards?

So I got sent this traveling notebook from Brody the other day. It is apart of a 5th grade project that started in Alaska. I guess this is to help their geography becasue in the notebook you are supposed to write about yourself and where you live, then send the notebook on to someone else. You are also supposed to send a postcard back to the class so that they know where their notebook has traveled. So I when I was running errands today I was looking for a post card. I looked at the gas station, the grocery store, Fed Ex, and even Walgreens. I found out they used to have them at Walgreens two years ago. I did have some help though of places to look for postcars, like "try the library", or "they should have some at the post office you would think", or even "I would go to a museum". So I have determined that my friend Meghan was right when she siad that Wisconsin does not exist. Maybe Wisconsin just doesn't have that many tourist that stop by and need a postie. I do have a source that tells me that they have them at the mall, who would have though? I will have to make a trip to the mall to get a postcard and hope I don't spend money on clothes instead.

Leaves Follow Up

So I had to make a follow up post to the earlier post about leaving the leaves in the gutter. Brad was talking to our neighbor as he was raking the leaves, yes I did just rake but you have to do it like everyday there are that many leaves here. So our neighbor gave us the warning not to park over the piles of dry leaves because every year at least two or three cars will explode that way. Yeah I said explode, now that is serious stuff. I can see that it makes sense that the leaves catch on fire under you car and then, poof your car is gone with you in it. I am glad that we had the warning though because with all the piles of leaves in the gutter and the already lack of parking spaces I may have been tempted to drive over the piles and park there. So I am also warning all those that live here too, don't park on the dry leave piles.

The Election Buzz

So living in a state outside of Utah for this Presidential Election has gotten to be pretty exciting. We are planning on voting tomorrow and are really excited about it becasue we feel like our votes matter. Last Presidential elecation we were in Utah and as I felt as most people do like my vote didn't matter since practically everyone votes the same there. Last Presidential election the totals for Wisconsin tally up at 1,489,504 votes for Kerry and 1,487,120 for Bush. So as you can see this state is on the line for electoral votes. It has been pretty interesting to see all the Obama and McCain signs in the area; even to see one house with a Obama sign while their neighbor has a McCain sign. This picture below is my favorite. With the downstairs Obama and the upstairs McCain. I don't care what the polls say, I think it is going to be a tight election and I'm excited to vote tomorrow.

Random Picture Tag

I was tagged by Whitany! I was to go to my Picture Folder, pick the 6th folder, the 6th sub-folder, and the 6th picture and then blog about it and tag 6 more people! (wow 6 people that is like all the friends I have)

So this one turned out to be a good one I probably would not have posted ever on my blog. This is Nate (I will not say his last name in case someone looking at this may know him). This is from one of those times when you have been working in the lab for so long with the same 10 people trying to build a concrete canoe that people start to do some crazy things. Lets just say that we kept the plastic gloves away from Nate after that night.

I choose to tag: Robyn, Karen, Sara, Lora Leigh, Jessica and Meghan

Living like the Wauwatosaites

So when you move somewhere new you know that there are going to be some new cultural things that you will have to learn to fit in. Our lasted Wauwatosa custom is how to dispose of all the leaves in your yard. So first we learned when we got here that the streets are all lined with city owned trees, so the tree in our front yard is owned by the city and we are supposed to take care of it. So if you saw in my picture before the leaves are turning pretty fall colors around here, but with that they also begin to fall off the tree. So since there are so many trees that also involves lots and lots of leaves around on the ground. Then last week I noticed that there were all these piles of leaves in the gutter all along the street. I though that is nice that the city sweeps all the leaves in the street...then someone was talking about how they though it was weird that their neighbor was sweeping all his leaves from his lawn into the gutter and just left it there. So from asking around I found out that if you rake your leaves into the gutter the city will come and pick up all the piles of leaves in the gutter. So on the day before trash day you drive around and see the street lined with large piles of leaves. Above is a picture of the leaves from our yard. I am also posting pictures to show the table runner I made.

Aztalan.

This weekend we took a journey back in time to visit the native peoples of Wisconsin. There is a State Park here preserving the village of the Aztalan people that were apart of the Mississippian Native Americans. The people who settled Aztalan built large, flat-topped pyramidal mounds and a stockade around their village. They hunted, fished, and farmed on the floodplain of the Crawfish River. You can see portions of the stockade and the mounds that have been reconstructed in the park. It was a beautiful day to visit the old village, the leaves were beautiful fall colors and the weather was perfect. One the way home we stopped to pick up some real Wisconsin made cheese, another essential to a day trip in America's Dairy Land.

The ceremonial building mound.

The river that they build their village next to.

We are on top of one of the mounds with a typical Wisconsin farm in the background.

The posts that mark the outside walls of the village.

Chuck, Shay, and Brad looking at the wall.

You can see the colors of the trees surrounding the wall.

Us on top of the ceremonial mound.

This was our stop for real Wisconsin Cheese.

FALL

So as I was on an adventure today with my friend Robyn to JoAnns fabric store I noticed that the trees were really turning vibrant colors of yellows and reds. I think that I had not realized this was happening because the trees on our street are still green. They may not have mountains here, but they do have trees and they line the streets in our neighborhood and look picturesque. So I decided to take some pictures before all the leaves fall off and the snow comes.

This is our street, see it is still green green green.

Oatmeal Anyone?

So when the boys went to Priesthood session of conference we girls got together to have a pamper yourself girls night. First this started off with frozen custard from Kopps. (For all you outside of Wisconsin it is all about the frozen custard here). I had to go with the classic chocolate to satisfy my chocolate craving for the day, but I only ordered one scoop because last time I could barely finish the two scoop cone. After filling ourselves on sweets we went back to Necia's house and made our own spa experience; this included painting nails, oatmeal facials and even the relaxing ocean breeze soundtrack in the background. The even better than a spa is that we all sat and chatted the whole time about you know girly things. Here are some pics of us having fun. I don't know if the oatmeal actually did anything for my skin like it said on the websites that I got the recipe from, but it sure did smell good like oatmeal banana bread, yum!

This is Jessica putting the oatmeal masque on Necia.

I know it looks like I am a burn victim and my skin is falling off, cute huh?

This is our superstar look!