3 Day Christmas Adventures

Hello world! December has been an interesting month and I really haven't had anything to blog about. Since I suck at documenting our adventures with a camera I don't really feel the need to give you a play by play without any visual enjoyment.

That being said, we had a great Christmas. I have been enjoying 5 days off work which is pretty impressive until you talk to my teacher husband who gets 17 days. Double digits people. That lucky SOB.

Christmas Eve was spent at Barts mom's house enjoying lots of food and Christmas jammies! She gets us a new set every year and I love them. I think I have worn the pants everyday and sometimes all day since I got them!

I also made a cheeseball.....FROM SCRATCH!! Believe it. Add gluten free crackers to the mix and BAM I was a pretty happy camper.

Bart didn't think my one amazing cheeseball would be enough so he bought one from the store. Can you tell? Mine looks much tastier right!?!? There was more food than any of us could eat and in the end it was a pretty successful night.
 

Bart woke me up at 6:30 Christmas morning with breakfast. Not just any breakfast but FRENCH TOAST. You guys the fat kid in me just loves this time of year. I havent had French toast for 9 months and it is my favorite breakfast menu item. Bart got gluten free bread and surprised me. It was the bomb.com
 Santa brought us Despicable Me 2 so we watched that/napped before we headed over to my parent's house. 

The Bainum family does Christmas a little differently but it is how I grew up so it's normal for me. We open one present every hour. Then we clean up the wrapping and start the timer for another hour. By 2 or 3pm we get to unwrap the rest and finish everything off with a new book from my dad. This year he gave all the girls "Women and the Priesthood"by Sherri Dew. So far so good. It's much better than my rants about wearing pants and stuff :) 

My parents gave us this beautiful picture of Christ and its my new favorite thing in our home. Isn't it beautiful??? I love spending Christmas at what I still consider "home" with my family. 7 Layer Bean Dip, impossible puzzles, lots of laughs and comfy couches to nap on. It's the best!

Our 3 Day Christmas Adventures continued on the 26th as we headed up to Tremonton to visit Bart's Dad & family. Apparently going shooting is a thing and they are all into it. I tried twice....and cried about my arm...twice. I ended up in the truck with Aggie who was terrified of the gun shots.

My vacation ends tomorrow as I head back to work, but I am feeling refreshed and ready to go. I have spent plenty of time napping and enjoying the couch it's kind of embarrassing..I wasn't feel well yesterday so me and our crappy couch and my Christmas jammies hung out for most of the day.

On Tuesday night/Wednesday we get to celebrate the new year! I love New Years Day and the chance I have to think about the past year's adventures, blessings and life changes. I will do my best to document appropriately.

2 Cents: Anti-Gay, Anti-Christian

We have all seen/read/heard about the drama surrounding Phil Robertson's comments in his GQ interview and I wanted to link to the actual interview/article in GQ magazine because I am embarrassed with how fellow "journalists" are writing about the story.

Am I surprsied that Phil is getting in trouble for what he said? No. Do I approve of punishment for saying what you believe? No. As far as I know he didn't say all gay men should be shipped off to some island and never be seen again. He stated his beliefs. He belives homosexuality is a sin. I also believe homosexuality is a sin. I also believe everyone should be treated equal and should be loved and respected by their fellow men. But that doesn't change what I believe to be right and wrong.

I applaud Phil Robertson for sticking to his beliefs on a national level. For me to say what I believe isn't really a big deal because 12 people read this blog and my opinion isn't national news. For Phil to stick up for what he believes is brave and I have a new level of respect for him.

If you believe homosexuality isn't a sin then I would applaud you for sticking up for your beliefs too. But don't freak the hell out because someone has a different opinion and belief system than you. I don't understand this debate of one group can say and do whatever the hell they want because they are a minority but heaven forbid a Christian stick up for what they have been taught and believe their whole lives. Many Christians believe homosexuality is a sin. Many also believe that everyone is a child of God that deserves respect and love in this life. Those two beliefs don't contradict each other.

To get respect for your beliefs you are going to have to respect mine.

2 Cents: #Multitasking

Hey women! I'm talking to you! Are you a mother? Even better!

Gisele's instagram picture has pissed off a lot of mommies out there..and that pisses me off.

She posted it with #multitasking and many moms are claiming she's not really doing anything, she is letting other people multitask for her.

They say she likes to rub in the fact that she is a supermom and it's hurtful and frustrating and annoying and a stab in the back for all the moms out there who look like they just got hit by a bus and dressed in the dark when they are taking care of their own babies.

I say ya'll are just jealous.

I know I am and I don't even have a little human I have to feed.

Let's be honest, if any of us/you/them were in that situation you would post a pic too! Why? Because instagram is made for narcissistic photos. I have friends who post pictures every.single.day and the only reason behind the post is to brag or show off what is happening. I post pictures like that too. It's now socially acceptable to post a bragging pic about your happy life

..unless you're a supermodel?

So she gets to breastfeed her baby when she's at work getting a mani/pedi/blow out. Get over it. She isn't saying you're a bad mom. She isn't saying all moms should multitask like her. She is just showing you a behind-the-scene pic of her life.

We all need to stop obsessing about photos like these. Give this homegirl a round of applause for looking smoking hot with half a boob out and focus on your own life.

I promise you will do just fine.

