First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage....

Last night I had the privilege of spending some time with my Michigan boys! I have been baby-sitting Gabe and Garrett since they were 3 and 5 and we always have so much fun together. Last night I was watching them and their new baby brother and eventually it came time for bed.

They tried every trick in the book to stay up later. "I am hungry..." "I am thirsty..." "Will you read a story?". Finally as I was just about to turn off the lights Gabe says "Are you married now?" "No" "Why not?" "Because I haven't found anyone nice enough yet." "When you do find someone nice enough, will you marry him?" "Probably...." I move towards the door and just as I put my hand on the light switch... "What do you do at a wedding?" "Well you promise God that you will love and take care of each other forever. Then you have a big party with your friends and family, with cake and food and presents. Goodnight." "But what kind of cake are you going to have!" They shouted urgently, as if I didn't tell them the world would end. "Chocolate I think, that's my favourite. It will have white frosting and flowers on top." "Hey! I know!" shouts Gabe sitting up in bed. "You could have a giant cake and hollow it out in the inside and then Garrett and I can put on tuxedos and wait inside and then at the party we could jump out of the cake and surprise everyone!"

Everything went downhill from there in spiraling arcs of hilarity. I knew it was past their bedtime, but I couldn't help but listen to their funny ideas. They decided that they are going to be my "Wedding Managers". Some of their great ideas were my groom and I getting married in a tree, so that way everyone can sing the "sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G" song. There are going to be fireworks for our kiss, I get shot out of a cannon instead of walking down the aisle, and all the boys at the wedding reception get a whoopee cushion on their seats (the girls don't because that isn't lady-like...)

It went on for awhile like that and then their parents got home. Dad came upstairs to tell them goodnight. "No! We can't go to sleep yet! We have so many more good ideas!" "Don't worry boys, I am not getting married anytime soon." I said, "You can marry ME" shouts Garrett as I tell them goodnight one last time and turn off the light.

DONE!

Whew! What a whirlwind semester.... but it is finally done! I am FRRRRREEEEEEEEEE!


It was a very long and scary semester. Taking online classes this semester presented a new set of challenges. The worst part was missing out on all of the fun stories I get to tell about my crazy classmates like the lady last semester who sat behind me and made duck noises when she wrote in her notebook, or the guy who sat next to me and was training to be a matador (true story! The guy in my psych class last semester showed me pictures on his phone!).

The scariest part of the semester had to be when I almost failed my Chemistry class. I was checking my grades online and discovered that I currently had an F in my Chem class! I sort of freaked out.... I had never failed a class before! I was going to have to take it over again, and it was really expensive, and really boring and I was really mad at myself.

I talked (cried) to my Mom about it and she made me feel a lot better but I was still feeling pretty blue that night when I came up for dinner. Ryan and Louise asked me what was wrong and I said that I was failing my Chem class and almost started crying again. They were so sweet. Louise was like "Your stupid professor! How can this happen! Don't worry Bo, we are going to get a B! We can do this! I can come home early from work and help you study!" I explained that I had NO idea how we could go from a F to B with only a few weeks left of school. I also explained how if I didn't get a good grade then my GPA would go down, and then I wouldn't be able to get into the nursing program because they let the smartest people in first... Ryan interrupted me at that point and said "No they let the people with the best grades in first. There is a difference between getting good grades and being smart. I am one of the smartest people I know and I got horrible grades my whole life.... and just because you are getting a bad grade in this one class doesn't mean you aren't smart because you are, you are brilliant." They are both so sweet....

Anyway's we did it. I have no idea how, but somehow the three of us (Louise helping me with homework and Ryan bringing us snacks and doing everything else) managed to go from an F to a B in the last two weeks of the semester. Maybe this blog post is a little brag-ey but I can't help it I am just so excited. I have an amazing family that loves me in MI and I have a wonderful family that loves me in CO and I NEVER HAVE TO TAKE CHEMISTRY AGAIN! That is something worth celebrating if I say so myself.

Plus with the way that the nursing program is structured I have a whole next semester off of school, something I am very excited about. I have a whole stack of books that I have been waiting to get to but haven't had the time with my gypsy life this year and all of the school work. I can't wait for a little break!

"And what we know.... We don't know...."

