A new family member

Dena and I have been considering getting a dog for a couple of years now. The investigator that is handling our break-in told us that a big dog is one of the best things we can have to protect our house so we pulled the trigger and got ourselves a big dog. Well, she will be a big dog anyway, she's pretty tiny at the moment. She is a 9 week old Boxer puppy that we have named Zoey. She's a cute little girl and seems to be pretty sharp. She handled the 8 hour drive from NC to Huntsville without a peep (well she did growl once). She seems to be pretty smart and is getting along great with the cat. We took some video over at Jenny and Clay's house tonight, I'll try to get that from him soon.

Oh by the way, I think only Mom and Dad know them, but our friends Jenny and Clay had their baby on Sunday. She's a beautiful 7 pound, 1 ounce baby girl named Molly Addison.

Mission Call

Many of you may already know, but Kimberly got her mission call last week. She has been called to serve in the St. Louis Missouri Mission and will be entering the Missionary Training Center on February 4, 2009. Only about 6 weeks away. We thought you might like to see her reaction when she got the call.

So who was excited? We're proud of her and she's pretty pumped about getting ready to go. More to come when we know more. Dad and Mom

Happy Holidays!! (for realsies this time)

I hope everybody has a lovely Christmas, I know I'm enjoying it. We got packages from Kanab and Rexburg today.

And for all you folks stuck in freezing, snowy weather I thought you might like to know that I just went for a jog in shorts and a t-shirt. That's right it's an amazing 70 degrees here in NC. SUCKERS! Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Time for a new look

I thought I'd spend some time changing things up a bit around here. I hope nobody minds, but I was just getting tired of looking at some random desert scene and thought it could use a little more personal touch. I hope you all like it.

Sorry to spam, but...

... I wanted to let Mom, Dad, Kimberly, Bryce & Keith know that ALL your gifts arrived today. It was so much fun to open the front door and see this pile of boxes waiting for us! The kids and I tore into them and they placed the presents under the tree.

Every time Hakan would put a present underneath, he would say, "Happy birthday TO you!" I haven't gotten any gifts wrapped yet, so the tree was looking a little bare underneath. Not anymore! Thanks guys!!


(P.S. Mom- when I pulled out Hakan's doll and said, "What's this?" he shouted, "My BAAAAAABY!!" and gave her a big hug and kiss. I didn't realize he'd missed her so much. Thanks for including T.O. 7 with the gifts.)

No go

Thought I should let everyone know that Aaron will not be flying to Pittsburgh today. Earlier this week he had a phone interview with a corporate guy and the man he'd answer to (if he got the job), and shortly afterwards he got a call from the recruiter saying that they think he's too young to start up a new plant. Bah. He was pretty bummed for a couple of days, but I think he's okay with it now. I wasn't as disappointed as I expected to be. I guess this just wasn't the opportunity we've been praying for. Anyway, now we know and can stop wondering where we'll be in a month, etc.

Happy Holidays Everybody!!

So I came home from work this afternoon to find a strange silver Cadillac in my garage with somebody frantically trying to get into the car. I pulled up close to find out what was going on and he rammed me in reverse, pushing my car back about 5 feet. He managed to get out and drive through my yard out to the road and away. My TV is in the garage right now, my 2 laptops and a camera are gone. He didn't seem too interested in any of Dena's jewelry or anything in our closets or underwear drawers. He was probably disappointed to find only love letters in the safe that Dena keeps under the bed. I'm still pretty frazzled, especially when I considered what might have happened if he hadn't gotten away and was cornered.

I would post some pictures, but like I said the camera is gone.

Thankfully we haven't found anything missing yet that is irreplaceable. Even all our data on the computers (photos etc.) was backed up to the desktop computer upstairs (that was left untouched). It's really a strange feeling and I hope none of you ever get to experience it.

Oh, and he didn't take any of your Christmas presents that we had laying out on the table either, so you guys are all OK.

