My Husband, the Model

This is the poster created by Rhett and Burke in honor of Zak's graduation. I should've just had them e-mail me a digital copy instead of taking a picture of it myself, but I didn't.
In case you can't read what it says, I'll post it here:

ONE MAN.
ONE EXTRA VERTEBRAE.
ONE GRADUATION AT LAST.

LET THE CHAOS BEGIN...

There were lots of Jack Bauer quotes on the wall, too, the day of the graduation celebration. What a handsome guy!

Crazy 8’s

I was tagged by Dave, Cheryl, and Wendy. This was a tough one because I really had to think about my answers, but it was fun to do, and fun to read others' responses to the tag.

8 things I’m passionate about:
My family
Reading
Being a good and productive member of society
Keeping my house clean and uncluttered
The Gospel of Jesus Christ
Good spelling, good grammar, and good punctuation
Jazz basketball
Enjoying scooter and bike rides (although not so much currently, since I’m 7 months pregnant)

8 books I've read recently:
Eclipse (currently reading for the second time)
Animal Farm (currently reading)
New Moon
Twilight
Someday
Dawn’s Light
Tawny Man Series
Farseer Trilogy
**Disclaimer: I do not read for education purposes. I probably should, but reading is my main escape, hence, I read a LOT of sci-fi/fantasy. One day I will read non-fiction on a regular basis. Maybe.

8 things I often say:
“Loan Department, this is Sarah. May I help you?”
“For the love…”
“Give me strength!”
“Maybe you didn’t hear me correctly…” (Zak can explain this one.)
"I think so. I think that's what I said..." (Zak can also explain this one.)
“I love you.”
“Have a good day, see you later!”
“No way. No dang way!” (You get at least 10 cool points if you know where this phrase comes from.)

8 things I look for in a friend:
Sincerity
Sense of humor
Interesting to talk to
Genuinely caring
A sense of adventure (to help bolster my very weak sense of adventure)
Strong values and morals
Common interests
Trustworthiness

8 things I want to do before I die:
Go to England, France, Germany, and various other European countries
Plant a vegetable garden
Have fruit trees
Become a gardener (of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and other plants)
Have a washer and dryer inside my house so that I don’t have to go outside to change loads of laundry around
Raise a happy, healthy family
Learn how to sew really well, instead of just sort of knowing how to sew
Read non-fiction books (maybe)

8 things I have learned this past year:
I really love to exercise. It’s much harder to do when you’re 7 months pregnant, but still feels great when you’re all done!
High school kids are just as mean as they were when I was in high school, and possibly much lazier than when I was in high school.
I’ve learned all kinds of things about pregnancy through experience, but especially that I would do anything at all for my baby, no matter what it is or how it makes me feel. Even go through sinus infections, cold, and the flu with no medication. Not to mention the impending labor and delivery… though that will not be without medication. Sorry, baby. You've got to draw the line somewhere.
There were two Catholic saints and one Catholic archbishop named Peregrine. And the peregrine falcon is the fastest creature on the planet. They can fly at speeds from 99-273 miles per hour!
1978 was a banner year for catching and/or sentencing serial killers (Ted Bundy, Richard Chase, David Berkowitz—a.k.a. Son of Sam, John Wayne Gacy).
I can sometimes let the house be a little cluttered and my life doesn’t end.
There’s nothing wrong with a little weight on a woman. (Can you name the movie that quote comes from?! Another 10 cool points if you can…)
You can eat an entire quart of ice cream all by yourself…just one spoonful at a time. And that’s completely okay, as long as those spoonfuls are spread out over several days and weeks. (**Another disclaimer: I didn’t say I had actually done this. I just learned that it was possible. Big difference.)

I tag anyone who reads this and wants to do it! Especially you blog lurkers who never comment. Be a sport. And let me know if you take me up on the tag... I want to read your answers!

Or Else!

I just stumbled across this picture on a website and it made me laugh. I assume this sign is in a bathroom based on the pictures around it.

Mario Kart

At long last, Mario Kart for the Wii was released on Sunday. Zak had an exercise in patience over the weekend, because we called Saturday to make sure that our specially ordered copy had come in and it had! Unfortunately, the store couldn't sell it to us until after the release date. We don't shop on Sunday, so the earliest Zak would be able to get it was Monday. So, Zak went first thing Monday morning and picked up his copy before he went to work. He played for a few minutes before he went to work, much to Rhett's dismay. I have to admit, I went home on my lunch break and also played for a little while. I actually won my first two Grand Prix races on the bike! Mario Kart for the Wii is a lot of fun.

Naturally, we had to share the fun with the brothers, so last night after work we gathered together and played on the big screen at the parents'. Barb snapped this picture. Please ignore the slouching pregnant girl in the back. She was trying to hide, as she was feeling frumpy and huge. The verdict: playing Mario Kart for the Wii is pretty fun!

The Update

Zak has officially finished his student teaching!! He went to a "closing of the semester" meeting this morning and has one more meeting this afternoon. Next week he will start the process of applying for his teaching license and will continue to wait for his degree to post to his transcript. It has taken a lot of hard work for him to get to this point. We are so excited and I am so proud of him!

In other news, the Jazz lost (at home!?) to the Rockets last night by two points. It was a really exciting game to watch, but we were very sad that they couldn't pull out the win. We're hoping for a better showing on Saturday night.

Also, we are so happy for Nik and Corey -- they welcomed baby Sofia yesterday. She is just beautiful!

The Book Tag

Karen took Wendy's challenge to do the book tag on her blog yesterday and it reminded me that I haven't done it yet! Shocking, considering my recent post about my library card. So here's my page 123, fifth sentence:

"Since he hadn't been raised by her, the letter was one of the only pieces of her Dayne would ever have."

It's from a book called Someday by Karen Kingsbury. She is one of my favorite Christian authors. I love to read good stories with characters that are interesting, and I can't read all science fiction/fantasy all the time, just most of the time. So when I want a change, I read select Christian authors because I know that there will be no swearing and nothing inappropriate, unlike what you find in most popular authors' books today. Plus, the authors I read talk a lot about faith, quote scriptures from the Bible, and their characters have really good morals, which is just nice to read about.
I really love the three series that Karen Kingsbury has written about the Baxter family. They are the Redemption Series, the Firstborn Series, and the Sunrise Series. Here's the link to her website: http://www.karenkingsbury.com/. I have really enjoyed getting to know her characters and seeing their decisions and struggles in life and would recommend these books to anyone who'd like a good, uplifting read.

On an unrelated and quite sad note, the Jazz lost to the Spurs last night. I guess that the Spurs wanted to return the favor from April 4th. Oh well, at least they're in the playoffs and we'll have more basketball to watch!

