Our Yellowstone Adventure

Zak and I have been meaning to go to Yellowstone for the last three years that we've lived in Logan. We finally made it over Labor Day weekend. I have included some pictures for everyone's enjoyment. Or puzzlement. Don't worry, I'll explain.

Here's a little background before I launch into full-fledged explanation mode: Zak and I drove to Yellowstone on Saturday, leaving Logan at about 9 am and finally arriving around 3ish. We camped in our car (since I was a little worried about the bear situation due to numerous people sharing bear horror stories with me before the trip) at Lewis Lake. It was a beautiful lake (as most lakes are) and the campsite was nice, as campsites go. Zak and I played around at the lake, shooting rocks into the water with his slingshot and walking along the shore. I also favored Zak with a stirring rendition of "Father Abraham" (complete with all the actions) and other beloved Girls' Camp songs. I didn't realize at the time that sound carried so very well across the water. I guess the boaters on the other side of the lake were entertained, too. Or disturbed. Anyway.

We went back to the campsite at about 8 pm when it started to get dark. We decided we would go to bed, since we didn't have anything else to do. So we reclined our seats and proceeded to attempt to sleep. I'll sum up the whole night briefly: it was COLD. We had lots of blankets and sweatshirts, but we still froze. Also, due to the cold temperature, I had to go to the bathroom several times. Zak, the wonderful husband that he is, told me that I could wake him up if I needed to go to the bathroom and he'd go with me. I was still a little nervous about the whole bear thing. You never know, right?

I woke up for the last time at 4 in the morning and couldn't go back to sleep. Zak woke up at 5 (when I woke him because I had to go to the bathroom AGAIN) and we decided to drive to Old Faithful so that we could be there to see the geyser erupt when it got a little lighter outside.

Here's the explanation of the pictures: The first was taken at ... Vault Geyser! Zak and I were sitting on a bench, waiting for Old Faithful to do its thing (from across the way, by Vault Geyser) and this lady approached us and asked with a Southern drawl, "Have ya'll seen the Morning Glory Poo'?" I thought she really said "pooh" and started to point to the pile sitting close to the sign for Vault Geyser, but quickly realized that she meant pool, as in body of water. I retracted my hand and said, "Nope. Sorry!" Zak and I laughed about that for a while, since he thought the same thing and had settled on giving the lady a blank look, rather than pointing out the pile of refuse by the sign. She probably thought we were a little odd, but that's okay.

The second picture is Zak, thinking that he's completely hidden from view since he was wearing his camo shorts. Little did he know, the white socks totally gave him away! What really happened was that he was trying to push a couple of logs that were laying on the shore into Lewis Lake (what is it about boys throwing things into bodies of water?) and one of them had splashed in, so he backed up in order to avoid being hit by the water. I'm just not a great photographer. Once we left and were on our way home, Zak lamented that he hadn't brought our little inflatable boat. It would've been fun (his words, not mine) to use it on Lewis Lake.

The third picture is one that Zak took of me at Old Faithful -- he is a much better photographer than I am! I'm not sure what I'm doing with my hands in the picture, but I thought that it was a really cool shot.

The fourth picture is one of those puzzling ones. We saw this lady with her family at Prismatic Pool and were unable to figure out why she was wearing this shirt. It's one thing for a guy to be wearing it, but for a lady with a whole passel of kids to wear it... we just weren't sure where that was coming from. Zak placed himself strategically so that he could get the shot and share it with all of you, so that we could all wonder about this together. Hmmm.

Unbelievable!

I guess I cursed myself somehow by blogging about how I learned how to fix my flat bike tire. That was a week ago Monday, and since then I have had THREE MORE flat tires! Unfortunately, they've all occurred after I got to work, and they happened this last Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Consecutively. Today I'm driving the car. Does anyone else think this is ridiculous?
Last night we bought some plastic stuff you can put inside your tires to prevent thorns from piercing the tube, and Zak is going to put that into my bike tires today. If it's done by tomorrow, I might give it another try and see if I can make it to and from work without any flats.
I have a really good husband -- on Monday, he brought me the car and pumped up my flat tire and rode my girly bike with flowers on it home. What a good man! The last two days, though, he's been in class or at work, so I've had to figure it out. Luckily for me, there is a gas station just across the street that has an air machine. I've been able to fill up the tire enough to get home and fix the flat. Anyway... this weekend is the Yellowstone trip. We're excited!

Mantua Lake

Last night we drove up through Sardine Canyon and turned off at Mantua. Those of you who are not Cache Valley natives will pronounce this very differently than those who are: the correct pronunciation (or so I've been told) is "Man-a-way". How they get that from Mantua, I've no idea. Also, Mantua is between Logan and Brigham City, to give you an idea of its location.
You need a little background before I continue with the story: After our Bear Lake adventure, Zak was browsing in a watersports shop while I got a "famous" raspberry shake. Really, he didn't want to wait with me while I got the shake. He was protesting on the grounds that you can tack a "famous" in front of just about anything; it doesn't make it taste better, or even make the item actually famous, it's just a marketing ploy. I guess it's one I succumb to often, and I'm okay with it. It was a pretty good shake. Anyway, he found an inflatable boat that looked like it could probably seat two people, so we splurged and bought it. We had borrowed his brother's floatation device for our Bear Lake trip and had been looking that day for one of our own. So we found one, and that was great.
We've been meaning to test our little boat since then and we finally got around to it last night on Mantua Lake. I was a little concerned that it wouldn't actually float with both of us in it due to the warning about the number of pounds it stated on the box that it was able to support. I won't go into that exact figure here, because, frankly, who cares? You don't really want to know what I weigh, nor do I care to share.
After a five-minute session pumping the thing up with this awesome (dare I insert "famous" here?) double-power hand pump that I bought for $8 at KMart and some tricky manuvering (read: Sarah couldn't figure out how to get in the boat without letting in LOTS of cold water), we were ready to go. We floated out into the serene lake and watched the ducks diving in the water. We didn't see any fish jumping, but we saw a lot of little bubbles where they came to the surface to feed.
As the evening wore on (we got there about 7:30), it got cold. I mean, come on, we're in the mountains, on a mountain lake. We drifted and just sat and talked for a long while - when the stars began to come out, we started making our way to the shore. Now, the interesting thing is, we didn't have any paddles. We hadn't bought any. Zak's flippant comment to the saleslady when she asked if we would like to purchase some was, "I have hands." Thank you. So we're out in the middle of this lake, it's getting dark, I'm freezing (and so is Zak, but he won't admit it), and we have no paddles. Obviously, we knew before we went out that we'd have to use our hands to paddle back in, or get out and swim -- just so anyone reading this doesn't think we're total dopes. So we start paddling. And we paddle, and paddle, and paddle some more. It took a really long time to get back to the shore, and we were COLD by the time we got there. Zak had a great idea after we got home last night. He said that next time (uh-huh, yeah) we'll tie a rope around one of the big rocks on the shoreline and attach it to the boat. Then we'll be able to pull ourselves in when we're ready to go. I think we should just get some oars or paddles.
I had to post a couple of pictures - the one of Zak because he is just so darn cute, and the crooked one (ah, my wonderful photography skills!) of the mountain, moon, and water, because it reminds me of how peaceful it was out on the lake. It was another fun adventure!

Learning New Tricks

For FHE last night, Zak taught me how to fix a flat bike tire. I picked up a thorn some time Friday or Saturday and on our way out the door to church on Sunday, I noticed that my back tire was totally flat. I, of course, was a little distraught. Zak thought that I was a little nuts. I mean, c'mon, it's just a bike. And it's fixable. In any case, I went through the whole process of taking the rim and tire off the frame, pulling out the tube, finding the hole (which was pretty easy since the thorn was still in the tire), and patching it. Zak was a great teacher and helped me get it all done. I rode my bike to work again today after my forced one-day vacation from it yesterday. It's riding smooth as ever! And now I know how to do it on my own if I need to.
I don't think I've blogged since last week, so I'll tell a little about our fun Monday and Tuesday. Last Monday, I came home from work and Zak asked me if I wanted to go to dinner and a movie! Of course I did, so we went to Angie's (a great local place for those of you not familiar with Cache Valley) for a bite to eat, and then we saw The Bourne Ultimatum. We both really liked the movie -- I think it's the best Bourne yet, and I own the other two. So I'll probably own this one, too, once it's available to own!
The next day was Tuesday, my day off during the week since I had to work this past Saturday. Zak and I went to Bear Lake and had a great time. We borrowed a raft from his brother Rhett and alternated between laying on the beach and floating on the lake. It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm - so relaxing! It was just what we both needed. Unfortunately, I got a pretty bad sunburn on my back despite putting on copious amounts of sunscreen. We decided that the stuff we have isn't very effective, so I guess we'll have to buy something new before we go out in the sun again. Zak also got a bad sunburn--on the tops of his feet (not that anyone but me would know that, right, Barb?). He told me that next time he'll listen to me when I say that he should probably put sunscreen on his feet since they never see the sun. All in all, it was a great day!
Other than those fun activities last week, life has been pretty normal. I am back to work in the dungeon and Zak is relishing his last few days of freedom before school starts on Monday. I can't believe the summer is almost over!

