Does anyone still check this?

I wouldn't blame you if you didn't. Things have been going a million miles an hour around here and we haven't done a good job keeping in touch with people, updating the blog, or cleaning the apartment. But we also have been doing really great. Here's a quick update for you. Ready?

1-quit my job at Duke Hospital in June

2-Jessica came to NC and we visited Lacey in Nashville

3-started a new job at Chapel Hill Violins. This job has been a lot of fun and I can't believe how much I've learned about violins so far.

4-went to Utah in August for most of the month. Saw Mandy get married!

5-Got my first violin student

6-Started playing the piano for the Raleigh Ballet Studio. It has been the most challenging, coolest thing I have done in a long time. I can't believe how much I love it. I think I'll write an entire post on this job soon.

7-Joined the Chapel Hill Philharmonia.

Christopher has been busy too! He worked on some very cool research this summer about protein models. He has learned a ton, and we are both happy that he likes what he's doing. This semester has been his busiest so far. He is a teaching assistant, a research assistant, and taking challenging classes. He just got called to be the ward clerk at church. He is in charge of the statistics campout group for Duke bball tickets this weekend. I don't know how he manages to balance everything and still be my buddy.

Listen to this-last week he brought me lunch at the violin shop. Look what was nestled in the bag along with the sandwich, chips, and fruit.

Yes, that is a bag of M&Ms. Since Christopher knows how hot it can get in the shop, he filled another bag with ice and made the M&Ms a homemade cooler. It was a small thing, but it made my day. He's the best.

Looking forward to more blogging soon!

Back to Primary

Hey everyone, it's Chris. One of the main challenges for me in primary is to keep from laughing when the kids are misbehaving. Today during sharing time the teacher prefaced a section with, "Now I want to tell you a story! Some of you may have heard it before--"

"--and some of us may not like it!" one of our boys immediately chimed in. I know I shouldn't find this as funny as I do, and from a kid any older I certainly wouldn't, but with this boy it just kills me because he is completely being himself. It's also especially hard to hide fact that I'm laughing since this kid loves to sit on my lap.

The other choice moment today came from one of the sunbeams. A few weeks ago, the new primary presidency instituted three basic rules that they hope the children can keep in mind. They began the meeting today by asking if any of the kids could remember what those rules are. One of our boys quietly raised his hand and correctly stated, "Raise your hand." When the primary president asked for another volunteer, one of the sunbeams jumped up with unrestrained enthusiasm and yelled, "BE QUIET!" Apparently aware of the contradictory nature of his announcement, he immediately clapped his hands over his mouth and whispered, "be quiet?"

I get more thankful for our calling each week!

Late Post-Easter 2010

I am loving it here in North Carolina, but still get pretty homesick for family, particularly around holidays. So on Easter this year, Christopher and I took special care to plan a great day. I find that planning big dinners, pretty decorations, and fun things to do helps distract me from missing the usual traditions.

Maybe some of the things I do to celebrate seem a little over-the-top. And maybe it isn't very grown-up or practical to have "birthday weeks" and elaborate celebrations for two people. But I love it!

For our Easter brunch we had a sausage egg tart using this recipe for the crust, roasted asparagus, fresh strawberries and pineapple, and pretty chocolates from Whole Foods bakery. It was so fun to listen to General Conference and have a feast in between sessions.

This picture is a little fuzzy, but they turned out really cute this year. I did the pink ones, and Chris did blue/green

I made bunting! It looked so pretty we kept it up all week.

Christopher hid candy for me all over the apartment. It took over an hour to find it all. He couldn't stop giggling. Some of the candy had letters on the back. When I (finally) unscrambled it with plenty of hints, this is what it said. Yay for new music!

Something Therapeutic

Want to know something that can help you when meanies are getting you down?

Here's a suggestion. When I'm at work and someone calls, usually they are really nice. But sometimes they aren't. I just hung up with a very important person who was inconsiderate and made me feel bad. When I passed along the message to my boss by email, I wrote...

"Dr. ____ just called and would like you to give him a call back when you get a chance. His number is 555.5555 and I don't like him."

Then, right before I send it, I delete the last part, and I'm good to go. The idea of actually sending one of the uncensored emails makes me laugh, and usually I feel a little bit better.

Another email, uncut.

"The reason there is no orange juice left over from Bagel Tuesday is because I forgot to put the OJ away so a few of the residents drank all 48 remaining bottles of it last night. I think we should be glad because this means that they weren't drinking coffee, and let's be honest--they could all use a breather on the coffee."

And finally, an email to everyone in the office.

