BHS 10 Yr. Reunion

This is a quick post for anyone following the link posted on the 10 year Brighton High School reunion website. If anyone is wondering where I am, and you don't know, I am in Philly at Temple U. in my senior year of dental school. Got two kids, an awesome wife, and a mountain of student loans, oh, and a dog. Wish I could attend the festivities but I'll be doing tooth stuff. -Austen

"She Who Dies With The Most Shoes, Wins!"

So Ellie has this new tradition, or maybe she's going through a phase. But whatever it is, it is quite halarious. Every morning after she wakes up and I change her diaper, she then goes to her shoe basket and puts on a pair of shoes! She is obviously up and ready to go. This morning she opted for a pair of church shoes, I guess she was feeling particularly pretty today! Usually is is a pair of squeaky shoes, which I might say are a lot easier to get on, but I guess it was worth the work for her this morning. Don't mind that she is still in her pj's, hair everywhere, and she is ravishly starving! What is it with kids who wake up and immediately NEED breakfast? Our morning routine usually consists of after a diaper change and shoes, we go downstairs and I try to lay on the couch for a few more minutes while Ellie watches a show or plays with her toys or reads some books, usually she does all at once. But give her a few seconds and she's pounding on me insisting she needs to "EAT." Well, at least she is ready to run outside in case I set the kitchen on fire or something!...

If anyone knows me well, they know I have a thing for shoes. I guess Ellie is a girl after my own heart!
Oh and by the way, the purple socks on her were only because she had cold feet in the middle of the night so I just grabbed a pair and put them on her. She doesn't like to sleep with blankets on her.

Sunday's Haul

We'd taken naps, eaten dinner, cleaned up, and had dessert twice. What else to do but harvest carrots! Ellie loved yelling out "kehwwatts!!!" everytime I yanked one out. She does the same thing when I get a "Keenie!!!" out (Zucchini). Her daily meal routine consists of a breakfast Eggo "wakkle", for lunch a "sannich", and dinner usually "keenie" because she loves it and we are quite overrun with the green wonder. I swear you can harvest "keenie" 3 times a day. Gracee on the other hand speaks perfectly, but always enlightens us with her logic. After dinner we were talking about how good it was that Gracee had eaten all of her food, which is a rare occurrance for our little Somalian. She asked us if it made Heavenly Father happy when she ate all of her food. We told her yes. To which she added, "and when you're good Heavenly Father makes the rides at the park (amusment park) go faster right?!" To which Val and I could not help but replay "Yes, Gracee." What do ya say?!?!?!?!? So flippin cute and innocent. Another bit of logic that she brought out yesterday goes as follows. And honestly, we don't know how she came up with this, or where. We were walking out to our car after leaving the YMCA pool. As we passed through the parking lot Gracee says, "Mom, we don't park in the handicapped spots because we're Mormon, right?!" Val and I both began to giggle, as you can imagine. Then, before we can correct her, she repeats the statement even louder just as we stroll by another family entering the pool. I would love to be there when the Elders knock on their door one day.

Oh, Gracee. The brain juice is flowing...

6th Year Anniversary

6 years ago today, I got up, put on a suit and tie, loaded up the suburban, and drove to the Salt Lake City Temple where I married Val and became the luckiest guy on the planet. I wanted to do something different to express how eternally fortunate I am to have found her and to have spent the last six years with her. So, I decided to blog. Why am I doing this instead of an extra cheesy premeditated card from Hallmark? A. I wanted to share how awesome Val is as my wife and mom to my girls. B. It’s better than doing it in fast and testimony meeting (in my opinion!) and C. Fast and testimony meeting isn’t for a couple of weeks.

Val married me knowing only that we would end up just about anywhere but Utah going to school for 4 years (hmmm, Mark Hackingish. Scary!). I can’t thank her enough for the faith she had in me to board that train and, still be riding it. Val has been there to experience the bliss of 17 final’s weeks, 2 rounds of the Dental Aptitude Test, National Boards Part I, and will experience the wonders of National Boards II and the Western Regional Board exam in the coming months. The type of bliss mentioned is the kind where I get home from school with a panicked/glazed look on my face, offer little conversation, study into the late hours, get up early, leave again, and return home with the same look. She loves it! Val was there to experience the stiff suspension of a Penske Truck for over 2000 miles from SLC to Philly, only to move into an apartment she saw for the first time as she brought the first box in from the truck. Val has to let me spend my days in the most dangerous part of Philadelphia, working on some of the dirtiest mouths there as well. She has been an awesome mom, dealing with our two little pecking ducks like a champ. She works a little at the local ice cream shop to help pay for gas. She does it all.

