Ode To Blake & Brad

First I have to thank Rustin, who has to thank Heather for this clip. This is an amazing beauty pageant, but this lady is even more amazing! I couldn't resist adding it. I can totally see Blake or Brad doing something like this. I mean, you gotta utilize your talents, right?

Tag is no fun when you're it!

A: The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.B: Each player answers the questions about themselves.C: At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

10 years ago: I was in 7th grade, with Mrs. Johnson as my homeroom teacher. I'll bet that makes a lot of you feel old....Makes me feel a bit young!

5 things on my to-do list today:
1.Go to church
2. Write in my journal (I have to tell myself to do it)
3. Take a nap (don't you just love Sundays?)
4. Host a dinner
5. Call family to catch up

I enjoy: Lots of things, just like most of you. I love to watch the Biggest Loser....if they can bust their tail, so can I, right? I enjoy taking walks with Josh. I love to spend time with Ry when he's done with school work, singing to Josh or myself, playing the piano, exercising to energizing music, dancing (too bad Ryan hates to dance!), etc. etc.

What would I do if I were suddenly made a billionaire: Tithing, donations, get a makeover of my wardrobe (professionals needed), pay off dental school, travel......man, I think that's good enough for right now since we're pretty far off from billionaire status.

3 of my bad habits:
1. Nagging (Don't comment, Ryan...)
2. Pulling my mascara off my eyelashes instead of washing it off
3. Getting up with Ry before he goes to school at six then going back to bed (I know it sounds crazy, but I could probably get a lot more done)

5 places I have lived:
1. Missoula, MT (For my first year of life)
2. Cedar City, UT
3. Ogden, UT
4. Monterey, CA (only for a summer, but I'm counting it!)
5. New York, New York

5 jobs that I have had:
1. McDonalds (yes, I worked there)
2. Del Sol
3. Weber State Dance office assistant
4. Wells Fargo (I don't like to talk about it....) :)
5. Ross (Again, I don't like to talk about it)

5 Things people don't know about me:
1. I am actually Native American
2. I was in the film "Fiddler on the Roof"
3. I am a Democrat
4. I am actually 34 (good genes)
5. I am a good liar and very clever

I tag: Aubrie, Katie, Heidi, Kristin, and Erin.

Fun in New York

Okay, in response to that last post, the centipede was huge! I also think Ryan would have had different story if it had been a cockroach. He would have been calling me for help!

Anyway, I thought it was time to post some more pictures of our goings on in Staten Island.

We had some friends (with their fun wives) from dental school come over. Here Ryan and Rustin are trying to perfect their "look".

Josh absolutely loves it when Ryan comes home to play with him. Thank goodness for dads!

We took a trip to the Staten Island Zoo for MLK day. It was pretty fun. They actually walked a cat out around where we were at. I know, simply amazing!

You Want Me To Do What???

When I married Katie, I thought she was a tough girl. On our first date, she ate more than I did. In testing her blood sugar levels, she has to prick herself 10 times a day (and sometimes give herself shots). She worked at Wells Fargo, which for the most part she hated. When she had Josh she said she wanted the lowest amount of painkillers so she could still "feel it all". She moved across the country not knowing anybody, and has never complained. She walks a mile each way to the grocery store nearly every day, no matter what the weather, because she says she could use the exercise.

That being said, you can understand my surprise when I started getting phone calls during class begging me to come home. Keep in mind it takes me up to an hour and a half to get home from school. The first day it was because she had seen a mouse, and it had disappeared and didn't know where it went. She wanted me to come kill it - I said I'd be home after school. This happened a couple times with the mice...

Thinking that I wouldn't get similar requests, I got a couple calls in regards to spiders. They were big and scary, and she needed me to squash them. Again, did she forget that I was an hour and a half away, not to mention I had classes and labs?

Thinking she finally understood, a couple of weeks ago I got yet another call. A centipede was in the bathtub, and she couldn't go anywhere near the bathroom. Thank goodness we have 2 bathrooms in our apartment, otherwise there would've been major repercussions.



