My Two Bathroom Condo

Joe and I got back from Idaho on Sunday night around 8:00. When we climbed our steps to go inside our condo, we saw a toilet sitting right outside of our door. On top of the tank there was a roll of toilet paper that said, "next time you go on Friday, "go" with me!" It was pretty funny. The next day during FHE, our FHE mom asked me to go with her to the Peter Breinholt Christmas concert on Friday (she was the one who left the toilet). Joe and I took the toilet back to their place next to their door with the seat up. We were tempted to leave them a present in the toilet :).

Anyway, things are going well here. Joe said that he forgot his tree and decorations in Arbon, so we are going to buy a tree today. He said that he has lights, but not very many ornaments here. We have our pine tree candle out and are playing Christmas music on the guitar. I love this holiday......"it's the most wonderful time of the year."

An Educational Experience

I went in to help in Aylee's class this morning, and looked over Aylee's shoulder to see that she had written the following in her journal. "On Saturday I helped to pregnent cow test and I met a boy namd Mikol. " I had just finished reading this, when her teacher, who had previously read that much asked me, "What is she writing about?" I had to explain that John was raised on a farm, and that every November the cows need to be checked to see which will be calving in the spring. Her teacher was impressed, and said "That's great! Not too many kids get an opportunity like that. I'm sure it's quite the educational experience!" After this, we looked at the rest of Aylee's journal entry. "His birthday is July 31 and he is sex." Mrs. Torgerson, who is usually very good at interpreting first grade spelling, excliamed "What did she write?!" I'm glad I was there this morning to clear things up for her.

Traveling Plans, Workout Progress

I just thought that I might as well blog my travel plans for this weekend. Joe and I are going to go home to Arbon on Wednesday night. We will be bringing Joe's mustang with us. We will probably leave Provo around 7pm and arrive in Arbon by 9:30pm.

Shantell is going to try to hit the end of our family party in Pocatello (her family Thanksgiving dinner time is very similar to our family party time) and then we'll head out to Arbon for the evening. She'll return home that night. On Friday, I'll head up to Shelley sometime in the afternoon. Saturday we will be with our own families. If anyone has any concerns about these current plans, please let me know. These plans are very fluid and not set in stone.

As a few of you have probably noticed, I have just created a chart to reflect the total minutes of cardio + weight lifting/Calisthenics. This gauges our progress as a family and not as individuals. As you can see, we are going backwards. As a family we are working out less, running less, and getting further from our goals. If you have been working out but not recording the info, please do. Your records effect not only yourself, but the entire family.

Happy Thanksgiving!!! I am excited to see you all.

Cruise or Table. . . .Hummm

Well. . .first of all. . . .I'm ticked! I had written a nice long blog and I've lost it! I don't know what happened but it's not good. I spoke with one of my technical assistants, John, and the only answer he could give me is that it must have been a "glitch". Wow. . . .what an answer! He is surely overpaid! :) Oh well.. . . you will get a shorter version which might be better anyway

Well, big brother, if the persuasion of a free cruise for the "spouse to be" didn't cut it. . .then I doubt a free table would! However, there is a longer period to work with. Jake's a lot closer in that area than I am but I'm workin on it!

I'm so excited to come home for Thanksgiving and I love this time of year. Everyone is usually happy. I love the crisp air, the beautiful scenery, wonderful family, time off work and of course great food :) I'm excited to see the extended family because I feel that I haven't seen them for so long. We really have a great extended family on both sides. I know I take them all for granted only because I don't know any different.

So many people are gone or have left early today from work and it has been so difficult to focus on work. I'm staying to work a little late to get things done so I can leave in the morning. I'm going to Pocatello in the morning and meeting Holly Stewart for lunch and we will probably hang out for the day. It's been a while since I've seen her and I'm very excited to get to visit with her.

Julie and I pulled out our Christmas stuff on Monday night!! :) We put up some lights and decorated a bit. It was a lot of fun. I can't wait to get a tree!

Well, as John stated, we've started playing raquetball again on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Jake also came this morning and it was a lot of fun. We took turns playing raquetball and working out. I really got a good workout and it was a lot of fun to play. Most of the games this morning however were tied but it was still fun.

I guess I am one of the guilty for not updating my workouts on our family site. I have been lazy in that area although I'm still working out most days. I promise I will update my info this week!

Well, I love you all and am so excited to see you all and spend some good time together. See you soon!

Error on my post about Aliece

OK, so I have been writing about Aliece and the thing with the doll that she did. I had made a typo that made the entry really hard to understand for some people. I have corrected it here:

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OK, so Amber pressured me to write about this one...I didn't want to, but she thought it should be recorded and published on the internet. I have shared this story with a few of you already - it happened about a month ago...but for the annals of time, I thought I would put it in print.