"I don't know who ordered the caffeine free pepsi. Please stop bugging me about it because it wasn't me. I know it looks suspicious because I don't drink alcohol or coffee, but trust me, if I had ordered a favorite beverage, it would be diet, and coke. And it isn't hilarious when you see me in the breakroom and joke about how I have my own personal stash. I do have a personal stash and it is under my desk. And it isn't even caffeine free so I guess the joke is on you.

Thanks!

Melissa"

Wahoo!

This picture says it all. The beach getaway was so much fun!

Hitting the Books

Our plans for the weekend are a little unbalanced. I'm leaving work early today, driving to the ocean with a big group of awesome ladies, and spending the entire weekend in a beautiful beach house reading good books and eating chocolate.

Christopher is staying behind, studying up for his terrifying end of year exam on Monday. Poor guy.

Happy Mother's Day Weekend!

Reader, I marrried him....

Sometime, when you feel bad because your family visited you and then left, and then you had to work on a Saturday morning, and your job is hard, and you are in a bad mood, and....

You should watch this. I LOVE Jane Eyre and the BBC did a great job with the film adaptation. Plus, I always felt like the Bronte sisters had one over Jane Austen anyway. I missed my sister Jessica while we watched it, since she's a big fan of lengthy movies. Me too, Jess!

Since Netflix only sent us disc one out of two, I was horrified when I realized that we would have to leave Jane hanging at her dying Aunt's house, far from Thornfield until we could get the second DVD. Thankfully, after Christopher called all the Blockbusters in the area, he went to Barnes and Noble where he bought disc 1 and 2. For $30. Yes, I am that pathetic, and he is that awesome. Full confession: he did all of this while I was getting a pedicure.

So on Saturday, we watched four hours of Jane Eyre, and had cookie dough for dinner. Hip hip!

Done!

lomography

So I'm learning how to be a ghostwriter at work.

Last week, I was given the task of writing a congratulations letter from the Dr. I work for. It was supposed to go to a resident who recently had a (sadly) not so cute baby....

All it had to say was something like:

Dear Dr.____

Thank you for sending us the picture of your beautiful baby. The Dept. wishes you all the best

Sincerely,

Dr. _____


But you know what? It took me multiple drafts to finally get an approved letter. And then it took 4 days of spending every spare moment trying to print the letter and address on the custom sized paper and envelope. The printer ate almost everything I fed it. On the off tries when it worked, it would print the words upside down. Then it ran out of ink. Since the printer is located down the hall from my desk, I was forced to trek back and forth, alternately pressing "print," then running down the hall to watch it jam again.

This does not help me to have a good attitude about things.

But now I have fantastic news. The letter is finished. I put it in the mailbox this afternoon and it is perfect.

I am prouder of that stupid letter than the mother is of her (not that cute) baby. Seriously.

Peking Acrobats

Want to know a reason why Christopher is such a great husband?

Here's why. For my Christmas present this year, he searched far and wide for tickets to Taylor Swift. I love her. But unbeknown to him, she is supposedly not so hot live. So it's kind of a blessing that he couldn't find reasonably priced tickets.

Instead he got me tickets to the Peking Acrobats. If he was going for the biggest surprise, he probably won, because tickets to a March show of the Peking Acrobats was one of the last things I expected to open on Christmas morning.

We went last night. And it was AMAZING. People were standing on each others heads! Not just on their shoulders, but with feet balancing on foreheads. One trick involved 12 people balancing on a single bicycle and riding around the stage. It was just one thing after another, and Christopher and I absolutely loved it. It was the funnest show!

One thing that made me laugh--when we showed up the concert hall in Raleigh the other stage was hosting Ben Folds. When we presented the lady with our tickets, she expressed surprise that we weren't going to watch him, and were heading for the acrobat stage instead. Christopher jokingly told me, "I guess the acrobat show is for oldies." When we sat down in our assigned seats we were right next to a huge community from a retirement home, on a field-trip. Yeah.

Here are some pictures but they don't really do the acrobats justice. They were also found on the internet, since we're both lame and forgot the camera. (Chris your phone doesn't count!)



Christopher, you never cease to surprise me. Thanks for making life so fun!

A little note

Just a little note.

Christopher--I guess it is only fair that if I make you watch The Bachelor with me, I can listen to hours of March Madness updates from you. Did you know that last night I asked you if you loved that show? It was in the middle of an intense moment in one of the games. You nodded and said, "yeah." So I guess this means we're on for The Bachelorette?

Neighbor/Great Friend--last night you brought molten chocolate cake and your four rambunctious children to our apartment during a particularly tired/stressful moment. Did you know that you are one of my favorite people? And that your kids are adorable?

Job--you are getting better. I wish that I could say I really looked forward to seeing you every day, but I guess these things take time.

