Merry Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas, family and friends. We feel so blessed to be at the end of another great and eventful year and what better way to relive it than with a quick recap:

School: Yes there was plenty of this. Internships in the summer kept us apart but we endured and feel they were a tremendous asset to our educations. Dana finished his Masters’ Degree in Personal Financial Planning and we’re looking forward to the end of our graduate programs this upcoming May. In the mean time, we’re keeping ourselves busy with evidence finals, qualified retirement plans, volunteering with Red to Black and golf...lots of golf.
Travel: It seems like we went everywhere this year. We visited Ransom Canyon over Spring Break and then got to explore San Antonio this summer. We were sunburned in Corpus Christi, rained out while camping near Seattle, and worn out by kids, kids, kids in Pennsylvania. And we wouldn’t change a thing! Along the way we got to visit family and see some of the beauty outside Texas. This Christmas we expect to add frozen out to our list when we visit Chicago.
Friends: I’m still amazed that we are so fortunate to have great friends around us wherever we move. This year we celebrated many holidays with friends, watched the 3-D Superbowl, carved Autobot pumpkins, returned to the 80s, and celebrated the arrival of baby after baby after baby! We’re going to miss every one of you when we leave!!
News: Dana and I had a year of good news. We welcomed the arrival of three new nephews and one new niece on my side. We celebrated our fourth year of marriage, my 25th year of life, and Dana’s 27th. And of course, we can’t forget to mention the wonderful blessing of having a job offer. Dana has accepted a position at the law firm of Brad Englund, PS in Yakima, Washington, which means we are northern bound come May. He’ll get to use some of the Spanish he picked up while on his mission and I’ll get to taste the flavors of ripe apples and fresh seafood. We’re excited for the move and for the opportunity to be closer to family.

2009 has been more than we ever dreamed and we want to thank each and every one of you for being a part of it and for sharing with us your support, encouragement, and faith. We believe strongly that our family has received an overwhelming abundance of blessing. We’re grateful to our Father in Heaven for his watchful care and for his Son, Jesus Christ, and the gift of his life this Christmas Season. May you all have love in your hearts and know that you are always in our prayers.

Get ready....Get 80s!!

Last year ugly sweaters, this years 80s baby! Dana and I were very disconcerted to find that we had so many clothes in our closet that pass as eighties attire but whadda ya gonna do? The Jensen's Christmas party was such a blast with a pretty in pink prom dress by Julie and Travis with the walkman.
We exchanged ornaments, played some trivia, and shared in the spirit of the season with a Christmas story. Oh yeah. And Dana SHAVED HIS HEAD!!!

Yes, thirty minutes before we left he must have been feeling his costume was lacking so he pulled out the clips and BZZZZ BZZZZed it off on two sides. Sadly, the general consensus at the party was that it's a good look for him:) Don't worry all, we fixed it before Sunday. Imagine trying to explain that to our primary kids. That's all from the Gailans...until D's hair grows out!

Thanksgiving 2009

Anyone feeling the drag from the holiday? The Gailans sure are. We loved our weekend of sleep, food, and friends. This year we decided to stay in Lubbock or rather, our families decided for us by not inviting us:) Just kidding! We had a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner with some of our favorite buddies from law school.

Julie and Lauren. Isn't her hair cute:) And her dad even did the cutting!

                                             One good exmple of Cori being Cori.

A discussion of jurisprudence? Naw, they were talking football.
Afterwards, we went over to my cousins (the Eyerly's or is that Everly's?) for a rousing game of Nines and time with the family. Friday we went to see New Moon and got to witness some of the erratic behavior of people under the influence of lots of turkey. Saturday we had a Wii challenge with Dave and Chelsea and Steve and Marissa and I think I finally proved my point: the Wii wheel is the only way to go! Top that all off with a few 70 degree days for walks, a day of bargain hunting at the mall, and lots and lots of football and you have one excellent holiday weekend. Hope yours was smashing as well!

Twenty Seven if a day

Well, another banana cream pie has come and almost gone, which means it's that most wonderful time of the year--Dana's birthday! The big 2 AND 7! We ate pie, watched a little (okay a lot) of Football and Peyton Manning even managed to pull off a huge last minute win just for Dana (I called in a favor). Birthday gifts included a new set of scriptures and some sleeping pants which, for the record, I had nothing to do with. For full details, please ask Dana:) Happy Birthday, love!

