The Groovy Rents

On black Friday I let John convince me to let us get an early Christmas present. An Xbox 360 with a Kinect for a super good deal. One of my conditions to buy it was we had to buy the dance game...which we did.

We brought it down to California with us and the first night we played with John's family. Needless to say is parents......were awesome! See for yourself! We had so much fun!

Thrifty taken to a whole new level

Found this gem in the BYU parking lot. Gotta love fix it yourself Mormons.

Thanksgiving

I am determined to get caught up with all of my blogging before Christmas so first I have to blog about Thanksgiving. For thanksgiving my entire family was able to travel and be together in Utah. It was a stretch for everyone to come but everybody made the sacrifices to come. We used the Midway house because it could fit all of us comfortably. It was awesome! Here are some of the pics!

The Nichols Family Grandpa with the Grandkids, he is so adorable with them!

The boys playing video games....seriously I have never seen my husband play so much! And not of course they have to scoot the couch closer to the TV because a 60" TV 6 feet away is too small!

Tyler and Brooke brought Ticket to Ride and Britany fell in love so we played literally multiple times a day.
Since we don't get to spend Christmas together we decided to exchange our Christmas gifts to each other early. Mama got the girls scarfs!
And surprise surprise she bought the boys clothes!
And of course Thanksgiving dinner wouldn't be complete without a roll eating contest! Tyler dropped out at like 2 or 3. Brad and John called a truce at roll 8!

Everything turned out beautifully!

And we had a great turnout! We had somewhere around 40 people that came over for Thanksgiving dinner! It was lots of fun with lots of good food!
Hanging out with my family was amazing! I love them all so much it's hard to say goodbye when everybody has to go home. I just have to remember to be righteous and make it to the celestial Kingdom so I can be with my entire family for forever!

Mid-semester Tour

Okay, a little late but better late than never!

For my dance team we had a Mid-semester tour where we left for TEN days in October and missed 6 school days. Seriously so hard to miss that many days of school especially when I got absolutely NO studying done while we were gone. But luckily this year John is a technician to he got to come with the team and with me to Northern California. I can't tell him how awesome he is for coming and for supporting me. We didn't take very many pictures because literally all we did was drive, set up perform, take down, then try to be pleasant to our host families when all we wanted to do was go to sleep.

But one of the fun things we got to go do was go to the jelly belly factory! Silly and fun and stinking expensive. We are still eating a bag of belly flops (misshaped jelly beans, they're cheaper than the regular shaped ones).

Dance is the hidden language of the soul

It is hard to explain in words to others what dance means to me. Especially to those who don't share my passion. I have been dancing since I was 7 years old. I started ballroom at 14. To try and count the hours practicing and performing since then is simply impossible. But it has been no small investment as far as time, money, mentally or emotionally is concerned. I can't tell you how many tears I've shed, how many injuries I've acquired, and how many glorious memories I've had. I've been broken down and built up time after time. I've lost, I've won but it is more often in losing than in winning that valuable lessons have been taught. I've learned truly be a excellent team member. Being on team you learn to be creative and to work quickly always with a smile on your face because, as we are constantly reminded by our coach, we represent much more than ourselves.

My dancing career is coming to an end soon when compared with all the years I have put in. I will never forget the memories and the lessons learned. This past year I have been dancing with Jared Kelson and for the first time I feel like my hard work is actually paying off. We have competed in a few competitions. The most recent was The Dancesport Championships held here at BYU in November. We competed in four events and we exhausted by the end of it. In Ballroom we placed 2nd in pre-champ Ballroom, and made it to the semi in Amateur. In Smooth we shocked ourselves with how well we did and got 1st in pre-champ and got 3rd in Amateur.

So now to the most exciting part... DRESSES! I got a brand new standard gown that is beautiful and even better than the design I created. I had a lady out of LA make it. Svetlana makes dresses for a lot of professionals and seriously I have never seen her make an ugly dress.

The purple one is mine and the silver one belongs to Jen Gulbransen.

First Annual Girls Weekend

As best friend we of course decided we needed to have a girls weekend. So we went up to Midway, ate foods, watched chick flicks, went out to dinner, and me and Amberlyn sewed while we indluged ourselves in Ashley's dating life because she is the only one who has interesting thing going on. Yes, we are married and boring. It was a blast and we decided to make it a tradition even when we move far away from each other. Once a year we have to have a girls weekend!

Dear Amberlyn and Ashley,

You are my bestest friends here in the land of Provo! I love your smiles and you incessant laughing especially when one of us says something that the other two don't understand yet we both laugh....hard....followed by a wait what? So grateful to have each of you! Love you both!


