Our Claim to Fame

This is Chris's little sister Jenny.

This weekend we are driving to Omaha, NE to watch her swim

in the Olympic Trials.

Yeah, the Olympic Trials.

She is amazing.

She is ranked 7th in the 100 backstroke; they take the top two.

She's only 18.

She's amazing.

Not only is she an insanely talented swimmer, she is also a wonderful person.

She makes me laugh really hard.

She's a great representative of the Church.

She's so sweet and always in a happy and cheerful mood.

Did I mention she's amazing?

Watch for her! The trials start on Sunday.

Go, Jen!! We love you!

The Best Two Years: A Photo Montage

Yesterday Chris celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary. Its really crazy how time flies. Sometimes I feel like we're still just getting the hang of this marriage thing! But I'm so grateful for the last two years. Its been a learning and growing experience, but also the most wonderful two years of my life!

~The Big Day~

Bountiful, UT

~The Honeymoon~

Laguna Beach, CA

~First Anniversary~

South Haven, MI

~Second Anniversary~

Provo, UT

This year we had to go a lot more simple thanks to our upcoming move.

But we had a good time golfing, getting some A&W Root Beer, and seeing a movie!

Nostalgia

Four Square

I was tagged a while ago by Whitney. Here it goes . . .

Four Jobs I've had:
1. Sandwich artist at Subway
2. Secretary/Receptionist at Century 21
3. Sociology research assistant
4. Secretary/organizer extraordinaire

Four Movies I've watched more then once:
1. Pride and Prejudice (Keira Knightly version)
2. Hairspray
3. Jurassic Park
4. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Four Places I Have Lived:
1. Mesa, AZ
2. Pocatello, ID
3. Lafayette, IN
4. Provo, UT

Four TV Show I watch:
1. Gilmore Girls
2. What Not to Wear
3. The Office
4. The Biggest Loser

Four Places I've been:
1. New York City, NY
2. Boston, MA
3. Laguna Beach, CA
4. Chicago, IL

Four People Who Email Me Regularly:
1. My mom
2. Dominique (Enrichment leader)
3. Dr. Lott (professor)
4. Dr. Cates (employer)

Four of My Favorite Foods:
1. Chocolate
2. Corn chowder
3. Mexican
4. Crispix cold cereal

Four Places I'd Like to Visit:
1. England
2. Germany/Austria
3. Bora Bora
4. Italy

Four Things I'm Looking Forward to This Year:
1. Moving to Knoxville
2. Watching Jen in the Olympic trials!
3. Christmas (hopefully I get to come back home to Idaho)
4. NOT being in school!

Four People I Tag:
1. Matt M. (you better do it Matt!)
2. Taryn P.
3. Debbie W.
4. Anyone else who happens to read this!

Going to the Temple

Two years ago today I went to the Temple for the first time.

What a blessing the temple has been in the last two years!

I'm so grateful for the gift of the temple.

#1 Dad

I just wanted to wish my dad a HAPPY FATHERS DAY!

I happen to have the best dad in the world.

Some of my favorite things/memories about my dad:

1. I'm mentioned this before, but when I was little and we lived in AZ we used to have daddy-daughter dates and walk around the Mesa Temple.

2. When the Olympics were in Salt Lake, I really wanted to go. No one else really did, so just me and my dad went. We couldn't find tickets anywhere, so finally he bought some Finland v Russia mens hockey tickets from a scalper. After that we went and saw Olympic square and all the sites. I'm so grateful I got to go with my daddy!

3. My dad doesn't yell. When he gets mad, which isn't very often, he gets quiet (which is exactly what I do). I'm greatful I've never heard my dad scream.

4. He always kept our family on track in the Spiritual sense. He always made prayer and scriptures a priority even when he had a bunch of moody teenagers who wouldn't participate.

5. My dad was late to my wedding reception. He had reserved a suite for us to stay in that night, but when it got double booked he went down there to straighten everything out! We ended up in a beautiful room with a free food platter, sparkling cider, and breakfast vouchers.

