Christmas! is over

Well, Christmas this year came and went, and the best part was definitely all of the family time. It was a little hectic this year, with J and me moving across the ocean, and the country, during Christmas, but it's so nice to know that we have so many homes in so many places to welcome us. It certainly has been interesting to pack up and clean up so many old memories - first in Hawaii leaving, then in California to clear out all evidence of my life from most of my old house, then again in Colorado to make room for two people's things in J's old room. Life leaves so many memories trapped under dusty shoebox lids and inside old bags and plastic boxes. Part of me is excited for the judgement day, when I get to remember everything all over again for eternity.. and part of me is glad I get to take time during this life to throw out the trash and embarassing Book of Life entries before reviewing it all.

Also, we have decided to start a couple of family Christmas traditions - to buy some nice cheese to enjoy and share (borrowed from the Goodwills, and professor family at BYUH we admire), and to send out Christmas cards. The last will be, unfortunately, late. But, I promise the tardiness is NOT part of the tradition.

Anyway, there aren't any pics for this entry, so I'll stop now before the text gets too boring. It's enough to say that seeing so many family (both Henderson and Quillen sides) has been huge buckets of fun and has made this break one to truly be grateful for. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and good wishes for the New Year!

the fire is so delightful

Well.. J isn't totally right about the temperature here (though it is cold). He may have exaggerated a little (by that, I mean quite a bit). Yes, it is colder here than in Hawaii. No, we do not have to keep our winter coats and boots on in the house. It was true, though, that when he and I arrived at the house we are currently living in, it was about 40 degrees inside. Then, we turned the heater on for two hours, and it warmed up to 60. Now, it is a warm temperature, in fact, he was so warm last night that he couldn't sleep without eating ice cream. ^_^ This was due in part to the fire we built in our lovely fireplace, and partly to the various heaters. What will we ever do when we reach Colorado? He may be warm in his winter clothes.. and I may have to stay inside in my California-weather winter clothes.
At any rate - it is now warm here. And I'm sure I will learn how to be plenty warm in CO too. Merry 4 days 'til Christmas!

New Post... what to post?

Hello all. So since I've got nothing else to do, I will blog. But blog about what? It's vacation, and I'm a lazy bum! "You Dirty Bum!!" (What movie, what movie?) So anyway, we are just here in California and enjoying time with Lianna's family. However, through careful observation, I have noticed that all Californians keep their homes heated to a scorching temperature of 60 degrees. Crazy energy-conscientious hippies! (jk jk) You basically wear winter coats, gloves and boots inside. Not my idea of cozy home.

I am also presently job hunting... trying to find a job that will use my degree. Something science-based, something that will look good on a med school application if I don't get in this round. (I hope that doesn't happen, but it has to many others and is quite common. Oh well, what will happen will happen.)

We are just getting ready for the holidays here, which is all great and fun. But I guess I will post some of the other pictures that I said i would. Here are more pictures of the Big Island as well and the crazy floods that we experienced the last few days.
This Car had it lucky. It was on high groud. Others were almost completely submerged.
This is the road. Well, was the road? Anyway, you can see the yards/houses. Look and the fire hydrant!
Here is the "Guard House" at the entrance to BYUH. Behind it is a big field. Warning: Smoking is hazardous to your health, especially smoke bellowing from a volcano.
Our lovely thanksgiving feast... at Pizza Hut (And yes, I was still a Dominos worker at the time)
Here is us at the entrances of the freaking awesome lava tubes.
And here is my beautiful wife. Isn't she cute? I think so.

We made it!

After lugging 13 pieces of luggage for three people, we finally made it. We are now in California with Lianna's family, still trying to get everyone settled. We had a lot of things to do here the first few days, including a quick afternoon trip to Fresno, which was a three and a half hour car ride each way. Right now, we are going to rush out to go Christmas shopping. We miss Hawaii and all our friends, and the cold here is a constant reminder of that, but we'll make it. =)

We made it!

It is done.

