"So I was thinking, and I know it's terrible of me..." - Christian

So all this week Christian has been away from me, all day every day. Starting Monday, he had band camp. They learned marching drills, the entirety of their pre-game sequence (which is 7-8 minutes long), and about 2/3 of one of their shows for this year (they have 3 or 4 shows every year). It was an intense week. Almost every day, he was there from 8 am to 10 pm, with only an hour and a half break for each of lunch and dinner (a few days he only had to go a half day). He got sunburned too, pretty bad on his chin, which I assume he forgot to put sunscreen on. He got a burn on his chin that was really bad and blistered, and bled. It's still bleeding and scabby. So he gets to go to school tomorrow with a bleeding chin. The rest of him wasn't so bad. I missed him a lot while he was at band camp, especially as I've gotten so used to having him around all the time, and him being there when I came home from work. I had to come home from work and eat dinner by myself a couple times-- something I'm very not used to. But now band camp is over, hooray!!! And I get to spend time with him!

The beginning of this week we heard back from the PICS evaluator people, informing Christian that the position he'd wanted had already been filled. We were depressed. But then, the day after that, he got an email from the computer lab assistant people, saying "Hey, a position in the computer labs just opened up! If you're still interested in the job, just fill out this availability schedule and send it back to us." So we were super excited, and Christian filled out the form and sent it back within an hour of getting the email. We were so pumped, so excited that Christian finally had a job!!! But then the next day, he got another email. His schedule apparently didn't work out with what they needed, so they declined to give him the job. So even after an emotional rollercoaster this week, Christian still remains jobless.

Friday night Christian's friend, Chris, moved into town. Just a few blocks away from us, too! So we went over there to see him. We got the grand tour, and it's TONS bigger than our humble little apartment could ever dream of being. But then again, he has 3 or 4 roommates that share it with him. We played Payday with him, and we got reminded that the Honor Code still exists even though we are married. I had forgotten that some people actually still have to follow an opposite-gender-in-your-house curfew. So I got kicked out at 1 am. Christian could have stayed longer, but he was nice and wanted to come home with me. I have a very sweet husband.

Last night (Saturday) we had our... kind-of-date-night. We watched a movie at home and baked (and ate) cookies. We watched the Hunchback of Notre Dame, since I had never seen it and it is one of Christian's favorites. I decided that the end was dumb, since Esmerelda got together with Mr. Dorkface (Phoebus) instead of Quasimodo. Phoebus isn't even on the cover of the movie at all, except a tiny picture where you can't even see his face properly! Quasimodo had a crush on Esmerelda the whole movie, and she was so nice to him and kissed him on the cheek and flirted with him, he cried over her, and the whole point of the movie was that looks don't matter!!! And then Esmerelda at the end went with the hot captain army general dude, and Quasimodo the main character was left behind, alone without any girl, just some stone gargoyles to keep him company!!! What a sucky ending. Anyway. It had some good catchy music though. Alan Menken rocks.

Today at church in Sunday School, we had a lesson on eternal marriage (Doctrine and Covenants 132). Part of the activity was to create a "symbol" for our marriages. Something that means something special to us both, and will remind us to stay loyal to each other whenever we see it, just as seeing the symbol of the "Y" for BYU strengthens loyalty of students to the school. So here's what we came up with.

The Texas flag (since we are both from Texas), with music notes over it, and the heads of the notes representing our rings (Christian's on the left, mine on the right, obviously). I think it's a good idea to have a symbol of our marriage. We should print it out and hang it up somewhere. I encourage everyone to make one for their marriage as well. :) Perhaps tomorrow for your FHE?

Tonight after church (we got a new bishop!), we went to the end-of-band-camp marching band fireside. The band director spoke, and was really cute with his wife. He spent the time telling his life story, and it was really funny when he got to the part about meeting/interacting with his wife. He invited her up for all to observe, and they kept grabbing the microphone away from each other to correct each other, and tell THEIR versions of the stories. It was hilarious. He talked a lot about crossroads in life, and how you should always rely on the Lord to tell you which way to go. He encouraged us to have faith at all our life's crossroads. It was a good fireside.

