The Adventures of Joe and Britt

New Website I'm working on

2012-01-19T17:53:00.004-05:00

(sunset beach, my favorite part of the North Shore from my BYU Hawaii Days)

As some of you know, Britt and I had our honeymoon at the Marriot in Center Street in Provo. We also took a trip to Lincoln City and to DC for receptions. In hindsight maybe we should have planned an awesome trip to an island. So I'm going to make it up to everyone and help them plan their dream honeymoon.

http://honeymoondestinations.org/ Is a website run by Marc and I. You may remember Marc from his glasses website Justeyewear.com which is still doing well. We really think it can do well. It will be a destination for people who are planning honeymoons.

Please check it out and let me know what you think! There are lots of ways to take a honeymoon even if you already married. Second honeymoons, babymoons, and commitment ceremonies are great excuses to take a trip. If you know anyone that is getting married, send them to the site! I really appreciate you checking it out and telling a friend. You guys rule.

-Joe

Can you tell?

2011-12-07T14:41:00.004-05:00

Which of these pictures is Microsoft Founder Bill Gates, and which is my International Law professor Roger Steinhardt? 6 more days of finals!!! ( No fair looking at the picture URLs)

Gun Show

2011-11-19T19:17:00.008-05:00

Went to the National Gun Show today and made sure to wear my best camo. I don't own any guns, but I do like to people watch. The gun show was in the same building where we went to the cat show. not a lot of crossover between the two groups.

Older Bro Ben

BFF Marc

Lots of Third reich memorabilia. not sure if the sellers were like "this was part of history and worth collecting" or like "Man, those were the days" but either way, nazi stuff is way expensive. marc didnt buy any because he didnt want to feel like the neighbor from "American Beauty"

A stool made out of an elephants foot

Lots of ron paul supporters. obama... not so much.

Joe and Janet in Town

2011-11-16T13:36:00.003-05:00

Always good to have family in town. Couldn't put it better than they did, so we'll link to their post

http://janetandjoe.blogspot.com/2011/11/dc-visit.html

Xbox Live

2011-10-22T15:10:00.003-04:00

My Xbox account got hacked, and I finally got it back. The Tl;Dr version is that Microsoft customer support is very good, but when they say it will take up to 30 business days, they mean it. Total it took like 2 months to get my account back.

I don't know how it was hacked, but someone took over the account, and transfered my subscription and MS points to another account (total value ~$60). It's one of those frustrating situations where you would literally pay the person $80 NOT to do it. It's not the money, but the fact that you route your online life through one account and its a pain to re do everything.

The second frustration is that everything important is ancient. It's all routed through your Hotmail account, which you haven't touched since 1999. The passwords are from a bygone era. I think half of my passwords back then had to do with Party of 5 and RL Stine novels. The other problem is the "secret questions" that they use to identify you. They are equally dated, and by not knowing then YOU sound like the hacker, and then microsoft gets all suspicious of you. Also, half of them are publicly accesible, such as your mother's maiden name. This is how a string of celebrities recently all had their accounts hacked, its because all of their secret questions could be answered with a 2 second google search. Paris Hilton actually had the name of her dog as her secret question.

ID Theft makes you feel totally taken advantage of. It's mean. Anyway, I'm glad to have my account back, even though I'm on self imposed video game exile until finals are over. Safe gaming everyone!

Favorite Song?

2011-10-20T19:54:00.003-04:00

Do you have a favorite song? I have a lot that I like. But if I had to name one my favorite, I would say "This is not an exit" by Saves The Day. It's a being proud of the life you've lived.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ktspiLaqTU&hd=1

Leave your favorite song in the comments.

i mostly wanted to get my fat picture off the top of the blog

Guest Post by the Average Joe

2011-09-17T19:11:00.000-04:00

i was 176 pounds when i moved to dc. now i'm down to 148!

The Legwarmers

2011-09-17T17:19:00.002-04:00

Some of you may remember that I went to see a fun 80's cover band last year with my friends.

Joe was talked into going with some of his friends a few weeks ago. I opted out, but had fun helping with the outfit. P.S. look how skinny he is!!

OBX

2011-09-17T17:19:00.001-04:00

We had a great Cramer family reunion in Duck this summer. Joe's parents rented a house just a few minutes' walk from the beach and right next door to a rec. center. In attendance? 13 adults and 13 kids! We ate nightly as a group (with a different family assigned to cooking each night,) but spent the days leisurely reading, making trips to the beach, playing tennis and croquet, hitting the pool and hot tub, and just enjoying each others' company. We really lucked out with the weather; the next week, houses were evacuated before the hurricane!

It was a wonderful trip. Many thanks to Lew and Barb!

Where were you...

2011-09-17T17:19:00.000-04:00

...when the earthquake hit?

I was in new-teacher training with 20+ other people. We all looked around for about 5 seconds, then I started to get under my desk while everyone else ran out of the classroom into the hallway. I remember earthquake drills: you get under your desk and cover the back of your neck. But nobody else did that, so I doubted myself and ran after them. Then we all went outside and started texting and updating Facebook statuses (obviously). Joe was at work (the basement level of his building,) and readily admits that he ran out without concern for the well-being of anyone else. Quote: "I will never need a reminder to put my oxygen mask on before assisting someone else."

We were both released early, and luckily made it home without getting stuck in any crazy traffic. I *get* that it wasn't a huge earthquake and we there was not a ton of damage, but what a lot of people don't respect is that this area is not used to earthquakes...or flood-producing rain.

The rain last week was incredible. The worst of it came on a Thursday, and my 35 minute commute turned into an hour and 45 minutes. It was awful. The actual rain reminded me of a big Oregon storm, but the roads and drivers were not used it...it was ugly. Some of my friends were stuck at work; one is a teacher, and her students kept getting sent back on buses because they couldn't navigate the flooded neighborhoods or the students' parents couldn't get home from work.

FPCS schools were closed the next day from the rain, and no one was complaining...a 3-day school week? Yes! We'll probably regret using up that "snow" day when we're working well into June, but whatever.

Turtle Power

2011-09-17T17:18:00.004-04:00

It was fun to have Dave living out here again this summer! 4 of the 6 Cramer siblings were within 45 minutes of each other, and we had lots of fun. One night Dave brought a few people over from the Barlow Center and we hosted a TMNT party. I had lots of fun setting up and baking pizzas non-stop while the crew watched the original Turtles movie.

The non-meat ingredients for 8 homemade pizzas

Turtle eyemask-making station

Turtles can play Rock Band, too.

The whole gang

Drinking Mutagen (or Jelly Bean green apple soda from TJ MAXX)

More Mutagen

Kind of tired by the end of the night...and Joe's eyemask kind of left some residue on his forehead.

Two of a Kind

2011-09-17T17:18:00.003-04:00

Joe and I went to the wedding of his law school friend a few weeks ago. We knew the reception was going to have a theme, but thought the execution was REALLY fun!! Congrats Jason and Amy!

Did someone say CAT SHOW?

2011-09-17T17:18:00.002-04:00

Joe has been telling me how awesome cats shows were for as long as I can remember. For anyone who forgot, I did not grow up with any pets, and was not particularly fond of them. Then we found the kitty in the parking lot while we lived in Orem, (Mittens!) and I knew I would forever love kitty cats. For the record, I think dogs are pretty awesome too...I'm just more of a cat person :)

Anyway, we went to a cat show last week, and I kind of wanted to just take every cat home with me. It was really neat to see all the different breeds; some of them are so pretty (and ugly!) The cat owners were all so nice...willing to talk with you about anything cat-related :) It was tons of fun.

Look! It's another Lucky and DeeDee!

This cat was an ambassador; he got carted around on a little flat-bed, but would sometimes walk around, too.

This cat could not be bothered to actually come downstairs to eat.

Somebody loves this face...

A Bombay like Lucks!

This one seemed so regal.

RAWR!

Best in Show. I can't imagine dealing with all that hair!!

New Job

2011-09-17T17:18:00.001-04:00

Technically, I started my job at the beginning of July. The PAC (Preschool Autism Classroom) program has a 6-week summer session to help maintain students' progress. So, for anyone wondering, I got about a week off between grad school and new job, then ta-da! I was suddenly a teacher.

