What We've Been Up To

At long last we are all caught up with last year and shall begin chronicling our 2015! Also the blog has a cool new look! :D

Well, to get up-to-date, here are some fun facts.

• We bought a new 2015 planner and I wrote in it, "Miranda & James' planner" and then James added, "and schedule for World Domination." We've got huge plans for this year.
• I was looking all over for it the other day, and then I got a text from my mom saying, "It appears I am in possession of a notebook containing your plans for world domination. I would have thought you'd notice something like that was missing."
• Some events have already happened which we are late in blogging about, such as James' birthday, our new bookshelf, Valentine's day, my dad's birthday, and a fun acquisition of various fruits and vegetables.
• Goals for this year's blog are: to blog more about day-to-day living along with the big events; to include more James and Mir selfies; and to have James write on the blog too, so I don't commandeer the description of his life.
• Since we finished Doctor Who, we browsed Amazon Prime and got into a new show, Eureka. I wouldn't really recommend this to anyone. James would, but he hasn't grown up with my mom, or any movie critic, probably. It's pretty cheesy and predictable, but for some reason it's just really fun to watch together.
• I have been reading a lot since I don't have school. Also I am no longer allowed to check out books from the Great Harold B. Lee Library (although that doesn't stop me from using James' BYU card occasionally), so I got my very own Provo City library card. I also joined my Relief Society book club. I will try to blog about the books I read this year because that would be fun to look back on!
• I have also applied for 4 teaching jobs and interviewed at all of them, and received none of them. It's quite a huge bummer, actually, but I'll get over it. Hiring for the 2015-2016 school year begins in March. I am currently substituting at different schools all over Provo, Spanish Fork, Pleasant Grove, etc. I would also like to start private tutoring. We'll see how that goes.
• James has been working like crazy on calculus and geomorphology. It's really hard but it hasn't got the best of him...yet. He's also still working a few hours a week fixing computers in the chemistry department. So he's usually pretty busy but is always really good at doing all his homework. (That's a lot more than I could say.) And going to class. (Same.)
• Over the past few weeks James has been compiling all the supplies he will need for his field camp in April. A 6-week class where he will travel all over Utah looking at rocks. And layers, and groundwater, and volcanic activity, and all these geological phenomenons. So far he's got a really nifty solar charger that has been able to charge his phone twice and shine a flashlight for over 24 hours straight. Also he got a camp shower, which is a giant black bag with a hose that you fill with water, heat up in the sun, and hang from a hook. That will be fun!

So that's whats been up. I'm hoping to write about some things that happened last month, and also current events in the Moore lives. The most current of which is that we are enjoying some nice hot cocoa right now and about to watch Eureka! 

Anniversary Lights

At last! We've been married for a full 12 months! For our Anniversary we got to go to Temple Square and look at the lights. It was bitterly cold but also very fun! This was the Friday two days before our actual anniversary. 

Inside the Tabernacle to warm up for a bit.

My fuzzy hood kinda hung out on top of my eyes all night. It was cold, I tell you.

This is my favorite tree!

^Trying out some long exposure photography. You can see the ghost people.

We happened to run into another amateur photographer guy. He had a slightly different Cannon than James and so they switched cameras and took pictures of each other. A little dark, but that's ok.

The next day on Saturday we went to Tucanos thanks to James' dad!!! It was really great and delicious. Especially a certain type of orange fish. :) We had a fun time.

It has been a great year! We lived in 3 different apartments, finished 2 semesters of school, bought a car and even graduated! (Half of us.) Those are the big things. I saw this quote from Elder Scott on a mormon message video: "Marriage provides an ideal setting for overcoming any tendency to be selfish or self-centered. ... Pure love is an incomparable, potent power for good, and the foundation of a successful marriage." A lot of things this year have been hard for both of us, but a lot more have been really happy! I'm super glad that I have James to be my husband, best friend, and good example to me of how to show love. He has helped me so much and always been there for me and I'm glad I could help him too when he needs me. All the small things he does to show he loves me are even more important than all those big things! Here's to a great 2014.

Christmas

Christmas was so great this year. It was our first married Christmas! We didn't really take any pictures, but that's ok. We went to West Jordan to my family's house. It was their first Christmas without Emily. But it was still with Emily, because we got to FaceTime her that morning! And Benjamin that night. I liked talking to the missionaries. I think I talked a lot more with Emily than with Benjamin, but it was still fun to hear Benjamin tell us about how things are going. They are both great at sending letters consistently every week. I think Benjamin has picked up some sort of weird accent.