Our Exciting Summer

Our summer hasn't really been terribly exciting, but as I looked back over the previous posts, I realized that I hadn't said much about it. I seem to have been dwelling on Zak's adventures.
A little bit about the summer: Zak has been taking his last English class since June 11th - Shakespeare. He's done after he takes his final today, and he is SO glad. He hasn't enjoyed Shakespeare very much. He had another two-week-long secondary education class in July that is over. He's also been working a lot with his dad on a home they're doing finish work on in the Smithfield subdivision.
I have been working lots, as usual, and dealing with the scheduling problems that came up when a co-worker left to have a baby (three weeks earlier than planned!) and another co-worker left (for two weeks) to get married. I thought summers were supposed to be more relaxing than this! Really, though, I'm grateful to have a good job, despite the occasional scheduling problems.
Some of the highlights of the summer include:
*Zak took and passed his first Praxis test!! (This is great because it means that he can student teach for sure in the Spring 2008 semester, and then he will graduate in May!!!) Congratulations, Zak!
*Zak's sister Nikkol and her family have moved back to Logan! Hooray! It is fun to have them here - we love playing with Beck, Kaiya, and Crede (and their new puppy, Steele).
*We were loaned a washer and dryer by Nik and Corey, so I can do laundry at my own house for the first time in three years! It is wonderful.
*The house hasn't burned down yet due to the jimmy-rigging of the electrical in the basement - Zak had to run a larger wire in so that we could hook the dryer up. We stay home while we run it - just in case.
*We finally gave the basement a really thorough cleaning. I wasn't going to do laundry down there until we got it cleaned up. It is a really creepy basement, complete with old coal chute and everything. We put down some of those sticky spider traps and have caught some really huge beasts. Zak discovered something that's really disturbing last night. His thinking was that we should cut the edges off where the spiders have been caught so that other spiders will go into the middle. He thinks that if the spiders see other spiders stuck at the edges, they will know not to walk on the sticky paper. (I guess this is along the same lines as leaving a dead, petrified mouse in a Mason jar with a baseball on top down in the basement to serve as a warning to all the other mice....) Zak started to cut the end of the paper off and the spiders started moving. They are still alive on that sticky paper, and some of them have been there for two weeks. That gives me the chills - yuck!
*I just finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on Wednesday! (Started it on Tuesday.) I had to re-read the last hundred or so pages three times - loved it!
*I got to see my parents, my sister Wendy and her family, my brother Michael and his girlfriend Sarah, all within about a week and a half in July. It was great to visit with family!
That's about all for the summer to this point. We still have one more month left - so maybe I'll have another post in a months' time, telling about all the fun things we did in August. We are planning a trip to Bear Lake, and maybe a quick trip to Yellowstone if things work out. I hope you are all having a good summer, too!

Box Elders Bugs: They're What's For Dinner

Zak really dislikes box elder bugs. I think they might be some sort of cousin to fireflies. They move slowly, they sometimes fly, and they reproduce like crazy. Box elders are fairly harmless, but I guess for Zak, there's something especially annoying about them.

He has gone through several stages with the box elders. He started by burning nests of them whenever he could find them, then moved on to spraying poison every place he thought they might be living and breeding, and since they are still ubiquitous, moved on to eating them, starting last night.

We were playing Mafia at his parents' house and the bugs were buzzing around, and one landed on him. He announced, after brushing off the offending bug (is there any other kind?), that if one more box elder bug landed on him, he would eat it. We all laughed, thinking he was just joking, as he is wont to do.

The moment of truth arrived when another box elder bug landed somewhere on Zak...an arm, a leg, someplace; he grabbed it, placed it on his tongue, and swallowed it. He repeated the process twice more before the evening ended. Is anyone else hearing the theme to Survivor playing in the background?

I have to admit, box elders are not my favorite bug either. I don't have a favorite bug, because in general, I don't think or care about them at all. They make me jump when I find one crawling on my leg, arm, or shoulder, or when one is buzzing around my head when I'm trying to read. But despite the occasional annoyance of having them crawl on me, I don't think I would ever eat one. Blech.

The Demise of the Orange Couch

You may be wondering what in the world is going on with these pictures. Well, not what is going on, that's fairly obvious, but why. That's a question I can't answer. Sorry.
I can tell the story of the demise of the orange couch, though. Zak LOVES to sleep on couches, and this orange couch is the one he slept on for several years. I can't express how attached Zak is (was) to this couch. Barb and Larry have been re-doing some of the rooms in their house and the couch was sitting in one of the rooms that was being re-done. Also, it was pretty much just time to get rid of the couch. The cushions were all flat as pancakes and all the interior foam was disintegrating. Instead of doing something normal and sensible, like taking the couch to the DI or the dump, Zak decided that he needed to burn it. (And this only after much trial, tribulation, and dicussion -- he did NOT want to get rid of this couch and I did NOT want it to end up in the basement of some future house we will have one day.) Not only did he decide to burn it, he decided to sit (or stand) on it as it burned. I'm not sure where the motivation came from to do this... like I said, can't explain why.
Zak's brother Rhett decided to join him in this...adventure?...and so goes the progression of pictures above. They said it was pleasantly warm at first, like a seat warmer in a car. I guess it got pretty hot toward the end, so they had to stand up. During the time the last three pictures were taken, Rhett was saying, "I cannot abandon my post!" That part was pretty comical.
And where was I when all of this was happening?? Standing by, watching helplessly, trying to reason with Zak to get off the burning couch. (Um, duh.) Now that I think about it, I should've had my phone in my pocket just in case I needed to dial 911. But they got off before the conflagration reached too high, although the definition of "too high" is arguable. I kept thinking to myself, "These guys are so crazy! Why are they doing this?" I guess they were pretty entertained by it, and it will make a good story for posterity... of what NOT to do!

Mr. Freshman MC

I realize that it's a little unusual for me to post twice in the same week, and I don't want anyone getting any big ideas about that continuing, but I had to put a link on my blog for Taylor's Michael Jackson dance. He participated in a contest at school over the winter semester called Mr. Freshman MC (MC standing for "Mountain Crest," which is the name of the high school, for those unfamiliar with Logan and its environs). Zak explained it to me as sort of a prom king contest for freshman, so it's a pretty big deal. Taylor's talent portion of the contest was a Michael Jackson dance that is very cool (especially for a white kid). So here's the link to the video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvKnjNJzVBc.
This "production" was a HUGE Lewis family effort -- everyone was involved in one way or another. There were lots of early morning practices, during which we gave Taylor our critiques of the dance, and Kelly worked a ton with Taylor on choreography. Rhett and Burke did all the filming and did an excellent job, as usual! All of us were there on the big night to cheer Taylor on (although all you'll hear in the video is the screaming of adolescent girls, as the entire school was invited to the assembly).
We were all pretty excited when Taylor won the competition, and after watching the video, you'll see why -- he was definitely the most talented kid on the stage that night!