I've been nothing short of overwhelmed every day, but am slowly starting to come out of the "What was I thinking!?" fog. I'm really passionate about ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) and have seen changes in my kiddos already.

If it were just me playing with the students all day = no problem. But the process of assessing the students, finding out what they need, following the curriculum, ensuring I am following their IEPs (Individualized Education Program) and keeping data on all of the above is a balancing act that is constantly in need of adjusting.

I have amazing co-workers, multiple support systems and endless resources. I am really looking forward to the year, and feel so blessed to have a job that highlights my talents and passions. Plus, working with preschoolers is kind of awesome.

These are some pictures I took at Open House. The first is the sign outside our door, and the second is the classroom. I'll take better photos of the class later, but you can tell my priority in set-up was to designate areas for workspaces throughout the day.

I took this picture.

2011-09-17T17:18:00.000-04:00

So here's this picture I took of an adorable baby. Liz helped me edit so that you can't really tell where the dad's black shirt ends and the background begins. LOVE it.

Speaking of LOVE...does everyone know what their love language is? Mine is Words of Affirmation, which means (from the Love Langauges website): unsolicited compliments mean the world to me. Hearing the words "I love you" are important--hearing the reasons behind that love send my spirits skyward. Insults can leave me shattered and are not easily forgotten.

It's kind of funny because I can not accept a compliment very well. At all. I instantly mention something that downplays the compliment and try to start talking about something else. I guess I just like the idea that someone appreciates what I'm doing/who I am...but I can't handle it when they actually TELL me :)

Planking

2011-07-04T19:15:00.000-04:00

From Wikipedia:

The lying down game (also known as planking, or face downs) is an activity, popular in various parts of the world, consisting of lying face down in an unusual or incongruous location. The hands must touch the sides of the body, and having a photograph of the participant taken and posted on the Internet is an integral part of the game. Players compete to find the most unusual and original location in which to play. The location should also be as public as possible, and as many people as possible should be involved.

So, apparently this started in 2007. We're just a few years behind, and have only practiced so far in not-so-public places...but I think we're getting the hang of it:

Fried Food Party

2011-07-04T19:06:00.000-04:00

Some friends of ours hosted a Fried Food Party a few days ago. Everyone was encouraged to bring something to share, and we got a great variety of things! Pictured below are: kool aid (batter,) onion rings, cheesecake and peppers. Additionally, there was cantaloupe, apples, mint oreos, ding dongs, giant marshmallows and more!

It was a really fun event, and we didn't even get tummy aches! Amazing!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

2011-07-04T19:00:00.000-04:00

I've been BLESSED to work with these crazy folks for the last year. We were the 2010-2011 West Wing team; teaching students with emotional and behavioral disabilities.

Seeing these faces every day is what kept me going. I depended on these people to help me during the most intense year of my life, and I couldn't have asked for a better support system.

I realized that for the last 4 years, I have started a new job/program every year around this time. I don't deal with change well...and realized a lot of my sad feelings come from working with some amazing people. Saying goodbye to particular group really sucked. I know I can see them in the future, but it wont ever be the same.

Love and miss you all already.

Celebrate Fairfax Festival

2011-07-04T18:52:00.000-04:00

Does this happen to anyone else? Some weekends we will have maybe one event to go to, and others we end up with back-to-back, non-stop commitments/fun things planned? A few weeks ago, I had Field Day at school, a BBQ with some co-workers, and ended it by going to the Celebrate Fairfax Festival.

We made it in time for most of the Third Eye Blind show (whoo hoo!), met up with Dave and some of his friends, then went through the mirror house with Pete and Renee. It was like 85 degrees at 10pm, but no worries. Tons of fun!

When babies sleep...

2011-07-04T18:45:00.000-04:00

...sometimes it looks totally uncomfortable.

Joe and his nephew.

Non-graduation stuff when the parents came

2011-07-04T18:44:00.000-04:00

When my parents came out for my graduation in May, we had a really fun day with a Capitol tour, walking around the Botanic gardens, and checking out some museums. The day was flawless until we left the museums and my mom and I were too impatient to wait for the rain to stop before walking the 4 blocks to the metro. I've never been so wet. Ever. And I had to go to class, so I bought some clothes at the GW bookstore :)

USA! USA!

2011-07-04T18:38:00.001-04:00

Joe, Marc and Dave went to the White House after the bin Laden announcement a few weeks ago (months ago? I can't keep track of time anymore). I would have gone if it wasn't so late...but I needed my beauty sleep. It's so neat to live out here sometimes!

Finish Line: Update

2011-05-26T20:58:00.000-04:00

In-school days left of internship: 17

Real days (including weekends) left of internship: 26

Days left of being a GW student: 31

Days until I start my new job: 40

New job...
Like, the real-life, grown-up, post-graduate-degree kind of new job.

Kind of crazy.

Still procrastinating.

Some things never change.

I graduated...

2011-05-26T20:55:00.000-04:00

...kind of. Officially, I'm still taking one more class and will be done in 31 days. The last class I have to take is all research and statistics and literature review and proposals and my brain is mushy whenever I think about it, but it's cool.

So yeah, back to the "graduation". Most schools hold one, big graduation in the spring for all of their graduates, so ta-da! I got dressed up and walked across a stage and got my rolled up piece of paper.

It was lots of fun. My parents flew out for a few days, and it was awesome, as always, to see them. The day of the event downtown went really well...no crazy traffic or parking issues, no rain during pictures, etc. It was fun to be with my school friends and remind ourselves that we're almost there!

Thanks again to the amazing Ashley Pinney, my official photographer for the day :)

Joe Cut His Hair

2011-05-01T22:33:00.000-04:00

Of course, since we took so long to update the blog, it's longer than this now...but you get the idea.

I Went to California

2011-05-01T22:32:00.004-04:00

I spent a lovely few days in California with my parents, brother and his family. The weather was so-so, but gave me a chance to catch up on A LOT of sleep! I had a great time playing with my nephew and didn't mind losing TWICE at Hand-and-Foot :)

Kitties in Action

2011-05-01T22:32:00.003-04:00

Lucks vs. the Water Fountain.

Deeds vs. The World

Finish Line...

2011-05-01T22:32:00.002-04:00

I took my comprehensive exams this weekend!

For anyone keeping track, I have:

50 days,

18 hours

...and counting...

left of my internship.

Between now and then I have:

*final project (that i should be working on right now)

*graduation(!)

*one. last. awful. demanding. class. twice a week. in dc.

*weekly lesson planning

*unending amounts of procrastination

*eventual need to get certified and other teacher stuff

Tons of anxiety.

No clue what I'll be doing after Day 51 :)

Already starting to miss my kiddos.

And my AMAZING co-workers/classmates.

Can't wait to stop feeling bad every time I'm having fun

since I know I should be doing homework/lesson planning!

Cutiehead Jeremy

2011-05-01T22:32:00.001-04:00

Today was Jeremy's blessing. He's super adorable. I took some photos.

Five Years

2011-05-01T22:32:00.000-04:00

Yup, we've been married for five years! We celebrated at a super swanky dinner in DC, followed by a rooftop party thrown by Joe's friends. It was a great night! I also started playing with our photos on Picnik to make us extra pretty :)

So yeah, we did the thing where we didn't blog for awhile...

2011-03-17T00:55:00.001-04:00

...and then tonight, sinus-infected Britt thought it would be a great idea to update the blog for our adoring fans!

Life's been hard. I say that semi-sarcastically because, duh, all things considered we are super-duper-over-abundantly blessed. But for now, the weather is weird, we're sick, we're tired of work and school, and completely in a funk. I re-commit to being more productive and more awesome every day, and come up short every day, and get mad over and over every day, and it's getting really, really old.

I can't decide where to focus my efforts. What's most important? Keeping the house clean? Catching up on school work? Getting ahead on my lesson plans? Being a nice, helpful wife? Finding a job after graduation? Staying in touch with friends and family? Trying to keep my body healthy? Doing our taxes? I don't know. So I try to do a little bit of everything and somehow end up doing a whole lot of nothing.

