Finals are over

First of all, I would like to share my joy and excitement about my alma matter-
ALLEN HIGH WON STATE!!!!! WHOOO HOOOO!!!!!!!
It is the first time in Allen High School history that they have won state. Winning the football state championship in Texas is a pretty huge deal. I mean, it's huge everywhere...but those Texans sure love their football. So, the Eagles were Div. 1 5-A state champs. Gotta love it.

Danny and I are both through with finals. We now get to enjoy a lovely break before diving headlong into another semester.

We do not have our final grades yet. Danny will have and A and B semester. I may have a C in one of my classes, it will depend on how everything works out. I have no idea how well my papers will do. Other than that it should be As and Bs for me as well. Hoorah!

Finals week was pretty intense but we made it. Danny had all his tests done Tuesday. He had a computer program that he turned in on Thursday. I had all my tests done by Wednesday then worked the rest of the week on editing THREE papers and making a presentation. I got a 91% on my presentation, by the way. That is exciting.

I realized that I will be working every day for a week straight. Yuck. I worked Thursday, and a few hours yesterday. I was at the store at 5:30 am this morning. I close tomorrow (at midnight). Monday is a 'normal' shift and then Tuesday and Wednesday I go into work at 6:30am. Yikes! It will be nice when Christmas Day rolls around.

Danny and I leave for the great state of Texas on Friday. I am very excited about this.

And that is basically all that is going on.

Finals are almost here!

Tomorrow is my last day of classes! Thursday is Danny's last day of classes! This is very exciting. We are both looking forward to our Christmas Break. Danny has big plans to play with legos and I have big plans to read as much as I can. Of course we will watch or traditional Christmas movies too. (I LOVE It's A Wonderful life!!!) However, to enjoy that fun stuff we both have to make it through finals relatively unscathed.

Danny is working on another computer program. Then he just has his finals to do. I still have some extra credit to work on then finals, and three papers due and one presentation. *groan*

Speaking of presentations, last week Danny and his business group did this week long project. Basically they took everything they have learned over the past two and a half months and shoved it into a week long project. Each group was given a case and then had to design a program for this business. The style was a sales pitch type thing. Why the company should use their program. Well, Danny's group did SO GOOD! They presented in front of one professional, one teacher, and one grad student. Such phrases were used as "you nailed it!" and "I haven't seen a presentation this good in a long time." In other words, Danny and his group totally rocked! We are both very happy about this.

Not too much else is going on. Our house is decorated for Christmas. I will have to take pictures.

Goodnight!

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 27, 2008 -Thursday




Happy Thanksgiving every one!

I would like to share a song that I wrote about 6 years ago. I was really bored and watching football practice and I realized that there are not many Thanksgiving songs. So, with out further ado, I would like to present Timmy the Three-Feathered Turkey. Sing it to the tune of Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer.





Timmy the Three Feathered Turkey

Timmy the three-feathered turkey
was a very ugly bird
and if you ever saw him
you would say he looks quite absurd.

All of the other turkeys
used to laugh and call him names
They never let poor Timmy
join in any turkey games.

Then one foggy Thankgiving morn
Farmer came to say:
'Timmy with your meat just right,
won't you be our dinner tonight?'

Then how the turkeys loved him,
as they shouted out with glee.
Timmy the three-feathered turkey,
you'll go down in to tummies!

Thank you, thank you. Yes, the song is amazing. ;)

Today we are going over to my Aunt Andrea's and we are so excited! I am currently baking a Chocolate Chess Pie and hoping it turns out. This is a very temper mental pie. It messes up by the ingredients separate on their own! Seriously, my Grammy has made this pie for years! Every now and then though, the ingredients separate and we have no idea why! It happened to me once and we compared different situations and there is no common factor. So, I just determined that the pie has an attitude problem.
Danny will make the traditional green bean casserole. I love the crunchity onion things that go on top of that. Yum.

Today of course, you are supposed to remember all that you are thankful for. I would just like to say that Danny and I are both incredibly thankful for our families and our friends. We have the best of both. You guys are all so wonderful and so kind. Thank you!
We are also thankful for our church and the guidance we receive from our President/Prophet Thomas S. Monson.
We are also thankful for the opportunity we have to go to BYU, or just college in general. We are thankful for our beautiful little house. It is just perfect for us.