6. He is falls asleep on the couch every night between 8 and 9.

7. He wears Abercrombie & Fitch jeans.

8. He runs marathons . . . frequently.

9. He's drinks 8 glasses of water a day. My time at home is filled with memories of him chugging glasses of water every morning and making disgusted noises because he hates tap water.

10. He is always loving and supportive. He has worked so hard for our family and has been a kind and active dad all along the way. I'm so grateful for the blessing my dad is in my life and so lucky that I got him for my dad! (Good choice, mom).

And to a wonderful future daddy (though, not anytime soon)~

I love you--can't wait to see what the future holds for us!

Of All the Things to Boycott . . .

For my job right now I'm researching news articles looking for boycotts people have started against companies, TV shows, products, etc. While I'm all for eating healthy and do think America is getting too fat, this one blew me away:

Girl Scout troops have sold cookies as a fundraiser for more than 80 years. Now, the National Action Against Obesity has asked Americans not to buy the cookies.
The organization believes the cookies are unhealthy and could possibly be a contributor to America's obesity problem.

"When you're a civic organization you shouldn't be using junk food as a fundraiser," said Meme Roth with the National Action Against Obesity. "Do something other than pushing more junk food on a sick and fat country."

"Girl Scout cookies aren't about eating the cookies, they're about supporting the Girl Scouts," said Shannon, girl scout cookie fan. "It's a treat you look forward to once a year like a holiday."

Girl Scouts sell over 200 million boxes of cookies each year, which brings in over hundreds of millions of dollars for the organization. According to Girl Scouts of America, after paying the baker, every penny goes to troops across America.

"The girl scout cookie sale is critical to running any girl scout program today," said Teresa, member of the Tarheel Triad Girl Scout Council Board of Directors. Girl Scout leaders said they only sell cookies six weeks a year, and they do make low calorie cookies.
Fans of the cookies have voiced their opinions on the boycott.

"I think there are better things to boycott," said Justin.

"Girl Scouts and cookies go hand in hand, I can't imagine the world without them," said Shannon

What?! Are you kidding? American obesity is coming from people eating too much junk food. You can buy a box or two of cookies without eating the whole thing in one sitting. Its about personal control and moderation! Anyway, that really bothered me for some reason. The end.

Failed Chronicles, All-Nighters, and a New Home

Well, its Sunday June 8th. I'm telling you this because I don't plan on posting this until Thursday. Chris is in Indiana/Tennessee all week to check out campus and apartments (hopefully we'll have a home soon!), and I'd like to blog about it, but I'd prefer not to announce to anyone who comes across this that I'm home alone all week. This old creaky house already makes so many noises that freak me out. Just a minute ago I walked through and turned on every light holding the only weapon I could find: my blowdryer. Luckily, it was just the house making noises, so my blowdryer was spared. This morning I took Chris to the airport at 6 am. It was my first major freeway journey on my own since my rollover (yes, for me Salt Lake is a major journey on the freeway). I did fairly well, in my opinion. I did miss the ramp to I-15 and ended up in downtown Salt Lake, but its always nice to get a glimpse of the beautiful Temple, especially at 7:00 Sunday morning. I made my way home though. I've been delirious all day. Church was exceptional, thankfully, or I definitely would not have stayed awake the whole time. Its weird, though, when you don't really talk too much to anyone ALL DAY. Chris called tonight and it felt weird to talk so much! Anyway, I'm avoiding going to sleep because I can't fall asleep without Chris next to me, but I'm torn because all the late-night house noises are terrifying. I'm the worst bachelorette ever.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, I was going to do the bachelorette chronicles every day, but I was so busy all week I haven't had the chance to blog at all! So, it will just have to be one chronicle. This week has been insane. I have not been to bed before 2:30 since Saturday night (when I went to bed at 1:30). At first it was because I couldn't sleep without Chris, but the last couple nights have been because I had so much to get done! I had a 10 page research paper due today. I stayed up all night and at 5:30 this morning I went to sleep for 3 hours, woke up and finished it up! Thank goodness that is over! Now all I have is finals week and I'm all done forever.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris's trip to Tennessee was successful. He met with advisers and and the director in charge of his assistantship. Then he looked around at a million apartment complexes and . . . . we have a place to live! Its a really nice place (from what I hear). Two bedrooms. Has lots of land around it, tennis courts, etc. It has 2 bedrooms and a simple layout, but its pretty big and I think we'll enjoy it. We are really close to a part of town that has a lot of job possibilities for me and there is a bus stop right outside that goes down to campus. And the church (the only one in the whole city) is 100 yards down the road. So its a really good location, but not down by the busy part of town and campus. I'm excited to see it and feeling ready to move soon!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, that's all that's been going on with us. Just busy! One week from today is when finals end and all the fun begins!