Aliece does have some tender moments - amid her hyperactive-ness. One day I was sitting on the couch visiting. As I was talking, Aliece came over to me with her dolly cradled in her arms. She asked if I would hold her baby. Such a touching little request was something that was irresistible. So, I gladly took her doll and cradled it likewise in my arms. Aliece then walked around to the back of the couch where the dress up clothes are. She came back and put a toy gun to the dolls head and....well, you guessed it...its a bit too graphic to put in this entry. Needless to say, the dolly got it's "Shots".
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Little Pills of Magic

Yesterday I was at work and I started to feel a headache coming on. It was around 12:00 and I didn't have any of my new migraine pills with me at work. I thought that I'd just wait until 5 and take one when I got home. Around 3pm, however, my headache was terrible. I decided that I couldn't wait until 5 so I went home. When I arrived at the house, I took a pill and then a 30 minute nap. When I got up, to my complete amazement, my headache was gone! I even went back to work and enjoyed the rest of the day.

Now, I don't know if I can give the pills all of the credit. I did have a nap (which usually helps my migraines a little). However, I have never had the headache completely disappear. I'll have to wait until I have another headache to see if the results are as equally impressive.

I have brought a couple of pills to work so that I won't have to suffer until 5 anymore. I LOVE this medication! Oh, and I think I know what I'm going to get Mom for Christmas :) .

Aliece's other little trick

OK, so Amber pressured me to write about this one...I didn't want to, but she thought it should be recorded and published on the internet. I have shared this story with a few of you already - it happened about a month ago...but for the annals of time, I thought I would put it in print.

Aliece does have some tender moments - amid her hyperactive-ness. One day I was sitting on the couch visiting. As I was talking, Aliece came over to me with her dolly cradled in her arms. She asked if I would hold her baby. Such a touching little request was something that was irresistible. So, I gladly took her doll and cradled it likewise in my arms. Aliece then walked around to the back of the couch where the dress up clothes are. She came back and put a toy gun to the dolls head and....well, you guessed it...its a bit too graphic to put in this entry. Needless to say, the dolly got it's "Shots".

A Fly Went By...

Yesterday I was in practicing the piano when Johnathan came in and said, "Mom! You wouldn't believe this! I caught a fly." I turned and expected to see a dead fly that he had found in the window sill, or something, but there it was, being held by it's wings with it's little legs just squirming like crazy. He said, "Yep! I just put my hand out and caught it!" I think I'll give him a set of chopsticks and pay him a nickel a fly!

While I'm telling kid stories, I guess I better tell about Aliece, too. Her latest past time is carrying her green blanket around and pretending it's a baby. The scary part is that she always strokes her "baby" and tells me, "Mom! My baby is bleeding. My baby is bleeding; I need a wash cloth." If this was a one time occurrance, I wouldn't worry, but she does this several times a day. What's a mother to think? It gets even worse when you hear John's story.......

Monday's Lunch

On Monday, Jen, Jake, Joe and I went to the Nuskin cafeteria for lunch. It
was fun to have lunch together and visit for the hour. We should do that
more often. Joe later gave us the grand tour of the upper echelon rooms of
the chief Nuskin executives. It was pretty cool. It kind of makes me
wonder....man, why couldn't I do this. Then you realize that you are
walking through all their offices because they are hardly ever there - they
are traveling all over the place all the time. Then I think to myself,
"that's not for me". I am too much of a home-body to travel on business
trips all over the place. I enjoy one or two here and there occasionally,
but more than that would get old very quick.

Anyway, Jen and I decided to meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6am for
raquetball. Jake and Joe said they would come on the days they don't have
basketball.

Jen and I played on Tuesday - it was a lot of fun to get back on the court
again. It was even funner whooping Jen :-)

Will I beat my wife?

As most of you know, we went to the Jazz game on Monday. They played the Denver Nuggets and just killed them. The team looks really good this year. I am excited for them. It has taken me a while to get back in to the Jazz since Hornacek, Malone, and Stockton left, but I think I am a big fan now.

As I said, we went on Monday which was our FHE night. Our group really has struggled to have people there and if Jake and I arent there, they really notice. So on our way to the game, Jake, being the manipulative person that he is, called our FHE moms to let them know that we werent going to go, but they didnt answer so he left a message saying that he didnt know what we were doing for FHE (even though they left a note on our door) and that if they didnt call him back in 5 minutes, we werent going to go. He figured that it would be an easy way out of going to FHE (although we were already half way to Salt Lake) and the blame would be on the FHE moms rather than on us. But they called him back a couple of minutes later and told him what we were doing and so he had to tell them that we were going to a Jazz game. So they werent too happy with us.