MATH, LING & POLS

Summer 2013. MATH 1030- Intro Quantitative Reasoning. Grade: A

That's right ladies and gentlemen..another A in math for Meggie. This A came with plenty of tears and emotional breakdowns but I learned a ton!
I could tell you how much money you would save if your interest rate went from 5% to 5.5%.
I could also tell you if compounding interest monthly or yearly is better for your account.
I could tell you how much interest you are going to pay over the course of a loan and how much you would save if you upped your monthly payments by $100.
This all came in handy since we were applying for a home loan and I knew exactly what we were getting ourselves into. Did you know you will almost pay double what your original loan payment amount is because of interest? I mean most people don't live in the same house for 30 years so it doesn't apply but still, going from a 30 year loan to a 15 year loan would add a few hundred dollars to your monthly payment but take off tens of thousands of dollars (if not hundreds of thousands) off the total amount paid.
Boom. that right there is MATH you guys. I totally got my money's worth in this class. I also ate lots of dark chocolate, cried many tears to Bart and Instagramed my feelings/experiences more with this class than any other.

Fall 2011. LING 3160- Language and Cognition. Grade: B

Ya know how I said earlier that I loved Linguistics? This class slapped me in the face and said NO YOU DONT. It was a ton of reading. Like 100+ pages of reading per assignment. That might not seem like a lot to some of you out there..but when I just have to create a Twitter account or cut a video for my other classes...it seemed like a lot of reading. The semester ended with a 12 page paper on a topic I don't remember anymore. I just remember BSing my way through that paper enough to get a C on it and pass the class. #nailedit.

Spring 2013. POLS 3001- Political Analysis. Grade: A-

What do you get when you combine a 4 hour night class with a boring topic and a foreign teacher? THIS CLASS! The stuff he taught was complicated statistics. Don't let the Political Analysis name fool you..this was straight up numbers and programs...not news stories and opinions. I really liked this professor and I thought he did a great job explaining the concepts.

There was a stupid biotch in this class that I wanted to punch on a weekly basis..but I resisted. She kind of reminded me of myself when I was younger and much more sarcastic. Was I that bitchy girl people wanted to punch in the face?!?! I really hope not and I'm sorry if that was the case.

I learned how you can figure out what is the best way to save money on your gas bill. Three things affect your gas bill..but which choice makes the most impact?  1. amount of installation you have 2. the age/model of your furnace or 3. the temperature outside. According to the research and the statistics it's the temperature outside...not the age of your furnace.. so no need to go buy a brand new appliance to save a few bucks.

JCOM, HEDU & COMM

Spring 2011. JCOM 2160- Intro to Online Journalism. Grade: A

This class was taught my some young dude computer genius and yet I didn't learn a thing. I guess he showed me how to kind of use Photoshop and the very very basic of HTML (so basic that I don't even know what HTML means anymore). A lot of my Journalism/Communication courses could have been so much better! I wonder how much I could have learned...but then I also wonder if I would have ever used it in the real world anyway...

Fall 2011. H EDU 5300- Diversity & Health. Grade: A-

This was my first semester at The U and since I couldn't really get into any classes for my major I stocked up on classes that were higher than the 3000 level so they wouldn't be a complete waste of time and money. It was actually a great strategy because I won't be graduating with extra credits! Go me.

I really liked this class. The professor was a hard-ass-so-you-take-me-seriously type and never really cared when I had a comment to share...but the content was fascinating and it definitely made me think outside the box. It was similar to my History of Sex class because it made me think of my values in a different way. Not bad or good. Just different. I wrote THIS blog post after a particularly interesting day. (The first half of the post is talking about above-mentioned History of Sex class, the second half is about the class I'm currently talking about).

Many of my arguments/differences of opinions with Bart stem from what I learned in this class. Did this class make me a liberal? I don't think so...but it did give me a new way to look at things like poverty and the welfare system and minorities. So Left of me I know.

Spring 2012. COMM 3560- Video Production I. Grade: A

If you have read all of my 122-Hours posts than this class title might look familiar...because I had technically already taken this class but the good ol' U wouldn't accept it. Yay for me! I wish I could tell you I learned more the second time around...but I'm not a liar. In fact, the current class I am in (advanced video editing) further proves that I learned not a whole lot in this beginner course. I barely learned how to check out equiptment. (which is a pain by the way).

We did a major class project where we had to create a video and luckily I landed a pretty cool group. We had the idea of recreating "bad roommate" moments. I had plenty of memories to inspire the script...here it is...don't judge me!
We took the approach that girls never say anything each other's faces..they are just passive aggressive and complain and boys will yell at each other and get over it. Pretty good right?
-Video 101-white balance is a thing.
-Don't act like my karaoke was anything short of genius. 
-p.s. the whole sex scene with Girlfriend was not my idea but apparently it was really funny?
-p.s.s. it was actually pretty fun to film.

THAT Person

I have turned into that person...

the person that buys their dog a $.99 toy in the check out at Walmart (only to have said dog chew it a part in less than a minute. ya..my dog is too bad ass for cheap toys. now I know.)

the person who inhales a cheap bag of potato chips in her car so she doesn't have to share with Bart when she gets home

the person who cuts her own hair and has the stylist shake their head in shame

the person who tells the boys in her life "NO PLAYING FETCH IN THE HOUSE"


#dontjudgeme