{Inner Asian-ness}

Remember this post? Well my inner Asian-ness is about to come out a little bit more. Are you ready for this?

For Christmas the husband got me a Sushi Roll Kit like this :

Guess I really do need to learn how to make these now! I'm excited!!


Also, Sean's brother got married over the break [more on that later from the husband] and my newest sister-in-law's mother, Irene, is Filipino. We went down to her house so the new couple could open wedding presents and we had a big nice meal including delicious egg rolls. They were amazing. Irene has made them for us before and I have been dying to make them. Well, after dinner she taught me how to roll them and Natalie [sister-in-law] is going to teach me to make the filling some time soon so I'll be able to make them!! Woot!

For your educational and entertainment purposes watch this you tube video my father-in-law put together of me teaching you how to roll the egg rolls. [PS - this was not planned or practiced... :) ]




So there ya go.

{End of the semester}

Part of me would like to think that you, my faithful readers, have been severely depressed that I haven't posted since December 13. I would like to think that you were sitting at your computer eagerly awaiting my next post.

But let's be realistic - that wasn't happening. I'm sure all of you were just as busy as I was over finals and this holiday season. Due to my lack of blogging there will be a lot of catch up posts over the next week or so.

Let me start by talking about the end of the semester. The Husband and I were SWAMPED - completely swamped for the last few weeks of school. I was taking 18 credit hours (max amount) and Husband was taking some of the hardest classes for his major so we were pretty busy. I life consisted of waking up early, going to school, going to work, and studying in the library/at home til the wee hours of the morning and starting it all over again the next day. We both a couple huge research papers and lots of finals - but we finished, barely. I took my last final online about 5 hours before we flew to TX for the break.

It was a crazy semester but I thoroughly enjoyed most of it.

Now....not to toot my own horn or anything.....well, let's be honest, I'm going to, but just for a little bit. I got my highest GPA so far this last semester. Hooray to me!!! That was amazing to me since I was taking 18 credit hours! I thought I would die. Well, I guess I thrive under pressure. I was tempted to take another 18 this semester just to have similar results, but that lasted all of about half a second. To top that all of I received a 1/2 tuition scholarship for my last semester!! HOORAY! During my first year of school I had some music scholarships but once I changed my major those were gone and I wasn't sure if I'd see any more. Well - happy surprise - I did! Anyways, that's enough tooting the horn for now.....

So long story short it was a good semester that nearly killed us but we made it out alive!!

Our Christmas Newsletter

Dearest friends and family,

How do people usually start newsletters? “Oh, what a year it has been!” “My, has this year flown by!” “Jeeze, the kids grow up fast!” “ I didn’t realize it was Christmastime until I got my friend Betty’s Christmas newsletter in the mail yesterday – I just haven’t been able to sit down for more than 30 seconds!” Sound good? Those first two are true, I suppose.

We’re doing swell though! School seems to dominate our lives (OK, who am I kidding? School dominates our lives), but we love it and we love the opportunities to learn and grow that we’re constantly given. Heidi and I both have a tiring but exciting tendency to volunteer for or attend every other activity we’re invited to participate in, but we’re all the wiser for it, right? Heidi recently wrote a blog post where she created a laundry list of all of the many projects, tasks, and assignments on her plate – and it was no short list. I feel I could easily create one like it – but let me repeat: we absolutely love what we’re doing. Both of us thoroughly enjoy our studies and the opportunities we’re provided for it.

Thanksgiving at M&J Binns

Heidi is immersed in her Sociology major (with an emphasis in Crime and Deviance), is a research assistant to a professor studying effects on recidivism (the likelihood that someone will return to jail) for juveniles, and is working on a separate paper with that same professor on the effects of family relationships on parents’ recidivism, which they’ll present at a Sociological Conference in Seattle this March. Pulling 18 credit hours per semester (the maximum allowance), she’ll be a wonder woman and graduate within three years, despite having spent most of the first of those three years working on a music education major.

On top of all of that school work, she’s working around twenty hours per week at BYU’s Signature Card office (Heidi provides support for the management of the credit card machines across campus) and playing the organ for our church on Sundays. She spends much of her free time on various crafty projects – from making earrings out of buttons to “refashioning” T-shirts. Her post graduate plans are still up in the air – we’ll get back to you about those once we have a clear idea of those ourselves.

Hiking the Narrows near St. George, UT

I’m keeping myself busy with my major in International Relations with an emphasis in Political Economy, which I’ve coupled with minors in Business Strategy and Business Management and a “Global Management Certificate” from the business school. If anyone asks what I study, I now simply tell them “International Business Strategy” – I feel that sums it all up fairly well. Our plan and goal is to work in management consulting, with corporate strategy being my back-up plan. I’m seeking an internship for this coming summer in management consulting, and next fall I’ll be competing for full-time positions at those firms to keep me out of trouble after I graduate in April of 2012.

And, by luck, I happen to keep myself busy outside of those endeavors. I’m a Vice President of the Management Consulting Club on campus where I’ve spear-headed a mentoring program for our members, I’m a research assistant for the professor who took us to Europe (he’s a strategy professor, so that worked out really well), and I’m wrapping up a part-time internship for a private wealth management firm down in St. George. On top of (or below) all that, I work for BYU’s Office of Information Technology in the business support side. I do a lot of business analysis, data crunching, and some training for the team

So, we’re happy. We find our schedules to be very fulfilling (some aspects less than others, like Heidi’s biology class and my econometrics class), but we readily admit we’re excited for whatever respite Christmas break is going to hold.

We also wanted to take a moment here to tell you about our trip to Europe through BYU’s European Business Study Abroad. We figured it would be unjust, and we’d be ungrateful, to not mention it and tell you about some highlights. The idea of the study abroad was to be introduced to many aspects of European business and culture throughout our six weeks there. We started in London on April 28^th and were in Europe until June 10^th. During that time we visited the U.K., France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and the Vatican on the actual study abroad, then Heidi and I added Spain on the end for good measure (flights within Europe are mind-bogglingly cheap – it’s just the cost to get there in the first place that hurts, so why not take advantage of it while you’re there!?).

Leaning Tower of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

The “studying” part of the trip consisted mostly of business visits at firms like Maserati, KPMG, Barilla, BMW, a cheese factory in rural Switzerland, and John Deere, and discussions had in our coach bus before and after those visits. We didn’t take many pictures during those visits, so no one seems to believe that we did any legitimate studying while we were there, but we did – we promise! The “abroad” part of the trip was mostly free time where we could do essentially whatever we wished in the cities we were staying in. We visited monuments, cafes and pubs, flea markets, royal gardens, national parades, and lots and lots of museums.

The Collosseum, Rome, Italy

Neuschwanstein Castle, Hohenschwangau, Germany

It’s been a wonderful year in many, many ways. We just passed our year and a half mark of marriage, and are still very much in love. We’re excited for what the future holds for us, and we’ll be sure to keep you updated along the way.

With love,

Sean and Heidi Rose McQuay

a (mormon) Bachelor Party for my li'l' bro

On the 11th I threw a bachelor party for my little brother, Brenden. Now, this was most decidedly a "mormon" bachelor party, and not your usual affair of drinking and scantily clad women.

Six of us met up at my place to carpool down to Power Progressive Sports - a tumbling gym - for our first activity. It's a crazy place full of things like a large open foam pit, two super trampolines (they look kinda look normal trampolines, but the mesh part you stand on is stretchy, too), a couple inclined trampoline-ramps, a long run-way trampoline, and lots of large foam pads in a variety of shapes.

Brenden and I with the rope swing

David on the super trampoline

Luke on the run-way trampoline

Dan preparing to roll into the foam pit (me, Luke, and Jay pushing)

Dan, after a successful landing ("this one's for Scott!")

Jay clearing a hurdle, diving into the pit

Me jumping through a round obstacle into the foam pit.

Nearly everyone else did this, but this picture of me came out the cleanest. The camera we had with us wasn't the best.

Brenden attempting to do the same thing - notice his knees are bent... The whole thing toppled down with him into the pit.

Jay doing a flip into the pit.

Dan being epic.

Dan doing a flip "for Scott"

Brenden toppling another obstacle that he attempted to clear

The full group. I don't know everyone's names, so unless Brenden feels like having me update this, you'll just have to guess. I'm on the far left, Brenden's in the middle. One other came and went while we were at the gym, and another came just for the part at my neighbor's apartment.

After the tumbling gym we went to my neighbor's apartment (which is now Brenden's apartment, oddly enough) to have pizza and play games. Heidi prepared several plates of sweets for us and we got several Brick Oven pizzas. We played several games on my neighbor's Xbox Kinect, which was an absolute blast (watch some videos if you haven't sen it in action). While some were playing Kinect, we chatted a lot and generally had a good time.

Luke and Jay playing Xbox Kinect

After a bit of that fun, I pulled out a great present that many people helped me put together. Two weeks before the party, I sent an email out to many of the men closest to Brenden and asked them to write little letters of congratulations and such. The responses were compiled into a small book I titled "Manly Marital Advice, Jokes, and Felicitations." Many responded with heartfelt advice, other with spiritual thoughts, others with some hilarious jokes (here's my favorite, shared by Natalie's dad). Brenden loved the many letters compiled there, so thank you to all who responded.

It was a great evening. Lots of fun and no broken bones to speak of. Now just a few more day till his time of bachelordom is over! Just two more days! Happy wedding, little brother!

{Christmas Music}

I love Christmas music! Love Love Love Love Love it. I listen to Christmas music sporadically throughout the whole year. I never get sick of it. [the cheesy Disney channel kids singing Christmas songs do not count].

This weekend was like a Christmas music explosion.

On Thursday night Sean signed us up for the ward talent show [he said I agreed to it....but I don't remember agreeing to that. :) ] and so we sang "Baby, It's Cold Outside" and had one of our dear friends accompany us. It was fun!

On Sunday it was our ward Christmas program. It was wonderful. The choir started off singing "Picture a Christmas" and "O Little Town of Bethlehem". It was so fun and wonderful! Sean sang "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" with little quartet from our ward and it sounded wonderful! I also had the privilege to accompany my dear friend play "What Child is This?" on the violin. It was lovely! All the men also got up and sang "Far, Far Away on Judea's Plains" which was a surprise to all the ladies - I was so impressed! Kudos to the guys! Sean and I also got to sing "The First Noel" and were accompanied by piano and flute which was playing a "Jesu joy of man's desiring" descant. For the closing song the whole congregation stood up and sang "Joy to the World" as I cranked up the volume on that organ - so powerful, so great.

After church we went up to Sean's Grandparent's house for dinner and songs and songs and songs and a lot more songs. :)

Lots of singing, and piano-ing, and tuba-ing. It was great.

Joy to the world, the Lord has come!

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room.

I love Christmas and the special spirit that surrounds this time of the year thanks to our Savior.

{Thought of You}

Prepare to be inspired.


Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.

Here are the lyrics to the song

Woke up and wished that I was dead
With an aching in my head 
I lay motionless in bed
I thought of you and where you'd gone
and let the world spin madly on

Everything that I said I'd do 
Like make the world brand new
And take the time for you
I just got lost and slept right through the dawn 
And the world spins madly on

I let the day go by 
I always say goodbye
I watch the stars from my window sill 
The whole world is moving and I'm standing still

Woke up and wished that I was dead 
With an aching in my head 
I lay motionless in bed
The night is here and the day is gone
And the world spins madly on

I thought of you and where you'd gone 
And the world spins madly on. 






And watch the behind the scenes, too! 



Thought of You - Behind the Scenes Preview - ROUGH CUT from Cambell Christensen on Vimeo.

{My Brother}

Yesterday my brother asked if he could stop by on his walk home from school. I said sure. When he arrived I was in the middle of blogging about fudge and orangettes. He saw the blog screen up and my camera out and this is how the conversation went.

"Have you been crafting again? Or is it food?"

"I'm blogging about food!"

"You blog too much about food..."

"Too much about food?!?!? I guess you should just put away my fudge and orangettes and not let you try any of them? Cause I blog too much about food so we shouldn't talk about it or even bring them out....."

"no no no!! I love food!"

After the food -

"These are delicious!"

After this episode he then asked me for a haircut - well, just to trim his sideburn/wings and clean up the back. During the haircut I asked him what else I should blog about if I do too much food...and he said "This!" "your haircut?" "yes...but just in  passing..." Well. Here's your "just in passing" blog entry.

I tried to catch a picture of him before he left, but he refused..... So I found some other ones :)

 

He really doesn't look this creepy normally - he cut out eyes from a magazine and taped them to his eyelids. :)

He's a student here at BYU studying to be an optometrist by doing a neuroscience undergrad. He's single, ladies!