Oh, the weather outside is frightful....

We totally got dumped on this week. This picture was after our first storm.

We didn't have anywhere to park so we had to shovel the street too.

This is the view from one of our bedroom windows:After shoveling for 2 hours: Ned says that this is God's way of slapping Al Gore around a little. It's snowing like crazy and the price of gas is down to $1.30 a gallon.

Freaky Friday

I had the weirdest day on Friday- not a bad day, just weird. It started out with my work Christmas party. This isn't just a little party with my coworkers; it's all of Wasatch Mental Health- probably over a thousand people. I only know 20 at the most. Not a really fun party. It's actually more like a big meeting with lunch. Well, they called me up in front of everyone for my five years of service award. Since I've only worked there three years I didn't budge, expecting there to be another Rachel Chamberlain. (We have 2 just within our family!) Apparently its actually not that common of a name. They were all confused, I was shouting from my seat that it wasn't me, it was a huge mess... So later I was picking out a couple white elephant gifts at Wal*Mart when all of the electricity went out. Not a little flicker, but a full minute in total darkness before the lights came back on. Strange. The weather was clear and everyone was kind of giggling in the darkness. When they finally came back on, I got in line and put all of my items on the conveyor belt. The lady in front of me turned around and started going through all of my stuff. She picked up the game I was buying and read the directions, asked me what a gift of Ned's was for (I can't go into detail, because he does occasionally read this), and she picked up the personal massager and tried it out on herself. Really strange. It didn't bother me too much, but what if I had been buying something embarrassing like ky jelly? Would she have asked me what I was planning to do with it? Later that night Ned and I were trying to figure out where to eat dinner. Seriously, we had driven to 5 different places trying to decide when Ned took a wrong turn and almost ran over his mom in the target parking lot. So she just jumped in and we all had dinner together. What are the chances? Overall, it was a good day, just kind of odd.

Jazz articles

One of Ned's co-workers gave him this article in preparation for the Spurs-Jazz game:

Utah Jazz Hope For A New Tradition in Texas

Break the San Antonio Curse

SALT LAKE CITY (November 21, 2008) -The Jazz are out in San Antonio tonight looking for one of those special games; not only looking for the team to translate their home play into a quality road win, but to win in San Antonio for the first time in 10-years- and this may be the game to do it. The Spurs are dealing with a boatload of injuries just as the Jazz are, the biggest difference however is in the records. The Spurs (5-6) are just 2-4 at home, one of their slowest starts in some time, while the Jazz (8-4) are 2-4 on the road thus far.

Ned returned the favor with this newsworthy tidbit:

Jazz Hope Not to be Embarrassed in Texas

SALT LAKE CITY (November 21, 2008)- The Jazz are once again in San Antonio, hoping to not wet themselves during the game. The game will be considered a success if at least three of the starting five do not run away crying. Last year, Kirilenko stayed strong until the sight of Tim Duncan driving into the lane caused him to soil himself uncontrollably. Andre refused to comment, as him mother sent him to bed because he was cranky.

Future Hair Stylist

In preparation for starting hair school, I decided to try out my skills on Kaylene's kids. Since she was stuck in the hospital giving birth, I was free to do whatever I wanted to them.

I call this one the punk rocker look.
And a profile shot:
This one I either call Bozo the Clown or Old Man:
I hope you have a nice relaxing recovery, Kaylene. Don't worry about your kids- they're in good hands!!!

Zion

It is freaking cold! I guess it's time to turn on the heat when you want to wear your winter coat inside the house and it's forcast to snow in a few hours... Our house is filled with that "1st time you've used the furnace in a long time" smell. On a warmer note, here are some pictures from our quick trip to Zion's Park a couple of weeks ago (temperature: 93 degrees).
Can you see me way down there through the trees?Here we are on the trams that run up and down the canyon.Look how strong I am!You can't really tell from the picture, but this pool was the most amazing shade of green!

Again, you can't really tell, but I have a blister the size of a nickle on my pinky toe. (Please excuse the gross feet!)Ned, stealing the last bite of bumbleberry pie. If you've never had some, do it! It's amazing! I don't even really like pie and I love it.As we left, it started to sprinkle and there was a lovely rainbow.

We had a great time! It was just what we needed to round out the summer before this nasty cold weather hit.

Last time we went over to Lori's, Carter came up to me and asked me if I had a baby in my tummy. I made my stomach as flat as possible and asked him if it looked like there was a baby in there. He said, "No, but are there some up there (pointing to my breasts)?" I said, "No, that's just my chest. Doesn't your mommy have that too?" He said, "No."