Amberlyn's pregnant craving get a little out of hand sometimes.

Halloween Adventures

For FHE Austin and Kyrie invited us over to make Styrofoam boats to put candles in and then race down the stream on the south side of campus. There were four or 5 couples there and we were of course using knifes to cut the Styrofoam and of course somebody (Austin) was using the knife safely and sliced right into his finger! It was pretty deep. But luckily his anatomy friend was there who does lots of sutures and he almost sewed Austin's finger right up. But they decided a butterfly bandage would suffice.

Me and John had to leave early but they floated both of our boats down the river and sadly they both were to tall and got stuck under the first bridge! This is the collision with the bridge!

I Told My Kids I Ate All Their Halloween Candy

This video is a crack up, especially the kids at the end!

Halloween

For Halloween we decided to throw a huge party because last year we were pretty lame and didn't do anything to exciting. So we planned months in advance, literally months, we started talking about it back in August. Anyways we had it up in Midway at John's parent's house and it was AWESOME! Everybody dressed up, we had somewhere around 40 or 50 people there, there was plenty of food, games and excitement. We even had a costume contest. Everybody was supposed to bring a dollar and the winner took all of the money.

In First Place - Ashley Nixon as the Mad Hatter

2nd Place - Us as Kip and Lafawnduh (yes John was a black women, people didn't even recognize him)

3rd Place - Brandon Perry as Mr. G - For those of you who don't know who that is he is a school teacher that does some super weird stuff when teaching his class. Look it up on youtube...weird!

The only downside to the party preparing during our first week back from mid-semester tour and of course I had to forget the camera so we don't have any pictures :( Except the one Aricka took with her phone.

Trying to stay afloat

Yesterday John and I got back from mid-semester tour with the BYU Ballroom Dance Company. We went all over Northern California for ten days, which means we missed 6 whole days of school! I have mixed feelings about the tour. Parts of it were awesome and parts of it were not so awesome.

Awesome parts:

Having Dan and my Mother and Father in law drive to watch my show. It meant so much to me that my in-laws drove over 3 hours just to come see me dance. And they loved the show! I am lucky to have such great family that cares about me. It made me feel really special and truly a part of the Wilde family!

Having John with me on the trip as a technician. I know he didn't love being there and doing so much work only to get to watch me dance instead of spending time with me. I appreciate all the sacrifices he made to be there with me!

Not so Awesome Parts:

Traveling though the night on a bus to get there and then to get back to Provo.

Sleeping in not our comfy bed.

Missing 6 days of school! eeek this week is going to be a busy one trying to catch up. I'm constantly praying for John that he does well on his exams and assignments this week. He has an exceptionally busy week this week. So if you read this say a quick prayer for him!

But over all it was a great experience, with great host families and great shows! Now it's time to make sure my stress levels don't rise to high....all I have to do is just keep working and plan out my days to make sure I am getting caught up!

Sundays

John is taking a nap while we wait for dinner to cook and I started thinking about all of the reasons Sunday's are so wonderful. Here's a few...

Get to sit by John for two whole hours in church

Listen to relaxing music (church or piano)

Taking the sacrament and knowing what a blessing it is to have the gospel in my life

actually have time to cook a real meal

Watch the little kids in Sacrament meeting. Especially the disruptive ones, they are SO funny.

Afternoon walks

Wake up with the most wonderful man, during the week we get up at different times

Sunday Dinners and we can't forget dessert

Hanging out with family

Games

Not feeling responsible to do homework

Afternoon naps together

Finally eating after fasting, what a glorious moment that is

Sharing our feelings and impressions from church

I get to spend the WHOLE day with my best friend Johnny Wilde. I am such a lucky women to have John in my life. He has changed me for the better and we are growing and learning every day. Trials have come and gone but they seem like nothing next to the blazing love that we have for each other. We make mistakes but we never forget to say sorry and for that I am grateful. It is a blessing to have found each other and to have each other for the rest of forever.

My Manly Man

The day I got back from California after visiting John during his internship our front passenger window broke and wouldn't roll up. So for a week while I was in Utah bymyself I was driving with a plastic bag taped over the window. You cannot believe how annoying and noisy driving with a plastic trash bag over the window is. Then exactly a week later a few hours before John came home back to Provo the Driver's window broke. I couldn't believe it! Both of our front windows within the same week.

I also failed to mention that while John was in California a rock hit the windshield while I was on the freeway which left about a foot long crack. I must be bad luck for our jeep Champ because it ALWAYS breaks when I am driving and John is out of town.

