Gogie and Wife

Dear Marvel

2012-01-14T12:14:00.000-08:00

Please make a new Hulk television series. I think he is the best character out of all the Marvel Universe to translate to television. I know that most of the world was disappointed with the movies (I wasn't. I especially liked the Edward Norton version and was disappointed to find out he is not playing the hulk in the new Avengers movie), but I think that is because two hours is not enough to develop the character and his story. He is too big of a character (both literally and figuratively) to work in a solo movie. Also, with a television series you can show/explain his origin in the opening credits and not waste time on it during the show.

Your comics are mostly great even though you have run out of bad guys and have to pit the good guys against each other. You have shown that super-hero movies can be good with out Batman in them. (Though I think it was a mistake to redo the Spider-man origin story. We all know how he became Spider-man. You should have just jumped right in to him being in High School, like you did with Spectacular Spider-man). I have watch all of your cartoons (Every time I watch my copies of Spectacular Spider-man and Wolverine and the X-men I am sad that they had to be cancelled due to conflicts with the Disney merger). I think live television is the next step for your company and trust me, the hulk is the best. I mean, he is the strongest there is!

Sincerely,

Mike T.

Tummy Time Video

2012-01-06T11:47:00.000-08:00

We have gotten a lot better about doing tummy time with Stevie and he is getting a lot better at holding his head up. Here is a video of him.

Then this one day, Stevie completely turned himself around while laying on his play mat. His feet are normally supposed to be by the piano keys, but by wiggling and turning his body, Stevie managed to put his head toward the keys. He also manage to wrestle a toy off with his foot.

And just a couple of more pictures of Stevie.

He has been sticking his tongue out a lot lately.

Christmas 2011

2012-01-06T11:34:00.000-08:00

Better late than never, right! We had a lot of fun this Christmas just relaxing at home and being able to share it with Stevie. We now have three stockings on the wall.

First things first. Stevie had to eat before presents. I wonder how many more Christmases it will be like that

The Bubba really focused hard to get the paper off.

Stevie has so many new toys to play with now. This is a fake cd player that lights up and sings nursery rimes and lights up.

A little chew toy.

Dad got a hat that covers his ears from Uncle David's family, and Stevie got a really cool bear beanie with matching mittens and also the complete Mother Goose Nursery Rimes.

Stephanie's Mom and Dad gave a nice gift card to Kohl's and new pots and pans! They are great, we have been wanting to get new ones for a while, and these ones are perfect. We have already done some cooking with them and nothing sticks, and they heat up really evenly.

The Bubba got tired of sitting with us, so he chilled in his swing.

This toy, when you pull it, shakes.

Aaron and Ema gave Stevie this book on the alphabet with animals. It is really cool because it has the letter and then the tail of the animal, and then you slide it over and it shows the whole animal. Very cool.

They also gave us another one that has textures with the animals, like fur and scales, for Stevie to touch.

Daddy got Stevie this little Hulk doll. Stevie likes it except when he puts Hulk's hair in his mouth. He always makes a ewwww face afterwards.

This toy from Steph's parents is a car that moves when Stevie shakes the rattle. It can go in circles or straight.

They also got him a bunch of nice clothes. Some jean pants too. He is wearing them today.

Next he got some shake toys, and a cell phone with car keys. The cell phone lets you record your voice that will then play when he presses a button.

A couple of little Spanish books.

Yay, Star Wars.

This plays 4 classical music songs.

Dad got him this hat from the Gap for only $1. Very cool.

Mom got this music sticky note pad and mug from her friend Courtney.

Aaron and Ema got us all six Star Wars movies on Blu-ray! Yay!

Steph got me two of my favorite movies from this year: Captain America and X-men First Class.

I got Steph these Nightmare Before Christmas socks.

Steph's parents got us this tile that we have put either in the kitchen or the living room, we haven't decided which yet.

Steph got me this little Hex bug. It is a crab that changes directions when you clap at it.

And a Nightmare Before Christmas shirt that says, "Simply meant to be".

I got the complete works of Edgar Allen Poe. It has every poem, story, essays and his one play and novel. Awesome.

And some Batman ear buds.

Steph got this cool case for her ipad from me, inside it has space for a little notepad, pen, and credit cards.

And some new earrings.

Later Steph, our master chef, made Cornish Game Hens for dinner. They were so delicious, with roasted potatoes.

It was a very good Christmas, and lots of fun watching Stevie play with all his new toys. I hope all of you had a really good Christmas too.

Giggles

2011-12-27T19:19:00.000-08:00

Stevie loves to giggle. Mike and I spend a lot of our time trying to make him giggle.

Today I coughed and Stevie just thought it was the funniest thing. So we quickly whipped out the camera. Enjoy!

San Antonio

2011-12-24T15:04:00.000-08:00

This December 19th through the 21st, Steph, the Bubba and I went to San Antonio for my youngest brother's wedding. It was a little hectic flying with a 4 month old, mainly because we had to hold him the whole flight. Both the arrival and departure flights were full, and bumpy so we couldn't really get up and walk around or those kind of things. The 19th is my Dad's birthday so we had cake and ice cream to celebrate. We also exchanged Christmas presents at this time. Paul had our name and he gave us Oogie Bogie Yatzee, Newsie's and Lego keychains (I got Darth Vader and Steph got Hermione). Way cool. My mom made us some new pillow cases, a Texas license plate cut out in the shape of Texas and we got some fudge from the Hetherington's (very good friends of the family).

Steph with Stevie's head and Gena in the background.

Grandpa with my niece baby Becki.

Grandpa eating his cake with Sam and Sister Duncan.

Grandma and the Bubba. James married Kristin on Tuesday at the San Antonio Temple. It is a smaller temple but gorgeous. It has stained glass windows everywhere. The inside has a lot of dark woodwork. Also in the hallway, there is a waterfall with lights shining in it that makes it look like fire.

The cousins.

The happy couple, James and Kristin Talley.

The temple is really high up on a hill and it over looks San Antonio. The last day in San Antonio we were able to see the Alamo. The cool thing about it is it is right smack dab in the middle of San Antonio. It looks pretty cool, but then you go inside and it is tiny!

Yay, for a happy family.

Stevie was a pretty good baby all day long. One of Stephanie's friends met up with us there. Charlene and my wife had been friends since school in California. They now live in Houston and we got to hang out with them for about half a day.

This is Eli, one of her kids.

Here we are at the six flags of Texas.

This really cool statue is right in front of the Alamo.

Here are all the heroes such as Davy Crocket, Jim Bowie and Travis.

Yay, for Steph and Charlene.

That was our trip to San Antonio. Lots of fun but super short. To close here is a picture of Stevie eating a doughnuts.

December picutres

2011-12-17T11:19:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

Yes I am wearing my work badge in this picture. This month we have tried to do more tummy time with the Stevie because he is getting a flat head in the back. We try to do about an hour/day. He is extremely smiley and happy baby.

His new favorite thing to do is to grab his burp cloth and eat it. Loves to just pick it up and bring it to his mouth.

Also we got the Bumpo to help him sit up. He is doing pretty well with that. He likes to sit in it most of the time.

We also just went to his 4 month appointment, he is 25 inches and weighs 16 lbs and 12 oz. He is a big boy! We also got him this play mat that has a piano he can kick. He loves to grab the dangling toys, and later the piano folds up so he can sit at it and play.

Videos!

2011-11-29T21:43:00.001-08:00

I apologize for the poor lighting or bad angles, but if he notices that we are videoing him, Stevie stops whatever we wanted to capture. Here he is kicking his legs. He is a very wiggly boy, and lately he will look like he is concentrating and then just kicks like crazy. He also has taken to studying his hands.

And here is a more fun video of him giggling. He is a happy baby and is very quick to smile and laugh or giggle. Enjoy!

Ready for Christmas

2011-11-27T14:01:00.001-08:00

Since Steph caught a really bad cold this weekend after every one left, and I have the start of one, we decided to stay home from church today to get things ready for Christmas! We cleared off our kitchen table (so the cat can't mess with the tree) and set up the tree! We each got an ornament this year, now that it is more than just me and Steph.

This will probably be the last year we do a little tree as our main tree but isn't it cool? We already have some present all wrapped up for the tree too. Most are from Grandparents to a certain new member of our family.

This is Steph's ornament of Snowman Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas

Yay! Stevie's first Christmas Ornament!

This is Mike's ornament of Spider-man.

And one last shot of our Christmas tree! Now it is just the waiting game.

Baby Blessing

2011-11-27T13:40:00.001-08:00

This Thanksgiving was a lot of fun because we had family from both sides come up to see Stevie's blessing.
He was such a happy baby all day long, like he new what was going on that day. Here he is in his new suit:

So cute! We ended up blessing him the day after Thanksgiving. It went pretty well. Our Bishop is a nurse so he got called into work right before the blessing, so the second counselor came and officiated.

Here is Stevie and his month younger cousin Rebecca

Here is Stevie with his almost 3 years older cousin Jodi.

And here is all three cousins. I am not sure what Stevie and Becky thought was so interesting to their left.

4 generations. Great Grandpa Pedersen, Grandpa Pedersen, Dad, Stevie, and Grandpa Talley

4 generations. Great Grandma Pedersen, Grandma Pedersen, Stevie, Mom, and Grandma Talley.

Talley Family

Pedersen Family (I know, Grandma Pedersen hopefully has a better picture she can send us).

All of us!

It was a fun day. We all ate at Joe Vera's Mexican Restaurant, which is probably the best Mexican food in Provo. Then later the boys and the girls went shopping (boys went to pet stores and girls mostly clothes). The Pedersen clan, I think, went and saw the new Twilight movie. James's fiancee Kristen came and hung out with us for a couple of hours. We also saw the new Muppet movie, which if you are fan of the Muppets, go see it. I loved it. However, if you are not a fan of the Muppets, this movie wont convince you to be one. It has a lot of singing and dancing, and corny, hilarious Muppet jokes.f It is a good tribute, a welcome back after years of being away.

Sick Stevie

2011-11-27T13:27:00.001-08:00

These past week or so, Stevie has been sick. It is so sad. He has this cough that is very nasty and wet, and sometimes has a wheezing sound when he breathes. We took him to the doctor and we have to give him this breathing treatment every 4 or 6 hours. At first Stevie hated it.

Man he would just cry and scream, wondering why his parents were being so mean! Luckily he is more or less used to it now. Most of the time he is asleep or he will just sit there. Here is a more happy picture.

New Look!

2011-11-05T12:53:00.001-07:00

Our blog has a new look! We decided to try out the Dynamic Views template on blogger that allows our readers to choose how they view our blog. The bar at the top has several different views for you to click on, so try them out! Magazine view is our default, so you'll be able to see snippets of a lot of our posts. To view the entire post, just click on it. Enjoy!

October Stevie Pictures!

2011-10-31T18:23:00.000-07:00

A lot of people have asked us to post new pics of Stevie, so here they are! He has been especially cute this month, with lots of smiles, laughs, and wiggles. He's also gotten huge! Last week at the doctor he weighed in at 14 pounds and was almost 25 inches long. We love our little man!

Stevie and Kitty watching General Conference together. :)

Big smile!

Sleepy sleepy!

Awake!

Smiley boy!

Munching on a toy.

Little Pumpkin!

Cousins Stevie the pumpkin and Rebekah the sushi.

Hermione Granger, a punk rocker, and a little pumpkin.

Wiggles!

Smiles!

Dart Frog Terrarium

2011-10-23T21:56:00.000-07:00

Well since we did a update on Stevie, I don't feel bad about giving an update on a Dart Frog Vivarium I have been working on for the past two months or so. I have had this 20 long gallon tank for about a year now, that I have been using to try and grow some carnivorous plants from seeds. Only two of the plants sprouted and then withered, so I decided to turn the tank to a living space for a couple of Dart Frogs. I really wanted to do a waterfall with this aquarium and try to do a river. It took me a while to find all the supplies. I started with making a plan, and using egg crate (egg crate is a type of light diffuser that you can put under fluorescent lights to help them shine) to make a false bottom. A false bottom is to help the soil from getting too soggy. A frog terrarium has to be kept super wet, but it is bad for the plants (and sometimes the frog too) if the soil is super wet, instead of just wet. So the water will drip down through the soil through the egg crate into the chamber below (it is three inches). This is the water that the fountain pump will use. This was the hardest part of the whole process, how to be positive (with out having to go out and buy more supplies, that is) that this is how the tank is going to be set up.

After I that step done and committed to it, I decided to start on the waterfall. Here are all the pieces of Styrofoam before I glued them together.

Then I glued them all together so that it looks all rocky, but I didn't think about how hard it would be to get the grout all in those cracks! Fortunately it wasn't that hard, I just had to make one of the coats of grout a little runny to be able to soak through all the cracks and cover everything. I did three coats of grout. I had to let each coat dry, which is why this process took the longest. After the grout was dry I used a gloved finger to spread on some sealant. This part was just as tricky as the grout, but I got it water tight.

Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of just the waterfall all done, but here it is all sealed up against the glass, and with the black ground cover over the egg crate (to act as a filter). This is an upgrade from the window screen cover I used to cover the Clown Tree Frogs egg crate with; this will be a way better filter and the water will be a little clearer and free of debris for the waterfall.

Here is a close up of it.

So for the rest of the steps I also didn't remember to take pictures. You can always go to frogforum.net and look up terrarium/vivarium builds to see pictures. First I took some great stuff foam spray (that you use for gaps between cracks in your attic or around pipes to keep out bugs and the weather) and foamed onto the glass a piece of driftwood with some peat pots, to put some plants on the background. I had one can of black foam, which I used around the waterfall since some you will be able to see and the other can is a yellow foam (cheaper). Once the foam had cured, I shaved it down to fit the tank better (it expanded a lot). Then again with a gloved finger, I would smear on black silicone over an area of the foam and then press in dirt (coco fiber substrate left over from when I did the hanging pots in the Clown Tree Frog Terrarium). This gives the background that naturalistic look. That dirt should stay in there for a very long time, very long. I then got all my plants in there and I think it looks great! Here are some finished pictures. The lighting was kind of horrible and I kept getting bad reflections on the glass, so most of the pictures are bird's eye views.