Heads up

i've heard from a couple people that my links to the skinit.com thing on my wishlist doesn't work. but i promise, it really does. it's just weird and for some reason, instead of showing the skin on the full page like it was intended, it's like in the right-hand corner and you have to choose the device, which is a MOTOKRZR. just so you know.

♥--Jennifer

Heinz update

I thought I'd update everyone on something pretty major that's happening around here. As many of you already know, a few weeks ago Aaron was approached by a recruiter with Heinz about a position at their corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh. It was for a corporate Quality Manager job, which means basically overseeing Quality Managers of several of Heinz's plants- kind of a Quality Manager's manager. Anyway, we were really excited about the prospect. Aaron sent them his resume and they continued to express an interest in him, though they said they wouldn't be holding any interviews until after Thanksgiving.

After we got home from our vacation Aaron decided to call the recruiter to find out what the latest was. He was told that the corporate job had kind of been put on hold, perhaps indefinitely. However, they were very interested in him for another position within the company. They'd recently opened a brand new plant and were a month behind in hiring a Quality Manager for it. Apparently that's the first position they fill, so they were anxious to get someone signed on. Get this- the plant is in Florence, South Carolina. Yep, a whole hour south of where I spent my teen years. I have to say, I wasn't exactly thrilled at the prospect of moving back. But after some tears, lots of thought and prayer, I've warmed up to the idea, mainly because this would be a great opportunity for Aaron to join a major corporation and for us to improve our financial situation.

Anyway, after speaking with the recruiter a few times, he was asked if he could make himself available for a phone interview the next day (Thursday of last week). Apparently he'd caused quite a buzz at Heinz and they were anxious to talk to him. During the interview he tried to find out a bit more about the corporate job he'd initially applied for, but apparently they just aren't ready to move on that yet. The Florence job is an a.s.a.p. situation, so that's what they really talked about.

Yesterday he got some more calls from the recruiter and was asked to have a second interview- this time in Pittsburgh! He's supposed to fly out of Boise on the 21st for an in-person interview on the 22nd. Now we're really excited. We figure they wouldn't go to all the trouble to fly him across the country unless they were seriously interested in him, and we're kind of hoping they'll make him an offer while he's there. We know they're anxious to get the plant staffed, and that starts with the QM job. I'm thinking we ought to have some news by at least the first of the year, if not sooner.

So now, we wait. I hate waiting.

Thanks for A Very Happy Thanksgiving

We just wanted to thank all of you for the time, effort and expense you took to be with us this Thanksgiving. It was a wonderful week and we all made some great (and a few not so great) memories. I hope most of you got the DVD with the combined pictures on it. Sarah said her copy had all the folders on it but only one of the folders had pictures in it. I guess that's what I get for trying to burn them while we were playing cards. There should be another one on the way in the mail, Sarah.

Good Food
Good Fun
Good Fashion
Good Grief!
I was talking to my brother Ryan last week, and he and I mentioned how well our families are able to get along. He had some friends whose family got together for Thanksgiving, and one sister spent the whole time sitting out in the yard under a tree not talking to anyone, and a couple of others weren't on speaking terms, but they came anyway so their kids could be with grandparents and cousins. Mom and I are just so glad we all get along so well and enjoy our time together so much. Thanks again for the weekend, and I'll leave you with a sunset picture we took on the way back from the Grand Canyon on Monday. (The moon, Jupiter and Venus at their closest conjunction for the next 46 years).

TADAAAAAH!!