The Cache Valley Report

Spring has arrived in Cache Valley...again. We had such beautiful weather in the last part of March, then it snowed last week, and now it's nice and sunny outside. I hope it stays that way!
Well, well...what have we been up to? Zak and I stayed with Taylor in Millville this last week while Barb and Larry were in St. Louis visiting with Nik and Corey. It's so much bigger than our little half-a-house in Logan, we loved having a backyard to go walk around, and we had a big bonfire (ask Zak how big) on Tuesday night and roasted hot dogs. I think Zak got a good picture of his creation, both pre- and post-burning. We also particularly enjoyed using the dishwasher (as opposed to washing by hand which is our norm mode of dish washing) and the washer and dryer (which we use every week--many grateful thanks to Barb and Larry for that--but it was still nice to use it). Last night was our first night back in our place, and while it was fun to stay in Millville, it was also nice to be home.
The semester is winding up for Zak -- only two more finals and one paper, then he's done for a few weeks. Hooray!! His first of two Praxis tests is coming up on June 9th, so please keep us in mind on that day.
Work is going well for me. Nothin' new to report there. Each day is very much like the one before. The thing that has been the most fun about work lately is riding my bike to work. Not, of course, when it was snowing last week, but on some of the nicer days. There have been a few days when it has started raining after I got to work, and Zak--bless his heart--has come to work and brought me our car and then ridden my girly red-with-white-flowers beach cruiser home in the rain. What a great guy! It takes someone really special to not mind being seen on a girl's bicycle on one of the busier residential roads in Logan. Way to go, Zak! Way to go!
Zak and I have always listened to NPR in the morning as we get ready, but lately I've been listening to it more and find that I really enjoy knowing what's going on in the country and the world. I am reminded of a conversation between Paul Rudd and Alicia Silverstone in "Clueless" (which I will quote here) -- "Hey, in some parts of the universe, maybe not in Contempo Casual, but in some parts, it's considered cool to know what's going on in the world."
Fact: I'm not trying to be cool, I just think it's good to be aware of happenings in the world. Another Fact: I'm a little embarrassed that I know that quote from "Clueless." What can I say, chick flicks of all kinds are a guilty pleasure for me. I say there's nothing wrong with being entertained, as long as the line between entertainment and reality doesn't blur.
Weeelll, it's back to work for me!

Spring Break

Well, well. I find it so hard to blog consistently. My apologies to those of you who are faithful bloggers and who also faithfully check others' blogs, hoping for new posts. I have good intentions, though I know those don't do anything but pave a road I have no interest in taking...
Zak and I took a trip to St. Louis over spring break, and we had a lot of fun. We were able to see my parents and to see Nikkol, Corey, and their kids, Beck, Kaiya, and Crede. We made trips to the St. Louis History Museum (there were cool exhibits on the first horseless carriages in St. Louis and one on Charles Lindbergh), the Magic House (found out we missed some of the cooler stuff -- we're just amateurs, so that's why -- we didn't know where to go), Laclede's Landing, and the Arch. My mom and dad's newly remodeled kitchen is very nice! It was fun to see it in person after seeing all the pictures. It seems so much bigger than before. We had a great time talking and catching up on things.
We spent quite a while on the MetroLink on Wednesday afternoon--much more time than we'd planned. Zak and I thought it would be fun to take the MetroLink into the city to see the Arch and have a bite to eat somewhere on Laclede's Landing, so that's what we did. We found a restaurant called Hannegan's which had good food and a fun, downtown-1930s kind of atmosphere (if that makes sense). Then we walked around the Arch and down by the riverfront as it poured rain. Luckily, I had a jacket with a hood, so I was okay, but poor Zak got soaked! After we were done at the Arch, we hopped back on the first westbound Metro we saw, and didn't pay attention to the fact that we would need to switch trains at the Forest Park station to get back to the place we parked and got on MetroLink. So instead of a short, twenty-minute trip back to the Galleria, we found ourselves all the way out at the airport. There were plenty of colorful characters on the Metro with us. It's such a totally different culture than what I'm now used to, living in Utah. Once we got headed back in the right direction, we managed to switch trains and get back to where we needed to go. It was a fun little hour-and-a-half adventure. All in all, the trip was enjoyable, except for the fact that I wasn't feeling very good the whole time. I always seem to get sick while on vacation. C'est la vie.
Zak, the lucky devil, got to stay in St. Louis after I flew back to Utah on Wednesday. He has been helping out at Nik and Corey's house and discovering that parenting isn't as easy as it looks to those on the outside of things. Nikki has been getting ready for a huge stake extravaganza and Zak has been able to watch Beck, Kaiya, and Crede for her while she sets things up at the church building. Some of the things I have been hearing in our frequent phone calls are, "Man, this is exhausting!" and "I am so tired!" He has discovered that Happy Meals and movies are very effective bribery tools. The movies give him much-needed chance to nap. I know he is enjoying being there, but I sure miss him and will be glad for him to fly home Monday night!
Today I took my first scooter ride of the year! Unfortunately, it was to get to work. But still, it's great to have it warming up enough to ride again! I have missed riding the scooter during the winter months. It's great to finally have spring arriving.

Birthday II

Here are some pictures of more Wii-playing. Zak and I are playing Rayman's Raving Rabbids in the first one -- we were doing a dance competition. (This was a few weeks ago.) I really like the game, though it isn't Zak's favorite. It has a variety of games, some of which are really fun, while others are just okay. The last two pictures are from the birthday celebration last night. Zak is performing surgery in the middle picture. Trauma Center has turned out to be pretty cool, as long as you skip all the boring dialogue. The last picture is of the guys playing Mario Kart. It's funny that we bought the Wii, and it seems like the games that everyone gets the most enjoyment from are the old school Nintendo games. Anyway, that's what we look like while playing the Wii. Pretty exciting stuff.
I don't know of anything too exciting to report other than our impending trip to St. Louis. Zak and I are going to St. Louis in March and we're really excited to see my parents and Zak's sister and her family. It will be great! I will only be there for about five days, but Zak gets to spend a week and a half, lucky kid! We will meet Crede, Nikkol and Corey's third baby, for the first time. I'm sure that we will have lots of fun.
School is going well for Zak. He is observing at one of the middle schools and taking several secondary education classes, and one grammar class that is the current bane of his existence. Every day we are inching closer to his being done with school, and that is a good thing!
Work is still going well for me. My job has become much busier as my manager has been visiting dealers in the Salt Lake City area and getting them to try out the CU. It's good because the days fly by, but bad because we are a little short-handed for the volume of work that's coming in. If we keep the same level of work coming in, though, we will be hiring additional help. Then the workload should even out a little. It's not so bad to be busy, though. Job security is important.
In unrelated news, I finished a new book yesterday by Guy Gavriel Kay called Ysabel, which was excellent. Any of you SF/Fantasy readers out there, I would highly recommend the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy and then Ysabel (which loosely ties in to the trilogy, but takes place 15-20 years later). One of Kay's influences was J.R.R. Tolkien and it shows in his writing. He's an excellent author. I have also been enjoying the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. Her Chalion series is really good, and she has a new book out that starts a series called The Sharing Knife. Reading is great! (Also - Many thanks to Barb for the pictures. She is great about taking them when we are together. They make it more fun to post on my blog!)

Happy Birthday, Zak!

Happy Birthday to Zak! He turned 29 yesterday and we had a fun birthday celebration with his family last night. (Incidentally, Zak will be 30 in 364 days. The only reason this concerns me is that I am only eight months and six days behind him. Yikes!) The unconventional cake is actually a platter of Tex-Mex dip with Zak's name spelled out in sugar wafer cookies. When Barb has made cakes in the past for birthdays, they are mostly left uneaten and just get dried out, so she has been making other things for birthday celebrations. I think it's a great idea!

The last picture is Zak's present from Rhett and Burke. I can't really explain it, other than to say it's a picture of a flunger, which is a version of a finger Zak and Rhett dreamed up when they were younger... Yep, doesn't make much sense, but it is pretty funny. It's something. You can do some amazing things with computers. If I can get permission from the artists, I may post a picture on the blog. We all got a good laugh out of it.

The Eagle Has Landed (and so has the Wii)

The Wii(s) arrived a week ago!! (It looks better somehow to type "Wii(s)" as opposed to "Wiis". It's easier to read. So that's why I'm doing it. I know it's probably not correct punctuation. But this is my blog. So who cares?) We got a Wii, Taylor got one, and our friend Ben got one. We also got a LOT of controllers, as you can see. And Rhett's favorite birthday present, Wedgehead, is also featured in the first picture. Still haven't figured out how to put pictures throughout the post.

