Don't store your hand sanitizer and glasses cleaner spray bottles near each other. Especially if they are similarly sized and shaped.
(Maybe I'll make "quick tips" a regularly occurring item on my blog... hmmm... can't think of a better way to inform the world of the stupid things I'm prone to do, so why not?)
I heard this on the radio the other day, and it made me like Neil Diamond even more. I guess the guy got some flack for doing a Christmas album when he's a Jew. I am so glad the Hanukah (Chanukah?) song he decided to go with was Adam Sandler's Chanukah song. So here it is. Enjoy.
I know almost everyone hates the dentist. I'm not particularly fond of going. But some people like getting their teeth cleaned. They like the running their tongues across clean teeth, the deep clean feel, all that. I don't like it.
I have very sensitive teeth. I don't like how they feel after the cleaning. I like the clean feeling, sure, but my teeth are super sensitive, my gums hurt from the constant pressure and scrapping, and I can feel my teeth the rest of the day. You know, because you can't usually feel your teeth. I can just see all 3 of you that read this licking your teeth now, trying to feel them, but you know what I mean. Your teeth are just there. Most the time, you don't feel them. After going to the dentist, I feel them and they sorta hurt. I don't like it. Even if they ARE super clean.
So screw you, dentists. Me and my sensitive teeth don't like you. (yes, I also have one cavity, so I'm bitter about it. On top of it, it's because a seal in an old filling is gone. Stupid, crappy dentist and his shoddy filling seal work...)
Anyone want further reason to hate car salesmen? Here goes...
So this weekend, I was helping Hayley find a misplaced item. I was looking through our stack of mail and came across an ad for a car dealership. The ad caught my eye because there was a key attached to it. I looked a little closer, and the mailer--addressed to Hayley--said we may have won a brand new Charger. For fun, I pulled the key off of the ad, and used it to scratch off the "scratch here" box to see if I was a winner. Three silver cars means you win. Any other combination of silver and red cars means you lost.
So I start scratching and the oddest thing happened. I scratched away to reveal three silver cars... I was a winner! I was a little shocked, and said, out loud, and in an incredulous voice, "I'm a winner...?" Hayley responded asking me what I meant, and I told her we might have won a new car. She immediately said, "Yeah, right..." but came over to look at the advertisement. We both kind of looked at each other and wondered what in the world was going on. There was a telephone number printed on the ad, so I called it. A recording asked me to enter a number from the ad, then told me, "Congratulations! Your prize is being held for you. Please see your local dealer at [address] to claim your prize!" Again, not much help on figuring out what was going on.
So, we had a couple errands to run and decided, what the heck... if the dealer told us we didn't win a car, we'd simply hate them forever and never buy a car from them. When we pulled up to the dealership, a 12 year old with uneven, scruffy, facial hair trying to hide his acne approached us. I told him we had this ad and it said we won something. He had us sit down and went to get a little notebook. He started asking a few questions (address, name, car we drive, you know...), and I butted in by saying we really weren't looking for a car, just wondered about this prize we supposedly won. He said it could be one of four prizes. The new Charger, an ATV, three gold coins, or $1,000 cash--all with no strings attached, but he needed to get our information first. He asked about the car we drive and if we were looking to trade it in. Again, I said no. At this point, our 12 year old assistant went off to get one more scratch card so we could find out what we won.
Left to ourselves, Hayley and I wondered if this was worth it. I said I hoped for the thousand bucks, but wondered what we could get on eBay for the three gold coins. Well, the pre-pubescent came back, I scratched the card, and lo and behold.... THREE GOLD COINS!!! What luck! The sixth grader then left again, and Hayley and I shrugged our shoulders at each other and waited for our prize. The kid came back with three dollars. In coin form. Sacajawea and Ben Franklin coin dollars, to be exact. Here they are in all their glory:
So yeah. Stupid car salesmen. As we drove away, Hayley wondered, if we had said we were looking for a car, would our second scratch card have been pulled from a different stack... possibly the you've-won-a-thousand-dollars stack? Maybe even the you've-won-a-new-car stack? Very probably... One thing's for sure though. I couldn't stop saying "THREE GOLD COINS!" The rest of the day.
So SAD is Seasonal Affected Disorder that people get when it's all wintery outside and dark and they get depressed. Well, I'm not depressed in the slightest, I promise. I was just telling Hayley that I don't love going to work before the sun comes up--or just as it is rising--and coming home after it goes down--or just as it's setting.
I like snow. As much as a person who doesn't ski or snowboard can like the snow. I just don't like driving in it. What I do like is that the break room in my workplace has a whole wall of windows, so I sit right next to the window to soak up as much natural light as I can. Luckily the wall of windows is on the South side of the building, so the sun shines right in. I openly voice my opinion of how dumb I think it is to close the blinds in that room if they're closed when I get there. Hopefully THAT nonsense will stop.
So, while I'm not dreading winter or anything--and I'm actually looking forward to seeing a little snow--I just wish the winter could come and still have normal amounts of daylight. That's all. I'm not mopey or sad about it or anything. In fact, there's one particular day in winter--January, specifically--that I'm REALLY looking forward to. :)
Hayley tagged me. I was actually just thinking that no one does tags anymore. Not that I'm complaining, it's just I don't blog much anymore because mostly I could just put links to Hayley's blog. So here's a tag (from Hayley even) to give me a higher post count for November. :) Enjoy!
Five Things I don't leave the House without
Wallet
Keys
nu... phone
iPod (now. I had never had an iPod before the Touch, and I really like it)
One inverted nipple
Five Cartoons I watched when I was Younger
This depends on what you mean by "younger." When I was a small kid, the cartoons I watched were different than when I was a teenager... yes, I watched cartoons as a teenager. I think I'll list a mixture of both.
Loony Toons (with Bugs Bunny)
Tiny Toons (with Babs and Buster Bunny)
Transformers
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Anamaniacs
Five Things That Terrify Me
Heights
Lawn gnomes (Seriously. They're so freakin' creepy!)
Clowns
Having onion breath
........hungry cannibals?
Five Things I hate/dislike that everyone else seems to like
Mafia Wars on Facebook
Twitter
Macs OR PCs (Not that I hate either... I just have no strong feelings one way or the other, and it seems like everyone else has a strong preference...)
Dancing
the TV show Glee. I don't get it
Five Things I want to do before I Die
Go to Chicago with Hayley
Retire without debt and with enough money to not have to work during retirement
Have a yard in which to do yard work
Go on a cruise with Hayley (sorry, Hayley. Totally stole that one from you. But it doesn't mean I want to do it any less!)
Write a book, maybe?
(I know, not super exciting things... but I'm kind of a practical guy. At least there's two fun vacations in there!)
Five People I tag
Katey
Diane
Caron
Cindy
Erin
(Some of the tags are to see if you still read my bloggy blog. :) be sure to comment when you post!)
hmmmm... I'm sure everyone is sick of looking at that duck... so here's something new.