Anyway, this year James and I had everyone's presents wrapped even before the break started. This is the first year this has ever happened for me, all because of James. He's pretty good at thinking of presents for people. We got the xkcd "What If" book for Josh (and it turns out that my parents got the EXACT SAME BOOK for Spencer!!!!) and a slingshot with ammo for Spencer. He's more into guns, but says he is excited to use it in the spring. (He didn't want to use it in the snow because all the marbles were white.) And a jar of Blackberry Buzz jam for my mom. For my dad we got Miracle Frooties, which magically turn sour things into sweet things.

I am amazed by how many presents we got. It was like getting married again!!! One of my favorites is a very beautiful wood cutting board from Marianne and Seth. It has our name and wedding date carved into it! :) This month I am probably going to try making a stand for it.

We also got a really awesome anniversary date to Tucano's from James' dad! We were so happy about that. He is always so generous and giving us dates.

We also got a nice deep skillet for fried rice, some cooking utensils, a salad spinner, a giant box full of candy from my grandma, and a chalkboard and globe of the moon from my little brothers! It makes me want to have my own classroom.

James got me a bunch of presents. He got me (us) the game Sequence, a Doctor Who ice tray (the only item on my Amazon wish list), and a Math Block from the BYU Bookstore. It's a tiny cube-shaped book full of little math problems. :D He's the sweetest. He also got me my favorite Christmas sweater from Eddie Bauer.

At 10am we got to FaceTime Emily. She is doing great! We talked to her for so long. She seems really happy and spoke some German to us. It was pretty fun to talk to her because it was just 2 screens, her and us. My parents and brothers, me and James, my grandparents, and her best friend Amanda were all in the kitchen talking to her. Pretty different from talking to Benjamin later that night at 6pm. The Moore family lives all over the place. They also have lots of kids. So pretty rambunctious missionary calls. Benjamin seems to be doing well in Russia. It's pretty crazy that it's almost time for him to come home! We're really happy for him.

One last cool thing about Christmas here in Utah is that for the weeks leading up to Christmas, it didn't snow at all. It was super mild. On Christmas Eve I was talking to my brother and he refused to doubt that it would snow by Christmas. But looking at the sky, I had zero faith in his prophecy because there were seriously no clouds in the sky! NONE!

And then it snowed on Christmas. (It's a Christmas miracle!!!) So it was a white Christmas after all. The rest of the break was really relaxing and fun! And it was so nice to be able to celebrate it with James and my family.

Merry Christmas!

Status: Alumna

Well, I done gone graduated! Class of 2014. Mathematics Education. I made it in 3 and a half years. The official date is December 19, but it was without Pomp and Circumstance. They don't do commencement in December, so I will wait until April to walk, get my cap and gown, take pictures, etc.

But I do have one picture. They sent me my official diploma right away!

The Amazing Christmas Tree

This year I really wanted a Christmas tree. Real trees are the best, but we had about 0 extra square feet to put a tree in our tiny living room. Or, we could have gotten a 1-foot tree. However, I happen to know that at the BYU Bookstore, they sell grand quantities of butcher paper for very cheap. So that is what we did!

I got about 10 feet of paper for $1.20. James had the really good idea of folding squares in half and taping two of the sides to the tree so they would stick out.

Before decorating:

After decorating:

We cut out most of the decorations from extra cardstock that was left over from my Platonic Solids booth at the STEM fair. Incidentally. You may notice we have a bust of Plato hanging on the tree too. A couple of the ornaments were cut out from the old music sheets I bought at DI. James even spray painted one with a miniature can of spray paint we randomly have.

With the last bits of green paper, we decided to thrown in a mistletoe for good measure. :D

And I thought I'd put this picture in here too. I liked having a fall wreath on our door so I made a Christmas one too. (My mom had given me two grapevine wreaths so this is the second one.) James, that kind soul, went with me at the dead of night to BYU campus (again) to collect the supplies. This time it wasn't because I was embarrassed... I was just worried that I might not be strictly "allowed" to cut branches off of their pine trees and steal berries and such. The silver snowflakes are from Jo-Ann, James' arch-nemesis.

We were fabulously decked out for the holidays!