That space that the cord is coming out of in that last picture is left that way, in case I ever need to reach my hand down there to get to the pump to fix it or anything (I can also use it to siphon off extra water if need be). I will later change the post to show what kind of plants are where in the vivarium (most are either a type of fern or moss).All I need to do to finish the project is drill some holes in the glass top (which I actually cut the glass out to fit the top this weekend; that was quite the experience!) for the mister nozzle. That drill bit hole cutter is coming in the mail as I could not find it at the hardware stores (same kind you use on tile). This going to be a home for a pair of one of the following frogs:Dendrobates Auratus "Turquoise and Bronze"

Dendrobates Auratus "Green and Black (from any of the countries they came from, but now the captive bred lines)"

Dendrobates Tinctorius "Inferalanis"

All of the above frogs can be bought from Josh's Frogs (joshsfrogs.com). I only buy captive bred frogs, and I have dealt with them in the past and though I will still shop around to see all my options, I will probably still buy my frogs from them.

New pictures of Stevie!

2011-10-22T21:57:00.000-07:00

We are so lucky to have a very healthy and extremely good baby (in the sense he does not cry or scream all the time). He will 10 weeks this Tuesday (10/25) and we couldn't be more happy to share our lives with him. He is now sleeping through the night; he goes to bed around 10 and doesn't wake back up until 6 or 7 am, for about the past week to two weeks now. The only problem is he will only sleep this long if he is in his car seat (sorry mom)! We are trying to get him used to sleeping in the crib little by little, but since Mommy and Daddy like their sleep, the car seat is going to be used for the next little while. We went to the doctor yesterday for his 2 month appointment, and he weighs 14 lbs! Crazy! He is in the 95% in weight and height (24 3/4 inches). So our challenge is to try and go longer between feedings and we need to do more tummy time (he hates it!). His eyes have stayed a nice blue color, but of course that can still change, but Steph has her fingers crossed it wont. He did get his shots so he has been a little fussy, and the doctor said he probably will be for the weekend or so. Enjoy the pictures! I know a lot of you have commented that we should have lots of pictures, but we really don't have that many....we will try and do better at taking more!

He loves to watch the TV, takes after his Dad.

Lost almost all his baby hair, and don't worry, those scratches are now gone (a one year old wanted to play with him).

Exercise is hard!

So cute and happy (thanks Melissa and Levi, it now fits him!)

Jack o Lanterns 2011

2011-10-22T21:44:00.000-07:00

We always try to make time to carve some pumpkins for Halloween. This was Steph's and mine fifth time to carve pumpkins together. We carved on for Stevie too. We carved them last week. Sadly my pumpkin got really moldy and already rotten so it gave up the ghost today.

The Hospital Stay

2011-09-28T19:56:00.001-07:00

When my doctor was confident that I had stopped bleeding, I was allowed to order dinner. And I was STARVING! I ordered pasta and an Oreo milk shake, and it was delicious. They even delivered it to my room!

Mike went with the nurse when she took Stevie down to the nursery to be bathed. Mom stayed with me. My nurse helped me get out of bed and wheeled me to the bathroom to clean up. Fun! Haha. Then we gathered up our stuff and went down to the Mother/Baby floor where we would stay for the next two days. Mike was waiting for us, holding Stevie in the nursery.

Mom went to Grandma Pedersen's house to sleep, and Mike stayed with me. I don't think he got a ton of sleep. We kept Stevie with us, and Mike got up and held him when he was crying. I could barely move around, and my butt felt like I had been sitting on a rock for three days.

The next day, we just hung out at the hospital. I napped off and on, took my meds, and even showered. My doctor came by to visit and I was recovering fine. That night we had some friends and family come visit and hang out. They even brought me treats!

Mike went home to sleep that night, and I had the nurse take Stevie to the nursery so I could get some sleep. Best decision ever! The next morning my doctor came back to check on me and give me prescriptions to take home. She also did Stevie's circumcision. She said he cried more on the way back to our room than he did during the procedure!

A photographer came by the room and took some pictures of Stevie in a basket. They turned out super cute, so Mom bought us a bunch of them. It's amazing how perfect Stevie looked as a day-old baby. We'll try to scan some of the pictures to post on here.

After we got the picture ordering figured out, I ate lunch and we made the final preparations to go home. The last nurse that I had was actually the mother of one of my sixth graders. Her son was our class clown, and he was hilarious and super sweet. She was way nice and let me have two of the free formula gifts. She also told me to take everything I wanted from the room, so we had a bag full of diapers, pads, medical mats, Tucks pads, and a ton of other stuff.

So we gathered our stuff and checked out of the hospital!

Hippity, hoppity

2011-09-20T21:28:00.000-07:00

I know that all of you are wondering about my animals and how they are doing, so here is an update on the Frogs! The terrarium is growing in nicely. Here is the before picture:

And here is a current picture! Look how much that vine on the bottom left (looking at the screen) has grown up! And notice the pots of vines that I put on the sides. I added some pink plants and that is a rainbow moss in the front, it has grown to start covering the floor, and it shouldn't choke out the other plants.

Yes, that is Pepe on the side there! I still have yet to get a picture of both Pepe and Guadalupe de Maria. Guadalupe is just too shy. But not Pepe, he usually hangs around and waits for me to put in the fruit flies so he can eat. I have seen Guadalupe, and she is just as healthy as Pepe!
Here are a couple more pictures of Pepe:

On the glass.

On a vine (he didn't much want to look at the camera)! Isn't he pretty? (Hint: the answer is yes).

Steph is writing an update on our life and baby so stay tuned for that!

The Birth

2011-09-16T16:14:00.000-07:00

Mike and I were just talking about how crazy the last six weeks have been, and I realized I still hadn't posted a blog about it. So here we go!

Stevie was originally due on August 9th, so I had nothing planned for that week. Mike had even found someone to cover for him at work, but we waited and waited and still Stevie didn't come. That Friday, I had an appointment with my doctor, and she said she wanted to induce me within the week because she was worried that my pelvis would be too small for the baby. So she scheduled me to be induced on Monday the 15th.

Monday morning, Mike and I got up early, showered, did the dishes, and made sure we were ready to go to the hospital. While waiting for the hospital to call us in, we just lounged on the couch. At about 9:00am, we called them to see how much longer we needed to wait. They said there were still three people ahead of me on the induction list, and to call back if we hadn't been called in by 2:00pm. At about 1:00pm, they called us to say that they were completely full and that there were still three people ahead of me. So it was decided that we were being bumped to Tuesday morning.

I was really upset, crying a ton, and Mike was very frustrated as well, but we just made the most of it and went out to eat for dinner.

Tuesday morning the hospital called at about 6:30am and we checked in at about 7:00am. The nurse checked me, got me hooked up to an IV, put on the belt monitors, and got me all situated. Around 8:30am they started me on the Pitocin. We sat around for a few hours and I still wasn't feeling any contractions. By then the nurse had turned up the Pitocin to the maximum amount you're allowed to have, so she suggested that they break my water to get things going.

They said I could get the epidural before having my water broken, so the anesthesiologist came in and got that going. Then an intern came in to break my water. She was having a lot of trouble, and it was taking forever (thank goodness I couldn't feel anything with the epidural), so the nurse had to do it. She also hooked up a heart monitor to Stevie's head.

The nurse checked me a little while after they broke my water, and I was at 5 cm. I got stuck there for a couple hours, and they put in an internal monitor so they could measure the strength of my contractions.

At about 5:00pm she checked me and I was at 10cm. I tried pushing but nothing happened because I was numb from the epidural. We waited 20 minutes to let my uterus do some work on its own, and my doctor arrived. Around 5:20 I tried pushing and this time it looked like I was making some progress. My doctor decided to turn off the epidural so that I would begin to feel the contractions.

I pushed for an hour, while Mike held my hand. I did NOT use the mirror, because there was no way I wanted to watch that. When the doctor could see the baby's head, I asked what color the hair was, and was excited to learn that it looked dark brown like Mike's. By the end of the hour of pushing, I could feel the contractions a lot better and that really helped me push.

My mom arrived at about 6:20, and at about 6:30 Stevie was born! The plopped him on my chest, and I didn't even care that he was all gooey. I was just amazed that there was a baby! Mike and Mom promptly got out the cameras and their phones and they were taking pictures of the baby as he was weighed and cleaned and measured. I don't even remember delivering the placenta, and while the doctor was getting me stitched up Mike and Mom were shoving phones in my face. Half the time I didn't even know who I was talking to.

I got to hold Stevie while my doctor checked everything out. It took a bit longer than normal because she was worried that I was still bleeding a bit. My sister hemorrhaged after her delivery, so my doctor wanted to be extra careful considering the family history. I couldn't believe how beautiful Stevie was. I had been expecting a squished, blotchy, alien-ish newborn, but he was perfect. Not splotchy, lots of hair, not squished. Mike and I were both in love with our little Stevie.

Yay! Stevie is here!

2011-08-19T21:16:00.000-07:00

Yay! For baby...

Stephen Wayne Talley was born on August 16, 2011 at 6:34 pm. He was 7 lbs 15 oz and 21.5 inches. Here are some pictures!

Stephen's Room!

2011-07-22T20:12:00.000-07:00

Because our apartment is by no means a permanent home, and because we didn't have a ton of money to spend cutesie-fying a nursery, we weren't really planning on doing much in the way of decorating baby Stephen's room. But as we looked at bedding, and then I had the idea to make a photoboard myself, we decided to do a little bit of budget decorating. The pictures aren't great because the lighting is bad, but in person it actually looks pretty cute. At least, I'm happy with it. :)

Bedding sets can be quite expensive (some of them are even more expensive than our actual crib was!), and with a newborn, you're not supposed to put anything in the crib except for a sheet, so we scrapped the idea of buying a bedding set. Instead, we decided on a solid colored sheet and I bought some matching ribbon from Walmart to tie bows on the crib. The blanket draped over the crib was just one of the many we have been given, so we didn't have to buy that.

Mike's mom offered to make us a window valance to decorate the window side of the room. She even trimmed it in the same material that I used to make the photoboard.

Finally, we bought some dinosaur decals for the walls. I also went to this place in Spanish Fork to have Stephen's name custom printed in vinyl letters to stick on the wall. It was super cheap, but it makes the room look pretty fun!

That's all the cutest stuff. Here's some pictures of our changing table, Stephen's closet, and a baby's first year calendar. Next weekend we're going to get another little dresser because babies need a lot of stuff and we are running out of places to put it all! :)

Penguin Encounters

2011-07-20T12:24:00.000-07:00

This is something my older brother and I did a while back but I haven't blogged about it yet. We did the Penguin Encounters at the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. I love going to aquariums and zoos, and this aquarium, while small, is still pretty cool. They have this behind the scenes tour of their Penguin exhibit that my brother and I decided to go to. It costs about 35 bucks I think. Anyway, they let you sit in a room with the Gentoo Penguins! (these are the same penguins in Mr. Popper's Penguins). It was way cool. First you go into a room where they explain the rules. No touching or kicking or any of that. They also explain a little bit about Penguins. Then they take you to a little area where you put on one of their puffy coats as it is very cold in the enclosure. We go behind many of the exhibits where you can see their birds they use for shows, and some of the huge filter systems they have for their aquariums. Then they take you to this little square room that smells strongly of fish, which you do get used to, but it was almost enough to make me gag at first. This room is connected to the Penguin enclosure. So a lady opens up the door and the penguins are free to enter and exit the room.

Now these penguins are very curious so we at least had one in there with us at all times. We were in the room for about 45 minutes. I think at most there were like 8 at a time.

We (me, my brother, and 6 other people) were all sitting on these benches built into the wall. The penguins were allowed to come straight up to us and peck at our jeans and shoes.

I was sitting by the door where we entered the room, and the penguins liked to go to that door to inspect it. That meant that I had a penguin near me almost always.
Here are a couple of pictures of the penguin pecking at my shoes and jeans!

It was courtship season when we went so the penguins were doing all kinds of things. One thing they do is waddle there heads side to side at each other while making a funny noise. I got a video of that on my phone (which of course I need some kind of cable to get the video off my phone so it wont be on here). They would also bow to each other at the same time. A quick up and down action...

They would also pretend the tennis balls were eggs.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun to be that up close and personal. These penguins are on loan from some place in Houston, Tx. Basically the living aquaruim gets to keep the penguins for 10 years and they get to keep every other batch of eggs. They hope to teach the new born chicks to be nicer to people so that when people go to the Penguin Encounters they will be able to touch and hold the penguins.

Fun fact: Penguins waddle because their hips are low and back, that is why they have to hold out their arms while they walk around.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone! And now enjoy a photo of my mom with John Casey and Kitty.

Pedersen Family Reunion

2011-07-03T21:12:00.000-07:00

This week has been a lot of fun for Steph and I, though it didn't start that way for me. Sunday night I started to cough bad, and Monday I woke up really early wheezing and just having a hard time breathing. After convincing myself to wait until my doctor's office was open, I went and I have walking pneumonia, though since my family has a history of asthma, they also think I might have allergy induced asthma. The doctor said that this season has just been horrible for a lot of people. I have never had any problems with allergies before this year, and man IT SUCKS! I have not been able to wear contacts since spring/summer. But enough about that.

Monday afternoon, we went up to Bear Lake to do a family reunion with Steph's family. It was a little different for us because none of her immediate family came, we were the only ones representing them, but her family is so open and inviting that it is easy to be comfortable with them. We played games, had a day at the lake, ate a lot of food, and I taught everyone a line dance. Lots of card games (which everyone in her family cheats, everyone). It was a very relaxing few days, very nice. Her family loves telling stories, so lots of laughs as well.

We left on Wednesday because my family came into town for the weekend! Enjoy some pictures!
Steph and Grandma Ped

Line Dancing!

Mike teaching line dancing.

