A Few Months Late

So I promised pictures from our trip to Wyoming and stay at Bear Lodge at the top of the Big Horn Mountains and I am just a little slow/late in getting them up. Pret saw me working with them and said, "You should post that one on the blog," so here I go...

This is the one Pret requested me post.  We are a pretty cute couple, huh!

Each "family" wore a different color.  The Wrights (Michael and Shannon, James, Katie, John, Ben) wore red, the Weinands (Alan and Melanie, Michael, Susan, Tyler, Matthew and Lauren) wore gray, the Roberts (Craig and Abby, Noah, Sarah, Emma, and Hannah) wore blue, Pret and I wore green, and my dad and mom (Mike and DeDee) wore black.  

Here are the children couples.  I love them all!

I guess we Roberts women make our husbands a little crazy!  

Pret was teasing our nephew Matthew (who adores Pret!) with this scarf.  He kept telling him he was pulling it out of his nose.  It was hilarious!  We were all laughing so hard!

Early Morning Garbage Run

So picture this--it's 10:00 at night and you are laying in bed trying to fall asleep when all of a sudden you realize that you forgot to put out the garbage cans and the garbage truck comes in the morning.  "No big deal," you think, "I'll just take them out in the morning before I go to work."  

Morning rolls around, your alarm goes off at 6:45 and you know you have to be out the door at 7:30.  "I've got plenty of time," you think to yourself, so you hit the snooze and head back to dreamland.  All of a sudden, you are awakened, not by your alarm going off again, but by THE GARBAGE TRUCK!  It is not even 7:00 and the truck is loading up your neighbors' garbage.  WHAT IN THE WORLD?!?! Since when did the garbage truck come at 7:00 in the morning?!?!  

So this week, when it was 11:30 and I realized that garbage hadn't been taken out, I knew there would be NO snooze hitting this morning.  Well, maybe just one, but definitely not two hits of the dreamland button.  So out of bed I climbed at 6:54 this morning (9 minute snoozes are the best!) and quickly took out the bag that was in the kitchen still, and dashed out the door.  We have three big cans, a green waste, a recycling and a regular garbage can.  I knew, based on past experience, that I better get the garbage one out first.  I got it safely to the curb and went back for number two.  As I was lining that one up, I thought I heard the roar of the machine coming down the street.  By the time I was on the street with can number three, I could see the bright-light approach of the garbage truck coming down the street.  I breathed a sigh of relief that I had gotten our stinky garbage out to be taken away to the stinky landfill!  As I hurried back inside to get my lunch ready, I glanced at the clock--7:01!!  Crazy garbage men!

 

So You Think You Can Dance

First of all, a big thank you to my mother-in-law Brenda for making this possible!

Now I know this might seem bad of me to finally post an update with this when there are plenty of other things that have been going on, but I just had so much fun last night and was so obsessed this season that I can't help it.  

I am such a huge fan of So You Think You Can Dance--even more so than Biggest Loser and American Idol.  I think it is because I have always wanted to dance, but have never had the time or money for lessons.  I know I can sing alright (not nearly AI quality, but I can usually hold my own), but NEVER will I be able to dance like that!  Anyway, as the season ended, I got really sad.  Luckily, Brenda was equally obsessed with it, so she decided after all the craziness of last summer and all of our hard work on the duplex (pictures of that coming soon!), we deserved a break.  So she bought us tickets to the tour!  

It was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I am shocked that I still have a voice after screaming so loudly at the dancers.  It was fun and real.  And I mean that because when dancing, you can't fake it.  At all.  Period!  There were a few mis-steps here and there, but for the most part, all of the dances were great.  They showed my absolute favorites, but didn't show a few that I really enjoyed.  I am going to post as many as I can here (Thanks YouTube!!).  

This one is my absolute favorite! (Katee and Joshua, the top girl and overall winner, respectively)


This was the crowd's favorite and is becoming one of mine, too (Chelsea and Mark). I love the song!



This was the other of the crowd's favorites (Courtney and Mark).  It is really funky, but really cool.  


One of my favorites, but wasn't performed at the show last night (Courtney and Gev).


And one that has become one of my favorites because it was performed last night (Katee and Joshua).