The most optomistic sports fans alive!

Every Sunday for the past three years, when football time rolls around we are greeted on our way home from church by a giant inflatable Detroit Lions linebacker. Now, I know nothing about Detroit, even less about the Lions but Dana has filled me in on one sad fact: they always lose. Always. They are that team that makes other teams feel awesome. And yet, every Sunday the inflatable man goes up. So here's to you, Most Optimistic Detroit Lions Fan Ever. You carted your symbol of loss all the way to Texas...and for that, we commend you. - I kinda want to tackle him.

Why are you a colored box?

A bit late, but Halloween this year for the Gailans consisted of a ward trunk-or-treat chili cook-off and stake conference. Dana got very creative with his costume doing a shout out to the 80s.


Several children were confused by his costume but not to worry...they enjoyed slapping his box all the same and I literally had a chase a gaggle of girls away. Who woulda thought I'd have to put up with competition from ten year olds?

My outfit was a little more mysterious. With only 24 hours to come up with one, I went with things I had on hand. Sunglasses. Travel Documents. A gray sweatshirt. Coupons. You guessed it: I went as my Mom:) I love you mom! Impersonation is the best form of flattery and since I had all the stuff, maybe I really went as myself. Now there's some deep thinking.
Other great photos were Cori the Shark, Ben the mummy, and Adam Buzz Lightyear. We also had a Ducati fan, plenty of pretty princesses and tons of fun! Happy Halloween all!

5th Annual Gailan Carve-Off

Pumpkins, knives, delicious treats and friends, need I say more? Well, since it's me, I will.

Our pumpkin entry. We decide to forgo faces (previously we stink at these) and opted instead for Autobots. I could also have downloaded the Deceptacons, but we try to avoid evil in our lives.
Almost all of the pumpkins. We had a Cinderella, eyeball, free carved faces, and dinosaurs. Impressive, to say the least!

Cori with her festive goo-free gloves. A fabulous idea.

This year we had it at the church and could utilize tables and wide open spaces.

Thanks again everyone for coming!! It was a blast!

Night Run

A night run + students = gigantic shirts and glow sticks. Oh, and fun.

Ask me a question....

...and I will vomit.

Seriously. I know just enough about Retirement plans to know I don't know enough for the tests, but enough that my head feels like a watermelon. So if you mention 403b, 401k, ESOP, or any other retirement related things to me today, I take no blame for the consequences to your knees. You have been warned.

Mauled by a Moth

I am not crazy. I said that to Dana about eight times this morning when, in a rush to get ready, I was repeatedly and subtly mocked by a baby moth. And nooooo, Dana, not an invisible, imaginary baby moth--a real one, with tiny fluttery wings who likes to land on my jeans and then my shoe and then my hair. I freaked out--naturally--and okay may have gone a little overboard with locking the bedroom door but eventually my sanity was vindicated...dana saw him too. And then squished him. Thanks love.

UR-IN-A-Ladies room

Yesterday, while visiting the most ghetto building on campus, I stopped into a ladies room to, um, use it and was greeted by a most alarming site...urinals. Staggering to a stop, I quickly retreated, embarrassed, until I realized that, no, the sign clearly stated I had indeed entered a ladies room and I knew this because the person on the sign had on a dress and not slacks (yeah, cause that's not confusing anymore these days). Upon reentry I tried to avoid eye contract with the strange creatures but couldn't help noticing two tactful signs taped over aforementioned oddities stating: DO NOT USE. Not really necessary guys, but thanks for the reminder.

Kitchen Family Reunion (part 2)

Still can't figure out the video, but here are the last happenings of our amazing week in Pennsylvania. On Wednesday, we took all the fam to some caves for deep earth hiking and one amazing laser light show set to the Hallelujah Chorus. It was pretty fantastic! We ate pizza in the park, played baseball, and went home for much needed naps. Thursday the girls got a real treat as the boys took the kids and sent us off to Falling Waters, the most famous of the Frank Lloyd Wright houses. It was incredible and a little unsettling as we peered over the waterfall, but the architecture was stunning. It rained that night so we never got the family golf tournament swinging (next year vengeance will be ours) but we did have another fire and told more spooky stories. Friday we went back to Ohiopyle and rented some cruisers, which I was skeptical about at first but man were they awesome. Highly recommended for anyone who hasn't ridden a bike in a decade. Thanks again Mom and Dad! It really was a blast!