My favorite thing about the other two pictures above is that I noticed I'm sitting in the background reading instead of playing. Typical, right, Zak? I figured that since we were taking one home with us and I was quite involved in my book, I may as well let others play and enjoy. For his birthday next month, Zak has asked for nothing more than a coupon stating that I will come home from work and not read my book for one solid week. I'm not sure if I can provide that coupon. How about a sweater? :)

Incidentally, for those Tamora Pierce fans out there (you know who you are--Karen, Carolyn, and Nicole), the book was Beka Cooper: Terrier. It's about George Cooper's ancestress who is a city guard. I was hesitant at first, since the formatting was a little different, and the vernacular she uses is a little odd. It's in a journal format, which I think can be a tricky way to tell a story, and she uses words like "cove" and "mot" to mean "man" and "woman," respectively. It took a few pages before I caught on to that. "Gixie" stands for "girl." About halfway into the book, I realized that there was a glossary of terms in the back. I'd pretty much worked out most of the words by that point, but it was still helpful. Anyway, it turned out to be a really good book, and I enjoyed it a lot! You girls should read it if you get the chance.

Back to the Wii(s): We had two Wii(s) set up, one in the family room and one upstairs. Everyone had loads of fun playing the different games we rented. There haven't been any Wii horror stories for any of us yet, no broken light fixtures, tv, or furniture. Zak will take anyone on in boxing, and he'll usually win. He's hit the professional level with one of his Mii(s) named Ge. We really like some of the party games in Monkeyball, and I like all the Metal Slug games. It's old school Nintendo, and that's probably why I like it. All it requires is proficiency in button-mashing and perseverance. We tried Need for Speed: Carbon (racing game) and couldn't figure out the controllers or controller formatting. We thought it was dumb. Too "Fast and the Furious" for me, anyway. Zak said that Red Steel is okay, but not tons of fun to play. We haven't tried Zelda yet, but since Kelly and Kristy bought that for everyone (thanks, guys!), we will have a chance to try it anytime we like. That's the rundown on the games.

We are also enjoying making Mii(s). I have only made a few, but Zak has been going to town! He has made Rocky, the four characters from Seinfeld, Nina Myers, Jack Bauer, and a host of others. We are growing a town full of them.

Now on to the "Eagle" part of the post: Jack Bauer and 24. The premiere was GREAT! We are very excited to see how the show will unfold. I like Wayne Palmer as president, but not as much as David Palmer. I really don't like his advisor, Tom Whatsits. Where's Mike Novik when you need 'im? One other question pertaining to Jack: Where's the Listerine? For those of you who watched, you know what I mean.... That was one of the toughest things I've ever seen, but also one of the grossest. Monday nights are now the highlight of my week.

24 and the Wii

The following takes place between 12 pm and 1pm.

It's the first post of the new year! How exciting! Zak and I celebrated the new year by watching season 3 of 24. I hadn't seen it before, and mostly I just needed to be sure that Jack finished off Nina Myers. And he does. Whew! Sorry to any of you who haven't watched that season and were planning to... don't worry, there's plenty of other good stuff in there!

[Explanation of the picture: January 4th is Rhett's birthday - hence the cake composed of Hostess cupcakes. Unfortunately, Rhett isn't in this picture, but it's the only one I have from that night.]
I was at the doctor's office yesterday for a routine check-up and the doctor was making small talk, asking how my new years was, etc. I told him that we watched 24 for part of the weekend and he got excited. I guess he and his family are big 24 fans, too. We talked about Jack and how he's put in impossible situations, and he does some crazy stuff but it feels like it's warranted -- I mean, come on! If he doesn't do his job, the world will end! The countdown continues (I wish I could make the sound the clock makes as the seconds tick by -- you 24 fans know what I'm talking about!) ... only 10 days until season 6 premieres!
Zak and I are getting a Wii! Unbeknownst to us, our sister-in-law has a cousin who works for Nintendo. Kind of handy, huh? So our Wii is in the mail, we got a Nintendo employee discount, and we are excited. Zak has decided that we need to rearrange the house so that we'll have more room to play. (Mostly to box. I beat him at boxing when we were playing at Carolyn and Jacob's, and I think he's gunning for a rematch. Bring it on, Z!) So that is most likely what we will be doing this weekend, moving furniture and awaiting the arrival of our Wii!
Zak is gearing up to start the semester on Monday. I know he's not really excited to go back to school, but this is the third-to-last semester (keep your fingers crossed!). He will do great, like he always does.
Work is still going really well. Zak informed me yesterday that I'm happier when I come home from work now. That could be due to the job itself, or the fact that I no longer have to fight traffic to get home. Either way, it's a good thing. And that concludes today's post!

Deliver Us From Savage Garden (and Other Post-Christmas Stories)

I am not very good at putting in these pictures yet... I meant for them to go at the end of the post. Oh well! Here they are:

1. Building our candy houses

2. Displaying our candy houses

3. Eating Christmas Eve dinner (mmmm... chicken and sukiyaki)

4. Zak playing the Lightning Shock game (look at that bicep!)

5. Christmas morning at the parents'

Now, for the rant that originally started this post: You know, I don't have anything against Savage Garden as a general rule. But when you're made to listen to their entire (lame) cd due to forced proximity, it's really not cool. Quite distressing, actually. "I would fly you to the moon and back if you'll be, if you'll be, if you'll be my baby"?!? Come ON.

Coming back to work after a weeks' vacation is hard enough, right? Whatever happened to a little peace and quiet? Or a little U2? Some Beatles? Maybe even some Elvis or John Denver? Can we get some cool music in here, please? Come on, people!

Zak and I had a great Christmas. We took a trip to Lava Hot Springs in Idaho last Wednesday. We enjoyed the outdoor hot springs only slightly more than the jetted tub in our hotel room (it was 14 degrees outside...brrr), and ate at the only two open restaurants in town. There are probably about ten restaurants total in Lava, but only two are open in the winter. Typical, right? We took some pictures in Lava, but they were taken on our camera phones since our camera wasn't working. I haven't gotten around to downloading the pictures to a computer yet. Look for those in an upcoming post.

We took a short trip to Provo as well and had a chance to play the Wii (thank you Carolyn and Jacob!). It was very fun to play, and many of you know that's saying a lot for me. I don't usually enjoy video games much, but I stayed up until 3 am playing Wii Sports... that should give you an idea of how fun the Wii is. Zak wants to save some money so that we can buy one... We'll see!

We got back to Logan in time for Festivus on the 23rd. We got together at Burke and Ben's place and the guys played Halo or Far Cry (who knows?! aren't they practically the same game?) while the girls sat around and chatted and watched Law and Order. We went for hot chocolate at Village Inn, which was fun. I think there were supposed to be some feats of strength and airing of grievances, but that never materialized. I guess the video games were too much fun.
Christmas Eve and Christmas day were spent at Zak's parents' house. We had a good time just hanging out with family. I got a new flat iron and a facial at Serendipity Salon, and Zak got a Keane cd and some framed Van Gogh prints. We also received a few gift cards -- my favorite, guilt-free shopping!

We learned from my mom on Christmas Day that my uncle, David Thompson, was in a bad car accident on the 23rd. He was life-flighted to LDS Hospital in Salt Lake from St. George and has had an operation to re-fuse base of the skull and the top of the spine. From all reports, he is doing well, and can move all his limbs, so we are hoping for a full recovery for him. Please keep him in your prayers!

And finally, the countdown until 24 premieres is down to 17 days! Can't wait to see Jack Bauer back in action. Come on, January 14th!

And on that very happy note, happy new year, everybody!

Glory Part II

Here's that other picture. I couldn't get it where I wanted it on the other post... Two posts in one day!! That is unprecedented in the history of this blog.

In All Our Glory

Well, here we are. Mom and Dad asked for a picture for Christmas and this is it! I was mostly just excited that I finally have something to post on the blog so that it's not so... textual. Is that a word?

Don't worry, Mom and Dad, I will be sending a printed copy to you. There's another picture that we took that turned out pretty well (thanks to Rhett and his magic editing skills) that I'll include at the end of this post. After watching Rhett and Burke work, I now understand why models in magazines look so good--it's got to be fake. They can make anyone look good, no matter what the original picture looks like. Not that they messed too much with our pictures. They didn't, just kind of helped it look less... old. We had some wrinkles taken out, if you can believe that. Wrinkles!