Tonight the recipe we will share with you is the cookie recipe we made on Saturday night (while we watched the movie). It's called Turtle Cookies. We kind of altered it from the original recipe (since we had no caramel candies, but we had a package of chocolate pudding mix with caramel chips mixed in). But I'm sure Jiffy's recipe is better, so follow it.

Ingredients:

2 pkgs Jiffy chocolate chip muffin mix

1 small pkg instant chocolate pudding mix

1/3 cup oil

2 eggs

14 chocolate caramel candies, chopped (we don't know what exactly these are...)

1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all the ingredients together, shape into balls and bake on a slightly greased cookie sheet for 12-14 minutes.

The cookies were scrumptious. Our cookie dough didn't turn out that great, but that's because we accidentally used too much pudding (we used most of a large package of chocolate pudding instead of a small one). So if you do it right I'm sure your cookie dough will be delicious.

We are excited to start school tomorrow!!! Christian gets to start learning how to play baritone and tuba tomorrow. He also has Music Theory and Sight Singing tomorrow. We both have biology too (we are trying to get into the same class), and we are already in the same class for LDS Marriage and Family. I have Psychological Statistics tomorrow, and university choir (to fulfill my music minor). Christian also has master class for his horn in the evening. Hooray!!! We are both so pumped!

We love you all!

Christian and Brittany

Firsts and lasts

This week was a really exciting one. It was full of firsts (and hopefully not any lasts except for in one instance).

We'll start off with Monday, when I (Christian) went and performed an evaluation on a lab assistant in the Wilk. If I did get this job, it would be a really easy one. Basically I went into the computer lab, sat down for 45 minutes while playing around on the computer, and observed the lab assistant. The hardest thing I had to do was come up with a problem that I could ask the assistant about because I had to have some interaction with him. I should hear back by tomorrow about whether or not I got the job. (This is one that was hopefully not a last.)

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On Thursday, Brittany had her first day of work as an aide at an elementary school with the child she's been doing therapy with. He (the little boy) was excited for his first day of school, which made Brittany's work just a little harder as she helped him concentrate on his work, etc. She was definitely kept on her toes all day, in more ways than one. She enjoyed it though, and looks forward to working again on Tuesday and Thursday for the rest of the semester. (Again, hopefully not a last.)

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Friday, I had leadership training for marching band. In case you didn't know, I was chosen as a squad leader for the French horn section. It was an interesting experience; I had never gone to a leadership training that was so gospel oriented. It was nice to have such a tie between my schooling and church. I am going to love being back here at BYU. It was really fun because I saw a bunch of people that I remembered, and remembered me surprisingly, from when I was in band in 2006. Another surprise was seeing a guy I knew from my Houston ward many years ago, Brett Miller! It was cool seeing him and catching up a little bit. It's going to be a great semester. (If it was a last, then it would mean I was a senior and graduating, so it could be a last, but not right now.)

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Saturday, after Brittany came home from work, we went to go buy our books for this semester. It was a pleasant surprise that for both our books together it only cost us $250. We saved probably extra $100 because Brittany had two or three books that I will need for dication and theory classes. I thought it was funny because 4 out of the 7 books I got were tips and instruction on how to play baritone and tuba. I'm taking the first semester of Brass Workshop which is where I learn to play all the brass instruments. We also got a tuning fork for my sight singing class, and we've been messing around with it all night long; tapping it on things and seeing where it resonates best, etc. I know, I know, we are huge nerds lol. (We DEFINITELY wouldn't mind buying textbooks being a last.)

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Today, instead of our regular meetings, we were told to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication (oh darn). It was a wonderful meeting, in which the 1st counselor in the General Relief Society Presidency spoke, two members of the seventy, Elder M. Russell Ballard, and President Monson spoke, each giving a message of the sacrifice of temple building and worship, and the blessings that come from attendance there. Elder Eyring gave the dedicatory prayer. It was such a wonderful meeting filled with the Spirit.

It brought back some sweet memories for myself, as I remembered the other dedications I've been to (Houston, Winter Quarters, Nauvoo, Palmyra, and today's). Especially though, I remembered sitting with my family in the Houston Temple dedication and how awesome that was to be in a sealing room to watch it, and realizing that the prophet was just in the other room. Temple dedications are always such a wonderful occasion. (I would love for it never to be a last.)

