Haircut

Here are the mug shots. I cut my hair a couple of days ago! I cut about 5 inches or so off. The hairstyle is called an A-Bob where one side is an A-line cut and the other side is a Bob. So one side is a little longer then the other. I wanted something a little different..and I got it!

22 Hour Power Outage

Wednesday afternoon it started hailing, sleeting, snowing, raining--you name it, it was probably happening--I was just leaving work in Maryland to catch the Metro home. The weather was pretty nasty, but very typical in Utah and Idaho. When I got to the Metro Station to transfer from the Red Line to the Orange Line, I think they shut all but the Orange Line down. There were a ton of delays and problems all around. My 15 minutes ride from the Metro Station to my stop took 45 minutes.

Jake was sent home at 3:30 due to poor weather. I called him and asked if he would pick me up at the Ballston Metro Station, which is closest to us. We live 2 miles from that stop, and I did not want to walk home in the dark and the storm. By the time I came up from underground, there were a couple inches of snow on the ground and it was snowing harder and harder. It took Jake half an hour to come pick me up. He couldn't get out of the driveway. 

Needless to say, we made it home safe and sound. I made a batch of taco soup for dinner. While eating dinner, the power went out. We were expecting it to happen because we have lost power 3 times already since living here. We crawled upstairs to our bed and with the last remaining battery power of both of our laptops combined, we watched 2 episodes of Chuck. 

We woke up the next morning to find that the power was still out. Jake had a part of a snow day, so he didn't have to be to work until 10:30. I tested the shower first. Luckily, our water heater still worked. The toaster, oven, microwave, fridge, and all other kitchen tools were dead. I tried to think of what to make for breakfast. The stove is gas powered. So I turned on the gas and lit it with a match. At least the stove worked. I heated up the taco soup from last night and we ate it for breakfast. 

I drove Jake to work today because I had lots of errands to run. I went grocery shopping, cut my hair, went to the post office, went to the bank. I arrived back home at 3:30 to find the power was still out. I cuddled in my coat and read a book. Then I washed dishes by hand, because the dishwasher wasn't working and we were in desperate need of clean dishes. 

At 5:15 the power came back on!

I left to pick up Jake from work. When we got home, there was a puddle of water on the kitchen floor from where the freezer had defrosted. We cleaned up a little then had taco soup for dinner. We called my family on Skype and had a really fun time talking to them. Then we went to bed!

There are some things you don't realize how wonderful they are until you don't have them any longer. I definitely appreciate how much easier electricity makes our lives.

Snow!

Wednesday night.

Wednesday night. This is our front porch. We had just gotten back from picking me up from the metro. We still had power. The snowflakes were huge making everything beautiful.

Thursday morning, looking off of the porch. Jake's head is in there too. :)   I found out that a transformer had blew on a highway near our neighborhood, which caused us to have no power for so long.

Thursday morning. Our rental car covered with snow. None of us have power, so all the houses are dark. Everything is covered in snow. There is probably 5 inches or so. This area is not very well prepared for bad weather, so many of the side roads were not plowed.

Jake shoveling the walk Thursday morning. The snow was very wet and very heavy...great for a snowball fight. By the way...I won.

Saturday is a Special Day

Last night we set the alarm for 7:00 am in hopes that we would wake up and go to the gym. The alarm went off this morning. Jake jumped up to turn it off. We instantly fell back asleep, waking up again at 9:30. We laid in bed coming up with reasons why the other should get up first.

Me: "you are older, you should get up first and set the example"

Jake: "you are a girl, you should get up first"

Me: "you drink more pepsi..."

Jake: "you are better looking"

Me: "you have man parts"

Jake: "you don't have man parts"

After a few minutes of this (our still-waking-up-minds were having a hard time coming up with good reasons) Jake pushed me off the bed. In my panic of falling off the bed, I grabbed his waist and pulled him off with me. I guess we both made it out of bed. But we did not go to the gym..

"Let's go to McDonald's for breakfast!" I yell from the basement after seeing 4 coupons for 99¢ sausage and egg mcmuffins. We throw on our pajama's and yankee ballcaps and rush out the door. While in the drive thru, I was ordering our breakfast, when suddenly I hear a lady's voice shouting "are you almost done ordering?" I look in the rear view mirror and the lady in the car behind us had gotten out of her car to yell at us. We had only been there a couple of minutes. But she was so upset that we did not order our stuff within 30 seconds of her pulling up behind us. Only in DC...

This afternoon we went to a session at the Washington DC temple with our ward. Before getting in the car, I asked Jake where are temple bags were. He thought about for a second..."They are in the trunk...O crap! They are in the Mazda." (our Mazda is currently at the car hospital getting repaired) So we had to rent temple clothes. The temple was CRAZY. I was lucky to find an empty locker. The endowment room our ward was assigned to had filled up by the time we got there. So we, along with half of our ward, waited 20 minutes for the next endowment room to open up. The room was completely filled. Afterwards, we had a meeting on the very top floor of the temple, in the Priesthood Room. Only by direct First Presidency Permission are meetings allowed to be held in this room. Our stake had gotten this special permission in preparation for stake conference. All of the stake members, dressed in white, filled the entire room. This room fills the entire floor of the temple. The Temple President, Matron, and I am guessing our Stake President spoke about returning to the temple often. 