Hayley asked me to blog today... but I can't think of anything to blog about! So here are a few thoughts going through my head right now. Are you prepared for the madness?? To help, I'll separate thoughts by bullet points.
I watched V last night. Didn't really grab me right away and it felt like they had re-written the pilot episode a bunch of times, finding that they needed to move things along quickly to keep the audience interested. (If you haven't seen the episode yet, you may want to stop here.) So the aliens show up, start doing nice stuff, taking people on tours of their ships, and start giving clues that they're not entirely well-intended. But it seems like in that first episode, two months or so passed... Also, I wasn't a huge fan of the acting. The saving grace was Juliet from Lost was in it, and so was Alan Tdyk. So we'll probably give it a couple more episodes.
I like Cash Cab. I'm watching it now while I wait for Hayley to get home from parent teacher conferences. Mostly because I love trivia. I may or may not have 3 trivia aps on my iPod Touch. Even thought I like Cash Cab, I'd rather have Hayley home...
I caught up on a bunch of stuff at work today. With so many RFPs to work on, my desk got kinda cluttered, and I was behind on one of my monthly reports. Now I'm good to go, my desk is cleared, and the other projects I'm working on are doing just great. Yay for being on top of things!
Hayley let me make picaditas for dinner the other night, and I'm going to be making one of my favorite salsa recipes soon, too. Dinner didn't even suck that night! Pretty soon I'll be wearing a sombrero, pancho, and want to make agua de Jamaica (pronounced huh-mike-uh) for Hayley, too! ...kidding!
I'm looking forward to the holidays! I like the spirit of the season, the hot chocolate, and extra time with Hayley. I'm not looking forward to driving in the snow, however...
I'm looking forward to the last season of Lost! It starts in 2010 sometime... so I've got some time to wait, but it'll be fun once it starts.
I'm looking forward to going to Chicago with Hayley! She has a list of stuff we're going to do on her blog, and I sometimes click the links and get excited.
I like the Dr Pepper pajama pants I'm wearing right now. Comfy.
I kinda want a Reese's peanut butter cup right now. And for some reason, I pronounce it ree-seas, not ree-sez. Whatev.
Ok, so you've heard of those motivational posters, right? They've got a little phrase and a picture that are supposed to be inspiring, and they show up all over corporate America. My work is not exempt. We've got more than a couple on our walls... Here's an example of one.
I can't really tell what it says there, but you get the idea... Nice little picture, inspirational quote. Not really that impressive, but covers the walls and makes management feel a little better. So there's another website that makes fun of these types of posters. They use the nice little picture, but the supposed "inspirational quote" is really kind of mocking at the original idea of what these sort of posters should do. Case in point:
Well, thanks to the interwebs, we get all sorts of these, not just the classy kind of mocking posters like the one above. Now people make them just to make fun of goofy pictures or just dumb people. Observe:
I'm getting to a point here...
So with these sort of images running all over the place, and because I work in corporate America, I get various email forwards with bunches of all types of these pictures. The only real constant is the black background/frame, then a word or words in a large font, followed by words in a smaller font. Some are funny, some are not.
Today I got a forward with one of these types of images... I'm not proud of it, but I couldn't stop laughing. It's not that it's dirty or anything, it just really may not be that funny to anyone else. But I seriously could NOT stop laughing. Every time I thought or said the words "look at it," I would lose control. I even started crying, I was laughing so hard. Other people were laughing at it with me, but mostly, I think they were laughing at me and how crazy I was to think it so funny! Even after work when I was telling Hayley about the image, I started laughing uncontrollably. She also laughed; again, I think because I'm a dork more than because she thinks it's funny...
With my pride on the line, and the knowledge that you'll all think I'm a big, giant dork, here is the image that I think is so dang funny.
Isn't that hysterical?!!! Even when I went to upload the image just now, reviewing it made me laugh. I mean, it's a giraffe, right? It looks like he's pointing at that duck. Look at it. hahahaha!! LOOK AT IT!!
On Saturday, Hayley and I and two of her sisters and a niece went to the Ingrid Michaelson concert. It was pretty rad. I knew Ingrid before I met Hayley, but I have grown to love her music much more since we started dating. I'm now quite a big fan.
The concert was pretty awesome. Ingrid is a funny girl. Sure, she's obviously just ended a relationship, but at least the music produced by the breakup is good. ;) Ingrid, hope you get over that soon!
Anyway, I had a great time. Sure, I stood in one spot for like 3 hours (maybe 4? Hayley?), but it was worth it! And just to show you, I'm going to share a video I took. The song is called "The Chain." It's one of my favorites because Hayley and I sing different parts in the round at the end. It's fun. Anyway, here's the video. Hope you enjoy!
I haven't blogged in a while. I think that's partly because Hayley is better at it than me. She updates more often, posts pictures, and even edits them all cool and stuff. I guess that shouldn't mean that I don't blog, but lots of the stuff that I would blog about have already been recorded! So, rather than give repeats, I'll give links, and maybe a little commentary.
We painted our house. It looks really nice, and I'm proud of Hayley and I for doing it. We did it all together and had a blast. We would write cheesy notes to each other on the walls as we were painting, and when each room and wall was finished, we would stand back and admire our work. Hayley was a little worried about the orange wall, but she likes it now. I'm glad. I like it, too.
We got carpet. It looks great! It was nice knowing we were getting new carpet while we painting. It meant a lot less prep work. :) And every time some paint would get on the floor, I would make the lame joke, "Uh oh!!! Looks like we better get new carpet!" Hayley thought I was a big nerd. With good reason. But I like the new stuff.
I put pulls and nobs on our kitchen cabinets and drawers. I think I did a pretty good job! I built kitchen cabinets from little cabinet kits thingers for a job once, but that was really my only sort of job like that. (Unless you count the night stand I made in high school. Which I don't...) There's just one pull I need to fix...
Other than that, not much else! Work is busy, and about to get busier, but we are having another Wii contest, so that's good. It's dodgeball. And I think my chances are pretty good! I'll keep you all (all 3 of you) posted on how that goes.
How have all y'all been? What have YOU been up to?
This post is sans-pictures. Sorry. But it's a fun read, I promise...
You may or may not know that Hayley and I are paintin' it up at our place. We originally planned on painting all the walls in the two bedrooms, some touch-ups in the living room, and maybe painting the bathrooms. Well, we've done a little more than that, and will be very nearly finished with painting all the walls and ceiling (which I keep calling the roof for some reason) in the second bedroom, all the walls in our bedroom (looks freakin' AWESOME right about now), and instead of touch-ups in the living room, we're repainting the accent wall. My lovely wife has agreed to a dark, brownish, orange color. Am I or am I not the luckiest guy in the world?
With every night this week involving some iteration of painting, we have gone to bed quite tired. Last night was no exception, only because it is the weekend, our obnoxious neighbors--whom we refer to less-than-affectionately as the Drunken Sluts--were having yet another party. As a side note, sorry Mom and Dad, but they deserve the nick name. Also, how embarrassed would you be to know your neighbors refer to you as drunken sluts?? They should be ashamed. But they have more than earned this nick name. Guys are over there at all hours of the day and night, they drink, smoke, make a general ruckus, and the place is like Grand Central Station... They're loud, vulgar, and all around obnoxious. But I digress. Moving on with the story...