Well, most may have heard by now but if not...here's the big news.   I'm engaged.   Kristen and I have been dating for a little over 6 months.  She was able to come down to my place for Thanksgiving this last week and got to meet my entire family.  (sort of a road test to see if she still wants to be with me)  well....she passed.  I had planned to do it on wednesday but it was cold and rainy the entire day.  So I figured that I  would do it on Thanksgiving.  Again it was cold and rainy.  I only had one day left to ask her before we had to leave for Rexburg.  Luckily it was great weather on Friday.  So the plan was to use this activity called geo cacheing.  It's these little containers of trinkets that people put in random places and then put their coordinates on this website where people can look them up and then use their gps devices to find them.  Well, there's three of them fairly close to our house.  So I asked her about a month ago if she wanted to do that when she came down and so I told her that the coordinates would be ready when she got down here.  That way I could put the ring in my own spot without having to put the coordinates on the internet.  So when we were about to go out, I had dad take the ring to my spot and keep an eye on it.  All the while Kristen and I went  to the office to get the park's gps device.  dum dum dum...it  wasn't there.   bah!!!  So I improvised and told her that I knew the general where they were at and we could just look around there.  Luckily she's pretty gullicalf...even gullible and believed me.  Anyhoo...I took her to the first real one in case she caught on that this was how I was going to propose.  We looked around for a little while until we found it.  Then I drove past the second one so we went straight to the third one (which is where the ring was).  We walked up this small hill towards this cool rock formation.  All the while diverting her attention away from dad's truck on the other road.  We got to the top of the hill and began to look around the base of the rock.  I casually went over to where the ring was and exclaimed "i found it."  she came over and while I was down on one knee, I  turned around with the ring.  She said "you're tricky."  I then proceeded to propose and with a huge smile on her face she accepted. (believe it or not)  It worked out great.  We've sorta decided on april 11 as our date.  It's not set in stone but it's all we've got right now.  We're gonna get married in the Rexburg temple.  If you want any more details or have any more questions...let me know

Cheap netbooks

For anybody that might be interested in getting a little mini laptop like mine, it looks like they will be on sale this weekend for only $300. Not bad, considering I paid almost double that only a couple of months ago. I've got to quit being an early adopter of technology.

LINK

Costume Pictures

Sarah mentioned today that she wanted to see pictures of those costumes I made (or did you just mean the dress? Oh well) so I guess I'll post a few here! Me in my dress and wig as Toph Bei Fong from Avatar: The Last Airbender. A few of you might recognize it. The dress was made from a wedding dress, a long-sleeved t-shirt, quilt binding, duct tape, interfacing and some hand stitching. I think it turned out nice! Soon as I can, though, I'll be machine-sewing it all to make it more durable.The back shot of my wig. I wish I had found a longer one so I could have more hair to work with, but oh well. Jeez, do I look weird with black hair.

This is the costume I wore for most of the convention and for Halloween. I'm really happy with how the armor came out, having made it myself. That was a fun little experement in prop armor. Don't ask me about that weird expression. I think I was trying to look tough. Wish I had taken that dumb lanyard off, too...

Lastly, the outfit I came up with for the "rave" dance. It's supposed to be a punked-out version of that ^ costume up there. I had glowsticks taped to me all over the place. And sticking outta my hair. ^_^ Too bad the dance wasn't as fun as I was hoping it would be.

Oh, and one last picture you might find amusing:

There was a Transformer there. XD Soundwave, I think his name was. Poor guy couldn't fit through most of the doors, though.

So there you go! Proof of my insanity, but I still think they're pretty cool costumes.

Happy Birthday

Just wanted to give a quick shout out to my girl Sarah - Happy Birthday!

Its bitter sweet, but it seems like just yesterday we were all sleeping in the same room and shouting "don't sit down at all!" Another year has gone by and Sarah, you are still the coolest, most beautiful lady I know. You are always so creative and clever with every thing you do, always so kind and really make the rest of us feel lazy and uninteresting when ever we hear about one of your new "projects". You are an amazing and inspirational woman, and I have always been so proud of being able to call you my sister. I hope your day is beautiful and I hope tomorrow is even better. Your the best.




For this Birthday installment, I thought I'd go with a little smattering of cake batter on the face rather that the traditional placenta juice. Enjoy.

