The Walkers

There is absolutely no way to say this without sounding like a huge, obsessive, English nerd, JERK…. But I’m sorry. I can’t help it. If I get one more Christmas present/card/letter/friendly hallow addressed to “ THE WALKER’S ” there is going to be Hell to pay. “The Walker’s” (with an apostrophe) shows possession. So I ask, to whom/what are you addressing said gift….The Walker’s what ? The Walker’s mailbox? The Walker’s doorstep? The Walker’s Christmas tree? And who is this elusive (singular) Walker? Is it the Texas Ranger? Because if you’re intending to address something to both Brad and Michelle, you would need to put the apostrophe in the plural form so we’re both represented, i.e.: The Walkers’ …However, the question still arises: “The Walkers’ what ?” We’re still dabbling in the confusing plural possessive apostrophe usage. So please, next time you address a gift to “The Walkers,” “The Smiths,” or “The Joneses” (I know, it looks funny but it’s right), don’t misuse the apostrophe. I...

Okay... so many of you know that I was coerced, through a combination of an overactive conscience and a couple extra "K's" in my paycheck, into being the Speech and Debate Advisor at my school this year. Why would they ask me? You wonder. I wonder too. You may also wonder if I know the first thing about Speech and Debate. The answer is no. But they were desperate, and I can't say no. (I guess I need to learn how to defend myself... or debate .) Anyway, last weekend we competed in our second tournament of the year, in Layton. (The above picture is the common area at Northridge High; this was where my students played Halo in-between events.) It was a huge two-day event, and we stayed overnight at a ghetto hotel and everything. I was really worried about chaperoning rambunctious teenagers with raging hormones OVERNIGHT... but surprisingly, things went really well. (Thanks to Becca and Brett!!) True Story: assuming they would be up to no good, I was checking on them every...

Growing up, my family always took part in two sacred holiday rituals. (I realize these are not in order according to timeline, but bear with me.) Every Christmas Eve we read and act out the Nativity. I think it was cute when we were little... making my uncle Wade don donkey ears and crawl on all fours across the family room, with one of the little girls on his back. It's pretty funny actually - there came a point where there were too many cousins for all the "roles", so our parents made up extra animals and characters so that everyone could be in costume. I'm pretty sure someone was a frog one year. SO NOT KIDDING! The other, equally sentimental, tradition is that every Thanksgiving after we've gorged ourselves on "second dinner" (you know, the meal a couple hours after the meal), we watch White Christmas . Anyway... since I've been married, I've had to tweak the latter tradition a bit. Since my kind, loving husband refuses to watch any movie fil...

This isn't nearly as funny as the lemon incident at Ryan's wedding... but Laurel and I were cracking up last week watching Isabel suck on the limes at Cafe Rio (there's a new one in Orem, by the way). I think Laurel drank one too many Diet Cokes with a twist while pregnant, cuz this kid has some weird chew toys.

Laurel already talked about this on her blog... but I'm excited too! Brett got his mission call this week. He's been called to serve in the Arizona Tempe mission. Honestly, it's the last place any of us would have guessed; but it is so awesome! It just feels so right. He is such a stellar person and I know he'll be a phenomenal missionary. My mom grew up just around the corner from his mission (in Mesa), so I'm sure they'll start their own little exclusive "AZ club" soon. Brett's just bummed that the weather will force him to wear short-sleeved white shirts with a tie - a fashion faux pas that, I regret to admit, Brad has been sporting long since his mission. I love them both anyway. Everybody wish him luck!! p.s. Gotta hand it to Arizona for the killer desert sunsets!

Sorry guys. While thinking of my favorites I couldn't help but think of my least favorites. Disclaimer: These are not books I necessarily hate (well, not all of them anyway)... I just think they're overrated. And there's more than one that I never even finished. (So maybe my credibility just plummeted? Oh well.) 1. Huckleberry Finn 2. Sister Carrie 3. The Giver 4. The Work and the Glory 5. Moby Dick 6. Tess of the D'urbervilles 7. The Great Gatsby 8. Jane Eyre 9. David Copperfield 10. Uncle Tom’s Cabin

At lunch today, a colleague asked the question: "What is the best book ever written?" (He teaches Psychology and likes to ask "deep" questions".) I still don't have an answer for him (besides the easy religious response), but it got me thinking. So in true College Times fashion, I came up with my own Top 10 list. (In no particular order.) 1. Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen. This one is nostalgic… contrary to popular (male) belief, it’s not just a sappy love story. It’s all about personal growth, family idiosyncrasies, absurdities associated with social hierarchy, and finding compatibility in relationships. 2. East of Eden John Steinbeck’s spin on the Garden of Eden (set in the turn of the century). It’s really heavy; it deals with adultery, murder, rivalry, prostitution, all in one seriously jacked-up family. But it provides great discourse on innate evil and the mistreatment of family members. 3. Les Miserables Everyone knows this story: survival, sin, re...