Review: One Hundred Years of Solitude

2011-06-29T17:57:00.000-07:00

"Here's something...The book can also be a hat"

I finished it! It actually was not that bad. It was great! I read One Hundred Years of Solitude in Spanish by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (I would have put the title in Spanish but I can't figure out how to put the siggle over the n, and if you don't, it turns the word years into a very different word!) and I think that it took me a little less than 2 weeks! I loved it, tho it kind of died towards the end, literally. I have read multiple short stories, and short novels (80 pages or so) by this author before. He is really famous for using a type of narrative called magic realism (lots of people think this is just when "magical" or "fantastical" things happen in normal situations, but it is more like when miracles happen) and this book did not disappoint. The book starts of just kind of explaining how the first member of the family is a little eccentric. He dabbles in alchemy and writes a book in a language no one can read. It then goes to talk about his prosperity detailing their lives and their deaths. All of the family suffers from being solitary people, or they had found happiness but lost it. They also establish a town. The main or probably most important character of the novel (560 pages, with chapters about every 23 pages or so...like only deviating one or two pages...crazy) is General Buendia. He tries to overthrow the government and fails. The book spends a lot of time on him, a whole lot, but my favorite character was the mom Ursula. She was the glue that held the family together and lived like a 140 years. Some of the miracles that happened were one girl (the most beautiful) was lifted up into heaven, as in people witnessed her, naked in her sheets, being lifted into heaven, and it raining for four years straight without ever letting up (in order to kick the evil banana corporations). The book ends when everyone but one character dies (the town dies with them). The last character basically learns to read the book the first family member wrote. It turns out to be the novel your reading, or in other words he detailed the lives of all of his prosperity before they were alive (clever huh). This last heir tries to get to the end of the book about him but the actual novel ends with this guy realizing he will never finish the book.

And Kudos to whoever can figure out what the caption is referencing.

Baby Shower

2011-06-22T15:11:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted. Gogie is much better about blogging than I am. But I wanted to share some pictures and stuff from the baby shower!

My Aunt Shelly and Grandma Pedersen offered to throw me a shower, which actually was really fun! The people who came were Grandma Pedersen, Aunt Shelly, cousins Megan and McKayla, Aunt Sheryl, Aunt Shauna, cousins Shantell and Shari, Shari's daughter Cherisse, cousin-in-law Caroline, Mike's Aunt Shanna, my sister-in-law Emily, and my friends Emily, Rachel, and Linda.

We played several games (which I actually didn't mind), one of which I won! I guessed that there were 270 skittles in the baby bottle, and there were 269! How cool is that? Haha. We also had to guess which candy bars were melted in the diapers, which baby foods were in the unlabeled jars (just by look, not by taste), and we had to complete the nursery rhymes. I wasn't very good at that one.

After we played games, we ate Grandma's scrumptious chicken salad over rice, along with fresh fruit, homemade rolls, and chocolate covered strawberries. I ate first so I could open gifts while everyone else ate. I got a ton of clothes and blankets, among a few other fun things!

Overall it was a very fun party! Here's some of the stuff we got:

Green Rider Book Review

2011-06-22T12:58:00.000-07:00

I thought I would do another book review as I have recently read a ton of books. This series is definitely one of the best I have read in a while. The Green Rider by Kristen Britian is a series about a kingdom, so it is a fantasy series. The way I found out about this series is I saw one of my co-workers Julie reading the latest book. I went to wikipedia, read some summaries and read reviews on Amazon. It made me interested enough to buy it on my nook. I loved it. Absolutely loved it. It is set in kind of a Medival type setting and there is some magic that happens in the book. The series mostly follows the main character, Karigan, as she is first called to be a Green Rider, or a messenger for the King. She gets into a lot of adventures, and uncovers many plots against the king or the kingdom, most of the time finding out about them by accident! These riders are given a magical ability unique to them (like Karigan's is a fading/invisibilty thing or another rider's ability is to tell when people are telling the truth or lying). The series also has multiple little plots that evolve from book to book. Like, for example, in the first book, an evil elf (a little gay sounding I know) starts some magic to tear down a wall, which is very minor in the first book, but becomes increasingly important as the series continues. The author also will tell side stories or subplots from different character's points of view as needed, usually telling the story from the bad guys point of view so the reader can know what is going on with them.

The only downfall of this series is the author, and I don't mean her writing style. The books are not hard to read and I got through them fairly quickly (and I will definitely reread them, their worth it :). The author, however, takes
years to write each book. Years! Here is a list of when each book came out:
The Green Rider 1998
The First Rider's Call 2003
The High King's Tomb 2007
Blackveil 2011
Yes, that is an average of 4 years between each book. Dumb. But the books are good enough to start now!

Pepe!

2011-06-20T18:35:00.001-07:00

Yes, yes I know another update on my fabulous frogs! Actually just one of them...I hae the hardest time getting a picture of the actual frogs because, well, they are active at night! So last night I decide to try and get some pictures of them but only Pepe was out, Guadalupe de Maria was stile hiding (which is normal for her)...enjoy the pictures
Here is a shot of Pepe on a leaf...he is kind of hiding, can you spot him?

This is how I check my frogs at night. Anytime I get up to get a drink or pee or whatever I take my little flashlight on my night stand and look to see what the frogs are doing! (This is just by the light of the flashlight, no flash).

And here he is on a branch...

And this is the terrarium as of 06/20/11 and will probably be how it is from now on...(except the plants will grow all over!) meaning I wont be adding anymore hardware (at least for a while :).

I try and get Steph to get on here and tell you about the baby shower and her little art program job she just finished...

Book Review

2011-06-12T19:16:00.000-07:00

While Steph is practicing her violin I thought that I would post another blog! I am really trying to be better about posting on here (and about more than just my animals!). So I thought I would do what my friend Diana has done and post a little book review about some books I have recently read.

First off I read Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep? By Philip K. Dick. Philip K. Dick is a science fiction writer who publish 44 novels and 121 short stories, all of them in the genre of science fiction. He did this in his short life span of some 50 odd years. Many of his works have to do with corrupt governments or alternate realities. The movie Blade Runner, with Harrison Ford as the protagonist, was based off of Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep?. Like most science fiction it jumps right into things leaving the reader a little disoriented trying to find a reference to figure out how the fictional alternate USA works, which is one of the reasons I tend to stay away from science fiction. However, Philip K Dick does not leave the reader confused for long and the rest of the novel is very enjoyable. It is about a detective whose job is to hunt down and retire rogue robots. I would definitely recommend it and I will be reading more of his works.

The next book I would like to tell y'all about is A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. This has been adapted to an HBO original series. That made me a little hesitant to read it because lets face it, HBO can be pretty pornographic at times. After hearing someone else recommend it, I decided to give it a try. I loved it. There are about 5 or so different plots going on at once and all of them are the main plot. Martin tells the story from many points of view (8 characters or so) and each chapter switches between them at a seemingly random order. It does have some language and some sexual oriented scenes but is not as explicit as HBO probably is, haha. I ordered the sequel (there are supposed to be 7 books, with 4 or 5 out right now), but haven't had time to start it yet. The books are all hefty, about 800 pages or so, but the plot, while very involved, keeps you guessing and wanting to read more, but not in that annoying Dan Brown sort of way. While I was not happy in the author's choices he made about certain characters, I will be reading the whole series.

That is about all the time I have for now, I will post more later as there are lots of books I have read recently!

Casey Shed

2011-06-06T09:31:00.000-07:00

For those of you who want to see what Casey looks like when he sheds this is it. Unlike a snake that sheds its whole body, Bearded Dragons shed parts of their body at a time. Here he is posing on the kitty's scratching post.

Baby Stuff!

2011-06-05T21:30:00.000-07:00

We have gotten a lot of baby stuff! I love it all, buying baby stuff is fun but getting gifts is a lot more fun! I first thing I want to say is thanks to everyone who has already given us some stuff. We love everything. We really wanted to do Dinosaurs but there aren't a whole lot of options with bedding in stuff. We might still end up doing dinosaurs because of all the cool stuff. But if not there are animals and rock star stuff. I really wanted to do super heroes but most of the stuff is for kids that are a little bit older than newborns. Anyway enjoy all the picures!
(All this stuff is pre baby shower!)
There are bear things.

Batman things! Yay!

Blankets. Most of them are from grandma's. The blue and white checkers one Steph made!

Next are the Dinos! This first one is a car seat cover that Steph's friends Charlene made us. I love the fabric design she used.

Also, Hugs!

And a kit to make a hand print of Stevie.

This onesie has a elephant with a rhino on top of him and a tiger on top of him.

This t-shirt has animals that say what they like to eat. One penguin says fish and the other says tater tots. Love it

Dogs! This is a bigger onesie.

Here are some more stuff:
Shoes

A complete scrap book from Steph's mom Lori. It is hecka nice, and all ready for pictures of little stevie.

And only in Utah, a book about the littlest Nehpite.

Stroller! A lovely stroller...haven't opened it yet.

After Melissa and Levi gave us this cool shirt and short combo with guitars and drums, I was thinking we should definitely consider doing a little rock start theme.

Lastly the onesie that we will be taking Stevie home from the hospital in...yep, Spider-man!

Idaho

2011-06-05T21:08:00.000-07:00

My mom called me on Tuesday with some exciting news, my borther James was getting the Melchizedek Priesthood, up in Rexburg, Idaho. They were getting to Rexburg late Saturday night, so that meant so were we. By we, I mean my older brother and his wife. It was an exciting road trip mainly because none of us noticed that when I-84 and I-15 split. We went like an hour or two out of our way, to Boise. We figured it out right at the best moment because the highway to get us back to I-15, was like right there.
The ride to Idaho is very boring and nothing cool on the way. It was my first time at BYU-I and I was pretty impressed. The temple up there is just right off of campus, like literally is 5 minutes of campus. And get this BYU-Provo people, there is no hills to campus...and the apartments are on the other side of the street of campus. On the other side. No hill to climb up. That is freaking awesome. I hate the stupid hills to Provo. And they have parking that is on the same level as there campus. As in student parking on campus. Not at the bottom of the hills that are technically on campus but for all intents and purposes is not on campus. One thing about this trip is I am reminded how much I did not like student wards. Single people are really condescending. This one guy totally attacked this other girl in Sunday school.
Anyway after church, James received the Priesthood from my dad. Very awesome. I love the priesthood. Then we went to James' place to eat some lunch and we headed back home. We arrived in Provo at about 8 pm. How is that for a quick trip.
Here are some pictures of us all hanging out at James's place.

This is my mom's teachers look.

This is James' girlfriend Kristin.

And here is a lovely picture of Sam and Emily who is about 3-4 weeks behind Steph.

Pets

2011-06-05T20:51:00.000-07:00

Lots has happened but I think to start off some pets!

In this photo Sam's cap to his camera was swaying and Casey was going to attack it. Snapped of a picture before he could.

I am becoming more and more proud of my frog terrarium! It is growing in nicely. The Wondering Jew is rooting nicely in and out of its pot. The pothos is growing up and very full and the brom is blooming again. (at least I think it is). I put in a couple of ferns in the bottom of the cage and some moss. I think they will make the bottom of the cage prettier. Ignore the humidity gage on the other side of the glass. It has not been reading right and needs to be replaced.

Cops: Provo

2011-06-03T11:18:00.000-07:00

If cops ever did a show in Provo, everything that would happen on the show would take place in our apartment complex/parking lot. We live in the south west side of Provo. Basically we are half a block down from the highway and a full block south of the train. It is not the prettiest part of Provo, but the cops sure do love to visit down here! We here sirens all the time. Remember that lady who set the boulders on fire? Yeah, that happened a few blocks down...did we think anything at the time we heard the sirens? No of course not; we are used to the sirens now. It took my brother Sam texting me and asking me what I thought of it for me to realize it happened at all. (The whole time I was texting Sam back, "are you sure it happened last night at the boulders?") I thought it would be fun to let y'all know about all our personal interactions with the cops since we have moved in.

First off, the cops love to just drive through our parking lot. It connects to both streets of 825 W and 900 W. The reason I thought of doing this blog is because a cop is currently doing this as I look out the window. They do this at least a couple times a week, it might be daily.

The second or third day after we had moved in, a couple of coppers pulled up and we were walking down our side walk to go home. They got out and started walking to the other buildings (there are seven four plexes that surround our parking lot. 2 are now owned by my landlord...the others by who knows who). The asked us which was building seven and I said,"Not sure, we just moved in like 2 days ago...this is building 4 so maybe down that way?" They thanked us and moved on.
I am thinking maybe domestic dispute? We never found out.

The day my parents got in town for Sam's graduation, a man OD on heroin, so our parking lot was full of cops and an ambulance. Welcome to the neighborhood, mom and dad! But if anyone is looking for an apartment there is now an opening.

Since we have moved in we have more or less received mail for different people, at least 5 different people. One of them is a professional patient at the hospital. I actually had to go in her account and take out our address and put in a note saying she is giving an address that is not hers. This happens all the time. People learn address that are real since most business have a program that will check and see if it is a real mailing address and not something they made up on the fly. So I guess ours is now being used as the building is no longer empty. I say all this because about a week and a half ago, my wife and I were talking in bed at about 11:30 pm. It was getting to were I was kind of half asleep/awake when BAM BAM BAM on the door. Loud, quick knocking. We have been door ditched before so I ignored it until again strong, quick knocks. I put on some clothes (yes, meaning my mickey mouse shirt) and went to the door. On the way, they rang the door bell a few times. Again 11:30 pm! I open the door about to cuss a person out, and there are 3 cops in body armor in a semi-circle at my front door. "Is Natalie there?" No, no natalie lives here. I am Mike effing Talley and we moved in Feb. "Do you know this Natalie or anyone around here that looks like this?" They showed me here picture and said she had multiple warrants for her arrest. After they showed me that, another body armored cop came up with a blown up picture of her face. No, no I don't know her. "What are your neighbors names?" Oh, man I can't remember but his wife just had a baby. They ring my neighbors doorbell, and he answers immediately, and also doesn't know Natalie. I get to go back to bed.

When I told my dad the above story, he asked, "So when is your contract up?" If my apartment wasn't so nice....

Those are the only stories I can think of right now. When steph gets home I will try to think of more to add!