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We decided to put the recipe at the bottom in case you got too bored to care. We'd much rather you listen to our lives, than to our food. This week we'll share one of my family recipes since we shared one of Brittany's last week. We made chicken pillows this week. They're pretty easy to make, and were really delicious.

16-oz softened cream cheese

1 tsp pepper

About 3 cu of cooked, cut-up chicken

2/3 cu sauteed mushrooms

about 20-24 frozen rolls

1/4 cu. softened butter

bread crumbs (optional)

Poultry seasoning (optional)

Preheat oven to 375

1) Mix cream cheese, pepper, chicken, and mushrooms together

2) Flatten out half of the rolls and put about 1/4 cu of mixture on each roll.

3) Cover with the other half of the rolls and seal shut.

4) Dip in melted butter and bread crumbs (1 tsp poultry seasoning to 2/3 cu crumbs)

5) Bake for 15-2o min.

My mom always made them with a brown gravy, but that's optional. If you have leftover filling, it makes a really good sandwich with some mustard. I also think it could have done with some salt in there too. Enjoy! (Of course not a last.)

Love love

Christian and Brittany

Secret Agent Man (and Woman)

Recipe for this week: The Clines' top-secret recipe for easy, mouthwatering, tender ribs, revealed just this once. For a limited time only. Act now! Send $22.95 to P.O. Box 23601, Provo UT 84601 (only check or money order accepted, sorry, no COD) and your life will be changed forever!!!!

Okay, okay. Seriously. This recipe takes only 3 ingredients and 2 hours.

Ingredients:

2 lbs uncooked ribs, defrosted (boneless or not, doesn't matter)

18 oz (usually 1 bottle) of barbecue sauce, any flavor

1/2 cup orange juice

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

-In a 13x9 pan, mix together barbecue sauce and orange juice.

-Separate ribs and place them in the barbecue/orange juice sauce.

-Roll ribs around the pan to coat them well with the sauce. Ribs will cook faster if they do not touch each other.

-Cover pan with aluminum foil and put pan in oven for 2 hours or until meat is tender, falling off of bone (if not boneless).

Serves 2 hungry adults, but the recipe could easily be doubled and even fit in one pan still.

Turned out delicious and tender enough to cut easily with a fork!!! You could make the ribs any flavor you want just by changing the type of barbecue sauce. We just used original flavor, and it still turned out great! Christian says he'd like to try marinating them next time before we cook them. We will try it and let you know how it works. We also recommend turning the ribs over once during cooking, but it will still be very tender even if you don't.

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Last Sunday we decided to go to choir after church. It was fun but very sparse. We had only one bass, 2 tenors, 3 altos, and 2 sopranos. If Christian and I hadn't come, they would have had a 6-person choir consisting of only 1 bass, 1 tenor, 2 altos, and 2 sopranos. Christian and I were annoyed because the choir director directed everything in 2/4 time, and the music was in 3/4. So we both kind of died a little inside. But it was good nonetheless.

We tried to go this week again, but apparently the choir director has..... moved! Dun dun DUNNNN!!!! So we are currently without a choir director!!! We are carefully screening our calls since I don't have a calling yet, and the bishop knows I am musical (however, our bishopric is changing in two weeks, so I might be safe for a while).

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To work as an aide at an elementary school (like I am going to, starting Thursday), you need to be fingerprinted so that they can check your history and, (and I quote my boss) "just make sure you're not an axe murderer from Nantucket". So on Monday I went to one of the fingerprinting locations on BYU campus and asked them to fingerprint me. They informed me that "we don't do that kind of fingerprinting, we just do this other kind. You'll have to go somewhere else". By that time, everywhere else would have been closed by the time we got there.

So on Tuesday I went to the Nebo School District in Spanish Fork which apparently does "my kind" of fingerprints. I filled out some forms, and they took me into the secret fingerprinting room in the back where I washed my hands, they spritzed some water on my fingertips, then put my fingers on the digital fingerprint reader. This is when I discovered the coolest thing ever about myself: I have no fingerprints!!! ....Well, okay, I have some, but they apparently aren't very clearly defined. We tried scanning my fingerprints more than 20 times before the lady finally gave up and overrode the system, sending my fingerprints to my employer even though they sucked and didn't show up. She then proceeded to ask me if I played the piano, which I thought was the most random question in the world, but I said "yes". She said, "For how long?" I told her I'd been playing since I was 3, and she told me that sometimes piano players have really worn-down fingerprints.

