Scrap happy?

In literally a matter of days I’ve developed a sudden fondness for scrapbooking. This is interesting to me, primarily because I’ve never really cared about it before. I had a phase when I was 14 when I managed to scrapbook a good two or three albums. Looking back, they were the days of white paper and patterned scissors so it’s probably good that I stopped.

But this week I’m feeling crafty. Go figure. The funny thing is that I spend much of my work day trying to appeal to the crafty type, and I often feel like I come up short. I often complain that I have a hard time relating to these creative women that are really passionate about something I only do at enrichment nights or when I’m with my intimidatingly talented mom and sisters. Yet here I am on a Friday night scheming of ways to organize my pictures and get started. I even stopped at a craft store on the way home from work to buy cardstock. I almost wanted to tell the girl at the checkout that I never do this, just so she’d appreciate the sell.

I think this sudden urge comes from an almost desperate need I feel to be close to my family and to properly record my memories of them. I just can’t get enough of family lately, and it’s borderline unstable—you know when you cry during “Finding Nemo” that something is up. I’m also testing out a craft tool from work and to my surprise I kinda like it. Today at work I found myself calculating how I could use the tool to do a cute page for our honeymoon. What is going on?!

But despite my reservations, I’m going with the feeling. Perhaps this all will pass and I’ll be left with a brand new pile of cardstock to put in our closet. Or maybe I’ll actually follow through and make something I’ll be too embarrassed to show all my real scrapbooking friends. Who knows.

P.S. Since I’m on such a family kick, here are some pics from our recent visit with the Dunlops:

Jakey

We returned from Jake's funeral on Monday. Both Doug and I were able to drop work and school fairly easily and head out to NJ for a few days. It was so good to be with Jenn and Travis, and it was an extra bonus to see my parents and all my sisters again. We got through the weekend the Dunlop way—a lot of laughter and a lot of crying. The funeral services were just beautiful, and I would guess at least 150 people came. I think that's pretty impressive for a guy that was only around for 6 months, especially since only a fraction of us there had been able to meet him. The funeral was truly a celebration of his short little life. Most of his nurses from the Children's Hospital came and it meant a lot to us to be able to thank them for helping Jake day after day. He was buried at a very historic cemetery in Princeton (right by the University—President Grover Cleveland is buried there too… fancy) and it's a great spot to go and remember Jake.
Jenn and Travis are rocks. Seriously. They were really open and they encouraged us to ask questions if we wanted to about his last day and anything else that happened. Apparently Jake's autopsy revealed that his heart was so damaged from birth that excessive stress would have take him eventually. The doctors literally did everything they could. Jenn and Trav both spoke at the funeral and I was in awe of their strength. They are way sick of hearing that, but this is my blog and I can say what I want.
Lexi is hanging in there too. As the casket passed by her at the funeral, she asked, "Is that my baby in there?" (That kills me.) They say she's mourning the way a typical 4 year old would, keeping really busy and periodically getting really sad. She sang, "I am a Child of God" at the funeral with one of Jenn's friends, and she just couldn't be any cuter. We sure do love the Meyerson fam. It's amazing how much we still miss Jake, but the trip sure gave me a lot of closure.

Baby Jake

Jacob Travis Meyerson
August 21, 2006 to February 16, 2007

Our nephew Jake passed away yesterday evening. After his surgery on Thursday, his little heart just gave out. He was such an example of strength to us--he endured more than any little guy should have to. We're grateful for the gospel that teaches us that even though he's gone, our family can still be together forever. Please pray for Jenn and Trav--I know they'll need the Lord's help getting through this.

Valentine-tastic

This week heralds Valentine's Day 2007, and we're quite excited. Doug has class that night (and the professor didn't cancel it... communist), but he plans to do what any good student would do--not go. And as a college graduate and former class skipper (just from time to time... don't worry mom and dad!), I totally support that.

In all honesty, we've mostly celebrated it already. We did an early dinner last Saturday at the Olive Garden because restaurants are impossible to get into on Valentine's Day. We had a gift certificate for there that we received as a wedding gift, so we ordered fancy drinks instead of water and really spiced up our lives.