Totally Unrelated News

The Jazz beat the Rockets last night in the final home game of the season. We were pretty excited, because that's one step closer to home court advantage for the Jazz when the playoffs begin. Now if they can just beat the Spurs on Wednesday night at San Antonio... Go Jazz!!

I haven't posted in a while and that's mostly because there hasn't been a lot going on. I have been working a lot since one of the loan officers quit recently. Zak is finishing his last full week at Preston and making progress in the job hunt. That's about it!

We are really looking forward to the end of the semester. The last couple of days here have been beautiful -- it's been warm and sunny. We've been able to go outside without jackets. And then just a few minutes ago, my co-worker's husband e-mailed her to say: "It's snowing." I think the whole of Cache Valley has somehow stumbled into Narnia during the reign of the White Witch. This winter is never going to end!

What Once Was Lost

I lost my library card last week.

For anyone who knows me well, they will understand what a tragedy this was in my life. I went to the library on Monday and I thought I put the card back in my wallet where it belongs. I have been rather forgetful lately -- I hear it's very normal for this quality to increase in pregnant women. I thought I'd just misplaced it somewhere in my house or car.

Here's some background information to help you understand how important my library card is to me: when Zak and I arrived in Logan after our wedding and the subsequent cross-country road trip from St. Louis to Logan in July 2004, it was very late at night and we went to his parents' house and crashed on the floor in the family room. The next morning, we drove to our little apartment to start moving in and unpacking. This naturally entailed getting the utilities turned on first thing so that we'd have electricity, which we went to the Logan City offices to do. Right after we paid for the utilities to be turned on, I went to get my library card (now that I had proof of residency), since the library is in the same building as the city offices. This was before we unpacked, before we got our new cell phones, before we went to the grocery store. You get the picture.

So I looked for my library card on Thursday, intending to make a trip to the library after work, and couldn't find it. The horror! I am usually so responsible with my belongings; it really bothers me when I misplace something. I searched my purse, my car, checked all the pockets of my jackets and pants. It was GONE! I even looked over at my in-laws', since I had recently checked out a book for Larry and thought maybe I had left it in the book when I gave it to him. No luck. I assumed that it had fallen out of my jacket pocket as I walked from the library back to the car last Monday.

Imagine my joy this morning when I was getting ready for work and grabbed a pair of pants I thought I had already checked all the pockets on, pulled them on, and found a plastic card in the front right pocket.

I was going to get a new card tomorrow on my day off. But thankfully, I have found my Logan Library card and will not have to pay $2 for a replacement. All is right with the world.


p.s. In case there was ever any question as to my degree of nerdiness, I think I have just removed all doubt. I'm pretty much a total nerd. I had to call Zak immediately just to tell him that I found my card, so great was my joy.

Spurs? What Spurs?

The Jazz beat the Spurs on Friday night in a very fun-to-watch game, with a final score of 90-64. Holy cow, right? The Spurs are a great team, but something just wasn't clicking for them on Friday night. I don't know what the deal was -- I'm just thrilled that the Jazz beat 'em!
I'm hopeful that they'll do well against the Spurs when they play them in San Antonio in another week or so... but let's be honest, folks. The Jazz do not have the best track record when playing away from the Energy Solutions Center. In any case, like I said, I'm hopeful! Maybe they'll beat 'em again! Go Jazz!
So there is snow and rain forecast for today. Is it not April? I'm pretty sure the Vernal Equinox occurred right on schedule on March 20th. Last week we got two inches of snow, which has since melted off. I know that the snow isn't going to stick around if we do get it, but seriously! Can we get a little sunshine and some warmer temperatures? Sheesh.
We enjoyed a great General Conference this weekend, which Zak and I primarily listened to on the radio since we don't have cable and bunny ears do not work in our apartment. There were lots and lots of great talks, and I'm excited to re-listen to several of them online. On Sunday, we had to drive to Preston to pick up the Mustang from Zak's grandpa's place (where he worked very hard to get it fixed this past week - thanks, Dallas!) and ended up staying for lunch with them. It was so fun to visit and talk with them for a while -- we shared and compared some of our travel experiences in San Francisco.
Zak enjoyed an evening of video games with his brothers last night. He returned to Preston High this morning. The official count as of this morning: 9 more classes each with his 9th and 12th grade English students, 7 more classes with his psychology class (all grades). Only 14 days of student teaching left! We are excited.

Go Jazz!

The Jazz beat the Clippers last night 121-101. Hooray! This definitely made up for their poor showing against the Clippers in February.

This win was a result of which of the following:

a) It was Jerry Sloane's birthday yesterday and they were all anxious to get to the "hoe-down" that was being held after the game (Jerry's words, not mine)
b) Boozer and D Will are great ball players
c) President Thomas S. Monson was among the crowd, cheering the Jazz on
d) all of the above

I'll let you decide.

Zak's Quiz Results

This is what Zak came up with:

Which Peanuts Character Are You?
	You are part Schroeder. You are brilliant, ambitious, and brooding; you tackle tasks with extreme focus. People don't always interest you as much as other pursuits, though, so you can come off as aloof.
	You are part Snoopy. You have a vivid imagination and lead a rich inner life. Everyone likes you, but some don't understand that you may just be of another species.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Which Hogwarts House Would You Be In?
	The Sorting Hat would put you in Gryffindor. You are bold, passionate, and brave. You have a highly-defined sense of right and wrong, and you are not afraid to speak your mind or fight for what you want.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Which 24 Character Are You?
	You are Jack Bauer. You are an aggressive and heroic figure. You think rules are only for kids, and try to break them at least once everyday (or hour). You like to get help from others especially your best friends. To complete a task, you are willing to do whatever it takes - be it the right way or the wrong one. Also, you could totally kick Chuck Norris' a**.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Looks like we are pretty closely aligned... except for the Snoopy-other-species thing. Who'd've thunk it? Also, I'm quite impressed that Zak is Jack Bauer. He's the coolest.

More Quizzes

Okay, these are fun. You guys should really try some of them.

Which Hogwarts House Would You Be In?
	The Sorting Hat would put you in Gryffindor. You are bold, passionate, and brave. You have a highly-defined sense of right and wrong, and you are not afraid to speak your mind or fight for what you want.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Which Harry Potter Character Are You?
	You are part Hermione. You're a bookworm always in search of answers. When pressed, however, you can always be counted on to put away the books and help your friends.
	You are part Fred and George. You're a joker at heart, but when push comes to shove, you know what's important.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Which 24 Character Are You?
	You are Bill Buchanan. You are a law abiding citizen and in your world, rules are the driving force behind anything and everything. Your leadership charisma is something talked about by others, and instead of doing things differently you do different things. You have an uncanny knack of staying calm in tense situations and your tone is testimony to that. Keep the cool attitude and you will surely overcome the most perilous situations.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

I have to admit... I was hoping for a little more Jack (who wouldn't want to be like Jack Bauer?) or Chloe (she hasn't died yet through six seasons). But Bill is pretty stinkin' cool, too.