Danny is thankful for John Williams, George Lucas, and their collaborative efforts. He is also thankful for Stars Wars, Legos, and Star Wars Legos.

I am thankful for Erasmus of Provo (our turtle), puppies, penguins, flowers, Steven Spielberg, and British History books.

And OF COURSE Danny and I are thankful for each other.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

Happy Birthday to My Mom!

November 26, 2008- Wednesday
(I still don't know if the date thing will work)

My mom's birthday is today. She is turning a certain milestone age that shall remained unnamed. It's 39.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! I hope it is awesome.



So, this is a picture of Jenn (my sister-in-law), mom, and me with my goofy smile. This picture was taken at my bridal shower, but I think it is kinda cute of mom and her girls.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Danny is so ridiculously excited. It is pretty funny actually. I mean, I am excited too because the food is delicious and I love to spend time with family. Danny is just really really excited. He enjoys a good excuse to be gluttonous apparently.

Hope all are well!

100 Cookie Cutters

Wednesday November 19, 2008

I still can not figure out how to get the date stamp. I tried different ways to no avail.

There has been so much going on! Basically all of it has to do with school, so it is really not that exciting. What is exciting though is that this semester is beginning to draw to a close! Hoorah! Danny and I still have several things due, but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. That light is red and green and twinkles because CHRISTMAS IS COMING! I love Christmas time so much! I do NOT love the working retail end of it, but I can manage it. But, before I go off on a Christmas tangent I shall reign(deer) myself back in.

Today Danny and I ventured out and ran some errands. I had a coupon to Bed, Bath & Beyond. I do not go there very often because I usually just go to JCPenney because they have good stuff and because I get a discount, or IKEA, because, well, Ikea rocks. Anywho- Danny is the one that actually found these. It is a tub of 100 cookie cutters! I had been looking for cookie cutters and BAM! Here's more than I could ever use. Best part is that they were only 10 bucks! Let's see, the shapes are color-coded which brings me joy. There are Christmas shapes, Halloween shapes, Easter shapes, hearts, animals, letters, numbers, transportation vehicles, and boots and a cowboy hat! I am especially excited about those last two rather random cookie cutter shapes. In March I am planning on having a Texas Independence Day party for kicks and giggles. I figure we will play games and watch the Alamo with John Wayne, or at least have it playing in the background. Now there can be Texas themed sugar cookies. I am happy.

Around Christmas time my mom always baked a few types of cookies. The sugar cookies were always so delicious. Homemade icing too, yummy! It seems weird to NOT have these cookies around Christmas now so I am going to make them myself! I am excited. Danny is actually excited too. He is not into cookies as much but he will have fun decorating them. But first school needs to be over and I need to have a day off of work.

On a more serious note, there is so much going on in the world right now. Sad things. Hard things. A lot of the persecution arising from the passage of Prop 8 has made me sad. I think right now the most important thing we can do is just to have sympathy and understanding for the other side of this issue. To remember that these people are Heavenly Father's children as well. Unfortunately they are not treating us with tolerance, but this does not condone any hatred from our side. I think and feel a lot more deeply than I have just expressed but I am trying to keep things light on this blog. If you are dying of curiosity for some crazy reason and actually want to talk to me more about this, just let me know.

And anywho- back to being cheerful.

Not much else is going on in the life of the Bakkers. Thanksgiving break is coming up. Danny is so excited for Thanksgiving. That kid loves to eat. I am opening Black Friday. I have to be there a little before 4am. I actually requested this because I get off at 1pm. I will come home, take a little nap and then I have the rest of the day! This is what I was scheduled last year too and it was so nice to just go in, get my shift over and done with, and have the rest of the day to play!

I hope all are well!

Halloween!

Danny and I had a great Halloween. We dressed up as Professor Remus J. Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks (just call her Tonks though) from Harry Potter. I got to have purple hair. Apparently I look pretty good with purple hair. I might have to make it permanent! Just kidding. I'm sure BYU and the JCP would love that.

Here is a picture of me dressed up as Tonks.

Please check out the boots I am wearing. They're almost like a combat boot! I also have on these fabulous textured tights. Oh, and of course I am wearing my necklace that I got at Scarborough Faire my freshman year in highschool. It has a wolf on one of the sides of the pendant! The other side is the Tudor rose. I'm kind of a nerd, huh? But anyway, I wore the wolf side. That green shirt is a thermal type shirt. The coolest thing about it is that the sleeves go down and have little holes you can stick your thumbs through. I am so excited about this!! Sleeves are RARELY long enough but these will keep the sleeves down and my wrists covered! Usually during the winter you see jacket, a little bit of wrist showing, and then gloves.
Anyway, back to Halloween.