So the Drunken Sluts have people over. Not unusual. Hayley usually puts on her sound machine, and the noise usually drowns out their partying. With the weather being nice, we leave the windows open rather than use the air conditioning, so our bedroom window aims right at their balcony. Where drunken sluttiness often ensues. Again, the sound machine helps, and when we fall asleep, we hope to never hear from them again. At least until the next weekend.
Last night was not one of those nights where we fall asleep and wake up much earlier than the hung-over party-goers at the Drunken Sluts' place. They went on and on, and when I did finally fall asleep, they woke me up at about 3 with more loud talking. I was annoyed, because we were planning on painting all day the next day (Saturday). While in that state of semi-sleep and anger, I started dreaming...
I dreamed that I called the cops on them. I dreamed that the dispatcher was less than helpful. The dispatcher told me to go outside and inspect things, and as I was narrating the ruckus, the Drunk Sluts and friends started to get the gist of what was going on, and retaliated. They were louder, and even shined a flashlight at our windows when we got back inside. This pissed dream Hayley off to no end, and she grabbed our big flashlight, and shined it back at the sonsa bitches. Then, one of the guys at the party tried to scale our balcony by jumping up the walls a la parkour (obviously inspired by premier episode of The Office that we watched last week), and I grabbed his hands as he dangled from the balcony and threw him off, where he crashed to the ground. I don't remember much else from the dream except the feeling of extreme anger and hatred for the Drunk Sluts and their guests, and some strong indignation at how unhelpful the dispatcher was, and exasperation at how slow the police were to arrive at the scene.
I woke up at about 3:45 a.m. after this dream to hear the neighbors STILL talking loudly. I was completely pissed. I pulled on the shorts I had painted in the day before, left our room, went to the balcony, and yelled at them to shut up, citing the time as "nearly 4 in the morning" and using a few other choice words. Turns out it was just one of the Drunk Sluts with some guy, out on the sidewalk, chatting it up like it was the middle of the day. The guy sheepishly apologized, promised they'd be quite, and he left like 5 minutes later. My outburst sorta got my heart rate up, woke up Hayley, and didn't really help us get back to sleep. On top of that, at about 4:30, ANOTHER rambunctious bunch--not from the Drunken Sluts' place, mind--staggered out of their condo and started hootin' and hollerin'. I was pissed, again. This time, another neighbor yelled at this group. They took a little longer to disperse than the two I yelled at, however.
So not a great night's sleep. In spite of this however, we got quite a lot of painting done today, and only have one(-ish) wall and we are done! Well, we'll still have bathrooms and a second coat on a bookshelf, but we're mostly done! I can't wait to see the finished product! (Hayley will take pictures, don't worry. In fact, see pictures of the second bedroom here.) It will be even cooler to see what it looks like with our new carpet!
So pardon me if I'm a little sleepy or groggy if you talk to me in the next few days. It's been a blast painting, we love the fruits of our labors, but we haven't slept as well as we'd like. ;) Here's hoping our neighbors don't need to be yelled at again tonight. Because I might actually make that call to the cops this time, and not just in my dreams.
Ok, maybe that's a stretch, but it's still exciting! For me, at least... it's National Punctuation Day. Who knew there was such a day, right? My mom actually sent the link, and it's pretty cool. If only I had known earlier! I might have been able to participate in the First National Punctuation Day Baking Contest! (Seriously. It's a real thing.) Now, if there was a National Punctuation Day Painting Contest, I think Hayley and I would have totally won... except that our painting had absolutely nothing to do with punctuation... but we used correct grammar while painting, with complete sentences like, "I freakin' love this color!" (While it is slang, the proper punctuation when ending an -ING word with the letter N is to replace the G with an apostrophe. Don't believe me? Check this out.)
If you'd like to learn more about my favorite punctuation mark, click here. You can also visit the home page and learn all about ellipses (not an instance when the moon moves in front of the sun, by the way), commas, brackets, question marks, semicolons, and more!
Ok, I'm a big dork. But I think it's pretty awesome there's a national day for punctuation.
At least twice this week, Hayley or I have said "I learned it by watching you!" in an overly dramatic and pretend-sad voice. It happened again today on our drive home from Tori's place, so I thought I'd share it with you all. Remember this public service announcement from when we were kids? I always thought it was a little funny.
I think I thought it was funny mostly because I never imagined my parents--or any other grown up that didn't have physical signs of addiction, for that matter--even considered drugs. As a kid, I thought drugs were for kids who hated life, mostly. I realize that's a very immature way to think about it, and I got some better counseling and direction, but this ad still makes me laugh... But it's serious, folks. Say no to drugs.
You may have noticed on my sidebar over there that I've recently been posting books I've been reading lately. A feat re-undertaken because of Hayley's good influence on me, and I'm very grateful. I like to read. A lot. I even tried to start a book club once, and when that one died, I joined another. From then, I decided I really don't love book clubs, but still like to read. I'm getting to why I'm a dork...
So I've read a lot lately, and I'm in the middle of a really good book. We just picked up a book Hayley and I have both been anticipating, and I'm excited to read it, too! But before that happens, I'm trying to figure out which of the two books below I want read first:
I know, I'm a dork. I want to brush up on my English skills. Part of it is because I like English. Part of it is because I want to make sure I'm still an alert writer and editor for work. but either way, I'm excited to read my grammar/English book next.
I had one of the best weekends ever. I got to spend the entire thing with Hayley, and even the last hour of church was combined so we got to be together for that! We had a Wii night at home, went to the baptism of a friend of mine, had a two hour massage, saw a movie at matinee price, went to a Chicago-style pizza place (and kept it pretty cheap), went to the mountains, and I just enjoyed Hayley’s company the whole time. I love weekends.
After weekends, Mondays really suck. This Monday morning was worse than usual because of how great the weekend was. And even MORE so because I’m forced to be a vegetarian today; but Hayley had a worse morning than me, and didn’t sleep well last night. On top of not sleeping well and having an aching back, I forgot part of our lunches, she forgot her water bottle, etc., and I just wish we could go back to sleep and try Monday all over again—or skip it entirely. Because we can’t, I want to try to make Monday a little better.
Hayley, I love you so much. You are my favorite person in the whole world. You’re a beautiful woman and I’m so lucky to have you in my life! You’re smart, funny, quick-witted, and I love talking to you and spending time with you. I know it was a rough morning, but think of all the good things we’ve done through this last week with budgeting, weight management, house cleaning, etc. All the hard work is showing results, or will soon! Just little by little. And when this day is over, I will get to see you tonight, and we can say goodbye forever to this day and move on through the week, which will undoubtedly be better than today. Love you. Hope this helps cheer you up and make your day a little brighter!
