Utah vs. Illinois

So, we've been back in Utah for a bit now and I thought it was high time to update the blog. We're so excited to be back in Utah - friends, family, and fun things to do that don't involve crawling from bar to bar!! Since we've been back we've:

Partied with the fam's

Watched backyard movies

Gone camping IN THE MOUNTAINS

Eaten Belgium Waffles from the Waffle Man

Had boys nights

Had girls nights

Gone swimmin'

Seen fireworks (like 7 shows at one time - thank you Mountains!!)

Gone to (suprisingly poor) midnight movies

Camped in the backyard

And, we're hoping to do all this before we leave:

Party with the fam

Party with friends

Get some pie from Left Fork Grill

Go camping IN THE MOUNTAINS - at least twice more

GO TO VEGAS!!!

More backyard movies

Bountiful fireworks (the best!!)

Waterskiing

Any many many more exciting things

If you'd like to be included in any of these upcoming events, please leave a comment and I can give you further information.



And, just because they are fun - here are pictures from Utah so far. The first one is just to highlight the difference between Illinois and Utah.

Updates

Hello everyone! So it's been a while since I've actually posted. Josh has been pretty good at posting, I however, have really been bad. I'm sorry and I sincerly ask for your forgiveness. I have a few things to post today - 4 actually.

1. In Illinois there are three things: unedible corn, beer, and universities. I have decided (with the eocuragement and support of my great husband) to imerse myself in one of these three. Can you guess? No, I haven't decided to be an alcoholic or make money by growning corn that can be used to run automobiles. It's universities. Starting in August, both Josh and I will be students. I'm going to be getting my masters in History at Eastern Illinois University. I'm super excited! Nothing like being a total history geek! (I'm taking a class on the HIstory of Christmas!!) Yes, Paige Haslam, has already asked me to give her a "new thing of the day" so maybe I'll post a little on here.

2. TO go along with graduate school....I have gotten a job, well, a graduate assistantship! So, I am going to get paid to go to school, at least for the fall. I'm really excited because not only will it help with the finances, but I will also get a chance to do research and work with the faculty and tutor!!

3. Ants. Yes, ants. We have ants. Not really all that wierd that there would be ants in 30 year old townhomes, but still, we have them. We had the Terminix guy come and spray for them twice. Both times he sprayed the kitchen. The ONE place we DON'T have ants. I'm wondering if we have anorexic ants...just thought of that. Anyway, so we have spent a considerable amount of time trying to find where these ants are coming from. We found two spots and sprayed the "unscented" Raid until we were almost exfixiated. And, alas, I think we've beaten them back.

4. I just checked online. Disney's Beauty and the Beast is set to be unlocked from the "Vault" in October 2010. There is a good chance that I will be purchasing multiple copies to make my own "vault."

Well, okay, we are all updated - Josh has been studying and being a law student, and I've been being Coach Rogers as well as Sister Rogers, seminary teacher. I'm excited for FRIDAY!!!

Road Trip!!???!!!

Hey everbody!


Staci and I are trying to decide where to go for an upcoming weekend. We've got some pretty interesting cities near enough to drive to, but we can't decide where to go. So, we're hoping to get some friendly input. (Unfortunately, we're nowhere near Vegas otherwise we wouldn't need your help.)(And Kansas City isn't an option because we'll be driving through there on our way home in May. Arthur Bryant's here we come!)


Please post a comment with your vote for one of the following cities:



1: St. Louis, MO (3 hour drive)










2: Louisville, KY (4 hour drive)













3: Nashville, TN (6 hour drive)









4: Memphis, TN (6 hour drive)

Thanks for your help! If you feel strongly about any of the cities tell us why also.

Rats! -- 5 rat stories that have changed my life....

So, most of you know this already, but I am terrified of rats. Mice too! (Really anything that scurries and is smaller than a cat.)
Well, I will now attempt to give you a window into my fear…

1- When I was a little kid my Mom used to bombard me with stories about her Filipino heritage. (She’s not really part Filipino. She just lived there for a while when her dad was the mission president of the Philippines.) Well, some of Mom’s favorite stories were about the rat problems in the Philippines. And one in particular stuck with me. Mom explained that the plumbing system in her Philippine home worked in a way that allowed rats to enter the toilet in the basement, climb through the pipes, and come out of the toilet in the upstairs. That’s right! RATS COMING OUT OF THE TOILET! Needless to say, I treated every number two like a race against time for years to come.

2- During my first week in the field of my mission I lived in a really dangerous and dirty area of Mexico City with my companion and two other missionaries. I, like lots of missionaries, decided to keep my suitcase under my bed. One morning I woke up and my companion was sitting Indian style on his bed staring at me. I tried to ask him what he was doing, but I couldn’t understand his response. He just kept saying “rata” and “malleta” over and over again. Finally he pointed under my bed so I got off and flipped open my luggage. As soon as I opened it, out popped a rat about two feet long. (That is not an exaggeration.) All of the missionaries started to chase the rat around the apartment until it finally escaped us… into the toilet. (Yep! Back to all of my childhood fears.)