Totally looking forward to: Springtime. Cherry Blossoms. Spring Break with my family. Graduation. Starting my CAREER (!) Outer Banks with Joe's family. Playing with my new camera. Getting a new nephew (any day now!) Christmas in the Caymans. BYU games. Friends and family coming to visit. Not going to class anymore. Learning how to cook. Yoga. Having phone conversations.

Okay, phew. Life is fine. Just needed a reminder. Totally might regret this woe-is-me post in the morning, (and Joe you have permission to bug me about it later) but for now it helps keep things in perspective. I should go try that sleep thing again; we'll see if my sinuses let me.

Post-edit: Weird. Maybe I just get depressed every March?
http://joeandbritt.blogspot.com/2009/03/six-years.html

Lent

2011-03-16T23:57:00.001-04:00

photo from here

Last year I had a Catholic co-worker who gave up something for Lent; I want to say it was candy or soda or something, and I promised to do it with her...and I'm sure I did sometimes, and whatever. I get that the practice of Lent has changed a bit over the years, but I like the idea of giving up a vice...and since I've proven to have very little self-control lately, Lent seemed a good reason to quit coming up with excuses.

The night before Ash Wednesday (Fat Tuesday?) I told Joe I wanted to give something up. He spouted out a few of my vices a little too quickly, and they were all things I was not willing to part with. Then finally he said, "You could give up the snooze button," which is kind of funny because I was never a big snoozer until I started sharing a bed with Mr. Snooze Button himself, but whatever.

So yeah, the last couple of days I've actually gotten up when my alarm went off. Weird. It's kind of nice to start my morning not running around like a maniac because I NEEDED those extra couple of (or 45) minutes of sleep. I mean, I probably do need those minutes...but ideally my body could get on some sort of schedule (WHAT?) and maybe I could start going to bed earlier. And maybe if this week hadn't been Daylight Savings this would have been the easiest thing ever to accomplish...but waking up when it's dark sucks. Oh, well.

seriously, google calendar?

2011-03-16T23:47:00.001-04:00

For the past few years, Joe and I have been successfully using Google calendar to keep track of just about everything. We have options to view any combination of either of our work, school or social calendars. It's super helpful, and everything has been awesome until I synced my Blackberry the other day and ended up with 30+ of everything in my personal calendar. Google's help site just has a few other complaints, but no helpful advice yet. I guess this is why some people are afraid of the internet.

Because I'm sure this is what she had in mind...

2011-03-16T23:28:00.001-04:00

My mom got me a ridiculously nice camera for my birthday, and I can't wait to take the time to learn how to use it. Until then, I'll just take pictures of the cats. These are some of my favorites. The last few were taken on the deck with the help from some cat-nip.

Happy Birthday Kitties!

2011-03-16T23:12:00.001-04:00

Valentine's Day is super special for us because it's the day we got Lucky and Destiny! We can't believe it's been 2 whole years since we've had them. I tried to set up a photo shoot with my new camera, but they were too excited about their special treat to give me much to work with. Here are some fun things they're doing:

DESTINY: appx. 8 years old. Still very independent, but lets me pick her up mama-cat style (behind the neck) and sits in my lap and falls asleep, (after head-butting everything in the area). Happy to be by herself sometimes. Prefers sleeping at the foot of the bed. "Owns" the ottoman and red living room chair. Also "guard-dogs" the outside of the bathroom when I'm getting ready in the morning. LOVES, LOVES, LOVES chasing string. Like she could chase string all day. Also loves catnip and rolling around in it. Meows when she needs something, or just sits nearby and looks really pissed (if the cat food is low, she will sit a few feet away from it and just glare). Loves treats, but can't find them so you have to show them to her like 10 times. A HUGE beggar of people-food...she's relentless. If we're cooking, (which is never,) she will sit and wait patiently for you to drop her something. Super, super cute.

LUCKY: appx. 5 years old. BABY. I'm considering getting one of those front-carrying baby slings for him...I really think he would love it. Lucky likes sleeping at the head of the bed, or on one of our heads. He is a CUDDLER. And a licker of necks, (or just my neck). Sometimes he will fall asleep between Joe and me, and try to make sure he is touching one of us with his front paws and one with his back. Lucks is the funniest combination of scardy-cat and panther-on-the-prowl. He's willing to stalk a bug for like 2 hours without ever doing anything to it. His spots are flopping over the backs of chairs. He loves blanket caves. He's terrified of anything that sprays. If we pick up the can of Dust-Off, he stops whatever he's doing and runs under the bed. Two words: LASER POINTER. Lucky will follow the laser in 20+ circles and then fall over. Then he'll follow it some more. Squeaks when scared. Pretty freaking adorable.

We really, really like these guys. Like, a lot. They make these long, crazy days a little more bearable...and are great companions when all I wanna do is take a nap :)

Edible Arrangement

2011-03-16T23:05:00.001-04:00

I received my first Edible Arrangement for Valentine's Day this year :) The picture I took stinks, so I stole this one from the website. The one I got was like this, but had chocolate-dipped apple slices, too. Joe had this sent to work, which was a fun surprise and obviously made him look like super-hubby! I was glad it didn't get sent to to the house because I was able to make a few friends and not gain too much chocolate-related weight.

Birfday

2011-03-16T22:58:00.001-04:00

I was so spoiled this (and every) birthday! I had been feeling kind of down...the snow days and weather really threw me off, and we have been warned many (MANY) times that this is an especially hard time for the interns in our program because things just keep piling up and it's hard to keep perspective. BUT, with all that being said, I was excited to spend a very low-key evening with some of the great friends I've made at school. We busted out the chocolate fountain and watched my favorite chick-flick "Love, Actually." It was the perfect way to end my week.

The Chocolate Fountain spread

So glad to meet this girls through school!

My every-day birthday present :)

Minute to Win It

2011-03-16T22:52:00.001-04:00

Our students get to participate in "Fun Friday" activities for the last 30 minutes of school on Fridays (duh). Each classroom has a different activity, and ours always hosts a "Minute to Win It" game. If you go to the site, there are tons of fun things you could adapt to do at home. After we watch the blueprint, everyone gets a turn to go. We don't always quite get it done in a minute, but usually have fun trying :) This activity was done in partners; using a piece of dry spaghetti (and no hands!) we had to slip it through the soda tab and move three empty soda cans from one table to another without breaking the spaghetti. My partner and I were successful on this one!

Blogger Meet-up

2011-03-16T22:46:00.001-04:00

Joe and I both have a good number of blogs we follow through Google Reader. One of the blogs I've been reading the longest is Man vs. Debt . Baker's motto is "Sell your Crap...Pay off your Debt...Do what you Love." Long story short, he is traveling the country in an RV with his wife and toddler, and his first stop was in DC. It was really neat to meet him and others who are passionate about getting rid of your stuff and doing what you love. After the meet-up, we got to "tour" the RV :)

SNOW DAYS

2011-03-16T22:00:00.000-04:00

We got some snow at the end of January. Like usual, it was fun for about a day...then ruined everything by causing delays and school cancellations that we had to make up and blahblahblah. We went night sledding once with our friends Pete and Renee, and Pete wore this AWESOME snow suit. Then I went a few days later with a few of my great co-workers. I'm soooooo glad I splurged at Costco and got some sleds! And that's the only cool stuff that happened over the snow days :)

Miscellaneous

2011-01-16T22:47:00.003-05:00

These are my co-workers from the EBD program at school. This was an ugly sweater Christmas party, but I could only find a semi-ugly sweater so I wore Christmas ornaments as earrings and tied a bow on my head.

Dave and I saw this "hurricane simulator" at the mall, so I made him get in it. For $2 you stand there and then it gets really windy. Totally worth it.

Has anyone else tried these? They are SO GOOD. That's all.

Have you ever seen the cool things in SkyMall and wanted to buy EVERY ITEM like us? Well we finally got one...it's a toy that only DeeDee has shown interest in so far; this string comes around again and again...flinging toward her for just a second or two. If she grabs it, it stops until she lets go...and then just keeps going again and again. She loves it.

Mom, this is what you got me for Christmas this year. It ROCKS. It's the Brookstone iNeed and it's the best massager ever. Better yet, I had a coupon. Yesssssss.