Remember how my last post is about my trip to Tucson? Yeah since then, I've been super busy, but I wanted to give a little update. Perhaps I'll try a bulleted list. Here's what I've been up to in no particular order.
Worked on Tucson every day for two weeks.
Worked on Tucson at home every day for two weeks.
Met with all the VPs and department managers about Tucson for three days strait.
And there ya go. Not a super great post, but I'll post again another time, I promise. I'm still recharging my brain from the constant meetings and all day working. I'll give you something more interesting soon. P.S. You can thank Hayley for her posts that might make mine a little more interesting. Follow the links for some photos and further description.
I'm in Tucson today. For work. This is the second business trip I've ever been on. If it had happened a year or so ago, I might be more excited, but right now, I mostly want to go home.
I didn't sleep well, and got up early. I had a pretty nice breakfast, and I think it will hold me over until this evening, but I would have rather prepared a smoothie and two bowls of Cheerios. I am just waiting in my room for an hour to pass so we can go to the stinkin' meeting, then strait to the airport! It will be a good meeting and I'll get lotsa stuff done for the huge project I'll be working on for the next couple weeks, but I'd still rather be home. Miss you, Hayley. Love you. See you soon!!
Today, Hayley is back in school! I got up early with her so I could go and see her new room. She's been working so hard on it--moving desks and furniture, buying school supplies, putting up posters, organizing curriculum, assigning recess duty, and all sorts of craziness. With all the hard work, I think her room looks great and the year will go great for her!
Happy 1st day of school, Hayley!!! Hope it's a great one. You are a great teacher and wonderful with kids. I'm certain that those kids are in good hands! I hope you have the best day ever! I can't wait to see you tonight and hear how the 1st day went!
Love you. Here's hoping for another great school year!
I kinda wanted to do something for my 100th blog post--because, you know, then I'd be syndicated--but it came and went without me noticing. My actual 100th post is still a good one... But Here's what I've learned about blogging so far. I don't promise to know anything, but here's some stuff I've learned in no particular order.
Don't post about whitening strips. No one will comment. Except your lovely wife.
If you DO want comments, post about grammar or word use or something. People eat that up and have lots to say about it.
Another way to get lots of comments is to getmarried. People get more excited about that than even the grammar/word use posts.
Use links in your blog posts. People dig that. Especially if the link is to an image that isn't actually in the post. And use those image links in an ironic way. It's funny.
Post pictures. You don't have to in every post, but it will make it so people come back to your blog. (I am sort of fudging this rule in this very post, I realize.)
Almost everyone I know (myself included) does an initial post when they start their blog about how they don't know what to do when writing a blog. The truth is, it doesn't really matter what you do. It's your own place to do whatever you want.
If you go private, I may not read your blog as much, and subsequently may not comment as much. (I'm not great at commenting all the time anyway...) I still love you just the same, it's just that your blog is not as accessible to me (through google reader) as it once was.
There you have it... some... rules... or whatever. Like I said, I may not be the fount of knowledge here. But my blog still functions, so yay for me.
"How do you turn this on? Like, how do you turn this on?" ...yes, all in one breath... Sorry, I've never used whitening strips before! I was so confused, I guess my brain wanted there to be an on switch or something.
In other news, Hayley and I went to the Death Cab for Cutie concert. It was pretty awesome. Read about it on Hayley's blog here and here.
Maybe? Or you can do a google image search for him and see if there are better pics of him that look like me. Hey, Seth--since you're my long lost twin and all, can I have a million bucks? You seem to be doing well for yourself. :) But if you don't want to, I guess I'll understand.
So it's the week before the long weekend. It makes it a little hard to focus at work. If you recall, I had a little fun on Mike's whiteboard last week. Well, this week, I drew a little angry face on Dan's whiteboard. He was upset about something (I don't even remember what). And eventually, I changed it from an all blue angry face, to red eyes and brown angry eyebrows. I eventually gave it a tie, too.
This morning I came in and the label that made it clear that the angry face was Dan was replaced by my own name. And a few additions to make the viewer certain it was me. It was so funny, I had to take a picture.
Ok, so this post is named after Pyper, but there isn't a picture of her to be found on this post... Oh well.
Last weekend, we got to go see baby Pyper! She is a cutie. I don't have the pictures of her, but you can see them on Hayley's post.
We decided to head down Saturday morning, and got to take Rylie and Taylor with us. They stayed with their cousins an extra day and we picked up Rylie at Jared and Liz's and met Darren with Shelby and Sarah to pick up Taylor in Lehi. Those kids travel pretty well. You could tell they missed each other. Taylor went right for Rylie to give her a hug as soon as she got out of the car, and then they talked about all the things they did during the week. And then they napped a little in the car through the canyon. They're sweet girls.
When we got to Wellington, we had a great afternoon with the girls. Camryn showed me all the lights in the basement and made me turn them all on before playing in the kitchen, getting me a plate of eggs, and countless cups of drink. (she called it drink, not tea. I thought it was pretty cute.)
Also in the basement, we noticed a HUGE black widow spider. I took a couple pictures with my phone before Garth went outside and killed it as we watched in the basement. It was freaky.
Make sure you click on the pictures to see how huge she is!
I got to play a lot with Tori's girls. They LOVE the trampoline! Camryn loved it. I got a little video of her jumping. She even put her hands up high!
Thanks again, Tori, for letting us crash at your house all afternoon! Pyper is adorable, just like the rest of your girls!
So work has really picked up lately. We have tons to do and not a whole lot of time to dilly dally... but that doesn't mean we don't make time for an occasional fit of non-work. Case in point: Mike G's white board.
Now, Mike's white board has been used for non-work-related items in the past. But today is a special day. Today we found out that two employees have been confirmed as carriers/recipients of the swine flu. So of course, when Mikey tells me he's suddenly feeling cold, I automatically respond, "YOU'VE GOT SWINE FLU!!!" and tell him he's gotta get outta the office, pronto. The joke continues on, allowing ME to leave work as well, as long as this area of the office is quarantined.
If you didn't see Mike's whiteboard clearly, here's a little better shot.
Luckily for me, Andy had already put the sweet purple car with the "G" hood ornament on Mike's white board before I got there to quarantine the place. Oh, and earlier today, I labeled the car "The Veganmobile" because Mike is, unfortunately, a practicing vegan.
But he's not preachy about it. He doesn't want to blow up mink factories or anything. He doesn't tell me that I'm eating his friends when I have a burger. (If he did, I'd tell him his friends are quite delicious.) Doesn't even ask me to go to meetings either... And with the Veganmobile on the white board, it looks like the Vegan superheroes of the world are trying to save us all from swine flu. but I digress...
Because some people are genuinely worried about swine flu (and rightly so), but may not have the same sort of morbid sense of humor that I do, I added an asterisk to the "Quarantine" part of the sign. Here's the footnote.
Because you can never be too careful. Ok, back to work.