Like I said, the game was fun and the Jazz won, and we returned home around 11:00. When we walked into our bedroom, we were surprised at what we saw. Our beds were moved, our mattresses were off the bed and in the closet, our dresser drawers were all switched and our room was a mess. Sean, our roommate, told us that it was our FHE moms that did it because we didnt go to FHE. So that kind of broke the ice with them.

So on Thursday, we invited them over to play Monopoly. Only one of the girls came at first because the other was working. So it was just Jake, Carly, and myself playing. Well, Carly got extremely lucky and owned most of the board. She had a monopoly on Boardwalk and Parkplace, the two most expensive properties. So one time I rolled and I got doubles, but landed on Parkplace, so I tried to hurry and roll again before she caught me and in my attempt to grab the dice and roll, I backhanded her in the head and gave her a black eye. I felt really bad. Even at church on Sunday it was still bruised and purple. Everybody at church saw it, but I dont think that she told too many people. Atleast I hope that she didnt, because it might be hard to get a date if they all think that I am abusive.

No Swimming but Hitting instead

We have lately started a "tradition" where the person in the family that was responsible for Activity at family home evening is also responsible for a family activiy on Saturday. This Saturday was Aylee's turn. She chose swimming. So, around 2pm, we got all the swimming gear out of the storage bins and dress the kids in their swimsuits and fuzzy bathrobes. We piled in the car and headed off to the Orem Rec Center where we have free passes from Novell. To our dismay, we arrived there only to find the parking lot loaded with yellow school busses. We knew we were in trouble.

Sure enough there was a high school swim meet going on. We had to turn right around and head back home.

The kids were a little disapointed, but Aylee reworked her plans and we decided to play baseball in the back yard. I don't want to brag or anything, but our kids are getting pretty good at baseball. We did the bases and everything. Aylee can sure hit the ball far. Johnathan started out on the tee, but near the end of the game he was managing to hit a few that I had pitched to him. We sure had a fun time. Aliece would mostly just hit and then go play in the garden - stomping old moldy tomatoes that were the remains of a late summer's harvest.

It was fun to see the kids enjoy themselves at the baseball game. It brought back memories of our family getting together in our much bigger yard and playing baseball together.

Thanks everyone for the good memories. Hopefully Amber and I can do the same for our family.

Meet the Parents

The days are getting shorter and the weather is getting colder. The deer hunt has ended and the elk hunt is winding down. Fall is in a transitional stage in preparation for winter. Thanksgiving is almost upon us. That means no school, no work, and finally -- some together time. This year, however, together time for me is not necessarily going to be only with the family.

Shantell and I have been planning out our Thanksgiving holiday and these are our preliminary plans.... Thursday we will be with our own families until around 4pm. Then we will meet in Pocatello and visit some relatives at the party (if it is still going on). Then we'll probably go do something fun.

Friday's plans are in her hands. She wants to plan out that day because I believe we'll spend most of the day in Shelley to meet the parents and a few of her siblings. Then she'll probably want to hike or something.

Saturday we will spend it at Arbon. I told her how we were going to be working cows on that day and she says that it sounds like fun. I told her how worried I was that she would get bored but she doesn't seem to care. The more I think about it, the more I know that she will enjoy being out there with the family,

It's funny, for the first time I actually started getting that nervous feeling that comes when you get more serious with a girl. I committed her to meet the family weeks ago but when she said we'd spend a day with her family (because they want to meet me) I got a little nervous. I am more excited than anything, though.

That's our update. The deer hunt may be over, but I'm chasing this wounded fawn until I know I've got her ;)

Get set.....

Hello everyone! Stage 2 of our family vacation has been completed. We have now officially purchased the airline tickets. The tickets came to $318 / person (I believe. If not, it's something very close to that). I sent everyone their itinerary, which also includes their individual cost. I will send everyone an itemized bill of what they currently owe and what their future expenses might be.

If, during Thanksgiving, you're able to come up with the money to pay me, that would be great so that I can get it off of my credit card before any interest accrues.

Most of the hard stuff has been completed as far as preparations go. Jenny is working on hotel reservations for us and we all need to get our passports asap. Let's make a family goal to have that done by thanksgiving.

OK, so maybe you voted...but do you know how the system really works? (Immigration Quiz #2)

Millions of Americans turned out to vote in early November. They voted for national and community leaders. It is a right and a responsibility given to every citizen of this nation.

It is important to know the issues and to know how your government works. We all know that immigrants have to study up on how our country is run. They have to take a test to become a citizen. How would you do, if you had to take that test today?

This is the second in a series of Immigration Quizes provided by Anthem Flag & Gift. Take the quiz today to see how you do!