I managed to make it all the way through November without one single post. Yikes. It's a little scary how fast time passes. I have settled in nicely in the Lending Center, and now have my own cubicle in which to sit. I am feeling more and more comfortable with the job, which is nice, and it's wonderful to get off work at 5 pm and be home by 5:05 pm. Love it!

So here's the recap for the last month and a half: Thanksgiving was good. We spent the day in Millville with Zak's family. We had a fun day and ate lots of food. We also had a chance to visit with some of my family the Sunday following Thanksgiving. Zak and I went to Lehi, to Scott and Analee's new house (beautiful!) and had dinner with Scott, Analee, Karen, David, and Nicole. Also present were all the kids, who are getting so big, and are all very cute, and Nicole's boyfriend, Greg. It was a fun night, and so good to see everyone who was there.

December has been quite busy so far, what with Christmas parties and church functions. I think I just have two more gifts to buy and a few more to finish (i.e. above picture project). Other than that, we are ready!

For those of you who aren't familiar with Zak's penchant for finding, unwrapping, and rewrapping gifts before Christmas, we have started a little holiday tradition in order to compromise. I really don't like it when Zak unwraps his gift or gifts before Christmas, hello, it spoils the surprise! He loves to hunt for and unwrap gifts before the big day. He and his brothers once took a piece of drywall down in order to get at the goods when they were younger. I think the compromise that evolved for us is good. It's worked well for us so far! I have hidden (cleverly, in my opinion) Zak's hide-and-seek gifts throughout our house (usually just little items from a dollar store or someplace like that). Unfortunately, I'm not as clever as I thought, since he has already found four of the nine. But there are some that I feel confident he won't find... I hope that will be the case. I don't have many good hiding places in our house.

Starting next week I will be off work for a week, and Zak and I are thinking about taking a little road trip. We still don't know where we'll go or what we'll do, but we'll figure it out, I'm sure. Probably as we are backing out of the driveway.

That is pretty much it! No other big news to tell. We're excited for the holiday season, and hope that all of you have a great Christmas and a happy new year!

Revisions to Plans

You know how you always think you have life figured out, and then something throws you for a bit of a loop? It's not a big deal, really. I decided not to go forward with the online medical transcription course I planned to start at the end of this month. It's too big of a time commitment for me right now, what with trying to fulfill my church calling and learn my new job and so forth. Plus, it no longer seems like the solution I once thought it could be. So anyway, not that big of a change, but big enough.
I am settling in at the Lending Center. I still don't have a permanent place to sit, so I'm kind of bouncing around between cubicles for the time being. Once I'm fully trained, I'll get a permanent place and will be able to get settled. I am doing okay with learning the decisioning process. I think that I know the loan policy pretty well, now I just need lots of practice.
Anyway, things are going well. Zak is doing well in school. We have been listening to books on CD and have really been enjoying them. We are working on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and Inkspell (sequel to Inkheart) right now. It's pretty fun!
Well...sorry that this is a boring post. That's all I have to write at the moment!

e.g. scooters, vacation, fall

I wonder why it says "Labels for this post: e.g. scooters, vacation, fall" at the bottom of my posting page. Maybe it's because I am awful at picking titles for my posts and the friendly folks at Blogger.com decided to give me a hand. In any case, I don't have anything to post that deals with scooters, vacation, or fall, other than the fact that it is fall, I no longer ride my scooter because it is way too cold, and I could use a vacation. But, come to that, we could probably all use a vacation.
The news that I wanted to post is that I have received an offer for a new job within the credit union in the lending department. I will be starting tomorrow as a loan officer! I'll be decisioning loans now instead of merely taking applications and closing loans. I am pretty excited about this change for several reasons. First, the branch I will be working at is 7 blocks from our house. I will be able to walk or ride my bike when the weather is nice, and when it's not, I won't have to go so far. Less mileage means less gas! Second, I am no longer working with the public. It's not that I don't like people, I really do. Usually. I just don't always have quite the knack of dealing with peoples' quirks. (Translated: psychoses.) Third, I get a pay raise, which is always super nice. (By the way, these are not necessarily listed in order of importance. Or any order at all.) Fourth, I am expanding my skills and learning how to decision loans. Fifth, I will be able to go home for lunch every day. Sixth, I will be off by 5 pm most nights from here on out, which means a lot to me, since I've been working until or beyond 6 pm for the last two years. The list goes on...I am sure there are more benefits that I haven't thought of yet.
So Zak and I are both pretty excited about this new opportunity. I will be sad to leave Smithfield (or at least the new break room--uhhh, just kidding...) but it will be great to jump into a new job. The other thing that I will miss about Smithfield is our awesome Muzak. We have U2's "Electrical Storm" playing right now. You may think I'm kidding about "awesome" Muzak, but any station that plays U2 is okay with me. :) Now it's playing some 90's club tune that you would expect to find on A Night at the Roxbury. In fact, I think it was on Night at the Roxbury. Ah, blessed Muzak. I will miss you.
Aside from that news, the only other news that Knutti family members are probably not aware of is that Taylor broke his femur in his football game last Tuesday. He was at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake from Tuesday night to Friday afternoon. He had a rod put in to his femur and is recovering nicely amidst flurries of female visitors. (There have been a few male visitors, but the bulk have been female. Or at least the most persistent, right Tay?) So, we all wish a speedy recovery to Tay!

Best Birthday Present

Zak passed his writing test to get into the teaching certification program! We found out yesterday afternoon. We are both very excited! This gives us a much better idea of when Zak will be done with school. We are hoping that he will graduate in May 2008. It seems far away, but the time will fly by. It's only three semesters more!
And yes, today is my birthday... I am off work, which is another great birthday present! I spent the morning being lazy and reading, and in the next little while, Zak and I will go to Layton for the afternoon. It should be fun!

This Old House

As many of you know, Zak and I live in a rather old house (circa 1930s, at least in my opinion, which isn't worth very much when it comes to putting a date on a structure since I don't know that much about architecture). We like our old, split-down-the-middle house, mainly because the rent is extremely low and our landlord pays for the gas bill due to us having to share a heating system with Donna (our neighbor...obviously). We have control of the thermostat, so we decide whether Donna freezes or bakes. Donna is a swell gal. She's a very quiet retired teacher, and occasionally brings us extra chocolate zucchini cake or corn or strawberries. We like Donna lots. She is pretty much an ideal neighbor. The only fault that she has is that we think she watches Meet Me in St. Louis almost every night. I can only have myself a merry little Christmas so many times... The sound carries right through the vents.
We all froze last week. Our landlord had come to replace shingles on the roof and in the process of doing this he somehow knocked out the power in the front of our house. We had no power in the front room, our bedroom, or the yucky-icky basement that I don't like to go in if it's not light outside. There are mice down there. One of them is petrified. Zak put it in a jar and put a baseball on top (to make me feel like it couldn't get out, even though I know it can't because it is dead and petrified). He says he leaves it down there as a warning for the other mice. I say it is gross and unsanitary.
Coming back from that tangent, what all of that means is that the furnace wasn't running last week. Now, ordinarily, this wouldn't be a problem in late September. But we live in Logan where it's in the low 40's at this time of year. Brrrrr.
After 48 hours of heat deprivation, our power finally came back on. We don't know what our landlord did to accomplish this, and as lesser mortals, would do better not to ask.
Through the power outage in the front part of the house, we did have power in the bathroom and kitchen, arguably two of the most important rooms in the house in which to have power. So I really ought to stop my grousing and be grateful for what we did have... Now that a week has passed, I can find it a little funny and laugh at it.
Zak and I enjoyed conference this weekend--many, many good messages. We also celebrated Taylor's birthday on Sunday. I feel that October birthdays are great. No reason in particular... other than mine is in October. =)
Tay is 15! That means it's time to start driving. I feel his pain, at least the pain he will feel before and during the road test. (And possibly after, if he's anything like me and has to take it three times to pass. Now that's embarrassing!) The memory of my own motorcycle road test is still quite fresh in my mind. Whew! Glad that's over. At least that one I passed on the first try.
Speaking of the scooter, I am still riding it. It's darn cold, and I probably look like the abominable snow-woman all bundled up, but it's hard to give up that good gas mileage for paltry things like warmth, comfort, non-frozen hands, and the radio on the ride to work. Sigh.
Zak took his test to get into the teaching certification program on Friday. We will find out in a couple of weeks if he passed it or not. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
School is going great for Zak. He is really enjoying his psychology classes, especially anything to do with behavioral psychology. Work is very quiet right now. I'm hoping that it starts picking up again very soon!
I have been listening to Harry Potter on tape over the last little while. That J.K. Rowling is a rich woman, but she deserves it. I must have read those books five or six times each, and I still love reading them. I am not often a repeat-reader. Another series that I started reading recently is the Inheritance series by Christopher Paolini. It's about dragons and their riders. He wrote the first book when he was 15 years old! It's completely impressive for a 15-year-old author. I really enjoyed it. Larry bought the second book (that's where I got the first book, too--thanks, Larry! and sorry about the peach juice that got smashed into the book...) and I will read that one as soon as he is done. I think that Paolini is working on the third book of the trilogy right now.
The peach juice got onto the book because I was trying to squeeze too much into the seat of the scooter. Barb and Larry have an apple tree, a pear tree, and a peach tree that all produced fruit this fall. The peaches are just about too old for eating, and I had put a peach in my little lunch bag with the book mentioned above. I pushed down really hard, congratulated myself at having made everything fit, and drove to work. When I got to work and opened the seat, I had one of those "Oh, shoot" moments as I pulled out the now-dripping lunch bag. The peach had not held up under the pressure and was smashed in half. Who knew I was so strong? We have definitely enjoyed the peaches and apples. I don't like pears, which is why I have not enjoyed those. I haven't been eating them.
Well... now that the boring details of my life have been enumerated here, I will get back to work... not that there's anything to do...