I. Love. This. Show. Wanna know why? here, try these on for size:
- "What the Frak?!" - "Blurg!" - "I want to go to there..." - "What the WHAT?!" - "I'm gonna have to talk to some food about this." - Liz: "Are you wearing a tux?" Jack: "It's after six, Lemon. What am I, a farmer?" - "Suck it!" - "That place can eat my poo!" - "I'm lizzing! I'm lizzing!"
Ok, if you don't watch the show, you may not really think most of the things above are funny... but the thing I like about this show is that it isn't just the overall story that's funny, there are funny bits throughout the whole thing. And not cheesy, Full House type funny, but actual smart-funny jokes throughout an entire episode (not that "... eat my poo" is a super smart joke, but those take a little longer to explain... and they happen so quick!). And right after they make the joke, the plot just moves on. I laugh almost constantly while watching this show. It may be a little shocking to some of you to hear it, but 30 Rock has totally taken over as my favorite show, even over LOST. I know, it sounds nuts, but I can't help it. It's so good! So get on the band wagon and go watch it. If you have a sense of humor, you won't be disapointed.
In other news, Tori had her baby! She's a cutie and I can't wait to see her. Also, I'm aware I haven't posted with pictures in a while, and this post may be a sorry excuse for my lack of pictures. If you need to see a few pictures, check out Hayley's blog. She's been posting quite a few lately! And the new Transformers movie opens next weekend! I'm so frakin' excited!
Ten years ago--I think this month, maybe May--I graduated from high school. Pretty crazy, thinking about what has happened in that time, and what I thought my life would be like when I was a recent high school graduate. It got me thinking so much about it, that I went back and read my old journal and found a couple entries that illustrate my thoughts at the time. This first one is from December.
December 3, 1998 ...I think about going on a mission and about how much I don't know and I don't want to be so unprepared that I can't teach anyone. Man, a mission used to be so far off. But now I'm 18 and have already voted! Before you know it I'll be 80!I'm real worried about my future. I don't know what I want to major in in college yet. I just know that I want go. It's a little scary, but I just think I'll do like a semester of generals and then go on a mission and pray about it and stuff and see what happens. I wish I knew everything I was meant to do down here, but not knowing is part of the point, right? I kinda want to get my handwriting analyzed. I don't know what made me think of that. Well, bye.
Guess my ADD from high school has still stayed with me. And no, I never actually got my handwriting analyzed... Here's a few of my thoughts the summer after I graduated.
June 23, 1999 Well, school's out and I'm finally graduated! Wait... I graduated. I wanted to graduate? I'm going to college? How confusing life is. Well, I'm going to college at SUU and I'll be rooming with Matt Dearing, Kyle Jenson, and Trent Olsen. Psycho, huh. I still don't know what to major in. Well, high school is over. I think moving out will be good for me....
To be completely honest, I was surprised at how much stuff I wrote about the gospel and my feelings about God and the Church--there was a whole lot more from my journal I didn't post here.
I'm glad I read that journal. I go back and think about how nervous I was to go on a mission, and even with that on the near horizon, everything seemed pretty carefree. I have a journal entry that says one of my paychecks was $280, and how awesome I thought that was. Holy. Crap. I can remember how awesome I thought I was in high school. I remember having no idea what I would do in college, but not really caring too much, because I was living it up--especially that first year. But I'm glad it all happened. As it turns out, I had a pretty good head on my shoulders then. While I thought $280 bucks for 2 weeks of work was pretty great, and didn't care to declare a major, I still kept the important things in mind.
Things have really changed, and I have really changed and grown into who I am now. Ten years doesn't really seem like a lot of time, but man, thinking about it all has kinda put it in perspective. I'm so blessed to be where I am now. I'm so happy I found Hayley! She is the main reason for my happiness. I am glad to be where I am today and so blessed to be on the journey of life with Hayley. Here's to another 10 years!
Mostly I just wanted to change the post that shows up at the top of my blog to be something different than an announcement that I pooped in a bucket... great, now I just mentioned it again...
So how are you, faithful reader (haha! do I have many of those?) doing? I'm ok. I have no tubes in me, I'm done with antibiotics, and just need to keep my wounds clean. Other than that, pretty busy these days. But managing it ok. I'm VERY glad to have a weekend and get to spend it with Hayley! How's your weekend going?
so through all this, i have had some crazy experiences. i thought i'd write a few things down. again, i'm on precocet, so some of this might not be impressive, or might be too much information... and feel free to check this one periodically. i'll probably add to it as i remember things.
first surgery (and first time i was nocked out all the way) first overnight stay in a hospital (only ever came in for broken bones) first time i've ever been delirious with pain first time i've ever taken morphine, delotted, lortab, or percocet (delotted is better than morphine, two lortabs is better than one lortab, two percocet is better than two lortab, but sometimes percocet makes you have crazy dreams) first time i've ever pooped in a bucket for doctors first time i've been stabbed with a needle 14 times in the same arm (they got me one more time today for blood work)
not gonna say i loved any of those firsts, but hey, chalk it up as experience, huh?
I know, I didn't want to write much more about this kinda stuff, but really, that's all I've got going right now, and I also have more time to do blog posts, so here's a little somethin'.
So today, I was stuck 13 times in my left arm. My veins didn't seem to want to take a needle. I think they have retreated because they know they're going to have to stay open for extended periods of time if they can get an IV in me. The reason for all the sticking was partially for blood work, but mostly because the IV in my right hand stopped working. When the vein wouldn't take anymore, my hand got a bunch of the IV liquids, and got puffy. Check it out. (I hope you can tell from the picture.)
See how big it gets after the fingers?? My hand doesn't usually puff up like that... the hand part is usually level with the fingers... If you can't tell from that one, here is a picture of my hands side by side. Crazy, huh? Just call me Popeye hand. (if this isn't that interesting, I'm sorry... I may or may not have had 2 percocet before writing this post.)
another late night/early morning post from me. don't worry, i have been sleeping, it's just that i just got my vitals taken, a new IV complete with antibiotics, and more blood drawn, so i'm a little more awake than the normal late-night nurse visit. so i was feeling like checking email and other wonders brought to me by the world wide interwebs. while doing so, i thought i'd place a question, not unlike my friend tib's question of the day. so here goes.