Then I realized something. If I have really worn-down fingerprints and nobody can identify them, then that means the police can't identify them either!!! I could be a bank robber, a carjacker, or anything I wanted, and I wouldn't even have to bother wearing gloves!!! Any fingerprints I left would be too unidentifiable to give the police any clues. Isn't it ironic that I learned I could easily be an axe murderer through a process that was specifically designed to make sure I wasn't one? I think it's hilarious. Watch out world, here I come!!! Hide your valuables, lock up your children, because here comes *gasp* Brittany Mealey, the notorious infamous axe murderer from Nantucket!!!

I still haven't heard back from my boss (which I assume is a good thing) about my fingerprints. It's only supposed to take 48 hours for the fingerprints to get there, and I'm assuming they'd call me if there was a problem. The lady doing my fingerprints told me that it is possible that I might have to go all the way up to Salt Lake to do manual ink fingerprints if my digital ones weren't acceptable. The manual ink fingerprint process takes about 2 weeks for your results to get back, which would mean that I couldn't start work for at least 2 weeks. Which is bad, since I'm supposed to start on Thursday. But, again, I haven't heard back, so I'm assuming everything's fine.

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On Friday Christian got good news and bad news. The bad news: He didn't get the computer lab assistant job on campus. The good news: the IT department referred him to the customer service department, who offered him a job as an undercover top-secret high-security secret BYU computer lab spy!!!! (Should I even be telling anyone???) Actually, his title isn't that cool. He's really called a PICS evaluator. It stands for Program to Improve Customer Service. Basically, he goes in (undercover!) and spies on the computer lab assistants and evaluates them on their customer service skills. He has to do a mock one first (as kind of his job-interview test), which he's going to do tomorrow, and then depending on how well he does, they'll decide whether he gets the job or not. Stay tuned, ladies and gentlemen, for more exciting updates!

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We are looking forward to this coming week as Christian starts his squad leader training in preparation for marching band this fall, and as I start as an aide on Thursday (hopefully, if everything went well with my fingerprints). We love you all!!!

Love,

Christian and Brittany

We thought you was a toad...

Recipe for this week is Tamale Lentil Casserole. You can find it on this site: http://www.recipezaar.com/Tamale-Lentil-Casserole-22753

It is very delicious, and even vegetarian for those who don't want to eat meat!!!

On Monday, Christian and I participated in a psychological study on BYU campus. We each got paid $10 to take an EEG (electroencephalogram) test, which consisted of having a net of brain activity sensors (electrodes) strapped to our heads, and we had to sit in a room and push buttons for an hour. It was pretty awesome. You know you've always wanted suction cup electrodes strapped to your head like you're the patient in a bad mad scientist movie. I know I did. Christian took a picture of himself in the sensor net.

He says he felt like a luchador in it, and wanted to shout things in a Spanish accent like, "Would you like to come back to my room... for some toast?" (from the movie Nacho Libre). I thought the net was really annoying, and some of the sensors dug into my forehead. When they took the electrode net off, I looked like I had been attacked by an octopus. There were suction cup marks all over my face.

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On Tuesday we went to go see Harry Potter 6: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. **SPOILERS!!!** That part where the Inferi pop out of the water suddenly... I jumped like 2 feet out of my seat. I thought the movie was rather dark. Of course, I guess the books got darker too. **END SPOILERS**. We snuck some Whoppers, Milk Duds, and Mike & Ikes into the movies too. I crammed all 3 boxes into my small purse. To make room, I had to take some things out, so I carried my cell phone separately. But when we left the movies and got out to the car, I checked in my purse and my cell phone wasn't there. I realized I'd left it back in the movie theater on the floor. I ran back and begged the ticket girl to let me back in to get it. She let me, and luckily the cleaning people were still waiting for the credits to end so they could go in and clean. So they let me in and it was still there! I was so happy.