Which Peanuts Character Are You?

I saw this on my sister and brother-in-law's blog and thought it was fun. This is me:

Which Peanuts Character Are You?
	You are part Sally Brown. You may not be the most ambitious person, but life isn't supposed to be hard! You are relaxed and easy-going, but you can hold your ground when you want, too.
	You are part Schroeder. You are brilliant, ambitious, and brooding; you tackle tasks with extreme focus. People don't always interest you as much as other pursuits, though, so you can come off as aloof.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Thanks to Dave for helping me figure out how to put it on my blog!!

Our Saturday Getaway

Zak and I decided to get out of Logan on Saturday and go see my grandma in Murray. We met my sisters Carolyn and Nicole at our grandma's place and had a nice visit with her. She gave all of us hugs as we walked into her room and when it was Zak's turn to hug her, she said something like, "Oh, now here's the one I like!" What a cute grandma. At the end of the visit, we gave hugs again and she asked Zak, "Do I get another one?" I thought it was very sweet. And he's such a cute boy that I had to include the second picture!
After our visit with Grandma, during which we covered the basics of Jazz basketball, the impending remodeling of her assisted living center, and how everyone else in the family is doing, Zak, Carolyn, Nicole, and I went to Taco Bell. It's the one thing that could possibly qualify as a pregnancy craving, although I think that's overstating the matter. I don't crave it really, it just always sounds good. Gross, I know. But I have heard of grosser cravings.
Anyway, here is a funny story about our Taco Bell visit. We all ordered and went to sit down. Carolyn and I immediately decided we needed to use the restroom (can't imagine why), so we were gone when the food came. I ordered two Baja steak gorditas because they are the best thing I've had there. I unwrapped my first gordita, added some mild sauce, and dug in. In between the conversation, I made it through the first one and went to unwrap the second one. As I opened the the wrapper, I noticed that half of it was missing! It looked like someone had taken a couple of bites out of the gordita. I looked at it and said, "What in the world?" as I looked around the table at my sisters and husband. I was beginning to feel a little grossed out that someone behind the counter might've been snacking on my food before putting it on my tray. I was debating on whether or not to march up to the counter and ask for a new gordita when Zak started laughing. He had taken a couple of bites and re-wrapped the gordita because he wanted to try what I was having -- he has never eaten a Baja steak gordita before. When I realized that it was fine before he got his hands on it, I felt much better. For a minute there, I wondered if there had been something wrong with the other gordita I had just eaten and wondered if I just hadn't noticed it. Whew! A narrow escape. Zak makes me laugh!
After lunch, we went to the Gateway Mall to check out the maternity section at Old Navy. This is the only observation I have to make about that: I don't think that people should wear tube tops as a general rule. What in the world makes anyone think that a tube top during pregnancy is a good idea? I shudder to envision all the many mishaps that could ensue....
After our quick stop at the mall, we went to Layton and visited Zak's sister Britt and her husband Kurt. We got to see their son Ethan, who is so very cute and getting bigger all the time. He'll be crawling pretty soon, which is exciting! He is such a happy little boy and smiles a lot. We also got to see their new pug, Remy. He's pretty darn cute, too. It was nice to hang out and talk with Britt and Kurt, and also very nice of them to take us to dinner at Lee's Mongolian BBQ in Ogden. It was a great little place and Zak and I loved it! It is definitely a place we'd like to eat at again. We headed home after dinner, fully satisfied with our fun Saturday getaway.

I Love Music

Sometimes you're just having one of those days, you know? I'm having one of those days today, and I needed cheering up. So I plugged in my headphones and set the player on shuffle. It's amazing how much better I feel after listening to some great songs. So thanks, U2, Neil, Fleetwood Mac, and so many others... Styx, John Denver, the Beatles, Keane, Paul Simon, Chris Isaak, Guster... I could go on forever. I'm glad talented people have made and continue to make good music for the rest of us to enjoy.
Maybe it makes me feel better just because it takes my mind off of things. Or maybe it reminds me of happy times. It doesn't really matter to me -- as long as it keeps working!

Big Muscles and Squished Bread

I love that life with Zak is never dull. He always knows how to cheer me up. A few nights ago, he was sitting on the side of the bed flexing his muscles for me. He wanted me to admire how huge his biceps are, which I obligingly did. To be even more macho, he flexed and then punched his biceps. He did this several times until I was suitably impressed, and then we went on with getting ready for bed. He finally admitted a little later that his arms both really hurt after hitting them so hard. What a funny kid!

Last night Zak was having a few slices of bread, again just before bed. He could live on white bread and water. I know white bread isn't very good for you, but he hates wheat bread. So what're you going to do? Give the man his white bread, I say. Anyway, he likes to crush it up into a hard ball and then sort of nibble on it. I'm not sure why there's the fascination with squishing the bread up first... whatever. Anyway, he thought it would be funny to see if it bounced off my forehead. Answer: It did. Several times.

I wish that I had some pictures to share with you on this post... but I don't. We have purchased rechargeable batteries for our camera and have even used them in the camera to take some pictures, but Taylor is now borrowing our camera for a school project, so it'll be a bit before we have it back and will be taking pictures to post.

In Case You are Wondering

There will be no nudie pictures (or any other kind of pictures on this post)…but to the satisfaction of all, our baby is a boy! Yep, for those of you who didn’t already know, I am pregnant and we found out on Thursday that our little baking bun is definitely a boy. We are both really happy and excited about the news.
I feel a need to explain the first line of the post a little bit. Zak and I co-authored this post and that was one of his contributions. He really doesn’t like naked baby pictures. And technically, since the baby is naked in the ultrasound pictures, Zak didn’t want to post any of them. He has vowed that there will be no naked baby pictures of our children.
According to Barb, our little guy looks like me. Zak says, “Hopefully it’s okay for him to have a girl face on a dude body.” I think our baby has a great profile. Very cute. And that’s enough said about that.
The current due date is August 1st, but at the ultrasound we found out that we are probably one week further along than previously thought, so that date might be moving up just slightly. In any case, we are hoping that our baby doesn’t take after me in that regard. I was due on September 28th and born on October 13th.
Zak is really looking forward to having someone he can wrestle with. I am not much fun anymore now that I fall asleep at 8:30 or 9:00 most nights. He says he’ll give our baby a break for the first few days after birth, but then he’d better be ready to rumble. I’m thinking there may be some maternal intervention should Zak try to wrestle with our newborn. (I’m just kidding, I know he wouldn’t do that.)
We wanted to share the news with everyone – have a great weekend!