Well, we finally did it. It was a nice ceremony, and it actually hit me that we were graduating when we were sitting there during the ceremony. Now that feeling is gone, and so that means it was fake, it still hasn't hit me yet, or I felt it, got over it and moved on. Still it feels pretty cool I guess. I mean hey, we're college graduates. That's something pretty special.



Isn't she cute?

This is a picture of Lianna and me with President Eyring. You might say, "Joe's not in there." BUT I AM! You can see my head and my funny, and incredibly annoying hat right over the shoulder of the man behind Pres. Eyring. I'm basically famous now.

Plans, floods, and power outages

So, I figure that I better post before we don't have power any more. First of all, our plans. I guess we really dropped the ball on letting everyone know our plans... but that is partly because we are figuring them out as we go! So, for now, here are our plans:

First, we are flying standby from Hawaii to California. We are leaving Monday, the 15th of December. We hopefully will get out Monday, but if not, we got an entire week to fly standby back to California! Surely we will get there.

From there, we will spend part of the Christmas season with Lianna's family. We are going to stay there in California with Lianna's family until the 24th of December, at which time we will fly, not standby, to Colorado to spend Christmas and the holidays with my family. From there, we stay. Lianna is going to start message therapy school in Aurora, right by where we live in Colorado, on January 5th. She is going to do that until about August. I will get a job... somewhere... hopefully. Once we get our situation figured out, (Like our finances, if/where I got in to med school, apartment contracts, insurances... etc) we will look at apartments. Then, come fall, I will go to med school and Lianna will get a job as an elite massage therapist for famous movie stars and ridiculously rich people. Well, maybe not that, but she will work as a massage therapist while I am in school to help offset some of our debt. So there you have it. Those are our tentative plans for the next 8 months.

Now for the good part. You make all the plans you want, get ready to move, plan on studying for finals, (which by the way, I successfully procrastinated for quite some time until the last day, which was the day the events below happened), and BAM, mother nature hits you with a swift left jab. Welcome to winter in Hawaii.

So this is right outside our house. Luckily for us, the water did not get high enough to get into our house. Unfortunately, others in our ward were not so lucky. Of course, this all began at 3:00 am, and caught everyone by surprise...


Yes, that guy is over 6 feet tall and the water is up to his knees. Crazy!


Here you can see the swing set. Those swings in the water are about three feet from the ground, maybe more. There was a lot of water >.<

But, even after the worst of it, it always gets better.


However, like I said before, Mother Nature only hit us with the swift left jab. She's gonna follow up with the powerful right hook. I hear that the worst isn't over. And now, as I write this, the sky is literally blackening, with flashes of ominous bursts of lighting and slow, groaning thunder shake the ground with a dull uneasiness. Round two anyone? The power went out about an hour ago due to a shattered electric pole not too far from our house. Of course, it happened on the only road up to this side of the island, and therefore cuts off half the island from us. And of course, Lianna's mother and father are stuck on that side of the electric poll, literally a half a mile away from us. =( But life goes on. Lets just hope 1) it doesn't flood out graduation, and 2) we don't need our 72 hours kits (which we disected and sold, packed, ate). Hehe, exciting living in paradise.

Hehe... something funny about me....

So for all you who don't know me really well... ok, no, for ALL of you since I believe Lianna is probably the only one that knows this about me.... I have this problem. Whoa calm down. It's not a real problem, just an interesting thing that I do that has the potential to get me in a lot of trouble. Ok, ok, I'll tell you. See, every once in a while I do something. But the next day, when I ask someone about it, or go to find it, or just make sure I did it, I find out that I didn't REALLY do it, but just dreamed that I did. For example, I guess I dreamt that I posted a post about our getting ready to move last night, and today, when I got on our blog to check to see if anyone commented, I realized... oh, it was a dream. Silly me. Now for the potential problems, you could imagine the troubles I'd find myself in if I said, "No dear, I did give you a dozen roses for Valentines day," or "No, I did take you out to dinner for our aniversary and your birthday <> Anyway, I guess I should post the post I already posted in the previous, yet unposted and imaginary post. (Was that confusing?) =P

