Christmas = More Christ

Christmas is, no doubt, the best time of year. Why? People are more giving, more forgiving, more understanding, more patient, more friendly, more appreciative, more loving. They are more Christlike. I wish every day of the year felt like Christmas.

Jake and I were all by ourselves this year at 2,000 miles away from the nearest family. We missed them a LOT but we were also able to keep the stress of the holidays to a minimum. In the words of a good friend Paul Keep, or as I like to call him, PK.... "It was a good day." And if you all knew PK, then you would know that "a good day" is quite the statement.

The Festivities:

Soon after Thanksgiving.... we got a Christmas Tree! The Farmers Market is my favorite place to get produce around here, and they just happened to have some beautiful and inexpensive North Carolinian trees that caught our attention. We were in the Geo, unprepared, but it still worked.

Christmas morning we had the alarm clock set to give us 1/2 an hour to get ready and we actually made it to church on time. I guess one-half hour is all we really need. The church choir sang and it didn't sound like angels but I appreciated it nonetheless. The story of Joseph and Mary was recited and we left with squishy feelings.

When we got home we made eggnog & cinnamon toast (a Shumway tradition) that will be carried on for many years to come because it's a kick-A tradition. It's the perfect Christmas breakfast. Well, if my mom had been here to make biscuits and gravy, I wouldn't have complained about a breakfast like that either.

I would love to say that we had a classic Christmas movie playing in the background throughout the day, but in all honesty, we started watching the second season of HEROES. Yes, it gets more cheesy. And yes, I will watch whatever I want to watch on Christmas even if it's a Sunday Christmas.

We opened gifts that our loving parents had mailed us. The FedEx guy could've thrown our package and it probably would've been okay but I'm glad he didn't because Jake and I got some really really cool Aviator sunglasses................. and some cuddly hand stitched blankets. Cashews and Pumpkin Seeds. Mmmm. Thank you :)

Later on in the day our friends who own & operate a Thai Food Restaurant in town invited us to eat dinner at their place. I felt so special to be sitting in a restaurant that was closed to the rest of the public that day. Peet is from Thailand and she is an excellent cook. Jake wants to rename a menu on her item to be called "Hot Dang Panang."

Her husband Donald is a fabulous writer. Check out his website and buy his book. He's one of our favorite people here in Hartsville. Real. Nice. And real nice. After we finished dinner we helped Donald & Peet paint their kitchen because, well, it needed painting. I also learned how to play Fruit Ninja on the iPad. It takes no skill yet, I beat everyone else's score =)

And at the end of the day, Jake made me a pair of shoes. I'm not sure why he doesn't like me to brag about him, but he is amazing. He cooks, he sews, fixes all of our car problems, plays beautiful music, and he's handsome. His mama did grow him up good. I love him and his big headphones. Those are the same headphones I fell in love with 5 and half years ago.

Christmas was fun. It was relaxed. It was meaningful. It was.... a good day.

The Palmetto State

For those of you who are not so connected with the Boucher's, here's the haps:

We moved to South Carolina. Why?.... You tell me.

Jake and I took a 6 month road trip across the southern United States last winter (no interstates) and we found a cute little town called Hartsville. When we got back to Utah we bought a 4'x8' trailer, built some sides on it, and filled it to the brim with our belongings. As Jake pulled the trailer with old Subi (our station wagon), I followed behind in little blue (the 2-door Geo Metro) sharing the front seat with a suitcase, a food dehydrator, a king-sized feather comforter, a sewing machine, 4 plants and a bag of Spitz Sunflower Seeds. All the necessities, as you can see. At one point in the trip we were passing under some really pink clouds. They didn't turn out as pink in the pictures but seeing these made me so happy.

It was eight days on the road at speeds around 60mph. Two flat tires on the trailer (which we expected and were prepared for) but it was around 106 degrees when we had to pull over somewhere between New Mexico and Amarillo to change it. Jake was amazing-- changing tires and driving through traffic while pulling a bouncy trailer. Atlanta at 5:00pm is ugly. We felt like the Beverly Hillbillies. Since our little cars were pulling heavy loads, we took the flattest route which also happened to be the hottest route. Imagine, the last week of June, no cloud coverage, 9 hour days of driving without Air Conditioning in either car. We both kept a gallon of water in the front seat to keep us alive, but I think both of us still shed 10 pounds of water weight.