From last season, with Sabra and Neil. This dance was nominated for an Emmy for the choreography.


And as I am completely obsessed with Katee and Joshua (you couldn't tell, huh!), here is a fun little montage, accompanied by one of my favorite artist, Clay Aiken.


Anyway, I am glad that Joshua won and it is obvious that Katee is an amazing dancer as well. I hope you enjoyed some of the dances!

CRAZY!

Ok, so obviously I haven't gotten things updated.  If you only knew...  As soon as I find my camera and some time, I really will get to updating this, mostly now with pictures of our new place.  Much love to all!

Coming Soon....

Pictures from the Roberts Family Reunion at Bear Lodge in Wyoming and the Dahlgren Family Reunion in SLC and Yuba Lake.  PROMISE!

Ok, so I have slacked a little on our updates of Kate. She is getting so big! The pictures don't show very well, but she is getting really "ticked," meaning she is getting very spotted. The spots are dark and light brown and will be beautiful when they totally show through. These were taken a few weeks ago but it has taken me a bit to figure out how to get them on the computer!

I think my timing on this picture was pretty good, don't you?

Here she is all stretched out so you can see some of the spots on her back. They are even more defined now.

She has now pretty much destroyed this slipper. She was chewing on so many other things and this pair of slippers was about 10 years old, that I finally gave in and let her have it.

Here you can see how big she is standing up. You can also see the strapping (coming out of her head) that has saved the straps on our bags. Oh, the simple toys in life (the maroon rope and brown strapping and another strapping in our room were about $5 from the fabric store.)

Now that I will have my camera home full-time and more time on my hands, I will hopefully be a bit better about getting more updates in general and more pictures of Kate on here.

Proud of My Dad

In honor of my dad's birthday last week, I want to show off his photography work. Many of you know that he has been going to school for the last year in a photography program at Northwestern Community College in Powell, WY and this is his final portfolio. He told me about it and the link because he used one of my bridal pictures for it. I was quite happy. It is fun seeing him do what he wants to be doing and doing well at it!

roberts-imaging.com

Also, some sad news: my dad's father, Harold Delbert Roberts of Pocatello, ID, passed away yesterday. He has been sick for about a year and just really not doing well for the last three months or so, so we are all happy to know that he is in a better place and free of the ailments he has been suffering with for so long. We will be traveling up to Pocatello on Saturday for the funeral and will look forward to being with the RobertsClan members.

Isn't she cute?

Ok, so I guess I owe a bit of an update...but we'll get to that in a minute.  I want to add a cute little video of Kate playing with a balloon.  

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

So our life has been crazy the past 6 weeks or so.  It started when I had sinus surgery (for a deviated septum) the second week of March.  I was basically out for a week, supported by Pret, Brenda (my mother-in-law) and Shannon (my sister) in person and many others through thoughts and prayers.  The recovery went well, although Pret and I are both realizing that we are not ready for kids--me because I got sick and was throwing-up every hour for four hours one morning, and Pret because he is not ready to take over for me when I am sick (if morning sickness/general tiredness is too much) while he is still in school.

The next week, I only had to go to work for two and a half days, but I was working hard at home in preparation for moving.  That's right--we are no longer house- and cat-sitting.  The Johnsons have returned from the Czech Republic we are now living in Pret's parents' basement.  Thanks so much to Brenda, Shannon, Michael, James, Katie, Ben, and John's spirit (he was sick with influenza, so was there only in spirit) for all their help moving.  It is only temporary, as we have purchased a duplex and are just waiting for one side to become vacant.  That will be the end of May, and then we have some fixing-up to do around there, so hopefully we will be in our own home by the end of June!

Our New Arrival

Pret went hunting with his dad and brothers over Christmas and came back wanting a dog.  He talked to his brother Dave, who has bred many a dog and we were on our way.  He let us know that he was planning on breeding his English (Llewelyn) Setter in the spring and we could have one of the puppies.

Here are some pictures of the puppy we got--Kate.  