 

The Kitchen Family reunion (part 1)

Yup, my family requires a two parter. This year we had the reunion in Pennsylvania. We stayed in a house that normally holds 15 but, hey, what's eight or nine extra kids? It was a great, tiring week with fun all around. Monday we got settled it and shopped for the mass of adults/kids and then came back and played kickball (not a good idea in sandals) and I almost lost a toenail from one of the nephews (way to not take no for an answer Ian!). Tuesday all the non-pregger adults took the kids whitewater rafting. It was a great experience for them and a favorite for our family. It rained (down poured) two or three times but, hey, what's a little bit more water? We chased down the sun eventually and built up our muscles paddling a half deflated raft. That night we had a rip roaring campfire courtesy the boys and their matches and the giant pile of logs begging to be burned. We sang songs and ate smores. I am working on uploading some priceless videos from the campfire (yes, family, it's important to remember that the Gailan camera can now record. You might want to keep that in mind). But for now you are spared and here are just some good old pics.

 

And for those of your who aren't Kitchens, here's a quick catchup on my family.

THE BEGINNING-Pat and Tina had six kids: David, Sarah, Jim, Kristina, Kelli, and Jeff. They now live in Chicago, Illinois. They like running little ladies off the road on bike rides and planning elaborate reunions and painting...oh do they love painting!
THE OHIANS- David and Nikki Kitchen will soon have five: Noah, 9, Ian, 7, Ammon, 5, Claire-Bear, 3, and baby XX (December 2009).
THE UTARDS (lovingly said)- Sarah and Taylor Woodbury will have three: Ethan, 4, Issac, 2, and baby XY (November 2009).
THE NEW YORKIANS- Jim and Necia Kitchen have four: Madeline, 6, Nathan, 4, Robert,2 and baby Joseph (June 2009)
THE ILLINI- Kristina and Fred Washburn have one: baby Evan (March 2009)
THE TEXANS- Kelli and Dana Gailan have each other!!!!
THE AVAILABLE: Jeff Kitchen has a promising career ahead after he graduates from BYU. Jeff has amazing hair, a kicking last name and a gun show you hafta see...please post pics of qualifying sisters, neices, etc. to this site for consideration. Seriously, he's tired of getting the couch.

Our Fourth Anniversary

Yup, another year. Crazy, huh? I thought so too. We celebrated in Seattle on the thirteenth of August and had a pretty awesome time. Dana set up some painful/relaxing massages for us, we visited the all time favorite REI, ate at a strange but pretty cool Vietnamese restaurant and went to a children's museum courtesy of some nice lady at the REI. And now without further ado, my ode to my husband with the letters of his name.

D is for "daring". Because he is never daring enough to tell me when my outfit does not match or my tag is sticking out, but instead tells me I look amazing.
A is for "a man". I am glad he is a man. I could not deal with more hormones in our house.
N is for "N-credible". A stretch, but it's worth it to stretch the word for my hubby. How else could you describe the dana-nator?
A(again) is for "awww". Because i know you are all thinking it right now, but also because I like when he does something amazing (and its pretty much every day) that makes me go awww, thanks buddy.
Love you babe. Here's to another 4 (million) together!!

Hiking in Washington

Along with family get togethers, we took some personal time to hike, climb, and otherwise peruse the Washington landscape that we love. Enjoy the slideshow of our hikes in Rainier National Park (short, because we got rained out but still pretty) and a strange chunk of land set aside as a gorgeous park in the middle of Seattle. It was the perfect hike, including trail, woods, beach, ocean, and...some blackberries.

 

Yakima Vacation

Well this summer we took three separate (but equal) vacations to see family. The first was a much needed relief from the heat of Texas in Washington. We visited Dana's family in Yakima and had a blast!! There were some planned camping trips that were cancelled because the weather decided to rain on us one night and then give us a fire ban the next (talk about the extremes) but we still had fun! We got together with all the family in town for a cook-out, we relaxed, caught up with mom and dad, and just generally had a great time. At the end we traveled to the other side to see Dana's brother, Brian, and Tammi and family. (Thank you so so much for letting us crash guys!) Thanks to everyone for the great hosting!!