Joe's parents got us a Blendtec, made famous from the "Will it Blend" videos. It was a little intimidating to use at first, but I think we're getting the hang of it. Best blender ever!! Watch below to see a video of the same blender destroying an iPad! If you click twice on the video below, it will take you to a larger version on youtube.com

Sorry mom

2011-01-16T22:47:00.002-05:00

We haven't blogged in awhile. The regular excuses apply...they are the same excuses we're using for why our Christmas cards are sitting sitting stamped and addressed by our door. Here's some cute photos of little us to get over it.

Tourist Time

2011-01-16T21:28:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we met the DC-area family at the Natural History Museum. These are just a few of our cute nephews...

Happy Birthday!

2011-01-16T21:21:00.002-05:00

Joe and his brothers all share January birthdays. Last week we went out with Ben and Shauna for a little celebration at Ray's Hell Burgers...where they started serving MILKSHAKES! Seriously, first fries...now milkshakes...if they start serving half-size burgers (they only serve 10 oz. burgers), I could eat there all the time :)

Ben was so pumped, he could hardly keep his eyes open.

Christmas

2011-01-16T21:15:00.002-05:00

Christmas was super fun this year! We had 3 of Joe's siblings and their families to celebrate with. HUGE thanks to Ben and Shauna for hosting and feeding us the whole week. It was so great to spend time with family, relax, and have a few xbox parties :)

You don't have to beg...more cat photos

2011-01-16T21:02:00.002-05:00

We gave thanks

2011-01-16T20:54:00.002-05:00

The day before Thanksgiving our school did a Turkey Trot. Our classroom teachers bet the students we could run more laps than they could. It was close, but we lost. Here is proof that I ran:

Thanksgiving morning I ran a 5k in DC, (note: these were the only two days I ran last semester...these incidents are in no way normal). I hitched a ride with some friends from Church and met up with school friends. The weather cooperated and I power-walked most of it while I commiserated with my classmate about our internships.

Joe's brother and sister-in-law had us over for an awesome meal, and we got in plenty of nephew time, napping, and football.

One more show!

2010-11-21T10:31:00.002-05:00

I'm getting too old for this, but we had to see two of our favorite bands playing together last week: Saves the Day and Say Anything. After 2 hours in traffic and waiting in the cold, I was so happy to see some "bleachers" to stand on during the shows and sit on in between bands. The bands were totally worth it, and Say Anything came out for an awesome encore at the end. Also, we didn't die (important 'cause we were in Baltimore). If anyone has seen The Wire, yeah, we were there.

Mark Twain Humor Award

2010-11-21T10:22:00.003-05:00

Joe and I were lucky enough to be guests of his friend for a fun event at the Kennedy Center a few weeks ago: Tina Fey was being awarded the Mark Twain prize for humor. We got to dress up, eat a fancy dinner, see some hilarious comedians (Steve Martin, Steve Carrell, Tracy Morgan, Tina Fey, etc.) and then go to an after party with DELICIOUS desserts. It was tons of fun for a Tuesday night!

joe edit: favorite line, steve martin "every year at this time DC becomes a comedy mecca... and we all know how funny mecca is. we're here to give an award so important, that is presented on a tuesday."

Restore Sanity!

2010-11-21T09:45:00.002-05:00

from cbsnews.com

A few weekends ago, Joe and I were part of the insanity to descend upon the Mall during the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. I really can't think of any other cause or idea that I would ever bother dealing with such a crowd, so I'm glad this one came up. Though we never got to see the stage, we still had a fun time walking around with family and seeing all the costumes and signs.

-Metro set a new record for Saturday riders with 825,000+
-Crowd estimate at the Mall around 215,000

You can't really tell, but this is the line at West Falls Church metro...wrapping around the parking lot. We drove.

One side: "More Long Island Iced Tea Parties" The other side: "Obama: Bring back Arrested Development!"

Yeah.

Starting about 8 blocks from the stage, this is all we could see.

The boys were troopers!

We were here!

This was funny 'cause, like, Joe works in Financial Aid for one of the most expensive universities in the country.

People just set up camp in the sculpture garden.

Joe's new fave lunch truck!

Snakes ARE scary.

Some excerpts from Jon Stewart's speech:

...This was not a rally to ridicule people of faith or people of activism or to look down our noses at the heartland or passionate argument or to suggest that times are not difficult and that we have nothing to fear. They are and we do. But we live now in hard times, not end times...

...The country’s 24 hour political pundit perpetual panic conflictinator did not cause our problems but its existence makes solving them that much harder...

..If we amplify everything we hear nothing...

...I feel good—strangely, calmly good. Because the image of Americans that is reflected back to us by our political and media process is false...

...We hear every damn day about how fragile our country is—on the brink of catastrophe—torn by polarizing hate and how it’s a shame that we can’t work together to get things done, but the truth is we do. We work together to get things done every damn day...

...Where we live our values and principles form the foundations that sustains us while we get things done, not the barriers that prevent us from getting things done. Most Americans don’t live their lives solely as Democrats, Republicans, liberals or conservatives. Americans live their lives more as people that are just a little bit late for something they have to do—often something that they do not want to do—but they do it--impossible things every day that are only made possible by the little reasonable compromises that we all make...

Halloween Happened

2010-11-21T09:39:00.002-05:00

-We attended the ward party, (picture is with my "boyfriend" Daniel)
-Joe was a pumpkin for the 9th year in a row
-We dressed up as characters from that movie we always talk about, THE ROOM, for a co-worker's party (we were Lisa and Mark, duh)

more pics

2010-11-18T12:51:00.003-05:00

the sign for the falaffel stand outside my work

We did a fantasy football league at work. i asked one of the girls to write down the players she wanted to draft, because she couldn't make the draft. She asked for:
Randy Ross ( aka Randy Moss)
Michael Strahan (retired like 4 years ago, also plays defense)
Michael Oar ( Michael Oher from "the blind side," an offensive lineman)
and Adam Vinatieri, patriots kicker (left the patriots like 5 years ago)

We never post, i know

2010-11-15T16:46:00.004-05:00

sorry for the dry spell. I am going to start posting photos from my phone, and make posts from them. Unlike most people, I don't have a super smart phone that will send my photos to various social media platforms.

The first photo is one I saw at a concert. The guy selling T shirts is trying to pay off a six figure student loan. Student lending and tuition costs are out of control. I will soon launch my website to address this, so stay tuned.

The second picture is of my lobster roll. I got it from the DC Lobster truck, which drives around DC selling maine lobster rolls. it is awesome!

Yesterday...

2010-10-16T23:49:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was, by far, our classroom's most out of control day. Each of those blue bars is 5 minutes of my day...you can see we had a few runners :)

Utah Trip!

2010-10-16T12:52:00.002-04:00

Last weekend we went to Utah for Jacob and Ashley's wedding. The ceremony and reception were gorgeous! We spent four nights in four different places, and saw as many friends as we could. These trips are never long enough, but we were so glad we got to sneak away for a few days.

We enjoyed:

-the wedding ceremony and luncheon at La Caille in Sandy

-MoTab choir practice

-yoga, pool, and hot tub usage at Terrace Falls

-Olympic parks, Main Street, and alpine slides in Park City

-hot dogs at JDawgs!

-the wedding reception at Sleepy Ridge in Provo

-the after-party where I fell asleep on the couch by 11pm

-present opening and cinnamon rolls with Ashley's family

-a quick trip to see Jenice and baby McCoy

-Tucano's with Dave and Anna

-BYU game (win!) with Dave and Anna

-Jersey Shore party with friends

-brunch with family

-second brunch/lunch with more family

-sandwiches and s'mores with even more family in the canyon

-Sunday night football and In-N-Out with friends

-one day of sleeping in!!!

They don't really do this often...at least not when we're around.

2010-10-16T12:50:00.002-04:00

Family Time

2010-10-16T12:42:00.002-04:00

Joe's brother and his family recently moved to the area, and we are excited for Joe's sister and family to head out this way in just a few months. 10 extra Cramers (and one more on the way!) make for lots of fun family gatherings to come :)

Lucky: Calendar Pin-Up

2010-10-16T12:37:00.002-04:00

Our very own Lucky Duck will be featured in the 2011 Pet Calendar. We are so proud.