So, Kate was born six weeks ago tomorrow and came to us on Friday night.  Pret went and picked her up and took her over to some friends' house where she scared their dog Nally (see post about cat or dog?).  He finally came to pick me up from the Wright's house at about 1:00 a.m. where we introduced her to a few of the family (Michael, Shannon, Aunt Diane and cousins Sarah and Amy).  Then we brought her home to my in-laws (I guess I need to update everyone on that--it will come, I promise) and introduced her to her room.  

She had fun sniffing around, playing a bit with her towel/ball, hiding under the bed, and snuggling with Pret.  After about 15 minutes, though, she was just plain tuckered out.  So she fell asleep on the bed.  We set up a little bed to the side and by 2:15 we were all asleep.  She slept fairly soundly for about 3 hours, but then I had to get up and let her out.  She is not house-trained, but we are working on that.  She played with me for a bit, but then she was tuckered out again.  I tried to go back to sleep with her in bed next to me, but I think I was a little too excited, so it never really happened.  

Finally, at about 6:30, she had to go out again.  I took her out and by 7 we were both fast asleep.  She slept in bed with us, occasionally  interrupted by puppy-mares, until about 9:30, when none of our bladders could hold it any more.  She played and slept off and on for the rest of the day, but then we left at about 5:00 to go to Lava Hot Springs, ID for our 2nd Anniversary.

We stayed at the Lions Gate Manor and enjoyed a night in the Medieval room in a four-poster, canopy bed after a nice soak in the VERY HOT hot pools.  We recommend the city (if the outside temperature is between 50 and 70 degrees, but definitely no more and less only if you like that kind of thing) and the accommodations to anyone who is willing to pay a little more (it is an "Anniversary Inn-type place), but really enjoy the experience.  

As we were pulling into the driveway back home, we were both entirely too anxious to see our baby again.  Dan and Brenda (my in-laws)  had taken very good care of it, but are now anxious to get a good night's sleep.  Dan said that they had a good play at about 2:30 this morning for about 15 minutes before she was ready to go back to bed.  Brenda just keeps laughing at me because I really used to not like dogs, but having been around their four dogs for the last few years, they are growing on me.  I think I still like cats better, and am definitely missing Miss Kitty, but I already love Kate a lot and look forward to watching her grow.  

I will try and post pictures of her weekly growth, although I don't guarantee that they will get posted weekly.  Come visit her soon if you can--she's pretty cute!

Happy Birthday Pret!

All About My Hubby...

How long have you been married? 2 Years on April 14th

How long did you date? Oh boy, that is a story in an of itself!! We have known each other since meeting in Sunday School in 1997. We hung out a few times during my freshmen year at BYU before he left on his mission, but not even on any "dates." We wrote a few times while he was on his mission in the Czech Republic and then he called me after he got home. We went out a few times that summer (2003) but then I went on a study abroad to New Zealand, so it ended then. When I got back, I moved in with my sister who was in the same ward as his parents, so we attended the same Singles' Ward. We had mutual friends, so we started hanging out again. He got back at me for dumping him the summer before, so he dumped me in October (2004). Finally, after I was dating another guy and he was dating my best friend, he cam and told me that he still liked me and wanted to try again if things didn't work out with the other guy. About a month later we broke up and a few weeks later, Pret and I went out again. Then we dated for about 8 months again before he propsed... All in all, we "dated" on and off for about 2 1/2 years before he were engaged.

How old is he? 26 as of yesterday and he is not happy about it. He has the "Peter Pan" syndrome and doesn't want to grow up!

Who eats more sweets? It all depends on what we are eating. He east larger quantities in general and when I am in the mood I will eat and eat, but he will eat any time. He is definitely the chocohaulic in our family.

Who is taller? He is. He's about 5'10" and the perfect height because I can put my head on his shoulder and in the crook of his neck.

Who can sing better? He would say me, but I think he has a fine voice. I love listening to him sing!

Who is smarter? It all depends on what we are talking about. He is better with medical/biological stuff and money management for sure. I have just a good all-around knowledge of things (computers and technology are two that I would definitely beat him out on!)

Who does the laundry? I do it for the most part, but if I ask him to, he will do it for me. Laundry was actually our first disagreement that had me in tears...

Who pays the bills? I do. He has to remind me to do it, but I am the one who does it. We do all of our budgeting and transferring together, though.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He does.

