The 2nd semester of Life!

Week two of the rest of my life is now over. In other words second semester has started and week two is over. Wow, another semester has started since I have returned home from the great land of the morning calm Korea. It is great to back in the swing of things after a nice long break, but that break could have been a bit longer. But let me tell you about my new adventures that await me this next semester. 

First of all though I have to tell you about the first day of school. The first day of school was interesting in of its self. I woke up at 3 in the morning to find out that my stomach was not much agreeing with me and decided to let everything out of it in every way it could. So being weird like I am and worrying about missing school I went to school and took along a nice barf bad with me to school and kept it in my back pack just in case I needed it. (That would of made a good impression on the girls the first day!) So through school I made it. I should of left and gone home, but there was work and a cute girl that needed some help later on in the afternoon. So I had to stay. Right? Well I barley made it through that. One co-worked was making lunch and the smell that came off of it was intense and that made me run to the bathroom a couple of time for precautionary measures. Luckily I made it through school with no harm and was able to help the girl out and get a date later on that week with her. So the moral of this tangent of my blog is don't eat the Kung-pow chicken from Panda Express at 10 at night on a Saturday! 

Well back to my adventures of next semester. I am taking some pretty sweet classes. I am going for a good and happy semester after last semesters failing effort. They are all very useful classes that cover my G.E.'s so I am way happy about that. So I will tell you them all one by one. I am sure you are all sitting at the edge of your seats. 

1- PDBio 120, great class. It stands for Physical Development biology. We are going to study more about development of the body rather than the whole world of biology. 

2- Floral Design. This is an amazing class and it counts as my arts credit. The teacher makes the class. From us going to be able to make wedding bouquets and all types of different arrangements I am going to be set for life. Also lots of the opposite gender attend the class. I am defiantly in the minority. It felt like walking in to the women's bathroom on accident on the first day of school. 

3- Living Prophets, Amazing class. We study talks from a different prophet each week and we discuss what they want us to get out of it each week. It is amazing. 

4- Marriage Preparation. Yes I am in the class, but don't worry I am very far from becoming engaged. I heard this is a fun class and decided to take it. The focus is on how to make sure you have a good dating experience in life and treat your spouse with the respect they need and deserve. Focus on the church in the class makes it great. 

5-Student development. I am in a medical preview class where we have a doctor come in a give a lecture weekly. It is cool. They explain how medical school runs and how they run there practices and such. I am hoping this gives me a good look at what lies ahead of me if I continue down the medical school route. 

So school should be great. I am still working and continue to play on the BYU Ultimate Frisbee team. Life is good as it always should be. I hope you all have a wonderful week and keep this tip in your mind. Don't eat Kung-pow chicken late at night and from Panda express. 

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we don not see the one which has opened for us."

 -Helen Keller

One more thing I just wanted to add is that happiness is always there. We just need to grab and go for it. One thing might end in life or be hard, but life always goes on and happiness is there awaiting you. Have a sweet week. Love Jeffrey

Boyz

So I have come to the conclusion that Girls and Guys are different. Yes I know I am 21 and should have already figured this out. I may be slow but at least I figured it out. The best part though is that it was a comic that helped me understand this great truth. Maybe because it represents me in so many wonderful ways. 

If you cant read the comic here because of the size the link below should take you to the desired destination. 

http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2009/01/04/

So other than the boy also having the same name as I do I think about the weirdest things and this made me laugh. Guys have their quirks and girls have theirs with their looks that kill! Also with the Phenomena of the movie "Twilight" I thought it was only fitting to say what my thoughts would or will be when I see the movie. Why dose the moon not hurt the vampires if it is a direct reflection of the sun. Seems like a good thought to me. 

Well other things that we can conclude about the difference between girls and guys would be our view on destroying things. Now a blog or two ago I posted one about the great tradition of blowing up gingerbread houses. I thought I would leave this short but hopefully entertaining blog with videos of the carnage of the houses. Have a super week! 

Family isn't it about time?

From the title you get the familiar ring of the LDS church’s old commercials about family. They always have some situation where someone dose not have a lot of time or treats some in the family in a rude or unkind way and then they show the people realizing it is more important to be with the family.

            It is true in so many ways. The family is so important. I love the Christmas season when you can get with your family and share the wonderful experiences that you have had since the last time you saw them or just digging out your minds the old great memories that you have had together in the past. It is funny things never change.