So Lianna and I are getting ready to move. It not just any move though. Its a move that requires us to take only the essentials because we can only take 1 or 2 suitcases each. Not too much fun. This is requiring us to either sell/give away/throw away much of our stuff. Our house has become quite a mess. As for me, I've kept all my notes/tests/assignments and I have unfortunately found out that papers and whatnot do not count in terms of media mail, which requires us to throw away all of it. Oh well, such is life. Here are pictures of Lianna and I (Lianna's the only one in the picture) organizing all the things we need to sell or give away, clearing off shelves we sold, and just getting ready to move. On the right is about 1/3 of all my assigments and tests that I had to empty out and recycle. So much work, so much knowledge, all to the trash can. It was really actually kinda sad. But I kept all my text books. =) I love those things.













Here is a picture of about half my text books. I think I literally have about my weight in text books! Just crazy. But anyway, our last days are not spent slaving over moving furniture, destroying papers and assignments, and cleaning. We had our good friends over last night to come over and play wii, spend some time together, eat delicious cake made by Sandra, and just enjoy time together. No pictures however =( Sad day. I hope you enjoyed the post!
By the way, for those who are still waiting for more big island pictures, they are coming. So keep looking!

And we're BACK!

Ok, its been a while. Lots happened, but I forgot it all. Oh well. That is what happens when you don't blog.

But anyway, we just got back from the BIG ISLAND. Yep, we went on a little Thanksgiving trip to the big island with our good friends, Mike, Tasha, and Oliver Allred. A picture to sum up the big island:
This is what you see when you land in Kona Hawaii... not like the pictures hu? You begin to think, "Did i get scammed or something?" But no, this is just half the island.

We had a ton of fun, full of long trips on the road because the Big Island is, well, big. Go figure.

We also went to a rain forest zoo, a very cool place that was even free! there were monkeys, tigers, and birds galore! There was this beautiful Bengal white tiger, lemurs that loved us and certainly loved the sandwich that Mike was eating. (Don't worry, we didn't feed them).












After that we went to the volcanoes, and unfortunately, my camera ran out of batteries at this point >.< Later, we went to a wildlife sanctuary, where they take care of the world's only known blond zebra! She had blue eyes and blond hair, and was even more clutsy than her dark-haired sister. Lianna and Tasha thought that was really funny. The sanctuary also cared for many birds who had been abused or mistreated, as well as chinchillas, and tortoises. It was awesome.









Apart from that, we saw waterfalls, flowers, tourist attractions that aren't worth posting the pictures of, and funny street signs all over the islands.

Lastly, we went to the South Point, the southern most point of the United States. The only thing that could be found south of that point is Antartica. Cool hu? Unfortunately it was late when we finally got there, but I magaged to take a video. I hope you enjoy it!
























And here's the video of the South Point. It was a really cool place. It had high cliffs with crashing waters below. Unfortunately, cameras just can't catch what the marvelous eye can see.



***Note, the video was shot in pitch black dark because we got there at about 7:30 pm... but we were there, and if you look closely, you can see some lights =)

Oh, and of course, we went to the Kona temple for a session. What a beautiful temple! We hope you enjoyed this post.

Holy Cow... Lots of stuff

Ok, so I normally think that my life is pretty boring, nothing worth noting to bring to the attention of my adoring fans. =) Ok, so basically I just didn't think we had anything interesting to tell, but upon looking at the pictures we've taken, I suppose that I have a lot to share. So here goes... get ready for a long post.

First of all, we are into winter in Hawaii. Yes, we have seasons here in paradise. Winter consists of rain. That's basically it. So we have heat, sun, rain, and occasional wind. Here is a beautiful picture that I captured from my home, just over the mountains as winter descended upon them. So of course, with Winter comes cold. Often I am often very cold. And if you know me, I hate being cold, and love the heat. Secondly, the Holidays are upon us. And thanks to my wonderful and amazing wife, we are all over them. We have had cows and giraffes, parading pumpkins and cowboys or girls. Unfortunately, for Halloween, I was a pizza delivery guy at Dominos (since that is one of my jobs), but I still had fun. The night before Halloween, we and our neighbors went to a haunted house type attraction that the Polynesian Cultural Center (called PCC) put on. For those that have not been there before, they have a canoe ride that takes you on a canal that snakes its way through all the traditional villages of the PCC. Well, this year they put on a Haunted lagoon, complete with loud noises, creepy acting scenes, people jumping at you from out of the disgusting lagoon water, smoke machines, eerie music, and all sorts of other scares. This Halloween was quite a fun one over all. Here are some pictures of my beautiful pumpkin wife, our neighbors and their kids.







