Tricia's Swee Skills

As a thank you to a sister in the ward that watched Jeffrey on short notice. A thoughtful thank you can go a long way when it is said or presented in the right way.

Another Surveyish Thing

I'll tag Paige, becuase it's funnest, and she needs to take pictures of the gwirls and post!

Four jobs I have had in my life: Secretary, Receptionist, Dance Teacher, and Medical Receptionist (which is a lot like receptionist except that you learn more medical terms and learn to spot drug addicts!)

Four movies I've watched more than once: I watch all my DVDs a lot of times but the ones I saw most recently…Pride and Prejudice, Take the Lead, Clue (Cory bought it for me on iTunes), and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Four T.V. Shows that I regularly watch: We have AFN so it changes as they get the shows…but we’ve watched The Office, The Amazing Race, American Idol and CSI, the Las Vegas one.

Four places I have been: Spain, Germany, Austria and the place I go the most in my mind is 9640 South in SoJo!

Four of my favorite foods: Chocolate, Schnitzel (but not with noodles, with Pommes), Potatoes, and Runts

Four places I would rather be right now: Mom and Paige’s House, Disneyworld, Colorado (for the dancing), and Target…or The Mall…or any American style store!

Things I am looking forward to this year: Jeffrey turning one, My Spring Dance recital being over, Summer travelling (Spain, Ireland, more of Germany) AND My Parents and Scott and Jen visiting!!

Nice Weather for a Swing

The weather has been so nice the last few days that Tricia came up with the great idea of taking Jeffrey out to swing. There are three playgrounds in walking distance from our home, so we took Jeffrey out to one with an open baby seat. This was his first experience swinging and he loved it. I am glad that the days will be getting longer so that I can take Jeffrey out for activities like this when I return from work.

The New Experience of Grass and a Slide

While out swinging for the first time, Jeffrey also had his first interaction with grass. He was pretty nervous at its feel. He was hesitant to crawl toward it, so we moved him into the grass and set him down. We laughed when he picked up his hands and feet as far off the ground as possible. I think that by the time Spring is really here that we will have a hard time getting him to come off of the green playing field.

Jeffrey also laughed and smiled at his first trip on a slide.

Jeffrey and Three Binkeys

When we woke jeffrey up this morning we found him with one binkey in his mouth and one in his hand. When we took him into our room he streched out with one more, making a happy Jeffrey who could pick from his preference of destressing objects.

Getting Conn Ready for the German Proficiency Events

After earning the German Proficiency Badge with Heck opened the way for others in the Academy to do the same. This coming month everyone else in the Academy interested will be going through the events together. SGT Conn, our new medic to the Academy, thought of me when he needed someone to train up for the ruck event with. I have gone with him the last two weekends on some morning walks out in the German towns around us. While he packs his ruck for training, I pack my camera for opportunity photos.

Getting Ready for Church

Today we attended the stake conference, which was a satelite broadcast from the Conference Center in Salt Lake. President Uchtdorf and Elder L. Tom Perry addressed an audience spanning several countries here in Europe. President Uchtdorf spoke in his native language of German and we listened to an English translation. In our chapel a representative of the high counsel lead the meeting before and after the broadcast with music, a prayer and stake annoucements just as though there were no broadcast.

We have learned to get up on time on Sundays so as to be able to get Jeffrey ready for church a few minutes early - you never know what can happen to make you late. Today we had to have a last minute diaper change that pushed us back to arriving right on time.

El Libro de Mormon

I have been listening to El Libro de Mormon on my iPod to get my Spanish skills sharp again. Tricia and I are planning another trip to Spain for this coming summer and I want to feel confident in my communication abilities when I return. After listening for a while, I feel like I have not lost very much of my vocabulary since my mission.

Time with Jeffrey

This is another Photo Story I made starring Jeffrey Robert MacNeil. It only took about 20 minutes to make after I finished with the photos in Paint Shop Pro X2.

Growing Up

Here are some of the things Jeffrey has been able to do lately.

• Sitting up on knees
• Pull himself to a standing position in the play pen
• Picks up a Cheerio with his thumb and forefinger and places it in his mouth
• Can find and retrieve a dropped Cheerio
• Jabbers more
• Expresses anger with more emotion
• Recieves food without making a mess with his hands
• Carry something in his mouth and crawl around the house after us like a puppy dog

Getting to Know My Camera

I have been conducting some experiements with my camera to get to know it better. It is one thing to read through the instruction book thoroughly, and another to test out all of the features personally. I took several of Jeffreys colorful toy blocks outside on a nice day and put my camera on a tripod. I was able to play with the shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance, bracketing, metering among others.

A Day at the MacNeil Home

This short picture film was made using a Microsoft program called Photo Story 3. The program is free from the Microsoft Donwnload Center. It is great for putting a few photos in a film which you can narrate and add music to if you wish.

Cory and Me...

I was tagged by Andrea, I think I answered one similar to this a few months back, but here are my answers anew.

(This was the night before our wedding, the day he came home from Iraq. We had to hurry from this visit to see the Bishop and Stake President so we could get married the next day!)

1. What's his name? Cory (or Corwin as Paige first called him)
2. How long have you been married? Almost 3 years
3. How long did you date? About a year, but it was dating through phone calls and emails from Iraq.
4. How old is he? 28
5. Who eats more? Cory, my small breakfasts are never enough to fill him, he's also terrible about eating a snack right before dinner.
6. Who said "I love you" first? Cory called from sniper school in Korea to tell me, I responded with a very cool “yeah” because I was a work.
7. Who is taller? Cory.
8. Who sings better? I’d have to say me, but Cory sings with more heart.
9. Who is smarter? I don’t like to admit it, but him, except in math. I’m helping him with Algebra! I’m more common sense, street smart.
10. Whose temper is worse? Probably equal.
11. Who does the laundry? Mostly me.
12. Who does the dishes? Cory and I share. I’m ignoring a load of clean dishes as I type.
13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Cory does.
14. Who pays the bills? I do, I hate to say it, but Cory wouldn’t know how all the household stuff goes if I were to ever be abducted by aliens.
15. Who mows the lawn? Well it’s supposed to rotate through the apartments, the only two who do it are Cory and the neighbor across the hall, and he’s deployed right now.
16. Who cooks dinner? I mostly do, but Cory likes to help out, he made hamburgers just last night.
17. Who drives when you are together? He does, but long trips we take turns.
18. Who is more stubborn? ME.
19. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Mostly it would be Cory, see question above.
20. Whose parents do you see the most? Most recently we saw his, but I think we’ve seen mine the most.
21. Who proposed? Cory, with the ever cool line of, “So if I were to ask you to marry me what would you say?” That was after TWO dates. He called a few months later to talk to my dad about it from Iraq. Then I picked out my own engagement ring with my stand-in fiancé Mistee, the jewelers loved the story.
22. Who has more friends? I do, but Cory is more comfortable in crowds.
23. Who has more siblings? Me I have the most, 5.
24. Who wears the pants in the family? Cory wears pants and I wear pants. But Cory doesn’t wear skirts.(We’re equal partners in our relationship.)

This was our Wedding at the Jordan River temple, May 12, 2005.

Our reception 4 months later, and well, dude's in uniform are hot, what can I say?

And just because I'm feeling all sentimental, this was when I danced at my reception with the other Shelley Irish Dancers. I miss those girls!

I shall tag Paige, Christina and anyone else who hasn't answered this one.

The MacNeil Photo Gallery

I have begun a new blog for my photography work. I will be placing my artsy photos on The Macneil Photo Gallery.

Cleaning the House for Jeffrey

Since Jeffrey has been sick the last few days and exhibits it with a nose that runneth over, we decided to clean all of his toys and mop the floor on which he crawls. A few disinfectant wipes went a long ways on his toys and a little bleach with hot water mopped up the floor quickly.

The Clinch Drill

I took my camera into the gym to get some action photos of the students during their last day of combatives for the clinch drill. It was hard to get a fast shutter speed to freeze the action because the room was so dark. I had to settle for the bluring action of the moving people.

Happy Vamlumtimes Day!

What time is it?

It's Vamlumtimes!

What time is it?

It's Vamlumtimes!

What we gonna get?

How we gonna get 'em?

Mock UN Medals? Voodoo? Is it Voodoo?

We hope you have a wonderful Valentines day!

Presidents Hinckley and Monson

The church has created two new websites. One features the life, works and words of President Hinckley and the other features a biography of the new president of the Church, Thomas Monson.

f(x) = mx + b

My MAT116 class is teaching me a lot about algebra. This week I am studying functions and graphing functions. The formula above is one that I came up with to determine how much gas is left in a 15 gallon tank which allows a car to travel 300 miles on one tank. The table below that I produced on my TI84 to show incrimentally how the gas is used, and all is summed up with the graph at the bottom. This has been one of my funnest and most challenging classes.

