Early Morning Fun

So I work as a product coordinator for the Arizona Daily Star (the newspaper in southern Arizona). This means that I work during the night. I leave at 9:30 pm and get back to the apartments around 6:30 am. Every night I tell Becky goodbye and tell her to lock the door behind me. Our door has the typical deadbolt but it also has a lock that can only be unlocked from the inside. I try to mention every night that she can't use that lock because if she does I can't get back inside without having to wake her up. This morning I get back to my apartment and I unlock the door and try to open it, but I can't. I thought that the door might just be stuck so I push harder. No luck. She locked the door from the inside and I was locked out of my apartment!! It was probably 20 degrees outside. That is a death sentence for us Arizonans! (To be locked outside in freezing temperatures) I tried to call my lovely wife but she didn't answer. So I try again...and again...and again...and 5 more times. NO LUCK AGAIN!!! I then thought that I could wake her up by throwing rocks at our bedroom window. I must have thrown 50 rocks or so but still no luck. I then begin to look at our 2nd floor balcony and realized that if I could somehow get up there I could use my key to open the back door. Getting up to the balcony without stairs or a ladder was going to be challenging. I noticed that I could use our downstairs neighbors window as my first step, then delicately balance on their fence and jump to our railing, hoping that I don't miss or slip because that would wake them up and hurt me. So I jumped and grabbed our balcony fence and pulled myself up and thought for sure that I would be able to escape the cold and go to bed. I pull out my keys, put it in the lock and it won't turn!! BLAST!! I found out that I don't have a key to our balcony door! Getting desperate, I figured that I could take off the screen to our window and slide the window open in order to get in to the apartment. But as I was trying to remove the screen I noticed that it had screws holding it in! I decided at this point I needed to just give up and become a little popsicle outside. It my greastest moment of despair I see a little figure wrapped up in blankets coming out of my bedroom. BECKY!! She was awake! She unlocked the door for me and I got in. I gave her a big hug for letting me in and I noticed that she was terrified. This whole time, she had been awake listening to all this noise and thinking that someone wanted to kill her. All in all, don't lock me out, or I might scare you to death trying to get in.

Christmas Card

So...I had every intention of sending a fabulous Christmas card to everyone  we know. Seeing as it's too late to get the cards to everyone by Christmas, I decided to post it here and only send cards to the ones who aren't as tech-saavy as the rest of us (a.k.a. Grandparents). 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

This year has been amazing!  Here are some pictures of the highlights this year:

Four weddings-including our own!

We both graduated in April. Woohoo!

An awesome summer of hiking, fishing, camping, biking, and making cobbler with the college kids!

Many new adventures in our new town-Tucson, AZ (not to mention being closer to my family)

Happy Holidays!  Love, Micah and Becky Price

       

Meatballs--Nothing is better

So apparantly my meatballs are becoming famous.  Micah has pronounced my sweet and sour meatballs to be the best meal I've ever made and will EVER make.   Adam came to visit and I made them for him.  I guess he liked them because he told his mom to get the recipe. So here it is for anyone who wants it:

1 lb. hamburger
1 egg
1 small onion chopped
1/3 cup bread crumbs
3/4 cup milk
3/4 t. salk
1/8 t. pepper
1 t. Worcestershire sauce

Mix and shape into balls (about 24). Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. While baking mix:

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 T. cornstarch
Add: 1 can (13oz) pineapple tidbits
         1 T. soy sauce
         1/3 cup brown vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar)
 **I also like to put cut up carrots and green pepper in it.  Just cook these in the microwave or on the stove so they are nice and tender before adding them to the above sauce.

Cook, stirring constantly until it thickens and boils. Add meatballs. Cover and simmer at lower heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve over rice.



There you have it.  Trust me, you will like it.  Kudos to my sister Heather for giving me this recipe years ago. 

Enjoy!

Pigeons 2, Micah 0

A text I received from Micah today:

          "I got pooped on by a pigeon biking to research!! I want to destroy every pigeon in existence!!"

Our First Married Christmas

A few weeks ago, we made our tree for FHE.  We're poor, ok?  We like our tree, so don't make fun.

I'm not much of a decorator, but after Thanksgiving when Micah said our house wasn't very festive (besides the tree), I knew I had to get my act together and decorate this place for Christmas.  We took a much needed trip to Michael's to get our supplies.

First, we needed stockings.  Micah let it slip that he thought my stocking I've used up 'til now is ugly. I was a litte offended, but then agreed that we should have matching stockings anyway.  The criteria according to Micah: 1- It has to have a "good boot, not a wimpy one"   2- We have to be able to write our names on them  3- They have to be traditional red and green (no light green).  We succeeded! I chose to go for one with a little frill (see the specks of gold? At least it's not pom-poms)

We bought some garland and lights for this little craft project of mine.  I painted clothes pins red and painted "Merry Christmas" on little papers.  I think it turned out rather well, if I do say so myself.