So cute!

Ok, so next, we had various decorations sent from my mom, and my wife went to town with it. We had such a good time with it.













So, with all that said, we've had a good time. We really love life and are enjoying out last few moments here in Hawaii. (We graduate in December... sad day.) Hope you enjoyed.

Felons and Missionary Car Washes

I have filled out my fair share of applications for job, and I've always seen that statement that asks if you're a felon. Naturally, I always skipped over it, not being a felon. I always figured that those who were felons pretty much would never get jobs. I'm sure that's true, to some extent, but it turns out that nearly have the people that I work with at Dominos are convicted felons, and some are still on parole or probation. I just thought that was odd. Don't get me wrong, they're really nice people, but they just have some problems. Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know that I'm hard core and work with felons. =)

But now for the more important news. This Saturday, our ward had a missionary car wash. Now this is something that I did while on my mission. We had a chapel that was right on a busy road. So in order to do missionary work, do service, and help out the community, we'd have a free car wash - no donations. We'd have a lot of the local youth come from the branches too and help out, and we'd have tons of cars. While we were washing their cars, we'd have them get out and go get some refreshments that were provided. The refreshments were also mingled with Books of Mormon, pamphlets, pass-along cards, church videos, and missionaries. So while they were washing their car, they would be fed and talked to by the missionaries. Because they were getting the car washed for free, oft times they'd talk to the missionaries and be very open, whether or not they'd be open to talking to the missionaries if they came at to their door.

So since I am the Ward mission leader, I organized something like that again in our ward. Again, we have a chapel right on the highway, and so again, we had a big, free car wash. The day was incredibly successful. We had 6 people accept to have the missionaries come to their houses, gave away numerous pamphlets, Books of Mormon, and pass along cards.

Now for the miracle. We'd been planning this for about four months. Finally the day came, but the problem was, all Friday night and Saturday morning, it rained... it actually often poured. But we still decided to have it, and have it we did. The wash was scheduled from 10am to 1pm. It stopped raining at 9:45am and started to pour again at 12:45pm. What a miracle and an blessing. The Lord heard and answers our prayers. This I know. So this weekend was a great weekend. I will post pictures as soon as I get them.

And all is said and done...

I am back home... home to a place where the dry air doesn't mummify you as you sleep by sucking all the moisture out of you. Utah was dry, crazy dry, but the trip was fun. It was great to see all my friends again. Jimmy and Mikensi (they're the best! They let me crash at their place, borrow their car, everything... the whole trip wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for them.) It was also fun to see my family-in-law, Peter and Debbie (not Debby). And then I can't forget my good friends Sharah, Gary and Valerie. It was so much fun.... Lots and lots of fun.

But for the part that you all want to hear about: the interviews. So the first one went great! It was with a four-year female med student, and we just really had a great interview. She was impressed with my answers and I with her questions. I got a lot of my questions about the school and student body answered, got a feel for the students and what they are like, and also how the school works. I really enjoyed it.

Then came the next one. So it was with a Professor from the school. When I walked in, she seemed slightly out of it. But whatever, maybe it was just me. But it turns out that she had just visited the eye doctor, and so her eyes were crazy dilated. She didn't have anything written down previous to the interview, nothing written while we interviewed... NOTHING. She also had a ridiculous way of asking convoluted, multifaceted, impossible questions that had about 6.34 questions in it. When I'd finished, I had to always ask if I answered her questions correctly. She'd say, "Ehh.... yeah." Ok, whatever. Overall, I got the impression she wasn't interviewing me per se, you know, in order to really find out about me and who I am and whether or not I'd be a good fit for the school, but she was just more interested it asking the questions. I don't know if that makes sense, but its the best I can describe it.