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We quit Netflix on Wednesday so that we didn't have to pay for our two-week trial period. The last movie we got to watch was "O Brother, Where Art Thou". It was pretty good, although some parts of it frustrated me. Like the mom. Ugh.

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Yesterday Mary and Derek came to visit us!!! They picked me up from work around 2:00, and we came back to our (Christian's and mine) apartment. Aunt Laura came to visit too for a little while before she left to go to her Singles conference. We bought some Papa Murphy's meat lovers pizza and it was delicious!!! Then we spent hours playing Apples to Apples, and then we taught Derek how to play Settlers of Catan. He was a quick learner! Then came the part we were all waiting for..... we all went to University Mall so that Mary could try on some wedding dresses!!!! The guys wandered around the mall and did top-secret manly things while I helped Mary look for wedding dresses. It was a blast!!! I loved it!!!! Here are some pictures of Mary in her favorite dress that she found.

Anyway, hope you all are doing well!!!

Love,

Brit and Chris

"Somebody's boring me. I think it's me." -- Dylan Thomas

Well, we didn't really try anything new this week for food. So we couldn't think of anything to put for a recipe. We are trying "Busy Day Casserole" tomorrow (because it's a busy day. Haha!), so we'll let you know how that goes in our next exciting installment!

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On Monday last, I (Christian) had a job interview with the BYU IT department for a on campus computer lab assistant position. It was a little weird because it was in front of about five people (which I've never experienced before). It was definitely a more real-life experience than the interviews I've had in my other jobs. I was glad for the opportunity because, even if I don't get the job, I will have had practice at real interviews instead of one where I got asked difficult questions like, "Do you like food?" (I'm not joking, I was actually asked that when applying at Panera Bread.) Anyway, I felt like my experience at OfficeTeam really helped. Hopefully it will come through. I'm ready to get busy again.

Brittany started working with her cousin (B) and loves spending time with her. Monday, she was over there and giving B a chair elevator ride. Well, when the "elevator" went to the "basement" (aka crash onto the floor) the chair seat cracked right in half. It was an older chair, and too small for B, but it was still a little traumatizing for both of them. We felt so bad for breaking her therapy chair, so we went to DI on Tuesday and bought an ugly folding chair and a cute bedsheet (with purple flowers on it), with which Brittany reupholstered the chair (and by reupholstered, I mean cut it up and duct tape/staple it on :-p). It looks really great, although you wouldn't think so. She's amazing like that.

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Thursday Brittany was off work, so we went on a little picnic in some shade next to the Wilk. In Brittany's words, "We spread out a big blanket, and we brought along a cooler, and we ate tuna sandwiches, and apples, and we drank water, and it was really cute." Nuff said. We got stopped by an interviewer who wanted our opinions on a really controversial issue lately on campus, mixed-gender campouts. "We got to say we were married on camera!" says Brit lol. Only girls can get excited about such things. I just smile and say she's cute for getting excited about it.

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We finished the last of Gilmore Girls season 7 (the final season) last night. I don't know about Brittany, but it made me ponder my own college graduation in a few years as Rory graduated from Yale. It's coming up really fast. This show actually had some pretty good insights over the couple seasons that I've watched. I guess it wasn't TOO terribly insulting to my manhood to watch, but they still talk so incredibly way too exceedingly fast. Good thing we had subtitles.

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Today I received a calling in our new ward. How this happened, I don't know because our records aren't even in the ward yet, but I'm sure it'll get worked out. I was called as the Redeeming the Dead Committee Chair in the West Elders Quorum (yes, our ward has two elders quorums). Not exactly sure what that all entails, but they're emailing my list of responsibilities. They said I would basically be in charge of encouraging members to do family history and attending the temple, but also to keep a journal, etc for posterity. I think that's, in part, telling me that I need to keep a journal too. So I'm repenting, and beginning (again) today on my journal. So far I have a total of one and a half filled (probably a total of maybe 100 pages) and they date back to June 1998. Oh well, such is life to get start overs.

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This week was kind of boring for us because of 1) lack of fun money in our budget haha! and 2) just not a lot going on. The next couple weeks should be more interesting, and we're ready for them to come. Love ya

Bye