Las Vegas, Day 3 and 4

2011-04-24T11:12:00.000-07:00

Our last day in Vegas was Wednesday. We decided to go check out the aquarium at Mandalay Bay. The aquarium is kind of small, but is the only predator based Aquarium in USA. Their shark tank is the main feature but it was too dark in their to take any pictures, but it was like you entered into a sunken ship and instead of walls there is glass to be able to see the sharks. It was like looking at a movie screen, and looking at the sharks.
As you first walk in you get to see this alligator, and then in the next tank is a Komodo Dragon. The alligator was cool because his mouth was wide open for us. The Komodo dragon was just kind of laying there, twitching every once and a while.

And they had a touch pool (the picture of me) and a walkway that is covered with an aquarium of tropical fish (the picture of Steph).

After Mandalay Bay, we decided to check out the M&M Store and the Coke Store.

So First the M&M Store.

It was 5 stories tall. Each level has different merchandise like the wall of the different M&M colors. Or statues you can take pictures with. They also had this movie but Steph and I had missed it.

The Coke Store was only 2 stories and had a bunch of different style of glasses and coke bottles. They had the normal stuff like T-shirts and Jackets, but also you could try 16 flavors that they sell around the world but not in the US. We opted not to do this but instead got us a couple of coke glasses that look like they are cans of coke.

That was pretty much our day. We did eat at a hamburger/dessert place called Serendipity, that was pretty good. They did have a $1000 dessert, probably had gold dust or something. We didn't get it and they wouldn't let us try some.
Thursday morning we left Las Vegas for St. George and visit Steph's Grandma Watts. We ate dinner with her and her sister (who was also visiting her that day) and her daughter Steph's Aunt Susan and Uncle Tony (who live next door to Grandma Watts). It was good and nice to relax with them. We got back here to Provo Friday afternoon for Steph's doctor's appointment.
All and all it was a great vacation, and since we got back on Friday, we still had time to go grocery shopping and still have a normal weekend to kind of get back into the swing of things.
Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Las Vegas, Day 2

2011-04-24T09:51:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, Steph and I slept in a little and then headed over to Hoover Dam. Luckily, it was not too busy on a Tuesday.

We get there and they have no big parking lot...just little parking lots that go up the side of the cliff. Here is a picture from out parking spot.

The dam was definitely built with a Modern Style. It is very huge and leaves very powerful, and direct impressions to the mind. One of the cool things is one side of the dam is in Arizona Time and the other is on Nevada Time. And as you cross the Dam you see the sign that shows the border. We parked the car in Arizona and trekked to Nevada to see all the stuff.

Recently a bridge between Arizona and Nevada was built so that people no longer had to drive over the dam (the government felt it was like Homeland Security Issue. We drove over the bridge when we went to Arizona for Thanksgiving, and it was probably the most normal bridge I have ever drove on. I mean, nothing special about it or anything. It looks absolutely amazing from the dam however.

The of course there is the dam, and I am still amazed that they were able to build it in the 1930's. It is just crazy to see the technology and that it is still standing and probably still will be in a few hundred years.

Here is a statue of the builders that was attached to the side of the gift shop.

And no trip to the Dam to would be complete without getting a picture of the Angels that were mentioned in Percy Jackson. They were very impressive and all around them in a circle is a map of the positions of the stars as they were on the day the dam was dedicated.

To be nice to my pregnant wife, she waited for me while I hiked back up to the car. Man it was way farther than it was coming down to the dam. Steph got a picture of me way up there.

After spending a couple of hours there looking at everything we went back to the hotel. After taking a little rest we decided to go to Gold and Silver Pawn, which is where the History Channel show Pawn Stars takes place. They didn't allow any pictures inside, but we took one of the sign! None of the "stars" were there but it was cool to see some of the things from the show. The store was a lot smaller than I thought it would be but it was still pretty cool. There have a section were they just sell merchandise of the store, so I bought me a T-shirt.

After Pawn Stars, we went to see Louie Anderson, who was back at our Hotel. It was a two hour comedy show and completely family friendly. I don't think he ever said a swear word, but he was hilarious. Steph's stomach was hurting because she laughed so hard. He did a lot about his weight and consequently food. And that was day 2!

Las Vegas

2011-04-23T20:38:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you what, BYU not having a spring break is the pits! So you can bet we took advantage of it this year, since Steph had one with her school in Mapleton. We figured as well that since Steph is going to finish her pregnancy during the Summer, we should get as much traveling done now. We ended up deciding to go to Las Vegas! It was a lot of fun..we stayed in a hotel called the Palace Station.

It was a good hotel and we got a deal because we got tickets to see Louie Anderson, who has a permanent theater there. He is a comedian who used to have a kids cartoon called "Life with Louie". First we got there on Monday and walked the Strip.

We walked about half of the strip! Like a total of 4 miles or so...we really should have done it on the last day so we wouldn't have been sooo sore through out the whole week! But we had a lot of fun taking pictures of all the sites like Treasure Island:

The Bellagio:

The MGM Lion:

And the Luxor Sphinx:

That is basically all that we did the first day in Vegas. We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe that night. (I got a glass).

Baby update!

2011-04-04T15:25:00.000-07:00

So we went in for an ultra sound and found out that we are having a boy! Yay! A boy! He will be named Stephen Wayne (my dad, steph's dad). We are super excited, and couldn't be happier (especially me!). Here is the best picture from the ultrasound, the others weren't as clear when I tried to put them on the internet.

New Apartment

2011-03-06T19:25:00.000-08:00

We moved to South Provo last month, to a bigger, newer apartment! Everything in this apartment has been replaced. The tile is new, the counter tops are new, the paint is new, the carpet is new, etc. I think the only non-new thing in the whole apartment is the stove. I thought y'all might like a visual tour:
This is what you see when you open the door.

All the doors at our apartment are on the same level. So when you open the door you either have stairs going up (as in our case) or stairs going down. Then there is the living room.

It is huge! It actually isn't much bigger than our other place, but at our other place you had to leave space to be able to walk into the other rooms. So this can all be just for our couch and tv and of course the fishes. Notice the coatroom. Yes, a separate place for all our coats, and guests coats. Then there is a hallway that leads to the kitchen, which is one of the main reasons we decided on this place. The kitchen that is, not the hallway leading to it.

This kitchen is way bigger than our old kitchen. Also notice the absence of our washer and dryer...no longer in the kitchen! It has 3 times the cupboard space, a dishwasher, and our table fits in there without being in the way...and get this:

Yeah that's right, we have a pantry. A pantry! Food storage, space for appliances and everything. It's grood. I mean great. Great and good.
So when you come up the stairs you have the living room on the right, and then a hallway on the left leading to three rooms. Here is the first room, which for now is the animal room, but I have decide to switch it around and make it the office/baby room (if we are still here for baby).

That is from the door, and this is from the closet looking at the door. The closets are alright, the doors are on sliders but only at the top, so I have already knocked one off. This room is technically the biggest bedroom, but I liked a different one for our room.

Then the hallway, to go to the second room.

And then there is the second room, and smallest. The closet is also smaller. It will become the pet room. (We were thinking of making it the office and Harp and baby room but it is just too small.) I forgot to take a picture of it. Use your imagination! And then there is our room, which is really only a little smaller than the front room. Yes, it is also messy.

We like it!

The washer and dryer have there own space, next to the bathroom! That's a nice feature.
And then next to our room, is the bathroom. It has stone counter-thing around the sink, and the shower/bath walls are stone. (I don't think it is granite tho it is pretty polished stone).

That is our place. We absolutely love it. And it was only $50 more a month than what we were already paying! For all that extra space! Love it, love it, love it. Okay, the only thing is it is not in the best neighborhood. We are literally right next to the highway. There is one more house on the road and then the highway that goes over the everything on a bridge, but honestly I can never, ever here the highway. The train, however, is loud. It is a block away from us and loud. We have gotten used to it, but it did keep us up the first couple of nights. Luckily our place doesn't shake or anything like that. Then there are our neighbors. Smokers, drinkers, and people hanging around in hoodies. I feel like I wont fit in if I don't wear a hoodie outside. Everyone is walking around in a hoodie. But all in all, it is a great place.

"De la nada a la nada" (From nothing to nothing).

2011-02-15T21:08:00.000-08:00

I recently just finished a novel , well you could call it a novel or a short story. It is a 63 page story called El gallo de oro by Juan Rulfo. For those of you who have never read a Spanish book, anything by Juan Rulfo is worth reading. Juan Rulfo only wrote a collection of stories called El Llano en llamas and one other novel, Pedro Páramo. If you read anything in Spanish, it should be Pedro Páramo (I have never read an English translation of it, but I am sure there is a good one). El gallo de oro was recommended to me by Prof. Weatherford, who is currently researching Rulfo's place in movies. El gallo de oro has been adapted twice to film in Mexico. The interesting thing about all this is when I was in classes on Spanish literature, we are taught about Pedro Páramo and El Llano en llamas, and how great they and the author are, but never once was El gallo de oro even mentioned. The only way I heard of it is when I was talking to Prof. Weatherford and he mentioned his article was to be published as a type of introduction to the new edition of El gallo de oro by Editorial RM, Mexico and the Juan Rulfo Foundation.

This edition of the novel is preceded by two articles; one by Weatherford which talks about Rulfo’s foray into the film industry. It also gives a critic of the two movies of El gallo de oro, but as I haven’t seen either of them, I can’t really offer my opinion. The main thing I took from the article is a statement Prof. Weatherford made, “L a historia que escribe Rulfo y las descripciones del México provinciano que ofrece (como sucede en El Llano en llamas y Pedro Páramo) son realistas sin ser degradantes, y miticas sin ser romantizadas” (pg 63). This, more or less in English, says, “The history that Rulfo writes and the descriptions of provincial Mexico that he offers are realistic without being degrading, and mythic without being romanticized”. This describes perfectly Rulfo’s style. Perfectly. It is the reason I love to read his works, and El gallo de oro did not disappoint, though not as great a work as the other two. This work, as well as his other works, are so realistic to how Mexico was, and in many places, still is.

The story is an easy enough read; I was able to read it in one sitting, which should please Poe. It tells the story of how a poor town-crier gets rich and loses everything again, though the story is as much about his mujer as it is he. The lady in the story is the luck and downfall of the man, but not that she plots his downfall or anything like that. While she is around he wins in all his ventures, but after she dies, as in right after she dies, he loses everything in a card game. It is the mythic element, but not in a way that is directly mentioned as such or overtly magical. It is just the way it is, much like in real life. It comes full cycle too, as the daughter follows in her mother’s foot-steps, almost unseeingly, but with some intention. It is hard to tell from the clues Rulfo gives in the narrative.

All in all I would definitely recommend El gallo de oro. It is definitely worth the time and investment, especially if you know Spanish.

Baby Update!

2011-01-26T17:30:00.000-08:00

Yay! So Steph went in for her first appointment on Tuesday and the Dr couldn't find the baby's heartbeat. They scheduled her ultrasound for today! They found the heartbeat (normal) no problem and everything else checked out perfect. So here is our little baby!

At first he was only showing us his back so the tech pushed on him a little and he spun around! The tech thought they weren't able to find the heartbeat earlier because our baby is apparently bounce around quite a bit...this is his head and little arms waving.

Here is a close up of his face...I think he is going to be a masked wrestler!
This one is pretty blurry but those two white spots are his feet.

And this last one there are a lot of white spots and then a line. I don't know what all the little spots are but the line is his spine! How cool!

More down time....

2011-01-13T15:37:00.000-08:00

Dating Pictures

2011-01-13T11:13:00.000-08:00

I realized that most of the pictures we have on our external hard-drive are not organized. So during some downtime I have been doing that. I found some pictures of when Steph and I were dating! Yay, and I promise no kissing pictures.

This picture is from our first date at Park City in 2007. It is with a moose.

I hung out a lot at Steph's place mainly because she actually did her homework.

I love this picture because I was trying to be silly, but I don't think Steph was! I just caught her off gaurd!

This is one of our best pictures we have ever taken, in my opinion (including among our wedding pics). It happened at a subway of all places.

Yellowstone

2011-01-12T18:39:00.000-08:00

Since it is my birthday this month one of the girls I work with asked for a photo of me and Steph for the EC team letter as they do a little blurb for everyone's b-day. I sent them this from when we were dating:

The cool thing about this is (well cool to me at least), I went through all of our saved pictures and just had fun looking at them. Most of them never made it to the blog so I thought I would post some each day.
These pictures are from a trip I took to Yellowstone National Park. Though it was a little boring just riding around the park in a car, it was beautiful. The sad part was we didn't see very many animals. I would love to go back and maybe spend a week or half week to have more time and not be rushed to see everything at once.
This picture was at an overlook and was our first stop. I love this picture.

Then of course there is old faithful. This is the park ranger explaining everything and excitedly pointing as old faithful was about to start.

THese next series of pictures is Old faithful.

Did you like the guy standing in front of me the whole time? Yeah he moved after I started to take the pictures (one of those settings that takes a certain amount of pictures in a row thing). The last picture is the aftermath.
We did see some creatures, like deer:

One lonely bison:

And a fun little chipmunk (props if you can find him!):

We went to other areas of interest, like waterfalls and rivers. Apparently there was also a fire not too long ago so there were still a lot of dead trees with new ones sprouting up.

The trip finished with a trip to good old Jackson Hole, WY.

Well I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

And for the grand Finale!

2010-12-28T17:43:00.001-08:00

We are pregnant! Yay! Steph is about 7 weeks along, which isn't too far along but I am way excited and can't keep it to myself.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-28T17:33:00.001-08:00

So we didn't take too many pictures on Christmas but we did take a couple of the tree and presents before we opened them all.
The window was really bright! It was weird having sun for Christmas and no almost no snow! All and all I think we had a lot of fun on Christmas this year, by ourselves. We stayed in bed until we felt like it (except for being woken up by my very excited mom early!) and then had fun opening presents. I will try and take some pictures of them to upload on here. I got Steph the newest Guitar Hero, and a bunch of Nightmare before Christmas things, like a hoodie, a bobble-head, figurines..., and She got my some new scriptures and a new popcorn popper! I got some Carnivorous Plants and The Other Guys on blu-ray from my parents and Steph got some jewelry and Chuck season 3 (really for both of us). My mom also made us some new pillow cases, mine has a bowling theme and Steph's is of teacher rulers and stuff. So much fun!