With all that said, I still feel that overall the second interview went well. I don't think that she came away with a negative impression of me. She just didn't think I'm the greatest thing since wireless optical mouses or gene therapy. Anyway... that's that.

So I will hear back from them probably in late MARCH! Yep, late March. The only exception would be if I was either in the top or botton 2.5% of their scoring. In which case, they will notify me earlier with either an acceptance or rejectance, whichever 2.5% I'm in.

In terms of information, I really liked the school. I found that it was very relaxed by serious, meaning that the students seemed quite happy, not pressured or drilled, but very well educated and prepared for medicine. The school itself if beautiful and would be a wonderful place to go to school for the next 4 years. So we'll see how it all plays out.

What's a girl to do?

So, this past weekend J has been off in Utah dazzling University of Utah interviewers and so I made lots of plans to keep myself busy to forestall any loneliness. Our good friends at home also made me feel quite loved, and so did many relatives. Thanks all!

And now, to explain what a wife does while her husband is away.
First, I stayed up late Friday night doing fun things like watching shows in the internet (i know.. boring..) and taking pictures of our decorated door:

Then I got up early Saturday morning and helped out with a Stake Service project as part of Stake Conference weekend. From there, I went straight to helping prepare the one club I finally joined (I joined Saturday officially) prepare for FoodFest. FoodFest is a spectacular array of foods from many countries prepared by culture clubs of our school. I made this shirt:

It says "You don't have to be green to make a difference". The club is the Students for International Development club, and we donate all of the money we get at FoodFest to charities.. this semester it's neonatal resuscitation through the Church Humanitarian Aid.
Then, I came home for a few hours, baked lots of cookies for the FoodFest, and did homework until 5. I went to FoodFest at 5, sampled lots of delicious foods (from Cambodia, Korea, India, Sweden.. and some good old garlic shrimp). Then, I returned home and did more homework, and ate more dinner at a friend's house. To bed late again, (I enjoyed some candles in the shape of a spider as well..).

Sunday was two sessions of Stake Conference, lunch, a call from J =), and then games and more cookies (this time of home-made origins and with m&ms =) )and a meeting.

Then I got sick. Yuck. Now, it's Monday, and I will work all evening and hopefully get the rest of my homework done .. and also hopefully get un-sick by tomorrow! (Tomorrow is when J returns.) So.. it's been sad that J's been gone, but it hasn't been too lonely because it's been full.

Fight the man!

So Lianna posted something about Proposition 8 in California... and I feel that it just goes to show that we are one step closer to the voice of the people choosing evil rather than good. Check out this video... A man gets arrested for not allowing the school system to teach his 5-year-old son that gay marriage was normal...

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1155394344/bctid1822459319

Now, for those of you who know me, I'll fight the man, even when it costs me considerable discomfort and effort. For me, it is the principle that matters. Usually it is something exceptionally small like a small fee on a bill or something insignificant like that. But every once in a while, there comes a time when fighting the man is about more than just a small, insignificant principle. This is one of those times.

I will not stand by and let the man teach my children about morals or the lack thereof. While I will not get a chance to vote on Prop 8, it doesn't matter. The principle is still the same. If the choice doesn't come to me this November, it will come later. I know where I stand and what I won't let it happen.

Now, with that said, I what to be clear that I do not hate homosexuals. I simply will not stand for others to force their beliefs on me or my family in the name of "tolerance." Tolerance has never meant embracing or condoning a specific action or belief, and it never will, not in my dictionary.

Ok, stepping off my podium.

What to wear?

Ok, I don't think I've ever had to ask myself the question, "Oh my goodness, what should I wear?" But come medical school interview time, it is important... You don't want to send the message, "I'm freaking rich, better than you, and if your University is worth anything, you'd beg me to attend." On the other hand, you don't want to send the message, "Yo, what's up dude? Med school is cool... I think I'll do it." Oh the difficulties!

