Winter Wonderland in Western Washington

We left Rexburg, excited to get away from the bitter cold and constant snowfall. However, as soon as we arrived in Olympia we found ourselves in the same boat. Quite an impressive winter storm has hit all of Washington, and hasn't let up yet. The roads are not only covered in tons of snow, but thick layers of ice as well. School, church, flights, everything is being cancelled. Wowzer!

Christmas Time is Here

What a bittersweet winter weekend!

Friday started off as a bum day. I got in an accident in the Snow building parking lot. :( Neither car saw each other and we hit; my front driver side and his passenger side. Our car isn't too bad, the front blinker is just broken and the car a little dented. Oh, and then I found out I didn't get the job I drove all the way to Utah to interview for. When it rains, it pours, right? That's ok though, if I didn't get it then I wasn't suppose to. Simple as that. Something else will come along. No use getting bent out of shape over it. I really do have faith that everything will work out. Joseph Smith said, "Whatever God requires is right, no matter what it is, although we may not see the reason thereof until all of the events transpire."

Despite the blizzard-like conditions and temperature below zero this weekend, we have had a blast with Scott's fam who came out for his graduation. It's crazy to finally come to the realization that we are leaving Rexburg for good. As hard as it was to get used to this little town we have sure come to love it, and will really miss it. However, we are excited for new beginnings in a new place.

Since we are moving this month, it seemed silly to unpack all the Christmas decorations just to pack them back up again. With an apartment seriously lacking any festive charm, and the busyness that comes with graduating, it has not seemed much like the Christmas season yet. However, today Scott and I finally had some time to relax, I spent hours making Christmas cards, wrapping gifts, and we watched cheesy Christmas movie after cheesy Christmas movie on TV. This one actually wasn't too bad, and it had Kirby Heyborne.

Reverance for Life

Scott and I took a "Teaching of the Living Prophets" class this semester. Yesterday we finished reading some talks by general authorities in the church, one regarding the controversial issue of abortion. We are opposed to this practice. Of course, there are rare exceptions when abortion may be necessary, but those are the exceptions. Did you know that in the first two hundred years as a nation, the lives of over one million Americans were lost due to war? Nowadays, in the United States alone, over 1.5 million abortions are performed each year. As Elder Nelson describes, "it is a war on the defenseless- and the voiceless."

Food for thought; one last quote from the talk... "Consider [an] individual weighing the consequences of her pregnancy. She was beyond the normal age for bearing children. She announced to her doctor that her husband was an alcoholic with a syphilitic infection. One of her children had been born dead. Another child was blind. Another had tuberculosis. Her family had a history of deafness. Finally she confessed that she was living in abject poverty. If this true historical situation were posed today, many would recommend abortion. The child born from that pregnancy became the renowned composer Ludwig van Beethoven."

Random Note: I made salmon for dinner last night, and Scott who absolutely despises seafood of any kind, ate it AND liked it!

Random Note #2: This morning we woke up to the first real snow of the season. Ho ho ho!

Scott and Becca Belong in a Sci-fi Film

Ok this is about the weirdest thing that has ever happened...

After church, I mentioned to Scott that last night I had a kinda random, yet not really too exciting dream. I dreamed we went to visit his family, who had recently bought a new house. The house was a crazily large mansion, being so big that it was very maze-like. As I explained this, Scott's mouth dropped open. He thought I was joking. Turns out, he had the EXACT same dream. Not even kidding. Wow that's creepy. I wonder what this means...

Get to Know You Pictionary

I saw this game on my friend Jami's blog. It's fun to do if you are bored or just not wanting to do any real work. Or, in my case, if you haven't put anything interesting on your blog for a while and feel a need to spice it up. Try it so I can see what you come up with as well! This is how it works: For each question, look up your answer in a Google image search. Then, choose the first image only (unless it's disgusting, then go with the next best one.)

My age.

Place I'd like to travel (Germany).

A favorite place.

Favorite subject.

Favorite food.

Favorite animal.

Favorite color.

Town where I was born. (Olympia, WA)

Town where I grew up.

A past pet.

A past love.

Favorite ice cream flavor. (Cheesecake Fantasy)

My first name.

My maiden or middle name. (Clauson)

My last name (add an "s").

My bad habit.

My first job. (Chinese food restaurant hostess)

My degree.

What I am doing right now.

Lots of New Things... Kinda

So, I just realized I haven't updated the blog for a month. Oops. For thanksgiving we went to Spokane to visit Scott's family. While there, Scott and his dad took some family pictures for Christmas cards that will be sent out soon. Scott took this awesome picture as well of us girls. It was great to see everyone; we hung out and played lots of games, stuffed ourselves to the rafters with turkey and went shopping on Black Friday at 6 in the morning. In addition, we got to spend some time with Scott's uncle David, who is now living with them. He is 50 years old and has down syndrome. I've never really been around anyone like that before, but it was so neat! He has such a sweet spirit. Sometimes he would just start laughing and laughing and no one would know why. He put on a wonderful "Elvis concert" for us all as well. All in all, it was just really awesome to be with someone so innocent, and child-like.

Guess what!! I'm DONE with college. Yes, that is right I am completely finished! (This picture is from graduation during the summer) Yay! My last day student teaching was Friday and it was very bittersweet. I will really miss those kids! First graders are so much fun and they are so excited to learn. Teaching can be hard and I think many people don't realize how much there is to it. Day to day can be so monotonous and sometimes you just want to scream. But these past four months I have had a handful of those little moments that remind me why I became a teacher. Allow me to share... One little girl in the class really struggles with reading. But a few weeks ago she came up to me and you could just see the excitement in her eyes spilling out. She was holding a book and said, "Mrs. Winn! I read this whole page by myself and I read it fast!" It probably doesn't seem like much but oh my goodness, it literally made me tear up!

On the last day, the kids gave me a book filled with letters they had each written to me. Sooooo precious! One little boy also gave me a gift and card he made on his own. The gift: one of his favorite Pokemon cards. But, as great as that was, the best part was the message inside the attached card. It said: "Bats are cool but the pritieiest thing in the hl wrld is ms. win." Priceless.

This month there are some great things to look forward to! Scott's family is coming out in a week for his graduation. Then, Scott and I are going to visit Canada as a graduation gift to ourselves. We are going to Victoria BC (as seen in the picture). I've never been so I can't wait. We will get to visit both my family and Scott's before the month is through, and finally move down to our new home in Mapleton, Utah.

Also, this is a picture Scott took a few days ago. These are three members of the Academy of Comedy group on campus. Sweet jumping skills. Fast photo taking reflexes.