Donating Blood

I've never ever donated blood before but I decided it was time to do it to help others. Also, here at Mayo, if you or your spouse is employed by Mayo and you donate blood, you won't be charged for blood if you or your immediate family ever need it. So, I decided to donate blood yesterday. I was nervous at first because I wasn't sure if they could get enough out of me...my veins are small so sometimes I have a hard time filling up a small test tube. Luckily, we didn't have a problem and it really wasn't that bad. Plus, they said you can save 3 people by donating once. It feels good to know that I have helped 3 people and possibly save their lives. Anyway, maybe I will donate again sometime in the future.

**Christmas**

It was so nice to be able to sleep in..granted, we went to bed pretty early so we were still up by 8:30am...but, in general, it was nice to not have to rush off to work. We actually got to eat breakfast together too. Andy woke up and cooked hashbrown and scrambled eggs for me. It was one of the BEST breakfasts ever. :) Then, we opened up gifts. I got Andy and new ergonomic wireless keyboard and he bought me a Greg Olson painting of Christ. The painting is so beautiful and is perfect! Afterwards, we just started working on our many projects that we have. We really haven't had time to do them so we've fallen behind. Hopefully, with another 3 day weekend coming up, we can get some more things done. Later that day, we went and explored the southern part of Rochester. It was a lot of fun. :) I'll be sure to post some pics later.

Christmas Card

So, I decided to put our Christmas card up on our blog because I know I wasn't able to send or email one out to everyone. If anyone would like an actual card or email next year, please let me know what your address and email are. :)

First Anniversary!

Wow, I can't believe I've been married for a year! Time sure does fly. Since our anniversary fell on a Wednesday, we weren't able to do too much, but we still had a lot of fun! Andy took the night off from his Bishopric Meeting and I took the night off from scouts. We went to eat dinner at a Japanese restaurant called Jepanchi..it's a tepanyaki place where they cook in front of you...it was a lot of fun! Then, we went and watched the new James Bond movie-Casino Royale. It was actually pretty good.

Anyway, it was nice to be able to have a free night during the week were we could spend time together. We are also planning on staying up in the city one night...we love exploring so I'm looking forward to that. :)

**Camping in November**

So, since the weather during Thanksgiving was really nice, we had decided to follow through with our camping plans. Friday night, we went camping at Whitewater State Park with Craig and Jaclyn Whetten. We had a lot of fun! Plus, we got to eat tin foil dinners..YUMMY! Unfortunately, we were all really tired from our Black Friday adventure and it was really dark, so we went to bed pretty early. Anyway, that night it got really cold. So cold that I don't think any of us slept really well. The next morning, there was frost on EVERYTHING! Luckily, we still had some wood left to start a fire.

Another GREAT Book

Eve's Daughters by Lynn N. Austin is another book I HIGHLY recommend! It's a story about four generations of women and the effects their choices have had on their lives. The four generations of women include the great grandma, grandma, mother, and daughter. It definitely made me look at how my own parent's choices have influenced my own life. It's definitely a MUST READ book. If you do choose to read it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.