With that said, here's a bit of history. About a year and a half ago, I bought a nice black suit ( or my mom did... I don't remember... maybe for a birthday or Christmas present). I'm not gonna lie, it looks pretty snazzy. I bought it with the express purpose for med school interviews, and I have only worn it once since I bought it over a year ago. But, as my interview looms closer (by the way, it is the 20th of this month), I find myself asking, "Is it too much?" Anyway, here is a picutre of me, and just to let you all know, when I take a picture, my hair poses too, and decided to go in all sorts of directions... but really, it looks better in real life than in the picture. So here is the proposed med school interview outfit:Any suggestions? Comments? Anything?

Lianna's top 5

5. I started and kept our family's budget until J started his cool new financial management class
4. My neighbor's son looks really cool in J's glasses - and it makes me cool because I took a picture. =)

3. Thanks to my mom, I can now make fabulous granola from scratch.

2. My friends at the newspaper made me a sign, because I'm the Editor in Chief

1. I'm married to a very cute mad scientist!



In other news, I'm really happy because we and our neighbors rented a carpet cleaner and cleaned our carpet! It makes me feel better, even though you can't see a difference. Unfortunately, that means that our house was turned all around, and it still hasn't been fixed. please imagine lots of boxes everywhere, and lots of junk on the table.. and chairs where they shouldn't be. It's kind of like a game to get through our house. ^_^

In more other news, (in case anyone is from California and knows what it is), I'm going to vote yes on proposition 8. In case you don't know, it amends the CA constitution so that it permanently says "only marriage between a man and a women is valid or recognized in CA." Why am I voting yes?
Because it opens the door to reverse discrimination.
Voting 'no' would be, I believe, paving the way for legal discrimination against those who belong to a religion that preaches traditional marriage. It may not mean that in other states, but CA is especially concerned about political correctness - in fact many people who are religious now in CA spend a lot of time defending their views because traditional religion is often considered politically incorrect or inconsiderate. Voting 'no', and allowing lawmakers and lobbyists to make laws that recognize marriage between any two parties equally, would create an environment hostile to traditional marriage views whether that is the intention or not. I don't think that discrimination against anyone is right - whether those people have nontraditional OR traditional views.
If the real issue is fully equal economic and family rights, then I don't believe equally recognized marriage will achieve that in a way that is fair to all parties in CA.

SOME BODY KNOWS I EXIST!

In a rare event and unheard of event, the planets have aligned and balances of luck have been tipped in my favor.

Ok, I'm talking about Medical school. Heavenly Father has blessed me with an interview (my first one so far) at University of Utah medical school. That means that instead of having a 1 in 65 gabazillion chance to get accepted into medical school, I now have about a 1 in 4 chance . I am supposed to interview soon, and it could even possibly be as early as Oct. 20th. (Thats really soon! I'm just waiting for them to call and confirm.) So pray for me that I will be able to do the Lord's will by either being interviewed by someone who will see who I truly am and have a fabulous interview, or getting an interview with someone who knows my good intentions, but would feel that maybe U of U isn't the best school for me--whatever the Lord's will may be. (I'm really hoping that it will be the former).

So, that's the biggest news on our side of Hawaii! I hope you all are well.

A tag I created

Haha, I have ensnared all you who read this blog in my web of creation. I got tagged... by whom you say? By ME. Yep, that's right, I'm creating this tag, and now that you've read it, you have been tagged. The subject of the tag: The top 5 things that make you cool. Here are mine, in least to greatest.

Top coolest thing about me #5
When I work on my car, I use my safety goggles that are designed for lab work.




Top coolest thing about me #4
Every day I work in a lab that has a label outside that is posted "Biohazard," and requires special key cards that allow access.







Top coolest thing about me #3
I have a fridge that looks like this:




Top coolest thing about me #2
When I work, I work in the hood. (Not like the ghetto hood, but this kind of hood).









Top coolest thing about me #1
Monsters from 1990's sci-fi movies become real in mylab!







=








***By the way, if you have ever seen Tremors, you know that the monster on the cover of the movie looks NOTHING like the monster in the movie. In the movie, it doesn't even have teeth!