Hanging Windows

My brothers-in-law Rhett and Burke say on their blog that they when they look at blogs, they just want to look at pictures, not read. So even though I am putting totally random (and not always very attractive) pictures on my blog that I get from Google Images, hopefully it is more fun to read my blog because I now have pictures.
On Saturday morning I had the choice of staying home by myself and doing laundry or going to work with Zak and his dad for a few hours in Smithfield. They needed to hang some windows on one of the houses that his dad is building and I said I would come and offer whatever help I could, though it probably wouldn't be much. I don't think I did turn out to be much help, but I can say now that I have helped to hang windows.
Naturally these windows above look nothing like the windows we hung in the house on Saturday, but that's mostly because the house is framed in, but that's all. It's nothing by 2x4s and plywood and cement at this point.
All I had to do was hold the window in the opening while Larry and Zak measured and got it square in the opening and then Larry put screws in so I could let go of it. I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to hold the window in because they were pretty heavy (Zak said they were pretty light compared to other windows... yikes!), but luckily I was able to hang on to them.
I also got to use a staple hammer (who knows if that's really the right name for it) to attach some insulating stuff along the bottom of the window openings. It was pretty fun! And pretty cold. I was glad to get back in the car and go home.
The Jazz played the Nuggets on Saturday night and it was a fun game to watch! They beat them 132-105. We were impressed that they went into the half with 70 points or more. They were finally playing really well together and we're hoping that they're going to keep it up for these next four road games! Go Jazz!

The Countdown is On!

Zak has 30 days of student teaching left as of today! At his request, I made a paper chain similar to this paper chain pictured above, but I didn't take a picture of my paper chain. It's so much easier to search Google Images to find what I need than to actually take a picture, put it on the computer, and then save it to my jump drive. I am so lazy when it comes to things like this. My lovely paper chain is made of construction paper in a pattern of yellow, blue, orange, red, and brown, and is hanging by the door in the kitchen so that Zak can rip a link off every day when he walks in the door. It's the simple things in life that make you happy, right?

His last day is April 24th, so he's got 30 days left in the classroom, obviously not counting weekends and Spring Break. I thought I would post about it so that you can all celebrate with us when the day arrives. He is also happy about the timing of the ending of student teaching for another Very Important Reason, which is that Mario Kart for the Wii comes out on April 28th. It has bikes!! The game is going to be his you-made-it-through-student-teaching/graduation present. I am sure that he and his brothers will have some late nights, starting April 28th. I think he deserves it! He has worked really hard this semester.

I should mention here that he does like student teaching. But it's a countdown to graduation (which has been a long time coming -- I am so proud of him!!) as well as a countdown to the end of student teaching. Graduation is May 3rd and 4th.

About the student teaching: Zak has some students that are really responsive and participate and like his lessons, and he really enjoys that part of teaching. It's the ones who disrupt class and don't show up and don't turn in their assignments that make it less fun... but that's all a part of teaching! We talk a lot about his lesson plans and what he wants to teach, and I am constantly amazed by the cool ideas that Zak has to make learning more fun for the students. He is already a great teacher and will be fantastic wherever he ends up teaching!

****

In other unrelated news, our furnace stopped working on Wednesday night while we were sleeping. We woke up very cold on Thursday morning (it was about 5 degrees above outside) and heard our landlord banging around in the basement, trying to fix the furnace. We figure our neighbor called him to come and fix it. She is in her seventies and doesn't deal well with the cold. This is our "ant advice" neighbor. She's a nice lady, even if her advice doesn't work.

The furnace seems to be working okay now after a visit from some heating/cooling technicians, although we had to put the thermostat on 80 last night in order to get it to run. But better to be a little too warm all night long than to be freezing, in my opinion.

I am looking forward to the day that we can move! I think we've put in our time in this place -- it's been 3 years and 8 months, and it's definitely time for a change. Where and when we move will depend on where Zak gets a teaching job -- so we hope that we can find out within the next few months where that will be!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Our Battle with the Ants

If all ants were as nice-looking and seemingly pleasant as this little guy with his cup of juice or whatever (plucked from Google images), I wouldn't be so annoyed with the species in general. However, due to the fact that they have been positively swarming in my kitchen and bathroom over the last week, I'm feeling less than friendly toward ants currently.
We have had ants off and on the whole time we've lived in this house. But it has never been as bad as this time. If we had batteries in the camera I would've taken some pictures to share. Alas, we do not have batteries in the camera. I keep forgetting to buy them. And when I do, Zak usually needs the batteries for far more important things, like powering his Wii-mote so that he can conquer all the galaxies in Super Mario Galaxy.
Sunday morning was just about the limit for me. The ants were having some sort of swingin' party on the kitchen floor. They were everywhere! I put down ant bait traps with poison in them on Thursday and I guess that was all the invitation they needed to come out and play. At that point, all I could do was get ready for church and just leave it. I knew that the poison would work sooner or later. It was actually working quite well by the end of the day yesterday.
This morning as I crunched into the kitchen (wearing my flip flops, of course), I noticed that the floor was absolutely littered with ant carcasses. There was also a mass grave in the bathroom by the tub.
Thankfully I had enough time before leaving for work this morning to sweep out the kitchen so it is now carcass-free and to vacuum the bathroom floor (since it is carpeted-yuck) and get rid of all the little crunchies in there.
At one point last fall our neighbor recommended talking to the ants. She said to just very reasonably and calmly explain that this was our home and that they weren't welcome there, and that they needed to leave and go back outside where they belonged. She assured us that they would leave very shortly after this one-sided conversation took place. Regret to inform, this is not the case.
But, remembering that conversation with the neighbor last fall, Zak got down on the floor Saturday night and informed all the little ants that if they didn't get out of our house very soon that they were all going to die. I feel that our method was more effective than the neighbor's. What do you think?

One post script I feel that I must include: We are not dirty people. In fact, I am a compulsive cleaner. I may not vacuum every day, but I do it at least twice a week. And I sweep the kitchen floor regularly as well. In fact, I scrubbed the kitchen floor on hands and knees last Wednesday. I guess the ants decided they would rather stay inside and not freeze instead of going outside and freezing, since we're still getting snow off and on. I guess those ants learned their lesson this time...

Barrage

The show last night was GREAT! It was really fun to watch the members of Barrage play. I have no idea how they dance and play their violins at the same time, but it's pretty amazing to watch. My favorite songs were Samuel's Vision, Calypso Jam, Mountain Spring, Front Porch Jam, Karen's Air, and Tico Tico. All of the music was great, but these were my favorites.

I used to play the flute in junior high school. I'm pretty sure that I couldn't play the flute and dance at the same time. Then again, I have never claimed to have extraordinary coordination. Nor have I ever claimed to be any kind of dancer. So that counts me right out of the running for becoming a member of Barrage anytime in the future. Two of the people who were performing last night had seen Barrage in concert years before and thought that they'd like to do that. So they did! Of course, it helped that both of them had been playing the violin since infancy. What makes a 3- or 5- year-old want to play the violin? One of life's mysteries...