New Family Member

A while back, Sarah posted a blog about their new family member being their new car. Well now it's my turn. Jennifer and Mom have been agitating for a while about how much gas my truck uses, and how big it is and what a pain is is to see out the back with the camper shell on and so on and so on. So Mom and I were in St. George last week and we decided to look at something more fuel efficient. We ended up going back to the dealer we bought the Mitsubishi from and ended up getting a new Subaru Impreza. I got to thinking, and after 30 years of marriage, this the very first really new car we've ever had. We bought a Ford Escort once, but it was a demonstrator and had about 5000 miles on it when we got it. This one is brand new and so far, we like it rather a lot. The only thing to complain about may be the manual transmission. Jennifer is mad because she has to learn how to drive a clutch better. But it seems to be getting about 30 MPG and is lots of fun to drive. We figured Bryce would be pleased with us getting a Subaru.

^New Hotness --------------------Old and Busted^
(Will Smith, Men in Black II)
Anyway, things here are about as usual. I've been able to get up on Cedar Mountain lately and do some trail marking in preparation for the snowmobile season. Things have pretty much slowed down here at the park. We're planning on going to Provo this weekend for the BYU-SDSU football game - my cousin Blake offered to put us up and let us have 2 of his season tickets. Taylor and Daniel were able to get a couple more for Todd and Jennifer, so we are all going to be able to go. Should be lots of fun. The weather even looks decent.
Well, that's about it for me. We're looking forward to Thanksgiving more than you can imagine (or maybe not, since you are all coming as well). See you soon! Dad
P.S. Sorry about, the 'old and busted' crack, Todd. Couldn't resist. :)

Old Broncos and Big Buffalo

I haven't posted anything for a long time now and thought this was a good excuse to add something fun. Patrick and I went up to Antelope Island today for the yearly buffalo roundup. Thanks to dad's contacts in high places, we "volunteered" to help with said roundup by hopping in some old Broncos and cutting the herd at high and near poop inducing speeds. Chris, the ranger driving the Bronco, went through POST with dad and skillfully negotiated the chaos while we listened to Carrie Underwood on the radio... crazy. This certainly wasn't on my list of things to do before I die, but I'm glad I left room to pencil it in.

Other than that, life has been pretty hum drum. Rachelle and I have been really happy to have so much company this past month, including family and our good friend Bennett. Halloween wasn't very eventful but I did get to dress up a bit for school. I've posted a couple videos of the round up and my costume. Love you all.

Halloween - " On Location Weather Man"

Pre-Halloween surprises

Grandmas are the best, aren't they? When Mom, Dad and Jennifer visited earlier in the month, Mom had the forthought to put together some super cute Halloween goody boxes for the kids and left them for me to give them. Since we won't be doing anything other than trick-or-treating tonight, I decided to give them their gifts last night so they could be enjoyed today while waiting for "real Halloween" to start.

They were each thrilled with the surprises inside, which included a large orange and white lollipop, a Pumpkin Pez dispenser & Pez candy, Halloween packaged Teddy Grahams, light-up Halloween socks, and some orange and black Playdough. I let them each eat their lollipops that night and Hakan made quick work of his (without biting it, even!) while Pyper savored hers and had some left over for today. They've been playing with their (empty) Pez dispensers all morning, and Pyper discovered after crawling under Hakan's bed that they glow in the dark!

Please excuse the blurry photos- my camera is pretty reliable, but the flash sometimes isn't. Why does it always do that on the cutest shots, too? Grrr.








Anyway, thanks Grandma Pam- they really loved them!

Well, I'd better scoot. I sent them up to their beds for nap time, but it's clear from the thumps and thuds overhead that they are definitely not napping. Happy Halloween, everyone!!

Just for fun, here's a peek at Pyper's costume. This is her preschool class during their Halloween party yesterday. (Peter Pan is not a classmate, but an older sibling still home for Fall break.)

Kimberly speaks at last!

Yeah, I've been a total bum about posting here. Sorry about that. But now I have something I feel is post-worthy! This last weekend I had at an anime convention! No, I'm not going to post a huge geeky rant right here, I'm just going to link you to where I DID post it, on my deviantART account. http://mormongirlbyu.deviantart.com/journal/21224119/ If you really don't care about how much fun I had, then you don't even have to read it, because like I said, it really is ridiculously long.

I will say, though, that with this, I have decided to give up all pretenses of normal. ^_^ I'm an anime nerd and I love it. Just thought I'd let you all know that.