Now that you've read my blog. You are all required to blog to top 5 coolest or most interesting things about you. Yes, that means you Jenna, Katie, Sandra, Mallory's, Michael and Stephanie, Mom and Dad, Emily, Ester and/or Siope, Erik and Kellie, Jimmy and Mikensi, the Wachel Family, Sharah, Alicia, Tasha and Mike, my wife Lianna, EVERYONE! Thanks all.

Additionally

Because I'm just so darn popular and there are many people that have blogs that check our blog, please leave a comment on this post with the name of your blog so that I can put you on our friends and family blog. Mahalo Nui Loa!

It's that time again

Ok, so I think it's that time again... time for a new blog post. But you see, nothing really eventful has happened, aside from my wife officially abandoning the blog, leaving her poor husband to maintain it. But I humbly accept the forced-upon duty to solely maintain our blog. But the thing is, people love my wife more than me, and as a result, want her to blog. Its an unfair world.

So today during sacrament meeting, we had a wonderful testimony meeting. During our neighbor's testimony, something unexpected happened. As he was bearing his testimony, he was talking about how he felt about certain things. I quote,

"I'm not sure how I feel about doing the minimum (to stay active in the church). I'm not sure how I feel about just gliding by or how I feel about cats in church. But I do love the gospel and all that..."

Then he proceeded with his testimony. Those who were listening shot confused glances at their spouses to make sure they heard correctly while others gasped and pointed toward the front of the chapel. There, before the eyes of those who could see, was a black cat with a neon pink collar, stalking carefully up the aisle onto the stand like a little child going for the cookie jar before dinner. The man speaking kept talking as if nothing was happening. Well, the cat decided it got tired of the stand and walked back down the other side and went out into the congregation. One could track its progress by the excited whispering or women jumping up out of the way of the cat. Though not as drastic or comical, you can imagine the situation was something like (not really like, but similar to) this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_067ahbXfg

Finally, one of the ward members reached down and grabbed the cat by the skin of the back of its neck, and carefully and kindly removed it and took it outside without a scene. Then all went back to normal.

Well, nothing else really happened worth mentioning in our lives. I hope you enjoy! Hopefully I'll blog more often. I do really enjoy blogging.

Mail bombs and bugs

Today, I ate and bug. And you know what? I liked it. Yep, I sure did. See, I was about to eat this wonderful, scrumptious coffee (don't worry, not really coffee) cake that I made, and this renegade flour beetle careened into the bowl of cake. After the utter destruction of many of its immediate family members and the removal of all food stores upon which he became dangerously addicted, it decided that he must risk all for food, and dive-bombed directly into my bowl. Unfortunately, due to its expertise in camouflage, it was impossible see where exactly he went. So you know what I did? I poured milk in the bowl and ate it. As I chewed the delightful cake, my thoughts were drawn to the little desperate beetle that had surely met its demise to the enzymatic compounds contained within my saliva. It was an enlightening experience as I thought that this beetle, so lost, so destitute, would now forever be a part of me, its atoms and molecules fusing with my being, becoming one with me. Then I finished my cake and went about my day.

Later on the day I got a mysterious package. The picture is the address that it was shipped to.

As I opened the package from the unknown recipient, my eye focused on the "fragile" stickers placed inconspicuously over all the surface of the package, I carefully broke the its seal. Half expecting a flurry of ominous white powder, half expecting an explosion, I peered into the opened package. I found packing paper. Still cautious, I removed some of the packing paper to reveal the purpose of the parcel. It was a book. Not only was it a book, but it was a hard covered book. Since when are hard covered books FRAGILE? You got me. Anyway, it was a book we'd ordered from amazon.com, and in an ironic twist to the doubt and suspicion, the book was The Illustrated Jesus Through the Centuries, a compilation of many of the painting of Jesus Christ throughout history.

And thus ended the exciting things of my day today.

Vacuums are to floors as...