I would highly recommend the show to anyone who has a chance to go. Mom and Dad, they are coming to St. Peters in a few months. Check out their show schedule at http://www.barrage.org/.

The Demise of the TV Season

I know, I know, this is unprecedented. Well, nearly unprecedented. I think I may have posted twice in one day before... but I don't remember for sure.
In any case, I found out some very disturbing news about two of my favorite shows today -- 24 and Heroes. Season 7 of 24 will not be aired until 2009! What a travesty! And the word is (though unconfirmed) that Heroes will go directly into production for Season 3, leaving Season 2 with a measly 11 episodes. Come on!
Here's the downlow on the 24 situation:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080215/ap_en_tv/tv24_delay;_ylt=Avk.UV9qcd9TSUO61IQdaAdpMhkF
All I could get from Heroes was chatter on the NBC site. There are some very devoted fans out there, that's all I can say. The IMers on the Heroes page were chatting about how Peter absorbs different abilities and debating as to whether he should have absorbed all of Sylar's abilities or not... or just the TK or whatever. That's a little too much time spent on that subject. I need to invoke Rule #4 on them: "The people on TV are not real people, so don't talk about them like they are."
So, really, it's not the demise of the whole TV season. It's just that I won't be able to watch new episodes of my two favorite shows for a long, long time. Sigh.
I guess there's still Jazz games to watch and enjoy. It was great to watch them beat Baron Davis and the Warriors last night. When Korver is shooting well, it's fun to watch him make those threes. Maybe they'll make it to the playoffs again this year... it's going to be about the only thing on TV anyway, so they'd better!

The Weekend Update

My brother-in-law Dave and my brother Michael have responded to my tag and I want them to know I appreciate it! It's fun to read about you guys. That's why everyone should do it!
Incidentally, Michael, I think that kid who was your comp was Elder Wiberg or Wybrow, not sure which. And he was from Hyrum. I remember driving up from Provo with you and Janet for his homecoming. It was my first ever visit to Cache Valley. Who knew I'd end up living here?
I guess I'll throw in a little update on our Presidents' Day weekend: On Friday night, Zak and I went to see the movie Jumper with Barb, Larry, Taylor, and Burke. It was okay. I won't spoil the movie for anyone who wants to see it by pointing out its inadequacies both in storyline and in acting talent. What I will say is that if you want to see a great movie with Hayden Christensen in it, watch Shattered Glass.
Saturday was a lazy day of laundry and a little bit of shopping. We ended the day by watching Mrs. Winterbourne, a movie with Shirley MacLaine, Brendan Fraser, and Ricki Lake (of all people). It is also rather light on the storyline and acting talent, but kind of fun to watch. Then, since my ironing was still not done after the first movie (though in my defense, I was eating dinner through the first part of the movie, and then it took nearly the rest of the movie for me to motivate myself to actually do the ironing), we put in That Thing You Do, which never fails to please. I really like that movie. Great job, Tom Hanks! Plus, I think that Steve Zahn is hilarious.
Sunday was church, of course, and then dinner in Millville. We also played a little joke on Rhett and Candyce that ended up backfiring on us a little. For Zak's birthday on the 7th, his mom, Rhett, Candyce, and Burke came to our apartment and filled it with balloons. Some had helium, some didn't. The end result was a room full of balloons that Zak wouldn't let me pop. He wanted to do something fun with them. This was a bit of a trial to me, as you who know me well will know that having balloons sitting around my front room (preventing me from vacuuming) for 10 days upsets my sense of order. In any case, Zak decided that the perfect use for the balloons was to take them to Burke's apartment and to Rhett and Candyce's apartment. We ended up tying some of the helium-filled balloons to Burke's door since we had no way to get in his apartment. We were a little luckier at Rhett and Candyce's and were able to get in their apartment. We filled their shower with the remaining balloons. Now, we thought this was pretty good (well, Zak did -- I was just the accomplice who would've been fine without the whole adventure). We then went home, took a nap, and later went to Millville for dinner. Rhett and Candyce came for dinner, too, and we all ate. Zak decided he wanted to go for a walk after dinner. As we walked outside and went past our car, we realized that it was full of balloons. Zak never locks our car when in Millville, although I think he should start. It's still a reflex for me to lock the car. They got us back good! Then we popped the rest of the balloons after we gave a few to Beck, Kaiya, and Crede.
Monday we did a little more shopping, of the grocery and household variety this time, and then I cleaned house (now that the balloons were gone!!) in the afternoon while Zak went to work with his dad for a few hours. It was great to sleep in on Saturday and Monday and has made it a little bit hard to get up the last couple of mornings. I'm taking full advantage of sleeping in while I can, though. So that was our weekend.
Tonight Zak and I are going to see Barrage, and I'm excited! It should be a fun show.

A New Look

I decided it was time I gave my blog a makeover. It has been the same blah blah thing since I started it a few years ago. I have added the blogs of family and friends that I visit regularly, as well as a couple of lists of books and movies I want to see. Plus, two of my favorite websites -- NPR.org and Fantastic Fiction. I know, I am a nerd. I'm okay with that.
If any of you are avid readers like me, please compare and see if we are interested in any of the same books. I love being able to talk about a book I've read with someone who has also read and enjoyed the same book. Zak doesn't really get in to the same type of books as me.
To the Knutti little girls (you know who you are): there is going to be another Tamora Pierce book called Bloodhound which is in the same vein of storyline as Terrier. I was excited when I found out! The Lioness Series from my young adulthood are still some of my favorite books. Why do I not own them yet? I'll have to remedy that situation. I have also really liked the Twilight trilogy by Stephenie Meyer and am looking forward to the 4th book in the series which is due out in October. Those books I did buy because it was going to take way too long to place a hold at the library and wait for the books to come in. I could go on and on...
Zak got a phone call early this morning letting him know that PHS is having a snow day today, so he didn't have to go teach. Hooray! Instead, he went to work with his dad. Way to be responsible, Z. I wish that I got snow days at my job, but it's probably good that I don't. I'm sure that if I did, I would stay in bed and read all day, which is highly unproductive, while also being highly enjoyable.
I am also at work today, and I have been eating far too much candy. It's Valentine's Day. That's my excuse for my rate of candy consumption today. I hope you all have a happy valentine's day!

p.s. I am eating an apple now, and I had some carrot sticks at lunch. Does that negate any of the candy consumption? Please say yes.

I've Been Tagged

My sister-in-law Candyce tagged me, so here’re my answers to the tag. And by the way, thank you for tagging me, Candyce! It gave me the motivation I needed to post since I haven’t done so for a while.