Mosaic

1. Rachel, 2. beef jerky, 3. Brazoswood High School, 4. Green , 5. Michael Vartan, 6. Goin' Guava, 7. Bali, 8. angel food cake with strawberries, 9. Mother, 10. Ned , 11. Scatterbrained, 12.Cakewalk

Here is how you can play too:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name. (kid version: favorite animal?)

I decided to make one for Ned too. For the record, he answered the questions and I plugged in the pictures.


1. Kned, 2. Tucanos, 3. Clark High School , 4. Blue, 5. Natalie Portman, 6. Dr. Pepper, 7. Stinky Falls, 8. Cheesecake, 9. Tall, Black, & in the NBA, 10. Rachel, 11. Hot , 12. Frosty

Close Call

I know this is old news for most of you, but this is for all the non-utards out there who may be reading this. Last Monday I was home (my day off), and this salesman came to our door. You know the kind: pushy, hard to get rid of, trying to sell magazine subscriptions to go towards some kind of school credit. This guy was really wierd. He kept trying to get me to give him high fives and link arms with him- anything to get me to touch him- and I really couldn't get rid of him. Luckily Ned's brother Ross had just moved in that morning and was in a back room unpacking things and called me back to "help him with something", and I was finally able to get rid of the guy. About three hours later I started getting all these calls from ladies in my ward warning me not to answer my door especially if it was a salesman. The guy they described was exactly how I would describe him: at least 6', 275 lbs, blue polo, white hat, mid twenties, and southern accent. Just an hour earlier he had raped and beaten a lady in my stake only a block and a half away from us. She was in critical condition in the hospital and not doing well. I'm just so glad I wasn't alone. Definately one of the scariest things that's ever happened to me! They cought the guy the next day, but it was an uneasy night for me. Here's a link to the news article on the arrest: http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=4107470

Have any of you seen all of our lovely new traffic meters? With all of this extra money the state has floating around, they decided to build lights at the all of the freeway entraces betweenUnv. Pkw and who knows how far north. Everytime we try to get on the freeway we have to wait 15 min to get onto the entrace ramps. I know that they're trying to have less cars on the freeway and thus free up traffic, but all it does is slow everything down. First, you have to wait to get on it. Once you finally get on the ramp, you have to gun it to try (unsuccessfully) to get up to speed, wasting gas. Then when you're finally on your way home, you have to keep slamming on your brakes for all of the cars entering the freeway 35 mph! Even if the freeway is emptier, it's slower than ever!! I am not a fan.

What's in a name?

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & first car): Gabriella Geo Hampster LeSabre

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite candy bar): Cookie Dough Heath Rocky Road Twix

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, last three letters of your last name): Rain Nain

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal): Green Hippo Blue Monkey

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born): Diane Moscow Frost (San) Antonio

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first): Chara Chane

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink): The Pink Goin Guava The Red Horchata

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers): Bill Jean-Charles Ned Ralph

9. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (first letter of mother’s maiden name & father’s middle name ): S. Ney A. Edwards

10. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Anders Atlanta Carney Cleveland

11. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower): Autumn Lily Summer Bluebonnet

12. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”): Strawberry Skirty Banana Belty

13. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree): Bran Cherry Yogurt Willow

14. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, favorite weather element + “Tour”): The Dancing Sunshine Tour The Drumming Thunder Tour

Secret Chamberlain Family Footage

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Yellowstone Family Vacation

Last week we went to Yellowstone. It was way fun! (Beware: there are tons of pictures, but I cut it down from around 1,500 to a mere 24.)

Here are a few of the things we saw:

Some of the things we did:

...and the people we were with:

Ned thinks this place would make a wonderful golf course. I wonder how hard that would be to get approved...

Tucanos Test

If any of you are unfamilliar with my nephew Jake, you should know this kid can eat! His parents claim he is never full; you finally just have to take the food away from him. I decided to test it out at the only place that could stand up to the challenge of filling a bottomless pit: Tucanos. Here he is, so excited to get started. Half an hour later, he's still grinning. The other kids were good sports too. Jakey's plate after 45 minutes: An hour and a half into it:

This was after almost 2hrs. (Maybe it was more like 1.75, but still!) Jake cried a little when we left. Thomas was getting so bored he tried to climb the rock wall inside the restaraunt, so we found him a more suitable alternative: climbing a rock wall outside the resturaunt. It was a fun afternoon, but I have to admit I'm a little disappointed I couldn't fill Jake up. If Tucanos can't do it, nobody can...