Yes Jennifer, I know you're embarrassed for me. I will not apologize.

P.S. Why can't I post on the family blog from my own account...? Am I still not a contributer, because I do have a blog of my own now.

8 is great

Okay, it's been silent as the dead for long enough around here, so I thought I'd post this here instead of on my my own blog.

Tagged by Kory

8 TV shows I love to watch:

1. The Office
2. Pushing Daisies
3. Lipstick Jungle
4. Find Your Style
5. Kath and Kim
6. Burn Notice
7. The Starter Wife
8. Martha Stewart Crafts

8 things that happened to me yesterday:

1. Actually completed the goal I'd set for myself to get the soles sewn onto 18 pairs of shoes.
2. Took a nap with the kids.
3. Bummed Aaron out- sorry again, sweetie.
4. Got out of making dinner (again).
5. Tried a new restaraunt.
6. Went on a shopping spree at Old Navy for maternity clothes- thanks Aaron!!
7. Woke up in the middle of the night with a massive headache.
8. Was told by my daughter that I look beautiful.

8 favorite places to eat:

1. Olive Garden
2. Panda Express
3. Texas Roadhouse
4. Famous Dave's (the new place we tried last night)
5. Fiesta Guadalajara
6. Golden Corral
7. Smoky Mountain Pizzeria & Grill
8. Craigo's (in Rexburg)

8 things I am looking forward to:

1. THANKSGIVING! So can't wait to see my parents, all my siblings & their significant others, and Mommer & Popper!!
2. My birthday, just 'cuz.
3. Seeing the baby on ultrasound again tomorrow.
4. Halloween because the kids are sooo excited about it.
5. Christmas
6. Hakan getting potty trained.
7. Pyper starting kindergarten next fall.
8. Having a baby.

8 things on my wish list:

1. A car that doesn't make me nervous to drive it.
2. Maternity clothes.
3. No snow when we have to drive to Rexburg and southern Utah next month.
4. Not getting put on strict bed rest during this pregnancy.
5. Space Bags.
6. This bracelet.
7. A houndstooth coat that I can wear during and after pregnancy.
8. Figuring out where we want to live and buying a house there.

8 people I tag:

1. Bryce
2. Keith
3. Todd
4. Kimberly
5. Jennifer
6. Mom
7. Dad
8. Anyone else who wants to play!!

My turn!

well i figured since i had dad do the post on the last Tuacahn play we went to, i should probably do this one. on Friday night, he and i made the drive to St. George to see... are you ready for it? i'll give you a hint.



okay i don't know if you can tell or not, but that's Matt Smith and our very own Keith dressed up as the duke and the king from "Big River"! they did a great job in their version, but i'm not gonna lie... Tuacahn has way more funding, so they had some way cooler stuff. for instance: Tom Sawyer's "gang" came in on a zipline over the stage. whoo! and then... oh man, this part just blew our MINDS. the music started leading up to "Muddy Water" and then came WATER. like, they actually flooded the stage. with water. on the stage. don't worry, at the front of the stage there was like a space between it and another wall... i don't know if that made sense. anyways, no one got wet. but Dad pointed out that we did have to wonder what the people on the front row were thinking when the water came cascading down the rocks behind the stage.

the cast did a great job, though there were a few things that we weren't all that excited about. such as pap saying "daygom govet" in his song (if i didn't already know the words, i would have been completely lost) and Huck acting... well, not like a normal human being. not even for a redneck. Jim, on the other hand... wow. he was played by a guy named Jay Pierce, who is the featured vocalist for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. just now, i was trying to think of the right word to describe his voice, and something Will Ferrell said seems about right... Jay Pierce's voice was scrumtralescent. after the show, i had to go the bathroom so i asked dad to tell him that he was my hero. apparently, Jay Pierce also worked in Chapel Hill... go figure!

anyways, i just wanted to fill y'all in on it. that play was AMAZING, even though it was really windy, and therefore reeeeeally cold. poor Jim and Huck had to sing "River In The Rain" while there were actual fire-sprinkler type things comin down on them.