When I first arrived I didn't know Louise and Ryan at all.... So I started making a list of things that I could find out about them. Here are some silly things I learned about them in the first week....

She....
Used to work at a Russian Orphanage.
Loves chocolate cupcakes.
Plays the flute
Hates Broccoli
Has an adorable mother with an irrational fear of mustard

He....
Abhors fish.
Doesn't believe in recycling
Is obsessed with Wolverine
Is really into carpentry
Wears suspenders.... tehehe....

They...
Have been married since I was 13
Love tea
Watch Red Dwarf and Mythbusters
Are obsessed with Baseball and the Rockies, even though neither of them play
Are very sweet...

The Donut Saga...

Louise has been ordering her groceries online through a very convenient service offered by a local grocery store. You can hop on their website, place an order, and they come to your house and deliver it the next day! It's wonderful! However sometimes they get things wrong. This just happened to be one of those times....

Louise loves pumpkin flavored donuts and the bakery has some really good ones. So when she was shopping online she added 12 pumpkin donuts to the list as a treat for the three of us and decided to keep it a surprise. The next day while she was at work, the delivery man came and dropped off the groceries. He was very nice and as he was carrying in the groceries he asked if we were having a party. I said no, and asked him why he would think that, "Oh no reason, it just seems like you have a lot of donuts.". Which we did. Three bags full of boxed donuts in fact! I was a little surprised but signed for the groceries. The man left and I had just shut the door and went into the kitchen to start putting things away when the door bell rang. "I found one more bag in the back" the delivery guy said and sheepishly handed me another bag of donuts!

Louise calls a little later from work to just check in and see how the day is going "Everything's going fine... we did get the groceries today though... and.... there were a lot of donuts." I said. "Oh yes," she replied "I thought we could freeze some for later" I didn't think anything of it. I figured Louise knew what she was doing and we would just be set on donuts for the next year.

Louise came home later that afternoon and walked in the door and moaned, "I was afraid of this! I wanted 12 donuts, not 12 dozen!" As it turns out they people at the grocery store got the quantity wrong and instead of 12 donuts they had sent us 144! The worst part of it though was that they ran out of the good pumpkin kind, and ended up sending us a bunch of dry cake donuts instead! So now it is sort of the running joke around here "What's for dinner?" "Donuts.". "I packed you a lunch Ryan, it's donuts" and tonight Ryan sat down in front of the TV with three donuts and simply said "Hey I am just doing my part!"

We called the store several times and they are avoiding our calls, so we have become resigned to the fact that we are now the proud owners of 144 donuts. Some of them have been eaten, but we are currently looking for more creative ways to use them up like, donut bread pudding, donut baby food, perhaps an addition to the house made out of donuts and covered in resin, donut sandwiches, donut pancakes, I even mentioned giving them names and poems and selling them as "Donut Babies". I am sure they will be the number one gift of the Holiday season! Anyways if YOU have any ideas on what to do with a 144 donuts, please leave a comment! We are getting a little desperate....

School of ROCK!!!!!

So Ryan and Louise had both been in college for a few years by the time I turned ten. So there is a little bit of an age gap there. They like to talk about movies and songs and make witty pop culture references that I never get because at the time I was watching more "Barney" than "The Breakfast Club". I don't really mind though. It's actually pretty funny. Whenever I miss something and explain that it was before my time, Louise gets upset and starts moaning about how old she is and Ryan just asks if I want him to make me a PB and J sandwich and says he will turn on the new "Ice age" movie for me "only if you finsh all of your vegtables, young lady!". But yesterday when Ryan made a reference to "Savage Gardens" "The animal song" and I admitted I had no idea who they were, much less heard the song, Louise drew a line. "That's it!" she said "I am going downstairs and making you CD!" She came up a few minutes later with a CD entitled "School of Rock" that contained all of the most important rock songs from the 80s and 90s.



So I have been listening to it and some of it is pretty good.... some of its not.... I think some of it might be a "You had to be there" kind of thing. Anyways I have had Tom Petty's "Refugee" song along with "Don't fear the Reaper" by "Blue oyster cult" stuck in my head ALL DAY LONG! I was even humming it during my pottery class! It won't get out of my head! CURSE YOU CATCHY 90S ROCK MUSIC!!!

Show some respect for the elderly, ya youngster!

