Christmas Tree Quest

So we set out last night after work with a mission: bring home a suitable Christmas tree for our ridiculously tiny apartment. “It’ll probably have to be a fake one this year,” we said to one another. Yeah, a fake one. They tend to be more space efficient considering their nice symmetrical cone shape. So we set out.
Stop 1: Robert’s Crafts. Well, I’ll be honest, the tree wasn’t the primary purpose of this stop, but we looked at them none the less. EXPENSIVE.
Stop2: Home Depot. We looked longingly at the real ones first. They had about 4 trees total. It appeared they’d been cleaned out. No dice. We looked at the fake ones. Gosh, they’re so fake looking! And only one or two had colored lights. We decided to move on.
Stop 3: Walmart. They had pink and purple trees at Walmart. Not quite what we were looking for. They had a few but they were either too tall, or just too darn fake! (The ones that don’t look as fake are too pricey!!)
Stop 4: Wendy’s. No trees, but some tasty Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers.
Stop 5: Target. They had a gold tree at Target. They called it “Fantasy Champagne.” Uh, no thanks. They had a few others, lit and unlit, but they still seemed too fake or too expensive.
Stop 6: (Yes #6) Lowe’s. Generally we don’t really like Lowe’s. They’re not as helpful as Home Depot, but hey, we were on stop 6 and were getting desperate.) They had a large selection of fakies. Unfortunately, the one I wanted cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $200. Yikes. So we moseyed outside to look at their real ones. At last, we found the tree!! They had several to choose from. We ended up with a Noble Fir from Sublimity, Oregon. Hooray! Yes, it’s a bit on the fat side, but it fit nicely in the tiny space we had available. And get this, it was 20 bucks. Yep. And you seriously can’t beat the heavenly smell of a real Christmas tree. HOORAY!!

OH TANNENBAUM! (or tannen-bum if you're Johnny Mathis)

30 Things I'm Grateful For

So I decided to do a little blessing counting this morning in preparation for a day of gratitude tomorrow. I've only listed thirty things. There are so many more! I have discovered how positive one feels after a good assessment of how good life really is. Don't let the opportunity to count your blessings pass you by this Thanksgiving!!

Things I'm Grateful For

1. Life. To live and breathe and think and laugh and love and cry and and and…
2. To wake up each morning with the love of my life by my side
3. Flowers and trees
4. Houseplants that can survive in my apartment
5. Rain
6. Cheese, in all its forms
7. Three great siblings for best friends
8. Parents that love me and gave me immeasurable opportunities
9. crochetpatterncentral.com I owe you so much!
10. A priceless education
11. Great artists and authors and playwrights that have inspired me
12. To live in a nation where I am afforded so much freedom and choice
13. Good looking cars. Sometimes it just feels so good to just stare at one!
14. Cats…an independent man’s best friend ;)
15. The pleasure of hearing, feeling and creating music
16. Being able to speak another language
17. The ability to believe
18. Cute shoes. There’s just no substitute for the feeling of wearing cute shoes!
19. Manual transmissions…I just didn’t know what I was missing before!
20. NPR – it feels so good to be nerdy sometimes!
21. Facebook...I actually keep in touch now!
22. To know there is a God, that He knows and that He loves
23. Modern medicine. I owe you my life
24. A good job with good people
25. Friends that let you crash at their house to watch football and beat them at games ;)
26. A sister living so close!
27. A husband who sacrifices so much to make a better life for me
28. Dreams
29. To know the purpose of my life
30. To have a Savior to lift me up and help me get back home

AHM Hoops

So I'm glad Autumn gave a little preview of what's going on at AHM these days. (AHM = Ascione, Heideman & McKay, our law firm). So the guys here joined the Provo City basketball league. They didn't have any "regular" spots open, so they joined the "6 foot and under" league. Yes, Abram qualified. He claims he's 5' 11 & 3/4". We'll just have to believe him on that. Anyone over 5'5" seems really tall to me. They've been having early morning practices (6am on Saturdays! The psychos!) which I have yet to be involved in. I keep saying that one of these days I'll take them cinnamon rolls or something, but I'm feeling less-than-motivated with the 6am stuff. But Abram goes. Good for him.



We had our first game on Thursday. I won't tell you the final score, but our guys looked good in their new jerseys and made a fair showing. I will add that the other team had plenty of players OVER 6' tall. Oh well. I'm not sure how long the season is, but we're excited to see what will come of it. If nothing else, AHM has the biggest cheering section! Go team!


I like this shot. Everyone seems frozen and vexed by the flying ball. Ah.....

8 Things

So I saw this on a friend's blog and stole it because I haven't blogged in over a month and needed something to write about. :)



8 Things I'm Obsessed With


1. My new Yoville house
2. Getting squeezies
3. Crocheting
4. Fresh cranberries
5. Office Supplies
6. Getting mail
7. Peter Breinholt
8. Warm feet



8 Words or Phrases I Use Daily
1. "Goob"
2. "Ah...trash bags!"
3. "Hi sweetie!"
4. "I know, right?"
5. "Oober" (I know this one is supposed spelled with a "u" and those funny dots, but I think it looks even more oober with two big fat o's)
6. "Rockin' hot!"
7. "No me poques!"
8. "Ascione, Heideman & McKay, this is Airie, how can I help you?"

8 TV Shows I Like to Watch

1. House
2. The Office
3. Countdown with Keith Olbermann
4. Arrested Development
5. Lost
6. Clean House
7. Law & Order (the Briscoe episodes)
8. Those 7 are pretty impressive considering we don't actually have tv!