Who mows the lawn? He does. But I try to do it when I can and know that he is busy. I don't mind it too much.

Who cooks dinner? I do. He is great at coming in and helping me with the little things, though.

Who drives? Both--I will drive if he is tired or just sick of driving. Neither of us mind driving.

Who is more stubborn? Neither of us backs down very easily, but we will admit when we are wrong!

Who asked who out first? Which time? We took turns initiating the first date.

Who kissed who first? He kissed me when I told him I wouldn't go camping with his family until I knew that he was serious about our relationship. We kissed before we held hands!!

Who said "I love you" first? He said it verbally first, but I had written it on his back first.

Who proposed? He did. He planned it all out with my best friend and sister and brother-in-law. He designed the ring with my friend and then surprised me in Las Vegas at the temple. I still get excited when I think about it. I wasn't expecting it for a few months, so I was totally surprised.

Who has more siblings? He does--3 brothers, 1 sister. I have two sisters and a brother.

Who wears the pants? We both do, it depends on the subject. But more accurately, we are a two-headed monster with equal say. That is what gets us in trouble sometimes...

Most of all, I love my husband. On his birthday, he deep-cleaned our kitchen counter and bought me a rose! He is sweet and kind and sensitive to my needs, but at the same time, he is strong and makes me feel safe as he takes care of me.

Thanks for being my perfect husband!

Remembering President Hinckley

Wow. A lot of feeling went through me as I heard about the death of President Hinckley. Not much of me was sad at first thanks to my testimony of the Plan of Salvation--knowing that he would be with his wife, mothers (knowing that his birth mother died and his father re-married), father, siblings, etc.--as well as my testimony of the Gospel and knowing that this is Jesus Christ's church and not "President ______________'s Church."

It didn't hit me until I was laying in bed not wanting to get up the next morning and thinking about his death that it would be sad. It will be especially hard for young children to grasp and understand. That when I teach "We Thank Thee, O God, For a Prophet" to the primary children this summer in preparation for the program in the fall, I will not be holding up a picture of Gordon B. Hinckley. Will the children recognize and understand that this new face is now the one who is President and Prophet of our church? I hope so. I look forward to sustaining and receiving counsel from the new president, but will still look back on what President Hinckley taught with love and honor.

Anyway, I have heard of two great tributes to President Hinckley. One by a CNN reporter named Glenn Beck. I had honestly not ever heard of the guy before, but I saw this video on another blog and it really touched me, so I thought I would share.



Then there was this one from KSL news in SLC from KSL.com

Carole Mikita reporting

LDS Church President Hinckley conveyed a warm personal touch toward all the Latter-day Saints. They considered him a friend.

This is the story of one of those friends who shared a love of faith and good humor with the man he called prophet.

If President Hinckley ever would have needed a personal public relations man, Norman Rothman would gladly have stepped forward. They often shared stories. Both loved faith and family, and their time on earth ended the same day.

So often called "The people's prophet," President Gordon B. Hinckley enjoyed meeting and greeting. Friends and neighbors say he felt comfortable in his own congregation, which met in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

Annette Rothman, a member of President Hinckley's ward, said, "Every time I would go to church, if Norman wouldn't be there because of the pain in his back or something, President Hinckley would say, 'Where's Norman?'"

Annette Rothman is talking about her husband, Norman. In 2004, they traveled back East to be with President Hinckley as he dedicated a new temple in Manhattan.

At the time Norman Rothman said, "This is my town. It isn't that I don't love Salt Lake City and the prophet, but this, New York, this is where I was born and raised and educated, the son of a New York City cab driver."

Annette Rothman said, "Two weeks ago, President Hinckley came to the ward in a wheelchair. [It was the] first time we'd ever seen him in a wheelchair. And when he saw me, he stood up out of the wheelchair and he said, 'Annette, how's Norman?' I said, 'President, he's still in a coma,' and President Hinckley said, 'You tell him we're praying for him.'"

Then Sunday night while visiting Norman in the hospital, she learned President Hinckley had died.

"Then I leaned over to Norman and I said, 'Sweetheart, I have to tell you something. President Hinckley passed away at 7 o'clock tonight. Now you can go.' Tears came down his eyes, and he died within minutes," she said.

