Our Ward's Newlywed Game

Soooo...remembering back to the Newlywed Game reminds me of our Newlywed Game we put on in our ward. It was supposed to be the best activity yet and I think it still was all right, except for the fact that the kitchen caught on fire. Let me explain...

I will leave our names for the sake of those most closely involved. So we assigned out various areas, such as food, advertising, the game, decorating, to different couples on our committee. We had one new couple on the committee who wanted to a challenge, so they chose to do food. I told them exactly what to buy and they wrote it down, the whole time offerring my services if they needed them. The week of the event, they dropped off some of the sauce ingredients to my house because I had offerred to make a pot of sauce. I again asked if they needed any help. Nope.

Friday evening we went to the church at 5:00 p.m. to set up for the event that was supposed to begin at 6:00 p.m. Everyone was supposed to be there. Everyone was except for the couple in charge of food. At 6:15 p.m. we still had not seen them and people were there expecting their food, but we had no rice and no drinks at this point. They were getting the rice from BYU Take Out Catering and bringing the drinks for us to mix up. So, we had all the food except for theirs...and no peas and no dessert. They finally walked in around 6:20 p.m. with bags of eggs, vegetable oil, pans, measuring cups, brownie mix, lemonade mix, frozen peas and some rice. They then proceeded to mix up like 15 pans of brownie mix, only one of the ovens wasn't working and the other was being used to warm the chicken cordon bleu we were serving atop rice with peas on the side. I was fuming inside when it finally clicked that they had not handed out half of the peas or any of the dessert!

To make a long story short and to save me the emotions of it all again, I didn't say anything until they put a Pyrex bowl full of brownie mix on one of the burners on the stove. A couple minutes later we all heard an explosion and glass flew everywhere in pieces no bigger than pebbles. It is a good thing we all had our backs to it. Then the brownie mix that was in the bowl fell to the burner and started on fire and smoke was going everywhere! We put out the fire and kept right on serving the food. Then someone came back in to say they had bitten into their chicken and found a piece of glass stuck in it and cut their mouth. A couple other people had the same thing happen. Someone else said their chicken was raw! Overall, we really were blessed that no one was seriously hurt and the activity turned out wonderful. I think people were so full too that no one really noticed the lack of dessert. The next Sunday Jeff and I were released from our callings...needless to say we went out with a bang!

The pic is about the size of the fire we had in the church kitchen. When it did happen, I kind of lost it and told the couple that, "We are not supposed to be cooking in the kitchen!" That was all I said...of course it was in a mean way. Anyway, I made the wife cry and later apoligized and made them cookies, although I doubt we will ever be good friends now!

P.S. We were not released because of the activity. We were way past our one year mark... :)

The Newlywed Game

So Jeff and I were in the paper a couple months ago. Boy does time fly when you are having fun...or working I should say. Sometimes I wish my life away and then dwell on the past, but I can tell you that I am not ever going to dwell on the past year and a half of my life...work, work, work! Anyway, around the first part of the year, I got a new job in Campus Scheduling in the Wilkinson Center, still at BYU. I transferred departments from Human Resources, specifically Employee Relations/Equal Employment Opportunity. A terrible job! Well, back to my current job, there is a small department that works behind me. In fact, there is only one full-time person in the whole department. It is titled "Student Activities Board." They are in charge of putting on mid-week activities for students on-campus. One activity was the Newlywed Game. Since Jeff and I were going to be doing this activity in our ward (we were activities chairmen at the time), we figured we had better attend to figure out how to run the activity. So we went...and we won!

Following is a newspaper article about the event...I really think the only reason we won is because we were married the longest. The other couples really were still idealistic in their views of each other. Jeff and I are realists...but still in love.

Thursday, January 25, 2007
Making 'whoopee' with BYU newlyweds
KATE MCNEIL - Daily Herald
Let's be honest, at BYU "whoopee" is an exclamation reserved for LaVell Edwards Stadium, not a verb for casual conversation.
But in ABC's "The Newlywed Game," host Bob Eubanks often used the "w" word to refer to a certain bedroom act. Knocking boots, if you will.
Like every activity at Brigham Young University, Wednesday's "Newlywed Game" was squeaky clean. The only question close to Eubanks's famous innuendo interrogations was, "If I really wanted to push my wife's buttons, I would, blank."
Even then, giggles filled the air and diamond-wearing fingers covered mouths.
Wednesday's host asked contestants to "keep prudence in their answers." And appropriately, the husbands answered everything from watching TV to talking like an annoying little kid.
Although only 7 percent of college students are married nationally, at BYU, one in four are hitched. According to the U.S. Census, the average bride in 1965 was 20 years old. However, by 2005, the average age of a woman at her first marriage had risen to older than 25. Utah has the lowest median age of first marriage in the nation -- 24 for men and 22 for women.
To appeal to this quarter of the student body, the Student Activities Board held a tasteful version of the game show.
Twenty-two couples competed Wednesday. After two rounds of elimination, four couples remained to answer questions.
Dustin and Amy Ormond were eliminated in the first round when asked: Does your husband hardly work or work hard? Dustin answered hardly work, and Amy, unfortunately thought the latter.
The final round queries ranged from multiple choice -- "What Disney princess is your wife most like?" -- to open-ended -- "What would you do if you caught your husband drinking milk out of the carton?"
Another one asked couples what movie plot best described their relationship.
"I would have picked 'Fast and Furious,' but that wasn't an option," said Denise Metcalf, a Brigham Young University student, married a year and a half.
After the first four questions, Sabrina and Brooks Tingey didn't have one correct answer.
"Can you tell we've been married for four months?" said Brooks.
Other questions sparked mini quarrels amongst the love birds.
When Jeff Bird said he drives the speed limit with cruise control when he's alone, his wife answered he drives over the speed limit: "You never put on the cruise control, I always tell you to," she retorted.
All four women answered that their husbands were most like character Al Borlin on TV's "Home Improvement" -- he does everything right the first time.
Brooks begged to differ with his wife's decision: "You're not supposed to be nice, you're supposed to be truthful."
In the end, couples left knowing a bit more about each other than before. Melea Bird hates Jeff's cowboy shirt. Matt Lorenzen thinks he's most like Superman, but Captain Planet is a better fit, says his wife, Allie. And Sabrina Tingey would like to think Brooks is better at home improvement than he really is.
Melea and Jeff Bird, married for 18 months, won Wednesday's first-place prize -- dinner for two at Red Robin and two movie tickets. Fourth place got a bottle of bubbly -- Martinelli's that is.