So we've been in South Carolina about 4 1/2 months now and we're enjoying it. Life down here is definitely different from life in Utah. I like the humidity when it's between 60-80 degrees, in July it hit 100 and that was rough. The fall/winter has been great so far. Another big difference is the whole Bible Belt thing. If you think Utah is big on religion, you ain't seen nothin yet. Since I don't have the southern accent the first question I get asked is - Where are you from? The second question I get asked - Where do you go to church? We've met a lot of good people and have enjoyed it here so far. Jake has already found his musician buddies. We're discovering the south and it's interesting! I'm glad we decided to move to Hartsville. We may not live in South Carolina forever, but it feels kind of magical being here right now with some unknown purpose.

I miss really good mexican food. Yes, Utah has a surprisingly good amount of authentic mexican food and I miss that. It's not so easy to find down here. However, I've had the BEST oven baked macaroni & cheese of my life. And butter beans, ooh baby. Collards? Yep, anything tastes good when it's cooked alongside a big old ham bone. And the fried chicken... before this I had only ever had Kentucky Fried Chicken, which, is not Fried Chicken. I was never a big fan of KFC but now that I've had the real thing, I understand why people make such a big deal over it. I guess it's time for me to start learning how to cook, southern style.

I know, I know, I know.

Yes, it has been a million years since I last posted on the best blog in the world. I'm not sure if it's because I'm busy or bored. Can you be both at the same time? I feel like there is nothing exciting to write about but then I realize that so much has happened in these last few months that I should really be documenting, and THEN I get overwhelmed and it makes me too tired to even open the laptop. So here I am, feeling lazy on a Sunday morning but also feeling sentimental. I was completely exhausted last night and got to bed sometime after 1:30, just to wake up for no particular reason at 6:30, still tired but unable to fall back asleep.

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I started this email on a Sunday.... and now it's 3 1/2 weeks later. Haha. Oh blogging.

I want to post a couple pictures of the happenings before we left Utah, then we'll get to the new stuff. Jake and I helped out with a couple of projects around E-town (Elsinore). Using a sledge hammer is pretty tough stuff. It was a better workout than kickboxing. Goodbye old shed.

Demolition:

Demolished:


Family Time: Canning with the Logan-based Bouchers. Kindergarten music time with the Ogden-based Boucher. Puzzle mania with the Kearns-based Bouchers.

Before our road trip Jake and I found two old 1960's banana seat bikes at the local thrift store for only $5 each! It was too good of a deal so we bought them and stored them at our wonderful parents house for the next 6 months. (thanks again) When we got back from our road trip guess what we found at the thrift store? An old tandem Schwinn! We changed the chain and pumped up the tires and sold it on craigslist for a good profit. . . . Since we hadn't been working and earning wages for a while, we began to notice opportunity in everything around us.

Mama B's Birthday. Family. Bowling. Eating. Funny Hats.

Jake has always wanted to go tie dye some clothes in the red mud at the Hot Pots. So we finally decided to do it and now he is the proud owner of a couple of brown/grey/red t-shirts and a pair of shoes.

14 inches of blonde locks being chopped.... only one of them looks very happy about it.

Talk about beautiful, thick hair! Jake donated it to Wigs for Kids. He wants to start a business where you can receive a picture back of the kid wearing your hair for a wig. Super weird, huh? NOBODY would ever start a business like that. There are way too many complications and implications. Now I think it's time for a shave. What kind of little kid do you think would benefit from Jake donating his beard hair?

Jake and I crashed a Family Reunion while we were in Utah. Hahaha! Who does that? It was a lot of fun. Our friends, the Hewitt's, have a party every summer with music and mutton. It was great. Not the mutton. But everything else.

Another project we worked on while we were visiting Elsinore was some rental sprucing up. We painted inside & outside. Walls, shutters, and somehow another red door! Remember the red door we painted at Mom & Dad Shumways house? Welp, we painted a red door at Mama & Papa Bouchers house.

Jake has had these blue shoes for a very, very long time. Whenever he'd wear them his toes would stick out the sides because of all the holes. We were both sad to see them go. Jake never thought I liked them but I did-- I just thought the holes were too many. Doesn't that picture kind of look like a mug shot?