We also decided to nix the gifts this year and instead buy each other a kitchen table! We were tired of sitting on our couch side by side for meals. It just doesn't cater bonding and it does nothing good for your carpet. We shopped and shopped and fell in love with a table that was on sale at Shopko. However, after some measurements and calculations, we sadly realized the seemingly small table would completely take up our kitchen dining area. If we didn't want chairs or a trash can or a way to open the back door, maybe it would have worked. So we caved into the realization that we have a small table space and we may not want to invest in a real table until we have a bigger place. So we went out and purchased a card table set. From WalMart. With folding chairs. Not a very charming Valentine's gift, but we love it all the same.




In other news, I'm still getting used to a new hair cut (I have like three ways of doing it: trying to make in into a bob which it hates, curling it, or putting it into a pony tail) and the weather has been so so strange--lots of snow and then really mild. We went up to Bridal Veil Falls last week to check out the frozen waterfall. UT may have bizarre weather and bad drivers, but it sure can be gorgeous.


Well, I hope you all have a great day o' love! May your week be full of chocolates, flowers, and tiny Valentine's with super heroes and cartoon characters on them.

Life is good.

Doug is busy with all things Dental School. I even spent a few hours one night researching a bunch of dental schools and their applications—I want to be in the loop too. He's busy with school, observing dentists (he needs around 100 hours of observation hours), and preparing for the DAT (the dental school entrance exam). He's taking a free practice DAT test Feb. 24, and then he takes a really-expensive-but-you'll-die-if-you-don't-take-it prep course through Kaplan in the Spring. He can start applying to schools around May and he'll take the actual DAT exam in June. I guess it should be a comfort that the men and women who mess around with your teeth have to work for it. All these details and paperwork must weed out the weak.

As for where we'll head to dental school, only time and admissions committees will tell. We've narrowed the list down a bit to schools in Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, and others I can't think of. Yes, that's a narrowed down list. I'm leaning towards giving Doug a taste of the east coast, but let's get real—we'll go to where it feels right.

On a side note, one of my goals for the year is to floss at LEAST every other day. You'd think a future dentist's wife would floss more often. Maybe it's only when you get the free floss that you really get on top of that.

In other news, Doug loves his job again at the MTC. I've become a bit bored in the evenings, but I've taken up knitting (a result of many of my assignments at work), organizing, and even exercising from time to time. Life is good.

Christmas Extravaganza

Christmas was indeed an extravaganza! We spent the first week, including Christmas Day, with my family in Rhode Island. All of my sisters and their families were there (making it 22 people total in my parent's house!) and we had a blast. We even got to drive down to visit Jake in his hospital in Philadelphia. He's simply adorable... we even got to hold him! Doug had great exposure to the east coast, hitting RI, CT, NY, NJ, and PA all in a matter of days. He tried his first cheesteak and put his hand in the Atlantic for the first time.

The second week we headed to Washington to be with Doug's family. His brother and sister were home with their kids, so it was great to be there with them too. We played games, snacked, watched movies, and then snacked some more. It was awesome. We also headed up to Aberdeen, WA for our final Open House (we tried to make our wedding last forever, and we succeeded). It was great to see where Doug grew up and to meet his friends. Out camera died before we could take pictures in Washington... bummer! But all in all, our Christmas break was a hit!
Fetching Our Christmas Tree with the Help of a Gigantic Santa

From what I recall, Jeff provoked him. But who can be sure. :)

Doug meets the Atlantic Ocean

Travis and Phil Workin' It (our Church is right by the beach... hence the formal wear)

For some reason there were hundreds of starfish washing ashore. This picture doesn't do the weird event justice, but oh man it was bizarre! A native Rhode Islander on the beach said she'd never seen anything like it before.


Crazy Christmas Morning

Cheeseteaks... we didn't eat at the best place in town (we basically brought baby Jack and baby Chase into a bar for lunch), but it was good enough.

Dunlop Sisters and Jake

Weird angle, but he's looking at me so I like this one. Obviously.

He is SUCH a cute boy!

A Taste for Wine... AND MURDER!

To properly celebrate my birthday and my friend Sarah's birthday, last month we did one of those murder mystery games. It was set in a vineyard, so we drank lots o' martinelli's, dined on cornish game hens, and accused each other of murder. Just the basics. It was way fun. My name was Tiny Bubbles and Doug was my lyin', cheatin' boyfriend. And for the record, I was innocent. Jake on the other hand...
Jake & Melissa

Jack & Doug

Sarah & Dave

Lest you think I like to post glamour shots of myself, notice Dave in the background. Good times.