Dana's aunt and uncle own apple orchards and this is a picture from their backyard. Umm...can anyone say gorgeous? After this family get together we went to Dana's cousins house to see his ranch, complete with tiny atvs and lot and lots of bulls (he breeds them). I never grew up on a farm but honestly it was about the coolest thing ever (did you know you can herd bulls with sheep dogs?). I always learn something new when I visit Dana's fam.


This is Dana's younger brother Matt. Dana went with Matt and his Dad golfing one morning (I slept in of course). Dana won but just barely and really we think he was probably not counting a few strokes (just kidding love). We really loved seeing ya Matt! Next time we'll get you down to Texas, Matt and buy you some sweet leopard print boots...that's a promise!


We ate great the whole trip but in Washington we got to try some seafood (which amazingly we don't have a lot of in Texas, go figure). Dad made us some salmon and we grilled almost every night. Talk about spoiled!


Last year we looked around Dana's old town (Aberdeen) so this year we went on a tour of Dad's old stomping ground which is just a few miles from Yakima. This is his old high school which had a HUGE gymnasium (seriously, I've never seen one as big). It was great to see where he grew up and hear his stories.

The End of San Antonio

Well the summer came and went and I had a blast in San Antonio and Dana had a blast visiting me:) USAA was great to me and even let me bring in a camera to take pictures (with my official yellow picture badge approval on at all times, of course). It was a great experience that I'm very glad I got to have. Here are some goodies of the campus where I worked and the coworkers who kept me sane (or is that insane?)

All my co-workers. Marcelo, Troy, Amanda, Emily, and Charlotte


Their groundskeepers deserved some kind of award. Like the "Martha Stewart" of gardening or something.


Military is what the internship was all about and I now have a much greater appreciation for their sacrifices.


My favorite part of the tall building. Felt like I was in Asia and the mall at the same time!

Hiking in San Antonio

 

Not much to say. We got bored, went hiking...wait, isn't that what the Gailans always do? Yup. And we love it!!!!

The big Twenty-Five

It happened...there was nothing I could do. Yup, I'm twenty-five (and a few days now) but on the bright side...oh, wait, I can't think of one. I do have one sad story, however. Dana was dead set on having candles so we went to Wal-Mart and he came back looking chagrined and held up the package. There were only TWENTY FOUR candles!!! What?! Oh...so sad. I have reached an age where I can no longer purchase just one package of candles. We made do. At least I got jello-cake:) Dana and I celebrated early and then on the actual day well I went to work and just got on with my life:) Happy Birthday to me. Thanks for all the well wishes and snickers at my old lady status.

All by myself

Well I thought I knew the meaning of being 'all alone' in my apartment but just before Dana came last week my, ahem, 'borrowed' internet up and disappeared and I lost my one real connection to the world. Who knew you could survive without constant updates from google and yahoo (did something happen to Michael Jackson?) Well, I'm surviving but had to trek my laptop down to Panera today (it's heavenly, thank you for asking) to send this and check my backlog of mail. Sorry if anyone feels ignored. I have found, however, that I waste far less time without the distraction. I've also found you can entertain yourself by staring at the ceiling closing one eye and then the other for an unusually long amount of time. I'm having a blast though and although the bus driver added a new temptation (dots) to the bucket on the bus I have refrained. Thanks to all for checking in on me and taking my husband back and forth to the airport and watching our primary class. We sure appreciate it! Talk to ya'll later (yes, I said it. I said ya'll. It was only a matter of time...)

Fourth of July 2009

This is a little late coming but worth the wait for the pretty pictures. I have a video of the fireworks as well but it doesn't like me today so maybe later:) It was a great day with lots of waiting in the car (Dana loved it) and time with friends on the AirForce base. In the morning we had a flag raising ceremony at one of the ward members' houses. It was great and truly a wonderful way to enjoy one of my favorite holidays!

Would you? Could you? On a bus?

