Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

Because we got into San Jose on the 31st (last Sunday), and stayed up for 22 hours straight - we kind of skipped writing our email that week. Which is unfortunate, because we had so much going on that it will be hard to keep it straight now. But we shall try.  read more »

What a fun week. We spent the first half of the week getting ready for our trip. I made sure I could connect to work remotely, since we were planning on having me work remotely a couple of days so I didn't have to dip into negative PTO hours. We packed and cleaned out our fridge of almost all our food. We took our keys to Star's sitters (and enjoyed a silly, fun movie called Shaolin Soccer with Chris and Alyssa). We arranged for the taxi to come pick us up. And then we laid low until Wednesday morning.  read more »

Rebecca and I have decided that this year was a terrible year for movies. After eight months since we've last been to the theaters, we rented Pirates of the Caribbean 2, to see if it was worth it. And I think the first time we watched it we were just as confused as the first time we watched Master and Servant -- totally lost. Not only could we not understand what half the characters were saying, but the plot made no sense. So we watched it again. The next day. And then I think I can reconcile it as being an "alright" film.  read more »

I had a great idea this week. Christmas is my favorite holiday of all, mostly because we have such great traditions that we enjoy and look forward to. Some holidays (like the 4th of July) we end up doing something different all the time so it's just...different. There's something to be said for persistent traditions. That said, we started off the holiday season with our advent calendar (with little chocolate pieces in each day) and reading a story and singing a Christmas song and reading a scripture about the Savior every day until Christmas.  read more »

being so close to the end of the semester always wears us out. even when only one of us is in school.

and being worn down means that we are more vulnerable to sickness. which is what we had most of this week.

sickness aside, we still managed to get out a bit this week. we even stayed out until two in the morning working on a show friday evening, which probably wasn't such a smart idea for our already weak bodies.  read more »

The main event of the week was Thanksgiving, of course. It was the first Thanksgiving I've ever had that wasn't with family of some sort. We were invited to the house of one of Wayne's colleagues. Julie had 12 people over, including us, most of the people having some connection to art. I was a little stressed before we got there, because for some reason I felt like the cake I made needed to look really professional, and I thought it just looked messy (the frosting was dripping everywhere...).  read more »

We like having visitors. Especially since we are living on the other side of the continent from all our family. So we were happy this week to visit with Rebecca's father who came out for a class that his employer offered to pay for. The visit, however, could not have come at a worse time for me. I was rarely home before 8:30 (or 9:30...) this week.  read more »

Well. We went to campus a lot this week; not just Wayne, but I did as well. I would go home, grab some food and a picnic basket, grab a book or the laptop, and run meet him in his studio so he could keep painting in the evening. We did this several nights, and made a trip Saturday afternoon/evening as well. He has a show to put up this Friday and is trying to finish up the large painting that is in progress right now. I think he'll be done in time, but we'll see what this week holds. [I think that I'm finally feeling like I'm in a Masters program. -wayne]  read more »

Rebecca and I need to learn a few things about throwing parties. First thing: we should invite more people. Not that having two people come over for a 'party' isn't fun - we had fun for our "Halloween Party," but I feel a bit guilty calling it a party when there are only four of us.  read more »

I'm late writing this, I know, but it always takes a bit to adjust to normal life after a long car trip. And then there was Halloween. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Last week was our annual trip to the Oregon coast. I used my first PTO day, and we left Thursday night right after work/school. From our place to Florence is only a ten hour drive -- not too shabby -- but we thought since it is such a short trip and we would beat Jon and Faith there either way, we would split the trip up in half. So we planned on camping at the halfway point, which, conveniently enough, was around the Mount Shasta area and there were plenty of campgrounds to choose from.  read more »