Jay Pierce is my hero. Period.

Theater in St. George

Jennifer wanted me to post something about our trip to St. George Thursday night. We got to go over and see Les Miserables at the Tuacahn Amphitheater over there. It is an outdoor theater with an amazing background of a redrock box canyon. It's a really nice facility with a huge stage and excellent productions. We've gone in the past to see West Side Story and Joseph. This year they are doing Les Miz and Big River. I'm trying to figure out a way to get back to see Big River before they close near the end of the month. Also, the St. George Musical Theater group is putting on The Secret Garden right now, and I want to get over and see that as well.
Les Miz was outstanding (Jauvert and Eponine especially so, although Jennifer and her friends liked Marius a lot, too). She had never seen the whole show and only knew it from Kimberly's descriptions and the soundtrack. Tuacahn uses many of the same actors for both shows (Big River MWF, Les Miz TuThSa) and the interesting part was the same guy does Jauvert and Jim in Big River. He was so good, I really want to see him as Jim. After the show, I asked Thenardier and his wife how it was to do two such different shows on alternate nights, and they said it was pretty hard. Anyway, I didn't take any pictures (not allowed) so I have none to post. Going to the show really made me miss being in the theater with all you guys and brought back lots of great memories. Bye for now. Dad

Dena wants pancakes

Dena wants pancakes. But Dena can't have pancakes. Do you know why Dena can't have pancakes? Because Dena doesn't have wisdom teeth any more. She had them all removed yesterday and has spent the last 36 hours sitting on the couch and drinking a liquid diet. I need to have it done myself at some point, but I'm in no hurry. It doesn't look like any fun.

Beef jerky sounds good too. or steak. Great, now I'm getting hungry.

Okay folks... let's talk turkey!

(That was mama's preferred title.)

Mama wants to get some details on Thanksgiving. Such as: what do we want for dinner? She's hoping that everyone can pitch in a little with the cooking. So if you want to make something or if you have a special request, let us know via comment to this post what it involves so we can go shopping ahead of time. Does that make any kind of sense? If not... you know how to get ahold of us. :)

♥--Jennifer

Nashville visit

So Dena and I just got back from a short visit to Nashville. We went up there Friday afternoon to go to an Avett Brothers show on Friday night. Some of you may be familiar with them, but those that aren't should definitely check them out. The show was amazing. I can't believe how much energy those guys put into their craft.

We stayed on the 25th floor of the Renaissance Hotel downtown, which was nice since we could just walk to the concert. It was a nice little mini-vacation.

Here are a couple of photos. Obviously a camera phone in a dark theater isn't the best choice...




There are a few videos from the show up on YouTube already: LINK

Boy meets Car

Well, a while ago dad posted about my new car Leroy...a few weeks ago, when we took Kimberly up to Rexburg, I payed for him and drove him down here. He's now registered, clean, and had his oil changed. He's no general lee but he still gets some turned heads. It may be because no one has ever seen a boat on wheels outside of a parade before but nonetheless i like him.

Just for Kicks n Giggles (mostly giggles)

These are just a couple of really funny videos of pyper and\or hakan. the first one is of pyper telling me about her favorite movie, transformers, and hakan getting jealous. Just so you know, pyper thinks it's hilarious. The second one is of hakan singing and playing in the car. He thinks i'm taking his picture at the beginning of it. Enjoy.

Some of Dad's pics from Idaho

Just thought I'd post some pics of our trip to Sarah's. Hope you like 'em.

She's "banging two coconut hahves together!"