Say a bus has a large jar full of hard wrapped candies and say this jar is prominently displayed for customer consumption. The question I think you have to ask yourself is, how up to date are my immunizations?
The answer: never current enough.

Off to Corpus we did go...

Dana came to visit this weekend and I was super excited (not only that he made it but that the guards at my gate didn't Taser him). It was great to see him again! Friday night we went out to the original Rudy's BBQ with a free coupon and then rounded off the night with A&W free root beer floats and grocery shopping at Wal-Mart (amazingly this is easier with a car than on the bus...strange stuff). We spent Saturday in Corpus Cristi, leaving here with the vague instructions to just follow I-37 east until we hit beach which was pretty much how it worked (sort of). The water was a balmy 75 degrees and the pelicans were hunting. I caught a few fantastic shots of our fellow beach goers and Dana as he tried to chest bump the waves (okay really he was trying to jump over them but you can be the judge). We got a little sun burned because apparently when a label says water-proof and sweat proof they mean only after it soaks into your skin. Who knew? It was a great trip, however, completed in the humor department by the Toyota Yaris Dana rented (not as cool as a PT Cruiser Mom and Dad but pretty close). It's been years since I've seen a car with no cruise and manual windows. A tape deck would have rounded it off nicely. The ticket Dana got because of lack of cruise was no so awesome:( Great weekend though. Looking forward to the next over the fourth! Happy Father's Day to all the Dads and soon to be.

Gus 2001

This is the new little friend that shows up on my porch each day. He looks just like my cat, Gus, in Chicago (only a little skinnier). He had the softest fur that my mother always said she wanted to make into a little muff.

San Antonio--Vacation

Sorry this is late but I just posted pics on another site and thought this would be a good time. At the end of May, Dana and I came down to drop me off and spend some time with Mom and Dad Kitchen. We had a great weekend, taking in the riverwalk and canoeing the Guadalupe river, swimming in the most schizophrenic hot tub I've ever seen and getting me set up for life as a single lady.



Here are some fun pics of the riverwalk--Mom has the canoe ones, including an amazing dive by dad into a rather shallow pool of water! Two funny stories with the next pictures. Dana really wanted one with the funny carts that drive around so..ta dah! The second was the best. While driving home from the Riverwalk we came upon a rather racous convoy of tricked out roadster vehicles. We couldn't decide if it was a protest or wedding or what but we followed them all the way to the interstate and this was the best image I could get. Dana and Dad realy really wanted to take one home!

P.S. Mom and Dad--adding to what is quickly becoming a tradition--had the sweetest rental of all time. I'm talking P and T and Crusier. Love the blue interior. Thanks for coming Mom and Dad!

Pan-Where-A?

Some may be aware of my borderline obsession with the sandwich/delicious broccoli cheese soup diner Panera Bread, which, up until last week, I had thought was all but void in the state of Texas. Imagine my surprise--and Dana's heart attack--when we spotted one not half a mile from my new abode here in San Antonio. So I set out this afternoon in the hundred degree heat to hunt me down a mouthwatering bowl and after navigating through the shops and cars (mostly trucks) I came to the delicatessen only to find...work in progress! WHAT!!! Yes, I ended up laughing but only to stop the tears; my much anticipated Panera Bread is only just coming to San Antonio. Alas, no soup...no bread...no bagels...and I had to settle for the McDonalds of Mexican food up the street instead. At least Dana got a good laugh out of it:) They better do double time building that place, that's all I can say!

USAA...the beginning

Well hello to all from Sunny and Humid San Antonio TX. For those of you who don't know, I'm spending the next ten weeks in this lovely city doing an internship with USAA. A little history for you all; the name stands for United Services Automobile Association because in the 1920s no insurance company would insure members of the armed forces because they moved and were high risk so they got together and insured themselves and voila, USAA! It's a great company to work for and for the past two days they've been treating me well and talking up all the good points although they haven't actually let me touch anything yet (no surprise there!) This is the first of many posts on my summer but I wanted to say thanks to all the friends and family who are watching out for Dana and I while we are apart this summer. And for anyone who got a teary call on Sunday and listened to me blubber...a special thanks for weathering the crazy with me (hey, if you had to watch Mr. Amazing Dana drive away, you'd be a little misty too:)) It's going to be a wonderful summer and I hope you are enjoying yours as well! If you're in the area, feel free to stop on by. I have a camping chair in my living room with your name on it.

