http://www.bigredkitchen.com/2010/12/advent-day-1-christmas-coal/

RICE KRISPIE COAL!! 

Once, just a few years ago, I told a child that they were getting coal in their Christmas stocking.  Without hesitation, they asked if matches came with it.  Now it's a family joke.....

 

This coal....matches not included.

Peters POST Certificate graduation November 29, 2012

Ok....first post.....

Peters department (City of LA, Public Works) put them through a POST (Police Officer Standards and Training) class, since they will be combining with LAPD soon.  Several weeks of Police Officer training - the Readers Digest version, since it was under a month, instead of 6 months - administered by LAPD.  He is considered a Peace Officer now, although the department hasn't issued firearms to them, yet.  Since Peter often does surveillence at night in rough neighborhoods, I wouldn't mind if he carried....and I think he'd like to as well, but being an unarmed civilian does have its advantages.

The graduation ceremony finally materialized after some delay, and here he is in full regalia.  The stripes on his left arm indicate his 30+ years of service to the city, and the awards on his chest include service during a Papal visit, the '84 Olympics, '92 Presidential visit (I think),and the '94 Northridge Earthquake.  I think his nearly 30 hours of continual service with the Space Shuttle Endeavor should have a special pin, too.

At LA City Hall on a rainy morning.

For anyone who remembers - we had Phillipes sandwiches afterwards!

Jeff's Ventricular Heart Assist Device approved by the FDA

Jeff sent the link to an article detailing how his company's Ventricular Heart Assist Device was approved by the FDA for use in the USA. It has been used successfully in other areas of the world. Jeff's job has been to test the device in order to pass the FDA process.

Here is the link
http://seekingalpha.com/news-article/4863661-heartware-receives-fda-approval-for-heartware-ventricular-assist-system-as-a-bridge-to-heart-transplantation-for-patients-with-advanced-heart-failure

Congratulations Jeff!

We live in Utah now!

We FINALLY moved into our new house.  It took longer than we were told it would take to build, but it was finally done about a month later than we thought.  We had to cobble together living arrangements in the meantime. Getting the loan was quite an odyssey.  But it is all done now and worth the wait.

Here is our house.

And here is our red front door.  We love it.

The fireplace in our living room.  We had them copy a picture we found online.  (We'll get around to hanging the picture one of these days)

Here is the kitchen.  We brought the red pendants from our old house. 

Our master bath has glass tile covering the wall behind the mirrors.

Here is the view from our office on the front of the house. 

Here is the view from the back.   At night you can see the lights in Heber City. 

Midway has a population of 3200.  My high school had a population of 3000.  But Midway has its own stake!  Our ward is huge, and very friendly.  More than half of our closest neighbors are in our ward.  That is nice.  It has snowed a couple of times, but the roads were plowed quickly and so I didn't have to be afraid. 

Karen and David came over a few days ago.  It is nice to live so close to a sister - less than an hour!  They had kept a lot of boxes of tile in their garage for a lot longer than we thought they would have to.  But they didn't complain.

We have a basement that we'll finish some day.  In the meantime, it is nice to have a big space you can put stuff you don't know what to do with!  And boxes that haven't been unpacked yet.

I have never lived anyplace other than California, except in college.  We'll get our Utah driver's licenses when we get back from Arizona.  We'll be going there from Jan through March.  Even then, we'll check the weather before we head back!

Brielle's Little Hedgehogs

Jeff and Brielle's little boys, Austin and Bennett, requested hedgehog costumes for Halloween. Brielle made the cutest costumes for them. Don't you love these?

See more of Brielle's photos of her little hedgehogs at

 http://iholdallthecards.blogspot.com/2012/10/hedgehog-costumes.html