Later that night, the Merrill's (a family I hometeach and good friends) came over to eat dinner with us (Ham, cheesy potatoes, salad, rolls, cake and pie) and then played some games. They brought this one game called Rage that was a ton of fun!

It was a great Christmas!

Casey woke up!

2010-12-28T17:27:00.000-08:00

So I have mentioned that John Casey has been sleeping for his winter period, but he woke up a couple of days before Christmas! Yay! He was way moody for a couple of days and didn't poop for a while (thankfully he finally did) but here are a couple of pictures of him.

And for good measure, here is one of the cat!

Thanksgiving Pics

2010-12-28T17:24:00.000-08:00

So I know that this is way late, but there were a couple of pictures from Thanksgiving on our camera. And by a couple I mean two. And they are both of Steph and our niece Jodi. Everytime we take our camera somewhere we always forget to take it out and take pictures. Anyway, here they are.

Happy Thanksgiving from sunny Arizona!

2010-11-25T14:05:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone!
I was just wanting to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. We will be sure to post a lot of pictures from our nice warm vacation in Arizona. We love everyone and I just want to say I am very thankful for loving family and the gospel!
Hmmm....just a little cheesy eh?
Yay little Jodi!

Update on Steph's life

2010-11-13T19:43:00.000-08:00

So Mike posted an update about his job and our pets, but what about me?!?!?! I'm teaching sixth grade in Mapleton, which has been ca-RAZY! I have a really great class, but teaching is a lot of work!! There's planning lessons, and making copies, and grading stuff, and entering grades in the computer, and going to meetings, and filing, and answering emails, and posting on the class blog...

It's a lot. But I really am enjoying it. My kids are great, and every day is different. I've also made some really great friends. Emily, Rachel, Juliet, and Gavin are all teachers on my sixth grade team. Emily and Rachel are also first-year teachers, so we kind of lean on each other and help each other out. They have become two of my really close friends in just a short time. Juliet has also become a good friend of mine. She was an intern last year, but she taught second grade, so she feels like a first-year teacher this year.

And Gavin has been teaching for like ten years or something. But he's hilarious, and he's a big softy. He's really laid-back, which is great for all of us who are always stressing out. And his kids are adorable! We like to play with them after school.

All in all, it has been a good experience so far. It is crap hard, but it is also a lot of fun.

Sometimes it's just hard because I hardly see Mike during the week, but we always try to do something fun on the weekends. Mike's been really supportive too. He always does the laundry and goes grocery shopping. He also does a lot of cleaning. I feel bad because I haven't done a lot of work around the house, but I think he understands that this year is just going to be busy! He's awesome like that and I love him a ton.

In other news, I'm still taking violin lessons and I'm getting better!!! It's a very complicated and difficult instrument, but I'm really enjoying it. Also, my handbell choir has started its concert season. I'll post some concert dates so that you can come see us! We're awesome.

And this post is really long so I'm going to stop now. That's life!

A new job!

2010-11-13T13:55:00.000-08:00

I got a little part-part time job teaching Spanish to a group of 3rd-6th graders. I have 13 students in my class. It is done by the PTA and the kids had to pay to take the class. I teach Monday and Wednesday mornings from 7:50 am to 8:30. So early! But that is okay...oh yeah, and it is up at Cottonwood Elementary in Holladay.

The other cool thing is my hours at the hospital changed. I used to work 1-11:30 pm, Mon-Thurs, which wasn't so bad...except for the fact Steph left before I woke up and was in bed before I got home. So we had just been seeing each other for a little less than an hour during my lunch break. But now I work 11 am to 9:30 pm. You wouldn't think that makes a huge difference but it does! I get to see Steph at night! Yay!

Plants

2010-11-13T13:50:00.000-08:00

I love to have plants around the house. Not too long ago I got two carnivorous plants, a Pitcher plant and a Venus Fly Trap. Then I was able to get an aquarium to put them in so that I could better control the humidity and the light they got. Here is their set up. The Pitcher plant is the taller of the two. They were kind of dying on the window sill but I have been nursing them back to health. The Venus Fly Trap actually has an open trap but it is still pretty small.

Time for another Casey Update

2010-11-13T13:44:00.001-08:00

Just some pics I wanted to share. He is kind of boring lately because he is doing their hibernation (called brumation) thing. Here he is basking on his new rock:

And I kind of got a pic of him with his beard out. These are always hard to capture as he will put his beard away as we come up to take the picture.

And just a random pic.

We bought a car!

2010-11-13T13:33:00.000-08:00

So we had been looking for a second car for sometime (mainly since the middle of the summer) and I found one in Sept. It is an '04 Nissan Sentra. I love it. It has an ipod cable port which is way nice! Sadly, while I was up in Salt Lake, both of my passenger tires went flat, or popped. I only noticed the front tire at first (because honestly when do two tires go flat at once!) So I jacked it up and got the tire of, but then the car slid off the jack (I had the e-brake on). So the jack was bent inward, and I had to call a tow truck. As he walks over he says, "Your back tire is flat too!" Joy. The tow guy didn't have a jack, but luckily this guy from a company in the business park I pulled into had a fork lift and a floor jack, so he fork lifted up my car enough to get the floor jack under it so we could finally put the donut on the front tire spot so we could actually move the car! As we take out the floor jack, lo and behold, the donut is also flat! So I wouldn't have been able to go anywhere if I had changed the tire myself. Some long time and 4 brand new tires later here is my new car:

Ignore our ugly parking lot.

Turns out.

2010-11-13T13:28:00.000-08:00

So Bruce ended up being a girl. SO now Bruce is Cloe. We were going to keep calling her Bruce but then we kept referring to her as a he and it was all confusing. So Cloe it is! Here are some pics:

For some reason her favorite hiding place is under Casey's cage and above the cockroache's bin. Hmmm... Also she loves to chase her own tail and as hilarious as that is, she can catch it, which she will then chew on for sometime and it makes her tail all wet and gross. I try and get a video to post!

We got a cat!

2010-10-18T20:54:00.000-07:00

His name is Bruce. He has awesome old man eyebrows and the coolest white hair mixed into his fur.

And right now, he gets to sleep in the bathtub (which is also where he stays when we are gone!).

And some more pics!

2010-08-31T19:57:00.001-07:00

He likes to hide in the pillow and cushions of the couch!

Here he is hanging from his tree! Not really, but he did fall asleep in that position.

I put this stuffed animal in there as a friend but Casey didn't really like him all that much.

More pics of Casey!

2010-08-31T19:51:00.001-07:00

After eating a really juice catapillar, he got guts on his face!

Casey is in my car! He was a very good little dragon and didn't freak out at all. He kept looking back at me as if to make sure I was still there.

I took him to work to show him off to all my work friends...they agree that pictures of him really don't do him justice!

It's been a while...

2010-07-07T15:17:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since either Gogie or I have posted on this blog, and I'm bored so I thought I'd do a quick update.

Mike graduated in April (YAYYYYY!!!!) with a degree in Spanish, which is way cool. He's working full time at the hospital and will be applying to grad schools this fall/winter.

I got an internship (YAYYYY!!!!) at Mapleton Elementary, so I'm getting ready to teach sixth grade. It's going to be awesome and frightening too.

This summer we've mostly been working and hanging out, but we did get to go to California for a week, which was way fun. Getting my wisdom teeth pulled wasn't so great, but we did go to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose (look it up, it's pretty cool) and we went to San Fran for a day. We did all of the touristy stuff since Mike had never been before. The rest of the week we pretty much spent playing Guitar Hero 5 with my mom and dad.

That was our vacation for the summer, but we just bought a washer and dryer, which is so nice to have. And in a couple weeks we have a few days off so we'll probably float down the Provo River. Yay.

Sorry I don't have any pictures to post--I'm at work. Maybe next time, so stay tuned...

More John Casey Photos

2010-05-24T14:22:00.001-07:00

Here is John Casey chilling on our bed! He is 17 and 1/2" since we last measured him. He lately has liked to be a nice yellowish background cover. Maybe I should make the bed before we take his next picture.

I think that this is a good picture of his colors and patterns.

Here are a couple of pics of him with his mouth open. We love it when he does this because it looks like he is smiling (even tho he only does it because he is hot and is trying to cool down a little)! The pictures were taken pretty quickly because he usually closes his mouth if we get close with the camera. And this is my favorite picture of John Casey. He is actually watching TV. He will cock his head from side to side watching it until he gets bored and scampers away. We don't let him out of his cage too often because we are afraid he'll try and eat something that is not good for him, but when we do he usually will sit still where we put him for a good 5 to 10 mintutes before he will move around.

Well next time we take pictures I will be sure to add them as well.

This month on Life with Mikey

2010-03-22T19:08:00.000-07:00

I have thought of a way to start this post and could not really think of one so I guess I am just jumping into it.

I applied for the Spanish Literatures (I realize literatures looks funny but Prof Weatherford said that a lot of argument and thought went into putting that "s" there.) MA program at both BYU and University of Texas and received a denial from them at about the same time. That really crushed me because I thought I could get in to BYU. The main reason I did not get in is because my grades were not the best. This was a concern from when I talked to my advisor about applying and I worked really hard last semester and got A's in all of my Spanish classes. My favorite class in college was one of those. 21st century Spanish literature and film with Professor Stallings. Great teacher but I think the subject matter was just extremely interesting and I loved it. I read everything for that class which was no easy feat as they were all novels. Though I thought this would, it did not convince the committee that I would continue to get these types of grades as a masters student. My advisor, Prof. Weatherford (who is also the graduate coordinator) told me that there were a couple of professors who really argued my case but it was not enough. He also said that my paper sample could have been stronger (which I worked really hard on it but oh well). I didn't and still don't really have a back up plan.

I have looked into some things. I can always reapply at BYU and apply at some colleges that I didn't apply to because they weren't as great as BYU. Prof Weatherford told me some things I can do to improve my application and I might work on those this coming year. The thing is Steph is at least going to take until December to graduate (and hopefully April if she gets the internship!) so I have until then to figure things out. I have also looked into some government positions but for anything permanent I'll have to wait on Steph (which I am more than happy to!).

Since I have been denied it has hard to put effort into my classes. I am only taking Portuguese 102 (I finished 101 last block) and Spanish Linguistics. The thing is I took Portuguese because as a masters student, they require a third language, and the credit would count even if I took it as an undergrad. It is at 8 am everyday plus 2 cultural events plus an hour/week of conversation lab. It is a lot and I feel like "what is the point?" Luckily, the teacher Sean Dalhin is a really cool guy that I met last semester and makes the class bearable. Spanish Linguistics is my last Spanish class I had to take as an undergrad. Linguistics is interesting and all but, for me, it is kind of boring. I did really poorly on my first exam because the it was on phonetics and I have already taken that class so it was like a review for me. The thing I forgot though is when a Professor says, "You do not have to memorize this." they really mean, "Memorize this." Needless to say I aced the next test. There is one more test, the final and a paper so I am confident I will make an A in the class.

John Casey is doing great. I never regret buying him and adding him to our home. He is so much fun to talk to and watch his head tilt from one side to the next. he is about 14 and 3/4 inches now and looks like he is getting ready to shed soon. I am really happy to say his colors have not really faded at all (which unfortunately happens way to often). I like finding new things for him to eat (mostly trying out new vegetables and fruits). Hopefully he will be a long living one. They live for about 9 to 10 years but the most common average is 7 years. He is such a pretty lizard...I have yet to find one as pretty as him for the money we spent. (You can get some specially bred for certain colors that are quite amazing reds and yellows but that will set you back at least $250...we did not even come close to spending this much).

This month has been one of the weirdest too. Steph's dad Wayne was going in so they could put a stint in his heart but turns out his artery is too big for that so he got to have bypass surgery. That was a little worrisome but he is doing fine. It will take him a month of painful recovery to get back on his feet though. We were going to see them during conference weekend but they had to cancel-sad day. Becky and David will be coming up with little baby Jody so that will be fun.

I have been able to hang out with my family a lot lately and I am really grateful for it. I haven't been able to much because of how crazy things were when I was working in Park City and I realized how much I miss just talking with them (much less doing things like pet things and playing halo). James was in a play up in Idaho and I was sad to miss it but I bet he was awesome.

I am in a new position at the hospital. To tell the truth, it is the same exact job, I just fall under a new manager and have new hours. I am the full-time Eligibility Counselor for the Emergency Department at Utah Vally Regional Medical Center. I now work from 1 to 11:30 pm Monday through Thursday and I love it. I really missed working in this ED and love helping the uninsured. Getting full-time hours means I only now have to pay full-time premiums for insurance and stuff which will be nice after I graduate.

I bought a college ring. I figured that even though I did not get into the MA program, I am still pretty proud of graduating from college. I will definitely put up pictures when I get it. I really like rings and watches by-the-way. Little known fact about yours truly. I don't really know why...maybe I am just attracted to shiny things.

I helped Paul with his new fish tank. I love helping people with pets and fish tanks get me way excited. It is fun picking out different decoration and rocks and, of course, fish! I can't wait until Steph and I are in a more permanent place so I can set up a salt water aquarium...soon...soon.

So this blog is really long and since I am at work I have been distracted too many times to remember what else I was going to write. So I guess.....

The End.

I bought a Lizard.

2010-03-06T19:05:00.001-08:00

So for my 24th birthday I bought a bearded dragon. HE was about 4 months old and 8 inches when we bought him from Living Safari in Murray. He is in a 40 gallon tank with orange sand and a type of tree thing.

He has a very beautiful coloration pattern. He has orange and red and almost a blue color in some spots. He is now almost 13 and a half inches long.

I'm so cool!

2010-01-06T20:13:00.001-08:00

This is my handbell choir. Yeah. We're awesome. You can see me in this video a few times. Every time it shows the big aluminum bells I'm cut out though. All you can see is my arms and sometimes my boobs since the rest of my body got cut off.