Mother/Father-in law-You guys are the greatest. I had the best time vacationing with you last weekend. I only wish that I had not worn unmatched sweat pants and sweat shirt ensembles in every picture, or I would post them all on this blog.

which reminds me...

Blog-You have been very boring lately. Now that I'm feeling more comfortable at work, I think I will try posting once in a while.

Signing off now,

Melissa

PS. Did you guys know that the US postal service is selling 44 cent stamps based off 10 awesome abstract American paintings? Go here to find out more. I'm really excited about it.

Primary

Hey everyone, it's Chris. Melissa still hasn't made me an official contributor on this blog (though it bears my name, too), so I have to hijack her account every now and then.

Today our primary class, while par for the course for us, just had too many moments for me to not record a few of them.

Primary President: Here kids, everyone take a magnifying glass.

Boy 1, looking at me through glass: You look huge. You look huge and boring.

Most of the rest of sharing and singing time were spent helping Boy 2 depict the various escapades of Batman, as usual. He really likes to draw (and misbehave) but doesn't always trust himself to make things as look as good as he would like, so here's how it went today:

Me, whispering: What do you want to draw?

Boy 2: Draw Clayface right here. Do you know what Clayface looks like?

(It happens that I do, of course.)

Me: Sure, he's kind of lumpy and oozing, right? How does this look?

Boy 2: Pretty good. I wanted one of his arms to be a hammer, though.

Me: Oh, well we can change that, it's not too late.

Boy 2: Do it.

Me: Okay, how's that?

Boy 2: Pretty good--now draw Batman over here. Have him swinging from his gun that shoots swings and make him punching Clayface.

Me: Got it.

Boy 2: Clayface can grow more arms for himself, so draw another arm throwing clay at Batman.

Me: Done.

Boy 2: Do you know how to draw a bat-a-rang?

Me, insulted: Of course!

Boy 2: You're really good at drawing Clayface and Batman!

This is the most sincere (only?) praise I've gotten from him--I guess my pictures of the Joker, Scarecrow, and Man-bat in previous weeks haven't really been up to snuff. Maybe I'm really getting better, but I'll let you be the judge.

Work

My sister Mandy has a few really great posts about loving one's own self--she's really easy to love, so that isn't very surprising. But lately, I've been having to teach myself what this means.

I started a new job on Monday, and it was a tough week. I work for someone very important at Duke hospital, and there are so many new things to learn, I still don't sleep well at night, knowing I have to face another day in the morning.

The first day on the job, a woman called to say that her husband's guts were falling out of his stomach...I told her to call 911. It was scary.

Sometimes people are mean.

I make a lot of mistakes. I know that the people I work with probably talk about those mistakes, maybe even laugh about them.

So starting about Wednesday, I started thinking about my sister's posts. About how she loves herself in spite of certain flaws--or rather, because of certain flaws. (She doesn't actually have any of those, but whatever). It's actually what got me through the end of my week. I kept telling myself that I was fabulous, even when my coworkers were rolling their eyes when I asked how to make coffee, or when I thought I looked kind of chubby in my new work pants.

I know that things will get better at work. I know that soon I'll be wishing that I had new things to learn, because I'll be bored with the old stuff. But I just don't ever want to forget that new people--whether they are new at work, or at school, or at church--are trying to remind themselves that they really are great, despite what they may be feeling at the moment. And I really hope that I can be there to help them out.

unrelated photo: of course

Valentine's Day

We had the best V-day. I made a huge mess making Christopher dinner, and he woke up extra early today to clean it up. Want to know what I attempted? Filet mignon with bleu cheese, carrot souffle, pan roasted pears served over frisee letttuce, and chocolate molten lava cakes with dulce de leche ice-cream. I gave the dinner a 3.25 out of 4. Christopher gave it 3.99. He says it's because I wouldn't let him give it a 4 but I know better.

Here's the thing. When the lighting was dim, I could tell that the steak was on the rare side. But when we turned the lights on to clear the dishes, my leftover steak was still on my plate and it looked a lot like it did before I took it out of the package....and before I cooked it....yeah. But on the plus side, the carrot souffle was divine, the pears turned out great, and the molten lava cake's weird texture and flavor was drowned out by the hagen daaz ice-cream.

After dinner we watched "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" which sounds spooky but is actually quite romantic. It features a widow who falls in love with a ghost that haunts her seaside cottage. Kind of hard for me to relate but...whatever.

I love that Christopher will wake up extra early to clean the dishes. I love that he knows I prefer tulips to roses, and I love that he washes down raw steak and weird cake with huge gulps of sparkling cider just to spare my feelings. Happy Belated Valentines!

23

Some pictures from my perfect birthday last week.