The rules of the game are posted at the beginning:
1. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
2. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

10 years ago:
I was 19 years old. I was a freshman in college at BYU – go Cougars! Winter Semester ‘98 was my only semester of boyfriends while I was in college. I dated four different guys that semester (but not simultaneously—I’m not that kind of girl!). I know one of them was named Jeff, but I don’t remember the other guys’ names. Sorry, but it has been ten years.
[Just a side note: After that spring and summer, I had a looong drought in my dating life until 2003 when I started dating again and finally met my wonderful husband!]

Five things to do on my list today:
1. Get a letter put in the mail.
2. Check my budget for the month.
3. Figure out something for Valentine’s Day.
4. Get a ton of Zak’s and my work clothes ironed (my least favorite household chore—but at least I can watch a movie or something while doing it. You can’t say that about a lot of household chores!).
5. Look up some new authors and books to see if the Logan Library already has them—we browsed through a bookstore last night (which Zak now regrets—sorry, babe) and I found some books that looked really good!

Snacks I enjoy:
Lately all my snacks consist of yogurt, granola bars, and fruit—apples, oranges, bananas, peaches. But if I had a choice of any snack without regards to how healthy or unhealthy it is, I would choose ice cream. Or a shake. Which is ice cream, so I guess that’s what it all comes back to. Oreos with a glass of milk are a pretty good snack, too.

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
I would build a house in the country where it’s quiet, where nothing leaks, there are no mice, and the walls are not plaster covered with wallpaper covered with paint. There would be a dishwasher in a huge kitchen and hundreds of closets. Also, my bedroom would be enormous with its own attached master bath with a jetted tub.
Then I would pay off all my family’s mortgages, buy a new car despite the fact that it depreciates the minute you drive it off the lot, and I would buy a killin’ motorcycle for Zak.
I wouldn’t have to work anymore! Instead, I would take classes and learn to be a great cook.
Most of all, Zak would be able to follow his dream of having his own company, doing whatever he wants to do when he wants to do it, and not according to someone else’s schedule, and we would never have to be concerned about money again.

Three of my bad habits:
Trying to do too much (dishes, vacuuming, straightening the house) in the morning hours before work and ending up being late to work because of it.
Putting off doing the ironing until the stack is so huge that neither Zak nor I have clean, ironed clothes to wear to work and it takes me two hours to get through all of it.
Zak would say the last bad habit is a toss-up between my reading too much and my being too compulsive about cleaning the house. I don’t really think these are bad things, though.

Places I have visited:
1. Mexico
2. California
3. Washington, D.C.
4. Maryland
5. Washington

Jobs I have had:
1. cashier at Jack-in-the-Box
2. transcriber in Special Collections at the BYU Library
3. I worked at a meat packing plant and a cheese factory for one day each in Cache Valley
4. head judge at Creative Communications
5. loan officer at USUCCU

Five things People Don't Know About Me:
1. I really hate budgeting, but I am good with money.
2. I love just about all kinds of music, and I know lots of artist and song names. I would be great at Name That Tune, I just know it.
3. I can consistently beat Zak at all the Wii Sports except for tennis, much to his dismay.
4. I love watching basketball – especially the Utah Jazz!
5. I really don’t like traveling. I'm always excited before the trip, and glad I went after, but lately, I always get sick (see Vegas trip, St. Louis trip, Yellowstone trip, our recent cruise—although that “sick” was for a very different reason than the other trips). I would rather be at home with a good book, or just hanging out with my husband.

I tagged the Knutti Family Blog (which is lots more than five people, but I’m betting I won’t get much of a response from my siblings), Katie, JoLee, and Elizabeth.

Still No Luck

I haven't been able to figure out what the problem is with the vacation pictures. I can't get them to upload. So I don't think I'll be posting any cruise pictures. Sorry! You'll just have to imagine it. Think: wet, cold, and, in the case of Mexico, dirty. Other than that, it's just some silly pictures of Zak and me. If anyone is really dying to see pictures, email me and I'll see if I can't get a few to work as attachments to an email.
Zak and I are finally feeling all better after our December of Sickness. Hooray!! We both had colds and I think we each had some sort of flu as well, but we are both feeling okay again. Now if we can just survive the winter in Logan with no more colds, we'll be doing great! We have had a lot of snow this weekend. Zak cleared the path behind our house that leads to the driveway three times yesterday. I don't know exactly how much snow we received, but it seems like at least 12 inches.
Today is Zak's first day of the semester. He has two days of orientation seminars, at which we hope he finds out for sure if his teaching assignment has been changed to Preston High instead of North Cache Middle School. If so, it's possible he may be teaching there as soon as Wednesday. That's a little detail that the SecEd Dept. saw fit to omit from any information dispersed to student teachers for the Spring 2008 semester -- when does the student teaching actually begin? No one knows. But maybe Zak will after his meeting today. Also, never mind that the orientation seminars began today -- Zak didn't get an email about them (stating when and where) until last Thursday. Some one in that department is not on the ball... or possibly many someones. We are both looking forward to May when we no longer have to deal with that stuff anymore!
I am hanging out at work, thanking my lucky stars that the slower season has finally begun. It helps that I no longer have to do any pre-funding or funding and am just back to my normal loan officer duties. I am truly grateful to be able to focus on my primary job again, since that's what I like anyway!