Each year the law school raises money for its Animal Defense Fund by having a cutest pet photo contest. Lucky placed in the top ten! I used our photo of him with apple cider. Here's the email from the SLJDAF:

"Hello Pet Photo Contest Participants.

We know you have been patiently waiting for the results of this year's Pet Photo Contest. Before dispensing with the final standings, we wanted to thank each of you for your involvement. We were absolutely astounded by the GW Law community's participation in our contest this year. We had over 100 entries in this year's contest (over three times as many as last year's contest), including the most impressive array of non-traditional pets we've ever seen (goats, chinchillas, horses, and more)! Competition has also never been this fierce. Our top 12 winners each raised over $40, with our first place winner topping out at over $70! As a result, GW SALDF more than tripled our previous record of funds raised from the contest. With all these entries and all your support, the GW SALDF Executive Board has had a long week of collecting your dollars, counting your pennies, and calculating your totals, and we appreciate your patience in waiting for the official contest results.

Without any further ado, GW SALDF is proud to present the top 12 winners of our 2010 Pet Photo Contest. Each of these pets will be featured as a "pet of the month" in our first ever "Pets of GW Law" calendar to be sold later this fall. Winners, we will be contacting you shortly with additional details. Congratulations!
2010 Pet Photo Contest - Top 12 Pets
1. Miniel (cat) - Dan Shedd
2. Happy (dog) - Julia Maus
3. Frannie (dog) - McKayle Davison
4. Stewie (dog) - Professor Jessica Tillipman
5. Chester (dog) - Stephanie Resnik
6. Sandy (dog) - Sara Marshman
7. Puff (cat) - Stephanie Rohrer
8. Lucky (cat) - Joe Cramer
9. Asia (cat) - Meghan Droste
10. Lilly (cat) - Stephanie Rohrer
11. Layla (dog) - Julia Gordon
12. Daisy (dog) - Julia Tamulis"

Happy National Pancake Day!

2010-09-26T14:57:00.000-04:00

So there's this guy who makes really cool pancakes for his daughter, then takes pictures of them and posts them online for all of us to see! http://www.jimspancakes.com/

The site reminded me of my grandpa, who used to make us pancakes in the shape of teddy bears, hearts, boats, etc. with our NAMES IN THEM. It always blew my mind.

Anyway, today is National Pancake Day...but not the IHOP version, just the regular kind I guess.

I'm supposed to be doing homework right now, if you couldn't tell.

Cube Cats

2010-08-30T00:13:00.000-04:00

Ikea totally had cats in mind when they made this cube furniture.

Study Buddies

2010-08-30T00:11:00.000-04:00

My 12-credit summer semester was only five weeks long, and I never really had good sleeping habits the entire time. Sometimes I would stay up until 3:00 writing papers, and Lucky would "help" me.

And then other times I would just lose my mind, and take photos of the cats.

This is me saying "Whoa! Lucky is so small!"

And now I'm saying something like "Look out; the cats are fighting!"

And now I'm bored because the cat fight is lame.

I'm pretty sure this semester I'll need to rest up more...for the sake of the students :)

Uh-oh. Sounds like somebody's got a case of the Mondays...

2010-08-28T03:06:00.002-04:00

Joe and I go back to school on Monday.

Check back in with us next year.

Kthx.

http://www.pwn3d.us/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/case-of-the-mondays.jpg

Aspen Grove

2010-08-28T02:47:00.002-04:00

We went to Utah.
With 88 of Joe's family members.
It was awesome.
We have over 2000 pictures.
Here are 2 of them.

Good Friends Friday

2010-08-28T02:23:00.002-04:00

Aspen Grove was followed by catching up with great friends. I stayed in Utah County to see a few friends, then joined Joe in Sandy to see a few more.

Dawn was my supervisor during my short stint at FirstWest Benefit Solutions in 2006-2007. Besides having an awesome first name, (which is my middle name,) she shares a birthday with my mom. Dawn was and is an amazing friend, and I'm glad we got to catch up...and eat Bajio :)

Next I got to see Betsy! Betsy was my roommate from late 2002-mid 2004. She was on the ballroom dance team, and pretty much the nicest person ever. We had tons of fun together. Betsy and her husband Karson adopted an ADORABLE girl last year who was born three months early; I was so happy to finally meet her after following her progress on their blog! Go here to see Izzy about a year ago. Such a cute little miracle, and it was so fun to see Betsy and Karson as parents :)

Jenice needs no introduction, but I'm sooooo glad we were both crazy enough to take jobs as children's photographers at Kiddie Kandids in 2003 :) Those were the days... Jenice has her own adorable bundle of joy, who is super cute...even when he's sleeping and STILL wont let me hold him. This is honestly the best picture we got of the two of us. That's me laughing and you can kind of see Jenice's neck and shoulders...she's also laughing. A lot. But that's what we do when we get together: a) drink Dr. Pepper, b) take a ridiculous picture, or c) both.

And rounding out the day-o-friends visits, Jared and Em were nice enough to have us all over for pizza and laughs. From the left: Nicole, Dan, Britt, Joe, Nate, Camron, Marcus, Emily and Jared. Lots of catching up and lots of laughs. Some things never change, and I'm so glad we can get together after all these years, (6+) and have a good time. As I was writing this, I thought we should give a shoutout to Jacob; without him we wouldn't know any of these guys! Camron was Jacob's roommate, and the rest is history :)

It was awesome to see how everyone is doing...are we grown ups yet? I'm not sure if this counts or not.

AZ/CA/NV

2010-08-28T02:15:00.002-04:00

After all the fun in Utah, I got to spend some quality time with some quality people. I flew into Phoenix and my wonderful friend Holly picked me up. We drove to Lake Havasu and met up with my mom and aunt Jeri. Holly stayed over, and the next day we laid by the pool and played a lot of games. After Holly left we continued to lay by the pool and play a lot of games, (Hand & Foot, Nertz, Baseball, 10,000, etc.) Then mom, Jeri and I drove over to see Jake and Asher, (Carter was away for business). Asher continues to be adorable and hilarious and really photogenic. Our final destination was Vegas where we enjoyed free food and $1 bowling after midnight.

Way fun. Also, we took zero photos in Havasu because we were too busy and/or never wore makeup.

Sometimes, we look nice...

2010-08-28T02:10:00.002-04:00

...so we take pictures on our balcony.

This is Your Brain...

2010-07-18T23:02:00.001-04:00

Remember those scary ads with the egg where the egg = your brain, and an egg in a frying pan = your brain on drugs? I've been tracking my sleep with my helpful FitBit since I started school, and my sleep patterns have not been so great.

This is my sleep on a weekend with Benadryl

This is my sleep on a weekend without Benadryl

Any questions?

p.s. Obviously, duh, I need to have better study habits, wake up at the same time every day, eat better, exercise more, etc. etc. but looking at graphs and blogging about them is way more fun.

p.p.s I have no idea where FitBit gets the idea that the second graph equals a sleep efficiency rating of 97%...I guess maybe once I fell asleep I stayed asleep pretty good? I dunno. I just like the graphs.

Don't Cry For Me...

2010-07-13T23:17:00.001-04:00

This graph very approximately shows the rapid decline in channel-surfing that has been going on since I started school last week. To prepare for my loss of do-whatever-I-want-to-do time, I deleted about 100 Facebook friends, removed myself from lots of good email offer lists, and even stopped reading my favorite blogs.

It's been a week, and I'm pretty sure I've gotten over most of my beloved time-wasters...not to say that I wont make the time to write a silly blog post every now and then, (I've got to have something to look forward to in the middle of all this studying and paper writing!) Also, Dexter hasn't started back up yet. THEN I might be in trouble.

Super Cute

2010-07-12T17:03:00.000-04:00

During our family reunion, I got to go through one of my grandma's scrapbooks. This one included information and notes from my dad's birth. I thought this card from my grandpa was just about the cutest thing ever...especially considering a few days later he went into the hospital with ulcers and stayed there for a month, so he obviously wasn't feeling too hot.