It's Official!

I am a licensed motorcyclist as of this past Thursday morning at about 11:30am. (Insert favorite celebratory phrase here)!!! The driving portion of the motorcycle test was a little bit hard, and you are allowed to miss 10 points, which is the number that I missed. Anyway, I made it, and now I'm official. Let's all celebrate!
Thursday afternoon the heavens opened and began to dump rain on us. It hasn't stopped since, and I was quite sad this morning to notice snow (gasp) on the mountains! It's only September, and we've got snow in the mountains! Ah, Logan.
There's not too much else to report. I am still pretty excited about the motorcycle license thing. I finished my medical terminology class on Tuesday with an A! I was pretty excited about that, too. My teacher was really lenient on the tests and let us correct our answers on everything for half credit (except the final). I really think that's why I did so well. So thanks, Randy!
I start the medical transcription program online on October 2nd and I am pretty excited about that, too. It's very interesting to learn about the body systems and how they work. Diseases and disorders are less fun to learn about, but they are a part of life, too, so it's good to know about them. In any case, I'll let everyone know how that is going once I get started.
Happy Saturday, everyone!

For Shame!

I am going to be better about blogging. I have recently had friends and family members start blogging (or I've found their blogs which were started long ago) --you know who you are-- and it is really fun to see what everyone is up to! So, although my life is far from interesting, I will make a more concerted effort to keep my blog updated and to add pictures as well, so that it is more interesting to look at!
Fall is here in Cache Valley and it's a pretty nice change from the heat of the summer. I get cold at night again, and get to have a comforter on the bed again. Hooray!
Work has been busy, then quiet. Busy, then quiet. Busy, then quiet. You get the idea. Not too much else to mention, except at this point of the quarter, I am still almost half a million short on my consumer loan goal. Yikes! I do the best I can, and that's pretty much all I can do, right?
Zak started school again at the end of August and is taking two psychology classes. They are more demanding than he expected, but I know that he's doing just fine.
I have a new calling at church. I am the education counselor in the Relief Society. That has been a challenge to adjust to Sunday meetings and seemingly endless phone calls throughout the week! But it is fun, too, to have an excuse to get to know more of the sisters in our ward, and I am really enjoying working with the other sisters in the presidency.
In other unrelated news, I am getting really excited for Christmas! I have already got a family exchange list going and have begun to hunt down addresses for the Christmas letter that we will actually get around to writing and sending this year! I wish that Zak and I were going to be able to go to St. Louis for Christmas, but it probably isn't going to happen. Plane tickets are just too expensive!
Speaking of trips, Zak and I had a rather fun trip to Las Vegas in August. I took a week off work and we drove down, stopping to visit friends and family along the way. We saw my grandma in Salt Lake, who showed us a scrapbook of family photos, including a lot of pictures of my dad as a child that I hadn't seen before. We also saw a friend of Zak's from his mission and a friend of mine from college. Carolyn and Jacob were more than generous in opening their home to us for the night once we got to Provo. We played some Super Smash Brothers (or Smashmouth Brothers, as Zak likes to call it...ahh, same difference!) and then headed for bed. We got up early the next morning and finished our drive to Vegas. We stayed at the Sahara Hotel for a couple of days, and did a LOT of walking up and down the Strip. Holy Cow, did we walk!
Incidentally, we got the trip by listening to one of those "buy these vacation credits for $20,000" things, and it was all free. Otherwise, we probably wouldn't have gone, so lucky us!
Two major highlights of the trip: we were able to attend the Las Vegas temple, which was beautiful (it's very pink inside, not what you'd expect), and we got a very cool "insider" tour of the Hoover Dam. Brent took us all through the dam and we got to see some crazy things! It was so interesting to learn about how the dam was built and how it operates. The power that water can create is astounding!
The trip ended with a whimper. My whimper, to be exact. Let me caution everyone: don't ever eat at the Circus Circus buffet, which is what we did Friday night before we left Vegas. I was so, so sick after we ate there... and we drove home anyway (Sprite in hand)! Luckily, there were no incidents along the road as we drove back to Logan. It was a fun getaway!

Me again

Well... no excuses. Or maybe just one: It's been a busy couple of months. So here's the rundown on what's happening in Cache Valley....
Summer heat started getting really disgusting about July 1st. It's been fairly warm, at least in the high 90s all month. Last Saturday it was 106 degrees! We have been sleeping with the windows open and the fans going. It's not too bad at night. At least there's no humidity!
On July 1st, Zak and I went to Bear Lake. We had a fun afternoon and got fried. I thought that applying sunscreen once would be enough. Sadly, it was not. The backs of my knees are still not quite the same. On the way home, we were both pretty drowsy, so we played the "I'm going on a trip and I'm taking a _____ " game, from A to Z. It was kind of a funny game.
Anyway, our second wedding anniversary was on July 9th. Two years! Hurray! We celebrated by going to the demolition derby the night of the 8th at the fairgrounds. Just as the first heat started, a car got flipped onto its side. Pretty cool stuff, huh? Zak was excited to have seen it and has been telling everyone about it. So yeah, we've been married two years now. It's been a wild ride so far, and promises to get wilder!
In the last week, I have received a new calling. I'm the Education counselor in the Relief Society presidency now. We had our first presidency meeting which was supposed to have lasted one hour... try two and a half! We sure do get along! I think it's going to be a challenging but fun calling to have.
Zak finished his classes on July 7th, and was pretty happy about that. He has been enjoying his summer off and working for his dad still.
I started my first night class on July 11th. It's medical terminology and I have really been enjoying it. I'm learning all kinds of fun word parts and learning how to create words from those word parts. For instance, do you know what a podogram is? How about a dactylogram? A podogram is a footprint and a dactylogram is a fingerprint. Kind of cool, huh? I will be in class until September 14th, and then the online medical transcription program will start on October 2nd. I have one year to complete the program, but I am going to try to get it done in six months. So that's what I've been up to lately. It's challenging to work full time and to be back in school, even if it is only one class, but I am enjoying myself. Sure keeps me busy!
I hope that all is well with the family. One last thing: has anyone heard of a game called Killer Bunnies? Zak and I got it last week, and it has become a nightly thing for him to play it with his family. I play sometimes, too, and it is really fun!
Um...I think that is all for now! Keep me posted on what's going on with all of you!

I have a tendecy to lapse...