3- When I got back from my mission I slept in my parent’s basement and I did not clean my room ever. I left piles of clothes on the ground and would only take them out when I needed my Mom to wash them. (Thanks Mom! ;-D) Well, in my bedroom I also kept a hockey stick next to my bed so I could flip off the light from my bed. (Best idea ever!) So, one night as I slept I felt something brush against my leg. It was just enough to wake me up. My mind started racing. “What was that?!” I threw the covers of my bed and jumped up. I frantically swung the hockey stick at the light switch. (I couldn’t walk over to the light switch, the vermin could’ve been hiding under my clothes.) Finally, after about thirty seconds the light came on and I held my hockey stick as if I were about to body check someone. Bekah heard all of the commotion and came running to aid only to find me standing in my underwear on top of my bed holding a hockey stick. Too this day, I still swear some small scurrying creature was in my bed that night. (Ignore anything you hear from Bekah.)

4- My first trip to green river will always be one of my favorite trips. Zo, Jesse and I decided to take the topless blazer and hit St. George/Mesquite for three days before we met up with everybody for the weekend. Great times! It was on that trip that I first learned Jesse was a fat person in a skinny person’s body. It was also on that trip that Zo fell asleep in board shorts in the back of the blazer and got third degree burns on his inner thighs. But I will mostly remember that trip because it was the first time that Jesse became a daddy. He and I had decided to sleep in the back of the blazer because neither of us wanted to deal with bugs inside a tent. In the early morning after our first night there Allison S. woke everyone up because she couldn’t sleep and she wanted everyone to jog on the beach with her. (Seriously?! Allison, does that really sound like a good idea in your brain?!) Anyway, Jesse got up and went to the passenger seat to get his clothes. He opened his bag and a rat jumped out. Don’t worry though, the rat didn’t leave Jesse empty handed. It had given birth to a litter of five baby rats on top of his flannel shirt. Needless to say we freaked and made Mikey take care of it. Well, Allison wouldn’t let Mike kill the stupid things so he carried them across the road and put them down. Then the mother began carrying the babies back to the blazer, up the tire, over the tailgate, and past where my head had been the previous night to return the little ones to Jesse’s bag. It took twenty minutes and 300 feet to finally get rid of the rat and babies.

5- My final story happened three days after my honeymoon. I don’t remember what happened so I’ll have to give you Staci’s version. We had both gone to bed in our new home and were sleeping comfortably side-by-side. As she tells it, she woke up to my screaming. She heard me yell “rat!” and I jumped out of bed and flipped on the lights. She was in shock. “What was that? Was that a rat?”, I yelled. Staci said it was only her leg, so I turned off the light and got back into bed. I was snoring less than ten seconds later and she was crying herself to sleep wondering what had just happened.

So as you can see, when I say I am scared of rats, I mean I AM SCARED OF RATS!

What are you scared of?

And, yes, we are still alive!

Just the other day I had a phone call from a friend reminding me that we haven't updated our blog in a while. Yes, this is true. And, I would like to apologize to our dedicated blog followers. So, this will be a double post.

First let's talk Super Bowl. We had a great Super Bowl party to which you can see the "rockin" night in the pictures. And, even though it was a great Super Bowl as games go, I sure didn't want to see the Steelers pull it out there at the end. I'm not the biggest fan of Ben Rothelis.....I got bored trying to spell his name, sorry....so I was kinda pulling for the Cardinals. However, don't worry Raider Nation - I was wearing my Raiders hat in the hopes that one day my Raiders will again be playing in February. It might be a while down the road, but one day.

And, the second part of the post is a question....Valentines Day. You know, it's not a REAL holiday. In fact, after doing some small amount of reading on Wikipedia (calm down, Chet), I found that Valentines (like many things) possibly is the pagan holiday that celebrates the marriage of Zeus and Hera. The Catholic Churh, as was the need, then canonized the date as a date to celebrate the martyr of St. Valentine (of which there were 14) and who was buried on the same day. Now, this all makes sense. So, because a Saint (or 14) was martyred and one happened to be burried on February 14h, the Catholic Church, in trying to rid the world of the pagan god traditions, (esepcially after they lost Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) decided to make it a holy day or holiday. Now comes Chaucer. Until Chaucer came in, there was no mention of giving "Valentines" or anything related to love. So, our Valentines Day, which is the 2nd largest card sending holiday behind Christmas, is actually a day when we should be sorrowing for the murder of Christian saints and celebrating the marriage of pagan gods. I plan on doing both this Valentines Day. Just kidding. But, I thought this information was intersting and thought that the three readers of our blog should know more about it.

Anyway, I am in charge of planning Valentines Day this year and, although I have a pretty good idea about what we are going to do, if you have a Valentines Idea for me I would appreciate it. As, would everyone that dutifully reads our blog every two months when it is updated.

And, thanks again for everyone that called, emailed, or facebooked a Happy Birthday to me. I had a fantastic birthday!

HOLD ON!!

So, it's been a while since our last post. Sorry about that. Christmas was good. New Years was good. Going back to Utah was good. Things are good. Anyway, we would like to dedicate this post to Pop's in Utah and Dad in Nauvoo. Please, please, please, for your un-born grandchildren, take care of yourselves. Just this last two weekends we have been incredibly worried about our dad's. First, Dad in Nauvoo - we got a call last week saying that he had been experiencing chest pain and so they had gone to the hospital where they put another stint in his heart as an artery had decided to become blocked. This isn't suprising, EXCEPT, this is the man who walks 47 miles a day, eats Raisin Bran and no bacon, and looks 10 years younger than his age. And, onto Pop's in Bountiful. So, we find out, by calling Mama, that he is having some problems with his ENTIRE BODY. Well really he just needed a small surgery, but they detected heart problems, and are now looking into that as well. So, please dad's, so that you can meet the grandchildren that we would like to give you.....one day.....don't read too much into that, get well soon and we love you!