That's all. Back to studying...

golf clap golf clap

2010-07-09T15:36:00.000-04:00

I would just like to announce that as I started my Master's program this week, Joe was finishing YEAR TWO of law school! I am so super proud of him and all his hard work. He is a great example to me, and I hope to be like him when I grow up :)

Love you, baby! You're a rockstar!

Pop Quiz

2010-07-08T11:09:00.000-04:00

When she finally turns away from the computer and sees this, where is Brittney supposed to sleep?

Correct answer: the guest bed.

...and a good time was had by ALL

2010-07-04T23:24:00.000-04:00

Last week I went home for a most excellent Ellingson gathering. We had great food, awesome weather, and good-quality company! I can't really put into words how nice it was to be home; it was a wonderful trip, and just what I needed before I start school on Tuesday.

Jake, Asher and I stopped by to see Melsie and Sunny on the way to LC.

Beachtime with AsherBoo!

Newport Bayfront with Dad

Handsome Asher

Showing Jake how high he can jump

Asher and Berta crack each other up

Bonfire on the beach

Grandma Dawn enjoying the bonfire

He gets his athletic skills from his aunt Brittney

The whole crew...we're only missing four people from the extended family

Our cool tshirts! Thanks to Jean and Erica!

The back of our shirts: a quote from Grandpa after a family outing...where some did not have a good time :)

Bocce ball crew

Some highlights of the reunion include:

-winning at the game Hand and Foot 2 nights in a row

-playing Hand and Foot until 4am, and laughing until I cried...a lot

-watching my brother be a daddy

-listening to Asher tell Jake "Brittney hit me" when I didn't touch him (Asher just didn't want me to be around me anymore)

-eating DELICIOUS meals!!

-watching the ocean with Grandma

I love you guys!

What our cats love...

2010-06-23T15:33:00.000-04:00

Lucky = Lee DeWyze

DeeDee = clipping coupons

McLean Stake Rules!

2010-05-29T15:37:00.000-04:00

One thing I really love about our Church is the focus on service.

Last Saturday, our stake (collection of congregations) Relief Society (our Church's womens' organization) pulled off an unbelievable service fair. You can read about it HERE. The pictures don't do it justice; every inch of the building was being used. I brought donated goods for move-in kits and kids dress-up clothes, made cards for kids in hospitals to give out to parents and nurses, took a class on self defense, and got information on some awesome community groups. Oh, and ate the yummiest food ever. The planning and organization behind this fair blew my mind. I was so glad to be a small part of it!

Also, the youth in our stake put this together a few weeks ago:

Pretty awesome, huh?

ACCEPTED!

2010-05-18T23:23:00.000-04:00

In case you are one of the two people who read our blog and missed my super-awesome Facebook status update last week...

Britty's going to grad school!

One day mid-March, Joe came home from work/school and mentioned there was a Special Ed. program I might be interested in. Suddenly, I was obsessed with the idea, and emailed Joe's friend that night who got me in touch with someone who could get me an interview the next week. I finalized my application, completed my interviews, and took the MAT within two weeks, and then waited...and waited...and waited.

And one week ago I got the news: I'm in! I never, ever, EVER thought I would go back to school, but this program is so me! I'm just going to steal the description of the program from GSEHD's website instead of trying to explain it:

Special Education for Children with Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities

The program for teaching students with emotional and behavioral disabilities (EBD) provides training for teachers of students with EBD in the psychoeducational theoretical framework. Graduate students in the program gain the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to facilitate effective instruction and improve outcomes for troubled students, grades K-8.

The full-time program for teaching children with EBD is a 39 credit hour, one-year program of study, wherein graduate interns complete a two-semester clinical internship during the school day and attend course work at night. This model is centered on the daily team-teaching experience at one of the three professional development schools (PDSs) partnered with the University.

Our full-time program prepares teachers of elementary-aged students with EBD in a PDS model. PDSs provide a clinical component to teacher preparation that mirrors a medical school model. Graduate interns are thoroughly immersed in school environments and become active in the daily operation of all aspects of the school program while taking university courses in the evenings. Each training classroom has a master teacher and a team of two graduate interns. Throughout the year, graduate interns practice:

1) planning and delivering effective instruction,
2) implementing positive behavioral interventions, and
3) expressing qualities of professionalism and the skill of self-reflection.

This intensive training speeds up socialization to the field through having graduate interns experience “life on the front lines” with the guidance and interpretation of on-site master teachers. In addition, university faculty and staff provide supervision to each of the graduate interns bi-weekly, which includes observation of a lesson, anecdotal notes, videotaping, and immediate feedback. A weekly seminar accompanies this internship, serving several purposes:

a) supporting the intern cohort, b) sharing experiences, c) teaching new concepts, d) reexamining theory, and e) refining skills.

These are rigorous and demanding training experiences. The results, however, are that graduates are ready to assume the role of special educators as if they have a year of experience, rather than as neophytes. Graduate interns have the advantage of working with many professionals whose experiences and practices contribute to their developing philosophy and practice.

I start in seven weeks!

More Cat Pics

2010-05-17T23:08:00.002-04:00

We just found out that the cats' original parents have seen the blog, so I wanted to show off a few more pictures:

We sure love these two! They make us laugh every day!

Quick trip to the Beach

2010-05-17T22:41:00.002-04:00

Joe and I went to Virginia Beach for a quick trip last weekend. We tried something new, and stayed at this cute B&B a few blocks from the beach:

This was our suite. The managers left a cute note on our bed with our names on it :)

I was most excited about our shower. This thing was CRAZY! We really didn't know how to use it, but it was still fun to push lots of buttons.

Since it's definitely off-season (and the weather stunk, like it always does when we're on vacation,) we were the only ones in the hot tub!

Hot tub lights party!

The next day we were pretty much the only people walking around VA Beach...

so we hit the arcade:

and got a cool yo-yo with our tickets.

Then we went to the boardwalk for a few minutes. p.s. Joe always tries to take pictures of me when I'm not quite ready, so capturing this expression totally made my day.

We went to a museum that was on a "must see" list, but the main part was closed. We did get to see this:

which was awesome!

We drove by Regent University. This is where they film the 700 Club:

The campus was really pretty,

but we wondered if we felt the same way that visitors felt when they go to BYU...like we were definitely the outsiders.

Last, but certainly not least, we went to see our fave-fave band SAY ANYTHING at the Norva. They were amazing, as always.

And that was our trip to the beach!

Belated Anniversary Post

2010-05-17T22:40:00.000-04:00

Our fourth anniversary was April 29. We celebrated at one of our favorite restaurants, Chef Geoff's. Then we came home and took pictures :)

Get it? We're holding up four fingers because we've been married for four years.

My Teeth

2010-05-17T22:33:00.000-04:00

I finally got my new tooth last month! For anyone keeping track, this should be the end of the dental adventures for awhile (fingers crossed).

Lew Was Here

2010-05-17T22:30:00.000-04:00

(Barb: This photo was obviously taken after we all had some Green Smoothie!)

Lew has been our only visitor this year! He came back this weekend, and we had a great time with him. Poor Lew had to spend 10+ hours at Dulles yesterday until his plane was FINALLY deemed un-flyable. Hopefully this does not discourage any future visits.

Making the bed when Lucky is asleep

2010-05-17T22:26:00.000-04:00

DeeDee came up after the bed was made.

Trapeze

2010-05-17T22:23:00.000-04:00

Last month I went trapeze-ing again. It will probably be my last time because I am not a "natural," and I would hate to try and learn such an expensive hobby at such a slow pace. At any rate, it's been a BLAST! I have gone every time with fun friends, and we have really enjoyed ourselves.

The trapeze setup has moved from a parking lot in Chinatown to a custom tent by the Nationals stadium. It was really nice to be indoors, and we got some cool pictures! The rest of the photos and a few videos are on Flickr here

Happy Fruit/flower/linen/silk/appliance Anniversary!

2010-04-29T07:59:00.000-04:00

Yup, it's been four years. I just looked up the "gift" for the fourth anniversary. Fascinating stuff, really.
Thanks to Wiki, I got this:

Traditional US: Linen/Silk
Modern US: Appliance
Traditional UK: Fruit/Flower

So I will just consider the bananas I got at Giant this week sufficient.