And here is a shot of Danny as Prof. Lupin

For his costume we went to DI and bought him an old sport coat and some old pants. Oddly enough the pants are Staffords! (JcPenney's Men's clothing line). And the pants were about 3 sizes too big. That is ok though. Nothing that a belt can't fix! He wore a grey shirt and tie that he already had. The shoes he is wearing are old left over shoes from his mission. We bought him a new pair awhile ago, but apparently he kept these ones. Why? I really do not know. I don' think he knows either.






Here's a close up me so you can see the hair better.

By the way, that is my favorite Halloween decoration. It is a blackbird (maybe a raven?) sitting on a tombstone looking thing. Every time I see it, I think of The Raven by Edgar Alan Poe and you've got have some Poe around Halloween.








And this is Danny's face. I tried to make a cool scar because he is a werewolf and all. I tried to use some of my eye shadows to give him a more tired look as well.

You can see the scar going across his nose and onto his cheek. It extended onto his for head as well.
I am not sure what this expression is, but he does it from time to time.





To celebrate Halloween we went to a party at one of our friends apartments. We had a great time playing games. We played Scattegories which made me happy because that is my latest party game addiction.

In other news: School is still busy. Danny loves his job. He has another gig apart from the Law School website. I guess a few other departments at BYU were very impressed with the new design on the Law School website. The Chemistry department asked part of team that Danny is with to work on their website. Danny knows his way around Flash pretty well so they asked him to help out too. Danny is happy about this project. He likes doing all this computer stuff.

Not much else is going on. I plan on voting tomorrow. I hope they don't run out of stickers! :D

Happy Belated Birthday to Me

October 29, 2008

Does anyone know how to display the date of your post? I can not seem to figure that out. In the mean time, I will just type the date at the beginning of my post. Check that out, I can solve problems.

This is a belated post to tell all about my birthday and birthday party. Yay! On October 15 I turned 22. *gasp* It was a Wednesday so Danny and I had class. That evening he took me to Macaroni Grill. mmmmmmmmm. I love that place. I do a create your own pasta and pretty much make the Pasta Milano except I take out the mushrooms (yuck) and put in broccoli (yum). Danny ate a really delicious and spicy Sicilian 4-cheese Ravioli thing. I opened presents too! I got Sleeping Beauty of DVD and Alfred Hitchcock's Master Peice collection. It includes a bunch of his movies including all the Jimmy Stewart ones, The Birds, Psycho, Topaz, Trouble with Harry, etc. I'm super excited to watch the ones I haven't seen before.

The following Saturday we had some friends over for a birthday party. We had so much fun! We did a beanbag toss and a pin the ____ on something. For us it was Pin the Headlamp on the Toad. We all had a great time.

We finally carved our pumpkins last Saturday. Danny put the Dark Mark (from Harry Potter) on his. I carved Hitchcock's profile on to mine. And it keeps loading my pictures at the beginning of the post. I don't know what's going on.

I am excited for my Halloween costume! I am going to be Tonks, from Harry Potter. This means I get to have purple hair! Awesome! Danny is going to be Professor Lupin, also from Harry Potter. Last night we went to DI and found Danny an old worn suit coat. We are going to a Halloween party hosted by one of our friends. I look forward to it.

As far as school goes, both of us keep really busy. I have so many things due in November that it is completely ridiculous!

Work for me is starting to get busier and busier. Danny's is pretty much the same. Lucky guy.

Oh, I have also registered my classes for next semester. I do not anticipate changing them much, if at all. So as of now, I will be taking Masterpeices of English Literature (for a GE but I think it will be awesome anyway), Behavioral Neurobiology, Clinical Psychology, Developmental Psych: Adolescence, and Sensation and Perception. I am really excited for these Psych. classes. I am finally away from the required ones and I get to take the ones that pretain to my concentration and interest. My concentration is Behavioral/Cognitive Psychology and all my elective psych classes will be from the Clinical Psych cluster. So exciting!!!

That is pretty much it in our little world right now. I will post Halloween costumes pretty soon!