Fortunately I was able to come home 5 hours later on my white steed and save the fair princess trapped in her tower. I just can't wait to see what the next thing is that I get called home to take care of. I should take a poll, see what everyone thinks it will be...

Ferry Farter

There are many sites to see in New York. But I wouldn't limit it to just places. Now that we know the area better, there are some people that you all should have the opportunity to see as well. Our bishop keyed us in on this guy after we first moved here. After a few weeks I had the opportunity to see/hear what he was talking about. There is this guy that hang out at the Staten Island Ferry that is quite interesting. I'm not sure what he does, other than hang out at the ferry all day long. I have run into him on both the Manhattan side and the Staten Island side, and every time I do I get a kick out of him.

You see, he positions himself in various locations in the terminal. Quite often it is in locations where people have to pass by him. I took a picture of him for show-and-tell:



Basically he makes farting sounds when people pass by him. It is the funniest thing to watch people react to him. They will look around surprised, confused & appalled. It cracks me up. So much that I will follow him around (at a safe distance) and watch everyone's reactions. He is pretty dang good at the sounds, and he has quite a broad range: long, short, soft, loud, juicy...I better stop before I make people sick. Suffice it to say you can tell he's been doing it for awhile!

I figured I should also post some long lost pictures of Katie and I in Rockafeller Center. We went to the temple one night and swung by after to see the tree, ice skating rink, and lights. The building with snowflakes is Sack's 5th Avenue. We popped inside real quick so I could show Katie the prices. They had scarves for over $300 & purses over $4000. We didn't get much further than the entryway.



When my cousin Chad and I went to Rockafeller, the tree wasn't up, but they were working on a show in which the snowflakes would blink along with music. It was pretty cool.

Welcome to the city...

To start off I want to say that we really enjoy New York. We love our ward and we love the experiences we experience here. (That isn't too redundant is it :).......?)

However, it seems to us that New York has it out for us. At least when we're driving or parking or registering our car. Since coming out here, we've received two parking tickets, one ticket for talking on the cell phone (who knew that was actually a LAW out here?) and one for not carrying a license. (Actually I had it, it had just slipped under the seat!) Not that I'm perfect, but I kind of think the policemen here should worry more about the druggies down the street from us and the reckless crazy drivers all around more than they should worry about nice new residents who aren't breaking the little nitpicky laws on purpose.

Anyway...these experiences lead us to our favorite adventure here in New York: car registration. Our car registration expired the end of Nov. Since Nov we have been trying to get it registered. Why is it taking so long? Oh, because you need about 15 forms of ID. I looked online to make sure I brought everything we needed with me. Nope. Didn't work. They told me I needed to bring a birth certificate to prove birth (uh, I'm standing right in front of you, I think I've been born...). It was a "0" on their point system (you have to bring six points worth of ID), but yet you still need to bring it.

Okay, I know you don't want to read all that went wrong, and I don't want to write it all down either. Let's just say I went to the DMV six separate times by myself. The last time Ryan and I went down together to see if I was just nutty or incompetent. I'm happy to report I am not nutty or incompetent, but sad to report that it means the New York Department of Motor Vehicles IS.

Explanation: Our car was salvaged. We fixed it up and got a rebuilt/restored title in Utah. We've driven it a few years in Utah. Apparently that doesn't matter in New York. We have to send in a separate application to the special "salvage title" people, wait for their acceptance, get an inspection (200 bucks) to make sure there aren't any stolen parts, receive their paper work, and then go back to the DMV to get it registered. By the way, they told us we can't get to the inspection illegally, so we have to use a tow truck or place the car on a flatbed truck. Tell me, how many of you have either of those things? Hahaha......man! When asked how long this process takes, they told us about a month, a month and a half. When asked what in the world we do until then, they told us to take the car off the road. No pity for us poor Utahns whatsoever.

So, I thought I'd show you our Drivers licenses. I laughed when we got them in the mail. They look more like mug shots....or maybe just frustrated, ornery new New Yorkers. Now you know why New Yorkers seem to be a bit edgy!

