Cameron's Wedding Trip

We went to the Jordan River Temple again because Benjamin's best bud got married. Benjamin trained him on his mission and then served with him again right before Benj went home. It was great. I was determined to get a picture of the Jordan River Temple with the two of us in front, but our camera died. We only managed to get a few of the bride and groom coming out of the Temple. We went and stayed with Grandma Alma and visited Grandpops Romney before we made it home.  We also had a great time shopping at Ikea in Draper. you can see a few of the items I bought at Ikea below. 

Thanksgiving and Gilliean

We spent Thanksgiving break in Utah. We loaded up in the big white Romney van (Beth, Jonathon, Kyie, Anthony, Benj, Me, Kaye, and Papasan). We went to see Gillian Grant, a lovely lady from Wales, go through the Jordan River Temple for the first time. Shortly before Benjamin left from the UK to come home, he knocked on Gill's door. She had been searching for a religion that was "alive."  Her husband, Desmond, had passed away a few years back. She is now a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She just got called as Relief Society President. We went to the temple to as she recieved all of her ordinances. We are proud of her! 

She shares part of her story and testimony on www.mormon.org in three videos. There are a lot of little movie clips. That picture above is what her first video looks like at first. 

We also went to Thanksgiving dinner at Benjamin's grandparents Juan and Alma Whiting in Mapleton. It was sweet to see Grandpa Whiting one last time. I just finished his favorite book, Tarzan of the Apes. I loved it!!! I was very sick during his funeral, so Benj went back with his family alone.  I didn't know Grandpa Juan very well, but I am sure we would have gotten along great. These are some of the only pictures I have with him. He was always doing a puzzle. I love puzzles. Pics aren't great quality: they are from Benjamin's phone. 

We also went to the Cabelas store. This is a picture of me trying to buy fish food to throw in the fish pond. 

Funny Bells Palsy Video

This is a movie of me trying to flare my nostrils during my spell of Bell's Palsy. I couldn't move the left side of my face so I could only move one nostril. i couldn't get my left eye to close very well. Sometimes, if I concentrated really hard, I could bring it down for a brief blink. I was trying to smile and only my right half would smile.  I look ridiculous. SO GLAD THATS OVER! :)

Home Sweet Home

This is our little bathroom. The shower is on the right and we have put up drawers over on the left.

The kitchen is quite small, but I love the gas stove. The sink is so much better and deeper than our last place. The bathroom is just beyond the door you see. I think it is weird to have the bathroom in the kitchen. Oh well.  It doesn't really matter as long as it works. 

Behind our couches is our dinning area. 

As you walk past the couches into the kitchen, you pass a bookshelf, heater, and closet on the left. The best part of the house is the free utilities and the very warm heater on the wall. Every night before bed, Benjamin has been putting my favorite pink blanky by the heater to get it nice and warm for me. :)

This is the view you get when you first step into the door. I love walking into the living room first thing! Our couches are huge green beasts! They are very comfortable though, and free (Thanks Doug and Lyd!!!!)

You walk into the living room through that door with the tv on the left and the computer desk on the right.

Here are some snap shots of when we first moved in. We don't show you the bed room becuase all of our boxes are there. And you can see some behind the couches too. I am currently sorting through the boxes. I'll post some more pictures when it gets all clean and decorated. We like it here. We especially like the price :). Thanks to everone who helped us move and donated furnture.

Benjamin's Jazz Combo

Benjamin is so great on his bass! I have tried so many times to upload a video of his jazz combo playing, but there is always an error. We have finally got the recordings that they made. This song is my favorite one. It is called Poinsianna. It is Benjamin on the bass and his two good friends Kurt (Piano) and Tj (Drums). I think it is amazing how they just know the chord changes and the general structure and they can always play together and imporvise and sound so great! Just click the link below to hear the song. And listen to the whole song because benjamin has some great improv solos through out.

http://sites.google.com/site/romneyguitarschool/Home/songs/01Poinciana.mp3

 

The "True" Story ;)

You know, after having one injury or sickness after another it becomes almost embarrassing to post them all so close. My blog turns into a medical log. I almost didn't post news of my fall, but I gave in. However, I posted a watered down version to make it seem like not such a big deal. It gets tiring having people always asking if I'm ok. But I feel guilty now because I don't like to tell half truths. Here is what really happened:

Last Saturday night, Benjamin and I were bored. We decided to go ice skating. If you trace our previous attempt to ice skate together you will see that each winter since I was a junior in high school (exept during his mission) we have tried to go ice skating together. It has never come to pass due to thawing ponds, closed rinks, and so on. This year we were determined to find a pond or a rink to go skating on. We drove to the new one in rexburg, but they were closed because the male penguins were incubating their eggs there while the momma penguins were searching for food before their journey back to rexburg. Emily, my little sister, and her friend have been making small ice skating pond on their play ground at school and have been quite successful. So we went there. I guess some kids had left out their hockey sticks and pucks. I challenged Benjamin. I was winning, of course. But out in the white snowy expanse of the soccer field I saw the form a momma polar bear creeping toward us with 2 little cubs. It was about to leap at my husband! So I screamed and Benjamin thought I was just getting competitive. He swung his hockey stick to block a potential shot at his goal, but hit me in the jaw with the stick. He fell on his bottom and the bear leaped over him and landed on me. The bear sunk his teeth into my thigh, but before he could bite too hard, Benjamin jumped up and stabbed the bear in the back with the green Cabela's pocket knife key chain that he got for Christmas from his bro. Doug (thanks zoug, he loves it!). The bear went limp. Benj rushed me to the hospital to get my chin and leg stitched up. I had to get a Rabies shot in my arm because of the bite in my leg. I just told people it was a Tetanus shot so they wouldn't flip out. Anyway, I am doing pretty good now. I've learned a lot about Rabies through all of this. "Myth: Three Americans every year die from rabies. Fact: Four Americans every year die from rabies." 

You can buy this shirt to support Rabies awareness by clicking here.

Ice Ice Baby

Yesterday Benjamin and I were walking across the church parking lot holding hands. The ground was a sheet of solid ice dusted with powdery snow. It didn't take long before we were slipping and sliding. we both started to fall and we made the mistake of holding hand even tighter. Benjamin landed hard on his bottom and I spun and landed facing the opposite direction face first.  Hard! My chin hit the ground first. I looked down as I started to get up and I saw blood falling in the snow. I cut open my chin and was bleeding all over. Benjamin rushed me inside but didn't hold on to me too tight: good thing, because he fell again not long after. We grabbed some paper towels and headed over to Community Care. The cut was straight but very deep and gaping. I got seven stitches and the doctor did a very good job. I feel dizzy and my jaw is very sore. I can't move it very much or chew with my molars. They had to give me a Tetnus Booster. I feel a bit queezy from that and my arm hurts, but its not too bad really. I think I am just a big wimp about getting shots.

You can't really see the cut looking straight on. Hopefully the scar won't be visable!

 

Christmas Crafts

Christmas crafts with my sister Emily, Mandy Rudd, Lydia King(my neice), and my brother Riley. We made little Christmas characters out of pots turned upside down. It was a blast! The girls laughed so hard and Riley even helped them with the hot glue guns.

Bell's Palsy

Here are some shots of my Bells Palsy. These aren't the best pictures at showing the difference between my paralyzed half and the normal half. It looks more strange when my eye isn't taped shut and when I am trying to blink. My good eye got so tired that it drooped. Even when my eye was taped shut it would fight to break free and stay opened. But I can blink now! I am finally symmetrical!

I love Planet Earth!

For Christmas I got the box set of both Planet Earth and The Blue Planet. It is amazing! I love it! Planet Earth is a documentary on the planet and The Blue Planet is on the oceans. There are 11 episodes in each series, plus bonus disks. Its like a way cool nature program! I posted the trailer for it at the bottom of my blog. 

Back in Business

It has been a CRAZY Christmas break! If you look at the picture of me in the post just before this one you would probably think I was just being silly. I was. Although it looks like I have something wrong with one of the cranial nerves that controls the muscles the move my eyes. At least that's what I thought as I posted it. What a coincidence! Only about a week later I somehow got a case of Bell's Palsy-a virus in cranial nerve VII-the facial nerve. It paralyzed the left half of my face. It started in my tongue and after a few hours I could only smile with half my mouth and my left eye was stuck open. I looked so silly. It lasted just over 10 days and I had to tape my eye lid down every night and for a lot of each day. And I could only flare one nostril! Because I am taking a medicine that suppresses my immune system to treat Ulcerative Colitis, the doctors were all worried and I was also showing signs of Pancreatitis. I had to go to the emergency room and stop taking the medicine that had been working so well to help my Colitis. A few days later my husband and his family traveled to Utah for Grandpa Whiting's funeral. He was such a sweet man. I wish I new him better. The Holidays continued to be eventful. All of Benjamin's siblings and their families except Anth and Kylie were visiting for Christmas. The Romney home was full of games, table tennis tournaments, and goodies. We even got snowed in over night once! We also had a fun time with the Andreasen side at the Condo and playing Wii and other games. I got a wonderful Bosch mixer from Benjamin and Planet Earth on DVD!!! He got a watch, a drill, and the MCAT study books. We got many other wonderful gifts,too. We also had the opportunity to play a New Years gig in Star Valley. Benj played the bass at a restaurant with a few other musicians. The band bought the two of us a nice dinner and a fancy hotel room for new years eve as well as the pay for Benjamin's time. We also moved from Wagon Wheel Apartments to Bevan apartments just past Applebees. We will remain in the 73'rd ward. We have struggled with a computer crash which lost all of our pictures and music and files-hence the lack of pictures. Our Tv broke, our side mirrors fell off our car, and we had to get rid of our beautiful entertainment center because it doesn't fit in our new home. School started and I am off track this winter so I can heal. Life is good. We are very happy! Thanks so much to everyone who helped so much with our big move. It was a lot of work and we had so much help! Thank you! There is just an over view of the last little while. I'll try to find some pictures of the past little bit. Oh, and congrats Beth and Jonathon on the baby to be.