So everyone here at the Wood household has to be up early for work in the mornings. So we usually hang out at night until around 9:30 - 10 PM and then everybody gets tired and goes to bed. Well, last Friday I decided it was time to shake up the routine and have a little fun. So I was talking with Louise while she was making dinner and I said "You know its Friday night. We should go a little crazy and have some fun! We are a bunch of young people. We should have a good time!" Louise agreed, so we decided we were going to stay up all night watching TV, eating junk food, maybe make a few cocktails and do everything our mothers told us not to do before bed! It was going to be awesome.

But I was wrong.... We are not young people. We are old people. This is how the night ended up going....

Louise and Ryan put the boys to bed and we were all ready to start our fun night. Ryan made us all tea as goes our night time tradition (I never really used to like tea, but now there is nothing better at the end of the day then a nice cup of steaming blueberry tea!), Louise and I picked up the baby blocks that we are crocheting for the boys, and we sat around and watched TV. We watched a few episodes of a funny TV show we have on DVD, but it wasn't long before we started nodding off. It must have been like 2 AM I was sure of it! I was so tired, it had to be really late. So I got up and checked the clock and it said 10:45....

Old people.

So there you have it. Our idea of a "crazy Friday night" is staying up past 10:30, drinking tea, crocheting, and watching TV sitcom re-runs.... So bad! Actually I think Ryan, Louise, and I have always had a propensity to being old people, but it is a quality that we simply amplify in one another.... Sure I could go out and go dancing, see a movie or go hang out at the mall, but there is just something so nice about sitting at home in your jimjams, working on a project and drinking tea....

This is Opera.... Now don't be scared.....

Last night Louise and I went to the Ellie Caulkins Opera house, part of one of the largest performing arts centers in the country.... It was awesome.

We went to go see "The Tales of Hoffman..." which according to opera Colorado is "the fantasy of a poet obsessed with four remarkable women - and the four villains bent on his destruction." So Louise and I got all dressed up, in high heels, dresses and fake eyelashes ready for a night on the town. After about an hour we both emerged from our powder rooms, and were ready for dinner and to hit the road. Ryan made us sit down at the table for dinner and brought us our food and drinks, because he said we looked so nice he felt like he needed to wait on us... We didn't object... =). We finished eating, took some pictures, and hit the road.

When we arrived at the opera we discovered that it was half price ticket night, so we got really good seats and then went inside for the lecture before the show. We weren't sure if we wanted to go to the lecture but we ended up being very glad that we did because if we hadn't the show wouldn't have made any sense....


Hoffman was a contemporary of Jane Austen, but his works were very different from Austen' "Pride and Prejudice". His works were psychological, dark, surrealist tales that would later inspire the likes of Edgar Allen Poe. The show was very good. It had a golden muse that came to life and followed Hoffman around begging him to forget about women and go back to the poetry that was his true love. But instead of heeding the muse's words, Hoffman during the course of the opera fell in love with an absurd Robot that gets her head broken off, a poor girl who sings herself to death, and a crazy woman at the end who Louise and I didn't get. For some reason she was dressed as a seahorse and was supposed to be able to steal men's souls, but she just stood around on stage making out with some creepy puppet. I still don't really know what happened in that act. All Louise and I could think of was "Creepy puppet, creepy puppet, sea horse, creepy puppet, sea horse, sea horse...."

When we got home and started telling Ryan about it he thought we were making it all up "OK so he falls in love with a robot and there is a golden woman walking around on stage with a giant sea horse that's kissing a puppet... what happens next, they all start flying just before the zombies attack?"


I love the opera. I love getting all dressed up and seeing all the girls in pretty dresses and the guys in tuxedos. I love the sounds of the music and the costumes and the orchestra! When I grow up I want to be an opera singer. I told Louise that and she said that I was no where near fat enough. Maybe if we put the three of us together we could be an opera singer she said.

What do opera singers do when they are not singing opera? I mean I know they have regular lives too but what happens if someone doesn't know that they are an opera singer and like invites them to a Christmas caroling party? Do they go up front and belt out "Silent Night" in Italian? Or do the stand in the back and intentionally sing "Jingle Bells" badly so as not to make all the Joe Schmos feel bad? These are the thoughts running around my head for the whole opera.

It was an amazing night and I hope to go back soon...