Why do doctors, nurses, and the like, say, "you're going to feel a little pressure here." when really they mean anything from, "i'm about to stab you with a needle so don't even think about moving." to, "i'm about to inflict pain upon you the likes of which you may never have experienced before." Really? PRESSURE?? THAT'S what they've taught yo to say in all those years of medical school? I'll show you some pressure....
so here i am in the hospital again. after going in friday, the doc said that if i wasn't feeling better, that i should come in. even if i was feeling the same, i should come in for some more IV antibiotics. or better yet, just come in anyway as a precaution. well, i felt the same, and came back in.
so doc number two tells me on saturday that my white blood cell count hadn't gone down very much, so again, if i don't feel much improved, i should come back in. sunday afternoon was babybradley's blessing day, so we went to lunch at jared and liz's, then to sacrament to the baby blessing. turns out i looked a little pale standing up in the circle, and after sitting in the hottest church ever (i made two fans for carter, who was freakin' funny as heck to watch waving in front of himself the thing just to watch it), and getting a little feverish, we decided to leave and just go lay down. i felt about the same as saturday, so we decided to go in for another IV. totally thinking alls i was gonna get was some more IV. well, the doc tells me she called my surgeon, and turns out 3rd time's a freakin' charm, and they want to admit me to the hospital to give me all sorts of IV antibiotics (through my hand this time, not the front side of the elbow), and make sure the infection is going away and not turning into an abscess. suck ass. when the doc left, hayley and i said if we'd known they were gonna do that, we might not have gone in! but really, if it makes me better, that's good, i guess. but i don't love that i'm getting to know all the hospital staff. they're friendly (except that one nurse from the first night), but i don't feel bad if i don't get to know them all personally.
so here i sit. giant IV bag slowly pumping into me, and waiting for a third CT or CAT scan in the morning. (turns out CT and CAT scans are the same thing...) please bless that i'm better tomorrow. i don't wanna continue with this nonsense. i just want to be better and sleep nights at home in my bed! missing hayley is the worst part. she's home without me. luckily we google chatted to pass the time until i don't get any more food or water (midnight). so again, here's hopin' this is the last of it. i want to post something that doesn't have to do with my guts rotting...
---------------3:18 a.m. update---------------
I CAN'T FRIGGIN' SLEEP. I'm sick of this place. I have tried reading, playing games on my phone watching TV, counted how many little tic tic tic tic tic tic tics, my IV makes before it makes the BRRRRRR sound (it's 30 if you're wondering), tried closing my eyes, emptying my head of thought, watching the black and red phase in and out when my eyes are closed, but I can't sleep. I am sick of the lady across the hall that can't hear. The nurses have asked her if she wants them to speak up--they must've said yes, because they yell at her so she can hear. She won't keep her stupid oxygen on right now, and she's getting some pain medication. They were moving her bed before. I'm sick of hearing her updates. I'm sick of the not-quite-dark of this room because the door is open. I don't want to close it because if I fall asleep, I don't want the nurse to wake me up when she comes in to change my IV. I just want to rest, but I'm not tired at all now. BAH!!! If anyone is online now, feel free to email me funny youtube videos or chat or whatever. I need to get tired enough to sleep!!!
---------------3:54 a.m. update---------------
Ok, now I feel bad... the lady across the hall is really struggling breathing and making some awful coughing and choking sounds, and I think they are helping her breathe because there's some sort of air compression sound and suction... sorry, lady across the hall. I hope you start feeling better...
Ok, so you can't have appendicitis twice, but I was in the ER again last night. Rather than give a whole account, which would be duplicating effort, I'll just direct you to Hayley's post here........ even if it does risk showing horrible pictures of me and my hairy chest. If you're disinclined to see that, maybe don't click the link...
Many of you may have already heard that I had my appendix removed yesterday. So here's the inside scoop.
Saturday night, I stated getting a little bit of a pain in my stomach. Nothing huge, just a little annoyance. Sunday, it was a little worse. I blamed it on the poor eating habits I had developed over the weekend. We ate burgers and fries Friday Night, then Sunday night we went to Hayley's sister's place and ate fondue. Wonderful fondue, but the mix of fruit, veggies, cheese, BBQ, and chocolate may not have been the best idea. Monday, my stomach ache was worse, and I actually complained out loud about it. I thought after breakfast I would feel better. But it didn't really get better.
I thought maybe after lunch I would feel better, but again I didn't. I even had a pretty bad stomach ache while eating. After lunch, I drank a lot of water and thought that would help. I texted Hayley and threatened to come home from work early, but after drinking the water, I thought I could stay and finish things up. I did eventually leave about half an hour early, and shortly after arriving at home, I threw up. Hayley had called and asked me to look up how many points a six inch grilled chicken sub from Subway was. When she came home, I was huddled around the toilet. I even thought I was fine, and thought we could go on a walk. Instead, I went with Hayley to get Subway, then she dropped me off and went to get a free Monday movie from Redbox. While she was gone, I threw up again. I was moaning in pain at that point, and she said she was going to take me to the doctor. I agreed, and apologized, and threw up one more time.
We went to the instacare, where I threw up in the parking lot, and tried to get inside. I made it to the first chair as they were telling Hayley to just take me to the ER because I was probably going to need an IV from the throwing up and they couldn't do an IV at the instacare. We went to the ER, I staggered in, and sat on the first chair I could find. Hayley talked to the receptionist, and I sat an moaned and groaned in pain, occasionally swearing. When the receptionist called us over, I was a wreck. I don't remember much, but I remember her asking me to rate my pain. Yelled at her, WHAT? She said to rate my pain on a 1 to 10 scale, and I immediately said "TEN!!" They told us there was a room and asked me if I wanted to go in a wheel chair. I was so ready to be in a bed, that I just started walking. Hayley sort of directed me, and I clung to the walls.
The ER doctor came in and gave me some morphine, and tried to talk to me. When I didn't really respond, he told the nurses to give me some deloted. Whatever that is. Apparently it's 10 times stronger than morphine, and actually helped me calm down some. I told them what was wrong, and they started me drinking this stuff in thirty minute intervals that would dye my insides, allowing them to check and see if it was my appendix. In the mean time, Hayley had called my mom and dad, my brother, her sisters, and her mom and dad. My dad and brother came to the ER and gave me a blessing. It was really nice to have a blessing. Also very nice to visit with those that could come to the ER! I seemed to be doing better with the pain killers, but I think I was a little loopy... I remember some periodic laughter at some of the things I said, so I must not have been making much sense... or making sense, just talking a little crazy.
After 2 hours of drinking gross liquid, which the nurses thought would be better mixed with sprite and/or cranberry juice, I finally got a CT scan. The results came half an hour after that. By then, it was about 2 o'clock in the morning. Everyone had left, and they admitted me to the hospital. For some reason, they decided to put me back on morphine and not the deloted stuff. The nurse from the ER said that if it wasn't enough, they could call the surgeon and get it boosted back up.
Turns out, we had the worst night nurse ever. She took 20 to 30 minutes to respond to anything, including my need for pain meds. I told her what the ER nurse told me, and I still doubt that she even talked to the surgeon about it. She told me they were going to do a pain pump with morphine, but when the morning nurse showed up, the night nurse hadn't even ordered the pump. I hated her so much. She told me at one point, the reason she was slow to respond was because she had 7 other patients. Like I gave a $*&@. I was in the worst pain of my life, and she was neglecting me!
The morning nurse was much better. I actually slept for a bit until my surgery. They took me in and I moved from my bed to the operating table. They gave me some oxygen and something else, then I don't remember much after that. I woke up later back on my bed. I felt a little bad because that means they had to have lifted me from the operating table to my bed. While I am losing weight, I'm still a hefty guy. If you want to know what they did, check out this video.
Basically, they made two incisions on the sides of my belly and one in my belly button. They pumped my belly full of carbon dioxide, and did a laparoscopic surgery. When the appendix was cut, they put it in a bag and pulled it out of my belly button!!!! How crazy is that!!! I still can't get over it. Thus the title of my post...