After doing some research to have our windows repaired we were shocked at how expensive it was going to be to fix it. The jeep dealership said the part alone was $260 then another $150 for labor. And that was just for one not two. But John being as resourceful as he is found both parts for $120 total.

So we went to my grandparents and John used Youtube and my Grandpa and fixed both windows himself. Yup he is awesome and so talented! He was so proud of himself and so was I. I love my manly man!

Back to the Grind

School started last week which is good...I think. John found an on campus job that he loves and even though he doesn't make much, income is SO welcomed since neither John or I had jobs for July and August. He is working at Y-serve which is section of BYU that organizes and advertises for all types of service groups and activities.

He wears a shirt and tie to work everyday and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! SO handsome and SO hot!

I started teaching at BYU! I'm teaching two beginning level ballroom dance classes. 180 which is social dance and 184 which is beginning ballroom or standard. It is a blast! Although it proves to be quite difficult and I really have to plan well and then be on my toes for whatever my class presents me with that day. It is so interesting how the personalities of the people in each class really shape the class. Before I go to my classes to teach I can't think to much about it or I get nervous! But I just remember a few things

• I don't know everything
• it's ok to make mistakes
• and I'm still learning too....LOTS

School is great so far. John's schedule is super busy but we have every evening free which is an astronomical improvement from last winter semester. Last winter semester we never had an evening together because I worked from 3pm-8pm and he worked from 8pm-11pm. Then I had rehearsal at 7am so I would go to bed before he got home. It was awful. But I am so grateful that is has worked out this semester that we have every evening together! And so we had decided to always eat dinner together and to set everything from the day and the days to come aside while we eat and that is our time and our time only.

I'm so lucky to have John. He is the biggest blessing I have ever recieved!

Jalapeno Poppers

I had never heard of jalapeno poppers until John saw a recipe for it in my favorite cookbook and wanted to make it. As we were making them John says, "Chels, I don't think you are going to like these...there is almost nothing in here that you really like other than the bacon." But to my surprise they were pretty good. We shared them with our friends Katy and David and they loved them along with John. Definitely a success we will have to repeat at sometime!

HOW TO PREPARE

1. Cut jalapeno's in half, cut of membrane and seeds

2. Mix Cream Cheese, shredded cheese, sliced green onions and fill jalapeno

3. Wrap it in bacon, stick a toothpick through it and then cover it in bbq sauce.

4. Bake in the oven at 275 for 30 or 40 minutes or until the bacon is sizzling!

5. Then Enjoy!

Mud Speedball

We learned to play Speedball from our friend Brice. Don't worry he is drinking creme soda!We played with Mike, John Doxey, Megan, and Dan. The sun was out and then all of a sudden it started raining so of course we resulted to diving sliding and getting all muddy.The best slide definitely went to Dan who scored by sliding into the basket with the ball in hand and ended up wearing the basket in pieces on his shoulder.
He only had a few scratches but because of the rain and wet grass the blood was all over his arm which made it look pretty robust and very manly.

Second best dive goes to Mike who dove for know reason during the game just for his own satisfaction.

Refinished My Kitchen Table

I can't believe I actual took this task on all by myself! Well actually I can't take all the credit myself cause my grandpa helped me out a ton. I forgot to take a picture of the table before I started but the chair is the same color as the table was originally.

I first sanded the whole top of the table top which took forever and the lightly sanded around the edges of the table and the legs.

I put two coats of this on. First using a paint brush and second using my grandpa's sprayer.
Then I put three coats of this on with a foam brush. In between each coat I sanded it with 220 sandpaper to smooth it. Unfortunately I should have used an oil based, not a water based finish because the paint was oil based so now we have to wait like over a week for our table to cure. So don't make the same mistake.

Anyways it took a long time and I tried to surprise John and do it while he was in California but he looked at our bank account and saw the charges to Home Depot and guessed that that it was I was doing. So he cheated and blew his own surprise.

But here it is! It definitely isn't perfect but I think it turned out great especially for my first time refinishing something.

These pictures make it look a little more red than the table actually is.

Mine and Maggy's First Spin

At home without John and my new sewing machine I was excited to start pretending I know how to sew. So I decided I'd make curtains. All strait lines right, can't be too hard.

Here is my little kitchen window before I did anything. I bought a curtain rod and one 84in long curtain. I came home cut the curtain in half and then made two small curtains.
Super easy, measure, cut, fold and iron, pin and then sew! The hardest part of this whole thing was remembering how to thread my bobbin. No joke it took me 4 or 5 tries and I threw away so much thread! Had to learn somehow.To add something extra I decided to put ribbon at the bottom of my curtain.

And Voilà here is the finished product. Who ever knew I could actually be domestic!