The Brandon who saved Thanksgiving

What would we do without Brandon? Probably have pizza for Thanksgiving dinner.

With Emily's wedding last week my family was seriously considering having pizza instead of the traditional food. I was all for the pizza idea because I don't really like the usual thanksgiving food. However my Dad was pretty vocal about his hatred of pizza -- especailly pizza on Thanksgiving. Also my Mom realized that she already had most of the ingrediants for a Thanksgiving dinner. So Wednesday we decided to have a real Thanksgiving dinner.

But who would cook it? Emily, our usual cook, was on her honeymoon. Lindsey, who usually makes the gravy and greenbean caserol, had to work the day after thanksgiving so wouldn't be coming up from Ceder City. My talents lie outside the kitchen (my traditional job is to keep Billy happy) so I couldn't be expected to make an entire Thanksgiving dinner. Mom didn't want to have to do the whole meal herself and she didn't want Dad fussing around in the kitchen either. And Hillary is 15, she shouldn't be expected to make the meal. The only person left was Brandon.

Fortunately Brandon loves Thanksgiving! It is his favorite holiday. He was in seventh heaven making suffing and getting the turkey in the oven. Yesterday he made a pumpkin and a peach pie. His enthusiasim for making Thanksgiving food even inspired me to make the mashed potatoes (also the fact that I hate instant mashed potates and I was the only one motivated to make real mashed potatoes) Dad brought home Lion House rolls from work. Mom made green bean casserol and also ran to the store for aluminum foil some other last minute items. It all added up to a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. Especially when you realize that wednesday morning we were planning on pizza. And it would not have been possible without Brandon.

I also helped decorate. (I have plenty of fall things these days)

Am I ready for the future?

About three years ago I was in a business communications class. I was put on a team that had to write a paper about how technology was changing business communications. I remember that part of the paper was on Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP). As I wrote the paper I thought to myself, "like I will ever use this crazy futuristic technology." Well, I have now used VOIP.

It all started with the amount of phone calls I took at work. I am a billing manager at a growing utility billing company. We have a huge focus on Customer service and so we do not have a phone trees or any of that "push 1 for balance" crap. Every person who calls in during business hours should get a live person right away. We are still growing and so our customer service department is not able to answer every call that comes in. So how do you insure that people calling in get a live person when the customer service department can't answer every call? You get the billing managers to take calls on top of all their other responsibilities.

I knew this when I got the job, and I was fine with it for the most part. I was told that I would start out at the bottom of the billing manager phone que and I would move up the que as more people were hired under me. My first few months everything went according to plan, but then I started to get more calls than when I first started. It wasn't just me, everyone was taking more calls.

The next few months were filled with a lot of discord between the billing department and the customer service department. We insisted that they were not taking as many calls as they said they were and they maintained that they were taking plenty of calls. Finally we discovered that the phone tracking software itself was inaccurate.

So then the company decided to buy new phones. All the old traditional phones with receivers would be replaced with new headset phones that are connected to the computers. I was not too happy about that announcement. I didn't want to wear a headset. But really what could I do? I wanted to take less calls, but the old system couldn't tell the company how many calls I was taking. Finally I accepted my fate.

The IT department officially hooked up my phone today. I was pretty ornery about it. As one of the IT guys explained how my new phone worked I kept making comments about how the soft phone on my monitor was going to take up important space. I joked that I would need another monitor (I already have two). I said I probably wasn't technologically competent enough for this system. I asked how I was expected use a phone on my computer when my computer usually froze during the busy billing days. Basically I was trying to make the IT guy as miserable as I was.

Well you know what? The IT guy understood that I was just anxious about the change. He explained the truth about each of my concerns. He showed me that the soft phone really wouldn't be on my screen much so I wouldn't need to worry about it taking up space. He assured me the system was easy and that in a week I would feel like I had always been using it. And he told me that the company had changed our band width to handle the VOIP system.

He was so positive about the change that I got all excited to get on the phone. When I took my first call everything went fine. It actually was really nice to have my hands free while I talked on the phone. About the only thing that was odd was that the call felt really surreal since I wasn't holding a receiver. So I guess I will get used to this. It is kind of odd to have to dial with my mouse on the monitor on the soft phone. But I will get used to it. And if I am lucky the company will soon know how many Customer Service Reps to hire so I can take less calls.

Emily's Wedding

Oh, how can I even begin to describe this weekend? I have never been more tired or sore than I was on Saturday Night, but I have also never been more proud of myself. Both Brandon and I put incredible amounts of time into this wedding and I am happy to say that it all paid off. Here are some pictures detailing our efforts and our successes.

Here I am with my sister Hillary, my cousin Melissa, and Emily's amazing bouquet. Emily worked for the JSMB floral department and so she got all of her flowers and centerpieces done for a fraction of the real cost.

Here are all the siblings/in-laws together. Hard to believe that 2 and 1/2 years ago we didn't even know Brandon, John, or David.