90...too old to scoop

Dana and I were out on a walk the other day and saw a sign that said: We're 90. Please have your dog poop somewhere else. Wish I had a picture. We're thinking of getting one for our apartment complex: We're students. Tired and lazy and we think poop is eewie. Try across the street.

Ode to my Asset Final

Dear Asset Allocation, you are so very whack
First the Planning and Creating, Execution and Feeback
Why should I really care where the dollars have to go?
Into Large Growth or high yield, bonds or cash or so and so
I can’t quite seem to care about the holdings or sector weightings
Or the other things that mutual fund has me sitting here debating
Domestic stocks and Sharpe, Treynor, Jensen, Alpha, Beta
All these little words make me wanna be a hater
Are you conservative or moderate, I can tell you if you’d like
But I’d rather be out riding on my non-existent bike
At least you will be better than the test I took today
Don’t even get me started on what Estate taxes have to pay
So I’m writing this instead of studying ETFs some more,
Oh snap! What’s an ETF? Whoops. Test tomorrow. Gotta go!

Thank goodness for old photos

I was rummaging through old photo and found this one of my parents. Pretty cool, huh? I never realized how much I look like my father—minus the huge afro puff. I just thought this would be an interesting photo to share with everyone. I hope you enjoy.

Easter!!!

Loved our Easter. At church we got to watch our kids try to balance dozens of eggs in their small hands and stil hang onto scriptures, coats, and papers:) For dinner Dana and I decided to go all out even though we were alone:( so we made a huge ham and eggs and potatoes and rolls and pretzel salad (which Kat pointed out to me is not a salad because nothing in it is green...well...I put one strawberry leaf into the mix so ha, Kat, ha ha:)) Thankfully someone was watching out and knew what Kelli and Dana would look like after consuming five pounds of ham and they provided a new mother in the ward who was willing to take our leftovers. It was a great Easter holiday! We hope yours were just as fantastic!

Science Museum Spectacular

We have no kids. You may have noticed...doesn't preclude us from acting like children ourselves at the science spectrum (provided free from the grad school, of course). Yes, on Saturday we delighted ourselves with some free pizza and a movie about mummies (who apparently are helping to combat malaria). But the best part was wondering around, pushing little kids out of the way as we scrambled for the pendulum, the bubble machine, and the dinosaur puzzles. And, bonus, we found out Dana gets dizzy if you trap him on a perpetual motion machine for three minutes. Sorry we have no photos but maybe it's good the camera stayed at home because it started pouring as we left.

Easter Message

I wanted to begin this post with a Happy Easter wish to family and friends. The other purpose is to announce the completion of a goal three years in the making. In the fall of 2006 I took up the challenge to read the King James' Version of the Bible cover to cover. I finished the last chapter last night and while pondering the different (and often difficult) things I've read over the last three years the last line in Malachi caught my eye. It said: The end of the prophets. I know not all of those who read this blog share the same religious beliefs with me but I wanted to express my belief on that sentence. It was the end of the Old Testament prophets, the end of their words, but last Sunday our church broadcast four session of words, insights, and doctrine from our Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, and the apostles of our generation. The era of the Prophets has not ended. This Easter weekend I hope we can all remember that there is still revelation coming from Heaven. I can think of no better way to celebrate the life of our Savior than to heed the counsel of his chosen leaders. Happy Easter from the Gailans!

I can take a hint

All right sheesh, we don't have a baby yet. Yes, I've noticed:) Apparently my mother has too. For Easter this year instead of the traditional gift card, non commital candy, etc, etc, I pulled from our bag two frogs attached to a mesh bag--that's right I'm talking about a bath toy holder bag. Not sure how many bath toys she thinks Dana keeps around the house; either that or it was one gigantic hint to join the family band wagon and reproduce already (did you know all of my sister and sister in laws will have babies in 2009! Wild!). Oh, okay, or maybe she just mailed me Kristina's bag instead but still...
Love ya mom! They're making a real break through on Alzeheimer medication so you and Dad should be just fine. Thanks for the present anyway! We love you! P.S. Your sunglasses are on your head:)

Spring Break 2009

Even though we didn't venture out of this great state we find ourselves in, Dana and I did manage to escape for the afternoon to the delightful (and close) Big Springs area for a little (really little) hiking and general outdoorsiness and we managed only one slight freak out after a fly-by wasping (sorry no picture, just one dazed wasp). Hope you like the photos. We miss you all!

