It's been a busy week--especially after the Monday holiday. I had a great time going to St. George to help celebrate Grandma Pearson's 90th birthday. She is a really nice lady and it was good to get to talk to her. She has been struggling a bit with her health lately. It was nice to have so many people there to celebrate her birthday. Here's a picture of her with most of her children.

It was also good for me to meet more of Andy's cousins, aunts and uncles. In many cases, I had never met them and in some cases they had come to our wedding, but I had a vague recollection of who they were and how they were related to Andy.

It was also fun to drive with Andy's brother's family there and back. The boys were surprisingly well behaved. Of course they got restless at times, but usually, a new toy or something would resolve the situation. At one point, Evan (who is 3 years old) asked his mom, "When did I swallow a ball?" To which, his mom says, "You didn't swallow a ball." Evan, insisting that he did swallow a ball, points to his ankle and says "There's a ball right there!" So funny.

Meanwhile, Andy had a great weekend in North Carolina. Emma spent a couple nights with him. One thing Andy loves to do is to make up scavenger hunts for Emma. This time, he had hidden a disposable camera for her to take pictures with. We're in the process of getting those pictures developed, so I'll post them when we get them back. On Andy's last day there, Emma tried to get Andy to stay another day so they could have more time together. So he obviously puts a lot of effort into having a good time with Emma.

I'm looking forward to my "procedure" on February 4th. It will be nice to not have as many sore throats as I have been.

Bring on the Ice Cream!!!!!!

This weekend, Andy and I will be traveling...but not together or to the same places. Andy will be going to NC to visit Emma. He leaves tonight and will get back on Monday. I will be going to St. George with Andy's family for his Grandmother's 90th birthday celebration. We will be leaving Friday afternoon and coming back on Sunday.

I met with an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist yesterday and he said that I could get my tonsils out!!! I am so excited. I have been having frequent sore throats for well over a year now and I'm sick of it. As the doctor explained it to me, your tonsils don't really serve a purpose after about age 4. Sometimes peoples' tonsils become like an old, dirty sponge and the bacteria just hangs out and your tonsils can easily become infected. That's exactly how I have been feeling! It's as if I've got some petri dishes at the back of my throat. As soon as I can determine when would be a good time for me to get them out, as far as work is concerned, I will be scheduling the surgery. The doctor told me to anticipate not going to work for about a week after the surgery, but considering the fact that I work from home, I'm wondering how wiped out I will be. A week seems like a long time.

What's up?!?!

So here are a few things that are going on around here...

Andy started back to school yesterday. He has two back-to-back classes on Wednesdays; a Corporate Taxation class and a Management Decision Making class. As Andy's mom pointed out, the tax class sounds like a real bore, but Andy is really excited for it. He can't wait to learn the ins and outs of effective estate planning etc. He's a strange boy, but I like his enthusiasm. The nice thing is that I have weekly YW activities on Wednesday nights this year, and we will have our Saturdays together...finally. Well...until my ceramics class starts up on Saturdays in February.

I auditioned on Tuesday night for the Orange County Mormon Choir. I got in to the Women's Choir and was notified that if I want to be in the mixed choir, I could, but I would have to recruit a guy to audition and be accepted into the choir as well. Being the good husband he is, Andy said he would audition if I wanted to be in both choirs. What a nice boy! My first rehearsal is tonight.

The other thing that is occupying our time is the possibility of going to China this March. Initially, we were thinking about going to China AFTER the Olympics--in April 2009. However, my friend, Anne, has been in China for the last 4 months or so teaching English at Beijing University. She decided to extend her contract for an additional 6 months. So it makes a lot of sense for us to try to go while she's still there. Andy will be between quarters at UCLA, so the timing works out in that regard. In addition to that, Andy has a cousin who will be getting released from her mission in Hong Kong in March and her parents (Andy's Aunt and Uncle) are planning on going to China before they go to HK to pick her up. Andy's dad is also considering going with us. On top of all that, Andy and I have a friend who is in Korea teaching English and he is interested in joining us for a weekend trip while we're there too!

So if you're interested in joining us, let me know!! I know it's last minute, but as Andy reminded me, we were able to plan a wedding in about as much time. We have not purchased our tickets yet. We're waiting to talk to Anne before we solidify our plans.

The other thing we've been doing is thinking about buying a new digital camera. The one I had broke a couple years ago and we've been using one that Andy bought probably 5 years or so ago. Technology has come a long way since his camera came out and we were more than a little frustrated with the quality of pictures we ended up with from our trip to Italy. About 25% of the pictures we took were too blurry or dark to use. So if you have a camera you LOVE, please let us know!! I'm not sure I'm ready to take the SLR plunge and Andy wants video capabilities. We're considering something along the lines of a Canon Power Shot A720 IS or Fuji Fine Pix F50fd. Please give us feedback if you're familiar with either one.