I love how vintage Emily's dress looks. She bought the dress about 3 days after getting engaged. My grandma sent her the gloves, Hillary made her jewelery and the hat.

They got married at 8:20 AM and were outside taking pictures around 9:00. I've heard horror stories about people waiting forever for a chance to take pictures at the Salt Lake Temple. But nothing like that happened with this wedding. Everything went really well.

After pictures at the temple we all went to the wedding luncheon at Chuck-o-Rama. Then Brandon and I picked up all the reception food from the JSMB. Brandon and I took the food to the stake center in Kearns. We were so tired we took a nap in the floor of the room next to the kitchen (We had been up until 1:00 the night before working on setting up the reception) After the nap we began to put final touches on the reception. Here are the pictures.

This back drop is the most artistic thing I have ever done. Emily and I saw something like it at a bridal fair. I got the branches from my in-law tree that died. The brown Christmas ornaments are mine and I bought the green ones from a dollar store (5 for a dollar). I borrowed the lanterns from my mother in law. The arch I borrowed from my friend. The leaf garlands I bought at Mic heals as well as the leaves that are on the branches. The little fence posts I borrowed from another friend and the rope I bought at Lowes. There were times when I was planning this backdrop out that I would think to myself, "I must be crazy! I'm going to make a backdrop out of Sticks?!" I'm really glad that my gamble paid off. I think the backdrop looked amazing.

Originally the cake was going to be brown. I told Emily that if she wanted a brown cake she needed to put something light behind it so that the cake wouldn't get lost on the brown walls of the church. We decided to use the waterfall backdrop Brandon made for our wedding reception. The cake changed colors but we still used the backdrop. My mother-in-law made the cake and did a wonderful job.

Billy played his french horn during the first part of the reception. He sounded amazing. He had his own little gazebo arch to sit in. My Dad had four separate videos playing different segments of the wedding video. This one is showing the slide show of pictures of Emily and David growing up.
Here is a picture of the whole cultural hall. We have tulle hanging from the ceiling. Brandon was a genius to figure out how to get the tulle up. We hung fall leaves with safely pins and fishing line.

This is one of the ten centerpieces. Again this was from the JSMB floral department. (Don't worry the candles are fake) And here are the Bridesmaids. My mom made these dresses. The shoes sure were cute but they hurt so bad.

So now it is all over. I just want to thank everyone who helped out. I couldn't have done it without all the people who volunteered and the things I was able to borrow. At the end of the night when everything was put away, my back hurt horribly, my feet had blisters, and I was about to cry from exhalation I turned to Brandon and said, "we should do a Christmas party." It think I love this stuff.

Important wedding reception address info!

As you may or may not know the reception address listed on Emily's wedding announcement is incorrect and/or missing. (Hopefully this is the only glitch we encounter) My family has been calling and e-mailing guests to make sure that they know the correct address. We may actually end up with record wedding reception turn out because they have personally contacted just about every guest. So in case you didn't know this is the correct address for the wedding reception. Kearns Stake Center at 4260 West 5215 South. The church is North of the Kearns Library and West of Kearns Jr High.

Tender Mercies of the Lord

Emily went to the temple for the first time on Saturday. She wanted to do it in Rexburg so my parents drove up there. They knew they couldn't do the whole drive on one day so they came up to Logan Friday night and stayed at my town house. Then I went with them to Rexburg (Brandon would have come but he had a class project.)
I knew I wanted to be there in the temple with Emily, but I also had a lot of apprehension about the temple. I love the temple, but it is so overwhelming for me. I usually end up with a headache afterward. Knowing how the temple affects me makes me very nervous before going through a session. Well I was starting to feel all those emotions as I approached the recommend desk. I pulled out my recommend and looked behind the desk. And who do you think I saw? It was the man who sealed me to Brandon, Val R Christensen. He is now the president of the Rexburg temple. I was so excited to see him. He was walking the same way I was so I went up to him and touched him on the arm. "You married me." I said. He asked who I was and I told him, Valerie Loveless Illguth. He said that he remembered me and Brandon. Then he visited with me, my parents, and Emily for a few seconds.
It was such a great moment, and it couldn't have happened at a better time. I was able to enjoy the temple in a way that I never have before. I know that the Lord really cares about us and even when the day isn't about us he makes sure that we know that he cares about how we feel.

My Town House

Brandon lived in the same apartment for 1 year before he knew me, and another year while he was dating me. When we got married I moved into that apartment. It was a tight squeeze, but it beat trying to find an apartment. We lived there for a little over a year. We were totally set on signing up for another year in that apartment until one weekend in July we work up and realized we couldn't stand the small size anymore.
We decided to move. The next Friday we looked in the paper for available apartments. Saturday I called about apartments. There was only one that could schedule a viewing that day. Brandon and I went to look at the "two bedroom, 1/2 bath town house with laundry hookups and a dishwasher." We walked in the door and fell in love with the place. We signed the lease that day, got approved on the credit check on Monday, had the keys on Friday, and moved in on Saturday. I learned a long time ago that when things are simple and uncomplicated you can be pretty certain they are right. Moving to this town house was easier than falling off a ladder so I know it is where we are supposed to be in our lives.
We've spent the last couple months settling in. Here are some pictures of the town house. These were taken about two months ago, but most everything looks the same. (Except the house is cleaner in the pics)

The kitchen's main colors are red and black. Those are two of my favorite colors.