I am terrible at writing very frequently. Geez. Well, the last few months have been quiet, I guess that's one reason that I haven't been writing. Not much to tell!
In April, Zak was very busy with finals and final papers and the like. He finished with his classes at the beginning of May. He was so happy! And then his online class started for the summer, and on Monday, he starts his two summer classes. It seems never-ending, but we only have about two years left! (Hopefully less if we are lucky.)
Work has been very busy. We had one teller quit, one teller had a baby, and the rest of us are all working like mad to make up for the deficiency. In any case, work is usually busy in the summer. Something about the warm weather makes everyone want to buy new cars/ATVs/travel trailers... the list goes on.
I got a very fun bike in April that I ride lots and lots. I tell Zak it is one of my joys in life.
We also got a new scooter in May. It's lots of fun to ride--and here's the really shocker--I ride it to work all the time! I don't have my motorcycle restriction on my license yet, but I am working on it! I have my learner's permit. It's so good on gas mileage, and it is pretty fun to ride.
Anyway, that's about all that is going on with us for now. I hope you are all doing well! E-mail me!

In Like a Lion

March is starting in a very blustery and windy way! We have had some snow, but most of it has melted off, though it stays bitterly cold (to me--to Dad, it would be "refreshingly brisk"). Today our little CU branch is being rocked by crazy-fast wind. Hopefully the electricity stays on!
Well, let's see. I'm right on schedule for my once-a-month post. I talked to Dad the other night, and he mentioned that it had been a while since my last post... sorry about that! Well, here's the update on Zak and Sarah for all of you who have been dying to know...
Zak continues to do well in school. This week is spring break, and he is spending lots of time reading and researching for one of his big semester projects. He continues to work with his dad doing construction. Work is going about the same for me as it was at the time of my last post. Quiet, but that's to be expected at this time of the year. Other than that, life is going on as it usually does.
We just got a new couch. The neighbors across from Zak's parents are moving and are cleaning out things that they do not want to take with them. So we got a green couch that has a hide-a-bed. It's pretty comfy to sit on. Zak watched a movie while laying on the hide-a-bed the other night after I went to sleep (so I haven't tried it out), and he says that the bed is pretty comfy too. We are excited about it. That means that we have a place for visitors to sleep... you are all welcome anytime!
In other unrelated news, Zak wants to get a new scooter. I can't say that I'm opposed to that idea. He wants to get a TN'G Milano, which is different from our current Metro in the following ways: 1-It's actually made for two people to ride, so there is a place for me to put my feet, 2-It's 150cc (Metro is 49cc). I think that's all. It is a cool-looking scooter, and would give us a more cost-effective way to get around in the summer when it is warm. It only holds 1 gallon, and goes for about 100 miles on one gallon! I would definitely rather spend $2.50 at the gas station than $35-40. We haven't decided anything yet, but I think it would be cool.
If any of you remember my reference to "24" in the last post, you will be saddened to know that Edgar Stiles is no more. He died in the last episode from being exposed to toxic nerve gas. We will all miss him. Let's have a moment of silence. Thank you.
There is a new show on TV that Zak and I checked out last week. It's called "The Unit" and features Dennis Haysbert. Any 24 fan will know that he plays President Palmer from 24. It's pretty interesting for any of you who have an interest in covert sections of the military and what they do.
I don't know if any of you have heard about a new show that HBO is airing soon called "Big Love." I read a little blurb about it online yesterday, and apparently it's a show about polygamy. Not sure that it's one I'd want to watch no matter what my religion is, but it's even more distateful to me considering that I'm LDS. It's amazing what the media is doing. And I don't mean amazing in a good way, y'know?
Um, what else, what else? Zak and I have a trip to Vegas planned in August. We got it for free, just for listening to a high-pressure presentation about buying vacation credits from a company that sells them. The highlight of that night was when the lady who was assigned to pressure us asked Zak, with almost a tear in her eye and all the appropriate dramatic pauses (she was very good), "What could be more important to you than your family?" Zak, being the jokester he is, replied, "Uh...myself?" At that, the lady looked like she was going to fall out of her chair. I think she realized we weren't buying anything at that point. It was a funny experience, especially because I know Zak was just kidding.
In other trip news - we are also planning to go to St. Louis for Christmas. I hope some of you other siblings are also planning to come! It would be great to see you.
I hope you are all well. Please email, call, post comments on my blog. I would love to heard from you!

Happy V-Day!

I guess once a month isn't too bad... right? Let's see if I can remember everything that has happened in the last month. January was a quiet month. I spent a lot of the month being sick. I got a terrible flu bug that I am still trying to get over. I missed three days of work (which is a lot for me) and spent a lot of time sleeping. I even bought a humidifier. Crazy, huh? Luckily, I am feeling much, much better now and just have the sniffles. Soon those will go away, too, and I will be a new woman!
Zak has, of course, been doing well in school. His four English classes are good - he doesn't care much for the way one of them is taught, but other than that, he likes them. I think. He reads a lot, and has more papers than I remember him having in prior semesters. He is a trooper, though, and does very well. Is it trooper or trouper? I don't think those words mean the same thing. Huh.
Work is going well for me, although it is definitely the slow season. I have spent time cleaning the microwave, doing dishes in the break room, and other various and sundries. I even occasionally get to help a member! I was blessed to get another raise last month. Raises are always welcome!
Other than the aforementioned, there isn't a lot going on for Zak and me. Zak has been riding Metro (our scooter) to work and freezing in the process, but he's learned how to REALLY bundle up. There isn't any skin showing anywhere by the time he's done. He said that he has never experienced frozen eyeballs before he began these winter rides. Yikes. I think he has worked out a solution for that, thank heavens.
Our plans for Valentine's day consist of Zak going to school all day, and me working all day. I am going to get some yummy breadsticks at Pizza Plus after work and go hang out with Zak and his parents in Millville.
Beck and Kaiya are at the folks' house right now while Nik and Corey enjoy a Seattle getaway, and so we will get to play with them a little before they go to bed. It is so fun to have them here! I love listening to them. Beck explained to me last night why he doesn't like clocks, and Kaiya is just sweet. She is really talking a lot, and is so girly and cute. What fun Zak and I have to look forward to!
Um, the only other thing of note is that 24 started on January 15th, and it is the coolest show ever. We all enjoy watching it very much, and Rhett, Burke, and Ben even met the guy who plays Edgar Stiles while they were in Park City for the Sundance Film Festival. Jack Bauer is without a doubt the best action hero ever. (At least, according to Zak, Rhett, Burke, and Ben.) They think that he should go head-to-head with Jason Bourne. Or maybe James Bond. He is pretty cool. And now it's time to invoke Rule #4 on myself again... The people on TV are not real, so stop talking about them like they are.
We just enjoy the show. Is that so wrong?
I hope that all of you are doing well and that you have a great Valentine's Day!

Happy New Year!

I know I'm very overdue for another blog, as usual. It's just a matter of making the time.
Our Christmas and New Years seasons were very nice. Not very much snow, but don't you fret, Mother Nature is making up for it in the blustery month of January. Yesterday we got several inches - all coming in the late afternoon hours. This, of course, made driving home after work somewhat of a scary proposition... We had people on Main Street still going 50 or 60 miles per hour - um, not such a great idea when the roads are slushy and slippery. Just in case any of those drivers out there need clarification as to driving safety, I can give it to you. Please ask. No really.
School has started once again for Zak. He is taking four English classes this semester, which he alternately feels as though he will enjoy, then feels as though the classes (and his professors) will eat him alive! I know that he will do very well, as he always does. Incidentally, for anyone who is in college or loves books--half.com is the place to buy. I love that place! We ended up spending about $125 for books that would otherwise have cost us much more. (When I was in college, I think I regularly spent between $300 and $400 on books.) That $125 is including shipping and handling, so these books are very inexpensive!! Also, I have recently started selling on half.com and have found it to be very, very easy. Not like e-bay. Selling on e-bay scares me a little, for some reason. (I guess the same reason that corn mazes scare me - no reason at all.)
Work is plugging along for me. We have some very optimistic goals for the year, so that will keep life interesting and challenging. Notice how I never say much about work? I don't really know why that is. Probably due to confidentiality issues. If anyone wants to know more, just ask me. I still won't tell... ha ha ha. :)
Ah! One other item of interest - Zak has decided to buy his brother Rhett's scooter. We are (he is) sort of (very) excited about this! It should be fun to ride when the weather is a little warmer, though Zak thinks the conditions NOW are pretty good...that crazy kid!
Um... can't think of anything else earth-shattering at the moment, although I do have a bit of a testimonial to give. Every once in a while I will think of a movie that I thought was pretty cool as a kid, and suggest to Zak that we hunt it down and watch it. His advice, nine times out of ten, is to leave the movie in the past. If we watch it again, he says, we will just be disappointed, and wonder what in the world was wrong with us when we were kids to make us think that it was that great. I am saddened to say that he is correct. We checked out "In Like Flint" from our local library the other night and watched it. While I think it still has great merit as a spy-spoof, and parts of it were pretty funny, it was somehow not as great as I remembered. (Sorry Dad! But hey, our library does have "Forbidden Planet" so maybe I'll get crazy one day and check that one out!)
So, boys and girls, the lesson is--Zak is right. Think of those movies with happy and fond memories, but don't watch them again!
And with that, I leave you for the time being. I will do my very best to be a more frequent blogger in 2006!