Birthday Boy!

Today is Jeff's 25th Birthday! Yeah! He is 25 and still has his hair intact...if only he could make it to 30, or 40, or even 50 with his hair. It is a big concern when he finds hairs on his pillow or in his hat. Sometimes I think he would like glue for his birthday to glue it back in...or maybe some Rogaine. Anyway, he would not appreciate this conversation, so I will just say Happy Birthday!

This morning for breakfast, I got up and made him Puff Pancakes. Ever heard of them? They are really good and really fattening! Another name for them is German Pancakes. Of course, mine looked better than this!

The Twitching Eye

So I have this recent problem...a twitching eye. It is just one more thing to tac up there on my list of weird things to happen to Melea and her body that she has no control over but wishes that she did. I just got over...and am still in the process of getting over...a nasty cold that has had me out for a good week! Anyway, so now I have this twitching eye. What an annoying problem to have can I just tell you! Everytime I blink, it starts twitching again and it kind of moves around my eyelid from the side to the bottom and back again. So here I am staring at my computer, trying my best not to blink, my eyes getting drier and drier by the second. Soon I will close my twitching eye and give it a break and look at my computer with one eye open. Then I will open it back up and it will start twitching again, so I will put my finger next to my eye to try to hold it still to no avail and the process starts all over again!

So what may cause the twitching eye, you may ask? Well, yesterday at work I was a bit bored, so I decided to look it up and found that I wished I hadn't. Apparently, there are several diseases and neurological problems that can be a result of a twitching eye. Some people end up having to get surgery to remove the muscle that keeps on spazing (sp?) out...so what will be the fate of my twitching eye? I really hope it stops soon and it is just caused by stress...only it is making me stress out even more, so if it is caused by stress and is making me stressed out, will it ever end? Let's pray... :)

Jeff reeling in a fish...very exciting! The water here was so clear you could see the bottom and the fish swimming, so we could just drop our worm/salmon egg into the water and pick the fish you wanted to catch!

This is Jonathan, my cousin.

Jeff learning how to gut a fish from Collin, my cousin.

Still gutting...

Never squeeze a fish!

This is the after effects of squeezing the fish a little too tightly...notice the brown on the leg.

Moose Lake-Jeff's First Fishing Experience

I have had major spring fever the past couple of days...I have actually worn skirts to work both days! This is huge for me as I hate wearing nylons and my legs aren't the prettiest site to see. But still, spring brings me some fond memories in Montana...like clean air to breathe and beautiful mountain lakes to swim in. I really hope we end up somewhere beautiful and clean. Here in Utah, you cannot run outside without a fear of causing permanent damage due to the poor air quality. In Montana, I haven't ever heard of a day where it is actually hazardous to your health to venture outdoors...except during fire season in August when the forest fires are really bad and the smoke is in the air, but even then it is not like pollution. It just smells like one huge campfire for a couple weeks!
Anyway, I decided everyone needs to know how beautiful Montana really it and how much fun it can be. These pictures are mainly for my husband to remember the fun we had last summer. This first one is his first time trying to unhook the fish himself. Before he would catch a fish and fling it into the canoe for my sister, Valissa, or cousin, Jonathan, to take care of. Here he tried to grab the fish and it slipped right through his hands. Funny face!

The Llama Sweater

So over the weekend Jeff and I went to an Ugly Sweater party at our neighbor's house. What a great theme! Jeff busted out his llama sweater from Peru, where he served his mission. It is made from llama fur and has llama all over it. It is actually a pretty nice sweater, but kind of small for him. It looks like it was made for a boy, but is an adult size sweater for Peruvians. I posted a pic to the left that resembles the sweater, only it was a series of grays, but the pattern is quite similar.

I wore Jeff's bright orange sweater that he wore for our engagement photos. I really should post a real pic of this. I will try to remember when I get home from work. I had never seen this sweater before the day we took our engagement photos and I never have seen him wear it since. It is just soooo orange! Very nice and expensive but very ugly too! I never said anything about the sweater to him until after we were married. Then I told him how I really felt...that his sweater was ugly and that was why all our engagement photos are in black and white! :) The photo I posted to the right resembles the actual sweater, but that man is just a man...no relation...just a pic from the internet.

I am at work and there is nothing to do, so I thought I would start a blog. My life at this point is in a standstill. I am anxiously awaiting a move out to Kentucky where my husband will enter dental school this fall. There are a couple things I am excited about in relation to this move. Number one is that we will get to leave Utah...finally! The other good thing is that we will finally live closer to family. Jeff's brother Doug and his wife Roz and their three children live there. Doug is in his residency for oral surgery and so him and Jeff will graduate the same year and then we will hopefully move back out this direction to the northwest...but not Utah again. Maybe Oregon, Washington, Idaho, or Montana (the last one is my hope, but Jeff's nightmare).