Last night, I was taking out the garbage between Trick or Treating knocks, and I just had to have a moment's pause. Like a dork, I just stood in my driveway watching all the little kids walking the streets with their parents, pumpkin-shaped goodie baskets in hand. I'm pretty sure I teared up. What is it about kids in fluffy little costumes that's so darn adorable? And the excitement that they get from one crappy fun-size Crunch bar is beyond me. (Except for the little turds that grab a handful... grrr...) Anyway - it's like, all the magic of the holiday came flooding back to me... (you know, since the fateful year when my parents forbade me to mooch candy from my neighbors anymore) and I was totally caught up in the moment. I'm so happy to live in a place where there are so many young families to participate in stuff like this! Not to mention the fact that it's SAFE enought for them to participate in stuff like this. I'm not saying Payson is exempt fr...

Laurel mentioned that these two pictures looked alike, and I must say... Isabel takes after her best looking aunt. Haha! Just kidding. I just thought - since I don't have any kids of my own to dote on yet, I could feebly attempt to compare myself to my sister's child. (But there are definitely some similarities, eh?) Seriously though... if I'm lucky enough to have kids half as beautiful as Isabel, I'll be one happy camper. p.s. Oh my gosh - I just read the back of my picture (you know - where Mom writes the date and whatnot) and apparently I was 4 months old when it was taken. Um... Isabel is 9 months old, and I'm pretty sure we're the same size. How abnormally fat was I?!

I need to vent. I'm in school right now (prep period). And I just finished straightening the rows of desks in my room. As in any classroom, there is crap written on a lot of the desks. So, I'm perusing the misspelled literature - There was once a kid that scrawled "I LOVE SATIN"... I think he meant Satan - and I come across some teeny tiny words in pencil. It was a very derogatory, very sexual comment about ME. And if that wasn't enough, someone else had responded with an even more disgusting comment on the desk "blog". I have no idea who did it. All the desks were moved around just yesterday, so a seating chart won't help. I'm just so bugged. I'm usually pretty liberal when it comes to this kind of stuff. I mean, they're high school boys just trying to one-up each other. I usually don't really don't mind the swears, the occasional off-color joke, whatever... but COME ON! I know I'm taking this way too personally, but I feel ...

This is in response to Laurel's tag. Normally I'm not that into the chain-letter thing... but I'm supposed to be really busy right now. (For an explanation, see #1.) 1. I have a serious procrastination problem. The fact that I’m even typing this now, instead of grading my never-ending piles of papers when it’s the last week of the term, is proof of my very embarrassing, very harmful, very target-for-punch line, core issue. 2. I have an adolescent crush on my husband. Let me explain: I often stare at his picture. I laugh at his jokes (even when they’re not that funny). I like to meet people who know him or his family, so I can talk him up. I HAVE to kiss him at least 20 times a day or I get hurt feelings. I like to watch him sleep. I’m like a live-in stalker. Basically, it’s an immature obsession… one that I hope I never grow out of. 3. I don’t have a favorite book. Everyone asks me about it, but I just don’t have one. I have lots of runners-up and I’ve had favorite bo...

The Columbia River Gorge! As I was telling Brad on the LONG drive home last week, I truly believe that this is the most beautiful view in the world. I've seen the white sand beaches of the Carribean, volcanic vegetation of Hawaii, sheer cliffs of the Grand Canyon, glaciers of Alaska, and the mountains of the high Uintas... but nothing compares to the view from Crown Point. I may be slightly prejudiced... Anyway - here's my hott mom. She mapped out our tour of the gorge waterfalls from field trip pamphlets. It was actually really cool. We drove along this scenic highway among the falls ...that was I learned was part of the Roosevelt's New Deal, thanks teach'... and walked around to a few different waterfalls, culminating with lunch at Multnomah Falls Lodge. It was so much fun. I think Brad may have gotten sick of our quirky behavior ("How many acres are in a mile?"), but he's secretly a nerd too, so it works out. This is Multnomah Falls... I can't te...

Brad and I are going to visit my parents (and Matt!) next week for UEA, and I'm so excited! I think I get my unnatural sense of excitement from my mom. She's had our itinerary, sleeping arrangements, and menu planned for weeks. This is a picture we took on our last trip to the PNW, at Silver Creek Falls. There's a footpath cut out in the wall, so you can actually walk behind the waterfall and stay relatively dry. If the weather permits, we're planning on hiking to some of the other falls as well. Isn't it beautiful?! I was definitely spoiled growing up around so much greenery... I remember when Brad first visited Camas, he was freaking out because there was moss everywhere. On the trees, on the rocks, on the steps to my parents' house. I love it. And I'll definitely sacrifice a little frizzy hair any day for the benefits the rain provides. (Although struggling with the hair actually instigated a series of haphazard haircuts in high school. Hmmm.) Anyhow - ho...