Winter comes too early in Utah

I think my title should explain it all.

It is October 11 and it is snowing. Now, so as not to be accused of being over dramatic, I will acknowledge that this form of precipitation is like a soft hale. It is frozen, but not a hard frozen, but also not as fluffy as the snow we usually get here. THAT STILL DOES NOT EXCUSE THE SNOW FROM FALLING IN MID OCTOBER! *sigh* I am sorry, but I think it is just wrong for it to snow before my birthday. October 15 is supposed to be the middle and most beautiful time of autumn!
I guess I will just comfort myself with the fact that this is Utah and it will probably warm up again for a little longer before we plunge into the long and dark winter. (now I am being over dramatic).
I do love the snow, in appearance. It is so beautiful! I truly enjoy taking a stroll on a moonlit night through the snow. It just sparkles! Then I come home, bundle in a blanket, and drink hot chocolate.

Erasmus is doing well. We have bought him an infrared light to keep on during the night. The lamp gives off this red glow that is rather eerie. We figured our turtle lives in the red light district now. How scandalous.

Danny is doing well. He is currently working on a project for his programming class, computer programming. I don't understand even 1/8 of what he's talking about while he's working on his projects. I do a great job of smiling and nodding though. ;) Actually I am learning more than I ever cared to learn about computers.

I just finished up a very stressful/long week at school. I had two midterms and a preliminary draft due for my literature review. On top of my already full schedule it was pretty intense. I made it through though! With lots and lots of help from my wonderful husband and from Heavenly Father. I do not know how I did on my first test, half of it was essay questions. My second test for my psych testing class was lower than I wanted. Hopefully it will not effect my final grade too much. It was not THAT bad but I don't think I could get an A anymore. Maybe A-...

Oh, Danny and I had a wonderful conference weekend. We went to the Saturday morning session then went to a luncheon for law school students, faculty, and alumni. Danny counted as faculty and Bryan, a friend we went with is a student. The food was delicious. We watched the second session in the Tabernacle! I tried to imagine the speakers speaking behind the pulpit in there. I never saw conference in the Tabernacle. We then wandered down to Gateway Mall and had dinner. The boys then went off to the Priesthood session because they had tickets. Nicole (Bryan's girlfriend) and I explored the mall and had a great time. We ended up spending an hour in Barnes and Noble. For a birthday gift to myself (at least that is how I justified this purchase) I bought a collection of Jane Austen novels for 20 bucks! It has all 7 (includes Lady Susan) and is beautiful! The book is old fashioned looking.
Anywho- Sunday we watched both sessions at our house with Byran and Nicole. What a great weekend!! I really enjoyed Pres. Uchtdorf's talk Saturday morning. And L. Tom Perry's talk from that session as well.

Well, I think that just about sums up current events over here. I make these posts way too long! Sorry!

I hope all are doing well!

Erasmus of Provo

On August 30, 2008 we bought a turtle. His name is Erasmus and I am exceedingly fond of him. Erasmus, however, is anti social and likes to stay under neath his basking rock. He still startles easily, which makes sense, because he is a turtle. He seems content though. He eats when he wants to and just loafs about in the water or basks on his rock under his heat lamp when he needs some warming up. We have him on a 'day and night' schedule. His light is not on all 24 hours, so he has a 'night time.' He seems content enough with his food pellets but I give him lettuce from time to time.

In this picture you can see him in all of his majesty. Oh, he is a red-eared slider. Check out the coloring, it's pretty awesome.

Danny and I are also convinced that Erasmus comes out and parties while we are at school/work. We come home, open the door, and behold! Erasmus is on his basking rock! If we are home all day though, he usually does not come out at all. We also suspect he is musical. A couple Sundays ago I was listening to Mormon Tabernacle Choir kinda loud (as is appropriate because it sounds even more amazing). And Erasmus started doing this motion with his paw (or claw?) and it looked like he was conducting the music!! It was actually in the correct tempo too. Another time, while Danny was cleaning out the tank, Erasmus was sitting in his box. Danny put the box next to his computer and turned on an Oldies station. When Danny came back from cleaning the tank Erasmus was poking his head out of the box looking at the computer.

Here's a picture of Danny holding Erasmus. Anyway, that's about sums up Erasmus. Oh, and one of my best pals, Alex, has given Erasmus a full name. Erasmus B. Dragen. I decided that the B stands for Bartholomew.