The washer and dryer have been wonderful to have. I can't describe how wonderful it is to not have to look for quarters before doing laundry.




We tripled our living space for only $90 more. The only thing we gave up was a dining room, but we have a big enough living room to make up for it.

The flowers through out the house are from my wedding. (They laughed at me for wanting artificial flowers-- but now I have subtle wedding reminders in every room.)

Before Brandon and I got serious I bought several pieces of furniture when the Inn at Temple Square closed. The armour and the green chair in this picture are some of what I bought. Of course fitting them in the tiny apartment was a challenge, but I'm glad I have them now.

Brandon built the two bookcases. One he built before he met me, and the other he built out of necessity when I moved all my books over to his apartment. The bookcases are made out of particle board. We painted them green when we moved to the town house. (one coat of primer + two coats of paint X two bookcases = a whole week of evenings spent painting)
This is an airplane that Brandon designed and built. We hung it up above our stairs to the second story. (One day I will have to post the video of how we hung it up without a ladder)

If you ever saw our old apartment these shelves will look familiar. These were another project that arose out of the necessity of having storage space in a tiny apartment. Now they are in our "project room" holding all our junk.

Here I am in the bathroom. The clock is so I know when I need to stop putting on my make up and get my butt out the door to work.

The one little closet at our old apartment is one of the main reasons we decided to move. So these two huge closets were the selling point on this apartment.

We also really like having a balcony.

Here is our bed. It is only a full size so don't think the room is THAT big. Though I think even a California King size bed would look small in this room. Seriously this is the biggest bedroom I have ever had.









Here is the view from our balcony. I love the juxtaposition of the beautiful mountains with the "mobile butchering" cart. The oddity of it cracks me up.

Well that is the town house. If you are ever in Logan we would love to have you stop by and see it for yourself.

Bridal Shower

It's two weeks until the wedding! Today Emily had her bridal shower. Our little sister Hillary was the primary person in charge of the shower. She did such a good job planning everything! We had lots of good food like little sandwiches and cookies. The party favors were Tupperware with candy in them. I was in charge of the decorations. So of course the leaves had to be a part of the decor. I laid them out on the tables. I also bought 5 brown table clothes to go with the wedding colors of green and brown. Earlier Emily and David painted picture frames and famed pictures of themselves. We had those pictures on display.

The actual shower went so well. Lots of family and friends showed up to support Emily. We ate the wonderful food and played games. Both Hillary and I did not want to play the usual shower games so we made sure that the games would help the guests get to know Emily better. I wrote up a quiz about Emily and David so that everyone could learn more about them. This quiz was very good because we learned things such as where David was born (Answer: An army hospital in Germany) and the day that they met (April 21st). Hillary put together a "name that tune" game where we had to guess the title and song of several of Emily's favorite songs after only hearing 20 seconds of the songs. We also played a family tradition game of "try to rip out a copy of Emily's wedding dress using paper behind your back."

I have to say that the shower was a success! Now if we can only keep the momentum up for the wedding.

120 feet of leaves

Emily's wedding is on November 22. The reception is going to have a very Autumn feel. The colors are green and brown. We want the guests to feel like they have stepped outside even thought they will be inside. Leaves are a very big part of the motif.

Brandon and I went to Michael's Crafts to buy the fall leaf garlands for the Reception/Bridal Shower. Brandon had been in there earlier (yes he goes to craft stores by himself) and had seen that all fall themed things were 70% off. So we figured now was the time to buy the leaves. We tried to count how many of the 6 foot garlands we would need. We got to 11 and then decided to get "15 just in case" Well then we decided that we might as well get "20 just in case." There was lots of different varieties so we had fun picking out which ones we wanted.

We have three huge bags full of the leaves now. We decided we might as well use the leaves while we wait for the wedding so we made a wreath by wrapping the leaves around a wire coat hanger that Brandon bent out of shape. I'm sure I will come up with several other ideas between now and the wedding.

More Halloween stuff

Here are some more pictures of Halloween themed things. The video is of a spider that my mother in law rigged up. She had three of these set up throughout her house. This one is my favorite.

The day before Halloween Brandon and I carved our pumpkin. We'd bought a pumpkin with a broken stem and I kept thinking the top looked sort of like a cats face. So we decided to carve it like a cat using the broken part for a nose. It turned out very well and the back of the pumpkin even looks like a cats butt.

We had that pumpkin and our other one from the ward Halloween party sitting by the door. We were hoping for lots of tricker-treaters but we only got 5 in all. Oh well lots of Halloween candy for us. We spent Halloween night watching "Sleepy Hallow."