Up at school

2009-11-28T10:09:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone...I am supposed to be working on some papers (I have three do next week one on the 30th, the 2nd and one on the 4th.) but I have a little writers block right now and I thought this might help get my mind flowing.

The wife and I had a great Thanksgiving. We had Sam and Paul over (Paul girl Sarah also came) and Aaron and Ema also made an appearance. It was delicious. Steph made her first turkey ever and it was great. Though I didn't taste it Ema's homemade stuffing was also great. Steph also made a pecan pie from scratch and it is perfect...the crust is not too thick and the pie filling is just right. All and all it was a pretty relaxing day where we just ate and had some fun.

Yesterday was Black Friday and we went to Wal-Mart and got us a Blu ray player. I can tell a difference already even though we don't have an HDMI cable yet. We mostly spent the rest of the day hanging out with Aaron and Ema. We saw Fantastic Mr. Fox and then ate at Red Robin. Fantastic Mr. Fox had a lot of cute and funny moments but the moments in between those were a little dull. The way that they did the movie was fun just because it was so different from what we are used to. I am not sure if I could sit through the movie again but it was definitively worth it to see it once.

I am feeding my hometeaching family's hedge hogs. For the most part they are mean and hiss at me but that could of been because I woke them up when I went. I forgot to go yesterday so after this I am going to go right over there and feed them. I believe that they come back tonight so all should be okay.

I am getting a little nervous about applying to Graduate School. My application is do at University of Texas by December 31st and BYU is do on February 1st. I really do not know what I will do if I do not get accepted by anyone....don't want to think about it because it is a little depressing.

Well my stomach is hurting a lot and I should probably get back to writing my paper. Have a great day everyone.

New Author

2009-11-20T11:42:00.000-08:00

I just invited my wife to post on this blog...which makes sense since it is called "Gogie and Wife." Not sure if she will continue to write on hers or just on this one...I guess I'll let her tell you that!

Christmas Wish List

2009-10-29T18:19:00.000-07:00

Well I have been meaning to make a Christmas wish list for sometime now (I do my shopping early-already know what I am getting the wife) so I guess I make my list early too! haha

Any season of That 70s Show
Smallville season 8
The Office season 4 & 5
The Spectacular Spiderman season 1
My two front teeth. (haha thanks pops!)
Left 4 Dead 2
The Legend Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Subscription to xbox live

Well if I think of anything else I will post it here as well.

Hello

2009-10-21T11:59:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody! Just in time for a little update...I am on my hour break between two classes so I thought I would updated the world on what is going on.

I bought three new fish this past weekend, I think that they area good addition and complement the other fish nicely. These guys are Scissor-tail Rasboras. I already had some Harlequin Rasboras and they all get along and swim all day long.

I am back to part-time hours. I swear no one communicates well in the company. Or maybe I am just low on priority...but I used to help our Central Financial Assistance Team for 15 hours a week (or the hours I needed to be full-time) until a couple of weeks ago they just quit sending me a list to work on. So I finally email my new manager and said, "Hey I am tired of having to remind them to send me a list so I am just going to go back to my normal part-time hours." Well she did some digging and it turns out they have no more budget for me to work those extra hours, and that is why they quit sending me a list. But NO ONE TOLD ME. It took two weeks for them to be like oh yeah we cant send a list anymore because we have no budget to pay you. (which on another note I think is ridiculous, because they have hired a new manager and 4 new EC's in the past 2 months.) No budget, more like, "Even though you have told us over and over again that the ED needs a full-time EC we are going to wait until we feel it is absolutely necessary." Which to tell you the truth, when FAIR is implemented in the ED, I think that is when I will be able to make the strongest case for a full-time EC in the ED.

So yeah that is what is going on right now. Back to school.

2009-10-15T20:01:00.001-07:00

So i signed up for to be able to update mu blog from my phone...just extremely bored at work.

started reading the septimus heap books, they are fun and quick, i would recommend them to anyone really.

Listening to my ipod on shuffle is always fun but my wife's got some weird songs on here...something about a jazz blue bird...:-)

FAA

2009-09-02T20:40:00.000-07:00

This was on one Financial Assistance Application (FAA) at work and I thought it was hilarious!

And I am paraphrasing so yeah and no names so HIPAA should be happy:

My wife and I got married last week and have about $500 in wedding/honeymoon debt. We were expecting more from money from relatives but it never came.

And we are supposed to help you...why? And I laughed.

DENIED.

J/K I don't really remember the outcome of it (or it could be I just probably shouldn't tell you), but that is what I wanted to do. Just stamp a big red DENIED due to stupidity.

Bored at work...

2009-09-02T20:18:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I'm at work. Blogging on company time, but I have gotten a lot done today, more than usual in fact. It seems like this night is never ending, and seeing how it is after nine and there is no one I need to talk to right now that gives me a little free time.

The wife and I went to Texas in August and let me tell you, it was way fun! Everything was great and I wish there was more time to spend there. We went to Six Flags, The Dallas Zoo and the Dallas World Aquarium. We also watched one of James' scrimages and ate a ton of good food! The car ride down wasn't too bad, I think because I drove in the morning I was able to drive most of the way but on the way back I just could not stay awake! Good thing Steph is way good about driving for long amounts of time.

I started a new semester and it is my next to last one. I am way excited! This semester should be okay. I have this History 202 class and the professor is way cheesy...way cheesy. Today he showed us this video that just had music to video of people around the world. It was way boring and had no point....and the "uncut" (meaning not shortened to fit class time) is an hour and forty mintues! Of just people...at one point it should a picture of a weather map for at least 3 minutes, and the map was red with the white wind/storm patterns. It had nothing to do with anything, but he somehow managed to make it mean something. Weirdo. Good thing there is a girl I know in there, who will make fun of it with me.

I am retaking two professors this year...Professors Cluff and Stallings. Cluff speacializes in the Short Story, which is really something I am looking into specializing in. I took the short story class from him last term and it was good. This time it is the Mexican short story so some of the stories are repeats but the paper is twice as long. Stallings specializes in 21 century literature, and that is the class I am now taking from him. The class has 8 novels we have to read, but to tell you the truth I think the "newest" spanish literature I've read up until this point was from 1978 so this class should be fun. The cool thing about Spanish literature for the 21 centruy is there is no line between popular fiction and "high" fiction, like there is in English today. But yeah, it also focuses on film from the 21 century, so I will legally be able to watch Pan's Labirythn, which I have been wanting an excuse to watch that one again. Soooo Goood!

The 6th Last Apprentice book was not as good as the 5th but still worth reading for those of you that were wondering.

Well I guess that is all for now. Not too fun but an all aroung update!

Wedding and other such stuff....

2009-02-03T13:02:00.001-08:00

Well, I thought I would use this time to update everyone on my life right now. I have about an hour before I have to go take a test in Christian History that I have not studied for, but it is okay because out of the three test the teacher averages the best two, so I figured I will just do better on the last two tests.

The first exciting news is my brother Dip is getting married to a very nice misses by the name of Marie Antoinette, here fore after referred to as Marie. I've met her a few times and she is a very good match for Dip, way better than any of the other girls. I hope they make it through all of the tough times of planning a wedding. Hopefully he lets her do whatever she wants for that day.

Another cool thing is Lady and I are moving to Provo. We have a 2 bedroom apartment, and though it has a small kitchen, everything else about it is great. We even only have to pay electricity. Lately we have been having fun looking at furniture and thinking about how we will have our own place in less than a week. I'll be sure to uploaded pictures of it all when we have moved in. And then we also get to soon buy a FISH TANK! I am so excited!

My mom is coming next Monday as well and that is always fun. But now time to do some more homework. Yay! not....

Oh my gummy bears!

2008-11-07T11:32:00.001-08:00

As I did not witness this event, Veronica, one of the registrars (which to me has always sounded like a type of dinosaur) told me about it, and gave me permission to blog it (as if one needs permission to blog about something.

So apparently there was this guy sitting in his friends car. He notices a whole thing (and I use the word thing because it was like a canister, jar plastic thing that held it all) of gummy bears. Being the idiot college age guy he was he decide to eat them. I just imagine this guy taking out hand fulls of these "gummy bears" and just snacking on them, not being able to stop. So he gets through half of them before reading the label. The supposed gummy bears are children's vitamins! Vitamins! And he ate half of them! Veronica commented on what kind of person doesn't first look at the label or read what he is about to eat. I am also to think how come the driver didn't say, "Hey dude, you're eating all my kids vitamins." So where does he goes? The ER. He is kind of freaked out and the nurse takes a look at the label.

Apparently these vitamins can do no harm, as they are for kids, and the type of vitamin that can be poisonous when eating too much, was not in these kids vitamins. Maybe he'll be more careful about eating things that look like candy.

Reason people come to the er

2008-11-04T15:10:00.000-08:00

So I am going to start blogging all the dumb reason people come into the Emergency room. Most of these reason are people who are uninsured, others are ones with medicaid who could go see a regular doctor but think the ER is faster, and then complain when it is not. Some people call ambulances because they think that they will be seen quicker. Also no true. Most of the time it is taking an expensive taxi to the hospital. So here are some dumb things people come in for:

Flu like symptoms. And I don't mean it has been going on for days and getting worse. I mean people who just feel slightly bad.

Bug bites, and not the kind that have been there for days and getting nastier, but I got bit last night and it is all red and swollen kind. Doctor says to wait two days and to take OTC bug stuff. Honestly if it was poisonous, they would be dead, or after three days it would have been really gross.

Sore throat. Um, Doctor my throat is all itchy. Well what have you taken for it? Nothing. Oh well even with strep you can treat it with OTC medicine. That will be 500 to 1000 dollars please.

Scraps and bruises. They want stitches on things that a band-aid or even a butterfly bandage can fix. End up sitting there for hours.

Abdominal Pain. Lets face it, if it was gall bladder, kidney stone, or appendix, you would know. Most of them just have heart burn.

Back pain. My personal favorite because I have seen the effects of someone truly suffering from acute back pain, big enough to be operated on. Most of us get back pain, and until these people see a doctor, they will not get the medication they are looking for.

To find out if they are pregnant, also disguised as abdominal pain. Go home and buy a pregnancy test or take the morning after pill.

When more come to mind or I see particularly cool ones I'll post them. Otherwise this is what is up. In conclusion, unless you are dying, don't come to the er. Go see a regular doctor. Sure they ask for money up front, but it will be way, and I mean way, cheaper in the long run.

Hello my name is and I have road rage...

2008-11-04T15:01:00.000-08:00

This blog might be kind of dumb, but I thought I would tell the whole world that I am going to work on my road rage. I am just an angry, easy to annoy person at the wheel. And I am going to admit that I am not the best driver in the world, heck I probably am one of the worst drivers. Yet I think one of the problems is everyone out there thinks they are a better driver than anyone else. I was cut off twice today, and a van obviously ran a red light and should have gotten hit by everyone. (I guess he was in a real hurry to get to Wal-mart.) Not to mention the scary guy the other day....no I wont mention it. It really makes me wonder why some people drive with out insurance. To me getting in a wreck is going to happen to everyone at some point of their lives. Everyone. And especially in Utah.

But honestly I get mad when some one gets in front of me. I don't want people to be able to change lanes in front of me but always try to get them to do it behind me. Nor do I like it when some one stays in the far lane and then all of a sudden remembers they need to get off so they hurry and switch over to the other lane. There is a whole list of things that used to (still do actually) make me mad. So I'm going to work on that. Try to be a calm and composed driver.

Class is cancelled!

2008-10-29T11:09:00.000-07:00

I am very glad I signed up with this teacher for English 251...she is sick all the time. It is horrible, though it means I get a class of every now and then. Which is great. Because of the canceled class I thought I would write a blog.

In my Spanish 451 we are watching Il Postino, a great Italian movie about a guy who takes the mail to Pablo Neruda. I just absolutely love that movie. It is just great. Of course Neruda's poetry is amazing (though I don't much care for the Odes) so I can say that I quite enjoy this class. Hopefully I can do better on the next test.

Scubs season 7 comes out on November 11! and the Dark Night come out on DVD on December 9! Woo Hoo!

That is all I have to say, mainly because I can't collect my thoughts on anything more important to wrtie.

1 Million Dollars

2008-10-15T14:06:00.000-07:00

So Dip discovered my blog, mainly because I posted a note on facebook that I blog and he read a few. he was kind of disappointed that his name was Dip. He suggested Eli, but you can't make up your own nickname, and I don't really get the reference to Eli? Anyway, Dip he stays unless he suggests a nickname I really like. I was texting him in class, and then all of a sudden he tried to call me. When I didn't pick up he sent me a text saying he won the million dollars from McDonald's because he just got Park Place and is sure he already has boardwalk. I told him to let me know when he is positive...so we'll see. If he did win, I expect a really good Christmas present. But then again Dip will probably go to Babylon with Lips and gamble it all away. JK

Another interesting development is the girl sitting next to me in the LRC is hitting the space button way to hard. If only she could type faster so she could just kill that space bar.

Oh yeah I almost left with out talking about my work evaluations yesterday. Basically I always have thought that I do not do a good enough job at work. Yet I got evaluated really well yesterday. The way it works is my supervisor and I were at her computer and she would go over a list of things I should be able to do as an Eligibility Counselor. Now since I am an EC in the Emergency Department, things are a little different. However, my supervisor let me know that I am a valuable asset to the team, I am honest and I work diligently and compassionately. I thought it was pretty high praise, and the most I have ever gotten so far from anyone at work. It totally made my day yesterday.

Hanging out with Herb

2008-10-14T12:46:00.000-07:00

So I've got this brother of mine who lives in Orem. I don't really know why he is up here in Orem or even in Utah for that matter, but it is cool having him up here. We have ourselves a good old time. Right now I am at his pad watching Alice in Wonderland, trying to find all of the drug references...haha. Meh some how as a kid the movie was better.

Dip is also still in Utah though he now lives in Cotten Wood Heights. He is doing the same. He is still dating Lips. Annoying. Oh well.