Annette says one thing Norman promised her was that he would never die before President Hinckley, and he kept his word.

Annette Rothman said she and her family have decided to hold Norman's funeral on Saturday afternoon, the same day as President Hinckley's.

They both touched me and made me cry. He was a wonderful man and will be remembered with love by all!

Book Review: Twilight Series

This is from the blog of "A Former Student's Father" in my friends links. He is not LDS, but has a great view on life. If you enjoy his book review here, you should check out some of the other stuff he writes. He can be slightly crude, but it is so dang funny sometimes!!

http://flieswithoutwings.blogspot.com/2008/01/book-review-twilight-series.html"

Someday I really will do a "real" post, we just don't have time!!

Super Bowl Sunday

LAME UPDATE WARNING!!

So those of you who keep up on this blog may remember my entry about Monday Night Football and our not so positive attitude toward professional football.  Pret actually sat down and watched "THE GAME" on December 29th with my brother-in-law Alan and said that he kind of enjoyed it, so that may change for "big games" in the future.  

More, I write about this thinking of growing up and the Super Bowl Sunday Parties that my family would have.  My dad, brother, and sister Shannon all enjoyed watching the Super Bowl, and at that point, I didn't recognize the arrogance of professional football players, so I would watch too.

Now days, though, we don't care much about the Super Bowl. In fact, I think we have been over at Pret's parent's house for the last two (maybe even 3) years, and we haven't watched a minute of it. Now that his brother is back, though, we might have it on in the background just to be able to watch the commercials.

Anyway, my whole point in creating this post, which I know is lame considering it has been almost a month since I have updated it and now I am updating it for this, but I read this really interesting information about Super Bowl Sunday. This little article said that it is the second highest day of food consumption in the United States after Thanksgiving. Super Bowl Fans/Viewers will consume 14,500 tons of chips, 4,000 tons of popcorn and 8,000,000 pounds of guacamole!! That is unreal! I don't know that we will do anything special for food, even if we are watching it. But those of you who do, enjoy on our behalf!!

Happy Hanukkah! (A little overdue)

In October, Pret had the opportunity to meet a guy named Jonathan at a conference he attended in Virginia for work.  They have since become really good friends, eventhough they live half a country away from each other, as Jonathan is attending school in Baltimore, MD.  The coolest thing about it is that Jonathan is an Orthodox Jew.  As he was heading home (to Dallas) for his Hanukkah break, he decided to lay-over in SLC for a few days to hang out with us.  He happened to be staying with us for the first night of Hanukkah, so he lit his Menorah and we had it burning in our window as we went to bed.

(I'm not sure why some of this is underlined, but I can't figure out how to get rid of it--sorry!)

(So I figured it out--it's because they are hyperlinks to the pictures.  Sorry--just don't click on them.)

The next day, Pret had to take a test, so Jonathan came to school with me and was able to teach my students a little of the history of Hanukkah and how Jewish children play the dreidle game. He also bought each of my students a little dreidle so they could play the game at home.



Then, to top it off, he brought his menorah and lit the vials of oil so the kids could see what it looked like. It was wonderful. Some of the kids drew a picture of him for the "writing" and it was cute to see them try to draw his Yamika. They also each wrote a "thank you" note for him. He got them today and told me how much that meant to him.



It has been so fun to learn a little bit about the Jewish culture.  I felt bad not being able to cook for him as he follows a strict Kosher diet, but I now know how to find Kosher food and respect him for sticking to his beliefs so strongly!  Thank you Jonathan for being such a good example to us!  He is coming to stay with us again in January if everything works out ok.  Maybe I can even talk him into coming back and visiting my class again---I know the kids would love it!Anyway, this is the last thing I am doing in my classroom for 12 days!  I am so excited to take some time off and relax with Pret.  I will try to get another post up in a few days with some pictures of Pret's brother getting off his mission and other more recent happenings.  Love to all and travel safely if you are doing so in the next few days.  Tomorrow I am getting together with my old roommates for our annual Macaroni Grill meals--I can't wait to see them, especially Sarah's baby!

Firemen, Pilgrims, and New Baby!