We drove through downtown Washington DC on the way home, crossing the bridge over the Potomac River. It is a really cute town. 

It has been a tremendously fun day today...and now the rest of our night will be comprised of buying soy ice cream and watching the Godfather.

Balti Butter Chicken Curry

While hanging out with Michelle earlier this week, I bought some Indian pre-made mix packets. Michelle and I went to an Indian market to pick up some ingredients she needed for a soup. She had me buy some packets that had spices mixed together to make different Indian dishes. I also got some chili paste, non-bread, and mango chutney. 

Tonight, I decided I was going to make an Indian meal. I made rice (without a rice cooker, I might add. And this time it came out as rice and not oatmeal!) and added a yellow rice spice to it. Then I sautéed chicken and onions in butter and poured the spices on it. We had a salad on the side.

I am new to the whole cooking thing, but I LOVE it!! Michelle is always giving me tips and ideas for what to do. I really enjoy cooking fancy meals. I would like to learn to make pastries and breads and start branching out into different cultural foods.

Our Street

Update at the Reed's

This week has been extremely busy for me and not quite so busy for Jake. I spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in Maryland. I have a nanny job in Silver Springs, Maryland. It is about an hour long metro ride, I stay for 5 hours then ride the metro back home. It is really fun. The kids are adorable. There are 3 kids: ages 4 1/2, 3, and 15 months. It is more like a mother's helper position. I help out with the kids, reading and playing the piano with them. I go twice a week.

On Tuesday, I took the metro up to North Bethesda, Maryland to hang out with Michelle, Christy, and the kids. It was really nice and chilled out. I really liked not being at home. Last night, I went to an Enrichment Activity. The lesson was taught by a Hebrew/Judaism scholar. She talked about the role of Eve and cleared up some of the translation errors. It was really interesting looking at Eve from the side of direct, literal Hebrew to English translation. 

Since I haven't had any time this week to do house work, I have devoted today to do it, cleaning and organizing everything. Tonight I am making an Indian meal: Butter Chicken Curry, yellow rice, and a salad. I am very excited. I'll let you know how it goes.

Jake is only working a 40 hour week. He has been getting home around 6. It has been nice having him home. The only problem is that I have been busy at nights, so I am not home when he is. I think he is enjoying it, though. It is nice to have some time to yourself on occasion. Jake is surrounded by crazy auditors all day long, he deserves some alone time.

Chocolate Cake

Today I made my very first ever Chocolate Cake! I also made for the very first time buttercream chocolate frosting. It is Krista's (my boss) birthday today. I dropped Jake off at work and drove to work. Her husband took her out to lunch, so I watched the kids. We decided to make a cake for her birthday. We found a recipe on the internet...and gave it a try. We started with the frosting. When we got to the mixing part, Charlotte, the youngest, woke up and started crying. I brought her down to help. But she had a meltdown when she found out her mom was not there. She was screaming, I was using a beater to make frosting, the two boys kept pouring powdered sugar and milk into the bowl. It was an adventure to say the least.

Glen and Krista got back and called Charlotte down. Next we made the cake. After stirring everything together, we stuck it into the oven. The boys went up for nap time, so they weren't there to finish the cake. It was time for me to go, so I put the frosting on top. The cake was still warm, so the frosting melted everywhere.

I had so much fun making this cake. I brought home a couple pieces for Jake and I to eat. I don't even like chocolate. Or cake, for that matter. Jake informed me that he isn't a fan of chocolate cake either. But tonight we feasted on it. It was so good! ...for chocolate cake. I think the only reason I liked it is because I made it. :)

Callings and Home Teachers

We got a call from the 1st counsellor in the Bishopric. He asked us if we could meet him at 11:30 Sunday morning.

Our home teachers scheduled to visit Sunday at 10:30.

Jake and I rolled out of bed around 9:30. I jumped in the shower first so I could fix breakfast while Jake took a shower. As I got out, I heard Jake answer the phone. He hung up and gave me a slightly panicked look, "our home teachers are here." I glanced at the clock. It was 9:57.
"They are a little early," I commented.
"I know. They said we were their 10:00 appointment."
I threw on some sweats and Jake tried combing his hair down, giving up after a second, and rushed downstairs. We let them in and we all sat down in the front room. Come to find out, while the one was sending out email confirmations to all the families, he was at the movie theaters with his kids and he had double booked 10:30 accidently. They apologized for the mistake, and we laughed about it for a while.

After they left, Jake and I got ready for church and ate breakfast. We drove to the church to meet with Brother Lucia, the 1st counsellor. He asked if we would be willing to serve in the nursery. We accepted and were set apart after all the meetings. We went to nursery for the first time today. There are 16 kids, and 16 kids recently left for sunbeams. We had a lot of fun playing with toys, singing songs, and eating goldfish. I think this will be a fun calling. The only problem is we wont be able to meet people as easily. But we get to play for 2 hours, how fun is that?