 

YUM...

Kelli is always threatening me to blog. So, in order to live another day I’m writing instead of her this time. A week or so ago Kelli and I decided to blow off class on Friday and take a short, six hour trip to Dallas. We went to Dallas because we had a few interviews, but our real purpose was to try out this Ethiopian Restaurant we found. We like to think of ourselves as adventurous eaters. We’ll try anything at least once. I remember taking Kelli to a Japanese Sushi Bar on her 22nd birthday and we had some great food. However, about an hour later Kelli started to get an allergic reaction and we had to make a quick run to the pharmacy for some Benadryl. Luckily, we avoided a Will Smith/Hitch moment, and had an enjoyable evening. The Ethiopian food didn’t trigger any allergic reactions, thankfully. I don’t know what we would have done if one of use had to interview with a swollen face. (They probably would have given us the job right there out of sympathy). In short, the food was great, it was a lot like Indian food, but instead of Naan they have something called injera, which I thought resembled a crepe. Kelli ordered a beef and spinach plate, while I had a spicy chicken dish. All in all, I would recommend Ethiopian food to anyone with a little sense of adventure. Next on the list, Casu Marzo. Oh, and the interviews went great. We should hear back soon.

Super Bowl Party

Yeah yeah it's a little late but hey with working/school girl you get what you get. Anyway we went to a superbowl party at Dave and Chelsea's last week and it was the best. I stole this picture from Cori's blog and will totally pay for the copyright if she was wise enough to have Travis draft one:) It was a blast but we prefer our commercials in two D.

S'now big deal

Or is it? In Lubbock if you have at least one eleventh of an inch (ta dah) on the ground what do you get--why a snow day of course! Another reason Texas is cooler than your state:) Okay so really its because we don't have snow plows to clear the roads but still rock on. This will probably be the one day of winter we have this year. Sigh. Oh well. Time to break out the capris.

Blogapalooza

Another blog?! You lucky dog you. Yes for my final blog today Dana and I just had to mention that we successfully graduated our CTR 5 class this past Sunday. We had them a whole year and when they left we like to think they were a little less antsy, a little more knowledgeable and one year older (well the last one at least). We so enjoyed their little spirits and are looking forward to our new crop of Sunbeams.

Prarie...Dog, that is

To finish off the rest of our Christmas Vacation, since Dana and I were home early from our trip we decided to see all the things in Lubbock that we've been meaning to and conveniently enough, you can do that in about one afternoon:) First was a trip to the Prarie Dog Town created especially for this endangered, er, species. Then we toured the Texas Tech Museum and watched a laser light show about where some of our Christmas traditions come from. We ate Indian food at a local restaurant and along the way, we ran into some horse statues so...there you go.

You wooined our whole wacation

For those of you not cool enough, the above quote is from Rat Race. We did not see that movie this Christmas vacation but we did do a ton of other stuff. First we have to thank Mom and Dad Kitchen for the addition to our Wii collection and then we have to thank Dana for truly devoting himself to the game and collecting every gold you pretty much can get. Our Christmas break started with a Holiday/Goodbye party with the High Performance Computing Center, my home away from home for the past year and a half. The week of Christmas was lots of sleeping in and a trip down to Big Bend National Park right off the Mexico border. Pictures will follow. In traditional Gailan fashion our four day trip quickly turned into a two day trip when we realized that winter camping is actually quite cold. Who knew? The days were gorgeous and the camp fire roaring. I even came up with a snappy version of Deck the Halls to go along with this blog but upon review realized it was only actually funny if you were shivering at five in the morning surrounded by the call of coyotes. We hiked all day on Christmas Eve and in case you can't guess what our other Christmas present was, just check out Dana's forty two thousand (billion) pictures dedicated to desert landscapes. All in all it was a short, exhausting, very amusing Christmas trip in true Gailan style. A belated Merry Christmas to all our friends and family. We hope you had just as much fun as we did--only we hope you brought matches for your fire.