After that, things aren't quite as eventful. I am now on lortab rather than morphine. But I'm still loopy. In fact, I wrote this post at nearly the peak of loopiness... so I hope it makes sense... but there ya go! Oh, if you want to see what it looks like when they pull out the appendix through the belly button, check out the video above at about 5:58 and you'll see them put the appendix in a little sack, then tug on it through the belly button. The surgeon told me that mine was pretty big and my belly button might be sore because they had to cut it a little bigger to get it out of me. It still freaks me out. And I still want to find some footage of an appendix being taken out of the belly button, but from the outside...
Thanks for everyone's concern and kind words! Thanks for visiting, too! I'm ok-ish now. Just need to get through the next week. I'll keep you updated. And maybe post updates that are a little more coherent.
...well, sorta charitable... I mean I try to be... sometimes... moving on.
Summer is upon us (yes, I'm aware it will probably snow twice between now and June), and with that comes all sorts of charity activities including walks, 5K runs, BBQs, and so forth. I like to do what I can when I can, so I'm going to be listing charities I hear about on my side bar.
I don't participate in as many as I'd like to, but at least now when I hear about them, I can spread the word a little better. Right now, I've only got a couple listed, but I'll be adding info about a few more as I hear about them. If you have a charitable cause that you'd like me to list, comment here or send me an email and I'll get it listed.
So there's this song on the radio that I like. The first time I heard it, I liked the beat and the song and even the girl's English accent. Pretty good song, I thought.
The second time I heard the song, I listened to the words. And the song is actually pretty rotten. It's almost an homage to the materialistic world we live in right now. But tell me you don't think it's a catchy tune?
What gets even worse is that this is the clean version. The explicit version would be rated PG-13 for two F words... pushing rated R... So now I feel even worse liking the song. But I don't think I'll stop liking it. At least I know the lyrics are bad... right? " I wanna be rich and I wanna be famous..."
I just added a couple widgets from goodreads to my bloggy blog. Now you can see a montage of books I've read and books I want to read. I will probably still keep the list of books I've read this year, though. That'll be separate from the good reads stuff.
But back to goodreads. It's a website where you can rank the books you've read and list the books you want to read. You can compare books with friends and keep adding books to your virtual book shelves. It's pretty awesome if you like to read. You can also write your own reviews, see profiles of authors and other stuff.
Just thought I'd share. Mostly I just wanted to show off the new widgets. My blog is lookin' awesome these days.
So apparently Brooke and Chris did this little thinger and tagged me and Hayley. I get to fill out a bunch o' questions about her, and she gets to answer them about me. We can't cheat. So here goes. Hayley's answers about me are on her bloggy blog.
1. Sitting in front of the TV, what's on the screen? 30 rock, Private Practice, or Gray's Anatomy
2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does she get on her salad? ranch
3. What's one food she doesn't like? turkey
4. You go out to a restaurant, what does she get to drink? water, dr. pepper, or root beers
5. Where did she go to high school? ....east... chicago... high school??? (i suck, i don't know the name of her high school)
6. What is one phrase she says all the time? your MOM ....
7. If she was to collect anything, what would it be? shoes. or purses.
8. What is her favorite type of sandwich? grilled ham and cheese? (again, i don't know her favorite... i know she likes grilled ham and cheese, deli sliced ham or beef, and peanut butter jelly sandwiches... but i don't know which is the favorite!)
9. What would she eat everyday if she could? oreos and milk. or cafe rio salad
10. What is her favorite cereal? BAH!! fruit loops?
11. What would she never wear? high tops
12. What is her favorite sports team? easy. Chicago Bears. (whew! back to some i know!)
13. Who will she vote for? she'll take a long, hard look at the candidates, understand their stance on things like education, taxes, etc., then make the best educated decision possible. the party won't matter.
14. Who is her best friend? me! or Kim or Craig.
15. How many states has she lived in? 4. chicago, idaho, hawaii, utah. I think texas is in there, but i'm not sure.
16. Does she have any nervous habits? not really... she won't stop messing with thumb nails if they have been broken pretty low, though.
17. What could she spend hours doing? reading, playing rock band, watching movies.
18. She is: caring, dedicated, family-oriented, loving, beautiful, determined, strong.
There ya have it. Stuff I know and don't know about my wife. Love you, Hayley. (and let me know which ones I got right!)
So I just finished reading The Alchemist again. Maybe not "just finished," but it was within the last couple weeks. This book may be my favorite book. (It's hard for me to pick a favorite of most things, but especially music, movies, and books...)
I like the idea he presents that everything in the world is connected, and the world will help you along the path to your personal legend--but you have to keep on that path, or the signs and omens that lead you along the way will become quieter until you can't hear them. I like the allusion to all kinds of religions. I like the references to the bible. I think Mr. Coelho has a great head on his shoulders. I especially like his reference to how important love is in each person's life journey. Admittedly, I probably wouldn't have appreciated it as much a year or so ago, but I certainly do now. (Jared, if this next part is too much for you, feel free to stop reading.)
I want to share a couple paragraphs from the book that illustrate this idea. This is the moment when the main character of the book meets the girl he loves.
At that moment, it seemed to him that time stood still and the Soul of the World surged within him. When he looked into her dark eyes, and saw that her lips were poised between a laugh and silence, he learned the most important part of the language that all the world spoke--the language that everyone on earth was capable of understanding in their heart. It was love. Something older than humanity, more ancient than the desert. Something that exerted the same force whenever two pairs of eyes met, as had theirs here at the well. She smiled, and that was certainly an omen--the omen he had been awaiting, without even knowing he was, for all his life. The omen he had sought to find with his sheep and in his books, in the crystals and in the silence of the desert.
It was the pure Language of the World. It required no explanation, just as the universe needs none as it travels through endless time. What the boy felt at that moment was that he was in the presence of the only woman in his life, and that, with no need for words, she recognized the same thing. He was more certain of it than of anything in the world. He had been told by his parents and grandparents that he must fall in love and really know a person before becoming committed. but maybe people who felt that way had never learned the universal language. Because, when you know that language, it's easy to understand that someone in the world awaits you, whether it's in the middle of the desert or in some great city. And when two such people encounter each other, and their eyes meet, the past and the future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written by one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love, and creates a twin soul for every person in the world. Without such love, one's dreams would have no meaning.
Maktub, thought the boy.
Maktub, according to the book, is an Arabic word that means "it is writen." A kind of word to mean something is fated or destined.
It's really a good book. If you haven't, you should read it. Really, it's only about 170 pages, so it shouldn't take longer than a week to get through. If you do read it, let me know what you think!
Emity tagged me. I was really excited for this one! The rules are, go to your fourth folder, and fourth picture, and blog about that. I decided to even check the personal photos I have on my work computer. Turns out, both of the photos have made previous appearances on my blog.