For the first time in my life, I was living in a place that wan't buried in snow on January 27. We celebrated by driving to a nearby lake and having a picnic. It was beautiful!

We went to our final Duke basketball game and beat Florida State soundly.

When we got back to our apartment after the game, the door was decorated to perfection by our awesome friends Jared and Carolyn. Yep, we all love The Office.

Besides the door being decorated, there was also a cake waiting on the mat. Christopher lit the candle and sang me Happy Birthday "Madson style" even though it was after midnight. If you don't know what "Madson style" is...well, let's just say, the neighbors weren't happy.

The next night, Christopher took my to my favorite restaurant and then to...Mamma Mia! I was in heaven! During the curtain call there was a big sing-along and everyone was belting out songs from the show and waving their arms. It was the funnest moment! I tried my best to get a video, but cameras are strictly forbidden, so I apologize for the poor quality. Just trying to be sneaky. :)

My family gave me the most wonderful gifts, and Christopher has a way of planning things that make me feel like the luckiest girl in the world. Thanks everybody--you guys are the reason I'm going to love being 23!

Update

Today is the first day in awhile when the temperature hasn't reached above 60. We've been busy hiking, playing with friends, and working on various projects. Christopher has started school but it hasn't really picked up yet, so we still feel like our schedules are very open, especially since the GRE is behind me. Here are some pictures.

This is a canvas Christopher and I painted to go in our living room. I promise that it looks better in real life. We're really proud of it. But I still don't think we can call it a painting, or even a piece of artwork. It's just a nice canvas.

We went hiking along the Eno River Trail at a nearby State Park. It was gorgeous.

But I got tired of taking breaks for pictures. This was the last one we took and then Chris put the camera away. For the best.

lucky shirt

Guys, I took the GRE yesterday. It wasn't fun, and I felt like throwing up at various times throughout the exam, but I did alright! I scored a little higher than I thought I would in the math section, and a little lower in the verbal. Kind of surprising. But my overall score is great, and I am so so relieved to have it behind me.

I credit my success to two things. One-Christopher. He bravely worked on math stuff with me, even when I got frustrated or sad. He quizzed me on vocab words and helped me think of memory tricks for the ones I couldn't ever remember. Sometimes he would read next to me while I studied, just so he could be close when I had a question. For the past week he cooked, cleaned, and did grocery shopping so I could take practice tests. He took me to the testing center yesterday even though it was thirty five minutes into Raleigh, just so I wouldn't get flustered trying to find a new address and place to park.

Two-Christopher's lucky t-shirt. I'm the first person besides Chris to ever put this on. But it has gotten him through the ACT, SAT, GRE, multiple actuarial exams, plus a killer final he took last month in theoretical probability. (Yikes). And seeing as how he has done...well....really great on all of these tests, always wearing his powder blue math shirt, it was really gracious of him to entrust it to me. And I know how dorky this is, but the shirt actually made me feel better during a few moments of the test when I felt hopeless.

Christopher took a picture of me before we left. He was having a rough time getting a smile out of me because duh, I was leaving to take the GRE, and also, truthfully, I felt a little nerdy in his lucky shirt.

Sisters

If there is one thing I love in life, it would have to be my sisters. So when I found out that my sweet niece was going to get a little sister of her own in May, it made me think about how lucky I am to have four of the best.




Congratulations Lacey and Drew!

Nerf

One of the best things about Duke is the generous vacation they give doctoral students. Christopher has an entire month of for winter break, which means that we've been able to hang out together all week. And we've been having fun. I'm using my free time to get ready to take the GRE in just a few days (eek!) and Christopher has been using his free time to watch me get ready to take the GRE. Today when I stopped drilling vocab words to use the bathroom, he allotted me four minutes and then made me get back to it. Seriously.

There is one activity that Christopher always gives me time off for. My littlest sister gave us a Nerf basketball hoop that hooks over the door for Christmas this year. Chris set it up immediately and has been challenging me to one on one games ever since. This morning Christopher killed me while we played a championship game to an NBA style beat on our new keyboard. (PS. He cheats). If anyone is wondering why we just sold our guest bed and mattress, apparently it is because we needed a basketball court instead of a comfortable bedroom for visiting loved ones. Sorry guys.

While I was writing this post, Christopher worked really hard to get a picture of his winning shot.

Back Home

Yes, I've been neglecting my blog this month. I've been in vacation mode and have pretty much ignored my phone and email account for the past few weeks.

But now I'm back in NC. I have so many pictures, and tons of good things to say. I promise. To start, check out this awesome bowl Christopher gave me for Christmas. I showed him a few months ago and promptly forgot about it. But he remembered and I love it!

More to come soon!