Our Mexican Cruise

For Christmas this year, Zak and I decided to give each other the gift of a cruise. We left from Los Angeles on December 17th and made our first stop in San Diego on the 18th. The second stop was Catalina Island on the 19th, and the third stop was Ensenada in Mexico on the 20th.
On the first night of the cruise, we got into an elevator with several other people. A kid also got in who was breathing really hard. A lady in the elevator said, “Oh, you must be in a hurry.” And he said, “No, I’m just really excited!” This piqued Zak’s interest and he decided we should follow him to find out what had excited him so – after all, we wanted to be excited, too. We followed him surreptitiously but not with any degree of success. He just sort of hovered by the (empty) pool on one of the top decks, so we abandoned the attempt shortly after that. We saw him a few more times that evening around various lounges, but didn’t ever figure out what he was sooo excited about. We think it’s possible that he was going to a rendezvous with someone... ooh la la. Or maybe he just realized we were following him and didn’t want to let us in on the secret. The phrase “I’m just really excited” was used frequently by us over the course of the cruise. It’s still funny to Zak and me, but it’s okay if no one else thinks it’s funny.
Some of the highlights from the trip were going to the San Diego Maritime Museum and getting to walk around on a pirate ship and a Russian submarine. The pirate ship is the HMS Surprise, and its claim to fame is that the movie Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World was filmed aboard it. I learned that pirate ships don’t have cannon, they have guns. Even though they are actually cannon, at least in my mind. I guess they’re only called cannon when they’re on the land. We read a sample of a pirate’s code and lots of other interesting stuff.
The Russian submarine, the b39, was pretty interesting, too. It was so cramped and claustrophobic and there was a ton of equipment shoved into such a relatively small amount of space; I don’t know how anyone survived while it was at sea! It was neat to crawl through and see what tight quarters the sailors lived in. They didn’t get to shower, but the doctor on the submarine made sure that each sailor got a hot wash cloth each day to wipe off with. I guess this was to help fight the spread of germs or something. Uh, hand sanitizer, anyone? The bathrooms were SO small. I don’t really know how you can be comfortable doing what you need to do in such an incredibly small space.
We also went aboard the Star of India, which was originally called the Euterpe (the Greek goddess of music). It was much larger than the Surprise and is one of the oldest iron-hulled ships still active.
Our favorite thing about Catalina Island was its laid back atmosphere. Zak has decided he wants to move there when he’s done with school next May. I guess we’ll see how things work out, but for now I think that idea falls into the “possibly maybe someday” category. It was rainy and misty on the day we were there, and we walked some of the residential streets away from the touristy areas. We found a little pet cemetery. That was a little weird, but I guess people do love their pets. Zak got a few pictures of some of the more creative headstones. The beach was pretty small, at least in the area where we were, but it was still fun to walk along it and go underneath the pier.
Ensenada was also really interesting. It was extremely dirty and there were little kids with big, sad eyes who walked right up to everyone with their hands outstretched. It would’ve been nice to help them, but there were signs in a few of the shops that said not to give the kids money, because they would have to give it to their parent or caretaker who would use it for whatever they wanted, and it wouldn’t really benefit the kids. So that was sad. We enjoyed walking around and seeing all the shops. The pharmacies were especially strange. Apparently they have all kinds of things for sale in those pharmacies. The funniest thing about them is that the proprietors walk around with these white coats on like it makes them actual pharmacists. Nice. We did end up doing a little bargaining with some of the people selling their wares on the street and in shops and brought home a few souvenirs. It was fun to just walk around and see what the city was like.
There were some pretty fun things to do on the boat as well. On the first night, we were wandering around and came across a little arcade where the games were all set to be free for the evening. We played a little Ms. Pacman, some Beach Head 2000, SportShooter, and Centipede. We also found a lounge where brave souls were doing karaoke and sat and listened to that for a little while. We ended up back there two nights later and discovered that many of the people were repeat karaoke-ers, if that’s a word. I guess a lot of the same people got up to sing each night, and in the case of one woman, she even sang the same song – Cher’s “Believe.” It was very entertaining, but the one who topped them all was an older guy named Mike who sang Tom Jones’ “Delilah” with such verve and enthusiasm that we had to leave after he was done. We knew that no one would be as good as he was, so we left the karaoke lounge on a high note. Pun intended, as Zak would say.
The food was really good in the dining room, which, sadly, we only made it to three times out of the eight times available. The first night we were watching the boat leave LA when dinner was served at 5:30, and then another night we were taking a nap and didn’t wake up until after 7:00, so it was much too late to go. We only made it there for breakfast once. On our first night at dinner, Zak tried escargot (I tried one, too) and said it was pretty good, considering what it was. He also tried duck for the first time. I was somewhat tamer in my choices and only had roast beef and turkey for my dinners. The food was okay in the Windjammer Café (pretty much the only other place to eat on the boat when the dining room was closed), it was just always buffet style. Zak really liked the pizza.
The first night we went to the dining room we met our tablemates and it turned out that one of the couples were LDS newlyweds from Oregon. The other couple was from Canada and was also close to our age. That made it more fun to talk to each other, and despite our fears about having to make conversation with total strangers when all we really wanted to do was eat our food, we actually really enjoyed meeting and conversing with all four of them.
We ended up watching a few movies on the boat that neither of us had seen before: Stardust, Shrek 3, No Reservations, White Christmas, Dark Passage, and then just snippets of other shows like A Christmas Story and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. We also watched some cartoons. I don’t get cartoons these days. I really like the old Merrie Melodies cartoons with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and company, and the Hanna Barbera cartoons. And all the old Disney cartoons, too, of course. These new cartoons are weird, Yugi-Oh, game-playing cartoons. Of course the basic premises rarely change much, but the format is strange to me. I guess it’s just one more sign that middle age is approaching…
One of the other things Zak really enjoyed doing on the boat was walking around the upper deck in the evenings. I thought it was fun too, but it was nearly always overcast so the stars weren’t really visible. The first night we found Orion and what Zak calls the Baby Dipper. It’s even smaller than the Little Dipper. All the nights after, though, were too cloudy to see any stars. I was glad that I had brought a few jackets, a hat, scarf, and gloves. I used them every night for those upper deck walks!
On the last night on the boat, we went to a show in the Sound of Music lounge and enjoyed it much more than we thought we would. It was put on by the Royal Caribbean singers/dancers, and one of the male singers and one of the female singers were exceptionally good. The only downside was that you could feel every single wave in that lounge. Ew. And we were really moving, so there were lots of waves to feel.
After we got off the boat, we headed north to see San Francisco, since I had never been before. We only spent a short time walking around Union Square before we got on the streetcar line and took it out to Chinatown. We got a picture by the gates of Chinatown and that was pretty much all I wanted to see there. It was really dirty; reminiscent of Ensenada, actually. Then we rode over to Lombard Street and saw the most crooked street in the world. It was actually a really beautiful street, all brick, and the landscaping on the sides of the road was really nice. From there, we rode to Ghirardelli Square and sampled some chocolate. From there, we walked along the waterfront area, which was all paved over. We could see Angel Island and Alcatraz from where we were, so that was cool since we had decided not to take the ferry out to the island. One of our favorite parts of waiting for the streetcar to take us back to Union Square was the performers who entertained us as we waited in line. One guy was sitting on a bench, strumming a guitar and making up rhymes. You could tell he’d been doing that gig for a long time; he had a rhyme for everything. It was pretty entertaining to listen to, so Zak threw some change in his guitar case. His rhyme for that was, “Thanks for dough! Come back later and throw some mo’!” There was another guy who played guitar and sang. He was pretty decent. Then there was Escape Man. Zak remembered him from his trip four years ago, and Zak’s sister Nikkol remembered him from her trip ten years ago when we told her about him. So I guess he’s sort of an institution there at Ghirardelli Square. He had his buddy put a straightjacket on him and then wrap some chains around him. Then he proceeded to tell the crowd how he was going to get out of his chains and straightjacket in two minutes or less. He lay down on the ground and proceeded to do just that. He wallowed around for a couple of minutes and was able to get free with all his thrashing about. Then he walked around with his Santa hat so people could make donations to Escape Man’s College Fund. While we’re completely sure that Escape Man has no immediate plans for college, as he was at least on the declining end of middle age, it was still very entertaining.
After we left San Francisco, we drove to Bodega Bay which is northwest of SF. Zak visited this spot with his brother Rhett on their SF trip a few years prior and he wanted to go back and see it again (this time in the daylight). We got there just as the sun was setting and got some great pictures. It was really beautiful. Zak climbed up on a big rock that jutted out into the ocean a little and while there, collected some rocks, shells, and two starfish that he thought were dead. It wasn’t until later that someone explained to him that the only time they’re dead is when they’re floating in the water. Since he had to pry them off the rock, they were probably quite alive at the time, which is not fun to think about. Poor things. Anyway, I’m pretty sure they have since expired and am not really sure what Zak is going to do with them, if anything. I think they’re languishing in our cold basement currently.
After it was completely dark and very, very cold, we drove from Bodega Bay to Napa where Zak’s great aunt Hazel lives. We visited with her and her roommate Sheila for a little while before hitting the road again, this time to begin the drive home. We were both ready to get back and so we took turns driving while the other slept. It worked out pretty well and we were able to get home by 9 on Sunday morning.
I forgot to put something in that Zak wanted me to be sure to include. One of the times we left our room the first night of the cruise, we decided to keep going down the hall in the opposite direction of the stairs and elevators, just to see what was down there. There were only more cabins, so that wasn’t particularly exciting.
Zak decided to play a little joke on me (as he is prone to do) as we walked back to the stairs and elevators in the lobby. As we passed some of the cabins on our way out to the elevator/stairs, he knocked on the one of the doors (same idea as a doorbell ditch, I guess) and then said, “Run, Sarah! Run!” So I turn around and give him a horrified look and start to take off running down the hall. It was a natural reaction. I mean, there is nowhere to hide in those halls with all the cabins. Your only safe bet is to get to the lobby where the stairs and elevators are, otherwise you’re going to get caught by whoever you’re doorbell ditching. He let me go for a second or two, but then I heard him laughing his brains out, so I stopped to see what the deal was. The door he had knocked on was our own cabin, 2116, and he could hardly stand up he was laughing so hard at my reaction. He is a jokester, through and through. It was pretty funny, I have to admit now.
It was a great trip, lots of fun, lots of memories. Something that astounded us time after time was the total inability of some of the boat’s inhabitants to effectively operate the elevators. They are simple machines. Most everyone has ridden on an elevator at least once in their life, if not hundreds of times. Yet it was like the first time, every time, for many of the people we encountered. So strange.
Something else we absolutely could not understand were the joggers who were jogging on the top deck every morning before 8 am. Uh, aren’t you on vacation? Why do you need to make everyone who’s pigging out on doughnuts and pastries from the breakfast buffet feel like losers? Lame, guys. Very lame.
We had a great time on our cruise! Sorry for the extremely long post. I'll put some pictures up in the next one.