And I have to mention this old U-haul truck that we bought. We had the awesome plan of buying a cheap truck, packing it full, moving to our new home, and then selling the truck for the same price. Well... the cheap truck was... cheap. Jake did a lot of manly work on it but it became too much of a headache. So... we sold it for the same price and then bought the trailer you see on the next picture. We built sides for it and Jake wired up some brake lights. We packed everything we could into a 4'x4'x8' trailer, a geo metro and a 1994 subaru. Yes, not a whole lot of space to fit our entire lives, but it worked. I guess it was a good purging of unnecessary junk.


Jake is always up for the fam jam. If somebody wants to play music, there he be. Lately he's been practicing the saw. Wildly enough, he makes it sound pretty good.

We thought it would be a waste to drive more than two cars up the mountain, so we left one car at the bottom of the bike trail and Jake squished into the back of the truck with four bicycles. Then Mama B, Papa B, Jake and I coasted down the Big Rock Candy Mountain. I miss the those mountains.

My brother's commercial

Hi Everyone That I Love! My brother made a great commercial and here's the deal.... He needs 100,000 views in order to even be considered as one of six finalists. So if you love me (because I love my brother) you will watch this video, and then watch it again, and then post it on your facebook, and then tweet or toot or whatever you can do to get it out there. He needs about 3,000 hits a day so please share it. THANKS!

http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/gallery/?video=16485

Vegas, one more time.

Our last stop before we made it back to Utah was in Vegas to visit my oldest brother and his family. We've been to Las Vegas many, many times and it never gets old-- only because my nephews are there. I love these kids! While we were there we went to a hockey game. I've decided that I really like going to hockey games. Vegas was playing against Alaska so you can guess who won.... The team that can probably practice more because they actually have ICE where they live. At home we built a fort to relax in and watch movies and play cards and board games. My eight year old nephew seems to beat me at Mormon Bridge with every hand he is dealt. When my tough two year old nephew discovered the fort he came in to terrorize everyone. This kid can beat up a ten year old if he chooses to! I don't know how he does it-- it must be that adorable face that leads his opponents to believe they are safe, then he attacks. It's funny, and annoying.

Down to San Luis Obispo

Driving back down the coast was just as beautiful and impressive as it was driving up a few weeks earlier. We stayed in San Luis Obispo which I discovered I've been pronouncing wrong my whole life. It looks Spanish, but locals pronounce it "San Lewis Obizbo." But drop the Obizbo part and that's the way it is supposed to be said. I found out that I actually have a cousin there so we met up and got to know each other. We ate good food and enjoyed the amazing SLO farmers market. We saw artists painting gorgeous scenery and just to stop and take a picture. We enjoyed multiple stretches of California beaches and saw a guy almost tip his sailboat over. Once again, I will admit that I would like to live in California- If it was a million dollars cheaper filled with a million less people.

Livermore & Santa Cruz

I have to mention one more time-- taking the back roads is awesome. There are parts of northern California that are ridiculously gorgeous. Multiple times Jake and I have considered living in a tree in the woods here. If I had millions of extra dollars I would definitely have a vacation home in "Nor Cal." We were lucky to spend a few days with Jake's cousins in Livermore. We had a couple of family dinners with games, lots of laughing, music made with cereal bowls, and a haircut.

In Santa Cruz we couchsurfed with a dreadlocked Reggae lover who took us to see some surfing and a cemetery. At the ocean there was this bird and otter playing together that was cracking me up. The otter would dive under the water then pop up about 20 feet away from the bird, then the bird would fly over to him/her and hang out for minute before the otter would pop back under the water again. They looked like they were having so much fun together that they didn't even notice the surfer in the water. 

Here I am obsessing over a cemetery one more time. Santa Cruz has a pretty awesome and pretty creepy graveyard. The back of the cemetery slopes uphill into the woods with heavy foliage and lots of nature noise. Awesome, and creepy. Old headstones are so much more ornate and eye catching than what seems to be permitted these days. If they allow it, I think I want to have bells and whistles on mine. I love the inscription on the last stone. "He was a colored man and willed all his property to Santa Cruz School District No 1. Rest in Peace." Simple, sweet, and telling.