I just want to apologize for the quasimodo appearance of our blog. I'm too technologically illiterate to know how to revamp it in one sitting, and I'm too busy to have time for more than one sitting these days. So come back in a few days, will ya? p.s. The music will stay off (at least temporarily) due to popular demand.

A Lagoon employee, or as Brad likes to refer to them - a "carnie", actually said the above words to my family and me as we got on the Mousetrap ride last Friday. I don't know if he is paid to parrot the slogan "x" times a day, or if he just really loves his job that much... either way, I was thrilled. I laughed about it the whole ride to avoid peeing my pants, seeing as the Mousetrap is the scariest ride at park BY FAR. Jason hooked up the family last Friday with free tickets to Lagoon and, as always, it was amazing. Brad was on call (not to mention the fact that his reaction to the invite was reminiscent of the Grinch's to Whobilation), so Brett took time out of his busy freshman schedule to be my date for the night. All-in-all, an excellent trip. I urge all of you to embrace the child, or carnie rat, within and take a trip to Farmington soon. Bask in the atmosphere of cotton candy, caramel apples, broken bumper cars, lousy pavilion entertainment, pre-teen ...

Amy just sent us a bunch of pictures that I am in love with! Just wanted to share the love and the copyright infringement.

So, in a recent chat with a new acquaintance at church, I was asked the question: "Tell me about your family." (I guess that really isn't a question, per se, but bear with me.) Naturally, I spouted off about how great my parents are and how sad it is to be far away from them, about all my siblings that live here and how fun it is to get together, about Brad's fantastic family and how they've accepted me (and all me eccentricities) as one of their own... blah, blah, blah. Well - turns out I'm an idiot and this person was referring to MY family, as in, he assumed I had kids and was just being friendly. Those of you who know me well, know that I'm a really smooth conversationalist. (HA! Please note the sarcasm in the previous statement.) And as soon as I realized my blunder, I felt awkward and somehow felt the need to continue to ramble on and on, overcompensating with lame questions, lamer jokes, and a super-lame conversation ender. I don't know why I j...

I figured it's been a while since I've actually put any photos of Brad and me on here. Creepy online stalkers wouldn't even know what we looked like. Actually, Laurel just emailed me some pictures she took during the most hilariously awkward family photo session last week... I'll have to upload the "official" family portrait when I get it. Now, back to the "hilariously awkward" part... taking pictures with my family is always hard because a) there are a lot of people, and b) all of those people are very opinionated and want to be in charge. (We are Lees, right?) But the night went well, even though we lost the light and Brett lost Scott's car. HA! Seriously, half of our train of cars followed some poor guy through half of Riverton and into his driveway. Apparently there was one too many silver Xterras on the road. P.S. I just think this is funny. One of my students missed school today because he had a court date with none other than Mr. Gary Cole...

I know I need to get new pictures on here, but we haven't done anything cool lately. And since I don't think anyone wants to look at pictures of Brad mowing the lawn, me reading Eclipse , or either one of us taking a Sunday nap... I got nothin'. But... Dave, DeAnn, Brett, and Matt are coming out to visit TODAY! (Brett's officially a BYU Cougar and Matt's just awesome.) So I'll get some good family activity photos on here soon. I'm so excited to get some quality family time with everybody! It's becoming more and more rare that all of us are able to get together. But any time we do, it's a guaranteed blast. Brad and I spent last night sweeping sawdust off the basement floor to make room for the ping pong and pool tables. Let the tournament begin! (Melinda, you're invited by the way.)

School officially starts tomorrow! I get the feeling that I should be a lot more nervous than I am, given the fact that I secretly don't know what I'm doing. All the other new teachers seem to be freaking out, but honestly, I'm okay. Except for the fact that I can't pronounce half of the kids' names on my roll (mothers of the world, please name your kids phonetically! "Unique" spellings are just confusing). But I'm not super excited either... is that weird? Have I already reached the veteran, near-retirement, bored, dead inside stage? I hope not. Maybe reality just hasn't set in yet. Hmmm... we'll see how I fare after tomorrow. Any advice to get me pumped up?