Fat Man In Little Clothes

Sometimes it seems like your life is so boring that you have nothing to write about. For well over a week Katie has been bugging me to post something on our blog. I try to maintain a standard of excellence, and for this reason have yet to post anything. But I believe that I have something that I will want to remember for generations to come. Ok, so it's not that great. Just keep your expectations low, and you won't be disappointed.

Let me just tell you about one of my buddies from school. His name is Matt (names have not been changed in order to maintain authenticity - sorry Matt). Matt is somewhat of an outdoor type of guy. Hiking, rock climbing, camping, bike riding, etc. all seem to be on his list of favorite things to do. He also seems to be in pretty good shape, since his hobbies (unlike mine) involve being active. He is, however, shall we say "small in stature". I'm not saying this to be rude, but if I recall correctly, he was introduced to me as "Midget Matt". Matt is roughly 5'4 1/4".

Anyway, we have had unseasonably warm weather the past week here in NYC. So much so that on Tuesday Matt decided that it was warm enough to wear shorts and ride his bike to school at 7:30 am. When he got to school he was so excited about the feat he had just accomplished, that when he saw all of us in pants, he began to tease us - being that it was so warm outside, we should all be wearing shorts! It wasn't until after our class, 2 hours later, that he realized what a mistake he'd made. In 10 minutes he had a lab in which there is a rigid dress code, one which Matt and his shorts were in violation of.

Frantically all 150 pounds Midget Matt turns to me and says, "you've gotta switch me pants!" To which I just laughed. Keep in mind I am currently trying to top 6'1", and fighting to stay under 185 (with my size 34 waist). To be honest, I even have some size 36 pants (lets keep that on the down-low...). We would look something like this standing next to each other:



After an amazing sales job, I agree to switch him pants. After-all, I didn't want the poor kid to fail the lab! Matt had promised me that his shorts would be big enough, but when I put them on, I could zip the zipper, but I couldn't button the button. His belt did fit around me, however, with a half inch to spare! But I don't know if I would've been allowed to enter a stake dance - his shorts were about 3 inches above my knees. And that was while I was standing up! It was very John Stockton-esk.



The only catch was I looked like a complete idiot, while John was always able to maintain some semblance of manliness. I had sweet tube socks on, with somewhat dressy shoes. But I might as well have been wearing black church socks and shoes, as well as they matched my new short shorts. I had no idea what to do! The library was down 6 flights, and across the street. I was definitely not willing to parade around the streets of New York as I was, regardless of how many weirdoes there are out here. In fact, I didn't even want any of my classmates to see me. I was able to finally barricade/seclude myself in an anatomy lab room for 3 hours, until Matt came back and I was able to regain my pants and some self-respect.

New Year Resolutions

Okay, so I admit I stole this idea from Keely after reading it on her blog, but I think it's a good idea to make some resolutions for the new year. And just like Keely, I'm going to make eight for the year 2008.

1. Read scriptures everyday by myself and with family. This is just a given.
2. Attend the temple every month. Having to travel 1.5 hours to the temple and leaving Josh behind has been hard, but luckily we have some friends who will trade off babysitting with us every month. This means we'll have a set schedule for temple attendance. Yay!
3. Begin digital scrapbooking or something like it. I am horrible with this kind of thing (I don't have the patience or desire really), but I know it's important to keep records, so here I go.
4. Stay better connected with friends and family. Once a week phone calls would be a good idea.
5. Have a three month supply of food storage. Both sets of parents have been really anxious for us to get this done. I really want to do this!
6. Do some family history work. I've never done any so I would like to go at least a few times.
7. Go visit an old folk's home once a week. I did this back in high school and loved it.
8. Give away a Book of Mormon. I know that's not much, but I figure starting out small is good.
9. Learn portuguese. Sorry, I know I said only eight, but Ryan would love it if I could speak it with him and our kids. Maybe I could find some miracle online course.

Just starting this list makes me think of a million things I want to do, and I start feeling anxious and like I'm not where I should be. Does anyone else ever feel this way? Hehe, luckily we aren't expected to be perfect, just to be trying.