LIGHTS!

The Noel plaque was another craft of mine.  I like it.  Micah surprised me with the mini $1 tree next to it. He said he wanted me to have a "real" tree. How thoughtful.

The ONLY white lights in the house.  It took Micah a day to realize that I had added candy canes.

A few things we already had:

I made this blanket when I was 10 or 11.  The pillow was made by the mother of one of m piano students.

24 Days of Christmas.  This book was my favorite tradition (one of them, at least) growing up.  Each day you read a scripture and a Christmas story.

We dug out the ornaments and decorated the tree. 

Well, folks.  It looks like we are officially prepared for the Christmas season!

We have some funky churches in our town

For example: 

Church of Tamara (Like Tia and Tamara on Sister, Sister? Sweet!)

                       Chinese Baptist Church (The parking lot at this one was filled today.  Who knew there were so many Chinese Baptists in Tucson?)

                      

The Cool Church ('Nuff said)

And then this one:

The bike trip of a lifetime!

On our way to the mountain. There is some pretty cool stuff on the streets of Tucson.

Hey look! We found Stephanie!

There she is from the top of "A" mountain.

I told Micah to take a picture of the A.  I knew I should have done it myself...

 

A panoramic view from the top. I can see Mexico!

I look like I just biked straight up a mountain.  Micah has some sort of magical endurance so nothing fazes him. He always looks good :)

A cute little gazebo at the top!

Really tired.

THE SNAKE!!!!  (Look at the end of the post for an awesome video)  So for months now, Micah and I have driven underneath the belly of this snake, so we deciede to ride on over and check it out from the inside.

Fangs.

We then rode around campus to see what we could find.  This was a Native American celebration for Veterans Day. The guys in the cirlce on the field were singing some awesome stuff.

There are olive trees all over campus. Who knew?

Again, olive trees. A couple days after this picture was taken, we were reading Jacob 5. Micah suggested that we go sit in an olive tree and read it.  It would be fitting, but we didn't end up actually doing it.

The snake.  I didn't know how to make this right-side-up....and I didn't know how to make the sound work....but enjoy it anyway!

What a great way to spend Veterans Day / 11-11-11

Best Friends

This little girl is my niece, Bailey. 

She's the cutest!

She LOVES Micah so much.

  If he's around, she goes right to him and stays with him the whole time he's there. 

 If I'm around but Micah's not, she will ask me "Where's Micah?"

One time when we went over to my sister's house. 

Micah stayed outside for a minute and when I walked in the house, Bailey was getting a splinter taken out of her foot. 

She was not very happy.

She cried and cried...

until Micah came in.

"Micah?" she sniffed tearfully.

Then she stopped crying and just stared at him. Wow.

Micah has some hold on this little girl's heart.

I like watching him play with her and talk to her.

It makes me believe he won't actually shoot the clothes of our future daughters if they dress immodestly. 

He's too much of a softy.

I love it!

Halloween.

We skipped our ward party this year and decorated pumpkins instead. It was the Friday before Halloween and we decided a date was better than spending the night with the whole ward.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I got some awesome presents!  Micah and my parents and my in-laws spoiled me rotten and I loved it!

Micah is such a good cake maker. I told him the most important part of my birthday was the frosting. Rainbow chip-there's none better, y'all.

I just thought this was funny.  My mom wanted a middle piece, so Micah happily obliged.

Did I mention my mom and dad "surprised" me by coming to Tucson? I say "surprised" because I totally guessed that they were coming. I don't have a sneaky enough husband. 

We went to Cheesecake factory and played Skip-bo and ate cake.

Perfect.

Newsies

Is this what you thought of when you read the title?

Me too.  I LOVE this movie. I always thought it would be cool to be a newsie. My favorite part of the movie?

 "Never fear, BROOKLYN is here!!!" 

Man this movie is great.  When Micah got a job as a "newspaper carrier" I may or may not have had unrealistic expectations of what he would be doing.  To my dismay, the first time I helped Micah with his route I found out that delivering newspapers is nowhere near as glamorous as they make it out to be in the movie.

Here are the facts:

FACT. There is absolutely no dancing.

FACT.  There is also no singing (unless you count the sleepy off key singing I do along to the radio at 3 in the morning).

FACT.  The carriers aren't boys ages 10-16 who all live in the same place.  Most of them are drug addicts and Mexicans (we ARE in Tucson, after all).One guy even lives in his van.

FACT. Micah's job actually takes place in the middle of the night. Gross.

FACT. The bosses aren't mean guys out to get us. They are friendly. AND they helped Micah get a promotion!!!! That's basically the best part of the job--and the free coupons.

Here are some pictures of the our last day delivering papers:

I look REALLLLY tired because I am. And do you see all of those papers? This is a Sunday.  The papers are HUGE and they barely fit into our car.

As tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I'll say this:  I am so thankful I don't have to deliver papers with Micah anymore.