And one more thing, Erasmus is named after Desiderious Erasmus of Rotterdam, the Renaissance humanist. Yes, I named him. :D

It's Autumn Time! It's a Autumn Time! The Leaves are Falling Down!

Happy Autumn!

I realize my Autumnal greeting falls a day late, but I was doing homework last night! So, to my dear Aunts, and family, do not worry! If am not posting a blog I am most likely doing my homework. My life is just that awesome.

I am ecstatic for the fall weather that we have been having and will continue to have (hopefully for a little bit longer). It is so refreshing to walk outside and not be hit by a blast of heat from the inferno known as summer time- in- Provo. The leaves turn such beautiful and rich shades of red and yellow. My favorites are the bright golden yellow leaves. Especially, the Aspen leaves. It's delightful to walk through the trees and have the leaves fall all around you. Walking through crunchy leaves is always a must have experience during autumn. But also, I will have a girly moment and declare how much I love fall clothes! I simply adore a good pair of jeans, a light sweater, and boots. I love love love boots. I bought a new pair of short boots that look really cute with jeans...and I plan on buying a green sweater that will make my hair look reddish..and..and... Girly moment over. That was almost too much for me. I will redeem myself by saying that I also love football as well. I won't make it to any of the BYU games because of work, but oh boy, I love to hear about them later! I also have a fond spot in my heart for high school football. And football and falling crunchy leaves just go hand in hand.

Poor Danny is not as excited for fall as I am. Gravity will rear it's ugly head and cause all the beautiful leaves to drop on the stairs leading down to our door and all over the yard. Once he will rake up those leaves, the leaves from the park across the street will blow over to ours thanks to that northern wind. This is what happened last year. I guess this is the price to pay for having such gorgeous and large trees all around us. Trees make his wife incredibly happy though, so I think he can bear them. ;)

A note about homework: I am researched out! It seems like all I have been doing that past few days is researching journal articles on PsychEBSCO. I found 15 good ones for my Literature Review in my Psych. writing class. I am researching studies done about Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy with religious patients. There is controversy whether or not REBT works with people who have religion. The rest of the articles, about 4 of them, are about parental attachment in college students. This is for my Psych Testing class. We are studying the levels of attachment in college freshman.

Oh, and another peice of interesting information. (interesting and horrifying). Christmas is here in retail land! My store set up the first of our christmas shop on Sunday and Monday. I really don't know what else to say about this other than "come on people! It just became autumn!" Oh well. It is a nice display we have. The theme is something like 'all things merry.' So, check it out sometime..maybe after Halloween. There are disney themed decorations and I saw some cute penguin things.

Well, it is getting a bit late. I should be off to get my things ready for school tomorrow.

Work in Progress

I have come to the conclusion that my blog is definitely a work in progress. I found a cute background though, I think. So, keep checking back I guess. Hopefully it will keep improving!

One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for the Technologically Impaired

Well Howdy! (or how they greet each other in LA "Don't taze me bro!")

Welcome to our little corner of the institution.

I have never 'blogged' before, so this will be a new and wonderful experience! I guess I should start off with some introductions. My name is Cali and I am from Dallas. My husband is named Danny and he is from LA. We enjoy mocking each others respective home states as much as possible. We also think of our marriage as a union between the two greatest states. Much like back in the days of castles and arranged marriages.

Our blog name should now be semi-self explanatory, if it was not all ready. We don't really war with each other, unless you count simple teasing.

Most of these posts will be written by me, Cali. A couple things the reader should be warned about before commencing with further reading.
1: I am not good with grammar. And seeing as how this is not a term paper, I won't take the time to make it absolutely perfect. :p
2: My husband and I are sarcastic. This will manifest itself in the way I write. In fact, you have already been subjected to some mild sarcasm.
3: I will do my best to not let this blog become a place for complaints and negativity. If I do feel the need to vent, I will warn you at the beginning of my post.
4: I do not do well with letting people know the 'real me.' Hopefully with this blog, I can express myself and more of my thoughts. (I don't think of myself as one of those horribly misunderstood people, I am just more guarded than I should be.)
5: I usually write the same way I think, so good luck! ;)
6: I am excessively fond of lists.

Well, I think that just about does it.

Oh, Danny and I are both students. We have a lot of homework. We both have jobs. But more on that to follow. I need to go find addresses to send invites to my blog first! :D