Herb is trying to get some loving but of course he cannot get any. He can't find her on facebook, so there goes his chances. I found my old friend on facebook with a weird name and a picture of me and her as her profile picture.

I really hope Prop 8 passes, but even if it does the California Supreme Court will propably overturn the vote saying it is "unconstitutional" or some other dumb excuse.

Married life is the best. Haha.

Well you got to have an opinion,

2008-09-03T13:45:00.000-07:00

So about 2 weeks ago I promised I would be posting more often on this blog...I guess I lied. Now I will just try to post as often as I can. And to tell the truth, whenever you ask a married person, "What's new?" there is not a whole lot we can say. We can't tell you about the new person we met and hope it goes somewhere because that part of our lives is over. Me personally it is all about what new TV seasons I have started watching. The wife and I are now on season 4 of Smallville and as a treat I get to watch one a night.

Work became the biggest stress of my life to date. I am always so worried that they are going to fire me for whatever reason...even though there are no reasons. I guess that is what happens when your trainer gets fired, and all of your co-workers do what your doing for a living. I am the youngest and, as far as I know, the only male Eligibility Counselor for the Intermountain Hospitals. Well at least in this region. I get at least 20 accounts/day and can not really follow up on all. Mix that in with angry, stupid people it all equals stress. Yet I am paid extremely well and have all holidays of and even though I have only been working for about six months, other employees come to me for my expertise. Which is way cool.

This semester seems to be a promising one. I am to read Wuthering Heights and Gulliver's Travels, both of which I have want to read but have never done so. Intro to Archeology looks to be interesting enough (though there is no study of dinosaurs :(). I know, I am as surprised as you are. Weatherford speaks Spanish that is easy to understand. There will be a lot of reading between all of my classes (I have to read all of Beowulf by this Friday) but that is expect when you take Span lit and Engl lit classes.

My friends are all so awesome, I love them all.

So I met my older brothers new girlfriend. Other than a question of gambling, I think she is okay. I will reserve my offical opinion on her until further study is complete. ha

And to partially (a word I had to ask a boy scout leader how to spell in the ER last night) finish the quote at the top (bonus points if you know what movie it is from)...

Oh man, I shot Marvin in the face!

Hey Everyone!

2008-08-16T13:19:00.000-07:00

So it has been almost forever ago since I have posted...it is not that I haven't had anything to post about...so I got married! It was tons of fun and I am glad life has slowed down...married life is so much easier than dated life...but it is all good.

This blog is to let my fans know (I know I know not too many but hey I have an ego to appease) that I am going to be posting more often now that summer is over. I am way excited for school to start. I hate the just going to work where everything is the same everyday, and am excited at the prospect of having a challenge for my brain.

Work actually isn't that bad, just am tried of having to remind people to turn in the paperwork needed to help them. I have made some friends here and so it isn't like I don't know anyone anymore. I have a new office that is all my own again. A lady who has been here longer than I have got the old office. My new one is called the EMS/Police Work Room in the ER at UVRMC if anyone wants to come see me. I was really lucky they let me work full time during summer but I have to work part time (25 hrs) when fall semester starts. Oh well you can't get everything you want.

People are dumb, but I might actually have time to finish my work list today, which is the first time in a couple of months. It is hard to be all caught up when 20 or more people come in a day in need of financial assistance to the hospital but at least it keeps me busy. Right now I am waiting for a program to finish uploading. It needs to reuploaded every day at 1:30 to add new accounts.

Well I had better get back to work. I love my wife.

Oh and I'm going public. My blog's link will now be posted on facebook.

Update

2008-05-30T11:24:00.000-07:00

I haven't really been blogging that much lately and I think it is because there is really only one thing on my mind which is my marriage to the most beautiful Lady. Only two weeks from today! That is so close. Time goes by real fast and slow at the same time.

To tell the truth I am a little scared at the prospect being married. It is not the wedding day (or night for that matter) that scares me. I am way excited and ready for that. It is the whole being responsible for another person and family. There are a lot of times I fear I am going to be unable to be a good husband or father. That has been my biggest fear for a long time. As a teenager, all I ever feared was that I was going to be a horrible husband and father. I know that as long as I stay faithful to my wife and always make her feel loved that I will be a good husband, and as for the father, well we'll have to wait on that.

I don't think it helps that I am around desperate people all the time at work. There are so many people who come in uninsured and unprepared for what happened to them. It makes me wonder if I will always be able to support my family with a steady income. I think that is the most important thing my father taught me. My family was well enough off but didn't have any great luxuries. Yet my dad always made sure we had great insurance even if it meant he did make as much. I see all these people come in and they have no idea how they are going to pay for their medical bills. It is very scary. It really makes me want to have insurance cause I know I wont qualify for any financial help.

I was thinking today after watching the Colbert Report (one of my favorite shows) about all the things that make me proud of who I am. I think I am going to start writing about each one in depth. One of the things I want to change or improve, I think is a better word choice, is I complain way to much about unfairness or other things. That is why I think I am going to write about things I am proud of about myself and around me. I'll call it What Makes Me Proud. Yeah that's what I'll do. I don't get why so many people are down about our country, and things. We are still doing way better than anyone else.

And now for a little bit of a testimony: I love being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The gospel puts everything in perspective and makes this life worth it. I am very grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ. I may not understand everything but I know this is the true church and where it is at.

Anyway, just felt like writing a little before I went to work. See y'all later.

So it's been a while...

2008-05-06T22:24:00.000-07:00

Warning: This blog is very introspective and kind of cheesy. I wrote it more for myself and just to think about things and make them more clear in my mind.

I just got my computer back the other day, all brand spanking set up like the day I bought it. I have been spending my whole past couple of days setting up everything as it was before and loading on my cd's onto i-tunes. I was checking other people's blogs and I realized that I have not posted for a looooong time.

Life has been great but way busy. Last month there wasn't really a weekend that I didn't have anything going on...went to California, St. George, and General Conference, things like that! April was a fun month and it was the month that Lady and I got a lot done for the wedding. Our invitations are being sent out so peeps be on the look out for those. I met her whole family last month and that was cool. I really like them. I don't think they will be the scary in-laws that people always complain about.

Lady finally met my mom for the first time! It was only for a short time today but I could tell my mom was impressed. My mom later came and brought me dinner to work and we spent my 30 minutes talking and I got to show her what I do to support myself. She thought it was cool and she took one of my cards so she could show off to people at home. There are always certain things my rents (especially my mom) and I wont agree on, but she has to realize I'm a big boy now. She might not like certain choices I make but they now way compare to the choices my brothers make. I think she needs to stop worrying about me, I swear she will probably die from worrying.

I love how everyday I realize more and more that Lady is the one for me. I know that I would be compatible with lots of girls out there but Lady is just perfect. She always treats me great and helps me out with everything. Like tonight I was a little bummed from work and she listened and gave me a massage. It was very nice. I am sure she was also tired and needed some extra love too but she selflessly took care of me. I'll totally have to make it up to her.

A doctor yelled at me in a way tonight. Not very nice, was the big thing that bummed me. I really love my job but it sometimes really stresses me out (like any job does to anyone). I guess I should just suck it up and I complain way to much. I have noticed that about myself and I am going to try and change that.

I have been thinking about that a lot lately. Things I need to improve upon to become the best husband ever to Lady. I know I'll never be perfect but perfect is what she deserves.

I bought the Odyssey. It is one of my favorite stories and it is good to refresh it and now own it. I am only on book four but that is because the beginning is a little slow. Then again I am really enjoying it.

I get to visit my friend again this weekend. I hope it will be fun and a relaxing weekend and will help me not miss Lady as much. She will be leaving for California on Friday and I wont see her till Wednesday. :( That is the way it goes sometimes. We only have 38 more days until we get married and I am so ready.

My work approved me to work full-time; pending I improve my statistics. That has me a little stressed. Sometimes no matter how hard I work if the people don't do what they are supposed to I can't do anything. I am just praying they don't think I am not worth having in there. I know the think I am worth part-time. I have been working very hard lately and I just hope it pays off.
Now I am just sitting here writing this and listening to the best of Queen and glancing over to see how my roommate Angelface is doing in Mario.

BYUSSR

2008-03-05T13:18:00.000-08:00

I am probably not the only one annoyed with the new onslaught of the candidates running for BYUSA presidency. I have never participated in these elections, I do not believe they actually do anything important.

Most of their issues have to do with things that aren't relevant to my stay at BYU. I really don't care about having more food at events because I do not really go to the events. I don't go to sporting events, I find them boring and end up watching anything but the game. So food before or after games isn't all that important to me. Food outside on tables during things like "unofficial spring break" or other weeks aren't all that important to me either. I usually do not have time to wait in line for twenty minutes to get a hot dog. I am usually on my way to class or work. More food is an issue that all of the candidates apparently agree on that is important.

And what is up with the group choosing red? There is no way they are going to win. Red is Utah's color. Why would you be dumb enough to choose that at BYU? Duh!

The only group that actually has something important is the green group. They want to improve relations with the Provo City Council. Then again that is nothing firm, it is way vague. Improve relations? Well if they are improved will any real change come of it. Not really, Provo doesn't care for students, especially for out of state students.

The next president of BYUSA will not make a difference at all on campus. BYUSA does not do anything important; at all! All it helps is the people who win or even run get to put it on a resume. It helps them, that might be a little cynical but true.

So what is a guy to do?

I suggest that I run for BYUSA president and after a few days declare myself CZAR of BYUSSR. Our main belief is in the Law of Consecration, or sharing is caring. I would first organize school wide strikes so that there are no "letter lots." BYU parking is for everyone. There will be no distinguishing between students and teachers or even between law students. The only spots that would not change would be the service vehicle spots because they really need to have that accessibility. (oh and handicapped people spots too.) Then we would strike against the city, to change these new parking permits for parking on the streets and the apartment situation. It is the only way. We must fight the establishment. Sharing is Caring!

This is only one of the situations that needs to be changed at BYU. I'll post more as I have time.

2008-02-26T23:45:00.001-08:00

Here is what the road of my home town Edhube looks like. My house is not in the picture.

My first time...

2008-02-07T22:59:00.000-08:00

Randomly today I remembered the first time that I felt the spirit as a kid. I can't remember if it was before or after my baptism. If it was before my baptism it was the light of Christ. Whatever.

I was in either the third or fourth grade. We were going on a field trip to the Dallas Science Museum. We were all sitting in the classroom in the morning waiting for the bus. We were supposed to be picking our "buddy" for the field trip. I was going to pick my friend Brandon. It was all planned. Each person got to pick their buddy by table, and my table was the first to be able to pick their partners. A lot of people wanted to pick the new guy Justin and they all talked about who was going to pick him. But Justin and I had it all planned out and it was going to be great.

So I was the third to stand up and pick their partner. I stood up and things weren't so clear. I looked at Brandon and his smile kind of wavered. I remember thinking about how no one was going to choose Bully, mainly because well he was a jerk and no one liked him. He was for sure going to be picked last. I felt sorry for him and thought that it wasn't fair. I thought about how sad he would feel by being picked last. I felt some influence telling me to pick him. To tell the truth I did not want to pick him, no one did.

I did. It was not the best field trip but it was okay. I ended up not even being in a group with my friend Brandon.

Stupid Girl

2008-02-04T10:30:00.000-08:00

In my D&C class, we have a quiz every now and then. Every time we have one he tells us what to study. He gave us these study guide questions to help us understand. For this quiz we were to study a certain part of these study guide questions. These questions make us read the manual. In fact the questions are basically headings from sections of the manual. If you do this you should do okay on the quiz. (I missed three, most because I didn't read the question well.)

One of the questions was pretty much verbatim from the manual. After the quiz one girl kept trying to argue her case of why she didn't pick the correct answer. She even found a scripture that kind of in a vague sense supported her case. Basically she was wrong and didn't read the manual. It was very apparent. The TA told her that the quiz goes over the quotes in the manual.

Read the manual stupid girl. In fact one bald guy turned around and said hey I didn't read the manual you didn't read the manual, we got it wrong.

Then later she made it also obvious that she hadn't been paying attention. Two strikes for her.

Stupid Girl.

Blessings!

2008-02-01T11:22:00.001-08:00

This semester and year have by far been one of the best in my whole life. I have many friends that have been a great support to me. I am engaged to the Lady of my dreams. Last night was amazing. She made me dinner of chicken, pasta and corn, and then she made me cookies. I seriously thanks the Lord for her every night. She has shown me what true love means. Even though she was tired last night, she went on a drive with me. It was great. I am so excited to be married to her for all eternity. She is going dress shopping today and that makes it all the more real that we are going to be married!

Yesterday I got a job that I had really been hoping to get. It is going to help me out so much. It is at Intermountain Healthcare, the hospital on state street. I am going to be a eligibility counselor. I go to the people who have no insurance or way of paying there medical bills, and I try to get them into a federal or state program to help them find a way to be able to pay for their bills. It pays 13.86 and has other benefits too, like my own office.

Needless to say the Lord has blessed me, more than I am worth, I think. I am extremely grateful for it all.

How it went down.

2008-01-28T13:00:00.000-08:00

Many of you should know by now that I got engaged this weekend to Lady. I thought I would give my account full of the juicy details.

It all started when her Uncle called me and told me he had the ring ready. I made the proper preparations and went to go get it. I think Lady was a little suspicious that I was going to get it but she wasn't sure.

I then was with her the rest of the day. I was so excited that I knew I couldn't wait too long to propose. I had an assignment in my English 218 class to write a sonnet, and that night when I got home from Lady's I thought to myself, "If I can write the sonnet and use it to propose, I will do it tomorrow."

It took me an hour but I got it done. Now technically it was Sunday but I don't count it to be Sunday until I go to bed and wake up the next day. I went to go buy some things for the next day. With all the other preparations I didn't get in bed until 5 in the morning. I didn't sleep much because I had to wake up at 7 or so to get ready for church. I couldn't sleep because of all the worries I had. What if she didn't like the way I was going to propose? What if things didn't go well? What if I can't get a hold of her dad in time? and all these other what if's....