These pictures better be worth it because it took me an hour to keep re-trying to get them loaded!

Since we don't have any children of our own yet (and no, the title is not meant to imply that,) we have to share pictures of the other children we love.

First of all, I have my students. I love Fire Safety week at school because that means we get to make these adorable firefighter hats! I have loved doing them since my first year of teaching--I think the kids look adorable. I may have even shared the picture from last year, but hopefully you have forgotten so they still look cute to you.



Then, we moved on to Thanksgiving. Our school serves a "Thanksgiving" dinner lunch the week before Thanksgiving, so we have our students put on Pilgrim hats and American Indian headbands to go to the "feast." I love the Pilgrim hats, so we were the pilgrims this year.



Finally, my sister had her baby last Sunday, October 11th. His name is Michael Roberts (they stole the name I wanted, but I am Ok with it because I haven't convinced Pret that Michael is not too popular, and this didn't help any.) He was named after his father, both grandfathers (one of which he shares a birthday with), an uncle, a couple cousins, and even his brother (Matthew Michael). Anyway, we haven't seen him in person yet, but he looks pretty cute!



Happy Thanksgiving to all! I hope that it is a restful time. I am looking forward to sleeping in (although I will probably head to Kohls early on Friday, but come back and go to sleep again...) and Thanksgiving at my Aunt and Uncle's house, Denise and Dave Johnsen, in Kaysville, UT.

The love of our Father

I got this off of a friend's blog. It made me cry and I thought it was a great thing to share with all. I hope we can all remember how much Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to succeed. As related by my friend:

My father was visiting a ward in our stake where a young man was blessing the sacrament for the first time. Reading was not easy for him and time after time he made mistakes. Each time the bishop signaled that he needed to try again, the young man obediently and humbly attempted to read the prayer perfectly. Finally, after many failures, the bishop knelt next to the young man and quietly whispered the words he needed to say. The young man successfully finished the blessing and the bishop returned to his seat. After the meeting my father asked the bishop if he would ever allow the young man to bless the sacrament again. The bishop said, "Of course." Then my dad asked how many times the young man would be allowed to try. The bishop answered, "Well, as many times as it takes to get it right. I figure that's what the Lord does with us. No matter how many times we mess up, he wants us to keep trying. And sometimes, if we listen, he sits next to us and whispers in our ear the things that will help us get it right."




Any eyes still dry? Mine weren't!

"Stardust" and "Monday Night Football"

So Pret and I finally went out on a date! It has been forever since we have done anything together, just the two of us, without having to rush off and be somewhere else or have the worry that we are not doing something at home that we ought to be. We decided to go out to eat and then go see a movie.

We didn't really have much in mind as far as going out to eat, except that I didn't really feel like Chinese (much to Pret's chagrin), but he really felt like a hamburger. We didn't want to do the easy, cheap fast food route because we have resigned ourselves to that too much recently. So we decided to go to Iggy's (much like and Applebee's or Chili's, but a little more "sports" oriented), which is conveniently right next to the movie theatre and had good lemonades (or so I had remembered). We realized it was the wrong choice as soon as we walked in and the diners erupted in a roar in response to a play that had just happened in the Bills vs. Cowboys game being broadcast 270 degrees on big screens around the restaurant. Now, I love a good football game (as many people can attest), but I DESPISE professional football (and most of the major professional sports as a whole--they just get too cocky...) and Pret isn't a football fan in general, so we knew it was going to be a long stay (we didn't have any other options that stood out to us and it was almost half-time, so we decided to stick it out.) In the end, we had some really good food, our waiter was quite attentive (even if he did forget to bring us more bread) and we even watched a few plays. We made the decision to NEVER go to a "sports" restaurant on a Monday night again (at least not during football season).

Afterward we decided to go to a movie. Pret is a big fantasy fan and I enjoy it quite a bit as well. We had both seen a few previews for the movie Stardust and had heard good reviews for it, so we decided to go see it. It was a very good choice! There were a few times that I thought to myself, "What is going on? This is a little weird," but it was overall very good and we play on owning it someday. I think the best way to explain it would be to cross "Big Fish" with "Pirates" and "The Princess Bride" in its weird humor, odd fantasy-like nature, but with a little bit of adventure and romance thrown in. It was very clean, although with a few more "mature" themes than what you would want to expose younger children to. We look forward to owning it and watching it again.

All in all, it was a wonderful date and we really enjoyed being with each other (not that we don't enjoy being with our friends.) I think we are both looking forward to a date again soon.




A picture you might see with our own child in about 2 years, but a cute picture none-the-less. We had fun "kidnapping" this baby over a weekend where we were attending a conference with the child's parents. He was adorable and biggest flirt you have even met, especially for a 5-month-old.

We are looking forward to hanging out with our friends Ariana and Jordan and their little boy Jaxon who are up from Arizona for the week!

We're...

Still here. No, not pregnant! Check back in a year for that update...

Anyway, we are both safe and happy, just very busy. The new school year has started with new things for both of us, so we need to find some time to just relax and update. Unfortunately, that time probably won't come for a while, so bear with us.

Love to all of our loyal readers, however few you may be!




This was us walking on the boardwalk in Yellowstone by Old Faithful.

Catch-up Time!

Well, I don't even know where to begin and am not creative in doing lists of what has been going on, so here it is briefly (in very non-sequential order):

• Pret finished his two summer classes by passing both his finals and doing well overall. We are glad to be done with that! Thanks to all those who supported us physically, spiritually, and/or emotionally through all of that. We couldn't have done it without you!
  
• Megan went and saw "Becoming Jane" with cousins Jordan and Alison. It was good, but almost too close to her stories. Definitely worth seeing for free and again, if someone rented it. I would personally not pay to see it again, but would encourage Jane Austen fans to see it. Anne Hathaway did a very good job and whoever played her man has amazing blue eyes!
• Pret thoroughly tromped all of his friends playing "Halo" in a mini-tournament a few weeks ago and is looking for people to join again some weekend soon...
• Megan has finished "Deathly Hallows" and was sad for the characters who died and still has no idea where the names Rose and Hugo came from! Pret is anxiously awaiting our next long trip so we can listen to "Half-Blood Prince" and get on to learning the rest of the story since Megan won't tell it to him. (M-I am very proud of him for not going to look the story plots up on the internet...)
• Megan is now waiting for someone she knows to finish "Eclipse" so she can read that!
  
• We are anxiously awaiting a vacation next week, although we are still undecided on where we are going exactly. We are fine as long as we get more than 100 miles away from Salt Lake, but not too far or we can't afford the gas money!
• We are in the final stages of signing on a duplex to buy for future living in West Jordan. We won't move in until at the earlies November, but hopefully not until we have to when our landlords return home from their mission in about March.
• We have both have friends leave for the east coast recently, with another to join them next week: Pret's friend Nate, and wife Jenn and daughter Reece, have left for Penn State Medical School in Hershey, Pennsylvania; Megan's friend Lauren, and husband Dallas, have left for Chapel Hill, North Carolina for Dallas to attend the UNC Dental School; and next week our friend Lance leaves for the University of Virginia to attend Law School there. We are proud of them all for their accomplishments and will miss them greatly but will look forward to seeing them all at Christmas!
• Megan missed out on registering for the Provo River Half Marathon for which she had been training all summer. Instead we get to climb Mt. Timpanogos on Saturday, Aug 11th, and she will now run the Top of Utah Half-Marathon in Logan on Aug 25th. It threw a kink into scheduling and training, but will all work out fine (It was $13 cheaper, too, although I will spend that much more on gas up to Logan...).

I think that about covers it. I will hopefully post after next week with some pictures of our hike and vacation.

Becoming Jane

For those of you who are 1) Jane Austen fans and/or 2) have seen the preview (it is part of the Harry Potter previews, I believe, plus probably some others) for the upcoming movie Becoming Jane and are therefore interested in seeing the movie, I have a great thing for you.

I went to the website to look around today and they are offering screenings on Wednesday, August 7, in most major cities. You can sign up for a free screening ticket that will let you and up to two other people into the theatre. I have done it already and will look forward to seeing/hearing that anyone else may be there to join me (although I realize that many of you that actually read this don't live anywhere near me, but if you do go, I hope to hear your reaction to the movie).