Irregardless vs. Regardless

Did you know that these two words mean virtually the same thing - except that you are considered to be an uneducated boor if you use "irregardless?" Yep, it's true. Thought you might like to know. (Mostly because I used the word "irregardless" on Monday and was corrected. Don't want that happening to you.)
In other unrelated news: Life is going along just fine. Zak was in a car accident yesterday (but not in our car--wouldn't that be rich now that we've almost had it for one month?) and is fine. He was with his brother Rhett and our friend Ben. Luckily, everyone is fine, no serious injuries. It wasn't the best call I've ever gotten at work, though, that's for sure. "Hi Sarah. Don't freak out, but I was just in a car accident and now I'm at the hospital. Everyone's okay, but I have to go."
Well. We're all just glad that Zaky is okay. (And that Rhetty and Benny are okay, too.)
In somewhat related news: Our Toyota gave us some trouble over the weekend and we discovered Monday that the reason for the trouble was that our battery was dead. We bought a new battery and are now back in business. For a little bit there, we were wondering what sort of luck this presages for us with automobiles. We haven't had the darn thing a month yet!
This past weekend was very fun. Zak and I went to Salt Lake with his mom and dad and brother Taylor. We spent Saturday afternoon shopping, and then went to a performance of The Messiah that evening at the University of Utah. It was performed by a group called The Oratorios (I think) that our brother-in-law Kurt is in. They did a great job! I always love to hear The Messiah at Christmas time.
We slept over at the Travelodge and went to Music and the Spoken Word on Sunday morning, which was great! The Brett Family Singers from Branson, MO, were the guest singers, and did a wonderful job. All in all, a fun weekend. We were able to enjoy the First Presidency Christmas devotional in Preston, ID, on Sunday evening. I think Zak is the only one who noticed that something was a little funny about the lady screaming "It's a lie! It's all tricks!" right as the program began. Luckily, security took care of her quickly and as discreetly as possible. I guess she (thinks she) is a descendant of Joseph Smith and had some important documents to share. Poor lady.
This week has been action-packed, thus far. We made candy houses Monday night, which is always a treat. It's fun to see what new and crazy designs the Lewis family (and Foster family this year) comes up with. My favorite was Burke's behemoth well-like tower. He made it out of candy, and filled it to the top with candy. Then he sealed it off with frosting that hardens just about like cement, and put more candy on top. It was truly an accomplishment.
Tuesday night was a pick-up-the-laundry (thank you, Barb) and go-to-tithing settlement night. Tonight is a clean-the-house and go-grocery-shopping kind of night. And Alias is on at 9pm. Tomorrow night is our work Christmas party - I am excited for this. Should be fun. That's about all I have for the moment. I hope everyone else is having a good week!

Fewer and further between

That's how my blogs seem to be shaping up. I have not had much time to write lately. I will do better in the future. Well, here's the recap on the month of November for Sarah and Zak in Cache Valley:
We sold our Mazda on the first of the month, thinking we would just drive Zak's 1990 Volvo with 230,000 miles. (That is the correct amount of zeroes behind the "23" in case you were curious.) We thought we were being good and getting out of debt, plus the Volvo has heated seats. Pretty killin', as Zak would say, except for the part where the Volvo broke down the same night we sold the Mazda. We got it fixed a few days later, and it ran like a champ -- for four days. At that point, we went shopping for another car.
We are now the owners of a 2000 Toyota Camry. It's a pretty nice car except for its squeaky brakes, which of course did not squeak during any of the test drives we took. Well, it's functioning fine and getting us from point A to point B, and that is really what matters. Luckily, we owe much less on our new car than we did on the Mazda. To sum up: what a huge learning experience! I miss my Mazda, but I think that we are going to be just fine. Also, I think that Zak will be getting his much longed-for scooter come spring, so we can save money on gas once the weather is a little warmer than it is now!
I think the next big point is Thanksgiving, which took place last week as you all know. Carolyn, Jake, and Nicole came up to Logan from Provo for the big day. We had a great meal, played a pretty fun game of soccer (post-meal... what were we thinking?), and enjoyed seeing Harry Potter 4: The Goblet of Fire. I rather liked the movie. We had a good time visiting and eating crackers and cheese. It was really fun to have them here.
We had our first snow of the season over the weekend. It was pretty light and had mostly melted off by Sunday afternoon, but we got a few inches of snow again yesterday. I fear the cycle will just continue for several months now. Sigh. That's Logan!
On Monday night, I finished my Christmas shopping and shipped off all Christmas presents to out-of-state destinations. I also learned that FedEx does not deliver to P.O. Boxes (DUH) because only the US post office has access to those. What can I say? I just didn't think it through.
In any case, Zak and I are happy and healthy, and couldn't ask for more as we continue through the holiday season. Work has been going well lately, and every semester that goes by is one closer to graduation. Zak and I are both very excited for that day to come!
Well, readers and loved ones, hopefully you are all well, too, and are enjoying your holiday season. I love you guys!

Shamefully overdue

It's been a few weeks since I last blogged and I have no excuse. Just lazy, I guess. Things are going great in Logan. Zak is finishing up the fall semester (well, kind of - there are five and a half weeks left) and is doing well in all of his classes. I am still enjoying work. Nothing too exciting to report.
I guess maybe that's why I haven't written - I have nothing exciting to say. I am looking forward to Christmas and almost have all my shopping done. My plan is always to be done by the last day of November, just so I can enjoy the Christmas season without having to shop during the month of December. I think I am well on my way to achieving that goal this year.
It has been quiet for the last week or so. Rhett, Candyce, Burke, Britt, and Kurt have been in Taiwan. They return late Friday night and Zak is excited to have his best friends back. (We have been enjoying hanging out with Spack, however, during the absence of the other best friends.)
I guess that's about all I have for right now. I'll try to have a more exciting life so that I can write more often.
Wait a minute - I forgot all about Halloween! Here's a little bit about our Halloween 2005: Zak and I carved a pumpkin (the first I can remember doing - Mom, maybe you can correct my faulty memory - did we ever carve pumpkins when I was a kid?) on Saturday night. I have secretly named him Arthur and am very proud of how he turned out. (Zak gave him some wicked cool eyebrows.) He is still sitting on our front porch, despite Zak's penchant for smashing pumpkins on Halloween night. Thank goodness. Halloween night was a fun night - we went to Zak's parents' house and then went to a neighbor's to get donuts. Yum! After that, we brought my bookcase back to our house! It is beautiful, and looks fabulous in our front room. (Thank you Larry and Barb!) I am so excited that I have been able to unpack my books and use my lovely bookends (thank you Zaky)!
As we were getting ready for bed Monday night, we remembered that Zak had signed up to close up the church that night, so we drove over to the church building (and because it was Monday, it was already all locked and we just had to check the doors - my clever husband was counting on that). We had a race to see who could check more doors. It was pretty fun. Hopefully that wasn't bad to run and be a little rowdy on church grounds. Well, actually, if they let young women play basketball inside the church, there's no reason we can't run around outside the church. There. My conscience is soothed. It was fun. Whew! Am I ever glad I remembered that story! I do have things to say. What a fun surprise.
You guys take care.