They Might Be Giants

So, I have three older brothers and thanks to them I can still sing you every verse to every song on the They Might Be Giants album Flood. I can't tell you what they mean, but still I can tell you that Istanbul was Constantinople, now it's Istanbul not Constantinople. I know all about the little birdhouse in your soul. I even know that Triangle man is doing the things that a triangle can.


Some of you also know that we are avid podcasters. We love the old time radio ones, but recently we found a They Might Be Giants one. I subscribed just for kicks to see what it was and Jeffrey LOVES it! Seriously LOVES IT! It's on the same level as the donut song and the peanut on the railroad track.



So if you're a TMBG fan you can podcast for free and enjoy the songs. Jeffrey's favorite is the nonagon and the puppets. He'll watch them for hours!

JMTC NCO of the 2nd Quarter

CSM ZaGara gave me this coin after winning the JMTC NCO of the 2nd Quarter. This puts me back in competition at the end of the fiscal year 08 for the JMTC NCO of the Year and possibly move onto the USAREUR NCO of the Year competition.

A Bean and His Frog

Paige sent a big bellied frog to Jeffrey as a gift. We could not help but put them side to side for a comparrison.

Growing Up Fast

Jeffrey is growing up very fast. He is able to crawl around the house all day long and make havoc on anything less than 12 inches off of the ground. He has made a game of opening the refrigerator and staring up at the contents. He has even learned the timing for reaching out again to catch the door as it naturaly closes and push it open again.

A Real Crawl

Jeffrey has been crawling all around the house the last two weeks, but tonight after his bath I witnessed his first real crawl in which he used both arms and legs in a joined effort to move him. He only moved this way for four steps, but it was his first crawl in the classic sense.

Lately we have also seen Jeffrey roll over with his bottle while he is eating. This frustrates him when he loses the ability to continue to drink. I think that he wishes his bottle was a straw.

Superbowl

So they aired the superbowl here...at midnight. I didn't really know the teams or whatever, when I watch with my mom, we trade teams each quarter, just to give equal support to everyone. I usually watch the superbowl...for the commercials. Buuuuut, AFN can't air the commercials. So instead they'll air commercials telling you how not to be targeted by a terrorist. So there wasn't much point in staying awake for it.

I missed them (and hate the teasing clips that so I just watched them on the YouTube site...Honestly thank heavens for the internet. Can I say I loved the etrade baby and the clown. "Seriously I think I underestimated the creepiness." I liked the cars.com one with the ring and fire. "You may want to step outside the circle, so there's no confusion." I'm excited to see Prince Caspian too (though again it will be months after you all can see it). I had just watched the first movie today with Jeffrey.

The MacNeil Kitchen

Last night as I was posting yet another entry to the blog about what we had made for dinner, Tricia suggested that I start a food blog. On it I can share photos of the delicious things that come from our kitchen.

The MacNeil Kitchen is now our new additional blog. You will also find a link to it permanently kept in this blog in the "Our Favorite Places to Visit."

Jeffrey is feeling a little bit sick at the same time as Tricia. Jeffrey requires a lot of holding when he is feeling down. Maratee Andrus was nice enough to bring us a pot of chicken noodle soup and some home bakes cookies when she heard that Tricia was sick again.

An Easy Meal to Make

This is fresh lettuce, thinly sliced steak cooked with Italian seasoning, oven baked fries from the freezer. Top it with Italian dressing and several cherry tomatoes.

A Great Dessert by Tricia

This is cream cheese, Oreos and mint.

Return of the Icky...

Happy February Everyone! Happy Almost Anniversary Paige and Sam!

So I have pneumonia again! Or it just went dormant for a few weeks and chose to flare up again. Either way, I totally feel like Crap! I sat at the doctors again for 4 hours today while they first decided if I was sick enough to even talk to the PA and then all through lunch time when they left and then finally when I saw the PA...had to wait again while they did another Chest X-Ray and while he looked at them. He's treating it as though it were the less common type of pneumonia, I don't care so long as I don't have to spend a week in the German hospital.

Cory is so good about taking care of me, Jeffrey and everything I have no energy to do. I honestly don't know what I would do without him.

Here's some of the latest pictures that make me smile...

We don't eat dinner at our dinner table every night, we're pretty Cas...at our house. Some days Cory's in the middle of homework and using the space and some days I'm too tired and just want to put my feet up...But when we do, Jeffrey sits up with us and enjoys a meal of puffed stars and juice.

Here's Jeffers just kicking back drinking an 8 ouncer. He kept pushing the table away. It made me laugh.

Here's Jeffers the ever-mobile boy. He NEVER stops going. It makes me sad, he's growing up too fast!