Its Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

Jacob and I gave in to Christmas this week. I usually try to hold off until after Thanksgiving to start listening to Christmas music and decorating, but the bug bit us early this year. Actually it got Jacob first. He was listening to Christmas music when I got home from class one day and then it got me too. So while Jacob was at work today I cleaned our apartment and took down all of our fall decorations. Tonight we went out and bought a Christmas tree from K-Mart. It was only $20 which we were very excited about. Its a pretty good looking tree if you ask me, although I do miss the Christmas tree smell. We did not find a star that we liked. They were all disgustingly huge and not very pretty, so we stuck a bow on top.

Jacob did a good job with the lights. That is my least favorite part of decorating the tree.

Main Street in Rexburg is all lit up now too. The trees are wrapped with lights all the way up the branches. I wish I had a picture to share. That is my favorite part about Christmas here. All the lights add to the Christmas atmosphere and make the cold just a little bit more tolerable.

And here is a story for everyone who may be getting behind on filing important papers. On Sunday I decided get to the mess of papers that were waiting to be filed. Jacob keeps his check stubs for a while and so I decided to date the outside of the envelope in case he was looking for a particular one. I don't know why he would want to go back and look at check stubs, but I decided to do it anyways. Well, I was going through all of them and I found a check with out the voided stamp on it that he got it way back in April. Jacob just wasn't paying attention to the bonus check for $104 that he got for selling Melaleuca credit cards. So we ran out of the house in our pajamas to go to Wells Fargo with high hopes that the check wouldn't be voided after the normal 180 days. And sure enough, it went through! We are needless to say, very excited. Lesson learned. Keep up with the filing and double check your check stubs.

Friday the Thirteenth

I have always been a little weary of this day. I am not superstitious. I like black cats and while I probably wouldn't walk under ladder, I don't believe I'd have bad luck if I did. However Friday the thirteenth has given me a reason to be superstitious.

In elementary school we had a spirit day called 50's day. On the 50th day of school we'd dress up as if it were the 1950's and have an afternoon out on the play yard doing cake walks, rollerblading, hula hooping, eating hot dogs and dancing. I was in kindergarten. It was my first 50's day and I was so excited. I dressed up in blue jeans and a plain white t-shirt with the sleeves cuffed. (I was very much against skirts back then and there was no way I was going to put on a poodle skirt.) While I was eating breakfast my mom started examining my arms. She told me I had the chicken pox which I refused to believe. I cried while my mom called the school and told them I would be absent.

The next year in first grade I got slap cheek. Who knew there was actually something called slap cheek? It mostly happens to kids. One of or both of your cheeks get really pink accompanied with a fever. Thankfully nothing fun was going on that day. But it was Friday the thirteenth which only made me more superstitious of this day.

My Friday the thirteenth came one day early this year. Let me tell you, this is nothing that I am proud of but there is a lesson for myself and others to be learned here. I knew I had a deadline for a class coming up. The dead line included an exam, quizzes and an essay. So, I had gotten started with the quizzes and had it in my mind that I was totally on the ball. On the 11th, I had this pestering idea to check my outline for the class, but I kept thinking no, I'll check when I get around to it, the deadline isn't until next week. Nope! When I checked my email on the 12th there was a note from my teacher saying the deadline was up. So, I missed an exam, an essay and two quizzes. I couldn't believe what I had done! I sat there for ten minutes with tears welling up in my eyes saying, "How irresponsible! I've never done anything like this before!" I'll stick out the class to see what I get. But here is the lesson. Don't ignore those pestering thoughts! They are there for a reason, even if they seem ridiculous, just listen. You'll be a lot better off in the end if you do.