First, my work computer had this one:
As you may recall, there was a fire in the building where I lived. My condo got some water damage and smoke damage. It wasn't too bad, but I had to live at Jared and Liz's place for a few months! This picture was taken with my phone. It's actually not the worst picture of the bunch, but you can sorta see in that last window on the top that the entire roof was gone and needed to be replaced. Fires are scary!
The forth and forth on my lappy at home was this:
This is me, posing with the ring I bought for Hayley. This was also taken with a phone. Some co-workers of mine went with me to pick up the ring because they really wanted to see it. When I held it, apparently I made quite a happy face, and they thought it was endearing or something. This is my attempt at making the face again. Obviously staged, but oh well. The evening ended well. :)
This was pretty fun! I don't usually tag people, but I'm going to this time. I tag Katey, Haley, Mary K., and Carona. And anyone else that wants to do it.
So I shouldn't be blogging at work... but today Jared, Liz, and Madeline welcomed the newest member to their family. As Madeline would say, I'll tell you his name, but you have to keep it a secret! (Don't worry, it's not a secret any more.)
So without further ado, here is Bradley Alexander Ward.
It's been a long time since my last post! So here's something.
First, how do you like my new banner?? I'm not supposed to say who made it... But I've been saying for a while that I don't like my blog layout and now we messed with it and I've got a new banner and I really like it. I mean, who gets an awesome orange Optimus Prime to oversee his blog? No one but me!
In other news, Hayley and I have gone on a super secret vacation to St. George. It's been a blast to hang out with the O'Keefe clan. The kiddies are great. And Will seems to have taken quite a liking to me. He's the most chill baby ever. Sure, he's got his moments (even though they are few), but he's fun.
We've been enjoying great company, great food, and having a great time. Going back to work on Tuesday is going to be killer.
Well, that's it. Just wanted to give a quick update. And let me know what you think of the new layout!
It's my wonderful wife's 30th birthday today!!! You should go here and wish her a happy birthday. Or I'll kill you.
Hayley, I sure hope you have the happiest birthday ever! You make me so happy. I love how much fun we have together, no matter what it is we're doing. We could be at dinner, the movies, or just sitting around at home, and we’ll always find something to laugh at. It's SU-per awesome. :)
You make me smile every time I see you. I feel so loved by you and love you so much in return! I could never have imagined loving someone as much as I love you. I miss you as soon as I leave in the morning, and can’t wait to see you as soon as I get back home. I love how sassy you are, I love your strong convictions, I love how much you love kids--especially nieces and nephews. I love how great a teacher you are, and how devoted you are to family. I only feel like I’ve accomplished something for the day if I’ve made you smile.
I feel so lucky and so blessed to have found you! Have a very happy birthday. Here’s to many more years together.
Last week, my grandpa passed away at the ripe old age of 86. He was quite an amazing man. As long as I can remember, he's always been a big, strong guy. As a kid, we would go camping and he was always the expert. At everything. He could cook in a dutch oven, fish, snowmobile, build a fire, sharpen a knife, and pitch a tent. One of my favorite things he would do for the grand kids when we were camping was helping us ride the pine trees. For those of you that have read otherblogpostsreferencing this, basically, my grandpa would grab the top of a small tree, put a kid in the branches, and let go and let us fly. It was pretty dang fun. Here's a couple of pictures.
The pictures are kinda dark, but you get the idea.
My favorite memories, though, are of Grandpa and Grandma at the condo in Island Park Village. I remember being pulled behind the snowmobiles in tubes, and watching grandpa get pulled on skis sometimes. I'm sure others tried it, but Grandpa is the only one I remember to ever do that.
I'm pretty sure that's me and McKay sitting on the back of the snowmobile.
Every time I think of the condo, I actually think of Grandpa and Grandma. They were such a huge part of those trips, that most camping, especially Yellowstone, makes me think of them.
I thought Grandma was especially brave to go snowmobiling with Grandpa, because he was so crazy on a snowmobile sometimes!
This may be my favorite picture of my grandpa and grandma.
I don't think he ever did anything that really scared her, though. He loved her so much and always told us how lucky he felt that she had said yes to such a shy guy as himself.
They also had this camper that they took on almost every camping trip I can remember. You had to hand crank it so the top would come up. I helped a few times and it was always enough to tire me pretty quick. I'd have to switch hands and take breaks. But Grandpa would get a kick out of putting us grandkids on the top of it before he started cranking, and up we would go. A few times, I remember jumping off before it got too high for me to even attempt it.
As Grandpa and Grandma got older, we didn't go camping quite as often, but still had a great time with them. He really loved having such a great legacy in his children and grandchildren, and wanted to make sure they understood how important family was. On several occasions, I was asked when I would bless Grandma and Grandpa with more great-grandchildren. Only after asking that did they then bug me about getting married. I always got a kick out of that.
Grandpa would tell us stories about growing up poor in Idaho--going huckleberry picking, catching a flying squirrel, kicking a badger in the butt as it chased a rabbit, riding horses, and taking care of cows--and even told stories about being in Germany in World War II. I remember him telling us about a camera he found once while in the Army. He said he liberated it from the Germans, so kept it and took a few pictures. He sent a few of those back home to Grandma.
I was lucky enough to get to read his war stories and even put them all together in a book for one of my senior projects in college. If you click that link, you'll really get a feel for what my grandpa was like. You'll also find out that he was one of the only survivors in his battalion in the Battle of the Bulge.
Grandpa kept giving us new stories as the years went on. It was usually at some family gathering, especially at Christmas. Our Christmas presents from Grandpa and Grandma for the last few years were stories that he had written down and copied for all of us.
I know this isn't my best blog post ever. I may not have been eloquent in what I've said, but I don't care. Mostly I miss my grandpa and I just wanted to share a few of my own stories and memories of him. I know where he is and I know they haven't had a hard worker like him in a while. I know I'll see him again. But I do miss him. I'll miss his smiling face and his great stories. Love you, Grandpa.
If you want to read my grandpa's obituary, you can click here. From that link, you can check out photos of my grandpa, and even view the video that played at his viewing. You can also read the guest book from the obituary posted in the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News at those links. If you knew him, feel free to leave a little message.
I'm getting to a point here...
Today, Hayley is back in school! I got up early with her so I could go and see her new room. She's been working so hard on it--moving desks and furniture, buying school supplies, putting up posters, organizing curriculum, assigning recess duty, and all sorts of craziness. With all the hard work, I think her room looks great and the year will go great for her!
my first and second question are as follows:
Make sure you click on the pictures to see how huge she is!
If you didn't see Mike's whiteboard clearly, here's a little better shot.
So I just finished reading The Alchemist again. Maybe not "just finished," but it was within the last couple weeks. This book may be my favorite book. (It's hard for me to pick a favorite of most things, but especially music, movies, and books...)
Baby Alex. Isn't he cute?
It's my wonderful wife's 30th birthday today!!! You should go here and wish her a happy birthday. Or I'll kill you.
I'm pretty sure that's me and McKay sitting on the back of the snowmobile.
This may be my favorite picture of my grandpa and grandma.