Car Accident

Jake got in a car accident this morning. On his way to work -about 8:30 - he was T-boned by another car on the passenger side. Due to Virginia morning traffic, cars will stop at the crosswalk before entering the intersection on green lights because the traffic in front of them isn't moving. Jake needed to make a left hand turn. Intersection was empty, all the cars were stopped. But, during traffic hours, the parking lane is made into a driving lane for convenience. This makes it difficult, though, because there are so many blind spots. Jake didn't see any thing, and the car driving up to make a right hand turn didn't see anything either. Half way through Jake's turn, the other driver realized it was not clear and slammed on his brakes, but it was too late and plowed into the Jake. 

The Mazda was hit between the car doors on the passenger side. They had a crazy tow guy come to take it to a repair shop that Geico said to go to. But the tow guy didn't want to go there. Jake got in the front, told the guy where to go, and then started figuring things out on his phone. After they parked, Jake went in to the main office to get a business card, and realized that the guy had taken him to the place he wanted to go, not the place Jake had told him to go. Jake went running back out to find the car off the tow truck. He marched up to the tow guy and said 'you took me to the wrong place. I want to go to this other repair place.' And the guy answered saying, 'no, the other place is too far away and we are already here.' So Jake finally demanded the guy to take him there. (I am paraphrasing because I was not there...this is just what was told to me when Jake called) Come to find out, the place that Geico said to go to was only a couple minutes away and the driver was just being a stinker about it.

Anyway, it sounds like everything is sorted out. Jake is fine. No injuries. After he got the rental car, he went straight to work. I think the car will be fine too. We will get it back as soon as it is fixed. We were so blessed that nothing too serious happened. We recently - as in just a couple of weeks ago - changed the auto insurance from liability to full coverage.

I don't know if there were any pictures taken. I have no idea how bad the car looked.. If I get any pictures, I will post them.

Home Sweet Home

Here are some pictures of the house we are staying at in Arlington. We are house-sitting for a lady who left to Florida for the winter. These pictures were taken a couple of days ago. It is the first of January and we don't have any snow yet. The weather has been pretty nice, staying in the 30s and 40s. Today, though, we woke up to a thin layer of snow on the ground. The area we live in is a cute residential area a mile and a half away from the greater Arlington area where the big buildings (20 stories or so), restaurants, malls, and company offices start. I really like the Arlington area. It is big but it feels safe and inviting.

Photos courtesy of the camera my family gave us for Christmas!

The shed in the backyard.

Our Home

  

Front Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

  

Kitchen

Looking down our street from the porch.

Front Room

Master Bedroom. (The Superman pillow is Jake's)

Bathroom

                                                                                           

working and cleaning

Jake has worked a total of 41 hours this week, not counting today's 8 hours. He worked for 13 hours yesterday. I think 13 hour days are going to become more common over the next couple of months. January to March is the busy season for auditors. He seems to be liking the internship, but he got a cold the middle of this week and he has had an extremely hard time focusing on what he is being trained to do.

Yesterday, I decided to clean the entire house. I started in the kitchen, moved to the dining room, living room, bathroom, master bedroom, then to the downstairs where I ironed Jake's shirts. For the record, I am not a very good ironer. It took me half an hour to do 3 shirts. In each room I vacuumed or mopped, dusted or 409-ed. It took me most of the day. I finished around 4 o'clock, but I still had 6 hours until Jake got home. I was SO bored. I watched 17 Again, Human Target (I would recommend both), talked to my family via Skype, and painted my fingernails.

Skype user name: kaeceeoliverson   

Jake's Job

Today is Jake's first day of work. He left at 8 this morning to make sure he got to work on time. This week is his training week. Each day will be a full 8 hour work day, but next week and on until April, he will be working overtime.

I got a cold over the weekend, so I haven't felt very well. I suppose I will find a job this week. I tried catching the bus this morning: I stood at the stop for 40 minutes with my teeth chattering. I got sick of waiting, so I ditched the bus idea. I'll try it again tomorrow..

Sunday

The church schedule changed with the new year. We now meet at 1:00. After our final meeting, we stayed an hour longer meeting people and chatting. Our ward is really neat. The majority of members are young couples who are here on an internship or going to school. So we have a lot in common with a lot of people. 

        If you are not an accountant, you must be a lawyer. 

-This is the ward theme when it comes to occupations.

After church, Jake and I drove to Reed and Michelle's to hang out for the night. Michelle, Christy, and I made Mongolian Beef with potstickers and Christy made lettuce wraps. While we cooked, Jake and Reed went downstairs to watch the Spokane Gonzaga basketball game. We strategically sent the children down with them.

After dinner, the boys went to watch the rest of the game while us girls made Caramel Pecan Apple Pie. We got it into the oven and went down to start a movie while the pie cooked. Reed, Jake, Finn, and Ava were piled on the couch watching Little Einstein's. Michelle put the kids in bed and we watched Cool Hand Luke and ate pie.