Thanksgiving

This post is for Zak. He has been asking me to post for a few weeks now... We celebrated Thanksgiving with Zak's family in Millville and had a great meal and nice, relaxing afternoon. The highlight of the post-meal antics was a dare Zak made to Corey. We had turkey and ham, and there were some really fatty pieces on the edges of the ham.
Zak dared Corey to eat one of the fatty pieces for money. I don't remember what the initial amount was. There was a little bantering back and forth and other family members said how much they'd be willing to throw in if Corey ate this piece of fat. I think the grand total came to about $10, give or take. Then Kurt upped the ante by saying that he'd give a certain amount ($5 maybe?) if Corey let Zak lick the ham fat before Corey ate it. You get the idea -- lots of manly posturing, etc.
Finally Corey agreed to do it for the price they agreed on (whatever it was). He ate the ham fat that Zak licked. (Insert exclamation of disgust here.) I thought it was really gross, as did everyone else. I don't know where these things come from...Zak has an interesting mind.
Other than that, we've been up to our usual activities of work and school. The semester is finishing up this week and next. We'll be taking off a week from Friday for my sister's wedding in Provo and then going on a cruise to Mexico for a few days. I am looking forward to some time off!
We got our Christmas tree put up this past Saturday. We still don't have lots of ornaments after 3 1/2 years, but I think it's a pretty respectable little tree, considering. Also, the Festivus sign went up the same day and is now lit nightly. Zak is very diligent about making sure that the sign goes up and gets lit each year. Hope everyone else is enjoying the holiday season!

Getting Ready for Fatherhood - AKA Being a Good Uncle

Now, don't get all excited. The title of the post is not any kind of obscure reference to pregnancy. It's just the thought I had as I looked at these pictures. These were taken last night at Zak's mom and dad's house right before we left. I'm not even sure how the horsey ride thing got started, but at first, Zak was giving Beck a ride. Kaiya, ever the observant one, noticed that fun was happening without her (not to be allowed) and wanted to join in. At the tail end of the ride (somewhere between the dining room and living room) Kathryn noticed the fun and also wanted to join in. I thought for sure that Zak would say he'd give her a ride in a minute, but he told her to climb on and asked me to walk behind and make sure that no one fell off. It was too cute not to get some pictures!

The Latest

Having just recovered from a rather nasty bout of stomach flu, I am feeling quite grateful to be healthy today! I went home from work early on Tuesday and didn't come back until this morning. You really don't want to know any of the details in between - suffice it to say that Zak has been spraying crisp berry scented disinfectant on just about everything in our house. I hate that smell now. I am also quite sick of saltines, noodle soup, and Sprite. Blech.
Zak is getting more and more anxious for the semester to end. Unfortunately, there are still two full months left. Although, if you take out weekends and holidays, it's not quite that long. In fact, it's only a little over a month if you only count school days! He has been observing in a classroom at his alma mater, Mountain Crest, and comes home with interesting stories every day that he's there observing. All I can say is that I guess some kids are more motivated to succeed in life than others. I'll have to have him post some stories one of these days.
Sorry for the short post -- there is really nothing else going on in our lives these days. I'll write more when there is!

More Yellowstone Pictures

You tell me, what trip to Yellowstone would be complete without some kind of close encounter with wildlife? We were driving around and took a little turn-off to see some waterfalls or something, and suddenly all the cars in front of us stopped. We craned our necks to see what the problem was, and this bison is what we saw. He was just walking down the road, minding his own business. Zak snapped the first picture and I snapped the second. Zak almost could have touched the bison, it was so close to the car. And finally, what trip to Yellowstone would be complete without a picture of an enormous boot? This was about 9 pm Sunday night. I was struggling to stay awake when we stopped for a quick break in Alpine, WY. And there it was. Zak couldn't resist.
All in all, it was a fun trip. I'm glad we finally made it to Yellowstone!

More Yellowstone Pictures

These are just a few more scenic pictures. I took the first two at Lewis Lake and Zak took the rest of them.

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!