Someday I'm going to have to learn how you guys put the labels on the photos. Someone call and tell me how it's done. I hope the one about the coconut halves comes out all right in the post. Things here at the park have slowed down some, but it still seems busy to me. I think most of Europe (or at least France and Germany) are in Southern Utah this time of year. Plus the fact that we have lost all our seasonals and it is only Frank, Brian and myself to run the place now keeps us tied to the park pretty tightly. I need to get up on Cedar Mountain before it snows and do a lot of maintenance on our snowmobile trail markers so I can find my way around on the Snowcat when it does snow. Just finding the time to go is the trick. I'll close with a picture of tonight's moorise over the cliffs. Love you all and we really enjoy hearing from you. And Bryce, you're not the only one having a hard time waiting for Thanksgiving! Dad

To my family:

i'm going to ask you a question, and i want you to really consider it. how old do you feel right now?


alright. now hold on to that feeling. why? because...


baby sister's got a date to homecoming!


how old to you feel now?


http://jeffner-wonders.blogspot.com

Visit from Grandpa & Kimberly

I've been wanting to post some photos of when Dad & Kimberly visted last week. As usual, I'm a little late.

We were really excited that they were able to come see us, and even more excited that they got to hang out for a few days. They arrived Tuesday evening just in time for dinner, then took off first thing Friday morning to get Kimberly to school in Rexburg. Unfortunately I felt pretty crummy during their entire visit, so we didn't do a whole lot. Luckily they don't demand entertainment every waking minute, and Pyper & Hakan were able to occupy them plenty I think.



Dad surprised us by coming home from a trip to Wal-Mart with a coconut. That instantly brought back memories of scavenging Aunt Lillian & Uncle Ray's beachside backyard for coconuts and waiting with anticipation for it to get husked, opened and scooped out for us to enjoy. Yum!! Pyper wasn't a fan. I wish I'd gotten a photo of the face she made when she tried some of the milk. "That's NOT milk!!" She didn't like the coconut meat a whole lot either. Oh, well. More for me!

By the way, we always want visitors, so if anyone ever gets the urge to drive to Boise for a weekend (or longer) just let us know!

My New Toy

I'm writing this post on my newly acquired toy. I've been looking at this newish type of computer that's becoming fairly popular lately. They go by lots of names, but the most popular seems to be "netbook". They are designed as cheap, portable internet appliances for checking e-mail (or posting to blogs) from your couch. This particular one is the MSI Wind. I like it so far (after only using it for an hour). It takes some practice to type on the tiny keyboard, but my hands aren't exactly tiny either. The screen is about the size of half a sheet of paper, which is just big enough to read most web pages fine.

The Important Stuff

A couple people wanted to see the ring, so here are a couple pics. We are really greatful that Rachelle's Grandmother was willing to share it with us. Love you all and we will let you know as soon as we set a date.

Make Room

For anyone who has not heard yet, Rachelle and I have some exciting news... I proposed to her on our four year anniversary yesterday and she accepted. Thankfully, she agreed to marry me so I didn't have to push her off the side of the mountain we were standing on. We have no idea when or where this blessed day will take place yet, but we are both really happy. Here is the short version of what happened.

We spent this entire weekend moving a little ways down the road to a new apartment with a small yard and some really great neighbors. It was shaping up to be a really rough weekend, between the move and the rotten weather we had been having. The rain finally let up on Labor Day morning and left us with a beautiful, cool day and a little snow on the mountains. I talked Rachelle into going up a tram to the top of the mountain at Snowbird to look at the snow and take in some scenery. Once up top, we were talking about the last four years and trying not to freeze to death (it was violently cold at the top, the wind was really strong.) We found a quiet spot just over the ridge and I somehow managed to get out some semblance of a proposal - I'm really not sure what I even said, but she managed to get the message. Then she managed to say yes. Rachelle has always admired her Grandmother's engagement ring, and she was really surprised to see that her Grandmother had given me the ring for this occasion. We were both really touched by that.

So, after we managed to get through some laughter and tears, we realized that the camera we had brought was dead. Thankfully, we got on the tram to go back down the mountain and we over heard two photographers talking to some tourists about their shop at the bottom of the mountain. I asked if they were able to take some quick photos of us and the guy agreed. So, here are a couple pictures of where we were and how it all went down. Rachelle has been really patient with me over the years and so have all of you, so I can't wait to share this experience with everyone. I love you all, and so does my fiance.