Hockey's Newest Fan

Yes, that would be me. As of three days ago, I'm a hockey fan. Maybe I'm a sucker for hype, but the Stanley Cup game last night was one for the ages. In a lot of ways, my hockey-fandom was a long time coming. When I was a little girl, we had the original PlayStation. We had a lot of games, but I never really enjoyed any of them. Then one day I tried the hockey game and loved it. That was the only game I ever really enjoyed playing on the PlayStation. In 2002, I went to an Olympic hockey game in Salt Lake with my dad. It was Russia vs. Finland, and the atmosphere was so electric. It was so exciting and I remember really enjoying it even though I didn't understand anything about the game. Also during the Olympics, my friend and I became Canada fans. I'm not sure, exactly, how one manages to become a fan of an entire country, but we did. We drew Maple leaves on our notebooks and everything (that's embarrassing, but I was in Jr. High). About 4 months ago, I decided I wanted to move to Canada someday (for a variety of reasons). And 3 days ago I became a hockey fan. So basically me, Canada, and hockey have been in a collision course with destiny (now I just have to convince baseball-loving Chris to come along for the ride).

Anyway, as a new hockey fan I decided I needed a couple things: First, I needed to know the rules of the game--that was key. So I turned to trusty Wikipedia to learn all I needed to know about the sport itself. For example, there are 6 players on the ice from each team (like how I said "the ice"?): a goalie, 2 defencemen, and 3 forward positions (left wing, right wing, and centre). The 2 defencemen and 3 forwards are called "lines". To substitute they do a "line change" where the whole line is switched in for a whole new line. (Ok, most people might know that, but I didn't). And while fighting is not an officially recognized part of the game, it is recognized as a de facto aspect of the sport. The players that fight most frequently are called "enforcers" (they sometimes aren't quite as good at actually playing hockey). And when fighting all players follow "The Code", which includes only fighting someone who wants to fight back and fighting fair. Anyway, if you got through that paragraph, congrats, and if you didn't I don't mind.

The second thing I needed was a favorite team. After last nights' game that was easy: the Pittsburgh Penguins. (And I'm NOT a bandwagoner. If I was I would have chosen the Detroit Redwings, who are like the Yankees of hockey). The Pens (that's what we fans call them) are fan-worthy for a variety of reasons. Their goalie, Marc-Andre Fleury is my favorite player. In the game Monday night he had 55 saves--it was amazing. They also have Sidney Crosby, who came to the NHL at age 18. He's like the Golden Child of hockey and lots of people compare him to Wayne Gretzky (he is also the captain of the team). Finally, Mario Lemieux played his entire career for the Pens and now owns them. He seems like a really great person and does a ton of charity work in Pittsburgh. He also has young players (like Crosby) come live with him when they first get the the NHL to make sure they adjust well and don't do anything stupid. Awwww. . . he's like the daddy! Ha ha. Well, in the two days of research I've done on the Pens, I feel like they're a valid choice for favorite team. Now I just need to think of some connection I have to Pittsburgh so I feel all the more validated. Any suggestions? (I went to Philadelphia one time--its in the same state!).

Sidney and Mario. . . Awww.

Marc-Andre Fleury~my favorite player;-)Crosby scores!Well, that was a lot of stuff about nothing in particular. But I think this hockey thing will stick. Too bad the season is almost over.

Go Pens!!! Game 6 is starting as we speak.