I woke up and put the cd I made with songs that remind me of Lady in the car and headed over to her pad. Her roommate Sunshine opened the door, and I was standing there awkwardly with a rose. Lady comes out a couple of minutes later and I give her the rose. The weekend had not been that great of one (her friend got in a wreck and things like that) so I gave her a hug and the flower and said that I hope today went better. The rose went over well.

Peas and Sunshine kind of guessed what I was going to do. I told Peas that I was going to propose that day. I should have planned to do this all along. She helped.

We went to church and I was so tired! It was very hard to stay awake for the whole thing. She kept trying to make visiting teaching appointments and things like that but thanks to Peas, she didn't have any except for one but it was late enough.

After church we went up to where my ward meets. I had to get the stake to sign my recommend. I got that done and I went back into the car. Lady had changed the cd. See she had made a mix earlier in the week, and mine had some of the same songs on it but in a different order. It had confused her a little and thought her cd player was messing up or playing on random. Whoops, so I told her, and as a song came on I told her why it reminded me of her.

We headed back to my house and there she started making lunch. We basically just put it all in the rice cooker, so there wasn't too many preparations. We had Hawaiian Haystacks. They were delicious. I had bought two candles the night before so we turned off all the lights and closed the blinds. It was dark enough (which I had been worried about) to use the candles. We had lunch by candle light.

We had some homework to do which is fine because I had to call her dad still. Earlier I had text her sister asking when their dad would be home. So I went back into my room to get my books, but I really wanted to call her dad. I did. I got an answering machine! In a couple of minutes however her sister text me and told me to try again. This time I said I had to go to the bathroom (I even turned on the light and fan in the bathroom so it would seem I was in there. I went into my room and called her dad. He at first said no because he didn't know me. He quickly said just kidding and told me that since his father was impressed with me it was okay. He trusts his father's judgment.

I of course came out with this huge smile on my face. She asked what I was smiling about and I told her I would tell her later. After a little more of homework I asked her if she wanted to go on a drive, and she said yes.

We drove toward the canyon. There used to be this spot on squaw peak road we used to um explore that I thought I might do it at, but when we got to the road it was closed. We had passed a park and I had thought I would do it there if I couldn't elsewhere.

We came back to the park and there is this bridge going over the Provo river there. We finished the cd. I asked if she wanted to go check out the bridge. I was so nervous. We get to the bridge and I told her that I finished the sonnet for my class and asked her if she wanted to hear it.

Two lines into the poem she stared crying, so I pulled her close and said it more into her ear. I got to the couplet which was: For as I get down on my bended knee, will you be mine for eternity? (I started to get on my knee but felt really weird and awkward so I got back up) She said of course and I slipped the ring on her finger.

We took some pictures and then left to go back to my apartment. We called our parents. They were excited.
Back at my place I gave her more flowers and a letter I had written. She cried some more and we celebrated being engaged. It was great

There is the whole story with all the details.

I have...

2008-01-24T23:55:00.001-08:00

........a temple recommend. Thought the world should know.

Aquarium!

2008-01-23T12:30:00.000-08:00

This weekend Lady and I bought an aquarium. It is only a 2 gallon tank (actually not quite two gallons a little under that.) First we bought a Blue Mystery Snail (they are really called apple snails but whatever) and an African dwarf frog. They are named Eduardo and Julie respectively. Eduardo is pretty active and eats cucumbers, and Julie well I haven't seen her active yet but lady said she was.

On my b-day we bought two fancy guppies. One is smaller than the other with a yellow-orange color. He is called Little Jerry Seinfeld. The other larger one is blue with orange fins, named Adam West. They are names from our two favorite shows; Seinfeld and Family Guy. They are really active.

I love it and have been telling everyone about it. They tank itself is plastic with an orange lid and orange rocks and one little plastic green plant. It is cool and I think they will all be okay.

So yeah.....

I am 22!

2008-01-23T12:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my birthday! It was my golden birthday, meaning I turned 22 on the 22nd. How cool is that? I think it was my best birthday ever. It started off like this.

I must say I looked pretty hot for my b-day, I wore my purple shirt, over a black shirt, and my new slate gray jeans. The spiking of my hair went better than usual, even though I was a little sad I couldn't faux-hawk it.

Lady also looked amazing. Her hair was curled and it look so pretty, she also wore this green shirt over a brown camy and with her jewelry that only goes with this outfit. She was stunningly beautiful.

She took me to Ihop. I love breakfast and I got the stuffed French toast. It was so good. I was extremely hungry by the time we went so it was exceptionally delicious.

Before returning to her pad, we stopped by my pad to get the b-day cards my family sent. My brother's card was funny (about ducks partying), and my rents gave me 100 bucks. That was really nice. Really nice.

So at Lady's place, we made a yellow marble cake that looked pretty and tasted really good too. She gave me this card game called Ligretto, which is fast paced and fun. I loved it. Also gave me 2 boxes of Mike and Ike's (She marked out Ike's and put Lady) which happens to be my favorite candy. She also got me a Darth Vader Lego key chain. So cool!

Then we just kind of chilled, she had to finish a paper for one of her classes. I had one coming up so I also wrote mine out and almost finished it. We went and bought 2 fish for our aquarium (which I'll talk about later) and they are doing swimmingly (haha).

Then we went to Tucanos. That is my favorite restaurant here in Provo. So expensive though! I tried a little bit of everything except for the spicy chicken wing. Well I felt it afterward. I had to down some tums and it brought back some weird dreams. Well Lady had a class at seven so I took her up to the University. I went around Best Buy to try and find a way to spend some of my b-day money. Alas, I did not find a way so I will be saving it.

I stopped by home and Dip gave me a 25 gift certificate to Cinemark theaters. Yay!

Lady and I went to see Juno. I thought it was a good movie. It was funny and entertaining. A feel good movie too.

That was pretty much my B-day. It was such a good day. I think it beat the other really good day of this semester, though I might have to settle for a tie.

Creative writing again

2008-01-17T12:54:00.001-08:00

So our next assignment in English 218 was to walk around the MOA and find a painting that inspires us to write a poem. Lady went with me, which is good because I would have felt kind of dumb finding a painting by myself. So I chose Christ Healing the Sick at the Pool of Bethesda by Carl Heinrich Bloch. I wrote the poem from the guy under the cloth's perspective.

Christ Healing the Sick at the Pool of Bethesda

Carl Heinrich Bloch 1834-1890

Father

“It is more than I can bear…

The pain is horrible…

My legs are useless…

People look at me in disdain…

All have abandoned me…

I live under a cloth at the pool of Bethesda…

Father

I know not how much longer I can take it…

My only companions are the others who suffer…

I stay in continual darkness…

When wilt thou answer my prayer?”

Father

“He came, the one I have heard them talk about…

Thy Son…

He lifted up my cloth at the pool of Bethesda…

I looked up, surprised at the sudden light…

‘I come to answer thy prayers,’

He said smiling.

He offered his hand…

And said, ‘Be thou whole.’

Father

I no longer feel the pain…

I thank thee,

Father,

I thank thee.”

There it is. I am not very good at following a form or anything. Anyway I hoped y'all liked it!
I also got an 8.5/10 on this one. She said I wasn't to clear about his pain and I pout the wronng words of Christ, I should have looked it up in the scriptures!

Creative Writing....

2008-01-17T11:32:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone I am in English 218 this semester, the Creative Writing class. It hasn't been to hard because we are on the poetry unit, but I have actually had to start writing some poems. Here is one assignment:

We had to write a poem about a childhood memory. I chose to write about the time I cut off the top of my ring finger at my best friends house when I was like 7 or so.

So here is the poem. The only requirements were it couldn't rhyme.

Summer at my best friend’s house.

A tree as huge as life itself in the backyard.

We all run out side to play on the tree.

I am the last out the door.

Then a woosh of wind and a door slams shut on my finger.

Ow.

Hospital sewed it back on.

Doctor said I couldn’t eat chips.

I didn’t.

I hope you all like it. If not it doesn't really matter. I made an 8.5/10 on it. It had a few problems like outside is one word and she said ow wasn't emotional enough for a severed finger. Otherwise she liked it.

Sitting in English

2008-01-11T12:21:00.000-08:00

Our teacher is talking about research topics....it is kind of boring to tell the truth but he put up the most random topics! These included:
Vultures
Mice
Dum-Dum bullets (made by the same people who make the sucker (JK))
Manufacturing pins and/or needles
Lace
Lord Nelson's victory at Trafalgar
cockroaches
Traffic Accidents

He talks about them some-what and then goes off on tangents like how much the prophets and apostles read. How interesting.

Our first paper is going to be about ourselves written in the first person. That should be tons of fun. Haha

Next class we get to look at examples of bad poetry....................ew
hahahahaha gross!

I am and am and am

2008-01-08T22:27:00.000-08:00

I think I really enjoyed tonight! Today was a little different.....I went to the airport to pick up Peas and her boyfriend, Trumpet came with me. It was cool, we called the Delta line and they told us that she was going to get in 30 to 40 minutes after we got there. So we went and got food but then she had landed right as we got our food.

Anyway I sold back some books I didn't need to buy and got like over a hundred back! How cool is that! Then I hung out with Lady....totally not enough time with her.......

I think the best tonight was when Dip was in the same room with two of the girls that were interested in him. I offered one ice cream.

I hate work, it is so boring, why do we have to work......no really mainly it makes me really tired and my body kind of sore.

I think this blog is almost over.

I had to take the freshman library tour, it was really lame! ANd then I took this library tutorial that took forever to complete.

Now I am way too tired and I didn't even do anything today......

Legos are awesome!

2008-01-06T23:41:00.000-08:00

Well it is the night before classes start........actually it is the morning I guess. I don't really know what I feel at the start of this semester. It will definitely be different from all the rest. I have finally declared my major as English and wont be taking anymore retarded business classes that I hate. Hopefully I will more enjoy these classes, the spanish literature one should be different....I mean so far I have only taken spanish grammer/history classes. I have a class with Lady this semester, family history! It should be fun.....and no early classes so I don't think I will have to skip any.

I am also rooming with Angelface and so far it is cool. I think it will be better than rooming with Dip. I am going to get another job.....we will see how that goes should keep me busy enough.

And my relationship with Lady just gets better and better. We have become so close that i totally couldn't imagine my life with out her. My old friends who I went to hang out with tonight all accepted her. That was great!

I am totally focusing a lot of my energies on my spiritual life as well. I was reading in Psalms and nothing really special, like an answer or anything, but just that nice peaceful calm the spirit gives. It is really nice to get that feeling and know that the Lord hasn't forgotten you..........

Legos are awesome!

Woo-Hoo

2007-12-19T18:25:00.000-08:00

Everyone, guess what? I am so finished with this semester!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No more finals!!!!

I am sooo happy!

Almost done....

2007-12-18T14:02:00.000-08:00

This is day two of Finals and I am almost finished. (Stupid scheduled final...) I have taken my New Testament which was killer....100 questions and all most all of them were all are true except.....or which best describes and they would all describe the thing to some degree. I made a 78 which is alright because so did Red.

That same day I took my Spanish 322 test which was also killer...150 questions! So crazy. Some of the stuff we never went over in the book, like accents. Mostly it was true and false type questions with some fill in the blank.....I could have done either really well or average. I am thinking average.

Then today I just took Spanish 345 which she had given us exactly what was going to be on the test before hand. Needless to say I aced the test. It was all written so I wont know for sure, but I will more than likely have a B+ in that class. SO take that!

Only History 201 left and I can't take that till tomorrow......I hope all will go well!

Good luck to all y'all on your finals!

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-18T14:00:00.000-08:00

I have to the best girlfriend ever! For Christmas (since neither of us are going to be with the other over break we decided to exchange gifts today!) she got me this really cool billfold of University of Texas. The Leather is really cool and it is great. She also got me my favorite movie Big Fish, which i am excited to watch tonight. Then she also got me the sound track to Across the Universe, the movie with all the Beatles songs. Oh I love her!

Three whole months!

2007-12-12T12:48:00.001-08:00

Lady and I have now been dating three whole months! These are the best three months that I have ever had!
She is truly amazing and I thank the BigMan every night that I met her. Gorgeous!

Computer update..

2007-11-30T14:09:00.000-08:00

...the last couple of times it has been working, i.e. not making that really weird noise. Now i only have to fix the enter key.

Sigh so much fun.

Car Crash!

2007-11-30T09:42:00.000-08:00

This morning I woke up to a loud thud and my apartment making a big shudder. I leaned up and looked at Dip. He looked at me and I decided it was nothing. Promptly Angel face came in my room to look out our blinds and said,"Guys someone hit our apartment." Sure enough I looked out the window and there was the Ford version of the jeep Liberty with its front end smashed on the side walk facing our apartment. A guy was laying on the ground behind it. I thought he looked dead, but later when the paramedics arrived he was moving his fingers. On the other side of the road was another Jeep Liberty looking thing that was also damaged with its nose pointing into the curb.

We aren't sure what happened but we watched it for about 20 minutes while the police, fire fighters, and paramedics arrived and took care of everything. Exciting.

Dang............

2007-11-30T09:35:00.001-08:00

Last night Dip had a coke and I went to take a drink from it. He freaked, with reason, because I had been sick, and pulled it away mid-sip through the straw. So of course the coke that was coming up through the straw was no longer coming to my mouth but instead landed on my lap-top, around the enter key. I immediately flipped my computer over and wiped it with my pant leg. Then I turned it right side up and got the rest off with a napkin. Not a whole lot got on, just a few drops. I checked it out, and everything seemed to work fine. I even kept using it that night. I turned it off and then back on because I forgot about a paper I had to print off.

In class this morning when I was talking to Cali-shorts, I turned on my computer. Right then the teacher asked me to say the prayer. As I begun, my computer started to make this sound a beep. I quickly finished the prayer and shut my computer off. When I turn it back on same thing. So I kept it off the whole class.

After that class I sat out in the hallway and turned it back on-same thing. Now I am starting to worry because I didn't get the stupid warranty on my computer and even if I did water damage wouldn't have been covered.

I have had some of the best and worst luck this year!