And, the whole the reason I can write this without her knowing: Val, at this very moment, is sitting as a juror down at the county courthouse. The only reason for this is because we moved into a house 2 years ago in an attempt to establish residency and gain in-state tuition (would’ve saved us $12K a year). Instead, we were denied in-state tuition, and Val got jury duty because we were now registered voters. All so I could go to school. Which, I can’t do at the moment, because I am at home with the kids.

So, on our anniversary, as I sit here as Mr. Mom and you sit there as Mrs. Juror, I just want to say thanks Val, for all you’ve done and do. I promise that the school train is on the last leg of the journey. I am so very lucky to have you, and I love you more than a juror loves a verdict.

Austen's Debut Blog Post

Well, my first blog post. I've been waiting for the right inspiration to start my blogging career and tonight I received it. Let me begin by asking the question, and by doing so do not wish to offend, belittle, or criticize any other faiths different from my own, but nonetheless ask: What is the difference between a LDS ward or stake activity and a Sacred Heart Catholic Parish Summer Carnival?

Val and I and the girls live approximately 1/2 mile from the local Catholic church (Sacred Heart Parish). Once a year at this time the Parish throws a carnival complete with rides, food, cotton candy and funnel cake (the two main reasons for Val's intense desire to attend this year), a band, and many other "subtlties" that for me were very helpful in answering the above question. Again, I emphasize that I am not interested in poking fun at the Catholic religion, I am only pointing out differences.

First, I noticed the Coor's Light Beer Garden. Very large sign, very large sponsor (that's right, the sign said sponsor!). A comparable sign next to that said "18 yrs. and Up Only." At this point, I double checked our location. Yep, we are on church grounds. Okay, moving on. Next, I noticed that there was a dress code for all young women between the years of 9-17: tube top or halter (believe it or not mostly tubes), miniskirt or short short (short) shorts, and sandals (not important). Pressing on I noticed an interesting way to show ones spiritual devotion: 12 inch angel wings tatooed to the shoulder blades of a young women easily visualized with the dawning of the tube top. Do I classify this as A. Ironic B. Devoted C. Hot D. Just Plain Bad A**? That question remains unanswered. Now it was game time. Football toss, ring toss, and the ever popular Wine and Spirits Wheel! Pay a little cash, put your chip on a number, spin the wheel, and with a little luck you get a sip of your choice of a fine display of "Wine and Spirits!" Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this what a bar is? Now, let me enhance the situation. As we strolled on by, we were blown away at how many parents were telling their kids which number to put the chip on! And even better was the guy standing inside the Beer Garden (it was fenced off ya know) yelling across the way to his son to "put the chip on the 10!" I can only assume that in the event of a win the gentleman would have exited the Garden, to claim his prize. Rounding the corner we almost walked right into the "18 and Over Only Casino". Back towards the rides we noticed a ride operator throwing buckets of water on a spaghetti dinner that was successfully rinsed off the ride, onto the ground for everyone to look at. No, spaghetti was not being served. Last, we heard the band playing the chicken song, and singing the lyrics. Neither Val or I were aware of lyrics but they go "and a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, cluck cluck cluck cluck."

If I ever get called to the ward activities committee I am going to have a lot of good ideas.

In the end Val got her funnel cake and cotton candy, and I am cool with that.

Memory Tag

Thanks to the best high school friends ever, I decided to do this myself. Mostly because it's been way too funny reading all of theirs! This blog has been the best thing for keeping in touch with them! Good times, Good times!... Sigh. Well, I hope you have as much fun as I do!...

But first, some flashbacks for ya'all! Oh, and Lindsie, that last one of me and you is because you for some odd reason are not in the "Brady Bunch" T-shirt pics, and I wanted to dig to find a nice one of you and I!:) Girls camp summer after 7th grade! We are hot! Ha ha! I look a little bit happier to be friends than you do! Oh, Ashlee is not in it either, I will have to dig up a good pic of us!





Memory Tag

Here's the fun tag everyone is doing. Don't leave me hangin'!
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary... How Does Your Garden Grow?!

So, once again, its been forever since my last post...
It's not like I've been busy, after all this is by far the loooongest summer of my life, but I guess we've been keeping semi-busy.
So, this year we decided to try out our green thumbs and grow a garden...
This is the beginning...

And now, well... let's just say next year if we do it again, we will plan for a lot more space!...

In our fast growing little garden we have carrots, tomatoes, zucchini (its coming out our ears!), peppers (red and green), beans, and pumpkins.

Apparently our green thumbs are more green than we thought! So if anyone reading this needs some fresh, home grown veggies, let me know...

Here are a few pics of our girls and the "fruits (or veggies) of our labors."

Don't mind Ellie's half smile, she has this new thing where if you tell her to smile she purses her lips together and tries not to, it's halarious! Oh, and its the end of the day, hence why they look like they do.