8 Things I Did Yesterday
1. Wore my new size 3 shoes :)
2. Won Settlers of Catan: Cities and Knights. HAZAH!!
3. Ate a Papa Murphy's Philly Cheese Steak pizza...oh cheesies!
4. Opened precisely 42 pieces of mail NOT addressed to me
5. Watched an entire pro football game for the first time EVER
6. Took 4 Advil for an oober headache
7. Noticed the new awning on our house that had been there at least three days for the first time. HONEST.
8. Enjoyed the heated seats in my Volvo

8 of My Favorite Places to Eat

1. Red Lobster
2. La Dolce Vida
3. Autumn & Leslie's House
4. Zupas
5. Tucanos
6. Great China
7. L & L Hawaiian
8. Kneaders

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To

1. Thanksgiving holiday
2. Having my Christmas crafties done
3. The end of law school and internships
4. Living in Western Oregon
5. Good health insurance
6. A new snazzy phone in May (Yeah, May)
7. A baby (not quite yet, this is not an announcement :) )
8. Seeing all of my family at Christmas and New Years

8 Things on My Wishlist
1. A big, oober comfy couch
2. A full-sized oven
3. A truly, 100% CLEAN house
4. A kitty
5. An herb garden
6. A garage
7. A baby grand
8. Abram in his dream job

Opposition in ALL things…even the other lane of traffic

So I haven’t blogged for a while. Apparently I’ve become a once-a-monther. *sigh* Anyhoo, these last few weeks have held the good and the bad. How about the good news first?

So remember that blog about Abram’s new job? Well, it ended up REALLY paying off for both of us. They had an opening for a receptionist at the firm, and little ol’ me was invited to join the team on October 13th. It’s been super so far. And even though I’m new, I know a lot more of what goes on around the office and have a bigger desk and a phone. Lucky me! Abram basically has a closet and a laptop from about 10 years ago. Oh well. Apparently he gets the grunt work and I get the cushy work. No complaints here!!! But it’s super fun to see him around the office 3 days a week, and all of the people I work with are wonderful. Nice lawyers do exist! “Dry land is not a myth!!” Anyway, it’s great!

So now for the bad news. I can’t believe I’m actually going to share this, but here goes. I hurt the car. The nice car. The good looking car. I am ashamed. (Please say the preceding sentence with the little shrimp guy voice on Finding Nemo) While Abram’s been looking into replacing the window switch cover (yes, the cover is broken, not the actual switch) I go and drive the poor thing into a dump truck! Luckily the damage is all cosmetic and the car is still safe and perfectly drivable. But oh! The pain! I merged into a dump truck. Yep. Luckily it was on a city street and we weren’t going that fast. But you know when you’re driving west and the sun is setting and you’re really short and the visor doesn’t help at all and you think you have enough room, and you think someone will be kind and perhaps slow down just a bit to let you in? Yeah, pretty much. There’s a dent and a big scrape on the driver’s side. *Sniffle* :’( I feel so bad. If there’s any good news here, it’s that I’m okay and wasn’t issued any type of traffic violation. The bad news is that the rust bucket Prelude is now the better looking of our two cars, at least on the driver’s side. I’m so sorry Abram!!!!!!!!

So yeah, the dump truck definitely provided some opposition. But overall, life is truly blessed for the Hardys. Our financial woes have been soothed for the time being and we have great family and friends all around us!!

POWER PLAY!!!

I hope at least some of you remember Briton's infamous call for a Power Play during those great 500 South backyard badminton days. I know I do. I would like to say, though the Power Plays are not as frequent now, that I have taken up once more my childhood obsession with the shuttlecock. Thanks once again to Abram's genius, and some online legal research site called Westlaw that he uses A LOT and gets magical points for doing so, we have acquired an official Wilson® Badminton Tour Kit.


Or in other words, we have a badminton set now, purchased with his hours of doing legal research. (And I thought the fruits of all the current toil were not supposed to pay off for several years to come!!) Anyway, we play at least a few times a week just a block up the street at the elementary school playground. Sometimes it's just the two of us, sometimes doubles with Autumn and Leslie, or our new badminton converts, the Sekaquaptewas. They are all worthy foes. We are also glad to report that we can set up the net north-south instead of east-west, so that no one can claim the sun was in their eyes, haha. It's proven to be quite good exercise and I'm feeling muscles I didn't know I had.

From Shotokan to Law Clerk...Congrats Abram!

So here he is ladies and gentlemen, the man of the hour! Our very own Abram K. Hardy is moving up in the world! No longer a mild-mannered law student, but a true super hero!

We just received word today that Abram was selected to work part time during the school year as a law clerk in a local firm here in Provo: Ascione, Heideman & McKay, LLC. They specialize in business, estate planning, construction and other types of law. Feel free to check them out: www.ahm-law.com.

So I guess you're wondering about the Shotokan, right? I suspect many of you are wondering what Shotokan is! Believe me, I was unaware! Well supposedly, according to Abram, when he was just a lad of 10, and his mother was teaching at BYU, he was a member (though a slightly shorter one) of the Shotokan Club (a Japanese martial art form from Okinawa). As it turns out, a young student by the name of Patrick Ascione was a part of said club. This is the main dude at A, H & M. But don't think this little "in" helped him in! In fact, he never even met with Patrick. It will just be something funny to bring up when he does. Congratulations Abram!!!!!