In the Hammond family tradition is a major part of Christmas. You can ask anyone of the family members who were married in to the family how big a role of tradition is to us. So every year we buckle up and we do are Christmas traditions, which have to include the whole family, which occasionally brings out quite the battle.

            I want to talk about some of the more major ones in the Hammond family. It is funny because all of them include family. 1^st would have to be the Hammond family dinner. We have all of the extended family come in to Provo and we meet at our Grandfathers house and sing songs and do talents and sit upon Santa Clauses knee and tell him what we want for Christmas. Then we all have a giant dinner and enjoy each other’s company. It is funny because all of the same conversations come out every year. They usually include making fun of cousin Roy for not bringing his saxophone to the Christmas gathering (I have never seen him bring it, so this has gone on for a long time), nest why the single members of the family are not dating anyone, or if they are why they are not at the party (beware you will have to be reindeer and prance around the room if you come), and one of the last ones would have to be what is going on in everyone else’s life.

            2^nd of the great family traditions would have to be Christmas eve when we go as a family to get pizza at Brick Oven. They are on of the few places open on Christmas Eve and so we enjoy our pizza and then go look at the great Christmas lights of Provo until someone gets carsick. (You all know that someone in the family has to be sick or it wouldn’t be a family gathering).

            Last but not least of all would be the run in to the family room where all of Santa’s presents have been laid. We all wait upon the stairs until we are allowed to go in and tear apart the presents from Santa. This video will show you the great excitement of that morning.

Graham Crackers and Frosting!

Christmas brings so many good things to the Hammond house hold. One of those great things is Graham Cracker Houses (Ginger Bread Houses with Graham Crackers). It has been a tradition of the Hammond family now for a bout 10 years to make Graham cracker houses. 

Now we are the not the traditional kind to use frosting to put our houses together. That just takes to much time. Instead we use good old trusty hot glue guns to assemble out master pieces.  Also we don't eat our houses. Why you may ask? Well 1st of all who wants to eat a house covered in candy or should I say in cheap candy that has been sitting out for a week or two? We all know we use the cheap candy to make the houses and reuse the remainders of last years candy too. So that is one good reason to avoid.  Also for all the girls out there "Calories", frosting, candy, cookies, and so much more, the calories really add up. So being the family we are instead of eating them we blow them up. Yes you read right we blow them up on New Years day to celebrate the new year. That is one of the best parts of making them, because we know we get to blow them up, but other parts of the fun of making them would have to be the different personalities of my family while making their houses. 

1st we have to start out with my dad. He is a good sport and makes one but it is always the most simple and lest technical one. But he has an art behind it and it always turns out good looking. We could all learn from simpleness. It is just good looking and wholesome.

Next we have my nice and nephew. They have more fun looking at the other family members houses and commenting on them. Saying stuff like, "Wow, that is really small.", "That is going to be the biggest and then mine and then grandma's and then mommies, and so on.", "Why are you doing it that way?", and they continue to watch us intently as we do ours. Then once they get started on theirs it is quick and to the point with lots of frosting or none at all. It depends on the year. 

Their is me and I always have to do something big, I don't know why but I do. As always I seem to dig myself in to a hole with my ideas and end up putting on lots of frosting to try and make it look good. Its my secret. Put lots of frosting on and it looks good. 

Then we have our creative side of the family like Jamie, Mom, and Dru. They always seem to come up with great ideas. This year my mom with her broken hand still came out with and amazing design, she made a Graham Cracker present. 

The rest of the family enjoys and has a blast. Mainly though, we all know we are waiting for the new year to blow them up. So whether it be Graham Crackers of ginger bread the Hammond house hold loves to make their houses and then like all good people, we enjoy blowing them up. 

Merry Christmas to all of you who read this blog. Remember the true meaning of Christmas. Love one another and show gratitude to others and remember the Lords our Savior Jesus Christ birth. Through him we receive the opportunity to become clean from our sins and one day return to live with our father in heaven. This is the greatest gifts of them all. 

"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more."

Dr. Seuss

The All Knowing Frosty!

It is time for Christmas when the Hammond home is covered in Christmas decorations. The outside is always the best, but not when putting them up. For years at the Hammond home we wake up a couple of Saturdays before December 1st and put up the outside Christmas lights. 

The reasons for the madness of putting up lights all the time is the neighborhood competition of having the best lights. It is true that this competition has died down over the years due to "professionals" putting lights up now for a small fee, but the fame of Autumn wood will always be their in the Provo history. Why history you may ask.