So Lianna and I came home the other day to make a shocking discovery... our entire house was INFESTED with these little red flour beetles. The discovery came over a few days. You see, we noticed these bugs, flying stupidly, all around our house. There was one here and one there, but nothing too big. I just thought that they had come from something that we put in the trash, and removing the trash would bring their slow demise in our home... but I was wrong. Their numbers did not wane, but grew stronger day by day. When I say they fly stupidly, I'm not kidding. These beetles seem to have no purpose in life. They fly, not in a straight, decisive path, but more like as if they are trying out new wings that have recently come to them via evolution. They fly this way and that, bumping clumsily into things and falling out of the air. Then they do the same things with their legs! They walk everywhere and nowhere at the same time! They seemed to have no purpose! We'd find them on the tables, T.V., curtains, bed, bath tub, window seal, computer, couch, phone, door, and any other possible place you could think of. But the day that we came home we realized that it was much worse than we thought. In the kitchen, on the window screen, there were about 157.5 of these bugs, just sitting there, as if they were sun bathing in the lazy, late-afternoon light. There were too many to kill by the hand, because using the hand would knock three or four onto the ground or into flight. So I grabbed the vacuum and started sucking the life out of them all, one by one. After the window screen, I swung my vacuum towards the wall, sucking them off the wall. Then Lianna said, "Look up at the ceiling." We have those dumb textured ceilings that if you touch them, it showers you and everything below with a thin blanket of white particles. Well, nearly every one of those crevasses housed a little bug. There were hundreds, all of them resting is a crevasse as if they had been put in time out. I armed myself with a chair and vacuum and hunted these bugs, hundreds of them, for about an hour. Vacuuming the ceiling, cupboards, food containers, everything. Then this lead us to the source. A box of oatmeal that had been ripped open by the beetles cohorts, the ants. We threw away quite a bit of food, even a bag of dried kidney beans that had been more or less reduced to dust from the massive horde of the beetle-ant army. After about two hours of cleaning, the death and destruction of the bugs stopped. It appeared that we were victorious. Now, after a few days, there are still a few lone survivors that we see once in a while, but for the most part, the invasion is over.

The end is coming!

O ye stalkers, prepare yourself. This blog shall soon be private. Or so I say... see, the problems are these: First, I don't know how to make it private. Second, I'm sure that it takes a lot of time to make it private. I don't have much time. Third, and most importantly, every once in a while someone informs me that they want to have access to our blog, and I am delighted. But the problem is, I really want these people to have access to our blog, and since I didn't think of them before, there must be others that I'm bound to forget. I just can't possibly think of everyone that would WANT to have access. Honestly, we're not terribly interesting people, but it is evident that SOME people out there love us, and occasionally want to know more about us... So I am faced with a dilemma... privatize or not? Oh well, if I keep saying I will, then more people will contact me, and the less I have to worry about forgetting someone. CHEERS!

Flower Power

Where to start

Yes, we have not blogged in a long while. Contrary to what you might think, it is not because we did not have anything to blog about, but rather, we've been quite busy. I don't even know where to start.

So I'll just type. First of all, we bought a wii. It has been quite a bit of fun, and is definitely a family oriented gaming console. Lianna and I can both play, and though we haven't played much with it, it is great fun when we do. Here is a picture of Lianna playing Wii... ( Notice that it is not ME playing, as most of the other gaming pictures are.)

Next, and my favorite event for the entire month, is that we had a Japanese exchange student live with us for two days. Her name is Masayo and she was such a delight to have in our home! So kind and gracious, so fun and interesting. Maybe we had so much fun because we made sure to do fun things with her, such as hiking to a lighthouse that over looks the ocean, a constant game of charades, and PCC night show, seeing turtles at turtle beach, the temple visitors center, family home evening, and much more. It is so funny how she became such a part of our family, and we still miss her today. We woke up after she left and our home just felt empty. But we will certainly keep in touch with her. Shes next to me in the picture.










Also, school started, but that isn't much fun or anything new. Im only a part-time student, taking 8 credits. Lianna is taking 14, and this is our last semester here... sad day. Oh well... Onward.

Lastly, I'm working a lot at dominos pizza. The main driver went on vacation.

And don't forget: