Biscuit boy

I must have the sweetest husband ever. When I woke up this morning I was a little stressed out about working on my thesis, which I've been neglecting for months. After my shower, I found this in the kitchen:


Steve making my favorite homemade biscuits for breakfast! (my 13 year old sister gave us aprons for our wedding last year... Steve's wearing his)


He even used the heart-shaped cookie cutter. +50 points

Did I mention that I LOVE breaks from school?

Christmas Break

I'm not a big fan of ginormous blog posts, so I'll try to make this one brief.

We have had a great Christmas break so far. I'll just hit the highlights:

GRE

I am studying for the GRE right now (I'm taking it this Friday). My first practice exam was pretty scary. I got a 770. Some points of reference:

• The test is out of 1600 possible points
• The average score for the graduate programs I'm applying for is 1160
• 770 on the GRE is probably like a 19 or 20 on the ACT.

However, after studying for 2 days, doing the math review and lots of practice problems, as well as becoming more familiar with the questions, I raised my score to a more comfortable 1220. Then, after more studying, I got a 1320. I'm kind of skeptical of those scores, but at least they're a good sign that I'm headed in the right direction.

Christmas

We had a great Christmas. Here are all of our presents:

We both got some new jeans; some new Professional Care electric toothbrushes (we don't have dental insurance, so that was great!); the board game Pandemic, which a really fun co-operative game; the card game Guillotine,which is also very fun, as well as funny; a new mirror for the bedroom; a camera tripod (which you can see in the mirror); the movies The Errand of Angels and National Treasure 2; a 4-player adapter for the PS2 (X-Men Legends 2, here we come!) the skirt and sweater that Heather is wearing in the picture; and some money from our very generous parents and grandparents.

We had a great time with Heather's family on Christmas Eve and Christmas. I mean, they got 4 or 5 new Wii games...how could you not have fun with that? Seriously though, it was fun to spend time with them...playing Wii, watching movies, doing a Christmas Nativity, eating lots of very good food, etc. Holidays are just awesome.

Back in Provo

So now we're back in Provo. I'm studying for the GRE, doign my grad school applications and letter of intent, etc., and Heather is working on her Thesis for her Master's program.

But we are able to have a little bit of fun. Here's us playing Pandemic. Unfortunately, our disease-fighting skills fell short, and we lost. Oh well. We won the next game.

We hope all of you had a good Christmas break. Happy New Year as well!

Feeling good about spending money and surfing the web

Okay, my posts are starting to take on a little Christmas theme lately. I think that my attitudes about Christmas are changing this year...I'm a little less Scroogey about the traditions of the season. Heck, I wasn't even annoyed like I usually am when I started hearing Christmas music on the radio (although the Scrooge in me will never like the song "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire." What a lame song).

Anyways, I'm posting to talk about some cool websites I found out about: GoodShop and GoodSearch. The idea behind the sites is that if you use them (either to shop or to do normal web searching), then money gets donated to your favorite charity. There's a little box on each site where you just type in the name of a charity (for example: Red Cross, LDS Philanthropies, etc.).

For Good Search, I think it donates 1 cent per search or something. It doesn't sound like lots, but it adds up.

For Good Shop, there's a list of websites you can shop from (and yes, they're places you've actually heard of before: Kohl's, WalMart, Target, Amazon.com, Best Buy, iTunes, etc.). Each of those places has a contract with Good Shop, and they will donate a certain percentage of your purchase to the charity you chose.

So just thought I'd share that. I think it's neat. It's not going to save the world or anything, but you might consider it if you're planning on doing any online shopping this season. It's just one way we can try to help others and remember the spirit of giving rather than the spirit of commercialism and greed.

Sad morning

For those of you who don't know, I'm doing a speech therapy internship at a skilled nursing facility right now.

Last night one of my patients unexpectedly passed away. A few residents have passed away since I've been at the facility but none of them have been my patients so I didn't know them. I shouldn't have been surprised by the passing of one of my patients, considering the facility, but she barely even became sick yesterday. Also, having spent an hour every weekday with this patient for the past 6 weeks, I really became attached to her. It was tough knowing she was gone today and I will really miss her.

A War of Gifts

I just read the novella A War of Gifts, by Orson Scott Card. I thought I'd post a little review here.

A War of Gifts takes place in the universe of Ender Wiggin, so if you haven't read Ender's Game, you won't know what's going on, because there's not enough context given to appreciate or undersatnd most of the supporting characters. But for those who have, it's a meaningful addition to the characters and environment of the Battle School.

The main character is a Battle School Recruit we've never heard of--Zeck, the pacifist son of a fundamentalist Puritan preacher. I don't want to give anything away about the story, except to say that the book is a fantastic little story about tolerance, religious piety -vs- "blind obedience," and the spirit of giving that is such a trademark to the Christmas tradition (regardless of your religion or set of beliefs).

The themes can be a little heavy compared to most Christmas stories. But it's certainly an interesting read that discusses good, uplifting issues of human experience and relationships which transcend cultural and religous boundaries (although there are some subtle  references to Christian themes if you want to find them there). So if you're looking for something positive, but just a little different this Christmas, or if you're a fan of Ender or Card in general, check it out. 

Good food, bad food

Stephen is really good at posting about meaningful endeavors and issues, however, it's my self-appointed job to make posts about nonsignificant things.



Good food ideas:

• If you make rice krispies treats and you have too many to eat try breaking some up into a bowl and then pouring milk on top. It's delicious and tastes just like the Rice Krispies Treats cereal they used to sell. MMMMmmmm!



• Chocolate Grumbles. That is what Steve, his brother, and cousin named these oatmeal fudge bars. Don't ask me why they named them that, but they are a really good treat (sorry, no picture, but you're in luck! there's a recipe).

Oatmeal Fudge Bars from the Lion House
1 cup margarine
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
1 12 oz package chocolate chips
1/4 cup margarine
2 tsp vanilla



Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9x13x2 baking pan. Set aside. In large mixer bowl cream margarine and brown sugar; add eggs and vanilla. In a small bowl mix flour, baking soda, and salt; add to cramed mixture. Mix in oats. In heavy saucepan mix sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, and margarine and heat till just melted. Stir in vanilla. Spread 2/3 of the dough into prepared baking pan. Spread with chocolate mixture. Drop remaning 1/3 of dough on top by spoonfuls. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool, then cut into bars. Makes 36.




Bad food ideas

• Burritos from Rancheritos (used to be Betos). My mother-in-law was really generous and offered to take us out to eat when she was here. Steve and I wanted to go to Costa Vida but Steve's brother insisted on Rancheritos because their burritos are so huge. He obviously chose quantity over quality (100% quantity, 0% quality... luckily Steve didn't feel as strongly as I did so he finished mine).

More writing

I know I haven't posted in a while, and this one is going to be lame. But the end of the semester is near, and I have lots to do.

In my Creative Writing class, I have to turn in a final portfolio of all the assignments that we've done this semester (my short story, a personal essay, and two poems). So, as I was going through all my old drafts to make sure that I had made all the changes that I wanted to, I found my first official creative writing piece this year: The Soundfeeder.

Basically, we were supposed to reach into the teacher's "Box o' junk" and pull out an object, then write a 1 page story on it. The item that I happened to pick out was a little thing called The Soundfeeder. You know how you can get a little thing for your iPod that transmits the sound into a radio wave, so you can listen on your car radio? Well, the Soundfeeder is a really old version of that technology.

So here's the link to my very short (less than 1 page) story, The Soundfeeder. 

BYU vs. Utah

Q: Why couldn't any elementary students in Utah county use the restroom at school today?

A: Because all the Hall passes were intercepted.

While we feel sad that BYU lost, it was pretty ridiculous.

Hey Stephen

Two of our favorite artists, David Archuleta and Taylor Swift, came out with new CDs this week. I was surprised when I looked at the list of songs on Taylor Swift's Fearless to find a song called "Hey Stephen"... and lucky for me it's not even a man hater song. :)

Today I took the Praxis test for Speech-Language Pathology in order to graduate/get certified. I've been studying for a couple of months and especially hard during the past 2 weeks so it was nice to get out of the way! The only down side: the score doesn't come for 4 weeks. The really good up side: Stephen surprised me and took me to Winger's afterwards where we had DELICIOUS sticky fingers got to watch some of the BYU vs. Air Force game!

Elections and Story

Elections

Just thought I'd post a little bit of a response to the election. I have high hopes for President-Elect Obama. My personal feeling is that every candidate, from either party, has something good to bring to the table. I feel like Obama will be a good leader that will be able to engage not only a good portion of the U.S. population, but also a great deal of the world.

He will no doubt make many mistakes (what president hasn't?), but I feel like he will do much good--the only way that won't happen is if those who don't agree with Obama just sit and look for every mistake he makes. Instead, I urge us to look for the good that is there and support it, and then be actively involved in our communities to resist or change the policies and ideas that we don't agree with. We have a lot of power to affect the success of the next 4 years.

It was disappointing, to me, to see that 95% of the officials elected in Utah officials were for one party. I see a lot of good in both parties, and I think that we would be benefitted from less homogeneity in the political system. One thing that really bugs me is that the Utah voting machines allow you to vote "Straight Party." What better way to let people ride on laziness and not even look at the issues or platforms? I personally I thought it was really fun to look at all of the different local officers running (the President isn't the only politician that affects our lives), and to decide which seemed to have a better platform. I'd encourage any readers to do the same--it feels good to get involved and know what's going on in your own backyard, and to examine the ideas of politicians (instead of just putting faith in the word Democrat or Republican).

Story

Probably very few of you out there know that I am interested in writing fiction. Now, I don't want to grow up and have writing be my career. I probably won't even mess with trying to get published. I just think it's a fun hobby. I'm in a creative writing class right now, and I'll be taking a class about writing fiction (particularly fantasy and science fiction) next semester from an author I really respect (Brandon Sanderson--some of you may know him as the author who will finish Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series after the passing of Mr. Jordan. Personally, I like his original stuff better than wheel of time--he reminds me of Orson Scott Card, but with Magic instead of Spaceships)

So I'm throwing myself out on a limb here--I'm going to make my first short story available. It's still a draft (the second draft, actually. The first one had a lame ending, and some relationships in the story were kind of weak. It's a lot different now), and is going through some revisions as we speak. But I thought I'd put it up, in case anybody was interested. Just so you know: it's 9 single spaced pages, and it's a fantasy. So if you're interested, go right ahead.

Here is the link: Light Show .

Feel free to leave comments on the blog if you happen to read it. I'd love to hear what you have to say (both good and bad).

The Flower Man

Today was my last day working at the BYU preschool! I will really miss being there, especially working with the kids. The teachers were also amazing people to be around and excellent mentors. I'm glad I held out for a little bit longer on finding a job instead of accepting the custodial job which paid about half as much and would have been 10 times lamer. Plus, I now know songs such as Tommy Thumb and A Peanut Sat on a Railroad Track. My life will never be the same. :)

So it's goodbye Kerplunk and Elefun and hello hearing aids and canasta. I will start commuting to Taylorsville 5 days a week for a full time internship at Bennion Care Center beginning this Monday. I know I sound disappointed but I am actually excited.

One last note about the preschool. The director of the preschool is a fantastic woman. She runs the place as efficiently as a... okay I can't think of a good example, but I'm sure you can. Anyway, sometimes she's does her job so well that she can be a little intimidating. However, I know that she's not all stern face and business. I was really touched when she gave me a going away present today, one of her favorite books, "The Flower Man". What was especially nice is that she remembered how I was always looking for wordless picture books. "The Flower Man" is the best wordless picture book out there! The illustrations are really fun and it's so chuck full of characters that there are over 60 stories to discover (yes, I think you should at least check it out from the library). Plus it has a good moral. So I guess that ends the BYU preschool chapter of my life. Thank you Flower Man for making it a good day.

p.s. This is completely irrelevant, but in case you were thinking that taking a drive on the Alpine Loop would be a really fun autumn experience, you're probably right, but if you decide to go after October 23rd the leaves will probably all be dead and fallen to the ground. But hey, an hour and a half of driving and talking with your hubby will be well worth it.

Pumpkins

Last year's product (it's an owl in case you can't tell):






And this year's:


Carving courtesy of Stephen both years :). And I guess you just have to wear an orange sweatshirt if you're the pumpkin carver.

My brother thinks it looks anime.

My aunt and uncle invited us over for a really fun FHE, with the carving as the activity. This is almost the whole crew.

Family Visit and St. George

We have been total and complete slackers in the blogging world. I'm so busy today that I probably shouldn't waste time making this post, but I'm going to anyway.

Last weekend Steve's family came into town. Last time they were here we went to Brick Oven and the whole family was converted. We officially made it a family tradition by going there last weekend.


The fun table! (Steve's signature pizza: tomato and pineapple; Heather's signature pizza: pepperoni and green peppers)


Todd with his girlfriend and the parents

They also gave us the awesome gift of taking us to the BYU vs. New Mexico Homecoming game. It wasn't a blowout or anything but they won and we had a terrific time.


The 3 stooges (Steve's aunt and parents)

Our first and only game this season

Steve's mid-throw shot (10 points if you can actually see the ball)

Brotherly love

We reached a milestone this week: first time being away from each other for more than 24 hours since we've been married. It was really weird to be away, but I had so much fun taking a trip with my fellow graduate students to do hearing screenings at the Senior World Games in St. George for 3 days.

What did we do?

1. Enjoy 80 degree weather

2. eat for free every meal including at Cafe Rio, IN-N-OUT (my first time-- excellent burgers), and Arby's

3. see more earwax in 2 days than we have in all of our lifetimes combined

4. see Nights in Rodanthe (by same writer as the Notebook-- I thought it was HORRIBLE, luckily it was free);

5. hear the following joke 100 times Me: I'm going to be doing 3 tests with you today. Old smelly man who just finished playing softball: What? Huh? Can't hear ya? hahahahaha

6. meet some AMAZING senior athletes from around the world (USA, Canada, Brazil, Russia, Germany, etc) competing in everything from volleyball to softball and pickleball to square dancing. Seriously, they had gross earwax and B.O., but I don't know many 75 year old men who can roll into a backwards summersault during a volleyball game. They were never in a hurry and SO patient with us when we were slow.

Book Orders

Do you remember how much fun it was to order books from the book order in elementary school? Well, it's amazing! It was book order time at the BYU Preschool so I took advantage of the super cheap prices on excellent books. The only drawback was the agony of choosing from so many great books. The Curious George books came in a set and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs was one of my absolute favorites as a kid. If I had a few more dollars to spend I would have gotten a set of 4 Ramona books and How Do Dinosaurs Go to School.

Sick Day

I do not recommend getting sick! I'm pretty confident it was a 24 hour flu because I'm reaching the end of 24 hours and feeling quite a bit better. Luckily the sickness came AFTER going to one of my best friend's mission farewells. Besides her wonderful talk, the best part was when they read in the new member name of Rand Sack. Stephen and I had to look at each other to make sure we heard it right. Then we chuckled (no worries, Rand was not present, which is still rude, but his parents had to have known what they did in naming him that).

Me with two of my best friends (Ally and the soon-to-be Sister Niebergall in Frankfurt, Germany) at an open house for another one of our friends who just got home from his mission.

I'm also happy that the nasty flu crept up after we went to see My Fair Lady at Pioneer Memorial Theatre with my parents on Saturday. I'm sad to say that we skipped watching the BYU game to support a play on the U of U's campus... well not really that sad, it was a great play! I highly recommend seeing something there. The tickets cost as much as a BYU play but the actors were professionals instead of students. Check out a fun preview for My Fair Lady on the main page of their website.

Go Cougars!

Today we babysat my cousins while my aunt and uncle went to the BYU vs. UCLA game (more to come on our babysitting). While we were walking home from the Provo library we could hear the marching band playing the fight song. Let's just say you don't know true Cougar spirit until you see a 3 year old stop in his tracks to sing just about the entire fight song, including, and especially, the RA RA RAs. It was so adorable.

Go Cougars! We were utterly amazed at touchdown after touchdown as we watched the score online. Most overrated team in the country... I think not, ESPN!

Summer Reads

One of the best parts of summer and one of the reasons we're sad it's over is the reading. We definitely get our fill of reading during the school year, but I think you'd agree that it's slightly different. Here's what we read this summer:

I finally got to finish the Harry Potter series (!!!) and also found time for the Peacegiver (one of the best and most practical books I've read about the Atonement) and Speaker for the Dead (I liked it a lot more than Ender's Game).

While we both signed up for the Provo Library summer reading program, Stephen was the only one who read enough books by the end of the summer to get the T-shirt (pictured below at my insistence). He even won a loaf of Great Harvest bread. He read 3 books by Orson Scott Card, a science fiction book called the Foundation, the Infinite Atonement, and Elantris by Brandon Sanderson (if you're into the Wheel of Time Series, BS was appointed to finish writing the 12th and final book since Robert Jordan passed away last year).



The highlight was listening to Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians, also by Brandon Sanderson, on our car ride to Minnesota. It's a funny book for kids and grown-ups about a boy with a talent for breaking things who is on a life or death mission to rescue a bag of sand while battling the secret network of the evil librarians. It ranks in my top 10 childrens' books.
Any suggestions for next year (I know we read a lot of fantasy/science fiction this summer but we really do like other genres)?

Vacation

So, this is what I like to call "The Lazy-Man's Post." Have you ever had a blog post that seemed so daunting that it completely prevented you from making any posts for weeks? Well, there's an easy way out: just make an intro paragraph, then post a billion pictures.

The following pictures are from our trip from Provo to Rigby Idaho (to visit Heather's Grandparents), then to Yellowstone, Rushmore, and then Minnesota (to visit my family and go boating on a lake). Enjoy!

In case you were wondering...Heather actually did go in the water. But the photographic proof of that is on my brother's camera. We'll get it posted eventually.

Lessons Learned from Buying a Car

1. Be patient, and plan ahead. Don't let yourself get in a situation where you have to make a decision immediately. This will undoubtedly cause you to overlook some things.

Haskin Screw-up: We didn't notice that the tint on the back window was so old and low-quality that it was blurry to look out it. Cost to remove the tint to make driving safe: $45.

2. Take the car to a mechanic before you buy it. Most mechanical problems aren't evident through one or two 10 minute test drives.

Haskin Screw-up: Today (6 days after buying the car), we took it to a mechanic to get a clicking noise checked out. Cost to replace the entire front axle and CV joints: $466.

3. If your car does have a problem that you've overlooked, make sure you talk to the dealer before you get any work done. It's okay to take time to make decisions.

Haskin Screw-up: I told the mechanic to repair the axle before my dealer had responded the message I left for him (I assumed he wouldn't help me anyways). Savings missed by arranging repairs myself instead of having the dealer make arrangements with his mechanic: $226.

4. Do not beat yourself up (or your dealer or mechanic) for making a bad choice. As the saying goes, it's "water under the bridge." You can't do anything about it, so just do your best to live with the fact that you didn't make a perfect choice.

Haskin Feels good about: I didn't get mad at anybody or make any assumptions, and now that things are calmed down, I don't feel guilt over being mean to anybody. Instead of getting depressed or pouty or angry, I made myself homemade tacos and a strawberry shake, and just moved on. Cost of food: $5 or less.

This isn't just about cars, I realize...it's about learning how to make important decisions in life. Hopefully, the next "learning experience" won't be so expensive.

New Car

You guessed it...we finally got a new car.

The night that Heather wrote the post "Car Shopping," I figured out that we actually had no time to get a new car--I work during the days mostly, and most cars are in Salt Lake, so it made it much more difficult for us to both be able to go car shopping.

So we went out the next morning and bought a 2004 Hyundai Elantra.

It has 52,000 miles on it, and it's in really good shape. You can't really tell from the picture, but it's light green. We had to get the tint on the back window removed because it was a low-quality tint, so it was really blurry to look out the back. But other than that, we love it, and we feel like we got a pretty decent price for it too.

We'll be taking our Jeep back to Minnesota next Sunday (it's my dad's car, actually), and this is why we needed a car. We'll miss the nice Jeep that's way too expensive for us (thanks, Dad, for helping with the payments), but we think we picked a good one.

Yee-haw, Bluebell!

Yes, there is really a place in the world named Bluebell. Even more surprising to you, maybe, is that Bluebell is in Utah.

And we went there. Yee-haw.

It was the Brighton Family Reunion (Heather's maternal side of the family), and we went to Bluebell, Utah, to spend the night at the country home of Heather's Uncle Ben and Aunt Sherry. The wimpier group stayed in the house with the little kids, while the real troopers camped outside. Here's our awesome tent:

Among other things, we played some mad croquet. Nathan (Heather's brother) and I, of course, were the most skilled "croquetians." Don't we look like naturals?



Croquet wasn't the only game we played. Some of you may recognize this masterpiece of a game: Zooloretto. It's a specialty game (you'd find Zooloretto at the same store as Settlers of Catan or Ticket to Ride). In essence, you load trucks with different animals to try and fill the enclosures of your zoo and attract the most visitors. For those of you who are thinking "lame," I challenge you to a game of Zooloretto, I'll challenge you any old day, and you'll find that building a zoo is a little more strategic than you thought.

The main event of the trip, however, was not our fast-paced, grueling games of croquet or Zooloretto, but actually Nathan's wife Anna riding in the Altamont Rodeo. Unfortunately, we realized that we didn't take any pictures of any cowboys or cowgirls riding horses, so the only picture we have is of us sitting in the stands:

Anna rode in the Barrel Racing event, which is when they have these 3 barrels out in the rodeo arena, and you have to ride circles around them in a certain order and then run back to the gate. She didn't win, but it was still awesome.

I got to practice my parenting skills the next morning. Heather's cousin Ellie just didn't have a good night, and 2 year olds that don't have a good night aren't usually the most amiable people in the world.

But even a wild-child like Ellie was no challenge for Master Child-Handler, Steve the Great. I took Ellie, totally wore her out in the sun (chasing bubbles is exhausting for a tired kid!), and then lulled her to sleep in the chair (I even fell asleep...I'm just that good--my tricks even worked on myself).

On a more serious note, Ellie's dad--David--mentioned how fulfilling it can be to have a child fall asleep in your lap. He said, "It gives you a sense that you've accomplished something." I agree. Kids are awesome.

So how was our trip to Bluebell? Awesome.