Last night I had every intention of writing a write a cute, long post about all my favorite things from the wedding day, but I fell asleep instead. Maybe later.

Love ya, babe!

Another semester in the books!

2010-04-26T21:49:00.002-04:00

woohoo - only 6 more to go.

For Molly

2010-04-21T19:35:00.000-04:00

My awesome friend Molly made me this awesome work of art oh, about six months ago. Being the awesome friend I am, I took this long to decide exactly where I wanted it. We've since painted the room and made a new office corner, so this is what I came up with:

Please ignore all the stuff I thought I hid better under the desk. Also, sorry I waited for an overcast day so you can see the flash and the reflection of the window in the first photo. Oh, and Joe chose the desktop picture, duh.

More photos of the bedroom when we finally (never) finish it. Does anyone know anything about heat-blocking curtains? This southwest-facing room gets HOT sometimes!!

p.s. MOLLY I HOPE YOU GET TO GO TO AFRICA! SILLY VOLCANO!

Cherry Blossoms

2010-04-06T21:43:00.000-04:00

On Easter morning, Ashley, thousands of other people, and I went to look at the cherry blossoms in DC. Ashley was (and always is) the ideal sidekick...even when I got turned around and had us walk about an extra mile. It was obviously worth it because we got some awesome photos (the rest are here)

California!

2010-04-06T21:34:00.003-04:00

(All California photos here)

I spent my Spring Break last week in California, and had a blast! I stayed with my friend Lindsey in Pleasanton for a few days, then flew to Orange County to spend the rest of the week with my parents and brother's family.

Lindsey and her boyfriend Brent (our chauffeur,) took me on a quick tour (my favorite kind,) through San Francisco. Since I've been a few times, we by-passed Pier 39 and got to the good stuff:

Crazy cool townhomes

Lombard Street

Golden Gate Bridge

We also enjoyed an over-the-top visit to In N Out...not just because the food was amazing (as always,) but because we stayed there for 4.5 hours! Lindsey and I met up with our friend Crystal; both girls came to my wedding reception in Lincoln City, and I haven't seen them since. It was so much fun to talk to the people that really know me (we all grew up together,) and obviously great to hang out at such a cool place.

Trip 1 of 2 to In N Out during Spring Break...oh, and the missionaries

Crystal, Lindsey and Britt

The rest of my time in the Northern half of the state was spent: visiting Joe's sister Carrie and her husband Benjy, shopping at the outlets in Vacaville, and asking each other "Whatever happened to..." to get the response "Well on Facebook, I saw they are..." about 100 times :) Oh, also I made BFFs with Lindsey's dog Geraldo.

Geraldo + Britt = BFF

I met up with my parents at the Oakland airport, and we flew together into Orange County to visit Jake, Carter and Asher. The main attraction was, obviously, my adorable nephew. Mom and I had a great time playing with bubbles, walking to the park, and listening to Asher talk...and talk...and talk. He had so much to say! It was really fun to set him up with things like:

Asher, are you a carnivore? "No, I'm a herbivore! I eat plants! [Something indecipherable about various dinosaurs and whether they were herbivores or carnivores...]"

Asher, what do you want to eat? "I want some water, and chocolate, and chocolate water, and carrots, and cereal, and pears, and toast...and eggs." He ended every list with "...and eggs."

I can't believe he will be 3 in a few months!

Other notable SoCal events:

Meeting up with Derrick Davis for dinner

Enjoying some HUGE French toast with my dad

Seeing my friend Holly...if only at the mall for a few minutes (she had just driven to town from Phoenix and knew that I was in the area from my Facebook status!)

A few weeks ago, Joe asked me what was on my Bucket List. I thought for awhile, then realized that I really don't have the desire to go to specific places to see certain things...I just want to spend time with the people I love. Totally cheesy, I know, but 100% the truth. We are so much looking forward to the other trips we have planned this year for family reunions and weddings! And you're all invited to the east coast for the holidays :)

“This is a court of law, young man, not a court of justice.”

2010-03-30T18:08:00.003-04:00

Here's a summary of what grad school has been like so far for those who are interested. I thought that law school would be memorizing laws and rules. But mostly we are just given questions with no answers. Like, when is someone too crazy too be responsible for their actions? What is cruel and usual punishment? etc. At the end of this summer I will be 50% done with law school, and it's been fun so far. Working full time has made it harder than I thought it would be, but it's going well. Most of my classes from here on out will be criminal law classes. Criminal law is all I'm really interested in, so hopefully I can work at a District Attorney or public defender's office when I'm done.

My classes this semester are Criminal procedure (you have the right to remain silent) Rules of Evidence (objection! badgering the witness!) and a policy class on the death penalty. The next year I will be taking Adjudicatory Criminal Procedure (Aka Bail to Jail), Forensic Science and Criminal Procedure (CSI!), Drugs and the Law (drugs!), Negotiations (10? I'll give you 5 for it), Mediation ( Can't we just work this out amongst ourselves), and Computer Crime (I'm Chris Hansen, with Dateline NBC. What are you doing here?) Also, I like parentheticals(parentheticals).

It's kind of sad that by the time I finish law school I will have been in school for 25 years! And at that point I will have to start fresh at a new job that I will know nothing about. I think the Chinese have it right, when they start training people for jobs at 13, but hey at least I know about the Battle of Hastings in 1066, and how to do calculus. I can't tell you how much I use calculus in my daily life.

But I'm really lucky to be able to study something that's interesting to me, without having to borrow piles of money to do it. Here are two articles that I read for class that do a good job of showing that our legal system doesn't provide a lot of answers, just lots of hard questions.

Fatal Distraction - how our legal system treats people whose children die after being left in a car.

How I convinced a murderer not to die -A death row inmate tries to donate his organs.
* be warned, both articles have heavy subject matter & language.

Cracking each other up

2010-03-30T12:18:00.003-04:00

Before Britt left for California, we had a couple of funny moments:
1) on friday night, britt woke up in the middle of the night, and thought that one of the cats was on the bed (they weren't). Half asleep, she kept patting my head and trying to figure out which cat I was ( i am niether) . The head patting woke me up, and i said "what are you doing?" Britt said "everything is ok!" and went back to sleep.

2) i went to sit on the bed and eat a piece of toast (toast!!) and drink a glass of cranberry juice. I went to move one of our giant pillows, and spilled juice all over our bedsheets, white carpet, and onto my suit and white shirt that were on the floor. the only thing I could think to say was "that was the worst possible outcome in that situation!" britt thought that was so funny that she didnt mind the juice stains.

ok these were both funnier if you were there in person.

The day that I die.

2010-03-29T15:06:00.004-04:00

*Edit - I almost didn't post this because it's morbid. Don't read if you don't want to.
*Edit #2 - You can't vote in the poll at the end if you are reading this in RSS.

Humans have always been obsessed with death and mortality. Fear of dying led the Egyptians to spend millions of man hours building pyramids, and sent explorers across the world looking for the fountain of youth. It's probably why people at my school donate millions of dollars to have their name on a building. I don't think you can worry about it too much, or you'll never do anything. So how do you think you will go? If I had to rate the likelihood of the cause of my death it would go like this:

1) The Citibus on 23rd street. This thing comes barreling at me every day on my way to work and is always like 2 inches from hopping the curb and taking us all out. Plus the drivers are always texting.

2) A crazy student at work. Financial aid is a high pressure environment. Especially when you work at the most expensive school in America. Most days we have someone cry, swear, and yell at us. We have some truly crazy people that come in. One of these days, someone is going to take the whole office hostage.

3) Metro Crash. The negligence and incompetence that goes on at DC metro is pretty well documented. The infrastructure hasn't been updated since the Nixon administration, and I spend an hour a day on those trains. Sooner or later it's gonna catch up with me. There's even a law firm for it.

4) Eugene. Eugene went to my high school for a year, but then he was institutionalized. Somehow he found my number, and calls me every year or so. He thinks all people from California are inherently good, and that people from areas where he had childhood trauma are bad. He torched a van from Pennsylvania just for having Pennsylvania tags, and got arrested after a low speed chase. He feels like he got away with it, because he convinced the police he did it because he thought the owners of the van were vampires. I've told him I live in California (obviously) but he actually bags groceries less than a mile from my house. If I were to run into him, he might snap.

5) Law school. School is stressing me out. Not sure how many more outlines I can read.

What do you think?

It's a hijack!

2010-03-29T13:43:00.001-04:00

With Britt out of town, I'm taking over this blog. Consider it hijacked.

The Cruise!

2010-03-15T00:01:00.000-04:00

All cruise pictures HERE !!!

It's hard to think that last week I was lying in the sun, on a boat, sipping on a strawberry something-or-other. Sigh. Joe's very generous parents offered to send us on a cruise! We went last weekend, and had an amazing time.

We flew into Ft. Lauderdale on Thursday, then drove to Miami to stay the night (Note: never, ever rent a car from the Hertz in the Ft. Lauderdale airport. Consider yourself warned.) We were able to stop by the real-life condo that was used in a TV show we love (Dexter). Since the show is now filmed on a set in L.A., this condo is obviously now private property...but we were able to sneak in a few pictures!

We were really excited to see a Grand Lux Cafe nearby, (we've been to the restaurant in Vegas and L.A.) and enjoyed WAY too much food that night! Calories don't count on vacation, right?

Using bookit.com, we paid for a "Three Star Miami Beach Mystery Hotel with a Spectacular
Pool", and ended up at the Habana Libre. Our favorite part was the red light and mirrors in the elevator.

The pool WAS pretty spectacular, but we decided against a morning swim.

We spent Friday morning in South Beach, and enjoyed the views and weather.

Joe gawked at a few of the nice cars cruising by.

We also went to the Red Bull traveling Can of Art exhibit.

We boarded the Norwegian Sky cruise ship Friday afternoon, and were impressed with our room and view.

After a welcome BBQ, we waved goodbye to the condos lining the port. Joe yelled: "Bye! We're going to the Bahamas! Have fun in AMERICA!" and made all the drunk people laugh.

That night we had a fun time playing bingo,

and watching this lady that I kept thinking was my mom.

We disembarked (cruise term, you know?) in Nassau the next day, and were encouraged to take a tour with one of the locals. For $30 we got to see most of the island in two hours; it was great!

Some scenic shots:

This is the highest point of the island.

Final stop: The Atlantis. The open-access parts reminded me of a Vegas hotel...just in the Bahamas.

After our tour, we went exploring on our own...we got some conch fritters and fresh coconut milk at a cute stand on the beach,

and got a kick out of The Bahamas' Senate building parking spots:

Back on the boat, we enjoyed this lovely view from our room,

then laughed A LOT during the "(Not so) Newlywed Game Show" that night. The couple married for 56 years won :)

Sunday was supposed to be spent on the private cruise ship island, but the weather would not allow it. Instead, we enjoyed relaxing on the deck. You can't beat that view!

One of our favorite meal-time treats were fresh crepes:

That night we took some photos around the boat:

After we got off in Miami the next day, we zipped down to Homestead, FL to see the Coral Castle before our flight. The Castle was built by a man as a monument to his true love. You can read more about it HERE. It was very impressive to see in person!

A huge THANKS to Barb and Lew for making all of this possible! We have a few other trips planned this year, but nothing for just the two of us. It was very neat for us to do something so special, and we would have never thought of it on our own.

And the winner is...

2010-03-14T23:59:00.000-04:00

Matt, knower of all things Oscars, won our Oscar pool for the second year in a row. Our group likes to guess each winner, then assign points to our votes (1-24, for 24 categories,) depending on how confident we are for each category. Matt kind of did awesome and got 20 out of 24 categories right, and a VERY impressive 271 points out of a possible 300 points.

Since Matt lives far, far away, we'll just re-use the pictures we have of him winning last year's prestigious award.

Way to go Matty. We miss you!

Up Close and Personal

2010-03-14T19:36:00.003-04:00

Our good friend Paul called last night and asked if we wanted to join him and his wife Katie at the Wizards/Magic game. He forgot to mention we would:

have courtside seats,

and legroom like this,

and views like this,

and be a few feet away from CNN commentator John King.

It was an awesome night, even if the Wizards lost. By a lot. Thanks Paul!

March Madness

2010-03-14T17:20:00.006-04:00

As I contemplate filling out my bracket this year, I like to think back to March 2002. Picture Joe, in a suit, lying on the floor of church, filling out his March Madness picks while waiting for a meeting. I had a SUPER huge crush on him, and could never think of anything to say, so I think I commented on his white socks. Smooth.

The picture above is from a lesson Joe taught in Church during March Madness 2005. He created a bracket for "Good vs. Evil," and UNITY won. I wish real-life brackets were that easy to fill out. Gooooo Unity!

Hair

2010-03-04T00:44:00.004-05:00

As some of you may or may not know, i've grown my hair for the last five months. probably the longest it's ever been. anyway, tonight i had it all cut off. it just didnt look that good. this would probably be a better post if i was a girl. everyone would be like "love your new look! you're great!"

Steve Holt!

2010-03-04T00:36:00.002-05:00

I didn't follow student body elections at BYU at all. They seemed dumb. Every time someone won, the other side would accuse them of rule violations, and they'd have all the votes thrown out. Elections at GW are no different. GW's newspaper actually ran a campaign of their own declaring that "all the candidates are tools" and there is no difference between any of them. But then, something awesome happened. For those of you that watch Arrested Development, you know about Steve Holt's adventures in student elections. Some of the GW students decided to run a campaign for Steve Holt and... he won. a bunch of positions.

I also had to admire the creativity of one sign that said "SEX!!!!! Okay, now that i have your attention, vote John for president."

Can the Sandcastle make it to #1?

2010-03-01T20:28:00.001-05:00

For those of you who don't know, my awesome parents own the awesome Sandcastle Motel in Lincoln City, Oregon. My mom told me they were getting some extra business from positive reviews on tripadvisor.com. Currently, they are #3 of 33 motels in Lincoln City, (though there are two motels tied for #1, so who knows). With reviews like the one below, I'm sure they'll be getting even more traffic soon.

The Giggles

2010-02-22T08:07:00.000-05:00

Yesterday at Church, we were without our "overflow" gym seating, so the Bishop asked some of us to sit on the stand in the choir seats. Right before the Sacrament hymn started, Joe grabbed the hymnal and started flipping through the pages really fast to get to the right page in time. Except when he got to the right spot, THE PAGE WAS MISSING!

That's all it took...for two whole verses we were bent over in our seats, giggling uncontrollably. My face was bright red, and we just kept whisper-laughing "STOP LAUGHING!" to each other. Had we not been on the stand, where the rest of the ward could see us laughing at a really inappropriate time, I don't know how funny this would have been. As I write this, it doesn't even seem that funny anymore. But trust me, it was.

I love so much that Joe and I both have families and great friends that love to laugh...and giggle...and stop breathing...and then burst into giggles again on occasion due to over-laughter/inappropriateness of said laughter.

Like one time we were in Park City, and Marcus's fake leg fell off and we all yelled "OH NO!" and some people who didn't know him thought his actual leg had just fallen off.

Sometimes I will think about that and just start laughing and can't tell Joe what I'm laughing about for a few minutes, so he has to guess. Then as he's guessing, he's telling me other funny things and I start laughing about those, too.

My name is Brittney, and I'm a giggleholic.

Thanks, Dad.

2010-02-18T16:15:00.001-05:00

So even worse than the actual Snowpocalypse has been the aftermath: The roads and parking lots we frequent are now icy death traps. Potholes, abruptly-ending lanes, 12-foot snowbanks obstructing any idea of how safe it is to pull out/merge, and crazy drivers have made for a super stressful week of driving.

Luckily, I have an awesome dad who let me do totally illegal things like start driving 4-wheelers when I was eight years old. I'm a very confident, defensive, cautious (and Joe would add impatient...but only because I am the ONLY person on the road who knows how to drive, duh) driver now, and I think my extra years behind the wheel (or throttle) have taught me well. THANKS DAD!