Immigration Quiz #2
http://www.anthemflag.com/wiseQuiz/quiz.php?test=Immigration%20Quiz%20No.%202

Good luck!

Never had it, never will

Ok, this is random, but it is a pet peeve of mine...

 

Do you remember those commercials of 7-up back in the 80s...It was about caffeine and their tag line was "Never had it...Never will."  Then to my amazement, a few months back it came to my attention that 7-up now has caffeine in it.  That floored me. 

 

Just when I was just about over it, my friend at work offered me a Sunkist.  I declined, but he insisted, saying that he was trying to get rid of all of his sunkists (he had a 24pack).  I asked him why, and he said that he noticed that Sunkist was now caffinated.  I scanned the peppy-orange can and saw it - 7 words down the ingredient list.  Once again I felt betrayed, used, and cheated by a trusted beverage company.

 

Where will it all end???  What is next - Milk?

I'm sending a number...

The other day Johnathan got a letter from one of his friends in the neighborhood. He thought that was pretty cool, so he decided he was going to draw some pictures and send them back to his friend.

When I came home from work today, Johnathan was so excited, he exclaimed, "Dad, I am going to send a number to Veronica." I didn't quite understand what he was saying, so I asked him to repeate himself, to which he replied with the same sentence, that he was going to send a number to his friend.

After a few minutes I figured it out - a letter vs. a number - an easy concept to mix up in a child's mind. A letter to a child is a character, a,b,c..etc. Thus, if he were sending a letter, it is easy to get mixed up and want to send a number.

Funny kids - I have so much fun living in a madhouse!

My sprained ankle. I sprained it on Wednesday morning playing basketball.

On your mark......

The first step of our trip preparation has been finalized! The following have been ordered:

Jacob & Joseph -> Small Table (4 people) -> First Dinner
Jenny & Janae -> Large Table (10 people) -> Last Dinner
John & Amber -> Large Table (10 people) -> Last Dinner
Lynn & JoAnn -> Large Table (10 people) -> Last Dinner

As you can see, Joe and my dinner times are different than the rest of you. We are hoping to meet some pretty bikini girls and have dinner w/ them everyday when the rest of you aren't around. Truth be told, we messed up our order and didn't change the default table and eating time. I'm going to call the cruise-line and see if they can switch us to match with you guys and also see if we can all be at the same table.

Now, your turn... You are going to need to get your passports! That will make the trip much easier if you do this. It can be done w/o them, but believe me, we don't want to have any problems.

IMPT: You will not be able to board the ship if your passport info (names, bdate, etc) don't match exactly what I registered you as. The only person that I'm slightly nervous about is Mom. Your first name is Jo and your middle name is Ann....at least that's what I put you as. I think I remember you saying it's that way on your birth certificate. John concurred with that belief, so that's what I put. Make sure your passport is the same way!

I am going to order the plane tickets within the next couple of days. I'm trying really hard to make it so that we don't have to spend more than 1k each (total for the trip). We will be flying to New Orleans on the 25th, arriving around 10pm. We will stay in a Marriott hotel free of charge through a coupon Jenny has. We'll stay the night and we should be well rested after the flight and everything. In the morning, we will mozy over to the ship and board. On our return, we'll catch a flight that will have us arriving at SLC on March 3rd (wed night) around 10pm.

Those are the plans so far. If there are any concerns, blog them before I buy the airline tickets. Also, I've found tickets for $292/person. If anyone else can find them for less $$, let me know. Keep in mind that those in school and work would like to leave as late as possible on the 25th so we don't lose yet another day of productivity. The flight returning to SLC cannot leave New Orleans before 12:30pm.

4 More Years!!!

Everyone probably knows this by now, but today is a day that truly deserves celebration. Not only is it mom and dad's anniversary (like John mentioned in the previous post) but President George Bush will be in office for four more years!

Also, in Utah, we passed an amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. We voted down an initiative to give money to environmentalists, and Huntsman was elected governor. Things went very well.

Just thought that this event should be blogged for our family and anyone else in the world who happens to view our blog.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad

Roses are Red,
Violets are Blue...
Enjoy your anniversary....
We'll all be thinking of you!

We hope you guys didn't stay up too late last night watching election results. Hope you are able to enjoy your anniversary together today. :-)

Sounds like a busy week for you. We are excited about your trip to Moscow. Have a wonderful time!

Thanks for being such great examples to us in your marriage and in your love for each other. Few children get to see (or want to see :->) the level of love that you each have for each other. I have to admit, you would embarass us by kissing in the kitchen or family room, but deep down, we felt great that our parents loved each other so much. Most kids don't even have the opportunity to see their parents stay together through the years. It is great to have been raised by the both of you.

We love you!

Happy 31 Years!