I think the sure sign that you have "made it" in the entertainment industry is when The Simpsons immortalizes you in yellow. I mean, take a look at the greats... Paul McCartney, Conan O'Brien, Alec Baldwin, Bono, all the N'Syncers. Well, I sent Matt Groening an audition tape, but I don't think he's interested in a high school teacher slash novice karaoke singer cameo for next season. Even if I do know all the words to the Spice Girls' "Wannabe" rap. Needless to say, when I saw the Burger King posters advertising the opportunity for Brad and me to become Springfielders online, I swallowed my Whopper Jr. (and Duff Beer) whole and skateboarded home as fast as I could, racing my whole family to the couch, where something kooky happened to the tune of some familiar music... you know the rest. If you can't resist the temptation either, www.simpsonizeme.com

A few months ago Brad planned a Mexico vacation for our two year anniversary. We were excited because we found a pretty good deal for an all-inclusive hotel, so I rushed out and got a passport and started making plans. Then reality set in. We're trying to finish our basement and the bills are starting to add up. So instead of spending mucho dinero on a needless trip, we decided to buy the rest of our lumber and pay a professional to come install the heating and air (because we all know that if we try to do it ourselves, someone will get electrocuted). Anyway - the money was re-allocated to the basement fund, and our Mexico trip was cancelled. Brad was actually really cute about it... be felt like he was selling me short, but I promise, it was my idea. I hate being a responsible adult! Wow - long introduction... so, we decided to still take some vacation time but do something a bit less expensive. We went out to California to visit Brad's siblings Amy & Frank and Adam & ...

Okay, so Brad and I are big nerds (I think you already knew that), and we have read all the Harry Potter books together. As in - we read them out loud to each other and Brad does voices. So even though The Deathly Hallows has been out for a couple weeks now, we just barely got time to read it while driving to and from California this past week. (Hence the lapse in posts, sorry!) And let me tell you, it's AMAZING! I loved it and I really don't think the series could have ended any better. Everything from the previous books is wrapped up so well... I won't give anything away to those still reading or who may read it in the future (even though it may have already been ruined by my sneaky, read-the-last-page-first sister). I laughed, I cried, I swooned, I panicked, I cheered, and I'm kind of sad that the saga is over.

It took me all morning, but I think I've finally figured out how this contraption works. Notice the buddy list, the music, the wonderment? The sad thing is, that I have all my textbooks in front of me that need to be turned into lesson plans for classes that start in less than three weeks (ahhh!) and I can't stop fiddlin' with this blog! Talk about procrastination! It's actually a classic pattern for me... whenever I have something really important to do, a myriad of before-meaningless projects suddenly gain precedence. So - today I'm blogging instead of learning Debate (those who can't do, teach, right?), and in all likelihood, tomorrow night my house will be spotless but my brain will still be empty. Oooh... unless I get really ambitious and start reading New Moon because I'm dying to find out what happens to Bella and Edward! Not to mention Harry Potter and co. Crap. I'm so screwed.

I totally stole this photo from Laurel's blog but I'm in love with it! Isabel is almost six months old now and she's adorable. She's so fun to play with, "talk to," and show off when I tote her around town. The only problem is, that every time I take her to Smith's, I run into my students who are thick enough to think she's mine. But one girl did tell me she was "like, cute enough to like be in commercials and stuff". Hmmm... what do you think Laurel?

Brad and I just got back from a week-long trip in Washington DC, visiting our friend Travis. That's right, I'm claiming him as my friend too. Our days were spent traipsing around town getting blisters on our feet and bruises on our bodies (I got caught in a metro door... who's surprised?), and our nights were spent watching episode upon episode of Entourage . Where has this show been all my life? This is the ceiling of the big dome in the Capitol Building. No picture can do this justice! Brad and I agree that this was the best tour we went on... every little detail of this building was stunning. Thanks to Senator Hatch, we were able to get tickets to the Capitol, the Library of Congress, and the White House, where we met President David Palmer. Haha just kidding. But really, he's the best fictional president this country has ever had. Here's Brad and his first love at the Nats game. We owe Travis big time for sacrificing a few days' work at his big shot govern...

This picture is kind of old... but I just have to show off my cute niece Ava. She was fascinated with this fountain on our last trip to California. (That's Jessalyn's hand holding onto Ava's shorts - it was hard keeping her dry.) We're going out again next month, so I'll get current pictures of both Ava and her baby brother Koben soon.

This summer we had the amazing opportunity to go to Oahu with Brad's parents, his sister Andy, and her friend Hillary. We got to stay in a beautiful beach house right on the coast near Laie. We did all the "touristy" stuff... Hanauma Bay, the Polynesian Cultural Center, Waikiki, the Dole Pineapple Plantation, Diamond Head, and of course, Matsumoto's (shaved ice with ice cream in the bottom... yummy). But my favorite thing was probably touring Pearl Harbor. It's definitely eerie seeing the sunken ships and memorabilia in the museum, but it has such a tranquil, respectful atmosphere. Anyway - it was a fantastic vacation full of great memories we'll never forget. Thanks for inviting us Allyn and Marsha!!