For those who do not know Autumn wood, we are home to Santa Clause flying in on a helicopter, weather balloons flying away with Christmas trees, leftover Stadium of Fire fireworks being lit, and of course friendly competition between the neighbors trying to out due each other ever year with a little extra flair to out due the past and keep ahead of the competition. 

So the neighbors every year go all out to win the coveted Candle light that they can put proudly in front of their house to show all the Christmas eve passer-buyers that they are the winners of the candle that year. So with the great competition that our neighborhood has we seem to have a good history in Provo for good lights. You can always seem to know one or two people around where you are in Provo that know that our neighborhood is the Christmas light street in Provo. 

Well with all the great competition in our neighborhood it has convinced  my family to buy some pretty interesting light things. These would have to go in order of the waving Santa Clause being pulled by reindeer running, blow up frosty, blow up snow glob, the flying angle is always a classic, and then our white trash years with the canoe in our front yard being pulled by reindeer. So we love to join in the great fun of Christmas. 

This year though we had some fun with our great 15 foot or so frosty. Me and my dad were putting it up when the next door neighbor girls came up and started bowing to the "Great Frosty". It was funny. Their dialogue went something like this,

"All powerful frosty tell us what we should do."

"You are our Master."

"We will do what you wants us to do."

This was all said while bowing like they were phrasing Pharaoh of Egypt of old.  It was quiet funny. Me and my dad were a bit worried though and thought that we would be struck by lighting any moment. 

So the Christmas spirit is strong here at the Hammond home, but we are still praying for the snow to come to make it complete. Have a wonderful week. 

Also Happy birthday to two wonderful people that are in my life. 1st my lovely niece Ellie "bean" Laws. She is eight years old and will be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latte-day Saints this year. She is a beauty. 2nd is my good friend Stefanie Barker. She is now an adult at the good old age of 21. Happy Birthday to you all. 

Thanksgiving/Shopping!

Family at Thanksgiving dinner

Thanksgiving is a great time of year for many reasons. You get hang out with your family, eat a load of food, and if you are up to the challenge their is always black friday. I experienced them all. I made the venture in to the shopping world and I ate all the turkey I could. 

Shopping in Park City with Stefanie

First shopping was great. To make sure I knew what to get people and to have a good time and to hang with my best friend I went to Park City the day before Thanksgiving to the amazing outlets. Me and Stefanie went to all the nice stores such as J crew, Polo, ect. and dressed each other up. It was a blast and also gave me many ideas on what to get people for christmas and birthdays. This experience lead me to build the courage to go up on black friday to the outlets again to fight for the goods. I tell you it was worth it. I saved more money then I spent. That is truly good shopping. 

Us posing as models

(PS Good Christmas stuff)

The best part though of thanksgiving was just hanging with the family. It is not often you get to do this when you are older and you start to realized how important they are in your lives. My mom made an amazing dinner and we all ate until we were stuffed. We sat around for the next hour or so, so we could get down pie. It was a quite weekend but it was amazing just to be with the family. 

So shopping and food always make a good week. Have a super week and enjoy the photos. 

Thats a Big Carrot! 

Sunday Dinner

Welcome to the best part of the week at the Hammond home. SUNDAY DINNER. It is one thing to look forward to for many reasons during the week. Here they are,

1- Great food

2- Conversations that would and will only happen at the Hammond dinner table

ex. Spongebob square pants, Twilight, skiing, girls, boys, golf, last weeks crazy stories, dad's sunday school class trying to turn off the lights every 2 seconds stories, so on (NOTE these examples are taken from a conglomerate of stories over a couple of years, now spongebob only comes up about once a month) Also we have the regular what happened at church at least once a month.

3- Friends and Family gathering. This is one of the best parts. We have Jamie and her Husband Aaron over and sister Kim Jamie's old mission companion who happens to be Korean and Jon and his friends and my friends and when we are lucky we have Jessica and Dru and the kids when they are in town.

4- Great food.

5- Dessert has to be one of my favorites of them all.

The best part though of this all would have to be the gathering of the family. This week it was a blast because we were able to hang the ornaments on the tree. Now me being a post missionary who has not experienced it for the past two years, I loved every single ornament that I hung. It is great to see the wonderful blessing of a family.

"The family. We [are] a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting on another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together."

-- Erma Bombeck

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JAMIE! My big sister who I love!

Sundays will always be my favorite part of the week because of the church and the great opportunity I have to hang with the family each week. I love you all and have a super day.